The World Online
Author: Sheng Xiao Jian Ke
Date: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 1 - Rebooting

His mind still echoed with the last events, playing back over and over like some movie rewind…

The sky was bloody, the battlefield was torn and littered with broken arms and armor. Horses were screaming, almost human, and the wind was blowing, filling the air with the sickly sweet smell of spilled blood. Nobody was moving, they had settled into a tense confrontation. Life and death brothers that fought shoulder to shoulder a moment before were now against each other in arms. In this moment, even the air seemed to have grown firm.

Not far from the center of the fight lay the body of a large and hideous man, all stained with blood from a massive fight. He had been Song Heitar, leader of the Black Wind House, a King-level master, nineteenth on the Six Door List of villains in the game. Below the corpse, the purple glow of a mighty treasure glowed around him, waiting to be claimed.

“Why?” Spoke a handsome young man, tall and straight, clad in strong armor and with powerful gear upon him, holding his signature Cloud Dragon Halberd.

He was seriously injured, half kneeling on the ground, his bloody halberd keeping him upright as he leaned on it. Blood was pouring down his chest, soaking into his armor. Looking carefully, the wound was actually from a small, one-handed blade driven through his back into his chest, the handle shorn off by a blow from his halberd.

Opposite him stood a middle-aged man, with a dark beard, thick eyebrows, and large, intent eyes. The man wore mithral chainmail, and held a golden lance at the ready. At the left side of his waist was an empty scabbard, cold and alone and seeming to shout out the cruelty of reality to all watching.

“In order to live...a better life.” The hoarse voice of the older man responded. His voice was firm, as if less to respond to the question than to convince himself of his own actions. After saying these words, he stopped speaking, calmly watching the young man dying before him.

“Ha, for that?” The younger man’s face was full of ridicule, pointing at the armor under the corpse. “Just for a Platinum-level equipment, hahaha, really ridiculous.” His voice became cold and sharp.

“I really did not expect that it had such a magic, to mess with people’s minds like this. The one who’d always watched my back, my respected brother, turned and stabbed me in it. You were someone who was respected by everyone, and you gave up all your dignity.”

He was very weak, but his black eyes were still clear and sharp. But now, there was a lingering sense of self-condemnation within them that had not been there before.

“Big brother, no matter what, in the end, it is only a game. One day, we will have to leave here and go back to the real world. I did not expect...the end of our brotherhood, five years of friendship, to be worth even less than a mere precious equipment drop in the game.”

“Sorry, Third Brother.” His voice was still calm and unfeeling.

“Hahaha! ‘Sorry’. Haha! So ridiculous. Big brother, this is the last time I will call you this. Greed is the original sin; I do not blame you.” The young man became unusually calm, his face without a trace of emotion upon it. His eyes were as bright as the sea, boundless and fathomless.

Those looking on recognized that face, which earned him his nickname, the Two-Faced Demon. When he was cold, he was terrifying to his foes; when he was warm, to his friends he was as fresh as a spring breeze.

“But the next time we meet, I will kill you,” He said coldly to the older man.

He grabbed the sword impaling him, blood running from the palm of his hand. Face as calm as water, with no ripples upon it, he ignored the pain as he pulled. With a tearing of flesh, the sword was pulled free from his body in a spray of heart’s blood, a bloody flower gracing the battlefield for a quiet instant.

And the screen froze.

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

A bloody sky, a burst of blood sprinkling upwards towards heaven, so small, so stubborn. As if it were someone else, Ouyang Shuo silently watched as he fell to the ground and didn’t stand up again, bleeding out and finally dying.

This was not the first time that Ouyang Shuo had reincarnated, but this was definitely the most painful time. Reincarnation meant everything started over from scratch. Unlike other games, in this one, at every death you lost everything. Your character level cleared, and your equipment was lost. It was the cruelest ultimate death penalty.

“I will not be defeated by this betrayal. I will get back everything I have lost.” Thinking of his sister, whom he was waiting for to come back from the city, Ouyang Shuo put aside all the distractions, sealing his vow in his heart, and slowly opened his heavy eyelids.

Above him was a spotless white ceiling. The walls were metallic and smooth, empty except for one thing. In addition to the bed he was on, there was no other furniture in the room, it was simple to the extreme. On the opposite wall from him there was a game poster, and that was it.

“This is...where?” Ouyang Shuo asked aloud, confused. This was certainly not a reincarnation hall. Rebirths always took place at the temple. Rebirth at the temple had always been accompanied by the wailing of ghosts, surrounded by the calls of demons as he moved towards the light of a new life.

Had he been booted back to the real world? That wasn’t right, if he had come offline and back to reality, he should’ve been lying in the game room, rather on a bed like now.

His eyes focused on that game poster without thinking, it was hard to look at anything else, and he was instantly stunned. The poster was too familiar, how could he not recognize it? It was the announcement poster of the game from five years ago.

The first game in history to feature personal adventure, territory construction, and grand warfare in internet history, Earth Online, is expected to enter official beta on January 1, 2190, so stay tuned!

Seeing that eye-catching propaganda line stunned Ouyang Shuo, rewinding back years in time with jarring suddenness. Five years ago, this was their home. Dormant memories flooded back across his brain, tearing him from the game world and back to Earth.

In 2170, abnormal fluctuations were detected in the Earth’s core. After three months of testing and observations, calculations by scientists from all over the world reached a terrifying conclusion: In thirty years or so, the core was going to explode. Molten magma would gush out of the mantle and incinerate all life on Earth. Earth was going to be like the Sun, a world of fire.

When the report was sent to the federal government, desperate panic ensued. Although space travel had developed well in the last two hundred years, such that mankind had been able to undertake long-range stellar exploration and wormhole crossings, humanity had not found another life-planet like Earth. The only extraplanetary base was on Mars, and could hold only a limited population while still needing support from the homeworld.

If Earth was going to be destroyed, mankind still had no place to live. After the road to disaster was confirmed, the government first turned to the idea of transforming Mars and making it more habitable. And then, a miracle happened.

The latest reports from the interstellar explorers had found a new life-bearing world out in the galaxy. The government didn’t have time to celebrate and instead planned out a great interplanetary migration plan in under three months.

The new planet was named ‘Hope’, as it was the last home of mankind. In order to avoid widespread panic, immigration plans were kept strictly confidential.

The whole plan was divided into many independent parts, with different organizations and departments responsible. It could be said that except for the Federal President, no other person on Earth knew the complete plan.

‘Earth Online’ was an important part of the plan, functioning as a distraction and new hope for people to immerse themselves into. Naturally, the game put on layers of mysterious veils as it came about. The game’s planning and design, its ability to adapt and grow to accommodate countless numbers of players, and its claims for plotlines far exceeding the tired rehashing of serial TV series - nobody could get enough details to satisfy them.

The game’s template was built using the entire world as the template, with the area expanded tenfold. The game design team was only responsible for the coding architecture and game mode design, the specific game scenes and NPC were based on historical data for their templates.

The true design team would be the national historical archives, with all video content, text materials, and cultural artifacts scanned into the primary game host ‘Gaia’, the artificial intelligence that would oversee the game. Even the designers and programmers did not know the game outside their specific tasks and design parameters.

Fifteen years later, in 2185, the first secret tests of Earth Online started, with all participants having to sign strict confidentiality agreements. Naturally, there was much competition for these initial testing slots, some of it even bloody, but this was all quietly hushed up.

In order to ensure the relative fairness of the game, Gaia generated a new land, and the measured map did not appear in the official game material. Through the closed beta, Gaia could observe the players’ game behaviors and NPC responses. Using the massive amount of first-hand observation data, Gaia kept analyzing and summarizing, constantly adjusting and perfecting the game settings.

Participation was carried out in batches, each session lasting for six months. Every time the ones testing are not the same, and the game content was not the same. After four years and a total of eight closed betas, Gaia completely shut down the game for a full year of computations and deductive calculations, with January 1, 2190 scheduled for the official public beta. Nobody in the MMORPG industry, even insiders who worked on the game, are sure what was going to happen.

On December 20, 2189, the Earth Online official website launched. It was divided into the standard three sections: databases, malls, and forums. The database had only the basic information about the game architecture, and no detailed information about the game.

In the mall, the only commodity for sale was the game landing cabin, at a price of one hundred thousand credits. The expensive price discouraged a lot of the ordinary players. Coupled with the lack of game information, even with the issuance of posters and showing some graphics, the publicity for the game did not make a big impact, merely garnering some notes that it might be a little unusual.

As a reincarnator, Ouyang Shuo knew that the abnormal marketing was the result of a compromise between several involved parties and the federal president. The purpose was very simple, and that was to slow down initial enrollment into the game by ordinary players, so that their staff gained early access and play advantages against later arrivals.

Of course, to gain such an advantage involved paying a heavy price. That price was high enough that even the most radical parties could not say anything years later when the truth was announced.

A knock on the door interrupted this river of memories in Ouyang Shuo’s head. “Brother, you big lazy bum, get up! Bing’er is hungry-hungry!”

Ouyang Shuo picked up the cell phone on his bed and looked at the time. December 28, 2189. This was three days before the game opened! What wonderful moments those were, everything was like a new life…

Everything in the past is a dream, let it die with the wind, Ouyang Shuo thought. After rebirth, his knowledge of the game and familiarity of the players and all their forces, coupled with his own good talent, Ouyang Shuo believed that as long as he put in the effort, he would be able to make a new world in the game, a shelter for his sister and himself.

In that world, he would never let his sister be alone. Not only that, he would let Bing’er become the princess in the game, a real princess.

“Good Bing’er, I’m waking up to make you breakfast!” Ouyang Shuo did not notice when he became so relaxed and happy.

Chapter 2 - Sharing

Note: I use ‘handbrain’ in place of cellphone and personal computer to denote a personal and portable computer that is a step above and beyond a mere phone, appropriate for a tech society 200 years in the future.

And apparently KFC is still in business two centuries from now.

After Ouyang Shuo got up, his sleeping bed and covers quietly retracted back into the wall of his room, leaving behind not even a bit of furniture to be seen. It was a high technology society he lived in, everything was modernized and cleverly put together.

He was in the house of his parents, a fairly high-end residence. He came into the living room, and there his sister Ouyang Bing'er was waiting on the couch, pitifully looking at him.

Bing'er this year was only eight years old, wearing pink clothing and with chubby little cheeks that people could not help but pinch on impulse. She was wearing a ball cap with a black poncho shirt, tight pants, and had small feet with red shoes, so cute that his heart felt like it would burst just by looking at her.

“Brother is always lazy, he woke up later than Bing'er today! Shame-shame!" The little girl stood up after chiding him, her eyes circling as she snuck a glance or two at the door while trying to keep her clever look off her face.

The brother and sister were too familiar with one another, and with one look at her eyes, Ouyang Shuo knew what she was thinking. Today was the weekend, so he did not have to work. Yesterday he told Bing'er that he would take her to the playground to play. Because of that promise, the lazy her who needed his wake-up call every day, shockingly got up early. She even put on some kind of makeup.

Ouyang Shuo did not tease her, instead going to the sofa and sitting down. He then picked up the little girl and set her on his lap. He rubbed his chin on her forehead, provoking a giggle of laughter as his scruffy beard tickled her.

“Bad brother! You are bullying me…" Bing'er laughed.

"Well, today the pretty little princess is really beautifully dressed. I’ll go make you some breakfast, and afterwards we will go down to the playground to play, okay?"

Hearing that her brother didn’t forget his promise, the little girl smiled so hard her eyes were squinting, and gave him a happy kiss on the cheek.

Good times were always fleeting. He spent the entire day with her in the children's play park, taking her out to KFC afterwards to eat a whole bucket of chicken. Bing'er was so happy and excited after her wonderful day that she could not sleep. Finally, after reading her a third fairy tale, she finally fell asleep.

The night was now quiet. It was a good time for Ouyang Shuo to go over his past, and consider what he was going to do for his new future now.

He was definitely going to quit his job. Anyways, he had worked there for less than six months, and did not have any great loyalty to the place. As far as assets went, the most valuable thing he had was this house he was living in. His parents’ bank account had lasted him throughout his university years, but it was running out.

This was also why he’d found a job quickly after graduating college. But in this highly mechanized and technology-driven era, more than 90% of the work out there had been replaced by machines. There were a lot of people who had no jobs and were unable to find work.

The government had been forced to develop a comprehensive social welfare system in order to insure everyone's basic safety and lifestyle. Now, a single institution, Skynet, had been put in place to monitor everyone and everything with a harsh and even eye. Its influence extended across all sections of society, and general crime had fallen greatly under the ever-watching eye of Skynet's monitors.

The bitter fruit of this was the division of society into two levels: the wealthy and politically connected, generally formed of large consortiums or families in political positions, and everyone else. It was a division of society that was difficult to overcome.

At the same time, the general age of the people was rising. Depressed young men and women were often unwilling to have children and put up with the additional costs and demands of parenthood, resulting in a negative worldwide population growth for the last twenty years. The global population had fallen down to under 1 billion people, and forty percent of them were elderly. Even in the densely populated areas of China, the total population was falling.

Right now, Ouyang Shuo didn't even have enough money to buy the game cabin for Earth Online. Fortunately, due to his rebirth, he knew what was coming, and so he had insights that others did not. Within a year after the interstellar immigration started, all the fixed assets and housing on Earth would become little more than wasted construction, worthless. Accordingly, he planned now to sell the house they were now living at, and take the money to rent a temporary house to live in.

With that in mind, Ouyang Shuo opened up his handbrain, the ubiquitous personal and portable computer everyone on Earth possessed now. Locating the official real estate trading site rapidly, he went to the quick sales channel, marked the price as 10% below the current market value, and immediately sold it off to the real estate transaction center.

An information society as advanced as this was very convenient. Ouyang Shuo didn't have to even leave the house, let alone go to a government office. Because all of his personal information was stored in Skynet, as long as his handbrain could dual certify his fingerprints and retinal scan, it took only half an hour to complete the entire transaction. After he was done, Ouyang Shuo's account was promptly credited and grew by more than two million credits.

Taking advantage of the late hour and quietness, Ouyang Shuo began looking for the right rental housing online. Bing'er was still in primary reading school, so they couldn't move too far away, no farther than a nearby district. This was a bit difficult to work with. According to the advanced search parameters he had input, the system recommended a house in Tianyuan community which had three rooms and one living room, with a monthly rent of 3000 credits.

Coincidentally, Bing’er attended a school in Tianyuan community very close to that, making this even more convenient for Bing'er. But the house was shared, the lessor was not the owner himself, but a tenant, which made Ouyang Shuo a bit hesitant to accept.

Adopting an attitude of 'let's see what happens', Ouyang Shuo dialed the video phone. Appearing on the phone promptly was the image of a twenty-year old girl, with a beautiful oval face and willowy eyebrows. She looked like she'd just come out of a bath, with her hair wet, and was wearing a pink kitten style of pajamas, incredibly and unexpectedly cute.

Ouyang Shuo was more than a little embarrassed. After all, men and women living together was all well and good for the romantic serials on TV, but in reality was something that was very uncommon and rarely happened before marriage. However, this girl was the opposite of what was expected of women, immediately taking the initiative on him.

"Hello? Who are you? Are you looking for me for something?" she asked him.

“Hello! I was linked to you through the rental network. The rental information that I saw was very in line with my needs. I did not think you were a girl, I am sorry if this is inconvenient." Ouyang Shuo was ready to disconnect, having little hope of anything coming out of this.

"Oh!" she answered, a little surprised at him. "I have two rooms to rent here, but you are only a single person, this is a little strange…" She did not directly refuse, instead asking a reasonable question.

"Ha, I am sorry, I did not explain clearly. I have an eight year old sister; her school is near your location, so…" Ouyang Shuo said hesitantly.

Hearing that he had a young sister seemed to reassure the young woman a lot. "Oh, in that case, you look pretty honest, so I agree! It's almost the end of the month, you can help pay the rent, hee hee!"

It was so simply and unexpectedly agreed to, it caught Ouyang Shuo by surprise. He was wondering if he had unknowingly become much more charming and handsome to convince her so easily.

They discussed the specific rental matters, and through the network signed an electronic contract. Ouyang Shuo found out that the girl was named Sun Xiaoyue, and was a junior student at the Jiao State University Department of Architecture.

He agreed to move in tomorrow, and was about to hang up the call when he heard, "Hee hee, I'll finally have the money to pay the rent!" His ego and self-image took an immediate blow as he realized why she had agreed so quickly.

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

The next morning, Ouyang Shuo told Bing'er that they were moving. Bing'er found out that they were going to live with a beautiful big sister, and close to the school, so she had no objections. They spent all morning packing up their luggage and few belongings, and called a moving van to take them to their new home.

They arrived at Tianyuan community quickly, and actually found Sun Xiaoyue standing in the doorway, holding onto her handbrain and waiting for them. It was surprising that she was so courteous.

Bing'er was carrying her little pink bag and holding the hands of a tiger doll as she opened the door of the taxi. After getting out, she looked around fearlessly, not afraid at all of the strange new environment. Her expression was one of curiosity and mischievous intent.

Seeing the lovely little girl, Sun Xiaoyue's feminine heart was instantly touched. She quickly stepped forward with arms outstretched. "Wow, such a cute little girl! Come here, little sister, and let me hold you!"

Bing'er smiled and retreated a step, saying sweetly, "Beautiful sister, hello! My name is Ouyang Bing, sister you can call me like my brother does, Bing'er!"

Sun Xiaoyue was not embarrassed and did not hold it against Bing'er for ducking her embrace. Instead, she smiled and said, "Ouyang Bing'er, a good name. I am Sun Xiaoyue, you can call me Sister Xiaoyue. Does Bing'er like it here?"

"I like it, it is as pretty here as at our home, but there is a more beautiful sister here, Bing'er is very happy, hee hee!" Bing'er smiled back.

Sun Xioayue completely forgot all about Ouyang Shuo, tossing him out of her mind before directly taking Bing'er's hand to take her upstairs. Bing'er turned her head to look at her brother; he merely nodded, smiled, and indicated that she should go ahead. She quietly followed Xiaoyue upstairs.

Seeing Bing’er so adorable, Ouyang Shuo's heart was a bit jealous. Maybe, he thought, he could take her to Jiao State University and walk around with her, attracting a pretty girl who he could marry, hehe…

"Boss, move your things?" the driver of the moving van asked, interrupting his private fantasies mercilessly.

"Oh! Yes please, up to the fifteenth floor. Follow those girls in front of us, quickly!" Ouyang Shuo snatched up his suitcase and hurriedly chased after Sun Xiaoyue.

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

Sun Xiaoyue lived in room 1503, and coming inside, his first impression was that it was very clean. There were three bedrooms, a main and two smaller ones; she was living in one of the smaller ones. Ouyang Shuo brazenly claimed the main bedroom, Bing'er living opposite him in the other small bedroom. After arranging their rooms, bringing in their luggage and other belongings, it was already five in the afternoon.

In order to express his gratitude to Sun Xiaoyue, and to celebrate their moving, Ouyang Shuo treated everyone to a good meal. After buying food from the local supermarket, ‘mighty chef’ Ouyang Shou even took over the kitchen to fix it.

He did the usual good food; fish, pork, sweet and sour pork ribs, boiled beef, roasted lungs, and seven or eight other dishes. All this cooking inspired little kitten Bing'er to slip into the kitchen in the middle of his labors, and her little hands snatched up the ribs to eat. However, she declared she was doing it to help him out and test the taste, so as not to shame him in front of her new elder sister.

After the sumptuous dinner, the three of them retired to the living room to sit around and chat, and gain a more mutual understanding of one another. Bing'er was lying on the couch, her belly bulging out. With her satisfied expression, she looked deadly cute.

“Xiaoyue, why do you have such a big house for rent?" After getting more familiar with one another, Ouyang Shuo had no scruples and directly asked this question to clear his heart of any doubts. This girl didn’t seem like a wealthy person, muttering about not being able to pay the rent. But she still rented a house with three bedrooms, that was kind of stupid, right?

"Oh, big brother Ouyang, don’t mention this, blame my two girlfriends who are off with their boyfriends. Originally the three of us signed the lease for this home, to live together until college graduation. Both of them have moved out to live with their boyfriends, leaving me here alone. In order to pay the rent, I had to rent out the rooms they were staying in. If you had not come in time to pay a share, I would have been eating instant ramen every day," she explained, with a resentful look in her eyes.

It seemed her irritation with her former roommates was quite deep, and she was quite willing to keep talking about them. Ouyang Shuo knew that continuing to ask about this topic was probably not a good idea, and quickly turned their chatter to more about school.

He had also graduated from Jiao State University, so he could actually be seen as Sun Xiaoyue's senior. Thus, they had a lot of things they could talk about. It was past ten o'clock before everyone finally retired to their own rooms.

Finally settled down, Ouyang Shuo knew he could start playing the game tomorrow, it was the fundamental part of his plan for his new life. With great expectations for the future, Ouyang Shuo fell asleep on the second night after his rebirth.

Chapter 3 - Creating a Role

Editor:ryangohsff

In the morning, Ouyang Shuo used his handbrain to access the Earth Online official website. He first went in and explored the forums, noticing that there weren’t many posts, and that most of them were complaining about how expensive the game cabin was.

A member called Gong Chengshi had made a post called the <The Pros and Cons of the Personal Adventurer and Kingdom Building Path>, which caught Ouyang Shuo’s eye.

The post only used limited game data and previous gaming experiences, and Gong Chengshi had noted that the Lord path required players to be adept at territory and resource management while at the same time needing a continuous investment of funds. He did not recommend it for the average player. Otherwise, it was far too easy to lose money without recourse if one’s territory was captured.

Seeing such an accurate prediction, Ouyang Shuo suspected that Gong Chengshi was probably a beta tester. He wrote down Gong Chengshi’s ID number, and then left the forums, heading directly to the mall area to buy the game cabin online.

The cabin had different models corresponding to different heights and body sizes that needed to be chosen. He rapidly completed the payment while online and was told that his new game cabin would be delivered that afternoon.

This wasn’t some light novel where the MC had to wait in a long line under the hot sun to purchase the game. Nope, that was definitely a thing of the past. For more than a hundred years now, basically all product buying was now done online.

TL: Author is throwing shade at another novel, Shura’s Wrath, which is also on GT

At 3 PM, the doorbell rang with the delivery for his new cabin. The whole body of the cabin was a silver-gray color and was beautifully styled, sleek and advanced. Under Ouyang Shuo’s direction, the staff quickly brought it upstairs and installed it into his bedroom.

Sun Xiaoyue was a bit surprised to see the delivery arrive so quickly but not overly so. After all, in this day and age, there were countless online virtual games. Thus, getting a game cabin to play games in was very normal.

The next day was New Year’s Day. Ouyang Shuo spent all day playing with Bing’er. Xiaoyue also joined in, which drove Bing’er into a frenzy of excitement!

This was hardly unexpected, because Ouyang Shuo was normally very strict about Bing’er studying and learning. After all, no matter what era it was, knowledge should never fall behind.

The reason Ouyang Shuo was spoiling Bing’er so much was because he would have little time to do anything with her when he started playing. The early stages of the game required a lot of time investment to get a foundation built, so he wouldn’t have much time to spend with her after the game began. For now, it was still the holiday, and he could spend some time with her.

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

January 1, 2190, 8 PM. Thousands of players eagerly waited for Earth Online to officially open. Ouyang Shuo opened up his game cabin to see that the cabin was full of a half-solid gel, with a human-shaped depression at the middle. After laying himself inside the game cabin and stabilizing the pressure, the chamber sealed with a gentle hiss.

“(Ding), permission to access cyberlink?” a beautiful voice sounded from the computer.

“Permission granted!” he stated immediately.

“Connection established. Customer’s personal identification information has been retrieved. May we bind your identity?”

“Go ahead!” A second later, Ouyang Shuo felt a sharp and small stab on his body.

“(Ding), personal DNA sample collection is completed and matches your personal information. May we open the nutrient pipeline to support long online playing times?”

“Open it!” A moment later, the nutrient solution tube stabbed itself into his left arm. The computer would monitor his condition at all times, and if his body emitted signs of being hungry, it would intelligently begin to start transferring nutrients to keep him alive and well.

“The nutrient solution channel has been opened. The game cabin is fully functional. Would player like to enter the game?”

“Yes!” A moment later, there was a rushing feeling, and Ouyang Shuo’s mind left his body, involuntarily being sucked towards a colorful vortex in front of him.

When he opened his eyes, Ouyang Shuo looked around and found himself in an open-air pavilion, with no walls or roof. Only a light mist hung around him, and it was as if he had come to some kind of fairyland.

Standing in front of Ouyang Shuo was a very beautiful young woman. She had an exquisite face and curves in all the right places to send his heart pumping. Ribbons fluttered around her gently, giving her a cool and otherworldly temperament. She was simply the limit of the human imagination for a gaming avatar coming to life.

Legend had it that eighty percent of male players had fallen captive to the beauty of her scarlet dress. Even after his rebirth, it still took Ouyang Shuo a good ten seconds to wake up from his mesmerized stare. He knew that the fairy was actually the Skynet host AI Gaia’s incarnation. He could only view it from a distance!

“Welcome to Earth Online. Please name your character. Names can only be composed of Chinese characters. No symbols or any other strange characters are permitted, and use of insulting words or terms is not allowed.” The words coming off her red lips were sweeter than honey, extremely captivating...

“Qiyue Wuyi!” Ouyang Shuo replied immediately, electing not to use his ID from the past, but to take a new name. This poetic name, which was a part of a famous battle poem, for a character whose life would be spent in the battlefield, was extremely artistic, hehe!

TL: Qiyue Wuyi is a part of a Qin Poem that talks about how the officers and soldiers fought together.

“System Notification: Your name has satisfied the naming rules; it has not been previously chosen. You have successfully named your character! Please choose the game mode you will be playing in: Adventure gamemode or Lord gamemode. You may only choose one mode.”

“Select the Lord gamemode,” Ouyang Shuo said without hesitation. In the past, he had chosen the Adventure gamemode but this time would naturally be different. A year from now, the government would disclose the Convention Agreement, and disclose that Kingdom Building was the essence of the game. The representatives of the major powers had all chosen the Lord gamemode.

“Special Warning: Besides in times of war, Lords are not allowed to leave their territories. To compensate, players can have an Adventurer sub-profession.”

‘The Lords could not leave their territories’ was only limited to the main system, which was also called the primary map. Battlefield maps, of course, had no such restrictions and lords could roam freely within them.

The Adventurer gamemode was divided into combat and work occupations, each player could only choose one of the two. The classes for the Chinese region were Strategist, General, Chivalrous expert, Priest, Healer, and Bailiff, so six professions in all.

The fighting occupations didn't have any further advancements, however players could freely choose their cultivation method or weapons. The chivalrous expert occupation for example, had access to nine close combat weapons, which were the dagger, sword, whip, mace, tonfa, hand axe, jo, war hammer, and morningstar, as well as nine long weapons, which were the broadsword, spear, staff, axe, trident, pike, hook sword, lance, and halberd for eighteen total in all.

However, if a chivalrous expert that used the sword didn’t know any sword techniques, he would be very ineffective.

The work occupations included normal jobs from all walks of life. The primary occupations were blacksmiths, tailors, physicians, architects, breeders, fishermen, farmers, veterinarians, winemakers, cooks, carpenters, masons, shipbuilders, and various others.

The lifestyle classes had no character levels, only skill levels. The lifestyle players would also not lose experience after death. It was a type of protection for those players.

“Select General” This was his former career in his past life, a familiar path.

“System Notification: Confirming occupation, generating character attributes, please review!”

Ouyang Shuo opened the stat panel to examine his personal attributes.

Name: Qiyue Wuyi

Title: None

Territory: None

Merit: 0/100

Rank: No

Identity: Civilian

Occupation: Generally (sub-occupation)

Level: 1 (0/100)

Reputation: Unknown (0/100)

Talent: Not opened

Innate Ability: Initial values are randomly generated, maximum 20 points per stat, minimum 5 points per stat.

Friendly Notice: Innate attributes cannot be increased by level-up points. They can only be increased by using special pills or cultivation methods.

Body Structure: 18 - Affects character toughness and survival, ability to adapt to environment and ability to store Qi.

Comprehension: 20 - Affects the speed and depth of learning cultivation methods.

Luck: 5 - Affects the frequency of unexpected windfalls and the chances of loss.

Charm: 8 - Affects first impressions with NPC’s as well as the difficulty of resolving sudden interactions.

Acquired Attributes: Each character’s stats start with 5 initial points. Each level gives two points to be freely distributed. Every five levels raises all stats by one point. The highest point value to a stat you can have is 100 points.

Command: 5 - Has a direct impact on combat effectiveness on the battlefield, how many troops can be commanded, how easily troops can be recruited, and response time for troops on a battlefield.

Force: 5 - Has a direct effect on the power of special attacks. Affects the chance of critical hits, ripostes, and how much the player’s reputation increases with a victory.

Intelligence: 5 - Has a direct impact on the duration of buffs/crowd control as well as the field of vision for troops. The development of weapons and their manufacturing time is also influenced.

Politics: 5 - Has a direct impact of policies on territorial markets and farms. Also influences the success of diplomatic negotiations.

Surplus free attribute points: 2

Cultivation method: None

Skills: Basic Gathering Technique, Basic Diplomacy Technique, Basic Weapons Proficiency

Equipment: None

Ouyang Shuo’s innate stats were quite biased. His Body Structure and Comprehension were almost the full value while Luck and Charm were barely average. With a high Body Structure and Comprehension, it would contribute greatly to training in cultivation methods. With low charm or luck, he would probably very unlucky in the game, and there would be difficulty in triggering adventures.

For the skills column, Basic Gathering Technique was a general technique avaliable for all players. Basic Diplomacy Technique was a general Lord technique and Basic Weapon Proficiency was a general technique for officers.

Skills didn’t have any points that could be put into them. However, there was a stat of proficiencies which could only be gained through repeated use of them. It took a certain level of proficiency in a skill for it to be upgraded to the next level.

For the acquired attributes, Ouyang Shuo chose to put his surplus points into the Command and Politics stats. As a lord, Command and Politics were his two most important skills.

“System Tip: Please select your place of birth. You can choose ‘random’, or specify the approximate location. There is a random chance to trigger an adventure, but there are great risks. Players, please choose carefully.”

Choosing a place of birth was a hidden trap in the system. Many players, seeing the adventure chance, would choose Random with their eyes shining. They had some fantasy of being born in a cave, getting some mysterious cheats, and coming out with a big edge to rule the game.

But the greater chance was that they entered the game in a tiger’s den, and had an immediate and glorious death. Less than .001% of the players had a lucky encounter or something similar from triggering the adventure system, and even then most of the adventures were very basic.

‘Choosing the approximate location’ was actually a stealth reward for the astute player. Lord players could make their choice based on their development plan, selecting an area suitable to them. Adventurers could be directly assigned to an area near a system-made Imperial city, avoiding the trouble of having to make it to one of the Imperial cities.

“Please specify the approximate location.”

The beautiful little fairy hand waved and up came a miniature version of the 3D map of China. The overall picture was no different from reality, except it was ten times as large.

This China had no detailed outline of states, nor did it use a dynasty’s markings. Instead, the game had distilled and combined five thousand years of Chinese history, selecting nine different ancient cities as Imperial Capital cities. The cities were: Jingdu, Xianyang, Chengdu, Dali, Luoyang, Changan, Xiangyang, Jianye, and Quanzhou.

Outside the regions of the Imperial Capitals was all wilderness, occupied by beasts, bandits, barbarians, and refugees, waiting for adventurers to explore them. Similarly, the territories of the Lord players were also going to be built in the wilderness. Needing to overcome all obstacles to build up your territory was not an exaggeration!

Ouyang Shuo selected his territory in southern Guangxi near Vietnam, near the shore. As for the specific location, he would only find that out after entering the game and exploring.

“System Notice: Your birthplace has been selected! Will you start the Village Building Quest?”

“Special Notice: The Village Building Quest is unique to Lord players. If this starting task is failed, player will lose the qualifications to build a village and can only play as a adventurer. This is a non-mandatory quest. Players can choose to give up and enter the game to find their Village Creation Token.”

“Open the Quest!”

The Village Creation Token was the first difficulty Lords encountered. Villages were divided into four grades: bronze, iron, silver, and gold. 80% of the starting villages were bronze grade, almost 20% iron, less than .01% silver, and there would only be one gold Village Creation Token in all of China.

Ouyang Shuo knew that the representatives of China’s major forces had game cabins that were custom editions provided by the government. Their custom edition had one advantage: they could bypass the Village Building Quest and instead get a silver level Village Creation Token. This was the result of a compromise between the government and these forces.

And to further balance this privilege, Gaia had the single gold Village Creation Token hidden in this Village Building Quest, to be discovered by a player.

*[advantage]: by having their erection in contact with her

*[ cent bills]: China has cents in bills called jiao

*[Guoshu]: Guo here means country and shu means technique

*[ 190 centimeters]: Over 6ft tall

*[Lake Cui]: Cui Hu, also means Green Lake

*[hundred dyuan bills]: 100yuan is their biggest bill

*[Daoist Fierce Tiger]: The author of this novel

*[Noodles]: made of wheat

*[Rice Noodles]: made of rice

*[Zhang Tian Tian]: Tian means sweet

*[Bajiquan]: Also known as Eight Extremities Fist, but Bajiquan sounds nicer to me

*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes

*[12.47 to 13.07]: don't ask me about the tree sap

Chapter 4 - Village Building Quest

With a short hum and a flash of white light, Ouyang Shuo found himself being sent away to a strange place. He opened his eyes after a moment and found himself lying on an antique wooden bed. Before he could look around any more, a relieved voice filled his ears.

“Sir, it is to our great fortune that you have finally awakened! The Black Flag Army is descending upon us tomorrow. We cannot waste any time!”

Speaking those words was a grandfatherly old man in an elegant courtier’s clothing. He seemed quite shrewd and was waving a fan in his hand. His forked beard wiggled as he spoke.

Ouyang Shuo blinked for a moment to get his bearings. Waking up like this, the Village Building Quest was actually a scene quest.

This type of ‘situational quest’ was Earth Online’s own quest system. Players received the quest and were sent to a separate quest space, automatically playing a certain role there. At the end of the quest, they were sent back to the main map once more.

Time during the quest moved much more slowly than on the main map. Spending two days in the quest amounted to only two hours in the main world. Scene tasks and hidden tasks were very rare, but once completed, the rewards could also be very rich.

Having woken up, a system prompt now sounded in Ouyang Shuo’s ear.

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for opening the S-Ranked Village Building Quest (non-mandatory situational quest). Quest background: In XXX calendar’s 15th year, October 7th, the Black Flag Army’s Li Lin commanded eight thousand practiced soldiers to attack Sishui City. Sishui City is about to fall.

Quest requirements: Player is the lord of Sishui City and has just recovered from sickness. Player must control the endangered Sishui City, and repel the enemy from the city. Task Reward: Village Creation Token, Summoning Token, and a Resources Bag.”

After reading over the quest tips, Ouyang Shuo formed an idea. A strong enemy was coming to attack and at this critical juncture, the lord of the city was sick and unable to maintain control. Thus, the people were starting to panic. Therefore, the first order of business was to calm the people and restore morale.

Ouyang Shuo quickly rose and told the aide to let the news of him awakening spread, and then called the principal officials of the city to the audience chamber. With the help of a maid standing by, he put on his official state clothes, and with unhurried stride and demeanor moved down the hallway towards the audience chamber.

As he walked, Ouyang Shuo slowly recalled what past players had posted about this quest in the forums, about what would happen and how to deal with the invasion. Sishui City was just a small town, the city guards numbered less than three thousand and were also untrained, with no battlefield experience. If he wanted to resist the attack of the incoming well-trained Black Flag Army, he could only rely on the city walls for passive defense.

In order to defeat the raiding army, the players had to employ many tricks and use a great deal of unconventional strategy. Fire, poison, superior numbers, and rolling stones were all used. However, most of the tactics had achieved little success.

For example, using numbers to win: If casualties reached twenty percent, army morale plummeted. Just because you wanted all your soldiers to have fearless hearts of steel and guts of iron didn’t mean that it was going to happen.

One of the most famous guides was by the player who’d gotten the gold rank Village Creation Token from the quest. It was by a fellow called Xunlong Dianxue, a professional gaming fanatic known for his quest completions.

He entered the game after a week. In that time of a week, the Lord players had tried just about every method, but still couldn’t reach the hidden condition for getting a gold Village Creation Token.

Perfectly completing the quest upon entering the game really showed Xunlong’s skill. Ouyang Shuo remembered that this player, by dint of receiving the gold village, grew all the way to become one of China’s top lords, full of glory. But this time around, Ouyang Shuo was going to shamelessly steal Xunlong’s thunder. Thinking of this, Ouyang Shuo even felt a bit sorry for that person. If he had the chance, he would repay Xunlong well.

According to what the he had said, he received the quest, but didn’t do things conventionally. Instead of hastily organizing the city’s military as well as civilians and posting them on the walls, he kept talking with the NPC’s in the city, trying to find hidden clues or some other resource he could use to complete the quest successfully.

His hard work paid off, and finally he had learned something from a water management official. A short distance to the south of Sishui City, there was a reservoir. When the Black Flag Army encamped, if someone was stationed to suddenly dig open the reservoir, the raging flood was enough to annihilate the Black Flag Army. But the approach was quite harsh, as the flood outside also inundated a great deal of farmlands and villages, who would also suffer.

If the player did not take the initiative and ask questions, the NPC’s would not give the crucial piece of information needed to complete the quest. Perhaps this was where Xunlong was above everyone else. When so many people were focused on conventional defense and counter-attacks, his focus had jumped outside of the city to learn about the surrounding area and find opportunities there.

Ouyang Shuo arrived at the audience chamber, and the main officials of the city were lined up to receive him. Despite their attempts to look impassive, it was clear that they were all uneasy, with nervous frames of mind.

After bidding them all to be seated, Ouyang Shuo looked them over one by one, calmly saying, “You have no need to panic. I have already come up with a plan to defeat the enemy. What you need to do is to calm the civilians. We will impose a curfew tonight to prevent thieves and looters from robbing others. In addition, get the city guards to start fortifying the wall, and dispatch scouts to track the enemy. We must always know the location of our enemy, do not fail in this.”

These actions really puzzled the officials there, but in the presence of their lord, they did not question him. That would only be inviting trouble on themselves, so they nodded obediently and went along with him.

“Sir Zhu, stay. I have something to speak with you about. The rest of you are free to go!” Sir Zhu was the old man from before and the lord’s confidante.

With a concrete plan, Ouyang Shuo directly sent away the group of NPCs. As for the matter of breaching the dam, this was naturally not something he should be talking about publicly. If the Black Flag Army found out about what he was planning, the plan would be for naught.

After the rest of the officials were gone, Ouyang Shuo informed Sir Zhu of his task, and arranged for people to get to the reservoir dam that very night. Tomorrow morning, the Black Flag Army would arrive and make camp. The gates here would signal with smoke, the workers would breach the dam, and the Black Army would be washed away.

Sir Zhu heard Ouyang Shuo’s battle plan, and was secretly scared. He thought that this method was quite similar to the saying, ‘Lose eight hundred to kill one thousand.’ But if this plan could defeat the enemy, the people would have no objections. The Black Flag Army conquering them might bring the civilians great harm. Having no other alternative, he did not raise an objection.

The next day, early in the morning, the Black Flag Army arrived as scheduled and set up their camp about five miles outside of the city. Waiting until the Black Flag Army was fully encamped with all its forces, Ouyang Shuo gave the decisive order to light the smoke signal.

As the signal came up, the people who had waited at the dam overnight immediately breached it with a great hole. In order to prevent accidents, the team had already done more than half the work the night before. In less than ten minutes, rolling floodwaters had poured out of the reservoir and like a winding dragon, heading for the Black Flag Army camp five miles out.

At this time the Black Flag Army was getting ready to make dinner and had no time to respond as the wave swept over it. Before the mighty floodwaters, both people and animals were killed. Ouyang Shuo led the city officials in watching over the devastation, standing at the top of the city walls.

Seeing the hellish scene of a drowned land before him, Ouyang Shuo’s expression became solemn. Although they were just NPC, just packets of data, he could only blame the game for being too realistic, and pretend not to be moved by what he was seeing.

At this point, the sweet tone of the system chimed in.

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for the completion of the S-class Village Building quest, Sishui City. There have been no casualties to Sishui soldiers and the Black Water Army has been annihilated. This has met the hidden reward requirements. You are awarded a gold level Village Creation Token, an emperor-rank Summoning Token, and a intermediate rank Resource bag.”

Fortunately this scene was in the quest space, so players in the quest couldn’t hear outside announcements or release announcements. Otherwise, there would definitely be an uproar!

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for completion of the S-Rank Village Building quest with 100% completion. Additional experience reward of 10,000 experience points, 500 reputation points, and 100 gold coins will be awarded.”

“System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi has leveled to 6!”

Note: A player’s level was calculated as EXP = 30 (N^3 +5N) - 80, where N was the current level.

For this village quest, the more common people and soldiers died, the lower the completion number of the quest. The only way to get the gold-level Village Creation Token was to not have any casualties, which in ancient warfare was nearly impossible. Thus, only a eccentric method like this one was the way to complete it.

The Village Creation Token, Summoning Token, and Resource Bag were called the village creation set. Each of the players that finished the Village Building Quest would be rewarded these items. With full completion, naturally the Village Creation Token was upgraded to the gold level and the Summoning Talismans along with the Resource Bags would both raise a level. Ouyang Shuo could scarcely wait to see what he had received, as this was a key step in his future success or failure.

Name: Village Creation Token (gold)

Specialty: 50% increase in attracting settlers. 20% increase in attracting special talents. 50% increase in crop production. 20% increase in proficiency of production skills of residents. 20% increase in experience for soldiers.

Exclusive: Talent breakthrough success rates in this territory are increased by 10%.

Evaluation: This is a token that can increase territorial strength on all fronts and beyond the normal level of artifacts. How to use these gifts is being left for the players to explore on their own. This item cannot be destroyed or traded.

The gold grade token had tremendous advantages over other tokens. It was a world-changing level of difference.

Summoning Token (Emperor rank): Summon a random Emperor-level historical figure to your city.

Historical figures started at the King level and went up to the Emperor, Divine, and Saint rank. It was said that there was another higher level at the Almighty Saint rank for Confucius, who stood alone above all others.

In the past game, there had been no Lords who were able to get Confucius to work for them or even satisfy the requirements to even invite Confucius to settle there. The old man liked to travel around the country, never staying in one place for too long.

Resource Bag (Intermediate): 5000 units of food, 500 units of wood, 500 units of stone, 500 units of iron ore.

The resource bag held four resources that players called the basic resources. Basically, everything used in developing a territory was tied into these four resources. In addition, the bag was a one-time item, and you couldn’t put anything into it, only use it up. When the last of the resources were removed, it would automatically disappear.

An intermediate resource bag was five times the size of a basic resource bag, which made Ouyang Shuo much more confident of his ability to implement his early development plan. Of course, the most critical award was the 100 gold coins. This was still the early stage of the game and the main currency was still copper coins. 100 gold coins now was simply a massive sum of money!

“System Notification: The quest has been completed. Teleport back to the main map?”

“Send me back!” Ouyang Shuo ordered promptly.

There was a hum and a white flash, and Ouyang Shuo disappeared from the quest space.

Chapter 5 - Shanhai Village

With a hum and a white flash, Ouyang Shuo finally appeared back on the main map, somewhere in the wilderness. Before he could look around, his ears were deluged with system announcements.

"System Notification: Congratulations to Di Chen for the successful establishment of the first village in China - Handan Village; special reward of 1100 Merit Points!"

"System Notification: Congratulations to Zhan Lang the successful establishment of the second village in China - Blood Red Village; special reward of 1000 Merit Points!"

"System Notification: Congratulations to Feng Qingyang for the successful establishment of the third village in China - Swordsman Village; special reward of 900 Merit Points!"

"System Notification: Congratulations to Feng Qiuhuang for the successful establishment of the fourth village in China - Fallen Phoenix Village; special reward of 800 Merit Points!"

"System Notification: Congratulations to Chun Shenjun for the successful establishment of the fifth village in China - Pill Sun Village; special reward of 700 Merit Points!"

"System Notification: Congratulations to Sha Pojun for the successful establishment of the sixth village in China - Asura Village; special reward of 600 Merit Points!"

Unsurprisingly, even as Ouyang Shuo completed the quest quickly to order up a village, China already had six lords who had established a village.

In his past life, these six players were massive beings and China’s six most powerful lords, called the Six Tyrants of Handan. They were representatives of major forces in real China, and using the federal version of the game cabin. With that version of the cabin, they did not have to do the quest, but instead instantly started with a silver village.

The series of announcements going off naturally caused an uproar among the player base. If one or two people got lucky in opening their village, that was understandable. However, six people, bam, just like that, opening up their village? It was obviously anything but normal.

But it didn’t matter if the players protested. The official response was complete silence, and no explanation was given.

Since Ouyang Shuo knew the truth of the situation, he ignored the announcements and resumed looking at his surroundings.

Looking ahead, he could only see tall grass and weeds without end. The grasses were yellow, it was the dry season. The skies were gloomy and cloud low, kind of cool and clammy. The frontier region was never a paradise, death was the eternal theme here.

In the distance, mountains rose up, rolling into the distance like a great sleeping dragon. The base of the mountains was girt in a cloak of trees, but the tops were naturally cold and lifeless.

“System Notification: Congratulation to player Qiyue Wuyi for discovering the new map zone - Lianzhou Basin, exploration experience +100.”

The main features of a basin were being surrounded by high ground, and low in the middle, as the name basin implied. It was one of the five basic terrain zones, extremely common in reality.

After the game map expanded the area of the planet tenfold, the hills were ten times higher and rivers widened by ten as well. Small basins in the real countryside, in the game, would become a basin territory as large as Sichuan Basin was in reality.

These kind of basin terrains were a favorite of the Lord class players because it was easy to defend and the edges were rich in mineral resources. The biggest forces in the game were basically built in this kind of terrain.

The Lianzhou Basin in-game covered an area of 240,000 square kilometers, as large as the entire province of Guangxi in China (or, slightly larger than Romania). The west side of the Basin was the China/Vietnam border and was modified into a rolling, stony mountain range that was impassable.

To the north was a gateway city, called Zhennan Pass. It was now occupied by a group of powerful thieves. Passing through, you entered the hinterlands of Guangxi.

To the east was the dividing line between Guangxi and Lingnan, with mountains and misty jungles. North and south of there was also a pass and then going further south one can reach the North Bay of the South China Sea. The monsoon blew in from the sea through this canyon, bringing rain and new life into the Lianzhou Basin.

In the past, the entire Lianzhou Basin was cut up piecemeal into territory for nearly a hundred players. After the later merger and reorganizations, it birthed three large territories. The three lords fought one another, but they could not completely destroy one another, and so ended up as the three pillars of the Basin area.

In his previous life, even until the fifth year of the game, there was no dominating force in the Lianzhou Basin.

This time around, Ouyang Shuo’s medium-range plan was to utterly dominate the Lianzhou Basin as its overlord.

When Ouyang Shuo chose his place of birth, he deliberately chose the side of the basin close to the sea. As long as you were at the south side of the Basin, you could find the opening to the south of the Lianzhou Basin.

Before starting anything, he checked his inventory. Each newly born player was automatically given a set of course clothing and a pair of cloth shoes.

He also had an area at his waist that accessed his storage bag, initial capacity at a cubic meter. It could be upgraded later, and things carried within it were basically weightless.

Although he had the Resource Bag awards, Village Creation Token, Summoning Token, and 100 gold coins, he didn’t even have a weapon. The Resource Bag was separate, and could not be put in the storage bag, so he left that on his waist as well.

Ouyang Shuo readied the Summoning Token for use, intending to get a helper. Otherwise, if he met something on the road and died, he would lose everything...

Tearing the Talisman, a white light flashed, and a middle-aged rider came towards him, riding a proud yellow military stallion.

“System Notification: Congratulations to the player Qiyue Wuyi for successfully summoning Shi Wanshui, Special reward of 100 reputation points!”

The middle-aged officer, upon seeing Ouyang Shuo, immediately dismounted and fell to one knee, solemnly declaring, “It is my honor to serve my lord!”

Ouyang Shuo hurriedly went forwards and pulled the man to his feet, patting his shoulder and smiled. “General, it is good to get your help. With your aid, it’s like gifting a tiger with wings”

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi! Because of your courtesy, historical figure Shi Wanshui’s loyalty has risen by +5!”

Taking advantage of his greeting, Ouyang Shuo took a look at his general’s stats.

Name: Shi Wanshui (Emperor level)

Title: Top ten fierce officers in history

Dynasty: Sui Dynasty

Identity: None

Occupation: Special officer

Loyalty: 85 points

Command: 80

Force: 95

Intelligence: 60

Politics: 30

Speciality:

Take the Lead: Morale of troops enhanced by 40%;

Conquer to the South, Fight to the North: Speed and mobility of troops enhanced by 30%;

Insightful: Attack power of troops enhanced by 20%.

Cultivation Method: Shining Sun Spearmanship (24 styles)

Equipment: Proud yellow horse, Tiger Fish Scale Armor, Black Iron Spear, Refined Steel Sword, White Birch Bow

Evaluation: A famous hero of Sui, heroic and brave, excellent at riding and shooting. Temperament upright, poor at politics. A good soldier, poor management skills.

Ouyang Shuo was very happy to get such a fierce guard. With such a defender, he had no worries about being bullied on his way. Side by side, the two of them set off towards the south.

In less than half an hour, they had made it to the southern tip of the basin. The mountains were a few thousand kilometers long and between them, there was only a 50-meter wide canyon running straight into the distance.

In the center of the canyon was naturally a river of the same width, forking five hundred meters in front of the canyon into two tributaries. It was more accurate to say that two rivers came together to form one river here.

The west river was called the Friendship River, and the east was called the Swimming River. The Friendship River was slightly wider at thirty-five meters, while the Swimming River narrowed to about thirty meters. The source of the lakes should naturally be runoff from the east and west mountains, collecting the rainwater and sending it down to them.

Carefully considering his options, Ouyang Shuo picked the west side of the valley, at the foot of the mountain. The village will be surrounded by natural boundaries. To the west was a forest, to the north the Friendship River, and to the east the canyon. The location considered both defense and available resources, while also guarding the only pathway into the sea. Overall, a very strategic location.

Now the only question was how to cross the 35-meter Friendship River, so he could build the village. Oh, and take the horse along, too.

Time for some ingenuity and a little work. From out of his Resource Bag, Ouyang Shuo pulled 10 units of wood, and with the help of Shi Wanshui, used some rattan strips to tie the wood together into a simple raft.

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for making a successful raft, you have gained Basic Shipbuilding Proficiency.”

Raft: Simple water transport

Evaluation: This is much too crudely built and can easily be overturned by waves, please be careful using it.

Earth Online had a considerable degree of freedom of choice within it. Ouyang Shuo could, even without the basic skill, make a raft. It only required the appropriate materials, tools, and knowing the method to do so. The same principle could be applied to gunpowder, glassmaking, winemaking, and other kinds of technology, all could be achieved in the game.

The two of them rode the raft over Friendship River, drawing the raft up onto the shore and covering it with weeds. After that, they headed south, to the foot of the mountain.

The choice of where to build the village was very critical because after one ordered their village built, they could not move it. Thus, you had to plan out your future development space in advance.

The area of an ancient city design was limited, bigger was not better in this case. In general, the maximum size was 100 square kilometers or so. After that point, urban management at the ancient level of technology would get increasingly difficult. Managing population, traffic, drainage, and health would all face huge challenges.

One hundred square kilometers was ten kilometers per side of the city if it was a square city. The Lord’s Manor would usually be along the central axis, towards the back.

In accordance with this plan, Ouyang Shuo would build the Manor at the golden point of 3.82 km from the southern mountain’s base. It would be 10 km from the east side of the canyon, leaving a 5 km strategic buffer for defense.

He removed the ‘Village Creation Token’ from his storage bag and inserted it into the soil of the village. Following directions, he bit his finger and a drop of his blood fell on the token.

Instantly, the area was encapsulated in soft golden light.

The golden light rose into the sky, reaching for the heavens. It rapidly spread out in a golden halo that extended out to the limits of his territory, and then disappeared.

At the same time, in front of where Ouyang Shuo was standing, a golden stone slowly rose from the ground. The stone was three meters high and two meters wide. The front of it was blank, the back of it engraved with nine ancient characters, “Receive the mandate of heaven, live and prosper forever.” Ouyang Shuo placed his palm upon the stone, and the system instantly broke in with triumphant music.

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi who has successfully established his village, please name your village!”

Here, with its back against the mountains, along with the sea, that’s how he would name his village!

“Mountain Sea Village.” (Note: This is Shanhai Village in Chinese.)

At his words, on the blank front of the stone appeared three words, ‘Mountain Sea Village’ in ancient script.

"System Notification: Congratulations to the player Qiyue Wuyi for the establishment of China 's seventh village - Shanhai Village, Special reward 500 of Merit Points!”

"System Notification: Congratulations to the player Qiyue Wuyi for the establishment of China 's seventh village - Shanhai Village, Special reward 500 of Merit Points!”

"System Notification: Congratulations to the player Qiyue Wuyi for the establishment of China 's seventh village - Shanhai Village, Special reward 500 of Merit Points!”

This system announcement did not attract too much attention. After all, Ouyang Shuo was just putting up a village, the whole area devoted to China had been ringing six times with similar announcements, and the players had become numb.

Of course, others may not have cared, but the Six Handan Tyrants had noted the name of Qiyue. They were extremely clear that in the entire Chinese region there were only six special spots where you could directly get a silver village in the game.

The seventh person could actually be regarded as the first real village in China to be established by an actual player, so some attention should be expected. However, with the frontier being what it was, for a short period of time, they would be unable to get any information about Mountain Sea Village.

The first to establish a village received 1100 Merit Points, with 100 points being taken off for each successive village. After the tenth village, every village established would merely get 100 Merit Points.

For the Lord class players, merit rank was actually more important than their level and prestige. Saying that this is was their core stat was not an exaggeration. Because their merit value was directly linked to the player’s title, as long as the merit value was reached, the player’s title would be automatically promoted.

Earth Online divided the titles into five orders: Baron, Viscount, Earl, Marquis, and Duke. Each order had three sub-ranks of first, second and third, for a total of fifteen ranks.

The first rank of merit required 100 points, and each rank after that, the requirement doubled. Thus, to reach Marquis required 204,800 points, while reaching the highest title of Duke required a whole million merit points!

Merit points were difficult to obtain, generally gained only by contributing to your country. You could generally only gain them on the frontier, such as by establishing a territory, combating bandits and raiders, increasing the security of the people, participating in battles, great contributions to the city, and several other limited ways.

The most critical point was that title and the territorial level was directly linked. Territories were divided into the same tiers as titles, with three sub-ranks within villages, towns, counties, prefecture, and capitals. If the leader of a territory didn’t meet the required titles, the territory could not be promoted.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for establishing Shanhai Village. While constructing the village, the Lord’s Manor has automatically been built. In addition to this, the player can also choose one of three random village-level buildings to put in place.

“System Notifications: Three random buildings selected, please choose one of them to be completed! You may select the City Fence, Basic Blacksmith Shop, or Basic Market!”

“I choose the Basic Market!”

“System Notification: The building selection is finished and will start automatically!”

There were a hum and burst of white light. Where Ouyang Shuo was standing, a wooden courtyard arose from the ground, outside of a living room. At the northwest corner of the courtyard rose another wooden building, which should be the Basic Market.

“System Notification: Congratulations to the player Qiyue Wuyi for establishing your village! Your reward is 10 farmers! Please prepare to receive them! All rewards are complete, please view them at your leisure!”

Ouyang Shuo watched the golden stone slowly sink back into the ground. It would only re-emerge if the territory was upgraded or attacked.

“System Notification: Historical figure Shi Wanshui has witnessed the birth of the village, his loyalty is increased by 5!”

“System Notification: Historical figure Shi Wanshui’s loyalty to Qiyue Wuyi is at 90 points, derived feature: Loyalty (enhances military morale 10%).

Ouyang Shuo did not expect to receive such a pleasant surprise. A loyalty upgrade to 90 points made Shi Wanshui increase his respect for Ouyang Shuo!

Chapter 6 - Village Properties

He would inspect the village properties later. Ouyang Shuo took Shi Wanshui with him out of the Lord’s Manor, ready to go to the gate of the village and receive his ten farmers.

At the entrance to the village waited ten thin farmers wearing yellow rags. They were looking up and around curiously at the mountain village. The rags wrapped around their feet were their only other possessions.

With Ouyang Shuo in front and Shi Wanshui following, the pair found them quickly.

The group of farmers, seeing a fierce officer like Shi Wanshui, had eyes that flashed with traces of fear. Seeing Ouyang Shuo leading Shi Wanshui, however, they became immediately more respectful and cautious.

Hesitantly, one of them stepped forwards, a middle-aged man who seemed to be the oldest of them. “Please, sir. I am Zhao Dexian, I have led villagers from my village to come to your village. We wonder if you are accepting residents.”

Ouyang Shuo first introduced himself in turn. “I am the Lord of Shanhai Village. Behind me is my General, Shi Wanshui.”

After his introduction was completed, Ouyang Shuo continued. “I am very happy that you came. Shanhai Village is ready to get started and is in urgent need of talent, naturally I do not wish you to leave. As long as you are willing to work hard, there will be clothing to wear, food to eat, room to live, and fields to be cultivated.”

This simple set of four commitments spoke right to the heart of these peasant folk, and their eyes all held that look of yearning for a better life. They started whispering to one another, talking about his offer.

“Quiet, please,” Ouyang Shuo said, waiting until everyone quieted down. “We are not going to stand out here. Let’s first go back to the main house and get you all settled down and fed.”

Hearing that they were going to be fed, there was a burst of cheers. Being so poor, they had not eaten for more than a week.

Before going, Ouyang Shuo turned to Shi Wanshu and said solemnly, “General Shi, I have a matter to ask of you.”

General Shi was surprised, but simply said, “As my lord commands, so shall it be done!”

“In order to secure the territory, I would like you to patrol the borders. If you encounter beasts, bandits, or the like, do not hesitate and clear them immediately, lest they come after us before our defenses are in place,” Ouyang Shuo told him.

“I will do so!” Shi Wanshui responded. He grabbed his horse and a day’s rations, and rode away with a cloud of dust trailing behind him.

Ouyang Shuo then settled the ten farmers in the east wing of the Lord’s Manor and left some rations for them. Going alone back to the office of the village head, he saw that there were two items placed upon the desk, a letter and a booklet. Atop the letter was the official lord’s seal, cast in brass and resembling a turtle. The book was the Lord’s Handbook, which recorded the basic information of the territory.

Territory: Shanhai Village (First Level Village)

Lord: Qiyue Wuyi (First Class Baron)

Title: none

People’s Thoughts: 70

Security: 65

Territory population: 12/200

Flow rate of immigrants: 10 * (1 + 50%) = 15 / day

Territory area: 20 square kilometers

Territorial characteristics: 50% increase attracting immigrants, 20% increase in attracting special talents, 50% increase in crop production, 20% increase in production capacity of residents, 20% increase in military promotion, 10% increase in talent breakthroughs.

Treasury: 100 gold coins

Territory Resources: 5000 units of food, 490 units of wood, 500 units of stone, 500 units of iron ore

Territorial army: None

Territory Industry: None

Political index: 5/100 (determines administrative efficiency and relationship with the people)

Economic index: 5/100 (determines trade prosperity and ability to pay taxes)

Cultural index: 0/100 (represents the degree of educational development and quality of life of residents)

Military: 10/100 (indicates military strength and morale)

Existing Buildings: Village level Lord’s Manor, Basic Market

List of basic construction buildings

Simple fence: Basic fortification, Weak defense, can stop wild animals. Construction conditions: wood: 100 units. Construction time: twenty four hours.

Village level dining hall: Dining area for residents. Construction conditions: dining hall construction drawings, wood: 30 units, stone: 20 units. Construction time: twelve hours.

Village level bathrooms: Enhances sanitation and health of the village. Construction conditions: toilet construction drawings, timber: 10 units, stone: 10 units. Construction time: six hours.

Wooden small residential courtyard: Provides living space for 20 residents. Construction conditions: Small residential courtyard construction drawings, timber: 40 units, stone: 20 units. Construction time: twelve hours.

Basic blacksmith shop: Builds a variety of farm tools, such as axes, chisels, and other iron tools. Construction conditions: junior blacksmith, blacksmith shop construction drawings, wood: 20 units, stone: 10 units. Construction time: twelve hours.

Basic grocery shop: Distributes various types of daily necessities. Construction conditions: grocer, grocery building drawings, wood 20 units, stone 10 units.

Basic logging field: Speeds up the collection of timber resources, the average production is 10 units of wood / person / day. Construction conditions: Wood: 30 units. Construction time: six hours.

Basic quarry: Speeds up the collection of stone resources, the average production is 5 units of stone / person / day. Construction conditions: timber: 20 units, stone: 10 units. Construction time: six hours.

Simple farmland: grows crops, the average is 200 units of food production per mu (1/6th acre). Description: grain is planted twice a year, the first quarter of planting is during the Ching Ming Festival, the second quarter of sowing is in early July. When the best seeding time is missed, the yield is reduced by 10% to 50%.

Basic barracks: farmers can be converted into militia. Construction conditions: officers, barracks construction drawings, timber: 100 units, stone: 40 units. Construction time: twenty four hours.

According to a full population calculation of 200 residents, the village needed to build 10 residential small homes. Building all the buildings to completion would require a total of 730 units of wood, and 300 units of stone.

Currently his most scarce resource was food. The villagers needed to consume one unit of food per day, and military personnel required 2 units of food/day. With a population of 200, that meant the territory had to generate at least 210 units of food per day to meet consumption.

Game time and real time were synchronized at 1:1, but day and night were inverted. The main map of the game used the Gaia calendar. It was now the first year of Gaia, January 1, not yet rice planting time.

Therefore, for the next six months, Lords could not receive grain from their farmland.

This time period was the darkest for the Lords. To gain food, resources like wood, ore, and other resources had be sold to the system, leading to stagnant territory development. Countless territories went bankrupt because of this.

However, in danger, there was also opportunity. During this time, some Lords took the chance to develop their speciality industries in their territory early, and got rid of the food predicament. Most of these excellent lords later upgraded their territory to the state level admirably.

This was the essence of Earth Online, not letting the Lords easily upgrade their territories. All kinds of obstacles were going to start emerging, a variety of traps in the system that were not easy to detect.

Only those that could best these obstacles, and avoid the trap choices, would stand out and take the leading positions. Casual players who did not do so were destined to be eliminated early.

Back at his desk, Ouyang Shuo was most lacking in all the different architectural drawings as well as talent such as blacksmiths and grocers. His most urgent task was get the fence, dining hall, and public bathrooms built.

He wasn’t in any hurry to reclaim the farmland, since he didn’t have access to grains and it was the wrong season. The logging yard, residential courtyards, and quarry were now the second priorities to get done. As for the barracks, he didn’t have enough people, so he was in no rush to build it.

Finishing his plan for the village, Ouyang Shuo headed back to the east wing. Zhao Dexian, the elder, had finished his lunch, and was chatting with the other men. Seeing that the village head had arrived, all of the men immediately rose and greeted him.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and asked, “Are you settling in well?”

“Of course, it is better here than where we used to live!” Zhao Dexian replied respectfully.

“That’s great. Ah, we were rushed earlier and I didn’t take the proper time to meet you all. How about you introduce yourselves? Zhao Dexian, you start.” Ouyang Shuo pointed at the man.

“Sir, our former village, called Zhao Jiagou, was quite isolated. Half a month ago, a wounded bandit inadvertently broke into our village. We didn’t know he was a bandit. We kindly dressed his wounds. We let him stay in the village to recover, but after doing so, he immediately left. The very next day, his associates came and looted our village. Out of more than three hundred people, only ten of us escaped. These past days we have been in the wilderness, and suffered greatly. Fortunately, sire has not only let us enter his village, but given us shelter.” Speaking of this sad past, the elder could not help but have tears come to his eyes.

“It’s okay, the deceased are gone. We need to look forward. Zhao Dexian, what did you do previously?” Ouyang Shuo, not really knowing how to comfort a group of people who had suffered through so much, immediately changed the topic.

“Sir, during our time in Zhao Jiagou, thanks to everyone else, I was proud to serve as the village chief.”

This was an unexpected joy, as Ouyang Shuo did not expect to get someone skilled in administration. He took an immediate look at the attributes of Zhao Dexian.

Name: Zhao Dexian (Bronze)

Identity: Mountain Sea villager

Occupation: Civil servant

Loyalty: 75 points

Command: 15

Force: 20

Intelligence: 20

Politics: 30

Evaluation: Chief of the original Zhao Jiagou village, reserved and dignified, cares for his people, good at agricultural water management.

A round of introductions followed. Of the remaining nine people, there were two fruit farmers, named Zhao Youde and Zhao Youcai, who were brothers. There was a village carpenter, Zhao Youfang. There was also a mason, Zhao Dewang. The remaining five men were pure farmers.

Half of the group were special talents! This wasn’t part of Ouyang Shuo’s prize, but a hidden reward of the system. The system couldn’t really give you ten pure farmers, or you would never be able to put up a house.

After coming to a mutual understanding, Ouyang Shuo immediately appointed Zhao Dexian as leader of the construction squad, arranging for him to lead five people in building a wooden fence. At the same time, he arranged for Zhao Youfang to take the other three remaining people to build a basic logging field as soon as possible to aid in collecting wood.

Ouyang Shuo was ready to directly start his fence following the standard of a third-level village, and it required 600 units of wood. If he had been stuck with the starting original supplies, he would have fallen 170 units short, and if he didn’t start harvesting, he might not have been able to keep up with the speed of construction.

In accordance with the game design, only the Lord’s Manor would upgrade with the village. The rest of the buildings would stay as they were and not be upgraded.

In order to facilitate replanning of the territory, the game built in a recycling function. Buildings could be recycled and moved, placing them in a more appropriate location. But the replacement was not free, every adjustment of a building required an additional charge.

Therefore, visionary Lords had to carefully plan the general village layout before making changes to the territory. Of course, other players didn’t know what kind of buildings were coming, and had to do a much rougher plan.

As for now, Ouyang Shuo was planning his village directly towards the protection of the level-three fences. He would be able to also match the layout of the buildings in accordance with the contents of a grade-three village.

This was Ouyang Shuo’s advantage as a reincarnator. To be able to undertake this kind of extremely foresightful planning, others would certainly envy him greatly.

Chapter 7 - Markets and Dog

Editor:ryangohsff

After sending Zhao Dexian and the others off to work, Ouyang Shou did not sit idly. He was ready to go shopping in the Beginner Market to see if there was a chance to get some good things.

The Basic Market was located in the northwest corner of the village, close to the village’s entrance. The market covered a large area. Besides a small wood building used to make transactions, the west side had an open area to receive goods.

He headed into the small building, which was empty. On the left side of the hall was a display, much like a computer monitor. To the right was a teleportation formation, lit by magical lights with a touch of mystery to it.

The market in the game was far beyond the timeline of the game that it was set it. On the left side was a product of technology, while on the right was a product of magic. To achieve long-range transport of goods, these two things had to be achieved and combined.

The transaction area of the Basic Market was in the surrounding area of Dali City. The transportation crystal could not send a living body, and all transactions by the seller had to pay a 20% transaction tax.

Ouyang Shuo went to the left side of the display, discovering that the entire trading program was divided into four sections. They were the Material Trading Platform, the Special Items Trading Platform, and two greyed out areas that had not opened, the Limited Time Auction Platform and the Negotiation Cooperation Platform.

Opening up the Material Trading Platform, it had everything from food, wood, ores, clothes and even salt. The only thing was that weapons and armor and other military supplies were prohibited items and could not be sold.

Looking at the prices, a unit of grain was 10 copper, wood 20 coppers, and iron ore 100 coppers, definitely not cheap. In his territory the thing he needed most was wood resources, so he directly purchased 500 units, spending a gold coin.

He was really interested in the Special Items Platform. Opening the screen, he found that the special items were also divided into four areas. They were architectural blueprints, articles manufacturing, skill books, and others.

Needless to say, every building in the territory required building drawings to put up and there were basic, intermediate, advanced and special sets.

For territory construction, in addition to upgrading the necessary buildings, extra construction of other buildings was completely unrestricted, as long as you met the construction requirements.

As an example, as long as you had the brothel’s building blueprints, then you could build it in a village even though it was normally a grade three county building. As for whether you could run the brothel normally, that was a different matter.

Even so, most of the players would build up their infrastructure step by step, instead of leaping tiers. The main reason was that high-level building blueprints were too expensive.

A brothel building blueprints cost 1000 gold coins. Just ask any village head if they had so much money. Even if they had the money, no one would be stupid enough to waste it on one building like this at this point.

Ouyang Shuo first needed to buy construction blueprints for the dining hall, the public bathrooms, the courtyard residential buildings, the blacksmith shop, the grocery store, and the barracks. They each cost 2 gold coins, and so he spent a total of 12 gold.

Actually, doing this was kind of unusual, most players weren’t willing to go directly into the market to buy blueprints. Building blueprints were among the more commonly dropped items obtained by killing bandits. All human NPCs had a distinct chance of dropping such plans on death.

Ouyang Shuo was doing so to bring his 100 gold into rapid play, using his money early in exchange for rapid development of his village. He wanted to get one step ahead of everyone else.

In addition, he spent another 15 gold to buy three more special plans: ferry construction blueprints, dock construction blueprints, and shipyard construction blueprints.

These were water-related buildings, and could only be built close to the shoreline. Therefore, they would not be included in the territorial upgrades of essential buildings, as they were special.

After buying the blueprints, Ouyang Shuo pointed to the article manufacturing and technical manuals area. This area was about making specific items and starting an industry using special conditional manufacturing technology advances, not general skills for people to grasp a talent.

For example, a master class winemaker could, in theory, brew a variety of advanced drinks. But, in fact, he has no way to brew a specific advanced liquors from the “Heavy Earth Pub”. Why? Because the formulas were confidential. Without the technology, the skill was useless.

Ouyang Shuo chose the <Salt Water Technology Manual>, and the <South-pointing Chariot Technical Manual>. Two technical manuals, the first 20 gold, the second 10 gold. In reality, in ancient times, salt was sold by officials of the government. The game was not the same. Except for military goods, anything could be traded.

If the seaside Lords didn’t master the technology to get salt out of sea water, they were simply wasting their natural resources. As for the compass wagon, it was a key item to completing a certain task later. The reward would be comparable to getting a gold level Village Creation Token.

The third type of skill books contained all the professional skills, and some special ones on top of those. There were skill books for players only, NPC’s could only learn them through being mentored. Ouyang Shuo chose the Beginner books of riding, swordsmanship, archery, and scouting, spending a gold coin for each book.

The fourth category of items were varied, all kinds of strange items could appear. It was more about luck than anything else to find something.

Ouyang Shuo was disappointed, nothing was practical or affordable. As he was ready to close the screen, it suddenly refreshed with a new list.

A new item popped into his eyes: Mazu God Statue (Broken), priced at 20 gold. Looking at its properties, Ouyang Shuo didn’t hesitate to buy it.

Name: Mazu Idol (Broken)

Grade: Silver rank

Evaluation: This is a broken Mazu idol, with a weak trace of the Mazu god powers. A long period of veneration will be necessary to restore the statue.

Properties: Sea god’s blessing (Maritime navigation to survive storms increased by 40%)

In order to offer prayer to the Mazu gods, Ouyang Shuo also had to buy a village temple building plan. A village temple was a must for a level three village upgrade and would cost another 10 gold.

After these big purchases, Ouyang Shuo only had 11 gold left, he had really gone through his money like water. After completing his purchases, Ouyang Shuo headed over to the crystal on the right side of the hall.

The crystal flashed with a white glow, and like that, the ten building plans, two technical manuals, four skill books, and a statue were sent over.

As for the 500 units of wood, it was directly in front of the small building’s entryway. He put most of the items into his storage bag, but used the skill books straight away.

"System Notification: Congratulations to the player Qiyue Wuyi for mastering Basic riding.”

"System Notification: Congratulations to the player Qiyue Wuyi for mastering Basic swordsmanship.”

"System Notification: Congratulations to the player Qiyue Wuyi for mastering Basic archery.”

"System Notification: Congratulations to the player Qiyue Wuyi for mastering Basic law.”

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

Outside the small building, Zhao Dexian and his seven man crew were in full swing building the fence. Ouyang Shuo couldn’t really do much other than manage them. A level-three village area covered a kilometer square. The whole fence would be 4 kilometers long, a big project.

In Ouyang Shuo’s plan, the fence in the middle of the north side would open a main door. At the same times, there would be side doors in the east and south sides for convenience. The logging field was being built in the west side of the territory, as well as subsequent quarries. Therefore, the west side’s role would be regulating the import and export of resources.

Similarly, the subsequent docks and shipyards would be built on the eastern side of the river, so the eastern door will connect the village and docks. Drawing a line between the side doors with the central axis divided the village into four parts.

The buildings along the central axis would form the most prosperous area of the village, while the territory will be divided into East and West. At the southernmost area of the axis was the Lord’s Manor already built. In front of the Lord’s House was an open area, reserved for use as the Town Square. To the north would be a street of commercial buildings. All shops, inns, training halls and other buildings will be distributed to the commercial street’s two sides.

West of there would be a residential area. The southwest area would be residences for the agricultural workers, such as farmers and lumberjacks. The northwest area would be arranged for industrial workers, such as the miners, blacksmiths, tailors, masons, businessmen, and other craftsmen. Northwest of the northern area was already occupied by the Beginner Market.

The Eastern District would be a military zone, science, and educational training area. The southeast area would be zoned for science and education, with the private school, hospital, ancestral hall and village temple located there. The northeast area would be the military zone, with weapon repair workshops, strategic granaries, and the upcoming barracks all to be located there.

Ouyang Shuo spent the afternoon near the fence, while going over the plans for his town. The fence was already a quarter built, with tomorrow bringing in more people, he should be able to get it all built in just one more day.

At dusk, General Shi finally returned from his patrol. From the side of his horse hung pheasants, rabbits and other game, while on the other side, things were moving in the bag.

Ouyang Shuo stepped forward and saluted in greeting. “General, it seems you worked hard, and your harvest was not small?”

General Shi quickly dismounted, his hands cupped in salute as well. “I only encountered a few small thieves, not worth anything. I also brought sir a play thing, I hope sir enjoys it.”

“Oh, what is this? If my general saw it, I am naturally convinced it is a good thing.”

General Shi laughed, and turned back to the squirming bag on his horse. Opening it up, a pure black young wild dog became visible to Ouyang Shuo.

The little dog was obviously born very recently, still a puppy, with squinting dark green eyes, extremely cute.

“Is this a young wolf cub?” Ouyang Shuo asked uncertainly.

“Very good, the little guy should be a good hunting partner.”

Shi Wanshui was quite happy, “Haha, to be accurate, it’s the cub of a Black Wolf Dog. Although it looks like a wolf, it isn’t a wolf.”

“Black Wolf Dog? Not bad, not bad. He’ll be a great help in hunting in the future.”

Zhao Dexian and the others had also come around, looking curiously at the bag with the little pup. Despite trying to look complacent, they could not hide their interest.

Ouyang Shuo didn’t want to dampen their spirits, so he asked curiously, “General, you had such a good harvest while on patrol, there must be a story to go with it! Since everyone is here, tell us your tale, let us know what happened.” Ouyang Shuo quickly had the workers sit down on the floor, making a circle.

General Lui laughed, having no problem with stage fright. He also sat down, and began to narrate his experiences.

“According to lord’s command, I left the village at noon, and began to explore the territory. It was calm along the way, but there were pheasants and rabbits here and there, and it was simple to shoot them down. Occasionally, I would encounter one or two bandits, so poor that they did not even have mounts. I went up and killed them. On the way back, however, I met a group of wolves harassing a pack of wild goats. I said nothing more and burst forward into their midst, killing most of them before they could get away. Following them, I actually stumbled on their den. I surprisingly saw this little pup and thinking he might be of use to the lord, so I brought him.”

Hearing that the general had encountered wild goats, Ouyang Shuo was silent for a moment, already making a plan for tomorrow. It was too late to set out again today.

Before long, Zhao Youfang’s work crew came back, having set up a Basic logging camp. Starting tomorrow, the logging field can be officially opened and become operational. Taking this opportunity, Ouyang Shuo proposed to everyone that there would be a double dinner tonight which will be considered as a celebration of the formal establishment of Shanhai Village.

The only fly in the ointment was that it was a group of working men, and none of them could cook. Fortunately, there was a lot of wild game to add to the fun, or else they’d have little to celebrate with. Ouyang Shuo was really looking forward to tomorrow’s settlers coming in, hoping for a chef to help with the cooking.

Quarters for Shi Wanshui were arranged in the east wing while Ouyang Shuo went back to the hall of his own room, ready to rest.

Lying on the hard bed, his eyes closed, Ouyang Shuo sent out mentally, “Log out of the game!” When he opened his eyes, he had quit the game.

*[advantage]: by having their erection in contact with her

*[ cent bills]: China has cents in bills called jiao

*[Guoshu]: Guo here means country and shu means technique

*[ 190 centimeters]: Over 6ft tall

*[Lake Cui]: Cui Hu, also means Green Lake

*[hundred dyuan bills]: 100yuan is their biggest bill

*[Daoist Fierce Tiger]: The author of this novel

*[Noodles]: made of wheat

*[Rice Noodles]: made of rice

*[Zhang Tian Tian]: Tian means sweet

*[Bajiquan]: Also known as Eight Extremities Fist, but Bajiquan sounds nicer to me

*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes

*[12.47 to 13.07]: don't ask me about the tree sap

Chapter 8 - Ideas

Opening the game cabin, Ouyang Shuo found that it was already 6 AM. After a simple wash up, he grabbed his workout clothes, ready to go downstairs for a run.

Having just moved to the district, he was not familiar with the surrounding area, and was ready to run a few laps around the block to see everything. To one side was a row of trees, with several older men doing tai chi.

In the square, there were some older women also up early, moving to some music, practicing a communal dance. It was such a peaceful scene and being just out of the game, he almost fell into a trance.

After his run, he found a breakfast shop, and picked up soy milk, fried dough sticks, buns, and sugar packets. He headed back home and quickly downed the breakfast. Needing a change of clothes, he decided to take a hot bath. Opening up the bathroom door, he was instantly stunned.

He saw Sun Xiaowei sitting there on the toilet, her eyes hazy with sleep, hair a bit of a mess. She was wearing a printed pajamas top, the bottoms under the soles of her feet. She had her kitty-kitty underpants in her hands, ready to stand up.

Her forbidden white thighs were exposed to his sight, and the black hair between them was clearly visible. She looked up to see Ouyang Shuo standing there, and her narrow eyes instantly opened very, very wide.

“AHHHHHHHH, PERVERT!!!!!!” she screamed, voice rapidly ascending somewhere beyond what Shuold’ve been humanly possible.

Ouyang Shuo’s natural reaction was to turn and flee. He slammed the door closed, subconsciously wiping his nose with his hand. “Ah, close call.” He muttered. Fortunately, he hadn’t gotten a spontaneous nosebleed, or he would have been really embarrassed.

Through his mind repeatedly flashed the picture of those flowery white thighs and the naughty black hair… No, no, don’t think about it, it is too evil, hehe...

In order to avoid even more embarrassment, Ouyang Shuo went to Bing’er’s room. The little girl had not gotten up. It seemed yesterday had completely worn her out, and she hadn’t even stirred.

Opening the door, Ouyang Shuo first opened the curtains, letting warm sunlight into the room. Going to her bedside, he saw his sister with her hand in her mouth, and the other one stretched out onto the quilt, exceptionally cute. He pinched her little nose, saying softly, “Little lazy pig, get up now!”

She shoved his hands away, her eyes not opening, whispering in confusion, “Bad brother, you are bullying me again. Let Bing’er sleep for a while. I’m sleepy.”

“Baby sister, you cannot sleep anymore, or else you will be late for school.”

The little girl reluctantly opened her eyes, then hurriedly said, “Ah! Bing’er forgot today was a school day, smelly brother did not wake me early.” Quickly she clambered up from the quilt, dashing to wash up.

Back in the living room, Xiaoyue had already changed her clothes and was ready to go out. Seeing Ouyang Shuo, her face flushed a bit as she stared fiercely at him.

Ouyang Shuo was indeed a bit embarrassed. Although he did not intentionally do anything wrong, the other side was a girl, and he was clearly at a disadvantage. As a man, he had to put on a strong front, and pretend nothing had happened. “I bought breakfast, let’s eat!”

Xiaoyue didn’t seem to be that kind of fake person, so there was no need to be overly polite as she simply nodded in agreement. They waited until Bing’er had washed and changed into good clothes. The three of them sat down and enjoyed a delicious breakfast together.

After breakfast, Xiaoye was the first to go. Ouyang Shuo let Bing’er run quickly back to her room for a dress. Today, he was personally going to walk her to school.

Along the way, his little sister was smiling. Her brother was personally walking her to school, how could she not be happy?

Getting back from the school, Ouyang Shuo opened up his handbrain, heading for the game forum. The forum ID was naturally associated with the game ID, but most people posted anonymously.

The top post was made by someone called Big Butler. The title of it was “High-Priced Acquisition of Game Currency, effective long-term!” The post mentioned that Big Butler would be paying a credit point per one bronze of ingame currency, with unlimited amounts acceptable.

The posted price point was basically one million credits for one gold piece.

There was an immediate uproar after the post came out. Players were rejoicing, looking at overnight riches.

The indirect result of this post was that there were now countless professional studios turning their eyes to Earth Online. Countless top players now settled into Earth Online, ready to get to work.

Ouyang Shuo knew the person posting. In his past, Big Butler was also a very famous person. He was one of the Six Tyrants of Handan, working as the financial director for Chun Shenjun.

Chun Shenjun’s real life identity was the first successor of the Tianhe Consortium, Zhao Mingcheng. He had a blend of a businessman’s cunning nature and a old world strategist’s ruthlessness, a very contradictory figure.

Tianhe Consortium was one of the largest consortiums in China. They were skilled in high-end equipment manufacturing, especially in regards to aerospace equipment. Earth Online had been commissioned under the name of Tianhe Consortium Manufacturing Enterprises. The company’s space exploration branch was the largest of the commercial space companies, possessing every bit as much technology as the Federal Aviation Administration.

While the Handan Six held a tight hegemony, at their core they were quite alike, possessing great pride. The other people were not like Zhao Mingchen who held such a high profile, but they also lacked gold coins, and so they agreed to secretly arrange acquisitions. Naturally, with his financial strength, Mingcheng really was worthy of being the first amongst them.

Ouyang Shuo was not worried that the Tyrants could buy a lot of gold coins. Earth Online was a very balanced game, with the personal adventure path design very close to reality.

For now, the players could only afford the basics, maintaining their food and clothing. Buying equipment was hard; money was very precious. It would be at least a month before the high-end players starting overcoming the starting money hurdle and began to profit. Starting up a gold farm operation was clever, but they had to obey the basic laws of the game.

Naturally, the forums were divided with bitter complaints, whether they were lords or adventurers. The game was too real. Nobody could afford much of anything, and non-humanoid monsters would only leave bodies and nothing else.

Humanoid monsters would drop money or equipment but at this point, nobody had money or equipment, and most bandits were not something people could compete with. Store-bought goods were expensive and on the first day of the game, very few people even had bronze-class weapons. Even with weapons, maintenance costs would keep draining their cash.

Lord class players weren’t doing much better. There were too many things to build. Building a village from the basic resource base was very difficult. They couldn’t afford to buy building plans. If they went in the wilderness to try their luck, they had no soldiers behind them which meant that fighting bandits was simply unrealistic.

The players who had gotten officers from their Summoning Talismans had an easier time. At least, the officers could fight a little bit. Those who summoned administrators were unlucky, their territories were completely undefended.

With such contrasts, Ouyang Shuo finally realized how lucky he was. If he had not completed the Village Building Quest with 100% which made all of the rewards better by one tier as well as a hundred gold, he would’ve been far behind.

At the same time, Ouyang Shuo had to keep in mind that he had to stay alert and not become complacent. He would have to work hard to keep his early advantages, transferring them into the potential of his territory and developing them. More accumulation would lead to more advantages, building the foundation of his dominance.

After all, this dilemma of the players was only temporary. As long as you could make it through the early accumulation period, the gaps would all soon shrink. This was especially true of the Six Tyrants of Handan, who as representatives of power groups had a great deal of money and backers. In contrast, he was very alone. Earth Online was all about team building, so there wasn’t a great solo player who could defeat ten thousand people at once.

According to what he remembered, at some point in his past life, people had started looking for other lords and formed alliances. A good territory would also attract talented players. Ouyang Shuo believed in his own ability and in his ability to direct others.

Otherwise, people who tried to build by themselves could fall easily; it was difficult to grow. If the timing was right, roping in others could be done.

People thinking about the recruiting players would have to wait a full year. At that point, the nobody would have to worry about their life and people would be on the same starting line. This way, lords didn’t have to worry about real life issues by strong factions. Closing the forum, Ouyang Shuo began to look up all kinds of historical information on the internet. The past game had a famous saying: If you are not familiar with history, you are not a qualified Lord.

The whole game world of The World Online was produced by historical deductions. If you werent familiar with history, then there was no way to cleanly fit into the game. Ouyang Shuo took this topic as his main homework of the day, and planned to adhere to it long-term.

At 4:30 PM, Bing’er came home from school. At 6 PM, Xiaoyue came back from school. Ouyang Shuo made dinner again.

At the dinner table, Bing’er told her brother all about the interesting things that had happened in school that day. Xiao Ming had overslept, had come to school late and had been punished by the teacher. Xiao Li had worn a new dress today, but it had been dirtied by Xiao Hua; the teacher had made her apologize in front of the class to Xiao Li. Xiao Yi’s braids today had been very beautiful, so the girls had gotten together and had been taught how to braid hair by her. Ouyang Shuo smiled as he listened. There was a tacit understanding between them.

Only he knew how hard the death of their parents had hit Bing’er. For a long time, she had been quiet and withdrawn into her own shell. Every day, Ouyang Shuo accompanied her, comforted her, made her happy, and let her slowly recover over time.

For Bing’er, Ouyang Shuo was both a brother and a father. Outsiders couldn’t understand the depth of the feelings between them. That blow had turned Bing’er from a lively little monkey into a quiet little girl. In her class, she only had a couple of friends. Only in front of Ouyang Shuo would she once again become happy and carefree.

Being able to look at Bing’er’s healthy growth was Ouyang Shuo’s greatest happiness in life. Unfortunately, for the next year, Ouyang Shuo would be heading early to bed every night to enter the game. He had no way to accompany her to paint, to do her homework, to coax her to sleep, or to tell her stories.

Thinking of his sister spending every night alone writing homework and going to bed by herself, Ouyang Shuo’s heart twitched. This was absolutely unacceptable, even if he had to log in later to the game.

Looking up at Xiaoyue sitting across from him, Ouyang Shuo had an idea. After dinner, with Xiaoyue rushing to wash the dishes, he knew that her family education was good.

Waiting for her to finish cleaning up, Ouyang Shuo took Bing’er back to her room to get started on her homework, and also stopped to say something to Xiaoyue. “Wait up a moment. I have something to talk to you about.”

Thinking of the embarrassing events of the morning and that Ouyang Shuo was going to bring them up, Xioayue’s face quickly turned red, and she started to stutter. “Wh-what do you want to talk to me about?”

Seeing her with that expression, Ouyang Shuo scratched his head, and continued on. “Important things. It won’t take very long!”

Important things? I don’t know what he is thinking about, what is he going to say? Will he say I am responsible for everything? Xiaoyue thought crankily, sitting down on the edge of the sofa.

Seeing that Xiaoyue was acting weird, Ouyang Shuo cut the long story short, “You know that yesterday I started playing a new game called Earth Online. This game is very important to me and every night at 8 PM, I have to go online.”

“Ah? Ah?” she replied blankly. Wait, this guy is not going to talk about this morning. Well, he must have forgotten! Pervert! Rogue! The woman’s mind was so unpredictable

Seeing Ouyang Shuo looking so surprised, Xiaoyue wanted to slap Ouyang Shuo with her shoes. At this time, she could only try and cover up the embarrassing mood, trying to squeeze out a smile. “Ah, ha, yes. Please, continue.”

No matter how slow he was, Ouyang Shuo could see that she had a problem. But, all he could do was soldier on and pretend he saw nothing. He continued, “In fact, what I want to say is very simple. That is, can you replace me at night? She gets a fairy tale before bedtime! As long as you can help me, please name your conditions!”

“Oh this, no problem! I also like Bing’er, I see her as a little sister. No need to mention any conditions. As long as you cook dinner every night for us, I will do it!” Sun Xiaoyue said readily.

“Thank you, you are helping me a great deal,” Ouyang Shuo said, and did not say more. They were thinking alike, and there was no need to say more.

The embarrassed mood passed, but they had nothing else to talk about. Ouyang Shuo went back to Bing’er’s room, and saw the little girl quietly working on her homework at her desk, cute enough to kill.

Assured that Bing’er would get her story read to her by Xiaoyue, this set his mind at ease. Ouyang Shuo went back to his room after giving Bing’er a kiss. Although Bing’er might not have been happy with everything, she knew better than to bother her brother needlessly!

Chapter 9 - Cui Yingyu

When Ouyang Shuo had arrived online, the game time was just after 8 AM. From outside the door came a whirring sound, mixed with waves of cheers.

Opening the door, Ouyang Shuo saw that General Shi was displaying his spearmanship while Zhao Dexian and the others were watching from the sides, fascinated by his skill, and from time to time applauding.

Seeing that Ouyang Shuo had come out, Zuo Yi exclaimed, “Lord sire!”

Ouyang Shuo quickly replied, “No need to stand on ceremony. As the saying goes, the day is in the morning! Today we have a lot of things to do. As for specific circumstances, I am going into the village after the new settlers are ushered in. If you are free, you can go with me.”

“Please ask the prince, workers!”

Everyone came to the village again. Sure enough, another group of people had gathered there. They were the same, thin and dressed in poor rags. The difference was that this was a group of fifteen people, and had a mix of men and women, old and young. They were also carrying more belongings, some with a backpack, more like a family migration than the first batch.

They were led by a man in his fifties named Lao Zheng, he was very sturdily built and tough-looking. Everyone briefly introduced themselves after realizing who Ouyang Shuo was, and did not stay out in the village for too long. Ouyang Shuo personally took the luggage of the old man, and took the lead in bringing the group back.

Zhao Dexian, alarmed to see Ouyang Shuo carrying the luggage, quickly intervened to help with the luggage of the others, and followed the group back. Respect for the elderly was one of the traditional virtues of China, so Ouyang Shuo hoped that through a hands-on example it would pass to all of the others.

Back at the Lord’s Manor, a cookfire was set quickly. This time, among the fifteen, there was a pair of middle-aged couples. In one, the husband was a junior blacksmith, while the wife was a cook!

After breakfast, Ouyang Shuo started getting a detailed understanding of everyone’s situation. Fifteen people, five special talents, the other ten were ordinary farmers.

The older man in his fifties, surnamed Song, was a senior doctor, and was the first high-level talent in the village. Young child Er Wazi was a shepherd, only eleven years old, very skinny and underfed, and also an orphan.

Li Tiezhu was a blacksmith, burly, with bright and piercing eyes, looking a bit like a simpleton. His wife was named Lee, a junior chef, and a young mother.

The most special was another woman. This woman was 28, and quite beautiful. She was called Cui Yingyu. Originally a businesswoman, she had been trained to grow up and help her father in the family business.

Half a month ago, the family’s caravan encountered robbers. Under the protection of their escort, she was able to escape. She had found herself lost in the wilderness, and after many hardships, had almost starved to death. Doctor Song had saved her, and finally after following their current group of wanderers, they had come to Shanhai Village.

After gaining a general understanding of the situation of the these immigrants, Ouyang Shuo gathered everyone into the courtyard. Nearly thirty people gathered, a decent-sized crowd.

Seeing the growing numbers, Ouyang Shuo said proudly, “Today there are fifteen new brothers and sisters who have joined the big family of Shanhai Village. The village is still being built up from scratch, and it is hard to say that we are doing well...but we are here and trying!

“We have three things to accomplish today. First of all, we have to complete the repairs of the fences. Secondly, we have to build a small residential courtyard to provide shelter for everyone. Finally, I hope that everyone will work hard together and obey their leaders, so that we accomplish all this and get your homes built before night falls!”

The excited crowd answered together, “I will follow the lord’s commands!”

“Here, I declare the specific personnel arrangements.”

Zhao Dexian immediately bowed as he answered, “Sir.”

“I formally appoint you as construction team captain, coordinate all the building projects in the village.”

“Thank you, sire, for the promotion.” Finished, Zhao Dexian returned to his original postion.

“System Tip: Zhao Dexian has been promoted by his lord, his loyalty has increased 5 points!”

“Zhao Youfang!”

“Sir.” Zhao Youfang quickly stepped out.

“You are appointed as the acting chief of the basic logging site and are responsible for the securing of timber for our territory.”

“Thank you, sire, for the promotion.” Also finished, he returned to his original place.

“System Tip: Zhao Youfang has been promoted by his lord, his loyalty has increased 5 points!”

In addition to the two men, Ouyang Shuo appointed Song Dafu as the one responsible for collecting herbs, Miss Choi for logistics, Miss Lee was responsible for the food, and Er Wazi was to attend to himself. These four people are not in the distribution of labor, the rest were temporarily included with the construction team.

Song Dafu came forward. “Thank you, sire,” he said.

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand to accept the words, then said, “We are starting work! Doctor, Miss Cui, and Er Wazi, with me.”

Finished, Ouyang Shuo stopped Zhao Dexian and gave him the drawings for the residential courtyards and dining hall, with clear directions on where he wanted these buildings constructed. The residential halls would be in the west area, along the north/south line. The dining hall would be built in the southwest, close to the Lord’s Manor.

After his instructions were done, the rest of the people under Zhao Dexian set out to work. Zhao Youfang and his team waited a minute to speak with him. “Sire, I’m afraid the work that can be done by my team might be limited, we have older folk in my team!”

Ouyang Shuo smiled and patted his shoulder, saying, “Yes, I have already purchased 500 units of wood to help cover the needs for the moment. What you have to do is explore the forest and see what is available for us to use, calculate the total amount of wood that can be harvested. In addition, you need to pay attention and see if there are any precious trees, and mark them for attention. Youfang, your job is important!”

Zhao Youfang suddenly realized what he had to do, and respectfully said, “Thank you for your instruction, sire! We will do this quickly!”

“Well, get to work!” Sending Zhao Youfang and his people away, Ouyang Shuo turned to address the Song trio. “Doctor Song, the village has no way at the moment for you to set up a hospital. For the time being, you will stay in the Lord’s Manor. When our territory upgrades to a level two village, we will be able to build you a clinic.” The doctor was considered a gentleman by Shuo, hence his treatment.

Dr. Song’s expression was light-skinned, with delicate bones, and an indifferent expression. “As sire has arranged, I have nothing to ask except for one thing. Miss Cui is a gentlewoman, and I hope the lord might be able to take care of her.”

Ouyang Shuo quickly replied, “This is only natural.”

“So, I think Miss Cui might act as housekeeper, as I hope the Lord intends?” They turned to look at Miss Cui.

Seeing Miss Cui being agreeable, Dr. Song spoke quickly, “This is excellent. With this kind of treatment, if there are no objections, nobody will complain.” He turned to Miss Cui, “Miss Cui, before any others rush to claim the job, do you have any objections?”

Miss Cui was a businessman’s daughter, but also ladylike. Her appearance was naturally elegant, with a gentle temperament, and somehow managed to be stylish even with her travel-worn appearance. Her sufferings and hardships had not soured her beauty, but in the gentleness was more than a trace of new strength.

She slowly went opposite of Dr. Song, bowing to him and saying affectionately, “I thank senior for caring for this little miss.” He had been caring for her all this time, and naturally she was grateful for him looking out for her.

Dr. Song quickly lifted her back up, saying, “Very good! Since you have said this, come and meet your brother!”

Cui Yingyu rose and turned to Shuo, bowing again. “Little sister Yingyu greets big brother. Thank you, big brother, for taking care of little sister!”

Ouyang Shuo quickly answered, “It is truly nothing. It is my fortune to greet Miss Yingyu. My surname is Ouyang, you may call me that if you like.”

“Big brother Ouyang may call me Yingyu, as this family also called me, hee hee.” After they set the proper brother and sister relationship, Cui Yingyu was no longer very cautious, recovering some of her natural demeanor.

“System Tip: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wiyu and NPC Cui Yingyu for setting a brother and sister relationship, unlocking the God-Sibling System, reward is 200 reputation points!”

Ouyang Shuo glanced at the stats of Cui Yingyu.

Name: Cui Yingyu (Silver)

Identity: Shanhai village, lady of the house

Occupation: Businesswoman

Loyalty: 85 points

Features: Careful planning (Enhances trade profits in the area by 1%)

Evaluation: From the Cui commercial family, family of women, gentle temperament, proper businesswoman.

She was actually a silver talent, a pleasant surprise. She was indeed a valuable retainer, with a loyalty of 85 he was immediately able to trust this rare new talent.

Without hesitation, Ouyang Shuo took the resource bag from his waist and pressed it into her hands, solemnly saying, “Yingyu, we are a family now, and your brother entrusts this material to your custody. I will have to trouble you with our material management.”

Yinyu solemnly took the resource bag, asking how it was used. She then said, “Thank you, brother Ouyang, Yingyu will live up to big brother’s trust!”

After arranging for Dr. Song’s and Yingyu’s affairs, Ouyang Shuo turned to the little boy hiding off to the side. He was playing with the black wolf cub like a little herdsman as Ouyang Shuo loudly said, “Er Wazi, come!”

Yesterday, Ouyang Shuo had let Youfang make a wooden cage. The bottom of it was covered with hay, a den for the cub. Er Wazi was still a child, of course, and upon seeing the cute little cub, he immediately wanted to play with it, sneaking past to tease the cub.

Hearing Ouyang Shuo’s call, Er Wazi stiffened reflexively. Goofing off before the Lord and being negligent, he naturally was afraid of being punished.

“Sir!” he called out, quickly trotting back to Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo brought him to his side, patting his head. He said, “Do not be afraid. Tell me, what did you use to do?”

Er Wazi, with his head down, meekly replied, “I used to help with the cattle.”

“That was then, this is now. For now, you will just follow me as a temporary servant. When there is time, Sister Cui will teach you how to read. Do you understand me? I do not have any cattle to give you now to manage.”

Hearing that not only he was not going to be punished, but instead had the opportunity to learn how to read, Er Wazi nodded excitedly, saying loudly, “I understand!” He was thinking inside that his former landlord and this new lord were definitely not the same.

Ouyang Shuo said, “Well, study hard, in the future you will be a useful talent for the territory. In addition, I have an important job for you.” With just his fingers, he stuck them through the cage of the pup to tease it. “Watching you tease it, I have given it a name. It will be called Blackfang. You need to take care of him and feed him well, can you do it?”

Hearing that he was going to get to take care of Blackfang, Wazi got even happier, and nodded so hard that his head might fall off. “I can do it!”

Ouyang Shuo patted his head, saying, “Well, go play with him! If something comes up I will call you!”

With the arrangements for his people completed, Ouyang Shuo went to find General Shi and ask more about the situation with the wild goats. He made up his mind to see if those goats could be brought back to captivity.

Chapter 10 - Free Mode

Ouyang Shuo walked to the east wing of the Lord’s Manor, and found General Shi reading a book on military history. He did not bother him, but the General quickly felt him watching.

He turned and saw Ouyang Shuo standing at the door. Quickly, he rose and bowed in salute, calling out, “Lord!” Then, puzzled, he asked, “Since the lord already came, why did you not enter? There's nothing to fear”

Ouyang Shuo laughed. “Seeing you concentrating so hard, I could not bear to disturb you.”

General Shi smiled and scratched his head. “My lord laughs. I just like to read the books on war in my leisure time. I do not know what else to say to the lord. Have you come to tell me something?”

“Yes, there is something I need to ask you. Yesterday, you returned and said you had encountered a group of wild goats. I do not know their location. Can you find them again?”

General Shi frowned, thinking for a moment, and slowly said, “I remember that the group of goats numbered fifty or so. Some were killed by the wild dogs; the rest scattered and fled.”

“It is so. At the moment, there is no livestock in the territory, and meat is very scarce. Yesterday you mentioned the goats in passing. I was wondering, could we not capture them and bring them back to be domesticated?”

General Shi was surprised for a moment. “The lord is really farsighted, I admire you. With the lord’s permission, I will go and see if find where I met them, and follow their tracks.”

“That sounds hard, I will wait for you to bring any good news.”

After sending General Shi away, Ouyang Shuo began to wander in the village to assess the progress of the construction everywhere. At rest time, he sat down and chatted with everyone, listening to them and giving them attention.

In this way, the villagers would gradually recognize the work of a meticulous, intelligent, yet approachable lord. On seeing him, they would take the initiative to salute greetings. Ouyang Shuo was not haughty, and gave each of them a smile in response.

Before lunch, the fence was finished. At the entrance gate to the village, they put up a simple wooden gatehouse. Above the gate, they engraved ‘Shanghai Village’, three simple characters that declared that the mountain village was officially rooted in the wilderness.

At 3 PM, General Shi came back, bearing both good news and bad news. The good news was that on his patrol he met a bandit riding a horse, and after killing him, gained both a horse and an iron sword. The bad news was that the wild goats had left no trail, and effectively vanished into thin air, so Ouyang Shuo could only pine over their loss.

Ouyang Shuo took the horse and iron sword from the General, and looked at their stats.

Name: Poor horse (bronze)

Weight: 30 kg

Speed: 20 km / day

Consumption: 3 units of forage / day

Evaluation: This can barely be ridden. Absolutely not a warhorse.

Name: Poor iron sword (bronze grade)

Hardness: 5

Toughness: 3

Evaluation: Iron sword is a defective product, please use with caution.

At this stage, even bronze-level equipment was rare. Suddenly he had two without even using his own hands. If he were to let other players know, they’d be half-dead with envy.

This was part of the advantage of lord-class players, the higher the risk, the higher the chance of better drops. These kind of high level monsters were nothing in the eyes of General Shi. With the horse and iron sword, Ouyang Shuo could now go out and inspect his own territory, he didn’t need to stay in the village all day. Before learning the basics of riding and spearmanship, he was nearly useless.

In the evening, the small residential courtyard and dining hall had both been built. During the feast in the new dining hall, Ouyang Shuo began to shift everyone’s accommodations.

The main hall of the Lord’s Manor was the living room, which was being used for hospitality and any proceedings. There were rooms to the right and left of the living room. To the east was his office; on the west was his bedroom.

There were courtyards on both sides of the room, with another two rooms off of them. The east room was General Shi’s, while the west currently held the ten people from Zhao village.

Last night ten people slept there, but they’d barely had enough room.

After the completion of the small residential courtyard, he had room for twenty people to live. Tonight, most of the Zhao people would move away, leaving only Zhao Dexian and Zhao Youfang in their new home. The previously empty west wing would now accommodate Cui Yingyu on one side, and Dr. Song and Er Wazi in the other.

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

Over the next three days, the territory began to build up rapidly. The public bathrooms, blacksmith shop, quarry, and grocery store had all been built, and they’d added four more residential courtyards.

The logging and quarry areas had also begun operating, with ten farmers arranged each day to produce 100 units of wood and 50 units of stone.

He didn’t know why, but he must have consumed too much good luck for the first couple of days, because he only received three special talents out of the 45 new immigrants over these three days.

The junior mason Zheng Shangun was a middle-aged man, whom Ouyang Shuo appointed as the quarry manager. Merchant Li Fugui, a fat old man, was put in charge of the grocery store.

The biggest surprise was a senior shipbuilder, who was also the second highly-skilled person in the territory. He was called Zheng Dahai, a thirty year old with a dark complexion, short and pithy.

It was early morning in the game as Ouyang Shuo came on at his usual time. Opening the door to the courtyard was always fun. General Shi was practicing his spearmanship like normal. Like his officers, martial arts was practiced until it was an instinct, not practicing made his whole body itchy.

Dr. Song was in the courtyard on the other side, doing kung fu. In the corner of the courtyard,Er Wazi was playing with Blackfang while feeding him.

Since receiving the iron sword three days ago, he had also joined the ranks of early morning martial arts. General Shi was happy to provide him guidance, or the road to mastery would’ve taken many detours.

The sword was the most profound military weapon, and the most difficult to learn. Practice started with the broadsword. It was a one-handed flat sword, straight and pointed, practiced for 3-5 hours a day, until you could accurately tell the difference in weight from an insect landing on the blade.

Ouyang Shuo understood the reason for this practice: it was part of how the game handled skills.

In Earth Online, the skills of the players were divided into system boot mode and free mode. Boot mode meant the skills of a book. After reading them you didn’t control them. When improving mediation skills, for example, the game would automatically display any improvements.

Free mode was something original to Earth Online, where the player learned skills, and the contents of a book were imprinted in the mind. Then, the players had to act in accordance with the moves and practice tips in their mind, actually putting in practice time like martial arts in general.

So players in the game practiced, and through the system’s spiritual connection, the memory of this exercise was passed to the reality of their body. Through repeated training, this exercise was strengthened into instinct. In this case, the player could in reality, with a little practice, wake up his body’s memory, and in the real world display the game’s martial arts.

Of course, the choice of free mode had a prerequisite in that it applied only to specific skill books open to free mode. Through the special skills books, Gaia had, through refining real martial arts, deduced the perfect reality-defying power law.

In reality, the ancient Wu family, by contributing martial arts texts, had access to the closed beta qualifications and custom game cabins. More importantly, with Gaia’s incredible computing ability applied to existing martial arts powers, combined with modern human medical research, they had formed a new and more complete science of martial arts abilities.

These abilities were infuriatingly hard to practice because of the extremely rare internal energy requirements. Things like spearmanship were, in the end, only a kind of physical memory. To really master the sword, you needed to repeatedly practice it in reality.

Practicing internal force was completely different. You had to stir the spirit and body to produce internal force, and then control your qi while running it through your meridians.

Therefore, the players in the game practiced internal strength. In reality, the game cabin had an intelligent system that stimulated the same thing, so that your body also produced internal forces, and the nutrient delivery system accurately transported the energy required for cultivation. It was not just more practical than real practice, but was also more efficient and a perfect combination of ancient kung fu and modern technology.

In fact, this was also part of the interplanetary plan codenamed ‘Hope’. After all, right now nobody was aware of the condition of planet Hope. Was it a primitive planet, had it evolved to a high level, or was there another civilization there? Everything was unknown. In this case, being able to enhance the physical abilities of the people was a good choice.

These scientific martial art powers were put in every corner of the game for players to explore. Beta players were unable to distinguish between the true and false powers.

A year after release, after every human alive had logged in, Gaia had announced the way to differentiate between true and false. The method was simple, any power ending with ‘by’ or ‘Code’ were true, and anything ending with ‘surgery’ or ‘law’ was false. There was only one exception, and that was that all the basic skills were true, such as the basic riding and spearmanship skills, which Ouyang Shuo was currently learning.

In his past life, one of the Six Tyrants of Handan, Feng Qingyang, had been the representative of the ancient Wu family, and relying on his own judgement of martial arts, discovered Gaia’s method, and how to judge which methods were true and false.

Within a year, the Wu family secretly hoarded a massive number of real powers, and so when Gaia announced the truth, it left them crying into their cups. In this world, Ouyang Shuo would naturally take advantage of his knowledge.

Back in the courtyard, Ouyang Shuo began in accordance with the basic spearmanship tips, practicing large swings. He was ready to continue with the practice, as he hadn’t found any martial arts powers to work with yet.

Due to his rebirth, he naturally wanted to spend the most time practicing the best skills. Because of this arrogance, he didn’t want to spend a lot of time practicing basic skills. In China, there was a set of the highest level of classic internal strength manuals, broken into three sets of powers. In the past five years, nobody had gotten more than two of them.

In this world, Ouyang Shuo’s goal was to cobble together these three sets of skills, combined with the strongest internal strength books, and make their fusion his strongest trump card.

After practicing with a large spear for a whole hour, Ouyang Shuo ended his morning exercises. Carrying the spear, he walked towards the living room. Every morning at 9 AM, the managers of the territory gathered there, a rule he had set the day before.

At this stage, only five people were participating in the proceedings there. General Shi, Trade Manager Cui Yingyu, Construction Manager Elder Dexian, Logging Manager Zhao Youfang, and Quarry Manager Zheng Shanpao.

In addition, if there were additional issues, relevant personnel could be invited to attend. For example, today’s issues were related to the construction of the dockyard, so Ouyang Shuo had informed senior shipbuilder Zheng Dahai to attend today.

Chapter 11 - Proceedings

By the time Ouyang Shuo came into the central chamber, everyone had arrived.

On the front wall of the chamber was a water painting whose painter was unknown, with a few rough lines and pens under it. In the middle of the hall was a red sandalwood chair, with three normal chairs on both sides of it.

To his left, the first seat was held by General Shi, followed by Zhao Dexian and Zheng Shanpao. To his right was Cui Yingyu, followed by Zhao Youfang and Zheng Dahai.

He greeted everyone one by one as he sat down on the chair, saying simply, “Let’s begin. Yingyu, first report on the territories resources to summarize the situation.”

“Yes,” Cui Yingyu stated crisply, standing up. “Our stock of resources is currently as follows: 4750 units of forage and grain, 220 units of wood, 390 units of stone, 450 units of iron. Our resources output is currently: Logging, 100 units of wood per day; quarry, 50 units of stone per day. According to the current progress of our territory, construction is expected to encounter a shortage of wood, and it has been recommended to increase logging operations.”

Hearing her report, Ouyang Shuo did not immediately respond. He had taken the opportunity to look at the few construction blueprints that he had bought from the Basic Market again, and took a look at their construction conditions.

Ferry: Provides transport services on both sides of the river. Construction conditions: Public docks, ferry construction drawings, ferryman, timber 40 units, stone 20 units. Build time: One day.

Basic Terminal: Provides cargo distribution for docked civilian vessels. Construction conditions: terminal construction drawings, timber 400 units, stone 200 units. Construction time: three days.

Basic Shipyard: Constructs ordinary civilian vessels, including ordinary fishing boats and passenger ships. Construction conditions: basic shipbuilder, timber 100 units, stone 50 units. Construction time: two days.

Village Temple: the villagers believe in the land, raises morale of residents. Construction conditions: village temple construction drawings, timber 400 units, stone 350 units. Construction time: two days.

He calculated in his heart. Together with the basic barracks and the 5 civilian squares which had not been calculated, he was very sure about the resources needed for a grade 1 village.

After his calculations were complete, Ouyang Shuo started with this, “I just figured out some statistics a bit. To complete all of the construction projects, the total need for wood is 1240 units, for stone, 760 units. Very good report, very detailed. This does not include the subsequent construction materials of fishing vessels that we will be needing.”

“Our current timber production speed has been unable to keep up with our construction speed, adding to it is imperative. There are a total of 87 people in the territory. In addition to our special talents, 70 of them are farmers. The labor force is still adequate, so I have decided to increase the lumber field to 20 farmers.” Saying that, Ouyang Shuo turned to Zhao Youfang. “Manager Zhao, you have to do a good job of coordinating the workers, work hard to protect our timber supply.”

Zhao Youfang quickly rose and said loudly, “Yes! I will ensure the task is completed!”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “In addition, your mission from a few days ago, how did it go?”

Zhao Youfang frowned and said, “These days I traveled the territory and found that within our territory there is only the single forest to the west. These woods are only expected to produce 8000 units of wood. Outside our territory, I have not probed because of fear of an accident.”

Ouyang Shuo pondered a moment, looking around the crowd, and said seriously, “Manager Zhao just raised a sharp problem. We are logging and quarrying outside the village, and are vulnerable to beasts and bandits out there. The terminal will be focused on construction of the ferry, but the shipyard and ferry will be outside our current security, and are vulnerable. These will be core industries of the territory, and we must ensure their safe operation.

“I am afraid it is difficult to take care of it all. For now, the top priority is to build the basic military camp, train up some militia, and improve the military strength of the territory.”

Seeing General Shi getting excited, Ouyang Shuo smiled and said to him, “General Shi, the task of forming the militia team, I give to you. Recruitment is set to ten men. From now on, I can promise you that as long as you qualify the men to be soldiers, the work teams of all the departments will release them to you.”

General Shi laughed, and said loudly, “I will no longer be an officer with no men! Please rest assured, Lord, that the final results will be a blood-thirsty and powerful militia, and will not disappoint the trust of the Lord!”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, and turned to Zhao Dexian. He took the building plans for the barracks, ferry, dock, shipyards and village temple out of his resource bag. “Elder Dexian, take the remaining five building plans. Arrange their overall construction order. For the next four days, all of the extra workers that come in, in addition to special talents, will join your construction team.”

Zhao Dexian quickly rose to take the drawings, saying loudly, “As long as the material is supplied in a timely manner, I guarantee that within five days all the buildings will be completed.”

As the Elder took his seat again, Ouyang Shuo continued, “With short-term plans addressed, I would like to take this opportunity to talk to you about long term plans, so that everyone has a good idea where we are going. The ocean will be the core of the future development of the territory. Controlling the ocean, we will be able to strangle the trade throat of the world, and occupy the strategic center of the transitional wars in the future.”

“To achieve this strategic goal, we must build a strong sea fleet. Therefore, shipbuilding will become the core industry in the future. We are fortunate that our territory now has a senior shipbuilder.” Ouyang Shuo turned to Zheng Dahai, and said to him, “Master Zheng, I hope that you will be able to quickly find yourself apprentices, and cultivate a number of basic, intermediate, and even advanced shipbuilders.”

Zheng Dahai got up calmly, and said evenly, “I accept the task from sire!”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, looking around. “These proceedings are done for today. The arrangements for the tasks assigned by this meeting will be implemented one by one!”

Everyone else had risen, and said together, “We will live up to the trust sire has given us!”

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

It was the first year of Gaia, and the first ten days. After four days of construction, the construction projects of the territories were nearing completion.

The ferry, junior barracks, and the remaining five residences had been completed. The basic shipyard, basic docks, and village temple had also entered the finishing stage, and would be completed today.

The ferry had been built on the northern shore of the Friendship River, at the landing location of Ouyang Shuo and General Shi’s raft from the very first day, a very memorable location. With the ferry, they could cross the Friendship River, and explore the hinterlands of the Lianzhou Basin. Shipyards and docks were being built on the eastern side of his territory, near the canyon’s edge.

Over the past four days, sixty more immigrants had arrived, mostly lumberjacks, fishermen, and farmers, along with five special talents. An older man, nearly fifty but hale and hearty, and also easy going, everyone called him Old Man Zhang. Ouyang Shuo put him on the dock for the ferry, where he had once hidden his simple raft.

The biggest harvest was a twenty year old man of clear and beautiful appearance, almost childlike, named Gu Xiuwen. Although he wasn’t a scholar, he had passed the county tests and government assessments, coupled with his grade meant he was already a decently learned man.

What’s more special was that Gu Xiuwen, although he was only a black iron level talent, had a specialty. This showed that he had great potential. With a little training, he could be promoted to silver level at any time.

Name: Gu Xiuwen (Black Iron Level)

Identity: Shanhai Village Clerk

Occupation: Civil Service (Child Born)

Loyalty: 75 Points

Commander: 25 [Force]: 15 [Intelligence]: 35 [Political]: 40

Expertise: Strong knowledge of government (enhances the territory’s administrative efficiency 5%)

Evaluation: A penniless scholar from a poor family, literate and familiar with poetry and literature, and a modest gentleman.

Ouyang Shuo immediately appointed him as the clerk for the territory, responsible for paperwork, population registration and other work, and the first thing he arranged to give him was the task to prepare the population roster of the territory.

Gu Xiuwen could already win an evaluation of a modest gentleman, enough to explain his character. Ouyang Shuo was ready to train him as a future important internal affairs manager, and so he appointed him as a clerk with appropriate duties.

Thinking of the development of the past few days, Ouyang Shuo paced towards the northwest corner of the barracks. Er Wazi was leading two horses behind him, keeping them ready for him.

At the barracks door, General Shi was standing with his ten carefully selected recruits, eagerly waiting for this moment. Seeing Ouyang Shuo, he laughed and said excitedly, “Lord, come, come!”

Looking at the blunt and straightforward expression, Ouyang Shuo felt helpless, he could only smile and say, “Okay, I know you are impatient. I approve their class change, send them in!”

The area of the barracks was not large. The main entrance was a solitary wooden gatehouse, barely enough to deal with arrows. Through the door was a small exercise field.

On the west side of the exercise field, two targets were placed on the south side for practicing archery. On the west of the field were placed half a dozen scarecrows, intended for practicing fighting skills.

There were three rooms in the barracks: The Class Change Chamber, the Meeting Chamber, and the Officer’s Lounge. The east wing of the barracks was the dormitory for the soldiers, basically a large room with beds. The west wing held two rooms, namely a dining hall and armory.

The men came to the Class Change Chamber, and General Shi put his hand on the door, sounding a system prompt.

“System Tip: Congratulations to Player Qiyue Wuyi for opening the Class Change Chamber of the military camp! Commoners can be converted into militia, the cost is ten silver coins! Please select the number to be converted!”

“Ten people!”

“System Tip: The number of people is confirmed, deducting 1 gold coin from player Qiyue Wuyi.”

Ouyang Shuo saw the door slowly open to the Class Change Chamber, it was a dark room, and he could not see within. He arranged the ten farmers in a column, and one by one sent them into the room.

When the first militiaman came out, he already had a new look. His rags had disappeared, replaced by a new linen dress, with a simple leather breastplate. He was holding a simple spear, and his demeanor had become more determined and aggressive.

Ouyang Shuo took the opportunity to check the new soldier’s stats.

Name: Zhang Daniu

Identity: Shanhai Village Militia Team Member

Occupation: Militia

Level: Level 1

Combat Power: 2 points (attack/defense comprehensive index, the standard civilian combat power value is 1)

Consumption: 2 Units Forage / Day

Equipment: Linen Dress, Simple Leather Armor, Simple Spear

Evaluation: Just a peasant, in order to become a qualified soldier, needs long-term rigorous training.

Militia basically gained 1 combat power for every level they had. After it had risen to 10 points, they could make the transfer to a formal soldier, as they could not advance higher otherwise. Turning them into soldiers required an intermediate barracks.

In less than half an hour, all 10 farmers had been turned into militia. Compared to real professional soldiers, they were nothing. But for civilians, militia were dangerous enemies. Ouyang Shuo quickly gathered them into a squad, led by General Shi.

Chapter 12 - Training

Editor:ryangohsff

With the militia class change completed, Ouyang Shuo was ready to take them out leveling for the first time.

He led the group of people out of the barracks. He rode the poor horse and was in front of the new squad. General Shi rode his yellow horse and followed behind. Farther behind were the ten militiamen in leather, holding long spears in their hands.

Along the way, the villagers paused and stopped working, judging the militia who had undergone a big change.

“Hey, Niu Wazi, I have to enter the army! I did not know sire was recruiting people!”

“Don’t they look good! I have seen few armies so domineering. That armor is sparkling! Without acting, they could blind the enemy!” This was said in a jealous voice.

“Wow, we finally have an army. We won’t have to worry about wolves when cutting down wood. One thrust of a spear, the beasts will definitely die!” This was said in a happy voice.

“Wow, the general is handsome!” Auntie, please do not join in the fun...

“You have no taste. I feel our lord sire is more handsome. That marvelous stubble, the dirty linen clothes, that skinny horse, ah, ah, people cannot stand it, so handsome.” Auntie, are you boasting about me, or damaging me, ah? The great lord sire had an injured expression.

The recruits looked straight ahead with wide eyes, eyes not deviating. Their ears were opened wide, quietly taking in the words of praise and remembering them in their hearts. They followed Ouyang Shuo’s black face on his skinny horse, who led them quickly away.

For this time, Ouyang Shuo elected the leveling site to be the west side of the woods. This would not only give the team exercise, but also remove hidden dangers for the lumber teams, serving two purposes. While riding, he looked at his own stats.

Name: Qiyue Wuyi

Title: None

Territory: Shanhai Village

Merit: 500/800 Title: 1st Class Baron

Occupation: Officer (Sub-occupation)

Level: 6 (10000/15900) Reputation: Locally Popular (700/1000)

Body Structure: 18 Comprehension: 20 Luck: 5 Charm: 8

Commander: 12 Force: 6 Intelligence: 6 Political: 12

Talent: Not open

Cultivation Method: None

Skills: Basic Collection, Basic Shipbuilding, Basic Diplomacy, Basic Assessment, Basic Weapons Proficiency, Basic Riding, Basic Spearmanship, Basic Archery

Mount: Poor Horse (bronze)

Equipment: Poor Iron Spear (bronze)

His time had been spent busily building his territory up. As such he had not taken a step out of the village, and was still at the beginner level of 6. Personal adventure mode players were already breaking level 15.

Teams of high-end players had finally been able to slowly kill enemies, getting the money and equipment needed to promote their strength and growth. From now on, the strength of high-end players was going to enter a relatively rapid growth period.

However, he wasn’t anxious at all. Lords had never relied on grinding to advance, but military action. Lords whose soldiers fought the enemy got 5% of the experience. In one battle it was easy to gain 3 or 4 levels quickly.

The group marched for half an hour and came to the primary logging field. They got off their horses and left them at the logging field and headed into the woods.

Their first encounter was with a pack of wild dogs. Ouyang Shuo looked at their stats with his basic assessment skill.

Name: Ordinary Wild Dogs

Level: 3

Skills: Bite, Pack

Evaluation: The dogs use teamwork to capture prey, their individual combat effectiveness is limited.

The level of wild dogs was only 3, just useful to train up low levels.

In front of this group of eight wild dogs, Ouyang Shuo told General Shi to select two men, each to take out a dog alone. The rest of the militia would split off to deal with the remaining five.

Seeing a wild dog charge his way, Ouyang Shuo did not retreat. Settling into his stance, hands on his spear, he followed the incoming dog’s path. As the dog leapt at him, his iron spear stabbed, straight into its neck.

Unfortunately, the spear barely went into the dog. The weight of the animal plus the force of its leap passed a huge amount of force into the spear, and he almost lost his grip.

Luckily, the dog was injured. Ouyang Shuo quickly pulled the tip out as he deflected it to his right side. As it landed, he thrust again, and pierced it dead.

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for killing an ordinary wild dog, your reward is 300 experience points.

To get to level 7, he needed 5900 xp, so he needed to kill 20 dogs. Using the basic collection technique, he harvested the dog’s body, and got a piece of wild dog skin.

[Broken Wild Dog Skin]: Quality 1, can barely be used to make clothing.

On the other side, General Shi was directing the two solo soldiers, and their two dogs were stabbed to death. To the side, the rest of the militia were fighting.

As it was their first time fighting, their performances were naturally miserable, and he was scolding them scathingly.

“Stupid, hold the spear stably! If you cannot even hold your own weapon, go home and be a farmer!”

“And you, aiming at empty air, are you a spearman or a fart?”

“You! Don’t stand motionless! Your feet move with your hands!”

Ouyang Shuo observed from the side that most of them were confused about what to do. There were only two of them who seemed to know what they were doing, jumping in and out while fighting.

One of them was the one who had been the first to change his class, Zhang Daniu, twenty-three years old. He was a horse-faced, tall man,who was very simple looking. He had said that his father was a hunter, and he used to follow his father into the mountains to hunt hunt often.

The other was called San Gouzi, twenty-seven years old, also very tall, but thin as bamboo. In the village, he was a character everyone called Dog Lord.

It took a full ten minutes for the fight with the wild dogs to finish. After a round of fighting, each militia member earned 150 xp, enough to hit level 2.

Two of them were bitten by the dogs, and had to apply Dr. Song’s golden cream to their wounds, then bandage them up. Taking advantage of this time, Ouyang Shuo harvested the other seven wild dogs, getting two good skins and three broken skins. Two of the dogs died so miserably that they didn’t even leave a broken or tattered skin.

[Good Wild Dog Skin]: Quality 4 points, suitable for making clothing.

After dressing the wounded, they continued forwards. Along the way, they encountered more wild dogs, sometimes in small groups, sometimes in bigger ones. With General Shi’s training, they didn’t panic, and started to show some basic discipline and teamwork.

The morning soon passed, the militia had risen to the 4th level, and Ouyang Shuo had 2000 experience left until the 7th level. At noon, everyone returned to the logging field to rest and get lunch.

In the afternoon it was back into the woods, directly into the depths of it. There , they no longer encountered wild dogs there, but level 4 wolves and level 5 wild boars instead.

Name: Ordinary Wolf

Level: 4

Skills: Bite, Pack

Evaluation: A group of cunning and patient hunters, always a headache.

Name: Ordinary Wild Boar

Level: Level 5

Skills: Charge

Evaluation: Looks stupid, but will attack until it dies.

The wolves were always in groups of less than ten. The boars were used to living alone, but sometimes a piglet and its mother would appear at the same time.

By 5 PM, Ouyang Shuo had reached level 7, and his collection skill had risen to the intermediate level, gaining a lot of wolf and wild boar hide. The militia had reached level 5, their combat power was now 6 points, and upgrading was becoming more difficult.

Unknowingly, they had come to the edge of his territory. A stone stood on the border line, engraved with the three characters of Shanhai Village. Next to the line was a line of small print, ‘Gaia, January 1, Year 1’, representing the date the monument had been set.

Because he couldn’t leave his territory, as he was the lord, everyone had to return with him, following the same route from which they had come from. Just as they were heading back, they heard a squealing roar nearby. Accompanied by the sound of breaking branches and thrashing leaves, the ground began to tremble.

Rushing out to take a look, it was a good target, which turned out to be a giant wild boar. It was twice the size of a normal boar, with big tusks curving up out of its muzzle. The hair on its back was white and bristling stiffly. With those two massive tusks, it looked like something dangerous to mess with.

Ouyang Shuo assessed it quickly, and was promptly terrified.

Level: 10

Skills: Brutal Charge, Earth Tremor

Evaluation: You would rather meet the god of the underworld than the wild boar king.

This was an unexpected surprise. In the game, monsters didn’t drop things often, with the exception of Boss creatures. The drops from Bosses were not money or equipment, but special items. Special items were very rare, and generally far more valuable than equipment.

To deal with this wild boar king, they needed General Shi to personally act. Whether it was Ouyang Shuo or the militia, sending either of them up would only be giving it free food. He couldn’t let the militia take the risk. Unlike players, NPC’s were dead once they died; you couldn’t resurrect them.

General Shi had spent the entire day playing coach and nanny, and his heart had long been tired of just watching. Seeing the wild boar king, he immediately grew excited. He first took out his white bow, aimed it at the boar, and with one arrow, hit and blinded it in its right eye.

Squealing in pain, the boar king immediately charged at him. By this time, Ouyang Shuo and the militia had discreetly retreated to the bushes and had hidden away. General Shi was worthy of his fierce name, choosing to neither stand nor flee, he threw himself directly at the angry pig.

Seeing that the man was charging towards it, the boar suddenly stopped and stomped on the ground with its front hooves. The ground under General Shi collapsed and he immediately fell to the ground. Seeing this opportunity, the wild boar king ran up, head lowered, its tusks glinting in the sunset.

In the nick of time, General Shi’s left hand slapped down and lifted him off the ground like a spring, escaping the pig’s charge. In midair, General Shi turned his body, feet together, his spear turning upon the big boar and holding firm. The pig barely reacted as the great iron spear punched into its neck.

At that moment, General Shi, seeing that the pig was going to hit him, leapt into the air. His feet came down on the pig’s back, driving his spear in with his full weight. He heaved the spear out in a spray of blood, and the pig’s inertia took it forward a few more steps before it bled out and crashed to the ground.

Because the boar was basically soloed by General Shi, nobody else had received any xp.

“Good! General Shi is really powerful!” Ouyang Shuo applauded from the side, a little stunned. This was the power of imperial officers? A powerful body, superb skills, precise combat awareness, it was all amazing.

General Shi stood to one side, breathing a little quickly, and laughed at that. “Hahahaha! For the first time in a long time, I finally got a workout!”

Scaring the piss out of us just so you could warm up? Ouyang Shuo could only remain silent. Then his greed arose, and he went to the side of the pig, looking to see what had fallen...and saw nothing. He circled around it, and located a booklet. Picking it up... Score! Such a generous pig; it was really a treasure.

It was a <Wild boar Domestication technology manual>. After using it, the user automatically learns the ability to tame wild boars.

Lose in the east, gain in the west. Before, he’d gone out to get wild goats in the east, and to the Market to get the plans to domesticate wild goats. He hadn’t expected to get no goats. But now, in the west, he’d gotten this wild boar manual instead!

Putting the book into his storage bag, Ouyang Shuo began to collect the body of the wild boar, getting 4 wild boar skins and a pair of wild boar fangs.

[Perfect Wild Boar Skin] Quality 8, high-level leather collected from the wild boar king, can be used to make leather armor.

[Rare Wild Boar Fangs] Quality 7, advanced material from the wild boar king, can be used to make jewelry.

After arranging all the bounty, the group began their walk back to the logging field.

*[advantage]: by having their erection in contact with her

*[ cent bills]: China has cents in bills called jiao

*[Guoshu]: Guo here means country and shu means technique

*[ 190 centimeters]: Over 6ft tall

*[Lake Cui]: Cui Hu, also means Green Lake

*[hundred dyuan bills]: 100yuan is their biggest bill

*[Daoist Fierce Tiger]: The author of this novel

*[Noodles]: made of wheat

*[Rice Noodles]: made of rice

*[Zhang Tian Tian]: Tian means sweet

*[Bajiquan]: Also known as Eight Extremities Fist, but Bajiquan sounds nicer to me

*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes

*[12.47 to 13.07]: don't ask me about the tree sap

Chapter 13 - Institutional Adjustment

It was evening when the militia team that was out leveling finally returned. Dinner had already started cooking in the dining hall, a smoke plume rising from its chimney. The villagers were gathered in twos and threes after a busy day, talking excitedly about what their lord had done.

Running out to Ouyang Shuo, Er Wazi took his horse and weapons from his hand. Greeting everyone politely, Ouyang Shuo quickly headed to his room, his work for the day completed, and logged off.

The morning sunshine was warm as he ran the district’s park trail. Breathing in the fresh air, the night’s fatigue was soon cut in half. Today was the weekend, and yesterday he had promised to take Bing’er to a picnic. Being on her own every night for the last ten days, as Ouyang Shuo was busy playing the game, his little princess had been getting vexed at him.

In the city suburbs, the cold wind blew. Luckily the winter in Ling Nan wasn't too bad and could be compared to autumn in other places. The grass in the park was just starting to yellow out. He watched Bing’er pretending to be a bird as she zoomed around, making the zoom-zoom sound of an airplane as she pretended to fly. Ouyang Shuo sat down on the picnic blanket, most of the blanket was occupied by potato chips, small cakes, fruit juice, and other snacks.

“Bing’er, come eat something!” He shouted out.

She promptly headed towards him, sweeping her arms back into a diving posture, and ‘roared’ her way in a dive into his arms. Sitting on his legs, her hands around his neck, looking sweet and tired, Bing’er said, “Brother, the suburbs are really fun! Sister Xiaoyue did not come, it is her big loss.”

“Xiaoyue wanted to sleep late this weekend. Bing’er has been well behaved, have you been listening to your big sister?”

The little girl nodded vigorously, innocently saying, “Bing’er has been good, big sister tells me a story every day, and is also helping me with my homework. She treats me so well!”

Ouyang Shuo smiled. “Since Xiaoyue has been so good to you, since you’ve come out to play, wouldn’t it be nice to bring your big sister back a little gift?”

Bing’er nodded cutely, and then frowned, her little brow furrowing as she scratched her little head. She asked charmingly, “Ah, what you have said is right, but what gift should Bing’er bring big sister?”

Ouyang Shuo pinched her little face, coaxing her, saying, “Today, your brother will teach you how to make a garland. When you personally hand a wreath to her, Xiaoyue will love it.”

Bing’er’s small hand quickly grabbed his hand, smiled, and said, “Well, okay, teach me quickly, brother! Also, Bing’er should also wear one!”

So, the brother and sister got up and gathered a big pile of green grass stems. Ouyang Shuo showed her step by step how to use the grass stalks to make a ring the size of a person’s head. Then they added on some green leaves and wildflowers, dotting them in the grass ring until it looked good. He put his wreath on Bing’er’s head, at which point she quickly stood up, turned in place a few times, and asked him if she looked pretty.

When they arrived at home in the afternoon, Bing’er went to Xiaoyue’s door and offered the garland she had woven up like a treasure. She placed it on Xiaoyue’s head, saying, “Big sister, this is the garland I have personally woven for you!”

Sun Xiaoyue was touched by the gesture, and gave Bing’er a big hug, saying “Bing’er is really good, remembering to bring me a gift when she went out.” She lifted her up and gave her a big squeeze of affection.

Ouyang Shuo stood aside and watched, the big and little sister made a very pretty and happy picture.

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

Once again coming online, it was another new day in the game. He played with the little Black Fang puppy, which had already become grown half a circle in these last ten days, as it ran around quickly.

As usual, in the morning, he did an hour of spearmanship practice before going to the Chamber for morning proceedings. When the village infrastructure was complete, he had to arrange the next step of the village. In his head, he already had a plan for what he wanted.

There were a full eight people summoned today. In addition to the normal five, the newly appointed clerk Gu Xiuwen, the soon to be appointed shipyard director Zheng Dahai, and the original mason from Zhao village, Zhao Dewang, were all also in attendance. Previously, Dewang was Zhao Dexian’s deputy on the construction team, but Shuo had a new appointment for him today.

Ouyang Shuo sat down and directly said, “Gentlemen, Shanhai Village, after ten days of joint efforts, other than reclaiming farmland, the other infrastructure has been completed, and even exceeded with the completion of four additional buildings. For the next step of development, I am sure you all have some of your own ideas. That will be today’s main topic of specific planning. I would like to ask Secretary Gu Xiuwen to report the territory demographics so that everyone is aware of them.”

Xiuwen stood and bowed in salute to everyone before speaking. “In accordance with sire’s instruction, I have these been preparing the population roster for these last two days. Today, the total population of the village is 162 people. In four days, we are expected to exceed 200 people. In addition to the staff here, there are 10 people in the territory; 13 skilled people, including 4 shipbuilder apprentices. For lumber workers, we have 30 people, quarry workers 10 people, construction workers 90, most of all them farmers by trade.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and praised him for his efficient work, then said, “From the population distribution of the territory, there are two major problems. One, the population management is too extensive, not conducive to fine management. So, we will divide the farmers into agriculture and industry, largely fishermen. There will be five categories: farmers, quarrying, and miners into workers, fishermen, herdsmen and breeders into herdsmen, and all the masons, carpenters, etc into the craftsmen.”

“After this division is complete, there should be a corresponding proof of household registration. After getting registered, there should be no need to change the permit or registration without my authorization, and household location should be adjusted accordingly, with the same groups of people living closer together. To this end, I have decided a new body will be established to be responsible for this matter, to be called the Household Registration Office.” Pausing here, Ouyang Shuo looked at Gu Xiuwen, smiled, and continued, “Xiuwen, since you have done this task so well, the responsibility of this agency shall fall unto you.”

Gu Xiuwen quickly rose and said gratefully, “Xiuwen thanks sire for his trust, I will be worthy of it!”

“System Tip: Gu Xiuwen receives a promotion from his lord, his Loyalty is enhanced 5 points!”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, saying, “Another problem is more serious. That is, the proportion of skilled workers is too small. We need those who are skilled with technology, and we cannot just wait. We want to cultivate and encourage those skills by recruiting apprentices and improving the way we treat them. In this respect, Zheng Dahai has done well, recruiting four apprentices and making a good example. To this end, I have decided to appoint Zheng Dahai as Director of the basic shipyard.”

Zheng Dahai also rose and bowed to thank him. “Zheng Dahai thanks sire for his trust, I will be worthy of it!”

“System Tip: Zheng Dahai has received a promotion from his lord, his Loyalty is enhanced 5 points!”

Ouyang Shuo continued on. “I will take this opportunity to announce a few personnel changes. The logistics office head will be upgraded to the Secretary for Logistics, and former Ministry of Material Reserves secretary Cui Yingyu will take this position. Zhao Youfang will become director of the basic logging plant, and Zhang Shen will take over as deputy director of the stone mining factory.”

“The Land Reclamation Division, responsible for farmland, orchards, vegetable farms, and other land reclamation work, will be overseen by former Construction Team Captain and newly appointed Director Zhao Dexian. The Construction Team will be upgraded into Construction Division and will be in charge of all building jobs. Zhao Dewang will be in charge of this. Setting up the Salt Pan Division and working on the salt extraction project, for the time being, I will be personally responsible.”

This series of appointments would help the village-level administrative structure become more efficient, standardized, and orderly. His appointments placed a huge emphasis on three of the original Zhao villagers, occupying half the seats. This was both because they were competent in their abilities, but also because he wanted to treat his veterans with care.

With Zhao Dexian in charge of the Department of Reclamation, he was going back to his roots in agriculture, and could only be taken as the best move. Zhao Youfang, although not a carpenter born, had a flexible mind and was very respectful of his lord. Ouyang Shuo prepared to focus on his training, and as soon as he establishes a private school, he would send Youfang there to study. Zhao Dewang did not have great ability, but it wasn’t enough to really affect the construction work. With his pool of talent limited, Ouyang Shuo could only take the bad with the good.

Waiting for the crowd to accept their appointments, Ouyang Shuo continued to preside over the meeting.

“With the personnel adjustment completed, the next step is the upgrade to a grade 2 village. There are two major things that need to be done. The first is to reclaim farmland, for which I give the Land Reclamation Division full responsibility, we must till at least 500 mu of farmland. The second is the construction of the salt pan on the seashore. The Salt Pan Division is solely responsible for its construction and transport of men and materials via the shipyard, the militia team is responsible for security and security work.”

“According to the development plan of the territory, the Household Registration Office should be in charge of 3 divisions, and the proportion of the distribution of the five categories of farmers and workers, as well as follow-up staff distribution. In principle, act according to a 3:3:2:1:1 distribution.”

Finished with things to complete, Ouyang Shuo looked around and said, “If anyone has any questions or thoughts about what was proposed, you can now step forwards.”

Gu Xiuwen stood up first and asked, “Sire, I have a question. In the territory, except for Er Wazi, there are no herdsmen. At the same time, we have no livestock. How do we determine the number of herdsmen?”

Ouyang Shuo laughed and replied, “Er Wazi’s registration is to be included in the lord’s household, and not included in those numbers. Second, although we have no livestock now, yesterday we gained a ‘Wild Boar Domestication technical manual’. Boar domestication will be the beginning of the animal husbandry industry for us. Then, the militia team is responsible for acquiring more wild boars, the Construction Division will set up a pigsty, while training personnel to run and manage it is the responsibility of the Material Reserves Division.”

Giu Xiuwen sat down, clear now on what Ouyang Shuo had planned.

Cui Yingyu stood up and asked, “Sire, I have a question. In our territory, the only input we have is wood and stone, with no grain nor iron ore. I do not know what sire is planning?”

She indeed had a business background, Yingyu had zeroed in on material management with a strategic vision, and was not limited just by what was already done. Ouyang Shuo was pleased, he nodded and replied, “Yingyu, this is a very good question. I will first answer about the food problem. For the moment, we will be going into the market to buy extra food. This will need extra money to support us. The other is the development of animal husbandry and the fisheries. I have already explained what is going to happen with the husbandry, you have to give priority to the development of the offshore fishing. Give priority to the construction of fishing boats, lease them to the fishermen to encourage them to go fishing, and manage them well. This will temporarily be included in the Material Reserves Division.”

“To answer the issue of iron ore. Currently, the demand in the territory for iron ore is not large, it is mainly being used to build farm tools and other implements. Once we advance to a second village, we will start construction on iron mines. If the Secretary is now ready to do the preparatory work, arrange for personnel to find the right iron ore field to begin work on.”

Ouyang Shuo had largely finished, so it was General Shi’s turn to speak. “According to my lord’s arrangements, the militia team now has two tasks, namely the protection of the upcoming salt pan, and looking for small piglets. With the militia team only at 10 people, but also responsible for the safety of the territory, I do not know what my lord desires specifically?”

“This is indeed a problem, so I will appoint you as a supervisor of the salt pan, and is responsible for the training of the salt panning technical staff and the construction of the salt pan. For now, you will be stationed at the salt panning construction site. The militia team will be divided into two squads. Zhang Daniu will be the first squad leader, responsible for the task of looking for piglets. San Gouzi will be the second squad leader, responsible for territorial patrols.”

After answering General Shi’s question, no one had any more questions, and Ouyang Shuo ended the meeting.

Chapter 14 - Mazu Temple

After arranging work for the territory, Ouyang Shuo suddenly had nothing to do. Thinking of the Mazu statue he had gotten in the market, he suddenly had an idea.

The village temple was built at the southeast corner of the village. As a required building for a grade 3 village, it covered a very wide area, comparable to the Lord’s Manor. As a grade 1 village temple, it currently only had a main hall.

The front of the main hall was a square, surrounded by stone walls, with a very good atmosphere. Beyond the square was the main hall. The main hall held the altar, dedicated to the Sea Goddess Mazu and two other gods. With the carvings before the altar and incense sticks burning there, it looked very solemn.

When the players built a temple, they could choose which god or gods to offer worship to. Ouyang Shuo naturally chose Mazu and her subordinate gods, thousand mile eyes and ten thousand mile ear.

Ouyang Shuo came out of the main hall and to the middle of the square, taking out the Mazu idol (damaged).

“System Notification: Detecting player Qiyue Wuyi with a special item: Mazu Idol (damaged). The item and current village temple are a good fit, do you wish to use?”

“Use!”

There was a flash of white light, and the idol flew from his hands, hovering in the air. The statue gradually became larger and larger, nearly ten meters tall and displaying nearly a full figure of Mazu in white marble before dropping to the very center of the square once more. Mazu was holding her hands, her feet amidst the rocks and waves, lending a graceful atmosphere to the place.

“System Notification: Shanhai Village Temple is now blessed by its Mazu Idol, automatically renamed to the Mazu Temple! Its properties have increased substantially, player please view!”

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi in the frontierlands for the establishment of Mazu Temple. For spreading the faith of Mazu, you receive a special reward for merit of 200 points, and reputation of 400 points!”

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for reputation exceeding 1000 points, your fame is enhanced. You earn the silver title Celebrity (enhancing historical values by 10%).

Ouyang Shuo quickly opened the bar of the Mazu Temple to explore its properties, to see what surprises it had for him.

Name: Mazu Temple (sealed)

Type: Hidden Class Building

Function: Spread Mazu’s faith, enhance the residents satisfaction +20%, enhances the territory’s reputation by 5%.

Features: Sea God’s blessing (Ability of your fleet to withstand storms at sea +40%)

Evaluation: There is a seal in the Mazu Temple, with a trace of weak Mazu gods. Dedicated incense and prayers will help break the seal.

Wow, a hidden class building. This was really a grand prize, as hidden class was a rare degree of architecture, like finding an artifact. In the past five years, he had heard of no more than five hidden class buildings. If you included lords who concealed such things in their territories, he estimated there were not more than ten of them in the game.

Belief in Mazu was one of the most widespread folk religions in China. Mazu was also one of the gods in the state memorial, the other two being the Yellow Emperor and Confucius. So her status was one of the respected gods, naturally being defined as a hidden building class.

The change to the temple attracted the attention of the villagers. With the near ten-meter statue of Mazu there, it definitely stood out. The villagers immediately dropped what they were doing to flock to the temple. Seeing the statue of white marble standing there in the square of her temple, they all devoutly bowed down in worship of such a miracle.

At this point, the Mazu faith would slowly take root in Shanhai Village, and would slowly spread to the entire Lianzhou Basin, and eventually the entire southern coast. Shuo was looking forwards to the day when the offerings and prayers lifted the seal on the Temple, and restored the glory of Mazu.

From the Mazu Temple, Ouyang Shuo went straight to the barracks. In the camp, the militia team was under the auspices of General Shi, and had divided into two squads under Zhang Daniu and San Gouzi.

The two new group leaders looked very excited, faintly glowing of pride. Even the gloomy San Gouzi had a smiling face today.

Shuo was not here to stand around and do nothing, directly handing the to General Shi.

After a brief accounting, he took the first squad out into the west woods to once again look for wild boars.

The logging team was as usual out in their fields. Leading his horse, Ouyang Shuo called over two lumberjacks. Onto a wooden plate they nailed a large cage, which they padded with hay. He had two militiamen carry the empty cage, and went straight to the wild boar area.

The way there was uneventful: any encounters with wild dogs or wolves were rapidly resolved. After all, everyone was at least level 5 now, and they were not a challenge.

However, either they were unlucky, or beast cubs were really scarce. During the morning, they met several wild boars, but none with piglets. Cursing his luck, Ouyang Shuo’s team started getting impatient. They didn’t fall back to the logging camp to rest, simply eating rations in the field, ordering everyone to rest in the woods on the spot. An hour later, they were ready to fight again.

Taking advantage of the time, he thought carefully, seeing if he had overlooked something, some detail he had missed. Suddenly, the technical manual from the boar king falling down on the other side flashed through his mind.

Yes, the manual fell from the boar king, did that not also imply there were other boars in the vicinity? In any case, Ouyang Shuo decided to turn them around and find a better area than this, where they were coming up empty.

An hour later, they were not far from where the boar king died. “Da Niu, come here.”

Zhang Daniu hurried over. “Sire, you need me?”

“Ah, we are changing the strategy for the afternoon. I decided that we are going to where the wild boar king died to search the area. Make sure your men are alert. Do not drop the ball, understand?”

“I understand!”

“Go, call everyone up and we’ll start!”

The place where the fight had been yesterday between the boar king and General Shi was still messy. With Ouyang Shuo leading, Daniu behind him, and with the six militiamen following, they slowly followed the tracks of the wild boar.

After walking for half an hour, just as Ouyang Shuo wondered if his speculation was wrong, a squeal came from the distance, and his spirits rose. The call was too familiar, very similar to that of the wild boar king. Was there another one?

Carefully moving forward, they found a clearing about ten meters across, and a cave on the other side of it. Through the hole, he could vaguely see a wild boar laying there.

The wild boar was much bigger than an ordinary pig, but not as big as the boar king. Even more gratifying was that at the side of the pig were a dozen small piglets all lying in a row. Ouyang Shuo used his Basic Assessment to look at the properties of the wild boar.

Name: Variation of Wild Boar (Elite)

Level: 8

Skills: Brutal Charge

Evaluation: This is a variation of a wild boar sow, with offspring from the wild boar king.

It was the wild boar king’s mate and children. A level 8 elite, stronger then Ouyang Shuo’s own strength. To face it head on would be pushing it a little.

The easiest way to kill it would be to surround it with the militia, using their spears to keep it in the cave. The problem was, they’d probably kill more than a few piglets doing this, and the piglets were what they were here for. It would do more harm then good.

The other method was to send someone fast into the cave, then ambush it from either side when it came out. Once it burst out into the ambush, attacking together would rapidly kill it with teamwork. There’d be a little risk, because if anyone was careless, they could get hit by the sow’s struggles.

At this critical moment, Ouyang Shuo was resolute and decided to take the second method. The first method risked the piglets too much, and he didn’t trust the militia’s spear skills that much. For recovering the piglets, the risk was worth it, wealth and danger came hand in hand! Besides, as long as no one was seriously injured or died on the spot, Dr. Song’s golden medicine would be able to treat them.

The plan was arranged for a militiaman to attract the sow. The rest of the team was in the grass to the sides of the cave, ready to ambush her. The man picked up a stone from the ground, ran into the hole and threw the rock at the sow. The pig was startled to be attacked in its home. It struggled up, ready to rush out of the hole and turn the intruder into kibbles. When the militiaman saw her get up, he hightailed it out of the cave.

The sow ran right out into the ambush. Five people sprang out of the grass and mercilessly plunged their spears into her. Not being greedy for the credit, they pulled their spears out after inflicting fatal injury and quickly jumped back.

At the crucial moment, an accident still happened. One of the spears was stuck in the sow’s ribs, and could not be pulled out. The sow whirled on him as he tugged on it, forgetting to retreat. Angry and wounded, the pig started to launch a brutal charge at him.

This time, Ouyang Shuo reacted from the other side of the pig. He plunged his spear into her again, breaking her attempt to charge from behind as she whirled around to face him.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo over there facing the pig alone, Zhang Daniu rushed back along with the rest of the militia, and they also stabbed with their spears. With one last stab, the sow was finally unable to stand, and fell seriously injured to the ground.

Ouyang Shuo ordered the militia to not act rashly, and everyone stepped back, waiting for the sow to die of blood loss. He knew that a seriously wounded beast was very dangerous, and dying from a final lunge was not a joke. Good hunters had patience: impulsive fools had long since fed themselves to the beasts.

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for killing a mutant wild boar (Elite), reward 1000 xp.”

“System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi is now level 8!”

A white light flashed, and Ouyang Shuo smoothly rose to level 8, and the militia rose to level 7 at the same time. He stepped forward to harvest the sow’s body, and received two wild boar skins.

Perfect wild boar skin: Quality 6, can be used to make high-level leather and leather armor.

After killing the sow, everyone felt safe to get the rewards. They entered the hole, where the dozen piglets were gathered in a ball. Ouyang Shuo was momentarily at a loss; a dozen piglets was a big harvest. The six of them surrounded the piglets, who offered little resistance as they were dumped into the cage.

About to leave the cave, Ouyang Shuo saw a flash of light from the corner of it. Searching carefully, he discovered a black ring.

Name: Ring of Courage (black iron level)

Properties: Enhances the morale of troops by 5%

Evaluation: The ring has only one power: with a rousing speech, you can have a greater effect on your soldiers.

For black iron equipment, the effect was pretty good, and jewelry was more rare than most other types. Shuo directly put it on his right ring finger.

There was a burst of system announcements; Shuo paused to read them all.

"System Notice: Congratulations to player Di Chen for becoming China's first Lord to upgrade to the second grade village, special reward of 1100 merit points!”

"System Notice: Congratulations to player Di Chen for becoming China's first Lord to upgrade to the second grade village, special reward of 1100 merit points!”

"System Notice: Congratulations to player Di Chen for becoming China's first Lord to upgrade to the second grade village, special reward of 1100 merit points!”

Ah, the leader of the Six Tyrants of Handan, Di Chen. It was the reality of having a strong political group among the new players. They had built China’s first villages, and now one of them had the first upgrade.

At this stage of the game, the only real restriction on the big forces was their lack of architectural blueprints. Ouyang Shuo’s constraints on population did not affect them: they could appeal directly to adventurers to pad their numbers.

The inertia of history was still strong; Ouyang Shuo was still a butterfly. To flap his wings and start a hurricane was still a ways away. Over the next few days, the other five Tyrants of Handan should also upgrade to level two villages.

Chapter 15 - Apprenticeship

As Ouyang Shuo led the line of militiamen through the village, the villagers looked curiously at the cage of small piglets.

The piglets were only half a month old, brown-haired, black stripes on their backs, truly very cute. On the road, he had looked at their stats.

Mutated Small Wild Boar Piglets: Produced by the wild boar king and mutated elite wild boar sow, these wild boar piglets are very adaptable, their meat are delicious, and they have a growth cycle of three months.

Before they returned, Zhao Dewang had already arranged for people to build a pigsty. It was built behind the dining hall, so it would be convenient to feed them.

The pigsty was a small room with an inner and outer area. The inner area was 3.5 meters long, and 2.5 meters wide, for sleeping and eating. The outer area was 50% bigger than the inner area, with a drinking trough, and was open to the sun. Hay was scattered inside and outside the pen, making it easy to keep the pens dry and clean.

When Ouyang Shuo’s militia carried the pig cage to the pigsty, Cui Yingyu and Zhao Dewang were waiting for them. Behind them was a third man, some 30 year old man with an honest but cautious face. Yingyu introduced him as Zhu Baocai, in his original village he was a famous pig master. He had been selected by Yingyu as their pig keeper and domesticator.

Ouyang Shuo had faith in Yingyu’s eye, directly handing over the to Zhu Baocai, saying to him, “Master Zhu, the task of domesticating these pigs, I give to you. It is a lot of trouble for the territory to cultivate a good species of wild boar. Wild boar farming will be a core industry in the territory one day. At the right time, we will expand the scale of the pig farms. I hope that the first true pig farm can be raised by you, Master Zhu.”

Seeing the lord as very easy-going, Zhu Baocai was no longer so cautious and talked about his skill at raising pigs. He seemed even more confident, he solemnly said, “Please do not worry about this pig breeding, I already have some experience. Look at these little piglets, all so strong and healthy. They are a fine breed, I have great confidence in raising them.”

After finishing with the pig master and saying a cordial farewell, Ouyang Shuo returned back to his office. As he sat down, Gu Xiuwen came in. Ouyang Shuo asked him to be seated and asked him if he had anything for him.

Gu Xiuwen said, “Sire, I discussed with the people in charge of three divisions today, and did the personnel distribution for farmers, builders, fisherman, animal rearers, craftsman, the five industries. Please approve this, sire.”

“Oh, your efficiency is very high! Let's talk about how you allocated things.”

“In the territory are 130 farmers. 39 households were allocated to the Reclamation Division to cultivate farmland, and the original 40 farmers were maintained and moved under the management of the Material Reserves Division. The fishermen were allocated 25 people until there were more fishing boats. After they start fishing, they will be moved under Material Reserves Division as well. For shepherds, we only have two people, responsible for pig farming. The carpenters were assigned 24 people, their main project at this time is the salt pan field construction under General Shi.”

Ouyang Shuo pondered for a moment, then asked, “On the shipyard side, are you clear on the progress of the fishing boat construction?”

“According to my understanding, the construction of an ordinary fishing boat requires 50 units of timber, and each boat can carry two fishermen out to the sea to fish. The shipyard, at its current size, can build one fishing boat a day. The first fishing boat was requisitioned by General Shi, who is using it to transport personnel and materials for construction of the salt pan.” Gu Xiuwen was well prepared as a clerk of the territory to understand the latest developments in all walks of life as one of his basic tasks.

“Not bad. Let's stick to the distribution plan. Beginning tomorrow, other than special talents, everyone is to be assigned to the Salt Pan Division. At the same time, in addition to the five fields, set up a separate household. Personnel information is as important as military information and must be kept confidential. As for the Salt Pan Division, you must pay close attention to it. I will clear this up with General Shi.”

“In addition, starting from tomorrow, we will be changing the meetings to once per week. Who attends should also be fixed, in principle, only the secretaries of the various divisions need to meet. If there is a need, you can take one or two deputies along to go to the meetings. If you have problems from day to day you can report to me directly.”

Gu Xiuwen nodded and seeing his lord had nothing else to say, rose and departed.

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

The next day, Ouyang Shuo stopped in on General Shi, asking about the construction on the salt pan fields.

Although he was a military man, General Shi was quite familiar with military books and reading. Even in an unfamiliar area, he was still able to think clearly. He stated unambiguously, “The intrinsic principles of the Sun Drying Salt technical manual are solid and backed by experience. You need an average of one salt worker per two mu. The average monthly harvest is 200 units of salt per mu. As our manpower is currently limited, I will recommend the first phase of the construction to be one hundred mu of salt fields. According to final estimates of the whole, the whole beach is expected to open up tens of thousands of mu of salt fields.”

Ouyang Shuo made some mental measurements. In the Market, a unit of salt sold for 20 copper. In other words, a mu of land could produce a gold coin in pure profit, which was very impressive. Unfortunately, the sea salt cycle took an entire month. To obtain the first harvest, they could not count on it when they were building the grade 2 village.

Ouyang Shuo knew that the population limit for the second village was 500 people, a gap of 300 people from the first village. According to the average flow of immigrants, it would take 20 days to reach the full population. With that delay, because he’d need some additional funds for work in the secondary village, he’d have to think of another method.

General Shi stood aside, watching him standing there in a daze, amused at Ouyang Shuo’s bemused expression as he wrestled with the problem.

Ouyang Shuo blinked as he returned to normal and asked, “When can the first phase of 100 mu be completed? You needn’t worry about the labor, I have already discussed it with Xiuwen yesterday.”

General Shi relaxed. “According to current progress, we’ll be finished tomorrow afternoon.”

“Excellent, I’ll be waiting for your good news!”

General Shi nodded and walked away, just then, there was a spate of system announcements.

"System Notice: Congratulations to the player Chun Shenjun for becoming the second Lord in China to upgrade to the Grade 2 village, reward 1000 merit points!”

"System Notice: Congratulations to the player Chun Shenjun...”

"System Notice: Congratulations...”

The Tianhe Consortium had really strong financial resources. Chen Shenjun had managed to become the second in China to upgrade to a Grade 2 village.

Unfazed, Ouyang Shuo knew that the most important thing to do now was the things on hand. Today he was ready to do only one thing, and that was to visit the territory of all the skilled talents one by one to encourage them to take on apprentices.

Among those people, Advanced Shipbuilder Zheng Dahai had enrolled four apprentices and did not need to be visited. Basic Carpenter Zhao Youfang and Basic Stonemason Zheng Shangun were designated as part of the civil service and were no longer suitable for training apprentices.

Yingyu had found two young business apprentices, a man, and a woman. The man was called Qian Lifei, originally the owner of a brothel. His village had been looted, and he had come to Shanhai Village. The woman was called Du Xiaolan, also the daughter of a businessman. Yingyu took her in and deliberately kept her around, teaching her carefully. Both were temporarily placed in the Material Reserve Division by Yingyu, acting as her assistants.

Ouyang Shuo’s first visit was to the small courtyard of Dr. Song. He was the first high-level talent in Shanhai Village, but he had not yet recruited an apprentice, which made Ouyang Shuo a little dissatisfied. Thinking about this, it was all well and fine for the doctor, because he was living in the house of the lord as a symbol of the lord’s power. But the old man, except for going out occasionally to gather herbs and mix up his golden medicine, did not do anything else.

As Ouyang Shuo came in, Dr. Song was in the room reading medical books leisurely. Seeing him come in, Dr. Song said lightly, “I did not know sire was coming. You haven’t been caring for me, it is strange to see sire. I don’t think you came to see me, what is the matter?”

Seeing Dr. Song with this attitude, Ouyang Shuo’s heart was even more irritated. Seeing that he needed help from the person, he patiently said, “The recent affairs of the territory have kept me busy and I have neglected Elder, please don't worry!”

Dr. Song’s feelings were stirred up, saying, “Sire’s words are heavy. I'm a free man, not doing anything, I'm fine. Sire is the lord of the village. You obviously have many things to do.”

Talking with him, Ouyang Shuo rapidly understood the crux of the problem. The old man was not as indifferent to fame and fortune as he thought he was. Ouyang Shuo said some words of courtesy, and in turn, he listened well.

The doctor’s meaning was obvious. He lived in a small courtyard, the other people had found official positions, and he was alone. When Ouyang Shuo came, he was the lord who treated him with respect and cares for the future. Now with another helper, he did not put him in mind. So many days, he didn’t say even a word of greeting. Even Yingyu, that girl, who was so busy, had no time to see him! He had turned invisible. That Er Wazi did not speak with him, so how could he not vent?

Shou had not expected this. The old man looked so grand and strong, but his desire for fame and fortune were so heavy. Hey, yeah, a desire for recognition was good. He was really afraid he would not accept his request and did not know where to start again.

So, Ouyang Shuo smiled and said, “Soon, I will set up a special medical institution, a hospital, to take over the medical affairs for the whole territory. To get it started, there must naturally be enough people. Elder is a noble person, so I should not disturb you. But there is no one else in the territory who can help me at this time!”

Dr. Song was moved. “Sire, do not worry. These bones may be old, but I can certainly handle teaching three or four younger folk without a problem.”

Ouyang Shuo laughed, “Then I shall leave this to the great elder of Shanhai Village without worries!”

After speaking with Dr. Song, the other skilled folk was much easier. For Basic Blacksmith Li Tiezhu and his wife Lee the Basic Chef, Ouyang Shuo promised to arrange for them a separate small courtyard at the right time for them to live in. The couple was happy to promise to recruit two apprentices each.

Merchant Li Fugui had recruited an apprentice yesterday but had not reported it yet. Today, Ouyang Shuo promised to build the first-class carpenter, Lu Guangshi, a Carpenter’s Workshop for woodworking, and to look for a for his research. The carpenter immediately agreed to recruit two apprentices.

After a round of all this lobbying, Ouyang Shuo ’s voice was hoarse. However, it had all been worth it, for the territory had ten more apprentices. Adding in voluntary enrollment, that brought the total apprentices to seventeen. When they finished their initial training, the village was going to have a small outbreak of talent.

Chapter 16 - Grade 2 Village

During the next three days, the system announcement for China rang often. Three more of the Six Tyrants of Handan managed to upgrade their territories to grade 2 villages.

The representative of the military, Zhan Lang, could not unscrupulously use credits to buy the in-game currency like the rest of them and had fallen behind as a result, not managing to upgrade yet.

Ouyang Shuo’s territory was very calm. The workshop he had promised his carpenter, Lu Guangzhi, had already been built. Under the leadership of Elder Dexian, five hundred mu of farmland on the north side of the territory, near the Friendship River, had been successfully opened.

Simple Farmland: Remove the weeds and treat the land, and it can grow all kinds of crops.

As for the saltpan fields being built under General Shi’s supervision, they were also smoothly completed. 40 salt workers were stationed there to begin spreading salt water across the panning field and dry it out to make salt. The first salt field to open was officially named by Ouyang Shuo as the North Salt Field.

On the pig breeding side, Zhu Baocai did not disappoint. The 12 piglets, after brief discomfort and panic, had now fully adapted to life in the pen. The development of breeding pigs was a new industry that was just around the corner.

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

On the 14th day of the first year of Gaia, at 8 AM in Shan Hai village, all of the core staff had gathered in the Chamber early, waiting for a historic moment.

Gu Xiuwen was calmly registering the day’s newest population of people. Ouyang Shuo did not care about their stats and in his heart all he was thinking about was leveling up the village.

With a hum and flash of white light, in the middle of the Chamber a golden stone that slowly rose from the ground. Ouyang Shuo placed his hand on the front of the stone, and the system notification sounded.

“System Notification: Detecting Shanhai Village’s upgrade conditions…”

“Condition 1: Population 200 people. The Village is over the limit and has met the requirements!”

“Condition 2: All required infrastructure has been completed, and met the requirements!”

“Condition 3: The rank of the Lord has made Second grade Baron, and met the requirements!”

“Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi and the established Shanhai Village for meeting all required conditions to upgrade. Would you like to upgrade?”

“Upgrade!”

From the stone, once again golden light spilled out to reach up to the sky and formed a golden halo. The halo spread out to encompass the entire village and swept out to the edges of his territory before disappearing.

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for becoming the sixth Lord in China to upgrade to the Second Grade Village! Reward: 600 merit points!”

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi...”

“System Notification: Congratulations...”

This time, Ouyang Shuo had beaten Zhan Lang of the Six Tyrants of Handan, and history began to shift.

The announcement in the game caused an uproar. Players were speculating on who Qiyue Wuyi was, defying the hegemony of the Six Tyrants of Handan.

Earth Online had so far been open for only half a month. The identities of the Six Tyrants had been subject to endless amounts of gossip by the players, and gradually their real identities had surfaced, no longer as mysterious as they were in the beginning. Unfortunately, the more players knew of the identities of the Tyrants, the more depressed they had become.

China had never had a lack of ambition in its players, especially with Earth Online holding meaning far beyond that of a typical game. Even those with great ambition, in the face of the status of the Six Tyrants, were afraid to move ahead and defy them.

Now, Ouyang Shuo had succeeded in beating a member of the Six Tyrants of Handan. This shook up the status quo, exciting the players, and suddenly the situation in China became blurry and not as set in stone.

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

In Jianye city near the Blood Red Village, a determined-looking young man rushed and sat in the office of the village chief.

He was Zhan Lang, and his expression was gloomy. Opposite him sat another young man. “Lieutenant, it’s time to stop being cautious. Get on the line and start buying the game currency at whatever price point is required.”

“Yes sir!”

At the same time, in Quanzhou House near the King Village, a heavily eyebrowed, middle-aged man heard the system announcement and adopted an interested smile. “Oh, there is actually someone beyond the Six Tyrants! So it seems that they are not invincible! Well, it seems that my King Village could become worthy of the name as well! Hahahahahaha....”

For a time, inside and outside the game, the people were surging with new emotions.

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

At this time, Ouyang Shuo didn’t have time to really care what was going on, as he was still going through the operation of upgrading his territory.

“System Notification: Congratulations to Qiyue Wuyi for upgrading to the grade 2 village. The Lord’s Manor is automatically upgraded. In addition, the player may choose one of three random village buildings to establish!

“System Notification: Random buildings selected, please choose: Village level Ancestral Hall, Village Private School, or Village Granary! Please choose!”

“Choose the village granary!”

“System Tip: Building automatically generated, player please check it out!”

With a hum and a flash of white light, the golden heartstone once again slowly sank down into the ground.

Telling everyone to wait for a while, Ouyang Shuo took the opportunity to slowly look over the properties of the village.

Territory Name: Shanhai Village (Grade 2 Village)

Lord: Qiyue Wuyi (Third Viscount)

Title: None

People: 80

Law and Order: 75

Territory Population: 200/500

Flow Rate Of Immigrants: 10 * (1 + 50%) = 15 / day

Territory Area: 50 square kilometers

Territorial Characteristics: 50% increase in attracting immigrants, 20% increase in attracting special talents, 50% increase in crop production, 20% increase in production capacity of residents, 20% increase in military rank

Treasury: 10 gold coins

Territory Resources: 3100 units of grain, 180 units of wood, 800 units of stone, 300 units of iron ore

Territorial Army: Militia team (10)

Territory industry: North Salt Pan (100 mu)

Political index: 25/100 (determines administrative efficiency, relationship with the people)

Economic index: 10/100 (determines the degree of trade prosperity, the ability to pay taxes)

Cultural Index: 10/100 (determines the degree of education developed, the quality of residents)

Military: 20/100 (determines military strength, stable internal relations)

Basic Buildings: Village Level Lord’s House, Basic Market, Simple Fence, Village Canteens, Village Latrine, Wooden Residents Small Courtyard (10), Basic Blacksmith, Basic Grocery, Basic Logging, Basic Quarry, Simple Farmland (500 mu), Basic Barracks, Pigsty, Carpentry Workshop

Special buildings: Ferry, wharf, basic shipyard

Hidden Architecture: Mazu Temple (seal)

List of potential capital construction buildings:

Village Ancestral Hall: For worshipping the ancestors. Construction conditions: ancestral building drawings, timber 80 units, stone 40 units. Build time: One day.

Village Level Hospital: For medical treatment of the villagers. Construction conditions: Basic doctor, medical museum building drawings, timber 60 units, stone 20 units. Build time: one day.

Village Private School: A private education facility for the children of the village. Construction conditions: scholar, private school architectural drawings, timber 150 units, 80 units of stone. Construction time: two days.

Basic Martial Arts Dojo: A rural training building for basic martial arts. Construction conditions: Wu Fu, martial arts architectural drawings, 100 pieces of wood, 100 units of stone. Construction time: two days.

Village Granary: A warehouse for storing grain. Construction conditions: granary construction drawings, timber 400 units, stone 200 units. Construction time: three days. (Note: the building has been generated and awarded.)

Basic Tailor Shop: A shop for sewing clothing. Construction conditions: Basic tailor, tailor shop construction drawings, timber 40 units, stone 20 units. Build time: one day.

Basic Mining Field: Speeds up the collection of ore, increasing average production to 2 units of iron ore/person/day. Construction conditions: timber 40 units, stone 20 units. Build time: one day.

Simple Arrow Tower: A basic defensive structure, with a weak defense. Construction conditions: 80 units of wood, stone 10 units. Build time: one day.

Ouyang Shuo analyzed everything for a moment. To rise to the 3rd-grade village, he had to meet 3 conditions once again. The 1st condition was the new population limit, which for now he had no good way to accelerate. Based on his current immigration rate, it would take 20 days to reach the new upper limit of the population.

His low population was his biggest weakness, and that was because of the lack of individual players. The 3rd condition, of meeting the rank requirement, was the easiest and he was not worried about it at all.

The hardest to meet would be the 2nd requirement: Infrastructure Construction. That required 3 conditions on its own. The 1st was building materials, which he didn’t need to worry about, as he could easily meet all the storage capacity. He wasn't worried about the 2nd condition, which was the basic needs of talents to staff the buildings, because of his territory’s special trait of +20% in attracting special talents. As long as he was patient, the talents would naturally come.

The biggest difficulty was the architectural blueprints. In the Basic Market, every 2 village blueprints were 5 gold coins. But for the new buildings, such as the ancestral hall, hospital, private school, dojo, and tailor shop, he needed a full 25 gold coins in total. Ouyang Shuo and every other Lord had to worry about where they were going to get the gold from.

After analyzing the stats of the village and going over everything, he had time to take everyone and go visit the upgraded Lord’s Manor. In his home, the courtyards were now larger, and the area occupied by it had nearly doubled.

The courtyards had become much more refined. The original 3 rooms had now expanded to five, the rooms were more spacious than before, and even the grade of furniture had improved by a level. The middle of the hall was still the chamber, but now, instead of a dirt floor, it was covered with slate.

On the eastern side of the room near the chamber was still the head office of the village. The main difference was that now there was a row of bookshelves there, and it was weighed down with new books. On the east side of the new room was the administrative office. Now, Gu Xiuwen and the other officials had their own office space.

On the west side of the building was still Ouyang Shuo’s bedroom, with a dining room between it and the Chamber. From now on, from the courtyard he didn’t have to go to the dining hall and eat with the commoners: there was a small stove with which to prepare food to eat.

On the east and west sides of the Chamber, the number of rooms expanded from 2 to 4.

Taking advantage of everyone being there, Ouyang Shuo began to rearrange everyone’s accommodations. In the east wing, the 1st room was still for General Shi. In turn, Gu Xiuwen, Elder Dexian, and Zhao Dewang were given rooms.

In the west wing, the first room was naturally where Cui Yingyu was living. In turn, Er Wazi and Dr. Song got their own rooms, with the last room temporarily empty. Once the hospital was built, Dr. Song would move in there, much like Zhao Youfang and Zheng Shangun had moved to the logging field and quarry they were respectively overseeing.

Chapter 17 - Industry

After the simple tour, everyone returned to the Chamber. As Shanhai Village had just been upgraded to a grade 2 village, it was time to let everyone know what the next steps they were going to take were.

Everyone sat down, and Ouyang Shuo went straight into the main topic. “With everyone’s joint efforts, Shanhai Village has successfully upgraded to a grade 2 village, and we’re also the sixth in China to achieve this feat! This is the result of the hard work of all the villagers and every one of you gathered here. It is truly worth celebrating! Therefore, I have decided that tonight we will hold a grand bonfire party to celebrate. Tonight’s celebration shall be prepared by Cui Yingyu.”

Cui Yingyu nodded. “Big brother, you can be rest assured, I will make it as grand as possible. Speaking of which, this is the first time our territory has undertaken such a celebration! You have to personally perform a show to help out with the entertainment!”

As she finished, General Shi took the lead in applauding that idea. Even the normally sedate Zhao Dexian looked excited and cheered at the idea.

Ouyang Shuo gave a wry smile. “Yingyu, you are trying to checkmate me. But your idea is very good, I firmly support it. Hmm, it is more joyful to share the joy than to keep it to oneself. Everyone here will have to prepare at least one performance or play. If you want to cheer, how can you not get dragged into the water? If your sire has to contribute, then you do as well.”

Yingyu laughed, as performing a program was, for her, naturally something that took no effort. The other people looked a bit unpleasant and depressed as if they’d lifted a stone, only to drop it on their own foots.

“After the upgrade, there are a lot of things to do. Here, I’m going to make general arrangements. We have much to do, so please hold your advice and opinions until I am done.”

“First of all, work arrangements for the Construction Division. The private school, hospital, and other buildings cannot be built at the moment due to the lack of building plan blueprints. However, there are still great responsibilities that lie upon you. We do not need blueprints to construct the basic mining field and the simple arrow tower, so build them as soon as possible. The Material Reserve Division needs to stay in good communication with you to pick the field to be developed. Build two arrow towers, one on each side of the village entrance. In addition, the second phase of the 15 small residential courtyards needs to be done quickly, and you must pay close attention to it. And the very most important of all is to cooperate with the Salt Pan Division to carry out the construction of the second phase of the Northern Saltworks.”

“The Northern Saltworks is the only industry in the territory at the moment. It is also an extremely important source of funding for the future of the territory. I have decided that the second phase is to open up another 400 mu, for a total size of 500 mu. This will require a lot of labor. Household Registration Office will have to actively cooperate with the present stage, and make it a priority to channel people to the salt fields. The total number of salt workers will need to reach 250 people in order to maintain full productivity in the salt harvesting operation.”

“Material Reserves Division, the numbers involved in quarrying and logging will remain about the same at 20 people after the completion of the primary mining field. The number of fishermen should gradually increase to 30. As for militia, we will directly be expanding them to 50 people. Make formal preparations, 10 people in a squad, led by a Sergeant; five squads as a platoon, led by a Lieutenant. The rest of the labor will be sent to the Reclamation Division to cultivate more farmland, up until a total size of 2000 mu. As the arrangements above, Household Registration Division will allocate manpower as needed, and confirm proof of residence for the new work arrangements. If there are any questions, they can now be raised.”

Digesting the orders that Shuo had laid out before them, the directors considered their field of specialties and divisions before they spoke up with comments or suggestions.

General Shi was the first to stand up. “My lord, I have something to say. With the militia expanded to 50 people, it will be necessary to have 5 sergeants to command the teams.”

“General, by your recommendation, report to me for approval. As far as possible, please choose from the veterans for your recommendations, but make sure your choices are good ones, do not promote them unconditionally.”

“Ability is the only premise. In addition, Zhang Daniu and San Gouzi can be directly promoted to team leader. The squad leader of the militia is naturally you. As the North Salt Fields are on track, it is time for you to move and concentrate on the militia team training. As for the safety of the fields, rotate Zhang Daniu and San Gouzi with a militia team in charge.”

General Shi grinned. He would no longer be stationed in the salt field, which obviously made him very happy. However, he was not a fool and had long deduced something was going on from Ouyang Shuo’s words. He directly asked, “My lord, what is the main reason behind this expansion of the militia?”

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head approvingly. “The expansion of the militia is to deal with a variety of new security challenges. With the new upgrade, our territory has increased to 250% of the original size! I am expecting that in half a month, a beast riot is going to come out of the wilderness, and we will encounter massive beast attacks. Therefore, General, you must not only see the development of the militia, but you have to establish a detailed defense against the beast attacks and combat program, report to me for review.”

General Shi spoke up loudly, “Sire, I will see this done!”

Cu Yingyu rose next. “Big Brother, on the number of fishermen, I have a different view. At this moment, we only have four fishing boats. Each boat can only take two men, while the shipyard is only making a boat a day. To get 30 fishermen to work will take at least another 11 days. As far as I know, a fisherman can harvest 50 units of fish a day on average. With the amount of fish harvested, we simply cannot eat it all. Why do you need so many fishermen?”

Ouyang Shuo understood her point. Fish could not be used as a staple food and was not easy to store for a long period of time, it could not replace the role of harvested food and forage. For this, he had his own plan.

“Yingyu, what you have said is naturally true. But you have not considered, if the fish can be salted, then dried. Dried fish is not a living thing, and can be easily stored. The market price of a unit of dried fish is 15 copper. It takes two units of fish to make one unit of dried fish, and one unit of salt can be used for 50 units of dried fish. Excluding the cost of the salt, a single fisherman’s daily harvest can create a profit of 355 copper for the territory. Once the first batch of salt in the salt fields is produced, the construction funds of the territory could be financed entirely by the sea! As for the fishermen who are not yet in boats, arrange for them to work on salting the live fish.”

Cu Yingyu could see that Shuo had calculated everything, and said in sincere admiration, “Big Brother has thought this through, I am far from your level!”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand. “I am no genius. I have been worrying about funds and plans for the territory for some time, and came up with this idea.”

This was certainly not Ouyang Shuo just coming up with words to comfort her on the spot. He had been considering all these plans and points as early as when he had selected the Lianzhou Basin to establish his village. As a lord player, if he couldn’t make full use of marine resources, then he was really remaining willfully blind to his geographical advantages.

Sea salt and marinated salted fish were the two ways to accumulate early capital that he wanted to get established. To this end, he had not hesitated to spend his early reward money on the and those three special sets of building blueprints.

This was the advantage of rebirth. While the powerful representatives were paying heavy real money to buy the game currency, he was developing a perfect industry so as to provide a steady stream of building funds. This advantage would become more and more apparent later on.

His current industry had just started, resulting in limited profits, but he was just beginning. Once he expanded the scale of development, naturally the profits would increase several times over.

It was the consensus of strong lords in the past that for sustainable development, they had to develop their own industries. After all, they could only use credit points to buy the game's currency for less than a year’s time.

Finally, Zhao Dexian stood up, saying, “Sire, I have some questions. As sire has arranged for the Reclamation Division to cultivate 1500 mu of farmland, there is naturally no problems. My question is, for these mu of farmland, I was wondering what crops sire might want us to plant?”

Ouyang Shuo decided to test him, asking, “Secretary Zhao, based on Lianzhou Basin’s climate conditions, what do you think are the most appropriate crops to plant?”

Zhao Dexian was a farmer, and had a lifetime of experience dealing with farmland, and was clear on the planting time for all kinds of crops. He answered, “This is the middle of the season. Winter is not over, spring is not here, it is not suitable for planting any crops at this time.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled mysteriously, and said, “Good answer. However, the Lianzhou Basin has a special climate, and there is one crop that you can grow in winter here, namely sweet potatoes. Although the best planting season in November was missed with the monsoon, we still have suitable growing conditions. If we plant now, we can harvest them in April and May, and completely solve the problems of crop shortages.”

Zhao Dexian was momentarily surprised, and then replied gloomily, “I am ashamed to say that I did not think of such a crop.” In fact, this could not really be blamed on him. His previous village of Zhao Jiagou had been in the forest and had very rarely planted sweet potatoes, so he did not think of such a crop on the spur of the moment.

Ouyang Shuo smiled. “So, these mu of farmland should be planted with sweet potatoes as quickly as possible and must be completed before the end of the month. As for the seedlings, I will buy them from the Market.”

After answering Zhao Dexian’s questions, the doubts of the others had been cleared, and Ouyang Shuo announced the end of the meeting. Waiting until the crowd dispersed, he headed over to the Basic Market to procure some items.

The treasury only had 10 gold coins at the moment. But he had set aside four gold coins to grow the militia, so he really only had six gold to use.

He first spent a gold coin to get enough seedlings to plant 3000 mu of sweet potatoes. Three mu was the maximum amount of areas he wanted to devote to sweet potatoes for now.

Then, he spent another gold coin and bought 500 units of salt. This salt was enough to make the salted fish for now. Later, his salt fields would produce more than enough salt on their own.

As for the remaining four gold coins, he simply purchased 4000 units of grain directly. With the initial remaining 3100 units of food from his previous purchases, as well as the fisherman harvesting fish as a supplement, it would be enough to support the entire village on its way to becoming a grade 2 village.

With his procurements done, Shuo’s pockets were now empty. After arranging for people to put the purchased material into the warehouse and granary, he had nothing more to do for the moment.

Chapter 18- Bonfire Party

Editor:ryangohsff

That night, the bonfire party, as promised by Cui Yingyu, was very lively. Everyone gathered in the public square in front of the Lord’s Manor, and built large fires with firewood. Groups of people gathered around them, singing and dancing.

Yingyu’s Lingbo Dance wowed the whole town. It was a soft dance, with a light step, like clouds floating in the air, and also like sunlight dancing on the wate. It made her look like a fairly in the waves floating along via the dance. It could be described as the shorts steps of lingbo captivated anyone who saw it.

General Shi’s sword dance was also wonderful. His sword was like a white snake, hissing in the winds. It moved like a dragon, sometimes heavy, sometimes light, hitting like thunder and moving like lightning. It was a case of a silver light from the square could pierce a chest of someone from miles away.

Not to be outdone, Elder Dexian, together with the original villagers from Zhao village, arranged a pole dance. The percussion instruments had a strong rhythm, with crisp, high-pitched sounds, and were very lively. Bursts of laughter mixing together with the light and sound of bamboo flutes conveyed the mood of the people. The celebratory music showed their happiness, stirring up the whole of Shanhai Village with the joy and happiness of the dance.

At the climax of the evening, Ouyang Shuo sang a modern version of ‘Luo Shen Fu1’:

_Luoshui River in the east, legends spread through ages, a paradise in human world._

_In the dreams I see, a woman of heaven, tripping lightly like a startled swan._

_Six dragons, carriage of clouds, carried her back to the high heavens, leavings tales behind._

_When the tales were told, people would say, it was a dream of Xiang King 2. _

_The dream ended, tears soaked towels, flowed down my cheeks._

_Her youth untouched by time, yet human and God have different path, only earrings stayed as souvenir._

_Wind blew and time flies, historians records and wondered the anonymous._

_When they ask today, what is this memorial temple, built in riverside?_

_An art of Goddess Luo, to ease and comfort my heart._

_The scent she left behind, her image in my mind._

_Wind blew and time flies, the universe turned from nothing into everything._

_What is love, only to drive human insane, and succumb goddess._

_An art of Goddess Luo, who still sings the poetry lines?_

_The river flows regardlessly._

The people of Shanhai Village, including Ouyang Shuo and General Shi, were all displaced people and destined to meet together. A simple bonfire party that reduced the pain of everyone’s displacement helped pull them together. The celebration helped cement the feeling that Shanhai Village was really their home now.

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for the success of the bonfire party! The villagers appreciate the hospitality of their Lord! Morale of your people has increased by 5 points!”

Ouyang Shuo really didn’t need to see the damn prompt from the system. He was immersed in the lively atmosphere of the party, and now it had reminded him that it was all only a game.

Unfortunately, it was now late into the night, so he returned back to his room, and logged off.

When he came out, it was already 9 AM. This time Bing’er had already gone to school on her own, and Sun Xiaoyue was naturally also long gone for class. He was too lazy to go downstairs to get breakfast, so he fried up two eggs and drank a glass of milk for a simple breakfast.

Opening his handbrain, he found that he had new email. Opening it up, he found that it was an invitation letter from his original junior high school. The letter had been sent by his class president Yuan Ping, who had invited him to a reunion party.

The gist of the letter was that since graduating from junior high, the class had not gotten together for a long time. During the Spring Festival this year, a class party was going to be held in Guifang Park. He was hoping that everyone arranged their own trip ahead of time, we must attend, etc. and so forth.

Thinking about it, it really had been seven or eight years since he had seen the rest of his class from junior high. Ouyang Shuo couldn’t even recall the names of many of them, the memories were already fuzzy.

At the time, if there was nothing particularly important going on, Ouyang Shuo decided that he would go and participate. After all, this was probably the only reunion they would have. A year later, they would be boarding a starship, and if they were going to ever meet again, it would be after many, many years.

Anyways, there was still some time until the Spring Festival, so it wasn’t worth worrying about. Opening up the game forums, Ouyang Shuo took a look at the trending posts of the other players.

At the top of the discussion posts, ‘Shanhai Village has broken the monopoly of the Six Tyrants of Handan, claiming the sixth promotion to Second grade Village in China!’

Ouyang Shuo browsed through the comments, dumbfounded at the mess, not knowing what to say.

1st poster: ‘I bet Qiyue Wiuyi is a secretive great family’s descendent!’

2nd poster: ‘Bet+1, bottom floor keep at it!’

3rd poster: ‘Invisible ass, the two above have seen too many novels!”

4th poster: ‘Top floor, Ithink he's just lucky!’

5th poster: ‘Qiyue Wuyi, people want to give birth to a kid for you!’

6th poster: ‘Upstairs is a dinosaur, identification finished!’

7th poster: ‘Mad Warrior of the World, recruiting members, if interested, please contact Mad Warrior quick quick!’

8th poster: ‘Upstairs advertising, pay for advertising, thank you!’

9th poster: ‘Mad Warrior of the World is a garbage guild, don’t be fooled by his recruitment!’

10th: ‘Upstairs, I want to kill you!’

The posts were completely crazy. Ouyang Shuo silently went elsewhere, ready to look at other popular posts. Not surprisingly, after Chun Shenjun, Zhan Lang had sent his trusted subordinate, Blood Wolf into the forum to publicly acquire more of the game currency.

Unfortunately, there was still no fixed market price. Didn’t he see Chun Shenjun’s financial director setting a purchase price at 2 credits for 1 copper?

Another post drew Ouyang Shuo’s attention. Among the Adventurers, someone had finally gotten a mercenary token, and set up the first mercenary group in the game - the Blood Evil mercenary group.

The head of the mercenary group was called Blood Romance, a level 21 chivalrous expert, currently #1 on the player ranks list. They were the first to set up a mercenary group, but still hadn’t received a system announcement in the game. This showcased Gaia’s preference for the players in the lord game mode.

Browsing a bit more, Ouyang Shuo found no other useful information, and closed the forum. It was time to start learning some history and recharge himself.

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

In the evening when Bing’er came back from school, she seemed a little resentful that her brother had not woke up in the morning to send her off to school. Ouyang Shuo had to pull out all the stops and make a few of her favorite dishes to alleviate her displeasure.

Sun Xiaoyue, seeing Ouyang Shuo placing such importance on logging into the game every day, was also very curious, and asked him, “Hey, this Earth Online game, is it really so fun? I asked around, and none of the students in my classes played that game!”

Ouyang Shuo smiled mysteriously. “This game’s greatest charms are how territory is constructed and its realism, not the kind of no-brainer leveling games that come without effort. Most people are not patient enough to play it. If conditions permit, I suggest you also learn to play it.”

Xiaoyue rolled her eyes. “Please! I’m not like you, able to spend 100,000 credits to buy a game cabin without batting an eye!”

Reluctantly, Ouyang Shuo could only tell her to this extent. If she did not listen, it was passing up her own good fortune. There was no way he could tell her about the truth of the game in his ‘past’. He had no proof to show her that there was a problem, even if she would believe him, nor could he explain how he would know such a thing. He certainly couldn’t tell her that he was reborn from the future!

To make up for not being there in the morning, Ouyang Shuo didn’t get on promptly at night, first helping Bing’er with her homework and reading a fairy tale to her at night. By the time he coaxed his little sister to sleep, it was already 10 PM.

For him, the game was important, but Bing’er was the most important. The game was only a means to success, but it was only meant to help his family. Often enough, people were confused by the appearance of things. Without being clear on means and purpose, people would lose themselves.

Moreover, Shanhai Village had established a complete organizational structure due to his efforts in promoting people. Even if he wasn’t there for a short period of time, his territory would still operate smoothly.

Once logged in, it was time to go out and go to work. Shuo went to the edge of the courtyard, teasing Blackfang.

The horses didn’t really like dogs, so Ouyang Shuo wasn’t assured to let the dog go running around. Usually, it was tied up in the yard. When he was free, he would hold onto it as he walked around the village. With nothing special to do today, Ouyang Shuo’s guilty conscience prompted him to take up Blackfang and visit the village.

Walking around the village and looking at houses that sprouted from the ground, Ouyang Shuo felt pleased and proud. This was the village that belonged entirely to him, and he’d led everyone out of the wilderness to establish it. It had started from zero, starting from the first log put down.

The villagers loved him and were grateful to him for providing shelter to them out here in the wilds. His subordinates respected him, admiring his foresight, and were grateful that they could make use of his knowledge to perform on a higher level than their own skills and talents would allow.

Along the way, the villagers seeing him would smile and bow to him. Ouyang Shuo didn’t act arrogant, and would stop to chat, asking them if there were any problems he didn’t know about. If there were difficulties, they had to be shared, to better help everyone solve them!

Last night’s bonfire party was obviously on everyone’s mind, especially Yingyu’s beautiful Lingbo dance and the momentum of General Shi’s sword dance. Of course, there was also their Lord’s singing; it wasn’t bad, but the tone had been a little strange, as if people were listening to some foreign music.

When he came into the village, he saw that Zhao Dewang was overseeing the building of the first arrow tower with a construction crew. General Shi was standing to the side, studying the work. The General obviously had a great deal more authority in the building of the tower than Secretary Elder Dexian did as he knew more about it. Seeing Ouyang Shuo coming, the two of them quickly came over.

General Shi’s voice was, as ever, quite loud. “Lord!” he nearly shouted.

Zhao Dewang followed behind him, greeting promptly, “Sire!”

Shuo waved away formalities, still in a very good mood. With a smile at Dewang he said, “No need to stand on ceremony. Secretary Dewang has been busy, truly worthy of praise!”

Zhao Dewang still held the title of deputy director of construction, and was naturally intent on proving himself through deeds. His fear that he was not doing well and that his lord was about to criticize him was put to rest, soothing his heart. Modestly he said, “I dare not claim the credit. The reason this tower could be built so smoothly is thanks to General Shi’s advice. Without his guidance, we would not know where to start!”

General Shi was not one to know modesty. Smiling to the side, he said proudly, “This is not that difficult, this is the simplest of arrow towers. I used to lead men in war; those kinds of siege towers were much more powerful!”

General Shi turned and looked at Ouyang Shuo. “My lord, my last observation of the terrain tells me that we should build a tower at each corner of our fence to enhance the village’s defensive power. Unfortunately, there are not enough bows and arrows, nor ways to train the rookie recruits in them.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded slightly, and looked back to Zhao Dewang. “According to General Shi’s words, have the Construction Division coordinate arrangements.”

Zhao Dewang hurriedly said that within two days he could have all of the towers built. Ouyang Shuo nodded his head, and with no more reason to stay, turned to head back to his courtyard, holding onto Blackfang.

_1 Luo Shen Fu _洛神赋 _: An ancient China poem from the era of the late Three Kingdoms._

_2 Dream of Xiang King _ 襄王梦 _: An ancient China romance story about a king and goddess._

*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes

*[12.47 to 13.07]: don't ask me about the tree sap

Chapter 19- Beginner

Ouyang Shuo headed back to the Lord’s Manor, tying Blackfang back up before he entered the office. Just as he sat down, Gu Xiuwen, his clerk and household registrar, came in with two tall men.

One of the men was about thirty years old, and unarmed. He had an evenly spaced face, wide and open under his thick eyebrows, with a pair of shrewd, deep eyes flashing as they looked him over. He had an extremely developed physique, particularly in his shoulders and arms.

The other man was in his early twenties, armed with a spear, and with a knife at his waist. His face was exceptionally attractive, with carved facial features looking like a sculptor had carved them, definitely a lady’s man.

Giu Xiuwen asked Ouyang Shuo about his well-being, and introduced the two men. “Sire, these two heroes are two special talents that have just arrived in the village. They are a pair of brothers. This good man is Lin Yue, excellent at unarmed combat, an Advanced Martial Arts instructor. His good brother is a Basic Officer called Lin Yi.”

The Lins took the opportunity to come forward, theirs hands clasped, bowing slightly. “Lin Yue (Lin Yi) pays respects to the lord!”

An Advanced Martial Guru and a Basic Officer? Ouyang Shuo was definitely interested in this, and was pleased to respond. “Two heroes, welcome, welcome! Today we welcome two very talented men, it is Shanhai Village’s fortune!” He gestured for them to sit before proceeding. “Since both of you have such great skill, will you be willing to fight for our army?”

Hearing this, the younger man, Lin Yi, revealed an eager expression, obviously quite willing to do so. But the older brother was quiet, not showing his inner thoughts. Seeing the older brother not displaying anything, Ouyang Shuo suppressed his emotions inside. Obviously this wasn’t an easy man to win over, and Ouyang Shuo nodded in approval.

Lin Yue hesitated a moment, then spoke slowly. “Your lordship, I will not lie to you. I have the ability to teach fist fighting and some footwork, but I am not suitable for the military. I suffered a serious injury in the past, and its effects haunt me still, I fear I could not live up to your expectations. My brother, although stubborn, is also skilled in martial arts. If the lord is willing, he can be set up in your army, and some strict discipline will be good for him. He will serve you well for both of us.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded slightly. This Lin Yue was an honest man through and through, he’s not just a simple instructor. At this moment, Ouyang Shuo wasn’t going to delve deeper into his history. “Master Lin has an illness in his body, it would not be good to force you. The village has an advanced doctor, I will ask him to render a diagnosis and treatment for you. In addition, the village is about to establish a martial arts dojo. When you have the time, I will have to ask Master Lin to sit down with the villagers and arrange classes to teach martial arts to them. This will help them get more physically fit and would let everyone learn some self-defense. With the wilderness nearby, a little protection could go a long way! I hope that Master Lin will not refuse my request!”

For such a noble purpose, Lin Yue could naturally not decline. Moreover, the establishment of a dojo was exactly in line with his desires. “I thank the Lord for his consideration, I would not dare to disappoint you!” He replied quickly.

Ouyang Shuo laughed, and then said, “As for Younger brother Lin, I think you will be excellent material for the militia group’s leader! I think that with your ability, you will fulfill my trust!”

Master Lin again bowed. “Thank you, lord! We will not disappoint you!”

Ouyang Shuo took the opportunity to check the stats of the two brothers.

Name: Lin Yue (silver)

Identity: Shanhai Villager

Occupation: Advanced Martial Arts Instructor

Loyalty: 75 points

Feature: Proficient in Fist Fighting (Enhances the Fist Martial Arts of the territory by 10%)

Evaluation: Mysterious origin, once a famous fighter. Due to residual injuries, forced to leave.

-------

Name: Lin Yi (black iron)

Identity: Shanhai Village Militia Third Sergeant

Occupation: Basic Officer

Loyalty: 75 points

Command: 30

Force: 40

Intelligence: 20

Political: 15

Internal Power: Lin Family Spearmanship (a total of twelve types)

Equipment: Fine Iron Spear, Belt Knife

Evaluation: Has studied the art of war, practices spearmanship. However, his temperament is unruly and unconventional.

The brothers were definitely a bit different from one another. Master Lin was evaluated by the system as a fist style master, helping to raise the fist fighting ability of the entire territory. Such an ability was simply a great help for the whole village.

Ouyang Shuo guessed that if he could cure Master Lin’s injuries, he would become at least a Master Martial Arts Instructor. For this, he could only lay his hopes on Dr. Song and pray, but he didn’t have high hopes as he didn't think an advanced doctor would be able to solve the problem.

Lin Yi was definitely not so simple, either. Although only a black iron character, he came with his own technique and equipment. He had great potential and opportunity for growth. Putting him in the army under the command of General Shi and with a little luck in the future, he would become a major asset.

Through these last few days, Ouyang Shuo had slowly noticed that the system seemed to have revised its rules for generating immigrants. First, the closer to the start, such as an upgrade or starting the village, the more likely it was for the system to bring in some special talent. If the village had reached the required special talents to upgrade, the system would basically just send more farmers his way and rarely would there be special talents.

Another thing he’d noticed was that as the characteristics of the village rose it could also attract higher level talents from time to time. One must know that a grade 1 village focused on basic elementary talents and Shanhai Village already had three high class advanced talents.

If the other lords knew this, they’d die from envy. For a lot of lords, an intermediate talent was not something they have yet, advanced talents were just utterly ridiculous luxuries.

Their welcome meeting finished, Ouyang Shuo told Gu Xiuwen to arrange comfortable accommodations for Master Lin. He would take younger Lin to the barracks. As a basic officer, Lin Yi did not need to change his class.

The fundamental difference between a soldier and an officer was the number of troops they could command. According to the military system, a soldier could only be promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, leading a platoon of 50 soldiers.

With 10 platoons, 500 soldiers, an unit is formed, led by a major, which requires at least a basic officer.

Five units formed a regiment, a total of 2500 soldiers, led by a colonel, which requires at least an intermediate officer.

Five regiments formed a division, with another 1000 people under the major general, for a total of 13,500 people, which required a advanced officer.

4 divisions formed a legion, with 10,000 people under the commanding general, a total of 55,000 people. This was a massive army, and only special officers could possibly command them. If you put a number of legion together in an army group, then only a lord or lord-appointed marshal could do the job.

Therefore later on, the demand for officers in any territory would be very high. It was unrealistic to hope that your officers would be of great quality, if you didn’t have the forces to attract them to service...unless there was a powerful territorial draw such as Shanhai Village, a gold-level village.

Most officers were being class changed from soldiers. The Intermediate Class Barracks’ Class Change Chamber could transform level 10 militia into rank 1 soldiers. The soldiers had 9 ranks to climb. Ranks 1 to 3 were normal soldiers, 4 to 6 were the veterans, and 7 to 9 were elite soldiers.

Ordinary soldiers need to advance all the way to rank 9 elites, before they could go through an Advanced Barracks’ Class Change Chamber and change into Basic Officers.

It was because of this that Ouyang Shuo was paying so much attention to Lin Yi. When the two of them came to the barracks, General Shi had just came back. After Lin Yi had reported to his new commander and spoken of his history, Ouyang Shuo was ready to leave.

General Shi stopped him suddenly, saying seriously, “Lord, I have something to report!”

Ouyang Shuo stopped, a little puzzled, and asked, “Oh? What’s happened?”

“One of the scouts had just reported back to me. They just came back from patrol, and when they scouted the territory, they accidentally discovered a raider camp!”

Ouyang Shuo was momentarily surprised by this development. Raider and bandit, the two scourges of the wilderness. “Had the patrol alerted them?” He asked urgently.

General Shi shook his head, saying, “They were not alerted. The patrol was led by San Gouzi, and they were quite clever. They saw the camp from afar, and have set down to monitor the larger force from a distance, sending a runner to return here and report!”

“Excellent, they have done well, and we must be careful! With our strength now, without knowing the strength of the enemy, we must maintain calm and restraint. General, find out two things, the size of the enemy and their general strength. If necessary, go there personally. The other thing you need to do is to seize the opportunity to pick troops for the militia as rapidly as possible. The selection of the troops will be our main priority in preparing for this fight. I will communicate with secretaries of the village to make sure this is done,” Ouyang Shuo said with great caution.

General Shi was very excited, loudly saying, “Please rest assured that the patrol will return tonight to their camp. I would like to see what ability these raiders have.”

Since General Shi was going to personally act, Ouyang Shuo was at ease. The discovery of this temporary camp could actually be a good thing for the territory. He could train up the militia team. Killing the bandits will help them level up faster than killing monsters. After destroying them, there was a high likelihood of getting some much-needed building blueprints!

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

The next day, Ouyang Shuo came online and hurriedly called General Shi into his office, eager to inquire about the results of the investigation the night before.

General Shi’s ability was high, and last night he had snuck directly into the camp of the enemy, carrying out a detailed scouting mission. “My lord, here is the summary report. The whole camp numbers about a hundred people. The fighting population numbers about 60, the rest are some women and children.”

“The fighting force is divided into 3 categories. 1st is the ordinary bandits, poorly equipped, and unmounted, their strength is about equal to our militia.

“The 2nd category is the elite bandits, well-equipped, with bows, spears, and horses. From looking at their stables, I estimate there are about twenty of these elites.

“The 3rd category is their leader. There is one commander with a lieutenant, the strength of their leader is about equal to that of Lin Yi from yesterday.”

Ouyang Shuo’s face turned solemn and said, “The strength of this group of bandits was beyond my expectations. Even the ordinary bandits were as strong as our militia. In a head-on fight, I am afraid we will suffer greatly. The elite bandits with bows and arrows are, for us, a greater threat. It seems that this time we will need to be clever, and not simply storm them.”

General Shi said with some disapproval, as if admitting to cowardice, “This is the end of my report, but I do not agree. These bandits are nothing in my eyes. If I drove into their camp, I could likely kill more than half of them…”

Ouyang Shuo smiled wryly back at him. “My brave general, I know this. However, as the saying goes, the ants can also kill the elephant. You going alone is far too risky. If you failed, it would not be worth the loss. Although you have the courage, the militia team, with their simple equipment, cannot help you in such a fight.”

General Shi smiled. “Then, by the lord’s meaning, how should we do this?”

Ouyang Shuo calmly and confidently said, “At this stage, the most important thing is to accumulate the militia’s team training and whip them into shape. We will keep the status quo and quietly accumulate strength, wait until the right time, and strike! Of course, we need to keep up our surveillance, and alert the others. Let us make arrangements for the staff in case the bandits move. In addition, we need to get the defenses of the village working, so as to avoid any accidents!”

“Yes!” Finished with the meeting, General Shi promptly left to arrange the defense of the village.

Chapter 20 - Breakthrough

Shortly after General Shi had departed, Cui Yingyu entered Ouyang Shuo’s office. Ouyang Shuo smiled and asked her to sit down, laughing and saying, “You seem to have come with a purpose?”

He said that for a reason. It turned out that Yingyu was a workaholic. As this was not a modern society where such things were common, she had to be a very strong woman to take on a role like this.

“Big brother, even you are making fun of me. I am working so hard, all for the sake of big brother’s territory.” Yingyu’s face turned red as she pouted at his teasing.

Ouyang Shuo quickly apologized, and hurriedly said in a coaxing manner to avoid her embarrassment, “Ok,ok. Don’t be angry. What’s the progress on the basic mining field over there?”

He had to be careful of the atmosphere. Yingyu was effectively his little sister, and trusted him implicitly, the most out of all his staff. Being the target of his teasing was very embarrassing. She had come here to report on her work, and now it had become so awkward that she didn't know where to start. Seeing that Ouyang Shuo started to talk about business, she sighed with relief.

She collected herself, calmly reporting, “3 days ago, I found the blacksmith, Master Lee, and asked him to take people to start looking for mining areas. Yesterday, they finally reported back that in the southwest of the territory, at the foot of the mountain, they found an open iron ore field. It is not only large in area, but it also has rich amounts of ore, and should be very easy to collect. Some of the ore is directly exposed to the air, and can simply be lifted out of the ground to collect it.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded happily at this information. “This is good news. Although the demand for iron in the territory is not great as of yet, as soon as we start making weapons, the demand will surge. With a good open field mine, we will not have to worry about iron ore for a long time. Have you managed to find any talents familiar with mining?”

“The main reason I came here today is to tell Big Brother that among the new immigrants there is an experienced intermediate miner called Yuan Shaoping. I suggest that he be put in charge of the operations for the new basic mining field.”

Ouyang Shuo replied without the slightest hesitation, “Yes! Bring him along, no problem, then appoint him as the foreman of the field, assigned under your Material Reserve Division.”

Touched by his trust, Yingyu smiled, “Thank you for your trust, brother, hee hee!”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, smiled and said, “You are my little sister, I trust your ability and vision implicitly, just do not be too hard on yourself.”

Yingyu replied softly, between the two of them, they became a lot closer.

Waiting until Yingyu had left, Ouyang Shuo didn’t want to stay in the office. It was time, he thought, to take a look at the carpenter’s workshop.

Since the had been given to the carpenter Lu Guangzhi, Ouyang Shuo had no idea if he had studied it, or if there had been progress. The pointer chariot could be very useful in the first war, which was happening soon, so he wanted to get it into production quickly!

The carpenter’s workshop was built on the central street of the commercial area, next to the blacksmith shop. Ouyang Shuo walked into the woodshop. Master Lu was working with two apprentices, working around a wooden carriage.

Ouyang Shuo was surprised for a moment. Understanding the manual was not easy and he had actually made the pointer carriage so quickly? This was too much! One must know that this was a difficult technology to get working.

The ancient south-pointing chariots made use of differential gears in comparison to modern day compasses, which made use of geomagnetic forces. The carriage used a gear transmission system according to the rotation of the wheels to indicate the direction of the car. No matter where the car turned, the wooden hand always pointed to the south, so it was easy to use to determine the direction the carriage should go in.

One of the apprentices looked up and saw Ouyang Shuo. He quickly alerted his master who was staring fixedly at the carriage.

Lu Guangzhi recovered, hastily bowed in salute, and fearfully said, “I was too focused and have neglected my lord, and will accept his punishment!”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, and simply said, “Master Lu is fanatic about his work, truly worthy of the admiration of everyone as someone to learn from! What is wrong with that?”

Carpenter Master Lu smiled embarrassingly, and said, “My lord has seen an embarrassing situation!”

Ouyang Shuo did not want to get tangled up with modest manners, and pointed directly to the wooden carriage. “If I am not guessing wrong, this should be the pointer carriage described in the technical manual? I did not expect that in just a few days Master Lu would make such incredible progress!”

Listening to Ouyang Shuo’s praise, the man’s dark face instantly reddened even further. Sounding quite shameful, he said, “I am ashamed, and not worthy of the Lord’s praise. We have worked these last days in accordance with the book records, trying to make the pointer carriage. It is a pity that this carriage does not truly point south like the directions in the book say it should.”

Ouyang Shuo abruptly realized that this was just a test product, which made it much more realistic. “It is not necessary for you to be ashamed, Master Lu. As far as I know, this pointer carriage is a very sophisticated instrument, and even with a technical manual to reference, it will not take just a short time to grasp how it is made. Anyway, there is still time, and you do not have to be depressed, ashamed, or anxious at all. Master Lu, study this slowly, and perhaps you can use this opportunity to upgrade your carpenter level.”

Master Lu’s face was a little pale, and he said gratefully, “I thank the Lord for his trust. I will certainly seize the time to study, and try to make a true pointer carriage as soon as possible and repay lord’s kindness!”

“Then I am relieved. You are busy, so I will stop bothering you and take my leave!”

Walking out of the woodshop, Ouyang Shuo simply turned and walked into the blacksmith shop next door. To tell the truth, he hadn’t paid much attention to Li Tiezhu, the basic blacksmith. The reason was simple: the blacksmith wasn’t able to make weapons or armor. At best he could make arrowheads, and not even the more complex broadheads.

Because military goods were not allowed to be sold in the Market, Lord players could only obtain weapons and equipment in 3 ways. The first kind was the most simple, and that was when the military camp gave out a basic set of weapons and armor. This was done when upgrading soldiers, such as when farmers were upgraded into militia, and given leather armor and a spear.

The system provided the set mostly to avoid the embarrassment of a naked soldier, and could only be regarded as the most basic equipment. Of course, the shortcomings of this ‘gift’ were very apparent. The ‘free’ weapons and equipment were of very low quality and broke or were destroyed easily.

The second way to get military goods was to smuggle them in from the big cities, working with the big businessmen. As long as the payment was worth the risk, the deep background of those cartels would take the risk. They would arrange a private shipment overland, escort it all the way, and ship it directly to your territory.

This was certainly not easy to do. First you had to contact the cartels, which required upgrading the Basic Market to the Advanced Market, which would open the 4th platform of the market - the negotiated cooperative trading platform. The smuggling of weapons and equipment was extremely high in pricing, and if you weren’t rich, you simply couldn’t afford it. Even casually smuggling something in could bring the territory close to bankruptcy.

Those cartels were anything but generous, and were in fact greedy vampires. They risked losing everything, taking the risk of shipping everything to the territory, so if they didn’t earn five, seven, or ten times the profit, they wouldn’t be satisfied. Even worse, the cartels only sold the products, they were not responsible for maintenance. After-sales service was not something they even talked about.

The last way was to build your own military industry. Once he had his own military industry, naturally he didn’t need to be subject to the whims of others. It was all on him how much he wanted to and how much he would be able to produce.

Although this approach looked good, it was the most difficult of the 3 paths. Why? Because weapons and equipment were prohibited items, any type of advanced weapon required the appropriate technical manual to build. For things like the famous Northern and Southern Mingguang armor, you needed the to make it.

In general, technical manuals like that were not available in the Basic Market. There was only only place to buy them. It meant upgrading to the Intermediate Market, and the opening of the third platform - the limited time auction platform. The game would hold time limited auctions at a regular basis on that platform. During those events, there would usually be some rare items.

In the past, most of the technical manuals for weapons and equipment had come out of the auction. Ouyang Shuo clearly remembered when the first auction had been held in his past - at the beginning of the third month. That was also the day of the official opening of the credit points and game currency trading platform.

Back to reality, Ouyang Shuo’s plan to start weapon workshops really required an advanced blacksmith to manage them. Therefore, he didn’t have any expectations of Basic Master Li. So, he did not expect that with a simple visit to the smithy, Master Li would give him a surprise.

The burly blacksmith, upon seeing Ouyang Shuo, said happily, “Haha, such a coincidence! I was preparing to look for sire, and did not expect sire to come!”

“Oh? I did not know that Master Li needed to find me, what news do you have for me?” Seeing the usually calm and capable blacksmith looking so excited, Ouyang Shuo was a little surprised.

“Yesterday afternoon, when I was building a plow for a farmer, I made a natural breakthrough in my bottleneck, and was officially promoted to Intermediate Blacksmith.”

Listening to him say that, Ouyang Shuo immediately thought of the gold level characteristic of his territory, namely the one that increased the proficiency rate of skilled residents by 20%, and increased the chance to break through promotional bottlenecks by 10%. He had not expected it to so quickly play a role in the village, and sure enough it was quite powerful.

“Oh, then I really must congratulate Master Li! I would like to ask, when you broke through, did you have any kind of special feeling?”

“I feel that my smithing skills have improved greatly. Before, a problem that might have confused me now seems as simple as up and down, just as if I had been enlightened by the heavens.” About his own breakthrough, Master Li himself seemed to be more than a little surprised.

“Well, no matter what, this is a good thing. Master Li can now try to build some arrowheads and spears, and the territory will make use of them!”

Pleased to be able to build weapons, Master Li was honored to be given this duty. After a brief accounting of his needs, Ouyang Shuo left the blacksmith shop.

Chapter 21 - To the Raider’s Camp

Gaia Year 1,1st month, the 20th day.

At the military camp school, fifty militia had been assembled in their teams. Standing on the temporarily erected platform, Ouyang Shuo began the pre-battle mobilization.

“Soldiers, I, the Lord of Shanhai Village, am addressing you! Five days ago, a raider’s camp was found within our territory! Our enemies, they are numerous and well equipped! We have fewer soldiers and our weapons are not as good. If you are afraid, stand up now, and you won't have to go.

“My soldiers, remember this! Since the moment you entered the barracks, you were no longer farmers tied to the earth, you severed your ties to your past! Who are you? You are the specially selected warriors of Shanhai, and the mission of soldiers is to defend their territory! Now, the villagers are looking at you, their children are watching you! Will you be worms or dragons, it all depends on this battle! Are you afraid!?”

“Not afraid!” All of the militia shouted back together, none of them were cowards.

“Do you have the confidence to win?”

“We have!”

“Very good! We shall begin!”

Under the leadership of General Shi, the militia left the barracks in an orderly manner. In four days’ time, the militia team had not only been fully recruited, but all of them had also been brought to the max level of 10. Ouyang Shuo had also gone out with them to train, and his level had also reached 14.

Just this morning, the soldiers who were responsible for monitoring the raider’s camp had relayed some information. Today, early in the morning, the two leaders of the raiders had taken twelve elite raiders and twenty ordinary raiders and led them out to go plundering. All of a sudden, the forces of the raider’s camp were cut in half. Faced with such a good opportunity, Ouyang Shuo naturally wasn’t going to let it go. Immediately, he called together the full militia, and went to the raider’s camp straightaway.

Of course, even with so many people gone, the raider’s camp was still comparable in strength to the militia team. In order to reduce his casualties, Ouyang Shuo knew that he would have to use some tactics. He planned to have San Gouzi lead a militia squad, pretending to be migrants, and lure some of the raiders out of the camp. The rest of the militia would wait in ambush by a small hill three kilometers from the camp.

Half an hour later, the militia reached the ambush site, quickly moving into position. Ouyang Shuo waved San Gouzi forwards, patted his shoulder, and said, “Don’t get close enough to be chased down by their cavalry! Remember, don’t get too close, they can see everyone who approaches within a thousand meters.”

San Gouzi was one of the fastest and most clever of the militia. At this time, not only was he not afraid, but was very excited. “Sire, rest assured. At being a bait, I am great at it, heh heh!”

Ouyang Shuo kicked him, smiled, and said, “Brat, see if you can do it, get out of here!”

San Gouzi gave him a big smile before setting off with the other nine disguised militia. They first had to make a big detour off to the side, and then pretend to be coming from the opposite direction so it looked they were coming out of the wild. Otherwise, it would be too easy to reveal their origins. The bandits could survive in the wilderness, and therefore they would not be suckered out easily. Planning for the attack while thinking the enemy leader was a fool, that would be really stupid.

Twenty minutes later, San Gouzi’s squad came within a thousand meters of the raider’s camp, and entered the field of vision of the sentry on duty. The sentry looked at the small group of displaced people, and did not think much of it. He quickly went down to report that there was a line of ten small fat sheep that had walked into their hands, not far from the camp.

The camp’s great leader was busy enjoying a woman, and hearing that it was only ten people, he impatiently snapped, “Go away. This is not worth my time. Tell Zhao Liu to go deal with them.”

That Zhao Liu was an elite raider, and after receiving the order, looked very excited. He led four other raiders on horseback and they rode out of the camp.

San Gouzi was clever, getting just within range of the raider’s camp before stopping a thousand meters out. Pretending to recognize what the camp really was, with panicked looks, the whole squad turned and ran.

Zhao Liu, seeing the frightened appearance of the small mob, laughed. Not only did he not race to catch up quickly, but he slowed down, unhurriedly catching up to San Gouzi. He was ready to play a game of cat and mouse, and get his fun out of this group of fragile victims.

Soon enough, the two groups of people became visible to Ouyang Shuo. He could see the joking expression on Zhao Liu’s face, and thought to himself, You bastard who thinks he controls life and death, you will pay for your arrogance with your blood.

When the raiders were a hundred meters from the hillside, the militia rushed out of hiding as they sprang their ambush. Everyone was in a unified formation, both hands on their javelins as they rushed together and threw it to the raiders.

General Shi was standing off to the side, bow and arrow in his hand, Shou! General Shi’s arrow shot Zhao Liu down off his horse. The raiders had no time to react before they were pierced by the militia’s 40 javelins like hedgehogs.

With their first battle victory naturally came a surge of morale. Ouyang Shuo arranged Lin Yi to take some people and clean up the booty, and make sure all of the raiders were dead.

Because everyone used their javelins directly against the raiders, only one of the five horses was wounded. In addition to the horses, the most useful loot were the five bows. Ouyang Shuo took a look at their stats.

Name: Ordinary Horse (black iron level)

Weight: 50 kg

Speed: 30 km / day

Consumption: 3 units of grain / day

Evaluation: This barely qualifies as a warhorse.

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Name: Ordinary Wooden Bow (black iron level)

Length: 1.2 meters

Range: 150 meters

Evaluation: A single stave shortbow made of Manchurian Ash Wood, with deer tendons for a bow string. Don’t hope for a lot of power out of it.

Ouyang Shuo immediately arranged for the five horses to be brought back to the village by two militiamen. The five bows were quickly passed to the five sergeants. Unfortunately, except for Lin Yi and Zhang Daniu, who both knew basic archery, none of the others had ever touched a bow before.

Quickly cleaning up the battlefield, Shuo’s force did not dawdle and immediately went straight to the base camp. Ouyang Shuo took full advantage of the fact that the camp did not have time to react before their attack arrived. With his timing, the balance of strength had been tilted. There had been twenty elite raiders. Twelve had left, five had already died, what were left in the camp had at most 3 elite raiders, they would not cause much concerns anymore.

Before the fight, Ouyang Shuo quietly told General Shi to let Lin Yi deal with the raider camp leader after the fighting started. General’s Shi’s main duty was to use his bow and kill any surviving elites, then cover the militia during the fight, to cut down on the number of casualties.

Three hundred meters from the camp, General Shi, riding on his horse, took his bow and directly shot down the two sentries. Taking the opportunity, Ouyang Shuo ordered the larger force to move forward quickly, rushing into the raider’s camp. Finding outsiders rushing into their camp before they could gather together, the people inside immediately panicked.

General Shi rushed to the front, simply a humanoid killing machine, no one could oppose him. Stimulated by his example, the morale of the militia reached a peak. With General Shi leading them, they had no fear of the ordinary bandits. In contrast, reeling under the sudden attack on their camp and General’s Shi’s unstoppable aura, the bandits’ morale plummeted.

At that point, the bandit lieutenant finally got his armor on, and carrying a big axe, rushed out into the fighting. Lin Yi took one look at him, without further orders from Ouyang Shuo, directly charged up to the raider and engaged him.

The two were fairly evenly matched, but one had an axe, and the other was dancing with a spear. It was the old saying, an inch of reach is an inch closer to death. Seeing the two fighting, it was obvious to see what the ending would be. In less than twenty rounds, Lin Yi seized on a flaw in the other’s form, and as fast as lightning pierced the big raider through the center of his chest.

Seeing their leader slain by Lin Yi, the other bandits tried to break off from the fighting, scatter, and flee. Unfortunately, the camp was not large, and there was nowhere to run. The sergeants along with their squads hunted them down one by one and killed them. As for the three elite raiders, they had long been killed by General Shi.

The fighting started quickly and ended quickly. After the battle, the militia team had two seriously injured, and 12 slightly injured. Fortunately, no one had died. The two who were seriously injured, even if healed, could probably never fight on the battlefield again. Ouyang Shuo could only reluctantly arrange for them to retire. The twelve who had minor injuries, after applying some metal-laceration medicine, and a few days of rest, they would be fine.

Through the destruction of the raider’s camp, Ouyang Shuo’s level rose like a rocket directly to 18. He took the opportunity to look at his own stats.

Name: Qiyue Wuyi

Title: Celebrity (Good impression on historical figures +10%)

Territory: Shanhai Village

Merit: 1300/1600

Title: Third Viscount

Occupation: Officer (part-time)

Level: 18 (652100/723860)

Reputation: Well known (1200/10000)

Body Structure: 18

Comprehension: 20

Luck: 5

Charm: 8

Command: 26

Force: 8

Intelligence: 8

Political: 26

Talent: Locked

Technique: None

Skills: Intermediate Collection, Basic Shipbuilding, Basic Diplomacy, Basic Assessment, Basic Weapons Proficiency, Basic Riding, Basic Marksmanship, Basic Archery

Mount: Poor Horse (bronze)

Equipment: Poor Iron Spear(bronze), Ring of Courage (black iron level)

While Shao was looking at his stats, General Shi directed the clean-up of the battlefield. In the game, NPC’s would not resurrect, and their bodies would not stick around very long.

Usually when an NPC died, their body would stay around an hour or so. During this time period, if someone were to take care of the corpse, they could be buried in a cemetery. Otherwise, their fate would be the same as these bodies, eventually turning all white and disappearing. This reflected a user-friendly design in the game. Otherwise, with thousands of the slain after a war in the late game, it would be pretty gory.

With the capture of the raider’s camp, the amount of plunder seized was plentiful, but he didn’t have the statistics at the moment. The other thing in the camp was the number of women and children, who Ouyang Shuo prepared to bring back to his village. There were 32 women and 3 children, total number of 35.

These women and children were basically kidnapped by the raiders and taken to serve them. These people could not only quickly supplement his territory’s population, but also improve the structure of the population to a certain extent.

In the early days of the system, most of the incoming immigrants were men. The system logically ruled that for the migrants, naturally the more powerful adult men would be able to survive more easily. Most of the elderly, weak women, and children could not survive the wilderness.

As for bringing these women back to the village, it wasn’t to force them to marry and have children. Ouyang Shuo was not going to intervene in such matters, everything would be determined by the villagers themselves. As a lord, what he could do was ensure that they were not discriminated against in his lands, while also making sure of their personal safety and freedom.

Chapter 22 - The Fate of the Raider Camp

Editor:ryangohsff

By 11 AM in the morning, they’d finished clearing the entire battlefield.

The raider’s weapons and equipment were all collected, including the horses in the stables, the material stored in warehouses, and even various personal possessions in the dwellings were plundered clean.

Shuo really did need the money, he had 10 silver coins left only because Lin Yi hadn’t needed to use the barracks to class change. Encountering such a nice bit of plunder gave free rein to his miserly nature. Even if he had to dig three feet down into the soil, he wasn’t going to let a copper coin get away!

Shuo first called over Lin Yi and Zhang Daniu, telling them to take their men, the wounded, and the women, children, and goods they’d seized and escort them back to Shanhai Village. The wounded were to be handed over to Dr. Song for treatment, and the women and children placed under the guidance of clerk Gu Xiuwen. As for the resources, they would first go to Secretary of Material Reserves Cui Yingyu for a detailed breakdown, which he could look into after he returned.

After they departed with the goods and prisoners, Shuo immediately took the rest of the men back to the Raider Camp. Shuo had definitely not forgotten that a group of raiders had gone out and not returned yet. Without making a clean sweep, how could he be assured of eliminating the problem they poised?

Shuo made some quick calculations. In addition to himself and General Shi, there were 36 militia left behind. Given the size of the remaining raider force, there might be some difficulties.

That group of bandits had 12 elites! He would have to use some schemes. Oh, wrong choice of words, it was time to use some wisdom and tactics!

Shuo told the militia team to quickly take advantage of the the time they had and restore the camp to its original appearance. He was perfectly ready to give the returning raiders a feeling of safety, just before he used an urn to catch a turtle, trapping the bandits in their own camp.

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

They had to wait until 6 PM, the usual time the bandits returned. His people had to stay in a tight group near the main gate and camp square; they had set their trap, and were getting more impatient as time passed. The gang of raiders finally returned, not only with their own numbers, but with a dozen kidnapped women herded in the center of their group. It seemed they had once again found and washed another unfortunate village with blood.

The gang of raiders rode right into the camp before they finally realized that something wasn't right. They hadn’t seen the sentries, and the camp was way too quiet. They finally figured out something was wrong, but even if they wanted to leave, it wasn’t that easy. They were unwilling to just run, they had to at least figure out what happened here. Moreover, their money and personal belongings were hidden in the camp!

The fools rushed in. Relying on their strength and tactics they had used in the past, the bandits drew their blades and moved into the camp, gathered together into formations, moving slowly forwards.

After entering, the raider’s second leader was also alert, trying to keep everyone together. Unfortunately for them, Shuo had cleaned the camp well, and on the surface, they didn’t find anything strange. Not believing it, he told his men to dismount, spread out, look around and see if they could find any clues.

And with that decision, the nightmare of the raiders began. Having lost the advantage of both horses and archery, they were picked off one by one. The militia stayed in their fighting units, surrounding smaller groups and eliminating them quickly. The raider’s leader was left for General Shi and Lin Yi to deal with, and naturally the general once again became a source of dread for the raiders .

Compared to the battle in the morning, this one had no suspense at all. In less than half an hour, all thirty-three bandits were eliminated. After the blood and fire of the morning’s fight, the militia had been exposed to the battlefield and adjusted mentally, becoming much more experienced in their mindset. In the battle, only four people were injured, none of those were serious injuries, and there were zero casualties. Shuo’s level also directly rose to 20.

Because it was already late, Shuo told his men to quickly sweep the battlefield. He himself came to the center of the camp, its Hall of Brotherhood. In the hall, a stone had risen from the ground. Shuo stepped forward and put his hand on the stone, system prompts began to sound.

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wiyu for destroying a Basic Raider Camp! Please choose what you would like to do with the camp; Acquire it, Transfer it, or Destroy it?”

“I choose to destroy it!” Transfering it was impossible at this point, and there was no value in possessing it right now given his plans for his territory, so the only choice left was to destroy it.

“System Notification: Player Qiyue Wiyu has destroyed the Basic Raider Camp, randomly gaining access to 20% of camp’s building blueprints, and access to 20% of the camp’s building resources.”

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for gaining Stables building blueprints, Martial Arts Dojo building blueprints, 200 units of wood, and 80 units of stone.”

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for destroying a Basic Raider Camp. Special reward of 100 merit points and 200 reputation points!”

A white light swirled across the screen in a flash, and the whole camp disappeared. At the same time, the two building plans had appeared in his storage bag, while on the ground where the clubhouse used to be was now a pile of stacked wood and stones.

The sweep of the battlefield was much simpler than earlier, they only needed to salvage the raiders armor, weapons, and the twelve horses. Oh, and eleven women. Such a great thing, the raiders camp had actually contributed 46 people to Shanhai’s population, the equivalent of three days of immigrants!

As for the pile of wood and stone, at this moment Shuo had no resources for specialized storage of large equipment. He could only wait for tomorrow, and send people from the Material Reserves Division to arrange transporting it all back to Shanhai.

By the time they walked back to Shanhai with all their loot, it was already 8 PM. The villagers had spontaneously gathered to meet them, waiting for the return of the raider-slaying heroes.

“Hey, I heard that the lord directly destroyed those thieving raiders’ camp, he is magnificent!”

“I remember that the raiders used to loot our village, and now the lord has killed them all, cutting them down like radishes!”

“Our militia team was great, they did not bring shame to our Shanhai Village, they fought well!”

“Right, I heard that their boss was stabbed to death by Lieutenant Lin Yi!”

“Your information is out of date! Both leaders were killed by the lieutenant!

Because the time was late, Shuo had everyone disperse early. The militia handed their loads over to Material Reserves Division and was asked to return to the barracks. The eleven women were to be dealt with by Gu Xiuwen. Shuo didn’t stay for long either, he had some quick conversations with Cui Yingyu and Gu Xiuwen before logging off.

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

Logging in the next day, he was eager to see all the spoils. He summoned Yingyu and Xiuwen to his office, and had them report on yesterday’s rewards.

Yingyu was very pleased, smiling as she said, “Big brother, I have to say, we had quite the bumper harvest last night. My division had to work late last night to calculate all the data.” She paused, directly hanging a bit to whet Shuo’s appetite before proceeding. “According to our calculations, yesterday’s two battles tallied up money of 32 gold coins, 76 silver coins, and 25 copper. There were 3,540 units of grain, and three building blueprints - a hospital, a tailor shop, and a weapons workshop. In addition, there was a special item, a Basic Soldier Token.

“As for weapons and armor: There were 22 horses, of which 2 were exquisite quality, and the rest ordinary.

There were 30 bows, with 2 basic composite bows, and 28 short bows along with a thousand arrows. One suit of ordinary iron scale armor, two sets of ordinary studded leather armor, 20 sets of ordinary leather armor, and 27 sets of poor leather armor. Thirty swords, one fine iron sword, 10 ordinary iron swords, and 19 poor iron swords. Thirty spears, of which one is fine, 10 ordinary, and 19 poor. Also, there is an exquisite axe and an exquisite iron spear.”

Although mentally prepared for the report, after listening to Yingyu detail everything, Shuo still had the feeling that he had struck the lottery.

The game rules set poor quality as the lowest level of bronze equipment; ordinary equipment was black iron level; the ones with fine prefix was silver-class equipment. And exquisite class that was gold level equipment.

Gold class equipment would be the mainstream equipment in the future for a long period of time. Between it and the highest tiers of God Level equipment, in the middle was separated only by the dark gold and platinum levels.

He could not wait to see the properties of the equipments. And oh yes, there was a Soldier Token. He had a feeling that this Basic Symbol Token was the biggest trophy this time around.

Before he had much time to ponder, Gu Xiuwen began his report. “Sire, I have some good news here.”

“What good news, don’t tell me, there were some special talents among the women from yesterday, right?” Shuo jokingly said.

His moment spoiled, Xiuwen made a face. “Sire’s guess is quite accurate! Yes, out of the two groups from yesterday, there are two special talents. In the morning batch there was an advanced chef, called Gu Sanniang, who cooked for the raiders. And there was one eighteen year old advanced tailor, called Mu Qingsi.”

That was another blockbuster, Shuo was almost happy enough to faint. An eighteen year old advanced tailor? This, this was just a wicked talent. With this kind of talent, coupled with Shanhai’s characteristics, promoting her to Master was just a matter of time. It was very possible she’d even reach the higher levels of the Grandmaster class, hehe!

“I would like to let them live in the Lord’s Manor for now. There is an empty room in the West Wing, have them live there. Let me deal with this batch of resources, then I will pay them a visit.” For such advanced talents, Shuo would more than happy to extend his hospitality and a level of courtesy!

“Noted!” Xiuwen nodded agreement.

“When Xiuwen is in charge of things, I am always rest assured!” Shuo turned to Yingyu, smiled, and said, “Yingyu, bring me to see our loot, I can wait no longer!”

The grain from the batch of resources had already been deposited into the granary, and Shuo had no interest in seeing it. The money, drawings, and various small objects were waiting on tables in the room, Shuo directly put them into his storage bag. The weapons and equipment were heaped up in the courtyard, the horses tied up in the square in front of his house.

Of the weapons and armor, Shuo took a composite bow, a fine iron sword, and that exquisite iron spear. The rest of the weapons and armor he was ready to award for meritorious service to the militia members.

Er Wazi was squatting at the edge of the courtyard, curious to see everything, touching this, touching that. Shuo knocked on his head, smiled, and said, “You are going to the barracks. Tell General Shi that I said for him to arrange people to take away the weapons and armor from here.”

Er Wazi smiled and trotted away, heading straight for the barracks.

*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes

*[12.47 to 13.07]: don't ask me about the tree sap

Chapter 23 - Crossbowmen

Taking advantage of the time, Ouyang Shuo took out his three new pieces of equipment and took a look at their stats.

Name: Basic Composite Bow (black iron grade)

Length: 1.4 meters

Range: 200 meters

Evaluation: A composite bow. It uses tough black birch for the inner layer and larch pine for the outer, two layers of wood bound using deer or cattle tendons. Fine fish glue is used to firmly stick them together, and the bowstring is made from deer skin.

----

Name: Fine Iron Sword (silver grade)

Hardness: 15

Toughness: 20

Evaluation: Extremely fine steel, repeatedly forged for a sharp blade with good toughness

-----

Name: Exquisite Iron Spear (gold)

Hardness: 30

Toughness: 45

Evaluation: Spear forged from high quality iron barbed wood, the spearhead has been forged repeatedly with exquisite workmanship.

Ouyang Shuo nodded in satisfaction, this was a real change of equipment from a rookie to a pro. He hung the iron sword at his waist, the bow and spear he would keep in his room. He wasn’t a full time warrior, so he only needed those two weapons when combat was imminent, or when practicing.

In the front of the square, 22 horses were lined up in a row. The most striking of them were the leftmost pair, a black and white set, looking quite exceptional.

Ouyang Shuo took an immediate fancy to the black horse. It had a beautiful black mane, vigorous posture, and was exceptionally handsome.

Name: Exquisite War Horse (gold)

Weight: 60 kg

Speed: 40 km/day

Consumption: 3 grain /day

Evaluation: This is a high quality horse from the northern grasslands, easily able to endure a battlefield.

Ouyang Shuo said admiringly, “Really a good horse, I will call you Black Tornado!”

The horse seemed to be able to understand human nature, and as if it understood his words, nodded its head. This made Ouyang Shuo desire it even more, and he brought it away to his yard. Just yesterday he had received the building blueprints for the stables, and now he was prepared to build a small stable just for Black Tornado in the yard of his manor.

In less than ten minutes, Er Wazi had led General Shi back with a full group of thirty men. As he walked into the yard, the roaring voice of General Shi proclaimed, “Hah, my lord, I hear that you are ready to reward the weapons and armor to your men?!”

“That's right. This time, for destroying the raider camp, we definitely should reward the militia team for meritorious services!” Ouyang Shuo answered, pointing to the heap of weapons and armor in the courtyard. “Have your men bring the equipment to the barracks, as well as all the remaining horses. Also, we need to call a general assembly of the troops to reward them for their great deeds!”

“Haha, this is a good idea!” General Shi called out, promptly ordering the militia with him to gather up the weapons and armor. In addition, a dozen were ordered to lead away the horses.

Everyone walked back to the barracks. Ouyang Shuo waited until all the troops were assembled on the training field before beginning the merit awards. “Lin Yi, come forward!”

“Here!” the young officer answered, looking very excited.

“During the battle of the raider camp, officer Lin Yi beheaded the enemy leader, performing great merits!” Ouyang Shuo paused for emphasis. “As thanks for your efforts, you are awarded an exquisite horse, a basic composite bow, and an ordinary iron scale armor as a reward!”

“Thank you for the rewards, my lord!”

With Ouyang Shuo giving a horse, bow, and metal armor to Linyi, the rest of the militia all looked at him enviously. Lin Yi already had a fine iron spear and excellent knife; coupled with these new awards, he was basically now fully equipped as an officer!

“San Gouzi, come forward!”

“Sir!”

“During the battle of the raider camp, Sergeant San Gouzi effectively lured the enemy into an ambush and was brave in combat during the following battles! With our thanks, you are rewarded an ordinary horse, an ordinary wooden bow, an ordinary set of studded leather armor, and a fine iron spear!”

“Thank you for the reward, my lord!”

“Zhang Daniu, come forward!”

“Sir!”

“During the battle of the bandit camp, Sergeant Daniu fought bravely and with great power! With our thanks, you are awarded an ordinary horse, an ordinary composite bow, an ordinary set of studded leather armor, and an exquisite axe!”

There was a bit of a contrast here, as Daniu’s reward was slightly better than San Gouzi’s. But San Gouzi was an agile soldier, and spears were more suitable for him. Da Niu was more of a strength soldier, more suited for using an axe.

“Zhao Sihu, Li Mingliang, come forward!”

“Sir!”

“During the bandit camp fight, Zhao Sihu and Li Mingliang proved themselves to be brave and effective fighters! You are each awarded a set of ordinary armor!”

“Thanks to the lord for his reward!” the two men called out eagerly.

These two men had been in the second group to join the militia. After this battle, they had come up from behind, heading up the fourth and fifth squad as sergeants. General Shi had been comfortable with them moving up into command positions, and had already recommended them to Ouyang Shuo before they became sergeants.

In order to assuage the mood of the old militia, Ouyang Shuo had decided to temporarily shelve the promotion of the two as sergeants until he saw how well they did against the bandits.

Sure enough, the two did not let him down. In the battle of the raider camp, their performances were quite prominent. Ouyang Shuo was thus very supportive of their promotions to sergeant status.

After handing out the main rewards for combat merits, Ouyang Shuo didn’t reward the ordinary soldiers. He left the duty of handing out rewards to these men to General Shi, to keep up his prestige. General Shi had no problems taking over this duty.

Ouyang Shuo cleared his throat and proclaimed, “The following people, come up to General Shi to receive your rewards when your name is called, everyone give General Shi a round of applause!”

The soldiers applauded immediately and warmly. General Shi began to call out names from the platform, giving awards to soldiers one by one based on their performances.

Taking advantage of this gap, Ouyang Shuo removed the Basic Soldier Token from his storage bag, and assessed its properties.

[Crossbowmen Token] (Basic): 100 fully trained militia may be directly transformed into crossbow cavalry.

This was really powerful. Ouyang Shuo was clearer than anyone on the value of this Soldier Token. First of all, this was an upgrade that did not require the Intermediate Barracks; it directly transformed militia into soldiers, saving a lot of upgrade costs. Transforming a militiaman into a soldier was a full gold coin, ten times the cost of turning farmers into militia.

Secondly, the militia were turned into 1st rank soldiers. There were only three kinds of soldiers: infantry, cavalry, and navy. In other words, the first choice of a soldier type was from the large categories. After that, they would be categorised further and in more detail as to which section they would serve in the military, depending on the skills that were taught to them and the equipments they were given.

For example, infantry, if their commander was a master of the sword, then you could give them swords and shields, and slowly train them to become sword-shield infantry soldiers.

This token used directly affected what subdivision you moved your soldiers into. The token in Ouyang Shuo’s hands could directly transformed them into cavalry soldiers who could also use crossbows!

Waiting until General Shi was done with the awards, Ouyang Shuo stepped up again on the high platform, looking around at the assembled soldiers. “When we destroyed the raider camp, you all did not let me down, and you did not disappoint the villagers in Shanhai. The page of history has turned. I do not want you to immersed in past glories. We are soldiers, and fighting is our duty. Today, we exterminated a raider camp. Tomorrow, there will be more powerful enemies, waiting in front of us.

“As a warrior, all we can do is train hard, harder, and even harder! So that in every battle, we can go forth with courage and kill the enemy without fear! Now, there is a new opportunity before you.” Ouyang Shuo raised the token symbol up before the soldiers. “This is a Crossbow Cavalry Token for soldiers, the most valuable spoils of our battle! I will be using this to change your jobs, and hopefully everyone will take advantage of this rare chance to train hard, for soon there will be a bigger challenge awaiting us! Are you ready?!”

“Then everyone, go into the class change chamber of the Barracks, line up, and we will begin the process!” Ouyang Shuo got down from the raised platform, stepping to the door of the class change chamber. He laid his hands upon the door, and the symbol token in his hands lit up.

“System Notification: Detecting the Crossbow Cavalry Soldier Symbol, use now?”

“Yes!”

There was a flash of white light and hum as the Soldier Symbol vanished from his hands.

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for successful use of the Crossbow Cavalry Soldier Symbol! The transformation room has been updated to increase its power to include Crossbow Cavalry Soldiers as an option, until 100 transformations have been completed!

“Should the transformations be started immediately?”

“Yes!”

“System Notification: Please select the number of transformations!”

“47 people!” Ouyang Shuo had arranged for the seriously wounded militia to retire, so there were only 47 people to transform. Once he rose to Third Village, he could do a one-time makeup to round out the numbers.

“System Notification: The number of transformations has been selected, use of the transforming chamber has begun. Transformations remaining: 53 people.”

In addition to Lin Yi, the rest of the militia teams began to go in one by one into the transforming room. When the first one came out, Ouyang Shuo naturally had to look at his stats.

Name: Zhang Daniu

Identity: Cavalry Crossbow Soldier Sergeant.

Occupation: Crossbow Cavalry

Level: 1st Grade

Combat Power: 20 points (Attack/defense comprehensive index, crossbow cavalry gain +5 points)

Consumption: 5 units of food/day

Skills: Basic Archery and Basic Riding.

Equipment: Ordinary Horse, Basic Composite Bow, Ordinary Crossbow, Basic Iron Sword, Basic Javelin, Basic Armor, Basic Wooden Shield.

Evaluation: Able to ride to increase their movement, and equipped with a crossbow and bow to supplement their arms. Well equipped, able to scout, raid, and use archery.

Normally, the combat power of a max level militiaman was 11. When transformed into 1st order soldiers, this was directly increased to 15. With the excellent weapons and skills of the crossbow cavalry, they directly earned an additional 5 points of combat power.

This was a great enhancement to their fighting ability, a large part of it because of their black iron equipment level. Such a band of 1st grade crossbow cavalry was comparable in power to the highest level player, Blood Romance of Blood Evil mercenary group.

Even with seizing so much equipment from the raiders, most of it wasn't of the same level as the gear of the crossbow cavalry. This showed just how precious the Symbol Token was!

Chapter 24 - Girl Talk

After completing the class changes, Ouyang Shuo left the barracks. He was not going to intervene on the matters of the daily training of the mounted crossbowmen, territorial patrols, and those stationed at the northern salt fields.

The military was in the experienced hands of General Shi, and with a tenacious lieutenant like Lin Yi, as well as the increasingly mature and skilled sergeants, he was confident of them. He wanted to give them power and let them be tested so as to grow quicker.

Of course, the core duties of appointing and removing personnel, he wasn’t quite going to let go. That was the core element of his influence on the army. If he was really hands-off, it would be hard to say if the soldiers would even recognize his authority as their lord after some time.

This was part of the charm of the game. NPCs were more than just stiff bundles of data, they had their own feelings. The more advanced the NPC, the higher their intelligence.

Take General Shi. As a emperor-level historical figure, his experience and awareness was even higher than a player like Ouyang Shuo. Although General Shi would never violate his orders because of the system rules and his historical background, but if Ouyang Shuo’s actions were too absurd, he would not be able to convince the general to do his best for him!

Thus, their Loyalty stat was not just a simple summary of everything. Although in principle they would not betray Shuo, but there were possibilities they would fight over authority or slack and neglect their duties.

In turn, because of this, Lords could use the full force of the system to exercise their authority and to train their decision making skills. After all, the cost of making mistakes in the game was still much less than in reality.

Outside the barracks, Ouyang Shuo pondered what to do next. Everything in the territory seemed to be proceeding in an orderly manner, progress towards the grade 3 village was slowly moving forward. Just a little while ago, he was troubled by his financial problems, but the destruction of the raider camp seemed to have completely resolved this.

Thinking of that point, it reminded him that he still had building blueprints in his storage bag. There were 5 building blueprints in his storage bag, namely the stables, the dojo, the hospital, the tailor shop, and the weapon workshop.

Among them, the stables and weapon workshop were required for grade 3 villages. Ouyang Shuo looked at the construction requirements, and found out that unfortunately, right now they could only build some stables.

Stables: Place where horses are kept.

Requirements: Stables building plans, 200 wood, 50 stone.

Build time: One day.

------

Weapon Workshop: A comprehensively equipped weapons and armor manufacturing facility, you can build ordinary weapons and armor.

Requirements: Advanced Blacksmith, Weapons Workshop building plans, 400 wood, 200 stone. Build time: 2 days.

The weapon shop required a high-level smithy, Shanhai currently didn’t have one. His only blacksmith, Li Tiezhu, was promoted to intermediate blacksmith just a little while ago, and it was difficult to upgrade to an advanced blacksmith in a short time. Fortunately, there was still time, and Ouyang Shuo could still hope to directly get a randomly generated advanced blacksmith.

As for 2nd grade village buildings, Ouyang Shuo still lacked the Ancestral Hall and the Private School. Now that he had money, Ouyang Shuo headed directly to the Basic Market, spending 10 gold coins to buy both sets of building blueprints. In this way, he could start building all the required infrastructure for a 2nd grade village, even though he still needed a Scholar for the school.

During the previous five days, the Construction Division had completed the arrow towers, the primary mining sites, and 15 small courtyard homes.

Heading back to the Lord’s Manor and administrative office within, Ouyang Shuo ran into Deputy Director Zhao Dewang. He directly handed him all the building blueprints, and told him to get all five buildings built as soon as possible. In addition, he did not forget to specifically ask him to get a stable built for Black Tornado next to his own courtyard.

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo visited the two seriously injured militiamen. After being treated by Dr. Song, they were both out of any danger.

The first one was a 20 years-old young man, called Song Yi. In the fight, 2 fingers of his left hand were cut off, meaning he’d be maimed for life. Seeing Ouyang Shuo visiting him, the little fellow could not hold back, and cried like a child.

The other man was about thirty, called Li Tie, and his right eye had been shot out completely by an arrow, blinding him.

This was a true man, when Ouyang Shuo were seeing him. His emotions had already stabilized, and he was still able to talk and laugh. Semi-serious, half-joking, he said, “Sire, I, Li Tie, may only have one eye, but I am still able to kill the enemy.”

Ouyang Shuo’s heart was sour. “Well, I believe in you. However, you will not be on the front line. Soon, when Shanhai rises to the level of a town, I will be setting up a special security team for the territory at that time, and both you and Song Yi will be on it. For now, your task is to rest and take care of yourself until your injuries are good, do not stop your martial arts training. I do not want to take you into the security team if you cannot even catch a thief!”

Li Tie immediately exclaimed, “Sire, rest assured that I will never bring shame to you or to the militia team!”

“I believe you! Keep your spirits up, I will leave and let you recuperate. Remember my words, and ease your hearts! Your faith and good work I will remember, and at the right time, will give you enough to make up for what you have lost!”

“Thank you, sire, for your care.” After Ouyang Shuo’s appeasement, coupled with his promise, the hearts of the two were reassured and they had completely calmed down.

He headed back to the Manor, to see 2 women in the corridor to the west wing courtyard chatting.

“Sister Gu, we have come today as requested. The lord did not say how we were to be set, we don’t even know what he looks like.” The one speaking was a beautiful young woman in a dress. Although her clothing was made of ordinary linen, the workmanship was extremely delicate, and gave her an innocent air.

“Little girl! I heard that our sire is a handsome teen, do you have any thoughts about him?” The other woman was a middle aged woman who wore very simple clothing, with little to no makeup.

The other woman was the target of this joke, and immediately frowned. “Sister is making fun of people. Although I am curious, you should know about repaying a debt. Sire rescued me from the bandits, I have nothing but gratitude for the Lord. I do not have any other thoughts.”

“Do not say you do not know what it is like. Every day in the raider’s camp was simply painful,” the older of the two went on, clearly emotional. “However, I have heard things. The Material Reserves Division secretary, Lady Cui, was the same as us, living in the wilderness. The Lord took pity on her, and cherishes her talent. So, not only does the Lord take care of her, but entrusts her with tasks! Lady Cui not only lives up to the trust of the lord, but her Material Reserve Division is kind and has won everyone’s respect.”

“Sister Cui is not only so beautiful, but capable. I admire her greatly!” The younger woman was still a girl, and immediately latched onto Yingyu as a role model.

“Young girl, do not pretend that your talent in tailoring is anything small. Shanhai Village is outstanding, your future achievements must not be any less than Lady Cui’s,” the other said wisely.

At this moment, Ouyang Shuo was standing in front of the yard, rather embarrassed. From their conversation, he had guessed that the two in front of him should be the two that Gu Xiuwen told him about this morning, advanced chef Gu Sanniang and advanced tailor Mu Qingsi. Inadvertently listening to the two’s private dialogue in his own home, he had not walked in yet.

“Ahem!” Ouyang Shuo deliberately coughed to let them know he was coming, before he entered the yard.

“Yes!” Turning to see Ouyang Shuo, Mu Qingsi’s little face immediately flushed a little. It was the older one who spoke, uncertainly asking, “Has the Lord come back? I am Gu Sanniang, greeting my lord!”

“I am Lord Ouyang Shuo. I was busy with things earlier, and I have neglected the two of you. Please forgive me.”

Gu Sanniang looked at Mu Qingsi and saw her standing there with her head bowed, blushing deeply, unable to speak, with her hands pulled up in her sleeves.

Originally Mu Qingsi was not so shy, it was just that she and Gu Sanniang’s conversation was too private. With Ouyang Shuo, the protagonist of their conversation, appearing in front of them, she was naturally shy, not knowing when he came close and how much he had heard.

Not only was her heart uneasy, but she was shy about their new home. She was waiting until Ouyang Shuo chose to speak and set the mood. Gu Sanniang hurriedly pulled her sleeves, getting her to react and bow in salute. “Mu Qingsi greets sire!”

Ouyang Shuo naturally pretended not to see her dilemma and discomfort. “Is miss Mu fine, is this home good for you?”

“Thank you, Lord, for your care. It is all good.” Mu Qingsi began to calm down, and knelt down to Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo didn’t allow this, hastening to come forward and helping her up, earnestly saying, “Miss Mu is too humble, you need not do this. Our ages are similar, if you don't mind, you can simply treat me as your brother.” This was only an 18-year old girl, Ouyang Shuo could only feel pity for her.

Mu Qingsi instantly became red-faced, certain that Ouyang Shuo had heard their conversation, hurriedly shook her head and said, “Mu Qingsi is of low birth, I dare not claim such a luxury!”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand. “We are a family in this village, there is no high and low distinction between us in the past, so let it go with the wind. We are in Shanhai Village, each by virtue of their own skills, duties, and self-reliance. Therefore, you will not pretend to be small. If you do not agree, then I will have to be angry.” Ouyang Shuo deliberately made his face stern, watching Mu Qingsi.

The young lady’s cheeks bloomed roses as she watched Ouyang Shuo and called out, “Big Brother!”

Ouyang Shuo replied happily, “That’s right. This is Shanhai Village, rest your heart. I have been long fascinated by your tailoring skills!

“Gu Sanniang, at this stage, you will be responsible for the cooking of the Lord’s Manor. When the village finally opens a restaurant to service everyone, I will ask you to take that over.”

Gu Sanniang smiled. “I will comply with the Lord’s arrangements!”

Chapter 25 - Basic Benefits

Inside Gaia, Year One, Day 24. A sunny day in the game.

Ouyang Shuo was riding Black Tornado, galloping through the wilderness. Since he had gained his horse, he had ridden it every morning like a wind through his lands. Black Tornado clearly liked the vast expanse of the wilderness compared to the narrow confines of the stables. Dew sprinkling from his hooves, facing the morning sunshine, he was clearly enjoying his run.

At Friendship River, over 2000 mu of farmland had been reclaimed, neat and orderly, set in four squares. He couldn’t see the far edge from where he rode. The river ditches had been dug, forming a simple and practical irrigation system for the farmland. The farmers were planting the sweet potato seeds in the furrows and were looking forward to the harvest in the future.

Ouyang Shuo studied the farm from the side, watching the rolling furrows and the busy farmers. He also could see the hope of a harvest. He could rely on the potatoes to help with some of the people’s food needs for the first half of the year. Looking over everything, according to the reports given to him, they were expected to be done planting by tomorrow.

He was very pleased with the efficiency of the Reclamation Division. Zhao Dexian was a real talent at management, whether it be the construction team before, or the Reclamation Division now. He had managed everything well, and never let Ouyang Shuo be disappointed. Ouyang Shuo firmly believed that after these experiences, Zhao Dexian could later assume even more important positions, such as his personal assistant.

Ouyang Shuo returned from his run along the farmland, taking less than half an hour to return to the village. On both sides of the village, two arrow towers had been built. Now there were two crossbowmen stationed by them, firmly guarding the entrances to Shanhai.

Coming through the main entrance, he was greeted by the first buildings of the commercial street. A basic grocery shop, intermediate smithy, intermediate woodshop, advanced tailor, advanced dojo, and other buildings rose on both sides of the street, bringing an aura of vitality to the area.

Yes, an advanced tailor shop and dojo, not basic level! This was related to setting the building level in the game. In the game, all buildings could be divided into five categories.

The 1st category included simple fences, residential small homes, towers, the ferry, and stables; things that were mostly living space provided by the building. These types of buildings were not hierarchical, and once built they could not be upgraded again. Thus, the fence could not be upgraded. It would have to be removed to construct stronger walls of brick.

The 2nd category included the smithy, tailor shop, woodshop, dojo, or hospital; buildings that produced something based on skilled experts. The smithy, for instance, did not determine if it could only build farm tools or also weapons; it was dependent on the level of the smith.

So, the level of those buildings was directly tied to the level of the expert working there. So when basic smith Li Tiezhu was promoted to an intermediate blacksmith, his smithy was likewise improved from basic to intermediate grade.

The 3rd category was a shipyard building. This type of building also relied on skilled personnel to achieve its function but was also very dependent on the facility itself.

Even if his shipyard had an advanced shipbuilder, but because the grade of the yard and dock were still at the basic level, so was the entire yard. Thus, the building itself had to be upgraded, as well as the person inside had to be at the right level in order to improve.

The 4th category included the village temple, ancestral hall, the market, and the barracks. These buildings themselves needed to be upgraded and didn’t require skilled personnel to do what they needed to do. Thus, to improve them, you had to acquire higher level building blueprints.

The 5th category were resource acquisition buildings, like the logging site, quarries, and mines. The level of those buildings was related to the volume of resources stored there and the number of people working them. As long as the resources stored were rich enough and the workforce expanded to a high enough level, they could be directly promoted.

According to the game settings, the basic level was up to 100 people. 100 to 500 people was the intermediate level, 500 to 1000 was the advanced level, and more than 1000 people for the special level.

At the end of the business street, Ouyang Shuo returned to his Manor and office within. On the desk, some paperwork were waiting, detailing the defense plan against the incoming beastwave worked out by General Shi.

He was not in a hurry to examine the papers, having been struck by a thought. Passing through the commercial street, he had seen many villagers going to work in their old clothes and suddenly realized that something should be done about that. The villagers worked hard every day for the territory yet the only thing he had done for them was ensuring they were well-fed.

He could still remember that when the Zhao villagers came to him, he had made them a promise: To let the villagers have clothes to wear, food to eat, and room to live.

The villagers were still wandering about in their original ragged clothes, and even Cui Yingyu, the lady of his household, had no decent clothes. But now, they had Mu Qingsi, an advanced tailor! His treasury had funds once again, it was time to improve everyone’s living conditions!

“Er Wazi!” Ouyang Shuo shouted out the door.

“Lord!” Er Wazi was out playing in the courtyard and answered immediately when Ouyang Shuo called for him, scampering rapidly into the office.

“Go find sister Cui and sister Mu and bring them to my office, I have something to say to them.”

“I have it covered!” Er Wazi shouted back energetically and trotted eagerly out of the office.

Taking advantage of the time, Ouyang Shuo began to look at General Shi’s defense plan for the beastwave. In the plan, General Shi gave a detailed description of the strategy that Shanhai needed to set up. Its core content, summed up nicely, was ‘active defense, active attack’.

Active defense meant to expand the scope of the village out into the surrounding area. Specifically, to do a good job of defending the village, there should be layers of defenses located outside the village itself.

After all, an animal was an animal, unlike a human army with intelligent commanders. When animals came in a wave, they must be in a violent and irrational state. Taking advantage of this point, pits should be dug out and scattered randomly through the area, with sharpened stakes in the bottom. This would both hurt and trap many of the crazed wild animals, and encourage them to flee.

They should also take the initiative to attack, taking full advantage of the potential of their mounted crossbowmen. Retreating defensively into the village was not appropriate, they should use the cavalry flexibly, taking advantage of their speed to seize the initiative with guerrilla warfare tactics.

After reading the plan, Ouyang Shuo nodded his head, accepting the expertise of General Shi’s strategy.

10 minutes later, Yingyu and Mu Qingsi walked in together. After these last few days, the two girls had become very close, almost like sisters.

“Big Brother, you looked for me and my sister, you must have a big deal to discuss,” Mu Qingsi said at the door, laughing at Ouyang Shuo. After a few days to get used to her new home, she now felt her new lord and big brother was quite approachable, and as a result, her shyness had gone away, becoming much more gracious and open.

“Naturally I have something important to discuss with you, else I would not dare to disturb our young ladies,” Ouyang Shuo replied, not to be outdone in the teasing. This little lady, since reaching an understanding with him, had become more daring. Although it was a deliberate teasing, he couldn’t let her be too naughty!

“Ah!” Seeing Ouyang Shuo returning such a joke, Mu Qingsi was finally a bit embarrassed. True to her nature, she whispered, “Big brother is bad, teasing a child like this!”

Mu Qingsi still had such a temperament. Ouyang Shuo couldn’t help but think of his real sister, Bing’er. Although there was a definite age gap, the same air of innocence and carefree beauty was still touching. When Bing’er finally joined the game, the two of them would definitely be playing together.

Ouyang Shuo ignored her whisper loftily, turning to look at Cui Yingyu. “Yingyu, having the two of you come here is going to be the start of a major event for the territory. This matter requires both you and little sister to see to completion.”

Yingyu had a softly puzzled look on her face as she asked, “I do not know what big brother intends?”

“When we raided the bandit camp, we reaped a bounty of 32 gold coins. I took out 10 coins for building blueprints, leaving more than 20 coins behind. Plus, Mu Qingsi’s tailor shop has already opened. I want to see if you can buy linen from the Basic Market and make a new set of clothes for every villager in the territory, it will be a special reward for the hard work everyone has done.”

Yingyu smiled all the way to her eyebrows, sincerely saying, “Big brother, this is a great move! Does this move apply specifically only to the existing villagers, or also newcomers who arrive at the village?”

“This plan is ready to be put forward as part of the basic welfare of Shanhai, so it is a long-term policy. On the day of Shanhai’s founding, I promised the villagers this as their lord. I was unable to do so in the past, but now I am capable and naturally, am not going to go back on my words.”

Mu Qingsi’s big eyes started fluttering energetically as she heard this, her gaze flashing as she looked at Ouyang Shuo, her face full of hero worship. “Wow, big brother, I am worshipping you more and more, how do you do this?”

Ouyang Shuo coughed, lightly saying, “No need to worship me, I am just a legend!”

“Foo, big brother is such a narcissist, shame, shame!” This little girl was getting more and more unscrupulous.

Regardless, Ouyang Shuo asked her, “Little sister, about these clothes, you are the advanced tailor and thus the most qualified to talk about them. Tell your big brother what you need to accomplish this, how much cloth, time, and so forth.”

Mu Qingsi pondered a moment. “According to what this I know, a roll of cloth is around 30 meters long, using an average of 2.5 meters per person, it can clothe 12 people. Based on the maximum population of 500 in a grade 2 village, we will probably need at least 42 rolls of cloth. With 4 apprentices, we can sew 20 sets of clothing per day.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, looking at the pair of them. “It seems this will be a long-term project. So I am going to set up a division of labor. I am responsible for the purchasing of cloth rolls to be tailored for the villagers. Qing’er you will be responsible for the sizing and sewing of clothes. Yu’er, you will be in charge of the distributions in an orderly manner of first come first serve. In addition, I will be buying another roll of fine silk, we will make a fine dress for both of you. Don’t decline, take it as a gift from the big brother.”

Girls were naturally more concerned about their images, even they had refused to at first, but they eventually accepted this gift from him.

Chapter 26 - Prepare for War

Ouyang Shuo went to the Basic Market, and opened the Material Trading Platform. He first looked at the prices. A roll of linen was priced at 10 silver coins, fine silk at 50 silver coins.

In this case, 42 rolls of linen and a silk roll totalled out to 470 silver coins, less than 5 gold coins. This reflected how tough it was to build up gold, and its purchasing power.

The materials arrived in the hut, and Yingyu came over with her Material Reserve Division workers to take the cloth away.

Taking this opportunity, Ouyang Shuo also cleaned up the beast furs in storage. The most precious were no doubt the four pieces of quality 8 king boar skin and the two quality 6 mutant boar hide.

In addition, there were 30 pieces of damaged beast fur at quality 1, 40 quality 2 ordinary furs, and 10 quality 4 perfect furs. He took all the fur out and along with the cloth, had it all delivered to Little Sister Mu.

After dealing with the cloth supply, he was ready to go to the blacksmith shop, and check on the production of arrows. Arrow consumption was very fast. They had seized 1000 arrows from the raiding camp, which when divided up among the soldiers was only 20 arrows each. That was barely enough to meet daily training requirements.

In order to deal with the upcoming beastwave, Ouyang Shuo had told blacksmith Li Tiezhu to make only arrows. He walked into the smithy, which was in full swing.

Coincidentally, Sergeant Zhang Daniu of the First Militia Squad was leading four men to the shop to retrieve the completed arrows. Seeing Ouyang Shuo, Daniu hurriedly saluted, “Sire!”

“How are you adapting after the class change transformation?” Ouyang Shuo asked him directly.

“Sir, after the class change, everyone was very happy, very ready to go fight! General Shi has been assigning us to strict training and work details, and we are all eager to show our strength!”

“Very good.”

Ouyang Shuo turned around and looked to Smith Li. “Master Li, you’ve been working hard these past few days. How many arrows have you crafted?”

“Ever since receiving my lord’s orders, we have managed to make 1500 arrows. In accordance with this progress, before the expected arrival of the beastwave, we should be able to make another 1600 arrows.”

“Excellent, that is very efficient,” Ouyang Shuo nodded in satisfaction. Three thousand arrows should be enough to cope with the incoming beastwave. “Daniu, pass these words to General Shi when you return to the barracks. Tell him that his defense plan is excellent and have him start making the preparations to implement it.”

“Yes, sire!”

“Good! Seeing that arrow production is proceeding smoothly, I will leave you to your work!”

Heading back to the manor, Gu Sanniang was preparing lunch. Ever since the advanced chef had moved into the manor, the food cooked in the manor had been increasingly delicious. Thus, as long as they weren’t busy with work, the people living in the manor would return to eat there.

The only exception was General Shi. Since establishing his crossbowmen cavalry, the General’s enthusiasm for training had completely taken him over. Since then, he had been living with the soldiers in the barracks, returning back to the courtyard less and less often.

With Ouyang Shuo there, there was no such rules at to keep quiet while dining. With this opportunity to sit and eat together, it was easy to talk about what everyone was doing in their respective divisions. This kind of cross-talk was a good thing, sometimes they could eventually solve problems while eating at the dinner table.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo eating two mouthful of food, little sister Mu smiled and said, “Big brother, you are so bad!”

Ouyang Shuo blinked in confusion. “How is that so? Did I bully you?” Everyone was curious to see what would pop out of this young lady’s mouth.

“Big brother, you sent me those beast furs, and some of it was actually quality 8! You did not tell little sister, and they were mixed in with the other skins!

If I had not seen them, they would have been thrown to the apprentices! Such a terrible waste! You were truly bad, big brother!” Sister Mu was obviously proud of herself for catching his mistake, and making trouble for him.

Ouyang Shuo was a little embarrassed, as it was indeed his mistake. “I forgot to tell you when I had the idea to include them. It is good that little sister has such keen eyes and I did not make an irreversible error.” Of course, he knew Sister Mu liked to hear compliments, and so praising her was easy.

Sure enough, she grinned so hard she was squinting. “Hee hee, there is such a high quality leather hide, little sister can sew it up for big brother!”

“Well, then, big brother will thank his little sister in advance for her work!”

Lunch ended to much laughter all around. Ouyang Shuo did not go out that afternoon, opting to stay in the office and concentrate on reading. In the game, although there was no reading skill in one’s stats, a certain degree of reading would increase the inherent value of his comprehension.

Therefore, since the office had shelves of books, Ouyang Shuo liked to stay in the office there and read. At the same time, he was also looking forwards to increasing his comprehension. It had been proven in the game, reading here or in reality was the same. You had to actually read word by word with the intention to learn, not just turn pages and look like you were doing so.

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

Gaia, Year One, January 25. It was a sunny day, a day to travel, finish planting, open market, and avoid migrations.

Ouyang Shuo began to preside over the weekly meeting. “Everyone, there is only one theme for today’s meeting. That is, in five days, the beastwave arrives. We are going to be talking about the plan of defense for Shanhai.”

General Shi rose after the introduction, beginning his talk by focusing on the need to explain the matter with the Secretaries. “First, we need to check the household registration for any hunters. The layout of the trap defense chain requires cooperation from the hunters, especially any that are good at arranging traps.”

Gu Xiuwen stood up and smiled. “There is no need to worry the general. I was about to report to sire, two special talents have appeared among the new immigrants, and one of them is an intermediate hunter.”

General Shi laughed as he heard this. “Just the right time, indeed! Where is he now?”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand. “General Shi, no need to be anxious. With Xiuwen on the task, we are assured it will be done right. Xiuwen, why not take this opportunity to tell us about these two special talents?”

The hunter is called Yang Zhui, a young man of twenty-five years. The other person is an old man called Fan Jin, and he is a Scholar,“ Xiuwen said concisely.

“Oh?! This is twice the joy!” Ouyang Shuo was not interested in getting deeper into this matter right now, however. After all, the theme of the meeting was the beastwave. He looked back to General Shi. “General, please continue.”

General Shi went on,” Since we have a hunter, then I hope the construction division can help with the work of digging the traps. In addition, we will need to mark the edges of the traps, and explain clearly to the villagers to pay attention to their feet and not step into them.”

“That is definitely something we need to pay attention to. Xiuwen, make a notice about the traps, clear and concise, and have it posted in the village,” Ouyang Shuo said to Gu Xiuwen.

“Yes, sire!” Of course Xiuwen was not going to decline such orders that protects the villagers. “In addition, I have a proposal. We can mobilize the strength of all the villagers for participation in the defense of the territory. I suggest that the logging field make a number of wooden javelins. General Shi could arrange some of his cavalry to organize the villagers for javelin training.”

He hadn’t thought Gu Xiuwen had such a military mind behind his scholar’s facade. Ouyang Shuo nodded and praised him, “Yes, this is a good idea, Xiuwen. I very much agree.”

General Shi glanced at Xiuwen and said, “I agree also.”

“We have no problems in the Reserve Division, and estimate that we should be able to make around five thousand simple wooden javelins over the next five days,” Cui Yingyu said smartly.

“As for the Construction Division here, we have completed all the buildings except the private school. They should be able to help that hunter Yang with digging traps,” Ouyang Shuo said, turning to Zhao Dewang.

Zhao Dewang also agreed readily to this.

At this time, Reclamation Secretary Zhao Dexian stood up, and said solemnly, “Sire, I have something to say.”

“Please speak up!”

“Sire, I worry about the beasts during the siege. If they intrude upon the farmland, will it cause the planted potatoes to go bad?” This batch of potatoes, considered as the hope of the territory, was something he attached great importance to.

“This is a problem, do we have any solutions?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

“The farms are located on the edge of the river and at the edge of our territory. We can speculate that the animals will be directed towards the village and will not wander around, so the farms and fields should stay fairly clear,” General Shi said. “At the edges of the fields dig a trench, perhaps sprinkle some dung in there. By and large, the beasts should avoid the farmland. Even if there are some random stragglers straying into the farmland, the loss will not be much, and can be remedied.”

Hearing this, Zhao Dexian laughed. “The general’s words are very good, and digging the trenches will not be a waste, they can be integrated into the irrigation system. Wonderful, wonderful!”

General Shi just smiled. He had not considered that point, having looked at it strictly from the military point of view.

Seeing everyone talking about the event, Ouyang Shuo took advantage of the moment to end the proceedings. “We all want a lot of good countermeasures to defend our territory. I hope everyone performs their duties as we prepare for war. In addition, Dr. Song has moved his quarters to the hospital, please make temporary accommodations for scholar Elder Fan in the courtyard.”

“Yes, sire.”

Chapter 27 - Private School

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo went over to the southeast district of the village, which was the area set aside for culture and education. The newly built hospital and the ancestral hall, as well as the private school being constructed, were all in this district.

He first went to Dr. Song’s hospital and saw the happy face of the old gentleman. Since the doctor’s uproar, as long as there was time, Ouyang Shuo would take the initiative to come to the hospital and visit.

The hospital had two parts. At the front was the area to issue medicine and treat patients. At the back were accomodations. Ouyang Shuo walked in, and saw that Dr. Song was with a patient. He did not disturb them, simply greeting the doctor, and walking back out.

He then went into the shrine next door. The ancestral hall for the village also had two parts. At the front was a gatehouse, divided by a square in the middle from the true ancestral hall to the back. Because Shanhai Village was player established, the Hall was not devoted to any one clan, and the surnames of the villagers were not the same. Consequently, Ouyang Shuo chose to focus on the Yellow Emperor, the ancestor of Chinese civilization, for general ancestral worship.

Next to the ancestral hall was the Mazu temple, now wreathed in incense. More than 80% of the people of Shanhai Village had chosen to place their faith in Mazu.

Not far away, the private school was being built. Zhao Dewang was personally supervising it. Ouyang Shuo did not come forward to disturb him, instead returning to the manor.

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

On the 27th of January, the private school was opened.

A village-level private school was mainly there to provide basic education. The teacher taught literacy, the basic thousand words or so, and then the great classics of Chinese literature. The students basically consisted of the children of the village, including Er Wazi, for a total of twelve people.

More specifically, Ouyang Shuo had added an additional requirement. The school had also opened an adult literacy class, teaching some literacy to those talents Ouyang Shuo wanted to cultivate.

Those talents included the logging field manager Zhao Youfang, quarry field manager Chang Shangu and mining field manager Yuan Shaoping, as well as some civil servants. Zhang Daniu, San Gouzi, Zhao Sihu, and Li Mingliang, the sergeants of his soldier squads, all needed this training to become officers. These people didn’t know a single character.

In order to cultivate their talents, Ouyang Shuo had enforced this command under order of death. No matter how busy these people were, they had to be in the school for half a day, every day, to learn the basics. At the same time, he specifically told Elder Fan to monitor their progress every day, and if they were falling behind, report to him immediately. He naturally had ways to motivate the recalcitrant.

At the opening ceremony of the adult literacy classes, Ouyang Shuo said, “You are all very lucky. At this age, you have the chance to re-enter school. Most of you, before coming to Shanhai, were farmers. Maybe you had the dream of reading in your casual time, but attending a school was not a something you can afford during your young age.

“Now that you are grown up, perhaps you think that reading is something that does not matter anymore. Even if you can’t read, you are still alive, living and surviving like everyone else.

“I want to say you are wrong, wrong, wrong! The persons who came to this village is no longer the same people as you are now, the managers of the strategic resources of this territory! The things that you are doing now, and that you will do in the future, are far more important than the things you did before coming to Shanhai Village. In these important positions, to enjoy the rights you must also fulfill your duties. Therefore, to go further, you must lay a foundation. I do not wish for you to fall behind because you are illiterate, and I am going to tell you very seriously that no one is going to wait for you.

“So, please cherish this opportunity. I can tell you very clearly that this is only a very small part of the territorial training program, just a starting point, and there will be many more advanced opportunities for future training. In time, I hope to see your faces and lecture you again.”

The seven people sitting there had varied attitudes. Some were listening to him, some looked like they understood, and some seemed a little muddled. In the end, it was up to them to seize their own good fortune.

After the lecture, Ouyang Shuo left the podium to Fan Jin. The old man had way passed the age of ignorance and what was left behind by time was only an elder filled with wisdom. Although old, he was still filled with spirited air, his bones were still strong, and he wasn’t like the other professors, all talk and no actions. He was active and was a real scholar that teaches knowledge to the world.

Ouyang Shuo had great respect for such a scholar, happily sitting at the back of the classroom with the other students, carefully listening to the first of the adult literacy classes.

After the class, Ouyang Shuo walked out of the school, heading for the commercial street district. Yesterday evening, Little Sister Mu had told him that she had finished the leather made from the king boar hide that she had been making for him, and he had to remember to come by the tailor shop.

During this time period, Little Sister and her apprentices had been so busy that their feet hadn’t touched the ground. To complete a goal of five hundred sets of clothing was not an easy job.

Although Qing’er was usually very playful, she was very focused and precise when she worked. Her expression was serious, and she was strict with the apprentices. Just watching her, her apprentices were afraid of her in the same manner as how mice are afraid of cats.

Ouyang Shuo had not imagined that his Little Sister had such a side to her. But, in this world, success was not accidental. Talent was important, but her own efforts and dedication and love of tailoring were the more important than only talent.

Sure enough, when Ouyang Shuo stepped inside the tailor shop, everyone’s heads were down, busily sewing the clothes on the table. He stood at the door for ten minutes, and none of them noticed him. Seeing Little Sister working so seriously, Ouyang Shuo could not help feeling soft-hearted.

However, Ouyang Shuo was not prepared to be too nice to her. This Little Sister, she was really thick-skinned, and her ability to take advantage of him was also quite huge. If he spoiled her too much, Ouyang Shuo estimated that she’d become quite difficult to deal with.

“Cough! Little sister, brother is here, and you haven’t come up to meet me, ah?” Ouyang Shuo deliberately teased her.

Little sister raised her head, and shot back, “Well, bad brother. Can you not see your lovely sister is busy?”

Ouyang Shuo could only change the topic. “Yesterday you told me that the leather armor you made is done, and I have stopped by to pick it up.”

“This time I had made a gold level armor out of the leather. Oh, my brother has such a good reward!”

“What? Gold level leather armor?” In his estimation, a silver level leather armor piece would have been quite satisfying. He really had not expected Little Sister to give him such a big surprise.

“It is the sincere truth!” Little Mu said, taking out a set of leathers from the side. In addition to the armor set, there was a pair of dark red boots and gloves.

Ouyang Shuo took the armor and looked at it over carefully. As a whole it was black, wrapping around the whole chest and stitched together with a multi-level leather chain. Everything was made of leather, except for the metal buckles.

The leather had a very steady feel to it, fashionable without affecting its practical functions. The whole piece was very consistent with his preferences, Ouyang Shuo loved it and didn’t want to put it down.

Ouyang Shuo was amazed, and realized that Little Sister really had a talent in tailoring. She was not only skilled, but could personalize items to each person’s differences. He could hardly wait to see the properties of the armor.

Name: Brutal Guardian (gold)

Type: Leather Armor

Weight: 3 kg

Defense: 45

Toughness: 50

Maker: Mu Qingsi (with equipment naming rights)

Evaluation: Made by senior tailor Mu Qingsi from quality 8 king boar hide. Exquisite workmanship, practical design, excellent protection.

Sure enough, 45 points of defense and 50 points of toughness, enough to ensure that without gold level weapons, it would be difficult to break it.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo’s surprised expression, Little Sister Mu was extremely happy. “I thought of the name for the leather armor as I want it to be a good guardian for big brother.”

With her help, Ouyang Shuo put the leather on, and immediately felt safer. Wearing it, he would no longer have to worry about danger from arrows.

“Yes, this is really good, our family has a good child.” At this moment, Ouyang Shuo could only appreciate Little Sister more.

“Well, of course, people call me the Genius Girl!” Little Sister had no modesty, responding the same way to all praise.

“Also, Big Brother, there is a set of gloves and boots, I made it from the quality 6 mutant wild boar hide. Although not as good as the armor, they are also silver class armor.” Sister Mu handed the new treasures to Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo took the gloves and boots, looking at their properties.

Name: Brutal Gloves (silver)

Type: Leather Armor

Weight: 1 kg

Defense: 30

Toughness: 40

Maker: Mu Qingsi (with equipment naming rights)

Evaluation: Made by senior Tailor Mu Qingsi from quality 6 mutant boar hide. Exquisite workmanship, practical design, excellent protection.

------

Name: Brutal Boots (silver)

Type: Leather Armor

Weight: 1.5 kg

Defense: 30

Toughness: 40

Maker: Mu Qingsi (with equipment naming rights)

Evaluation: Made by senior Tailor Mu Qingsi from quality 6 wild boar hide. Exquisite workmanship, practical design, excellent protection.

This was a full set of leather armor made by Mu Qingsi. Qing’er’s skill had improved quite a lot! Ouyang Shuo could not help but look at his own personal stats.

Name: Qiyue Wuyi

Title: Celebrity (Good impression on historical figures +10%)

Territory: Shanhai Village

Merit: 1400/1600

Title: Third Viscount

Occupation: Officer (part-time)

Level: 20 (1,027,540/1,109,980)

Reputation: Well-known (1400/10,000)

Body Structure: 18

Comprehension: 20

Luck: 5

Charm: 8

Command: 29

Force: 9

Intelligence: 8

Political: 29

Talent: Not Open

Power law: No

Skills: Intermediate Collection, Basic Shipbuilding, Basic Diplomacy, Basic Scouting, Basic Weapons Proficiency, Basic Riding, Basic Spearmanship, Basic Archery

Mount: Exquisite War Horse (gold)

Equipment: Exquisite Iron Spear (gold), Ring of Courage (black iron), Brutal Guardian (gold), Brutal Boots (silver), Brutal Gloves (silver), Fine Iron Sword (silver)

Chapter 28 - Beast Siege, Part One

Just as Ouyang Shuo came out of the tailor shop, there was a burst of sound from the system in his ears.

“World Announcement: In the first month of the year, new people have come into the wilderness, overcoming all obstacles with weapons and toil, plowing up the soil and establishing their foundations.

“The beasts of the wilderness have suffered a great slaughter, and been driven into a frenzy. In three days, on February 1, under the leadership of the greatest of their kind, the animals will be attacking the territories of the player lords! They will repay their slaughter in blood, and wash away their hatred in war! The lords need to prepare for war, sharpen your swords and prepare for battle to defend your honor and dignity!”

“World Announcement: The Siege of Beasts, a mandatory global defense quest, has begun. If the beasts successfully raid the village of the territory, the village will be removed immediately! If you successfully defend your territory from the beast attack, you will receive additional incentives.

“The top three of the regional rankings, national rankings, and world rankings will receive massive rewards, and you can qualify in more than one list! During the period of this quest, non-lord players cannot stay in a lord’s territory.”

“World Announcement: The top 10 rewards regionally are as follows: First place, 100 merit points. Each lower rank subsequently will receive 10 less merit points.”

“World Announcement: The top 10 national ranking awards are as follows: First place, 1000 merit points, 100 gold coins. Each successive rank, 100 less merit points, 10 less gold coins.”

“World Announcement: The top ten ranking awards in the world are as follows: First place 3000 points, 600 gold coins. Each successive rank, 200 less merit points, 50 less gold coins.”

“In addition, first place will receive a random secret building, second place a random special item, third place a Basic Soldier Token .”

There was a huge global uproar at the announcement from the system. The weak were worried that their territories would be completely destroyed. The powerful and the self-confident professional gamers were all completely tempted by the system incentives, their blood boiling with excitement. They were all gearing up to compete for the title of global leader!

Even knowing the news in advance, Ouyang Shuo still found himself excited by the prospect of such a rich reward. His goal was to ensure that he made it into the global top ten rankings, and strive to enter the top three. To achieve this goal, he had to have a secret weapon.

That afternoon, Ouyang Shuo headed to the barracks. In the barracks, the soldiers that were not out patrolling or carrying out missions were practicing archery. Seeing him enter, they stopped their practice and lined up to meet him.

Seeing the soldiers continue with their training, Ouyang Shuo said to General Shi, “General, I see you are still working hard!”

General Shi smiled proudly. “As an officer, this kind of military life is just what I love!”

“What are the levels of these soldiers now?” Ouyang Shuo asked directly.

General Shi proudly said, “After this period of training, all of the soldiers have been promoted to the second rank. In addition, the four sergeants have been promoted to third rank.”

“Very good! The training is living up to our expectations. How are the trap layouts for the territory?”

“The territory is large, and the plan is to have four layers of traps laid out in defense. After two days, we have completed two layers of traps. At this rate, we will have the rest of the layout finished in the next two days.” General Shi was not vague, but direct and ambitious. Each layer of pit traps would consist of a thousand or more of them!

Ouyang Shuo nodded, and asked him, “Have you heard of alchemical fire, General Shi?”

“The magical black liquid oil that can ignite directly? Yes, I am well aware of it,” General Shi smiled in embarrassment. “My lord asks about this fiery weapon, but why?”

“If we could buy a lot of alchemical fire oil, would that help the general defense plan?”

“The wild beasts are no different then we are, and are afraid of fire. If there is alchemical fire oil, we could arrange a fire array before the gates of the village, and I would be confident we could destroy a wave of beasts in one fell swoop.”

“Excellent, these are the general’s words, I am free of worries. Bring some soldiers, I am off to the Basic Market to procure some alchemical fire!” Ouyang Shuo said happily.

General Shi immediately grabbed two squads of men, twenty soldiers, and along with Ouyang Shuo they went straight to the Basic Market.

Ouyang Shuo strode into the wooden hut, and opened the trading platform, searching for alchemical fire oil. Fire oil was sold as a unit of barrels, each barrel had 50 liters of oil, and was priced at 1 silver coin.

During the walk there, General Shi estimated that to complete a fire array, they would need around 40,000 liters of oil, or 800 barrels. In order to be foolproof, Ouyang Shuo grit his teeth and spent 10 gold coins, directly buying 1000 barrels of fire oil.

In addition, in order to enhance the early warning capability of the territory, Ouyang Shuo spent another 10 gold coins and bought the outpost tower building blueprints. These towers were made all of stone, and were difficult to destroy. At the same time, the top of the tower held a fire beacon, so early warnings could be sent out. Each station could accommodate two sentries.

Stone Outpost: Basic military facility, with strong defense and early warning capabilities.

Requirements: 20 timber, 200 stone.

Build time: 1 day.

The barrels appeared in the wooden cottages in the front of the square. Grinning fiercely, General Shi ordered the soldiers to bring the barrels to the barracks. These were dangerous goods, and he didn’t want to worry about them if they were stored elsewhere.

Ouyang Shuo also gave his just-purchased outpost tower blueprints to General Shi, who turned around and transferred them to Zhao Dewang and the Construction Division. As for where the towers would be put up and who would be posted there, that was naturally left up to General Shi. According to his plans, it was best to build three or more outposts to ensure enough warning time.

After emerging from the market, Ouyang Shuo was finally at ease. In the face of the incoming beastwave, everything he could do was already done. The whole of the territory was wrapped up and ready for the fight.

The key to victory or defeat in a war was nothing more than the battlefield. It was not an exaggeration to say that he had been preparing for this fight from the very first day he had grown to a Grade 2 Village. The other Lords would have only three days of preparation time.

He also had a geographical advantage. Four rings of traps, supplemented by early warning outpost towers, coupled with the fire oil array getting ready...he truly had an extreme advantage in terrain.

His last major advantage was people, and if anything, his advantage here was even greater. He had true soldiers, and was moving into the foundation of a territorial army and out of the militia era, jumping ahead of the normal sequence of things. Coupled with General Shi’s history of being one of the top ten officers, there were simply no weaknesses.

Finally, he had strong logistical support. Adequate arrows, massive inventory of javelins, enough supplies to last for the battle.

Back in his Manor, Ouyang Shuo sat down and read for an hour before logging off.

--------------------------------------------------

In the brick and mortar world, it was still winter time. The leaves in the gardens were slowly turning yellow, falling to the roads one by one. Ouyang Shuo ran on the gravel road, enjoying the fresh morning air, physically and mentally refreshed.

Arriving back home, Xiaoyue and Bing’er got up for breakfast. The big and small beauties, watching the breakfast in his hands, smiled and sat there quietly.

Some people say that habit is a fearsome thing. Before Ouyang Shuo and Bing’er moved to live with her, Xiaoyue only had breakfast irregularly.

In just a month’s time, she had grown very accustomed to having hot soy milk and fried dough sticks. She was also getting used to coming back in the afternoon and finding a good dinner waiting for her. And she was even used to sending Bing’er off to bed with a fairy tale. Unconsciously, whether it was eating or life or work, a lot of changes had taken place in her life.

Xiaoyue was largely unaware of it all, perhaps it was just the fate between people. It was a wonderful happening, letting Ouyang Shuo and Bing’er come into her life like a new brother and sister. Now, living with them was natural and harmonious, like a family all under one roof.

As usual, Ouyang Shuo saw Bing’er off to school, and opened up his handbrain back at home. Today’s forum was particularly lively. Needless to say, the root of everything was the big system announcement last night.

The top headline was a survey questionnaire. The survey’s theme was to guess who the top ten finishers in China would be. In addition, guessing who among the Lords in China would make the top ten in the world rankings.

There was no doubt that the Six Tyrants of Handan were still the biggest popular candidates. Everyone was interested in who, in addition to the Six Tyrants, could occupy a place in the top ten in China.

Among the candidates, Ouyang Shuo showed up because of his sixth place promotion to a grade 2 village. In addition to him, there was Xiongba’s King Village,Wandering Magic’s Fallen Leaves Village; Wufu’s Stone Village; and Bai Hua’s Consonance Village.

He and the other three, except Bai Hua, were the top ten players to make grade 2 villages in China. Bai Hua could be included in the list of candidates simply by virtue of her ID. She was a long-time occupant of the Chinese sports game ‘Hall of Fame’, first among the mystery players. How could attention not be paid to her?

There were intense discussions and predictions about who in China could reach the top ten list in the world. There was no doubt that Di Chen of the Six Tyrants of Handan was the most popular candidate. As for other people, no one was sure. After all, the world was too large, full of crouching tigers and hidden dragons.

A great many people boldly predicted that because of China’s population, at least two people would make the world list.

Ouyang Shuo looked at the players participating in the speculation, posting nothing. From what he remembered, in his past life, the only Chinese player to make the list was Di Chen, ranking third in the world.

The other world rankers were naturally not on the list. The other nine places had been occupied by the United States, Canada, Russia, Korea, Japan, Britain, Germany, France, and India. No country had occupied two places, so the ferocity of the competition could be seen.

This time, with Ouyang Shuo as the biggest variable, he didn’t know what the eventual pattern would look like.

Chapter 29 - Beast Siege, Part Two

Gaia, Year 1, February 1. Cloudy, a day for blessings, migrations, and making deals. An outing is discouraged.

At dawn, three horsemen rode away from the barracks, going straight to the outpost towers outside the village. The Construction Division had built three outposts in the outlying areas, each of them two kilometers away.

Because of limited manpower, only one soldier was assigned to each station. Their jobs were the same; watching the movement of the beast packs, and raising smokes to warn the village when they saw them.

At the same time, the first, third, and fifth squads of the cavalry, under the command of Lin Yi, rode away from the western gates, heading towards the mining field area at the southern edge of the territory, only 300 meters from the west end of the woods.

Because of Shanhai’s surrounding terrain, the beasts couldn’t come from the south, as the foot of the mountain was there. Likewise the east, where a wide river and the canyon were, would have so few animals it wasn’t worth considering.

Therefore, the main appearance of the packs would be from the west side of the woods and coming down from the north out of the wilderness, along the Friendship River. Of these two, the west side of the forest was the main focus of their defense. A lot of beasts lived inside those woods, and it was the main training place for the militia.

With this terrain, Ouyang Shuo was commanding the second squad of cavalry at the northern gate of Shanhai. General Shi was commanding the fourth squad at the western gate. As for the eastern gate, Ouyang Shuo had entrusted it to Lin Yi’s older brother. Master Lin was leading more than 20 avid martial arts students from his dojo in guarding that gate.

In order to strengthen the western gate, the construction division had built towers on both sides of the gate. Their last trump card, the fire array, was placed in front of the western gate in the open ground there.

The fire array was 100 square meters big. At its sides were 2 meter trenches, dug a couple hands deep. These trenches were filled with alchemical fire oil and water, then covered with wood, and the wood covered with hay. From above, you could not see the array itself.

The rest of the fire oil was placed in the open space in front of the North Gate. Because the northern gate was a more passive defensive strategy, there was only a single 200 meter long ditch, the same combination of oil on water, covered with wood, which was covered with hay.

The villagers and remaining crossbowmen were ordered not to leave the village. Outside of the village, the ferry, logging and mining fields, quarry, shipyard, wharf, and salt fields had all ceased operation. The incoming beastwave was going to attack Shanhai itself, being driven to destroy all villages out here in the wilderness. They wouldn’t care about industries outside the village.

Acting in accord with Gu Xiuwen’s proposal for the defense strategy, Ouyang Shuo had formed two huge militia reserve teams. All of the members of the reserve teams had been trained by the soldiers to be able to skillfully throw javelins.

Militia reserve Team A, a total of 120 people, was captained by the secretary of the Reclamation Division, Zhao Dexian, with quarry field manager Zheng Shanpao as temporary lieutenant. They were stationed at the western gate, and responsible for any needed defense of the west.

Militia Reserve Team B, a total of 100 people, had the deputy secretary of the Construction Division, Zhao Dewang, as captain, with mining field manager Yuan Shaoping as his lieutenant. They were stationed at the north gate, and responsible for any fighting in the north.

The rest of the people, in addition to the elderly, women, and children, were all in the wartime logistics department. This numbered close to two hundred people, and Cui Yingyu, the Material Reserves Division Secretary, was the interim director.

The Logistics department was divided into four groups. The first was the medical rescue group, led by Dr. Song, with his four apprentices and twenty women to help him, responsible for treatment of the wounded.

The second was the material handling group, sixty people headed by lumber field head Zhao Youfang, responsible for moving, resupply, and retrieving arrows and javelins.

The third was the collection group, headed by advanced tailor Mu Qingsi, responsible for the collection of beast corpses and fur.

The last group was the cooking group, twenty people headed by senior cook Gu Sanniang, responsible for everyone’s food and drinking water supply.

In this way, Shanhai’s human resources were being deployed to their limit. Ouyang Shuo’s inner idea was that this war would be fought and won with proper organization and logistics.

Establishing a sound and efficient organization and leadership system, coupled with a scientific and rational logistics system, would be the key to winning this battle.

It was 7:30 AM, and all the villagers of Shanhai took their breakfast, and under the leadership of their captains, went off to their respective posts.

Ouyang Shuo was standing on the left side of the north gate, next to the tower there. Next to him was the second team of the cavalry team, led by San Gouzi.

“Sire, when will the beastwave start?” San Gouzi asked, a bit edgy.

“Soon, no more than half an hour before they appear at the edge of the territory.”

At 8 AM, a system announcement burst out, right on time!

“World Announcement: The Mandatory Global Territory Defense Quest - Siege of Beasts, has officially opened! Regional, national and global rankings are also opening at the same time! Best wishes to the Lords for victory!”

“World Announcement: The Mandatory Global Territory Defense Quest - Siege of Beasts, has officially opened! Regional, national and global rankings…."

“World Announcement: The Mandatory Global Territory Defense Quest - Siege of Beasts…."

In less than a minute following the triple announcement, smoke was rising from the distant top of a sentry tower.

At the edge of the territory where Ouyang Shuo couldn’t see, thousands of wild dogs, under a wild dog king, were rushing out of the woods, heading down towards Shanhai Village to kill everyone.

Wild dogs were only level 3 beasts, but were also the most numerous of the wild beasts. The elite dogs were level 5, while the wild dog king was a Boss and level 8.

The aggressive group of wild dogs had just entered the territory of Shanhai Village, and smashed head on into the first ring of defense. Countless traps were stepped on by the reckless wild dogs. Each pit was three meters long, a meter wide, and a full three meters deep, with the bottom filled with sharp wooden stakes. In their tight and intense formation, the wild dogs got their bitter fill of the defense rings as each trap each claimed four or five of them.

From the edge of the village to the village, it was simply a road of blood and tears for the dogs. Every step along the way, another trap seemed to open up to claim a toll of flesh and blood.

By the time they could see the gates of Shanhai Village, the nearly two thousand wild dogs had been reduced to less than half of that. Fortunately, the dogs had no thoughts of escaping, showing how deep their resentment of the village and its lord ran.

Four hundred meters away from the village, the surviving wild dogs split into two packs, heading towards the north and west gates. Ouyang Shuo hadn’t expected this! The main force, under the wild dog king, headed straight for the western gate. The remaining three hundred or so, under the leadership of elite wild dogs, headed for the north gate.

Behind the fence of the northern gate, Militia Team Two’s people stood as a team under the leadership of Zhao Dewang, waiting for the command to attack. At the foot of each villager were javelins stuck in the ground, ready to be thrown.

Ouyang Shuo stood on the tower, watching the huge pack of wild dogs close in. When they reached 150 meters out, he didn’t hesitate to start shooting with his bow, directly hitting an elite wild dog. His move was the starting gun. The cavalry team lined up on both sides of the towers with drawn bows aimed at the elite dogs, and immediately shot as well.

After a round of shooting, the number of elite dogs remaining was almost none. After shooting his first arrow, Ouyang Shuo lowered his bow, staring at the dogs and calculating their range.

When the pack was only sixty meters away, he immediately waved his flag. Zhao Dewang, watching Ouyang Shuo closely and seeing him wave the flag, immediately turned and shouted, “Throw!”

The reserve team immediately hurled out the javelins waiting in their hands over the fence. Immediately they picked up a second javelin stuck in the ground next to them, and did not hesitate to throw another volley. With repeated volleys, the dogs, barely sixty meters away, suffered three rounds of javelin attacks, and were almost wiped out.

With this, the second team of the cavalry, led by San Gouzi, burst out of the north gate and went after the dogs in a burst of slaughter. In less then ten minutes, the entire northern pack of wild dogs was annihilated.

At this time, Ouyang Shuo could hear the sounds of the system announcement going off in his ears.

“Regional Announcement: Liuzhou area Xiaogang Village failed to resist the beast attack, its name is expunged!”

…………...

“Regional Announcement: Lianzhou area Rich Village failed to resist the beast attack, its name is expunged!”

…………...

“Regional Announcement: Guilin area Green Water Village failed to resist the beast attack, its name is expunged!”

…………...

This was only the first wave of the attacking packs. Many villages did not manage to resist and were destroyed by the packs, their territories removed. After these players resurrected, they could only choose to reincarnate in personal adventure mode to continue their game career, the option of being a lord completely removed from them.

Having no time to feel for the fate of luckless others, Ouyang Shuo told the logistics department to rush outside and collect as many of the javelins as possible so they could be thrown again. After that, he rushed alone to the west side to see the situation over there.

By the time he reached the western gate, the fighting was almost over. Although nearly 700 dogs attacked, they were quickly eliminated, mainly by the cavalry waiting in ambush by the mining field.

They had waited until receiving a signal from the sentinel in the tower, indicating when the dog pack had clustered around the western gate. Suddenly thirty cavalry led by Lin Yi hit the pack from behind, shooting and trampling the dogs as they surrounded the pack. Combined with the barrage from inside, the dogs were soon eliminated.

The wild dog king was personally beheaded by General Shi, dropping a booklet. Shou took it from him to look over, found it was a manual. It was a good thing, but unfortunately right now he had neither mulberry leaves nor silkworms, so it would be difficult to use in the short term.

After this wave of attacks, Ouyang Shuo’s level shot up like a rocket to 22. And that was with each level after 20 becoming more and more difficult to achieve.

Seeing the western gate intact, Ouyang Shuo’s heart eased. He rode over to the eastern door, finding that only thirty wild dogs had attacked there. With no pressure, the attack was easily solved.

His inspection finished, Ouyang Shuo did not delay and rode back to the north gate quickly. He was expecting the second tide of the beastwave to begin soon!

Chapter 30 - Siege of Beasts, Part Three

Back at the northern gate, the logistics department had done an excellent job cleaning up the area, and the door was closed again. Ouyang Shuo once again climbed to the top of the tower.

In less than two minutes, he again saw smoke in the distance.

The time, it was wolves. Nearly a thousand wolves under the leadership of their king quietly rushed out of the woods, heading to Shanhai Village. Wolves were level 4, with a large population. Their elites were 6th level, while the pack king was a level 9 Boss.

Like the first wave of wild dogs, the wolves did not escape the nightmare of the defending traps. As the saying goes, even cunning prey cannot escape if a fine hunter sets a trap. Even with the wolves’ cunning nature, they also sustained heavy casualties passing the four consecutive rings of traps. Eventually, the wolves remaining to attack the village numbered less than six hundred.

However, the wolves were, in the end, wolves. More cunning than the dogs, after reaching the village they did not divide their numbers, but went instead straight to the western gate together. This unexpected tactic once again gave Ouyang Shuo a surprise.

With the wolves’ running speed, moving the militia to help out the western gate would be too little, too late. Ouyang Shuo could only gnash his teeth and tell Militia Reserve Team Two to stay put. Ouyang Shuo and second squad of the cavalry dashed immediately out of the gate to circle around and meet up with the other teams stationed by the mining field. Together, they would ambush the wolves in a bigger formation.

By the time Ouyang Shuo led the team there, the remnants of the wolves were about to climb the fence. He saw Lin Yi leading the other three squads in, riding hard. The two groups immediately moved to pincer the wolves between them, like two blades thrusting deep.

This time, the advantages of mounted archers were displayed. Before the cavalry even reached them, bow fire had paralyzed the wolves’ command system.

Although wolves were ferocious fighters, they had no defense to speak of in the face of fast attacking cavalry. With fragile bones, they could be stomped to death by a pair of hooves riding over them.

Even if they escaped the trampling crush of the horses, the soldiers could easily kill them. After all, they were only level 4.

Twenty minutes later, the wolves were finally destroyed, with Lin Yi having stabbed the pack king to death. The lead wolf dropped a small surprise for Ouyang Shuo.

Space Stone (small): After using this item, the storage capacity of your supply bag is increased to 10 cubic meters.

A player’s initial storage space was only a cubic meter in size. In order to enhance the capacity of the space, you could only use a space stone. Space stones were divided into small, medium, large, and giant sizes. Respectively, this represented 10 cubic meters, 100 cubic meters, 1000 cubic meters, and 10,000 cubic meters.

Ouyang Shuo directly used this, and watched his storage bag’s capacity immediately increased to 10 cubic meters.

During this whole time, the regional announcements did not stop. More and more territories fell, their names stricken from the rolls.

"Regional Notice: Dongchuan area Peach Blossom village failed to resist the beast attack, its name is expunged!"

…………...

"Regional Notice: Wuding District Baiyun Village failed to resist the beast attacks, its name is expunged!"

…………...

"Regional announcement: Lianzhou area Surabaya village failed to resist the mass of herds attack, its name is expunged!"

…………...

Ouyang Shuo took note of this. At this time, seven villages had fallen in the Lianzhou Basin area, their names taken off the list. There were a little under a hundred villages in the Basin originally. The quest was only half over, nearly a tenth of the lords were gone. The pain of this mandatory quest could be seen quite clearly.

This time, there were actually some wounded from the brief contact between the wolves and members of the militia reserve . Fortunately, the medical team members were standing by with Dr. Song to see to them.

Cleaning the battlefield was the responsibility of the logistics department, Ouyang Shuo did not tarry. He led the second squad back to the northern gate quickly.

Five minutes later, smoke rose to signal the alarm once again.

Horn of war, blows again!

The third beastwave was the level 5 boar group. Their elites were level 8, while the wild boar king was a level 10 Boss.

Speaking of wild boars, this could be a big issue for Shanhai Village. Ouyang Shuo had killed the previous wild boar king, its mate, and stolen their entire group of piglets!

This time, in order to take revenge for the previous wild boar king, the new generation had convened a horde more than four hundred meters across, leading nearly three thousand boars to Shanhai to take revenge.

Given the size of the boars were bulky, and the layout of the traps was extremely effective against them. Unfortunately, the preceding two waves of dogs and wolves had already triggered half of the traps. So after forcing their way through the rings of traps, the whole setup was mostly destroyed, and yet still more than two thousand boars were left behind. The next wave of beasts wouldn’t have to enjoy the hospitality of the traps.

400 meters from the village, the boars separated into two herds, heading for the north and western gates. They had the potential to bring Shanhai to ruin.

Ouyang Shuo looked at nearly a thousand boars heading towards the north gate, and his heart was bitter. This was a true cycle of causality, and the harvest of retribution was really bad.

Passive defense would not be enough. Shou came down the tower, called Zhao Dewang over, and put the flag into his hand, ordering him to head up the tower and take command.

“Captain Zhao, I pass over command to you. I have only one request, and that is you must hold for the arrival of reinforcements. You are the line of defense.”

Zhao Dewang’s scalp was tingling, looking a bit shellshocked. Heavens knew, before now, he wasn’t even official militia, and now he was in command?

Ouyang Shuo saw his nervousness, patted his shoulder and said gently, “Captain Zhao, do not be nervous, I believe you have the ability.”

Dewang did not say anything, but merely nodded his head.

This was an emergency, and Shou did not have the time to order everyone about. He rode out of the north gate with the second squad of cavalry. His plan was very simple: Use the advantages of the cavalry team, take the initiative, and split the numbers of wild boars to take the pressure off of the militia.

Before the wild boars could complete their encirclement, Ouyang Shuo and his team successfully broke out. Seeing a group of humans escaping seemed to drive the boars into a frenzy. The elites immediately split the herd, and half the boars made a U-turn to chase madly after the escaping cavalry.

As a direct result, the pressure on the northern gate was immediately reduced. Zhao Dewang stood on the tower, staring at the incoming pigs. When they were sixty meters away, he waved the flag and shouted, “THROW!”

With three consecutive volleys of javelin tossing, close to three hundred boards were instantly killed. Still, more than two hundred boars rushed to the fence. Zhao Dewang seemed to have been infected by the atmosphere of the battlefield, and rushed down the tower. He lifted a javelin in his hands, shouting, “Brothers, with me!”

He then rushed forward to engage the boars in close melee. Infected by his example, the militia reserve roared and charged to keep up, meeting the boars at the fence line.

Unfortunately, the number of militia units was limited, and in their hands a simple wooden javelin was not that dangerous. In less than five minutes, injuries began to accrue. Several times the boars almost broke through the fence, and the militia barely stopped them.

Zhao Dewang felt they were running out of time very fast, when finally the figures of the cavalry appeared in the distance, nearly fifty of them. Two volleys of arrows came streaking in, and the remaining wild pigs there were wiped clean away.

Behind the cavalry was the wild boar group that Ouyang Shuo had lured away. The cavalry rushed into the village, dismounted, and readied arrows for the incoming boars.

Seeing the rescue team arrive, the morale of the militia immediately rose, and they returned to their original positions. Once again, when the pigs arrived at the 60 meter mark, they did not hesitate to throw their javelins out.

With close to 100 members of the militia, plus almost all of the cavalry, the fate of the boars was sealed. The remaining boars had no defense, and soon were shot dead.

Ouyang Shuo finally breathed a sigh of relief. This wave had scared him too much. He walked over to Zhao Dewang’s side, patted his shoulder, smiled and said, “Captain Zhao, you did a great job. I heard your deeds have been heroic, just like a true man!”

Zhao Dewang smiled in relief. “The situation was urgent, I did not think much. Anyways, we could not let those beasts rush into our village.”

“Well, the fence is the last line of defense for our village, we must hold here,” Ouyang Shuo agreed solemnly.

He went to middle of the town to visit the injured. This time, more than 20 villagers had been injured, a heavy loss. In addition, one person was severely injured, his left hand bitten almost completely off by a wild pig.

Ouyang Shuo told the medical group to help the truly wounded back to the hospital for treatment. As for the minor injuries, as long as it did not affect them throwing a javelin, after their injuries were dressed, they returned to their posts. Ouyang Shuo could not forget that they still had one more beastwave to deal with.

Sure enough, after less than ten minutes of rest, the distant smoke from a sentry tower rose again.

The last wave of beasts was the most powerful. They were level 6 buffalos, their elites were level 10, while their king was a level 12 Boss. In front of this herd, most of the traps had already been destroyed. Except for an occasional loss, the traps didn’t form much of a threat to the incoming herd.

Still, even with a bull’s huge and robust body, the pits could be a threat, but there simply weren’t enough of them left. So, by the time nearly a thousand head of buffalo had wandered through the four rings of pit traps, the herd still numbered more than nine hundred.

Similar to the previous waves, the buffalo divided their force to attack the north and western gates. The northern gate’s force numbered less than three hundred head.

Although this last wave’s herd was extremely strong, Ouyang Shuo was not worried. He still had his trump card of the killer fire array, but had not used it yet, leaving it ready for this last wave.

In his ear constantly sounded the system announcements of territories fallen, but none that had resisted the Siege of Beasts. This showed that Shanhai’s efficiency in eliminating the beastwaves was actually pretty high.

Ouyang Shuo stood on the tower, calmly watching the bulls charging towards the fence. When they reached 50 meters from the fence, he lit a readied fire arrow. Hissing fiercely, the fire arrow was accurately fired down into the trench filled with hot oil.

It took merely seconds for the two hundred meter ditch to fill up with fire. The foremost bulls charged right into the flames and bawled endlessly as they burned. Behind them, the rest of the buffalo pulled up in fright at the sight of the flames.

At this time, the militia’s javelins and the crossbows of the cavalry descended like a wave of death, volley after volley coming down on the cattle that had come to a complete stop.

In less than ten minutes, the buffalo outside the north gate were completely eliminated. As for the western gate, Ouyang Shuo was not worried at all. He knew there was an even more powerful fire array set up there.

Sure enough, even before Ouyang Shuo could rush over to the western gate, a burst of pleasant system music sounded in his ear with another announcement.

“World Announcement: Congratulations to Shanhai Village in China. Under the leadership of its lord, it has succeeded in resisting the Siege of Beasts, and is now ranked first in the world!”

“World Announcement: Congratulations to Shanhai Village in China...”

“World Announcement: Congratulations...”

The triple announcement started a global outcry. This time, Ouyang Shuo was truly going to be famous...

Chapter 31 - Ranking

Even Ouyang Shuo couldn’t believe that Shanhai Village turned out to be the first village in the world to successfully resist the Siege of Beasts. The alchemical fire oil had really wrought a miracle.

Because it was a worldwide quest, the rewards would wait until all the lords had finished the quest before they were issued. With the free time, Ouyang Shuo went to the west gate to look over the situation there.

Along the west side of the village near the gate, the fire array was still burning. The fire array had basically trapped the buffalo herd inside a large trap, albeit without using spikes. Cattle corpses with arrows and javelins sticking out of them were everywhere. Even the buffalo king had been directly killed by General Shi with a bow and arrow with no way of fighting back.

Ouyang Shuo told the Logistics Department to fill the ditch of hot oil with soil and extinguish the fire. If they just waited for it to go out, he had no idea how long it might take.

After the fires had been put out, he walked out in the array, stopping next to the body of the boss buffalo to see what items had fallen. Picking it up, a look told him that it was a manual.

This was a really good thing. The animal breeding in his territory would usher in a whole new era of development!

Ouyang Shuo immediately called Lin Yi, telling him to take forty cavalry, and fly along the path that the herd of cattle had come from. They were to take full advantage of the lack of danger in the wilderness and to capture as many small buffalo as possible, bringing them back to be domesticated.

With the mobility of the cavalry, rounding up the smaller cattle and herding them into a group together to bring them back to the village should not be a problem.

Similarly, he called on San Gouzi, and had him lead the Second Squad and 30 Team militia reserves, and head back in the direction the wild boars had come from. They were to look for piglets. Although he already had a dozen of them, that was far below the numbers he would need to seriously establish a pig farm. Why not take advantage of this great opportunity to catch enough piglets at once and expand the scale of his pig farming?

Waiting until the two teams were on their way, Ouyang Shuo also called over the Construction Division secretary, Zhao Dewang. “Secretary Zhao, I have two tasks to give the Construction Division!”

“Lord, please tell me!” As long as it was about building things, the secretary is not worried about anything.

“First, as soon as you can organize the staff, on the west side of the village we need to build a large cattle pen and pig sty. This will ensure that when the cavalry teams bring back the young cattle and pigs, they have somewhere to live.

“Second, work with the Material Reserves Division to clean up and fill in the pit traps. The animal corpses in the pits are the responsibility of the Material Reserves Division, and filling them in is the responsibility of the Construction Division, restore the original appearance of the land. Remember, do not miss any of the traps. Otherwise, catching some of our people wandering around would be a really bad joke,” Ouyang Shuo said seriously.

Zhao Dewang looked serious and said firmly, “I guarantee it will be done right!”

At this time, General Shi came over to him, smiled, and handed him an object. It was the thing the wild boar king had dropped.

Ouyang Shuo examined it, finding out it was a talisman. Such a talisman was a trump card, the kind of thing that if you used it at a key moment, it could save your life.

[ Talisman of Blood Thirsting ]: After using this, you enter into a bloodthirsty rage. Your combat power is doubled for half an hour. After the rage expires, you will be weakened for two days.

During this period of time, he was constantly hearing more system announcements. Most of the lord players had failed and their territories were removed from the lists. But then finally came another success, and one after another, names were filling the the world ranking lists.

“World announcement: Congratulations to the Free Village of the United States! Under the Leadership of their Lord Jeff Dawson, they have succeeded in fighting off the Siege of Beasts, and are ranked second in the world!”

……

“World announcement: Congratulations to the Handan Village in China! Under the Leadership of their Lord Di Chen, they have succeeded in fighting off the Siege of Beasts, and are ranked fourth in the world!”

……

“World announcement: Congratulations to the Vic Village of France! Under the Leadership of their Lord Henry, they have succeeded in fighting off the Siege of Beasts, and are ranked tenth in the world!”

……

In less than an hour, the top ten of the world charts were set. Ouyang Shuo looked at the world list. The only difference in it from his past life was that Canada’s Maple Leaf Village was not there, having been squeezed out of the top ten as a direct result of his own appearance.

1st - China - Shanhai Village - Qiyue Wuyi

2nd - The United States - Free Village - Jack Dawson

3rd - Russia - St. Petersburg - Pushkin

4th - China - Handan Village - Di Chen

5th - Germany - Rhine Village - Manstein

6th - Japan - Sanli Village - Honda Keisuke

7th - India - Bengalore Village - Durava

8th - Britain - Avic Fort - William

9th - South Korea - Ulsan Village - Park Wins

10th - France - Vic Village - Henry

Because of the emergence of Ouyang Shuo, the top ten list of the world now had two Lords from the same country. Suddenly, the Chinese scene looked very different.

At this moment, near Handan Village, a handsome young man was staring at the world rankings, his expression gloomy. He was the lead of the Handan Six Tyrants, Di Chen. Next to him was sitting a peerlessly beautiful woman, named Juedai Fenghua. Nobody except Di Chen was aware of her identity in reality.

In the past life, out of the women on China’s top ten beauty billboard, she was ranked second from the top. The first was the only woman lord player in Handan Six Tyrants, Feng Qiuhuang.

Juedai Fenghua was not a vase on a pedestal. Di Chen considered her his first counselor. Anyone who underestimated her wisdom would not have a good ending.

“You said that this Qiyue Wuyi was not merely lucky?” Juedai Fenghua asked.

Di Chen frowned, hesitantly admitting, “His identity, I am afraid no one knows yet. But for Shanhai Village, I have some conjectures.”

“Oh? What kind of thoughts?” Feng Huajue seemed a little surprised.

“I heard my father mention something about the village order. He said, that in order to balance out your privileged players, gold-level village tokens were hidden in the village build task,” Di Chen told her uncertainly. After all, the news about the inner workings of the game were very confidential, outsiders could only hear rumors.

“If you do not remember, he was the seventh in China to build a player village. From the opening of the game, it took him less than two hours. That is, he should be the fastest player to actually complete building a village. With that speed, his task completion rate should not be so high,” Juedai Fenghua analyzed, somewhat hesitant.

“No matter what, this time Handan Village did not even enter the top three of the world, instead some nobody from nowhere had claimed the throne. This is a great blow to our prestige, and I am afraid that the rats, those who are ready to act will become restless.”

Juedai Fenghua laughed gently. “Those rats will never be enough for the real stage.”

Di Chen was silent. This was truth, but difficult to swallow.

Following this, China’s rankings were also officially released. Unsurprisingly, almost everyone from the previous forecast on the forums was on the list.

What left Ouyang Shuo dumbfounded was that the person he had ‘stolen’ the gold-level village token from, Xunlong Dianxue, was actually on the list, having been second on it in his previous life. Because Ouyang Shuo had entered the world list, Xunlong Dianxue had come in twelfth and received the tenth prize. How fate made it happened, was difficult to say.

1st - Dali - Shanhai Village - Qiyue Wuyi

2nd - Jingdu - Handan Village - Di Chen

3rd - Xiangyang - Pill Sun Village - Chun Shenjun

4th - Chengdu - Swordsman Village - Feng Qingyang

5th - Luoyang - Fallen Phoenix Village - Feng Huajue

6th - Xianyang - Asura Village - Sha Pojun

7th - Jianye - Blood Red Village - Zhan Lang

8th - Quanzhou - King Village - Xiongba

9th - Chang’an - Fallen Leaves Village - Wandering Magic

10th - Jingdu - Stone Village - Wu Fu

11th - Dali - Consonance Village - Baihua

12th - Quanzhou - Seeking Dragon Village - Xunlong Dianxue

Description: Because there are two China players in the world ranking, the rankings were automatically extended by two.

Out of the list of 12 lords, the one Ouyang Shuo was most concerned about was the other lord in Dali. Consonance village lord was the legendary Chinese electronic sports star, Baihua.

According to the news in his past life, Baihua should be the same as him, a civilian player. To achieve results like this truly showed her strength. As she also ranked in the top three of Chinese beauties, as well as being a master player, Baihua’s appeal in the player groups was very powerful.

Also in the previous game, Baihua was not alone. Three years ago, she established her own game studio - Consonance Studio. The core members of the studio were all beautiful women. In addition to Baihua, there was Zi Luolan, Hong Ying, and Tsing Yi.

An hour later, Dali’s regional rankings were finally released. This really showed the difference in the local lords’ abilities.

1 - Lianzhou area - Shanhai Village - Qiyue Wuyi

2 - Kunming area - Consonance Village - Baihua

3 - Sishui Area - Liangshan Village - Zhanxingji Land

4 - Liuzhou area - Floating Village - Fluttering Liu

5 - Lianzhou area - Broken Blade Village - Ba Dao

6 - Tengyue Area - Ancient Village - QinHan Siyuan

7 - Lianzhou Area - Mulan Village - Mulan Yue

8 - Guilin Area - Vest Village - Passers-by

9 - Dongchuan Area - Villains Villager - Villains Must Die

10 - Wuding Area - Famous Village - Written in the World

11 - Chuxiong Area - Wuli Village - Li Xiaobo

12 - Lianzhou Area - Windy Days Village - Xiaofeng Moon

Note: Because Dali had two players enter the national list for China, the list has been extended by two.

In the Dali regional list, the Lords of the Lianzhou Basin had four people in the rankings, accounting for a third of them. In addition to Ouyang Shuo, the three major overlords from his previous life were all represented here.

After the last of the three lists was released, there was a burst of music in Ouyang Shuo’s ear again.

“System Tip: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for leading Shanhai Village to resist the Siege of Beasts and completing the mandatory defensive quest. Your quest rewards follow…

“System Tip: Player Qiyue Wiyu, for making it into the top three of the world list, you have achieved a reward of 3000 merit points, 600 gold coins, and a random secret building!

“System Tip: Your random secret building has been selected - Recruitment Hall! Your building has automatically been generated in your territory, please inspect it!”

Oh God, it was actually the Recruitment Hall! Ouyang Shuo had a feeling of ascending to heaven. In his view, the combined merit points and gold coins could not even match the value of the Recruitment Hall!

Chapter 32 - Recruitment Hall

The Recruitment Hall was located in his educational and cultural district, next to the private school.

Name: Recruitment hall

Type: Secret Class Building

Function: Randomly recruit a special talent every month, randomly recruit a historical talent every year.

Features: Special talent attraction rate increased by 20%; Reputation of the territory is increased by 5%.

Description: This is a specially designed hiring location. Recruiting a special talent costs 10 gold coins. Recruiting a historical talent costs 100 gold coins. Recruitment chances cannot be accumulated, and can expire.

It was worthy of it being known as the secret class building that was comparable to a God-level equipment. Its properties’ descriptions were simple yet strong. It acted like a gravity stone, attracting and providing steady streams of talents to the territory.

Special talent attraction rate increased by 20%: This is comparable to the gold level attraction ability of Shanhai Village. After the two abilities are summed, the ability to attract special talents increases by 40%.

Territory reputation increased by 5%: This was a rarer feature, so far found only in the similar secret class building, the Mazu Temple. Even a gold level village did not have such a feature built into it.

The most intuitive power was the recruiting function. This was a loved or hated power. Loved, because it made it easy to recruit special talents and historical talents. Hated, because of the high recruitment costs.

Gold on hand was precious stuff, and bringing it up brought forth bitter tears. Even with Ouyang Shuo being so lucky, and the Handan Six Tyrants being so powerful, they never had too much loose gold on hand.

If he hadn’t had the world’s award of 600 gold coins, Ouyang Shuo wouldn’t have considered using the Hall at all. He would’ve rather wasted the opportunity to recruit than spend precious gold on recruiting talents.

From the outside, the Recruitment Hall was only an ordinary wooden building. There were no carvings on the walls, nor did it use fine woods. The main difference was that the workmanship was unusually fine compared to the other buildings in the village.

He opened the doors of the main hall. Hanging on the walls around him were twelve portraits of the ancient sages. That is, Confucian-style saints, and also hermits like Zhulin Qixian.

There was a binding location next to a wooden sign, with a handprint on it for him. Ouyang Shuo put his hand in the there, then came the spurring of a system prompt.

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for opening the Recruitment Hall. The first time you open the Recruitment Hall, you automatically get a chance to recruit a special talent and an opportunity for a historic talent. Do you wish to recruit anyone?”

“Recruit special talent!”

“System Tip: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for successfully recruiting a special talent - an advanced winemaker! 10 gold coins are automatically being deducted.”

A white light flashed, and a middle-aged man came out of nowhere before Ouyang Shuo. He bowed in salute, respectfully saying, “Civilian Du greets sire!”

“Master Du, please!” Ouyang Shuo guided Master Du to the side, before once again placing his hand.

“System Tip: You still have a remaining opportunity to recruit historical talent. Do you wish to recruit?”

“Recruit please!”

“System Tip: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wiyu for successfully recruiting the king-level historical figure Fan Zhongyan! 100 gold coins are automatically deducted.”

As the white light flashed, a middle-aged scholar arrived from nowhere. “Mr. Xi Wen greets the lord!” he said immediately.

Ouyang Shuo quickly stepped forwards, his hands virtually supporting the other man, sincerely saying, “It is good you came so quickly, there is much to do!”

He took them out of the recruitment hall, assessing Fan Zhongyan as he did so.

Name: Fan Zhongyan (aka Xi Wen) (King Level)

Title: Great Scholar

Dynasty: The Northern Song Dynasty

Identity: Shanhai Villager

Occupation: Civil Servant

Loyalty: 45 points

Command: 45

Force: 30

Intelligence: 75

Political: 80

Features: Awe-inspiring righteousness (enhances territorial integrity by 40%); Worries about the land (enhances territorial efficiency by 20%); Gracious (enhances the humanist level of the territory by 15%)

Evaluation: The Northern Song Dynasty was famous for thinkers, politicians, military strategists, writers, fine culture, and geniuses. Xian, placed people's happiness before his and took care of their worries first.

Coming back to the Lord’s manor, Ouyang Shuo called in Er Wazi, told him to go find the secretaries and invite them to the chamber, as there were matters to discuss. He personally led Fan Zhongyan into the chamber to chat.

Although Fan Zhongyan was a civilian, his literary attainments were high. Even at the level of a chat, Ouyang Shuo felt more than a little overwhelmed: his knowledge of the classics was not high enough. He could only keep up with the principle of staying silent and saying nothing wrong, while being a good listener.

In less than twenty minutes the division chiefs had arrived. Mu Qing Si also followed Cui Yingyu in to join the fun. Ouyang Shuo cheerfully opened the meeting, saying, “The war to defend the village has just ended, and I know that you are very busy. In order not to delay everyone, I will cut a long story short.”

He took a look at Fan Zhongyan. “Sitting next to me is Mr. Fan Zhongyan(Xi Wen), man of wide-knowledge. Let us welcome him and get to know each other.”

Everyone greeted him naturally. There was naturally a great respect for scholars of his caliber from the secretaries. Except for Gu Xiuwen and Cui Yingyu, the others were basically born as peasants. Zhao Dexian, who was more knowledgeable, could only recognize a few words, let alone the others.

“I have decided to set up an Administration Department to take charge of all of the day to day governmental affairs in the territory. The Material Reserves Division will still operate independently. The Construction Division, the Reclamation Division, the Salt Pan Division, and the Household Registration Office will all be moved under the jurisdiction of the Administration Department.”

“I am appointing Mr. Zhongyan as the Director of Administration, managing the daily affairs of the active territory as Chief of the Civil Service. At the same time, I will also be moving the post of the Secretary of the Salt Fields Division to him.”

Fan Zhongyan had the experience of managing salt pans in the past, therefore, Ouyang Shuo was rest assured with him managing the salt fields. After all, he himself couldn’t leave the territory, while the salt pans would be slowly expanding outside the territory. He really had no way to manage the salt pans himself.

Fan Zhongyan flew to his feet. “Xi Wen thanks the lord for his trust, I will not disappoint you!”

“Gu Xiuwen, I hereby appoint you as the director assistant, your main duty is to assist the Director of Administration in handling the day to day government affairs, and will still be in charge of household registration,” Ouyang Shuo went on.

His arrangements were naturally made in the hope that Gu Xiuwen would be learning from Scholar Zhongyan of his ability and experience in government affairs.

“Zhao Dewang, Deputy Secretary of the Construction Department, in this battle for our village, you have had an outstanding performance, and fought well. You are officially promoted to Secretary of Construction.”

Zhao Dewang excitedly voiced his thanks and gratitude. His office finally matched his duties. Wearing the title of Deputy Secretary while doing the job of a Secretary did not sit well with him. Now, the load was off his shoulders.

“For the rest of our personnel in dealing with this adjustment, I hope you will help the new director out diligently. I am well aware of your performances. For those who have done well, I will never be stingy in rewarding you.”

Mu Qingsi, seated behind Cui Yingyu while watching Ouyang Shuo issue orders, leaned forwards and said in a conspiratorial whisper, “Big brother looks so handsome when dealing with governmental affairs.”

Cui Yingyui inadvertently blushed as she swept Ouyang Shuo a glance, her heart suddenly beats harder and a trace of color flashing up her cheek. In order to cover her panic, she turned and hit Mu Qingsi on the head, with a strong smile saying, “Little girl, your big sister brought you over here to make you familiar with government, not to talk about big brother’s appearance. You are so naughty.”

Yingyu knew Mu Qingsi was young, but she was intelligent and serious while working. She wanted to cultivate Mu Qingsi more to enter the civil service such that she could help her in the Material Reserves Division in the future. She did not expect her little sister’s mind to be totally elsewhere.

“Governmental stuff is so boring. Oh, I don’t like it, I just want to be a small tailor, hee hee!” This was a heart of purity. No wonder she had progressed so quickly in the tailoring field.

Cui Yingyu went silent upon hearing this, knowing that her civil servant training plan was dead before it had gotten off the floor.

Ouyang Shuo noted the little tricks of this prankster, and sent a cool look her way. Mu Qingsi instantly straightened up and transformed into a proper young lady, obediently sitting in the back and was motionless, also exaggerating a bit with a small hand over her mouth. Her large eyes met his with an innocent expression in them.

He reluctantly smiled slightly, no longer caring about her, and turned back to the crowd. “The proceedings have ended; you may disperse. As soon as possible, finish the after-war cleaning up work.”

“Tomorrow morning, Shanhai Village will reach the full population. That means, as of tomorrow, Shanhai Village can be be upgraded to a grade 3 village. After the promotion to a grade 3 village, there will be more things to do. Therefore, you need to handle your tasks promptly, don’t leave extra works behind!”

Everyone there rose, bowed, and quickly departed.

Ouyang Shuo called over Gu Xiuwen, explaining to him that he should take Mr. Xi Wen around the territory to get a good grasp of the basic situation here, and help acclimate Mr. Xi Wen to Shanhai as part of his new family. In addition, he should arrange Mr. Xi Wen’s accommodations temporarily in the West Wing.

Shuo would also be handing over the winemaker, Du Chun, to Gu Xiuwen, and ordered Gu Xiuwen to make arrangements for the winemaker.

After all this, Ouyang Shuo headed back to his office. Now that the territory had Fan Zhongyan and General Shi, two major talents for the government and military, he now had more energy to devote to the development strategy of the territory.

After experiencing the Siege of Beasts defensive quest, Shanhai Village had surged in front of the world. His future operations, ensuring that the desired benefits were attained, would have to be carefully planned out.

Chapter 33 - Aftermath

At 4 PM, Lin Yi was leading the riders that were bringing the cattle back.

They made a mighty sound as they rode back, because they were driving nearly a hundred calves with them. The little buffalo had lost their parents and were in a half-panic. Catching and herding them where the cavalry wanted them to go had not been difficult.

On the west side of the village, a row of pig stys and cattle pens had been built with the greatest speed possible. Ouyang Shuo stood aside next to Cui Yingyu. Watching the calves getting locked up in the cattle pens, he emitted a long sigh of relief, smiling and saying, “This is the beginning of a great development in our animal husbandry industry! I’ve been thinking, at this stage...I am planning to leave animal husbandry under Material Reserves Division’s care, are you confident that you can do it?”

Yingyu said, “Of course! Only, big brother, you favor too much on the Material Reserves Division. I am afraid the other divisions might have opinions…”

“What manner of views are you talking about? These are an important source of meat in the territory, and it should be under the Material Reserves Division as a type of counterpart management.”

“Big brother, you know that is not what I am saying. The Material Reserves Division now manages the lumber field, quarry, iron mine, granary, fishery, and animal husbandry, basically the entire supply chain of the territory. And in your adjustment this morning, the other divisions are now under the jurisdiction of the newly established Administration Department, only the Material Reserves Division operates independently. I am afraid of such a special status, and that some people will be jealous.”

With Yingyu saying this, Ouyang Shuo naturally considered things along her lines. Others would think that this arrangement was a result of their relationship, instead of why he had truly done these things. He hadn’t communicated with her clearly enough and considered the implications.

“So this is what you are worrying about, well I don’t see it as important. The territory is still in the stage of a mixed big pot, everything we produce is unified by the territory so as to store and distribute everything by degree of importance and need, instead of favoritism. This requires a trustworthy person, and I trust you....but this ends on the day the territory is privatized. At that time, the days of the Material Reserves Division will come to an end.

“At that time, I will readjust the Material Reserves Division. Some of the duties will still be independent of the Administration Division. Therefore, it is not advisable to simply allocate the Material Reserves Division to the Administration Division to avoid future conflicts.”

“Since big brother has thought the problem through, Yingyu is not worried.”

“Oh, yes, after processing all the bodies of the beasts from this morning, how was our harvest?” Ouyang Shuo asked with interest.

“First of all, meat. Wolf meat, dog meat, boar pork and beef are all edible. A wild dog or wolf is worth about 15 units of meat, a boar about 60 units, and 100 units of beef can be harvested off the buffalo. This time, we have collected about 310 thousand units of meat! The Material Reserves Division is ready to salt this meat and then store it. For a year’s time, we will not lack meat, and will even have a surplus.

“The second harvest was skins and furs. We collected more than 6500 animal skins. Damaged hides, we collected 4000. Ordinary hides were 1500 in number, 800 exquisite hides, and 200 perfect hides.” A thought struck her suddenly. “Oh, yes, little sister asked me before, how do you wish to deal with these hides?”

Ouyang Shuo smiled. “This is easy to handle. The fine and delicate hides are to be handed over to Mu Qingsi to deal with as she wishes. The rest, first put into the warehouse to store them and wait until we privatize in the future, they will be distributed directly to the villagers.”

“Ah, little sister was worried about it, afraid that you would be sending so many furs to her for treatment, and afraid she would be too busy. Also, in addition to the meat and hides, there are things like grease, horns, tendons, and similar things.”

The meat, fur and other materials were in fact a hidden reward from the system for completing the quest. With the meat, they could greatly ease the food crisis for the territory that was soon to arrive. Whether if you could make full use of these gifts, that simply depends on your own abilities.

“The tendons, horns, and leathers are to be stored separately as strategic materials, they will be used in the production of armor and weapons as raw materials,” Ouyang Shuo reminded her after she mentioned them.

About this time, San Gouzi returned with his team. They had another half-dozen piglets with them to show to Ouyang Shuo.

Returning to the manor, he met Fan Zhongyan again, who had been led around the village by Gu Xiuwen, and just arrived back at the yard. Shuo said with a smile, “Ours is a just a simple little village, we’re sorry Mr Xi Wen had to endure it.”

“Shanhai Village, although only a grade 2 village, had a reasonable layout, well-planned and orderly, whether it was work areas, living areas, or industry, it was all well organized. This showed the potential of the village. Xi Wen could only admire the man who had planned it all out.”

Getting praised by Fan Zhongyan was a definite achievement, and flattering. Being not a little proud of his work, and finally someone appreciating his work, gave his self-confidence a little boost.

Truthfully, his methods of setting up a village were not really original. A lot of them came from the painful groping of his predecessors, and constantly revising the results. He was standing on the shoulders of giants, combining their village designs with flexible applications.

“With your help, Mr. Xi Wen, I believe the administrative efficiency of Shanhai Village will be on an even higher level,” Shuo said in earnest.

Fan Zhongyan fell silent. In this regard, he didn’t have to be too modest.

Bidding farewell to Fan Zhongyan, Ouyang Shuo headed back to his office, spent an hour reading, and then logged out of the game.

Today was the weekend, Bing’er and Xiaoyue did not have to go to school. They did not go out today, but stayed together at home. Even after Ouyang Shuo had done his morning run and returned, the two pretty ladies were still sleeping in. He helplessly sighed and put their breakfast into the microwave.

Back in his bedroom, he opened up his handbrain, checking out the game forum.

On the forum headlines, naturally Shanhai Village making the #1 in the world was at the top of the discussion posts. This time the interest of the people was not just a passing thing, unlike the upgrade to grade 2 village. This time, not only the Chinese players, but those in other countries, were also wondering about the real identity of Qiyue Wuyi.

Many foreign players had come to the Chinese forum to inquire about Qiyue Wuyi. Unfortunately, the Chinese players themselves had no knowledge of Qiyue Wuyi, so they could only return empty-handed.

This time the comments were completely one-sided. Nobody was thinking that Qiyue Wuyi was simply lucky this time around.

1 - Qiyue Wuyi has reached the top, glory for China, congrats, congrats!

2 - Congratulations +1, keep up the pattern from below!

3 - Congratulations +2, Qiyue Wuyi, raging on the Six Tyrants of Handan, awesome!

4 - Mighty +1, heihei, There will be a good show coming up in China server!

5 - Onlookers +1, the Six Tyrants must be miserable, you are threatening their lead!

6 - Upstairs be careful of your words! I am Feng Qiuhuang, congratulations to Qiyue Wuyi for reaching first place, I look forward to cooperating with you!

7- Wow, the goddess is posting too!

8- Wife, come out to see the goddess ~~~~ oh, not the face!

9 - upstairs 2B, touchy the goddess…

10 - I am Chun Shenjun, congratulating Qiyue Wuyi for his success and reaching the top, looking forward to cooperating with you!

11 - The god of wealth comes and the evil goes!

12 - Qiyue Wuyi is really powerful and domineering, ah, the Six Tyrants of Handan are only so so!

13 - Qiyue Wuyi, seeking your contact information! This is my picture!

14 - Upstairs is a beauty, confirmed!

15 - Oh my god, another flower on a pile of shit…”

Seeing the messages of Feng Qiuhuang and Chun Shenjun, Ouyang Shuo wondered if he wasn’t seeing a crack in their hegemony, it seems they weren’t a piece of iron. Still, best to be silent and choose when to confront them at his discretion. They might be voicing support, but didn’t really want to cooperate with him.

For the representatives of the major powers, they’d been immersed in an environment of intrigues since childhood. Ouyang Shuo dealing with them would just be a mouse in their eyes.

Hence, he certainly would not be so silly, facing their short-term honey faces for their long term knives. In the face of intrigue, they were monsters, and only by absolute strength could he defeat them, the one and only king’s way he will follow.

Of course, before there were real conflicts of interest, he wasn’t going to take the initiative to stir up trouble. This time, the world quest had pushed him thoroughly to the edge. In China, such an environment was too exposed, it wasn’t not a good thing. Especially in the unstable early days.

He would have to show his strength at some point. He had to conserve his lead, concentrate on operations within his territory. Accumulation was the way to win.

Another hot topic on the forum caught his eye, the topic was interesting - Ouyang Shuo looked at the poster’s ID, Bai Xiaosheng.

He laughed. Bai Xiaosheng was synonymous with China’s intellectuals. Nobody would try to fake this ID, or they’d be flamed in the forums without hesitation.

According to Bai Xiaosheng’s statistics, at least one quarter of the territories in the game were removed by the Siege of Beasts. It had taken luck to survive, and many of the territories had also suffered heavy losses.

It is not uncommon that the fence was broken and the manor destroyed. Some territories only had their manor survive, and were basically back to where they had been at the beginning. Fortunately, the damaged buildings could be rebuilt, they didn’t need to repurchase the blueprints, or the lords might go crazy.

According to Bai Xiaosheng’s inquiries, even the Six Tyrants of Handan had been subjected to varying degrees of damages. Ouyang Shuo was the only one who got away with his territory completely intact.

The greatest loss was the sharp decline in population. In a defensive warfare, without reliable fortifications, it would mean losses. In some territories, the losses includes losing half the population.

The totalled losses of people and buildings would greatly delay the progress of a territory towards the upgrade. Shuo estimated that there was not anyone who could compete with him for the grade 3 village upgrade ranking.

Chapter 34 - Grade 3 Village

At 10 AM, Bing’er and Sun Xiaoyue finally got up. In the face of these two lazy bugs, Ouyang Shuo was helpless. He took the breakfast in the microwave and poured it into the trash. He headed downstairs, off to the supermarket to buy them something for brunch.

While they were eating, Xiaoyue gave Ouyang Shuo a puzzled look, and asked him, “Hey, big brother Ouyang Shuo. Yesterday I logged into the forum of that game you play, Earth Online, and saw them talking about the Handan Six hegemony. Are their real-life identities really that strong and scary, or is it just not true?”

Ouyang Shuo was surprised, not expecting this line of heavy questioning or her curiosity, inadvertently saying, “Most of it is true.”

“This is so weird. With their background, why would all of them enter together? Is there some sort of secret behind it?” Her words began to burn with the soul of a gossip.

Ouyang Shuo’s heart was aflutter, but he pretended to be calm as he said, “Secret? This isn’t television, the game is the game, what secret?”

“Well, what do you know? I feel that you are a little strange as if you understand the game a little too well…” Ouyang Shuo had to say, women’s intuitions were sometimes really scary.

“If you’re so curious, you should do something about it.”

“Come on, it’s a lot of money. I couldn’t ask for it from my family,” Xiaoyue said, still hesitant.

Ouyang Shuo coughed once. “In fact, I could loan you the money if you’re okay with it.”

Xiaoyue’s eyes instantly went wide open, blushing deeply. “Big brother, what did you say? Are you trying to flirt with me?”

Ouyang Shuo had just said something off the top of his head, causing her to misunderstand his intentions. In response, he muttered, “What? Flirting with a girl with no chest and no ass?”

His eyes were wide open, unblinking. Xiaoyue looked down at her chest, blushed even redder, and loudly blurted out, “Pervert!”. And then, ignoring Ouyang Shuo, she buried herself in her food.

Bing’er, sitting on the side like a ghostly spirit, watched this little play with relish. This time, she turned to Ouyang Shuo, grinning, and said, “Brother, shame shame!”

Ouyang Shuo knocked on his little sister’s head. “Be good and finish your meal!”

After the meal, the three people were together on the sofa in the living room, watching a hit TV series. No one mentioned the topic at the dinner table. Ouyang Shuo certainly wasn’t going to force the topic!

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

Once again in the game world, the territory seemed quiet. Ouyang Shuo came into his office, and just as he entered, Gu Xiuwen came in. “Sire, I come to report!”

“Oh? About what?” Ouyang Shuo thought that something was strange. It was reasonable to say that with the establishment of the Administration Division, Xiuwen should’ve been reporting to Fan Zhongyan.

“This is the case. The influx of immigrants today was not the previous number of 15 people, but a full 52, suddenly jumping the population up over the 500 person ceiling. It was quite strange, so I came specifically to sire to report,” Gu Xiuwen explained.

Ouyang Shuo suddenly remembered why this happened. The design of the game was very realistic. Yesterday, nearly a quarter of the territories were destroyed by the battle. The survivors of those territories reappeared in the wilderness.

Overnight, the number of refugees in the wilderness had soared. In order to promptly process these people, the system had arranged this higher influx event.

The number of people coming in with this event was based partly on territorial reputation. Shanhai village had the Mazu temple and the recruitment hall, these two special buildings to improve the reputation of his territory, which was a huge advantage here.

Ouyang Shuo calmly explained the cause and effect to Xiuwen. “This was something I expected to happen. The reason for this mass influx has its root in the siege defense from yesterday, there is nothing to be surprised about. I estimate that it will take a few days and then return to normal.”

“Very good! Now that the territory’s population is full, are we going to upgrade?”

“Naturally! Let’s go to the council chamber now.”

Ouyang Shuo walked into the council chamber at the heart of his manor. A white light flashed, and in the middle of the chamber, the golden heartstone of the village rose slowly from the ground. Pressing his right hand to the stone, the system prompts sounded.

“System Tip: Detecting Shanhai Village upgrades conditions…

“Condition 1: Minimum population of 500 people; Population is over the limit and has met the requirements!

“Condition 2: All required infrastructure must be complete; Infrastructure is complete and has met the requirements!

“Condition 3: The Lord must have a Title of at least First Grade Baron; The Lord has met the requirements!

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for establishing all the conditions to upgrade Shanhai Village! Do you wish to upgrade?”

“Yes!”

From the stone once again burst the golden light, a pillar rising high into the sky, turning into a massive golden halo that once again extended out to the new edges of his territory before disappearing.

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for becoming the first lord to upgrade to a Grade 3 Village! Your reward is 1100 merit points!”

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for becoming...”

“System Notification: Congratulations...”

This time, the players were not surprised by the system announcement. Compared to the miracle Shanhai Village had completed yesterday, this upgrade to a grade 3 village was nothing.

“System Tip: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for upgrading Shanhai Village to a Grade 3 Village! The Lord’s Manor will upgrade automatically! In addition, you can select one of three randomly selected buildings to add to your infrastructure!”

“System Notification: The selection of random buildings is completed! You may choose from the Weapons Workshop, the Basic Pottery Workshop, or the Wine Workshop, please choose!”

“I choose the Wine Workshop!”

“System notification: Building automatically generated, please take a look!”

A white light flashed, and with a quiet hum the gold heartstone once again slowly sank into the ground.

Territory: Shanhai Village (grade 3 village)

Lord: Qiyue Wiyu (First Class Viscount)

Title: None

Morale: 85

Security: 80

Territory population: 540/1000

Flow rate of immigrants: 10 * (1 + 50%) = 15 / day

Territory area: 100 square kilometers

Territorial characteristics: 50% increase attracting migrants, 20% increase in attracting special talents, 50% increase in crop production, 20% increase in production capacity of residents, 20% increase in military promotion, 10% increase in talent breakthroughs.

Treasury: 490 gold coins, 96 silver coins, 25 copper coins

Territory Resources: 1100 units of grains, 5200 units of wood, 900 units of stone, 500 units of iron ore

Territorial army: Crossbow Cavalry (50)

Territory Industry: Northern Salt Pan (500 mu)

Political index: 35/100 (determines administrative efficiency and relationship with the people)

Economic index: 15/100 (determines trade prosperity and ability to pay taxes)

Cultural index: 20/100 (represents the degree of educational development and quality of life of residents)

Military: 30/100 (indicates military strength and morale)

Existing Buildings: Village Level Lord’s Manor, Basic Market, Simple Fence, Village Dining Hall, Public Bathroom, Wooden Residential Small Courtyard (25), Intermediate Blacksmith, Basic Grocery, Basic Logging, Basic Quarry, Simple Farmland (2000 mu), Intermediate Barracks, Pigsty, Cattle Pen, Wood Workshop, Village Level Ancestral Hall, Advanced Hospital, Village Private School, Advanced Martial Arts Dojo, Village Granary, Advanced Tailor Shop, Basic Mining Field, Basic Arrow Tower (8), Stone Sentry Outpost (3), Stables (2)

Special Buildings: Ferry, Wharf, Basic Shipyard

Secret Buildings: Mazu Temple (sealed), the Recruitment Hall

List of Capital Construction Buildings:

Village Temple: The villagers believe in the land, this enhances their reverence.

Requirements: Village temple building blueprints, 400 wood, 350 stone.

Build time: 2 days. (Note: Built)

Weapons Workshop: Comprehensive weapons and armor manufacturing workshops, able to make ordinary weapons and armor.

Requirements: advanced blacksmith, weapons workshop building blueprints, 400 wood, 200 stone.

Build time: two days.

Basic Pottery Workshop: Can bake simple pottery products used in daily life.

Requirements: Simple potters, pottery workshop building blueprints, 200 wood, 500 stone.

Build time: 2 days

Mill: A place for grinding grains.

Requirements: 150 wood, 100 stone.

Build time: 1 day.

Mulberry Sheds: Planted mulberry plants.

Requirements: Mulberry seedlings, 400 wood, 100 stone.

Build time: 2 days.

Wine Workshop: Uses various kinds of food to brew all kinds of drinks.

Requirements: basic winemaker, wine workshop building blueprints, 400 wood, 200 stone.

Build time: 2 days. (Note: This building has been randomly generated)

Stone Sentry Outpost: Basic military facility with strong defense and early warning capabilities.

Requirements: 40 wood, 200 stone

Build Time: 1 day (Note: Built)

Stables: Where horses are quartered.

Requirements: stables building blueprints, 200 wood, 50 stone.

Build time: one day (Note: Built)

It looked like he had most of what he needed to build for a grade 3 village, but the mulberries would be a little more trouble. He would need to find mulberry seedlings, which was not something he could acquire through the Market. He would have to go out into the wilds and find wild mulberries, then transplant them.

The rest of the buildings, Shanhai shouldn’t have much of a challenge to make, it would seem that promoting to a township would be quite smooth. Of course, it was not so simple.

Ouyang Shuo knew that the village upgrade to a township was a major jump for the territory. In addition to the normal upgrade conditions, there were additional conditions. Namely, the four political, economic, military, and cultural index indicators had to reach at least 30 points each. Otherwise, the territory couldn’t be upgraded.

Chapter 35 - Privatization (1/2)

After viewing the village stats, Ouyang Shuo told Gu Xiuwen to convene the principal officials to the meeting room to discuss something. The officials who were to attend the meeting, in addition to the chiefs and their deputies, were also to include all five cavalry sergeants and all the advanced technical talent of the territory.

After he left, Ouyang Shuo went to the administrative office. Many of his ideas would need to be processed through Administration Department. Therefore, before the commencement of the meeting, he and Fan Zhongyan needed to talk about some things.

The two of them spoke about military reform, privatization, and other important matters, and they had a sincere and effective conversation. Ouyang Shuo had to admire Mr. Xi Wen’s experienced ability in handling governmental matters. Many of the decision-making details of his instructions had problems, which were pointed out and immediately amended and improved upon.

Half an hour later, in the new meeting chamber, Ouyang Shuo sat himself down in the middle of the gathered people and began to host the first meeting since the upgrade to third grade village.

“After upgrading the territory, more challenges await us ahead. To ensure the safe and orderly development of the territory, our primary task will be to expand the army. In yesterday’s defensive battles, the cavalry team played the greatest role. Therefore, I have decided to expand the cavalry to a full one hundred men. General Shi will act as the the captain of the cavalry squadron, with the1st cavalry platoon under his command. In addition, 3rd squad Sergeant Lin Yi performed outstandingly in yesterday’s battles, and will be promoted to the rank of lieutenant, leading the 2nd cavalry platoon!”

Lin Yi bowed from his seat, “My lord’s trust will not be broken!”

Shuo nodded in reply. “The cavalry 1st platoon is to be mainly composed of soldiers from the current cavalry team. The 2nd platoon will need to start new admissions. Admitting new recruits will be done by General Shi and Lin Yi. My suggestion is to choose from the current militia that performed well during the defense warfare.

“Accordingly, the new military system will be rearranged. Former 4th squad Sergeant Zhao Si Hu will be transferred to the 2nd platoon 1st squad. Former 2nd squad Sergeant San Gouzi will have his duties lifted, I have other plans for him. 5th squad Sergeant Li Mingliang will be transferred to the 1st platoon 2nd squad.”

Ouyang Shuo said to General Shi, “The cavalry will need seven more sergeants. After General Shi and Captain Lin Yi have inspected and appointed them, report them to me. Lin Yi should also have the right to recommend the people for his 2nd platoon.”

General Shi nodded his head, indicating that he understood Shuo’s meaning.

“In view of the further expansion of the size of our territory, the external environment is becoming more complex. In order not to be caught by surprise, I think it is necessary to set up a Military Intelligence Division, with the former 2nd squad Sergeant San Gouzi as the secretary.”

San Gouzi, who had been apprehensive since he had lost his previous duties, sighed in relief as he heard about his new duties. “I will not disappoint the Lord’s faith in me!” he called out.

“The new division will have twenty people allocated to it, formed by the former 2nd cavalry squad members with additional new recruits coming in. The new division will be operating independently. It will operate autonomously and will be led by both the cavalry team and myself. These will be the adjustments to the military. Are there any questions?”

General Shi stood up and straightforwardly said, “My Lord, I have something to say. Expanding the army, I am naturally in favor of. The problem is, as the Lord has just said, the number of troops will reach more than 120 soldiers. Now, the barracks cannot hold so many, and there are only 53 slots left for the change of jobs of basic soldiers, we cannot meet the demand for all the new soldiers.”

“In order to alleviate these problems, I am going to upgrade the barracks to an intermediate barracks,” Shuo replied quickly.

“Excellent, then I have no more worries!” General Shi said, clearly pleased.

About military matters, other than General Shi, nobody had anything else to say.

“The issue of military reform is closed. The next thing to discuss is the core topic of this meeting. Taking advantage of the upgrading territory, I am ready to implement privatization in the territory. On this issue, I would like to invite Mr. Xi Wen to give you all an introduction.”

About privatization, Ouyang Shuo had had an excellent talk with Fan Zhongyan. This time he had deliberately arranged for Zhongyan to introduce the situation, pushing him to the center role so that the core people of the territory could slowly accept his leadership.

Zhongyan clearly read Shuo’s intentions and took the hint to act. Neatly rising, he bowed to salute Ouyang Shuo, saying slowly, “My fellow attendees, I will be presenting to you the main content of privatizing the territory. After yesterday’s great defense, both adequate materials and abundant capital have become available, satisfying the initial needs we have to begin privatizing.

“Therefore, in order to improve production efficiency and improve the economy in response to the expectation of the villagers, our Lord has decided to officially start the process of privatizing the territory. Basically, we want to end the days where everything was distributed uniformly, the core principle is ‘You reap what you sow’.”

“Specifically, the territory will no longer be responsible for the food supply of the villagers, and accordingly, for the work done by the villagers, we will now pay a reasonable wage. At the same time, shops, farms, residences, and fishing boats will be available for purchase. However, strategic resources such as the logging fields, quarries, mines, and salt pans will still be directly controlled by the Lord.

“In order to protect the basic livelihoods of the villagers and to help make the transference from a feudal government to self-sufficiency, and also rewarding the villagers for their hard work so far, the Lord has arranged a basic welfare package for the citizens. There will be a coupon for a 100 units of grain, 20 units for meat, one animal hide, one set of ordinary linen clothes, and a coupon for 20 silver coins.

“The whole process of privatization will be achieved through the establishment of an official bank, which will provide low-interest loans and will be open to all villagers who meet the requirements. The specific rules of the bank will be set up by the bank’s manager after it has been formally established.”

When Fan Zhongyan had finished, his words had created quite a stir. There was a lot of whispering, warmly discussing the generosity of the Lord.

The newly appointed cavalry captain Lin Yi smiled at his big brother, Master Lin Yue, saying, “Big brother, this time you can buy your own dojo and own your own business, ah?”

Lin Yue frowned, saying, ”Don't talk nonsense, I do not have that much money.”

“Big brother, you are worrying too much. The Lord has thought it through, thinking of everyone’s situation. Didn’t you heard what Mr. Xi Wen said? The Lord said he was setting up a bank to provide low interest loans.”

Lin Yue was very wary, answering hesitantly, “But we don’t know about the conditions to access the loans, I am afraid I will not meet the requirements…”

“Big brother, you are really skeptical. Think about it. You are an advanced martial arts instructor. If you cannot get the loan, then pretty much nobody in the whole territory will be able to meet the loan requirements. Everyone will become angry, and privatizing will be useless.” Lin Yi glanced at Shuo several times, apparently more understanding of Ouyang Shuo’s intentions than his brother.

Lin Yue slowly nodded in silent agreement.

After everyone had calmed down, Ouyang Shuo said, “Just now, Mr. Xi Wen has introduced the content of the privatization,” said Shuo, waiting a moment before continuing. “To achieve the goal of privatizing the economy, we must accomplish at least six things.”

“First of all, we have to establish a bank.

Secondly, we need to determine to residents the price and rent of the small homes, shops, and other assets.

Third, we will need to build a series of bakers, butchers, clothing shops, and other shops, to ensure that the villagers can easily purchase the necessities of life.

Fourth, to develop wage levels and price levels in order to pay them their wages.

Fifth, someone will need to be responsible for distribution of the basic welfare package.

Lastly, we need to establish the taxation system.”

“For these six things, we need to discuss them one by one. First, let's have a discussion about the name of the bank, does anyone have any ideas?”

“Simply call it the Shanhai Bank?” Zhao Dexian said tentatively.

“Too casual, not a good name!”

“Hey, I think Wan Tong Bank is a better name, it has momentum!” This was the opinion of Zheng Shanpao.

“Stealing someone else’s name, even worse!”

“We are in the Lianzhou Basin, call it the Lianzhou Bank?” Giu Xiuwen asked confidently.

“It’s narrow and bad!”

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, the names were not satisfactory.

At this time, Cui Yingyu opened her little mouth and said: “I think it can be called the Four Seas Bank, of the same line as 1Shanhai Village, and also brings the meaning of gathering golds from the four seas.”

Shuo’s eyes lit up. Four seas, four treasures, that is simple and low-key, with hidden ambitions. He was very satisfied, he smiled and said, “That is very good, anyone else?”

“Very good, very good!” This time, everyone’s opinion was quite consistent.

So, Shuo directly said, “Okay, it is named so, it will be called the Four Seas Bank. For the first phase of funds for the bank, I am prepared to inject 200 gold coins. As for the manager of the bank, Cui Yingyu will serve there.”

Discerning eyes could clearly see the importance of the Four Seas Bank. It was not only the core of the privatization; in the future it would play the role of the territorial treasury. So the key position in it could only be someone in whom Ouyang Shuo placed extreme trust to. Therefore, everyone was silent. Just looking at Cui Yingyu conveyed deep understanding of what the appointment meant. They could only hope to earn that same level of trust.

Yingyu naturally understood people, and for Ouyang Shuo’s trust, she was very grateful. She was also very happy for the job as manager of the Four Seas Bank. However, she was now serving as Secretary of the Material Reserves Division, and was aware of some jealousy of her. If she also took over the Four Seas Bank manager position, it would no doubt create more hard feelings.

“Big brother, I am afraid my energy is limited, there is much work to do,” she replied gracefully, giving him the room to refuse.

Ouyang Shuo was prepared for this backhand refusal. “You do not have to worry about that. I have arrangements made. You are relieved of your position as Secretary of the Material Reserves Division, and Deputy Secretary Zhao Youfang will temporarily take your place. At the same time, Du Xiaolan is promoted to the Assistant to the Secretary of the Material Reserves Division to help Zhao Youfang in dealing with affairs there.”

Zhao Youfang was still lacking somewhat in qualifications or ability for the position, so Ouyang Shuo did not directly appoint him to the post of Secretary. As for Du Xiaolan, she was one of Yingyu’s apprentices, and had been officially appointed. Shuo had marked her as a reserve talent, and now had the opportunity to boldly promote her to an important job with her experience.

Such a personnel arrangement was something that nobody could understand. After all, no matter how you looked at it, the Material Reserves Division was still more important than the Four Seas Bank.

1Shanhai Village 山海村 and Four Seas Bank 四海钱庄 : Shanhai’s hai carries the meaning of sea in mandarin.

Chapter 36 - Privatization (2/2)

As for everyone’s doubts, Ouyang Shuo didn’t care to explain.

“I have decided to set up a Financial Division to be responsible for the financial affairs and taxation of the territory after privatization. The Financial Division will operate independently, and the Four Seas Bank will also be incorporated into the Financial Division’s jurisdiction. The Financial Division Secretary will also be Cui Yingyu.”

Everyone suddenly realized what was going on. The Financial Secretary and the manager of the Four Seas Bank, that was the real God of Wealth. The status of that position was comparable to that of the Director of Administration.

Yingyu was also incomparably excited, recalling her talk with Ouyang Shuo yesterday vividly. She did not expect that with this one move, he would not only unload her of the burden of the Material Reserves Division, he would then promptly make her responsible for the even more important Financial Division. She slowly rose and said crisply, “I will not fail to live up to big brother’s trust!”

Ouyang Shuo nodded at her. “With the Financial Division established, your first task is to establish an effective tax system. Here, I will set the general tone for everyone to discuss the specific details of implementation, and for the loans from the Four Seas Bank. The Financial Divison will be responsible for making the report.”

Yingyu nodded, showing that she understood.

“In simple terms, the tax will be divided into two types, agricultural taxes, and business taxes. The agricultural tax will be relatively simple, it should be set at 3.3%.

The business taxes will be divided into customs duty and business tax. For tariffs, we have to expand the territory and have business contacts with the outside world, only then can we set up checkpoints for tariffs. Hence, at this stage, we will be focusing more on business tax. In order to encourage handicrafts and commerce, we will also set the business tax at 3.3%.

“Tax will be an important financial source of the territory in the future, we must maintain the stability of the tax rate to foster growth. If you have any comments, you can speak freely.”

Fan Zhongyan stood up and said quietly, “The lord is generous and loves his people, this tax rate is already the lowest in history. My only fear is that such a low tax rate cannot maintain our daily expenses and military spending.”

“The two low-level tax rates are more conducive to the rapid development of the territory’s economy. As long as we make the cake bigger, even if we only have a small share, that share can still be very impressive. On the other hand, if the cake is small, even if we take half the cake, it is still not much.

“Most importantly, in the territory, there are industries that were not privatized, a source of income whose profits will all be turned over to the Financial Secretary, so that the government will not have to worry about the financial affairs of the territory,” Ouyang Shuo replied to him.

Hearing Ouyang Shuo says that the salt and other industries’ profits would be turned in to the Financial Secretary, Fan Zhongyan calmed down. As someone that worries about the country, his wish for the low-level tax had been met just as he wanted. He was actually worried that Ouyang Shuo would claim ownership over the industries, but Ouyang Shuo said he would not hold onto certain industries. Otherwise, if the territory was short on money, then, in the end, they could only grab it from the hands of the common people.

This was one of the limitations of historical figures. Even with the wisdom of Fan Zhongyan, he did not understand that the strength of a territory was the strength of a player. Ouyang Shuo, as a player lord, simply didn’t care if he didn’t have his own massive treasury.

After Fan Zhongyan was done, Zhao Dexian rose. “Lord, I have a question. For farmers, do we need to pay the agricultural tax at the same time as paying rent on the farmland?”

“The Secretary of Agriculture will be dividing the farmland among the farmers, and providing free property to be worked by them in the form of farmland rights that they own themselves to ensure their own interests. They are not, however, allowed to annex new lands. We will not allow new farmlands to be cultivated privately, only the Land Reclamation Division may do this,” Ouyang Shuo explained briefly. “As for the number of mu of farmland that each farmer can get, it is necessary for the department to discuss among themselves.”

Zhao Dexian nodded his head, understanding clearly.

Hearing Ouyang Shuo finish with the arrangements for the farmers, the temporary Secretary Zhao Youfang stood up. “Lord, we also want to know, how will we collect the taxes from hunters and fishermen?”

“First of all, the fishermen. There are two ways to tax the fishermen. One is to tax the sale of the fish directly on the market. In order to ensure that the tax is smooth and there is no evasion, the fish must be sold at a fixed stall, not privately. The other method is that they can sell it directly to the Material Reserves Division, they will be charged based on the business tax. However, sporadic tradings will not be taxed.”

“The taxation of herdsmen works similarly to that of fishermen. The buffalo will be a restricted animal and cannot be slaughtered for sale. It can only be sold to the Material Reserves Division, and the ranch controlled directly by the territory is not taxable.”

Ouyang Shuo knew that with such provisions there were still loopholes, and some tax evasion tricks were not blocked. For example, a cunning shepherd might think of keeping his livestock in the territorial ranch, thus avoiding the taxes. But right now, the Financial Secretary was new and the staff was undertrained. It was not advisable to carry out too complex of an operation, otherwise, it would be self-defeating.

Waiting until Zhao Youfang was done, Mu Qingsi stood up and said happily, “Little Sister has a question to ask. If I had acquired the tailor workshop, then will the terms of one set of clothes per person in the territory basic welfare package continue on? If it will continue, who do I go to for compensation?”

“There are two options for compensation this way. One- the territory will provide you raw materials for the cloth, the tailor shop will only be responsible for processing them. For producing clothing, the territory will pay you for your work.

“You can also, of course, buy your own cloth, make your own clothing, and the territory will buy the clothes from you at market price.”

“This kind of market-oriented cooperation applies to all types of privatization after the shops open. Of course, after the privatization, certain military goods like arrows and leather armor cannot be arbitrarily made, only the government weapons workshop can produce such military goods..”

The discussion about taxation lasted nearly an hour and a half. During this period, representatives of the various industries all spoke up about problems in their own areas. Ouyang Shuo answered all of their questions.

Yingyu was sitting there feeling the mountain-like pressure. Writing all these questions and answers down, she did not have time to think about them, nor know how to answer them. She could only diligently write down Ouyang Shuo’s answers one by one. After she had some time, she could sort out the answers and write them down into the guidelines for the Financial Division, she didn’t know what else to do.

With the taxation and bank problem done, the remaining items would be much easier. Ouyang Shuo said a bit lazily, “On the development of wage levels and price levels, I leave the Administration Department with full responsibility of a detailed program, present to me for approval. As for all kinds of shops and basic welfare distribution and implementation, naturally, the Material Reserves and Construction Divisions will take full responsibility.”

To these orders, Fan Zhongyan, Zhao Youfang, and Zhao Dewang nodded, showing they understood the orders.

“We will also discuss the pricing of shops and real estate,” Ouyang Shuo went on. “According to how things develop, there will be a number of large-scale adjustments to our plans in the foreseeable future, which will involve a large amount of land, including the demolition of existing shops. Therefore, before we do pricing, we need to have rigid requirements for the real estate property rights. That is, villagers will be buying real estate rights and income rights. The land itself still belongs to the government.”

“If the land is needed, the owner of the property rights must unconditionally obey the territory’s decision and accept the removal of the territory or shop. As compensation, the territory will unconditionally replace the same real estate with the same sized building in the new location.

“Therefore, at this stage, we will need to assess the real estate and shop prices, you must not consider the cost of land use. For a basic tailor shop, for example, it takes 40 units of wood, 20 units of stone, coupled with the labor needed to make it. The cost is the sum of ALL the construction costs. On the market, a unit of wood is 20 copper coins, a unit of stone 30 copper. Therefore, the cost of a basic tailor shop’s materials is 1400 copper pieces, with labor costs being set by the Construction Division.

“My opinion is that real estate prices are generally about 1.5 times the construction costs of the property and 2 times for business shops. As for renting a building, use the 1:200 ratio rent to price, that is, the monthly rent should be 0.5% of the price of the building.

Once Ouyang Shuo finished, Little Sister Mu on the side whispered, “Big Brother, bloodsucker! You are doubling the price for the people?”

Shuo looked at her as he explained, “All of you may be wondering, why not act in accordance with the cost of construction? One, we have to respect the laws of the market. If you do not grab a certain profit, it is easy to disrupt the market. Two- supply has to remain balanced with construction costs, otherwise the price could be too low and the number of buyers too high.

“For example, up to twenty people can live in a small residential courtyard. If the price is too low, a family of three might have the ability to buy one. Suddenly, there will be housing tension in the territory. With privatization, the living conditions of the villagers will improve greatly. Therefore, the construction division will have to adapt to the laws of the market, with the flexibility to adjust the size and number of small courtyard residences, with other buildings more suitable for people to live in.”

Zhao Dewang rose and said, “Understood!”

“Residential and retail pricing and the follow-up sales and proceeds are the responsibility of the Administration Department, to be marked as financial revenue and deposited into Four Seas Bank.”

At this point, the discussion on the privatization of the territory came to an end. There are a lot of specific works waiting for the divisions to handle and most of them could not be done overnight.

Chapter 37 - Lianzhou College

Fan Zhongyan and Cui Yingyu followed Ouyang Shuo to his office. Ouyang Shuo asked them, “What’s the thing that’s most lacking of in our territory?”

Zhongyan pondered for a while, “I think we need political talents more than anything. To keep each department running effectively, there has to be many officials and also appointed executive officer.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded approvingly and beckoned Yingyu to hear her thoughts.

After thinking for a while, Yingyu said, “I agree with Mr. Xi Wen. In addition to basic level government workers, I think we still lack accountants and similar professionals. To tell the truth, even I, the secretary of the newly established Financial Division, am merely a layman.”

“Both of you had hit the mark. In overall, our bureaucracy is very weak, like a bare old tree with only branches and no leaves. At the village stage, the affairs are simple and each executive can hold the departments on their own. But once we reach the township stage, the shortage of talents would leave us stretched.

“The training of the talents is a long-term process, and cannot be achieved overnight. Therefore, it is very necessary for us to begin a process of developing talents for the territory from now on. I opened the adult literacy classes at the private school just for this reason.”

Ouyang Shuo knew deeply that the Six Tyrants of Handan would not have many problems in talents. They were like the great families in the Three Kingdoms, which possessed a rich reserve in talents themselves. Whether it was a family member or a subordinate group member. They could quickly build an effective bureaucracy as long as they appointed the players loyal to them to the right positions.

Individual players wanting to compete with them was almost impossible. Even a reincarnated person like Ouyang Shuo must go through step by step, could he have a small chance to win.

Fan Zhongyan nodded, “ The Lord is right. To cultivate talents, we must run the basic education system and implement the imperial examination system. The latter is too early and we should give priority to basic education first. We are far from being able to meet our needs with only one private school just providing the crudest education.”

“Yes. My idea is to start a comprehensive college in the territory. The college will set up basic classes, intermediate classes, and advanced classes. The basic class will be like the adult literacy classes, mainly focused on reading and literacy. Intermediate class mainly develop basic governmental talents and basic professionals like the ones you two mentioned. And the advanced class will be there for teaching people how to be department executives.”

Fan Zhongyan applauded, “Wonderful! In accordance with the idea of the lord, we will be able to cultivate talents quickly and set up a new echelon for training talents. I very much agree with you! ”

Yingyu was puzzled and said, “Big brother’s idea is excellent. However, where are we going to find the faculty? The territory only has one great scholar, Master Fan?”

Ouyang Shuo smiled mysteriously. “So far yet so near.”

Yingyu stared incredulously, “Big brother, you aren’t referring to the three of us, right?”

“Why not? You can teach a crash course on maths, Xi Wen could teach a course on politics, and I could teach a course on laws and legal matters,” Ouyang Shuo said.

Yingyu sighed under big stress. Fan Zhongyan was peaceful because he once was the head teacher in an institute. He was familiar with teaching.

“I have already thought of the name- Lianzhou Institute. Although it just started, I hope that in the future, the Lianzhou Institute can become the cradle of our civil officers. Xi Wen will be our first principal.”

Fan Zhongyan got up and saluted. “The Lord has spoken, I just can’t refuse that. But I have only one request. I hope that the Lord can act as the honorary principal to show some orthodoxy.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “I promise you. The preparatory work for the college will be the responsibility of the Administration Division with the help of the Financial Division.”

The three of them discussed some more details, then dispersed.

Ouyang Shuo was ready to go to the market. This time, he wanted to buy all sorts of building blueprints with sufficient funds and also wanted to see what interesting things might be available.

He first spent 10 gold coins to buy the pottery workshop blueprints, the only thing missing in the grade 3 village infrastructure. Then he was ready to buy an intermediate barracks building blueprint and an intermediate shipyard building blueprint.

Prices for buildings that required blueprints to upgrade would increase ten times every grade. As a result, an intermediate barracks building blueprint was worth 20 gold coins, and an intermediate shipyard building blueprint was worth 50 gold coins.

Then, the blueprints of the three grade 1 town infrastructure, grain shop, butcher shop, and clothing store, each cost 20 gold coins. In addition, the building blueprint of the bank which belongs to the grade 2 town infrastructure is sold for 50 gold coins.

The last was the college building blueprint. A college or an institute belongs to the grade 3 town infrastructure and was worth 1000 gold coins. He naturally couldn’t afford that, so he bought a blueprint of a school, which belongs to grade 1 town instead, using 20 gold coins.

After a round of ‘shopping’, he had spent 210 gold on the building blueprints. Now he only had 490 gold left. Apart from 200 gold reserved the Four Seas Bank and some for the militia’s class change fees and the following cavalry’s class change fee, there were not many funds available.

Ouyang Shuo sighed. As long as he came to the Market, it was like he was never going to have enough money. Fortunately, in more than ten days, the first batch of salt from the salt pans could be sold. At that time, he would get another four to five hundred gold as a return.

Since a number of workers demanded in the salt pan was large, there had to be one worker for every 2 mu. Hence, as of this stage, Ouyang Shuo had no plans for salt pan’s phase three to expand the scale and would only be maintained at 500 mu.

Ouyang Shuo opened the goods manufacturing technology column, searching for the , priced at 20 gold coins. The wooden-ox horse1 was just an upgraded version of the wheelbarrow and was not so magical as the book described.

Although it didn’t have this kind of exaggerated effect, the wooden ox-horse was still a practical means of transport hauling. Just like Yingyu mentioned before, as the timber and other resource demands are increasing, transporting would become a major problem. Moving hundreds and even thousands of units of wood, stone, and iron ore from the collection points to the village was very costly in manpower.

Transporting all the stuff would be much easier with wooden ox-horse. Not to mention, moving all the salt in the fields from the port to the market was going to be a big project.

Ouyang Shuo spent 20 gold coins and purchased the . He then had a look at the properties of the wooden ox-horse.

Name: Wooden Ox-Horse

Materials needed: 20 units of wood.

Capacity: 200 Kg

Durability: Tens of miles daily for individuals, 30 miles for groups

Evaluation: A transportation vehicle of detailed craftsmanship, able to overcome various terrains and save manpower.

Lastly, Ouyang Shuo turned to the ‘other items’ column in the special items trading platform. After tens of minutes skimming through the list, he had his eyes on a certain item, it was a token, with a very simple use.

[Class Change Token] (civil officer): After using this token, the user may class change directly to a civil officer.

In the Shanhai village, persons like Yingyu and Zhao Youfang, who were already designated as civil officers, were still in their original jobs. They were not class changed to an official civil officer yet. Although It did not affect the duties they had to perform, it did affect their administrative efficiency.

Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate to spend 20 gold coins to buy the Class Change Token. This token was intended for Cui Yingyu. Her current career as a businesswoman, which did not match the position of the Financial Secretary. Although it was a little expensive, making Yingyu a civil officer in advance was worth it.

Looking over the other special items longingly, Shuo touched his purse and sighed. He then picked his purchased goods from the other transportation formation, put them in his storage bag and left the Basic Market.

Walking on the road, he could hear the villagers occasionally gossiping in small groups.

“Hey, auntie, have you heard about that? Our village is ready for privatization!”

“What is privatization?”

“Privatization is not something. It is a big thing. Mr. Gu said that we will all be living on our own, rather than in groups anymore!”

“Oh, how can we do that? Does the lord not want us? There are four people in my family. We have nothing but some old clothes. If we were going to live our own lives, what could we count on?”

“Auntie, you misunderstand the mercy of our lord, he will not leave us. I hear that after privatization, the lord would give us some food and meat, and a new set of clothes for everybody!”

“Oh, that is wonderful. At least we will not go hungry.”

“The benefits are far more than not being hungry. Mr. Gu said that after the privatization, the Lord would start paying us wages. As long as we work hard and save some money, we can buy our own house to live in. The Lord will give the farmers some land as long as you hand in some grains at the time of harvest. Thinking about this, I think that we can live better if we are more diligent.”

“Mazu’s blessing, this is indeed a big thing. Where did you get this information? I have to see it for myself.”

“It’s just in the square in front of the lord’s house. Mr. Gu posted a bulletin notice there!”

“Oh, then I will go there to take a look with my husband.”

“Hurry up. I have to go home and talk to my other half. I hear even the shops will be selling off this time! I want to talk to my family to see if we can borrow some money to buy a smithy!”

“Good luck!”

Listening to the villagers’ talk, Ouyang Shuo laughed with pleasure. The Administration Department was quick to post the notice, letting people be active about this in advance.

Wooden-ox horse1 木牛流马 : lit. wooden ox and flowing horse, a mechanical transportation vehicle created during the ancient China era of the Three Kingdoms. Shortened for the sake of simplicity of the text.

Chapter 38 - Entrustment Agreement

Ouyang Shuo came out of the Basic Market, and walked down the commercial street, heading into the area of the woodworkers. Thinking of the south-pointing chariot from before, he walked into the carpentry workshop.

The woodshop was full of excitement, very different from the mood from last time.

Lu Guangzhi, saw Shuo coming in, stepped forward and smiled, saying, “Guangzhi greets the lord!”

“Master Lu, you have some good news?”

Master Lu couldn’t even open his mouth before his apprentice on the side, giddy with joy, blurted out, “Lord, this morning we succeeded in making a south-pointing chariot!”

“Yes, yes, and just as the lord predicted, Master Lu ranked up to an advanced carpenter now!” another apprentice exclaimed.

Master Lu stared at both apprentices for being so rude before their lord. He turned back to Shuo and apologetically said. “They are still young, and yet to know anything of courtesy, please do not blame them for their words, sire!”

Ouyang Shuo waved the event off, indicating that it was alright. “It seems I should really be congratulating Master Lu!”

“This is all due to the blessings of the territory, when the upgrading gold rays swept the whole village in the morning. Something in my mind broke free; it gave me the insight to the most important part of the south-pointing chariot.”

Oh? There was such a thing? The upgrading rays of the territory could also help talent breakthroughs? This should be part of the hidden settings of the system. Shuo thought. After all, in his last life, he hadn’t played in lord mode, not knowing that some obscure details could be considered normal. He guessed that, having such a big effect, it was somehow related to Shanhai Village being a gold-class village. Otherwise, this hidden fact would’ve been more exposed and well known by the public.

Shuo nodded his head. “Has Master Lu heard about the privatizing of the territory?”

“I have heard of it; my apprentice has told me.”

“So, about the privatization, especially the effects on the carpentry workshop, what do you think?” Ouyang Shuo asked him.

Master Lu hesitantly said, “Sire, to tell the truth, I do not yet have the plan to acquire the carpentry workshop.”

“Oh? Why not?” Ouyang Shuo was surprised.

“Since the establishment of the woodshop, except for the south-pointing chariot, there has not been much else to do. I am worried that once I have to buy the woodshop, we will not be able to maintain our livelihood.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled and took out from his storage bag the and smoothly handed it to Master Lu. “Take a look at this manual, do you believe you can make this?”

Master Lu took the manual and looked it over carefully. He was so attracted by the contents that he forgot Ouyang Shuo was standing there, waiting for him to answer.

Ouyang Shuo stood there leisurely, patiently waiting. As to what Master Lu had said about the woodworking business dilemma, he had a few thoughts.

Earth Online, although known to be very realistic, still had some blurry and vague areas early in the game, mostly to ensure that the Lord players could actually build out in the wilderness. The most direct manifestation of that was in the building constructions.

Take the small courtyard residences as an example. In addition to the speed that the residences could be put up, there were also a lot of accessories included. Simply put, for the people to live in a completed courtyard, they would need furniture, and it was automatically generated. If it didn’t appear after the house was built, having to sleep and live on the ground would’ve been rather embarrassing.

The other shops and businesses were the same way. After the smithy was built, its required internal facilities will be automatically generated, so that once it was built, it would operate smoothly. These costs of the facilities were reflected in their building blueprints.

For some simple things, like pigsties, fences, and the like, because there was no need to generate internal furnishings, they didn’t need building blueprints to be built directly.

Of course, with the passing of time, after the territories were increasingly built up, the rules would change and be less fuzzy, becoming more consistent with reality.

It was because of this design that the villagers didn’t need to find a carpenter to build furniture. It was no wonder that Master Lu was worried about his prospects after privatization.

Twenty minutes later, Master Lu finished reading the manual. Looking up and finding Ouyang Shuo still there, he fearfully said, “The contents were too attractive I couldn’t pull myself out from it. I beg the lord’s forgiveness!”

Again, Ouyang Shuo waved his hand. “Do you think you can make it?”

“If it was before today, I would not dare to boast. But now, with the lucky promotion to an advanced carpenter, and the experience I have developed from the south-pointing chariot, I have the confidence to craft the wooden ox-horse just like the descriptions of it in the manual!”

“Well, if that is the case, I have a proposal. I hope that Master Lu can consider about it.”

“Please, my lord!”

“Well, the territory requires a great number of these wooden ox-horses. So, my proposal is that you will not only acquire the workshop, but also expand its scale. Then, the territory will use the name of the Material Reserves Division and sign a commission processing agreement with your workshop.

“The Material Reserves Division will provide the manufacturing technology and raw wood as materials, and your workshop will be responsible for the production of wooden ox-horses. For each wooden ox-horse, the Department will pay you 20 copper coins. This will keep you busy and solve the plight of the woodworkers, you see?” Ouyang Shuo inquired of him.

Master Lu, after listening to all this, was very excited. He was a carpenter, and carpentry was his roots and sustenance. Not only could he solve the plight of being a woodworker, but he now had the chance to climb the ladders! Immediately and without hesitation, he said directly, “I don’t need to consider anything, I promise this will be done.”

“As for the specific entrustment agreement, the people of the Material Reserves Division will talk to you later. I will be there when both parties sign the agreements.”

Master Lu nodded in agreement, still looking very excited.

Leaving the woodshop, Ouyang Shuo found out that it was already around noon. After getting lunch, he took a short nap in his quarters. After waking up, he didn’t return to his office, instead, he walked into the next administrative office. The area had become a bit crowded, as the Administration Department, Financial Division, and Material Reserves Division all had to operate out of here.

Ouyang Shuo had spent the morning buying eight sets of building blueprints. He presented them together with the weapons workshop blueprints he already had to Zhao Dewang, telling him where he wanted the buildings constructed. He wanted them completed as soon as possible, after that there would a big project waiting for the Construction Division.

Since his formal appointment as Secretary of Construction, Zhao Dewang had become more motivated. After Ouyang Shuo gave him the task, he swore to complete it. Indeed, he patted his chest and said he would be the quickest to turn the blueprints into reality!

Ouyang Shuo gave him more encouragement, taking the opportunity to win people’s hearts. Although he had given leadership of the Administration Department to Fan Zhongyan, it didn’t mean that he would let all the departments under the administration leave his control.

As the saying goes, no one is ever perfect. Ouyang Shuo knew that even Fan Zhongyan had considered some ideas that were too radical, and that some would fail. Therefore, he had to ensure that the administration was still under his control so that Fan Zhongyan would stand down and wouldn’t have the chance to implement those radical changes to Shanhai Village.

He didn’t think himself as the protagonist of a young adult novel, with an invincible aura. As long as the historical figures worked for the good of the territory, he could feel at ease walking away, and everything would be harmonious and smooth. In this way, the territory would still be running according to his will, without any deviation from his plans.

Then, Ouyang Shuo went to Material Reserves Division head Zhao Youfang, telling him about the woodshop proposal from the morning, and scheduling Youfang’s follow-up.

“This kind of entrustment agreement will be one of the main modes of cooperation between the future Material Reserves Division and the shops or private workshops. Therefore, the Material Reserves Division must do some preparatory work on the commission agreement. Director Fan and I will review the agreement to ensure that it does not have any loopholes.

“In addition, before the tailor makes up the linen clothing for everyone, we need to have a similar agreement. I suggest that both of these people hold a signing ceremony at the same time, and we invite all the talented people in the territory to join in. Let them realize the benefits of privatization to help improve their enthusiasm.”

Zhao Youfang heavily nodded his head, watching Shuo with worshipping eyes. He said excitedly, “I truly admire how lord is seeking to remove any obstacles to privatization! The talented people will no longer have to worry about privatization affecting their livelihood! We won’t even have to urge them, they will even take the initiative to collect apprentices.” Zhao Youfang knew how much effort and conditions Ouyang Shuo was forced to expend to get the skilled people to recruit apprentices.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and expressed his admiration for Zhao’s insight. “Yes, this is the magic of privatization, only by appealing to the vital interests of the individual can we inspire their enthusiasm and stimulate the rapid development of the economy. There is a lot of progress in you as you can now see the meaning behind this entrustment agreement. It seems like working in the Material Reserves Division has made you grow up a lot.”

“It is the lord’s wisdom to assign me to the Material Reserves Division; I am not to be praised.” Zhao Youfang said respectfully, still excited in his heart.

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand and said, “Well, you do not have to be too modest. About the lumber field, you can recommend a new foreman, and present the recommendation to Fan Zhongyan for approval. You need to get familiar with the affairs of the Material Reserve Division, so learn more about them as soon as possible. If you don’t understand something, don’t be shy, take the initiative and go right to Secretary Cui and Director Fan and ask how things work. Or, of course, you can come directly to me. Also, do not slack off on the literacy classes and the homework on that side of things. You cannot fall behind, and must still put in more hard work.”

This was the first time Ouyang Shuo had given such personal instructions to Zhao Youfang. It was plain to see that he had high expectations for Youfang!

Youfang was also clearly aware of this and was grateful to Shuo for the advice. At this moment, no longer able to contain the excitement in his heart, he declared, “What the lord had given me, I will never forget. From now and thereafter, I will improve myself and will not disappoint my lord!”

Ouyang Shuo patted his shoulder, smiling, and said no more.

Chapter 39 - Transfer

Ouyang Shuo went over to Cui Yingyu’s side. He took the Civil Service Class Change Token out of his storage bag and said, “Yingyu, I have a good thing for you.”

Yingyu saw the token, and opened her mouth in surprise, making her look lovely. What was strange was, her face showed a happy look, and then immediately turned a bit melancholic.

Seeing these inexplicable changes, Ouyang Shuo was completely puzzled and asked, “Is little sister unhappy about being able to transfer to the civil service?”

Yingyu’s expression was a little complicated as she said softly, “It is natural to wish to move, and I am naturally happy. But suddenly I thought about my original job disappearing after the transfer, and that is the only link between Yingyu and her family. So, I’m a little sad and unwilling…”

Ah, a touching scene, Yingyu was homesick. Yes, a lot of the time, Ouyang Shuo ignored this point. He had almost forgotten that this seemingly strong little sister of his had such a miserable experience originally. In this world, in addition to Shanhai Village, she has another home, the House of Cui in Dali. There, she still had living family.

Ouyang Shuo gently touched her head, and whispered, “Silly girl, do not think too much of this. Big brother assures you that once the territory has the strength to go through the wilderness to Dali, I will help you reunite with your family. Until then, you are with us, and we will be your family.”

Yingyu, flushing from her emotions, smiled strongly and said, “Big brother has to keep his promises, hee hee! However, when I really leave, I do not think Big Brother can bear it and miss me, hee hee!”

Yingyu was a strong and sensible girl, never letting the people around her worry, or feel bad for her. Perhaps only in front of her big brother Ouyang Shuo would she sometimes reveal her weak and passionate female side.

“Why? Don't tell me if you leave you aren't my sister? Well, that is in the future. Let’s not assume too much now. Quickly now, use the transfer token and let me have a look at your new job!”

Hearing this command, Yingyu directly opened the arms of the class change token. There was a hum, the token turned into a white light that vanished into her eyebrows.

Shuo quickly used the assessment technique to see her stats.

Name: Cui Yingyu (Gold)

Identity: Shanhai Village Financial Secretary and Manager of the Four Seas Bank.

Occupation: Civil Service

Loyalty: 90 points

Command: 25

Force: 10

Intelligence: 50

Political: 58

Expertise: Careful planning (enhance territorial trade profits 1%), Heartfelt (enhance territorial tax revenue 5%)

Evaluation: A woman from the Cui business family, gentle temperament, proper businesswoman, not haughty. Tough and strong, a gentle heart, smart and studious, a polished jade with good talent.

Ouyang Shuo was really surprised. He had no idea when Yingyu had been promoted to gold talent grade. Not only that, but the new ‘Heartfelt’ ability was a perfect fit for Financial Secretary. This was what would solidify her position as the Shanhai Village ‘Goddess of Wealth’.

After the class change, even her character evaluation had improved a lot. Before it was only a single sentence, and now it even described her jade-like beauty, letting him see the shadow of her potential for further promotion.

Ouyang Shuo smiled. “Congratulations to little sister!”

Yingyu smiled happily. “Oh, but thank you also too big brother for the class change token!”

“No need to be polite with me. The stronger your ability, the more at ease I will be,” Ouyang Shuo teased her.

Yingyu gave him a slightly sour smile, pretending to be angry. “Well, big brother really has the potential of a businessman! Thinking all the time on how to exploit us!”

“Well then, big brother will stop bothering you and let you get back to work, then!” Ouyang Shuo shamelessly ended the conversation.

Yingyu smiled reluctantly, glared at him, then returned to her work.

The leveling up of skilled men was the same as the leveling up of special talents. Ouyang Shuo would not get any notification. Seeing Yingyu getting promoted to a gold talent, he didn’t worry about other things for the moment. Directly using the assessment skill, going to the office of Gu Xiuwen and Zhao Dexian to examine them.

Name: Gu Xiuwen (Silver)

Identity: Shanhai Village, the Assistant Director of Administration and the Household Registration Secretary.

Occupation: Civil Service (Tongsheng1)

Loyalty: 85 points

Command: 25

Force: 15

Intelligence: 45

Political: 55

Expertise: Bureaucratic Knowledge (enhances territorial administrative efficiency 5%)

Evaluation: a poor young scholar, skilled at poetry and literature, and a modest gentleman of character.

Sure enough, Giu Xiuwen had been promoted to a silver level talent. Because he had been given an area of expertise when he was at the black iron level, he hadn’t been given a new area of expertise this time.

Similarly, Zhao Dexian had been smoothly promoted from the bronze grade to the black iron grade. Unfortunately, he was not like Gu Xiuwen who had gained a specialty early on.

Name: Zhao Dexian (Black iron)

Identity: Shanhai Village Secretary of Reclamation Division

Occupation: Civil Service|

Loyalty: 85 points

Command: 20

Force: 20

Intelligence: 30

Political: 38

Evaluation: The former chief of Zhao Jiagou village, well-mannered, skilled in village governance, adept at agricultural water management.

After viewing their stats, Ouyang Shuo took Fan Zhongyan for a quick chat. Having given instructions to the Secretary of Construction and Material Reserves Division, he also had to inform Fan Zhongyan of this matter. As the primary officer in charge, he had to show him the respect he deserved.

He could have easily bypassed Fan Zhongyan, going right to Construction Division, and nobody would have said anything. However, if he dealt directly with the Construction Division and not their superior, he was destroying the hierarchy he was setting up. This would be a blow to Fan Zhongyan over time, which Ouyang Shuo did not want to see.

After leaving the administrative offices, Ouyang Shuo returned to his own office. This time, he didn’t read as he normally did, but instead took out a pen and paper and began to write.

Taking Yingyu’s abilities into account, she had political experience but had no understanding of taxation. Ouyang Shuo, of course, wasn’t going to throw his Financial Secretary under the bus. In the early days, he was prepared to help her until she was on firmer ground. Once she came on track as the Financial Secretary, he would slowly let go.

Therefore, using his afternoon free time, he prepared his own understanding of the tax system, combined the real world’s advanced fiscal and taxation systems with the ancient dynastic methods of the same, sorting a realistic and forward-looking financial division work guide for her.

In this working guide, he defined the roles of finance and taxation, how to carry out taxation works and what to be careful about, and gave a clear explanation on how to establish a sound tax system around these core issues.

He wrote in the work guide that finance was a kind of economic behavior with the territory as the body, and it was the income and expenditures of the territorial collectors meeting public demand in the territory in order to achieve the goal of optimizing the allocation of resources, and further economic stability and development.

Financial income included taxes, government exclusive income, and other income forms. To improve their revenue, the most fundamental way to do so was to develop the economy. The fundamental factors that affected fiscal revenue the most were at the level of economic development. Therefore, only by vigorously developing the economy and encouraging the development of handicrafts and commerce, would the economy continue to grow steadily and fiscal revenue increase.

Ouyang Shuo believed that with this guide and Yingyu’s ingenuity, as long as he pointed the way, she could take the Financial Secretary job and run with it. Of course, there would be bumps in the road along the way, that was inevitable.

After writing the work guide, Ouyang Shuo logged off of the game. Yingyu had experience for managing the Four Seas Bank. The Cui were a business family of Dali, they had their own banks. Yingyu learned much in that environment, and he didn’t worry about that.

++++++++++++++++

Back in reality, it was still the weekend. Sun Xiaoyue and Bing’er didn’t want to stay at home today, so both of the young women had gotten up early to get dressed and go out. After eating breakfast, they pulled Ouyang Shuo out to go shopping. That was like telling him he could have fun and relax, but in truth they only needed people to carry their bags.

The mall was fully integrated, it had places to eat and drink and do everything. Shopping was a natural talent for women, and even little Bing’er, under the influence of Big Sister Xiaoyue, grew eager.

And so, a little girl in a blue print dress came out from the dressing room, turned around in place, and with a pair of big lovely eyes watching Ouyang Shuo very closely, said sweetly, “Brother, is the skirt Bing’er is wearing beautiful?”

Xioayue was already on her seventh skirt. Ouyang Shuo was trying to maintain a composed and interested face, but in fact, his smile was rather stiff as he praised, “Beautiful, it is too beautiful. You must wear this skirt. It’s like a little blue goddess fallen into the mortal world.”

He was so effusive, Bing’er’s eyes were squinting from her happiness, she jumped back to the dressing room to pack up her new clothes.

At this time, Xiaoyue came out of the next dressing room wearing a short-sleeved, slim silk dress. It gave her a fresh and elegant look that was fairly mind-blowing.

This look on Xiaoyue was really amazing. Ouyang Shuo couldn’t help but blurt out, “Too beautiful!”

Looking at him in the mirror, Xiaoyue was shocked, blushing hotly. Ouyang Shuo also felt suddenly uncomfortable and looked away in embarrassment.

Coming out of the clothing store, Ouyang Shuo had five or six bags in his hands, he’d lost count. In order to express his apologies, he had spent more than 4,000 credits on beautiful clothes for the both of them.

At this time, two girls spotted them and came charging over after screaming excitedly. “Wow, Xiaoyue, we did not expect to see you here, what a coincidence!”

Xiaoyue was also very happy, but did a complete facial change and began pretending to complain. “Well, you will just have to blame my two boyfriends over best friend friends. The two of you left and now I don’t have anyone else who will accompany me while shopping.”

These two girls were Xiaoyue’s original roommates. Xiaoyue had not expected to meet her in the mall at all. Now that they had, the three young women started chatting nonstop.

Tongsheng1 童生: lit. "child student", an entry-level examinee who had passed the county/prefecture exams in the ancient China imperial examination. wikipedia

Chapter 40 - Misunderstanding

Sun Xiaoyue turned to Ouyang Shuo with an apologetic smile, saying sweetly, “Big Brother Shuo, these are the two roommates I told you about from before.”

On her left side was the smaller of the two, wearing a black sweater and tight pants, a lovely girl called Pan Qiaoqiao. On the right side was Qinru, a temperamental beauty with a slender body, pale yellow face, and was wearing a lotus-colored chiffon skirt.

For those whom he just got to know, Ouyang Shuo wasn’t very forthcoming, simply greeting them politely and then standing on the side to be a good listener.

Compared to Shou’s calm disposition, Qiaoqiao and Qinru were very curious about him. They looked at Ouyang Shuo, wanting to see who he was exactly. Qinru was more subtle, shooting light glances his way.

Qiaoqiao was more daring, with aggressive eyes, looking presumptuously at Ouyang Shuo. His heart was strong enough to bear with this judging, if not, his face would have definitely flushed red.

They knew Sun Xiaoyue had never had a boyfriend and yet now she had actually agreed to share a room with one? It was too strange. For this kind of situation, there were only two possibilities. Either the man was too innocent to cause any troubles, or he was attractive enough to drive her crazy.

Ouyang Shuo was about 1.8 meters tall, finely boned, and calmly tempered. Although he wasn’t an extremely handsome man, he definitely couldn’t be considered a harmless animal. Therefore, the only answer was that Sun Xiaoyue’s lovely springtime had come.

Qiaoqiao was relatively pure, with a straightforward personality. She directly pulled Xiaoyue aside, asking sneakily, “Hey, Xiaoyueyue, tell the truth! You’re calling him big brother, but isn’t he your boyfriend?”

Xiaoyue put on an angry face, pinched her waist, smiled and said, “He really is just a friend and my roommate! Keep speaking such nonsense, and see how I shut your mouth!”

”Xiaoyueyue, you are trying to hide something, it is as obvious as a cat in heat, don’t blame me.” Qiaoqiao wasn’t going to be outdone, her sharp words caused Ouyang Shuo standing there to feel ashamed. He could not help feeling a little stumped and old, completely unable to keep up with them.

Qinru looked at the politely smiling Ouyang Shuo, saying, “I will also follow Xiaoyueyue in calling you big brother; do you mind it?”

Ouyang Shuo replied with a smile, “I am honored! I have heard Xiaoyue talking about you before, but seeing you in person, you really are true beauties.”

All women, no matter what kind, didn’t have much resistance to words of praise. Qinru, of course, was no exception, teasingly saying, “Complimenting me so, are you really pursuing our Xiaoyueyue here? If you are looking for information about her, if I know I will tell!”

It seemed that women, no matter what kind, couldn’t let go of the potential for gossip. Desperately, he tugged Bing’er forwards, saying. “You are really misunderstanding things. This is my sister Ouyang Bing. Xiaoyue took into account Bing’er, and that was the reason she let us share. It is not so complicated.”

In front of strangers, Bing’er was instantly a good little girl, and said crisply, “Beautiful sister, hello!”

Bing’er’s sweet good looks could kill both males and females. Qinru bent over to take her little hands, saying, “Wow, what a cute little sister! Come give sister a hug!” She did not care about whether Bing’er allowed and immediately embraced her. Not satisfied, she squeezed Bing’er’s cheeks and kissed them too.

Poor Bing’er struggled to turn her little head, giving Ouyang Shuo a look asking for help. Ouyang Shuo stood on the side, unable to do anything. Bing’er made a little bitter face, staring at the big brother who could not save her.

At this time, Sun Xiaoyue and Pan Qiaoqiao finished their conversation and walked back. When Pan Qiaoqiao saw Bing’er she couldn’t resist too, just like that Bing’er had escaped the wolf’s jaws but had fallen into the tiger’s den.

What resulted was, of course, merely more suffering for Ouyang Shuo. Accompanying two girls shopping was more than enough for him, and now all of a sudden there were four of them!

He was like a free mule heaped up with stuff, following four girls, shuttling from one shop to the next with them.

Everyone watching him could only stare, so many men were envious of him, not knowing that he would have happily swapped spots with them. As they say, the one born with the blessing wouldn't know how to cherish that blessing is.

Later that night, Ouyang Shuo treated everyone to a sumptuous meal. Before leaving, Bing’er patted her belly in satisfaction.

Ouyang Shuo knew that his little sister had been walking for an entire day, and had to be tired. He squatted down, smiled and said, “Come, your brother will carry you back!”

Bing’er immediately grinned, laughing as she ran behind Ouyang Shuo, and jumped up into place on his back, her little arms wrapping skillfully around his neck.

Xiaoyue stood aside, watching Ouyang Shuo, each hand adorned with five or six bags, two more around his neck, and now carrying Bing’er, finding the sight secretly funny. However, she had no intentions of helping Ouyang Shuo carry things. He was a boy, and she was exercising a girl’s privilege!

After wandering all day, although he was a little tired, Ouyang Shuo was still happy in his heart. Seeing Xiaoyue had become more cheerful watching him carry Bing’er, this was a good thing. He also started a rare joke, turning back to Xiaoyue and saying, “It time to go! What, are you waiting for me to carry you too?”

Xiaoyue kicked his foot and walked away. Ouyang Shuo smiled on seeing that and hurried to keep up.

Back home, he brought Bing’er back into her room. She had already fallen asleep after her busy day. He took off her coat and covered her with a quilt. This time, she mumbled, “Bing’er still has to brush her teeth, she doesn’t want bad teeth!”

Amused, Ouyang Shuo patted her little head and said softly, “Little sister, you can brush your teeth in the morning, they will not be bad before then!” Her worries dealt with, the little girl wasted no time falling asleep.

Because it was already 9 PM, Ouyang Shuo wasn’t going to stay and was ready to return to his room. Xiaoyue stopped him in the hall. “Brother Shuo, in a few days my school will be on winter vacation, and I will be going home for New Years.”

Ouyang Shuo was a little shocked, saying softly, “Time really flies, in a blink of an eye it is already New Years! Don’t worry about anything. Anyway, Bing’er will also be on vacation soon. I will be around in the day to accompany her every day.”

Xiaoyue had specifically told him that she was leaving not because she was reluctant to leave Ouyang Shuo, but had been worried that Bing’er would have no one to play with her. Anyways, his territory was on the right track, so he didn’t have to log in so early every day, he could take over her job.

They talked about some matters, and then he went back to his room. Ouyang Shuo could feel that during the day Pan Qiaoqiao’s teasing had unsettled Xiaoyue. Between the two of them, it was less of a bond and more of an awkward atmosphere.

He was barely online when the system announcement filled his ears.

“Congratulations to player Di Chen for becoming the second Lord in China to upgrade to Grade 3 Village! Special reward of 1000 merit points!”

“Congratulations to player Di Chen...”

“Congratulations...”

They had moved so fast. In just one day Di Chen had overcome the damage and population loss from the battle and quickly upgraded to grade 3 village status.

After the Siege of Beasts, Di Chen’s Handan Village ranked fourth in the world, winning 450 gold coins. Several of the other Six Tyrants of Handan would also be getting financial rewards. It could be said that the financial burden of the village stage had, for them, ceased to exist.

If the system had not set a requirement on territory index points to upgrade to a township, Ouyang Shuo would believe that the Handan alliance might be able to get in front of him and be the first to upgrade to a township.

Ignoring the news and disturbance from the others, Ouyang Shuo called Cui Yingyu into his office with a friendly greeting, and handed his financial secretary the work he had written yesterday.

Yingyu took the document to look over, smiled and said, “Big Brother is so precise, this will help me a lot.”

They exchanged some ideas on what the Financial Secretary should be doing. Yingyu originally wanted her apprentice Du Xiaolan to be her Assistant Financial Secretary. Unfortunately, Ouyang Shuo had already promoted her to Assistant Secretary of the Material Reserves Division.

“How has Qian Lifei been doing recently?” Ouyang Shuo asked about Yingyu’s other apprentice. Ouyang Shuo didn’t have much contact with him, so he wanted to know what she thought of him.

Yingyu said cautiously, “Qian Lifei is still good, and is very motivated to do and learn things. Only, for some reason, he seems to suffer from low self-esteem, and is too cautious.”

“That’s good, nobody is perfect. As the Financial Secretary, it is necessary to be careful. As long as they can do their best, do not blame them much.” Ouyang Shuo said with a smile.

Cui Yingyu nodded in agreement.

“As for the rest of the staff, it will be necessary to find them slowly. My strategy is, rather than overdoing it, it’s better to wait until the establishment of the Lianzhou College. After the first batch of students graduate, select appropriate staff from the graduates to add to the Financial Division and the Four Seas Bank.”

“That seems to be the only way!” Yingyu agreed helplessly.

With Yingyu leaving, Gui Xiwen immediately came in.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and said, “Xiuwen, what kept you waiting at my door?”

“I have good news to report to you.”

“Oh, what good news?”

“Just as you said it would, today’s quota of people was a large amount, a full 63 people. This group of displaced people not only had someone with territory needs, such as a beginner potter, but also an advanced blacksmith,” Gu Xiuwen answered with a smile.

“What are the names of the two people, and their origins?”

“The potter is called Zhu Youzhi, nothing special about him. Advanced blacksmith Wang Gao had originally settled in the Qingshan village of a lord player, but it was destroyed in the Siege of Beasts, so he arrived here.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. “All of sudden, all 3 of those buildings can now be put up. Go down to the Construction Division and let them know to get them done as soon as possible.”

Gu Xiuwen nodded and clearly agreed.

Chapter 41 - Recruitment

Ouyang Shuo was now ready to go to the barracks and see the newly selected recruits.

On the way, he saw that little Blackfang had grown up quite a bit. He followed Ouyang Shuo out of the courtyard, his feet rustling behind Ouyang Shuo. Since Er Wazi was in the private school, he had no one to play with during the day, the little dog could only chase himself around the courtyard.

Since Gu Sanniang was presiding over the manor’s kitchen, Blackfang’s food had improved greatly, always having meat in his meal. In less than a month’s time, he had grown quite big and sturdy.

Ouyang Shuo, as the master, every time he wasn’t managing the affairs of the territory, he was back in his room reading, never playing and spending time with Blackfang. Seeing how often its owner ignored it, Blackfang had built up some resentment. Seeing its owner going out, Blackfang moved pitifully along after him, not wanting to be separated from him.

Ouyang Shuo did not care about this, letting the dog follow, heading straight out. Along the way were many construction sites, a busy scene. On the commercial street, a bakery, butcher’s shop, and clothing shop had already been started being built.

The wave of privatization was intensifying and it was being talked about everywhere. At the bakery’s construction site, two teens were in deep conversation.

“Hey, Little Wang, why do you seem to have so much energy today?”

“Haha, it's all because of privatization. Yesterday, I talked to Cui Hua secretly. She said that, as long as I can buy a house for us, she would marry me and be my wife.”

“Hey yo, boy, that's amazing. Usually, you’re like a dull kid, how did you suddenly hook up with such a pretty girl like Cui Hua. You really hide your skills deep you kid!!”

“What.. what hook up? We love one another, do you understand!”

“Others aren't sure of you but I'm very sure! You little brat have so many flowery tricks! I see, those little ladies all fall for your tricks! Usually so serious and honest, and at the crucial time, you're methods are aplenty!”

“What, do not discredit my image, you are just jealous of me!”

“Jealous of your good luck, ah, you are my good brother, you find a wife, I am only happy for you. Even so, brat, teach me a couple moves, so I can find myself a beautiful girl, live with her and lead a happy life, that's called bliss!”

“What kind of move, it’s called moving her heart with sincerity! If you don’t know, go worship in the temple to Mazu and pray earnestly, she will help you.”

“Bah, what nonsense. Mazu is the goddess of the sea, she doesn’t control marriages.”

“If you do not believe, then forget what I said. Let's quickly finish our work. Later, I have to ask about how much a small courtyard cost.”

Ouyang Shuo, listening to the two talk about their love lives, moved towards them and asked, “What is your name, and where do you belong to?”

“Answering the lord, this is Wang Er, I belong to the craftsmen, and I am a mason,” one of the young men answered stiffly.

“Mason, mason is a good craft. You wanted to know the price of a small courtyard? I can tell you now, it is about 600 copper coins. As long as you want one, you will be able to get one sooner or later.”

“Thank you, lord!” Wang Er said excitedly.

“Do not thank me, this is what you deserve. Did you say, you wanted to take a wife? Very good, wow, this is a big thing! When you marry, I will personally be there as a witness!”

Wang Er was so excited words could not describe it.

Ouyang Shuo patted his shoulder, smiled and said, “Ok, get back to work! Remember my words. When you have your wedding, make sure you come to the manor and invite me!”

Wang Er rapidly nodded his head, his companions giving him envious looks all around.

Yesterday, the Construction Division had begun to upgrade the barracks, working overtime, and it had been successfully completed this morning. The new barracks had five times the area of the old one, and even if it is fully staffed, it would no longer appear crowded.

On the brand new training field, General Shi was out there with Lin Yi, busy picking out troops. This time around, he needed 73 recruits to expand the military, and so his workload was large. Yesterday the recruitment announcement had been posted. After defending the town during the Siege of Beasts, the General was more enthusiastic than ever.

Ouyang Shuo estimated a bit, the total force of the army would be about 120 people. Without any surprise, he found out most of the candidates were from the ex-militia reserves team.

Because of the demands on soldiers, in order to select the best out of the best, General Shi set guidelines for height, weight, vision and physical fitness. Only by meeting all the minimum requirements could one be admitted.

Height could not be less than 173 cm. In ancient times, such a height was already a high standard.

Body requirements were strong legs and an athletic body that could develop power. Strength came from sturdy legs, and wide shoulders and a narrow waist were important. In addition to this, strength requirements were mainly tested by arm strength.

Arm strength was a requirement for using the crossbow. They were recruiting more crossbow cavalry, requiring each soldier to be able to arm a crossbow. The arm strength test was very simple. As long as you could use one hand to lift a 50 kg stone block, then you were considered strong enough. A weak person with weak arms could not lift it.

Crossbow Calvary, in general, had high vision demands. Night blindness and myopia patients were eliminated first, and then from the rest of them, those with the best vision were picked.

The last one was the physical test, which required the candidates to run ten laps around the training field to pass. The field was close to four hundred meters around, so they would have to run nearly four kilometers to pass.

Ouyang Shuo stood aside to observe the tests, watching with great interest. After every test was completed, some people were happy, others were sad. When a test was passed, there were cheers. If there was a failure, naturally they were dejected.

It took until 3 PM before all the new troops were selected. Seventy-three people that passed lined up near the barracks and the rest were eliminated.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head, expressing his satisfaction over General Shi’s handling of this recruitment. He did not make any impromptu speech, but instead walked directly to the Class Change Chamber, and placed his right hand on the door.

“System notification: Congratulations for player Qiyue Wuyi for opening the barracks’ Class Change Chamber! With the Intermediate Barracks, farmers can be converted into militia, transfer costs 10 silver coins. A level 10 militiaman can also be converted into a rank one soldier, cost 1 gold coin. Please choose your transformation!”

“Transforming militia!”

“System Tip: Transforming confirmed, please select the number of transformations!”

“73 people!”

“System Tip: The number of transformations is confirmed, deducting from player Qiyue Wuyi 7 gold and 30 silver coins.”

On the training field, the new recruits were led one by one into the Class Change Chamber, and began their conversion. The militia would not go directly into the military intelligence or the cavalry division. They would be focused on leveling and training together. After their level had been raised to 10, they would be distributed according to their performance level. This was very similar to how recruits were handled in reality.

After the recruits had all been processed, Ouyang Shuo called General Shi, Lin Yi, and San Gouzi into the barracks. For the next stage of military duties, he felt the need for a separate arrangement.

“In the village stage, a cavalry squadron was enough to cope with all kinds of challenges. When our territory expanded, it was likely that there was a new raider’s camp near to us. This time, I will not participate in the destruction of the bandit camp. I hand full responsibility to the cavalry squadron and intelligence division.

“I have only one request. As far as possible, without risking casualties, include as many of the recruits as possible, let them see the blood of a fighting army, and what death is like. Let them fight.”

General Shi and Captain both nodded their heads, saying they understood.

“We cannot relax on their daily training. I suggest that General Shi presides over the preparation of a military conduct code, training systems, and discipline. Discipline is the soul of an army. From the beginning, it needs to be strict and unremitting. I'll write a guide on military discipline and day-to-day training for reference.”

General Shi had a solemn expression as he nodded seriously. This fierce general was naturally adept at the battle, but in the daily management of the army, he was still somewhat lacking. Fortunately, the army was still in its infancy. He had time, and he had Lin Yi on the side to help him, so Ouyang Shuo felt that this would be a very good thing.

“In addition to the raider camp, you cannot be soft to beast hordes. If we need to destroy them, then we must do so. We cannot let them form another siege like the last one, leaving a hidden danger behind. Long, long ago, the general met some wild goats, but they mysteriously disappeared. I was thinking they might have gone up the mountain to hide. Let the cavalry and intelligence division join forces and increase search efforts to find them and add another kind of livestock to the territory.”

After mentioning the wild goats, General Shi was a bit embarrassed. It had been so long, and they’d found no trace of the beasts. He shook his fist secretly and vowed to find them!

Ouyang Shuo turned to San Gouzi. “Military intelligence is just starting to be formed, I will not ask too much of it. Your task is outside. We cannot wait until after the territory upgrades to passively check the territory for security risks. There, the intelligence division is to take the initiative to explore the situation outside the territory to find out the distribution of the bandit camps, or even find the territories of other lords.

“In addition, I’ll give you a task attached to the scouting process. While you are out scouting, look around and see if you can find some mulberry tree seedlings, they are directly related to the village being able to upgrade to a township.” Ouyang Shuo looked back to General Shi. “This task is equally applied to the cavalry squadron.”

The officers all nodded and acknowledged the order.

“Well then, I look forward to good news from you in the future!” Ouyang Shuo neatly ended the conversation. There were a lot of things he would have to wait until their situation was clearer before discussing them further.

Chapter 42 - Rift

Ouyang Shuo returned to his office, picked up his paper and pen, and began to integrate the real world’s federal discipline and military training code in preparation for setting the territory’s military behavior code, for General Shi’s reference.

The next day, after coming online, a burst of system announcements exploded in Ouyang Shuo’s ears.

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Chun Shenjun for becoming the third Lord in China to upgrade to Grade 3 Village! Special reward of 900 merit points!”

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Chun Shenjun…”

“System Notification: Congratulations…”

So it was Chun Shenjun; this was hardly surprising. Wealth was a very strong advantage in the early game. There was no pause for Ouyang Shuo to recover his senses before another announcement went off.

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Xiongba for becoming the fourth Lord in China to upgrade to the Grade 3 Village! Special reward of 800 merit points!”

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Xiongba…”

“System Notification: Congratulations…”

This announcement caused an immediate uproar in China. First one surprise, and now another one had appeared! Nobody thought that the status of the Six Tyrants of Handan would be challenged again. A dark horse could be considered as lucky. Two dark horses weren't luck but instead the inability of the horses in front.

The Six Tyrants of Handan who used custom game cabins, the imposing forces behind their backs, and their slowly built up hegemony... were now starting to be threatened.

Hence, Xiongba from King village announced himself in such a domineering manner. Even more interesting was that the names of King Village and the Six Tyrants were like dead rivals, meant to oppose one another. Suddenly, the calm air of China was getting filled with smoke.

At that moment, as if dropping this bomb wasn’t enough, someone suddenly decided to toss out some propaganda on the formerly quiet all-China channel.

“Chun Shenjun: You are awesome! Congratulations, congratulations!”

“Xiongba: Back at you! Back at you!”

The national channel required 1 gold for every single word. It was a luxury service, and this was the first time someone had used it. However, no one was paying attention to the luxury behavior, instead what they were curious about was the hidden meaning which was revealed by those simple words.

Chen Shenjun and Xiongba, both had upgraded to a grade 3 village, and then through the national channel gave one another congratulatory calls, which was sort of strange. One of them was one of the Six Tyrants of Handan, the God of Wealth, and backbone of the group. The other was a challenger to the Six Tyrants, and should’ve been an enemy of them.

Strange that both of them should be on opposing sides, but yet they were on friendly terms. Was this a coalition? What it meant was something everyone was hungry to know. Everyone could not help but wonder if the coalition of the Six Tyrants, the strongest in China, was ready to fall apart?

Truthfully, Ouyang Shuo couldn’t read the situation either. In his past life, the Six Tyrants were unshakeable, destroying all challengers. At the same time, because of the lack of challenges, it was difficult for outsiders to speculate on the relationship between the Six Tyrants. Even if they had problems, they had always resolved it privately, giving no one a glimpse of their internal politics. Di Chen of the Six had often played the role of mediator.

This time though, the Six had not bonded so strongly when Ouyang Shuo struck them successively three times, and then when they were successfully struck by Xiongba. Whether the Six people would be able to maintain that level of trust was really pretty hard to say.

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

At the same time in Jingdu, near the Handan Village Council, Di Chen was sitting on the throne, his face gloomy. In the chamber, the backbone of his village staff was gathered. They were just about to begin their meeting but met with such a situation.

“Is second brother trying to challenge me?” Di Chen’s voice was cold, making people stiffen in fear.

It was no surprise why he was so angry. Other people did not know the identity of Xiongba, but he was crystal clear on who it was. The family of Xiongba was also a political family, and they had always had a hostile relationship with him. Between them, there would always be rivalry and animosity.

Now, a member of the Handan Alliance, Chun Shenjun, had even openly spoken with Xiongba, which was, as far as Di Chen was concerned, a naked betrayal.

The sudden emergence of Qiyue Wuyi did not make Di Chen so angry. After all, as long as the Handan Alliance stayed together, there could be no forces in China who could shake them. But now, a crack in the wall was before them, and he could not erase it.

The atmosphere of the chamber was exceptionally solemn; no one dared to speak out.

Sitting next to him, Juedai Fenghua broke the deadlock, saying, “Chen, now is not the time to be angry. We have to find out as soon as possible what Chun Shenjun intended with his words. More importantly, we have to see what the other four members are thinking. Otherwise, if this happens again, it may ruin everything.”

“This, I am afraid it is not so simple. Shenjun dared to speak this time; he may already be ready to move. It is also possible that in this matter, he is simply blowing smoke, deliberately confusing us so that he can profit from disorder,” Di Chen calmly analyzed.

“The idea is that, while stabilizing the interior of the Alliance, you could also find new allies to fill the gap left by Chun Shenjun.”

Di Chen frowned, hesitating to say, “You speak of new allies, you mean Qiyue Wuyi?”

“Yes. As long as we succeeded in drawing Qiyue Wuyi over, then the strength of the alliance will not only not be damaged, but strengthened,” Juedai Fenghua said.

“But if we can’t even find out his identity at this point, how can we figure out if we can trust him?” Di Chen habitually retorted.

Juedai Fenghua smiled beautifully, “In fact, we are blinded by our inertial thinking in reality. Think about it. In Earth Online, is the real identity so important? A year from now, our real identities will basically no longer exist and will re-shuffled into a new life.”

Di Chen realized her point. “Yes, I want to see if we can rope him in. As long as we have a common goal in the game, even if we don’t know his real identity, it really doesn’t matter. Qiyue Wuyi needs to expand in the game; he is going to need to find allies. In the whole of China, what could be more attractive than our alliance? Ha, so it seems that for this matter, I should send him a message, and invite him to join the Handan Alliance.

“Shenjun, this act of yours, I must make you regret it.”

Juedai Fenghua nodded her head, her heart was not as confident as Di Chen. But this was not the time to speak, so she could only stay silent and make calculations in her heart.

While Di Chen was thinking about how to counter the actions of Shenjun, Chun Shenjun had already been a step ahead of him and already sent a message to Ouyang Shuo.

Receiving invitations from both Chun Shenjun and Di Chen did not surprise Ouyang Shuo, but it was impossible for him to join either party. Ouyang Shuo was very clear that the moment they found out his bottom line, they would turn on him and eat him until not even his bones were left.

To be in an alliance, you had to be with similar people. It was difficult for people from different circles and status to come together. Ouyang Shuo’s pride was strong and wasn’t the kind of person who wanted to be under someone else. Likewise, whether it was Di Chen or Chun Shenjun, they would want the dominant position in any alliance. Between them, there were irreconcilable differences.

Ouyang Shuo immediately sent messages back to both Di Chen and Chun Shenjun, casually noting that now wasn’t a good time to talk about alliances, but they might be able to talk about such things at a later date.

As Ouyang Shuo was sending his replies, in Dali’s Consonance Village, the four core members of Consonance Studio, ‘Green Red Purple White’ were all gathered together.

“Sister, this person Shenjun is trying to start an alliance with Xiongba, what do you think?” The one who spoke was Tsing Yi. She looked like a little girl, but she held the studio together.

“According to their previous contact in other games, Chun Shenjun had been a strong controller of other people. In the Handan Six Tyrants, only he and Zhan Lang were old game players. The other four were all first-timers. Chun Shenjun had long been accustomed to being the dominating, king player in games, and even Zhan Lang had been defeated at his hands.

“But in Earth Online, Di Chen had won the leadership position, and even the Alliance’s name was based on Chen’s domain name, which made him the spokesman. Actually, what he did was nothing as long as they still had a common interest. Even though he had problems, he wouldn't retaliate.”

“Who would have thought that a freak like Qiyue Wuyi would emerge. The Six Tyrants have lost three times in a row; their dominance is now crushed. Chun Shenjun is naturally unwilling to stick with them; it’s not a surprise he is making a move here.”

Bai Hua was truly a leader among professional players, and her analysis of Chun Shenjun was crystal clear. It was like the old saying went: the person who understood you best was often your enemy. In previous games, Consonance Studio and Chun Shenjun had many conflicts; the two could be considered old rivals.

Second sister Zi Luolan smiled and said, “Sister, the freak you talked about is in Dali just like us.”

Of the sisters, Luolan was the most lively, the team diplomat, and second in command, so she dared to talk back to Bai Hua. She giggled at Bai Hua, who remained serene and calm, but frowned. Purple left her with something to think about.

Bai Hua glanced at the other sisters, her commanding presence on display.

“Second sister, we could try to talk to Qiyue Wuyi. Even if we could not enter an alliance, we could indicate our goodwill.”

Third sister, Hong Ying was a militant, and hearing this, was a bit unhappy, muttering, “Why do you want to show goodwill? Yeah, we are not afraid of him. I really want to fight him, and make him run away.”

Tsing Yi raised her hand, saying helplessly, “Third Sister, please stop only thinking about fighting and killing. From everything eldest sister has learned from the closed beta, this game is not simple, with many hidden secrets. Before the situation is clear, one friend is better than one enemy.”

Of the four, Hong Ying was the fearless one. But in eloquence, she was still far behind Tsing Yi. She just muttered and didn’t say anything else.

Bai Hua laughed and shook her head. “What Tsing Yi said is right. Second sister should contact Qiyue Wuyi and test his attitude and we shall then decide.”

Zi Luolan nodded. External contact was her job, and she was naturally going to handle this.

Chapter 43 - Alliance

When Ouyang Shuo received the message from Zi Luolan, he was a bit shaken.

The alliance offers from Di Chen and Chun Shenjun, he could ignore but the one from Consonance Village, he had some interest in. The Four Flowers of Consonance Studio came from non-special backgrounds. Their credibility in the industry was also recognized, and so much more in line with his alliance conditions.

Ouyang Shuo immediately sent back a message that he was willing to accept the terms of an alliance.

At 10 AM, Fan Zhongyan and Zhao Dexian came into his office together. After they sat down, Zhao Dexian was the first to speak. “Lord, we are here to talk about the farmland situation.”

“What is the plan for the farmland?”

“According to the distribution of the people, the current number of farmers is about 180 people, and the existing farmland is two thousand mu. Therefore, the opinion of the Reclamation Division is that the distribution of the farmers is ten mu of farmland per person. The extra two hundred mu will be held out as public property, to be sold at a later date or to reward people as desired,” Zhao Dexian told him.

Ouyang Shuo frowned, looked over at Fan Zhongyan and asked, “What is the opinion of the Administration Department?”

Looking at his lord’s attitude, he seemed to be less than satisfied with the distribution plan. But Fan Zhongyan had already gone over this program with Zhao Dexian and agreed to it.

Therefore, the scholar could only bite the bullet and say, “The Administration department has no objection to this allocation program.”

Ouyang Shuo sighed. “It seems that your development strategy and understanding of the territory is not thorough enough. You are still thinking that farming is the core of our assets, and you want to guard it instead of letting it go as part of this privatization. What is the purpose of privatization? It’s not to split farmer fields, but to inspire the handicrafts and commerce of the territory.

“The territory doesn’t need public land, and ministers are not allowed to reward land for meritorious service. Therefore, the provisions of your plan are strictly prohibited, in order to curb this conservative thinking about the land. All of the farmland should be assigned to farmers. The transformation of these thoughts must be done by you, and only if your thoughts are changed, can you guide the villagers to also change their minds.”

Fan Zhongyan and Zhao Dexian hung their heads before him, ashamed.

“As for the allocation of farmland, I agree with the plan generally. However, raise the number of farmers to 200. Each farmer will be allocated with 10 mu of farmland, that way, an ordinary family of three will have farmland of 20 mu, this is far more reasonable. Use it as a standard for distributing farmland. Use the amount of farmland to determine the number of farmers, like salt workers.”

Zhao Dexian nodded his head, showing he understood. Then he asked, “Sire, there is a need to report on another matter. These last couple of days, speaking with the farmers, we found that there is a concern. Prior to the ripening of potatoes, farmers will have no source of income, and now it is the farming downtime. Relying on the one benefits of territory basic welfare, they fear that it is not enough to survive.”

“Look, more inherent thinking at work. Are they only farmers? The territory is building up, there is a demand for construction workers everywhere! In the slack season, the farmers can go to the building sites to help the workers to earn money for their families!”

Zhao Dexian understood suddenly and buried his face in his hands. He said embarrassingly, “What the lord said is right, it seems our thinking needs to change, or we won’t be able to keep up with the development and improvements to the territory, I am sorry!”

Ouyang Shuo was pleased that they finally understood. “This privatization is not only here to break the reliance on the lord for everything. We want to recognize the magic of the market, to recognize everyone’s pioneering spirit. To reach that point, you must have a correct understanding.”

Fan Zhongyang, still showing his shame, solemnly said, “As the Director of the Administration Department, I am ashamed to say I still have an inferior understanding of sire’s intentions. I originally wanted to make my report to sire about the privatization program, but after sire’s instruction, I find that a lot of content in the program is too conservative, and I need to readjust things. Please forgive me, my lord, and grant me an additional two days time.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled and said, “Do not blame yourself. In the face of new things, things will obviously be different from usual. Your ability I am very trusting of.”

Fan Zhongyan nodded, and with Zhao Dexian, rose and left the office.

At 2 PM, Ouyang Shuo went out to the barracks. He had finished writing the Military Behaviour Code of Conduct and wanted to deliver it to General Shi, as well as see the training situation of the recruits.

Leaving the barracks, Ouyang Shuo thought about the news he’d received from General Shi. After two days of scouting, the cavalry team finally found a raider camp. It was located in the northwest corner of the territory, an intermediate camp on the shore of the Friendship River.

The intermediate raider camps generally numbered 300 people in the area, including a large number of combatants. Compared to the basic raider camp, the level of combatants had clearly increased. There were level 20 ordinary raiders, level 25 elite raiders, and at least level 30 leader types, including the boss.

In accordance with General Shi’s plan, they would wait until the cavalry squadron was fully formed before moving in, destroying the camp in one fell swoop. After all, things were different now. They had cavalry now, it was nothing like last time when militia were the only troops they could use.

The cavalry soldiers were not only armored, but was also skilled with bows, mounted, and had experienced a baptism of war. Their individual combat effectiveness was greater than elite bandits. The most experienced veterans of the Siege of Beasts had been promoted to the fourth rank, how could the raiders compare? Whether it was attacking or field warfare, they had the advantage. This was the gap between a regular military and those living in the wild.

Ouyang Shuo had agreed with General Shi. He didn’t want to lose his strategic advantage. He also did not want to push the raiders into a corner. He deliberately told General Shi that, if the conditions permit, he could try to recruit the raiders. With some screening, surrendered raiders could be recruited into the army. As long as they were bound by strict military discipline, they would make qualified soldiers.

Coming back to the manor, he just received an alliance request from Bai Hua. He removed the Lord’s Handbook from his storage bag and opened the territory column. He found Consonance Village, its lord was Bai Hua. After confirming, an alliance application automatically came up. He clicked to confirm, and a contract popped up.

Ouyang Shuo read it carefully from beginning to end, a total of four major terms.

First of all, if anyone wanted to cancel the covenant they had to give three days advance notice. Termination did not require the approval of the other party and could be done unilaterally.

Second, they could negotiate through the Advanced Market Platform for cross-regional trade. In order to encourage free trade between allies, the system would reduce the tax by 10%.

Third, when the territory is upgraded to a county, you could transfer people between Allies using the Teleportation Formation. If one side was having problems, the other party could support them by sending people using the Formation, the cost would be 1 gold coin per person.

Fourth, after the opening of the battlefield maps, allies can choose to select the same side. In the process, you can team up and complete war quests.

After reading the covenant, Ouyang Shuo took the Lord’s official seal out of his storage bag and touched the contract with it. At that point, Consonance Village and Shanhai Village officially formed an alliance.

At the same time, in the Consonance Game Studio, the four flowers were together, staring at the screen. When they saw that the contract had been signed, they started jumping around excitedly.

“Sister, this Qiyue Wuyi is not so difficult to work with. He agreed so readily to an alliance,” Zi Luolan spoke up first.

“Yes, yes, it seems the charms of big sister are really different, bah, one shot, you won over the number 1 lord in the world so easily, hehe!” Tsing Yi promptly countered her.

“It seems big sister will have another admirer under her skirt~” Third sister Hong Ying also joked.

In the face of her three joking sisters, Bai Hua did not move, pulling back her long hair, and saying lightly, “Qiyue Wuyi was able to have today’s achievements, how could he be superficial. According to his email return, he has rejected alliances from Shenjun and Di Chen. Seems like he did so for a reason.”

Tsing Yi nodded her head. “I say he probably had a couple of reasons for doing so. Probably, he is not like what the online rumors were saying, the successor of some secret family, but he’s only a civilian player just like us. So, he turned down a big force like Chun Shenjun, and instead picked our Consonance Game Studio. In addition, his ambition is as big as Chun Shenjun, but he isn’t such a jackass.”

Hong Ying whispered, “You mean that Qiyue Wuyi wants to eat our Consonance Village since he is stronger than us?”

“I do not know how will it go on at the end of the day. But at least if we compare strength now then that's the case.”

Zi Luolan gave a teasing smile, touched the sulking Hong Ying, and said, “Don’t think such bad things. He already politely refused Chun Shenjun and Di Chen, rather than a direct rejection. This tells us that he is not a person who is too dominant, and our alliance is more or less from the perspective of a mutually beneficial cooperation.”

Although Tsing Yi was smart, Zi Luolan was definitely better at grasping human nature. Therefore, she accepted the judgment of her, nodding in recognition of her point.

Bai Hua smiled, pleased. “I think both of your analysis is very reasonable. Whether Qiyue Wuyi is or is not the descendant of a secret family, or what kind of ambition he has, right now he has only one known identity. He is an ally of us and our Consonance Village. This alliance with Shanhai, we will keep confidential between the four of us. This is too high profile, it will draw too much interest and attract too much trouble.”

The other three nodded, understanding that point.

Ouyang Shuo did not know that his motives had been guessed by the other side, at this point in time, he was simply reading in his office again.

Chapter 44 - Breakdowns

Over the next three days, China’s top 10 grade 3 village ranking filled up. A new round of the contest officially kicked off.

Chun Shenjun and Xiongba’s alliance created a storm that was still brewing. Just yesterday afternoon, the Tyrants of Handan had officially split into two factions. The first was composed of Di Chen, Zhan Lang, Feng Qiuhuang, and Sha Pojun, forming a new Handan Alliance, which was promptly dubbed the Handan Four Xia...which was a homophone for Shrimps. Di Chen’s prestige suffered a major blow, and Ouyang Shuo who had done nothing was blamed and hated by Di Chen.

Chun Shenjun had successfully brought over Feng Qingyang, in addition to allying with Xiongba and Wandering Magic. Together they had formed the Chunqiu Alliance. Chun Shenjun successfully won the top spot in their alliance, with Xiongba and Wandering Magic also now getting access to compete at the top level in the game. It was the best of both worlds for them.

As for Feng Qingyang going into the Alliance, Ouyang Shuo wasn’t surprised. As the descendents of a martial arts family, Feng Qingyang had the least amount of shared interests with the other five Handan Tyrants, so breaking off from them was relatively easier.

But Sha Pojun staying in the former alliance did surprise him. As the representative of underworld forces, Sha Pojun naturally did not get along well with the other tyrants who were political families and ancient clans. The only reason that could explain his decision to stand along Di Chen was probably because he and Chun Shenjun had ran a deep rivalry that could never be resolved.

Xiongba was really wily, successfully pulling a knife on the Six Tyrants, and provoking Di Chen and Chun Shenjun into a confrontation. In one fell swoop, he broke their alliance. Everything that he did before was just for show.

What was even more alarming was that Ouyang Shuo knew that in his past life, Wandering Magic and Xiongba were allies. This time, Xiongba bringing Wandering Magic into the Chunqiu Alliance could be truly intriguing. It looked like Xiongba had kept Chun Shenjun in the dark, truly an old fox.

With these moves, China’s domination by the Six Tyrants of Handan had suddenly evolved into the Handan Alliance and the Chunqiu Alliance. Secretly, Shanhai Village and the Consonance Village were also in an alliance, and could faintly be considered the 3rd pole in the challenge for hegemony.

Even though Ouyang Shuo had instigated all of this with his butterfly effect, he hadn’t thought that change would come so fast or so hard. He could only say that ambition was a wonderful thing. With only a slight move, you could really churn up the ground.

Even as the situation was changing outside, Ouyang Shuo remained low-key, obsessed with territorial affairs every day. He did not mind Di Chen’s spite at all. Not wanting to provoke trouble didn’t mean that he was afraid of trouble. With the split of the Six Tyrants of Handan, there was no longer one superpower in China. Inadvertently, Ouyang Shuo had become the biggest winner of the ongoing drama.

Yesterday, the wave of immigrants had finally reverted back to normal. For five consecutive days, Shanhai Village had brought in 255 displaced people, saving 12 days time building his population for the next big upgrade to the level of the township.

Because a large amount of the migrants had come from other players’ territories, the number of skilled migrants was particularly large. Not only did he get members of the basic classes of carpenters, masons, miners and so forth, but also an intermediate shipbuilder and a former official.

The intermediate shipbuilder was called He Miao, a 23-year-old young man that Ouyang Shuo promptly sent off to the intermediate shipyard as Zheng Dahai’s deputy. His shipyard could currently create not only fishing boats that could hold 10 people but also small warships. Unfortunately, Shanhai Village had no sailors or marines, so, for now, he had no use for warships.

The former official’s name was Su Ze. Ouyang Shuo originally wanted to send him to the Material Reserves Division, serving as the Secretary. Yet Mr. Su surprised him by saying he had gone through the ups and downs of political offices and had no intention of being an official again. Given no choice, Ouyang Shuo respected his decision and had arranged for him to work in Lianzhou College instead, serving as a professor. He was glad to accept the work of educating people.

Name: Su Ze (Gold)

Identity: Shanhai Village Lianzhou College ProfessorOccupation:

Civil Servant (Juren)

Loyalty: 75

Command: 25

Force: 15

Intelligence: 55

Political: 65

Features: Education Preacher (Enhances the quality of residents in the territory by 10%)

Evaluation: A poet, with full knowledge of classic poetry and literature. Retired after getting tired of the ups and downs of political office.

With the addition of Mr. Su, coupled with the construction of Lianzhou College, Shanhai’s cultural index flew up to 30 points, satisfying one of the minimum requirements to upgrade to a town.

In fact, with Fan Zhongyan’s name, he could have directly pushed Shanhai’s cultural index to 30 back then. Unfortunately, Fan Zhongyan had administrative duties, and his position of principal of Lianzhou College was part-time. So his ability to enhance the culture of the territory was greatly reduced. But as soon as Mr. Su joined the college as a professor, his ability to enhance local culture was applied to great effect.

Now, of the 4 indices, only the economic index had not yet reached the required standard. With the gradual progress of his privatization efforts, Ouyang Shuo believed that the economic index would soon reach 30 points. This would happen sooner or later.

At 10 AM, Ouyang Shuo was in his office, and Fan Zhongyan, Zhao Dewang, and Zhao Youfang were all there, ready to discuss the purchases and sales of the materials.

As the deputy secretary of the Material Reserves Division, Zhao Youfang spoke first. “During the first 3 months, food, clothing and other materials can only be purchased through the Basic Market. It is the Secretary’s opinion that these primary materials should be bought and sold by the Reserves Division until the territory is self-sufficient, at which time the market should be completely opened.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. “In that case, not only do we need to build a bakery, butcher shop, and clothing store, we also need warehouses to store goods. In addition, we need the training in place for staff to run those shops once they are in place.”

“The 3 shops will be run directly by the Material Reserves Division. We are ready to recruit the staff for them from the villagers,” Zhao Youfang replied.

“You must be careful about the arrangements for the staff. I do not want the shop staff to collide with people who work in the Department. That will start raising questions about potential theft.”

Once privatized, it would be easy for greed to take root. Ouyang Shuo had to walk a tight line here. Especially in the Material Reserves Division, when the profits were high, it was easy to have corruption.

Zhao Youfang nodded vigorously at the command.

“In addition, the other materials should not be self-sufficient at the moment, except possibly the fish. On this point, how does the Division wish to proceed? Complete purchase and resale?” Ouyang Shuo wasn’t too happy with that idea, considering it too rigid.

Hearing Ouyang Shuo’s words, Youfang was unsettled, thinking that Ouyang Shuo was not satisfied with their work. He didn’t know how to answer.

Fortunately, Fan Zhongyan spoke up about his solution for the problem, smiling and taking over. “At this stage, the amount of fish sold locally is small, it is mainly for export. As I see it, we don’t even need to build any fish market. Simply just set up two to three stalls in the butcher’s shop for fish, and allow the fishermen to rent them. This will make it convenient to sell the fish and facilitate the collection of the booth tax by the Financial Division.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, relaxing the atmosphere. He turned to Zhao Dewang and asked, “The price of properties, has the Construction Division identified what they should be?”

Yesterday afternoon, the Construction Division and the Financial Division discussed the salary levels and had come up with a pricing formula for the various types of properties. We wanted sire to approve before we release it.”

Hearing Zhao Dewang raising the issue of wages, Ouyang Shuo unconsciously smiled. Right now, for the purposes of price guidance and setting price levels, the Administration Department hadn’t said much and the Financial Division had passed it on.

When Fan Zhongyan had sent on the first drafts of the proposals to the Financial Division, Cui Yingyu had flatly rejected them. The wage level was too high and the price levels were far too low. Fan Zhongyan had been angry enough to choke from the rejection.

The two were at opposite ends. One was always worrying about the people, everything was for their benefit, while the other one was watching the treasury like a hawk, born to spend money wisely.

Finding no compromise, they’d had to trouble Ouyang Shuo. Ouyang Shuo had come down firmly on the side of Yingyu, rejecting the first drafts of the Administration department.

Some of the things Fan Zhongyang wanted to implement in his proposals were simply outrageous. If he had followed the view of the implementation, it wouldn’t have been long before Ouyang Shuo would be eating and drinking air. He could not help but say, the great scholar’s worries about his country must have a limit to them. He practically treated the people like treasure and the ruler like dirt.

This was the first time Ouyang Shuo showed his temper, rescinding the rights of setting living costs and wages from the Administration Department and requiring them to discuss with the Financial Division before calming this storm.

Through this test, Fan Zhongyan himself also realized that Ouyang Shuo was not the kind to just accept whatever was presented him blindly, like a good boy. No matter how talented you were, if you lost your reason you wouldn’t get things accomplished. Shanhai Village, in the end, was Ouyang Shuo’s private territory, not some idealized country. Pure idealism would simply not work.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo’s thoughtful expression, Fan Zhongyan was clearly embarrassed.

Ouyang Shuo knew that he had lost his temper and smiled apologetically. In any case, he still respected the few secretaries. As long as they worked together a few more times and found one another’s bottom lines, they could resume working harmoniously and things would proceed more smoothly.

Ouyang Shuo turned to look at Zhao Dewang. “This is a good idea, very efficient. Announcing the real estate prices earlier would reduce the villagers’ suspicions, and reassure everyone.”

Zhao Dewang smiled agreeably in his honest manner and did not say anything, agreeing with his words. On the other side, Zhao Youfang seemed preoccupied, having not yet recovered from Ouyang Shuo’s earlier criticism.

When the meeting was over, Ouyang Shuo specifically patted Zhao Youfang’s shoulder to show him some encouragement. He could not afford to neglect his people. Although this time things had not met his approval, it could be considered as a learning opportunity.

Chapter 45 - Master

Ouyang Shuo strode directly into the barracks, recruits were lined up on the training field. With an apologetic smile, he moved straight to the Class Change Chamber and placed his right hand on the door.

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for opening the Class Change Chamber of the military barracks! The intermediate barracks can transform a farmer into a militiaman for 10 silver coins, and also transform a level 10 militia into a rank 1 ordinary soldier for the cost of 1 gold coin! Please choose what you would like to do!”

“Transform militia to rank one ordinary soldiers!”

“System Notification: Transformation confirmed, please select the number of transformations!”

“73!”

“System Prompt: detected the basic soldier token. 53 job change uses remaining, do you want to use them first?”

“Yes, prioritize them!”

“System Notification: Please choose the direction of the remaining 20 people you are transforming. You can choose infantry, sailors, or cavalry. Infantry will cost 50 silver, sailors will cost 100 silver, and cavalry will cost 150 silver.”

“I choose cavalry!”

“System Notification: The number of transformations is confirmed, deducting from player Qiyue Wuyi 30 gold coins.”

After opening the Class Change Chamber, 73 militiamen marched inside in an orderly manner, and began their transformations. The last batch of 20 people were transformed into ordinary cavalry, and Ouyang Shuo glanced at their stats.

Name: Ganghu

Identity: Military Intelligence Division Second Squad Soldier

Occupation: Cavalry

Level: Rank 1

Combat Power: 15

Consumption: 5 Units of Food/Day (note: Including mount)

Skills: Basic Riding

Equipment: Ordinary Horse, Ordinary Javelin, Ordinary Armor, Ordinary Wooden Shield

Evaluation: This is the most basic cavalry unit. In order to use the advantages of cavalry in battle, in addition to rigorous training, they also need to be equipped with better gear.

Compared to the crossbow cavalry, ordinary cavalry was like being raised by a stepmother. Not only did they not get the 5 point power bonus, they only got basic riding as a skill. Even their equipment had a large difference, it was about equal to that of an elite raider.

Fortunately, when they destroyed the last raider camps, they’d seized a number of wooden bows and iron swords, barely enough to train these new 20 cavalry with into bow calvary.

General Shi revealed that he would be using two days to train up the team before taking the whole team in two days and commence exterminating the new raider camp. He would promote a new sergeant, as per previous practice, based on how well they performed in combat. Ouyang Shuo naturally had no objection.

Leaving the barracks, Ouyang Shuo was ready to walk around the town and visit everything. In the last three days, most of the infrastructure buildings had been completed, and as a lord, he needed to look over everything.

He first entered the wine workshop. The manager of the workshop was from Recruitment Hall, the advanced winemaker Du Chun.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo, Du Chun greeted him with his two new apprentices, bowing respectfully and saying, “Sire has come in person, we did not welcome you well!”

Ouyang Shuo said with a smile, “I have been busy recently and neglected Master Du, I am sorry.”

“I am terribly honored, there is no need for my lord to visit me.” Du Chun said excitedly.

“You need not be so humble. Your workshop, when will it begin its operation? Are there any difficulties?” Ouyang Shuo asked directly.

Du Chun was embarrassed as he answered, “I cannot hide this from the lord, I am ashamed, we have not yet officially opened.”

“Oh? Why is this?” Ouyang Shuo wondered if there had been an accident. The wine workshop should have been upgraded during the grade 3 village upgrade, but it had been several days, and yet it had not even opened?

“it is because of the grain. On average, 3 units of rice can brew one unit of wine. The territory now has a shortage of food, and is relying entirely on purchasing food from the external market. Therefore, the Material Reserves Division said that purchasing grain this way is not suitable for alcohol.”

Ouyang Shuo slapped his forehead. The Material Reserves Division’s short-sighted nature was a constant headache. Since Cui Yingyu had left, the Material Reserves Division had been making constant mistakes, it really seemed he had to reorganize it. Unfortunately, Mr. Su had refused the position, so he really couldn’t find a suitable person to take it over.

In front of Du Chu, Ouyang Shuo also couldn’t criticize the Division on their mistakes, and instead asked, “Has Master Du heard of Guilin Three Flower wine?”

“My lord is referring to what is also known as Ruilu Three Flower wine?” Du Chun asked carefully.

“Yes! Does Master Du think that Shanhai’s conditions would allow you to brew it here?”

Master Du was clearly informed about the Three Flowers wine, and said confidently, “As the saying goes, water is the blood of the wine, rice is the meat of the wine, and yeasts is the bones of the wine. To make it, we will need water, rice, and yeast.”

“Lijiang River, especially the underground spring water, has smooth and clear water, with no smell of debris and trace minerals, which will provide a fine blood for the Three Flowers wine. The rice of Lijiang River Valley is fine, with large full grains and a high starch rate, forming the ideal meat of the wine. Moreover, the specialty of the unique taste of Three Flowers wine is its herbal yeasts, the bone of the wine. It is said that after the initial making of the wine, it is loaded into stone cylinders and stored in rock caves for a year or two. After it ages, the wine is more aromatic, with a higher alcohol content.

“Shanhai Village is located in the Lianzhou Basin, similar to Guilin Region. The three conditions of water, rice, and yeasts should not be a difficulty. The water of the Friendship River is crystal clear, and comes from springs, much like the Lijiang River. I believe that, as long as we look for them carefully, we can find water comparable to those mountain springs. Finally, at the south of us are mountains, we should be able to easily find some stone caves to store the wine in.”

Ouyang Shuo laughed and said, “Master Du is indeed a wine expert, able to analyze a wine from the inside out! Since you have confidence in Shanhai being able to make Three Flowers wine, we will naturally give you our full support. I will go to the Basic Market and buy the . For rice supplies, do not worry, I will personally go to the Material Reserves Division and have them cooperate with you. Right now, I need you to find the right spring and cave.”

Du Chun had not really expected he would have the opportunity to brew the Three Flowers wine. Hearing all this, he said excitedly, “Du Chun thanks the lord for his trust, I will promise all my efforts to this task!”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, and headed to the Basic Market, spending 20 gold coins to buy the . He brought it back to Du Chun before noon. Ouyang Shuo said nothing more, returning directly to the manor for lunch.

At the table, little sister Mu Qingsi was playing with the chopsticks, knocking on the table, laughing and saying, “Dang-dang! Everyone be quiet, I want to announce some good news!”

Cui Yingyu was still very indulgent of little sister Mu, and asked, “Let’s let little Mu declare her good news! I will listen!”

“Last time, during the Siege of Beasts, for all the wild dogs, wolves, wild boar, and bison, a lot of them dropped fur. Well, I have sewn them all into leather armor. I did not expect that, just after I finished sewing a suit of bison leather together this morning, I was promoted to a master tailor, hee hee!” Little Mu looked extremely excited and proud.

There was a clatter as Ouyang Shuo dropped his chopsticks. He looked rather stunned as they fell to the ground, looking at Mu Qingsi opposite him. He was really shocked. He knew that little Mu would be promoted to Master Tailor some day. But he never thought the day would come so fast.

Sitting next to her, Yingyu put down her chopsticks and reached out to pinch little Mu’s small face, proudly saying, “You are indeed the little monster of our family, what a feat! Look, your big brother is scared silly of you!”

Mu Qingsi did not bask in her praise, saying, “Sister…..! How can you say this! What little monster, it sounds so ugly, ahhhh!” She made a little panicking sound, like a child scolded by adults.

At this reaction, Ouyang Shuo deliberately coughed and said, “Yes, little sister really gave us a big surprise this time. Hey, 18-year-old master tailor. In order to reward you, big brother promises to grant you a wish. What you want, as long as I can buy it, I will get it for you.”

Little Mu didn’t say anything, Yingyu said teasingly, “Oh, our stingy brother is willing to splurge this time. Little Mu, think about what you want, it could be tearfully expensive. Even if big brother is bleeding, he cannot take it back.”

Little Mu thought hard, eyes moving, as if looking for a ghost. She gave Ouyang Shuo a malicious look, saying with a sweet voice, “Big Brother, I have heard that there is a legendary Dark-gold class tailor kit in the market, so good and convenient. Oh, it is also said to enhance one’s skill proficiency!”

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes immediately opened wide. Little Mu really had a big appetite. Although he didn’t know the specific price, dark-gold level equipments were rare technical equipments. He could easily predict what the price would be.

Giving her a fond look, Ouyang Shuo smiled and said, “Okay, brother will send you a dark-gold tailor kit. But, if it is too expensive for now, we will have to wait a week until I can sell the sea salt, and will have the capital to work with before I honor my promise.”

Little Mu had no hope that he would actually accept her wish, but was deliberately teasing him. She totally did not expect that he would grant her wish. She immediately cheered, bouncing up and running around to his side, giving him a big hug while laughing and saying, “Thank you, big brother!”

Ouyang Shuo tapped her little head, telling her to pay attention to her image and she couldn't be too daring.

Chapter 46 - Opening Ceremony, Part One

Taking a little nap after the meal, Ouyang Shuo went to the Basic Market for the second time that day. He wanted to check and see how much the dark gold tailor kit that he’d promised Qing Er was actually going to cost.

He went into the wooden hut and clicked on the other items in the Special Items Trading Platform, looking for the tailor kit. They had everything, starting from the lowliest bronze level stuff, to the black iron, silver, and so forth. There were many items. At the highest gold level, items were relatively rare; there were only 10 of them. And as for the dark gold item Qing Er had asked for, there was only one set, sitting there alone in the search results, with no one interested in it.

Ouyang Shuo looked at the price, and his face paled. Good heavens, a full 120 gold coins. He had never bought such an expensive thing. No way, there was no way to afford it now. He would have to wait for a week before he could afford it.

Leaving the market bitterly, Ouyang Shuo was ready to complete the study tour that he had started that morning. The second leg involved going to the weapons workshop. This was located close to the barracks, run by the advanced blacksmith Wang Gao.

Unlike the mid-level smithy run by Li Tiezhu, the weapons workshop was specifically designed for military use and was not open to the public. It was also naturally not subject to privatization.

Talking about the pros and cons of the two businesses, you could only say that each had its advantages. After the smithy was privatized, it was self-supporting. As long as it had sufficient orders, its profits were very impressive, and naturally could not be compared to the fixed income of the weapons workshop.

The advantage of the weapons workshop was equally obvious. It had an unlimited ore supply. It did not have to worry about the pressure of the market and business. In addition, it created high-level weapons, and so the improvement of the skill proficiency of the blacksmith was not comparable. Therefore, if you were pursuing the height of smithing, the weapons workshop was undoubtedly more attractive.

Wang Gao naturally belonged to the latter mindset, and was still less than 30 years old. Seeing Ouyang Shuo, he greeted him warmly with a smile and said, “Ah, the lord finally has time today to visit the workshop.”

Wang Gao was undoubtedly confident. In the eyes of Ouyang Shuo, he was polite, thoughtful, and not too humble, and just right on the scale. He wasn’t like Lu Guangshi, Du Chun and the like, who upon seeing Ouyang Shuo were like mice once again seeing the same cat, treating him with utmost respect.

Ouyang Shuo liked the relaxed atmosphere, smiled back and said, “Since the workshop was established, I indeed have not been here. How about introducing me to everything?”

Wang Gao nodded, showing him around while talking. “We’ve only been open a few days, so the staff is not really in place. I am going to recruit four or five apprentices. One can help with miscellaneous tasks, and two can be considered reserve staff for large forging projects in the future.”

“Very good thinking. Compared to other workshops, your workload is going to be very heavy in the future; we must prepare early for this,” Ouyang Shuo said happily. It seemed that choosing Wang Gao to preside over the weapons workshop had been a very good choice. This advanced blacksmith was not only skilled, but had a sharp mind as well.

“At present, my workshop can only turn out iron swords, spears, javelins and other simple weapons. For more complex weapons and armor, we will need the relevant technical manuals,” Wang Gao said, showing off his equipment.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Weapons-forging technology had always been kept highly confidential by the government. Only in the government-owned weapons workshop could the relevant technology be mastered. Once in the official workshop, the need to keep it controlled meant that you could not leave easily.

Therefore, this technical bottleneck of Wang Gao didn’t surprise Ouyang Shuo at all. “Don’t worry about this matter. Within 2 months, there will be progress in this area.”

Wang Gao was happy to hear that. “With the lord’s permission, I have even more motivation. Then, I will take this time to cultivate some apprentices, and get the preparatory work done.”

Wang Gao was excited to see a plan ahead. Ouyang Shuo smiled, seeing in this man a fanatic about his trade.

Finishing his visit, he immediately left the workshop and did not linger.

For his last stop, Ouyang Shuo chose Lianzhou College. As for the pottery workshop, it had been built outside the village, and it was too late to visit it. He would have to do so when he had some time.

Lianzhou College was built in the school area next to private school, about the same size as the Mazu temple nearby.

Over the main entrance of the college hung the name plaque, inscribed by Fan Zhongyan. Originally, Fan Zhongyan had meant to let Ouyang Shuo personally inscribe the name of the college. However, as a modern man, Ouyang Shuo’s calligraphy was awful and ugly, and turned down the job. In cases where you need to decline you need to decline at all costs!

For the couplet to be put on the door, Ouyang Shuo proposed to choose one of Tang Song Eight Han Yu’s verses in the "Ancient and Modern Yinwen Passage", and wrote: ‘The road to the book mountain is covered by hard work, and the boat in the sea of knowledge is struggle.’

The college was divided into halves in front of and beyond the courtyard. The front portion was for the students, a total of 4 classrooms. The courtyard was located in the middle, with a few bamboo plants there, were intended for helping the students rest. The back area had a dedicated dining area for the students, and 4 bedrooms for the teachers at the college and their families to rest within.

Because there were no classes, the whole college was extremely quiet. Throughout the entire building, not a single student was to be seen. Ouyang Shuo walked through the main entrance and the front hall, and went straight to the backyard.

In the backyard near a small plot of bamboo, Mr. Su was leaning on an ornamental stone, focused upon reading a scroll. His look of leisure, almost hermit-like, was a source of envy for Ouyang Shuo.

Seeing Mr. Su reading so intently, Ouyang Shuo did not rush forward to disturb him, quietly standing to the side and waiting. He did not expect that after 20 minutes, Mr. Su had not made the slightest move. He could only cough reluctantly, to remind Mr. Su of his existence.

Mr. Su looked up to see Ouyang Shuo, and calmly put his scroll aside. He rose and straightened his clothing, bowing immediately thereafter. “Mr. Su has seen sire!”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and smiled in return. “Mr. Su has found living in the college comfortable?”

“There is much room, I am quite fond of this place. Away from the bustle of officialdom, this is almost paradise. It is like throwing off a yoke and running away from the fence, suddenly gaining my freedom,” Mr. Su smiled back at him.

Ouyang Shuo complimented him in turn, and then said, “Tomorrow the college officially starts classes. For tomorrow’s arrangements, I wonder what Mr. Su is thinking?”

“Whatever is arranged is naturally appropriate,” Mr. Su said indifferently.

Ouyang Shuo sighed and nodded. It seemed that Mr. Su was hell-bent on staying away from anything smacking of officialdom. All his tests were avoided with no signs of temptation. That being the case, after chatting a bit, Ouyang Shuo took his leave.

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

The next morning, Ouyang Shuo arrived at Lianzhou College, this time to attend the opening ceremony.

The ceremony took place in the largest classroom in the front half. On the rostrum were Ouyang Shuo, Fan Zhongyan, Cui Yingyu, Mr. Su, and Gu Xiuwen, followed by the students sitting in attendance.

The first batch of students was sitting on the floor. Among them were the adult literacy class graduates Zhao Youfang, Zhang Tainu, and other older students, as well as the first group of new students. One of them was already employed as a clerk by the Agriculture Division, another was a villager taking the initiative to apply after seeing the enrollment brochure.

The ceremony was chaired by Fan Zhongyan. In the opening remarks, he elaborated on the Lianzhou Institute’s purpose of running a school, making clear the college’s rules, regulations, and management methods, and focused on management’s requirements for the students.

“I know that most of you here paid for the school, but please bear the burden. Studying at the same time as working your jobs will be hard, I know, but I want to say this. When you enter the college gate, you need to forget your identity, your position. No matter who you are, and regardless of your birth, as long as you come to this college, you have only one identity, and that is as an ordinary student of Lianzhou College. Learning is your only task in this college. You are not permitted to help other students, nor are they to help you, but you are to strictly rely on your own efforts. You will not come here drunk, and you will show respect for your teachers at all times. If you are disrespectful at any time, you will be immediately dismissed.” His wording was quite harsh.

Once Fan Zhongyan finished, the class lecturer spoke in turn. In addition to his own political affairs division, Fu Zi was responsible for teaching classics, Su was responsible for classics training classes, and Ouyang Shuo was responsible for legal literacy classes.

Gu Xiuwen was appointed as a temporary teaching instructor, equivalent to the modern teaching director. He was responsible for the daily teaching activities of the college and the supervision and management of student discipline.

After the instructor’s speech was completed, the elected representative of the students, Zhao Youfang, began to speak. Ouyang Shuo found the choice of Zhao Youfang a bit strange, but he had won first place in the adult literacy graduation exam, and that was why he had been elected as the outstanding student representative.

Zhao Youfang was obviously prepared, taking a speech out of his sleeve before he began to speak. “Teachers, ladies, and gentlemen, I hope everyone is well! I, Zhao Youfang, was fortunate enough to be allowed to speak as the student representative today. Today, such a grand scene, I cannot help but think of ten days ago in the adult literacy class, and our lord talking about what we were being taught.

“At that time, I, Zhao Youfang, did not know one character, I was completely illiterate. Sire told us that we must be responsible, and that to go farther, you must lay your own foundation. In but ten days, after our baptism in the adult class, I was able to write this speech with the help of my teacher. In the past, this was simply unthinkable, but now I have done it. I never dared dream that with my peasant background that I would be able to write on my own. I am very fortunate to be able to sit here again and listen to the teachings of the lord! I am finished and thank you all!”

There was warm applause. Even Ouyang Shuo did not expect that Youfang would be able to write such a fine speech. Fu Zi was truly a good teacher.

Ouyang Shuo simply made a summary speech, and with that the opening ceremony was over.

Chapter 47 - Opening Ceremony, Part Two

After the ceremony, Ouyang Shuo rode Black Whirlwind outside the village to the pottery workshop.

Zhu Youzhi was responsible for the pottery workshop, located in the northeast corner of the territory, close to the Friendship River. They had built the workshop here because they had found high quality red clay in this area. The clay was soft and was able to withstand heat, without cracking. It can be kept for a long time, making it very suitable for making pottery.

Zhu Youzhi was with his three new apprentices arranging the clay. Seeing Ouyang Shuo, he stopped working and bowed to greet him. Ouyang Shuo talked with him for about an hour, making a plan for the future, and asking about their living conditions.

Heading back to the manor house, it was already 4 PM. He read a book for a while, then took the opportunity to leave the game a little early.

Sun Xiaoyue was leaving back home for vacation today, and he wanted to send her off. After coming out of the game cabin, Ouyang Shuo ran a few laps as he normally did, and bought breakfast while out in the district.

After more than a month of exercises, Ouyang Shuo found his physical fitness actually improving, instead of falling after all the long-term lying down in the game cabin.

At home, both of the young women had gotten up and were getting dressed. Bing’er knew that Big Sister Xiaoyue was leaving today, her eyes were a little red, and she even brushed her teeth together with Big Sister.

After breakfast, Xiaoyue set off to the station, with the Ouyang siblings there to see her off. On the way back, Bing’er was gloomy, with no spirit. Ouyang Shuo hadn’t expected that in just one month Bing’er would develop such a strong dependence on Xiaoyue.

At 10 PM, Ouyang Shuo finally got Bing’er to sleep, and hurried online. According to plans, today was the day General Shi would lead the cavalry team to destroy the raider’s camp.

Just as he sat down in his office, Cui Yingyu came in and smiled, saying, “Big Brother, the Four Seas Bank has been completed this morning, you cannot miss the unveiling ceremony!”

“Oh that is quite fast, I'll definitely go.” He hadn’t expected that in just a week’s time, Yingyu would have the bank up, she is truly from a business family’s background.

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“Ah, yes, the specific terms of the loans, how is the Financial Division setting it?”

Cui Yingyu gave him a sour look, saying, “Big brother really does not care about the Financial Division, the bank is already going to open, and you are thinking to ask this only now? We are working with a few years, mainly low interest loans. The interest will be 2 percent, compounded monthly, and limited to the purchase of real estate.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. “What is the Financial Division’s consideration for the provision of loan services for privatization, which is only part of the function of the banks, and more importantly, the provision of commercial loans to private owners?”

“According to the lender’s credit and assessment of assets, the amount of the loan is determined. If it is a shop that is going to enter into the entrustment agreement with the Material Reserve Division, the Material Reserve Division may issue a guarantee. People can expect to obtain a large number of loans from the bank,” Yingyu answered crisply.

“Very good. For the provision of villagers depositing funds in the bank?” Ouyang Shuo followed up.

“In accordance with conventional practice, there is no interest for the savings account. For large amounts of deposits, we can also charge a certain amount of custody fees. This is not to make money, but in response to big brother’s policy of stimulating the private economies. Term deposits can be made, and earn small interest amounts recorded monthly.”

Yingyu’s understanding of Ouyang Shuo’s privatization concept was very thorough. Many of her practices weren’t even personally instructed by him, so she was very comprehensive in application.

“It is only a few days after you have taken over the position of Secretary, and my decision is a good one,” Ouyang Shuo told her happily.

He was under pressure when he placed Yingyu into both the secretary of the Financial Division and Manager of the Four Seas Bank positions. Truthfully, he was also worried, as she had no direct experience in financial matters before.

Still, as the saying goes, where gold goes, it will shine. Yingyu had not let him worry when managing the Material Reserves Division, either. Now changing her over to the Financial Division, in just one week she had gotten used to the job.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo affirm this move, Yingyu’s heart was also happy. Her face didn’t show much emotion as she said, “Big Brother, stop praising me so much! There's not much time left, let's go join the unveiling ceremony!”

Ouyang Shuo smiled and nodded to her, getting up and walking out of the office with her. In the Administration Department office next door, Fan Yongyou was taking a bunch of administrative staff and seemed ready to leave as well.

Ouyang Shuo greeted everyone, before taking the lead to leave the Lord’s Manor. The building was located on the west side of the square, next to the commercial street. From the manor, it was just less than a hundred meters away.

The Four Seas Bank was currently a single level building with a simple wooden floor, divided to the front and back. Compared to the surrounding buildings, it was actually rather stylish. The lobby had a counter for the savings and loan businesses, the staff was already at the counter, and in the back was a heavily guarded vault. Before the opening ceremony, Ouyang Shuo followed Yingyu into the empty treasury.

Money would be stored in the form of gold coins. With little time, it could be freely switched between copper and silver forms, as well. In order to facilitate the business of the bank, Ouyang Shuo had issued 200 gold coins as reserves, and now divided that into 20 gold, 15,000 silver coins, and 300,000 copper coins. All of a sudden, the empty vault was full of money, money, money.

Coming out of the treasury, Ouyang Shuo had become penniless, having only 3 gold coins left in his bag. His spare silver and copper coins were also thrown into the vault without thinking. His spendings now were using gold coins as its unit.

If an adventurer class player knew what Ouyang Shuo was doing, they would be so envious that they would be vomiting blood. Most of them probably hadn’t even seen a gold coin at this point. This was still the main stage for silver coins, and he was actually indifferent to them, they would be spitting fire to hear it!

Coming back to the front hall, the opening ceremony was ready. At the front door, the Four Seas Bank plaque was covered with red silk cloth. Ouyang Shuo took the lead to get under the plaque, and once everyone had arrived, he ripped off the red silk cloth, thus officially opening the Four Seas Bank.

The front door opened, and the villagers were gathered there for this grand occasion. This was the long-awaited formal beginning of the privatization, after all.

Taking advantage of everyone’s attention and interest, Ouyang Shuo drew out three tickets from his storage bag, namely the vouchers for 100 units of rice, 20 units of meat, and 20 silver coins.

He raised the tickets in his hand, saying loudly,” Everyone quiet and listen to me. In my hands are the basic welfare tickets from the Material Reserve Division. These tickets can be surrendered at any time in the new rice shop, butcher shop, and bank.

“At 9 AM tomorrow morning, everyone should be assembled in front of the Lord’s Manor in the square. At that time, the Material Reserve Division will be assembled to issue the tickets. In addition, the territory has prepared a blanket and set of clothes for each villager as a reward for everyone contributing to Shanhai Village.”

The was the first full disclosure of the welfare package for the territory. Such a rich welfare package was completely unexpected. After listening to him speak, everyone applauded, praising the kindness of their lord. There were some very emotional villagers, even breaking out to kneel, which he stopped them from doing so.

Among the people, Qing’er was cheering and calling out. Ouyang Shuo didn’t intend to let her get away with it, so he said loudly, “In addition, I would like to announce some good news. Our territory has birthed a master skills talent. Who might she be?” Some knew who it was, such as Yingyu, or Qing’er’s apprentices, they pointed to her with some coaxing.

“That's right, she's Mu Qing’er from the tailor shop. In order to set an example, in recognition of her advancement, I have decided that in addition to the ticket issued to her, I will give an award of an additional 1 gold coin.” Ouyang Shuo took a cold coin from his storage bag with a smile.

“Wow~~~” eT Bursts of exclamations erupted among the crowd. With the Administration Department setting all kinds of real estate prices, material prices and wages, a gold coin was still considered a lot of money, and easily stirred up some envy.

Qing'er's face blushed immediately when everyone glanced at her, she thought that Ouyang Shuo was intending to tease her, but who knew that he was actually going to reward her for her hard work. Under her apprentices' clusters, she walks up to Ouyang Shuo with immense shyness.

Ouyang Shuo handed the tickets and gold coins to Little Mu, patted her head and said, “There is no need to envy her! I am here to promise that every skilled talent that belongs to the territory will receive a promotion reward! From apprentice to basic, you get 1 silver. To intermediate, 10 silver! Promoted to advanced, 50 silver, and promoted to master level, 1 gold coin! After you get the promotion, go to the Financial Secretary to receive your reward!”

There were more bursts of applause, especially from the skilled personnel, it was almost a frenzy. Li Tiizhu and Lu Guangzhi were especially happy, as both of them had ranked up their skill level, and the money would basically buy their shops for them!

This was Ouyang Shuo’s main purpose, taking advantage of the timing of privatization to show the value of the money. Announcing such a generous promotion award would hopefully stimulate the growth of more talents in the territory, and also show everyone in the territory the attention and desires of those talents.

Yingyu stood to the side, patting her head, her big brother really just says what he thinks. He just casually said a few more words, and gave the Financial Division another job to do. She now had to make sure that she recorded down the contents of this reward scheme!

Chapter 48 - Bitter Victory

After the opening ceremony was over, everyone dispersed.

Little sister Qing’er did not leave, dragging Ouyang Shuo along into the bank. She went straight to the counter, handing over the vouchers she had just received, and proudly said, “I want to exchange these.”

The staff at the counter was a young man, who was thinking that the bank had just opened, and they had business already? The bank’s money was what Ouyang Shuo had just put into the vault, there was none at the counter for her, how could he exchange it? Thinking she was very troublesome, his anxiety and embarrassment made him go very red.

Ouyang Shuo didn’t stop Qing’er’s antics, wanting to see how the staff would react and see their standards. Yingyu, seeing Ouyang Shuo stay silent, immediately understood his intentions. Acting immediately, she addressed the young man, and told him to go back into the treasury, and get some silver coins there.

In less than 10 minutes, Little Mu had exchanged her coupon for 20 silver coins. She was grinning from ear to ear as she put them into her own cute little purse. Combined with her gold coin from earlier, she had suddenly become a well-to-do woman.

Ouyang Shuo stood aside, nodding with satisfaction. The work efficiency of the bank was still pretty high.

Running back to the Lord’s Manor, Qing’er handed Gu Sanniang the food and meat coupons she had also received. After privatizing, everyone in the Lord’s Manor, apart from Ouyang Shuo, would have to pay for their food, and would no longer eat for free. She was very conscious of that point.

Thus, starting tomorrow, Gu Sanniang would have to go to the rice and butcher shops to buy food. She couldn't get them directly from the warehouse. Ouyang Shuo hoped that doing so would lead by example, showing the various divisions and making them follow.

For now, the divisions were concentrated in the Lord’s Manor, with no changes. After the territory expanded, the Divisions would start working out in independent offices. He did not want that kind of mixing of private and public matters to happen so early on in Shanhai Village.

Living in the Lord’s Manor, apart from Er Wazi, everyone was getting good pay. As for Er Wazi, Yingyu took the initiative to say that she would take care of her maintenance.

Ouyang Shuo was now the only person in the territory without a salary, instead being completely supported by the territory. This was not him being hypocritical, but required by the system to maintain the authority of the lord. After all, this was still an ancient society. He had to follow the basic rules of the game. He could not play a modern society with democratic values, unless he had water in his brain.

Gu Sanniang had been with Ouyang Shuo for a long time, and was naturally aware of this. She did not try to decline, taking the ticket handed over by Qing’er, smiling and saying, “Thank you for these 2 tickets, they will help!”

Little Mu was very fond of Gu Sanniang, who was just as close as Cui Yingyu. She took Gu Sanniang’s arm, opting to act spoiled, and said, “Gu Sanniang is making fun of me, I don’t understand.”

Ouyang Shuo looked at her acting childishly again, and shook his head with a laugh. When would this girl grow up? He could not help but quip, “Little Mu, you just got some money, and are you not prepared to buy your tailor shop? You are the only tailor in the territory right now, if someone else does it first, you can’t come crying to me.”

“Yes, I had forgotten! Quick quick!” Regardless of his joking manner, Qing’er hurriedly ran into the nearby office, where Zhao Dewang’s Construction Division was located.

Ouyang Shuo looked at this thick-skinned little monkey, no matter how much he wanted to get angry, he couldn’t get angry. With a tacit glance at Yingyu, helplessly shaking his head, he walked into Dewang’s office.

In the office, Zhao Dewang was going over the price of shops with Qing’er. “According to the pricing schedule, the price of a tailor shop is 56 silver coins. This can be a one-time payment, or you can make monthly payments.”

“So expensive, oh, oh, oh,” Qing’er was muttering, and with some dismay took out the gold coin from her purse. Looking pitifully at Zhao Dewang, she said proudly, “I want a one-time payment!”

Zhao Dewang looked at the gold coin, shaking his head with a wry smile. He didn’t have the ability to make change right now, asking Ouyang Shuo for help. Ouyang Shuo, who had just come in, had to help out. He took the gold coin, put it into his storage bag, and took out 100 silver coins in exchange.

Dewang took 56 silver coins, and returned the rest to Little Mu. He then took a letter from his table with the seal of the lord, earnestly filling in the real estate owner’s information. Without the training of the adult literacy class, it would have been impossible for him to do so.

Qing’er took the lease, grinning proudly, and shook it in front of Ouyang Shuo, showing it off. Ouyang Shuo mercilessly knocked on her little head, smiled and said, “Take care of it, you had best not lose it, or you won’t be able to make it up!”

She rubbed her head in an exaggerated manner, glaring at Ouyang Shuo, and then ignored him to run over to Yingyu and show off more.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Zhao Dewang. “The way I see it, the Construction Division should just have someone in the bank to do this. That way, the villagers can buy a house and get a loan at the same time, saving them from running back and forth.”

“Ah, sire has great foresight. I will personally set this up and make sure it runs properly,” Dewang said, as if receiving a military order.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and turned away from the office.

At 5 PM, the cavalry returned from their raid. Getting the message, Ouyang Shuo rode out with Administration Department to welcome the triumphant return of the warriors.

General Shi was leading the line of horses. Seeing Ouyang Shuo there, he immediately dismounted and went down to one knee, loudly saying, “This officer and his men greet the lord!”

Behind him, the rest of the cavalry had dismounted and gone to one knee, saying in unison, “We greet the lord!”

Ouyang Shuo spoke to General Shi, smiling and saying, “The soldiers have worked hard!”

Captain Lin Yi was responsible for the escorting of trophies, which would be taken care of by the Administration Department, Financial Division and Material Reserves Division. Ouyang Shuo rode with General Shi back to the Lord’s Manor, there to take his report of the bandit raid.

After sitting down, General Shi began his report. “This time, in order to destroy the bandit camp, we still wanted to use some tricks and traps. According to the plan, we used the same plan that sire used last time, sending men in to lure some of enemy out. Once outside the camp, the cavalry’s mobility would easily take care of them.

“We did not expect the leaders to be very cautious, but although they did not see us lying in wait, they only set out a dozen bandits to pursue the lure. So, we had to attack the camp directly and engage the rest in close combat.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded heavily. “So it seems the next time we expand the army, it will be necessary to expand the infantry. Attacking a base camp is more a job for infantry than cavalry, and tantamount to giving the enemy an advantage.”

“Fortunately, this time the enemy was not so strong, the soldiers fought bravely, and with the grace of the lord, we exterminated the bandit camp.”

Ouyang Shuo was fully aware that the real process of warfare was nowhere near so relaxed, and recalled how tired the troops looked. He dared to ask, “Casualties among the troops?”

“This time, the cavalry unit along with the military intelligence division, a total of 122 people attacked. We had 1 death, 5 serious injuries, and 24 slight injuries.”

Hearing that someone had actually died, Ouyang Shuo twitched and asked, “Someone died. Has his family been informed yet?”

“At the end of the day, the soldier was an orphan, and he had no family in Shanhai Village.”

Ouyang Shuo silently nodded. This situation was not rare out here in the frontier. Most of the displaced were alone. Those that managed to survive with their families were rare.

One hundred and twenty people fighting, 30 casualties. Close to a quarter of the number of men. The victory seemed a little bitter.

Ouyang Shuo knew that General Shi was a fierce fighter, and victory was his fundamental pursuit. Normal casualties were not something he was going to worry about. Therefore, in the development of his battle plan, he didn’t have many scruples about the lives of ordinary soldiers.

This time he had let General Shi lead the expedition, and it was a major mistake for Ouyang Shuo. If he had been present, he would not have allowed a direct raid into the camp.

But, in the end, General Shi had won, and Ouyang Shuo didn’t want to criticize him for a victory. They talked a bit more before General Shi headed out to the barracks.

With General Shi gone, Ouyang Shuo got up to visit the hospital and see to the wounded.

With 30 patients coming in at one time, Dr. Song was naturally extremely busy. Fortunately, most of them did not have severe injuries, and simply stitching and bandaging wounds was no problem. The important note was the five serious injuries, with broken legs and severed arms. It would be a small miracle if they even managed to live through the night.

Leaving the hospital, Ouyang Shuo was in a heavy mood, with some inner grievances against General Shi. His troops were a treasure he didn’t know the value of, really a rigid military thinker.

Of course, he was a true ruler, and wasn’t going to show this attitude. If anybody saw him, they’d just see a kind and gentle ruler.

After dinner, Shanhai Village held a cremation ceremony in the square. In addition to the death of the orphaned soldier, another soldier died in the afternoon, which was even more painful for Ouyang Shuo.

Because the village was now the center of the territory and would eventually be a capital, there was no place suitable for a cemetery, so he could only choose cremation for the dead. Ouyang Shuo intended for the ashes to be stored after cremation in the ancestral hall. After the upgrade to town, they could then be buried in the cemetery.

The villagers gathered spontaneously into the square to send the heroes off. Ouyang Shuo personally ignited the fire. It raged up quickly, raging and devouring everything. As he watched the fire, Ouyang Shuo’s expression was solemn, the people unable to think what he was pondering about.

Chapter 49 - Tian Wenjing

The next day, Ouyang Shuo didn’t get online until 10 AM in game time.

Bing’er’s winter vacation had started yesterday, and his little sister was wrapped around him all day. They strolled around, ate and drank, totally relaxing themselves.

In the front of the square was a sea of people. The Material Reserves Division was distributing the basic benefits and was extremely busy. Some of the determined villagers received their tickets and headed directly to the bank to get a house loan.

With the exception of the wine workshop and pottery workshop, the other shops and houses would have prices ranging around 60 silver coins. With everyone getting 20 silver coins issued, they would meet most of the conditions to get a loan to buy a house.

Ouyang Shuo expected that today, most of the listed properties would be sold out. Fortunately, the construction department had built hundreds of homes in anticipation of this day for people to live in, otherwise he wouldn't have known how to salvage the situation.

He had calculated roughly, with the issuance of the various kinds of tickets, the total costs of privatization would cost over 600 gold coins. At this stage, he doubted any lord would be courageous enough to implement such generosity.

But it was all worth it. Ouyang Shuo looked at the economic index of the territory, and it had long passed 30 points, and was still rising. In this way, except for the population index requirements and mulberry farms, the conditions to upgrade to a town had all been met.

By 3 PM, the basic benefits had all been paid out. Following today, new immigrants would be collecting their benefits directly from the Material Reserves Division.

Waiting until everything had settled down a bit, Ouyang Shuo convened a meeting in the main room of the manor, to listen to the trophies arising from the extermination of the raider camp.

In the chamber, Zhao Youfang began the report. “This time, we collected a total of 11,450 units of food, 1200 units of wood, and 500 units of stone. We also seized 105 gold coins, 45 silver, and 72 copper coins, five building plans, and one special item: Summoning Talisman.

The wood, stone, and building plans basically came from the destruction of the camp. Since he didn’t personally lead the attack, as long as the enemy was broken, the camp would be automatically destroyed.

Except for the arsenal building blueprints which he had use for, the other four could only be sold off to the Market.

As for all the weapons and equipment, they were not within the scope of the findings. Ouyang Shuo had long ordered Lin Yi to take those back to the barracks and dispose of those themselves.

The, Gu Xiuwen began to report on personnel. “This time we recovered 125 noncombatants for the territory from the raider’s camp. Among these people are both a chef and breeder, as well as tailors and blacksmiths. They were all intermediate skill talents, except the breeder was an advanced talent.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, “After privatization, the village dining hall will be disbanded. The chef will be sent to the barracks and will be specifically responsible for the food supply of the army. Arrange for the tailors to be sent to Little Mu’s tailor shop, she will put them to work. Assign the smiths to the weapons workshop, Wang Gao can take them as apprentices. As for the advanced breeder, he can be responsible for the pigs and cattle pens, we have a lack of people there.”

In Shanhai Village, skilled personnel were no longer a rarity. Therefore, Ouyang Shuo was also not like before, and didn’t examine each individual one by one to determine the situation in detail, instead lining them up and sending them off.

125 new people would save 8 days on their march to a township upgrade. Coupled with the surge following the Siege of Beasts, they were now 20 days ahead of schedule.

Today was February 10th. In five days, Shanhai Village could be upgraded again. Upgrading from a grade 3 village to a grade 1 town in only 13 days time was an amazing accomplishment. So far, no one in China could compare, even Di Chen with his limitless checkbook hadn’t caught up.

Out of the rewards of war, Ouyang Shuo took 100 gold coins, the building blueprints and the special item, a Summoning Talisman. The rest of the money naturally went to the Financial Division, with the food and other materials naturally sent to the Material Reserve Division’s storage area.

Before giving the building plans over to the Construction Division, Ouyang Shuo took a look at them.

Arsenal: Warehouse for storing weapons

Requirements: Arsenal building plans, 600 wood, 400 stone

Building time: 3 Days

Ouyang Shuo told the Construction Division to start putting up the arsenal within the next two days. The location would specifically be right next to the barracks and weapons workshop, of course.

Then, Ouyang Shuo took out the summoning token to examine its properties.

Summoning Talisman (king level): Randomly summon a king-level historical figure for your use.

Although it was the lowest level of summoning talisman, it was still priceless. Ouyang Shuo did not expect that he would get so lucky, casually exterminating an intermediate raiders’ camp could get him such a treasure! He did not hesitate to tear the summoning talisman, a white light flashed, and a middle-aged scribe appeared.

“System Notification: Congratulations to the player Qiyue Wuyi for successfully summoning the historical figure Tian Wenjing, special reward of 50 reputation points.”

Seeing Ouyang Shuo, the scholar bowed deeply, saying respectfully, “I greet the lord!”

Ouyang Shuo was not neglectful and hurriedly stepped forward, his hands lifting the other, sincerely saying, “Please rise, sir! It is my pleasure to have you by my side, there is no need to bow!”

After the greeting, Ouyang Shuo quickly looked at Tian Wejing’s stats.

Name: Tian Wejing (king level)

Title: Model Official of Xinjiang

Dynasty: The Qing Dynasty

Identity: Shanhai Village Villager

Occupation: Civil Service

Loyalty: 75 points

Commander: 40

Force: 25

Intelligence: 70

Political: 85

Features: Official’s Clarity (enhances administrative efficiency of the territory by 20%); Iron Calm (enhances territorial prestige by 20%); Fair and Honest (enhances the territory’s honesty level by 20%)

Evaluation: One of Qing Dynasty Emperor Yongzheng’s three beloved officials, known for being tricky, clear-minded, and cool of heart all in one. During his governance period, the law was strict, there were almost no thieves in his jurisdiction, and he held to very strict deadlines whenever given the task to expand.

In terms of governmental ability, he was more adept than Fan Zhongyan. He had become an official at the age of 22, starting in Changle County, successfully becoming a magistrate. He knew the state, and also the officials outside his area. He had served as mayor, governor and other prestigious positions during his term, and was given the title of ‘Model Official of Xinjiang’ by the Yongzheng Emperor.

The main reason why Fan Zhongyan was praised by history was, in addition to government affairs, his character and literary achievements. Tian Wenjing was different, he was fundamentally a governing official. Although he was clean and honest, he was still known as a ‘strict official’ in name.

They complemented each other. With Shanhai Village having the two men, the government could carry on without worries. Precisely because of this, Ouyang Shuo issued out a happy sigh of relief.

Because the day was already becoming late, it was inconvenient to talk. Ouyang Shuo called on Gu Xiuwen, let him arrange a living area for Tian Wenjing, while giving him a good introduction to the basic situation of Shanhai Village. Gu Xiuwen had done this job before, and would have no problems with it.

In addition, Ouyang Shuo specifically told him to inform the secretaries of each division that there would be a meeting tomorrow at 9 AM in the chamber.

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February 11, the next morning in the chamber.

The director of the Administration Department and the other secretaries were there. Ouyang Shuo took his place in the middle and sat down, officially introducing Tian Wenjing.

After the greetings, Ouyang Shuo said, “After nearly ten days of effort, privatization has achieved initial success. Today, we have come to convene and discuss two things. After privatization, military supplies must be kept independent. In addition, with the cooperation of the carpentry workshop, territorial vehicles need to be included in the unified jurisdiction, so some of the functions of the Material Reserves Division are going to become more and more complicated.

“Therefore, I have decided to officially upgrade the Material Reserves Division to Material Reserves Department. Underneath it will now be the Combat Logistics Division, the Transportation Division, and the Resource Division.

“The Combat Logistics Division will be concerned with our arsenal, rations, and other military supplies, logistical supplies, as well as the well being of our horses.

“The Resource Division is responsible for the distribution of basic materials and the operation of the rice shops, meat shops and cloth factories. It will continue to oversee the logging stations, quarries, mining sites, and pastures, which are directly under the jurisdiction of the Material Reserves Department.

Zhao Youfang did not expect Ouyang Shuo to make such a big move, basically completely revising the remittance of the Material Reserves Department.

Not only was the duty of the Material Reserves divided into three parts, more ingenious was the fact that logging field, quarry, mining and ranching oversight was stripped out and placed directly under the director of the Material Reserves Department.

Not only that, the supply chain and reserve chain were elbowed apart, separated to avoid any dominance issue, which was Ouyang Shuo’s real intention.

Waiting a moment for all of them to adjust to this big move, Ouyang Shuo went on. “I have appointed Tian Wenjing as the Director of Materials Reserve Department, he will be the coordinator of territorial material reserves.”

Tian Wenjing stood up in a perfect salute, respectfully saying, “Thank you, lord! I will be dedicated and honor your trust, you need have no worries!”

There was no argument over this appointment. At this stage, he was the only suitable candidate who could be in charge of Material Reserve. The most promising candidate was Zhao Youfang, who couldn’t even control his division now, let alone this newly expanded Department.

“Mr. Zhao Youfang, deputy secretary of the prior Material Reserves Division, is now the secretary of the Combat Logistics Division. The secretary of the Transportation Division will be the original quarry field manager Zheng Shanpao. Former Material Reserves Division secretary assistant Du Xiaolan will be the new secretary of the Resource Division.” Ouyang Shuo rattled off the new subordinate personnel appointments for the divisions.

Zhao Youfang did not make a fuss. Ouyang Shuo had given him the Combat Logistic Division, so he was not being treated poorly. Zheng Shanpao, although his performance wasn’t eye-catching, before this, he only simply focused on the quarry. He took this chance to shift him to the relatively simple Transportation Division, which could be considered a formal step into an official’s career.

Du Xiaolan was one of Cui Yingyu’s apprentices, and was the key center of influence for Yingyu in the Material Reserves Department. She had done well as Yingyu and Youfang’s assistant, so he carefully put her in charge of the Resource Division, where she was the most appropriate.

Chapter 50 - City Walls

Having finished adjusting the Material Reserves Department, Ouyang Shuo turned around and announced the 2nd item.

He looked around, smiled, and said, “I have decided to start a very large project while taking advantage of the winter break and the break in construction of the territory. The manpower and material requirements for this project will be massive. I am putting this forward to discuss with you.”

Cui Yingyu smiled. “If Big Brother has anything to say, say it directly. No reason to beat around the bush.”

Ouyang Shuo stared back at her. “The fence around the village was constructed when we’d first built the village. It was tested at the Siege of Beasts. Seeing that we are going to upgrade to a first grade town very soon, it is very necessary to upgrade the fence.”

Zhao Dewang and Zhao Dexian both nodded involuntarily. They were among those who had built it originally. Thinking back to when Shanhai Village had just started at the beginning of the year, they were both quite emotional and naturally impressed.

As the secretary of Construction, Zhao Dewang spoke first. “There are 2 ways to upgrade the fence. One is to remove the existing fence, and reconstruct a new one on the same area. Another is to retain the existing fence, and build a new one in a different area. What does my lord think?”

“The existing fence is in accord with the grade 3 village construction standard. Seeing the territory will upgrade, it will be unable to meet our standards and will naturally be removed. My opinion is that we should build in accord with the grade 3 township standard, 3 square kilometers, a totally new wall,” Ouyang Shuo responded.

“If that is the case, what material would the lord like to use for the wall? Wood, brick, or earth?” Zhao Dewang had presided over the Construction Division for some time, and naturally had some insights here.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and said, “Those three materials are too common. This wall will be permanently retained. Even if we expand the city in the future, it can be used as an inner wall. Therefore, I propose pure stone to be used for a masonry wall. The specifications of the wall will be nine meters high, and five meters wide. I estimated that the whole wall will need nearly 600,000 units of stone. I can give you a construction time of one month. Are you confident you can complete this huge project?”

Zhao Dewang heard this, and his scalp started tingling. He slowly said, “According to the lord’s requirements, that is an average daily consumption of 20,000 units of stone. The quarry alone will need 400 people in order to meet the stone supply needs. The Construction Division will require 3 to 4 hundred craftsmen for the building of it!”

Ouyang Shuo glanced at Gu Xiuwen. “For deploying the people, can the Household Registration Office make the arrangements?”

“If we take the workers from other industries, we can barely do that. More importantly, we will upgrade to a grade 1 town soon. At that time, staffing will not be a problem.” Gu Xiuwen was full of confidence.

“Excellent!”

“Big Brother, as the Secretary of the Financial Division, I need to remind you that with so many laborers, their wages are going to be a large sum, you have to be prepared.” Yingyu tossed some cold water on his plans.

“The reason why I dragged the project over to privatization was to provide the villagers with an opportunity to earn some extra money. Right now it is the winter break, and be it farmer or herdsmen, they have very little to do. If that’s true, the territory can help them out with their current financial situation,” Ouyang Shuo explained with a smile.

Yingyu nodded in response, saying no more.

At this time, Fan Zhongyan took the initiative to stand up and say, “Since the lord is so ambitious, why don’t we do this more thoroughly? I recommend that we set up 3 gates in the new walls. Every gate should have a tower built. In the 4 corners, we should also build turrets, to further improve the defensibility of the walls.

“In addition, I recommend we now start the excavation work on the moat. From the Friendship River upstream into the moat, we should dig it 8 meters wide, and then merge it into the east side of the canyon stream, forming a perfect river system. This is not only conducive to the city’s defenses, but will also facilitate the city villagers taking water, thus serving two purposes.” Tian Wenjing contributed this last, not to be outdone.

After listening to the recommendations of the 2 ministers, Ouyang Shuo said, “Those 2 proposals are very good, and will be put into the plans for the project. This will all be brought forward by the Administration Department, Material Reserves Department, and Financial Divisions together.”

Everyone nodded. Participating in such a vast project had the feeling of getting their blood boiling passionately. After the completion of this project, Shanhai Village’s defense capabilities could rise by several grades!

The meeting completed, everyone dispersed.

At 3 PM, all the talented people in Shanhai were invited to the chamber room to attend the signing ceremony by the Material Reserves Department for the shop agreement.

The ceremony was chaired by the newly-appointed director of Material Reserves Department, Tian Wenjing, and Ouyang Shuo was also invited to attend. Advanced woodworker Lu Guangzhi and master tailor Mu Qingsi were seated in the front row.

Zheng Shanpao signed on behalf of the Transportation Division, and the woodshop signed the wooden ox-horse processing agreement. Du Xiaolan signed on behalf of the Resource Division, and Little Mu signed the garment processing agreement for her tailor shop.

Witnessing the signing of these two big orders, every skilled talent who was invited to attend gained confidence, and were also anxious to immediately get a big deal.

On the spot, advanced fisherman Kangshu said that he was willing to act as a representative for the fishermen, and right away signed a bargain and purchase agreement with the Material Reserves Department. Prior to the privatization, the fishermen had accumulated nearly 20,000 units of fish for the territory, and nearly all of it had been stored in the warehouse.

After privatizing, the fishermen salted the fish and sent it out through the Basic Market for export. Ouyang Shuo earned the difference of the 20% transaction tax from the Market, amounting to 12 copper coins per unit. His main income was through the collection of commercial taxes, however.

With the purchase and sales agreements signed, everyone soon dispersed.

After the end of the matter, Ouyang Shuo called on the Material Reserves Department to arrange for people to ship the fish out to the Basic Market to sell. In addition, they had acquired 31 million units of meat, and had salted out 160,000 units of bacon. 60,000 units of the bacon were put in reserve, but the rest were sold with the rest of the meat.

All the fish, meat, and bacon sold for about 15 coppers each, taxed at 20%. This made him about 144 gold coins. Having the market there to provide convenient transactions was nice, but it also felt like it was drawing blood from him.

Now, Ouyang Shuo had 246 gold coins. Taking advantage of the extra funds, he hardened his heart, took out 120 gold coins, and bought the dark gold tailoring kit he had promised to Little Mu.

Name: Tailor Kit (dark gold)

Properties: Enhances tailoring efficiency by 25%, improves tailor skill proficiency by 25%.

Evaluation: The dream of all tailors, a necessity for master class tailors.

Returning from the Market, he passed by Little Mu’s tailor shop. He gave her the kit he had just bought, and she was crazy happy to get it.

Going back to the Lord’s Manor, it was already 6 PM, so Ouyang Shuo went back to his room and logged off.

--------------------------

The next morning, Ouyang Shuo went to the military camps to change the classes of 6 recruits. The last bandit camp raid had wounded 4 and killed 2 soldiers, with the 4 being arranged to retire.

Destroying the bandit camp this time had losses, but not without a harvest for the cavalry. They had seized a large amount of weapons and armor, enough to ensure that they had spare equipment.

More importantly, through that bitter fight, the 50 veterans had all been promoted toth rank 5f veteran soldiers. Zhang Daniu, Zhao Sihu, and the other group leaders had been promoted to rank 7 elite soldiers in one fell swoop.

Among the new recruits, most of them had risen to rank 3 ordinary soldiers. If they had an outstanding performance, they were promoted to rank 4 veteran soldiersth. The outstanding performers were naturally noticed by General Shi, and prioritized for leadership positions. After the battle, all the vacant group leader positions were now filled.

Among the new group leaders were two exceptional ones, whom General Shi pointed out to Ouyang Shuo. One was named Zhou Feng, 23, who had been appointed as Cavalry 2nd Squadron’s second team group leader. The other was called Liao Kai, 25, who had been appointed 1st Squadron’s third team group leader.

Heading back to the manor, Tian Wenjing was waiting for him in the office. Ouyang Shuo poured himself a cup of tea, smiled, and said, “Sir could not wait at the door?”

Wenjing was expressionless as he said, “The lord makes fun of a matter. Yesterday, I looked over the territory, and noticed something with the animal breeding. Of all the husbandry operations, we have only 2 types, pig and cattle.”

“Indeed, and what are you thinking about?”

“In fact, in addition to pigs, sheep, cattle and other large livestock, poultry such as chickens and ducks can also be bred. I do not know what the lord thinks of this?”

Ouyang Shuo forcefully knocked his head, his expression depressed. “Oh, how could I not think of that? It completely escaped me, I was just thinking of domesticating livestock from the wild, and ignored the small poultry.

“Do you think that this kind of poultry raising should be run as a large scale farm operation by the government, or distributed to the various households?”

“In the end, the territory is an enclosed circle. It will be difficult to find sales, and profits will not be high. Thus, I think that the villagers should be allowed to stock them, or directly distribute them to the households to help their food situation,” Tian Wenjing calmly said.

Tian Wenjing’s experience was definitely showing. He had just taken over the Material Reserves Department, and was already able to check its shortcomings, and had taken the initiative to come over and advise him. With this level of competency presiding over the Material Reserve, Ouyang Shuo could be completely at ease.

“I will go to the Market shortly. I will buy chickens, ducks, and a variety of eggs, and put them in the name of the Material Reserves Department in the rice shop for sale.” Ouyang Shuo said.

Tian Wenjing nodded, got up, and went out to arrange matters.

Ouyang Shuo once again went into the Market. A chicken egg was 3 copper, duck eggs 4 copper, and geese eggs 5 copper. He bought 20,000 chicken and duck eggs each, and 10,000 goose eggs, spending a total of 19 gold. He specifically addressed the staff of the Material Reserves Department, telling them the price of the various eggs. They would strictly be sold at half of the original price directly to the villagers, and there would be no private increase of pricing.

Chapter 51 - Agriculture Division

Back at the Lord’s Manor, Ouyang Shuo didn’t go anywhere, concentrating on reading in his office.

Gu Sanniang called in, “Lord, there is a call for you outside, from Wang’er, here to see you!”

“Wang’er?” Ouyang Shuo asked, confused.

“Yes, it is a mason, he said that you had told him to come find you.”

Oh ho, he remembered now, the young man at the work site wanted to come find him as a witness to his marriage. He hadn’t thought the young man would be so quick!

“I know who it is, let him in!” Ouyang Shuo told Gu Sanniang.

“Okay!”

Soon after, two visitors came in just behind Gu Sanniang. Entering the office, one said respectfully, “Commoner Wang greets the Lord!”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and smiled, saying, “You have come, I know why. Tell me, when is the wedding?”

“My Lord, this small person’s wedding is tomorrow evening,” Wang’er said cautiously.

“Okay, tomorrow evening, I will be there, you can rest assured!”

Hearing Ouyang Shuo promise this, Wang’er bowed happily, saying, “Thank you, sire! Thank you!”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, picking up the cup on the table to drink the tea. Gu Sanniang took the hint and led Wang’er out of the office.

In the evening, San Gouzi from the Military Intelligence Division brought some good news.

“Lord, the Military Intelligence Division has fulfilled its mission, and finally found some mulberry tree seedlings outside of the territory,” San Gouzi said hurriedly after coming into the office.

Ouyang Shuo was overjoyed, saying, “Finally, there is a result! This was all about our upgrade to a grade 1 town. If I didn’t find one, I might lose my race to the rankings.”

San Gouzi smiled widely in return, “Sir, this is not the only good news. Not only did one of the cavalry searching found mulberry trees, but there were also wild goat traces nearby. At this moment, General Shi is out with the cavalry squadron, making sure that he doesn’t miss them once again, and is planning to stay out all night.”

“Oh, good things in pairs! Get the mulberry saplings to the Agricultural Division!” Ouyang Shuo ordered him with a smile. He wasn’t worried about the night action of the cavalry. The Military Intelligence Division had long been clear with its investigations, there were no other threats near the territory past the bandit camp that they’d already eliminated.

----------------------------

At 10 AM the next day, February 13th, hundreds of goats, driven by more than fifty cavalry, came rumbling into the village.

Seeing the wild goats, Construction Division secretary Zhao Dewang hurriedly jumped to his feet, cursing as he arranged for workers to quickly build a goat pen.

Fortunately, the wild goats were more docile animals, not scurrying around, quietly staying together as a group. Seeing this scene, Du Xiaolan arranged for people from the warehouse to come out with fodder to feed them. Since the day they had cattle, the warehouse had always reserved some fine forage, and it came in handy this time.

In the afternoon, the goat pen was built. Ouyang Shuo looked at the goats and had a few thoughts. Heading back into the Manor, he summoned Fan Zhongyan, Tian Wenjing, Cui Yingyu, and Zhao Dexian to his office to discuss things.

Fan, Tian and Cui, these three people were secretly called the Three Giants by the administrative staff. With the Three Giants together with him in the head office, Zhao Dexian felt a little apprehensive.

Ouyang Shuo did not waste time, going straight to the point. “With the further expansion of raising livestock in the territory, coupled with the upcoming mulberry, the agriculture in Shanhai Division is slowly coming onto the right track. It is now necessary to set up specialized divisions to coordinate management.”

Zhao Dexian’s heart skipped a beat, and was starting to get eager. According to what Ouyang Shuo was saying, that meant he was going to set up a strong department covering agriculture, forestry, fishing, and animal breeding. Looking at the few seats here, everyone else already had an important position. Was this position going to fall on him?

Fan Zhongyan threw Tian Wenjing a glance, asking, “Does the lord mean that he is moving Animal Husbandry out of the Material Reserves Department?

“In accordance with the general pattern of jurisdictions, such industries as Animal Husbandry should be placed under the Administration Department.”

The Material Reserves Department grew too strong during Cui Yingyu’s period, but she also had Ouyang Shuo’s trust. Coupled with the fact that animal breeding was very weak and unimportant, no one said anything. Now, it had grown into an important issue.

After taking over the Administration Department, Mr. Fan had been carefully assuming his powers, but had not found a suitable way to expand. With the potential of the wild goats and Ouyang Shuo bringing this up, he took the initiative to mention the jurisdictional issue, naturally adding fuel to the fire.

The newly appointed director of Material Reserves Department was as blank as a mirror, nobody could see what he was thinking.

Ouyang Shuo pretended to not know anything and continued, saying, “Not only that, fisheries have to be taken out from the Material Reserves Division. In addition to the control of materials and resources, the Material Reserves Department's responsibility were more inclined towards the management and storage of materials, rather than controlling the production rate from the source.”

Tian Wenjing nodded, calmly saying, “I agree with the view of the lord. With the territory developing subsectors of the economy vigorously, the establishment of more professional and effective departments cannot wait.”

Cui Yingyu, sitting at the side and seeing these people playing politics, could find nothing to say. Moreover, the crux of the problem didn’t lie with her. So, she had nothing to say.

But seeing Tian Wenjing withdraw on his own initiative, Yingyu smiled and asked, “Big brother’s meaning, this new division should be called by what name, and who should be the new officer?” Saying that, she did not forget to glance at Zhao Dexian.

“Since it will naturally be in charge of agriculture, forestry, fishing, and animal breeding, it will naturally be called the Agricultural Division. I don’t need to set up a new department, I will transform it directly from the original Reclamation Division. The appointments and affiliation of the Agriculture Division are unchanged, “ Ouyang Shuo said with a smile.

Yingyu nodded, that arrangement was not surprising. At this point, the Agriculture Division had just become one of the most important departments in the Administration Department.

With the dust settled, Zhao Dexian rose, bowed deeply, and said, “Thank you for your trust, lord!”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand. “Elder, your ability as a secretary, whether in the Construction Division before or the Reclamation Division more recently, you have performed very well. I hope in the new division you can also achieve success!”

“I will not disappoint you, my lord!” Zhao Dexian said calmly and firmly.

In Shanhai’s local training of civil servants, Zhao Dexian was second only to Yingyu and Gu Xiuwen, and much better than Zhao Youfang and Zhao Dewang. Having served as a village chief, Ouyang Shuo naturally decided that now was the time to give him a broader platform.

That evening, Ouyang Shuo took Er Wazi to the residential area, to participate in the wedding of Wang’er and Cui Hua.

Ancient weddings were a 6 part process. The climax of which was welcoming the bride. The groom will open the carriage door and welcome her out. before the elders will start tying a heart knot with a red rope and giving it to the couple.

The two were holding a red rope as they crossed into the hall, avoiding the threshold. The threshold represented the facade, the bride must eventually cross the threshold. The bridesmaids will shine a bronze mirror on them in hopes of happiness and bliss.

The conditions in Shanhai were simple, the villagers were mostly alone and with few family - no parents or elders, few friends and family. So the whole wedding ceremony was very simply designed, and not strictly in accordance with the six procedures.

Fortunately, the Material Reserves Department was ordered by Ouyang Shuo, and had sent over red silk cloth, rice, fruits and other items, so the scene didn’t look too shabby.

Ouyang Shuo arrived with Er Wazi at the small courtyard of the Wangs, and Wang’er met him at the door.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo arrive, he hastened to come forward, saying firmly, “It is our great honor to have the lord visiting our home.” He had visited the manor this morning to have Mr. Gu teach him some proper manners.

Amused, Ouyang Shuo nodded happily, and Er Wazi sprang forwards to present his gift. It was a good silk, he had bought it from the Market. As a lord personally attending a wedding, he naturally could not have a shabby gift.

This time, Ouyang Shuo had not said anything to the secretaries, as all of them coming would have been far too overwhelming, and not at all fun. Even Qing’er, clamoring to join in the fun, he did not bring over. Only Er Wazi came over with him, to serve him if needed.

The new home of Wang’er was the typical small farm courtyard. Through the main entrance was a small courtyard. In the corner of it a jujube was planted. Next to that was a well. On the east and west sides were respectively the kitchen, some firewood and a chicken house. There were only three small rooms in the main building, the middle was the main hall and a place for people to eat. The rooms to the left and right were bedrooms.

The yard was small, but spotless. Wang was a diligent person, cleaning up the courtyard to make people feel comfortable.

Inside the courtyard, wine were placed on the tables. The ones attending were either acquaintances of the new wife, or fellow workers of the mason. By the numbers, their popularity was pretty good.

Wang’er personally led Ouyang Shuo to the hall, and gave him the head seat. Er Wazi was smart, taking the initiative to go to the yard and find his own place to stand.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo, Zhao Dewang got up to say hello. Wang’er belonged to the carpenters, and was under the jurisdiction of the Construction Division. He was certainly brave, as he had even invited the Construction Division secretary to his wedding.

Before coming, Dewang hadn’t expected to see Ouyang Shuo there, and so was very surprised. He was glad to see Ouyang Shuo out. If the lord sees how much he cares for his men, he would treat him better too.

The fact was, Ouyang Shuo was relieved to see Zhao Dewang. At least he now had someone to talk to instead of sitting there in boredom.

Before the opening, Wang led his bride Cui Hua up to Ouyang Shuo to get his blessing. Ouyang Shuo said a few auspicious words, and let the bride go back to her room. In ancient weddings, the bride were not allowed to reveal her face easily. Only because he was the lord did he get such differential treatment.

A wedding, and all the bustling around.

After the opening, Ouyang Shuo ate something just for symbol, and then got up and left. He also knew that after his words, nobody was going to open up and have fun totally. It was better to leave early, and leave the evening to the bride and groom.

Chapter 52 - The Township

The next day, early in the morning, the Salt Pan Division began to organize the sale of sea salt.

It was a lot of sea salt to move, with more than 20 fishing boats hauling it from the salt fields to the dock. The villagers all put down their tools and spontaneously pitched in to help get the sea salt from the pier to the Market by the village square.

After more than a month of production, as well as processing salted fish and bacon, the northern field had still produced 240,000 units of sea salt.

The huge amount of sea salt took all that time just to be moved. It took until 4 PM for all that sea salt to arrive in the Market.

Each unit of sea salt was priced at 20 copper, 240k units of sea salt meant 480 gold coins. Deducting the 20% tax, Ouyang Shuo pocketed 384 gold coins.

Adding in his previous gold, Ouyang Shuo now had 510 gold in his storage bag. This money he was no longer ready to use much of. Seeing there was half a month’s time before the first system auction, he had to think about accumulating funds.

The next batch of sea salt, Ouyang Shuo would wait until the end of March to sell.

Because he would upgrading to a grade 1 town tomorrow, he went back to the Manor after this, talking things over with his Secretaries and asking them to get their respective work sorted out. After the territorial upgrade, he would be holding a meeting talking about the expansion.

-------------------------------------------

On February 15th, Ouyang Shuo walked into the central chamber to do the territory upgrade.

A white light strobed, and in the middle of the chamber, the golden stone rose once again. Ouyang Shuo placed his right hand on the stone, and the system prompts sounded out.

“System Notification: Detecting Shanhai Village upgrades conditions…”

“Condition 1: Population has reached over 1000 people and is past the population limit. The requirement has been met!

“Condition 2: All infrastructure completed. Requirements have been met!

“Condition 3: The Lord’s Title has reached at least Third grade Viscount! The requirement has been met!

“Condition 4: The political, economic, cultural and military indices have attained no less than 30 points! Requirements have been met!

“System Tip: Congratulations to the player Qiyue Wuyi for establishing all the upgrade conditions for Shanhai Village. Having met all the requirements, do you wish to upgrade?”

“I do!”

The golden light again surged up to the sky, turning into a golden halo that expanded out to the edges of the territory before once again disappearing.

“System Notification: Congratulations to the player Qiyue Wuyi for becoming the first in China to upgrade to a Grade 1 Town! Rewarded 1100 merit points!”

“System Notification: Congratulations to the player Qiyue Wuyi…”

“System Notification: Congratulations…”

The announcement caused an immediate uproar in China. In less than half a month’s time, Shanhai Village had actually upgraded to a Town. This was unbelievably fast. Before the players had even had time to recover from this blow, another slew of system announcements sounded out.

“World Announcement: Congratulations to the Chinese player Qiyue Wuyi for becoming the first in the world to upgrade to a Town. The reward is 2000 merit point, and you are given the title of The First Town!”

“World Announcement: Congratulations to the Chinese player Qiyue Wuyi…”

“World Announcement: Congratulations…”

Global special awards were only for the very first person, second place got nothing, and it was only for upgrading the territory across the Large Level Divide.

The reason why there was no global reward for the first village was that Gaia knew that the first to build the cities all had their own custom gaming capsules.

One, it would have been hard to separate first and second, and two, it was unfair to the other players.

Following the global Siege of Beasts, Qiyue Wuyi was now once again firmly in the center of the field of vision of the global players.

The world announcement, just like the local one, triggered a frenzy.

The United States, The Free Village

Jack Dawson muttered, “Mysterious Oriental country, and sure enough, many crouching tigers and hidden dragons! Really is amazing!”

……

Britain, Avic Fort

William gracefully said to the people around him, “It seems that there is still a long way to go to restore the glory of the British Empire!”

……

Japan, San Li Village

Honda Keisuke was flustered. “Eight curses, that person grabs the limelight again!”

……

Russia, St. Petersburg

Pushkin excitedly said, “Hey, only such a strong foe is worthy to be my opponent. Qiyue Wuyi, I wait for the day I can fight you!”

……

India, Bangalore Village

Di Lawa looked grim. “India is the representative of Oriental civilization. Qiyue Wuyi, you wait for me!”

……

The biggest shock was to the local area of China. It was proud. It was scared. There were people flustered.

“1st post: Hey, Qiyue Wuyi, really good show, you gave us Chinese a lot of faces!”

“2nd post: Qiyue Wuyi, the Chinese lords give way to no one!

“3rd post: The era of the hegemony of the Handan Six has officially ended. The era of Qiyue has officially opened!”

“4th post: China’s strongest lord, keep driving ahead!”

……

In Handan Village, Di Chen had completely lost his cool demeanor. He angrily shouted, “How? How could this happen? Less than half a month’s time!”

Watching him reveal his true self, Juedai Fenghua sat to his right, her eyes bright and her expression unreadable.

……

At Danyang Village, Chun Shenjun was sitting in his office, revealing an interested expression. He said to himself, “Qiyue Wuyi, do not think I cannot catch you even if you stay hidden. You refused to ally with Di Chen and chose someone else. You are like me, unwilling to be alone!”

He indeed had the deepest connections of the six former Tyrants. Chun Shenjun had been inquiring into Shanhai Village’s and Consonance’s alliance; it was very interesting.

……

In Consonance Village, the 4 Consonance sisters were together again.

“Simei, are you still insisting that our ally is a civilian player?” Bai Hua asked.

Tsing Yi pondered a moment before saying cautiously, “From the surface point of view, this is really difficult to understand, upgrading to the township in such a short period of time. However, I still stand by my previous point of view. Do not forget that in the last world task, he was awarded the full 600 gold coins reward.”

Zi Luolan shook her head and retorted, “I do not agree! Di Chen won 450 gold coins, but there was no movement on his end. And this time was not just a China first, but a world first!”

Bai Hua nodded agreement. “Anyway, it’s a good idea to reevaluate the ally, but fortunately, we are allies and not enemies.”

……

Lianzhou Basin, Mulan Village

Mulan spoke at the side of a female general, asking, “Sister, according to what you see, do we have to take the initiative and contact our neighbors?”

If people were familiar with the game’s history, they would have recognized Mu Guiying!

Mu Guiying nodded. “I think you can try. It is best to be able to ally in the Lianzhou Basin before the situation is clear and we become enemies.”

Mulan smiled. “I will do as my sister said!”

……

Lianzhou Basin, Broken Blade Village

Ba Dao was not convinced and said, “Well, Lianzhou will be mine. Qiyue Wuyi, I’ll let you show off first!”

Ouyang Shuo did not have time to talk about the outside world, and continued to upgrade his operation.

“System Notification: Congratulations to the player Qiyue Wuyi for upgrading to a first-grade town. City-level Lord’s Manor has automatically upgraded. Randomly selecting 3 town-level infrastructures, the player can choose one of them.

“System Notification: Random selection of three buildings is complete, please choose one of the basic brick kiln, cemetery, or orchard! Please choose!”

“I choose the basic brick kiln!”

“System Notification: Building automatically generated, player please view!”

Territory: Shanhai Town ( Grade 1 Township)

Lord: Qiyue Wuyi (Third Count)

Title: The World’s First Town (Enhancing territorial reputation 20%)

People’s Thoughts: 90

Security: 85

Territory population: 1000/2000

Flow rate of immigrants: 50 * (1 + 50%) = 75 / day

Territory area: 200 square kilometers

Territorial characteristics: 50% increase attracting migrants, 20% increase in attracting special talents, 50% increase in crop production, 20% increase in production capacity of residents, 20% increase in military promotion, 10% increase in talent breakthroughs.

Affiliated Village: No

Treasury: Four Seas Bank

Territory Resources: Basic Logging Camp, Intermediate Quarry; Basic Mining Field

Territorial Army: Cavalry Squadron

Territory Industry: Northern Salt Field (500 mu)

Political index: 40/100 (determines administrative efficiency and relationship with the people)

Economic index: 35/100 (determines trade prosperity and ability to pay taxes)

Cultural index: 30/100 (represents the degree of educational development and quality of life of residents)

Military: 40/100 (indicates military strength and morale)

Infrastructure: Lord’s Manor, Residential small homes, Public bathrooms, Village granaries

Agricultural Construction: Simple Farmland, Pigsty, Cattle Pen, Goat Pen, Mill, Mulberry Field

Commercial Buildings: Basic Market, Intermediate Blacksmith shop, Basic Grocery, Advanced Woodshop, Advanced Hospital, Village Private School, Advanced Martial Arts Dojo, Senior Tailor Shop, Beginner Pottery Kilnworks, Wine Workshop, Food Shop, Meat Shop, Cloth Shop

Cultural Buildings: Village Ancestral Hall, Village Private School, Lianzhou College

Military Buildings: Intermediate Barracks, Stone Outposts, Stables, Weapon Workshop, Arsenal

Special Buildings: Ferry, Wharf, Intermediate Shipyard

Secret Buildings: Mazu Temple (sealed), Recruitment Hall

List of Capital Construction Buildings:

Basic Brick Kiln: Furnace to bake bricks. Construction Requirements: Basic brick factory, brick kiln construction drawings, 200 wood, 800 stone. Construction time: 3 days (Note: this building has been randomly generated)

Cemetery: Cemetery to bury the deceased. Construction Requirements: 400 wood, 2800 stone. Construction time: 2 days.

Orchard: Planted fruit trees. Construction Requirements: Fruit trees, 400 wood, 200 stone. Construction time: 2 days.

Food shop: A shop to sell food. Construction Requirements: Food shop building plans, 300 wood, 200 stone. Build time: 1 day (Description: Built)

Meat Shop: A shop to sell meat. Construction Requirements: Meat shop building plans, 300 wood, 200 stone. Build time: 1 day (Description: Built)

Cloth Shop: A shop to sell cloth. Construction Requirements: Cloth shop building plans, timber 300, stone 200. Build time: 1 day (Description: Built)

Arsenal: Weapon storage warehouse. Construction Requirements: Arsenal building plans, 600 wood, 400 stone. Construction time: 3 days (Description: Built)

School: Intermediate educational institutions. Construction Requirements: Instructors, school building plans, 800 wood, 400 stone. Construction time: 3 days (Description: Built)

Chapter 53 - Financial Services

Editor:ryangohsff

The township interface had some interesting changes, as compared with that of a village.

The biggest change was the former massive list of basic buildings was now divided into five categories - basic, agricultural, commercial, cultural and military.

After upgrading to a township, the industries were more divided, requiring more orderly planning. To this end, the lords needed to develop more detailed industry management practices, forming a more comprehensive administration system.

Ouyang Shuo had already begun to implement this in the village stage. It was no exaggeration to say that Shanhai’s administrative structure was enough to deal with the entire Township stage, even if he had no greater ambitions.

At present, more than 80% of the villages had basically the village head for their administrative structure, plus one to two deputy heads to help maintain operations.

That very primitive administrative structure could just barely work in the village stage. After all, affairs at the village level were few enough that a diligent lord could manage them with one or two effective deputies. Not all territories were going to be like Shanhai, basically forming a perfect industry base from salt panning, fisheries, animal breeding, industry and commerce, simply all-encompassing.

Most of the lords could upgrade the necessary infrastructure. They had to pray and hope that they could get excess funds and resources to develop other industries.

There was also the need to satisfy the requirements of the township level, which was the purpose of the four indices. The system was set to encourage lords to develop a solid foundation at the village level, before upgrading to a town, instead of trying to remedy their shortcomings afterwards.

Another change was that it no longer reported the specific numbers of resources available to the lord, instead just reporting what level of gathering fields they had.

This was another important sign of moving from village to town. It was set so to remind the lords that he or she is now progressing forward, specific numbers of resources shall not concern them anymore. Focusing only on the numbers would indicate you are not qualified as a lord.

By this time, the lord should have a broader view of the overall situation. As a town leader, it was time to focus on upgrading resource collections and storage capacity, and doing long term planning.

Shanhai, for example, on its back was a mountain, and was next to a large forest. Whether it be stone, ore, or wood resources, it was rich in them, and for a short time he didn’t have to worry about raw resources in his lands.

This was the advantage of the basin. In addition to the large amount of wood, the basic resources of the other types also had high reserves. However, the more advanced resources, like gold, silver, or diamond mines, would depend on your luck and weren’t so easy to find.

In addition to these changes, Ouyang Shuo focused on the new infrastructure. Although there were eight new buildings in the township, he had already built most of them at the village level, and now only needed building blueprints for the cemetery and orchard to finish them up.

But that didn’t mean he could sit back and relax about updating Shanhai’s infrastructure. From village to township, four village buildings needed upgrades: the public baths, the granaries, the ancestral hall, and the private school. Upgrading these buildings, like doing the barracks previously, required him to buy the building blueprints, at ten times the previous prices.

After viewing the statistics for his lands, Ouyang Shuo finally had the time to take a serious look at the upgrade to the Lord’s Manor.

After the upgrade, the manor had moved from the traditional Chinese quadrangles courtyard into a courtyard of 2 segments. The front segment were the government offices, while the back segment were the manor's living place.

The furniture in the whole building had received an upgrade, it was now beginning to feel like a wealthy home. Most importantly, the Manor was no longer all wooden, but now included masonry in its construction.

The frontal area layout was basically the same as before, with the lobby still serving as the main hall for chamber meetings.

There were two large offices on each side of the main hall. On the west side was the Mayor’s Office, as well as the office of the Financial Division. On the east side were the offices of the Administration Department and Material Reserves Department.

In addition to a dining area, there were five small rooms for the officials to rest in. The main entrance in the front was more dignified, and there was a porter on duty now. On either side of the main entrance, there were the storage, the kitchen, and a living area for the servants.

At the back of the main chamber was the inner courtyard. The first thing that caught his eyes was a small garden. It was set with stones, running water, fish, even some birds flitting about. It was small, but very complete.

Travelling across the gravel trails in the garden, there stood the main house of the inner segment. The living hall of the main house was naturally been purposed to entertain the guests. Beside it to the west, was an independent study room, then only following it was Ouyang Shuo's bedroom.

To the east of the living hall, were two bedrooms which Ouyang Shuo had left it for Yingyu and Qing'er, the two sisters. There were also two side houses to the west and east of the main house, they were designated for the servant maids. Which Ouyang Shuo had intended to hire two servant maids to help the two sisters in their daily lives.

He passed through the inner courtyard once again, returning to the main chamber. The assembled ministers were there, ready to participate in the first expansion of the new town of Shanhai.

Ouyang Shuo smiled broadly as he greeted everyone before sitting down. “Today’s agenda is about what steps we are going to take after upgrading from a village to a township. There are some ideas and plans and so on, and I’m not going to blow horns again. I will be a listener today, let’s start with a report from the Financial Secretary!”

The first person was called, Yingyu was already prepared. Her new assistant, Qian Lifei, was standing behind her.

Yingyu went over her mental notes, and began. “At this stage of the territory, our fiscal revenue includes several sources. These are the sale of real estate, the production of salt, and taxation. Of the three main sources, the sale of real estate is mainly turned into low interest loan, and also the expense of the redemption of the welfare vouchers. There is no obvious continuing revenue on the books, although a steady stream of interest should be starting soon.

“Our golden industry is the salt pans operation. Yesterday, we sold off all of our sea salt, and there will be no further output for a short time. Finally, on taxes. Because privatization has just started, the agricultural tax is basically nothing, and for the commercial tax, only a few shops, such as the carpenters, smithy, and tailor shop have paid limited tax revenues.

“Paying attention to the financial expenditures of the territory, these include salaries, project costs expenditures, industry support spending, and military spending. There is also the remunerations of the four departments, including the salaries of government officials, and the mining and salt workers. These areas are largely a fixed expenditure.

“For project costs, the most important is the wall works and its supporting inland river and moat excavation project. The project will take a long time, requiring the use of more than a thousand workers. The industry we spend on includes the weapons workshop, wine workshop, and ranch. These are all in the beginning stages, and we need to continue investing in them, so we are not going to see any income from them for the time being. Finally, military spending is accounted independently, but is also a large cost.

“It is clear that the financial condition of the territory is not optimal. We are obviously making ends meet, and are able to support it for now, it has come almost entirely based on early system rewards and raiding bandit camps to maintain our territorial operations.

“Therefore the next step in the Financial Division’s goals is to reverse this tide and ensure that the territory’s finances are able to function properly and maintain a balance of payments and income. The most important part of this is to increase our revenue. To this end, the Financial Secretary is set to expand the scale of the salt pans, and further stimulate the development of the two major industrial and commercial measures.

“The salt pans to the north is a financial pillar of the territory. Expanding its size will quickly increase our revenue, and have an immediate effect. However, there are advantages and disadvantages. A single financial income is not conducive to healthy territorial development, and it has no defense against external risks.

“Therefore, the Financial Secretary’s main objective is to boost the industrial and commercial development of the territory. To this end, the Financial Secretary has proposed a separate support fund to encourage more skilled people to set up shops or workshops. At the the town level, the smith, tailor shop, and woodworking shop are unable to meet the current demand. This is a long-term plan, to promote commercial competition and prosperity in the territory.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded with satisfaction after listening seriously to the Financial Secretary’s report, smiling and saying, “Well, the Financial Secretary’s report is very clear. I basically agree with the report. However, in order to stimulate the economy, we will implement the policy with some institutional changes.

“To that end, I have decided to upgrade the Financial Division to the Finance Department, with the Taxation Division and Business Division under it. The former Financial Secretary, Cui Yingyu, will serve as Financial Secretary and Director of the Business Division. The former Financial Secretary’s Assistant, will serve as Director of the Taxation Division. The specified economic stimulus policy will be implemented by the new Business Division.”

Qian Lifei, Yingyu’s disciple, in a few days time he had gone up two levels, from a clerk to the assistant director, and was now in charge of the Tax Department. This also fully exposed the lack of talent in Shanhai, many positions had to raise seedlings.

Of course, this was also related to Ouyang Shuo’s rapid ambitious expansion. Such an administrative structure was actually enough to support the county level, but he was still fiddling around at the township level.

*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes

*[12.47 to 13.07]: don't ask me about the tree sap

Chapter 54 - Meritorious Service Division

The Financial Division, or now… the Finance Department, had finished its report.

The Administration Secretary, Fan Zhongyan, spoke up now. “The Administration Department currently holds jurisdiction over the Agricultural Division, the Construction Division, the Salt Pan Division, and the Household Registration Office. In order to clarify the powers of the Secretary, there is a proposal on institutional adjustment, please refer to the main report.”

“Please say it!”

“Salt is a strategic resource, and should be subject to the jurisdiction of the Material Reserves Department. It was an honor to handle the salt pans under sire’s trust, yet it is time I return the salt pans to where it belongs. Please permit my proposal, my lord!” Fan Zhongyan calmly said, as if he did not know that he was throwing out a blockbuster.

As one of the most important heavyweight divisions of the territory, in charge of the territory’s economic lifeline, the importance of the Salt Pan Division need not be repeated. Fan Zhongyan had now offered to submit the Salt Pan Division to the Material Reserves Department, in essence giving them the biggest heavyweight division of the Administration Department.

The day before the Agricultural Division was taken from the Material Reserves Department, taking jurisdiction of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and animal breeding. This time, was the concession reciprocation? When had Fan Zhongyan and Tian Wenjing formed such a tacit understanding?

This was the question of most of the people here. Ouyang Shuo didn’t believe the truth would be so simple.

As Ouyang Shuo’s first true civil servant of the territory, Fan Zhongyan was displaying his political ambitions. Sorting out the relationships between their departments, this was his first move. The arrival of Tian Wenjing brought him a sense of urgency. Therefore, he was taking the initiative to speed up the pace of institutional adjustment.

For such a benign competition, Ouyang Shuo would of course had a positive attitude, thus he agreed, “Permission granted!”

Fan Zhongyan was apparently confident of Ouyang Shuo’s permission, and continued on. “In addition, with the rapid increase in the territory’s population, the work of registering households is becoming heavier and heavier. Therefore, it is recommended that the Household Registration Office be officially upgraded to the Household Registration Division.”

Ouyang Shuo, his face without expression, “Approved, in addition, the Administration will recommend a new Household Registration Division officer. Report the candidate to me. As for the original Household Registration Officer Gu Xiuwen, there will be another arrangement.”

This was contrary to Fan Zhongyan’s expectations, giving him a surprise. Gu Xiuwen could be said to be the most important assistant in the Administration. Listening to Ouyang Shuo’s decision to transfer Gu out of the Administration Department, his lord’s decision puzzled him.

Finding someone to replace Gu Xiuwen would be really hard to do at the moment, especially for a Director’s position. Whether it was the original peasant-born households clerk Du Quan, or Fan Zhongyan’s assistant Qin Shijian, he was reluctant to have either of them promoted.

Temporarily pressing down the doubts in his heart, Mr. Fan resorted to his last proposed institutional adjustment. “With the territorial administration continually improving and expanding, including low-level government officials, the civil service system is getting larger and larger. With the wave of privatization, all kinds of temptations are following. With that, it is time to set up a special department to carry out supervision and evaluation of civil service duties.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded in agreement, this was one of his larger concerns. After privatization, he could not expect all the government officials to stay conspicuously clean and self-disciplined, with a serious adherence to duty. That kind of thinking would be complete political immaturity. In order to prevent this sort of slippage, it would have to come from inside his system, keeping his civil servants hard-working and honest, or risking punishment. That would be the best way to handle it.

Since ancient times, official rule had always had problems, disciplining themselves was always the most troublesome. Fan Zhongyan was offering to set up the Meritorious Service Division, which pleased Ouyang Shuo greatly. It was an idea worthy of Fan Zhongyan’s strictly self-disciplined public image, while also wanting to sort out the official atmosphere of the entire territory.

“I am very much in favor of this, and I very much agree to set up a Meritorious Service Division. It will be responsible for the handling of the civil service and the reconsideration of the officers, and will be under the jurisdiction of the Administrative Secretary.”

At this point, Fan Zhongyan had, through three simple steps, realized his political ambitions. With this new Meritorious Service Department hanging over the head of the civil servants like a sword, they did not dare derelict their duty. Otherwise, what was waiting for them was demotion, dismissal, or even more severe punishments.

In regards the specific work arrangements of the Administration, it was not suitable for discussion at the meeting because it was too complicated. After the meeting, Ouyang Shuo would personally see the head of that Department with a separate discussion.

After the Administration Department was the Material Reserves Division. Similarly, the Material Depository had just been established, and a lot of their work was not yet clear.

Tian Wenjing still had an unmoving face, calmly saying, “There is only 1 proposal. There are currently 200 horses available to expand the cavalry, and this needs to be further increased. Therefore, it is very necessary to set up a horse farm ranch, and more importantly, to find the right horse to cultivate more excellent horses.”

Tian Wenjing’s proposal made Ouyang Shuo think. In his past life, Lianzhou Basin had produced a good horse, the green horse.

According to legends, the green horse was the product of the ancient god of insects and a wild horse. Thus, the green horse had a divine bloodline, running like the wind, and had a strong spirit. It would be a very suitable horse.

“In fact, there is an excellent horse in our Lianzhou Basin, which, as far as I know, is mainly living in the heart of the Basin. However, you must cross the Friendship River and search on the other side.”

“However,” Ouyang Shuo continued on, “the central area of the basin is populated by a group of powerful nomadic tribes. These nomads are all soldiers, and especially good at riding and shooting. They are not easy targets. To capture the green horses, you will have to deal with them.”

At this time, Lieutenant San Gouzi of the military Intelligence Division took the initiative to stand up, loudly saying, “Sir, our military forces will be responsible for this matter!”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, saying solemnly, “I agree with the Military Intelligence Division’s involvement. But I have a request. This time, the main focus is to find out the specific areas of the green horses, not clashing with the nomads!”

San Gouzi nodded hard, saying, “ Understood! Sir, you may rest assured!”

At this point, Shanhai Town’s first expansion meeting had come to an end. After the meeting, Ouyang Shuo met with the military officers to study the army’s expansion plan for the next step.

Ouyang Shuo profoundly realized the importance of having more infantry, and went right to the point. “For this next expansion of the army, the cavalry will be left untouched. We will focus on the infantry. I am ready to directly expand the infantry into a full infantry squadron.”

General Shi nodded in agreement, asked, “According to the Lord, who will be responsible for the newly formed infantry squadron?”

The sergeants of the first team were, in addition to Lin Yi, all seventh order elites. The highest of them could only serve as a lieutenant, they weren’t qualified to command a squadron.

“The newly established infantry will be set up by General Shi and placed under his command. The cavalry squadron will now be led by the new Captain Lin Yi.” Ouyang Shuo announced the new appointment calmly.

Lin Yi, barely out of his teens, was cool-headed, a flexible thinker, and a good seedling. Within only a month’s time, he had gone from sergeant to lieutenant, and had now been promoted to squadron captain. It was easy to see Ouyang Shuo’s appreciation and trust in him.

For Ouyang Shuo’s blessing, Lin Yi was naturally grateful, excitedly saying, “I would like to thank the lord for this promotion, I will not disappoint you!”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, looking to the side at the envious looks of Zhang Dainiu, Zhao Sihu and the others. He smiled and said, “You do not need to envy him. I guarantee that whoever is the first among you to break through to the ninth-order elite, will be promoted to command the infantry squadron.”

This was a no-warning surprise. Ouyang Shuo had succeeded in shocking them all, making all of them all the more determined to be the first to break through to the ninth-order.

There were three who could compete for it, Zhang Daniu, Zhao Sihu and Li Mingliang. The three could break through anytime to the ninth-order elite. The former two were aggressive people and natural competitors. The more complacent Li Mingliang could only be judged to be slightly inferior to them. As for Liao Kai and Zhou Feng, the two new sergeants, they were still just sixth-order soldiers.

Therefore, it was most probable that the infantry squadron captain would be decided between Zhang Daniu, Zhao Sihu and Li Mingliang.

As for the cavalry squadron’s two vacant positions, Ouyang Shuo was in no hurry to appoint anyone. He had to wait until he determined the infantry captain to do so.

With the military expansion matters done, Ouyang Shuo headed to the Market to purchase building blueprints.

This time there were four village buildings to upgrade to the town level. Among them, the Public Bathrooms were a public building, therefore the next level’s upgrade cost 20 gold coins. This was also the highest level of the bathrooms, there were no city level or higher toilets.

For the granary, ancestral hall and private school, the town level building blueprints were priced at 50 gold coins each. The granary and private school could be upgraded all the way up to the city level, while the ancestral hall could be made into a temple.

In addition, Ouyang Shuo spent 20 gold coins, buying the Intermediate Market building blueprints, only to unlock the auction platform function in advance. The five architectural drawings cost 190 gold in total.

Speaking of building blueprints, he remembered that there were some in his storage bag. In there were the useless building blueprints from the extermination of the bandit camp, respectively the dojo, stables, weapon workshop and tower. He removed them all and sold them off in the Market, and after the 20% net transaction cost, receiving only 52 gold coins.

After the various tradings, his resulting gold was down to 372. He really hadn’t wanted to spend them...

In addition to the building plans, Ouyang Shuo was also prepared to buy other things suitable for growing in the Lianzhou Basin. He was looking for seeds or seedlings for cultivation of fruits. Eventually, he chose mangoes.

In fact, Guangxi was also rich in lychee, longans, persimmons and other fruits, but these fruits required specifically cultivated seedlings for planting. Using the seeds out of the fruit, you got truly wild plants that found it hard to bear fruits, and even then the fruit wasn’t that good.

Leaving the Market, Ouyang Shuo headed back to the Manor, where there were a lot of things waiting for him.

Chapter 55 - Affiliated Villages

Back inside the manor, Ouyang Shuo headed into the administrative offices on the east side.

He first handed the five building blueprints he had just purchased to Zhao Dewang at the Construction Division. He told him to get some people while the walls were being built to go and upgrade these five buildings.

Then, he looked for Gu Xiuwen, asking him to come to his office, he had something to arrange.

Gu Xiuwen had just been told he was being transferred from the Household Registration Office this morning. Hearing Ouyang Shuo calls for him, he knew that he was being given a new task.

At the mayor’s office, Ouyang Shuo had Xiuwen sit down and smiled at him. “Xiuwen, you have had a very good performance during this time of difficulty with the errands you have done. I have seen all this, and now I have a more difficult task to give you, do you have the confidence?”

“Whatever the lord commands, I will make sure it is done!”

Ouyang Shuo nodded with satisfaction, exclaiming, “Well, there is a need for such boldness! That matter is thus: Since the village has upgraded to a township, you can build an affiliated village. The area of the territory has expanded, the mountains to the north are now formally a part of the territory. This will provide the salt pans workers a safe place, and save them from coming back and forth between Shanhai and the fields. I have decided that this first subsidiary village will be built near the salt pans and will be dedicated to the salt field workers.”

“The lord is generous, any questions the salt workers have about your grace have been answered!” Gu Xiuwen said earnestly.

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand. “The northern salt pans will be the golden industry of the territory for a very long time. The salt workers spend all day in the wind and sun, continuing to create benefits for the territory which gives them a stable home. This is the meaning of the new village! I need a responsible village head. I intend to recommend you. Are you willing to suffer living on the beach?”

Although his heart was prepared, Gu Xiuwen was still very excited, saying rather incoherently, “It is an honor to serve under your lead, Xiuwen will even die without a word.”

“I am ready to name the village the Beihai Village, mainly to serve as our northern branch and cater to the salt fields. However, the absolute role of Beihai Village is not limited to this. In the future, it will be the only port city of the territory, the window of our territorial trade, and so its importance cannot be underestimated,” Ouyang Shuo explained firmly.

Gu Xiuwen nodded his head, feeling the responsibility coming down on him, and said, “For this Beihai Village, does the lord have any starting orders?”

“My first thought is that Beihai Village will be built in direct accordance with grade 3 village standards. As for the population, all 250 existing salt workers will be under its jurisdiction. In addition, every Shanhai division will deploy one or two low-level officials to help you build the administrative structure of Beihai, and all the talents of Shanhai should send at least one apprentice there to get started. Shanhai has four blacksmiths, one should be sent over to you. Finally, the territory will supply you enough basic materials to deal with the materials needed for construction,” Ouyang Shuo told him, dispelling any of Xiuwen’s concerns.

The conditions of Beihai Village were not the same as Shanhai, which was basically built by pioneering tactics. This was the advantage of a subsidiary village. With early support and administrators, it could develop very quickly. More importantly, as long as the base town had buildings, there was no need for building blueprints in the affiliated villages. That saved a ton of money.

With these promises from Ouyang Shuo, Xiuwen was emboldened. He said firmly, “With such unique conditions, we are sure to build a Beihai Village worthy of the lord’s confidence.”

“You have to remember your long-term plan for construction of the port location, where to build the village, it is better to be located somewhere suitable for a big port.” Ouyang Shuo told him.

“In addition, although the salt pans have not been affected by bandits or pirates, we will have to prevent that. After we begin, I am not just concerned about the people’s livelihood, but also forming a defense force as soon as possible. I will be deploying a sergeant from the cavalry squadron to help you.”

Xiuwen nodded, motioning to himself to remember this.

With this general situation almost done, Ouyang Shuo rose and smiled at Xiuwen. “Come, go with me to get the Village Creation Token.”

Ouyang Shuo went with a puzzled-looking Gu Xiuwen into the central meeting hall. There was a hum as the golden heartstone of the Township rose from the floor, its flat front facing Ouyang Shuo.

He put his hand on the face of the stone, in his heart mentioning the affiliated village, and the system prompts sounded immediately.

“System Notice: Shanhai Town belongs to a Grade 1 Township, and has a quota for 1 affiliated village. Would you like to use it?”

“Yes!”

“System Notice: Shanhai Town was built using a gold level token, affiliated villages will use a build token one level lower, a silver token. Dispense now?”

“Yes!”

The white light flashed on the golden heartstone, slowly congealing and falling into the hands of Ouyang Shuo, turning into a silver village token.

Ouyang Shuo took the opportunity to check the properties of the Silver Village Creation Token.

Name: Village Creation Token (Silver)

Features: 50% increase in attracting immigrants; 16% increase in attracting special talents; 40% increase in crop production; 16% increase in skilled worker productivity; 16% increase in military promotion.

Evaluation: A unique item, cannot be dropped, untradeable.

The characteristics of a silver village were only 80% of a gold village, with fewer exclusive features. Even so, it was still a very rare village token. In all of China, including the Six Tyrants of Handan, there were no more than ten silver villages.

In accordance with the system’s rules, building an affiliated village automatically reduced the new village by 1 grade, and each territory could have up to three affiliated villages. Of course, occupying the territories of other Lords was not part of this limit.

When subordinate villages were upgraded to townships, each of them can have three of their own subsidiary villages. Of course, in order to do so, the main territory would have to be upgraded to a grade 1 city. Similarly, the grade of the subsidiary villages of the affiliated towns would also drop a grade, and so on and so forth, down to the bronze level, where they would drop no further.

In other words, Shanhai Town had three silver village tokens. Out of those villages, when they became towns they could set up nine black-iron grade villages.

The power of Shanhai being gold ranked could be seen to have a far-reaching impact. He had the only one in China, a gold level token built the town of Shanhai, and it would have a deep effect on the heritage of the rest.

Ouyang Shuo nodded with satisfaction at all of this and handed the token over to Gu Xiuwen with a smile. “I have created the conditions for you. In the end, what becomes of Beihai Village will depend on you! Do not let me down.”

Xiuwen nodded silently as he received the token, choking as he said, “Sire, you can rest assured!”

“As for the selection of which government officers, talents and skilled apprentices to take, you served a long time as the Household Registration Officer, you should be more clear on them than I, and directly hold my hand to pick people! I will go with you to the Material Reserves Department and barracks tomorrow to coordinate things, you can start with the rest now!” Ouyang Shuo patted Xiuwen’s shoulder, speaking easily.

Watching Xiuwen walking out of the chamber with the token in his hand, Ouyang Shuo muttered, “Xiuwen, perhaps you do not even know what kind of opportunity this is, do not let me down on this!”

After that, Ouyang Shuo called Tian Wenjing and Du Xiaolan to his office. “Perhaps you have heard that the former Household Registration Officer Gu Xiuwen is about to go to the northern salt pans to open up a new village for the territory. Therefore, I have two matters.

“After the establishment of Beihai Village, the salt pans will accept the dual leadership of the Salt Pan Division and Beihai Village. All existing salt workers will be transferred into Beihai villagers and new salt workers will be placed on the preferred list for Beihai Village. Prior to this, I think it is necessary to have a clear definition of both of your duties.

“Beihai Village is mainly responsible for the protection and lives of the salt workers, while the Salt Pan Division is mainly responsible for salt production planning and salt storage, transportation, sale, and so forth. I hope that the Salt Pan Division and Beihai Village will work in coordination, with mutual help, not infighting.

“In addition, the Finance Department has also proposed expanding the scale of the salt pans in the morning meeting. I agree with this proposal. I suggest beginning the third phase of this project, using a month to scale up to two thousand mu.

“The second thing is regarding on helping out with the building of Beihai village. The Material Reserves Department needs to do two things well. Firstly, open the meat shops, grain shops, and garment shops over at Beihai village as early as possible so that residents can buy their living supplies conveniently. Next, prepare a large amount of wood, stone, and iron ore, and transport it by boat to Beihai to support the construction of the village. Beihai is out by the sea, and there is no wood there. They may be able to slowly and independently mine stone and iron, but they will need support in wood resources to meet the needs of the grade 3 village upgrade requirements.”

Tian Wenjing nodded and said, “Sire, rest assured that the Material Reserves Department will cooperate with the village head to increase the strength of the territory. In addition, at this time the Material Reserves Department will also arrange for effective government officials to go to Beihai and establish a Material Reserves Department to work with the village head there.”

“You have eased my worries!” Ouyang Shuo nodded, getting up and sending them off.

Chapter 56 - Flower City

After seeing off Tian Wenjing and Du Xiaolan, Ouyang Shuo got up and left the Manor. He was ready to go to the barracks and pick a sergeant to go with Gu Xiuwen and form the Beihai village guards.

There were ten active sergeants. Zhang Daniu, Zhao Sihu and Li Mingliang were fighting hard for the infantry squadron captaincy, and he could not pick them. Of the rest of the officers, Liao Kai and Zhou Feng were the most outstanding, but he did not know if Lin Yi was willing to release them.

At the barracks door, there had long been posted recruitment notices. There were a group of young boys gathered around them and talking about them.

“Look, the barracks posted a recruitment notice, we cannot miss this!”

“Come on, smelly. The last time you participated in the screening you were washed out, why do you even come again!”

“That was then, this is now our turn to show up, hey!”

“You want to know something, the last recruitment was for cavalry, I was washed out because of vision. But my body and physical tests were excellent. This time is the infantry, I can certainly be selected.”

“Hey, I will not be worse than you. If you can qualified, I certainly can, too!”

“Yes, yes. You know, in our Shanhai town, being a soldier is the best. Didn’t you see Uncle Tie’s son leading dozens of soldiers as a sergeant? It was awe-inspiring!”

“Yeah, and also mother Wu’s son Liao Kai, she was so happy when he was made sergeant, he has even met the lord! She is so proud of her son. I want my mother to be that proud of me, I have to join the army. If I can be a sergeant one day, that would be so awesome!”

“Unfortunately they are only recruiting infantry. I still like cavalry, riding a horse has so much more prestige!”

“What do you know, the infantry and cavalry have their own pros and cons, you can’t put them together and compare. Infantry wear heavy body armor, and don’t even mention how cool they are! If the usual light cavalry engages them, they can defeat them easily!”

“Indeed! Siege warfare also relies on infantry.”

“Well, I still feel that cavalry is powerful. A collective charge, what can a square formation do that rivals that?”

“Hey, if you want to fight, then wait until we are admitted and fight it out!”

“Yeah, you’re not even chosen yet you’re having daydreams already.”

“I say, dont stand at the door to the office, quickly go and register!”

“True! Go go go~~”

An eager group of people rushed with mighty purpose towards the barracks.

It seemed that the enthusiasm of the citizens was very high. Unsure of why, Ouyang Shuo suddenly felt a little sad. These young bloods had only seen the proud side of soldiering, not the tragedy of the battlefield, and the desolation of the seriously injured and retired.

Shaking his head, Ouyang Shuo stilled his heart, following slowly behind the group and into the barracks area. The soldiers were out on the field. There was already a long line. At first light on the first day of registration, no less than 100 people had already come.

General Shi was sitting on the training field on a chair, watching everything with 2 attendants behind him. He was surprised to see Ouyang Shuo out at this public registration.

Ouyang Shuo ignored him, stayed cool and went directly to find Captain Lin Yi.

The two of them headed inside the barracks to use the meeting room. Ouyang Shuo smiled at him and asked, “You’ve just taken over the cavalry squadron. Are you used to it?”

“It is okay,” Lin Yi replied with a smile. He certainly wasn’t going to complain to his lord, but the influence of General Shi still permeated the cavalry squadron and played a role in everything. Ouyang Shuo had appointed him as the cavalry squadron leader, both out of recognition and as a test for him. If he could not overcome this difficulty, he didn’t deserve to stay in the squadron position.

Ouyang Shuo had transferred General Shi from the cavalry squadron and had assigned him to train new recruits. It was a warning to him. The results of the last battle, he had not forgiven. If he could find a suitable army strategist, Ouyang Shuo was not ready to let General Shi lead the troops again. At this stage, Shanhai Town didn’t have enough depth to bear multiple miserable victories like that.

“Well, this time I came to you to borrow someone,” Ouyang Shuo said, ending the small talk and going right into the crux of things.

“Lord, as you command.”

“In order to quickly increase the combat effectiveness of the garrison in the new subordinate village- Beihai Village, I have decided they need an officer. Do you have any recommendations for the commander of this garrison?” Ouyang Shuo didn’t specify which officer, waiting to hear the view of Lin Yi.

“Well, I would like to ask, how many people would sire want in this garrison?” Lin Yi did not directly answer, but first asked the garrison’s situation.

“Beihai Village’s security threat is much lower than Shanhai Village’s used to be. Therefore, the garrison is tentatively scheduled for 50 people. Just a preparation team.”

“In that case, going to Beihai Village will be more of a disguised promotion to the selected officer. In my opinion, Liao Kai and Zhou Feng are both appropriate.”

This wasn’t contrary to Ouyang Shuo’s expectations, but the answer did not satisfy him. “Out of these two, Liao Kai and Zhou Feng, which do you think is more suitable?”

Lin Yi was somewhat embarrassed, thinking seriously, finally coughed out, “Zhou Feng!”

“Reasons?”

“How do I say this...these two people both have their own good points, they are not weak. Liao Kai is bloodthirsty, dares to fight, charges forwards bluntly. Zhou Feng is calm, doesn’t panic. Just for Beihai Village, if I were to pick only one of them, I would be more inclined to Zhou Feng,” Ling Yi commented clearly on the two of them.

“Well, you take care of this. Inform Zhou Feng, send him to Gu Xiuwen and he will start tomorrow.” With no hesitation, Ouyang Shuo chose to believe in Lin Yi’s judgement.

Having determined the garrison commander for Beihai, Ouyang Shuo did not stay in the barracks, directly returning to the Manor. Arriving there, it was already 5 PM. There were many things to still be arranged, but time didn’t allow for them. He simply returned to his office, closed his eyes, and began to plan out the layout of the town in his head.

After the promotion to township, the rapid expansion of the player’s territorial areas meant they were not as isolated as they had been at the village stage. It was possible that another player’s territory was not far from your own. And perhaps, you might find that after an upgrade your territory might be bordering on another player’s territory.

At this time, how to deal with your neighbors needed to be very subtle. After all, Earth Online was all about hegemony; war and death were core elements of the game. If players were snoring on the couch, how could he let others sleep?

As long as anyone had even a little ambition, they wouldn’t think of themselves as friends and neighbors. Whether it was sharpening swords or stabbing in the back, the ultimate purpose of the game was for them to destroy one another completely, to win a broader area for territorial development.

This kind of war between the territories would define the midpoint of the game. At the state level, the battles between the players would be the most intense, the frontier would see events of destruction and occupation played out every day. The township stage was merely a prelude, it wouldn’t even count as an appetizer.

So, he had to start preparing for it. After having experienced the Siege of Beasts, there were still no less than 70 player lords in the Lianzhou Basin. And three of those had ended up on the Dali Regional list!

The reason he’d set up the Military Intelligence Division early was just for this strategic reason.

Until he logged off in the evening, Ouyang Shuo still didn’t know what he was going to do. At this stage, he could only take the next step. After all, the whole world knew that Shanhai was now a township, and the rest of the players were still mostly struggling in the village stage, it wasn’t the time to meet one another.

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

Coming out of the game cabin, Ouyang Shuo did his usual few laps around the district. It was near the Spring Festival, and the district was slowly filling with the spirit of the New Year.

At the door to the community, the property company had put two huge kumquats, next to a circle of chrysanthemums. It was exceptionally festive. Red lanterns, as well as ‘Celebrate the New Year!’ banners had been posted all over.

Seeing the kumquat placed there, Ouyang Shuo thought of the traditional flower market. Today’s weather was good, why not go out for a ride and enjoy it?

Having thought of this, Ouyang Shuo headed home and called out to his still sleepy little sister, “Baby, get up now, today your brother is going to take you to visit the flower market. If you wait, it will be too late!”

Hearing that they were going out to play, Bing’er was awake in an instant, bouncing out of bed, nearly slipped, and ran to get herself washed. Really a little monkey, Ouyang Shuo thought as he shook his head.

The state of the spring flower market, a traditional event of the Han culture, was filled with both people and flowers everywhere.

For the people of Jiao state, flowers were indispensable for the Spring Festival. Because the flower symbolized good things, they could bring people a beautiful scene. A wide variety of flowers, of all shapes, sizes, colors, and fragrances, appealed to all manner of people for all manner of reasons, closely linked to happy times and memories.

Shuttling through the flowers like a happy deer, Bing’er was everywhere. From time to time she stopped, standing next to her favorite flowers, so her brother could take a picture of her.

At the flower market, what was selling most were the kumquats, peach blossoms, and narcissi. These three kinds were made into floral arrays. For the kumquat, because in Cantonese it was a homonym with luck, bringing a pot of kumquats home symbolized great fortune. The peach was a symbol of great success, and so it was purchased by younger people. Narcissus symbolized wealth and auspicious portents.

Ouyang Shuo naturally could not avoid this tradition, buying up all three in a pot, and giving them to Bing’er to take home with them.

Chapter 57 - Security Division

After returning home, Ouyang Shuo took the purchased kumquat, narcissus, and peach blossoms and placed them appropriately around the room. With the fruitful kumquat, the fresh and elegant narcissus, and the cheerful peach, it seemed to make the room a bit brighter.

Brother and sister then simply ate dinner. After playing around for a whole day and running here and there, Bing’er was tired and went to bed right after dinner, not even bothering to wash up, really lazy of her.

Considering the time was still early, Ouyang Shuo didn’t log in, but instead went online and checked out the game forum.

There was no doubt that Shanhai Town had caused an explosion on the forums. As the first township in the world, not just in China, everyone was discussing him, and gossip was flying.

In order to attract attention, all the titles of the posts were actually longer than what was being written.

‘Mysterious man and little idiot, tell you about the real Qiyue Wuyi - Gossip Weekly interview.’

‘Embarrassing things from Qiyue Wuyi’s childhood - Buddy Ake interview.’

‘Is he the messenger of peace, or a tyrant of chaos? - Lianzhou Basin leader Huang Shiren interview.’

‘The secret of Shanhai Town - Scarf Decryption.’

‘Scary! Ugly Qiyue Wuyi and game goddess Bai Hua are dating! - Paparazzi Weekly.

‘From the bottom to the top, the history of the town of fortune - Entertainment Weekly.’

‘News! Qiyue Wuyi and Shenjun secret meeting - The Wicked Turn Special Report’

‘From the origin of species, to the Darwinian theory of evolution, and then onto Qiyue Wuyi - The Korean Descent.’

‘That night, I shared secrets with Qiyue Wuyi - Ami Interview.’

Ouyang Shuo really had to admire the imagination of these guys, spinning news out of thin air. Fortunately it was only published on a forum, not in a formal press release, or else he would have had to sue them for slander.

Putting aside the nonsensical gossip, there were also a few relevant posts.One of them by Bai Xiaosheng got his attention. The name of the post was “Big guess about the gold token, clues to Shanhai”, and was enough to attract his eye.

Bai Xiaosheng was clearly different from the general gossipers. He was not only well-informed, he even had some game insider information, as opposed to others who knew nothing.

He talked directly about the original intention of Gaia’s design for the gold-level village tokens, and then talked about how Shanhai Village took root in the frontier and quickly rose to prominence.

The whole post was based on so-called facts, and as it was spun out, it finally concluded that China’s gold-level token had fallen into the hands of Qiyue Wuyi, and that was the secret behind the rise of Shanhai Town.

Although the arguments were utterly ridiculous, almost diametrically opposed to what actually happened, the conclusion was actually guessed correctly. Ouyang Shuo believed that such a post would not long escape the heart of the people. It wouldn’t be long before the news of Shanhai being a gold token village would spread throughout China.

However, he would be prepared for anything that was to come. It was fine, let the world know, he was not afraid of being challenged anymore. Since it was almost time to log in, he ignored the news on the forum, directly closing his handbrain, and went into the game cabin. Once he logged in, it was already 8 AM in-game.

--------------------------

At this time in the morning, people from the lower levels of government and apprentices from all the skilled trades had begun to assemble in the town square.

Going with Gu Xiuwen to Beihai Village were a full 55 people, in addition to the 250 salt pan workers. Beihai Village had been established and the population was already over 300, already exceeding the limit of a grade 1 village.

At 9 AM, the group officially moved out from the square, heading to the dock through the eastern gates. At the pier, more than forty fishing boats were ready. In addition to the people, the boats were also transporting the many basic materials prepared by the Material Reserves Department.

Ouyang Shuo led the officers to the dock for sending off Gu Xiuwen.

Originally he wanted to go with the crowd, and witness the establishment of the subsidiary village. However, he couldn’t as there were a lot of things waiting for him to deal with, and he didn’t have enough time. He had to spend his time very efficiently now.

After all, there were four days until New Year’s Eve, and a lot of things had to be set down in advance.

Everything that needed to be said had been said yesterday. Ouyang Shuo did not say any sensational words, but gave Gu Xiuwen a hard pat on the shoulder, smiled, and said, “Take care!”

Xiuwen nodded eagerly, bowing low and humbly to Ouyang Shuo in thanks. Behind him, the new Beihai villagers all bowed as well. Receiving their honor, Ouyang Shuo bowed back formally as well. Then, under the leadership of Xiuwen, they all boarded the fishing boats, one after another.

Watching the fleet of ships gradually row away, Ouyang Shuo turned to the officials behind him and said, “Okay, time to head back. There is a lot to do today.”

Back at the Manor, Ouyang Shuo called the three directors to the office to discuss something.

After greetings, Ouyang Shuo said directly, “Today I called you three here to discuss the establishment of a security team for the territory. Tell me about your views on this.”

Fan Zhongyan nodded and said, “Indeed, with the expansion of the territory, the population is rapidly expanding. Every day, we are adding 75 new immigrants. The security situation is getting more and more severe. Before fights and thieves start to spread, it is necessary to set up a team dedicated to enforcing territorial security.”

“I also agree, but is the security force going to operate independently, or exist under the army?” Cui Yingyu asked.

Tian Wenjing shook his head and said, “It is standard that the security team must be independent. The power of law and order belongs to the government. It should not be entangled with the military, otherwise there will be endless trouble.”

After listening to the views of his ministers, Ouyang Shuo was deeply pleased. Now he was allowing them to make more and more decisions, instead of making arbitrary rulings of his own. More and more often, he could listen to the views of the heads of the departments, and after collecting their views, make a decision.

After all, personal wisdom is limited, there would inevitably be omissions. Excellent lords learned to use the wisdom of the team. Not to mention, arbitrary rules in the long-term tended to breed complacency and closed minds, leading to unwillingness to listen to the views of others.

He smiled and said, “What Director Tian has said is very reasonable. Military and government affairs must operate independently. I thought about setting up a security team, but after listening to your views, I think that setting up a special division would be more logical and reasonable.

“The new division will be called the Security Division, it will be mainly responsible for the prevention, suppression, and detection of criminal activities; to maintain the order of the territory and stop disruptions to that order; to manage traffic and dangerous goods; and to guard important places and facilities.”

“Guarding important places and facilities, Big Brother is specifically referring to what places? Does this include the Four Seas Bank?” Yingyu was clearly interested in this description. There were treasures inside the bank, but no guards for now, this was something to worry about.

“Naturally, at this stage, it will include the Lord’s Manor and the Four Seas Bank as two places needing special guards.”

As the Chief Administrative Officer, Fan Zhongyan also considered the establishment of the division, saying, “In accordance with the meaning of the lord, the duties of the Security Division are heavy. I[a]n addition to general security duties, they would also be responsible for dangerous goods control, guards, and other work. What is sire’s plan on this division’s headcounts?”

“As for employees, we are tentatively aiming for 20. All members of the security division must be constables or detectives,” Ouyang Shuo replied quickly.

“Twenty people? This would be the largest current division. We cannot currently accommodate so many people in the Manor. In my opinion, it would be best to set up a special office for the Security Division.” Yingyu said with a smile.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. “Yes, I see your point. In front of the square, set up a courtyard specifically as an office for the security division. In addition, the security officers will be equipped with uniforms, weapons, and gear. This matter will be done by the Material Reserves Department.”

Tien Wenjing nodded, there would be no problems with that.

The next subject was the important personnel arrangements. Here, the three directors had inevitable doubts about who to recommend.

At this time, the concierge servant shouted, “Reporting to the lord, former militia member Li Tie, reporting as ordered!”

Everyone stopped in surprise.

“Send him in!”

A man in his early thirties entered the mayor’s office. Ouyang Shuo greeted him and told him to sit down. He smiled at Li Tie as he introduced him to the three directors.

Li Tie had been retired when he got injured. Fan Zhongyan and Tian Wenjing were not at Shanhai then, and naturally did not know of this. Even Yingyu wasn’t familiar with him because he was in the militia team.

Ouyang Shuo’s call had made Li Tie very excited. He naturally remembered the battle at the first bandit camp, and how he and Song Yi had been seriously injured and had to retire from the militia.

Just when the two had felt most depressed, Ouyang Shuo had personally come to the hospital to visit them and cheer them up. He had said that after the territory upgraded to a township, he would recruit them into the security team. Sure enough, the day after the upgrade, he had been summoned by the lord.

Ouyang Shuo smiled. “Li Tie is my recommendation for Secretary of Security, in addition to two others, Song Yi and Zhao Kui. They will be in charge of setting up the Security Division.”

Zhao Kui was injured in the second bandit camp battle and was forced to retire, with his left ear shorn clean off. The other three disabled cavalrymen were even more seriously disabled, and no longer suitable for security management work.

Speaking of odd things, the three backbones Ouyang Shuo had recommended were all missing something - Li Tie was blind in one eye, Song Yi had lost two fingers, and Zhao Kui an ear. None of them were perfectly intact.

History is often a joke. That is, these three wounded men, in the years following, would lead the division to its illustrious reputation. Lie Tie would be known as the One-Eyed Detective, Song Yi would be the Iron Hand, and Zhao Kui would be called The One Ear, together they would be the three gods of detectives in the territory.

Chapter 58 - Mulan Yue

Deliberations finished, it was time to move on. The territory had just been upgraded, everyone was busy, there was no time to chat idly.

New director Li Tie was anxious to go get Song Yi and Zhao Kui, his two helpers. Then they had to put up recruitment posters to get their 20 officers as soon as possible. He had pledged a military oath to Ouyang Shuo, promising that the Security Division would be in place before the Spring Festival to ensure security during the holiday season.

Cui Yingyu also mentioned that she was missing staff for her Business Division. How she was going to build up the staff of the Business Division, in order to implement a round of economic stimulus as soon as possible, was placed in front of her as her top priority.

Material Reserves Director Tian Wenjing was not so easy to handle. On one hand, he wanted to work with the Military Intelligence team, searching for the green horses, Qingfu horses, and also find a suitable area to construct a horse ranch. On the other hand, with the rapid expansion of transportation demand in the territory, the need for a special fleet of wooden horse carts was placed before the Material Reserves Department, as well as the need for a transportation fleet between Shanhai and Beihai.

Waiting until the others had gone, Fan Zhongyan said, “My lord. I have a recommendation for the Secretary of the Division of Household Registration if you could have a look!”

“Who?” Ouyang Shuo was very curious about who would take over from Beihai’s Gu Xiuwen.

The work of the Household Registration Division looked very simple on the surface. All it seemed to do was register the resident’s addresses and jobs, sorting out the proportions of agriculture, industry, and fishermen required into five categories. It also carried an important mission in finding talents within the territory.

In Gu Xiuwen’s time, he dealt with the general talents. Only if he thought it was important, or if Ouyang Shuo would be interested, did he specifically report to Ouyang Shuo and ask him to arrange something. That had been the right way to handle it, and the very reason why the Household Registration Division existed was that of the wisdom and vision of Gu Xiuwen.

If he thought it was an important talent, he told Ouyang Shuo, but did not worry him otherwise. Or perhaps if it was just general talents, but in fact, Ouyang Shuo had been looking for such people. Whatever the situation, the Secretary could have been accused of dereliction of duty.

Fan Zhongyan did not hesitate, saying directly, “Today, among the immigrants, there is a young scribe by name of Zhou Haichen. I am recommending him as the Director of the Household Registration Division.”

This was a surprise to Ouyang Shuo. He originally thought that Mr. Fan would recommend his assistant Qin Shijian to serve as the new Director. If it had been Qin Shijian, he would have had no objections.

Ouyang Shuo had some knowledge about Shijian. He took the initiative to register to participate in the first political affairs class in Lianzhou College and was one of the first to graduate with outstanding achievements.

He had been selected by Fan Zhongyan personally as his assistant, to help him deal with governmental affairs. Mr. Fan had been an excellent teacher in word and deed, and Shijian was now far more sophisticated in dealing with governmental affairs. Ouyang Shuo had long seen him as a good seed and reserve talent, having a great focus on him, and had been considering adding to Shijian’s responsibilities.

He had not thought that Mr. Fan would nominate a completely new person as the candidate for the Directorship. It seemed that this Zhou Haichen was very special to be able to earn the administrative director’s focus on him, among all his other responsibilities.

Since he had previously committed that Mr. Fan would determine the candidates for the directorship, Ouyang Shuo would naturally not go back on his words. He smiled and said, “Okay, I will agree to this appointment. If he can get Mr. Fan’s approval, he must be a talent. In addition, we should burden Qin Shijian and Du Quan, these two young people. Hmmm, let’s see, appoint Qin Shijian as Assistant Director of Administration, and Du Quan as Assistant Director of Household Registration.”

Mr. Fan nodded and said he had no objection.

Qin Shijian was basically taking over a job from Gu Xiuwen, and so he could justifiably assist Mr. Fan in handling the duties of the Administration Department.

As for Du Quan, he had also graduated from Lianzhou College’s first political affairs crash course and was taken in by Gu Xiuwen. Ouyang Shuo had heard from Xiuwen that he was very good. This time, Ouyang Shuo took the opportunity to give him a promotion and provide him with a broader platform to display his talent.

Having finished discussing staff movements in the Administration Department, Mr. Fan rose to leave. The busiest person in the territory was him. Not only did he have to embark on a new era of administration, he also had to set up the Meritorious Service Division to test and register all government officials.

In accordance with Ouyang Shuo’s directives and seeing the Spring Festival approaching, it was the right opportunity to give year-end evaluations to all of the staff, dividing them into four grades of excellent, good, qualified, and poor. Getting evaluated as good meant being a priority for promotion. If their evaluations were poor, they might be allowed to stay, demoted, or even directly dismissed.

Soon after Mr. Fan left, Ouyang Shuo received two messages from Bai Hua of Consonance Village and Mulan Yue of Mulan village.

He opened Bai Hua’s message first. The lovely lady first congratulated him on his promotion to the township. After some courtesy lines, she euphemistically asked him to discuss the secret of upgrading to a township. She was especially interested in how to enhance her territory’s economic index.

Regarding such ‘secrets’, there was no need for him to keep it to himself. He was tolerant of this and didn’t really have anything to hide. He very simply explained Shanhai’s privatization measures, from the establishment of the village to the development of the basic welfare system, to the price and wage levels and other steps he had taken, listing them out one by one before sending off the reply to Bai Hua.

Ouyang Shuo also hoped that her village could be promoted early, helping break the Six Handan's’ monopoly on the ranking list. As for how her village should go about raising private funding, it wasn’t something he needed to worry about.

Then he opened the message from Mulan Yue. She was the only female lord among his former predecessors in the Lianzhou Basin, and he didn’t know much about her.

After all, in his last life, he was an Adventurer. He only had some impression of the famous lords. He had only understood the basic situation of the Lianzhou Basin, and benefited thereby. As for the specific information on the lords, he knew nothing more.

No surprises, Mulan Yue directly proposed an alliance.

Her Mulan Village was located in the north of the Basin, next to the town of Zhennan Pass, firmly stuck in the hinterlands of the Lianzhou Basin with control of the overland trade channel out of the Basin. Shanhai was located in the south of the Basin, with the sea as its main trade channel.

Who was in a better position was hard to say clearly, it could only be said that the good see good, and the wise see wisdom. For those who liked warring with other expanding lords to grow, her area was a military battleground. For those more interested in building themselves up as a great lord, the vast ocean was much more attractive.

Mulan Village was placed near Zhennan Pass deliberately. This long-term strategic vision was the only thing she mentioned, but enough to earn Ouyang Shuo’s respect and goodwill.

Mulan Village and Shanhai were at the north and south ends of the Basin. Before upgrading to a Capital, their territories would not intersect. With these two territories and only two ways out of the Basin, once they joined up the other lords in the Basin would only be able to drink a pot of bitter tea.

Upholding the principle of deal far-off and attack near, Ouyang Shuo did not intend to refuse the offer of alliance from Mulan. Perhaps the alliance would, in the territorial wars of the near future, also bring him some more surprises.

He took the Lord’s Manual from his storage bag, opened the territory column, and searched for Mulan Village, with Lord Mulan Yue. After confirming, an alliance application automatically popped up. He clicked to confirm, and a covenant popped up.

He then removed the Lord’s Seal from his storage bag, and without hesitation stamped the Covenant. At that point, Shanhai Town and Mulan Village were officially in an alliance.

After the two sides had signed the covenant, Ouyang Shuo made a copy of the message he had sent to Bai Hua about privatization and sent it to her. At the same time, he notified the Consonance players via a brief message about his alliance with Mulan Village.

Allies could be a bilateral alliance, and also a multilateral alliance. If Bai Hua and Mulan were interested, they could also form an alliance with one another.

-----------------------------------

At the same time, in the Mulan Village office, a 20-year old girl said happily, “Sister Mu, as you expected, Shanhai Town agreed to our alliance application!”

Mu Guiying fondly watched Mulan Yue, smiled and said, “As long as the lord of the Shanhai is not an arrogant person, he would naturally not refuse our alliance. After all, there will be no conflicts of interest between us in the near future.”

Mulan nodded agreement and said, “Well, he gave us much information on how to promote to a Town. But if we follow his directions, we will need a lot of gold coins.”

Mu Guiying shook her head and did not agree. “The privatization idea was good, but if it was just for the sake of promoting to a township, there is no need to do it so thoroughly. I think why Shanhai did it that way was because they had sufficient funds to develop such a rich basic welfare system. We can act according to the actual situation of Mulan Village, be flexible in our adjustments, and we will still be able to meet the economic index requirements.”

Mulan Yue was like a pecking chicken with the way her head was bobbing in agreement. Which was not like a village lord, but more like a little girl idol. “Hee hee, I will listen to Sister Mu’s analysis, I am at ease!”

Mu Guiying touched Mulan Yue’s small head, laughing and not saying anything.

Chapter 59 - Eight Extremities Fist - Bajiquan

Having dealt with the matters of the Mulan Village alliance, Ouyang Shuo went on to the barracks. A hundred infantrymen had been recruited, and he needed to go to the barracks to get them transformed.

Coming out of the barracks afterwards, Ouyang Shuo headed over to the wall to see its progress and of the moat.

In just one day, the Construction Division had done a good job of beginning the walls of the city, arranging the workers to set up the foundation stonework. Endless streams of stone being carried on the wooden horse carts were flowing from the quarries and were being transported to the site.

The moat began at the Friendship River, through lands that would be part of the city capital in the future, and ended back into the merged stream at the canyon. The total length of the channel was 35 kilometers long, 8 meters wide for the entire distance, and 10 meters deep at its deepest. For such a huge project, even all of the basic measurements had not been completed yet.

Every day, more than half of the incoming immigrants were requisitioned directly into these two projects. Even so, , the projects would never be completed without at least a month or two.

On the way back from the building site, Ouyang Shuo heard a burst of system news.

“System Notice: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for the successful establishment of affiliated village - Beihai Village! Special reward of 200 merit points, 400 reputation points.”

Hearing the news that Beihai Village had been successfully established, Ouyang Shuo finally calmed down. Beihai Village’s further development would have to rely on the efforts of Xiuwen, it was beyond his reach.

Passing the commercial street, Ouyang Shuo happened to see the martial arts dojo there to the east. The master of the place was Master Lin Yue. His brother Lin Yi was shining bright in the army and was also becoming more and more popular, while his older brother was, as always, more low key.

For some reason, Ouyang Shuo felt the urge to watch some martial arts, and headed towards the dojo. The student outside greeted him personally in the front of the building, and hurried inside to inform the dojo president.

Having just entered the main hall, Ouyang Shuo heard a burst of martial arts shouts. Standing in the room were more than thirty students practicing punches. Lin Yue stood to the side watching, from time to time correcting the basic movements of each student. Hearing the student report that Ouyang Shuo had come to visit, he turned to tell his first disciple Wang Feng to continue supervising the practice of the students, and personally came to the reception room.

In the reception room, he saw Ouyang Shuo sitting there leisurely having some tea. He hurriedly bowed in salute. “The Lord came to visit and caught me unprepared, please forgive me!”

Ouyang Shuo put down the teacup and smiled, saying, “I was just passing by. I was thinking that ever since the dojo was established, I had never taken the time to just come and see you. Did I disturb you?”

“My Lord has come in person to my house, how can I be disturbed?” Lin Yue said back to him.

“Well then, since we are in a dojo, let’s not sit here drinking tea. Take me to the training room to see it!” Ouyang Shuo said directly, ending the greeting pleasantries.

Master Lin nodded, ushered his hand sideways and said, “My lord, please come with me.”

They left the reception room, stepping through the narrow corridor, and came to the practice hall. Junior Master Wang Feng, seeing the Master leading Ouyang Shuo in, immediately stopped the practice and shouted, “Stop, let us welcome the lord!” The students immediately formed a line, uniforms straight and standing ready.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and greeted them all, turned to Lin Yue and said, “Master Lin, your students, this formation, it is quite impressive.”

Master Lin modestly replied, “We are but here at the Lord’s mercy to teach some basic skills of self-defense.”

“The Master of this dojo need not have too much modesty. What punching skills are you teaching?”

“My lord, we are practicing The Eight Extremities Fist - Bajiquan1”

Ouyang Shuo was surprised, and bubbling with enthusiasm, said with admiration, “Bajiquan is extremely famous! Why not let everyone practice some, and open my eyes!”

Master Lin would naturally not decline, bowed and said, “This one would be honored!” Finished, he went to the forefront of the square of students, and began to lead all the students in practicing the Bajiquan.

In terms of appearance, the Bajiquan had good flexibility, was balanced and strong. Bajiquan was a short-range technique, with extremely aggressive hand movements. Its attacking technique included a strong stance, snapping the waist, flowing out through the fingertips, and generating a strong force.

Ouyang Shuo was awestruck, it was the first time he had seen the glory of the ancient martial arts, and he could not help but clap with enthusiasm. As Master Lin finished up the practice session, totally immersed in the atmosphere, he could not help but exclaim, “WELL DONE!”

Hearing Ouyang Shuo’s applause, the students were very excited, even Junior Master Wang Feng was showing his joy. Master Lin, of course, was as calm as always.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo so excited, Master Lin said with a smile, “If you wish to learn some martial arts, I could teach you a thing or two.”

The reason why Ouyang Shuo was so excited was because he knew now that Lin Yue’s Bajiquan was a true art, not a mock-up. He could bring to reality the practice of this precious skill!

Seeing Lin Yue taking the initiative to mention this, Ouyang Shuo was not hypocritical and said, “Well, then, I thank the master, and will repay you in the future!”

Master Lin simply nodded calmly, and then led Ouyang Shuo out of the school to a small room, bidding him to wait a moment as he went away.

Soon after, Lin Yue returned to the room, holding a book in his hand. He handed this over to Ouyang Shuo, saying, “This is the Lin handwritten version of the , I now dedicate it to my Lord.”

Ouyang Shuo took the book, and subconsciously looked at its properties.

Name: Bajiquan (King-Level Martial Arts)

Practice: Brace, Steady the Dragon, Subdue the Tiger, Split Mountain Palm, Long Horse Palm, Holding the Tiger, Bear Stance, Crane Step Push

Tricks: Underworld Three Hands; Tiger Claw Climbs Mountain; Three Unstopping Doors; Tyrant Guides the Horse; Windward Thundering Palm; Left and Right Hands Open the Door; Oriole’s Double Talons

Master Blow: Cling to the Mountain

Weapons: Spear, especially the Liuhe Spear.

Evaluation: Bajiquan is a vigorous art, plain, fierce, with great bursts of force. Hits like thunder, kicks like an earthquake. As the saying goes, Tai Chi calms the world, Bai Ji stomps the universe.

Amazingly, Master Lin’s Bajiquan were a real martial art. Coincidentally, Bajiquan was a great fit with the spear, and not only did it not conflict with Ouyang Shuo’s planned practice system, it complemented it nicely.

No longer hesitant, Ouyang Shuo placed a hand on the book cover in front of him, and the system prompts sounded.

“System Notice: Congratulations to the player Qiyue Wuyi for acquiring the King-level Martial Art ‘Bajiquan’. Do you wish to practice it?”

“YES!”

A hum, in his hands the book glowed with a white light, which dove in between his eyebrows. In mere seconds, all of the information needed to practice Bajiquan poured into his mind, waiting for him to slowly digest it.

Ouyang Shuo opened his eyes and rose to give Master Lin Yue a deeply formal bow, solemnly saying, “Thank you, Master Lin!” He knew that he was probably the first martial artist to learn the full set of Bajiquan. Even Master Lin’s personal disciples probably did not have the qualifications.

Master Lin standing there, smiled and said, “About Bajiquan, not trying to boast, but I am considered quite knowledgeable. If sire is willing, I can tell you all I know.” This was the repayment to Ouyang Shuo for not being haughty.

Ouyang Shuo knew very well that getting a Bajiquan master’s guidance was incredibly valuable. It would save him a lot of time and detours. He smiled and said, “I am listening!”

Master Lin nodded, and began to explain to him the process. “Bajiquan takes the head as the center of universe, the limbs as the four directions, both front and back hands relative of each, the core gathers your spirit, your spirit channels the chi, your chi guides the force. The mighty momentum, strength, and sense from every muscle, every part of the body is a weapon. Every movement, every change, every transformation, every effect, its variety is limitless.”

“Bajiquan is famous for its violent fist force, but is also well known for the move used by masters of the style. The most well known technique is Cling to the Mountain. Practicing this technique is like using your body against a wall, up against it like a tree. The key to this technique is you hit your opponent from extremely close range, shoulder to shoulder. It would seem weak, but in fact the torsion from your waist and groin combines with the power of the body to inflict great harm and bring people down. You break down their defenses, hit them with six blows as one, use the momentum to finish them off.

“And the next thing to work on is the Rubbing Kick, the important leg law of Bajiquan. Bajiquan pays attention to steps such as Trip to the Mud, but the knee is the embodiment of this step, as it requires kicking when the attack point falls below the knee of the opponent, especially at the foot. Therefore, although the kick is not as lethal as other styles’ method of using them, it can break the opponent’s balance, using less power to clever effect and knocking them down.”

Ouyang Shuo listened eagerly to Master Lin’s explanations, and in his ear from time to time the system tones went off.

“Congratulation to player Qiyue Wuyi for getting Master Lin Yue’s instructions, Bajiquan achievement - Beginner.”

“Congratulation to player Qiyue Wuyi for getting Master Lin Yue’s instructions, Initial Comprehension, Bajiquan Trick - Close Contact Fist.”

“Congratulation to player Qiyue Wuyi for getting Master Lin Yue’s instructions, Initial Comprehension, Bajiquan Trick - The Rubbing Kick.”

……

Listening to the system prompts, Ouyang Shuo was so happy he was almost dancing. Had he known he would get such a surprising benefit, he would have gone to the dojo long ago! It was okay, however, it was still not too late to begin.

Listening to Master Lin explain things, Ouyang Shuo stayed silent until he was done, and then took his leave. Lin Yue and several of his disciples sent him off personally, escorting him to the door and watching him go.

Eight Extremities Fist - Bajiquan1 八极拳 : Ancient China martial art that features short-range explosive power strikes.

Chapter 60 - New Year’s Eve

Coming out of the dojo, it was already 4 PM. Coming to the front of the public square, the construction division had already set up the newly established building for the Security Division.

Back inside the Lord’s Manor, Ouyang Shuo went to find Gu Sanniang. She was the head chef, but also a close friend to Little Sister Mu Qingsi. Gu Sanniang was basically playing the role of housekeeper for the Manor.

Speaking with Gu Sanniang, Ouyang Shuo did not put on any airs and said affectionately, “Sanniang, we have more and more room to take care of, and you also have a job to do. I can see you working hard, so I would like you to find some maidservants to help you. Also get Yingyu and Qing’er some maidservants to take care of their daily lives.”

Gu Sanniang smiled and said, “I do think it is busy, but as sire has told me this, I believe there will be a large number of people applying for a position to work in the Manor. Should I arrange maids for yourself, my lord? You are also very busy, but having someone at the side to pour tea would be good.”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand and said, “I do not need one. You must remember, the maidservants must be kind and honest. I do not want the living area to not be peaceful.”

“Even if my lord had not said this, I would be looking for such!” Gu Sanniang answered.

“Then I am relieved, and will let you get back to work!”

Going back to his office, Ouyang Shuo picked up a book, and sat down to read. Suddenly a burst of system music burst through his thoughts.

“System tip: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wiyu. For reading continuously, your Comprehension has increased by 1!”

It was a surprise. Since the beginning of the grade 2 village, Ouyang Shuo had read a lot of ancient books. Finally his hard work had paid off, and he had finally raised his Comprehension a little bit.

He hadn’t looked at his own stats in a long time, and with a thought he did so now.

Name: Qiyue Wuyi

Title: Celebrity (Good impression on historical figures +10%)

Territory: Shanhai Town

Merit Points: 9000/12,800

Title: Third Count

Occupation: Officer (part-time)

Level: 27 (3,946,600/4,341,060)

Reputation: Well known (4300/10,000)

Body Structure: 18

Comprehension: 21

Qi: 5

Charm: 8

Command: 37

Force: 10

Intelligence: 10

Political: 37

Talent: Not Open

Cultivation Method: Bajiquan ‘learnt the fundamentals’

Skills: Intermediate Collection, Basic Shipbuilding, Basic Diplomacy, Intermediate Assessment, Intermediate Weapons Proficiency, Basic Riding, Basic Marksmanship, Basic Archery

Mount: Black Tornado (gold)

Equipment: High Quality Fine Iron Spear (gold), Ring of Courage (black iron), Brutal Guardian (gold), Brutal Boots (silver), Brutal Gloves (Silver), Fine Iron Sword (silver)

Speaking of which, he was really blind to how he used his equipment. Since the last defense of the territory during the Siege of Beasts, he hadn’t fought at all, safe all day in his territory, his body was almost moldy.

Seeing the Brutal armor set, Ouyang Shuo thought about when the last time Little Mu was promoted to Master Tailor, she still had not handed over the leather drops from the boss animals from the Siege of Beasts. She was heartless, didn’t know how to take action proactively, he could have rewarded his officers...

“Big brother, it is time to eat!” Little Mu shouted outside, appearing just when he was thinking of her.

“Little Mu, come in here a moment.”

Little Mu bounced into the office, her little mouth protesting, “Why?”

Ouyang Shuo stared at her. “I ask you, the boss level furs that were given to you, how did you not give me anything, ah?”

Little Mu was not afraid of him anymore, and said a little uncertainly, “Hee hee, Big Brother is stupid. The equipment was already done, I have been waiting for you to open your mouth.”

Ouyang Shuo smacked his forehead, reluctantly saying “So, you did not forget. Why did you not come over and tell me? This was expected to be done a week ago.”

“Well, Big Brother, do not forget, you have not yet paid the tailoring fees, how can we get the equipment to you?!” Little Ming said with plausible confidence.

This little gold-digger, how had he not seen this before, she had such a characteristic? “Did not Big Brother give you a dark gold tailor kit set? Well, what else do you want…”

“How can that be the same, the toolkit is something Big Brother promised to get me on promotion to Master. It does not mean you can ignore the tailoring fees!” She definitely had a cool mind, that wasn’t good.

Ouyang Shuo knew he was going to take a financial hit on this. “Fine, then, how much for your tailoring fees, I will give it to you now. Tomorrow, remember to bring me the equipment.”

“Hee hee, not much, just two gold coins!”

Ouyang Shuo took out two gold coins, put them into her little hands indulgently, and said, “Come, you gold miser, let’s go eat.”

Little Ming grinned as she put the gold coins into her purse, bouncing along with Ouyang Shuo behind her. She had the look of a fox that had just stepped out of the chicken house.

After dinner, Ouyang Shuo went to his bedroom in the back of the Manor, and logged off.

------------------------------------------------

In reality it was February 28, tomorrow night was New Year’s Eve. Ouyang Shuo thought he should go out and buy stuff for New Year’s today, because tomorrow would be too late. But, Bing’er wasn’t up yet. She had been really tired yesterday, today might not be the best day to take her shopping.

After going down to buy breakfast, Ouyang Shuo went into Bing’er’s room. He opened the curtains and let the light in. With the sun, Bing’er opened her eyes, whispering, “Brother is bad, I want to sleep more…”

Ouyang Shuo leaned down and squeezed her cheek, saying, “Bing’er, though it is winter vacation, you cannot sleep late every day. Last night, going to sleep early and not getting up, sleeping for a long time will hurt your head.”

Bing’er reluctantly got up, put on her cute little slippers, and went to wash up.

While eating breakfast, Ouyang Shuo mentioned to Bing’er about buying New Year’s gifts. “Baby sister, yesterday you were tired enough to fall over, today your brother is going out to buy New Year’s presents. You stay home and rest, alright?”

Upon hearing that he was going out shopping, Bing’er’s eyes lit right up, her small head shaking like a rattle. “Bing’er is not tired. Bing’er will go with brother to buy New Year’s Eve presents. Bad brother cannot let lovely Bing’er stay home!”

Nothing could be done to tame this miserable monkey. He wondered what sin he had done in his past life, there was a little sister Mu ingame and a little sister Bing’er in the real world. These two little sisters were indeed adorable, but at times bringing misery.

They walked down a street that had the traditional side shops open with a variety of dazzling new products. Both sides of the streets were covered with festive red lanterns, and there were all kinds of colorful banners...along with a thick smell of food.

New Year’s was inseparable from the word for eating, and New Year’s food accounted for a large part of it. Traditional egg powder, crispy triangles, rice cakes, fried dumplings, as well as fresh meat, honey dates, almond cakes...these were the things most able to arouse people’s memories of festival food.

People flocked to the shops on both sides of the street to buy New Year’s food.

Compared to Ouyang Shuo’s love of traditional food, Bing’er clearly liked candy. Crisp sugar cubes, fruit sugar, chocolate, jelly, lollipops, and hundreds of other candies; Bing’er looked over all of them hungrily, picking which to have. Fortunately the businesses were understanding and allowed all kinds of mixing and matching on the candy. Otherwise, Bing’er would have been sorely pressed to choose.

In addition to the finished foods, Ouyang Shuo also had to buy some food to prepare for the dinner. Oysters, shrimp, mushrooms, squid, scallops, and so on were the main ingredients. In addition, he also bought some fish maw, sea cucumbers, and some other high grade foods.

Of course, for this meal, there would also be Chinese preserved meats. In addition to the traditional sausage, things like wax duck kidney, roast duck, soy sauce, five bacons, and other foods must not be ignored.

When he was done buying all the various foods, Ouyang Shuo’s hands already held five or six bags. They weren’t finished, either. For New Years, he still had Chinese knots, zodiac dolls, and the other little things to buy.

The two of them had just come out of the grocery when they heard someone shout behind them. Ouyang Shuo turned around and saw two girls waving at him from a little ways away. After taking a look, he recognized them as his former junior high school classmates Tan Xiaoli and Meng Fei Fei.

It was really a big change after eighteen. In junior high school, they had been really slim. If not for Ouyang Shuo having such a good memory, he wouldn’t have recognized them.

Ouyang Shuo holding Bing’er’s hand, he went up and greeted the two. Tan Xiaoli was a little fat girl, with a cheerful character. Meng Fei Fei was more petite, with a shy character, just standing to the side.

“Hey, old classmate, I have not seen you for so many years, still so handsome!” Tan Xiaoli said with a smile.

Ouyang Shuo had long been out of junior high school when he was first excited about girls. “Well, I still look the same, but the two beautiful girls in front of me are even more pretty.”

Tan Xiaoli’s eyes lit up. “Oh, the then-innocent boy now knows sweet words, daring to flirt with the older sister already.” She looked at Bing’er and hesitated. “This lovely little girl. Could she be your daughter-?”

Ouyang Shuo coughed a bit. “What? This is my sister, Ouyang Bing!”

He could not blame her completely. When Bing’er was born, he was already in his third year. His fellow students did not know about his sister. Thanks to modern medicine, women were far more free to choose their childbearing age. Having a second child at 34 was very common.

“The class party has been set for first month, fourth day, will you be going?” Tan Xiaoli asked him.

“I might be going, I have not seen anyone for a long time, meeting them will be good.”

“That’s good, this street is not a place to talk, we will meet at the gathering!” Tan Xiaoli was a straight forwards person, she took Meng Fei Fei and was ready to leave.

Ouyang Shuo naturally wanted them to leave, he hadn’t finished his New Year’s shopping spree! He bid farewell to the two and the brother and sister continued their annual raiding trip for goodies.

Chapter 61 - Cemetery

By the time they were done procuring New Year’s supplies, it was already 3 PM. It was a large pile of big bags. If Ouyang Shuo hadn’t been exercising recently, he doubted he would have been able to carry them back.

Once home, Bing’er immediately opened a box of chocolate, she couldn’t wait to put it in her mouth. Seeing this, Ouyang Shuo quipped, “Little sister, if you keep eating like that, you will turn yourself into a small fat girl.”

“Hmph, bad brother, lovely Bing’er will not become a little fat girl, because I have good metabolism so I wouldn’t become fat!” She was just like a proud little peacock.

Thunderstruck, Ouyang Shuo asked in astonishment, “Who taught you that? A high metabolism body that doesn’t get fat?”

“Eh?” Bing’er realized she had committed the classic big mouth error and should not have said that, hurriedly covered her mouth up with her hand. Seeing Ouyang Shuo’s harsh eyes, she finally yielded to him and whispered, “Big sister Xiaoyue said that.”

Ouyang Shuo slapped his forehead in disbelief. These two girls were really unbelievable. This Sun Xiaoyue, how could she tell such things to Bing’er, who was just a child? When she comes back after New Year’s, he was going to have to have a talk with her.

“You can only eat that one. If you eat more, then no dinner!” was Ouyang Shuo’s only compromise.

“Well, you know you are the world’s most caring brother.” She was aware that he was not really angry, and reverted immediately to her normal mood, bouncing and running to his side, where she sat down obediently.

Having such a lovely sister, what could he do? He patted her head and asked, “Well, what do you want to eat tonight?”

“I want buffalo wings!”

“Well, then, let’s eat buffalo wings.”

------------------------------------

Gaia, 1st year, February 17, Sunny. Day to bury the dead, shift the coffin. Abstain from marrying and forming alliances.

Yesterday afternoon, the cemetery had been built. Today was the auspicious day to open the burial ground. Therefore, the ashes of the two soldiers who had died were brought forth by the Administration Department.

Early in the morning, all of Shanhai’s leaders, their arms wrapped with black cloths, gathered before the ancestral hall for the burial ceremony.

The ancestral hall was set up well. The woodshop had picked the finest wood to build the coffins, and parked it in the middle of the hall. The ashes of the dead had been put into the coffin by their fellow soldiers.

Because the dead soldiers had no living relatives, the army arranged for their burial ceremony. The Cavalry 1st Platoon 2nd Squad and Cavalry 2nd Platoon 3rd Squad were responsible for carrying the coffins.

The funeral started at the ancestral hall, wound all the way through the village, and then turned to the west side of the town where the cemetery was. The cemetery was built into the edge of the territory, following the tenets of feng shui, and could be considered to be perfectly placed.

After arriving at the cemetery, they came to the location of the graves. The Director of Administration, Mr. Fan, took out the words of mourning that had been written, and looked appropriately sad as he said them.

After the burial, the ceremony was done. Although it was a little humble, it had expressed the resolve and attitude of the territory to revere their fallen soldiers. It was enough to make the soldiers and officers who were there feel very loved.

After returning from the funeral, Ouyang Shuo was naturally not in a high emotional state, and went into his office. His subordinates, good at telling his mood, naturally did not disturb him at that time.

At 2 PM, there was a sudden system announcement.

“System Notice: On Feb 19 in Gaia is the traditional New Year’s Festival in China. In order to add a festive atmosphere, there will be Spring Festival activities held.

“System Announcement: The night of New Year’s, there will be a large number of animals coming from the wilderness and attacking the territories of the players. Every player’s territory will suffer the brutal assault! Those who successfully expel the attacking beasts from their territory will receive a huge reward! Lords, prepare yourselves!”

New Year‘s Festival Event system announcement, Ouyang Shuo had almost completely forgotten that such an event happened. Before his rebirth, he was an adventurer, and did not participate in the New Year Event, so he did not have much impression of it.

Adventurer players outside the city on New Year’s also had the opportunity to meet the beasts. If they could kill the animals, they would also be rewarded. However, you needed luck to meet the animals, unlike the lord players. You also needed strength, as the Boss was at least level 30, so if you were alone you were in great danger. Therefore, to participate in the beast activity you needed a powerful mercenary group.

China had not officially ranked the top ten mercenary groups. They were listed in the unofficial rankings on the forums, every capital had at least one mercenary group and among them Capital JingDu had two.

The Chinese regions held New Year’s activities every year. The real fun was when one of the Lords, Pigman, did something extraordinarily crazy. In Gaia on the third New Year’s Eve, this guy had a strange idea. When the animals hit the village, he did not kill them. Instead, he held up a contract scroll, whimsically deciding to try and take them as pets.

This world was so wonderful. The injured boss beast didn’t want to become a man’s pet, but accidentally turned into a guardian of the territory. This made lord Pigman very happy, and he praised himself for his crazy idea. For that period of beast activity, Pigman and his territory were definitely in the limelight.

The next year, there were many jealous lords who wanted to follow what the Pigman had done. Instead they received a system prompt that gaining a Guardian Beast for a territory was a unique event, and could no longer be duplicated. Those who wanted to pick up a cheap defender could only gnash their teeth.

Ouyang Shuo naturally did not want to miss this advantage. He rose immediately and headed towards the Market. It had been upgraded to intermediate, and the auction platform was unlocked. Unfortunately, the auction platform was not in official operation, he had to wait until the third month for it to enter service. That was still half a month away.

A basic contract scroll was priced at 100 gold coins, and had a greater probability of binding level 30 or lower animals. An intermediate contract scroll cost 500 gold and could bind up to level 60 creatures. The advanced contract scroll was 3,000 gold and worked on up to level 80 beasts. As for those that were level 80+, they could not be contracted.

With such an expensive price, Ouyang Shuo might be the only lord who could pay for it. Even he could only buy a basic scroll. Then, he could only pray that the beast coming did not exceed level 30. Otherwise, the contract was almost certain to fail.

Since he was at the Market, he considered what Shanhai Town was short of, and spent another 10 coins, buying a lot of lanterns, fireworks, firecrackers, couplets, peaches, and other holiday goods. He could give them to the Material Reserves Department for free, to help create a festive atmosphere.

Having bought all this, Ouyang Shuo’s storage bag was down to 250 coins. He initially wanted to save up some gold coins for the auctions. Who knew gold coins flowed away so easily, just like water.

Coming out of the market’s wooden hut, the open space in front of the cabin was filled with the festival goods he had just purchased. Ouyang Shuo only took one lantern from it and left the others on the floor.

Little Mu saw him inside the manor’s courtyard, carrying a lantern she had never seen before. “Ah, such a beautiful lantern! Brother, where did you buy it? The store in town doesn’t sell it, can you give it to me?”

Little Mu had resorted to her spoiled act, her sweet voice soft and her pair of big eyes staring pitifully at Ouyang Shuo, the whole ‘I will cry if you don’t do as I ask’ look.

Ouyang Shuo totally ignored her act and knocked on her head instead. “You want a lantern, now? Yesterday, did you not promise to bring me my equipment?”

“Ow, it hurts! Well, big brother does not know how to care for me, I am a lady! Owww…” Little Mu contrived to act very hurt as she rubbed her head, turning and saying, “Of course I brought back your things. But big brother did not think of arranging people to help, so I had to grab my apprentices to help, they are so heavy!”

Ouyang Shuo stared at her. “You also know that you are a lady? You are acting like a child everyday, not anything close to a lady. It seems that I need to have a talk with Yingyu. She needs to instruct you on acting like a lady and watch you grow up.”

Saying this, Yingyu had just walked out of the Finance Department. Hearing Ouyang Shuo’s words, she smiled and said, “Big brother need not be angry. Little Mu is still young, after all, and it is better to be young and naive and not grow up too fast.”

Little Mu having found her savior, lost her fear of Ouyang Shuo and proudly ran behind Yingyu. He grimaced and said, “Yes yes, Sister Yingyu, you are truly caring for Little Mu.”

Yingyu pulled Little Mu out from behind her, nodding agreement. She said, “You are really too naughty sometimes, no wonder big brother is angry. Go apologize to big brother.” She said this very firmly, with her eyes saying ‘Girl, you better not get big brother angry, or this will not be a good day for you.’

Little Mu went pale, and glanced a second time to make sure she understood Yingyu’s meaning, she went meekly up in front of Ouyang Shuo and said sincerely, “Big brother, Little Mu is wrong. I am willing to follow big sister and learn from her how to be a lady.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, and quietly said in his heart, It is dumb if I believe you will, sigh, just let her be as she is. He pressed the lantern into her hands, saying, “Take it and go play.”

Little Mu took the lantern, sang out her ‘thank you’ to him, and ran smiling out the door, looking for someone to show it off to. Ouyang Shuo and Yingyu exchanged a look, shaking their heads and smiling.

“Big brother, did you go to the Market to buy the lanterns?” Yingyu asked.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. “Yes, I bought a number of New Year goods from the Market, to give to the residents of the territory. New Year is coming, it is time to relax and gather.”

“Big brother has thought it through.”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand and turned into the Material Reserves Department Office to find Du Xiaolan. After disposing of the New Year’s goods with her, he returned to his office.

Chapter 62 - Review

In his office was piled a bunch of leather armor. There were belts, bracers, and boots. Although Little Mu was usually naughty, she was very serious when it came to crafting.

Ouyang Shuo picked up the armor pieces one by one to inspect them. The buffalo hide was sewn into two leather breastplates and four belts. The wild boar boss’s hide was sewn into four sets of knee and wrist guards, while the wolf boss fur had been used to make four pairs of boots. As for the wild dog boss’s fur, it had little value, so Mu Qing had made four quivers out of it.

It was a total of 18 pieces of equipment. Except for the leather breastplates, they were all silver class. The two breastplates were gold and dark gold levels, respectively. Ouyang Shuo guessed that Little Mu had broken through to Master Tailor when she had successfully crafted this dark gold piece.

Name: Guardian Bull (Dark-gold)

Type: Leather

Weight: 3 kg

Defense: 60

Toughness: 65

Maker: Mu Qingsi (with equipment naming rights)

Evaluation: Made by senior tailor Mu Qingsi from Grade 9 buffalo boss hide. Exquisite workmanship, reasonable design, excellent protection.

At this stage, the average player had black iron equipment, and occasionally one or two pieces of silver equipment. As for gold equipment, he figured that only the leaders from top ten mercenary groups had one or two random pieces, and considered them as their top treasures.

In the entire China region, there were probably not more than five pieces of dark gold equipment, basically all monopolized by lord players. Even if he had Little Mu try her luck again, she wouldn’t necessarily be able to craft another dark gold leather. There was a lot of luck involved.

Ouyang Shuo replaced the Brutal Guardian armor on his body with this Guardian Bull dark gold armor. Then he put on the belt and greaves. As for the bracers and boots, they were silver level and he kept the Brutal set he was wearing.

The rest of the armor he prepared to give it as rewards to the infantry squadron. Because the weapons workshop had no ability to forge iron armors yet, they were still light infantry. These leathers were suitable for their use.

However, it was not the time to reward them yet. One, they were still militia being trained up, and two, he hadn’t decided who the infantry squadron captain was going to be, so he didn’t know who to reward.

Having dealt with the equipment, Ouyang Shuo stayed in the office and didn’t go out again.

-------------------------------------

The next afternoon, the low level test for meritorious services evaluation was completed and the results made ready.

In the Mayor’s office, Mr. Fan, Tian Wenjing, and Cui Yingyu, the Three Secretaries, had gathered to listen to the end of the year evaluation report.

Mr. Fan rose and saluted Ouyang Shuo. “This evaluation is mainly for the low level bureaucrats. The officers are not included as they will be evaluated by my lord yourself. As for the Security Division, that is no longer within the scope of this evaluation, nor is Beihai Village included.

“Therefore, this assessment is mainly aimed at the Agriculture Division, the Construction Division, and the Household Registration Division under the Administration Department; the Taxation Division, the Business Division and the Four Seas Bank under the Finance Department; and the Salt Pan Division, Combat Logistic Division, Resource Division, and Transportation Division of the Material Reserves Department.

“The evaluation mainly looked at two aspects,morality and ability. In the eight divisions under the three departments, plus the independent agency, there are a total of 64 low level administrative staff. Excellent ratings, there were 4. There were 18 people rated as Good; 39 rated as Qualified; and 3 rated as Poor.”

After listening to Mr. Fan’s report, Ouyang Shuo’s expression was solemn. From these evaluation reports, it was easy to see that the quality of entry-level bureaucrats was generally low. More than half of them were only qualified, only four were excellent, and three were poor. It couldn’t help but make him angry. He asked, “Who was rated poorly?”

“According to the reaction of the staff, the first person, Zhao Si, was rude, often abusive, and even whips the workers.

One of the shopkeepers of the meat shop for the Resource Division, called Sun Quan, often took meat buns home, and then blamed the others for the deficit.

The last one is the granary steward for the Resource Division. He was negligent in his duty, and under his ignorant watch, the grains were polluted by rodents, causing losses of thousands of grains.” Mr. Fan was clearly prepared, as the report was very detailed.

His face gloomy, Ouyang Shuo asked, “On the merit tests of these three, what is your view on their punishments?”

“The recommended measures of the Meritorious Service Division is to withdraw them from their duties and blacklist them from any posts for life.”

Ouyang Shuo obviously did not want to let off these scum so easily, and he sternly said, “This treatment is not far enough. Take them and have them to work on the walls and moat. They will be given only three meals a day. When the walls and moat are finished, so will their punishment.”

“In addition, I will punish the secretary for Construction Zhao Dewang for two months salary, and fine the secretary of Resources Du Xiaolan for three months salary. Furthermore, I remember the meat shopkeeper was originally appointed by the former deputy secretary of Resource Division, Zhao Youfang. He will and must also be punished. Zhao Youfang will forfeit six months of his salary, and he will be taken off the list for Secretary of Combat Logistic Division, only functioning as the deputy for now.”

Ouyang Shuo’s thunderous declaration tightened the hearts of all of them. Not only did he increase the punishment for dereliction of duty, he had further made their bosses accountable!

Secretary of Material Reserves Department Tian Wenjing was also apprehensive. Of the three being dismissed, two were under the Material Reserves Department, and was also connected to a secretary. As their director, he was naturally to blame.

Tian Wenjing arose, bowed deeply, and exclaimed, “For such a flaw being under the Material Reserves Department, please blame me!”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand. “Director Tian, you were not here when the two were appointed. I am not going to extend the punishment to you for not knowing the culprits after learning the scope of the crime. Of course, I hope that the Directors will be able to correctly implement proper rules and conduct, and this will not continue to occur.”

Tian Wenjing nodded fiercely, saying, “Thank you, my lord, for your grace. I will certainly work hard to thoroughly rectify the Material Reserves Department, I will not fail my lord’s trust!”

Ouyang Shuo looked again to Mr. Fan, asking, “Who was rated excellent?”

“The first of the four people was in the Division of Agriculture, called Sun Yannong. He was responsible for water conservancy projects. This person was hailed by the farmers as loving to lead everyone in water projects, having both ability and political integrity.

“The second person was a planner in the Construction Division called Hao Jiancheng. The reason the moat project is proceeding so smoothly is due to this person.

“The third person is at the Four Seas Bank, a clerk named Yang Yun. This person gives thoughtful and careful service.

“The fourth person is in the Salt pan Division, called Shen Zhui. He has a deep knowledge of the salt pan processes.”

Mr. Fan’s comments were refined and sharply presented.

Ouyang Shuo slowly smiled on hearing this, and said, “Well, these are excellent talents, and should be promoted. As I have said, there will be penalties, and there will be rewards. I have decided to appoint Sun Yannong Agricultural Deputy Secretary; appoint Hao Jiancheng as Assistant to the Secretary for Construction; appoint Yang Yun as Hall Manager of the Four Seas Bank; and appoint Shen Zhui as Deputy Secretary of the Salt Pan Division.”

Mr. Fan was a bit overwhelmed, hesitating for a moment, and then bit the bullet to speak up. “My lord, I admit that Sun Yannong and Shen Chun are very good, but promoting two people directly to deputy secretary, is that not a little much? Appointment as assistant Secretary is more appropriate.”

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and replied, “Since these young people are so good, they should be boldly promoted to build a broader platform for them to develop on. As for the reason why promotions are so urgent, there are other considerations. But since you have asked, I will answer your question.

“First, the salt pans. From the day it was established, it has had no one looking over it full time. First, it was me, part time, and then you; it was always some other people from a higher level holding the concurrent post. Therefore, I have decided Shen Chuan is the person to cultivate in the Division at this time. If he can pick up the banner and run with it, then I will not hesitate to promote him again.

“For the Agricultural Division, it is a huge department, in charge of many affairs. With agriculture, forestry, and animal breeding under it, it is obviously difficult for secretary Zhao Dexian to handle it alone. Therefore appointing a deputy director is necessary. Not just these divisions, but the others, if there are talented candidates, you three directors can always recommend them to me. With the continuous expansion of the territory, it is necessary to increase the territory’s efforts to train a reserve of personnel. Give the newcomers some chances to create more possibilities for the territory.”

The three chiefs nodded, accepting Ouyang Shuo’s explanation. Ouyang Shuo had taken the time to explain all that because he didn’t want them to hold some doubts. Many of the things he wanted to do had to go through them. If they didn’t communicate well, this would produce bias when it came time to implement, which he did not want to see.

After dealing with the evaluations, the atmosphere in his office became much less tense.

Cui Yingyu laughed and said, “Big Brother, this is going to change the New Year slightly. Everyone is looking forwards for the rewards for their hard work, I hope you are ready to scatter some money around.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled and said, “I will be rewarding some people. It is time to set a standard. Mr. Fan, in accordance with the secretary’s findings, each secretary is to receive 1 gold coin, each deputy director 80 silver coins, each assistant 50 silver coins. For results on the evaluations, the bureaucrats will receive 1 gold coin for an Excellent evaluation, and 30 silver for a Good evaluation. For whoever compiled the statistics in the Treasury department, come to me and collect the reward funds.”

“What about the 3 of us?” Yingyu asked.

“You? You will not use these terms as a reward for you. Rest assured that I alone have prepared a reward. As for what it is specifically, wait until tomorrow when I announce it,” Ouyang Shuo quipped.

Chapter 63 - New Years Eve Part 1

After finishing the discussion about the evaluation, Ouyang Shuo did not slack around and instead made a trip to the market.

Do not look at him being so confident in front of Yingyu, in truth, he had not prepared the new year gifts for the 3 directors. As the gifts were rewards for the 3 important directors, not only couldn’t it be shabby, it also had to have class and taste.

Fan Zhongyan and Tian Wen Jing were both still okay as they were traditional civil servants and giving them the four literary treasures were suitable. The four literary treasures in China were non-woven paper, emblem ink, lake pen and Duan Yan ink slabs.

A set of these four literary treasures would naturally be expensive. The highest grade was worth several thousand golds and wasn’t something that a small lord could afford. Even the most ordinary set would cost 20 gold coins. Ouyang Shuo gritted his teeth and spent 40 gold coins on two sets.

The key gift was the one that he prepared for Yingyu. This lady had the most qualifications out of the three directors and was also his sworn sister, so naturally, his gift couldn’t be shabby.

A gift for girls would be jewelry, jade, makeup etc a few limited types. He took into account the fact that he was her brother so he couldn’t give her anything too private. In the end, Ouyang Shuo chose a light and delicate jade which was crafted from white jade, representing prosperity. Definitely, he wouldn’t forget about that little brat Qing‘er, getting a piece of jade for her and spending a total of 30 gold coins.

After he returned to the manor, General Shi and Lin Yi were waiting for him in his office, giving him a very bad feeling.

Sure enough, before he could even sit down, General Shi said out loud,"Hehe, we heard that sire had prepared year-end rewards for the civil servants, will you be giving out rewards to the warriors in the army?"

Even the usually quiet and calm Lin Yi nodded his head profusely, showing that the army had reached a consensus on this topic. Ouyang Shuo slapped his forehead, he knew that he definitely could not escape this. Luckily he had prepared for this situation and teasingly said, "Not bad, you guys know how to take the initiative. Say, what rewards do you all want?"

General Shi laughed in embarrassment, saying, "I know that the last mission to exterminate the raiders camp wasn’t done successfully and made sire disappointed. I will not ask for any rewards for myself, only some monetary reward mainly for the soldiers."

Lin Yi followed suit, "That incident, I am also to blame, so I don’t dare to request a reward from sire."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, "Not bad, you all have some self-knowledge. How about this, the 10 current sergeants and the secretary of Military Intelligence Division get 1 gold coin each. The soldiers from the cavalry and Military Intelligence Division all get 10 silver. Those soldiers from the new units get 1 silver each. Are you happy?"

General Shi and Lin Yi upon hearing his words, nodded their heads happily. This was already considered a huge reward, they did not dare to use up more of Ouyang Shuo's time and left the manor excitedly, wanting to spread the good news back at the army camp.

Ouyang Shuo calculated that this reward cost him 120 gold coins. One would never know how valuable money is until he himself is in charge of it. To be a good salary paying boss wasn’t an easy thing.

He went to the adjacent room and called for Yingyu, passing 50 gold coins to her and instructing her to give red envelopes according to the reward standards.

After settling the matter of the rewards, it was already 6 PM, Ouyang Shuo got offline.

-------------------

In real life, it was already New Year’s Eve. Every house had already started hanging lanterns and pasting couplets. The lazy bug Bing Er had also woken up early to bug her brother to hang up the lanterns that they had bought the day before.

Every new year, the siblings would have an unenjoyable time. According to Chinese customs, every festivity was to enhance relations and every New Year’s Eve dinner was to represent the unity of a family.

Every New Year's Eve, the little brat would especially miss her parents. After finishing every dinner, she would just lie in her brother's arms and not speak for the entire night, making anyone who saw it heartbroken.

As the years gone by, this longing for her parents became less and less. Hiding the feelings deep down, the past two years, Bing Er started to be like other kids and show happiness.

This year, Ouyang Shuo could not see anything strange about the little brat, making him feel pleased.

After having lunch, Ouyang Shuo started to get busy for the New Year's Eve dinner. Yesterday, they brought large amounts of seafood, dried products. Some dishes, especially the stewed dishes needed to be prepared in advance. According to Chinese custom, the New Year's Eve dinner could be early but not late. In the villages, many people start preparing for the dinner straight after they finished lunch.

Bing’er entered the kitchen from time to time, saying she wanted to help her brother. But how could Ouyang Shuo be at ease when the little brat was going to create more problems by touching and looking around.

Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to chase her out of the kitchen, he smiled and said, "Baby, it's going to be New Year’s Eve soon. Go take a bath and change into the traditional dress we bought yesterday. You just dress up beautifully, the kitchen is in good hands."

Only then did Bing’er unwillingly leave the kitchen, saying like a small adult," Then I’ll leave this place to brother."

At 6 PM, dinner was started. Ouyang Shuo made a table filled with dishes. There were the traditional braised carp, stewed chicken, seafood, and abalone. Although it seemed like a waste, it added to the festive feeling, making it worth it.

Before starting dinner, the sibling started by praying at their parents’ altar. Looking at Bing’er wearing a cute Tang suit, kneeling in front of it. Ouyang Shuo calmly said, "Dad and mom, you can rest easy, Bing’er is growing healthily and becoming more sensible and cute."

After finishing the meal, Bing’er received a call from Sun Xiaoyue. She showed her new dress vainly. Seeing the two girls deep in conversation, Ouyang Shuo did not interrupt and instead walked into his room, like previous years, he prepared the red envelope and new gifts for Bing’er. This year, he brought her a special gift.

On the surface, it was a circular ball, like the Pokeball from Pokemon. In truth, it was a high AI pet which retailed for 1 million credit. Such an expensive pet, only a brother like Ouyang Shuo could bear to give.

Such an expensive price naturally had its specialty. The pet came in many different types and it had long ago went past the usual cat or dog pets. Various movies, cartoons and even pets from games could be made into real-life pets through biological printing technology.

The smart pet that Ouyang Shuo brought was made by a company known as ILAX and was a limited edition, the only one in the world.

As a high AI pet, not only could it follow its master in real life, but also appear in various virtual reality games. To ensure game balance, these type of pets had no attack power and was just an ornamental pet.

Ouyang Shuo didn’t have any thoughts, he just wanted to find a partner for Bing’er. In a year, this pet could follow and stick around her in , it was naturally perfect.

After returning to the hall, Xiaoyue and Bing’er were almost done talking. After all, it was New Year's Eve, various greetings were incessant so there was no chance to talk for too long. Ouyang Shuo was clear about that so he said a few simple sentences to Sun Xiaoyue before hanging up the phone.

Bing’er consciously walked toward her brother, raising her hand and giggling,"I wish you good fortune, give me your red envelope!"

Ouyang Shuo rubbed her head, passing her a red envelope and saying,"I prepared a special gift for you!"

Bing’er took over the red packet and asked curiously," What gift?"

"Dang, dang, dang, dang~" Ouyang Shuo took out the summoning ball and placed it in front of Bing‘er.

The little brat took over the ball and asked curiously," What is this brother, a little ball?"

"Use your finger and press on the red button and you will find out."

Bing’er curiously pressed down onto the red button. Instantly, an elegant mechanical voice resounded," Successfully gave life to smart pet, locked to owner, summoning ball activated!"

Looking at the summoning ball open slowly, a small fist-sized butterfly fairy flew out, landing on her hand, saying clearly," Hello master!"

Barbie Mariposa, the butterfly fairy looked exactly the same as it did in the movies, unable to see any man-made elements. It looked exactly like a real biological creature, cute and special. Furthermore, to fit with Bing’er's age, Ouyang Shuo specifically chose a baby model when he ordered it. Hence, the more accurate way of calling was butterfly fairy baby.

Seeing such a small magical life form, Bing’er was delighted. She laughed," Brother, is this your gift for me? Bing’er loves it!"

"Yeah, this butterfly fairy baby can follow Bing’er. Take care of her well. Bing’er quick, give her a name!" Ouyang Shuo smiled as he said.

"En! Let's call it Xue’er, it can be a pair together with Bing’er." One couldn’t tell that the little brat had such a talent at naming things.

Chapter 64 - New Year’s Eve Part 2

After obtaining a gift like the butterfly fairy baby, Ouyang Bing was on cloud nine.

After which, she sat quietly beside her brother, accompanying her brother to watch the New Year’s Eve shows that have been playing for over 200 years. Xue’er sat on her shoulder, curiously staring at the television.

At 9:00 PM, Ouyang Shuo received a video call. He took up his phone to take a look, and it was actually from little auntie. As the only relative of the sibling, this little aunt had a special place in their hearts.

Little aunt was known as Lin Jing. Compared to her sister who was Ouyang Shuo's mother, she was younger by 15 years. Hence, she and Ouyang Shuo could be said to be from the same generation as she was only older than him by 6 years.

Under normal circumstances, Ouyang Shuo and the little aunt should've been very close, but it was the total opposite. It wasn’t that Ouyang Shuo didn’t want to get close to her, but she had hated men since she was born and her nephew was no exception.

It was because of such an eccentricity, since Lin Jing graduated from university, that she’d found another girl and married without getting the blessing of her family. Ouyang Shuo's grandparents did not have a son and only had these two daughters. The two elderly didn’t have good health, and after the double blow of their daughter died from a car accident and the other undergoing a same-sex marriage, in two short years both of them passed away one after the other.

As his paternal grandparents gave birth to his father late, not long after Ouyang Shuo was born, they kicked the bucket. Hence, his relationship with his maternal grandparents was very deep. This was also the reason why he drifted away from this little aunt and kept little contact. As for Bing’er who had seen the little aunt a few times, her impression of her was even more of a blur.

Hence, to receive a call from little aunt on New Year’s Eve shocked Ouyang Shuo. After picking up the call, the image of Lin Jing appeared on the screen. In truth, she looked exactly the same as his mother, inheriting the elegance and beauty of his grandmother.

Beside his aunt sat another beauty. She looked like a city strongwoman, exuding an aura of strength and confidence. Her name was Xie Siyun and she was his little aunt's partner, and was his "Aunt in Law".

After experiencing a rebirth, Ouyang Shuo cherished his loved ones even more. In his past life, because of his stubbornness, before he'd boarded the intergalactic spacecraft, he did not think about contacting his little aunt and exchange his in-game ID. 5 years in the game, he hadn’t met his aunt even once, becoming his biggest regret.

What happened in the past had already happened; one must learn to look forward. Ouyang Shuo wasn’t as cold in the past, calling Bing’er to his side and laughed,"Little Aunt, Happy New Year!"

Lin Jing was surprised by the actions of her nephew. She was already prepared for him to hang up the phone call; never did she expect for such a situation to occur. In the last life, Ouyang Shuo did hang up on her, never contacting each other ever since.

"Little Shuo, Happy New Year! The one beside you is Bing’er right? This little brat has grown up so much, she looks so much like her mother." Little aunt smiled as she said.

Only then did Bing’er remember that the woman in the video was her little aunt, immediately saying crisply, "En, Little aunt, I am Bing’er. Happy Chinese New Year!"

Hearing her master speak, the little Xue’er who was standing on her shoulder copied her and said," Happy New Year, Happy New Year!"

Xue’er's accent caused Bing’er to laugh. Bing’er held up Xue’er on her hand like how one would when she is presenting a prize, said,"Little aunt, little aunt, this is the pet that brother gave me. Bing’er gave her a name which is Xue’er. Is it cute?"

Although this type of smart pet wasn’t very common, Lin Jing still knows of it. However, she assumed that it was a normal smart pet and didn’t pay much attention to it, laughing as she said, "Cute, just like Bing’er."

Xie Siyun who was sitting beside Lin Jing recognized that Xue’er wasn’t ordinary, a flash of amazement and surprise appearing in her eyes.

After the greetings, Lin Jing recalled the reason why she’d made the call, turning to Ouyang Shuo and saying, "Little Shuo, have you heard of a game known as Earth Online?"

Ouyang Shuo was shocked, why did little aunt raise this up, don’t tell me she knew something? This wasn’t something that was impossible, after all, after she graduated she hadn’t returned to the State of Jiao and had remained in Shang Hai where she did her university education. After marrying, she lost all contact with her family and what she’d been doing, no one knew.

On the surface, Ouyang Shuo still kept his smile, saying with no change in emotion, "Earth Online? How special is this game that it’s worth little aunt to think about during New Year’s?"

"The exact reason little aunt cannot tell you. What I can say is that I recommend you to play it. If you need money, little aunt can transfer you some." Lin Jing was very careful and added.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head. He could practically confirm that little aunt knew some of the hidden details of the game from certain channels. He was hesitating whether or not to tell everything to her.

He thought about it long and hard, after all the attention he was receiving and the animosity from Di Chen wasn’t what he wanted to get her into. If it got exposed, the outcome would be irreversible.

Ouyang Shuo purposely said with a relaxed tone, "No need, actually I do play this game."

"Ah? You have already started playing. That’s great, what’s your ID? Little aunt has some forces of my own in the game." Lin Jing said with surprise.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, "There's no need, I'm used to playing alone. Why not little aunt tell me your ID If there's a time when I can’t survive, I will depend on little aunt. Haha."

If Ouyang Shuo wasn’t her nephew, and that towards this nephew she hadn’t felt guilty, she would have already felt annoyed. This time, she could just bear with it, "Ok then, you are still so stubborn. Little aunt won’t force you. But remember, little aunt's ID is Snow Rose, if you have something, you must come find me."

Ouyang Shuo was shocked as the words left her mouth, "Snow-War Rose mercenary group?"

"Hmph! It’s good that you know. Let’s stop the conversation here. Bye bye!" Lin Jing's patience was already used up and she turned to Bing’er," Bing’er say bye to aunt. If I'm free I will go see you."

Bing’er obediently nodded her head and said sweetly,"Bye, little aunt."

After hanging up, Ouyang Shuo couldn’t calm himself down. He didn’t expect that his little aunt would be the vice-captain of the second-ranked mercenary group. Then Xie Siyun should be the captain, War Rose.

Fate really played a joke on him. If in his last life he didn’t hang up on little aunt, then he might have entered the game earlier. In the game, having the backing of War Rose, would he still need to wander around with Bing’er? Everything would have been very much different.

However, there were no ifs in life. This time, by accident he received such help, what kind of effect will it have on him in the game? Everything was unknown.

At the same time, between Lin Jing and Xie Siyun occurred an interesting conversation.

Seeing that Lin Jing had already hung up, the silent Xie Siyun said as if she were contemplating something, "Jing Jing, your nephew is not ordinary."

"That brat is so annoying. I originally wanted to help him, but he still dared to act cool. Saying he liked to play alone." Lin Jing was enraged.

Xie Siyun softly shook her head and smiled," You ah, you were bluffed by him and you didn’t know. Your niece's smart pet, do you know how much it costs?"

"How expensive can it be? Although it looked more exquisite, at most only 10-20 thousand!"

"You have no taste. That is the limited edition smart pet from ILAX. Its retail price is 1 million credits." Xie Siyun glanced at Lin Jing, saying calmly.

"Ah? So expensive, when did this kid get so much money? If I remembered correctly he just graduated this year!"

"That’s why I said he’s not simple. Talking back to Earth Online, how would a university graduate pay attention to such a game and be willing to spend money on a game capsule. That in itself is not ordinary. I guess he is probably a beta player like us." Xie Siyun deduced.

"Yaoyao, what you say makes sense. Hen, that brat even wants to lie to his aunt. I’m going to teach him a lesson." Lin Jing wanted to call his phone again.

Xie Siyun immediately prevented her, "Look at your nephew. he definitely isn’t a clumsy person. When he found out you were the vice-captain of Snow-War Rose mercenary group, he could stop himself from telling you his ID. It’s obvious that he isn’t as simple as a solo player. If you call back now, he definitely wouldn’t tell you the truth. The way I see it, let’s just spectate the situation quietly."

For Lin Jing to be the vice-captain of the second biggest mercenary group in China, she obviously wasn’t a simple person. After calming herself down, she agreed that what Xie Siyun said made sense and that it wasn’t the right time to ask for all the answers.

"Okay. Let’s follow what you said. Anyways, the reason for calling him has already been achieved. This can be counted as doing my duty as an auntie. What happens after this, let’s talk about it next time!" Thinking about her parents who’d passed away, Lin Jing felt down-hearted.

Chapter 65 - New Years Eve Part 3

The two siblings stayed up for the Chinese culture of shoushui1 until around 11, Bing'er hugged onto Xue'er and went back to her room to sleep.

Ouyang Shuo turned off the television and rushed to his room, logging into the game. Similarly, it was New Year’s Eve but it was only 11 AM in the game.

The fireworks, couplets and new year goodies he bought days ago were sent to various families by the Material Reserves Department. Glancing out, he could see that every house had hung their couplets and lanterns. Although Shanhai town was simple and crude, the new year’s spirit here was thicker than in real life.

Seeing that Ouyang Shuo had finally come online, Qing’er who was hanging up lanterns in the backyard, mischievously saying, "Big brother is so lazy, it’s the new year’s and you were still sleeping."

When the player goes offline, in the NPCs’ eyes they went back to their rooms to sleep. Against Qing’er's teasing, Ouyang Shuo had no good reply, he sulked and said, "He! Saying that to your brother, do you still want your new year's gift?"

Hearing about a gift, the eyes of the little brat shone. She didn’t care about the lantern that wasn’t hung properly and ran towards Ouyang Shuo, flattering him, "Hehe, big brother is busy with work, occasionally sleeping longer can be understood."

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, he didn’t bother to tease her, just taking out the jade from his storage bag and passed it to her. "This is the gift that big brother is giving you. Happy new year!"

Qing’er took over the jade, she was smiling so brightly that her eyes could not be seen. This led the two maidservants Siqi and Siqin who were just hired to envy her profusely.

Ouyang Shuo looked towards Yingyu's maidservant Siqin and asked, "Do you know where Yingyu is at?"

Siqin bowed straight away, saying respectfully, "She’s in the front yard distributing red envelopes!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head and turned around towards the front yard.

As expected, the Finance Department was distributing red envelopes and Yingyu was at a side coordinating everything.

When she saw Ouyang Shuo, Yingyu walked out and smiled,"Big brother is up so late today."

Ouyang Shuo didn’t care about her teasing and asked," How’s the distribution of red envelopes going? Is it smooth?"

"Everything is going well. The reward for the soldiers has been sent to the army camp by little sister. General Shi and Lin Yi will be in charge of distributing those. Those for the civil service are nearly finished."

"That’s good." As he said, Ouyang Shuo took out another jade piece and passed it to her, saying, "This is the gift big brother prepared for you. Happy new year!"

Yingyu received the jade, laughingly saying, "Thank you, big brother, happy new year!"

"I still need to give Mr. Fan and Mr. Tian their gifts so I won’t disturb you any further." Ouyang Shuo said goodbye and left, walking towards the Administration Department.

He gifted the two sets of four treasures to Fan Zhongyan and Tian Wenjing and had a conversation with both of them. Before he knew it, it was already the afternoon.

After lunch, Shanhai Town started getting busy preparing for the New Year's Eve dinner. As the first new year's eve in Shanhai town, under the planning of the Material Reserves Department Director Du Xiaolan, it became many times more homely.

The whole dinner was designed as a traditional long street feast, the first table was in the meeting room in the manor, it stretched out from the yard to the commercial street all the way until the entrance of the town.

The feast started punctually at 6. At the head table sat Ouyang Shuo, Fan Zhongyan, Tian Wenjing, General Shi, Cui Yingyu, Mu Qingsi, Lin Yi and Su Ze.

In the yard, there were two tables. In each table sat the various department directors and sergeants. The square had 30 tables and the soldiers and civil servants sat there. As you went down the commercial street, there were two tables in a line and a total of 108 tables were placed where all the town folks sat.

The drinking of beer and the casual conversations took place as the feast went on till 8:30 before ending. The system still had some humanity in that it didn’t send the Nian beasts to mess things up during the dinner.

Ouyang Shuo remembered that the Nian beasts will be invading the feast and instead of drinking beer, he just drank water. After hearing his orders, all the military personnel didn’t touch any alcohol.

In his last life, there were careless lords who got drunk during the dinner and when the Nian beasts came, they couldn’t fight back and the whole village was destroyed. A once joyous occasion became a tragic event.

"System Notification: Gaia first year February 29, at 9 pm in the night, Nian beasts will descend on the wilderness. May all the lords get ready in advance!"

"System Notification: Gaia first year February 29, at 9 pm in the night, Nian beasts….."

"System Notification: Gaia first year February 29, at…..."

According to usual cases, one territory will be assigned one to two Nian beasts. A Nian beast in the first year will be level 30 on average and every year after, it will increase by 10 levels. Nian beasts will only attack the main base and not the secondary base.

Hence, if one made preparations, it normally wouldn’t cause much damage to the base. Instead, one would often get big rewards. After all, it was new year’s eve and the system didn’t want to ruin the mood. Coming up with such an event was to increase the festive spirit more.

Hearing the system notification, Ouyang Shuo signaled General Shi and Lin Yi, to bring the soldiers back to the army camp and wait for orders. He himself turned around to his room to get his weapon and got Black Tornado out from the stable, galloping out of the camp.

Walking into the camp, the soldiers were all dressed up and ready. As this was different from the usual war and fighting they were used to, they felt that they had the need to get ready beforehand. "Guys relax. The attack by the Nian Beast, we prioritize cornering them instead of killing it. Hence, everyone needs to take care of themselves, I don’t want anyone to be hurt."

"Yes, Sir!" The soldiers shouted in unison.

"Let's go!" Ouyang Suo turned the horse around and rushed out of the camp.

Ouyang Shuo took charge of the north gate with Lin Yi bringing 50 cavalries by his side. General Shi brought the newly set up infantry to the west gate. Zhao Sihu and Li Mingliang brought the remaining 50 cavalries to the north gate. The Military Intelligence Division was in charge of the communications of the three sides. They used fireworks as the signal, the moment they found the Nian beast, they would group up immediately.

At 9:10, there was still no sign of the Nian beast. Ouyang Shuo told everyone to relax and be patient.

Ten minutes later, the two Nian Beasts rushed towards the south door. They saw that the Nian beast was more than 10 feet long and was covered in light green scales. Its neck and tail had a few golden fur and its head had grown a horn. Its eyes were like bells and its teeth were sharp, its murderous look made it seem fearsome.

The two Nian beasts were one big and one small, they galloped like the wind, roaring "Nian" from time to time. These two Nian beasts should be a pair, the bigger one should be the male one and the smaller one should be a female.

Ouyang Shuo ordered Lin Yi to use the firework signal and checked the statistics of the Nian beast at the same time.

Name: Nian Beast (Spirit Beast)

Level: 40

Skills: Bloodthirst (Raise killing value 80%), Sprint (Raise attack power by 60%)

Combat Power: 80

Evaluation: Evil beast of legends, legends say at every end of the year, the Nian beast will attack the villages.

Any village that was occupied by the Nian beast would be under heavy slaughter. The horns on its head were killing weapons, after slaughtering everyone, the Nian beast will eat the heads of everyone.

He had got really lucky this time as not only did he get two Nian beasts, but their levels also exceeded the average by 10. Ouyang Shuo started to worry if the basic contract scroll would work.

Under the instructions of Lin Yi, the cavalry quickly formed a circle and ran in a clockwise direction, trapping the two Nian beasts in the middle. Before the infantry arrives, they would not engage in a close combat battle with the Nian beasts.

Being trapped and surrounded in the middle, the two Nian beasts were impatient. They kept on trying to charge to try and break the encampment. Sadly, the troops were too experienced and underwent too many wars. Every time the Nian beast moved, the trap moved too, keeping the two beasts at the exact same spot in the middle.

To increase the chance of taming them, Ouyang Shuo ordered the troops to shoot the beasts with arrows. As long as they don’t shoot the eyes or other important areas, to lower the threat and aggression of the Nian beasts.

After all, they were fierce beasts. After a length of time of pressuring the beasts, the horses of the cavalry started to tire and were not that fast anymore. There were many close calls in which the beasts nearly escaped. Thankfully at this time, General Shi's troops from the west gate and Zhao Sihu's men rushed here for backup after receiving the signal.

In the subsequent war, the infantry troops fought the beasts in front while the cavalry attacked from behind. In about 10 minutes both beasts had lost their fight and fell onto the ground.

Ouyang Shuo signaled for the troops to stop their attack and walked in front of the male beast. He took out the basic contract scroll, slowly opening it. The scroll turned into a white light and wrapped the Nian beast in it. Shortly after, a resounding notification appeared in his mind.

"System notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi who tamed the Nian beast, the Nian beast became the protector beast of Shanhai Town, reward fame 500 points!"

Under the effect of the basic contract scroll., the male beast had completely healed up. It nodded its head towards Ouyang Shuo, showing its allegiance. It then turned its head to the female beast lying beside it, begging as it looked at its owner.

Ouyang Shuo understood his meaning, nodding his head and saying," Relax, I will heal it."

The Nian beast was a very smart beast, especially after a contract had been set, it understood everything its owner said, happily nodding its head.

Ouyang Shuo ordered Lin Yi to arrange a stretcher and bring the female beast to the hospital. As for the rest of the men, they were to return to the camp. On the way back, he took the chance to see how the statistics of the male Nian beast changed after becoming the protector beast.

Name: Nian Beast (Spirit Beast)

Allegiance: Shanhai Town protector beast

Level: 40

Skills: Bloodthirst (Raise killing value 80%), Sprint (Raise attack power by 60%)

Combat Power: 80

Specialty: Deterrence (Enhance law and order in territory by 20%), Protect (Raise defense of territory by 60%)

Evaluation: Evil beast of legends. Legends have it that it’s the offspring of an evil dragon and ink qilin. Fierce personality. As a protector beast, can stimulate qilin bloodline, can evolve.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head with delight. It was deservedly a protector beast. Its two specialties were really useful and most importantly the super rare can be evolved into a qilin effect. Only this evolution condition wasn’t found out by Pig hero in his last life. In this life, he could only count on himself to figure out.

1shousui (守岁) : culture practiced as it is thought to add on to one's parents' longevity.

Chapter 66 - Sacrificial Ritual

It was already 10 AM when Doctor Song finished treating the injuries of the female Nian beast. As Ouyang Shuo still had things to do in real life, he didn’t stay any longer after housing the two Nian beasts temporarily in the stables before going offline.

In reality, it was already the first day of the new year. Last night, the sounds of fireworks were incessant and had never stopped, bustling with excitement.

When Ouyang Shuo walked out of his room, Bing'er was already out of bed, playing with Xue'er in the living room. When she saw her brother, she smiled and said, "Brother is a lazy bug, Bing'er woke up earlier than you."

"Lazy bug, Lazy bug!" Xue'er that little fella copied her words.

Ouyang Shuo gave a forced smile and shook his head. These few days he had been going in and out of the game, being super busy. In the end, in the eyes of Qing’er and Bing'er, he had became a lazy bug, he really had some unspeakable trouble.

He walked into the bathroom and after washing up, he went back to the hall and smiled to Bing'er, "Baby, today I will bring you out to shop. Is it okay?"

"Great, great!" To be able to go out and play, Bing'er, that little monkey, was delighted.

"If we go out we can’t bring Xue'er, its too busy outside. It’s not safe." Ouyang Shuo explained.

"Ya? How can we do that? Bing'er doesn’t want to separate from Xue'er." The little brat seemed to feel bad.

Xue'er flew onto Bing'er's head in a very humane way and grabbed onto her hair, reluctant to leave. "No, No!"

"Then you keep Xue'er in the summoning ball. Don’t summon her out." Looking at the inseparable couple, Ouyang Shuo could only take a step back.

"En." This could be accepted as Bing'er took out the summoning ball and Xue'er obediently entered the ball.

After they left home, the siblings went towards the bustling New Year temple fair.

The New Year temple fair in State of Jiao was held around Cheng Huang Temple Zhongyou Square, Zhongshan Road, Fuxue West Street, Beijing Road, Huifu East Road Food Street, Buddha Temple and Wu Xian. Each area would have their own cultural performances and display of cultural goods, and various foods and activities were on sale.

The tourists at the market could not only see performances such as Chinese opera, acrobatics, magic, hard qigong, but also other Chinese unique skills, like Bai Mei fist, Cai Li Fu fist, Wing Chun boxing and other martial arts. Other shows like wood puppets, folk puppets, Wuhua line puppets and various puppet performances were on show.

The siblings strolled around in the crowded temple fair, going in and out of the ocean of people. A temple fair showcased all the festivities of the new year and was a place where people could eat, drink, play, have fun, shop and find entertainment.

In the end what the two foodies paid attention to most was the food street. Beijing Sweet Hulu, Tianjing Goubuli, North Korea Dagao, Changsha smelly tofu, Tianjing 18 street Mahua, Mongolian Barbecued pork, Shanghai Xiao Longbao, Old Beijing fresh pear soup, Taiwan-preserved vegetable stinky tofu, and food from various countries all could be found here.

Bing'er, that little brat, still had some heart. While she was shopping, she remembered to buy gifts for people. She used her pocket money to buy an opera mask and a clown mask for her brother. Of course, she also brought a gift for Xue'er, a mini Beijing opera dress which was exquisitely made.

Ouyang Shuo carried the clown mask, shaking his head. That little brat just wanted to tease him.

When they returned from the temple fair, it was already 6:30. Bing'er was so exhausted, she quickly showered before carrying Xue'er and going back to sleep.

Ouyang Shuo was delighted that she went to sleep early as he still had a super important event to participate in. When he hurried into his room and went online, it was just a nice 7 in the morning.

After waking in the game, he didn’t wear his usual leather clothing, but instead he wore the woven scribe dress that Qing’er had bought for him. The reason being that it was New Year’s day, Shanhai Town was about to hold their sacrificial ritual.

Before 7 in the morning, all the people in the town gathered in the square in front of the ancestral hall. Even the villagers in Shanhai Village woke up early and took a boat to come to the sacrificial ritual.

The administrative director Fan Zhongyan was the priest of the ritual while the director of Material Reserves Tian Wenjing was in charge of wine offerings. When Ouyang Shuo arrived, the ritual officially began.

The ancestral hall of Shanhai Town paid respects to the Yellow Emperor. The whole ritual included welcoming the god, laying silk, entering, the 1st offer, 2nd offer, the final offer, withdrawal, sending off the god and burning the offerings, these 9 steps. They all proceeded with strict supervision. None of the steps were carelessly done.

After the entire process, it was already 9 in the morning. After praying to Yellow Emperor, everyone moved to the Mazu temple and started a sacrificial ritual for Mazu. As the only recognised religion in Shanhai town, the ritual was grand and comparable to the one for Yellow Emperor.

After the ritual, it was already 11. Ouyang Shuo seeing that there was still time, called Gu Xiuwen and Zhou Feng, who had specially rushed back from the rituals into his office.

After they sat down, he smiled and asked, "So is everything going well in Beihai Village?"

"Thank you for sire's concern. Beihai Village is on the right track; we managed to rush to a grade 2 village before the New Year. The planning for the village followed the original plans for Shanhai Village. At the same time, to strengthen our connection with the territory, we built a harbor near the river mouth." Gu Xiuwen reported.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head. "That’s good, the speed is really fast. What do you all plan to do now?"

"For the next step, we prepare to slow down a bit. We want to solidify our foundations and build a perfect structure." Gu Xiuwen said carefully.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and said, "No, that’s too conservative. I plan to leave the fishermen under Beihai Village's jurisdiction. Furthermore, after the activation of the Beimu salt pan's 3rd phase expansion, Beihai Village's population count will grow exponentially. Hence, I need Beihai Village to get to a grade 3 village. And also, when Shanhai Town gets to a grade 2 town, Beihai Village needs to be a grade 1 town by then."

As he was originally the Household Registration officer, Gu Xiuwen had a good understanding of Shanhai Town's population. Hearing the plans of Ouyang Shuo, he couldn’t understand them and asked, "According to sire's arrangements, won’t moving a part of population from Shanhai Town to Beihai Village slow down the growth of Shanhai Town?"

"Shanhai Town is already levelling up fast enough, it’s time to give our opponents time to rest. I'm afraid that if we force them too hard, it might have a bad effect. It’s better to make use of this time to strengthen our foundations. As they are focusing on their main town, no one will expect that our 2nd town has already raised to a grade 1 town." Ouyang Shuo smiled as he explained.

"Apart from that, I need you to calculate. Shanhai Town's refugee adding rate is 75/day, and Beihai village's is only 14/day. Hence, its worth to risk a little of Shanhai Town's growth speed to raise the level of Beihai Village. Overall, this will be highly beneficial to the growth of our territory." Ouyang Shuo continued on.

This method of increasing population was thought of by players in the last life who had raised to grade 1 city and wanted to raise their secondary bases as quickly as possible. Now it was used by Ouyang Shuo at just a grade 1 town, which could be said as very willful.

Gu Xiuwen suddenly realised and said excitedly," Sire has thought about it well, Xiuwen is full of respect. Since its like that, when I go back, I will gather people and put all our efforts at building the basic buildings of a grade 2 village. Definitely in 1 week, we will raise to grade 3 village. We won’t let sire down."

Ouyang Shuo smiled and said," When you do things, I will naturally be at ease. How is the establishment of garrison team in Beihai Village?" This sentence was for Zhoufeng who had been quiet.

Zhoufeng nodded his head and said loudly," Sire, we followed your orders and after building the intermediate army camp, we chose 20 good soldiers from the refugees and changed them to militia. The next stage would be to raise them to the max level and change them to navies."

"Did you communicate well with the intermediate shipyard? Do you understand the building speed of the small warships?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"Yes. Zheng, the factory manager, said that the small sized warships were already starting to be built. With their current speed, they can build 1 in 3 days, enough for the training requirements of the navies." Worthy of being recommended by Lin Yi, Zhoufeng had clear thinking and thought about the big picture, making Ouyang Shuo very pleased.

"Good, you can probably guess that the reason why I sent you to Beihai Village was not only to build a garrison team. In the future, Beihai Village will be the navy base and camp. Hence, from the start when building the village, you must work hard with this goal in mind."

"I understand, I will work hard for sire and not disappoint you." Zhoufeng replied loudly.

"Good. Seems like it was the right decision assigning you 2 to Beihai Village. With the progress of the village, I am very pleased. I hope you two can continue to work hard and create more glory." Ouyang Shuo concluded, ending the talk which wasn’t an official job reporting session but a casual talk that included job reportings.

"We won’t let sire down!" Gu Xiuwen and Zhoufeng answered unanimously.

Ouyang Shuo looked at his watch. Unknowingly, it was already 12. He laughed, "Lets go and eat lunch together."

After the meal, Gu Xiuwen and Zhoufeng immediately sat in a boat and returned to Beihai Village. With Ouyang Shuo describing everything to them and laying all the cards on the table, they were very excited for the development of Beihai Village. They were filled with expectation and were extremely motivated.

Chapter 67 - Division of Culture and Education

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo made another trip to the barracks to help the troops do a class change.

In the square of the barracks, the troops were already lined up. Ouyang Shuo directly went into the class change chamber, placing his hand on the door and activating the class change sequence.

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for activating the class change room. Intermediate barracks can change commoner into rank one militia for 10 silver. It can also change class of level 10 militia to rank 1 soldier, average class change cost of 1 gold. Please choose a class change method!"

"Class change 1st rank soldier!"

"System Notification: Class Change method confirmed, please choose number!"

"100 people!"

"System Notification: Please choose class change direction. Can choose either infantry, sailor or cavalry. The cost of which are 50 silver, 100 silver and 150 silver."

"I choose infantry."

"System Notification: Class change confirmed, deducted 50 gold from player Qiyue Wuyi."

After the 100 soldiers had finished their class change, Ouyang Shuo checked the stats of the infantry.

Name: Tie Dan

Identity: Infantry Squadron First Squad soldier

Occupation: Infantry

Level: Rank 1

Combat Power: 12

Consumption: 2 units food/day

Skill: Basic Slash

Equipment: Basic Knife, Basic Armor, Basic Shield

Evaluation: Most basic unit, if you want to use them well and better, apart from strict training, one needs better equipment.

In Earth Online, infantry could be divided into sword-shield soldier, spearman, axe-throwing soldier, javelin-thrower, long bowman and short bowman etc. There were also light and heavy infantry. When changing their class, Ouyang Shuo had chosen the basic sword-shield soldier.

As compared to cavalry, the stats of the infantry were weaker, hence their class change cost were only a third. Their combat power was 3 times less and it came primarily from the difference in equipment.

After paying the money for the class change, he only had 80 gold left in his pocket, being in a financial conundrum. It seems like the right time to ask his forces to hunt some bandits to earn some money.

He called General Shi, Lin Yi and the various sergeants into the meeting room, openly saying, "Generals, the year is already over and it’s time for us to loosen our bones. This time, the land area of our territory expanded by 100 square miles and there will definitely be new bandit camps. My orders is to find them and destroy them. I am not afraid to tell you all that the territory is having monetary problems and whether we can solve them depends on your performances."

His words made their bloods boil, especially Zhang Daniu and Zhao Sihu who were crazy fighters. Both of them had broken through to rank 8 elite soldiers on the eve of the new year and they were now only a step away from rank 9. The battle in the squadron between sergeants had already became stale and they hoped that this battle could help them break the bottleneck and rank up.

Zhang Daniu and Zhao Sihu walked out at the same time and said loudly," Sire, the mission to destroy the bandit camps you can rest easy. We promise we will complete it."

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head and said, "The morale is high, that’s good. Starting from now, you must expand your search range and search inch-by-inch, find them and immediately report to me. This time, I will lead you out by myself."

"Yes!" The generals said in unison.

Walking out of the barracks, passing the commercial street again, the various shops were open for business. After all the game was different from real life such that there was no new years holiday.

Just as Ouyang Shuo had entered the Manor, the secretary of the Resource Division Du Xiaolan entered the office.

She respectfully said," Sire, I got something to report."

Since the last test, Du Xiaolan was punished by Ouyang Shuo for 3 months. This meeting, she seemed especially careful.

"Sire, I counted the grains in the granary and found that we had only 2000 units left. We are having a problem and need sire's help."

Ouyang Shuo patted his head, these few days he was so busy and had forgotten about buying grain. If it wasn’t for the 10s of thousands of grain gained from the bandit camps, all the grain would have been used up and the town would have been in a famine. "Relax, get some people and follow me to the market."

Ouyang Shuo left the manor and went to the Intermediate Market. He opened the trading platform and directly spent 50 gold, buying 50 thousand units of grain. This batch of grain wouldn’t last for long. When the town upgrades to a grade 2 town, he would have to purchase some more.

Ever since the upgrade to town, the problems of lack of grain had started to surface. If it wasn’t for having enough monetary resources, they would have been in a famine. After solving that problem, it was already 6 in the afternoon. Ouyang Shuo didn’t have time to see the two Nian beasts in the horse stables and just logged off.

In reality it was already the second day of the new year. Ouyang Shuo didn’t visit any friend and family or stroll around. He had already spent a day at the temple fair and was very tired. It was better to rest today and spend time with Xue'er and Bing'er to watch some cartoons.

The next day, the newly appointed secretary of the Household Registration Division walked into the office.

Ouyang Shuo asked him to sit and said, "So is the work at the Household Registration Division going fine?"

"Thank you sire for your trust. Everything is going fine." Zhou Haichen said respectfully.

"That’s good, you came over today, is it because there was any good talent?”

Zhou Haichen nodded his head, smiling, "That’s right. In the population refresh, there was a scholar called Xu Shu Da, he had worked in education. I think he’s different so I came here to report."

"Scholar? This was definitely a rare talent, you have done well. Bring Mr Fan and Xu Shuda here to my office tell them we have something to discuss."

"Yes!" Zhou Haichen had some doubts but he didn’t ask, going out straightaway to call them.

In less than 5 minutes, Fan Zhonfyan, Zhou Haichen and Xu Shuda walked into the office. The one walking in the back should be Xu Shuda, Ouyang Shuo checked his stats.

Name: Xu Shuda (Gold)

Identity: Shanhai Town Commoner

Occupation: Civil Servant (jinshi)

Loyalty: 75

Command: 20

Force: 18

Intelligence: 45

Politics: 60

Specialty: Education (Raise education progress by 15%), Enlightenment (Raise quality by 10%)

Evaluation: A scholar, strong in education. Careful personality, deep knowledge, good personality.

After looking at Xu Shu Da's stats, Ouyang Shuo was delighted. This was a typical education talent, his two specialties were very practical. For his upcoming decisions, he felt more confident.

After saying some nice words, Ouyang Shuo dove right into the topic, "As our population increases, private school, ancestral hall, Mazu Temple, Lianzhou college etc facilities have been improved. The culture and education in the territory have been increasing. In the past I’ve always wanted to set up a division purely for culture and education, however, I couldn’t find a suitable secretary. Until today I met Mr.Xu. Hence, I decided that under the Administration Department, to set up the Culture and Education Division and Mr.Xu will be the secretary."

Xu Shu Da did not expect that a short time upon coming to the town that he would be placed on such importance, "Thank you sire, I won’t disappoint you!"

System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, Xu Shu Da has been placed in importance, loyalty increased by 5."

Fan Zhongyan nodded his head agreeably: "Congratulations sire, you got such a great talent. Taking this chance, I would like sire to relieve me of my position as president of Lianzhou college."

"Oh? Why are you doing that? Did I do anything wrong?"

"No no no, it’s not like that. Education affects the future of our territory, it needs to be under the charge of someone good at it. The job as secretary of the Administration Department has used up most of my energy, I am unable to help keep up with the college. Hence, I recommend Xu Shuda to take the post."

Ouyang Shuo realised his intentions and turned to Xu Shuda, "Good, since it’s like this, I will give you more responsibility. I hope that together with the professor Su Zhe, you can develop a good teaching faculty and develop our college into a structured entity."

Xu Shu Da nodded his head solemnly," Thank you sire, I will do my best."

To say the truth, the Culture and Education Division added to the power of the Administration Department. in the ancient governing system, the 5 divisions under the Administration Department were once the 6 most important divisions including the military. With the Culture and Education Division now under the Administration Department, the balance of the three departments were broken.

Actually, this was part of Ouyang Shuo’s plan. He didn’t want the future structure of the government to be like the ancient structure. Living in the modern era, he was exposed to the better and more logical governing system, with this exposure, he can modify and suit it to his Shanhai Town, hence it would not be wise to follow the ancient structure.

Chapter 68 - Gathering (Part 1)

After settling the situation with the culture and education secretary, Ouyang Shuo was finally free. He got up, left the manor, and went towards the stables to look at the Nian beasts.

On the way there, he contemplated about how he should take care of them.It didn’t seem wise to keep them in the horse stables as it didn’t suit the image and status of the territory protectors.

Ever since they became protector beasts, the Nian beasts had weakened their edge, they weren't as fierce and scary. Rather, they had an extra aura of an auspicious beast, the Qilin bloodline in its body was also starting to be stimulated.

As it saw Ouyang Shuo, the male beast gave out a soft groan as a form of saying hi. Black Tornado in the adjacent stable wasn’t as carefree. It trembled and hid in the corner. As it looked into the eyes of its owner, it gave out a very humane and wronged look. Apparently, it was scared really badly by the Nian beasts.

As Ouyang Shuo touched the horns of the Nian Beast, he smiled. "I will give you guys a place to live, I won’t wrong you." Subsequently, he walked beside Black Tornado and touched his head, petting his mount.

Returning from the horse stables, Ouyang Shuo found the Construction Division secretary Zhao Dewang and discussed on building a resting place specifically for the Nian beasts. "Zhao Dewang, where do you think we should place this?"

"Based on sire's thoughts, what requirements do you have for their home?"

"Oh let me think. It must have a huge space and good view. They can't stay in a confined space and it's better if they are set free. It must be private so they won't be disturbed. It must also be safe and can't be too far away."

Zhao Dewang nodded his head saying, "Based on your requirements, I can think of a place that fits it."

"Where?"

"Behind the Manor there is a small mountain and it only has some small and short trees. It is spacious and mysterious. Since it’s near the manor, safety is guaranteed." Zhao Dewang said confidently.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said," That’s good, let’s set it as that. Get some men to secure the mountain. As their resting place, it’s best to put some wild rabbits and small beasts to provide food."

"I understand and will do accordingly." This small thing wasn’t too hard for him.

In the afternoon, the secretary of the Agriculture Division Zhao Dewang went into the office and reported, "Sire, the new year has just passed. As they say, 'The most important part of the year is the start.’. Does the agricultural division need to continue expanding the scale of the farmlands in preparation for the planting of crops before the Qingming festival? The current scale seems too small."

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. "The farmlands will naturally increase but not in Shanhai town."

"I don’t understand. Please tell me!"

"Shanhai Town is the main base and will be focusing on handicraft and commerce, agriculture is only a secondary business. Hence, at this stage, it isn’t smart to open up more farmlands in the core areas of the town and use up city space. If not, when the town develops, we need to redevelop the farmlands." Ouyang Shuo explained.

"The logic is right but without enough farmland, how could we ensure the territory gets enough grain? Obtaining them from the market isn’t a long-term solution." Zhao Dexian still couldn’t understand.

"This would be solved by the secondary bases. When the town gets to grade 2, we could build a secondary village and this 2nd village will be the center of agriculture. After the setting up of that village and large-scale development of farmlands, it won’t be too late." Ouyang Shuo had already thought it out. As such, he said it calmly.

Zhao Dexian said respectfully, "Sire has thought it through, I envy you.”

He continued, "Since you have thought it out, then its fine. In this period of time, there had been no new additions to the farming population and all new people were sent to the town wall or river moat projects. After the projects are completed, all these people could be transferred to the Agriculture Division and into the new village.”

As for the arrangements of the new villagers, the Household Registration Division had worked under the order of Ouyang Shuo. On the surface, it seemed unfair to the Agriculture Division. Taking the chance, Ouyang Shuo felt it was right to explain it to the secretary so that he would understand.

Speaking about the secondary village, Ouyang Shuo opened the topic, laughing. "I’m just saying, if I send you to manage the development of the second village, would you like to do so?"

Zhao Dexian was shocked, his heartbeat slowing down by half a beat. The difference between the village head and secretary was that one had control of the whole thing and the other a huge part of the main city. The difference in importance was hard to say.

However. for someone who was a village head, to be able to rule again was more tempting. The concept of a secondary village was totally different from Zhaojia Village. It could level up multiple times and it wouldn’t be long until it became a city. It couldn’t be compared to his old village.

He tried his best to not show his eagerness, calmly saying, "I’ll listen to your arrangement."

That’s good, at least he isn't too hot-headed. Ouyang Shuo nodded his head and said, "Please, this is just the first thought, just keep it in your heart. In this period of time, give chances to Sun Yannong, your vice secretary. If I send you there, he has to take over you."

Listening to the meaning in those words, he understood that sending him to build his secondary village wasn’t too far away. It seems like in this period of time he had to teach Sun Yannong, that little kid so that he wouldn’t drop the chain.

The fourth day of the new year.

After having breakfast, Ouyang Shuo changed into casual wear and shaved cleanly, fixing his nails. He looked a lot sharper and fresh.

Bing'er pouted and sat in the living room looking miffed. That little brat was sad that her brother wouldn’t bring her to the gathering. Xue'er sat on her owner's shoulder and ruffled her hair, flying around, not caring about her feelings.

Ouyang Shuo came out from the shower and saw her pouting. He shook his head and sat beside her, lifting her onto his leg. "Baby, brother is going to a student gathering, it isn’t convenient to bring you there. They are all big people and there are no small children to play with you. It will be so boring. Brother promises you that I will be back early to spend time with you."

Only then did the little brat unwillingly nod her head. "Pinky swear. Brother must come back early."

"Ok, pinky swear." Ouyang Shuo patted her head and walked out of his home.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo leave, Bing'er shifted Xue'er onto her palm and said, "Xue'er, now only you are here to accompany me."

Xue'er smiled and said, "Swing… Swing..."

When Ouyang Shuo rushed to Huifang garden and saw the sign: "State of Jiao First High School 2180 Student Gathering" at the hotel, it seemed like the class monitor had made a big preparation.

Ouyang Shuo walked into the hotel and went to the reception. There, the signing in was undertaken by the hotel staff, and they had even prepared a gift for every person.

Opening it, it was a t-shirt and a new model Apple smartwatch. This Yuanping was rich, for a total of 35 people, it cost more than 200,000 to buy all of that.

Ouyang Shuo placed it on his left hand and wore the t-shirt, and under the guidance of the hotel staff, walked into the hall where everyone was gathering.

Walking in, most of the students had already arrived. Yuanping stood at the door to welcome them. Seeing Ouyang Shuo, he rushed up and grabbed onto his hand. "Ouyang Shuo! So many years and you are still so handsome. I am jealous."

Ouyang Shuo smiled, "Compared to your wealth, I am nothing." He shook his left hand and said, "Thanks for this."

Yuanping's eyes gleamed, the confidence and magnanimity that Ouyang Shuo had displayed shocked him. Such gatherings, especially when everyone entered the world, was not so pure and full of warmth.

Taking this gift, there were some people who felt bad and didn’t want people to see them with the gift. Others would keep it and say words of jealousy.

Until this date, only Ouyang Shuo wore it confidently and even thanked him for it. Yuanping could feel that Ouyang Shuo was honest and not mocking or faking it. This showed that he was confident enough to openly accept all of the gifts.

Yuanping, who was amazed, laughed and said, "Let’s go meet our old classmates. There are surely many people who you won’t recognize."

Ouyang Shuo laughed and followed him into the hall. He wasn’t surprised that Yuanping was shocked by his changes. After being reborn and the 2 months as a lord, his aura has lost that pure and naive nature. and had more of a leader's authority.

Chapter 69 - Gathering part 2

The students in the hall, upon seeing Yuanping bringing Ouyang Shuo into the hall with such zeal, they were shocked. Apart from him, the other person who had such treatment was the class flower Song Jia.

In the big hall, there were four tables. Yuanping led Ouyang Shuo to the first table and smilingly said, "Our handsome guy Ouyang Shuo, all of you could still recognize him right?"

Sitting in the first table, apart from the class flower, there was also Meng Fei Fei and Tan Xiaoli whom he had met while shopping for new year goodies. Upon seeing him, they smiled and greeted him.

After Yuanping left, Ouyang Shuo started chatting with the other classmates.

In this world, there never lacked people who made others envy. At the same table was one of them known as Zhao Qinglin. After graduating, with the help of his parents, he became an assistant of the manager at Bingfeng Corporation, the most famous real estate company in the State of Jiao. Out of all the students, he could be considered as a successful person.

To Yuanping's family background, Zhao Qinglin was really envious. He especially rushed down to join the gathering but didn’t expect that Yuanping arranged him at the first table and just left. Rather, he had treated Ouyang Shuo with so much warmth, making him jealous.

He said coldly to Ouyang Shuo," Old classmate, you are so impatient. Wearing the watch so quickly, you can’t afford to buy such electronics?"

Upon hearing his words, the whole table was quiet. Two of the school straight A students who were doing just okay now were embarrassed and hid their watches upon hearing that.

Ouyang Shuo laughed, however, he wasn’t the goody two shoes in school so upon being challenged he said," Yup I can’t afford it. Since your family background is so rich, why not learn from Yuanping and give all of us a handbrain?"

The students at the table laughed, lacking the awkwardness from before, they all looked at Zhao Qinglin to see what he would reply.

"You!" Zhao Qinglin didn’t expect Ouyang Shuo to be so shameless, admitting his lacking against him. It was true he had a good family background but that was only compared to these students, if not he would not need to rush here to get close to Yuanping. To ask him to take out 200 thousand credits for gifts, that was impossible.

Ouyang Shuo paid little attention to his embarrassed face, taking up the teacup and drinking casually.

Tan Xiaoli who was sitting by his left gave him a thumbs up and commended him," Wow! Is that the nerd and quiet Ouyang Shuo? You really changed our opinion. If I didn’t have a boyfriend I would chase you."

"Cough cough!" Ouyang Shuo choked on the tea. Are all the girls nowadays so open, bring up such daring topics.

"What’s with your expression, don’t tell me sister cannot fit with you? Although you are very handsome, sister has both bodies and looks okay?" Seeing Ouyang Shuo's expression, Tan Xiaoli expressed her sadness.

Ouyang Shuo raised his hand to surrender, "Student Tan, Beautiful Tan, I am wrong. Let me off this time."

"He! I’ll count it as you know the truth." Tan Xiaoli moved her eyeballs, walking to his side, "Aiyo, you don’t have a girlfriend right? Let me introduce you to Fei Fei."

Ouyang Shuo hadn’t said anything but Fei Fei who was at the side had already blushed red and grumbled, "I’m going to rip your throat."

Seeing the two women playing fools at the side, Ouyang Shuo helplessly shook his head. His eyes landed on Song Jia who was sitting opposite him. He paused for a moment before he nodded his head, greeting her.

Song Jia was like Yuanping, they both came from a well to do family. The Song family was top 2 in Lingnan and coupled with the fact that Song Jia was a beauty with an exquisite personality, making it hard for people to get close to her. Yuanping kept trying to chase her since the start of high school but sadly it didn’t work out.

At this student gathering, maintaining relationships was secondary, what was primary was his attempt at chasing Song Jia. Ouyang Shuo envied the determination of Yuanping, not giving up after 10 years.

Song Jia wore a white bead high waist dress, giving off the feeling of a goddess. Seeing Ouyang Shuo greet him, she raised her teacup. Ouyang Shuo raised his and they did a toast, it seemed like they had a tacit understanding.

This scene was seen by Zhao Qinglin and he was so jealous that he was practically going crazy. The goddess didn’t even look at him. His hatred towards Ouyang Shuo had intensified.

Not long after, all the classmates had arrived and the gathering officially began. Yuanping went back to the first table and sat at the head seat, his left and right being Ouyang Shuo and Song Jia.

A student gathering obviously couldn’t lack sharing and conversations. Acquaintances or not, soon everyone were drinking together and reminiscing about the past, giving a feeling of old friends reuniting.

Thanks to Yuanping, there were many classmates who had come over to drink with Ouyang Shuo. Some of which held good intentions while some had bad intentions. Ouyang Shuo wasn’t afraid of them because if one talked about alcohol tolerance, there was no one he was afraid of.

Of course, the brightest star was Yuanping and people who looked for him were endless. He was pulled around tables to drink.

"Old classmates let’s have a drink together!" The sweet voice of a girl sounded out in his ear. He turned around to see Song Jia, raising up a cup of red wine to him.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head and poured some red wine for himself. "Ok, I’ll have a cup with our goddess." Ouyang Shuo gulped down the entire glass of wine.

What he didn’t expect was for her to finish it too, her cheeks flushing red instantly.

Ouyang Shuo remembered that when she had a toast with Yuanping, she had only taken small sips. He didn’t expect for her to favor him.

To speak the truth, during high school they didn’t have much interaction. One came from a rich family and had a cold personality, the other was ordinary and an introvert that didn’t talk much with others.

He couldn’t understand it but he didn’t mind. Taking the chance, he started chatting with Song Jia. After he started working closely with Fan Zhongyan, his speaking ability had improved a lot and the two of them got deep into conversation.

At that moment, Yuanping walked back and behind him was Zhao Qinglin. Seeing them two talking, he smiled, "I left for a while, didn’t think you two will be in such deep conversation."

Ouyang Shuo didn’t know if his words had any hidden meaning but he didn’t care. In reality, he was just a passing cloud, he laughed and said," The star of tonight, just sit and eat some food."

Ouyang Shuo tried to change the topic but someone was unhappy. Zhao Qinglin was like a clown jumping out from behind Yuanping's back sarcastically saying, "The way I see it, the toad is trying to eat some of the dove meat." The lapdog who followed Yuanping around jumped out to fight for his owner.

Ouyang Shuo's face darkened and just as he wanted to teach Zhao Qinglin a lesson and beat some senses into him. Song Jia had already jumped ahead and scolded out, "Some people want to be despicable I cannot prevent them. Ouyang Shuo is my friend, whoever disrespects him I will not let off."

Being scolded directly by Song Jia, Zhao Qinglin was stunned, he walked back to his seat ashamed. A pair of eyes stared at Ouyang Shuo, wanting to rip him apart.

Originally Yuanping didn’t think too much but this commotion made his face darken. Luckily he was a rich kid from an important family, so he had some manners, "We are all classmates. Come, I will drink with all of you."

Ouyang Shuo calmly picked up the beer glass and gulped it up. Although Yuanping had tried his best to raise the mood, it was a bit moody and awkward. An originally happy occasion was spoilt just like that.

One has to mention that Yuanping was a master at adapting. He took the chance to end the gathering early and say, "Fellow classmates, I have booked a suite in the ktv upstairs, let's go sing some songs."

Everyone cheered out, to be able to shout out songs when one was high was obviously a fun and good thing.

Ouyang Shuo did not expect there to be such an arrangement, and he felt embarrassed. He did not forget his promise to Bing'er to return home early and play with her. The original reason for coming was reached and he had already met the people he wanted to meet. They reminisced what they should have. Once youth once passed was like the wind, unable to recreate.

"Yuanping, I won’t be going to sing, there's someone waiting for me at home. Have fun guys!" Ouyang Shuo smiled as he said to the activity organizer.

Yuanping earnestly wished for him to leave in case he had any further dealings and relationship with Song Jia. He acted regretfully, "Ai, we could have sung a duet. Family is important and I won’t keep you. Stay safe on the way back."

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head and after saying goodbye to everyone turned and left the hall. He didn’t care about Tan Xiaoli, who said he didn’t give them face by leaving so early.

Chapter 70 - Crush

As Ouyang Shuo left Guifang Park Hotel, he walked to the side of the road and was just about to hail a taxi. Suddenly, a red Ferrari screeched to a stop in front of him.

He raised his head to look, it was actually Song Jia. The beauty opened her lips slightly, smiling as she said, "Where are you going? I'll drop you off!"

Ouyang Shuo really couldn't understand the girl in front of him. If what had happened at the banquet table was vague, then what happened now made him certain that Song Jia had taken an interest in him. But why? When he was in high school, he was just an unappealing nerd, which part of him was worth the favor of this attractive gem?

Seeing his hesitation, Song Jia teased, "Why? Are you afraid that I'll rape you?"

Ouyang Shuo couldn't tolerate that and without saying anything, opened the door and sat in the co-driver seat. "Ha, what am I scared of? If there's rape, it will be me raping you."

Song Jia giggled. She didn’t even ask him for his address, directly revving up the sports car and diving into the busy traffic.

At that moment, the atmosphere in the car became very awkward. The two of them have not met in 5-6 years, now both being in such a confined space, all of the sudden both of them were at a loss of words.

Ouyang Shuo tilted his head, sizing up Song Jia, his eyes filled with doubt and inquiry.

Being stared at so shamelessly by Ouyang Shuo, even an elegant women like Song Jia couldn’t take it. Her face blushed red as she grumbled, "What are you looking at, you little pervert."

"I'm looking at a beauty, do you want to look together?" Ouyang Shuo continued shamelessly. He didn’t believe that he would not be able to force out her true colors.

"You have changed a lot." Song Jia didn’t bother about Ouyang Suo's teasing, saying out of the blue.

"Became more handsome?"

"Tsk, ok you smug. I've not seen you in so many years, your ability didn’t grow, but your face skin has certainly grown a lot thicker. I remember you weren’t like this last time." Song Jia covered her mouth and laughed softly.

"How was I last time? I can’t remember?" Ouyang Shuo asked curiously.

"You ah, let me think. In my impression of you during high school, you were a handsome and very quiet cute little boy. You were a little cool and didn’t like to interact with people."

"Oh please, please don’t use cute to describe a guy okay?" In the face of compliments from a beauty, truthfully, Ouyang Shuo felt a little sweet inside. However, he couldn’t show it in his words.

"Haha, during that time, you were just 13-14 years old. In my memory, you were cute!"

"Okay, I admit defeat. Say the truth, you paid so much attention to me. Was it that you had a crush on me?" Ouyang Shuo jokingly said.

"Yes, I had a crush on you that time."

"Ha?" Ouyang Shuo's eyes opened wide, his mouth agape with shock. "Stop joking, you were the school princess then, you were proud like a peacock. The guys who chased after you could form a few lines around the school track. Why would you crush on an unappealing little boy?"

Song Jia smiled slightly, "A princess will also look out for her white knight. Those guys that chased me were filled with lust, they were so annoying. Only your eyes were so clear, making me fall head over heels over you. Do you remember the valentine’s day that year when you received chocolates? That was my gift."

"Ha, I was saying, which girl would give me a gift and not leave her name?"

"Sadly, I was too reserved then and even until our graduation I did not dare to confess."

"You can still make it up now, I wouldn’t mind." Ouyang Shuo knew that a teen's first love looked like a great memory, but it could not withstand the test of time. So much time passed, what was left was a sweet memory. Hence, Ouyang Shuo dared to make such unscrupulous jokes.

"You smug kid. I won’t like a slippery tongued little pervert." Song Jia laughed.

Ouyang Shuo exaggeratingly grabbed his heart with both hands, imitating Stephen Chow's accent and saying sadly, "In the past, there was a pure love right in front of my eyes, but I didn’t cherish it. Only until I lost it did I start to regret, this is the most painful thing in the world…"

Song Jia acted in concert with him, saying emotionally, "If the heavens could give you another opportunity, what would you say to the girl?"

Ouyang Shuo turned his head and looked into Song Jia's eyes, purposely saying with deep emotion, "If the heavens gave me another opportunity, I would tell the girl, ’I love you, if I were to add an expiration date to our love, I wish it to be 10000 years!’"

Being looked at with such deep emotion, Song Jia's face blushed red. She awkwardly turned her face away, her heart beating profusely. Although she knew Ouyang Shuo was playing a fool, when the words "I love you" came out of his mouth, she couldn’t help but be touched.

If not, why would people say that the first love is the sweetest. Even after many years, that sweetness would still last and would not fade.

The atmosphere in the car became ambiguous, even catching Ouyang Shuo himself off guard. When he said those three words, he didn’t know why but his heart slowed down half a beat, making him sure he was emotionally affected.

"Cough. If it’s convenient, can you send me to White Cloud area in the Tianyuan district? I live there." Ouyang Shuo shook his head, shaking off that feeling off from his mind, instantly changing the topic.

"Oh, okay." Song Jia turned the steering wheel and passed her phone to Ouyang Shuo at the same time.

"What are you doing?"

"Save your phone number in, you are really a piece of wood." The beauty grumbled.

"Oh, okay." Ouyang Shuo took the phone, unintentionally touching the tender fingertips of Song Jia. It was like touching electricity, he quickly withdrew his hand.

After clumsily saving his number, he returned the phone to Song Jia. Their fingers naturally touched again. However, this time it appeared more natural.

In not more than half an hour, the sports car was already parked at the door of Tianyuan district. This was the first time that Ouyang Shuo felt a hatred for sports cars. Why did they have to travel so fast?

"I've arrived."

"Oh. You aren't going to invite me up?"

"Ha? Let’s forget it."

"Why? Are you keeping a mistress in your golden house?"

"How could I?"

"Hahaha. I'm just joking. Let’s keep in touch. Bye Bye."

"Bye Bye!"

Wait, that’s not right. Did she just tease me? Shouldn’t I be the one who should be saying those words? As he gazed at the disappearing sports car, Ouyang Shuo's heart was unsettled, unable to calm himself down.

When he reached home, Bing’er ran over happily, passing him his slippers. Ouyang Shuo smiled and said," Baby, today I wasn’t home, were you well-behaved?"

"Hm. Bing’er was so well-behaved."

"That’s good, come. Let brother give you a reward." Ouyang Shuo took off the smartwatch from his wrist and helped Bing’er wear it. In his eyes, the smartwatch was only suitable to be a toy for Bing’er.

At 9 PM, after coaxing Bing’er to sleep, Ouyang Shuo returned to his room and logged onto the game.

After going online, he routinely practiced an hour of spearmanship on dummies. Following which, he practiced the Bajiquan which he had just learned not long before. Now in Shanhai Village, everything was very orderly and the things that needed his attention were little to none. Taking the opportunity of such carefree times, Ouyang Shuo took out more of his time to practice martial arts.

Even if he might seem like a civil officer, placing himself in the base from the start and taking care of the operations of the base, but the truth was he still had martial arts in his bones because if not, he would not have chosen the officer class in his past life.

To be honest, which men weren’t hot-blooded and yearned to conquer the battlefield. Even if they did fall in battle and die, they would have no regrets. His current strength, compared to the basic level Lin Yi, was insufficient, not fitting of his identity as the general of the entire army. Hence, he wanted to make use of this time and train up.

At noon, Ouyang Shuo made a trip to the back mountains to take a look at the two Nian beasts who had made it their home. According to legends, the Nian beasts spent their lives at the bottom of the ocean, only coming to shore on New Year’s Eve, claiming the lives animals and humans.

Ouyang did not know whether the legend was real or not, but it was true that the Nian beasts loved to eat ocean fish. Hence, the Resource Division had to prepare 50 units of fresh ocean fish every day for the two Nian beasts. Thankfully the village was right beside the ocean. If not, feeding the two beasts would be a big problem.

Returning from the back mountains, Ouyang Suo rode Black Tornado as he brought his bow and galloped out of the town.

The wilderness in winter was a solemn picture. The wild grass was withered yellow, in the vast scenery, as Ouyang Shuo rode his horse, he felt relaxed and free. In the whole world, there existed only him.

Riding on his horse, Ouyang Shuo's mind suddenly filled with Song Jia's figure. She turned around and smiled, her youthfulness arousing his heart. For whatever reason, Sun Xiaoyue's image also appeared, causing him to feel upset. Since when did that little brat leave an impression in his mind? This was such a mess.

If there was a second person there, they could with a single glance see that Ouyang Shuo's spring had arrived.

In the five years in his past life, Ouyang Shuo did not have a proper relationship because of Bing’er. It was not that no girl chased after him, but he had rejected them. How could a person who wandered from place to place talking about falling in love?

In this life, the development of Shanhai town was smooth. Unexpectedly, a few pretty girls also entered his life, stirring up his calm heart.

He did not remember if during the student gathering in his past life, whether he had such a conversation with Song Jia. The past him was a tired man, even if he’d met Song Jia, he wouldn’t have the courage to joke around. He only remembered that after that gathering, he did not keep in contact with any classmate, including Song Jia.

What had happened in the past rushed into his mind. This did not reduce his determination as he wasn’t a person to worry needlessly. Different experiences warned him that an emperor's dominance did not have any space for slacking. The country belongs to me; beauties too belong to me.

Chapter 71 - Water Bandits (1/3)

Gaia, February 24, Year 1, also the fifth day of the first lunar month, Cloudy.

“System Notification: Congratulations to Di Chen for the successful establishment of the second town in China; special reward of 1000 merit points!”

“System Notification: Congratulations to Di Chen...”

“System Notification: Congratulations...”

There was a burst of system announcements happening just right after Ouyang Shuo logged in.

Ten days after Shanhai Town’s upgrade came the second town. Di Chen, once again proved his strength, defending his name and honor as the lead position in the Six Tyrants of Handan. Even though the reign of Six Tyrants have ended long ago.

Without the requirements of indexes limiting him, there would be no more obstacles for Handan Town to get to grade 2. If Di Chen were to be more radical, he could definitely chase up Ouyang Shuo and his Shanhai Town, upgrading Handan Town to grade 2 town faster than Ouyang Shuo.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo would not allow Di Chen to disrupt his plan for Shanhai Town, and he continued his training on his spearmanship and Bajiquan as usual.

3 PM in the afternoon, Military Intelligence Secretary, San Gouzi, came into the Manor, reporting his military intelligence to Ouyang Shuo.

He reported with an excited tone “Sire, we have finally found the raider’s camp!”

“Perfect! Where is it?” Ouyang Shuo, excited by the news, hastily asked.

“Heh…Sire, it is a place you would have never thought of. This time, the raider’s camp is located at the coast upstream of the Friendship River, it took us a great effort to located the camp's location."

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes shined, “That said, they are a bunch of water bandits, how many of them?”

“According to my intelligence, the kiosk is around 1 square kilometer. Well about their numbers, I have sent my men to investigate, they should be back with detailed information in two days or so.” San Gouzi answered in a very low tone, ashamed by the imperfection of his intelligence division. Reporting to a superior with incomplete intelligence is one of the biggest taboo in the Military Intelligence Division.

San Gouzi's report made Ouyangshuo frowned, without the details, he could not analyze the situation. Based on the area occupied by the bandits, the camp should have around 1000 men and worst come to worst, it would be a high-level stronghold. What puzzled him the most is that with such a huge number of bandits, why did they not invade Shanhai Town? With their overwhelming number, the tides of war will be on their side if they intent to invade Shanhai Town.

“The Military Intelligence Division had derelict in their duties. When it was first established, I had said- It is the utmost responsibility of the Military Intelligence Division to ascertain threats and its sources; prevent it from happening and prepare for what is coming. Yet none of you had detected such a large threat before this. Honestly, I am very disappointed.” Words came in a serious tone from Ouyang Shuo.

“It is all my fault sir, please punish me!”

“There will be punishments, but not now. The bandits are large in numbers, their threats to the town are big. Therefore, I need to remove them as soon as possible. However, the navy of Beihai Village is not ready yet, a battle on the water is unfavorable to us. This is the time for your division to shine. Get me every detail of the bandits, I want to know why they did not invade us before. Otherwise, blinded by the lack of information, it would cause us nothing but our petty death.” Ouyang Shuo knew what’s more important as of now, at this moment of crisis, the help of the Military Intelligence was much needed, it was still not the time for punishment yet.

San Gouzi nodded heavily, answering aloud, “Thank you, sire! For giving me, and the Military Intelligence Division a chance to atone for our sins. I promise with my life, if the results are not satisfying, I will bring my head to you!”

“I will be waiting for your good news, now go! Remember, you only have 3 days.” Ouyang Shuo gave them 3 days to do it. The investigation before might had already alerted the bandits, if they had more time to prepare themselves, then it would be even harder to win the battle, that is a risk he cannot afford.

“Yes sire!”

After San Gouzi left, Ouyang Shuo requested the 3 directors in his manor, he then made an announcement, Shanhai Town now enters Level 1 Alert State, any activities and movements outside of the town shall be reduced, and curfew would be applied during night-time.

February 26, intelligence information about the stronghold came in one after another onto Ouyang Shuo’s table. Informants took great risk to dive through the Friendship River into the stronghold for first-hand information. The stronghold have over 900 bandits, among them 500 were combatants, right enough to form a battalion. Of the 500, There were 400 of level 25 ordinary bandits and a hundred of level 30 elite bandits.

It had 3 leaders, their head- BlackDragon, second-in-command- WaterSnake, and following by Pei DongLai, the third leader. Among the three, the most notable one would be Pei DongLai. It is said that he was a navy general, saved by BlackDragon and was brought back to the stronghold. Proficient in army training, he had then became the third leader of the bandits.

In the intelligence, the reason why the bandits took no action was revealed. It was due to an internal conflict. The infighting arose from WaterSnake’s unhappiness with Pei DongLai’s rapid promotion, it had affected his interest and benefits. He gathered the original cadre, claiming that Pei was an officer as a propaganda, and requested BlackDragon to get rid of Pei.

Yet, Pei had his own supporters too. Almost half of the bandits, amazed and subdued by Pei’s army training capability, stood firm along Pei’s side. Both sides fought and condemned each other like fire and ice, cats and dogs. BlackDragon tried his best to reconcile the conflicts and return the harmonies but it did not work. As things escalated quickly, a war between the two factions seemed inevitable, what thoughts could he have in the Shanhai Town?

Having these detailed pieces of information in his hands, Ouyang Shuo was excited. Immediately he promoted the brave informant as the Military Intelligence deputy secretary, along with a reward of 5 golds.

He knew the key to eradicate the bandits lies on Pei. But how? It is another problem he needs to figure out. At this moment, he realized the importance and the need of a strategist.

Without any second choice, he summoned Fan to his manor, he would like to listen to Fan’s opinion. After all, Fan did led an army to war before.

Briefly, he told Fan about the stronghold and the information they had. “Is there any good plans in mind Director Fan?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Fan pondered for a moment, “Pei comes from a military background, it is not a surprise at all he and the bandits did not get along. Shanhai Town is an official territory acknowledged by the government, same line as the navy officer. If I am Pei, I would choose Shanhai over the bandits. As such, my lord can send a man to Pei, show him that we are the only righteous path. Have him inspire a defection from the inside and we will attack from the outside, the bandits will be eradicated in no time.”

Ouyang Shuo shook his head “I am afraid it will not be that easy, BlackDragon saved Pei’s life, he would not easily betray his savior. From the infight one can tell, the reason Pei is able to stand firm was due to BlackDragon’s support from the back. Thus, it is not easy to have him turning his back on his savior, at least, not in the near future. ”

Fan gave a mysterious smile, confidently he said “My lord speaks the truth, however, what if the letters between Pei and us were fallen into BlackDragon’s hands? His skeptic personality would have determined that he will not trust Pei anymore. Therefore, we have met our goal, only if Pei joined us had he a chance to live.”

Honestly, Fan’s plan really tempted Ouyang Shuo for a moment. However, as soon as he thought about it, he had to give it up, “Indeed it is truly a brilliant plan, however, if we followed this plan. Pei may be forced to stand on our side, but he will never be one of us, not when he is unwilling to. This is definitely not something I am happy to see. I am sure you know the importance of a navy general to Shanhai Town.”

Fan smiled and said “My lord thinks ahead of us, you have grasped the king’s way. If this is the case, if my lord desires the best of both worlds, then there is only one way to do it.”

“How?”

“Instigate their relationship between WaterSnake and BlackDragon. WaterSnake leads the senior cadre in the stronghold, they are unhappy of BlackDragon’s favor over Pei. Find just the right timing, and make them both turn against each other. When the snipe and clam grapple, Shanhai Town can watch the fight behind the ramparts, and be the fisherman that profits.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head excitedly, “You must have a good plan in mind, please show me how!”

“My lord you only need to send a trusted and skillful spy, sneak into the stronghold and spread the words. Say, WaterSnake is about to riot, and replace BlackDragon in his position as their mighty leader. Ensure the words reach to the skeptical BlackDragon, plus these days such news are really sensitive to them. Even if he finds the news abnormal, he will still choose to exterminate WaterSnake. Naturally, WaterSnake will not stand still and do nothing, the battle between the two is inevitable.” Fan calmly analyzed the situation.

“Furthermore, to ensure the plan goes smoothly, there are two more things needed to be done. One- Disable Shanhai Town’s state of alert. So the bandits can let their guards down and cast us aside, only focusing on the battle that is about to come. Two- Continue our contacts with Pei, show him our sincerity and goodwill, in that case, he will most probably stay out of the infight. Thus weakening BlackDragon’s strength, keeping the balance between WaterSnake and BlackDragon.” Fan continued on with two more measures, one inside and one outside, making the plan seamless.

Shou clapped his hands and praised Fan for his excellent plan. “Your plan is brilliant and excellent, the stronghold will be eliminated in no time! There is another thing I will need you to do, the letter to solicit Pei.”

“It is my obligation to write it!”

After Fan left the manor, Ouyang Shuo summoned San Gouzi and the new Deputy Secretary Leng Qian. He briefed them about the plan, “It lies upon the Military Intelligence Division to make the plan work. Selection for the spy must be of strict rules- Reliable and flexible-minded.

San Gouzi and Leng Qian looked at each other and nodded.

Leng Qian stood up and said, “I will personally sneak in myself, and will not disappoint you, my lord!”

“Then, I have no worries.” Ouyang Shuo nodded his head.

Chapter 72 - Water Bandits (2/3)

February 27, Leng Qian, with the letter to solicit Pei, sneaked into the stronghold.

Walking down the street, Leng Qian randomly pulled a bandit over to the side, ready to spread the rumors.

“Brother, have you heard of it? ” Mysteriously he asked the bandit.

“Heard of what?” The bandit was puzzled by the random question.

“Of what? Don’t you know yet? My cousin brother’s fourth aunt’s nephew works under the second leader, and he happened to tell me a big secret- Our second leader, Watersnake is about to do something big!” He acted surprised as though the bandit did not know anything.

“What is it? Tell me quick brother, what is the second leader planning to do?” As expected, it is human nature being gossipy, that includes everyone from the past, in the future, male, female, young and old.

“I can secretly tell you, but don’t spread it out, keep it to yourself! My cousin brother’s fourth aunt’ nephew will be punished!” Leng Qian continued on the acting. Only the rare and undisclosed news were more easily trusted.

“Alright, alright, I promise, I won’t tell anyone else. Now tell me quick!”

Leng Qian looked around, making sure no one was eavesdropping the conversation. He lowered his voice and said “I tell you, the 2nd leader is sick of the great leader sheltering the 3rd leader under his wings. Watersnake will have an insurrection, and be the great leader himself.”

“Ah? Is it true or not? He has the guts do it?”

“Heh, it is your choice to believe or not. Our second leader is dauntless, what fear does he have? You remember last year when he led an attack on the armies?” Obviously, Leng Qian had done his homework, else he wouldn’t know about the event.

“You are right. Ay, if that is the case, pawns like us will have to suffer again.”

“Sigh, what else can we do… I am only telling you this because I don’t find you annoying. We should prepare ourselves. Otherwise, we might be sacrificed unknowingly.” Leng Qian answered in a flurry tone.

“Yes, yes, indeed. Thank you brother, for telling me. I promise I will not tell anyone.”

“Good, remember! Don’t tell anyone!” Dramatically Leng Qian emphasized again telling him not to tell the secret to the others.

Just right after Leng Qian left his sight, he immediately told his second uncle’s third son, after he finished telling the secret, he stressed the importance of keeping the words as a secret.

Then his uncle’s third son continued on telling the secret to his neighbor Uncle Wang’s second son, and so the so-called “secret” spread over the whole camp within half a day. The whole stronghold was talking about it, people would gather around, whispering mysteriously, and in the end, adding a sentence asking the others not to spread the words.

It was already 11 AM when Blackdragon received the rumors. Two hours had passed since Leng Qian had created the rumors. Stronghold, Hall of Brotherhood, Blackdragon sat in the main seat, he had a somber, deep cold voice “Brother, brother… In the end, you still wanted to take the final step.”

In the Hall of Brotherhood, right below Blackdragon was his trusted strategist, puzzled by the strange news, he questioned its truth, “My great leader, this is strange… If, I mean if, the second leader is really going to do it, how would he allow the information to be leaked? This doesn’t make much sense.”

Blackdragon’s face turned darker, he asked, “Your words, you mean… there is someone behind all of this? Someone spreading fake news, stirring up the water and our relationship?”

“It is all merely my conjecture. But we still need to prepare ourselves, preventions are still needed.”

“Who? Who holds this motive?” Blackdragon questioned further.

His strategist’s face stagnant for a moment, reluctant to answer.

Blackdragon waved his hand, impatiently asking for his answer, “Speak whatever is in your head, there is no need to pull back. What’s more to avoid from at this point in time?”

“Then, I shall be bold and straightforward. In my opinion, it is the 3rd leader, he is the biggest suspect.”

“What? You speak of Donglai? How can it be possible?” Blackdragon was certainly surprised by the answer.

Since he had been bold and therefore there was no need to hesitate anymore. “Yes, my great leader, think about it, if you and 2nd leader raged a war. Who would benefit from it?”

“Would it be the Shanhai Town from the east? If we have an infight, they will benefit largely from it, no doubt they have such motives.”

Strategist nodded his head, and confidently he said, “I have thought so too, thinking it might be Shanhai Town. But according to our scouts, Shanhai Town had no movements, everything was as usual. They could still be immersed in the New Year’s celebration atmosphere. They probably are not even aware of our existence.”

Blackdragon was not convinced. He still has his trust in Pei Donglai. He stood up and walked around the hall, frowned, trying to see clearly past the thick fog and grasp the truth.

“You think, would this be just a slapstick farce by my 2nd brother. Trying to crush my trust in Donglai, so then he could have benefited from it.”

Blackdragon’s words struck his strategist's heart, the strategist paused and run the possibilities through his mind, It is highly possible. The 2nd leader gave himself the name of Watersnake, all because he admired Blackdragon’s cold-bloodedness and slyness. This whole plot seems much like his style of doing.

As his strategist stayed silent, Blackdragon knew exactly what was in his heart. It seemed like he had hit the jackpot. With a cold emotionless voice, he said, “Brother, brother… what a conscienceless man you are. In that case, don’t curse me for being ruthless. Give my orders. Send the men over and capture Watersnake, dead or alive. I want his body.”

“Yes, sir!” His strategist dared not stay longer. He left right after to gather the men.

As the main camp of the stronghold, the Hall of Brotherhood stationed a squadron of bandits. 70 ordinary bandits and another 30 elites were there, patrolling and guarding the Hall of Brotherhood, directly under Blackdragon’s command.

However, just when Blackdragon was discussing in the Hall of Brotherhood, Watersnake had already taken the first move. He understood too well his elder brother, whether or not the rumors were true, there wouldn’t have a place for him anymore in this home. Then why not seize the opportunity and risk it all?

As the 2nd leader of the raiders, Watersnake commanded 2 squadrons, 200 men including 60 elites, and 140 ordinary bandits. They were usually stationed in the stronghold. Watersnake sent his trusted subordinate to organize them out of the barracks by batches, and gather them in his courtyard.

11.30am

Watersnake and his troops, from his courtyard, went straight over to the Hall of Brotherhood, the great number of his forces triggered a wave of fear and uneasiness among the other non-combatants. The rumor, what they had said this morning, was now really happening.

Once Blackdragon knew of it, he sent a messenger to seek help from the barracks from the back door, while he personally rushed to the front gate. The two factions that fought together before were now confronting each other. With a mixture of a sneer and smile, Blackdragon opened his mouth, “Brother, it was true you had the intention to replace me. Why so, wanting to replace me in place so fast?”

Watersnake replied the same facial gestures, “Aren’t you the same, brother? Since you have lost trust in me. Then this younger brother of yours can only say sorry to you too.”

Seeing that things were turning sour, Blackdragon took a step back. “Brother, dismiss your troops. I promise I will not pursue your wrong acts.”

Right at this moment, one of Watersnake’s subordinate came beside him and lowered his voice, “Leader, I think he is trying to drag the time. We should attack now, otherwise the longer we wait, the more the uncertainties.”

Watersnake nodded his head, “There is no need to pretend anymore brother. Everyone, ATTACK!”

Comparing the strength of both sides, Watersnake’s troops were twice the size of Blackdragon’s, clearly outnumbering him. Yet, Blackdragon’s forces were able to hold their grounds relying on the Hall of Brotherhood’s defense infrastructure, such as the sentries and fences.

While on the other side of the stronghold, Military Intelligence Division Deputy Secretary Leng Qian went straight to Pei Donglai’s courtyard after spreading the rumors.

According to his normal routine, Pei Donglai would only be in the barracks in the afternoon. He would usually stay in his courtyard in the morning. After all, there was a huge difference between bandits and the armies. There were no habits of morning drills, and most of them had rather a lax discipline. This was also the main reason why Watersnake was able to get his troops out of the barracks smoothly, else it would have alerted Pei Donglai.

Coming in as an outsider, Pei Donglai had no one in the stronghold and only had three or four servants in the courtyard. Leng Qian was able to sneak in without any troubles to Pei’s study room before alerting Pei.

“Who is it?” Pei questioned vigilantly the identity of the intruder.

“Greetings General Pei, I am a messenger from Shanhai Town, I bring the greetings from my lord to you.”

The study room went dead silent for five or six minutes before Pei invited Leng Qian in.

“Come in!”

Leng Qian exhaled in relief, and walked into the room, before that he was ready to make an escape. In the middle of the room sat an officer, holding an art of war book. His eyes, cold as frost ice, “How brave of you, daring to infiltrate the stronghold, and walking into my courtyard.”

Leng Qian answered in a calm manner, “I do not deserve such high praise from you general, please forgive me for this uninformed visit. My lord appreciates talents, and he had heard of your existence, thus he had sent me to pay you a visit.” He answered while taking out the letter wrote by Fan Zhongyan and handed it to Pei Donglai.

Pei Donglai opened the letter and took a glance, his rapidly changing facial expression could not be described and paused for a moment before he replied, “Your lord’s goodwill, I have received. But I am indebted to Blackdragon, for he had saved my life, and I had sworn I would not betray him. You may leave now. I will not hold you back.”

Leng Qian nodded his head, understanding Pei Donglai’s inner conflict between the one that saved his life and the one that appreciated his talents. It was truly a hard decision to make. But in the end, he chose to repay his debt to his savior and gave up his ambition. Such an honorable man.

Chapter 73 - Water Bandits (3/3)

Leng Qian left the Pei courtyard but stayed in the stronghold. He will be watching in the shadows, and report to his lord the current situations of the stronghold.

Back to the Hall of Brotherhood, under Watersnake’s encouragement, Blackdragon’s forces were losing their grounds and were at the edge of losing it all completely. Blackdragon was furious and scolded out his anger, “Goddammit, how is the reinforcement not here yet.”

“It is still in the morning, the third leader will not be in the barracks, we still have to wait.” His strategist cautiously said from the side.

“Shit, if we keep on waiting, they will only be here to collect our dead bodies.”

And just as Blackdragon had said, before his reinforcement could arrive, Watersnake had already broken through into the Hall of Brotherhood. Blackdragon and his remaining troops were surrounded. The victorious Watersnake, proudly and complacently said, “How is that, brother. Kneel before me, and kowtow to me. Acknowledge me as your elder brother, your leader, and I will spare your life.”

Blackdragon was a man with his own pride, how could he withstand such an embarrassment and humiliation, “Pui! You can kill me or do anything you like, but you want me to kowtow to you? Keep on dreaming!”

“I offered you a wine of mercy and yet you chose a wine of punishment, then don’t blame me for being ruthless!” Watersnake, angered by the answer, had a twisted face and somber tone, he then gave the killing order, “Kill him!”

Under the rain of arrows, Blackdragon died, and following his death, the rest of his troops surrendered.

The battle of the Hall of Brotherhood, the stationed squadron had 32 casualties, 68 surrendered, while Watersnake’s 2 squadrons had 58 casualties, 12 seriously injured, and the rest 130 were still combative. Including 45 elite raiders, most of his troops were still well preserved.

At this time, Pei Donglai had led 2 squadrons of reinforcements to the Hall of Brotherhood.

But it was too late, Watersnake had his men gathered at the front door, he said loudly to the reinforcements, “Brothers, the once mighty leader is now gone. From now on, I am the new leader in this stronghold, you all have to think wisely, Do you want to follow my lead, or follow an outsider like Pei Donglai?”

Pei Donglai brought 200 men along with him, but there were only 10 elites among them. Even if the reinforcement had a slight advantage in numbers, but they were equal in strengths, moreover, Watersnake had the geographical advantage.

As soon as Pei Donglai heard of Blackdragon’s death news, he shouted in great sadness, “Brothers! Watersnake is a rebel, a traitor, he ambushed the Hall of Brotherhood, killed the mighty leader, such a man of dishonor must be killed by everyone!”

Sadly, not everyone was a man of honor like himself. Most of the bandits had decided to side with Watersnake, over 50 of them had joined forces with him and only Pei Donglai’s loyal troops were left.

Watersnake laughed out loud, “It seems like they support me more. Pei Donglai, you outsider brat, leave now when you can, I spare you your life.” The truth was he did not want to start another war with Pei Donglai to avoid any more casualties. He had claimed himself as the leader, of course, he was unwilling to suffer any more losses.

“Kill them!” Pei Donglai’s loyal troops were all remarkable and brave.

Watersnake smiled with a sneer, “Hmph, you just don't know when to accept a person’s nice offer. Brothers, engage!”

With the 50 additional bandits, Watersnake thought he had the victory with him, he gave up his geographical advantage and led his troop out of the Hall of Brotherhood, directly engaging Pei outside out the hall.

Not far away from the battlefield, Leng Qian witnessed the war and had decided it was the appropriate timing. Quietly, he walked to a secluded corner, pulled the trigger and sent out the attack signal, then he immediately rushed to the stronghold’s main gate.

Right outside the stronghold, were Ouyang Shuo and his squadrons, who shadowed themselves in the woods, waiting for the signal.

While they were waiting patiently, Ouyang Shuo pulled General Shi aside, and gave him an order, “General Shi, I am giving you a secret mission.”

“Yes my lord!”

“When we attack later, no matter what the situation is, your first priority- Exterminate their mighty leader. Blackdragon is an evil man, yet he had saved Pei Donglai before. In order to avoid any unforeseen events, it is better to quickly kill him.”

“Rest assured my lord, I promise he will not live longer than today.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head and returned back to the command post. Little did he know, the Blackdragon he was concerned of was already dead by Watersnake’s hands. Just within 10 minutes, he saw Leng Qian’s signal.

Ouyang Shuo was startled, and immediately mounted his horse, with a low deep tone, he said, “Depart!” The infantry squadron in the front and the cavalry at the back, they moved towards the stronghold.

The stationed guards and patrols were stunned as the vast and mighty armies appeared before their eyes. They had little or only a few guards on the post, most of the combatants were caught in the battle of the three leaders, how on earth should they withhold the Shanhai military?

It took a little effort to capture the main gate. Leng Qian came rushing from the side, he said excitedly, “Greetings to my lord.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head, and he quickly said, “What is the situation in the stronghold?”

“My lord, everything was going as expected. Watersnake occupied Hall of Brotherhood and killed Blackdragon. Pei Donglai and his men are raging a war with Watersnake, attempting to avenge Blackdragon’s death.” Leng Qian quickly summarized the situation.

Ouyang Shuo exhaled in relief when he heard that Blackdragon had died, “Good, snipe and clam fights, the fisherman gets both, let’s go!” This time, the infantry and cavalry squad switched position.

When the military reached the Hall of Brotherhood, the bandits were all shocked, no one had seen it coming. Watersnake, realizing the situations were getting worse, he decisively shouted, “Brothers, enemies had intruded us, let us stop and defend ourselves together!”

The bandits, covered in a blood rage and excited by Watersnake’s words, shouted fearlessly. Only Pei Donglai was shocked and suspicious, he never thought the Shanhai troops were waiting outside the stronghold. That said, whatever happened today were all under Shanhai Lord’s control and watch.

Ouyang Shuo said with a sneer, “ Surrender and you will be spared, Resist and you will be killed!”

“Ptooey! Brothers, follow me and fight!” Watersnake shouted a war cry and charged forward.

Seeing that a war is inevitable, Ouyang Shuo’s blood boiled in excitement, he too, shouted a war cry, “Charge!” Captain Lin Yi led his Cavalry Squadron, following Shuo’s footstep, and shouted: “Protect the Lord!”

From the moment Watersnake decided to resist, the outcome had already been decided. They were, after all, water bandits, a land warfare was not their main battlefield, and was also fatigued due to the three leaders battles. Whereas the Shanhai military was ready, energetic and were troops of land warfare, how could the bandits match the Shanhai military?

Ouyang Shuo and Lin Yi fought in the front line, serving as the spearhead, the whole cavalry squadron was like sharp knives, piercing through and splitting the bandits into two parts. Following their back was the sword-shield infantry squadron, reaping the bandits like crops.

The bandit formation was broken into pieces, the bandits regained their consciousness and fear swept through all of them. Ouyang Shuo seizes the opportunity and shouted again, “Surrender and you will live, resist and you die!”

“Surrender and you will live, resist and you die!” His troops repeated after him.

Krang…. Finally, someone couldn’t withstand the pressure, threw his weapon and surrendered. It was like a contagious disease, once the first one surrendered, the rest followed.

As for the one-day mighty leader Watersnake, he had already been shot dead by General Shi’s arrow. Blackdragon was dead, and now Watersnake died in his hands, General Shi considered himself to have adequately accomplished his lord’s secret mission.

“Hahaha~~~I am now a Rank 9 Elite~~ Wahahaha~~” An inappropriate laughter was heard from the cavalry squadron.

Ouyang Shuo turned his head, only to see the cavalry sergeant Zhao Sihu was laughing out loud, and Zhang Daniu, at the side, was jealously staring at him. Who knew that Zhao Sihu managed to level his rank faster than Zhang Daniu, achieving Rank 9 earlier.

Ouyang Shuo summoned the two, he said while laughing, “Nice, finally there is a result. Zhao Sihu!”

“Yes!”

“I hereby appoint you as the Acting Captain of the Infantry Squadron, you will officially be the Captain after the class change.”

“Thank you, my lord, I will not disappoint you!”

“Zhang Daniu!”

“Yes!”

“I hereby appoint you as the Vice-captain of the Infantry Squadron and Lieutenant of the 1st Platoon.”

“Thank you, my lord, I will not let you down!”

Lin Yi stood aside, gave a wry smile and asked: “My lord, you had just taken away the cavalry squadron’s two most excellent sergeant, what am I supposed to do now.”

“What to do? Cold mix1!” After a little joke, Shuo with an earnest tone said, “There is a need to focus on the next generation, uncover more new talents, and promote them appropriately to the right post.”

“Understood!”

After the little interlude, Ouyang Shuo had arranged a cleanup for the aftermath of the battle, “Li Mingliang!”

“My lord!”

“Lead a team, and bring the non-combative bandits to the front square of Hall of Brotherhood.”

“Understood!” Li Mingliang rode off with the cavalry squadron 1st platoon.

“Liao Kai!”

“Sire!”

“With your platoon, stay on guard and watch after the captives.”

“Yes my lord!”

“Zhao Sihu!”

“Yes my lord!”

“Bring your men, seal off the storehouses, arsenal, and the stronghold’s main gate. Exterminate anyone that goes near it.”

“Yes, sire!” Zhao Sihu then leads Infantry Squadron 2nd Platoon to the storehouses, arsenal and main gate.

“Zhang Daniu!”

“My lord!”

“Lead the Infantry Squadron 1st Platoon, coordinate on guarding and watching the captives, no mistakes are allowed!”

“Yes my lord!”

After Ouyang Shuo finished giving his orders, only then he had the time to pay Pei Donglai a visit, “I have long heard of General Pei’s ability and talent, It is a pleasure to see you in person.”

Pei Donglai held a poor face and said in a deep voice, “General of the defeated, how am I to be praised.”

“Sigh… This battle’s loss was not your fault, you didn’t have to blame yourself for it. Watersnake is now dead, you have avenged your savior, and repaid your debt, you have done everything you could. A man of honor like you serves the battlefield, earns meritorious deeds…. not spending the rest of your life in this small stronghold. I intend to recruit you as Shanhai Town’s navy commander, with the title of ‘General’. I hope you would consider and accept my offer.” Shuo took a deep bow as he finished his sincere speech.

Pei Donglai was moved, he quickly slid to the side avoiding Ouyang Shuo’s bow, and he knelt down with one knee on the ground, and exclaimed in delight, “Sire is so kindhearted, I will swear my loyalty to my lord!”

Ouyang Shuo went and picked him up, with a bright smile, he said, “With you, it is worth more than thousands and millions of armies.”

Cold mix1 凉拌 : A mandarin joke. 怎么办？(what to do?) 凉拌！(cold mix!) As both of the words ends with the sound of “ban”.

Chapter 74 - Pei Donglai

Chapter 74: Pei Donglai

After persuading Pei Donglai to join him, Ouyang Shuo took a look at his stats.

Name: Pei Donglai (Gold)

Identity: Shanhai Navy Commander

Occupation: Intermediate General

Loyalty: 80

Command: 65

Force: 45

Intelligence: 40

Politics: 35

Specialty: Wave-treading (troops movement speed on water increase by 10%), Shark Capture (when activated, raise combat power by 20% for 20 minutes.)

Cultivation Method: Canglang Sword Technique (18 stance)

Equipment: Ring Grip Blade

Evaluation: Originally a general, became a water bandit. Great in naval warfare, good at training troops.

From Pei Donglai's stats, his command stat was as high as 65 but his force was only 45. This meant that he gravitated towards being a command-type figure. As a naval commander, this was actually a good thing. After all, in naval warfare, the chances of close combat was very little, what was more important was the leading of troops.

In the time that Ouyang Shuo had received Pei Donglai, the post-war work had already started to progress. The non-combatants in the water stronghold had already rushed into the square in front of the hall of brotherhood, all of them shaking in fear. The rounding up of the prisoners had already been completed and handed to Ouyang Shuo.

The after-battle report included the prisoners of war who stayed to defend the hall of brotherhood. The water stronghold had a total of 308 water bandits, out of which 48 were elite and the rest were normal water bandits.

Ouyang Shuo laughed and said to Pei Donglai, "General Pei, what recommendations do you have towards the treatment of these prisoners?"

"Everything can be decided by sire." Pei Donglai was new here and was as such very careful, not wanting to express his views. Especially on something like dealing with the prisoners.

"Aiyo, general doesn't need to be too careful. How about this? I'll set a rule. For this batch of prisoners, we will split it into three methods. The evildoers will be executed. The people with bad morals will be sent to the quarry for a year, after which the people who behave well will be given the identity of Shanhai town citizens. As for the rest, they will be sent to the Shanhai town navy and trained by the general. Additionally, the General's descendants are all good people and can be directly enlisted into the Shanhai Town navy. The morals and behavior of this batch of prisoners, I think the general has a clearer idea than me. Hence the handling of them I give all the power to you."

Seeing Ouyang Shuo's trust, Pei Donglai was touched. "Thank you sire for your trust, I won't let you down!"

After passing the rights to handling the prisoners of war off to Pei Donglai, Ouyang Shuo started to handle the normal citizens that gathered in the square.

Based on the report, the water stronghold had 435 normal citizens, mostly fishermen, sailors, old or weak men, women or skilled talents.

With these people, Ouyang Shuo treated them magnanimously. Other than the family of Watersnake and the other leaders, regarding them as slaves, the rest were given the identity of Shanhai town citizens.

Ouyang Shuo arranged for Lin Yi to lead the cavalry squadron, bringing back the prisoners and normal citizens back to Shanhai Town. At the same time, he arranged for some fast horses to inform the Material Reserves Department and Finance Department to come and settle the stores and send them back to Shanhai Town.

After Pei Donglai told Ouyang Shuo the hiding places of all the treasures and items in the water stronghold, he left with the squadron. He had to return the Shanhai town to work with the Household Registration Division to complete the works on the prisoners of war.

At noon, the Material Reserves Department and Finance Department brought with them a large number of wooden walking horses to the water stronghold. With Pei Donglai's earlier advice, the transporting of the goods went really well. Ouyang Shuo showed his scroungy nature and picked the entire water stronghold clean.

Lastly, he entered the hall of brotherhood. Upon seeing the stone stele that had risen up, he placed his hand on it without hesitation, triggering a system notification.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for destroying an advanced water stronghold. Please choose method of disposal: occupy, transfer power, or destroy?"

"I choose to destroy!" Ouyang Shuo didn't want to leave any hope for the water bandits and immediately chose to destroy.

"System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi chose to destroy advanced water stronghold, obtaining 20% of its building blueprints and 20% of its building materials."

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for obtaining harbor blueprints, dojo blueprints, pharmacy blueprints and relay blueprints. Obtained 8000 units of wood and 2000 units of stone."

"System Notification: congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for successfully destroying high-grade water stronghold, obtaining 500 merit points, and 1000 reputation points.

That wasn’t bad, out of the 4 blueprints, the pharmacy and relay were grade 2 town basic buildings and could be used, saving him 100 gold.

After destroying the water stronghold, Ouyang Shuo left Zhao Sihu to work with the Material Reserves Department and Finance Department to transport the materials and left first on his horse.

_28th of February, the 9th day of the year, Shanhai meeting hall._

Ouyang Shuo chaired the meeting and it was attended by Fan Zhongyan, Tian Wenjing and Cui Yingyu, the three directors. Gu Xiuwen and Zhou Feng from Beihai Village and the military was represented by General Shi, Lin Yi, Pei Donglai and Zhao Sihu.y

Tian Wenjing spoke first. "The battle at the water stronghold, we obtained large amounts of resources. As sire instructed, I'm going to do a report. Gold: 728 gold, 57 silver, and 49 copper, 12 blueprints, special item territory specialty scroll, 4 civil servant change class tokens and a <Mingguang Armor Manufacturing Technology Manual>. The rest of the materials and equipment aren't in the scope of the report."

Regarding this set of material, Ouyang Shuo already had his plans. He took 700 Gold and gave the rest to the Finance Department to relieve their financial burden. The 12 blueprints other than the relay, pharmacy and alchemy workshop, which could be used on a grade 2 town, were sold to the Intermediate Market. Deducting 20% of fees, he gained 40 gold.

As for the special items, he directly used the territory specialty scroll and passed the manual to the weapon smith.

Territory Specialty Scroll (4): After use, production-based citizens’ skill familiarity training speed raised by 5%

<Mingguang Armor Manufacturing Technology Manual>: After use, gain knowledge of crafting the mingguang armor.

What was left was the civil servant job change token. Ouyang Shuo looked at the 3 directors. "4 civil servant class change tokens, the 3 of you directors will recommend one secretary each, the last token we will decide later."

Fan Zhongyan had it easy as out of the 5 secretaries only the Construction Division Secretary Zhao Dewang wasn’t a civil servant, hence he could only recommend him. Between Cui Yingyu's Taxation Division Secretary Qian Lifei and Four Seas Bank Manager Yang Yun, she chose Qian Lifei as he was an actual secretary.

The one with the hardest decision was Tian Wenjing, Material Reserves Department had 3 secretaries, Du Xiaolan, Zheng Shanpao and Zhao Youfang. This together with Salt Pan Division Vice Secretary Shen Zhui, all of whom hadn’t had class changes yet. At last, Tian Wenjing chose Zheng Shanpao, the simple reason being that it the last test, only he didn’t make a mistake.

Ouyang Shuo didn’t comment on their decision. "Ok, Zhao Dewang, Qian Lifei, Zheng Shanpao, the last token I think I will give it to Salt Pan Division's Shen Zhui.”

Just now he found out that compared to the high-level arrangement of the Administration Department, the Material Reserves Department was somewhat lacking. Hence, he gave the last class change slot to the Material Reserves Department. As for why he chose the vice secretary and not Du Xiaolan or Zhao Youfang, his reason was the same as that of Tian Wenjing.

Zhao Youfang, who was the talent that Ouyang Shuo had high hopes for, missed out once again. If he did not have any exceptional performances then he might fade out of Ouyang Shuo's view.

After dealing with the class change tokens, Ouyang Shuo looked at Pei Dong Lai and laughed. "General Pei, you can report the situation with the prisoners."

Pei Donglai got up, bowed, and said, "Under orders from sire, I was in charge of the prisoners. Out of 308 prisoners, there were 8 evildoers and 120 morally bad people."

"That’s good. Based on our arrangement, the 8 evildoers will be beheaded, and the 120 will be sent to the quarry. As for the remaining 180 prisoners and the 20 recruited before at Beihai Village, they can form two squadrons." Ouyang Shuo casually said.

With regards to the setting up of the two squadrons, Ouyang Shuo was prepared to give them freedom. "The 20 sergeant choices will be decided by General Pei and reported to me. General can also recommend a captain.”

To have so much trust in the general, General Pei was touched. "General will not let you down and train an elite navy for the town."

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head and said, "Zhou Feng!"

"Present!"

"You will be the vice captain of the squadron under General Pei. Learn from him well and continue to learn the arts of training navy soldiers. When you level up from rank 9 to general, I will promote you to captain." Although he was confident in General Pei, but he still needed to arrange a man to keep him in check. Someone like Zhou Feng whom he held high hopes for was a good choice.

"Thank you sire, I won’t let you down."

After arranging the navy, Ouyang Shuo looked at Gu Xiuwen. "How many people does Beihai Village now have?"

"Last night, Beihai Village had already leveled to a grade 3 village and has 512 people." Gu Xiuwen said proudly.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head. "The destruction of the water stronghold gave us a large population. Those 435 normal civilians have given us enough to upgrade to a grade 2 town. Beihai Village is also going to reach the max population of one thousand, so you need to make arrangements to upgrade to a grade 1 town."

"Yes!" Gu Xiuwen said.

*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes

*[12.47 to 13.07]: don't ask me about the tree sap

Chapter 75 - Grade 2 Town

Before Gu Xiuwen left Shanhai Town, Ouyang Shuo gave him 200 gold to use for class changes for the two newly established navy squadrons.

As the water bandits' combat ability was higher than militia, they were able to jump past being a militia and directly change class to navy soldiers. Every soldier's class change cost was 1 gold.

In Earth Online, the general didn't have the right to change class for the soldiers, the permission lay in the hands of the lord and the heads of the subordinate territories. It acted as a restriction, preventing the generals from expanding the scale of the army on their own.

After the meeting, Ouyang Shuo went to the Intermediate Market and sold the 8 building blueprints that he couldn't use for 40 gold. Subsequently, he spent 200 gold to buy an Advanced Barracks building blueprint. Ever since he had set up a proper army, the expenses of the military had been increasing. In the blink of an eye, he spent 400 gold on the military.

3rd month, first day, 9am, Shanhai Town meeting room.

Ouyang Shuo’s heart was only thinking about levelling up. A white light shone and in the middle of the meeting room, the golden heartstone rose up from the ground. He placed his right hand on it and instantly, a system notification sounded out.

"System notification: Checking Shanhai Town upgrade requirements..."

"Requirement 1: Population reached 2000 upper limit, requirement met!"

"Requirement 2: All basic building structures are completed, requirement met!"

"Requirement 3: Lord is at least a 2nd Class Viscount, requirement met!"

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi's Shanhai Town for meeting all requirements, would you like to level up?"

"Yes!"

On the heartstone, a golden light burst forth into the air and exploded in midair, turning into a golden luster and spreading in all directions, stretching to the corners of the territory before disappearing.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for becoming the first player in China to rise from grade 1 town to grade 2 town, rewarded 1100 merit points!"

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi…..”

"System Notification: Congratulations….."

5 days after Di Chen's Handan city rose to a grade 1 town, Shanhai town had become a grade 2 town. The leader of the Chinese region gave a feeling that he would not be touched.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for rising to grade 2 town. Lord's Mansion has been upgraded. Randomly chosen 3 grade 2 town basic buildings, player can choose one building."

"System Notification: Random selection completed. Vegetable farm, textile mills, pharmacy, please choose!"

"I choose textile mill!"

"System notification: Building is automatically built, request player to view it."

A white line shone and the golden heartstone slowly sank back down into the ground. Ouyang Shuo checked out the stats of Shanhai Town.

Territory: Shanhai Town (Grade 2 Town)

Lord: Qiyue Wuyi (3rd Class Duke)

Title: The World’s First Town (Increases town fame by 20%)

Morale: 90

Security: 90

Territory population: 2000/5000

Flow rate of immigrants: 50 * (1 + 50%) = 75 / day

Territory area: 500 square kilometers

Territorial characteristics: 50% increase in attracting migrants, 20% increase in attracting special talents, 50% increase in crop production, 25% increase in production capacity of residents, 20% increase in military promotion, 10% increase in talent breakthroughs.

Affiliated Village: Beihai Village (Grade 3 Village)

Treasury: Four Seas Bank

Territory Resources: Basic logging camp, intermediate quarry, basic mining field

Territorial Army: Cavalry Squadron, Infantry Squadron, Navy Squadron

Territory Industry Properties: Northern Salt Pan (2000 mu)

Political index: 45/100 (determines administrative efficiency and relationship with the people)

Economic index: 40/100 (determines trade prosperity and ability to pay taxes)

Cultural index: 35/100 (represents the degree of educational development and quality of life of residents)

Military: 45/100 (indicates military strength and morale)

Infrastructure: Lord’s Manor; residential small homes; public bathrooms; village granaries, cemetery

Agricultural Construction: Simple farmland; pigsty; cattle pen; goat pen; mill; mulberry field, orchard

Commercial buildings: Intermediate market, intermediate blacksmith, basic grocery shop, advanced woodshop, advanced hospital, advanced martial arts dojo, special tailor shop, basic pottery kiln works, wine workshop, food shop, meat shop, cloth shop, advanced kiln

Cultural Buildings: Village ancestral hall, village private school, Lianzhou College

Military Buildings: Intermediate Barracks, stone outposts, stables, weapon workshop, arsenal

Special Buildings: ferry, wharf, intermediate shipyard

Secret Buildings: Mazu Temple (sealed), the Recruitment Hall

List of Basic Construction Buildings:

Relay Station: Provide a place for visiting officials or messengers to stay, replenish items, change horses.

Construction Requirements: Basic stableman, relay station building blueprints, 1500 wood, 800 stone.

Construction time: 3 days.

Vegetable Field: Grow crops.

Construction Requirements: seeds, 400 wood, 200 stone.

Construction time: 2 days.

Medicine Garden: Grow medicinal ingredients.

Construction requirements: herbs, 400 wood, 200 stone.

Construction time: 2 days.

Pharmacy: Shop that sells medicine.

Construction requirements: Pharmacy building blueprints, 800 wood, 200 stone.

Construction time: 2 days

Textile Mill: Place where textiles are created.

Construction requirements: Textile mill building blueprints, 1800 wood, 600 stone.

Construction time 3 days.

Bank: An organization that settles monetary matters.

Construction requirements: Bank building blueprints, 2000 wood, 1000 stone.

Construction time: 3 days

Alchemy Workshop: Smelting workshop, working on various items and jewelry. Construction requirements: Alchemist, Metal Workshop building blueprints, 1500 wood, 1800 stone. Construction time: 3 Days

Out of the 7 basic buildings for a grade 2 town, the vegetable farm and medicine garden did not need building blueprints. The textile mill and bank had already been built. The remaining relay station, pharmacy, and alchemy workshop blueprints had already been obtained when they plundered the water stronghold, hence Ouyang Shuo did not need to purchase any more building blueprints.

Out of the 7, the most annoying one was the alchemy workshop. An alchemist was a rare occupation in China and it was usually done by priests and it was difficult to find a professional alchemist. In his last life, there was a territory that was stuck at grade 2 town for three months as the lord was unable to find a professional alchemist. Shuo hoped that with the specialty of Shanhai Town that he would have a chance to get a professional alchemist.

Of course, the system wouldn't be so bad. Normally if the other upgrade requirements had been met and only one special talent was lacking, in at most a month he would appear.

That unlucky guy in the last life had used the lowest level of village building token and had an immigrant rate of 50 a day, taking nearly 2 months to get to the 5000 full population. It took him another month to get that alchemist.

Even a town like Shanhai town which had an insane immigrant rate needed 40 days to reach the max population, quite a long time.

When Shanhai town upgraded, his two allies, Bai Hua from Consonance Village and Mulan Yue from Mulan Village, both sent their congratulations and well wishes.

Ever since making the alliance, Ouyang Shuo had been keeping in contact with them and discussed methods of running the territory and the progression of each other's territories.

He knew that ever since he taught them the method to raise a village to a town, Consonance Village was now very close to upgrading and in just two days could do so. As Mulan Village had weaker basics and fewer connections and resources, its progress was slower and it still needed about half a month.

To tell the truth, this upgrade, apart from increasing the population cap and expanding the land space, didn't really affect the town. The administrative structure was already built and various businesses were starting to open; what was needed was patience and time.

In contrast, a deeper danger was walking step by step towards the town of Shanhai. As the territory progressed, the requirements for gold and resources would increase. In the early stages, Shanhai Village could survive easily with the 100 gold from the beginner quest. Now, hundreds and thousands of gold were being spent in no time.

In contrast to him, the various financial powers had already gotten over the tough times. As various gold farming groups had started to form up and flourish in the wilderness, the powers could use real credits to buy up gold to build their territories. The only reason why there was no notification was because they were affected by the upgrade requirements of their territories. Once they got past them, their territories would grow tremendously. Ouyang Shuo guessed that after his actions today, Di Chen might forcefully raise Handan town to a grade 2 town tomorrow.

Hence, if Shanhai town wanted to continue keeping this lead, it needed to open up new money-making avenues. But this wasn't easy; apart from bandits and raiders, every business and field needed time to grow. Furthermore, the amount of raiders and bandits were limited, and they couldn't be relied on to solve the problem.

Facing so many challenges, Ouyang Shuo had to keep calm. After upgrading the town, he didn't call for a meeting with the various directors and secretaries, and instead sat alone in his office thinking of a method.

Chapter 76 - Armory Division

The 2nd day of the third month was destined not to be a normal day.

“System Announcement: Congratulations player Di Chen for becoming the second player in the China region to upgrade to grade 2 town, rewarded 1000 credit points!”

“System Announcement: Congratulations player Di Chen…”

“System Announcement: Congratulations…”

It was as Ouyang Shuo had expected. Handan Town had followed closely behind Shanhai Town, using just 6 days time to upgrade from a grade 1 town to a grade 2 town.

The surprises did not end there. In the next three days, Chun Shenjun, Feng Qiuhuang, Bai Hua, Feng Qingyang, and Zhan Lang all had also upgraded to grade 1 towns, and the Chinese server welcomed a wave of new grade 1 towns.

Bai Hua's Consonance Village became the 5th village in China to upgrade to a grade 1 town; not an exceptionally strong black horse, but not a weak one either. The positions of the Six Tyrants of Handan had been totally destroyed after being challenged by Ouyang Shuo, Xiongba, and Bai Hua. They became a part of history. However, as individuals, Di Chen and Chun Shenjun were still very strong and couldn't be underestimated.

Just as everyone was focused on the newly upgraded towns, Shanhai Town's secondary base Beihai village sneakily upgraded to a grade 1 town. The day that Beihai Town upgraded, Ouyang Shuo transferred all of the 200 fishermen in Shanhai Town over to Beihai Town. At the same time, he activated the 4th stage expansion of the salt pan fields, increasing the area to 5000 mu. Beihai Town had become the territory's salt base, fishing base, and navy camp.

After settling Beihai Town, Ouyang Shuo started building his second secondary village. He decided to build the new village on the other side of the canyon. It and Shanhai Town were on adjacent sides of the canyon, blocking the only ocean opening into Lianzhou Basin.

The secondary village was called Quishui Village, its village chief was Zhao Dexian. The original vice secretary of the Agriculture Division, Sun Yannong, took over the duties of Zhao Dexian, and became the new Secretary of the Agriculture Division.

Events were similar to when Beihai Village was built, as Zhao Dexian took 50 basic level administrative personnel and skilled talents. Military-wise, infantry squadron vice-captain and also first squad Sergeant Zhang Daniu was rushed over to build the village protection force.

This time, along with Zhao Dexian went 350 farmers and 100 logging workers. Qiushui Village was built on the east side of the canyon and was the intersection of Lianzhou Basin and Lingnan. There were forests everywhere and timber and trees were plentiful. Henceforth, the future Qiushui Village would act as the agricultural and logging base of the territory.

5th of March, lunar calendar 14th day of the year, 9 AM in the morning, Shanhai Town office.

"How are the preparations for tomorrow's Lantern Festival going?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

As the first Lantern Festival for Shanhai Town, Ouyang Shuo placed a lot of importance on it and acted as the leader of the organizing committee. The actual work was done by the Culture and Education Division, Resource Division, and Security Division. The Culture and Education Division focused on lantern riddles, the Resource Division on the lanterns and prizes, and the Security Division on maintaining law and order.

"Replying to sire, all preparations are going well." The one who answered was the vice leader of the preparation committee, Xu Shuda.

When Ouyang Shuo and Bing’er went to Jiao State temple festival earlier, he had the thought to organize one in Shanhai Town. Unfortunately, to do that required a lot of resources, and based on their current situation it was not practical.

That is, until one day when he was having a casual chat with Xu Shuda he raised this regret. Xu Shuda, being a scholar, was well-versed in traditional culture and folk performances. He said that even though they couldn't hold a temple festival, they could hold a Lantern Festival.

There was a reason why he put in so much time, money, and resources into this. A Lantern Festival could raise spirits and also the culture index in the territory. Out of the four indexes, the culture was the hardest to increase. Hence to make it easier and help establish the foundation for upgrading to a city, he wouldn’t drop any chance to increase the culture index.

Holding various traditional performances and festivals, be it temple festivals, the Lantern Festival, dragon boating, or the Mid-Autumn Festival, could all help raise the culture index.

After dealing with the Lantern Festival, Ouyang Shuo left the manor and went to the weapon workshop. It had been three days since he passed the to the advanced blacksmith Wang Gao, and Shuo wanted to see his progress.

Mingguang armor came out during the Three Kingdoms Era and was regarded as the best armor in China during the time of cold weapons. Its creation methods were complicated, and it was the most expensive armor in Chinese history. At first, only generals and nobles could wear it. By the time of the Tang Dynasty, the strength of the country had risen enough to give the armor to its elite forces and raise their defensive ability.

On the front and back of the armor was an oval metal piece which people called ‘the circle guard’. Its perfect arc could cause arrows to slip off and hence protected the soldiers wearing it. Even the strongest bow and the most penetrative armor-piercing arrow could not punch through the circle guard of the Mingguang armor.

A set of Mingguang armor weighed 36 kg and hence was suitable for cavalry use. If you combined that with the strongest powered horse lancer, it was invincible. Ever since obtaining the Manual, building a heavy cavalry force and reigniting the honor of the Tang army had become a thought in Ouyang Shuo's mind.

Sadly, the moment he walked into the weapon workshop, Wang Gao gave him bad news, "Sire, I have studied the armor, and understand the production method of this armor. Based on the current capabilities of the weapon workshop, mass production of this armor is highly difficult and requires sire's help."

"Please advise!"

"First, the leather part of the armor needs the coordination of a tailor. Second, the process is complicated and as the number of people in the workshop is too few, just making the chest area will take us 5 days. Lastly, this armor takes too much iron, and the scale of the current mines won’t be sufficient."

Wang Gao was obviously excited to start production of the Mingguang armor, and he cherished this opportunity. Hence, he needed to inform Shuo of all the problems that he faced.

"How many people does the weapon workshop have?" Ouyang Shuo didn't rush to answer his question and instead asked him for more information.

"Including me, there is 1 advanced blacksmith, 1 intermediate blacksmith, 4 basic blacksmiths, and 5 apprentices." Originally the number of basic blacksmiths and apprentices was a higher number, but after the two secondary villages took some of them away, this was what Shanhai was left with.

Ouyang Shuo locked his brows. The crafting of the armor needed the cooperation of the weapon workshop, tailoring shop, quarry, and Combat Logistics Division, as well as the Household Registration Division. With only Wang Gao, it seemed impossible to arrange such a complicated task. The best method would be to open a new division to be in charge of armor making.

The plan was set, and Ouyang Shuo smiled. "I understand the current problems. At 2 PM, bring Xu Kun from the workshop to my manor, we have something to discuss."

At 2 PM, Ouyang Shuo gathered all the managers and secretaries that were involved in the armor making for a meeting.

They were the Material Reserves Department Director Tian Wenjing, Combat Logistics Secretary Zhao Youfang, basic metal quarry manager Yuan Shaoping, Household Registration Secretary Zhou Haichen, Construction Secretary Zhao Dewang, master tailor Mu Qingsi, and weapon workshop manager Wang Gao, along with his assistant Xu Kun.

"I have gathered all of you here for one thing, which is the cooperation of Mingguang armor manufacturing. I have decided to set up an Armory Division. The secretary will be Wang Gao, and Mu Qingsi will be the advisor."

"To help with the work of the Armory Division, I'll announce a few orders. Zhao Dewang!"

"Present!"

"Construction Division needs to build a workshop within three days that can house a tailor shop and the weapon workshop to act as the workplace of the Armory Division."

"Yes, I promise to complete the mission!"

"Yuan Shaoping!"

"Present!"

"Expand the basic mining field to an advanced mining field, and the workers to at least 400."

"Yes, I'll do it!"

"Zhao Youfang!"

"Present!"

"Get all the leather, tendons, and the necessary items, and pass them all to the Armory Division. Also, find a reliable source to get enough leather and tendons for continuous production."

"Yes!”

"Xu Kun!"

"Present!"

"You are the manager of the weapon workshop and in charge of teaching the apprentices. Transfer every basic blacksmith to the Armory division."

"Yes, I promise to complete the mission!"

"Zhou Haichen!"

"Present!"

"Categorize all the workers in the Armory Division as military personnel who are never allowed to leave. The Armory Division will be in charge of this matter."

"Yes, I promise to complete the task!"

The series of orders overwhelmed everyone. The new Armory Division Secretary Wang Gao's blood was boiling. It was clear that with such arrangements, the problems that he listed in the afternoon would be easily solved, and that he was much closer to the day where Mingguang armor would be mass produced.

Chapter 77 - Lantern Festival

After settling the Armory Division, Ouyang Shuo went back into the study room and got offline as planned.

In reality, it was already the 15th day of the new year and the new years'’ holiday was about to come to an end. The working class had already started to work on the 8th. Starting tomorrow, schools will also start. During the holidays, Bing'er would sleep in and eat a lot, causing her face to become fat, extremely adorable.

Yesterday, Sun Xiaoyue had called and said that she was returning to Jiaozhou today and spend the lantern festival together with them. Ouyang Shuo went to the market to buy several ingredients to cook a huge meal for dinner.

At 3pm in the afternoon, Sun Xiaoyue had reached home on time and brought with her many of her hometown specialties. After not seeing her for a very long time, naturally it started with a greeting. Bing'er, that little brat, was overly reliant on Sun Xiaoyue, giving her the gift that she bought at the temple fair, followed by introducing Xue'er.

When Sun Xiaoyue saw Xue'er, she was shocked. She recognised the smart pet and knew that it costs a lot. She turned around and looked at Ouyang Shuo. She didn’t expect this brother to be so good to his sister, buying such an expensive gift all of a sudden.

She realised that she couldn’t see through Ouyang Shuo. He spent the whole day playing games and not working, and seemed to be covered by a mysterious veil, causing people to be unable to see through him.

This time when she went home, her grandfather, who was a professor at the Chinese academy of sciences, mentioned Earth Online to her. When she told him that she knew about the game, her grandfather actually recommended she play the game. She had already booked a game cabin online and it would be shipped here tomorrow.

"Sister, why aren’t you listening to Bing'er?" Bing'er pouted and said sadly.

Sun Xiaoyue was stunned, she had zoned out and hadn’t replied to Bing'er. She said, "Ah, haha, sister thinks Xue'er is too cute, I was shocked beyond words."

"Yes, Bing'er thinks so too, she’s as cute as Bing'er."

"Sister…" The little brat jumped into Sun Xiaoyue's arms and moved around.

Ouyang Shuo, seeing both of them playing around in the living room, suddenly thought about Song Jia. Since that day, he had kept in contact with Song Jia, calling her once or twice. As for her feelings, Ouyang Shuo couldn’t say for certain. Classmates, friends, or something more?

After dinner, Sun Xiaoyue smiled and said, "Aiyo, tomorrow I will also start playing Earth Online, is there anything you want to advise me?"

Ouyang Shuo was surprised, "Why so sudden? Weren’t you so determined not to play?"

"Heh, who knows, all of you are so mysterious. My grandfather recommended it."

"Your grandfather?"

"Yeah, he is the boat design specialist of the alliance, I don’t know where he got the news. He didn’t want to explain, just asked me directly to play it. He also gave me the money to pay for the game cabin."

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head; it seemed like the truth behind the game had been revealed to some of the middle class. Fairly soon, the game would welcome a new batch of players. "Last time, I told you that the game has a lord mode and an adventure mode, which will you pick?"

Sun Xiaoyue didn’t even think about it and said," Of course adventure mode, I can’t handle the lord mode."

"If it’s the adventure mode, it is broken up into combat occupations and work occupations, do you need me to introduce them to you?" As for her choice, Ouyang Shuo did not want to interfere with it.

"No need, I already went online and checked. I don’t like all the fighting and killing so I’ve decided to choose a work occupation. However, there are so many choices, I do not know which to pick."

Ouyang Shuo was shaken, but he did not show it and said calmly, "If it’s a work occupation, I think that an architect fits you and it mixes well with what you are studying now. The game is very real and in the latter part of the game, architects will have a large opportunity to show off their skills."

"Ya, why didn’t I think of that? Okay, I will listen to you and choose architect. Tell me your ID, I will contact you when I enter the game."

Ouyang Shuo's face changed as he did not expect her to ask this. "Cough, I don’t know how to explain this to you. Anyway, I can’t tell you my ID. If you trust me then choose your starting point to be in Dali. Anyways one of us is a lord player and the other is an adventure player, so we won’t meet much. When the time comes, I will explain to you.”

It wasn’t that Ouyang Shuo didn’t trust her, but his identity was too special and he had to be careful. If she leaked it, it would get not just him, but also Bing'er into a lot of trouble.

Sun Xiaoyue pouted her lips and said unhappily," Don’t tell, then don’t tell… Why so mysterious."

Ouyang Shuo had nothing to reply and the atmosphere got a little stretched.

"Oh ya, you don’t need to worry about Bing'er. I’m not a game maniac like you and won’t log in so early everyday." Sun Xiaoyue said before returning to her room.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and turned back to his room to log into the game.

In the afternoon, many types of lanterns had already been hung on the streets and alleys in Shanhai town. Some business-minded shopowners had started promotions, and whoever could answer the riddles could get a prize.

After dinner, Qing'er wanted to drag Ouyang Shuo to look at lanterns and guess riddles.

Ouyang Shuo knew that he didn’t have the ability to guess riddles. To not make a fool of himself, he decided to drag along Fan Zhongyan, Tian Wenjing, Yu Shu Da, Suzhe, and Zhou Haichen.

All the good riddles were gathered around the commerce street. Those easy lantern riddles, like “half an autumn and spring, Guess a word,” the answer was obviously Qin. “Half farming, half studying, choose a word.” Taking half of each word, the answer was obviously talk. Ouyang Shuo could definitely solve one or two.

Those of higher difficulty, Ouyang Shuo couldn’t solve. “The wind comes and goes, the hill in front of the peak is slanted, choose two words”, cancel the word inside the Chinese word of wind, adding “you” into it and it will become “Feng”; in front of the peak is a mountain and it represents the word “Ren”, slanting it would become a prefix for the word “Xian”. Hence the answer was “Feng Xian”.

"Big brother, what is the answer to this riddle?" Qing'er pointed to a riddle and asked.

Ouyang Shuo raised his head to see: Moving the mountain, planting the seeds, guess a flower name. He smacked her head and said," It’s so easy and you can’t guess it. The answer is pomegranate."

Qing'er touched her head and said sadly," People just can’t guess it!" She pointed to another and asked," What about this?"

The one she pointed to was more difficult and Ouyang Shuo couldn’t guess it. He passed it on to Mr. Su Zhe who easily solved it.

When they walked past the grocery store, a lantern riddle attracted a large number of people who were discussing it but no one managed to guess it. This time, even Fan Zhongyan, Tian Wenjing and the others joined in the fun.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo and the group of people, everyone made way.

When Ouyang Shuo looked at the lantern, he couldn’t understand it with his standard knowledge of literature. Unsurprisingly, Fan Zhongyan and Yu Shu Da looked at each other and laughed, obviously guessing the answer.

"Why don’t you two write the answers and see if it’s the same," Ouyang Shuo said to make it more interesting.

The two of them nodded and took some scrap paper and pens and wrote down their answers, only to see they both wrote the same answer.

Following which Yu Shu Da took the initiative to explain the riddle to everyone, causing everyone to cheer out. The prize from the grocery stall was an exquisite shadow lamp.

The two men obviously wouldn’t carry a flower lamp and walk on the streets so it landed in the hands of Qing'er. Walking past the dojo, Tian Wenjing also managed to guess one riddle.

The hardest riddle of the night was prepared by Yu Shu Da and he hung it in the square in front of the lord's manor. In the end, it was solved by Fan Zhongyan, laughing as he did so. After admiring all the lanterns and guessing all the riddles, it was already 8pm in the night and Ouyang Shuo quickly got offline.

Chapter 78 - Farmer’s Market

Editor:ryangohsff

Today was the first day of school for Bing’er. After hanging up, Ouyang Shuo washed up hurriedly and then took Bing’er downstairs to eat breakfast. They finally got to school before 9 AM.

Soon after he returned from school, the game cabin ordered by Sun Xiaoyue arrived and was installed in her bedroom.

Ouyang Shuo logged in the game again at 8 PM. He practiced spearmanship and the Ba Ji Quan for two hours, as usual. When he passed the general store last night during the Lantern Festival, he suddenly realized that he had never walked in it since it was built. That was kind of intriguing.

The general store was one of the several Basic Shops that it hadn't seen much of. The shopkeeper was the Basic Merchant Li Fugui. The middle-aged shopkeeper was startled at the sight of Ouyang Shuo, and said incoherently, “Sire's arrival, makes the small store shine. Come in, please.”

The store sold daily used goods such as oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea, etc. None of them could be produced in the territory except salt. It was just the magic goods shelf on the back of salesman that made the general store conjure those goods seemingly out of nothing.

The shelves, similar to markets in function, could support remote businesses and transfers. The shelf would upgrade as the trading amounts reached a certain scale, and salesmen and the general stores could also be upgraded.

Faced with Ouyang Shuo’s visit, Fugui couldn’t help but share with him the secrets of the general store.

“My Lord, the general store actually has a hidden function.” Fugui said mystically.

“Oh? What is the function?”

“In the general store, you can only buy, but can't sell. The only exception is local products. If one's goods were adopted as a local product, it could be sold via the general store, with transaction tax only at 10%.

“Local Product?” Ouyang Shuo frowned ,with no idea of whether the Guilin Three Flower Tea belonged to the Shanhai Township or not. Afterwards, there was no Guilin department in the Nine Dynasty. It seemed that he had to find time to see how the three flowers tea were made in the workshop. Just having a try wouldn’t make a mistake.

"Right."

"Well, I know. I will keep my ear out for this." Ouyang Shuo nodded.

Ouyang Shuo walked to the Intermediate Market after leaving the general store. He was going to buy some vegetable seeds to prepare for vegetable garden construction. There were many kinds of vegetables that could be planted in Spring in the past. He didn't just buy on type of vegetable. He bought dozens of kinds of vegetables, such as garlic, cabbage, cucumber, eggplant, spinach, lettuce carrot, pepper, pumpkin, kidney bean, tomato, and zucchini, etc.

Then he bought some seeds of common medicines to prepare for the herbal garden construction. Because many medicines had to be transplanted from wilderness, the construction of herbal garden was more difficult than that of vegetable garden.

He found out that such goods couldn't be supplied sufficiently in the territory when visiting the general store. Taking this opportunity, he spent 30 gold coins to buy the <Mature Vinegar Making Technical Manual> and the <Sauce Making Technical Manual>.

After coming back from the market, Ouyang Shuo gathered Sun Yannong, Du Xiaolan, and Zhao Dewang in his office, explaining his vegetable-baskets plan to them.

"The vegetables will be planted in concentrated locations, so the Agriculture Division should reclaim 200-mu of farmlands to plant all sorts of vegetables. The Resource Division should have vegetable stalls ready. The Construction Division should cooperate with the Resource Division to build a vinegar-making workshop, sauce making workshop and tofu making workshop to enrich residents' spices and subsidiary foodstuffs.

The three secretaries agreed with no objections.

"Sire, after the three workshops operate officially, would we set upshops for selling?" Du Xiaolan asked.

It was an instant inspiration triggered by Xiaolan's question. Ouyang Shuo said excitingly, "No need. We just can't build a new shop for new kinds of goods as the goods are abundant all the time. That is not reasonable. In my opinion, we simply construct a large-scale farmer's market. Then we can sell agriculture products such as vegetables, fruits, fish, eggs, spices, subsidiary foodstuffs, etc. Basically all the stuff in the farming market.

Xiaolan got excited and said, "My Lord, this is indeed a great idea. In this way, not only is it convenvient for the residents, but we can also buy all the things in one place. The Resource Division can manage them easier and reduce dispatched personnel.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. "Not only that. It is also convenient for the Taxation Division to levy taxes intensively. More importantly, the farming market will provide a selling platform for individual households and then stimulate the territory’s economy further. People who raise chickens and ducks and can't resume them all can sell the rest of them in the farming market to earn more money. When they get benefits from this, without our prompting, they will expand their breeding scale. Then, we will relax the restriction in farming products like vegetables, fruits, and tofu etc for individual household to support their developing.

The three persons nodded and they were all convinced by their Lord's foresight.

"The reason why we demand intensive planting is not for battling interests with villagers. For the sake of integrated planning, there will be vegetable fields everywhere if we don't control that. That is not good for the city plan. So only when some residents settle in the city suburb, can we relax the restriction on vegetables and fruits." Added Ouyang Shuo.

Sun Yanshuo nodded, with the doubt in his mind dissipated.

"Just leave the task of farmer's market construction to the Construction Division. Though I know that the rampart and the moat projects are entering a critical period, we still have to transfer craftsmen to build the farming market, including the three workshops mentioned before." Ouyang Shuo said to Dewang at last.

"My Lord, take it easy. I guarantee that I will fulfill my mission." Dewang said loudly.

"Well, go ahead!" Ouyang Shuo ended the conversation.

At 2 PM, Ouyang Shuo was reading the report formulated by the Administration Department, while the gatekeeper came and reported. "My Lord, the manager of the dojo is requesting an interview!"

"Send him in."

Ouyang Shuo was very polite to this boxing master. He poured tea to him personally, said smilingly, "This is a new tea for this year, please taste it."

Lin Yue picked up the cup and drank a mouthful of it. "Good tea!" Putting down the cup lightly, Lin Yue said in embarrassment, "To tell you quite honestly, my lord, I came here for one thing which I need your help on."

"You are welcome, Mr. Lin, anything not against my principles. You have shown kindness to me in teaching me skills and I will not decline. Just tell me." How could Ouyang Shuo miss the opportunity to get closer?

“The fact is that my five apprentices all finished their apprenticeships and I want to find jobs for them in the army. I hope the lord can help.”

Ouyang Shuo was silent for a while, moved by Lin Yue’s character. It was easy for him to arrange his apprentices places in the army. In addition, it was not against his principles. But he didn’t do that and instead laid down to beg Ouyang Shuo. Such a clear attitude towards work and life really made Ouyang Shuo convinced.

“Apprentices in the dojo all learn Tai Chi from Mr. Lin. It would be great if they could join the army. I guarantee that they can serve as sergeants once they enter the army. If they perform well, they can be promoted to be sergeants or captains.” Ouyang Shuo said as he nodded.

“Thank you very much, lord.” It absolutely indicated the lord’s affirmation of him. How could he be unhappy?

After Lin Yue’s departure, Ouyang Shuo managed to visit the military camp. Now the military camp had upgraded to advanced barracks, which were both nicer in space and facility than the intermediate military camp.

After upgrading to a grade 2 town, the Shanhai territory didn’t hurry to enlarge the army scale, remaining the scale of a Cavalry Squadron and an Infantry Squadron. That was not because he didn’t want it to be enlarged, but due to the lack of a general. If he enlarged the army scale blindly, there would be no one leading them.

Ouyang Shuo found Zhao Sihu and told him the arrangement of the Dojo disciples. According to him, the 5 dojo disciples would serve as sergeants in the infantry.

Sihu nodded. He had passed the Class Change Chamber in advanced Barracks and upgraded to a basic officer. He was just thinking about having the people serve as sergeants, and this was exactly an instant help.

Name: Zhao Sihu (Black Iron level)

Identity: Captain in the Infantry Squadron of Shanhai Town

Occupation: Basic General

Loyalty: 85

Command: 80

Force: 95

Intelligence: 60

Politics: 30

Cultivation Method: None

Equipment: Delicate Falchion, Golden Leather Armour, Delicate Shield

Evaluation: Born from grass, getting through blood and fire. Solider rank 9, turn to general.

It could be seen that generals like Zhao Sihu who transferred from a rank 9 soldier was worse than a basic general like Lin Yi. What made them different was cultivation method.

Chapter 79 - Architect

The next day, he bumped into Sun Xiaoyue and asked, "So how was it, this game is fun right? Isn’t it realistic?"

"It is too real, it made me have no money to pay for my school fees." Sun Xiaoyue grumbled.

The architect, out of all the work occupations, was a special one. After entering the game, they had to enter the Capital Architectural College to learn, only after graduating could he/she get the recognition as a basic architect.

After which, the player would have 3 choices. The first would be to join a player's territory and become his architect. A player's territory was busy and constantly had many projects, hence providing the player with a lot of practical opportunities. The cons being that the levels of bases at the current time were too low and there weren't any huge projects, hence joining a territory was a short-sighted approach.

The second was to join the construction department in the capital city, becoming its hired staff. Of course this was a great idea as you could join many high-level building projects and raise your architect level quickly. However, without connections, it was very difficult for one to enter that department.

The last method would be to continue learning in the college and getting an intermediate architect recognition, making it easier for you to find a job when you leave. The downside would be that it was very lonely and you had to pay for the expensive school fees.

Regardless of the method, it wasn't an easy thing for a solo player. The cost of the college school fees was one gold coin and learning further cost 10 more. This did not include expenses and other miscellaneous costs.

Hence, every successful architect had a lord who was supporting him from behind. For an architect, the best method would be to obtain the intermediate architect grade, and then interning at the capital city's construction department until he became an advanced architect. After that, he could work in a player's territory and become the primary architect.

This method was a double win for both the architect and the lord. The only prerequisite being that the lord that supported you had the money. In his past life, one person calculated that to groom a high grade architect, one needed 150 gold. To bribe people and get into the capital city's construction department cost another 100 gold.

Such a big investment obviously made lords very careful. Either they set a contract or they chose someone they trusted in real life. Sun Xiaoyue's appearance was a great opportunity for Ouyang Shuo. Hence when he found out that she wanted to play a work occupation, he strongly recommended the architect class.

Ouyang Shuo didn't try to hide anything and told her everything he knew about architects, waiting patiently for her choice. The prerequisite for a mutual cooperation would be trust and the basics of trust would be the sharing of information.

Sun Xiaoyue was very willing and smiled, "Lord Ouyang Shuo, good teamwork!"

"Good teamwork! Now tell me your ID and I will send 50 gold over to you. When you graduate, tell me and I will prepare more gold." Ouyang Shuo heaved a sigh of relief.

The reason why he didn't prepare 150 gold straight was firstly there was no need. Even someone like Sun Xiaoyue who had building knowledge would take 2-3 months for her to graduate from the college. Secondly, he didn't want to expose his financial ability as at this stage of the game, the number of people who could take out that amount of money so quickly were not many. Sun Xiaoyue was smart and would definitely be able to guess.

Even so, Sun Xiaoyue was still stunned. Although she had only spent one short day in the game, but she recognized the rarity of gold. Based on her calculations, if Ouyang Shuo was able to take out 10 gold it would be amazing, she did not expect him to take out 50 gold without even blinking.

Sun Xiaoyue stared at Ouyang Shuo like she was looking at a monster, her eyes filled with doubt. "Oi, say the truth. Are you a famous lord in the game? If not, why won't you tell me your ID? You can take out so much gold without batting an eye."

"Cough, you think too much. To fund you, I'm already bankrupt. You better train hard! If not, I would have wasted all my money."

Sun Xiaoyue had a face of disbelief, "He! As if I believe you. Everyday you are so mysterious. Ok, it's fine if you don't want to tell me, I won't ask. My game ID is Xiaoyue, I only changed a word, you remember it." Ouyang Shuo nodded his head, this brat was really lazy when choosing her name.

After Sun Xiaoyue went to school, Ouyang Shuo did not slack around. He went to search the forums to understand all the big developments in the game and also to understand the new technology advancements. After that, he trained his Bajiquan. It had been some time since he started training it so he had developed some muscle memory and now he could train it in real life.

In reality, it was most suitable to go to a dojo to train martial arts. As martial arts got more popular once again, every place had its own professional dojo where there were various sparring tools and high technology gadgets to test one's strength, stamina, explosiveness, and body readings.

Unfortunately, to ensure the safety of the person, these dojos were equipped with cctvs. Unless it was high class VIP hall, if not all secrets will be revealed.[a] Ouyang Shuo was training the Bajiquan which was different from the one in reality. It was changed by Gaia to become more powerful. Obviously he didn't dare to go to a dojo or he would leave a risk of being exposed.

That was the helplessness of the weak. If he had as much power in real life, he could obviously do whatever he wanted and not have such thoughts. He was working so hard in the game so that in the future he would get treated differently.

Tossing aside his thoughts, Ouyang Shuo focused on the Bajiquan. The more focused he got, the more intense his strokes became. This was the meaning behind the fist, meaning that he had officially understood a glimpse of the Bajiquan.

After stopping, he was drenched in sweat but he felt very relaxed. Training the body could make one become very cheerful, long term training could make one more confident and train one’s aura and demeanor.

To replenish his energy, Ouyang Shuo made a large pot of chicken soup for dinner, adding a lot of expensive herbs. He didn't mind spending them now since credits were useless not long after.

After dinner, Ouyang Shuo didn't bother about Sun Xiaoyue and went back to his room. He anonymously transferred 50 gold to Sun Xiaoyue before walking out of his bedroom in the game.

In the courtyard, Siqin and Siqi were serving on Yingyu and Qing'er and brushing their hair. Upon seeing Ouyang Shuo, they bowed and greeted him, he nodded before starting to practice on his spearmanship.

Qing'er waited for Ouyang Shuo to finish before asking, "Big brother, why did you make me the advisor to the Armory Division. Now Qing'er doesn't have any energy to manage the tailor shop and furthermore there are so many more new people everyday, the orders are getting too much too handle."

"You are too greedy. I sent you to the Armory Division for your own good. Participating in this armor production can raise your tailoring skill, sewing clothes for commoners will take you so long to upgrade."

Actually, with the master tailor identity of Qing'er, she had more rights to be the secretary of the Armory Division. But this brat wasn't the leader type and was too casual, hence only giving her an advisor position.

"Qing'er knows brother wants the best for me but I can't keep up!" The little brat acted cute.

"That's why I said you are too greedy. You want to improve your skills but you don't want to give up your shop." To this little money grubber, Ouyang Shuo was hapless, "How about this, I've came up with an idea to solve both."

"What idea? Tell me!"

"You’re the manager of the tailor shop and you have the deal with the Administration Department. If you take out some profits to hire more tailors won't you solve the problem? Hiring tailors and creating a garment workshop.

Only then can the tailor shop focus on more high end products, you also can find more time to work in the armory division and improve your skills."

Getting partners and working together, expanding the shares and production allowed one to pass on the low profit jobs and take on the higher profit ones. Such thinking and methods could only be thought of by Ouyang Shuo

Not only Qing'er, but even Yingyu was amazed by his words, exclaiming, "Big brother's idea is just too good. The Business Division can use this idea to change the major shops."

Ouyang Shuo laughed and nodded his head.

Chapter 80 - Mountain Barbarian (Part 1)

Just as Ouyang Shuo wanted to discuss some things with Yingyu about the Business Division, the door suddenly opened. "Sire? A messenger from Qiushui Village came and has something to report!"

Ouyang Shuo was shocked, it seemed like something big happened. He rushed past the front yard and into his office, letting the messenger in.

The messenger was a teen who wore simple clothing and upon seeing Ouyang Shuo he bowed and said, "Sire, I have something urgent from Qiushui Village."

Ouyang Shuo received a message and opened it, his face instantly turned gloomy.

The letter was from the chief of Qiushui village, Zhao Dexian, and in it was written: Yesterday, when the farmers were working on some agricultural land at the bottom of the mountain, they found a stranger that was looking around and holding bad intentions. The farmers sent someone back to report and tried to capture the person but they weren't his match.

Both sides had a conflict which resulted in the farmers being injured. What was weird was those people didn't kill them.

When Zhang Daniu and his team rushed to support, they had already fled into the mountains and were nowhere to be seen. As it was already late and the village protection squad wasn't familiar with the environment, they didn't chase and instead arrange an elite soldier to follow their tracks.

This morning, Zhang Daniu led the squad and chased through the mountains. Zhao Dexian felt that something was amiss so he sent someone to report.

Based on the farmer's descriptions, they wrapped their heads with black cloth and they wore robes, their weapons were old and rusted, being simple spears. Based on these descriptions, Ouyang Shuo confirmed that these people were the barbarian tribes that lived in the mountains where Lianzhou Basin crossed with Lingnan.

During the Qing Dynasty, the people called the place beyond Changjiang as Yue. Lingnan was Nan Yue and Guangxi was Luo Yue. After the Qing dynasty, the term Luo Yue was used less and was replaced with Nan Man. Gaia followed history and placed these barbarians in the mountains and forest areas.

The mountains where Lingnan and Guangxi met had large numbers of barbarians. They were split into tribes and spread out all over the mountains. Every one of them was strong, muscular, and kept on reproducing. This and the fact that the environment was bad, food was a shortage and people were often starving to death, to survive they often attacked villages to obtain grain and food.

The Qiushui Village that Zhao Dexian was instructed to build had already aroused the interest of the barbarians who sent people to investigate.

Against these barbarians, Ouyang Shuo decided to take a soft approach. Although barbarians weren't good at production, but they were exceptional soldiers and were suitable to be heavy armored infantry. If he could persuade them to live in Shanhai town, it would have a huge benefit to them.

The barbarians who lived close to Lianzhou basin were descendants from Luo Yue. That year, the Qin emperor easily invaded the land, only facing difficulty when trying to invade Luo Yue. 300,000 troops against 10,000 Luo Yue troops, and he couldn't win.

In his past life, one of Lianzhou's 3 tyrants, Ba Dao, made use of the heavy armored infantry made up by barbarians to attack cities and sweep across the Lianzhou basin.

In this life, Ouyang Shuo didn't want Ba Dao to get ahead. Who knows, maybe because of his appearance, it would take away an important part of his army. This kind of feeling was so good!

When he thought of Daniu who had brought troops into the mountains, he started to worry that they had gotten into a conflict with the barbarians and that it might affect his plan. Hence he decided to personally visit Qiushui Village.

He told his itinerary to the 3 directors and told them not to worry. Then he rode Black Tornado to the barracks. To be safe, he wanted to bring along the infantry squadron and Military Intelligence Division. As for the cavalry squadron, it couldn't be used in jungle warfare and was useless.

The group of them rushed to the harbor and sat on boats to rush over to the opposite harbor. On the way there, Zhao Sihu excitedly asked, "Sire, are we going to fight?"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, "Bringing you all there is to act as a threat but no picking fights."

"Oh!" Upon hearing that they were only going to be cheerleaders, he seemed very disappointed.

When they rushed to Qiushui Village, Zhao Dexian had already received the news and led the main officials of the village to receive them. This was the first time he had come so he took the chance to understand the details about the village, their plans, and their problems and answer them one by one. Seeing how their lord cared so much, all the villagers were delighted.

After the easy welcoming ritual, Ouyang Shuo led his troops into Qiushui Village's barracks. As the situation wasn't clear, he couldn't take action carelessly. He could only tell the infantry squadron to wait for orders and the Military Intelligence Division to track and find information about the barbarians.

Before they left, he specifically told the spy that if he caught up to the village protection squad, and they hadn't engaged, to order them to return. If conflicts had occurred, he had to bring kind intentions to prevent it from worsening.

After planning, Ouyang Shuo didn't slack and instead used the chance to tour the village. Qiushui village was already a grade 3 village, and its most important work was to reclaim more farmland. They wanted to rush to reclaim 20,000 mu of land before the Qingming festival.

The arrangement of Qiushui Village was the reprint of Shanhai Village. Even the harbor and wharfs were symmetrical to that of Shanhai Village's. They were like twin stars guarding the entrance to the canyon.

Of course, it relied on the population from Shanhai Town to increase its grade quickly. Similarly to Shanhai Village from before, its infrastructure was still lacking. Even Beihai Village that had upgraded to a grade 1 town still had the same problems.

The quality of people in the village wasn't sufficient to be placed in important positions. Luckily, Zhao Dexian was one of the earliest members of Shanhai Town and knew everything about its structure. With him controlling everything, the organizational structure of the place barely got set up.

Ouyang Shuo decided to use a dual-leadership mechanism. The head of the secondary base would be in charge and control everything. On the other side, Shanhai Town's various directors had more power than the directors and secretaries of the secondary bases, and could manage and instruct the various departments and divisions in the secondary base.

Out of the two, the decision lay in the hands of the head of the secondary base. When both sides had a conflict of ideas, the head would have the final say. If the directors of Shanhai Town definitely felt that a wrong decision was made, they could speak to Ouyang Shuo.

At the same time, to strengthen his control over the secondary base, Ouyang Shuo prepared two methods. The 1st was that every major decision had to be reported and approved by him. To do this he had to solve the communication problem and build a fast and efficient relay station system.

The 2nd method was the power to appoint the people in charge. In the secondary villages, the secretaries and directors were decided by him and the village chief could only recommend them.

After touring the village, he went back to the barracks. At 2PM in the afternoon, news finally spread back. The news brought back surprised and shocked him.

The scouts chased ahead and found their mountain stronghold but didn't find any traces of the village protection squad. At this time, San Gouzi made the decision to split the group into two.

The vice secretary Leng Qian led the elite men and infiltrated the mountain stronghold to collect information. San Gouzi and another group of men kidnapped a sentry to get information.

After grilling the sentry, San Gouzi had happiness but shock. Zhang Daniu was chased into a barbarian trap. As there was a difference in strength, he didn't fight back and had just surrendered.

San Gouzi remembered Ouyang Shuo's orders and sent the sentry back to the mountain stronghold with best regards from Shanhai Town, wanting to peacefully settle the hostage situation.

In such a high octane situation, the mountain stronghold replied. It said that they could return the hostages but that the lord of Shanhai Town had to personally go there.

After Zhang Daniu was captured, he purposely revealed information about Shanhai Town to the barbarians and told them that what they scouted was only an auxiliary village and the real town was on the opposite shore with a huge army.

After which the sentry was sent back to the mountain stronghold. Analyzing all the information he was fed, the leader of the barbarians decided to see Ouyang Shuo.

Chapter 81 - Mountain Barbarian (Part 2)

Since the leader of the mountain barbarians wanted him to personally visit the mountain stronghold, Ouyang Shuo obviously wouldn't refuse. That courage and confidence was something that he had. But obviously he would not walk alone ahead stupidly either.

The next day, Ouyang Shuo led the infantry squadron and under the directions from the spy, they made their way to the mountain stronghold. From the barracks, across the plains, they made it into the forest in less than half an hour.

After entering, the speed of the soldiers had a drastic decrease, there were broken twigs and dead leaves everywhere, vines covered their vision and it was very difficult to move forward. Ouyang Shuo had to get down his horse and walk. Luckily the guide had good experience and left markings on the way so that they wouldn't get lost.

After walking for two hours, the front scout reported that the mountain stronghold was two miles away. Ouyang Shuo ordered his troops to rest up and replenish and to patiently wait.

In 20 minutes, Leng Qian's team reached their location. As for San Gouzi's group, they were monitored by the mountain barbarians and it wasn't convenient to meet.

Leng Qian reported what they had found out about the barbarians, "The whole mountain stronghold had about 3 thousand of them, mostly young and strong. As they live in the deep mountains, they don't have a very long lifespans and many don't live past 40, the chances of children surviving are also very little thus their average lifespan is 25 years old. They rely on hunting to survive and occasionally pick fruits to eat. Their leader is usually the hunting captain and is usually their strongest hunter. The mountain stronghold also has shamans who are well versed in medicinal arts and are the old and wise ones, holding a lot of power too."

"The whole region is covered by at least 100 tribes. Between tribes are hunting grounds that are divided. The tribe we are meeting is called Xuanniao Tribe and their tribe animal is the Xuan bird, it can only be considered a medium-sized tribe. I heard that deep in the mountains there are large tribes with tens of thousands of barbarians. The leader is called Shi Xiong and got famous because he hunted a black bear. The shaman doesn't have a name and is called the great shaman."

Ouyang Shuo listened intently, Leng Qian's intelligence report did not let him down. In just one day, he had managed to find out so many things.

"Let's go, let's meet this Xuanniao tribe."

In less than half an hour, they were able to reach near the mountain stronghold. Seeing the group of men, the sentries shouted, "Who are you, report your name."

"I'm the lord of Shanhai Town and was invited by your leader." Ouyang Shuo replied loudly.

The sentry had a small commotion, only to see one of the sentries who had a small black bird which stopped on his shoulder. He said a few words to the bird and it flew away, deep into the mountain stronghold.

Seeing the situation, Ouyang Shuo helplessly shook his head. No wonder Zhang Daniu was ambushed. The tribe had such a scouting device, they were bound to lose. That little black bird not only recognised the way but it also understood human speech. He guessed that the bird was a descendant of the Xuan bird.

After 15 minutes, the bird flew back, chirping away to the sentry. Apart from that one sentry, the rest of them probably didn't understand anything.

"The leader says that the Shanhai town lord can only bring two men to follow him. As for the rest, they have to wait outside the mountain stronghold."

"How can we do that? We need to protect sire's safety." Zhao Sihu couldn't resist and shouted.

"This is what the leader said, you have to follow it." The sentry said.

Zhao Sihu wanted to argue but Ouyang Shuo stopped him, smiling, "Since that's the case, captain Zhao and Wang Feng will follow me!"

Wang Feng was the eldest disciple of Lin Yue and was the sergeant of the first squad.

"Sire, this is too dangerous. Why don’t we just break into the stronghold." Zhao Sihu obviously didn't trust them.

"That's right sire, this is really too dangerous." Leng Qian tried to persuade him.

"There's no need to persuade me. I believe that their leader isn't a reckless person. The barbarians are often prideful and if they wanted to attack us they already did."

Seeing that they couldn't persuade him, everyone just had to accept it. Leng Qian turned around and shouted to the sentry, "You guys listen up, if anything happens to our sire, the Shanhai Town will trample all over you."

The sentry snorted coldly upon hearing his threats and didn't reply.

Ouyang Shuo didn't bother and brought Zhao Sihu and Wang Feng, following the sentry into the mountain stronghold. When they entered, the sentry went back to his post and another barbarian took over.

Along the way, Ouyang Shuo managed to see the beauty of the mountain stronghold, chatting with the two about it. The stronghold had its unique points, it was simple, sturdy and roughly built. The passerby barbarians, upon seeing these few visitors still laughing and talking at such a time, showed respect to them, no wonder they were able to receive the leader's invitation.

Shi Xiong brought the important members of the tribe to welcome them at the meeting room.

"Guests from afar, welcome to Xuanniao Tribe!" Shi Xiong announced loudly.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and exclaimed, "Many thanks to leader for your invitation, allowing me to view the barbarian tribes’ sights."

Shi Xiong's face relaxed and warmly said, "Please enter!"

"Please enter!" Ouyang Shuo followed behind him and into the meeting room.

After the two of them sat down, Shi Xiong cut to the chase and said, "Shanhai town lord, yesterday your men said that they wanted to work together with our tribe, what are the details?"

"Respected leader, I came to make friends. It does not matter whether if the cooperation is successful, Shanhai Town will give you 100 thousand units of grain for free." Ouyang Shuo dangled a carrot in front of them.

When he said those words, Shi Xiong was obviously ruffled. 100 thousand units of grain could feed them for 3 months. Such generosity immediately made them see him in a positive light and their animosity towards them dropped.

Shi Xiong was shocked but as the leader he didn't lose his demeanour. "Thank you for your gift, our tribe is thankful."

"The cooperation has 3 conditions. First, your tribe goes down hill and live in Qiushui village. Second, your tribe can choose your warriors to work in Shanhai Town army and we will pay them salary. Lastly, your tribe will help us mine minerals and stone and we will pay you salary." Ouyang Shuo tossed out 3 methods.

"Our tribe has been staying here for so long, to go down the mountain to live there is hard to do." Shi Xiong declined the first method.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head as this was totally what he expected. If there wasn't a suitable opportunity, it was impossible to get them out of the forest and into the plains.

"How much is their salary for serving in the army?" Shi Xiong asked.

Ouyang Shuo relaxed as the big fish had bit the bait, "Normal soldiers will be given salary based on their rank. Converting it to grains, 10 units at the least and 90 units at most. Based on the standards of your units, I'll say 50 units of grain."

Shi Xiong nodded his head and didn't show any expression, following on by asking, "As for the third method, can the lord please elaborate."

"Naturally. Based on my knowledge, this area has silver and gold deposits and many rare ores. If your tribe can find these ores then Shanhai Town will pay you grain as compensation. Ouyang Shuo knew that in his past life Ba Dao had found a gold mine through the mountain barbarians.

"Please sit for a while, we need to discuss this." After saying that, Shi Xiong arranged for the members of the tribe to stay in the room with them and he himself went to the backyard.

The great shaman was at the backyard, such a big decision couldn't be made only by Shi Xiong and he had to ask the great shaman.

After listening to Shi Xiong's message, she remained silent. After a long while she said, "This lord is a smart person. 3 months ago the Xuan Bird told me that not long ago, people will come from outside with daggers and mine the wilderness. These men are either our chance at prosperity or what causes us to die."

"Since that's the case, let's chase them out!" Shi Xiong said.

"We can't be so reckless. This lord came with sincerity and he might be able to help us out of our bad situation. We can send people to join their army. As for the ores, we must search for them quickly to solve our food problem."

"Yes! Great shaman, how many soldiers should be arranged?"

"The first batch of soldiers can't be too many but we must choose our best. Let's just choose 200. Shi Hu is fast thinking and courageous, let's send him for some training."

Ouyang Shuo had purposely mentioned that their salary had to do with their skill level so as to not let the tribe send some lousy warriors to make up the number, it obviously worked.

"I'll follow your orders!" Shi Xiong said excitedly. Shi Hu’s ability was at the top of the hunting team and was also the one with the biggest threat to him. Now that the great shaman had sent him away, he was naturally happy.

Chapter 82 - Mixed Unit

After Shi Xiong left, Shi Hu, who was just mentioned, walked out and said respectfully, "Great shaman, you arranged me to go to Shanhai Town, do you have any other orders?"

"Shi Hu, don't overthink it. When you go there, you must treat yourself as a part of it. You must be loyal to your lord. I have a feeling that this lord will be the ruler of the entire Lianzhou Basin. This is an opportunity for our people." The great shaman did in fact kept some things away from Shi Xiong.

"Shi Xiong is too conservative that it hinders progress. You are different. You are smart and adaptive. This time, going to Shanhai Town is an opportunity. Do you understand?" The great shaman said.

"I understand!" Shi Hu nodded his head.

"That's good. Go make your preparations, pick your best warrior, and don't lose the honor of Xuanniao tribe."

"Yes!" Shi Hu turned around and left.

In the front yard meeting room, Shi Xiong told Ouyang Shuo the decision of the great shaman. Upon hearing the decision, Ouyang Shuo was very pleased; the results of the cooperation had exceeded what he had expected.

"Big leader, let's have a good cooperation!" Ouyang Shuo laughed.

"Good cooperation!" After agreeing to cooperate, Shi Xiong released Zhang Daniu and the other men.

After being locked up for the day, the village protection squad had undergone some hardship and were dirty beyond belief. They looked nothing like members of Shanhai Town army. All of them were embarrassed when they saw Ouyang Shuo.

Zhang Daniu led the squad and kneeled down. "I made a mistake, ruining the name of Shanhai Town, sire please punish me!"

The other members of the village protection squad echoed, "Sire, punish us!"

For this village protection squad, Ouyang Shuo didn't have anything good to say, coldly saying, "Get up, you still haven't lost enough face? I'll deal with you all later."

"Yes!" Under Zhang Daniu's lead, they all backed out of the mountain stronghold and gathered with the infantry squadron outside.

As it was already close to noon, Ouyang Shuo accepted Shi Xiong's invitation to stay for lunch. As compared to Shanhai Town, the food here obviously couldn't compare. But eating smoked meat, pickled vegetables, wild animals, and various bugs had a different kind of flavor.

After lunch, the selection of the 200 warriors had also been completed. Sihu led them and lined up at the mountain stronghold square. As they knew that these warriors were going far away, their family members all came out to send them. Regardless of the one being sent or the one sending, everyone had a sad expression on their face. The leader said that the family members of the warriors would have priority for food and to them, nothing was more important than food.

"Sire, Shi Hu has gathered 200 warriors, please take a look!" Seeing Ouyang Shuo, Shi Hu said loudly.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head, instantly having a good impression of this little mountain barbarian. "Brother Shi it has been tough, this trip to Shanhai Town, I promise it won’t disappoint any of you."

Before leaving, the leader Shi Xiong brought out a wooden box and ran over, "The great shaman couldn’t send you all off because of her health, so she ordered me to bring this for lord."

"Thank you for her gift, hopefully there will be another chance for me to see her."Ouyang Shuo laughed and said as he received the box.

"Ok, I will tell her what you said."

"Goodbye!" Ouyang Shuo did not waste any more time and said goodbye to the leader before leaving. After meeting with the squadron which was gathered outside the mountain stronghold, he ordered everyone to rush back to Shanhai Town.

At 4 PM in the afternoon, they returned to Qiushui Village. When the village chief Zhao Dexian saw them return, he heaved a sigh of relief.

Ouyang Shuo's first action upon returning was to announce the punishment of the village protection squad: Zhang Daniu had a half year penalty, the sergeants 3 months, and all the soldiers 1 month.

"As what they say: Every mistake is a learning opportunity. Hopefully you will learn your mistake and train hard to change class and protect Qiushui Village well."

"We won’t let sire down!" After this failure, the village protection squad was more motivated to prove themselves.

Ouyang Shuo did not have plans for them to rest and ordered Zhang Daniu to search for raiders around the village. If they find them, they couldn’t hold back, and if they found a giant raiders camp, they must call for help from Shanhai Town.

Originally, Zhang Daniu had expected to be fired and didn’t expect that Ouyang Shuo would let him off so lightly. He still trusted him so much and that caused him to be very grateful.

Settling the issue with the village protection squad, Ouyang Shuo spent 100 gold at the intermediate market at Qiushui Village and bought 10,000 units of grains. According to their agreement, Xuanniao tribe will send people down to collect these.

Seeing that Ouyang Shuo had kept his promise, Shi Hu and the other men became more relaxed. These grains would help solve the problem in the tribe and their families would not need to starve.

After which, Ouyang Shuo brought his troops back to Shanhai Town. Before leaving, he left Zhao Dexian with 50 gold to use to let the village protection squad undergo a class change.

Fan Zhongyan had brought all the officials and had waited for Ouyang Shuo. After meeting, he laughed and said," The two days that sire had left, the territory felt like it lost its spine. Finally you returned."

"Haha, with you covering, I have no worries." On the way back Ouyang Shuo told the three directors about the deal with Xuanniao tribe. Following which he said to Tian Wenjing, "As for the precious ore agreement, I will need the director to handle it. We can think about sending a few miners over to their tribe and help them out. In this aspect we are a bit more professional!"

Tian Wenjing nodded his head," Don’t worry sire, I will get this done!"

After returning to Shanhai Town, Ouyang Shuo let everyone go their own way, he brought the unit back to the barracks, changing the class of the mountain barbarians to infantry. The high-rank class change chamber no longer needed to go through the militia class change face and could directly class change to soldier.

After the class change, Ouyang Shuo only had 75 gold left, becoming a poor man once again. He took the chance to convene a meeting with everyone that was a lieutenant and above. "I will first announce a few personnel changes. Shi Hu will be the deputy captain of the 2nd squadron, and Wang Feng will be the deputy captain of the 3rd infantry squadron.

Shi Hu and Wang Feng stepped out and shouted, "Thank you sire, we won’t let you down."

As the representative of the mountain barbarians, Shi Hu's promotion was to be expected. However, Wang Feng, who was promoted to sergeant when he entered, now after a few days was promoted to deputy captain. This wasn’t that Ouyang Shuo was being biased but as the disciple of Lin Yue, he did have that ability.

Ouyang Shuo could also imagine that once Wang Feng became a basic rank general, he would be stronger than Zhao Sihu. Wang Feng had obtained the real Bajiquan. Definitely, martial arts was only a small part of being a leader, but one must admit that it added extra points.

"The two squadron sergeants will be recommended by the captains and approved by General Shi." With regards to the sergeants, Ouyang Shuo hadn’t been bothered by it. Last time when he’d arranged Lin Yue's 5 disciples to the infantry was a special situation.

"We understand!"

"Hu Yibiao!"

"Present!"

"You are to be promoted to infantry 1st squadron captain!" Hu Yibiao was a 25 year old who’d performed exceptionally in the water stronghold battle. This was considered a late reward.

"Thank you sire, I won’t let you down."

After settling the infantry, Ouyang Shuo was going to deal with the cavalry.

"Li Mingliang!"

"Present!"

"I order you to be in charge of forming the second cavalry squadron. When funds are enough, change your class straight away.”

"Yes sire!"

As one of the earliest sergeants, Li Mingliang's ability was unquestioned, and asking him to build the second cavalry squadron was the same as appointing him as the captain of the squadron.

"Liao Kai!"

"Present!"

"You are the vice captain of the first cavalry squadron and lieutenant of the first platoon!" As the second generation sergeant similar to Zhou Feng, Liao Kai's promotion was to be expected.

"Thank you sire, I won’t let you down."

"Ge Liang!"

"Present!"

"You are the first squadron second platoon lieutenant!" Ge Liang was similar to Hu Yibiao, and had performed well in the water stronghold battle.

The six people who were promoted were all elite soldiers which had not changed class. They needed to change class to basic rank general, which would solve the current Shanhai Town general shortage.

After settling the issues with the cavalry, Ouyang Shuo tossed out one last bomb. "The above 3 infantry squadrons and the 2 cavalry squadrons will act as the foundation for the establishment of Shanhai Town's infantry-cavalry Mixed unit, General Shi will be the major in charge.”

General Shi had finally walked out of the dark shadow of the raider camp failure, obtaining Ouyang Shuo's trust once again and leading the strongest military force in Shanhai Town, he said emotionally, "Thank you sire for your trust!"

Following the rules that he had set, and to maintain the normal running of the territory, the number of militants could not exceed a tenth of the territory population. This is to say that at the grade 2 town, one unit was already the max and the military would not be expanded.

As the Lianzhou basin was a flatland, it was more suited for a large-scale army battle. The current arrangement was just a power play. In the end, they still would need to build an infantry unit and a cavalry unit.

Chapter 83 - Spring Assault

After completing the change of the military, Ouyang Shuo tossed out a large scale military plan. This plan was what he had thought of after being forced slowly into a corner by the six tyrants of Handan.

The appearance of the mountain barbarians allowed this plan to work out earlier.

If Shanhai Town wanted to protect its lead, he needed to make use of this advantage. Since he had already built such a strong mixed camp, he naturally couldn't let them be cooped up in the barracks.

Ouyang Shuo looked at the group of leaders and said," I have a plan, let's temporarily call it the Spring Assault. Let's discuss and perfect it, everyone can raise their views. The plan was split into 3 steps. The first is the reorganisation of the military and raising of military strength. The second is to clean out all the raider camps in the territory. The third would be to go out of the territory and act as bandits. The objective of the spring offensive would be to improve the coordination of the army and also to amass a large fortune.”

The various leaders were obviously interested in this plan and asked eagerly, "Sire, can you elaborate more?"

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head and said, "Today is the 9th of March and to upgrade to a grade 3 town, we have approximately one month. We should make use of this time limit as a clock to reorganise the military and train it. How long do you think it will take to form proper military strength?"

General Shi thought for awhile and said, "Out of the Mixed unit’s five squadrons, the first cavalry squadron was the earliest one that was set up. The second cavalry squadron had not been set up and the process from recruiting to class changing will take 5 days. The 3 infantry squadrons all have a certain amount of battle experience. What I'm afraid of is that the mountain barbarians in the 2nd and 3rd squadrons are too used to forest warfare and aren't used to plain warfare. They also need to get used to military life and added with the language barrier, I think we need 1 week to sharpen them.

General Shi's analysis was mostly correct, only that it wasn't an all round analysis. Ouyang Shuo reminded, "General, don't forget that there's still the coordination between the different types of soldiers. We still need to liaise with the navy in Beihai Town. This spring offensive needs to make use of all our military power. If there's a need, the navy and the village protection squad from Qiushui village can join in. Against water bandits, the Beihai Town navy could be of greatest use.”

"Sire's reminder is correct!" General Shi said with remorse.

Ouyang Shuo said, "Hence, I will give the army 10 days to sharpen. In these 10 days, you must complete 2 things."

"Sire please tell!"

"The first thing was the money needed for the class change of the cavalry squadron. I'll tell you all something, the territory has no more money and we need you guys to think of your own ideas. No money and no food, go look for raiders. This thing will be done by the infantry and cavalry first squadron." Ouyang Shuo looked at Lin Yi and Zhao Sihu.

"Sire don't worry, we will complete the mission!" The two of them stood up and said loudly.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head and turned to the Military Intelligence Division's San Gouzi and Leng Qian, "The second thing, we need to do a good intelligence gathering job. To strengthen the division, I'll expand the division to 50 people. You are in charge of the selection and training of the men."

"Yes!" The two of them said excitedly.

"Apart from that, let Lei Xun continue following the Qingfu horses." Ouyang Shuo added. Leixun was another go-getter in the division, and in this period of time, he had been coordinating with the Material Reserves Department at the opposite shore and catching Qingfu horses.

San Gouzi nodded his head to represent that he understood.

"The second step which are the bandits in the area, I don't need to say anything more. I will only give you a month, do you have confidence to complete this mission?" Ouyang Shuo said loudly.

"Yes!"

"Very good, the next and last step is the most important one which is being bandits out of our area. As opposed to inside our area, this is much more difficult. You must make sufficient preparation and I hope that when the time comes, not only will we gain anything, we will also not cause ourselves harm.."

This step was a more dangerous and advanced method. The reason why he made such a decision was in hope that they would quickly adapt to close combat and gain experience. As for the monetary rewards, they were secondary.

The leaders all agreed and were determined to win this battle.

"You have 2 weeks of time, whatever you gain, I can't wait to see." Lastly, Ouyang Shuo said.

"Sire don't worry, we will complete the mission!"

After returning from the barracks, it was already 6pm at night and Ouyang Shuo returned to the barracks and went offline.

Getting out of the game cabin and looking at his phone, there were two calls from Song Jia. This made him realise that he had forgotten to set the alert function in the game cabin.

At noon, Ouyang Shuo took time to call Song Jia, "Beautiful, sorry I didn't pick your call yesterday."

On the other end of the call, Song Jia was sitting on a sofa in her living room, "Busy man, what have you been so busy with, not even picking up a phone call."

"Cough, I'm a gamer with no job. Oh ya, that call yesterday, did you have anything important?"

"What, I can't call you if I have nothing?"

"No, you know I didn't mean it like that." Ouyang Shuo acted pitiful.

Seeing his pitiful look, Song Jia's mood turned for the better and said, "Forget it. Let me ask you something, have you heard of a game called Earth Online?" Talking about this game, Song Jia's expression became nervous and she was hesitating when she talked.

Ouyang Shuo was shocked. The incident about Sun Xiaoyue’s grandfather alerted him that the secret truth behind Earth Online was starting to spread to the smaller powers. Listening to the words of Song Jia, he was now 100 percent sure. Song Jia was from a powerful family in Lingnan so her knowing was not surprising.

However, how could he explain to her. Song Jia should have only gotten the news and the moment she did, she didn’t care about her family's demand to keep it a secret and told him immediately. If he wasn’t touched he was definitely lying.

Song Jia saw that Ouyang Shuo's face in the video had become unsettled and asked, "So have you heard about it?"

"Yes, but only a bit. I also joined in the beta test." Ouyang Shuo decided to tell a lie.

Song Jia relaxed, this wouldn’t be counted as leaking a secret. She judged Ouyang Shuo and teased him, "I didn’t expect you to be hiding so much, what is your id? I’ll add you and we can play together."

It seems like he couldn’t escape that question. The good thing was that he had thought of a good reply and said, "I signed a non-disclosure so my ID can’t be told to anyone. However, if you have any questions, you can give me a call and I will answer them."

Everything that had to do with the beta test was highly confidential information. Song Jia wouldn’t know that the non-disclosure agreement was only during the beta test and it didn’t prohibit him from telling his ID. This was just his excuse and one day in the future he would explain it to her.

Song Jia believed him and said cutely, "Oh, I wanted to play together with you."

"What occupation do you play?"

"I play a chivalrous expert. I want to be a female chivalrous expert, to be righteous, maintaining law and order, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Such a carefree life." One couldn’t tell that the demure Song Jia would actually have such adventurous spirit.

That’s true, being born in a rich family and with a silver spoon, one wouldn’t have much freedom. The restrictions on her life would be too much so the game would be a chance to release herself.

People like Song Jia faced the problem positively. There were many other people who looked honest and lived a life which was very routine and orderly, but in the game, there was no more morals and law, they liked to do bad things, showing how twisted their minds were.

Of course the authorities in the game weren’t useless and if the player broke the law, they would jail him.

"I couldn’t tell that our big beauty had such a huge burden. How about this, tell me your ID and i’ll prepare a gift for you in game." Ouyang Shuo laughed and said.

"That’s more like it, I’m near broke in the game, not having enough money to learn basic swordsmanship. You are a beta player so please fund me." Song Jia didn’t decline his offer and smiled, "Remember, my ID is Jiaqi Rumeng."

The number 4 beauty in the top 10 beauties in his last life, wasn’t she Jiaqi Rumeng? She was the only chivalrous expert in the top 10, gaining her many fans.

This was really a case of coincidence. After meeting his little aunt Snow Rose, Ouyang Shuo now had another famous buddy in the game. In his last life, it was such a sad case that he had missed both of them.

Chapter 84 - Colored Silkworm

Editor:ryangohsff

When Ouyang Shuo went online the next day, he thought of the gift that the Xuanniao tribe had given him. He had not opened it and had asked Wang Feng to place it in his office.

Walking into his office, that wooden box was unsurprisingly on his table. He opened the box and inside, there were actually 30 odd colorful silkworms lying on thick layers of leaves. The silkworms were vibrant colored. There were gold, purple, blue, orange, red and green colored worms. Each color had at least 2 silkworms.

This was a really special gift. These mutated silkworms could only appear in the deep mountains and being obtained by the mountain barbarians by luck could be considered a gift from nature.

Seeing these colorful silkworms, Ouyang Shuo thought of the <Silkworm Breeding Technology> that he had gotten during the siege of beasts. Now he could finally use it.

Not only that, with these colorful silkworms, the mulberry garden, textile mill, and garment workshop, he had a chain of production from silk to garment. Based on economists, this could be said to be an industrial chain.

Knowing how valuable the gift was, Ouyang Shuo wiped cold sweat off his forehead. In his heart, he blamed Shi Xiong for being too bold and not telling him what was inside the box.

If Ouyang Shuo wasn’t courteous and ask his men to take the gift in his stead, he might have placed it in his storage bag , these cute silkworm babies would have all died. Thankfully Wang Feng was meticulous and even after crossing the mountains and forests, those babies were still ok.

Ouyang Shuo couldn’t sit still and called for Mu Qingsi and the others into the meeting hall. Those attending the meeting, apart from the 3 directors, was the agriculture secretary Sun Yannong, resource secretary Du Xiaolan, mulberry garden manager Zhao Youde, textile mill manager Yingcui and the garment workshop manager Wu Ni.

Seeing such a big lineup, Zhao Youde and the other two, for whom this was their first time entering the lord's manor, felt perturbed. Zhao Youde was a little better off as he was one of the first 10 people in Shanhai Village from Zhao Village, as was his brother Zhao Youcai. For the past period of time there was no use for their talents. Now of the two brothers, one managed the mulberry garden, and the other managed the fruit farm.

The factory manager of the textile mill Yingcui was a 23 year old female and an advanced weaver. The manager of the garment workshop Wuni was a 25 year old female, intermediate tailor and was Mu Qingsi's main working partner.

Ouyang Shuo sat at the head chair and glanced at the 10 odd people in the meeting, where there were actually 5 women. No wonder how some people said that in Shanhai Town, women could manage half the sky.

"Big brother, why did you call us here this time?" In this kind of atmosphere, no one dared to casually talk to Ouyang Shuo, only that little brat Qing'er.

Ouyang Shuo didn’t bother about her, opening the wooden box and smiled, "Take a look. What is this?"

"Ya, such cute baby silkworms. But, why are they so colorful? Qing'er remembered that they should be white!" Qing'er said and pointed at the baby silkworms.

Listening to her words, everyone else became very curious, and crowded around to take a look.

"Is this the colored silkworms of legends? I only read of them in old records but didn’t expect them to really exist." Out of all these people Yingcui was most familiar with this, and thus had a little understanding.

"These colored silkworms, are the silk that they spit out really colorful?" Yingyu who had a business eye saw the value of these colored silkworms, asking eagerly.

"Colored silkworms spit out colored silk, but how it works I am not sure." Yingcui said with uncertainty, after all they only existed in legends and no one have seen them before.

"I can confirm that they do indeed spit out colored silk of the same color as their body." Ouyang Shuo said confidently.

Yingyu's eyes brightened, filled with thoughts.

After he waited for everyone to sit, Ouyang Shuo opened his mouth and said, "I'm sure you have heard just now that the silkworms in the box are the coloured silkworms of legends. Coincidentally we also have a silkworm technical manual. With this and the already built mulberry garden, the Shanhai Town has all the requirements to produce and grow coloured silkworms. The coloured silkworm will be listed as a strategic resource and managed by both the Agriculture and Resource Divisions. We must keep it a secret and ensure that the silkworm eggs aren't spread outside."

"If nothing goes wrong, the natural coloured silk from the silkworms will become our specialty, and hence we must ensure that only we produce it. The textile mill will also be listed as a government entity and prohibited from privatisation, managed directly by the territory."

Everyone nodded their heads, only Qing'er worriedly said, "Big Brother, you called Sister Wu Ni and I here, is it to take our garment workshop for the territory to manage?"

This money grubber, Ouyang Shuo really couldn't handle her. Even Yingyu who sat at the side couldn't see this anymore and pulled her to the side, shoving her mouth shut and not letting her speak.

Ouyang Shuo impatiently said, "Why would I need your garment workshop? Everyone can see that the silk produced from the mulberry garden will be made into textiles by the mills, and then into garments by the workshop. This chain will involve many divisions. The mulberry garden is managed by the Agriculture Division, the silkworms by the Resource and Agriculture Divisions, and textile mills are under the charge of the Administration Department. The garment workshop is a private property. It is a very complicated matter."

"Sire's meaning is to build a specific department to be in charge of all of this?" Thinking about the Armoury division, Tian Wenjing hesitated before saying.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and said, "No, if every industrial chain needed a new department, then what will it become? It would not make cooperation easier and instead create many organisational tumors. Regardless of organisational planning or political methods, it isn't logical.

"Then what is sire's intentions?" Tian Wenjing couldn't understand.

"My intention is that this thing need not be done by the government and can be used to show the people's power. More specifically we can create a textile association. Each step of the industrial chain will become a unit in the association. The president, vice president and secretary will make up the board of directors, who will be in charge of the only industrial chain." Ouyang Shuo didn't want to hide anything and as such revealed everything.

This was something new and refreshing. Everyone in the meeting realised the reason why they were called here, to set up the textile association.

After all, Yingyu had came out of a business family and had the most knowledge in such matters. "I agree with Big Brother. How will you arrange the people in the association?"

The others looked at Ouyang Shuo with concern. He did not let them down, saying directly, "For the first people in the board of directors, I will make the decision for you all. After the association works normally, you can pick internally. The board includes Mu Qingsi, Sun Yannong, Du Xiaolan, Zhao Youde, Yingcui, Wu Ni and the next manager of the silkworms. To put things simply, government officials like Du Xiaolan and Sun Yannong cannot join in the decision to pick the president, vice president and secretary.

Sun Yannong and Du Xiaolan nodded their heads to show that they understood. "The textile association president will be Yingcui, and Mu Qingsi will be the honourary president. The vice president will be Wu Ni, and the secretary will be the manager of the silkworms." Ouyang Shuo followed on by saying. Upon hearing that she would have such a great position that didn't need her to do anything, Qing'er felt delighted.

Yingcui was surprised that she would be pushed to be the president, and nervously said, "Sire, I'm afraid I can't do well."

"Factory manager Ying doesn't need to be overly modest. I trust you."

Yingcui nodded her head, not saying anything further.

None of the people expected that such a haphazardly placed together association would be of so much importance in future territorial economic activities.

After settling the issue with the textile association, Ouyang Shuo took time to visit the market to buy a gift for Song Jia. He opened the skill tab and bought basic swordsmanship, basic movement, basic internal strength and basic investigation, spending 1 gold in total. He went to the special goods section and searched for sword techniques. Ouyang Shuo shook his head as none of these sword techniques were real. He spent 50 gold to purchase a real technique, the <Yue Nu Swordsmanship>.

After returning, he went to the arsenal and took out the only gold-level exquisite iron sword that was plundered from the water stronghold and also the silver-level leather armor suit. Lastly, he sent all these items anonymously to Song Jia, spending 1 gold on mailing fees.

With all these things, Song Jia could be considered well armed. As long as she leveled up slowly, she would become a strong chivalrous expert and make up for the 2 month gap between her and the other players that had started the game earlier.

Chapter 85 - Surprise

Outskirts of Quanzhou Region.

A bunch of teenagers were levelling up. The team consists of combat class jobs such as officers, chivalrous experts and government servants, in addition to supporting class jobs like healers and taoists, it was a typical leveling team.

Officers were much like the knights in the west, when they were not equipped with mounts, they could only walk on their legs like a warrior. Chivalrous experts were typical warriors, be it swordsmen or bladesmen, they were all close-combat experts. Government servants were a job that was filled with Chinese characteristics, they wield a water-fire stick and swung an iron chain.

While the healers did not have any skills that could instantly heal the patients, they were more like an army doctor centering on first aid. The Taoist too, was incapable of sorceries and had to use Fulu2 as the main means of attack, similar to the western wizards.

This group of people were dressed in the system gifted coarse linen clothes, in their hands held the cheapest ordinary weapons. The 5 of them could barely kill a level-3 ordinary wild dog, even so, it seemed really difficult. The group didn’t cooperate very well and often gotten themselves into dangerous positions. It was obvious they were a bunch of fresh rookies that just joined the game.

With great effort, the team finally killed the wild dog. The system assessed them based on their performance and contribution, and awarded them differently with a petty tens of experience points. The healer bandaged the wounded government servant while the Taoist went and collect the wild dog’s fur, they had a clear division of labor.

The leader of the team was a young officer 24-25 of age, he had a domineering and bossy look, he held the best weapon in the team, a bronze-level iron spear. With a bitter smile he said: “Oh my god, this idiot game is too real, even leveling is so strenuous, how long is this going to take for us to level up.”

“That’s right, I wonder when can big brother get a village creation token. I heard that when we have militants from the territory to help us, it will be much easier to level.” The beautiful young chivalrous expert said.

The two were the core of the whole team, the others were merely here to accompany them.

“How could it be that easy. We can only blame ourselves for entering the game too late, rumors said that the first 10,000 lord players could skip the Village Building Quest and directly obtain the village creation token. But now, we can only try our luck, praying that any one of the gold farming group have an extra village creation token for sale.” The young officer clearly did not have any expectations.

As the female chivalrous expert was about to reply, a burst of system notifications sounded in her ears.

“System notice: You have an anonymous parcel, do you wish to receive it?”

Anonymous parcel? Her heart skipped for a beat, she quickly glanced around making sure it was safe before she said: “Receive!”

There was a flash of bright white light and as it faded a huge parcel appeared on the ground, one couldn’t tell what it contained as it was fully wrapped in linen sackcloth. The female chivalrous expert had no intention to open it and directly put it in her storage bag.

“Who sent you a parcel, it looks like it contained a huge fortune in it?” The young officer was curious.

She randomly glanced at the items in her storage bag, and for a moment her face was filled with shock, but immediately she returned back to normal and acted as if nothing happened, with a calm voice she said: “Second brother, let’s go back to Quanzhou Region, it is not safe here.” Clearly she was very alert, they were in the middle of the wilderness, facing the risk of getting killed and robbed anytime, it was simply not a good place to check the parcel.

“Alright, let’s return.” The young man understood his little sister very well, she always had a sense of propriety and she wouldn’t make irresponsible remarks. For her to make such decisions, the parcel must be unusually important.

The group of team returned back to Quanzhou Region. They had rented a quadrangle courtyard as their temporary staying place. There were all kinds of people coming in and out of the courtyard, a roughly estimation would be no fewer than 200 people.

“Second brother, third sister, what is it that brings you back to the courtyard so early?” An aged scholar about 27-28 years old stood in the courtyard, he asked curiously as he saw the group of teenagers that returned.

“Big brother, we will talk in the room.” The young officer answered.

“Alright!” The young scholar noticed the unusual atmosphere and he led his two siblings into the secret chamber.

“Little sister, take it out, show us what’s so mysterious about the parcel. I wonder what it contains, it must be some good stuff, show me, let me have a look.” As they entered the secret chamber, the young general became more casual and he said with a smile.

“Hmph, I bet it will blind your eyes, don’t get too jealous!” the female chivalrous expert too, loosened her restrains and she said naughtily. She took out the parcel from her storage bag and placed it on the table that was in the middle of the room.

“Hey, you underestimate your second brother!” The young officer stepped forward and opened the parcel. In the glimpse of an eye, a huge pile of items burst out of the parcel and laid before their eyes. There were skill books, secret manuals, weapons, armors and 10 gold.

The young officer was stunned as he gazed at the items, even the seemingly calm young scholar couldn’t help but to exclaim: “Little sister, who gave you all of these, how generous is this!?”

The young and beautiful female chivalrous expert was naturally Song Jia, her in-game name was Jiaqi Rumeng ,while the two young gentlemen in front of her were her blood-brothers, also the lead representative of Song Corporation in Earth Online. The two, one is a scholar and the other an officer, the big brother Song Wen chose to walk on the civil path of lord’s kingdom building, while the second brother Song Wu chose the military personal adventure mode.

The quadrangle courtyard was actually rented by the Song Corporation as a temporary base, the two hundred or over players were either members of the Song family itself or professional players they recruited in real life.

“Hihi, it’s a secret, don’t bother so much.” Song Jia said proudly.

Song Wu picked up the exquisite iron sword, and his saliva flowed down to the ground, he said enviously: “My god, this is a gold-level weapon. Only the leaders of the top ten mercenary groups have them, little sister you are only level 2, it will be a great waste if the weapon lies in your hands.”

“Hihi, second brother you are jealous of me!”

Song Wu then picked up the leather armor suit, and again he exclaimed: “Oh my god, silver-level armor suit, wuwu...I am only wearing linen coarse clothes.” He was badly hurt, in contrast to the equipment before his eyes, his equipment were like a beggar’s.

Song Jia stood beside and watched as her brother exclaiming over the items, her heart was filled with the sweetest honey, she was really satisfied with the presents Shuo prepared for her.

Song Wu placed his hands on the skill book , he said calmly: “Second brother you are really blind, the value of this skill book is comparable to that of the gold-level exquisite iron sword. My preliminary estimation is that all of these items would cost at least 200 gold. Little sister, are you really not going to tell me anything?”

Even so, Song Wen was still as blind as Song Wu. In a year’s time, after Gaia exposed the truth behind the true and false secret manuals, a true skill book like would cost an arm and a leg. Now, it was the only period that the true skill books and secret manuals were sold like vegetables on the Material Trading Platform, and even at such a low price, there were still little to none buyers. If only Ouyang Shuo had extra funds available, he would have went on a buying frenzy.

“What, they are so valuable!” Even though Song Jia wasn’t as sensitive as her brother Song Wen about the prices of goods, but she had a clear understanding on the rarity of gold. The market price of a copper was 2 credit points, 200 golds would then be translated into 4 million credit points, and that was if they were willing to sell off the gold.

Ouyang Shuo, Ouyang Shuo, what are you? Such an ordinary man in real life, yet you could afford to simply give away such expensive gifts. Saying that it was just a meeting gift for me to enter the game, that said, you must be extraordinary in game right.

“Little sister, little sister!”

“Ah? Ha? Big brother, sorry, I’m distracted.” Her face blushed red, “As for this friend, big brother don’t ask too much, I have promised to keep it a secret.”

“Alright then, I will not force you, as long as you are happy then everything will be fine.” Song Wen pampered his little sister very much, seeing her not willing to reveal the identity of the mystery sender, he didn’t continued on asking, after all, it wasn’t a bad thing.

“Thank you big brother!” Song Jia couldn’t restrain herself any longer, she picked up and learned the 4 skill books and . Then she equipped herself with the leather armor suit and exquisite iron sword, she made a sword posture. Bright and brave, a figure of heroine was freeze-framed, with Song Wu drooling on the side.

“Ah, this is really special, after I learnt it, every stance and every move filled my mind, it feels like as though it is real.” Song Jia questioningly said.

“Probably because the game is so real that you can’t differentiate nicely between the reality and virtual world.” Regarding the truth of the secret manuals, Song Wen knew nothing of it, that was why he could only came out with this conjecture.

“Oh!” Although she disagrees with her brother, but she did not care too much either. Song Jia picked up the 10 gold on the table, smiled and handed it to Song Wen: “Big brother, I will leave the gold with you.”

Song Wen was delighted with his little sister that was always thoughtful and sensible, he patted her head and said: “Since it was a gift from your friend, you should then keep it for yourself. These 10 gold, even if passed on to the family, still wouldn’t affect much to the overall situation. Furthermore, the repairing fees of your equipment are not cheap, you need to have some money with you. Your friend, he or she must be an attentive person to be able to give consideration to all these little details, that is why the 10 gold are included in the parcel.”

“Oh!” Song Jia did not think much, after listening to her brother’s analysis, she did not compel anymore. Who knew, that woodsy would be so attentive.

“However, if it is convenient, can you ask your friend whether if it is possible to get us a village creation token. Of course, we will acquire it at a high price.” Song Wen jokingly said lastly. The village creation token was the biggest problem he was facing right now, his hair almost turned completely white finding a way to get himself a village creation token. Without the token, it was impossible to establish a territory; without a territory, Song Corporation would not be able to take root in the game, and that was a form of failure.

“Alright, I will try and ask.” Song Jia was clear of her brother’s situation, she readily agreed to her brother’s request. Since that woodsy had said, just call him when there’s any problems.

“But, there’s no guarantee my friend can get it!” Song Jia said with a little uncertainly in the end.

“Yeah sure, I’m just sort of trying my luck, it’s best if there is, it is normal otherwise.” Obviously, Song Wen himself did not have any high hopes.

Water-fire stick1 (水火棍): An ancient weapon in Chinese history, used by government servants in the government courtroom. Half of the stick was painted in black and the other half in red. In the Chinese 5 elements, black is the representative color of Water; red is the representative color of Fire. As fire and water does not mix together, the stick itself denotes that: In the courtroom, The law does not have any room for personal considerations.

Fulu2 (符籙): Supernatural talisman with various functions drawn or written by Taoists.

Chapter 86 - Territory Upgrade

Ouyang Shuo knew little of the discussions among the 3 Song siblings that was aroused by the seemingly ordinary gifts he’d sent to Song Jia. That was the difference in strength that caused their different point of views.

At 2 PM in the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo led his 3 directors to the city wall. After a month’s time, the main structure of the city wall was finally completed. The rest were the ancillary facilities’ construction of the city gate tower, arrow towers, turrets and the drawbridge. 9 meters high and 5 meters wide, the stone-made city wall looked magnificent, giving off an immense sense of safety to those that laid eyes on it.

As he climbed to the top of the northern city wall, he looked around. Every square inch of land, every drop of water; the plains, the mountains, the rivers... Everything that came into his sight belonged to Shanhai Town. Ouyang Shuo became broad-minded and lion-hearted.

“Good, the Construction Division has done a great job supervising the completion of the city wall. They shall be rewarded.” Ouyang Shuo turned and looked at Cui Yingyu, “The Finance Department will draft a standard of incentives and submit it to me for approval.”

Yingyu nodded. Zhao Dewang on the side said fervently: “My lord, to be able to embrace your ratification is the biggest reward to the Construction Division, we dare not ask for more.”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, “Ey, you get what you deserve, Secretary Zhao need not be humble and decline it. This wall, will be the greatest line of defense for Shanhai Town. With it, the military can launch operation Spring Assault with ease. The Construction Division must accelerate the construction of the affiliated facilities to ensure that a complete defense system utilizing the city wall can be formed early.”

“The Construction Division promises, we will finish and complete everything within a week’s time.” Zhao Dewang patted his chest and said.

In comparison to the city wall, the drawbridge was progressing slower. Even when more workers were assigned to it, it would still require another 2 weeks to complete.

After the city wall was built, Ouyang Shuo had a big plan for his territory. Back at his manor, he asked the concierge to invite the manager of the brick kiln workshop over.

The manager, Tao Wang, was an advanced kilnmaster, aged 32, dark-skinned, honest, and loyal. As he received the summons, he rushed over to the manor from the kiln workshop outside of town.

After Tao Wang arrived, Ouyang Shuo then called over to his office the 3 directors, Zhao Dewang, Hao Jianceng and Zhou Haichen. Due to his extraordinary performance during the official assessment, Hao Jiancheng was promoted to assistant secretary of the Construction Division. This was the first time he had the honor to be called over to Ouyang Shuo’s office, and the young assistant looked excited.

“Master Tao, please make a brief report regarding the kiln workshop.” Ouyang Shuo said.

Tao Wang stood up and answered in great respect. “My lord, there are 120 workers, 4,000 units of green bricks, a production rate of 120 green bricks per day, with an average of 1 brick per worker per day.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, “I have a plan to discuss with all of you. The territory layout was generally based on a grade 3 village layout. However, after the blessings of time, the current layout is now unable to catch up with our rapid development. We have to look forward one, two or even three steps ahead in matters like territory layout.”

Hao Jiancheng nodded in agreement. As the planning manager of the Construction Division, he was very clear of this situation.

“Our city wall was built in reference to the standards of a grade 3 town. That said, are we going to add wall after wall when we get to a grade 3 county, grade 3 prefecture and grade 3 capital? Of course not, the walls will obstruct the development of the city. Therefore, from now on, we will plan and assess our city layout according to the standard and point of view of a capital city.”

He continued, “The future capital city will occupy a land of 100 square kilometers with a total of 3 city walls. The first wall will be 3 kilometers long on all four sides. This is the city stone wall we have just completed. It will be the royal palace wall in the future. The second wall will be 6 kilometers long on all four sides. Its construction will start during the county stage, and it will be the inner capital wall. The third and last wall will have sides as long as 10 kilometers This will be built during the prefecture stage, and will be the outer wall of the capital.

This was the first time Ouyang Shuo had exposed his future plan for the territory, showing his domineering and ambitious true nature. Everyone present, including the 3 directors, were moved greatly as they listened to his plan. Their blood boiled with tidal upsurges of emotions.

“Coming back to our main theme, taking the completion of the city wall as an opportunity, we will adjust the future planning of the territory. There are 2 adjustments needed to be done. First, the general layout of territory; second, the construction materials of the buildings. We will first talk about the construction materials. The general construction materials as of now are stones and mainly wood As a result, the buildings are not safe due to their weak performances against fire hazards. Therefore, we will seize this opportunity and change these wood and stone structured buildings into a combination of brick and stone structures. The Construction Division will have to coordinate with the brick kiln workshop, and adjust the consumption-production rate of bricks to ensure the constant supply of bricks.” Ouyang Shuo instructed them.

Zhao Dewang nodded to indicate understanding. The lord had thrown out bomb after bomb. The Construction Division had just completed the massive city wall project, and was now given another gigantic territory-upgrading project. There wasn’t a second to rest at all.

“The Household Registration Division will have to prepare and allocate workers appropriately. My suggestion is to increase the kiln workers to 200 men.” Ouyang Shuo talked Zhou Haichen.

“No problem.” Zhou Haichen accepted Ouyang Shuo’s suggestion.

“Now here comes the main issue: the adjustment of the territory layout. In principle, within the 5 registration categories, namely the farmers, workers, fishermen, herdsmen and craftsmen. Other than the craftsmen, the others will have to be shifted out to the suburbs. The settlements will be decided according to their occupations. For example, kiln workers will be placed around the kiln workshop, while miners will be settled somewhere near to the mining field. This way, we will not only ease the congestion of populations in the city, but will also provide convenience to the workers.” Such a decision was made as the first step to separate the urban and rural populations. These settlements would be the perfect prototypes for the establishment of village communities in the future.

The decision was also the first step that denoted the transformation of Shanhai Town from an agricultural rural village to an urban city. When the other 4 occupations were scattered around the suburbs, the city was left with only craftsmen, tradesmen, and the other business-related personnel, granting purity to the town and making it more lively.

“My lord, I very much agree to the settlements, but there are 2 questions in mind.” Director Fan of the Administration Department was the first to speak.

“Please speak up!”

“After the establishment of the settlements, how are we going to implement administrative works there, and also how do we guarantee the safety of the residents?” His well-reasoned questions were incisive and straight to the point.

Ouyang Shuo was fully prepared. The plan to establish settlements was not a provisional or premature plan, but it was a plan well thought-out after a series of serious considerations. Just like operation Spring Assault, the proposed plan was a deterrent to solve the existing issues faced by the town.

“Good questions! For the administrative work in the settlements, we will adapt the system of self-government The residents will elect a well-respected man as the settlement chief. He will be in charge of the taxes and household registrations, and will report to the Administration Department.”

About the settlement chiefs, Fan Zhongyan was surely familiar with it. The settlement chiefs had long existed during the Spring and Autumn Period, so they were the best candidate to manage the settlements.

“As for the safety of residents, there is nothing to worry about. As long as operation Spring Assault is progressing smoothly, the territory will be cleared of external threats. There will be no more concerns regarding safety. Secondly, we will set up military camps both inside and outside of the town. They will ensure the safety of everyone in the territory.”

After he finished answering Fan Zhongyan’s questions, he continued on saying, “For the buildings within the city wall, we will have to make some adjustments too. The West district was initially a residential area, but as the residents will be shifted out to the suburbs, only the Southwest district will remain as a residential area. The Northwest district will be changed to a business district, and every workshop will be moved there. In the Northeast district will only remain the military camps, arsenals, stables, the weapons workshop, Armory Division and other military buildings. The Southeast district looks empty with only the Culture and Education Division in it, so we can build some residences for officials in that area, specifically for officials with the position of at least deputy secretary.”

He continued. “The iconic commercial street will remain as is, but commence a round of comprehensive renovation of the shops. The square in front of the lord’s manor needs to be refurbished, so pave the floor with quartz stones and decorate the square with some flowers and sculptures. I want it to be a gathering place of leisure for the residents. Lastly, the two crossroads in the city will also need to be paved with quartz stones. The territory is now already a grade 2 town, but the roads are still mud roads. This is too inappropriate.”

Zhao Dewang felt a great twinge in his heart as he listened to Ouyang Shuo’ plans. From what was mentioned so far, the workload of this project was comparable to that of the construction of the city wall.

Ouyang Shuo ignored Zhao Dewang, and turned to Cui Yingyu. “The expenses required for the whole plan will be classified under public expenditure by the Finance Department. Any concerns?”

“We can barely make it.” Yingyu said cautiously.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Good. If the funds are insufficient, come look for me. I will figure it out. The whole plan will have to be done within a month’s time. Is there any problem according to the Construction Division?”

“If it includes the settlements, we can hardly make it.” Although he did not want to disappoint his lord, to make a promise and not to be able to keep it later on, the lord would be furious and might kill him.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head with a smile and said, “The settlements will not be a concern of the Construction Division. Since it will be a self-governing community, the residents will build their own houses.

Zhao Dewang breathed a sigh of relief and said immediately, “Then I have no problem.”

“Very good. I have only mentioned an overall plan for the territory upgrade. The details will be drafted by the Construction Division, and will be submitted to me for approval.” Ouyang Shuo said finally.

“Rest assured my lord, the details will be done in 3 days.” The manager of planning, Hao Jiancheng, said as he patted his chest.

“Alright, that will be all, you are dismissed!”

Chapter 87 - Date

The next morning, Ouyang Shuo received a call from Song Jia.

"About the parcel yesterday, I’ve received it."

"So how was it? Are you happy with it?"

"My brothers were shocked from your parcel."

"Your brothers?"

"Yes, my two elder brothers are playing this game too."

"Oh, I wasn’t thinking too much about the gifts."

"Hey pro, I want to invite you for a dinner, my treat! Are you free?"

"Of course! I’ll always have time when a gorgeous girl invites me for a dinner."

"Oh, stop flattering me. Let’s make it 6pm today, I’ll be waiting outside!"

"Alright!"

"See you tonight!"

"See you tonight!"

Upon hanging up the phone, Ouyang Shuo waved his hand and shouted excitedly, “YES!”

Moreover, for the entire day, Shuo was in such a state of excitement, just like a boy who was still young, meeting his beautiful first love for the first time. All he could do was to keep on practicing his martial arts just so he can relieve the excess hormones.

At half past four in the afternoon, Bing’er arrived home on time. At this moment, Ouyang Shuo realized that he had no time to prepare dinner for his adorable sister. As a consequence, he had to call up Xiaoyue out of nowhere.

"Xiaoyue, it’s me!"

"Hey,what's up?"

"Listen, I’m sorry but I have something up tonight, could you please come home earlier tonight to make dinner for Bing’er?."

"No problem, meeting a girl for a date tonight?" Sometimes, a girl’s sixth sense could be extraordinarily accurate.

Suddenly, Ouyang Shuo for no reason, subconsciously did not want her to know the truth, so he said vaguely,

"What date? There’s no date at all. I’m just meeting with some friends in high school.”

"Geez, I’m just asking casually, why are you so nervous? "

"Enough said, so both of you will have to settle yourselves for dinner, is that alright?." Ouyang Shuo decided to not continue this entangling topic.

"Rest assured, I can still make some simple dishes." Sun Xiaoyue muttered, she felt like she was being underestimated by Ouyang Shuo, as if she were a parasite.

"I know, I know… So that’s all then, see ya!" Ouyang Shuo decisively hang up the phone.

For the sake of that night’s date, Ouyang Shuo, for once in a long time, had dressed up himself nicely.

He bathed twice, shaved his beard cleanly, did his hair nicely for half an hour. As for dressing, of course, he could not be easy going. Ouyang Shuo picked a casual shirt with a simple pattern, matched with the only branded pants in his closet, a Zegna trousers, along with a pair of white canvas shoes. At this point, a confident and handsome young man was presented. Finally, how could he forget to trim his nails as every single detail will often add up to a certain success. As for perfumes, he would always avoid them as much as he could.

Before heading out, Ouyang Shuo dragged Bing’er to his side and coaxed her,

“Darling, brother’s going to have a gathering with my friends, be a good girl and wait for sister Xiaoyue to come back and have dinner with you, ok?”

Bing’er, like a small adult, said naughtily,

“Don’t worry brother, Bing’er will not tell sister Xiaoyue anything about your date.”

“Naughty girl”, Ouyang Shuo touched her nose as a display of endearment and turned around, heading out.

Song Jia, with her red ferrari, was already outside Ouyang Shuo’s house waiting for him. She smiled when she saw him and said, “Let’s go.”

Song Jia wore a black long dress, matched with a small shawl. The way she dressed herself; the elegant and alluring hourglass shaped body was presented in a very fascinating way.

Ouyang Shuo got in the car under everyone’s indefinable gaze, took his time and measured Song Jia thoroughly from head to toe, “Wow, you dressed sexily today, even my little heart is pumping at a crazy rate.”

Upon hearing this, Song Jia blushed immediately, she could not stand his gaze at all. His gaze was so hot, even at this distance, she could feel the blazing gaze piercing through her clothes, reaching all the way to her body. She protested coquettishly: “Why are you behaving like that, I can’t stand it.”

Ever since his rebirth, Ouyang Shuo, like a phoenix that had risen from the ashes, arisen to someone who had shaken away all of his shackles, burden and became a proud man filled with hope and confidence, refusing and crushing every secular shackles that found their way back to him. He became a person who is real, a person who is not going to bow down to power that goes against his will, a person who will not bend to money, a person who is similar to the son of a prodigy in every novel. Other than that, with the way he acts, the way he is right now, he naturally built up an unique and enchanting aura, and to the ladies, it could be intensely charming, attracting them to him like bees flocking the honey.

Although Song Jia was protesting against his remarks, her heart was secretly pounding at an incredibly fast rate.

The fact that Ouyang Shuo did not hide his admiration about her beauty is the best appraisal for her. The way he looked at her with his eyes, the windows to his soul, was crystal clear, so pure to the extent that there was neither any perverted nor ill intents. It was a fascinating vortex, she just felt like would just sink deeply into his stare, never wanting to get out out it anymore.

Song Jia quickly calmed herself down, started her ferrari and asked,

“What do you want for dinner, fancy some western cuisine?”

“Sure! I’m fine with anything.”

‘Alright, let’s go!”

Half an hour later, in the fanciest western restaurant in the state of Jiao.

Ouyang Shuo was feeling lucky that he dressed himself in a more formal way or he would’ve made himself a laughing stock. He turned around to Song Jia, “This is too exaggerating.”

“Yeah right… Stop pretending that you’re poor, we both know you’re now an invisible tycoon.” Song Jia said, making fun of him.

They then proceeded to the table that Song Jia booked under the waitress’ guidance. Song Jia asked Ouyang Shuo what he wants to eat but he just shook his head and said that he’s not so familiar with western cuisine so he’d pass and ask her to order for him.

Song Jia smiled and nodded because she knew that he didn’t know about western cuisine and ordered, “Could we have a set of escargot, Danish pastry, sirloin steak, black pepper steak, vegetable salad and two sets of clam chowder? Also I would like to order some desserts and fruits as well.”

After ordering, she asked Ouyang Shuo, “Wanna have some drink? Say… A bottle of red wine?”

Suddenly, to the pretty waitress’ surprise, Ouyang Shuo was determined to be a freeloader, taking their order and he said shamelessly, “Sure why not, it’s your treat anyway, I’m not going to spend a single cent, I wouldn’t mind at all.”

Song Jia couldn’t maintain her perfect image upon hearing what he said, facepalmed herself and ordered a bottle of year 2100 grape wine.

When the waiter left, she said: “My brother asked me to ask you if there’s any way that he could get his hands on any village creation token.”

Ouyang Shuo frowned and replied: ”I do not have any of it for now, this thing can only be obtained through luck. I’ll see what I can do. Well, I’m organizing a party to raid a bunch of bandits, if I happen to get it from the loots, I’ll send it to you.”

“You don’t have to force it, in fact, I’m actually quite embarrassed to trouble you too.”

If it wasn’t because her brother asked her to make this request, she wouldn’t even want to bring up this topic that would simply destroy the atmosphere.

“It’s fine, it’s not troublesome at all, if you still think of me as your friend, then you don’t need to worry about it.” Ouyang Shuo, on the other hand, did not put this into his heart at all.

When the dinner was served, Song Jia took a chance and pretended inadvertently and said: “Yuan Ping is starting to play this game too.”

“Oh,” Ouyang Shuo perfunctory said while busily dealing with his black pepper steak.

Song Jia finally snapped, she put down her cutleries and complained to him, “What sort of stupid reaction is this?”

“What’s wrong with him playing the game? Just let him play with himself, what can go wrong with it?”, Ouyang Shuo cluelessly said.

“Whatever, forget about it.”

It was clearly visible that Song Jia had something that she’s hiding in her heart but was hesitant to speak out; a typical girl’s mind, never going to be straightforward with you and you are to figure it out yourself.

Suddenly, something struck Ouyang Shuo in his mind and he instantly got a hold on the crucial point to the problem,

“Yuan Ping, he’s still chasing you, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, this guy is so annoying and he’s stalking me constantly that he’s becoming a nuisance now.”

The only impression Yuan Ping gave Ouyang Shuo was during the gathering this year. Yuan Ping is a man of subtlety, a qualified second generation of a rich family. No one will be able to believe that his persistency on chasing Song Jia was out of love.

Song Jia may be pretty, sexy and unique but to these rich children from the wealthy families, there will not be a lack of pretty girls in their life at all. To them, women are just a sort of stimulus to make their life more enjoyable.

His perseverance on chasing Song Jia was more on the aspect of diplomatic interest in their business profit.

There were a lot of business corporations in Ling Nan, but both Song’s corporation and Yuan’s corporation were on par with each other. The marriage between Yuan Ping and Song Jia would result in the cooperation between the two corporations. If this happened, it would be a huge gain for the Yuan’s corporation and Yuan Ping’s personal profit.

The cooperation between these two corporations will not only result in them becoming the leading force in the entire Ling Nan’s economy, Yuan Ping could also exploit this advantage and establish his power in the Yuan’s family and become the first rightful heir in the family. Ouyang Shuo would of course, not forget to include that possibility that Yuan Ping might have some true love towards Song Jia. However, either way, Ouyang Shuo personally did not want any of these to happen.

If it were in the past life, Ouyang Shuo could not do anything about it at all. Yuan Ping himself would not even view Ouyang Shuo as a competitor, not to mention that in this class solidified society, a marriage within the same rank had become a consensus. Cinderella and her Prince Charming only exists in fairy tale, it was almost impossible for someone from a lower rank to marry another from the upper rank.

However, in this life, Ouyang Shuo had obtained the ticket to the arena of the game’s highest ranks and established his force in there. He, the man risen from the ashes of his past life, was not afraid of any opponents anymore, he will withstand and compete with every single one of them. Ouyang Shuo swears that regardless of what stands in his path, he will not let go of Song Jia anymore. If given no choice, he would even go against with the entire Song’s corporation.

“Ah, don’t worry, just ignore him. If things really get out of hand, just let me know, with the power I have now, I am confident that I’ll be able to deal with it.” Ouyang Shuo said confidently.

“Okay.” Song Jia suddenly felt relieved when she got the answer from Ouyang Shuo.

While the others may feel that Ouyang Shuo is just an ordinary boy, arrogantly saying that he can solve any problems without thinking of his own capability, but Song Jia believed in Ouyang Shuo. She believed that this boy, this average looking boy has the strength to deal with things that others deemed impossible. Maybe sometimes, love really is blind; making someone losing their minds and trust their love ones blindly.

After their dinner, Song Jia naughtily said: ”Come, accompany me to have a walk around!”

“Alright! If it’s a gorgeous woman like you I’m going for a walk with, I will be very honored.” Ouyang Shuo jokingly said again.

Song Jia did not complain about his attitude this time, but instead, walking as if she’s hopping in front. At this moment, there was no goddess that is far within the grasp of the mortals, but only an ordinary girl falling in love.

Ouyang Shuo followed behind her, looking at this beautiful girl walking with a relaxed pace, at this moment, all he could see was only her. Love struck him all of a sudden just like that. Perhaps, this is what happiness meant, Ouyang Shuo said to himself.

Ouyang Shuo reached home at 9.30pm. There was no one in the living room, this is the time where Bing’er listened to her bed time stories. When he opened the door to Bing’er’s room, Xiao Yue was telling Bing’er the story about the Pleasant Goat and the Big Bad Wolf.

“Brother, you’re back!”, Bing’er said happily and smiled when she saw Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo walked towards her, patted her little head and said gently, “Sleep earlier sweetheart.”

“Okay, good night brother!”

“Good night, sweet dreams.”

Chapter 88 - Qingyang Sword Sect

March 11, another day of unrest.

“System Notice: Congratulations to player Feng Qingyang for founding the Qingyang Sword Sect; Special reward of 500 merit points, 1500 reputation points, Swordsman Township awarded the title “Home of the Martial Arts”

“System Notice: Congratulations to player Feng Qingyang ….”

“System Notice: Congratulations …..”

Feng Qingyang, the heir to the powerful clan in China, an ancient martial arts family, founded China’s first sect in such a short time. He had now stepped into the lights on the stage, and into the views of the public. From now onwards, he would no longer be shaded by Di Chen and Chun Shenjun as one of the Handan Six Tyrants. He would now shine on his own. In Earth Online, if one would like to establish a sect, there are 4 requirements needed to be met: wealth, population, technique, and land.

Wealth, the start-up capital of the sect, requires at least 200 gold.

Population, the numbers of disciples, requires at least 500 nominal disciples.

Technique, the main technique line of the sect, requires at least an Emperor-level technique and it should be a mixed technique containing passive skills, movements skills, and offensive skills.

Land, would naturally be where the sect’s location is. If one decides to establish it in the wilderness, it would be exposed to the beasts and the raiders ambush, therefore it is best to establish it in a lord player’s territory.

What a showy guy Feng Qingyang is, naming the sect after his own name. Hmm... Wonder what does this “Home of the Martial Arts” will increase. Shuo thought and took a guess. It would most probably be boosting the practitioner’s physique or something like that.

Probably Feng Qingyang thought that he didn’t have enough attention, as he continued on shouting in the National Channel: “Qingyang Sword Sect invites swordsmen from all backgrounds to join us, once joined you will be taught the Emperor-level Technique. Spaces are limited, first come first serve.”

ChunQiu Alliance’s other three members jumped out too.

Chun ShenJun: “Brother Feng, congratulations, congratulations.”

Xiong Ba: “Congratulations +1 !!!”

Wandering Magic: “Congratulations +2 !!!”

Feng Qingyang: “Thank you, three brothers!”

Shuo shook his head. Hey, here it comes again. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. In the past life, Feng Qingyang had used the same way to fund himself plenty of capital. According to the Wulin Sect Disciple system, there were 4 different grades: Junior disciple, Senior disciple, Core disciple, and Direct disciple. Different grades of disciple had different access to the technique-level. The details were decided by the Sect Head.

Feng Qingyang used the Emperor-level technique as a bait, alluring the swordsmen to his Swordsman Town. Fees would be applied to join the Qingyang Sword Sect.

Junior disciple - 50 silver

Senior disciple - 2 gold

Core disciple - 5 gold

How about Direct disciple? Sorry, they were only limited to the ancient martial arts family members. Only one of themselves could become a direct disciple.

And the so-called Emperor-level technique, of course. It wasn’t bought by Feng Qingyang from the market or dropped from the loots of any raids; he had no such capabilities yet. In Earth Online, the system allowed players to created their own skills and techniques. Therefore, using the system’s Technique and Skills Creation System, he was able to reflect his family martial arts into the game.

Since this brilliant plan of his was able to get Feng Qingyang lots of gold and bring countless numbers of advanced adventurers to his Swordsman Town, it could be said as hitting two birds with one stone. The Qingyang Sword Sect was now a golden chicken that laid eggs. Furthermore, only by using these steady streams of capital did he then have the opportunity to start his plan of real techniques collection, being the biggest winner himself a year later.

These series of plans, overlapping one over another, utilizing the ancient martial arts family’s advantage to the furthest extent, could be said as though they were art painted by God's hand.

Shuo knew these plans were not by Feng Qingyang, but that they came instead from his sister, Feng Qingyue. Aged only 18, ranked 5th in the China List of Beauties, and was known as the China Three Zhuge, along with Handan’s Juedai Fenghua and Consonance’s Tsing-Yi.

Stopping his envy of the others, Shuo concentrated in his Bajiquan and spearmanship training. Due to him logging in late today, it was already midday when he finished his training.

At 2 PM, Shuo appeared on time in his office, starting to handle the day’s territory affairs.

At 3 PM, Director Tian brought along the manager of mining field, Yuan Shaoping, with a face of delight and exclaimed happily, “My lord, good news, very good news!”

Seeing the usual dead-man face Tian Wenjing being so excited, he was puzzled and curious. “What good news?”

Director Tian, pointing at Yuan Shaoping, laughed and said: “It is better to let Manager Yuan report to you, my lord!”

Shuo nodded, Yuan Shaoping rose and bowed before he said, “My lord, after the exploration these two days, we have finally found a large open-pit gold mine, just 5 miles south of Xuanniao Tribe.”

“Great!” Shuo exclaimed and stood up in great joy, he asked further “How is the topographical condition of the gold mine? Is it easy and convenient to mine? How big is the scale of the gold mine?”

“My lord, it is well-situated, to the north flows a 10-meter wide river. To the west, it intersects with Xuanniao Tribe. To the south stands a wolf-head shaped rock mountain (hereinafter referred to as Langshou Mountain1). To the east is a field of woods. The mining layers are shallow, which makes them easy to exploit. As for the ore storage, we could not determine yet, but it is confirmed that the mine is rich in gold ores. I had roughly tested, a tonne of gold ore could be refined into 20 grams of gold. I took a daring guess and estimated at least 40 tonnes of gold could be excavated in that mine.” Yuan Shaoping obviously prepared his report, as it was detailed.

Shuo was excited, according to 20 grams of gold per gold coin, 40 tonnes of gold would translate into 2 million gold coins. Of course, that is after he had to excavate and refine them before they turned into real gold coins. (1 tonne = 1,000,000 grams)

Shuo continued asking, “How efficient can the mining activity be?”

“On average a skilled miner can excavate a tonne of gold ore. As the mining layers progress deeper, the efficiency would decrease gradually. Moreover, after the ores are excavated, it still needs to go through the complex refinement process and extract the gold in it, which too, would require massive manpower.” Yuan Shaoping answered his lord’s question in detail.

Shuo nodded again. He walked back and forth in the office, and then asked the concierge to invite Cui Yingyu and Zhao Dewang over to his office. When the two arrived and sat down, Yuan Shaoping briefly talked about the gold mine’s current condition.

“Everyone, this gold mine would, in a long run, provide a stream of endless capital. It would turn into the territory’s fiscal pillar. Its importance needs not be reiterated again and it must not be neglected. In order to guarantee the smooth operation of the mining site, I will appoint a few missions for a lot of you.” Shoul said, filled with excitement.

“Please give the orders, my lord!”

“Yuan Shaoping!”

“My lord!”

“Since the gold mine had the Langshou Mountain behind of it, it shall be named as Langshan Mining Field. I hereby appoint you as the manager of Langshan Mining Field, and the Assistant Director of Materials Reserves Department, fully in charge of the mining field.”

“Thank you for your trust, I will not let you down!” From an ordinary mining field foreman straight up to an assistant director, that was a promotion of 3 tiers. From this, one could tell the importance of Langshan Mining Field in Shuo’s eyes.

“As for the iron mining field, recommend a new foreman, and report your candidate to Director Tian for approval.”

“Yes, sire!” Yuan Shaoping answered aloud.

“Secretary Zhao!”

“My lord!”

“Construction Division will fully cooperate and support the operation by paving a road from Qiushui Village to the mining field. You can recruit Xuanniao Tribe when in need of manpower. After all, the constructed road would benefit them too.

“Understood, I will see it done!” Construction Division had just received the latest orders from the territory, surely they wouldn’t have the manpower required for the over 10km long Qiushui-Langshan road construction. But with the tribe’s involvement, it would not be a concern anymore. The whole tribe had over three thousands of people.

“Director Tian!”

“My lord!”

“The Material Reserves Department will talk to and negotiate with Xuanniao Tribe. The whole principle is to fully ignite their enthusiasm. Have them send their adults to work in the mining field, Shanhai Town will be fully responsible for the tribe’s logistics.” The whole tribe had over 1500 adults, and if they were fully utilized, the gold mine could excavate at least a hundred tonnes of gold ores daily.

“Rest assured my lord, the Material Reserves Department will do it perfectly.” To change the Xuanniao Tribe’s hunting tradition was not an easy task, but Tian Wenjing was quite confident.

Shuo nodded his head and continued: “Furthermore, talk to their great leader Xiong Shi. Request the tribe to form a garrison team from their best hunters, station them in Langshan mining field, security and safety must not be taken lightly. The numbers should not be less than 200 men. Shanhai Town will provide logistics and every necessary equipment. In times of need, the military will send officers over for their daily training.”

For the Langshan Mining Field, this golden chicken that lay eggs, Shuo did not dare to take it lightly. Other than guarding against the wild beasts in the mountains, the mining site would have to guard against the other savage tribes. For now the other savage tribes knew nothing, but once there were any movements within the Xuanniao Tribe, then they would surely know.

Of course, Shuo did not have any intentions to create any hatred or enmity with the savage tribes. The best situation would be, through Xuanniao Tribe acting as a go-between, to establish a cooperative relationship with the other savage tribes.

Forming the Langshan garrison team had two purposes. One: preparing for the worst situation. Two: they could be reserve team, and in times of need, summoned to Shanhai Town and turned into a regular army.

“Yingyu!”

“Yes, big brother!”

“The Finance Department would have to speed up the renovation of Four Seas Bank. We need a bigger and safer treasury. The safety of the treasury must be prioritized. Talk to the Security Division, and have them strengthen the security measures around the bank.”

“Yes brother, Leave it to me!”

“Alright, that’s it. Everyone get back to work!”

“Yes my lord!” Everyone stood and answered.

Langshou Mountain1 : Lang means Wolf, Shou means Head, Wolf-Head Mountain

Chapter 89 - Refugee Camp

March 13

After five days of preparation, Lin Yi led the cavalry 1st squadron and Zhao Sihu led the infantry 1st squadron, joining hands to wipe out the territory of an Intermediate Raider’s Camp, seized a large number of materials as well as 216 gold coins.

Ouyang Shuo immediately spent 150 gold coins for the class change of the newly established cavalry 2nd squadron and officially appointed Li Mingliang as the lieutenant of cavalry 2nd squadron. After leaving the barracks, he rushed to the Intermediate Market, spent 20 gold coins to buy a gold ore refining workshop building blueprint, ready to hand it to the Construction Division as soon as possible to start construction.

The negotiation between the Materials Reserve Department and the Xuanniao Tribe were carried out very smoothly. Tian Wenjing had successfully persuaded Shi Xiong to give up the tribal hunting tradition. The tribe of the 1500 young adults, will become full-time miners in Langshan mine. In return, Shanhai town will provide 10,000 units of grains to the tribe, and guide them in plantation skills.

What Ouyang Shuo didn't know was that the reason why the negotiations would be carried out so smoothly was that in silent acquiescence, the tribe’s shaman had agreed to the terms. Otherwise, with Shi Xiong's conservative personality, he would not be easily persuaded.

Langshan garrison team had finished its establishment, it consists of 2 squadrons, led by the tribe’s two best hunters, Shi Bao and Shi Lang respectively. Ouyang Shuo claimed a batch of equipment from the arsenal, and fully equipped the 2 squadrons, effectively increasing their battle capabilities.

That was not the only good news, just as Ouyang Shuo had expected, the Three Flower Wine made by Du Dun using the spring water from Lianzhou basin had been classified as Shanhai’s special local product by the system. The system had named it ‘Lianzhou Three Flower Wine’ and can be sold through grocery shops with half the trading tax as compared to the markets.

In average, every 3 units of grain can be brewed into 1 unit of Three Flower Wine, which had the selling price of 1 silver. Lessing off the cost of grains and manpower, and also the 10% taxes, it had a pure profit of 40 coppers. Such a high profit earning, it surely was enough to make Ouyang Shuo happily crazy.

Without a second thought, Ouyang Shuo shamelessly listed the wine workshop as non-privatized property, putting it under the control of the Finance Department. At the same time, in order to maximize the profit, he had upgraded the wine workshop into a 1000 men large workshop.

The large wine workshop had an average monthly production of up to 50,000 units of Three Flower Wine, providing Ouyang Shuo an additional 200 golds of income every month. Other than its profit, the wine had brought another surprise to Ouyang Shuo, an additional territory buff.

Lianzhou Three Flower Wine: Shanhai specialty wine, +15% chance of territory to attract wine lovers.

Given such a big surprise, Du Dun- the man who made it all happened, would surely be heavily rewarded by Ouyang Shuo. Ouyang Shuo had offered him a monthly salary of 1 gold, making him right away as one of Shanhai’s high salaried members. And most importantly, with the help of the Three Flower Wine brewing technology, Du Dun was now a Master Winemaker, second to reach the Master rank after Master tailor Little Sister Mu.

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March 14

While scouting for intelligence on the raiders camp, the Military Intelligence Division had found a refugee camp, 15km away from the center of Shanhai Town. San Gouzi didn’t dare to delay the news any longer and had reported it immediately to Ouyang Shuo.

“Refugee Camp? That’s rare, how big is it?” Ouyang Shuo was clearly surprised by the news.

“My lord, there are around 1500 refugees.”

“So many of them, how could they survive the wilderness? Were there any leaders of sorts?”

Ouyang Shuo knew only little about refugee camps. They are rare products of the wilderness, extremely hard for one to come across. In order to survive in the wilderness, one would have to be a displaced person, wandering around until they come to a lord player’s territory; Or live in a secluded village, like Zhao Dexian’s village Zhao Jiagou, a paradise far of reach from the outside world; And lastly live as raiders or bandits, wolves of the wilderness.

But refugee camps were nowhere close to the three. It wasn't like the displaced people, it had a constant shelter; nothing like a secluded paradise, it was fully exposed to the wilderness; it too wasn't raiders nor bandits, as they weren’t strong enough to protect themselves. A refugee camp was neither fish nor fowl.

Every refugee camp was formed by chance. Either they had found a place with enough food resources to feed themselves; or they would have a leader, strong enough to lead the refugees and self-protect from the danger of raiders and bandits.

“You are right my lord, there is a leader in the camp that goes by the name of Ge Hongliang, aged 35, ex-military, but had somehow been living in the wilderness. He had quite a strong ability, being able to gather the hopeless refugees together, trained them and had found their place in the wilderness, even though they were just barely living.” San Gouzi’s report was filled with details of Ge Hongliang.

“Even if they were able to fend off the raiders and bandits, but I guess they were still living a poor life?” Ouyang Shuo, even if he was asking, but he was confident about it. Even the lord players that were given special treatments were finding it hard to survive in the wilderness, don’t even talk about the system aborigines, how could they survive without the market’s long-range trading.

San Gouzi looked at Ouyang Shuo with a pair of worshipping eyes, nodded his head and said: “You have guessed it right again sire. Because there weren’t any grain seeds, nor farm tools, they couldn’t grow their own crops. The camp could only rely on the mother nature of foods from huntings and fishings. Therefore, their food sources were not truly promising, they often had to consume wild vegetables and grasses.

“Moreover, ever since the lord players had established their territories in the wilderness, the number of wild beasts had plummeted, which indirectly made their life harder. As of now, they are reaching the limit, almost turning themselves into raiders in order to live on.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, smiled and said: “This, to us, would mean an opportunity. It would be inhumane to say, but if we are able to absorb the refugee camp into our territory, it would save us quite some time.”

“It is an honor and a blessing for them to be part of Shanhai Town, there is no need for my lord to feel bad for it.” San Gouzi smiled too. Ever since he attended the crash course classes in Lianzhou College, he had improved a lot in his speeches. It seems like the courses were quite successful.

“Has the Military Intelligence Division approached Ge Hongliang?” Shuo asked.

“Yes, I had a short talk with him, briefly introduced him about Shanhai Town, and sire’s courtesy for talents. Hei hei, from what I see from him, he was quite moved, but for him as the camp leader, he was quite reluctant to be the first to open his mouth.” San Gouzi smiled.

“Good, then I will pay him a visit personally.” Ouyang Shuo said as he had understood the situation.

The trip to the refugee camp was meant to bring peace not war, hence it would be unwise to bring an army along with him. Ouyang Shuo only brought with him a squad of the Military Intelligence Division, plus the cavalry 1st squadron.

3 o'clock in the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo and his troops stood in front of the refugee camp. The whole camp was one square kilometer in size, protected by wooden fences. Two outposts stood tall beside the main gate with two sentries on each one of them. As they spotted Ouyang Shuo, they were nervous and one of them shouted: “Name yourselves intruders!”

“I am the Lord of Shanhai Town, please pass the word to your leader!” Shuo mounted on the back of Black Tornado answered aloud.

The sentry was shocked and remembered the words of his leader this morning, and answered immediately: "May the lord wait for a moment, I will pass the word to the leader immediately.”

“Thank you!” Ouyang Shuo ordered everyone to dismount and waited patiently in front of the gate entrance.

After 10 minutes, a middle-aged scholar walked out of the camp. He had a slim and slender physique, wide broad shoulders, although his face was wan and sallow, he had a pair of sharp eyes, dressed in coarse clothes. Behind him followed tens of men, young adults and elders, all of them dressed in rough clothes and they too, had wan and sallow faces.

Before he even reached Ouyang Shuo, he had already opened his mouth: “The Lord pays us a visit, welcome, welcome!”

Ouyang Shuo looked at San Gouzi, using his eyes, asking if the scholar was the leader Ge Hongliang. San Gouzi slightly nodded his head, confirming the scholar’s identity. Ouyang Shuo then smiled and replied: “Sorry for the sudden visit, I hope you would forgive me.”

As the refugees behind Ge Hongliang laid their sights on the well-equipped cavalries, their eyes couldn’t help but be filled with terror, they were terribly awed.

“Let us talk inside!” Ge Hongliang said while smiling.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and ordered the others to stay, bringing only Lin Yi and San Gouzi along with him. As they were walking in the camp, the refugees came out of their houses and looked at them curiously. Most of the refugees were like the displaced, they didn’t have any decent clothes, only ragged and tattered clothes, their face was just like the others, wan and sallow.

Before Ouyang Shuo left for the refugee camp, he had worn his armor and took his sword, dressed as an officer, and looked like a glorious hero. The two walking beside him were also well-equipped, in comparison to the refugees, they were like heaven and earth.

Ouyang Shuo took a good look at the refugee camp’s military equipment, they only had simple and crude armors and weapons, he could not imagine how Ge Hongliang was able to command the refugees and defend themselves against the raiders' invasions. He had again reevaluated Ge Hongliang and had valued the latter much more, this was a man highly skilled in battle tactics.

As they entered the chamber, they sat down accordingly. For the refugees, other than Ge Hongliang, only an elder and a young man stayed back, while the others had automatically left.

“Let me introduce them to the lord.” Ge Hongliang said while pointing his finger to the elder, “This is Elder Xu, an ex-officer in Ya Men's Finance Department." followed by the young man, "This is our military officer, Sun Tengjiao, an ex-sergeant in the military."

Ouyang Shuo greeted them, in turn, smiled and introduced Lin Yi and San Gouzi to the other party. He noticed that when he was introducing Lin Yi, the military officer Sun's sight congealed, filled with excitement. As for San Gouzi, the refugees had already met him in the morning, hence it was easy to introduce him.

Upon knowing San Gouzi's position as the Secretary of Military Intelligence Division, a sudden white light flashed in Ge Hongliang's eyes, he had understood the situation in his heart.

To be honest, when Ouyang Shuo was introducing San Gouzi, he was feeling a little embarrassed, for the Shanhai's Secretary of Military Intelligence Division to have such a name, it really wasn't suitable at all.

If there is an opportunity in the future, let's see if I can change him a better name.

Chapter 90 - Incorporation

In the refugee camp meeting hall, after both sides greeted one another, they got into the topic.

Ouyang Shuo did not want to beat around the bush, and said directly, "The few of you are talents. It's uncommon to also be so similar and also have such a caring heart for the citizens. I'm not talented and smart enough, so I invite all of you and your residents to join Shanhai Town and develop together; I don't know what you think about that?"

"Sire's good intentions we accept. Please let me ask something disrespectful, if we join Shanhai Town, what kind of treatment will we get?" The one who asked was Elder Xu.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head and laughed. "Even if you didn't ask, I also would have had to explain it to all of you. A month ago, Shanhai Town had already completed privatization. Every resident was given a basic benefit package which included 100 units of grain, 20 units of meat, a piece of leather and a set of basic clothing as well as 20 silver, so enough for 3 months."

"If the residents of the camp join Shanhai Town, they can, according to their specialties, find their own job. Those that are willing to be farmers, the government will assign them land and give them free farming tools. Those willing to fish can rent boats to fish out at sea. Those that are willing to work, the territory has quarries, mines and logging camps. Apart from that, the territory has built many different workshops, factories, and shops. All these places need talented people. Taking a step back, those without specialties can find a job in construction."

"Hence, as long as you are willing to join Shanhai Town, you wouldn’t have to worry about not being able to find a job and feeding your family. As long as you are willing to work, it is natural that you will have a house and food. As for all of you here, the political departments and military systems welcome your addition anytime."

Ge Hongliang and Xuzhen's eyes brightened. They were infected by what Ouyang Shuo had described, their expressions visibly shaken. If it were true, then it was definitely better than staying in such an old and rundown camp.

As a general, Sun Tengjiao was not moved and said loudly, "This general has something to ask!"

"Please speak, general!" Ouyang Shuo smiled and said. He could tell that Ge Hongliang acted as the good cop and Xu Zhenchang and Sun Tengjiao acted as the bad cops. The questions that he didn't want to ask would be asked by those 2.

If we join Shanhai Town, how will sire deal with our troops?" Sun Tengjiao directly asked the sensitive question of military arrangement.

"How is the current situation with the military?" Ouyang Shuo did not rush to answer and instead asked.

Sun Tengjiao nodded as he felt the sincerity behind Ouyang Shuo's words. If Ouyang Shuo didn't ask and gave an answer, he would not have believed him. "The camp has a squad of 150 people. Because we lacked horses, we are mainly infantry. But they are all trained in archery and horse riding so as long as they get a war horse, they will be passable cavalry."

As for the troops that he trained, Sun Tengjiao was extremely confident in them. Lin Yi, who was sitting opposite him snickered, obviously not believing in his words.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. "Your units, I naturally believe you. How about this? I'll give you a cavalry squadron while the remaining 50 men will be reserve troops. When the time is right, they will then be changed to operational troops, how about that?"

The reserve troops was just Ouyang Shuo's best attempt to prevent a bad situation. Shanhai Town did not have a reserve army. Sun Tengjiao knew himself that Ouyang Shuo's other answer would have been to let the 150 people be a squadron, kicking out the remaining ones.

Taking into account the injured and those whose body conditions dropped due to lack of nutrition, they could just barely meet 100. Hence, Sun Tengjiao didn't try to ask for more and instead quietly accepted it.

After Ouyang Shuo replied both people's questions, he turned around to Ge Hongliang to wait for his opinion.

Ge Hongliang and Sun Tengjiao exchanged glances and he smiled. "Sire is so sincere and kind, we are struggling to keep warm and full in the wilderness, fighting for our lives every day. To get sire's help is our good fortune. I thank sire on behalf of the 1500 residents in the camp for sire's helping hand."

"Great, with all your help, it's as if we’re adding wings to a tiger." Ouyang Shuo laughed.

After they both came to an agreement, Ouyang Shuo took the chance to look at all 3 of their stats.

Name: Ge Hongliang (Gold)

Identity: Shanhai Town resident

Occupation: Strategist

Loyalty: 75

Command: 35

Force: 15

Intelligence: 55

Politics: 60

Specialty: Devise Strategies (Raise troops combat power by 5%), Tactical Proficiency (Raise troops movement speed by 10%)

Evaluation: Born as a scholar, highly intelligent, able to come up with strategies and highly loyal

As expected, Ge Hongliang was a typical strategist, and he was one who inclined towards the military, giving it two incredibly strong buffs.

Name: Xu Zhenchang (Silver)

Identity: Shanhai Town resident

Occupation: Civil Servant (juren)

Loyalty: 75

Command: 15

Force: 12

Intelligence: 40

Politics: 50

Specialty: Detailed (Raise territory tax income by 5%)

Evaluation: Passed the imperial examinations, Careful personality, Morally upright, Experienced in politics, A rare government affairs talent.

Elder Xu was certainly a good surprise. Not only was he a silver rank talent, but he also had a lot of experience.

Name: Sun Tengjiao (Silver)

Identity: Shanhai Town resident

Occupation: Basic Rank General

Loyalty: 75

Command: 35

Force: 35

Intelligence: 20

Politics: 20

Cultivation method: Army Lance Law (6 stances)

Equipment: Exquisite Horse Lance

Evaluation: Military-born, born with god-level strength, good at using horse lance

Sun Tengjiao did not seem simple. The horse lance was the strongest armor piercing weapon during the cold weapons era, extremely hard to grasp, and to perfect it, it needed a lot of training.

The three of them were talents that Shanhai Town lacked desperately, making Ouyang Shuo delighted. The migration of the refugees would need a lot of work, but these things were naturally Ge Hongliang’s concern.

It was already late, thus Ouyang Shuo didn’t stay any further in the refugee camp. He left San Gouzi there to coordinate, and brought the rest of the cavalry back to Shanhai Town.

The addition of 1,500 people was something that Shanhai Town needed to prepare for. Luckily Shanhai Town wasn’t like the old Shanhai Village. The Material Reserves Department had sufficient resources to build the houses for all these people. Ouyang Shuo also planned to send 400 of them to Qiushui Village to help it reach grade 1 town.

3rd month, 15th day

The refugees started to migrate into Shanhai Town, walking slowly forwards. Ouyang Shuo specially arranged the first cavalry squadron to protect their safety.

At 11 AM in the morning, Ouyang Shuo led the various officials to Shanhai Town and waited at the gates of the town for Ge Hongliang. The town walls and its secondary facilities had already been built.

As the main gate of Shanhai Town, the north gate opened to reveal a brick tower, majestic-looking and filled with many lifestyle facilities. Apart from water and food resources, it also stored large amounts of hot oil, rolling wood, etc., including war resources. On top of the tower stationed a squad of infantry as well as two archers.

In front of the tower had many Shanhai Town flags stuck into it. The flags were designed by Ouyang Shuo; the blue background was split with gold into two. The top was a volcano, spurting out hot magma where a golden dragon wrapped around it, looking fierce and majestic.

The doorway below the tower was 6 meters wide, and on top of it was carved the words “Shanhai”. The two huge wooden doors were encapsulated with thick layers of metal, and metal spikes were hammered into it, making it look like a beast. At each of the sides was also a secondary passageway, 4 metres wide and 5 meters high. Under normal circumstances, the main door was usually closed and visitors would use the secondary doorways.

Not far away from the secondary doorways were two trenches. The trenches were two levels, the upper one had 6 arrow holes and the bottom one had 5. Each arrow hole area had an arced top which could be opened and closed. The trenches also had a tunnel with 3 arrow holes in it facing the friendship river. This aided them in killing people who were invading. The trenches were mixed as one into the town walls, ensuring the safety of the soldiers that hid inside.

At the front of the village doors was a huge wooden suspension bridge which extended all the way to the opposite side of the 8 meter wide river. As the friendship river was only one meter away from the wall, the suspension bridge, which was 6 meters wide and 9 meters long worked via pulley devices attached to the walls and could be pulled up and let down by will. Apart from war time, under normal circumstances it would be placed down. To ensure that if there was a war and the suspension bridge could be raised, every week it would be tested.

When the refugees saw such a majestic wall, their mouths were agape. Compared to this wall, the camp that they’d stayed in was pretty much a backward tribe. With such a strong wall protecting them, they instantly felt more calm and safe. Their displeasure at having needed to migrate had subsided. The leaders looked at each other. Their tough days were finally over.

Ge Hongliang was shocked. It wasn’t that he hadn’t seen such high walls before. In truth, compared to the imperial capital, this wall wasn’t anything.

What amazed him was that Shanhai Town, which was only at the town stage, had the ability to build such a strong and stable structure. One could tell from this how far-sighted the lord was.

Chapter 91 - Military Affairs Department

After finally seeing Ge Hongliang and his group arrive, Ouyang Shuo led the officials to welcome them, saying, ”Welcome Ge Hongliang. From now on, we are family.”

Ge Hongliang didn't dare to neglect him and bowed, saying respectfully, ”Thank you sire!” This bow pledged one’s allegiance. Ever since then, they would be treated differently as leader and servant and they won't be able to talk like they were of the same level. Everyone who followed behind bowed down; the normal residents even kneeled and said loudly, ”We greet the lord!”

Ouyang Shuo naturally understood the deep meaning behind it and accepted their greetings. He went forward and helped Ge Hongliang up, smiling. ”Let's go, I've asked my men to prepare wine to welcome all of you.” After saying that, he personally led Ge Hongliang towards the Lord’s Manor.

Shanhai Town was undergoing a rebuilding, and everywhere there were construction sites. Ge Hongliang paid attention along the way, seeing that the layout of the town was logical and the positions of the buildings were aligned. On the way, he saw the residents in clean clothes and looking very fresh and energized. This could only be seen from people who lived a sufficient and well off life.

Ge Hongliang couldn't help but nod. It seems like the promises from yesterday weren't too far fetched and Shanhai Town was as prosperous as he had mentioned.

In the banquet hall of the lord's manor, Ouyang Shuo organised a feast to welcome Ge Hongliang, Xu Zhenchang and Sun Tengjiao. The 3 directors and the military representative General Shi were there too. As for the other refugees, Ouyang Shuo placed them under the care of the Material Reserves Department.

Before beginning the banquet, Ouyang Shuo introduced everyone to one another. From this day onwards they would be working together, and this was a great time to get to know one another. This people from Shanhai Town were all big brother figures. Apart from Yingyu, they were famous people in history, hence they would naturally take care of the newcomers.

The 3 of them were different, getting shocks and surprises one after another. They couldn't imagine that a grade 2 town could gather so many talents. The little pride that they had before they came here had been erased.

When Sun Tengjiao saw General Shi, he couldn't muster up any fighting spirit. When he saw Lin Yi and the other people around Ouyang Shuo, he thought that they were the strongest generals in Shanhai Town. Little did he know that they hid a special rank general.

After the feast, Ouyang Shuo didn't rush to give them duties and let them rest.

2 PM in the afternoon, meeting room of the Lord’s Manor.

The 3 directors, 14 Secretaries, 1 organization president, and all of the captains and above personnel were gathered for the meeting.

Ouyang Shuo said, ”This time I called all of you here to adjust the organisational structure. As our military increases, there are more and more things that concern it. From logistical support, weapons and equipment design, soldier management and posting, tactics design etc. Hence I feel that there is a need to establish a department that focuses on military matters.”

As military affairs were on the opposite wing as government affairs, Ouyang Shuo had always been trying to find a suitable manager to take up organisational control. Now with Ge Hongliang, this was the perfect opportunity.

“I've decided to establish the Military Affairs Department, and its president will be Ge Hongliang. The Military Intelligence Division and Armoury Division are under it. Apart from that, the Resource Division and Combat Logistics Division are also under their charge.”

The establishment of the Military Affairs Department resulted in big changes in the Administration Department and the Material Reserves Department. That was why he invited everyone from the 3 departments to this meeting. From today onward, the 3 departments of Shanhai Town would become 4, and Ge Hongliang had become one of Shanhai Town’s four dragons.

Ge Hong Liang got up excitedly, saying loudly, “Thank you sire for your trust, I will not let you down!” To throw such a chance to a new person showed the absolute trust in him, making him feel touched.

Xu Zhengchang and Sun Tengjiao, seeing that their leader was placed in such an important position, their last shred of worry disappeared. They started to really assimilate and think that they were a part of Shanhai Town.

Ouyang Shuo held a principle of trusting people and not doubting them. He believed that with his ability, Ge Hongliang would be able to manage the Military Affairs Department and share some of his worry. The divisions under the Military Affairs Department weren't complete, and Ouyang Shuo did not want to rush it and build it straight away. Hence he decided to let it grow and wait for a time before making such changes.

Establishing the Military Affairs Department solved the mess and chaos in the Military Intelligence Division. The old division could be said to work independently, but it was also under the leadership of General Shi, as a sort of reserve unit, not having a suitable allocation. The Armoury Division took up the responsibility of building weapons and equipment, and thus this issue was settled.

Zhao Youfang from the Combat Logistics Division was demoted to vice secretary because of his bad performance at the year-end assessment. He had already been reinstated as secretary and now that his division had been moved under the Military Affairs Department, the start of military independence had begun.

As the Combat Logistics Division went away, the position of the Material Resource Department dropped once again. However this was something that was inevitable, as the department was setted up to solve the problems that came with privatization. Now that privatization was progressing well, most of the functions of the department weren't able to keep up with the speed of progress and needed to be released.

The office of the Military Affairs Department was already arranged by Ouyang Shuo. ”To be built at Northeast Military District, a four-in-one base for all four divisions that are under the military affairs department will be needed.”

“No problem!” Zhao Dewang nodded and said.

This arrangement was firstly because the Lord’s Manor didn't have anymore working space and secondly, be it for the armory division or the barracks, they were all at the military district so housing the department there would be more convenient.

After the reorganisation of the Military Affairs Department, Ouyang Shuo turned to look at Yingyu and smiled, ”Yu’er, I found a talent for your department but I don't know if it’s easy to enter your department?”

“Big brother don't tease me like this, others don't know but you should know how busy I am. To have someone to split the load is what I desperately want.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and announced, ”I’ve decided to appoint Xu Zhengchang as the deputy director of the Financial Department and also the secretary of the Business Division, at the same time taking away the position of secretary from Cui Yingyu.”

Xu Zhenchang stood up and bowed, thanking excitedly, ”Thank you sire for your trust, I won't let you down!”

Xu Zhenchang had loads of government affairs experience and would be of great help to the Financial Department. With his years of experience in different departments and divisions, it would be effortless for him to manage the business division. Ouyang Shuo also didn't want all of Cui Yingyu’s effort and time to be spent on the Business Division and wanted her to control the big picture.

After arranging the territorial government structure, Ouyang Shuo kept all the military personnel to hold a military meeting. The people who joined apart from the captains from Shanhai Town, there was also the village protection squad captain from Qiushui village Zhang Daniu. Even Pei Donglai who was busy training in Beihai Town had brought Zhou Feng and Youfang to rush back. Youfang was an elite water bandit, so after being recommended by Pei Donglai, was promoted to the navy second squadron captain.

“Mr. Ge is not only our military affairs director but also our war advisor. The Spring Assault is of utmost importance, Mr. Ge will arrange and command this. His orders are the same as my orders. You must help and follow his orders to the best of your abilities, do not slack.” Ouyang Shuo said directly.

“We will follow your orders!” Ouyang Shuo’s authority in the military was unchallenged as all the leaders were chosen and nurtured by him. Many of them held doubts but they still placed it aside and listened Ouyang Shuo’s instructions.

Military planning and command wasn't Ouyang Shuo’s strong suit. As a modern person, it was hard for one to have such knowledge, especially of cold weapon era warfare. He only learned a bit from books and movies, and was still on the learning and grasping stage. Hence, he gave off a little of the power to the more experienced Ge Hongliang to lead the Spring Assault.

Following which, Ouyang Shuo introduced Sun Tengjiao to them, he would be in charge of the 3rd cavalry squadron formed up of 100 of the men from the refugee camp.

“How's the training of the troops going?” Ouyang Shuo followed on.

“To reply to sire, it is going smoothly. The mixed camp has already started on coordinated training between infantry and cavalry troops, we believe that they will be sharp and ready for battle soon. The mountain barbarians have also adapted to military life and are mixing well with the other soldiers.” General Shi replied.

“Very good. Apart from them, do not forget about the newly built 3rd cavalry squadron, we must help them to mix into the camp and get used to military discipline.”

“Understood!”

“What about the village protection squad from Qiushui village?”

Zhang Daniu stood out and said loudly, ”Sire dont worry, after the last mistake, we have trained even harder to win back our pride and honor. I can promise that the current village protection squadron is not weaker than any infantry squadron.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head and turned to Pei Donglai, ”What about the navy?”

Pei Donglai immediately stood up and replied, ”Sire, after half a month of training, the two squadrons are completely in formation and can be thrown into battle.”

Ouyang Shuo heaving a sigh of relief, he smiled. ”That’s good. Since it’s like this, the Spring Assault can be started soon. Director Ge!”

“Present!”

“I trouble you to use these two days to familiarize yourself with the various troops in each area, and create a detailed battle report for me in accordance with the scouting report from the Military Intelligence Division.” Ouyang Shuo ordered.

“Don't worry sire. As for the arrangement of raiders near the border region, I already have some understanding, I promise to complete the mission.” Ge Hongliang said confidently.

“Good, then I will await the good news.” Ouyang Shuo said.

Chapter 92 - Provocation

May 7

Di Chen once again came out strongly.

“System Notice: Congratulations Player Di Chen for being the first lord in China server to upgrade to grade 3 town, rewarded 1100 merit points!”

“System Notice: Congratulations player Di Chen for being the first lord in China to upgrade to grade 3 town…”

“System Notice: Congratulations…”

Handan Town took only half a month to upgrade from a grade 2 town to a grade 3 town, finally regaining the top spot in China and breaking Shanhai Town’s dominance.

The outside world was in a flurry as slowly, the doubts towards Ouyang Shuo had started to spread. Many people feel that the Six Tyrants of Handan had a strong background and that the only reason why Ouyang Shuo took the lead was purely by luck. Now that Di Chen had shown his strength, Shanhai Town is nothing.

Such thoughts were certainly common as everywhere on the forums there were posts laughing and mocking Shanhai Town. Some were jeering while others felt it was pitiful and wasted, while most were there to stir up trouble.

“1st post: The tale of Shanhai Town has now been destroyed, Di Chen is the king of the Chinese server!”

“2nd post: The black horse has been washed white, the glory of Shanhai Town is no more!!!”

“3rd post: Starting from Shang Zhongyong, the discussion on the rise and fall of Qiyue Wuyi!”

“4th post: Shooting star has fallen, I pay respects to the past glory of Shanhai Town!”

“5th post: Two men competing, Di Chen takes the lead!”

“6th post: This proves that lord's mode is only for rich people, normal players will lose!”

“7th post: Who will be the next black horse, let us wait and see!”

“8th post: six tyrants of Handan had proved himself again, is there a chance for a reunion?”

……

Even the other members of the Handan alliance, Zhan Lang and Sha Pojun also came out to cheer on Di Chen, dissing Shanhai Town to strengthen the reputation of the Handan Alliance.

Expectedly, Ouyang Shuo did not lack supporters. Many players considered him as the representative player of commoner players and treated him as their role model. Gong Chengshi and Xunlong Dianxue, as well as other leaders, came out to cheer on Shanhai Town.

“1st post: We support Shanhai Town, I can't stand those clowns who get so arrogant when they have a small lead!!”

“2nd post: Good luck Qiyue Wuyi, we will always support you!”

“3rd post: Our flag-bearer won't die, our faith won't be destroyed, Shanhai Town stay in there!”

“4th post: Qiyue Wuyi, you are our pride, destroy Di Chen!”

“5th post: The legend continues, we support Shanhai Town, support Qiyue Wuyi!”

……

Supporters of both sides got into a war of words, shooting comments on one another, making it very lively.

At that moment, Di Chen suddenly announced through the global channel, “Qiyue Wuyi? Only a small fry!”

Originally, Ouyang Shuo didn't pay much attention to the war of words on the forum. Handan Town’s fast upgrading speed was what he had expected. Seeing that he had so many supporters, he was also very touched. However, this time Di Chen was too arrogant, which was beyond what he could bear.

Facing Di Chen’s provocation, Ouyang Shuo did not choose to hide and instead teased, “I’ll let you be arrogant for a few days!”

This time, he had outright regarded Di Chen as an enemy, not having any chance of reconciliation. He did not expect that person would have rushed to achieve the short sighted goals. He invited large amounts of players into his territory which would definitely affect the future development of various productions in the territory.

One mustn't look at how great Di Chen looks like now, he would definitely face problems in the future. Probably not long after, not only will he not keep up with Ouyang Shuo, he would not even be the leader of the Six Tyrants of Handan.

Hence after shouting in the global announcement channel, Ouyang Shuo kept quiet.

He did not bother about the discussions in the outside world and patiently prepared for the spring offensive.

Ouyang Shuo not caring didn't mean that others would not too. The 2 current leaders’ war of words brought this situation up to a new level and various powers were discussing how to deal with it.

……

Consonance Town meeting hall, the 4 flowers were gathered once again.

“Elder sister, what are your thoughts on Di Chen’s provocation?” Zi Luolan asked.

“What can my thoughts be? The truth is apparent, Di Chen just wants to make himself look good to rebuild the reputation of the Handan Alliance and get back his position as leader of China.” Bai Hua said.

“That's right, he wants to step on Qiyue Wuyi to climb upwards. It seems he had made good calculations and it seems to be quite successful. All the comments on the forums are dissing Shanhai Town. Although most are people he hired to support him, but we mustn't exclude the fact that many people who can't see the real situation might have the same thoughts.” Tsing Yi added.

Zi Luolan was stunned, asking curiously, ”4th sister’s meaning is that you don't think his plan will work out?”

“Of course. Upgrading to a grade 3 town was only a small jump, as long as one used players to make up for the territory population you could upgrade easily. Only people like Di Chen would brag about it like clowns. The most important consideration would be from grade 3 town to grade 1 county. Based on the the tendencies of the system, it would definitely have some difficult task or requirements. Wasn't that how Shanhai Town had got their lead in the first place? Didn't you see Qiyue Wuyi’s reply, he was obviously very calm.” Tsing Yi explained, no wonder she was the smart one, being able to see the crux of the problem.

Bai Hua nodded, ”4th sister is right. There's also one point, I don't know if you noticed?”

“What point?” They asked curiously.

“Qiyue Wuyi gave us the privatization method.” Bai Hua said.

“Eldest sister’s meaning is?”

“That's right!” Bai Hua nodded her head.

“Aiya, can you two stop doing mute riddles, what point??” Hong Ying, who couldn't understand anything, shouted.

“From that privatization strategy, it seems that he has a deep understanding of the game, and we can confirm that he was a beta player. Not only that, his participation was also very high. I think Qiyue Wuyi probably understood the requirements needed to upgrade the town, which was why he could set such a plan with a set goal in mind. This was why he would be able to gain an unassailable lead and get the title of the first town.” Bai Hua explained.

Luo Zilan’s brain worked fast and had already reacted, saying with uncertainty, ”Big Sister’s meaning is that Qiyue Wuyi already knows the requirements to upgrade to a grade 1 county and that they are very difficult. Even with Di Chen’s ability, he wouldn't be able to complete in a short time, which was why he was so fearless?”

“That's right!”

“But how is that possible?” Zi Luolan couldn't believe that information which someone with such a deep family background like Di Chen couldn't know, how would Qiyue Wuyi know?”

Bai Hua laughed, ”Firstly this is only my guess. Secondly, the game is very mysterious, based on the personality of Gaia, for such things to happen is not rare at all.”

“Talking about specifics, did you notice that out of all the people from Handan alliance cheering for Di Chen, there lacked one person?” Tsing Yi said.

“Feng Qiuhuang?”

“That's right! About this person, what does elder sister know?”

Bai Hua shook her head and laughed bitterly, ”She did not join any game before so how would I know anything? What I know is only basic information revealed on the forums.”

“Little sister do have some speculation.” Tsing Yi smiled.

“Oh? Quickly, tell us!”

Tsing Yi nodded, “The people that Feng Qiuhuang is representing is a joint power. Any person in the alliance wouldn't be able to stand against Di Chen alone, hence they could only come together. This kind of team rests heavily on the leadership ability of the leader. For Feng Qiuhuang to be able to stand out shows her ability. Her background was revealed on the forums and that she’s was from one of the biggest families in the alliance the Feng family.”

“The Feng family was a special family, the men were placed above the women. The men wouldn't need to join any family matters and just played all day while still holding the highest powers in the family. The females did all the work but in the end are the sacrifices for the family. The name Feng Qiuhuang is the best description for the Feng family.”

“Little sister’s conjecture is that as the brightest female member in a few hundred years, she didn't want to be the next puppet and sacrifice. What she wanted was a hidden ally that wasn't a member of the six tyrants of Handan, hence Qiyue Wuyi was the most suitable. Did you notice that during the siege of beasts when Shanhai Town became the first, that Feng Qiuhuang sent her congratulations. And this time when the Handan Alliance ganged up against Qiyue Wuyi, she did not participate. From this we can tell that she isn't of one heart with the Handan Alliance and she wants to work and cooperate with Qiyue Wuyi.”

Bai Hua took the lead to clap, praising, ”No wonder you are our little Zhuge, with such small clues you can make such big conjectures and see the crux of the situation.”

Tsing Yi felt a little embarrassed, ”This was just a guess, who knows if it is accurate.”

“Ok all, no matter what, we must trust in our allies. As for other things, let's not care and just do well on our side!” Bai Hua concluded.

Chapter 93 - Unstoppable Force

Meanwhile, in the Fallen Phoenix Town lord bureau.

“Sister, Di Chen’s side is remaining silent against us to express their dissatisfaction.” An 18-year-old, petite, female strategist said.

In the town of Fallen Phoenix, other than the town lord Feng Qiuhuang, there were also 4 core members: Qing Luan, Zhu Que, Hei Tian'er and Xue Ya, the princesses from the Alliance’s 4 core clans. These 4 girls were all top-rated in terms of their appearances and abilities.

“Hmph, who does he thinks he is? Behaving so arrogantly, we joined the Handan Alliance but that doesn’t mean that he can order us around as if we’re some pawns. Qing Luan, go and tell them that we, Fallen Phoenix, have our own position. We will not give in to them and Handan town has no right to interfere.”

Feng Qiuhuang frowned and anger could be seen clearly on her beautiful face as she was extremely discontented with the arrogant Di Chen.

“Understood, but sister, why do you support that Qiyue Wuyi so much? Is he really that powerful?” asked a curious Qing Luan.

“You wouldn’t understand.”Feng Qiuhuang said as she frowned and murmured.

Upon seeing this, Qing Luan decided to give Feng Qiuhuang some private time and walked out quietly.

……

On the 18th of March, Shanhai town’s Spring Assault Operation officially commenced.

Their first victims were the two intermediate bandit camps. Three cavalry squadrons, along with three infantry squadrons from the main camp crushed the bandit camps one by one with unstoppable force under the command of Ge Hongliang. The operation seized 387 gold coins, huge amounts of equipment and supplies, and captured 67 bandits and 241 non-combat personnel as prisoners of war.

On the same day, Qiushui town also brought good news: under the leading of Zhang Daniu, the garrison platoon had annihilated and abolished a low basic bandit camp. As for the loot, Ouyang Shuo did not touch them and fully handed it over to Qiushui Town.

………

On the 20th of March, after a day of rest, Ouyang Shuo’s forces launched their attack again.

The victim this time was the only advanced raiders’ camp within the border. In order to be foolproof, Ge Hongliang even shifted the troops garrisoned in Qiushui Town to participate in the operation. Ge Hongliang first ordered the infantry squadron to provoke the enemies in order to lure their main forces out of the fort. He then commanded the cavalry squadron to pierce through the enemy ranks from behind once they all got out of their fort, destroying them in one strike.

The result was rewarding. They seized 825 gold coins, huge amounts of weaponry, and captured 232 bandits and 375 non-combatant personnel as prisoners of war. In addition, they also acquired 1 territorial scroll, 5 civil servant job tokens, and 1 middle-rank space stone.

【Territorial scroll】(2) : Special talented person attraction rate increases by 5% after use.

【Space Stone】(Medium rank) : Increase storage capacity up to 100 cubic meters after use.

The territorial scroll and space stone were directly used by Ouyang Shuo. As for the 5 civil servant job tokens, they were given to Sun Yannong, Du Xiaolan, Zhao Youfang, Yang Yun and Yuan Shaoping. In the end, other than the Military Intelligence Division, Armory Division and the Security Division, the other divisions’ core officers have advanced their jobs to civil servants, increasing Shanhai Town’s administration efficiency to a higher level.

San Gouzi, the secretary of the Military Intelligence Division, had also successfully advanced to basic officer. Wang Hao, the secretary of the Armory Division, had to maintain his advanced blacksmith job, and the Security Division’s secretary, Li Tie, had already advanced to government servant.

After several battles, except for San Gouzi, Zhang Daniu and Lee Ming Liang had also advanced to basic officers. Liao Kai, Shi Hu and Wang Feng had also been promoted to rank 8 elite soldiers, only one step away from advancing to basic officers.

The sergeants who shined and performed great in the war were also promoted to lieutenants, chosen as alternative candidates for captains. A sergeant named Zhao Yan, had shined brightest among all, advancing straight into a rank 8 elite soldier and was promoted to the first infantry 1st squadron 2nd platoon lieutenant.

However, the greatest amazement was from Lin Yi. This little general had participated in every single battle and after a successful breakthrough, advanced to intermediate officer.

【Name】: Lin Yi (gold level)

【Identity】: Shanhai Town First Cavalry Squadron Captain

【Occupation】: Intermediate Officer

【Loyalty】: 90 points

【Leadership】: 40

【War】: 50

【Intelligence】: 25

【Political】: 20

【Skill】: Lin Family’s Hereditary Spearmanship (Total 12 styles)

【Equipment】: Fine Iron Spear, Pommel Sword, Fine War Horse

【Evaluation】: Started learning the art of war and practicing spearmanship at a very small age, but has wild and bohemian behavior.

…

On the 22th of March, Shanhai Town launched a total assault at the last large-scale water bandit camp within the border. An army of 900 soldiers from the main camps’ 3 cavalry squadrons and 3 infantry squadrons, along with the navy forces and the troopers garrisoned in Qiushui Town, marched towards the bandit camp through land and sea under the command of Ge Hongliang.

The navy launched a feint attack on the river as a decoy to lure the water bandits out of their camps. Once the water bandits got lured out, the infantry squadrons and the cavalry squadrons stormed with lightning speed into the bandits’ camp and took over the camp.

With their camps taken over and their path to escape intercepted by the navy forces, the helpless water bandits see neither the hope of winning nor escaping, they were forced to lower their heads and surrendered.

Because of the well-planned strategy and effective tactics used in this battle, the water bandit camp was taken down with little effort. Other than the 52 bandits that were killed, the other 1000 people in the camp were all taken prisoner by the forces of Shanhai Town. A total of 954 gold coins, a huge amount of materials, three intermediate warships, and four special items were seized in the battle.

These special items included two talismans, a series of books of the Art of War and “Meng Chong Warship Manufacturing Manual”. However, it was a shame that the village creation token Song Jia wanted did not drop in the loot.

【Talisman of Vitality】: Quickly restores strength and combat power upon use.

【Talisman of Rapid Marching】: Increases the troops’ marching speed by 50% for two hours upon usage.

The two talismans were very rare and valuable. This was because, at crucial moments, one could turn the tables of fortune to their side if used appropriately. As for the talisman of rapid marching, it was even more valuable. If used for raiding, it could result in the enemy’s wrongful calculations, causing forces to reach the enemy’s ranks earlier than expected and deliberately crushing them with the element of surprise.

【Name】:《Liu Tao》: (Wu Tao Volume)

【Stats】: Upon equipping, increases leadership by 10 points and battalions combat power by 10%.

【Evaluation】: One of the ancient top-ten books about the art of war. A famous book that contains the pre – Qin military tactics and thinking, often known as the ancestor of every book about the Art of War. 《Liu Tao》 has six volumes in total, and the “Wu Tao Volume” is the second volume. It talks about military strategies and tactics.

《Liu Tao》: Although only a remnant is left, its effectiveness is still incredible. If all of the volumes could be acquired again, god knows what kind of amazing stats it has.

【Meng Chong Warship Manufacturing Manual】: Acquires the technology to produce Meng Chong Warship upon usage.

Meng Chong Warships were used by the Han Dynasty as the main naval warship. This type of warship had high mobility and high thrusting force to tear enemy ships apart due to its long and narrow hull. With the manual, the naval shipyard had finally gotten their hands on the knowledge to produce decent moderate warships to arm the navy.

Ouyang Shuo participated in the entire Shanhai Town’s Spring Assault Operation, and as a result, his level soared to a whopping level 40, surpassing the highest level 38 adventurer player in a blink of an eye.

Not only that, thanks to the continuous extermination of the 4 bandit camps and one water bandit camp, the successful establishment of Qiushui Town, and promoting a village into a town, his meritorious value had skyrocketed to 13200 points and his prestige value reached 10450 points. As a result, he had now been promoted to a 2nd class Earl, and advanced to a prestigious level and obtained the title of “Patriot”.

Ouyang Shuo could not help but to check his own personal stats because of these rapid changes.

【Name】: Qiyue Wuyi

【Title】: Patriot (Increases NPCs’ relationship by 25%)

【Territory】: Shanhai Town

【Level】: 40

【Merit】: 13200 / 25600

【Rank】: 2nd class Earl

【Body Structure】: 18

【Comprehension】: 21

【Luck】: 5

【Charm】: 8

【Command】: 53 + 10

【Force】: 16

【Intelligence】: 13

【Political】: 50

【Talent】: Locked

【Technique】: Bajiquan

【Art of War】: 《Liu Tao》(Wu Tao Volume)

【Skills】: Advanced Collection, Basic Shipbuilding, Intermediate Diplomacy, Advanced Scouting, Advanced Weapon Proficiency, Basic Riding, Basic Spearsmanship, Basic archery

【Mount】: Black Tornado (Gold)

【Equipment】: Ring of Courage (Gold), Exquisite Composite Bow (Gold), Exquisite Iron Sword (Gold), Exquisite Iron Spear (Gold), Bulls Guardian (Dark Gold), Barbaric Gauntlet (Silver), Barbaric War Boots (Silver), Bulls Belt (Silver), Bulls Gauntlet (Silver)

【Unique Items】: Talisman of Blood Thirsting, Talisman of Vitality, Talisman of Rapid Marching

Ever since deciding to pump his stats more towards an officer, his stats for strength should’ve been higher for sure. Therefore, when his political stat touched 50 points, Ouyang Shuo then auto assigned his stat points to 1 command and 1 strength every time he leveled up. That was because 50 points in the political stats were more than enough. Besides, he had so many strategists helping him with his political works.

As for the talent column, to unlock it would greatly depend on his luck. Some players had unlocked their talents at the 10+ level, and some hadn’t even unlocked their talents even around 50 to 60 levels. For those like Ouyang Shuo who did not unlock their talents at level 40 were in the minority of the game. The main reason was that they leveled up with the help of external forces. This was because the easiest way to unlock a player’s talents was through participating in war a countless number of times, and to unlock them by fighting for his or her life on the battlefield.

After a long period of practice, Ouyang Shuo’s Bajiquan had finally leveled up, reaching the rank of Novice. In addition, his gathering, diplomatic, scouting, weapon proficiency, and the other basic skills had also increased by one level. The only disappointing part was that he had yet to find himself a suitable art of spearsmanship for himself.

Other than these changes, Ouyang Shuo had also upgraded some of his equipment. After seizing a large amount of weaponry and armor, he easily replaced his sword and bow with gold class weapons. As for the dark gold level weapons, he did not obtain any of them because they still remained invaluable and rare in numbers.

That said, everything came with a good side and a bad side. Although the battle to wipe out the water bandits was very smooth, because the bandits did not put up much of a fight with the army, those rank 8 elite soldiers who were on the verge of breaking through to rank 9 missed their chance for advancement. If they wanted to advance into basic officers, there was still quite a long way to go.

Chapter 94 - Grade 3 Town

The five days of intense Spring Assault Operation had brought Shanhai Town abundant rewards.

First of all was the population of the town. There had been an increase in population by 1967 people, among them were 868 armed forces and 1099 non-combat personnel, exceeding the limit of maximum 5000 people the town could have. With no choices left, Ouyang Shuo had to transfer some of the captives into Beihai Town and Qiushui Town.

Among the 868 combat personnel, 18 of them who have committed a series of unforgivable sins were executed, 600 of them recruited and reorganized into the army, and 250 of them were sent to the mining site to mine minerals for one year.

The navy picked out some of the captives from the large-scale water bandit camp and reorganized them into another 3 squadrons. With this, the Navy Unit was officially formed and placed under the command of intermediate officer, Colonel Pei Donglai, acting as the head of the navy unit. Under him was Zhou Feng as the 1st navy squadron captain, You Fang as the 2nd navy squadron captain, Li Hai as the 3rd navy squadron captain and the other two squadrons would temporarily have no captain.

Li Hai, a basic officer who was one of the best among all of them in the water bandit camp with a good reputation among the villagers, was promoted straight to a captain.

The cavalry squadron had formed another 3 more squadrons, officially establishing the Shanhai Town Cavalry Unit and placed under the command of intermediate officer, Lin Yi, who was acting as the colonel of the cavalry unit. Under him was Lee Mingliang, as the 1st cavalry squadron captain; Sun Tengjiao as the 2nd cavalry squadron captain; Liao Kai as the 3rd cavalry squadron captain; Guo Liang as the 4th cavalry squadron captain; Su Wang as the 5th cavalry squadron captain.

Similar to Li Hai, Su Wang was also a basic officer originated from the water bandit camp. Albeit he was from a bandit camp, an elite who was very firm with his own principal based on justice. After understanding about his situation, Ouyang Shuo decisively promoted him to a captain.

Ouyang Shuo expanded all of the troop divisions except for the infantry division as he had plans for them. According to his plan, he hoped to recruit quality troops from the mountain barbarian tribes. In order to improve efficiency, he arranged the infantry into a unit and place them under Shi Wansui, maintaining the same 3 squadrons.

Another fruitful result from the battles was the financial aspect. The money seized, including the money gained from selling building blueprints, was a total of 2250 gold. After deducting the expenses for upgrading the armies and officers, there was still a total of 1710 gold.

However, regardless of the massive income, Ouyang Shuo had yet to have a plan on how to maximize the advantage of the gold coins. The main concern now was on upgrading the town level into level 3 as fast as possible as the population of the town was reaching its limit. Unfortunately, the progress had come to a halt because of the alchemy workshop, one of the basic requirement buildings to level up the town level, was not available yet because there was no alchemist in the town.

As expected by Ouyang Shuo, the most troublesome issue to upgrading the town level was this goddamn alchemist. He couldn’t believe that even with everything he had now and the conditions of the Shanhai Town, it was still so hard to spawn an alchemist. God knows how Di Chen got so lucky, getting an alchemist in just half a month.

In the end, Fan Zhongyan reminded Ouyang Shuo, ”My lord, if I recall correctly, the Recruitment Hall recruits one people with special talents once a month, and you have not used it this month, so why don’t you give it a try?”

Ouyang Shuo nodded but he did not hold too much hope and replied with a wry smile.

“There’s no such coincidence in this world, getting an alchemist that we urgently need just like that.”

“If you don’t give it a try, you wouldn’t know, my lord.”

“Okay then, I’ll give it a try then.”, said the compromised Ouyang Shuo.

This was the 2nd time Ouyang Shuo had walked into the recruitment hall. The last time he entered, the hall recruited two men of great talent, Fan Zhongyan and Du Chun, but would the hall help Ouyang Shuo to solve his problem this time?

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for operating the Recruitment Hall, there is one use left for the hall at the moment, do you want to recruit someone?”

“Yes!”

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for successfully recruiting one special talented personnel…An advanced alchemist. 10 gold auto-deducted from inventory.”

A white light flashed and a portal appeared. Immediately, a European appearing to be 30 years old walked out from the portal, saluted Ouyang Shuo in a very medieval aristocratic way, and said enthusiastically, “Magnus at your service, my lord.”

HA, praise the lord, Ouyang Shuo really managed to recruit an alchemist! The happy Ouyang Shuo then smiled and said: “Mr. Magnus, welcome to Shanhai Town!”

After the recruitment of Magnus, the rest was very simple. By giving it everything they had, an alchemy workshop was built in only 1 day by the Construction Division, and the master alchemist, Magnus, officially settled down in the workshop. With this, the final barrier stopping the town from upgrading was finally removed completely.

….

24th of March, 9.00pm, Shanhai Town Hall

Ouyang Shuo whispered to himself in his mind, Territory upgrade. A white light flashed across his eyes, the hearstone rose from the ground slowly, he placed his right hand on the heartstone, and the system notification prompted.

“System Notification: Scanning for Shanhai Town upgrading requirements….”

“Requirement 1: Reaching a population of 5000 people --- requirement met.”

“Requirement 2: Constructing all basic buildings required --- requirement met.”

“Requirement 3: The town lord must be at least a first class viscount --- requirement met.”

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for meeting the requirements to upgrade Shanhai Town, do you want to upgrade?”

“Upgrade!”

A golden ray shot up to the sky from the heartstone exploded into energy and spread around. The golden energy disappeared once it spread up to the far border of the territory.

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for being the 2nd player upgrading his town into a grade 3 town. Reward: 1000 points of merit points.”

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for …….

“System Notification: Congratulations……

Shanhai Town only managed to finally advance to a level 3 town one week after Di Chen upgraded Handan town into a grade 3 town. However, this was still a counter to the questions troubling Shanhai Town. The nationwide competition for the world’s first district had officially kicked off.

“System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for upgrading Shanhai town to a grade 3 town. The town level lord hall has leveled up. Randomly selecting 3 grade 3 town buildings, the player can choose one of them to build.”

“System Notification: The randomly selected buildings are the inn, pawnshop and jewelry shop, please choose!”

“Choose the pawnshop!”

“System Notification: The building is generated automatically. Player is free to view now.” Another white light flashed, and the heartstone once again sank into the ground slowly. Ouyang Shuo then took a look to check on the stats of Shanhai Town.

Territory: Shanhai Town (Level 3 Town)

Lord: Qiyue Wuyi (Second class Earl)

Title: The World’s First Town (Increase town renown by 20%)

Morale: 92

Security: 91

Population: 5000/10000

Refugee Spawn Rate: 50 * (1 + 50%) = 75 / day

Territory area: 1000 square kilometers

Territory Unique Characteristics:

+50% Refugee attraction rate

+25% Special talented people attraction rate

+50% Crop production rate

+25% Productivity of workers

+20% Experience earned by troops

+10% Chances of talented people in the territory to advance a level

Subsidiary Village: Beihai town (Level 1 town), Qiu Shui town (level 1 town)

Treasury: Four Seas Bank

Territory Association: Textile Association

Territory Resources: Intermediate Logging, Intermediate Stone Mining, Intermediate Mineral Mining, Advanced Brick Kiln

Territory Forces: Cavalry Unit, Infantry Unit, Navy Unit, Qiushui Town Garrison Squadron

Territory Industry Prop: Northern Saltworks (5000 mu), Langshan Mining Excavation Site

Political: 50/100 (Affects the administrative efficiency and morale)

Economic: 45/100 (Affects the trading prosperity and tax)

Cultural: 40/100 (Affects the education development and quality of residents)

Military: 50/100 (Affects the military strength and stability)

Infrastructure Building: Town Level Lord manor, Toilet, Granary, Cemetery, Inn

Agriculture building: Farm, Mill, Mulberry field, Orchard, Vegetable farm, Medicine garden

Commercial building: Intermediate Market, Intermediate Smithy, Intermediate Grocery Shop, Advanced Woodworking Workshop, Advanced Hospital, Advanced Dojo, Premium Tailor Shop, Garment Workshop, Intermediate Pottery Factory, Large Brewing Factory, Agriculture Market, Vinegar Workshop, Soy Sauce Workshop, Tofu Workshop, Pharmacy, Small Textile Mills, Advanced Alchemy Workshop.

Cultural Buildings: Ancestral Hall, Private School, Lian Zhou College

Military Buildings: Advanced Barracks, Castle Wall, Moats, Towers, Turrets, Stone Outposts, Stables, Weaponry Workshop, Weapon Arsenal

Special Buildings: Dock, Harbor, Intermediate Shipyard

Hidden Buildings: Mazu Temple (Sealed), Recruitment Hall

Taoist Buildings: Taoist Practice Place.

Construction conditions: Taoist, Taoist Building Blueprint, timber 2000 units, brick 320 units, stone 1000 units.

Construction time: 4 days.

Pawnshop: The collection of movable assets and real estate as collateral, to the other side of the debt agencies.

Construction conditions: Businessmen, Pawnshop Building Blueprint, Wood 1000 units, Brick 2000 units, Stone 1000 units.

Construction Time: 3 days. (Description: The building is automatically generated.)

Inn: To provide people shelter who are away from their homes.

Construction Conditions: Businessman, Inn Building Blueprint, Wood 2000 units, Brick 320 units, Stone 1000 units.

Construction Time: 4 days.

Restaurant: For people eating outside of their homes.

Construction Conditions: Advanced Chef, Restaurant Building Blueprint, Wood 2000 units, Brick 4000 units, Stone 1000 units.

Construction time: 5 days.

Jewelry Shop: Shops selling gold and silver jewelry.

Construction Conditions: Gold and Silver Craftsmen, Jewelry Shop Building Blueprint, Wood 1000 units, Brick 2000 units, Stone 1000 units.

Construction Time: 3 days.

Tea Garden: For planting tea plants.

Construction Conditions: Tea Plant, Wood 2000 units, Brick 500 units, Stone 500 units.

Construction Time: 2 days.

Chapter 95 - Choice

After he checked the properties of the territory, Ouyang Shuo pondered for a moment.

The maximum population of a grade 3 village was ten thousand men, according to the refugee spawn rate, under normal circumstances, it would take 2 months to fully reach the maximum.

The earlier advancement of the territory upgrade increased the territory size by two times. The original third phase of the Spring Assault operation was to exterminate bandits outside of territory, but now it was extermination of bandits within the territory area. Fortunately, the Military Intelligence Division had gathered enough information and the information were still applicable.

Of the indexes of the territory, the cultural index was still the lowest. Within this period of time, the refugees which have spawned contained a few xiucai and were all sent to the Lianzhou College by Ouyang Shuo. The Lianzhou College, now under the leadership of Xu Shuda, had already progressed smoothly and it wasn’t the half-established college anymore.

In between the operation Spring Assault, the moat work was completed. The secondary structures such as arrow towers and turrets were also done and in use. The defensive system of Shanhai Town was now preliminary fully established.

As for the basic building structures, they were all system changed to a brick and wood-stone structure. Of course, as the ancient architecturals, wood was still an important material in building structures, whether it be building carvings or paintings, they were all relying on the wood.

For the 6 buildings, the pawn shop was auto generated, it did not need to be taken care of. The tea garden did not require any building blueprints but only an open field and the wild tea trees, much like the mulberry garden as before. The rest were the Taoist temple, inn, restaurant and jewelry shop, their blueprints were acquired from the operation Spring Assault few days ago, it saved Ouyang Shuo 400 gold to spend on the blueprints.

The restaurant was nothing to talk about, Shuo had long promised it to be handed to Gu Sanniang. The inn and jewelry shop were also simple, there were already related talents on standing-by, the buildings could be built anytime now.

While the Taoist temple was the only issue, it needed at least a priest to preside over the temple. In the past life, most of the lords took a simpler path, within the players’ jobs, there were priests, hence, the lords would assign a priest player to preside over the temple.

……

10 AM in the morning, Lord’s manor, mayor office.

“Sire, after a month’s time of investigation, the Military Intelligence Division had gathered enough information about the nomadic tribes and also the Qingfu horses, I am specially here to report the details.” It was an ordinary-looking middle-aged man with a persevering face, he was one of the heads, Lei Xun.

Ever since the last expansion of the Military Intelligence Division, other than the ten staffs, the 40 of them were divided into two groups, Team One and Team Two. Leng Qian held the position of Team One leader while the other team was led by Lei Xun.

Ouyang Shuo’s heart skipped a beat, “Tell me, how is it like.”

“The nomadic tribes were formed with a large tribe as the core and tens of middle-small sized tribes around it. The large tribe was called Tian Qi tribe, 30,000 tribal men, situated in the middle of the basin and held the best pasture. In the middle of the basin exists an inland lake, they call it the Shen Juan Lake, the imperial court of the tribe stood right beside the lake. The rest of the small tribes ranged from hundred to thousands of tribal men, scattering around the basin.” Lei Xun reported.

“The closest to us?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

“The closest to us, there were three, it’s to the west, middle and east of us. On the west and east are both small tribes, less than a thousand tribal men. The one in the middle is a stronger tribe, a middle-sized tribe with over 3,000 tribal men.”

“What are their relations?”

“The middle-small tribes often fought each other, it occurs because of their competition for pasture, the Tian Qi tribe would then step in and stop the war. What’s interesting is, the Tian Qi tribe, with the ultimate purpose of maintaining its throne, it would secretly suppress the middle-sized tribes and support the small tribes. As a result, there weren’t any second tribes with over ten thousand tribal men. The long-lasting suppression causes dissatisfactions between the middle-sized tribes towards the Tian Qi tribe. But given the distinct difference in strength, they could only endure the suppression. Therefore, the small tribes would usually side with the Tian Qi tribe while the middle-sized tribes formed their own alliance.” Lei Xun answered.

Shuo nodded, “How about the Qingfu horses?”

“Not so good. The Qingfu horses are normally controlled by the nomadic tribes, it is hard to find another group of wild stallions. There are only two ways we can acquire the horses, by forcing a war or by trading.” Lei Xun answered bitterly.

“If we trade, will it work?” Shuo asked in uncertainty.

“The tribes are lacking in ironworks, and more if it is the daily resources such as salts and tea leaves, hence, it is theoretically possible for us to trade with them. Of course, that is if our fists are strong enough to defend ourselves. They are nomadic tribes, predators of nature, they are aggressive, things that can be plundered, they will not trade.” A month’s work was not in vain, Lei Xun had acquired a strong understanding of the situations of the nomadic tribes.

Ouyang Shuo tapped his fingers on the table and kept quiet. According to his plan, after upgrading to a grade 3 village, the last subordinate territory would be established on the borderline between the Friendship river and Qiushui river, it would act as the bridgehead for them to conquer the basin. But with the intelligence Lei Xun had gathered, establishing the subordinate territory there would face with the risk of getting plundered by the nomadic tribes.

It was constantly bugging him, that if he were to set up the Mingguang armor heavy cavalry unit, the system given ordinary warhorses could not even bear the weight of the armors, only the Qingfu warhorses could do so. Without a bridgehead, he would not be at ease to send his troops over to the other side of the river. If they were spotted by the nomadic tribes, they could not even retreat back to safety in time.

Taking a step back, if the bridgehead was not established, it would also be dangerous if they started trading deals with the name of Shanhai Town. It would only leave Shanhai Town exposed to the hungry nomadic wolves. Just as Lei Xun had said, the nomadic tribes were aggressive, they would not spend a single coin on things that they could plunder. Ouyang Shuo was not placed in a situation of perplexity.

Since he couldn’t make the decision on his own, he then decided to listen to the opinions of the others. Shuo requested Lei Xun to be patient as he called the concierge to ask the other 4 directors over.

20 minutes later, the 4 directors came one after another. Shuo instructed Lei Xun to brief the directors and he told them his plans and thoughts, then he asked: “What are your opinions?”

“Big brother, in my opinion, at times like this, we should stop the plan for the Qingfu horses. Since the Mingguang armor isn't producing at a fast rate, it would require some time to fully equip the cavalries. The most important issue now is to upgrade to a grade 1 county. It is still not too late to come back to this matter by then.” Yingyu who expressed her opinion standing on the point of view from the Finance Department.

Fan Zhongyan continued after her, “I agree with Director Cui. The nomadic tribes are all warriors, with the existing military power we have now, we are not yet strong enough. The best solution now is to stay put and ready ourselves.”

Seeing the two directors agreeing with each other to stop the plan on the Qingfu horses, the military representative Director Ge Hongliang could not sit still anymore, just when he was about to stand up, Tian Wenjing who was beside him suddenly rose and said loudly: “My lord, I hold a different opinion!”

“Please speak!” Honestly speaking, Ouyang Shuo didn’t want to stop the plan on the Qingfu horses either. Establishing the heavy cavalry could not only enhance the military strength, but it would also be useful in a big event later on. As he heard Tian Wenjing giving a different opinion, he was excited. The emotionless director, he wasn’t usually a talkative man, but once he opens his mouth, there must be some context in it.

“I think, not only do we need to build the bridgehead, we also need to build it fast before they even notice us, quickly and swiftly we will nail down a fortress on the riverside. Otherwise, after they notice and station their troops beside the river, it will be even harder for us to conquer the basin.” Tian Wenjing said.

Fan Zhongyang reputed his opinion: “Director Tian has a point, but have you thought of it, how can we build the territory without them noticing? This is not something that can be done within days. Furthermore, even if the territory is established, how can we defend ourselves from the nomadic tribes with the limited defensive capability? I’m afraid, in the end, all of the resources would be wasted in vain.”

But Tian Wenjing was clearly prepared, he answered with great confidence: “The solutions to the questions you ask are simple. Since it will be the bridgehead, then it will naturally not follow the normal procedure of a subordinate territory. We will build it as a military fortress. The first step is naturally to build a strong stone city wall, only after the wall is built will the inner city structures come. This way, we only need to station a little amount of garrison team and it will be enough to fight off the nomadic tribes. Since the nomadic tribes are troops of open-field warfare, siege battle is something they aren’t good at, they don’t even have the basic sieging weapons.”

‘That’s right, I suggest that we station the cavalry unit as a coordination team. Along with the garrisoned team, it will be sufficient to ensure the safety of the territory.” Ge Hongliang continued on, he did not expect that Tian Wenjing would have such a profound strategic vision. Even him as the director of Military Affairs did not think that far. It was only his immediate reaction that made him repute the suggestions, his instinct tells him that if they stop the plan on the Qingfu warhorses, they would miss a good opportunity, but how to do it, he did not have a good plan in mind. Now, Tian Wenjing gave them a perfect solution to the problem.

It was not her profession regarding military affairs, hence Yingyu kept quiet and listened. Fan Zhongyan pondered too after listening to Tian Wenjing’s explanation. He said nothing and it could be taken as a silent acquiescence.

Seeing the 4 directors agreeing on each other, Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate anymore and said: “Very good, we will do as Director Tian says, tomorrow we will start the construction of the third subordinate territory.”

Chapter 96 - Transfer

After agreeing on the strategy, what they needed to discuss next was the officer of the subsidiary territory.

"This third subsidiary base will be named Friendship. It is right next to the Friendship river, and it also shows our kindness. For all these nomadic tribes that we don't have the ability to force submission, it's best that we discuss with them kindly. As compared to Beihai Town and Qiushui Town, the future of Friendship Town has more challenges. Hence a good officer is of utmost importance. This officer must be good in politics and care about the military troops there. He must also have good adapting abilities as it is across the river from the main town, and outside which are many strong powers, the main camp can't always be there to reply and help out. Who would all of you recommend?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

This was the first time that Ouyang Shuo had asked for the directors' opinions when choosing the officer of an subsidiary territory. In the case of Beihai Town and Qiushui Town, he’d made the decision on his own. This was the first time that Ouyang Shuo didn't have a good man in mind.

Out of the 4 directors, Ge Hongliang was the most relaxed. He had just joined Shanhai Town and belonged to the military so he obviously wouldn't have anyone good to recommend. As for the other 3 directors, they hesitated. If this recommendation went well, everyone would be happy, but if the recommendation was wrong, then the one who’d recommended him would have to be responsible.

The Finance Department was considered a more specialized Department, and from all the secretaries and managers, it was hard to find a person who could control the big picture. Hence, Yingyu shook her head and said that there was no one she could recommend.

The Material Reserves Department was similar and the various secretaries and managers came from nothing. It was already the limit to rule a division, how could they become an official of an subsidiary territory? The only one that stood out was the Salt Pan secretary Shen Zui, but his experience was lacking, and Tian Wenjing shook his head.

The one with the highest possibility was the Administration Department. They had many divisions and the various secretaries had higher stats. Fan Zhongyan hesitated. He had two choices in his heart, the Assistant Director Qin Shijian and the secretary of Household Registration Zhou Haichen. The 2 young men were exceptional, and could control the big picture. However, they each had their strengths and weaknesses, making it hard to decide.

"I recommend Qin Shijian and Zhou Haichen. Whom to pick I leave to sire." At last, Fan Zhongyan decided to leave the decision to Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head. These two men were the ones he’d expected to be recommended. Only now, he would have to be the one making the decision. Out of the two, it wasn't that Fan Zhongyan didn't have a preference, but this type of personnel arrangement was too sensitive and he didn't want to be too deeply involved.

Yingyu snickered at the side as she saw Ouyang Shuo having a hard time making the decision.

Ouyang Shuo stared at her and said, "Let's choose Zhou Haichen. The deputy secretary of the Household Registration Division will become the new secretary and take over from Zhou Haichen. Qin Shijian's position will also be moved, being a deputy director for so long, it's time for him to train by being a secretary. He will be the new Meritorious Services secretary."

In the end, Ouyang Shuo decided to use a taking over style and chose Zhou Haichen. His departure would be quickly covered by Du Quan. If Qin Shijian was picked, it would result in the Household Registration Division having too many people and the Meritorious Service Division having too little.

As for Ouyang Shuo's decision, all 4 directors had their thoughts. Through this, they saw through his direction and inclination of using people.

After discussing the new officer for the subsidiary territory, Ouyang Shuo ended the meeting.

As for the problems with the construction, he was prepared to gather all the secretaries and managers in the afternoon and discuss it there.

……

2 PM in the afternoon, Lord's Manor meeting room

Ouyang Shuo gathered all the departments and divisions that were related to the new subsidiary territory.

With the issue about the construction of Friendship Village, Ouyang Shuo shared his views. "We must first consider the future route of Friendship Village. The village walls would run for 2 kilometres in a square shape, 9 metres high and 5 metres wide. In the building of the wall, our main camp must participate. The Construction Division has to send a few men, and we must rush to finish in a week in case anything happens."

Zhao Dewang nodded to signal that he was fine with it. The size of the project was only half of the main town’s. The most difficult part would be to transport the materials over the river.

"The villagers that are sent to Friendship Village must be chosen properly. The normal civilians will be herders as the horse stables of the military will be built there in the future. As for skilled talents, it's best if we choose intermediate and above talents like blacksmiths, traders, etc." Ouyang Shuo said.

The new Household Registration secretary nodded and asked carefully, "Sire, how many people will we send over?"

"Let's say 1000, which is the max population for a grade 3 village. Out of this group, 200 must be their village protection squad, which you will coordinate with the military." Ouyang Shuo ordered.

"Understood!"

Ouyang Shuo looked over to Du Xiaolan and said, "The Resource Division needs to make preparations to trade with the nomadic tribes, building a trading area in the village. Food, salt, and metallic types of strategic goods must be sold in proper channels and must be controlled."

"Understood!"

"The Transportation Division is in charge of transporting goods over the Friendship river, especially materials. This must be carefully planned and executed." Ouyang Shuo said to Zheng Shanpao.

"Understood! We will complete the task!" Zheng Shanpao said loudly.

"Ok, all of you go make preparations. You only have an afternoon to prepare, and tomorrow we will start to build our affiliate territory." Ouyang Shuo said.

"Yes!"

After dismissing the meeting, Ouyang Shuo called Zhou Haichen to his office. He wanted to have a deep conversation with his new officer to clear his doubts.

The 2 of them discussed until 6 in the afternoon before ending.

After going offline, Ouyang Shuo gave Song Jia a call. "Sorry, the bandit operation didn't drop the village building token that you needed."

At the opposite end of the phone, Song Jia didn't really put it to heart and was still smiling. "Silly, what are you apologising for? It was based on luck."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. "Actually there's still a method, I don't know if your brother is willing or not to try."

"What method?" Song Jia asked curiously.

"Think about it. Your family goal is to have their own territory, right?"

"Obviously, if not why would we want a village building token?" Song Jia teased.

Ouyang Shuo laughed, "Let me finish."

"Ok then, continue."

"If you want a base, apart from using the village building token, you can ask other players to transfer their territories to you. With this, not only can you reach your goal, but you also get a territory that is already built, even helping you catch up with the other players."

In the past life, many medium-sized powers, upon hearing the news, had the wrong thinking that to build a territory they needed a village building token. They didn't think that there would be another way.

One reason was that they weren't familiar with the game settings and didn't know that territories could be transferred. Secondly, those that knew assumed that the lord was new too, and wouldn't be willing to give up the territories that they’d put in so much effort into building.

Until one day, a player called Jiye thought of such a method. It made everyone copy it, using credits which were useless in real life to buy player territories in game, and under the assault of money, a large portion of the various lords’ territories was conquered. Hence, these powers ruled the game world.

This tragedy made one's heart sour. Because of the lack of information, those unlucky souls had lost their chance to make it big. He remembered that a year after the news was released, the players who had transferred their territories tried to sue.

Unfortunately, all the cases were thrown out as the lords that’d transferred their territories had already received their payments.

Hence I say, fate is so magical. You don't know when it will give you a sharp turn and catch you off-guard. Only those that can keep a firm grasp on destiny will be the rulers of the world.

"Ya, it was true!" Song Jia exclaimed.

"Doesn't this count as completing the mission?" Ouyang Shuo joked.

Song Jia laughed. "En, you exceeded expectations. I'll treat you to a meal next time!"

"I can't wait!"

"Ok, let's talk next time! I'll tell this news to my brother. He was fretting over the village token for many days." Song Jia explained.

"En, bye bye!"

"Bye-bye!" Song Jia hurriedly ended the call and went to find her brother.

Chapter 97 - Sangu Restaurant

Chapter 97: Sangu Restaurant

_March 25, 9 AM_ , Shanhai ship’s dock terminal.

Ouyang Shuo led his officers and ministers to send off Zhou Haichen and the others, this time the military had chosen Lieutenant Hu Yibiao to set up the new territory’s garrison team. The ex-infantry squadron lieutenant’s mission was to establish a proper and reliable defense system.

As for the nomadic tribes, the task was left to the cavalry unit that would be stationed there in the future. After all, only the Cavalry Unit could handle open-field warfare against the nomadic tribes.

After he came back from the dock, he took some time and visited the alchemy workshop. Ever since Alchemist Magnus had been here, Ouyang Shuo was busy with the grade 3 town advancement. He had yet to visit the alchemy workshop, which came from a different culture, a different nation, and brought a distinguished building architecture.

Magnus, the man from far to the west, was always assessed curiously by Shanhai’s residents. He had golden hair, white skin, thick hair, and was a non-fluent Mandarin speaker. Sure enough, these features were able to create gossip. Of course, there were a knowledgeable few that knew of the alchemist’s origin: A Farang, someone of European ancestry.

The alchemy workshop was intentionally situated in the Northeast Military District, right next to the weapon workshop, so to avoid disturbances from the residents. Rather than the traditional China Taoist priests, Shanhai Town had instead recruited an alchemist who originated from the far west. Hence, the alchemy workshop constructed was based on western architectural building blueprints. It was a small house made of stone with two levels and a basement.

The ground floor was the hall and warehouse, and the second floor was Magnus’s bedroom and his study room. As for an alchemist’s most important laboratory, it was located underground, under close watch and strict protection.

With Magnus leading the way, the two walked into the laboratory. There were five or six oil lamps on the basement walls, with another huge complex-looking oil lamp on the ceiling; their lights wiped out every single shadow in the basement.

The basement was designed with the appropriate ventilation system. Otherwise, once the lamps had combusted all the oxygen, one would suffocate from lack of air.

In the middle sat a big table used for experimentations with test tubes, distillation bottles, crucibles and other experiment tools on it. On the sides were a few shelves with lots of pots, cans, and bottles.

“Magnus, what field do you usually experiment in?” Ouyang Shuo asked curiously while touring the workshop.

“The alchemy workshop’s main focus is the distillation of liquids and refinement of minerals,” Magnus answered in arrogance, not expecting his lord to understand any of his words, and he even looked down on Ouyang Shuo pretending to inspect the experiment tools. _Do you even know what those are and their uses? Oriental hypocrites_. __ He whispered in his heart quietly.

But what he didn’t know was that Ouyang Shuo was a man from the modern world, and that the mysterious alchemy in his eyes was merely nothing but ordinary science and its applications.

“The distillation you are talking about, is it the one that uses the backflow of condensed vapor to obtain a purified liquid, the steam distillation?” Ouyang Shuo asked with a smile on his face while he randomly picked up a distillation bottle from the table.

Magnus’ eyes widened, he exclaimed in excitement: “Yes yes, it is. Oh, God. Your wisdom is truly amazing.” It was true that Farangs were all frank and honest people, once the alchemist knew that Ouyang Shuo wasn’t a layman, he changed his attitude almost immediately, praising his lord.

“If that is the case, Magnus, if you have some time, you can visit the wine brewing workshop, and make some improvements to their distillation technique. If the amelioration is a success, I am sure the Finance Department will be more than willing to pay a reasonably large amount of remuneration, more than enough to support and fund your research.” Ouyang Shuo gave Magnus a bait he couldn’t decline.

The moment Magnus heard the words ‘research funds’, a sudden white bright light flashed in his eyes, and he shouted, “No problem! Rest assured my lord, leave this matter to me!”

“As for the research regarding refinements of minerals, you can work with the Armory Division, as they have a large demand for fine irons. Other than that, Langshan Mining Field might need your services too, as it is no doubt your profession in finding better ways to refine minerals with higher purity, in this case, gold. In short, I hope the alchemy workshop would not stay by itself, but actively cooperate with territory affairs, achieving the best of both worlds.”

Magnus had long put down his arrogance and preconceptions, and he respectfully said, “My lord, your wisdom is as deep as the ocean, Magnus will follow your words of wisdom.”

“Good,” before Ouyang Shuo left, he took out the wild boar fangs, long obtained and left untouched, and said with a smile, “Is there any way you can make it into an accessory?”

Magnus took it and said prudently, “I can try.”

“Good, I will be waiting for your good news.” As he finished his sentence, Ouyang Shuo turned and left.

He went straight to the market after leaving the alchemy workshop, gritted his teeth and spent 500 gold on purchasing an Advanced Shipyard Building blueprint. Ever since he had acquired the <Meng Chong Warship Manufacturing Manual>, he could not wait a second longer to turn the warships into reality.

But Meng Chong warships were intermediate warships, and they could only be manufactured by an advanced shipyard. That said, if he desired to establish a strong force of navy warships, he would have to use an additional 500 gold from the territory’s limited capital funds, spending it for the shipyard’s advancement.

When he got back to the manor, he saw Qing’er and Gu Sanniang gossiping at the side. Gu Sanniang looked a bit down, and Qing’er was comforting her. Ouyang Shuo asked out of curiosity, “What are you two gossiping about? So mysterious.”

Gu Sanniang kept silent, while Qing’er curled her lips and said, “Brother, didn’t you promise Gu Sanniang a restaurant before this? But according to Construction Division’s pricing, a restaurant is so expensive! Adding on the salary for workers, money for raw materials, small bits here and there, it will require at least 30 gold. Plus there is no promise of the restaurant’s future, as we still don’t know whether the residents are willing to spend in the restaurant. That’s why Sister Gu is really hesitant about it.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and as he looked at Gu Sanniang, he asked, “What Qing’er said, is it true?”

“My lord, I am indeed a little worried and I am financially unable to go through with this. I am afraid I will have to disappoint you this time. I think it is better for me to stay back in the manor, serving and taking care of everyone as usual.” Gu Sanniang resigned herself to her fate.

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, and said, “Sanniang, there is no need to regard yourself as an outsider, you can come straight to me for help if there are any difficulties. You don’t have to sigh alone at the side. The promise I had made before will surely be kept. I will pay the capital for the restaurant, but I will claim a 50% share of the restaurant, what do you say?”

Gu Sanniang was wild with joy, and she was tongue-tied: “No no no, 10% of the shares is enough to me, I dare not ask for more.”

“You don’t have to decline it, I did not intend to leave you with 50%. But in order to manage the restaurant, capital is just the starting point. You will need to recruit workers, renovate the restaurant, research on the menus, a series of important work you will need to handle personally as the manager of the restaurant. To be honest, having 50% of the share by just providing the capital is already taking advantage of you.” Ouyang Shuo explained his intentions to Sanniang.

Before Sanniang could say anything, Qing’er had already clapped her hands in joy, laughed, and said, “Sister you don’t have to be so polite with Big Brother, he has just plundered a massive wealth from the raiders recently.”

Ouyang Shuo glared at Qing’er, and he continued, “Of course, I will have the 50% of my shares for my own, 30% of it will be Yingyu’s and another 20% for Qing’er. Let’s take it as pocket money from the brother to his sisters.”

“Ya,” Qing’er did not expect that she would benefit from it too, the small little money-grubber hugged Ouyang Shuo’s arm immediately, with a sweet and greasy voice said, “Big brother you are so good, you are so fond of Qing’er, Hee hee!”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, petted her small head and said, “It is good that you know, try not to be too naughty.”

Gu Sanniang watched the scene, and she accepted the offer at ease, with a face of joy she said, “I shall then thank the lord for supporting me. My lord, please give a name to the restaurant!”

Ouyang Shuo pondered for a moment, searching through his mental mind for a good name, then nodded his head and said, “En, let’s name it Sangu1 Restaurant. While it points out to whom the restaurant belonged to, it also carries the meaning of coming again, very suitable for a restaurant.”

“Great, this name is great!” The little beneficiary voiced and clapped her hand.

Sanniang too was happy with the name, and said, “Thank you, my lord, for the name. And one more thing, if I am leaving the manor to the restaurant, who would be in charge of the manor’s kitchen?”

“There is nothing to worry about, once the official residence is completed, other than me, Qing’er and the sisters, the others will dine in their own house, there is no need to cook a big portion anymore. Moreover, when the restaurant is done, if we are craving for food, we can go to the restaurant for free food. Please don’t despise us for eating free food.” Ouyang Shuo answered her question and made a small joke at the same time.

“My lord, you will always be welcomed in the restaurant!” Gu Sanniang responded to the joke with sincerity.

“As for the new manor’s chef, I will leave it to you to choose a successor. The territory was not like before anymore; there are now quite a few chefs already.” Ouyang Shuo ended the conversation with a mission for Gu Sanniang.

“Yes, my lord.” Sanniang nodded.

After the impromptu discussion, Qing’er was eager to deliver the good news to her sister Yingyu. Ouyang Shuo did not interfere and let her off. He summoned Zhao Dewang to his office, and tasked him with the advanced shipyard’s upgrade project.

The secretary’s face turned bitterly sour. Lately, Ouyang Shuo had been giving him tasks and tasks endlessly, and construction projects were everywhere.

First, it was the city wall and moat, which had recently just been completed; followed by the grade 3 territory township upgrade reformation, which had just started not long ago; then came the Friendship Village city wall construction project, just when construction builders had left this morning, Ouyang Shuo gave him a new task again- to refurbish and upgrade the intermediate shipyard into an advanced shipyard, another big project. Even if he had three heads and six arms, he still almost couldn’t manage it all at once.

Ouyang Shuo patted Zhao Dewang’s soldier, and said with great solemnity: “Thank you for your hard work during this period of time, I promise the Construction Division will surely be rewarded with bonuses after this.”

What else could Zhao Dewang do other than accept his lord’s orders with a bitter smile?

_1_ _Sangu_ _三顾 : Part of Gu Sanniang’s name, and carries another meaning of coming again three times._

Chapter 98 - The Clerk

Chapter 98: The Clerk

The next day when Ouyang Shuo logged out of the game, Song Jia phoned him.

“Hey, woodsy1, the method you were saying really works! My brother had purchased a grade 3 village in Lingnan region, it’s called Tianshuang Village.” Song Jia was really happy when she spoke of the news.

“Congratulations, a grade 3 village is really good already, how much did it cost?” Song Wen was really quick, it was only one day and he had already purchased a territory.

It was not a surprise that Song Wen had chosen the Lingnan region, most of the lord players actually preferred having their territory in the same region as their real world’s living region, after all, with their native feelings for their homeland.

“Guess.” Song Jia said naughtily.

Ouyang Shuo took the value of a grade 3 village and translated it into gold coins, giving a rough estimation and said: “10 million?”

Song Jia shook her head, gave a wry smile and said: “Another 0 at the back.”

“Huh? Seriously?” Shuo couldn’t believe it.

“It’s all my brother’s fault, wanting to buy it immediately. Ended up that the former lord gave an extremely unreasonably high price, yet, he did not even bargain and straight away bought it. Even worse, he still thought he had benefited from the deal.” Song Jia protested coquettishly to Ouyang Shuo of her brother’s act.

That was not just a small benefit he had earned, Ouyang Shuo quietly said in his heart, using the credit points that were about to be void in the future in exchange for a grade 3 village, this was definitely the best deal ever. No wonder the civilian lord players in the past life had been selling off their territories. These upper-class nobles were so “generous”, offering a hundred million for a territory. If Ouyang Shuo were willing to sell off his Shanhai Town, it would be easily priced at ten billion credit points, except that it was impossible for him to sell his territory.

“Either way, he had successfully gotten himself land, didn’t he? Your family is rich, this is nothing.” Ouyang Shuo smiled.

“What? Even if we are rich, it doesn’t mean we can spend it recklessly!” It seemed that the Song family’s inner council did not tell the female members everything: the real intention, true purpose, and the truth of Earth Online. Even up until now, Song Jia still took it as a game. What an innocent girl.

Ouyang Shuo did not linger on this sensitive topic much longer, instead turning and asked: “Did you shift along with your brother to Tianshuang Village?”

“Yeah, I am finally able to relax. Every time I wore the set of equipment you gave me, I was really pressured and worried that someone with bad intentions might have their eyes on me.”

“Oh, and about the <Yue Nu Swordsmanship>, I suggest you practice it in free mode.” Ouyang Shuo suddenly remembered that Song Jia had not yet understood the secret of the swordsmanship. Out of fear that she might have missed out on the golden opportunity, he mentioned the matter intentionally.

“Alright, I too think this swordsmanship thing is quite fun.”

“Great!”

“By the way, my brother says he would like to express his gratitude with a million credits, but I stopped him. He then said he would like to buy you a meal, do you want it?”

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. He didn’t want to get too close with the Song corporation in real life, so he gently rejected the offer: “Thank you but it’s alright, all I did was just give a suggestion. It’s not a big deal.”

“I knew you wouldn’t accept it. Then what if I am the one buying the meal, you wouldn’t decline would you?”

“A beauty’s dining invitation, I will always be ready for it!”

“Then I shall invite you, I haven’t washed up yet, See ya!”

“Bye-bye!” Ouyang Shuo ended the phone call and walked out of his room.

Today was Saturday, and the small little girl Bing’er was still unwilling to wake up. Instead, Sun Xiaoyue had just logged out of the game in her pajamas, she was ready to brush. Coincidentally, she met Shuo in front of the toilet door.

“So how was it? Is everything fine?” Ouyang Shuo randomly asked.

“Mhmm, it was really fun. The Capital Architectural College teachings were really professional, it was all about Ancient China’s architectural structures, I felt like it was even deeper in details than my school’s library, Gaia is really impressive! Initially, I was just playing for the sake of fun, but after attending a few classes, I couldn’t help but fully immerse myself into it.” Sun Xiaoyue said with great relish.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said: “Well then, learn properly, and eventually in the future, you can rebuild those ancient buildings in the territory.”

“Really!?” Xiaoyue exclaimed in delight.

“Of course, I promise you, as long as you present me the blueprints, I will turn them into real buildings, future master architect!”

“Hehe, a promise is a promise!”

“Promise!”

After Sun Xiaoyue went to the toilet, Ouyang Shuo turned and headed into Bing’er’s room. What a lazy kid she was. In fact, she actually slept at 9:30 PM last night. Such a lazy pig.

The young girl slept sweetly, hugging her little pocket-sized partner Xue’er in her arms, the scene was overflowing with pure cuteness. As an advanced AI, she was more sharp-witted than Bing’er, and she was alerted when Ouyang Shuo walked in.

After a period of living together, Xue’er was already close with Ouyang Shuo. She flew around Ouyang Shuo, dancing gracefully like an angelic fairy, and finally landed on his palm. Ouyang Shuo used his thumb to caress her small face, smiled, and asked, “Xue’er, do you think your little master is a lazy pig?”

Xue’er nodded and answered in a cute tone: “En, small pig pig!”

Exactly at that moment, Bing’er was awakened by the noise. She muttered upon hearing her partner’s answer, “Bad Xue’er, little traitor!”

Ouyang Shuo pinched her nose and said: “Baby sister, wake up. You are coming with me today for a jog downstairs, to get some exercise and breathe some fresh air.”

“And you too, bad big brother, disturbing my sleep and waking me up early in the morning.” She was clearly not fully awake yet as she was talking bad about everyone she saw. Ouyang Shuo didn’t want to spoil her, so he pulled and forced her out from the bed.

Under Ouyang Shuo’s strict orders, the little princess could only listen and went to brush up herself in the bathroom. As for Xue’er, she followed her into the toilet as well. She had just defamed her little master and she was now trying to coax and comfort her little master.

When she heard that Ouyang Shuo was bringing Bing’er for a jog, Xiaoyue was interested in it too. Hence, the three appeared together side by side on the running tracks. The two young adults and a little child, those who didn’t know might just think that they were a small family. Oh, and another little AI fairy was flying around the three, a warm scene indeed.

Bing’er followed her brother’s back, running while having an envious eye on Xue’er flying around, she said, “How great would that be if I could fly around like Xue’er.”

Ouyang Shuo shook his head while smiling. He didn’t take his sister’s words seriously.

Because it was the weekend, Ouyang Shuo had pushed off Song Jia’s invitation, changing the date to the following Monday. For a day’s time, he spent the morning watching television with Bing’er, and accompanying her while she did her homework. It had been a long time since he had spent time accompanying her while she did homework, so he felt a little guilty in his heart.

On March 26th, Ouyang Shuo came online on time. As usual, he trained hard for 2 hours on his spearmanship and Eight Extreme Fists, and then took a rest before entering his office.

On his table, he laid a letter from Qiushui Town. It had arrived that morning.

He opened the letter and took a look. It was written by Qiushui Town’s garrison general Zhang Daniu’s in regards to Qiushui’s military expansion request.

Zhang Daniu wrote in the letter that due to the upgrade of Qiushui into a grade 1 town, he requested to expand the garrison squadron to 200 men in order to cope with the town’s very complex defense system.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, since the request was reasonable and fair, he had no reason to decline. Hence, he approved the request and wrote a note in the letter:

_Request permitted, Qiushui Town given authority to establish a cavalry squadron. Present the captain candidate to the Military Affairs Department for approval. However, Qiushui will provide the funds by itself._

After he finished, he summoned the concierge and ordered him to send the letter to the Military Affairs Department. During the process of handling the government affairs, the numbers of documents and paperwork were increasing more and more, day by day, on his desk. He realized that it was time for him to recruit a clerk to assist him in such matters.

Ouyang Shuo immediately called over the Secretary of the House Registration Division, Du Quan. He needed the secretary to recommend him a clerk.

This was not just a simple task of selecting a clerk, it was also a test to the secretary’s insights and perceptions. Du Quan knew of the test and had promised that only the best candidate would be proposed to Ouyang Shuo.

A clerk’s job was to work in an office to keep records and accounts, and to undertake other routine administrative duties. Their duties may have seemed very insignificant even sometimes unnecessary, but in truth, it was one of the most desired positions. The nature of a clerk’s work had decided that they would be handling most of the territory’s core affairs, and it was a good position to gain experience. Naturally, the candidate must have strong communication skills, excellent management skills, and proficiency in strategies to a certain extent, in order to provide well-directed suggestions and niche-targeted advice while conducting their administrative duties, so the lord may give high considerations to their comments.

Most of the famous prime ministers and chancellors from ancient history started their political careers as clerks or something similar. For example, Tang Dynasty’s famous prime minister Fang Xuanling was originally an official in King Qin’s manor.

Shanhai Town’s first clerk, Gu Xiuwen had done a perfect job. Even after he was transferred to the House Registration Office, he still held a concurrent post as the clerk, and his service quality did not degrade, and Ouyang Shuo was still satisfied with his performance. However, ever since Gu Xiuwen was sent away to establish Beihai Town, Ouyang Shuo had lost his valuable right-hand man.

The following day, Du Quan had come out with a suitable candidate, and the two walked into Ouyang Shuo’s office in the manor.

Du Quan bowed, greeted Ouyang Shuo, and spoke with a joyful manner. “My lord, from the immigrants that came in today, I have found a young _juren 2_. I have personally examined him, and I believe he will do a good job as the clerk. Hence, I have brought him here in person to the lord, so you may evaluate him personally.”

As Du Quan finished his sentence, the scholar came forward, bowed and greeted Ouyang Shuo, respectfully said: “Bai Nanpu, greets the lord!”

He had the appearance of a 24 or 25 year old young man, dressed in a whitish single scholar’s robe, his hair black and tidy, his eyes bright and sharp, a young man with a decent and typical scholar look.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head, his first impressions on Bai Nanpu were very good. In order to get a clearer picture of Bai Nanpu, Ouyang Shuo took a look at Bai Nanpu’s attributes.

Name: Bai Nanpu (Gold)

Identity: Clerk of Shanhai Town

Occupation: Civil servant ( _juren_ )

Loyalty: 75

Command: 25

Force: 15

Intelligence: 55

Political: 50

Feature: Erudite, widely read, and knowledgeable (Increase territory administrative efficiency by 5%), Meticulous reading (Increase document handling speed by 15%)

Evaluation: Scholar from a poor family, wide-read, and knowledgeable, skilled with strategies and tactics, a pure gentleman.

Indeed, he was talented and well suited for a clerk, Ouyang Shuo nodded approvingly and said, “Very well, I hereby appoint you as the clerk of Shanhai Town, you will be assisting me in governing affairs.”

“I will not disappoint you, my lord!”

_Woodsy 1 __: A nickname given to Shuo, saying that he is literally a ‘wood’_

_Juren 2_（举人） _:_ _Literal meaning of “recommended man”, a qualified graduate who passed the triennial provincial exam in the imperial examinations (a civil service examination system in Imperial China to select candidates for the state bureaucracy)_

Chapter 99 - Prelude

For the following 3 days, the territory was very calm and quiet. In the blink of an eye, the system auction was nearing in and Ouyang Shuo started to gather funds in his territory.

……

3rd month 29th day, Shanhai Town's second sale of sea salt.

The Northern Saltworks had been expanded twice since the last sales. The third expansion of the salt pans on the 2nd month 26th day, its scale was 2000 mus. The expansion on the 3rd month 3rd day expanded the salt fields to 5000 mus. With an average of 500 units of salt per acre, minusing the time taken to build and expand the saltpans, the production of salt reached a staggering 3.5 million units.

The market sold each unit at 20 copper so 3.5 million units of sea salt would sell for 7000 gold, with the 20% trade tax, he would receive 5600 gold. Further deducting the costs of running the salt pans, the earnings were 5000 gold. Ouyang Shuo thought about the heavy taxes and it felt like his heart was bleeding.

……

3rd month 30th day, Langshan mining field presented its gold to the camp.

The Langshan Mining field currently have 1500 miners, 1000 of which were in charge of mining, the other 500 were involved in transporting and extracting the gold. The mining field could mine an average of 100 tonnes of gold ore, extracting out 2000 grams of gold which was at least 100 gold.

Deducting the costs of running the mine, in half a month, the earnings would be 1500 gold coins.

One mustn't look at the fact that the profits from the gold mine was lower than the salt pans and think that the salt pans had an advantage. The mine was set up for a shorter time of only half a month. The mines only had 1500 people as compared to the 2500 in the saltpans.

Using the average profits of each worker, one salt pan worker made 2 gold every month while one miner made 3 gold. This added with the fact that the Langshan mine didn't need to pay 20% tax, making it more profitable than the saltpans.

As for the financial income of the territory, ever since the wine brewery was shifted under the Finance Department, the financial situation got a positive improvement. However if one wanted to talk about profits, now wouldn't be the right time. One reason was that the territory was still in constant building and needed injections of money. Secondly was the Business Division using methods to stimulate the economy, hence needing cash to sustain it. Hence, as long as the Finance Department could maintain balance, Ouyang Shuo would be delighted.

After all calculations, Ouyang Shuo had 7570 gold on hand, making him confident for the upcoming system auction. At the current stage, even the richest Chun Shenjun wouldn't have over 1000 in gold. It wasn't that they weren't rich but their territories needed constant injections of gold, even only the military also needed huge amounts of gold. Only Shanhai Town, with the two golden gooses of the salt pans and the gold mines could have so much gold.

……

3rd month 31st day,

Gaia finally announced the system auction and real life exchange system.

"System notification: to celebrate three months of the game, the system will organize the first system auction on the 4th month 1st day. There will be many rare goods available so look forward to it! Reminder: players must upgrade market to intermediate grade before they can join."

The moment the notification went out, all the lords from the strong powers wanted to fight for the best goods. They rushed all the men under them to get more gold no matter what the price.

……

Handan Town, Di Chen asked Juedai Fenghua, "How much funds can we move now?"

Juedai Fenghua frowned and said, "After we upgraded to grade 3 town, we spent so much on buying building blueprints and upgrading to advanced barracks. The military doesn't have enough funds to expand, how can we have any money that we can move?"

"Then how? According to my family news, a rare weapon and equipment making blueprint will appear and we mustn't miss it. I'll go offline and try to gather some gold, since there's one day left maybe I can gather enough." Di Chen shook his head helplessly.

"That's the only way." Juedai Fenghua didn't have any other better method.

……

Pill Sun Town, Chun Shenjun called the financial butler of the territory and asked, "How much gold have we gathered?"

The butler laughed and said, "Lord, don't worry, after two months of building up, we can move 2 thousand gold and I believe no one else can compare."

Chun Shenjun nodded his head, obviously pleased, "Seems like not upgrading to a third grade Town was a right decision. Ever since the family got the news about the auction, we have prepared for 2 months, it's finally time to taste the fruits of our labor. Di Chen that fool, he extravagantly upgraded to a grade 3 town, he must be regretting so much now."

"Lord is smart!" The butler said.

……

In Swordsman Town, Feng Qingyang looked at his sister and asked, "Little sister, is there really no way?"

Feng Qingyue said, "Big brother, although we have gotten large amounts of money from Qingyang Sword sect, but these funds were used to buy secret techniques. In tomorrow's auction, we can only give up. We can only blame the family news from being too slow and not being able to find out about the auction early enough.”

Feng Qingyang was not willing, originally he had thousands of gold but because of the lack of information, he used it in the wrong area.

"Why don’t we sell some of the secret techniques to gain funds for the auction?"

"We definitely cannot do that, selling to the market will incur 20% tax, it’s not worth it." Feng Qingyue rejected.

"Okay, I'll listen to you." Feng Qingyang could only accept his fate.

……

Xiongba sat in the King Town, asking impatiently, "How? Have you discussed with Wandering Magic?"

An old man who sat opposite Xiongba nodded and said, "Lord don't worry, negotiations have went well. They agreed to lend all their gold to us, the conditions being after we create the equipment with the blueprints, that Fallen Leaves Village would have the priority of buying.”

"Good, he is a good brother, I can count on him on crucial times. How about this, we can't treat them too badly, tell them when we create the equipment we will give them 100 sets." Xiongba happily said, he was an old fox and managed to think of such a method to raise funds.

"Lord is a genius!" The old man said respectfully.

"Haha, to be the best, we need to be smart." Xiongba said with glee.

……

In Consonance Town, the four sisters gathered.

"Elder sis, tomorrow's auction, what strategy are we using?" The one who asked was Zi Luolan.

Bai Hua shook his head and said, "We have only 600 gold so we can only adapt to the situation."

"That's right, tomorrow let's focus on one or two goods and items that no one wants and get them. As for the popular ones then let the big powers fight."

"En, fourth Sister's suggestion is good, let's follow it."

……

The various powers tried to find gold, and the balance was broken, the price of game cash rose. From the original 1 copper to 2 credits it rose to 1 copper for 5. In the end, it actually went up to 10 credits, meaning 1 gold for 100 thousand credits.

If Ouyang Shuo sold all his gold, he would have instantly had 700 million credits. There was a period in time where he couldn't resist and wanted to sell a portion of his gold and buy it back when the price dropped, but in the end, he managed to resist.

One reason was that he didn't know what would be on the auction and secondly, it used a lot of energy which wasn't worth the time.

"System notification: To control the gold and credit trading, the system will open an item exchange platform on the 4th month 1st day 2pm. Players could exchange real credits and items. the system will take 2% as fees."

The opening of the item exchange could expand the trades and dealings in the game. Those powerful players could more conveniently buy more game coins through the platform.

Ouyang Shuo knew that the various powers would want to directly exchange credits to game coins but as it affected the game balance, the authorities declined. This item exchange platform was the end product of both sides taking a step back.

Listening to the system report, Di Chen and Chun Shenjun's faces turned green. The system lacked morals, purposely owning the system after the auction, not allowing them to sweep up all the game cash.

Chapter 100 - Auction (Part 1)

Chapter 100: Auction (Part 1)

_4th month, 1st day, 9:50_ _AM_

When it was just 10 minutes before the auction, Ouyang Shuo went to the wooden shed in the Intermediate Market. He opened the auction platform, and a system notification popped up.

“System Notification: There is still 10 minutes until the first auction. Will you enter?”

“Enter!”

“System notification: Checking player’s entry credentials….”

“System notifications: Player must have more than 200 gold. Requirement fulfilled, starting teleportation!”

A white light shone across and Ouyang Shuo instantly appeared in the auction hall. The hall was like sitting in the galaxy. You were standing on stars and planets, and it was bright and magical, like the hall where Ouyang Shuo had created his character.

In front of the auction hall was a lotus platform, and on it was a female auctioneer with heavy makeup on. She was beautiful and looked fresh like the fairy from the character creation hall. At the back of the hall were lines of seats, and everyone sat in the hall with no VIP rooms or suites.

All the seats were chosen by luck. Ouyang Shuo looked around and found himself sitting in the middle of the 3rd row, a good position. His hands held two signs, one red and one white, with his number 76 written on them. In the last life, he didn’t join the system auction, so he didn’t know what the signs were for.

In the hall, most of the players were already seated. When they saw his appearance, they didn’t care and most people just kept silent. Only a few of them were close to one another and talked softly to each other.

Everyone in the auction hall had their looks and appearances fully exposed. The system did not waste time on any secrecy such as giving everyone a mask or something. In actual fact, when the players created their characters, the system would make little changes on their personal looks. In addition to the changes in their clothing changed the overall demeanour of the person. Hence, it was impossible to find out the identity of the person through their looks in-game, thus there was no need to keep it a secret.

In the time that passed, there were many white lights that shone, and groups after groups of people entered.

As the 200 gold entry requirement excluded many people, there were only 1000 odd people. Out of them, Ouyang Shuo saw many familiar people, enemies like Di Chen, friends like Bai Hua, and people like Xunlong Dianxue, as if fate had brought them together. Obviously right now only Ouyang Shuo recognized them, and they didn’t recognize him.

Ten minutes later, the auction officially began. The auctioneer said, “Everyone please calm down. Before the auction begins, I’ll explain to you the rules of this auction. There will be 10 items, each and every one of them are items of high rarity. Before an item is auctioned off, the next item will not be released. Every item will have a starting bid, and the next bid will be no less than 10 gold. Apart from that, to increase the excitement, each item will have a buyout price. In the entire process, everyone could choose to buy out the item. The white sign is to raise the price and the red sign is to buyout. Everyone please remember this.”

Ouyang Shuo listened intently, the system came up with something so special, not releasing details about the items and even setting up a buyout price. These rules were a huge test to one’s intelligence, and made things slightly more interesting.

Unexpectedly, after the rules were explained, everyone started discussing. Everyone felt a headache with such rules. The funds in each player’s hands were limited, and to take down one item would be a success. However, if one used all their cash to buy one item, but the next one was something they wanted more, then it would be a waste. What was worse was if one didn’t bid and the next item was too expensive, then they could leave here empty-handed.

The auctioneer didn’t care about the discussions and announced, “Now for the first item.” She took out a general class change token, letting any soldier regardless of rank become a basic rank general. The base price was 100 gold and the buyout was 500.

The system was certainly not simple, auctioning such a rare item as the 1st one. The general class change token was much rarer than the civil service one. They was even rarer especially to those with no ability to raise barracks to advanced or lacked generals. 500 gold was also the cost to upgrade to advanced barracks. Over 500 gold, obviously no one would be willing to pay.

Ouyang Shuo did not have any need for it, so those who bid were the small and mid-sized territories.

“110 gold!” Someone bid.

“120 gold!”

…….

“170 gold!”

…….

“220 gold!”

…….

After 200 gold everyone became more careful and started to weigh their choices. In the end, the token was sold for 240 gold.

The auctioneer revealed the second item, only to see her hold a scroll and say, “The second item is <Tang Sword Forging manual>. The base price is 200 gold and the buyout is 1000 gold, please bid.”

Ouyang Shuo was jolted awake. This was good. It could be used together with the Guangming armor. Others naturally knew this was a good product. As long as it had something to do with weapon making, it was something good. Hence Ouyang Shuo didn’t rush to raise the price, wanting to take a look before bidding.

“210 gold!” Someone reported.

“240 gold!”

……

“320 gold!”

…….

This bidding was more exciting than the first item, before long it reached 400 gold.

“600 gold!” The one that bid was Xiongba, he raised the bid by 200 gold, stunning everyone.

It wasn’t that other powers didn’t have the money to fight it out, but this was only the second item and they didn’t want to make it too heated, hence giving up.

Xiongba laughed in glee, his strategy worked. Just as he thought he won, Ouyang Shuo rose the white sign expressionately and said, “650 gold!”

Everyone was stunned. Xiongba was a famous player and one that many knew. Especially those powerful people, they knew each other. They thought that this auction would be controlled by their group of people, not expecting a random guy to pop out.

Xiongba froze up, looking at Ouyang Shuo and said uncertainly, “Are you Qiyue Wuyi?”

Ouyang Shuo had made plans of being recognized. A person with such money at this stage apart from the big powers there was only him, so he nodded his head. “Yes, it’s me. I finally meet brother Xiongba.”

“Haha, since it’s little brother, I’ll give up on this!” Xiongba laughed, not caring much about missing out. He was really an old fox, as it was obvious that it was he himself that didn’t have money to compete but he made it seem like he was letting Ouyang Shuo win.

As they say, people give me an inch, I give them a foot. Ouyang Shuo wasn’t a person that didn’t have manners and since Xiongba treated him politely, he did so too. “Little Brother accepts your gift.”

The 2 of them started talking like there were no one around. Qiyue Wuyi, he was the mysterious lord of the Chinese region, and he’d finally appeared. Even Di Chen and Chun Shenjun couldn’t resist turning around to take a look. The few of them looked like they were beasts staring at him. As for everyone’s greetings, Ouyang Shuo just nodded politely and didn’t want to talk to them.

Thankfully for him, the auctioneer got him out of the situation by saying, “Six hundred fifty once, 650 twice, 650 three times. Congratulations number 76 for winning the second item.” The moment she announced this, the item landed in Ouyang Shuo’s storage bag.

“Now onto the third item.” Now what appeared in her hand was a bead. She continued. “This is a Wood Soul Bead; it can raise territory agriculture production by 15%. The starting bid is 100 and the buyout is 500 gold.”

This was another good item, achieving the same results as the territorial specialty scroll. 15% might look like very little, but when the territory expanded, this was a huge amount and was more than worth it.

Ouyang Shuo hesitated on whether to enter. His main goal for entering was to obtain a weapon equipment making blueprint. The other items weren’t what he needed. Although he had enough money, he didn’t want to expose his financial strength.

Just as he was hesitating, the price had been pushed to 400. Ouyang Shuo raised his head. The last one who’d bid was Bai Hua. As she was his ally, he just gave it up. In the end, her 400 gold bid won her the Wood Soul Bead.

Bai Hua’s strategy succeeded. She knew that she had limited funds and couldn’t beat those strong powers. The goals of the big powers were the same as Ouyang Shuo’s, and they were all aiming for a weapon equipment making manual. They didn’t want to waste their money on items like the Wood Soul Bead.

Chapter 101 - Auction (Part 2)

After the first 3 items were auctioned off, Di Chen and Chun Shenjun both still haven't made a move, only patiently waiting.

"Now for our 4th item," in the hand of the auctioneer was a wooden doll, saying, "This is a substitute doll, letting the player revive once without any negative effects. Base price 100 gold, buyout 500 gold, please make your bids." The players were all perplexed, why would the system take out such a useless object. At this stage of the game, players will only lose a level when they die, why would they use such a doll.

Only Ouyang Shuo knew that this was a valuable item. A year later, when everyone is online, the system will change the death punishments and when they die, they will become level 0 and lose all their items. Such harsh punishments, the only way to avoid this would be such a doll.

"110 gold!" Someone held the thought of testing the market and made a bid.

"120 gold!"

"130 gold!"

"140 gold!"

All these players were holding the hopes of picking up some leftover scraps, since they couldn’t possibly compete with the strong players anyhow. However, for the system to classify the substitute doll as a rare item, it must have its own special uses, for example, it might be the key to trigger a hidden quest.

"180 gold!"

"190 gold!"

"200 gold!"

In the end, when the substitute doll reached 200 gold, very little people made bids. They were there to pick up scraps, not throw all their money in.

"250 gold!" Ouyang Shuo saw through all their intentions and added 50 gold, crushing their hopes.

"250 gold once, twice, 250 gold 3 thrice, congratulations number 76 for winning the 4th item." The hammer of the auctioneer landed, the lowest priced item in the auction went to Ouyang Shuo.

"Bumpkin!" Di Chen said condescendingly as Ouyang Shuo spent money like this.

The auctioneer was very focused on her job and she immediately started announcing the next item. This time it was another token. "The 5th item is a basic soldier token, changing 100 max rank militiamen into a rank 1 armoured cavalry, starting bid 300 gold, 1500 gold buyout, please make your bids."

The crowd was in an uproar as this token could be considered to be a big help to strong powers. If it was a normal soldier token, like the crossbowman cavalry that Ouyang Shuo had gotten, it would not have gotten everyone so excited. After all, all these people had grade 1 towns and to equip a squad of light armoured cavalry could be done.

However, armoured cavalry was a different case, a totally different topic. Regardless of the equipment or the good war horses, no lord was able to do so. Even Ouyang Shuo himself was searching for the qingfu horses.

"500 gold!" Sha Pojun made the first bid, ruling out most of the players who are here to enjoy the atmosphere.

Xiongba shouted, "600 gold."

"700 gold!" The one that joined in was Zhan Lang.

Di Chen did not want to be left out and shouted, "800 gold."

Of the original 6 tyrants of Handan, only Chin Shenjun, Feng Qiuhuang and Feng Qingyang didn't make a move, Feng Qingyang because he didn't have the money, while the first two for reasons unknown. Chun Shenjun had a large amount of capital but he just sat there and didn’t made a move. Feng Qiuhuang also didn't care and wasn't planning to make a move.

Di Chen felt delighted, thinking that he could win the token.

Little did he expect, Xiongba broke his daydream and announced, "1000 gold!"

Di Chen's expression became exceedingly ugly. He had searched hard for money, borrowing and begging other lord's and only got 950 gold, Xiongba's bid excluded him from winning the item, making him furious.

"1100 gold!" Ouyang Shuo chose this moment to suddenly join.

Ouyang Shuo's bid shocked everyone, no one expected him to have so much capital. He had already spent 900 gold on two items, with this, he had spent 2000 gold. Such huge amounts of fund was not what an ordinary lord would dare think about.

The Shanhai Town with so many funds, what kind of situation would that be? Shanhai Town was the most mysterious territory in china, how many more secrets did it hide? To be able to join the auction, you had to be one of the top few lords in the game. Thinking back to when Di Chen was so arrogant to Ouyang Shuo, all the players couldn't help but laugh. “Wasn't Di Chen very arrogant? Now, he can't even take out 1 thousand gold and still have the face to look down on Ouyang Shuo, how funny!"

Di Chen felt the eyes of all the players land on him, his face turning as black as charcoal. His hatred for Ouyang Shuo intensified and he wished he could eat him. He thought to himself: That stupid bumpkin, I, Di Chen will teach you a lesson.

"1200 gold!" Unexpectedly, Xiongba didn't want to give up.

Ouyang Shuo had underestimated Xiongba and didn't expect him to have so much capital. He thought back to Xiongba's kind intentions and his original plan which was to rebuild the old Tang Dynasty heavy armoured troops with the mingguang armor and green horse, the class change token seemed a lot more useless and unnecessary.

Ouyang Shuo looked towards Xiongba and said, "Congratulations brother Xiongba, I forfeit!"

Xiongba laughed and said, "Thank you Qiyue Wuyi Brother!" He didn't expect that his kind intentions will be repaid by Ouyang Shuo, and thought that he was a worthy person to make friends with.

In the end, the token was sold to Xiongba for 1200 gold and was the highest item sold so far. Xiongba was happy but bitter. He had borrowed money from his ally Piao Linghuan to buy the weapon and equipment making blueprint, but now he used it to buy a soldier token. He had to explain when he goes back, he couldn't lose an ally because of this.

The first half of the auction ended and the auctioneer announced a break of half an hour.

Using the rest time, Ouyang Shuo found Baihua and said hi to her. Ever since they made the alliance, this was the first time they met.

Baihua saw Ouyang Shuo and she proactively rose her right hand, smiling and said, "Hearing your name is not as good as seeing you in person!"

Ouyang Shuo politely shook hands with her and said, "Lord Baihua's big name I've envied and looked up to for a long time. To see you today, you are really beautiful."

"I didn't expect the mysterious Qiyue Wuyi to be a humorous man." Baihua teased.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and said, "Such a fair lady, all men would want to chase."

"Cough cough!" Baihua laughed, her beauty shocked Ouyang Shuo. "I haven't congratulated you for getting two items, seems like you are financially strong!"

"Same, same!" To Baihua's strategy just now, Ouyang Shuo admired it.

Baihua was very happy with her gains this time. The only thing that she wanted most was the weapon equipment making manual which she had no chance of getting, feeling a little regretful. She looked at her ally and joked, "Consonance Village wouldn’t be able to get the weapon and equipment manual, so we must depend on Shanhai Town to help us!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded and casually said, "What help? As allies, I can promise that if we get the manual, and reach an industrial scale, we will definitely sell it to Consonance Town."

Baihua was delighted and sincerely said, "This little sister will thank you for that!"

Little did she know that developing military production and selling to allies and obtaining high profits was originally Ouyang Shuo's intention. The salt pans had a max capacity and the mines had a day when they wil be mined out. Ouyang Shuo would not wait and die. Military production was the best chance, not only could it help the territory businesses to upgrade, it could also help increase the strength of the allies, it’s like killing two birds with one stone.

When the two of them were causally taking, two male players came near Ouyang Shuo and said excitedly, "Little Brother is from Xunlong Dianxue and greets brother Qiyue Wuyi!"

Ouyang Shuo realized that these two were people who backed Ouyang Shuo when Di Chen had provoked him. Ouyang Shuo held his hand and smiled,"Oh it's you two brothers, for what happened last time, I thank you heavily for it!"

"Brother Wuyi is too polite, you are the flagbearer for us common players. Di Chen is only a clown." Gong Chenshi had a direct personality and did not care about Di Chen who was standing nearby, saying loudly.

Ouyang Shuo was in deep conversation with both of them. They were the leaders of the civilian players, their knowledge weren't simple and looked very direct, however, they were scheming people. Ouyang Shuo still remembered the post that Gong Chengshi had posted when the servers were just opened.

Because of time constraints, Ouyang Shuo did not have a long conversation and instead just did a simple introduction of Baihua to them, arranging to discuss an alliance after the auction.

Chapter 102 - Auction (Part 3)

Chapter 102: Auction (Part 3)

After the break, the 2nd half of the auction officially began.

“Now we will begin to auction the 6th item.” The auctioneer took out a scroll and said, “This is a territory specialty scroll. After using it, chances of attracting special talents increases by 5%, starting bid 100 gold, buyout 500 gold, please bid!”

This territory specialty scroll was what Ouyang Shuo had already gotten during the Spring Assault. Because the same scroll couldn’t be used twice, he didn’t participate in the bidding. Ouyang Shuo not needing it didn’t mean that others didn’t either. In the end, the scroll was won by Xunlong Dianxue for 300 gold.

After the appetizers, the auctioneer threw out a huge bomb. She held a scroll in her hand and said, “The 7th item is <Iron Futu Armor Forging Technology Manual>, starting price 400 gold, buyout 2000 gold, please make your offers.”

The Iron Futu was another name for the armor which armored cavalry wore. Such an elite armor could in a certain degree, compete with the Tang Dynasty Mingguang armor.

“600 gold!” This time it was still Sha Pojun who started the bid.

Zhan Lang didn’t want to lose and shouted, “800 gold!”

“900 gold!” Di Chen stared fiercely at Ouyang Shuo and Chun Shenjun. Sha Pojun and Zhan Lang bidding was just a show for Di Chen to win the bid.

Now the only two people who had the ability to contest would be Ouyang Shuo and Chun Shenjun. What was weird was that Chun Shenjun didn’t make a move, not raising his sign even once. It seemed like he had gotten some insider news and decided to spend his money on a certain item.

However, Ouyang Shuo didn’t have much need for the Iron Futu. After all, its effect was similar to that of Mingguang armor. The Armory Division was already having so much trouble forging the Mingguang armor, and didn’t have room to forge the Iron Futu armor.

However, Ouyang Shuo wouldn’t allow Di Chen to get it easily. Even if he couldn’t use it, he could give it to his allies.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was about to bid, Feng Qiuhuang, who had been keeping quiet, shouted, “1000 gold!”

Di Chen was stunned, when he came back to his senses, he furiously pointed at her, “You you you! You traitor!” Di Chen was so angry that he couldn’t say anything. Feng Qiuhuang was emotionless and didn’t care about Di Chen.

The surrounding players, upon seeing that the Handan Alliance had an internal problem, smiled and waited to watch a show.

“Feng Qiuhuang, don’t be too happy, I won’t let you get away with this.” Di Chen stared at her, turning to look at Sha Pojun. “Pojun, lend me some funds. I don’t believe she has more gold than the both of us.”

What outsiders didn’t know was that in the original Six Tyrants of Handan, the one who was the most afraid of Di Chen was actually Sha Pojun. As the representative of the grey region, he was afraid of the political corporations’ power to crush them. As long as they started paying attention, people from the grey region would be like rats, scurrying around and getting captured. This was also the reason why when the Six Tyrants of Handan split, he hadn’t joined Chun Shenjun.

Sha Pojun had a really bad expression. Under everyone’s gaze, Di Chen had actually ordered him to hand over his gold. It was an insult. However, he still had to deal with him in real life, so he unwillingly gave 700 gold to Di Chen.

“1200 gold!”

“1300 gold!” Feng Qiuhuang was unfazed.

“1400 gold!”

“1500 gold!”

Di Chen looked at her with surprise. He didn’t expect her to have so much gold.

_Don’t tell me both of our gold added together would still lose._

He wasn’t willing and shouted, “1650!” This was all the gold in his hand and this was his last shot.

Hearing his bid, Feng Qiuhuang finally gave up. 1500 was already her maximum. She was really unwilling. She had broken the bridge but still didn’t succeed. Just as she was about to give up, a system notification appeared by her ear.

“System notification: player Qiyue Wuyi sent you 500 gold, will you accept?”

“Accept!”

Feng Qiuhuang resisted the urge to look towards Qiyue Wuyi and calmly shouted “1700 gold!”

“Damn it, how does this woman have so much gold?” Di Chen was furious, he turned and looked at all the players and said, “Who will be willing to lend me 200 gold, Handan Town will repay you!”

There were actually a few idiots that would loan Di Chen there money and use this chance to join his good books. Most of them wanted to be neutral. Helping Di Chen would be making an enemy of Feng Qiuhuang. Was this business worth it or not? That was hard to say.

Seeing his actions, Feng Qiuhuang was very calm. Qiyue Wuyi had sent her 500 gold, which could allow her to buy out the item. After all, Di Chen didn’t know her bottom line and obviously wouldn’t buy out the item.

“Cough cough, is this still the TOP lord in the Chinese region? Can’t even take out a few hundred gold and still want to borrow from small fries, such a rare situation. Why don’t I lend it to you?” The one insulting him was Gong Chengshi.

Di Chen stared at him. However, he still had some pride, and just waited patiently for some small fish to bite.

“System notification: player Qige Xiaonuhai has sent you 200 gold, will you accept?”

“Accept!”

After accepting the goal, Di Chen was very confident. When he saw her expression, she seemed like she was already at her max. This battle was his to win. As for the clown Gong Chengshi, he will deal with him later. Di Chen gleefully looked at Feng Qiuhuang and shouted, “1800 gold!”

Feng Qiuhuang glanced at him, raising the red sign and saying, “Buyout!”

“Haha!” Everyone burst out laughing. Di Chen was now a clown, using so much effort, offending Sha Pojun, losing face, and still losing the bid.

Di Chen was embarrassed as he returned the money to Sha Pojun and Qige Xiaonuhai. If it wasn’t that there were still items to be auctioned, he would’ve just left out of shame.

Zhan Lang’s eyes shined. As the representative of the military, he wasn’t afraid of Di Chen. This point, Di Chen knew, hence he would rather borrow from a stranger than ask Zhan Lang. Now that Feng Qiuhuang and Di Chen had openly split, and the fact that Sha Pojun and Di Chen had disagreements, was there still a need for the alliance to exist?

As the conspirator behind the scenes, he felt extremely happy. The reason why he’d lent the gold to Feng Qiuhuang was firstly because he didn’t want the item to land in his hands, and the other was because she had shown good intentions towards him several times, now that he had a chance he would naturally help her.

“Now we will start the auction of the 8th item.” The auctioneer didn’t bother about the conflicts between players, holding a talisman in her hand, “This is a Spring Weathering Talisman, making a 20,000 mus basic farmland into a fertile farmland, starting price 100 gold, buyout 500 gold.”

Thinking about the reclaimed farmland in Qiushui Town, Ouyang Shuo wasn’t ready to give up, getting the token for 200 gold in the end.

The 9th item was a scroll, “The 9th item is the <Song Dynasty Buren Armor Making Manual>, starting price 400 gold, buyout 2000 gold, please make an offer.”

Song Dynasty Buren Armor was the strongest heavy-armoured infantry armor in the cold weapons era. Such a good thing, Ouyang Shuo wanted to get it, shouting directly, “1000 gold!”

Seeing Ouyang Shuo’s bid, Chun Shenjun heaved a sigh of relief. As long as he spent all his money on this, no one would be able to compete with him for the last item.

“1100 gold!” Zhan Lang shouted.

“1200 gold!”

Zhan Lang froze, he didn’t expect that Qiyue Wuyi, who had used 1100 gold already, actually still had so much money. He was unwilling to lose and shouted his maximum amount. “1400 gold!”

Ouyang Shuo glanced at Zhan Lang, he didn’t expect him to have such a thick checkbook. However, he didn’t want to give up and continued, “1500 gold!”

Zhan Lang had no choice but to give up. Something like borrowing money like Di Chen was something the prideful Zhan Lang wouldn’t do. He laughed and said, “Congrats Brother Qiyue Wuyi, I give up!”

Ouyang Shuo laughed and said, “Thank you Brother Zhan Lang.”

At this point, the auction was left with the last item. It was a scroll. The auctioneer said, “The 10th item is the <Song Dynasty Bow and Crossbow Making manual>, starting bid is 500 gold, buyout is 3000 gold, please make your bids.”

It was at this point that Ouyang Shuo realized why Chun Shenjun hadn’t acted. This was really the last item, which was different from the previous items. It not only covered the bow and crossbow, it also had all the bow and crossbow making technology from the Song Dynasty.

“1500 gold!” Chun Shenjun didn’t want to give any other person a chance.

“1600 gold!” Ouyang Shuo reacted.

Chun Shenjun frowned, Qiyue Wuyi’s gold was like a bottomless pit. He gritted his teeth. “2000 gold.”

“2100 gold!”

Chun Shenjun panicked, this was not what he expected. He rolled the dice and placed his max bid. “2500 gold!”

Ouyang Shuo froze, he didn’t know how much money Chun Shenjun had. What if he upped the price and he bought out the item? That would be a tragic event.

Chun Shenjun stared murderously at Ouyang Shuo as he slowly raised up the red sign, his face turning white. He had been the biggest loser this time, having over 2000 gold, but going home without anything.

Chapter 103 - Bow and Crossbow Division

Chapter 103: Bow and Crossbow Division

Editor: ryangohsff

As the curtains closed, some were happy some were sad.

The one that failed miserably was Di Chen, he held close to a thousand gold and didn't win anything, and instead of getting himself into so much trouble and becoming the biggest joke of the auction, losing all his reputation.

Another sad person was Chun Shenjun. He came confidently thinking he would win it but unexpectedly Ouyang Shuo popped out and beat him, making him go home with nothing.

The luckiest one was Feng Qiuhuang, she was about to lose to Di Chen but at the crucial moment managed to get Ouyang Shuo's help and get the <Iron Futu Forging Technology Manual>.

The smartest was Bai Hua, avoiding all the popular items and getting the wood soul bead.

The person who received the most attention was naturally Ouyang Shuo. A single person getting 5 of the 10 items. Even the most expensive weapon and armor making manuals he got 3, being the biggest winner.

As the auction ended, what had happened was spread all over the China region. Qiyue Wuyi's strong financial strength defended his position as one of China's leaders. As for Di Chen's provocation to Qiyue Wuyi, it instantly became a joke.

Suddenly, the contents of all the posts changed. This was the first time Ouyang Shuo had came out and showed his strength in public. Apart from his financial strength, his interactions with Bai Hua, Xunlong Dianxue, and Siege Lion were paid attention to by many.

What resulted from the auction wasn't only that. After the auction, Feng Qiuhuang announced she had left the Handan Alliance. Their scuffle during the auction had been spread and changed many times into several different stories. Di Chen acted too highly with his status of the alliance leader, thence, Qiuhuang leaving the alliance was something that many supported. All of a sudden, the alliance was shaken up once again and many players speculated that it wouldn't last for long.

Not letting down everyone, Zhan Lang gave the alliance a final blow.

Shortly after she left, Zhan Lang announced that he was dropping out too, getting several lords from the construction industry to build the Blood Metal Alliance. The once glorified six tyrants of Handan was once again hit, leaving behind only Di Chen and Sha Pojun, it was the same as having died.

Just as everyone thought that the Handan alliance was about to disband, Di Chen made an unexpected announcement: Wu Fu from Jingdu will join the alliance. In the territory defense, Wu Fu was ranked 10th, his strength was even above Bai Hua.

With his addition, Handan alliance would continue. However, as it lost Feng Qiuhuang and Zhan Lang, two huge pillars, their strength wasn't as before, unable to compete with the Chunqiu Alliance.

Ouyang Shuo didn't slack and instead immediately invited Siege Lion and Xunlong Dianxue into the alliance. Under Bai Hua's suggestion, the alliance would be named the Shanhai Alliance and the leader will be Ouyang Shuo. The alliance included Shanhai Town, Bai Hua's Consonance Town, Mulan Yue's Mulan Town, Xunlong Dianxue's Xunlong town and Siege Lion's Black Lion Town.

Mulan Yue had just upgraded to a grade 1 town and didn't have 200 gold on hand so she couldn't join the auction, hence missing out. After knowing about what had happened, she sent a pigeon letter to congratulate him.

After the establishment of the Shanhai Alliance, Ouyang Shuo promised that Shanhai Town would give them priority in the sales of the Tang dagger, infantry armor and various bows and crossbows. As for the Mingguang armor, it wasn't on the list. Firstly, the production was complicated and Shanhai Town had to meet its own needs, so it was difficult to have extras to sell. Second was that Ouyang Shuo wanted the Mingguang Armoured Heavy Cavalry to be his special force. This wildcard was something he did not want to share, even with his allies.

To act as a deterrence, Ouyang Shuo didn't hide the news about the alliance. Shanhai Alliance's appearance eclipsed the Handan Alliance, Chunqiu Alliance, Blood Metal Alliance and became the biggest alliance in China. With its existence, if Di Chen wanted to touch Siege Lion, it wouldn't be as easy.

In a short moment, The China region became fuzzy and big events made everyone dazzled one after another.

……

_1st of April, 2 PM in the afternoon._

_"System notification: The official exchange platform has been opened, players please take a look!"_

Through the platform, players could put their coins up for sale. They only need to link their credit card and after deducting 2% of fees, the coins will be transferred.

With such a platform, it will be easier for Di Chen and the others to buy coins. Luckily Ouyang Shuo had predicted that and made preparations.

_"System Notification: To make it convenient for deals, the player auction is officially opened. Players could enter the auction hall in the King City or the Intermediate Market. All auctioned products will be taxed 15%, players please have a look!"_

The auction hall will increase the interaction between adventure players and lord players. Adventure mode players could sell the territory items that they got to the lord players. Similarly, lord players can sell the items and weapons that the weapon workshop produced to the players to get building funds.

Between lord players, they could use the system to trade and communicate. The Chinese region was so huge and had different climates and regions. The resource allocations were different for players, some desperately needed wood, some stone. It allowed players to make trades and get the resources that they didn't have and most importantly, it was cheaper than the market by 5%.

After the auction, Ouyang Shuo calculated the gold he had left. In the auction, including the 500 he lent to Feng Qiuhuang, he had spent 6100 gold. Now, he had 1470 left. He gained 5 items, the <Tang Sword Forging manual> which he gave to the weapon workshop, the substitute doll which he placed in the storage bag and was automatically activated, the Spring Weathering Talisman that he passed to Qiushui town, and the <Song Dynasty Buren Armor Making Manual> to the armory division.

The one that was the hardest to deal with was the last one, the <Song Dynasty Bow and Crossbow Making manual>, in order to manufacture bows and crossbows, the process would involve the carpenters, blacksmiths, cobblers, bow makers and other talented individuals. Hence, there is a need to establish a special division to focus on it, just like the Guangming armors.

Therefore, Ouyang Shuo convened a meeting with the director of the Military Affairs Department and its various secretaries and managers.

Ouyang Shuo looked around and said, "During the auction, we gained a lot, gaining much-needed weapon, infantry armor and bow and crossbow making manuals. To make these manuals into actual advantages and make a completed military production line is what the various directors and secretaries need to do, hence I decided to establish a Bow and Crossbow Division under the Military Affairs Department to focus on building bows and crossbows. The weapons workshop, Armory Division and Bow and Crossbow Division will work together and be the 3 pillars of the military production chain, bearing the responsibilities of weapon, armor and bow and crossbow production.

Ouyang Shuo turned his head to look at Ge Hongliang and said, "Director Ge, the Bow and Crossbow Division's establishment will be your duty, this includes the choice of secretary. I hope that within a week, the division will be set up."

"Sire don't worry, I will get it done." Ge Hongliang said.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, "That's good. The scale of the Bow and Crossbow Division can't be smaller than 300, Director Ge must assign various talents to train apprentices. My requirements would be to ensure every soldier in the military to have a bow. The infantry troops will have a longbow and the cavalry a horned bow. The crossbow will be focused on the god arm crossbow and be used by the soldiers guarding the city. Especially the arcuballista, we must analyze and produce it quickly to attach to the village walls. Not long later there will be a village defense battle, we can't be careless about it.”

"Understood!"

"Additionally, we must mass produce bows and crossbows. However we need cow tendons and horns, its supply is a big problem. Director Ge, you need to send the cavalry out to hunt and kill wild cows to get those items." Ouyang Shuo ordered.

Ge Hongliang confidently said, "This is not a problem, the cavalry camp is in place, it can be used anytime."

"Very good. Xu Kun, how many blacksmith apprentices did the weapon workshop develop?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"Replying to sire, last month we delivered 20 basic blacksmiths to the Armory Division, now we have 50 apprentices." The manager of the workshop Xu Kun replied.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, "That’s not enough, far from enough. This month you need to deliver at least 100 basic blacksmiths to the Armory Division, deliver 30 basic blacksmiths to the Bow and Crossbow Division and the weapon workshop needs to keep 50 basic blacksmiths, can you achieve that?"

Xu Kun nodded his head and said, "I will try my best."

"Not try your best, you must do it. If you are lacking manpower, go and get some from the Household Registration Division, I’ll give them a head-on notice. If you can't complete it then you will be sacked, do you understand?" Ouyang Shuo said seriously.

"Yes my lord, I guarantee to finish the mission!"

Lastly, Ouyang Shuo looked at the Combat Logistics Division's Zhao Youfang and said, "The Combat Logistics Division needs to coordinate with the Material Reserves Department and get the mining and supply program settled. Apart from this, you need to contact the Material Reserves Department and find suitable woods for the production of bows and crossbows.”

"Yes, I guarantee I will finish it!" Zhao Youfang said loudly.

"Good, that's it. Everyone go back to work, I hope to see results in a month." Ouyang Shuo concluded.

"Yes!"

Chapter 104 - City Defense Camp

2nd of April.

Friendship Town, under the help of the main camp, had finally finished construction on the city walls. From start to finish, the nomadic tribes didn't notice that a military fortress was secretly built up north of them.

To further increase the defensive strength of Friendship Town, Ouyang Shuo sent Zhou Haichen a letter to order him to start working on the city-protecting river. The city-protecting river would follow that of the main camp’s. West of it would be the Friendship river and east would be the Qiushui river, forming a huge sac and boxing Friendship Town in it.

This way, Friendship Town would be surrounded by water, and using the water camp, they could attack and defend, getting into an undefeatable position. Before he built Friendship Town into an impenetrable fortress, Ouyang Shuo wasn't prepared to contact the nomadic tribes.

After dealing with Friendship Town, under the company of Ge Hongliang and Tian Wenjing, they set out for the Xuanniao tribe. Li Mingliang led the first cavalry squadron to protect their safety on the way there.

When they passed Qiushui Town, Ouyang Shuo took an hour-long break there to listen to Zhao Dexian report on the recent projects and situations in the town. Additionally, he took time to test and inspect the newly-built Qiushui Town cavalry protection squadron.

The Qingming festival was right around the corner, and as the food production base of the territory, Zhao Dexian had already begun to prepare for the festival. The planned 20,000 mus of farmland had been reclaimed, and under the effect of the weathering change token, became fertile farmland. The full 20,000 mus were used to plant rice.

Apart from reclaiming farmland, Qiushui Town had also built a large-scale logging camp in the southern woods. The wood supplies here were of higher quality than that of the main camp, sturdier and easier to store. All the resources needed by the shipyard were solely provided by the logging camp.

Because they were reaching into the busy farmer's period, Qiushui Town's city wall project had no choice but to be postponed. Only after the spring sowing would construction continue. Luckily, this region was calm, and building the city walls earlier or later wouldn't make much of a difference.

Between 11 AM and noon, after 2 hours of walking, Ouyang Shuo and his men arrived at the Xuanniao tribe. This time, their treatment was totally different from the cold one they had received last time. The tribe leader, Shi Xiong, personally received them outside of the stronghold.

"Lord, welcome to Xuanniao Tribe!" Shi Xiong said warmly.

This was the magic of food and grain. Ever since Xuanniao tribe started working with Shanhai Town, they were well-fed and never had to go hungry. Naturally, Shi Xiong's attitude would change and he wouldn’t dare to be arrogant towards Ouyang Shuo.

However, if Shi Xiong knew that what they were getting wasn't even a third of what Langshan mining field was producing, what would his reaction be?

Ouyang Shuo smiled and said, "Hello leader, is the shaman okay?"

"Everything is okay! Please enter!" Shi Xiong walked in front to lead the way as Ouyang Shuo walked side by side with him.

After both sides gathered and sat down in the meeting hall, Ouyang Shuo left Tian Wenjing to discuss with Shi Xiong about further cooperation, while he got up and went towards the mountain stronghold temple to greet the shaman.

The temple was built at the highest point of the mountain stronghold, having over 200 steps. Upon climbing all the way up, the shaman was standing at the mouth of the temple and welcoming Ouyang Shuo. This was a very battered elder. Her eyes looked cloudy and she looked like she was about to die. This elder was the spiritual leader and the pride of the Xuanniao tribe.

"Guest from afar, I welcome you!" The shaman said with a hoarse voice.

Ouyang Shuo did not dare to be negligent and said sincerely, "Greetings, shaman. The gift you gave us last time was of great help to our town. To thank you, I prepared a gift of my own." Ouyang Shuo took out a night pearl from his storage bag and passed it to the young shaman standing next to her.

The night pearl was obtained after destroying a large raider camp. As the young shaman had never seen such a treasure, she was so shocked that she didn't take it.

"Lord is too courteous, such an expensive gift. It's hard for me to accept." The shaman signaled for the young shaman to accept it while walking towards Ouyang Shuo and said, "Lord, please follow me."

Xuanniao tribe's temple was made entirely of stone and was a relatively intact structure.

Ouyang Shuo was an outsider, so he couldn't enter the main ancestral hall of the temple. They went to the guest chamber beside it.

"Shaman, Shanhai Town is willing to work with the various tribes in the mountain. We don't know if you could help us with it?" Ouyang Shuo dove right into the question.

The shaman opened her cloudy eyes and said, "Our Xuanniao Tribe keeps in contact with the neighboring 4 tribes. Since sire has such an intention, I'll invite them here."

"If that is so, many thanks to shaman!" Ouyang Shuo was ecstatic.

When he left the tribe, he left Tian Wenjing behind and placed him in charge of negotiating with the other tribes. The detailed cooperation contents could be similar to the one with the Xuanniao tribe.

At the same time, to thank Ouyang Shuo for the night pearl, the shaman gave Ouyang Shuo a pair of Xuanniao tribe's Feng birds. These birds were very smart and could travel long distances to pass news.

……

3rd of April, Shanhai Town’s potato harvest

As the soil was barren, there were only 1000 odd mus of potato land, out of which 2.1 million units of potatoes were produced. The territory followed the agriculture tax and received 70,000 units of potatoes, which Ouyang Shuo passed to the Combat Logistics Division to act as military rations.

With this batch of potatoes, and together with some grain and meat, Shanhai Town's food crisis was over and there was no need to buy grain large-scale from the market. After harvesting the potatoes, Ouyang Shuo did not ask the farmers to plant rice, but cotton instead.

As they say, clothing and food go together, and you cannot lack either one. In the current Shanhai Town, cloth materials still relied heavily on the market. It didn't have its own ability. As for the colored silk from the silkworms, the industrial chain hadn't been set up, and it was considered an expensive and high-class good, not suitable for large-scale use.

Cotton was different. With it, the territory could skip linen and go straight to using cotton. Luckily, the 2,000 mus weren't considered fertile, so you wouldn't have gotten much of a yield from planting rice, and thus planting cotton was a better decision.

……

4th of April

After the shaman from the Xuanniao tribe helped coordinate it, 3 more mountain barbarian tribes agreed to work together with Shanhai Town. The 3 tribes were of a smaller scale than Xuanniao tribe, having 2000 odd people each. One other tribe rejected the shaman's invitation. The tribe was called Jifeng tribe, and it was much bigger than Xuanniao tribe, having 5000 people. When they found out that the Xuanniao tribe relied on Shanhai Town and even acted as their spokespeople, they were furious and thus refused cooperation.

The 3 tribes joining the alliance made the number of miners In Langshan mining field swell to 5000 people. Basically, with the size of the mine, this was the maximum, and any more would’ve been useless.

Because the Jifeng tribe refused cooperation, Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to increase the defense of the mine. He gathered 300 men from the various tribes and added the 2 squadrons that he had sent there, making a Langshan defense camp. Shilang was the manager of the camp. The other captain, Shibao, was sent back to Shanhai Town.

Apart from joining the operation in the mines, the 3 tribes sent 500 of their finest soldiers to join Shanhai Town's main army. Hence, Ouyang Shuo chose 200 more men from Shanhai Town and joined them with the 3 infantry squadrons to form 2 infantry camps.

In the Shanhai Town barracks meeting hall, Ouyang Shuo started to reorganize personnel.

"Zhao Sihu!"

"Present!"

"I order you to use the original 1st squadron in the infantry camp as the core, adding 200 soldiers from Shanhai Town and 200 from the mountain barbarians to build the Shanhai Town city defense camp." Ouyang Shuo said.

"City defense camp?" Sihu was confused.

"That's right. The duty of the camp is to protect the main territory. The barracks will be within the city. To adapt to the requirements of protecting the city, the camp will have two archer squadrons, two crossbowmen squadrons and one sword shield squadron. The original infantry first squadron will become the sword shield squadron, the 200 will be trained as crossbowmen, and the mountain barbarians will form the bowmen squadrons." Ouyang Shuo explained.

"I understand sire, don't worry. I will complete the task!" Zhao Sihu said loudly.

Ouyang Shuo turned to General Shi and said, "General Shi!"

"General is here! Ready for your orders!"

"I order you to use the infantry camp’s 2nd and 3rd squadrons as the core, and add 300 elites from the various tribes to form a purely mountain barbarian heavy-armored infantry camp."

"Heavy-armored infantry? But we don't have any heavy armor!" General Shi was confused too.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and said, "Who says we don't? The Armory Division is rushing production of infantry armor, the weapons division is forging Tang daggers, and these two items will be the equipment of the heavy-armored infantry camp.

All the other generals looked at General Shi jealously. The armor was 29 kg, so only the mountain barbarians could carry it. The Tang knife was a forged weapon, so every soldier type could use it. No one expected the heavy-armored infantry to be the first to be given it.

General Shi laughed brightly. "Thank you sire, for your support."

"The heavy-armored infantry camp will be built outside the city and general must increase their training, especially weight training. I don't wish that when the armor is built, your soldiers aren't able to use it. That would be a joke." Ouyang Shuo continued.

"Sire don't worry, I will train them well."

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, "Then I'll wait and see. After you guys are formed up and become a proper camp, I will personally give the armored infantry camp its name."

That was a great honor. To date, no camp in Shanhai Town had its own personal designation, hence one could see how much importance Ouyang Shuo placed on this.

General Shi's blood boiled and he shouted, "I won't let sire down!"

Chapter 105 - Showdown

5th April, the traditional Chinese festival: Qingming Festival.

After breakfast, Ouyang Shuo brought Bing'er to the cemetery to help tidy up their relatives' graves. Unexpectedly, little aunt Lin Jing had specially rushed back from Modou to Jiaozhou to help clean the grandparents' graves. The night before little aunt left for State of Jiao, the two of them had a deep conversation in her hotel room.

"Little Shuo, are you still unwilling to tell me your in game ID?" Lin Jing asked angrily.

Ouyang Shuo had a face full of awkwardness and embarrassment. His aunt obviously wanted him to tell her everything. After the auction, Ouyang Shuo realized that he had become more confident especially when the setting up of the Shanhai Alliance had made his power in the game very stable.

Looking at the relative in front of him, his expression became very complicated. He sighed and in the end decided to trust her, saying solemnly, "Little aunt, I can tell you my ID but you must promise not to tell anyone, including your partner Xie Siyun."

"I can't even tell Siyun?"

"Yes!"

"Why so mysterious?" Little aunt felt a bit annoyed.

Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to be careful and repeated, "Little aunt, I need an answer from you."

Lin Jing was stunned as she felt the resolve in his words. "Okay, I promise I won't tell anyone your ID, including Siyun. Now can you tell me? Little Shuo, if you can't give me a proper explanation I'm going to teach you a lesson."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, he understood her personality. It was similar to his late Mother, inheriting their grandmother's genes and will never go back on their words.

"Have you heard of Qiyue Wuyi?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"Obviously, who doesn't know him, China server's number 1 lord. Why, are you working under him?" Little aunt asked curiously.

Ouyang Shuo coughed and said calmly, "I am Qiyue Wuyi."

"What?" Little aunt jolted to her feet, saying in disbelief, "What did you say, you are Qiyue Wuyi? It isn't April Fools, don't lie to me."

Ouyang Shuo had already predicted her reaction and continued calmly, "Do you think I have any reason to lie to you?"

Lin Jing looked at her nephew in disbelief like she had seen a monster, "No wonder you didn't want to tell me your ID. Oh my god, you are a freak!"

Ouyang Shuo’s face became like stone, annoyed by this aunt, "Little aunt, I'm blood-related to you, do you really have to describe me like that?"

"But isn't it true? The world is guessing which mysterious family Qiyue Wuyi is from, who would have thought that he would be a normal kid." Little aunt was still very emotional.

Ouyang Shuo laughed.

Lin Jing judged Ouyang Shuo once again. "Not bad, seems like auntie has underestimated you. For you to get such results is not easy."

Ouyang Shuo didn't want to dwell too long on the topic and asked, "Little aunt, the reason you asked me to play it, was it because you knew some insider news?"

"That's right, Siyun and I joined the beta and based on her deduction, this game wasn't simple and it wasn't just a game; hence we stopped playing all other games and placed our efforts on this game."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, as he was amazed by Siyun's deduction. With no information, she could make a correct deduction with just her intuition. No wonder she was the leader of the second-biggest mercenary group in china.

"For this game, I obtained a little news by luck. I won't dare to say anything else but at least your decision is correct. I also need to remind you that you all should not sell your in-game gold in the exchange platform." Ouyang Shuo reminded.

Lin Jing couldn't understand and asked curiously, "Why? Isn't our goal to sell game credits into cash? Little Shuo, do you know some insider news which helped you get such good results?"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and said, "What I can say I already told you. My suggestion is up to you to accept or not. As for other news, little aunt should stop asking. To be safe, whether in-game or in real life, we should meet less. We should just wait for the right time!"

When she looked at Ouyang Shuo, it was like she was looking at a stranger. She couldn't imagine that the pure little kid would become so mature and even say such words. She could see a bit of Xie Siyun[a] in his figure.

"The time you speak of, when is it?" Lin Jing couldn't help but ask.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and said, "This I can't say but it's going to be soon."

Lin Jing gave up on asking and helplessly said, "Since you are so firm, you must have your difficulties, I won't force you. Knowing that you are doing so well, little aunt is happy for you. As for your suggestion, we will think hard about it when I go back."

"Thank you for your understanding." Ouyang Shuo said.

"Okay, I can't stay too long in State of Jiao, I'll be flying back to Shanghai tomorrow morning. You should rest early!" Little aunt said.

"Okay, then little aunt, you should sleep early. Good night!" Ouyang Shuo got up and said goodbye.

"Good night!"

After leaving the hotel, Ouyang Shuo didn't take a cab home but instead chose to walk back. Anyways, the distance from the hotel back home wasn't far. Walking on the busy streets and seeing the bright and colourful lights, Ouyang Shuo was deep in thought. After showing all his cards to little aunt, he felt a lot more relaxed like a lock had been opened within him. A person to keep such a secret to himself was really just too tiring.

During this period of time, the game was bustling with news, and real life was also the same.

The news that Song Wen, who was following Ouyang Shuo's method to buy territories had spread to their ally Yuan Financial group. Yuanping followed this method to successfully buy a grade 3 village. What followed next was that the news spread from 1 to 10, 10 to 100, spreading quickly amongst the middle class.

All of the sudden, there was a race to buy up territories. Everyday there were lucky people who became billionaires overnight, making legendary tales one after another. Out of all these people, there were naturally people who went online to brag on the forums.

Just like this, news of large scale acquisitions had pushed Earth Online to the top of the news. The public were very curious, what magic did this game have to make financial groups invest so heavily in it?

A group of civilians just watched the news while a large group of them decided to join it. Those that didn't get the insider news were all rattled and tried their best to find out the truth behind the game.

In a human society like China, the whole society was like a huge net. Families would be closely linked to other families and groups will be close-knit with other groups. When someone tried hard to find out, the secret will slowly spread, spreading to small powers and increasing the acquisition craze.

Such a large scale movement finally attracted attention and those who thought that something was wrong immediately asked the government for an explanation.

Since it got to this point, the alliance government could only quicken the work for the mass migration. As for the explanation, naturally none was given. They openly announced that buying territories was the corporation's own doing and the alliance wouldn't bother.

Ouyang Shuo didn't expect that he had unknowingly caused such a reaction, not knowing whether this was a bane or a boon.

After he went back home, it was already 9 PM and Bing'er still wasn't asleep. She was emotional the entire day and unable to get excited, only when she saw little aunt did she felt slightly happier. Ouyang Shuo knew that she was thinking about her parents.

After coaxing her to sleep, it was already 10 PM. After a simple wash up, Ouyang Shuo rushed to get online. Similarly, it was the Qingming festival in the game. Early in the morning, the Military Affairs Department had represented their lord and went to clean the graves of the soldiers in the cemetery.

At 3 PM in the afternoon, Qiushui Town’s mayor Zhao Dexian sent someone to report that when the medicine farmers were out grabbing herbs, one had found a wild tea plantation. Based on his description, the leaves had white marks, probably the famous white tea from Guangxi.

Ouyang Shuo was amazed. This white tea, when placed in modern society, was still very famous. This time, the basic building of the grade 3 town: tea plantation had been solved.

This kind of tea tree would naturally grow on top of high mountains and between clouds. He didn't think about moving them and ordered Zhao Dexian to personally bring some professional tea farmers to inspect. If it was really white tea, then they would directly build the tea plantation there.

Chapter 106 - Ambushed

On April 6th, Feng Qiuhuang had finally acquired an additional 500 gold through the Currency Exchange Platform. Without further delay, she immediately mailed it to Ouyang Shuo, along with a letter of gratitude.

Upon receiving the gold coins and the letter, Ouyang Shuo called over Yingyu and the hall manager of Four Seas Bank, Yang Yun. He kept 500 golds as the emergency funds while all of the other gold was handed to the Four Seas Bank.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Yingyu and said, "The Finance Department will use this fund for 2 things. One: Establish bank branches in the 3 subsidiary towns, Beihai, Qiushui, and Friendship, so as to provide low-interest loans to the town residents. Two: Support and provide better policies to the shops, workshops, and handicraft industries. Encourage them to expand the scales of their businesses, hence ultimately boosting the territory's economy.”

Yingyu nodded her head with a smile, "Rest assured, big brother, with this amount of funds, there will be no more restraints on the Finance Department anymore. There will be no need to hold back, and we can finally make something great this time. Actually a nearly perfected economic stimulus plan has long been completed, lead by the secretary of the Business Division, Elder Xu. However, due to the lack of necessary funds, the plan was held back indefinitely."

"Very well." Ouyang Shuo nodded approvingly, turned and looked at Yang Yun. "Your ability is indeed something I have confidence in. So now I will be adding an additional weight onto your responsibilities. Out of the three subsidiary territories, Beihai was the earliest of all, and in a short time, it will be upgraded to a grade 2 town. Hence, I intend to have you transferred to the Four Seas Bank branch in Beihai Town to take charge of it. So, are you confident about it?"

Yang Yun, upon receiving the news, was overjoyed and answered in excitement, "Thank you for having faith in me, I will not disappoint you, my lord!"

“Good, this is the confidence you will be needing." Ouyang Shuo praised her. After that he said to Yingyu, "As for the managers for Qiushui Town and Friendship Town's bank branches, I will leave that matter to you. You have full authority on appointing the managers."

"Rest assured, brother!" Yingyu was a lady of iron as usual.

……

For the next 10 days, the military was focused on training, while actively storming the raiders’ and bandits’ camps within the territory's borders to enhance the troops' battle experience.

After a few blood-soaked wars, the 8 captains class changed and rose to basic officers. As of now, the Shanhai military force's squadron captains were all official. All of them had the word "temporary" removed from their titles. From the resources they had plundered, Ouyang Shuo only took 1,500 gold and distributed the rest to the Material Reserves Department and the Finance Department.

After the two major raiding operations, the land within a 1000 square kilometers of land was deserted of living beings. Not a single raider, bandit, or any wild animal existed. No presence of any living activities could be seen, as they were all slaughtered in cold blood by the military. However, with the threats and targets fully exterminated, it had also indicated the end of the Spring Assault operation.

While the military was providing pleasant news, the government too was giving out good news. In a month's time, the territory had finally finished all of the infrastructure upgrades. The broad, wide road made of bluestone was paved throughout every street in town. The buildings were rebuilt using bluestone as the main support, and wore red coverings of roof tiles. Everything in and out, including the magnificent and mighty town square, was giving off one message: Shanhai Town's prosperity.

Now that the advanced shipyard was upgraded, they had started right away in building Meng Chong warships. Till now, there were already 2 Meng Chong warships delivered to the navy unit, and on average the shipyard could deliver 1 warship per week. A Meng Chong warship's unit capacity was a squadron of navy men. Therefore, 3 more warships were needed in order to meet the needs of the whole navy unit.

Other than that, his three subsidiary territories had also delivered good tidings. Beihai territory was now officially a grade 2 town, with a maximum population of 5,000 residents. For this, Ouyang Shuo had spent 1000 gold on the advanced port building blueprint, and had ordered the start of the Beihai Port project. As it was a massive construction project, even with Beihai Town going full thrust, it would still need at least a month's time.

A port was like a dock and a ferry terminal. They were all classified as special buildings. Basic port building blueprints were priced at 10 gold, hence the price of an advanced port would be 1,000 gold, or twice the price of an advanced shipyard.

For Qiushui Town to be upgraded to grade 2, it would need to take another half a month.

The good thing was that the wild white tea plantation in Nanfeng Mountain was transformed into a 5,000-acre tea plantation under the name of Qiushui Town. Between the end of March and early April were the times to harvest the white teas. Surely Zhao Dexian wouldn't let this opportunity slip away from his fingers. He had ordered the tea farmers to harvest them, and they had now already almost finished the harvests.

It wasn't a surprise at all when the white tea was recognized as a territory-special local product by the system. As Ouyang Shuo had left the tea plantation under Qiushui Town, any profits made by the sales of white tea through the grocery shop would naturally be accredited to Qiushui Town. This, in turn, would be able to stimulate and speed up Qiushui Town's economy.

Zhao Dexian proved himself to be a man of sense, as he had only secured the few white tea trees of the highest grade, labeling the teas as tribute teas. Tribute teas were the best of all; they were not available for sale and would only be specifically given as tribute to the manor, in particular, to Ouyang Shuo.

Switching to the latest affiliate town, Friendship Town, all necessary infrastructure was built. It was now focusing on building its moat, but due to the project being massive in size, there was still a long time before completion. As of now, Friendship Town was still unable to be self-sufficient, and constantly needed the main territory's support and funds.

……

On April 15th, Langshan Mining Field sent urgent news:

The Jifeng tribe has ambushed the mining site. It has destroyed a few facilities and engaged with the garrison team. The clash ended with a number of injured, and casualties of more than 40 people.

2 PM, Shanhai Town Chamber

Ouyang Shuo summoned the Military Affairs Department and the 3 majors, and an emergency meeting was held. He glanced around the chamber, solemnly saying, "I believe the news has reached all of you. Langshan mining field was hit. This is clearly a blunt provocation to Shanhai, and I, the lord, will make them pay for their actions with their blood."

"My lord, please give the orders. We will stab them right in their hearts and storm their tribal camps!" General Shi, the tempered general was the first to ask for a battle assignment.

"That's right, my lord! The city defense unit will act as the vanguard!" Zhao Sihu rose next.

Only Major Lin Yi said in a reluctant tone, "My lord, the cavalry unit will be your spear!"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and answered Lin Yi. "This time, the expedition would be close to the mountain and deep in the woods. The terrain is not favorable to the horse-mounted cavalry. Stay. Guard and protect the territory. The cavalry unit will be taking over the city defense unit's duty. We had been wiping out the raiders and bandits; the resentment between them and us can only be washed away with the last drop of blood, be it theirs or ours. I do not wish the territory to be plundered and seized by these scourges. Major Lin, a big responsibility lays upon you, please do not let your guard down."

"Yes, my lord!" Clearly, Lin Yi knew it would turn out like this, but he was just trying his luck to see if the cavalry could join the expedition.

Ouyang Shuo ignored the two war hawks, General Shi and Major Zhao. Instead, he turned to the Military Intelligence Division and said, "Did the Military Intelligence Division have any intelligence on Jifeng tribe?"

San Gouzi, oh… he now goes with the name of Song San. Song San stood up and answered. "Yes my lord, ever since they declined to cooperate with us, the Military Intelligence Division had started gathering information regarding the Jifeng tribe."

"Very well, we are all ears!" Ouyang Shuo praised the division for their performance.

Song San started his report. "Between the borders of Lianzhou and Lingnan were mostly mountain terrains, and barbaric tribes lived and spread across the area. They were divided into two, the northern tribes and southern tribes. Each was led by a leader tribe of 10,000 men. The ones we have met so far were all southern tribes.

"The southern tribes consisted of 40 tribes; they were slightly weaker than the northern tribes. The leader tribe was Tiangou tribe, followed by four 5,000-10,000 strong large tribes, ten 3,000-5,000 strong medium-sized tribes, and 25 less than 3,000 strong tribes. Therefore, as one of the 4 large tribes, it would be natural that Jifeng tribe was unwilling to listen to the Xuanniao tribe.

"Jifeng tribe has around 5,400 men, using "strong wind" as their tribe totem, and ‘Huan’ as their surname. Their leader is called Huan Tai. He became the tribe's chief not long ago, and his age is less than 30 years old. The tribe's combat force is the tribe hunters, numbering in the 800s. According to my speculation, they were the ones who hit the Langshan mining field."

Ouyang Shuo was really satisfied with the Military Intelligence Division, as they were able to see the bigger picture, and derived the reason behind the incident of the Langshan mining field. It was truly convincing.

"What is the geographical condition of the Jifeng tribe, and their tribe's defense system?" Ge Hongliang was naturally more concerned about these questions.

Song San nodded his head and said, "Jifeng tribe is located 20 kilometers east of Xuaniao tribe. The tribe's location is in a valley-like terrain. It has 3 walls of mountains, with only an entrance at the west side where Jifeng tribe has built a defensive wall. Hence, we will have to take it down in order to raid the tribe."

Ge Hongliang frowned instantly. Such a terrain, easy to defend and hard to attack, it really was troublesome. He wasn't ready to give up, and he asked again. "How high are the mountains? Can we grapple and climb over them?"

Song San shook his head, saying for sure, "It is impossible. Although they are not as high as ours, they are still five, six hundred meters tall. In addition, the mountains are filled with bushes and trees, so they are hard for one to travel across, let alone climb over them."

"In that case, we only have one choice left: a direct attack. As long as we take down the defensive wall, the tribe will be like turtles in jars, our play dolls." Ouyang Shuo opened his mouth suddenly.

Ge Hongliang nodded his head and asked, "My lord, the expedition, who will be involved in it?" Immediately, every major glanced anxiously at Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo did not disappoint them. He said aloud, "The expedition will be led by the infantry unit and the city defense unit, assisted by the Langshan garrison unit. Qiushui and Friendship Town’s garrison squads will stay put and protect the territories."

Shi Wanshui and Zhao Sihu were filled with immense excitement, while only Lin Yi was feeling lost.

Chapter 107 - Revenge (1/2)

As soon as the expedition army was chosen, Ouyang Shuo continued on arranging the logistics to ensure the operation goes on smoothly.

"Zhao Youfang!"

"Here!"

"It is hard to travel on the mountain roads and woods, hence prior to the expedition, the Combat Logistics Division will have to transport the logistics supply to Xuanniao tribe, we will be using it as a transfer station."

"Yes, my lord!"

"In addition, Combat Logistics Division will need to prepare war siege equipment. The war versus a defense wall is a formidable task, we must be fully prepared." Ouyang Shuo continued on.

"Understood, rest assured my lord!" Zhao Youfang was confident.

"Medications must also be taken care of. The mountain jungles are filled with snakes and insects, some of them venomous. Have a word with the hospital, and prepare the appropriate medications. It'd be best to talk to the chief shaman in Xuanniao tribe, he is an expert in this field." Ouyang Shuo really did arrange things in great detail.

After the logistics, Ouyang Shuo continued with his orders: "Song San!"

"Here!"

"The Military Intelligence Division needs to gather more information, including the road paths and its condition that we will be taking. This is the first time Shanhai will engage in a mountain jungle terrain, the intelligence must be done perfectly."

"Rest assured, my lord. Under the lead of Leng Qian, the M.I.D 1st team had ventured deep in the jungles for more intelligence.

"Very good. Zhao Sihu!"

"Here!"

"Are all your 5 squadrons fully-equipped?"

"My lord, the 2 archery squadrons had been fully-equipped from the plundered resources in the raids. But the 2 crossbow squadrons.... because crossbows were limited weapons in nature, even if we had tried our best searching in addition to the crossbows crafted from the Bow and Crossbow Division, we could only fully-equip one squadron.” Zhao Sihu said in great embarrassment.

Ouyang Shuo frowned, shook his head and said: "How will you go to war without weapons."

Zhao Sihu was flustered, he was afraid that Ouyang Shuo would leave the city defense unit behind, he quickly said: "My lord, I suggest we temporarily arm the other crossbow squadron with bows and arrows, so we can still go to war."

Ouyang Shuo stared at him, and scolded him: "Nonsense! You think war is a game? These troops had not received any archery training, even if you gave them bows, it would be useless metals in their hands. Plus, crossbows have a longer reload rate than bows, we need at least two squadrons in order to rain arrow barrages over the enemies."

Zhao Sihu, when stared at by Ouyang Shuo, turned immediately from a fierce tiger to a timid cat, his voice lowered and said: "Then what should we do?"

Fortunately, Ge Hongliang stood up and saved his ass, he said: "Sire, I have a suggestion."

"Please say it!"

"According to my understanding, the cavalry 1st squadron was initially a crossbow cavalry, which means that they have been equipped with crossbows. Therefore, my suggestion is, the cavalry 1st squadron can lend the city defense their crossbow," said Ge Hongliang.

"Good, we will do it that way." Ouyang Shuo upon hearing the suggestion approved in excitement.

After Ouyang Shuo finished the orders, Ge Hongliang continued, adding on: "Sire, while the two divisions are preparing for the war, the infantry unit and city defense unit should not stand by like sitting ducks. I suggest that the two squadrons move into Qiushui Town, start training and prepare themselves for the woods."

Ouyang Shuo nodded in agreement, said: "This is a very good suggestion, but let's not forget about the Langshan Mining Field garrison unit. The infantry unit and city defense unit will move into the mining site, they will train and coordinate together with the garrison unit."

Speaking of Langshan garrison unit, it reminded Ouyang Shuo of one thing, he turned and said to Zhao Youfang: "Prepare a batch of equipment for the Langshan garrison unit, it is time to upgrade and change theirs."

"Yes!"

'Alright, let's go and get prepared!" Ouyang Shuo put an end to the meeting.

"Understood!"

……

April 20, Xunniao tribe main gate, the infantry unit, city defense unit and Langshan garrison unit had gathered all together.

The expedition will be led by Ouyang Shuo himself, along with Ge Hongliang as his strategist.

"Soldiers, five days ago, out of nowhere, the Jifeng tribe hit the Langshan Mining Field, brought pain and suffering to our people. This is a declaration of war! Shanhai Town has zero tolerance over these provocations, an eye for an eye, and we will wash away the pain they brought with their blood!" Ouyang Shuo shouted to the soldiers.

"An eye for an eye! They pay with their blood!" The soldiers shouted in unison.

"Depart!"

The mighty force marched towards the valley where the Jifeng tribe was located, the Infantry unit as vanguard, city defense unit in the middle and Langshan garrison unit at the back. At the end of the expedition force were the logistics, mainly formed by the tribes.

At 4 PM, the expedition team stood 3km away from the Jifeng tribe defense wall. Under General Shi's command, they stopped and set up their camps. They will have a good rest for a night and at first light tomorrow, they will strike.

At the main tent, Ouyang Shuo gathered the three majors and the Military Intelligence Division for a pre-war military meeting.

"Leng Qian, what are the conditions of the Jifeng tribe, have they been alerted to our existence?" the first thing Ouyang Shuo asked was the Military Intelligence Division.

"My lord, the Jifeng tribe was at usual, nothing alerting was going on."

"Oh? How could it be, they hit our Langshan mining filed, aren't they worried about our revenge? Seems like they were not preparing themselves at all, is this some sort of tricks?" Ouyang Shuo questioned in unbelief.

Quickly Leng Qian explained: "My lord, it is a norm for the tribes to ambush one another for hunting spaces. As the only largest tribe in this area, Jifeng tribe claims themselves as the king. They were not pleased with the Xuanniao tribe's actions and therefore it is only natural for them to teach the Xuanniao tribe a lesson. Moreover, due to their arrogance, they had rejected the elder shaman's invitation, not having the chance to witness the strength of our military forces. They were blind and that is why they could still keep their peace in mind."

Langshan garrison unit Major Shi Lang confirmed the statement, "Yes, matters like these, the small-middle tribes dare not speak and could only choke on our own fury. This is also why when sire decided to strike Jifeng tribe, we, the small-middle tribes supported so much."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, smiled and said: "Very good, it seems like that even fate decided to stand by our side. I give my words, strengthen the patrols tonight, do not let your guards down, and tomorrow, we will take down the Jifeng tribe once and for all."

The next day, the military had their meals and marched towards the Jifeng tribe.

Watching the Jifeng tribe's defense wall before his eyes, Ouyang Shuo pondered deeply. The wall, 30 meters wide, 6 meters tall, stretched from one end of the valley entrance to the other, the structures were made of large stone rocks, giving it a mighty look. Right in the middle of the wall, stood a 4 meter wide wooden gate, while on the top of the wall were battlements designed for archers to shoot and take cover.

Ouyang Shuo turned and looked at Ge Hongliang who was standing beside him and asked: "Director Ge, what thoughts do you have?"

"With such a defensive system, we could still take it down with the help of scaling ladders, but the casualties would be heavy in numbers. I had carefully observed the defense wall and found out something interesting, the gate they had was not a drawbridge but merely a standing wooden door. My suggestion is, we will focus our main target on the wooden door." Ge Hongliang answered.

Ouyang Shuo nodded in agreement, "You are right, these are all we've got, we've got little to sacrifice. However, it is not an easy task to break through the wooden gate. As soon as we make an appearance, they will be alerted immediately and reinforcements would come. Moreover, they have the geographical advantage, it will be hard for us to reach the gate, there will still be many casualties."

Ge Hongliang said in great confidence: "Sire need not worry much. According to the Military Intelligence Division's reports, the Jifeng tribesmen use simple wooden bows like every other tribe. These wooden bows were mainly for hunting purposes with a shooting range of less than 120-meters. In comparison, our basic composite bows with light arrows can shoot up to 200-meters in range, far further than theirs. In addition, our crossbows have a greater shooting range of 300-meters."

"Therefore, As long as we stand 150-meters from the defense wall, out of their 120-meters bow range, we can totally suppress the tribesmen behind the wall with our crossbows. Then, our shielded infantry can proceed with minimum damage to the wooden gate, breach the gate with large wooden rams."

"Very good, This is a nice strategy!" Ouyang Shuo clapped his hand upon hearing the well-planned strategy.

As they had decided their strategy plan, the war machine immediately operated with full throttle. The first to initiate was the city defense unit, they went front until 150-meters away from the wall. The first line of defense stood a row of experienced rank 4 veterans shield-sword infantry squadron, their task was to form a wall like an unbreakable shield and protect their fellow war archers.

The second and third row were the two squadrons of bow archers, formed by the native tribesmen, Zhao Sihu had chosen the best out of the best, with the composite bows in their hands, they were nearly unstoppable. The last two rows were the Shanhai crossbow squadron. A crossbow was easy for one to grasp in nature, an ordinary man could use a crossbow with only 3-to-4 days of training, yet a crossbow could deal a great damage to anyone who dares to oppose it.

The infantry unit was in the west wing of the city defense unit, they would be playing the main role of attacking the wooden gate. The best 500 warriors from the native tribes, although not fully-equipped with Tang swords and Buren armor, but they were strong and should never be underestimated and wereed by the fearsome, dreadful, mighty General Shi and 5 skillful captains.

Whereas the east wing was taken by the Langshan garrison unit. Initially, Shi Lang had strongly requested to take on the main role of attacking the wooden gate, but Ouyang Shuo had declined his request after some considerations. Ouyang Shuo was worried, the Langshan garrison unit had not been through a blood-bathed war, it was not the time to trust them with such a big role yet.

Chapter 108 - Revenge (2/2)

When the Shanhai military appeared outside of the defense wall, the tribe sentries almost dropped their jaws. Fortunately, they were well-trained, and immediately blew the horn of war.

The penetrating high-pitched sound filled the whole valley, causing waves of commotions. The Jifeng tribesmen walked out of their houses in fear, trying to find out what was happening.

Huan Tai, chief of Jifeng tribe, had just gotten down from his bed when the sentry rushed into his tent. His stentorian, loud sound could be heard clearly. “Who blew the war horn?”

“War chief, a large army force appeared outside the defensive wall.” The sentry was panicking.

“Army? Which tribe do they belong to? How many men are there?” Huan Tai’s heart skipping a beat, he quickly asked.

“Their flags and banners weren’t from any of the tribes. I have never seen them before. I had a look and there were roughly 1000 men, fully-equipped. They look more like military soldiers than tribe hunters.”

“Military soldiers? Crap, could it be the Shanhai military?” Huan Tai was sensible, realizing the invader’s identity. He responded immediately and shouted, “Gather the tribe hunters, I want every man on the defensive wall, God dammit!”

“Yes!”

Jifeng tribe hunters consisted of 800 men, while 200 were stationed patrols on the wall, and the other 600 stayed in their warm houses. They all gathered together only when the hunt was on. Therefore, it would take more than a simple effort to gather all of them in such a short period of time. Huan Tai started to gather the hunters while comforting his tribesmen at the same time.

When the gathered men hit 400 in number, Huan Tai could wait no longer. He was worried that the defensive wall could not fend off the Shanhai military. He could not sit by and watch, doing nothing. He led the 400 hunters, and headed towards the defensive wall, leaving behind his trusted right-hand man, Huan An, who was waiting for the rest of the hunters.

……

At the defensive wall, Shanhai was the first to initiate. Taking advantage of their long-range shooting capability, the city defense unit fired volley after volley of arrows, suppressing the hunters behind the battlements. The Jifeng tribe hunters were powerless against the arrow barrage, as they were limited by the shorter shooting range of their wooden bows. Their arrows could not even reach the shield-sword infantry, and the feeling of powerlessness soured their hearts.

After suppressing the Jifeng hunters, Ouyang Shuo ordered the infantry unit to sally towards the main gate. Packs of soldiers carried strong large wood on their shoulders, lifted shields in the air, and rushed towards the defensive wall.

Only at this point of time did the tribe hunters become aware of Ouyang Shuo’s intention. Watching the infantry unit coming closer to the defense wall, they had no choice but to endure the rain of arrows and return fire.

Honestly speaking, the hunters weren’t really unable to parry the attacks. After all, they were the ones with the geographical advantage. As soon as any infantry came close to the wall, they would rise and return fire, fearless and fearsome, rocks and wood rolling and falling down the defensive wall, pushing back the infantry unit again and again.

Finally, Huan Tai came with his reinforcements. His arrival inspired confidence, and quickly the morale within the hunters stabilized. They started to form formations and fiercely defended the wall, fully utilizing their stones and wood with their geographical advantage.

Watching as the defensive wall stood stronger than before, a frown found its way onto Ouyang Shuo's face. He turned to Ge Hongliang and said, "If it continues on like this, the city defense unit is not going to hold it together anymore. Relay my words, order the infantry unit to push forwards. Take down the wooden gate at all costs!" While he was talking to Ge Hongliang, the second half of the sentence was actually directed to the orderly.

"Yes!" the orderly turned and passed on the orders.

Upon receiving the new order, General Shi's face turned ferocious, he shouted out loud, "Brothers, Our lord is watching us! As the main force, we still haven’t yet taken down that damn gate, this is a disgrace to the infantry unit! The brats of the Langshan garrison unit were asking sire to replace us with them! Can you allow it to happen!?"

"No no no!" The soldiers were furious and answered loudly.

"Then what do we do?" General Shi's voice could be heard loud and clear all over the unit.

"Take it down and defend our name!" The soldiers were riled up.

"Good, this is the determination I need. By my orders, we move and strike! If the gate still stands high, then I, Shi Wanshui, would rather die than face sire!" Shi Wanshui shouted.

"Attack!"

Shi Wanshui personally acted as the spearhead, and his act inspired the other soldiers.

Then infantry unit carried the wood, lifted the shields, and formed a layer of tight protection in formation. They charged in the rain of arrows without fear of death, and rushed towards the wooden gate.

30 minutes later, under the fearless assault of the infantry unit, the wooden gate finally fell. Without the slightest delay, Ouyang Shuo ordered the east wing Langshan garrison unit forwards, and sallied into the valley. During this, the city defense unit kept in formation and slowly marched forwards.

As the gate had fallen, the whole defensive wall was at its end. Infantry unit soldiers restlessly rushed to the defensive wall, bravely fighting the hunters on it.

The tardy Langshan garrison unit took over the task of defending the gate. Coincidently, they had met with the reinforcements led by Huan An. As the two enemies met, Shi Lang’s eyes turned blood-red and he shouted, “Kill them all!” Upon finishing the sentence he charged in front and engaged the hunters in a battle of close-combat.

Needless to say, with 500 fully-equipped warriors of Langshan against 200 tribe hunters with simple weapons, the war quickly turned one-sided. Knowing their defeat was inevitable, Huan An led the tribe hunters and surrendered.

On the defensive wall, the Jifeng hunters were pushed back and cornered by the infantry unit. Hunters were in the end, hunters, how could they match up to an official military force? Huan Tai led his men defending against the attacks and shouted, “Are you the Shanhai military? Why did you attack us without any reasons?”

Shi Wanshui grinned while his spear sent a hunter to his death. He laughed and answered, “Haha, how funny, you attacked our Langshan mining field and now pretend nothing happened?

Today, I will crush your tribe into crumbs!”

Right at this moment, Ouyang Shuo came up to the wall and heard the conversation. He immediately shouted, “Huan Tai, have all your men surrender and all of you will be spared!”

“Hmph, we Jifeng are no cowards. We’d rather die than surrender!” Huan Tai relentlessly said.

“Oh really? Very well, you hunters are no cowards, but how about your families?” Ouyang Shuo said in an unconvincing bantering manner.

His words caused a wave of commotion within the hunters. Their families would be left defenseless against Shanhai if they were to die here.

“You… shameless!” seeing that Ouyang Shuo’s simple sentence destroyed the morale of his hunters, Huan Tai shouted in anger.

“A wise man submits to fate, Huan Tai, I will not repeat again, surrender and you will be spared. Otherwise, don’t blame me for being ruthless.” Ouyang Shuo gave his offer again while holding a cold face.

“Sigh!” Huan Tai gave a long sigh, and with no choice, he threw his weapons away.

After the hunters were disarmed, Ouyang Shuo ordered the infantry unit to hold the captives, ordered the Langshan garrison unit to move into the valley, and gathered the other tribesmen.

……

Jifeng tribe council chamber

“Director Ge, what are the number of the injured and casualties?” Ouyang Shuo was concerned about his troops.

“My lord, the numbers were 20 death, 35 seriously injured, and 60 with slight injuries.”

Ouyang Shuo’s face turned black, and solemnly said, “We still suffered a great loss! The Military Affairs Department has to handle the deaths properly. Arrange for the seriously injured soldiers’ basic welfare and livelihood for after retirement. At the same time, start looking for more recruits, I think it is time to consider the establishment of an army reserves unit.”

“Understood!”

“This war gave us nothing in return. Jifeng was poor like refugees. We are at a deficit.” Ouyang Shuo said in great pain.

“At least we have built our prestige in this piece of land. From the way I see it, the moment the news of this war spreads out to the land, the other small-medium tribes will start approaching us, seeking alliances.” Ge Hongliang said reassuringly.

“Well, guess I can only think of it this way.”

“Sire, what are your plans for the Jifeng tribe?” Ge Hongliang asked.

“Take them back to the territory. Bring those we can. Those we can’t bring will be left here.” Ouyang Shuo said helplessly. He had no other better ways. He had suffured such a great loss, so it was purely impossible for him to let the tribe walk away freely. He could only bring them back to his territory.

However, he saw that Ge Hongliang was frowning in response to his solution, so he smiled and said, “Feel free to speak up!”

“Yes, my lord. I have taken a good look at this valley, and the valley covers a great area of land. The land Jifeng had taken up was like a drop of water from the jar compared to the whole valley. The valley is filled with water plants. What’s more interesting is that there is a lake. There is also a fertile grassland suitable for pasturage. Therefore, my suggestion is, we can definitely turn this valley into our own pasture. My lord is well aware that Friendship Town is still building its basic infrastructure. Even if it had been completed, to build a pasture outside of the town, we will still have to face great threats from the nomadic tribes. In comparison, this valley is unenlightened, so we will only require a squadron of the garrison team on the defensive wall and we can be at ease.” Ge Hongliang said.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head in agreement and said, “Your suggestion is very good. However, the valley is too far away from the territory. In addition, to travel through the mountain jungle pathways will not be that easy!”

“My lord, as long as we can smoothly establish a military pasture, have some men and resources, and pave a road from Xuanniao tribe to the valley, the results will still be worth it!” Ge Hongliang continued to persuade Ouyang Shuo.

“Alright, we will do as you planned!” Ouyang Shuo had finally made his decision and continued, “The Military Affairs Division must have good communication with the Transportation Division and make preparatory arrangements. After we return to the territory, perhaps it is time to make contact with the nomadic tribes. It is not good to delay further anymore.”

“Understood!”

Chapter 109 - Winding up

23th of April

The expeditionary army escorted nearly 5000 prisoners detained in the battle and returned to Shanhai Town.

There was a small incident while returning from the Jifeng tribal valley; the great shaman of the tribe committed suicide in the temple upon learning the tribe had fallen under the siege.

The news about the great shaman’s suicide spread quickly among the tribe and caused quite some stirs. Seeing sparks of rebellion among the tribe people, Ouyang Shuo decided to stay at the valley for one more day for the purpose of calming the tribe people and the affection towards the other tribes around the valley. They held a funeral for the great shaman and their action greatly lifted the Jifeng tribe people’s hatred towards Shanhai Town.

As expected by Ge Hongliang, after the news that the Jifeng tribe had fallen to Shanhai Town, within a day, the surrounding tribes, including two medium scale and six small scale tribes, quickly sent their emissaries to the Xuanniao tribe’s great shaman to be the middlemen between them and Shanhai Town. This was also to express their good will towards Shanhai Town.

With the fall of the Jifeng tribe, the Xuanniao tribe replaced the position of Jifeng tribe in a indiscernible way, becoming the regional head. This caused the tribal leader, Shi Xiong, to be very proud, and he admired the great shaman’s decision on that day. Seeing that Shi Xiong was a little bit carried away, the great shaman had no choice but to step in. The shaman warned him that the only reason that the Xuanniao tribe was the way it was right now was solely because of Shanhai Town, so he shouldn’t get carried away and take the other tribes around the valley lightly as it may cause these tribes to rebel against Shanhai Town.

Under the reminder of his shaman, Shi Xiong managed to wake up from his own imagination. In order to express their gratitude to Shanhai Town, they sent another two pairs of hummingbirds to show their respect towards Shanhai Town. As for Ouyang Shuo, he was clearly satisfied with the actions of Shi Xiong. Those hummingbirds were sent to the Military Intelligence Division. He also told Song San to try his best to learn the secret technique of the Xuanniao tribe on how to breed and expand the numbers of the hummingbird. This was because these little things were extremely useful, as they could help in gathering information, delivering messages and the value of these tiny creatures could easily be summed up to that of an entire battalion if used properly.

The remaining 600 hunters were all disarmed and were sent to the mining field to mine for two years after returning to Shanhai Town. They would be granted the identities of residents of Shanhai Town at the end of their services after 2 years. With these 600 people, the amount of miners increased up to 1000 people, meeting the requirement to advance into an advanced mining field. With the Armory Division and Weaponry Division starting to produce armors and weapons, the demand of iron increased drastically, and these 600 captives came in handy to raise the mining speed.

The hands of these 600 people were covered with the blood of Shanhai Town’s army. As punishment, Ouyang Shuo had sent them to the mining site to mine to eliminate their hostility and physical strength. He specifically ordered the person in charge of the mining excavation site to only give them three meals a day, an amount that was only enough for them to not starve. However, their most basic human rights or so were maintained as they weren’t allowed to be punished by the wardens without a reason or theyd be punished heavily.

Although Ge Hongliang also suggested to pick out some of them and recruit them into the infantry unit or city defense unit, Ouyang Shuo did not approve his idea and turned him down. Since there were the new tribes that were inclined towards Shanhai, he did not have to worry that there were no high quality candidates to recruit into the army ranks. There were still some unstable elements in recruiting the hunting members.

The remaining 4000 people were arranged and sent to the Northern Salt Pans to begin the last phase of the saltern construction. Upon completion of the Northern Salt Pans, it’d reach the maximum limit of 1000 acres. With the increase of these 4000 people, Beihai Town was pushed to the size of a grade 3 town and was ready to advance its level once the other infrastructure constructions were completed.

Ouyang Shuo also thought about keeping these 4000 people in Shanhai Town in order to reach the population number of 10,000 to advance into a city, but this was not an easy task. First of all, the politics, economy, culture and military points for the town must meet a requirement of 45 points each, but Shanhai Town had already met this requirement.

The crucial point was that to advance into a city, the town lord must hand in an application to the game system in advance. Upon meeting all requirements, the system would automatically generate a huge wave of bandits to siege the territory. Only upon successfully defending the territory would the town successfully advance to the next level.

Moreover, this application to the game system was limited to a number of times. Failure in defending the territory would lead to a cool down of half a month. Should a player apply 3 times and fail 3 times, the territory would lose its qualification of promotion permanently. Thus, one must think twice and be fully prepared before submitting an application.

However, Ouyang Shuo killed his thought of advancing Shanhai Town in such a short time. He cleared his mind, as he was never a person who acted frivolously.

After returning to his territory, Ouyang Shuo immediately gathered the Construction Division and the Transportation Division to deploy the construction of the stables in the valley. The Construction Division was not only responsible to build and service the path road linking the Xuanniao tribe to Jifeng tribe. They were also required to follow the request of the Transportation Division to modify some structures that had been previously built in the valley. The unnecessary ones were to be demolished and the drawbridge of the fortress had to be redesigned and built into one with enhanced defensive capabilities.

Ouyang Shuo ordered Zhao Dewang to make full use of the tribal people’s manpower. All he had to do was just provide them food, and these tribal people would be more than happy to work. Ouyang Shuo believed that once they got a taste of the sweet life over here, the other tribes would eventually lower their guard and cooperate with Shanhai Town sincerely.

The army rested and prepared for another three days, and after that, Ouyang Shuo began to reorganize all the battalions. The city defense unit alone will be occupying the entire advanced military camp in the city, officially taking over the responsibility for city defense. Another advanced military camp was built somewhere twenty miles away in the west by the Construction Division and handed over to the infantry unit, being named as the City West Camp, located somewhere between the border of the territory and the main base, responsible for safeguarding the western region of the territory. The responsibility was heavy because there were a lot of main properties; industrial areas outside the city, mining field, factories and settlements everywhere, saturated in the western region.

The cavalry unit was instead officially moved to Friendship Town. In the north of the town, an advanced military camp was built for the cavalries, named City North Camp. The camp was like a nail struck deep in the great prairie, safeguarding and monitoring the nomadic tribes.

Before the cavalries departed, Ouyang Shuo summoned Lin Yi to his office and had a secret discussion for the entire afternoon with the presence of Ge Hongliang. Whatever that was discussed was not known by any other people except the trio.

On the eve of the 1st of May, Shanhai Town welcomed several happy events.

Through the recruitment hall, an advanced priest, Ge Yan, was recruited. He is said to be one of the descendants of the Ge Hong bloodline from the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The priest was not only a master in Taoist classics, he was also a master apothecary, proficient in making pills. One could really see some traits of the Ge Hong The Great Priest in Ge Yan’s actions.

Ge Hong did not choose to have the Taoist temple built in the city, but he chose to have it built on top of a hill somewhere at the west of the city after travelling around the entire territory for more than 3 days. The scene around the hill was indeed beautiful, making it a great place. Feng Shui had always been mysterious, Ouyang Shuo did not stop him for this reason and he deeply believed that Ge Yan choosing that location had his own reason and consideration since he was someone who is good with Feng Shui.

Taoist temple belonged under the category of cultural structures, it came with the advantage in promoting the culture of the territory. Thus, Ouyang Shuo did not hope to gain income from the temple. He also ordered the Construction Division to follow the demands of Ge Yan in the construction of the temple. Upon completion, under the stats of Ge Yan and the unique characteristics of the temple, the cultural index of the entire territory was increased by 5 points.

The temple was then named Qing Yang Temple by Ge Yan and he took in 2 miscellaneous servants and 4 orphans as apprentices.

The other two structures in the grade 3 town, the pawnshop and the inn, was also completed by now. However, these two structures were not able to operate properly now. With the presence of the Four Seas Bank providing low-interest loans and the conditions of Shanhai Town, the pawnshop is more for display only and the residents were basically refugees from other places and they have yet able to save up much money or any valuable items. Therefore, the Finance Department only hired one shop keeper just to look after the pawnshop.

The same goes for the inn. Shanhai Town was currently a closed territory and there’s barely any outsider. Naturally the inn had no guest at all, therefore, there’s no one who was willing to take over the inn and with no choices left, the inn could only be temporarily managed by the Finance Department.

The jewelry shop too, caught Ouyang Shuo off guard with zero business. Upon knowing this, Ouyang Shuo specifically went to understand the situation. The truth however, had left him confused about whether to laugh or to cry.

The reason was not because there’s a shortage of goldsmiths or silversmiths, the problem was that these craftsmen had the skills needed but not the capital. Jewelries in the ancient era were generally made of gold, silver, and copper, and required materials with relatively higher purity. With the conditions of Shanhai Town, none was able to provide the required materials.

Ouyang Shuo deliberately decided that the government will take over the business of the jewelry shops and the profits will be used for the government’s daily expenses. He immediately put in 100 gold coins and turned them into high purity gold, silver and copper ingots through the magical function of the item storage bag.

With the government taking over the jewelry shop now, Ouyang Shuo had to elect a shop keeper to maintain the shop. Under the recommendation of Yingyu, he selected her maid, Si Qin to be responsible for the shop. Si Qin had been following Yingyu for quite some time so she had also learnt a considerable amount of business knowledge too. Therefore, Ouyang Shuo believed that she was capable and handed over the shop to her.

Another good news was about the silkworms. After nearly two months of cultivation, the silkworm breeding had finally began to enter the right track. As expected, the first badge of silks produced by the silkworms were recognized as the territory special local product by the system. It can be sold through the grocery shops. With the addition of these silkworms, Shanhai Town had now acquired three types of unique local products, which were the Three Flower Wine, White Tea and Rainbow silk.

As rare items were naturally expensive, the price of Rainbow Silk had reached a whopping ten gold coins, becoming the third goose that lay golden eggs of the town. Upon learning the news, Ouyang Shuo immediately demanded the expansion of the silkworm breeding field. The Finance Department then immediately loaned out two hundred gold coins with low interest rate for the upgrade of the entire textile industry chain. Under this process, the textile association was beginning to generate more and more profits for the town.

Chapter 110 - Collecting Earnings

Chapter 110: Collecting Earnings

4th month 30th day

It was once again the time to sell sea salt. Northern Salt Fields had made a monthly profit of 3600 gold.

In the other business pillar of the territory, the Langshan mine fields, the monthly profits reached 8500 gold due to the number of miners increasing to 5000, exceeding Northern Saltworks’ by a large margin and becoming the largest industry in the territory.

With this added with the 900 gold he had on hand, now Ouyang Shuo had 13000 gold. This sum looked enormous, but deducting the daily expenses, the funds that could be used weren’t that much.

Ouyang Shuo took out 5000 gold and passed it to the Finance Department to use as the financial expenditure of the territory.

Firstly was the military expenditure. As the military expanded, the costs would increase. Just the military costs was already a huge amount.

Ever since the territory became financially independent, Ouyang Shuo increased a soldier’s monthly pay by 10 times. A rank 1 soldier would earn 10 silver a month, a 9th rank 90 silver, a sergeant one gold, a captain 5 gold, and a major would get 20 gold a month.

With the cavalry unit as an example, the average rank of a soldier was 4 and the cost of the basic soldier was 180 gold, adding in the 50 sergeants, 5 captains and one major, the unit cost 275 gold. 4 units cost 1100 gold. Further adding in the food, weapons, and equipment costs, the military cost around 1400 gold.

Secondly would be the government expenditure. As all the Departments and Divisions were filled up, the costs were very high too. A basic white collar worker was paid 1 gold, secretary 10 gold, director 25 gold. Adding the cost of ink, paper, and overhead costs, the monthly expenditure was around 500 gold.

There was also public expenditure. To raise up funds for the system auction, finish the city walls, city protection river, city rebuilding, Friendship Town’s city walls and road works, not forgetting the pay of the construction workers, which was 100 coppers, it cost 1000 gold.

But as these works were a 1 time off thing, they weren’t a part of monthly expenses.

Apart from those, as the scales of the logging camp, mine, quarries, Armory Division, Bow and Crossbow Division, weapon workshop and other military related industries, the brick kiln, pottery workshop, shipyard, and other territory businesses increased, the monthly cost had exceeded 1500 gold.

Especially military businesses like the Armory Division. Hiring all the special talents, their salaries were definitely high. An apprentice earned 30 silver a month, basic talents 1 gold, intermediate talents 5 gold, and advanced talents earned 10 gold a month.

Lastly, there was also one big point, which was the welfare package. Every person that entered the town would be given a package that cost around 15 silver. Every day, the main camp was getting 75 new people, which added up to 340 gold a month, adding the other 3 towns, this was close to 1000.

The above few were the 5 main outputs and didn’t include education, public sanitation, and other outputs. The 4th month’s income was only 1000 gold, without the salt pans and the mine, the Financial Department would not be able to handle this.

Ever since privatization happened in the February, most of these outputs were invisible and not seen.

In the March, these financial problems started to show up, only because Ouyang Shuo was busy with the auction did he cover them up.

Now in the April, the financial situation finally turned for the better, not having such a high deficit. Only then could Ouyang Shuo use the profits to cover for the negatives in the previous two months.

One could say that only in the April was privatization finally completed. For the past two months, there were many plans that had not begun or started. Only with the saltpans and the mine helping out the financial situation was Ouyang Shuo able to succeed with privatization.

Now the salary of workers in Shanhai Town had reached near to that of King city. While other territories were struggling for food, Shanhai Town had started privatisation. And when 80% of the populations were struggling to keep warm, people in Shanhai Town were no worse off than people in King City.

The reason why Ouyang Shuo did this wasn’t only to make his people rich and thus his territory would become richer. The deeper motive was to make use of their advantage to raise the spending of the residents, causing the economy to boom. As long as they had money, they would be willing to spend more on food, clothing, beer, and jewelery.

All of this was related to one another. He’d put in a huge investment with the hope of getting returns in the near future. Only by making the cake bigger could he raise the tax revenue. His real motive was to be able to sustain the territory purely on taxes without businesses and industries like the Northern Saltworks and Langshan mining field.

No matter what, the golden goose would one day die off. The mine would have a day when it was empty and the saltpans would have a day when its income would be too little. One must always think for the future, and Ouyang Shuo didn’t want to be a lord that only cared about short-term monetary gains.

After giving the money to the Financial Department, he still had 8000 gold on hand. He was obviously not going to let this money sit around.

Ouyang Shuo went to the Intermediate Market and spent 200 gold for advanced market blueprints, ready to upgrade it and start trade routes and businesses. Only with the trade platform could Shanhai Town start trading with allies.

Ouyang Shuo opened a special tab and searched for secret manuals. Apart from the 3000 gold for reserves, with the remaining 4800 gold he wanted to gather secret manuals.

There were very few king rank and above secret manuals, and they didn’t separate between real or fake. An average copper secret manual was 50 silver, black steel was 2 gold, silver was 10 gold, and black gold was 50 gold. The manual he had given to Song Jia was a gold level authentic secret manual.

As for secret manuals above gold rank, they were very rare. They would occasionally appear, but emperor rank secret manuals did not. As for god level and saint level ones, they wouldn’t appear on the market.

Ouyang Shuo obviously only gathered the authentic and good secret manuals. Unexpectedly, he bumped into an emperor-level spear secret manual <Yang Family Spear Technique>. Its selling price was 1000 gold.

Ouyang Shuo bought it without hesitating, and took a look at its stats.

Name: <Yang Family Spear Technique> (Emperor rank)

Routines: Dahua spear/Flower War spear/17 spear/Military War spear/Lihua Bamu spear/Xiaohua spear

Stances: Whitesnake spit letter/Swallow steals nest/Green dragon lands/Dragon shows its tail/Eel escapes from hook/Exploring the ocean/Lion dives on deer/Kid hugs heart/Cloud piercing flame/ Dragon goes into the hole/Wolf claws at the heart/ Cow sows field/ etc.

Ultimate: Throat Killing Spear, Huima Spear

Evaluation: Yang family spear, Full name: Yang Family Lihua Spear, passed down from Nansong army general Liquan’s wife Yang Miaozhen. The spear technique is heroic, Both front and back is firm, Attacks like needle, and Returns like thread. The speed will make people unable to keep up. The throat lock spear is something ghosts cannot block. The Huima spear is something gods and deities find hard to defend against.

The <Yang Family Spear Technique> was regarded as the best spear technique, as it had many stances. Ming Dynasty Qin Jiguang pointed out in his book that the spear changes so much based on the situation that no one can adapt to it’. Getting this secret manual meant that Ouyang Shuo finally had his main spear cultivation method.

An emperor-rank secret manual was so hard to get in his last life, and there were not many god-rank secret manuals. As for saint-rank ones, those were of legends and no one had seen them.

To master an authentic emperor-rank secret manual was very difficult. Ancient spear practitioners started at a young age, and only after blood, sweat, and tears, along with help from masters, could they master it. Players only used the technology to train in it. If they did not spend 4 months training their basic spearmanship, they probably wouldn’t even understand the secret manual.

Apart from this emperor-rank secret manual, Ouyang Shuo did not meet another suitable secret manual. He did not find even a king-level one.

As he had no choice, Ouyang Shuo spent the remaining 3800 gold on 76 authentic gold-rank secret manuals, practically sweeping everything from the market.

Chapter 111 - Saying Goodbye

In the blink of an eye, it was going to be the long holidays. After dealing with the territory, Ouyang Shuo started to plan for the holidays.

After thinking, Ouyang Shuo decided not to log into the game during the holidays and focus on bringing Bing'er out to play.

Ouyang Shuo had his reasons why he landed with such a decision.

Firstly, in the game, Shanhai Town had already developed well. Politics, finance, culture and military, these four pillars all needed time to solidify and wouldn't need to be touched in the near future. Even if he wasn't in the territory, with Fan Zhongyan , General Shi and the other leaders, nothing chaotic will happen.

Secondly, in real life, there was only 6 months till they say goodbye to the earth. As someone who was born and bred here, this goodbye was forever. Ouyang Shuo wanted to take this long holiday as sort of a goodbye trip from earth.

After making his decision, Ouyang Shuo started preparing for the trip.

In the meeting room of the Lord's Manor, Ouyang Shuo called the 4 directors for a meeting. He looked around and said, "I called you here to announce something."

"Is it a good news or bad news?" Yingyu asked jokingly.

"Neither." Ouyang Shuo shook his head and said, "From tomorrow onwards, I'll be locking myself up for 5 days. When I'm not here, for Shanhai Town’s matters, I'll depend on you four."

Normally when players weren't online, they were training and locking themselves up, hence this was not surprising, thus they needn't think of a reason to explain to the NPCs.

"Before I leave, I have something to explain to all of you."

"Sire please tell!"

"Firstly, the Military Affairs Department and cavalry unit, you can try to contact the nomadic tribes. The 2 small tribes on the east and west we can try to crush them. The medium sized one in the middle we can have a cooperation with them. If it's possible, get a batch of Qingfu horses as soon as possible and grow them in the Jifeng Valley." Ouyang Shuo looked at Ge Hongliang and Lin Yi.

"Sire don't worry, the Military Affairs Department's main focus has been the building of the stables at Jifeng Valley. As for how to obtain Qingfu horses, we already have an idea. For the specifics, we still need the Military Intelligence Division to find out more information." Zhu Hongliang replied.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head, "Good, then I can't wait for the outcome."

He turned around and looked at Pei Donglai who rushed back from Beihai Town and said, "General Pei, for the navy unit, the Meng Chong battleships have already been built and can be sent out to the ocean. You must scout and find out about the waters nearby if there are any islands. We must also be careful of pirates. Although it's very peaceful now, I don't believe that there aren't any pirates in this region."

"Yes sire, don't worry. This general just wanted to bring the small boys of the navy unit out for a little trip to look around and feel the breeze. They haven't went out to sea before. As for the pirates, I will keep a look out for them." Pei Donglai stood up and said.

"Good, with your assurance, I don't need to worry about anything."

Ouyang Shuo turned to Zhao Sihu and said, "General Zhao, for the city defense unit, I only have one goal which is to focus on the training of soldiers in defending the city walls and river. Our soldiers are skilled in fighting beasts or invading others but they don't know how to defend. This can't do. Don't look at the raiders and bandits as weak, if they group up or band together, we won't be able to handle them, hence, as the city protection squad of our town, you must train hard. The soldiers must be familiar with the wall layout and must train hard, they shouldn't think that it's peace time and start slacking.”

Zhao Sihu stood up and bowed, saying solemnly, "Sire don't worry! General will increase training and ensure the safety of our camp."

Ouyang Shuo nodded and turned to General Shi, "General Shi as for you and the infantry unit, I don't need to worry. I only hope that Shanhai Town's armoured infantry unit could form soon. Other than that, when I'm not here, you will be in charge of the military. If you face a tough problem you must settle it carefully."

"Yes, sire doesn't need to worry!" General Shi said loudly.

After settling military matters, Ouyang Shuo kept the 4 directors and said, "When I'm not here, I put Fan Zhongyang in charge of the civil servants. When there is a tough problem, the four directors can discuss and solve it."

"Yes!"

"On the side of the Finance Department, as the expenses increase, we must ensure that the funds are used properly. I hope that this period of time, the department can come up with a preliminary idea to discuss with me when I return." Ouyang Shuo said to Yingyu.

Yingyu nodded and said, "Don’t worry, big brother. Secretary Xu had discussed with me about this problem before. Since Brother had brought this up, it has reached an important time. We will give you our views when you return."

"That's good." Ouyang Shuo looked at Tian Wenjing and said, "On the side of the Material Reserves Department with director Tian, I don't have much worries. only that the negotiations with the mountain barbarians must not stop. Towards those who have signs of wanting to cooperate, we can provide them with some grain to make them trust us."

"Sire don't worry!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded and turned to Zhu Hongliang, "As for the Military Affairs Department, apart from the stables, there are two more things. One is that the intelligence reporting of the raiders must not stop and must increase instead. Second would be the Armoury Division and the Bow and Crossbow Division must continue to train talented people. The future of the military industry is huge and we need many of these talents."

"Understood!"

Ouyang Shuo turned to look at Fan Zhongyan and said, "Sorry to trouble you for this period of time."

"Sire don't worry, I won't let you down!"

"With that, I have nothing to worry about."

……

Hearing that Ouyang Shuo was going to go on holiday, Xiaoyue nagged that she wanted to tag along, hence Ouyang Shuo could only give up.

As for where to visit, the 3 of them had their differences. Xiaoyue wanted to go to Yunnan Lijiang and tour the scenery. Bing'er wanted to go to Shang Hai and see her little aunt. Ouyang Shuo saw through her instantly and knew that she wanted to go there for Disneyland.

As for himself, Ouyang Shuo wanted to go to Taishan. It was the symbol of the Chinese race and was a cultural paradise. Hence, before leaving the earth, he naturally wanted to visit. This place was the first choice for this goodbye trip from the earth.

Luckily modern society was advanced and transportation wasn't something that could be compared to 200 years ago. These short distance trips, the best way wasn't airplanes but trains. Sitting on the trains, one could get good views and also travel at high speeds at the same time.

As they had enough time, a full 5 days of it, in the end Ouyang Shuo decided to go from State of Jiap>Shang Hai>Taishan>Lijiang>State of Jiao, a fast trip around the country.

Ever since he told everything to little aunt, the two of them contacted occasionally and it became more warm. Hearing that they were coming, little aunt took 2 days off to bring them around. Definitely, the main part of the trip was Disneyland and they fulfilled Bing'er's childhood dream.

After leaving Shang Hai, Ouyang Shuo and the two of them rode the skytrain and went straight to Taishan.

Taishan had amazing views and was very majestic. The mountains were closely grouped and the changes in clouds and the sky gave in a beautiful splendor. The natural Taishan represented natural wonders and it also represented cultural sanctity.

Feeling the beauty of Taishan, Ouyang Shuo felt as if his soul had been cleansed.

To see the sunrise, Ouyang Shuo brought both beauties to stay in the high class hotel at the top of the mountain. In the morning, he brought them to see the sunrise. Being woken up so early in the morning, the little brat was unwilling and looked really lost, an exceptionally cute sight.

In the foggy morning and standing on the peak of Taishan, there appeared a rainbow ring, capturing the entire image of the body of the person, it was an amazing sight.

Seeing such a beautiful scene, Ouyang Shuo purposely went off route to visit Kong Zi's hometown Qufu. Out of the 3 emperors and 5 rulers, 4 had left their marks on Qufu. This was also the old capital and the hometown of Kong Zi, being termed as Dongfang sacred city.

Leaving Qufu, they visited their last stop, Yunnan Lijiang. Feeling the sights and sounds of Lijiang, it was incomparable to the wilderness in the game.

Chapter 112 - Procuratorate Division

Chapter 112: Procuratorate Division

_Gaia first year 5th of May_

Ouyang Shuo went online again.

After a trip out, Ouyang Shuo felt that he was refreshed. Ever since he was reborn, he had been focused and tensed up. Finally he was able to relax.

After going online, Ouyang Shuo first learned the Yang Family Spear technique that he had bought.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Ouyang Shuo for obtaining emperor-rank cultivation method <Yang Family Spear Technique>, will you learn it?”

“Learn!”

With a brushing sound, the secret manual in his hand turned into a white light and shot straight into his temple. In an instant, all of the information regarding the <Yang Family Spear Technique> and its cultivation method surged into his mind.

As a secret manual that was of a higher level than the Bajiquan, the difficulty was much higher. This added with having no one to teach him, wanting to grasp the technique needed a period of practice.

Ouyang Shuo raised the exquisite iron spear in his hand, followed the manual, and trained. Unexpectedly, he looked rusty and unconfident. It seemed like when he had the time he should look for General Shi and Lin Yi, who were both spear masters, for advice. In the last life, he’d used the halberd as a weapon, thus the experience that he could draw on was too little.

Ouyang Shuo’s appearance alerted Yingyu and Qing’er, who were in the backyard.

“Big Brother, you are finally back.” Qing’er stood on the walkway and said with surprise.

At that moment, Ouyang Shuo was practicing spearmanship and didn’t have energy to bother with her. After following the method and training, he finally stopped and laughed. “Yes, the time that I wasn’t here, were you well-behaved?”

“He, big brother looks down on me, how am I naughty? If you don’t believe me ask Sister Yingyu.” Qing’er was annoyed and pouted.

Yingyu stood on the side and laughed. “Big brother, when you left, the whole Lord’s Manor felt cold. Everyone said that it was because it lacked your spirit.”

“Yes, there wasn’t anyone to tease me.” Qing’er agreed.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and said, “You two brats, stop trying to make me feel happy. How is everything? Is the territory going well?” The last sentence was asking Yingyu.

“Yes, everything is following what big brother had planned before he left.”

Ouyang Shuo knew that the backyard wasn’t a place to talk about work, and he had just casually asked just now. He told his 2 sisters to go do their things, and he continued practicing the Yang family spear technique.

At 10 AM in the morning, Ouyang Shuo showed up on-time to his office.

Knowing that the lord had come back, the various directors rushed back to report to work. Helplessly, Ouyang Shuo invited everyone to the meeting room for a meeting.

Ouyang Shuo sat in the lord’s seat and looked around, smiling. “In the past 5 days, all of you have been busy. What does each division have to report? Let’s start from the Administration Department.”

The Agriculture Division secretary Sun Yannong was first to rise and said, “Sire, the Agriculture Division has something to report.”

“Please speak!”

“After 3 months of breeding, the 100 wild cows and 80 wild pigs, apart from the 10 cows and 5 pigs that died, grew up healthily. As for the arrangement of these wild pigs and cows, we need sire’s orders.”

“What are the views of the Agriculture Division?” Ouyang Shuo did not reply directly.

Sun Yannong had already planned it out and said, “Our view is that the wild pigs and wild cows are to be dealt with separately. For the wild pigs, the sows will be left behind. As for the males, leaving behind 2 and killing the rest. As for the wild cows, we will keep everything and increase the scale of breeding.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head and said,” I agree with your view. As for the way of dealing with the wild cows, I feel that we can be more flexible. These wild cows are good field cows and should be placed under the control of Qiushui Town. Secretary Sun, I think you need to communicate with Qiushui Town. The wild cows can be used for farming, but the calves that they give birth to must be allocated properly.”

“Understood, sire has really thought it through. I really admired you.” Sun Yannong backed down respectfully.

After he backed down, the secretary of Household Registration, Du Quan, stood up and said loudly, “Sire, I have something to report!”

Ouyang Shuo smiled. “I guess secretary Du has something good to report?”

She nodded and said, “I won’t hide from sire, it is good news. Out of the new population, there appeared a supremely talented individual, and his name is Song Yin. He had worked as a procurator.”

“Procurator?” Ouyang Shuo was baffled.

“I think it’s better for me to explain to sire.” Seeing Ouyang Shuo’s confusion, Fan Zhongyan, who was from the Song Dynasty, stood up and said, “During the Song Dynasty, the procurator was the one to deal out punishment and monitor the various county personnel. The procurator would visit each county and deal out punishments to county officials that delayed cases, caused the inability to catch criminals on time, or corruption. The procurator was also in charge of hard cases and wronged people, as well as accepting appeals. Hence to become the procurator, not only must they be well-versed in politics, but in accordance with the law when dealing with cases.”

Hearing his explanation, Ouyang Shuo realised that this guy was amazing. In modern society, he would be a combination of the Attorney General, Director of Public Security, Provincial High Court President, and the Provincial Army Division Commander, all in one. And he also had to deal straight with the authorities. There was no one he could rely on or complain to.

After understanding the job, Ouyang Shuo was instantly interested in Song Yin. He laughed and said, “Since he’s so amazing, why don’t you invite him here for me to see him?”

“Yes!” Duquan turned around and walked out of the meeting hall. In less than 5 minutes, he brought a middle-aged man and walked into the room. He was 30 odd years old and wore a cotton robe. His body was well-toned and his eyebrows were distinct, looking more like a military general than a scholar.

“Song Yin meets sire!” Song Yin bowed and greeted him.

“Mr. Song, please rise!” Ouyang Shuo said and nodded, taking the chance to look at his stats.

Name: Song Yin (Gold)

Identity: Shanhai Town resident

Occupation: Civil Servant ( _juren_ )

Loyalty: 75

Command: 20

Force: 25

Intelligence: 55

Politics: 65

Speciality: Incorruptible (Raise dignity by 15%), Solve Grievances (Raise case solving efficiency by 15%)

Evaluation: Originally a procurator and has vast amounts of experience. Familiar with law and solving cases. Unbreakable and incorruptible, Strong morals and determined person.

He was a rare genius, making Ouyang Shuo nod his head in delight. “Since you were a judicial commissioner, why don’t I set up a Procuratorate Division and put you in charge of law and punishment while you become the secretary?”

Ouyang Shuo followed the situation in Shanhai Town and made a restriction on the job scope of the Procuratorate Division. He did not follow the procurator from the Song Dynasty, only keeping two roles of keeping the law and dishing out punishment, similar to the court and jail combined.

Song Yin bowed once again and said, “Thank you sire for your trust. I won’t let you down.” As a trained procurator, he could obviously understand the deep meaning in his words.

After the small distraction, the various divisions continued to report.

The construction director Zhao Dewang had successfully replaced Zhao Youfang, standing up and saying, “Sire, the Construction Division has something to report!”

“Please speak!”

“The Jifeng Valley army stable has been built. Please plan the next mission of the Division for us!”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, and he was pleased with the efficiency of the Construction Division. “The next goal would be to upgrade to grade 1 county. Hence, the goal is to make the overall plan of the city, including the preparation work of the second city wall.”

“Understood!” Zhao Dewang said and nodded.

After the Construction secretary finished his report, the Administration Department had finished their reports.

Ouyang Shuo turned to Tian Wenjing and asked, “Does the Material Reserves Department have anything to report?”

Tian Wenjing nodded and looked towards the Transportation secretary Zheng Shanpao, signalling him to stand up and report.

He immediately got up and said, “Sire, the Transportation Division wishes to report two things.”

“Please tell!”

“The first has to do with the JIfeng Valley horse stable. Secretary Zhao had said that the basic facilities have already been built. The Transportation Division has already been training breeders and gathering grain and food. We could say that the preparation work is basically done, only lacking stallions.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and did not react, asking him to say the second thing.

“The second thing has to do with mainland transportation. Ever since we had the wooden horse cart, it solved the long distance transportation problem of resources. However, as the population increased, we did not have any carriage-like transportation devices. Hence we need sire to arrange that.” Zheng Shanpao said.

Ouyang Shuo realized that he had neglected it. He’d focused solely on transporting goods and forgot about carriages to transport people. The grade 2 town basic building relay was, until now, still an unused building.

“Secretary Zheng has reminded me well. This is my mistake. How about this? The Transportation Division can choose a place to build a carriage workshop to build handmade carriages. As for the carriage-making manual, I’ll get it from the market.” Ouyang Shuo said.

“Yes!” Zheng Shanpao said excitedly.

Chapter 113 - Auditing Division

After Zheng Shanpao sat down, Tian Wenjing stood up and said, "Sire, the negotiations with the other mountain barbarian tribes have new developments."

Ouyang Shuo was startled awake and he said, "Please say!"

"The two medium sized tribes and the six small sized tribes were scared by the show of strength by the Shanhai Town army at Jifeng Valley. In the negotiations, after realizing that Xuanniao tribe and the other 3 small scale tribes have started working with us and solved their food problems, they decided to put down their fear and start working with us." Tian Wenjing said.

"Good. As for the specific arrangements, has it been settled?"

Tian Wenjing nodded, "That's right. We have already discussed most of the content and only need sire to come back and take a look!"

"Please say!"

"Firstly it has to do with the soldiers. The mountain barbarian tribes are willing to copy Xuanniao tribe and send their elite warriors to Shanhai Town army in exchange for payment. 100 from the small sized tribes and 200 from the medium sized tribes, adding up to 1 thousand people, a full two units." Tian Wenjing said.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, "2 months ago our cooperation with Xuanniao tribe was done so because of the circumstances. We didn't have enough trust in one another and thus used the method of exchanging soldiers for benefits and payments. This method has obvious negatives.

"In Shanhai army, even though they are all soldiers, the barbarian tribe warriors' benefits won't be given to them and instead to their tribe, causing them to feel psychologically down and it won't be beneficial to developing a sense of belonging to Shanhai Town. It would be easy to cause them to have mixed feelings towards the town which will make them not fight for the town and instead be fighting for the benefits and payments. The lack of honor and spirit will be a huge blow to our fighting strength. If the war goes well it will be okay, but if we face problems then why would they fight to the death?"

The military affairs director nodded his head in agreement, "Sire's meaning is that some negative seeds has appeared in the military and the barbarians and Shanhai Town born soldiers are split into two circles."

Tian Wenjing was a civil servant and didn't understand military affairs well, asking unconfidently, "Then how should we deal with that?"

Ouyang Shuo smiled slightly, "The situation now is different. As we have the upper hand and are the stronger force, we have to use it and be more forceful. I feel that both the warriors that we choose and their families must move over to Shanhai Town and be a member of our town. Only then will they have the heart to commit to our town and protect it with their all. As compensation, we will give their tribe a one time payment of one gold. We will also give them a batch of food, a medium sized tribe will get 100 thousand units and the small sized tribe will get 50 thousand units."

"Sire's offer is too good, they have no reason to reject." Tian Wenjing said excitedly.

"As for the specific negotiation details, I'll have to trouble you. Additionally, the 700 mountain barbarians soldiers that have joined our town will follow the above plan." Ouyang Shuo added.

"Understood!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, "Tian Wenjing, please continue!"

"As the Langshan mining field are already at max capacity, it's hard to add in more people. Doctor Song had reminded us that the mountains are filled with herbs and medicine, hence I want to deal with the tribes for them to be in charge of collecting the herbs and we will buy them at market price, or use food to trade." Tian Wenjing was obviously not pleased with this part of the negotiation.

Ouyang Shuo frowned, this was not what he had wanted and asked, "Did you ask the tribes if they were willing to come down and migrate to Shanhai Town?"

Tian Wenjing shook his head and said bitterly, "I tried to suggest it many times but it didn't turn out well. They have a strong sense of belonging to their home especially the older generation. They would rather die in the mountains than leave the tribe and migrate to our town. These tribes also have ancestral temples and that's their belief and embodiment of their faith, they would never give it up."

"Migrating to Shanhai town doesn't mean that they will live together with us. We can build a place for them to live where they can rule themselves. As for the temple, we can adapt. Shanhai Town accepts all faith and religion and respect other's choices. We can build a temple for them and it will definitely be grander and more majestic than their current one." Ouyang Shuo was unwilling to give up.

Tian Wenjing was amazed, "Sire has thought about everything. I will negotiate with the mountain barbarian tribes based on sire's conditions."

"En, you can focus your energy to make sure one tribe agrees. Best if you choose one that's having the hardest time surviving. As long as one agrees, the rest will follow. When they see the change in living conditions, even if some disagree, they won't be able to stop the majority."

"Understood!"

"As for the herb cooperation mentioned by Fang Zhongyan, there is certainly a need. Although the territory has a medicine garden, but it's still in its infancy, many herbs can't be grown there and can only be found deep in the mountains. In this aspect, the mountain barbarians are the experts. As the territory expands, the need for herbs and medicine will increase, early planning is most important." Ouyang Shuo didn't want Fan Wenjing to be too affected and validated his negotiation results.

"Yes!"

"As for manpower services, it is best if we bring them out of the mountains, this is also our final goal. However, in this process, why don’t we motivate and attract the youths to be courageous and take a step out. Regardless of construction or workshops, they can find a job that pays well and let them feed their family. The youths have more drive and are more adaptive, at the same time they can slowly change the views of the mountain barbarian tribe."

Ouyang Shuo's view not only shocked Tian Wenjing, even Fan Zhongyan and Cui Yingyu were amazed. This type of labor movement method which only came about 200 years ago was something which was never thought of in the minds of the olden people.

"Sire is a genius, we respect you!"

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand and laughed.

After the Material Reserves Department did their report, Cui Yingyu stood up.

"Big brother, the Finance Department’s monetary control problem that you raised before you left, the department has a solution." Yingyu said.

"Please say!"

"The Finance Department feels that we need to set up an Auditing Division. Its role is to be in charge of calculating the territory income's legality, efficiency and reality, raising the efficiency of money use, stimulating growth and ensuring that the economy of the territory grows healthily." Cui Yingyu continued.

Ouyang Shuo frowned and said, "I agree with the new division. But the role of the division is financial revenue and expenditure. Putting it under the finance department, wouldn't it mean you are monitoring yourself?"

"Then big brother's meaning is?"

"The Auditing Division must work independently to maintain its sanctity and integrity.”

Yingyu nodded her head and said, "Understood!"

"As for its secretary, does the Finance Department have a suitable choice?"

"Our original choice for secretary was Taishen from the business division. He passed the imperial exams and just joined the Business Division. Based on secretary Xu's comments, he is an orthodox person who is very careful." She said.

"Since it's like this, bring him here for me to take a look."

Yingyu signalled to the Taxation Division secretary Qian Lifei. He understood and left the meeting hall and not long after he brought a middle aged scholar into the hall. He had an average body and he looked a bit thin, his face also having some retractions.

“Taishen greets sire." He bowed and said.

"Please rise!" Ouyang Shuo checked his stats.

Name: Taishen (Silver)

Identity: Shanhai Town Business Division Basic Level Worker

Occupation: Civil Servant (juren)

Loyalty: 80

Command: 20

Force: 10

Intelligence: 48

Politics: 55

Speciality: Incorruptible (raise dignity by 15%)

Evaluation: Originally from a home office, good at taxes, morally upright and very careful.

"Taishan, under the recommendation of Yingyu, I’ll appoint you as the secretary of the Auditing Division. I hope you can lead it well and audit properly." Ouyang Shuo said solemnly.

"Thank you sire for your faith, I won't let you down." Taishen also solemnly said.

"System notification: congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, Taishen has been utilized, loyalty raised by 5!"

After dealing with the Auditing Division, it was already 11:30 in the afternoon and Ouyang Shuo announced the end of the meeting. As for the Military Affairs Department, he was prepared to have a military affairs meeting later on.

Chapter 114 - Inspection

At 2 PM, Ouyang Shuo didn't stay in the Lord's Manor but instead made a trip to Friendship Town under the company of the director and secretary of Military Affairs.

At the Shanhai Town ferry, the helm of the public ferry was still old man Zhang. Definitely, the small wooden raft that Ouyang Shuo had personally built had been retired and it was now using an advanced fishing boat, similar to an umbrella boat.

Sitting on it and looking at the reflecting water surface, Ouyang Shuo felt very blessed. At the start, he’d brought General Shi to Lianzhou Basin and built Shanhai Village. At that time, the village was torn, tattered and had 0 talents.

In less than 5 months, that small village that had nothing had become Shanhai Town, with close to a 30,000 population and spanned 1,000 square kilometres, becoming the unshakable leader in the Chinese server. But in order to grow larger and be a king in the future, one can not afford to stand still or otherwise he would be left out by time, the achievements of the Shanhai Town of today is only tiny and insignificant.

At Friendship harbor, Friendship Town head Zhou Haichen and the cavalry unit major Lin Yi had brought a group of civil servants, and was waiting to welcome Ouyang Shuo. This was the first time he was coming to Friendship Town, and they couldn't be too casual.

When the umbrella boat docked, Zhou Haichen and his group warmly welcomed, "Welcome sire, to Friendship Town."

Ouyang Shuo stepped ashore, and after waving goodbye to Old man Zhang, he turned around and said to Zhang Haichen, "It's just a simple visit. Why did you have to bring so many people?"

Zhou Haichen was stunned, He didn't know that Ouyang Shuo didn't like such atmospheres, he only wanted to make it a warm welcoming.

Ouyang Shuo didn't want to make it too embarrassing for Zhou Haichen, and under the introductions by Lin Yi, he greeted each person one by one.

The organisational structure of Friendship Town was similar to the main town, but also had its differences. Out of the 4 main departments, they did not have the Military Affairs Department. The affiliated territories weren't going to be normal organisations. As such Friendship Town only had the secondary divisions such as the Combat Logistics Division. The other special divisions like the Saltpan Division were things that only the main camp had.

The deployment of civil servants in Friendship Village also obviously couldn't compare with the main camp. However, amongst the basic government workers, they were considered one of the best. If not, they wouldn't have had the chance to be posted here. Ouyang Shuo only hoped that this batch of people could quickly grow.

As for the military, they were all familiar faces. The 5 captains in the unit, including the leader of the town protection squad Hu Yibiao, were all personally assigned by him.

After a simple tour of the Harbour, they returned back to the town. From afar, one could see the tall city walls and the majestic south gate.

Luckily Zhou Haichen knew the limits and didn't arrange for the civilians to welcome him. Walking into the town, Zhou Haichen began to brief and introduce Ouyang Shuo to the situation in Friendship Town.

Friendship Town had around 2600 people, and was only a week from upgrading to a grade 2 town. Definitely, the cavalry unit that was housed outside the city wasn’t included in the numbers.

To defend against the nomadic tribes, the agriculture businesses were mostly facing south and next to the Qiushui and Friendship rivers. Other important industries that had to be built outside the city like the brick kiln and pottery factory were built in the west and east, under the protection of the city protection river.

As it was situated in a plains region, Friendship Town lacked wood and stones. It basically relied on the main town and Qiushui Town for such resources. The coordinator naturally was the Material Reserves Department.

Of course, Friendship Town wasn't without its strengths. Even without saying anything about the animal husbandry industry or the agriculture industry, it had its own strategic strengths.

The south side was where the Friendship and Qiushui rivers met, hence the water resources were plentiful, the ground fertile, and the farmlands that were reclaimed were much better than Shanhai Town’s. This region had already reclaimed 20,000 acres of fertile land.

All of which grew richly. The future Friendship Town would be the grain production base, only 2nd to Qiushui Town.

At the same time, to form Friendship Town's unique advantage and not be beaten by Beihai Town and Qiushui Town, Zhou Haichen thought hard and decided to expand and develop the forging and textile industries. These industries would be used in trading with the nomadic tribes and thus early preparation was needed. From this, one could see Zhou Haichen's deep thoughts and careful planning.

One could say that whether or not that could convince the nomadic tribes would in turn affect the status of Friendship Town. If they opened trade routes, then Friendship Town would become a trade city. If they couldn't, then Friendship Town would just become a military fortress.

Hence, towards Ouyang Shuo's visit, Zhou Haichen was holding high hopes.

Ever since the city protection river project, Zhou Haichen had sent men to get in touch with the nomadic tribes and had some progress. However, what strategies to take against them was something the lord himself had to decide.

Unfortunately, Zhou Haichen didn't know that the real reason of Ouyang Shuo's visit was the Qingfu horse in the plains. It has been two months since the Armory Division was formed. The first set of 50 Mingguang armors had already been completed. However, as they did not have suitable war horses, they couldn't equip the cavalry unit with it.

In the meeting hall of Friendship Town, Ouyang Shuo had only invited the various generals for a military affairs meeting.

"Director Ge, please tell me about the progress with the green horse." Ouyang Shuo asked.

The trip to Friendship Town was originally arranged by Ge Hongliang. With his personality, if there wasn’t any progress he wouldn't have invited Ouyang Shuo here.

Ge Hongliang nodded. "Sire, the Military Intelligence Division has obtained important intel. 5 days ago, the nomadic tribe to the west of the town got about 100 Qingfu horse stallions and were ready to expand their breeding scale.

Ouyang Shuo calmed himself down and said calmly, "Your meaning is?"

"My meaning is simple. We can't miss this opportunity. Why don’t we wipe out this small tribe? If we can, put the blame on the medium-sized tribe east of the town, further worsening the relationship between them and Tian Qi tribe." Zhu Hongliang said calmly, not nothing that his plan would definitely cause a bloodbath.

"How many people does that small tribe have, and how many warriors?" Ouyang Shuo asked carefully.

This intelligence was obviously answered by the Military Intelligence Division. As the one in charge of collecting intel on the nomadic tribes, the Military Intelligence team 2 leader Leixun stood up. "Sire, we have found out that their tribe covers less than 500 square kilometres and only has 800 people, including 300 soldiers."

Ouyang Shuo turned to Lin Yi and asked, "Do you have confidence?"

Lin Yi naturally knew what Ouyang Shuo was referring to. "To exterminate their main force is not hard. The hard part is how to not leave any survivors. These nomads all know how to ride horses and can easily slip away."

For the Qingfu horses, Ouyang Shuo was ready to slaughter.

"What is the view of the Military Affairs Department?" Ouyang Shuo looked to Ge Hongliang.

He was already prepared and said, "To do it cleanly, a sneak attack is best. Additionally, to prevent people from escaping, apart from attacking, we also need to lie and wait to kill the people that try to escape."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. "This is a good plan. However, fighting 300 nomadic cavalry is already pushing our forces. How will we have extra strength to box them in?"

"Sire is correct, with the only unit here it's hard to complete the mission. The only way is to expand the number of militants." Zhu Hongliang said.

Ouyang Shuo had a bit of a headache. "Without upgrading to a grade 1 city, it’s not suitable to expand our army. Don't forget that the mountain barbarian tribes have 1000 elite warriors for us to accept."

Ge Hongliang seemed like he had an idea and said confidently, "Sire, we have a military reorganisation plan, please take a look!"

"Speak!"

"My idea is like this: These 1000 barbarians, our main camp will take 500 and make a second heavy armoured infantry unit. For the remaining 500, 300 will go to Qiushui Town, adding the 2 protection squadrons to form the Qiushui Town protection unit. The last 200 will be sent here and get another 100 soldiers to form the Friendship Village protection unit. This assault, we can use one of Qiushui town's cavalry squadrons and 2 of the main camp's to join in."

Ouyang Shuo was delighted. If it was like this, apart from the cavalry unit and the infantry unit, it basically didn't exceed the 10% military to population number that he had set.

"Good, let's do it like that. Everyone prepare quickly." Ouyang Shuo announced a change in personnel. "Military Affairs Department, spread my orders. Zhang Daniu will be the major of the Qiushui Town protection unit, Hu Yibiao will be the major of the Friendship Town protection unit, and Shihu will be the major of the second infantry unit."

"Yes!" Ge Hongliang exclaimed.

Zhang Daniu, the sergeant who was competing with Zhao Sihu had finally became a major, climbing to the same spot as Zhao Sihu. Hu Yibiao was very fortunate, only being sent here for 1 month and already becoming a major, promoted faster than his seniors.

As for the second infantry unit, the reason why Ouyang Shuo had promoted the second squadron captain Shihu and not the first squadron captain, he obviously had his own considerations.

One was that Shihu's promotion would help to increase the sense of belonging of the mountain barbarians and show them that Shanhai Town would use anyone that is capable. Secondly was that Ouyang Shuo had another plan for Wang Feng.

Chapter 115 - Mingguang Armor

After reorganising the military, the meeting held in Friendship Town came to an end.

After the meeting, Ouyang Shuo did not return back to Shanhai Town, but instead officially began his tour around Friendship Town under the company of Zhou Haichen.

Walking around the big streets of Friendship Town, Ouyang Shuo started to calculate the costs of expanding the military. Up first was the one-time payment to the mountain barbarians. The 3 batches of warriors cost 1700 gold, adding the one-time off care package of 500 thousand units of food, which was 500 gold and the class change cost of 500 gold for 1000 infantrymen and 150 gold for 100 cavalrymen, the total costs ran up to 2850 gold. The 3000 gold that he had left was nearly used up.

The next day, Ouyang Shuo went to the office of the town head to obtain the report from Zhou Haichen about cooperation with the nomadic tribes.

Zhou Haichen invited Ouyang Shuo to the lord’s seat while he sat at a lower seat and said, "Sire, the medium-sized tribe to the north of Friendship Town is known as the Tian Feng tribe. It has 3500 people and 1500 square miles of pasture, even bigger than our territory. Tian Feng tribe's leader is called Dariachi, 35 years old, a descendent of the mongols. The name Dariachi in Mongolian means to crush and suppress, so one can see his ambition and goal."

He continued. "After completing the city protection river protect, we sent out the Administration Director of Friendship Town as an ambassador to bring gifts to see Dariachi. Although he was shocked by the visit, his actions weren’t anything out of the ordinary. After accepting the gifts, he treated us very warmly. What was baffling was when the ambassador was about to return, a squad of Tian Feng tribe cavalry tried to attack. Only after they saw the river and the high city walls were they shocked and retreated."

"Interestingly after that squad of cavalry left, the Tian Feng tribe sent over a messenger who said that he want to trade with us. As it was so sudden, I didn't have a clue what Dariachi was up to. I wanted to report to you but the lord's mansion said that you had something to do and thus went into seclusion. Hence I used a delay tactic. Now that you are back, I need your advice on what to do."

Ouyang Shuo frowned. "From your description, this Dariachi is a two-faced character. The way I see it, it's best not to reveal the existence of the main camp. How about this, you will be in charge of trading with them. We only want Qingfu horses, and as for what to trade for them, regardless of grain, salt, iron ore, tea, or even three flower wine, we can trade it with them. As long as we can get the Qingfu horses, giving them some benefits is acceptable."

Zhou Haichen was surprised and said emotionally, "Understood! Sire, don't worry!"

"Additionally, the trading location must be carefully chosen. You can build a trading post beside the city protection river. For the first trade it's best if it's within this week." Ouyang Shuo ordered. As for why one week, it was naturally to coordinate with the military and prepare for military action.

"Yes!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head and said, "Haichen, seems like choosing you to come to Friendship Town was the right decision. After these two days I found that the town was orderly built. Even when facing the threat of the nomadic tribes, the people were still peaceful. To think of trading under these circumstances is incredible!"

Receiving such a high evaluation, Zhou Haichen was emotional and said, "All I have today is all because of your help and the chances you’ve given me. I don't dare to waste this opportunity, and will continue to work hard to repay sire!"

"Seeing this, I'm delighted!" Ouyang Shuo replied.

……

On the 8th of May, Friendship Town did its first trade with Tian Feng tribe.

Based on the price set by the Tian Feng tribe, a good quality Qingfu horse was worth 5 gold. In goods, that would be either 5000 units of grain, or 2500 units of salt, or 1000 units of iron ore or 500 units of three flower wine. Hence, the trading power of the Qingfu horse was terrifying.

As it was the first trade, both parties were very careful. Tian Feng tribe was willing to trade 100 good quality Qingfu horses for 100 thousand units of grain, 2500 units of salt, 60000 units of iron ore and 10000 units of three flower wine, which was the same as asking for an additional batch of salt.

Zhou Haichen remembered Ouyang Shuo's orders in his heart which was to rather take a loss and get the Qingfu horses. Hence this trade could be considered a merry affair. Friendship Town managed to get 100 green horses, and with just 100 horses, Tianfeng tribe managed to get an unimaginable amount of resources.

To express their thanks, the Tian Feng tribe gave an additional 3 elite green horses, their stats higher than the good quality ones by 40%.

Name: Good Quality Qingfu Horse (Drak-gold)

Max Capacity: 120 kilograms

Speed: 60 kilometers/day

Consumption: 4 units of food/day

Evaluation: the Qingfu horse was the offspring of the ancient green beetle god and a wild horse.

Hence it inherited the god intent of the green beetle, and the speed like the wind, so it is thus a war horse of the highest quality.

Undoubtedly the highest quality war horse, its max capacity was twice that of a normal war horse, and it was even faster. Only this kind of war horse could handle the Mingguang armor.

Name: Elite Qinfu Horse (Platinum)

Capacity: 168 kilograms

Speed: 84 kilometers/day

Consumption: 5 units of food/day

Evaluation: An elite of the Qingfu horse, highly suitable for being a general's horse.

These 100 Qingfu horses, Ouyang Shuo sent to he 1st squadron of the cavalry unit. As for the 3 elite Qingfu horses, he kept one for himself and gave one each to Lin Yi and the first squadron captain Li Mingliang.

With the Qingfu horses, the Mingguang armor made by the Armory Division could finally be used. The Mingguang armor followed a complicated crafting process, and it was separated into soldier Mingguang armor, sergeant Mingguang armor, general Mingguang armor, and commander Mingguang armor. The highest level, which the Armory Division, could craft was the general Mingguang armor.

Name: Soldier Mingguang armor (Gold)

Type: Heavy Armor

Weight: 36 kilograms

Defence: 55

Toughness: 50

Evaluation: At each of the front and back of the armor, there is oval metal piece known as the round guard. Under the light, it will glisten, giving the Mingguang armor its name.

……

Name: Sergeant Mingguang armor (Drak-gold)

Type: Heavy armor

Weight: 40 kilograms

Defence: 70

Toughness: 55

Evaluation: Compared to the soldier Mingguang armor, the sergeant Mingguang armor's crafting process is slightly more complicated.

……

Name: General Mingguang armor (Platinum)

Type: Heavy armor

Weight: 45 kilograms

Defence: 85

Toughness: 60

Evaluation: Compared to the sergeant Mingguang armor, the general Mingguang armor's crafting process is slightly more complicated and more expensive.

Till date, the Armory Division only made one set of general Mingguang armor, and it was naturally made for Ouyang Shuo. The Armory Division secretary Wang Tao had worked together with master tailor Mu Qingsi, and after 1 month and 5 failures, only then they had successfully completed it. This success was partly luck and was secondly because of the added effect of Qing'er's skill. If not, there would have had no chance of success.

Wang Tao had made use of this encounter to become a master blacksmith. As for the highest grade, commander Mingguang armor, Ouyang Shuo guessed that it would need both of them to reach the grandmaster level to have the possibility of success.

With this set of Mingguang armor, Ouyang Shuo's leather armor wasn’t of any use, and he gave it to Zhao Sihu. Ouyang Shuo checked out his stats.

【Name】: Qiyue Wuyi

【Title】: Patriot ( increases NPCs’ relationship by 25%)

【Territory】: Shanhai Town

【Occupation】: General (part time)

【Level】: 45

【Merit】: 15400 / 25600

【Rank】: 2nd class Earl

【Prestige】: 12850/100000

【Body Structure】: 18

【Comprehension】: 21

【Luck】: 5

【Charm】: 8

【Command】: 59 + 10

【Force】: 22+5

【Intelligence】: 14

【Political】: 51

【Talent】: Locked

【Technique】: Ba Ji Fist Art (Become Proficient), Yang family spear technique (learnt the fundamentals)

【Art of War】: “Liu Tao” (Wu Tao Volume)

【Skills】: Advanced Collection, Basic Shipbuilding, Intermediate Diplomacy, Advanced Scouting, Advanced Weapon Proficiency, Basic Riding, Basic Spearsmanship, Basic archery

【Mount】: Elite Qingfu horse (Platinum)

【Equipment】: Exquisite Composite Bow (Gold), Exquisite Iron Sword (Gold), Exquisite Iron Spear (Gold), General Mingguang armor (Platinum)

【Unique Items】: Talisman of Blood Thirsting, Talisman of Vitality, Talisman of Rapid Marching, substitution doll

During the battles during this period of time, Ouyang Shuo leveled 5 times to level 45. At the same time, his merit and rank had increased.

As for the brutal force, it was a necklace with a thumb-sized wild pig tooth, naturally it was made by the alchemist Magnus. It stats were:

Name: Brutal Force (Silver)

Speciality: Raise combat power by 5

Evaluation: Advanced alchemist Magnus made it with a wild pig tooth.

Chapter 116 - Operation Dawn

On the 9th of May, the military operation codenamed “Dawn” officially kicked off.

After 5 days of preparations, the city defense unit from Qiushui Town and Friendship Town, along with the main base infantry’s 2nd unit are all in position. At the same time, Qiushui Town’s only cavalry squadron and Friendship Town’s 2 cavalry squadrons have joined the cavalry unit and started the joint training.

In order to prevent startling the snake by beating the bush, the joint training location is not located in Friendship Town but on an open field on the west side of Shanhai Town, near the infantry unit camp.

Originally, Lin Yi proposed that before joining the infantry unit for the joint training, they should wipe out one or two bandit camps outside of the border for the purpose of training the forces for actual combat experience, but it was turned down by Ouyang Shuo.

There were several reasons. First of all, the armies that were dispatched now were all cavalries. The main force would be the cavalries if an attack were launched, so there would be not much of a problem in terms of their cooperation. Second, launching any attacks on any factions right now and causing extra casualties would be unnecessary before operation “Dawn”. Ouyang Shuo was not taking it lightly and he didn’t wish to start a war with an exhausted army, as the operation is extremely crucial.

In order not to attract attention from the Tian Feng tribe, this military operation was preparing to cross the Friendship river from Shanhai Town, and march straight into the west of the central area among the small tribes. This was to ensure that victory would be achieved in one killing blow.

At 4 PM, the navy unit garrisoned at Beihai Town travelled upstream with the Meng Chong warship and docked at the Friendship river bank located towards the south of the small tribes.

Meanwhile, the 800 cavalrymen in the operation “Dawn” set up their camping site on the other side of the river.

At 4 AM before daybreak, the entire force started to prepare food.

At 5 AM, the cavalry, along with the war horses, boarded the warships and sailed across the Friendship river. After a short break, in order to maintain their stealth, every cavalryman covered up his mouth. The horses’ mouths were also covered up, and their hooves were wrapped with thick linen to mute the sound of their footsteps. After that, they started marching forward like an army of spectres, in dead silence.

They marched slowly for 5 kilometers and began to split into 4.

The front wing was of course the cavalry unit that was responsible for the main attack. Equipped with the Qingfu warhorse, the first squadron would be the vanguards. The first team in the first squadron, consisting of 50 cavalrymen equipped with Mingguang armor, would run ahead of the entire force under the lead of Li Mingliang. In order to prevent reflection from their armors and thus attracting the attention of the enemies, the armors are all fully covered with linen.

The back wing was Qiushui Town’s cavalry squadron. With their leader, Zhang Daniu, they detoured to the back of the enemies. They were responsible for cutting away the nomadic tribe’s escape path to the north. The north side was the direction towards the Tian Qi tribe, which was the most likely escape path for the enemies. Therefore, the responsibility carried by Zhang Daniu and his cavalry squadron was very heavy.

The right wing of Friendship Town’s 1st cavalry squadron, with their leader, Hu Yibiao, marched towards the east. The east side was the direction towards Tian Feng tribe. Although the chances of the deserters fleeing towards the east were quite low, but the wing still carried a great responsibility to prevent the enemies from fleeing towards the east. This was because if not taken seriously, the fleeing soldiers might attract the attention of the Tian Feng tribe, and thus cause unwanted outcomes.

The left wing forces were also from Friendship Town. They were the 2nd cavalry squadron, which was also a newly formed cavalry squadron and they headed towards the west. As they were just newly formed, they were dispatched to the west side as there were no tribes around there, so the responsibility was not so heavy. Their purpose there was one of precaution only.

Other than that, at least 1 military intelligence personnel was arranged to each of the front, back, right and left wing forces. They were there to be guides for the army as these intelligence personnel has acquired all the detailed information, such as the terrain of the area, quite some time before the operation. At the same time, in order to facilitate communication at any time, they also carried one messenger bird each.

At half past 6, all forces had reached their designated location as planned.

This time as well, Ouyang Shuo personally lead the army expedition as usual. He was seen riding an elite Qingfu warhorse, wearing a Mingguang armor specially designed for generals, looking sharp and handsome. Beside him was Lin Yi, riding another elite Qingfu warhorse, wearing a Mingguang armor designed for officers.

“Report!” A messenger from the front shouted.

“Speak!”

“My lord, the vanguard has approached the enemy camp as planned. There is nothing unusual for now. Your orders, my lord?”

“All units, move forward!”

“Yes, my lord!”

Twenty minutes later, the main forces met up with the vanguard.

Li Mingliang rode towards Ouyang Shuo and said, “Everything is according to plan, my lord.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and then looked far away. These nomadic tribes, other than the large tribes, the medium to small sized tribes generally did not have fixed settlements. It was summer right now, when it was a perfect time for herding. Wherever the sheep herd went, the tribal people would just follow.

Therefore, as a temporary settlement, this nomadic tribe in front of Ouyang Shuo had no city walls like the big cities. They didn’t even build a proper fence, just hundreds of tents set up around each other in a circular shape. These tents had various sizes, from small to big, The deeper it went into the middle, the bigger the tents were. In the center, the biggest tents among them all must have been the tribal chief’s tent.

“Have you found the Qingfu stallions?” asked Ouyang Shuo. This was his most concerning issue for now.

“Yes, my lord. They’re all kept in the stable.” Said Li Mingliang excitedly.

“Is that so? Then launch the attack.” Ouyang Shuo turned around, looked at Lin Yi and said to him coldly.

“Understood!” Lin Yi bent and drew his bow, lit a specially made arrow and shot it towards the enemy camp. The burning arrow travelled across the sky, like a meteor, directly landing on the distant chief tent, and instantly the tent could be seen covered with blazing fire.

Lin Yi’s fire arrow, just like a signal flare, upon seeing the arrow shot by him, the 500 cavalrymen swiftly shot their fire arrows towards the areas that they were asked to fire at according to the plan. In an instant, except for a few tents, all the other tents were lit with fire. The blazing fire skyrocketed high in the sky, and the scorching heat could be felt from afar.

Many of the enemies in the tents just died to the fire while they were still in their dreams. The others who were still alert during their sleep, jumped up from their beds and quickly ran outside. There were even the calm ones who unsheathed their weapons and headed outside of the tents.

Seeing this, Lin Yi put his bow away, picked up his spear, charged towards the enemy camp, and shouted “Cavalry, charge!”

“Kill them all!” Raising their weapons, the cavalries followed Lin Yi, and charged into the enemies. While the cavalries struck down and stampeded through the enemies, Ouyang Shuo, along with a few guards, stood at the same position, observing the entire battlefield calmly.

The cavalries patrolled around the tents and slaughtered enemies running out of the tents. The scene was extremely gory and horrible. Ouyang Shuo rode on his horse and stayed at the same position, because he did not participate in the slaughter. As a man from the modern age, even after going through the 5 years in the previous life, he was still unable to slaughter anyone emotionlessly, especially when the targets were just harmless ordinary people.

They said that power was poisonous. It could corrode any person and change them into a cold person with a heart as hard as steel. It was at this moment when Ouyang Shuo realized how great the differences were between adventurer-type players and lord-type players, realizing how much he had changed in this short period of time.

In order to suppress the provocation of Ji Feng Tribe and build his power around the surrounding tribes, he did not hesitate to send his army to Ji Feng Valley and launch his bloody oppression.

In order to obtain the Qingfu stallion to arm his cavalry regiment, he again did not hesitate to exterminate an entire tribe. Even though this time he did not get involved in the war, his hands were still covered with blood. The blood would stay there forever, unable to be washed away and would live with him for his entire life.

The only thing that was worthy of comforting Ouyang Shuo was that he constantly reminded himself mentally that this was just a game. These people in this massacre he caused were just NPCs. This was the only reason that he could use as an excuse.

That night was a nightmare. The night sky was lit up with the fire that was roaring among the tents, shrilling screams and helpless cries could be heard far away. All of this was a tragedy this night. As the fire kept burning vigorously, Ouyang Shuo’s face became more and more blurred.

However, if viewed from another point of view, as the cavalry saw their lord, Ouyang Shuo, standing at the main entrance looking at them, they felt power rushing through their veins as if his stare was something magical that could grant power to anyone. They knew that their lord was looking at them, looking at his men fighting for him.

Although the tribesmen tried to organize a few counter attack, but under the fierce attack of the vanguards, their resistance was completely futile and they were suppressed cruelly.

After half an hour, some of them started to crumble and started running towards the outside of the camp. Lin Yi then swiftly arranged the 5th squadron to chase them down.

There were also some of them who’d overestimated themselves. While they were running for their lives, they tried to capture Ouyang Shuo in order to threaten him. However, Ouyang Shuo was not the old him anymore. His prowess in combat had increased rapidly under intense training and those tribe warriors who tried to capture him were all killed with no mercy.

An hour later, the massacre had finally came to an end. All of the squadrons except for the 1st squadrons that were responsible in wrapping things up were sent out by Lin Yi to cooperate with the pre-arranged scouting troops to hunt down every escaped soldier.

“My lord, should we disguise the entire battlefield and frame the Tian Feng tribe?” asked Lin Yi.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and said, “It is not needed. Just burn everything up and don’t leave a single trace or clue here. We’re not familiar with whatever these tribes are doing. Disguising the battlefield may have an opposite effect instead. The most appropriate thing to do is to just do nothing. In this way Tian Qi tribe will start to judge whomever that will gain the most benefits from this slaughter. They will think that whomever that gains from this will most probably be the ones who did it. And with this, they will think that their neighbor, Tian Feng tribe, is the mostly likely one that did this. With their capabilities, I am confident that they wouldn’t figure out that we were the ones who did this. There’s one thing that you have to know. We just completed our trading of the Qingfu warhorse with the Tian Feng tribe, so we do not have the motive for this.”

Lin Yi looked at Ouyang Shuo with admiration and said, “You’re indeed a wise man after all.”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand and said, “Make it quick before anything happens. Time is gold.”

“Yes, my lord.”

At 10 AM in the morning, all the forces converged once again. This operation could be said to be going according to the plan perfectly. None of the enemies survived, and they went back to their base with the rewards seized in this battle.

The operation “Dawn” seized a total of a 100 young Qingfu stallions, 300 high-class Qingfu warhorses, and 4 elite-class Qingfu warhorses.

In addition, there were also more than a 1000 sheep and 3000 thousand pieces of sheepskins.

Chapter 117 - Suspicion

When they got to Friendship river, the navy and the Meng Chong warships were already there, awaiting their arrival.

Due to the abundant rewards, the warships had to make a dozen trips back and forth to transfer the rewards across the river. As it was just a simple mission for the navy, the navy commander Pei Donglai did not show up. The navy immediately returned back to Beihai Town as soon as they helped the last cavalry cross the river.

In order to avoid suspicion from the Tian Feng tribe, Ouyang Shuo ordered the cavalry unit to return back to the camp immediately after they crossed the river. The same went for the warhorses seized in the battle. The warhorses couldn’t be dispatched to the cavalry unit now or it would only be sheer self-exposure. Since there was not enough Mingguang armor, riding or not riding the warhorse wasn't really an issue now.

The 100 Qingfu stallions were transferred by the Transportation Division to the horse breeding field in Ji Feng Valley, whereas the 304 Qingfu warhorses and the thousands of sheep were kept in Shanhai Town's pastures on the west side of the town. The pasture, after a few upgrades, now occupied a land area up to 50 square kilometers. This pasture was divided into a few areas for the pigs, sheep, and now the horses. Out of convenience, the pasture was named West City pasture by Ouyang Shuo.

About operation "Dawn", as everything about the operation was executed secretly, it did not causes any chain reactions amongst the people of Shanhai Town. Everything was going on as usual because of this reason.

However, this massacre caused a great uproar amongst the other nomadic tribes.

Shen Juan Lake, Tian Qi tribe Warchief's Tent.

"Khan, the scouts have brought news about the Tian Lian tribe located in the southwest. The tribe was burnt to ashes in one night, and there were no survivors. All of their 800 people were slaughtered." said a muscular and bearded middle-aged man. He is the first member of the 3 generals in the Tian Qi tribe, known as Lion of the Grassland, Lhakhshen.

The Tian Qi tribe had 30,000 tribal people with 12,000 of them being soldiers. Among the 12,000 soldiers, 2000 of them were the elite of the elites and they were the elite guards for the Khan. They were placed under the lead of the 2nd member of the 3 generals in the tribe, and also one of the Khan’s most trusted generals, known as Wolf of the Grassland, Boraktyna.

The rest of the 10,000 soldiers were separated into 2 divisions, which was the eastern division and western division, consisting of 5000 soldiers each. They were responsible for the defense of the eastern and western parts of the tribe. The eastern division was placed under the command of Lhakhshen, whereas the western division was placed under the command of the last member of the 3 generals of the tribe, known as the Black Tiger of the Grassland, Daiqin.

The tribe that was annihilated by Shanhai Town belonged under the jurisdiction of the western division. Therefore, as soon as Lakhshen received the news that Tian Lian Tribe was wiped out, he quickly reported it to his Khan, Mengke, as quickly as he could.

Mengke was a man who was reaching his fifties, and was considered to be a man of the elder age group in the savanna. His previous handsome face was now full of wrinkles, and his thick and curly hair was turning white. All of these things were indicating that this man was really getting old now. Despite all of this, no one had ever dared to be disrespectful to Mengke. This was because it was not only because of his majestic aura, but also the respect deep in their hearts.

Mengke inherited his father's position of the Khan and took over the scepter and crown passed down to him when he was 14 years old. When he took over his father's position, a strong vassal called Gru took advantage of Mengke's young age and treated him as a puppet. The tyrant used Mengke's name to control the entire tribe.

Mengke did not show a sign of dissatisfaction, and he pretended that he knew nothing about any of this. Not only that, he also pretended that he was very fond of Gru at that time. However, without the knowledge of Gru, he secretly accumulated his own forces and cultivated his own generals. After two years, when Mengke felt like the time had come, he assassinated Gru with a killing blow when Gru was drunk and sleeping in his tent. After killing him, Mengke boldly commanded his generals and cleansed the entire tribe with the blood of Gru's faction, thus allowing himself to regain control of the tribe again.

For the next 30 plus years, Mengke's rule became more and more experienced and bloody. During his time, Mengke was called the "bloody butcher" and more than 5 tribes were exterminated. Up to now, the other smaller tribes were still living under his shadow. Mengke's name was so feared amongst the tribes that they dared not to even voice the tiniest dissatisfaction about Mengke at all.

Although the other tribes all feared him and spoke of Mengke in insulting and derogatory ways, to the Tian Qi tribe, Mengke was their supreme leader, their god, and they could even die for him.

When Mengke first took over the position of Khan, the tribe was only a medium-sized tribe and had only 4 to 5 thousand people. Under his rule, the tribe got bigger and stronger. Despite the barricades of their strong rivals, Tian Qi tribe managed to defeat them all and finally became the strongest tribe in the savanna. They were so strong that all of the other tribes respected him as the savanna's Khan.

With that said, the throne of this old Khan that looked like he was going to die was actually made with the blood of his enemies. Lakhshen was still a newborn child when Mengke inherited the position of Khan. He grew up hearing all sorts of stories about Mengke. Therefore, even after Lakhshen became a strong man like he was now, this lion of the savanna, he dared not show even the slightest disrespect at all.

At this moment, the old Khan sat up straight on his throne, showing no sign of burnout. After hearing Lakhshen's report, he opened his turbid eyes slightly and said hoarsely, "Tian Lian tribe? If I recall correctly, they just bought 100 Qingfu stallions from us not long ago?"

Suddenly, Lakhshen was struck with a thought about the incident and said, "Yes, my Khan, do you mean that the Tian Lian Tribe was eliminated because of these stallions? Someone grew greedy of these stallions, so they wiped out Tian Lian tribe for the stallions?"

" *Cough cough* Lakhshen, when looking at a problem, you must look at the cause of the problem in order to solve it. Tian Lian tribe is one of the smallest tribes in the savanna. They have neither precious treasures nor do they possess an area rich of lush green in the savanna. If that's the case, what else is worthy of being coveted?" Mengke coughed and said.

"My Khan, you are indeed the wisest man in our tribe." Lakhshen said respectfully.

"Are there any clues or traces of the remains of Tian Lian tribe?" asked Mengke.

Lakhshen shook his head and said, "There's nothing but ashes left. The Qingfu stallions they bought from us, and their own horses and sheep are all gone. Judging from the heat of the remains of the tribe, the attack occurred at around 7 AM this morning. The enemies were all cavalry, as there wasn't any other footsteps but only the horses' footsteps. Besides, this was probably a planned attack. Most of the body remains of the tribe people were found in the burned tents. This means that most of them were killed in the fire during their sleep."

Lakhshen was obviously an experienced warrior. Just by taking a look at the remains, he could still figure out what happened. This man was obviously not as foolhardy as he looked. Fortunately, Ouyang Shuo did not try to disguise the battlefield, otherwise the flaws would have been noticed by Lakhshen by now.

"Any survivors?" Mengke did not say anything and asked again.

Lakhshen shook his head and said morosely, "The enemies were as sly as a fox. They must have arranged scouts outside of the tribe, stopping and killing those who managed to escape from the tribe. Most of them were killed far away from the tribe after they escaped."

Suddenly, Mengke's turbid eyes opened. This time, his eyes turned extremely sharp and said, "It seems like there's a tribe that became unwilling to serve us and wants to challenge our dominance."

Lakhsen's heart pumped quickly upon hearing what Mengke said and asked, "My Khan, which of the tribes do you think it is?" He is very clear that once the conjecture was confirmed, it would mean an endless war.

"Hmph, Tian Lian tribe just received our support and they got wiped out straight away. What else could this mean other than trying to provoke us? Those missing stallions were just a decoy." Mengke said coldly, and suddenly a bloody aura materialized out of his body without warning.

Lakhshen's limbs froze for a moment. Even a man like him couldn’t withstand the pressure coming from the Khan. He barely stabilized himself and said, "To the south of Tian Lian tribe is just a river. To the west is the wilderness. To the north is us, and the east is the Tian Feng tribe. My Khan, are you suspicious that the annihilation of Tian Lian Tribe was caused by Tian Feng tribe?"

Mengke did not reply and sat emotionlessly on his throne, looking far into the distance. Lakhshen knew that his Khan was thinking of the problem and stood beside quietly.

10 minutes later, Mengke turned, looked at Lakhshen and said, "Dariachi is a very subtle man. He may be ambitious, but he will not act rashly. This man is a snake, he will quietly wait at the corner of the shadow waiting to deliver the killing bow while looking at us fighting each other, awaiting for us to show sign of tiredness. If we were to say this was the doing of Tian Feng tribe, it does not match Dariachi's behavior at all."

Confusion could be clearly seen on Lakhshen's face. This general was definitely good at fighting and had high intelligence, but this didn’t mean that he was good regarding these political issues.

"Then... who do you think did this, my Khan?" asked Lakhshen.

Mengke shook his head and said, "Without any further news, any speculations should never be made by a wise man as it may not be any help in solving the problem at all. My plan is that while we search for more clues, we should also improve our awareness on the other tribes. We’ll wait for the enemies to show up again and deal with them once and for all."

Although he was called the "bloody butcher", Mengke was not an irrational man at all. Of course, if he was an irrational man, he wouldn't have achieved so much by now.

"However, Lakhshen, I have a bad premonition that an immense storm is coming towards us. This storm will hit us with great strength, a strength that we have never seen before. We must be prepared for any scenario." Mengke said suddenly.

Lakhshen's heart pumped quickly again. In the Tian Qi tribe, Mengke was their god and his prediction was just like an oracle’s. Therefore, Lakhshen was easily convinced that a great storm was coming towards them.

However, Lakhshen was still a general, a man who was good at war, not politics. If he were to fight anyone he would never be afraid, so he said loudly, "Rest assured, my Khan! I'll let them know that the existence of anyone who provokes us will perish!"

Mengke nodded but he didn't say anything. He waved his hand and Lahkshen withdrew himself quietly.

Chapter 118 - Beihai Navy

The conversation that took place in the warchief tent of Tian Qi tribe was not known by Ouyang Shuo nor the war chief of Tian Feng tribe, Dariachi.

The State of Lian, Tian Feng Tribe Warchief's Tent.

"Huqitu, what do you think of Tian Lian tribe's annihilation?" asked Dariachi.

Sitting a few levels down from the throne of Dariachi is a young man in his twenties. He has a tall and muscular body figure, handsome features on his face, and his curly hair added even more points in his charm. This man was Huqitu, the only general in Tian Feng tribe. He led every soldier of Tian Feng tribe except for Darichi's elite guards.

Upon learning that the Tian Lian tribe was wiped out, Huqitu actually rushed to the scene as fast as he could. He too, came to the same conclusion that Lakhshen had made after examining the remains of the tribe. The only thing different was that Huqitu knew that this was not a doing of his tribe.

From Huqitu’s perspective, the truth to this incident was covered with a thick layer of mist, preventing people from understanding the truth. The surrounding tribes had no motives to do it, but this incident still happened just like that.

"Warchief, this case is very strange. I am thinking that maybe there's a tribe that is trying to frame us." Huqitu said cautiously.

Dariachi frowned and said in a deep voice, "Yes, this man has an ill intention. It appears that he wants to provoke our relationship with the Tian Qi tribe."

"Who do you think did this?" Huqitu asked.

Dariachi shook his head and said, “I am not sure. It could be the tribes from the west or the tribes from the north. It could even be the Tian Qi tribe themselves that did this."

"Tian Qi tribe!?" said Huqitu shockingly.

"Yes, Mengke is an old fox. In order to suppress the smaller tribes, he could do anything for it. Don't forget, there's a reason why he is called the 'bloody butcher’. If there is a reason for him to suppress us, a small tribe would mean nothing to him at all."

Huqitu couldn't believe it, and said, “Warchief, I still don't understand. If it really was the Tian Qi tribe, they should've sent people here to question us. However, they did not do anything at all."

"Yes, this is the part where I can't understand. That is why it is really confusing." Even with his capability, he still could not figure out anything at all.

"Could it be our new neighbour from the south? Huqitu asked boldly.

Dariachi's heart skipped a beat upon hearing it. However, he shook his head and said, "It shouldn't be. First of all, they do not have the strength to do it for now. Second, they do not have the motives. As you can see, they hope to maintain business trading with our tribes still."

Huqitu did not believe his statement as well, as he’d just simply made that statement. After hearing what his war chief said, he cleared his confusion, but the biggest mystery was still not clear yet.

"Anyhow, what done is done. It'll not just stop at this point. There'll be some unknown changes in the future that cannot be foreseen right now. However, no matter what the changes arge, it will still come down to the comparison of strength between us and our enemies." Dariachi concluded. He said in a serious manner, "Huqitu, order your army and tell them not to let their guard down no matter what. During this period of time, strengthen the patrol on the border. Other than that, increase the strength of our army as much as you can. You could also consider maintaining the trades with the Friendship Town of the south to gather as much iron ore as possible."

"Understood!" Huqitu said loudly and left.

After Huqitu left the tent, Dariachi looked up to the top of his tent as if his stare could pierce through the tent and look far into the sky. He then muttered to himself. “A great storm is coming. The god of savanna, will this be a chance for our Tian Feng tribe to rise and become the greatest tribe in the savanna?”

……

11th of May, Beihai Town Harbour

After one month of development, the construction of Beihai Harbour was officially completed. Beihai Harbour was located near the estuary. It belonged to a natural harbour with a naturally-protected bay for ships to dock in.

Beihai Harbour was built for military purposes. It mainly provided services to the navy. The services included providing a docking place for the warships, supplies, shelter, equipment, and so on. Therefore, Beihai Harbour was also known as the naval base, well-equipped with appropriate technology and various facilities. The navy camp was transferred to Beihai Harbour as soon as the harbour’s construction was completed.

The current state of the Beihai Harbour was that it also carried the responsibility of a fishing port, allowing the fishing vessels to anchor, and load and unload goods. It provided shelter and resource replenishment. It also provided services like processing of the caught fish, vessel maintenance, manufacturing of fishing gears, and a resting place for the crews.

The southern water of Beihai Town was the South Sea North Bay. The largest island north bay was of course the Qing Zhou Island. After the modification of the game system where the island was magnified by 10 times, it now covered an area of about 350 thousand square kilometres, 1.5 times Lianzhou Basin’s size. There were of course some other smaller islands other than Qing Zhou Island.

However, most of these islands had no inhabitants. They were mostly deserted islands, but also some of the islands had formed their own ecological systems, where resources suitable for inhabitation were abundant due to the existence of an inland lake or river. As such, these islands had become the ideal places for the pirates.

Especially after the game map enlargement, those tiny islands in the reality had suddenly become suitable for inhabitants. Because of this sole reason, Ouyang Shuo had decided to order his navy to launch expeditions around these islands. This was because he dared not draw conclusions based on reality, as they may have been altered drastically in the game.

Somewhere in the northwest corner of the North Bay, near the border between Vietnam and China, there was an island called Moon Island. This island covered an area of about 50 square kilometers, equivalent to the area occupied by a grade 2 village. In reality, this island would’ve only been a 5 square kilometer island.

The Moon Island was infested with a group of approximately 3000 pirates, calling themselves the Black Shark. Their leader was called Black Beard. Because of the geographical location of Moon Island which was nearer to Vietnam, their main plundering targets were often the Vietnamese coastal villages.

In the Vietnamese coastal areas, Black Beard had become the nightmare, especially among the ranks of the lord-type players. Ever since the game was launched, the Black Shark, along with its leader, Black Beard, had raided no less than 30 players’ villages.

Of course, the Black Shark knew their own limits and never tried to test their luck by provoking the system-built cities.

One day, as if they’d all gone mad, the Black Shark did not proceed to raid the Vietnamese coastal villages, but instead headed to the Northern Chinese coastal areas.

Needless to say, the patrols had spotted them before the Black Shark could even reach Beihai Town. While preparing for the encounter, the soldiers on the Meng Chong warships also launched their emergency flares upon seeing the pirate ships.

This time, Black Beard had brought 3 pirate ships with him, carrying around 300 pirates in total. He was shocked when he saw the Meng Chong warships. He was even more shocked when Beihai Harbour appeared in his sight, as this kind of harbour only existed within the game system.

On the other side, upon seeing the flares fired by the patrols, Pei Donglai quickly boarded the warship and led the remaining 4 Meng Chong warships to the scene. Meng Chong warships were designed to be long and narrow for mobility purposes in order to pierce through enemy formation fiercely.

Meng Chong warships’ cabins and floors were all covered with cow hides to increase their fire resistances. Both sides of the warship had a few slots for the paddles. Above the deck was a 3- floor cabin, all wrapped with cow hides as well. Each layer of the cabin had places allocated for crossbows for offensive purposes.

Therefore, in around 20 minutes, while Black Beard was still hesitating, the 4 Meng Chong warships and Pei Donglai had arrived and joined the patrols.

Upon seeing the superior capabilities of Meng Chong warships, coupled with the reversal of strength in both parties and the lack of information about the opposite party’s strength, Black Beard ordered his pirates to retreat without hesitating.

As the pirates retreated, Pei Donglai chased after the enemies for a short distance, and returned back to the base.

There were several reasons why Pei Dong Lai did not pursue the pirates even further. 1st, there wasn’t much of a gap between his navy and the pirates in terms of their strengths, thus they could not overwhelm the pirates with strength. 2nd, the navy had not experienced any real battles, so if they were to fight with the pirates, chances were that they might’ve lost the battle.

As it went in the art of war, it was not very wise to chase after fleeing enemies irrationally, not to mention a group of pirates at full strength.

After returning to Beihai Town, Pei Donglai immediately wrote a report about the encounter and sent it to Ouyang Shuo for further orders.

……

On the 12th of May, Ouyang Shuo received the urgent report from the navy.

After reading the letter, thousands of thoughts ran around crazily in Ouyang Shuo’s mind. The encounter indicated that the pirates had learned about the existence of Beihai Town, and that the town would no longer be able to develop peacefully.

In order to protect Beihai Town, to ensure the safety of this strategic fortress, Ouyang Shuo wrote a letter to Pei Donglai requesting him to expand the navy and to form a navy fleet. At the same time, he also requested Pei Donglai to find out more information about the pirates as soon as possible. If possible, it would be best to locate their lair.

To Ouyang Shuo, only the elimination of each and every single one of the pirates and their lairs would Beihai Town continue to develop peacefully. If not, god knew if they would just pop out of nowhere and launch a surprise attack.

Chapter 119 - Campaign System

While Ouyang Shuo was racking his brains about the future development of Beihai Town, a system announcement popped out among those in the China region.

“System Notice : China has successfully promoted 100 town level territories, triggering the campaign system. The first battle - The War of Zhuo Lu, will officially commence after 3 days. Friendly tips : The War of Zhuo Lu is a non-mandatory campaign task, and only those with a town level territory are eligible.”

This notice caused an uproar among the players, as they were not aware of the campaign system. There was also not a single detail about it on the official website. Even Di Chen and the others had no prior knowledge about the campaign system as well.

As compared to the previous territorial defence missions, this campaign’s battle was on a much smaller scale, but the attractive and exciting features it contained were definitely on par with the former. Due to the restrictions made by the system, only the top 100 players with town level territories were eligible for the campaign.

As for those who were still struggling with a village level territory, they could only voice out their useless dissatisfaction and protests while those who were qualified were preparing themselves for the campaign. However, there were also some of them who were not qualified and not satisfied trying to see if they could raise their territory level to a town level territory in order to be eligible.

Compared to those who were still lost, Ouyang Shuo had a clear mind. Earth Online’s most unique feature ---- campaign map, was finally going to be launched. In his previous life, lord-type players described the campaign map as a dimensional war. With this description, it could be justified how exciting a campaign war could get.

This so-called campaign scenario was similar to a scenario mission. The system would generate a temporary dimensional map based on a historical battle. Those who were eligible were able to lead their armies and pick a faction to join through a teleportation formation.

In the campaign scenario, many famous figures were generated. A player could follow them and participate in the selected historical war. The player could even change the history if his or her presence was strong enough to affect the tides of war. This immense feeling where a player participated in an epic scenario like this was undoubtedly very attractive.

In general, there will only be at most one historical war for every dynasty. As soon as the campaign scenario of a dynasty ends, the historical figures of the dynasty will start to appear in the game, awaiting capable players to recruit them.

Therefore, as the game progressed into the late game, there will be a huge amount of historical figures from different dynasties in the game to be recruited. With this, the chances of players to recruit mighty warrior figures or powerful strategist figures will be increased drastically.

Another advantage of the campaign scenario was, of course, the merit points. The later the game was, the harder the requirements to raise the player’s title. Using Ouyang Shuo as an example, he was now a second rank count, which was the highest title among the players for now. However, for him to promote into a first rank count, the difficulty was still very high, not to mention the title of marquis that was one rank higher as the required merit points were simply absurdly high.

The campaign scenario provided players an opportunity to obtain more merit points. In each arc and every scenario, the system were to rank the players’ ranking based on their contribution. The higher the rank was, the better the merit points awarded to the players. For the top ten players, they were to be awarded with some special rewards too.

The most appealing part of the scenarios were not only these. For lord type players, famous generals and strategists were what they desired the most. In scenarios, players will have the chances to trigger quests on recruiting these famous figures, only by completing these quests will the players be able to recruit them and bring them back to their own base.

Bai Qi The Human Butcher, Xiang Yu The Overlord Of Western Chu, Zhao Yun The God Of Martial Arts, Li Jing The Military God and other figures who were well known will all appear in these campaign scenarios one by one, just thinking about them would make one fired up completely.

At the current state of the game, everyone knew that it was very rare to get a famous figure. Even with the conditions and wealthiness of Shanhai Town, other than Shi Wan Sui who was awarded for building the village, there were only two king class figures which were Fan Zhong Yan and Tian Wen Jing. Based on this, the rarity of every single famous figures could be seen.

After the system announcement, every lord type player had received the notification, including Ouyang Shuo of course.

“System notification: In order to ease the opening of the campaign scenario, the system will set up a teleportation formation at your territory, no cost will be charged. Please choose the location for the portal to be set up wisely. Gentle reminder: this teleportation formation will be permanent, it can also be used for travelling within the territory, please think twice before confirming the location.”

A blue light flashed across the screen, and a holographic map of Shanhai Town appeared in front of Ouyang Shuo.

The choosing of the teleportation formation should be very particular. First of all, the portal could not be built indoors. Therefore, it should be built at an open space. Other than that, for convenience purposes, the space allocated should be very spacious to prevent people crowding at one place.

However, the portal cannot be built outside of the town as the portal can be destroyed. If it was placed outside of the town, it would be very vulnerable to enemies’ attack and reinforcement will not be able to teleport here if the portal is destroyed.

Finally, Ouyang Shuo decided to place the portal at the east side of the town square as the place wasot only wide, it was also very close to the military area, therefore, the safety of the portal will be ensured.

“System notification: Location for teleportation formation is confirmed, the portal is now being generated.”

“System notification : Teleportation formation is generated. Player can now view it at own will.”

Walking out of the town hall, Ouyang Shuo could see a gigantic teleportation formation standing at the east side of the town square.

The entire teleportation formation was in the shape of a disc, around 10 meters in diameter. It was made with a material that looked neither like rocks nor jade, and it appears to be very simple. At the core of the portal, there was the iconic black and white Tai Chi symbol, rotating non-stop slowly in the clockwise direction. The center of the core was the pattern of Bagua and the outermost area was the sexagenary cycle.

At the four cardinal directions of the portal stood four bronze statues. They were the Azure Dragon of the East, the White Tiger of the West, the Vermilion Bird of the South and the Black Tortoise of the North, the four celestial guardians. Using the four celestial guardians statues, a surrounding barrier was formed around the portal, blocking those who have no permission to enter the portal.

Ouyang Shuo walked towards the portal and placed his right hand on the barrier to adjust the settings of the portal.

“System notification : Please select which player to be authorized for using the portal.”

As there was only one player in the entire Shanhai Town, Ouyang Shuo set the portal authorization to only himself.

“System notification : Please select the mode of territory teleportation, you may choose one from the following three: free teleportation, permitted teleportation only or war-time limited teleportation only.”

Other than that, the portal’s barrier was only one-way. That said, it can stop people from entering the portal but it can’t stop someone from walking out of the portal.

Therefore, for the sake of the territory’s safety, there must be a restriction on the portal transmission mode.

Free teleportation mode had the least restriction. It meant that anyone from the ally’s side could access the portal at anytime without authorization. Therefore, no lord really used this mode unless your ally was someone who you really can entrust your territory’s safety to. This was because no one can guarantee that each and every ally one had was actually reliable.

If someone in his allies have been bribed by his enemies, the enemies could easily access his portal from the portal of that particular ally. If the enemies were cautious enough, he will not even feel anything. This was undoubtedly dangerous, with the cautious personality of Ouyang Shuo, he will definitely not choose this mode.

In order to prevent this kind of possible infiltration, the second kind of teleportation mode was introduced. This was the permitted teleportation only mode. In this mode, whoever that wishes to access the portal in your territory will have to be authorized first. While they’re waiting to be authorized, the owner of the portal could see who was asking for the authorization and the time they wished to access it. With these information, as long as the owner has some precaution measures, the enemies will be unable to cause any troubles easily.

Of course, if you are even more of a cautious character, you can also pick the third mode ― war-time limited teleportation only. In this mode, only when there is territory war and you need reinforcements will the allies receive your permission and teleport here and it will not be available to them when there was no war.

This mode was suitable for those allies who he didn’t really trusted very much as there was still some risk even in the mode of permitted teleportation only.

Similarly, those who were allies because of sole military purposes were also suitable for the war-time limited teleportation too. This was due to both of the parties becoming allies on the basis of only helping each other in war but not in aspects like economy and so on.

“Select permitted teleportation only!” said Ouyang Shuo.

Although the members of Shanhai Alliance have yet to establish a high level of mutual trust, Ouyang Shuo was confident that he was capable of minimizing the risk to a level he could control. After all, the Military Intelligence Division and Security Division was not just for show. If an ally had betrayed the alliance, under the circumstances of an early alert, Ouyang Shuo believed that the other side could not deliver much of a problem. The final mode of teleportation seemed like one was trying to isolate his own territory after all.

“System notification: Would you like to open the teleportation formation?”

No matter which it was, the three mentioned modes of teleportation had a prerequisite, which was the teleportation among the allies. If one did not form an alliance with another, a player will never be able to teleport around each other’s territory.

However, if a friend or an officer he wished to recruit was need to be teleported over into his base, what should he do? At this aspect, the system was still very user-friendly. Other than the three aforementioned modes, it had also designed a special teleportation mode.

This so-called name-adding special mode was that every lord had a list of permitted people in using the portal, all the lord needed to do was just add in the name of the person he wants to authorize and the people will then be able to teleport to his base through any teleportation formation.

“Open the teleportation formation!” said Ouyang Shuo with no hesitation.

Chapter 120 - Invitation

After the completion of the teleportation formation, Ouyang Shuo checked the teleportation fees.

On the battlefield map, every single individual would be charged 1 gold. Between territories during wartime, each individual cost 1 gold, or 10 gold each during times of peace. While the special mode of teleportation name-adding would be charged at 20 gold per individual.

All the prices stated above applied only to single-way teleportation. That is, if you visited an ally, a round trip would cost you 20 gold.

These teleportation fees were charged directly by the system, so the lord would not benefit a single copper from them. Of course, there was simply nothing to complain about, since the teleportation formation itself was constructed for free by the system.

“System notice: Select your payment methods!”

As stated before, the teleportation formation could charge at either end. Just like mailing services in the real world, one could choose to pay through either the sender or the recipient.

Battlefield map teleportation fees were naturally paid for by their own lords. While for teleportation fees between territories, Ouyang Shuo had decided that Shanhai would fully pay for the teleportation fees during wartime, whereas during times of peace, Shanhai would pay the teleportation fees for the visitors back to their respective territories.

While the add-on teleportation was a one-way teleportation, naturally it would be paid for by Shanhai Town.

With Shanhai’s financial status, Ouyang Shuo could totally bear all the costs on his own. However, as the leader of the union, his position did not allow him to do so, as he had to take care of his allies’ feelings.

The teleportation fees taken on by Shanhai Town would be a benchmark to the union members.

If Ouyang Shuo had decided to bear all the costs to act as the good person, then the others would’ve had to be forced to follow after him. Otherwise, if they did not follow his act of bearing all the costs, they would be looked down upon by their fellow members. These fees might have meant nothing to Shanhai Town, but they could be big financial burdens to the other lords, and that was not something he would like to see.

That said, as a lord, especially as the leader of a union, one must fairly understand the art of moderation. So it had to be known when to stop, and the limits should not be passed. Otherwise, one could pave a road to hell with good intentions.

After setting the fee payment methods, a series of system prompts rang in Ouyang Shuo’s ears.

“System notice: Please fully prepare your troops for the first battlefield. Note: The number of soldiers the lord can bring along is directly linked to the lord’s rank.

3rd viscount is limited to 100 men, 2nd viscount 200 men, 1st viscount 300 men.

3rd earl is limited to 500 men, 2nd earl 1000 men, 1st earl 3000 men.

3rd marquis is limited to 10,000 men, 2nd marquis 20,000 men, 1st marquis 50,000 men. A lord with the rank of Duke has no soldier limits and can decide the number freely.”

Ouyang Shuo’s rank was now 2nd earl, which meant that he could bring along 1000 soldiers. Including the soon-to-be-expanded naval unit, Shanhai’s official military forces had reached a total of 4000 soldiers. As for specifically which units would be participating in the battle, Ouyang Shuo still had to have some discussions with Ge Hongliang.

Leaving the teleportation formation, Ouyang Shuo sent mail messages to his 4 allies, inviting them over to Shanhai for a gathering along with a discussion meeting tomorrow morning.

To be honest, making such a decision was a difficult step for Ouyang Shuo. He was reluctant in the first place. Inviting the allies over would mean that Ouyang Shuo would be taking off the layers of mysteries, and unveiling the true face of Shanhai, exposing it clearly to them.

However, as the union leader, Ouyang Shuo found it necessary to do so. Only by doing so could the union members build up trust amongst one another, slowly shaping the union into an unified body.

Back at the manor, Ouyang Shuo gathered the 4 directors. They would prepare the town for tomorrow’s visit from their allies. Since it was a gathering, there would of course be a touring session.

Although they were his allies, there were still limitations on what they could and couldn’t see. There were others they were allowed to see, but only up to a certain extent. All these matters had to be taken into serious consideration by Ouyang Shuo.

……

Consonance Town, Council Chamber.

“Qiyue Wuyi invited us to Shanhai Town tomorrow for a discussion on the Battle of Zhuolu. Which of you will come along with me? I’m saying this beforehand, Tsing Yi will be coming. It’s a must.” Bai Hua asked and looked around.

Tsing Yi nodded and stayed silent.

Zi Luolan laughed and said, “How unexpected. He openly invited us over to Shanhai to have a tour. Such an event, I wouldn’t want to miss it.”

“What’s so special about it? We all have a territory. I won’t be going.” Hong Ying said.

Bai Hua nodded and said, “Alright, in that case, Hong Ying will stay in the territory and the 3 of us will leave for Shanhai tomorrow.”

……

Mulan Town, Mayor’s Office.

“Sister, come together with me to Shanhai.” Mulan Yue smiled and said in a playful manner.

Mu Guiying, her eyes filled with love while looking at Mulan Yue, said, “Why, you don’t dare to go alone?”

Mulan Yue nodded and said, “En, what if this Qiyue Wuyi is a big bad guy? It is safer if sister comes along with me. Then I will not be worried.”

“Alright, I will follow you.”

……

Similar conversations were also taking place in Xunlong Town and Black Lion Town.

……

Shanhai Town. Council Chamber.

“Everyone, do all of you know of the teleportation formation at the town square?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

“Yes my lord, do you know what it was about?” Fan Zhongyan asked.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, and he explained the teleportation formation and the battlefield map to them, then continued on saying, “This time the Battle of Zhuolu means alot to us. There must be no mistakes and must be done properly. As for the troops we will deploy, what are the thoughts of the Military Affairs Department?”

Ge Hongliang pondered and said, “First, it is warfare on land, so the naval unit will definitely not be suitable. Moreover, the nomadic tribes are getting a little uneasy lately, and the cavalry unit holds a great responsibility to defend against the tribes, so we should not move them easily. Therefore, my suggestion is that the deployed units be formed mainly of infantry, with cavalry assisting them. Within the infantry, the crossbow infantry would come first.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, “Your words are wise. In that case, the deployed units will be like this. From the 3 city defense units, 2 bow squadrons and 3 crossbow squadrons will be the main attacking force. From the infantry unit, 3 infantry squadrons with one of the squadrons equipped with the Buren Armor will act as the defense force. Lastly, from the cavalry unit, 2 cavalry squadrons will support them with coordinated actions. In addition, get an intelligence team from Military Intelligence Division to follow the expedition team. The details of how deployment will be done will be given to the Military Affairs Department and the respective units to settle.”

“Understood!” Ge Hongliang answered and questioned afterwards. “My lord, what about the general and officers?”

As for which officers to select, it was a sensitive issue. With Ge Hongliang’s status, he didn’t dare to make the decisions himself. Not to mention Shi Wanshui, even just Lin Yi and Pei Donglai, the two intermediate officers, were both comparable to Ge Hongliang in terms of status.

Ouyang Shuo pondered before answering the question. “The expedition will be led by me personally, with Director Ge as the strategist. As for the infantry, General Shi will be the main commander while Zhao Sihu will act as his assistant. The cavalry will be led by Lin Yi alone. The Military Intelligence Division team will be led by Song San himself.” Since the time flow rates of the battlefield map and the main world map were different, Ouyang Shuo did not leave any officers back to stay and guard the territory.

Ge Hongliang nodded and said nothing.

“After the meeting, Military Affairs will have to gather the troops as fast as possible, and conduct a joint training. Furthermore, the Combat Logistics Division, Armoury Division, and Bow and Crossbow Division will have to fully prepare the logistics of the troops.” Ouyang Shuo continued his orders.

“Understood!” Ge Hongliang answered.

After finishing discussions regarding the expedition, Ouyang Shuo then said, “Tomorrow morning, there will be guests visiting Shanhai Town. These guests are our allies.”

“Big brother, how do you plan to welcome them?” Yingyu asked.

“I have planned tomorrow’s schedule this way: We will make a small welcome ceremony at the teleportation formation, followed by an official alliance ceremony. Then we will give them a tour around Shanhai Town, and the area will only be limited to the town. Lastly, there will be a discussion meeting regarding the Battle of Zhuolu in the council chamber.” Ouyang Shuo thus explained his plan.

The 4 directors’ faces sank instantly. The schedule Ouyang Shuo’d planned wasn’t simple at all.

“The task is hard and we are pressed for time, so I will briefly divide the work. The welcome ceremony, we need not prepare for this, just follow me and give them a welcome. The venue for the alliance ceremony shall be selected by Mr. Xi Wen with the help of the Material Reserves Department. The only condition I ask for is a solemn and official atmosphere. As for the tour, other than the military-restricted area, the other places need not to be restricted. We will open them to our allies. Lastly, the discussion meeting will be prepared by the Military Affairs Department.” Ouyang Shuo said with a smiling face.

“Understood!” Those whose names were mentioned all answered.

“Seizing this opportunity, the Military Affairs Department will make a simple military parade. It will be done by the 1,000 soldiers that will participate in the Battle of Zhuolu. We will take this chance to show our allies our military weapons and equipment. The Finance Department should prepare yourselves, as you might be dealing with our allies in trading weapons and equipment.” Ouyang Shuo suddenly remembered. Why didn’t he take this opportunity to start the arms trading industry of Shanhai Town?

Ge Hongliang answered yes immediately. However, Yingyu was hesitant. As the descendant of a business family, she wasn’t familiar with the prices of weaponry, so she asked Ouyang Shuo directly. “Does big brother have any prices in mind?”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, “For armors, Mingguang armor is not for sale, leave that alone. A set of Buren armor will be sold at a price of 25 gold. As for weapons, a Tang sword will be priced at 5 gold, longbows or hornbows at 10 gold, while a God arm crossbow will be priced at 15 gold.”

Ouyang Shuo gave the prices not from a cost-profit point of view, but rather according to the supply-demand relationship in the market.

With Ouyang Shuo giving the numbers, Yingyu had a benchmark to follow. She smiled and said, “Alright, big brother can be at ease and let the Finance Department handle it. We will see it done.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, “One more thing, the Finance Department will have to deliver the gold from Langshan mining field to me. Raise a sum of gold. I am running out of funds.”

“Understood!” Yingyu nodded.

Chapter 121 - Alliance

May 13, 9 AM, Shanhai Town Teleportation Formation.

Ouyang Shuo led the four directors of Shanhai and waited beside the teleportation formation, preparing to welcome their allies’ arrival.

The first guests to arrive were Mulan Yue and Mu Guiying from Mulan Town which was nearest from Shanhai Town.

This was the first time Ouyang Shuo saw Mulan Yue. At the age of 18 or 19, she was dressed in a light blue skirt, her black hair touching her shoulder, tied with an ocean-blue silk cloth. Her eyes shined brightly, filled with a smile of purity, her blushing red cheek gave a cute feeling, she looked like a butterfly and pure innocent snow.

Ouyang Shuo couldn’t imagine that such a cute little girl in front of him would be one of the 3 overlords of Lianzhou in his past life. In the past life, rumors said that Mulan Yue was a cold female lord, she seldom interacted with players. Ouyang Shuo had no idea what had happened to her that caused her personality to change so drastically.

Behind her stood a female general, valiant, imposing, equipped with military armor, held a spear in her hands, an aura of a heroine spirit came gushing out from her. Needless to say, she got to be the legendary female general of Yang Family, Mu Guiying.

When the two walked out from the teleportation formation, Ouyang Shuo welcomed them warmly, and said: “Welcome to Shanhai Town, I suppose the two of you must be Mulan Lord, Mulan Yue and General Mu Guiying?”

“Ah, how did you recognize us, I haven’t introduced myself yet.” Mulan Yue was surprised.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Mu Guiying behind Mulan Yue and said: “I might not know the others, but I can definitely recognize the legendary heroine General Mu Guiying.”

“So you had gotten the clue from sister Mu, no wonder!” Mulan Yue said in a silly tone.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, and introduced the directors to the two.

Right at this moment, another 3 lades came out from the teleportation formation.

Walking in the foremost front was a lady, age 27 or 28. She wore a white palace dress, simple yet elegant. She had black hair as dark as ink yet smooth as jade, curled into a bun with a few simple ornaments, embellishing her appearance further. She had perfect facial features with peach-white skin; her aqua colored iris, crystal clear and yet bright, but deep in it lurked a slight stream of coldness, as if her eyes can see through everything. She had perfect shoulders, a slim waist, sharp eyebrows, and white skin.

They’ve met in the auction, therefore Ouyang Shuo could naturally recognize the lady, Lord Bai Hua.

Behind and left of Bai Hua stood a lady, age 25 or 26. She was dressed in a lavender purple dress, her cuffs embroidered with light blue orchids with silver linings delineating the flower petals, the hem of the dress was colored in ice-blue, a wide silver brocade covered her chest, the dress swayed everytime she moved. She had a simple tassel bun, a pair of attractive eyes, red florid skin hue, a little cherry mouth, and looked tender and beautiful. Her black hair flowed down the sides of her cheeks, dangling in the winds while her eyes shined with cleverness and artfulness.

In the past, Shuo had met Zi Luolan before, hence he could recognize her immediately.

The last lady was actually about the same age as Mulan Yue. Her long green silk robe touched the floor, plain and simple, only her cuffs were sewed in red with a few half-blooming oleanders, a white silk sash tied in her waist, a small pouch and jade on her waist. Unlike the two ladies, the little girl tied her hair in a simpler way, her hair fringe casually scattered yet neat. She brought a feeling of natural freshness.

Ouyang Shuo went forward to them and smiled: “Lord Bai Hua, welcome, welcome!”

Bai Hua nodded as a reply, turned and introduced the other two to Ouyang Shuo. Only then did Ouyang Shuo know that the last girl was Tsing Yi, naturally they greeted each other.

Because they had an agreed time, within minutes, Xunlong Dianxue and Gong Chengshi had arrived after one another.

Just like Mulan Yue, the two late arrivals had brought along their one-and-only historical figure from their territory. Xunlong Dianxue brought along the famous General Qin Qiong of the Tang dynasty, while Gong Chengshi brought along the famous strategist Ju Shou from the era of the Three Kingdoms.

Qin Qiong, or otherwise Qin Shubao, a master of the horse lance, was known for his bravery and courage.

He was originally a Sui dynasty general under major general Lai Hu'er, he then followed general Zhang Xutuo to fight the rebel Li Mi. Zhang Xutuo was killed and Qin Qiong thereafter served under the command of the general Pei Renji. He followed general Pei Renji and they surrendered to Li Mi together.

After Li Mi’s defeat, he served under Sui general Wang Shichong. But Wang Shichong was suspicious and often believed in defamations, and in the end, Qin Qiong and another general, Cheng Yaojin, surrendered to the Tang dynasty and they served under the Prince of Qin, Li Shimin.

He fought countless battles for Li Shimin, he fought in the frontline every time and was able to destroy and finish his enemies. But during his old age, he was often ill. He died in Year 638 and was listed as one of the 24 great contributors to Tang at Lingyan Pavilion.

Qin Qiong could be counted as the same era with that of Shi Wanshui. But Shi Wanshui was dead when Qin Qiong was still at a young age, therefore the two have never met before.

Ju Shou was late Eastern Han Dynasty warlord Yuan Shao’s adviser and strategist. He was an Attendant Officer of Ji Province, was nominated as maocai1, and was the clerk of two counties in Ji Province. He was young but ambitious and a master of tactical strategies. Under the governor Han Fu, he was promoted to Cavalry Commandant. After warlord Yuan Shao took over Ji Province, he recruited Ju Shou as his advisor. Often Ju Shou would propose plans and strategies but Yuan Shao refused to listen. During the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao was defeated and Ju Shou was captured by warlord Cao Cao. He refused to surrender and hence was executed by Cao Cao.

Seeing Qin Qiong and Ju Shou, Ouyang Shuo was envious, these two talents were really needed by Shanhai. General Qin Qiong, a master in horse lance, he was the best candidate for the position of heavy cavalry instructor. The Tang dynasty Mingguang cavalry was equipped with the fearsome lance as a primary weapon.

A tip of a lance can easily penetrate through their targets, a lance of high-quality would carry the same property as a good sword. Ordinary chainmail, iron armor, Minguang armor, they would all be pierced through by a lance like a piece of paper. The lance was long and heavy, it was not easy for one to master it. Even in history, generals who wielded a lance were only a few from the Tang dynasty, such as Qin Qiong, Cheng Yaojin,Yuchi Gong and Li Cunxiao.

Ju Shou was also a strategist Shanhai was lacking of. In comparison, Ju Shou was way beyond the scales of Ge Hongliang. With the forces of Shanhai growing rapidly, they will face various challenges, a professional strategist advisor like Ju Shou meant a lot to Shanhai.

When the crowd have all arrived, there was no reason to stay at the town square anymore, hence Ouyang Shuo brought them into the manor.

……

Manor, Coucil Chamber.

After everyone took a seat in the chamber, Ouyang Shuo smiled and said: “First off, I would like to welcome everyone to Shanhai Town. Today is the first meeting the Shanhai Alliance gathers together, such a rare opportunity. In order to express our goodwill, we will have a simple alliance ceremony. Shall we?”

“Brother Wuyi had thought it through, indeed we should have an alliance ceremony. Didn’t the ancient lords have the ceremony with the rituals, prayers and things like that.” Xunlong Dianxue was the first to agree.

Bai Hua and Gong Chengshi nodded in agreement. When Mulan Yue heard that a ceremony will be held, fun was the only thing she cared about and so, of course she wouldn’t decline.

Seeing that everyone had agreed, Ouyang Shuo stood up and walked out to the back mountains.

At the back mountains, the two Nian beasts saw the crowd coming, however they ignored them and continued their own sunbath.

Yet it was shocking for the lords to see the Nian beasts before their eyes. All of them had participated in the festival event in New Years Eve, of course they knew what creatures the two beasts were.

“Ah, aren’t they the Nian beasts that feeds on humans? Brother Wuyi, how did they appear here?” Mulan Yue couldn’t hide her words, she asked in pure innocence.

Since Ouyang Shuo had chosen the ceremony to take place at the back mountains, he had never thought of hiding the beasts from his allies. He laughed and explained: “Be at ease, they will hurt no one. During the event, I was fortunate to have a contract scroll and was able to tame the beasts, and now, these 2 Nian beasts are the guardians of Shanhai Town, not beasts of destruction but instead beasts of auspiciousness.”

Their doubts were lifted by the explanation, but the way they looked at Ouyang Shuo became more elusive. Just from the tip of the iceberg, one can clearly see the depths of Shanhai Town.

In the ancient times, an alliance ceremony had several steps. Before the ceremony, a square hole had been digged at the mountain top, and inside was a bison. The bison’s left ear and the blood would be contained in two separate containers. Then, Tian Wenjiang proceeded to use the blood as ink to write the alliance covenant.

Fan Zhongyan will then hold the blood container and read out the covenant, if there were no objections from the allies, the covenant will be read again facing north, dedicated to the Gods. After that, Ouyang Shuo will then take the bison’s left ear container and wipe the blood on his mouth, followed by his allies. Lastly, the bison would be killed and buried along with the covenant in the square hole. That then marks the end of the ceremony.

During the ceremony, the two female lords, Bai Hua and Mulan Yue, were reluctant to wipe the blood on their mouth, hence they had only wiped it below their jaws. The male lords were kind and could understand their acts so they did not force them. However, Gong Chengshi was a true man, he had drank a mouthful of blood instead of just wiping it.

Maocai1茂才: outstanding civil service candidate

Chapter 122 - Tour

After the ceremony, it was already 10 AM.

The military parade was ready. A thousand soldiers were gathered and lined up in the town square, waiting for their officers.

Ouyang Shuo invited the lords to follow him up to the viewing platform. The platform was divided into two sections. The front section sat the 5 lords, while the back section sat their officers. In the middle was Ouyang Shuo, to his left were Bai Hua and Mulan Yue; on his right was Xunlong Dianxue and Gong Chengshi.

“What you are about to witness is the expeditionary team that will be deployed to the Battle of Zhoulu. The best of the best from Shanhai have gathered right here. Shanhai has now revealed its secret to all of you.” Ouyang Shuo said with a smiling face.

Due to the limitation on the number of soldiers, the 1000 soldiers marched past the reviewing platform in squadrons. As the commander of the parade, Shi Wanshui had mounted a Qingfu warhorse and marched in the forefront. Behind him were 3 infantry squadrons, the 1st to appear was the heavy infantry squadron equipped with the Tang sword and Buren armor. Then following the infantry were the 2 bow squadrons and 3 crossbow squadrons in leather armor. The last to march were the 2 cavalry squadrons. Mounted on Qingfu warhorses, equipped with a Tang sword and horn bow, with lances in their hands. The first 50 cavalry were instead equipped with Mingguang armor.

As they watched the soldiers march past the viewing platform in step, different thoughts lurked in their minds.

Bai Hua’s attention was drawn to the Emperor-level historical figure, Shi Wanshui. Before this, she had met with Fan Zhongyang and Tian Wenjing, the two King-level historical figures. She’d thought that they were the rewards from Ouyang Shuo’s summoning talisman when he acquired the village creation token. But who knew that there was again another one hiding in the military?

Her completion rate during the village creation quests was considered high, and yet she was only rewarded with a Silver-level Village Creation Token and a King-level Summoning Talisman. If this is the case, it seems like the gold-level token must have been acquired by him.

Xunlong Dianxue was eyeing the calvary enviously. Having Qin Qiong as his territory general, it was natural for him to wish for a similar thing that Ouyang Shuo wished for: a fully-equipped elite cavalry unit. Unfortunately, whether be it warhorses, weapons, or armours, he still couldn’t acquire any one of them as of now. Who knew Shanhai had already gathered and equipped them all. What a freak.

Qin Qiong, who was seated behind Xunlong Dianxue watched the cavalry closely. The lance, the armor, the warhorse... the cavalry…. He was in a trance, and his mind faded back to the good old days when he’d fought like a dragon in the battlefield.

As for Gong Chengshi, he had his eyes on the heavy infantry. Nearby his territory too, there existed a bunch of barbaric tribes. Hence, he could instantly identify that the infantry was of barbarian origin. Heavy armors like those might be a burden to ordinary infantry, but to the barbaric warriors, they were just pleasant. Heavy armors and barbaric warriors were a match made in heaven.

While Mulan Yue, the little girl, was just here for fun, her general Mu Guiying’s sights focused when she saw the Qingfu warhorses. She recognized the warhorses, broncos from the center of Lianzhou Basin, raised by the nomadic tribes. She was puzzled and curious. How did Shanhai get their hands on the horses?

The military parade showed Shanhai’s strength to its allies, and at the same time consolidated Ouyang Shuo’s position as the leader of the alliance. In addition, it had shown the best weapons and equipment with the military parade, and so the future arms dealer slowly showed its teeth, waiting for its allies to jump for the bait.

The military parade ended, and his allies stared at him as if they would consume him on the spot. Ouyang Shuo acted normal, smiled, and said, “So, how was it? Since we still have some time, I will give all of you a tour around the town.”

Gong Chengshi was a straightforward man. He was the first to ask. “Brother Wuyi, the tour, it is a must. But that is not the main point. What’s more important is the weapons and equipment in the military parade. Are they for sale?”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and moments later shook his head.

“What?” Gong Chengshi didn’t understand.

“For sale, yet not for sale. Before this, I have made my promise. All of you will be in the priority list. However, there is one condition. That is, only after Shanhai has fully-equipped its own military forces will we then consider selling the weapons and equipment. All of you saw it clearly, even the 1000 soldiers I have now had not yet been fully-equipped. I have no extra weapons and equipment to sell as of now.” Ouyang Shuo did not lie to them.

“Although it is still not for sale, but brother Wuyi must have a price in mind. Why don’t you tell us, so we can prepare the funds earlier.” Bai Hua asked.

The other lords were concerned about the issue too.

I knew you would ask, Ouyang Shuo then made a gesture to Yingyu behind him. Yingyu smiled and said, “About the prices and the orders, why don’t the lords arrange your men to talk to us, the Finance Department? Such sordid affairs need not involve the lords yourselves.”

One who was a lord was a cunning fox. Instantly, they understood the meaning behind the words of Yingyu. Today’s meeting was aimed to pull the allies closer together. It was not a good time for the lords to negotiate deals. It was better to leave the matter to their subordinates.

Later on, the crowd dispersed into 2. The first group consisted of Zi Luolan, Mu Guiying, Qin Qiong and Ju Shou. Led by Yingyu, they would enter the manor into the office of the Finance Department for the arms trading discussions. Ouyang Shuo would lead the others on a tour around the town, with Fan Zhongyan and Tian Wenjing tagging along.

They’d been to the back mountain, and the manor was quite the same for everyone, so those two had nothing to tour about. So Ouyang Shuo first brought them to the cultural area to the west of the manor, leading them to tour the 2 hidden-class buildings Mazu Temple and Recruitment Hall, along with Lianzhou College.

The mysterious Mazu Temple, Recruitment Hall’s incredible features, and Lianzhou College’s teaching structure all had strong impacts on the lords.

In this small town of Shanhai, how many more surprises were there left to be explored, and how many secrets were hidden from the outside world?

The one the lords were most interested in was the operating structure of Lianzhou College. After all, Mazu Temple and Recruitment Hall belonged to hidden-class buildings, so not things envy could get them. With Lianzhou College, however, they would be able to learn from it.

Ouyang Shuo did not hide it from them. He taught them his experiences in building the college. 1st, an institution which belonged to a grade 3 township building wouldn’t able to be hidden for long. Telling his allies earlier could help them strengthen their territories. 2nd, without attractive territory properties like Shanhai’s, they wouldn’t be able to attract enough juren or jinshi as teachers in the institution. It was simply impossible for the other lords to catch up to his Lianzhou College.

As for the southeast military district, without Ouyang Shuo saying anything, the other lords consciously avoided the area. They did not recklessly ask to tour the military district. Therefore, Ouyang Shuo brought them over to the northwest commercial district. Here, the workshops were all busy operating, and the streets were booming with energy.

Lastly, Ouyang Shuo brought them up to the north city wall, standing on the high wall watching the beautiful scene of Shanhai Town.

The strong and mighty city wall had enough of an impact on the lords, yet when everyone saw the moat around the town, they all went dead silent.

Just how insecure he is feeling, building such a strong defensive system so early?

Mulan Yue looked at the Shanhai lord’s banner flag on the city wall. “Ah, this flag is so beautiful. En, I will have design a flag of my own too when I get back. It looks so great.”

“Indeed, indeed.” Gong Chengshi agreed, and he too, seemed eager.

Watching the golden dragon on the banner, Bai Hua teased Ouyang Shuo and said, “Brother Wuyi, what ambition, having your eyes on the greatest throne.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled and said nothing. It could be taken as a tacit assent.

As the time came nearer to lunch time, Ouyang Shuo invited them to a lunch. The meal would not be held in the manor but instead at Restaurant Sangu.

Restaurant Sangu stood in the middle of the commercial street, where the location was booming the most. It was split into two floors, with the a cabin on the first floor taken by Ouyang Shuo as the venue for the meal. Before this, Ouyang Shuo was the only one willing to dine there, but now, with the increase of residents’ pay wages, people often dined in from time to time. Some talked business on the food table, while others invited friends and relatives for gatherings.

Sanniang was already waiting at the entrance. She saw Ouyang Shuo coming, and quickly came forward. She smiled and said, “My lord, the banquet is ready. It’s only waiting for you, sire.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, “Thank you for your hard work. Have Yingyu and the others arrived?”

“Mistress is already here. She is with the guests on the first floor.” Gu Sanniang answered.

“Alright, let’s go too!” Ouyang Shuo turned and said to the lords.

After they arrived, Yingyu obscurely nodded to Ouyang Shuo, implying that matters regarding the arms dealing had been done. Ouyang Shuo smiled and kindly asked everyone to be seated.

For this banquet, Gu Sanniang had given it her all.

There was fresh seafood from Beihai Town, with lamb and pork from the ranch, various vegetables from the vegetable farm, and poultry from the agricultural market. Last but not least, there were also wildfowl from the barbaric tribes, so indeed it was a sumptuous banquet.

As for the drinks, White Tea and Three Flower Wine, the two special local products, were served to the guests. Adding up the luxurious raw materials with Gu Sanniang’s cooking skills would be comparable to a high-class banquet in the real world.

The lords were speechless and actually had become numb. A meal with meat in their territory would be considered a luxury meal, yet Shanhai had been eating this all along with their own resources.

‘Wuwu… After this meal, I wouldn’t be able to eat in my own territory anymore.” Mulan Yue said in silly tone.

The other lords nodded in agreement.

Ouyang Shuo grinned, lifted his cup of wine and said, “Come, let us drink once for the first Shanhai Alliance meeting!”

“Cheers!”

After the banquet, the atmosphere became lively.

Without anyone realizing, their relationship had gotten closer. The feeling of strangers faded, and they were more familiar with each other. As the saying went: ‘A table of wine and food is the best place to make friends’. These words were definitely supported by countless life experiences.

Chapter 123 - Military Grain Pills

2 PM, Shanhai Council Chamber.

“Everyone, we will now officially start the discussion for Battle of Zhuolu. First thing, I would like to know how many soldiers will each and everyone of you bring along.” Ouyang Shuo was the first to speak.

Everyone proceeded and reported their ranks. Mulan Yue and Gong Chengshi were third viscounts, each could bring 100 men. Xunlong Dianxue was a second viscount with 200 men. Bai Hua was the highest among the 4, she was a first viscount with 300 men. The four of them can bring a total of 700 men, lesser than Ouyang Shuo alone.

After they finished counting the number of troops, Ouyang Shuo continued saying, “The battlefield, namely the Battle of Zhuolu, according to the historical data, it would be split into two factions- The Yellow Emperor, Huangdi and the God of War, Chiyou. Regarding to which faction to select, what thoughts do all of you have? Notice beforehand, I will join the faction of Huangdi the Yellow Emperor.”

Gong Chengshi made a speechless face and said: “Brother, you had already chosen the faction, then why still ask us?”

Ouyang Shuo too was a little embarrassed, he faked a cough and said: “*cough* Well, there are no obligations for allies in the alliance to choose the same faction, I am just telling you what faction I selected, even if we choose opposite sides, it will be completely alright. Moreover, when each of the alliance members have their own interests in the future, it will be inevitable for them to choose different factions.”

Xunlong Dianxue nodded understandingly, smiled and said: “Brother Wuyi is correct. If one day in the battlefield, you want to subdue this faction’s general while he would like to subdue the other faction’s general, then it will be necessary to choose the opposite factions, this is very normal. Plus, choosing opposite factions might not be a bad thing at all, we might be able to acquire intelligence and information from each other.” Xunlong Dianxue was worthy of his name as the “Mission-madman”, he was able to grasp the idea of the game easily and better than the others.

Mulan Yue was the first to choose, with a sweet voice she said: “Since brother Wuyi had chosen Huangdi, then I will follow him as well. I only have 100 men and I am relying on brother Wuyi for protections.”

“No problem!” As for Mulan Yue, Ouyang Shuo had a good impression of her. Moreover, Mu Guiying alone was worthy of over hundreds of men.

“I too, will join Huangdi’s faction.” Bai Hua next.

“So will I.” then following by Gong Chengshi.

Only Xunlong Dianxue grinned and said: “I instead find Chiyou’s faction more interesting, as the defeated party of the battle in the history, there might be a few missions and rewards worth exploring.”

“Alright, so this will be it.” Shuo said.

As the reincarnated one, Ouyang Shuo decided to disclose a few small tips to his allies. Of course, in order for them to not speculate too much, his choice of words were filled with euphemism, he said: “For the battle to come, I have a few guesses, let us discuss all of it.”

“Please speak!” The four answered in unison.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said: “Firstly, it is about matters regarding logistics. Have all of you ever thought of it, the era of Huangdi and Chiyou still belongs to the slash-and-burn historic era. The lord players that will participate in the battle will probably be numbered around 100. In average, every lord will bring 200 soldiers, that will accumulate to a total of 20,000. When split into 2, that will be 10,000 per faction. Do you think, that Huangdi’s Youxiong tribe and Youchi’s Nine Li tribe can afford the food for such a large army?”

Xunlong Dianxue shook his head and said: “Definitely not, it will only be good enough for them to feed their own mouths, they wouldn’t have enough foods for us. Brother Wuyi’s meaning is, the expeditionary team will have to bring our own food? But it will be a problem to transport such an amount of food. We only have a limited amount of space, we can’t save some for the logistics squad. Otherwise, how could we go to war? One would rather do nothing at all.”

Bai Hua suddenly thought of Shanhai’s military parade this morning, Shanhai had prepared a full thousand of soldiers, yet there weren’t any sign of the logistics squad at all. Her heart was cleared of doubts, she smiled and said: “Brother Wuyi has a way to solve it?”

Ouyang Shuo looked at her with praiseful eyes and said: “That is right, while I was in the market, I saw a special item named ‘Military Grain Pills’. Out of curiosity I acquired one and took a look at it. It was actually a kind of food, small and round in shape. One small military grain pill can sustain the energy needed by one soldier for a day.”

“What’s the selling price?” Xunlong Dianxue eagerly asked.

“Of course it would not be cheap for such a magical thing. A military grain pill is priced at 1 silver. A soldier normally will require 2 units of foods, equivalent to 20 copper. While the military grain pill is 5 times the price of the former.”

“That will still be worth it, at least much better than a squad of logistics following behind. Heihei, but brother Wuyi, you will be awful as you have so many men, the amount of pills needed would not be little.” Xunlong Dianxue gloated at Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and said nothing, how could Xunlong Dianxue know, for Shanhai’s financial situation, what burden would he have to attain the pills.

A thousand soldiers plus warhorses would only cost him 15 gold. Even if the war raged endlessly for a month, that would only be 400-500 gold. Comparing it to the rewards he could plunder from the battlefield, it would be totally worth investing in the pills.

“Other than military grain pills, there was another one, the military tent. The military tent is detachable and foldable, it could accommodate 5 soldiers at once. Of course, what is good is not cheap, a military tent like this sells at a price of 1 gold.” Ouyang Shuo continued his little tips.

“Alright, with these two “God-level” items, logistics will not be of concern anymore.” Gong Chengshi said in great excitement.

Even Bai Hua looked excited, her beautiful eyes stared at Ouyang Shuo, trying her best to see through this man. She really couldn’t understand, how could Qiyue Wuyi understand the game so well, was it only because he was attentive to details? Or was it because he was really gifted with gaming talents that he could spot those that others can’t. Taking the military grain pills and military tents as example, the system had been publicly selling it in the market, yet no one knew how to utilize their values.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and continued on: “In truth, there are more special things than you can imagine in the market, you can explore them when you have the free time to, there might be one or two surprises waiting for you. Small things like signal flares, I don’t have to remind all of you right?”

“All I can think of was mentioned above. As for strategy and tactical planning, I will like to listen to Mr. Gongyu’s opinion.” Ouyang Shuo smiled and said while he looked at Ju Shou (aka Gongyu) who was standing behind Gong Chengshi.

Of those who were present, Ju Shou was the best in strategy and tactics.

Yesterday, Ouyang Shuo was planning to have Ge Hongliang to plan the tactical arrangements. But when Gong Chengshi arrived with the famous strategist of the Three Kingdoms, Ju Shou, Ouyang Shuo immediately cancelled his plan. He did not want to display Ge Hongliang's slight skill before the expert Ju Shou.

Bai Hua, Xunlong Dianxue, and Mulan Yue were not idiots too, the three agreed on Ouyang Shuo’s decision, and they looked at Ju Shou together.

Even while being stared at by so many, Ju Shou wasn’t nervous at all, he stood up calmly, bowed and greeted everyone, he then said: “I am grateful for the opportunity given, I will then proceed with my opinion.”

“Please mister!” Ouyang Shuo sincerely said.

“According to historical records, the Battle of Zhoulu was a protracted war, it lasted three years with nine battles. During this period, small-scale tentative battles could happen anytime. Therefore, in order to survive and benefit the most from it, we have to expect not only the final war but also small-scale battles. Therefore, I suggest we choose units of high mobility and strong combat capability. In addition to the help of the military grain pills and military tents, we will have a headstart in the battle.” Ju Shou said.

*Pak pak pak* Ouyang Shuo was the first to clap his hands and the others followed. Ouyang Shuo smiled and said: “Mr. Ju you are indeed extraordinary!”

It was already 4 PM when the discussion meeting was finished. As of now, Shanhai Alliance’s first ally meeting had officially ended.

Before leaving, Ouyang Shuo sent everyone a little gift. Qin Qiong was given a jug of Three Flower Wine; Ju Shou was given the tea leaves of the special white tea; Gong Chengshi and Xunlong Dianxue were each given a Tang sword of high-quality.

As for the three Bai Hua sisters and Mulan Yue, they were given rainbow silk cloth of top-quality, suitable as materials for women’s clothings; Lastly, after some serious considerations, Ouyang Shuo had gifted Mu Guiying a Dark-gold level horn bow, it was the product of the Bow and Crossbow Division’s hard-work, the one-and-only horn bow that was made.

The only reason for Ouyang Shuo to give out such valuable gift was because he took into consideration that Mulan Town and Shanhai Town were both located in Lianzhou Basin, there existed plenty of opportunities to cooperate in the future. Showing his goodwill to the other party now was necessary, who knew, in the future Shanhai and Mulan might be one.

After he sent his allies off, Ouyang Shuo started preparing for the battle.

For the first half of the month of May, Langshan mining field had fully delivered a total of 4000 gold to the territory. Which from the 4000 gold, 500 gold were needed for the Beihai navy to form the second navy unit.

Walking into the Advanced Market, Ouyang Shuo started his shopping spree. His storage bag had been upgraded twice and now had a capacity of 100 cubic-meters. If he alone used the storage bag, it would be more than enough. But if he was to bring the military goods along, then 100 cubic-meters would be insufficient.

Having no choice, Ouyang Shuo grit his teeth and spent 1000 gold purchasing a large space stone, upgrading his storage bag into a capacity of 1000 cubic-meters, which was sufficient enough. As for the higher grade, giant space stone, it wasn’t sold in the market. Even if it was, with Ouyang Shuo’s financial status at the moment, he couldn’t afford the giant space stone which cost at least 50,000 gold.

The storage bag itself challenged the ancient nature order of physics, it could be counted as a bugged-item and was at the same level as the God-level items. Hence, in order to upgrade it, one would naturally have to pay a huge price.

Chapter 124 - Preparation

After Ouyang Shuo finished expanding the space of his storage bag, he started purchasing military goods.

He first spent 210 gold on 210 ordinary military tents. Since it was inappropriate for Ouyang Shuo to ask the officers to stay in the same tents as the soldiers, he had bought 10 more tents for his officers. Then, he spent another 50 gold on a fine military tent, storing it in his storage bag. The fine tent would be used as command post.

This was followed by military grain pills. With 500 gold, Ouyang Shuo bought 50,000 military grain pills, enough to sustain 1000 men for a month. Plus, these pills could be stored in his storage bag. They had no such things as an expiration date, so even if they couldn’t finish them, they could still use it next time. The military grain pill had a diameter of 2 cm, so 50,000 pills took up only a small little corner of his storage bag.

After leaving the barracks, Ouyang Shuo made his way to the wood workshop.

The wood workshop had changed a lot since the last time Ouyang Shuo had come. It had expanded to 4 or 5 times larger than it was before, and had been divided into two sections. The front section was purposed to accommodate the guests and visitors, while the back section was a large space of the workshop. Hundreds of carpenters were in the workshop, busy crafting parts and manufacturing the wooden-ox horse.

As it was late in the day, Ouyang Shuo lost his intent on touring the workshop. He received the south-pointing chariot from the manager Lu Guangzhi, stored it in his storage bag, and directly returned to his manor.

Ouyang Shuo went back straight to the manor and logged off.

In the brick and mortar world, it was already the height of summer.

Ever since the last holiday trip they had, Bing’er had been more clingy than ever. Today was a Sunday, Ouyang Shuo woke up early from bed and brushed himself up. As soon as he was done, the little girl came rushing out from her bedroom, she was ready to join Ouyang Shuo for a morning jog, for this, she even omitted her favorite habit of sleeping.

“Baby, why are you so active lately? Is the Sun now rising from the west?” Ouyang Shuo teased her.

The little beauty smiled and said nothing like a proud peacock.

Bing’er wore a pink t-shirt along with pink cotton sports pants, and on her legs were a pair of white canvas sports shoes. Her appearance was exactly that of an active sports girl. Ever since she and Xiaoyue had gotten along together, Bing’er’s clothing was handled by Xiaoyue. Compared with Ouyang Shuo’s aesthetics, hers naturally was a few levels better. After all, in the field of fashion, most men were far behind the women.

While jogging around in the park, passersby were staring at the little beauty as though as she were a star walking on the street. Even Ouyang Shuo could enjoy the luxury of being stared at by passersby.

Even after they came back, Xiaoyue was still in bed, it seemed that she was sleeping in due to the game. Although, it was proven that when players were in-game, their human body would be in a light sleep state, but it wasn’t as good as real sleep. Therefore, for some players, especially female players, if conditions permitted it, they would sleep in after logging out of the game. As the saying goes, lack of sleep is the enemy of a beauty.

After breakfast, Ouyang Shuo opened his handbrain and logged in to the game forum.

Around these 2 days, the forum had been extra lively, the focus was naturally directed towards the Battle of Zhuolu. Such a new style of a quest system with the lack of disclosed information had kept the players in suspense. However, most of the players weren’t qualified for the battle and could only discuss about it in the forum.

Although, there were adventure players who had the same whimsical ideas to join the lord players in their territories and indirectly achieve the goal of participating in the Battle of Zhuolu. Unfortunately for them, most of the qualified lord players were the best of the best and they didn’t have a lack in talents. Furthermore, due to the limitations implied on the title, most of them could only bring 100 to 200 men along with them, and there were no available spaces for the adventurers anymore.

Ouyang Shuo was still worried, that after knowing his identity, his little aunt Ling Jing would approach him and ask him to bring her mercenary group along. If that were the case, then there existed a risk of getting exposed too early.

Yet, truth had proven to Ouyang Shuo that his worries were merely in his imagination. Ling Jing, although different from others in terms of sexual orientation, was particularly good at conducting herself in society. She kept her promise out of love for her nephew and had never spoken a word to her partner Xie Siyun about Ouyang Shuo’s identity.

In the game forum, other than the Battle of Zhuolu, there were still some other hot topics.

The territory-buying incident caused by Song Wen was still in a frenzy even after 2 months, and it was actually getting bigger. Even after the government had released its notice, it still wasn’t enough to quell the public’s doubts.

Ever since the incident, the smart ones among the civilian lord players had declined and rejected the corporate people’s offers. Some of them were waiting to sell only for a better price while some decided to wait until things had been cleared before making any decisions.

The number of territory lands was limited in nature, the existing territory land in the whole China server would not exceed 10,000 in number. While being 1 of the only 2 strongest within the federal government, China had way more than 10,000 top corporate people, and even individuals worth 100 million numbered more than 10,000.

With such a situation at the moment, the wolves had little meat to share. With a low supply and a high demand market, it would be natural for the prices to shoot up high. The wolves had to increase their bidding prices higher and higher in order to acquire territory lands. Song Wen had spent a 100 million on a grade 3 village and Song Jia still thought it was a waste of credits. Yet now, even an offer of 200 million credits was still insufficient for one to get a grade 3 village, so one could tell how crazy the market was right now.

Following the high price of territory land, the public’s doubts against Earth Online had evolved. As of now, the doubts had spread not only in China, but all over the world. Ouyang Shuo would like to see how long the federal government could hide the truth from the public.

For Ouyang Shuo, it was natural for him to wish for the federal government to disclose the truth. As a direct result, the public would stop changing in-game golds into real-world credits, and this would in turn cut off gold-funding sources from players like Di Chen and the like.

However, no matter how much he wished for it, Ouyang Shuo wasn’t going to do it himself. Acts like posting the truth onto the game forum would be the same as looking for a death wish. In this modern era, skynet was capable of overlooking everything, everywhere. Ouyang Shuo wasn’t equipped with the necessary hacking skills to release the truth while bypassing or avoiding the skynet.

No matter who or what was it, those who dared to expose the most confidential intelligence of the Alliance would be faced with harsh repression. The Alliance might not be able to overwhelm the public’s will, but there were multiple ways one could imagine for an individual to be squelched.

In this modern era, the democratic system had been perfected. Suggestions like the ones Ouyang Shuo gave to Song Wen were derived interpretations based on the player’s understanding of the game rules, combined with real world business regulations. Such acts, even detected by skynet, would be considered legitimate and Ouyang Shuo would be protected from skynet by his civil rights.

But, if one had disclosed confidential information intentionally, and hence caused social chaos, then the Alliance would have enough reason to arrest you immediately under the charge of leaking the Alliance’s confidential secrets.

That said, before finding the perfect timing, Ouyang Shuo would not put himself in danger easily.

It was already 11 AM when Ouyang Shuo logged out of the forum. It was then Xiaoyue was finally awake, Bing’er teased Xiaoyue just like she would tease Ouyang Shuo when he had slept in.

The little girl lifted her fleshy small hand, lightly scraped her fleshy face, laughed, and teased Sun Xiaoyue. “Shame shame, big sister is a lazy pig, Bing’er had already finished her homework. Big sister only woke up now.”

Sun Xiaoyue wasn’t like Ouyang Shuo, so she felt embarrassed. She quickly walked over, hugged Bing’er in her arms, squeezed Bing’er’s fleshy face, and said, “Bad Bing’er, you even dare to tease big sister now. I will teach you a lesson, else your tail would go over the sky.”

“Ah!” Bing’er immediately begged for mercy. She made a pitiful face and said, “Wuwu~~~Big sister, Bing’er realizes her mistakes. I will not tease and say you are a lazy pig anymore.”

“You still dare to speak of it!” Sun Xiaoyue was furious and used her hand and tickled Bing’er. The little girl couldn’t take it and kept laughing.

“Ah, haha, big sister!!! Bing’er really knows she did the wrong things, haha. Big sister, have mercy on Bing’er!” The little girl begged for mercy as tickling her was Bing’er’s biggest weakness.

“Hmph, now you’re talking.” Xiaoyue had finally let her off and went into the toilet like a winner at life.

Ouyang Shuo was really enjoying the show while making himself comfortable on the sofa.

Bing’er turned her head to Ouyang Shuo and saw her brother’s gloating face. She rushed into his arms and said, “Big brother bad bad, you don’t even come and save you cute little sister.”

Ouyang Shuo laughed, knocked on her head, and said, “Haha, you think Xiaoyue sister is like me? Someone you can simply tease? You made the mistake, you face the consequences.”

Bing’er felt embarrassed and hid her face in Ouyang Shuo’s arms, not saying a word.

Ouyang Shuo caressed her little head and deciding to gave her an out, he then said, “Baby, say what you want for lunch, I will make it for you.”

“I want sugar-vinegar ribs!” Unsurprisingly, the little foodie lifted her head and said excitedly

“You little brat, you keep ordering foods that require great preparation. Fine, I’ll fulfill your request for lunch, making sure our little princess is satisfied.”

She was so happy her eyes practically became a line. She kissed Ouyang Shuo on the face and said, “En, big brother treats Bing’er best!” proving Ouyang Shuo’s petting was useful.

“I want boiled potatoes and sirloin.” All of the sudden, Sun Xiaoyue’s head came out of the bathroom and said loudly.

Ouyang Shuo made a facepalm, accepted his fate and helplessly said, “Understood!”

Chapter 125 - Frolic

After lunch, Ouyang Shuo received a call from Song Jia.

"Woodsy, the Battle of Zhuolu, will you participate?"

"Of course!" Ouyang Shuo proudly said. In front of Song Jia, Ouyang Shuo always felt relaxed. he says what is on his mind without any fear and without the need to hold back. Just like a child, showing off his achievements and everything to Song Jia.

"Hmph, smug!" Song Jia said helplessly against Ouyang Shuo's childish acts. Yet not knowing why every time Ouyang Shuo showed off to her, she could see as if the quiet little boy back in high school who always studied in the corner of the classroom had time-traveled and appeared right in front of her again. She felt a pleasant and gracious feeling lurking in her heart.

"Your brother's Tian Shuang Village, has it been upgraded to grade 1 town yet?"

Song Jia shook her head and said low-spiritedly: "Not yet, when we acquired Tian Shuang Village, it had just been upgraded to a grade 3 village. In addition, it was created by a bronze-level token, the territory properties were very bad. My brother has been trying hard lately, but the requirements were still not met. It is sad that we can't make it for the battlefield mission."

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head while he secretly rejoiced in his heart, fortunately, they wouldn’t be meeting in the battlefield maps. Otherwise, he wouldn’t know how to face Song Jia. He wouldn’t know whether to reveal his identity or continue hiding it.

If he approached her, his real-world identity would be exposed. Ouyang Shuo wasn’t too worried if only Song Jia knew of his identity. But if the Song Corporation grasped on the slightest clue about his identity, they could instantly dig out his identity, there was simply no way to hide it.

But if he continued hiding it from Song Jia, that would be unfair to her. If they weren’t in the same map, not having the possibilities of meeting each other, then that would be fine. But what if they were on the same map, facing the possibilities to meet each other, to continue hiding his identity from Song Jia would be a little too overboard.

Fortunately, fate had it all decided and Ouyang Shuo didn’t have face with such dilemma.

“It’s alright, there will be plenty of opportunities like these in the future!” Ouyang Shuo comforted her.

Song Jia nodded, she wasn’t really feeling sad or anything. After all, her interest lies within the adventurer path rather than the kingdom buildings. She was just feeling a little down seeing her brother’s dismay.

“All the best, take back a good prize!” Song Jia smiled and said.

“Of course I will!” Ouyang Shuo continued on his childish act.

Song Jia made a facepalm and with a sweet voice she said: “I can’t stand your thick face anymore, you can make a wall from it already.”

Ouyang Shuo made a face pretending he was hurt and said: “Ey, so you don’t trust my strength, so hurting. Life, so lonely like snows.”

“Alright, alright, I know you are powerful. My mom’s calling me already, talk to you next time. Bye-bye!” Song Jia said and ending the conversation.

“Bye-bye!”

……

Kun Ming City, Shengshi Garden.

Shengshi Garden was a high-end villa district, only those with power and money could afford to stay in it. The whole area was like a landscape garden covered in green with beautiful flowers while the villas were scattered around in the man-made paradise.

In the southwest corner of the garden, in one particular villa stayed 4 single ladies. The 4 beauties each had their own styles and auras. Even in such a high-end area filled with extraordinary people, they could still stand-out among the crowds. However, in the eyes of the security guards, it was a fly in the ointment that the 4 beauties were too shut-in, seldom coming out from the villa, although, there were always 3 to 4 express deliveries sent to them.

Not known by the others, the villa belongs to the Consonance Game Studio.

The 4 beauties were naturally “Green Red Purple White” of Consonance. Due to their success in the gaming world, each and everyone’s net worth were more than 10 million. For example, their big sister Bai Hua, had already broke through to the hundred million category. Of course they could afford such a high-end villa.

Much like Sun Xiaoyue, the 4 beauties took a nap after logging out of game. It was already 11 AM when they all woke up. Their home robot had already finished making their brunch, waiting to serve the 4 mistresses.

Thanks to the development of advanced technology in this modern era, artificial intelligence robots took over the world quickly. Home robots were one of them, it can clean the rooms, do the laundries, cook meals, and every other house chores. Even the advanced home robot’s cook was comparable to those star-chefs.

Ever since the rise of home robots, housemaids had been a history. What’s left was just high-class custom made personal chamberlain service, and that was not something the public could afford to enjoy. Only those nobles and blue-bloods would hire one of them.

The Bai Hua sisters were rich, the home robot they have was naturally of advanced grade. Moreover, none of them were picky with food, that was why they seldom leave the villa. As for shopping? You’d gotta be kidding me, other than looking for freshness, who still leaves the house to shop, especially for the 4 serious game addicts.

180 years ago, ever since VR technology was introduced to the world, ideas of shopping online through VR technology had already been spoken of numerous times. Now, VR technology was a history. The trading platform had developed a virtual shopping mall, the customers logs in to the mall just like a game and could shop as much as they would like to. If one had purchased an item, it will be sent over by unmanned-drones within two hours real-world time, it was truly convenient.

The only reason Ouyang Shuo brings Bing’er out for shopping and entertainments was because he didn’t want her to detach from the real-world and live in the virtual-world at such a young age.

After eating their brunch, the 4 sisters sat together in the living room.

Because they were at home, plus it was summer, they have all wore simple clothings.

Bai Hua wore a loose pure white T-shirt with short pants, her hourglass-body shape was presented clearly. If only there were males on the spot, they might have a nosebleed from seeing such a sight. Bai Hua casually sank herself in the soft couch, looked at Tsing Yi who was sitting beside her and asked: “Little sister, you had went over to Shanhai yesterday, what thoughts do you have?”

The trip to Shanhai Town, although Tsing Yi never spoke a word during the whole trip, but she was the one with the best observation among the 4. The question asked by Bai Hua wasn’t intended to tease her.

Tsing Yi, in real life, was a cute little girl. She wore a cute cartoon T-shirt with only a pink panty, in addition to her cute baby face, she looks just like a cutie.

She stared at Bai Hua’s breasts with an envious look on her face and then looked at her own, she said; “Big sister, what do you eat, how can yours grow so big?”

Bai Hua facepalmed, she knew it was gonna be like this. Tsing Yi was known as the little Zhuge in-game, but she was in fact a naughty girl in real life, always teasing her sisters.

Before Bai Hua could say anything, Zi Luolan came from the side and hopped onto Bai Hua, hugging Bai Hua tightly. She lifted her hands and swiftly molested Bai Hua’s breasts, and she said with an evil tone: “Heihei, little sister, don’t be jealous. This is all natural, nothing jealousy can change about. You are still young, you will probably have a second growth.”

“Hmph, sister you are lying again. You told me last time that papaya can help with the growth of breasts but it had no effect at all, big liar!” Tsing Yi didn’t believe in Zi Luolan’s theory of second growth.

To be honest, Zi Luolan’s body was comparable to Bai Hua’s, hers was even more sexier.

Zi Luolan wore a black singlet without bras, her two little pinky dots could be seen clearly, and at the bottom was only a sexy panty that could barely cover her butt, exposing her long white legs.

Among the 4, only Hong Ying was not linked to the word “sexy”. Short hair, military green T-shirt and a short jeans, a military lovers’ outfit. In addition to her airport flat body, she could be mistaken as a boy from afar.

Bai Hua pushed Zi Luolan’s hands aside, she was helpless towards the female hooligan. She turned and looked at Tsing Yi, smiled and said: “Little sister, you don’t have a boyfriend anyway, why are you always concerned about your breast size? Moreover, for a cutie pie like you, you will always be welcomed everywhere.”

“Indeed indeed, what’s the use of a big breast, it’s only a burden.” Hong Ying agreed from the side.

Zi Luolan went speechless against Hong Ying’s opinion, she then said: “Third sister, you are travelling far down the path of a tomboy, you are hopeless. Little sister can still act cute but you, you can only act as a bodyguard.”

“If a tomboy then a tomboy, I find it perfectly alright.” Hong Ying answered in full confidence.

Bai Hua ignored the two and continued talking to Tsing Yi: “Or is it that our little sister had fallen in love with some other boy?”

“Big Sister!” Tsing Yi couldn’t take it and she ran over to Bai Hua, she said furiously: “Even if I had fallen in love, staying at home everyday, I still wouldn’t have any chance at all.”

“Ey, the spring had just passed and here comes your spring time. Even words like no chance at all came out of your mouth.” Zi Luolan teased her.

“Ah!” Tsing Yi realized she had spoken the wrong words and immediately her face blushed red.

“Hahahahah!” The sisters laughed together.

Such a scene was their daily lives. Everyday Tsing Yi would be envious of Bai Hua, and every time Zi Luolan would molest Bai Hua.

Chapter 126 - Speculation

After the frolicking, the 4 sisters stopped and came back to the topic. Tsing Yi hugged a Mashimaro doll, sat on the couch and said, “Yesterday’s trip, it gave me a big shock. Shanhai is way stronger than I thought it was. Way beyond the imaginations and speculations in the forums.”

“How so?” Bai Hua asked curiously.

Tsing Yi wasn’t one who would boast. If she said she was shocked, she meant it wholeheartedly. Bai Hua had to observe the other allies and therefore her observations towards Shanhai Town wouldn’t be as detailed as Tsing Yi’s.

“In general terms, it means Shanhai’s territory system. I discovered Shanhai had built a nearly perfected territory system. Whether be it government, military, or economy, it all had well-built systems, it even included the subsystems such as talents cultivation and industrial development.

The whole Shanhai Town only had Qiyue Wiyi as a lone player, so this is really unbelievable. How could he shape Shanhai into this in such a short period of time?” Tsing Yi disbelievingly said.

“What? I can’t understand a thing.” Hong Ying interrupted her and said, “That Qiyue Wuyi, is he really that strong?”

Bai Hua nodded her head, “Little sister is right, we have a lot to learn from Shanhai. Qiyue Wuyi gave me a feeling. He is immensely familiar with the game. Other than that, I have a feeling, he played this game for a different reason than any others. As a professional gamer, we are used to managing Consonance Town as an in-game property. But Qiyue Wuyi, he is different, it feels like he is really considering himself as a real lord, and Shanhai as his territory.”

“Did you girls realize? Although Shanhai didn’t have any other players, the way he treated the NPCs was the same as how he treated the players like us. He did not differentiate NPCs and players in any way. Perhaps this is why he could manage Shanhai into the strong town it is right now, the sense of mastery and responsibility over the land. That is what we are lacking the most.”

“One more thing.” Tsing Yi added on. “Although he gave us, the allies, a tour around the town, I am feeling that he still hid some things from us. At least, we still don’t know what the sources of his funds are. Shanhai is well developed, their taxation system is also better than ours[a]. But in turn, in order to maintain the ongoing systems, the funds needed were immense too. Big sister, I don’t know if you had noticed, but the living standards of the residents of Shanhai Town are way better than Consonance Town’s. All of them wore new clothes, with ruddy faces filled with energy. This denotes that they lived an abundant life. When we had lunch in Restaurant Sangu, there were a lot of residents dining on the ground floor. This is something unimaginable by the residents of Consonance Town.”

Bai Hua nodded and exclaimed, “Yes, that too, is something I am curious of. But, that would be normal to them, Shanhai Town must have its own unique funding source. It is understandable for him to hide it from us. I believe his funding source could not be replicated. Otherwise, with his generosity, he would have told us a word or two about it.”

“Indeed.” Tsing Yi nodded in agreement, and said: “To know a man by repute is not as good as meeting him face to face in the flesh. Big sister’s move of supporting Qiyue Wuyi to the position of the leader of the alliance was a good move. A day’s time was enough for us to feel his formidable and ambitious aura. For a man around our age, this is truly rare.”

“Yo, little sister. Could it be you have fallen deeply in love with him? Is your springtime really coming?” Zi Luolan teased her again, not even thinking herself as the elder sister at all.

However, Tsing Yi did not back off this time. She pretended and said, “Hmph, what about it? Don’t you think Qiyue Wuyi is really masculine? Much better than those effeminate boys out there.”

Zi Luolan looked at her, astonished. She smiled and said, “Little girl, at such a young age yet your taste is not bad at all. You are right. This Qiyue Wuyi, he is very special.”

With a ridiculing face, Tsing Yi teased Zi Luolan in turn and said, “Sister still dares to talk about me. From the way I see it, you are the one who has fallen in love!”

As the representative of the “Bold faction”, the teasing from Tsing Yi was merely nothing to Zi Luolan. She walked seductively towards Bai Hua, swiftly hugged her, and said with a sweet voice, “Cheh, I am not fond of him. It’d be enough to have my Bai Hua to sleep with me. Is that right, my wife?” Upon finishing the sentence she kissed Bai Hua on the cheek.

Tsing Yi closed her eyes with her hands and shouted, “Ah, I’m still a little girl! How can you do this in front of me!” While in actual fact, she’d opened her fingers widely looking at the scene.

Bai Hua pushed Zi Luolan aside and said, “You all, we are talking about serious matters here! Can you all be little more serious?”

Zhi Luolan didn’t take that matter seriously and said, “I thought we just finished. What’s more to talk about? Shanhai Town’s secret, there’s no need to think so much about it.”

Bai Hua shook her head and said, “That is not the point.”

“Then what is?” Zi Luolan asked.

“The point is, from what we can see, Qiyu Wuyi obviously knows of the game better than any one of us. The thoughts and feelings he’d invested were also much greater than ours. Why didn’t you all think of why he’s doing it? What’s his purpose of playing this game?” Bai Hua blurted a few questions.

“Why do you have so many questions, he’s probably just one of those game-experiencers.” Hong Ying said suddenly.

The so-called game-experiencers were those who immersed themselves fully in the game, claiming themselves as the aboriginals, experiencing the game in a different way than normal players did. Ever since the game’s reality became 80% as real as the real world, players of this kind had increased greatly.

For the military lovers, they would chose a military background game. For those who loved ancient knights and heroes, they would choose a martial arts/ medieval background game. If you were a playboy, and was unable to practice it in real world, there would also be such games that could fulfill your desires.

In short, as long as one didn’t do any crime, you could do whatever you wanted in the game. Some hardcore game-experiencers immersed themselves into the game world to a point that they couldn’t differentiate the real and virtual worlds anymore. As a result, they would hibernate their real body and live in the gaming world for eternity.

Bai Hua shook her head and denied the possibility. She said, “No, it can’t be. According to my intuition, Qiyue Wuyi is not one of those players. He was sober with a well-directed purpose. It’s just that he had a different goal than us.”

Zi Luolan frowned and said uncertainly, “Or is that the game really has some dark, secret, and untold truth behind it? The territory-buying frenzy incident lately, I am sure all of you know about it. It seems like it is getting more and more serious and on a bigger scale now. Just two days ago, there was one corporate who contacted me, wanting to purchase our territory. Girls, guess how much they were offering?”

“How much?” Tsing Yi asked curiously.

Zi Luolan glanced at Bai Hua and said, “5 hundred million!”

“Oh god, so much. Why didn’t you tell us before, second sister? All the other previous games we had played, adding them up wouldn’t even be able to exceed that amount!” Hong Ying was shocked.

Zi Luolan looked at Bai Hua and said, “I’ve mentioned it to big sister before, but she declined.”

“Why?” Hong Ying asked Bai Hua.

Bai Hua shook her head and said: “Silly girl, there are no free lunches in life. These corporations were crazily buying territories. It was just too unusual. There must’ve been some reason behind it. They’re not dumb, but instead they were cunning like foxes. For them to offer 5 hundred million for a territory, there will be immense benefits to them in the deal.”

“Think about it, all those games we’ve played, there were some with the same settings of territory/kingdom building. But even then, these corporations did not purchase the territories but rather had us promoting their brands or selling their products in a shop or something like that. Therefore, at times like this, we have to be firm and calm. We must not be blinded by the profits now and miss the greatest opportunities. Anyhow, we are not lacking of money. With our savings, we couldn’t even deplete them in our whole life, so why the hurry in selling off Consonance Town?”

Upon hearing Bai Hua’s explanation, Hong Ying and Tsing Yi nodded in agreement, fully supporting her decision.

“What could be really going on?” Tsing Yi muttered to herself.

Bai Hua shook her head and said, “No one knows yet, maybe only those top corporates might know a thing or two. But, with the doubts of public in an uproar on the internet now, the Allaince government wouldn’t last long before it stands out and makes a statement answering the public’s call.”

“It is true, I see it that way too. Hence, all we need to do now is to wait calmly. Managing Consonance Town nicely is the only thing we need to be concerned of.” Zi Luolan added.

“En.” The sisters nodded together.

Seeing that the atmosphere was winding down, Bai Hua ended the conversation.

The sisters got up and went to their own matters. At this time, Bai Hua would usually surf on the forums, getting new information and updates. Zi Luolan would start a shopping spree in the virtual mall, and even 2 closets couldn’t fit all her clothes. As for Hong Ying, she would go to the gym without fail. Tsing Yi liked to watch anime, and sometimes she would pull along her sisters to join her.

Chapter 127 - Battle of Zhuolu part 1

5th month, 15th day, 9AM, system notification announced right on time.

"System Notification: 3000 years B.C., to obtain the middle region that was suitable for animal husbandry and agriculture, the Yellow Emperor tribe joined the Fire Emperor tribe to wage a war against the Chiyou tribe from the south in a big battle at the Zhuolu region. The battle ended in the Chiyou tribe losing and being wiped out. First epic war- battle of Zhuolu, officially activated!"

At the Shanhai Town teleportation formation, 1000 of Shanhai Town's most elite soldiers were fully armed and ready.

Upon hearing the system notification resound, Ouyang Shuo shouted loudly, "Let's go!". At the same time, a series of notifications entered his ear.

"System Notification: Checking if player Qiyue Wuyi satisfies all requirements to join the war..."

"System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi's base is a grade 3 town, satisfies requirements."

"System Notification: Checking player Qiyue Wuyi's rank to determine number of battle slots..."

"System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi is a second class earl, given 1000 battle slots."

"System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi please confirm the number of people joining the battle."

"1000!" Ouyang Shuo said calmly.

"System Notification: Epic war will be split between Yellow Emperor camp and Chiyou camp, player please choose your camp! Special tip: If player chooses the losing camp from the war and change history, he will obtain great rewards. Please choose wisely!"

If it wasn't that Ouyang Shuo had something he definitely needed to get from the Yellow Emperor camp, he would have chosen Chiyou camp. He knew the prize and reward for changing history.

"I choose the Yellow Emperor camp!"

"System Notification: Camp chosen!"

"System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for starting teleportation, commencing teleportation for 1000 people, deducting 1000 gold as transportation cost."

"System Notification: Teleportation begin!"

The teleportation formation could at most transport 200 people at once. The 1000 men force would be transported in 5 batches. Ouyang Shuo was in the first batch and accompanying him was Zhu Hongliang and two infantry squadrons.

After the teleportation formation was activated, the Taichi diagram in the middle started turning and the eight trigrams started to shine brightly, appearing very mysterious.

With a "Shua", a white light shone and after a short distortion of the area, Ouyang Shuo and his group appeared in a strange, barren world.

"System Notification: Welcome player Qiyue Wuyi into the war map, this is a special map, Pigeon letters are banned and global channel chat is prohibited."

"System Notification: The war map and main map time difference is 10:1, 10 days in the war map is 1 day in the main world map, please don't worry about your territory in the main map."

"System Notification: Welcome player Qiyue Wuyi to the yellow emperor's camp- Yellow Emperor city."

Ouyang Shuo opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings. They were in a spacious region, similar to that of a square. On it, constant white light shone to show a new force being transported over. The space wasn’t large and as the number of people transported became higher, it appeared to be a bit cramp.

Ouyang Shuo waited for the remaining people to teleport over and meet with them while judging and analyzing the Yellow Emperor city. The Yellow Emperor city was more of a mountain stronghold than a city. During that era, they didn't build houses on trees but instead started building huts. The more advanced ones were using yellow mud to make walls and using twigs and straw to make the roof.

When all 1 thousand had successfully transported over, Ouyang Shuo ordered General Shi to form up the forces.

At this time, an NPC wearing black linen and a beast skin around his waist was standing in front of the square. He was standing on a tall platform and said warmly, "Weird people gifted by the gods’, welcome to Yellow Emperor city and help us beat the evil Chiyou tribe. I am the city receptionist Gong Sunlie, now, may I have each lord to register here with me. After that please bring your forces to set up camp outside of the city.

Ouyang Shuo was stunned, this was the same as chasing them away, how "warm".

Ouyang Shuo ordered General Shi to take care of the forces while he walked towards Gong Sunlie, with Wang Feng beside him acting as a bodyguard. Beside the stage was a tent built with straw. Inside was a table shaved from a whole log and also a wooden stool. On top of the table were palm sized wood tablets, its purpose unknown.

Gong Sunlie sat behind the table and helped the lords register.

"Name?"

"Qiyue Wuyi!"

The surrounding lords upon hearing him report his name, got into a frenzy. It was Qiyue Wuyi, the most mysterious lord in china, he finally showed his face in public.

There were those who had joined the sanction and had recognized him earlier. They all went ahead to greet him and he humbly reciprocated each and every one.

Seeing the situation, Gong Sunlie frowned and asked," territory?"

Ouyang Shuo, seeing the situation wasn't right like he had stabbed a hornets nest, immediately signaled the players to keep quiet. He turned around to apologize to Gong Sunlie and said, "Shanhai Town!"

"Force number?"

"A thousand."

Gong Sunlie was shocked, no wonder he was so welcomed, he brought such a big number of forces.

On the surface, he did not show a reaction and grabbed a wooden tablet, he carved the two words "Shanhai" in ancient wordings and indicated 1 thousand for the force strength. As for why he knew how to write the ancient words, you had to ask the system gods.

After carving the basic information, Gong Sunlie passed the wooden tablet to Ouyang Shuo and said, "This is your identity tablet, with this your forces can enter and leave the Yellow Emperor city, if not they will be treated as spies."

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head and accepted the tablet. In the front of the tablet was a black bear, this was probably the insignia of the Youxiong tribe that Yellow Emperor was in. As there were still people waiting behind him, Ouyang Shuo didn't examine it carefully, hanging it at his waist and backed off to the side.

The reason why he didn't leave was firstly it would be easy to meet up with his allies and secondly, he wanted to see which other lords had chosen the Yellow Emperor camp.

A few moments later the group got into a frenzy again. Ouyang Shuo turned his head only to see Di Chen bringing peerless elegance and walking forward. Some of the lords in front of him gave way and automatically gave him their spots.

As for Di Chen choosing the Yellow Emperor camp, Ouyang Shuo didn't feel surprised. In reality, Di Chen was surnamed Xuanyuan and his family were the descendants of the Yellow Emperor.

Hence in this Battle of Zhuolu, with his arrogant personality, even if he knew that choosing the Chiyou camp and winning would get him great rewards, he would still choose the Yellow Emperor camp.

Reality proved that Di Chen's decision was right. The reward that Ouyang Shuo wanted was obtained by Di Chen in the last life. Sadly, with Ouyang Shuo, everything was now different.

The receptionist didn't bother about the player's reaction and asked, "Name?"

"Di Chen!"

Gong Sunlie frowned, that name was just too arrogant, "Territory?"

"Handan Town!"

"Force number?"

"500!"

Ouyang Shuo stood at the side and nodded. Unexpectedly Di Chen was only a rank 3 earl, although it was already a high rank, but compared to him he was lacking by a huge margin.

After Di Chen, Handan alliances' other two members registered. Sha Pojun was a rank 1 viscount and could bring 300 men. Wufu was a rank 2 viscount and could bring 200 men. The entire Handan alliance brought a total of 1 thousand men.

After registering, when Di Chen saw Ouyang Shuo, his eyes stared at him.

At the auction, the two nearly got into a fight. But as a son of a famous family, he had pride, his face revealed a warm smile and said, "Brother wuyi, how's everything?"

Juedai Fenghua who was standing beside Di Chen was seeing Ouyang Shuo for the first time. Upon hearing Di Chen greeting Ouyang Shuo, she was amazed, a pair of beautiful eyes swept upon Ouyang Shuo.

As for Di Chen, Ouyang Shuo had decided not to bother about him. Since they were destined to be enemies, there was no reason to be fake and he was not from a rich and powerful family.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and looked coldly.

Di Chen was stunned, seeing that Ouyang Shuo did not do what he had expected, he seemed very awkward. Sha Pojun at the side was frowning and ridiculed, "What a scum, not even knowing manners." When Sha Pojun said those words, he didn't notice that Wufu's expression tensed up.

Wang Feng, upon seeing Ouyang Shuo get insulted, took out the Tang knife at his side, "Who dares to insult my sire, go to hell!" As he said that, he wanted to burst forward and teach him a lesson.

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand and stopped Wang Feng's impulse. His eyes became cold as he stared at Sha Pojun, "What's the use of words? You're a dog that just barks for his master and I'll make you a dead dog,"

"You!" Sha Pojun was enraged and was about to start a fight.

Di Chen also stopped Sha Pojun, looking towards Ouyang Shuo and laughing, "Seems like brother Wuyi is determined to go against out Handan alliance. Ok, I'll wait and see. Let's go!" The last sentence was said for Sha Pojun.

"Same, same!" Ouyang Shuo didn't show any signs of weakness.

This scuffle was kept in the eyes of all the players. The mission hadn't begun yet and the two biggest dragons in the camp had already started an internal dispute, how interesting.

Chapter 128 - Battle of Zhuolu (Part 2)

In Yellow Emperor City, after a small dispute, the registration point became calm once again.

Ouyang Shuo smoothly met up with Bai Hua, Mu Lanyue and Gong Chengshi. What made them surprised was that Feng Qiuhuang also chose to join the Yellow Emperor camp.

With the close relationship of the original Six Tyrants of Handan, it was impossible that Feng Qiuhuang didn't know that Di Chen would choose the Yellow Emperor camp. Like how Chun Shenjun and Zhan Lang who chose to bring the Chunqiu Alliance, and the Blood Metal Alliance chose to join the Chiyou camp. If the reason was to be in the same camp as Ouyang Shuo, then it wouldn't have made sense. After all, Ouyang Shuo didn't tell her that he would choose this camp.

Feng Qiuhuang was a rank 3 earl, bringing in 500 men. After registering, she took the initiative to walk to Ouyang Shuo and smiled, "Why, lord Wuyi, are you surprised with my choice?"

Ouyang Shuo nodded. “That's right. I was about to suspect our Shanhai Alliance had a mole and told you. If not, why would it be so coincidental?"

"Cough cough." Gong Chengshi, upon hearing Ouyang Shuo's words, started coughing. In truth, it was Gong Chengshi who’d told Feng Qiuhuang.

Ouyang Shuo stared at Gong Chengshi, startled, "That's not true, right? I just randomly guessed it. You traitor, putting hoes over bros."

Gong Chengshi was embarrassed and laughed. "Cough cough, brother Wuyi… this… the weather is nice today. Let's talk about a better topic. With lord Feng's addition, our numbers are far higher than Di Chen’s, isn't that a good thing?"

Mu Lanyue ridiculed him. "You were obviously charmed and still feel good about it. Brother Lion knows no shame."

Gong Chengshi's face turned red. "Yue yue, you shouldn't tease your brother like this."

"Ok, time is about up. We should go meet with our forces and find a suitable place to make camp. If not, we will have to sleep in the wilderness." Ouyang Shuo didn't want to pursue the situation.

After assembling the forces, the 2000-man squad waltzed out of the city.

Consonance Town’s Bai Hua, Tsing Yi, and Hong Ying all followed along. Out of the 4 flowers, only Zi Luolan stayed back to defend the territory. Bai Hua brought a 300-man strong squad, who were all cavalry. Their historical figure also made an appearance. He was Zhang Liao, one of Three Kingdom, Overlord Cao Cao’s 5 generals.

Zhang Liao and Zi Wenyuan were from Yamen Mayi. He had once worked under Ding Yuan, Dong Zhuo, and Lu Bu.

After the Battle of Xiapi, he followed Cao Cao. Under his charge, he gained many military rewards and accolades. He got out of the white horse trap together with Guan Yu, invaded Donghai, attacked Yuanshang in Ye city, and led the killing of Wuhuan in White Wolf mountain and many others.

After the Battle of Ruxu, Cao Cao appointed Zhang Liao, Lidian, and Lejing. Zhang Liao had defended against Sun Wu's attack, and in the 20-year Battle of Xiaoyaolu, used 7000 warriors to defeat an army of 100 thousand. That battle shocked Jiangdong and caused Zhang Liao’s reputation to soar, becoming one of the generals remembered in history.

When Cao Ren came to power, he asked Zhang Liao to continue defending Sun Quan. In Huang Chu’s 2nd year, he got an illness. While he was down with the serious illness, Sun Quan was very anxious for him. The 3rd year, he defeated Lufan while carrying the illness. The same year he died in Jiangdong, living for 54 years.

On the side of Fallen Phoenix Town, apart from Feng Qiuhuang, the core players included Qingluan. Their 500 strong force, apart from their 300 sword shield soldiers, included 200 archers. The General was a basic rank General Diqiu.

As for Mu Lanyue and Gong Chengshi, Gong Chengshi brought 100 sword shield soldiers. Mu Lanyue's side was 100 archers led by Mu Guiying.

Hence the 2000 strong force had 500 cavalry, 50 heavy armoured cavalry, 1500 infantry, out of which 100 were heavy armoured infantry, 600 sword shield soldiers, 500 archers and 300 crossbowmen. As the ones leading this force apart from General Shi, Mu Guiying and Zhang Liao, there was still the strategist Jushou.

Out of the 5 territories, only Fallen Phoenix Town had no historical general and no strategist.

The reason was that for people like Feng Qiuhuang who had directly gotten the silver village token without doing the mission, they obtained strength but at the same time lost the chance to get the summoning talisman. Hence, her town till date still hadn’t got a historical figure.

In the village building mission, players who got the copper village token could obtain one gold rank special talent. Those that got an iron village token had a 1% chance of getting a king-rank summoning talisman. As for those who got the silver village token, they had a 100% chance of getting a king-rank summoning talisman.

Out of the 10 thousand village building quest participants, 1000 failed, 7200 got the copper village token, 1800 got the iron rank token and only 5 got the silver token. Hence, only 20 people obtained a gold-rank summoning talisman from the village building quest.

Mu Lanyue and Gong Chengshi had both obtained iron rank village tokens but fortunately received the king-rank summoning talisman. As for Bai Hua and Xunlong Dianxue, they both obtained silver rank village tokens. As for the other 3, if nothing was wrong it would be Xiongba, wandering magic and Wufu.

In the last territory Defence, the top 12 in the Chinese region apart from Shanhai town which used a gold village building token, the other 11 had used silver. This was the 11 that everyone had knowledge of. As for whether others had gotten a silver village token from other methods, no one had any news.

Just as he walked out of the city gate, a system notification sounded out.

"Battle notice: The Battle of Zhuolu, a total of 105 territories are participating, a total of 18 thousand people. Yellow Emperor camp has 40 territories and 8000 men; Chiyou camp has 65 territories and 10 thousand men.”

Expectedly, most players chased for the rewards of changing history and thus chose Chiyou camp. If not for Ouyang Shuo choosing the Yellow Emperor camp, the difference in strength would be even bigger.

What was more interesting was that out of the TOP 12 in China, each side had 6. In the Yellow Emperor camp was Ouyang Shuo, Di Chen, Feng Qiuhuang, Sha Pojun, Bai Hua and Wuhu. In the Chiyou camp was Chun Shenjun, Feng Qingyang, Zhan Lang, Xiongba, Wandering Magic and Xunlong Dianxue. Coincidentally, the original Six Tyrants of Handan was split 3:3.

On first glance, it seemed like both sides were tied. However, in the Yellow Emperor camp, it was already split into the Shanhai Alliance and Handan Alliance. On the other side, there was still a chance of the alliances cooperating with one another.

So be it numbers or strength, the Yellow Emperor camp was at a disadvantage.

"Battle notification: the Yellow Emperor camp, because of lesser numbers, to make it fair, has obtained a 10% Defence increase buff."

This notification made many players from the Yellow Emperor camp heave a sigh in relief.

This was the system's balancing method, only when both sides were equal in power could a fight start. If the difference was too huge, what kind of war will there be? If that happened, it might cause future wars to be one-sided and that was not what the system wanted to happen.

Under normal circumstances, the compensation by the system would be based on the difference in strength. This compensation could be a increase in Defence or an increase in combat power or movement speed.

Apart from that, if the power difference was too huge, a case of nerfing might occur. For example, lowering the Defence, combat power or movement speed of the stronger side.

"Battle Notification: Following the rules of battle, the highest ranked player will be given the title of representative. He has the power to see the camp leader and listen in on military meetings. If the ranks of the players are the same, it will be decided by merit points."

"Battle Notification: Based on rank and merit points, the Yellow Emperor camp representative is Qiyue Wuyi, rank 2 earl. The representative of Chiyou camp is Chun Shenjun, rank 3 earl."

The moment the notification was out, the players were in an uproar. The title of representative, although it didn't give the player the power to lead the camp, gave the two privileges that all players yearned for.

To directly meet the leader of the camp, the representative could meet core people in the camp and make it easier to activate historical people’s hiring quests.

Apart from that, to be able to hang around with the leader of the camp and even give opinions on strategies. The benefits would depend on how the player grasped and used it. It wasn't something that words could describe.

Listening in on the military meeting, the representative would have already got into the core of the camp and could learn the tactics and plans of the battle departments. This intel would be of crucial use for the user and his allies in future battle planning. And if the chance permitted, the player could even give his opinion in the meeting and get even more opportunities and benefits.

One could say that these two permissions and powers had encapsulated the most core benefits of the war system. How could it not make players jealous? Any player with a brain would understand that the representative player would, if nothing went wrong, become a leader amongst all players and following him would be a good decision.

Chapter 129 - Battle of Zhuolu part 3

Like they say, there will always be some people who are happy and some that are sad.

After Ouyang Shuo was chosen as the representative of the Yellow Emperor camp, it was an incredible benefit for Shanhai Alliance. On the other hand, the Handan Alliance which had Di Chen at the helm, the difference in feeling and mood was like night and day. The two alliances who were originally around the same strength had instantly been swung in Ouyang Shuo's favour.

At the registration point, a few of the players upon seeing Feng Qiuhuang join Shanhai Alliance's camp, had tried to contact Ouyang Shuo in hopes that they could join too.

The moment the battle notification was released, those lords that had not dispersed became more anxious. They did not care or bother about whether Ouyang Shuo would agree or not and brought their forces and tailed behind Ouyang Shuo's.

As for these players, Ouyang Shuo did not want to reject them outright. To win this battle, only relying on the strength of the Shanhai Alliance was impossible. If he could unite all the players in the camp to his side, it would undoubtedly increase their chances of winning.

Definitely, things would not possibly go as smoothly as he thought. Firstly, with Di Chen leading the Handan Alliance, they would definitely reject cooperating with Ouyang Shuo. Additionally, apart from running his own territory, the Handan Alliance had tried to infiltrate other territories. Thus in the Yellow Emperor camp, there will be some supporters or people who would ally with him for benefits and won’t easily join Ouyang Shuo's side.

Secondly, in normal circumstances, lord game mode players are usually more arrogant. Most of them were the inheritors or children of the large families and powers and have become used to ruling over others, making it hard for them to follow another person; if not, they were the top class adventure game mode players who had already reached the peak in that game mode and thus decided to change to lord game mode. Thus they also had no reason or desire to go under and listen to another player.

Hence, for all the players in the camp to unite was a near impossible thing. Ouyang Shuo also did not hold such hopes and in his plan, as long as he was able to make a 5000 men force, then it would have counted as a success.

So, as for the players who proactively showed good intentions, Ouyang Shuo did not reject them. Of course, without understanding their true intentions, he also won't accept them into his camp.

He indicated that after finding a suitable location to build a camp and after settling down, he will then talk about cooperation. With that, a group of players waltzed out of Yellow Emperor city. Such a wild sight was something the players were seeing for the first time as they looked on in awe.

Now was the summer season, the most vibrant and energetic season of the year. Looking at the vast and endless plains, wild grass grew and trees took root. The nameless wild grass grew until it could cover a grown man's knees. As the summer breeze blew across, within the tall grasses, hundreds of beast roars could be heard, seeming really dangerous.

Seeing this kind of spectacle, Ouyang Shuo naturally would not dare to go too far.

He ordered Lin Yi to lead a cavalry squadron along with the spies from the Military Intelligence Division and look for a suitable camping spot near the Yellow Emperor city.

In ancient wars and battles, the place where a camp is set up was done with a lot of knowledge and research and it couldn't be done carelessly. stated that any army would look for the highlands and avoid low areas, look for places with a lot of sunlight and avoid dark and damp areas. They would go for places with water and trees so as to be able to get supplies and if their soldiers are healthy and don't fall ill, they would win all wars.

Apart from that, they also had to avoid the forest or river crossing. Taking into account that Chiyou camp was attacking from south east to northwest, the best position would be the west of Yellow Emperor city. Like this, he could avoid being cannon fodder in an upfront confrontation and could act as a flank and quickly enter the battlefield.

An hour later, Lin Yi and his group returned.

Lin Yi quickly got off his horse and said, "Reporting to sire, we found a mountain slope at the west of Yellow Emperor city. The south side of the slope about 5 km away has a large river. It's very near to the slope and that makes getting water easy. I think that it's a good spot to set up camp."

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head with delight and smiled, "Good, everyone, move out!"

The force started to get busy after they rushed to the camp.

Firstly, they had to burn and cut all the annoying wild grass to make a large enough empty space. Secondly, they had to go to the woods nearby to chop down some trees for wood to build the camp.

To ensure the safety of the camp, its surroundings must have a small wooden wall. The method was to cut two rows of tree trunks, one long and one short, and after burning the trunk, it was buried half into the ground. The long tree trunks will be the outer layer and the short ones will be the inner layer. Then in between both, wooden planks will be set up and divided into two layers such that the part that was protruding could be a defensive wall. The upper layer could let troops patrol and act as sentries while the bottom layer could be a resting area and a storage area.

When they set up the camp, a tent would accommodate 50 soldiers, their tents would be set up facing each other and surrounding the tents, drains had to be dug up. Soldiers were prohibited from going and running into other tents. Every tent area had its own public toilet which was far away from the food and water source. Amongst the various tent areas, there was also sufficient space for movement.

Nearing noon, the camp was finally cleared out. As everyone was busy cutting trees and digging the drains, Ouyang Shuo asked Wang Feng to bring an infantry squadron to follow by his side.

In the camp, Ouyang Shuo took out the main tent that he had bought and set it up together with the soldiers. This would act as a meeting room for everyone to discuss as it was not becoming to talk and discuss all around the place.

As compared to the soldier's tents, this tent was 5 times larger and was like the tooth tent used by the nomads and could have 20-30 people inside.

After building the tent, Ouyang Shuo took out the table and stool crafted by the wooden workshop.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo taking out item after item from his storage bag like magic, Mu Lanyue who was following around him curiously like a baby opened her eyes widely and asked, "Brother Wuyi, how is your storage bag so big?"

Ouyang Shuo explained, "It has already expanded to 1 thousand cubic metres, of course it’s big. Ouyang Shuo did not want to dwell further and said, "Since the tents have been set up, quickly call everyone here to discuss what to do next."

"En!" Mu Lanyue nodded her head cutely.

……

Inside the main tent, Ouyang Shuo sat in the middle, in his two sides sat Feng Qiuhuang, Bai Hua, Mu Lanyue and Gong Chengshi. Behind them sat their various assistants and generals.

"Now that we have settled down, for our next step, what suggestions do you all have?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

Feng Qiuhuang was smart and knew that since she was the only one not from Shanhai Alliance, and that they had probably discussed this issue, Qiyue Wuyi was actually just asking her.

Feng Qiuhuang laughed, "Whatever plans lord Wuyi has why not just say it directly. Since my Fallen Phoenix Town joined your camp, I will follow your instructions."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, "I'll be direct then!"

"Haha!" Mu Lanyue suddenly laughed, making everyone look at her with judging eyes. She embarrassingly said, "I find it interesting how both of them are talking, calling each other lords."

Feng Qiuhuang realized it and laughingly said, "That's true, why not we get rid of the formalities. My name is Feng Wu, Brother Wuyi can treat me as one of you all."

Ouyang Shuo nodded and continued, "To make it convenient to lead, my intentions are for our five forces to merge and follow one leader. Specifically separate the forces in cavalry, sword shield soldiers and bow and crossbowmen, these three types. I suggest for Zhang Liao to be the leader of the cavalry, Lin Yi and Hong Ying as the deputies. General Shi will lead the sword shield soldiers with Gong Chengshi and Wang Feng as deputies. Mu Guiying will lead the bowmen and crossbowmen with Zhao Sihu and Diqiu as the deputies. Jushou will be the military advisor and Tsing Yi and Qingluan will be the deputies.”

Ouyang Shuo's arrangement had protected and considered about every area. It not only protected Shanhai Town's postition as the core but also considered about his allies. Of course, the first consideration was based on talent and ability.

For the cavalry, it was mainly the troops from Shanhai Town and Consonance Town, one leader and two deputies ensured the smooth arrangement of commands.

The sword shield soldiers, General Shi had the absolute power and the position of Gong Chengshi was also considered, making him a deputy and letting him lead a squadron.

The last were the bowmen and crossbowmen. Originally Shanhai Town had 500 and were the absolute core, but Ouyang Shuo decided to give the leadership to Mu Guiying. This arrangement showed his great trust as she was definitely better than Zhao Sihu at being the leader. As the other 200 bowmen and crossbowmen were from Fallen Phoenix Town, Ouyang Shuo arranged Diqiu as a deputy.

Out of all this, probably only Fallen Phoenix Town was at a loss. They had 500 men but because they lacked a general, they couldn't lead the main force and could only support. This was also why Ouyang Shuo was hesitating, only until she expressed her allegiance did he say out his plans and strategy.

Chapter 130 - Battle of Zhuolu part 4

After listening to his organization plan, Feng Qiuhuang felt that she had an added layer of understanding of Ouyang Shuo. She smiled and said, “Brother Wuyi's organization is great, little sister has no qualms."

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, “Since everyone has no qualms and nothing to say, we will split the tent areas based on the different forces. As for the specific arrangements, I'll leave them to General Shi and General Zhang Liao. Is that okay?"

General Shi and General Zhang Liao immediately got up. “Yes sire, we will not let you down!"

"I have to say before everything starts that the purpose of reorganizing the forces is to form cohesion and to face the final battle together. Throughout the process, if you need to individually complete missions, the alliance won't have any restrictions. Not only that, if you need help, we can also send backup." Ouyang Shuo explained.

Everyone was selfish. As the leader of the alliance, if he couldn't give a good response to settle the selfish side of them and made everyone sacrifice their personal gain for the team, this would only cause the alliance to split apart. Only by building the alliance upon mutual benefit and showing them that working together was the only way of winning would the alliance last for long.

Feng Qiuhuang and the rest nodded to express that they understood, seeming very pleased.

Bai Hua asked, “Wuyi, then what would the few of us do?"

"That's true, although we aren't generals and warriors, we ought to do something to help." Feng Qiuhuang added.

Out of the five lords, Ouyang Shuo and Gong Chengshi had side jobs as generals, Mu Lanyue as a tailor, Bai Hua as a doctor, and Feng Qiuhuang as a knight.

"As for the rest of us, we will also split jobs. I'll be in charge of contacting Yellow Emperor city and finding out news. Bai Hua and Feng Wu will be in charge of contacting other players and choosing the best players, excluding those arrogant ones or those with bad intentions. As for the rest, as long as they accept our organization of troops they can join in. As for Yue Yue, you will be in charge of coordination and contacting each of us." Ouyang Shuo thought for a while before saying.

Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang were both female lords with a lot of influence.

Out of all the professional players, Bai Hua held utmost authority, knowing a lot about each lord. On the opposite side, Feng Qiuhuang was playing for the first time and did not know much about the professional players, but about the various leaders of each power, she knew much more than Bai Hua. With both of them working together, they could cover each of their weaknesses. Adding their personal charm, having the two of them in charge of contacting other players was too perfect. ……At 2 PM in the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo brought Wang Feng and left the camp towards Yellow Emperor city.

In the , Si Maqian used simple but descriptive writing to describe the life and death of the Yellow Emperor.

The Yellow Emperor was the son of Shaodian. He was surnamed Gongsun and named Xuanyuan. Like many of the old people from legends, when he was born there was a natural phenomenon, and he could speak not long after his birth. Talent coupled with hard work and honesty made him grow into a well-learned, extraordinary talent that would be able to complete all tasks.

Gongsun Xuanyuan was born at a time when political reform was happening. The once-powerful Shennong was getting weaker day by day, wars waged everywhere, and the commoners suffered.

Shengnong had no power to help the weak, and at that time, Gongsun Xuanyuan, who was rising in power, grabbed his chance. He gathered his troops and started a crusade against tribes to use power to force them into following his will. There was one tribe that wouldn’t yield, and that was the Chiyou tribe, which was good at war.

Subsequently, the Fire Emperor, who was equally strong, had invaded the weak tribes, causing the weaker ones to flock under Gongsun Xuanyuan's charge in hopes of sanctuary. The Fire Emperor and Gongsun Xuanyuan couldn’t avoid a battle. Gongsun Xuanyuan used a series of methods to increase his power and strength like cultivating morals, organizing the military, studying the weather, growing grain, rearing a group of beasts like the Pixiu tigers, and preparing for the battle with the Fire Emperor. The battle which was known as the Battle of Banquan broke out, and after several intense battles, Gongsun Xuanyuan defeated the Fire Emperor.

At that point, he had become the leader of all the tribes and started giving them orders. After the Fire Emperor yielded, the Yellow Emperor ordered him to send personnel to different areas. The Fire Emperor sent Chiyou to the east, but when he arrived there, he started a revolt against the Fire Emperor. As he wasn't his opponent, the Fire Emperor retreated to Zhuolu and requested assistance from the Yellow Emperor.

Hence, Gongsun Xuanyuan ordered his men to gather up all the tribes for a war against the Chiyou tribe. The result was that the tribal alliance led by Gongsun Xuanyuan crushed the Chiyou tribe and beheaded Chiyou. After that, his reputation and authority flew upwards, all the tribes recommended him to be the Son of God, replaced Shennong as the leader sent by the gods, and named him as the Yellow Emperor.

History states that the Yellow Emperor tribe traveled here and there and didn't have a permanent living spot, living like nomadic tribes. The Fire Emperor's emperor calling had to do with fire, and people called him Lieshan, meaning fire mountain. Growing plants and grains in the wilderness, he probably came from a farming tribe. Chiyou came from the east, and they said he used metal weapons and was fairly advanced, probably coming from a farming tribe too.In truth, the nomads and the farmers probably did not split up, but they had differences in ideology. Hence the Battle of Banquan was a battle between farmers and nomads and also a battle between their ideologies. The Battle of Zhuolu was instead a battle between the Chinese ethnic group and the Dongyi ethnic group.

Shennong wasn't a confirmed person, but a sort of ideology that extended beyond a tribe which lasted for hundreds and even thousands of years. Hence, his legend was instead deemed as a period in time.

Fire Emperor, Yellow Emperor and Chiyou were all heroic figures during the Shennong period. On ideology, they were all like Shennong, only coming from different tribes. In a period when the main strength was declining, they all wanted to obtain land, people, and money. Hence, the war raged on and finally ended in the Battle of Zhuolu, making the Yellow Emperor the hero of heroes.The current event was just after Gongsun Xuanyuan had defeated the Fire Emperor and just before the Battle of Zhuolu. This period, both sides had been at a standstill for a very long time.

Because the Chiyou tribe came from far away, they had to build their own Chiyou city. The city was destroyed by water, making them build a stronghold up in the mountains. The Chiyou stronghold was made up of 3 connected strongholds and was less than 10 kilometres away from the Yellow Emperor city.

Apart from this, not far from the Yellow Emperor city was a Fire Emperor camp which was where the Fire Emperor tribe had gathered. Yellow Emperor camp players could rush there to find side missions.Ouyang Shuo and Wang Feng were prepared to enter the Yellow Emperor city via the west gate.

At the two sides stood two guards. They wore a black linen dress, and around their necks hung a necklace made up of beast teeth. They each held a stone axe in their hand, and it was made of a wooden handle and an axe head that was grounded from a rock, looking extremely sharp.

After checking his identity tablet, they allowed them to proceed.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to use gold to bribe them to ask for infomation. But if he thought about it, gold was something such a primitive society didn't know about.

After entering, he didn't go straight to see the Yellow Emperor.

Although he was the representative and had the right to see the leader, if he disturbed him for no reason, it would make him annoyed.

The Yellow Emperor tribe, apart from the Yellow Emperor and his bride Leizu, consisted of Fenghou, Limu, Changxian, and Dahong, 4 important officials. Fenghou was the prime minister, and Limu was the general. Changxian was the inventor, and Dahong was good at training troops.

Ouyang Shuo was ready to use Leizu as his breakthrough point. His confidence stemmed naturally from the unique coloured silkworm from Shanhai Town.

As the leader of females in the olden times, Leizu created the method of keeping silkworms and obtaining silk from them. She also made everyone respect the emperor, grew mulberry, forced people to wear clothing, started marriage laws, gift traditions, respecting one’s mother, and she cared about the welfare of the people. All this was started by her.

As the bride of the Yellow Emperor, she naturally lived in the tribe palace. Of course, based on the building levels of the ancient people, even if it was a palace it was just a mud building.

The palace was situated in the middle of the city, and there were guards at the door. It was extremely spacious and took up a tenth of the city, showing the importance of the king and his bloodline.

Like the other buildings in the tribe, the palace was built with a mud base and a straw roof. A wooden skeleton was strengthened with mud to make the walls, and the roofs were covered with straw.

There wasn't only one building in the palace, and it was a combination of 4-5 rooms which made it look very majestic. The main hall was 8 meters tall and the highest point was 10 meters. The stairs alone were already a meter high. The outer walls of the palace were made with yellow mud which hardened and that made it look very strong and solid. Once it dried, it wasn't afraid of the rain, and the color was vibrant.

An ancient society will always dig a fire pond in the house to use to cook and to keep warm during the winter. Hence to solve the problem of the smoke, a hole must be opened in the roof. If a hole was opened, however, it would leak, as such a thatched roof must be made. The whole system looked very reasonable and practical.

One had to admit that such primitive structures were wild but beautiful, easy but practical. Ouyang Shuo was thinking that if Sun Xiaoyue saw such structures, she would be in awe.

Chapter 131 - Battle of Zhuolu part 5

Ouyang Shuo brought Wang Feng with him and went to the door of the palace.

The two guards stopped them and warned, "The palace is a sacred ground, random people can't get close. Who are you? Please leave."

Ouyang Shuo smiled and respectfully said, "I'll have to busy Brother to report that representative Qiyue Wuyi has something to give to the queen."

The guard was stunned. Ever since he was named as the representative of the Yellow Emperor camp, all the NPCs in the camp automatically learnt of his existence.

Hence, when they saw that he had come up to the door himself, they didn't dare to be disrespectful and their attitude changed by 180 degrees. They said embarrassingly, "Oh so it's representative Qiyue Wuyi, please wait for a moment, I'll go and report."

"Thank you." Ouyang Shuo nodded.

After 10 minutes, the guard returned and said,"Her majesty invites the two of you to enter."

Ouyang Shuo and Wang Feng followed behind the guard and walked into the palace. Along the way, he looked at the design of the palace, it was simple and practical, a typical wild style.

The guard brought them to a side hall and said,"You guys can enter yourselves, her majesty is waiting for you inside."

"Thank you for your help." Ouyang Shuo expressed his thanks once again.

Walking in the side hall, Ouyang Shuo saw a young and beautiful woman sitting on the main seat, her features were distinct and her nose had a high bridge. Her long hair was let down without any jewellery on it, seeming very natural and warm. She was wearing a white sleeved gown, the end of the gown only reaching her knees, displaying a pair of healthy and beautiful legs.

On her shoulder hung a yellow shawl and was tied around her waist. On her forehead was a gemstone that was tied by a chain, making her look honorable. Apart from that, a swallow shaped jade hung around her neck. This was definitely her majesty Leizu.

In the sides of the hall sat 3 young women and 1 cute little girl. Their dresses were similar to Leizu, only lacking the jewelry on her forehead. One of the girls looked ugly and Ouyang Shuo guessed that she should be the Yellow Emperor's fourth concubine Momu. With that conjecture, the other two women should be Nujie and Tong Yu.

As for that little girl who looked to be 11 or 12 years old, Ouyang Shuo could guess her identity. There was a chance that she was the Yellow Emperor's Daughter. She looked very dainty with long eyelashes, large eyes, and white succulent skin making her look like a little doll.

She was wearing a silk gown which showed a pair of soft arms. The gown was pure white and didn't have any patterns, only being tied around the waist by a belt made up of numerous gemstones. The gown covered till her knees and she wore a pair of boots made of deer leather. Her straight black hair moved in the wind and there were small braids tied with a white silk string at the sides of her head with a few white feathers stuck into it.

She also wore a flower wreath, and around her neck was a swallow shape gemstone, even her right hand had a bracelet made up of gemstones, making her seemingly wild and playful.

Ouyang Shuo didn't know what exactly to call Yellow Emperor's concubines and wife and used the most formal way, bowing forward and saying, "I'm representative Qiyue Wuyi, greetings ladies!"

In his eyes, their clothes were filled with the style of the ancient wilderness. However in their eyes, the outfits of Ouyang Shuo and Wang Feng were also very weird and special.

As it was a battle map, Ouyang Shuo was obviously dressed as a general. Be it the Mingguang armor or the Tang sword, in their eyes it was like god weapons.

One must know that in the era that they live in, it was the stone age, even the Chiyou tribe only used copper weapons. Weapons and equipments made by metal was something that they couldn't fathom.

The little girl was very lively and active. She wasn't afraid of strangers and upon seeing Ouyang Shuo, she ran down from her seat. It looked like she wanted to touch Ouyang Shuo's armor, especially the shining circle guard at the front of the armor.

Leizu warned, "Mei'er, don't be rude."

Ouyang Shuo was surprised, this young girl was the Yellow Emperor's daughter Xuanyuan Mei, the girl which legends say were super ugly? But she looked totally different from what they described, such a cute girl, how was she ugly? I guess it must be what their descendants had guessed and made up.

Ouyang Shuo liked Xuanyuan Mei and took out a small dagger from his storage bag, handing it over to her and said, "This is a little gift for the princess."

After being warned by her mom, although she really liked the dagger, she didn't dare to accept it. She looked at it sadly with her big eyes while turning back and looking at Leizu.

"Since it's a gift, accept it!"

"Thank you, Mother!" Xuanyuan Mei giggled and accepted the dagger thanking Ouyang Shuo, "Thank you, visitor from afar, I really like your gift."

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, "It’s good that little princess likes it." After Xuanyuan Mei returned to her seat, Ouyang Shuo said, "Respected queen, I have a gift for you, I hope you allow it."

She nodded, after the little situation with Xuanyuan Mei, her impression towards Ouyang Shuo was very good and she also became very warm, "What gift? If it's too expensive then I rather not."

"Don't worry, although it is rare, it is useless in other places. Only you can use it to its true value." Ouyang Shuo explained.

"Oh, there's such a thing?" Leizu's interest was piqued.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and told Wang Feng to bring up the gift that he prepared. It was held in an exquisitely crafted wooden box and inside were 30 colored silkworms and some unhatched eggs.

The reason he brought the eggs was because he was afraid something would happen to the silkworms during the teleportation.

Leizu signalled the maidservant to get the box and place it on the table. Upon opening it and seeing the slowly crawling coloured silkworms, she was both shocked and surprised, "Is this a type of silkworm?"

"That's right." Ouyang Shuo nodded, "It's a very rare type of coloured silkworm, not only are the colours on their body different but the silk that they spit out are also coloured."

She smiled, "Very good, I really like this gift."

Ouyang Shuo's preparation was far more well done than what she expected. He took out the 7 coloured silk from his storage bag and said respectfully, "This was made from the silk for you to admire. If you don't mind, please accept it."

The reason he took out the silk was to prove that he didn't lie and that the coloured silk was true and secondly was to give those as gifts to the other three concubines. When giving gifts, the worst thing is bad preparation and missing out on people. If that is the case, one might enrage people and that was a mistake that Ouyang Shuo naturally wouldn't make.

If one of the concubines didn't receive a gift and hated Ouyang Shuo because of it and fanned some flames in front of the Yellow Emperor, then all his hard work would go to waste.

As they say, everyone has a spot for admiring and understanding beauty. Seeing the silk, all the ladies were unexpectedly touched, their expressions became more warm and wasn't as expressionless as when he had just entered.

Ouyang Shuo was delighted as he knew that his plan had worked.

As the main wife, Leizu was obviously very smart and Ouyang Shuo's little antics didn't escape her eye. She was very impressed by his planning and smiled, "For letting me keep such a gift, I will give you one in return. What do you want?"

Ouyang was stunned, before he came he did not expect such a situation. The reason he gave the gifts was to make her like him and increase the good feelings that the Yellow Emperor has on him and make it more convenient and easy for him to do things, he didn't expect there to be a reward.

Ouyang Shuo said sincerely, "It's just a small gift with my thoughts, as long as you like it, it's okay, I don't need a gift in return."

Leizu shook her head, "No. The coloured silkworms are of great help to the tribe and it could be said to be an epoch-making contribution, making the colours of our silk more vibrant and exciting. Such a contribution has to be rewarded. Why don’t I give you a manual to grow the silkworms to complement it."

Leizu took out a book made of leather and asked the maidservant to pass it to Ouyang Shuo.

He took it, had a look and was amazed, saying, "Thank you queen for your gift!"

[Leizu’s Sericulture Handbook]: After using, raise silk production by 20%.

After receiving the reward, Ouyang Shuo was very smart and knew that he should not stay any longer, "Queen, it's already late and I have to rush back to the camp outside the city, please allow me to leave first."

She nodded, "Since it's like this, I won't keep you for any longer."

"Yes!" Ouyang Shuo said and with Wang Feng, they slowly left the side hall under the lead of the maidservant and walked out of the palace.

Chapter 132 - Battle of Zhuolu part 6

It was already 4 PM when Ouyang Shuo came out of the tribe palace. As he was thinking about the progress of the camp, Ouyang Shuo did not stay in Yellow Emperor City.When he went back to the camp, the camp had already undergone a big change.

With the combined efforts of 2000 men, the wooden wall of the camp had been completed. On top of the wall, there were soldiers patrolling and making rounds. At the 4 corners of the camp were arrow towers. Apart from that, at the main gate of the camp, which was at the east gate, were two arrow towers. At the front, there were two rows of horses.When the camp guards saw Ouyang Shuo, they bowed. Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo smiled and replied in kind, making the soldiers feel a little warm inside.

Walking into the camp, tents one after another were placed neatly in rows, separated into different camp areas. Between each area, the drains were already dug.

Ouyang Shuo passed his horse to Wang Feng, and walked alone into the central big tent.In the big tent sat 20 odd players, seeming a little cramped. Seeing Ouyang Shuo walk in, they all stood up to greet him. Ouyang Shuo smiled, nodded, and replied to each and every one of them. He also didn't forget to greet Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang.

Bai Hua helped get Ouyang Shuo out of the situation and smiled. “Wuyi, let me introduce you to the 20 players. They were chosen by Feng Wu and me. They agreed that in the final battle, their troops will be led by us."

Ouyang Shuo was stunned and immediately understood Bai Hua's words. These players still had their qualms and weren't like Feng Qiuhuang, who was willing to openly cooperate with the Shanhai Alliance. These people only wanted to borrow his status as the representative to obtain the initiative in battle. Only in the final battle would they follow his orders. Before that, everyone would do their own thing, and even their camps wouldn't be all in the same place.

Ouyang Shuo kept silent, as it seemed like his prior estimation was too positive. China had a saying that in china, 1/4 were dragons while the rest were bugs. Although these words were insulting, they also reflected that Chinese people wanted to be heroes and fought for their own benefits.

From this, one could see that only the alliance members were trustworthy. After this battle, a meeting should be called to accept Fallen Phoenix town into Shanhai Town. Since her attitude was so resolute, Ouyang Shuo had no reason to refuse such a strong ally.

After understanding their motives, Ouyang Shuo treated them impatiently and said, "Welcome to the Shanhai Alliance, as for the details, we will discuss them next time."

Ouyang Shuo's change in attitude was felt by all the people. Some of them looked embarrassed and some acted like they didn't care, so there were various reactions. Luckily it was already late, so after seeing Ouyang Shuo, they all said goodbye and left.

After sending off all these players, Ouyang Shuo returned back to the tent, gathered the 4 in the alliance, and easily opened a meeting. Everyone reported and discussed the matters that they had on hand.

Feng Qiuhuang did a summary of the twenty players and said, "Each of those players has 1-200 strong forces, and their overall force is 3500 men, mainly sword shield soldiers and bowmen. The specific numbers, I have just calculated. 2300 sword shield soldiers, 700 bowmen and 500 cavalry. Adding in our own original force, we now have 3000 sword shield soldiers, 1500 bowmen and crossbowmen, and 1000 cavalry for a total of 5500 people, taking up the majority of Yellow Emperor's camp forces."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. He didn't feel any delight and laughed bitterly."Such a small number of forces split into 20 hands. When the time comes, whether we can form a collective power is a huge question mark. These people might agree now, but once changes happen in the battlefield, they might change and desert us. The way I see it, the 2000 of us must form a collective power. As for the players that have thrown themselves to us, we must evaluate them and allow only those that are reliable to join our forces."

Feng Qiuhuang and Bai Hua nodded together and said, "No problem, leave this to the both of us."

Towards the two of them, Ouyang Shuo had the utmost confidence, continuing, "Out of all these players, do any of them have any generals or strategist-type historical figures?"

The reason Ouyang Shuo asked that was because he had his own reasoning. The Chinese region had 20 king rank or higher summoning talismans, and based on the estimate rate, half would summon generals or strategists. Splitting into each camp, they would have 5-6. Shanhai Alliance had 3 spots, and deducting Wufu, there would be 1 or 2 left.Feng Qiuhuang nodded. "Wow, it was really guessed by you. Qingyun Town has a historical general Chen Tang."

"Chen Tang?" Ouyang Shuo started to recall details regarding Chen Tang. For the past half a year, he had been reading up and replenishing his historical knowledge. As for the famous generals in each dynasty, he had a good understanding.

Chen Tang was the famous general of the Western Han. During the Han Yuan Emperor reign, he was the vice captain of the western region. He and Gan Yanshou had attacked Xiong Zhi, who had went against the West Han and had caused a stalemate from the north to the south. They stabilised the south and east frontiers of the Han Dynasty before attacking a 3000 mile stretch to destroy Xiong Zhi.

"People who insult me, however far I must go, I will punish them!" This was the letter that Chen Tang had written to the Hanyuan emperor. He was promoted to captain and worked in Zhonglang. He was further given the title of marquis, and passed away in Chang-An.

What was interesting was that this person had many problems, and his reputation wasn't good. When he was young, his family was poor and he relied on begging to survive. When his father passed away, he was waiting for the court to finish with the personnel allocation, and didn't go home and send his father off, failing his duty as a son. Not only did he not become an official, but he also got caught and locked up in jail.

Even in his most famous battle to destroy Xiong Zhi, he faked the emperor's orders and used the troops on his own. He was also greedy, loved money, and getting credit. He wasn't good at being an official and giving commands, so this was insulting to many people. Hence, his later years were sad and tough. However, the negatives couldn't wipe out all the positives, and no matter what, his military affairs were still out of the ordinary. His experience was vast, so he could be considered a great leader.

"If there's a chance, we can make contact with Qingyun Town." Ouyang Shuo said.Feng Qinyang nodded her head to show that she understood his meaning.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Gong Chengshi and asked, "Do you have any news about Di Chen?"Ouyang Shuo had specially ordered Gong Chengshi to pay attention to Di Chen before he had left for Yellow Emperor city.

Gong Chengshi shook his head and said helplessly, "So far we only know that they have set up camp on the east side of the city. As for how many people joined his camp, we do not know at the moment. As we can't use pigeon letters, even if someone wants to reveal news, it will be difficult to spread."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, It seemed that Di Chen has some capable people by his side, knowing to avoid the north and south sides of the city, and choosing the east side which was directly opposite to them. They also did a good job keeping it secret and not leaving any signs.

Ouyang Shuo said, "Seems like we still need to send out the Military Intelligence Division to explore. Without knowing what they are up to, I can't be at ease. On the other hand, we must also patrol our camp well and not let any of their people infiltrate it."

"That's right." Gong Chengshi agreed and nodded.

"The camp has already been built and starting from tomorrow we will split up and act. From the news that I've got today, the final battle doesn't seem to start anytime soon. Making use of this time, you can do some side quests. Maybe there will be shocking rewards."

"Has Brother Wuyi already gotten some quest rewards?" Bai Hua asked curiously.

Bai Hua was undoubtedly the player with the most acute senses, and Ouyang Shuo nodded."es, a small gift."

"Ya, we were busy in the camp and Brother Wuyi went to complete a quest, how biased!" Mu Lanyue pouted.

"Cough cough." Ouyang Shuo was speechless towards her innocence. "The main motive of me entering the came was to build a good relationship with the npcs. As for the reward, it was an unexpected surprise."

Mu Lanyue had just said this casually and didn't mean much. "Brother Wuyi, can you bring me tomorrow? It's so boring staying in the camp!"

"Sure." Ouyang Shuo agreed without much hesitation.

"Yea!" Mu Lanyue was happy like a victorious little fox.

Ouyang Shuo gave a forced smile and shook his head. After that meeting, everyone went back to their own tents and prepared to go offline.

Chapter 133 - Battle of Zhuolu part 7

The next day, after Ouyang Shuo went online, he started to train using the Yang Family Spearmanship Technique and the Bajiquan

"Wa, brother Wuyi is so handsome." Mu Lanyue suddenly walked over and purposely acted in awe and said.

Ouyang Shuo didn't bother about her and continued practicing on his own.

Not long later, Feng Qiuhuang, Bai Hua and the others got online and surrounded him curiously.

He could only helplessly stop practicing and ended his training early.

"Brother Wuyi's spear technique is simply superb, it's cultivation rank must be high right?" Feng Qinhuang tried to probe.

Ouyang Shuo did not try to hide anything and said generously, "That's right, it's the emperor rank cultivation technique Yang Family Spear, I got it luckily on the market a while ago." He turned his head to look at Mu Guiying and he laughed, "This spear technique has the same origin as General Mu."

Mu Guiying appeared out of sorts, it had probably touched an old sad memory, she kept quiet and did not reply.

"Sister!" Mu Lanyue walked over to Mu Guiying, seemingly worried.

Mu Guiying jolted to her senses and regained her composure. She rubbed Mu Lanyue's head and laughed, "I'm fine."

Seeing that the atmosphere was getting a bit down, Gong Chengshi jumped out and hollered, "Aren't we going to do missions in the city today? Any beauty willing to form a team with me?"

Bai Hua and her sisters shook their heads with a tacit understanding.

"Why? My heart is going to break." Gong Chengshi said with much exaggeration.

Ouyang Shuo laughed at Gong Chengshi who was trying to liven the mood, "Today let's go by ourselves. I hope every one will have a good reward. Yueyue let's go."

"Okay." Mu Lanyue's emotions came fast and disappeared fast, becoming happy in an instant.

……

Walking into the Yellow Emperor city once again, apart from Wang Feng, there was another follower by his side.

"Brother Wuyi, where are we going to accept the mission?" Mu Lanyue asked like a curious baby.

Ouyang Shuo himself was thinking about the question. Out of all the important members of the Yellow Emperor camp, he didn't have anything on hand that they would please them. Just suddenly appearing would be difficult to achieve anything.

"Yueyue?" Ouyang laughed and called for Mu Lanyue like an old fox.

"Yes?"

"Do you want to go take a look at the palace?" The old fox took out a treat.

"Great, it's going to be fun!" The little fox took the bait.

"Let's go!"

……

In front of the palace doors was the guard from yesterday, upon seeing Ouyang Shuo he asked, "Do you want to see her majesty again? I'll report."

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and smiled, "No, we came today to see the Yellow Emperor."

The guard froze for a while and said, "Sure, please wait a while."

After the guard left, Mu Lanyue looked at Ouyang Shuo with worship, "Brother Wuyi, you are so amazing, even the guard of the palace treats you so respectfully."

"It was because I came yesterday so he recognized me." Ouyang Shuo said helplessly.

The guard came back quickly and said, "The king will see you now!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded and followed the guard into the palace once again. On the way, Mu Lanyue looked around, and seemed really interested in the wild era palace. As this was a normal thing, Ouyang Shuo did not stop her.

This time, the Yellow Emperor chose to meet Ouyang Shuo in the main hall which was several times bigger and grander than the side hall. On the floor were dark grey rocks and its surface had flower patterns.

Walking into the main hall, there were 4 steps, at the two sides stood two guards with long spears. In front of the steps was an oval shaped wooden door similarly with flower patterns and showed the construction knowledge of the ancestors.

Across the oval door was the main hall. There were 3 small tables on the side which were very low, Ouyang Shuo guessed that one needed to sit crossed legged, it already had the courtesy of the business era.

In front of the two main halls were two steps and on top was the throne of the Yellow Emperor, behind it was a picture which looked grand and mysterious and filled with wild energy.

Seeing such a situation, even the energetic Mu Lanyue quieted down.

The emperor sat on the throne, he was wearing a black robe and a tiger skin belt strapped around his waist. On his back hung a black cape and there was a wolf tooth necklace around his neck, the middle of which was a black stone. Apart from that, there was no other jewelry.

He had bronze skin, a high wide face, thick eyebrows big eyes, his face lines were extremely tough, thick beard, loose hair, and was full of male masculinity.

"Representative Qiyue Wuyi (Mu Lanyue), greets his majesty!" Ouyang Shuo and Mu Lanyue bowed down, as for Wang Feng he was stopped by the guards outside of the main hall.

"No need!" The yellow emperor used a voice filled with charisma and said, "Yesterday, my wife told me about you and today you came to see me, do you have anything to report?"

"Sire, as the representative, I should tell you about the status of the player troops. Hence I came here to report to sire." Ouyang Shuo said, even he felt that his words were full of lies.

The Yellow Emperor nodded happily, "Not bad, it's not everyday that there's someone who is so smart."

"The player force has 8000 people and I can move 2000 anytime. In the final battle I can move 5000 and the remaining 3000 aren't ruled by me. The troops are mainly sword shield soldiers, there are also archers and cavalry." When Ouyang Shuo reported, he didn’t forget to leave some bait.

"How's your battle strength?"

"I won't dare to say for others but my 2000 men are strong warriors and are ready to fight for sire." This kind of sucking up made Ouyang Shuo embarrassed, even Mu Lanyue at the side couldn't help but snicker.

Although it was sucking up, but everyone liked to hear it. "Good, since it's like that I have 2 missions for you, are you willing to accept?"

"I'm willing to risk my life for sure!" Ouyang Shuo hollered in delight.

Mu Lanyue's mouth was agape, she didn't dare believe, "This, you got a mission by doing this?"

Ouyang Shuo didn't care about her and checked the system notification.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for activating D rank side quest [sending a letter].

“Mission Background: The main battle is upon us, the Yellow Emperor has started to gather the various tribes.

“Mission Requirement: rush to the Fire Emperor camp and tell him to get his troops to gather in Yellow Emperor city. Mission rewards: 200 merit, 400 war contribution points."

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for activating B rank side quest [Investigation] (can be shared).

“Mission background: The Yellow Emperor wants to understand the situation in Chiyou camp.

“Mission Requirement: make your way to Chiyou stronghold and investigate his military situation. Mission rewards: 400 merit points, 1600 war contribution points."

Before waiting for Ouyang Shuo to recover, a string of battle notifications sounded.

"Battle Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi has activated a side quest, officially activating the battle contribution leaderboard, players please take a look.

“Reminder: There are three ways to obtain Battle contribution points, first is to complete side quests, second is to kill enemies and third is overall performance.

"Battle Report: Battlefield killing contribution points will be calculated as follows: Kill a normal soldier from the enemy camp, reward 10 contribution points; kill a normal officer, reward 100 contribution points; kill an important General from the enemy camp, reward 1000 contribution points; kill enemy camp leader, reward 20000 contribution points."

"Battle Report: Overall contribution calculation is as follows: After the battle, based on their overall performance, the contribution to the style and the help to the camp, calculation would be done and an extra contribution point will be tabulated."

"Battle Report: After the battle, Contribution points will be converted to merit points in a 10:1 ratio. Apart from that, based on the leaderboard, the 1st will be rewarded 4000 merit points, the 2nd 3000, the 3rd 2000, the 4th to 10th deducting 200 for every spot, from 11th to 20th 500 points; 21st-30th 400 points;31st-40th 300 points; 41st-50th 200 points;51st-100th 100 points; no rewards for anyone after the 100th position."

This kind of reward system was a typical pyramid with those at the top getting better rewards and the difference widens as the positions drop, forcing players to try their best. Under such a system, the huge disparity in rewards would further increase the differences in strength between the lords, causing the big winners to be able to increase their ranks faster than the others, thence, they could bring more soldiers into the battlefield the next time.

This type of system was a negative cycle for weak players. Alternatively, for the strong players it was a positive cycle. It was the typical jungle where the strong survive and the weak are eliminated.

After the battle reports, Ouyang Shuo heard more system notifications.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for activating battle contribution leaderboard, rewarded 500 contribution points."

Wow that was a pleasant surprise. However, 500 contribution points was only 50 points. To his current rank, it was just a minute amount.

In the first battle the number of troops were limited, hence to obtain contribution points through battle was also limited unless you killed their general or their leader. To get great rewards, one had to rely on the rewards from the leaderboards. If one could get into the TOP 3 the rewards were fabulous.

Talking about that, in the future wars, there will be 100s of thousands of soldiers so obtaining contribution points from killing enemies will become a viable option, it might even exceed the reward from the leaderboards.

Chapter 134 - Battle of Zhuolu part 8

Ouyang Shuo opened the battle contribution leaderboard only to see himself alone and lonely with 500 points. Behind him were just a string of blank spaces waiting to be filled up.

The activation of the battle contribution leaderboard signaled the start of the Battle of Zhuolu.

At this moment in time, Di Chen had just went online only to hear the battle report. He fumed. "That brat got ahead once again. How is his luck always so good?"

"He was just lucky." Sha Pojun who was standing by his side said.

"No matter what, after this battle is over I will immediately apply to upgrade to a grade 1 city. We will see how he reacts then." Di Chen said coldly, memories of what had happened during the auction still fresh in his mind.

"Wouldn't that be too rushed?" Juedai Fenghua frowned.

Di Chen shook his head. "We can't wait anymore. Any longer and Shanhai Town will also apply to upgrade. At that point it would be too late to regret. This time we must crush that arrogant Qiyue Wuyi. If not, how will we survive in the Chinese server?"

Juedai Fenghua kept quiet. The way she saw it, Di Chen was ruffled by Qiyue Wuyi and was like he was being possessed by a devil, not listening to any of her advice or warnings. This was not a good sign.

……

Ouyang Shuo walked out of the palace, and he searched for the others who were still looking for quests in Yellow Emperor city.

"Wuyi, have you received a quest?" Bai Hua asked.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. "That’s right. I got two quests which are to deliver a letter to the Fire Emperor tribe as well as to investigate the Chiyou tribe. The B rank branch quest [Investigation] can be shared, so we can complete it together."

"That's great. We walked around the village but couldn't get anything." Bai Hua laughed.

Ouyang Shuo opened the quest menu and activated the sharing of the quest.

"System Nnotification: Please select players to to share the B branch quest [Investigation]. Reminder: You cannot share with more than 5 people."

"Bai Hua, Feng Qinhuang, Mu Lanyue and Gong Chengshi."

"System Notification: Shared to 4 people, after completing the mission, the person who started the quest will get 50% of the rewards while the rest will get 25% each."

This was the benefit of the quest sharing. Although his rewards were cut in half, adding the team rewards, the rewards became more instead. If the completion rate of the mission was high enough, there would be additional bonuses.

"This investigation quest will be led by Hong Ying and Gong Chengshi. I will arrange a scouting team and a cavalry team to help." Ouyang Shuo said.

"You won't go take a look yourself?" Gong Chengshi asked doubtfully.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. "No, with you and Hong Ying I'll have no worries. I also need to go deliver a letter to the Fire Emperor."

"Okay,"

After discussing who would lead the mission, Ouyang Shuo left Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang to continue to look for more missions in Yellow Emperor City while he brought Gong Chengshi and Mu Lanyue back to the camp.

After returning to camp, Ouyang Shuo explained simply to the secretary of Military Intelligence Song San and the captain of the 2nd cavalry squadron Sun Tengjiao, telling them to work together with Hong Ying and Gong Chengshi to complete the mission.

As for Ouyang Shuo himself, he brought Mu Lanyue and the first cavalry squadron towards the Fire Emperor tribe.

The Fire Emperor tribe was located west of Taixing mountain, which was 10 kilometers away from Yellow Emperor City. Between the two cities were no roads and was full of wild grass, making it very hard to travel. It took him four and a half hours to get to the Fire Emperor camp. Luckily on the way there, they didn't meet any spies or troops from the Chiyou tribe.

The Fire Emperor's building style was similar to the Yellow Emperor’s. Ouyang Shuo reached the city door only to be stopped by the guards who warned, "Who are you? State your name."

Ouyang Shuo shouted, "I am the representative Qiyue Wuyi and am here under the orders of the Yellow Emperor to deliver a letter to the Fire Emperor."

The guards didn't relax and said, "Do you have any proof?"

Ouyang Shuo got off the horse and passed his wooden tablet over.

The guard took the tablet and after taking a glance, not knowing how he recognised if it were real or fake, said, "The tablet is real. You can enter. However, the troops you brought in can only wait outside the city."

Ouyang Shuo nodded to show that he understood. This was already a usual practice and thus he was not surprised by it. He turned around and told the first squadron captain Li Mingliang, "Captain Li, find a safe place to set up camp. Based on the time it took us to get here, I don't think we can get back in time and will have to spend the night here."

"Roger that!"

Ouyang Shuo brought Mu Lanyue and Wang Feng, and followed behind the guard into the Fire Emperor camp.

As this was a letter from the Yellow Emperor, the guard didn't dare to be careless and led them directly to his palace to meet him directly.

Compared to the Yellow Emperor City palace, the Fire Emperor's palace was more pure. The Fire Emperor tribe was a very big tribe in Shennong, even when it weakened, losing to both the Yellow Emperor tribe and the Chiyou tribe. Such a palace that was built a long time ago, however, wasn't something that the Yellow Emperor tribe could compare against.

After receiving the guard's report, the Fire Emperor was waiting in the main hall to meet the messenger Ouyang Shuo.

The Fire Emperor, who was sitting on the throne in the main hall, looked relatively older around 40-50 years old. Compared to the young and strong Yellow Emperor, he looked old. The Fire Emperor tribe treated fire with respect and hence most wore dark red linen clothing. As for how they dyed it, no one knew.

Compared to the Yellow Emperor, the Fire Emperor was very handsome, and it was easy to imagine what he looked like when he was young. His hair was neatly combed and he was cleanly shaven. It was apparent that compared to the Yellow Emperor, the Fire Emperor paid more attention to his image.

On his forehead hung a chain with a long jadestone. Although one could see his white hair, and even his mustache had turned white, he looked very energetic, especially his eyes which were brimming with energy. The once king-level figure was still trying his best to keep his dignity and protect his tribe.

On the left side of the main hall sat a 30 odd year old woman. She wore a black linen dress and her long hair extended beyond her shoulders. On her chest hung white jewelry made of an unknown material, on top of which was also a huge jade tablet.

What was most obvious was the paint on her face. It was mostly black, with white to complete it at her temple and jaw areas. The painting on her temple was like an arrowhead, and it faced downwards splitting into 3 parts. The one at her jaw was like a ribbon, the middle was 5 circles, four black ones on the top and bottom, and a red one in the middle, looking very mysterious.

Ouyang Shuo guessed that this woman was the witch of the tribe, her position only lower than that of the Fire Emperor.

"Representative Qiyue Wuyi (Mu Lanyue), greets the Fire Emperor." Ouyang Shuo and Mu Lanyue bowed.

"No need. Yellow Emperor sent you here for what reason?" The Fire Emperor said warmly and politely.

Ouyang Shuo took out the letter and said politely, "The battle is coming and Yellow Emperor requests for Fire Emperor to assemble the troops and gather with the main force in Yellow Emperor City. This was the letter he penned personally."

Ouyang Shuo passed the letter to one of the servants at the side.

The Fire Emperor took it from the servant and opened it. After keeping silent for a while, he said, "I understand his intention. I will gather my troops tomorrow and meet in Yellow Emperor City. You can follow us back."

"Thank you your majesty!"

In Ouyang Shuo and Mu Lanyue's ears sounded the mission completion notification.

"Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for completing the D ranked branch quest [Sending a Letter]. Rewarded 200 merit points, 400 battle contribution points."

Because this mission was accepted by both Ouyang Shuo and Mu Lanyue, it wasn't counted a shared mission. Hence, both of them got the same rewards. With this, Mu Lanyue became the 2nd player to enter the leaderboard, making her laugh in glee.

Just at that moment, behind the main hall ran out a 7-8 year old girl who was smaller than Yellow Emperor tribe's Xuanyuan Mei but even prettier. She had a pair of captivating eyes and exquisite facial features, looking like a well-behaved girl. She wore a flower wreath on top of her head and wore a pair of red shoes, making her look very beautiful.

"Nuwa, did you not see that father is meeting guests?" When Fire Emperor saw the girl, he acted like he was angry.

She was totally not afraid of the Fire Emperor and ran in front of him and sat on his leg, grabbing his beard and said, "Father, you didn't play with me."

Towards his daughter, the Fire Emperor doted on her, saying helplessly, "Father is very busy. I will play with you later, so be nice."

She turned around and looked at Ouyang Shuo, saying angrily, "You are a bad person, snatching my father."

To this person who left her mark on legends, how could Ouyang Shuo be angry. He took out a cloth doll from his storage bag and said, "I'm sorry I made princess angry. I have a gift to give to you. I hope you won't be angry anymore."

Seeing the doll, her eyes opened wide. She had never seen such an exquisite toy and immediately fell in love with it.

What made him surprised was that she didn't run to grab the gift and instead tuned to the Fire Emperor. From this we could see that her degree of maturity was much higher than that of Xuanyuan Mei.

Seeing her father nod, Nuwa happily jumped off her dad and ran to Ouyang Shuo to take the doll. "You are a good person, Nuwa will forgive you."

Ouyang Shuo smiled. "As long as princess likes it."

Chapter 135 - Battle of Zhuolu part 9

After Nuwa received Ouyang Shuo's gift, a system notification sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for obtaining a favourable impression from Nuwa, activating C rank side quest [Salvation].

“Mission background: The Fire Emperor is about to embark for Yellow Emperor city. Nuwa took the chance to secretly go out of town to the Hutuo river on the west side of the Fire Emperor camp. Unfortunately, she drowned.

“Mission requirement: Protect Nuwa and return her back to the Fire Emperor camp safely.

Mission rewards: 300 merit points, 800 battle contribution points."

Ouyang Shuo was stunned, he didn't expect the story of Jingwei Reclamation to appear in such circumstances. There were many rumors about the Jingwei Reclamation in real life although one knew that even though most were fake and made up, but they were able to touch one’s heart and soul.

Legends had it that the Sun God Fire Emperor had a daughter named Wa who wasn't of age. Everyone called her Nuwa. The Fire Emperor controlled the sun and every morning he had to go to the East Sea to command the sun to rise and only returned home after the sunset.

Nuwa was a well behaved kid and when her Father wasn't at home, she would play by herself. She often wore a pair of red shoes and ran in the wilderness, placing many flowers into her hair and dressing up prettily.

She looked at the red hot sun rising from the east, happily bathing in its sunlight and admiring the scenery around her. All living things grew under that light and the birds celebrated, making her feel proud because the warmth and light was brought by her Father.

Sometimes, she would go to the fields near the East Sea to look at the sunrise. When she saw the rays of light spreading everywhere and the red sun jumping out of the sea, she was delighted. She always wanted to go to the East Sea, the place where the sun rose, unfortunately she was too young and the Fire Emperor couldn't bring her there. This was because the place where the sun rose was billions of miles away from the East Sea and that place was very hot, children couldn't bear it.

Nuwa was angry because of that. One time she didn't listen to her father and after he left, she jumped into the East Sea and swam towards the sun. She swam and swam, soon finding that it was getting harder and harder. Suddenly, a wave struck and swallowed Nuwa up.

Nuwa sank into the east sea and never returned.

However, her soul didn't die and she hated the waves in the ocean. Her spiritual animal was a little bird which had wild flower patterns on its head and had red claws, she vowed to reclaim the East Sea.

To strengthen her power, the Jingwei bird bred with swallows, letting her spirit and goal pass down generations after generations to continue her work until she reclaimed the ocean. The children that they gave birth to, the males looked like Jingwei and the females looked like swallows.

The Jingwei bird never stopped and took rocks and twigs, throwing them into the East Sea. Every day, night, even when there were thunderstorms, they would travel through the rain. Sometimes, when they were too close to the water, the waves would swallow them, but they did not rest because they knew there will be new Jingwei birds to continue the mission.

The Jingwei Reclamation stunned the gods. The Water God admired the spirit of the Jingwei birds, thus he called down a flood which washed the mud and sand from the highlands into the sea, turning the sea water into a muddy yellow. Hence people started to call the yellow part of the East Sea the Yellow Sea.

When the sea found that it really was going to be reclaimed, it took measures and using the tides, pushed back the sand and mud to the shore. This formed the tideland and as it thickened and grew larger, humans boxed it up and made it into farmland.

The people wouldn't forget that this land was made by the works of Jingwei birds and thus taught their children and grandchildren that they must love birds, protect them and learn from their spirit, striving hard towards one's goals.

As for the legendary little girl, Ouyang Shuo felt very sad and pained for her. Since he took the quest, naturally he would make arrangements to ensure that nothing happens.

……

It was already 3pm when Ouyang Shuo came out from the Fire Emperor tribe palace. This trip was really special. Not only did he see the Fire Emperor of legends but also met with Nuwa. Who knows, he might actually change her destiny.

"Brother Wuyi, what will we do next?" Walking around in the camp, Mu Lanyue asked.

Ouyang Shuo didn't have any plans and said causally, "Let's just walk around, it wasn't hard to get here so let's see if we can get any side quests."

"En."

Unfortunately, Ouyang Shuo had used up all of his good fortune as until 5PM, they didn't find any quests. They had no choice but to leave the Fire Emperor camp and go to the campsite outside the city.

At this point in time, Li Mingliang had already brought the cavalry squadron and built the temporary camp. As it was only for a night, naturally it wasn't as well planned as the camp outside the Yellow Emperor city.

It even forced Mu Lanyue to share the same tent with Ouyang Shuo. Luckily players did not need to actually sleep in the game and could go offline and rest.

As the time ratio between the battle map and main map was 10:1, and the ratio of the real map to real time was 1:1, this resulted in the time when players get offline not being the morning of the next day.

For example, 2 days have passed in the battle map but it had only been 4 hours in reality. This meant that it was 1am in the morning when Ouyang Shuo woke up in the game cabin. In reality, he could only rest for an hour before going online again as it would be the next day in the battle map.

In the last life, many players didn't pay attention to the speed of time and wasted 8-9 hours in the real world before going back online, only finding out that 3-4 days had passed.

To maintain such a battle map with such a time speed difference, it took up a lot of capacity and running power. Hence it wasn't suitable to use on the main map. Even this battle map would be shut down the moment the quest ended.

He was a little hungry so he went to the kitchen to cook up a bowl of noodles. With his culinary skills, even simple noodles was well made and delicious.

At this time, Sun Xiaoyue suddenly walked out from her room, scaring Ouyang Shuo.

"Why are you awake at this time?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

Sun Xiaoyue who had just got out of the game cabin was still a little blur, "Going to the toilet.

"Wow it's so fragrant, you are making me hungry."

Ouyang Shuo shook his head at this food monster, "You go to the toilet first, I'll cook another bowl for you."

"Thanks!" Sun Xiaoyue said in glee.

After it was cooked, Sun Xiaoyue ate and asked at the same time, "Why are you up at this time?"

"The Battle of Zhuolu, have you heard about it?"

"Of course, such a big news, who wouldn't know. You joined?"

Ouyang Shuo nodded, "Yes. The time speed in the battle map and main map is different so I must go online soon."

Sun Xiaoyue didn't give up the chance to tease him and asked curiously, "Not bad, having the power to join the Battle of Zhuolu. There's only 100 lords in China that can join right? Tell me the truth, what's your name in the game?"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, he wasn't dumb so why would he tell her.

"... It's fine if you don't tell me..." Sun Xiaoyue grumbled, but her mood changed quickly and asked, "Is the battle map fun? The wilds, have you seen Fire Emperor or the Yellow Emperor?"

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, "Yes, not only them but also Leizu and Nuwa. Their scenery and architecture are really amazing."

Sun Xiaoyue's face showed a lot of envy and jealousy.

After supper, it was just the right time to go back online.

In the tent, Mu Lanyue was still sleeping. He had reminded her before so he naturally did not worry that she will miss the time.

Walking out of the tent, the Fire Emperor camp not far away had started gathering the troops.

The Fire Emperor had moved 30 thousand troops with warriors as the main unit using weapons made out of stone. There were many different types like axes and spears. These weapons were ancient but their killing ability were still very strong. Apart from that, there was a small group of archers using the most basic wooden bow.

Li Mingliang walked up and said, "Sire, the Fire Emperor sent someone to tell us that they are leaving at 9AM and told us to get ready."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, "Mingliang, I have a mission for you."

"Sire please say."

"The Fire Emperor has a daughter called Nuwa. In these few days bring a few soldiers that are good in water and stay behind in the Fire Emperor camp. If you see her sneak out follow her immediately and protect her safety. Do you understand?" Ouyang Shuo said seriously.

Li Mingliang was puzzled and didn't understand how he could guess and foresee other people's movement. As respect and trust in him, Li Mingliang didn't ask and said, "Don't worry sire, I will get it done."

"That's good. After completing the mission, return to Yellow Emperor city and gather with the main force. The way I see it, the main battle is a week away."

"Understood."

At that time Mu Lanyue walked out of the tent, "Brother Wuyi are we leaving? It’s so noisy everywhere."

"Yes, we are leaving soon!"

"Great!"

Ouyang Shuo ordered his troops to pack up the tents and rush to meet up with Fire Emperor's forces. When he saw them, he didn't say anything, just asking them to join in.

Chapter 136 - Battle of Zhuolu part 10

2 PM in the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo followed the Fire Emperor army and returned to Yellow Emperor City.

The Yellow Emperor led his group of officials and welcomed the Fire Emperor. Ouyang Shuo didn't join in their greeting and left on his own towards the camp site.On the way back, Ouyang Shuo received a notification that the other side quest [Investigation] had been completed, and he was rewarded 200 merit points and 800 battle contribution points.

In the camp, the meeting tent.

"What’s the situation with the Chiyou tribe?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

Gong Chengshi looked towards Hong Ying and said, "Their camp is split into three parts: mainly the Chunqiu Alliance, Blood Metal Alliance and the rest. Out of which the strongest is the Chunqiu Alliance with 5000 people under them. The Blood Metal Alliance depends heavily on Zhan Lang and has only 2000 men. The remaining forces formed up into a separate alliance of their own."As for the player camp, Ouyang Shuo did not bother much. "What about the Chiyou tribe itself, what did you find out?"

"Because of the city gates, we had no way of entering the stronghold. Last night we kidnapped two of their guards and got some intel from them. Chiyou has 81 brothers, and each one of them is big and strong. They have around 80 thousand men with a large portion of them warriors using copper weapons. Compared to the stone weapons that Yellow Emperor tribe was using, they were much more advanced." Gong Chengshi said.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Compared to the martial law in Yellow Emperor City, it was not hard to imagine the situation in the Chiyou stronghold. When he received the system notification and found that he’d only received the basic reward, he knew that the completion rate wasn't high. He didn't dwell on the problem and told everyone about what he heard and saw at the Fire Emperor camp.

Within this period of time, Bai Hua and Feng Qinhuang had gotten some side quests in the city, but they were all E rank with limited rewards.

During their casual conversation, Bai Hua suddenly laughed. "Wuyi, guess what happened? This morning Di Chen went to the Yellow Emperor, asked for food, and got rejected."

"He deserves it." Gong Chengshi laughed sinisterly.

"Did the other players all start to lack goods? Do they know about us having army grain pills?"

"That's right, as you predicted, most players forgot about the preparation of supplies and thought the main camp would settle it for them. Those players that were willing to cooperate with us want us to lend them some army grain pills, how do you see it?" Bai Hua asked.

Ouyang Shuo laughed. "That's simple, only the players who agree to let us command their forces will be helped by us. If not, they can go hunt themselves."

"Wouldn't it be a case of daylight robbery? It wouldn't make them happy, and it will be bad for future cooperation." Bai Hua hesitated.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. "Cooperating with them was only a business deal, after the battle we wouldn't count on working together again. As long as we don't form an alliance, everything is fake."

"Ok, we will follow your decision."……

In the next 4-5 days, there were many small and medium sized tribe leaders who brought their forces to gather in Yellow Emperor City. Based on the size of the tribe, a medium sized tribe brought 2000 men, a small one brought 4-5 hundred, sometimes close to 1000. Regardless of tribe, they all tried their best to fight for their race. From this, one could see how much pressure and threat the Chiyou tribe posed to the Fire Emperor and Yellow Emperor alliance.

Those medium and small sized armies had a total of 40 thousand men, and were all housed at the southern part of the city. As for the north, that was where the 30 thousand strong force of Yellow Emperor tribe stayed. Both of them protected separate sides against the threat from the Chiyou tribe.

At this period of time, Di Chen and his group were busy hunting and gathering food, not having time or energy to look for any missions. Only Ouyang Shuo's group benefited and found quest after quest. Especially after the medium and small sized tribes arrived, giving them a large number of quests. Ouyang Shuo arranged everyone to split up and make good use of the opportunity.

As for the Chiyou camp, they too had food shortages and theirs was even worse. On this side, it was a city that was built for a long time and they had some food stored up, giving players the chance to exchange for some. However over at their side, the stronghold was just formed and little food was gathered so the players were all on their own.

At this time, Xunlong Dianxue showed his crazy nature and swept all the side quests in the Chiyou camp, the battle contribution points that he got were even more than what Ouyang Shuo got, making everyone envy him.

With that, the whole battle contribution leaderboard was pretty much all Shanhai Alliance members. The influence of the alliance was deeply rooted and difficult to shake.

Position: Name - Battle contribution points1st: Xunlong Dianxue- 7500 points2nd: Ouyang Shuo- 4200 points3rd: Feng Qiuhuang- 2400 points4th: Bai Hua- 2200 points5th: Mu Lanyue- 1800 points 6th: Gong Chengshi- 1400 points7th: Huo Hua- 1000 points8th: Xiongba- 800 points9th: Zhan Lang- 600 points10th: Di Chen- 400 pointsHuo Hua was the lord of Qingyun Town which had the historical General Chen Tang. Under Ouyang Shuo's help she managed to thrive. The saddest was Chun Shenjun, who was the leader of the Chunqiu Alliance, and focused his energy on gathering food, not even making it on the leaderboard.

During this period, Li Mingliang succeeded in his mission. Muwa had sneaked out of the palace and went to play in Hutuor River. Luckily with Li Mingliang looking out for her safety, she was able to return safely. After Fire Emperor learned of the news, he specially rushed to Ouyang Shuo's camp to thank him. ……

On this day, Ouyang Shuo received a notification to make a trip to Yellow Emperor palace to join the military meeting. He knew that the final battle was imminent.

Walking into the main hall once again, it was filled. The Yellow Emperor sat on the throne with the Fire Emperor by his side. Although the Fire Emperor had been defeated by the Yellow Emperor in the Battle of Banquan and gave the position of leader to the Yellow Emperor, his position in the alliance was still very revered.

In the hall, on the left sat his important officials including Fenghou, Limu, etc. At the corner were the other medium-sized tribe leaders. As for the small tribes, they didn't have the rights to enter the meeting.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo walk in, everyone stared at him with curious eyes. Ouyang Shuo didn’t bother about them and chose to sit at the last seat on the right, not making a sound. The two emperors, upon seeing him walk in, nodded their heads in acknowledgment.

The Yellow Emperor glanced around the room and said, "Everyone, Chiyou is violent, greedy, and doesn't respectfully follow the road of a man. He led his troops to take control of the west to try to rise against me. With such danger, we must work together to fight him. I believe with all your help, we will definitely win. Feng Qing, report both camps’ current situations."

As the prime minister of the Yellow Emperor tribe, he was actually not even 30 and was very young. He was handsome and full of grace. His knowledge made him the think-tank of the emperor.

He stood up and after bowing to the two emperors said, "Yes your majesty. Apart from the player forces, we have 120 thousand. In terms of numbers, we exceed them, who only have 80 thousand. But their copper weapons are sharper than ours. However, our strengths shouldn't be comparable. They also came from afar, and their supplies is a tough question. They have started planting crops for food, and soon it will be the grain harvesting season. If we let them successfully harvest food, then this battle will be a long one. Hence we need to attack before they can harvest their supplies, destroying them while they are still lacking."

The Yellow Emperor nodded. "Your words are right, do any other people have something to say?" The Yellow Emperor purposely looked at the Fire Emperor.

The Fire Emperor understood and said, "I agree!"

"We agree!" The middle tribe leaders said.

The Yellow Emperor laughed happily. "Good, we will start the attack in 3 days. Representative Qiyue Wuyi, do you have any suggestions?"

Ouyang Shuo was stunned and didn't expect the Yellow Emperor to seek his advice. Luckily Ouyang Shuo had long before gotten used to such situations, and even when such an authoritative figure asked him, he wouldn't panic. He calmly got up and bowed to both of the emperors, saying slowly, "Your majesty, the country's big business I don't dare to intrude. I have one sentence, which is: as the representative of the players, I understand them. Although they have small numbers, their equipment is good and can't be underestimated. I suggest using our player forces to fight theirs during the battle."

The Yellow Emperor was stunned. The reason he’d asked was because Ouyang Shuo's previous performance gave him a deep impression, so he held a trying attitude. He didn't expect that Ouyang Shuo really had such a good plan and said, "Such a master plan, we will do as you say."

"Thank you your majesty!"

Chapter 137 - Battle of Zhulou part 11

Before the army went out to battle, the Fire Emperor and Yellow Emperor tribe prepared a grand ritual ceremony.

The altar for the ceremony was set at the suburbs of the Yellow Emperor city and was made up of giant stone from a masonry. It was square in shape and 81 meters long with 5 levels, with the area slowly decreasing as it went up. At the southern part was the only staircase with a total of 80 steps, reaching the 4th level of the altar. At the two sides of the staircase were two giant cow skin drums.

The 4th level of the altar was the main ritual place, 4 huge torches were placed at each corner. Other than that, there were also two giant cow skin drums.

The 5th level of the altar was the most mysterious. It was 5 meters tall and in an octagon formation, each corner had a rock sticking out where talismans with words and patterns were written on.

Many flags of the various tribes were placed at the east and west side of the altar, while at the south side stood both the Yellow Emperor's and Fire Emperor's flags . Only the representative of the players, Ouyang Shuo, had the power to place the lord flag of Shanhai town on the north side.

After Ouyang Shuo placed down his flag, a system notification sounded.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, Shanhai Town flag has been blessed by the incensed flame of the altar of the Yellow Emperor tribe, an added effect is born- God's Protection (raise territory defense by 10%)."

Ouyang Shuo was delighted, asking Wang Feng who was standing by his side to remember to keep the flag and bring it back to the territory and hang it in the city gate tower.

Around the altar was a spacious empty land. The 50 thousand Yellow Emperor troops formed up south side of the altar. The Fire Emperor's 30 thousand troops formed on the west side of the altar. The other tribes' 40 thousand troops formed to the east and the 8000 players' troops formed to the north. An army of 100 thousand surrounding the altar made it look extremely majestic.

When the auspicious hour arrived, the ritual ceremony began. It was conducted by the Yellow Emperor tribe's witch and after the whole possession, it was already 9AM.

After which, the Yellow Emperor read the calligraphy insulting the Chiyou tribe.

Lastly was the dance ritual. The witch brought the women from the tribe who wore colorful dresses, danced witch dances, and chanted mantras. The soldiers started to dance their battle dance following the beat, looking grand and causing all the players to look on in awe.

Whether it was the witch dance or the battle dance, they were both very simple. It was just repeatedly swinging their arms and jumping from left to right. But through this, one could feel their strength and vigor, mysterious and violent; one could see their knowledge, easy but ingenious.

"Wow, it's really amazing!" Bai Hua said in awe.

"Yea, even if we didn't get any rewards, personally experiencing an old ritual ceremony was worth it." Feng Qiuhuang agreed.

Ouyang Shuo wasn't as sentimental as the two beauties. "You girls are happy like this? The good stuff is at the end."

As for his ignorance, the two beauties rolled their eyes at him.

……

After the ritual ceremony, the Yellow Emperor got all the troops and marched into the Zhuolu wilderness.

With the Yellow Emperor's force as the core, the Fire Emperor's as the left wing, the other tribes as the right wing, and the players' forces at the right of the right wing.

The Yellow Emperor's army was split into different totems: bear, wolf, leopard, dragon, etc, driving beasts to the battle was their secret weapon.

As the player representative, Ouyang Shuo had the power to arrange the formation. He arranged the 2000 men from the Shanhai Alliance into the deepest part of the formation, the other 3000 men covering them, and Di Chen's forces at the most outer ring.

To be the deepest in looked the most dangerous, but it was good in close combat with the Chiyou tribe's forces and gaining battle contribution points. Alternatively, those at the sides would have to fight with the players in the Chiyou camp.

Although Di Chen gritted his teeth at Ouyang Shuo, he had no choice but to swallow his anger.

In ancient times, there weren't many tactics in war, basically just straight up fighting. The two sides chose a spot and formed up. After the orders were given, both would dash towards each other and fight. There was no trickery or deception in play.

At most they made use of the weather changes like storms or drought. Like how the Yellow Emperor tribe used the flood to destroy Chiyou city, knowing how to use the land area was considered the highest of tactics.

Chiyou stronghold was about 10 kilometers away from Yellow Emperor city, and when the other tribes gathered in the city, Chiyou knew. Such a big mobilization obviously couldn't escape the investigation of the Chiyou tribe.

With his temper, how could he bear such provocation? He immediately gathered his forces and rushed out of the Chiyou stronghold for a life or death battle with the two emperors.

Both sides had 200 thousand people who formed up along the Zhuolu Wildlands. In the end, the distance between both troops was only 1000 meters.

The Yellow Emperor stood on the chariot and hollered, "Chiyou, today will be the day you die!"

Chiyou didn't back down and shouted, "Yellow Emperor, don't be too arrogant. This battle will settle who is the leader of the wildlands. Get ready to surrender to me, maybe then I'll spare you your life."

The 81 brothers standing beside Chiyou laughed out loud and mocked.

The Fire Emperor couldn't stand it anymore. He raised his stone sword and swung it forward, screaming, "Kill!"

"Kill!"

Warriors from both side hollered as they charged towards each other. The short thousand meters was covered in less that 2 minutes. Blood and meat splattered, and the ground was stained red. Whoever viewed the fight from the sky would see that the two forces were colliding over many miles, so it was hard to differentiate between forces.

Compared to the basic warfare between the tribes, the battles between the players were much more tactical. The cavalry led the charge with the sword shield soldiers following behind. Even farther back were the archers.

When the two sides engaged, Ouyang Shuo paid attention. He ordered Zhang Liao to bring 500 cavalry, avoid the players' forces in front, and directly unleash them upon the Chiyou tribe, attacking together with the other tribes. He ordered Mu Guiying to arrange the archers to cover this group of cavalry.

This way, Di Chen brought his forces and fought neck and neck with Xiongba while Ouyang Shuo brought his forces and gained battle contribution points crazily. Even if they didn't kill players' troops they could still get battle contribution points.

The cavalry squad with elite equipment under the cover of both the allied tribes and the archers unexpectedly opened a hole in the left wing of the Chiyou formation. Especially the 50 heavy armored cavalry who were like an arrowhead, shredding any person in front of them. Lin Yi who led the charge was drenched in blood and looked like a devil that came out from hell.

The warriors of the Chiyou tribe could be termed as brave and ferocious, but how would any of them ever seen such a squad? After trying to fend them off, they were afraid and didn't dare to come near. Just like this, the 500 cavalry waltzed around the 20 thousand strong left wing of the Chiyou tribe, no one stopping them.

Seeing such a good opportunity, the Yellow Emperor made the decision to order Changxian to bring 5000 men to support the right wing and help destroy the left wing of the Chiyou tribe.

With Chang Xian's assistance. Zhang Liao's cavalry became more handy. Compared to Lin Yi, Zhang Liao's battle sense and battle reading were a level higher. He ordered his troops to not be greedy and make their main goal to destroy a large portion of the enemy. As long as they saw the enemy group up, they were to scatter them and not let them regroup.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo's troops killing and strutting their stuff, Di Chen and Chun Shenjun weren't idiots. With the internal battle between the players, although they could earn them battle contribution points, they lost far more. Both sides actually came to a mutual understanding and stopped fighting, leading their troops and charging towards the main forces, not bothering about much other than the contribution points.

Ouyang Shuo stood at the side, and upon seeing the situation, he shook his head. As expected, amongst the representatives of the strong powers, none of them were weak and stupid, how could he easily control and manipulate them? The reason he gained an advantage this time was only because he was the player representative.

Chun Shenjun and Zhan Lang led their men, and nicely blocked off Chang Xian's support. At that point, the battle reentered into a stalemate.

Since the players' troops had already stopped fighting, Ouyang Shuo ordered the rest to advance and aid the cavalry to kill the left wing of the Chiyou tribe.

The whole battlefield was like a chessboard, each piece closely relying on one another. Ouyang Shuo took the chance at the right wing, slowly causing a chain reaction and giving the Yellow Emperor tribe the initiative in the battle.

The troops of both sides killed for an entire day until nighttime, when they stopped and retreated.

The green wildlands were dyed red with blood. There were broken arms and legs everywhere, and broken axes and swords. Under the shine of the sunset, it appeared very majestic and grand.

Bai Hua and Mu Lanyue couldn't stand the blood and gore of the battlefield and had backed off. Even Ouyang Shuo, who had participated in several raider fights himself, found the scene hard to adapt to.

When retreating, Di Chen went passed Ouyang Shuo and said coldly, "Brother Wuyi, nice scheme, I respect that."

Ouyang Shuo smiled slightly. "Thank you for your praises. During the military meeting, I will tell the Yellow Emperor about your exploits."

Di Chen was stunned, only then did he remember that Ouyang Shuo had such power. He walked off without even turning his head.

Chapter 138 - Battle of Zhuolu part 12

Ouyang Shuo returned to the camp to listen to the casualty reports.

In the battle, although they had obtained the initiative, there were still many casualties. Of the 2000 strong Shanhai Alliance troops, 200 died. The cavalry that charged in front especially lost the most.

The 3000 allied troops also had many injuries and deaths. In the battle with the other players, there were 400 odd injuries and deaths. Some unlucky lords had lost all their troops.

Of course, the one that had the most casualties was Di Chen's 2000 strong alliance troops as well as the 1000 men from the various lords. Di Chen had lost 400 men on his own and the various lords had lost nearly all of their troops. Those casual players fought alone and weren't cared for by the other players. In such a big battle, they were the best choices for cannon fodder.

After the battle, the casual players realised that the battlefield was not a place where they could do as they wished. They went to find Ouyang Shuo and express that they were willing to accept Shanhai Alliance's command and reorganisation.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and accepted all of them, adding them into the allied forces that had many casualties. As for his own force, he would definitely not allow these people to infiltrate it.

At 6 PM, Ouyang Shuo received a notification to ask him to the main tent to join in the military meeting.

In the main tent, the people seated were pretty much the same as during the last military meeting. However, the only difference was that their gazes towards him were totally different. The player army displayed strong fighting strength that they were awed by.

The Yellow Emperor opened up. "In today's battle, although we had the advantage, their main troops were still unharmed and perfectly fine. If we want to destroy them it will be very difficult. Do any of you have any ideas?"

One of the middle-sized tribe leaders stood up and said, "Your majesty, since our right wing got us our lead and destroyed their left wing, why don’t we continue to attack their left wing and grab onto their weakness to deal the killing blow?"

Ouyang Shuo was stunned and slightly shook his head.

The Yellow Emperor was actually paying attention to Ouyang Shuo and as he saw him shaking his head asked, "Qiyue Wuyi, you did great today and I will reward you after the battle. As for the plan, how do you feel?"

Ouyang Shuo got up and bowed. "Your majesty. Today we destroyed their left wing and tomorrow they will definitely reorganise their troops to cover that up, not leaving any weaknesses."

The Yellow Emperor nodded. "Then what's your suggestion?"

"The enemy has a limited amount of troops, and since they want to aid the left wing, it will definitely cause other places to weaken. The middle army is the core and won't be easily moved. The highest possibility is to use the right wing. If that's the case then we will have an opportunity. Hence I suggest that in the battle tomorrow, our right wing will focus on defense while cavalry will hide in the left wing and find a chance to destroy the right wing of the enemy. If both their wings are hurt, even if their core is fine, we will have the absolute advantage." Before Ouyang Shuo came, he had sought advice from Qianshou, and this plan was what he told him. If not, he would’ve suggested the same thing as that leader to totally destroy one side of the enemy.

"Genius idea!" Feng Hou hollered, looking at Ouyang Shuo in amazement.

The Yellow Emperor was pleased and he nodded. "Not bad, we attack where they are not prepared."

Ouyang Shuo had gained the recognition of the Yellow Emperor and said, "Another thing is that to prevent the Chiyou tribe from copying our tactic today and attack our right wing, we have to warm our player force to defend against their player force, not giving them any chances."

At this time, Chang Xian stood up and said loudly, "Your majesty, I have something to say."

"Please!"

"In the battle today I was ordered to lead 5000 troops to help the right wing. We originally had the chance to destroy their left wing. Because their player force blocked me, we wasted all our forces. The root cause was that our player force had failed. Hence with Qiyue Wuyi's suggestion, I agree. I suggest that we need to have a squad to keep a lookout on the player force." The reason he said that was firstly because it was the truth, and secondly to provide an explanation for his loss in the morning. Conveniently, it aided Ouyang Shuo in his goal. With this, be it Di Chen or Chun Shenjun, they had fallen right into his plan and couldn't escape.

In his heart, he was extremely annoyed by Di Chen's act today. "We will follow what you suggested. Tomorrow you will lead 5000 men to help the right wing. One task is to strengthen their defence, and the second is to monitor the player force and ensure that they follow orders."

"Yes sire!"……

After the meeting, Ouyang Shuo happily returned to the central big tent. He did a report about the meeting to Bai Hua and the others.

"Brother Wuyi, you are so bad." Mu Lanyue giggled.

"How is it my fault, it was all Mr. Gongyu's idea." Ouyang Shuo said innocently.

Mu Lanyue didn't care and teased. "I don't care, you are bad."

Bai Hua joined in. "If Di Chen knew that it was you, he will be angry to death."

"He deserves it." Gong Chengshi said with a gloating face.

Only Feng Qiuhuang kept quiet and raised his head to look at Ouyang Shuo. Luckily she had chosen to join the Shanhai Alliance. If not, she didn't know what kind of bad situation she would’ve been in.

Ouyang Shuo didn't bother about them and turned to Zhang Liao. "General Zhang, in the battle tomorrow bring the cavalry of our allies. We must break into their right wing without arrow cover. It will be difficult, so the troops must be ready for battle."

"Sire, don't worry." Zhang Liao was calm as usual.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and had nothing more to say.

……

The next day, the battle began again.

Just as Qianshou had predicted, Chiyou tribe had reinforced their left wing. As for his own left wing, with Zhang Liao in charge, he was not worried.

Di Chen was nearby and looked towards Ouyang Shuo asking doubtfully, "That's weird, why don't we see Shanhai Alliance's cavalry unit."

Sha Pojun pouted and said, "They might’ve looked so glamorous yesterday but the number of casualties was certainly not small. Based on what I see, Qiyue Wuyi felt pained and didn't let his cavalry fight."

Fenghua Juedai shook his head and said, "Qiyue Wuyi is farsighted, and maybe he has some scheme, so we must defend against it."

"That's right." After several mistakes, Di Chen had started to treat Ouyang Shuo as a proper opponent and wasn't as arrogant as before.

"Take a look!" Wufu pointed at Chang Xian's forces which were rushing over and said, "It seems like they purposely planned this, is it to monitor us?"

Di Chen was furious. "This must be his scheme. He must have complained about us to the Yellow Emperor during the military meeting."

Fenghua Juedai helplessly shook his head. "This time we have no choice but to face the player forces head on. We have no choice but to accept our fate."

"Next time, we definitely can't be in the same camp as that fella." Di Chen said hatefully.

"Yes." Fenghua Juedai nodded in agreement.

Wufu was stunned, since when did Di Chen actually openly yield to Qiyue Wuyi. This wasn't a good sign and he was doubting if his decision to join was right or not.

Ouyang Shuo wasn’t in the mood to care about what Di Chen thought, as he was focused on the military formation.

In the battle yesterday, the Chiyou tribe had lost 10 thousand men. Even though the Fire Emperor and Yellow Emperor alliance had the initiative, they too had lost 12 thousand men.

If not for Ouyang Shuo’s success at the right wing, their casualty situation would have been much worse. Copper against stone, it wasn't difficult to see who won.

This time, neither the Yellow Emperor nor Chiyou shouted and just straight away ordered the attack. The troops that had a night's rest screamed as they charged towards the enemy. Some got chopped up, and some chopped up others. It was brutal.

Not long after the battle started, Chun Shenjun and Zhan Lang had worked together and joined their cavalry forces, copying what Ouyang Shuo did yesterday, and attacked the fire yellow camp's right wing.

Unfortunately, they were doomed to fail.

Ouyang Shuo ordered General Shi to use the sword shield soldiers to block at the front. The ones furthest to the front were the heavy armoured infantry who wore the infantry armor. At the same time, Mu Guiying led the bowmen and crossbowmen unit to start a rain of arrows to stop the cavalry's attack.

Not waiting for the cavalry troops to get close, they were already badly injured or dead. The light cavalry couldn't proceed an inch forward when facing the infantry, which was led by General Shi with the added help of this special level general.

At this time, Chang Xian's group had come to assist. As for Di Chen, under such a strong enemy, how could they dare to play tricks? They had no choice but to try their best and fight against the player force of the enemy.

On the opposite side of the battlefield, Chun Shenjun looked on as his cavalry squad faced problems, shaking his head. He said to Xiongba and Zhang Lang, "It seems like we underestimated Qiyue Wuyi. Not only is their cavalry strong, but his infantry is not any weaker. Definitely a difficult opponent."

"Now what?" Wandering Magic said.

"Zhan Lang, any ideas?" Chun Shenjun didn't make the decision and instead asked him for his opinion.

As the representative of the military, his understanding of war was higher than that of others. "Since we can't break their right wing, why don’t we give up on that thought and destroy their player force? I took a look, and Qiyue Wuyi's cavalry is missing. His infantry needs to defend against our cavalry. With this, only Di Chen and other lords’ armies will be left, thus we’ll have the absolute advantage."

Chun Shenjun's eyes brightened and he said, "Ok, we will follow what Zhan Lang said."

Chapter 139 - Battle of Zhuolu part 13

When the battle had reached its climax, Chun Shenjun and Zhan Lang made decisive changes to their formation.

Chiyou camp's 7 thousand sword-shield infantry and archers pushed forward and assaulted Di Chen's forces which were at the farthest corner. The difference in numbers, even if Di Chen had better equipment and experience, was too much for him to handle.

Seeing that they were about to collapse, Ouyang Shuo didn't leave them in the lurch and ordered the allied troops to assist. At the same time he requested assistance from Chang Xian. Ouyang Shuo understood the theory of if the lips die the teeth will start to feel cold.

Unfortunately, Chun Shenjun had changed their tactics too quickly, and once they realised that Ouyang Shuo's cavalry wasn't there, they immediately attacked Di Chen. When the troops led by Ouyang Shuo and Chang Xian reached to assist, it was too late and Di Chen's forces had been utterly destroyed.

Chun Shenjun was also very crafty. Once he saw that Ouyang Shuo and Chang Xian had come to assist, he didn't continue forwards to earn more credit but instead retreated. In an instant, the battle at the right wing went into a stalemate.

Di Chen was furious, bringing his 800 leftover force and backing down from the front lines. Luckily, Ouyang Shuo did not try to convince him. If not, one wouldn't know what Di Chen would have done.

Di Chen was depressed and he didn't know who to blame. Just blame Ouyang Shuo, but he not only blocked off the enemy cavalry and came in time to assist. If he didn’t he wouldn’t have been able to save his men. Or to blame Chun Shenjun, but since they were enemies, fighting was to be expected. He could only blame himself for being unlucky and getting a freak like Ouyang Shuo in the same camp, snatching his position as representative and causing him to be restricted.

Just when the right wing entered a stalemate, a new development happened at the left wing.

Just as Jushou had predicted, of Chiyou tribe's 70 thousand men, 40 thousand were in the middle to block against the Yellow Emperor's 50 thousand men. Its left and right wings both had 15 thousand men, the same as taking 3-4 thousand from the right wing to help the left wing.

With this, the 15 thousand strong right wing had to face the 30 thousand troops from the Fire Emperor tribe. However, the Chiyou tribe had the psychological advantage as in previous battles, the Fire Emperor tribe had been beaten time after time and had no choice but to request for help from the Yellow Emperor tribe.

Unfortunately, this norm was about to be broken. Just as both sides were exchanging blows, Zhang Liao led 800 odd cavalry and sneakily made a detour, cutting into the back of the Chiyou tribe.

The right wing of the Chiyou tribe never expected to meet the enemy cavalry at such a time. They didn't even have a decent shield, how could they defend against the attacks of the cavalry? This was especially true for their rearmost line which was mostly made up of archers. It was weak like paper, and was destroyed in an instant.

Especially the heavy armored cavalry at the front. No matter if they were spears or arrows hitting the Mingguang armor, they were like scratches. The cavalry pretty much killed whoever they saw.

Under the leadership of Zhang Liao, the cavalry went from left to right unpredictably. The Chiyou tribe could only watch on as their troops were unable to put up any defence.

Seeing that the cavalry had successfully broken through their defence, the Fire Emperor ordered his backup troops to charge forward and to add pressure to the Chiyou tribe and to keep them busy to not be able to deal with the cavalry.

With this, the Fire Emperor's troops inched forward, and as the cavalry was slaying on the back lines, the two pushed the Chiyou tribe to a dangerous situation. They looked like they were slowly becoming food for the taking.

When Chiyou received the distress signal from the right wing, he knew instantly that his plan was seen through by the enemy and that they had made an arrangement just to counter that. Helplessly, he had no choice but to rush some troops down from the middle to help out. If the right wing was destroyed, this battle would become even more difficult.

One could only say that Chiyou had underestimated the strategy of Qianshou. The Yellow Emperor, who had received the news that the left wing had succeeded in their attack, had been focusing on the enemy’s central troops. Once he found out that they had made a move, he immediately ordered his troops to push forward, not giving the Chiyou any breathing space.

Although the warriors of the Yellow Emperor tribe were lacking in weapons, they were ferocious. With a general like Limu, they weren't underdogs in a straight up fight. Originally, they already had a 10 thousand men advantage, and now that the advantage had widened, Chiyou tribe's central forces were facing trouble.

Their moves weren't only those. The right wing that was forced to defend suddenly charged forward and turned defense into attack. They had twice the number of troops of the enemy. It was only because it was the troops from the other small and medium sized tribes did it not seem strong enough. As the tides of battle changed and victory came into sight, the various leaders’ blood boiled and they stopped commanding. Many of the leaders led their troops themselves and charged towards the Chiyou tribe.

Losing on three fronts, the Chiyou tribe was running the risk of getting trampled on.

The one that broke the deadlock was the left wing's cavalry. Zhang Liao seeing the enemy troops’ reinforcements, decided to command the cavalry to charge into them.

The leader of the reinforcements did not expect the enemy to be so daring and advance instead of retreat, and instantly lost his senses.

Zhang Liao naturally was still very calm as he knew that the enemy's right wing was messed up by him and were like flies without heads. If he allowed the reinforcements to meet up with the right wing, they could reorganize the forces and calm them down. With that, it would be impossible to rip apart their defenses by only relying on his 1000 men.

Hence, the key to victory was defeating the reinforcements. Only then, no matter how many troops there were, if they couldn't organize themselves, the cavalry would have the chance to advance and retreat as they pleased. This would also be good for the Fire Emperor army.

As expected, the reinforcements were destroyed by this bunch of devil-like cavalry. The right wing had started to collapse, and some soldiers started to run backwards. A chain reaction was caused by the total failure of the right wing. The Fire Emperor didn't give up this opportunity and chased forwards, biting after the enemy.

This failure slowly caused the collapse of the entire army. Even the prestige of Chiyou couldn't help stop troops from running away. He could only helplessly ask his troops to retreat. The question was, however, how many he could save.

The retreating Chiyou looked across and sighed. He knew that his dream of conquering the middle plains had been destroyed after this battle.

The Yellow Emperor obviously wouldn't allow him to leave like this. A portion of their military strength was left. If he didn't completely destroy them, Chiyou could rise up again, and that was something he didn't wish for.

The Yellow Emperor ordered his whole army to chase. This was the killing feast of the Yellow Emperor camp. Even Di Chen, who was at the back brought his injured force to the front. Facing the retreating Chiyou tribe, it was the best time to get some battle contribution points.

Only Ouyang Shuo was thinking straight and ordered a few troops to chase and others to stick to the Yellow Emperor.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo, the Yellow Emperor was delighted. "Player Qiyue Wuyi, today's victory is all on you. I will heavily reward you."

Ouyang Shuo, who was on the horse, said respectfully, "I wouldn’t dare presume. The victory is because of your majesty's prestige and your troops. I don't dare to take the credit."

Ouyang Shuo only wanted practical rewards, and as for such titles, he’d rather not accept as it would be easy to make enemies out of the other officials and tribe leaders.

The Yellow Emperor nodded and understood his meaning. In his heart he had already made the decision to reward Ouyang Shuo. He fully knew that the result today was because of Ouyang Shuo's contribution for the past two days. Even if he didn't say so himself, his various officials would recommend him to reward Ouyang Shuo to make up for his help.

Seeing the troops chasing towards him, Chiyou, who was retreating, was ruthless. He ordered a portion of them to stay behind to hold them off while he brought his main force away. Those that were left behind were pretty much abandoned and left to die.

At this time, one could see Chiyou's prestige and position in the tribe. The warriors who started retreating once they lost were ashamed and chose to accept the mission to die to protect their leader.

Chiyou said goodbye to them before picking up the speed to escape.

When he was a distance away, he quickly ordered the troops to set a fire to separate the chasing forces. The fire made use of the wind to spread quickly and covered all the trees and grass. However the wet grass couldn't make the fire bigger and instead they became smoke, which started to fog up the entire area.

Under the dense fog, the chasing forces had lost their directions. Helplessly, the Yellow Emperor could only order his troops to stop chasing and wait for orders.

He looked at the officials around him and said, "Who can break the fog?"

It was natural that he was so anxious. If he let them go and didn't chase up to them, not long after Chiyou would come back. As someone who loved his people, he couldn't let that happen. The way he saw it, a peaceful life where agriculture was improved was the right way. These battles between tribes had to stop.

The officials looked at one another. With such a fog, they were at a complete loss.

Chapter 140 - Battle of Zhuolu part 14

Just as everyone was at a loss, Ouyang Shuo spoke up. "Your majesty, I have an item that can break the fog."

The Yellow Emperor was delighted. "What item is it? Quick, quick, take it out."

Ouyang Shuo nodded and took out the south-pointing chariot and explained. "This item is called the south pointing chariot, and no matter how it turns, the wooden hand will point south. Before we leave, we just take note of the direction, and we can get past the fog."

"Is this item really so magical?" The Yellow Emperor had his doubts.

Ouyang Shuo confidently laughed and said, "Please try it and you will know."

The Yellow Emperor signaled Feng Hou who was standing at the side. She understood and tried out the south-pointing chariot. The outcome was obvious and it worked. The south-pointing chariot that Ouyang Shuo had been planning since he’d entered the game had finally been put to good use. This was a chess move that was planned so far in advance.

The Yellow Emperor was a really daring person, and upon confirming that it worked, he reorganised his troops and dashed into the fog with the guidance of the south-pointing chariot.

On the way, Bai Hua and the others stared at Ouyang Shuo like he was a monster. In the end she couldn’t help but ask. "Wuyi, how did you know that this battle would need the south-pointing chariot?"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, as he knew that they would ask. "Actually, I wasn't sure. Ever since I knew that the first battle map was the Battle of Zhuolu, I looked up information of that specific battle. You all know that this battle was one of legends and any truth was immortalised, so any clue would be very minute and small. I made a conjecture and what interested me the most was actually that the Yellow Emperor was the one who invented the south-pointing chariot."

"It was apparent that at that time he had no ability to make it. It should’ve been done by his descendants who gave the credit to the Yellow Emperor. Then I thought that since it was recorded in history, maybe he was really trapped in fog only that they used a different method to break through. So I thought that if I was able to make a south pointing chariot, that it would come to good use in the battle. In the end the fog really did appear just that it wasn't caused by a volcano as legends said but by Chiyou."

Ouyang Shuo's words was obviously made up. He had the advantage of knowing the future and just prepared beforehand. However he couldn't tell that to them, so he just made up a white lie.

Listening to his explanation, everyone respected and envied Ouyang Shuo even more.

"Brother Wuyi is so amazing, I’m starting to worship you already." Mu Lanyue said in awe.

Bai Hua was also stunned and gave him a thumbs up. "Wuyi, incredible. To grab the chance from a small clue in history. The way I see it, your acute sense is similar to Xunlong Dianxue’s, that mission-crazy person.

Ouyang Shuo didn't want to stay on this topic and said, "Ok, you guys can stop praising me. The way I see it, once we get over the fog, there will still be another big battle.

"We will indeed."

……

Just as he said, under the guidance of the south-pointing chariot, they got out of the fog. Not far from them was the Chiyou tribe forces who were sitting down and rearranging themselves.

He couldn't believe that the enemy could so easily get out of the fog. Hence, Chiyou didn't worry and let his forces rest. He was still thinking after they were rested to counter attack and surprise them. Who would’ve thought that they would miraculously get past the fog? This was a huge blow, and all of the sudden the morale plummeted.

On the opposite side after crossing the fog, the troops were even more confident in the Yellow Emperor. They didn't know that the south-pointing chariot was given by Ouyang Shuo, and thought that it was the work of the Yellow Emperor himself.

The Yellow Emperor made the choice to not leave them any chances, directly ordering the troops to charge forward. The big battle started again, and this battle lasted to the dead of night when blood flowed like a river.

The Chiyou tribe defended and retreated at the same time, hoping to once again escape the destiny of being killed. The Fire and Yellow Emperor Alliance chased closely behind, wanting to exterminate all of them before stopping.

This battle lasted one whole day, and only when night came did both sides decide to stop. At that point, Chiyou tribe had less than 50 thousand people. The Fire and Yellow Emperor Alliance had over 100 thousand people. A few lords who didn't want to lose more men had already taken their troops and escaped. Since the Yellow Emperor's goal was Chiyou, he wouldn’t care if some of his troops deserted.

Under their influence, more and more players decided to sneak off in the dead of the night. In the end, only the Chunqiu Alliance and Blood Metal Alliance were left. Both added up to less than 4000 men. The only reason they’d stayed was to get more points and also to keep their position at the top 10 leaderboard. They also thought that maybe Chiyou would give them some quest. Hence, neither Chun Shenjun nor Zhan Lang could bear to just leave.

The Zhuolu Plains in the darkness was one location where no one dared to fight in. Not only could nobody see anything, but there were beasts who came out at night which made it even scarier.

Hence, they grouped up, started fires, and arranged people to keep lookouts. Only then could people be at ease and not get killed.

Even so, the Yellow Emperor didn't loosen his monitoring of the Chiyou tribe. As long as they made a move, he would instantly attack.

Luckily, Chiyou wasn't impulsive and both sides had an uneventful evening.

Seeing the situation, players like Ouyang Shuo didn't go offline and just rested in the tents. If not, and if they didn't go online on time, it would be a tragedy.

Around early morning the next day, before the sun came out, Chiyou tribe started to keep their tents.

When the Yellow Emperor received the news, he ordered his troops to do the same. Both sides knew that they were rushing against time, and they couldn't afford to delay. Last night, all the troops had slept with their armor on and items packed to be ready to go at any moment.

When the sun rose up, the life and death chase resumed once more.

The reddish sunlight didn't give the Chiyou tribe warriors any warmth. They were like onions, shaved off layer by layer. Those in the middle felt a cold sense of desperation.

At that time, even Chun Shenjun couldn't stand his troops dying. After discussing with Xiongba, they took their 3000 strong force and left the battlefield. Now only the 1000 strong Blood Metal Alliance was left. Zhan Lang was from the military, so he obviously didn't desert.

Unfortunately, not everyone had the same honor as Zhan Lang. The other members of the Blood Metal Alliance were not from the military. At first they respected his decision, but as the battle got worse and worse, they left him. In the end they were only left with the 300 men from Blood Red Town.

This chase that was destined to be recorded in history continued for 4 whole days. Both sides were quickly running out of grain. As they went south, even when they went past the stronghold they didn't dare to stop and resolutely rushed towards the main camp that they had set in the south.

On that day, they successfully escaped to the Xiongli valley. Any more south would lead to the Hutuo river. The river originated from the Fire Emperor tribe territory, joined with the Fuyang river, and flowed into the Bohai sea. The main camp of the Jiuli tribe was south of the Fuyang river.

Chiyou knew that the Yellow Emperor wouldn't give him the chance to cross the Hutuo river. If he continued to escape, he would be destined to lose all his troops. As the leader of the Jiuli tribe, he had the responsibility to leave something for this tribe.

On that night, Chiyou gathered the few brothers that survived and said, "Seems like the Yellow Emperor is dead bent on killing all of us. I can't be so selfish to bring you all on this road. For the future of the tribe, I've decided to fight to the death with the Yellow Emperor. You are all my brothers, and I can't let the Jiuli bloodline die like this. Hence, I chose 4 people to lead a group of elite to leave the valley in the darkness, cross the Hutuo river, cross the Fuyang river and continue down south. They’d bring our people into the mountains. Who is willing to take up this responsibility?"

"Big brother I won't go, I'll fight alongside you."

"I won't go too."

"Even if I die I'll die with brother."

Of Chiyou's brothers, none were cowards and wanted to escape. He was touched, but helpless. In the end he chose 4 smarter brothers and forced them to leave.

After that choice, Chiyou looked for Zhan Lang and gave him an a rank branch quest to send this batch of elites to leave the Xiongli valley.

Zhan Lang was shocked and surprised; his determination had been rewarded. One must know that the basic rewards of a rank quest were 500 merit points and 3200 battle contribution points. This trip was really not a waste.

Chapter 141 - Battle of Zhuolu part 15

When the sun rose up once again over the horizon, the Chiyou tribe which was in a tough situation did not escape but instead chose to defend in the valley.

Standing beside the Yellow Emperor’s chariot, Ouyang Shuo looked towards the Xiongli Valley and felt very emotional. Seems like this tough battle was finally coming to an end.

"Feng Qing, this time Chiyou didn't retreat and instead chose to defend, is he planning another scheme?" At the crucial moment, the Yellow Emperor still had faith in his prime minister.

Feng Qing shook his head and said,"Your majesty, going down south will be the Hutao river. I think Chiyou had already guessed that he wouldn't be able to cross the river under our eyes. Hence he decided to have a life or death battle with you in the valley."

The Yellow Emperor was delighted, "Great, Chiyou is looking for death." It was not a surprise that the Yellow Emperor was so delighted. Their military grain supplies were nearly used up and if they continued on chasing after Chiyou, their army would probably collapse even before Chiyou’s surrender. Luckily he had the blessing of the heavens, the Hutao river cut off Chiyou's last hope at surviving.

"I order the troops to sit at the pans and start cooking, after the meal, we will start our final attack. Let's take the valley in one strike and kill Chiyou!" The Yellow Emperor said excitedly.

"Yes!"

This final battle didn't have any suspense, the difference in military power was too huge. The Fire and Yellow Emperor alliance had 80 thousand men. Apart from that, they also had 4 thousand player troops. In the Chiyou tribe, there were less than 8 thousand men and 0 player troops.

Ouyang Shuo didn't know if Xunlong Dianxue's choice was right or not. Before the battle, he made use of the advantage of the military grain pill and showed his crazy quest hunting nature, sweeping a lot of branch quests and getting 7500 battle contribution points. After the battle, Xunlong Dianxue's 200 men didn't make any waves and left the battlefield early.

At 9AM, the Fire and Yellow Emperor alliance officially launched their Attack.

The Xiongli Valley was like a little pocket, the outside was small and the inside was wide and spacious. The narrow opening of the valley made it such that you couldn't spread out your troops. Hence, even though the Fire and Yellow Emperor alliance had many troops, they had no choice but to launch their attack in waves.

To buy enough time for the troops that had escaped, Chiyou arranged all 8 thousand of his troops at the opening, not leaving any route to retreat to. At the same time, to raise the morale of his troops, Chiyou personally led his troops.

Hence, the battle which was originally one out in the wilderness now became a battle to storm a fortified position.

The alliance still had the absolute numbers advantage and made use of a strategy where they sent warriors in batches. Feng Hou split the troops into 8 groups and apart from one 10 thousand man group which acted as the backup, the remaining 7 launched attacks in batches. When the 10 thousand were tired, 10 thousand were swapped in. When the group had finished resting, they would go back up and this cycle would continue to repeat.

On the opposite side, the Chiyou tribe was not so lucky and had to keep up with a long period of fighting. However, it was not like they did not have any advantage. Their soldiers had the do or die mentality and had nothing to lose. Secondly, be it weapons or morale, the Chiyou tribe was stronger than the attacking troops. With that, the Chiyou tribe actually managed to stubbornly defend.

Not being able to get past, the Yellow Emperor was starting to get anxious. If this carried on, even if they managed to destroy them in the end, his troops will also suffer heavy casualties and that wasn't what the Yellow Emperor wanted to see.

The Yellow Emperor looked around and said seriously, "With the current situation in hand, does anyone have a good plan?"

Ouyang Shuo bowed and said, "Your majesty, the player forces would like to fight!"

The Yellow Emperor's eyes froze," Qiyue Wuyi, the war isn't a game. Do you have confidence?"

"As long as your majesty promises me two things, I promise that I will get the Chiyou tribe in one strike. If I fail, I'm willing to accept any punishment." Ouyang Shuo did not waste any time.

Yellow emperor jolted up, finally gaining back some confidence and saying loudly, "Okay, say your terms. As long as I can do it, I will."

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, "Your majesty, as you know our player force is not under one leader and thus is hard to command. Hence my first wish is for you to give out a battle quest to let all players pass their troops to my control."

"Okay, it is done." The Yellow Emperor did not hesitate.

As he heard that, Ouyang Shuo's ear sounded out with the system notification.

"Battle Notification: The Yellow Emperor has given a quest [The Final Battle].

Mission requirements: The Yellow Emperor Camp players has to agree to pass their troops to representative Qiyue Wuyi. Mission rewards: 2n merit points, 4n battle contribution points, n being the number they have.”

Using the lowest number of 100 men, purely using the mission rewards one would get 200 merit points and 400 battle contribution points. Other than that, the troops that they kill will be recorded under their respective lords. This kind of temptation was not what any player could resist. Even Di Chen couldn't bear to leave the rewards and gritted his teeth and accepted the quest.

Ouyang Shuo continued, "Your majesty, using only 4 thousand player troops is a bit thin. Hence for my second term, it would be for you to let General Limu and General Chang Xian to lead 5 thousand elites to assist us and attack together."

Hearing his terms, the Yellow Emperor became more confident in his plan and nodded, "Good, it seems like you aren't doing this on impulse. I agree."

"Thank you for your trust." Ouyang Shuo knew that if he won this battle, it would confirm his absolute advantage.

Ouyang Shuo turned towards the player forces and gathered Bai Hua and the others and started dishing out orders.

"In this battle it will be hard to use cavalry, hence we will mainly use sword shield soldiers and archers. I suggest that General Shi will be the main general and Mu Guiying will be the vice general. What do you all think?"

Bai Hua and the others were getting more and more confident and had utmost faith in him, naturally they listened to him.

After getting the agreement of his allies, Ouyang Shuo started to arrange the troops. In his plan, there was the absolute need to ensure that the generals had absolute control. Hence not only will Ouyang Shuo not participate personally, the other players who were generals will also not participate.

Luckily the remaining forces were allies of Shanhai Town. Di Chen's Handan Alliance only had 500 men. As for the other players, they only had 200 left. The other 3300 players were Shanhai Town and its alliance's.

Out of the 3300 men, the Shanhai Alliances core had 1600 men left. The player force had lost more than half as casualties and Shanhai Alliance only lost one fifth, it was really rare and difficult. The 400 that died were mostly sword shield soldiers and cavalry, the archers were barely hurt.

In the last calculation, there were 4000 men player force, 2000 of which were sword shield soldiers, 1500 were archers and 500 were cavalry. The cavalry, after 2 sneak attacks had lost the most. In this battle, they were immediately excluded.

After the player force was reorganized, Limu and Chang Xian had already chosen their teams and both led 2500 troops. Under the recommendation of Qianshou, the 2000 sword shield soldiers were to be at the front and go straight up against Chiyou. The 1500 archers will be the backup and provide cover fire. Limu's troops will be at the right wing and Chang Xian at the left wing.

After the arrangements were settled, they waited for the 10000 men squad to retreat. Ouyang Shuo wasn't going to give them any time to rest and this final trump card went straight up.

Before leaving, Ouyang Shuo talked to General Shi alone and had a detailed conversation. As for the contents of the conversation, even Bai Hua and the others didn't know.

The final battle had finally arrived.

The drained Chiyou tribe, seeing the sword shield soldiers at the front, were shocked. The well equipped sword shield soldiers made up for the difference in strength and morale. Especially the squadrons at the furthest in front, this time Ouyang Shuo had sacrificed his own troops and placed Shanhai Town's 3 infantry squadrons at the front. The elite barbarian warriors against the Jiuli tribe warriors, not lacking in the least.

As for Chiyou himself, he was intercepted by General Shi. This could be called the battle of the trump cards.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo's troop formation, the other players did not have any rights to say anything demeaning. Ouyang Shuo knew that to win the respect of other players, one needed to throw himself out during the crucial moment and make some sacrifices.

The bowmen and crossbowmen at the back started the assault.

Under Mu Guiying's accurate commanding, 1500 archers let the Chiyou tribe witness the strength of bows and crossbows from centuries later. The long distance and strong penetrative ability destroyed the Chiyou tribe. They were like wheat, getting harvested row by row.

The frontline was blocked by General Shi's sword shield soldiers and couldn't advance an inch. The left and right wings were blocked off by Limu and Chang Xian’s troops. The helpless Chiyou could only watch on and see his family and friends from his hometown die under the player army's strong bows and crossbows. The Jiuli warriors looked at the arrows in their chest, their faces filled with doubt.

Even the Fire Emperor and Yellow Emperor, who were standing far away, were stunned by the sheer power. The Yellow Emperor sighed, he did underestimate these players. Luckily they didn't belong to this world, if they did then who is the leader and who is the follower, it was hard to tell.

Chapter 142 - Battle of Zhuolu part 16

In Xiongli Valley, the God of War, Chiyou welcomed the last battle of his life.

The powerful wargod faced the wild sky and gave a loud unwilling roar. He held a copper axe which had white bones inlaid within, fighting against General Shi.

Chiyou forgot about his original mission, forgot that he was fighting for the Jiuli tribe, forgot about the men who were behind him. The him now was just a warrior fighting to win this battle.

His strength and ability utterly ignited General Shi's fighting prowess and desire for battle.

Ever since he was summoned by Ouyang Shuo, he had never fought with all his strength as there was no one of his level. However, Chiyou was undoubtedly his best match.

Chiyou was undoubtedly strong. Not only did he have godly strength, but his technique was great too. His style didn't have any useless strokes and was trained and consolidated after countless battles on the battlefield.

In terms of strength, General Shi couldn't compete with Chiyou. However, he won in terms of the strength of his spear technique. Furthermore, his Bintie Spear, which was made with iron was several levels better than the copper axe. Adding the tiger scale armor, General Shi had the absolute advantage in terms of equipment.

Of the two men, one could be considered manly, using strength to destroy technique, while the other used technique to cover the lack of strength.

This battle was one that crossed generations, and it attracted everyone's attention. The soldiers on both sides had the tacit understanding to stop and leave a suitable enough space for the two to fight.

Although Chiyou had been fighting for a long time, as his body was different from a normal person’s, his stamina flowed on and was limitless. Even if General Shi had saved his energy and was fully recharged, the two of them would still be going neck and neck.

As the battle proceeded, General Shi got more and more excited. He displayed the burning sun spear technique to perfection, each move and stance showing the style of a real master.

To Ouyang Shuo, who was standing from afar, it was his first time seeing General Shi use the burning sun spear technique to such a level, making him look on in awe.

Zhang Liao also had a realization that the gap between him and a emperor-level general was so huge.

Facing General Shi's attack, the war god Chiyou didn't back down and waved his axe, turning all his attacks into nothing. From time to time he would find chances to counterattack.

Regarding the Bintie Spear and copper axe, both weapons were of similar length and the main poles were both made of wood. The only difference was that at the end one was iron and the other copper. As time went on, the advantage of the bintie spear started to show. As the spear hit the axe, one after another, holes and chips started to appear.

However, a war god was a war god. Even if his weapon was damaged, his spirit wasn't affected. The strong and powerful hacks gave General Shi a lot of pressure and close shaves with death. There were many times that General Shi wanted to pull off some spear stances but because of the difference in strength, his hand was numb from the shock.

The close battle had slowly reached its climax.

The dust from the ground spread all around until one couldn't see the opposite figure. The Warriors of both sides shouted the names of their generals, cheering them on.

As time flowed, General Shi slowly got the upper hand. He managed to display the strength of his weapon and attack Chiyou's axe, causing the white bones on it to shatter. This tactic was very strenuous on Chiyou's body.

At that moment, Chiyou, who was covered in blood, let out a huge roar. His muscles protruded out and at first glance, it seemed that he became bigger. A bloody scent exuded from his body, scaring everyone's soul.

The soldiers who were around were unable to withstand the evil scent. Even the injured soldiers were attacked by the scent such that they bled and died.

Such a shocking change stunned everyone.

"That's not good." The Yellow Emperor gasped in shock. "This is the devil god bloodline in Chiyou's body. It would multiply his battle ability. I'm afraid General Shi is not his opponent."

"Then what should we do?" Ouyang Shuo was anxious. If General Shi was killed by Chiyou, then it would be a disaster for Shanhai Town. Any reward wouldn't be able to help cover up this loss.

"There's no need to panic." The Yellow Emperor was calm. "With today's plan, we can only use our numbers to win. Chiyou activated his bloodline, but it won't last for long and as long as we block this wave, Chiyou is dead for sure."

The Yellow Emperor turned and looked at Feng Hou, saying, "Sound the drums and order Limu and Chang Xian to help corner Chiyou. We have to take him down."

"Yes your majesty." Feng Hou didn't dare be slow and acted immediately.

The battle boiled the blood of the two generals who were at separate wings. They yearned to join in. The moment they heard the drums, they charged towards Chiyou without any hesitation.

General Shi was in a tough situation. Luckily he had been through many battles, and such a close one was normal. The aura that Chiyou exuded did not have a huge negative effect on him. What was difficult was the terrifying strength which became even worse after the activation of the bloodline.

General Shi did not dare to go blow for blow with Chiyou. He tried to retaliate slightly and his whole hand numbed up. At this point, the vast experience of General Shi came into good use. When he realised the situation he was in, he immediately started to sidestep and engage in a slippery battle.

Chiyou hollered, such a crafty opponent gave him a feeling that he had a body filled with energy that he couldn't use. The devil god blood had corrupted his mind and made him even crazier. His style was less exquisite, and it was just random chops and hacks.

This was when Chang Xian and Limu both arrived. The brothers of Chiyou wanted to help but they were blocked by Zhao Sihu. He knew that protecting General Shi's safety was his main Mission. Hence, he definitely wouldn't allow Chiyou's few brothers to get him out of the situation.

A chaotic battle had opened up once again.

With reinforcements, General Shi heaved a sigh of belief. The opponent in front of him was not something he could use normal logic and conjecture to deal with. Activating a bloodline was something that only could happen during the wild era.

The 3 of them stood in a circle like how one would surround a wild beast, changing positions constantly to keep Chiyou in the center. Chiyou charged left and right, but he was simply unable to hurt the three of them. In a fit of anger, he let out a roar.

The war god Chiyou had walked onto his final leg.

After half an hour, the magic god blood that Chiyou had activated slowly wore off, and the negative effects started to show. His strength and speed was worse than usual. The strength and stamina that seemed to be endless before had started to slowly wane.

He slowly started to awaken and see clearly. Upon seeing the situation in front of him, he didn't choose to back off and hollered ‘Kill!’ before charging towards General Shi.

General Shi didn't retreat and screamed, "Kill!"

At that point, Limu and Chang Xian both retreated with a tacit understanding and left the battlefield to them two.

The two were once again engaged in battle, but the battle had changed. The wargod Chiyou couldn't suppress General Shi's attacks, and under his assault he seemed to start panicking.

At last, General Shi grabbed the chance and destroyed his copper axe with the spear. Losing his weapon, Chiyou was destined to lose. But he didn't back down and held the broken wooden pole and charged at General Shi.

Why would General Shi give Chiyou a chance? He used his spear to push aside the wooden pole and stabbed it directly into Chiyou's chest. Following which, General Shi used his ultimate attack, and one could see that his bintie spear started to quickly rotate and stabbed his heart into shreds.

This stab was the pinnacle of power and technique. One must know that once the spear was stabbed into the body, to pull it out one needed much strength, and needed even more to rotate it inside the body.

The burning sun spear technique's real skill was this stab. The rotating spear head would heat up and burn, burning the opponent into ashes and thus getting its name of burning sun.

Chiyou opened both his eyes and looked at General Shi in disbelief. He looked down at his chest. There was already a huge hole dripping with fresh blood.

If your heart were shredded, even a war god wouldn't be able to survive. The war god of a generation fell to the floor and covered the ground in blood, dyeing it red.

The moment he died, General Shi walked beside him and from his body found an old little bottle which he sneakily kept.

Seeing Chiyou die in battle, the Jiuli warriors couldn't muster anymore courage and the fight left them, their mouths agape in disbelief.

At this moment, the Yellow Emperor displayed the heart of a king. He walked forward and told the warriors, "Jiuli race warriors, you have tried your best. Surrender and I promise you will all be safe."

If one could live, no one would wish to die. Since their leader Chiyou was dead, their reason for fighting was already lost. At that time, surrender would be the logical reason.

The only ones that didn't surrender were Chiyou's few brothers.

Only after rounding up the remaining Jiuli tribe troops did the Yellow Emperor find out that some of the Chiyou tribe members had left the Xiongli Valley, and he immediately ordered Chang Xian to chase.

Of course, they would just try their best. Such a long time had passed. They would’ve already gotten across the Hutuo river, and catching them was harder than climbing the sky.

Killing Chiyou, the Yellow Emperor's prestige had risen to a whole new level. He had replaced Shennong, and the time was right for him to be the ruler of the land.

The excited Yellow Emperor beheaded Chiyou and brought the troops back to Yellow Emperor City to get their rewards. As the greatest contributor to this war, Ouyang Shuo had the right and the luck to travel beside the Yellow Emperor’s chariot.

Chapter 143 - Battle of Zhuolu part 17

Editor : Levs

Before going back, Ouyang Shuo tabulated the overall loses in this battle.

Before the battle of Xiongli Valley, Shanhai Town had 1600 men. After the battle, they had lost 200 more sword shield soldiers and only 1400 men had survived.

Shanhai Town's thousand men army was now only left with 700.

Of the 700, 100 were cavalry, 50 heavy armoured infantry, 100 sword-shield infantry, 150 archers and 300 crossbowmen. The ones with the heaviest casualties were the cavalry and the sword shield soldiers, losing nearly half. As for the archers, they were on the backlines and barely had any loss, only losing 50 archers.

What pained Ouyang Shuo the most were the 100 Qingfu horses that were lost along with the cavalry. As the cavalry took up the role of charging in, as long as the soldier died, the horse will not be able to return and all practically died on the battlefield.

Out of all his allies, Mu Lanyue was the luckiest. She brought 100 archers and none of them were hurt. The worst was Bai Hua who brought 300 cavalry and lost nearly 200. After all, the cavalry from the Consonance Village were class changed from the system so they were riding basic war horses which couldn't compare to the Qingfu horses from Shanhai Town.

Apart from that, the sword shield soldiers that Gong Chengshi and Feng Qiuhuang had brought, half were lost. If Ouyang Shuo didn't place the sword shield soldiers of Shanhai Town at the front, they might have lost even more.

Such a strong alliance like Shanhai Town, who had all the advantages still had a casualty rate of a third. As for the other players, they lost more than half. As for Di Chen, his casualty rate was close to 80% and it could practically be said as completely annihilated.

From this, one could see the difficulty and harshness of the battle map.

Luckily there were rewards, the moment he returned to the Yellow Emperor City, a battle notification sounded in his ear.

"Battle Notification: The Battle of Zhuolu has officially ended. We will now begin to calculate the overall contributions of the players and their extra contribution points."

Closely after, an individual notification resounded in Ouyang Shuo's ear.

"System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi, representative player in the Yellow Emperor camp, destroyed the stalemate between the forces with the cavalry sneak attack strategy, benefiting the Yellow Emperor camp; contributed the south pointing chariot, helping the battle progress; in the battle of Xiongli valley, stood out at the crucial moment to decide the outcome of battle. Awarded 30000 extra battle contribution points."

After calculating all the other extra contribution points of other players, the final leaderboard was settled.

Position - Name - Battle contribution points1st: Qiyue Wuyi - 80000 points2nd: Bai Hua - 25000 points3rd: Feng Qiuhuang - 18000 points 4th Zhan Lang - 15000 points5th: Chun Shenjun - 12000 points6th: Xunlong Dianxue - 10000 points7th: Di Chen - 8000 points8th: Mu Lanyue - 7500 points9th: Gong Chengshi - 6000 points10th: Feng Qingyang - 5500 points

Relying on the reward for killing Chiyou and the extra reward of 30 thousand battle contribution points, and also the kills of the cavalry and the archers, as well as the branch quests and the final battle mission rewards, Ouyang Shuo led far in front with 80 thousand points.

Following behind was Bai Hua. The 2 sneak attacks, Zhang Liao led 300 Consonance Town cavalry and played a huge role. Hence in the extra contribution points calculation, Bai Hua obtained 10 thousand battle contribution points and was only second to Ouyang Shuo.

As compared to Bai Hua, the reward that Feng Qiuhuang received was far less, thankfully she had brought 200 archers who netted her some kills, if not her battle contribution points would be a lot lesser.

The 4th-6th positions were taken up by the Chiyou camp. Zhan Lang was rewarded for his determination and had climbed above Chun Shenjun, ranking the highest in the Chiyou camp. As for Xunlong Dianxue, he relied on his branch quests, if not he wouldn't have gotten such a high position.

Di Chen who had lost nearly all of his troops managed to get a position on the leaderboard in the end.

The 8th and 9th position were Mu Lanyue and Gong Chengshi. If Ouyang Shuo didn't pay extra care to them while organizing the troops, those two probably wouldn't get into the leaderboard. The reason why Mu Lanyue was higher than Gong Chengshi was because of Mu Guiying and her 100 archers.

The last position was Feng Qingyang who didn't make a sound. However, he did manage to defeat Xiongba, Wufu, Sha Pojun and Wandering Magic to get the last spot.

Based on the entire leaderboard, the most extravagant ones would obviously be Ouyang Shuo and his Shanhai Alliance, claiming half the leaderboard and the top 3 of the leaderboard.

After the battle contribution leaderboard was set, the system started to distribute the rewards. The blissful occasion that Ouyang Shuo had been waiting for has arrived.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for earning 8000 battle contribution points, following the 10:1 ratio, awarded 800 merit points."

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for being the first place in the leaderboards, awarded 4000 merit points."

Ouyang Shuo had earned 12000 merit points at once, adding the 1400 merit points from the branch quests and the 1600 from the final quest from the Yellow Emperor, Ouyang Shuo earned 15000 merit points from the whole of the Battle of Zhuolu. What was unfortunate was that the battle map didn't give any experience rewards regardless of player or NPC.

Only relying on this battle, the rewards that Ouyang Shuo had got was equal to the total merit points that he earned in the main map. This looked exaggerated but if one thought about the difficulty to increase rank, it was not exaggerated at all.

Adding the merit points from this battle, Ouyang Shuo's rank had just barely got to 1st rank earl, the distance to 3rd rank marquis was 20000 merit points which was a very long journey.

After finishing the battle contribution point and merit point rewards, Bai Hua and the others took their troops and left the battle map. Only Ouyang Shuo remained as he still needed to go to the palace to collect his final reward.

Before leaving, Bai Hua specially thanked Ouyang Shuo. In this battle, she was the 2nd biggest winner, earning 6100 merit points and becoming a 3rd rank earl, only a small set away from a 2nd rank earl.

The others had also risen in rank. Feng Qiuhuang rose from 3rd rank earl to 2nd rank earl; Mu Lanyue and Gong Chengshi from 3rd rank viscount to 1st rank viscount.

As for Xunlong Dianxue, as they weren't from the same camp, he wasn't sure of his situation. However his position and also the rewards from the branch quests, Ouyang Shuo guessed that he would at least be a 3rd rank earl. After all, the rewards of the branch quests were quite generous.

After saying goodbye to everyone, Ouyang Shuo walked into the palace alone.

At this time, the Yellow Emperor was giving out rewards to the soldiers and his officials. Upon seeing Ouyang Shuo, the Yellow Emperor got up from his seat and said, "Welcome, our greatest contributor."

Ouyang Shuo bowed and said respectfully, "I don't have enough skill, I don't dare to accept your praise."

The Yellow Emperor waved it off and said, "You don't need to be humble. I know that you need to return to your own world so I won't waste your time."

The Yellow Emperor took out two books and personally passed it to Ouyang Shuo and said, "This is your reward, take it!"

Ouyang Shuo couldn’t resist his excitement and took the two books, "Thank you, your majesty!"

"You can go now!"

Ouyang Shuo did not leave and instead stood in the main hall, his face looking a little hesitant.

"Why, do you have something to say?"

Ouyang Shuo gritted his teeth and asked "Your majesty, I have a request."

"What?" The Yellow Emperor frowned.

"I would like your majesty to reward me one of your personal items." Ouyang Shuo said nervously.

If it was not for Ouyang Shuo's huge contributions, the Yellow Emperor would have immediately declined. As for this kind of rude behaviour, the Yellow Emperor was unhappy. He was the leader of a generation and had the power to control the nation.

He sighed, the number of personal items he had were little, the only one he could take out was the wolf tooth necklace around his neck. Thinking about what the Fire Emperor mentioned that it was him that saved Nuwa, he didn't hesitate and took off the necklace and passed it to him, " This is an item that I have kept for a long time, I hope you can cherish it well."

Ouyang Shuo was stunned, he never expected that the Yellow Emperor would give such a valuable gift, saying gratefully, "Thank you, your majesty, for your gift, I will never forget it."

The Yellow Emperor waved his hand, "Okay, I've already given you your gift, you can leave now."

"Yes!" This time, Ouyang Shuo didn't hesitate and instantly left.

Ouyang Shuo walked out of the palace but didn't look at the two books straight away, instead he rushed out of the city to meet with his troops and prepared to leave the map.

Leaving wasn't as troublesome as entering. The battle map didn't have a teleportation formation and as long as players wanted to return, the system would teleport them and their troops back. Also, it didn't cost any teleportation fees and such was very humane.

Ouyang Shuo took one last look at the wilderness and said softly, "Return."

A white light shone across and, Ouyang Shuo and his troops disappeared. When he opened his eyes, he was already back at the Shanhai Town teleportation formation.

Chapter 144 - Battle of Zhuolu part 18

When Ouyang Shuo walked out of the teleportation formation, a system notification sounded in his ear.

"System notification: The Battle of Zhuolu has officially ended. The Yellow Emperor tribe, Fire Emperor tribe, and Jiuli tribe have automatically entered the game and are hidden tribes. Players can search for them."

Hidden tribes meant that they hid themselves off from the world and wouldn't proactively interact with the outside world. The historical figures in the tribes were also very difficult for the players to persuade. If players were so lucky to find their tribe, the largest possibility would be to get a reward. Overall, it had little effect on the wilderness.

This was also because historical figures in the wild era were termed as unrecruitable bosses who lived in their palaces and didn't go out. As for the others like Limu and Feng Hou, in the later eras their ability was normal, and there was no recruiting value.

The whole battle process looked long and arduous, but in truth the real map was only the 16th day of May, so not even 2 days had passed.

After returning, Ouyang Shuo let the troops return to their respective units and ordered the Military Affairs Department to deal with the payments to and compensations for the dead soldiers.

The entire Battle of Zhuolu, including teleportation fees, material costs, and military losses, cost 3500 gold. This huge cost gained them 15 thousand merit points, 3 books, a small bottle, and a wolf tooth necklace.

Ouyang Shuo returned to the lord's manor and into his office. He took out 3 books and checked them out one by one. The first one was the , after its use it would increase the production of silk by 20%. There was nothing further to be said about this, and Ouyang Shuo was ready to pass this to the textile association.

The second book was given by the Yellow Emperor. With a beast skin cover, it looked old and antiquated.

[Wild Beast Taming Technique]: The wild era's taming technique can raise the taming rate of wild animals by 20%.

Ouyang Shuo was amazed, as the secret of the Yellow Emperor tribe beast taming was within this book. The Yellow Emperor was really nice, teaching his tribe's secret technique to Ouyang Shuo.

Without hesitation, Ouyang Shuo directly learned it.

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for learning the Wild beast taming technique. Reputation points has increased by 500."

The 3rd book was also from the Yellow Emperor, and it was the manual of dreams.

Name: Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique Manual (Emperor rank cultivation technique)

Level: 1/12

Attribute: For every level raised, body structure +2, comprehension +1, all acquired stats +1

Specialty: Unique item, cannot be dropped, cannot be traded

Evaluation: Yellow Emperor internal cultivation focuses on building up chi, and is one of the strongest internal cultivation techniques. After completion of training, one's internal chi will be golden in color.

Note: This cultivation technique can be combined with others. As for the rest, the player must find out on his own.

Ouyang Shuo was really excited, and pressed his right hand on the book, the system notification sounding out.

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for obtaining the emperor rank cultivation technique , will you learn it?"

"Learn!"

With a 'shua' sound, the book turned into a golden light and shot into Ouyang Shuo's temple.

In an instant, all the information about the technique rushed into his mind, waiting for him to digest and understand it.

A full hour later, Ouyang Shuo slowly opened his eyes. After all, it was the strongest internal cultivate technique in history. It has too many mysteries and secrets, causing Ouyang Shuo to be engrossed in it. He even had the urge to cut down on the territory work and train in it, although that wasn't very practical.

After training the Yellow Emperor internal cultivation technique, Ouyang Shuo finally heaved a sigh of relief. Of the locks that were restricting him, another one was resolved, making him much more confident.

After dealing with the 3 books, Ouyang Shuo took out that old bottle which General Shi found from Chiyou's body. Just recently, what Ouyang Shuo had discussed with General Shi had been exactly this small bottle.

In truth, people in the battle map wouldn't drop any items. Only the leaders of the army camp would, and once they did drop one, it would be a gem of an item.

Chiyou Blood Essence: After its use, it activates the wargod talent

The specialty was very simple, but also very shocking. Ouyang Shuo till date had not activated his talent, and Chiyou's blood essence was the perfect fit.

In the battle map, during the battle between Chiyou and General Shi, Chiyou had activated his magic god bloodline. The only weakness was that after activating it, he would lose his sanity and even have some side effects.

Ouyang Shuo laughed. Maybe the heavens destined him for greatness. The Yellow Emperor internal cultivation technique solved this weakness, as the golden internal chi was the weakness of the magic god bloodline. As long as he trained hard, he could remove the negative side effects of the magic god bloodline. Maybe even Gaia didn't expect that a player could get both of these items during the Battle of Zhuolu.

Ouyang Shuo stopped hesitating and opened the bottle, swallowing the drop of Chiyou blood essence. A burning sensation spread across his body.

Ouyang Shuo didn't dare to be too careless and immediately sat up and activated the Yellow Emperor internal cultivation technique that he had learned. Instantly, a weak golden chi formed in his dantian. It followed his meridians and went across his body. Sure enough as it went across the body, the burning sensation dissipated.

An hour later, Ouyang Shuo's body regained calmness, and a notification sounded in his ear.

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for consuming Chiyou blood essence and activating the wargod talent. For specific content, the player must check it himself."

Ouyang Shuo immediately opened his stats to check for changes.

【Name】: Qiyue Wuyi

【Title】: Patriot ( Increases NPCs’ relationship by 25%)

【Occupation】General (part time)

【Territory】: Shanhai Town

【Level】: 48

【Merit】: 30400 / 52000

【Rank】: 1st class Earl

【Reputation】: 13350/100000

【Body Structure】: 18+2

【Comprehension】: 21+1

【Luck】: 5

【Charm】: 8

【Command】: 63 + 10

【Force】: 26+5

【Intelligence】: 15

【Political】: 52

【Talent】: Wargod (Permanently increase combat power by 20%)

【Speciality】Devil Possession (Raise combat power by 200% for 30 minutes, followed by a period of added weakness)

【Internal Aart】: Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique (layer 1/12)

【Technique】: Ba Ji Fist Art (Become Proficient), Yang Family Spear Technique (Learnt the fundamentals)

【Art of War】: “Liu Tao” (Wu Tao Volume)

【Skills】: Advanced Collection, Intermediate Diplomacy, Advanced Scouting, Advanced Weapon Proficiency, Wild Beast Taming Technique (Basic)

【Mount】: Elite Qingfu horse (Platinum)

【Equipment】: Exquisite Composite Bow (Gold), Exquisite Iron Sword (Gold), Exquisite Iron Spear (Gold)

【Unique Items】: Talisman of Blood Thirsting, Talisman of Vitality, Talisman of Rapid Marching

The Chiyou blood essence was really amazing. Not only did it activate the war god talent but it also birthed an added specialty of magical god possession. Additionally, after training in the Yellow Emperor internal cultivation art, he had activated the internal force stat. The first layer of the Yellow Emperor internal cultivation technique had an upper limit of 100 internal force. Only after maxing out the internal force could he level up to the next layer.

The effects that it brought definitely wasn't only that. It not only added points to the bone structure and comprehension, but it also added points to acquired stats. Every increase in a layer was the same as an increase of 5 levels.

After dealing with the blood essence, Ouyang Shuo took out the last item, which was the wolf tooth necklace. There was a reason why Ouyang Shuo had risked getting the item.

[Wolf Tooth Necklace]: The Yellow Emperor's precious accessory. Has magical effects. Player please find out yourself.

The wolf necklace wasn't something that a player could equip, but a special item. In the last life, there were players who speculated about what would happen if one placed the precious accessory of the Yellow Emperor in the Ancestral Hall, and what changes would occur.

After all, the Yellow Emperor was the ancestor of humans. The Shanhai Town Ancestral Hall was a place to pray to and respect the Yellow Emperor. Unfortunately, that speculation had no chance or opportunity to be tested.

This time, Ouyang Shuo held a train attitude to test out this conjecture. That was the reason why after he received such a reward, he had further asked for a precious object. He was afraid that upon hearing his request, the Emperor would take back the books and leave him with nothing.

Luckily, the end result wasn't bad and could even be deemed perfect. The Yellow Emperor actually gave his necklace to Ouyang Shuo.

One must know that such an accessory had tremendous meaning during the wild era.

In the short trip back to the wild era, Ouyang Shuo realized that be it the two emperors, Chiyou, or even Mazu or Nuwa, they all wore similar accessories. On the other hand, normal people like Feng Hou and Limu didn't have the rights to wear such accessories.

One could see that such an accessory was the symbol of the royal family.

Ouyang Shuo really wanted to know what changes would occur if he placed the necklace that the Yellow Emperor had given him in the Ancestral Hall of Shanhai Town.

Unfortunately, it was already 6 PM, and there wasn’t enough time so he could only visit the Ancestral Hall tomorrow.

Ouyang Shuo walked out of the office and went into the backyard. After he greeted Yingyu and Qing'er, he returned to his room and went offline.

Chapter 145 - Upgrade Application

After going offline, Ouyang Shuo could finally heave a sigh of relief. Even though it had only been 2 days in reality, Ouyang Shuo had got on and offline numerous times thanks to the battle map, it was such a torture.

After sending Bing'er to school, the first thing Ouyang Shuo did when he went home was to sleep. Taking a nap, he slept till 3PM before waking up.

Ouyang Shuo made some simple snacks to fill his tummy before returning to his room and switching on his handbrain. He went on to the forums to see the latest developments in the game.

In the forums, the most popular posts were naturally about the Battle of Zhuolu that had just ended. As players who participated in the quest had often went offline, details about the quest had never stopped. Everything in the battle map, be it big or small, was revealed by the players.

In the Battle of Zhuolu, Ouyang Shuo and the Shanhai Alliance that he led had made it big. On the forums, nearly everyone supported Ouyang Shuo. The current Shanhai Alliance was the representative of the Chinese region.

Of course, it couldn't be stopped that Shanhai Town's secretive mask had been unveiled by the players, be it the mountain barbarian warriors wearing the infantry armour or the cavalry wearing the Mingguang armor and riding on the Qingfu horse, all of which were revealed to the world.

Especially the battle between General Shi and Chiyou, it shocked everyone. Shanhai Town having an emperor rank general was also spread to everyone.

All of this brought a large amount of pressure to the players in the Lianzhou basin. What’s worse was that they didn't know which part of the basin Shanhai Town was located in. The players who had some ambition upon learning about how strong Shanhai Town was, were so anxious that they couldn't fall asleep.

Before, however famous Shanhai Town was, they were all rumors. However this time was different. The revelation of Shanhai Town's army was real and was there for everyone to see.

The thought that a dragon was hiding near their base made the lord players in Lianzhou Basin shiver in fear.

On the forums, apart from the voices supporting Shanhai Alliance, there were also many that were insulting him.

Some people pointed out that Ouyang Shuo used his representative status to sabotage other players. They said he was scheming and unethical and wasn't good enough to be the leading figure of the Chinese region. The supporters of those statements weren't little, mostly those who had been negatively impacted in the battle map.

As for these statements, Ouyang Shuo just laughed it off.

Di Chen didn't look for a fight this time, not saying anything from start to finish.

Apart from news about the Battle of Zhuolu, Ouyang Shuo cared the most about the territory upgrade to rank 1 city. In the international servers, there were already players from other regions who had applied for an upgrade to rank 1 city.

However, till date there were no territories that had successfully passed the test and upgrade.

The earliest to apply was the Sanli town from the Japanese region. Honda Keisuke wanted to get recognition and snatch the rewards so under unprepared circumstances he had applied to upgrade.

Seeing the failure of Honda Keisuke, the other lords didn't dare to act rashly. One must know that failing the application would pretty much mean giving up the chance of being the very first city.

Ouyang Shuo was sure that as long as no lord had succeeded, Shanhai Town would have a chance. He made up his mind to apply for the upgrade the moment he went online that day.

After getting off the forums, Ouyang Shuo took the spare time to practice the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique in real life. Activating it in the game had already helped in grasping the technique and he could now practice it in reality. To prevent being interrupted, he switched off his phone and locked his door, completing closing himself off from the outside world.

When he started cultivating, the difficulty was much higher than he expected.

The first step was to hold one’s breath and focus, the second was to cut off all thoughts. In the game, players existed as a sort of a spiritual being, hence it was easy to get into that form. In reality, one thought about many things and was affected by the body, to get into such a state was not easy.

Luckily Ouyang Shuo's calmness and determination had grew recently. He tried to completely relax himself and not think about anything. When he completely let himself go, he followed the technique and rotated the chi around his body. 10 minutes later, a tiny thread of golden chi appeared in his dantian. Ouyang Shuo immediately moved it through his meridians and strengthened it using his internal strength. At the same time, his internal strength grew stronger as it regenerated.

After a whole cycle of rotating, the small strand of chi grew from a thin hair size to a size of a nylon string. Ouyang Shuo was more motivated to train harder and rotated 3 more cycles. At this time, his meridians were swelling, Ouyang Shuo didn't dare to be greedy and stopped. Seeing the 4 strands of chi in his dantian, he felt a sense of achievement. No one said that cultivation will get one hooked to it.

After stopping, Ouyang Shuo picked up his phone. It was actually 6PM already. Oh crap, Bing'er and Xiaoyue should be at home already and he still hadn't prepared dinner.

Ouyang Shuo pushed open the door and saw Bing'er watching cartoons in the living room and Xiaoyue getting busy in the kitchen.

"Brother, you are actually at home. Sister Xiaoyue called you and your phone was off." Bing'er was shocked when he saw Ouyang Shuo walk out from his room.

Ouyang Shuo walked beside the sofa and punched her cheeks, "Brother overslept."

"Oh." Bing'er didn't care and continued to watch her cartoons.

Ouyang Shuo walked into the kitchen and upon seeing Sun Xiaoyue getting busy in the kitchen, he said apologetically,"I’m sorry, I overslept in the afternoon."

Sun Xiaoyue didn't even turn around and said, "It's fine, you players that joined the battle map messed up your sleep cycles so obviously you need to make up for it. I only didn't expect that you could sleep so much, you slept a full day already."

Ouyang Shuo laughed in embarrassment, he couldn't exactly tell her that he was cultivating.

When eating, Ouyang Shuo cared for Sun Xiaoyue's progress in the game, "Xiaoyue, how's it going, how long will it take till you graduate?"

"Very quick, at most one week and I can graduate." Sun Xiaoyue said confidently.

"So fast?" Ouyang Shuo was amazed.

"That's expected. And I also made many friends in Dali, they didn't like fighting and killing so they chose working jobs."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, it seems like Xiaoyue really found her interest in the game. After dinner, Ouyang Shuo watched television together with Bing'er before returning to his room and logged into the game.

After going online, Ouyang Shuo first sent 200 gold to Xiaoyue anonymously before he forgets. Now and 3 months ago was totally different as Shanhai Town has enough resources, hence Ouyang Shuo sent more gold. Coincidentally Xiaoyue said she made some friends so having some extra gold at hand was not a bad idea.

Going back to his office, Ouyang Shuo ordered his clerk Bai Nanpu to inform the 4 directors and majors to open a military meeting at 3PM.

Ouyang Shuo made his way to the meeting room and softy mumbled about the territory upgrade application.

A white light shone across and in the middle of the meeting room, a golden stone Steele rose up from the ground. He placed his right hand on the Steele and a system notification sounded.

"System Notification: Checking if Shanhai Town meets upgrading conditions..."

"Condition 1: Population upper limit of 10 thousand reached!"

"Condition 2: All basic structures build. Conditions met!"

"Condition 3: Lord rank at least third rank earl, conditions met!"

"Condition 4: Politics, economy, culture and military, 4 indexes all no less than 45 points. Conditions met!"

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for meeting all requirements to apply for the upgrade, will you apply to upgrade?"

"Apply!"

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, 3 days later there will be a large scale raider attack on Shanhai Town. Please get ready."

What Ouyang Shuo didn't know was that when he submitted his application, Di Chen also did at the same time. Whoever would lose to the other, it wouldn't be known at such a time.

What was more helpless was because of the China region battle map, Ouyang Shuo had lacked behind other lords.

Apart from Sanli town that had already confirmed to have failed, Free Town from the USA and Bengalore Town from the India region had applied during these two days. As long as one succeeded, Shanhai Town would lose the right to be the first city in the world.

Contemplating too much had no benefits and all Ouyang Shuo can do now was to complete all his stuff on hand. Apart from praying that Free Village and Bengalore Village would fail, he had to be prepared to face enemies. If not, when the two towns failed and he also failed, then that would be a laughing stock.

At the end of the fourth month, after the Jifeng tribe surrendered, Shanhai Town did have a chance to apply. But Ouyang Shuo decided to give up in the end as he was not yet well prepared. Ouyang Shuo's trump card which was the chuanzi crossbow made by the Bow and Crossbow Division, they only had one, as such his mind wasn't at ease to upgrade.

Until the start of the fifth month, the 1 thousand elite mountain barbarians had finally been conscripted. What followed next was the Qingming Operation, to destroy the Tianling tribe and obtain Qingfu horses. After the operation, Ouyang Shuo had wanted to activate the upgrade but the battle quest came at the wrong time and destroyed his plans.

The Battle of Zhuolu cost Shanhai Town 300 elite soldiers. Originally, Ouyang Shuo wanted to wait for the new soldiers to replace them before applying. But Free Town and Bengalore Town application had once again disrupted his plans and he had no choice but to apply early.

Rushing so much, Ouyang Shuo himself didn't have confidence to be able to successfully upgrade.

Chapter 146 - Yellow Emperor Temple

Walking out of the meeting room, Ouyang Shuo remembered that he still had not dealt with the wolf tooth necklace. He immediately left the lord's manor and prepared to make a trip to the ancestral hall.

Normally when he went, the ancestral temple would be very cold. Apart from the miscellaneous service workers sent by the culture and education division, pretty much no one would walk into the ancestral hall.

The moment he walked into the ancestral hall, a notification sounded in his ear.

"System notification: Found that player Qiyue Wuyi has special item: wolf tooth necklace, the item is highly compatible with the ancestral hall, will you use it?"

"Use!"

A white light shone across, the wolf tooth necklace flew up from Ouyang Shuo's hand and slowly towards the Yellow Emperor statue. It hung itself across its neck. Instantly, a golden light shone and the statue looked like it had come alive, becoming very holy and sacred.

"System notification: Shanhai Town ancestral hall, after gaining Yellow Emperor's special item, is renamed Yellow Emperor temple. Stats massively increased, player please take a look."

It was as that player in the last life predicted. Getting the Yellow Emperor's special item would trigger a change in the ancestral hall. Such a huge change was something that the player probably did not imagine.

To have such a big chance, Ouyang Shuo predicted that it had something to do with the wolf tooth necklace. That was the representative item of the Yellow Emperor, naturally it was uncommon.

After the name change, the Yellow Emperor temple looked brand-new and took up 3-4 times more space. Along with the Mazu temple, both looked grand and majestic.

Ouyang Shuo quickly checked the statistics of the Yellow Emperor temple to see what surprises it would bring. Name: Yellow Emperor TempleType: Hidden buildingFunction: Raises resident satisfaction by 40%, Raises territory fame by 10%Specialty: Ancestor protection (Raises resident body condition by 50%)Evaluation: The Yellow Emperor temple has the reputation of "World’s first temple". It’s the main place where the Chinese people pray to their ancestor Xuanyuan, the Yellow Emperor.Compared to the sealed Mazu temple, the stats of the Yellow Emperor temple were much stronger. Its specialty let the body condition of residents rise by a large amount, a huge benefit to the military-oriented people. Ouyang Shuo couldn't imagine how much stronger the mountain barbarians would get after the buffs.

Walking out from the Yellow Emperor temple, Ouyang Shuo returned to the lord's manor once again and sent an alliance invitation to Feng Qiuhuang.

After the battle map, all the Shanhai Alliance members agreed to let her into the alliance. With that, the Shanhai Alliance became a lot stronger.

Because Ouyang Shuo sent out the alliance invitation as the leader, after she accepted, she automatically became a member and did not need to repeatedly ask the other members for permission.

After Fallen Phoenix Town was added into the Shanhai Alliance, the structure of the Shanhai Alliance would be settled, and they probably would not accept any new members unless in special circumstances. Ouyang Shuo's alliance goal had pretty much been reached. The next step was to wait for everyone to get online before he put his plans into play.

Of the six members of the Shanhai Alliance, Shanhai Town, Consonance Town, and Mulan Town were in the Dali region, Fallen Phoenix Town was in Luoyang region, and Xunlong Town and Black Tiger Town were located in the Quanzhou region. Adding all of them up, they formed a triangle.

The Battle of Zhuolu let all members of the alliance get to know each other better. After the battle ended, the members lacked a communication channel. Using pigeon letters was inconvenient as you could only send each one to one person, and so they were unable to communicate in groups.

A realization hit Ouyang Shuo as he opened the Shanhai Town working interface, spending 400 gold to open the alliance channel. With this, they could have a channel to chat on. As compared to the global channel, the alliance channel had a one time off fee. After opening, chatting was free and very convenient.

The alliance channel was similar to online chat groups, where players had to apply before they were added into the channel. Since the channel would be used for discussions with allies, he hoped that only the higher ups would be invited.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo invited Feng Qiuhuang, Bai Hua, Xunlong Dianxue, Mu Lanyue and Gong Chengshi, giving them the status of admin. With this they could bring in other lords.

After receiving his invitation, Bai Hua and the others quickly accepted and joined the channel.

"Ya, the alliance has its own channel, that's great." Mu Lanyue was the first to speak.

"We made Wuyi spend again." Feng Qiuhuang knew much about the alliance channel.

"Haha, I can finally talk to the few beauties." That was Gong Chengshi.

In the game channel, not only could you type, you could also communicate via voice, even video. No wonder Gong Chengshi was so excited.

The whole chatting channel was like the other interfaces in the game, a virtual screen which appeared in front of the player. Other players, including NPCs, wouldn't see the virtual screens.

Players could open or close this virtual screen using their thoughts.

"Brother is a hooligan." Mu Lanyue didn't give Gong Chengshi any face.

"Hooligan +1" Ouyang Shuo joined in the fun.

"Big brother, don't laugh at me like that." Gong Chengshi was hurt.

"You deserve it, who asked you to not be able to hide it?" Xunlong Dianxue said.

"Haha." The quiet goddess Bai Hua was still so quiet.

"Everyone can invite the core players from your territory into the channel." Ouyang Shuo said, in fear that Gong Chengshi would invite random people in.

"Great." Bai Hua said and invited Zi Luolan, Hong Ying and Tsing Yi into the channel.

Feng Qiuhuang too invited her trusted subordinates into the channel.

Ouyang Shuo frowned. The original alliance was 3 guys and 3 girls, which was quite balanced. Now with the two women squads, it broke the balance, and the alliance channel became a women majority camp.

Only the pervert Gong Chengshi blew wolf whistles in the channel without trying to cover up.Mu Lanyue and Xunlong Dianxue were the same as Ouyang Shuo and were solo players. Their whole territory only had them. Gong Chengshi's territory did have one player, who was his buddy. His ID was fat tiger. One didn't need to think, just by looking at the ID one could imagine how the brother looked like.

More than 10 players joining in made the channel boisterous.

Out of all these people, most hadn't met in the game. However, as they were from the same alliance and were all young, it was easy to communicate with one another.

What definitely couldn't be denied was that the 4 flowers of Consonance Town had a little competitive spirit along with the 5 from Fallen Phoenix Town. After all, both territories were highly similar: both were women-dominated and had the desire to climb. This was normal.

Before Fallen Phoenix Town joined Shanhai Alliance, Consonance Town had been in 2nd place within the alliance. After Fallen Phoenix Town joined in, however, whomever was 2nd in the alliance was hard to say.

Based on qualifications, Consonance Town was the first to ally with Shanhai Town, and compared to a newcomer like Fallen Phoenix Town, it was older. Even Ouyang Shuo becoming the leader was suggested by Bai Hua. If she hadn't chosen to give up, the alliance wouldn't have been born so easily.

Talking in terms of strength, after the Battle of Zhuolu, although Consonance Town was catching up to Fallen Phoenix Town, Fallen Phoenix Town’s background was much greater. Even if Feng Qiuhuang was magnanimous, her little sisters wouldn't be willing to give up the 2nd place in the alliance.

As for the battle between the two sides, as the leader, Ouyang Shuo decided to keep neutral.

Both Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang were smart people, so their competition would definitely be positive.

"Wuyi, when will Shanhai Town apply to upgrade? Based on what I know, Di Chen has already applied." While casually talking, Feng Qiuhuang suddenly asked.

The message system instantly quieted down. Obviously everyone was very curious of the answer to that question. As the leader of the Shanhai Alliance, Shanhai Town's achievements and position was connected to the position of the alliance in the Chinese region.

Ouyang Shuo didn't want to keep any secrets and said, "What a coincidence, I applied today too."

"Wa, it's going to be a battle." Mu Lanyue shrieked.

"What battle? The way I see it, Di Chen is totally not big brother's opponent." Gong Chengshi had a bad opinion of Di Chen, which everyone was aware of.

"Wuyi, do you have confidence?" Bai Hua asked with concern.

"About 80-90% confidence!" Ouyang Shuo didn't have the confidence to say he was a 100% sure.

"Good luck!" Xunlong Dianxue showed his support.

"Brother Wuyi, do you need us to arrange backup?" Jokes were jokes but at this crucial time, Mu Lanyue was very supportive of Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo laughed and shook his head. This stupid girl still hadn't understood the situation.

"Silly girl, upgrading the territory is something that allies cannot help with."

"I didn't apply before, so it's okay if I didn't know that." Mu Lanyue replied.

"I heard that the America and Indian regions already had territories who applied. The system test will be in two days." The quest-crazy Xunlong Dianxue was sensitive to information, more keen than others were.

"Let's let the heavens decide!" Ouyang Shuo said helplessly.

"Brother Wuyi is the best. They definitely wouldn't succeed." This was another one of Ouyang Shuo's worshippers: Qingluan from Fallen Phoenix Town.

"Haha!" Ouyang Shuo burst out in laughter.

Chapter 147 - The Triple-bow Acruballistas

3PM, Shanhai Town meeting hall.

Ouyang Shuo had called for a Shanhai Town military administration meeting. Those that joined the meeting were directors Fan Zhongyan, Tian Wenjing, Cui Yingyu, Ge Hongliang, military unit general General Shi, cavalry unit major Lin Yi, Beihai navy fleet commander Pei Donglai, Shanhai Town city protection unit major Zhao Sihu, and Clerk Bai Nanpu will be in charge of the notes.

Before the meeting started, Ouyang Shuo had already let Bai Nanpu inform the people in the meeting that the main issue of the meeting was on how they would face the raider's city attack on the 5th month 20th day, to ensure that Shanhai Town could upgrade smoothly.

Before discussing the specific strategies, Ouyang Shuo had firstly paid attention to the environment in Shanhai Town.

After the Qingming Operation, the nomadic tribes temporarily didn't have any movement, be it Khan Mengke from the Tian Qi tribe or Dariachi from the Tian Feng tribe, they were all people who were politically experienced, before they had investigated things clearly, they wouldn't make any moves.

The only change was that the Tian Feng tribe took control of the destroyed Tian Lian tribe's pasture. As for such a bandit like act, the Tian Qi tribe sent out a warning for them to return it but did not make any actual movement.

On the side of Beihai Town, as the second navy unit was built, the Beihai navy fleet had been preliminarily formed.

Pei Donglai gave up the role of the navy unit major role and became the commander of the Beihai navy fleet. The original navy unit first captain Zhang Zhoufeng became the first unit major. The second captain Zhang Youfang became the second unit major. The original 3rd squadron captain Zhang Lihai was not Pei Donglai's assistant.

Based on Ouyang Shuo's plan, the future Beihai navy fleet had a military organization. The two navy units were only twenty percent of a full Organization.

The pirate "Black Shark" from Moon Island, ever since he visited the area around Beihai Town and faced a nail, he had never done any further operations. Ouyang Shuo guessed that before he understands the strength of Beihai Town, he wouldn't dare to attack again.

Based on Pei Donglai's reaction, although Black Shark didn't make a large scale move, but in the outer area of Beihai Town, one could still see ships monitoring and scouting, they were probably his scouting ships. The pirates cared a lot about their face so this time when Blackbeard came but was forced to retreat, he had to get back his dignity and pride.

Pei Donglai didn't defend passively but instead made use of scouting operations and confirmed the location of Moon Island. There was even a time when he used the Mengchong warship to launch a sneak attack against the scout ship and from the captive prisoner, he gained information about Black Shark.

Pei Donglai was actually super confident and said that it's okay if he doesn't come, but if Black Shark came, he would definitely not be able to return. If it wasn't that they were lacking manpower, Pei Donglai would even want to attack Moon Island.

With the outside threats all temporary neutralized, Ouyang Shuo had even more confidence to face the upcoming raider city attack.

The reason why Ouyang Shuo was so confident to be able to defend was because of his greatest trump card, the bed crossbow built by the Bow and Crossbow Division after taking a look at the Song Dynasty bow and crossbow making manual.

Bei Song’s heavy bed crossbow had developed till he could put 3 composite bows combined on a frame, it was called “triple-bow acruballistas”, the arrow was the “wooden stick iron feather”, called “1 spear 3 sword arrow”, the arrow that was shot was as big as a spear, the 3 feathers were like 3 swords, flying up to 1500 metres. It was the weapon with the furthest range during the cold weapons era.

Apart from firing a solo giant arrow, the acruballistas could also fire dozens of small arrows at once, known as the frosty crow arrows. When attacking a city, it could also projectile stepping arrows which the invading warriors could use to climb the city walls. Hence, one could say that the acruballistas was the ultimate weapon for both attack and defence, the pinnacle of Song Dynasty bow and crossbow technology.

This weapon of mass killing, its difficulty to make was obvious. Till date, since the creation of the Bow and Crossbow Division, it had been 1.5 months, such a long time and they only made 2 of the triple-bow acruballistas. Apart from that, they also made 4 ordinary acruballistas.

The aiming and shooting of the bed crossbow must be controlled by a professional, huge strength must be used to pull the giant axe head shaped trigger. The soldiers that used the acruballistas was a specific type in the military, know as the “acruballistas crossbowman”.

Since the establishment of the Bow and Arrow Division, the Military Affairs Department had secretly selected and trained acruballistas crossbowmen, a total of 500 people. This 500 men were tasked with the 2 triple-bow acruballistas and the 4 ordinary acruballistas.

Ouyang Shuo specially named this group of men as the God Machine camp. The God Machine camp was a special unit in the Ming Dynasty that was in charge of firearms. The triple-bow acruballistas was like the big cannon out of firearms, from this, one could see the wishes he had on this force.

The major that the Military Affairs Department chose for the God Machine camp was called Wang Yuanfeng, 26 years old, he was a basic rank general. Based on combat power, Wang Yuanfeng probably couldn’t even compare to rank 7 elite soldier, but his familiarity with the bed crossbow was what no one could compare with. Not only did he know everything about the structure of the acruballistas, his specialty: precision, also made him the perfect choice to lead.

Name: Wang Yuanfeng (Silver rank)

Identity: Shanhai Town God Machine Camp Major

Identity: Basic General

Loyalty: 85

Command: 40

Force: 25

Intelligence: 20

Politics: 25

Specialty: Precision (raise the precision of weapon instruments by 50%)

Cultivation Technique: No

Equipment: Tang Sword, Leather Armor

Evaluation: Good at using various weapon instruments, especially bed crossbow and large sized weapon instruments

Only relying on the acruballistas and the God Machine Camp would definitely not stop the raider city invasion.

Based on the information revealed by players in the last life, the invading raiders numbered around 6 thousand men. Their type will depend on the environment, there may be raiders, bandits, mountain bandits or water bandits, everything was possible. Based on the environment around Shanhai Town, it should be a combination of raiders and water bandits.

All the army men in Shanhai Town, counting the God Machine unit and the Langshan protection unit in, they only totaled 5 thousand men. However he couldn’t move the protection unit as they still had to protect against attacks from the mountain barbarians. He also couldn’t move the entire Beihai navy fleet and needed to at least leave a unit, if not, Black Shark’s scouting ship may find something amiss and might launch an attack.

At Friendship Village, the cavalry unit could temporarily be moved back to the main town, but the city protection unit had to be left in the town, if not, the town would be there for the taking. Ouyang Shuo didn't have the confidence that he could deceive Dariachi that old fox. After moving the cavalry unit, Dariachi would definitely send men to investigate, if the city didn't have any protecting troops, he would not miss such an opportunity.

Qiushui Town’s city protection unit could be moved back to the main town to participate in the defence. He haven’t found any threat on the east side, he could relax as it was just for one day. On the side of the mountain barbarians, ever since the Ji Feng tribe was destroyed, peace was regained and there were no unusual situations occurring.

Counting everything except the God Machine unit, the total number was just 3000 men, only half of the attacking force. This was also after reinforcing the units after the 300 men died during the Battle of Zhuolu.

In the Battle of Zhuolu, Shanhai town lost 100 cavalry, 150 sword shield soldiers and 50 archers. It was easy to solve the problem with the cavalry, directly class changing from the backup unit.

As for sword shield soldiers and bowmen, it was very difficult, they had to choose from the mountain barbarian tribe. To train one archer who did not know the basics was impossible, hence he could only select from the hunters in the mountain barbarian tribes.

Helplessly, Ouyang Shuo could only take the advice of Ge Hongliang and directly move 200 men from the Shanlang protection unit and reinforce the dead squadrons. He then moved 200 men from the various tribes to the Shanlang protection unit. With this, he ensured the battle strength of the units and also didn’t need to worry about the Shanlang Protection unit.

The worst thing was that the Beihai Navy fleet could only battle in water regions, the cavalry weren’t suitable to defend the city, and could only act as a mobile strategic reserve force. Hence, those that could really participate in the city defence were the two infantry units and the two city defence units, a total of 2 thousand men.

Out of the 2 thousand men defending the city, there were only 700 archers, they were certainly in a disadvantage.

Based on the strength of Shanhai Town, to organise the troops was highly difficult and they were pushing it. One could see the difficulty of upgrading to a grade 1 city. In the last life, many lords didn’t dare apply even when they met the requirements, only after preparing well did they send the system application.

Under such circumstances, to expand the army in a snap was impossible.

The ratio between residents and military personnel had exceeded the 10% by a large margin and was already at 20%. If the military were to be expanded, it would have a destructive effect on the economy and finance. Most importantly, enlisting the strong and active youths was squeezing up the labor force of the territory. This would be the same as destroying the various growing industries.

Hence, when the military affairs director Ge Hongliang had suggested military expansion, Fan Zhongyan and Cui Yingyu resolutely declined.

Ouyang Shuo carried the attitude of losing now win later and rejected the suggestion.

One reason was the number of military personnel was too little. If one expanded the military, the standards would drop. Ouyang Shuo couldn’t accept the elite troops under his charge to fail him.

Second was that even if he expanded the military, the new soldiers were rookies and didn’t have any experience. Facing such a bloody battle like defending the city, it was hard to tell what kind of performance they will have.

Chapter 148 - Turnaround

When the suggestion from the Military Affairs Department was declined, the meeting entered a dilemma.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to break the stalemate and said, "Since the military is limited, we can only work with other avenues. No matter what, we are defending the city and have the home advantage. What's most important now is to increase the preparation of city defense resources like alchemical fire oil, rolling wood, and giant stones."

Ouyang Shuo turned and looked at Tian Wenjing and said, "The Material Reserves Department needs to contact the quarry and the logging camp to ask them to put down all the work at hand and focus on batches of rolling wood and giant stones, moving them above the city walls."

Tian Wenjing nodded in acknowledgment. In truth, when Shanhai Town's city wall was completed, the Material Reserves Department had already built a warehouse beside the wall to store rolling wood and giant stones.

When General Shi heard Ouyang Shuo mention the alchemical fire oil, he asked, "Sire, do we have to set up the alchemical fire oil formation?"

3 months ago during the siege of beasts, they used the alchemical fire oil formation which hammered in their victory. Hence, it left a lasting impression on General Shi.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. "The alchemical fire oil formation is too old school. It can be used on dumb beasts, but on raiders, we won't even have a chance to use it. The moment we use it, they will just retreat until the alchemical fire oil has been completely used before restarting the attack. They aren't as stupid as the beasts were.”

"Then what is sire's meaning?" General Shi asked in confusion.

Ouyang Shuo didn't want to keep them guessing and smiled. "If we want to use alchemical fire oil, apart from using the alchemical fire oil formation, there are more flexible methods. Among those is the alchemical fire oil cabinet."

"Alchemical fire oil cabinet?"

"That's right." Ouyang Shuo explained to everyone the theory and function of the alchemical fire oil cabinet.

The alchemical fire oil cabinet was one of the earliest flamethrower instruments in Chinese history. It used alchemical fire oil as fuel, and copper as the cabinet. It had 4 legs and 4 brass tubes. The tubes were connected to a pump that was perpendicular to them. All 4 tubes were connected to the oil cabinet where 1500 grams of oil would be injected. The front part of the pump would be a huolo which had gunpowder.

When firing, the huolo, which had fire embers, would ignite the gunpowder. Pulling and pushing the pump would compress the air in the cabinet and push out the oil through the huolo, igniting it into flames and burning everything in front of it.

Apart from that, there was another small sized variant flamethrower that could be used to defend cities and during water warfare, using a copper gourd to replace the oil cabinet for increased portability.

Fan Zhongyan, who was born during the Song Dynasty, had a deep understanding of the alchemical fire oil cabinet, saying worryingly, "Sire's idea is good, but we might not have enough time and enough gunpowder. This might not work."

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, You’re right. I don't wish to make many of them. After this meeting I'll buy an alchemical fire oil cabinet making manual from the market, and make the weapon workshop rush it. They should be able to make two of them before the raiders arrive. As for the problem with gunpowder, I think Zhu Daozhang or Magnus will have an idea on how to solve it. We only need a little gunpowder to ignite it, and they should have some stored up."

"Sire has thought this through. I respect sire."

Solving the issue with the city protection resources, Ouyang Shuo started to discuss the problem with logistical support.

In this raider city attack, they were aiming for the main town. Their attacks would come from the west and north. Since the north had the city protecting river, Ouyang Shuo predicted for most attacks to come from the west. To the east of Shanhai Town were many houses, so they had to shift these residents temporarily into the city to ensure their safety.

Ouyang Shuo placed the Administration Department in charge of this big project.

Apart from migration, having a civil team and a medical team was also very important. Comparing the siege of beasts to this raiders city attack was like comparing a small devil to a big devil. The civil and medical teams had to be set up early and trained. They also had to go up onto the city walls to practice, so this training couldn't be carelessly done.

This large project was handed to the Material Reserves Department.

After everything was arranged, Ouyang Shuo announced the end of the meeting. As for the specific strategies, they weren't suitable for discussion in that meeting, and they needed to hold a military meeting instead.

After the meeting, Ouyang Shuo called Yingyu into his office, and told him to contact Beihai Town to ask them to sell the sea salt from the first half of the 5th month. He wanted them to use the sum of money to change class for the soldiers.

After opening the alliance channel, the 4000 gold that he had gotten from the Langshan Mines now only had 140 gold left.

Luckily after the setting up of the Auditing Division, the salt from the Northern Saltworks didn't need shipping to the main camp to sell, and could sell under the supervision of the Auditing Division from Beihai Town's market. By tomorrow afternoon, the main camp would be able to get the gold from the sale.

After sending Yingyu away, Ouyang Shuo made a trip to the Advanced Market, and spent 20 gold to buy an alchemical fire oil cabinet making manual.

He spent 20 gold to buy a batch of alchemical fire oil.

It was already 6 PM when he returned to the Lord's Manor. He passed the alchemical fire oil cabinet making manual to the clerk, asked him to get it to the weapon workshop, and told him to tell Xu Kun to study it and try to start production tomorrow.

After giving his orders, Ouyang Shuo went to the backyard and went offline to rest.

……

The next day when he went online, Ouyang Shuo was nervous and couldn't calm himself down.

This was because Bengalore Town from the India region was undergoing the test today. All players in the world were quietly paying attention to the system notifications.

At that time, the one who was most nervous wasn't Ouyang Shuo, but Jack Dawson from the American region. His Free Town was going to take the test the next day, and if Bengalore Town succeeded, then it would be a huge miss for him.

Although Ouyang Shuo was really very anxious, he suppressed it and sat in the Lord's Manor with a calm expression.

The fighting machine of Shanhai Town had been switched on and was starting to work as planned.

Numerous rolling wood and giant stones were shipped from the quarries and the logging camps into the city. With the help of the civil team, they were carried onto the city walls.

The two infantry units to the west of the city had already left their camps and entered into the city. Under the leadership of the city defense unit, they got familiar with the various functions and facilities of the wall. As for the cavalry unit and the Qiushui Town city protection unit, they would enter tomorrow to minimize the risk to the affiliate territories.

The 5 Mengchong warships from the Beihai naval fleet first unit had already came into the valley, and were temporarily docked at the Shanhai Town Harbor. The Combat Logistics Division wanted to use this time to move the arrows onto the ships.

At the same time, arrows were also moved onto the city walls.

The triple-bow acruballistas had already been fixed onto the two sides of the west gate towers. The 4 ordinary acruballistas were fixed on the north gate towers. As for the soldiers of the god machine unit, under the leadership of Wang Yuanfeng, they were starting to adjust the configurations of every crossbow.

Shanhai Town had already published a warning that everyone who entered would be checked to prevent raiders from infiltrating early. Tomorrow, when all the residents had migrated into the city, there would be a travel ban where people could only enter the city and no one could leave.

The Security Division, under the leadership of secretary Li Tie, had increased the number of patrols and started to check everything.

Until 5 PM, there were no system notifications. Ouyang Shuo couldn't resist all this nervousness, and after instructing his men, he went offline early.

After going offline, Ouyang Shuo didn't leave the room and instead switched on the handbrain, logging onto the forums.

Expectedly, the India sub-forums were very boisterous with various rumors and news spreading around.

"Bangalore Town is about to succeed, wave to the first city lord Durava."

"Bengalore Town fails the defense, dropping out of the race for first city!"

"Raiders were like water. Did Durava prepare enough!!!"

"The last wave, whether Bengalore Town can succeed depends on this!"

"Raiders are too crafty, they actually use tunnels to break the defensive line!!"

At that moment, Ouyang Shuo was able to relax. He didn't bother about all this news and started practicing the Yellow Emperor internal cultivation technique in his room.

After two days of cultivation, there were already 8 strands of internal chi in his dantian. When he went online, Ouyang Shuo confirmed that one strand of chi represented one point of internal strength.

He could cultivate once a day, rotate 4 cycles, and produce 4 strands of chi. So in normal circumstances he would need 25 days to reach the maximum of 100 for the first layer. Through this, one could see the difficulty of an emperor level cultivation technique. One should know that this was only the first layer.

2 hours later, Ouyang Shuo finally stopped.

At this time, whether Bengalore Town succeeded or not should’ve had definite news.

Ouyang Shuo went into the forums and the top post in the India sub-forum was a giant red title: ‘Bengalore Town fails, Durava's dream for first has broken’.

Ouyang Shuo sighed in relief. Shanhai Town could finally turn around everything. The only thing stopping him was Free Town, which was taking the test tomorrow.

Chapter 149 - Defensive Region

On the forums, the specific details of the defense were revealed by players.

Bengalore Town had also built high city walls. The difference was that theirs were built with yellow dirt as a foundation and only covered with a layer of brick, unlike Shanhai Town’s, which used stone.

The number of soldiers who participated in the defense for Bengalore Town was 2000. There were a total of 6200 raiders, 3 times the number of the defensive forces.

Unlike Shanhai Town which had only 3 city gates, Bengalore Town had the normal standard of 4. Hence, their defensive quest was harder than Shanhai Town’s. The raiders were crafty. Not only did they attack 3 sides and exclude one, they also attacked at the same time.

In the afternoon, the raiders only did a scouting attack, averaging it out on 3 sides. Durava was confused by their tactic and made use of the rest time to rearrange the defense, arranging the defensive strengths of the three sides in a very balanced manner.

When they attacked in the afternoon, the ferocity and killing intent of the raiders started to show. On the surface the number of raiders were similar to that of the morning, 2 thousand men per gate. In truth, the raiders had rearranged their troops, placing the basic raiders at the east and west directions and all their elites in one direction to focus on attacking the north gate.

With this, the north gate was in an emergency. When he found out about their plan, the three sides had already begun to engage. If he rushed to shift some men around, it would give the raiders an opportunity. Helplessly he could only grit his teeth and wish that the north gate could hold on until the other two gates could support them.

Unfortunately, after an afternoon of intense battle under the attack of the elite raiders, Bengalore Town's north gate failed to defend. Once it fell, like a chain reaction the entire town fell into a state of emergency, and not long after was overrun by the raiders.

After successfully attacking the town, they didn't engage in mass killing but just raided and stole stuff. This was planned by the system to give the lords who failed a chance to fight back and survive.

Strictly speaking, Durava's planning was acceptable, and he didn't make any major mistakes. Unfortunately, he couldn't beat their trickery, and as such faced defeat.

This failure meant that Bengalore Town needed at least half a month to regain their strength.

After two successive failures, it rang the alarm bells of all the players. No territory would apply without any preparation and just hope to pass.

Hearing that Bengalore Town had failed, Di Chen had a bad premonition that his Handan Town, which was worse defensively than Bengalore Town, didn't have a chance of succeeding. Di Chen regretted his act of defiance and show of pride. Unfortunately, when you released the bow, you couldn't collect back the arrow.

Di Chen could only lead his Handan Town and hope for the best.

After Bengalore Town failed, everyone's eyes turned to the American region's Free Town. Jack Dawson was very confident and bragged that he wouldn’t make the same mistakes and take the honor of the world's first city.

To show his confidence, he proclaimed that he would arrange professionals to live stream his defense on the forums for everyone to watch.

Ouyang Shuo smiled. That American really was confident. He respected his confidence. As a lord, one should have such pride.

It seemed like there would be a good show to see tomorrow. Jack being so confident must mean that he had a secret weapon. That American wasn't a stupid fool.

Ouyang Shuo remembered clearly that the honor of the first city was taken by Free Town, only that he was slightly later than this.

Probably the appearance of Shanhai Town gave Jack pressure. Knowing that the Chinese region had a battle quest, he applied to upgrade without hesitation.

Jack was sure that once the battle ended, Shanhai Town would apply for the upgrade. After failing to be the first town, he didn't want to lose the first city glory too.

……

May 19th.

Ouyang Shuo went online on time.

In the morning, the cavalry unit stationed at Friendship Town and the Qiushui Town protection unit left their camps and entered the main camp. Although there was a sudden increase of 2000 people, the advanced barracks wasn't too compact. When he made the inner city barracks, he had done so with plans for future guards before building it.

When the two units crossed the river, the 3 ferries of the towns started to get to work. The Transport Division kept all the ships in the towns in case the raiders used them to cross the river.

With this, unless they had scouted earlier and found out about the defensive condition of Shanhai Town and knew that they had a city protection river, they wouldn’t bother to bring high numbers of ships. If not, this pretty much meant that they wouldn't have a large scale attack on the east and north gates.

Since all the units were in place, Ouyang Shuo called all the generals and had a simple meeting to arrange the various defensive regions of each unit.

After the discussion, it was decided that the Shanhai Town’s city protection unit was in charge of the western region, the Qiushui Town city protection unit, apart from the cavalry squadron, would be in charge of the northern region, and the 500 reserve force would be in charge of the eastern region.

The cavalry unit and the cavalry squadron from the Qiushui Town city protection unit were to act as a mobile strike force to be at the west gate to attack at any moment.

As for the two infantry units, the first infantry unit and 2 squadrons from the 2nd unit were sent up along the western city walls to help the Shanhai Town city protection unit defend. The remaining 3 squadrons from the 2nd unit were stationed at the west gate to help the Qiushui Town city protection unit defend.

One could see that the west gate was the main defensive direction, as a total of 1800 men were stationed there. The mass killing devices, the triple-bow acruballistas and the alchemical fire oil cabinet, were placed at the west gate.

Comparatively, the north gate was weaker with only 700 men.

One reason for this was that the space outside the north gate was limited, and secondly it had the protection of the city protection river. Even if the raiders wanted to play tricks and go across the river, they would lose a lot. Hence, Ouyang Shuo was not worried at all.

Apart from that, the 1st unit from the Beihai naval fleet would leave early in the morning the next day and go towards the Friendship River. If raiders wanted to get past the water to attack, then they would have made the wrong decision, and the naval fleet would destroy them.

As for the east, the raiders wouldn't be so stupid to make such a big loop around to attack. If it were like that, the 500 reserve soldiers would be able to hold up until reinforcements arrived. The area around the east gate was also cut in half by the city protection river, so it was actually a death ground and not suitable for attacking.

The only weakness of the east gate was that enemies would attack from the sea, cross the valley, and then come onto land to fight. They might even use small sized ships to go down the city protection river and drive the boats to the east gate, using the boats as cover to shoot at the city protection squad with arrows.

These kinds of situations were impossible, as the 2nd Beihai navy fleet unit wasn't useless. They were stationed at the sea’s entrance, and if one wanted to go into the valley, they had to break through the naval fleet's defences.

At this time one could see the advantages of Ouyang Shuo choosing such a spot to set up the village. With the back facing the mountains, one didn't need to bother about defending that and it solved the problem of defending the east. A large river blocked the north and east, solving the threat from the east and largely weakening the threat from the north.

With such unique advantages, only Shanhai Town could protect their west gate with most of their troops.

At 10 AM in the morning, the residents living outside the city were assigned living quarters by the Administration Department. All the residents were temporarily housed in the residential region of the city and assigned to various houses and families. The Financial Department gave financial help and benefits to the residents that took them in.

Such an arrangement was to prevent these migrants from setting up tents, affecting the safety and order of the city and making it harder for the Security Division to do their work. Secondly, this made it easier to monitor the migrants to prevent raiders from infiltrating within.

The day before, the Administration Department had told every resident that they had the responsibility to monitor everyone in the city. Once they found something suspicious, they must report it. If they knew something and didn't report, they would be punished by the Procuratorate Division.

Ouyang Shuo made use of the power of the masses to restrict the entry of raiders.

At 3PM in the afternoon, the last batch of residents had entered the city. The Military Affairs Department ordered to lock the city gates, and people were only allowed to enter and not leave.

At 4PM in the afternoon, Beihai Town sent the earnings of the Beimu saltpans for the first half of the month.

At the latter part of the April, the prisoners from Jifeng tribe had been sent to Beimu saltpans, and it had already been expanded to 10 thousand acres. Hence in only half a month, the saltpans earned 3600, similar to the entire April's earnings.

The class change of 100 cavalry and 200 infantry cost a total of 250 gold.

Ouyang Shuo kept 2000 gold on him and gave 1350 into the Four Seas bank. Because of the territory’s expansion and the setting up of branches in the affiliate territories, the funds prepared by the Four Seas bank was too little. If it wasn't for the Financial Department putting the money that they held into the Four Seas bank, the territories probably would not have been able to hold on.

At 5PM, the weapon workshop finally had good news. After 2 days of overtime, the weapon workshop had finally made 2 alchemical fire oil cabinets. These 2 were placed at the west gate by Ouyang Shuo.

Chapter 150 - Dawn

After finishing with the arrangements of Shanhai Town, Ouyang Shuo still didn't hear any world notifications. This meant that Free Town, from the American region, either failed their test or that they were still in a heated battle with the raiders.

Ouyang Shuo found General Shi and Zhao Sihu, instructing them to increase night patrols. Then he immediately went offline to understand the situation with Free Town.

After going offline, Ouyang Shuo logged onto the forums and accessed the American sub-forums.

What made him nervous was that on the forums there was no news that Free Town had failed, which meant that they were still in battle.

Dawson had actually stuck to his promise and opened a livestream on the forums. However, because of the need to keep secrets, the livestream only had words and pictures, but not video.

As expected, Gaia was amazing and actually was able to translate the livestream into many languages instantly. Although it had been a while since the federal government was set up, the two main languages, English and Chinese, were still kept.

Ouyang Shuo chose Chinese and started to understand the defensive situation of Free Town.

The post started by introducing their basic situation and gave a map of Free Town. From the map, one could see that the city walls of Free Town followed that of an old western castle.

This castle was basically a normal stronghold, but instead of having parts that stuck out, it had parts that caved in. This change would mean that no matter which direction one attacked the castle from, they would be exposed to more than one side of the castle, and the defending forces could attack them from many directions. Purely from the design of the city walls, one could see that Free Town wasn't simple.

There were 2500 troops from Free Town that participated in the defense. The invading raiders numbered 6500, 300 more than the ones that attacked Bengalore Town. From the ratio of attackers to defenders, Free Town had a slight advantage compared to Bengalore Town.

The secret weapon of Free Town was on display in this battle, a 16th-century European gun. The specific name was the trigger-firing arquebus. This gun was a musket where gunpowder was loaded in the front, and its effective range was 50-80 meters.

Compared to the rifles in later centuries, the trigger firing arquebus had a big weakness. As the soldiers had to do 6 steps while loading the gunpowder and preparing to fire, it used up a lot of time and they couldn't do any hidden attacks. The barrel was too big, the gun was too long, the range was too short, the accuracy was too bad, and when they got into the shooting stance, sometimes they would need a pole to support the weight of the gun.

Although they had such a weakness, compared to the cold weapons era, the trigger-firing arquebus was still a strong new weapon. With the castle and the gun, no wonder Dawson would have so much confidence.

Unfortunately, the raiders were strong and crafty, and in the end they still gave him a slap in the face. The system wasn't a fool, as the technological tree would also be different in each region due to the differences in history.

Jack thought that his guns were unique, but he didn't expect that the attacking raiders had actually assembled guns and equipped their cavalry with them.

Hence, the balance of the battle was now equal. The balanced powers of both sides fought hard from 8 AM to 5 PM, and still no winner had been decided.

The system had it set up so that as long as the territory could defend for a full 12 hours, even if they didn't beat the raiders, they would automatically be deemed the winner.

Which meant that if Free Town survived for another 3 hours, they could successfully upgrade. Unfortunately, the raiders were still smart and had tricks up their sleeves. After 10 hours of trying and testing, they finally found the weakness of Free Town. This weakness wasn't the design of the city walls, but it was that they weren't well prepared and had a lack of manpower.

The strength of the castle was obvious. For one to utilize it, however, one must have a high number of defending forces. It was obvious that the number of troops Free Town had wasn’t enough for the castle.

It wasn't that Jack didn't know about the hole in his defenses,]. However, he held on to the hope that the raiders would not find out.

Unfortunately, their craftiness and wits were far greater than he had imagined. The leader of the raiders was very courageous, and when he found a weakness he would attack it, not giving the enemy any time to catch their breath.

Finally, before the sky turned dark, the raiders had successfully broken through the town and ended Free Town's dream to be the first city in the world.

Quitting the forums, Ouyang Shuo felt lucky but also rattled. It was lucky that Shanhai Town had the chance to get the glory of being the first city, and now the obstructions in front of him were gone.

He was rattled that such a strong defense like Free Town’s couldn't stop the raiders. Could Shanhai Town succeed tomorrow? The preparation that he thought was enough might not actually be so. Looking at the attacks on Free Town and Bengalore Town, the raiders were too crafty and wouldn't make logical moves.

After he calmed himself down, he walked out of his room and went for a run.

When he brought breakfast home, Sun Xiaoyue had just finished washing up. The Free Town battle was so intense that even the working class like Xiaoyue had heard news about it.

Sun Xiaoyue walked to the dining table, took up a youtiao, and bit into it. "I heard that Free Town from The American region failed."

Ouyang Shuo, who wasn't paying much attention, gave a nod and continued eating his bun.

"Oi, I'm talking to you, did you hear me?" Sun Xiaoyue was unhappy with Ouyang Shuo's response.

Ouyang Shuo nodded like a chick pecking at rice and said, "I'm listening, I’m listening."

"Hen! No sincerity!"

Ouyang Shuo helplessly raised his head. "Big sister, the American region has nothing to do with us, what are you worrying about? So what if they failed?"

"Aren't you a lord? If you don't even care about this, is it that your level is too low and that you’re too far away from upgrading?" Sun Xiaoyue didn't back down.

"Yup, I'm millions of miles away." Ouyang Shuo decided to give in.

"You…" Sun Xiaoyue was furious and didn't know what to say.

Luckily at this point, Bing'er had woken up. The little brat rubbed her eyes and muttered, "Bad brother, what are you two talking about? You woke me up."

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and said, "Baby, it's time to wake up. Go wash up, and after breakfast I'll bring you to school."

"En." The little brat nodded and went to the washroom.

After the quarrel, both Ouyang Shuo and Sun Xiaoyue didn't raise the topic again and ate their meals quietly.

On the way to school, Bing'Er suddenly pulled Ouyang Shuo's hand and asked, "Brother, did you fight with sister Xiaoyue?"

Ouyang Shuo was stunned. This little brat was so caring that it touched him. He rubbed her head and said lovingly, "It's okay, I was just grumbling. When I return, I will apologize to her, okay?"

"En." The little brat immediately brightened up and said, "Brother is a man. You should be more magnanimous."

Ouyang Shuo touched her forehead and laughed.

The little brat giggled and didn't reply. A feeling of warmth filled his heart, and whatever lofty goals he had couldn't be compared to her smile.

Ouyang Shuo suddenly bent down and said, "Come, I'll carry you to school."

"Ya!" Bing'Er suddenly got energetic, leapt up, and grabbed onto Ouyang Shuo's back, her cheeks showing happiness and bliss.

When Ouyang Shuo returned home, he saw Sun Xiaoyue laying on the sofa and browsing a magazine. As it was at home, she was wearing very casual clothes, a white t-shirt with a cartoon and short slim-fit pants, displaying her long white legs in front of Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo had already seen this kind of scene many times and it had become a norm. He asked casually, "You have no lesson today?"

Sun Xiaoyue was still unhappy and said lazily, "En, I only have a lesson in the afternoon."

"I’m sorry for the thing in the morning." Ouyang Shuo took the initiative to apologize.

Sun Xiaoyue was stunned and finally raise her head, her facial expression turning warm instantly. "It's okay I forgive you. You have been thinking about something, are you okay?"

Ouyang Shuo waved it off and said, "It's nothing, don't worry, I'll handle it."

Sun Xiaoyue didn't continue to ask and continued to focus on her magazine, muttering, "Machismo."

Ouyang Shuo did not care about Xiaoyue muttering, went back into his room, and started cultivating the Yellow Emperor internal cultivation technique.

In the afternoon, to express his apology, Ouyang Shuo specially made a few good dishes. Sun Xiaoyue was left with a face full of satisfaction, the anger and unhappiness from the morning was wiped away, and she went for her lessons.

At night, when Bing'Er returned home and saw that her Brother and Xiaoyue had made up, she felt delighted. When having dinner, she specially brought her bowl beside her brother and sat close to him.

Ouyang Shuo naturally saw through her intentions, this little brat was showing support for her brother.

Ouyang Shuo picked up a piece of spare ribs and placed it in Bing'Er's bowl, and laughed." Baby, eat more."

"En, thank you brother." The little brat said sweetly.

The understanding between the two was certainly the target of envy of many.

After dinner, Ouyang Shuo didn't waste any time, returned to his room, and went online.

Chapter 151 - Raider’s City Attack (Part 1)

Gaia. First year May 20th day, Shanhai Town

When the first light of the morning shone onto Shanhai Town, the sleeping war monster had been awoken and bared its fangs at the quiet wilderness.

The first unit from the Beihai navy fleet had set out to the point where the city protection river and the Friendship river met, blocking this important river point to prevent the water bandits from making sneak attacks from the river.

The warriors from the various units under the leadership of their majors had went to their various defensive regions. They knew that a tough war was awaiting them.

In the backyard of the lord's manor, Qing'er was anxiously pacing around, a large difference from her usual calmness. "Sister, do you think brother can stop the raider's attack?"

Yingyu sat in the pavilion, picking up the tea that Siqin at just brewed and took a sip, saying calmly, "He definitely can. When has brother failed before?"

In truth, Yingyu was also equally nervous, but as the older sister, she couldn't show it.

"En, but I'm still a little nervous. That stupid brother actually banned us from going out." On the surface Qing Er was grumbling, but deep down she was touched by his actions.

This raider’s attack was much worse than the siege of beasts. If the city walls were breached, then Shanhai Town would be raided. For safety reasons, Ouyang Shuo didn't give them anything to do and let them stay safely in the manor.

Ouyang Shuo had greeted Lin Yue from the dojo and let him bring his disciples to stay in the manor temporarily and act as Guards.

At 7:30 in the morning, Feng Qiuhuang, Bai Hua, Xunlong Dianxue, Mu Lanyue and Siege Lion appeared at the Shanhai Town teleportation portal.

Ouyang Shuo was fully equipped and went to welcome them. Their visit to Shanhai Town was to spectate and watch the defence to prepare and gain experience for their own town upgrade.

The reason why the 5 of them could come together was due to Mu Lanyue.

She got the news that Shanhai Town was going to welcome the raider’s attack and nagged on the alliance channel that she wanted to join in on the fun.

After all, she was young, innocent, and cute, so she didn't put much thought into her words or whether or not it'd create problems for Ouyang Shuo. As for Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang, they would definitely not make such a request.

Ouyang Shuo admired her straightforward nature, and after little consideration he agreed. Since he allowed Mu Lanyue, he also allowed the others to come too.

Out of the 5, only Feng Qiuhuang had not been to Shanhai Town. Only now it was a state of emergency and there was no time to bring her around to tour.

Leaving the teleportation formation, Ouyang Shuo brought them up the city tower on the west side. General Shi and deputy general Zhao Sihu, who were in charge of the defence, had already reached there.

The lord flag of Shanhai Town was fluttering in the wind. The golden dragon glistened and shined under the sunlight. All the members of Shanhai Town were united under this flag to defend their territory.

At 8AM, from the sentry from afar, smoke rose. Everyone knew that the raiders were coming.

In Ouyang Shuo's ear sounded the system notification.

"System notification: Shanhai Town’s raider city attack test officially begins. The number of raiders attacking is a total of 6700. player Qiyue Wuyi, please get ready for battle."

Ouyang Shuo scolded in his heart, 6700 men, so higher than Free Town by 200 men. How did the system decide, was it because Shanhai Town had destroyed many raider camps so they arranged so many raiders? Such a headache.

The raider army strolled forwards and appeared on the western plains. When they were 3 kilometres away from the city, they stopped and started to set up camp.

There were a total of 3 leaders leading the 6700 raiders. The main leader was Huoda, commanding 2000 elites and 3000 normal raiders, all of which were infantry. Heiqi was another leader, who led 1000 elite raiders, all of which were cavalry. The third was Huoliu, who led 700 water bandits.

The ones that appeared to the west were Huoda and Heiqi. As for the third leader Huoliu, he led his 700 water bandits and went south to the Friendship river.

After setting up camp, Heiqi went to Huoda's tent and asked, "Big Brother, how will we fight this fight?"

Huoda was a middle aged man, approximately 35 years old. He looked very demure, nothing like the leader of the raiders. Only the brothers in the raider camp knew how brutal and fierce this guy was.

Huoda frowned. "You see for yourself that this town is not simple. Not only do they have high walls, but they even dug a city protection river."

Heiqi nodded. "That's right, I went around and found that we can only attack from the west. As for the other directions, they are really difficult. I think that the enemy must be really confident and increased his defences here. To take the town down smoothly will be very difficult."

Huoda shook his head and said. "In the art of war, a disadvantage is an advantage. Since the enemy has such an arrangement, we do not need to think and focus all our forces on their west gate. I don't believe that our 6000 brothers can't take down a stupid gate."

"Big brother is wise!"

"Additionally, give your orders that apart from assembling the siege weapons, take a portion of the men to the city protection river to start building a floating bridge." Huoda said.

Heiqi had a face filled with questions and asked. "Big brother, I thought you said to focus our forces to attack the west gate? Why are we sending men to build a floating bridge?"

Huoda laughed mysteriously. "As soldiers we need to be sly, making the fake look real and the real look fake. We do want to focus on attacking the west gate, but we can't let them see through our intentions. When they see us building the bridge, they will start to set up defenses at the north wall. With that, we can draw away a portion of their forces."

Heiqi had a face full of respect and said, "Big brother is wise. Okay, i will spread the orders."

Huoda waved him away and laughed. "Go."

Outside the tent, the raiders had started to assemble to siege weapons that they’d brought including ladders, catapults and battering rams.

If Ouyang Shuo saw all these, he would be shocked. The system is such a cheat. How could raiders have such specialised siege weapons.

Firstly, the ladder wasn't a simple wooden ladder. The ladder assembled by them had wheels and could be pushed. It had shields, a crane, hooks, etc.

The catapult was a killing weapon in a siege. The ones that the raiders assembled weren't the primitive ones that needed over 10 people to pull the string before they could toss the stone. It had its own weights such that when tossing, one only needed to pull one end, load, and then release. As the load sank, the stone would fly forwards.

The war began, but the west of Shanhai Town was still very peaceful. The bandits took their time to prepare and weren't rushing to attack.

The earliest violence happened at the Friendship river.

The third leader Huoliu had led 700 water bandits on 10 over war boats and flowed down the river. When it travelled to the intersection between the Friendship river and the city protection river, it met with the Beihai naval fleet.

The 5 Mengchong warships of the fleet used a 1-2-2 formation and defended the Friendship river, locking it completely. Pei Donglai's flagship was the farthest in front. Seeing the water bandits, he didn't hesitate and immediately ordered them to strike.

In an era when warships didn't have gunpowder and cannons, there weren't many ways of fighting. It was either the archers just shooting at one another or side battles where soldiers jumped onto each other's ships and fought.

Ever since the bow and crossbow division was set up, the bows and crossbows in the Shanhai Town army were far better than those used by the raiders. Hence, using their range advantage, before the water bandits could react, the Beihai naval fleet had attacked. A rain of arrows flew towards the water bandits' warships.

The water bandit's ships were only basic ships and didn't have high defence. They were mostly exposed and didn't have any shelter. Hence after a few rounds of arrows, the water bandits were badly damaged.

Huo Liu was also a courageous guy. Facing the attacks, instead of retreating he ventured forth, ordering the ships to speed up and close the distance to counterattack.

These water bandits were all vicious and charged forwards towards the Beihai naval fleet.

Pei Donglai had lived in the water stronghold for a long time, and many of the troops in the Beihai naval fleet were prisoners from the water stronghold. They naturally had a good understanding towards water bandits.

Facing the charging water bandits, Pei Donglai didn't panic and ordered his troops to continue shooting. When the distance was going to reach the water bandit's shooting range, he ordered the ships to speed ahead.

Af this time, the advantage of the Mengchong warships showed. Before the water bandits could react, they were already in front of them.

The strong and hard Mengchong warships smashed the water bandits’ ships into pieces. While they were in panic, Pei Donglai ordered the troops to start the side battles.

The soldiers in the Beihai naval fleet were class changed from water bandits. After training and battles, they were levels higher than the water bandits were. One Mengchong warship could carry over 100 navy soldiers, while one water bandits’ warship could only carry 60 water bandits.

Hence, in the side warfare, be it quantity or quality, Beihai naval fleet had the advantage.

The Friendship river was only 35 meters wide, and you couldn't place too many warships on it. Hence, although the bandits held the advantage in the number of ships, the number that could fight against the Beihai naval fleet at any one time wasn't too high.

In less than half an hour, the Beihai naval fleet had destroyed the 5 warships of the water bandits that were closest to the front. The water bandits at the back upon seeing that the situation wasn't good, turned around and ran for their lives.

Pei Donglai didn't order them to chase and instead ordered them to clean up the 5 warships that had been destroyed.

Chapter 152 - Raider City Attack (Part 2)

Ouyang Shuo stood on the west city tower and looked towards the north sky where 3 signal bullets were shot up, heaving a sigh of relief. Based on a rule in Shanhai Town army, 3 signal bullets meant that they encountered an enemy and smoothly forced them away.

Huoda's mood wasn't as relaxed as Ouyang Shuo’s. The water bandits that escaped didn't dare to really disappear and instead sent people up to the shore to report to their main leader.

When he received the news, it was already 10 AM. At that time, all the sieging weapons were already assembled, and even the floating bridge that was meant as a hoax had been done.

At that time, to suddenly get the news that the water army had lost and that even his brother Huo Liu had been captured as a prisoner, this made him furious and kill the messenger on the spot.

Originally he wanted to coordinate with the water bandits to divert more of Shanhai Town's defences, but who would’ve thought that they were well-prepared and had a proper navy.

There was no point in waiting any longer. Huoda made the decision to launch a full-scale attack on the west gate.

Every side of Shanhai Town was 3 km long, and based on the average of every soldier taking up one meter, in theory it could have a row of 3 thousand men. 6 thousand raiders could only form two rows.

Of course wars weren't fought like that, and Huoda wouldn’t stupidly spread out his attacking forces. Facing a stone wall, the only way to breakthrough was to attack the gate.

3000 basic raiders were placed at the front to waste and use up the defensive resources of Shanhai Town, paving the way for the 2 thousand elite soldiers in the back.

As for the 1000 cavalrymen led by Heiqi, they couldn't play much of a part in attacking the city, and were sent to the wings to protect the forces.

Facing the raiders that charged forwards, the archers on top of the city walls started firing. Unfortunately, they only had 2 bowmen and 2 crossbowmen squadrons, so their numbers were too little and their killing ability too small.

One round of firing could cause at most 200 casualties. After 3 rounds, the raiders had already reached the walls and at that time, the archers amongst the elite raiders started to retaliate.

To make up for the deficit, the raiders assembled a movable arrow tower. The elite raiders stood on top of the tower and fired towards the wall. Hence, archers on both sides fired at each other to get rid of the long range threat from each side.

The 3000 raiders leading the charge obviously weren't empty-handed. The 15 assembled ladders were pushed onto the city walls. Once they were able to hook onto the wall, the raiders hiding below them could quickly climb onto the wall.

General Shi, who was in charge of the defense, upon finding out about the ladders, ordered 800 sword shield soldiers to re-organize their defensive region and arranged 50 men around every ladder. The last 50 were reserves to be prepared to assist any defensive region.

The large amounts of rolling wood and giant stones were thrown down by the soldiers. Each strike would cause many deaths, and this prevented the raiders from being able to climb up the walls.

At the same time, in the back lines of the raiders, 5 catapults were in position and had started to toss stone balls. The giant stone balls smashed into the walls, and the soldiers that were hit instantly became piles of meat paste.

Seeing the brutal scene, Mu Lanyue couldn't handle it, going into the resting room in the tower to take a break.

Seeing the city protection soldiers at a disadvantage, the god machine unit started to show their strength. The two 3 bow 8 cow bed crossbows started to aim at the 5 catapults under Wang Fengyuan's orders. After a round of arrows, the raiders who were using the catapult were shot down.

In less than half an hour, the 5 catapults were completely controlled by the god machine unit, as no one who wasn't afraid of dying dared to use the catapults.

Seeing the god machine unit at work, the group looked in awe towards Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. "That is the triple-bow acruballistas, and it's the strongest bed crossbow recorded in the Song Dynasty bow and crossbow making manual that I got from the auction. Don't look at me like that. Although it's powerful, it's also hard to make. Since we got the manual, we’ve only been able to make two."

Bai Hua smiled and said, "Wuyi, since Consonance Town is still a period away from upgrading, and since there's still a little time, you must sell two to me."

"Let's talk about this next time." Ouyang Shuo didn't dare to make promises.

"Wuyi, you must be fair, okay?" Feng Qiuhuang added.

"Qiuhuang, you don't need to think about it. Your town is so close to upgrading so there isn't enough time." Ouyang Shuo quickly expressed his feelings.

Only Xunlong Dianxue and Siege Lion kept quiet. Their territories were quite far away from upgrading and they didn't need to worry just yet.

Huoda, who was in the back lines, frowned as he saw his catapults being suppressed. "Who knows what they’re using that have such range?"

One raider walked out and said without confidence, "I heard there was something called a bed crossbow in the military, which was a weapon good for defense, maybe this is it?"

Huoda nodded and said, "I'm 80% sure it is. Seems like the enemy is a tough rock to crack."

"Then what should we do?"

"Send 1000 elites. We must pressure them." Huoda ordered.

"Yes!"

Although they successfully got rid of the threat from the catapults, the dangers still kept coming. Near each ladder was an average of 50 sword shield soldiers. They needed to withstand arrows, defend against enemies climbing the ladders, and also throw down rolling wood and giant stones. These two were very heavy and took a toll on one’s stamina and strength.

At that time, the enemy actually sent another 1000 elites to assist, increasing the danger.

Seeing that the raiders had decided to focus on one gate, Ouyang Shuo didn't hesitate and informed Ge Hongliang at the north gate to send 3 squadrons of sword shield soldiers to the west gate to defend.

With that, the soldiers at the north gate only numbered 400. These 400 were to face the 1000 elite raiders that hadn't showed themselves. Ouyang Shuo worried that they might attack the north gate through the floating bridge while they were fighting at the west gate.

Before the reinforcements from the north gate could arrive, the west gate was already in danger.

The combat power of the elite raiders was twice that of the basic raiders. The addition of such a big group immediately caused the defending soldiers to be endangered.

Ouyang Shuo immediately ordered the 500 civic team members to go up the walls and take over the sword shield soldier's duties to be in charge of throwing down rolling wood and giant stones.

He had no choice but to put the civic team into play. These residents hadn't had any battle experience, and to be thrown into a battle like that, whether they could complete their task was unknown.

When a normal person saw this kind of situation, shivering and being afraid was normal. Where would one get the courage to throw rolling wood and giant stones at his opponents?

Seeing that the situation was getting worse, Ouyang Shuo knew that he needed to raise morale. He grabbed onto his spear and apologized to Bai Hua and the others for leaving them and rushed to the front lines.

The Ouyang Shuo today wasn't like the total noob of yesterday.

Be it the Yang family spearmanship technique or the Yellow Emperor internal cultivation technique, both had increased his combat power. Facing the raiders, it was more often than not a one shot kill, having a bit of General Shi's splendour.

Seeing their own lord personally fight with them, be it the sword shield infantries or civic team, their morale flew through the roof. The civic team fearlessly moved rolling wood after rolling wood, giant stone after giant stone, throwing them at the raiders that were rushing up.

With the civic team splitting the burden, the sword shield soldiers could finally fight the raiders, causing them to retreat again and again. The first infantry unit in charge of the defense of the west side was thus the most elite infantry unit, able to hold the upper hand even against elite bandits.

With the difference in numbers, it definitely still looked bad for them.

At this most dangerous time, Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to order the use of his secret weapon: the alchemical fire oil cabinet. Originally he wanted to keep it to the end as a trump card to seal his victory.

The alchemical fire oil cabinet was really strong, and even the ladders, which had preparations done against fire, were still set ablaze. The huge fire instantly destroyed two ladders. Its only weakness was that it wasn’t easy to move the alchemical fire oil cabinets around.

When the soldiers from the north gate arrived, the city protection troops already had many causalities. Luckily for them the new batch of soldiers arrived, helping to stabilize this battle situation.

Seeing that they couldn’t succeed, and that it was close to noon, Huoda could only helplessly order his troops to retreat.

On the side of Shanhai Town, they made use of the time to treat the wounded. Those heavily injured were carried down the city walls and sent to the hospital. The civic team started to clean up the city defending resources and moved the new batch up to the wall in preparation for use in the afternoon.

Chapter 153 - Raider City Attack (Part 3)

The Combat Logistics Division delivered hot and delicious dishes for the soldiers who were risking their lives.

At that moment, no one dared to leave the city walls, and even Ouyang Shuo didn't dare leave. He let the Sangu restaurant prepare some dishes and send them to the resting room in the city tower for Bai Hua and the others.

Using the rest time, the members of the Shanhai Alliance chat and ate at the same time. The topic of their discussions were focused on the first half of the raider’s attack that had just ended.

"I really didn't expect that the raider city attack would be so intense." Xunlong Dianxue said emotionally.

"Yeah, it's making me lose all my confidence." Feng Qiuhuang agreed, her face filled with uncertainty.

Bai Hua looked at Ouyang Shuo with concern and asked. "Wuyi, do you have confidence for the afternoon's attack?" The others looked towards him in worry.

Ouyang Shuo smiled. "It’s fine. We blocked off their attack in the morning so their morale has already been lost. As long as we don't make any mistakes, it will be no problem to block them."

"But, Shanhai Town has equally lost as many troops in the morning. And the enemy has 1000 elites and 1000 cavalry that hasn't made a move." Bai Hua wasn't as optimistic.

Based on the post battle report, out of the 6700 raiders, 200 water bandits died, 300 were captured, 1200 basic raiders died, and 300 elite raiders died. This was to say that the enemy still had half of their strength. Definitely such a big loss would affect their morale and whether or not they could give it their all in the afternoon was a huge question.

On the side of Shanhai Town, of the 500 navy soldiers in the Beihai navy fleet, 50 had died. 50 archers from the Shanhai town city defence unit had died, 200 sword shield soldiers died, and 80 out of the 500 civil team force died. Their losses were in a 1:5 ratio as compared to the raiders, which was a very good result.

"The raiders lost more than us, so let's just see how they’ll react." Ouyang Shuo said.

……

At the same time, in the raider’s big tent.

"Big Brother, the situation isn't good. What should we do the afternoon?" Heiqi asked.

Huoda was very solemn. "In the afternoon, it's time for second brother to act."

"How so?" Heiqi was a bit confused.

"In the morning I arranged men to build the floating bridge, and we had prepared two already. When we were attacking in the morning, based on the report by some of the guys that retreated, the enemy shifted a group of soldiers over from either their east gate or their north gate. Hence their defences would be weakened further, which will give us a chance. Second brother, you must immediately bring your troops to loop around the back, using the floating bridge to get across the city protection river and sneak attack their north gate. Remember, you must wait till the west gate has attacked before starting your attack. You can't be too early, or they’ll have a chance to prepare. Understood?" Huoda explained.

"Understood!" Heiqi said excitedly.

……

At 1PM, the raiders launched another attack. This time, Huoda didn't leave any reserve troops and ordered all his troops to attack, giving them enough pressure such that they are unable to care about their north gate.

Ouyang Shuo stood on the city tower and saw that their 1000 cavalry at the wing were gone, he immediately had a bad premonition.

As expected, in the skies above the north gate, a signal bullet appeared which was the sign of a sneak attack.

"I order the troops!"

"Present!"

"Order the Beihai naval fleet to return to the city protection river to help in the Defence of the north gate."

"Yes sire!"

After the messenger left, Bai Hua said, "These raiders are so crafty and smart. Once they found out a weakness, they will stop at nothing to exploit it."

Ouyang Shuo laughed. "Originally I didn't have 100% confidence, but now I can confirm that Shanhai Town will win."

"Why so?"

"The enemy raider is in over himself and wants to use the cavalry to attack our north gate. He doesn't know that there are 400 soldiers there and also the Beihai naval fleet. Most importantly, them shifting the cavalry away will open up the 600 cavalry that we had hidden near the west gate. Originally with the 1000 cavalry there I didn't dare to attack, but now since they chose to die, I have no choice." Ouyang Shuo explained.

Bei Hua's eyes brightened and smiled. "No wonder, the enemies definitely won't expect Shanhai Town to have so many cavalry that hadn't been used."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, sending out another order. "I order general Lin Yi to prepare to go out at anytime. Wait for my signal."

"Yes sire!"

"Brother Wuyi, why not let them go now?" Mu Lanyue asked curiously. The little brat had finally gotten used to the battle environment and walked out of the resting room.

Ouyang Shuo laughed and explained. "Now the raiders have just launched an attack, and be it stamina or morale, they are at the highest condition. It isn't a good time to attack."

"Oh!"

An hour later, the battle at the west was still in a stalemate. Although the raiders added an extra 1000 elite, the city protecting troops had an extra 300 men. Added with the alchemical fire oil cabinet, both sides were equally matched.

The ambush at the north gate wasn't effective, and the west gate had entered a stalemate, so Huoda couldn't keep calm anymore. Especially as the number of injured men increased, their morale had reached the tipping point, and if nothing was done, there might be deserters. Huoda didn't dare to take it too casually and personally led the lines to raise morale.

Ouyang Shuo stood on the city tower and upon seeing their leader enter the fight, he heaved a sigh of relief. He called for the major of the God Machine Unit Wang Yuanfeng, pointing to the leader and said, "General Wang, do you see that middle aged man commanding in the middle of the battlefield?"

Wang Yuanfeng who had an amazing vision could obviously see him clearly. " I see him. That's their leader, right?"

"That's right. Now, do you have confidence to shoot him down?"

Wang Yuanfeng took a deep breath and said carefully, "He is approximately 1300 meters away from the wall, and with the range of the bed crossbow, I think I can give it a try."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. "General Wang, take a gamble. Remember, it's better if you fire two together, as this is a chance we’ll only have once."

"Understood."

Wang Yuanfeng turned around and left, gathering the bed crossbowmen to zero in and aim the bed crossbows. To kill their leader, they had to fire the triple-bow acruballistas strongest arrow, which was the "1 spear 3 sword arrow". It’s range could reach up to 1500 meters. As for the frosty crow arrow that suppressed the catapults, they could fire over 10 at once to prevent the enemy from getting close to the catapults.

After aiming, the triple-bow acruballistas fired at the same time. The 1 spear 3 sword arrow was as big as a spear, and drew a perfect arc in the air and flew towards the main leader Huoda.

Ouyang Shuo stood on the city wall and looked nervously at the trajectory. Wang Yuanfeng didn't let him down and the two arrows one after another accurately found his position.

Huoda at that time was still trying to raise the troops morale. Facing the two sharp arrows, he had no way to react before they pierced him like spears, killing him instantly.

The death of Huoda caused the morale, which was just rising, to plunge to the depths. Especially the way he died was too shocking. They never expected that the enemy could shoot such a scary arrow from 1300 meters away.

Ouyang Shuo definitely wouldn't miss such an opportunity and hollered, "Send my orders!"

"Present!"

"I order the cavalry to exit the city to break through their defences and destroy the enemy."

"Yes sire!"

Below the city walls, the 600 cavalry were waiting nervously. After getting the order, Lin Yi excitedly shouted to the men behind him. "Brothers! It's our turn!"

"Kill!" The 600 cavalry screamed.

These excellent warriors were cooped up for an entire day, while even the civil team was sent. Only they had to wait for their turn. Till now, they finally got the chance they waited for, how could they not be excited?

As the city gates opened slowly, 600 cavalry dashed out of the city gates like a sharp arrow, charging into the raider army. Behind them, the city gate that was opened was quickly closed.

The news of Huoda dying had slowly spread around the raider camp. The raiders at this time had low morale, and it was like they lost the heart of their army. The attack of the Shanhai calvary destroyed the last bit of hope they had and crushed their fighting spirit.

Lin Yi had already gotten used to using this kind of assault.

Especially during the Battle of Zhuolu, from start to finish Lin Yi had witnessed the commanding prowess of Zhang Liao, learning a lot. He was also a hardworking man and during the resting times, he’d asked Zhang Liao for help and teaching. Zhang Liao wasn't a selfish person. and he had a good impression of Lin Yi. Hence, he helped him without holding anything back.

Six hundred cavalry under the leadership of Lin Yi galloped around amongst the raiders as if there were no one there. The raiders were prepared to attack the city, so their formation was obviously a sieging formation. Facing the charging of cavalry, they were unprepared, so how could they block them?

Lin Yi was also smart, leading the cavalry to focus on destroying the ladders, catapults and moving arrow towers to help the allies have the upper hand. As their sieging tools were destroyed, they were forced to retreat.

After charging around for a while, Lin Yi didn't dare to stay too long and led the troops back. The raiders were scared like birds and had no strength to stop their retreat.

Chapter 154 - Surrender

The battle that followed totally entered the rhythm of Shanhai Town.

Out of the 3 leaders of the raiders, their main leader Huoda had died, their 2nd leader Heiqi was trapped at the north gate and their 3rd leader Huo Liu was captured. The raiders at the west gate had no one to lead them. Although they still had a little fight in them, they didn't know what to do, whether to advance or retreat.

Ouyang Shuo didn't give them much time to think. After solving the city wall’s danger, he ordered General Shi to prepare the sword shield soldiers to totally destroy the raiders.

Ouyang Shuo said goodbye to the members before walking down the city wall. As he walked down, the cavalry was resting, and the medical team did simple bandaging for those that were injured. That assault wave went as expected. As they prioritized destroying the siege weapons, however, they had lost 50 odd men.

"Sire!" Seeing Ouyang Shuo, Lin Yi bowed.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and praised him. "You've done well."

"Sire, what do we do next?" Lin Yi was concerned.

"Of course we must end it with a bang and totally destroy them. This time the infantry unit will follow you all out of the city."

Lin Yi was stunned, asking, "Sire, the raiders still have that many people? Why don’t we use the walls to continue to defend?"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. "They are already afraid, so why would they have the courage to continue attacking. If it happens as I expected, once we launch our final attack, they won't be able to set up any defenses, and running will be their only option. We don't have any time to waste with these raiders. Don't forget that the north gate is still under attack."

"Understood."

After a short rest, Ouyang Shuo personally led his troops and brought 550 cavalrymen and 800 sword shield soldiers out of the city gates.

This time, Ouyang Shuo wasn't prepared to use any tactics like interweaving. He would face then head on. The cavalry was like a flood, and after charging into the raider forces, started a merciless slaughter. The sword shield soldiers followed behind, and under the leadership of General Shi, they were valiant and courageous.

Talking about it, the sword shield soldiers were bored from having to defend all day, now that they had a chance to attack, they could let all the pent-up anger out.

As Ouyang Shuo had expected, Shanhai Town's attack was something the raiders didn't expect. After being subjected to a large number of casualties, the raiders, who were already frightened, couldn't hold on anymore. They didn't hesitate anymore and ran for their lives.

At this time, Ouyang Shuo had other thoughts. He rose on the Qingfu horse and shouted at the raiders that were running, "Put down your weapons, and we will not kill anyone that surrenders!"

Seeing the lord use such a trick again, the soldiers followed with a tacit understanding. "Put down your weapons, and we will not kill anyone that surrenders!" The loud shouts caused their eardrums to tremble.

To speak the truth, these raiders attacking Shanhai Town didn't make any sense anymore. Since the main leader had died, surrendering wasn't a bad option. Hence, without much of a rush, the raiders threw down their weapons and surrendered.

Definitely, there were those stubborn ones who still tried to run. To those, Ouyang Shuo didn't give a chance and ordered the cavalry to attack and kill them one by one. Needless to say, a four-legged creature was obviously faster than a two-legged one, and most of those who tried to run were killed.

Seeing that running was useless, more and more raiders started to surrender, the weapons in their hands were like hot yams, and they threw them quickly onto the ground.

Ouyang Shuo didn't have time to collate all the numbers, leaving the sword shield soldiers to send the prisoners back to the barracks. Ouyang Shuo brought the cavalry back to the city, then crossed the city and went towards the west gate.

Heiqi at this moment still didn't know what had happened at the west gate, trying his best to lead the cavalry to break through. Unfortunately, this cavalry was good at assaulting and not sieging. Added with the lack of siege weapons, it was much harder.

Restricted by the width and depth of the city protection river, the Beihai naval fleet and their Mengchong warships couldn't sail into the river. Hence, only the 4 squadrons from Qiushui Town city protection unit, which included 1 sword shield squadron, 2 bowmen squadrons, and 1 crossbowmen squadron, could defend the north gate. Luckily, there were the 4 acruballistas placed by the God Machine Unit that made up for the difference in numbers.

Both sides were at a stalemate, and neither side knew how to settle it.

At that moment, Ouyang Shuo led the cavalry forces and rushed to the north gate. Ouyang Shuo ordered Lin Yi to bring the troops and wait at the gate while he went up to the city tower.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo, Zhu Hongliang and Zhang Daniu, who were in charge of defending the north gate, were astonished.

Ge Hongliang asked with uncertainty, "Sire, did the west side already win?"

Ouyang Shuo nodded and laughed. "That's right, the threat has been nullified. General Shi is sending all the prisoners back to the barracks. I was worried about your side, so I brought cavalry here to assist."

"That's great!" Ge Hongliang and Zhang Daniu said together.

"Let's go, let me have a look at the raider's cavalry." Ouyang Shuo walked beside the city tower and looked across, only to see 800 odd cavalry hiding out of the range of the bed crossbow, not daring to expose themselves.

As for this batch of cavalry, Ouyang Shuo did not want to let them go. After this huge battle, although Shanhai Town won, they had suffered heavy casualties and needed new blood. These raiders were nice replacements. After the battle, Shanhai Town would upgrade to Shanhai City and would need to expand the army. Since this was so, to get this batch of raiders under their flag was highly suitable.

Ouyang Shuo wasn't bothered about their identity as raiders. In the Shanhai Town army, a large portion of them were raiders. As long as they were paid a salary and after a period of time under military regimentation, the banditry in them would slowly be wiped out. Raiders who liked to do evil weren’ot many. Most just wanted to earn money, and helplessly had no choice but to become a raider.

Ouyang Shuo turned and asked Ge Hongliang, "Director Ge, based on your observations, what is the character of the leader of the raider cavalry like?"

"Sire's meaning is?" Ge Hongliang was surprised.

"You don't need to care what I think. Just say your feelings." This director liked to think too much sometimes.

He hesitated awhile before saying, "Based on my observations, he doesn't look like an evil person."

"Oh." Ouyang Shuo's eyes brightened and he asked curiously, "Why do you say so?"

Ge Hongliang organized his words and said, "From the start, the enemy directly charged for the city gates and prepared to attack. When they found that the strength of our bed crossbows was too huge, however, the leader immediately retreated and didn't continue to attack recklessly. Hence I predict that he cares about his men. Normally, such a leader wouldn't be evil and immoral."

Ouyang Shuo nodded; he couldn't disagree with that.

Ouyang Shuo thought for a while before saying to Ge Hongliang, "Since that is so, let's go talk to this leader!"

"Oh!"

Walking down the city tower, Ouyang Shuo rode the Qingfu horse and ordered the city guards to open the gates and put down the suspension bridge.

Just as Heiqi was contemplating whether to advance or retreat, he suddenly saw the gates that he couldn’t take down open from the inside. As the suspension bridge was slowly placed down, a squad of cavalry appeared at the gate.

Ouyang Shuo led the cavalry across the suspension bridge and over the city protection river untilthey were less than 1000 meters away from the raiders. He shouted to them, "I’m the lord of Shanhai Town, who is your leader? Can he come out to talk?"

Heiqi was shocked, suddenly seeing a young general riding a special horse and wearing exquisite armor. His aura was special.

Hearing his words, Heiqi additionally felt surprised, and a bad premonition rose up from deep within his heart. At this time he didn't dare be too careless and went to the front of the cavalry, shouting, "I’m the leader of the cavalry, Heiqi! I don't know what advice sire has for me?"

Ouyang Shuo nodded, as his reaction wasn't as reckless as a normal raider’s." I can't give advice on anything, but as for the situation on the west side, you aren't clear about it so I can help fill you in."

Heiqi had a bad premonition in his heart. On the surface and in outward strength, however, he didn't show it and shouted, "Hen, what will you say?"

Ouyang Shuo started to beat around the bush and said, "Your leader was killed by my bed crossbow. Not only that, but your entire western forces have already surrendered. You don't need me to say more and you should already know what that means. I don't want any more slaughtering. As long as you surrender, I promise I will accept you in the Shanhai Town army."

Ouyang Shuo's shout caused a stir in the cavalry forces.

Heiqi froze, as the worst outcome had occurred. Of course he wouldn't be scared by such simple words by the enemy, scolding, "Lies. This is only your word, how could I trust it?" Hearing Heiqi's words, the raiders became quieter and started to doubt the truth.

Ouyang Shuo gave a sinister laugh, turning around and signaling Lin Yi.

He understood and ordered his men to send Huoda's head to them.

Seeing their main leader's head, the raider cavalry believed that the troops at the west had surrendered. A feeling of despair rushed into their hearts. As for their troops, even if they wanted to run across the floating bridge, it was impossible. After all, the enemy had cavalry and wouldn't allow that to happen.

Heiqi turned around and looked at his terrified men. They had looks of fear and pain. He gritted his teeth and shouted, "We surrender."

"Good!" Ouyang Shuo was delighted.

Chapter 155 - World’s First City

The moment Heiqi surrendered, a system notification sounded out from Ouyang Shuo's ear.

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for leading Shanhai Town and successfully passing the test, officially upgrading to grade 1 city."

Just at that moment, a golden light shot up from the lord's manor into the sky and spread out wide. The glow stretched out to the new boundaries of the territory before disappearing.

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for upgrading to a grade 1 city. Town grade lord's manor automatically upgraded to city grade lord's manor. Randomly selecting 3 basic city grade buildings, player can choose one."

"System notification: random selection complete, the 3 buildings are Chenghuang Temple, teahouse, and jail, please choose!"

"I choose Chenghuang Temple!"

"System notification: The building has been automatically built. Player, please take a look!"

Following which a ring of system notifications sounded.

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for becoming the first player in the Chinese region to upgrade to a grade 1 city. Rewarded 2200 merit points!"

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for becoming the first player in the Chinese region...."

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi..."

As compared to the village and township stages, the city stage merit points rewards were double.

The moment the notification went out, the Chinese region was in an uproar. Shanhai Town's upgrade came out of the blue. For the past two days, players had just witnessed Bengalore Town and Free Town failing to upgrade. Everyone thought that all the lord players would learn their lesson and delay their upgrade applications.

Who would have thought that Shanhai Town would still go ahead and do the impossible? Most crucially it had actually succeeded. The Chinese region players felt like they had witnessed history.

Sure enough, shortly after the system notification, a world notification sounded.

"World notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for being the first player in the world to upgrade to grade 1 city, rewarded 4000 merit points, 4000 reputation points, given the title of World's First City!"

"World notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for being the first player in the world.."

"World notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi..."

A strong sense of pride and honor burned in the hearts of all the Chinese players. Many of them were excited. Some who were rash and didn't want to exit and voice their thoughts on the forums spent one gold to shout on the country channel. Anyways, one gold was affordable in the current state of the game.

"1st floor: Qiyue Wuyi has brought glory to the country, amazing!"

"2nd floor: nicely done Qiyue Wuyi!"

"3rd floor: another world first, so amazing!"

"4th floor: Qiyue Wuyi I want to give birth to a monkey with you!"

……

Ouyang Shuo obviously didn't have energy to bother about the country channel, as he had many things to deal with.

After Heiqi surrendered, Ouyang Shuo ordered Lin Yi to bring the raider cavalry back to the barracks. The organization of the troops would be discussed the next day.

Following which, Ouyang Shuo called Ge Hongliang to his side, asking the Military Affairs Department to tabulate the casualty report. They had to prepare compensation for the casualties and also prepare an organization report for the military to be discussed tomorrow.

After giving his orders, Ouyang Shuo rode the Qingfu horse and hurriedly went towards the square.

Receiving the notification, Bai Hua and the others already knew about the result and didn't remain in the west city tower, returning to the square to prepare to return to their territories via the teleportation formation.

Ouyang Shuo rushed to send them off. After they sent him their congratulations, all of them left. They knew that since Shanhai City had just upgraded, there were a bunch of stuff for him to do so they shouldn't disturb him any longer. Anyways, since the alliance channel was opened, if they had anything they could discuss through the channel.

Before leaving, Feng Qiuhuang told Ouyang Shuo that she had received a pigeon letter that Di Chen's Handan Town had expectedly failed. Ouyang Shuo nodded and didn't say anything.

After sending them off, Ouyang Shuo finally had time to check out the stats after the upgrade.

【Territory】: Shanhai City (Grade 1 City)

【Lord】: Qiyue Wuyi (First Class Earl)

【Title】: The World’s First City (Increase town fame by 30%)

【Morale】: 94

【Security】: 92

【Refugee Spawn Rate】: 200 * (1 + 50%) = 300 / day

【Territory area】: 2000 square kilometers

【Territory Unique Characteristic】: +50% Refugee attraction rate, +25% Special talented people attraction rate, +50% Crop production rate, +25% Productivity of workers, +20% Experience earned by troops, +10% Chances of talented people in the territory to advance a level

【Political】: 55/100 (Affecting the administrative efficiency and morale)

【Economic】: 50/100 (Affecting the trading prosperity and tax)

【Cultural】: 52/100 (Affecting the education development and quality of residents)

【Military】: 58/100 (Affecting the military strength and stability)

【Subsidiary Village】: Beihai Town, Qiushui Town, Friendship Town

【Territory fund】: Four Seas Bank

【Territory Association】: Textile Association

【Territory Industry Properties】: Bei Mu saltpans, Langshan mine, West city ranch, Jifeng valley horse stables

【Territory Specialties】: Lianzhou three flower wine, Colored silk, White tea

【Special Building】: Lianzhou College, Beihai Bay, Sangu hotel, Qingyang Guan

【Hidden Building】: Ma Zu Temple (Sealed), Recruitment Hall, Yellow Emperor temple

Basic buildings list:

【Teahouse】: Provides tea, rest, discussion and a meeting place. Building requirements: Tea professor, Teahouse building blueprints, 4000 units of wood, 8000 units of green brick, 2000 units of stone. Building time: 7 days.

【Blusher powder shop】: Sells blusher powder. Building requirements: Merchant, Blusher powder shop building blueprints, 2000 units of wood, 4000 units of green brick, 2000 units of stone. Building time: 5 days.

【Chenghuang Temple】: Used to pray to and respect Chenghuang. Building requirements: Chenghaung temple building blueprints, 5000 units of wood, 8000 units of green brick, 4000 units of stone. Building time: 10 days.

【Earth Temple】: Temple used to respect and pray to the Earth God. Building requirements: Earth temple building blueprints, 4000 units of wood, 5000 units of green brick, 4000 units of stone. Building time: 7 days.

【Jail】: Place where criminals are locked up. Building requirements: Jail building blueprints, 4000 units of wood, 5000 units of green brick, 5000 units of stone. Building time: 7 days

As compared to the township stage, the city stage stats interface was simpler. In the basic structures, apart from the famous structures, the other structures didn't appear in the stats page.

Entering the city stage, the main focus wouldn't be on the basic buildings and instead on the local specialties and local production. These two decided the difference between territories.

Apart from that, as compared to a grade 3 township, a grade 1 city had other interesting changes.

Firstly was the speed of refugees spawning, the basic rate of 50/day in the township stage had increased to 200/day, and the upper limit of the population had increased a lot.

Based on the specialty of Shanhai Town, to reach the upper limit of the grade 1 city would at most take 1 month.

This was the distinct feature of the game. It was hard to upgrade tiers but easy to get from one grade to another.

Definitely, the reason why it was so fast had something to do with the specialty of Shanhai Town. A normal town would need 50 days to reach the upper limit, nearly twice that of Shanhai Town. The further into the game, the stronger the specialty of Shanhai Town would become.

On the side of basic buildings, a grade 1 city had 5 basic buildings, much less than a township. The basic buildings were all prepared during the township stage, so in the city stage, most of them were expanding their scales and efficiencies.

The 5 basic buildings, the teahouse, and blusher powder shop belonged to business buildings. Chenghuang temple and Earth temple belonged to cultural buildings under the charge of the Culture and Education Division. As for the jail, the procuratorate division was naturally in charge.

A grade 1 city building blueprint cost 200 gold, and other than the Chenghuang Temple that was already built, Ouyang Shuo needed to spend 800 more gold.

Apart from that, the town grade granary, Ancestral Hall, and private school needed to be upgraded to city grade. However, as the Ancestral Hall became the Yellow Emperor temple, there was no need to upgrade it, saving a huge amount of gold.

As for the remaining granary and private school, upgrading to city grade was already their max.

The granary and private school were considered grade 2 village basic buildings, and a city grade blueprint needed 500 gold each, so a total of 1000 gold.

The advanced buildings like the shipyard could be upgraded to a special level, only that it needed a grandmaster level ship builder. Shanhai City’s shipyard manager Zheng Dahai was already at the master level, but he was a long way away from the grandmaster level.

Chapter 156 - Drastic Actions

Only after checking the new stats of the territory did Ouyang Shuo have the mind to view the new Lord's Manor.

The entire manor had increased by over 3 times and could be compared to the old county government’s manor.

The upgraded Lord's Manor was still split into front and back. The difference was now each part had 3 courtyards, connected in a row to form into a grid of 6 courtyards.

Of the 3 big courtyards in the front, the one in the middle had taken over the function of the old front yard. The only difference was apart from the meeting room the lord's office, the various department's offices had all changed into the offices of the various directors.

The lord's office was still to the west of the meeting room. The office was twice the size of the old one. Not only was there a waiting room, but there was a small office for the clerk.

To the west of the meeting room, apart from the lord's office, was the Finance director’s office. East of that were 3 offices which only had the Administration director and Material Reserves director, as the last office was still empty. As for the Military Affairs director Zhu Hongliang, he still worked at the military district courtyard.

The patio in the middle of the courtyard had an additional pavilion and other facilities. It made the courtyard look additionally stylish. Between the east and west sides of the courtyard was an open-roof walkway to the two courtyards.

The courtyard to the west held the offices of the various divisions. In the main room as well as in the side rooms, there were a total of 15 offices. As for the divisions under the Administration Department, and those under the Finance Department, Material Reserves Department, and the Auditing Department, all 11 had their own offices.

As for the Procuratorate Division and the Law and Order Division, they shared an office outside.

The east courtyard was a field, and was similar to the barracks in design. The storehouse, accommodations, and canteen were all there. This would be the place for the manor guards to stay in and to be in charge of the safety of the Lord's Manor.

The 3 courtyards in the back were still the living quarters of the lord and his close ones. Ouyang Shuo took the middle one while the ones on the sides were prepared for his female dependents.

The 2 sisters were arranged to stay in the west courtyard. In the past, as they had no choice, the 2 sisters shared the same courtyard as Ouyang Shuo’s. Now that they could afford it, of course he had to give the girls their own courtyard.

As for why he didn't give each of them one courtyard, naturally Ouyang Shuo had considered other things.

Seeing that the storms were getting stronger in real life, Ouyang Shuo predicted that the migration project was going to be moved forward. Hence the east courtyard was prepared for Bing'Er.

Apart from that, at the back of the Lord's Manor, there was an additional garden. The 3 courtyards at the back was connected to the garden.

The garden was of much higher class than the design and decoration of the patio. There was a small bridge which overflowed and trees, fish, and birds, there was everything.

As time was limited, Ouyang Shuo didn't look around clearly, taking a quick glance before going to his room and going offline.

In the day when he was at home, Ouyang Shuo wasn’t in the mood to pay attention to the forums. One could imagine that the forums were bustling, but they couldn't pique his interest.

After the Battle of Zhuolu, Ouyang Shuo placed priority on the territory upgrade. Now that he’d succeeded, he was thinking about whether to start his plan.

Ever since he got the Yellow Emperor internal cultivation technique, he was feeling very impatient.

It was mentioned that if one wanted to divulge secrets about Earth Online and didn’t want to be accused of revealing national secrets, the only way was for players to deduce and guess through things in-game. Like when Ouyang Shuo asked Song Jia to purchase player territories, such an act was legal.

Now that the territory purchasing had reached near the breaking point, what was missing was that final push.

And now, Ouyang Shuo had the ability to tip it over and make everything blow up.

If he anonymously revealed on the forums that the secret manuals in the game could be practiced in real life, that would make the whole world explode.

Originally, even if players obtained authentic secret manuals, it was hard for them to learn them in reality. As the secret manuals was too low-leveled, their effects couldn't be adequately displayed. Secondly, if no players pointed them towards the right way, rarely would there be players who thought that way.

The only people who knew the truth were those that practiced ancient martial arts, and these people would definitely not reveal this secret.

Hence even in the Qingyang sword sect which Feng Qingyang had set up, its disciples learned the emperor rank secret manual, but no one would think to practice it in real life.

Of course Ouyang Shuo would expect there to be some lucky people who managed to get authentic internal force cultivation secret manuals. However, they would need to keep it a secret to protect themselves. Hence until now, no one had exposed any secret related to this.

Obtaining the Yellow Emperor internal cultivation technique was like obtaining a sharp knife to counter attack. His secret manual was obtained through legitimate means. Hence, if he announced that he found out that secret manuals could be practiced in real life, then it would be within his rights. Be it Gaia or the federal government, none of them would be able to punish him.

Ouyang didn't hesitate any longer and switched on his handbrain, going onto the forums. He didn't care about all the other useless and messy news, anonymously posting that he had unintentionally found out that secret manuals worked in real life. He said that he didn't know whether or not it was all in his mind so he wanted other players to verify.

Anyways from start to finish he just pretended to be a lucky fellow, and that he was both scared and excited and just wanted to share it with everyone.

This post was just like throwing down a mine.

Maybe it wouldn't come into effect.

But as long as players paid attention to it and followed the post to try to practice the internal strength force techniques, this news wouldn't be able to stay hidden.

If such a secret were revealed, then everything unusual about Earth Online wouldn't be things that the federal government could continue to hide. They would have no choice but to bring forward the migration project. With that, it would be destroying the greatest advantage and trump card of Di Chen.

It had to be said that this drastic action was very toxic.

As long as the migration was brought forward, then Di Chen and the others wouldn't have an advantage over Ouyang Shuo. Since they were on the same starting line, Ouyang Shuo would have nothing to fear.

The reason why Ouyang Shuo was so confident Gaia wouldn't delete his post was because of the stance of the federal government.

Based on their wishes, they didn't want to hide anything about Earth Online. The current situation was just a compromise they had to do when discussing with the various strong powers. If someone legally revealed insider news, then the federal government would take it as a good thing.

Who knew, perhaps Gaia would also help to hide the identity of the poster, lowering the risk of him being revealed to a minimum.

After posting, Ouyang Shuo logged off the forums and starting to cultivate.

The mine had been buried, and maybe in a few days it would explode. In the game, as he had the first city in the world, Ouyang Shuo had gained an absolute advantage. So one could say that everything had been prepared well by him.

Ouyang Shuo now needed to think about the next step of Shanhai City's development.

Upgrading to a city was a brand-new level. He couldn't use the same management methods as that of a township to manage a city. To say the truth, his ability to control a city was pushing it.

After all, he was an adventure mode player in the last life, and he’d never touched territory building. All the things he knew were basically things he heard in his last life.

In reality, he was just a college student that just graduated. Be it in experience or ability, he was quite limited.

If it weren't for the grind in his last life, he wouldn't have the confidence to lead Shanhai City and its people all the way.

In the current situation, the only thing he could do was to put in more hard work and to learn in the field using the advantage of his last life to accumulate an advantage in the early stages.

Apart from that, he had to be humble and cultivate a desire for learning. He has to treat people well and get more people to trust him. Thinking far ahead was his key to victory.

He had to make use of himself knowing the development direction of the game to make long term plans. Like this, even if his ability was lacking, his men could cover him and allow him to fight head to head with the others.

This was why Ouyang Shuo had focused on developing and bringing in talent. As a lord, he only commanded the big picture and steered the ship in the right direction. The rest depended on his men.

No one was born as a talented person. Only through many trials and turmoils would one succeed. Just like the Han emperor Liu Bang, his many officials and he himself grew up as peasants.

Chapter 157 - Foreshadowing

At night during dinner, Ouyang Shuo started having a conversation with Sun Xiaoyue about game matters.

"Xiaoyue, last time you told me that a lot of work occupation players are gathered in Dali?"

Sun Xiaoyue looked at Ouyang Shuo and casually said, "Yeah."

"Are you interested in setting up a guild?"

"Setting up a guild? I don't think I can handle that." Sun Xiaoyue didn't have much interest in it.

"What I mean is, we can build a guild formed up of purely work occupation players. If this were the case, you could bring together all your friends. A guild can open up a guild channel so you can communicate easily." Ouyang Shuo wasn't ready to give up and tried to tempt Xiaoyue.

Sun Xiaoyue was a smart girl, and Ouyang Shuo had such an obvious intention. She wasn't dumb and understood straight away, staring at him and teasing, "Rich man, so what’s your plan?" Last time Ouyang Shuo had transferred 300 gold to her and totally scared her.

Ouyang Shuo also knew he was too rash, and embarrassment appeared on his face. Luckily after getting close, he became more thick-skinned and said, "My plan can't be explained in such a short time. Anyways, I'll provide the funds for you to set up a guild. It's a win-win isn't it?"

Sun Xiaoyue looked at Ouyang Shuo weirdly, unexpectedly not bargaining and accepting.

After dinner, Ouyang Shuo had received little aunt Lin Jing's call.

Ever since knowing Ouyang Shuo's real identity, Lin Jing naturally paid attention to everything that happened to Shanhai Town. The escapades of Shanhai Town in the battle map made Lin Jing emotional and she nearly called. After Shanhai Town upgraded to the world's first city, Lin Jing couldn't help it and called to congratulate him.

"Little Shuo, not bad!"

"Thank you, little aunt!"

"I really didn't expect that you could get such great results. Next time little aunt will have to depend on you."

Ouyang Shuo froze and laughed, "Little aunt, stop mocking me." To divert her attention, Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to change the topic and said, "Yeah little aunt. I want to work together with the Snow-War Rose Mercenary Group, are you interested?"

"Work together? What kind of work?"

"I hope the mercenary group can set up a separate branch to hire work occupation players. The prerequisite would be that the recruited players would be willing to move."

"Little Shuo do you want to hire work occupation players for your territory?"

"That's right."

"This is something that needs a lot of effort and our mercenary group will have to collect payment." Lin Jing instantly turned into the deputy leader and started to talk business.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, commended her business spirit, and laughed. "Of course I wouldn't make them work for free, you know that we have what you all need."

Lin Jing's eyes brightened and he said with uncertainty, "Equipment?"

"That's right!"

"But, wouldn't you be exposed?" Lin Jing was worried.

Ouyang Shuo felt warm inside, they were family so what they considered first was the safety of the other. Ouyang Shuo smiled mysteriously and said, "It's okay. To build such a branch, it needs a period of time. Whatever happens in the future, who knows? Anyways, you just need to know that I'll pay you. I think Xie Siyun will support you, and with both of your support, this cooperation would work."

Lin Jing looked at Ouyang Shuo and nodded. "As long as you have it planned."

"Thank you, little aunt!"

"You, ah... we’re family so why are you being so courteous? Anyways it's a win-win situation, isn't it?"

"Happy cooperation!"

"Happy cooperation!"

The next day, Ouyang Shuo went online on time.

Ouyang Shuo walked out of the room and on the patio, Yingyu and Qing'er were packing up together with Siqin and Siqi. From today, both of them would move to the west courtyard.

Looking at Ouyang Shuo, Yingyu put down the luggage and walked forward, asking with concern, "Big brother, Qing'er and I are moving to the west side courtyard so the main courtyard will only have you. We should hire some more maidservants. You are already a lord of a city and can't be as casual as before. If you don't have anyone to look after you, people would laugh at you."

Ouyang Shuo froze and instantly nodded. "Yingyu, you make sense. How about this, I'll pass this job to you."

Yingyu threw Ouyang Shuo a stare and said unhappily, "Big brother is so lazy."

To hire maidservants for Ouyang Shuo, it wasn't a small issue. The maidservant of him would be the boss of the back courtyard and would have high authority which was higher than Siqi and Siqin. Hence, to handle this well wasn't a simple thing.

Of course, for Cui Yingyu who was born in a large family, this wasn't a difficult matter. Although Ouyang Shuo was so casual in saying that, in truth, he had already considered everything.

Ouyang Shuo didn't bother and asked curiously, "Yingyu, you should make a name for your courtyard."

Yingyu didn't say anything and instead, Qinger smiled gleefully and said, "Big brother, we have already thought of the name and called it Qingyu Courtyard. How is it, is it nice?"

"Qingyu Courtyard? Not bad!"

"Hehe!" Qing'er was clearly satisfied.

Ouyang Shuo didn't stay in the backyard and walked towards the front courtyard.

The front courtyard was as busy as various administrative workers were shifting their work and documents to the side courtyard on the left.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo, Fan Zhongyan and Tian Wenjing walked over and smiled. "The lord's manor has become so big!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded, and thinking about Yingyu and Qing'er naming their courtyard, he felt that the front courtyard should also have a name. He told his intentions to the two who naturally agreed.

Ouyang Shuo knew he wasn't as skilled in this area and said, "As for the naming, I'll rely on both of you."

Tian Wenjing took the lead and said, "During the Ming Dynasty, the palace had Wenhua and Wuying, two halls. Today, for our east and west side courtyards, one is for martial arts and the other is for civil servants, why not just name it Wenhua Courtyard and Wuying Courtyard?"

If it were following history, naming in such a way naturally wasn't correct. Since it was a game, the main map naturally didn't have the Wang Dynasty.

Ouyang Shuo was pleased with this name and looked at Fan Zhongyan. "What do you think about it?"

Although Fan Zhongyan felt that stealing the name was bad, it made sense and showed their ambition so he agreed.

After naming the courtyard, next would be arranging someone to carve the signboards. These matters obviously wouldn't need Ouyang Shuo to personally worry over as his subordinates would handle them.

Ouyang Shuo walked out of the manor and walked towards the barracks. What he cared about most now was the situation with the prisoners and the casualty situation with the Shanhai Town army.

The cavalry unit and the Qiushui Town city protection unit who had rushed over for reinforcement were still in the barracks and hadn't left.

Before Ouyang Shuo left yesterday, he had told Ge Hongliang that he was going to hold a meeting to discuss the problem with the military organization.

The generals gathered in the barracks meeting room.

Ouyang Shuo sat on the elevated platform, looked at Ge Hongliang on the left, and said, "Director Ge, what's the situation with the prisoners and our casualties?"

Ge Hongliang stood up, bowed, and started reporting, "Before reporting the prisoner situation, I’ll first report our casualties. The Beihai Naval fleet’s first unit lost 50 men. The cavalry unit lost 50 men. The Qiushui Town city defense unit lost 100 men including 50 cavalry and 50 sword shield soldiers. The Shanhai Town city defense unit lost 100 men including 50 archers and 50 sword shield soldiers. The 2 infantry units lost 150 men. The god machine unit lost 10. Apart from that, the peasant forces lost 100 men. In total, a total of 560 men were lost."

Ge Hongliang paused, giving time for them to digest this before continuing, "In this battle, we had a total of 3000 prisoners. Amongst which were 300 water bandits, 700 cavalry, 1000 normal raiders and 1000 elite raiders. Out of the 2000 raiders, 1000 are infantry and 1000 are archers."

After Ge Hongliang reported this, he returned back to his seat.

Ouyang Shuo continued, "What's the reorganization plan of the Military Affairs Department?"

Shi Wanshui and the other generals looked towards Ge Hongliang. This concerned all their interests so they paid a lot of attention to it. Some units lost a lot and badly needed new blood.

Ge Hongliang had become the Military Affairs Director for a long period of time, but being stared at by all the directors, he still felt a shiver down his spine. Luckily he had the support of the lord, or else he wouldn't be able to handle them.

"The Military Affairs Department plans to inject fresh blood into the units that had casualties. With the remaining prisoners, we can build a cavalry unit and 3 infantry units. As for the specifics, we need the lord to decide.”

Ge Hongliang didn't suggest any specific plans.

Ouyang Shuo frowned, he could see that Ge Hongliang was pushing away responsibility as the director he himself was lack of confidence. It seemed like in the future he had to find a historical person to take over.

Chapter 158 - Mixed Regiment

Ouyang Shuo temporarily ignored his worry towards the Military Affairs Department and announced his military reorganisation plan.

"I agree with a large part of what the Military Affairs Department has said. The casualties in the various units have to be replaced. But not all members must be chosen from within the prisoners."

The reason Ouyang Shuo did that was to show that he supported the Military Affairs Department. The generals seated were no fools and definitely understood. Before choosing a suitable replacement, Ouyang Shuo had to resolutely support Ge Hongliang and act as his shield.

Ouyang Shuo first looked at Pei Donglai and said, "The 300 water bandit prisoners will be handed to the Beihai Naval Fleet. Apart from replacing the 50 soldiers, the remaining 250 can act as the reserve force for the naval fleet for the future expansion of the 3rd unit."

"Yes my lord!" Pei Donglai was surprised that the lord said outright that the Beihai Naval fleet was going to expand. As its commander, Pei Donglai was naturally delighted.

"As for the 2nd leader Huo Liu, just execute him. We have already killed his older brother and there's no way back." Ouyang Shuo ordered. The current him didn't have any psychological burden when ordering executions.

"Understood!"

Ouyang Shuo looked around and looked st Wang Yuanfeng. "The god machine unit is special so the dead 10 soldiers will be recruited from the territory. Apart from that, we must increase development of the reserve force. The future city wall will be able to fit more arcuballistas and will need many more archers."

"Yes my lord!"

Ouyang Shuo looked at Shi Wanshui next and said, "The 15 men from the infantry unit were all elite mountain barbarian warriors. These two units are the future heavy armored infantry unit. My intentions are to transfer 150 men from the Langshan protection unit. As for the soldiers there, we will recruit from the various tribes."

"Yes my lord!" Shi Wanshui didn't have any objections to the Military Affairs Department and since the lord considered everything, he had no reason to do the same.

In the end, Ouyang Shuo looked at Zhao Sihu, Zhang Daniu, and the others and said, "The, city protection unit and the cavalry unit will be reinforced with the raider prisoners."

"Yes my lord!" The three generals acknowledged.

Following which, Ouyang Shuo started to announce his plans for the remaining prisoners.

"Lin Yi!"

"Present!"

"After supplementing the cavalry unit, immediately return to Friendship Town’s north camp. The cavalry unit will be named the vanguard unit and will now be under Friendship Town."

"Thank you lord, for the name!" Although they were removed from the main camp, Lin Yi knew the responsibility which was bestowed upon him.

From their name, it wasn't hard to see that their role was to act as the knife against the nomad tribes. Their importance was obvious.

"Director Ge!"

"Present!"

The Military Affairs Department needs to make an army flag for the vanguard unit. The design will follow the lord’s flag design and change the golden dragon to a cross of the horse lance and Tang Sword."

"Roger that!"

Ouyang Shuo's orders made the other generals and leaders of the units look towards Lin Yi with envy. Apart from the god machine unit, the vanguard unit was the 2nd to be given a name and was the first to be given an army flag. This honor made everyone mad with envy.

Lin Yi laughed on the inside, these usually calm and composed young men were emotional and he said, "All members of the vanguard unit thank my lord for the army flag, and we won't let you down!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded and continued. "Li Mingliang."

"Present!"

"I order you to form another cavalry unit out of the 600 cavalry raiders. The remaining 100 will be sent to the reserve force."

"Yes, my lord!"

"The newly built unit will move into the city’s west camp, and you will be its major."

"Thank you my lord, and I won't let you down!" Li Mingliang was very emotional.

Ouyang Shuo waved him off and continued. "The cavalry unit 2nd squadron captain Sun Tengjiao will become the 1st squadron captain. The 3rd squadron captain Liaokai will become the 2nd squadron captain. The 4th squadron captain Guoliang will become the newly built cavalry unit’s 1st squadron captain. The original calvary unit’s 5th squadron captain Suwang will become the 2nd squadron captain of the new cavalry unit."

"Yes my lord!"

Ouyang Shuo didn't have any biases, and the remaining 4 captains were equally assigned to both cavalry units. The only difference was that the vanguard unit was a heavily armored calvary unit, and the newly built one would be lightly armored.

After arranging the cavalry, Ouyang Shuo looked at Shi Wanshui once again. "General Shi, I order you to build a bowmen unit and a pikemen unit from the remaining raiders. The two infantry units and the newly built cavalry unit, bowmen unit and pikemen unit will become the first mixed regiment of Shanhai County. You will be the colonel and be in charge of the city’s west camp."

Shi Wanshui replied loudly. "Thank you my lord for your trust, I won't let you down!”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and announced the personnel appointments. "The first unit of the regiment will be the infantry first unit, and the major will be Shihu. The second unit is the second infantry unit, and the major will be Shibao. The third unit is the cavalry unit, and the major will be Li Mingliang. The fourth unit is the pikemen unit, and the major will be Zhaoyan. The last unit is the bowman unit, and the major will be Jiangkai."

"Thank you sire, for your trust!" They all replied in unison.

At this point, all the captains that had reached the basic general level had been promoted to major. Major was a bottleneck, and to become a colonel, one needed to be an intermediate general.

What was key was that for those normal soldiers who changed class to basic generals, to upgrade once more would be highly difficult. Most of them would be stuck and would never be able to break through.

Only those with immense talent, after training and stimulating their potential could be able to break through to intermediate general.

Just as all the generals thought that all the reorganisation had ended, Ouyang Shuo didn't disperse the meeting. "The upgraded Lord's Manor has a new drill courtyard known as the Wuying Courtyard. This means that it's time to build a guards army. The current guards army will be a squadron. The members won't be newly recruited and will be chosen from the various units. To become a member of the guards army, one must be an elite and must be good at archy and riding."

"Lord, don't worry, the mixed regiment will push forward our best warriors," the newly appointed colonel Shi Wanshui said.

"The five hundred men of the vanguard unit are at your disposal." Lin Yi followed.

Following which, all the other majors also said the same thing.

As for the newly built guards army, all the generals agreed with it. All the generals were personally brought up by Ouyang Shuo. Now to build a guards army, they all wanted their best soldiers to be chosen as it would be the utmost honour.

Ouyang Shuo laughed happily and said, "The selection will be done by the captain."

"Wang Feng!"

"Present!"

"You are appointed the Guards squadron captain and are in charge of the selection of members."

"Thank you lord for your trust, I won't let you down!" Wang Feng's face was really emotional.

During the military reorganisation, all the captains were promoted, and only Wang Feng didn't get a new role which made everyone feel weird. One must know that out of all the captains, he was one of the best.

As the disciple of Bajiquan master Lin Yue, Wang Feng's potential was greater than majors like Zhao Sihu and breaking through to intermediate general was sure to happen. As for advanced general, that would be up to fate.

Today, the answer was revealed.

Although Wang Feng was a captain, he had more power than a normal major.

From what the lord had described, the future Guards army would be made up of soldiers that surpassed a grade 9 elite soldier. They wouldn’t just be skilled in a single type, but would be skilled in all areas.

That was right, the future Guards squadron was a special force in Ouyang Shuo's eyes and the elite of the elite. Because of such strict demands, Ouyang Shuo decided that it would just be a squadron.

Shi Wanshui, Lin Yi and the other generals that participated in the Battle of Zhuolu expected such an arrangement. During the Battle of Zhuolu, Wang Feng followed closely beside Ouyang Shuo and had in actuality done the job of a Guards squadron captain.

If any other general took up that role, some other general would be unhappy. Only Wang Feng would make everyone happy and accept the decision.

The military always worshipped the strong, and in terms of skill, Shi Wanshui was the best. Under him would be Lin Yi, Sun Tengjiao and Wang Feng. Even the intermediate general Pei Donglai was weaker than the three of them.

Hence, Wang Feng as the guards squadron captain was highly suitable.

Chapter 159 - Guild Token

After announcing the setting up of the guards squadron, Ouyang Shuo ended the meeting.

After which, he ordered them to immediately return to their camps after replenishing their forces. Especially the vanguard unit which needed to return to the North camp.

Of the 300 Qingfu horses obtained during the Qingming Operation, 100 were lost during the Battle of Zhuolu. Of the remaining 200, Ouyang Shuo wanted to leave 150 for the Guards squadron and the other 50 to the Military Intelligence Division.

Originally, the unit that needed the Qingfu horses the most was the vanguard unit. But to confuse the Tianfeng tribe, they couldn't assign them horses that weren't obtained from them.

Hence, the vanguard unit still had a shortfall of 400 Qingfu Horses. Luckily, the Tianfeng tribe had sent someone to contact Zhou Haichen to tell them that they had intentions of trading again.

When Ouyang Shuo received the letter from Zhou Haichen, he gave power to Friendship Town to purchase Qingfu Horses and equip the vanguard unit in the shortest amount of time.

Walking out of the barracks, Ouyang Shuo made a trip to the Military Affairs Department.

In the Military Affairs Department meeting room, Ouyang Shuo gathered the 3 heads of the Military Intelligence Division.

"My lord, is there anything big going on?" Songsan had a face filled with excitement.

During the military meeting, Songsan also joined, and only the Military Intelligence Division didn't get any plans, which disappointed Song San. Today, for the lord to call them alone was a huge signal.

Unfortunately, Ouyang Shuo dealt them a blow right away and said in a low tone,"To put it bluntly, towards the recent work by the Military Intelligence Division, I'm not pleased. Your intelligence can't keep up with the enemy and it makes me disappointed."

Song San's face turned white and immediately stood up, kneeling on the ground and said with panic, "I've not done my job well, please punish me!"

Leng Qian and Lei Xun had a face full of regret and immediately knelt on the ground.

Ouyang Shuo's criticism was like lighting to the Intelligence Division. If it were spread out, all members of the division won't be able to lift their heads up.

Seeing the 3 of them blame themselves, Ouyang Shuo told them to stand. "Stand up, if others see it, what will they think?"

"Yes my lord!" Song San and the others stood up and returned to their seats, the fear on their faces didn't go away.

"I know the three of you aren't experienced and you learned everything from scratch. For you to pick up this job is also really difficult. But I have no choice as I lack talent in this area, so I can only squeeze the three of you." Ouyang Shuo was very thorough in his words.

"We are sorry for failing my lord!" Song San and the rest were touched. This young man was one of the earliest original sergeants in Shanhai Village. As he was smart, he was placed in charge of the Military Intelligence Division.

The heavens pitied him, and this Military Affairs secretary, who didn't have anything when he came to the village, was given a position.

Following which, in the Military Intelligence Division appeared Lengqian and Lei Xun, two elite spies whose fame overtook his. Luckily, Ouyang Shuo didn't lose faith in him and allowed him to remain as the secretary.

Even Leng Qian and Lei Xun could only be considered learned personnel and weren't experts.

Hence, to say the truth, for the Military Intelligence Division to get to such a level wasn't easy.

Unfortunately, Ouyang Shuo held too high a hope for this division. He was clear that intelligence was very important in a war. That was why since the village grade level he had formed up the Military Intelligence Division. He wished that the division could, through practical experience, grow and develop step by step.

Sadly, intelligence work was a very specific and professional job. The skills used weren't things that someone on the outside could understand. Hence, that was why even until now the Military Intelligence Division was so lacking.

Ouyang Shuo had a headache, and helplessly since he couldn't win by quality, he needed to win by quantity. He looked at the 3 of them and said, "I've decided to expand the division once again to 200 people. Apart from the current two teams, there will be a new special operations team. Songsan will be in charge of that. During this period of time, you guys will develop a group of elite spies. To increase the efficiency, the Transport Division will provide you with 50 Qingfu horses."

"Thank you, my lord, for your trust!" Song San took the lead and said gratefully.

Ouyang Shuo waved him off and continued. "Apart from that, I’ll give the three of you some mission. Song San will lead the special team to investigate the western region. Leng Qian will lead the first team and investigate the eastern region, including the mountain barbarian tribes. Lei Xun will lead the second team and continue investigating the north."

"Yes my lord!"

"I'll give you a month and you must give me exact details of the east and west, and create a map of the regions for the upcoming war." Ouyang Shuo turned his eyes to the territories on the side, holding bad intentions.

"Yes my lord!"

From the Military Affairs Department’s reorganization, this would use up large amounts of gold.

It would cost 1900 gold to pay the dead soldiers' families, the newly-built 3 units and 1 guards squadron, and the added Military Intelligence Division team.

With that, only 200 gold was left from the 2000 that Ouyang Shuo had left.

The last 200 didn't last for long as Ouyang Shuo used it to purchase a guild token, and sent it to Sun Xiaoyue for her to use it in Dali to build a work occupation guild.

The empty-handed Ouyang Shuo didn't even have any money to buy a grade 1 county building blueprint. He could only wait for the month to end for Langshan mining field and Northern Saltpans to hand over their profits.

……

Dali,

Sun Xiaoyue was just shopping along with her friends when suddenly a notification appeared by her ear.

"System notification: you have an anonymous package, will you accept it?"

Sun Xiaoyue instantly remembered the conversation she had with Ouyang Shuo and muttered, "Accept!"

A white line shone across, and in her storage bag, a guild token appeared.

Similar to the village creation token, guild tokens were split into copper, black iron, silver and gold. The different level guild tokens would allow a different number of players and have different guild specialties.

A copper guild token had an upper limit of 100 men and had no guild specialty. A black iron token had a limit of 1000 men and 1 specialty. Silver guild tokens had a limit of 10 thousand men and 2 specialties. A gold guild token would have a limit of 100 thousand men and 3 guild specialties.

Normally speaking, a guild with a copper token would be known as a small guild, a black iron guild as a medium-sized guild, and silver and gold guilds as large-sized guilds.

In theory, a large-sized guild would at most have 100 thousand members. But in truth, one could use many different ways to increase that upper limit.

Of course, to control a 100 thousand member guild was impossible without a strong and efficient team.

Hence, behind the top 10 guilds, there would at least be a workshop behind them. Some of them even had investments from financial institutions to have professional teams to manage the guild.

So for some solo players to use their high levels and fame to build a large-scale group, the guild would either be controlled by financial groups, or would run the risk of disbanding.

The players in the game were even more practical than in real life. They wouldn't join based on reputation and be a slave for the guild. Especially as this game affected real life, there wasn't such a chance.

The difference with the village creation token was that the guild token could be upgraded from doing quests, and the guild specialty could be selected and wasn't fixed.

For guilds like the Snow-War Rose Mercenary guild, which were in the top 10, they started off with the lowest copper grade token, and through doing quests upgraded its level. At this stage, all the guild tokens they used were all at least silver rank.

On the current market, a copper guild token cost 10 gold. The black iron grade ones needed 200 like the one Ouyang Shuo built.

As for silver rank guild tokens, only the 10 big guilds had them. The golden rank guild tokens were a real mystery and weren't something that current adventure game mode players could get.

Upgrading the guild token through guild quests was pretty easy early in the game. Like the 10 big guilds, many high-end players used less than half a year to upgrade their guild tokens from the lowest level to the silver rank.

However to upgrade it from silver to the gold rank, one needed a long and arduous journey.

Ouyang Shuo remembered that the largest guild in China, the Blood Evil Mercenary guild, had taken one and a half years to upgrade to a gold rank guild token.

Of course, apart from an additional guild specialty, for the 10 big guilds, the silver guild token was already enough. After all, they could set up branch guilds for other members.

The core members hadn't actually reached a total of 10 thousand members. The so-called core members were basically the loyal members and ones which were paid a salary.

Chapter 160 - Fallen Moon Guild

Staying on topic, Sun Xiaoyue received Ouyang Shuo's guild token and was thinking about setting up the guild. She didn't have any heart to continue shopping.

She turned around and looked at her buddies. "Luoluo, let's set up a guild and play together."

Luoluo’s full title was "Fallen Leaf of Autumn". She was a 21 year old university student, an intermediate alchemist, and Sun Xiaoyue's best friend in the game. "Setting up a guild? How do we have enough money? The guild token is very expensive. We can't exactly buy a copper token right?"

Sun Xiaoyue took out the black iron guild token from her storage bag and raised it in the air, saying gleefully, "Look, what is this?"

"Ya, a black iron guild token."

"Thats right!"

"Xiaoyue, when did you become so rich, you took out 200 gold a few days ago and it was already scary enough, now you take out a black iron guild token. This token costs 200 gold." Luoluo looked at Sun Xiaoyue. "Say the truth Xiaoyue, do you have a sugar daddy?"

Sun Xiaoyue's face turned red and her embarrassment turned into fury. "Stupid brat, what are you saying? This was sent to me by my friend. It's not free, I actually sold my body for it."

"Ha? I thought you said you didn't have a sugar daddy, now you even sold your body?"

"You..." Sun Xiaoyue knew that this time she couldn't explain herself, and she didn't want to continue on with this topic.

"Anyways I'm going to set up a guild, so would you like to join in?"

As expected, Luoluo excitedly said, "Join, of course I’ll join. The black iron rank guild token has a specialty. And also, I want to be the deputy guild leader."

Sun Xiaoyue once again had control and said excitedly, "You want to be the deputy leader?"

"En."

"Call me older sister and I'll agree."

"Ya, but we are the same age and even the same month, so why should I call you older sister?"

"Are you going to call me that? If not, your deputy guild leader position is going to fly away."

Luoluo suddenly went right next to Xiaoyue and dragged. "Sister~ Sister~"

"Tsk, you might as well have not even called..."

"I don't care, I've already called you. Quick, let’s go register!"

Sun Xiaoyue rolled her eyes and said, "What's the rush, call Hui Tuban and the rest. We can't have only the two of us in the guild right?"

"Right right, let's send a pigeon letter and ask them to meet us us at Yamen."

……

Dali Region Yamen

Sun Xiaoyue and Luoluo reached there first, and 10 minutes later, 3 male players walked over.

Seeing the 3 males that were late, Luoluo grumbled, "Ya, you’re really guys, actually making us two girls wait for you..."

"Big miss, we rushed over from the school." The one that spoke had an average body. He looked normal and his name was Wuchi. However, as his Chinese name was pronounced the same as shameless, he was thus called that. They all studied at the imperial city architectural college but their main course was bridge design

Wuchi and Luoluo were boyfriend and girlfriend in real life. It was through Wuchi that Xiaoyue met Luoluo and became best friends.

Of the other two males, one was slightly thin and was called Hui Tuban. From his ID, one would know that he specialised in city planning.

The last guy who was slightly fatter was called Jiu Duanxian, and he was a map drawer.

"Ok, since everyone is here, let's give our guild a name before we register."

"We are all from the architectural college, so why not call it architectural colleague guild?" Hui Tuban said.

"That's such a terrible name. No good, no good." Luoluo disagreed.

Jiu Duanxian laughed. "Luoluo, although you don't belong to the college, you can be counted it's sister-in-law."

"Haha!" the rest laughed as Luoluo chased him around.

After fooling around, Wuchi said seriously, "I've thought of a name."

"What?"

"Tumu Castle!"

"Ha?"

"Think about it, it sounds cool and has to do with our occupations."

"Tsk~"

She turned and looked at Luoluo. "Luoluo, do you have any good ideas?"

Luoluo thought about it seriously. "Xiaoyue, why not combine our names and call it Luoyue Guild (Fallen Moon Guild), let's not care about this bunch of stupid guys."

"En." Sun Xiaoyue nodded. "I agree, what do you guys think?"

Under Luoluo's forceful eye, Wuchi had no choice but to agree.

"Yea! Three votes and majority wins!" Luoluo didn't bother about Hui Tuban and Jiu Duanxian, and ended the voting.

Hui Tuban and Jiu Duanxian. These two bros looked at one another and laughed bitterly. "Ai, so inhumane, so inhumane."

Luoluo didn't bother with them and pulled Sun Xiaoyue into Yamen.

Sun Xiaoyue passed over the guild token and received the form, filling up the basic information before handing it over once again.

In the end, after paying the 1 gold fee, the guild was formed. Such high efficiency.

After Fallen Moon Guild was formed, Sun Xiaoyue kept her promise and promoted Luoluo to deputy guild leader, appointing the other three as elders. The deputy guild leader and the elders had the ability to recruit members. As for kicking members, only the guild leader had that power.

After forming the guild, the guild channel was instantly opened, and one didn't need to pay a fee to talk.

The black iron rank guild token allowed them to choose a guild speciality. As it was going to be set as a work occupation guild, Sun Xiaoyue chose the specialty which was- Raise skill familiarity by 10%.

Every member would wear the badge of the guild. The guild badge was designed as a circular moon and on it, and a group of people sat on the moon.

The guild badge was also jewelry, and the guild specialty would be activated through the badge. If one removed it, the guild specialty would fail to work.

Walking out of the Yamen, Sun Xiaoyue looked to her partners and said, "I've told Luoluo that setting up this guild was a mission by a friend. He's a lord and hopes that we could recruit work occupation players through the guild."

"Joining the guild, does it mean joining the territory?" Hui Tuban asked.

Sun Xiaoyue shook her head. "Of course not, everyone can make their own choice."

"What's the territory of your friend called, is it great?" What Wuchi cared about was strength.

Sun Xiaoyue gave an awkward laugh. "I also don't know what his territory is called. But what I can be sure of is that it's strong. He paid for my training fees and also for this guild token."

"Sugar daddy!" Luoluo started once again.

"Go to hell!"

"Xiaoyue, what you mean is for us to help and recruit work occupation players for the territory right?" Out of the 4 of them, Jiu Duanxian was the most rational and the smartest.

"That's right. With the guild specialty of Fallen Moon Guild, it wouldn't be too hard to recruit people. Only because of there being the territory, hence we must hold a careful selection. Only those who are willing to move over and have high potential will be selected." Sun Xiaoyue explained.

Jiu Duanxian nodded. "Don't worry, we will help you!"

"Yea!"

"Lets go and recruit people!" Luoluo loved having more people around.

……

Jianye, the base of the Snow-War Rose mercenary group.

"Jing Jing, are you saying that your nephew wants to work with us?" Xie Siyun who was the War Rose in the game asked with uncertainty.

"Yes!"

"Has he told you his identity?" Xie Siyun understood Lin Jing too well and guessed the meaning right away.

Lin Jing didn't find it unexpected at all and nodded. "That's right. But I temporarily can't tell you."

The two of them had formed an understanding spanning many years, and shared everything with one another. Since Linjing wouldn't say it, Xie Siyun wouldn't ask. "How does he want to work with us?"

"The mercenary group will help him build a work occupation group, and his territory will provide equipment." Lin Jing didn't hide anything.

"Equipment?"

"That's right. Believe me, we won't lose out on this trade." Lin Jing knew that without revealing a bit more, she wouldn't be able to convince her.

"Oh?"

"I really can't say."

"Ok, as expected your nephew isn't simple and has huge ambition."

"So does that mean you agree?" Lin Jing was elated.

"You already promised him, what choice do I have?" Xie Siyun said helplessly.

"Haha, Siyun you are the best."

"Okay, since it's a cooperation, we must be sincere in doing it. You will personally be in charge of the guild. I'm actually curious about what type of equipment he can provide us that makes you so eager." War-Snow Rose Mercenary guild being able to expand to its level was because of the trust between the two.

"En." Lin Jing nodded. "I heard that the few guilds in Jianye have been gearing up. It seems like they are forming an alliance, so we must be wary."

Xie Siyun laughed. "They are staring at our best guild in Jianye Crown."

"What are your thoughts?"

"Let them do what they want. A bunch of stupid fellows, what can they do?"

"Are we really going to not care?" Lin Jing was still a little worried.

"Relax, trust me."

"Ok, as long as you have things planned out." Lin Jing had a lot of faith in Xie Siyun.

Chapter 161 - Chenghuang Temple

Ouyang Shuo returned to the lord's manor.

When he passed the clerk's office and saw Bai Nanpu who was arranging some documents, he suddenly remembered something and said, "Nanpu, about the administrative meeting this month, let's set it on the 25th. Go inform each division to prepare. Since we just upgraded, ask all of them to prepare a specific report on the next stage of their work."

"Yes, sire!" Bai Nanpu jotted it down.

"Oh ya, and also please ask Director Tian to come to my office."

"Okay." Bai Nanpu nodded, turning around and exiting the office.

Ouyang Shuo walked into the guest room and picked up the teaware, personally brewing a pot of white tea.

When Tian Wenjing entered and saw Ouyang Shuo brewing the tea, he was astonished and rushed up to help. "This kind of tough job, how can I let sire do it?"

Ouyang Shuo waved him off and invited him to sit across him, smiling. "The way of the tea is broad and profound. By occasionally doing it, one can wipe away one's annoyance." As he said it, he pushed the cup of tea in front of Tian Wenjing.

Tian Wenjing hurried and picked up the teacup, taking a few sips before putting it down.

After the greeting, Ouyang Shuo got straight to the point. "If I shift you away from the Material Reserves Department, I'm saying if, then whom out of the 3 secretaries and the deputy director do you think could become the director?"

Tian Wenjing froze, he originally thought that Ouyang Shuo had called him to discuss work and didn't expect him to drop such a bombshell, shifting him away from the Material Reserves Department for what cause?

For a moment, Tian Wenjing hesitated and didn't know how to reply.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and smiled. "You don't need to worry about anything, just give me your objective comments."

Since Ouyang Shuo had put it like that, he had no choice but to answer. Tian Wenjing calmed himself down and went into deep thought, summarizing the 4 people one by one in his head.

The Deputy Director Yuan Shaoping was promoted because of the gold mine. His professionalism was undoubted but his administrative skills were hindered by his birth, and adding with Langshan mining field being so far from the main camp, Yuan Shaoping didn't have the chance to attend the Lianzhou College. Hence, he was lacking much. Furthermore, the current Langshan mining field needed this manager and he wouldn't be able to leave at the moment.

The Resource Division Secretary Du Xiaolan was the disciple of Finance Department director Cui Yingyu. Unfortunately, as she had spent too short a time by Yingyu's side, she didn't learn everything needed. Managing the Resource Division already pushed her to her limit and wanting to take a step up was even more difficult. Not anyone could become the second Cui Yingyu.

The secretary of the Transport Division Zheng Shanpao was similarly a country bumpkin. The jobs of the Transport Division was fairly simpler. After building the Jifeng valley horse stables, most of his efforts have been placed there. He wouldn't be able to remove himself all of the sudden, and also his ability was lacking, making it hard for him to take up such an appointment.

The one Tian Wenjing admired the most was the Saltpan Division Secretary Zhang Shen Zhui.

This young man had excelled during the year-end exams and have been intelligently utilized by Ouyang Shuo. After taking over the division, he used a short time to get in on track. The Northern Saltpans had undergone many expansions but no major mistakes and errors had occurred. This secretary could take much of the credit for it.

What was rare was that Shen Zhui was flexible and had a strong desire to learn. During his free time, he would improve himself at the Lianzhou college or follow beside Tian Wenjing to learn about administrative matters.

The only thing to worry about was that he was too young and lacked experience.

As compared to Fan Zhongyan, Tian Wenjing was more direct and after consideration, he said without hesitation, "Since sire asked then I'll say boldly. If I were to recommend one person to take over as the director then I feel that out of the four, Shen Zhui is the most suitable.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, as he too also felt that Shen Zhui was suitable for the job.

After Tian Wenjing finished, he was still rattled and uneasy, and this naturally couldn't escape Ouyang Shuo's eyes. "Sir, do you have any concerns?"

"Yes, sire!" Tian Wenjing was really direct.

Ouyang Shuo picked up the teacup and took a mouthful before saying, "To speak the truth, putting you in the Material Reserves Department is wasting your ability. Only that last time we didn't have anyone to chair the department, so we used the easy way out. Now that the department has gone on the right track and had someone like Shen Zhui to take over, it's the best time for you to move on."

Tian Wenjing’s emotions quickly picked up and he asked, "Sire is saying?"

"Don't worry, during this month's administrative meeting I'll tell all of you." Ouyang Shuo didn't want to reveal it too early.

Sending away Tian Wenjing, it was already near noon. All the workers and officials that had been busy for the entire morning left the manor and went back home for their meals.

Ouyang Shuo stood up and went to the backyard. Although Yingyu and Qing'er had moved to the adjacent buildings, they still ate their means in the main courtyard. In Qing'er's words, she couldn't let big brother be too lonely.

In truth, in the entire back courtyard, only the main courtyard didn't have a kitchen. The chef was Wang Shen, whom Gu Sanniang had personally chosen before she left, an intermediate chef.

The dining table was filled with many dishes. There were chicken, duck, fish, meat, vegetables, and fruits. Nothing was lacking.

Ever since the jewelry shop opened, its business was booming. Many especially bought copper and silver jewelry. The migrants had nothing, and even if they had money or valuables, they were all stolen by raiders. Now that their lives were stable, naturally they started to buy jewelry.

Only with the profits of the jewelry shop was it enough to maintain the daily expenses of the lord's manor.

The economy of the territory after 3 months of constant stimulation had shown signs of prosperity. Based on Yingyu's reaction, the 5th month’s financial output had finally crossed 2000 gold.

Qing'er, that brat, was now a rich girl as the business of the garment workshop was booming.

As Shanhai Town upgraded to Shanhai City, the rate of migrants entering had increased again. Qing'er had already discussed with Wuni to increase the scale of the garment workshop.

The few of them were talking at the table.

"Big brother, guess what? In the morning when I spread the news that the lord's manor wanted to hire a maidservant for you, instantly there were a bunch of young girls that rushed forward. Of those that came, many were from rich families. Seems like big brother's charm is too much." Yingyu joked.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. "Yingyu you must choose wisely. We are choosing a maidservant, not a wife, don't waste their futures."

"Big brother is really heartless. I really don't know what kind of girl is befitting of big brother."

Ouyang Shuo stared at her. "Eat your food, now you dare to even tease your big brother."

"Big brother, you're so overbearing." Qing'er spoke up for Yingyu.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Qing'er with surprise, turning around to look Yingyu. "Our little brat, why are you so quiet today, it's not your style."

Yingyu laughed. "Qing'er is worrying about the garment workshop. The garment workshop wants to expand its scale but the business district doesn't have any extra space, as it was mostly taken by the other big workshops."

No wonder she was so quiet, this girl had been thinking too much about money. He looked at her. "Silly brat, don't worry, why didn't you tell brother, I would have solved it for you."

"Big brother is so busy, I couldn’t bear to create more problems for you." Qing'er was considerate and thoughtful.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. Recently he had not been thinking about this little sister.

"Okay, don't worry. The planning of the territory is about to appear. The second city wall will also start production. After it's built, there will be a lot of space for you to expand your workshop."

"Really?" Qing'er's eyes instantly brightened.

"When did brother ever lie to you?"

"Yay, thank you big brother."

"Ok, eat your food."

"En." Her worries were gone and she became a lot more joyous.

……

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo took the time to visit the Chenghuang temple.

The earliest "Chenghuang" wasn't a god but it referred to the moat outside the city. The earliest meaning of "Chenghuang" was derived from Shuiyong.

The earliest god they prayed to was the "Shuiyong God", then it slowly became the protector god of the suburbs, becoming "Chenghuang god". Chenghuang was one of the lords of the underworld and his scope was something like the magistrate. His job was to remove evil and to protect the city.

Based on historical texts, in 239 BC there was already a Chenghuang temple. During the Tang Dynasty, they prayed to him during the county festivals and only during the Song Dynasty did the custom really become common. Ever county with a magistrate would also have a Chenghuang temple.

The feudal government had listed praying to Chenghuang into the sacrificial ceremonies, mostly praying for rain, sun, and no fires. The people said that "The god that was closest to the commoners was Chenghuang."

Ever since the Ming dynasty, any county magistrate or official would pray to Chenghuang, and when it was the first day of the job, they would visit the Chenghuang temple in the morning.

Shanhai Town's Chenghuang temple was naturally built in the in the culture and education district, together with the Mazu temple and the Yellow Emperor temple, turning into a group of temples.

After the Chenghuang temple was built, the Culture and Education Division had already arranged man to maintain the Chenghuang temple.

Chapter 162 - Difficult Question

The real world

During breakfast, Sun Xiaoyue raised the topic of building the Fallen Moon guild to Ouyang Shuo.

"You are quite fast!" Ouyang Shuo was surprised.

"Well of course!"

Talking about that, Sun Xiaoyue was a bit demoralized and said embarrassingly, "Apart from a few of my friends, those that joined yesterday didn't reach 10 people."

"How come? Did you set the requirements too high?" In the last life, Ouyang Shuo also played in a guild and made a few close brothers and sisters, building the Liangshan Mercenary group together. The leader was big brother Songpu. Who knew if there would be an appearance of Liangshan Mercenary group in this life?

As for the dispute with Songpu in the last life, the anger had disappeared after Ouyang Shuo was reborn.

However, Ouyang Shuo wasn't sure how he would feel if he saw Songpu again. He wondered whether or not he could put everything down and become friends again, or if they’d just be passersby in each other's lives.

Sun Xiaoyue shook her head and said helplessly, "When I was recruiting, I found that most players who fit the requirements had joined big guilds. The remaining were solo players who didn't want to join guilds. We can't exactly invite players that are messed up or are here just for the guild buffs."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. "You're right, quality over quantity."

"However, now that we can't get people, what should we do?" Sun Xiaoyue wasn a proud person and didn't want to accept defeat.

Ouyang Shuo drank a mouthful of her soybean drink and said, "Don't worry. Those solo players that don't want to join guilds just don't want to be bounded by the guild. They are actually the people with the most potential and whom we are looking out for. We must first make them trust us and show that that our guild is a place for work occupation players. We won't have any restrictions on them and won't need them to complete any quests. Anyways, we also won't plan on upgrading the guild."

Sun Xiaoyue's eyes brightened and she smiled. "You're right, this is worth a shot. However, we might end up with nothing in the end."

Ouyang Shuo laughed confidently. "Don't worry, as long as they join, they won't be able to escape me."

Sun Xiaoyue lips twitched. "Tsk, you're bragging again. If you mess it up, you’re going to cry."

Ouyang Shuo didn't pay attention to her nagging and looked at Bing'er. "Baby have you finished eating? Brother will send you to school."

Bing'er was fighting with the omelette and upon hearing Ouyang Shuo rush her, she gobbled down the remaining piece. It was only that she couldn't speak now.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. "Relax, eat slowly."

The little brat struggled to chew, finally swallowing the egg into her tummy. She took the tissue that Ouyang Shuo passed over and wiped her little mouth elegantly, giggling. "Yes brother, I’m full. Let's go!" She carried her little bag that was placed on sofa and led the way to the door.

On the way to school, Bing'er looked up at Ouyang Shuo and frowned. "Brother, Sister Xiaoyue and you have been talking about games. Bing'er doesn't understand."

Ouyang Shuo patted her head and said, “That's because it's an adult game, so it's okay if you don't understand."

"Oh. Bing’er feels that playing catching with Xue'er is more fun."

Talking about that, Ouyang Shuo got a headache. "It's all because of you. Xue'er became mischievous and hid my socks..."

"Hehe!" The little brat laughed like a little fox. Actually, she had asked Xue'er to do that.

"You cannot be like this in school."

Bing'er was unhappy and muttered, "I'm so well behaved in school. Even the teachers praise me."

"That's good." Ouyang Shuo looked up. They had already reached the school gate. "We're here, go in yourself. While coming home, stay safe on the road!"

"En, bye bye brother!" Bing'er waved goodbye to Ouyang Shuo before hopping to school.

When he went back home, Ouyang Shuo started to cultivate.

Ever since learning the Yellow Emperor internal cultivation technique, he had not been practicing bajiquan in reality. As for the Yang family spear technique, he didn't even meet the cultivation requirements. Luckily, internal cultivation was the core.

When he finished, it was already close to noon.

After taking a break, he opened his handbrain and went onto the forums. He found his anonymous post to see if anyone replied.

As expected, there were people that had noticed the post. However, everyone thought that he was bluffing on purpose, and wrote it to attract attention. Those impolite ones even said that he was retarded and couldn't differentiate between reality and the virtual world.

Ouyang Shuo laughed humorously. It seemed like the number of people that learned authentic secret techniques in the game was so small that none had seen his post.

In the forums, a post like this which was done anonymously was easily forgotten and drowned out. Ouyang Shuo couldn't bump it up too vigorously, or else his intentions would be very obvious.

However, Ouyang Shuo wasn't worried. As long as one or two people who cultivated in authentic secret techniques saw this post, it wouldl gain traction.

On the forums, the news about Shanhai City was still the hot topic. Apart from that, Handan Town failing was also being discussed, and poor Di Chen was getting destroyed.

Shanhai City's upgrade had motivated all the other lords. Following the failures of Sanli Town, Bengalore Town, and Free Town, many players were scared . At least now players knew that the upgrade quest could be completed, and that it wasn't a death quest.

One could predict that the next wave of upgrade applications would soon come.

Other than that, the process of the Shanhai Town’s upgrade piqued much curiosity. In the past, be it Sanli Town, Free Town or Bengalore Town, they were all very high-key and didn't lock down any information. As for Free Town, the lord had even done a live stream of the whole process.

Only Shanhai Town kept it low-key, and apart from the Shanhai Alliance, no one knew. The same went for the specific battle process.

Everyone was very curious how Shanhai Town had completed such a high difficulty quest. Unfortunately, this was going to be a mystery, and the originally Shanhai Town which was getting clearer had again worn a newly mysterious veil.

Getting off the forums, Ouyang Shuo started searching for historical information, especially regarding the next battle. In the last life, he didn't participate and as such didn't have such an advantage. Now he could only find some opportunity from the books and stories.

At night when Sun Xiaoyue came back from school, she brought back with her new news.

"Do you remember my two ex-roommates?"

"Are you talking about Qinruo and Pan QiaoQiao?"

"Ya, you remember so clearly. Do you have intentions towards them?"

"What, please don't randomly say things." Towards a girl's thoughts, Ouyang Shuo couldn't understand.

"What I wanted to say was today in school we talked and talked and suddenly talked about Earth Online."

"This game had attracted a wave of discussion. I didn't hide that I'd started playing. Now both of them are excited to join, and they want to see what kind of magic it has."

"Well if they want to play, then go ahead!" Ouyang Shuo didn't care.

Sun Xiaoyue froze, having a feeling of landing a punch only in thin air. "What, people are trying to help you, and you don't care?"

"What help?"

"Think about this. If they join, their boyfriends would join too. Pulling them all into the guild, our powers will increase by a lot."

Ouyang Shuo laughed bitterly and said, "You're thinking of it too ideally. Firstly, they might not play work occupations. Secondly, even if they did, they’re rookies, what use would they be? Even if they were talented, they’re only 4 people. So the focus must still be on what I said this morning."

"Oh." Hearing Ouyang Shuo's explanation, she got demoralized again.

Science guys had such low eq, and always analyzed things from a rational perspective, refusing to think about the warmth and communication that exists and is necessary.

Ouyang Shuo didn't want to see her give up and consoled her. "Don't be demoralized. Your hard work for the guild is worth praise. And no matter what, them joining will make your journey more fun."

"En." Being consoled by Ouyang Shuo, she felt much better. It was just that she wasn't as excited and happy as before.

At this time, Bing'er suddenly jumped out and said, "Big Brother is stupid."

Xue'er, who was flying in mid-air also joined in and shouted, "Stupid stupid."

Ouyang Shuo was speechless. "Who did I make angry this time?"

Sun Xiaoyue, seeing such a scene, burst into laughter.

Chapter 163 - City Planning

After dinner, Ouyang Shuo went back into his room and logged into the game.

In the game, he walked out of the room and looked at the cold courtyard. He was still not used to it. Usually at this time, Yingyu and Qing'er would have woken up and started to wash up along the corridor of the courtyard.

Now, it was such a big courtyard, but apart from the maidservants, there was only Ouyang Shuo.

Tossing away the emotions in his head, Ouyang Shuo picked up the spear and started to practice the Yang Family spearmanship technique. After this period of training, his Yang Family spearmanship technique could be said to have grasped a bit of its essence.

At 10 AM, Ouyang Shuo punctually appeared at his office.

Ouyang Shuo took up the blueprint on the table and started to examine it. This was the arrangement plan of Shanhai City, which the Construction Division had delivered yesterday. The chief designer was the Vice Secretary Hao Jiancheng.

Based on the plans by the Construction Division, the second city wall was 6 kilometers Long, 12 meters high, and 6 meters wide.

The only difference was that the second wall only had 3 sides, which was to say the second city wall didn't have a southern wall, building the eastern and western walls deep into the mountains and becoming one with the mountain range. To put it another way, the 4th wall was the mountain range itself.

As it had only 3 sides, although it was higher than the first wall, based on the work done, the second wall took twice as long to complete. Based on the population of Shanhai City, the Construction Division had the confidence to finish the second wall within a month.

After the second wall was done, it would take up 36 square kilometers, 4 times larger than the old city and it was similar to 3 Shanhai Towns.

At the same time, the city protection river had become an inner-city river, providing water for the residents.

During the Shanhai Town period, the drinking water of the residents was obtained from digging wells. In the future, not only drinking water but water used for daily uses and workshops could be collected from the inner city river, making it very convenient.

The second part of the Shanhai City planning was the reorganization of the city area.

Based on the organization by the Construction Division, Shanhai City would be split into 4 parts. The region inside the first wall would be called the core region. Using the northern part of the first wall as a divider, this would be called the northern region, and it would be the largest region, twice the size of Shanhai Town.

The eastern and western sides would be the eastern and western regions respectively. These two regions were small and took up half the space of Shanhai Town.

The core area of the city was split into north and south. The southern area was the brain of the whole territory and was similar to the old imperial palace. Based on the plan, the southern part was split into left, right, and middle.

The middle was obviously the upgraded lord's manor and the garden. The left was the government offices. The bureaucrats of the departments would be concentrated in this area.

The right was now the culture and education area. The Yellow Emperor Temple, Mazu Temple, Chenghuang Temple, Recruitment Hall, the private school and Lianzhou College were all located in this area. As the Mazu temple and the Chenghuang temple were places where residents always visited, they would be moved to the northern region instead.

At the same time, the private school was also moved out of the core region. As for the Recruitment Hall and Lianzhou College, they were moved to the northern side of the core region. This meant that the southern region's right side only had one building which was the Yellow Emperor Temple. The lord could only pray at the Ancestral Temple.

The northern core region was also split into left and right. The left was where the institution region was where the Recruitment Hall and Lianzhou College were placed. In the future, any institutions would be built here. As for the advanced market that was initially here, it would be moved to the western region and be next to the teleportation formation.

The right of the northern core region was the military district. Based on the plan, it would have the Military Affairs Department and barracks. As for the armory division workshop, bow and crossbow division workshop, the weapons workshop, and alchemy workshop, they were all shifted to the eastern region.

As military production increased, the military district couldn't handle all these workshops. Hence, moving them to the eastern region was for the best.

As for the western region, it was the residence area for the officials. They would be close to the government offices in the core area to make it convenient for going to and coming back from work. The future residential area for officials was going to become a district for the rich and powerful.

Lastly the biggest region: the northern region. It was split into east and west, each region being the size of Shanhai Town. The business street that was initially on the center line from the core area was moved to the middle of the northern region, and its size increased by 100%.

The western half was the residential area. Apart from that, the two temples and the private school would also be moved here. Considering that this region would be where dangers and things would occur, the Law and Order Division and the Procuratorate Division offices were planned here to maintain law and order.

The future residential area was going to become a middle class or wealthy merchant living area, as many of them held power in the shops or workshops. They were the first batch of residents, and as the territory prospered, so did they. Those that came later, it was hard to amass more money than them.

The eastern side was the business region. The big handicraft workshops would all be moved here. Based on the near management personnel, the Four Seas bank, Business Division, and Tax Division were all moved here. The planned business region was 4 times the size of the old one, enough for the workshops to expand their production.

After looking at the plans, Ouyang Shuo was amazed. Jiancheng, that young man not only understood what he wanted, but made it more specific and better.

Based on the organization, the territory would not need any new rearrangements in the near future. As long as they followed the arrangement plan and added buildings to their respective regions, everything would be settled.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was praising the Construction Division, the clerk Bai Nanpu walked in and said, "Sire, Secretary Xu is looking for you."

"Let him in."

"Yes, sire!"

Xu Shuda didn't enter Ouyang Shuo's office often. This Culture and Education Secretary was a scholar and managed the Lianzhou College well. Hence, Ouyang Shuo rarely interfered in his work.

"Sire." Upon entering, he bowed to Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo smiled. "Shuda, sit!"

"Sire I have a request, please approve it." Xu Shuda said straight away.

"Please speak!"

"I request to remove the chairs from the meeting room." Xu Shuda was very serious. Apparently, this was very important to him.

Ouyang Shuo was stunned and surprised. "Why?"

"As the territory’s trade and your rank increases, you need to maintain your honor and dignity. If we all sat on chairs for the meeting, it doesn't fit our difference in power and goes against culture."

Ouyang Shuo frowned. "Shuda, your meaning is to ask everyone to stand?"

Shuda shook his head. "If you don't want us to stand and be too tired, you can follow the olden style and have some short seats, so we all sit on the floor."

Ouyang Shuo understood.

Respect was treated importantly in olden society. It was the base of governance and was needed for one to build up his rule.

Their importance in manners and respect was shone in the way they acted. Everyone had to act in a way that was suitable for their rank and status.

To not easily break that respect, they wanted the rulers to follow the olden rules. To lead the country as Yao Shunyu did, everything from ruling to the small things like changing and eating all had their rules. The modern day education system developed from such rules and customs.

As a player territory, one couldn't follow those rules to the letter. Not even talking about the others, just talking about Yingyu, if one followed the old rules, she wouldn't even be allowed to lead.

The system in Shanhai City was designed by Ouyang Shuo alone, and made use of modern knowledge entirely different from that of the old times.

However, he had to admit that respect was crucial in ruling and had a considerable effect. The key was how to choose which parts of the old customs and rules were applicable and useful.

Shanhai City didn't have a fixed organization to monitor and guide the actions and etiquette of people at different levels.

At this time for Xu Shuda to step up and correct the poor etiquette, and also to change that flexibly based on Ouyang Shuo's values made him very happy.

He smiled and looked at Xu Shuda. "Shuda, your suggestion is excellent, I'll approve it. As for the layout of the meeting room I'll let the Culture and Education Division be in charge, and I'll ask the Material Reserves Division to work with you."

"Yes, sire!" Shuda was delighted. To meet such a lord who was willing to be corrected was indeed a blessing.

Chapter 164 - Internal Affairs Department

In the afternoon, Shen Zhui walked into the lord's office.

Until he sat down, he still wasn't sure why Ouyang Shuo had called him.

The last conversation between Ouyang Shuo and Tian Wenjing was naturally kept confidential. Apart from those two, there wasn't a third person that knew. Tian Wenjing wasn't a big-mouthed person, and before Ouyang Shuo revealed it, he wouldn't tell others about it.

Ouyang Shuo smiled as he pushed the teacup towards Shen Zhui. "Relax, it’s good news." Although Shen Zhui was chosen and developed by Ouyang Shuo, this was the first time both of them had a conversation. Naturally, he felt nervous.

Shen Zhui heaved a sigh of relief and calmed down.

"I've noticed your performances in the Saltpan Division, and you’ve been doing well. Now I have a more important task for you. Are you willing to leave the division?" Ouyang Shuo didn't hold back the compliments.

He was shocked. Now that he was already a secretary, what was a more important role? He didn't dare to think about it and said carefully, "I'll follow what sire says."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. "If I let you become the new director of the Material Reserves Department, do you have confidence?"

Even someone as calm as Shen Zhui, upon hearing such news, couldn't keep his emotions in check.

To be able to be commended by Tian Wenjing, Shen Zhui was obviously special. But this news was too shocking. However, he quickly collected his emotions and said, "To be honest,I don't dare to think about this question. Compared to the four directors, in terms of skill or experience, I'm still lacking."

"You don't dare?"

Shen Zhui gritted his teeth. He knew that if he rejected this, then he might not have another shot at such a once in a lifetime opportunity. Although the temptation was great, he decided to be rational.

Think about it, the 4 directors of Shanhai City, none of them were simple and ordinary.

Director Fan and Director Zhang were famous people in history. Becoming directors was wasting their talents. Naturally, one wouldn't talk about not being able to live up to certain expectations.

Director Cui was the godsister of the lord, and was born into a business family. She had vast experience and had been in this territory since the beginning.

Director Ge was the one out of the 4 with the least experience. Even so, he could bring along a huge camp of refugees and survive in the wilderness, which spoke volumes of his ability.

He also had vast experience in the military. Even so, there were negative rumours about director Ge spreading, and if it wasn't for the support of Ouyang Shuo, he wouldn't have been able to hold his position.

Every director was a monster in leadership, and they weren't people a normal person could beat.

Shen Zhui knew that he was a scholar, and had only a few years of private schooling to learn a few things. His formal education was done in Lianzhou College. In the territory, not mentioning the talents, there were more than 5 scholars and people who passed the imperial exams.

As for experience, he had one of the least out of the few secretaries. Out of the 3 secretaries in the Material Reserves Department, he had the least experience.

The only thing that he had was his spirit and his desire to learn. However, such qualities couldn't add to his competitiveness, as after all, everyone looked at results.

Hence, Shen Zhui didn't have the confidence or the skill to take over such a heavy responsibility.

He gritted his teeth and said solemnly, "Yes sire, I don't dare."

He didn't expect that not only would Ouyang Shuo not be angry, but also laugh happily. "Not bad, really not bad."

Shen Zhui was confused and asked, "Sire?"

"You know why I praised you?"

"Please solve my ignorance, sire!" Shen Zhui said respectfully.

"Promoting you to director was a dangerous decision. Your concern is also my concern. If you accepted straight away, then I would have to think whether putting you at such a position was the right choice. If a person could know everything about himself and block temptation, he deserves to be given a chance. Long ago in the military, I made it clear that we would develop talent and wouldn't look at experience. Here, we will use the same theory."

"I have to admit that the time may not be right to promote you, but we have no choice now that director Tian has a more important job. The Material Reserves Department needs someone to take over, and from his recommendation, you are the best fit. During the administrative meeting on the 25th, I’ll announce your promotion. Primarily, however, I was still worried. I wanted to talk to you and also test you."

"The results showed that our decision was right and that you are a talent. You don't need to worry, pressure is a good thing. You need to turn that into motivation. I want to prove to the world that our Shanhai City has the ability to groom directors. Don't worry and do your best. If anything happens, I'll back you up. Remember, I'm your final shield."

Ouyang Shuo's words were exactly what he wanted to hear. Even if he faced a sea of fire, he would jump without hesitation if Ouyang Shuo ordered him to.

Shen Zhui stood up and kneeled on the ground, bowing to Ouyang Shuo.

His eyes were filled with tears and he said emotionally, "Don't worry sire, I won't let you down." He had decided to do his job well and take the pressure.

Ouyang Shuo stood up and helped him up, patting his shoulder. "You're a man, why are you crying? Do well, show me some results."

Shen Zhui tried his best not to cry and shouted, "Yes sire!"

……

5th month, 25th day, Shanhai City meeting hall.

The 5th month’s administrative meeting had started, and apart from the directors and secretaries, there were the head of the affiliate villages.

Under the charge of the Culture and Education Division, the meeting hall had totally changed.

In the meeting hall, a stage was set up and had split the hall into 2 regions. The higher region had a red mat, and on it was a wooden table which was half a meter tall. The middle was flat and the sides curved up. On it were a paper ink and a pen.

Behind the table was a chair. It had an oval back and on the sides where it extended was the arm rest, a very simple design.

At the bottom of the meeting hall, there were 3 short tables on each side. On them were tea and fruits. Behind them were similar floor mats, just that there wasn't a chair.

The 4 directors were seated at the 2 sides and knelt behind the chairs. Behind them were the secretaries. The last 2 tables were currently empty. Beside the left table sat the 3 heads of the affliate villages. On the right were the secretaries of the Auditing Division, Law and Order Division, and the Procuratorate Division.

Ouyang Shuo sat on the chair, his body straight, and looked down before saying, "Before we officially begin, I'll announce some personnel changes."

The various directors and secretary were all unfazed as they had expected that the lord would make changes.

"I've decided to set up an Internal Affairs Department to be in charge of the law and order, jails, auditing, and population control. The Auditing Division, Procuratorate Division and the Law and Order Division will all be under this new department. Apart from that, the Household Registration Division will also be moved under this new department."

Ouyang Shuo had dropped a 1000-pound bomb which exceeded all of their expectations. The Internal Affairs Department was in charge of all the important divisions, and its importance could be compared to that of the Administration Department. Especially after moving the Household Registration Division over, now all 4 departments could be said to be equally important.

The setting up of the Internal Affairs Department was done with modern society as an guide, combining with the current situation with Shanhai City. Their role mainly had to deal with law and order.

The only exception was the Auditing Division.

How to maximize their ability had always been the problem Ouyang Shuo had been thinking about.

If he made them directly into a department, it might be too thin and not important enough. If he let them work independently, however, they’d lack authority, which wouldn't help their work. After much consideration, Ouyang Shuo decided on this strategy.

When he announced the setting up of the Internal Affairs Department, Tian Wenjing understood everything. Ouyang Shuo probably wanted him to take charge of this, as compared to the Material Reserves Department, whose stature had been constantly increasing or decreasing. This was certainly more attractive and a better place to show his ability.

As expected, Ouyang Shuo started to make personnel changes. "Tian Wenjing will be the director, and at the same time he will be relieved of his duties as Director of the Material Reserves Department."

Tian Wenjing got up immediately and walked to the middle of the hall before bowing. "Thank you sire, for your trust. I won't let you down."

This arrangement was something that was too shocking and no one had expected it.

In the territory, to be able to take up such a task, only Fan Zhongyan and Tian Wenjing could do so. as Fan Zhongyan was already the Administration Director, for Tian Wenjing to be the Internal Affairs Director was to be expected. Now both of them had finally got back to the same starting line.

The only thing that everyone looked forward to was about who was going to replace him. The position of Director of Material Reserves was similarly very attractive.

Chapter 165 - Explosion

Editor:ryangohsff

Ouyang Shuo didn't let everyone wait for long, and after announcing the structure of the Internal Affairs Department, he said, "I appoint Shen Zhui as the new Material Reserves Department director, and at the same time remove him from being the secretary of the Saltpans Division."

Everyone was in an uproar as this was unexpected news. Everyone looked towards Shen Zhui, some with jealousy, some with curiosity. It was just that no one looked to congratulate him.

Although he had prepared himself to withstand pressure, to face such a situation, it was still tough to breathe. Thinking about Ouyang Shuo's words, Shen Zhui slowly calmed down, walking into the middle of the hall and bowing. "Thank you sire, I won't let you down."

From today onwards, Shanhai County had given birth to another dragon head. Although this one was a bit duller than the others, one had to admit that his rise was motivation to everyone.

Following which, the meeting officially started. The various secretaries and directors gave their reports. Everything went as expected and there weren't many surprises.

After the administrative meeting had ended, it was already noon, and everyone went back home. Only the 3 heads of the affiliate territories were left at Ouyang Shuo’s request to have their meals at the lord's manor.

Two days ago, the choosing of maidservants had come to an end.

Under the supervision of Yingyu, the two maidservants were invited in. The older one was called Zisu, and the younger was called Banxia, and both would be in charge of his living. Zisu was also in charge of managing all the other servants.

Based on Yingyu's introduction, both of them were orphans and had no relatives in Shanhai County. Zisu was still okay as her age was similar to Yingyu. She was a calm person, and her ability was not bad. Banxia was a bit younger, similar in age to Qing'er.

In truth, to be Ouyang Shuo's maidservant was exceptionally easy. Because he went offline at night, and he wasn't around in the day, the time he was served was very little.

In the afternoon, Gu Xiuwen, Zhao Dexian, and Zhou Haichen walked into the office and started to describe the situations in their various territories.

Qiushui Town’s head Zhao Dexian mentioned that Qiushui Town needed to do 2 things, which were firstly to upgrade the water irrigation system and secondly to build the city walls.

Ouyang Shuo supported and agreed for the Four Seas bank to loan Qiushui Town a sum of money to use for these two projects. On the scale of the city wall, Ouyang Shuo raised specific requirements. As an affiliate territory, in the future, they would have at most 2 city walls.

Hence, the first wall had to be 5 kilometers long, in the middle in scale of the 2 walls in Shanhai County.

As for the upgrade of the water irrigation system, that needed more support. The purpose of Qiushui Town was as a grain base. Apart from reclaiming more land, perfecting the water irrigation system and raising production of grain per acre was the best way to solve the problem. After all, if one had a lot of land but not enough farmers, then it'd be useless.

Zhao Dexian was worthy to be called an ex-village chief, having a sharp eye for agricultural matters and vast experience. At least at the current grade 1 town, he could still be of great use.

The Friendship Town head Zhou Haichen reported the trade situation with the Tianfeng tribe. Friendship Town had smoothly completed their second trade with Tianfeng tribe, obtaining 200 Qingfu horses.

Both sides had agreed after discussions to build a fixed market. With this, Friendship Town could trade with the nomads and wasn't restricted to trading only with particular tribes. The key was that as the fame or the reputation increased, other tribes might come and trade with them.

Hence, the setting up the market meant that it opened up the window to trading with the nomadic tribes. The goods were no longer restricted to Qingfu horses, sheep, and fur. Everything was tradeable. If it went smoothly, then this would stimulate the economy and the lives of people in Friendship Town.

Lastly was the report from Beihai Town’s head Gu Xiuwen.

It had been a month since Beihai Town upgraded to a grade 3 town, and adding the 4000 Jifeng tribe prisoners, the population had received a considerable boost.

Even so, Beihai Town was still half a month away from reaching the 10 thousand max population.

As for Harbour Town, Gu Xiuwen raised that the fishermen had already set up a fishermen association and started to work together when fishing. The men went out to fish while the women stayed at home to dry the fish to make fish jerky before sending it to the market to sell.

In Beihai Town, apart from the fishermen, the biggest group were the salt workers at the Beimu saltpans. Based on his plan, they wanted to copy the main territory and build living quarters near the saltpans, slowly shifting them out of the town.

Beihai Town wanted to turn into a harbor town, so it needed to throw off the burden of salt workers. Now in the town, the ratio in the population wasn’t typical, as half of the population were salt workers.

Furthermore, the salt workers had said that they were willing to shift out. Firstly, it was more convenient and secondly, there was more freedom.

It was only on how to build the living quarters that the town and the Saltpans Division couldn't agree on.

Beihai Town wanted to separately build 5 living quarters near the saltpans, and each would accommodate 1000 workers, the same as a full population grade 3 village.

The Saltpan Division was thinking from a management point of view that they could at most build 2 quarters. In the end, Ouyang Shuo decided to let the salt workers decide for themselves.

After the brief meeting, the 3 of the heads went back to their territories.

Ouyang Shuo returned to the backyard and got ready to go offline.

In the backyard, Zisu was bringing Banxia and sewing clothing for Ouyang Shuo. Zisu was an intermediate tailor, and she could sew some clothes for daily use.

In actuality, the clothing that Ouyang Shuo wore on formal occasions was all done by Qing'er. That brat not only cared about what she wore, but she also settled the clothing of both Ouyang Shuo and Yingyu.

Based on what she said, as the brother and sister of a master tailor, if they wore clothes too badly, she would lose face.

Going back to the room, Ouyang Shuo went straight offline.

In reality, Ouyang Shuo's anonymous post had finally attracted attention. Some players replied that they followed the method and they felt the presence of internal strength.

When there was one, there would be two. If there was only Ouyang Shuo who said that, then everyone wouldn't believe it. Now with others, it would have a certain persuasiveness.

Hence, this post was dug out from the sea of posts and became a hot topic.

For the past two days, the questions and replies on the post had grown. Many lucky players replied to say that they had cultivated successfully. Of course out of those, there would be many liars who only wanted attention.

Ouyang Shuo wasn't clear if the popularity of the post had anything to do with the federal government.

What he could confirm was that everything was going in the direction that he wanted and even exceeded his predictions.

The landmine had finally exploded, and the protests of the people got more and more intense like a thunderstorm and charged at the federal government.

The federal government finally couldn't keep quiet any longer and announced that on the 26th of May, which was that day, they would make a speech through the television to answer all the doubts.

After sending Bing'er to school, Ouyang Shuo returned home immediately and prepared to watch the speech. Sun Xiaoyue didn't go to school today and specially stayed at home. With a woman's 6th sense, she felt that something big was going to happen.

The two of them sat on the sofa and turned on the tv to witness the critical moment.

"Eh, what do you think the president would reveal about Earth Online? I felt that something is up and that it's weird." Before the broadcast, Sun Xiaoyue asked Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo had already trained himself to control his expression and said, "How would I know. Anyways it's gonna start soon, so we will know soon enough."

"You really don't know?" Sun Xiaoyue didn't give up.

"Of course I don't!" Ouyang Shuo lied so hard that even he believed himself.

Sun Xiaoyue stared at Ouyang Shuo. From his face, she couldn't find any abnormality, so she could only say helplessly, "You're getting better at faking.”

Sun Xiaoyue had long ago believed that he knew something, just that she wasn't clear how much he knew. Hence she would often test him out.

Unfortunately, with her skill level, she was unable to make an old fox like Ouyang Shuo speak.

At 9 AM, the federal government president appeared on the television.

At the same time, out of the billion people, at least half were, through various means, watching this special broadcast.

"Hello everyone, I'm going to announce huge news. After hearing it, please do not panic as the federal government has made plans to solve any problem that will occur."

"Twenty years ago, our scientists found that our Earth will, in 2200, which was 10 years later, explode from the core and the entire Earth will become a ball of fire."

"Luckily, heaven left us a path, and on one of our satellites, we spotted a new planet which could sustain life. Hence the federal government created a secret galactic migration project. The game Earth Online that everyone is paying attention to is a part of that project. The project has in these 20 years, come to fruition."

"The federal government has officially decided to start the galactic migration on the 1st day of of the 7th month of 2190. At that time, everyone will sit on the galactic spaceship and fly towards planet Hope. The specific details will be posted on the federal government website. Please work together with the federal government and prepare ahead of time. See you soon!"

Chapter 166 - Migration Project

The words from the federal government president were simple but held deep meaning, enough to rattle everyone. If one wanted to know more details, they would have to go onto the federal website. In truth, after the president finished his speech, the television channel started to report on the details of the migration.

Firstly after the program, the whole world would enter code 1 alert status. Military and police were to enter battle formations and prevent any sabotage or stealing from happening.

From tonight onwards, the whole world would start to practice curfew, where after 9 PM, no one was allowed to stay out, and all entertainment venues were to close.

In modern day society, most of the weapons used were energy weapons. Laser weapons had long replaced the normal guns and rifles used 200 years ago. A 100 years earlier, electromagnetic guns had replaced firearms. With strict weapons control and Gaia that monitored everything, for normal people to cause problems was already very difficult.

Subsequently, from the next day onwards, all schools would stop. Of course that didn't mean that learning stopped, as all the lessons from primary school to university would be moved to Earth Online.

Apart from people appointed to maintain and run the services in the cities by the federation, any other normal shops and services would be closed, and the workers no longer needed to report for work.

From this moment on, all bank accounts and fixed properties were frozen, and people couldn't buy, sell, or trade goods. Food and daily products would be distributed by the federation to prevent looting.

Gaia, who had eyes on everything along with delivery robots, easily delivered all the goods, and one didn't need to worry that they wouldn’t receive the things that was meant for them.

The federal government started to calculate one's personal assets and changed them into credits. In truth, this job had been started long ago, but now it only needed them to comply and confirm.

All transportation vehicles including trains, planes and airborne railways were now only used to reunite families.

From the next day onwards, the government would send everyone a game cabin. Those who already had one wouldn't be given an additional one. All the cabins were designed based on one's basic information.

Additionally, the government specifically pointed out that the space on the spaceship was limited, and one was only able to bring a limited number of personal items. They had strict requirements and limitations on the size and weight of the luggage.

At this point, this was all the government had revealed. As for planet Hope and the changes in-game, they were temporarily not revealed.

The federal government had considered how much the public could accept and wanted to control the situation in reality, waiting for everyone to enter the game before making changes in-game.

After learning the details and confirming that they were the same as the previous life, Ouyang Shuo didn't bother about the shock from Sun Xiaoyue and said, "I'll pick up Bing'er from school. As for the rest, let's discuss later."

Sun Xiaoyue nodded understandingly. "Go."

On the roads were signs of chaos and panic. Luckily there were police maintaining law and order and armed machines on patrol, so there weren't any riots or fights.

After the curfew was set, the military entered the city and helped the police in maintaining law and order in order to prevent violence.

Suddenly, Ouyang Shuo received a phone call from his little aunt.

"Little Shuo, did you see the news? I hope you and Bing'er can come over to Shang Hai, and at that time we would all board the galactic spacecraft."

Ouyang Shuo paused. On this point, he had his own plans. "Little aunt, on the way to Bing'er's school, some things aren't convenient to say. How about this, I'll call you in the evening."

Talking about Bing'er, little aunt instantly understood and switched off the phone.

Following which, Ouyang Shuo received Song Jia's call which he declined. If it wasn’t that he didn't want to reveal that he had already knew the news, he wouldn't have let Bing'er go to school today.

This was such a sudden change. Although the teachers would comfort them, Ouyang Shuo didn't want Bing'er to face any shock.

When he reached the school, as expected, there were many parents waiting at the gate to pick their kids up early. The school could understand, and as the teachers weren’t in the mood to continue the lessons, the early dismissal was smoothly done.

Luckily, everyone was a decent human being, and there wasn't any pushing or rushing.

Bing'er appeared by the gate, and upon seeing Ouyang Shuo, she ran and shouted, "Brother!" Obviously, she was happy that Ouyang Shuo picked her up early.

Ouyang Shuo pulled her hand and smiled. "Let's go home!"

"En." Her emotions were still very calm. At her age, she didn't have much understanding towards the apocalypse of intergalactic migration.

On the other hand, she asked curiously, "Brother, my teacher said we would all sit on galactic spaceships and move to other planets, is that true?"

"Yes."

"Wa, that's great. Bing'er has not sat on a spaceship." Bing'er had a face filled with excitement. "Brother, do you think there will be monsters in the new world?"

Ouyang Shuo was speechless. As expected, a kids world was totally different. He rubbed her head. "Brother doesn't know. However, even if there are any, Bing'er doesn't need to be scared, as brother will protect you."

"En." Bing'er had a lot of faith in her brother.

On the way back, various stalls and shops had all closed. Luckily, Ouyang Shuo was prepared and he had gathered some amenities.

When they reached home, it was close to noon.

After lunch, Ouyang Shuo let Bing'er return to her room to rest. Bing'er was well behaved, and knew that Ouyang Shuo had things to tell Sun Xiaoyue, so she went in without a fuss.

Ouyang Shuo brewed a cup of tea for himself sitting on the sofa as he looked at Sun Xiaoyue. "Xiaoyue, what are your plans? When’re you going home?"

Her family wasn't in Jiaozhou, and going home was the obvious choice.

Sun Xiaoyue said helplessly, "In the morning when you went to fetch Bing'er, my family called me to go home tomorrow."

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, "Then go home tomorrow. Don't let them worry."

"Till now you still don't want to tell me your in-game ID?"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. "It'll only be a month, right? In the game, based on the time, you should have graduated right?"

It was a trick. Every time she asked, he would change the topic. As she observed in the past half a year, Ouyang Shuo's ID had very important information, which made him so careful. If not, he wouldn't be such a cold and secretive person.

"Yes, I graduated the day before and am now a intermediate architect. Yesterday, I followed what you said and spent 100 gold to enter the King City building department to intern. The one month of the internship might just be when the migration will happen." Sun Xiaoyu explained.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. "On the side of the Fallen Moon guild, is there any progress?"

Fallen moon guild had became her little problem, and she laughed bitterly. “Qinruo and Qiaoqiao have already joined. Apart from that I used your method and there were some
rewards. However, our reputation was too low and players didn't want to join. Yesterday, we just crossed a hundred members."

Ouyang Shuo was still very confident. "Don't worry. As the real world changes, their views will change too. A month later when the migration starts, everything will not be a problem. You don't need to worry about the guild, so just focus on your internship."

"Okay." Sun Xiaoyue wasn't too devoted to managing the guild anyways.

"Oh ya, there's something I need your help on."

"What is it?"

"I remember you said that your grandpa was a boat specialist?"

"Yes." Sun Xiaoyue was confused on why he would bring this up.

"When you go home, can you talk to him? I hope he can join my territory. Best if he could ask some of his scientist friends. Especially concerning ships and alchemists."

Sun Xiaoyue understood and giggled. "You always like to beat around the bush. Since I'm joining you, my family will naturally join you too. As for the others, you better call my grandpa yourself. When I return, I'll call you and let my grandpa have a video chat with you."

Ouyang Shuo was delighted. "That's the best Xiaoyue. You’ve done me a huge favor."

Sun Xiaoyue shook her head and said, "Okay. However, I must remind you that you bragged so much about your territory. If it sucks in the end, what an embarrassment."

"Don't worry, when was I so unreliable?" Ouyang Shuo said helplessly.

"That's true. Okay I trust you. In the future I'll depend on you, my lord." Sun Xiaoyue joked.

"Luckily I have you. If not, I don't know how Bing'er is going to adapt when she enters. Even in the game I won't be able to be by her side." Ouyang Shuo was really thankful for Sun Xiaoyue.

She sighed. "Ha, i won't see her for 1 month. I’m going to miss her. Ok, the things that needed to be settled have been done. If there's anything, just call me. I'll go find Bing'er."

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, "Ok, go."

Chapter 167 - Weapon Specialist

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo took the time to make a trip.

He wanted to visit a person that was super important for the future development of his territory.

He took a trip to an old neighbourhood in Jiao State suburbs. This kind of neighbourhood was considered a forgotten area, similar to the shantytowns 200 years ago.

Because of the massive drop in population and also the excellent welfare packages, this old neighbourhood was like a ghost town. Those who lived here were usually those who couldn't mix well into society.

When he got out of the car, he followed the memory in his last life and walked the streets of the neighborhood. On each side were old shops that were dilapidated and long closed.

When he saw a weird advertisement sign, he was sure that the guy from the last life didn't lie. Ouyang Shuo walked into another alley and onto the muddy and dirty surface. Both sides had high walls and on them were creepers and other vegetation.

After walking 500 meters in the alley, he finally saw a similar advertisement sign that was hung slanted on a building.

The advertisement board was made of an iron sheet, and rust spots were all around it. A bullet was spray-painted on it. If people didn't pay attention they wouldn't recognize it. Such a bullet had stopped production 50 years ago, and it meant that weapons using gunpowder had left the stage of history and was replaced by higher quality and stronger weapons like lasers.

Seeing that advertisement board, it was like Ouyang Shuo entered a trance.

If nothing went wrong, living inside would be, apart from his few brothers and sisters, one of his best friends in-game.

He was called Liumo, a very basic name, and his in-game ID was Zidan Chutang. This was a guy who couldn't fit into this era, engrossed in the weapons that had already been left in history. From hobby to passion, he nearly went too far.

To analyze and study thermal weapons, he left home, broke up with his girlfriend and lived in the old neighborhood.

He stayed for 10 years and only stepped out of that little house when the galactic migration occurred.

At that time, his girlfriend had already married and given birth. Liumo who was disheartened and lazy, roamed around the game and did nothing. His talent was hard to use in the game.

Ouyang Shyo met Liumo by chance during a meeting. It was a coincidence, and both of them were similar to one another, so naturally they became friends.

During their casual conversation, he talked about this experience in his life that left a deep impression in Ouyang Shuo.

That was right. Ouyang Shuo had specially come to find him was to get to know this best friend again, and also to invite him to his territory to study thermal weapons.

In the later stages of the game, guns and cannons were the main weapons in the war. After history entered the Ming Dynasty, warships had to have cannons to be able to rule the oceans.

The system had strict restrictions on the technology tree, and it was difficult for players to break out of the restrictions of their country.

Europe and America, the countries that relied on the industrial revolution, the birth of guns were a standard part of their technological tree. Like in the Free Town defence, the arquebus had already come into play.

However in China, although there were already guns during the Ming Dynasty, because of the restrictions on them during the Qing Dynasty, they weren't developed and instead there was a drop in technology.

Hence, to build destructive guns and cannons was difficult in the Chinese region.

Manufacturing manuals of these items were unable to be found on the market or the auction. Even using the freedom system in the game to craft items, they wouldn't have high damage and fatal power.

The appearance of Magnus had opened up a new door towards success.

As he was a western NPC, that meant that he grew according to the western technology tree. Which meant that if Magnus mad Liumo worked hand in hand, they could skip the manufacturing manuals and craft high damage guns and cannons.

Of course, this was much harder than the westerners using the manuals to craft guns. However, at least this was a possibility that was worth Ouyang Shuo investing in.

Ouyang Shuo did not want to lag behind in the future ocean battles.

Tossing aside such thoughts, he walked forward and knocked on the door of the small house.

"Who is that?" Inside said a shocked voice. Following which, a man opened the door wearing a work uniform and an unkempt mustache, his hair like a bird's nest.

Ouyang Shuo froze. One's image was improved and changed in the game, in addition to his clothing, Ouyang Shuo wasn't sure if this was the right guy.

"Hello, my name is Ouyang Shuo. Are you teacher Liumo?"

The middle-aged man also froze. "Yes, how did you find this place?"

Ouyang Shuo was relaxed. Seeing his good friend like this, he found it hilarious. In the game when Liumo talked about his past, the most he referred to were the 2 advertisement boards and not about his clothing. Ouyang Shuo guessed that he probably didn't know what state he was in.

Ouyang Shuo didn't reply and laughed. "So are you not going to invite me in?"

Liumo was forthright and wasn't afraid that Ouyang Shuo had any ill intentions, just inviting him in.

When he walked in, the entire house was like a thermal weapon museum. Different kinds of rifles and pistols were strewn all over the place. Apart from that, there were specialized tools to make guns and ammo.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo have an interest in such weapons, Liumo got a bit excited.

He didn't chase to find out how Ouyang Shuo knew his name and instead warmly introduced Ouyang Shuo to his weapons and their stats.

Ouyang Shuo could understand his feeling. Such recognition was something that was very important to Liumo.

In modern society, of those Liumo was the only one other than those who specialized in weapon history who had such a deep understanding of these things.

Most crucially, not only did he have knowledge, but he had practical ability. Only such a place with no monitoring could allow Liumo to explore his interest.

Of course, although one could say that it was a dead monitoring zone, it was only because he didn't use the weapons to cause harm to others. If not, Gaia would have contacted the police to lock him up.

After viewing Liumo's gun museum, Ouyang Shuo brought up his main reason for coming. "You should have watched the president's speech on television today right?"

Liumo froze. "What television speech?"

Ouyang Shuo nearly fainted, he really didn't know. These kind of people were usually the last few to be brought up onto the galactic spaceships.

"You can access the net here?"

"Of course, if not how would I search for information?"

"Go to the federal government website to see." Ouyang Shuo said impatiently.

"See what?"

"Just see, it's of the utmost importance." Ouyang Shuo started to use the tone of a best friend to talk to him.

Liumo didn't care. Maybe it was because it wasn't easy to meet someone that recognized him and his work. He opened his handbrain and went onto the federal government website.

On the official website, the posts and details regarding the migration were placed at easy to see places. "Galactic migration?" Liumo looked at Ouyang Shuo with uncertainty.

Ouyang Shuo nodded.

He was stunned and started to read the articles.

5 minutes later he had finished, and he looked at Ouyang Shuo in shock. "Is this real?"

"Of course, this afternoon the president went on television to speak. This video should be on the website too." Ouyang Shuo could understand his doubt.

Liumo opened the federal government website and found the video. After watching it, he went silent.

Ouyang Shuo left him alone for 10 minutes to gather his thoughts before saying, "If nothing goes wrong, the government will send gaming cabins tomorrow. Do you have any plans?"

He laughed bitterly. "What plans can I have? A person like me that society won't take in, migration or not what difference does it make?"

"Don't say that, at least you still have family right?"

Liumo kept silent for a long while before uttering, "Yes you are right. I'm such an unfilial son. I should go visit my parents, only I don't know if they will recognize me."

In the last life, Liumo had missed the chance because of such thoughts and considerations. This became one of his biggest regrets, and Ouyang Shuo didn't want history to repeat itself.

"Thank you, brother." Liumo said sincerely to Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo said, "That's right, we are brothers. Since you are older, I'll call you older brother. To tell the truth, I've been playing Earth Online from the start and have a small result so far. How about you come and help me in-game, and us brothers will work hard together."

"Okay as long as you don't despise me."

Hence between people, things were extraordinary. With some people, even after a long time, you were unable to have in-depth conversations with them. Others, even meeting once, would seem like lifetime friends.

"Big brother Liu, don't self-deprecate yourself, I believe that your studies on thermal weapons can definitely open up the sky in the game." Ouyang Shuo said.

"You are saying that I can still analyze thermal weapons in the game?" His eyes brightened up.

"That's right!"

"That's great, I can't wait." Liumo was really excited.

Chapter 168 - Marriage

After exchanging numbers with Liumo, Ouyang Shuo didn't stay any longer and left.

When he went home, it was already 5:30PM, and it was time for dinner. Ouyang Shuo didn't say a word and started to cook for the two women in the family.

When eating, Ouyang Shuo noticed that Bing'er's eyes were red and said, "Baby, did you cry in the afternoon? Who made you sad?"

"Bad brother." Being exposed by Ouyang Shuo, Bing'er was embarrassed.

He obviously knew that the little brat was sad because she heard that Xiaoyue was going to leave. He was just teasing her to change her mood.

Sun Xiaoyue could only watch on and nag. "What brother actually bullies his one sister? Haiz.."

"I agree." Bing'er followed.

Ouyang Shuo wouldn't try to defend himself. If he did, he would die a terrible death. He knowingly focussed on eating and didn't say a word.

Sun Xiaoyue and Bing'er looked at each other and laughed, like a pair of little foxes that claimed victory.

After dinner, Sun Xiaoyue started packing. Ouyang Shuo looked at her packing bag after bag, and asked doubtfully, "Xiaoyue, you are bringing all those away?"

"Yes, I won't be coming back so of course I'm taking them away."

"Are you dumb?" Ouyang Shuo spoke with sarcasm.

"You! What's that supposed to mean!"

Ouyang Shuo was speechless and said, "Didn't they say clearly that each person could only bring a small number of personal items? You can bring all this home, but in the end you still need to leave them on Earth. So don't you think you aren’t dumb."

Sun Xiaoyue froze, and when she regained her thoughts, she said with a forced smile, "Oh ya, I forgot. I'm really reluctant to throw all this away."

Maybe at that moment, she really realised what the galactic migration meant. This wasn't like changing houses, moving from one district to another, but it was moving from one planet to another.

Seeing that the atmosphere was a little down, Ouyang Shuo didn't say anything and went back to his room.

He made a call back to Song Jia.

"Blockhead, you finally return my call. I was anxious to death." Song Jia sounded very anxious.

"Calm down, say things slowly, what exactly happened?" Ouyang Shuo consoled her.

"Aiyo," she was despondent, saying, "In the afternoon, The Yuan family raised up the issue of marriage to my grandpa and they want me and Yuanping to marry to form more reliable alliances in-game. Although it was shelved after my disagreement, I'm afraid I can't stop it for long. Blockhead, what should we do?"

Ouyang Shuo froze, Yuanping actually took that step.

Seems like both the Song family and Yuan family, which were middle sized powers, felt no sense of security as they had just started the game. They wanted to group up to stay safe, and this became a natural choice.

Marriage was a great idea. Song Jia's father was the wielder of power in the Song family, and Yuanping was the heir to the Yuan family.

"What do you think?" Ouyang Shuo didn't react.

"Even if I die I wouldn't marry him. If my grandpa forces me, I'll run away from home." Song Jia was getting very emotional and her attitude was very resolute.

Ouyang Shuo was calm, recalling the last 3 months of their love. It had magical effects.

Their love had all the ingredients of a drama, from the student gathering, a crush, meeting after a long time, rich family problems, etc.

All this didn't look real, but this was love.

Love made you rash and irrational, making you not care about anything and give yourself up.

Ever since he was reincarnated, many beauties appeared in his life. Towards them, Ouyang Shuo had different feelings. They were friends and sisters, but never lovers.

Only in front of Song Jia would Ouyang Shuo put down everything and truly be himself.

"Jia Jia, don't be rash." Ouyang Shuo calmed her down. "What you must do is express your opinion. Don't do anything else. I'll deal with the rest."

Song Jia felt warm inside. "Blockhead, what will you do?"

"The reason your grandpa thought of such a solution was to find a good ally, am I right?" Ouyang Shuo found the core of the issue.

Song Jia nodded. "That's right. Last time he cared a lot about me. Before this, Yuanping came often to chase me, and my grandpa didn't agree."

"That's right. Since it's in-game, naturally we will solve it through the game. Relax, I will prove that I'm more reliable than the Yuan Family."

Song Jia didn't want to tease Ouyang Shuo about his bragging and said, "Blockhead, I trust you. You won't let me down."

Ouyang Shuo didn't want to make the atmosphere depressing and laughed. "Jia Jia, after you migrate, will you stay at your Tianshuang Town, or come to me?"

Song Jia froze. "That's depends whether your place is as good as you say it is."

"Haha, I guarantee you will be pleased."

"Stupid blockhead, still bragging."

Following this, the two naturally continued to flirt. Ouyang Shuo found that Song Jia was especially clingy today, and totally different from usual.

The sudden change and the thing about marriage made the usually confident Song Jia into a little girl who wanted someone to rely on.

The two of them talked till 10, when little aunt called and Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to end the call saying, "Sweetheart, my little aunt called me. Let's talk next time."

"En." Song Jia, although she was reluctant, she followed what Ouyang Shuo said.

"Good night. Don't worry, I'll settle the game stuff.

"Good night."

…

Ouyang Shuo hung up the call and picked up his little aunt's call. "Little aunt, it's me."

"Little Shuo, who you talking to, your phone has been engaged for so long."

"I was talking to your future niece in law." Ouyang Shuo could finally relax himself.

Lin Jing's eyes brightened and smiled, "Wa, little kid, not bad. Who is that girl? When you going to introduce her to me?"

At this moment, Lin Jing felt like she had the instinct of being a parent.

Ouyang Shuo said, "Little aunt, I don't dare. What if you steal her from me?"

"Hey stupid brat, when did you start making fun of your little aunt?"

"I don't dare. I don't dare." Ouyang Shuo raised his hands and surrendered.

"Ok let's stop fooling around and talk about business. Little Shuo, have you thought about my proposal in the morning?"

Ouyang Shuo had thought it out and said, "Little aunt, you know that tomorrow Bing'er will enter the game."

"What does that have to do with this?"

"I'll definitely bring her to my territory. If I move to Shang Hai and stay with you, what if she lets slip and reveals everything in the game? It's not that I don't trust your members, but just to be safe, I don't want anything to happen at the last moment. Little aunt, don't worry, I studied the migration specifics, and although in theory people in the same city will board the same spaceship, if we are relatives we can apply to the government to let us board the same spaceship at the last moment." Ouyang Shuo explained.

Lin Jing froze. She didn't think about this so much. As for her nephew, he was so careful.

"Then that's okay, you make sense." Lin Jing compromised.

"Thank you little aunt for your understanding."

"We are a family. Tell Bing'er that I'll visit her a month later in-game."

"I will. That little brat will definitely be happy."

After ending the call with little aunt, it was only then that he had time to log into the game. At this moment, Bing'er was already asleep, so he wouldn’t go disturb her.

In the game, it was naturally in chaos.

The first was that the exchange platform was closed, losing Di Chen and the others their money provider.

Following which, the prices of every good in the game began to rise. The players were clear that as players swarmed into the game, the balance would be broken.

As for the complaints and anger of the players who sold their territories, they were unable to cause any uproar.

Ouyang Shuo didn't have the mind to care about all this, and ordered the finance department to collect the profits of the latter half of the 5th month from the Beimu saltpans and the Langshan mines.

Firstly was that Ouyang Shuo needed to buy the basic building blueprints of the grade 1 city, and secondly he need to pay the military salaries.

Ouyang Shuo knew that since the federal government set the migration on the 1st of the 7th month of 2190, there would be an update in the game at night.

The upcoming update would have a deep impact on the game, and he needed to make use of the last month to make preparations and make use of his advantage to earn big.

All this needed large amounts of resources, or everything would be for naught.

Spending an entire afternoon, Ouyang Shuo hid in his office and thought about what he would do for the next month. Apart from that, he needed to convince Song Jia's brother, Song Wen, to helph im convince his grandpa to abandon the marriage.

Chapter 169 - Bargaining Chip

Ouyang took out a token from his storage bag. This token was obtained by General Shi when they destroyed a large-scale raider camp 2 days ago.

Ever since the mixed regiment was formed, Shanhai City once again activated bandit destruction mode. His goal was to clean up the new 1000 square kilometers of territory.

Two days had passed, and they had only completed a fourth of their mission. Based on the colonel of the regiment Shi Wanshui, he predicted that he would at least need a week to finish it.

Because of the bandits, the business around the lord's manor Guards was pushed back time after time. Ouyang Shuo decided to order Wang Feng to hold the trials after the bandits were dealt with.

Ouyang Shuo held the token in his hand. It was a basic soldier token.

Heavy armored infantry token (basic): Can directly change the class of 100 max rank militiamen to rank 1 heavy armored infantry.

A similar token had appeared during the auction. However, that was the more expensive heavy armored cavalry which was bought by Xiongba for 1200 gold.

This heavy armored infantry token, based on the market price shouldn't be less than 2000 gold. Firstly was that the market prices soared, and secondly the rarity and preciousness of gold couldn't be compared to 2 months ago.

This soldier token was nothing to Shanhai City. To Song Wen, however, it was a precious treasure.

Ouyang Shuo didn't hesitate and anonymously sent the soldier token to Song Wen. Along with the token was a handwritten letter by Ouyang Shuo.

In the letter, Ouyang Shuo mentioned that he was the friend of Song Jia, and that this soldier token was a meeting gift to give to his future brother-in-law. If he were willing to help out and break the marriage, Ouyang Shuo would reward him. Whether the Song family was willing to ally with a family that was around their level, or ally with a friend that was much stronger, the decision lay in their hands.

In the future, the game would be a battle between the strong. Tianshuang Town shouldn't miss this chance. If they did, they would remain a second-rate territory.

Ouyang Shuo appeared very tough in the letter. He knew that facing a family like the Song family, the weaker you looked, the more they looked down on you. On the contrary, the stronger you looked, the more they would respect you.

At the current stage, to casually hand out a soldier token was a symbol of strength.

It wasn't hard to imagine that after receiving the token he would definitely report to his grandfather. Based on the sly nature of businessmen, before they understood Ouyang Shuo's bottom line, they naturally wouldn't place all their stakes on him right away.

This was the outcome that he had wanted. As long as they hesitated and delayed for this month, then when the migration started and Ouyang Shuo revealed his identity, Yuanping wouldn't stand any chance.

Ouyang Shuo wasn't worried that the Song family would do anything harmful to him. Now the world was on an alert, and the safety of everyone was the top priority.

Famous players like Bai Hua had long before had their real life identities revealed. The federal government had thought this through and placed much care on their safety.

With the businessman status of the Song family, they wouldn't tread on the dangerous road as that would be of no benefit to them.

Ouyang Shuo was so careful because he was worried about Di Chen and the other strong powers. Their strength in reality was frightening, and even in such a world situation, Ouyang Shuo didn't have confidence that he could get away safely.

After settling the soldier token issue, Ouyang Shuo went offline.

In the morning, Sun Xiaoyue brought some simple luggage and went home. As for her game cabin, it was sent through the federal government game cabin transmitting channel and promised to be returned the same day.

In the afternoon, Bing'er's game cabin reached the house. As a kid, her game cabin was of a small size.

After the workers left, Bing'er looked at the game cabin that belonged to her and asked curiously, "Brother, is Bing'er going to play the same game as you and sister Xiaoyue?"

"Yes. How about this? Tonight you can be with brother, and also there will be two sisters to spend time with you. Bing'er will definitely like it."

"Then can Bing'er see sister Xiaoyue?" The little brat couldn't forget about Sun Xiaoyue.

Ouyang Shuo bent down and pinched her cheeks. "Of course. However, you need to wait for a month. And also, Xue'er can join the game with you, are you happy?"

"Ya, is that true, brother?"

"Of course, when has brother lied to you?"

"Yay, I'll go find Xue'er." The little brat said as she ran out of the room.

At 6 PM, Ouyang Shuo logged into the game. This time Bing'er and Xue'er followed along. Because she was still underage, she used the parental guidance mode. Ouyang Shuo had confirmed himself as the parent of Bing'er.

Under the parental guidance mode, Ouyang Shuo could help her control her character, and after a series of selections, Ouyang Shuo appeared in the Character Creation Hall.

"Ya, such a beautiful fairy sister." Bing'er exclaimed as she looked at the guiding fairy.

Ouyang Shuo didn't waste time and set her ID as Ouyang Bing, choosing the lord's game mode and making her side job a knight, her birthplace was set as Shanhai City.

Of course, to Bing'er the job didn't have any meaning as she wouldn't even get it.

After selecting everything, the brother and sister appeared in the teleportation formation of Shanhai Town, together with them was Xue'er, the advanced smart pet.

Walking out of the formation, Ouyang Shuo pulled on her hand and pointed to the lord's manor. "That is brother's house, baby do you like it?"

Seeing such a vast manor, she exclaimed, "Ya, such a beautiful house!"

"Let's go. Two sisters are waiting for you."

"En."

Walking into the lord's manor, the various workers of each department hadn't started work, and the entire estate only had some workers. Ouyang Shuo brought her to the backyard. When the maidservants Zisu and Banxia saw sire walk in from outside the yard, they were surprised.

What was more surprising was the little girl he was holding to and the little thing jumping on her shoulder.

"Sire!" Although they found it surprising, they still bowed and greeted.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, "Banxia, go call big miss and second miss."

"Yes sire!" Banxia immediately turned around.

Ouyang Shuo looked towards Zisu and laughed. "This is my sister, Ouyang Bing. Next time she will be the third miss in this manor. She is still young, so I need you to take care of her."

After two days of observation, Ouyang Shuo was pleased with Zisu. She did her work well and arranged everything nicely and aptly. Handing Bing'er to her allowed him not to worry.

Zisu didn't dare to be too slow and bowed towards Bing'er. "Third miss!" Suze wasn't dumb, and the sire had specially instructed her to take care of his sister.

Bing'er thought it was fun and she looked at Ouyang Shuo. "Brother, this sister looks like the sister on the television."

Ouyang Shuo didn't know how to explain this to the little brat and said, "Baby, next time treat this like our home okay?"

"En."

Bing'er's adaptive skills were solid. When she moved in with Ouyang Shuo, she wasn't the least bit uncomfortable. In the last life, she had quickly adapted to this game.

This time, Yingyu and Qing'er had already washed up and rushed over.

Ouyang Shuo invited everyone to the main hall and let Bing'er stand beside him. After Yingyu and Qing'er sat down, he opened up. "Yingyu, Bing'er, let me give introductions, this is my sister Ouyang Bing."

"Ouyang Bing?" Yingyu frowned in thought. "I remember big brother say that your surname was Ouyang. Is this little sister your real sister?"

Such a good memory. Ouyang Shuo nodded. "That's right, my real name is Ouyang Shuo, Qiyue Wuyi is a nickname." Ouyang Shuo pulled Bing'er and pointed to them. "Bing'er this is big sister Yingyu and Qingsi, have you remembered their names?"

"En." In a formal occasion, Bing'er was always well behaved, calling both of them, making them both delighted.

Especially Qing'er, this girl couldn't sit still and walked beside Bing'er. "That's great, I'm finally not the youngest, so brother won't always bully me."

Following which, she was curious about Xue'er who stopped on Bing'er's shoulder. "Bing'er, tell sister who this little fellow is."

Xue'er was smart and didn't wait for Bing'er to reply. It flew up on its own and said. "Xue'er, Xue'er."

This move made Qing'er's mouth agape. "Ya, it flies. So magical, it's like the sprite in the legends. You said you are called Xue'er?"

"En."

Even the always calm Yingyu couldn’t sit still and looked at Ouyang Shuo, asking, "Big brother, is that an ancient sprite?"

Ouyang Shuo didn't know how to explain this to them and said, "Just treat it as it is."

At this time, Suze walked in. "Sire, miss, breakfast is ready."

"Ok, let's go eat breakfast, let's talk at the table." Ouyang Shuo got up and dragged Bing'er, bringing her to the food hall.

After breakfast, Ouyang Shuo let Yingyu and Qing'er do their own business. Bing'er would take care of herself today.

Before leaving, Qing'er didn't stop reminding Ouyang Shuo to bring Qing'er to her tailor shop. She wanted to sew some beautiful clothing for her new sister.

Chapter 170 - Teacher

Taking into account that Bing'er just came, Ouyang Shuo wasn't ready to let her move in straight away into the east courtyard. Instead, he emptied a room in the main courtyards.

Ouyang Shuo didn't do much in the entire morning, just bringing Bing'er around Shanhai Town. The majestic Qingfu horse, the Nian beasts... all of them caused her to be amazed and intrigued.

As for how the lord suddenly had a new sister, both the residents and the officials in the manor were all delighted. This proved that their lord had a family heritage which was very important in ancient times.

Zisu was arranged beside Bing'er to take care of her living and daily needs. On the side of Ouyang Shuo. He only kept Banxia, as either way he didn't need much taking care of and service.

In the afternoon, Zisu continued to accompany Bing'er to sightsee around Shanhai Town.

Ouyang Shuo returned to his office and started to deal with all the administrative work.

He picked up a document which was from the weapon workshop manager Xukun. In the document he mentioned that they had already combined the crafting techniques of the Tang knife and the long spear, and created the lance.

Out of all the long weapons, the earliest used weapon was the spear. As chariots appeared,dagger axes appeared for soldiers to attack on top of the chariots. The appearance of war horses proliferated cavalry and combining the advantages of both the spear and the dagger axe, it slowly became the main weapon of the cavalry, the halberd.

When heavy armor appeared, to increase the penetration of the weapon, the main weapon of the cavalry became lances. The lance's appearance was the same as spears, just that it was made with better materials and was stronger.

The core of the lance was its pole. The higher grade lances often used tricuspid cudrania wood. Unfortunately such a precious material was not yet found in Shanhai Town.

With the lance, the equipment of The Shanhai City heavy armoured cavalry was set. Now what they lacked was a lance teacher to teach the cavalry how to use the lance.

Dwelling on this topic, Ouyang Shuo instantly thought about Qing Qiong from Xunlong Town.

He didn't hesitate and shouted in the alliance channel, "Requesting help from xunlong."

"Boss, what's up?" Xunlong Dianxue immediately replied.

"Cough, lend me your Qing Qiong, we can discuss the terms."

"Wa, the chance to exploit the boss has come." Siege Lion suddenly appeared.

"Boss, Qing Qiong is my only general, I can't relax with him gone."

As expected that little brat started to raise the stakes. Ouyang Shuo didn't want to follow his tempo and offered, "One day for 10 Tang knives, no less than half a month."

Based on his offer, a Tang knife was 5 gold, 10 would be 50. If Xunlong Dianxue wasn't happy with it then he would be too greedy.

"Deal!" In truth, this far exceeded his expectation.

"Wa, Xunlong you have earned big. Boss, my Qin Shou is also for rent, I can give you a 20% discount." Siege Lion was envious.

"Why would I rent your Qin Shou, you should just give him to me, name your price." Ouyang Shuo joked.

"Hehe, Qin Shou is not for sale." Siege Lion still hadn't lost his mind.

"Xunlong, teleport him over now. We will count it as a day." Ouyang Shuo shouted.

"No problem, I'll go look for him now." Xunlong Dianxue agreed.

Ouyang Shuo got up and left the lord's manor and prepared to go to the teleportation formation to welcome Qing Qiong.

As expected, in 10 minutes he transported over. "I greet Lord Wuyi!"

"I've made General Qin busy. As for the reason you are here, I'm sure your sire has told you?"

"Yes he told me it's to teach your army how to use lances."

"Great, general please follow me."

"Yes!"

Ouyang Shuo brought Qing Qiong to the Military Affairs Department and handed him over to director Zhu. "Director Zhu, I’ll hand general Qin over to you. Tomorrow, follow him and go to the barracks. Tell Lin Yi clearly to ensure all soldiers have grasped the lance. Those that perform well will become sergeants."

"Understood!"

Ouyang Shuo left the Military Affairs Department and went to the lord's manor, nicely bumping into Yingyu.

"Big brother, the Langshan mining field and Northern Saltpan's income has been collected. It's a total of 7600 gold."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. "How much does the Financial Department need this month?"

"This month we earned 2000 gold and need around 3000 gold of subsidies to maintain expenditure." Yingyu said apologetically.

"That's very good already." Ouyang Shuo consoled. "How about this, I'll leave 3600 to either the Financial Department. As for the remaining 4000 gold, transfer it to me."

"En."

Holding onto the gold, Ouyang Shuo went to the market and spent 1800 gold buying all the building blueprints as well as the upgrade blueprints for the granary and the private school.

On the market appeared another batch of gold rank secret manuals, which he bought up. There were a total of 24 totalling 1200 gold. Adding to the 76 he bought last time, Ouyang Shuo now had 100 gold rank secret manuals. These secret manuals were going to soar in price after the 7th month.

As for the remaining 1000 gold, Ouyang Shuo didn't dare to use and saved it for emergencies.

Going back to his office, he passed the building blueprints to the clerk and asked him to pass it to the Building Division. The plans for Shanhai City done by the Construction Division had already been approved. Hence, Ouyang Shuo didn't need to order and decide which place would be for which building.

After dealing with all that, the 2nd city wall project had started. To save time, the renovation of the village started at the same time. All buildings were moved based on the new plans. Just renovating the buildings had cost 500 gold, which was why Ouyang Shuo had kept 1000 gold for emergencies.

Based on the military power, and also the sweeping operation done by the mixed regiment, the buildings which were shifted outside of the first city wall and weren't protected didn't have to worry about their safety.

The raiders didn't have the courage and the strength to attack Shanhai City at such a time.

6 PM, Ouyang Shuo was in his office reading.

Bing'er suddenly ran in and laughed. "Brother, time to eat."

"Okay!" Ouyang Shuo picked her up and pinched her nose asking, "Baby, did you have fun?" He asked and walked into the backyard at the same time.

"En, brother it's so fun here."

"Then have you been naughty?"

"Bing'er is so well behaved. If you don't believe you can ask sister Zisu. And also sister Qing, she also helped measure my body and made beautiful dresses for me." In just an afternoon she had gotten close to both Qing'er and Zisu, really a fearless brat.

Returning to the backyard, dinner was already prepared and Yingyu and Qing'er had returned. Seeing Ouyang Shuo carry Bing'er in, everyone looked at each other and smiled.

After dinner, Ouyang Shuo brought Bing'er into her room. He asked Suzi to get out before telling Bing'er how to go offline. After confirming that she went offline, Ouyang Shuo returned to his room and went offline.

After going offline, he rushed to her room only to see the little brat opening the game cabin and climbing out of it.

"Baby, are you tired?"

"En, a little bit." Just out of the game, Bing'er was still a bit woozy and couldn’t get used to the environment.

"Then go brush your teeth and brother will make you breakfast. After that, go back and have some sleep, okay?" Ouyang Shuo said.

"En, I'll listen to brother."

Needless to say, the shops had already stopped working. Ouyang Shuo could only cook himself and make two bowls of noodles and two eggs on top of that.

After she finished her breakfast and went back to bed, Ouyang Shuo went into the living room and started cultivating. He decided that from today onwards he wouldn't leave the house even to run, and would stay in the room and cultivate.

After warming up, he took a hot shower and returned to his room to cultivate the Yellow Emperor internal cultivation techniques

By 11AM, Bing'er had woken up.

As she didn't need to go to school and couldn't go out to play, she sat in the living room to watch cartoons. Luckily, she had her brother to accompany her so it wasn't too boring.

In the afternoon, they ate a simple lunch. At 2PM, Ouyang Shuo acted as the replacement teacher to revise her work with her. At 4PM, she started to do her work. Ouyang Shuo sat beside her and opened his handbrain, either searching the forums or looking up information.

This kind of schedule became their norm during the month.

At 5PM, Ouyang Shuo received a call from Xiaoyue.

Ouyang Shuo got up and left Bing'er's room. "How are you, did you go back smoothly?"

"En, I reached home yesterday. This afternoon I talked about my grandpa about you and he was interested and wanted to talk to you." Sun Xiaoyue said.

"Great."

"In the display appeared a 60+ year old man. His head was full of white hair but his face was red and filled with life, with little wrinkles and looked very energized.

"Hello grandpa, I am Ouyang Shuo."

"Hello little kid. Thank you for taking care of my granddaughter." The grandfather was very polite.

"That's normal, as we are good friends!"

"Good, young people should be like this." He was very work focused so after a few simple greetings he dived right in. "I heard from Xiaoyue that old people like me had things to do in the game?"

Ouyang Shuo could understand his feelings of being a scientist for a large part of his life, and spending it all in his field of research.

What people like him cared most about was their research. To toss it aside was something that was hard to get used to. Now hearing that they could continue their jobs, they were obviously very excited.

"Yes grandpa. In the game as long as you have a suitable platform, scientists like you have a huge part to play." Ouyang Shuo smiled.

"Good good good. We old people don't like to hang around. To sit around and do nothing would be really torturous."

"Grandpa, you can call all your friends up. Even those that can't get in contact now can also just leave their contact information." Ouyang Shuo smiled and said.

"Okay, I'll listen to you."

"Thank you grandpa, sorry for the inconvenience."

Chapter 171 - Undercurrent

Just as Ouyang Shuo was recruiting people and building bridges in real life to bring in more talents for his territory, the lords in Lianzhou basin had a peculiar occurrence.

May 30th, Broken Blade Town.

The lord of Broken Blade Town, Ba Dao, had brought all the core members of his territory and waited beside the teleportation formation. Not long after, 5 players walked out of the formation and started talking with him.

The 5 who’d teleported over were the lords of Tianfeng Town, Gushan Town, Guangshan Town, and Youngye Town, who were Xiaofeng Canyue, Dengtai Baijian, Chengfeng Polang, and Heise Pifeng, respectively.

Adding the Broken Blade Town, the 6 territories were the other towns apart from Shanhai City and Mulan Town in the Lianzhou Basin. Out of all of them, only Broken Blade Town and Tianfeng Town participated in the Battle of Zhuolu. The other 4 territories had just upgraded to a grade 1 Town recently.

As the migration news was revealed, hundreds of millions of players swarmed into the game. This also pushed many territories to upgrade quickly. A large number of grade 3 villages upgraded to grade 1 towns. From today onwards, towns were the average of players in the game.

As more players joined, many lords could handle the pressure and started recruiting players to their territories. Out of the recruited players, a significant portion was family and friends.

A lord would have several close relatives like aunties and grandparents. Adding cousins, colleagues, and friends, this was already a huge group. Apart from his, as for relatives of friends and friends of friends or colleagues of friends, these groups added together consisted of hundreds and thousands.

Based on the players' thinking, instead of slugging away and struggling alone, why not stay in a territory controlled by a friend?

Unfortunately, the cruel war between territories would destroy their beautiful dreams.

Obviously, lords weren't fools, and apart from recruiting their friends and family, they would also recruit different types of work occupation players. As for combat occupation players, because there were many conditions, the lords were very careful when hiring them.

When the lords hired players, they had to be very careful and couldn't recruit players who had other motives. In the last life, some groups made use of other lords' recruitment and acted as they didn't know each other before joining the territory. After which they moved against one another to obtain the lord's trust.

The lord thought that he had obtained talents. In the end, the players that joined the territory took control and became the lords of the territory.

This was only one example, and there were many others. After all, the Chinese region had too many smart people. One couldn't deny that lords were the elites of the game, but if one talked about social experience, they might not be up to the level of some of the game's rookies. These rookies were probably those that were molded by the harshness of society.

There were also professional fraud organizations which were much scarier. As these group of people entered the game, it would make the game more chaotic.

Hence, when this storm brewed, Ouyang Shuo pointedly reminded his allies to be careful when recruiting new people.

Out of all the allies, Feng Qiuhuang was the least susceptible as she was backed by many elites of various prominent families. No organization would dare to touch her and have ideas about her.

Siege Lion who didn't look the part but in truth he paid a lot of attention to detail. His eye for details and understanding of the lord game mode had amazed Ouyang Shuo. Hence, Ouyang Shuo didn't worry much about him. Anyways he also had Fat Tiger to help, so the chances of them messing up were much lower.

Ouyang Shuo was more worried about the crazy quest finder Xunlong Dianxue. He was the typical guy that was good at a game but had low EQ. Ouyang Shuo roughly remembered that Xunlong City in the last life had a crisis and in the end, it was solved. As for what exactly was the crisis about, Ouyang Shuo wasn't in the loop.

Bai Hua's Consonance Town was considered a special territory.

In Consonance Town, there were many players already, and the vast majority were members of the guild they created in previous games. Hence in this player wave, Consonance Town had an additional 3 thousand people, getting them close to the 10 thousand max population of a grade 3 town.

In theory, their risk was the greatest. However, in truth, Ouyang Shuo wasn't worried. In the last life, it was proven that Bai Hua had to control and deal with such elements. If not Consonance City wouldn't have become one of the enormous rulers.

The one that Ouyang Shuo felt terrible about was Mulan Town. As expected, the changes that happened in the last life had occurred once again on this poor Mulan Yue.

Mulan Yue's parents were both scientists that worked on the mars base. To continue their research, after analyzing 10 years of the change of earth, they decided to remain on Mars temporarily.

The federal government had left a spaceship and twenty years of supplies for the workers on the mars base. After they complete their mission, they could sit on the spaceship and rush to planet Hope.

Mulan Yue wanted to stay on the mars base with her parents. However, which parent would want their kid to suffer with them, so they resolutely declined.

Hence, the little lady that was going to take this new path alone had felt very down recently. When they knew, they all teleported to Mulan Town to console her. Ouyang Shuo promised that when they reached planet Hope, he would let her stay by his side.

The consolation from friends had finally let her, to have lesser of an emotional change as compared to the last life. Apart from feeling a little down, nothing significant has happened.

Ouyang Shuo also finally understood why she had worked so hard to run her territory. She wanted to build a good base for when her parents arrived.

Because of this change, Mu Lanyue had become much closer with Ouyang Shuo. Under his recommendation, Mulan Town temporarily wouldn't recruit other players.

Closer to home, the meeting of the 6 lords of Lianzhou basin at Broken Blade Town was highly unusual.

The Qiushui River and friendship river which intersected in a Y shape had split the Lianzhou Basin into 3.

At the V portion, it took up half of the land area of the Lianzhou basin. This was the territory of the nomads. Apart from Milan Town that was in the south part, very few territories could survive here. Even if there were players who could build their territories here, it was highly likely to be destroyed by the nomads.

On the east and west side of the Y, there were 30 odd territories. Broken blade Town and Tianfeng Town, the two winners of the Lianzhou basin in the last life were on the east and west side, at the uppermost point of both rivers. Beside them were the two vast lakes in the Lianzhou basin, the east lake, and the west lake. They were back facing a mountain and sides facing the lake, with this kind of geological advantage, it was no wonder why they had an advantage in the last life.

Yishui Town was near the middle flow of the Qiushui river. It's lord Ruoshui Sanqian was the only female lord in this meeting.

Gushan Town was at the Southeast edge of the Lianzhou basin and was built at where the eastern mountains met the southern mountains, a very good place to defend. It's lord Dengtai Baifang ever since knowing that Shanhai Town had mountain barbarian warriors, he wanted to come into contact with them and had already obtained some progress.

The future Gushan Town would be the closest competitor to Shanhai City to get the mountain barbarian tribes.

Guangshui Town was in the middle of the friendship river, similar to that of Yishui town. The lord Chengfeng Polang was a medium-sized family prince.

The last Yongye Town was built on the north-west corner near the Yongye forest. The forest on the west of Shanhai Town was the border of the Yongye forest. Hence, Yongye Town was the territory that was closest to Shanhai City.

The lord Heise Pifeng was a vicious person.

It wasn't hard to imagine that these 6 territories held significant strategic land in the Lianzhou basin and would be the most significant obstacle to Shanhai City claiming control.

Their meeting was to create an alliance. The 6 of them stayed at Broken Blade Town for an entire day and officially formed the Sky Knife Alliance. This alliance used a dual-leader style, and the two leaders were Ba Dao and Xiaofeng Canyue.

Apart from that, Tianfeng Town, Yongye Town, and Guangshui Town had formed a triangle while the other three formed another. The Sky Knife Alliance was already split between two parties.

The 6 members of the alliance surrounded Shanhai City from many directions. Their goal was to work together to clean Shanhai City out. If not, as Shanhai City continued to develop, they wouldn't have a place to stand on in Lianzhou Basin.

The Sky Knife Alliance was a typical military deal. The alliance deal was to not fight amongst themselves before they dealt with Shanhai City. At the same time, in future territory battles, everyone must work together and chase out the lords from the territories which were weaker than them.

This was the typical big fish eating small fish. The small fish were scared, and allied to attack the big fish while also not forgetting to eat the little shrimps to strengthen themselves.

This kind of an interesting situation would be the norm in territorial wars. After all, such conflicts were cruel, and it was either you die, or I die, there was nothing much to be said.

Whether or not the Sky Knife Alliance would achieve their goal, only time would tell.

About this kind of an undercurrent, Ouyang Shuo knew nothing, but he was a step ahead and asked the Military Intelligence Division to gather information about the other lords. When the time came, he would destroy anyone who dared to stand in the way of Shanhai City.

Chapter 172 - Mountain Barbarian Settlement

On the 5th day of the 6th month, Shanhai City had finally ended their raider operation.

The 10 day raider operation started by the mixed regiment had obtained great rewards. It earned a total of 2500 gold and 3000 prisoners, as well as large amounts of grain and equipment.

As for special items, apart from that heavy armored infantry token, they also obtained a territory specially scroll.

Territory specialty scroll (3): After use, agriculture production increases by 10%.

There were a total of 6 territory specialty scrolls. Shanhai City had already obtained the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th ones, and only hadn't got the 1st, 5th, and 6th ones.

Out of which, the first raised the refugee attraction rate, the 5th raised the levelling speed, and the last one raised the chances of talents breaking the bottleneck, all of which were very important.

The gold earned was basically the cost of the military expansion. Of course, the large amounts of payments were due to the salaries from expanding the army.

In the current Shanhai City, the vanguard unit’s salary was born by Friendship Town, the Beihai naval fleet by Beihai Town, and Langshan protection unit didn't have any salary. Hence the city only needed to provide salaries to the mixed regiment, the city protection unit, and the god machine unit.

Even so, Shanhai City's monthly expenditure still reached 2000 gold.

3000 prisoners, 250 of which were water bandits which were sent to Beihai Town, and sent to be reserves for the Beihai Naval fleet. With this, the reserve squad of the third squadron of the Beihai naval fleet had reached max members. The moment Beihai Town upgraded to Beihai City, these reserve troops would change class to form the 3rd unit.

The remaining prisoners, apart from a minority who were chosen by the Military Affairs Department and sent into the reserve troops, were sent to build the 2nd city wall. Once the project ended, they would be sent to either the brick kiln or the pottery workshop.

After the raider operation had ended, the selection for the lord manor Guards had officially started. Before it began, Ouyang Shuo had spread that the salary of the Guards would be twice that of any other.

Honor and money. These two temptations weren't things any good man could resist.

Ouyang Shuo specially arranged Wang Feng to pick some high rank elites who didn't want to change class to basic general. Based on his understanding, if the rank 9 elite soldier didn't choose to change class, then there was a chance they could upgrade to a war elite.

In the afternoon while Ouyang Shuo was reading, the director of Internal Affairs Tian Wenjing, who had got on the job not long ago, walked in.

"Sire, congratulations!" Tian Wenjing couldn't hide his happiness.

"Oh, what good news?" It wasn't often he saw this director happy, making Ouyang Shuo very curious.

"There was news from Xuanniao tribe that a small sized tribe was willing to come
down the mountains and build a settlement in our territory." Tian Wenjing laughed.

Ever since the Jifeng tribe was destroyed, Tian Wenjing was appointed as the territory ambassador and put in charge of matters regarding the mountain barbarians.

The newly set up Internal Affairs Department and changing the director of the Material Reserves department. He didn't hand over this job regarding the mountain barbarians to the new Material Reserves Department. Instead, Tian Wenjing was still in charge.

Ouyang Shuo considered that firstly it wasn't easy for Tian Wenjing to get close to the mountain barbarians, and changing someone halfway would mean starting over. Secondly, this fell nicely in the role of the Internal Affairs Department, which was suppose to deal with population control.

After the 1st day of the 5th month’s holiday, Ouyang Shuo started to daringly change the mountain barbarian policy. He shifted the relatives of the mountain barbarian warriors to Shanhai Town, and also recommended mountain barbarians to come down the mountain to work or move to Shanhai Town.

Today, after nearly a month, that strategy had shown some results.

"Which tribe is it?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"It's one of the 8 tribes that agreed to work with us in the 3rd batch. This tribe was because the mountain barbarians and the grain payment were a one time off thing and wasn't like Xuanniao tribe and the 3 tribes in the second batch who could get remuneration from Langshan mines. Hence, after they used up the grain, they were once again back to the start." Tian Wenjing explained.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, expressing that he understood.

Xuanniao tribe was the first mountain barbarian tribe to work together with Shanhai City. As such, they’d gained the most. Their men not only took up the big positions in the mines, but also had an increase in influence on surrounding tribes, replacing the destroyed Jifeng tribe and becoming the leader of this small region.

The 2nd batch of tribes that worked with Shanhai City were 3 small tribes. It was also during that time when Jifeng tribe rejected the friendship of Shanhai City, and when the future animosity started. Men from these 3 tribes were sent to Langshan mines, and as such their living conditions had been improved.

The 3rd batch of tribes that worked with Shanhai City were tribes that had no choice after seeing Shanhai City destroy the Jifeng tribe. Of this batch, there were a total of 2 medium tribes and 6 small tribes.

For this batch of tribes, because the Langshan mine was already full, hence they only obtained a one-time payment and relied on picking herbs on the mountains in return for grain. Adding the fact that their best soldiers joined Shanhai City, it made hunting for food a lot more difficult.

Hence it was understandable if these tribes from the 3rd batch couldn't resist the temptation. After all, any person would want to be able to live without needing to worry about food and money.

If it was before when everyone was the same and was struggling, there would be nothing for people to envy. However, because of the Langshan minefields, it split the tribes into two. A rich and poor divide was formed.

Adding that these tribes had tasted the good stuff from the grain that Shanhai Town had given them, giving their tribe a period when they had sufficient food, and now having them go back to before was something no one would be willing to endure.

Furthermore, there was Tian Wenjing at the side who was constantly persuading them, finally causing a tribe to be unable to resist and throw aside their mountain barbarian custom and be willing to live in Shanhai City.

After thinking carefully about the whole process, Ouyang Shuo was more and more confident in his strategy. In it there were rewards, including carrots and sweets, unleashing the strategy to perfection.

"How many people does this tribe have?" Ouyang Shuo continued.

"Around 1800 people."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. This number of people was considered little even amongst small tribes. "House this tribe at Qiushui town. It’s closer to their old home and the difference isn't that huge so they can adapt. The future tribes that decide to come down will also be housed there. I'll tell Qiushui Town and order them to work with the Internal Affairs Department to choose a location for the building project."

"Understood!"

"In this mountain barbarian affair, you have done very well and I'm very pleased. However, we can't be content with the current situation and must continue to convince more and more of them to come down and join Shanhai City."

"Sire don't worry, I won't let you down!" Tian Wenjing promised solemnly.

After Tian Wenjing left, Ouyang Shuo started to write a letter to the head of Qiushui Town, Zhao Dexian.

In the letter he wrote that the settlement would follow the standard grade 1 town, and that it would be mainly for agriculture. He wrote that they must have sufficient farming lands, and even if reclamation needed to be done, that it must be rushed such that at the end of the 7th month the 2nd season of rice planting could begin.

Apart from that, Qiushui Town needed to provide sufficient farming tools. If they had farming cows they could also lend it to the settlement to reclaim land. They must also send experienced farmers to teach and advise the newcomers.

These mountain barbarians did not have any farming experience, and if Qiushui Town's agriculture industry wanted to rise, it needed their help. This settlement had to be of high quality such that it could be used as a standard to attract more tribes.

Qiushui Town would be in charge of all their food, and to lessen the burden on the town, the Finance Department would give them 1000 gold in subsidies.

It was nice that the town had the water irrigation system project and the city wall building going on so they could use these mountain barbarians, following the main camp's standard to give payment.

Lastly, Ouyang Shuo mentioned in the letter that Qiushui Town needed to plan out the settlement and make preparations for when more mountain barbarian tribes came down to live in the future.

In his letter, Ouyang Shuo was very specific and had considered all points. One could see how much importance he placed on this.

After writing, he called the clerk Bai Nanpu and asked him to send it immediately to Qiushui Town. Shanhai City had specific messengers who were in charge of sending and receiving letters between territories. There were a total of 4 of them who were under the charge of Bai Nanpu.

After this, Ouyang Zhuo stood up and went to the office of the Director of Finance, raising the issue about the subsidy. This sum of money was naturally form Ouyang Shuo's pocket.

Deducting this subsidy and the 500 gold for renewing the city, Ouyang Shuo only had 2000 gold left.

At 6PM in the afternoon, Bing'er appeared punctually in Ouyang Shuo's office to ask him to eat dinner. This had already become routine. In this period of time, Bing'er had completely adapted to life in Shanhai City.

In the lord's manor, be it officials or servants, they all loved and cared for her. Adding with the fact that she was pretty, cute, and also very well behaved, it made her well loved by everyone.

Especially Er Wazi, who after getting out of school, would follow Bing'er around.

Today, she was wearing a Tang Dynasty princess dress, a pink skirt with many flowers sewn into it. This dress was naturally done by Qing'er herself.

Chapter 173 - Weakness

On the 6th day of the 6th month, when Ouyang Shuo went online, a system notification sounded in his ear.

"System notification: Congratulations player Chun Shenjun for becoming the second player in the Chinese region to upgrade to rank 1 city, rewarded 2000 merit points!"

"System notification: Congratulations player Chun Shenjun for becoming the second player in the Chinese region...."

"System notification: Congratulations player Chun Shenjun..."

After half a month, China had finally birthed its second grade 1 city.

In this period around the globe, there were already 5 grade 1 cities. Out of the top 10 territories, apart from Sanli Town, Bengalore Town, Free Town, and Handan Town who failed their test, the remaining 6 all successfully upgraded.

The other territories closed the lead of Shanhai City.

After Chun Shenjun and Pill Sun City upgraded, Ouyang Shuo ridiculed in the group. "Guys when are you all going to apply to upgrade, you can't lag behind too much."

Out of the 5 allies, Mulan Town and Black Lion Town were only grade 2 towns, a fair distance away from upgrading. Xunlong Town had just upgraded to grade 3 town so they would be that fast.

The ones with the most hope were Fallen Phoenix Town and Consonance Town that had upgraded to grade 3 town a long time ago.

"I’m prepared to wait for one more week." Bai Hua replied first.

"Then Fengwu?"

"Wuyi, I was just about to look for you." Feng Qiuhuang replied first.

"Oh?"

"I had just applied, and the 9th will be when the raider attack comes.

"That is a good thing, what do you want me to do?"

"Everything is ok. I just need to borrow your 3 bow 8 cow bed crossbow."

Ouyang Shuo didn't hesitate. "No problem. Recently, the bow and crossbow division made another set so along with the other 2 sets. I'll lend them all to you. I'll also send the major of the god machine unit to teach you how to use it."

"That's great. I was still worrying about how to train my men." Feng Qiuhuang was delighted.

"When you all apply to upgrade, tell me. I'll lend them to you too."

"Yay, chief is the best!" Mu Lanyue was fooling around again.

"He is the best +1!" That was Gong Chengshi.

"He is the best +2!"

"He is the best +3!"

……

Ouyang Shuo was a bit speechless. He didn't know that the two goddesses would join in too. The reason he did that was that he hoped everyone would successfully upgrade and raise the ability of Shanhai Alliance.

"Wuyi, let me tell you news." Feng Qiuhuang said.

"What news?"

"Including my family, the various powers older generation have all entered the game. Although they won't go into the spotlight, they will be planning and be scheming from the back. So towards Di Chen and the others, you need to be careful." Feng Qiuhuang reminded.

"Relax, I'll pay attention." These kinds of circumstances were what Ouyang Shuo had expected, and as such he was very calm.

"And also, don't think that just because the exchange platform closed that everything is good. The strength and power of the families are far more than expected. Originally, many of the elites were working and occupied with the businesses. Now they have all entered the game as well. With this group of experienced people, the territories will be run better, and their abilities might not be worse than some historical personnel. Especially in finance and business matters." As Ouyang Shuo was very casual with his reply, Feng Qinhuang became more earnest.

Others wouldn't know, but she was sure that Ouyang Shuo wasn't a descendant of some hidden power. When the reality is already so chaotic, any secret person would have no choice but to surface and who else would be like Ouyang Shuo and become more and more secretive.

Feng Qiuhuang looked up to this ally, and didn't want him to underestimate his opponents.

What Feng Qiuhuang said were all things that Ouyang Shuo already knew.

Not only that, but Ouyang Shuo also new that Zhanlang's Blood Red Town had recently surged in strength. This was because a group of military men had joined the town and formed a professional army.

These men were many times more disciplined and skilled than the original NPCs, especially regarding intelligence gathering and special warfare.

Not only that, their general's ability to command was not weaker than that of the olden generals. It could even be said to be better in some areas. Their only weakness was that they didn't have the cultivation techniques and specialties of the NPCs, and were weaker in combat power.

This was equal to Blood Red Town directly obtaining an elite force and some historical scholars and generals, so this was such a scary situation.

As for the other members of the original Six Tyrants of Handan, they all became stronger. It wouldn't take long for all of them to rise to grade 1 cities. What made Ouyang Shuo interested was that after the migration, in reality, Di Chen would have lost the upper hand over Sha Pojun. He was interested in what would happen between those two.

If it wasn't for his hard work early in the game, now Shanhai City wouldn't even have the rights to challenge them. Only because he had started producing and nurturing residents and officials since the grade 1 village could he now stand a chance.

Luckily, he still had some methods. If not, he would have to give up the throne in the Chinese region.

The weaknesses of these big powers were that no matter how strong they were, they had to conform to the rules of the game. And talking about the understanding of the game, no one could come close to Ouyang Shuo.

For example, those financial elites were entering the game, but the game didn't have a stock market and also didn't have a modern bank, only ancient ones. They didn't even have a base of capital, making it hard for them to try anything. Of course, if they were pulled over to the Four Seas bank, then the rise in management skills would be very apparent.

Another example would be the professional farmers who could naturally improve the water irrigation systems. However, if they wanted to make some mix of rice to raise the yield, then it would be impossible. As for fertilizers and pesticides, it was impossible for them to appear.

"Thank you for your reminder!" Ouyang Shuo understood her care and concern.

The topic that she raised up made the atmosphere very cold and severe. Out of the 6 members of the Shanhai Alliance, only she had a strong family background, and the rest were commoners.

Initially, all these things were topics that they didn't talk about. But today she brought out the advantages of the strong powers. It apparently made the others feel suppressed.

"Ok la, we don't need to give up. As long as we continue discovering and nurturing, there will never be a lack of talent. Even without elite players, we can make use of residents to manage the territory well. Also, the residents respect the lords and are loyal to them. This is something players couldn't do." Ouyang Shuo cheered everyone on.

"I feel that Wuyi is right. Shanhai City only has one Wuyi, and he managed to stand atop of the world. With this, we can see that the potential of the residents is enormous, the key would be how we use it and nurture them." Bai Hua agreed with his view.

"I also support brother Wuyi. Sister Mu is so good!" Mu Lanyue followed and said.

Hearing them put it that way, Gong Chengshi and Xunlong Dianxue became a lot more relaxed. What Ouyang Shuo could provide was after all, limited. After all, in order to travel far, one must still rely on themselves and walk their own paths.

"Brothers and sisters, are you all lacking money? My Mulan Town is so poor, sister Mu wants to expand the army, but we can't get enough gold to change class." Mu Lanyue was sounding depressed and revealed her situation.

Towards this smart girl, Ouyang Shuo’s heart felt very pained. "Yue Yue, if you lack money, brother can lend you some."

"I don't want it. Although you have money, Shanhai City is so big and has so many forces to feed, I don't want to take up your funds." Mu Lanyue directly rejected.

"Since that's the case I’ve got a suggestion for you to think about."

"What suggestion?"

"You all know that Shanhai City has a bank called the Four Seas bank, right?"

"En, yes I know."

"My suggestion is to open a branch in your town and provide low-interest loans. Not only would that solve your money problems and also earn profits for Shanhai City, a win-win situation. You also don't need to feel guilty. Of course, the economic power of Mulan Town will slowly be controlled by the bank." Ouyang Shuo made it very clear that there were pros and cons.

"I'll discuss with Sister Mu before I tell you."

"Of course."

Hearing the conversation between those two, the other 4 were silent. Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang temporarily didn't lack funds. Gong Chengshi and Xunlong Dianxue, on the other hand, were facing similar problems to Mu Lanyue.

However, just as Ouyang Shuo said, allowing the Four Seas Bank to run in your territory would be giving up the economic control of your territory, needing courage and a lot of trust.

In truth even if Gong Chengshi and Xunlong Dianxue agreed, Ouyang Shuo wouldn't allow it.

Ouyang Shuo agreed with Mulan Yue only because they were both in Lianzhou Basin, and were destined to merge. To connect the economies earlier would be beneficial to the future merge.

Additionally, he wanted to make use of the Four Seas Bank to help Mulan Town grow quickly. Only with its swift growth would it be able to defend the Zhennan Pass.

Chapter 174 - Zhennan Pass

Mu Lanyue switched off the Alliance channel and went to look for Mu Guiying, telling her about Ouyang Shuo's suggestion.

After hearing what she said, Mu Guiying kept silent and didn't utter a word. Apparently, this was a difficult choice. Based on her original intention, she wished for Mulan Town to be able to run independently. But now because of the lack of funds, the town had been progressing slowly and her time and effort had been diverted, making her unable to focus on the military.

After a long while, she looked towards Mu Lanyue. "Xiaoyue, let me ask you, how much do you trust your brother Wuyi? Apart from allies, do you have any other feelings for him?"

Mu Lanyue was stunned and didn't understand why she would suddenly ask that. As she trusted her thoroughly, even if she found it weird she would answer adequately. "Brother Wuyi is an ally and also a brother. Although he isn't my real brother, I can feel that he is sincere and real."

Mu Guiying nodded. "Then let me ask you, as for the future of Mulan Town, how do you consider it? Both us and Shanhai City are in the Lianzhou Basin and are bound to face each other one day."

"I don't want to hide it from sister, but I've thought about this problem. Sister, you already know that Father and Mother will be separated from me for a long time so I need to run Mulan Town to make them proud of me when they return. As for the future, merging into Shanhai City would be the best choice. However, before that, I want to use my own ability to run Mulan Town well." Mu Lanyue gave such a reply.

"I understand. Since it's like that, I agree to open a branch of Four Seas Bank in Mulan Town. I can also focus more of my energy on the raiders and nurture an elite force for our territory to defend the Zhennan Pass."

Mu Lanyue was ecstatic. "Ok, I'll go tell brother Wuyi."

After receiving her reply, Ouyang Shuo got up and went into Yingyu's office.

"Big brother!" Yingyu stood up and invited Ouyang Shuo to sit.

After he sat down, he described the thing about Mulan Town to her and said, "Yingyu, I would like to shift Yang Yun from Beihai Town and send her to Mulan Town. What are your thoughts?"

Cui Yingyu took a moment before smiling. "I think it's okay. She was part of the building of the Four Seas Bank and is clear about how it runs. She also took charge of the Beihai Town branch and accumulated a lot of experience."

"Ok, then send a letter with the authority of the Financial Department for her to return to the main camp. As for the person to replace her, the Financial Department can decide that."

"Understood." Yingyu nodded and asked, "Big brother, on the side of Mulan Town, how much gold are you going to prepare?"

To that question, Ouyang Shuo had a rough draft. "If we prepare too little, it won't do. The first sum will be set at 2000, which is all our spare cash. This sum should be able to last for a while. When it's used up, then we will invest further."

"I agree." Yingyu was from a business family and she was clear that once the bank was settled, it was a money vacuum, the early investment was needed for future returns, and as such, she agreed.

……

At 2 PM, Wang Yuanfeng brought 3 sets of 3 bow 8 cow bed crossbow and teleported to Fallen Phoenix Town. After sending him off, Ouyang Shuo returned to the lord's manor.

At 4 PM, Yang Yun had returned to Shanhai City and rushed straight back to the lord's office.

After Ouyang Shuo told her about her new appointment, he reminded her. "Mulan Town’s lord Mu Lanyue is my friend, and this branch opening is a normal business activity. When you are there, you must be neutral and not interfere with their economic matters and not much of their management affairs. Do you understand?"

The Four Seas Bank was a sharp dagger, and if the wielder didn't have a clear head, it could cause substantial damage. Ouyang Shuo naturally trusted Yang Yun, but because of the significance, he still had to remind her.

She nodded her head solemnly. " Don't worry sire. I understand what to do."

"That's good." Ouyang Shuo waved her off and said, "What I need to say has already been mentioned. It's not early already, so you should make a trip to Director Cui and see if she has anything for you. Tomorrow morning, I'll personally send you to Mulan Town.”

"Yes!" Yang Yun replied and took her leave.

Yang Yun wasn't sent alone. Apart from her, the Financial Department chose two elite personnel to be her helpers. As for the preparation job for the Four Seas Bank there, Mu Lanyue would be in charge, including the selection of the basic workers.

At the Mulan Town teleportation formation, Mu Lanyue and Mu Guiying waited.

After both sides met, Ouyang Shuo introduced both parties. If the Four Seas Bank wanted to do well here, it had to have her support, and they would have many opportunities to work together. This was why Ouyang Shuo had to help them build a bridge.

Ouyang Shuo let Yang Yun and her two helpers discuss with Mu Lanyue about the Four Seas Bank, while he walked out of Mulan Town and towards Zhennan Pass under the company of Mu Guiying.

Zhennan Pass was 20 kilometers away from Mulan Town, and it guarded the only route from Lianzhou Basin to the Guangxi region. Now it was taken by a bunch of mountain thieves.

At the center of the 50 meter wide canyon seen from afar, a little majestic mountain stood. The whole pass was washed by time, leaving down time’s legacies.

The Zhennan Pass was split into the main pass and the east and west side gates. The main pass was 20 meters high, 30 meters wide, and made of stone. The bottom of the pass was where the only opening was, which was 10 meters tall and 8 meters wide. It had 3 city gates which were all closed.

The main pass extended towards the side until the cliff wall. It was slightly lower at 15 meters high. Each side had a small gate which was 6 meters tall and 4 meters wide for people and goods to enter.

"General Mu, how much do you understand about the mountain thieves?"

These mountain thieves were a tumor, and Ouyang Shuo was planning to work together with Mulan Town and eradicate them and allow Mulan Town to take over.

Mu Guiying shook her head. "You should have seen that our spy has no way to even get close. The moment she gets near, she would be exposed to the guards.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and asked, "Then what do they do to survive, why doesn't Rhu come out of the pass to rob? Especially with Mulan Town within their sights, why weren't they disturbed?"

Mu Guiying frowned. "This was the part I found weird. Based on my conjecture, they probably amassed a significant amount of resources when they had taken over the pass, and it was enough to last them. Secondly was that there were people that would go through the pass, and they’d take fees which were enough for them to survive. Hence that's why they were cooped inside and rarely came out to rob. After all, they were people too, and unless that had no choice, they wouldn’t risk going out to rob and kill others.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and agreed with Mu Guiying's conjecture, laughing. "It seems like they aren't a random group of people. Their leader isn't simple. Not only can he think clearly and think far ahead, but he should also have a high prestige in the group."

"How so?" Mu Guiying was curious.

"Think about it. Just as you said, a large portion of the mountain thieves are living blissfully. That is because they were forced onto this path and had no choice. They only wanted to feed themselves and thus wouldn't be willing to take risks. However, there is also a group of evil man who finds happiness from robbing and killing. This bunch of people wouldn't be willing to be cooped up at the pass and enjoy their normal lives. The leader being able to suppress this bunch of evil men, this leader must have prestige." Ouyang Shuo explained.

Mu Guiying nodded and agreed.

"So for the long term, we must think of a way to remove them. If not, what if one day the leader couldn't control his bunch of thugs? It would be a ticking time bomb towards Mulan Town, able to explode at any time." Ouyang Shuo reminded.

"I understand, Mulan Town will increase the patrol around the Zhennan Pass, to understand their strength in the shortest amount of time."

"If you need my support just ask for it." Ouyang Shuo promised.

"Of course."

When the two of them returned to Mulan Town, Mu Lanyue was still discussing with Yang Yun about some matters. Ouyang Shuo didn't stay for long and passed the 2000 gold for the bank over to Mu Lanyue for safekeeping. After the bank was built, she would make use of the player storage function to store the gold in the bank vault.

Ouyang Shuo then returned to Shanhai City through the teleportation formation.

Chapter 175 - Beihai City

Three days later, it was the 9th day of the 6th month, and Fallen Phoenix Town had successfully upgraded to Fallen Phoenix City, becoming the 3rd grade 1 city in the Chinese region.

On the 11th day of the 6th month, The moment Ouyang Shuo went online, a system notification sounded in his ear.

"System notification: Congratulations player Zhan Lang for becoming the 4th lord in china to upgrade to grade 1 city, rewarded 1600 merit points!"

"System notification: Congratulations player Zhan Lang for becoming the 4th lord in china..."

"System notification: Congratulations player Zhan Lang..."

As expected, Blood Red Town, which was supported by the military, had suddenly showed their strength and succeeded in upgrading.

Being provoked by Zhan Lang, Bai Hua couldn’t resist and decided to apply 3 days earlier, which meant that Fallen Phoenix Town would welcome the raider attack on the 6th month 13th day.

Which meant that Wang Yuanfeng, who had just returned from Fallen Phoenix City was sent to Consonance Town to help arrange and teach them how to use the bed crossbows.

The Four Seas Bank at Mulan Town had officially opened yesterday. Mu Lanyue directly borrowed 1000 gold in the name of Mulan Town to use to expand the military and build the city wall. The remaining 1000 gold was left for the various individuals in the town for their shops and workshops.

On the same day, Beihai Town had reached the max population of 10 thousand people, and officially upgraded to Beihai City. The upgrading of affiliate villages didn't need to take the system test. As long as they met the requirements, they could automatically upgrade.

After Beihai City’s upgrade, Ouyang Shuo imemedately appointed Gu Xiuwen as the Beihai City county magistrate . At the same time, he ordered that his administrative level would be equal to the directors of the main camp.

Before the upgrade, the various heads of the affiliate villages didn't have titles, what they were called weren't fixed, and their administrative powers also weren't confirmed.

Using the chance, Ouyang Shuo shaped the management of the affiliate territories, while also letting go of some authority. The various directors and the county magistrates of the grade 1 counties were all under the direct charge of the lord. The lord would not interfere in the country magistrate's affiliate territory, and he would report everything to the Administration Department in the main camp.

The administrative powers of the affiliate territories were one level lower than that of the main camp. This meant that the 4 directors of the affiliate counties would be equal to the secretary of the main camp, and their secretaries would be similar to Shanhai’s vice secretaries. Their salaries would also be based on their administrative powers and not their position.

At the same time, Ouyang Shuo also drew a clear line at their administration structure. The affiliate county didn't have a Military Affairs Department and only had a Combat Logistics Division; their bank was directly controlled by the main branch of Four Seas Bank; their Material Reserves Department didn't have a Saltpan Division. The Combat Logistics Division was drafted under the jurisdiction of the Material Reserves Department.

After Beihai county upgraded, the Beihai naval fleet expanded and officially build a third unit with Lihai as the 3rd major. At the same time, Ouyang Shuo sent Pei Donglai a letter to hold selections for the 4th unit. When the time came, he would immediately send the 4th unit.

Once the Beihai naval fleet had expanded to 4 units and a total of 2000 men, they would officially attack Yueer Island and Black Shark to pull out these poisonous teeth.

After finishing with Beihai County, Ouyang Shuo got up, left the office, and walked towards the backyard.

In it, Bing'er was playing with Blackfang.

The Blackfang today had already matured and he was strong and menacing. It had well developed muscles and strong bones. It was 75 centimetres tall and weighed 55 kilograms.

Its fur was very beautiful and high quality, glistening in the air.

The black tooth puppy was smart and active. It would occasionally try to trick his owner, and treated old people and kids very nicely. The poor Blackfang was abandoned by Ouyang Shuo. The arrival of Bing'er was like giving him a new life. She really liked him and would bring him by her side and play with it, feeding it different types of good foods.

"Brother!" Seeing Ouyang Shuo, she spread her arms wide and ran towards him.

Ouyang Shuo picked her up and smiled. "Baby, are you bored?"

Bing'er shook her head and giggled. "No, Bing'er finds it more fun here than at school."

Ouyang Shuo thought to himself, Stupid brat, of course you aren't bored, the whole territory treats you as a princess and welcomes you everywhere. Gu Sanniang often invited her to the hotel and gave her many cakes. Qing'er had made over 10 sets of dresses for her.

Even in the wood workshop, the manager who owed Ouyang Shuo a big favor. Lu Guangzhi, hearing that she was only 8, dropped the work at hand to make her a wooden toy.

As it was already the 6th month and one month away from the summer holiday, so the federal government decided to have an early holiday. Hence, the schools in the game would only open next term which was the 1st day of the 9th month.

When Bing'er found out that she had a full 3 months to play, she was delighted.

"Baby, brother will bring you to ride horses, okay?" Ouyang Shuo felt guilty. For half a month, he had spent very little time with her. If it wasn't for the fact that she was mature, he wouldn't know what would’ve happened.

"Really?" Bing'er was delighted.

"Of course."

"Yay, riding horses!"

Ouyang Shuo placed her down, grabbed her hand, and walked towards the stables. The stables today had been moved to the Wuying courtyard.

Walking in, a group of soldiers were practicing in the square. They were the Guards selected, a total of 100 members.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo, they all stopped and bowed to him.

Ouyang Shuo waved them off and asked them to continue.

The captain of the Guards Wang Feng ran across and said, "Sire."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. "Wang Feng, I want to bring Bing'er out. Let someone bring out the horse."

"Yes sire!"

Ouyang Shuo turned around and walked to the lord's manor gate.

A while later, the stableman had brought Ouyang Shuo's Qingfu horse. Behind him were 4 Guard members who were also holding onto their Qingfu horses. They wore the Mingguang armor and were fully equipped.

Ouyang Shuo took the rope and used his eyes to give them a hint and ask what they were doing.

Their leader was smart and immediately said, "Sire, captain told us that when you go out we must follow you and protect you."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Wang Feng was really caring. Ouyang Shuo didn't want to break his plan and casually said, "Then come along, but remember not to follow too closely."

"Yes sire!"

Ouyang Shuo turned around and carried Bing'er onto the horse. Following which, he got on and hugged her in front of him. Just when he wanted to leave, Blackfang ran out.

"Ya, little black, do you want to follow us?" This was what Bing'er called blackfang.

Blackfang actually accepted such a stupid name, totally not have the dignity and pride of a black wolf dog. It rushed towards Bing'er and barked twice, its back tail swinging incessantly.

Bing'er could actually understand it and turned to Ouyang Shuo. "Brother, let little black come with us!"

What else could he do but nod and agree?

Bing'er smiled happily and shouted, ",little black let's go!"

While in the city, Ouyang Shuo rode the horse slowly. On the way when the residents saw the lord bringing his sister out, they made way and also nodded to acknowledge him.

Ouyang Shuo nodded back and went out of the western gate and into the wilderness.

The second city wall was being built in the region near the western gate. Ouyang Shuo didn't disturb them, but instead went beyond the area and into the deep wilderness.

In front of him were empty plains where Ouyang Shuo started to let his horse gallop freely. Blackfang could actually keep up with the Qingfu horse’s speed, causing Ouyang Shuo to be amazed.

Bing'er sat on the horse and laid in his arms. As she saw the scenery pass by, she was elated. Her little mouth didn't stop as she talked and talked and talked.

A while later, Ouyang Shuo raised his head at the little mountain and froze. He had unknowingly actually made it to the Qingyang temple.

Since it was such a coincidence, Ouyang Shuo decided to visit the temple and the temple’s presiding priest, Ge Yan.

After getting off the horse, he carried Bing'er and passed the horse to the Guards. He walked up and knocked on the temple door.

With a click, the door opened, and a 12 to 13 year old boy bowed to Ouyang Shuo and asked, "Sir who are you? Why did you come to the temple?"

Before Ouyang Shuo could reply, the guard behind him said, "What impudence! This is the lord."

Ouyang Shuo stopped him. He obviously wouldn't blame a kid for not knowing as it was normal. "Little priest, where is Ge Yan?"

The little priest was originally very scared after being scolded. Only after seeing that the lord didn't blame him did he relax and said respectfully. "He's in the temple, please follow me."

Ouyang Shuo nodded and asked the Guards to wait outside. He held Bing'er's hand and followed behind. This was the first time Ouyang Shuo walked into the Qingyang temple. It had green stone floor, and there were green bricks, trees, and plants everywhere, giving off a simple and refreshing feeling. Ouyang Shuo nodded. This was certainly a good place for scripture cultivation.

Chapter 176 - Grade 2 City

Qingyang temple, Silence room

Ouyang Shuo and Ge Yan sat face to face, cross-legged. The middle of them was a few teaware, and Ge Yan was making tea. As for Bing'er, the little priest brought her to play in the temple.

Ge Yan passed a cup of the tea that he had brewed to Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo took it, drank a mouthful and exclaimed, "Good tea!" The tea was the white tea that Ouyang Shuo had sent someone to deliver. The water, on the other hand, was Ge Yan's secret. Hence, the tea had a different taste to it.

Ge Yan smiled and didn't stay a thing, looking at Ouyang Shuo. "Sire, did you meet with some good fortune lately? On your body, I sense a smell and aura that belongs to Taoism."

Ouyang Shuo was astonished. This Ge Yan was not simple. He could detect the internal chi in his body. In this period, he practiced diligently and had already reached the second layer.

In the second layer of the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique, the upper limit of internal strength reached 1000 points. However, Ouyang Shuo could only rotate 5 cycles a day. Which meant that at this speed, he needed half a year to be able to reach the third layer.

Such a slow cultivation speed made him feel anxious. He was thinking whether his cultivation method was wrong. One must know that the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique had 12 levels, and with this speed even if the trainee 10 years, he or she wouldn’t be able to reach the peak.

Ge Yan was a Taoist and the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique could be considered Taoist, so maybe he has some methods. Ouyang Shuo thought about it. Perhaps his chance was right in front of him.

Ouyang Shuo didn't dare to take this too lightly and said respectfully, "I don't want to hide from you, I've fortunately obtained the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique. I've practiced it for a while and found that my cultivation speed is very slow. Hopefully, you can give me some tips."

Ge Yan laughed. "Sire sure has good fortune, the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique of the Taoist secret manuals is considered one of the best. Sire isn't a Taoist and doesn't read scriptures. Of course it's difficult to cultivate."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. So that was it.

Ouyang Shuo stood up and bowed to Ge Yan. "Please take me as your disciple."

Ge Yan accepted it and asked Ouyang Shuo to sit down once again. "Sire is the lord, a rank 1 earl. You are destined for greatness; I don't dare to accept you as my disciple."

Ouyang Shuo was anxious and wanted to bow once more.

Ge Yan stopped him. "Sire doesn't need to be too rash. Although I'm unable to take you as my disciple, I can teach you about Taoism. When sire goes home, as long as you explore more about Taoism, you will receive a lot of benefits.”

Ouyang Shuo calmed down, as he had finally had a method.

The two of them sat still once again, and Ge Yan started to give Ouyang Shuo a lecture about Taoism.

This lecture lasted for two hours. Finally, a system notification sounded in Ouyang Shuo's ears.

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for getting advice from Ge Yan, understanding Taoism, observing the ways of the heavens and understanding how to cultivate. As for specific details, please explore on your own."

Although the system said he had gained something, Ouyang Shuo didn't know what effects he had gotten. Only after going home and cultivating the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique would he be able to find out.

When it was closer to noon, Ouyang Shuo brought Bing'er and had a meal at the Qingyang Temple before leaving. Before leaving, Ge Yan gave Ouyang Shuo some Taoist scriptures for him to explore and understand.

On the way back, Bing'er asked curiously, "Brother, what did you and that uncle talk about in the morning? Y'all talked for so long. I was so bored."

She was such an active and curious little brat. Ouyang Shuo laughed. "We talked about the path of cultivation."

"What is cultivation?"

"Cultivation is the school that adults go to." Ouyang Shuo could only explain it that way.

"Oh, so brother was just going to school." Hearing that, Bing'er lost all interest.

Returning to the lord's manor, Ouyang Shuo asked Bing'er to find Zisu to play with her. He went back to his room and started cultivating the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique.

After rotating one cycle, Ouyang Shuo was delighted.

Now he found that rotating one cycle could increase his internal strength by 4 points. This meant that his cultivation speed had increased by four times. Ouyang Shuo didn't dare to take it for granted and started working hard, continuing his training.

After he rotated 5 cycles, his meridians felt sore and painful. He had no choice but to stop. It seemed that Ge Yan's advice rose the quality of his internal strength but not the number of times that he could rotate it.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo was delighted. After all, he initially needed half a year to reach the third layer and now he could do it in one and a half month. As long as he persisted and studied Taoist scriptures, he could definitely raise his cultivation speed. His future was looking very bright.

After he finished his cultivation, it was already 4 PM.

He walked out of his room and into the front yard to deal with administrative matters.

……

On the 13th day of the 6th month, Consonance Town had successfully defended and became the 5th city in China.

Two days later, Shanhai City had reached the max population.

Ouyang Shuo walked into the meeting hall and softly requested to upgrade. A white light shone across, and in the middle of the hall, a golden stone steele rose from the ground. He pressed his right hand onto it, and the system notification sounded.

"System notification: checking Shanhai City upgrade requirements..."

"Requirement 1: Population has reached upper limit, requirement met!"

"Requirement 2: All basic buildings have been built, requirement met!"

"Requirement 3: Lord is at least rank 2 earl, requirement met!"

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi's Shanhai City for meeting all upgrade requirements, would you like to upgrade?"

"Upgrade!"

From the stone steele, a golden light shot up into the sky and burst apart, turning into a golden luster and spreading towards the new borders of the territory before disappearing.

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for being the first lord in China region to upgrade from grade 1 city to grade 2 city, rewarded 2200 merit points!"

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for being the first lord in the Chinese region..."

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi...."

Shanhai City had once again taken the lead and became the only grade 2 city in the Chinese region.

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for upgrading to grade 2 city. Randomly selecting 3 grade 2 city basic buildings, the player can choose one."

"System notification: Random selection completed. The buildings are Theater, Shanchuan Altar, and Sheji Altar. Please choose!"

"I choose the theater!"

"System notification: The building is automatically built. Player, please take a look!"

A white light shone across, and the golden stone steele sank back into the ground. Ouyang Shuo took the time to check the stats of Shanhai City.

【Territory】: Shanhai City (Grade 2 city)

【Lord】: Qiyue Wuyi (first class earl)

【Title】: The World’s First City (Increase town fame by 30%)

【Morale】: 94

【Security】: 92

【Refugee Spawn Rate】: 200 * (1 + 50%) = 300 / day

【Territory area】: 5000 square kilometers

【Territory Unique Characteristic】:

+50% Refugee attraction rate, +25% Special talented people attraction rate, +50% Crop production rate, +25% Productivity of workers, +20% Experience earned by troops, +10% Chances of talented people in the territory to advance a level

【Political】: 60/100 (Affecting the administrative efficiency and morale)

【Economic】: 55/100 (Affecting the trading prosperity and tax)

【Cultural】: 55/100 (Affecting the education development and quality of residents)

【Military】: 60/100 (Affecting the military strength and stability)

【Subsidiary Village】: Beihai city, Qiushui town, Friendship town

【Territory fund】: Four Sea Bank

【Territory Association】: Textile Association, Fisherman Association

【Territory Industry Properties】: Bei Mu Saltpan, Langshan Mine, West City Ranch, Jifeng Valley horse stables

【Territory Specialties】: Lianzhou three flower wine, Colored silk, White tea

【Special Building】: Lianzhou College, Beihai Bay, Sangu hotel, Qingyang Guan

【Hidden Building】: Ma Zu Temple (Sealed), Recruitment Hall, Yellow Emperor Temple

Basic buildings list:

【Theater】: A building used for theatrical performances. Building requirements: Troupe, Theater building blueprints, 8000 units of wood, 4000 units of green brick, 5000 units of stone. Building time: 10 days. (Note: This building was built automatically)

Chess courtyard: A courtyard to play chess. Building requirements: Chess player, Chess courtyard building blueprints, 8000 units of wood, 4000 units of green brick, 5000 units of stone. Building time: 10 days.

Shanchuan Altar: Palace to pray to and respect god Xiannong. Building requirements: Shanchuan building blueprints, 2000 units of wood, 8000 units of green brick, 8000 units of stone. Building time: 10 days.

Sheji Altar: A place to pray and respect God She and God Ji. Building requirements: Sheji building blueprints, 2000 units of wood, 8000 units of green brick, 8000 units of stone. Building time: 10 days

Calendar altar: A place to worship the spirits and gods. Building requirements: Calendar altar building blueprints, 2000 units of wood, 8000 units of green brick, 8000 units of stone. Building time: 10 days

All the 5 basic buildings for a grade 2 city were all culture buildings. Even at grade 1 city, the culture buildings were the main basic buildings.

The Shanchuan Altar, Sheji Altar and calendar altar were the three altars that a city needed to have. Shanchuan Altar was located in the southern suburbs outside the city, known as South Altar; Sheji Altar was in the northwest suburbs, known as the west altar; the Calendar Altar was in the northern suburbs and known as the North Altar.

Chapter 177 - Murderous Intentions

Out of the 5 basic buildings for a grade 2 city, the theater was automatically built, and the 3 altars only needed blueprints. The most annoying one had to be the chess courtyard as it required chess players, which needed an element of luck.

For the basic buildings for a grade 2 city, each blueprint was sold for 500 gold on the market.

These building blueprints, including the grade 1 city blueprints, were very difficult to obtain from raider camps. This was because such cultural buildings had nothing to do with raiders. Hence, the raider operation did not give Ouyang Shuo any blueprints that he could make use of.

Hence, to buy all the blueprints for the grade 2 town, he needed 2000 gold.

The population's upper limit of a grade 2 city had increased so much that based on the current refugee spawn rate, it needed 100 days before it would be reached. Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to increase his population through other means.

Definitely, to other lords, upgrading to grade 3 city there was also a huge gap which was the rank restriction. Out of all the grade 1 cities in the Chinese region, apart from Ouyang Shuo, the others were still rank 2 earl. Zhan Lang and Bai Hua's rank 2 earl was even obtained through the reward for upgrading to grade 1 city.

To rank up from rank 2 earl to rank 1 earl, the merit points required were impossible to obtain from just the main map. Hence they were a long way away from rank 1 earl.

Which meant that even if they were able to reach the population upper limit and become a grade 2 city, it would just stop there.

One could imagine how intense the competition would be at the next battle quest.

The rank restriction had also shown during the batch of lords that had just upgraded to grade 1 township. This bunch of players from start to finish, at every upgrade of their territory, they weren't given any rewards and as such could only attack raider camps to earn limited merit points.

Hence, for them to upgrade to a grade 2 township was very difficult.

The pyramid effect was slowly showing. The importance of the rank was also slowly starting to gain attention.

The territory area of a grade 2 city had reached 5000 square kilometers, and Lianzhou Basin took up 240 thousand square kilometers. This meant that Shanhai Town had taken up 1/48 of the Lianzhou Basin. Ignoring the area that the nomads took up, the chances of Shanhai City overlapping with other territories were very massive.

As expected, on the second day after Shanhai City upgraded, the Military Intelligence secretary Songsan came into Ouyang Shuo's office.

"Sire I have important military information."

Ouyang Shuo was shocked, quickly saying, "Speak!"

Song San gathered his words before saying, "Last month, the investigation that sire asked the Military Intelligence Division to conduct has had some progress. After the territory upgraded, the few territories around us had already become right at our new border.

"Please be more specific!" Ouyang Shuo didn't show any emotions.

"Yes, sire!" Song San carried on. "These batches of territories are on our east and west sides. The west side had 5 grade 1 villages, and the east has 3. These are all grade 3 villages."

"How are the defenses of these villages?" Ouyang Shuo was ready to kill.

"These grade 3 villages have already reached the upper population limit, have one or two squadrons of protection troops, mostly made up of basic sword shield soldiers, and some are even militiamen. As for defenses, they are all simple fences which are the same as nothing to us." Song San understood what Ouyang Shuo wanted to hear.

"Then we don't need to hesitate, remove them." Ouyang Shuo had decided, turning to Songsan. "At 4 PM, organize an emergency meeting to plan related matters. You and Leng Qian should join."

"Yes, sire!"

After Song San said goodbye and left, Ouyang Shuo called the clerk Bai Nanpu and asked him to inform the Military Affairs Director Ge Hongliang, mixed regiment colonel Shi Wanshui, and the 5 majors to join the emergency military meeting.

4 PM, lord's manor meeting hall

After Songsan and Leng Qian reported about the player territories to the east and west, Ouyang Shuo said, "We have to destroy these players before they become threats. As for the specific operation, does the Military Affairs Department have any ideas?"

"What ideas can we have sire, this thing will be passed to the mixed regiment, and it will be done beautifully." Ge Hongliang hadn't said anything but Shi Wanshui started blabbering.

Ouyang Shuo frowned and scolded, "What are you doing, are you trying to rebel?"

If it wasn’t for the 5 majors of the mixed regiment being there, Ouyang Shuo might’ve been even harsher.

Ouyang Shuo noticed that ever since he became a colonel, Shi Wanshui had paid less attention and respect to the Military Affairs Director. Hence, he was furious.

He couldn't allow his leaders to be so arrogant, even a special level general like Shi Wanshui. Hence, he needed to crush that kind of attitude before it starts to spread.

One shouldn’t look at Ouyang Shuo and his cultured and gentle appearance, once he got angry, everyone in the military was afraid of him. Even Shi Wanshui didn't speak when he was chided by Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shyo didn't want to make him look too bad and looked warmly at Ge Hongliang. "Director Ge, please speak."

Ge Hongliang apparently understood what was going on, but he still felt embarrassed. Although Ouyang Shuo trusted him, he wasn't a war general like Shi Wanshui was and just stayed cooped up on the city walls. Ge Hongliang calmed himself down and asked, "As for when to use the troops, does sire have any demands?"

Ouyang Shuo froze. "By the end of this month we must end the battle." The reason why Ouyang Shuo wanted to end it by this month was that, in the 7th month, the players would become level 0 and lose all their items when they died. As the first player to start a war, he would undoubtedly receive a lot of backlashes.

Zhu Hongliang nodded. "The old people said, before one faced the outside, one should ensure that their internal area is peaceful. Since we still have some time, I suggest using 10 days to destroy the raider camps in the territory. Seeing that the 7th month is going to come and the rice crops are going to be harvested, we must first protect them and ensure that they won't be eyed by raiders near the border. Additionally, as the territory size increases, the settlement must also move outwards. We can't only develop one core area in this 5000 square kilometers of land. Only by clearing out the raiders and ensuring internal safety can one set up new settlements and reclaim more farmland."

Ouyang Shuo was pleased. He raised his head and looked at everyone else. "Do you all understand Director Ge’s words?"

"Understood!" Everyone replied in unison.

"You are all generals and not purely soldiers. Although killing on the battlefield is important, to become a famous general, one must think and consider things from a higher perspective. Today, Director Zhu gave all of you a lesson. I hope all of you remember it in your hearts." Ouyang Shuo warned once again. However, he didn't specifically mention Shi Wanshui's name.

"Yes, sire!"

After the military meeting ended, Ouyang Shuo returned to his office. The territory had upgraded, and there was still a bunch of things for him to deal with.

Beihai City’s magistrate Gu Xiuwen sent a letter to ask for a sum of money from the main camp to be used to construct their first city wall. Beihai City's city wall would follow the standards set by the second wall of Shanhai City: 5 kilometers long, 12 meters high and 6 meters wide.

Apart from that, Gu Xiuwen also asked if he could start to build affiliate territories for Beihai City.

After Shanhai City upgraded, the 3 grade 1 townships could further develop 3 affiliate territories on their own, only that Ouyang Shuo didn't let them.

The reason was that the current Shanhai City, Beihai City, Qiushui Town, and Friendship Town were too close to one another. Like what Ge Hongliang said, to only develop one region and not make good use of the new space in the territory was an absolute waste.

The position of the affiliate territories couldn't be moved. If one said that for the first 3 affiliate territories Ouyang Shuo had a strategic consideration, then the second tier of affiliate territories Ouyang Shuo wasn't prepared to do so so quickly. He wanted to wait till the territory reached a Cherian scale before building the second tier affiliate territories.

Affiliate territories wasn't a never-ending cycle. A second tier was the max which meant that the future territory could only have 9 more affiliated territories. If not, Ouyang Shuo wouldn't have thought about building settlements to split the population to open up more land.

The difference between a settlement and an affiliate territory would be that an affiliate territory could grow and expand, every day having new refugees come in. A settlement was going to remain the same as how it was built. The growth of its population could only depend on the residents giving birth.

Similarly, if a player attacked other territories and claimed it as their own, they would lose their growing ability and become a significant settlement. The territory teleportation formation would also disappear.

This was also the reason why Ouyang Shuo didn't destroy other territories earlier. Not only did it make use of personnel, even if he succeeded in the attack and got rid of some territories, he also wouldn't be able to get anything. It would be a waste of time. The populations of these village-grade territories were even lesser than that of the mountain barbarian tribes or raider camps.

Even less needed to be said about the quality of the prisoners, as most of them were just commoners. Those special talents had loyalty to their original lords, so it wasn't an easy thing to make them work for you.

Chapter 178 - Cultivating Poison

One could describe Ouyang Shuo's strategy toward the territories at his border as cultivating poison.

Ouyang Shuo had always viewed Lianzhou Basin as something he owned. He wouldn't allow any others to corrupt it. The other territories in Lianzhou Basin weren't even on the same level as the Shanhai City.

After all, destroying their territories would mean losing that important growth stat. Hence, Ouyang Shuo naturally wouldn't be too rash. Instead, he just watched closely as these territories developed. They were similar to a blood-making machine which provided the Lianzhou Basin with refugees.

He had to wait for the basins to start and connect with Shanhai City. Only then could he possibly spy on and see some of the secrets of his territory. After that, Ouyang Shuo would make a move and remove them from Lianzhou Basin.

To protect the secrets of Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo needed to create a manmade empty region between the City and the other players' territory. This would prevent other players from infiltrating his territory.

This region was similar to the cans used to raise venomous insects, which separated it from the master.

Of course, to raise venomous insects, one needed to have absolute strength and also great cultivating methods. Otherwise, the insect you raised might kill you instead. Ouyang Shuo wanted to be the insect rearer of Lianzhou basin, but this was something the sky blade alliance definitely wouldn't agree to.

Without a doubt, Ouyang Shuo rejected the request from Beihai City to build affiliate territories.

As for the monetary request to build the city wall, they could only collect the profits early. These were the earnings in the first half of the 6th month from Langshan mine and Northern Saltpan.

Shanhai City earned money quickly but spent it even quicker.

Ouyang Shuo used red ink to jot down his thoughts on Gu Xiuwen's letter. As for the monetary request, he would provide 500 gold. Beihai City would have to solve the rest themselves.

Following this, the clerk Bai Nanpu followed Ouyang Shuo's annotations and informed the various divisions and departments, which would settle it themselves.

Now, Ouyang Shuo didn't need to run to their offices when he had something to announce or inform. He wouldn’t need to ask them to make a trip to his office. When he reached City level, he had pushed for a more orderly and fast administrative process.

An example would be what had just happened. After Ouyang Shuo finished his annotations, Bai Nanpu would convey Ouyang Shuo's intentions to Cu Yingyu. She would naturally send people to collect the profits from the first half of the 6th month and give a portion to Beihai City.

After he settled the matters concerning Beihai City, Ouyang Shuo picked up the documents that the Qiushui Town head Zhao Dexian had sent him.

Zhao Dexian raised in the letter that they had built the mountain barbarian settlement. That small-sized mountain barbarian tribe had moved into the settlement. Zhou Dexian had sent the needed living items and farming tools.

Tian Wenjing was a genius. After building the settlement, he gathered many of the mountain barbarian tribes. In the name of giving them a tour, he brought them to view the settlement.

They saw many green brick houses, granaries filled with grain, chickens, ducks and other poultry in the courtyard, bunches of vegetable lands, the vast plains outside the settlement....

All this amazed the barbarians viewing the mountain.

Compared to their tough lives in the mountains, this settlement looked like paradise on earth.

Not only that, but Zhao Dexian had also sufficiently understood what Ouyang Shuo wanted, so he followed the standards of the tribe witch to build a very majestic ancestral temple.

All these factors added up would definitely make one touched and amazed. On the spot, there were two small tribes that expressed their willingness to migrate to Shanhai City. Additionally, one mid-sized tribe and two other small tribes said that they would discuss with their people before they made a decision.

Such a bountiful harvest made Ouyang Shuo delighted.

When the two small tribes migrated down, Qiushui town would reach the population upper limit. Then, they would become that 2nd affiliate territory after Beihai City to upgrade. Not only that, the increase in manpower meant that the grain production for the next half year would increase.

Ouyang Shuo noted in the letter to provide Qiushui Town with an additional 1000 gold for the building of future settlements.

Now, it seemed like out of the three affiliate territories, friendship Town was lacking. Although they succeeded in building a trading market, the nomads valued their Qingfu horses highly and wouldn't easily sell them.

Furthermore, the purchasing value of the Qingfu horse was incredibly strong. The 200 horses traded from the Tianfeng tribe allowed them to obtain enough resources to use for a long time. It was currently summer, and it was the best time to let the animals graze, so the herders were all busy and didn't have time to trade.

Hence, the trading market was very cold and didn't reach the expectations of Town head Zhou Haichen.

After he read this letter, Ouyang Shuo had some thoughts.

It seemed like to remove the huge rock—the nomads—relying purely on trading was impossible. Most crucially, he would also need to make use of military might for it to have a chance of success.

With these thoughts in mind, Ouyang Shuo immediately sent a letter to the military affairs department and the city north barracks of Friendship Town. He asked them to conscript more soldiers and to expand an additional cavalry unit in half a month.

As for the main barracks, Ouyang Shuo didn't plan to expand the military. If not, it would place a huge financial burden on the territory.

The income of Friendship Town was actually very low, and they still needed to maintain a city protection unit and a north city barracks, which made them struggle. Ouyang Shuo noted in the letter to ask the Finance Department to give them 1000 gold. This gold was for military expenditures and funds to buy Qingfu horses.

With that, the three affiliate territories had spent 2500 in gold. Without the two gold gooses of the Langshan mining field and the Northern Saltpans, he wouldn't be able to carry on.

From this, one could see how difficult it was to run a territory, especially one like Shanhai City that developed together with its affiliate territories.

The grade 1 towns mostly just built mud city walls. The reason that they didn't use stone was because they didn't have the resources or the money.

After refugees entered the territory, they weren't your slaves but your residents. When the businesses were just set up, it was okay if you just provided meals as this was something they could understand.

However, after that initial stage and the town went up to grade 1 town things would change. If the lord continued to squeeze them and force them to work for his personal gain, they would likely start a riot and kill their lord, especially if the lord treated them like slaves and didn’t give them clothes and salary.

In the last life, there were many lords who were killed by their own NPCs and replaced.

Under normal circumstances, the refugees were definitely very docile and followed instructions. As long as one didn't force them to the brink, they would do such a thing. If not, riots would happen out of the blue and no one would dare to be a lord.

After he dealt with the letters of the three affiliate territories, it was already close to six in the evening.

Ouyang Shui got up and passed the annotated letters to Bai Nanpu. Then, he headed to the backyard.

"Brother, you got off work early." In the backyard, Bing'er and Zisu were playing an Olden version of puzzles. When they saw Ouyang Shuo, they were surprised.

Lu Guangzhi made this puzzle especially for Bing'er. In real life, Bing'er had seen and played with many different kinds of toys, but this kind of IQ game intrigued her. She was also talented; even Zisu and Banxia couldn't beat her.

Ouyang Shuo nodded,"Ya, Brother came back early to look for our little brat and see if you were well behaved."

Bing'er placed down the puzzle and ran over, as she wanted Ouyang Shuo to hug her.

Ouyang Shuo carried her up and walked toward the canteen. The time right was just nice for a meal. Ouyang Shuo felt puzzled. After entering the game, Bing'er became more clingy and frequently asked for hugs.

Ouyang Shuo guessed that she probably saw him treating Yingyu and Qing'er well. Then, she felt that he was going to be snatched away.

This was similar to real life, where kids didn't want their parents to give birth to another sibling. They didn’t want more siblings because they didn't want to split their parents' love.

Ouyang Shuo didn't interfere and just watched on. He couldn’t reduce his care for Yingyu and Qing'er. Ouyang Shuo wanted to let Bing'er know that love was supposed to be shared and this was a part of her life that she needed to go through.

After dinner, Ouyang Shuo returned to his room and went offline.

In reality, it was only half a month away from the 7th month, 1st day migration date. The atmosphere was still and cold, filled with fear for the future and the sadness of leaving the earth.

The news reported that some elderly didn't agree to migrate. Firstly, they were very old and even if the earth changed, it was still in 10 years. They probably wouldn't live for that long. Secondly, they didn't want to go through the torture of galactic travel.

The federal government respected their choice, and before they left, they would leave enough resources and lifestyle machines to take care of the citizens that weren't willing to migrate.

Apart from that, artists were reluctant to leave their artworks like old buildings, paintings, and cultural artifacts.

Those crazy people wanted to die together with the art pieces and cultural artifacts. The federal government didn't care about the views of these people and dragged them into the spaceships.

Chapter 179 - 400 Thousand

In reality, everyone's personal assets had been tabulated and turned into a bunch of numbers. As for the use of these numbers, the federal government didn't reveal.

In the morning, Ouyang Shuo called Sun Xiaoyue to ask about her Grandfather recruiting Scientists.

Based on her summary, her Grandfather had contacted 20 odd scientist in this half a month. They were all in the Dali region and Sun Xiaoyue brought them around to get used to the game environment.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo asked Sun Xiaoyue to do another thing—investigate the Cui family in the Dali region, especially what kind of reaction they had to Cui Yingyu disappearing.

After upgrading to a city, Ouyang Shuo finally had the ability to make contact with the Cui family. Since Sun Xiaoyue was in the Dali Region, he wanted her to help join both parties.

In the afternoon, Song Jia made a call to Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo's soldier token and message had succeeded as expected. Song Jia and Yuanping's marriage had been indefinitely delayed.

After Song Jia learned of the news, she totally admired Ouyang Shuo and would often call him.

At night, Ouyang Shuo got online on time.

After completing his cultivation, Ouyang Shuo didn't remain in the lord's manor. Instead, headed toward the east region. In a large part of half a month, although they hadn’t completed the city walls, the Organization of the city was already in place.

The bow and crossbow workshop, armory division workshop, weapons workshop and alchemy workshop were located in the east region.

Ouyang Shuo walked into the Bow And Crossbow Division workshop, the secretary-cum-manager, advanced bow maker Wu Peng went up to welcome him and said respectfully," Sire!"

In olden society, such people were called artisans and their societal status were very low. Hence, they all had very low self esteem and treated their lords with a lot of respect. Maybe only the only exception was the secretary of the Armoury Division, advanced blacksmith Wang Tao.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and asked,"Secretary Wu, how many crossbow machines has the division made?"

The structure of the crossbow can be split into three parts: arm, bow and machine. The arm was mostly made of wood, the bow was placed across the front portion of the arm, and the machine was fixed around the back of the arm.

The crossbow machine that Ouyang Shuo asked about was the most important portion of the crossbow, the machine.

It was mainly made up of copper, but it could also be made of iron. The front was the ‘teeth’ used to hang the string and behind that was a connecting link. Engraved on it was the angle and the distance. This was similar to the scope of a modern gun, and based on the distance of the target, the user adjusted the shooting angle to increase accuracy.

At the bottom of the casing was the input link used to fire the bolts.

When the user fired the crossbow, they pulled the string and hooked onto the ;teeth’, which placed a bolt onto the bolt channels. After aiming through the connecting link, the user squeezed the input link to cause the ‘teeth’ to sink downward. This released the string from the hook and shoot the bolt out at high speeds.

20 days ago, not long after the upgrade of Shanhai city, Ouyang Shuo suddenly visited the Bow And Crossbow Division workshop. He asked them to focus on rushing a batch of crossbow machines and create a quantity not less than 100 thousand.

They naturally had doubts about their lord’s weird request, but as they felt inferior, Wu Peng didn't ask and just followed the orders.

The crossbow machine wasn't like bows and the materials were easy to find. Moreover, they were also very easy to make and only required stone and iron ore. Unlike the production of bows and crossbows that were affected by the factors of the materials such as the bow strings, horns and leathers, hence, their production rate was limited and couldn’t increase much anymore.

As the Bow And Crossbow Division still had to care about crafting bows and crossbows, they could only make an extra 500 crossbow machines a day. To date, they made just exactly 10,000 sets.

After Ouyang Shuo listened to this report, he wasn't pleased, “Secretary, you need to increase the speed. You can reduce the amount of finished products for bows and crossbows anyways, as we don't have a requirement for those in this period of time."

"Understood!" Wu Peng nodded.

Ouyang Shuo walked out of the Bow And Crossbow Division and went into the Armoury Division workshop at the side.

To date, they had built the the Armoury Division for three and a half months. During the 5th month, nearly two months since it was set up, the Armoury Division passed 50 sets of Mingguang Armor to the cavalry unit and 100 sets of Buren Armor to the Infantry Unit.

These two armors played a huge role during the Battle of Zhuolu and shocked everyone.

Which at the same time, the armors suffered various degree of damages from the war. The damaged armors were brought back and handed to the Armoury Division for repairs and then passed back on to the soldiers.

After two months of organisational pains, the Armoury workshop artisans had slowly started to form up. To date, they had one master blacksmith, four advanced, 20 intermediate, and 150 basic blacksmiths. They also had one master tailor, one advanced, five intermediate and ten basic tailors.

Such a massive group of people took up 340 gold a month, more than the overall spending of a unit. Moreover, this did not include Qing'er's advising fees.

After the completion, the results started to show. Since the start of the 5th month, they could produce 150 sets of Mingguang Armor and 200 sets of Buren Armor in one month.

They made the batch of armor handed out during the 5th month before the month had started. As such, the Armoury division was able to pass 150 sets of Mingguang Armor to the vanguard unit and 200 Buren Armor to the mixed regiment at the end of the month.

Based on this speed, at the end of the 7th month, the vanguard unit would be fully equipped. At the end of the 6th month, the first unit of the mixed regiment would be fully equipped and the second unit would reach the same stage by the middle of the 9th month.

In a short time, their production speed wouldn't have any large increases. Firstly, they had already chose the residents in the territory who could become blacksmiths; they could only search from the New refugees. Secondly, the supply of iron ore had reached a bottleneck.

Shanhai city's only mining site needed to supply the weapons workshop to craft lances and Tang knives, the bow and crossbow division for crossbow machines and bolts, and the Armoury division for armor. As such, they had already reached its max. Even if they increased the quantity of miners, it was no use as the space was limited.

The only solution was to find new iron mining sites in the territory.

Walking out of the Armory division, Ouyang a Shuo returned to the lord's manor and continued to deal with administrative issues.

……

In the next week, Feng Qingyang and Di Chen had both successfully upgraded their towns to grade 1 cities. In particular, Handan Town had recovered so quickly after their failure, which certainly wasn't easy.

With that, there were a total of seven rank 1 cities in the china region. Only three spots remained for the fight for the Top 10.

Be it Xiong Ba, Sha Pojun, wandering magic, Wufu, or even Xunlong Dianxue, they all stood a chance.

These five territories were considered 3rd series, and compared to the first series Shanhai city and the second series cities, they were lacking. In a short amount of time, they wouldn't be confident of applying to upgrade. Especially Stone Town and Xunlong Town, who hadn't even fulfilled the basic requirements.

The situation of Sha Pojun was as Ouyang Shuo had expected. Out of the original Six Tyrants of Handan, he was the weakest. This was because the powers he represented had a huge weakness. Once their assets were frozen, their friends and business partners wouldn't bother with them, which caused them to be abandoned.

Sha Pojun and his men were good at fighting. However, in terms of managing a territory, they were still lacking a lot.

During this week, Qiushui Town became the brightest light in the entire territory as a total of one medium-sized tribe and four small tribes decided to migrate. This meant that the hesitant tribes had all decided to come down from the mountains. In addition to the small tribe from the beginning, Qiushui Town suddenly had an influx of 14 thousand people.

In the south, of the barbarian tribes that cooperated with Shanhai City, including Xianniao tribe, only two medium-sized and four small sized tribes remained in the mountains.

Apart from Xuanniao tribe and the three small tribes close to the Langshan mining fields, the remaining medium-sized tribe and the small-sized tribe were very stubborn and probably couldn't be convinced in a short amount of time.

The arrival of the mountain barbarians made the population jump two grades and directly become a grade 2 city. Zhao Dexian was also assigned the role of Qiushui City Magistrate.

The ambitious Zhao Dexian tossed out a plan to reclaim a total of 400 thousand mu of farmland.

He planned to reclaim 380 thousand mu of farmland and raise the scale of their farmland to a total of 400 thousand mu.

Based on the average of 10 mu per person, 400 thousand mu would need 40 thousand farmers. Now, they only had half of that, Moreover, a large portion were novice mountain barbarians. If you excluded the children and the elderly, the number would be much smaller.

If one looked at it that way, the 400 thousand figure was exaggerated and rash.

In truth, Zhao Dexian had made his calculations. Qiushui city was made with a silver village creation token, and its refugee attraction rate had increased by 40%. This rate meant that everyday, it could have 280 refugees and 8,400 a month.

There was still more than a month till the second rice planting at the start of the 8th month. As long as they passed half a month of struggling and hardship, the population of Qiushui city could hit 40 thousand in the middle of the 9th month.

The way he saw it, the early struggles for half a year's of grain was worth it. Since he already made such specific and clear calculations, Ouyang Shuo obviously didn't have any reasons to disagree.

Chapter 180 - Lightning Operation

Gaia first year, 6th month, 24th day, Shanhai city's second raider operation had finally reached an end.

Compared to the first time, the region of the raider operation had expanded by three times and would obviously yield better rewards. They had netted 5400 gold and 5500 prisoners and gained large amounts of grain and equipment.

Most importantly, he had obtained a technical manual in this raider operation.

: after use, user automatically grasps the technique to craft ladders.

In the last raider city attack, Ouyang Shuo witnessed the strength of the ladder. He yearned and desired such a siege weapon. He passed over the manual to the combat logistics division for the artisans to analyse and create as soon as possible.

Ouyang Shuo didn’t forget that there were still a group of mountain bandits waiting for him to settle at the Zhennan Pass. The appearance of the ladder was a godsend. If not, he wouldn't have a good idea of how to attack that pass.

Based on Shi Wanshui's report, they faced a tough opponent in this raider operation. It was a advanced raider camp with 3000 raiders, among them were 500 elites and 1500 basic raiders.

Luckily, the mixed regiment had experience with raider camps and were able to coordinate well between the units. In addition to this, they had the trump card of the first unit of the regiment—four squadrons equipped with Buren Armor—their defence was shocking and they took down the raiders without much danger.

In just that battle alone, the mixed regiment had lost 100 men. One must know that in the two large scale operations, the mixed regiment had only lost 300 men, so one could imagine the intensity of the raider operation.

In truth, upon reaching the city grade, raiders could practically threaten the territory. This was because of their limited scale and an advanced raider camp was already the maximum. In the wilderness, the people they could rob and track were rare, so a large number of raiders gathered together could only starve.

When faced with such a well-equipped, proper army like the mixed regiment, the raiders had no way to fight back. Hence, Ouyang Shuo didn't personally join the raider operation after Shanhai City’s upgrade and just left it to Shi Wanshui.

The 5500 prisoners, apart from the 1000 to join the reserve forces, the remaining 4500 were all sent to Friendship village to help it upgrade to grade 1 city. Out of the three affiliate territories, friendship town was the slowest. Ouyang Shuo could bear to let it live on it's on and not help it.

Ouyang Shuo appointing Zhou Haichen as the city magistrate of friendship town touched him. However, out of the 3 affiliate territories, only he didn't achieve anything. His lack of results made him feel guilty, and he felt that he was letting Ouyang Shuo down.

Ouyang Shuo didn't say anything and just asked him to work harder to make up for the difference.

At the same time, Ouyang Shuo ordered Leixun, who was collecting information on the nomadic tribes, to quicken his pace. He also wrote a letter to the new 2nd vanguard unit major Sun Tenjiao. Ouyang Shuo asked him to increase their training to ensure that they could be put to use at anytime.

In the raider operation that had just ended, Ouyang Shuo especially asked him to bring the unit to join in. He allowed Leixun to train them and form some combat ability as soon as possible.

Normally speaking, a normal soldier in a unit must be rank 5 to be considered passable. If not, that unit would be considered a new unit.

After a month of inspection, Ouyang Shuo named the second leader of the raiders during the city attack—Heiqi—as the deputy major. Ouyand Shuo did this to strengthen the ability of the second vanguard unit.

He was now just a deputy major, which looked like a downgrade of two ranks. After all, he was leading one thousand cavalry during the city Attack. But to a spared General, this chance could already be considered a great treatment.

Ouyang Shuo definitely did this because of Sun Tengfei's ability, which were equal to Heiqi. In addition to his experience, Ouyang Shuo would naturally choose to promote Sun Tengfei first.

Furthermore, based on the speed that Shanhai city was expanding, as long as Heiqi performed well and stayed loyal, he was bound to be appointed as major.

The 5400 gold earned from the raiders and the 7600 in profits from the mine and saltpans added up to 13,000 gold. Out of this, he gave 2500 to the affiliate territories, 2000 to buy basic building blueprints, 1250 for building the 3rd unit of the Beihai naval fleet and the class change course for the second cavalry unit, and 250 gold as compensation for soldiers of the mixed regiment that had died. Finally, he was left with 7000 gold.

Ouyang Shuo didn't deal with the remaining gold immediately. He was prepared to wait for two days. At that time, the latter half of the month's profit was tabulated. Then, he would make decide how to allocate the remaining funds.

In the afternoon, Shanhai city meeting hall.

After the raider operation had ended, Ouyang Shuo was about to start acting on the neighboring territories.

Based on the plans of the Internal Affairs department, the operation would be codenamed lighting— they would remove the 8 player territories with lightning quick speed.

Hence, Shanhai city had no choice but to make use of all their forces.

The operation was split into east and west, entering together and starting at the same time.

On the east there were only three territories. The units in charge were the Shanhai city city protection unit, Qiushui city city protection unit, Friendship city city protection unit, and the second vanguard unit. They were under the leadership of director Ge Hongliang.

The four majors weren’t any pricks, so it would be easy for him to take charge of them. Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo wanted to use this chance to train the battle strength of the various protection units and also their ability to work across long distances.

Based on Shanhai city's situation of being in the middle, defending on the back foot wasn't his goal and attacking was more of his style. Hence, he didn't want the city protection units to be cooped up in the city and lose their fighting ability. They needed to be pulled out time after time for battle to maintain their morale and killer instinct.

On the west, there were five player territories and Shuo Wanshui was the one guiding the mixed regiment.

As the Military Intelligence Division reported that these territories didn't have any decent city walls, the god machine unit wasn't activated.

This operation used up more men than attacking the raider camps, but their opponents were Grade 3 villages that couldn't even compare to advanced raider camps.

Speed, this was the core of the operation.

They aimed to take down all eight territories at the same time and not give them a chance to react.

Before he left, Ouyang Shuo ordered them to not hesitate when they reached the village. They were to attack immediately and take down the lord's manor and complete the mission.

After a player's territory had been occupied, all the players in it would be teleported to the system imperial capital. Lianzhou Basin players would naturally be sent to Dali.

If the player died during the process, he would be revived at the imperial capital's reincarnation hall.

Hence, to cleanly end the battles, the east and west troops would set out early in the morning and set up camp near the territories. In the morning of the next day, they would initiate their attack and not give their opponents the chance to react. At that time, many players probably hadn't even logged in, and did not know who the enemy was.

This was the effect that Ouyang Shuo wanted.

If these eight territories knew that Shanhai city had destroyed them, they would spread it on the forums and cause all the other territories in the Lianzhou Basin to work together.

Only if they kept their identities a secret would they be able to keep the opponent guessing, preventing them from pointing their fingers at Shanhai city. Ouyang Shuo was raising poisonous insects, but he didn't want them to group together.

He raised the insects to fight each other, which would leave the strongest one standing.

After he settled the strategy, the majors returned to their barracks to prepare for tomorrow.

6th month, 25th day, the troops set out.

The mixed regiment moved out from the west city barracks and went toward the most western area of the territory. The three city protection units and the vanguard unit went from their own barracks to Qiushui city to meet up. Then, they would head toward the most eastern region.

6th month, 26th day, five in the morning.

For the east army, Ge Hongliang's plan was for the three city protection units to each attack one and the vanguard unit to act as a mobile unit to adapt when needed.

As for the west, Shi Wanshui didn't have any plans or tactics.

The various units of the mixed regiment were all specialized soldiers, hence Shi Wanshui split up the five units and reorganized them. He formed five units that were similar to city protection units. They two squadrons of sword and shield soldiers, one cavalry squadron, one spear squadron, and one archer squadron.

The protection squad of the grade 3 villages were only 100 people. At most, they would have 200. When they faced a unit, it was impossible to defend. Moreover, it was a sneak attack, so there was no way they could succeed.

At 5:30 a.m., The eight units of 4000 soldiers were like five surgical knives. Under the direction of the military intelligence division, they precisely stabbed into the enemy.

A grade 3 village had arrow towers and stone sentries. The attacking troops didn't bother to hide. It was still dark and they didn't find a need to hide their tracks.

The wooden gates of the village were burst open by the mountain barbarian sword and shield soldiers. The troops behind them followed and successfully took down the lord's manor.

At that time, the territories that could react fast enough had rushed out to prepare to intercept. However, the protection squads were weak and couldn't match up, so the army smashed them into bits.

When the residents saw their fellow villagers being defeated so easily, they didn't dare to go up. Instead, they only watched on as the invaders took over the lord's manor.

After the invaders occupied the territory, the NPCs naturally became prisoners.

Chapter 181 - Spending Spree

The lightning operation went unexpectedly smooth, and they didn't face any unexpected situations.

After completing the operation, the soldiers gathered all the residents together. They arranged for the residents to bring back all the material and resources to Shanhai city.

These villages were located outside of the territory of Shanhai city, so Ouyang Shuo decided to leave all of them empty. Once the territory area increases, these villages could act as settlements.

At that time, the farmers could be brought into the villages and reclaim farmland to plant rice. Then, it would slowly become a village under Shanhai city. They could open up the vast areas of land.

6th month, 26th day, 5:30 p.m.

The east and west armies brought back 7200 prisoners as well as large amounts of goods and resources to Shanhai city.

As it was already late, Ouyang Shuo didn't arrange for them to enter the city. Instead, he let them spend the night outside the city. Anyways, it was summer and the nights weren't cold. They also had tents, so it wasn't too hard on them.

Ouyang Shuo didn't have an interest in keeping the resources that were brought here, so he distributed it to the villagers. With that, it would lessen the hatred that they had toward Shanhai City.

The next day, the Household Registration Division started to work.

They had already created a perfect process for dealing with refugees and prisoners.

The Household Registration Division were situated at the north and west sides. There were specific points to welcome new refugees. When they arrived, the officials would help register them and place them into the household registry of Shanhai city.

After that, the official would split the refugees up based on their talents and occupations.

Farmer, fruit farmer, miner, lumberjack, and breeder—these occupations were suitable for living outside the city, so they were sent to the various settlements after they collected their basic welfare package. When they reached the settlement, the officer would arrange their living.

The Agriculture Division and Material Reserves Department had workers to help and assist the household registration division.

Artisans, tailors, businesspeople, and the like—these talented individuals were sent to the post house, which will be in charge of their meals and housing. The Household Registration Division would send recommendation letters according to the individual’s occupation. They could use these letters to find a suitable job.

After they found a job, the refugee would have to leave the post house and rent a house in the residential area for living purposes.

The construction division had built some resettlement houses for the refugees to rent.

With a fixed house, they could go to the Material Reserves Department and claim their welfare package.

After they had worked a while and settled down, they could go to the four seas bank to take a loan to buy the house that they had rented with a sizeable amount of savings.

With extra money, they could go to the market and buy some poultry to rear at home. The hardworking ones could buy vegetables or seeds to grow in their yards.

The even richer ones could go to the garment workshop to buy new clothing or the jewelry shop to buy jewelry. They could even occasionally head to the hotel to drink, or the tea house for tea, or the theatre to watch shows and listen to songs.

A large portion of refugees ended up there and just led their lives nicely. The younger chaps would consider their futures and marry to get kids.

As for the generals, scholars, and special talents, they would be recommended to the secretary of the household registration—Duquan.

For those at Gold rank and below, Duquan would recommend them to the respective directors based on their occupation. He would assign them to work in either the military or various departments.

Only the really special ones could get Duquan's recommendation to Ouyang Shuo, for him to personally assign them work.

The refugees who felt that they were suitable for the army could give up their jobs and join the military barracks.

The Household Registration Division had been well drilled in this process and was able to do it smoothly. Even with an influx of 7200 people, it was just a problem of sending more men to handle it.

Of course, this bunch of prisoners was much more special. Amongst them, there were still people who were loyal to their lord. A large portion were core members of the village, scholars, or generals.

To this bunch of people, Ouyang Shuo would not dare to be careless. He would demote all the generals to sergeants and sent them to various units. The civil servants would be sent to work in various affiliate territories as basic personnel.

Ouyang Shuo had his reasons for the way he handled the civil servants.

The city magistrates of the affiliate territories were all aboriginal people, so they wouldn't be too wary of these prisoners. At the same time, they would also be able to improve the administrative system and raise efficiency.

Of course, this was also his test to the three city magistrates. He wanted to see if he could persuade these bunch of civil servants.

What he expected was that in this bunch of prisoners, there wasn't a historical figure. The highest ranked ones were only two basic rank generals and a scholar.

After settling the prisoners, Ouyang Shuo started dealing with the financial matters.

The 7600 gold profit for the latter half of the 6th month had been collected. Now, Ouyang Shuo had 14600 gold on hand. He took 4600 and passed it to the financial department as financial expenditure.

Ouyang Shuo carried the remaining 10 thousand gold and went to the advanced market. It had already moved to the front of the lord's manor, west of the square and right beside the teleportation formation.

Come to think about it, Ouyang Shuo had rarely come to the market, as Shanhai city was basically self-sufficient. Apart from building blueprints, there was little that he had to buy.

He came to the market because of the huge system update after the galactic migration. Moreover, this update will change the settings of the market.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to make use of his knowledge beforehand to buy many items.

Ouyang Shuo first looked for secret manuals. He swept up all the authentic gold secret manuals, a total of 20 for 1000 gold.

With that, Ouyang Shuo had collected 120 authentic gold secret manuals.

Surprisingly, he found another emperor rank cultivation technique. It was the famous for 1500 gold. Ouyang Shuo bought it without hesitation.

The weren't of much use to him, but it was a treasure to Song Jia. Her dream was to open a clan and become a chivalrous swordsman, so this scripture would make a good clan cultivation technique.

Afterward, Ouyang Shuo spent 500 gold to buy a and a . Both the military grain pill and the military tent were great items that would be used a lot, so Ouyang Shuo needed to be self-sufficient.

Most importantly, military grain pills, military tents, alchemical fire oil, and alchemical fire oil cabinet were resources which would cease to be sold after the update.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo directly spent 1000 gold for 100 thousand barrels of alchemical fire oil. This batch was enough to last Shanhai city for 10 years. The combat logistics division shifted it to under the mountain range. In the huge cave, men watched them to prevent any person from coming close.

Apart from military resources, Ouyang Shuo also purchased a batch of grain.

Although in the 7th month, Qiushui city and Friendship city could both harvest their rice, but after calculation, the territory was still lacking food for the latter half of the year.

The fertile game land of Qiushui city produced 350 units of grain per mu, seven million units for its 20 thousand mu. On the side of friendship village, it produced 320 units of grain per mu, 20 thousand mu and that would be 6.4 million. This totaled up to 13.4 million units of grain.

The second harvesting season would be the end of the 10th month, a full 4 months of time.

Shanhai city and the 3 affiliate territories had a population of close to 40 thousand that grew at a rate of 1140 per day.

Based on the lowest consumption of 1 unit per day, they need 17.8 million units of grain to last till then. Considering that the military used double and the wine brewery and animals needed grain too, they would need 20 million units of grain.

All of this didn't factor in the influx of people due to mountain barbarians or prisoners. As this was bound to happen, he had to consider it.

Overall, the first collection of grain was just a little more than half. This was also under the condition that the farmers sold all of the grain they collected.

After the system update, the goods trading platform will be removed, and players could only buy grain through the auction platform or trading platform with other players. If the trader sees that you have a food crisis, they would raise the price and wouldn't be like the system that keeps a stable low price.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo spent the remaining 6000 all on grain, obtaining 6 million units of grain and filling up half of the newly upgraded city grade granary.

Although there was still not enough grain, this solved before the grain prices increased. After all, the 7th month was harvesting season, and no Town would have a problem of lack of grain.

So, Ouyang Shuo spent 10 thousand gold to lay a solid foundation for the development of Shanhai city. Ouyang Shuo clearly remembered what a cruel experience the grain crisis in the latter half of the year was for territories.

Chapter 182 - Despicable

6th month, 28th day, the migration in reality had entered its final stages.

The migrants had carried various artwork, old books, and biological samples onto a spaceship. Apart from that, various production lines and smart robots were on that ship. These were brought to ensure that when it reached planet Hope, they could be assembled straight away and produce various resources.

In truth, two years after the satellites spotted planet Hope in the year 2171, the federal government had put together an explorer squad to do the first stages of exploration.

The explorer squad had traveled for a full 10 years before they reached planet Hope. In addition to the time for the signals and messages to be sent, the basic knowledge the federal government had about planet Hope were just of these few years.

Hence, the production lines that were sent were very specific. As for the specific details, only the high-level federal government members and the people involved knew.

The spaceships designated for the migration had been parked at the various spaceports. As Jiaozhou was a city closer to the middle region, it had its own spaceport. Ouyang Shuo was definitely going to rush to Modou to meet up with his little aunt. Then, he would board the spaceship at the suburbs of Modou.

As it lacked maintenance and fixing, the network signals were starting to become unstable.

In the morning, he gave Sun Xiaoyue one last call to ask about the situation with the Cui family.

"The Cui family has a huge reputation in Dali and is a huge business organization. They run nearly every type of businesses. Their core is silver weapons and banking," Sun Xiaoyue said through the phone, "It's as you said, bandits attacked Cui Yingyu when she was on a trip. Then, she went missing. After such a long time, they believe that she has already died."

Ouyang Shuo nodded," Xiaoyue, I don't want to hide this from you, she's in my territory. After I come online, I'll send you one of her items. Use it link up with the Cui Family."

"Oh no wonder. Leave this matter to me!"

"Thank you!"

Ouyang Shuo hung up. Then, he opened his handbrain and headed onto the forums.

The lightning operation was revealed on the forums. The eight lords were describing their experience. In truth, there was nothing to say, as they didn't even see who their enemies were. When they went online, they were directly sent to the Dali Region.

This was the first territory destruction incident in the China Region that wasn't due to monsters or raider attacks.

Naturally, it attracted attention, especially at such a specific time—a few days before the migration. This event made everyone curious, and they started to speculate.

Although they didn't know who it was, Shanhai City had become the biggest suspect. The reason was simple. Firstly, Shanhai City was the strongest in the Lianzhou Basin, and thus they had the ability to do so. Secondly, Shanhai Town had recently upgraded to grade 2 city and the territory land had expanded.

Moreover, the members of the Sky Blade Alliance fanned the flames, so Shanhai City became the biggest suspect.

Ouyang Shuo remained calm and didn't make any statements. He neither admitted nor denied these claims.

If someone stood out to scold and chide Ouyang Shuo, that guy would be an idiot. The main point of Earth Online was territorial warfare and conquest, so there was no justice or righteousness. It was just survival of the fittest.

Luckily, there were no idiots. Even the eight lords only ranted on the forums. In the end, they could only accept that they were unfortunate.

In truth, the reason this became a focal point was why Shanhai City decided to rage wars at such a sensitive time period, was it a show of strength or to make a stand?

If one called it a show of strength, there was no need to do so with their ability, as they had already earned the respect of everyone in China.

Bai Xiaoshen raised the point that Shanhai City's action had actually helped everyone out. He had warned the rookies that although there was freedom in your territory, you are never safe and can be attacked at any time. It was better to just stay safe in the system imperial city.

His argument had received a lot of support.

Many rookies that joined the game started to weigh the pros and cons of playing the lord mode.

During the weighing process, another thought was tossed out. The person raised that there was a perfect solution—to join a strong territory. That way, you could remain safe even if you don't have power.

Ouyang Shuo kept quiet. He didn't know if it was a coincidence or if Chun Shenjun and the others had fanned the flames. The migration caused many to lose their everything. At this time, Chun Shenjun had provided them with hope. He wanted to get them into his own territory to make up for his current weakness.

Although Shanhai City stood to gain from such a theory, Ouyang Shuo didn't find it something to be happy about. Since he started, he had already decided that his territory wouldn't accept a large number of players.

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo brought Bing'er to the cemetery to clean their parents' graves for the last time as a goodbye.

Tomorrow morning, he was going to bring Bing'er and rush to Shanghai to meet with little aunt. As the migrant numbers were too big, Shanghai—which had 2.4 million people—was assigned to spaceships. Each ship could take 1.2 million people.

Of course, these spaceships were specially modified such that each person only took up a small amount of space. Basically, as long as it was enough to fit a game cabin, it was fine. Before they boarded, the players needed to enter the game cabin and the robots would transfer the cabins to a specific spot in the ship.

When the galactic spaceships took off, the game cabin would enter a deep sleep mode. The player would be completely frozen and only unfrozen when they reached their destination.

After they returned from the cemetery, Ouyang Shuo started to pack up their luggage. They decided to bring the items that they the most valued. The federal government would provide the other things.

In the end, Ouyang Shuo chose a framed family photo from when his parents were still alive. At that time, Bing'er was just a little kid that looked very cute.

As for Bing'er, she chose a cloth doll. It was already old, but she treated it as a gem. It was a birthday present from her Father.

At night, Ouyang Shuo got online as usual.

As they ate breakfast, Ouyang Shuo looked at Yingyu, "Yu'er, come to my office later. I have something to discuss with you."

"En." Yingyu thought it had something to do with work, so she didn't pay much attention to it.

10 a.m. Yingyu entered Ouyang Shuo's office.

Ouyang Shuo asked her to sit. Then, he gathered his thoughts,"Yingyu, you do know that Brother is different from you all and has a special way to contact the outside world, right?"

Yingyu nodded, “I know."

"I have friends in the Dali region, and I asked her to find out about your family’s situation." Ouyang Shuo continued.

Yingyu's heart clenched, and she painfully asked, “Then? Did my family think I already died in the wilderness?"

Ouyang Shuo nodded,"You'er don't be said. it's also normal. After all, they haven't heard from you in half a year. Such a judgment is normal."

"Big Brother you don't need to console me, I understand." Yingyu tried hard to calm herself down.

"How about this. Allow my friend to contact your family. I need an item from you and also a handwritten letter. My plan is to allow your family to believe and confirm that you are still alive. Then, we can contact them through the cooperation platform in the advanced market. What do you think?"

In truth, Ouyang Shuo words were selfish.

If he wanted to, he could have found a territory near Dali region to ally with and send Yingyu there. Then, he could arrange a unit to send her back home to reunite with her family.

The reason why he didn't do that was because he also had his considerations.

Firstly, Ouyang Shuo didn't want to treat allying others as a game. An ally in Shanhai Alliance had strict regulations. Although Consonance City was in Yunnan Province, it was closer to Kunming.

After the 10 times expansion of the game map, Kunming was over three thousand miles away from Dali. Even if one used the speed of a Qingfu horse, it would take two months to rush there, which wasn't too practical.

Secondly, Ouyang Shuo couldn't bear to let her leave Shanhai City. Not to mention the relationship between them, Shanhai City needed this financial director. In the future, when Shanhai City had enough talents, Ouyang Shuo would consider sending her back.

Ouyang Shuo sometimes felt that doing so was a bit despicable, as this betrayed the trust she had in him. He said that as long as the time was right, he would protect her and send her back to Dali. He was really shameless.

However, this was the price one needed to pay as a lord who controlled power.

As a lord, the situation and future of the territory was the first thing he considered. Maybe only Bing'er was someone that couldn't be touched in his heart. Only that wouldn't have anything to do with profits and benefits.

Actually, to be able to contact her family was enough to Yingyu. Shanhai City had given her a platform, and it was a fortunate event to end up here.

"I think that's great. I'll finish the letter in the afternoon and pass it to you."

"Great!" Ouyang Shuo was expressionless.

Chapter 183 - Boarding the Spaceship

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo sent the item and the handwritten letter to Sun Xiaoyue.

Following this, he walked out of the lord's manor. Under the company of Zhao Dewang, he started to inspect the completed 2nd city wall.

It took around 40 days for them to finally complete the 2nd wall. The completed city wall included the city gate, city tower, archer tower, soldier hiding hole, and various other installations. These parts had all been built and could be employed.

The two city walls didn't form the typical square within a square. Instead, the outer square was a bit upward, which caused the inner square to flush down. Hence, the east and west gates of the second wall were on the same line as the north gate of the first wall. Thus, the east and west gates of both walls weren't aligned, which increased the defensive ability.

The south gate was on the same center line. However, there was an inner city river, and the two south gates were 3 kilometers apart. Defensively, it wasn't weaker than the east and west sides.

In the 7th month, when Sun Xiaoyue and the others teleported over, they would see a brand new Shanhai City and the biggest lord player’s city in the world.

Ouyang Shuo returned to the lord’s manor and stayed in his office. He read for a while.

After this upgrade to grade 2 city, Ouyang Shuo still had many things that planned. However, as the migration was coming, he had to deal with that. Ouyang Shuo didn't have much time to start these projects.

6 PM, Ouyang Shuo went to the backyard and got offline together with Bing'er.

After they exited the game cabin, the two of them ate their last breakfast.

"Baby, do you remember what brother told you?" Ouyang Shuo nagged.

Bing'er nodded," I remember. Don't tell anyone, including little aunt, about anything in the game. Brother don't worry, Bing'er is very well behaved."

Ouyang Shuo nodded and brought her and their small amount of luggage out of the door. The federal government arranged unmanned buses which went straight to Shanghai. As for their game cabins, the sending channel would directly transport them to Shanghai.

10 AM, Ouyang Shuo reached Shanghai and met up with little aunt.

After the met up, they had a simple lunch at her house. Then, they took a bus to the spaceport.

As there were too many people, they didn’t wait until the 7th month, 1st day to board. From today onward, people would start streaming onto the spaceships.

Ouyang Shuo didn't want to stay too long at little aunt's house, so he decided to board the spaceship today.

Before they left, they had already changed into the federal-government-issued space suits. These space suits were very light and similar to sportswear.

As for the spaceport, it was already very full. Luckily, there was military personnel to maintain order.

Ouyang Shuo, Bing'er, little aunt Lin Jing, and Xie Siyun had joined the queue and prepared to board. At 5:30 PM, it was their time to board.

The machines directed them to lie in their own game cabin. These machines were in charge of transporting them to specific locations.

After he entered the game cabin, Ouyang Shuo directly logged into the game. In the near future, he would have no fate with the real world and would have to live in the game.

Ouyang Shuo walked out of his room and entered Bing'er's room.

Zisu stated in the room adjacent to Bing'er's. His arrival woke her up.

"Sire?" Zisu felt a little weird.

Ouyang Shuo nodded," I'm here to see Third Miss."

At this time, Bing'er got up from her bed on her own and ran out, "Brother!"

Ouyang Shuo was afraid of Bing'er being unable to adapt and purposely came to console her. When he saw that her emotions were still stable, he could finally relax and laugh,"Baby, for a long time, we will have to stay in the game world, are you afraid?"

"I'm not, I have Brother here. Anyways, Bing'er think it's fun here." This little brat really had no heart, maybe because she couldn't understand what galactic migration entailed.

While the two chatted, Zisu had already retreated out of the room to prepare hot water for Bing'er to bathe. She also asked the kitchen to prepare breakfast.

As Bing'er was okay, Ouyang Shuo returned to his own room. With Banxia serving him, he did a simple wash up. Then, he took the exquisite steel spear and started to practice.

This type of morning became the norm for the pair.

At 10 AM, Ouyang Shuo punctually appeared at the lord's office. He asked Bai Nanpu to call the combat logistics secretary Zhao Youfang over, as he had some things to arrange.

After Zhao Youfang entered, he appeared a little careful. Ouyang Shuo had frozen this secretary for a long time. Being called to see Ouyang Shuo at this time, he didn't know the purpose.

Ouyang Shuo sat at the lord's seat. He noticed how scared and careful Zhao Youfang looked, which caused Ouyang Shuo felt emotional.

Half a year has passed, and the smart and flexible-looking Zhao Youfang was unable to take up important tasks. The originally stiff-looking Zhao Dewang was able to manage the construction division well and Ouyang Shuo had rewarded him many times.

The first batch of people from Shanhai village had all taken up important positions, but they were pretty much at their limit.

Zhao Dexian being a city magistrate was already his max. After Qiushui City became a prefecture, Ouyang Shuo would have no choice but to change a person to become the magistrate.

Zhao Dewang becoming a secretary was also his maximum. At most, if there was a chance, he could be sent out to become a city magistrate. As the territories continued to upgrade, it would be hard to say if Zhao Youfang would be able to keep his secretary position.

Officials and generals were different. If a person didn't have the knowledge and only depended on training on the job, it was difficult to become good.

Ouyang Shuo passed the and the to Zhao Youfang and said, "Secretary Zhao, I will pass the production of these two to your division. In addition to the ladders, the combat logistics division needs to produce a large number of combat resources. The combat logistics division can work with the material reserves division to build a workshop to focus on such production."

"Yes, sire," Zhao Youfang said respectfully.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and said warmly, "Youfang, this can't do, you don't have any elan. Where did the secretary that dared to voice out go? As for the building of the workshop, I want to hear your opinion and not your agreement."

These words stunned Zhao Youfang, and he seemed like he was feeling a lot of emotions. This period was a test for his emotional state, and if he could ride across, he might actually become a much better person and leader.

Zhao Youfang knew that his sire had given him a last chance. If he didn't take it, he would drop down the ranks.

In truth, after receiving the , Zhao Youfang had some thoughts, as production would require a workshop that took up a lot of space. After the new plannings of the city, each region had its own purpose.

Zhao Youfang thought about it, but he couldn't find a suitable place to build this workshop. Since inside the city wasn't possible, he turned his eyes to outside the city. The only thing that he needed to worry about was safety.

"Sire, do you remember the cave that the alchemical fire oil is stored?" Zhao Youfang asked.

Ouyang Shuo replied with uncertainty," You mean you want to build the military factory in the cave? Did you find a suitable cave?"

Since he had piqued Ouyang Shuo's interest, Zhao Youfang finally had some confidence," That's right. When we were storing the alchemical fire oil, we found many natural caves. These caves were of different sizes and heights. The big ones were the size of Shanhai Town, having high points of 20 meters while the average was 5 meters. There was also a river providing water and suitable ventilation. Hence, I feel that to build the military factory inside would be a good idea. We just need some slight modifications, and it'll be good to use."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. It seemed like he had not paid attention to this little fortune that hid in the mountain ranges. The earliest to use these caves were probably the wine workshop that used it to store the three flower wine.

At that time, he didn't pay much attention to it.

Afterward, there was the cave to store alchemical fire oil. As it was handed over to the combat logistics division, he didn't go to the ground to inspect it. He didn't know that such caves were so common.

Zhao Youfang was really a dedicated person, and his sharp senses found a strategic use for the caves.

"Not bad, Youfang. Your suggestion is good, and I'll approve it."

If they were able to build the military factory in the caves, then that would be the optimal choice. With that, they didn't need to care about the limited land and about the safety of the factory.

Moreover, the best part was that building it in the caves hid it well and away from enemy spies.

"Yes, sire!" Zhao Youfang replied loudly. This time, he was a lot more confident.

After Zhao Youfang left, Ouyang Shuo was still thinking about the caves. The way he saw it, there was a need to arrange the construction division to check and inspect the insides of the caves in the territory.

These caves in modern society would naturally be bomb shelters and the best military bases. It was very suitable in terms of both military production and weapon designing.

He couldn't be so careless and let such valuable resources go to waste. Of course, after learning more about the caves, there must be a systematic plan for the use of the caves. He couldn’t use all of them for the same purpose.

After Ouyang Shuo thought this, he acted immediately. He wrote a letter to plan out all his ideas out. He asked the clerk to pass it to the construction secretary Zhao Dewang.

Chapter 184 - The World Online

On the 1st day of the 7th month at 4 PM, the last group of passengers boarded the galactic spaceship.

At 5 PM, the spaceships launched from all the space ports from all around the world. After they gathered in space, they formed a vast 1000 spaceship army and flew towards planet Hope.

The fleet brought the last hope of humanity and its thirst for a place of new life into the endless night sky into an unknown world. Based on the experience of the explorer squad, they needed at least 10 years before they could reach planet Hope.

At 8 PM, which was 8 AM in the game, a system notification sounded out.

"World notification: Earth Online has entered the state of the whole world being online. The game will undergo a huge patch, effective immediately. As for the specific changes, please go onto the official website to take a look."

Gaia had already set up the website in the game so players could visit it or the forums at any time to look for news. This was also the reason why Ouyang Shuo, who was an adventure player in the last life, understood so much about territory building.

On the website page, the top post wasn't about the new update but about a goodbye speech by the president to officially say goodbye to the Earth.

Most importantly, the president had revealed the secret regarding the asset tabulation.

During galactic migration, a significant portion of assets, houses, factories, machines, etc. were left on earth and were unable to be brought with them, so this caused many billionaires or famous people to become poor overnight.

The people of the world had in an instant become the same and had the same start. So when they got to planet Hope, how to measure one's assets was a crucial question.

If one didn't have any compensation, then it would be unfair to those who lost their fortunes, as these people had made so many contributions towards this galactic migration project.

The future planet Hope also needed this batch of entrepreneurs and artists to build a new society and contribute their strength. They couldn’t exactly let an entrepreneur become a logger. This didn't make any sense and was a colossal waste of resources.

Furthermore, the fortune that they lost was caused by nature, and they couldn't have prevented it. The federal government had an obligation to compensate them for that.

Of course, they couldn't compensate them all the riches that they had lost. As this sum had already been left on earth, they needed to set up a new compensation system.

To make a logical and fair system, the federal government worked with many mathematicians and economists to come up with many numbers and ideas. They also had to debate with the financial groups and multinational corporations, and it was certainly not an easy task.

In the end, the federal government with the help of the brilliant calculation abilities of Gaia decided to compensate everyone. To make this system work, they also created a new term which was achievement value.

This meant that their personal assets were weighed against a compensation value and what they got wasn't financial data but an achievement value.

The reason why they didn't get new financial data was that most physical assets were left on earth and an economic system without fixed capital was a bunch of useless numbers which couldn't buy you anything.

Achievement value was going to play an essential part in planet Hope. It was similar to merit points, which players could use to buy different permission levels.

The federal government split the permission levels into SSS, SS, S, A, B, C, D, E, F. Nine ranks, different permission levels would get you different resources and different statuses in society.

The SSS permission level was unique, and only Gaia had it. To activate this permission meant one needed to check the core data of Gaia and one needed to get 75% agreement by the people before he could use it.

SS permission level was also unique, and it belonged to the president, and it was only when he was in power. When his term ends, the permission level will be passed to the next president.

Which meant that the max that ordinary residents could get was the S permission rank.

The F rank required one to have no less than 100 points, and up every rank, the points required will increase by 10 times. So for one to get an S rank, he needed at least 100 million achievement value.

The compensation lowest value was 0.01, and the highest was 0.0001. The higher one's assets, the lower the compensation value. If a resident had less than 10 thousand credit, he would get the 0.01 compensation value. If he had more than 100 million credits, he would have 0.0001 compensation value.

In other words, a person with 10 thousand credits would obtain 100 achievement value. A rich man with 100 million credit would get 10 thousand achievement value and obtain the D permission level. A person with 10s of billions would be able to get A million achievement value and get the B permission level.

In the whole world, only the father of the Free City Lord Jack Dawson, Yabu Dawson had 100s of billions of credit and could obtain 10 million achievement value and obtain the permission level.

The compensation value didn't only take into account one's assets but also one's occupation. Of course, this targeted scientists, scholars, researchers, artists, etc.

Based on the results from Gaia, out of the billion migrants, 200 million got the lowest F rank, mostly underage kids who could only reach the basic 100 achievement value.

For example, Bing'er only had 100 achievement value. Her smart pet, Xue'er, was considered a personal item as you could bring it on board and thus wasn't calculated into private assets.

The remaining 800 million were mostly E permission levels. Those that got a D permission level were only around a million people, who were those with 100 million in net worth, including scientists, researchers and political personnel.

Those that obtained the B permission level had only 500 people including billionaires, national treasure level scientists and high-grade officials in the federal government.

As for the A level, there were less than 10. Their identities were kept an enormous secret. As for whether anyone got the S level, it was an even bigger secret. Ouyang Shuo estimated that there would be no more than 3 people.

Ouyang Shuo had obtained the E rank with 2000 achievement value, mainly because of the 800 thousand credits in his account.

Strictly speaking, the compensation system was a massive disadvantage for the strong powers. Rich folk would only be higher than an average person in regards to their permission level.

When the system was revealed, it faced much disagreements from the strong powers. Both parties took a step back and agreed that Earth Online wouldn't make any promotions and would start a year early to give these big powers a lead.

So why did they pay so much importance to Earth Online? Was it just only because there were authentic secret manuals? No, the reason was that there was a second chance to obtain achievement value.

This was to give commoners a chance to come back and have a higher starting point in planet Hope. It was also to calm down commoners from being angry that the rich who had lost everything still obtained such high permission levels. The federal government set that before reaching planet Hope, Gaia would calculate all the player's assets and based on a specific ratio change it to achievement value.

Please take note that this change didn't have any reducing factors, meaning that the higher your assets, the more achievement value you would receive.

This was also Ouyang Shuo's end goal to obtain a lead and raise his permission level and as such forge a strong base when he entered planet Hope.

Apart from that, there was a bonus for lord game mode players.

Based on the data from the exploring squad, the area of planet Hope was 10 thousand times that of the Earth. The land was very vast, and 1 billion migrants wouldn't make any waves when entering planet Hope.

This was normal as in the universe the earth was considered a small planet.

Such a vast planet needed people to explore. At this time, lord game mode players could be sent into the fray. This was the real reason for Earth Online being so real.

To be able to survive in the game, fight for 10 years, and be destroyed by others, such a lord had the rights to be a pioneer in reality.

In reality, there naturally weren't any refugees spawning or a teleportation formation. These two were the two enormous insurances for lord game mode players to gain a footing in the wilderness.

However, the many robots could entirely replace the refugees. As for the teleportation formation, the skytrain wasn't that bad an alternative.

As for a management squad, the federal government had a way to solve it for the lords which was cyborgs.

The NPCs in the game all had their own minds, and the federal government could transfer those into the body of cyborgs and make them seem as real as actual humans.

This meant that as long as the lord game mode players had a high enough permission level, they could replicate their generals and officials in real life to help them continue to build their territory and become a pioneer in planet Hope.

This was because the cost of making a cyborg was very high, considering it was half machine. Furthermore, they were split into different ranks. The higher the rank, the higher the cost.

So, the fighting in the game was significant, and one didn't have even a moment to rest.

Chapter 185 - System Update

After Ouyang Shuo viewed the information on achievement value and confirming that it was the same as the last life, he turned his attention to check if the season update was too. He was terrified that he might’ve triggered a butterfly effect.

(1): Regarding death settings: Players’ death penalty wasn't like before where they would just lose 1 level. Instead, they would lose all their items other than those in storage and fall back to level 0.

The death punishment was to prevent players from swarming people with player quantities.

For example, Zhan Lang’s Blood Red City had formed an army filled with purely players. If players died and they only lost one level, while the enemy troops died when they were killed, then in the late game when players got to a high level, a player army would be unstoppable.

This kind of player quantity technique was entirely against the balance of the game and naturally wouldn't be allowed.

(2) Regarding the teleportation formation, now only people could be transported and not items unless the items were in the player’s storage bag.

For example, when Ouyang Shuo ordered Wang Yuanfeng to go over to Fallen Phoenix Town to help and bring over the triple-bow acruballistas, that was also not allowed anymore. Unless Ouyang Shuo had big enough of a storage space and could store the bed crossbow himself before personally sending it there.

The settings of the teleportation formation were to prevent players from smuggling.

That's right. It was smuggling.

If one smuggled things using the storage bag, as it had limited space, teleporting multiple times, the fee might even be equal to the trading cost, so it wasn't too worth it.

Of course, to prevent that was impossible, it was just to prevent rampant smuggling.

(3): Regarding the market setting: The advanced market would now have 2 platforms, mainly the resource trading platform, special items trading platform. At the same time, there would be a new auction platform which was a combination of the old one and also the business trading platform, it would allow players to list items instantly and would be called the super auction platform.

On the platform, regardless of are you a lord game mode or adventure game mode player, or an NPC guild in the system's imperial capital, you can list an item, place an order, take an order and also buy the item.

Placing an order would be to list your requirements and what you wanted to buy. Listing an item would be to sell your item. Taking an order would be to accept another player’s listing. Purchasing the item would be to buy the item that was put up for sale.

Every transaction completed at the super auction platform, the system would collect 10% tax from the buyer, as compared to the original 20%, it was half.

The main difference between the old and new systems was that there was now a price war mechanism. The price of an item would depend on supply and demand and wasn't like previously when it was based on a stable system price.

Another difference was that special items wouldn't be sold by the system, including building blueprints. Players had to go onto the platform to trade, it was not as quick, and there were not as many items as before.

As for building blueprints, they were only sold in the system imperial capital. The lord had to either find someone to buy it for him or buy it from sellers on the super auction platform.

Apart from that, there were new items on the list of unsellable items, including the military grain pill, the Xingjun tent, alchemical fire oil, etc. military resources. If the lord wanted to get such items, he had no choice but to smuggle them.

Such a setting was because the lords have all gone through half a year in the game and they wouldn't need to rely so much on the market anymore. Thus there was no need for the market to be like a babysitter.

The change in the market at the right time was also a test for lords.

(4) Regarding the relay setting: Players sending items including letters had to do so through the relay. The distance between relays, the weight, and size of the item and the value would all be taken into account to determine the price.

This meant that the relay would take over the pigeon letters for players to send information. If one wanted to talk, they could either use the channel or send the letter through the relay.

Removing pigeon letters was basically to prevent spies from spreading information on the battlefield. At the current moment, players could use the national channel, alliance channel and guild channel.

The method that Ouyang Shuo used previously to send the item to Song Jia had been banned, and if he wanted to do so, even with gold, he had to go through the relay.

The settings of the relay made use of this basic building from the grade 2 town. It also set a restriction on packages to prevent players from sending items anywhere, at anytime, and also to preventing trolls.

(5): With regards to time: All things in the game, like plants and animals, would follow real time, and the increased growth speed from before had been canceled.

This change was to increase the realism of the game further. For example, the wild pigs and cows that Shanhai City reared, which needed 3 months originally now needed half a year or even a full year.

(6) Regarding military settings, one is the adjustment to soldier ranks, officially adding rank 10-12 ranks above elite soldier, as an elite war soldier. The second was the change in military forces and to increase the specialty of the force. Divisions and above could undergo training, and upon succeeding, the division would obtain their own specialty.

After advancing the soldier rank, elite soldiers now had two choices: either change class to a basic general or continue to become elite war soldiers, adding combat power to the military.

Each had their pros, and it depended on the lord to choose.

These new settings increased the choices in military play and increased many possibilities.

(7) With free regards to the free mode setting, the items that players design had to be recognized by the system and given stats. If not, they wouldn't have any use.

(8): Regarding the lord’s rank: Above Duke rank, there were new ranks, from prince to emperor. When one reached prince, he could build his country and be called a king. The requirement of a prince was 2 million merit points, double that of a duke.

As for the game updates, it was just the 8 above. What kind of effects they would bring about, only time would tell.

Apart from the system update, Gaia also published an article on how to differentiate between authentic and fake secret manuals. Without thinking, the prices of the authentic secret manuals would rise dramatically. Ouyang Shuo wanted to know how much money he would be able to earn from the 120 gold secret manuals that he had accumulated.

Ouyang Shuo went out of the forums, the moment he got back into the game, a system notification appeared in his ear.

“System notification: Half a year has passed, and many heroes have appeared. The territory leaderboard, guild leaderboard and celebrity leaderboard have officially been opened.”

“System notification: Half a year has passed, and many heroes have appeared. The territory leaderboard, guild….”

“System notification: Half a year has passed, and many heroes have appeared…..”

The 3 most powerful rankings had been officially opened, Ouyang Shuo opened them and checked them one by one.

Firstly was the territory rankings, an important ranking for the lord players.

Ranking- Territory

1st- Shanhai City (Qiyue Wuyi)

2nd- Pill Sun City (Chun Shenjun)

3rd- Fallen Phoenix City (Feng Qiuhuang)

4th- Blood Red City (Zhan Lang)

5th- Consonance City (Bai Hua)

6th- Swordsman City (Feng Qingyang)

7th- Handan City (Di Chen)

Note: The rankings only took note of those of rank city and above, those of similar grade were split by who upgraded first

Ranking - Guild

1st- Blood Evil Mercenary Group (Blood Romance)

2nd- Snow-war Rose mercenary Group (War Rose)

3rd- Jianqi Zongheng (Yijian Xilai)

4th- 18 Horsemen of Yanyun (Yanzi Lisan)

5th- Jin Yi Wei (Xiuchun Knife)

6th- Liuguang Pavillion (Jun Yilao)

7th- Thread (Qing Sikou)

8th- Qingfeng Pavillion (Moon Shines Over The River)

9th- Tingyu Floor (Jianqi Leiyin)

10th- Laojun Temple (Priest Qingniu)

Out of the 10 mercenary groups, only Blood Evil Mercenary Group and the War Rose Mercenary Group were the strongest while the rest were pretty balanced.

Jianqi Zongheng mainly accepted paladins, 18 Horsemen of Yanyun mainly accepted generals, Jin Yi Wei primarily accepted runners, Liuguang Pavillion primarily accepted healers, and Laojun Temple primarily accepted priests.

Qingfeng Pavillion and Tingyu Floor mainly accepted spies and did intelligence work.

The Thread was the most special as they mainly took in work occupation players. They were the most different but could still get to the 7th spot, from that one could see how strong they were.

Ouyang Shuo also knew that Qingfeng Pavillion was the guild for Consonance Studio, and the guild leader Moon Shines Over The River was Bai Hua’s brother.

Yijian Xilai and Jianqi Leiyin were originally a couple, but after they had quarrels, they broke up and built their separate guilds in Earth Online.

Jianqi Leiyin was furious, and as such he changed his ID, treating Jianqi Zongheng as his enemy.

Chapter 186 - Meeting Up Part 1

Finally, there was the celebrity leaderboard—the only leaderboard that took into account all players in the game.

1st- Qiyue Wuyi

Evaluation: Shanhai City lord, first rank earl. He has climbed to the top of the world three times and has become the number one celebrity. To make so many waves, he deserves his ranking.

2nd: Blood Romance

Evaluation: Leader of the blood evil mercenary group, 1st rank out of the adventure mode players. In terms of both personal combat ability and guild strength, he is at the peak of the China region.

3rd; Di Chen

Evaluation: Handan City lord, 3rd rank earl. He was originally in the top 10 of the world but the times have changed and he has dropped. To be able to climb back up, he is certainly a fighter.

4th: Feng Qingyang

Evaluation: Swordsman City Leader, Qingyang sword sect sect leader, rank 3 earl. Built the first sect in the China region, having both the brains and the brawn.

Note: The celebrity leaderboard only records people with huge influence, so if they weren’t famous people or influential, they wouldn’t be able to get in.

The celebrity leaderboard is the most stringent ranking and only accepts four people at the moment. Everyone would not only get a system evaluation, but they can also get an extra reward.

As expected, a system notification rang in Ouyang Shuo’s ear.

“System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for being ranked first on the celebrity leaderboards. 10% increase to historical figure’s favor, rewarded 10 thousand reputation points.”

To date, this was the highest reputation point reward he had obtained.

After he checked the leaderboards, Ouyang Shuo finally had some time to contact little aunt, Sun Xiaoyue, Song Jia, and Liumo. Unfortunately, as there was no more pigeon letter, he could only go back to the office and write a letter to them.

To little aunt, Ouyang Shuo had nothing much to say. He only invited her and Xie Siyun to come to Shanhai City to look around.

In the letter to Sun Xiaoye, Ouyang Shuo wrote about his identity and asked her for a list of names that her grandfather had gathered. This would let Ouyang Shuo add them to the teleportation formation.

Apart from that, the members of the Fallen Moon Guild that were willing to move to Shanhai City could also send a list of names.

At the end of the letter, he also asked Sun Xiaoyue about the situation with the Cui family. He instructed her to teleport over only after she made contact with them.

In the letter to Song Jia, he told her his identity, and also raised up the topic of working together with Tianshuang Town.

Ouyang Shuo wrote that he couldn't allow them to enter the Shanhai Alliance at this time, but Shanhai City could have a one-way alliance with Tianshuang Town. This alliance would give them similar weapons and equipment buying permissions.

Ouyang Shuo had so much to consider, so he couldn't be too personal. He also had to fulfill his promise to her.

To the weapon specialist Liumo, Ouyang Shuo directly added his ID Zidan Chutang to the teleportation formation and asked him to teleport over. Of course, it was best if he could bring his family along.

In reality, Ouyang Shuo had a few conversations with Liumo. Ouyang Shuo knew that he had gone home to reunite with his family after Ouyang Shuo had persuaded him, so they should be in the game together now.

After he finished the letters, he called his servant to send the letters to the relay. After the city was refreshed and reorganized, the relay was now at the second northgate, located five kilometers away from the lord’s manor. Obviously, Ouyang Shuo wouldn’t send it himself.

As for the sending costs, it was just one to two silver. He could ask Zisu for it when he returned. The second day that Zisu came to the Lord’s manor, Siqin passed the treasurer position of the jewelry shop to her. Zisu also became the manager of the Lord’s manor.

After he learned this, Ouyang Shuo allowed Siqin to manage the blusher powder shop.

Of course, be it the jewelry shop or the blusher powder shop, they all belonged to the Lord’s manor as Ouyang Shuo’s personal property. As such, all the profits would go to him.

……

Jianye, the base of the Snow-War Rose mercenary group.

Lin Jing took the letter from the postman Then, she covered her mouth, as she laughed.

Xie Siyun asked curiously, “Jing Jing, who’s the letter from?”

“Your guess?”

Xie Siyun pondered, “Was it your nephew?”

“Smart!”

Xie Siyun shook her head and said, “So, can you tell me now who exactly is your nephew?”

Lin Jing’s mood was exceptionally good, and she smiled, “You say, who is the most famous in the China region?”

“Who is the most famous?” Xie Siyun thought about it, “The most famous one would be the guy on the top of the celebrity leaderboard, Shanhai City lord Qiyue Wuyi.”

Xie Siyun’s mouth was agape, as she struggled to speak. This kind of situation rarely happened to this ice queen.

“Jing Jing, you… you wouldn't be telling me that Qiyue Wuyi is your nephew, right?”

“Bingo, you got it right.”

This made Xie Siyun utterly speechless, “No wonder you and your nephew have been so secretive lately. Even when you reached Shanghai, he didn't want to stop and immediately boarded the spaceship.”

Lin Jing opened the letter and took a look and smiled, “No matter what, this is a huge help for our mercenary group. You should know that Little Shuo has won three weapon and equipment crafting manuals during the auction. Are you confident in the cooperation now?”

Lin Jing was gloating. Her nephew was so strong and even shocked the usually calm Xie Siyun beyond words.

Xie Siyun was also a special talent, so she was able to quickly calm herself down, “Jing Jing, you are right, Shanhai City is a very suitable partner. What did he write in the letter?”

Lin Jing nodded, “En, Little Shuo invited us to visit Shanhai City. I guess it's to discuss future cooperation. So, are you interested?”

“Of course. That's the first city in the world. Of course, we have to go and take a look.” Xie Siyun agreed.

…

Quanzhou, Blacksmith Shop.

Zidan Chutang, who was Liumo, had received Ouyang Shuo’s letter and laughed,”My brother is actually so incredible.”

Liumo placed down the letter and told the manager of the shop, “Manager, I want to resign!”

“Resign? Young man, you have only been working for how long? You can't be too ambitious and think that you have learned a bit and become so arrogant.” The manager’s words were a little harsh.

Liumo didn't really care and waved it off, “Manager, you don't need to try and persuade me. You don’t need to give me the remaining salary.” Following these words, he walked out of the blacksmith shop. He gave the other apprentices in the shop a chic back view, as he walked out.

Liumo walked through the streets and alleys. Finally, he reached the house that he had rented. It was old and squeezy and the hygiene wasn't good either.

However, such conditions were already considered good amongst players. One could imagine what it was like for each system imperial city to suddenly have tens of millions of new players.

When he reached home, Liumo instantly wrote a reply letter and told his parents’ IDs to Ouyang Shuo.

After he sent the letter, he smiled, as he said to his parents, “Dad, mom pack up, we will move to a new place.”

His parents were both over 50. They didn't expect that they would have to live in such conditions when they entered the game. These conditions were even worse than their house in real life.

Luckily, their son had decided to come back to their side, which was more important than anything else. Furthermore, when they saw their son work so hard at the blacksmith, the two elderly felt bad. They felt that they were burdening their son.

When they heard that they were going to move, they thought that Liumo was facing some problems. They asked worriedly, “Son, did you face difficulties at work?”

Liumo’s eyes were wet. Ever since he came back to his parents’ side, he realized how sorry he was and how much he had owed them, “Dad, mom I’m fine, it's a good thing.”

“Good thing?” His parents were confused.

Liumo nodded with conviction, “That's right. Do you still remember the little brother I met when I was living alone in the old city?”

“Mo’Er, are you referring to the guy that persuaded you to come home?” His parents were a little emotional.

To the person that managed to persuade their son to change his mind, the two elderly were very grateful.

“Yes, it's him. He sent me a letter and told me his identity in game. He's actually the most famous guy in the game, the lord of Shanhai City. He has invited us to live at his territory,” Liumo explained.

The two parents were emotional but also worried, “Mo’er if we go like this, will we disturb him and create problems for him?”

“Don't worry, this brother is a very bold person. Furthermore, we won't be freeloading off him when we go to Shanhai City. Based on what he said, he could use my talent when I am there.”

“Good good good!” Only then were they at ease. They were really a bunch a cute and traditional Chinese people.

……

Quanzhou, Tianshuang Town.

Song Jia opened the letter. After she read it, a smile appeared on her face, “Stupid blockhead, you really were not bragging.” In truth, Song Jia liked Ouyang Shuo as a person. No matter what he achieved in the game, she would only feel happy for him.

She was happy now, as his achievements were definitely enough to stop her family from preventing them from being together.

Now, she was curious. What would happen when this letter was passed to her grandfather, and what reaction would that stubborn old man have? After all, Song Jia was still a bit angry at her grandfather for not telling her and arranging the marriage with the Yuan family.

Chapter 187 - Meeting Up Part 2

Dali, Fallen Moon Guild base.

"Grandpa! Ouyang Shuo has sent us a letter!" Sun Xiaoyue walked into the little house, as her face bustled with excitement.

At that moment, her grandpa was playing chess with a few elderly fellows. When he heard those words, he lifted his head and acted angry, "That brat, he exaggerated so much on the phone and now he leaves us in Dali for one full month. I'm going to beat him up the next time I see him."

The others followed suit and teased, "Old Sun, with your old bones, are you sure you can beat him up? Do you need my help? Haha."

Old Sun was furious, "Old Li, you aren't any better, and you still dare to say that to me."

Sun Xiaoyue gave up, as she couldn't deal with this bunch of old kids, "All you grandpas, do you all actually want to leave Dali? If you want to, let me finish!"

"Say say!" Old Sun asked everyone to quieten down, "I want to listen and learn who exactly is that little brat in this game, making it so mysterious and making us wait."

Sun Xiaoyue playfully laughed, "Grandpa, you will be shocked when I tell you. He's actually the strongest and most mysterious lord in China, Shanhai City lord Qiyue Wuyi."

"What? Shanhai City? The only grade 2 city in China?" He was expectedly shocked.

"Ya, there is only one Shanhai City in China..."

Old Sun's calmness was a lot better than Xie Siyun, as this bunch of old men had seen so many things. He stroked his beard. This beard was what he had specially added when he created his character in the game. He gleefully said, "Not bad, that kid is not bad."

"Grandpa, are you going to teleport there now or wait for me?" Sun Xiaoyue asked.

"What do you mean little brat? You aren't going now?" Old Sun was confused.

Sun Xiaoyue nodded, "I need to go to Cui Manor to help spread some words from Ouyang Shuo."

"How much time could that waste? We have already spent a month here, so what's a few hours difference? You brat, it's better if you go together with us," Old Sun cared a lot about his granddaughter.

"Ok, grandpa. I'll make a move first."

"Go!"

……

10 Am, Liumo and his parents arrived in Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo received the system notification and had reached there early to receive them.

Luckily, the teleportation fees could be deducted from the Four Seas Bank account. If not, the poor Ouyang Shuo couldn't even afford their teleportation fees.

"Ouyang!" When he saw him, Liumo became a bit emotional.

Ouyang Shuo walked up and hugged him, "Brother Liu!" Following this, he greeted Liumo's parents.

After the greetings, he invited them to the Lord's manor to sit.

When he saw the majestic manor, Liumo was amazed, "Ouyang Shuo, it's really not bad."

Ouyang Shuo looked on quietly. He obviously knew that Liumo would be amazed. In his last life, both of them had lived tough lives, and they even had to cause Bing'er to have a tough life too.

In truth, Ouyang Shuo had advised the Construction Division to build 100 exquisite little houses in the west region. These buildings were the official living quarters for these special people and their family.

10:30 AM, Linjing and Xie Siyun came together.

Ouyang Shuo let Mr. Xiwen accompany them to the guest room, while he walked out of the Lord's manor to welcome little aunt. Before he left, he also specially went to the backyard to bring Bing'er along.

When she heard that her little aunt was coming, Bing'er was delighted and brought Xue'er and little black along.

"Little aunt!" As Lin Jing walked out of the teleportation formation, Bing'er dashed up.

Lin Jing adored this cute niece. Although they haven't met many times, they had a close bond.

Lin Jing, carried her and asked, "Bing'er, are you used to the game?"

"En!" Bing'er nodded saying happily, "Little aunt, it's so fun here. There are so many good food and nice clothes!"

Only then did Lin Jing notice Bing’er’s clothes, a red princess dress. Master tailor Qing’er sewed the dress from colored silk and made it exquisite and beautiful.

Lin Jing nodded, "It seems like little Shuo had taken good care of Bing'er."

Ouyang Shuo looked over to Xie Siyun and nodded in greeting. To this “uncle-in-law”, Ouyang Shuo really didn't know what to call her and how to talk to her, which made the atmosphere a little embarrassing.

"Little aunt let’s go to the manor. There are also a few guests there," Ouyang Shuo laughed.

"Sure, who else came?" Lin Jing couldn’t resist.

Ouyang Shuo didn't mind. Ever since the spaceships launched, he had nothing to worry about,

"It's a Brother that I met in real life. He's a thermal weapon specialist."

"Thermal weapon." Xie Siyun who had kept quiet couldn’t help but react. Not only did she have acute senses, but she also had a good understanding of the game. As such, she instantly had a series of thoughts.

"That's right."

"Little brat, you are really ambitious, ah."

Ouyang Shuo laughed, but he didn't say anything.

When she walked into the lord's manor, Lin Jing became amazed and teased, "Little Shuo, your manor is so huge, even bigger than our guild base."

Before Ouyang Shuo could reply, Bing'er started bragging, "Little aunt, the house I'm staying in is much prettier than here, and there's also a garden."

In the guest room, Ouyang Shuo did a simple introduction of both parties.

When Ouyang Shou saw that Liumo's parents were a little out of place, he laughed, "Brother Liu, let's go and take a look at the house I arranged for you. If auntie and uncle aren't pleased, we can add other things!"

"Great!" Liumo was also a person that wasn't good with words. In front of the two beauties, he felt weird and wanted to get away.

Ouyang Shuo called for Yingyu and asked her to accompany little aunt and Xie Siyun. Bing'er suggested to bring little aunt to view her room.

Ouyang Shuo brought Liumo and his parents out of the west gate and into the west region.

The west region was the officials’ living quarters, so the living conditions were superior to elsewhere. The green brick build houses took up to 400 to two thousand square feet.

Apart from the group of houses, the official living quarters also had a farmer market, a relay, hospital, a private college, a dojo, a pharmacy, a jewelry shop, a hotel, and more facilities.

Hence, it was pretty much a self-sufficient region.

There were many different trees planted on the two sides of the roads. There was even a 10 thousand square meter public park planned in the middle of the residence quarters.

Today, this park was named Nanfang park, and it was still being built.

Including all these amenities and facilities, the number of courtyards in the residence quarters still reached 2500, which was enough to last until it reached a prefecture. One must know that during the Tang Dynasty, the number of inner officials was only around 2600 people.

Such a huge region obviously couldn't be finished in such a short time. It would at least take a year.

Ouyang Shuo specially planned for the 100 courtyards to be designed differently. It wasn't like the olden southern closed-type courtyards but the modern day villas. Each courtyard had its own back garden and took up 1000-2000 square meters.

To date, 50 villas in the villa region had been built. In a month, the rest will also be completed.

Ouyang Shuo led them to a two thousand square meter villa and laughed, "This was the house I prepared for you. How is it, can you stay here?"

Liumo shook his head, "Of course we can, even in real life we couldn't afford such a place. Compared to our house in Dali, it's like comparing heaven to earth."

"As long as you are pleased," Ouyang Shuo turned, "Uncle and auntie, from now onward, Shanhai City is your home. I won't disturb you anymore."

Ouyang Shuo said goodbye and left, giving them some space.

"Mo'er, seems like you really made an incredible brother. You must work hard and not let him down," his Father said strictly.

Liumo nodded, "Father relax! Let's go into our house!"

Ouyang Shuo didn't bother Liumo to view his own house and went back to the Lord's manor.

The concierge told him that they were all in the back garden.

Ouyang Shuo strolled in and expectedly heard her crisp laughter.

Ever since the territory upgraded to grade 1 city, Ouyang Shuo had very rarely come to this garden. Bing'er, on the other hand, had become a frequent visitor.

The whole garden was similar to Suzhou Park but also had elements of Guangxi and Lingnan, which made it very unique.

The park had many natural elements and being in a bustling city, going into the park could allow one to relax in nature. The changes in the Four Seasons and the differences it brought to the plants allowed one to be able to have a feel of the wilderness while still being in a city.

In the park, there were ponds and small hills. There were also many different flowers and plants, so it was a very interesting place.

Definitely what attracted Bing'er the most was the different flowers and the fruit trees.

The fake mountains and pond became her playground, and she would spend the whole day here. Sometimes, she would even drag Zisu and Banxia to play hide and seek with her.

Chapter 188 - Cooperation

At noon, Ouyang Shuo was in Lord's manner, as he took care of Xie Siyun. He had received Sun Xiaoyue's reply, and he knew that she would be bringing a bunch of players to Shanhai City in the afternoon.

The players that she brought over were split into two groups.

The most important group was the professionals. A total of 30 professionals including ship maker, economist, chemist, doctor, mechanic, engineer, agriculture, and many other professions.

The 30 professionals and their family totaled at 150 people. Each was arranged a 2000 square meter courtyard.

The 2nd portion were the members of the Fallen Moon Guild, who also brought their family.

As of now, Fallen Moon Guild had a total of 400 members. When Sun Xiaoyue announced that Shanhai City was willing to accept fallen moon members, 350 of them instantly agreed to move there.

The remaining 50 weren't willing to move, as they had already gained a footing in the imperial city. As their wills were different, so would their paths differ from one another, hence, Sun Xiaoyue kicked them out of the guild.

The members of the guild brought their families along and numbered a total of 1850. In addition to the 150 people of the professional team, a total of 2000 people teleported over from Dali.

The core members of the Fallen Moon Guild were the alchemist Luoye, the bridge designer Wuchi, city planner Hui Tuban, map plotter Jiu Duanxian as well as Sun Xiaoyue's two ex-roommates—Qinruo and Pan Qiaoqiao. As for their two boyfriends, they had the combat occupation, so they could only be normal members.

Ouyang Shuo arranged the core members into the official residence quarters. Each person took up a courtyard of around 1000 square meters. The remaining members were assigned to the residential area and were each given a basic courtyard.

Sun Xiaoyue moved to Shanhai City, so she couldn't teleport back to Dali. Furthermore, since Consonance studio's Qingfeng Pavilion was located there, Ouyang Shuo would rather just shift Fallen Moon out of there.

With that, Fallen Moon would become the first guild to locate themselves in Shanhai City and probably the only one that will.

Ouyang Shuo planned that if the work occupation players in Snow-War Rose wanted to move to Shanhai City, they would all be taken into Fallen Moon Guild.

Sun Xiaoyue rushed over from Dali and also brought what the Cui family had asked her to give to Cui Yingyu.

The Cui family had packed the gift into two large wooden boxes, one filled with the jewelry she usually wore and the other filled with gold, a full 10 thousand.

Based on their words, the 10 thousand gold was her allowance. As expected from a huge business group, their riches weren't something that Shanhai City could compare to.

Cui Yingyu didn't keep the money they sent by her side. Instead, she saved it into the Four Seas Bank, which became the biggest saving deal since its establishment.

When she saw that her older sister had an additional 10 thousand gold savings, Qing'er was so envious. She started to think about when she too could save up so much.

In truth, based on the profitability of the garment workshop, she would save 10 thousand gold sooner or later.

Cui Yingyu stored the money into Four Seas Bank. Every month, she could get 100 gold interest.

If Four Seas Bank could loan out this large sum of gold, they could get 300 gold in interest. One in one out, they would get a 200 gold profit a month.

This was the way that the Four Seas Bank earned money.

This sum of money helped to solve the current monetary problems of Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo was originally prepared to leave a sum of money at the end of the 6th month for the Four Seas Bank. Unfortunately, his buying spree caused him to use it all up.

As the territory’s economy developed, the need for loans also increased. The 1350 gold that he had given to the Four Seas Bank in the 5th month had already been spent, so they could only rely on some of the savings to continue loaning out.

After they gained this amount of money, the Four Seas Bank would be able to sustain itself for a long time.

Apart from the two boxes of gifts, the Cui Family also sent a cooperation contract. As long as Ouyang Shuo agreed, it would be effective immediately. The contract stated that the Cui Chamber of Commerce would become the only agent of Shanhai City in Dali to sell Shanhai City’s specialties and other resources.

Ever since the system updated, the sales tax dropped to 10%. This was the same as the tax on the territorial special products selling in the grocery store. This meant that the business advantage that the grocery store held didn’t exist anymore, and they could just sell everything on the super auction platform. After all, the market to buy the products would be several times more than the system of the grocery shop.

As compensation, the Cui Chamber of Commerce would collect 2% of the agent fees from the year’s sale. At the same time, they could also help Shanhai City look for rare resources around Dali and be their agent to buy those items.

After they bought the resources from Shanhai City, the Cui Chamber of Commerce would sell them at their numerous shops around Dali. They would earn the difference between the buying and selling price.

This was a win-win situation, so Ouyang Shuo didn't hesitate and immediately agreed.

In the future, Shanhai City would sell their resources on the super auction platform. After listing their products, it was assumed that the Cui Chamber of Commerce would purchase it. Only if they rejected the listing would it naturally flow to the market.

Of course, if the Cui Chamber of Commerce often rejected the listing, this would affect the base of the cooperation. Once this type of agent system was challenged, the cooperation would be unable to proceed.

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo took the gap between settling down the batch of people to discuss with Xie Siyun about the cooperation between Shanhai City and the Snow-War Rose mercenary group.

After both parties signed the contract, Shanhai City and Snow-war Rose mercenary group officially became strategic partners.

Snow-war Rose mercenary group had priority purchase on equipment from Shanhai City, while being given a 10% discount. As payment, they would look out for talented work occupation players in Jianye and recruit them to move to Shanhai City.

As both sides were still in the starting stages, further cooperation would depend on the circumstances and would change accordingly.

The Snow-War Rose mercenary group was the first party he gave a discount. Even his allies and Tianshuang Town didn't have such treatment, which showed how much Ouyang Shuo valued talent.

Of course, it was partially because of his relationship with his little aunt. After all, they were a family, and the monetary ability of a guild couldn't be compared to a territory.

Ouyang Shuo had his reasons for being willing to hire work occupation players for such a high price.

Compared to talented individuals amongst the residents, players had an advantage.

Firstly, they didn't need to fulfill any requirements to choose a job. After they created a character, they could choose any occupation, and the system would naturally give them a hidden talent for them to explore.

This was the same as the talent for combat occupations. However, one was used for combat and the other was for production, so they had totally different uses.

Hence, the number of work occupations amongst player was more than the talented NPCs amongst the refugees. One could only depend on luck to get such talented people, but they could just keep hiring players, so the difference in efficiency was incomparable.

Secondly, compared to NPCs, it was easier for players to break through bottlenecks. Thus, it was much easier for them to become master rank and higher. This had something to do with the biases of the system. In the future, work occupation players would start to attract a lot of attention.

Of course, players also had their deficiencies.

Firstly, some couldn't take the hard work and would waste their talent. For example, in sewing, if you the needle doesn’t poke you several times a day, you couldn't be considered a passable tailor. Compared to other jobs like blacksmiths, tailoring was already an easy occupation. Those people who were brought up with a silver spoon obviously couldn't handle such hardships.

Secondly, players had to start from apprentices and needed a relatively longer time to train and develop. Like Sun Xiaoyue becoming an architect. She took a full two months to become an intermediate architect. The further behind, the longer time it took to upgrade, so one needed a lot of effort and patience.

Hence, only those people with resilience, who could take hardship and weren’t afraid of loneliness could have a chance to become a real master. Most people drop out in the process.

5 PM, Xie Siyun and little aunt went back to Jianye.

At night, Ouyang Shuo was at Sangu Hotel to welcome the group of professionals with a banquet.

During the banquet, Ouyang Shuo announced his plans for the various professionals. Lianzhou College would hire all of them as professors. Each month they would earn 10 gold—similar to a secretary.

At the same time as teaching, they could—based on their profession or hobby—become an advisor for a department or division. Alternatively, they could open a research lab to research their interests.

The agriculture professional could apply to be an advisor for the agriculture division and guide them in changing the water irrigation system. They could guide farmers to change the way they planted crops to raise production as well as teach ways to deal with bugs to increase yield.

An economist could be the financial department advisor. Combined with their economic knowledge, they could perfect the tax system and create better policies to stimulate the economy.

Engineering professionals could become the advisors of the building division and advise them to come out with better tools or machines to lessen the workload and increase building efficiency.

A mechanical studies professional could become the advisor of the combat logistics division and help them create siege weapons and make modifications to the ladder, alchemical fire oil, cabinet, and the like.

Metallurgy professionals could be the advisor of the material reserves department and advise them on how to raise the refining level of the Langshan mining fields gold ore, various iron ores refining levels, and make modifications to the current smelting furnace.

All in all, this batch of professionals were a treasure trove. Although they were unable to do anything about the system restrictions on the technology tree, they could use their knowledge to improve and make modifications to each industry.

Of course, the premise was that they could to adapt to the territory and understand the situation before making changes to improve it.

If one said that agriculture, economics, engineering, mechanical studies, metallurgy were all the icing on the cake, Ouyang Shuo’s main task was to build steam warships, guns, and cannons.

This plan involved many fields and needed the cooperation of many professionals. In addition to Liumo—the thermal weapon specialist, there were the alchemy workshops, the weapons workshops, and the other departments. Only then would it be possible to succeed.

Chapter 189 - Xinan University

7th month, 2nd day, 10 a.m. Shanhai City meeting hall.

Ouyang Shuo gathered Fan Zhongyan, Xu Shuda, Elder Sun, ElderLi, and Sun Xiaoyue for a meeting. Elder Li was that old grandpa that was bickering with Elder Sun. He was the only architect out of the 30 professionals.

Last night, after he sent off all the professionals, Ouyang Shuo returned to the Lord’s manor to think about the new structure of Lianzhou college.

When Lianzhou college was first set up, it was to develop civil servants. Today, with the addition of several professionals, it wasn’t suitable to still call it a college. In the end, Ouyang Shuo decided to use the Qing Dynasty education system and renamed the Lianzhou college as Xinan University.

Ouyang Shuo looked around and introduced everyone to the structure of the new Xinan University, "Xinan University will temporarily set up three colleges, which are the economics college, natural science college, and the architectural college. The original economics, politics, and law departments will all be drafted into the economics college. They will remain in charge of producing civil servants. The remaining computing department will be in the new natural science college. Apart from that, business, economics, and auditing will all be in the economics college. They will be responsible for producing talents for the financial department and auditing division."

"Natural science college is like the name suggests, as it is the college for the sciences. A large portion of the professionals will become professors here. As for the last one, the architectural college," Ouyang Shuo turned toward Sun Xiaoyue, "The core members of Fallen Moon Guild are mostly graduated from the imperial city architectural college, and they also specialize in different areas. Hence, these members would form most of the architectural college."

"Currently, Xinan University would only have three colleges. In the future, there might be more."

Ouyang Shuo’s change for the Lianzhou college was obviously nothing in the eyes of Elder Li and the modern people. However, in the eyes of Fan Zhongyan and Xu Shuda, it was something shocking.

Luckily, neither of them were stubborn. Moreover, Ouyang Shuo had used them a lot in the past half a year, so their thinking processes and views had slowly changed. They had slowly begun to accept modern thinking.

And this was what Ouyang Shuo really wanted.

After all, it wouldn’t be suitable to make these officials into cyborgs in the future if he wanted them to help him deal with the real life territory without modern thinking.

Fan Zhongyan was the fastest to react, "I agree with the change to Lianzhou college."

Xu Shuda followed and expressed agreement.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, "Xu Shuda will be the principal of the Xinan University. The dean of the natural science college will be Old Sun; the dean of the architectural college will be Old li. As for the dean of economics college, Shuda do you have any suitable choices?"

Shuda pondered before he replied," Sire, I recommend professor Suze."

"Mr. Suze?" Ouyang Shuo felt a little surprised and asked with doubt," Mr. Suze is obviously a great choice, but he has said he is not interested in this career, will he agree?"

Shuda nodded, "Sire doesn't know that although he doesn't want such a career, he is very concerned with the teachings in Lianzhou College. Additionally, being the dean of the economics college is different from being a dean in Lianzhou college. You don't need to take control of everything and just one small piece. I have confidence that Suze will accept it."

"Good! So that’s settled. The name change to Xinan University, the hiring of professors, and the expanding of the campus will be left to the culture and education division."

"Yes Sire!" Xu Shuda replied.

"The first stage of the expansion should be at least 50 times that of Lianzhou College. In the west region of the core region, a third was left for Xinan University. This time, they not only needed to increase classrooms, student hostels, canteens, teaching staff hostels, halls, tracks, garden, and more, but they had to make a beautiful environment for the students. The culture and education division must work together with the construction division and also invite some of the students from the architectural college to participate in the design. Then, allow me to inspect it," Ouyang Shuo described the future of the Xinan University blueprint to them.

"Yes sire!" Ouyang Shuo’s description amazed Xu Shuda, who was really excited to begin.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and looked at Elder Li, "Elder Li, the overall design will be handed to you. For you to be the main architect, is that okay?"

Elder Li laughed, "Of course. Not bad, you're even making the blood of an old fogie like me boil."

Ouyang Shuo assigned 1000 mu of land in the core area to build the Xinan University. With that, one could see how much he focused on education and developing talent.

After Fan Zhongyan and Xu Shuda left, Ouyang Shuo turned and looked toward Elder Li and Elder Sun. Then, he laughed, "Elder Sun, Elder Li, I didn’t ask you for your opinions just now. I hope you didn’t mind."

Elder Sun waved him off, "Ouyang, since we are staying in Shanhai City, we will naturally follow your orders. You are the lord, so it's okay to respect us old fellows, but the one who makes the final choice is you."

"I’ve learned!" Ouyang Shuo clasped his hands.

Elder Sun nodded," It's okay, us bunch of old men have been lazing around for a month, so it's time for us to do some work. You can relax and pass the natural science college and architectural college to us!"

After Elder Sun finished, he left together with Elder Li.

In the end, only Sun Xiaoyue and Ouyang Shuo were left in the meeting hall. Yesterday, Ouyang Shuo was too busy, and both of them hadn’t had a proper conversation.

"Xiaoyue, this time, I need to really thank you. Without you talking to your grandpa, Shanhai City wouldn't have gotten such great people," Ouyang Shuo said sincerely.

She looked at him with a complex expression, "We have not met for a few days and you really make me look at you differently. Ouyang, you really shock me."

Before the migration, Sun Xiaoyue always thought that Ouyang Shuo was being too safe for not even telling her his ID and acting so mysteriously.

When the truth was revealed, she didn't expect for him to be such a big fish, a big shark.

When Sun Xiaoyue saw Ouyang Shuo attending to the administrative matters with such focus, barking orders here and there, making historical figures like Fan Zhongyan listen to him, she really couldn't connect him to the homeboy in real life.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, "Xiaoyue, stop teasing me. I’m very happy that you came. You don't know how much that little brat Bing’er misses you."

After he mentioned Bing’er, Sun Xiaoyue froze before laughing, "You have spoilt that little brat, she's practically a princess here in Shanhai City, and everyone is spoiling her. She even has maidservants following her around, why would she remember me?"

Ouyang Shuo laughed in embarrassment, "Are you jealous? You, ah, you really don't understand her? This kind cares a lot about relationships, and she has very flown close people. You are definitely one of them," Ouyang Shuo continued, "She even came to me last night to beg me to let you move into the Lord’s manor, but I chided her. From this, one can see how much she relies on you."

Sun Xiaoyue was naturally living in the official residence quarters with her grandpa and family. In reality, circumstances had forced them to live apart previously. Now in the game, she had no reason to live away from her family.

The ones living in the Lord’s manor were naturally Ouyang Shuo’s family. Even though both of them had a little spark or that little misunderstanding, they could only be considered good friends.

"Oh ya," Ouyang Shuo remembered, "I feel geniuses that graduated from imperial city architectural college cannot be cooped up in Xinan University. The construction division is rebuilding and refreshing the territory. There are many places that need your help. I did some slight research and found out that those few of your friends are all talents."

"Based on my understanding, Shanhai City’s constructions are nearly completed, so is there a need for us?"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, "Why wouldn't there be? It looks good on the surface, but in truth it's still very much lacking. Not only is there the Xinan University, there are also water systems, bridges, and dams, because of the lack of guidance, these haven't been started. In this aspect, you are all the professionals."

"I understand," Sun Xiaoyue understood, "You want to modernize the city?"

"Smart!" Ouyang Shuo commended," In this period of time, you all need to inspect the city and raise up what you think needs to be changed. As long as it’s logical, I will support it."

"No problem," Sun Xiaoyue replied.

"And also, after you settle down, as a guild leader you need to motivate the Fallen Moon Guild to do more quests and try to get the guild to silver rank. Fallen Moon Guild is the only recognized guild here. I estimate that the 1000 members will not be enough."

Sun Xiaoyue burst into a smile, "So, that means I as a guild leader still has something to do?"

"Of course. You are the future leader of our player group!"

"Okay, I will ask them to do quests. Furthermore, ranking up the guild will increase the specialty, which will be good for everyone. I don't think anyone will reject it," Sun Xiaoyue assured.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and agreed.

After Sun Xiaoyue left, Ouyang Shuo also left the meeting hall and walked out of the Lord’s Manor.

Ever since the system upgraded, the two buildings by the side of the square in front of the Lord’s manor had some changes.

Beside the east face of the teleportation formation, there was an eight meters tall stone hall and a squarish huge stone box. Even though it was a new building, there were fern and creepers growing on the walls, which made it look mysterious, and it seemed like a place that strangers shouldn’t enter. This was the famous reincarnation hall.

All the players who lived in Shanhai City, after they died, they would reincarnate here.

The west side advanced market had also changed. The original market was a wooden hut and a small square, but now it became a huge building. The small square was not within it.

Inside the building, it was no different from the wooden hut.

Ouyang Shuo opened the super auction platform to search for authentic secret manuals. As expected, the price of a gold level secret manual had already risen to 400 gold. Moreover, it was still rising.

Ouyang Shuo remembered that in his last life, at the peak, an authentic gold secret manual cost 800 gold, but that was already the second year.

Ouyang Shuo naturally didn't want to wait until that time. As he saw it, if it rose to 700 gold, he would be willing to sell it.

Chapter 190 - Medical Department

7th month 2nd day, 3 PM

Dr. Song walked into the lord’s manor, feeling a lot of emotion.

He could be considered one of the old generation of Shanhai City, coming here on the second day of the village. He was also the first advanced talent in Shanhai Village, even the Financial Director Cui Yingyu was under his care before.

After the thing with the apprentice, Dr. Song placed down his self esteem and stayed in the hospital to take care of patients and also take care of apprentices. In half a year, he produced 50 apprentices of Shanhai City, 20 basic doctors, and 5 intermediate doctors.

When he just came to Shanhai Village, he was a valuable person. However today, as the territory continued to upgrade, the Lord’s manor became more and more strict and not everyone could enter.

Last time when Ouyang Shuo had business with him, he would go personally to the hospital. Today, even if Ouyang Shuo sent someone to the hospital to invite him, it would be a huge honor.

In just half a year, Dr. Song had a feeling of being a nobody.

Seeing Dr. Song enter, the clerk Bai Nanpu stood up and smiled. “Elder Song, Sire is waiting for you in the guest room, please follow me.”

Before he even walked into the guest room, he heard sounds of talking and laughter spread out from within.

He had a face filled with doubt and asked, ”Mr Bai, does sire have any guests?”

Bai Nanpu smiled slightly. That's right, the one in the guestroom is a famous doctor that came yesterday, Elder Qian. Dont worry Old Song, Sire asked you here today for a good matter.”

Dr. Song nodded and didn't say anything.

Walking into the guest room, sire was seated on the main seat, and below him was a white-haired old man, both of them in deep conversation.

“Sire, Elder Song is here.” Bai Nanpu reminded.

Ouyang Shuo turned around and upon seeing Dr. Song, he laughed. “Elder Song, please sit.”

Dr. Song sat down at the other side on the lower level.

Ouyang Shuo naturally wasn't as emotional as Dr. Song and said directly, “Elder Song, let me introduce to you, this is a doctor I’ve invited here, Elder Qian.”

Elder Qian was one of the 30 professionals, and in reality he was a top-grade surgeon.

Before Elder Song arrived, Ouyang Shuo had asked Elder Qian to teach him the difference between Chinese and Western medicine.

Based on his introduction, Chinese medicine focused on preventing illnesses from happening. Western medicine emphasised curing the illness by immunization, diagnosis, operations and saving. Both of them improved each other and could co-exist but it was hard to integrate them.

Elder Qian was being honest that he had looked up to Chinese medicine for a long time and upon hearing Shanhai City had an Advanced doctor, he was excited. Hence upon hearing that Ouyang Shuo was willing to build a Medical Department, he automatically gave up the lead and wanted to be the deputy director.

In truth, to Ouyang Shuo, Elder Qian was of greater use. This was because he could develop military medics and send them to each unit to lessen the number of casualties.

After a simple introduction,Ouyang Shuo said, “A long time ago, I talked to you about a Medical Department. Now the time is right and i announce that Elder Song will be the director of the department while Elder Qian will be the deputy director. The Medical Department has a official background but doesn't have any administrative or political powers. It mainly focuses on developing doctors and military medics while also saving lives and curing patients. The Construction Division will build a department building for the Medical Department in the residential area, the territory medicine government could help to provide medical resources to the Medical Department.”

Ouyang Shuo treated the Medical Department as a modern institution.

Dr. Song, who have always wished for such a thing, stood up emotionally and bowed to Ouyang Shuo. “Thank you sire! I won't let you down!”

Ouyang Shuo rushed to help him up and said, “I'll have to busy you, Old Song!”

After that, both Dr. Song and Elder Qian left together and discussed about the Medical Department.

After Ouyang Shuo sent them off, he finally had time to open the letter he received in the afternoon and read it.

This letter was from Song Jia.

In her letter, she said that she had already passed the letter to her grandpa. As Ouyang Shuo’s identity was revealed, The Song family was naturally shocked and they felt conflicted.

They were happy that they didn't rush the marriage with the Yuan family, if not they would have missed the chance to get such a powerful ally like Shanhai City. They were also worried that they were revealed to be materialistic in front of Ouyang Shuo and they were afraid that they were unable to earn his trust. They felt all that from Ouyang Shuo not being willing to get them into the Shanhai Alliance.

Hence, they spent a whole day discussing before coming to a conclusion.

The Song family had a huge business and the wealth was spread out amongst the hands of many family branches. During the calculation of the achievement value, the one with the highest was Song Jia’s grandfather who got a C permission level. Apart from that, there were 5 more D permission levels which included Song Jia’s father and her brother.

To fulfil their hope that their family could rise again in planet Hope, the Song family decided to all step back and only act as consultants, not participating in any decisions in Tianshuang Town. Song Wen was deemed as the heir to the family and thus he was given the managing rights of the town.

Hence, the cooperation between Tianshuang Town and Shanhai City would be managed by Song Wen. In Song Jia’s letter, she mentioned that her brother was different from her grandfather and was more warm and kind-hearted.

As the family had just entered the game not long ago and have not adapted, Song Jia wanted to wait until everything settled down before moving to Shanghai City to reunite with Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo placed down the letter and opened the territory operation interface. As expected, he saw Song Wen’s ally request which he accepted without hesitation.

……

In the next half a month, the game was calm and nothing much happened.

Be it the territories or the guilds, they were all digesting the changes from the system update and consolidating and adjusting their men.

The only huge news was that Xiong Ba’s King Town had became the 8th City in China. Hence, in the territory leaderboard, there were only two empty names left.

During this half a month, Shanhai City has also been very busy.

The busiest was the Construction Division. Apart from continuing with the refreshing and renovating of the city, they also started work on the Xinan University. Other than that, there was also a series of municipal engineering projects.

Based on the standards that he had set, the main road, which was the central axis of 2nd grade roads, was 150 meters wide. The two smaller roads, which were the central axis of the third grade roads, were 100 meters wide. The 3rd grade roads, which were on the central axis of each region, were 60 meters wide. The 4th grade roads, which would separate the region, were 40 meters wide. 5th grade roads, which would further separate them into streets, were 20 to 25 meters wide.

Each road would have the middle portion higher and the sides lower, each side having a 2.5 meter wide drain with various wild plants and trees growing around it. All the drains would lead to the inner city river, through that to the canyon, and lastly into the North Sea.

All the materials used to make the streets were the same and were a mix of sand and mud. To prevent dust, a layer a small sand was placed on followed by a layer of green stone. Be it sand or stone, Shanhai City had lots of them. All the sand came from Beihai City, and it was very convenient to transport them.

This project would have Hui Tuban as the main architect.

Secondly would be the bridge and the water-gate projects.

As the inner city river was on both the west and east sides, passing through the 2nd city wall. To not leave any weakness in the city defences, water-gates were designed at these two spots. The water-gates were made using iron rods which through soldering, and were wielded into a hollow huge iron net, not only ensuring water flow but also preventing enemies from entering.

On the inner city river, there were 5 stone bridges. The suspension bridge outside the core region’s north gate was removed and changed into a huge wooden door. In front of the north gate was 3 stone bridges, one main and 2 auxiliary ones leading to the main door and the side doors, respectively. Removing the suspension bridge was because Ouyang Shuo was confident no one would be able to attack the core area.

Apart from that, in the east area and the residence region, around the middle of the inner city river was a stone arch bridge to make in convenient for residents to travel.

The next step was to build a bridge across the river at the Friendship river, Qiushui river and the canyon to join up Shanhai City, Qiushui City and Friendship City.

Wuchi was in charge of this project, and he was the main architect.

This series of projects were only at the starting phase and to complete it all, it needed 3 months and over 8000 gold.

Out of the “three male gods” in Fallen Moon guild, the name of which they came up with by themselves, the third member also had heavy responsibilities.

Jiu Duanxian led a 100 man team and started to map out the entire area of Shanhai City, getting the coordinates of each landmark and the places of resources, as well as the rivers and seas.

This project was also going to take a long time.

Apart from the Construction Division, the Agriculture Division also had much to do.

The first season’s rice harvest in Qiushui City and Friendship City had been harvested and they had obtained 13.2 million units of grain, exactly what Ouyang Shuo had expected.

Qiushui City and Friendship City, based on the 30 to 1 tax, would get 440 thousand units of grain. These units would be given to them as military grain, and they didn't need to give it to the main camp.

As they did not have sufficient funds, the Resource Division didn't start to buy the grain. They needed to wait until the end of the month before buying it all. The farmers, apart from the grain they needed to eat, were to sell the rest at 10 coppers per unit to the Resource Division.

The Resource Division then sold it to the people for 11 copper per unit. The price difference was for the storage fees and sales costs, and it wasn’t that they really wanted to take the people’s money.

Chapter 191 - Research Institute No.7

Snow-War Rose mercenary group had sent the first batch of lifestyle players into Shanhai City.

The players numbered 500, along with their families, totaled at 2,400. The Fallen Moon Guild absorbed all of them and arranged for them to stay in the residential area. He would give them the same benefits and status as ordinary guild members.

In this way, the Fallen Moon Guild officially had 850 members. They were close to the maximum limit of 1,000 members. This left Ouyang Shuo with no choice, so he could only hurry Sun Xiaoyue to upgrade the guild to the next rank. This upgrade would expand the maximum members limit. At the same time, the Fallen Moon Guild would slow down its rate of absorbing members. Instead, they would the allow Snow-War Rose mercenary group to handle the new members.

Fallen Moon Guild members consisted of talents all across every industry. However, most of them were still intermediate talents, some even basic talents. There was only a limited amount of those advanced talents.

Like the Earth Online aboriginals, the players were assigned to workshops, shops, or sites according to their respective talents. Their wage and work benefits would all be the same as the aboriginals. Of course, the four main workshops in the East district were restricted from players until Ouyang Shuo had determined their loyalties.

In this way, the players could earn money. At the same time, they could level their talent skills. Especially in a city like Shanhai, the territory’s special properties could help lifestyle players easily break through in their talents.

A player’s achievement values didn’t only take into account their assets. It also accounted for the achievements one had achieved in their field of profession. As for lifestyle players, leveling their skills to the rank of God-level was their ultimate goal. In Ouyang Shuo’s past life, no one in China region had achieved that ultimate goal yet.

Ever since the world online policy, players weren’t allowed to log out for a long period of time. That said, there would be almost no difference between players and the aboriginals in the game anymore.

Ouyang Shuo simply had no reason to treat them differently.

Furthermore, in comparison to the aboriginals, the players had a worse discipline. Some players were still unable to fit into their current character. They looked down on the aboriginals, and they even fought with them. Otherwise, they would slack off from work, and subsequently, the Business Division would receive complaints about them.

For matters like these, Ouyang Shuo’s approach was really strict. He had given the Procuratorate Division full authority in dealing with those at fault. If the faults were serious enough, they could be mercilessly jailed.

When the players came into the territory, they had to follow the rules of the territory. A lord player had more than one ways to mete out punishments, and the players couldn’t even leave from the territory. Even if one committed suicide, they would only be revived again in the reincarnation hall of the territory. Therefore, as long as Ouyang Shuo didn’t allow the players to leave, the players would be tied to the territory for life. They would live as the resident of Shanhai and die as the ghost of Shanhai.

There was one exception. If a lord player’s territory was destroyed, the players could once again lay their hands on freedom.

Other than that, there were other changes happening around Shanhai City.

Under Elder Sun’s suggestion, they moved the advanced shipyard to Beihai Harbor. Elder Sun had also officially taken up the position of the Chief Advisor of the shipyard.

According to Elder Sun’s words, the valley was too narrow and shallow. It simply wasn’t suitable for large-sized warships, and the geographical condition didn’t allow them to build a large dock. Therefore, it would be better to shift it to Beihai Harbor and solve the problems all at once.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo naturally wouldn’t refuse. Moving a building around in the game was merely a simple task. The only trouble was the fees that the system charged for shifting buildings.

Not only that, but Ouyang Shuo had also instructed the Construction Division to upgrade and refurbish the Shanhai dock for expansion. From now onward, tradings between Shanhai and Beihai would grow more and more.

During this half a month, Ouyang Shuo’s most important action was establishing a mysterious research institute.

He set up the research institute in the military restricted area in the East district.

Members included ship expert Elder Sun, metallurgical expert Elder Liu, dynamic expert Elder Zhou, mechanical expert Elder Bian, weapons expert Liu Mo, master blacksmith Wang Gao, and advanced alchemist Magnus. Altogether, there were seven of them. Hence, Ouyang Shuo gave it the name of Research Institute No.7.

Needless to say, Research Institute No.7’s mission was naturally to conduct and research technologies regarding steam engine driven warships, firearms, and artilleries. Ouyang Shuo’s goal was to at least reach the technological level of the British during the late Qing dynasty.

However, he had little hope of immediately visible results. There were loads of basic technologies involved, which included materials, machinery tools, fire-powders, and more. A complicated series of technologies were needed as the base before they could build the technology pyramid higher.

Within the next two to three years, it would be perfectly normal if there weren’t any progressions. Ouyang Shuo hoped that Research Institute No.7 could shine brightly during the mid-late period of the game.

7th Month 20th, Ouyang Shuo, Ge Hongliang, and Shi Wanshui arrived at the City North Camp.

Military Camp Chamber, Ouyang Shuo sat on the throne. He glanced around and said solemnly, “Lately, the nomadic tribes are like a pool of stagnant water, no ripples, no waves. The disturbances Operation Dawn caused had ceased, as it dispersed into thin air. Mengke and Dariachi, the two cunning old foxes, were really impressive. They restrained themselves from making reckless decisions. As a direct result, the numbers of our Qingfu horses are critically insufficient. Up until now, we can only fully-equipped the Vanguard Unit. St this rate, how can we still develop our cavalries?”

The situation also left the commander of City North Camp, the major of 1st Vanguard Unit, Lin Yi, unsatisfied, “My lord, since ordinary commerce did not work, we can only solve this problem through war.”

‘I agree with General Lin. However, the problem is how to make the right decision at the right time. Wiping out one or two small tribes like last time won’t help the situation. Exterminating a middle-sized tribe is possible, but with our military forces at the moment, we can’t guarantee that no fugitives will slip through the net.”

Lin Yi smiled. Then, he turned and said, “Sire, I have a thought.”

“Oh?” Ouyang Shuo exclaimed. He knew that Lin Yi had long garrisoned in the City North Camp, so Lin Yi’s understandings toward the nomadic tribes would be better than Ge Hongliang.

It seems like the general had already thought through the concerns of Ge Hongliang. Since he spoke up now, he must be fully prepared.

“In my opinion, in order to break the balance between the nomadic tribes, the key lies in the Tian Qi tribe. The peace of savanna is only kept because Tian Qi is too strong, way stronger than the others. That is why, even when they knew that someone was provoking the Tian Qi tribe, no one dares to break the order. This is because Tian Qi is beyond them.”

“The Tian Qi tribe has 12,000 brave warriors whereas the Tian Feng tribe only has 1,000. A disparity of tens of times, so only a fool will challenge Tian Qi’s royal throne. Therefore, from the way I see it, if the middle-sized tribes’ spirits are willing but their strengths are weak, why don’t we help them once?”

His words sparked Ouyang Shuo’s interest. He could vaguely tell Lin Yi’s intentions, and the young general’s thoughts truly astonished him. He hurriedly asked, “Be more detailed.”

His lord’s great interest in his plan boosted Lin Yi’s confidence, and he said, “The Tian Qi tribe has two sections, ZhenXi and ZhenDong. Each section is garrisoned with 5,000 warriors. If we can travel deep into the savanna and destroy one of the sections, then we will be able to break the peace and balance. A tangled warfare for the royal throne between the tribes will be inevitable.”

“How so?”

“Sire, you see, once Tian Qi tribe is severely damaged, it can’t suppress the other tribes anymore. Even then, the middle-sized tribes still will not dare to point their swords at Tian Qi, but they will definitely not take Tian Qi’s orders anymore. The best way out for them is to abide the orders and the warnings. They will annex the smaller tribes and strengthen themselves. In that case, no one tribe will be safe, so a war is hence inevitable. But, at this time, this is where Friendship City comes in. This is the best time to open Friendship City’s market. In order to expand their forces and strengths, the tribes will trade anything, including Qingfu warhorse, for weapons, food, and various other materials from us.”

Pak pak pak——

Ouyang Shuo led the crowd, as they clapped. He smiled and said, “Great thoughts, well planned and far-reaching. General Lin, one who has been away three days must be looked at with new eyes!”

This made Lin Yi excited, and he said, “I thank my lord for his appraisal.”

Ouyang Shuo then turned serious. Then, he solemnly said, “Then, I ask you, how many cavalries do you need? Only then can you have the confidence to defeat one of the Tian Qi sections. Bear in mind that they are 5,000 elite horseback warriors.”

Since it was open-field savanna warfare, the only suitable unit was the cavalries. The individual combat capabilities of the horseback warriors were better than Shanhai’s cavalries. The horseback warriors lived in the savanna, so they were proficient in archery and horse riding.

They also have Qingfu warhorses as mounts. Unlike the warriors, Shanhai cavalries are half-trained, without a solid foundation.

Lin Yi smiled with great confidence and answered, “My lord, 2,000 cavalries is more than enough.”

“There is no jesting in war. 2,000 cavalries and you can make it?” These words shock Ouyang Shuo. He couldn’t believe it.

“Of course, relying only on the cavalries won’t work. It all still need my lord’s coordination.” Then, Lin Yi told Ouyang Shuo his whole plan, each and every bit in detail.

Ouyang Shuo listened carefully. After he heard the whole plan, Ouyang Shuo was at ease. He believed the plan had at least 70-80% of success. Although there were still some risks, but to build an empire, one could not always be prepared. They had to be daring and take the risk and give their all when the time comes.

Without further hesitation, he followed Lin Yi’s plan and announced a military expansion arrangement, “Liao Kai!”

“Here!” Liao Kai stepped forward.

“My orders. Select 500 men from the military reserve unit, establish the Qiushui City cavalry unit. You have 10 days. After 10 days, I want to see a well-established cavalry unit.”

“Thank my lord for his trust. I will not fail you!” Liao Kai was filled with joy and excitement.

Ouyang Shuo only intended to leave the newly established cavalry unit under Qiushui City because after the upgrade, the count was very vulnerable with only one city defense unit. Furthermore, he didn’t want to garrison too many military forces in City North Camp. Otherwise, it would bring tremendous pressure to the Tian Feng tribe.

The 2,000 cavalries were arranged and fully prepared according to Lin Yi’s plans. They formed the two cavalry units from City North Camp, one cavalry unit from City West camp, and the last, newly established cavalry unit from Qiushui City.

Chapter 192 - Operation Wildfire (1 / 3)

Lin Yi’s proposed plan was officially given the code name Operation ‘Wildfire’. This was because the operation would lead to the destruction of the savanna. It would lighten the flames of war and burn the grassland into ashes.

The operation’s success was directly linked to Shanhai City’s future governing policy toward the nomadic tribes as well as the future of Shanhai’s cavalries. Therefore, its importance did not need to be repeated twice.

Military Affairs Department and Lin Yi would discuss the plan. They would forge it into a perfect plan in order to be as foolproof as possible.

Right after Ouyang Shuo returned from Friendship City, he once again dived into the sea of governing affairs.

……

July 20th, they completed the establishment of Qiushui City’s cavalry unit. Lai Kai was officially promoted to the rank of major, and he led the cavalry unit. The class change fees were of course taken from the profits made in the first half month of July.

Three days ago, Ouyang Shuo and the Chui Chamber of Commerce from Dali signed off their first deal on the trading platform.

Northern Saltworks had produced 2.5 million units of consumable salts in the first half month of July. According to the market price of 20 copper per unit of salts, Chui Chamber of Commerce would have to pay 5,000 gold. After the 10% system tax deduction, Ouyang Shuo was left with 4,500 gold. After the further reducing the cost of salt production, the amount that handed to Shuo was actually 4,100 gold.

After the system update, the taxes were halved, so the Northern Saltworks could save a thousand gold every month from the taxes alone.

As for Langshan mining field, they turned over 4,000 gold without fail.

Since he stationed the mineral expert from the professional group in the mining field, they were taught to further enhance the production line and mine with more logical and scientific techniques. In the preliminary estimates for August, the production efficiency would increase by 10%. A mineral expert’s technical advice could help generate at least an additional 800 gold for Shanhai City. This was exactly where the value of an expert laid. Their contribution to the territory was an overall enhancement.

The initial 8,100 gold from first the half month, after the deduction of the cavalry unit class change fees of 750 gold and Four Sea Bank’s payment for teleportation formation fees of 4,400 gold, there was only 2,950 gold leftover.

Through the teleportation formation, the cost to recruit a player was immensely high. Including the player and the family, it would cost an average of 5 gold for teleportation fees.

This didn’t include the cost of the basic accommodations for the players.

For the likes of Di Chen and others, they had previously recruited new players from the real-world and arranged for them to directly spawn in the territory. Only those from the rich and powerful family or clans could have the resources to do so.

However, after the interplanetary immigration, they would have lost their resources and could only pay the teleportation fees like Ouyang Shuo. This would in turn be a large expense and a burden to them.

According to Feng Qiuhuang, before the immigration, they had already recruited a large batch of new players in their territories. As for the precise amount of players, only they knew themselves.

The 2,950 golds didn’t last long in Ouyang Shuo’s hands. Through the Chui Chamber of Commerce, he bought 2.95 million units of food.

Hence, for the next half of the year, Shanhai would be free from the risk of food shortage. The price was nearly a total of 9,000 gold spent solely on food.

Ouyang Shuo couldn’t imagine the price that the other lords would have to pay when the food prices soared high in the future. After all, the other territories weren’t like Shanhai. They didn’t have 40,000 acres of fertile farmland to provide grains, so they would have to purchase more food.

Probably the only thing worthy of rejoice was that the other territories didn’t have such a big population like Shanhai City or Shanhai’s high refugee spawn rate.

If Ouyang Shuo had enough funds, he would even consider purchasing more food and profit by reselling it when the price went up.

As for his assumptions about the prices of food, Ouyang Shuo had informed his allies, including Song Wen. However, it was up to them whether they had sufficient funds to hoard enough food. It was not something Ouyang Shuo could help.

Shanhai City was strong, but it was not strong enough to provide financial aid to five or six lord territories.

Moreover, they were allies and only allies. Ouyang Shuo was not a philanthropist. Any territory that required Shanhai’s financial aid would have to allow Four Seas Bank to establish a branch in their territory with no exceptions.

Whereas for Mulan Town, Ouyang Shuo was waiting for the end of the month. When the profits for the next half month came, he would add more funds to the Four Seas Bank branch in Mulan Town.

As for the acquisition of grains from the farmers, Yingyu’s idea was to utilize the funds from Four Seas Bank and acquire the grains. The acquisition would not be a one-off deal. Instead, they would be traded in batches. They would sell them off before acquiring another batch of grains. Otherwise, to complete the deal in one blow would require tens of thousands of gold, which was literally a waste of funds.

On average, a farmer could plow and manage 10 mu of land. A mu can grow 350 units of grains. Hence, it would produce 3,500 units of grains. They had to turn over 117 units to the lord. After they stored half a year of grains, there would still be 3,200 units of grains available for sale, which would be three gold 20 silver. After the tax deduction, it would still be three gold and 10 silver. A year had two farming seasons, minus the cost, the final annual income for a farmer would be around five golds.

If one decided to be more hardworking and raise some poultry or even a pig, he could earn tens of silver more for that year. This hard work would contribute a little more to the family livelihood.

Therefore, in actual fact, a farmer’s income was considerably high. Their income was almost the same as a rank 5 veteran soldier. The only difference was that the military took care of a soldier’s livelihood, and their pay could be increased further.

These only happened because of three reasons. Firstly, the farmers had enough farmland to plow, and those lands were fertile farmlands. Secondly, Shanhai had the lowest tax rates in the history. Lastly, Ouyang Shuo did not intentionally oppress and exploit their hard work, and he did not purchase grains from them for a low price and sell it high.

All these factors added up to create Shanhai farmers’ high annual income.

……

For the past half a month, Mulan Town was developing rapidly under the help of Four Seas Bank.

Utilizing the loans from Four Seas Bank, Mu Guiying successfully established Mulan Town’s city defense unit. The brave general led this city defense unit to cleanse the territory and destroyed every single raider in sight.

Exterminating the raiders were not only meant to train the soldiers, but also to ensure the territory’s safety. Furthermore, the rewards they plundered could contribute populations, materials, and funds to the territory, which would further develop their hometown.

Other than that, Mulan Town had also finished the construction of stone walls, which enhanced their defense. Territory privatization was also fully completed, so it was not the usual same semi-finished product anymore. The territory’s economy began to sprout. It slowly accumulated, as it waited for the day to explode and bloom gracefully.

Mulan Town’s rapid development now was exactly like the former Shanhai Town.

Just a week ago, Mulan Town was successfully upgraded to grade 3 township. After the upgrade, the miners of Mulan Town found a silver mine within the territory. Hence, another source of wealth. Although a silver mine couldn’t be compared to a gold mine, if it was excavated with maximum effort, there would still be at least 200 gold monthly.

Now, the only thing that stopped Mulan Town from its next upgrade was Mulan Yue’s rank title.

During the Battle of Zhoulu, Mulan Yue was rewarded with 2,500 merit points. With these points, she leveled her title to the rank of ‘First-class Viscount’. In addition, the extermination of raiders had rewarded her some merit points, and she now had 5,000 merit points. Currently, she was 1,400 merit points away from Third-class Earl.

Fortunately, Mulan Town was just upgraded into a grade 3 township. Time was still needed to reach the total population of 1,000. Perhaps, during the following Battle of Zhennan Pass, she could earn the merit points needed.

In any case, she might have to participate in another battlefield warfare during this period of time. If she earned the merit points needed, the problem would be solved.

Gong Chengshi was envious of Mulan Town’s rapid development. Within the Shanhai Alliance, only he remained as the lord of a grade 2 township. Lack of funds restrained his move of recruiting more players, and he couldn’t afford the high price of teleportation fees.

Left with no other choice, he stopped persisting and invited Ouyang Shuo over to establish a branch of the Four Seas Bank in his territory.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo had no reason to decline, as the financial situation in Shanhai was getting better. Langshan mining field and Northern Saltworks alone could provide him with a fund of nearly 2,000 golds monthly. These additional funds emboldened Ouyang Shuo to establish a Four Seas Bank branch in Black Lion Town.

Ouyang Shuo replied to Gong Chengshi’s call. He told Gong Chengshi to wait until the end of the month. When the funds of Shanhai came together, he would send his men to Black Lion Town for the establishment of the Four Seas Bank branch. He urged Gong Chengshi to prepare for it.

Ouyang Shuo’s wild hope was to establish a branch in every territory. Even if the Four Seas Bank wouldn’t be the only bank in the territories, it needed to be at least one of the main bank.

In order to do so, the first step was to open the branches in his allies’ territories. Now, Mulan Town and Black Lion Town had both accepted, and it was only time before the Xunlong Town submitted.

As for Consonance City and Fallen Phoenix City, it wouldn’t be that easy. Only with luck and fate could he manage to infiltrate their territories. Especially Fallen Phoenix City, there stood a powerful family behind Feng Qiuhuang. Even if she agreed to it, they wouldn’t allow it to happen.

As for Consonance City, it could sustain with the help of only Dali Qingfeng Pavilion. Qingfeng Pavilion’s gold farmers were quietly supporting them from behind.

Consonance City had now achieved a symbiotic relationship with Qingfeng Pavilion, much like the cooperative relationship between Shanhai City and Snow-War Rose mercenary group.

The only difference was that Consonance didn’t have such a well-developed military industry.

It wasn’t Ouyang Shuo acting mean or contemptible, taking advantage of his allies' difficulties. The deal was mutually-beneficial in the first place. It even could further pull the alliance together.

After all, what kind of alliance is better and stronger than an economically integrated alliance?

Chapter 193 - Operation Wildfire (2 / 3)

7th month 24th, night.

The vanguard unit sneaked out of City North Camp, while two units from the mixed regiment took over their place.

First light tomorrow morning, the mixed regiment’s two units would start their usual morning training in the camp, while disguised as the vanguard unit. Tian Feng scouts couldn’t come too close to the camp. Hence, they wouldn’t know that the troops had all been replaced.

Vanguard 1st unit left their Qingfu warhorses and Mingguang armors behind in the camp. Then, they wore and mounted their alternate equipment and horses. The four cavalry units all dressed themselves as raiders—the clothes plundered from the raider captives.

That’s right, for this operation, they had disguised themselves as raiders.

Their destination was far from the border, so they had to venture deep into the savanna. Hence, in order to reduce risk and avoid being spotted, the four cavalry units would travel their own paths, as they rode their ways toward Tian Qi tribe ZhenXi camp. The units used their specially-trained hummingbirds to communicate through the intelligence team.

At the same time, the five squadrons from every unit would also spread out two kilometers from each other.

ZhenXi camp was situated 160 kilometers away from the Friendship River. Traveling alone would take three days if the journey was smooth and steady without mishaps.

Because it was savanna—an open field grassland—there was simply nowhere to hide. Therefore, the cavalries would not hide by day and come out by night. Instead, they would march at a steady pace and eliminate every nomad they encountered to cover their existence.

Lei Xun led Military intelligence team two. They had finished their preparation work, the pathways they chose for the four cavalry units were all routed away from the tribal camps.

Ouyang Shuo personally followed the expedition force, and he would ride between the vanguard first unit second squadron and the third squadron. The newly established lord’s guards rode beside him. As for Lin Yi, he led the cavalry first squadron at the forefront.

July 25th, morning 5 a.m. dawn.

With the help of the Beihai navy, the expedition force crossed the Friendship River. From here onward, the force would separate and ride their own paths. They would only gather together when they reach their final destination.

On the first day, everything went well because they crossed the site of the Tian Lian tribe that had been wiped off. Although the Tian Feng tribe had taken over the area, they had not arranged any pastoralists. Tin Feng tribe had only taken this area as a ranch to use.

Therefore, on this day, the overall progress of the expedition forces was relatively rapid. In addition, without infantry dragging them down, they could travel a full 60 kilometers. At seven o'clock in the evening, the scattered squadrons regrouped to rest on the spot.

Military tents and military grain pills, these two logistics weapons, began to show their importance.

In the morning, each soldier took one military grain pill. For the rest of the day, they would not need to eat anymore. Without the need to create fire for a meal, they had minimized the risk of exposure. As for drinking water, they had long since stored enough water in their backpacks for three days. In addition, in Ouyang Shuo's storage bag, there was still a quantity of drinking water.

Tomorrow, the troops would have to cross the site of a medium-sized tribe, and the risk factor would greatly increase.

Five o'clock the next day, the squadrons departed. They kept a two kilometer distance from each other and took advantage of the early morning when there were fewer people to travel some distance.

At noon, Ouyang Shuo was riding Black Tornado, while his guards rode beside him. Just then, a group of herdsmen appeared in front of them. There were about seven or eight people, driving and grazing the flock.

"My lord?" Guard Captain Wang Feng immediately rushed in front of Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo naturally understood Wang Feng’s intentions and nodded.

Then, Wang Feng made a gesture toward the rear. As a result, half of the guards immediately left the ranks like a group of hungry wolves and rushed toward the pastoralists.

When the pastoralists saw the guards, they thought they were raiders. They panicked and immediately fled.

The horses that served as the mounts of the pastoralists were naturally not Qingfu horse. Even in the nomadic tribes, Qingfu horses were somewhat rare. It wasn't so common that the ordinary grazing pastoralists could ride them.

The guards’ attacks were very tactical. Instead of directly hurling toward them, they first flanked them on both sides to form an encirclement that surrounded the herders. This action prevented them from slipping through.

The guards surrounded the pastoralists, who panicked. Their mouths grumbled with unintelligible words, and it was estimated that they were begging for mercy. While talking, they pointed their fingers to the flock not far away. These gestures denoted that the flocks could be taken away in exchange for their pitiful lives.

Sadly, what they met was not the bandits who robbed money, but the officers and men of Shanhai City.

The lord's guards were soldiers of life and death, so their hearts were as cold as ice and hard as stone. They held an emotionless poker face, as they rode on their horsebacks. They raised their bows and released a volley of deadly arrows that shot their victims down from their horses.

According to Ouyang Shuo's original intentions, he was naturally reluctant to harm the innocents, especially civilians.

However, this operation was so important that it could not tolerate any accidents. The blood and tears of others had long since covered his hands.

Those pastoralists looked at the arrows in their chest with shock.

They could not understand why these raiders were not like the rumors, who only took money instead of lives. Instead, these raiders took away their most precious lives away from them. Even being taken away to the raiders camp as captives was still a better ending than this.

They guards paid little attention to the flocks, as they rode to the corpses. They pulled out their Tang swords and slashed the corpses to ensure no loose ends. After that, they removed the shovel prepared in advance from the backpacks and dug a large pit to bury the dead bodies. Then, they covered the dead with a layer of weeds as a simple disguise.

When the night arrives, the relatives of the dead pastoralists became aware that they were missing and did not come home. Coupled with the time required to search for them, it was estimated that it would take one or two days before they could find the land where the dead bodies were buried. Even so, it would be nothing more than an incident identified as a raider attack that simply could not attract the attention of the tribal leaders.

This was but only a small incident that happened on the way. Similar things also took place in the four cavalry units. The Military Affairs Department had formulated this set of handling measures in advance, and they had given detailed explanations to every soldier. This was the function and value of the Military Affairs Department. They were responsible for the development of a very detailed war plan. A variety of small details, as far as possible, were taken into account.

At night, the team stopped again. Tomorrow, they were about to enter the territory of the Tian Qi tribe. The camp of ZhenXi was located on the western edge of the Tian Qi tribe, which made it a full 50 kilometers away from the Khan tent beside the Shen Juan Lake.

After they entered the territory of Tian Qi tribe, the number of pastoralists around the area increased. Occasionally, they would meet with tribal warriors that patroled the border. At times like this, they would try to avoid them, but if a fight was inevitable, they could only eliminate the warriors.

However, when the night fell, and the ZhenXi patrols returned to their home base, they would realize that their fellow warriors were missing. It would raise their alarms. But this was not something Ouyang Shuo could control. It was inevitable, as it was not that easy for an army to sneak into their enemy's hinterland.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the cavalry units stopped 10 kilometers away from the ZhenXi camp. If they headed further, they would step foot in the core area of the camp. Moving into the camp recklessly during the day would be tantamount to suicide.

In order to hide their whereabouts, they once again spread out and hid in the pastoralists' homes. As for the original owners of pastoralists' home, their fate could be imagined. Just like a monster, the two thousand troops secretly lurked outside of the ZhenXi camp, as they eyed their prey.

In the evening, after the centurion in the ZhenXi camp routinely counted the patrols, they noticed that some of the warriors who were on patrol duty on the frontier had not returned on time.

The abnormal situation was immediately reported to the captain, and the captain again reported to the camp commander Lhakhshen. After hearing the report from the captain, Lhakhshen frowned and asked, "Have you sent anyone to check?"

"General, I have sent a hundred men to the border to investigate. I find the situation rather odd, and that is why I have specifically come to report." The captain was not negligent.

The town had not experienced any war for many years, and matters like this seldom happened.

Thinking of the exhortations from the Khan, Lhakhshen did not dare to take this matter lightly.

"Give my orders. Tonight, the camp shall maintain a full alert, and we will increase the patrols on duty." Lhakhshen decided to take cautious measures.

For some unknown reason, he had felt a little restless during these two days. It was as though a ruthless beast was eyeing him in the dark, yet he still couldn't see any traces of the beast. This made Lhakhshen very uneasy, and the disappearance of the patrollers further aggravated this uneasy sentiment.

However, in front of his subordinates, Lhakhshen remained as calm as usual.

"Understood!"

……

10 kilometers away from the camp, there was a very humble pastoral tent.

At six o'clock in the afternoon, Lei Xun, who had disguised himself as a pastoralist, opened the tent and walked in. Then, he respectfully said, "My lord, as expected, the camp was alerted."

It turned out that Ouyang Shuo had settled here.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. The reaction of the enemy did not go beyond his expectations.

According to the report, the town commander Lhakhshen was not a simple person to deal with, “Contact the units. Tonight, we will act according to the plan.”

“Understood!”

Seven o'clock in the evening, Ouyang Shuo exited the tent and rode Black Tornado. He took advantage of the night, and under Lei Xun’s guidance, Ouyang Shuo visited the units one by one. Every time he reached a unit camp, Ouyang Shuo would remove a barrel of alchemical fire oil from the storage bag and pass it to the soldiers.

In the savanna of July. The starry night sky and the cool monsoon breeze that blew waves of green grass. Under the starlights, the cavalries walked out of the tents one by one, as they carried the barrel of oils and tied it on the horse’s saddlebags. These saddlebags had been specially modified, so each side of the saddle could contain two barrels of alchemical fire oil.

Chapter 194 - Operation Wildfire (3 / 3)

The Shanhai cavalries mounted their horses. Step-by-step, they began to sneak into the camp.

When the cavalries departed, it was already around 9 to 10 at night. The night was dark, and the weeds were high. Even with the help of the faint starlights, it was difficult to distinguish between the silhouette of humans and other things.

As the investigation team came back with nothing, the commander of ZhenXi camp ordered martial law again. The patrol warriors had twice received the instructions from the commander that asked them to raise their vigilance. However, through the whole night, even a ghostly shadow could not be seen, so they could not help but relax and lay down. One by one, they yawned in boredom.

Furthermore, there weren’t any wars in the recent years. The Tian Qi tribe claimed itself as the king of savanna, so the warriors grew lazier and started to slack. They took the disappearance incident during the day as nothing more than just an accident.

Maybe those missing patrols had secretly sneaked into some girl’s tents and had stayed there. The patrols were chatting and talking to pass the time.

“Hey, do you think that the commander is too cautious? Just a few missing patrols, and yet he makes such a big fuss. Depriving our night and making us suffer in the cold,” a soldier complained.

“Brat, don’t you dare say a bad word about the commander. Do you want to die?” the centurion leading the team rebuked. Lhakhshen had a high prestige within the camp, so one must be careful when they spoke about him.

The soldier also knew that his words were impulsive, and he had said something wrong. Fortunately, the centurion was a good friend of his, so he laughed and said, “Leader, I know. I am at fault, so please do not report me.”

The military regulations of the savanna were harsh and cruel. If anyone seriously handled this matter, then the soldier would not end well. At least, he would be whipped.

“Do not worry!” The Centurion did not want to make a fuss of it either.

During July, the mosquitoes in the savanna were many and large, so it was hard for one to endure. Thanks to the dedication of the warriors, although they mouths complained, they didn’t neglect their duties.

A short distance away, the cavalries dismounted and held the reins in their hands. Like ghosts, they slowly moved toward the camp patrols.

After they entered the effective range, they squatted down on the ground and hid their whereabouts. Quietly, they stealth shot the patrols to death one-by-one.

The vanguards were all elite soldiers proficient at shooting. As for melee-combat, it was almost impossible in the grassland.

Ouyang Shuo’s men slowly picked off the patrols.

Slowly and steadily, they reached five kilometers away from the camp. As it was closer to the camp, the vigilance level was raised. Any signs or sounds of combat could immediately alert the camp.

Therefore, Shanhai cavalry stopped moving forward.

Ouyang Shuo mounted his horse and gazed at the distant camp.

Because it was a settlement camp, the camp wasn’t like the Tian Lian tribe. It was just an encirclement of tents that formed a defense circle.

The camp was no different from the camps on the Central Plains. Tall wooden walls erected above the ground surrounded the camp and arrow towers stood at the four corners. There was only a main gate open in the south.

It was impossible to take down such a camp with only 2,000 cavalries, so their only choice was field combat.

However, field combat was precisely the nomadic warriors’ best combat mode. According to the Military Intelligence Department intelligence investigation, the camp had 5,000 horseback warriors. Among them, they had 1,000 heavy cavalries, and the remaining 4,000 were light cavalries.

The horseback warriors often took the lead in sending light cavalry to lure enemies. Then, they round out the two wings of the enemy for outflanking. At this critical moment, heavy cavalries would charge forward and clear their enemies in one killing blow to decide the outcome of the war.

The Shanhai cavalries dismounted. They began to layout and prepared the fire array. This was Lin Yi’s tactic. They would lure the enemies out of their camp and use the fire array to stop the enemies.

When they finished setting up the fire array, they all evacuated.

……

July 28th, 6 a.m.

The vanguard 1st unit was tasked with luring the enemy forces. Under the leadership of Lin Yi, they rode toward the camp. Along the way, they indiscriminately shot down the patrols.

For the whole night, Lhakhshen did not sleep well. Hence, he got up early. Before he could do anything else, a warrior came rushing in and said, “Reporting to the commander, a band of raiders has appeared to the south of the camp. They have around five hundred people, and they are coming for the camp.”

This report shocked Lhakhshen as it was simply unbelievable, “You are talking about raiders? Only five hundred people, who gave them the courage to attack our camp?”

The warrior answered, “Yes, commander, five hundred raiders.”

“Let’s go!” Lhakhshen decided to personally check the situation.

Lhakhshen climbed the arrow tower. When he looked ahead, he only saw the distant troops dressed in raider attire wantonly clearing the warrior guards stationed in the outer area. At the same time, they also continually whistled. Their attitudes were extremely wild and ill.

Faced with such naked provocation, Lhakhshen simply could not tolerate it. He ordered a light cavalry captain to lead his troops and teach the raiders a lesson.

Captain Hu’he excitedly received the order. In his opinion, it was easy to defeat these raiders, so this was a merit-based war effort. It seems that the commander still had high hopes in him.

A thousand cavalry rushed out of the camp like an arrow.

Who would have known that those raiders were a bunch of useless soft eggs. When they saw the cavalries, they panicked and turned and fled like a flock of sheep.

Relying on the advantages of the Qingfu warhorse, Hu'he did not give up. He led his warriors and continued to pursue the raiders.

At the camp arrow tower, the gradually disappearing warriors puzzled the strategist— Er’risi—he turned and said to Lhakhshen, “Commander, the situation seems to be somewhat wrong. These strange raiders came out of nowhere and fled so suddenly. Will there be some trickeries going on?”

Lhakhshen nodded, “Indeed, something is unusual. Order the rest of the troops to be on standby. With Hu'he’s ability, even if the raiders are truly fraudulent, he can still retreat safely.”

“Understood!”

On the other hand, Hu'he led his troops and chased the raiders for more than 10 kilometers, and he was about to catch up. Suddenly, more raiders emerged from the two sides. They immediately surrounded Hu'he and his men.

“Sh*t, a trap!” Hu'he was finally alerted, and he knew he had fallen into a trap.

Unfortunately, his troops were pressing forward too harshly at the moment, and they couldn’t immediately stop the inertia. The raiders from the sides pierced his troops like sharp knives.

In the face of the nomad warriors, Ouyang Shuo did not stupidly choose to fight with the arts of archer ridings. Instead, he engaged the warriors in close combat and took advantage of the Tang swords and armor, as he fought them at their weaknesses.

The horseback warriors were almost defenseless, as they only wore simple leather armors. In the face of tang sword, this was fatal.

The sharp blade of Tang sword could easily slice through the enemy’s leather armor and straight into their flesh. They only left behind death or injuries.

The battle had started.

Finally, Hu’he and his troops had begun to gather together and stabilize. They were ready for a round of tough battle. Right at this moment, Lin Yi and his vanguard 1st unit had already turned back and encircled Hu'he.

Immediately Hu’he realized that they were powerless, so he decisively ordered the troops to retreat.

However, Ouyang Shuo did not give him the opportunity to leave. 2,000 Shanhai City cavalry pursued Hu’he. The blood stained the savanna, and the sad neigh of horses resounded through the sky.

After nearly an hour of mad slaughter, less than two hundred warriors of Hu’he troops survived. They herded Hu’he in the middle, and they hastily escaped the encirclement. Then, they headed toward ZhenXi camp. Shanhai cavalries chased and relentlessly pursued them.

Due to the limitations of their horses, the distance between the two sides grew farther and farther. Eventually, Hu’he escaped.

However, little did he know. His success was only because Ouyang Shuo intended to let him escape. By doing so, Shuo could completely provoke Lhakhshen and cause him to lead the warriors out of the camp.

Ouyang Shuo chased after the fleeing party. Shortly, they arrived before the camp.

Sure enough, Lhakhshen could not help but become furious when he witnessed his warriors panicking and fleeing, while the raiders pursued them. He snapped and said, “Courageous!”

As he finished his word, he ran down the tower and mounted his Qingfu warhorse leader. Then, he shouted, “Everyone with me. Rescue Hu’he and exterminate the raiders.”

“Kill!” Four thousand horseback warriors gushed out of the camp.

The sight of reinforcements made Hu’he overjoyed. He patted his Qingfu horse and headed straight to the camp. Ouyang Shuo, on the other hand, stopped uniformly. Then, he turned to leave.

Before he left, Lin Yi used his internal force and shouted, “Lhakhshen you brat. Today I am here to teach you a lesson. The next time I come back, I will take that head of yours.” Then, he laughed loudly in an extremely rampant manner.

No one had ever humiliated Lhakhshen like this before. Without a word, he led the troops and chased after them. Although Hu’he had just recounted his experiences, Lhakhshen did not believe that the raiders could mount another troop ambush. Even if they could, he did not need to fear, as he had his 4,000 elite warriors.

The savanna was once again the stage of an escape-pursuit scene. However, the two parties had switched places.

At this time, the strength and speed advantage of the Qingfu warhorse was evident. In less than 10 minutes, Lhakhshen and his troops were catching up, which brought their enemy into their shooting range.

Lhakhshen watched, as he closed in on to the fleeing enemy. His face was a deadpan; emotionless and cold, as if he was looking at a group of dead men.

Unfortunately, Lhakhshen did not know that he had just led his troops straight into Shanhai City’s well-established trap. Lin Yi took out a special arrow and lit it on fire. Then, he turned his body on the horseback and released the fire arrow.

The fire arrow flew across the sky like a shooting star, and it accurately fell in Lhakhshen’s proximity.

In the blink of an eye, the fire arrow lit the oil that Ouyang Shou’s troops had poured on the grassland beforehand. The layout of the raging fire array was not a long strip like before. Instead, it covered the entire area. The raging flames, with the help of gales and weeds, submerged Lhakhshen in a sea of fire.

Chapter 195 - Evacuation

The fierce fire left the soldiers helpless, as they cried for help. Fiery flames consumed their bodies. One-by-one, they fell down from their horses and landed on the ground. The sea of fire burned and toasted them into coke.

The grassland burned and smoke billowed. It was capable of suffocating anyone in it.

Despite the Qingfu warhorses’ bravery, they still panicked after the double blow of flames and smoke. They ran around the field like headless flies without a sense of direction. With the warriors in the formation, it was easy for them to bang on each other, and it would often mean a lose-lose situation.

The moment the flame soars high, Lhakhshen’s face turned pale. He could tell instantly that the enemies before their eyes were not petty raiders. A big conspiracy was shadowing the skies of the whole Tian Qi tribe.

At this critical moment, he had to assume responsibility. He would have to bring his men out of the flames and bring them back to the tribal stronghold.

Lhakhshen’s mount was a lord-level Qingfu horse, a platinum-level steed, so it was like a legendary animal. The Qingfu warhorse gave out a neighing sound and was the first to leap out of the flames.

The other Qingfu warhorses tracked their leader’s sounds. They followed behind and went out together.

Yet, the moment Lhakhshen rode out of the flames of hell, he slipped into another despair.

The cunning of his enemy had almost reached a point beyond his imagination.

Outside the flames, two thousand enemy cavalry were standing-by. At this moment, their faces were no longer rampant and insolent like before. Instead, their faces were solemn and emotionless.

It struck him. Lhakhshen could tell that his enemies were just like them. They were originally regular military forces.

Right at the moment they spotted him coming out of the flames, they welcomed him with a burst of arrows. Intensive arrows ruthlessly harvested the lives of the lucky ones that survived the fire array.

The horseback warriors thought they would be safe the moment they came out from that flaming hell, yet they were actually coming out of one to step into another.

These successive hits crushed every single ounce of the tribal warriors’ morale and courage.

The lucky warriors that survived the rain of arrows did not dare to have any second thoughts; they ran and quickly fled. Even mounted on a Qingfu warhorse leader, Lhakhshen did not dare to gather his troops and organize a counterattack. He rode his horse and rushed toward Shen Juan Lake.

Shanhai City cavalry did not pursue the last of the lucky ones. As the saying goes, one should not pursue broken foes and not press on desperate beasts. In order to survive, these lucky survivors would do anything. They would unleash an unimaginable power when they were in a plight.

Even though Ouyang Shuo was the winning party, he did not want to purse these desperate warriors and increase his losses.

Eventually, of the 5,000 tribal warriors, only less than a thousand people escaped alive.

Ouyang Shuo paid little attention to the burning fire array. He led his troops, routed away from the burning flames and rode toward ZhenXi camp to harvest their spoils of war.

By this time, the remnants of the camp guards had fled.

Hordes of elite cavalry usually owned three horses, two warhorses and a workhorse. The workhorse purpose was to carry things, while the calvary would alternate between the two warhorses to enhance their mobility.

Warhorses would get exhausted and lose weight very easily when carrying weights, which meant they had to be treasured and valued. In general, warhorses could travel 20-kilometers before it had to rest. At times like this, if there are two warhorses in rotation, they could naturally achieve a sustained rapid march.

Since Shanhai City had not engaged in a super long-distance warfare, the cavalries only had a single horse in general. At most, the vanguard 1st unit had Qingfu warhorses, along with the class change system gift horse as workhorses.

Cavalries from the mixed regiment were originally raiders. Even if they were not equipped with Qingfu warhorses, they also had their own two horses. While the newly established vanguard 2nd unit and Qiushui cavalry unit only had the system gifted horses.

Overall, compared to the nomadic tribes, Shanhai City cavalry seemed a little too shabby.

Strictly speaking, a cavalry needed at least two auxiliary soldier followers. One to carry his belongings and another to taking charge of his horse.

However, in order to simplify the game, the system made the cavalry not require auxiliary soldiers. Instead, the cavalry did it all himself.

The trophies Ouyang Shuo plundered from the battle were the horses in ZhenXi camp. Sure enough, in the stables stood 5,000 Qingfu horses and 5,000 ordinary horses.

In addition, they salvaged 1,000 Qingfu horses from the battlefield. Overall, they seized a total of six thousand Qinfu horses, so it was simply a sum of big wealth.

Calculated in accordance with five gold per a Qingfu horse, it would come to a sum of 30,000 golds. In addition to the workhorses, they seized the equivalent of over 40,000 gold. Most importantly, these Qingfu horses although have a price, but there was no market, no one would sell such valuable items.

Furthermore, in the camp arsenal, Shuo also plundered 5,000 composite bows. With these bow, Shanhai City military would be fully equipped with bows.

After this expedition, it would greatly reduce the need for warhorses in Shanhai City, with the price of 150 cavalry killed. Due to the long distance raid, Shuo had ordered his soldiers to bury the dead on-site.

Tian Qi ZhenXi camp had now became a dangerous place, it would not be wise to stay for long.

The troops mounted the Qingfu horses and drove the rest of the horses toward the west.

The had pre-arranged the direction of the evacuation. The troops could not leave for the south, as that would easily expose the position of Shanhai City; They could not go north either. Otherwise, they would bring trouble to Mulan Town. East was the worst because Tian Qi ZhenDong camp was located there. Hence, the only option was to head west.

The mighty hordes simply could not hide their whereabouts. They could only take advantage of the swift speed of the Qingfu horses to hurry out of the grassland before the tribes realized.

Because each horse cavalry had two Qingfu horses in rotation, the troops traveled more than 80-kilometers before it got dark. Their speed had greatly increased compared to the time they came.

The next day, five o'clock, the troops departed again. After a full day of forced march, they traveled directly over 100-kilometers. They completely left the grassland area the nomads occupied and ventured into the wilderness.

This time, Ouyang Shuo was finally at ease. During their day march, they had come across a team of nomad patrols. Quickly and swiftly, the cavalry eliminated them.

However, this exposed their position, just as the nomads wanted.

On the third day, the troops diverted south. Finally, before the night falls, they arrived in the river upstream of Friendship River. Here, the Beihai navy fleet had long awaited for them.

As for how the Beihai navy fleet was able to grasp the troops’ whereabouts, the key lies in the hummingbirds from the Military Intelligence Division. These little birds the Xuanniao tribe offered may look little and insignificant, but they had greatly help Shanhai.

With the help of the Beihai navy fleet, they sailed through Friendship river. This time, they would be completely safe. There had yet to appear any power that could threaten them at the south of Friendship river.

Whatever the size of the raider’s camp, in the face of Shanhai City cavalry, they would stand no chance at all. As for those lord player’s territory, it was already a blessing that Ouyang Shuo did not provoke them and look for trouble. How could they have the courage to provoke Ouyang Shuo instead?

After crossing the river, the Beihai navy fleet rested next to the banks for the night. Tomorrow morning at first light, they would depart down the river and sail back to the Beihai port premises. Recently, Pei Donglai was stepping up the training of troops, as he was planning for a counterattack on Moon Island.

They traveled another two days. Finally, on the 2nd of August 5:30 PM, they returned to Shanhai City. From the day the expedition team left until they return, Operation Wildfire took a week’s time. It was definitely not easy to travel so far.

After coming back, before the vanguard unit could rest, Ouyang Shuo sent them back to their duty positions in the City North Camp. Ouyang Shuo was worried about the City North Camp. He did not know what consequences could occur in the savanna due to the Operation Wildfire.

When the vanguard unit left, they did not take along any of the seized Qingfu horses.

Of the 6,000 Qingfu horses, 500 would be given to the mixed regiment cavalry unit and another 500 to the Qiushui cavalry unit. Of the remaining 5,000, they would temporarily stock 3,000 in the ranch of the City West, while he would send the last 2,000 to Jifeng Valley Pasture.

Ouyang Shuo didn’t have the luxury to equip a cavalry with two Qingfu warhorses. In his current plan, Qingfu horses would only be mainly used as battlefield warhorses, while at times of peace, they would just ride ordinary horses.

As for the 5,000 workhorses, he was ready to hand them to the Transportation Division. Carriages were already produced, but they would be in vain if there weren’t any workhorses. The Secretary of Transportation Division Zheng Shanpao had discussed this matter countless times with Ouyang Shuo.

Well now, Ouyang Shuo would settle the matter all at once.

As the city now expanded, there was a full 5-kilometers from the manor to the North Gate. It would take an hour to walk. Therefore, it was necessary to form and establish a city transportation system. With these workhorses, the Transportation Division could consider providing vehicle transportation services in the city, solving the problems.

After he returned, Ouyang Shuo first arrived at the arsenal and deposited 5,000 composite bows into it. As for the distribution of the bows, it would be the responsibility of the Military Affairs Department, so he did not need to worry about it.

Back to the manor, it was already six in the evening. Hence, Ouyang Shuo went straight to the backyard rather than his usual office.

"Big brother, you're back!"

The sharp-eyed Bing’er instantly saw Ouyang Shuo and ran over, so that he could hold her.

In recent years, this might be the longest period of time that Ouyang Shuo had left Bing’er alone. The little girl naturally missed him a lot. Every day she would be talking and asking, When will brother come back?

After a week of travel and battle, dust and blood dirtied his body. Although the blood had dried out, the smell retained. In such a state, Ouyang Shuo did not dare to hold Bing’er. He quickly stopped her and said, “Baby, brother is dirty. Let brother clean and freshen up. Then, I will accompany you for dinner, okay?”

Bing’er came forward and sniffed. Sure enough, there was a peculiar smell, so she said, “Smelly smelly.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled. Suddenly, he reached out with his hand and pinched down on her soft white face, leaving a dirty stain. Immediately before Bing’er could react, he turned and ran away.

Chapter 196 - Secret Manual Sales

August 3rd, 10 AM.

Ouyang Shuo appeared in the manor’s office and started to handle the government affairs that had piled up for a week.

During the second half of July, Langshan mining field and Northern Saltworks contributed a total of 8,100 gold. These funds had yet to be allocated by Ouyang Shuo. Because of this, many workers had yet to receive their pay wages for July.

In fact, the allocation was simple. There wasn’t much to allocate. With the commencement of the projects, the Department of Finance was tight financially again. Hence it was given 5,100 gold, and it was already the lowest amount Ouyang Shuo could offer.

Of the remaining 3,000 gold, 1,000 gold was added to the Four Seas Bank Mulan Town Branch, while the last 2,000 gold would be used to start a new branch of the Four Seas Bank in the Black Lion Town.

Ouyang Shuo did not reserve a single gold coin for himself, not that he didn’t need any gold, but he already held a huge fortune, which was the 120 secret manuals.

Over the past month, the prices of secret manuals continued rising. It had been close to the 700 gold mark set by Ouyang Shuo. Soon, Ouyang Shuo was ready to sell off the manuals and obtain funds from the sale.

He had decided to take advantage of the low prices of food, using the funds obtained from the sales of manuals and acquire a batch of foods when the time comes in the future. He would sell the food when the prices were high and would profit from the differences in cost.

If his memory was correct, then the highest point of time, the food prices rose up to 30 coppers per unit, triple the usual price. Lessing the 10% taxation fees, cost of food storage and the waste grains during transportation, he could still enjoy a profit of 250%, much higher than selling manuals.

Ouyang Shuo has ordered the Construction Division to build a large granary on the outskirts west of the city, dedicated to the storage of food stocks.

After a month of construction, Xinan University has taken shape, the three colleges have also been set up entirely, and they were starting taking in students. The rest to construct was the auxiliary facilities that do not affect the teaching and learning activities.

Following the instructions of Ouyang Shuo, every government servant, including those of affiliated territories, except for jinshi and juren, would have to continue and advance their studies at Xinan University.

To this end, the Administration Department has enacted a mechanism scheduling the officials' rotations. Its purpose was to ensure the normal operations of the government bodies while at the same time ensuring each official would receive at least a month of education at Xinan University.

Finance Director Cui Yingyu took the initiative to take the first lead to attend classes in the School of Economics Business studies.

One could tell that in the foreseeable future, Shanhai City officials would celebrate another round of upgrade and ability enhancement.

Also, Natural Science Institution was now starting admission for talents, completely breaking the ancient craftsmen’s underprivileged status, and it denoted the advancement of the status of craftsmen in the territory.

A large number of carpenters, farmers, fruit farmers and other talents, were recruited into the Natural Science Institution to learn modern, scientific and logical knowledge.

It had caused a big stir in the territory. Fortunately, within the territory, there weren’t any big and powerful family clans, most of them were ordinary people, and hence it was easier to make this policy to be implemented.

Other than that, Medical Department had also started operating.

In the afternoon, when Ouyang Shuo was dealing with government affairs, beside his ears suddenly came a burst of system announcements.

"System Notice: Congratulations to the player Sha Pojun for becoming the ninth lord to upgrade to grade 1 city; special reward of 600 merit points!"

"System Notice: Congratulations to the player Sha Pojun for becoming the ninth lord..."

"System Notice: Congratulations to the player Sha Pojun..."

The fact that Asura Town’s success in upgrading itself to a city had shocked Xunlong Dianxue the most. His Xunlong Town has met the basic conditions to apply for the promotion. The walls had also been built. The only worry was the lack of troops.

According to Xunlong Dianxue, his Xunlong Town plus the affiliated territories together only have 2,500 troops, how could he have the courage to apply for the promotion recklessly?

But Asura Town’s successful promotion had boiled the competition for the last place on the top ten of China. Hesitate more, and the chance might be seized by the others.

This time, the only one who could help Xunlong Dianxue was Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo need not offer his help, Xunlong Dianxue came looking for it. As long as the Ouyang Shuo was willing to help Xunlong Town in its promotion, it would allow Four Seas Bank to open a branch in Xunlong Town.

He was in such hurry because he was desperate to claim his place in the top ten list of China. Do not underestimate honor. If it was used properly, it could bring many benefits to the holder.

Not to mention the others, just claiming the honor alone of being included in the top ten list could significantly increase the reputation of the territory. It would be easier to recruit elite players and increase the attractiveness to historical figures.

Ouyang Shuo pondered and took some time to think. In order to help Xunlong Town for its promotion, he could help with two matters, that is, funds and equipment. With sufficient funds, Xunlong Town could then expand its military force; with enough equipment, Xunlong Town could arm its military forces.

In the end, after the negotiations, Ouyang Shuo and Xunlong Dianxue came to an agreement.

[One] Shanhai City would set up a branch of Four Seas Bank in Xunlong Town with reserve funds of no less than 5,000 gold. Xunlong Town would construct the necessary infrastructure while Shanhai City would ensure the funds be in place within 3 days.

[Two] Shanhai City as previously agreed price, which is 5 gold per Tang sword and 10 gold per bow, Shanhai would sell 1,000 Tang sword and 1,000 composite bows, a total price of 15,000 gold. The money would automatically be converted to Four Seas Bank commercial loans, with the loan period of one year.

Calculated in accordance with Four Seas Bank commercial loans monthly interest rate of 3%, on a monthly basis equal principal and interest repayment, monthly repayment of 1490 gold coins, adding up to a total repayment of 17880 gold, and the total amount of interest paid would be 2880 gold.

Because the progress of the game was much faster than the real world. Hence, the monthly payment would basically be equivalent to annual payments; a year of loans equivalent of a loan of 12 years in reality.

When the loan amount reached 10,000 gold, the profitability of loans by Four Seas Bank could be seen clearly.

Ouyang Shuo was not worried that Xunlong Dianxue could not afford to repay. After all, after promotion to a city, taking out a thousand gold coins a month could still be done.

Of course, it is conceivable that the coming year, Xunlong City would live in tight financial condition.

The second day after the agreement was signed, Ouyang Shuo arrived at the market. He began to sell the secret manuals he had. In the market, gold-level secret manuals were still in short supply at the moment.

A secret manual would require a considerable amount of time to practice. For example, Ouyang Shuo’s took him 2 and a half months. He could only reach level 3 at the end of July.

Secret manuals like and also took him 2 to 3 months before he reached the level of ‘Novice.’ That was with the help and guidance of a master in the respective arts. Otherwise, he would progress even slower.

Therefore, it would be wise to choose a highly graded secret manual from the start.

Those aspiring players, including some high-end players, especially the players in either the ten guilds or significant forces, would only practice secret manuals of gold-level or higher.

To practice those below the gold level was merely a waste of time.

Hence, this was precisely the best period to sell the gold-level secret manuals. Otherwise, from the second year onwards, the players would set their eyes on the higher grade secret manuals of king-level.

Ouyang Shuo started selling them one by one, each one priced at 700 gold. As expected, the moment it was placed on the market, it got bought instantly.

As he started selling them on the market, the news spread, more players were attracted by the sudden appearance of gold-level secret manuals in the market.

“Holy crap, do you know about it, the sudden appearance a batch of gold-level secret manuals on the market.”

“You are outdated, look, I’ve bought mine.”

“Damn, you are so rich, what a tycoon!”

“Ah, the money was borrowed from my friends, for the next few months, I’ll have to eat simply.”

In the major forces and top merchant guilds, they had special members that keep an eye on the market.

Hence, they were the first to react. Immediately, messages were sent to their higher-ups, as they weren’t allowed to make deals if the amount involved were too significant.

As the chairman of the merchant guilds received the news, without second thoughts, they gathered the funds immediately. The cash flow of the merchant guilds was immensely incredible.

If they wanted to, having each guild member to contribute 1 gold would cause them to gather tens of thousands of gold immediately.

Of course, measures like this could only be done only once. Otherwise, the coherence within the guild members would be diminished. Plus, those members who could contribute gold were mainly core members, the rookies were still struggling they way through to survive in the game, how could they contribute any gold?

Seeing the sales going well, after selling 20 secret manuals, Ouyang Shuo quietly changed the price to 705 gold, and again the next 20 manuals sold instantly.

At this time, those remained was the major forces, individual players have already given up.

For the rest 80 manuals, Ouyang Shuo decided to sell them in packs of 5, with the selling price of 3,550 gold each pack, while a single secret manual selling at 710 gold.

Ouyang Shuo had his own tactics selling the manual packs, he did not place them all at once on the market, but instead, around every 30 minutes he would place in one pack. Plus, the intervals were different and varied. The buyers were then blinded, they would not know how many manuals were left, would this pack be the last deal or no.

All the way until 12 in the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo had only 40 manuals left.

At this time, Ouyang Shuo did not place any manuals on the market anymore. Instead, he turned and left the market back to his manor for lunch.

The great sale of secret manuals seems to have ended here. Those forces that did not seize the chance to purchase the manuals went into deep regret. They had lost as their gold gathering speed was too slow.

After the short break, Ouyang Shuo slowly walked back into the market. This time, he directly packed the manuals into groups of 10, with a pack selling at the price of 7,200 gold, equivalent to a single manual selling price of 720 gold.

Just when the merchants who were still close fully observing the market almost drove themselves into despair, they saw the manuals Ouyang Shuo placed on the market. They were so overjoyed, and that no words could possibly describe their joy, without even informing their higher-ups, they immediately bought the manuals.

As such, the last 40 secret manuals were sold out within half an hour.

Chapter 197 - The Burning Savanna

In the end, the 120 secret manuals that Ouyang Shuo held all turned into 85,300 gold. After the reduction of the 10% taxation, he was left with 76,000 gold, while the 120 manuals only cost 6,000 gold in total.

The obtained a profit of tens of times from this deal.

Ouyang Shuo had thought of sending a batch of secret manuals to his little aunt to avoid the taxes. However, he knew that his little aunt would surely negotiate with him, so he gave up on doing so.

According to his plans, he would only find a secret manual of the emperor-level for his little aunt. As for the gold-level secret manuals, even if he had sold it to the Snow-War Rose mercenary group, only the core members would use them.

After all, Ouyang Shuo did not have any feeling toward the core members.

Throughout Ouyang Shuo’s whole secret manual selling spree, the most torn person was not the players that did not get any secret manuals but Feng Qingyang.

……

Swordsman City, Lord Manor Office.

“Little sister, are we really not going to sell any? Look at that guy. He sold the last batch of secret manuals at 750 gold per manual. If we don’t sell them now, I am afraid that the market will get saturated.”

Sitting in front of Feng Qingyang was naturally his sister, Feng Qingyue.

Different from her brother, she was calm, “Brother need not worry much. According to my predictions, the price of a secret manual will eventually rise to 800 gold. As for the market saturation you mentioned, there is no need to worry about it. Didn’t you see it, 120 secret manuals were sold within a day, which clearly denotes the demand for secret manuals in China.”

“Moreover, even if the market was really saturated, that would only happen because the available funds at the moment had all been used to purchase the 120 manuals. After a period of time, when people ready funds again, the price of secret manuals would rise along with it. You have to know, gold-level secret manuals denote an important boundary. Below gold-level, the manual levels are too low, so players aren’t satisfied with it; above gold-level, players can’t afford it, and they are low in numbers too. Therefore, for a long period of time, it will not stale.”

If only Ouyang Shuo was here to listen to her analysis, he would take her as a confidant. Her vision and insight were simply impressive and unique, beyond the reaches of ordinary players.

“Alright, I trust you.” Feng Qingyang chose to compromise. Clearly, he had immense trust in his sister.

……

In his hands, Ouyang Shuo held the largest funds ever since the game was launched. Naturally, he wouldn’t allow the funds to get rusty and collect dust in his storage bag.

He first took out 5,000 gold as reserve funds for the Four Seas Bank Xunlong Town Branch. Then, he took the odd lots of 1,770 gold as reserve funds for Four Seas Bank Headquarters.

That’s right, gold in the unit of thousands were now odd lots in his eyes.

Other than leaving 10,000 gold as spare funds, he used all of the 60,000 gold left to purchase foods.

His business partner was no doubt the Cui Chamber of Commerce. Their representative was a cousin brother of Cui Yingyu, and his name was Cui Shouren.

Even for the Cui Chamber of Commerce, such a business deal was already not a small matter. Cui Shouren couldn’t imagine that a small territory like Shanhai City could have such strong financial resources. They were only business partners for a month, yet the total transaction amounts had already exceeded 70,000 gold, which was truly incredible.

Initially, Cui Chamber of Commerce was only willing to cooperate because of Cui Yingyu. But now, Cui Chamber of Commerce was starting to look squarely at their business partner as equals.

According to Cui Shouren’s words, he couldn’t say for sure, but the quiet Shanhai City might be the opportunity for Cui Chamber of Commerce to soar high and rise again in the future.

The incident that happened to Cui Yingyu had an impact on them. The family business caravan was robbed. Although the goods lost were nothing much, the bigger issue was that the reputation of Cui Chamber of Commerce had taken a huge blow.

In that incident, Cui Chamber of Commerce had suffered the losses of hundreds of core members, tens of top management personnel, and needless to say, the Cui family young lady went missing.

Her reappearance was a turning point for the Cui Chamber of Commerce.

In order to repay the Cui Chamber of Commerce and also to deepen the sincerity of the cooperation between the two sides, Ouyang Shuo had obscurely revealed his prediction on the food market in the next three months to Cui Shouren.

As for how much the Cui Chamber of Commerce could profit from this, that would depend on how much confidence they had in Ouyang Shuo and their own courage and resolution. It was simply something that Ouyang Shuo couldn’t decide for them.

Sixty million units of food. This quantity took a full three days for the Resource Department to transfer them from the market to the massive granary built on the outskirts of the city west.

Such a decision and move puzzled Ouyang Shuo’s people in the territory. No one could understand why their lord had purchase such a massive amount of food. What use did it have?

For this, Ouyang Shuo couldn’t explain much. As the funds used to purchase the food wasn’t from the territory’s revenue, they did not try to obstruct him even though his actions puzzled them.

Well for the player community like Sun Xiaoyue, they had little understandings toward territory management. Hence, they simply had no idea what this large amount of food meant.

As the saying goes, the insider knows the ropes, while the outsider just comes along for the ride.

In the meantime, Ouyang Shuo brought along a thousand Tang swords and a thousand composite bows salvaged from the operation Wildfire to Xunlong Town, while he also personally attended the opening ceremony of Four Seas Bank Xunlong Branch.

With Ouyang Shuo’s support and help, Xunlong Dianxue immediately expanded his military to 2,000 soldiers.

The following day, he applied for the promotion request to the system. On August 10, Xunlong Town will face the bandit siege.

During this period of time, Xunlong Dianxue ordered Qin Qiong to lead the troops and exterminate the bandits within the territory. The purpose of this order was to forge the newly established military so that they would not be powerless during the siege.

Of course, Wang Yuanfeng and his triple-bow arcuballista belonged to free support from Ouyang Shuo. It was a support that every Shanhai Alliance member could enjoy. As of now, Shanhai City had already manufactured 5 triple-bow arcuballista, so these arcuballista were the source of confidence for Xunlong Dianxue.

While Xulong Dianxue’s territory promotion occupied him, Ouyang Shuo was keeping an eye on the nomadic tribes and also another big event.

According to his past life events, the birth of the tenth grade 1 city would trigger the second battlefield event.

For the battlefield, Ouyang Shuo had been preparing himself. He was now at the final stage of preparation.

Lei Xun had continuously sent intelligence regarding the movements of nomadic tribes to Ouyang Shuo.

A week since operation Wildfire, the genocide of Tian Qi ZhenXi camp had spread throughout the nomadic tribes, blowing a hurricane in the savanna.

Regarding the culprit, the tribes had many different opinions.

Some said it was the raiders. Whether it was the lucky survivors of the Tian Qi warriors or those who were lucky enough to witness the raiders traveling through the savanna, they all said that the culprit dressed in clothes of raiders and were rampant.

Some said it was one of the tribes and claimed that the raiders outfits were merely a simple disguise. The tribes carefully investigated this extremely tragic war that wiped out the nomad warriors, Most of the tribal chiefs agreed that ordinary raiders would not have such well-planned tactical arrangements.

Additionally, a single man said that it was the territory lord. Thi man was naturally the former commander of ZhenXi camp, Lhakhshen. He was now a prisoner under Mengke’s orders. At any time, he could be sentenced to death.

The day Lhakhshen returned to Tian Qi tribes main camp, Mengke the Khan took off his role and threw him into the death row prison. Whether he could still walk out of the prison alive would depend on the Khan’s frame of mind.

Faced with such a tragic defeat, although his foe had employed the element of surprise, Lhakhshen’s reckless act and terrible command were undeniable. Therefore, he confessed to his wrongdoings himself, and he was willing to wash away his sins with his death. That night, no one other than the two knew what happened in the Khan’s tent.

People only knew that Lhakhshen was thrown onto the death row, yet Mengke the Khan had yet to give his words about the exact time he would sentence Lhakhshen to death, so the matter just stopped and clung there.

ZhenXi camp’s destruction had slowly shown its influence through the savanna. This time, it wasn’t anything like operation Dawn that had tepid and little effects.

The most direct impact was the few middle-sized tribes in the west. Their hearts started to boil in excitement. Without ZhenXi camp holding them back, they no longer wanted to allow the Tian Qi tribe to contain them.

The small tribes were terrified. Tian Qi tribe was their biggest backing. Now, it had lost an arm without even knowing the identity of the enemy.

Such a backer, could it still protect them?

If the small tribes were taken as herds of sheep, the middle-sized tribes would be hungry wolves. As for the Tian Qi tribe, it would be the lion king of the savanna. The lion king contained the wolves and protected the sheep.

But now, the king was injured, and the wolves were eyeing their prey. Even though the wolves did not dare to defy and attack the lion, they could show the sheep what their sharp teeth and claws could do.

Even within the Tian Qi tribe, the enthusiasm to rage a war soared high.

The Tian Qi tribe had acted as the lion for tens of years, crowned as the king of the great savanna, so they could stand any parties’ provocations. The tragic defeat of ZhenXi camp pointed directly to the few middle-sized tribes in the west. They started to think these middle-sized tribes had colluded with the raiders and directed the tragic incident of ZhenXi camp.

The reason was simple. The raiders had left toward the west.

After the incident, Mengke had sent his Khan royal guards to track the enemies.

However, the royal commander Boraktyna reported that the tracks ended at the wilderness in the west. The tracks and the enemies had disappeared into thin air.

Such a large army of raiders, along with tens of thousands of horses, how could they disappear just like that? Needless to say, there must be one or even a few middle-sized tribes covering their whereabouts.

The hatred within the tribe, even Mengke the Khan could not suppress it for long. On the contrary, the medium-sized tribes in the south, east, and north, all lost their words and kept a total silence.

Mengke knew that such a dead silence was merely just the calm before the raging storm.

Therefore, he could only try and suppress the warhawks in the tribe and prevent the war between them and the tribes in the west. Otherwise, if another incident or mishap occurred, things would only drift sideways beyond redemption.

Chapter 198 - Faction Selection

*Note: “King Zhou of Shang” should not be confused with “Zhou dynasty / Zhou”

The savanna was now a pile of dry wood, a slight spark could ignite the whole.

The flame had yet to burn in the savanna, the market outside of Friendship City had quietly flourished.

These few days, there would be anonymous pastoralists bringing in a large quantity of sheep herds, pelts, and even Qingfu horses to the market, intending to use these goods to exchange foods and ironworks from Friendship City.

Foods were fine, but ironworks were controlled items. Friendship City’s magistrate Zhou Haichen dared not make his own decisions, immediately sending a letter to the main base, requesting for instructions from the territory lord.

Ouyang Shuo’s strategic purpose was to drag and involve the nomadic tribes into a war. That way, he could reduce the threat towards Friendship City and also profit from the war.

These anonymous secret buyers, needless to say, was of course representatives from the tribes, mostly from the middle-sized tribes. One could easily understand the reason for the acquisition of foods and ironworks by the tribes.

Therefore, in his replies, Ouyang Shuo denoted that ironworks could not be traded directly, but he would release the restriction on iron ores and allow them to be freely traded in the market.

Ouyang Shuo wasn’t worried at all that selling the iron ores to the nomadic tribes would feed the wolves to his own detriment. The growth of nomadic tribes were far less than the speed of the development of Shanhai City. One couldn’t say for sure that after the settlement in the savanna, Shanhai City might already have the strength to crush them all together, so what would these little iron ores matter in comparison?

Last month, while Jiu Duanxian was leading the team to draw the map of the territory, he found another iron mine 20 kilometers out in the west. The Material Reserves Department had already arranged workers and miners to excavate the new mining field.

The new iron mining site was only 10 kilometers away from the riverside of Friendship river.

Hence, the iron ores would be transported using a combination of land and water, first with the wooden-ox horse to the riverside, then shipped back to the dock of Shanhai City.

Shanhai City now have no worries over their stocks of iron ores.

Ouyang Shuo also denoted in the reply that when tradings with the nomadic tribes, foods would be sold at twice the market price, which was 20 coppers per unit; iron ores at 3 times the market price, which was 300 coppers per unit.

Ouyang Shuo wasn’t taking advantage of the nomadic tribes.

First off, the prices of foods were now seeing fluctuations. In estimation at the end of August, it would then soar high and keep on rising. If he now traded foods at the market price of 10 coppers per unit, he would then deficit from the tradings.

As for iron ores, iron ores were originally controlled items, in order to sell it, of course he would increase the trading price. Shanhai City wasn’t a living Lei Feng1, it wouldn’t be a free porter for the nomadic tribes.

Ouyang Shuo had already shown his courtesy and generosity by not charging them any tariffs.

Upon receiving Ouyang Shuo’s permission, Zhou Haichen was filled with with great enthusiasm and energy. Friendship City and the Material Reserves Department worked hand in hand to transport iron ores to the dock of Friendship City and sent it for trading at the market.

August 10th, Xunlong Town promotion bandit siege test.

Ouyang Shuo was not there to watch the battle, but he stayed in the his territory to handle government affairs.

At 6 PM, a burst of system announcements rang in his ears.

“System announcement: Congratulations to player Xunlong Dianxue for becoming the 10th lord of a grade 1 City territory; Special reward of 400 merit points!”

“System announcement: Congratulations to player Xunlong Dianxue for becoming...”

“System announcement: Congratulations to player...”

Such system announcements would not spike any interests among the players, but following it was another system announcement, and it caused an uproar.

“System announcement: China has successfully promoted 10 city territories, triggering the campaign system. The second battle - The Battle of Muye, officially commences after 3 days. Friendly tips: The Battle of Muye is a non-mandatory campaign task, only those with a town level territory are eligible.”

In comparison to the first battle - The Battle of Zhuolu, players were now more familiar with the battlefield. The first battle had proved to the players that the battlefield was a game of gambling that followed the law of jungle.

For the strong forces like Shanhai City, no doubt they would profit and benefit the most from it. But for the ordinary players, the efforts would not be worth if they were to partake in the battle. Their troops, little in number and low in quality, couldn’t direct the course of war, but would end up being the cannon fodder instead.

Some ambitious lords brought a hundred soldiers into the war, ending up losing them all only to receive a pitiful amount of a hundred merit points. Their investment and return were completely out of proportion.

Therefore, whether to partake in the event or not, that relied on the different views of different people, as the saying goes: The benevolent see benevolence and the wise see wisdom.

As of now, the townships in China had exceeded 1000 in number. No one knew how many lords would be willing to participate in the war in the end.

Of course, to the members of the Shanhai Alliance, that wasn’t a question at all.

Xunlong Dianxue was receiving the congratulations from his allies in the alliance channel when the system announcement was made. He was shocked and said jokingly: “Dang! This Battle of Muye, is it triggered by me? Things like this, shouldn’t the system reward me with some stuff?”

“Puffed up brat!” Siege Lion was irritable.

“Haha, small lion, you are just jealous of me.” Xunlong Dianxue rarely acted differently from his usual calm self.

“......” Siege Lion sent a line of periods to denote his silent expression.

“Oh yeah, finally it’s time to earn some merit points.” Mulan Yue was the happiest, she was troubled with getting more merit points lately.

“Wuyi, which faction do you plan to chose this time?” Bai Hua asked.

In the Battle of Muye, also known as “King Wu's rebellion against the Tyrant Zhou”, The King Wu of Zhou led the alliance and raged the final war with the Shang dynasty in Muye. The ruler of Shang dynasty, King Zhou of Shang, Di Xin, conquered the Li tribe to the northwest and Dongyi to the southeast, although victorious in all the battles, his bellicose inclination to engage in wars of aggression at will had exacerbated social and class conflicts, and eventually led to the fall of the Shang dynasty.

These were the words that described the Battle of Muye.

However, Ouyang Shuo held a different opinion after reading and researching. In his eyes, the battle was excessively embellished by the Confucians, the rebellion of Zhou against Shang, and the death of King Zhou of Shang were perfect model examples of the crime of rebellion against the ruler and regicide. There were simply no justice and righteousness at all.

The Battle of Muye was bloody, bitter, and tragic, it wasn’t anything like it was recorded in the historical book. It was a war, a rebellion by the people of Zhou relying on their lofty morality and won the war with “no blood on the men’s swords”, and after the battle, the Zhou armies slaughtered, burned and plundered the land of Zhaoge. There wasn’t the slightest image of gloriousness.

The only reason they were beautified in the historical book was because of the cultural dominance and ideology of Confucianism. The originator of Confucianism, Confucius, praised the Confucian Six Arts highly. This included the two systems and ideologies practiced by Zhou dynasty, namely: etiquette and music. Therefore, in the world dominated by Confucianism, the Confucian would beautify and embellish the Zhou dynasty into the embodiment of justice, righteous and benevolence.

Hence, they would of course not allow any truthful recordings on the battle that “justified the doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven”, the Battle of Muye, a war that flooded the land with blood and the drowned the people in their tears.

It was the same as to why they obliterated King Zhou’s historical contribution and then demonized his actions.

No matter what the truth was, Ouyang Shuo, out of consideration for his own interests and benefits, declared his selection of faction: “I will choose to side with the Shang dynasty.”

“Eh?” Mulan Yue was surprised.

Bai Hua immediately asked: “Wuyi, are you trying to change history?”

“That’s right!” Ouyang Shuo directly answered.

In the first battle - the Battle of Zhuolu, Chun Shenjun and Zhan Lang had used their own blood and flesh to teach the lord players a lesson, the difficulty to change a historical battlefield’s ending.

Yet, at times like these, Ouyang Shuo caught everyone off guard with his decision, puzzling everyone before him.

“Wuyi, are you sure?”

Ouyang Shuo of course did not dare to boast too much. “Regarding the actual battlefield conditions, no one knows how Gaia will deduce them. Hence, if you are talking about me ascertaining the battlefield’s victory, I can’t guarantee it. Although I have done my homework, it is still an uncertainty as for whether it works or not.”

What Ouyang Shuo said was the truth.

In his past life, he had never partaken in the Battle of Muye. He only knew a little about the battle.

“Homework?” Bai Hua was acutely aware of his words. She asked in curiosity, “Wuyi, you mean, you knew of this battle before hand?”

Ouyang Shuo laughed and shook his head. “Of course not, I am neither God nor an immortal. Through the Battle of Zhuolu, one can easily tell the battles chosen by Gaia must be the most significant or important battles from an era or dynasty. Think about it, after the three sovereigns and five emperors, it then comes down to the Shang dynasty. During that period of time, which battle can be more significant and important than the Battle of Muye? Therefore, I took a daring guess that the next campaign chosen by Gaia would be this. I wasn’t sure before, which was why I kept it to myself up until now.”

His words were half true and half false. He pointed out the sequence and pattern on how Gaia would choose the campaigns, and at the same time concealed the fact that he only knew because he had reincarnated.

Bai Hua was then lifted from her doubts. She smiled and said: “Wuyi, I have faith in your decision and shall choose the Shang dynasty.”

“I will listen to brother Wuyi.” Mulan Yue the inwardly evil girl of course wouldn’t let go of her biggest backing, if it wasn’t Ouyang Shuo, she would had never taken such a big prize back from the Battle of Zhuolu.

Ouyang Shuo laughed and shook his head again, “My words are the same, there are no obligations for allies to stand together in the same faction. I have only one request, keep my decision a secret among us. I do not wish that Chun Shenjun and the others all choose the opposition because of my existence.”

His words made everyone laugh. The reason was simple, if they chose the same faction as Ouyang Shuo, there was no doubt that position of player representative would be given to Ouyang Shuo. This of course would not be something they would like to see.

“I personally think that it’s wiser to follow your footsteps.” Feng Qiuhuang said next.

“Follow the big brother, and there will be meat to feast on.” Siege Lion’s words made a simple conclusion.

Only Xunlong Dianxue was left in the end. This fellow acted smart and chose a different faction the last time, wasting the ability of a great general like Qin Qiong, and his outcome was far worse than Bai Hua’s.

Having bitterly paid the price, he finally learned his lesson and said, “I will follow the big brother.”

1Lei Feng 雷锋 : a selfless and modest model citizen in China, subject of a nationwide posthumous propaganda campaign.

Chapter 199 - Battle of Muye (1)

The system announcement was made right on time on the 14th of August at 9 AM in the morning.

“System announcement: In the year 1044 BC, the Shang army main force is still far away in the east, causing the lack of army garrisoned in Zhao Ge. King Wu of Zhou used up whatever resources he had to raise an army. Then, he led his army crossing the Yellow River at Meng Jin early and joined his allies. Together, they declared war against the ruthless Emperor of Shang, Di Xin. They charged straight into Muye, and the battle ended with the defeat of Di Xin and his death. The second epic campaign scenario―Battle of Muye, officially begins!”

Ouyang Shuo’s current title was first class earl, which granted him the authorization to bring 3,000 men with him.

The expedition troops are as follows:

The Vanguard Unit’s first and second squadron.

Mixed Regiment first, second, and third unit.

Elite guards of the Lord.

Qiushui Town’s fourth cavalry squadron.

Other than the two heavy infantry unit of the Mixed Regiment, the other 2000 were all cavalries riding Qingfu warhorses.

The Vanguard Unit first unit and the elite guards were the real heavy cavalries, all equipped with Mingguang armor, Tang swords, pikes and composite bows. With this equipment and their stats, they were currently the best heavy cavalry regiment in the world. As for the heavy infantry unit, with the full efforts of the Armory Division, all of them were now equipped with Buren armors, Tang swords, and shields.

After he checked and confirmed the conditions of participating in the campaign and the number of his troops, Ouyang Shuo began to decide the faction he wanted to join in the war.

“System notification: Battle of Muye has two factions: Zhou Faction or Shang Faction, please choose your faction! Special reminder: If you choose the faction that supposedly lost in the battle and lead them to victory, you will be granted extraordinary rewards, so please choose wisely!”

“Shang Faction!”

“System notification: Faction selected!”

“System notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for starting the teleportation, 3000 men to be teleported. 3000 gold is automatically deducted from the inventory.”

“System notification: Teleportation commencing!”

After a brief moment of extreme head spinning, Ouyang Shuo and his army appeared in the Shang main camp.

“System notification: Welcome player Qiyue Wuyi to the main camp―Zhao Ge, the capital of Shang dynasty.”

As compared to the crude and simple of Huang Di City in the Battle of Zhuolu, Zhao Ge appeared to be a very prosperous city. The treatment the players received was completely different from the Battle of Zhuolu.

After registering in the city, players and their armies were moved to a big camp allocated outside of the city. The camp is specially set up for players and food is supplied to the players. As such, they did not need to prepare any food at all.

“Woodsy!”

Ouyang Shuo turned upon hearing the shout. To his pleasant surprise, he saw a pretty girl dressed in adventurer attire. She looked valiant and cheerful. The girl was waving at Ouyang Shuo with a look of excitement when she shouted out to him.

In the game, there was only one girl who could call Ouyang Shuo by the nickname of ‘Woodsy’ and this one and only girl was Song Jia.

This was the first time that Ouyang Shuo had seen Song Jia in the game. He never imagined that Song Jia’s eyesight was so amazing, being able to recognize him in this extreme crowd.

Compared to reality, the adventurer attired Song Jia had another unique aura and appearance.

Ouyang Shuo forced himself to hold back his excitement and handed his horse to Wang Feng. Then, he walked up to Song Jia quickly and held her hand.

“This is so nice, to be able to see you in the game. I’ve waited way too long for this day!” said Ouyang Shuo with rich emotion.

One day before the opening of the campaign scenario, Ouyang Shuo had already written a letter to Song Jia. He had told her the faction he would choose, and he hoped that she could follow Tianxiang Town’s army to participate in the Battle of Muye.

Song Jia’s pretty face quickly blushed. She immediately shook off Ouyang Shuo’s hand, and said shyly, “Idiot, there are still people around us.”

Song Jia’s words made Ouyang Shuo speechless. In reality, Song Jia wouldn’t even feel shy while holding hands with him. Could it be that once a woman entered the game, the ancient atmosphere where ladies are supposed to be very ladylike would affect them? Just look at Bai Hua, Feng Qiuhuang, and the others, who tried to behave as ladylike as possible.

Fortunately, Song Wen came up and greeted Ouyang Shuo at this time. Then, he said with a smile, “I guess you are Mr. Ouyang Shuo? I am Song Jia’s eldest brother, Song Wen. Nice to meet you.”

Then, he pointed to another young man dressed in general attire and said, “This is my younger brother, Song Wu.”

Ouyang Shuo quickly returned Song Wen’s greeting and nodded to Song Wu as a sign of acknowledgment.

After the introductions, Ouyang Shuo took the chance to learn some information about Tianxiang Town’s army. Song Wen’s current title was still just a second class viscount. He brought 200 men, all normal sword and shield infantry that Song Wu led.

Song Wu was still young after all and a warrior. When he saw Ouyang Shuo’s Mingguang Armor, he could not help but drool. What kind of a warrior could resist the temptation of a high quality armor? When he saw his younger brother’s appearance, Song Wu felt very embarrassed.

However, Ouyang Shuo did not care much about it. Instead, he turned back to Wang Feng and made a gesture to him. Wang Feng immediately understood his master’s desire and brought a few men with him away for a moment. Then, he returned with three elite class Qingfu warhorse.

Long before departing, Ouyang Shuo had already considered what he should give the Song brothers as presents. After all, they were going to become his future brother-in-laws, so he had to show respect to them.

Meanwhile, during operation ‘Wildfire’ he had seized 5,000 Qingfu warhorses. Among these horses, there were 20 elite class warhorses. After distributing one elite warhorse to each of the officers in Shanhai City army, there were still 10 left. Without any idea about what present to prepare, Ouyang Shuo decided to give them one elite Qingfu warhorse each. Of course, the other elite warhorse was for Song Jia.

Other than that, Ouyang Shuo had also prepared one set of sergeant class Mingguang Armor.

When Ouyang Shuo handed these presents to him, Song Wen was shocked. Then, he said, “This is?”

Qingfus warhorses and Mingguang Armor of Shanhai City had already become known to the public ever since the Battle of Zhuolu. The high quality and cost of these warhorses and armors were no secret. Therefore, Song Wen thought that these presents were way too expensive.

“This is my gratitude, please accept it!” said Ouyang Shuo.

Song Wu could no longer hold himself back, so he quickly walked forward and took over the Mingguang armor. Then, he stored it in his inventory space. After that, he took over the reins of the Qingfu warhorse from the elite guard’s hand. Just when he was about to ride it, Song Wen scolded him, “Brother, please have some respect!”

In response, Song Wen turned to Ouyang Shuo and said, “Thank you for your present. I am sorry for my brother’s rudeness; please forgive him.”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand and said, “No worries, Brother Song. As a general myself, I know how attractive a Qingfu warhorse and a set of Mingguang Armor can be to a general. This is just a natural reaction. It is not a big deal at all.”

Song Wen nodded, and his understanding of Ouyang Shuo deepened. From the brief conversation just now, he realized that Ouyang Shuo appeared to be a man with mature thinking. He was calm and a man with an ego, but he was not arrogant at all. These were the traits of an amazing person, no wonder he could achieve so much in the game. His sister’s choice was indeed amazing.

Similarly, Ouyang Shuo also gained a first impression of Song Wen. He was exactly like Song Jia had described. This fellow was a polite man with no traces of the slyness and cunning of a businessman at all.

“Alright, that’s enough. You two, stop pretending to be so polite to each other,” Song Jia interrupted their conversation.

Ouyang Shuo and Song Wen could only smile bitterly at each other.

Then, Ouyang Shuo started to look for the Shanhai Alliance members to join with them.

Luckily, they were all teleported to the same place at about the same time, so it did not take long for them to meet up.

Among the members of the Shanhai Alliance, Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang were both second class earls, so they led 1,000 men each. Xunlong Dianxue was a third class earl, so he led 500 men. Mulan Hua and Siege Lion were first class visearls, so they led an army of 300 each. The Shanhai City army, with the addition of the Tianshan Town army, was an army of 6,300. It was three times the size of their army during the Battle of Zhuolu.

Then, Ouyang Shuo introduced the three Song to the members of Shanhai Alliance.

Because it was their first time seeing each other, the atmosphere was a little bit awkward.

Ouyang Shuo could do nothing about it, so he suggested that they should head out right now to the camp outside of the city first. As for finding out about those famous lord type players in the Shang Faction, they could slowly take their time.

This was because no matter what, every player would eventually have to gather up in the camp.

Just as they walked out of the city gate, the campaign announcement rang out.

“Campaign announcement: 805 players and a total of 102,000 soldiers are participating in the Battle of Muye. There is a total of 480 players in the Zhou Faction, and a total of 60,000 soldiers. There is a total of 325 players and an army of 42,000 soldiers in the Shang Faction.”

As expected, not only did nearly 200 players give up on this campaign, most players chose the Zhou Faction rather than the Shang Faction. First, after learning their lesson in the Battle of Zhuolu, they realized that they should not simply pick the supposedly defeated factions in history. Second, in the Zhou Faction, there was a famous legendary figure—Lu Shang. The players that chose Zhou Faction had the ambition of recruiting him into their army.

Lu Shang, also known as Jiang Shang, courtesy named Ziya.

Jiang Ziya was the founder of the Qi Empire, King Wen of Zhou’s businessman, and King Wu of Zhou’s head strategist, the top military commander, and the founder of Qi Culture. He was a legendary figure that had greatly influenced ancient China’s military and politics. His place was accepted widely in history books. Confucianism and various cultures acknowledged him as the master of all cultures.

Speaking of him, Ouyang Shuo had some relation with this figure as well. Jiang Shang wrote the Six Tao that Ouyang Shuo had obtained before this campaign. Jiang Shang was also known as the ancestor of all military strategy.

However, hoping to recruit such a person would be utterly fond dreaming.

According to the observations and experiments of the players from Ouyang Shuo’s past life, the most crucial point to recruit historical figures, especially those powerful ones, was to strike at their weaknesses or needs.

For example, the weakness of Huang Zhong, a famous general with superb archery skills in the Three Kingdoms of ancient China, was his very own son. Due to his son’s sickness, if someone was able to fully cure his sickness, recruiting Huang Zhong would be dead easy.

However, as for Jiang Shang, his position in the Zhou dynasty was incredibly high. Just finding his needs would’ve been impossible, not to mention satisfy them. Hence, it was difficult to recruit him.

Therefore, Ouyang Shuo held no hopes of recruiting him at all and immediately gave on joining the Zhou dynasty.

“Campaign announcement: Due to the fact that the Shang dynasty has a smaller army than the Zhou dynasty, the Shang dynasty armies will automatically receive a 25% defense up for everyone according to the rules.”

Because of the realistic settings of the game where there was no health bar, no matter how strong or how skilled you were, you would still die if your throat or any vital parts of the body were curt. Therefore, the defense up actually increased the thickness and the resistance of their armors.

“Campaign announcement: Based on the titles and honor value assessment, Chun Shenjun (second-class earl) is elected as the Zhou dynasty player representative, and Qiyue Wuyi (first-class earl) is elected as the Shang dynasty representative.

In the Battle of Muye, representatives for the players were still Ouyang Shuo and Chun Shenjun. However, the duo had picked their factions slightly differently this time.

Chapter 200 - The Battle of Muye (2)

When Ouyang Shuo led his troops to the western suburbs military camp, there were already a few lord players coming in.

In order to maintain order in the military camp, Shang imperial court had sent a hundred royal guards, which were later known as palace guards, to take charge of the camp.

The royal guards looked strong and mighty, they were equipped with the best bronze armors and shields of the era.

As the player representative, Ouyang Shuo was luckily given the largest settlement within the camp, which was located in the middle of the military camp and besides the tents of the royal guards.

After settling down, Ouyang Shuo arranged for Siege Lion and Xunlong Dianxue to gather information, mainly to determine which famous lords were in the faction.

As for the lords that came to visit Ouyang Shuo, Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang took them all away to the other side of the tent to discuss their cooperations.

Unlike the Battle of Zhuolu, Ouyang Shuo hoped that he could gather together as many players as he could to his side this time. Because he had chosen the supposedly defeated faction, he would need to rely on the power of the whole faction if he wanted to change history.

In the camp, Ouyang Shuo could enjoy a tent of his own. Wang Feng had already led the lord’s guards and taken charge of the tent’s safety.

When they saw that Ouyang Shuo had his own guards, Siege Lion and Xunlong Dianxue became envious. They said that they would also form a team of lord’s guards and show off their prestige as lords.

Ouyang Shuo ignored their teasings and invited Song Jia over to his tent. Ever since they met, this was the first time they had their time alone together. Ouyang Shuo naturally did not invite her over to murmur endearments. After some small talk, Ouyang Shuo took out the secret manual 1.

It was an emperor-level secret manual, and it cost Ouyang Shuo 1,500 gold to purchase it. And now, even if he sold it for 30,000 gold, the crowd would still go crazy buying it. Of course, that was if they could hold such a large fund.

For such a valuable secret manual, Ouyang Shuo did not mail it to Song Jia. Instead, he wished to hand it over to her in person as a surprise, and now was just the right time to do so.

“Take a look. What is this?” Ouyang Shuo handed the manual over to Song Jia.

She wasn’t too concerned about it until she saw the title on the manual cover. She was so shocked that her jaws almost dropped; she exclaimed, “!?”

“Shhh!” Ouyang Shuo made a gesture, as he asked Song Jia to lower her volume.

“Woodsy, You..you…you, are you trying to frighten me to death?” She lowered her volume and said, “Such a rare secret manual and you are still able to get your hands on it. I am really impressed.”

“So how is it; do you like it?” Ouyang Shuo smiled.

Song Jia nodded. Then, she shook her head and said, “Woodsy, of course I like it. But, I can’t have it. It is too valuable, so save it for yourself. You are a great lord. How can you not practice a great secret manual?” as she finished her sentence, she returned the manual to Ouyang Shuo reluctantly.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head while laughing, This girl. It is crystal clear that she likes it a lot, but she is still thinking of me, “It’s alright, I am already practicing an emperor-level internal strength technique, so I do not need this anymore.”

“Woodsy, are you sure you are not lying to me? They are emperor-level secret manuals. Why do they sound like vegetables in a market, so commonly available? I don’t believe you.”

Ouyang Shuo was speechless, and he simply showed her his character stats panel. Scouting skills could not reconnaissance a player’s character stats panel. This was the only way to discover a player’s stats.

After she finished reading his stats, Song Jia exclaimed, “Woodsy, I can be sure of it now. You are a monster. My god, you alone practice two emperor-level secret manuals and a king-level manual. Really, truly incredible.”

“You believe me now? Quickly learn the . I will be right beside you.”

“Okay.” She happily took back the manual and proceeded to learn it.

Ouyang Shuo watched, as she sat down cross-legged. He practiced beside her.

After two hours, Song Jia opened her eyes. Joy filled her face. She gazed at Ouyang Shuo, who sat beside her, and a touch of deep affection flashed through her eyes. Woodsy, You're so good to me. I don’t even know how to repay you.

It was about time Ouyang Shuo finished practicing, and he saw Song Jia staring at him. He smiled and said banteringly, “What, have you never met a handsome guy before? Staring at me like this will make me feel embarrassed.”

“Cheh, woodsy, your face is still as thick as before,” Song Jia coquettishly smiled.

To be honest, the Ouyang Shuo in-game gave her a different feeling and felt similar to a stranger. He was a calm and steady man and a lord of great fame, so it was hard for her to relate him to Ouyang Shuo—that little brat in reality. And his words just dawned on Song Jia, Ouyang Shuo was still Ouyang Shuo. He had never changed and was still the same old little brat.

“Woodsy, I noticed that your Shanhai Alliance consists of quite a few beautiful ladies. Be honest, do you have any other girls other than me?” After the feeling of familiarity returned, she started to get jealousy.

Her words were true. Within the Shanhai Alliance, Feng Qiuhuang, Bai Hua, and Mulan Yue were all beautiful ladies and the lords of territories. Song Jia was feeling uneasy around them. Song Jia was only the young lady of Song Corporate, which was meaningless in this game. Moreover, Feng Qiuhuang was also the young lady of the Feng Family.

Their appearance made Song Jia feel threatened.

“And also, the secret manual you were practicing is the . Are you thinking of having a chamber of three thousand imperial concubines?” Her jealousy grew heavier.

Ouyang Shuo laughed and shook his head. Then, he patted her head, “What are you talking about? That is just an internal strength secret manual. What is this about three thousand imperial concubines? Do you still have any pride as a girl?”

“Then, tell me. What’s with the girls? From the way I see it, they are quite close to you, smiling and chatting happily, while I can’t even find a chance to enter the conversation. Woodsy, tell me honestly, do you think that I am useless? I can’t even help you at all in the game. Instead, I am a burden that keeps distracting you,” Song Jia felt a little melancholy.

Her words stunned Ouyang Shuo; he stood up and hugged Song Jia from behind. He curled his hands around her waist and placed his face beside her little soft white cheek. He felt the uneasy heart that pumped in her body. Song Jia was shaken and felt shy. This was the first time they ever had such intimate actions since they met.

“Silly girl, I, Ouyang Shuo, am not a playboy. To have a woman like you in my life is all that I ask for. Bai Hua and the others, we are only friends and confidants. There are no affections between us. And stop saying that you are useless. We are a couple, so there is no need to haggle about matters like this. For the things that you have given me are far beyond all material givings,” Ouyang Shuo said in deep affection.

Her body trembled; her face blushed red, and even her ears were hot. This was the first time that Ouyang Shuo had spoken words of love to her, so how could she not be moved?

She turned over in his arms and looked squarely into Ouyang Shuo’s eyes. Then, she seriously said, “Woodsy, remember your words today. Please do not ever turn your back on me.”

“I, Ouyang Shuo, will not turn my back on you for the rest of my life!”

Song Jia couldn’t hold it back anymore. She had thrown away her pride as a girl and kissed Ouyang Shuo.

This kiss set a lifelong promise in place.

While the two lovers were whispering sweet nothings to one another, Siege Lion walked in all of a sudden and witnessed this scene before his eyes. He grinned and teased, “Brother, my big brother, your little brother here was busy gathering information outside, yet you stayed in here and had so much fun, wuwu *fake cries*.”

Luckily, Song Jia wasn’t a small-minded woman. She had the aura of a heroine. Even when faced with Siege Lion’s teasings, she was only just a little shy.

Ouyang Shuo ignored his teasing too and directly asked, “How was it?”

Siege Lion immediately became serious again and shook his head, “Brother, it is not so good. Guess what? Handan Alliance, Chunqiu Alliance, and Blood-metal Alliance have all surprisingly chosen the Zhou dynasty.”

Ouyang Shuo was stunned, “How could that be; was there anyone behind it?”

“That is not all.” At this moment, Xunlong Dianxue walked in. He greeted them and said, “Just now, I saw Handan Alliance’s Wufu.”

“Wufu? How is he not with the Handan Alliance now?” Ouyang Shuo was puzzled.

“Who knows.”

Siege Lion’s thoughts were much darker than the two, “Could it be that Di Chen sent him over to act as a spy?”

“Spy? On the battlefield, no messages are allowed. Even the alliance channel is restricted, so how can he send any messages?” Ouyang Shuo was still puzzled.

“Heihei, brother, as a spy, he does not necessarily need to send messages. He could just simply destroy the alliances within the faction and avoid participating during the final battle. As long as he wants to, there will be many more ways to do it,” Siege Lion was indeed a man of conspiracy.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, and a frown crawled all over his face, “It can’t be. If that is the case, with Wufu here, he will not benefit at all. Why would he make such a big sacrifice?”

“Brother you have spoken the main point. From my point of view, Wufu must be unwilling to do so. Probably, his own allies crowded him out. If we would like to know what is going here with Di Chen and Chun Shenjun and the trickeries they have, Wufu will be a great breakthrough point. Brother, you might want to try and contact him,” Xunlong Dianxue’s conjecture was fair and reasonable.

A mist of doubt clouded Ouyang Shuo. He would not be at ease without knowing what was actually happening, “Alright, I will find an opportunity and contact Wufu. It seems like this board of chess will not be an easy game after all.”

“Hei, Di Chen and the likes are merely scums. Brother need not be too concerned,” Siege Lion was disdainful of Di Chen as usual. The hatred between the two was quite baffling.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and said, “You are wrong. Do not take them lightly. Didn’t you realize that ever since his failure in territory city promotion, Di Chen has reduced his exposure to the public? What does this mean? It means that he has realized his wrongdoings, and he is now hiding his hands in the shadow. To make an enemy with people like this is the scariest. Furthermore, after the galactic migration, a few more cunning old foxes stand behind him.”

Xunlong Dianxue nodded in agreement with Ouyang Shuo’s deduction.

1 (九阴真经): A Chinese fictional martial arts from a novel in Condor Trilogy by Jin Yong.

Chapter 201: The Battle of Muye (3)

That afternoon, Ouyang Shuo invited Wufu over.

The two did not meet secretly in the shadows. Rather, they directly held the meeting in Ouyang Shuo’s tent. Simply because there was nothing to hide and they couldn’t hide the meeting either.

“Can you tell me what conspiracies Di Chen and Chun Shenjun have?”

Ouyang Shuo’s boldness shocked Wufu. Without thinking, he answered, “Why should I tell you?”

“Your words, so there is indeed a conspiracy going on!?” Ouyang Shuo said.

“You!” Wufu realized that he had fallen into Ouyang Shuo’s wording traps. He calmed himself down and adjusted his strategy, “That’s right. They have a plan, but I will not tell you.”

“You will,” Ouyang Shuo said with great confidence.

“Arrogant!” Wufu became irritated.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and said, “Brother Wufu, there is no need to beat around the bush. We all know that you and them are not of the same kind. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be the one sent here. They have crowded you out. They distrust you; this is a truth that everyone knows.”

Wufu’s face darkened, Ouyang Shuo’s words had stung his painful spot.

Wufu raised his head; his face emotionless, “Then, can I trust you? Or should I put it this way, you, China’s number one Lord, Leader of Shanhai Alliance, representative of the civilian players—will you trust me?”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “You have no other options.”

Wufu felt decrepit. He took a breath and made his decision, “Qiyue Wuyi, let’s make a deal.”

“Speak!”

“I tell you the truth that you want. In return, you accept me into Shanhai Alliance.”

Ouyang Shuo’s sights congealed. He had not foreseen this. Things were far worse than he imagined, as even Wufu had to look for shelter if he spat out the truth. That said, those old foxes were really unwilling to be lonely anymore.

Old foxes, do you all really think that I have not noticed anything at all? Truly hilarious.

“I accept your terms,” Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate.

“Things are simple. There are signs of a reunion of the Handan Six Tyrants. Not long ago, I inadvertently saw the heads of the forces gathering in Handan City. I’m not talking about Di Chen, Chun Shenjun, and the like. I’m talking about their elders, the real heads of the forces and parties,” Wufu said, as he recalled the images in his mind.

Sure enough, Ouyang Shuo’s conjecture was coming true.

The Handan Six Tyrants had only split because of Di Chen’s arrogance, Chun Shenjun’s self-pride, and Feng Qiuhuang’s ambitions. Ouyang Shuo and Xiongba were merely the catalysts that stimulated the process.

Handan Six Tyrant became divided into three. Shanhai Alliance had seized the opportunity to rise and grasp the power of discourse in China.

However, after the galactic migration, the elders were finally relieved of their duties and had more time to overlook matters in the game. The monkey businesses of the young ones had caused their dissatisfaction.

Clearly, the young ones were still handling matters according to their emotions, rather than handling it with the arts of negotiation and compromisation. At times like this, the elders would naturally have to step in and clear up the mess the young ones made. After all, they wouldn’t allow the power of discourse to fall into the hands of others. In their eyes, Ouyang Shuo was nothing but a petty child.

Through mutual compromisation, reuniting all their forces was their best option.

However, Ouyang Shuo did not worry about this. He was more concerned about Feng Qiuhuang. From the signs and indications, it was clear that they still kept her in the dark. She knew nothing about the gathering and did not know that her elders were engaged in a coalition.

“Xiongba is in it too?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Wufu was surprised. He hadn’t thought that Ouyang Shuo would be this sharp. He nodded and said, “Yes!”

During the division of the Handan Six Tyrants, Xiongba had played a disgraceful role. He was the one that tempted Chun Shenjun to form an alliance of his own. If the Handan Six Tyrants were to seek a reunion, they would have to go through Xiongba.

With the wisdom of these old foxes, the best option was to accept and admit Xiongba into the alliance, or for that matter, the forces that Xiongba represented.

It was foreseeable that when the Handan Alliance, the Chunqiu Alliance, and the Blood-metal Alliance came together and reunited, the newly formed alliance would be much stronger and greater than before.

These factors answered why they dumped Wufu away. In such a great alliance of forces, Wufu was nothing. The only reason he was in the alliance was because Di Chen desperately needed allies for his Handan Alliance at that time. Wufu was taken in as an emergency measure. Now he had grown useless to them, it was not a surprise that he was left behind.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, “Alright, today’s talk shall end here. We will discuss about the alliance after the war. What’s more important as of now is to win this war.”

After he sent Wufu off, Ouyang Shuo did not stay long in the tent. He rode back to Zhaoge.

In the city of Zhaoge, the people were terrified. The news of the approaching Zhou armies had spread throughout the whole city. The city was practically defenseless, as the military had been sent to wage war with the Dongyi to the east. As such, what else could the king use to fight off these intruders?

In fact, there was still a week before the final battle. Gaia left this period of time so that players could utilize it and complete the side missions.

However, Ouyang Shuo ignored all this and went straight to the palace.

The royal guards stopped Ouyang Shuo in front of the palace gate, “Who are you? This is the king’s palace. It is restricted to authorized personnel only.”

Ouyang Shuo dismounted and passed the reins to his guard Wang Feng. Then, he made a slight bow with clasped hands, “Player representative Qiyue Wuyi. I am here to look for the king; please pass on my words!”

The royal guards checked his waist tag and immediately passed his words to the king.

Following behind the royal guards, Ouyang Shuo did not look at the palace. He was only thinking in his heart about how to convince King Di Xin to accept his plan.

In the palace, Di Xin was currently discussing with his General E’lai about how to fight off the Zhou armies. His royal guards report that the player representative was here, which sparked his interest.

E’lai was the son of Fei Lian. He was a warrior that could fight with rhinoceroses, bears, and tigers. On the other hand, Fei Lian was a messenger. This father and son duo served under King Zhou of Shang, Di Xin. The two were both extremely loyal.

During the era of Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao called his subject Dian Wei ‘The ancient E’lai’. The “E’lai” Cao Cao referred to was the E’lai here.

Ouyang Shuo walked into the palace. Then, he bowed and greeted the king, “Qiyue Wuyi, greets the king.”

Di Xin sat on his throne with an imposing appearance, “For what matter do you seek me?”

“I am here to help the king,” Ouyang Shuo answered, neither servile nor overbearing.

“What boasting,” E’lai said from the side.

“And you are general...?” Ouyang Shuo calmly smiled and asked.

“I am E’lai, don’t you boast. The Zhou armies are strong, and our main forces are not here. How can we do it?” E’lai was a straightforward man, so he directly asked the questions on his mind.

“I do not agree. From what I heard, the king has gathered 700 thousand slaves, which is multiple times that of the Zhou armies. How is that lack of forces?” Ouyang Shuo acted dumb.

E’lai scoffed in disdain, “Child, what do you know? Those slaves, they have never received military training. They do not have weapons or armor either, so how can they even go to war?”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Then why not give them weapons and armor?”

E’lai had almost run out of patience. However, Di Xin sat on his throne and pondered.

“You. You know nothing, yet you dare to speak of rescuing the city, this is ridiculous.”

Ouyang Shuo continued to smile normally and said, “Please enlighten me, general!”

Seeing that his king did not stop him, E’lai held himself back with great patience and said, “The 700 thousand slaves all come from the countries and tribes around us. How can they be reassuring? If we gave them weapons, what if they defected? That will drive us into great trouble. Furthermore, even if we gave them weapons and armor, in such a short period of time, how can they train and fight?”

Ouyang Shuo pretended that he had just understood E’lai’s words. He smiled and said, “So, that is why I am here.”

Di Xin was finally moved, “What plan do you have? Say it quickly!”

“My king, in order for this plan to work, the king has to make a promise.”

“What is it?”

“I request that the king places the high priest under house arrest. Cut off his connection to the outside world,” Ouyang Shuo’s words surprised everyone.

The high priest that Ouyang Shuo mentioned was Di Xin’s elder brother—Weizi.

Weizi Qi, Weizhong Yan, and Di Xin. They were brothers from the same mother. When Weizi Qi was born, their mother was still a concubine. After she became the queen, she gave birth to Di Xin. The king initially wanted to make Weizi Qi his heir, but the court said that according to etiquette, Di Xin was the rightful heir.

After Di Xin was crowned as king, Weizi Qi buried his hatred deep inside with great patience and restrained himself for years. As the first son of the former king, Weizi Qi enjoyed a great amount of prestige among the royal family, nobles, and blue bloods. In the end, he managed to form a great force by his side.

As the King of Shang, Di Xin was clearer than anyone else of the threat his dear brother could bring. Even after Di Xin was crowned, he still had to show his goodwill toward his brother. Although the former king—his father—was not here anymore, his two uncles were still at their prime of life, and they eyed the great throne. His uncles formed another group of strong forces within the country.

Therefore, Di Xin decided to entice his brother. After they wiped off the former high priest and their forces, Weizi Qi took over the position of high priest. Theocracy seeped through to the bones of Shang, so the high priest was the great leader of all. His status was comparable to the Roman Pope.

But things drifted far beyond Di Xin’s expectations. After he became king, he started a revolution. One of his moves were to limit and strip the rights of the nobles. He promoted talents from the civilians and even slaves—E’lai was an example of this. However, his move enraged the entire slavelord nobles.

From Xia dynasty to the Warring States period, China had thousands of years of slavery in their history. The nobles dominated the official posts. They owned the slaves and controlled the country’s economy. Di Xin’s move was a great provocation to the entire slavelord nobles, so it was undoubtable that he would be faced with great resistance. Especially when the war he waged to the east depleted a large amount of resources. At that time, the chancellors in the imperial court would criticize him greatly. In the end, a force that opposed the king emerged during the Shang dynasty, Weizi Qi, and the two uncles—Bigan and Qizi, led these forces.

It was a joint force that consisted of nobles that controlled the military, government, and finance, and a royal member that held the theocracy. The threat that they imposed to the king was immense. However, Di Xin was a cold-blooded and ruthless king, so there was simply no way that he would compromise. All these things led to one ending, the king sentenced Bigan to death, he exiled Qizi, and Weizi Qi surrendered to Di Xin.

But in actual fact, his hatred toward the king had grown far beyond redemption, so he swore that he would take his revenge in a way that shocked everyone. He sold his beloved country to his greatest foe—Zhou.

This traitor ordered his men to bring along the sacred ceremonial item and the royal power representative cauldron ‘Jiu Ding (Nine Cauldron)’ and defected to Zhou. At the same time, they brought a gift to the King of Zhou—intelligence regarding Shang’s economy, politics, and military. This intelligence included the chaotic political affairs, the withering financial status, and also the emptiness of military forces in Zhaoge City. They also reported to King Wu of Zhou the path taken and the time required for the Shang major force in the east to get back.

The Shang dynasty was stripped naked of secrets in front of the Zhou.

Without hesitation, King Wu of Zhou and his trusted minister Jiang Ziya gathered every soldier they had in the country and also convened the other countries to form an alliance. Within the shortest period of time and with the quickest speed possible, they waged war directly to the capital city of Shang, Zhaoge. Hence, the tragic Battle of Muye had taken place.

When the alliance surrounded the city, Weizi Qi led his men and surrendered to Zhou. After that, Dan, Duke of Zhou, rewarded Weizi Qi with a piece of land and established the country of Song. This action aimed to show their courtesy and that ‘the descendants of Shang will not die out.’ Weizi Qi hence became the first ancestor of Song of Zhou Dynasty.

Therefore, Ouyang Shuo had to get rid of this biggest traitor Weizi Qi before his plan could work.

Di Xin’s sights congealed, and coldness lurked in his eyes. His elder brother had never let him be at ease, but it would not be easy to house arrest his brother either, “Is this a must?”

“Yes, it is,” Ouyang Shuo did not back off.

Di Xin was also a decisive man, “Alright, I promise you. But, if your plan doesn’t work as you say it would, you know what consequences would be upon you,” the royal king could never be provoked.

Chapter 202: The Battle of Muye (4)

After he obtained the king’s approval, Ouyang Shuo detailed his plans.

“Winning a war is nothing more than strengthening ourselves while weakening the enemy.”

“Can you elaborate?”

“Just as General E’lai said, most of the slaves cannot be trusted. Therefore, the king can choose the best 100 thousand slaves and free them from the chains that restrict them. Feed them food and promise that if the battle is won, they can have their freedom. Equip them with crossbows and provide some minor training. This way, they will be fresh troops. While their war chariots are the greatest strength of Zhou, we can have the other 600 thousand slaves dig deep trenches scattered around the battlefield to counter it.”

Ouyang Shuo was describing the elite strategy commonly used in the modern society. Rather than sending a sea of 700 thousand slaves to war and risk defection, why not just abandon directly them and refrained them to the battlefield? Additionally, crossbows were the easiest weapon to grasp, so it only requires two to three days.

Di Xin trembled. Joy filled his face, but it quickly faded. He frowned, “It is well-planned, but the imperial court does not have such a large quantity of crossbows.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Are there any hard bows?”

“Naturally there are.”

“The hardest part of crafting crossbow is the crossbow parts that contain the mechanism. I can solve this problem for the king. The king only needs to gather the craftsmen in the city and manufacture as many crossbow bodies as possible and assemble it together with the mechanism and hard bow. This way, 100 thousand crossbows can be produced.”

“Good! If we win this war, you will be the hero of Shang, and I will reward you greatly.”

Ouyang Shuo was happy in his heart, and he quickly said, “If the battle is won, I only wish for a man.”

“Oh? Who is it?” Di Xin was curious to know.

Ouyang Shuo turned and looked at E’lai. He smiled and said, “It is General E’lai.”

Even before Di Xin could answer, E’lai had already given replied, “If you can defeat the Zhou armies, I will follow you.”

“System notice: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for receiving the subdue mission for the Emperor-level Historical figure, E’lai. Mission task: Assist Shang dynasty and defeat the Zhou armies. Mission deadline: Before the end of the Battle of Muye.”

Ouyang Shuo was overjoyed, “In that case, I have nothing else to wish for.”

……

Ouyang Shuo followed E’lai’s back, and they walked out of the palace to the weapons workshop in Zhaoge City.

After they reached the workshop, Ouyang Shuo removed the 100 thousand crossbow mechanism parts. The Bow and Crossbow Division crafted all of these parts. Now, they all finally came in handy. Ouyang Shuo had spent a huge fortune in order to win this war.

These 100 thousand crossbow mechanism parts cost Ouyang Shuo 10 thousand gold. Luckily, the territory self-excavated the iron ores, and the wages of the workers were fixed. Otherwise, Ouyang Shuo would have to spend even more.

The Shang dynasty would assemble the crossbows, while E’lai would be in charge of the 100 thousand troops. Ouyang Shuo was relieved of the two tasks that he had suggested.

Ouyang Shuo needed to gather the players and unite them all together now. Ouyang Shuo had no expectations that they could win the battle with only 100 thousand crossbowmen, as it would need more than that. Only coordination between the vanguard troops and the two wings could help them win this war.

It was already 5 PM when Ouyang Shuo returned to the military camp. Such a massive military camp still seemed a little small when it was crowded with the 42 thousand that made up the armies of the players.

In comparison to the Battle of Zhuolu, it was way easier when Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang were recruiting the other lord players. The lords knew that in the faction of Shang dynasty, more than 15% of the forces belonged to Shanhai Alliance, and they were also troops of elites. Therefore, if they would like to earn a decent quantity of merit points, joining forces with the Shanhai Alliance would be the best option. Acting alone would only make themselves into cannon fodders.

Other than a few stubborn players, most of them were willing to accept the Shanhai Alliance’s terms.

Ouyang Shuo’s arrangements were still the same. Zhang Liao was the lead cavalry general and Qin Qiong and Lin Yi were his right-hand men; Shi Wanshui was the commander of the sword-shield infantry, and Mu Guiying was the archers general.

As they were under the policy of ‘The World Online,’ players would remain logged in. Hence, when the night falls, everyone returned to their tents.

The following day, the official reorganization of the troops commenced.

After a morning of statistical analysis, excluding the 2,000 that obstinate lords led, there were 40,000 troops in total. Of these troops, 25,000 were infantry, 10,000 were cavalry and 5,000 were archers.

For the next few days, they would have joint training to improve their coordination so that during the final battle, they could be commanded effectively. On a traditional battlefield that involved soldiers of more than tens of thousands, commanding them was always the issue. This aspect could really test the ability of a general.

At the same time, the 600 thousand slaves that were not chosen were digging deep trenches outside of the city. With such large manpower, even the largest fields could be dug beyond recognition.

25-kilometers south of Zhaoge was Muye. It would take the slaves one to two days to move to the battlefield. Therefore, in order to prevent the slaves from running away, King Di Xin ordered 500 royal guards to watch over them.

The main military force of Shang was at the east, which was only composed of 10 thousand royal guards, 6,000 imperial guards, and a number of war elephants. At times like this, Di Xin still sent 500 royal guards to ensure the progression of the plan. The importance he placed on this plan was evident. He had to make sure it worked without fail.

In the skies above them, a little bird flew unnoticed behind the slaves, following them all along the way.

……

The 4th day, Zhou military main camp, Mengjin.

“Report!” the military spy rushed into the king’s tent, kneeled down and said, “Reporting to the king, intelligence from the front line.”

In the tent was King Wu of Zhou and prime minister Jiang Shang (Jiang Ziya).

“Quickly, tell me.” King Wu of Zhou, Ji Fa was impatient.

“Shang dynasty has made a weird move. They chased hundreds of thousands of slaves out of the city and forced them to dig trenches in Muye,” The spy did not dare to drag on and quickly answered the king.

Ji Fa was puzzled. He turned and looked at his minister, “Prime minister, what are their intentions?”

Jiang Shang stroked his beard. Then, he frowned and said, “Digging trenches, they are trying to stop our war chariots. It seems like there are talents helping them.”

“What? What should we do in response?” Ji Fa was shocked, the war chariots were their biggest trump card and the core of their battle plan. If the war chariots could not reach their enemies, the whole plan would completely fail.

“The only thing we can do now is to send soldiers and chase off the slaves, stopping them from digging the trenches.”

Ji Fa nodded, “In your opinion, who should we send?”

“This is where the problem comes in. Our forces are limited in numbers, so we cannot act recklessly to avoid getting ambushed.”

“Then why not launch the final attack and start the war?” Ji Fa suggested.

Jiang Shang shook his head and said, “We can’t. The others are not here yet, so it is still not the time to launch the final attack.”

Ji Fa was a little unsettled, “Then, what should we do?”

Just as he was getting unsettling, the guards outside the tent reported, “Player representative Chun Shenjun requests for permission to see the king.”

“Let him in,” King Wu of Zhou approved.

Chun Shenjun entered the tent. Then, he bowed and greeted, “Player representative Chun Shenjun greets the king and the prime minister.”

“Forego the formalities,” King Wu imposed his courtesy, “What do you have for me?”

“I am here to relieve the king’s concerns,” Chun Shenjun answered with great confidence.

“Oh?” The king was puzzled.

“I heard the news that the enemy is cunning and sly. They are digging trenches outside on Muye, trying to stop our mighty war chariots. As the representative, I am here to ask for the king’s permission to stop their plans.”

King Wu was overjoyed, “Good, I was just worrying about this matter.”

“Thank you my king!” after getting his approval, Chun Shenjun left.

“Wait,” Jiang Shang opened his mouth and said with great worry, “Chasing them out will do. Try not to hurt anyone.”

“Understood!” Although he answered this way with his mouth, Chun Shenjun did not take the words to heart.

After scouting, they discovered that only 500 soldiers followed the massive quantity of slaves. This was the best-gifted opportunity for them to slaughter the slaves and earn merit points, so how could they possibly miss it? That was why Chen Shenjun had hurried to the king’s tent and requested this task.

After Chun Shenjun left, Jiang Shang was still frowning. He was not at ease.

“Minister, is there anything wrong?” King Wu asked.

“My king. The slaves come from different tribes and states, so they are worth our time fighting for. I am worried that the players will slaughter them.” Jiang Shang explained.

“Did Chun Shenjun not promise you that he will not massacre the slaves? What more is there to worry about?” King Wu was even more puzzled.

Jiang Shang shook his head, “My king, the players’ origins are strange, and they are strong. They might not listen to us at all.”

“Minister, you must be overthinking things,” King Wu believed that he held great power and that his words were useful within the forces.

……

When Chun Shenjun returned to his tent, Di Chen, Zhan Lang, Feng Qingyang, Xiongba, Sha Pojun, and Wandering Magic were all waiting for him.

“How was it?” Xiongba asked. He and Chun Shenjun were close to each other now.

Chun Shenjun showed his joy on his face, “Done!”

“Good, let’s see how Qiyue Wuyi can still laugh now,” Sha Pojun clamored.

“Should we asked the other lords to join us together?” Zhan Lang asked.

Feng Qingyang was the first to disagree, “There are only 500 soldiers. Our troops of 4,000 are more than enough to handle them. Why should we split the merit points with the others?”

Zhan Lang shook his head, “The infantry walks too slow. Only the high mobility cavalry are more secure.”

“Then, we can invite the core allies and form a force of 3,000 cavalries,” Feng Qingyang took a step back and compromised.

“Brother Di Chen, why aren’t you saying a word?” Chun Shenjun seemed to intentionally ask this.

Di Chen locked his brows. He ignored Chun Shenjun’s self-pride and said, “I am thinking that Qiyue Wuyi most likely proposed the plan to dig trenches. Will there be some trickeries or conspiracies behind it?”

“Haha, brother Di Chen. Are you scared of Qiyue Wuyi now?” Feng Qingyang had voiced his disdain about Di Chen’s doubts.

Chun Shenjun also had a bantering look on his face, and he did not answer Di Chen’s question.

Although they were forced to reunite under the elders’ command, Chun Shenjun still would not allow Di Chen to chair the alliance. It was not a surprise that he had to suppress Di Chen and his fame.

However, Zhan Lang did not follow their childish acts, “What brother Di Chen said is possible, so we must be prepared.”

Chun Shenjun shook his head, “Brother Zhan Lang, you are thinking too much. According to the scout’s intelligence, there are no signs of any other military around Muye. We only need to send the cavalries and surprise them with an ambush. It will take a day for Qiyue Wuyi to receive the news and come forth. That is more than enough time for us to accomplish the task and leave.”

“That’s right. I don’t believe that Qiyue Wuyi is so strong and powerful,” Feng Qingyang was Chun Shenjun’s hardcore ally. Naturally, he would support Chun Shenjun.

Zhan Lang remained silent.

Chapter 203: The Battle of Muye (5)

11 AM, Chun Shenjun, Zhan Lang, Xiongba, Sha Pojun, and the others led 3,000 cavalries and rushed out of Mengjin toward Muye.

At nightfall that day, they were already within 10-kilometers of Muye. They set up a camp and settled down for the night.

Surprisingly, Di Chen did not follow them. Instead, he only sent one of his basic officers and 500 Handan cavalries.

Sure enough, the others called his decision cowardly and timid.

Juedai Fenghua was puzzled too, “Why didn’t you follow them? Is there anything wrong?”

Di Chen locked his brows. Then, he spoke in a solemn tone, “I have a bad feeling about this, I have dealt with Qiyue Wuyi quite a number of times already. Do you think that he is such a careless man? Such a big flaw and he did not realize it, giving us the chance to reap the slaves and earn easy merit points? Their own arrogance blinds Chun Shenjun and the others.”

“Then, why did you still send over our troops?” Juedai Fenghua was still puzzled.

Di Chen shook his head, “The families are now talking to each other and seeking cooperation. It is a very sensitive time, so I do not wish to destroy the peace and unity of the alliance. In any case, if my conjectures are wrong and I send no one, I would miss a good chance.”

Juedai Fenghua finally understood and felt relieved. The shrewd and deeply subtle Di Chen was finally back after taking a few blows, which was more important than anything else.

……

As Chun Shenjun and the others were busy settling down, a little bird passed them and flew to the north.

5 AM the following day, Military Intelligence Division Secretary Song San received intelligence from the hummingbird. He did not dare to delay and immediately rushed to Ouyang Shuo’s tent.

The guard stopped him outside of the tent and whispered, “The lord is still sleeping. You cannot enter.”

However, Song San was anxious, “This Intelligence is of great importance, so it can’t be delayed.”

Only after they heard this did a guard walk into the tent to wake Ouyang Shuo up.

But even before the guard had walked in, Ouyang Shuo had already woken up. Practicing the had greatly enhanced his senses, so he could pick up the little changes in the surroundings.

Song San entered the tent and greeted Ouyang Shuo, “My lord, the enemies have indeed appeared. They have 3,000 cavalries and are 10-kilometers away from Muye. They can have arrived at Muye by this morning.”

Ouyang Shuo rose with force and spirit. The fish had finally taken the bait.

If Ouyang Shuo wished to win this battle, he would have to pay great attention to the Zhou players. The players added up to a force of 60 thousand soldiers, comparable to the Zhou military force.

For the past one or two months, Ouyang Shuo had killed countless brain cells in an attempt to figure out how to turn the tide of the war. He had taken in every possibility and consideration. The worst of all situations he took into account was that Di Chen and the likes reuniting together and fighting as one, which had happened.

Therefore, the first step in his plan was to get rid of them.

No matter how many strategist advisors they had, in the case of asymmetrical information, they were still blind men.

“Guards!” Ouyang Shuo shouted.

“Sire!” a guard entered in.

“Get General Zhang Liao, General Qin Qiong, and General Lin Yi to the tent. I have important news for them.”

“Yes, sire!”

When the three generals arrived, Ouyang Shuo skipped the formalities and directly said, “Gather the cavalries and follow me to Muye.”

“Understood!”

Two days of joint training had allowed the cavalry to gather within half an hour.

Such a big move naturally alerted the other lords. When the troops were gathering, Ouyang Shuo had approached Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang. He explained the situation and tasked them with further explanations to the other lords.

Since the lords were willing to accept Shanhai Alliance’s jurisdiction, Ouyang Shuo did not need to report every single detail to them every time. Otherwise, how could he rage a war? Time would be wasted on explanations.

The 10 thousand cavalries marched from Zhaoge toward Muye.

……

8 AM in the morning, under the watch of the royal guards, 600 thousand slaves started the work of the day. Trenches were dug and started to form a pattern that looked breathtaking from afar.

However, an hour later, darkness fell upon the land.

3,000 cavalries of Zhou players made their appearance and charged toward the slaves.

It was morning, and the sunlight brought brightness and warmth, but the 3,000 calvaries of hell came out of nowhere, bringing forth darkness and sanguinary. Without a word, they rode into the sea of slaves, swinging their blades and splattering blood down on the land. How could these empty-handed slaves defend themselves against these cavalries? They were like a flock of sheep. Although they were large in number, the lesser wolves chased them, which caused them to run and flee around with no direction.

But the slaves were too large in number, so even the cavalries could not slaughter them all at once. At critical moments like this, if one desired to live, they would have to run faster than the others. Fetters of iron chained all of them. In order to live, they would push down the other slaves, only because they were blocking the way.

Sha Pojun and the others were overjoyed as they watched their merit points constantly increase. In the time frame of less than 10-minutes, they dominated the whole battle contribution list.

Initially, when the slaves saw the armies coming from the south, the slaves thought that their countries had sent these people to save them. But who knew that these ‘saviors’ were actually their annihilators.

Rather than saving them, their own countries slaughtered them mercilessly instead.

You see it? These devils are still laughing out loud.

The slaves ran and fled for their lives, as an endless hatred toward their own countries was bred in their hearts. The hatred was so strong that they hated their home countries more than the Shang dynasty.

Damn you brats. Even the Shang dynasty did not do this.

Fortunately, the 500 royal guards acted quickly and came to the rescue.

Unfortunately, the guards were only infantries. Moreover, the bronze weapons and armors they were once proud of were nothing compared to the fine ironworks of the cavalries.

The slaves watched as the royal guards defended them. Their hatred grew deeper, stronger, and greater. Their kings had abandoned them and slaughtered them now like a pile of dead meat, yet their own enemies stepped forward to protect them with flesh and blood.

How ironic, they thought, as tears of despair flowed down their cheeks.

As the temporary chief-in-command, Zhan Lang decisively ordered the cavalries to stop the massacre and focus on the royal guards. The mighty cavalries charged in formation and pierced through the defensive line of the royal guards. Within an hour, for the price of fewer than 200 casualties, the cavalries crushed the last light of the slaves. Not even a single royal guard survived.

Just as the proud and complacent cavalries planned to continue harvesting the fruits of victory, a force of greater darkness shadowed them. It was a horrific nightmare that would haunt them.

10 thousand cavalries of Shang finally arrived under the leadership of the three generals.

Zhan Lang’s face turned pale white, as the 10 thousand reinforcement cavalries came forth. He mumbled in deep remorse, “I regret that I did not listen to Di Chen’s advice.”

There was no doubt that this was a conspiracy. Hence, Zhan Lang decisively ordered the troops to retreat.

Unfortunately, Ouyang Shuo would not allow this to happen.

In fact, Ouyang Shuo and the troops had arrived 20-minutes ago. But in order to completely exterminate the enemies, he had ordered the troops to make a big turn to the south. Then, they struck from the north, ambushing the enemies from behind.

Therefore, Ouyang Shuo had already blocked off their retreat route. If they wanted to retreat and return to Mengjin alive, they would have to breakthrough the 10,000 cavalries.

In their formation, Chun Shenjun stepped forward and made his final struggle. With a voice like a foghorn, he shouted, “Is this brother Wuyi? Brother Wuyi, can you give us a way out? I will repay you greatly after.”

Ouyang Shuo laughed and shook his head. Then, he replied, “Chun Shenjun, I am sorry, but we are now enemies. We serve our own kings. If you’d like to catch up with each other, I will welcome you with open arms in Shanhai City.”

Zhan Lang was as decisive as always. He turned and said to Chun Shenjun, “Victory will favor the braver of the two who come into unavoidable confrontation. The only way out now is to have the troops around us fight a way out for us. As long as we survive, there is still hope.”

His words were simple. According to the law of the battlefield that Gaia set down, when a lord died, their troops would be sent back to the territory along with them.

Therefore, as long as the lord survived, the losses of the cavalries were not a big deal to the battlefield. After all, there were still plenty of cavalries in Mengjin.

Chun Shenjun nodded in agreement.

On the other side of the battlefield, Ouyang Shuo specifically ordered the three generals not to allow the lords to escape. He pointed out each and every one of them to the generals. Speaking of the law of the battlefield, who could possibly know it better than Ouyang Shuo? Of course, he would not allow such low-level errors to take place.

This was the sole reason he had established the lord’s guards—to protect and defend his safety.

Zhan Lang split the cavalries into three groups and each went on their own path.

Ouyang Shuo’s cavalries tripled them in quantity. Furthermore, they had just gone through a battle. Now, a sudden ambush faced them, so the morale of the two sides could be clearly distinguished.

The two forces of cavalries simultaneously charged forward, and they clashed like two strong waves of torrents stirring together. Blood water sprinkled into the air and flowed down onto the ground.

Ouyang Shuo personally led the lord’s guards and stared at Sha Pojun. Sha Pojun had acted resentful to him several times, so Ouyang Shuo had long since thought of making him pay. On the other hand, Sha Pojun was not a kind-hearted man either. He had seen blood in the real-world. Naturally, he wasn’t scared of Ouyang Shuo.

Sadly, this was a game. Whether it be weapon, armor, mounts, or even personal combat skills, Ouyang Shuo was better than Sha Pojun. Ouyang Shuo waved and brandished his iron spear, fully showing the true power of Yang spearmanship.

Yang spearmanship was born in war, for war.

Ouyang Shuo made a move of the famous ‘Whitesnake spit letter’ and directly aimed for Sha Pojun’s weak point. Sha Pojun quickly reacted and barely countered Ouyang Shuo with his halberd.

The two fought for twenty over rounds, and Sha Pojun grew more and more powerless.

Even at a time like this, Ouyang Shuo did not let his guard down. He continued to use his Yang spearmanship and suppressed Sha Pojun to his limit. Finally, he seized an opportunity and used the ultimate move ‘Throat-killing Spear’. His exquisite iron spear was like a mighty dragon fluttering in the nine skies. It pierced Sha Pojun’s throat like a lightning bolt, killing him in one blow.

Sha Pojun’s eyes widened. He could not believe his death and fell off his horse. Eventually, he turned into a flash of white light.

Chapter 204 - The Battle of Muye (6)

After Ouyang Shuo defeated Sha Pojun, he looked around to evaluate the situation of the battlefield.

Both armies fought in close proximity, engaging in close-combat warfare. Right at this moment, Ouyang Shuo noticed that a small force was making its way out of the encirclement, retreating toward the south.

Needless to say, it must be Zhan Lang and the others.

Without hesitation, Ouyang Shuo led his guards and chased after them. Along the way, Lin Yi led the vanguard 1st unit and joined Ouyang Shuo.

The advantage of Qingfu horses became evident. After less than 5-kilometers, Ouyang Shuo and his men had caught up with the enemies.

They only had less than a squadron left. Clearly, they were all elites of the elites. Their mounts were also quick. Sadly, they still couldn’t match up with the Qingfu horses.

Ouyang Shuo realized that the squadron must be Xiongba’s soldiers. He could still remember that during the last system auction, Xiongba had spent 1,200 gold on one heavy cavalry token—this must be them.

“Brother Xiongba, I hope that you are well!” Ouyang Shuo shouted loudly.

Among the squadron, a man trembled for a moment. He must not have expected that Ouyang Shuo could catch up to them so quickly. Of course, this man was Xiongba. But he did not give up and ordered the squadron to move faster.

Ouyang Shuo sneered at Xiongba’s order, and he made a gesture to Lin Yi.

Lin Yi understood his meaning and split the cavalry unit into two, preparing to flank the side and surround the enemies.

After Ouyang Shuo surrounded him, Xiongba had no choice but to stop. He turned around and looked at Ouyang Shuo. Then, he spoke with a bitterly smile, “Brother Wuyi, do you really have to do this?” His partner Wandering Magic stood beside him.

Ouyang Shuo had a heart of stone; he smiled, “Brother Xiongba, you can only blame that we chose different sides. Next time, think twice before you select who you should side with. Try not to chose the wrong side.”

Xiongba’s sight congealed. He had a feeling that these words had a hidden meaning behind them.

Could it be that Ouyang Shuo knows about the cooperation of the families? How did he get the news?!

While his head flowed with various thoughts, his face remained calm. He smiled and said, “Brother Wuyi, killing me is pointless. Di Chen is still in Mengjin. With him there, the players of Zhou will not fall. Why not do me a friendly favor? Lend me a hand. Levels are not that easy to train.”

This cunning fox, trying to play around with his famous favor card again.

Ouyang Shuo realized why he had not seen Di Chen. As the saying went, ‘Those who knew you best were often your enemies.’ Di Chen and Ouyang Shuo had a bit of history together, which almost allowed Di Chen to grasp and understand Ouyang Shuo’s plannings, how interesting.

“You can leave Di Chen to me. That is not something brother you should worry about,” Ouyang Shuo was still unmoved, “So, I think it is best for me to send you off,” as he finished his sentence, he waved his hand forward.

The lord’s guards and the vanguard unit understood his orders and charged forward.

Xiongba was stunned; he was really surprised. But Xiongba was also a formidable person, so he laughed, “Good, brother Wuyi, it seems like we are of the same kind. I will accept my defeat today wholeheartedly.”

After settling Xiongba and his men, Ouyang Shuo brought the troops back to the battlefield.

When he returned, the fight had already finished. Horses that lost their master stood helplessly, and the neighing of horses resounded through the battlefield. The wounded laid on the ground wailing in pain and sorrow, as their splattered blood painted the field red. Broken spears perforated the ground, endlessly telling unspoken words of desolation.

Zhang Liao and Qin Qiong noticed Ouyang Shuo and patted their horses. They came forth and reported to Ouyang Shuo, “Sire, the enemies are all eliminated.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded: “Is there any lords that escaped?”

“Other than the group that sire chased after, we terminated all the others,” Zhang Liao did not disappoint him.

“The slaves?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

“I have sent troops to capture them all. We took back the escaped slaves.” Ouyang Shuo had already ordered them to not slaughter the slaves, and Zhang Liao had precisely followed his words.

“Bring me to them.” Ouyang Shuo had some plans in mind for the slaves.

“Understood.”

Although the massacre had only lasted for half an hour, the casualties of the slaves had risen to tens of thousands. The trenches that they dug now contained their own blood.

Ouyang Shuo rode to the front of the slaves and shouted, “It is I, player representative Qiyue Wuyi. All of you have seen it with your own eyes. It was the Shang dynasty that protected you, that kept your soul and body intact. Your home countries, your tribes, have abandoned you like a pile of useless dirt. You are now standing on the edge of a cliff; you have nowhere to go.”

“Save us sire!” some slaves started calling for help.

“Save us...save us…” Eventually, all of them started to call for help.

Ouyang Shuo raised his hand, indicating for them to keep silent. Then, he continued, “You want to live? Simple, continue digging and finish these trenches. If the time comes, raise your arms and fight on the battlefield for the Shang dynasty.”

The 500 royal guards that Di Xin send had all died. Hence, Ouyang Shuo had placed his cavalries in Muye to ensure that the trenches work could be completed in time.

Ouyang Shuo and his guards rushed back to Zhaoge City and reported to King Zhou of Shang.

……

Mengjin, the news of the annihilation of the player armies had spread through the whole place.

King Wu was naturally unhappy, but the other lord players were even more unhappy. They only learned now that Chun Shenjun and the others had secretly gone to claim merit points.

Although Chun Shenjun and the others were ambushed and forced to leave the battlefield, their names remained on the battle contribution list. All of them had at least 10,000 merit points, dazzling the eyes of the other lords.

Even as the player representative, his decision to act alone disgusted the others. Therefore, even after their death, they weren’t spared any compassions. Instead, the others only gloated and despised them.

Di Chen, the only one in his group that had remained rational, tried to take over Chun Shenjun’s place and unite the lords. Unfortunately, the other lords did not trust him anymore.

Although you did not personally go, you did send your men along, so you too took part in it. Plus, Handan City is only left with 500 infantries now. What qualifies you as the leader?

He had the intention to lead, but the other lords did not commit to him. Di Chen could only try his best in the following battles.

Fortunately, there were indeed some lords that were reasonable. They knew that at times of crisis, they had to unite and stand together. Otherwise, the players of Shang might defeat.

These rational lords formed an alliance of their own. However, they refused Di Chen as their chairman.

In the king’s tent, King Wu was furious, “Prime minister, what should we do now? Should we send more troops over and stop them from digging the trenches?”

Jiang Shang opposed this proposition. He was as calm as always, “My king need not be impatient. It was only a small defeat. Only the player’s armies were lost, which will have no major effect on the war,” he waited until King Wu had calm himself down. Then, Jiang Shang continued, “Sending over more troops will not work either. The Shang must have already stationed more troop over in Muye. The only thing we should do now is stay on guard. We need to wait for the others and their troops to gather together. After that, we will launch the final attack on Muye, taking down Shang from the mighty throne once and for all.”

The plan that Jiang Shang proposed was frank and upright, launching the attack and fighting Shang in a face-to-face in war. From the intelligence that Weizi sent, there were only less than 20 thousand soldiers in Zhaoge City. There was a huge difference in military size between the two parties. However, if Jiang Shang knew that there were 100 thousand crossbowmen receiving training in Zhaoge City, what would he think?

Ji Fa was a king after all, he picked himself up and said, “Minister, should we send a spy and contact Weizi? We can get them to gather the latest information regarding Zhaoge City. They can find out what is going on and who is helping the Shang.”

Naturally, Jiang Shang had no objections.

……

While the lords in Zhou were like a sheet of loose sand, the lords in Shang became more united. Ouyang Shuo had proved with his actions that he possessed the ability to lead them to victory.

In contrast to Chun Shenjun’s selfish decisions, Ouyang Shuo’s actions were just and even. As a result, the former 2,000 troops that were reluctant to join them submitted themselves in the end. Now, the leadership of the players in Shang was completely transferred to the Shanhai Alliance.

With this opportunity, Ouyang Shuo could raise his prestige among the players. Slowly and steadily, he could build up his reputation. This was important. If Ouyang Shuo continued to make decisions that were just and even, he would not need to waste his energy convincing the lords to join him on the battlefields in the future. Instead, the other lords would come looking to cooperate with Shanhai Alliance.

King of Shang, Di Xin finished listening to Ouyang Shuo’s reports. Although he mourned the royal guards, he also praised Ouyang Shuo for the victorious battle, and his trust toward Ouyang Shuo grew greater.

In addition, the battle’s victory was like charcoal in the snowy weather.

When the news reached the people in Zhaoge City, it settled their uneasy hearts. They now knew that there stood a strong force by their side, helping them fight off the Zhou armies.

The once tense atmosphere in the city was no more, as the people brimmed with energy. They voluntarily donated food and grains to the military. As a result, they greatly helped the military logistics and eased the shortage of food for the soldiers.

Under the official’s guidance, carriages after carriages of food were sent from Zhaoge to Muye.

As food was no longer a concern, Ouyang Shuo proposed that the king ameliorated food supplies to the slaves. This action would ensure they could acquire enough energy to sustain their work of digging trenches. By doing so, Ouyang Shuo proved to the slaves that the promise he had made would be kept. Subsequently, the slaves worked harder.

At the same time, they 100 thousand crossbows were finished and distributed to the slaves. The general, E’lai, was training the slaves to ensure that they could effectively go to war.

The general divided the 100 thousand crossbowmen into 10 formations of 10 thousand men. After that, every formation was divided into 10 again. Under Ouyang Shuo’s suggestion, Mu Guiying led the 5,000 properly-trained military crossbowmen and joined the formations. Every formation of a thousand men was given 50 crossbowmen, who acted as the tutors and the leaders.

Ouyang Shuo formed the first mixed military force from both the player’s troops and the system’s armies—the first of its kind in humanity’s history. Without the great trust that Di Xin invested into Ouyang Shuo, he could not have possibly done this.

Chapter 205 - The Battle of Muye (7)

Day 10, Battle of Muye, Zhaoge City of Shang dynasty.

Zhaoge City, this name sings the dawn of lights, welcomes the sunrise, and the booming of prosperity.

Facing the bright sun, the troops bathed themselves in the warm sunshine and departed from the South Gate of Zhaoge City. The mighty troops marched toward Muye, consisted of 40 thousand players troops, 100 thousand slave crossbowmen, 10 thousand royal guards, 6 thousand imperial guards, and 12 war elephants. In total, they had over 150 thousand soldiers.

The first time the war elephants appeared before their eyes, Ouyang Shuo and the other lords were stunned.

Armor made of rhino skins and hardwoods protected the war elephants, while bronze basks covered their faces and sharp swords were tied to their tusks. On their backs, they carried a wooden tower with a mahout1, two archers and two pikemen in it.

Such a well-equipped war elephant from top to toe was the perfect bulldozer war machine. No ordinary human could possibly stop it from paving a bloody path of meat and flesh.

Sadly, they only had 12 war elephants, as the others were sent to war with Dongyi to the east. Otherwise, the Zhou armies would be nothing compared to the great war elephants.

If the royal guards were the elites of the Shang dynasty, then the imperial guards would be the elites of the elites. They fought side by side along with their king, Di Xin. They had battled in countless wars, conquered lands to the south and earned great military merits and honors. They were all descendants of the nobles, true soldiers of the Shang dynasty and extremely loyal to the king.

The rebellious act of the Zhou armies enraged them. They were furious that the Zhou and the other countries defected from the king. Rage filled the guards—both royal and imperial. They swore with their lives that they would make the Zhou armies pay the price. With their swords and spears, they would defend the honor of the Shang dynasty. Hence, their blood boiled in excitement and their morale was high.

The people of Zhaoge gathered in front of the city gate to send off the soldiers. Be it the royal guards or the imperial guards, they were all the people of Zhaoge. The glorious blood of Shang flowed in them. The slaves were incomparable to them.

King Zhou of Shang, Di Xin, rode a war chariot embellished with golds and jewels. He would personally lead the soldiers off to Muye.

The mighty troops stood straight and upright; flags and banners soared in the wind, as spears and pikes pointed toward the sky. The morale and discipline of the troops were high. The troops marched out one-by-one from the South Gate and headed toward Muye. They left behind streams of dust.

The people beside the roads danced their worshipping dancing rituals, as they prayed for the soldiers. They hoped that the soldiers could return home safely. Their parents, wives, and children lived here in Zhaoge. They waited for their sons, husbands, and fathers to come home and reunite with them.

Di Xin sat in his golden war chariot. As he rode past his people, he waved at them, and the crowds cheered for their king. Although their beloved king was ruthless, stubborn, and moody, he was their king. He contributed his entire life to them; he never left his people to die. Instead, he led them to war, and this action was more than enough to grant him the people’s support.

When the rows of crossbow equipped slaves appeared before their eyes, the people were dumbfounded. As the last slavery dynasty in China’s history, the slaves had a very low social status. They were captives, goods, commodities, and livestock, but they were never once taken as ‘people.’

Therefore, one could tell how surprised the people were when they saw that the slaves were equipped with crossbows and given military training.

If it wasn’t for this critical moment of death and life, there would definitely be a large group of people among the Shang slave lords and nobles that would stand and oppose their king’s decision. After all, such a decision violated the vital interests of the slave lords and nobles.

In order for the 100 thousand slave soldiers to be selected from the 700 thousand slaves, the chosen must be strong and obedient. They were very cagey, walking in formations. Their hearts were unsettled, and they felt restless as the people stared at them. They felt like they were walking around naked.

They had yet to adjust to their new roles.

General E’lai had similar origins as these slaves. He walked at the forefront of the crossbowmen. The people warmly welcomed the ferocious and strong general.

Lastly, there were the player troops. Although the cavalries had suffered a minor loss during the last battle, they remained as one of the strongest forces, riding at the forefront.

20 thousand shield-sword infantries marched behind them, forming square formations. They trod on the same beat, as they marched their way through the South Gate. Their prime and proper array, along with their fine and exquisite equipment impressed and moved the people of Shang.

The armies traveled along the road and filled the horizon with people. Even when the vanguard forces reached the field of Muye, the rear army was still waiting for their turn to travel through the South Gate. Soldiers filled the whole pathway, and the road could not even fit a single person more.

It was already 3 PM when the last group of infantries reached Muye.

Muye was a small city. The walls were low and half-broken. It was made of loesses and barely possessed any defensive ability. It was only important because Muye was the last line of defense before the Zhou armies reached the Shang capital, Zhaoge City.

The army simply did not enter the city. Instead, they directly settled in the southern suburbs. Tent after tent occupied the plains, the slopes and the valleys of the southern suburbs, surrounding Muye City, which stood at the center.

The southern suburbs had long reached a point beyond recognition. 1 to 2-meter deep trenches covered the entire southern suburbs. Each trench was less than 100-meters from another one, while the whole field covered a kilometer. This layout could effectively put an end to the use of war chariots on the field, while the cavalries could still move around freely.

King of Shang, Di Xin, stayed in the city hall of Muye. The city hall would act as the temporary command center until the war ended.

They sent the citizens of Muye and the 600 thousand slaves back to Zhaoge City. This action aimed to reduce the consumption of food and also prevent spies within the crowds. The whole of Muye had turned into a military stronghold. Other than the soldiers, the rest that stayed were logistics personnel.

The imperial guards had taken over the job of the city hall guards. They would do anything they could to ensure the king’s safety.

That night, Di Xin called for a meeting to discuss their war strategies. Ouyang Shuo, as the player’s representative, was given the honor of attending the meeting.

Honestly speaking, Ouyang Shuo was now an apple in Di Xin’s eyes. His status was way beyond an ordinary player’s representative. Di Xin would take his suggestions and proposed plans.

Of course, Ju Shuo gave Ouyang Shuo most of these tactics.

……

Mengjin, Yong, Lu, Peng, Pu, Shu, Qiang, Wei, Mao—the kings of these various countries had finally arrived.

When they were all gathered, King Wu of Zhou and the other kings held an Oath Assembly.

In the assembly, King Wu gave a speech of call to arms against Shang first. He listed the six biggest crime of King Zhou, Di Xin: One, excessive drinking; two, abandoned loyal courtiers; three, employing scoundrels and giving them power; four, blindly trusting the words of woman; five, blindly trusting in faith; six, disregarding the sacrificial ceremony.

For a small country in the west that was still under the control of the Shang dynasty to publicly condemn his king’s crime, one could tell how hypocritical Zhou and King Wu were. Even such a small thing like excessive drinking could be listed. It was a naked rebellion, yet he packaged himself as the embodiment of justice.

After the assembly, they had a sacrificial ritual. King Wu and the others swore an oath to the heavens to destroy the Shang dynasty. Naturally, a sacrificial ritual required them to sacrifice livestock, but instead of livestock this time, they changed the sacrificial offerings to slaves of Shang people.

When they completed the sacrificial ritual, they marched toward Muye.

The forces of Zhou included 300 war chariots, 3,000 royal guards, and 45 thousand armored soldiers. These were all trained soldiers, well-disciplined, fully-equipped, properly trained and with combat experience. In addition to the other kings, the total force numbered 70 thousand, along with 50 thousand player’s troops.

Despite this, the weapons and equipment of Zhou were still incomparable to that of Shang. The bronze smelting and technology of Shang were better. Therefore, Shang produced better bronze weapons and armor.

Especially in the case of infantry armor. Shang military had generally equipped their soldiers with armor made of bronze and rhino skin. They also had bronze helmets as part of the soldiers’ standard equipment. The helmet’s core structure, manufacturing technology, defensive ability and equipment quality made it one of the best equipment in the world of that era.

Meanwhile, the Zhou armies were only equipped with ordinary leather armor or armor made of wood. Even their officers and nobles could not enjoy the luxury of bronze armor. The two were simply incomparable.

Naturally, compared to the slave armies only equipped with a bronze spear and no armor, the Zhou soldiers were much stronger.

Zhou and Shang were rivals, blood feud enemies.

The royal family of Shang had killed and slaughtered the Zhou royal family for three generations. King Wu’s brothers, father, and grandfather had all died because of the royal family of Shang. Furthermore, Shang had raged countless wars on the land of Zhou, leading to the contention of territory, population, and dominance between the two countries.

Therefore, whether it be the royalty or the civilians of the two countries, there were conflicts everywhere. Up till this point, during the King Wu of Zhou period, they had already accumulated over a hundred years of hatred toward Shang.

This time, Zhou threw in every man and all the strength that they had. Their only wish was to destroy the Shang dynasty at all cost. Hence, there was no retreat for the people of Zhou. They had to win the war, as the consequences of defeat were disastrous. The morale of the army—from the king to the soldiers—were extremely high and unified.

Even the soldiers that the other kings sent were the strongest of their countries.

Since the day that Shang was established, their desire to expand its territory and population drove them to continuously invade the countries and nations beside it. While increasing the population served the purpose of expanding the scale of slaves, it also carried the important task of sacrificial offerings selection and sacrificial burial with the nobles.

During the Shang dynasty, theocracy greatly ruled over the land. They often required humans as sacrificial offerings. Moreover, they often required ‘offerings’ of high ‘quality,’ The sacrifices would have to be young and strong. In order to gather such offerings, they would need a large population. Therefore, Shang had actively sought war, plundering populations from different nations. The whole of Shang advocated and believed in violence and force, so they would directly rage war with those beside them, especially to the west.

This all resulted in the unforgettable hatreds from the different nation towards Shang. Since the time was ripe, they would seek revenge at all costs. Their morale and purpose were the same as Zhou.

While the royal family of Zhou acted peaceful and gentle, their propaganda of ‘peace, benevolence, and goodwill’ earned respect, so they enjoyed a high level of prestige among the kings and people.

The mighty force marched along the river of Wei toward Muye. The flags and banners of the different countries fluttered in the wind, expressing their determination to destroy Shang. These were a bunch of blood-eyed enemies.

A group of birds flew by the dark sky, leaving behind endless loneliness.

Mahout1 : An elephant driver.

Chapter 206 - The Battle of Muye (8)

Second day, before daybreak, the two forces stood in formation on the field of Muye.

Drops of rain started to drizzle down from the gloomy sky, as dark clouds covered the top of the battlefield.

For the Zhou armies, the trenches forced them to place the war chariots at the rear. They could only act as reserve units. There were mostly Zhou homeland soldiers in the middle. 3,000 royal guards stood at the forefront, and 45 thousand armored soldiers followed them.

The kings stationed their troops at the left wing, while the players’ troops were at the right wing.

The arrangement of the Zhou armies was a typical attack formation.

Before the battle, the Zhou armies had made an oath. King Wu stood in front of the formations and condemned King Zhou for all his crimes.

On the other hand, the 100 thousand crossbowmen were the core of Shang dynasty. Therefore, they had decided to take on a defensive strategy. 20 thousand shield-sword infantries formed defensive lines, as they raised their shields to form a wall of metal.

Behind them were naturally the 100 thousand crossbowmen, who stood in a fan-like formation. This formation could allow them to fire arrows from both sides. With such a three-dimensional defensive system, they could directly shoot or project arrows from three directions, front, left, and right, which greatly increased the lethality of the crossbows.

Every formation of a thousand crossbowmen was divided into three groups. The first group would aim and fire, the second group would aim and get ready, while the third would raise their crossbows and wait. They would take turns firing, which allowed them to continuously maintain fire.

The guards and war elephant were on the left wing, while the 10 thousand players’ calvaries were on the right wing. In order to leave enough charging space for the cavalry, they stood slightly behind.

The arrangement of the Shang armies shocked Jiang Shang. A few days before, he had a bad premonition when the spy they sent to contact Weizi did not return. Now, looking at the well-equipped and strictly disciplined soldiers in formation, rather than noisy and disordered slaves, his foreboding had come true.

But there was no turning back now, so their only option was to put in their best and win this war.

Jiang Shang walked to the war drum, and he personally played the drum beats.

As he beat the drum, the Zhou armies moved on beat. One after another, they steadily marched in formation across the trenches toward the Shang. They were like waves of torrents.

The soldiers moved across the field of Muye like sea waves flooding a beach. They trod toward Muye, slowly swallowing it.

King Wu personally led the troops. The imperial guards surrounded and protected him, as he moved in front of the formations.

The soldiers maintained the formations under King Wu’s orders, and they marched together. Above the formations, pikes and spears pointed upright, as the flags and banners of various countries fluttered.

“Raise your shields!” As the officer swung his command flag and gave this order, the imperial guards raised their shields and chanted in unison. They knocked their weapons against their shields, “wu..wu...wu...” along with this sounds, they pushed forward in unison.

When the distance between Shang and Zhou closed to 300-meters, the Shang took the initiative.

Under the lead of the experienced team, the 100 thousand crossbowmen half-kneeled down on the ground. They raised their crossbows and pulled the triggers. Words of the massacre of the 600 thousand slaves had reached them. Since Zhou showed them no mercy, what more did they need to hesitate about?

Volleys of arrows poured down onto the Zhou armies. Every volley could end the lives of more than thousands of soldier, which caused their blood to spurt into the air. The Shang army heavily suppressed the archers of Zhou. They could only passively defend themselves.

Rows and rows of brave soldiers fell; they would never stand up again. Whether it was the elite imperial guards, the soldiers of the kings, or the players’ troops, all of them mourned as the unstoppable arrows rained.

King Wu tried his best to maintain the formations so that it would not venture into chaos. Under the encouragement of King Wu, the rear army continued to fearlessly push forward. They stepped on the corpses of their comrades, eventually turning them into mashed meats.

If they retreated, the only ending for them would be death. None but the brave can live to the end, as long as they crossed the 300-meters firing area, the crossbowmen would be theirs to reap.

At least, the Zhou armies believed it would be so.

The arrows took down the soldiers, and the wounded soldiers fell and filled the trenches. Their blood overflowed and trickled out of the trenches, and the land was once again painted red. Their bodies became bloody, as they stepped on the corpses and blood. However, they bravely moved forward through the rain of arrows and continued on. They were an army of revenge without retreat.

As the fear faded away, the crossbowmen grew more confident, and their coordination improved. Their shooting rate increased, and the arrows had gotten more intensive and penetrating. The arrows passed by the soldiers’ ears and shoulders, or directly struck one of the unlucky ones.

The simple and crude armor of Zhou simply could not stop the sharp arrows. The casualties were getting too heavy. In such a short distance of 300-meters, 20 to 30 thousand soldiers would sleep forever on this blood-soaked land.

When the remaining soldiers finally rushed to the front of the Shang army, Shi Wanshui led a wall of shields to welcomed them. The 1,000 heavy infantry soldiers of Shanhai City were placed in the front, equipped with the Buren Armor made of fine iron. They were indestructible, and even the Zhou spears could not even breakthrough their armor.

As an emperor-level officer, Shi Wanshui had three talents: Take the Lead: Morale of troops enhanced by 40%; Conquer to the South, Fight to the North: Speed and mobility of troops enhanced by 30%; Insightful: Attack power of troops enhanced by 20%. There was also the additional 25% defense up for everyone of the Shang dynasty.

Under these buffs, the shield-sword infantry became fierce and invincible against the poorly equipped Zhou armies.

Shi Wanshui raised his spear and shouted, “Kill!”

“Kill! Kill! Kill!” The infantries raised the shields on their left hand, fending off the spears of their enemies. With their other hand, they swung their blades and split the Zhou soldiers in half. Bits and pieces of broken limbs flew across the sky, as flowers of blood bloomed in mid-air. The proud elite Zhou soldiers were chicken and dogs in the face of the shield-sword infantries.

The wall of shields stopped the Zhou armies from moving even an inch forward. Instead, they were suppressed and forced back.

The crossbowmen were like restless killing machines. They did not stop pulling their triggers for even a second. Volley after volley of arrows relentlessly reaped the souls of the Zhou soldiers.

The arrow rain coverage was so immense that it didn’t just affect the Zhou soldiers in the middle. Even the armies at the two wings were getting hit too.

At least one-third of the 50 thousand players’ troops were eliminated. Some of the lords that had charged at the forefront lost all their soldiers, and some of the others were sent out of the battlefield as a result of their death. At this point in time, the lords were starting to slow down and were asking for a retreat.

However, a darker nightmare fell upon them.

The war elephants charged forward under the covering fire of the crossbowmen. The soldiers on the elephant's back shot arrows at the long-range; at the short-range, they used spears. At the same time, the war elephants were controlled to fight with their tusks and trunks. The 10 thousand royal guards followed the war elephants, protecting the war elephants from ambushes.

The war elephants raged a storm across the players’ troops.

The players’ troops were a pile of loose sand. A great number of the cavalries were uncoordinated, unorganized, and fighting independently. They suffered a great loss even before they reached the front of the Shang armies. And now, as the war elephants charged right into the cavalries, they were thrown into chaos. They couldn’t find their commanders; the commanders couldn’t find their lords, and no one knew whether they should continue pushing forward or retreat. They wasted their strong combat capabilities.

The royal guards of the Shang held the determination to protect their homeland. They waved their spears at the enemies and took away the lives of those who stood before them. Their bronze armor provided great protection.

The players’ troops that held a great advantage were now placed in a bad position. The Shang royal and imperial guards suppressed and held back the players’ troops.

On the right wing, Zhao Liao raised his spear and gave the order to attack, “Charge!”

The cavalries raised their weapons—both spears and lances—and charged toward the kings’ soldiers. Mounted on their warhorses, they were like fairies that rode past the trenches. They did not slow down in the slightest.

In the era of war chariots, these cavalry units were the definition of a nightmare. The arrows did minimal damage to the cavalries’ Mingguang armor. The cavalries were like a burning hot metal rod poked into a pile of butter; they easily tore the kings’ armies into half.

Not a single soldier could stand in their path. Not even a decent corpse could be found, as they were all stomped into mashed meats.

This was not a war. It was a massacre, and the battlefield had turned into a slaughterhouse. The invincible cavalries fearlessly charged back and forth through the sea of the kings’ armies, crippling and disabling them.

Even the bravest soldier would lose all their courage when faced with such a hell on earth. The cavalries’ lances, under the enhancement of their momentum, pierced their enemies into human skewers.

The soldiers that were not dead mourned in mid-air.

But the cavalries were emotionless. They swung their lances and left behind corpses, spreading the intestines and internal organs across the ground. Then, the horses stampeded it all together with the soils and grasses, making a land of human salad.

The rain of relentless arrows continued to pour down onto the Zhou soldiers.

Chapter 207 - Battle of Muye (9)

The progress of the Battle of Muye did not turn out as the others had expected.

Contrary to the expectations of the others, Zhou dynasty’s three roads suffered heavy losses. More than half of their men died, and they were now facing a dire situation. Jiang Shang, who was commanding the army from behind, could only let out a sigh. He bitterly signaled for them to retreat when he saw the situation.

He clearly understood that after today’s battle, every single possibility and chance to overthrow the Shang dynasty had been completely cut off. After this battle, the Zhou dynasty was unlikely to survive the Shang dynasty’s retaliation. He did not forget that at the far, far east, the main force of the Shang dynasty was rushing back at full speed.

A desperate attempt with every single thing that they could muster, yet it only led them to such a result—it was indeed bitter.

As the prime minister of the Zhou dynasty and the commander-in-chief of the army, he could not escape the blame for everything that had happened today. He could only redeem himself with his very own life. However, before he redeemed his sins with his own life, there was still one last thing to do. He needed to protect and secure King Wu of Zhou’s life. Only by protecting the king could the royal bloodline of Zhou continue. As long as the blood continued to flow, there would always be a comeback; they shall rise again.

Jiang Shang ordered the war chariot division to turn back and prepare themselves for retreat. As soon as King Wu returned, they would fall back immediately. As for the remaining soldier and those from the alliance, Jiang Shang couldn’t care less about them anymore in this horrible situation.

After all, Jiang Shang was downright a man of utter utilitarianism. He was a man who was good in the art of trickery to the point of perfection. Jian Shang was the reason why the rebellion of all the ethnic groups in Dong Yi started in the first place. He was the mastermind of all these events; he had stirred up the situation and started the rebel so that once the tribes and Shang dynasty started a war, his country could benefit from it.

After receiving the order to fall back, King Wu showed his emperor’s responsibility at the most crucial moment. He took the initiative to leave his soldiers to cover their backs, allowing the alliance’s army to retreat first. In fact, the alliance had already lost their minds. They were slaughtered like pigs, and they only had less than 1,000 men left.

This war was a nightmare for the alliance. After returning to their own countries, their main priority would be how to deal with the retaliation of the Shang dynasty. According to Di Xin’s personality, the best ending for all the lords was being sacrificed for the worshipping of spirits.

As for the players who sided with them, they had already fallen back one step ahead. Seeing not even the slightest chance of winning, the players would naturally not stay back and die in vain with the Zhou army. Every soldier they brought with them was the best of the best in their own territory, so they must not suffer any unnecessary losses.

The remaining 20,000 men of the players abandoned their weapons, armor, and supplies. Then, they fled in every direction. They ran away like stray dogs that people chased away. Some of them hid in the forest, some tried to cross the river, and some even ran into the mountains. It formed quite a spectacular scene. These players had no intention of returning to Mengjin; they just simply hid themselves somewhere in the wilderness until the battle ended.

The king of Shang, Di Xin, knew the nature of these players’ forces. He knew that they would not stay here for long. Therefore, he did not order his army to pursue the fleeing enemies in order to avoid unnecessary losses.

Although they had successfully suppressed the players’ armies, the imperial guards and the royal guards had also suffered heavy losses. After all, the strengths of the players’ forces were there. There were even these small teams that were willing to die in order to earn themselves more contribution points. In this battle, the war elephants were all wiped out, half of the imperial guards were killed, and the royal guards had lost around 1,000 of their brothers.

Di Chen looked at the fleeing army and let out a sigh. He had completely lost to Qiyue Wuyi again in the Battle of Muye. Chun Shenjun and the others didn't even have a chance to participate in this final battle.

“What should we do now?” asked Juedai Fenghua.

Di Chen looked around. He could only mobilize a force of fewer than 500 men. It was certainly impossible to make a difference at all. Moreover, they had lost all their cavalries. It would be impossible even if they wanted to retreat with King Wu. The only option they had left was to run away and hide in the wilderness, just like the other players.

Di Chen smiled bitterly and said, “What can we do now? There’s nothing we could do. We can only flee and hide!”

The remaining 500 guards surrounded King Wu and quickly retreated. The remaining 20,000 soldiers stayed behind to secure the safe retreat of their king. They courageously took over the defense line of the guards and stood up against the shield-sword soldiers that Shi Wansu ledi.

These 20,000 men that stayed back had prepared to not return to their own countries and families. Their only mission now was to buy their king more time so that he could safely escape. They had already gone mad; if stabbed, they would hold onto the enemies and provide a chance for their brothers. It was a tragedy. Because of their madness, they managed to hold off the army that Shi Wansui led.

However, Shi Wansui was extraordinary too. Excited with the blood ocean on the battlefield, he killed one soldier with just a swing and shouted, “Leave no one alive. Kill them all and capture King Wu! Death to those who block my path!”

“Kill! Kill! Kill!” the heavy infantries let out a roar, one that could seemingly pierce the sky.

Even the maddest radish could not take on a kitchen knife. Once the soldiers interrupted their movements, the heavy infantries would just swing their swords and sever the enemies’ limbs. Then, they would kick them off or swing their shields to deliver a crushing blow to smash open the enemies’ head.

The 20,000 soldiers left behind to cover their king’s retreat died one by one. Their ranks decreased rapidly, being pared layer by layer. The scene was horrible and bloody. The sacrifices of their brothers did not scare them off but drove them even crazier instead.

As King Wu retreated, he could only burst into tears when he heard the dying roars of his soldiers. These were all his soldiers, his people, and his children. The enemy mercilessly slaughtered them, and their king could do nothing but watch them die.

King Wu turned his head back and looked at Di Xin, who was watching the battlefield on his golden war chariot. Then, King Wu said fiercely, “Di Xin, I swear to god that I will kill you for what you have done today!” He carried an even deeper hatred within him, as he joined back with the War Chariot Division.

Up until now, the crossbowmen at the rear had not stopped their barrage at all. Therefore, arrows and bolts still rained down on their path of retreat. Many of the soldiers died on the way because of this.

At this time, their companions could spare no more attention to those who got hurt in the war anymore. They could only leave them lying on the ground, helplessly crying for help. They had to pretend that they could not hear their cries.

Corpses had completely filled the trenches in the southern suburbs, and blood flowed everywhere on the ground. The cruelest part was that these bodies had become the best stepping stones for the retreat of the remaining soldiers. At least they did not have to waste extra energy just to go across these trenches. This moment, every second and minute was very crucial, as they could affect the life and death of every soldier.

Their only thought now was to quickly get out of the range of the enemy crossbowmen. The arrow barrage that the crossbowmen unleashed had become their nightmare.

Even when King Wu retreated, he could not help but lament, “These strong crossbows destroyed my dreams!” By the time they merged with the chariots at the rear, the 1,500 men had been reduced to only less than 1,000.

Ouyangshuo did not plan to stop at this point. Di Xin had appointed him as the commander in chief. While the rear gave out the order to capture King Wu and Jiang Shang, he ordered his own cavalries to aid the heavy infantries. They were to quickly exterminate every enemy that still resisted.

“Capture King Wu! Capture Jiang Shang!”

The army advanced and launched an attack, as they shouted this slogan.

The Cavalry Division was the first to act. The Cavalry Division had suffered little to no losses. They charged and suddenly turned left, piercing into the enemy's main camp under the lead of the three generals—Zhang Liao, Qin Qiong, and Lin Yi.

The truth was, if the cavalries managed to plunge into the rear of the enemies at this time, they would gain a very great chance to destroy the 300 chariots. They could even capture Jiang Shang.

However, destroying all the chariots would be the same as crushing their final glimmer of hope for retreat. With their last hopes crushed, they would know that they had no hopes of surviving. Destroying the chariots would cause the enemies to fight with everything they had left until they all die, which would cause unnecessary damages.

Not only that, Ouyang Shuo also wanted some benefits for himself. If he let King Wu escape now, only Shanhai City’s calvaries would chase after them. As a result, the rewards for killing King Wu would definitely fall into his hands and not some lucky players.

Other than that, Ouyang Shuo also hoped to lessen the losses among his infantries. These enemy infantries had lost their minds, so they could still deliver fatal blows to Ouyang Shuo’s infantries.

The reinforcements of the cavalries thoroughly forced the Zhou troops up a dead end. The cavalries and the infantries cooperated and struck the enemies from the front and back. Then, they began their slaughtering.

At this time, the crossbowmen finally stopped their arrow rain. The continuous and high intensity shooting resulted in the slaves with weak bodies almost collapsing. Even those 5,000 player crossbowmen were exhausted.

They had played a major role in today’s victory.

After they killed the remaining Zhou troops, King Wu, along with Jiang Shang and the other lords, had already escaped on the war chariots.

Now, the noises on the battlefield suddenly subsided, and only some injured soldiers let out occasional groans.

No one realized when the drizzle stopped. The dark clouds dispersed, and the sun shone on the earth again, bringing some warmth to all the survivors.

At the southern suburbs where the sun shone, there wasn’t even the slightest hint of greenery. Bodies covered the entire blood-soaked field. Packs and packs of vultures flew to the field, tracing the blood scent that the bodies emitted. They circled in the air for a long time and refused to leave.

Facing this hell in the human realm before them, many players who were still accustomed to the peaceful environment of reality couldn't stand it. They quickly withdrew themselves to the rear of the army and started puking.

It was the games fault. The realistic settings of the game were just way too gory. Internal organs, intestines, and brain pulp just scattered around the field, luring swarms and swarms of flies.

Perhaps, all of these were just an unexpected gluttonous feast for the animals in the wilderness.

King Shang, Di Xin, stood in his golden chariot. He did not care much about this bloody scene in front of him. In fact, he seemed to be very exuberant. His general, E Lai, stood beside him, and they smiled together.

Ouyang Shuo rode on his Qingfu warhorse and headed toward the golden chariot. He dismounted and saluted Di Xin. Then, he asked, “My King, the enemy leaders are still not dead yet. May I have your permission to chase after them and cut them down once and for all?”

Di Xin had the same intentions. He too understood that if one wanted to get rid of the wild grasses, they had to pluck out the roots of the grass as well. However, with only his armies made up of infantries, there would be no way that they could catch up with the fleeing enemies. He was happy that Ouyang Shuo had volunteered as well.

“Permission granted. Kill them all, and your king shall reward you greatly!” promised Di Xin.

“Your will is my command, my king.” after receiving the order, Ouyang Shuo mounted his horse and went to Lin Yi. Together, they set out with the cavalries and headed to Mengjin.

The other players could only watch Shanhai City’s cavalries mobilize far away. Envy was clearly written on their faces. They knew that there were just so many honor points awaiting Ouyang Shuo and his cavalries to harvest. Those that managed to escape not only included King Wu and Jiang Shang. There were also those lords that were worth an abundant amount of honor values. However, they could only blame the fact that their horses were not as good as Ouyang Shuo’s and his cavalries’ Qingfu warhorses.

Chapter 208 - Battle of Muye (10)

They tracked the ruts that the chariots left behind. Ouyang Shuo and the 1,700 cavalries that survived tracked them down along the Wei River, all the way down to the south. They were very determined to kill or capture the main leaders of the Zhou dynasty in one attempt.

King Wu and Jiang Shang did not even have the slightest clue that the enemy would have horses like the Qingfu warhorses—horses that had such incredible speed and magnificent mobility. The Qingfu warhorses could catch up and even outrun them. However, they did not know this, so they did not even bother to cover up their tracks.

When it was close to noon, the enemy chariots that had fled were already in the vicinity of Ouyang Shuo and his army.

Ouyang Shuo suddenly raised his hand to signal for the party to stop. When he signaled them to down, they cavalries that were still traveling at high speeds abruptly stopped. It was like they had pressed down hard onto the brakes of a car. Their movements were united and flawless.

“Wang Feng!” Ouyang Shuo called to his elite guard captain

Wang Feng, who had always followed behind Ouyang Shuo, immediately rode to the front and said, “My lord, your orders?”

“Come here.”

The always cool captain now had a face of confusion. He had no idea what his lord was trying to do again. Ouyang Shuo whispered something to Wang Feng. For a quick moment, Wang Feng showed a surprise expression, but he soon returned to his usual cool expression. Although his face slightly changed, no one saw anything. As such, none of them had any idea what kind of task their lord had given him.

Wang Feng returned to his position and signaled to the elite guards. Then, he said, “Elite guards, come with me!” Then, they headed toward a small path at the side.

“Yes sir!” said the elite guards. They swiftly followed their captain with no unnecessary thoughts.

All of the other cavalries, including Lin Yi, did not raise a question at all. There were rules in the armies. Things that should not be said shall never be said, and whatever should not be asked shall remain unasked.

As the head of all the Shanhai City’s armies, Ouyang Shuo’s orders would always be kept as the top secret information at all times.

“Keep moving. Remember, I want both King Wu and Jiang Shang alive. Capture them and make sure not to hurt them,” Ouyang Shuo specifically reminded his cavalries, as he was worried that they might carelessly hurt King Wu and Jiang Shang.

“Yes my lord!”

After a short moment of waiting, the army continued their advance and caught up with the enemies that had fled in front.

The sounds of galloping horses were just like rumbling thunder. It alerted King Wu about his pursuers. The now frightened King Wu turned his head. What appeared in his sight was wave after wave of fierce cavalries that advanced toward them with immense power and incredible speed.

The Mingguang armor on each and every cavalry was just so obvious, as they brightly glimmered under the sunlight.

The golden rays reflected from the Mingguang armor was just way too iconic. Therefore, King Wu recognized that these cavalries were the ones that had mercilessly slaughtered the alliance forces. The faces of the other lords turned even paler. In their eyes, these cavalries were the shadow of war that rode beneath the fog of war. These cavalries would cut down and trample their foes under their iron hooves, despite the shiny armor that made them resemble holy knights.

“Even the heaven wants me dead!” King Wu lamented.

Right after the lamentations of King Wu,s a non-stop heavy arrow rain traveled toward them at high speeds.

Every chariot had two or four horses pulling it. Among the four horses, the two horses in between were called ‘two fu.’ They were tied with the yoke used to balance the two shaft of the chariot; the left and right horses were called the ‘two can.’ They were tied in front of the chariot with leather, collectively known as ‘si.’

Every chariot carried three soldiers that stood in a horizontal line.

The soldiers that stood on the left plays the role of an archer, also known as the head of the chariot, called ‘che zuo’ or ‘jia shou.’ The one on the right was the halberdier, his main priority was to cut down enemies with his halberd and clear away any obstacles that blocked the chariot, called ‘che you’ or ‘can cen.’ The charioteer stood in the middle, and he only carried a short sword for self-defense.

The cavalries aimed the arrow rain at the che zuo and the charioteers. Their purpose was to shoot down and disable these threats, which would prevent return fire and stop the chariots. Of course, this would really require extremely good archery skills.

As expected, those che zuos’ on the chariots tried to retaliate. However, their shooting range was quite a joke when compared to the shooting range of the cavalries equipped with composite bows. The che zuos’ arrow just fell down before they could hit any of the cavalries.

“Stop now or die!” Lin Yi loudly shouted under Ouyang Shuo’s hint.

When he heard this, it was like Jiang Shang had suddenly grown older. He felt like he had become a weak old man. These players were always doing things outside of his expectations. He was indeed smart and wise, but the amount of information that the parties held was completely different. The existence of his opponents was out of this era’s understandings. Although he had tactics and tricks up his sleeves, he could not do much at all.

“My king, we should stop. We can’t escape anymore,” said Jiang Shang bitterly.

King Wu remained silent, but he signaled for his army to stop.

Ouyang Shuo and his cavalries quickly surrounded the 300 war chariots once they came to a stop. Even so, the cavalries did not let their guards down and remained vigilant. In fact, they raised their bows and aimed at each and every one of the enemies in front of them, preventing them from doing anything stupid.

“Weapons on the ground, please!” said Ouyang Shuo in a threatening tone.

The surrounded soldiers could only look helplessly at their king with pale faces. King Wu did not dare to look into their eyes. He just looked down and gestured for them to do as Ouyang Shuo had demanded. With that, the soldiers threw their weapons onto the ground and stopped their resistance.

These people were now sheeps in a slaughterhouse. They waited to be slaughtered, leaving their fates in Ouyang Shuo’s hands.

Jiang Shang stood on the chariot without any fear, and he said courageously, “Your army and your skills decided that you are not an anonymous pawn! Tell me your name. Let me die knowing who defeated us.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, and he walked out of his army with Lin Yi and a few other subordinates. Then, he said, “I am the player representative under the Shang dynasty, and my name is Qiyue Wuyi. I am here to take you as prisoners under the orders of the King of Shang! Stop your futile resistance at once!”

Jiang Shang was no ordinary person. Judging by Ouyang Shuo’s strange behavior, Jiang Shang could tell that he was plotting something. Otherwise, Ouyang Shuo could’ve just killed them all in a flash. Instead, he decided to ask them to yield instead.

Jiang Shang suddenly managed to keep his cool, and his heart started to pump at a calm rate. He said to himself that maybe there was still a chance and intentionally said, “Di Xin is a violent, greedy, and unethical king! He has wasted so much of the country’s resources on unnecessary aspects! Why is someone like you still willing to work for him?”

Ouyang Shuo smiled and said, “Tai Gong, you must be joking. After all, we are serving different kings.” Ouyang Shuo did not budge against Jiang Shang’s accusations, as they both served a different king. Because of this, their opinions were fated to be different.

Jiang Shang became speechless for a moment, and he realized that Ouyang Shuo was a man of determination, so he became straightforward with him and asked, “Then, what do you want? Since our lives are in your hands, why not just make things clear to us? Why are you still hesitating?”

Jiang Shang was indeed a true utilitarian. He was able to directly strike the main points

Ouyang Shuo saluted him and said, “The thing is, I came here for you, Tai Gong.”

“Oh? I’m just a dying old man. What an battle contribution for you to come for me,” replied Jiang Shang with barbed words.

“I am sure that Tai Gong knows that players like us will not be able to stay here for long. Wuyi admires Tai Gong’s wisdom and personality. Therefore, Wuyi hopes that Tai Gong will follow me back so that I can listen to your teachings every day,” said Ouyang Shuo, as he boldy revealed his intentions.

Jiang Shang remained determined and replied, “A loyal vassal will never serve two lords. Besides, you are an enemy to us.”

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and said, “Tai Gong, please don't reject me so fast. Perhaps, after listening to my conditions, you might change your mind.”

“Say no more. No matter what your conditions are, I will not yield!” said Jiang Shang without any sign of giving in.

Ouyang Shuo did not feel disappointed, as he had expected such a reaction. Jiang Shang only said these things because he wanted to fight for more benefits and rights. It is unlikely that he would not surrender at all. Ouyang Shuo continued, “What if my condition is that I’ll let King Wu escape alive if you joined me?”

Jiang Shang’s face immediately changed as King Wu was his weakness. He could die to atone his sins, but he could never let himself see the extinction of the bloodline of the western Zhou in front of him. If this happened, how could he still have the guts to face King Wen when he died?

“You are saying that if I yield and go with you, you will let King Wu go?” Jiang Shang confirmed again.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, “That’s right!”

“Then, how about the others?” Jiang Shang was definitely not satisfied with saving only King Wu.

Ouyang Shuo smirked coldly and said, “Tai Gong, letting King Wu run away alive is the most I can do. I still have to go back and receive the punishments of my king. Please don't force me to do it.”

As soon as Ouyang Shuo ended his speech, other than King Wu, the other people’s faces turned incredibly pale as if there was no more blood anymore. Without a doubt, Ouyang Shuo has already pronounced their deaths.

Jiang Shang remained quiet, and many thoughts ran around in his mind. He knew that Ouyang Shuo was not a soft-hearted man, “If that’s the case, I’ll promise you. However, I have already grown tired of all these things and have no intentions of becoming a vassal anymore. I’ll just stay hidden away from politics forever.”

The first half of his sentence made Ouyang Shuo excited, but the second half made Ouyang Shuo only able to bitterly smile. However, he did not feel frustrated. He knew that such a legendary historical figure was not so easy to recruit.

It would be a lie to say that the idea of recruiting Jiang Shang did not tempt Ouyang Shuo.

He chose another way of recruiting Jiang Shang in order to realize his wild wish. However, Gaia did not let his wild wish come true after all.

Ouyang Shuo sighed in his heart. In the end, there were still some gains no matter what. Even if he did not help Ouyang Shuo in anyway, as long as Jiang Shang agreed to settle down in Shanhai City, some other historical figures will be attracted to Shanhai City because of his influences. As for the other benefits, it would wholly depend on how Ouyang Shuo manipulated it.

“System notification: Congratulations to Qiyue Wuyi for successfully recruiting Jiang Shang. Due to the fact that Jiang Shang was forced, player does not fulfill all the requirements. Jiang Shang shall remain in the state of retirement.”

“System notification: Congratulations to Qiyue Wuyi for becoming the first player to recruit a legendary historical figure. 4,000 battle contribution points and 20,000 reputation points are awarded to him.”

This was an unexpected gain. Ouyang Shuo cleared away his unnecessary thoughts. He kept cool and ordered his men to isolate Jiang Shang’s chariot from the others. Ouyang Shuo was also worried that Jiang Shang’s old body might not be able to sustain the excessively bumpy conditions of the chariot.

As for the chariot of King Wu, Ouyang Shuo allowed it to be released, but King Wu refused to leave. He said loudly, “I cannot let myself get away by sacrificing my prime minister, my people, and my allies for my life! I refuse to yield and I will fight to death!”

Sadness started to spread around the surrounded soldiers and the hearts of everyone.

On his chariot, Jiang Shang bowed to his king and said, “My King! You must secure the royal bloodline inheritance of Zhou. This is your responsibility and your duty! Please do not let us down.”

King Wu lamented, “But without you, I can never achieve anything even if I manage to get back alive. What can I do without you?” The young King Wu suddenly felt clueless and perplexed about the Zhou dynasty’s future.

“In the country, you still have Zhou Gong. He can help you in many ways. My King, you shall never give up and you must restore the glory of the Zhou dynasty!” said Jiang Shang.

“My King! Please leave us here and get home safe!” all of a sudden, King Wu’s soldiers kneeled down and begged their king to escape and stay safe.

Although Ouyang Shuo couldn't stay emotionless about this scene right now, he could not do much about it. This was war and war had always been cruel and bloody. Besides, one must have the psychological preparation of losing if they ever started a war against someone.

King Wu let out a long sigh of lamentation and boarded his chariot. Then, he swiftly left.

Chapter 209 - Battle of Muye (11)

After King Wu left, a strong sense of despair clearly entangled those who were left behind.

“We fight to the death!” Some did not want to die without trying, so they picked up their weapons and decided to put up a fight before dying.

Meanwhile, along with Jiang Shang and his chariot, Ouyang Shuo had already left the battlefield. He asked Lin Yi to handle the rest. Emotionlessly, Lin Yi raised his hand to signal to the soldiers, “Fire!”

A tremendous arrow rain that seemed like it could blot out the entire sky instantly poured onto the surrounded enemies. After a brief moment, all the grieving shouts and scary moans stopped. None of them had survived. Then, Lin Yi asked his men to check on the bodies one by one to ensure that all of them were dead. If they were not dead, the soldiers were more than happy to deliver another fatal strike. Other than that, they also beheaded the enemies, covered it up, tied it to the back of the horses, and returned to Zhaoge. Di Xin had specifically ordered this.

Jiang Shang lamented on his chariot, as he heard the dying cries of his former soldiers.

At three in the afternoon, the party passed by Muye. At the same time, the main forces of Shang had returned to Zhaoge with their emperor, Di Xin. Therefore, Ouyang Shuo decided to not stop at Muye. Instead, he returned to Zhao Ge as fast as possible.

After arriving at Zhao Ge and meeting up with the other members of the Shanhai Alliance, Ouyang Shuo immediately rushed to the palace. He needed to make a report of the situation to Di Xin and claim his rewards at the same time.

Meanwhile, the Battle of Muye had officially ended, and the campaign announcement rang out.

“Campaign announcement: The Battle of Muye has ended. Congratulations to the Shang dynasty faction for successfully reversing the ending of history. Every player of this faction will be rewarded with 500 merit points. Shang dynasty faction player lords’ battle contribution points will be raised by an additional 50% based on the original value. Friendly tips: additionally awarded battle contribution points are not counted toward the campaign contribution value board.”

The way that Gaia awarded players was still very reasonable. It had awarded 500 merit points as a basic award to the players to ensure that everyone benefited. It also awarded additional battle contribution points to the player lords who had contributed more than anyone else. The more you contributed, the better the rewards, separating them from the normal players.

Lastly, the additional rewards that did not count toward the campaign contribution value board also ensured the fairness for both sides. This avoided scenarios where the losing side got stripped of their chances for getting listed on the campaign contribution value board.

“Campaign announcement: The Battle of Muye has ended. Now, players are now awarded additional rewards based on their contribution on pushing the momentum of the campaign, their contributions to their own faction, and other contributions.”

Right after that, another system notification rang beside Ouyang Shuo’s ears.

“System notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi, player representative of Shang dynasty. He contributed 100,000 crossbows to form up the crossbowmen division with the slaves. Ambushing the enemy players at the southern suburbs of Muye and destroying the enemy's command post. Effective battle commanding; pursuit of the remaining enemies; elimination of enemies that fled. With all these achievements, you are awarded 800,000 points of battle contribution points.”

A crucial point of their win in the Battle of Muye was the forming of the slave crossbowmen division, and Ouyang Shuo had handled all of this. He managed to pull it off, and the forming of the crossbowmen had an even better result when compared to the Battle of Zhuolu.

In return, the additional battle contribution points awarded to Ouyang Shuo for this had reached the total of the points he gained in the Battle of Zhuolu. However, chances for special occasions like the Battle of MuYe were going to be hard to come by.

After assessing the contribution value of all the players, the final top 10 contribution list had also been confirmed and published.

【Position】

【Name】

【Battle Contribution Points】

【1st】

【Qiyue Wuyi】

【240,000 points】

【2nd】

【Bai Hua】

【 55,000 points】

【3rd】

【Feng Qiuhuang】

【50,000 points】

【4th】

【Mulan Yue】

【45,000 points】

【5th】

【Xunlong Dianxue】

【42,000 points】

【6th】

【Di Chen】

【40,000 points】

【7th】

【Siege Lion】

【32,000 points】

【8th】

【??】

【30,000 points】

【9th】

【Hua Huo】

【25,000 points】

【10th】

【Chun Shen Jun】

【15,000 points】

Shanhai Alliance had achieved another great victory again. Ouyang Shuo’s battle contribution points had an incredibly huge lead from the second place. After the final assessment, Ouyang Shuo had achieved 41,000 merit points, and this was before the addition of the 4,000 merit points he acquired by recruiting Jiang Shang.

Till then, Ouyang Shuo had achieved 85,800 merit points, reaching the title of 3rd-class marquis. He was just one step away from reaching the required points of 102,400 to advance and become a 2nd class marquis.

With the help of Zhang Liao, Bai Hua had once again managed to surpass Feng Qiuhuang and achieved the runner-up position. Also, with the points they had acquired, Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang had both managed to advance into 1st-class counts. This advancement raised their town to grade 3, sweeping away their obstacles in one shot.

Other than that, Mulan Yue skipped 3rd-class count directly and advanced into 2nd-class count. Mulan Yue’s main source of contribution in this campaign was from her general, Mu Guiying.

Xunlong Dianxue and Siege Lion had also advanced to 2nd and 3rd-class counts respectively. With these, the titles of all the Shanhai Alliance members had skyrocketed with the two campaigns.

However, those who had chosen the Zhou dynasty faction like Chun Shenjun had completely missed their chance to advance their title due to their losses in the Battle of Muye. As for their town level advancement, they would have to wait for a longer time or even until the next campaign. Whereas Di Chen managed to pull it off by obtaining 6,000+ merit points, but it was still not enough to advance to the next title.

The Battle of Muye had become an important turning point for all of these higher level players.

Lin Yi brought a cavalry squadron and escorted Ouyang Shuo into the palace. For Jiang Shang, in order to not attract the attention of the other lords, Ouyang Shuo arranged for him to stay outside of the city and had a cavalry squadron protect him.

After a few moments, Ouyang Shuo and his guards stopped somewhere near to the palace. An hour later, Wang Feng had returned with the elite guards and rejoined Ouyang Shuo and his party.

Then, Ouyang Shuo ordered Lin Yi to return back and hand over the rewards to the elite guards division. Lin Yi needed to lead the elite guards into the palace under the guidance of the palace guards.

Di Xin summoned and met Ouyang Shuo at the main hall. Without any further ado, Ouyang Shuo immediately asked the guards to present the heads of the alliance’s lords. Other than that, Wang Feng personally handed another head stored in a box to the palace guard.

When the palace guard took the box for examination, they saw the beheaded head of King Wu, which quietly laid in the box.

In truth, Ouyang Shuo did not want to let the rewards for killing King Wu slip away from his hands.

Therefore, even after he promised Jiang Shang that he would let King Wu leave safely, he had secretly ordered Wang Feng to head to the front through the small path and intercept the chariot of King Wu. Although this was really despicable, he did not regret his decision.

To be honest, Ouyang Shuo had still kept his promise with Jiang Shang. He had promised Jian Shang that he would let King Wu go, but he did not promise that he wouldn’t ask his men to chase after him.

When he saw the head of King Wu, Di Xin said happily, “Good, good, good! Well done, Qiyue Wuyi, well done! You did not let me down.”

Ouyang Shuo took this opportunity and said, “My king, I have one little request. Could you kindly grant it to me?”

“Speak!” said Di Xin. He was in a happy mood.

“Could you keep this as a secret temporarily? Not for long, just until I leave this place.”

“Why so?” said the confused Di Xin.

Ouyang Shuo said with embarrassment, “Jiang Shang has promised to follow me back to my place, so I do not wish for him to hear any news about the death of King Wu to prevent unnecessary events.”

As a very smart man, Di Xin quickly grasped the main point of this little demand of Ouyang Shuo. After all, all he had to do was just announce it one day later after Ouyang Shuo left, so it really was not a big deal at all.

“Alright, you have my promise on this,” said Di Xin directly. Then, he turned to E’Lai who, was standing at the side of the main hall and said, “I will keep my promise as well. From now on, I hand over General E’Lai to you, you must never fail him.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, “Thank you, my king!”

E’Lai immediately understood the situation. He walked to Ouyang Shuo and kneeled down on one knee. Then, he said, “I am yours to command, my lord!”

Ouyang Shuo saluted him and quickly asked him to get up, “Rise, my general.”

At the same time, a system notification rang in his ears.

“System notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for recruiting an emperor-level historical figure, E’Lai.”

Ouyang Shuo took a look at E’Lai’s stats.

【Name】：E’Lai（emperor-level）

【Dynasty】：Shang dynasty

【Identity】：Shanhai City General

【Occupation】：Special-class Officer

【Loyalty】：80 points

【Leadership】：75

【Strenth】：98

【Int】：50

【Politic】：25

【Specialty】：Power：increases party’s attack by 20% ；Evil Blood Aura：increases party’s morale by 40%；Earth Shaker：increases party’s defense by 20%

【Technique】：《Tiger Si Huang Jing》

【Equipment】：Bronze Armor

【Description】：Famous general of the Shang dynasty，Ancestor of the Qin dynasty，famous for his strength. He is able to wrestle with rhinos and brawl with tigers and bears.

Although he was a Special-class Officer just like Shi Wansui, he lacked proper equipment. But this did not matter anymore as Ouyang Shuo planned to craft better armor and weapons for him. Moreover, Ouyang Shuo planned to get him a proper ride in order to equip him with something good.

The rewards that Di Xin gave to Ouyang Shuo did not end here. Di Xin personally handed a damask pouch to Ouyang Shuo and said, “In this dynasty, we believe in gods and demons. We pray to them for protection. In this sack, there are five incense pills that comes from the condensations of our daily prayings. It is really precious, as it has an immense effect on all sorts of temples. I gift it to you now. Use it wisely.”

Di Xin’s words surprised Ouyang Shuo, as he did not expect that there would be such exceptional items when he came to accept his rewards.

Not only that, Di Xin continued, “Come, follow me. The final rewards I prepared for you are outside of the hall now.”

Ouyang Shuo followed Di Xin to the outside. He was very curious about the reward. What kind of reward requires one to head outside? In his mind, he guessed that the reward must be something that was extraordinarily big to be awarded to someone outside the hall.

As expected, Di Xin pointed to a huge bronze vessel and said, “Fan Ding, the symbol of power. I now grant you this to exalt your extraordinary achievements.”

Ouyang Shuo took a look at the vessel. This Ding appears to be in rectangular with four legs. It stood on the ground with a lid and two handles. On the body of Ding, were carvings of various godly animals that looked extremely realistic.

Although he did not know the usage of the vessel, it did not stop him from stowing it away. He bowed and thanked Di Xin for his generous rewards.

Then, Ouyang Shuo and his elite guards headed outside of the palace and his party joined him. After that, they teleported away through the portal.

Chapter 210 - Battle of Muye (12)

When Ouyang Shuo walked out of the portal, a system notification rang beside his ear.

“System notification: The Battle of Muye has ended. Historical figures from Shang dynasty and Zhou dynasty will now be generated into the game’s progress. Players are now free to explore this.”

After that, another system notification quickly followed, and it shocked the entire world.

“World notice: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for becoming the first marquis in the world. The title of Lianzhou Marquis is specially granted to the player. The player is rewarded with 20,000 reputation points, and the capital city with jurisdiction over the player’s city will give them their rewards.”

Ouyang Shuo knew that Gaia would only reward the first 10 players that advanced to marquis with a special title. After the top 10, they would only get an ordinary title with no special title. Although the special title from Gaia had no extra benefits, it was still an honor that was enough to drive people crazy.

In the Alliance channel, Bai Hua and the others that had returned one step earlier than Ouyang Shuo congratulated him one by one.

“Oh my god, boss! You’re so cool! Another first in the world for you!” said Gong Chengshi with admiration.

“Wuyi Ge Ge, Lian Zhou Marquis by Gaia! You’re making us Lianzhou lords seem useless. Without prior knowledge, people will actually think that we are your vassals,” Mulan Hua complained about Gaia’s bias.

“Wuyi, when do you plan to raise your Shanhai City into Shanhai Prefecture? Please don’t go too far ahead of us,” said Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang jokingly.

“You two should work a little harder. I am sure that the two of you will have a chance if you work harder.” Both Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang were first class count. If they received massive gains in the next campaign scenario, there would be a very great chance for them.

“Thank you, but I still want to thank you for your help us in this campaign scenario,” said the smiling Bai Hua. She was clearly satisfied with the rewards from this campaign. Bai Hua knew that although Zhang Liao was way better than Lin Yi, Ouyang Shuo still asked Zhang Liao to help her. Hence, she really appreciated his help a lot.

“Yeah! There will always be achievements if we follow our alliance lord!” said Xunlong Dianxue.

“All hail our alliance lord!” said Gong Chengshi playfully.

Among all of them, only Feng Qiuhuang did not show much interest.

During the campaign, Ouyang Shuo had already informed Feng Qiuhuang about the information that Wufu divulged, and they had an in-depth discussion already. When Feng Qiuhuang learned about this news, she felt abandoned and extremely helpless for a moment.

Fortunately, Ouyang Shuo was there to calm her down. He told her that no matter what, she was still the lord of Fallen Phoenix Town and this was an unchangeable fact. Even if her clan members did not trust her anymore, if someone had to leave, it would definitely be her clan members and not her.

For this matter, Feng Qiuhuang was not fighting alone, as she had Shanhai Alliance’s full support.

With the comfort of Ouyang Shuo, Feng Qiuhuang managed to calm her emotions down. She had decided that after this campaign, she would confront her clan members. If they could not have a mutual trust, there was no need for them to be together anymore.

After a small celebration, Ouyang Shuo closed the alliance channel. He said that he was busy as an excuse.

A total of 3,000 men followed Ouyang Shuo into the campaign, and only 2,500 of them came back alive. The division that suffered the heaviest lost was naturally the mountain barbarian heavy infantries. They were the ones who stood firmly on the frontlines and fought directly with the enemies. Although they had the upper hand, in order to achieve something, one would always have to pay a price.

In the end, 300 were killed among the 1,000 heavy infantries.

Considering the special characteristics of these mountain barbarians, Ouyang Shuo ordered the Military Affairs Department to recruit the barbarians from Qiushui Town and Friendship Town into the Mixed Regiment. Whereas for the City Defense Division, they would recruit locals.

This move was actually Ouyang Shuo’s decision to declare the classifications of his army. Field operations like the Mixed Regiment and Vanguard Unit belonged in the first rank and had a higher position than the City Defense Division. The second rank included all parts of the City Defense Division, while the third rank belonged to the those like reserve army and the Langshan defense army that had no proper organization.

In the future, when the time was right, salary and equipment would also be dispatched according to the classification of Shanhai City’s army. Those who were in the first rank would have priority access to these supplies.

Then, Ouyang Shuo ordered all the army divisions to return to their own camp. After that, he brought Jiang Shang and E’Lai back to his lord’s hall.

On the way, Ouyang Shuo pointed to the schools in the city and explained the situation to Jiang Shang. Then, he tried asking Jiang Shang, “Tai Gong wants to live in seclusion, and I am absolutely fine with that. If you don’t mind, why not settle down in the school of the city? They have a peaceful and harmonious academic environment there. It is a perfect place for Tai Gong. What do you think?”

Ouyang Shuo suggested this because first of all, he wanted Jiang Shang to lecture in these schools and cultivate talented pupils for him. Second and last of all, he did not want Jiang Shang to settle in the forest outside of the city, as that would cut off all chances for Ouyang Shuo to recruit him.

However, Jiang Shang did not show much interest in this matter. He kept quiet and expressed no opinion about Ouyang Shuo’s suggestion. Luckily, upon returning to the main map, the game system had automatically corrected these historical figures. Therefore, like Fan Zhongyan and the others, Jiang Shang now had a deeper understanding of the game. He no longer limited himself to his own era, so he now has a wider view of all things. The rise and fall of a kingdom now had less impact on him too.

Ouyang Shuo did not feel dejected too. He brought the duo to the lord’s hall and ordered the secretary to ask all the division heads to come here as there were important guests.

After greeting each other, Ouyang Shuo asked Fan Zhongyan to entertain Jiang Shang. He also ordered Fan Zhongyan to bring Jiang Shang around the schools for a walk before deciding where to settle down.

“General E’Lai, what kind of weapon do you like to most?” asked Ouyang Shuo.

E’Lai happily smiled and said, “Other than dagger axes and spears, I’ve never tried any other weapons before.”

His words surprised Ouyan Shuo. Then, he suddenly remembered that in history, Dian Wei had used a pair of steel halberds. A halberd was the combination of dagger ax and spear. Come to think of it, maybe E’Lai would have no problem using halberds.

He quickly turned to the Ge Hongliang and said, “Director Ge, go to the Armory Division and ask them to craft General E’Lai a pair of halberds. Also, ask them to specially make armor for the general. Seek his opinions on both armor and weapons, make sure that the general has no problems using them.”

“Yes, my lord!” said Ge Hong Liang.

For E’Lai, Ouyang Shuo had already made some arrangements for him. However, it must be postponed until the expansion of the territory’s army. Hence, for the moment, Ouyang Shuo arranged for E’Lai to stay in the army camps in the city so that he could get used to the environment.

After arranging the duo, Ouyang Shuo finally had the chance to take a look at the items that Di Xin had awarded to him. He first took out the damask pouch and poured out an incense pill to check its stats.

【Incense Pill】: The condensation of daily prayers to gods and demons, Increases the temples’ incense upon usage.

Immediately, Ouyang Shuo associated this item with the hidden structure, Mazu Temple, that was still sealed away. He needed incense pills to break the seal on Mazu Temple.

Then, Ouyang Shuo got up and headed outside of the hall. He took out the vessel to take a look at its stats.

【Name】: Shang Ding ( Platinum Class)

【Stats】: Divine Protection (Increases the defense of territory by 20%), Supremacy (Increases the majesty of the lord by 20%), Omnidirectional Suppression (Increases the combat prowess of army by 20%).

【Description】: This is a high end Shang dynasty Fan Ding. A symbol of power and might, it can be used for rituals.

Ouyang Shuo sucked in a deep breath upon seeing this. He had never thought that this Shang dynasty vessel would be a platinum class item that had such incredible stats. Especially the Omnidirectional Suppression; increasing neither the attack nor the defense of the army but all aspects instead.

Until now, in terms of every aspect, Shanhai City’s army was already leading and way ahead of all the armies in the other territories. This made Ouyang Shuo extremely excited and happy.

In his mind, he planned to build an altar in front of the temple of the Yellow Emperor, Huang Di, to place the Shang dynasty vessel. Then, Ouyang Shuo put the vessel back into his inventory and headed over to the Mazu Temple in the north on his Qingfu warhorse.

The north gate’s drawbridge was now completely removed. A total of three stone arch bridges were also completed. Through the bridges, one could reach the north region, and if one looked ahead, he or she would be able to see the prosperity of the commercial streets.

The biggest theatres, taverns, and restaurants were all located in the commercial streets where there was a high level of competition. As for the woodworks and blacksmiths, they were no longer fit enough to remain in the commercial street. Instead, they were now placed in the inner circle of the commercial district.

The theatres had their own crews, as the game system generated all of them. According to Bing’er, the dramas played in the theatres were extremely good to watch. However, up until now, the poor Ouyang Shuo never had the chance to take a look at it.

The current commercial street included all sorts of service shops and became the place with the highest consumptions. Even in the night, the streets were still light up brightly, and high-density crowds still walk around it.

However, Ouyang Shuo naturally had no intention of taking a look and going shopping around the streets. He straightforwardly turned left and headed into the residential area.

Although quite some time had passed, the construction of residential areas that occupied the largest acres in the city had not even passed one-third of the progress. All the paths around the residential areas were layered with blue stones, and the paths separated the housing areas into different neighborhoods. In order to ease the management, the Administration Department had elected an individual as the head to represent a neighborhoods.

Mazu Temple was built on the riverbanks of the inner city river.

When Ouyang Shuo rushed to Mazhu Temple. The elite guards that followed him immediately blocked off all access to the temple, restricting people from entering. As for those who were inside the temples, the guards also nicely asked them to exit the temple.

This was not Ouyang Shuo trying to show off his power as the lord, but to keep the secret of the incense pills. These pills were not suitable to be seen by ordinary people.

Ouyang Shuo asked his guards to secure the temple entrance and headed inside himself. The Mazu Temple now had already expanded quite a numerous times. Its size was now five to six times its original size. The temple was also separated into three sections.

Ouyang Shuo walked to the front of the statue of Mazu and took out a pill. As expected, the system notification rang.

“System notification: Incense pills to break the seal of Mazu Temple have been detected on player Ouyang Shuo. Do you want to use it to lift the seal? Friendly tips: Maximum of one pill can only be used on the temple, repeated attempts will have no effects.”

“Yes, use it.”

The pill flew away from Ouyang Shuo’s palm and turned into a white ray. Then, it flew into the statue.

“System notification: After the enchantment of the pill, the power of the Mazu Temple has been greatly increased. Current progress of seal breaking is 60%.

Ouyang Shuo sighed. In the end, the seal could not be lifted away in one shot.

Chapter 211 - Battle of Muye (13)

After leaving Mazu Temple, Ouyang Shuo headed toward the Chenghuang Temple and the Temple of Earth.

As he could only use the pills on Mazu Temple once, there were still four of them left now. Ouyang Shuo wanted to check and see what kind of effects these pills would have on the other temples too.

First, he arrived at the Chenghuang Temple. He took out a pill. As expected, the system notification rang again.

“System notification: Incense pills have been detected. Do you want to use it?”

“Yes, use it!”

In a flash, the pill turned into a ray of white light that entered the statue of the Chenghuang.

“System notification: Chenghuang’s statue has been enchanted by incense pills. The Chenghuang Temple has derived a special characteristic ——【Myriad Observation】(Decreases the crime rate of the territory by 30%).

Therefore, Ouyang Shuo concluded that these pills were used to derive special effects from temples. Then, he continued to the Temple of Earth and used another pill.

“System notification: God of Earth’s statue has been enchanted by incense pills. The Temple of Earth has derived a special characteristic ---【Prosper Harvest】(Increase the harvest of all crops by 10%).

Finally, Ouyang Shuo arrived at the Yellow Emperor, Huang Di’s, Temple. The result let Ouyang Shuo down, as the pills did not affect on the temple. Then, he guessed that:

1 - The temple had been set as the ancestral hall and needed to maintain its purity, causing the pills to have no affect on it or,

2 - The temple has been fully upgraded, leaving no room for further upgrades.

Again, Ouyang Shuo did not feel dejected. He stored the remaining two pills and planned to use it on the Temple of Literature and the Temple of Military that would appear when Shanhai City advanced to grade 3.

In the afternoon, the royal family sent an envoy to Shanhai City, representing the imperial court to officially confer Ouyang Shuo the title of Lianzhou Marquis. After receiving the notification, the Cultural Division immediately prepared the things needed to welcome the court messenger.

The envoy took out the royal edict. Under the lead of Ouyang Shuo, the generals and strategists of Shanhai City received the edict.

“Under the fortune of the emperor, player Qiyue Wuyi arrived in the wilderness. Appointed with huge hope and missions, he overcame obstacles, crushing the evil forces and achieving outstanding merits. Now, he is granted with the title of Lianzhou Marquis to show the emperor’s gratitude.”

“Thank you for the king’s gracious,” said Ouyang Shuo.

The rewards from the court contained four items.

The first was the seal of the Lianzhou Marquis. The seal shone with golden rays, and it weighed approximately 300 grams. On the top of the seal was the word ‘King (王)’ and on the bottom were the letterings Lianzhou Marquis.

The seal would replace the lord’s credential, and it became the personal credential for Ouyang Shuo.

The second item was the panorama map for the entire State of Lian. The map contained every single little detail, from rivers and hills to all sorts of resources like mines.

The gifting of this map to Ouyang Shuo did not mean that the entire state was now his fief. It could only be said that Ouyang Shuo had become the titular of the state.

The third item was the feudal lord robe. The robe was used for various occasions such as performing rituals.

The fourth item was the Dan Bow and Arrow that represented the Lianzhou Marquis authorization of conquest. In truth, it was just a bow and a red arrow. However, this meant that Ouyang Shuo was authorized to launch any campaigns within the State of Lian.

The above four items were the symbol of Ouyang Shuo’s title and the acknowledgment of his current position, which separated him from the other ordinary players. He became one very important lord in the wilderness.

Among these items, the map and the bow and arrow were immediately placed in the Yellow Emperor Temple for worship.

Other than these four items, the court also awarded Ouyang Shuo with silk, jewelry, gold, horses and a luxury carriage.

After awarding Ouyang Shuo, the court messenger accepted some money as tips from Xu Shuda. Then, the court messenger immediately returned to the court without any further ado. The court’s award to Ouyang Shuo had made the entire territory extremely happy and excited.

Ouyang Shuo ordered Zhi Su to store the rewards from the court in the storage of the lord’s hall. Then, he took a portion of the gold away and left some for the expenses of the lord’s hall.

By the time they finished dealing with these matters, it was already the evening. After his dinner with Bing’er, he returned to his room and continued his meditation. After migrating, meditating at every night had become Ouyang Shuo’s new habit.

Gaia 1st Year, 16th of the 8th Month, Shanhai City welcomed another advancement.

Ouyang Shuo walked into the meeting room and quietly said the command for territory advancement in his heart. After a white light flashed across the entire room, a golden stone heartstone rose up from the middle of the room. He placed his hands on the heartstone, and the system notification rang.

“System notification: Checking for the requirements for territory upgrade….”

“Requirement 1: Reaching the population limit of 50,000 people, requirement met!”

Because of the ‘lightning’ operation and the players who had settled down in the town, the population of Shanhai City had rapidly increased. It had met this requirement around a month ago.

“Requirement 2: Building all basic structures of the town, requirement met!”

The only problem for the grade 2 city was the chess clubhouse. However, this problem was solved when an elderly who loved chess in reality arrived in the town and temporarily took over the position of the dean of the chess clubhouse.

“Requirement 3: Reaching the title of 1st-class count, requirement met!”

God knows how many players were frustrated with the requirement of reaching 1st-class count. According to the reports, quite a number of cities like Danyang City, Red Blood City, and Handan City had reached the grade 2 city. Unfortunately for them, there was still an incredibly long way to go before they reached grade 3 city.

“System notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for meeting all requirements for advancing Shanhai City into a grade 3 city. Do you want to upgrade?”

“Yes, upgrade!”

On the heartstone, a ray of golden light rocketed upward upon his confirmation and exploded in the skies. Then, it transformed into a golden halo that spread through the entire territory before disappearing.

“System notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for becoming the first player to advance his city into a level 3 city. Now rewarding him with 2,200 merit points.”

“System notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for becoming the first player to advance his city into a level 3 city….”

“System notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for becoming the first player to…..”

It was a matter of course that Shanhai City would advance to grade 3, so this no longer attracted the interest of other players anymore. However, Ouyang Shuo’s title advancement to Lianzhou Marquis was still the most trending topic.

“System notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for advancing his territory into a grade 3 city, now randomly generating three grade 3 city basic structures. Please pick one as your reward.”

“System notification: The three random structures have been generated. They are the brothel, the watchtower, and the Temple of Military. Please choose wisely!”

“Choose the brothel!”

“System notification: The selected structure is now being generated. Player can view it at will now”

Another white light flashed across the room and the heartstone slowly sunk into the ground. Then, Ouyang Shuo checked the stats of Shanhai City.

【Territory】: Shanhai City (grade 3 city)

【Owner】: Qiyue Wuyi (3rd class marquis)

【Title】: World’s first city (Increases territory fame by 30%)

【Morale】: 95/100

【Security】: 94/100

【Territory population】: 50,000/100,000

【Refugee spawn time】: 300 per day

【Territory area 】:10,000 sq km

【Territory specialty】: …. (Omitted)

【Political index】: 68/100 (affects administrative efficiency, related to morale)

【Economy index】: 60.100 (affects prosperity of trading, related to tax)

【Cultural index】: 65/100 (affects education, related to residents character)

【Military index】: 60/100 (affects military power, related to stability)

【Affiliated territory】: Beihai City, Qiuhui City, Friendship City

List of basic structures :

【Brothel】: Place for adult entertainment. Requirements to build: Geisha, brothel’s building blueprint, 8,000 units of wood, 4,000 units of jade brick, 5,000 units of stone. Time to build: 10 days. (Note: The structure has been generated).

【Watchtower】: A watchtower that uses drum and bell to send out warnings. Requirements to build: Watchtower building blueprint, 8,000 units of wood, 8,000 units of jade brick, 10,000 units of stone. Time to build: 10 days.

【Temple of Literature】: A place for the worshipping of past generations of wise ministers and strategists. Requirements to build: Temple of Literature building blueprint, 8,000 units of wood, 8,000 units of jade brick, 4,000 units of stone. Time to build: 10 days.

【Temple of Military】: A place for the worshipping of past generations of mighty and powerful generals. Requirements to build: Temple of Military building blueprint, 8,000 units of wood, 8,000 units of jade brick, 4,000 units of stone. Time to build: 10 days.

【College】: Place for education. Requirements to build: College building blueprint, 10,000 units of wood, 10,000 units of jade brick, 8,000 units of stone. Time to build: 15 days. (Note: Similar structure Xinan University is present, cannot be built repeatedly).

Compared to a grade 2 city, a grade 3 city’s population limit and land occupied were doubled. According to the current refugee spawning time, it would take another 167 days to reach the limit of the current population.

Of course, in order to reach grade 1 prefecture, one would never succeed if they only met the basic requirements. Every time a territory wanted to advance from a village to a town, a town to a city, or a city to a prefecture, the territory would need to face a series of strict tests.

For example, to advance into a town from a village required the territory to meet certain numbers in its political, military, education, cultural and economic indices. To advance into a city from a town, the territory must have a certain point of defensive and military power. However, Ouyang Shuo had no idea about the requirements to advance a city to a prefecture yet.

Prefectures belonged to the category of higher ranked territory. Naturally, players would not post anything about the advancing requirements on the forums anymore. Therefore, as an adventurer-type player in his past life, Ouyang Shuo only knew a little bit of the entire picture.

Chapter 212 - Forcing the Emperor to Abdicate

Out of the five basic buildings required for a grade 3 city, the brothel and the college had already been built. He still needed the clock tower, the Confucius Temple, and the Military Temple.

It had to be said that the brothel in the game centered around the entertainment value of the civil servants. The girls there were selling their art and not their bodies, so they were mostly singers and dancers.

For the building blueprints for grade 3 counties, each of them was sold for 1000 gold. As the market had already removed the function of buying blueprints, Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to send three thousand gold over to little aunt and ask her to purchase it for him. Then, she could send it over to him to save the 10% sales tax.

At this stage, basic buildings stopped being the bottleneck that prevented territories from upgrading.

While Ouyang Shuo was upgrading, he still paid attention to Di Chen and the others.

As expected, the upgrading of Shanhai City had once again provoked the other territories. That afternoon, Di Chen, Chun Shenjun, Zhan Lang, Feng Qingyang, Sha Pojun, and Wandering Magic announced the merger of Handan, Chunqiu, and Blood Metal Alliances, forming the Yanhuang Alliance.

The Yanhuang Alliance didn't have a leader—all seven of them shared the leadership. Just as Wufu had said, they excluded him from the alliance. Based on sources, if Xiaongba didn’t protect Wandering Magic, they would also remove her. As the old man had said, they needed to maintain the purity of the alliance.

Yanhuang Alliance had overtaken the Shanhai Alliance and became the top alliance in China. Compared to the Six Tyrants of Handan at the start of the game, their strength was stronger now. The name of the alliance showed their ambition. They wanted to be the flag of the Chinese players and be the leaders.

As the China region welcomed this huge change, many players—especially the lord mode players—didn't know what to do.

Bai Xiaoshen pointed out that the formation of the Yanhuang Alliance represented the splitting up of the rich and the commoner player groups. As the representatives of both parties, Yanhuang Alliance and Shanhai Alliance were bound to be enemies that fought to the death to be the leader of the China region.

His viewpoint had gained the agreement and acknowledgment of many players.

As for which party was stronger, it was hard for one to tell. Based on overall strength, the Yanhuang Alliance was stronger. But the existence of Shanhai City was a mountain that the Yanhuang Alliance couldn't overcome, enough to make up the difference in strength. After the migration, the position of Shanhai City had gained the recognition of everyone, and it was unassailable.

In two consecutive battles, Shanhai Alliance had won, and Di Chen had lost badly, which was the best indicator. Especially after Ouyang Shuo was named the Lianzhou Marquis and had reached a peak.

Many commoner players left messages in the country channel. They asked Qiyue Wuyi to come out to make a stand. He naturally wouldn't listen to such request. He wanted to fight, and the best way was to let the results do the talking.

What Ouyang Shuo didn't expect was the establishment of the Yanhuang Alliance to go against Shanhai Alliance.

Feng Qiuhuang panicked in the alliance channel, "Wuyi, my family is forcing me to leave the Shanhai Alliance to join the Yanhuang Alliance. They want me to give up my position as lord. The big bosses of the Yanhuang Alliance have all come."

Ouyang Shuo coldly laughed. Those fellows really thought that they could do anything that they wanted in the game? So arrogant. "Feng Wu, don't worry I'll teleport to Fallen Phoenix City straight away."

"Ok, I'll wait for you at the teleportation formation," Feng Qiuhuang heaved a sigh of relief.

Fallen Phoenix County, lord meeting hall.

Feng Qiuhuang suddenly stood up, "Let's stop for a while. I'll go receive someone before giving you an answer."

"Who are you receiving?" asked Feng Tianlie. This person was Feng Qiuhuang's brother.

Feng Qiuhuang didn't bother about him and said a simple sentence, "Qiyue Wuyi." Then, she turned and left the lord's manor.

It was like it had a certain magical element. The moment his name was mentioned, the hall fell silent. Especially the Feng clan members who remembered that Feng Qiuhuang had such a backer.

"Hei, isn't he just a stupid brat? See how you all are so scared," the one that spoke was a 60 year old man. He looked arrogant; he was Sha Pojun's Grandfather, Grandpa Dao.

"To be able to get such results, that brat should have some talent," Di Chen's Grandfather laughed as he said this. However, his words had a feeling of elitism.

After 10 minutes, Ouyang Shuo followed Feng Qiuhuang and walked into the meeting hall.

Ouyang Shuo looked around and judged the situation. Not only did all the people who ran the big powers come, even the younger generations like Di Chen had come and were sitting behind their elders.

Such a group, it seemed like they wouldn't stop till they got what they wanted.

Ouyang Shuo was imposing and had an awe-inspiring aura. Toward this group of people, he didn't feel scared at all, and he calmly sat down beside Feng Qiuhuang.

Earth online was a stage for common players to make legends. The earth had become a thing of the past, and the past glory had ended. A new planet, a new world. Who would rule that? Really, no one could tell.

"Brat why are you here?" Grandpa Dao said.

In truth, he wasn't as rash as he looked. He knew that if his side wanted to gain a footing, they needed to rely on other strong powers. Today was a good opportunity for him to act as a bad person to show his worth, so how could he miss it?

Ouyang Shuo's eyes turned frigid, as he looked toward Qiuhuang and asked, "This person is?"

Feng Qiuhuang looked at Grandpa Dao with disgust, "He's Sha Pojun's Grandfather, Grandpa Dao."

"Grandpa Dao. May I ask what are you here for? If I remember correctly, this isn't the Asura City that has just upgraded."

"Stupid brat. We are here to get justice for the Feng clan. Such a useless person like you, what right do you have to appear here?" Grandpa Dao didn't expect Ouyang Shuo to not care about his status and fumed.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and looked around. Then, he said to the older generation, "I am the Shanhai Alliance leader, you people have invaded Fallen Phoenix City. Naturally, I must step up. On a personal level, Feng Wu is my friend, and I can't sit aside and watch her get bullied. Hence, I have more right to be here than any of you present. What do you say, Grandpa Dao?"

Grandpa Dao was stunned, and he didn't know what to say.

"Qiyue Wuyi, this is our family matter. You are an outsider, so please don't step in," a member of the Feng Clan tried to help Grandpa Dao get out of this embarrassing situation.

"Since it's a family matter, what's up with all of them?" Ouyang Shuo pointed at Grandpa Dao.

"They are friends of the Feng Clan. Naturally, they can appear here."

Feng Qiuhuang couldn't take it much longer and bluntly said, "Wuyi is also my friend. And since you all pushed me to this step, it means that you all didn't see me as a member of the Feng Clan. I, Feng Wu, officially announce that I'll leave the family and I have nothing to do with the Feng Clan from this day on."

"You, you this rebellious child!" Grandpa Feng was furious.

Ouyang Shuo remained silent; her decision was something he had expected. This strong woman that her family distrusted had waited for such a day, driving her to seize the chance and make the bold move of directly contacting Ouyang Shuo.

Feng Qiuhuang didn't bother about their scoldings and continued, "And also, Qiyue Wuyi has the right to represent me."

To play the long game with this bunch of old men, Ouyang Shuo didn't have the confidence, so he decided to be quick to prevent trouble, "'ll make it clear. Not only will the Fallen Phoenix City not leave the alliance, Feng Wu will also not let go of her position. One cannot deny how much she contributed to this city. Enough talk. What compensation do you want before you agree to leave Fallen Phoenix City? Say it straight and stop wasting time."

"Young man, you dare to utter such big words?" Grandpa Feng was still furious.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, "Grandpa I'm not talking on impulse. The Feng Clan splitting up is bound to happen. To put it bluntly, if she isn't willing to give up her lordship, there's also nothing you can do. Don't think that the Yanhuang Alliance can really rule the whole of China."

"What? Are you challenging us?" Di Chen's Grandfather couldn't help but retort.

Ouyang Shuo coldly laughed, "I could make you lose all your forces in the Battle of Muye. I can do it again. Old grandpa, this isn't Earth. One must speak with strength."

"Young man, don't be too arrogant. A little victory doesn't mean anything," Di Chen's Grandfather was still angry about the defeat at the Battle of Muye. At such a moment, he couldn't back down.

"Speak your conditions," Ouyang Shuo didn't care about the war of words.

Grandpa Feng looked at the others and said, "if you want us to leave, it's simple. Give us a one-time payment of 50 thousand gold for us to use to build a new territory."

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, "Grandpa I hope you guys use some sincerity. For Fallen Phoenix City to have this day, it is all because of Feng Wu. To put it bluntly, the only thing you all did was give her a silver village creation token."

"You, are speaking nonsense." After Ouyang Shuo exposed him, the Grandpa Feng became embarrassed and angry.

Ouyang Shuo continued, "Last offer, 20 thousand."

They were actually very happy with this price. In truth, the various powers had prepared a backup for the Feng Clan. They had promised to provide them with a black iron village creation token.

Hence, for them to build a new territory, what they lacked was money. And 20 thousand was enough to upgrade one to the city level.

"21 thousand and it must be paid upfront." These words were typical bargaining.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Feng Qiuhuang and knew that this was already the best outcome, "Deal, I'll pay you 10 thousand first. As for the rest, I'll pay it when you all leave."

"Good!"

Chapter 213 - Nirvana

Three days later, the whole situation with the Feng Clan finally came to an end.

The Yanhuang Alliance provided a black iron rank village creation token to Feng Wu's brother—Feng Tianlie. This action allowed him to set up the Fengxiang Village. All of the clan members who lived in Fallen Phoenix City left and moved over to Fengxiang Village.

Out of the core members, apart from Feng Qiuhuang's best friend, Qing Luan, the families of the rest like Zhu Que, Hei Tian'er and Xueyan, forced them to move over. After Ouyang Shuo learned of this news, he removed the three of them from the alliance channel.

The moment Feng Tianlie created Fengxiang Village, the Yanhuang Alliance took it in right away as a new member.

In a moment, the Fallen Phoenix City had lost a lot, losing 10 thousand of men, which caused the territory to enter a half-handicapped state. They also owed Shanhai City a huge debt now.

To gather enough cash, Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to gather the profits from the first half of the 8th month. The 8,500 gold that he had, in addition to the 14,000 gold from before, totaled of 22.5 thousand gold.

Ouyang Shuo loaned 20 thousand gold to Feng Qinhuang. Naturally, this sum was paid through the Four Seas Bank branch in Fallen Phoenix City.

This 20 thousand gold had a loan length of two years. Each month would add interest, and she would have to pay 1,418 gold. This was same the treatment as Xunlong City. The gold that was paid every month would automatically be placed in the Four Seas Bank's funds to be further loaned out.

With such a method, Fallen Phoenix City and Xunlong City could both borrow the funds they paid back to build their territory. The price they paid would be the Four Seas Bank slowly controlling their economic ability.

After sending off the last batch of players, Ouyang Shuo stood beside her. Strangely, she did not look sad. Instead, she had a look of relief and freedom.

Looking at the setting sun, she suddenly turned around and revealed a bright smile toward Ouyang Shuo. That smile contained the look of a finally liberated girl with a new lease of life.

In an instant, Ouyang Shuo saw the proud phoenix rise from the ashes as if it had undergone a nirvana rebirth.

In that instant, he finally heaved a sigh of relief.

"Aiyo, why do I feel like I'm being used?" Ouyang Shuo pretended to be unhappy.

Feng Qiuhuang turned around, “You're a man, so don't bother about such small details. I'll repay you."

"How will you repay me?"

"How about I give you myself?"

"Cough cough," Ouyang Shuo choked and said in embarrassment, "Big miss, please don't make this kind of joke. You will scare people to death."

"Why? Are you feeling guilty? Relax, I won't tell Song Jia," Feng Qiuhuang laughed.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “Stop! How are we even going to continue as friends if you act like this?"

"Aish, do I really have no charm?" Feng Qiuhuang was originally just joking, but her pride took a hit when she saw his reaction. In such areas, girls were quite sensitive.

Ouyang Shuo raised his hand and surrendered, “You fans will kill me if I dared to say that the top beauty in China has no charm."

Ouyang Shuo said this because not long ago, China’s top 10 beauties leaderboard was released and it gained much recognition and agreement.

Feng Qiuhuang, who took first place, gained many new fans in an instant.

She giggled, “It is good that you know."

As Ouyang Shuo left, Feng Qiuhuang shouted from behind him, “Wuyi, thank you!" Ouyang Shuo didn't turn around and simply waved his hand. He turned into a white light, as he disappeared from the teleportation formation.

"Sister, Qiyue Wuyi is a total blockhead. He actually didn't care about your charms," Qing Luan was fighting for her Sister. While the two talked, she had stood at the side and listened on.

Feng Qiuhuang shook her head, “It seems like he's a loyal guy. You didn't join in the Battle of Muye, so you haven't seen his girlfriend, Song Jia,she's also a total beauty." There was a tinge of loneliness to her voice. What woman didn't hold a little thirst?

……

Handan City.

"Grandpa I don't understand."

"What don't you understand?"

"I don't understand why we let Fallen Phoenix City off so lightly. Couldn’t we have extorted more from Shanhai Alliance?"

"Do you think that it was not enough?"

"Of course it's not enough. They spent 20 thousand on a silver village creation token and had used it for half a year, so it's worth it. How can it be considered crushing them?"

"Ah, you only look at the surface. Didn't you see that the price of grain on the market has started to soar and that the grain in the territory granary is about to run out?" Di Chen's Grandfather looked at him with a little disappointment.

"Grandpa, your meaning is?"

"20 thousand gold is not a small sum. Even if Shanhai City has so much money, this amount is probably all the movable gold they have on hand. Their population is the highest in China, so they require the most grain. Once the grain prices rise, and he doesn't have enough money, what can he do?"

Di Chen understood and sucked up to his grandfather, “You understood everything!"

……

After Ouyang Shuo returned to the territory, he ordered a military meeting.

He said straightforwardly, “As the territory upgraded again, the main camp population has broken 50 thousand. We have the ability to expand the military once again."

As for expanding the military, the various leaders didn't have an issue. Shanhai City's last expansion was three months ago when the territory became a grade 1 City. At the grade 2 City level, it didn't have any large scale changes. Hence, now would be a right time to expand the military.

Based on his reasoning, he wanted to reorganize the military structure once and for all to prevent constant restructuring, which would affect fighting strength and morale.

Ouyang Shuo swept across the room and said, “I've decided to officially build the first division. There will be five regiments and a brigade under it, so a total of 13.5 thousand men."

They were shocked, as they didn't expect their lord to initiate such a huge change. One must know that Shanhai City only had a Mixed Regiment now. It was a large leap to directly add four regiments and one brigade.

Military Affairs Department Ge Hongliang bit the bullet and said, “Sire, based on the population of Shanhai Alliance, it's not enough to have a division. Shouldn't we just build one or two regiments first before building a division when the time is right?"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head “Director Ge, please relax. We don’t have to fully complete the building of the division straight away. If nothing goes wrong, we will focus on the first division at the city stage.

Ouyang Shuo's words cleared all their doubts. A grade 3 City had a population of 100 thousand. With the addition of the affiliate territories, if was enough for a division.

After they came to a common understanding, Ouyang Shuo announced the organization of the military, “The Mixed Regiment at the west camp in the city will become the first regiment of the division, and Shi Wanshui will continue to be the colonel. The vanguard unit in the north camp will have an additional two cavalry units and form the second regiment."

"Lin Yi!"

"Present!" Lin Yi stood out.

"I appoint you as the colonel of the second regiment. You are in charge of its building."

Although he had an inkling he might be chosen, Lin Yi still very emotional after Ouyang Shuo appointed him as a colonel, “Thank you, sire. I won't let you down!" A colonel needed an intermediate general, so Lin Yi fitted the bill.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and continued, “At the east side of Qiushui City, set up the east camp. They’ll be in charge of the east defense and the fitting of the territory. Similarly, the east camp will form the 3rd regiment and the arrangements of the units will be similar to that of the east side. They will have two heavy infantry units, one cavalry unit, one spearmen unit, and one archer unit. The original Qiushui cavalry unit will be in this third regiment and be its third unit.”

In truth, when setting up the Qiushui cavalry unit, he had already created the groundwork for the east camp. At the start, he had separated the cavalry unit from the Qiushui City city protection unit and belonged to a fighting unit.

Ouyang Shuo turned around and looked E’Lai, who was attending a military meeting for the first time. Ouyang Shuo smiled and said, “General E’Lai, you will be the colonel of the third regiment and the General of the east camp."

"Yes, sire!" E’Lai stepped up and bowed.

No one disagreed with his appointment, so his fame was evident.

"Because of the uniqueness of the heavy armored infantry, we must choose elite mountain barbarian soldiers. Hence, the 3rd regiment can only choose from the reserve squad to build a spearmen and archer unit. The two heavy armored infantry units will be temporarily delayed. When the time is right, they will be built." E’Lai had just arrived at Shanhai City, so he didn't understand the situation too well. Ouyang Shuo felt that E’Lai needed an explanation.

E'Lai nodded and expressed that he understood.

"As for the 4th and 5th regiments, they are temporarily pushed back and won't be built in the near future," Ouyang Shuo said helplessly. The lack of intermediate generals made him powerless, and no one else could take up the role of colonel. He looked around and said solemnly, “Now I'll promise all of you something. The general that can reach intermediate rank will be appointed colonel. May all of you work hard. Don't disappoint me."

Zhao Sihu and the others revealed shame on their faces. Being unable to help their lord was the same as not doing their job.

Ouyang Shuo continued, “I will temporarily take the role of major General. The lord's guards will be upgraded to the guards unit, and Wang Feng will be their major," Ouyang Shuo looked over to him, "Wang Feng!"

"Present!"

"Although the guards unit needs to expand, the standards must not drop. I don't expect you to do so straight away, but try to extract the essence and the elite. Do you understand?" Ouyang Shuo didn't want the trump card in his hand to be weakened because of the expansion.

"Understood!" Wang Feng said solemnly.

Chapter 214 - Luosha

After he finished announcing the reorganization of the Shanhai City 1st division, he continued his military expansion plan.

He looked toward Pei Donglai and said, "Beihai Naval fleet will expand two units and reach the organization of a regiment. The colonel role will be handed over to you."

"Yes sire." Pei Donglai knew that the goal of expanding the naval fleet was to attack the pirates on Yue'er Island.

"General Wang!"

"Present!" Wang Yuanfeng stepped out.

"The god machine unit will expand an additional unit. At the same time, the general must guide the affiliate territories to at least have a crossbowmen squadron to help the city protection unit." Ouyang Shuo planned to place arcuballistas in the affiliate territories.

"Yes sire!"

With that, the new round of expansion of Shanhai City had ended. The new addition of 2 cavalry units for the 2nd regiment, the spearmen, archer units of the 3rd regiment, and the 2 units of the Beihai naval fleet, 1 unit for the god machine unit, and the cost for class change was 3250 gold.

Ouyang Shuo had only 2250 gold on hand and had a 1000 gold shortfall. It was 10 days until the end of the month, and to use profits from the territory was too late. This sum could only be obtained from raiders.

Ouyang Shuo ordered the 3rd regiment to be the priority, followed by the Beihai Naval Fleet and the god machine unit, while the 2nd regiment would be pushed back. At the same time, the 1st and 3rd regiments would be in charge of the east and west exterminations of raiders.

Considering that the 3rd regiment was just built and the organization wasn't complete, Ouyang Shuo made the 3 city protection units to help them, appointing Shanhai City protection unit major Zhao Sihu as the temporary deputy of the Eastern camp.

As for the 2nd regiment, they were positioned at the north camp and couldn't quickly be moved. The situation in the plains was more and more intense. Friendship City's trading market was also becoming famous, and the trades had been doubling and proliferating. It was because of that that it needed the 2nd regiment to prevent the tribes from having other thoughts.

Ouyang Shuo's strategy towards the plains was to wait, see, and adapt to changes.

After ending the military meeting, E'Lai was the only one that stayed.

This general was wearing the Buren armor that the Armory Division had made for him; on his back was a halberd made of elite iron. Compared to his look in the Battle of Muye, he looked fiercer and more powerful.

"General, what issue do you have?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

E'Lai laughed and said in embarrassment, "Sire, I saw a horse and was wondering if sire was willing to gift it to me."

Ouyang Shuo froze. "Didn't the Military Affairs Department assign you an elite Qingfu horse? Is general not pleased with that horse?"

"That's not it." E'Lai shook his head. "A few days ago when I was walking around the territory I saw a pair of beasts and instantly adored them."

Ouyang Shuo didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "The beasts you refer to are they the Nian beasts?"

"Yes yes yes, it's the Nian beast. Director Zhu told me that it was you that tamed it."

In truth, the 2 Nian beasts had already stayed in Shanhai City for half a year. Last month, they gave birth to a pair of baby beasts, one male, and one female. On the surface, they were different from the Nian beast, slowly starting to awaken the bloodline of the qilin, looking similar to the qilin of legends.

The newly born beasts became Bing'er's playmates. She often ran to the back mountains to play with them. It was weird that the fierce Nian beasts were caring and gentle with her.

Sometimes, the pair were willing to follow Bing'er outside the territory to the plains. This made it that other than Xue'er and Blackfang, there was a new pair of little beasts following her around.

All the kids in the territory including Er Wazi worshiped Bing'er. Bing'er had now become the queen of Shanhai City, having a bunch of little followers.

Now for E'Lai to suddenly raise up the topic to Ouyang Shuo to pick the Nian beasts as mounts made Ouyang Shuo very curious. "General, can you tame the Nian beasts?"

E'Lai laughed. "As long as sire agrees, I have 90% confidence."

"Ok, I agree." Ouyang Shuo decided to let E'Lai try.

Ouyang Shuo was thinking that instead of letting the Nian beasts spend their days on the back mountain, why not do something purposeful like fight and battle? As long as the baby beasts were there, the specialty and buffs that the beasts brought wouldn't disappear.

E'Lai had good taste. If he were able to take them, they would be much better than elite Qingfu horses. They also brought two such strong skills.

As he was very curious, Ouyang Shuo got up and brought E'Lai towards the back mountains.

After rushing there, the Nian beast family was having their meal and enjoying the feast that the Resource Division had sent them.

Under Ouyang Shuo's permission, E'Lai slowly walked towards the Nian beast. He chose the fiercer and stronger male beast. Seeing him get close, he looked alert and unhappy that it was disturbing his meal, roaring as a warning.

Ouyang Shuo took the chance to cancel the contract with the Nian beast to allow E'Lai to tame it.

"System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi has canceled the contract with the Nian beast, as it has given birth in Shanhai City, it still is the protector beast of Shanhai City."

The moment Ouyang Shuo broke the contract, anger swept across its eyes, but when it looked at the two baby beasts, it's fierceness disappeared. It was evident that the Nian beast had regained its fierce and brutal personality.

"Nian~" it roared out again, this time appearing more anxious.

E'Lai didn't have any fear and made a brutal expression, staring straight at it before making wild beast shouts, seemingly communicating with it.

This seemed like the method E'Lai was going to use to take it. In legends, E'Lai could capture tigers and leopards alive.

Being challenged by E'Lai, it appeared more restless. It was initially sitting down, but now it stood up, its tail straight up as it took an attacking stance. It roared towards E'Lai, revealing its sharp teeth.

E'Lai didn't retreat and instead advanced, his hands moved like lighting and grabbed onto both horns, he head-butted the Nian beast, wanting to compete with the beast in strength.

The Nian beast was part of a small number of fierce beasts so how could it take such a challenge? Especially its horns which were signs of pride. It buried its limbs on the ground and forced its head forward, wanting to pierce E'Lai with its horns.

Unexpectedly, although the Nian beast was strong, E'Lai wasn't much weaker. He stepped onto the ground, the enormous strength causing him to sink down but not slip backward. Ouyang Shuo predicted that E'Lai was using some technique to change the direction of the power forcefully.

It didn't expect E'Lai’s adaptation. The Nian beast didn't expect the human in front of it to be so strong to be able to compete with it. This provoked it even more as it roared and roared, its strength increasing. E'Lai's legs could visibility be seen to sink down.

Luckily at the crucial moment, he used his strength to jump out from the ground and do a somersault. Grabbing onto the horns of the Nian beast and changing positions, his body turned mid-air and he landed, sitting on the back of the Nian beast.

How could the Nian beast take such humiliation? It immediately jumped and flung itself right and left trying to get E'Lai off its back.

Unfortunately, E'Lai stuck onto its body like glue, and no matter how it struggled, it couldn't get him off. Seeing E'Lai's movement, Ouyang Shuo was reminded that the Bajiquan’s laying on the mountain looked very similar.

What followed was a battle of attrition.

The Nian beast, with its back facing E'Lai, was running around in the back mountain, struggling with all its might. Before it reached its goal it wouldn't stop. Sometimes, it even bumped into the trees and flung itself onto a rock.

Unfortunately, although E'Lai was injured, he wouldn't let go and stuck to its back.

Two hours later, the intense workout had ended. What was worse was that the Nian beast had just eaten and such jumping around made it feel very uncomfortable.

In truth, E'Lai was already at his max and was relying purely on resilience.

At the crucial moment, E'Lai's knowledge and experience came into play. He knew that the Nian beast had recognized his ability and as long as it gave him a chance, it would be able to be tamed.

Er Lai released his grip on the right horn and softly rubbed its head saying, "Nian beast, you are so strong and so fast but have to stay on such a small mountain. I, E'Lai, cannot bear to see you like this. Why don’t you follow me to war?"

The Nian beasts were very smart and could understand human words. Hence, after listening to his words, the Nian beast stop struggling.

Seeing the situation, E'Lai was delighted, patting its head. "Okay, from today onwards you will be called Luosha. Together we will rule the battlefields."

"Nian~" The beast gave out a high-pitched roar.

E'Lai seemed like he could understand what it meant and was elated.

Ouyang Shuo stood to the side and smiled. He couldn't imagine how majestic it would look for E'Lai to ride Luosha on the battlefield, giving the enemies so many nightmares.

Riding on the Nian beast, E'Lai rushed over to Ouyang Shuo's side and jumped off, saying excitedly, "Thank you sire!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded. "Congratulations general, for getting a good mount. The Armory Division will help build a set of armor for Luosha in order to protect it."

"Thank you, sire!" E'Lai was really on cloud nine.

Chapter 215 - Acceptance

After E'Lai tamed the Nian beast, they left the back mountains and went towards the Military Affairs Department. In the next week, he would finish the construction of the Eastern camp and the 3rd regiment. Ouyang Shuo had already given the appointments of various majors to E'Lai and Ge Hongliang.

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo called the director of Internal Affairs Tian Wenjing into his office to discuss about the mountain barbarians.

Ouyang Shuo invited him to sit. "The military is expanding, so we need many elite mountain barbarian warriors to build the heavy armored infantry units. However the nearby mountain barbarian tribes have been used up. Based on how I see it, we need to travel farther into the mountains to get their trust. The mountain barbarians are important assets, and our policy must be maintained.

Tian Wenjing nodded and said, "I understand sire's meaning. Tomorrow, I will rush to Xuanniao tribe and ask them to act as a middleman to help us visit the various tribes and pass gifts to show our sincerity."

Seeing Tian Wenjing really understand what he wanted, Ouyang Shuo was touched. "It's been tough on you."

After that, both of them discussed specifics of the operation until 5 PM before ending the conversation. One could see how much focus and importance he placed on the mountain barbarians.

……

8th month, 21st day

Receiving Ouyang Shuo's invitation, Song Jia and Song Wen came to Shanhai City.

The Battle of Muye let Song Wen feel Ouyang Shuo's strength and influence. When he went home, he thought about it and decided to personally follow his sister here to discuss further cooperation.

Ouyang Shuo didn't hold any grand welcoming ceremony, and just brought them directly back to the lord's manor.

One the way back, although Song Jia was curious about Shanhai City, she didn't ask. During this visit, she had already decided to move over.

The meeting room was arranged based on rank and power so it was good to welcome guests there. He brought both of them to the guest room, and a servant brought them drinks before going away.

"Brother Song must stay here for a few days and allow me to show you around." Ouyang Shuo laughed.

Song Wen laughed. "Since you asked, I can't decline." He took a mouthful of the tea, and his eyes brightened as he exclaimed, "Good tea!"

"I didn't expect brother Song to know about tea, unlike me."

Song Wen waved him off. "I don't know anything about tea. It's old grandpa Song who often drank tea at home so he would drag me along, and after a while I learned a bit.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. "Since it's like this, before brother Song leaves, can you bring some tea leaves for grandpa Song? It also counts as a little gift from me. This tea is called white tea and is a famous tea in Guangxi. We managed to find a wild tea garden nearby to make such a tea."

"Thank you. My grandpa treats tea like his life. It's so hard to find good tea here. To find something like this, he had been nagging at me. This is such a huge favor." Song Wen was delighted.

Song Wen was the heir to the family, so his business skills and interpersonal skills were great. During the Battle of Muye, he had developed a friendship with Gong Chengshi and Xunlong Dianxue. His motive was to remove the distance and the obstacles between them and Tianshuang Town to allow them to join the Shanhai Alliance.

His actions actually worked. After the battle, Ouyang Shuo discussed with them through the alliance channel about Tianshuang Town and didn't face any obstacles.

In addition to the fact that they were going to accept Wufu, Ouyang Shuo wanted to suggest to invite Tianshuang Town at the same time. As expected, they were both approved.

And that was thus the reason for this trip.

After accepting Wanshi Town and Tianshuang Town, Shanhai Allaince now had 8 members, the same as Yanhuang Alliance.

Yanhuang Alliance's actions were what made Ouyang Shuo decide to accept the 2 new territories.

Of course before officially accepting Wufu, Ouyang Shuo did some investigations. If he was a spy sent by Di Chen, then they would be in a lot of trouble.

The results of the investigation made him less worried. Combining the results with what he remembered in his last life when Wufu didn't join any camp, only then did he totally not worry.

Song Wen's visit obviously wasn't to reminisce about the past. During the Battle of Muye, he understood that Ouyang Shuo liked to build branches of the Four Seas Bank in his allies' territories.

Before he came, he had discussed about this matter with his father and grandfather. They all came to an agreement that for Tianshuang Town to achieve their goals, they needed to rely on others.

What they worried about was whether Shanhai City had enough money to support so many branches running at the same time.

Especially with the situation with Fallen Phoenix City, forcing Ouyang Shuo to pay 20 thousand gold. Hence, Song Wen wanted to investigate some things.

In truth, just as he feared, Shanhai City's finances were very tight, and even the money needed to expand the money was only obtained from raiders.

However, all this was temporary. As long as Ouyang Shuo sold the grain that he had accumulated, he would be able to get large amounts of cash and support the expansion of the Four Seas Bank.

To let Song Wen relax and not worry, Ouyang Shuo revealed the Langshan mines to him. Upon hearing that Shanhai City had such a gold mine, Song Wen heaved a sigh of relief.

Seeing the two of them decide official matters, Song Jia was restless.

Ouyang Shuo naturally saw her being bored, shaking his head in amusement and calling for the servant.

"Sire!"

"Invite third Miss here, and tell her that we have an important guest."

"Yes!"

A while later, Bing'er followed behind the servant and walked in. "Brother, who came?"

Ouyang Shuo waved to Bing'er. "Baby, bring sister Song Jia to walk around the city okay?"

It has been close to 3 months that Bing'er had stayed here and had long became a local. With her being Song Jia's guide, it was more than suitable. Song Jia knew that Ouyang Shuo had a sister and that he treated her like a treasure, just that she didn't have a chance to see her.

To be able to see her today, she was so cute and well behaved, making Song Jia adore her straight away. Seeing her expression, Ouyang Shuo couldn't help but shake his head. Be it her, Sun Xiaoyue, or little aunt, they all couldn't resist her charm.

Bing'er agreed and said sweetly, "Beautiful sister lets go, Bing'er will bring you to play. The territory has so many fun places and Bing'er knows them all."

Her words made Song Jia swoon. She didn't care about Song Wen and Ouyang Shuo, walking with Bing'er out of the guest room.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Song Wen and both of them laughed out loud.

Although he had came into contact with Song Wen many times, Ouyang Shuo still felt that Song Wen had the aura of a prince. In addition to the thing with Song Jia, Ouyang Shuo didn't hide anything and told him all about what he learned during the territory building.

In truth, how to manage residents, building industries, government structures and finance policies, Song Wen didn't need any tips. The Song family’s financial group obviously had people to help him. What he needed was how to make use of the main territory to help the affiliate territories, and how to hold resident events to raise the cultural index, etc.

Of course if Ouyang Shuo could tell him how to open up financial channels, that would be good.

Unfortunately the Beimu saltpans was the highest secret of Shanhai City, so Ouyang Shuo wouldn't reveal it. Additionally, Tianshuang Town wasn't close to the sea so there was no use telling him.

Ouyang Shuo didn't forget to remind him to pay attention to grain prices. As a business family, they were very sensitive to market prices. Unfortunately they weren't familiar with the game and so they couldn't predict the change in grain prices through analyzing the entire Chinese region.

After hearing his analysis, his expression got serious. In truth, someone had already reported about it to Song Wen. Recently, the prices of grain of the market increased slightly. As it was a slight increase, however, he didn't pay much attention to it. Only after hearing Ouyang Shuo say it did he find that it was actually very serious.

When Song Wen bought Tianshuang Village, it was already the end of the 3rd month. When he just received it, he didn't know anything and was busy getting familiar with it. Hence, he didn't pay attention to small things like agriculture land reclamation. Waiting until Qingming festival to plant their first season of crops was already too late.

Hence, they got most of their grain from the market while producing very small amounts. As their territory population was low, it wasn't much of an issue. Ever since they rose to a town, and also built affiliate territories, the population increased, making them feel a little pressure.

On that day, to hear Ouyang Shuo say that the prices of grain was going to increase, Tianshuang Town’s small financial income wouldn't be enough to sustain it.

Luckily, Tianshuang Town and agreed with Shanhai City to open a branch of the Four Seas Bank, and both agreed to open operations by the end of the 8th month with a starting sum of 4000 gold.

The both of them didn't only talk about territory matters and also talked about fun things in life. During the casual conversation, they also talked about some interesting and embarrassing things about Song Jia, making them burst out in laughter.

Chapter 216 - Dream Pavillion

At night, Ouyang Shuo held a feast at the Sangu hotel to welcome the siblings.

As this was a family feast, Ouyang Shuo invited Yingyu, Qing'er and Sun Xiaoyue, and of course the little brat Bing'er too. She followed Song Jia for a day and was now already so close to her. At the table, she insisted on sitting beside Song Jia, not bothering about her brother.

During the feast, Sun Xiaoyue was looking a little weird. Only then did she know that Ouyang Shuo had a girlfriend. This was naturally noticed by Song Jia. As women, they were very sensitive to such an area. It was Ouyang Shuo who was usually very sharp but this time he made such a rookie mistake to invite Sun Xiaoyue to the feast.

After it ended, Ouyang Shuo arranged Song Wen to rest at the inn. As for Song Jia, Ouyang Shuo had already ordered Zisu to clean up the eastern courtyard to get it ready for Song Jia to rest.

Returning to the lord's manor, Yingyu and Qing'er said goodbye and went back to their courtyards. Ouyang Shuo ordered Zisu to bring Bing'er back to wash up and let the little brat rest early.

Nowadays, Zisu had taken over what Ouyang Shuo used to do, being in charge of telling stories to Bing'er. She obviously wouldn't tell any stories with princesses and white knights, but instead she told her stories like the journey to the west, making that little brat engrossed in it.

After spending so long with Zisu, Bing'er started to rely heavily on her. Zisu took very good care of Bing'er and made Bing'er treat her as a motherly replacement. The mother-daughter relationship between those two was very deep.

In the calm night, Ouyang Shuo brought Song Jia across the long walkways and into the east courtyard. The layout was similar to the main courtyard, and it was exquisitely designed. Ouyang Shuo didn't hire a maidservant for her and let her pick one for herself. Hence for today, Banxia would serve her and familiarize her with her room.

The pure moonlight shines onto the patio. Song Jia wasn't sleepy and requested Ouyang Shuo to accompany her to admire the skies. Banxia brought tea and fruits for them before going back to arrange the room.

Song Jia laid on Ouyang Shuo's shoulder. "Blockhead?"

"En?" Ouyang Shuo guessed that there was something on her heart.

A look of fear and anxiousness appeared on her face as she mumbled, "Blockhead, I don't want to be your burden."

Song Jia had imagined that Ouyang Shuo was good in the game but she never expected that he would be so incredible. In the Battle of Muye, she witnessed firsthand him leading the troops with such elegance and style, making her look on in awe.

Following beside him, someone who was so ideal, be it the quiet and elegant Bai Hua, the graceful and dignified Feng Qiuhuang, or even the cute and petite Mulan Yue, they were all lords of many people. They were his allies, friends and strong shields to help him out in times of trouble. She could only stand aside and not be able to help. This made Song Jia, who was always prideful and never liked to lose, feel really out of place, especially as Ouyang Shuo had prepared so many valuable gifts for her.

Ouyang Shuo could understand her feelings. The difference in his ability in reality and in game made her unable to react all of a sudden. In reality, she was the princess of the Song family and had the backing to chase and flirt with Ouyang Shuo. With such a background and power, she could chase whomever she wanted and love whomever she loved.

Unfortunately, a big change made all of this disappear.

The Song family financial group who ruled over Lingnan could only struggle to survive in the game. On the contrary, the ordinary Ouyang Shuo had underwent a huge change, becoming the center of attention of hundreds of thousands of players. This big change wasn't something someone could adapt to in a short while.

Ouyang Shuo hugged her and said gently, "Silly girl, things are not as complicated as you think it is, let nature takes its course. Additionally, didn't you want to build a sect to become a sect leader to many? If you really manage to do so, you will be doing me a huge favor."

"Will a sect really help you?" Song Jia's eyes flashed across with a little emotion.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. "Well of course. Our guard captain is also the direct disciple of the dojo head. If a person practices martial arts and joins the military, it's a huge advantage. Even if he doesn't fight, he can investigate for intelligence, assassinate, be a bodyguard, etc. He will also have an innate talent."

"Good, I'll start recruiting nominal disciples tomorrow." Song Jia had done much research for building a sect. Out of the 4 main points of cultivation, what she lacked was 500 nominal disciples.

"This is the Song Jia that I know!" Ouyang Shuo said happily.

Song Jia tenderly punched him. "You only know how to make people happy."

The two of them continued confiding in one another. Mainly it was Ouyang Shuo describing his experience in game, how he finished village quests, how he built Shanhai Village, how he faced the monster siege, and how he built the Shanhai Alliance...

Song Jia was totally engrossed in his stories, as if she had gone through the entire experience together with him and was filling up a lost memory. The Ouyang Shuo in front of her slowly became the guy in her memory, combining with the past once again and now there was no distance between them.

The night was dark, the moon hung in the sky, and everything was quiet, the only sounds being the crickets at the corners.

Ouyang Shuo asked her to rest early, while he returned to the main courtyard and started cultivating.

……

The next day, Ouyang Shuo brought Song Wen to tour Shanhai City. Compared to the grand and advanced Shanhai City, Song Wen felt that Tianshuang Town was a primitive little village. It was lacking so much.

Song Jia immediately did what she said she would and asked the guards for help, pasting notices of recruiting disciples at the north and west gates. Player sects could accept both players and also NPCs.

Song Jia's notification was very powerful and attractive.

"You want to fly up walls? You want to travel the world with one skill? You want to get famous with one blade? The paladin of a generation Jiaqi Rumeng who has both the and the two martial arts, is recruiting disciples. There's a limited number of slots so please contact the lord's manor manager Zisu."

Song Jia was very smart, using the name of the lord's manor to hire people, raising her reputation by a lot.

After pasting the notification, Song Jia didn't slack and instead asked Ouyang Shuo to arrange some guards to follow her out of the city to find a suitable place to build her sect.

Ouyang Shuo wanted her to build the sect inside the city so she didn't need to travel so much. However she didn't want to rely on him so much and she said that a sect which wasn't in the mountains wasn't a proper sect.

Ouyang Shuo was helpless and could only follow what she wanted.

In the afternoon, Song Wen returned to Tianshuang Town. As Song Jia was still outside, she didn't see him off making him laugh bitterly.

At night, when it was near to dinner time, only then did Song Jia return.

"How was it? Did you find a suitable place?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

Song Jia shook her head with sadness. "'No. The west side of the territory is basically forests and there wasn't even hills, let alone mountains."

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head. "Tomorrow I'll follow you to the east side. The is a mountain region there, so there will be something suitable."

"Great!"

When eating dinner, Yingyu laughed, "Big brother, shouldn't the east courtyard also have a name?"

Ouyang Shuo nodded and looked at Song Jia. "Yingyu is right, what do you want to name it?"

Song Jia was excited and said, "How about Dream Pavilion?" She looked at Ouyang Shuo with eagerness.

Of course, he agreed.

Yingyu giggled, it was rare for her to see Ouyang Shuo so gentle.

"Sister Dream, tomorrow will you find time to come to the tailor shop? I'll help you sew a few shirts." Qing'er, that little girl, started to launch her garment attack.

Song Jia's eyes brightened. "Great, I've always heard about how good your skills are. Seeing all your dresses, I felt so envious." Song Jia was really jealous. Yesterday Bing'er had showed off all her dresses. Dresses were something that girls couldn’t resist.

Qing'er smiled slightly. She wasn't too close to her, so she wasn't as playful as when she was in front of Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo seeing Bing'er sit beside Song Jia, said, "Baby, there's still a week before school reopens. You cannot be so naughty. Look at how wild you have become in such a short time."

Bing'er laughed in embarrassment. That little brat knew that she had played too much during the holidays. Combined with not doing any holiday homework, she was really crazy.

"I know." Bing'er gave a lovely nod, sighing like an old man. "Haiz, Bing'er wants to grow up fast."

"What does this have to do with growing up fast?"

"After I grow up I can be like sister and brother not needing to go to school." Bing'er's words made a lot of sense.

Ouyang a Shuo nearly fainted. This kid used to love going to school, however with just one holiday even her heart became wild.

"You, ah, so playful." Ouyang Shuo said helplessly. "From tomorrow onwards I'll invite a teacher to teach you Chinese when you aren't going to school."

Bing'er frowned. "Brother please don't, okay?"

"You think?" Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to bring out the elder brother position.

The little brat was smart and knew that he was going to be angry, so she didn't dare to rebut him anymore turning to Song Jia and saying pitifully, "Sister~"

Song Jia naturally doted on Bing'er and was nearly touched by her little shining eyes, however she couldn’t override Ouyang Shuo's rights as a brother, causing her to shake her head, which made Bing'er depressed.

Chapter 217 - Lone Peak

In the early morning, facing the morning dew, a squad of riders exited the lord's manor, and went straight towards the Azure dragon gate. As the Qingfu horses stepped onto the green stone floors, there sounded out the clean and crisp clatter of horseshoes.

Ouyang Shuo and Song Jia brought four guards, and were prepared to go towards Qiushui City to the east to look for a suitable place for the sect. After the second city wall was built, to differentiate the gates, each gate was given a different name. The core region’s city gates were renamed Azure Dragon Gate to the east, White Tiger Gate to the west, Vermillion Bird Gate to the south, and Black Tortoise Gate to the north. Ouyang Shuo went past the Azure Dragon Gate and passed the Eastern region toward the East gate which was slightly to the north.

Past the East gate, it was the Eastern wilderness. Out of strategic needs, the wild grass and plants were removed and now what remained was an empty and cold plain.

From the East gate, they made an easy straight route towards Shanhai City harbor. Compared to the times of Shanhai Village, the harbor was 20-30 times bigger. Ever since the Advanced Shipyard was moved to Beihai City, the region of water in front of the canyon was all under the jurisdiction of the harbor. As for the harbor, it was run by the Transportation Division. The current Transportation Division officially started taking on the role of modern transportation services.

During the planning, the bridge with linked up the main camp and Qiushui City wasn't built so there were numerous stone resources piled up at both sides. The masons shipped large rocks from the quarry and cut them into smaller pieces before grinding them into rods to use to build the bridge.

After considering that warships needed to go past this river, the design of the bridge was much more complex than the stone arch bridge in the inner city. Based on the architect Wuchi's first draft, the basic cost reached 500 gold.

The hardest part about building a bridge was to build supports for the bridge in the river. The canyon river had the Friendship river and the Qiushui river flowing into it so the water currents were fast and ferocious. Hence, such supports based on olden building standards were really difficult to make.

Ouyang Shuo briefly checked out the progress of the bridge before carrying on, crossing over using the boat at the harbor. The Qiushui City city wall was already built, and from afar it looked like a small city sitting on the plains.

Outside the city were acres after acres of grain land. Early in the morning there were already farmers getting busy.

"Blockhead, what are they doing in the fields? Are they plucking out the seedlings? Didn't they just plant them?" Song Jia couldn't understand their actions.

Ouyang Shuo laughed in amusement. "The farmers are plucking out grass and planting the seedlings. It is very easy for weed and wild grass to grow in the fields. If we don't remove them, they will compete with the grain for space and nutrients and affect the harvest."

"Oh!" Song Jia laughed in embarrassment.

Ouyang Shuo didn't choose to enter Qiushui City, and instead continued south towards the border of the canyon and continued east along the mountain range. In truth, after confirming that Song Jia wanted to build the sect outside of the city, he went to check out the Lianzhou map where there were already clear coordinates.

The difference from the main camp was that on this side of the Qiushui City, they didn't have rocky mountain ranges, but instead a straight forest path, intersecting with the plains to form a unique view. Walking on the plains, there were chances of wild animals like rabbits popping out.

Seeing the wild rabbit, Ouyang Shuo's hunter instincts were piqued as he took out the bow and shot at it. Unfortunately with his basic archery, unless he was lucky, there wasn't a chance for him to hit the nimble rabbit.

The missed arrow made him feel really embarrassed, especially in front of his lover. It turned into rage as he ordered the guards to shoot all the rabbits they met and bring them back to the lord's manor.

Song Jia was giggling at the side, Ouyang Shuo had something that he wasn't good at.

After going around 10 kilometers to the east, Ouyang Shuo signaled for them to stop. He pointed to a mountain peak and asked, "Can you see that mountain in front?"

Song Jia followed Ouyang Shuo's finger only to see amongst the fog the outlines of the mountain and one lone peak. What was more amazing was that the lone peak was like it was punched by a giant and only half the peak was left, narrowing at the middle part of the mountain, forming a giant platform.

"Great, this will be the place." Song Jia was elated.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. "Let's go and take a look."

"En!" Song Jia couldn't wait.

As no one had visited this place before, there were little tracks of men, and the road up was hard to walk. Ouyang Shuo and his men had no choice but to leave their Qingfu horses at the foot of the mountain and walk up on foot.

The 4 guards wielded the Tang knives and helped to open the road upwards. After walking for 2 hours, they finally reached the platform. Ouyang Shuo and Song Jia also had to rotate their inner strength to reduce their tiredness and fatigue.

The platform was huge, and on first glance it was more than 10 square kilometers, bigger than the Shanhai when it was still a town. Water flowed down from the peak and made a small pond at the foot of the platform, constantly sounding out noises. The water flowed out from the pond onto a small stream on the platform and flowed down it. Under the shine of the sunlight, the water stream formed a rainbow.

Beside the pond was an ancient tree, and on its branches were many unknown birds flying around. Seeing Ouyang Shuo and the others, they weren't afraid and flew up from the tree, circling their heads and chirping.

Song Jia fell in love with the place instantly and muttered, "So beautiful!"

Ouyang Shuo looked around and found that there was no lack of wooden materials. On the platform there was a water source which fruits could be planted. As long as grain was sent up on time, their sect could be self sufficient. As players had storage bags, to transport grain up was very easy.

"Jia Jia, bring Xiaoyue here tomorrow. She is the architectural advisor so ask her to do a basic design of the sect including the road to get down the mountain. After you all settle on the blueprints, I'll arrange for the Construction Division to work on it."

Hearing that Ouyang Shuo had planned everything out for her, Song Jia smiled gently. "Blockhead, you are the best."

"Ok la, sect leader Song, create a name for your future sect."

"Oh ya." Song Jia was instantly excited. "Blockhead, why don’t we name it Dream Sword Sect!"

Ouyang Shuo was going to faint. "Your name is Jiaqi Rumeng, the courtyard you stay in is called Dream Pavilion, and now even the sect you want to call it Dream Sword Sect, it really doesn't have any standards."

Song Jia frowned. "Hen, then what would you name it?"

Naming something wasn't hard for Ouyang Shuo. He pondered and instantly thought of one. "It's east of a lone peak and looks upon Shanhai City. Why don’t we call it Dongli Sword Sect, what do you think?"

Song Jia said crisply, "Blockhead, I couldn't tell you were so talented! Okay, let's follow your idea and call it Dongli Sword Sect."

As it got close to noon, they had their meal on the mountains. The guards cleaned the wild rabbits at the pond and found some tinder to start a fire for a barbecue.

Ouyang Shuo, who was an adventure mode player in the last life, often ate out in the wilderness and wild rabbit was a common meal. He gleefully showed his skills to Song Jia and barbecued the rabbit till it was crisp on the outside and tender on the inside.

Eating such a delicious wild rabbit, Song Jia couldn't help but commend it, and the four guards also finished up everything. After that, they didn't wait any longer and went down the mountain.

Going back to the lord's manor, it was already 4 PM.

After two days of promotions, there were many people who registered at the lord's manor. Zisu recorded all of them and announced on the morning of 9th month 1st day that they would have a trial at the lord's manor.

When having dinner, Yingyu mentioned, "Big brother, Er Wazi told me he wants to take a master and he doesn't want to go to the private school; he kept on begging me to talk you you about it, what do you think?"

Er Wazi was brought around by his side at the start, but as time passed, Yingyu became in charge of him. Ever since he went to the private school, his food had been settled by Yingyu.

However Er Wazi was still a member of the lord's manor. During the original household registration, he personally didn't assign him as a farmer and instead kept him in the lord's manor. Now that Er Wazi wanted to give up school to learn martial arts, he naturally needed Ouyang Shuo to agree.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, it seemed like his half year of private school wasn't for nothing. At least he learned manners, asking him for permission.

Ouyang Shuo was a very sentimental person and he said to Yingyu, "Since he wants to, I won't stop him, allow him to go under Jia Jia and be a core disciple." Ouyang Shuo looked at Song Jia as he said it to seek her perspective. She nodded. She definitely had to agree to Ouyang Shuo's request.

Seeing that Ouyang Shuo agreed, Banxia, who was standing at the side had a weird expression on her face.

Yingyu has always treated Er Wazi as her real brother, and hearing him do such planning, she was naturally delighted. Although she wasn't from a martial arts background, she knew the difference between a nominal disciple and a core disciple. A core disciple would be though everything and inherit the entire sect, the choosing requirements were extremely strict.

Ouyang Shuo continued, "That kid could be considered our family. Since he has matured, we cannot keep calling him Er Wazi, we should give him a proper name. Yingyu, since you two are close like brother and sister, I'll leave it to you."

"En." Yingyu nodded and took up the task.

Chapter 218 - Lord

The next morning, Yingyu brought Er Wazi to thank Ouyang Shuo.

"Cui Tianqi sees sire, thank you for adopting me." Er Wazi, who was now Cui Tianqi, respectfully bowed to Ouyang Shuo.

The growth of NPC kids grew faster than in the real world. When Cui Tianqi came to the territory, his skin was tan and he was thin. Although he was already 11-12 years old, as he had little amounts of nutrients, he looked around 8 years old. After only just half a year, as he had gotten enough nutrients, his bones started to grow and in addition to the education at the private school, the once naughty little brat had become a young teen.

Ouyang Shuo told him to stand up before continuing, "Be it studying or practicing martial arts, I’ll support you. Since you chose martial arts, you must walk to the end of the path to be a useful person to the territory. Do you understand?"

"I understand!" Cui Tianqi said solemnly.

Ouyang Shuo nodded happily, "Now go greet your master!"

Just as Cui Tianqi was about to bow to Song Jia, she raised her arm and stopped him, he looked confused and didn't know what to do.

Song Jia turned towards Ouyang Shuo and said, "Wuyi, before he calls me his master I also want to teach one of your other people. Is that okay?" At a formal occasion, Song Jia would be like Bai Hua and the rest, and call him by his in game name.

Ouyang Shuo didn't understand what was going on. "Who?"

"Banxia!"

"You want to let Banxia continue to serve you?" Ouyang Shuo could only make such a conjecture. She was busy dealing with the sect, didn't have time to hire a maidservant, and it was Banxia who was serving her.

She shook her head. "I want her to be my core disciple."

Ouyang Shuo frowned, immediately guessing what was happening, his expression changed and he called out in a low tone, "Banxia!"

"Sire!"' She stepped out and bowed in front Of Ouyang Shuo, her face filled with fear and anxiety.

"Say, what’s all of this?" Song Jia wouldn't want to take Banxia as her disciple without any reason, so Ouyang Shuo guessed that Banxia must have begged her. Song Jia was too nice and agreed. For such a thing to happen in the lord's manor where rank and power wasn't taken into account, Ouyang Shuo wouldn't accept it.

The atmosphere of the hall instantly became very serious.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo so furious, Banxia was freaked out and tears nearly rolled down from her face. She kowtowed and cried, "Servant is wrong, sire please punish me." Just as Ouyang Shuo had predicted, Banxia had heard that Song Jia accepted Er Wazi as a core disciple and went to ask Song Jia.

Banxia's village was robbed by a bunch of raiders and she only survived by hiding in the bushes. In the night, she personally witnessed her family being killed by raiders and a seed of hatred was planted in her heart, making her hope that one day she could take revenge.

Coming to Shanhai City and being recruited by Yingyu in the lord's manor, Banxia had quenched the need to take revenge, wanting to lead her life peacefully in the manor. Who would have thought that such a change would happen and that Song Jia would accept disciples, reigniting the hatred in Banxia's heart.

Banxia didn't dare to go and beg Ouyang Shuo, for fear that Ouyang Shuo would reject her. Last night, she took the opportunity when she was serving Song Jia to tell her about her past and beg her to take her as a disciple. Song Jia's heart softened, and seeing that her qualities weren't half bad she agreed and thus went to ask Ouyang Shuo for his permission.

Ouyang Shuo calmed himself down, wanting to kick her out of the lord's manor. Luckily, Yingyu stood out to calm him down. "Big Brother, seeing that she's immature, let her off this time."

"Yes big brother please give her a chance!" Qing'er pleaded too.

Lastly, even Zisu stood up and kneeled. "Sire please give her a chance."

Banxia was still young and seeing everyone speak up for her she really didn't know what to do. Only then did she know that she made a huge mistake and dragged down everyone, making her even more anxious, looking pitifully at Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo sighed and said, "Banxia didn't do her job and broke the lord's manor’s rules. From today onwards she's kicked out and given back her freedom. From today onwards, she cannot use the name of the lord's manor or she won't be spared." Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to give out a punishment, if not how would he lead the lord's manor?

"Thank you sire!" Ouyang Shuo's decision was similar to admitting to allowing Song Jia to accept her as a disciple. Banxia was feeling emotional but also a bit sad as she would no longer be a part of the lord's manor.

The storm passed just like that. Banxia and Cui Tianqi bowed to their new master and became Song Jia's core disciples. As the future big sister and big brother of the Dongli Sword Sect, their futures were limitless.

Getting Banxia as a disciple, Song Jia decided not to hire a maidservant as she already had a disciple to serve on her. Ouyang Shuo also didn't want to hire another one, so only Zisu was left to look after the main courtyard.

……

Gaia first year, 8th month, 25th day

Ouyang Shuo held a territory affairs meeting.

Before all the directors could report, the culture and education secretary Xu Shuda stood out and bowed solemnly to Ouyang Shuo," Sire, our division has a suggestion, please approve it."

"What suggestion?"

"At the moment, the imperial court has tilted sire Lianzhou Marquis. Based on our manners culture, you must be called lord. So calling you ‘sire’ will have to be stopped and everyone will call you lord; the various workers and civil servants as ministers; the lord's manor must also be renamed Lianzhou Marquis’ manor, to stick with tradition." Xu Shuda was following traditional etiquette.

One shouldn't just think of it as a small change, in actuality it represented a change in the nature of the territory. Before being titled a noble, when the lord was reclaiming land in the wilderness or anywhere else, the court didn't give their permission. After becoming a lord, especially being titled a marquis personally by the court, his territory was now official.

Originally all this would be done straight after the title was given. Secretary Xu realized this problem.

Only 2 days after getting the title, the territory was upgraded. He then stayed in Fallen Phoenix Town for three days. Xu Shuda decided that he might as well just raise it at the end of the month meeting.

"Yes, lord, your subjects agree!" Fan Zhongyan changed his address and stopped using sire.

"Yes, lord, your subjects agree!" Tian Wenjing followed.

"Yes, lord, your subjects agree!" Everyone got up and bowed.

Ouyang Shuo said expressionlessly, “Permission granted!" From today onwards, he was one step closer to being lonely.

After Xu Shuda backed down, the Secretary of Meritorious Services Division stood up. “Lord, ever since the brothel was opened, many officials have started to spend their time to fool around there. How should we deal with such officials?"

Tian Wenjing spoke up. “Minister suggests to investigate and close down the brothel to prevent the problem from spreading." Tian Wenjing wasn't used to being soft and decided strong action was needed.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. "Such a method can't work; it's an entertainment outlet. We can't close it down or be so violent in our actions. if we do, we’ll make the commoners angry. On the other hand, secretary Qin is correct, we cannot allow the officials to do their business matters there. Spread the lord's decree: if spotted once, they will be fined 3 months. Twice, they will be suspended, and the third time, they will be sacked."

Ouyang Shuo was curious about the olden brothel and wanted to go take a look, only now the situation didn't permit it. As a lord, he had to set an example. After Song Jia came, he couldn't go to such a place all the more.

"Yes lord!" Qin Shijian backed down.

Tian Wenjing approached once again and bowed down. “Lord, there are new developments with the mountain barbarians."

"Oh? Quick, quick, tell me!" Ouyang Shuo was excited.

"Recently, minister visited several tribes and heard of the same thing. Based on their descriptions, in the deep mountains there's a gigantic bandit mountain stronghold, and they often go down to rob the mountain barbarians. Hearing that we have such a strong military, the leaders of the tribes say that if we could help them destroy the stronghold, then they will be willing to cooperate with us and allow their elite warriors to join the Shanhai army."

"Bandit stronghold?" Ouyang Shuo couldn't understand how a stronghold would cause Tian Wenjing to be so solemn, and based on Shanhai City's military might, they could take it down easily.

"Based on their descriptions, this bunch is crafty and built the stronghold on a dangerous peak. There's only a narrow road up, making it easy to defend and hard to attack. Their numbers are also not small. Although we don't have specifics, it's definitely more than ten thousand people. Hence to take it down, it will definitely not be easy."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. So that was why, it was really not easy. Although Shanhai City’s military had huge numbers, more than half were cavalry and sailors. Only around 4000 people could be used to attack the stronghold. With so few people, Ouyang Shuo didn't have confidence.

"First, contact the Military Intelligence Division. Let the mountain barbarians lead them and find out details about the stronghold. Second, persuade them to allow mountain barbarians to come down to class change and form the 3rd regiment. After completing both things, I don't believe we can't even take down a stronghold."

"Yes, lord!"

"Today, the 3rd regiment is still building, and after completing its development, we still need to clear out the raiders. Hence, Director Tian needs to cooperate well with the Military Affairs Department, and not let the mountain barbarian tribes think that Shanhai City are liars. When it's needed, we can send them a batch of grain to show our sincerity." Ouyang Shuo was prepared to play the grain card again. To these mountain barbarians, the grain was a savior.

"Understood, I won't let lord down!" Tian Wenjing had spent a long time building up relationships with the mountain barbarians, and understood their weak spots. With Ouyang Shuo's promise, he was more confident in completing the mission.

Chapter 219- Chess Player and his Chess Pieces

After Tian Wenjing finished his report, the Construction Division secretary Zhao Dewang stood up and bowed, “My lord, the thing about investigating the rock caves, the Construction Division has already completed it."

"Oh? Tell me!"

"Yes, lord!" Zhao Dewang reported, “On the south side, from Shanhai City all the way to the borders of the Yongye Forest totals at 25 kilometers. The Construction Division did an investigation, and we found eight dry caves. Out of these dry caves, the wine workshop, the military workshop, and the alchemical fire oil storage has taken up three. Of the remaining five, there are three small dry holes shorter than 10 meters and are only 2 meters deep. The remaining two are large scale dry holes."

After he heard Zhao Dewang's report, Ouyang Shuo finally realized one thing—not even a year had passed, but they had cut down a large portion of Yongye Forest. Based on this rate, they would cut down the whole forest in a few years.

If they really cut all of Yongye Forest down, it would definitely cause a large loss of soil and water, possibly igniting a huge flood from Friendship River. This was a huge threat to Shanhai City. Apart from that, if the territory didn't have the protection of the forest, other natural disasters like sandstorms would cause problems.

Earth online's weather was very realistic. If nothing unexpected happened, Ouyang Shuo's conjecture would come true.

After Zhao Dewang backed down, Ouyang Shuo called for the Material Reserves Department director, "Director Shen Zhui, the Material Reserves Department needs to have a plan and can't start cutting all the trees down. You should try to only cut down the large trees and leave all the small trees. Also, don't destroy the roots of this forest. Apart from that, we must prohibit commoners from logging themselves. At the same time, when adjusting wood supplies, use more from Qiushui City as the wood resources there are more vast."

Although Shen Zhui was flexible, he was a person from ancient times after all. How could he understand Ouyang Shuo's modern ideas of environmental conservation and sustainable development? He could only agree and follow the plan.

After this, Ouyang Shuo looked at Yingyu, “Director Cui, the Financial Department needs to work with the Auditing Division to strengthen the inspection of all branches and their transactions. It would be best if you could send someone to take a look at the books every month. At the same time, work with the Meritorious Service Division to assess the various managers and workers at the branches.”

The Four Seas Bank was the core tool for Ouyang Shuo’s ambition. Naturally, he would be more than careful with it. The branch at Mulan Town was still okay as manager Yang Yun was an old citizen of Shanhai City, so he had gained Ouyang Shuo's trust. The Financial Department had directly assigned the ones sent to Black Tiger Town, Xunlong Town, and Fallen Phoenix City, so Ouyang Shuo didn't know them well. Hence, he wanted to use this meeting to remind Yingyu of the level of importance he placed on it.

"Yes, lord!" Yingyu cared even more about the branches than Ouyang Shuo. If something happens to the Four Seas Bank, she would be the first one responsible as the director of the Financial Department.

After they all finished reporting, Ouyang Shuo ended the meeting.

……

In the afternoon, little aunt Lin Jing helped Ouyang Shuo buy building blueprints and came to Shanhai City once again. This time, she didn't come alone. She had brought a small group of 30, which were the core members of the Snow-War Rose Mercenary group.

The blueprints were the secondary reason for Lin Jing’s trip here. Her main reason was to see her nephew and niece, and also discuss the cooperation between the group and Shanhai City.

As the Bow and Crossbow Division and the Armory Division slowly got onto the right path, Shanhai City's army had changed their equipment, and the armory had accumulated a lot of silver-ranked and below weapons such as bows, spears, knives, leather armor, and more. These items filled the armory to the brim, but the Material Affairs Department still arranged some people to maintain this equipment.

This batch of equipment was obtained from the raiders, some from when they attacked the city, some from when the soldiers changed class, so they had a huge quantity of equipment.

Ouyang Shuo was contemplating something. Rather than letting this batch of equipment gather dust, why not ask the mercenary group to sell them to rookie players? This batch of players had entered the game for three months and had earned some money to buy such equipment. To the Shanhai City military, this equipment were backward and useless, but to these new players, they were high-class and advanced.

Ouyang Shuo sent his plans for cooperation over to little aunt, and both of them agreed instantly, which was why little aunt had made her way to Shanhai City. As the number of weapons were really too many, little aunt had to bring the 30 core members with the largest storage bags to help smuggle the equipment.

Ouyang Shuo was going to give the Snow-War Rose mercenary group 20% of the profit from selling the equipment. Which meant that the higher the price they sold the equipment for, the higher the profits, which was the same as retailers in society. Also, this wasn't a one-off deal, as the Snow-War Rose mercenary group would sell the other backward items and equipment from Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo also allowed them to manage the remaining profits, and he asked them to set up a small courtyard in the nine imperial cities to be the offices of Shanhai City. Thes offices would help them to recruit talents. Apart from work occupation players, they would also be in charge of recruiting NPC talents that weren't doing too well in the capital city.

As Shanhai City's fame and reputation rose, it gained some fame amongst NPC groups, and it wouldn't be too far off to call that name widespread. Hence, there was a chance for them to hire such NPCs.

Apart from that, as the number of battles increased, more and more historical figures would enter the game. Moreover, these historical figures would most probably enter through the various system imperial cities. Hence to recruit them, he must reveal his sign. If not, even if they wanted to join, they wouldn't have a way to do so.

The Yanhuang Alliance had held a strong animosity toward the Shanhai Alliance since their inception. As such, Ouyang Shuo had decided to change his low profile methods and started to use the fame of Shanhai City to recruit talents.

The Chinese had always focused on balance. Shanhai City had acted conservatively, like a locked up nation. Although Ouyang Shuo had succeeded in building up a secretive image that helped him avoid problems in real life, he also had lost the chance of gaining many talents.

During the current galactic migration, everyone was online. Not only was everyone safe from dangers, but everyone was experiencing a life refresh. Since Ouyang Shuo wanted to fulfill his ambitions and rule planet Hope, he could only continue in such a manner. He had to expose himself and confidently make contact with other players to gain their support.

In his last life, Ouyang Shuo was betrayed by another. However, he couldn't grow fearful and wary of all players and not trust anyone because of that incident.

Imagine a chess player that didn't even dare to touch a chess piece. Wouldn't that be amusing?

If it were like that, even if Ouyang Shuo made use of the advantages of his reincarnation and made Shanhai City prosperous, he would still have the viewpoint of a small commoner. He wouldn't gain enough training. When he returned to the real world, he would definitely still face walls and troubles.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to learn the lessons from his past life. He would not trust anyone easily, would not reveal all his cards to someone, and would never forget that people were greedy.

Players were chess pieces that moved in accordance to Ouyang Shuo's will.

As long as Ouyang Shuo raised his awareness, he wouldn't make the same mistakes again. Greed wasn't fearful, what was fearful was uncontrollable greed.

In the game, there were many elite players that wished to move over to Shanhai City. As for territories like Handan City, the core members were already set in stone, so normal players would lose the chance to gain trust and be greatly utilized. On the other hand, Shanhai City was a clean slate and was a better place for them to show their abilities.

The dangerous part about recruiting talents was the chances of spies infiltrating.

Ouyang Shuo wasn't afraid of them joining and revealing things about the city. Be it the east region military workshops, the military factory in the mountains, the mines, or the saltpans, they were all considered prohibited regions and were carefully monitored, so normal players couldn’t even enter it.

Shanhai City's higher ups would remain NPCs, even Wuchi and Jiu Duanxian were only doing specific jobs. They weren't considered part of the management level of the territory.

Hence, Shanhai City had already built a perfect system that wasn't easily infiltrated.

Ouyang Shuo brought little aunt to see the Shanhai City Armory. When the guards opened the gate, they revealed an armory filled with neatly placed bows, swords, and armors, which made the members of the Snow-War Rose mercenary group feel a little dizzy.

"Oh my god, little Shuo. You are simply wasting such good things, so many weapons and equipment gathering dust. If players knew this, they would definitely scold you."

Ouyang Shuo shook his head; he couldn’t rebut her because she was his little aunt.

Little aunt ordered the members to store all the equipment and make a list to check with the Military Affairs Department officials. After they ensured that everything was in order, they would place it in their storage bags. As for herself, she went into the elite area to pick equipment. Ouyang Shuo told little aunt that he would give her a set for free, so she obviously wouldn't let this chance go to waste.

Lin Jing only spent a day in Shanhai City. After, a casual conversation with Song Jia, she left with almost half of the armory to Jianye.

Chapter 220 - Fuse

Before Lin Jing left, she passed the blueprints of the basic buildings to Ouyang Shuo. She had bought these for three thousand gold.

Ouyang Shuo passed the blueprints over to clerk Bai Nanpu. He asked Bai Nanpu to pass these blueprints to the Construction Division and rush them to quickly build it. Based on the plans, they would build the Confucian Temple and Martial Temple beside the Yellow Emperor Temple. As for the clock and drum tower, they would build it in front of the black turtle gate, south of the commerce street, and the riverside of the inner city river would be its east and west sides.

8th month, 26th day. After two months of construction, they finally completed Xinan University. Ouyang Shuo led a group of officials to join the unveiling ceremony.

Compared to Ouyang Shuo’s original design, Xu Shuda's advised him to place the grade 2 city basic building chess courtyard in the university, and it became the 4th college.

Ouyang Shuo pointed out during the unveiling ceremony that the motto of Xinan University was inclusivity and diversity. The future Xinan University had to produce many leaders and become the sacred grounds of learning.

After the unveiling ceremony, Xu Shuda accompanied Ouyang Shuo to visit Jiang Shang.

After Fan Zhongyan and Xu Shuda's persuasion, Jiang Shang had finally agreed to settle down in Xinan College. At the same time, he rejected the position of dean of the economics college.

It was autumn. Viridescent leaves filled the trees in the college and the birds chirped. At the northwest corner of Xinan University, there was a small man-made lake called moon lake. The lake water was from the inner city river that was separated from one wall. The lake had a small island in the center that was called Fallen Star Island. Jiang Shang had secluded himself here.

The Fallen Star Island wasn't connected to the outside. As such, you could only ride on a raft to reach the island. The raft gracefully drifted left and right. Through the clear lake water, one could see the fish that swam within.

As a thin rain drizzled from the sky, the water droplets fell onto the leaves.

Jiang Shang was already 80 odd years old. The Culture and Education Division had arranged two servants to serve by his side and take care of him. They helped him open a vegetable garden on the island to grow vegetables and fruits as well as rear poultry. To the ducks and geese, the moon lake was the best living environment.

After Ouyang Shuo arrived on shore, he looked around. The surroundings were graceful, but there weren't any carved columns, expensive trees, or flowers. A row of short thatched houses was built in the middle of the island. Before the houses were a row of fences that enclosed the area into a little courtyard. On the empty ground was a vegetable farm where various vegetables and fruits were grown, and some had even sprouted. Beside the small courtyard was a bamboo forest. As the wind blew over it, the crisp sound of bamboo rang in the air.

On the other side of the courtyard was a well, and beside it was a stone less than half a meter high. It looked very shiny and smooth. The servants introduced it as a place that Jiang Shang would sit on to read.

Jiang Shang was wearing a grass cape, as he fished next to the lake. Beside him, his little fish net was empty. He hadn't gotten anything. Ouyang Shuo wondered if he was playing a similar game to “Jiang Taigong is fishing, those that are willing will get hooked.”

"Taigong, lord is here to see you." Xu Shuda opened his mouth.

Jiang Shang didn't react. He only turned around and made a hush motion toward Xu Shuda. Jian Shen was telling him to keep quiet and not scare away the fish that he was trying to catch. Xu Shuda was helpless, and he could only stand beside the lord and wait patiently.

The servant was smart and brought out a small stool for the lord to sit on.

They waited an entire morning. The downpour grew heavier and heavier, but Jiang Shang still didn't move. He didn't say anything. He just held his fishing rod for the entire morning and didn’t even changed the bait.

Ouyang Shuo was helpless, as he knew that Jiang Shang was such a stubborn person. So, he could only leave, "Taigong, after coming without informing you, Wuyi will now leave. I’ll come again next time."

Just when Ouyang Shuo was about to leave, Jiang Shang suddenly opened his mouth, “Lord, you already killed Wuwang during the Battle of Muye, right?"

Ouyang Shuo was stunned, but he calmly said, "Taigong why do you say such a thing?"

When you came back, I saw the lord's guards riding on warhorses. Weirdly, your guards weren’t at your side during the interception. There is only one explanation—they were sent to intercept Wuwang," Jiang Shang's analytical skills were really terrifying.

Since Jian Shang found out, Ouyang Shuo had to speak the truth, “That's right, the guards killed Wuwang, and his head was sent to Di Xin. If because of that, Taigong wants to be a hermit and hole yourself up, I have else nothing to say. Farewell!" From this moment, Ouyang Shuo had given up on asking Jiang Shang to come out and assist him. He was a lord and was a Lianzhou Marquis. He would do things based on his principles, and he wouldn't change because of one person.

"Haih!" Jiang Shang exhaled a long sigh.

8th month, 28th day. Under the persuasion of the Internal Affairs Director Tian Wenjing, the mountain barbarian tribes had agreed to Ouyang Shuo's conditions. They sent one thousand men down the mountains to join the Shanhai City army.

One thousand mountain barbarian warriors were sent to the 1st and 2nd unit of the 3rd regiment. After the third regiment was built, they started to attack the raider camps in the east under the charge of Colonel E'Lai. They wanted to destroy all these raider camps within a week.

At this moment, they had almost finished the raider operation to the west. Moreover, they had destroyed all the territories near Shanhai City. The 1st regiment's troops were pointing at Yongye Town of the Sky Blade Alliance.

Yongye Town's lord freaked out. He panicked and pleaded to the Sky Blade Alliance, seeking their help to defend his territory and fend off Shanhai City's attack.

After they received Heise Pifeng's distress signal, leader Ba Dao and Xiaofeng Canyue called out to the others. Apart from Guangshui Town that was busy defending itself, the other allies headed to assist Yongye Town.

Ba Dao and Xiaofeng Canyue brought 500 troops each, while Gushan Town and Yishui Town brought 300 each. After accounting for Yongye Town's own troops, they had a total of 2,100 soldiers.

Sky Blade Alliance had just moved their men and was set on having a battle to the death with Shanhai City. Suddenly, Shi Wanshui received a retreat call and helplessly brought back the 1st regiment.

As the territory expanded, the position of the city’s west camp continued to expand toward the west. As they cleared the raider camps in the west, the city’s west camp moved west again. Now, it was set on a small hill just 10 kilometers away from the edge of the territory.

Ouyang Shuo chose to retreat, as he obviously had his considerations.

The Sky Blade Alliance would have high morale if Ouyang Shuo chose to fight at this moment. If he wasn't careful, the two leaders Ba Dao and Xiaofeng Canyue would use victory to solidify the alliance's goals and hearts. Based on the strength of the 1st regiment and their limited siege weapons, it was really difficult for them to take down the built up Yongye Town. Even if they did, there would suffer heavy casualties, which didn't fit his strategic mindset.

On the other hand, if he chose to surround them and not attack, the Sky Blade Alliance would not choose to take the initiative to advance. As time went on, the alliance troops would be unable to stay in the long term. They would definitely panic if he dragged out things for a longer period of time.

The time wasn't right. Ouyang Shuo was still waiting for the Combat Logistics Division to build ladders. He was also waiting for the 3rd regiment to finish the east camps and finish training the new troops.

After the raider operation, Ouyang Shuo's goal was still to attack the mountain bandit stronghold to help solve this problem for the mountain barbarians. Additionally, this would allow him to get more of the barbarians to move down the mountain.

8th month, 29th day, Yongye Town.

"Shanhai City has retreated. What should we do?" said the lord of Gushan Town.

Yishui Lord Ruoshui Qianxin panicked. Her territory was very close to the east of Shanhai City, so she was afraid of being sneak attacked, “Since they have already retreated, we should go back."

"No!" Heise Pifeng freaked out, “Once you all leave, what if they attack? I'm sure that is his plan."

"But we can't all sit here and waste time. Why don’t we go out and fight with them?" Dengtai Baifang didn't like doing nothing, and he hated feeling cooped up.

Ba Dao frowned and looked at Xiaofeng Canyue, “What do you think?"

"Based on our troops strength, if we give up the advantage of the city wall, we would definitely lose. It's not like all of you haven't seen the strength of their famous army. Their heavy armored infantry were directly opposite to us," Xiaofeng Canyue said helplessly.

Ba Dao nodded, “You're right. However, his considerations are valid. If we just sit here and wait, Shanhai will pick us off one by one in the end.”

"Since that’s that case, we can only request for assistance," Xiaofeng Canyue was looking very serious, “The Yanhuang Alliance are enemies with them. If we can get Di Chen to help us, Shanhai City wouldn't be a problem.”

These words shocked Ba Dao, and he spat out, “No, that would be inviting a wolf into our house. They aren't a charitable organization. It's easy to invite them, but it's hard to ask them to leave. Aren't you afraid that they’ll attack us from within?"

"I also think that it's not suitable," Ruoshui Sanqian and Dengtai Baijiang agreed with one another.

No one noticed that Heise Pifeng appeared out of sorts at the side, as an evil light flashed through his eyes. He was a cruel person. Now that his territory was in danger, even if it meant inviting a wolf in, he would do so. Heise Pifeng had already made a choice. Even if the alliance didn't accept it, he would contact Di Chen on his own.

Xiaofeng Canyue was frustrated, “This can't be done, that can't be done. Ba Dao, so what should we do?"

In this moment, the atmosphere was very tense and depressed.

Chapter 221- Leading the Wolf into the Room

After the discussion, the members of the Sky Blade Alliance all left unhappily and brought their various troops back to their territories.

This result forced Heise Pifeng up the cliff. He had no choice but to directly write a letter over to Di Chen. He promised that as long as Di Chen was willing to help, Yongye Town would become a vassal of Handan.

Handan City, lord's manor.

Di Chen passed Heise Pifeng's letter over to Fenghua Juedai and asked, “So, what do you think?"

Fenghua Juedai took the letter and scanned through it, “This lord's motives are obvious. He wants to use us to protect his base."

"That's right, but this is also a chance for us. A chance to lock up Shanhai City, right? As long as we nail down this nail, we will gain control over future events," Di Chen had seen through everything.

"The situation isn't clear, and it isn’t easy to make a move. If we provoke a lion, we must have confidence in killing it. If not, it might retaliate and bite us—even swallow us."

Di Chen frowned, “Your idea is to join up with the rest of the Yanhuang Alliance and work together?" The military power of Handan City was definitely not enough to go against Shanhai City, let alone destroy it. As for Yongye Town, it was not even part of his considerations.

Fenghua Juedai shook her head and said, “No, if we use the strength of the Yanhuang Alliance, this could turn into a large scale war between their alliance and ours. Now is not the right time to have a full-scale confrontation with the Shanhai Alliance. We should only fight when the time is right. If we fight now, only the smaller territories will benefit."

"Then, what is your idea?" Di Chen couldn't understand.

"It's very simple. We can't show ourselves in this, so we need to let another person go ahead."

"Sha Pojun?"

"That's right! He has already developed a deep hatred toward Qiyue Wuyi. If we let Heise Pifeng meet up with Sha Pojun, they will immediately click. With this, Handan City will be totally uninvolved, and we will remain unaffected whether they succeed or fail. If it succeeds, it’s naturally a happy thing. But if it fails, we could take the chance to understand their strengths." Fenghua Juedai's tactic of using another to kill her target was incredibly scheming.

"Amazing!" Di Chen was delighted, “We still need to plan the specifics so that it will be enough to hurt that Qiyue Wuyi."

Fenghua Juedai kept quiet and didn't say anything.

8th month, 30th day. Shanhai City collected 8,500 gold in the latter half of the month. In addition to the 4,500 gold that the 1st regiment acquired from raider camps, and the deduction of the class change costs, Shanhai gained a total of 11,500 gold. The Financial Department sent an official to bring four thousand gold to rush to Tianshuang Town and build the Four Seas Bank branch.

Ouyang Shuo kept a thousand gold and passed the remaining 6,500 to the Financial Department. As various projects came to an end, the construction costs would have to be paid on time. The sum that he passed to the Financial Department was totally not enough. Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to the east raider operation to acquire another sum to pass to the Financial Department.

Based on the final calculations, it cost 2,000 gold to build Xinan University, the five bridges cost 500 in total, and the inner city roads also cost a large sum. Even though these roads weren't completed, the invested amount wouldn't be less than five thousand gold. As for the big bridge that connected Shanhai City, Qiushui City, and Friendship City, it cost 1,500 gold.

As the profits from the wine workshop and the colored silkworms increased, the profits grew more and more optimistic. Every month, it already brought in 500 gold. The Four Seas Bank interests rates were also rising, and the monetary help they needed had lessened. If not for that, the profits from the mine and the saltpans alone could never sustain the expansion and growth of the territory.

This round of Shanhai City's basic buildings cost over 10 thousand gold in construction fees. Ouyang Shuo also wanted to start the plans on the outer city roads after the inner city structures were completed. The building of the roads was a bottomless pit, so this wasn't something a normal territory could afford.

Gaia first year, 9th month, 1st day. It was the start of the school season.

"World Notification: the holidays are over, and classes are officially opened. Kids of age can choose whether or not to go to school. They can freely choose their standard and when they go to school, as well as the subjects they will take. Each subject will have tests and marks will be given. The grades will affect their achievement value. As for the specifics, players need to explore for themselves."

In reality, their bodies were frozen, which was similar to time being stopped. Even if players weren't willing to go to school, it wouldn't affect their learning. Hence, the federal government didn't force the students to go to lessons in the game. And from primary school all the way to university, grades would be used to separate students. Thus, they had a huge freedom of choice.

The virtual classes were similar to quest spaces, except time flowed at the same rate as the real map.

Ouyang Shuo had already planned out Bing'er's learning quests. In the morning, she would learn science and cultural knowledge; in the afternoon, Mr. You would teach her Sinology in the lord's manor. He realized that this little brat was slightly rebellious, so he needed to keep her in check. If not she would grow a lot worst.

Ouyang Shuo didn't expect Bing'er to have great achievements when she grew up. He let her learn Sinology to help her develop good values and culture, shaping her into an upright person.

On the same day, Song Jia selected 500 nominal disciples from the 1,000 people that signed up. The design of the Dongli Sword Sect was already completed, and the Construction Division had already sent people to start working on it. The uneven mountain roads added a lot of difficulty to the project. Zhao Dewang predicted that it would take at least a month to complete.

Helplessly, Song Jia could only use a large courtyard in the official residence area to house the 500 nominal disciples and teach them the sect’s techniques.

Song Jia looked really scary when she became serious. This lady took charge of everything that had to do with the sect, and everything had to go through her.

Apart from the sect grounds, there were also other issues to settle when building a sect. Firstly, sect ranks and standards must be set up. Uniforms must be designed based on their positions. Secondly, a set of weapons must be made for the disciples, mainly swords and knives, but also hidden weapons.

Most importantly, the future income source of the sect must be solved. Their daily expenses and the costs for weapons and uniforms all required large amounts of money. Especially weapons, a good exquisite iron sword cost 3 gold. Since Song Jia 500 had nominal disciples, each one having a sword would mean 1,500 gold.

The sects of old would have vast quantities of farmland at the bottom of their mountains, which they would utilize to earn money through agriculture. Alternatively, they would have their junior disciples run hotels, inns, or brothels in the city; or they would sell salt or transport goods—all profitable businesses. They could also be a beggar sect and ask the lower ranked disciples to beg for money, resulting in a sizeable income. The worst case was for them to do some robbing to earn money.

What about Dongli Sect? The bottom of the lone peak could be reclaimed as farmland, but no farmer would be willing to do so. As Shanhai City had large amounts of arable land waiting to be reclaimed, unless their brains had a problem, they would not go and be a tenant and rent a piece of farmland under the Dongli Sect. If one talked about shops, most shops in Shanhai City already had owners, and it was hard to get into businesses. Furthermore, they needed talent and money to run a shop, neither of which the sect had. As for transporting and selling salt, the authorities handle both of these, and Ouyang Shuo wouldn't make an exception even for Song Jia.

Thanks to the current situation, Song Jia finally realized that it was tough to run a sect. Helplessly, she could only take 1,000 gold away from Ouyang Shuo.

Song Jia was from the Song Family Financial group, so she had a mind for business.

She knew that she couldn't randomly spend the 1,000 gold, and she couldn't just ask Ouyang Shuo for money every time she needed it. He had given her the secret manual, he had chosen the sect location, and even the recruiting of members used the name of the lord's manor. His city’s Construction Division had built her sect, and he had paid the fees. If this continued, she wouldn't be helping him. Instead, she would be causing problems for him.

After she pondered for awhile, Song Jia thought of a good idea.

As the Chinese said, if you face a mountain, you depend on the mountain; if you face the water, you depend on the water.

To earn money, she had to make use of the lone peak—other ideas were not dependable. The lone peak platform was a pleasant environment to grow herbs, and there were suitable spots for both herbs that liked the sun or the darkness. If they could build a medicine garden, it could let the money roll in.

As for the sales of the medicine, the Medical Department wouldn't reject them.

After Ouyang Shuo heard Song Jia's idea, he was very supportive. He personally brought her to greet Dr.Song and the manager of the medicine garden. Then, he asked them to send men to guide them on how to build a medicine garden on the mountain.

The medicine garden in the territory was built in the east suburbs, as it was a basic building. Its environment was naturally bad, and the medicines didn't grow well. As such, it couldn't keep up with the needs of the medical department. This problem had annoyed Dr.Song, so he obviously supported this suggestion wholeheartedly.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also specifically found Tian Wenjing and asked him to contact the mountain barbarians. They would be tasked with collecting seeds and seedlings. Then, they would pass the collected items to Song Jia and ask her to let men plant them on the mountain.

Ouyang Shuo moved a lot of resources to help Song Jia build a 1,000 mu medicine garden on the lone peak platform.

Chapter 222- Hand in Glove

Yongye Town, Lord's Manor.

As Ouyang Shuo busied himself with the lone peak medicine garden, Di Chen had linked up Sha Pojun and Heise Pifeng. These two were finally working together, forming a temporary alliance.

"How many troops did Shanhai City arrange at the east?" Sha Pojun asked. To take revenge on Ouyang Shuo, Sha Pojun had spent a lot—2,000 gold to teleport an elite army of 2,000.

Heise Pifeng hadn’t remained idle; he said, “I've investigated. They have one full regiment on the west, a total of 2,500 men."

Sha Pojun frowned, “If it's like that, just depending on the two of us isn't enough to destroy that regiment, right?" Although Sha Pojun had a deep hatred for Ouyang Shuo, he didn't lose his mind.

"Brother Sha don't worry. I've contacted Xiaofeng Canyue and Chengfeng Polang from the Sky Blade Alliance. They will arrive soon," Heise Pifeng said with a lot of confidence.

"Great!" Sha Pojun was delighted.

Xiaofeng Canyue originally advocated getting outside help, and Chengfeng Polang was like Yongye Town, who directly faced Shanhai City's threat. Heise Pifeng had made it clear in the alliance channel that he had already invited Sha Pojun, who had brought a 2,000 strong army.

Xiaofeng Canyue was also very ambitious. She knew that she couldn't hesitate at such a time, so she brought over 1,000 of her elites and Chengfeng Polang brought 500.

Although Ba Dao didn't come, he promised to take part in the operation and attack from the east to tie up Shanhai City's military, forcing them to fight a war on two fronts.

They were very clear that this operation had to succeed. Once they failed, they would face the wrath of Shanhai City, and there would be no room for negotiation.

Even Sha Pojun didn't have the ability to send a second reinforcement squad in a short time. His 2 thousand strong army, the teleportation cost was already 4,000 gold, which was a huge sum to Asura City.

Heise Pifeng was also a ruthless person. To protect his own base, he didn't mind dragging down his allies.

9th month, 2nd day in the afternoon, a 4,000 strong army secretly met at Yongye Town.

The 4,000 strong army was composed of sword-shield soldiers, archers, and about 1,000 cavalries.

In the wee hours of the morning, they made use of the dark sky to sneak out of Yongye Town.

Their target was the Shanhai City west camp. It was only around 20 kilometers away from Yongye Town.

As darkness masked the troops, the soldiers had no choice but to light torches so that they could see their path. The light from the fires created the illusion of a fire dragon in the wilderness. This sight scared off the leopards and tigers that came out to find food, and they rushed into hiding.

At 3 AM, the troops reached the Shanhai City border. To prevent the sentries from spotting their tracks, they extinguished the fires and made use of the little light to continue forward.

Shanhai City hadn't built a settlement here yet near the border, as they had only recently acquired this territory. On the way here, one could occasionally see empty towns or villages that Shanhai City had taken from the previous lord's. However, Shanhai City hadn’t sent any residents to live there.

When they saw these conquered territories, Heise Pifeng and the others felt threatened. If they did not unite to fight together, the situation before them would probably be their future.

As they had just won a war, the city west camp head Shi Wanshui grew careless, and he didn't arrange any night patrols. In his mind, it would be enough if he didn't bully others. Who would have the courage to attack Shanhai City?

At 5:30 AM, the army of 4,000 was like a specter that suddenly appeared outside the city west camp. The sky was slightly bright and a red sun rose up from the horizon.

As an advanced barrack, the city west camp was very well protected. It had thick wood walls and arrow towers. The invading troops killed the tired and unfocused sentries on the tower before they could warn the others. The last sentry gave out a cry as the enemy shot him down.

"Ahhhh!" a loud scream broke the silence of the wilderness and sounded the horn of death.

The sound threw the camp into a frenzy. The ones that patrolled within the camp reacted the fastest, and they rushed toward the gate doors. At the same time, a small squad broke off to wake up the soldiers of each unit.

Sha Pojun was the commander of this operation. When he saw that they had alerted the enemy, he tossed aside his intentions of infiltration and shouted, “Kill!"

The 2,000 odd sword-shield soldiers were like a pack of hungry wolves, as they charged toward the camp gates. Soldiers that carried huge logs rammed the gate. As no one was defending the gate, it looked like the soldiers could knock it down soon.

Luckily, at this time, the patrolling squad had rushed over and used their bodies to block the gate. At the same time, they used a circular piece of wood to block the gate to try and win time for the troops.

Under the assault of 2,000 men, the less than 10 men squad could not prevent the destruction of the gate for more than a few minutes. The invaders destroyed the gate and knocked the patrolling squad to the ground.

The captain of the patrolling squad, a rank 8 elite, grabbed the spear in his hand and hollered, “Kill!"

The enemies that broke in raised their blades and mercilessly chopped. The captain's spear stabbed into the stomach of one soldier. Unfortunately, the soldier’s blade chopped down and instantly killed the captain. The other squad members didn't even have the chance to climb up, the enemies slashed and none of them survived. The troops that followed stepped onto the bodies of the patrolling squad, turning them into meat paste.

The sword-shield soldiers started to form squadrons. Like a pack of hungry wolves, they dashed toward the tents. The shouting and killing had alerted the Shanhai Army soldiers in the tents. Some had already dressed up, while others just grabbed their weapons and directly engaged the enemy.

The soldiers of the 1st regiment were elites of the Shanhai Army. Hundreds of battles had tempered each and every one of them. Even if they didn't wear their armor, they weren't afraid; they weren’t even at a disadvantage. They fought off the enemy troops and gathered together. Then, they dashed out of the tent to gather with the main troops.

The enemy cavalry charged up under the command of Sha Pojun. They weaved in and out between the tents, as they focused on the groups that had formed up. This action prevented the soldiers of the 1st regiment from gathering up, which forced them all to fight alone.

The archers at the back fired wave after wave of arrows at the various tents, ruthlessly reaping away the lives of the Shanhai soldiers in the tents..

At this moment, the enemy had thrown Shanhai City's 1st regiment into chaos, and the troops could not gather up. The battle cries, the sounds of sharp arrows, the sounds of warhorses, and moans of pain from the injured formed a despondent song.

As a special rank general, Shi Wanshui's instincts were very strong. After the patrolling squad discovered something strange, he immediately woke up. As a general with vast experience, he didn't run out to check the situation. Instead, he started to don his armor.

After he wore his armor, he grabbed his spear and walked out of the tent. At this moment, the enemies were still attacking the main gates of the camp. As he faced this attack, he didn’t ask why or who the enemy was first. Instead, he gathered the troops.

Shi Wanshui sent out his personal troops to sound the alert for help.

He commanded the patrolling squads to wake up all the soldiers, and he ordered them to suit up and gather near him.

While he waited for the troops to gather, Shi Wanshui asked his personal guards to fire the warning signal.

When the sentries on the other end saw the signal, they instantly fired theirs. One fired after another, as they worked together to pass the warning signal all the way to the main base. The troops that guarded the walls—the City Protection Unit—saw the warning signal and split into two groups. One group went to report to the main camp of the City Protection Unit; and the other made their way to the Lord's Manor to inform Ouyang Shuo.

The fastest unit to gather was the first unit. Shihu brought 500 armored warriors and rushed over. They were located behind the camp, so they had enough time to gather troops.

When he saw the first unit rush here, Shi Wanshui calmed down. He had confidence with the first unit here.

When he heard the sounds of killing increase, Shi Wanshui made the decision to retaliate, as he gathered all the troops along the way. He ordered the first unit to form a defensive formation, and they slowly advanced toward the second unit.

On the way there, they met a bunch of enemy cavalry, who weren't able to break down their defensive line. The first unit cut them to the ground. When the soldiers along the way saw the first unit, they rushed out and gathered with them.

Hence, Shi Wanshui used the first unit to open the road to gather more troops. As they went further, they reduced the number of men that dared to provoke them. When they got to the second unit, they had already expanded to 1,000 men.

As the 2nd unit was closer to the front, the difficulty of wearing the Buren Armor caused issues. The situation forced the mountain barbarians to helplessly use their shields and Tang blades to fight the enemies, which resulted in huge losses.

The sight of the large group of reinforcements delighted the lucky survivors. The 1st unit pushed up the defense line to buy the 2nd unit time to don their armor. At that moment, Li Mingliang brought the 3rd unit to reinforce them.

When he saw that the enemy troops were about to form up, Sha Pojun didn't dare to tarry. He gathered up his troops to prevent them from being split off.

Both sides had started to gather their troops, as they awaited the final battle.

Shi Wanshui made some calculations. In a short hour, the 1st regiment had lost 700 soldiers, which infuriated him. Such a big loss had never happened to him. When he saw the enemy troops gather, he didn't try to rashly force it. Instead, he ordered his guards to send a distress signal to the main camp.

Chapter 223 - Reinforcement

The rushing horseshoe clatters broke the peaceful morning of Shanhai City as the two horses galloped on the commerce street. The troops reached the black tortoise gate and shouted, "Open the gates, there are urgent military matters!"

The ones defending the black tortoise gates were also city protection unit members, and seeing that they were the members protecting the north gate, they immediately ordered to open the city gates.

Going past the black tortoise gate, the cavalry split up. One went left into the barracks and the other continued straight to the lord's manor. He got off the horse and slammed the door. "Open up! Quickly open up!"

The guard opened the door. "Who’s knocking?"

"Quick, bring me to the lord, there are urgent military matters!" The cavalry said anxiously. He didn't dare to be slow, asking the cavalry to wait in the hall before running toward the backyard.

Ouyang Shuo received the information and rushed to the meeting hall.

"Lord, the city’s western camp has sent a distress signal."

Ouyang Shuo was astonished and had a bad feeling. He didn't have time to think and ordered, "Order all city protection unit members to go to their positions; order the northern and eastern camps to gather and wait for my command; order the Beihai Naval fleet’s 1st unit to sail here, the territory will enter level two emergency.”

"Yes sire!"

At the same time, the Guards at the Wuying courtyard were shocked. Captain Wang Feng dressed up and rushed to the meeting hall to get his orders, Ouyang Shuo didn't nag and just ordered them. "Gather your troops and follow me to assist the city’s western camp."

"Yes sire!"

Ouyang Shuo returned to the main courtyard and wore his Mingguang armor, carried his exquisite iron spear, and returned to the front courtyard. In the Wuying Courtyard, the guards were already gathered.

Before they left, the Director of Military Affairs, Ge Hongliang, rushed over, Ouyang Shuo, who was sitting on a Qingfu horse, ordered, "Director Ge, you are in charge of the main camp, direct the northern and eastern camps as well as the Beihai naval fleet. Get ready to reinforce the city’s western camp." Because he didn't understand much about the enemy, Ouyang Shuo didn't dare to move large amounts of troops.

"Yes sire!"

Ouyang Shuo stopped hesitating and hollered, "Guards! Move out!"

The city’s western camp was 60 kilometers away from Shanhai City. Ouyang Shuo didn't dare to slack and ordered the guards to rush there, their breakfasts were settled on horseback to try to reach the western city camp as fast as they could.

City’s western camp

As the camp had limited space, Sha Pojun, who had the numbers advantage, didn't want to have a mixed battle in the enemy camp and ordered his troops to group up and retreat out of the camp.

Shi Wanshui was busy gathering up the wounded and both sides kept a distance with a tacit understanding to regroup. After the enemy backed out of the camp, the 1st regiment had already formed up.

"Major general, what should we do next?" The first unit’s major Shihu said.

The other majors looked towards Shi Wanshui, waiting for his plan.

Shi Wanshui kept silent and analyzed the situation calmly. "The enemy is twice our number, so we can only defend on the back foot and wait for reinforcements."

The 4th unit major Zhao Yan suddenly said, "Major general, I've been closely analyzing the battle and found that although they have a lot of men, their strength isn't strong. The main camp is 60 kilometers from here and I'm worried that before they arrive the enemy would want to burn down our camp. Why not take the initiative and attack to defend?" The ranks of the 1st regiment were not only high, but the soldiers were also trained by Shi Wanshui, so their combat power wasn't something that Sha Pojun could compare to.

What Zhao Yan saw, Shi Wanshui obviously saw too. Based on their strength, they had a fighting chance, but he was worried if they went head to head, it would cause heavy casualties.

"Major General, let's fight! This fight is too humiliating, they actually bullied us at our home. Since our morale is so high, we could make use of it. Just defending would instead lower morale, I fear it isn't a long-term strategy." The 3rd unit’s major Li Mingliang supported and suggested a fight.

Shi Wanshui froze and he looked at the 4 majors, their eyes were lit with the thirst for battle and were waiting for Shi Wanshui's orders.

Shi Wanshui finally made the decision. "Ok, let's go head to head with them. We can't lose Shanhai City’s military might; we must let them see what elites are."

"Yes sire!" everyone replied.

The soldiers of the 1st regiment lined up neatly and moved out of the camp, row after row. The ones in front were the archers of the 1st unit, who were in charge of countering their long-range attacks; behind them were the 1st and 2nd units; the left wing was the 3rd cavalry unit, and the right wing was the spearmen unit.

When the battle started, neither side hesitated and launched attacks simultaneously.

The 1st regiment, with their backs against the camp, chose to take the initiative. Once the enemies got into range, the 5th unit fired wave after wave of arrows on the enemies.

Sha Pojun's strategy was to use the cavalry to break down the 1st regiment line of defense, while the sword shields soldiers at the back would advance, and the archers would provide cover fire from the back.

Facing the high-speed light cavalry soldiers, the 5th unit could only afford to fire two waves before avoiding to the sides, opening up the middle before moving to the back. The 1st and 2nd units moved up and raised their shields to welcome the cavalry charge.

This was the battle between spear and shield.

The light cavalry soldiers were like a flood, crashing into the front. The mountain barbarians could clearly see the white steam coming out from the noses of the war horses. The cavalry raised their spears, and the heads of the spears shimmered in the light like they were choosing who to bite into.

Shihu and Shibao, the two majors, stood at the front of the forces and shouted, "Block!"

"He!" The elite mountain barbarian soldiers made a series of shouts, using the shields in their hands to try and fend off the charging cavalry. At the same time, they hacked down using the Tang Swords in their left hands directly at the weak legs of the horses.

It was like the cavalry was smacking into a steel wall. After penetrating the first layer, there was a second then a third. Of those that were knocked into, like a can being forced open, their shields broke and their armor crushed them down onto the ground. As the cavalry trampled on them, they were pounded into meat paste, their blood staining the Buren armor slowly seeping out onto the ground. The long spears with the momentum of the charge pierced through the Buren armor and took life after life.

Reaching the third layer, the cavalry could not proceed any farther and had no more energy to continue charging.

The iron flood started to surround them, stepping on the bodies of their fallen comrades. With the fire of revenge, they waved their weapons, one horse after another fell to the ground. Before the warriors could get up, they were cut into pieces by the sword-shield soldiers.

With the change of position from defense to attack, the unblockable attack from the cavalry became an instant reverse slaughter.

The cavalry tried to use their spears to retaliate. Unfortunately, it was useless without the power and momentum from charging. Facing the high defense of the Buren armor, the spears couldn't penetrate through.

When the heavy armored infantry troops had cooled down the enemy cavalry, the 3rd major Li Mingliang finally made a move. He drew his Tang Sword nd waved it forwards, shouting, "Cavalry unit, charge!"

"Kill!" Numerous Tang Swords were drawn, exuding a strong killing aura.

The cavalry unit came in from the left, suddenly going past the sword shield soldiers of the enemy to attack their backmost line. The defenseless archers could only fire a wave of arrows before being killed by the cavalry. They only wore simple leather, how could they defend against the charge?

The 3rd cavalry troops crisscrossed around the archers, their blades screaming with bloodthirst. As the light shone across, a human head dropped to the ground. The place where the archers were standing in slowly became a human hell. Enemy screams couldn't be heard as they were often killed with one blade. The cavalry unit was like a high-efficiency harvester, mercilessly taking life after life. The heads of the enemy were strewn all over. After being crushed by the warhorses, they sunk into the ground, the brain juices and the mud mixing together, making one unable to differentiate the two.

The archer forces being ambushed caused Sha Pojun to helplessly order a portion of his sword shield soldiers who were charging behind the cavalry to fall back to assist.

If one said that the alliance cavalry was a sharp knife, the sword shield soldiers behind them were like fruit knives. They looked simple, but their killing ability was shocking. They took the chance that the heavy armored infantry was being cooped up by the cavalry, to dash up, causing the 1st and 2nd units to be under attack.

Originally, it was the perfect opportunity. If one commanded properly, there was a chance to wipe out the entire 1st and 2nd unit. Unfortunately, the attack from the 3rd unit forced a portion of the soldiers to retreat. At the same time, the 4th unit that wasn't doing anything entered the fray and used their spears to buy time for the 1st and 2nd units.

In that moment, the battle was in a stalemate. Both sides had thrown in all their troops. It was a race against time. If the alliance could kill the 1st and 2nd units, then victory was theirs.

On the other hand, if the 3rd unit destroyed the archers and attacked from the back, then it would be the end for the alliance.

Intense killing shouts filled the sky. At the most intense moment, Shi Wanshui had to put down his command and enter the fight himself to buy some time for the heavy armored soldiers.

Just at that moment, with the sounds of horse hooves, a flag fluttered in the air. On it was a golden dragon facing the sun, shining brightly.

Chapter 224 - Turning Things Around

Translator - TeamTWO

The orderly clatter of the horseshoes shocked both sides, causing the battle to come to a stop.

"The Lord Flag, it's the lord. The lord personally brought the Guards unit to assist us." The 1st regiment soldiers were delighted.

On the opposite side, the enemy troops morale dropped to the freezing point. Sha Pojun and the others muttered, "How? How did they rush here so fast? It's not possible, no!"

The Guards unit had made the record of traveling 60 kilometers in just 2 hours, from Shanhai City all the way to the city west camp.

Ouyang Shuo walked to the front of the group. After analyzing the situation, he didn't hesitate or take any rest, directly leading the Guards unit to rush towards their sword-shield soldiers.

Sha Pojun didn't give up and made a final struggle. He ordered the sword-shield soldiers to give up on killing the enemy sword shield soldiers, and raise their shields to block the cavalry's charge.

The Guards unit was the elite of the elite, the sharpest weapons of all, all of them were equipped with Mingguang armor, and rode on Qingfu horses. They were each equipped with a lance, a Tang Blade, a strong bow, and other top class equipment; their average rank was a terrifying 8th rank, and there were even rank 10 war elite soldiers.

Such strong men, how could anyone block their charge? The sword shield soldier formation, which looked to be impenetrable, was like paper and was one-shotted by the Guards from one end of the formation to the other, tearing it apart. The shining horse lances, under the huge momentum, effortlessly pierced through their armor, fresh blood splattering into the air. In the sword shield soldier formation, there appeared a long trail of emptiness strewn with many dead bodies.

After charging, the Guards took their lances and turned their horses around, pulling out their exquisitely built Tang blades. They were soldiers who’d been through hundreds of wars and were riding on the best of horses. Before the enemy could react, just as they wanted to cut at the horse legs, the guard's Tang blades had landed on their heads.

This was the same tactic the 1st regiment had used successfully on the light armored cavalry, but light infantry wanting to use that on heavy armored cavalry was the same as throwing an egg at a rock.

The reinforcements from the Guards unit helped raise the morale of the 1st regiment; especially with lord Ouyang Shuo fighting by their side, if they didn't fight with their all, how could they answer to the lord?

The middle troops and the remaining 1st and 2nd units, under the leadership of major Shihu and major Shibao, had started to focus on killing the trapped cavalry.

The 4th unit that was shifted down from the front lines, under the orders of Shi Wanshui, dived into the central troops to assist the 1st and 2nd units for completing the killing against the cavalry.

The Guards unit took over the defensive line and started to attack the sword shield-soldiers of the alliance like how they would to raiders, splitting them up and making them fend for themselves.

In the backmost line, the 3rd unit had killed most of the archers. The sword-shield soldiers who came to support as the number were too little. They couldn't put up a fight, adding with the low morale, they could only eat dust at the back.

The alliance had a big army, but it was being cut off piece by piece, unable to form a whole force. At that moment, even if Sha Pojun wanted to reorganize the troops, it was too late.

The scales of victory was starting to favor Shanhai City.

War was a huge test of the ambitions of both sides. Especially for the Guards unit who rushed here and immediately got into the battle, it was a huge test to their fitness.

Perseverance, only through that can one succeed.

……

On the eastern border of Shanhai City, a 2,000 man army had crossed the border and entered Shanhai City’s territory. This was an alliance force made up of Broken Blade Town, Yishui Town, and Gushan Town.

Out of a consideration of various benefits, the Eastern alliance commander, Ba Dao, didn't attack at the same time as the Western alliance troops. He was waiting for confirmation that the western troops had engaged with The Shanhai City army before entering the territory. Based on his view, Shanhai City's main force would be made busy by the western forces, and wouldn't bother about the east.

Unfortunately, what Ba Dao didn't know was that the 3rd regiment that was built not long ago was undergoing a raider operation at the eastern border. After receiving the distress signal, E'Lai sent out a scouting team to patrol the border region.

Hence, once the eastern troops entered the territory, in less than half an hour, they were spotted and reported to E'Lai.

Upon hearing the intel, E'Lai laughed coldly. "An army of fewer than 2,000 men, to think they even dare to stroll into Shanhai City, they really don't put me, E'Lai, in their eyes."

He gathered his troops and laid in wait on the road they had to pass. He knew that the 3rd regiment was just built and filled with rookies. Especially the 1st and 2nd unit mountain barbarian warriors, not only were they not equipped with the Buren armor, even a single hard battle also wasn't fought.

Hence, even though the 3rd regiment had more men, E'Lai wouldn't be so stupid to fight head on. At the same time, he reported the intel back to the main camp.

The one who was in charge in the main camp was Military Affairs director Ge Hongliang, first received the intel from the eastern camp, then the distress signal from the western camp. After confirming the plains were quiet, Ge Hongliang ordered for the 1st unit of the 2nd regiment to assist the western camp, and the 2nd unit would assist the eastern camp, the 3rd, 4th and 5th would stay still and focus on the plains.

The reinforcements of the second unit made E'Lai more confident to swallow the alliance troops to the east.

……

Under the leadership of E'Lai, the 3rd regiment was ready to ambush the east alliance troops. The battle at the city’s western camp had already entered the white-hot stage.

The first one to break the stalemate was the 3rd unit of the 1st regiment, the cavalry used their Tang blades to withhold Shanhai City military's honor, going on a rampage on the remaining archers. As more than half were killed, the soldiers lost their courage to resist and turned and ran, even the reinforcement sword-shield soldiers all lost their morale and started to scatter and run.

The 3rd major Li Mingliang wasn't ready to let them off, the cavalry chased after them, following closely and not letting any escape.

Every cavalryman in the Shanhai City army was armed with horned arrows. As they rode, they used the bows to mercilessly claim more enemy lives.

The arrows shot from the bow made a clear air breaking sound, piercing the leather armor and penetrating the skin, spinning into the bone and intestines.

In the endless wilderness, there wasn't anywhere to hide. The short, wild grasses couldn't block the view of the cavalry as they chased their prey like hunting dogs.

There was nothing more terrifying than seeing your friends die one after another. Their arrows were like a magician's tricks, accurate and endless.

In the end, the deserters couldn't run anymore. High amounts of adrenaline squeezed out all of their stamina, the soldiers were already desperate, and they stopped, raising their hands to surrender.

The surrender was like a plague, the moment it started, it spread and didn't stop.

After the 3rd unit, the 1st and 2nd units took the stage. They were the trump card units of Shanhai City, equipped with the Buren armor and came from various mountain barbarian tribes. They treated honor as their life and would never take a loss.

However today, because of the sneak attack, the soldiers of the 2nd unit were beaten convincingly. If it weren't for the help of the 1st unit, the 2nd unit would’ve been decimated.

Losing their honor and being insulted, one could only use the enemy's fresh blood to wash it off.

The warriors of the 1st and 2nd unit were as close as brothers. They had an understanding, two surrounding one cavalryman, one cutting the leg, the other killing the soldier that fell off.

Since the start, the alliance cavalries hadn’t faced such a tough bone before.

It was like they fell headfirst into an iron barrel in a quagmire, no matter how they tried to turn left and right, what they met was metal. Once the metal barrel started to spin at high speed, they would be grounded by it and smashed.

What was worse was there were a bunch of spear wielding idiots who were ambushing them from behind. These shameless soldiers made use of their advantage to pierce the horses and not the people, it was really shameless.

They didn't want to think about victory, falling into the trap, they wanted to escape from this nightmare.

The cavalry wanted to escape, but the mountain barbarians weren't willing to let them. Their bodies weren't full of the enemy's fresh blood. Around their feet weren't all the enemy's bodies. This wasn't enough to wash off their shame; this wasn't enough to increase their honor.

The warriors wore an early 30 kg heavy Buren armor, so such a highly intense battle exhausted them. But they didn't want to rest, they squeezed dry all their energy to deal the final blows to the enemy. The Tang blades in their hands were still sharp, and the shields that they raised were still unbreakable.

"Ahhhh!” the mountain barbarians hollered, this was the death proclamation that they made to their prey when they were hunting in their tribes. Today, the proclamations were made towards the enemy cavalry.

The shouts spread across the wilderness, awing the hearts of everyone.

Chapter 225 - Ambush

Sha Pojun felt like he was in a nightmare, a nightmare that he wanted to quickly wake up from.

When Di Chen told him that he had a chance to sneak attack and scheme against Qiyue Wuyi, Sha Pojun was on cloud nine. He was unable to forget how Qiyue Wuyi humiliated him during the Battle of Zhuolu, saying that he was Di Chen's dog. Such an insult was worse than killing him.

Hatred would make a person lose rationality and he had undoubtedly been consumed by the bloodlust.

Sha Pojun had never stopped to think why Di Chen didn't do it himself and went to find him; he even didn't discuss with his family and directly brought 2,000 elites and teleported to Yongye Town.

He wanted to start his journey of revenge to let his soul filled with revenge burn bright.

At the start, the war was so smooth. They traveled in the dark and weren't spotted even when they were right in front of the enemy. Even when there was a small accident, the battle was still in their favor.

The alliance had smoothly charged into the enemy camp and started to slaughter. Seeing the Shanhai City soldiers one by one falling into puddles of blood, at that time Sha Pojun was having fun and having such a pleasant time.

Sha Pojun had even started to imagine that once he destroyed the sub-camp, he might even be able to lead the alliance troops to continue to attack the main camp of Shanhai City, making Qiyue Wuyi bow at his feet. Right now, he wanted Qiyue Wuyi to beg him to let him know who was who's bitch.

But, when did it start? When did the situation turn on its head?

The gathering speed of the enemy troops was far faster than the alliance expected. The enemy's strength was far stronger than the alliance’s. Those mountain barbarians, even not wearing armor could actually fight head to head with the elite of the alliance.

Victory was so short-lived, and the slaughter couldn't continue. When the enemy’s heavy armored infantry gathered, Sha Pojun knew that the time for him to pick them off had ended and the real hard battle was starting.

Even at that moment, Sha Pojun still thought that victory was still in his hand, as after entering the camp, the alliance forces were twice that of the enemy. If they commanded properly, there's no way they would lose.

Sha Pojun's alliance got into a formation outside the camp, taking the initiative to launch an assault on the enemy. For that, Sha Pojun didn't hesitate to bring his elite cavalry to line up at the front of the forces, equipped with sharp blades.

Unfortunately, the enemy heavy armored infantry was too strong and gave Sha Pojun a huge slap to the face. Shanhai City didn't hesitate to send the heavy armored infantry that Ouyang Shuo had spent large amounts of money on, how would the light armored infantry go against such an unearthly strong heavy armored infantry?

Following which, the sneak attack by the enemy cavalry unit gave Sha Pojun a huge blow.

Sha Pojun wasn't discouraged. He still believed that victory would belong to him. He calmed himself down and spurred his soldiers on, ordering a portion of the sword-shield soldiers back to defend while asking the remaining to advance to try to eat the enemy’s heavy armored infantry forces.

Sha Pojun saw victory was in sight, however, that devil Qiyue Wuyi actually brought a bunch of terrifying heavy armored infantry. The enemy relied on just 500 heavy armored infantry and managed to withhold 3-4 times that of the alliance's troops, destroying their sword-shield soldiers.

What happened next was Sha Pojun's nightmare.

First, the alliance archer forces being totally decimated, and they started running for their lives. Following which, the cavalry forces that Sha Pojun were so proud of were also eaten piece by piece by the enemy’s steel beasts, while only the remaining 100-200 lucky members were able to escape.

Lastly was the total destruction of the alliance forces.

Facing the enemy's heavy armored infantry and heavy armored cavalry attacks, the sword-shield soldiers who were struggling to hold on finally collapsed, raising their hands up to surrender. The warriors were very clear that as infantry, they couldn't escape the chase of the enemy's cavalry. The archers who tried to escape were the best example.

The lords were despondent. After the cavalries were destroyed, they immediately took their bodyguards and escaped. All their courage and faith were destroyed at that moment with nothing left.

They bet everything on this, and what they got in return was the utter destruction of their troops.

The lords were like birds to a gunshot. They even forgot to inform the eastern alliance soldiers who were still advancing through the alliance channel, causing them to be ambushed by the 3rd regiment.

Sha Pojun was about to look down on and despise this bunch of cowards, but he turned around and found that he was actually part of the large group that was escaping. The cavalries who escaped found their lord and together they escaped toward Yongye Town.

Ouyang Shuo was furious. The poisonous bugs that he’d reared for more than six months had retaliated and bit him instead. The thought of letting these lords go back alive had never crossed his mind.

When he saw Sha Pojun appear in the alliance, he knew that the Yanhuang Alliance and himself would have an irreparable relationship. It's either you die or I live.

Ouyang Shuo let Shi Wanshui stay and put him in charge of rounding up the prisoners and save the wounded as well as repairing the camp. He personally brought the Guards unit and the 3rd unit from the 1st regiment to chase the enemies.

At Qiushui City’s eastern suburbs, 15 kilometers away from the border, there was a small mountain. On top of it, apart from wild grass, there wasn't even a single tree. This was the place that E'Lai selected for the ambush; the 3rd regiment and the 2nd regiment 2nd unit were all hiding behind the hill, waiting for the fish to get hooked.

Broken Blade Town’s lord Ba Dao, brought an alliance force of 2,000, not facing any problems on his way. Over time he met a few raider camps. Upon seeing such a huge army, the raiders were like turtles and hid in their shells.

As the journey was peaceful, Ba Dao started to put down his guard, even not arranging a vanguard squad to explore the path ahead.

"Brother Dao, don't you find it weird? We have walked so long, and we haven't even seen a single patrolling soldier, is there a trap?" Gushan Town’s lord Dengtai Baijiang felt a little uneasy.

Ba Dao shook his head. "You're thinking too much, did you notice that there are still raiders in this region? What does this tell you? This means that Shanhai City hasn’t cleaned up this area. Naturally, there wouldn't be soldiers patrolling here. If not, they would be free food for the raiders." Ba Dao's explanation made a lot of sense.

Dengtai Baijing thought about it and felt that it made sense, so he didn't think about it anymore.

Behind the hill, the 3rd regiment’s 3rd unit major, Zheng Liaokai, walked in front of E'Lai and said, "Colonel, they’re here!"

E'Lai was riding the domineering Nian Beast Luosha. "Get ready to move!"

"Yes!"

Until the eastern alliance forces reached the central section of the hill, the 2 cavalry units of a 1000 cavalry were like wildlands spectres, suddenly popping out. Without any hesitation, they charged down the hill.

Closely after the appearance of the cavalry, the 3rd regiment’s archer unit rained down on the alliance forces, suppressing the alliance archers, and applying cover fire for the cavalry forces.

The rain of arrows made a beautiful arc in the air, precisely landing on the archer forces of the alliance troops. When the arrows reached the soldiers, it entered their shoulders and their heads. Those who were hit in the head died instantly, and those who were pierced in the shoulder let out screams of pain. If they weren't attended to in time, there was a chance they would be paralyzed from the waist up.

Such a sudden attack made the alliance forces panicked; they had never expected that they would be attacked at such a time and place.

Ba Dao was flustered, panicking. “Get into formation, get into formation." The sword shield soldiers in the center turned and prepared to turn to the wings to build up the defensive line.

However, it was all too late. Before they could change formations, and before the sword-shield soldiers could raise their shields, the cavalry had made use of the downhill momentum to charge down.

The high speed charging cavalry force was a wide force as it covered the land, instantly messing up the alliance forces. The soldiers in the front cowered in fear and retreated while those at the back were still trying to get into position. The two parts knocked into one another, sending the military into chaos.

Just at that time, the 1st, 2nd, and 4th units made a loop from the back of the hill, appearing behind the alliance forces and stabbing them in the butt.

The mountain barbarian soldiers together with the spearmen started to launch an assault towards the enemies. The alliance forces which were in chaos were unable to coordinate with one another. The command system had failed, and soldiers started to fight for themselves. On the other hand, the 3rd regiment troops were united, and their movements were coordinated. Adding with the cavalry charging about freely in the enemy lines, they held the upper hand in the battle, grabbing onto the enemy troops.

The cavalry of the alliance forces were originally at the front of the force. At this point, however, they were totally useless. Charge in front, and there was no one in front; charge behind, and they were blocked by the sword-shield soldiers. Suddenly, the cavalry commander had an idea and ordered his men to charge up the mountain to get ready to kill the archer unit.

It was easy to go down the mountain but hard to go up. The archer unit at the top wasn't afraid, aiming at them and firing shot after shot. The archer unit captain ordered the soldiers to focus on the horses. Those that were hit felt to the ground, affecting the advance of the cavalry behind them.

On the short mountain road, the archers had managed to shoot 3 waves of arrows, and the cavalry was badly injured. The original 500 cavalries were only left with less than 200. They had struggled to reach the top of the mountain. Just as they were ready to harvest the archers, a general riding a green-scaled beast suddenly appeared in front of the archer unit.

Chapter 226- Pursuit

Naturally, the General in front of the archer unit was the third regiment colonel, Er'Lai. His mount, Luosha, was entering its first battle. Not only did it not feel out of place, it even excitedly roared, “Niannn!"

The suppression of the beast scared the alliance troops into a frenzy, which made them unable to advance.

Er'Lai stood at the front; he held his halberd and stood as a shield for his troops.

"Face your death!" Er'Lai hollered. He felt no fear even when he faced 200 cavalries alone. He launched an attack and charged into the group. He wielded his halberd and swung it around to perfection. He effortlessly flourished the 20-kilogram halberd. It was like a hook from hell; every wave took a life and made the enemy cower in fear.

Er'Lai's strokes were highly efficient and deadly. After a short moment, he sent blood and flesh flying around.

The Nian beast followed his master and unleashed its bloodthirst and charge abilities. It exuded an aura of ferocity and scared all the mounts; some even fell to the ground.

Luosha had a powerful charge that directly knocked some of the soldiers off their horses. Its horns were sharp weapons, which could easily pierce through the armor of the warhorses, and painted a truly gruesome scene.

The alliance cavalry surrounded Er'Lai, but they could not get close to him. Even if they luckily landed a spear on him, it barely scratched his Buren Armor. Their attacks failed to cause much harm. The same went for the iron armor that covered Luosha's body, head, and joints. As for the other areas, it had scales as strong as the Buren Armor.

Strong attack combined with an unbreakable defense, and the addition of a ferocious beast, the three together made them unstoppable. A man and his mount made the little mountaintop instantly become hell on earth.

Fresh blood flowed down the hill and slowly accumulated into a stream that trickled downward. Amongst the green of the hill, there was a line of striking red.

Such a stunning sight pumped up the soldiers of the 3rd regiment. Their majestic General had made their blood boil, and they charged toward their enemies.

On the other side, the alliance troops were in tatters, their morale at a freezing point, and they were on the verge of collapse.

The commander of the alliance forces, Ba Dao, had a look of despair as he witnessed the slaughter of his troops. He couldn't see any way to salvage this. At the crucial moment, he abandoned his troops and brought ten of his Guards to flee the battlefield, as he turned and escaped to the east.

Ba Dao's escape finally led to the alliance force’s utter collapse.

When they saw their commander escape, the soldiers all lost their will to fight and followed behind.

Dengtai Baijiang gaped, as he looked at Ba Dao’s escaping figure. He was unable to believe his eyes. He couldn't understand how the usually righteous Ba Dao would be such a coward and make such a low-level mistake. When he saw the mess in front of him, Dengtai Baijiang let out a long sigh and fell back. At least he had the slight air of a gentleman; he covered Ruoshui Sanqian and her troops before he followed behind.

People would only reveal their true colors when forced into desperate straits. Ba Dao was such a person. He only found out that he wasn’t as courageous as he seemed when the situation turned sour.

After he fled for four kilometers, he finally realized the extent of the disaster he had caused. He wanted to rush back to reorganize the forces. Unfortunately, it was already too late.

The Shanhai City cavalry relentlessly chased them. When the alliance forces saw that their efforts were futile, they decided to just surrender. Anyways, their lord had abandoned them and the warriors didn't have a psychological burden anymore.

As they needed to round up the prisoners, they missed the best time to make chase, which allowed Ba Dao to escape from death. The other two lords, Ruoshui Sanqian and Dengtian Baijiang, weren't as lucky. The 2nd unit of the 2nd regiment caught and killed them.

With that, the third regiment and the second unit of the second regiment had killed 820 men and captured 1180. At the same time, they had only lost less than 200 men—a total victory.

On the east side, Ba Dao had escaped, but the few lords on the left weren't so lucky.

Ouyang Shuo, his Guards unit, and the 3rd unit of the 1st regiment surrounded Sha Pojun and the rest. The alliance did not even manage to escape the Shanhai City border.

"Sha Pojun, why are you here?" Ouyang Shuo questioned.

Sha Pojun retorted defiantly, “Is it your business?"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and laughed coldly, “It's not my business; I'm just afraid that someone is being used without them noticing." If Heise Pifeng wanted to find reinforcements, he would have asked Di Chen or Chun Shenjun. Why would he find Sha Pojun? Ouyang Shuo guessed that someone had schemed this and that someone wanted to make use of Sha Pojun.

Sha Pojun's expression changed; he seemed unsettled. However, he forced himself to calm down and said, “B*llshit, I find you an eyesore, and I want to destroy you. It's that simple."

"Good! You have balls! I'll fulfill your desire for death!" Ouyang Shuo didn't chatter on any longer and ordered, “Kill him!"

"Yes, lord!"

There were no challenges in this war. The Shanhai forces had surrounded 200 odd troops and did not allow any of them to escape. They destroyed all of these troop on the border of Shanhai City.

Before Sha Pojun died, he looked at Qiyue Wuyi with anger. 2,000 elite troops had died. He did not know how he would explain this to his family. The only consolation was that he didn't need to pay the teleportation fee. He could only comfort himself in this way to find a positive out of such a bad situation. Qiyue Wuyi's words left a seed of doubt in his head. After Sha Pojun thought hard, Di Chen's actions did seem a little suspicious.

Heise Pifeng could already imagine the outcome that awaited his territory. When he thought back on his past year of running the territory, he couldn’t control his emotions when he realized that Shanhai City would conquer it. He scolded, "Qiyue Wuyi you coward; you're a butcher. You don't deserve to represent the common players."

Ouyang Shuo kept silent. In truth, he didn't have any anger toward Heise Pifeng's actions. If it was him, he could also only take a risk when forced onto such a path.

The winner was king; you die, and I live. The war between territories was just that cruel.

After they destroyed the remaining enemies, Ouyang Shuo recalled the troops and went back to the city west camp.

When he returned, it was pretty much back in order. The 1st unit of the 2nd regiment, under the leadership of Sun Tengfei, had rushed to assist. However, they were too late and didn't arrive in time for the final battle.

In the tent, Ouyang Shuo called the generals for a simple military affairs meeting.

Shi Wanshui made a report of the casualties and painfully said, “My lord, a total of 1,100 troops from the 1st regiment died, nearly half of the troops in the regiment. The 2nd unit is even worst, there are only 100 men left, it will need to be rebuilt."

After he finished the report, Shi Wanshui stepped out and kneeled, “The 1st regiment has lost many troops, as the commander of the city west camp, I have not done my job. Please give me my punishment, lord."

The five other majors all stepped up and kneeled behind Shi Wanshui, “Please give me my punishment, lord."

They had suffered heavy casualties because of their lax defense, which allowed the enemy to launch a sneak attack. Such a mistake, the generals predicted that someone was going to die for it.

Ouyang Shuo expressionlessly said, Come up!"

They all looked at each other. They remained on their knees, afraid to stand up.

"What is this? Do you need me to personally help you all up?" Ouyang Shuo's meaning confused them.

"The losses in this battle were not entirely your fault. Even I didn't expect the enemy to rush over, so I can't blame you all for not expecting the same," Ouyang Shuo said. However, his tone changed, “But to suffer such heavy casualties, you all are to be blamed. The enemy reached the camp and you all didn't notice it, isn't that too slow? The whole regiment must reflect. We cannot be too arrogant and think that just because we are within the border that nothing will happen to us."

"Yes lord," the various officers were all ashamed.

"In the military, we are very fair. If you do well, we will reward you. But if you fail, we will punish you. Shi Wanshui is docked half a year of wages, the five majors three months," Ouyang Shuo announced their punishments.

"We thank the lord for letting us off!"

After this, Shi Wanshui started to talk about the hostage situation, “My lord, we have captured 320 archers, 1,260 sword-shield soldiers, and 54 cavalry—a total of 1634 people."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Pass them all over to the Military Affairs Department and temporarily send them to the reserve force. As for the 1st regiment, after this operation ends, we will fortify the forces."

"Operation?" Shi Wanshui didn't understand.

"That's right. The enemy dares to challenge us, so they will have to pay a price in blood. I'll return to the main camp and gather the City Protection Unit and the God Machine Unit to help the first regiment destroy Yongye Town and Guangshui Town. How is it? Do you have confidence?" Ouyang Shuo announced his plan for revenge.

As Yongye Town and Guangshui Town had exhausted many troops now, it was the best time to attack. Ouyang Shuo didn't want to leave them any time to recoup, nor did he want to allow them to recruit and train new forces.

When he heard that they were going to take revenge, the blood of the general boiled. Then, he emotionally said, “Lord don't worry, we won't let you down!" Although the 1st regiment had lost half of their troops, with the help of the City Protection Unit and the God Machine Unit, he had absolute confidence in taking down two empty towns.

As it was wartime, the meeting ended quickly. Ouyang Shuo temporarily stationed the Guards unit and the 1st unit of the 2nd regiment at the city west camp, and he brought ten of his Guards to hurriedly return to Shanhai City.

Chapter 227 - Expedition

By the time he returned to Shanhai City, it was already 4 PM.

He didn't directly rush back to the Lord's Manor. Instead, he headed toward the Military Affairs Department to listen to the report of the military affairs director, Ge Hongliang. When he heard that the 3rd regiment had obtained stellar results, his depressed heart felt a little relieved.

General Er'Lai didn't let him down. With this battle alone, he would gain a footing in the military. He would garner reputation and respect in the 3rd regiment. With him at the head of the 3rd regiment, Ouyang Shuo didn't have to worry at all.

Ouyang Shuo ordered Ge Hongliang to place all the prisoners in the reserve force.

The prisoners from both the east and west sides totaled at 2,800 soldiers. They were all proper soldiers and didn't need to class change. Ouyang Shuo naturally wouldn't waste them. At a proper time, he would place all of them in his army.

Ouyang Shuo told Ge Hongliang about the city west camp operation and asked the Military Affairs Department to assist.

"Director Ge, pass down my words!" Then, Ouyang Shuo commanded, “Order the 2nd unit of the 2nd regiment to rush to the main camp; order the Qiushui Town City Protection Unit
to help the 3rd regiment destroy Yishui Town and Gushan Town. The God Machine Unit shall split into two, one to help the city west camp and the other to help the city east camp to complete this operation."

This time, Ouyang Shuo was really enraged, and he didn't want to give his enemies any chances.

"Yes, my lord!"

After he left the Military Affairs Department, Ouyang Shuo didn't stop and rushed to the inner city barracks. He found the God Machine Unit Major, Wang Yuanfeng. After he gave the major some instructions, Ouyang Shuo returned to the Lord's Manor.

The news of the war had spread out in the territory.

When Ouyang Shuo returned, the manor was bustling. Song Jia and Yingyu heaved a sigh of relief when the saw him come back. Ouyang Shuo's safety had worried them.

Ouyang Shuo sent a message about the ambush he faced in Shanhai City in the alliance channel. He warned his allies to pay attention to their territory borders in case of similar situations.

From this battle, Ouyang Shuo realized that the warning system at the border was far from enough. After the territory increased, they hadn't set up sentry towers at the border, which gave the enemy a chance.

"Sha Pojun is so shameless!" Gong Chengshi scolded.

"Wuyi, is this Sha Pojun's own act or Yanhuang Alliance playing tricks?" Bai Hua asked.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and said, “Baseless guesses have no meaning. Let's wait and see." Ouyang Shuo had similar worries to Fenghua Juedai. He didn't want to start a war between the two alliances so early.

Bai Hua was smart and immediately understood what Ouyang Shuo meant and said, "Understood."

Gaia first year, 9th month, 4th day, Shanhai City.

At 6 AM, Ouyang Shuo brought along his Guards, military affairs secretary Songsan, God Machine Unit Major Wang Yuanfeng, and the 2nd unit of the 2nd regiment. They exited the city and went straight toward the city west camp.

At the city west camp, Ouyang Shuo stopped shortly to meet up with the Guards unit and the resting 1st unit of the 2nd regiment. This time, they set off toward Tianfeng Town, which was at the west-most side of the Lianzhou Basin.

Based on the military affairs secretary’s introduction, Tianfeng Town was 300 kilometres away from Shanhai City. It was 240 kilometres away from the city west camp, near the Xila Lake.

Ouyang Shuo's strategic motives were simple—to totally destroy the threat on the west side. He wanted to pluck out the three main lord's on the west of Lianzhou Basin.

For this, he had to bring the troops on a long journey.

Tianfeng Town lord Xiaofeng Canyue definitely wouldn't expect Ouyang Shuo to do that. Hence, Shanhai City purely brought cavalry. They planned to attack them before they could react.

The blistering sun was high up in the sky. Under the directions of the military affairs spy, a 1,500 men elite cavalry force ventured deep into the wilderness, toward the path of revenge.

To increase their speed, they took shorter rests. Ouyang Shuo had also taken 1,500 Qingfu horses from the city west horse stables. This action ensured that each cavalry had two Qingfu horses, so they could substitute between the two on the way.

The Military Affairs Division intentionally chose a route that avoided Yongye Town and Guangshui Town to prevent stirring up more side issues. In the afternoon, the force smoothly went past Yongye Town and entered to the deepest point of the wilderness.

For this long mission, Ouyang Shuo had made ample preparations. Not only did he bring enough Xingjun Tents, he also brought the military grain pills and the two triple-bow arcuballistas, which filled his storage bag to the brim.

9th month, 5th day, a series of simple notifications appeared in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for conquering Yongye Town, rewarded 200 merit points."

……

"System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for conquering Yishui Town, rewarded 200 merit points."

……

"System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for conquering Guangshui Town, rewarded 200 merit points."

……

"System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for conquering Gushan Town, rewarded 200 merit points."

……

Ouyang Shuo had conquered the territories of four members of the Sky Blade Alliance one after another, which made Xiaofeng Canyue and Ba Dao panic. The only consolation was that their territories were too far away, which gave them a temporary reprieve from pressure.

The loss of the western alliance troops proved one thing—even with outside help, they couldn’t go against Shanhai City. Instead, they would end up on the receiving end of Qiyue Wuyi's crazy revenge if they took action.

Yongye Town thought that they could survive for a while, but now Qiyue Wuyi had forcefully evicted them.

9th month, 6th day night, the troops had reached Tianfeng Town.

Ouyang Shuo planned to use their tactic against them. He would attack in the early morning tomorrow.

At 5 AM the next day, the sky was slightly bright, and the fog hadn't dispersed. The air was still humid and water droplets formed on the shirts.

The Tianfeng Town suburbs were quiet, and even the most hard working farmers were asleep.

Suddenly, the sound of horseshoes shattered the silence of the suburbs.

The galloping sounds woke the farmers that lived outside the city. A middle aged men muttered, as he opened the door. But when he saw the cavalry troops, his mouth gaped open, and he ran back into his room in fear.

"Husband, who is outside?" asked a woman in the house.

"Hush, don't make a sound," said the astonished farmer. Then, he warned, “Military troops, an endless amount. Seems like we have to fend for our lives again. Haiz, it was so hard to settle down. Why must we face such a situation?"

“Let's just leave matters of war for the lord to worry. Do you think he can win?"

"You're a woman, so what do you know. The little kid from the neighbouring house went to war for the lord, but he didn't return. I heard that none of the people that joined the lord’s army returned." The farmer wasn't as optimistic as his wife.

"Then, what should we do?" said the wife, as she panicked.

"What can we do? Pack up our stuff and run!"

At 6 AM in the morning, a orange red sun slowly rose from the east, and the sleeping town slowly woke up.

At this moment, the Shanhai troops were only two kilometers from Tianfeng Town’s wall. When the patrolling troops saw a large force, they panicked and immediately sounded the alarm.

The resounding alarm broke the peaceful atmosphere and soldiers rushed out of the camps inside the city to the top of the city gate. A fast horse galloped on the streets of the little town, as the rider hollered, “Give way! Quick, make way!"

The rider stopped in front of the Lord's Manor. He didn't deal with his horse and just rushed into the manor. As he ran in, he shouted, Emergency military news! Emergency military news!"

Tianfeng Town lord Xiaofeng Canyue hurried into the meeting hall and asked, “What's the situation?"

"Sire, more than thousands of cavalries have appeared outside of the town, and they don’t look friendly!"

"What? Can you repeat what you just said?" Xiaofeng Canyue was so afraid that he dropped the tea cup in his hand, and it fell to the ground.

The rider didn't dare tarry and described the entire situation.

Xiaofeng Canyue sat on the chair, depressed, It was like he had lost his soul, as he muttered, "Qiyue Wuyi, I didn't expect you to be so ruthless, to actually chase all the way here."

"Sire, what should be do?"

Xiaofeng Canyue froze. When he regained his composure, he said, “Order the troops on the walls to defend. They are cavalry, so they aren't good at sieging. We still have a chance."

"Yes, sire!"

After the rider backed away, XiaofengCanyue couldn't remain calm anymore. He was very clear that the 300 Guards he had put together wouldn't be able to defend the wall.

He opened the alliance channel and contacted the last remaining ally of the Sky Blade Alliance, Ba Dao, “Brother Dao, Qiyue Wuyi is a devil. He has already attacked here, so I hope you can send some troops to help me."

Ba Dao freaked out. His first reaction wasn't to send help to Tianfeng Town. Instead, he ordered troops to patrol and check if there were any Shanhai troops around his territory.

"Brother Xiaofeng, it's not like you don't know. The main forces of Broken Blade Town were destroyed. I want to help, but I can't." What a joke, Ba Dao definitely would not help at such a time.

Ba Dao’s attitude infuriated Xiaofeng Canyue, and he ruthlessly said, “Brother Dao, if the lips die, the teeth will feel cold. Such a theory, you don't need me to explain it to you, right? Qiyue Wuyi has already killed Heise Pifeng and the rest. Now, we can only rely on one another. If you don't help me, Shanhai City’s next opponent will be Brother Dao."

Ba Dao obviously understood this theory. However, everyone had their own troubles. He gritted his teeth and said, “Brother Xiaofeng, don't panic. Once I confirm that there aren't any Shanhai City troops here, I will immediately assist you. How about that?"

Xiaofeng Canyue knew that this was the best that he could get. “I'll wait for you," as he said that, he closed the alliance channel to get ready for battle.

Xiaofeng Canyue knew that the city wall would definitely not hold. To not get conquered, he could only defend the Lord's Manor and buy time for Ba Dao's troops to arrive.

Chapter 228 - Expedition Part 2

Outside Tianfeng Town, seeing the heavily guarded city wall, Ouyang Shuo laughed coldly and ordered his troops to advance. They advanced until they reached around 500 meters away from the city wall.

Ouyang Shuo calmly took out the 2 triple-bow arcuballistas from his storage bag, the Guards soldiers under the god machine unit major Wang Yuanfeng's guidance started to fix and zero the arcuballistas.

After all of that, they immediately started firing at the walls to form steps.

Rows of arrows successfully pinned onto the city wall, and the wall was like an arrow forest, similar to rock climbing walls.

The Guards unit’s first and second squadrons, who were already ready and waiting, under the lead of major Wang Feng, got off their horses and ran to the bottom of the wall, then used the step arrows to climb the wall.

The cavalry unit continued to advance and entered the range of the horn bow. They used their bows and fired towards the city wall, suppressing the city protection soldiers' fire and covering the advance of the Guards unit.

Tianfeng Town had just lost over 1000 men and were only left with around 300, how could they be the opponent of the cavalry unit? Those that revealed themselves were shot by arrows and instantly killed.

The sporadic tossing of rocks was unable to threaten the forces. One after another they successfully climbed up the city wall.

After they climbed up the city wall, they pulled out the Tang blades by their waists and engaged the city defence soldiers.

Making use of the chance, Ouyang Shuo ordered the 3rd, 4th and 5th squadrons of the Guards unit to lift up the battering woods to charge towards the gate to breach the city.

On the city walls, often it was an enemy who died. Although Ouyang Shuo’s troops didn't have a large number advantage, they had an absolute skill advantage, killing and making the enemy retreat.

In less than 20 minutes, the city gates were breached, and the 3rd, 4th and 5th squadrons of the Guards units climbed up the walls to assist.

Ouyang Shuo kept the 2 sets of three-bow arcuballistas, and ordered the troops to enter the city and get ready to harvest their rewards.

The troops strolled into the city gates, smoothly killing anything in their way. From start to finish, this didn’t even take an hour.

After the cavalry entered the city, the residents of the town were flustered as they hid in their houses. Ouyang Shuo didn't bother about these civilians and rushed straight for the lord's manor, only wanting to conquer it.

Tianfeng Town lord Xiaofeng Canyue led his last Guards and all his reserve forces, a total of 500 men, to defend in the lord's manor.

The only thing that made him happy was that 10 minutes ago, Ba Dao had finally brought the last 300 elites from Broken Blade Town over and defended the lord's manor together with him.

All the streets towards the lord manor were blocked up. They made use of the city wall protection soldiers to buy time for the residents to pile wood and stone to block the roads to buy even more time.

Ouyang Shuo seeing such a scene, decided to order everyone to get off their horses and decided to battle infantry style. He left the 3 squadrons of the 2nd unit of the 2nd regiment to take care of the horses, while the rest went past the blockages and resolutely entered the lord's manor.

In the lord's manor, there were 2 temporarily-built archer towers. Xiaofeng Canyue, under the protection of his guard, was on one of the towers. "Qiyue Wuyi, you are ruthless."

Ouyang Shuo shook his head in amusement. "Since you dare to provoke me, you must expect for your territory to be buried."

"I won't let you succeed!"

Ouyang Shuo didn't want to waste any time with him, turning to Ba Dao who was by Xiaofeng Canyue’s side and coldly laughing. "You are Ba Dao from Broken Blade Town? Your courage is commendable!"

Facing his threats, Ba Dao didn't react. "Today, either you die or I live."

"Great!" Ouyang Shuo hollered, "Attack!"

Ouyang Shuo took out the three-bow arcuballista once again, and under the leadership of Wang Feng, aimed at the 2 arrow towers, ready to remove the height disadvantage.

The one-shot-three-sword arrow was like a cannon, accurately flying towards the arrow tower and slamming into the soldiers on it. Even the tower itself lost a big piece and started shaking.

If Xiaofeng Canyue didn't think quickly enough, jumping down before it fired, he would have probably died.

Wang Yuanfeng tried again, ordering 2 more rounds to be shot. The arrow tower finally couldn't take it anymore, and broke into two parts at the middle, collapsing to the ground.

The soldiers under the arrow tower panicked and backed off, each one of them with their mouths agape. The strength and power of the three-bow arcuballista left a deep shadow in their hearts.

After destroying the arrow tower, Ouyang Shuo ordered the troops to proceed forwards.

"Fire the arrows!" The cavalry became archers, formed up outside the lord's manor and just pelted the inside of the manor with a rain of arrows. The Guards used their sharp knives and charged towards the doors of the manor.

Inside the lord's manor, there were screams. Without a doubt they were shot by the arrows, forcing them to be unwilling to stay on the patio and making them retreat to the walkways. No matter how much Ba Dao and Xiaofeng Canyue ordered them, they didn't dare to stand out.

What a joke, under such an arrow rain, standing in such an open courtyard, one would become a living target.

Behind the door, it was stacked with rocks, making it hard to break through in a while.

Ouyang Shuo decided to reuse his plans, ordering Wang Yuanfeng to shoot step arrows at the walls. The Guards used them to get up the walls, and with jumps, entered the lord's matter and engaged with the enemy.

Five hundred Guards were like 500 lions, starting a slaughter in the lord's manor.

Ouyang Shuo wasn't pleased and ordered a portion of the cavalry to climb up the walls, shooting downwards for the height advantage. The remaining men started to focus their energies on charging the lord's manor.

Xiaofeng Canyue's roadblocks were used by the cavalry as battering rams.

In the lord's manor, the arrow rain stopped. Under the leadership of the 2 lords, the soldiers rushed out of the walkway and started to fight with the Guards unit soldiers.

Even though they had the numbers advantage, they were still pushed back. The reserve force soldiers that they put together were rookies, and fighting against war elite soldiers, they were freaked out and didn't dare to advance.

Ba Dao was ruthless, bringing his elites to the front and engaging the Guards.

The cavalry archers that were on the walls continued to fire arrows to aid their attack. Ba Dao's forces became the priority targets to these archers.

The poor Ba Dao didn't defend himself well and was shot, causing him to kneel on the ground in pain.

The soldiers of Broken Blade Town, seeing their lord injured on the ground, grouped over and tried to drag him away. How would the Guards units give them such a chance? They ferociously charged forward.

In a moment, it was another bloodbath. The soldiers who couldn't focus on defense paid a heavy price to save Ba Dao. At that point, the result of the battle was set.

The cavalry on the walls jumped down onto the patio. A portion of them charged towards the lord's manor door, moving away the stone from the door.

Helplessly, Xiaofeng Canyue could only gather his remaining troops to give up the patio and back off into the meeting hall. Inside, the territory stone steele had slowly risen up, awaiting its unknown fate.

The Guards unit didn't immediately attack the meeting hall, but they helped the cavalry open up the main door. After opening it, Ouyang Shuo brought the rest of the forces into the lord's manor.

As the lord's manor’s space was limited, a large portion of the cavalry was left outside the lord's manor, surrounding the manor to prevent anyone from escaping, especially the lord, Xiaofeng Canyue. At the same time, they were in charge of surveying the territory to prevent other forces from assisting them from the teleportation formation.

After the Shanhai City troops entered the patio, they formed up and prepared for the final battle.

Inside the hall, seeing the enemy troops like fish swarming into the sea, the alliance troops had looks of despair on their eyes.

The Guards unit troops were still at the front, and led the charge into the hall.

The alliance troops had their backs against the wall and had no way out; they could only wish for a better life next time.

In the narrow meeting hall, this became the last battleground of the 2 sides.

The soldiers from the Guards unit had a steel-like mental strength and an unbreakable spirit, charging forward; they weren't afraid of death and treated honor like their lives. Attack and killing were their instincts.

The soldiers were a highly efficient killing machine who proceeded quickly, killing anyone who blocked their way. Death was the best gift that they could give their enemy, and blood was the best present.

Such an atmosphere and scene made the enemy give up and stop struggling.

Xiaofeng Canyue and Ba Dao continued to try to raise their morale to do a final struggle.

Slaughter continued; fresh blood stained the gaps on the rocky floor, flowing everywhere. After being stepped on, there were many bloody footprints, like a cultivation ground of an asura.

The light of the blades shone across and blood splattered everywhere. The injured let out screams of pain and were drowned in the shadows of the blades.

Ouyang Shuo stood outside the hall, looking motionlessly at this slaughter.

As blood stained the earth and allies fell one after another, when their blades was broken in half, when their allies’ blood blurred their vision, the alliance troops lost their courage and tried to escape. They went through the back door and tried to escape through the back courtyard.

Xiaofeng Canyue laughed. He didn't retreat like Ba Dao, pulling the sword at his waist and faced the Guards alone, shouting, "Kill!" This was his final song, as the Guards unit soldiers charged forward and cut him down.

Chapter 229 - Conquering

Gaia first year 9th month 9th day, 9:20 AM

Tianfeng Town’s lord Xiaofeng Canyue died in battle.

Xiaofeng Canyue's miserable smile became Ouyang Shuo's deepest memory of this whole battle. Ouyang Shuo could totally understand the feelings a lord had towards his territory.

Xiaofeng Canyue didn't choose to escape, and in the final moment, he made the choice to die together with his territory. Territory warfare didn't have anything to do with righteousness or justice, good or bad. There was only survival, the strong live, the weak die.

Ouyang Shuo walked into the meeting hall, ordering the Guards unit to clean up the rest of the soldiers. He walked to the front of the Tianfeng Town stone steele, retrieving his Tang blade, rotating his golden internal strength, imbuing it into the blade before hacking down. Ouyang Shuo didn't know any blade arts so he could only use pure strength to destroy the stone steele.

The territory stone steele had a certain defence and durability, which was correlated to the grade of the territory and the grade of the village creation token.

For a grade 1 village built using the lowest copper village creation token, its durability was 100, and its defence was 10. For each grade the token upgraded by, its initial stats would increase by 20%; each grade the territory increased, the stats would double; for every huge upgrade, the stats would increase by 5 times.

Tianfeng Town was a grade 3 town, and was made using a copper creation token. Its durability was 8000, and defense was 800. Every time it was attacked, the durability would drop. If the combat power was lower than the defence of the stone steele, one would be unable to break through, but you'd deduct durability points.

Ouyang Shuo's knife removed only 12 durability points. Helplessly, he could only ask his Guards to launch an attack on the stone steele.

Half an hour later, the stone steele was finally destroyed.

The moment that it happened, a notification sounded in his ear.

"System notification: player Qiyue Wuyi has conquered Tianfeng Town. Please choose whether to conquer, hand over to another player, or destroy."

"I choose to conquer!"

Tianfeng Town had a strategic location, so Ouyang Shuo would obviously conquer it. Not only Tianfeng Town, but he chose to conquer the 4 other territories.

"System notification: after conquering, you may rename the territory, would you choose to do so?"

"No!" Ouyang Shuo didn't have the interest and wasn’t in the mood to think of another name.

After conquering the territory, Ouyang Shuo finally had time to deal with the mess.

The battle in the back courtyard of the lord's manor had already ended, and with Xiaofeng Canyue's death, the remaining soldiers surrendered. As for Ba Dao and the others, they were all killed and no one was left alive.

Ouyang Shuo sat in the lord's manor, taking control over Tianfeng Town and giving out a series of commands.

He ordered the 2nd unit of the 2nd regiment to be in charge of removing the military power of the affiliate territories of Tianfeng Town. he informed the residents that Tianfeng Town was under the rule of Shanhai City. He ordered the Guards unit to be in charge of the law and order in the city to prevent looting. He made some of the residents clean up the lord's manor and gave instructions, restoring law and order.

In the afternoon, Tianfeng Town had basically returned to normal.

Ouyang Shuo ordered the 1st and 2nd units of the 2nd regiment to immediately return to Shanhai Town and bring back his orders. He ordered the 1st unit of the Beihai naval fleet to go up the Friendship river and rush to Xila lake to defend it. He appointed Construction Division secretary Zhao Dewang as the head of Tianfeng Town, choosing a group of elite workers and officials to come up together with the naval fleet. He ordered the shipyard to send a batch of shipmakers to Tianfeng Town to build a shipyard.

After they left, Ouyang Shuo started to receive all the officials in Tianfeng Town.

The lord's manor was already cleaned up and the bodies were removed, buried in the mass grave outside the city; the bloodstains were cleaned up, and only the air had the thick smell of blood.

Tianfeng Town being a grade 3 Town, amongst players it could probably be ranked in the top 300. Xiaofeng Canyue could also be considered a good leader who had run the territory well.

Tianfeng Town had a total of 23 officials. There were 11 black iron, 2 silver, 1 gold and no historical people.

After two battles, the Tianfeng Town army was nearly wiped out, causing the population of the town to lessen tremendously, totalling only 7000.

After Tianfeng Town was conquered, it would be unable to have any more refugees spawn. Ouyang Shuo would rather migrate all the people from the affiliate territories to the main city to help it break 10 thousand.

As Tianfeng Town was outside of Shanhai City's territory, Tianfeng Town couldn't be considered Shanhai City's, unless Ouyang Shuo moved all of them to Shanhai to live.

Ouyang Shuo obviously wouldn't do that, as he had big plans for Tianfeng Town.

He started to make changes the the administrative structure of Tianfeng Town, similar to that of an affiliate territory of Shanhai City, with 23 officials as the base. This was to build an Administration Department, Internal Affairs Department, Financial Department, and Material Reserves Department. Once Zhao Dewang had brought the elite officials over, Tianfeng Town could immediately start running again.

Out of the officials, the only gold talent was Pu Zhidao, who passed the imperial exams. He was 42 years old and was an important assistant to Xiaofeng Canyue.

Ouyang Shuo was in the lord's office alone with Pu Zhidao.

Civil servants had a backbone such that they wouldn't want to serve a second master, especially so quickly after their old one died. When he entered, he was cold, not willing to discuss with Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and he didn't mind, asking him to sit before saying, "Tianfeng Town and Shanhai City does have some conflict. Im sure you know, but I hope you can make your judgement on whoever started it."

Pu Zhidao was a bit emotional. As Xiaofeng Canyue's assistant, he was clear that Tianfeng Town picked the fight, which resulted in today's disaster. Since they lost, there was nothing they could say.

Since it was a knot, it wasn't so easy to remove it. Their stand was different so the points which they considered were also different. In his mind, Tianfeng Town's actions were correct, just that their strength wasn't enough.

Ouyang Shuo obviously didn't think that it would be so easy to convince him. "A good official learns and improves, I hope you can consider the wellbeing of the residents. If you don't do anything because of your pride and backbone, they would lose a good official, so why would you do that?"

Pu Zhidao let out a long sigh and bowed, "I greet my lord."

Ouyang Shuo helped him up and said, "With your help, Tianfeng Town will have no worries!"

Ouyang Shuo appointed him the Administration director, with a person who was familiar with the runnings of Tianfeng Town, it would make it easier for him get used to.

The next day, the Guards units got out of the city and started to clear up the raider camps along the border. Ouyang Shuo gave specific instructions that they were not only to clear those around Tianfeng Town, but also all those in the Xila Lake region.

The goal was first to make all the residents live peacefully at night and prove that their ruler had the power to protect their safety; second was to make use of this to gather a bunch of prisoners to build the city protection unit of Tianfeng Town. The Guards units couldn't be sent here for long periods of time, so before leaving, Ouyang Shuo had to ensure that they could defend themselves.

Tianfeng Town's recruitment ability was totally squeezed by Xiaofeng Canyue, so the only method was the raiders.

Ouyang Shuo brought four guards, and after leaving the city, walked towards Xila Lake.

As the brightest pearl to the west of the Lianzhou Basin, the Xila Lake was 3150 square kilometers, much larger than the size of a grade 1 county. Its deepest depth was 35 meters, and had an average depth of 25 meters.

The lake water was clear, such that one could see the bottom. The temperature was good and there was an abundance of fish and grass. Apart from that, many birds rested around the lake and depended on it for survival.

On the surface of the lake, fishermen were rowing their boats and tossing out fishing nets.

Xila Lake was a treasure trove, but Ouyang Shuo temporarily didn't have a plan to make use of it. As he looked towards the water, his heart felt happier instantly.

During the following week, the guards went out in all directions to clear the raider camps. Within a five thousand square kilometer radius, many camps of different sizes were all cleared by them.

This operation earned them 4100 gold, 1020 combat prisoners, 2250 non-combat prisoners, and many different resources, filling up the arsenal and warehouse of Tianfeng Town.

The battle successes of the Guards units awed the residents of Tianfeng Town.

To think that whenever Tianfeng Town tried to clear raiders, they were very careful and planned well, unlike these guards who effortlessly cleared them. Such a strong army brought these residents a sense of security.

The large addition of prisoners made Tianfeng Town's population increase significantly, Ouyang Shuo upgraded the town to a City, becoming the 4th city grade affiliate territory of Shanhai County.

Making use of the funds he gained, Ouyang Shuo chose a bunch of elites from the combat prisoners in addition to the prisoners from Tianfeng City to build Tianfeng City’s city protection unit.

The unit included a sword shield soldier unit and an archer unit, a total of 1000 men. Ouyang Shuo chose a few key men from the Guards unit and left them here to be the major and sergeants.

The job of the city protection unit, apart from protecting the city, was also to continue to clear raider camps.

Based on his thinking, since there were no more refugees spawning, they had to use wild raiders to raise the population.

After the class change of the city protection squad, Ouyang Shuo kept 1000 gold. He kept the remaining 2700 gold to build a branch of the Four Seas bank to boost Tianfeng City’s economy.

A short week after conquering Tianfeng City, Ouyang Shuo's many plans and solutions had breathed a new life into Tianfeng City.

Chapter 230- Storm

Gaia 1st year, 9th month, 15th day. Beihai Naval Fleet's 1st unit reached Xila Lake.

Tianfeng City, meeting hall.

Ouyang Shuo gathered all the important officials and generals and appointed Zhao Dewang as the city magistrate. He also appointed the Internal Affairs Director, the Financial Director, and the Material Reserves Director.

Beihai Naval Fleet's 1st unit broke away from the fleet and became known as the Xila Sailor unit, under the jurisdiction of Tianfeng Town. The original major Zhou Feng kept his position in the unit.

Based on the Administration Director Pu Zhidao’s introduction, there were water strongholds in the lake where water bandits entered and left.

Hence, their first mission would be to clear the water bandits from the lake. Xila Lake was vast and big, and the water bandits were familiar with the environment. Clearing them out wouldn't be an easy matter.

Zhao Dewang’s first task after his appointment as the city magistrate was the establishment of a naval port and a shipyard. Apart from that, there was the more difficult task of building a road from Tianfeng City to Shanhai City. Ouyang Shuo wanted to name this road Tianhai Road.

The Tianhai Road would be 300 kilometers long. It would require a largest investment and consume the most time out of all Shanhai City projects till date. To increase the construction speed, both cities started building at the same time. Then, they would meet up in the middle and join up.

A large portion of the road was out in the wilderness. The conditions were harsh; they had to defend against wild beasts and also raiders. Hence, troops had to protect the workers.

Tianfeng City's City Protection Unit's raider operation helped to pick the path for Tianhai Road.

The building of this road had a strategic meaning. As they built relays along the way and stuck the Shanhai City lord’s flag on the road, they would strengthen the power and prestige of Shanhai City on the west region of the Lianzhou Basin.

Tianfeng City, Yongye Town, and Guangzhou Town formed a triangle. Once they used the Tianhai Road to connect them, it would be enough to control the west. Even if other territories asked for reinforcements, Shanhai City would have the time to react and send military forces to destroy or defend.

After they conquered the three most important territories in the west, Ouyang Shuo started to act more gentle toward the other territories. As for the specific policies, he would need to return to Shanhai City before he set them.

After Ouyang Shuo had a conversation with Zhao Dewang, he made his return trip to Shanhai City in the afternoon. On the way back, he also brought his Guards units to Yongye Town and Guangzhou Town to take a look.

Shanhai City had already sent officials to take charge and change the organization structure of Yongye Town and the other grade 2 towns. They had to build the City Protection Unit, open a four seas bank branch and assign policies.

The back of Yongye Town faced Yongye Forest, Ouyang Shuo named it Forestry Town. Guangshui Town and Yishui Town were close to the river, so it was easy to reclaim fertile land. As such, they were deemed as agricultural towns. The back of Gushan Town faced the mountain and Ouyang Shuo was ready to set it as the 2nd settlement location.

9th month, 18th day, in the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo and his group returned to Shanhai City.

When he came back, he directly rushed to the market to check the price of grain.

On the market, the price of grain had risen. Each unit was now 20 copper; the price had doubled. As the price of grain continued to increase, some lord players rashly used their gold to buy the grain. Those with vision had long since sold their wood and other resources to obtain gold to buy grain. This would ensure that they had enough to last them till the 11th month.

This fight for grain further pushed up the prices. Right now, the price of grain was sky high.

The main sellers of grain were the various Chamber of Commerces in the system imperial capital. These entities bought the grain from the farmers on the suburbs of the imperial city, but the grain wasn’t limitless.

Every system capital city had tens of millions of players that stayed there, and their presence caused a huge strain on the grain supply. The merchants were all smart. When the prices rose, they started to accumulate grain and prepared to sell for a profit.

Hence, this whole situation got worse and worse; everyone got involved in it.

In this storm, Shanhai City also felt the side effects. The Four Seas Bank branches at the allies' territories had increases in loans, and their gold supplies were going to run out.

Ouyang Shuo immediately made the decision to harvest all the profits from the 1st half of the month to distribute to the branches. Mulan Town, Black Lion Town, and Tianshuang Town all got 2,000 gold, while Xunlong Town and Fallen Phoenix Town both got 2,000 gold.

Unfortunately, this sum of money was only a temporary solution to the territories. The lord's had to take the risk and start looking to clear raiders to earn money.

However, the limited amount of raiders posed a problem to them. Unlike Shanhai City, which basically had a harvest every time they upgraded.

While Ouyang Shuo was away, the city east camp had obtained 4,200 gold after the temporary stop of their raider operations due to the alliance’s attack. After the operation on both the east and west sides, together with clearing things from the territories, 15,200 prisoners were sent to Shanhai City.

During this period, many work occupation players were teleported over to Shanhai City. The Fallen Moon Guild had reached the 1,000 member upper limit. Unfortunately, they were still a period of time away from upgrading.

Apart from that, Old Sun had continued to contact scientists and invited them to live in Shanhai City. Since that time, the professional group had expanded to 45, and it continued to increase.

The Snow-War Rose mercenary group had sold all the useless equipment that Ouyang Shuo gave them. With the sum, the mercenary group had started to set up offices for Shanhai City in the various system imperial cities.

Once they start running, Shanhai City would see a huge rise in the number of people that wished to live in their city.

They had rebuilt the 1st regiment; they chose the 3rd, 4th, and 5th unit members from the prisoners. As for the 1st and 2nd units, they still entirely consisted of elite mountain barbarians. The two large scale recruitments nearly squeezed the tribes dry of their fighting ability.

Based on the plan, he had pushed back Shanhai City’s promise to destroy the stronghold of the mountain bandits by nearly a month’s time.

To gain their trust and understanding, the internal affairs director Tian Wenjing had once again increased the grain help to the tribes.

When Ouyang Shuo returned, he immediately started the operation against the mountain stronghold. He codenamed it ‘Bobcat.’

As this was forest warfare, apart from the Guards unit and the god machine unit, there were also eight other units apart from the cavalry units from the 1st and 3rd regiment.

The deputy secretary of military intelligence, Lengqian, had led a group of spies to investigate the stronghold situation. It was much harder to attack than they had expected.

The stronghold was located in the Er'Shi Ridge, which was easy to defend and hard to attack. Its population had reached 14,000 men and there were 8,000 mountain thieves. Among them, there were many elite mountain thieves. The only road up had three roadblocks that the mountain thieves had set up. To attack all the way up would be harder than ascending the heavens.

"Is there really not another way up?" Ouyang Shuo wasn't willing.

Lengqian shook his head and said, “The back of the stronghold is a cliff. To attack from behind its nearly impossible, unless..."

"Unless what?"

"A thousand meters away from the cliff, there is a mountain peak that is easy to climb up. The only problem is how to get past this thousand meters. Even if we use a zip-line, we can't tie it to the cliff." Lengqian was very pessimistic.

Ideas popped into Ouyang Shuo’s mind, and he said, “I have a way to solve the problem of securing the rope." Ouyang Shuo thought about Bing'er's pet, Xue'er. She was the highest grade smart pet. Although she was only an ornamental pet in the game, she was strong and she could fly. Hence, she would be the perfect candidate to tie the rope onto the other side.

"Ah?" Although he knew that Ouyang Shuo wouldn’t lie, his lord’s words still shocked Lengqian.

Ouyang Shuo waved him off and said, “Let the Military Intelligence Division survey the mountain and find a suitable way up. Our troops will go up tomorrow."

"Yes, lord!"

After Lengqian left, Ouyang Shuo ordered director Ge Hongliang to ask the Combat Logistics Division to prepare enough zip-line rope, oil, and other miscellaneous resources to guarantee the smooth operation of bobcat.

At the same time, to prevent deaths and casualties, Ouyang Shuo ordered the formation of two sword-shield units and one archer unit from the reserve force to attack together. With that, this 6,500 soldiers attack on the Er'Shi Ridge mountain thieves was the biggest operation till date.

After they discussed the details, it was already 5:30 PM. He had just returned to the lord’s manor, yet now he needed to leave at first light tomorrow due to the operation; he was living such a tough and restless life.

As they ate dinner, Ouyang Shuo looked at Xue'er, who was on Bing'er's shoulder, “Xue'er, tomorrow, I'll bring you to play, okay?"

Her eyes brightened up, and she flew up around Ouyang Shuo's head, “Go out and play, go out and play, lalala~~"

Bing'er's eyes also lit up, “Brother, can Bing'er come too?"

Ouyang Shuo resolutely shook his head, No, you have to go to school tomorrow!"

Bing'er's face turned crestfallen; she angrily used her chopsticks to stir the rice in her bowl, as she muttered, “Bad brother, bad brother, bias..."

Ouyang Shuo laughed, and he had to explain, “Tomorrow, brother needs to do an important thing, so it isn't to play."

"Really?" Bing'er didn't believe it.

Ouyang Shuo stared at her, “When did I ever lie to you!"

"Ok, Bing'er forgives you." This little brat's mood really changed quickly.

Chapter 231- taking down Er'Shi Ridge

At night, Ouyang Shuo brought Song Jia to the patio to talk.

"How's it going with the sect? Is it going smoothly?"

"En, it's basically on the right track. However, you just returned, yet you have to leave tomorrow."

"I've no choice. Right now is a crucial time." Heise Pifeng's ambitions and Sha Pojun's interference had affected Ouyang Shuo's plan and poison insect rearing project.

It wasn't easy for him to calm everything down, so he had to get ready a series of plans to make up for his losses.

This operation did not only involve Er'Shi Ridge, but also the Yue'er Island that Pei Donglai had always eyed. The Beihai Naval Fleet, which had just become a regiment, had a unit taken away and needed to rebuild again.

"A good man conquers all four directions. Blockhead, it seems like you are becoming more and more like a hero," Song Jia made fun of him.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, as he thought of something, “Sect Leader Song, Dongli Sword Sect can think about recruiting some players. You can contact little aunt and ask her to help you out."

"I was thinking of the same way. Having a sect full of NPCs is so boring." Song Jia nodded in agreement, “Oh yeah, Bing'er has bugged me for some time. She wants me to accept her as my disciple. When that little brat saw our uniform she became envious."

The uniform she referred to was the sect uniform of the Dongli Sword Dect, which Qing'er had personally designed. The designs on the uniform robe had the patterns of clouds and dragons, which gave the wearer an elegant and unworldly air.

"Did you agree?"

"Of course not. How would I dare unless I got the permission of a certain control freak?"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head in amusement. He did not bother to respond to her teasing, “Bing'er is still small, so it's better if she focuses on her studies. Anyway, the Nine Yin technique isn't suitable for her to train at her age."

"I'll listen to you."

The afternoon of the next day, the troops gathered at Qiushui City.

They had long since fixed the road from Qiushui City to Xuanniao Tribe. It became their best path into the forest. The troops would spend a night in Xuanniao Tribe before they ventured deep into the forest.

When the mountain barbarian tribes in the middle region found out that Shanhai City had finally sent their army to help them clean out the mountain bandits, they were naturally happy. To avoid alerting the enemy, Ouyang Shuo rejected the mountain barbarian’s offer to help.

Apart from the Xuanniao Tribe, the military didn't enter any other tribes. They did this to avoid all the areas where the mountain bandits worked and directly charged toward the Er'Shi Bridge.

9th month, 21st day, in the afternoon, the forces arrived in the proximity of Er'Shi Ridge. Zhao Sihu was in charge of leading two sword-shield soldier units and one archer unit to attack the ridge head-on to attract attention.

On the other hand, the main force wrapped around the ridge and sneakily entered the peak of the mountain at the back of the ridge.

Mountain bandit stronghold, Hall of Brotherhood.

"Boss, when we went down the hill recently, our brothers found many random people sneakily walking around. It seems like someone is planning something on the mountain stronghold," said military advisor Goutou.

The boss was tall and well-built. He had a rough look, wiith thick eyebrows and a full beard. He looked somewhat similar to a chimpanzee. He was topless and openly showed his chest full of hair. The captured mountain barbarian tribe ladies kneeled at two sides and helped massage him.

"Military advisor thinks too much. Who can actually attack our Er'Shi Ridge?" Although the boss looked rough and unkempt, he spoke fluently, totally contrary to his appearance.

The unique environment of Er'Shi Ridge let them live well, the square was also huge. If they continued to develop, they would become one of the rulers of the mountains.

The military advisor was just reminding him, as he didn't believe it either. When he saw that the boss wasn’t paying much attention to it, he backed out of the Hall of Brotherhood. He was just a few steps out before he heard the sounds of a moaning woman behind him...

In the early morning, a dense fog blanketed the forest, the sun rose up from the peak, and the orange red sun shone down through the fog. However, it was unable to give anyone warmth.

Xue'er stopped on Ouyang Shuo's shoulder, excitement filled her little face, this little fellow had an unusually warmth toward forests.

Ouyang Shuo took out the zip-line from his storage bag and passed the end of it to Xue'er, “Good Xue'er, do you see the cliff there?" Ouyang Shuo pointed to the cliff a thousand meters above.

"En, I see it."

"Now I’ll give you a mission. Tie the rope to the cliff; can you do it?"

Xue'er tilted her head and cutely said, “I'll try."

"Good, good luck!"

Xue'er picked up the rope and effortlessly flew toward the cliff on the opposite side.

After she flew far away, Xue'er tiny body became a little black dot. If someone only saw the rope flying in the sky, they would think that it was some supernatural phenomenon.

This thousand meter long rope, in addition to the oil added to prevent friction, was super heavy. Carrying it through the air was especially exhausting.

Although Xue'er was special, she slowly felt fatigued and beads of sweat started to form on her forehead.

This little fellow was just like her master; they both had a stubbornness in their bones. She continued to fly even though she was tired. During the final portion before the cliff, her body shook from left to right, apparently in real pain and exhaustion.

Ouyang Shuo, who stood on the other end of the rope, saw the rope swing. He felt pained but also nervous.

When she finally reached the other side, Xue'er was so tired that she was going to collapse.

Xue'er had to stop on a rock to rest and regain some energy. After resting, she followed Ouyang Shuo's orders and found a huge tree and tied the rope around it. The rope was already fixed and as long as one pulled hard from the other end, they would secure the rope.

After that, Xue'er nodded, pleased with herself. She turned around and flew back.

When he saw her come back, Ouyang Shuo took out his handkerchief and helped her wipe off the sweat.

Obviously, she was not used to this, and she giggled. When he saw her in such a good mood, Ouyang Shuo could finally stop worrying.

First, Ouyang Shuo arranged for a guard to test the reliability of the zip-line. He didn't hesitate and directly zipped toward the other side. The entire journey was very smooth.

After he reached the other end, the guard checked the rope on the tree to ensure that everything was okay. Then, he took out a red flag and waved it.

After they confirmed that it was safe, everyone started to zipline across.

In regards to the upcoming future war, Ouyang Shuo didn't want Xue'er to follow them, so he arranged for two Guards to protect her on the mountain peak. Once the operation ended, they would meet up with the rest.

After the troops gathered at Er'Shi Ridge, the military intelligence spies released the Feng birds to inform Zhao Sihu's troops, who were hiding at the bottom of the mountain. The spies told them to immediately launch their attack.

A 5,000 men army squeezing at the back mountain. Ouyang Shuo could not help but worry about the possibility of a mountain bandit coming to the back mountain and spotting them.

At that moment, they heard the sounds of chatter before them.

"Ah Man, did that chimpanzee bully you again yesterday?"

Following which a women cried,"living like this, I'll rather die."

"Ah Man, trust me. I'll get you out and save you from this hell."

Ouyang Shuo shook his head; he didn't expect to meet a pair of sad mandarin ducks. He looked toward Wang Feng, signaling for them to take the pair down but not take their lives.

Wang Feng understood and brought two Guards to sneak up.

"Ah, who are you?" The woman was about to scream, but the guard covered her mouth. Then, he knocked her out. He used ropes to tie them together and stuffed their mouths with cloths, dragging them behind a huge rock.

After that small interference, the back mountain was calm once again.

At the front, Zhao Sihu's forces.

After the Military Intelligence Division spy received the message from the Feng bird, he interpreted the order and reported to Zhao Sihu.

Next, Zhao Sihu hollered, "Heed my orders, attack!!"

"Yes!" The closely packed troops appeared from the forest and charged toward the first roadblock.

The first people they met were some patrolling soldiers that the mountain stronghold had sent down.

"Who are you?" the poor patrolling soldier still didn't understand the situation.

"We are the ones who will take your life." Zhao Sihu strode to the forefront and stabbed out with his spear. His move was as quick as lightning, and he stabbed the mountain bandit’s stomach, causing the mountain bandit to fall to the ground in pain.

After they cleanly dealt with the patrolling squad, the forces advanced.

The first roadblock was set at the foot of the mountain and was like a front sentry. Hence, it was very rundown and had a wooden wall, similar to that of camps.

When the mountain bandits that patrolled on the mountain wall saw enemies pop out from nowhere, he panicked. Immediately, he sounded the alarm, some had lit the fire to warn the roadblocks at the back.

Zhao Sihu knew that he was in charge of a distraction attack, but if he could attract more mountain bandits, it could reduce the pressure on the back forces. Hence, his goal was to at least destroy a roadblock.

After Ouyang Shuo criticised the Military Intelligence Division, the three heads trained a batch of elite spies. The spies clearly investigated the details of the roadblocks.

To take it down, Zhao Sihu took a batch of alchemical fire oil from the Combat Logistics Division. After reorganising the archer unit, they bathed the arrows in the oil and lit them up and fired toward the roadblock.

Wave after wave of fire arrows ignited and quickly spread. In an instant, it became an ocean of fire. The huge fire was visible from all the subsequent roadblocks.

The mountain bandits at the second roadblock rang the bell seven times. This represented an enemy attack, an emergency situation that required reinforcements. Following this, they lit up the beacon to inform the third roadblock.

The message spread up until it reached the boss.

The boss had a really long night and hadn't woken up. When he heard the reports, he didn't bother about the girls he had fun with. Instead, he hurriedly dressed himself and rushed to the Hall of Brotherhood.

Chapter 232- Taking Down Er'Shi Ridge Part 2

Er'Shi Ridge, mountain bandit stronghold, Hall of Brotherhood.

"What's the situation?" questioned the boss. The forceful and angry aura he emitted choked everyone, “Who has the courage to attack our mountain stronghold?"

"It's a proper army, with more than 1,500 men. They used fire arrows to burn our first roadblock." Goutou had received firsthand information.

"Heh, such nerve!" The boss became furious when he heard that the enemy had less than 2,000, “Order the brothers to kill them at the second roadblock."

"Yes!" The military advisor ran down to send the orders.

At the foot of the mountain, Zhao Sihu looked at the burning roadblock and didn't make a move.

Inside the roadblock, the mountain bandits that couldn't escape in time let out screams of pain, as the fire burned them alive. Although some of them escaped, their backs had caught on fire; they tumbled around on the ground and asked their allies for help.

The burning roadblock had similarly stopped Zhao Sihu and his forces from attacking.

The fire burned on for a whole hour before it slowly stopped. Zhao Sihu ordered his men to obtain twigs to extinguish the fire, which would clear a road for them to enter.

20 minutes later, the force continued their advance.

On the way, they didn’t see a single mountain bandit; they had all retreated to the second roadblock.

Zhao Sihu knew that the real test was going to come.

He looked at this roadblock built out of rock, the fire attack weren’t as effective anymore. This roadblock was hard to attack but easy to defend. With his current troops, breaching this place was harder than ascending the heavens.

The mountain bandit chieftain stood on the wall and shouted, “Who are you, to dare break my roadblock and attack my stronghold?"

"I'm the one that's going to take your life. You are all shameless and lack conscience. You steal from the mountain barbarians; you all don't deserve to live."

"Haha," the mountain bandit laughed like he had heard a joke, “With only you, you want to do the work of the heavens? Haha, it's better if you go home and feed your kids!"

"Haha haha," a bunch of mountain bandits also laughed loudly, mocking the troops.

Zhao Sihu didn't make a move, but he shouted back, “Cowardly tortoises; what's there to be proud of? Do you dare to come out and fight with your grandpa?"

The soldiers supported their major and mocked the bandits, hurling abuse at them. The threw out anything bad that they could think off.

"You!" The mountain barbarian chieftain was furious, “Shoot the arrows, shoot them, kill them!"

When the archers received this order, they started raining arrows at the enemy troops.

Zhao Sihu had prepared his troops for this, and the sword-shield soldiers raised their shield to block the arrow rain. They slowly backed off until they got out of range.

"Haha," the chieftain grew complacent, “Now, who's the coward?"

As a general that Ouyang Shuo had placed his faith in, Zhao Sihu wasn't simple. When he saw the mountain barbarians not fall for it, he took a look at the wind direction and thought of a plan. He ordered his troops to cut down the wet twigs and douse them in alchemical fire oil. The sword-shield soldiers braved the arrow rain to pile the twigs under the roadblock.

The mountain bandits didn't recognize the alchemical fire oil. When they saw these actions, they didn't know what their enemy was trying to do.

After his soldiers returned, Zhao Sihu ordered the archers to fire and ignite the twigs.

In a moment, smoke rose from the twig mountain. The wind was just nicely blowing toward the roadblock, which blew smoke into it and fogged it all up.

The chieftain finally realized that the enemy had tricked them, “Despicable, it's this method again!"

The thick smoke covered the entire roadblock; the mountain bandits found it hard to bear with it, and felt that breathing was very difficult. They had no choice but to leave the wall and back off.

Zhao Sihu grabbed the chance to order the troops to attack the roadblock.

Before they attacked, he ordered the troops to wet a cloth and cover their nose and mouths.

The mountain bandit were busy taking care of themselves. Without the interference of the archers, the Shanhai troops quickly took the gate down. Zhao Sihu ordered the archers to remove the twigs and the sword-shield soldiers charged in.

The mountain bandits were like headless flies in the smoke. When they saw the enemy chase in, they became like birds fleeing from a bullet, as the sword-shield soldiers chased them around as they ran.

The thick smoke slowly faded away; Zhao Sihu had successfully taken down the second roadblock.

Mountain stronghold, Hall of Brotherhood.

"Report!" the messenger ran inside the hall, “Boss, the enemy has taken down the second roadblock; they’re advancing toward the third one."

"What?" the boss stood up, which instantly shook the floor, “Heipi that useless junk. How did he lose a roadblock so quickly!"

"Boss, it seems like the enemy general isn't simple," military advisor Goutou noted.

"En." The boss finally paid attention, Come, follow me to the final roadblock. I want to see who is coming."

"Yes!"

The boss personally let 4,000 elite troops and rushed to the third and strongest roadblock. It was like a iron fortress placed on the path, a total castle.

Zhao Sihu looked at the third roadblock. He knew that it was impossible for him to take it no matter what he did.

The boss appeared on top of the castle and shouted down, “Who are you? Say your name and I won't kill you."

Zhao Sihu laughed. Such a small mountain bandit leader, yet he still dared to talk about the rules of Jianghu, truly amusing. Zhao Sihu wasn't fazed, “Listen up, we are from the Shanhai City army, it's time for you to surrender."

"Ha? Shanhai City? What's that, such nerve." The boss had never heard of any Shanhai City.

"Heh, what an idiot." When Zhao Sihu saw that even the boss had appeared, he knew that he had completed the mission. As such, he shot the signal bullet.

When it reached the sky, it burst open in mid-air.

"What are they doing, are they calling for reinforcements?" The mountain bandits didn't understand.

Er'Shi Ridge, back of the mountain.

The main force had waited in the back mountain for two hours. Finally, they saw the signal and stood up, “Attack!"

"Kill!" the troops came out from their hiding spots and charged into the mountain stronghold.

Before they left, Ouyang Shuo ordered the Guards to wake up and untie the pair of unlucky couple.

After he woke up, he looked at Ouyang Shuo, shocked beyond words. Then, he stammered, “Yo … yo … you, who are you? Ho … how did you get here?"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head in disappointment. On the other hand, the girl was calm and asked, “Are you here to destroy the mountain stronghold?"

"That's right. I'm the lord of Shanhai City and the mountain barbarian tribes asked me to help them destroy this mountain stronghold. Can you lead the way?" Ouyang Shuo explained the reason why they were here.

When she saw that it was their saviour, she became so delighted she teared up, “I know the route, follow me."

Under the leadership of the girl, things went smoothly, and they directly entered the core area of the mountain stronghold.

At that point, the boss had moved more than half of the combat mountain bandits to the roadblock. When the remaining ones saw the troops, they were astonished.

Apart from the guards, a large portion of them didn't carry weapons. They would only get their weapons from the arsenal during operations.

Hence, the elite Shanhai City troops faced a bunch of barefisted Mountain bandits.

A slaughter, this was the only description of the battle that ensued.

Out of the participating soldiers, there were 2,000 mountain barbarians. The bandits had bullied a large portion of them before. As the saying goes, when one sees their enemy, their eyes will become red.

At that moment, all the mountain barbarian soldiers were furious, as they killed anyone that entered their sights, be it combat mountain bandits or non-combat ones. They cruelly murdered anyone that tried to escape.

When Ouyang Shuo heard the news, he ordered the troops to prevent the slaughter.

Time was very precious, and they needed to clear out all the combat mountain bandits before those at the roadblock returned. Where would they find the time to waste on the non-combat one?

Furthermore, the military weren't killers. Unless forced, he didn't want them to act against innocent people.

After they entered the mountain stronghold, Ouyang Shuo directly ordered the Guards unit to take control of the main gate. The archers took over the archer towers to prevent reinforcements.

Blood rained on the mountain stronghold; some of the mountain bandits hobbled to the roadblock, “Boss, boss. It’s bad; it's very bad."

The boss felt that Zhao Sihu's lack of movement was very strange. After he heard this report, he had a bad premonition. He quickly ran up and grabbed the collar of the mountain bandit and furiously asked, “Speak! What happened in the stronghold?" He nearly strangled the mountain bandit.

"Cough, cough." The mountain bandit was half scared to death, “Boss, a large army has appeared in the mountain stronghold."

"How? Where did they come from? How many people?"

"Many. We couldn't count; they came from the back mountain." The mountain bandits had rushed here, so how could they’ve bothered to count?

"Back mountain?" The boss had experienced more surprises today than ever before in his life. He muttered, “The back mountain is a cliff. How did they come up?"

The military advisor remained calm and reminded, “Boss, what we need to do now is to make a choice. We must choose whether to assist the mountain stronghold or directly go down the mountain."

"Correct." The boss calmed himself down, “It's not an option to go down. The road is too small, so the enemy just has to block the road and we are dead." The boss felt frustrated, the advantages of the ridge had become the thing that left them no way out at this crucial moment.

"Let's return and fight them!" The boss chose to launch a final fight.

Chapter 233- Taking Down Er'Shi Ridge Part 3

The mountain bandits decided to throw everything in; they rushed to reinforce the mountain stronghold.

When they reached the front, Ouyang Shuo had already controlled the entire stronghold. They had killed or forced all the combat mountain bandits to surrender. Then, they locked the bandits up.

When he looked at the shut stronghold doors, the boss became so angry he wanted to vomit blood. He didn't expect the enemy to proceed so quickly; this time, he had completely failed.

Ouyang Shuo stood on the arrow tower with his Guards by his side, “Those outside, listen up. I have taken over your stronghold. It's not too late for you to surrender."

"You have the guts to say that? Why not come out for a battle to the death!" shouted the furious boss.

Ouyang Shuo knew that if he didn't kill the boss, he wouldn't be able to recruit the mountain bandits, “Ok, I, the lord, will do as you wish." He turned around, “Which one of you wants to fight and slay him?"

"Lord, send me!" Er'Lai and Shi Wanshui both wished to battle.

Both of them wanted to fight the mountain bandit leader, it was pointless as the mountain barbarian leader wasn’t their level. Ouyang Shuo didn't know which one to choose.

At that moment, Wang Feng stood out, “To kill a chicken you don't need to use a butcher knife. Lord, send me!"

Ouyang Shuo froze, “Good, I'll send you out!"

"Thank you, lord!" Wang Feng turned and walked down the arrow tower.

Er'Lai and Shi Wanshui were both happy with this decision and naturally didn't oppose it.

The doors of the stronghold opened and Wang Feng walked out under the protection of the Guards unit. Then, he pointed his spear at the bandit boss, “Shanhai City Wang Feng. I'm here to spar."

When he saw that his opponent had sent such a young general out, the boss grew even more furious, “A stupid kid that has just finished sucking milk? Eat a knife from your grandfather!" He raised his knife and charged at Wang Feng.

Wang Feng remained unfazed. He rushed forward and with a shake of his spear, he caught the knife. Both weapons were made of exquisite iron; both of the same quality.

Bajiquan and spears were the best combination. Wang Feng imbued the essence of the Bajiquan into each stroke of his spear.

Every time the spear struck the knife, a power will be spread through it, which numbed the boss's right hand. In a moment of carelessness, he nearly dropped his knife. This astonished him, and he didn't dare to underestimate his opponent anymore.

Since he was able to lead a whole mountain of mountain bandits, he naturally had strength. His strokes were heavy and powerful. Coupled with his vast experience, both of them fought evenly.

On the arrow tower, Er'Lai and Shi Wanshui watched on. Wang Feng's performance pleased these two experts, and they would comment a few words from time to time.

When the Guards unit soldiers saw their major strut his stuff, they started to cheer for him. The mountain bandits didn't back down and started to cheer their boss on. Both sides ended up in a war of voices.

The atmosphere made everyone's blood boil, and the battle instantly entered a white-hot stage. Each and every move aimed to take the opponent’s life, as they both thought of various ways to try and kill their enemy.

Ouyang Shuo knew that it was hard for Wang Feng to chance upon such a battle. He might even break the bottleneck and become an intermediate general.

Ouyang Shuo wasn't a gentleman. To ensure Wang Feng's safety, he ordered Shi Wanshui to shoot an arrow to kill the boss if Wang Feng fell into a perilous situation.

Luckily, it didn't reach that step in the end.

The pressure that the mountain bandit boss posed had ignited Wang Feng's potential.

He got close to his opponent. Then, he shook his spear to use the ultimate technique of the Bajiquan—Cling To The Mountain. The spear was like a poisonous snake, as it stuck to the knife and slid down, pushing the boss away. Like a shadow, the spear continued to stick, which forced the bandit boss to release the knife and drop it to the ground.

After the bandit boss dropped his weapon, his face turned white, as he muttered, “My life ends here, carry on.”

With victory in sight, Wang Feng waved his spear and charged forward with lightning speed. Then, he stabbed the spear into the bandit boss’s chest.

The screams of the bandit boss slowly stopped.

Wang Feng pulled out the spear from the bandit boss’s chest. Fresh blood spurted all over the place. The boss had his eyes wide open in disbelief, as he fell to the ground.

After he killed off his opponent, Wang Feng actually closed his eyes, as if he was reflecting on the battle.

In front of the stronghold, the mountain bandits were frozen. They didn’t dare to move, as they faced Wang Feng, who stood with his eyes closed.

"Kill him, take revenge for the boss!" Finally, a mountain bandit reacted.

"Protect the general!" The Guards unit soldiers quickly rushed up to cover Wang Feng.

Ouyang Shuo stood on the arrow tower and ordered the archers to shoot.

Wave after wave of arrows pierced the mountain bandit group. Immediately, the arrows brought about a large amount of casualties. Then, the bandits regained their senses. The enemy had already taken the stronghold and had all the advantages. Instantly, they all backed off like rats.

Ouyang Shuo knew that they had settled the situation. He smiled at Er'Lai and Shi Wanshui, “Let's go out."

"Yes my, lord!"

After Ouyang Shuo exited the mountain stronghold, he looked at the mountain bandits, “Aren’t you going to surrender? If not, don't blame me for killing you."

The bandits knew that it was over and immediately split into two sections. One group placed down their weapons and surrendered while the others chose to run.

Those that wanted to escape were obviously the ruthless ones. They knew that they had performed too much evil; they wouldn't be spared even if they surrendered.

For these people, Ouyang Shuo wouldn't give them a chance, and he ordered his men to give chase.

The Er'Shi Ridge was dangerous. Apart from the one way down, every other spot was a peak, so jumping down would only lead to one's death. The bandits knew that their road had been blocked. Their only choice was to jump and hope for the best.

Unfortunately, the archers blocked this last chance of survival.

The archers closely lined up by the cliff and shot down at the foot. The bandits that were not far away were hit and tumbled down. Only a few escaped, but they were unable to pose a threat. However, Ouyang Shuo still didn't want to let them off. He ordered Zhao Sihu and his men to search for them and clean them out.

After they cleaned up the mountain bandits, Ouyang Shuo returned to the mountain bandit boss's body. He found a dropped item under the body.

As expected, it was a token. After he took it out and looked at it, he was delighted, it was actually a rare summoning token.

Summoning Token (King grade): Randomly summons a king grade historical person to work for you.

Ouyang Shuo kept it in his storage bag. He wanted to use it when he got back.

After he dealt with all the mountain bandits, Ouyang Shuo ordered his men to clean out the stronghold and take all moveable resources.

At that moment, the mountain barbarian teen ran out, “Savior, the boss has a secret room. I can guide you there."

Ouyang Shuo was delighted, “Great, lets go!" Ouyang Shuo left a squadron of Guards to protect Wang Feng. He brought the remaining Guards and followed the barbarian teen.

The secret room was inside the bedroom, with a hidden passageway under the floor.

The Guards were worried about his safety, so they led the way. In a short while, they came out; their faces pale white. Some of them looked furious, “My lord, there are many girls locked up in the secret room."

Ouyang Shuo was stunned, and he turned around to the mountain barbarian teen, “You brought us here to save them?"

She was also not nervous and spoke the truth, “I don't dare to hide it from Saviour, I have such an intention. But I didn't lie to you, his treasures are hidden in there too."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Ok, let's go down together!"

There were torches on both sides of the passage, so it wasn't as dark as he had expected. Following the wet steps, they walked all the way down. In his heart, he counted approximately 70 to 80 steps before they arrived at a well lit hall.

Glancing around, the floor was paved with thick animal hides, while some who were treated poorly only had dried grasses beneath them.

There were more than a hundred girls, donned in tattered clothes, they stared apathetically into the void as they were lying on the animal hides or the dried grasses. When they saw that someone had come, they didn't panic nor were they happy; they were already numb.

In the corner, Ouyang Shuo also noticed several girls shriveled there. Their situation was horrible. They were as thin as bones and their bodies emitted a deathly smell.

Even though Ouyang Shuo was heartless, he still grew furious when he saw this scene. To think that the bandit boss had toyed and tortured these girls.

When the barbarian teen walked in front of them, she cried and laughed, “Sisters, we are saved.” She said as she pointed at Ouyang Shuo, “This prince is the lord of Shanhai City. He is here to save us. They have killed the evil man, I personally witnessed it."

When they heard this, the girls regained their senses. A flash of happiness and life appeared in them. Tears unknowingly flowed down their eyes. They had thought that they had cried out all their tears. They had not expected that someone would come to rescue them from this place.

"Thank you, savior!" Some of the girls had regained their senses. They walked before him and kneeled down.

Ouyang Shuo personally helped all of them up and said, “Stand up, there's no need to thank me. From today onward, you are free and can return to your tribes and family."

Chapter 234 - Searching for Treasures in the Secret Room

"Thank you for saving us!" In the secret room, the girls that were saved thanked Ouyang Shuo again.

Ouyang Shuo waved them off and turned around, ordering the Guards to let them find some clothes to pass to the locked up girls for them to wear before sending them back up.

After all these things were settled, Ouyang Shuo, under the directions of the mountain barbarian teen entered the secret room.

A mountain bandit leader's secret room obviously didn't have any hidden weapons; it was only a thick wooden door which the Guards broke down with brute force.

After breaking down the door, inside the secret room were rows of large boxes. Opening them, they were all kinds of gold and jewels, sparkling in the light, catching everyone's eyes.

Ouyang Shuo counted. There were a total of 2 gold boxes, 5 silver cases, and 1 box of gems and jewels.

Apart from 2 silver cases, the remaining cases were kept in Ouyang Shuo's storage bag. What he felt weird was as the secret room of a mountain bandit leader, he shouldn't only have such basic wealth.

"Are there other secret rooms?" Ouyang Shuo asked the mountain barbarian teen.

She shook her head, "This is the only one I know of."

Ouyang Shuo didn't believe her and ordered the Guards to check once again for any hidden doors or things of that type, he even personally joined in the search, knocking on the walls and floors.

Suddenly, he noticed that an oil lamp was hanging on a side of the wall. The secret room didn't have a torch in it and only depended on the light from the hall, hence the secret room was very dark.

Which was why, this oil lamp seemed really out of place.

Ouyang Shuo calmed himself down and walked up, trying to turn and fiddle with the oil lamp. With a click, and without using much strength, the lamp started to turn. Following which, the sound of rumbling appeared in the chamber. The inner wall of the secret room suddenly sunk in, and there was a small opening that only one person could get through to.

Ouyang Shuo let the Guards secure the entrance while he walked in alone. It was a very narrow space which only allowed two people to stand. There was a wooden stand in the middle with three boxes on it.

Ouyang Shuo opened a box; a gentle glow exuded from the box. It was actually a bead the size of a goose egg, and it felt cold in his hands.

Cool bead: helps to reduce heat and help one focus, aids in cultivation.

It was a decent support item, just that he didn't know how he could increase the cultivation speed of his internal strength.

Ouyang Shuo opened the second box only to see an old manual. The words ‘Wu Hu Saber Manual’, were written on it. It was a king rank cultivation technique.

Ouyang Shuo guessed that this was the knife technique that the mountain stronghold leader used.

Although the items in the two boxes were decent, they were of little effect to Ouyang Shuo, making him feel a little disappointed. He opened the last box, hoping that there was a certain treasure.

The third box was much bigger than the other two. Opening it revealed a green sword, quietly lying in its sword case.

Name: Qingfeng Sword (Platinum rank)

Hardness:55

Sharpness: 70

Toughness:55

Specialty: Broken blade (When a weapon's hardness is lower than the Qingfeng Sword's, there's a chance to immediately break it)

Evaluation: The Qingfeng Sword was part of a pair known as the "Qingfeng Twin Swords", a weapon Liu Bei used during the Three Kingdoms era. Liu Bei attacked Dongwu to take revenge on Sun Quan killing Guan Yu. In the end, Sun Quan ordered them to burn down Dongwu, causing Liu Bei to escape. In that escape, he lost one of his swords.

A treasure, an absolute treasure!

This was the first platinum grade weapon Ouyang Shuo had gotten since the servers opened, and it was the only platinum grade weapon in the game so far.

Apart from the normal hardness and toughness stats, there was an extra sharpness stat. Most importantly, it also had the broken blade specialty. Based on its hardness, as long as the enemy weapon wasn't some godly weapon, there would be a high chance of the effect coming into play.

This made it very terrifying. Think about it, your opponent could destroy your weapon at anytime during battle, so how could you focus on the battle?

It was a great sword. Sadly, Ouyang Shuo didn't know any sword techniques. A player's time and efforts were limited. Since Ouyang Shuo chose a spear as his main weapon, he couldn't be distracted.

Ouyang Shuo covered up the 3 boxes and kept them in his storage bag before walking out. When he reappeared, Ouyang Shuo didn't stop and ordered the Guards to carry up the two boxes filled with silver.

Once they walked out of the secret room, Wang Feng rushed up, his face filled with uncontrollable delight.

Ouyang Shuo asked,"Did you level up?"

Wang Feng nodded, "I didn't let lord down; I'm now an intermediate officer."

"Great, now I have another good general." Ouyang Shuo was elated.

Ouyang Shuo took a look at his stats.

Name: Wang Feng (Gold rank)

Identity: Shanhai City Guards Unit Major

Occupation: Intermediate Officer

Loyalty: 95

Command: 55

Force: 75

Intelligence: 40

Politics: 35

Specialty: Fight to the death (Raise troops morale by 20%), Charging (Raise forces movement speed by 20%)

Cultivation Technique: Bajiquan

Equipment: Soldier Mingguang Armor, Exquisite Iron Sword

Evaluation: Core disciple of master Lin Yue, direct and righteous personality, very loyal.

After Wang Feng went back to the troops, he led the Guards unit to sweep the mountain stronghold once again.

At 11 AM, their work here was nearly done.

Ouyang Shuo announced that he would reward the soldiers from this operation with these two cases of silver, resulting in their cheers and claps.

From the operation, they gained a total of 10,850 prisoners, 4,750 combat bandits, and a total of 5800 gold, not including the treasures.

Ouyang Shuo kept the most important things, but he left the grain and other basic resources. He ordered the Military Intelligence Division to inform the mountain barbarian tribes to receive this batch of resources.

The reason he did that was firstly because it was difficult to transport, and secondly because he could use it to thank others. The mountain barbarian tribes didn't stop working with them because Shanhai City had delayed their promise.

As for the equipment and military resources, they were naturally brought back to Shanhai City. The mountain bandit stronghold had a lot of weapons, spears, swords, and even special weapons that fit what they did. These naturally couldn't be given to the proper army and could only be sold by the Snow-War Rose mercenary group.

After settling everything, Ouyang Shuo gathered the forces and was ready to bring the prisoners back to the city.

Just at that moment, the barbarian teen brought 120 odd rescued teen girls in front of Ouyang Shuo, kneeling down and crying, "Please lord, accept us."

During this short period of time, they had heard of Ouyang Shuo's identity.

Ouyang Shuo frowned, "Don't you want to return to your tribes?"

The mountain barbarian teen acted as the representative, her eyes showing a sad expression, as she held back her tears, "Lord, we are all impure, how could we return to our parents? Even if we do, we would only bring shame. Being saved by you, our only wish is to go to a new place and wait for day where our lives come to an end, please accept us lord!"

"Please accept us lord!" The teen girls all echoed.

Ouyang Shuo remained silent. The scene in front of him made him think of the girls he had saved from the raider camp. Their situation was similar, saved from hell but because of traditional rules, they were insecure and felt lowly.

"What is your name? Wasn't there another man that wanted to save you? Do you want to live in Shanhai City too?" Ouyang Shuo asked the barbarian teen.

His words undoubtedly touched a sad spot, and the tears she was trying to hold gushed out.

The Guards beside Ouyang Shuo told him that the guy wasn't here.

Upon seeing that he was free, he started to look down on the girl for not being a virgin and left her, running back to his tribe.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this, he shook his head. Such cruelty, but it was the truth. In such a society, the purity of the girl was very important and girls were born the weaker sex.

Ouyang Shuo didn't know how to console them, just ordering the Guards to bring them back together.

The huge army rushed down the mountain with the prisoners and the resources to meet with Zhao Sihu and his group.

At the foot of the mountain, they got news that Xue'er and the Guards protecting her had rushed over too. Upon seeing him, she flew up happily and landed on his shoulder.

"Good Xue'er, you have done well. What reward do you want?"

Her eyes brightened. "Sweet~sweets~~" As she said this, she placed her fingers into her mouth and started sucking.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head in amusement; it seemed like she got influenced by Bing'er. "Ok, when we go back I'll prepare a huge box for you." The sweets she referred to were the malt candies that the residents made. They was very sweet, so no wonder she liked to eat them.

Xue'er's eyes became a thin line, and it suddenly flew up and nibbled on Ouyang Shuo's face. Following which, it flew around his head and appeared very happy.

Chapter 235 - Military and Governance Meeting

After the greetings, Zhao Sihu reported. "Lord, all the mountain bandits that tried to escape have been killed."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. "General Zhao, you have done a good job this time, breaking through two roadblocks and luring out half their forces, you deserve a reward!"

"This is my duty, I shouldn't be rewarded!" Zhao Sihu was a little emotional.

Ouyang Shuo waved him off, taking out the that he had just gotten and passed it to Zhao Sihu. "I’ll reward you with this manual, I hope you will train well in it and become a tiger for our army."

Zhao Sihu took over the manual emotionally, kneeling with one foot. "Thank you lord!"

Ouyang Shuo took out a box of silver from his storage bag and said, "Share this with your soldiers, they deserve it!"

"Yes my lord!"

After the rewards were handed out, they made their way back.

Gaia 9th month 25th day, afternoon

Ouyang Shuo and his troops returned to Shanhai City.

When he returned, he passed all the prisoners and resources over to the Military Affairs Department and Internal Affairs Department to handle.

The Military Affairs Department was in charge of giving prisoners trials, and killing the evil ones. The remaining bandits would be temporarily housed outside the city by the Household Registration Division. For this group of mountain bandits, Ouyang Shuo had other plans for them.

Returning to the lord's manor, Ouyang Shuo took out the 2 boxes of silver and box of gems to Zisu, and she would be in charge of placing them in the internal storage of the lord's manor.

Of course, he also didn't forget to ask her to prepare a box of malt candy for Xue'er.

As for the 2 boxes of gold, Ouyang Shuo took them for the time being. Adding with the gold they had taken from the mountain bandits, Ouyang Shuo had a total of 31,000 gold in his storage bag.

After dealing with the small matters, Ouyang Shuo took out the biggest reward from this raid, which was a king rank summoning token.

Ouyang Shuo tore the token, and with a white light, a young general riding a white horse appeared.

"System Notification: Congratulations Player Qiyue Wuyi for successfully summoning king rank historical person Luo Shixin, awarded 50 reputation points."

Upon seeing Ouyang Shuo, the young men immediately got off his horse, knelt on the floor and said solemnly, "General Luo Shixin greets my lord!"

Luo Shixin was an official under Zhang Xutuo during the Sui Dynasty, entering the military during the farmer uprising and entering the Wugang army. He was given the role of supervisor, but was captured when they fought against Wang Shicong.

As he lost to Wang Shicong, he took his troops and surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, and was given the role of supervisor of the Xiazhou Daoheng army. He used his spear to stab Wang Xuanyin, taking over Qianjin Castle and helping Li Shimin bring peace to Luoyang, where he was given the role of Jiangzhou’s supervisor and the lord protector.

Compared to other historical people, his specialty was his age. He joined the army when he was 14 and was captured when he was 19. When he was killed by Liu Heita, he was only 23.

He was a huge talent. Unfortunately he passed away too early. If not, he could’ve became a well-known general of his generation.

Ouyang Shuo was delighted. He took a step forward and helped Luo Shixin up. "General, please stand up!"

After he got up, Ouyang Shuo took a look at his stats.

Name: Luo Shixin (King grade)

Dynasty: Sui Tang

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Advanced Officer

Loyalty: 80

Command: 70

Force: 85

Intelligence: 50

Politics: 35

Specialty: Courage (Raise troops combat power by 20%), Charging (Raise troops movement speed by 20%)

Cultivation Technique:

Equipment: Fine Iron Overlord Spear

Evaluation: Shixin can be used as a vanguard or a protector. Strictly follows the law, has no relatives, not attached to anything.

Luo Shixin's arrival was a saving grace for Ouyang Shuo. He was worrying about not having good generals and wouldn't be able to expand the army. With him, the problem was half solved.

As it was already late, they couldn't have a deep conversation. Ouyang Shuo introduced him to Ge Hongliang and asked Ge Hongliang to welcome him. As for the specific role and arrangements, they would be discussed tomorrow.

During dinner, Ouyang Shuo asked Song Jia a question. "How's the building of Dongli Sword Sect?"

"It's nearly finished; we will have our opening ceremony on the 1st day of the 10th month." Song Jia was very excited.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and laughed. "Wow I really have to call you Song Sect Leader from now onward. During the ceremony I'll give you a big gift.”

Her eyes brightened, with Ouyang Shuo's position and rank, his big gift would definitely be big. She asked curiously, "What gift?"

"You'll know when the time comes." Ouyang Shuo wanted to keep it a secret.

"Hen, it's okay, don't tell me!"

9th month, 26th day, 10 AM.

As the 1st and 3rd regiments hadn't returned, Ouyang Shuo held a Shanhai City military governance meeting. This was the first time Shanhai City held such a meeting since military affairs and governance became separate; thus, it was of high importance.

Everyone who was a secretary and above were here; as for the military portion, everyone major and above were here. Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also invited the professionals to attend the meeting.

During the 9th month, Ouyang Shuo spent most of him time outside and didn't have time for territorial matters. Luckily with the directors there, nothing much happened, but there weren't any eye-catching achievements either.

When Ouyang Shuo was in the Army Division, apart from the battles, the rest of the time he spent on thinking about the future planning and strategic settings of the territory.

As the territory continued to expand, and more player groups joined, Shanhai City looked prosperous, but internally there were many problems. The biggest problem would be the loss of direction without a strategic goal.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo wanted to have a military governance meeting to get ideas.

Ouyang Shuo said, "Courtier Fan, tell us the basic situation of the territory."

"Yes, lord!" Fan Zhongyan got up. "Till date, apart from Shanhai City, we have 8 affiliate territories, 4 cities and 4 towns. We take up half of the Lianzhou Basin, covering mostly the eastern and western areas. Population wise, Shanhai City has just broken 80 thousand, and our total territory population has broken 240 thousand.

"Finance wise, Beihai City, Qiushui City and Friendship City have all become self-sufficient, and their income levels are quite stable. The 5 new affiliate territories needs government help, especially Tianfeng Town, which needs to pay for half of the Tianhai Road, needing large amounts of financial help and subsidies."

After Fan Zhongyan backed down, Ge Hongliang, who was the military representative, said, "Lord, with Shanhai City as the core, counting Qiushui City, Beihai City and Friendship City, the central region has a population of over 200 thousand. Counting all our forces, however, we only have 15 thousand militants. I suggest we expand the military again."

As expected from him, Ge Hongliang's words were exactly what Ouyang Shuo wanted to hear.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. "Your suggestion is great. It's a good time to expand. Zhao Sihu!"

"I'm here!" Zhao Sihu stepped out.

"Use the city protection unit, two sword-shield soldier units, and one archer unit as a base to build the city protection regiment. You will be the deputy colonel, and once you officially upgrade, you will be promoted."

"Thank you my lord!" Zhao Sihu was very emotional and excited.

"As the city’s western and eastern camps have been moving outward, it would be difficult for them to protect the city. Hence, compared to the city protection unit, the city protection regiment has a more important task. Apart from the city walls and city gates, you are in charge of the defense of the borders near Shanhai City. The regiment will include 2 sword-shield soldier units, 2 archer units, and one cavalry unit. The original crossbowmen squadron will be removed and be back under the god machine unit's command." The change in duty meant that it would go from 2nd rate in the army to of 1st rate and of the utmost importance.

"Yes my lord!" Zhao Sihu suddenly felt the weight of the responsibility on his shoulders.

"Zhang Daniu, Hu Yibiao!"

"Present!" Both of them stepped out at the same time.

"Qiushui and Friendship City's city protection unit will both become regiments, with both of you as deputy colonels." Ouyang Shuo reorganized the military system once and for all.

"Thank you, lord!"

After dealing with the city protection forces, Ouyang Shuo shouted, " Wang Feng!"

"Yes lord!"

"The Guards unit is now a Guards regiment with you as colonel. Remember, there's no rush in the building of the regiment. After all the regiments are done and their battle strengths have formed up, hold the trials." Wang Feng, who levelled up during the Er'Shi Ridge battle, had solved a huge problem for Ouyang Shuo.

"Yes, my lord!"

Shanhai City now had a city protection regiment and Guards regiment; with the help of god machine unit, it had nothing to worry about.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Luo Shixin, who was siting beside Zhu Hongliang. "Luo Shixin!"

"Yes lord!" Yesterday, Luo Shixin got familiar with the Shanhai City structure, and as such he was very confident.

"You are in charge of the 4th regiment, which will be a light armored regiment. You will be given Qingfu horses and located at the city’s western camp. You will be the deputy chief of the camp and the colonel of the 4th regiment.

"Thank you lord!"

"Shi Wanshui!"

"Yes lord!" Shi Wanshui stood out.

"Once the 4th regiment is finished, the city’s western camp would be up and running. Bring the 2 regiments along the route of the Tianhai Road and clear all neighbouring raiders."

"Yes my lord!" Hearing that there would be more action, Shi Wanshui was very excited.

Since he had decided to end the peace and start to show his might, Ouyang Shuo would naturally take the initiative to strike.

Based on his plan, the first step would be to clear the western area of the Lianzhou Basin to create a peaceful and safe environment for the development of the territory.

Chapter 236 - Thirst for Talents

Ouyang Shuo had added five regiments - a total of 18 units, nine thousand soldiers, which basically used up all the members of the reserve forces they had gotten from the raider's city attack.

Ouyang Shuo did a rough estimation, just the class changes for this expansion would cost 10 thousand gold. He had earned money at a faster rate than other lords. Now, he was spending money at a far faster rate too.

When he had just entered the game, 100 gold was considered a huge amount. In just a year, he was currently dealing with thousands of gold.

As the military rapidly expanded, the average strength of the soldiers would decrease too. Apart from that, the provision of weapons definitely couldn't keep up with the rate of the expansion.

Based on the standards of the Shanhai City army, reaching 100% provision of bows was impossible. Additionally, the weapons workshop couldn’t keep up to speed with the main weapon of the sword-shield soldiers and the cavalry, the Tang Sword.

The three thousand Qingfu horses that were kept at the city west horse stables were all used up. However, it still wasn't enough for all the Guards regiment and the 4th regiment. They ended up with a 1,500 horse shortfall. As for the three city protection regiments, giving them all Qingfu horses seemed like a far away fantasy.

Such a huge army was also a gigantic burden on the finances of the territory.

Based on the military salary standards, a unit based on an average soldier being grade 4 would cost 275 gold. A regiment used 1,375 gold and a division used 8,250 gold. This did not include the major general and the colonel's pay. Out of which, the general's salary took up 35%.

With such huge military spending, Ouyang Shuo didn't touch the profits from the Langshan Minefields or Northern Saltpans. Instead, he directly passed them to the Financial Department.

Hence, this was the strongest but also the weakest the Shanhai City army had ever been.

Military matters were only the first thing on the agenda for this military governance meeting.

Ouyang Shuo look around, “We last organized the lord's manor at grade 1 city and 4 months have passed since then. As the number of officials and civil servants have increased, the Mandarin Courtyard is getting a little tight."

"Hence, I've decided, based on the organization of the city, to activate the plan for the west of the lord's manor to be a district for officials. The standard would be for each division to have their own courtyard and each department will form a cluster. Including the Military Affairs Department, everyone will move to this district.

"As for the lord's manor, the front courtyard will become purely a meeting area. Apart from the meeting hall, the two sides will also have halls. The main hall will be used for the monthly military and governance meetings, while the small halls will be used for the daily ones. The office in the front courtyard will all be moved to the Mandarin Courtyard."

The changes in the organization of the lord's manor was in truth a change in its meaning and stature. After building the district for the officials, the lord's manor will change into a core area of power. This meant that Ouyang Shuo would officially put down the responsibility of secretaries and below, and he would only control the higher ups and the overall situation.

Ouyang Shuo already had so much to think about concerning outside affairs. He didn't have the energy to keep up with the specifics and micromanage the territory. Hence, he made use of the argument of the Mandarin Courtyard being too small to change the territory structure and organization.

This change wasn't as clear as setting up a division or department, but its influence was far more than either of those.

This type of internal revolution was something that many of them couldn't understand. To them, having an individual courtyard and not having to work under the watchful eye of the lord was something to be happy about. To see the deep meaning, probably only Xu Shuda and Xu Zhenchang could do so.

Fan Zhongyan and Tian Wenjing looked at each other, their eyes showing a sense of uncertainty.

Ouyang Shuo didn't bother about their thoughts and said, “As the territory matters pick up and we get more and more busy, we will get more and more official letters. Hence, only depending on one clerk would grow very difficult. I've decided to set up a clerk office to focus on such letters. The responsibility of the manager of this clerk office is the same as a secretary. Bai Nanpu will be taken up this position. An additional four to five clerks will be hired to help him out."

"Thank you, my lord!" Bai Nanpu had finally made it; he had gained an official position.

Ouyang Shuo also announced that deputy secretary Jiancheng would take over the Construction Division from Zhao Dewang.

Ouyang Shuo had originally planned on letting Sun Xiaoyue take over. Unfortunately, she was only interested in architecture and not construction matters. Hence, Ouyang Shuo could only let that be.

After the reorganization, Ouyang Shuo started to announce his plans for the territory, “To conquer five territories at once is something to be happy about. Next, we need to think about how to integrate these five territories into the Shanhai City system. For them, we must have a plan and also subsequent goals. The main goal is the building of Tianfeng City. It has an important strategic location. I has a level of utmost importance, as it would be the center city for the west region."

"To support the building of Tianfeng City, I've decided to send the prisoners from the Er'Shi Ridge there, apart from those already selected for the reserve force. To do what? We have already missed the chance for land reclamation and also the second season of rice planting. The answer is to build a city wall. The wall it has now is too small-scale and is only able to hold a limited amount of people. Its outer wall has to follow that of a prefecture grade, 10 kilometres long, 10 meters high, and 30 meters thick."

The core project for Tianfeng City would be to finish this outer city wall and the official channel, these two large-scale projects. Ouyang Shuo made Zhao Dewang the city magistrate out of such considerations.

Ouyang Shuo's thinking was simple. Before they built Tianhai Road, Tianfeng City was cut off and far away, so it was difficult to expand.

Ouyang Shuo might as well just start building city walls and other simple buildings.

"Apart from Tianfeng City, the second priority is Gushan Town. It's close to the mountain barbarian tribes in the center region and located at a good strategic location. I've decided to move all the residents to Yishui Town and also attract the mountain barbarians to come down. I them to run Gushan Town themselves," as he said these words, he turned around and looked at Tian Wenjing, “Tian Wenjing, you will handle its building."

"Yes my lord!" Tian Wenjing assented.

Compared to the settlements at Qiushui City, Gushan Town had an advantage. Its facilities were all there and didn't need rebuilding. It could also hold 10 to 20 tribes.

Gushan Town also kept contact with the mountain barbarian tribes, so persuading them wouldn't be too difficult.

The only regret would be that they had missed the second rice planting season. When the mountain barbarians come down the mountain, Shanhai City would need to provide them with half a year of grain.

If one couldn't bear to pay for bait, they wouldn't catch the fish. Ouyang Shuo understood such reasoning.

After the original residents of Gushan Town moved to Yishui Town, it could help promote growth in Yishui Town and help it upgrade to Yishui City. Before they took down Broken Blade Town, Yishui Town would be the east side castle for Shanhai City, so it was important too.

Hence, after he started the creation of Shanhai Road, Ouyang Shuo needed to build channels and paths between Qiushui City and Yishui Town, including that of Gushan Town.

Since the mountain barbarians couldn't plant crops, using them to build official roads and paths were the best idea. It wouldn't cause to him to waste too much manpower.

As for the clearing of the raider camps across the path, he handed this task to the city east camp as a matter of course.

Ouyang Shuo settled the plans of the five affiliate territories with a few words. Moreover, he gave a working direction to the departments and divisions.

As the territory expanded, another big problem of Shanhai City was revealed—a lack of talent. The five affiliate territories were like Shanhai Town when it was at that stage; they lacked talent. Shanhai City had no choice but to send some high-level civil servants and officials over.

This resulted in a shortage of talent in the main camp.

If it was simply a shortage of government-level officials, Ouyang Shuo wouldn't be worried. After all, he did have Xinan University. After a little training, they could take up roles.

The crux of the problem was that outside of the government system, they lacked specialized talents. Apart from Fan Zhongyan and Tian Wenjing, they didn't have any other high-ranked officials.

This worried him, the five affiliate territories were all struggling in this area. They were unable to find and develop talent.

A lack of talent restricted the growth and development of Shanhai City.

Xinan University was a long term plan, similar to the Shanhai City offices in the system imperial cities. They wouldn’t affect the situation in the short term.

Historical people were also so difficult to obtain. The end of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties neared, so there weren't any famous ministers that he could obtain. The only thing Ouyang Shuo looked forward to was Yi Yun at the start of the Shang dynasty.

Unfortunately, half a month had passed since the Battle of Muye, but no one had seen Yi Yun.

Shanhai City had an advantage in attracting Shang dynasty famous ministers. Not only did they have Er’Lai, the famous general, they also had a gift from the Shang King. As such, they had a strong relationship with the Shang dynasty.

Moreover, the Mazu Temple, the Recruitment Hall, and the Yellow Emperor Temple raised the reputation of Shanhai City. Hence, the city had a huge advantage in attracting historical people.

Even so, they still didn't gain get any rewards yet, which made Ouyang Shuo anxious but helpless.

Chapter 237 - Rescued from the Death

Ouyang a Shuo suppressed his thirst for talents and continued to plan and organize the territory.

"The finance problem of the territory is largely due to our excessive reliance on the Langshan Minefields and the Northern Saltpans. We lost the motivation to expand and find new industries because we have funds that stream in from these two places. As the territory and the military both expand, the gold from these two will not be enough and we need more.

"Be it the Langshan Minefields or the Northern Saltpans, their scale and profits have already peaked, so it has no potential for further growth. For the long-term future, we need to find other industries, apart from the core industries we settled on, the like military goods, the territory has also produced local products like the Three Flowers Wine and rainbow colored silk. These are high profit products. Unfortunately, they weren't focused on and are in a half-dead state. In truth, the potential of these local products are far higher than the mines and saltpans, as they have infinite possibilities.”

Ouyang Shuo's words were a form of self-criticism and also criticism toward the work of the Financial Department. Be it the Three Flowers Wine or the rainbow colored silk, Ouyang Shuo had passed them over to the Financial Department and had given them some advice. Unfortunately, they took only small steps, and they weren't adventurous enough.

Ouyang Shuo signaled at Yingyu with his eyes to stop her from apologizing. Then, he said, "I've decided to set up an Industry Division. I’ll place them in charge of the Three Flowers Wine, the rainbow colored silk, and the white tea. At the same time, I’ll be taking out 5,000 gold to support its development. The specific plans include building a large-scale wine workshop at the west suburbs. Let’s call it the Three Flowers Wine Factory. Monthly production must exceed 500 thousand units. Additionally, expand the production of the mulberry gardens to at least 10 thousand mu. Geography affects the white tea, so it faces a relatively high degree of uncertainty."

As the Three Flowers Wine opened up, the market in Dali became more and more popular. They could sell each unit of wine for two silver, resulting in a profit of 150 copper. If the factory could meet its production target, they could profit 7500 gold per a month. Moreover, if they expanded the factory the future, the profits would rise too.

After they built the Three Flowers Wine Factory, they would also create a large number of jobs.

Based on the information from the president of the textile association, Yingcui, Lianzhou Basin could rear silkworms four times a year. One mu of mulberry garden could produce 90 units of silkworm babies, with three units producing one unit of silk, and five units of silk producing a silk cloth.

Which meant that one mu could produce six colored silk cloths a season. On the market, one colored silk cloth cost one gold. After the deduction of 10% tax and the deduction of the costs, he would earn 4 gold in profit.

If the mulberry garden expanded to 10 thousand mu, they could earn 40 thousand gold each season and 160 thousand a year.

Based on his plan, the Three Flowers Factory and Mulberry Gardens were similar to another Langshan Minefield and Northern Saltpan, doubling the profits.

The plan that Ouyang Shuo suggested was very exciting, and it made everyone's blood boil.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo wasn't pleased and turned his eyes to the core industry—the Military. After he settled the problems with iron, the production of the three military workshops had increased, but this wasn’t sufficient. If weapons production wasn't self sufficient, how could they hold firearm deals?

Ouyang Shuo looked at the head of Fallen Moon Guild, Sun Xiaoyue and said, “We will open the three military workshops in the east region to the tailors, the blacksmiths, and the carpenters from the guild. However, this is on the condition that they sign a non-disclosure agreement; I hope that the guild will act as the leading force for this job."

Sun Xiaoyue was invited to the meeting as an advisor, so it wasn't convenient for her to talk too much. As such, she just nodded in agreement.

After three months of hard work, the Fallen Moon Guild had upgraded its guild token to silver rank. This gave them a new upper limit of 10 thousand people. It also granted them an additional Guild specialty at the same time.

When Ouyang Shuo learned of this news, he immediately contacted his little aunt. Then, he teleported over all the work occupation players that the Snow-War Rose Mercenary group had gathered for Shanhai City.

In a short amount of time, the number of members in Fallen Moon Guild broke two thousand and continued to rise.

The number of player groups in Shanhai City continued to increase. For a more balanced development, Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to send some work occupation players over to Qiushui City and Friendship City.

As for Beihai City, he had not opened it to other players yet.

Work occupation players usually brought along their families. As such, they all lived in Shanhai City.

This side effect had its pros and cons. The players were all young people and their family members could be split into elders, those of the same generation, and those of the younger generation.

Elders would be their parents or even their grandparents, who all had vast experiences. These people would either choose fishing or cooking and just enjoy life. If they had a skill, Xinan University would hire them as basic level teachers, they were the most stable and settled group.

Those of the same generation would be the player's brothers and sisters, which were all young people. This batch were also work occupation players. However, their talents weren't distinct. Most of them were still adventure mode players.

They belonged to the most unstable group.

For that, Ouyang Shuo gave the order and opened the Procuratorate Division to the bailiff players, the medical division to healer type players, and Song Jia's Dongli Sword Sect to chivalrous experts.

Alchemist type players could also go to Qingyang Temple at the west suburbs.

As for Advisor and General type players, they were the saddest group. Shanhai City Military was temporarily not open to players, so they were unable to join.

The last type were the younger generation—the kids. These bunch were like Bing'er. They just needed to go to virtual school every day. When they didn't go to school, they would play around in the territory, adding some fun and noise to it.

As Shanhai City became more and more open, player groups started to trust and gain a sense of belonging toward Shanhai City.

After Ouyang Shuo made some final arrangements and plans for the military, affiliate territories, territory structure, and industries, he finally said, “I hope you can all work hard and make sure all these plans succeed."

"Yes, my lord!" The officials all bowed together.

With that, the military and governance meeting that Ouyang Shuo ran alone officially ended.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was organizing and planning the territory layout blueprints, something happened at Broken Blade Town, located east of Xila Lake. This event would affect the future of Lianzhou Basin.

Broken Blade Town, Lord's Manor.

"What did you say, can you repeat it?" Ba Dao didn't believe it.

"Sire, it’s 100% true information. The mountain barbarian tribes that work with us found a gold mine in the forest. They don't know how to mine and extract the gold, so they want to work with us."

"Great!" Ba Dao slammed the table and stood up. Then, he paced up and down the meeting hall, as he tried his best to calm down, “The heavens didn't forsake me!"

During the territory war, Broken Blade Town had lost badly. Their military had nearly hit zero and they used up all the territory funds after the three teleportations.

To raise up funds to build a new army, Ba Dao had nearly sold all his resources. In that period of time, Ba Dao couldn't sleep. He feared that when he woke up, Shanhai City would have attacked. Luckily, Tianfeng City had used up all their efforts, and they had no time to think about further east. As such, they temporarily let off Broken Blade Town.

Just at that moment, the rise in grain prices had thrown Broken Blade Town into a state of emergency. On the verge of death, he became desperate.

While he thought that everything was lost, hope appeared.

The gold mine was undoubtedly a gift from the heavens. It gave him a road to survival.

"Qiyue Wuyi, I'll never forgive you!" Ba Dao viciously swore.

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo walked out of the Lord's Manor and entered the worship area.

It was very spacious and the square in the north area took up two-thirds of the worship area.

The square was made up of a green stone floor; there were also exquisite fences carved from Dali Stone all around.

There was a raised platform in the middle with a copper cauldron on it. Other than that, there weren't any other decorations in the square.

The three Temples stood at the back of the square. The middle was naturally the Yellow Emperor Temple. Beside it were the basic buildings of a Grade 3 City, the Confucius Temple, and the Martial Temple.

When one walked into the Confucius Temple, they would see five courtyards from the front to the back. The place had red walls, yellow tiles, Wanren Wall, Lingxing Gate, Pan Lake, Dacheng Gate, Dacheng Hall, Minglun Hall, Zhunjin Pavilion and the like.

The Confucius Temple paid respect to Confucius, his eldest disciple Yanyan, the 10 sages, the 72 worthy people, and the 22 wise people. Apart from the 22 wise people, the rest were Confucius's disciples.

The 10 sages all had statues, the 72 worthy people only had pictures, and they would all accept incense and worship.

In the game, Gaia made some changes to the Confucius Temple. Apart from keeping Confucius’s position, it changed the 10 sages and 72 worthy people into ministers and historical people.

Shanhai City's Fan Zhongyan were among these people, listed as one of the 72 worthy people.

If a person listed here died in the game, they could be revived. This positive aspect made such a person virtually immortal like players.

Ouyang Shuo took out the incense pill and a system notification appeared in his ear.

"System Notification: Found that player Qiyue Wuyi has an incense pill, will you use it?"

"Use it!"

With a swiping sound, the incense pill turned into a white light and entered the Minister Statue.

"System Notification: Incense pill has enriched Minister Statue, Confucius Temple has given birth to a new building specialty—Political Achievement (Raises chance of civil servants breaking through by 30%)."

As expected from the Confucius Temple, its specialty was made for civil servants.

Chapter 238 - Ice

Ouyang Shuo walked out of the Confucius Temple and entered the Martial Temple at the other end.

The design of the Martial Temple was similar to the Confucius Temple. It paid respects to martial artists and generals. It had Jiang Ziya as the saint, Zhangliang as the secondary saint, along with 10 sages and 72 generals.

Shanhai City's Shi Wanshui was included as one of the 72 generals. As E’Lai was from a dynasty too long ago, he wasn't included, which was a pity.

Ouyang Shuo took out his last incense pill. A system notification sounded in his ear.

"System Notification: Found that player Qiyue Wuyi has an incense pill, will you use it?"

"Use it!"

With a ‘Shua’ sound, the pill turned into a while light and entered the General statue.

"System Notification: Incense pill has enriched General Statue. Martial Temple birthed a speciality—Martial Arts (Raises chance of generals breaking bottlenecks by 30%)."

This new specialty was a huge blessing for generals like Sun Tengjiao and Zhao Sihu, who were stuck at the basic general level. Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to them breaking the bottleneck one by one.

Ouyang Shuo didn't expect that the five incense pills that Di Xin gave him would be so effective, and it made him feel very thankful.

After dinner, Ouyang Shuo called all the girls in the back courtyard, including Siqin and Siqi. He looked at Yingyu, “Yu'er, after the Financial Department sets up the Industry Division, the shops and inns under the department will be under the Lord's Manor." The shops and inns were all businesses that lost money; Ouyang Shuo taking them up helped to show the magnanimity of the Lord's Manor.

Although Yingyu felt that it was weird, she nodded in reply.

During the military and governance meeting, Ouyang Shuo's criticism was something that Yingyu felt bad about. She wanted to make good work of the industrial businesses. Naturally, not having the shops and inns was good.

Ouyang Shuo looked at all the girls and said, “As the businesses under the Lord's Manor increase and the internal storeroom becomes more and more full, it will get busier and busier. Hence, we have to set up rules to regulate the matters here. I've decided to set up the Housekeeping Division, which will purely be in charge of the internal matters of the Lord's Manor."

Ouyang Shuo's point naturally garnered the agreement of everyone. As the organization structure of Shanhai City matured, the internal affairs of the Lord's Manor didn't seem structured. Yingyu had brought up this point to Ouyang Shuo before.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Song Jia and laughed, “The Housekeeping Division is its own organization and focuses purely on the Lord's Manor and nothing else. As for the position of secretary, are you okay with it?"

Song Jia blushed, as she heard the hidden meaning in his words. Him asking her to be the Housekeeping Secretary was similar to accepting her as the female owner of the Lord's Manor.

Actually, these matters were all hidden and kept quiet, but now Ouyang Shuo had placed it in the open. Obviously, it made her feel embarrassed.

"Okay!" Song Jia didn't hesitate much and agreed.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. He admired this the part of Song Jia. Once she regarded Ouyang Shuo as her husband, she wasn't afraid of others gossiping, “Apart from the Secretary, there will be a manager and two assistants. The manager shall be Zisu, while Siqin and Siqi will be the assistants.”

"Thank you, my lord!" Zisu and the other two kneeled and thanked Ouyang Shuo.

As she had just established the Dongli Sword Sect, Song Jia didn't have much time to bother with the Lord's Manor duties. Hence, the manager actually did most of the work. Zisu felt very emotional and thankful to receive such an important role.

It was unknown how Banxia felt, as she stood behind Song Jia and watched her few sisters gain such important roles. If she didn't choose to practice martial arts, she would also have a place in the Housekeeping Division.

"My lord, there's still a week till the mid-autumn festival. Do you have anything in mind?" asked Zisu, as she made use of this chance.

Ouyang Shuo froze, he didn't expect it to be mid-autumn so quickly. As a traditional Chinese festival, it was very important. It was a time when you reunited with your family.

"I don't have any requests, just do so as usual," Suddenly, Ouyang Shuo felt a little downhearted.

"Yes, my lord!" Zisu nodded.

"Disperse!" Everyone went off to do their own things, while Ouyang Shuo returned to his room.

Ouyang Shuo sat cross legged on the bed and took out the cooling bead. He placed it in his palm and closed his eyes. Then, he started to cultivate. He activated the internal strength in his meridians and rotated them in accordance with the . He started to slowly rotate it.

Right at that moment, cooling jets of air spread out from the palm of his hand. It spread into his meridians. After the stimulation of the cold air from the bead, the golden internal strength seemed to rotate a lot faster.

Furthermore, the calming effect of the cold air seemed to pacify the devil bloodline. It didn't affect his rotations any longer.

A full two months had passed since he had cultivated the technique to the 3rd layer. The upper limit of the 3rd layer was 5 thousand points, five times that of the 2nd layer.

During this time, Ouyang Shuo had diligently read the Buddhist scriptures. As such, cultivation had become much easier for him. The scriptures helped and made the clearer to him. It allowed him to gain a deeper understanding of it.

When he started cultivating this technique, he had totally relied on the cultivation knowledge that Gaia had placed in his head. He learned based on filling the blanks.

As he gained more knowledge in regards to Taoism, he tried to look at the cultivation technique in a new way. Slowly, he gained his own understandings, which made cultivation different.

In his dantian, the strands of internal strength had coiled up together, and they flowed everywhere like a haze. It looked very illusionary.

Till date, Ouyang Shuo could rotate for seven cycles. Each cycle would give him 8 points of internal strength. After he gained the cooling bead, his cultivation became quicker. The bead allowed him to rotate nine cycles.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo could gain 72 internal strength points a day. With this speed, he could soon train the to the 4th layer.

From this, one could see the importance of the cultivation path. External tools to help cultivation were also important. One small little cooling bead could help him a lot.

Unfortunately, one could only chance upon such a treasure.

Early in the morning, Ouyang Shuo started to practice.

To not affect the sleep of Bing'er, Ouyang Shuo changed his practice area to an empty area in the backyard garden. To help in his Bajiquan practice, he also placed some dummies there.

Ever since Song Jia had come, two people would practice in the back garden.

Song Jia was a princess in real life, but there was a deep motivation and viciousness in her bones. Her motivation to practice was not less than someone like Ouyang Shuo.

The back garden in the early morning was a place filled with birds and the scent of flowers. When one stepped on the ground, the fresh smell of the grass and flowers would fill one’s nose. One had to say, Gaia was amazing, this virtual environment was the same as real life.

The two of them greeted each other and walked beside one another. Then, they started their practice.

As he started to get deeper into the , the internal strength brought out an external strength. His body quality improved day after day, be it boxing or spearmanship, they all grew better and better.

Ouyang Shuo's fast learning ability started to show in his training.

Be it Bajiquan or the Yang Family spearmanship, they all improved at a tremendous speed. His Bajiquan had already reached the ‘Perform with ease’ level, and the Yang Family spearmanship had reached the ‘Become proficient’ level.

Ouyang Shuo's current strength was comparable to Lin Yi’s.

The only regret would be that he hadn't found a suitable spear. The elite iron spear in his hand felt light. He felt like he couldn't exert any power with it.

Especially the normal wooden pole. It lacked any complicated crafting processes that could allow it to handle Ouyang Shuo's rotation of his internal strength.

If he imbued his internal strength into the spear, there would be an obvious buzzing noise. Then, the wood patterns and structure of the pole would break.

Helplessly, Ouyang Shuo could only give up on using his internal strength on the spear for now, as he couldn't change a spear every time he trained.

Although Shanhai City was prosperous, it couldn't afford such an expenditure.

After he finished his training, Ouyang Shuo was sweaty, and his shirt was soaked. He took a towel by the wooden rack and wiped off the sweat on his face.

On the other side, Song Jia was still practicing her sword. She was getting better and better with the Yuenu sword technique.

A breeze blew past, which blew a small leaf up. Then, it drifted in the air, just nice hitting the sword in Song Jia's hand.

The exquisite iron sword seemed to have merged with the air itself; it did not face any restrictions, as it moved through the air. He looked at the leaf again. Her sword had already cut the leaf into two like it was originally two pieces. Upon closer infection, the cut was covered in frost, which was an effect of the .

Both males and females could cultivate this technique, but different sexes would result in different results. Song Jia's internal strength had an ice effect. If she trained it to its extreme, the ice could imbue itself into one's heart and bones.

Compared to the iron spear, the iron sword in her hand could handle much more internal strength. Hence, Song Jia could use it without thinking.

“Pa pa pa!” Ouyang Shuo clapped in awe, “Good sword skill!"

Song Jia kept her sword and laughed, “How is it? I'm good, right?"

"Sect Leader Song's sword technique is too good. I'm envious." Ouyang Shuo didn't hold back with his compliments.

Song Jia was like a proud peacock. She giggled as she sheathed her sword. After she nodded at Ouyang Shuo, she turned around with style and the aura of a heroine.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head in amusement. He picked up his spear and returned to the back courtyard. Zisu had ordered someone to prepare cold water for Ouyang Shuo to bathe and wash up.

Chapter 239- Digging the Cornerstone

Gaia, first year, 9th month, 27th day, morning. Ouyang Shuo brought four Guards out of the city.

His destination was the Military Factory built in the stone caves in the western suburbs.

The Military Affairs Department was in charge of this. Three months had passed since they built this factory. It managed the production of military grain pills, military tents, and scaling ladders.

When one passed the city west gate, one would see masons working on the official path not far from the gate. The starting point of Tianhai Road wasn't the current city west gate, but the city west gate of the planned third city wall.

Although the official road wasn't like the inner city ones made from green stone, it still wasn't easy to build. Many wild grasses grew in the wilderness. The masons had to first remove these grasses and their roots from the soil, this measure prevented them from growing again.

The dirt road was made up of three main ingredients: limestone, dirt, and sand. They had to press the composite dirt to prevent growth of wild grasses and to prevent the road from becoming muddy during the rain.

The designer of Tianhai Road, Hui Tuban, specifically designed a ‘Roller’ that they had horses pull. He let the blacksmith shop produce a circular iron tube and used eight horses to pull it, which greatly reduced the manpower required.

As the official road was an important function to help military movement and transportation of resources, they couldn't make the road too narrow. They made it 20 meters wide, and it also had a good drainage system.

At the sides of the road, they also planted many trees.

Apart from that, along the way, there would be some streams from Friendship River as well as some hills. They needed to build bridges and also split mountains to open paths. The difficulty was nothing the inner city project could compare to.

Lastly, there was the important relay system, which included the relay path and the relay station.

The relay station could allow officials to stay overnight, they were a day away and 30 kilometers apart. Between the relays, there would also be simple shops to provide food and rest. Normally, there would be one shop every five kilometres.

After he exited the city, Ouyang Shuo took a left. After just 10 kilometres, he came to the rock cave where the Military Factory was located in. The cave entrance was a large steel door. Unless there was an emergency, it would remain closed. At the side was a small door that people could pass through, and it acted as the usual pathway.

In front of the cave was a restricted area warning sign, and a squad of soldiers stood guard next to it.

When he saw the level of secrecy and importance placed on this area, Ouyang Shuo nodded his head in agreement.

After he dismounted from his horse, Ouyang Shuo passed the reins to a guard and walked toward the big gate alone.

When the soldier on duty saw him, he bowed and said, “My lord!" Then, he rushed to steel gate; he wanted to open it up.

Ouyang Shuo waved him off, “There's no need. I'll just go in from the small door."

The soldier had a look of difficulty, “My lord... this...."

"Don't say anything more! I've come here without notice, so I don't want to disturb you guys."

"Yes, my lord!" The soldier didn't want to debate with him and respectfully opened the small door.

The inside of the cave wasn't as dark as he had expected. Pieces of white stone on the sides and the ceiling of the cave gave out a gentle white light.

Upon closer inspection, these actually weren't man made lights. Instead, they naturally occurred.

Ouyang Shuo knew that these small rocks were a type of fluorite, natural sources of light.

As he raised his head, he saw that the cave was over 10 meters high and 150 meters wide. The area in front of him was limitless. Such a cave wouldn't cause one to feel locked up and restricted.

Ouyang Shuo's arrival shocked the manager of the factory, a middle-aged man who looked very steady and calm. When he received the news, he rushed over, “My lord, welcome! Sorry I didn't welcome you better!"

Ouyang Shuo waved him off, “I came here without telling anyone. Just show me around!"

"Yes, my lord!" The manager nodded, as he led the way before Ouyang Shou, “The Military Factory is split into three regions, which mainly focus on the production of different resources." He pointed at the nearest region and said, “The most outer region is the one that makes the scaling ladders."

Ouyang Shuo looked toward the direction he pointed in, only to see a 10 meter path in the middle; a wooden wall boxed up the sides.

On top of the 4 meter high wooden wall, one could see set after set of scaling ladders piled up.

"How's the building progress of the scaling ladders?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"My lord, based on the speed, we can build one everyday."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. After the scaling ladder region was the military tent region. Everyday, they could make 20 tents. Finally, it was the military grain pill region.

The ingredients for it the pills were just grain, some other secondary food products, and some seasoning. However, the process was very troublesome. On average, every pill used up three to four units of grain.

The efficiency of the military grain pill workers was quite high, and they made one thousand odd pills a day.

There was a little river stream behind the military grain pill region, and the workers' living quarters were around it.

After the tour, Ouyang Shuo left the stone cave.

When he returned, Ouyang Shuo used the trading platform to contact Cui Shouren from the Cui Chamber of Commerce.

The Dali Court gave Ouyang Shuo his marquis rank. The authorities recognized his title, which made it effective on all residents. Hence, the attitude of the Cui Chamber of Commerce had undergone a huge change.

They were only a business family, so their societal status wasn't high. To a noble like Ouyang Shuo, they naturally need to give him enough respect.

Of course, when it came to business, they would still act normally.

"Marquis!" Cui Shouren greeted first. After Ouyang Shuo instructed them, the Cui Chamber of Commerce had gathered up a bunch of grain. Purely on this point, Cui Shouren didn't dare to show any arrogance or superiority.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Brother Shouren, I have something to ask of the Chamber of Commerce."

"Please speak!" Merchants hated owing favours, and the Cui Chamber of Commerce owed Ouyang Shuo a big one. They were worried about how they should return it. Since Ouyang Shuo had a request, Cui Shouren was naturally delighted.

"Your Chamber of Commerce has such a good reputation in Dali. Can you help Shanhai Coty recruit a batch of talents?"

Ouyang Shuo shifted his sight onto the Cui Chamber of Commerce. Compared to the Snow-War Rose Mercenary group that only influenced player groups, the Cui Chamber of Commerce had a huge influence on NPCs.

Cui Shouren was surprised, “Can you be more specific?"

"I need many talents. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a solution. There should definitely be many talented people with nowhere to display their capabilities in Dali City. This would include officials that are unable to be greatly used, generals that are unhappy, or some artisans. Shanhai City wants to recruit all these people," Ouyang Shuo explained his thinking, “Although Shanhai City is far away, we can give them a platform to show their talents. The salary we provide also won't be lower than the imperial city."

Ouyang Shuo had confidence. Not only because of his nobility, but also because of the effect his reputation level [Patriot] would have on NPCs, especially in Dali City.

Cui Shouren understood Ouyang Shuo's meaning. If they purely relied on the Cui Chamber of Commerce or his nobility, this plan might be hard to realize. But with both, it would be highly persuasive, and it would catch the interests of many people.

Dali had such a huge talent pool. Even if only a few leaked out, it would be enough for Shanhai City to use for a very long time. This act of digging a piece of a cornerstone was a very smart idea.

"Since it's your wishes, the Cui Family will try our best to help," Cui Shouren directly agreed.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “To put them at peace and show our sincerity, I‘m willing to give every talent a family settling down sum. As for the actual amount, I'll hand it over to the Chamber of Commerce to settle?" Based on Ouyang Shuo's thoughts, they probably wouldn't have earned too much if they were having a hard time.

"Marquis had thought over things thoroughly." Cui Shouren nodded in agreement, “Don't worry, we will treat this matter seriously. I won't let you down!"

"Thank you, sorry for the bother!" Ouyang Shuo said.

"No worries!"

Cui Shouren kept his promise. After their conversation, he immediately went to see the family head.

After listening to his report, the Cui Family head remained silent for a while. Then, he said, “The Lianzhou Lord has a long term goal, and he has planned it out very well. He has a desire for talents. Such vision and ambition, we can't miss this chance. Keep the promise!"

"Yes!"

"I allow you to use our family strength to recruit talents for the Lianzhou Lord. Apart from that, if our Cui Family disciples and children desire it, recommend them to him. At the right time, the Cui Chamber of Commerce can also consider setting up a branch in Shanhai City."

These words left Cui Shouren astonished, as he had never expected the family head would place so much importance on this matter. He had faith in the foresight of the family head and said,"Yes!"

After Cui Shouren left, the Family Head sat in the hall and muttered, “The Cui Family will restore its honor. At least, I didn't let down our ancestors."

Once the power of the Cui Chamber of Commerce started its work, it was actually quite scary.

On the Dali City roads and streets, Cui Family members swarmed out and brought letters and specially prepared gifts to every door to greet those students, officials, and generals.

These sudden visitors shocked some, while others liked it. Some of them treated these visitors calmly, and others rejected them at the door. There were many different reactions. The cooperation between the Lianzhou Lord and Cui Chamber of Commerce had a great effect. A large portion of them said that they would consider it before they gave the Cui Family a definite answer.

As for the artisans, they Cui Family easily recruited them. The main ones were the blacksmiths, tailors, and carpenter.

Chapter 240- Becoming Famous

Gaia first year, 10th month, 1st day, Dongli Sword Sect base.

Lone Peak, Cloud Platform.

The originally empty cloud platform now had many courtyards. It had patios and pavilions; it looked very majestic. West of the cloud platform was a one thousand mu medicine garden known as 100 grass garden. It exuded the unique scents of medicinal plants.

A little stream split the cloud platform. There was an arch bridge above stream. Under the cover of the rainbow, it gave off a different aura and was very mystical.

Far away, at the bottom of the waterfall, beside the lake, was a wooden like hut, mixing in with the lake and the old tree, that was the sect leader's secret room.

The sect leader’s secret room. One could only enter if invited, the safest room in the complex.

There was a green stone tiled square at the front of the cloud platform. 800 nominal disciples wore the same sect uniform and neatly lined up.

Song Jia wore a sky blue robe and stood before all the disciples. Behind her were her two core disciples, Banxia and Cui Tianqi. One held a sword, while the other held a book.

The sword was the Qingfeng Sword that Ouyang Shuo had given her; the book was the Taoist scripture that Song Jia would read.

Song Jia had a solemn expression, as she was dealing with the system interface. A system notification sounded in her ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Jiaqi Rumeng for applying to create a sect, automatically checking if she has met the requirements..."

"Requirement 1: Sect funds not less than 200 gold, requirement met!"

"Requirement 2: must have more than 500 disciples, requirement met!"

"Requirement 3: Cultivation Technique must at least be emperor rank, meets requirements!"

"Requirement 4: has its own sect base, requirement met!"

"System Notification: Congratulations player Jiaqi Rumeng for fulfilling all the requirements. Player is allowed to create a sect. Please name your sect!"

"Dongli Sword Sect!" Song Jia said without hesitation.

In the sect leader secret room, a stone steele slowly rose up from the ground—the sect stone steele.

If this steele was destroyed and 80% of the disciples were killed, the sect would be destroyed.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Jiaqi Ru Meng for building the martial arts sect, Dongli Sword Sect. Player is rewarded five thousand reputation points. As the sect is within Shanhai City, Shanhai City has obtained the title ‘Home of Martial Arts.’"

As the system notification sounded out, Song Jia instantly became famous in the China region. She didn't need to live in Ouyang Shuo's shadow. Now, she had a bright path in front of her.

Song Wen directly congratulated in the country channel, “Good job Sister!"

Ouyang Shuo didn't lag behind, “Congratulations, Sect Leader Song."

The world was in an uproar. His influence and words had made many player groups very interested in Dongli Sword Sect and Song Jia.

Players who thought about it would have noticed something. Since Jiaqi Rumeng was Song Wen's sister, why didn’t she set up her sect in Song Wen’s Tianshang Town? Instead, she set it up in Qiyue Wuyi's Shanhai City.

Gossip! Sky breaking gossip!

The country channel burst into activity as players started to throw out conjectures.

"Qiyue Wuyi vs. Jiaqi Rumeng, big reveal, are they friends, a couple or..."

"They are definitely a couple. Don't tell me there is actually such a pure friendship?"

"Couple +1!!"

"Aiyo, another dream has been broken~~"

"[Brother Wuyi Fanclub] demands a battle!!"

"Little sister above, don't forget that Jiaqi Rumeng is the sect leader of a sect. She has many little boys..."

"Wuwu~~"

"This little girl is crying. Nearby brothers, please help her!!"

"Is Dongli Sword Sect accepting disciples?"

……

At this point, Song Jia had dispersed her disciples. She held the Qingfeng Sword in hand and walked toward Ouyang Shuo, “Blockhead, tell me the truth. What's Brother Wuyi Fanclub?"

When he saw this beauty emit such a killing aura, he had to give a serious answer. However, he was giggling inside. As a man, having so many girls idolize him felt good," Jia Jia, I swear I really don't know."

"Hmph!" Her man being so capable was originally something to be happy about. However, Song Jia didn't find it so in this a case. It wasn't easy for her to become famous, but this stupid blockhead had stolen half of her fame.

It was also very busy in the alliance channel. Be in Sun Xiaoyue or Song Jia, they were all added in to make it convenient for everyone to communicate.

"Sister-in-law is so amazing!" Gong Chengshi was playing around again. Every since he saw Ouyang Shuo and Song Jia acting intimately during the Battle of Muye, he would tease them and bring it up.

The others all sent their congratulations. After she created the Dongli Sword Sect, Song Jia finally had the ability to stand on the same level as Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang. She no longer felt so pitiful and lowly.

Ouyang Shuo took the chance to take a look at the stats of the new title.

[Home of Martial Arts]: Raise body quality of residents by 20%

Ouyang Shuo nodded, it was as he had expected. Although they had the same title, Ouyang Shuo guessed that the buff of the Swordsman City would be stronger. After all, they were the first territory to set up a sect.

After building the sect, there were many things that she needed to do. Before she settled all this, most of her time would be spent in the sect. As a result, she would have less time together with Ouyang Shuo, which made him feel a little melancholy.

After congratulating her, Ouyang Shuo didn't stay for any longer and went down the mountain.

After he went down, he didn't choose to return to the main camp. At the foot of a mountain, a squadron of Guards awaited him. Ouyang Shuo planned to make a trip to Yishui Town and Gushan Town.

Ever since he conquered them, a month had passed. As the lord, Ouyang Shuo hadn't even visited once, which was somewhat a neglection of his duty.

Yishui Town was built at the side of Qiushui river. After the residents of Gushan Town moved here, the population of the town had passed 10 thousand.

After Ouyang Shuo reached Yishui Town, he officially renamed it Yishui City. As for the position of city magistrate, he wasn't in a rush to appoint one. He temporarily allowed the current head to take charge of daily duties.

The merger of Yishui Town and Gushan Town was also a merger of administrative personnel, which made the political structure well filled.

The current head of Yishui Town was a normal official in the past, so how would Ouyang Shuo be at ease if he let this person be in charge? If it was before, he might have taken someone from the main city and given him an opportunity.

But now, Cui Chamber of Commerce had sent the news that recruiting had been going well. It wouldn't be long before they could send a batch of people to Shanhai City.

Based on Ouyang Shuo's plan, he naturally wanted to choose an official from this batch of people to take up the position of city magistrate. These plans included Yongye Town and Guangshui Town in the west.

As the castle on the east side, Yishui Town held the responsibility of monitoring the player territories on the east side, so he naturally couldn’t forsake its defence. After both towns merged, Yishui City followed the standard rules and built a city protection unit.

Ouyang Shuo's arrival, apart from just taking a look, was to check the training of the city protection unit. What he saw made him displeased. The soldiers were rookies that remained from both towns. Even when they included their affiliate territories, they only barely managed to form a unit.

To raise their combat power, Ouyang Shuo chose 10 elite soldiers from the Guards squadron to join the Yishui City city protection unit. These 10 elites would act as lieutenants and majors. As for the original ones, Ouyang Shuo demoted them to sergeant.

He gave them a goal—eradicate the raider camps and raise their combat power.

Apart from the city protection unit, he couldn’t overlook the city protection facilities either.

Compared to Tianfeng City, Yishui City's city wall was really bad; it was just a mud wall.

After Ouyang Shuo saw it, he decided it was necessary to start a city wall building project.

Based on his long term plan, the future Yishui City would be a second grade city. Hence, its walls must follow the standards of a city and be 5 kilometers long.

After he made these changes to Yishui City, Ouyang Shuo spent the night there.

The next morning, Ouyang Shuo left and brought the Guards. They rushed to Gushan Town, which was a little further away. There were a bunch of mountain barbarian tribe leaders waiting for him.

After he destroyed the mountain bandits in Er'Shi Ridge, Shanhai City's reputation and position in the hearts of the mountain barbarians had soared to new heights. Especially the resources he had left them, which had helped to solve many of their problems.

After the mountain tribes took the resources, they burned the mountain stronghold down. From this, one could see how deep their hatred for the mountain bandits ran.

Mountain barbarians were a race that clearly differentiated friend from foe. They would hate those who bullied them, while they would forever remember those who helped them.

With the previous example of mountain barbarian soldiers joining the military and the example of the Qiushui City mountain barbarian settlement, Tian Wenjing easily convinced a large scale tribe, three medium sized tribes, and seven small sized tribes to move down the mountain. These were pretty much all the tribes in this region.

These eleven tribes will all settle down in Gushan Town; they would form a small, self-ruled community.

Based on Ouyang Shuo's promise, apart Four Seas Bank branch, the officials in Gushan Town would all be mountain barbarians. The only thing that Shanhai a City interfered in would be the building of the city defence unit.

Chapter 241- Violence

When Ouyang Shuo and his group reached Gushan Town, it was already 3 PM.

With the large-sized tribe leader Lei Fan at the lead, all the leaders of the tribes welcomed Ouyang Shuo. The tribal alliance had chosen Lei Fan as the head of Gushan Town.

The short interaction let Ouyang Shuo see that Lei Fan was special.

Based on what he knew, Lei Fan became the leader of his tribe at 24 years of age. 10 years had past, and his reputation and prestige were very high in the tribe. Not only that, even the other tribes all respected Lei Fan.

Compared to the conservative spirit of Shi Xiong from the Xuanniao Tribe, Lei Fan was much brighter and had better foresight. His tribe had headed down the mountains as a result of his planning.

He realized that if the mountain barbarians wanted a better life, their best choice would be to mix with the humans.

When Tian Wenjing visited his tribe, the two of them immediately grew close.

After some simple greetings, Ouyang Shuo renamed Gushan Town as Gushan City. Then, he appointed Lei Fan as the city magistrate with the authority to appoint his underlings.

The same night, Ouyang Shuo met Lei Fan alone and the two of them had a deep conversation.

Ouyang Shuo promised that the main camp would provide a batch of grain for Gushan City. The duty of Gushan City would be to build a wall to increase the defences and reclaim farmland in preparation for the spring planting season.

As the population of Gushan City broke 30 thousand, and was still about a year until the first rice harvest, they would probably need around 10 million units of grain.

Obviously, the main camp could not provide for such a huge demand for grain. Ouyang Shuo suggested that they borrowed from the Material Reserves Department. After the first harvest of the next year, they could repay the department.

Apart from that, Lei Fan's most important task was to continue to promote Shanhai City's mountain barbarian plan. He needed to contact more tribes and get them to come down to Gushan City.

They had practically swept up all the south side mountain barbarians.

To contact the mountain barbarians, they either had to venture deep into the forest or head north. Either way, Lei Fan would play a bigger part than the Xuanniao Tribe. As the leader of a large-sized tribe, he still remained in contact with the other large tribes. So, he was undoubtedly the most effective choice.

In truth, as the tribes started to rebuild and reorganize Gushan City, the position and importance of Xuanniao Tribe began to drop. They could only help out in the Langshan Minefields.

As for contacting the other tribes, the Xuanniao Tribe was only a medium-sized tribe, so they had limited power and connections. They were already unable to help Tian Wenjing much.

As for the other small and medium-sized tribes that didn't agree to descend the mountains, Ouyang Shuo decided to not care about them and let them destroy themselves.

The next day, Ouyang Shuo led his troops and left; they returned to Shanhai City on the same night. Ouyang Shuo rushed back because of the mid-autumn festival, which he couldn't miss.

Gaia first year, 10th month, 4th day, 8th month, 15th day of the lunar calendar, mid-autumn festival.

Xinan University, Fallen Star Island.

Only a few stars shone in the night sky; it was dead quiet. Jiang Shang sat alone on a rock and looked at the moon, as he contemplated many things.

The one he longed for had passed on, and only the moon remained unchanged.

"The Lord's Manor sent these mooncakes." The servant held a box of exquisite mooncakes.

"En." Jiangshang's expression changed slightly. Then, he turned expressionless and motionless once again.

The young servant didn't want to disturb him, so he placed the mooncake at the side and quietly left.

After the servant left, Jiang Shang picked up a piece of mooncake and muttered, “You still haven't given up?"

The moon didn't make a sound, nor did the man as the night breeze blew by.

Lord's Manor, back garden.

After the feast, Ouyang Shuo invited everyone to the back garden to admire the moon.

The cool autumn breeze brought with it the scent of flowers. Bing'er held a bunch of Osmanthus Flowers in her hand and ran to Zisu, “Sister Zisu, I want to eat Osmanthus cake!"

Zisu nodded and laughed, “Ok, tomorrow, I'll ask Auntie Wang to make some for you."

Ouyang Shuo looked at them in amusement; it had been a long time since he felt so relaxed.

Recently, the duties of the territory had made him so busy. Many changes had occurred inside and out.

Sha Pojun's probing attack had ended in failure, and Ouyang Shuo had forced him back. Weirdly, when Sha Pojun went back, there was no news about him. It was like he was a rock that fell into the ocean.

After that probe, Di Chen and the others became more careful. If one said that these people had given up on their schemes toward Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo wouldn't believe it. The storms in the future would grow more mysterious and vicious.

As for the territorial matters, Ouyang Shuo slowly felt like he was overworked himself. He planned everything for Shanhai City and also had to pay attention to the alliance, which made him exhausted.

As the affiliate territories increased, Ouyang Shuo needed a talent that could help him control the big picture. Jiang Shang, who was on Fallen Star Island, was such one person, unfortunately....

"Brother, eat the mooncake." Bing'er took a mooncake and passed it to Ouyang Shuo.

"Good Bing'er!" Ouyang Shuo took it and smiled. All his thoughts and problems instantly flew to the back of his mind.

"Blockhead, these few days, I've received some letters from my old classmates," Song Jia suddenly said.

"Old classmates? How did they find out your ID?"

"Most of them are high school friends. I suspect that Yuanping revealed it. Before the migration, he had pulled many of them to live in his territory."

Ouyang Shuo nodded; it was as he had expected, “They want to join Dongli Sword Sect?"

"That's right, what do you think?" Song Jia would seek his opinion for this kind of important matter.

"We welcome them, but remember to keep a lookout." Ouyang Shuo would rather be safe than sorry.

"En." Song Jia naturally knew what to do.

After the mid-autumn festival, the grain crisis exploded. Grain prices rose up to 30 copper per unit.

Lord players had to spend all their money and live on the edge, while the merchants made a lot of gold.

The end of the 10th month would be the second harvesting season. Obviously, everyone clearly knew that grain prices would fall after that.

The 10th month was going to be the hardest month for lord gamemode players.

Many territories were already forced to the edge. They had spent their resources and those that could be sold were sold. They had no choice. Helplessly, they started to sell equipment to adventure mode players to gain gold to buy grain.

Compared to lord gamemode players, adventure gamemode players weren't affected. They weren't like lords who had to care about residents; they only needed to care about themselves.

As they had no choice, some lord's started to raise the taxes. Not only that, they sold the grain they bought at high prices to the residents.

Shanhai City, the price of grain at the grain shop remained at 11 copper.

The high prices affected these lords because they needed to lower the grain prices in the territory. If it rose along with the market, it would result in a huge blow to residents, and it could easily cause riots. The farmers naturally wouldn't sell the excess grain so easily to the territory. Instead, they would accumulate them.

Hence, these lords had no choice but to use their own money to make up for the difference in prices.

Ouyang Shuo’s allies also faced the same problem.

At the end of the 9th month, Ouyang Shuo had to further invest in the Four Seas Bank to save his allies.

Mulan City and Black Lion City were still okay, as they had just upgraded. They could barely make it. As for Tianshuang Town, which was still at grade 3 Town, they still had sufficient funds as the branch of the bank was just built.

The ones that had it the hardest were Fallen Phoenix City and Xunlong City. They had to pay the loans from the bank every month. Now, they struggled thanks to the grain prices.

Wufu's Stone City also found it hard to get by. A Four Seas Bank branch wasn't built there, so it was rather remarkable for them to survive all by themselves.

After the mid-autumn festival, Wufu finally couldn't take it and asked Ouyang Shuo to save him.

Ouyang Shuo didn't hesitate. He sold the 60 million units of grain he had accumulated. After the 10% tax deduction, he obtained 161,000 gold.

In addition to his original funds, he now had 177,000 in his storage bag.

Ouyang Shuo immediately invested 40,000 in the main branch, and 2,000 in the five branches. Overall, he invested 50,000.

The one time investment of 40,000 gold made the main branch of Four Seas Bank start to have the grandeur of a central bank.

As the city continued to run the bank, the views of the people slowly changed. They started to learn how to save up.

Based on Yingyu's data, in the 9th month, the Four Seas Bank had a total of 9,000 gold in savings.

Based on Ouyang Shuo's plan, this was the last time he would inject money. From now on, Ouyang Shuo wouldn't bother with the Four Seas Bank. He would let its members and officials do their job.

Apart from that, the Four Seas Bank branch in Stone City had opened up. Ouyang Shuo gave them a starting amount of 5,000 gold.

After such actions, Ouyang Shuo still had 122,000 gold left.

Based on his plans, he would not touch 100,000 gold. He planned to spend these funds on the year end auction three months later.

Compared to the first system auction, the year end auction would be bigger and have more rare items. Naturally, he didn't want to miss it.

He had to make proper preparations to purchase what he wanted during the auction. If it wasn't for the grain crisis that used up a lot of the other territory's gold, Ouyang Shuo would have prepared more in case of uncertainties.

Chapter 242 - Taking Down Zhennan Pass

Gaia first year, 10th month, 8th day

The people the Cui Chamber of Commerce had recruited finally reached Shanhai County.

This batch of talents totalled at 1,200 people, including 1,000 blacksmiths, carpenters, and tailors.

For them and their family, Ouyang Shuo had to pay 5,000 gold in teleportation costs.

Based on Ouyang Shuo's instructions, the artisans were all sent to the military workshops in the eastern district. As for scholars and officials, they were sent to the various departments, most importantly to form the organizational structure of Tianfeng County and the other affiliate territories.

The military personnel were sent to the various regiments to take up the roles of majors or lieutenants.

Out of the talents, Ouyang Shuo paid a lot of attention to two people. One was the civil servant Cui Shoushi and the other was General Sun Chuan Lin. Cui Shoushi was the cousin of Yingyu and was a scholar. Out of the whole family, he was one of two scholars. Before this, he worked in the court of Dali Region.

His arrival surprised Yingyu.

She didn't expect that her family would make such a huge decision. The Cui family were merchants, hence they placed a lot of importance on their children's education, hoping they became scholars and officials to provide them with political cover.

Cui Shoushi was the most successful example from the Cui family education.

Ouyang Shuo could roughly guess what the Cui Family was thinking, and without hesitating made him the city magistrate of Yishui County.

Name: Cui Shoushi (Gold Rank)

Identity: Yishui County County Magistrate

Occupation: Civil Servant (Scholar)

Loyalty: 85

Command: 35

Force: 25

Intelligence: 50

Politics: 65

Specialty: Agriculture Persuasion (raise efficiency of agriculture industry growth by 20%)

Evaluation: Cui Family child, very knowledgeable, good foresight, good morals and hardworking.

Although Cui Shoushi was a gold rank talent, he only had one specialty; it seemed lacking. Luckily, his specialty was very compatible with Yishui Town, whose main goal was agriculture.

If one said that the Cui Family had planned for Cui Shoushi to come over, then Sun Chuan Lin was an unexpected surprise.

Name: Sun Chuan Lin (Gold Rank)

Identity: Shanhai County Resident

Occupation: Intermediate General

Loyalty: 80

Command: 60

Force: 65

Intelligence: 40

Politics: 25

Specialty: Projection (increase range of archers by 5%), Strong Shooting (Increase archer combat power by 10%)

Cultivation Method: Youji Archery Technique

Equipment: Luoyan Bow

Evaluation: He was a lieutenant in the army but was replaced by his disciple because he wasn't pleased by military rewards. He exposed the dirty behaviors and acts in the military and got his rewards, but in turn was treated coldly. As he was demoralized, he decided to quit.

The special thing about Sun Chuan Lin was that he was the only general who specialized in archery. This made him think of the territory bow and crossbow cavalry squadron when the territory was at its village stage.

Ouyang Shuo didn't hesitate and appointed him the colonel of the 5th regiment, and also the vice head of the city’s eastern camp in charge of building a bow and crossbow cavalry regiment.

With that, Shanhai County's 1st division was completed with 5 normal regiments and 1 Guards regiment, its total strength reaching 15 thousand people. It was in charge of guarding the 4 directions.

As the organization of the military got into place, Ouyang Shuo started to look to the north of the Lianzhou Basin.

After the Battle of Muye ended, Mulan Town had upgraded to a grade 1 city. One and a half months had passed, and Mulan County had reached the upper limit, successfully upgrading to a grade 2 city.

Mu Guiying felt that the time had come for them to take down Zhennan Pass.

Mulan County had just formed their city protection regiment, which included 2 sword-shield soldier units, 1 cavalry unit, and 2 archer units. With their strength, to take over the Zhennan Pass might not be enough, and it would probably result in heavy casualties.

Hence, they needed the help of Shanhai County.

If Ouyang Shuo sent all his troops, this was naturally a straightforward victory. The problem being that it was expensive to do so. With an army of 5000 as an example, the teleportation costs would run up to 10 thousand.

Ge Hongliang suggested to not teleport and directly go past the wild lands.

His suggestion also had many problems.

Firstly to launch a siege, the core would be infantry. They had slow movement speeds and even if they rushed, they needed to cross 400 kilometres of wild lands and would require over a week.

Apart from that, crossing the wildlands mean that they would definitely cross paths with tribes. As the wild lands was complicated, it was best not to disturb them at the moment.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it and decided that the best idea was to send an elite squad to help Mulan County. In the end, he decided to send the 2 trump card units: the 1st unit of the Guards regiment and the 1st unit of the 1st regiment of the 1st division. Apart from that, 5 sets of three-bow arcuballistas and 10 scaling ladders would be included.

As the military scale increased, war preparations couldn't be done quickly and took a long time.

The Feng bird of the Military Intelligence Division brought Ouyang Shuo's orders and flew to the city west camp. When they received the orders, they had to gather the troops and rush to the main camp, taking 2 days.

The city’s western camp was helping to destroy raider camps along the Tianhai Road construction area.

The money they gained would be given to the main camp and to Ouyang Shuo. To raise their motivation, Ouyang Shuo ruled that 10% of the gold will be given as rewards to the soldiers who participated.

The prisoners would either be sent to the Military Affairs Department and into the reserve force, or sent to Yongye Town or Guangshui Town to increase the population.

This batch of prisoners was pretty much also made to join the construction of Tianhai Road.

10th month, 11th day

Ouyang Shuo brought the 1000 elites, and the combat resources and teleported to Mulan County. As the scaling ladder was huge, even after dismantling it, Ouyang Shuo had to make several trips.

"Brother Wuyi, you are here!" Mu Lanyue waited for him at the teleportation formation.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and asked, "Are you all ready?"

"En, Sister Mu is waiting for you at the barracks." Mu Lanyue laughed.

"Lets go!"

In the barracks, the Mulan County city protection regiment had gathered up.

Before leaving, Mu Guiying called Ouyang Shuo and the others to the meeting hall to discuss.

Mu Guiying invited Ouyang Shuo to sit on the higher seat, but he refused. "General Mu, you are in charge of this battle. All my forces will listen to you." As he said this, he introduced Wang Feng and Shihu to her.

Mu Guiying had paid close attention to Zhennan Pass and had far more knowledge about it than Ouyang Shuo. She already had a well thought out plan on how to attack it.

Ouyang Shuo naturally wouldn't say too much as he was the guest.

Mu Guiying didn't refuse and said, "After a period of observation, we have found out much about Zhennan Pass. There are around 3,000 mountain bandits, and the leader is called Li Anbai. He was originally a swordsman, but he was schemed against and chased out of his sect, being forced to live in the wilderness and ending up a bandit. He has strong skills but also has a heart of righteousness. After conquering the pass, he told his men to not kill any innocent people.

"The problem was that he had internal injuries that didn't heal. Soon, he will be unable to control the men under him."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. No wonder Mu Guiying wanted to deal with them quickly. One could foresee that the moment he died, the one that would be badly affected would be Mulan County.

"Li Anbai has a daughter called Li Feixue. She's 28 years old and was given birth to after he became a bandit. He loved her and taught her everything he learned. This Miss Li, under her father's teachings, became very pure and righteous, not affected by the bandits. Because of that, Li Anbai is worried that once he dies, his daughter wouldn't be able to gain a footing in Zhennan Pass and even her purity would be taken away by those wolves."

Ouyang Shuo had never expected that there would be such a story.

"Because of that, Li Anbai had many sleepless nights. Coincidentally, a spy was spotted by him and he instead gained knowledge of Mulan County from the spy. After thinking about it, he was emotional and made the decision to give up Zhennan Pass to protect his daughter."

Ouyang Shuo was hit with a bolt of realization, no wonder she knew so much, even those secrets she was so clear about. What he didn't understand was that since Li Anbai was willing to give up Zhennan Pass, why would Mu Guiying need assistance from them?

"What was the change that occured?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

Mu Guiying sighed deeply. "Your guess is right, there was really something that happened. A few days ago, his plan was revealed and an uprising occurred in the pass. Although the bandits respected him, giving up the pass was something they couldn't accept. Added with some people fanning the flames, based on the last information by the spy, both of them were captured. The mountain bandits also spread word that they want to attack Mulan County as punishment."

Ouyang Shuo shook his head in amusement. "These bunch of mountain bandits are too arrogant, they should’ve just stayed in the pass; once they get out, how could they be a match for Mulan County? Such an impractical idea."

Chapter 243 - Taking Down Zhennan Pass Part 2

Mu Guiying nodded. "I also think that it's not practical."

When one didn't have good advisors, the detriments were already there to see.

Not only did they have to take over Zhennan Pass in this battle, but they also had to save the lives of Li Anbai and his daughter. After all, he already had the intention to surrender, which meant he was an ally, so they had to save him.

"General, what plan do you have?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

Mu Guiying confidently and resolutely said, "I don't have a plan; just attack."

Ouyang Shuo was shocked, he looked at Mu Guiying in awe and amazement. Since they had already riled up the enemy, they should just destroy them outright, as it was the righteous thing to do.

"Good!" Ouyang Shuo got up. "Let's stick to what the general has said. Lest there be changes as time passes, let's go!"

"Yes!" The many men echoed.

The big army rolled out of Mulan County and toward Zhennan Pass.

At 1 PM, without any attempts to hide, they arrived in front of Zhennan Pass.

The canyon was only 50 meters wide, so they could spread out their forces.

At the front of the formation, the 10 scaling ladders were put in place; closely behind were the 5 three-bow arcuballistas which were being aimed and zeroed.

The bottom of the scaling ladder had a base of wood with 6 wheels underneath; the main ladder was fixed to the base at a certain degree. At the sides, there was protection and was strengthened using leather. Soldiers could effectively defend against arrows while pushing the scaling ladder.

The main ladder was split into two parts, making use of a folding structure where the middle joined up the two parts with a shaft.

When sieging, as long as one placed the main ladder under the wall, and then make use of the secondary ladder, they could easily climb up the wall and reduce the danger and difficulty.

Additionally, as the scaling ladder was placed on the wall, soldiers could prevent the enemy from sabotage only when they were ready to climb.

Standing in front of the forces was the 1st Guards unit that Ouyang Shuo had brought. Their duty would be to made use of the step arrows that the arcuballistas shot along with the 2 sword-shield soldier units from Mulan County to take down the city wall.

Following closely behind the sword-shield soldier units were the two archer units, who were in charge of cover fire. Further behind was the heavy armored infantry. They were in charge of using the wooden ram to take down the city gates.

The wooden ram had a wheelbarrow attached such that it could be pushed forward. The wooden ram was covered with two layers of iron skin. Many shiny spikes were welded on it.

At the back of the force was the cavalry unit from the city protection regiment who acted as a reserve.

The huge army didn't bother about the mountain bandits on the Zhennan Pass, and slowly made their preparations for the war ahead.

Such a huge commotion naturally alerted and shocked the mountain bandits.

The mountain bandit leader who had successfully staged the coup had received the report and brought a bunch of people to the city wall. Upon seeing the huge army outside he muttered, "Who can tell me where in the world this army appeared from?"

The mountain bandits on his right and left looked at each other, but they all didn't know what to say.

"Leader, was, was it, was it the old head of the stronghold?" One mountain bandit stammered as he said. Although Li Anbai was locked up, he still had high prestige in the mountain stronghold and was still regarded the head of the stronghold.

The leader froze and scolded, "There’s an 80% chance that it is that old fogey. He's going to die but still wants to go against me. I'll go and kill him now."

The mountain bandit beside him immediately stopped him and persuaded, "Leader, what's most important is to stop their advance. We can settle the old fogey at any time."

For him to be able to successfully stage the coup, he naturally wasn't stupid. He knew that killing Li Anbai at this time would not only not help the situation, but it would make those who liked him not listen to him.

The reason why he was so emotional was because of the sudden situation. It wasn't easy for him to become the leader, and he hadn't enjoyed it long before facing such a thing. As such, he felt frustrated.

After calming himself down, he started giving orders and organizing the defense. He ordered all the mountain bandits up the city wall to fend off the enemy invasion.

Zhennan Pass, which was an old ancient pass, not only did it have high city walls, but the city protection resources in its storage were also in sufficient amounts. They had large amounts of rolling wood and stone pieces, which was where the confidence from the leader came from.

After the mountain bandits went off to prepare, the mountain bandit called a confidant and ordered, "Dao Ba, quickly go down and find 20 dependable brothers, prepare horses and food. Take out the jewels from the storeroom and rush to the back gate and wait for my orders. If things go wrong, we leave immediately."

Dao Ba was shocked and asked, "Big brother, don't tell me we might not be able to defend the pass?"

The leader stared at him furiously. "What do you know! I took a brief look and they actually had scaling ladders and arcuballistas, they are obviously prepared. Whether we can defend or not is a mystery. This time, we must prepare for a way out."

"Big brother, I understand."

"Go quickly!" The mountain bandit leader waved him off.

After Dao Ba left, the leader regained his calm demeanour and stood on the city wall.

Just as he was planning their backup plan, a tune sounded out in the courtyard in which Li Anbai and his daughter were kept in.

A young mountain bandit was holding a food box and sneakily rushed to the courtyard.

Two of the leader's trusted men were guarding the courtyard outside. Upon seeing him, they warned, "What are you doing here? Don't you know that this is a restricted place?"

The young mountain bandit looked around and upon seeing that there was no one around, walked beside the guard and said softly, "Brother did you hear? The lord that the old stronghold head contacted has brought their troops to attack the pass."

The guard impatiently said, "Who doesn't know that? Speak the truth, what exactly are you doing here?"

The young bandit didn't get riled up and continued, "Hey, Brother don't you know that the leader is very angry and wants to rush here to kill the old head. Unfortunately, some brothers stopped him.. He didn't want to go against everyone so he agreed to let him off, but in truth he is still furious. Hence, he secretly arranged me to come here to send them on their way."

The young bandit pointed at the food box he was holding, not saying a thing but doing the hand signal for killing.

The guard was astonished, with his understanding of the leader, this was something that he definitely would do. He instantly believed it and nodded. "Since that's so, I'll follow you in."

"No, you definitely cannot." The young bandit immediately shook his head and said softly, "Think about it. Such a secretive thing, how can everyone see it? Both of you better just guard outside so people wouldn't suspect anything. If this is revealed, and the leader blames us, we will probably all be in big trouble."

Thinking of how the leader handled things, both Guards felt cold inside and said thankfully, "Brother has thought about it carefully, quickly go in!"

Under the thankful eyes of the Guards, the young mountain bandit entered the courtyard.

This courtyard was where Li Feixue lived and where the father and daughter were locked up. Li Anfei was really sick and struggled to get off the bed.

"Who?" The arrival of the young bandit was spotted by Li Feixue.

Her reaction was quick as she grabbed the treasure sword at the side and charged forward.

He walked into the room and upon seeing such a situation gave a bitter smile. "Miss don't be afraid. I'm a spy from Mulan County, and I've some important news."

Li Feixue was astonished. Her father had told her about the thing with Mulan County, and she also knew that there was a Mulan County spy in Zhennan Pass. It was only that she didn't know whether the person in front of her was trustworthy or not.

The young mountain bandit, upon seeing the doubts in her face, took out a token and passed it to her. "This is my identity token, you can check it."

Upon receiving it, the token looked very basic without any symbols. Only at one corner were 3 crooked lines.

Li Feixue calmed down and heaved a sigh of relief. She knew that he was a spy from Mulan County.

"Are there any changes outside?" Li Feixue thought about why he entered.

He didn't dare to waste time and said directly, "That's right, my lord and the Lianzhou lord has brought their troops to attack the pass."

Li Feixue was delighted and muttered, "That's great, my father no longer needs to suffer."

The young mountain bandit shook his head, as he wasn't as innocent as her. He said solemnly, "Missus doesn't know that the old stronghold head survived an incident. The leader wanted to kill him, but his men stopped him. I'm afraid that once the situation gets out of hand, he would use you two as hostages."

"Then what should we do?" Li Feixue was a young girl, so she didn't know what to do.

"Cough, cough." At that moment, Li Anbai woke up.

"Dad, you are awake!" Li Feixue was delighted and leaped toward the bed. She was on the verge of crying.

A leader of a generation opened up his hazy eyes and looked at his daughter with pity. He wanted to reach out, but he couldn't. He struggled to look toward the young mountain bandit and struggled out, "I've heard your words. I'm ashamed that I'm unable to fulfil my promise. Your lord is righteous and immediately sent people to save my daughter and I. For that, I'm grateful."

"Your words are too serious. As for how to escape, do you have an idea?" The young mountain bandit was so nervous and worried that the leader would take them as hostages. Hence, as a good spy, he had to take the risk to meet with them to try and solve this problem.

Chapter 244 - Taking over Zhennan Pass Part 3

A bright light shone in Li Anbai's cloudy eyes. As if he could see through the heart of the young mountain bandit, he said with his hoarse voice, "Young man don't worry, I've been staying here for 10 years and know everything about this place. There's a hidden room in this courtyard where we can hide."

The young mountain bandit felt as if his thoughts were all crystal clear in front of the old man, forcefully suppressing the awkwardness and laughing, "That's great, can you two move there now?"

"There's something I need to remind you about."

"Old stronghold head, please speak!" The young mountain bandit treated this very seriously.

"I'm very clear about the character and actions of the leader. He's a very smart and careful person. I'm very sure that he would definitely arrange a way out to escape. Zhennan Pass is within the canyon, and one could escape from the southwest. Once things go awry, he might actually just give up the pass and leave." No wonder people said that the one that knows you best is your enemy.

The young mountain bandit's face turned white. If the leader escaped, then he would have failed as a spy. "Thank you for your help!"

Li Anbai blinked as a form of reply. Him reminding the young mountain bandit also had a little bit of selfishness. If the leader escaped, it would be bad for his daughter.

After discussing everything, Li Anbai struggled and fiddled with the edge of the bed, only to hear a cracking sound and the walls suddenly splitting open, revealing a hidden room. It was 4-5 square meters wide and had a bed and a chair. Apart from that, there was nothing else, just a simple room.

As time was of the essence, he didn't dare to waste time and together with Li Feixue, carried Li Anbai onto the bed.

Although once the hidden room was closed one wouldn't be able to spot a difference, the young mountain bandit was still worried. He looked around and touched up the place before carrying the empty lunch box out of the courtyard.

Before leaving, he one again reminded the guards not to let anyone check and also not to leave their post in case others grew suspicious.

Now in his heart, he was pondering about how to stop the escape of the leader.

Outside Zhennan Pass, the bells of war had already sounded.

The first to attack were the 5 three-bow arcuballistas and the archer unit. Their rain of arrows drew an arc in the air as they headed for the city walls.

The arrows from the arcuballistas were fast, like that of a machine gun as they flew out from them one after another, taking away life after life.

As long as the mountain bandits dared to show their faces, they were mercilessly shot down.

"Cover! Cover!" The leader hid under a shield and hollered.

Hearing the order, the mountain bandit archers didn't dare to go against it and stuttered out of the cover of the shields and without aiming, fired out. The arrow rain was like the knife of the god of death, striking from above.

"Raise your shields!" The commander shouted.

"Shua," the men raised their shields and if one looked from above, it was like the ground had a layer of a shield.

Some unlucky souls didn't hold their shields properly and slipped to the left when the arrows hit, so the arrows mercilessly pierced them and claimed their lives.

Taking the chance that both sides were engaging, the 10 scaling ladders were slowly pushed towards the edge of the city wall. Hiding within the scaling ladder was the first unit of the Guards regiment.

At the same time, the arcuballistas changed targets and started to fire step arrows. The huge arrows penetrated the wall and formed a closely lined arrow forest.

The step arrows were a signal as the sword shield soldiers behind braved the arrow rain and started to advance towards the city wall.

The scaling arrow was stopped beside the wall and with a "pa" the stacked secondary ladder was raised and hooked onto the city wall.

The soldiers from the Guards unit started to walk out from the scaling ladder and climbed up. To raise the efficiency, they held the Tang Swords in their mouths and used both their hands to climb.

"Leader, they are climbing up the scaling ladder!" The mountain bandits panicked.

"I'm not blind, I can see that." The leader was furious. "Rush up and push the ladder away, kill them."

The hook on the scaling ladder was specially designed, and it was difficult to push away. The mountain bandits that rushed out weren't trained in the methods of pushing the scaling ladder, and upon seeing the bloodthirst of the soldiers climbing up, they were terrified.

"Throw rocks at them!" The leader realized his tactical mistake and immediately made adjustments.

"Yes!" The mountain bandits raised up stone rocks and threw them down.

Unfortunately, it was already too late.

The soldiers were already near to the top and the rocks only hit the ones in front. Those at the back quickly rushed up and made use of the opportunity to climb up.

The held the Tang Swords in their hands and stood on top of the ladder, fighting against the mountain bandits.

The soldiers in the Guards regiment were all very experienced. The first unit were the elites of the elites, each one being at least a rank 10 war elite soldier. Their killing ability were shocking.

10 scaling ladders, 10 killing spots.

Wang Feng led the way and got onto the city wall first.

He shook his spear and shouted, "I am Wang Feng, whoever isn't afraid to die step out!"

"Kill him!" The mountain bandit leader didn't personally step out.

"Kill!" There were many evil men amongst the mountain bandits. They weren't afraid of anything except people saying that they were afraid. Wang Feng's words infuriated them.

"He!" Wang Feng was unfazed. With a sweep, he cleared out a huge area in front of him.

During the battle at Er'Shi Ridge, Wang Feng's breakthrough increased his combat power. Be it sweeping or stabbing, he claimed life after life; no one could get close to him.

He was like an asura, defending the area close to the scaling ladder so no mountain bandit could get close. Taking the chance, the Guards regiment soldiers swiftly followed behind and climbed onto the wall.

Seeing their general show his skill, these bunch of battle crazy men waved their Tang Swords. Not bothering about the number of men, they directly charged forward.

The strength of the Guards regiment terrified the mountain bandits.

When one side was broken, every side was slowly broken.

The soldiers on the other ladders started to climb up and start fighting with the mountain bandits.

It seemed like they wouldn't be able to defend, so the leader pulled back the mountain bandits who were throwing rocks and told them to surround the soldiers.

What they didn't know that the sword-shield soldiers were waiting for the opportunity. Under the leadership of their lieutenants, they either climbed up the scaling ladder or the step arrows to assist their allies.

In a moment, Zhennan Pass became a slaughter, and blood flowed endlessly.

Seeing the sword-shield soldiers successfully climb up the wall, Mu Guiying ordered the heavy armored infantry of Shanhai County to breach the gates.

When Shihu received the order, he hollered, "Brothers, charge!"

"Charge!" The mountain barbarian soldiers raised their shields and pushed the wooden ram and charged towards the city gates.

"Hong!!" As the wooden ram smacked into the gate, an earth-shattering sound resounded which shook the pass.

"Hei!" The soldiers shouted out the signals, pulling the wooden ram back before ramming into the gate again.

Although the city wall was covered in iron, under the striking of the wooden ram, it started to creak and crack.

The mountain barbarians were famous for their strength, and the wooden ram they pushed produced a force of more than 5,000 kilograms.

"Dang!" The first city gate was finally broken.

The Zhennan Pass had 3 city gates. Once the outermost one was broken, there was still one in the middle. Luckily, now the soldiers had the cover of the hole and could charge with ease.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Shout after shout came out from the doorway, following by an earth-shattering blow, making one terrified.

The leader, upon hearing such sounds, frowned. He looked up only to see large amounts of troops had rushed up the wall, and although their numbers were half of theirs, they weren't at a disadvantage.

On the other hand, the mountain bandits were afraid and didn't look like they could hold on.

"Haiz!" The leader let out a long sigh and slowly retreated as per his retreat plan.

At this moment, the 2nd city gate was broken.

At this time, Shihu had two choices. One was to climb up the city wall through a path in the doorway and help the troops. Another was to continue to break through the 3rd city wall and block off their retreat path.

Shihu considered for a short time and thought of a plan. He sent someone to report the situation to the commander. Following which, he left a squadron to breach the last gate while he brought the rest up to the city wall.

Receiving his report, Mu Guiying frowned, not knowing how to choose.

Just at this moment, a signal bullet rose up from within the Zhennan Pass.

Mu Guiying was astonished. She knew this was the signal from the spy, which meant that it was an emergency.

She didn't hesitate, and apart from leaving a cavalry squadron in case, she sent the 4 remaining squadrons through the doorway to the back to cut off the retreat path.

Ouyang Shuo and Mu Lanyue stood at the side and didn't say a word; they trusted her.

The cavalry unit thought that they wouldn't have a part to play in this battle. When they received the order, their blood boiled and rushed out on their horses toward the city gates.

At this moment, the city gate was in a state of chaos, the mountain bandit archers couldn’t shoot outside peacefully and were embroiled in the chaotic battle on the wall. Hence, the cavalry were able to rush to the city gate smoothly.

In this period of time, the 3rd city gate was broken down.

The cavalry unit gave the mountain barbarian warriors a thumbs up as they went past the city gate and continued south to cut off the enemy.

Chapter 245 - Summer Flowers

On the Zhennan Pass city gate tower, as Shi Hu arrived with the reinforcements, the tide of the battle had turned in their favor.

Wang Feng was freed up. He looked around and noticed that the commander of the bandits had disappeared. He shouted, “Your leader had cowardly fled, surrender yourselves!”

The bandits naturally had a weaker willpower than an ordinary military. Even before the casualties reached one-tenth, their morale had started to disappear. As Wang Feng shouted, his words became the last straw that broke the camel’s back.

The bandits turned and looked. Sure enough, their leader was long gone, and their will to resist immediately vanished.

The cowards surrendered instantly; the evildoers ran and fled.

“Chase after them!” Wang Feng gave his order to pursue the ones that fled.

“Understood!” the soldiers received the order, and they went on a pursuit.

From that moment onward, Zhennan Pass had turned into a city of chaos.

One have to say that the measures taken by Wang Feng were much like Ouyang Shuo’s.

In the midst of chaos, the bandit leader led over 20 of his trusted subordinates to try to find their way out. Even in such critical moments, the wicked leader still tried to snatch the little beauty Li Feixue along with him.

The bandit leader arrived at the courtyard. He saw the guards were still there and he was about to enter. The guards were puzzled. Didn’t the leader order the old-leader to be poisoned? Why is he still coming here?

The leader walked into the courtyard only to find it emptied. His voice was taut with anger and he shouted, “Where are they? Where have they gone?”

The guards felt this was odd, so one of them rushed in. His voice trembled, and he said, “Lea..Leader, there was a man not long ago, he came with your orders to poison the old-leader…. and he did not allow anyone to enter the courtyard.”

The bandit leader knew instantly he was caught in a trap. He lashed out at the guard in anger and scolded, “Idiots!” Time was ticking away, but there wasn’t anything he could do. His eyes were filled with hatred as he gave one last look at the courtyard. Then, he turned and ran.

Beauties were precious, but his life was more important.

Sadly, one couldn’t always get what he wanted.

Before the bandit leader and his followers even ran far enough, the cavalry unit had chased up to them.

The captain of the cavalry unit was excited when he saw them. He knew they were a bunch of running human prizes in front of him, so he shouted, “Take them down!”

“Understood!” the cavalry charged and surrounded them.

The bandit leader saw the cavalry. He sighed in helplessness and surrendered without putting up a fight.

By 3:30 PM, peace was once again restored to Zhennan Pass.

Ouyang Shuo kept his hands off the after-battle matters, such as the handling of resources and captives. Those were all handed to Mulan Yue and Mu Guiying. As he had stated earlier, Shanhai County was only here as a helper and nothing more. It would not participate in the distribution of loot.

Ouyang Shuo did not even plan to take back the scaling ladders and acruballistas. He intended to give them away to Mulan Yue. Five arcuballistas would be stationed in Zhennan Pass to improve its defensive capability.

According to Mu Guiying’s arrangement, a unit of soldiers would be stationed in Zhennan Pass during the early stages. The numbers weren’t big, but it was significant enough for Mulan County.

The military of Shanhai County pulled out from Zhennan Pass under Ouyang Shuo’s order and gathered outside.

After counting, 50 soldiers from Guards regiment were gone forever in the battle, most of them died from the stones during the siege. Because the 1st regiment’s 1st unit did not participate in the intensive battle, only 5 soldiers were lost.

Ouyang Shuo ordered the soldiers to take good care of their fallen comrades, as their dead bodies would be brought back to Shanhai County’s cemetery to be buried.

“Brother Wuyi, let’s go in together!” Mulan Yue hopped toward Ouyang Shuo with a bright smile.

Ouyang Shuo was stunned, he did not plan to enter at all. In fact, he was ready to depart back to Shanhai County. He asked, “Yueyue, is there anything?” Do not underestimate Mulan Yue as a teenager, after over half a year of her journey as a lord, her mentality had matured. If she were to hold Ouyang Shuo back, there must be a reason behind it.

“Brother Wuyi, just come!” The inwardly evil little girl did not explain. Instead, she pulled on Ouyang Shuo’s sleeve and dragged him into Zhennan Pass. Ouyang Shuo could only smile bitterly and follow her.

Zhennan Pass, Council Chamber.

In the middle of the hall sat tens of boxes. The father and daughter, Li Anbai and Li Feixue were also there. Li Anbai’s face were pale, and he seemed like he was going to exhale his last breath at anytime. Tears rolled down Li Feixue’s cheeks, as she looked at her father.

Mulan Yue dragged Ouyang Shuo and sat him beside her in the council chamber.

Mu Guiying sat down. She cupped her fists and said, “Reporting to the lord, we have a total of 2,140 captured prisoners, and plundered a massive quantity of resources and weaponry. The most precious loot are these 12 boxes of treasures. I have roughly counted them. Among the 12, 2 boxes contain gold, 8 boxes contain silver, and 2 boxes have jewelry.”

The resources in Zhennan Pass were massive and abundant, ranging from basic needs such as foods and forages to the defensive materials like burning oils, stones and wood. They also had military goods like bows, swords, and armor.

Other than that, there were also a variety of jewelry, gold, and silver.

Some of these treasures had long existed in Zhennan Pass; others were brought along by Li Anbai after he occupied Zhennan Pass; the rest were plundered by the bandits from the caravans that passed by.

These treasures were the reason Mulan Yue had dragged Ouyang Shuo here, to discuss the distribution of the 12 boxes of treasures. In her heart, she was crystal clear that elite troops of Shanhai County were the foremost contributors in the battle taking down Zhennan Pass.

Although Ouyang Shuo declared long ago to give up the distribution of loot, Mulan Yue still couldn’t allow herself to swallow all of the loot. Mu Guiying also agreed with her in this matter.

Ouyang Shuo was astonished. The treasures in Zhennan Pass even surpassed those of the Er'Shi Ridge stronghold. Honestly speaking, if one said that he was not moved by the treasures at all, one would be lying. Even so, the treasures were only icing on the cake to Ouyang Shuo. On the other hand, it would mean baskets of charcoal in snowy weather to the Mulan County that was under rapid development.

“Brother Wuyi, the gold and jewelry will be yours to take, how is that?”

Her distribution plan looked exaggerated, but it was reasonably fair. The value of the resources she had plundered from Zhennan Pass was way greater than only 2 boxes of gold, especially the various weaponry.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head in determination. He fondly looked at Mulan Yue and said firmly, “Yueyue, there is no need for this. How about this, I will take 1 box of gold, and the rest belongs to you.”

Mulan Yue was about to voice something, but Ouyang Shuo raised his hands and stopped her words in her mouth, “This shall be it.”

“Alright, thank you brother Wuyi!” Mulan Yue rolled her eyes and accepted his decision with a smile.

After they settled the distribution plan, Ouyang Shuo rose and was about to leave.

“Cough, cough….” Li Anbai faked a cough, reminding them of his existence.

“Is there anything, old leader?” Mu Guiying asked.

Even simply nodding his head required great effort, and his voice was hoarse as he spoke. “I am dying; there is not much time left for this old man anymore. The only worry I have left is my lovely little daughter. I beg for the general and the two great lords to take good care of her.”

Mu Guiying turned to Mulan Yue, waiting for her call.

Mulan Yue said in a cute voice, “This won’t be a problem. Little sister Feixue is so cute and innocent. She will definitely not be bullied in Mulan County. May the old leader be at ease.”

Ouyang Shuo shook his head in amusement. He didn’t know that Mulan Yue was like him, having the hobby to adopt little sisters.

“If that is the case, I am thankful.” After Mulan Yue gave her promise, Li Anbai was finally at ease.

When he saw that everything was settled, Ouyang Shuo rose to leave.

Before he left, Mulan Yue gave Ouyang Shuo a token.

“What’s this?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Mulan Yue mysteriously smile. “This was found when Sister Mu was searching the secret chamber in Zhennan Pass, have a look.”

Ouyang Shuo took the token and had a look. At that moment, his jaws almost fell off.

[Token of Territory Merging] (3/3) : After use, subordinate village creation token can be used to merge existing territory, saving the need to build everything from scratch.

Needless to say, [Token of Territory Merging] solved the biggest problem that was troubling Ouyang Shuo. He could actually extract subordinate village creation tokens from Qiushui, Beihai, or Friendship County, then merge them with an existing territory such as Tianfeng County, restoring the potential of these territories.

“Yueyue, do you know the value of this token?” His tone was solemn and serious.

Such a token defied nature. If it were placed on the auction platform, it would be the tossed stone that raised a thousand ripples.

She seemed to be unconscious of the value of the token, as she laughed as usual. “I am well aware of it. But, in my opinion, Brother Wuyi you need it more than I do. And only you can maximize the full potential of this token.” News regarding Ouyang Shuo’s success in capturing 5 territories had reached the lords of Shanhai Alliance, which naturally included Mulan Yue.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. All of a sudden, he held out his hand and patted her head. Then, he smiled and said, “Well then, I will take this token.” He did not speak of any repayments, as he openly received the gift. The relationship between the two suddenly became closer, while the estrangements disappeared, and they became much like a true brother and sister pair.

Her smile bloomed and resplendent like a summer flower, which warmed the hearts of those around them.

When Ouyang Shuo returned to Shanhai County, he dispersed the military and turned into his office alone.

The [Token of Territory Merging] could be used 3 times. That meant 3 village creation tokens. Matters regarding on how to use, when to use, and which 3 to use would depend on Ouyang Shuo’s future plan for the territory and his own jurisdiction.

The first that crossed his mind was Beihai County. As a harbor city, Beihai County should not scatter its attention. Furthermore, the surroundings of Beihai County were nothing but a long narrow coastline. It was simply unsuitable to expand its territory.

Therefore, the 3 black-iron level village creation token from Beihai County could be freed out and taken by Ouyang Shuo.

Secondly, he had to consider which subordinate territory he would merge the tokens with. Out of the 5 subordinate territories, Gushan County was an autonomous city by the mountain barbarians, so it could be taken off the list. Gushan County was purposed to attract populations from the tribes of mountain barbarians in the woods. The rate of population growth would not be lower than the other subordinate territories, so it didn’t require the system migrants.

Of the rest of the 4 subordinate territories, Tianfeng County was a must. The only problem was whether Ouyang Shuo should use a token on Yishui, Yongye, or Guangshui County.

In his plans, he has no intention to spend all 3 chances at once. He would need to save up at least 1 token for Ba Dao’s Broken Blade County. He couldn’t claim it yet, but it would be his in the future.

As the eastern central city of Ouyang Shuo’s plan, he naturally would not allow its potential to get wasted.

In the end, Ouyang Shuo decided to merge Tianfeng County and Yishui County.

Chapter 246 - The King’s Path

Gaia First Year October 12th.

Ouyang Shuo led his guards and arrived at Beihai City. It had been half a year ever since the establishment of Beihai City and this was the first time Ouyang Shuo had visited it.

The skiff sailed through the canyon, twisting and turning along the way but still moving toward its destination steadily. He raised his head and all he could see were the cold stones and hard rocks which were partially tinted dark green by moss. The atmosphere around was dead and dull; he looked straight up. The steep cliffs took up half of his sights, forming a blue skyline in between.

The gushing torrents of the river washed its anger onto the stone cliff walls, sounds of water rippling could be heard as the water splashed onto the hard cold rocks and splattered around in all directions.

A sudden sharp turn was made, and an upright skyline rose above from the ground all the way up as it joined the blue bright sky. As the little skiff sailed through the breathtaking skyline, the view became open and clear. The sky was high and the land was wide, shimmering warm sunlight shone down to the earth. The thick white-line of coast could be seen from afar, thundering sounds could be heard as the waves rumbled in the sea. A couple of seabirds flew across the skies bringing an immense feel of liveliness.

The narrow and the wide, life and death, so abrupt yet harmonious, they all existed side by side. Ouyang Shuo was astonished as he looked at all these great creations of mother nature.

At a riverside next to the sea, a majestic city stood in between the heaven and earth; its existence within this land subdued every living being in the area.

The city magistrate Gu Xiuwen and the commander of the Beihai navy Pei Donglai, along with their trusted subordinates were waiting at the dock for Ouyang Shuo’s arrival.

The skiff slowly reached the dock, and Ouyang Shuo walked down of the skiff under his guards’ protection.

“Greetings to the lord!” The officials bowed and greeted Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, “All of you are the humerus and backbone of Beihai City. Beihai City could not possibly be what it is now today without any one of you. Your hard work and contributions are much appreciated. Today, I am not here to show off what I have achieved, so you may be dismissed!”

“Understood!” The officials dared not delay, and they all dispersed. Only Gu Xiuwen and Pei Donglai stayed back.

Ouyang Shuo wasn’t in a hurry to enter the city. He smiled and said to the two, “So, let’s take a walk!”

In actual fact, even Gu Xiuwen and Pei Donglai knew little of the purpose behind why Ouyang Shuo visited Beihai City.

The night before, the two had received an emergency mail from secretary Lang Bainan. In the letter, it was stated that the lord would pay Beihai City a visit, but it did not clarify the reason behind the sudden visit.

Naturally, the two wouldn’t decline their lord’s request, so they answered in unison, “Yes!”

The group of three walked toward the beach, while the guards kept a distance away from them and watched over their safety closely.

While they walked slowly around, Ouyang Shuo turned and looked at Gu Xiuwen, “Xiuwen, how is Beihai City doing lately?”

Ever since he had occupied Tianfeng and the other 4 cities, Ouyang Shuo had abolished the need for the heads of subordinate territories to personally report to Ouyang Shuo in the main city on a monthly basis. He had changed the debriefing report to once every half a year.

Therefore, it was quite some time since Ouyang Shuo had met Gu Xiuwen, his trusted right-hand man.

Gu Xiuwen was startled for a moment. Then, he bowed and said, “Reporting to the lord…”

“Ey,” Ouyang Shuo waved his hand. “This isn’t the imperial court, Xiuwen can skip the formality.” This was also the reason why Ouyang Shuo did not rush to the magistrate office; he didn’t want things to get too solemn.

Gu Xiuwen nodded and he started to report to Ouyang Shuo in a casual manner the main points and issues of Beihai City.

During the last military and governance meeting, Ouyang Shuo had proposed a plan that they would have to diversify their industries. After the meeting, the clerk office had organized the proposal into an official document and sent them to the subsidiary territories.

The heads of the secondary territories knew exactly what Ouyang Shuo meant. They started to figure out ways to diversify and also develop their unique industrial planning.

In this matter, Beihai City was placed in a bad position. As the saying went, ‘Those living on a mountain live off the mountain, those living near the water live off the water’. Beihai City was located beside the sea, so it was natural for them to exploit the fisheries and salt industry. But other than that, it was hard for them to develop another new industry. Their industrial structure was very simple.

Needless to say, the salt industry was limited by the beach area by the sea, so it had long reached a bottleneck.

The fisheries were not going so well either. The fishermen had to worry about bad weather and face the threats of the pirates, so the industry itself wasn’t too stable. They could only fish within the area of the navy cruise waters.

An estimation of half a month was needed before Beihai City could be upgraded to a grade 3 city. This was while Qiushui City had caught up to them, and was already a grade 3 city as of last week.

Although the migration of mountain barbarians played a big role in it, Gu Xiuwen was still not convinced. As the first subordinate territory of Shanhai, Gu Xiuwen had always looked at Beihai City as the benchmark and model example of the subordinate territories.

In order to catch up to Qiushui City, Gu Xiuwen had a small discussion with Pei Donglai to launch a military operation to exterminate the pirates. They could capture the fugitives and increase the population of Beihai City at the same time, eliminating the obstacles faced by the fishermen.

Pei Donglai had that idea in mind for a long time, and as he listened to Gu Xiuwen, the two immediately saw eye to eye with each other.

However, after a few defeats, the Black Shark pirates started to retreat. For a long period of time, they stopped sending scout ships over to monitor the movements of Beihai City.

In order to avoid unwanted events from happening, the two requested help from Ouyang Shuo, hoping that he could approve the military operation to exterminate the pirates.

Seeing the two beating around the bush and in the end coming back to the topic of exterminating pirates, Ouyang Shuo laughed and shook his head. “The two of you, stop giving me a two-man comic show. The battles that took place on the land lately have indeed affected the operation to exterminate the pirates. However, along with the fall of Zhennan Pass and Er’Shi Ridge, the battlefield on the land can now enjoy a momentary peace. And that is why I am here today, to discuss with the two of you about the matters regarding the extermination of Black Shark pirates of Moon Island.”

Listening to his words, Gu Xiuwen and Pei Donglai were overjoyed.

As they were talking, they had reached to the beach. The seawater was crystal clear and the beach was clear of rubbish.

In the brick and mortar world, such a clean and spotless beach was long gone. Seeing the paradise-like beach, Ouyang Shuo had a sudden urge to dive deep and immerse himself in the sea. He gazed at it and thoughts flowed in his mind. He could bring Bing’er here for a vacation in the future.

“Xiuwen!” Ouyang Shuo called.

“Here!”

“Do me a favor. Build a wooden hut near the beach. Next time, I will bring Bing’er here for a vacation, and we will stay in the hut,” Ouyang Shuo instructed.

Although he was the great lord of Shanhai, he did not want to be tied by the endless void of military and governing affairs. When it was time to relax and enjoy, he would not hesitate at all to do so.

“Understood!” Gu Xiuwen took the words into his heart. He’d decided that he would build and embellish it into the best wooden hut ever, so that his lord and the third young lady could enjoy the most comfortable living environment.

“Alright, let’s head back to the magistrate office.” After he visually fed his eyes with all the breathtaking views, Ouyang Shuo had decided to return to the city.

Beihai City, Council Chamber.

As Ouyang Shuo whispered for the heartstone in his heart, the crystal-white heartstone heard his call and slowly rose above the ground. On the face of the heartstone, three glimmering ancient Chinese words that spelled Beihai City were written.

He placed his right hand on the face of the heartstone and whispered “Subordinate village.” Then, the system prompt rang in his ears.

“System Notification: Beihai City belongs to a grade 2 city, possess 3 village creation tokens, do you wish to use one?”

“Yes!”

“System Notice: Village creation token of Beihai City is silver-level, village creation token of subordinate territories will automatically be reduced by one level into the black-iron level, do you wish to extract?”

“Extract!”

Three black lights flashed on the crystal-white heartstone, slowly congealing and falling into the hands of Ouyang Shuo, turning into 3 black-iron level village creation tokens. Then, Ouyang Shuo took a look at the properties.

Name: Village Creation Token (Black-iron)

Features: 25% increase in attracting immigrants; 10% increase in attracting special talents; 25% increase in crop production; 10% increase in skilled worker productivity; 10% increase in military promotion.

Evaluation: An unique item, cannot be dropped, untradeable.

The properties of a black-iron level village creation token was only half of a gold’s. The quality was a lot lower. But Ouyang Shuo didn’t mind at all. He kept the 3 tokens in his storage bag, as even a black-iron level village creation token was better than none.

“Is the lord going to establish new subordinate territories?” Gu Xiuwen, who was standing to the side, asked.

Only then Ouyang Shuo did remember that he had not explained matters regarding the [Token of Territory Merging] to Gu Xiuwen, so a slight sense of embarrassment lurked in his heart. He could recall that Gu Xiuwen had not only once but twice requested for permission for Beihai City to establish new subordinate territories, but he declined all of them.

“Xiuwen, there is something I need to tell you.” Ouyang Shuo pondered for a moment before he continued on. “Beihai City need to focus on its main base; the top priority is to develop itself, so there is no need for the later subordinate territories. I have other plans for these 3 village creation tokens.”

Gu Xiuwen was stunned. His face paled, and he looked like a strangled person. He thought that Ouyang Shuo was only doing this because Ouyang Shuo was unsatisfied with Beihai City’s current development.

“I am sorry, I have failed to reach the expectations of my lord. Please punish me!” Gu Xiuwen was half-kneeling down onto the ground, and said in panic and fear.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. This was the bad thing about scholars; they liked to brainstorm and too many thoughts flowed in their minds. Sometimes, they would blindly overthink situations. If it were Zhao Dexian or Zhao Dewang, they would not be like this and would just ask directly for the reason.

“Get up, do not misunderstand the situation. I am not doing this because I am dissatisfied with your performance. This is nothing but the official arrangements done in accordance to the future planning of the territory. Beihai City stands beside the sea, so it is only naturally for it to center the developments around itself. This is the only right way for Beihai City.” Ouyang Shuo had to explain it nicely. To leave any ill feelings or creating barriers between him and his trusted subordinate was something he did not like to see.

“Understood!” Gu Xiuwen was feeling more relieved; his heart finally at ease.

He couldn’t be blamed for being so anxious. The fact that Beihai City was superseded by Qiushui City made the competitive Gu Xiuwen feel unpleasant. It had caused him to feel a little jittery and panicked lately.

Ouyang Shuo also noticed that Gu Xiuwen was now in an emotionally imbalanced state. But matters like these were hard for an outside person to comfort. The more one comforted, the worse the unpleasantness might grow. The only way was to allow Gu Xiuwen to self-regulate and calm the waves in his sea of emotions.

As the lord, Ouyang Shuo couldn’t favor any one side, be it Qiushui, Beihai, or even Friendship City. Both the palm and the back of his hand were his own flesh, so any good news or developments of the three cities were worth celebrating.

As long as the competitions between the cities were kept within limits and stayed as healthy competition, Ouyang Shuo would not intervene. But if any one of the cities crossed the line, Ouyang Shuo would not hold back his fists; he would severely punish the personnel in charge and show no mercy.

As the subordinate territories increased in numbers and strength, it would be a profound art to balance the relations, resources, and arrangements between the subordinate territories.

That was why Ouyang Shuo was hurrying the construction of Tian Hai Road, to strengthen his control over the subordinate territories so that they would not grow out of his control.

In this regard, Ouyang Shuo was still immature, and he could only take things step by step with great caution, slowly and steadily teaching himself how to do it.

In actual fact, Ouyang Shuo needed a teacher, a mentor who could teach and enlighten him on the the righteous way of a king’s path. Even Fan Zhongyan and Tian Wenjing were quite clueless in this aspect.

Chapter 247 - Navy

After he left the magistrate office, he went straight to the Beihai Port under the guidance of Pei Donglai.

Beihai Port was a mixed port located at the southeast corner of Beihai City. Half of it belonged to the civilian fishing port, and the other was the military navy port. It was also the station point of Beihai Navy fleet. The previously shifted advanced shipyard was relocated to Beihai Port.

As he walked into the navy port, he asked Pei Donglai to invite the shipyard advisor Elder Sun and manager Zhou Dahai over to discuss matters regarding the expansion of Beihai Navy fleet.

Naval Port, Council Chamber.

Ouyang Shuo sat on the floor, and he looked around before he said anything, “Long ago, I had decided to expand the scale of the navy fleet, a strategy aimed to dominate over the ocean. During these periods of time, the territory had built an advanced shipyard and the Beihai Port, established a fleet of navy sailors, crafted our primary warships—Meng Chong warships, everything was seemingly fine. But what was happening? We couldn’t even take down a small island, couldn’t exterminate a small group of pirates, why is that so?”

His question was so sharp that it stagnated the atmosphere.

“General Pei, you are the navy commander, so tell us your opinion.” Ouyang Shuo started naming people.

Pei Donglai knew he needed to give something with actual content. He rose, first bowed and greeted Ouyang Shuo, then he said, “Reporting to the marquis, if we were to point out excuses, I could name quite a few of them. For example, the lack in troops, the lack of combat experience and the unfamiliarity of the surrounding waters. But these were not the main causes. The navy fleet can overcome these obstacles if we desire it. The crux of the problem lies within the lack of variety of warships. There is only a single kind of warship in the territory. We couldn’t organize a large-scale naval battle.”

Pei Donglai’s points brightened Ouyang Shuo’s eyes, “Continue.”

As a former navy general of the imperial court, Pei Donglai was very experienced in naval battles. He had a clearer idea than anyone else on the problems that lay within the Beihai Navy fleet.

Pei Donglai tidied up his thoughts in his mind, as the thoughts were sorted out, he continued, “To form a complete organizational structured navy fleet, we need at least 3 varieties of warships. The first will be the command ships—Tower warships, they’re the primary warships, and they also carry the logistical support of the naval fleet. Only then comes the second kind, the attack warships—Meng Chong warship, their defense capabilities are weaker than the tower warships. The weak point is that they can’t individually engage in a naval battle far away from the home-base as they can only carry a limited amount of logistical resources. Lastly, the third kind will be the scout warships—Chima boats. They are small, light, fast, and easy to hide.”

“Only with reasonable coordination between the 3 variety of warships can we exploit our full potential in a naval battle. The organization structure of the navy fleet shall not be the replica of the ground forces. Instead, the navy fleet will be grouped into units of fleets. In a unit of fleet consists of not only soldiers but must also be separately equipped with sailors. Beihai navy fleet is now only equipped with Meng Chong warships. Therefore, we will be facing great risk if we were to sail across the sea and attack Moon Island.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded as he understood the crux of the problem, he was taking it too lightly before.

Among the 3 warships, the small scout warships were not much of a concern. The main issue would be the large command warships—Tower warships.

To build the tower warships, they had to face two obstacles. The first was to acquire the and the second was to build a premium shipyard. The advanced shipyard he had now could only manufacture mid-sized warships.

The biggest obstacle to upgrading the shipyard into the premium level was cleared off as Zheng Dahai was already a master shipbuilder. The only thing Ouyang Shuo needed to do was to spend 5000 gold on the premium shipyard building blueprint.

The main key was still the . It belonged to the special class, and one could only pray one could lay hands on such a rare item. Ouyang Shuo could hope that it would appear in the next system auction. However, the distant waters could not quench his present thirst. The aid would be coming in too slow to be of any help.

Ouyang Shuo turned and looked at Zheng Dahai. “Is there anything to report about the shipyard?”

Zheng Dahai rose, bowed, and said, “Reporting to the marquis, the shipyard has stopped manufacturing Meng Chong warships and is now only producing fishing boats.”

“Why is that so?”

“It was because the demand for Meng Chong warships had been fulfilled. Other than those that were delivered to the Beihai Navy fleet and the Xila lake navy unit, there are still 20 extra Meng Chong warships docked in the port. We barely fit them in.”

Ouyang Shuo was stunned since when did the shipyard had such a high efficiency? They mustn’t be underestimated. Ouyang Shuo asked, “What are the levels of the shipbuilders in the shipyard?”

A proud look came onto his face as Zheng Dahai answered Ouyang Shuo’s question with a bright smile. “Reporting to the marquis, after half a year of cultivation, the shipyard now has a total of 870 shipbuilders. Among them is 1 master, 12 advanced, 54 intermediate, 228 basic, and 575 apprentice-level shipbuilders.” To nurture such a big team truly wasn’t easy.

“Not bad.” Ouyang Shuo nodded with approval.

At last, Ouyang Shuo turned to Elder Sun and asked, “Elder Sun, how’s the transformation of the warships going on?”

Other than his usual research job in Research Institute No.7, Elder Sun had spent most of his time in the shipyard. Sun Xiaoyue had grumbled to Ouyang Shuo over this matter, saying that Ouyang Shuo was oppressing and exploiting the last residual value out of her grandfather.

Ouyang Shuo could only answer her with a wry smile.

The truth was, ever since entering the game, the elders were lifted off the from restraints of the real world. Each and every one of them was filled with spirit and endless energy. Ouyang Shuo couldn’t even slow them down.

Elder Sun, with his face filled with enthusiasm and his voice loud and clear, shook his head and said, “Just as General Pei had described, the types of warships are too few. There were a lot of technology transformations that couldn’t be used. Specifically, on Meng Chong warship, we had equipped it with a compass, upgraded the sails. At the same time, I have plans to enhance the ship’s structure with inner metal plates, fitting them with naval rams to increase the impact damage capability of the Meng Chong warships.”

He continued. “The most important research of all is the watertight bulkhead technology. With this technology we can increase the drafting of water. Otherwise, it will be useless to install the metal plates if the water draft can’t follow up.”

Ouyang Shuo was overjoyed. He didn’t expect Elder Sun to implement so many upgrades in such a short period.

“Elder Sun is too humble, such transformations are worth more than tens of thousands of gold.” Ouyang Shuo said as he smiled.

Elder Sun waved his hands. “Ouyang, you don’t have to apple-polish me.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. He turned and looked at the others again, especially Pei Donglai, then he said, “Leave the matters regarding the tower warships to me. This is not something that can be done overnight. It will not be able to take part in the extermination of pirates on Moon Island. We can only rely on the Meng Chong warships. About the naval battle, I will personally partake in it and take charge of the logistical support. General Pei, you will need to take in considerations and draft a plan to ensure the smoothness of the naval battle.”

“Understood!” Pei Donglai answered, and he felt immense responsibility placed on his shoulder.

During the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo returned to Shanhai City.

The moment he arrived back home, a concierge came running. “Reporting to the marquis, important guests came. The madam has asked marquis to make way to the garden in the backyard once the marquis has returned.” The ‘madam’ the concierge referred to was naturally Song Jia.

Ouyang Shuo was startled for a moment, if the guests were taken in by Song Jia, then they must have been friends of Ouyang Shuo and Song Jia.

Ever since the founding of Dongli Sword Sect, there was a continuity of schoolmates that came attracted by the name. Especially after Song Jia’s identity was revealed on the forums, the players came like an endless stream.

A large portion of the people who came were attended to by Song Jia, with Ouyang Shuo not even appearing. Since Song Jia had specially asked him to appear, it meant that this person must have been a classmate and one which he had a good relationship with.

Ouyang Shuo walked into the backyard, and he as saw Zi Su, he asked, “Who are the guests?”

Zi Su first greeted Ouyang Shuo, then answered, “Reporting to the marquis, according to the madam, they are your schoolmates, 2 females.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. He had an idea of who they were, so he waved his hand and said, “Alright, you can get back to work.”

“Understood!” Zi Su left after replying to Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo walked past the backyard into the garden. From far away he could hear the chit chats and laughter of the ladies.

“Wuyi, over here!” Song Jia’s eyes were sharp as she noticed Ouyang Shuo immediately.

In the middle of the garden stood a gazebo, in it sat 3 ladies. Other than Song Jia, the others also dressed in outfits of chivalrous experts. As they heard Song Jia calling Ouyang Shuo, they turned around and gazed at him.

“Woah, it is Ouyang Shuo, wuwu~,” the lady who was slightly fatter said. She had more of an elegant demeanor than her other friend who was tiny and cute, but even though her friend was quiet, she still couldn’t hide the surprise in her eyes.

Ouyang Shuo wasn’t too sure before, but he could recognize the two now. He walked towards them while he smiled and said, “Well well, and I thought who are the important guests. So, it’s the two beauties, welcome!”

That’s right. They were the two ladies who accompanied Ouyang Shuo during the student gathering, Tan Xiaoli and Meng Feifei.

The two ladies were stunned, disbelieving the truth.

Ouyang Shuo helplessly shook his head and sat down beside Song Jia.

Song Jia obediently poured a cup of tea for Ouyang Shuo and asked, “Wuyi, how was the trip?” Song Jia knew Ouyang Shuo went over to Beihai City for an inspection.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, not wanting to elaborate too much. He raised his head and looked at his two friends, and said self-deprecatingly, “What? Am I a monster? Why are you two looking me like this?”

“You are a monster!” Song Jia made a joke.

Tan Xiaoli and Meng Feifei nodded together in agreement.

“Old friends, I have never thought that we would meet each other again,” Ouyang Shuo said with deep feelings.

Speaking of deep feelings, Tan Xiaoli and Meng Feifei should be the one with deeper feelings. Before coming to Shanhai City, they knew nothing of Ouyang Shuo’s identity; they were only here for Song Jia.

But after they arrived, Song Jia told them the true identity of Ouyang Shuo, and for a moment it was truly hard to believe.

“Hmph, not bad, snatching away the class flower secretly.” Tan Xiaoli was a big-hearted lady. She was the first to accept the truth, and she jokingly said, “We were still thinking, who is this Qiyue Wuyi, what charm does he have to capture the love of our class flower? Who knew that man was one of us.”

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, as the friendships between old classmates were not that simple. No one would know what was the true intention of her words. How much of it was pure and innocent intentions, or was she just secretly sweet-talking to Song Jia?

But Ouyang Shuo didn’t care too much, he let his thoughts drift away and had a casual talk with the two.

Chapter 248 - Rattlesnake

The arrival of Tan Xiaoli and Meng Feifei was only a little spindrift in the ocean in the life of the great lord of Shanhai.

With the identity and status he had now, Ouyang Shuo need not entertain the others. He acted and moved according to his own will; every decision made was well-directed without the slightest distractions from external elements.

The Dongli Sword Sect was given to Song Jia with full authority, so Ouyang Shuo would not intervene in it. He believed that Song Jia had the ability to handle matters well.

On the second day, the cousin brother of Cui Yingyu, Cui Shouren, sent Ouyang Shuo a parcel of gratitude. Based on Ouyang Shuo’s conjecture, the Cui Chamber of Commerce had made a fortune during the food crisis.

The Cui Chamber of Commerce was grateful for Ouyang Shuo’s help, and was thinking of ways to repay the debt. As gold and silver were too common as reparations, they had prepared a special gift.

Ouyang Shuo opened the parcel; a book laid quietly in it. He picked it up and inspected the properties of the book.

: After use, grants the user the knowledge of pearls cultivation technology.

According to the historical studies, the ancient Chinese pearls cultivation technology had started to embark during the Song Dynasty. As time flowed, the pearls cultivation technology was nearly fully matured during the late Ming Dynasty, and it held a certain economic value.

The raw materials were mainly the ‘Tridacnidae’ or more commonly known as the giant clam. However, ordinary calms could be used too. The pearls cultivation technology was relatively simple, the pearls’ cultivating cycle ranged from months to a year.

Ouyang Shuo was still thinking on how to develop Xila lake, and this gift was just the timely aid he needed. If the cultivation of pearls were implemented on a large scale in Xila lake, it would then turn into another industry with a bright future.

Ouyang Shuo called over Yingyu to explain his plan for the cultivation of pearls. According to Ouyang Shuo, the cultured pearls would be placed under the jurisdiction of the Industry Division of Finance Department, while Tian Feng City would be in charge of the cultivating operations. Ouyang Shuo would assign 1000 gold to support the establishment of the cultured pearls industry.

Cui Yingyu was in joy after listening.

After the discussion, Ouyang Shuo called over the secretary Bai Nanpu and handed over a black-iron village creation token, the , and 1000 gold to him. Bai Nanpu was instructed to deliver the items through official couriers to the Tian Feng City. The city magistrate, Zhao Dewang, would then take over and be in charge of matters.

The village creation token he handed to Bai Nanpu had been merged with the [Token of Territory Merging], so it could be directly used without Ouyang Shuo having to present himself on the spot.

As the 3 black-iron village creation tokens were merged with the [Token of Territory Merging], the token had disappeared into thin air in a flash of white light.

Along with the items was attached a letter handwritten by Ouyang Shuo. In the letter, Ouyang Shuo explained his plan of the pearl cultivation industry, and he instructed Zhao Dewang to revive the potential of Tian Feng City with the token. After the revival of the city, the refugees spawned would have to be sent to work on the cultivation of pearls. It was purposed to develop it as the core industry of Tian Feng City.

Other than that, Ouyang Shuo did not forget to send Yishui City a village creation token. As the cousin brother of Cui Yingyu, Cui Shousi had been sent there to act as the city magistrate. Ouyang Shuo believed that he could decently maximize the use of the token.

As for the last village creation token, Ouyang Shuo kept it in his storage bag, leaving it for another use.

After everything was settled, Ouyang Shuo went over to the relay station and sent his little aunt 5000 gold, and he requested her to purchase a premium shipyard building blueprint. In the letter to his little aunt, he also stated that he would like to ask her to put up a bridge and contact the Rattlesnake mercenary group, as there wassome cooperation he would like to discuss about.

The Rattlesnake mercenary group, although not listed in the top ten list of mercenary groups, were still very famous as they were true mercenaries in the real world.

However, the Rattlesnake mercenary group was still low key, and only a few knew of their background. Thanks to his past life, Ouyang Shuo had some understandings about them.

The cooperation he mentioned was that he would like to hire the members of Rattlesnake as the instructors of Shanhai’s military. Their job would be to help the Shanhai military by providing training to the scouts and special forces.

In regards to this matter, Ouyang Shuo could not work along with Zhan Lang, who was supported by the military. Hence, his only shot was the mercenaries.

Ouyang Shuo requested his little aunt to act as the middleman. As his little aunt and the Rattlesnakes were all adventurers, they could communicate with each other better. If Ouyang Shuo had approached the Rattlesnake mercenary group in person, it would seem a little odd.

Jian Ye, Base of the Snow-War Rose Mercenary Group

Lin Jing frowned upon receiving Ouyang Shuo’s letter; she mumbled to herself, “What sort of business does this brat have with the Rattlesnake mercenary group, how did he come by this name?!”

“Jingjing, what are you mumbling about?” Xie Siyun who was beside her asked.

Lin Jing raised her head and said awkwardly, “Siyun, do you have any contacts with the Rattlesnake mercenary group?”

“The Rattlesnakes?” Xie Siyun frowned. “From what I know, they’re also based are in Jian Ye. I had seen their leader once, Black Mamba, during the gathering of heads of Jian Ye. I heard that they’re keeping an unusually low profile, why do you ask?”

“Little Ouyang Shuo wants us to put up a bridge between him and the Black Mamba. It seems like he have intentions to cooperate with the Rattlesnakes, but he had not specified what.”

“Cooperation?” Xie Siyun lowered her head and pondered. She said slowly as she recalled, “From the clues and trails, the Rattlesnakes should be a fixed group in the real world; they don’t take in new members and remain around 500-600 in number, not even the size of a medium guild.”

As the president of the Jian Ye Overlord guild, Xie Siyun was familiar with each and every guild in the city, but there was an exception. She only knew a little about the Rattlesnake mercenary group.

Xie Siyun shook her head and also shaking her thoughts away, she said with a wry smile. “What a mysterious nephew you have, thousands of miles away and yet he is still so familiar with the mercenaries in Jian Ye. Since he mentioned it, he must have his own reasons. Alright, I will contact the leader Black Mamba and see what does he has to say.”

“Alright.” Although Lin Jing grumbled about Ouyang Shuo, his requests weren’t taken lightly.

The base of Rattlesnake mercenary group was situated in a humble courtyard in the city of Jian Ye. If Snow-War Rose wasn’t a large party in the city, they might’ve not been able to find it at all.

Xie Siyun and Lin Jing had decided to personally visit the Rattlesnakes.

“Who are you?” The guard were alert.

In a situation like this, it was always handled by Xie Siyun. She answered their doubts with a smile. “We are from the Snow-War Rose; we have something for your leader. Please pass the words.”

To the adventure players in Jian Ye, how could they not know the name of Snow-War Rose? The guard of course knew who they were. His heart skipped for a beat, but he remained calm on the surface, “This way please!”

Xie Siyun and Lin Jing glanced at each other, both of their eyes filled with surprise. The quality of the members of Rattlesnakes were so high. Even an ordinary guard was so calm and steady; the Rattlesnakes were deeply hidden, and must not be underestimated.

Xie Siyun was even more surprised. There exists such an elite mercenary group in Jian Ye and yet she was clueless about it. It seemed like she had to reevaluate the Rattlesnake mercenary groups.

It was also one of the reasons why Ouyang Shuo requested Lin Jing to act as middleman. Other than the fact adventurers communicate better with their own, he also wanted to tell them that the Rattlesnake mercenary group was not as simple as they thought it was.

The mercenary Rattlesnakes’ main businesses were assassination contract, kidnap, assault and any other requests by their employer. They were a bunch of dangerous men.

The guard led the two ladies into the meeting room, and he said, “Please wait for a moment, I will now report to the leader.”

Xie Siyun nodded and answered, “Thank you.”

A short moment later, laughter came from outside of the meeting room. The man wasn’t there but the sound had reached them.

“Haha, guests of importance, welcome welcome!” The sound was like the bright and sunny sun, clear of gloomy dark atmospheres, warming the hearts of those around.

A man walked into the meeting room. He was dark-skinned, had a strong physique, was tall and buff with an army of hair, giving off an aura of masculinity.

Xie Siyun and Lin Jing stood up, their hearts filled with doubts. The black mamba snake was venomous and insidious, but the man who stood before them was nowhere close to that even though he carried the name of Black Mamba.

“We are sorry for the sudden visit.” Xie Siyun said.

Black Mamba nodded. He sat down, smiled and said, “It is an honor for the two great leaders of the Snow-War Rose to pay me a visit.” In actual fact, he was also surprised and curious about the sudden visit.

The two parties had simple greetings and Xie Siyun went straight into the topic, so she said, “We are here today for two reasons. The first is to enhance the relationship between the two mercenary groups, and the second is that we were requested to do so by someone.”

His sights congealed and his aura changed. The warm bright man was no more and the atmosphere was stagnated; it could almost suffocate the weak. Black Mamba was astonished. They kept a low profile but in the end they were still noticed by someone.

“Who is it?” in a solemn voice Black Mamba asked.

Xie Siyun was shocked. Her heart trembled, but she was no ordinary woman either, she stayed calm and said, “Lord of Shanhai City, Lian Zhou Marquis Qiyue Wuyi.”

“What a man of high prestige, no wonder he can instruct the two of you.” Black Mamba gazed carefully at the two ladies. His sights were filled with questions, wanting to know what was the relation between the Snow-War Rose and Shanhai City.

Xie Siyun ignored his wordless questions, and summarized the situation. “Lord Wuyi would like to have cooperation between Shanhai City and the Rattlesnake mercenary group, what do you think?”

“Cooperation? What kind of cooperation?” Black Mamba asked curiously. He felt that the Shanhai lord from thousands of miles away had his eyes on him. This feeling, to be honest, didn’t feel good.

Xie Siyun shook her head. “The details will be discussed between you and the Shanhai lord. But, with his high prestige, he will not say meaningless words.”

Again his sights congealed. Even without Xie Siyun saying so, he would still pay a visit to the legendary lord of the Chinese server. His heart would never rest at ease without knowing who the lord was and what business he had with the Rattlesnakes.

“Alright, Rattlesnake as a mercenary group will naturally not decline business. May the President of the War Rose pass the words to Lian Zhou Marquis, I will am always ready to pay Shanhai City a visit.” Black Mamba reverted back to his usual image of a bright and warm gentleman, and answered like a businessman.

Xie Siyun nodded; she stood up and left with Lin Jing.

Chapter 249 - Special Forces

On October 14, Ouyang Shuo received the premium blueprint and reply letter from his little aunt Lin Jing.

Ouyang Shuo first threw the premium shipyard building blueprint to Bai Nanpu in the office next to his, instructed Bai Nanpu to deliver it to Beihai City, and demanded Beihai City to immediately upgrade the shipyard.

He then returned back to his office and opened the letter.

In the letter, his little aunt Lin Jing said that she had contacted the leader of Rattlesnake mercenary group, Black Mamba, and that he was very interested to see what Ouyang Shuo had to offer when he arrived at Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Sure enough, Shanhai City was now a giant no one could look down on. He immediately wrote a letter to invite Black Mamba over to Shanhai City tomorrow to discuss their cooperation.

Since he still had some free time, he took a trip to the military factory located on the outskirt and retrieved a batch of military grain pills for the upcoming naval battle.

In order to increase their success rate, the shipyard followed Ouyang Shuo’s request and was now upgrading the 25 Meng Chong warships of the Beihai navy fleet with naval rams and inner metal plates.

As for the trump card, it would naturally be the alchemical oil. Ouyang Shuo would very much like to see how the wooden ships of the pirates would perform when faced with the fire arrows of alchemical oil.

The following day, Black Mamba arrived on time and was welcomed by Ouyang Shuo in the hall.

Along with the mercenary leader were two other gentleman. After the introductions, they were Viper and Cobra. Ouyang Shuo knew very well that only the core members of Rattlesnakes could embrace the name of a venomous snake.

While Shanhai City only had Ouyang Shuo who was accompanied by the director of Military Affairs, Director Ge Hongliang.

“What is it that the Lian Zhou Marquis would like seek from the Rattlesnakes?” Black Mamba was straightforward.

Ouyang Shuo understood their doubts and worries. If he didn’t clear them off and they remained wary, the cooperation would never continue on as he planned. Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, “As the saying goes: A straightforward person does not resort to insinuations. I know very well that you are mercenaries in the real world. I am here today, inviting you over with the hope that you can return back to your destined role.”

Black Mamba’s sights congealed, his bad foreboding came true.

In truth, being mercenaries was not a big deal, especially after the occurrence of the interplanet migration, there was simply nothing more to hide. What Black Mamba was wondering was how Ouyang Shuo had found out their identity.

Ouyang Shuo made the conversation clear. He didn’t want both parties to be tangled on their respective identities.

Black Mamba was also an extraordinary man. After Ouyang Shuo had spoken clearly, he stopped hiding and said, “You are indeed worthy of the name of Lian Zhou Marquis. I am now very curious, what kind of cooperation can people like you have with us?”

“Simple.” Ouyang Shuo explained. “I hope the Rattlesnakes can send over a team of instructors and be stationed in Shanhai City. They will assist Shanhai City in training an elite special operation force. How is that?”

His idea was simple. It was to implement the tactics and strategies of modern warfare to the armies of an ancient era. It would be hard and difficult; the idea was whimsical, and it required the help of professionals.

Rattlesnake was one of the best international mercenaries. The elites of the elites. Their combat capability and combat tactics were comparable to the special forces.

Black Mamba was stunned. He was shocked but the whimsical idea of Ouyang Shuo. This was the advantage of a layman. Because he was clueless about the industry, he dared to propose such a mad idea.

Of course, the high understanding of the game played an important role too. From Ouyang Shuo’s point of view, there weren’t so many restraints and rules. While others saw Earth Online as a game, he simply looked at it as the real world.

Ouyang Shuo didn’t find it weird at all implementing modern knowledge in this world of the ancient era. He was completely a pragmatist to the marrow of his bones.

Black Mamba and the others were stuck with the usual set of inertial thinking. In their heads, the game was in the end only a game and it should not be related to the brick and mortar real world. Since the theme of the game was the ancient era, they would play along and adapt themselves to the general affairs of the ancient era.

Ouyang Shuo noticed that a bright white light flashed in the eyes of Viper who was standing behind Black Mamba. It seemed like he was excited by the whimsical idea of Ouyang Shuo.

The members of Rattlesnake mercenary group were all true mercenaries, so there were no need for them to go through special training anymore. Their thoughts and actions would unconsciously drift towards the ways of special forces. Maybe they didn’t realize it either, but the ways of special forces seeped deep through into their bones and had became a part of them.

The idea Ouyang Shuo proposed was a stimulus to the war activists; it was difficult and challenging. But it was in their bones that they feared no challenges, rather, they enjoyed the challenges. The more challenging it was, the more exciting it was as well.

Black Mamba, as the leader of Rattlesnakes, was the perfect lead example. But at the same time, he was also the most sober man. Although his blood-boiled heart pumped in great excitement wanting to comply to Ouyang Shuo’s idea, his cool-headed mind was constantly reminding him to fight for the benefits of the mercenary group.

He suppressed his excitement and became the master of his own emotions. He calmly asked, “The idea Lian Zhou Marquis proposed, it is indeed interesting. But, what are the prices are you willing to pay?”

Ouyang Shuo had well understood the needs of Rattlesnakes. The offering price was something they could not resist.

“I am willing to pay with God-arm Crossbows, with this number.” Ouyang Shuo lifted up 5 fingers.

“50?” Black Mamba was a little unsatisfied.

Just as Ouyang Shuo thought, as the mercenaries, the God-arm Crossbows were the best cold-weapon for them. 50 God-arm Crossbows were close to Black Mamba bottom line expectation.

“No.” Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “500 of them.”

*Hiss.. Even with his immense control over his emotions and remaining calm all the time, he still couldn’t help but to take in a breath of cold-air to calm his heart.

500 God-arm Crossbows, that was sufficient to fully equip the entire Rattlesnake mercenary group. Basing on the current market price, the total value would not be less than 8000 gold, and the supply in the market was unstable too.

“Alright!” Black Mamba slammed on the table as he stood up in excitement. “The Lian Zhou Marquis is truly generous. The Rattlesnakes accepts your terms and the deal is sealed. Rest assured, the best instructors of the Rattlesnakes will be sent over to Shanhai City.” Ouyang Shuo’s generosity earned Black Mamba’s recognition and his approbation towards the cooperation.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. This was exactly what he wanted.

Then next thing they needed to do was to expand further discussions on the details of the cooperation.

The agreements included that the Rattlesnakes would send over 10 core members including Viper and Cobra to station in Shanhai City and assist Shanhai City with training a special forces.

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo invited Black Mamba, Cobra and Viper over to Restaurant Sangu for a banquet.

On the table, Black Mamba raised his cup of Three Flower Wine, smiled and said, “Shanhai City is truly worthy of its name as the World’s First City. It really opened my eyes.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, smiled and said nothing.

After the banquet, Black Mamba returned back to Jian Ye while Viper and Cobra stayed back.

To train a special force, the first thing that needed to be done was to select the appropriate candidates. Only the best of the best could join the training. Needless to say, the first thing that came into Ouyang Shuo’s mind was the Guards regiment. The whole of regiment would be joining the training.

But at the same time, in order to avoid the gossips and unpleasantness from the other units, Ouyang Shuo had decided that all of the 5 regiments from the 1st Legion could recommend a squadron of soldiers to participate in the screening. While the 3 city defense regiments of Shanhai City, Qiushui City and Friendship City could recommend 50 soldiers to the screening.

Other than that, Ouyang Shuo had instructed the spies of the Military Intelligence Division to join in as one of the abilities of the special forces was scouting, and that was exactly what the Military Intelligence Division needed.

After knowing the situation, all 3 heads of Military Intelligence Division had requested to join. The words Ouyang Shuo spurred on them were still ringing in their ears. Now that they had the opportunity to receive specialized training, of course they wouldn’t miss it.

Seeing that the intelligence gathering workload was not as heavy as before, Ouyang Shuo approved their requests.

Therefore, the total number of candidates had reached 3,250 in number. Ouyang Shuo did not set any slots. He would be leaving it to the instructor’s jurisdiction. They would decide who stayed and who left.

After the candidate selection, it would establish a proper specialized training base.

The training camp would be placed in the outskirts. Qiushui City was located beside the woods, so it was a good option. In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo led Viper and Cobra to the southern suburbs of Qiushui City.

Under the professional advice of the two mercenaries, they had chosen a piece of woodland. It was special because it had a pond, making it an ideal source of water. It could also be utilized in certain training programs.

Other than that, there would be another naval training base in Beihai City.

Ouyang Shuo had specially invited Sun Xiaoyue over. Under the suggestions of Viper and Cobra, Sun Xiaoyue drafted the architectural building blueprint, and handed it to the Construction Division.

The training base required many professional equipment and facilities. There were some modern facilities such as high pressure water guns that couldn’t be achieved under the existing condition, so they could only look for alternatives.

To establish a qualified training base and to realize the whimsical plan, Viper and Cobra would have to make use of their specialized knowledge finding alternatives and improvise the existing conditions to meet the required standard of facilities.

Not only that, but the establishment of the base would require the coordination between Construction Division, weapons workshop, woodworking workshops, and the others.

The complexity and importance were to the point that Ouyang Shuo personally asked the master of weaponry, Liu Mo, to slow down the research of Research Institute No.7 and come over to cooperate with the Rattlesnakes in perfecting the training facilities.

For the establishment of the training base, Ouyang Shuo had thrown in all of his resources and funds.

His full support encouraged the enthusiasm of Viper and Cobra. At 4 PM in the afternoon, the other 10 instructors from Rattlesnake arrived, and immediately submerged themselves into the preparation work.

The candidate selection and training base establishment would be synchronized. The candidates recommended by the units would also have to go through a series of internal screenings. Before the completion of training base, Viper and the others would commence a round of physical fitness tests in the western outskirt of Shanhai City. This would also be the first round of screening selections.

Chapter 250 - Recruit Camp

In order to form a special force, other than the need for candidate selection and a training base, there was still one more requirement they needed to meet—the innovation of weaponries.

They would equip the troops with accessories such as canteens1, backpacks, marching boots, first aid kits, and engineering shovels, in addition to the Shanhai City metal-laceration medicines, military grain pills, and military tents. While the main weaponry would consist of armors, Tang Swords, god arm crossbows, and Qingfu horses. There were also plans for the future development of a military knife.

Hence, the formation of a special forces was a comprehensive project. If they succeeded, it would result in an overall enhancement of the Shanhai City military. It would push the military on the fast path of becoming elites.

The idea of an elite route had long lurked in Ouyang Shuo’s mind, but he didn’t implement it before. Now, with the military forces taking up one-tenth of the population, it brought an immense financial burden to the territory.

At the same time, if they had too many manpower join the military, the industry and economy of the territory would stagnate. Ouyang Shuo’s planned to regulate the number of military forces to 1/15 or even 1/20 of the total population.

Gaia, 1st year October, 12th, Western suburb of Shanhai City.

In four days time, the Construction Division had established a temporary military camp for the 3,250 candidates and the instructors.

With Viper as the leader and Cobra as vice leader, the instructor team would commence the first round of screening tests.

The foundation of the specials forces was physical fitness. In modern military screening, the basic physical fitness test included five-kilometers weight-bearing runs, single parallel bars, 400-meters barrier run, push-ups, and many other exercises.

Currently, all these tests were unfamiliar to the soldiers.

Therefore, the instructor team did not commence the screening immediately. Instead, they started a round of adaptive training. They took this opportunity to also get familiar with the physical fitness of the candidates and draft the training programs accordingly.

According to Ouyang Shuo’s request, other than adaptive training, the instructor team would also provide basic foundation training such as military drill formation, emergency assembly, housekeeping, and the other recruit training.

In truth, the temporary military camp actually acted as a recruitment camp.

Ouyang Shuo did not only want to form a special forces. He also wanted to inject the ways of modern military into the marrows of the bones of the Shanhai military. He aimed to enhance and discipline them and also teach them to use more logical scientific knowledge to solve problems.

For this reason, Ouyang Shuo had laid down the military behavior code of conduct long ago. Unfortunately, Ouyang Shuo was only a layman regarding this matter. He couldn’t even practice it himself, so how could he implement it within the military?

The arrival of the instructors acted as an opportunity.

Even if they disqualified the candidates from the list of special forces, these disqualified candidates could still bring along what they had learned in the camp back to their respective units and popularize it.

Under Ouyang Shuo’s command, every regiment needed to at least send a major and five captains to join the training. The training would mainly focus on them, and they would also become the backbone that spread the training across the Shanhai military.

Due to the candidates being the bests of the soldiers, a small discussion between Ouyang Shuo and the instructors took place. They decided that they would set the training period to one month. After one month, the candidates would go through the first round of screening selection.

The day they formed the recruitment camp, Ouyang Shuo personally went to the camp and gave a speech. He emphasized the importance of discipline and requested the soldiers to strictly follow the commands of the instructors. Otherwise, he would see to their punishment according to the military law.

After he settled all these matters, Ouyang Shuo would pour all of his focus into the upcoming Moon Island naval battle.

In between these events, a little interesting incident took place.

Song Jia suddenly returned to the manor to look for Ouyang Shuo. She said, “Wuyi, I want to recommend you a person.”

“Who is it? What person can make our Dongli Sword Sect Leader, Song Jia, personally come down from the mountain?” Ouyang Shuo teased.

Song Jia hammered him and coquettishly said, “Brat Woodsy, I am trying to help you, and you dare to tease me!”

“Alright, alright, alright! Say, who is it?” Ouyang Shuo raised both of his hand in surrender.

“Didn’t Tan Xiaoli and Meng Feifei come the past few days? I took them into the Dongli Sword Sect. After they settled down, they also brought their families into the territory. Guess what? The father of Meng Feifei, Meng Zhida, is not an ordinary man at all. He was part of the senior management team of the Bank of Jiao State. I think he can fill in your urgent need of finance professionals. That’s why I purposely came down the mountain to tell you this,” Song Jia explained.

As the Four Seas Bank expanded from day to day, Ouyang Shuo sought real-world talents to take charge of Four Seas Bank. He wanted to put an end to the rough and primitive operating mode and change toward a more systematic and fine form of management.

The professionals stationed in Shanhai City were all talents in theoretical research and science. None of them were financial experts, and they had no experience in any bank or financial institution.

The Song Family had these sorts of talents, but in order to avoid arousing suspicion, both Song Jia and Ouyang Shuo consciously avoided the topic. They did not think of asking the Song Family to help.

However, as time went by, this matter had become a troubling issue for Ouyang Shuo. Song Jia knew of it very well. Therefore, after she learned of the background of Meng Feifei’s father, she rushed down the mountain without a second delay.

Ouyang Shuo was gratified, he nodded and smiled, “The one that knows me the best is my wife.”

“You are saying random things again.” Song Jia felt a little helpless, but affection filled her eyes. The fact that she could help out Ouyang Shuo made her very happy.

After Song Jia returned to the sword sect, Ouyang Shuo sent someone to invite Meng Zhida over to the Lord’s Manor.

This invitation surprised Meng Zhida. Although he knew that Shanhai’s lord was his daughter’s old schoolmate, the thought of asking for a job had never once crossed his mind. Rather, he had prepared himself to pension off in Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo welcomed Meng Zhida in the hall.

Meng Zhida, 45 years of age, was at the prime time of his life. The long-term work experience at the elite level gave him an unique internal temperament and charismatic personality, a man of calm and passionate, persistent yet elegant.

This was the first time Ouyang Shuo had met Meng Zhida. Immediately, he had a very good impression of the man that stood before him—a financial elite that could command the wind and the clouds in the real world. He smiled and said, “Uncle Meng, have you grown accustomed to life in Shanhai City yet? Forgive me if there was any bad receptions.”

To the players, Ouyang Shuo would not usually put on airs. Not to mention that Meng Zhida was Meng Feifei’s father, an elder of Ouyang Shuo.

Meng Zhida looked at Ouyang Shuo with deep feelings.

The young man that stood before him was of the same age as his daughter, yet their achievements were as far apart as heaven and earth. At such a young age, he climbed up the ladder and made himself the world’s greatest lord without any big background or support. His every action and every move brought about wind and clouds, stirring storms and rains—truly a young overlord. The more commendable factor was that his success did not blind him. He did not turn into an arrogant man. Instead, he remained modest and polite, which was really amazing.

“The reception was great. I still have to thank you for taking care of Feifei.” Meng Zhida smiled.

The two started with casual talk. Other than daily life topics, Ouyang Shuo also asked Meng Zhida for advice regarding economic issues and also the management and operation of the bank.

As they chatted, Ouyang Shuo realized that Meng Zhida was indeed extraordinary. He had his own unique insights regarding economic and financial issues. His words and advice could easily clear away the bafflements in Ouyang Shuo’s head.

Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate anymore. He was determined and said, “I would like to let uncle handle the headquarters of the Four Seas Bank. Are you willing to help me?”

His heart skipped a beat. Although he knew that Ouyang Shuo had the intention to offer him an official’s job, he didn’t expect for Ouyang Shuo to offer him such an important position.

He had not arrived in Shanhai City for long, but his occupational habits gave him some understandings of the Four Seas Bank of Shanhai City. In addition, through the conversation they had and Ouyang Shuo’s seemingly unintentional disclosure, he could see the bigger picture clearer. The Four Seas Bank played an important role within the system of Shanhai City.

For Ouyang Shuo to offer him such an important role during their first meeting, Meng Zhida was at a lost for words. He didn’t know how to evaluate this young overlord. Was he capricious and reckless, or was it simply great confidence? It was hard to tell.

However, in terms of his personal wishes, taking charge of Four Seas Bank was way better than pensioning off in Shanhai City. As an experienced senior banker, the chance to oversee an ancient bank and implement modern ideology into it was very attractive and meaningful.

Not to mention that if he handled the Four Seas Bank well, he could improve his family's living conditions in the game. It could also benefit the evaluation of his achievement values.

Meng Zhida gazed Ouyang Shuo in the eyes, calm and steadily he said, “I am honored to have your trust, and I shall not decline your sincerity.” Then, he stood up, bowed, and greeted, “Greetings to the marquis!”

A simple greet and bow, yet it changed their status forever.

Ouyang Shuo was flustered. He quickly stood up and avoided the bow, as words came out of his mouth, “There isn’t a need for uncle to act like this.”

Meng Zhida shook his head with great determination and said, “Since I have accepted your offer, I am now your subordinate. I must not break the rules and customs.” After he finished these words, he solemnly bowed and greeted Ouyang Shuo again.

Ouyang Shuo was helpless. He could only slant his body and accept Meng Zhida’s bow.

Meng Zhida was the first player to hold such an important position within Shanhai City’s administrative system; it was an history making event. The professional expert group members were only advisors, so they were fundamentally different from Meng Zhida.

Therefore, Meng Zhida clearly knew the impact his appointment as an official would bring to the other players. There was also another reason why he insisted on keeping the customs. He did so in order to protect and maintain the authority of Ouyang Shuo as the Lianzhou Marquis, the lord of Shanhai.

If he relied on his status as Ouyang Shuo’s elder and wantonly sabotaged the rules and customs of officialdom, his colleague and the other officials would surely crowd him out. It would make it difficult for him to integrate into the officials. Hence, in time he would definitely be taken off of his position by Ouyang Shuo even if Ouyang Shuo wasn’t too willing to.

Ouyang Shuo clearly knew the current situation deep down in his heart. Things would not turn and revolve around his personal will.

While he was the one building the bureaucracy system, yet it also bound him. He couldn’t compromise the rules and customs of the officialdom. In short, he couldn’t arbitrarily act on his own free will anymore.

Before, these matters were all hidden in the dark. However, Meng Zhida had now shone a bright light on it and revealed the truth.

However, Ouyang Shuo did not foresee that his appointment of the manager of the Four Seas Bank today would bring the bank to the world stage, where its name will spread across the oceans.

Chapter 251 - Moon Island Naval Battle (Part 1)

October 22th, Ouyang Shuo arrived at Beihai City again.

This time, none of his guards could be seen; only Director Ge followed him.

In Beihai Port, the Beihai navy fleet were ready. Every Meng Chong warship was fully refurbished. Ouyang Shuo took out a bag of military grain pills and distributed them to every warship.

The sailors transported bundles of arrows, barrels of water, and alchemical oil to the warships.

One by one, the warships sails rose, along with the Shanhai City lord’s flag and also the flags of the Beihai navy fleet. The flag of the Beihai navy fleet, which also acted as the Shanhai City navy flag, was modified from the lord’s flag. The volcano was changed into a five-level tower warship and a blue dragon soared above it instead of a golden one.

Before they departed, Ouyang Shuo led the fleet and prayed to Mazu. He hoped that the whole expedition would go smooth and sound.

After the prayers, the fleet stayed in the attack formation, and they officially departed from the port.

Due to the lack of tower warships, Beihai navy fleet could only select a Meng Chong warship as their flagship, and it sailed in the middle of the formation.

Under Pei Donglai’s accompaniment, Ouyang Shuo boarded the flagship. Before this, Ouyang Shuo had stated that the authority to command the naval battle laid in Pei Donglai’s hands. He had stated he would not intervene in it.

Paddles powered the Meng Chong warships, and a half-body high parapet wall protected both sides of the ship. There were slots for the paddles under each of the two bulwarks and twelve paddles on each side. The sailors rowed on the deck.

The deck had 3 levels of cabins, within each had 5 feet of canopy. On the first floor of the cabin was another parapet wall. Navy flags were on the four sides of the ships and the commanding war drums and flags were situated at the middle of the first floor.

Ouyang Shuo walked onto the deck. Then, he went to the first floor of the cabin and finally stopped at the command seat. Pei Donglai waved the command flag. When the drummer saw the signal, he played the drums. In the thrilling rhythmic beats, the fleet sailed on the mighty ocean.

Moon Island was over 500 nautical miles away from Beihai Port, about 925-kilometers. Meng Chong warship sailed at a speed of 14 knots—14-nautical miles per an hour. When the wind blew in its favor, it could even sail at a speed of 20 knots.

Sailing in the sea would not stop regardless of day and night, the only difference was that they sailed slower during the night.

Under normal circumstances, Meng Chong warships could sail 300-nautical miles a day. Therefore, it would only take less than two days for them to reach Moon Island.

Ouyang Shuo stood in the front of the ship bow and gazed at the endless ocean. As far as his eyes could reach, he saw nothing but seawaters—plain and dull. The sea breeze blew on his face and brought about a salty wet taste.

On the deck, the sailors sang in unison, as they paddled in hard work.

“Marquis, you should return to the cabin and rest!” Pei Donglai said.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and returned to his room. Then, he shut the door and practiced his techniques.

When the night fell, strong gusts of wind blew on the sea. At times like this, the prayers from Mazu temple, [Sea God’s Blessings] came in handy. The Meng Chong warships sailed steadily on the turbulent sea waves and advanced toward Moon Island.

Morning, the next day, Ouyang Shuo exited his room.

The sea shimmered in the sunlight, as the reddish-orange bright sun slowly rose above the sea level.

Thanks to the strong gust of wind yesterday night, sailing had gone particularly smoothly. According to Pei Donglai’s estimation, they would arrive at Moon Island by tomorrow afternoon at the latest.

The navy soldiers woke up one by one and a simple brush up, they consumed the freshwater and military grain pills to ensure they had the required energy consumption for the day.

The experienced soldiers took advantage of the extra time and began to wipe their weapons. The archer checked the adjustments of their bows, while the sentry stood on the summit of the cabins, as they kept a close watch on every change on the sea.

They took alchemical oil and arrows onto the deck. The soldiers stood in their positions, ready for war.

It was nearly afternoon when an island appeared in the sights of the sentry. Without any further delay, he waved the signal flag and passed the message to the drummer.

The drum had woken up the fighting spirit in Pei Donglai, and he immediately ordered the fleet to stay in the attack formation and charged forward.

The Beihai navy fleet’s appearance stunned the Black Shark pirates. Fortunately, they did not leave for another round of looting today, so all of them were on the island.

As soon as the ringleader of the Black Shark pirates, Black Beard, received the news, he instantly gathered his men to prepared for war.

Suddenly, the little Moon Island turned chaotic.

During their free time, a pirate’s life was immensely boring. They had no entertainment options other than the only tavern on the island.

The old and shabby tavern was open twenty-four seven, and the customers would enter like an endless stream. Those drunken pirates laid down and slept right on the wet tavern floor.

“Bang!” A man ruthlessly kicked open the tavern door.

The group leader saw the pirates asleep on the floor. Wordlessly, he ordered his men to pour cold water on these drunken fellas. Then, he shouted, “Damn you brats! Get up! We are under attack!”

“Ahhh?!” the pirates shouted. They hadn’t fully regained their conscious yet, and one of them mumbled, “We are under attack! Under attack!”

The drunken pirate’s shitty state enraged the group leader, so he started to kick the fellow. Then, he furiously shouted, “Get up and follow me, stop behaving like a sissy!”

The pain shook the drunken pirate conscious. He helped himself up from the floor and followed the back of his group leader, while walking he asked, “Leader, who is attacking us?”

“It doesn’t matter who, just kill.” In truth, the group leader didn’t know the answer either.

“Right, who dares to play with the Black Shark pirates? Are they courting death?” A drunk man was truly full of courage.

Scenes like this had started to occur around the island, as the group leaders rushed out in search of their members before they gathered to the dock.

On the dock, Black Beard was aboard the flagship, as he listened to the latest reports from the scouts.

“Great leader, their raised flag is that of Shanhai City’s.”

A frown crawled across his face, “How many warships do they have?”

“A total of 25, all Meng Chong warships.” Clearly, the pirates had a level of understanding in regards to the navy fleet of Beihai.

“They come with ill intentions.” Of course, he knew the capabilities of these warships.

“Then, what do we do?”

“What? Just kill them!” Black Beard said in heavy killing intentions.

“Prepare for battle, as this is a war that we cannot afford to lose. Tell the brothers to fight with their lives if they don’t want their island to be eradicated!” Black Beard proclaimed.

“Understood!”

Under the command of Pei Donglai, the Behai navy warships spread out and pushed forward in a fan-like formation. No matter how the pirates arranged their formations, they would still remain within the fire range of the Meng Chong warships.

On the sides of the boat stood countless little torches.

The archers dipped the arrowheads in alchemical fire. Then, they lighted the arrows to form fire arrows.

Pei Donglai watched closely, as the pirate ships approached. Once they entered the fire coverage area, he waved his command flag.

An order was given and the rhythmic drums beats sounded out in unison.

A volley of fire arrows shot into the sky, the scene like stars in bright daylight.

The fire arrows accurately struck the pirate ships and set them on fire.

Black Beard panicked. Quickly, he ordered the men to put out the fires.

But it was too late, volley after volley of fire arrows formed a dense net that rained down onto the pirates. Although the pirate ships were prepared against fire, but it was useless against the endless fire arrows.

The fire arrows struck the sails and set them ablaze; they hit the cabin and the cabin followed the footsteps of the sails; they impacted the deck, which started to produce smoke. If an arrow struck a pirate, they could only blame their bad luck.

When the pirates around them saw the unlucky fellows that ran around the deck, they would avoid them like the plague. In the end, the burning pirates could only jump into the sea to save their own lives.

Ship after ship, all ablazed. The smoke from the fire rose into the sky and formed a simply breathtaking scene.

The fire occupied the pirates, as they tried to put the blazes out. They couldn’t even defend themselves, or for that matter counterattack. It only led to one end, the addition of their demise.

Amidst the flames, the pirates began to dive into the sea to escape.

Black Beard was on a skiff, as he tried his best to paddle to the beach. The naval battle was over the moment they clashed. His only hope was to form a defensive line and push back the intruders on the island.

However, Pei Donglai knew that although the pirate ships were now groaning in the fires, a large number of pirates remained safe in the sea, as they tried hard to swim toward the island.

Decisively, he commanded the archers to switch to ordinary arrows and direct their weapons from the ships to the pirates in the sea.

Without the need to dip the arrows in the alchemical oil, the shooting rate of the arrows doubled, and the arrows rained heavier onto the pirates.

Due to the fact that the pirates were in the sea, only half of their heads were visible. As such, the archers couldn’t aim and target them precisely. Hence, the archers chose to rain down arrows on them, covering a large area. This lacked accuracy but helped in suppressing the pirates.

The arrows shot past the sky and flew down to the sea at lightning speed, stirring the sea into a mix of chaos and blood. Every pool of blood denoted the death of a pirate.

It was simply impossible for a pirate to survive if he got shot in the sea. If they were shot, even if it was not a major injury, the bleeding would still exhaust them. Eventually, they would drown in the sea.

Pool after pool of blood floated on the territorial waters. Slowly, they formed a bloody red sea in the area. Bodies of the pirates floated on the sea, which told the tale of endless desolation.

The pirate ships groaned in the burning flames. One by one, they sank to the bottom of the ocean.

As the direct result of the sinking ships, torrents and swirls formed around them. Some unlucky pirates too near these vortexes were drawn in. Along with the ships, they were taken on a trip down to the bottomless ocean.

The naval battle went extraordinary smoothly. The alchemical oil had done a great job again.

When the Beihai navy fleet approached the pirate ships, only a few were left. These ships occasionally emitted smoke.

As an experienced navy general, Pei Donglai was cautious. He instructed the warships to keep their distance from the pirate ships to avoid the swirls. Under his command, the warships steered away from the hell that they created and pressed forward to the island.

As the Meng Chong warships made their way, some pirates screamed for help.

“Help!!” the pirates cried.

As a general of Shanhai City, Pei Donglai knew his lord’s captive policy very well. They would not kill those they could capture, and they would not decline those that surrendered.

Therefore, he ordered his men to give out ropes and salvaged the pirates on board. Of course, they would tie up the pirates with ropes.

Chapter 252 - Moon Island Naval Battle (Part 2)

After he salvaged the captived pirates, Pei Donglai had to face a huge issue.

Black Beard had regathered his troops that totaled at more than a thousand pirates on the dock, so how could Pei Donglai successfully dock on the island? The Beihai navy fleet wasn’t like the marines in the real world, which could commence amphibious operations.

In the end, Pei Donglai came up with a stubborn idea. He ordered the 1st unit to dock on the island, and the other four units remained in the fan-like formation. These units provided cover fire to suppress the pirates.

Black Beard saw the warship, as it prepared to dock. In response, he quickly ordered the pirates to stop them.

Right at this moment, a wave of arrows rained on the path of the pirates and stopped them in their tracks. The pirates hesitated, unsure if they should move.

The Behai navy fleet’s actions infuriated Black Beard. He continually scolded them. What incredibly shameless intruders!

“Charge, move! Or we all die!”

Under his command, the pirates rushed toward the rain of arrows. Every second, the archers would shoot down a pirate, which left some injured, while some directly died.

The pirates on the shore escaped death after the enemy set their ships ablaze. Finally, they jumped into the sea to save their lives, but now, they had to face death itself again. Naturally, they felt reluctant.

As the casualties increased, some of the pirates couldn’t take it anymore. Instead of charging forward, they secretly fell back and escaped. They tried to run away from the rain of arrows.

When some people took the lead, others would follow the trend. Humans were afraid of death, and pirates were no exceptions. Therefore, the pirates hadn’t even made it halfway toward the 1st unit before more than half of them retreated.

The Beihai navy 1st unit took advantage of the situation to board the island and establish a defense line.

At this moment, Black Beard knew that no course of action could stop the Beihai navy anymore. Even if they continued to charge forward, they would not stop the intruders.

“Retreat!” Black Beard said wryly.

This order made the pirates overjoyed. They dispersed and ran away faster than rabbits.

Ouyang Shuo stood on the flagship. He shook his head, as he saw the opponent’s powerless state.

Just like this, the Beihai navy fleet successfully boarded the island and commenced a round of extermination of the pirates that remained.

At this time, the pirates all ran for the own lives and weren’t even organized.

In order to prevent anyone from slipping through the net, Pei Donglai arranged the 4th and 5th units to stay in the Meng Chong warships and patrol the island waters. This action completely blocked off the pirates' escape routes.

Moon Island was only 50-square kilometers, so it wasn’t really a good place to hide.

Pei Donglai tacitly implemented Ouyang Shuo’s captive policy. The sailors shouted and called for the pirates to surrender themselves. If they did, they would be spared. Otherwise, if the pirates decided to ignore the message and run, the navy would exterminate them without mercy.

The threat was effective.

One by one, the pirates exited their hiding holes and held both of their hands in surrender. Only Black Beard and a few of his stubborn subordinates were still on the run.

To the diehard pirate members, Pei Donglai showed no mercy. He had the soldiers of the 1st unit spread out in search of them. Once found, they would exterminate these pirates on the spot.

The extermination lasted for the whole afternoon.

Then, Pei Donglai accompanied Ouyang Shuo to inspect the island.

The Black Sharks had good looting skills. In exchange, they had trash building skills.

The whole pirate camp didn’t even have a fence; they had left it wide open. They could count the buildings on the island on one hand.

The pirates only actually paid attention to their dock.

A narrow, bumpy, and damp dirt road weaved down the marina. Ouyang Shuo carefully watched his feet as he walked. He did not want to step into the puddles.

Wooden houses were scattered across both sides of the dirt road. The houses were rudimentary and rough, as if the pirates had simply built them from a few pieces of wood.

Ouyang Shuo felt doubtful about whether such a wooden house could shelter the owner during rainy or sunny days.

They had no decent courtyards outside the log houses. There were not any domestic animals or vegetables either. A few dilapidated clothes hung under the eaves, floating and dangling in the wind.

Occasionally, he found some dried fishes in some of the houses. These were the homes of the more diligent pirates.

In terms of fields, they had basically not reclaimed any land. They only had purely barren land that lacked plantations. Only the wild green bristlegrass told the visitors a certain decadence.

Clearly, the pirates simply did not produce any crops . They lack the ability to self-sustain and completely depended on stolen supplies.

After they continued inward, they suddenly came across a small pond in the middle of the island. Ouyang Shuo observed it and estimated that the pond had a size of less than 500-square meters. It should be the island's only source of freshwater.

For this reason, the pirates regarded this pond as their most important asset and protected it very closely.

The pirates had built a circle of buildings around the pond. These were all wooden structures and looked more solid than the wooden houses on the outer ring; this should be the core area of the pirates. The most popular pirate tavern was one of these buildings.

The only courtyard in the highest place looked very conspicuous within the group of wooden houses.

Needless to say, this must have been the abode of the great leader of the pirates.

Along the way, Ouyang Shuo had lost interest in the other buildings. He headed straight for the courtyard.

Even after they had walked to the core area of the island, the roads along the way had not improved, still bumpy and full of potholes. On both sides of the road, the lively wild green bristlegrass swung in the breezes of wind.

The soldiers had cleaned up these buildings of pirates first.

Therefore, when Ouyang Shuo arrived, there wasn’t a single pirate in sight. He only saw the soldiers of the Beihai navy fleet. On the ground, he could occasionally see some traces of blood and fighting.

The guard on duty saw Ouyang Shuo and immediately saluted.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and walked through the door.

The soldier had not expected any response from the great marquis, so this small gesture warmed his heart.

Ouyang Shuo raised his head and observed the island's most advanced building.

A simple, small courtyard laid before him. It touches on Ouyang Shuo’s memories. He thought back to when Shanhai Village was originally built. At that time, the Lord’s Manor and the courtyard were very similar.

Ouyang Shuo arrived at the Council Chamber and began to patiently wait for the latest information the scouts had gathered.

5 PM in the afternoon, Pei Dong gathered all the information and reported to Ouyang Shuo.

After Ouyang Shuo gestured, Pei Dong entered and sat down on the lower portion of the chamber. He said, “Reporting to the marquis, the campaign has gone much smoother than imagined. Our fleet had almost no casualties. We only lost 150 men.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. The progress of this war had indeed gone beyond his expectations.

“This campaign has captured a total of more than 1,650 pirates. We exterminated all the remaining pirates. We basically either burned all the pirate ships into ashes or sank the into the sea. Only five or six ships survived, we have towed them back to the dock. "Pei Donglai continued, “Through the seizure of the storage houses and the pirate homes, we have plundered 12,500 gold and a box of jewelry. The seized weapons, equipment, and foodstuffs are relatively scarce. They did not store these in large quantities.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. He had also expected this situation. The pirates relied on loot for a living. At times of food shortage, they would just go hunt, so they would definitely not store much food.

On the contrary, the pirates had backlogged all the gold and jewels they had plundered and scavenged because of a lack of selling channels. For this reason, the pirate group of more than 3,000 people held a fortune of over 10,000 gold.

“Take 500 gold from the seized funds and reward it to the soldiers,” said Ouyang Shuo.

No one knew when it began, but Ouyang Shuo started to reward the soldiers according to their performances. He did this to encourage the soldiers to fight bravely.

“Thank you, lord!” Pei Donglai represented the fleet and thanked Ouyang Shuo.

“Did we plunder anything special?” Ouyang Shuo asked. By ‘special,’ Ouyang Shuo referred to special-level items. In general, there was a great probability of obtaining some weird items from the loots of the pirates.

“Yes, there is.” Pei Donglai did not disappoint.

The soldiers outside dragged in a box of jewelry and gold, and everything else they had plundered from the pirates. They left it on the ground so that Ouyang Shuo could inspect the items.

Ouyang Shuo stood up. Other than setting aside 500 gold, he kept the other goods in his storage bag. The packed chamber once again became empty. He had only left two goods on the ground, a stone and a picture.

Ouyang Shuo picked up the black stone and inspected it. The rock was medium-sized, about the size of two fists in total. It felt heavy when one picked it up in their palm.

[Meteorite fine iron] (Platinum) : Godly stone fallen from the skies, rare forging material.

The stone had simple properties, but it stirred a great storm of excitement in Ouyang Shuo’s heart. Platinum-level forging materials, Ouyang Shuo could see his personal exclusive weapon waving at him.

This meteorite fine iron alone made Ouyang Shuo feel that this trip was worthwhile.

Ouyang Shuo guessed that the only reason Black Beard did not forge this meteorite fine iron was because he couldn’t find himself a decent blacksmith. Only a master blacksmith could make use of this rare ore and turn it into great use.

Carefully, he placed the meteorite fine iron into his storage bag before he picked up the picture.

(1/3) : According to the legends, Beihai Bay once gave birth to a very famous pirate, Blood Slaughterer. After the death of Blood Slaughterer, his tremendous fortune gained from looting also disappeared.

Rumors said that before his death, Blood Slaughterer had hidden his fortunes on a deserted island. He jotted down the position of the island onto a map and split it into three. He gave one piece each to his three trusted subordinates.

After his death, his three subordinates tried to snatch the other two parts of the map from their former brother-in-arms. Day after day, year after year, the infighting eventually led to the fall of the famous group of Blood Slaughterer pirates. In the end, none of them could defeat each other, and they all died in depression. They left behind the treasure map pieces to their heirs.

Hundreds of years later, the treasure map pieces shifted from one hand to another, which caused countless tremendous tragedies over the years.

Regrettably, not a single person could gather all three treasure map pieces and find the treasures of Blood Slaughterer. As time went by, another rumor sparked, which said that the treasure maps were only Blood Slaughterer’s wicked ploy to provoke a war between the pirates. Such a conjecture was reasonable given Blood Slaughterer’s personality as a maniac killer.

Slowly and gradually, the truth behind the treasure map sank deep into the river of history. No one even believed the rumors of Blood Slaughterer anymore, and the treasure map pieces became items of collections. No one ever fought for it.

Chapter 253 - Navy Base

Ouyang Shuo placed the into a random location in his storage bag. It would take countless days and nights to gather all the parts of a map like this. He might not even gather all the parts before the game ends.

After he looked through the plundered goods, Ouyang Shuo sat back in his seat. Then, he turned to look at Pei Donglai and asked, “General Pei, what is your opinion on the next course of action regarding Moon Island?”

This question wasn’t meant to make things difficult for Pei Donglai. As the commander of the Beihai navy fleet, he needed to be a proficient leader in battle and had to handle the affairs and logistics behind in the base.

Pei Donglai pondered for a moment before he answered, “The facilities here are primitive and simple, but we can salvage the dock and use it as a supply replenishment station in the future.”

Pei Donglai understood why the lord established the navy fleet. It wasn’t only to exterminate the pirates. His lord had a greater vision and place in mind for the Beihai navy fleet. Regardless, if the fleet wanted to sail deep into the middle of the ocean and dominate the seas, supply replenishments was an issue that they couldn’t avoid. Ships sail day and night, so a lack of supply replenishment stations would greatly challenge the sailors and the logistics members.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, but he shook his head moments later.

“What does the lord mean?” Pei Donglai felt anxious.

“The supply replenishment stations are a must.” First, Ouyang Shuo confirmed Pei Donglai’s point of view. Then, he said, “But, that is far not enough. Moon Island is small but robust. The conditions here are consummate and there are sufficient sources of fresh water. Therefore, we can change Moon Island into a small navy base.”

As a supply replenishment station, Moon Island had to contain a large storage of resources. In turn, they needed to station a team of guards on the island to protect the resources.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo would rather settle everything once and for all. He would make a round of major changes to the island.

“I have a few specific requirements. You will talk to Xiuwen regarding the details on how to make it happen. The Construction Division of Beihai County will complete it,” Ouyang Shuo said, “First, upgrade the dock into a port. Not only will it act as the docking place for the warships, but the navy can also repair and maintain warships there.

“Second, demolish every building on the island and rebuild them systematically. The core of this island will take the role of a military fortress. It will act as the base of the island guards, and the storage place for the resources. The reason for a military fortress is to shrink the defensive force. Moreover, it will not take up a lot of the island’s land. Woodworking workshop, blacksmithy, weapons workshop, and the other building structures will be built inside of the fortress, forming a relatively enclosed fort.

“Third, land reclamation. You need to make use of the land outside of the military fortress. Plant some vegetables and crops so that the island can be self-sustainable. I have estimated that we can reclaim at least 500,000 mu of land on Moon Island.

“Once we reach such a scale, the island can achieve self-sustainability but also supply externally. There will be no more need to transport food and resources to Moon Island from Beihai County.

“Lastly, the retransformation of the pond. In order to grow crops on a large scale, we need sufficient irrigation water. Therefore, there is a need to expand the pond to at least five to ten times the scale of the existing one. Eventually, we will turn the pond into an island lake or a small reservoir.”

Ouyang Shuo told Pei Donglai his plan based on his observation of the island this afternoon. In the future, Moon Island would become a mixture of military fort, port, reservoir, and farmland. When combined together, it would form a strong and powerful navy base.

After they completed the Moon Island navy base, it would become the ‘Midway Island’ where the fleet enters the deep sea.

The layout of Ouyang Shuo’s great plans excited Pei Donglai. He said respectfully, “May the lord be at ease. I will coordinate with Beihai County and complete the transformation of Moon Island as soon as possible.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, “Then, I will pass it to the general. When the navy base is established, I will visit Moon Island again. Together, we will celebrate your accomplishment.”

“Yes, my lord!” Pei Donglai was indeed in great excitement.

After the discussion, Ouyang Shuo stayed on the island for one night.

Morning of the next day, the Beihai navy fleet departed for home. They left behind the navy 1st unit to guard Moon Island. As for the captived pirates, they brought them all back to Beihai County.

Moon Island held a significant spot in Ouyang Shuo’s strategy, so he did not trust the placement of these pirates on the island.

October 25th, afternoon, Beihai navy fleet returned to Beihai Port.

After Ouyang Shuo left the port, he intentionally went into the county and had a small talk with magistrate Gu Xiuwen. He explained the navy base construction work required on Moon Island.

On the night of the same day, Ouyang Shuo returned to the Lord’s Manor.

After he returned, Ouyang Shuo took out the box of jewelry and passed it to Zi Su, who would store it in the internal storehouse. This was Ouyang Shuo’s third box of jewelry.

Ouyang Shuo wasn’t a stingy man. He rewarded Song Jia, Sun Xiaoyue, Yingyu, Qing’er, the two sisters, even Zi Su and Si Qin the servant maids. He gave all of them jewelry.

Next day morning, Ouyang Shuo accompanied Bing’er for breakfast. After that, he immediately rushed to the Armory Division in the east district and looked for master blacksmith Wang Gao.

“Greetings to the lord!” Wang Gao bowed and greeted.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Then, he took out the [Meteorite Fine Iron] and placed it on the table. He smiled, “Can you recognize this item?”

The moment Wang Gao laid his sights on the black dull stone, his eyes couldn’t even shift away from it anymore. It was like a spell had been cast upon him. He could not move an inch of his body. Moments later, he stood up and helped himself to the side of the table. Slowly his hands lifted up the stone. Then, he touched and caressed the [Meteorite Fine Iron]. He treated it like a peerless treasure; he mumbled, “Thi...this…this is.....is this the legendary godly stone from the skies?!”

Ouyang Shuo hadn’t expected any of this. He did not think that the unruly Wang Gao would have such a deeply emotional moment. He nodded and said with a smile, “Indeed, this is the godly stone fallen from the skies.”

Honestly, Ouyang Shuo had hesitated yesterday night, unsure if he should hand the [Meteorite Fine Iron] over to Wang Gao. It would be better to hand such a rare forging material to a higher level blacksmith for simply more assurance.

In the game, the royals had either taken in the God-level blacksmiths as imperial craftsmen, or they would wander around like ghosts in the shadows. A normal person could not reach them. These experts drifted around the land with no fixed abode, it would require great luck to encounter one.

Furthermore, although he considered the platinum-level [Meteorite Fine Iron] as a rare forging material, it was merely nothing but an item in the eyes of God-level blacksmiths. Hence, Ouyang Shuo ended his whimsical thoughts of asking for the help of a God-level blacksmith.

If he took a step back, at least he could find himself a grandmaster blacksmith to forge the legendary stone.

If he could not reach the God-level blacksmiths, he could still find the grandmaster blacksmiths in the system capital cities. If he handed the stone to them, Ouyang Shuo can rest assured that they would forge a platinum-level weapon.

But Ouyang Shuo gave up this alluring prospect. The most important consideration was that he hoped for Wang Gao to take this opportunity to breakthrough to the grandmaster level. At the very least, Ouyang Shuo wanted him to improve his blacksmith experience. This way, he could lay down the foundation for a future promotion to the grandmaster level.

After all, he wasn’t only an officer, but also the lord of Shanhai. He must make decisions based on the territory’s interests. If the territory gave birth to a grandmaster blacksmith, it could bring limitless benefits.

After he received the confirmation, Wang Gao’s eyes brightened up. He couldn’t wait to work on the [Meteorite Fine Iron]. Suddenly, he thought of why the lord would come here. A flash of thought crossed his mind, and his heart skipped a beat.

Sure enough, Ouyang Shuo said placidly, “I plan to forge a spear from this [Meteorite Fine Iron]. Do you have any confidence?”

Although he had mentally prepared himself, reality still shook Wang Gao’s calm heart again. Excitement filled him, and he stammered, “Lor .. Lord, do you have a… any specific requests about th… the spear?”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, “About this spear, I will use it as my main weapon. Forge the spearhead from the [Meteorite Fine Iron], and use normal iron for the body of the spear. How is that?”

Wang Gao sized up the [Meteorite Fine Iron] with his eyes and nodded, “More than enough.”

“Good. Then, I’ll wait for your good news.” Without further ado, Ouyang Shuo stood up and left.

“Yes, my lord.”

After Ouyang Shuo left, Wang Gao pulled himself before the [Meteorite Fine Iron]. He scrutinized it carefully. He measured its size and quality, as he performed calculations and made blueprints in his mind. He was on his way to forge the spear.

Wang Gao knew very well himself the difficulty of forging this spear and the significance it carried. Hence, he did not dare to act reckless. He was determined to only act at his peak form so that he could forge the best spear. He would not disappoint the great lord.

Late in the 10th month, the farmers started to harvest crops all over the territory.

Naturally, the main production area was Qiushui County. Forty thousand mu of paddy fields, the preliminary estimations suggested that it would yield 120 million units of grain.

With such an enormous quantity of grain production, the agricultural tax alone would contribute a total of four million units of paddies. Then, these units would be supplied to the military, enough to sustain the twenty thousand soldiers for three months.

Other than Qiushui County, Friendship County, Tianfeng County, Yishui County, Gushan County, Yongye Town, and Guangshui Town, and the main base—Shanhai County would all yield their own crops too.

According to the estimations from the Agricultural Division, the total crops yield of all the territories would add up to 200 million units during the second season harvesting.

There were still a full eight months until the first season of paddy harvesting in the next year, 7th month.

However, based on the expansion rate and the population growth of Shanhai County, in addition to the consumptions of the Three Flower Winery and the military factory, Ouyang Shuo estimated that Shanhai County would still need to purchase 20 million units of paddy from the market to adequately supply the entire territory.

Food was always the most strategic resource.

The price of grain had dropped in the market, as they harvested the paddy fields. After the previous food crisis, all of the lords had learned the importance of food the hard way.

The moment they harvested the paddies, all of the lords followed the same actions as Ouyang Shuo. They counted the food stocks they had in barns and calculated their territory’s consumption in the next eight months. In the end, they found an insufficiency in their food stocks.

Without a doubt, the food stocks of most of the territories did not allow them to become self-sufficient. They had to purchase some from the market to fill in their lack of food stocks.

Hence, even if the price of grain had fallen, the days where a unit of grain cost 10 copper was gone forever.

Chapter 254 - Betrayal

Editor:ryangohsff

During the 10th month, the Langshan mining field and the Northern Salt Fields both contributed 17,000 gold. Out of this, Ouyang Shuo took away 5,000 gold and gave the rest to the Finance Department.

They had completed the Three Flower Winery in the west district. It would start its operation in the next month. According to Du Dun’s estimations, in the 11th month, the winery could yield at least half of its full operational target and contribute a total of 3000 to 4000 gold.

They had also completed the expansion of the mulberry fields. However, the nurturing of the mulberry tree required a long growth cycle, so the mulberry garden would only begin operation next year.

Thanks to the advancement in rank of the Fallen Moon Guild and the establishment of the Shanhai City office in the capital city, new players and NPC talents streamed into Shanhai City every day.

For the talents that came in, Ouyang Shuo distributed them to the other subordinate territories so that the territories could advance together at the same approximate pace.

Along with the large quantities of work occupation players and the NPC talents the Cui Chamber of Commerce recruited that joined Shanhai City, the production of weapons in the three big military factories had started to exponentially increase.

However, as a direct result of the increased weapon production, resources such as leathers and tendons became lacking. Leathers were still fine, as they could still obtain them from the nomadic tribes through the Friendship City market.

However, tendons were restricted items, so even the Cui Chamber of Commerce could not lay their hands on them.

In the end, his little aunt solved his problem.

In truth, the adventurers would spend their daily lives hunting in different places, earning experience to level up. And out there in the world, countless creatures like wild wolves and bisons existed. However, these creatures wouldn’t drop any items after they died. Hence, the players could only gather and harvest their body parts.

Hence, adventurers would possess miscellaneous items like tendons and leathers. The quantity they held ranged from a few to tens in number.

After his little aunt prompted him about it, Ouyang Shuo acted immediately and mailed her 10,000 gold. He made a request to make a large scale purchase from the Snow-War Rose Mercenary for all the miscellaneous items from the players.

Naturally, Lin Jing would not decline. In fact, they had heaps of tendons and leathers that laid in the storage warehouse of the Snow-War Rose Mercenary. They had left these items aside to collect dust. To them, all of these materials were not only useless, but they also took up their storage space. However, they were unwilling to sell them off in the capital city shops as the price was too low.

And now, this big shot was willing to suck them all away without limits. This deal was a win-win situation for both parties. After a round of discussion, they decided that the price would be two times higher than the shops in the capital city.

Despite this, such an expense was nothing in comparison to the profits he would gain from the weapons production.

Ouyang Shuo knew the truth very well in his heart. The only reason that the lords did not touch the materials in the hands of the adventurers was that the lords had yet to come across the related technical manuals. Hence, they could not march into the military industry.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo himself had only realized this fact after his little aunt prompted him.

However, the situation would eventually change in the future. One way or another, the lords would find a way to lay their hands on the weapon crafting technical manuals. At that point in time, the prices of the materials would skyrocket through the roof.

After he bought all these materials and stocked them now, Ouyang Shuo had no intentions of selling them in the future. Since he intended to make Shanhai City the largest arms dealer in the China server, he knew that the future demands and consumption rate of materials would be incredibly high. As such, he had to repair the house before it rained.

And so, when everyone busied themselves with their own stuff, the merchants that the Snow-War Rose Mercenary group sent out covertly obtained all kinds of materials from the adventure players. Then, these items would enter the storage warehouse of Shanhai City.

First was Jian Ye. Then, they slowly expanded to all of the system capital cities.

The players felt gladdened and had a heated response. Some of the players had the materials stored in the guild warehouse to save their spatial storage space. When they received this news, they all started to take out the materials from the guild warehouse. Then, they sold them off to the merchants.

Hence, the materials stored in the guilds rapidly vanished.

Such an abnormal situation naturally caught the attention of the guild higher-ups. After they learned about the situation, they immediately took out all of the materials in the guild and sold it off to the merchants. Everyone felt delighted and satisfied.

When the players placed their materials into the guild warehouse, they would be giving their approval to the guild to handle it for them. Of course, after the guilds sold off the materials, the guild would grant them guild contribution points accordingly.

All of a sudden, a vigorous wave of material acquisition rippled through the whole China region.

As time went by, the acquisition attracted more and more attention. Soon, the group behind the purchases was exposed to the public. All the top ten guilds and the renowned lords heard about it. The Snow-War Rose Mercenary had started to crazily suck in all kinds of materials.

Gossips and talks were part of human nature. Hence, they had developed a series of incredible skills to dig out concealed information.

Slowly, players managed to unveil the relationship between Shanhai City and Snow-War Mercenary Group. The curtains were raised, and the cooperation between the two was exposed, which attracted countless pairs of eyes toward them.

Then, someone revealed the kinship between Ouyang Shuo and Lin Jing to the world. A core member of the Snow-War Mercenary Group had leaked this fact. This individual had visited Shanhai City together with Lin Jing.

The betrayal enraged Xie Siyun and Lin Jing, and they directly expelled the betrayer. Then, they ordered a life-long pursuit on her, which stripped her of the slightest glimpse of hope of continuing to live in Jian Ye.

Without a doubt, someone had perpetrated the betrayal. Even if the betrayer had to restart everything in the game, the perpetrators would still compensate her with a large amount of money.

As for the person behind it all, Ouyang Shuo didn’t even need to crack his head. Certainly, the likes of Di Chen did this.

The exposure itself did not infuriate Lin Jing and Xie Siyun—the betrayal did. A core member had betrayed them, an old friend that had fought alongside them for so many years. And yet, who knew that temptations of the outside world had corrupted her, which caused her to throw away their years of friendship for money.

Clearly, as the real world and the virtual world connected together, the interpersonal relationships and organizational ties in the gaming world would grow even more intricate and cloudy.

Ouyang Shuo felt nonchalant about this matter. As the cooperation between the Snow-War Mercenary Group and Shanhai City increased, it was only a matter of time before their kinship was unveiled. He had mentally prepared himself long before this.

After the exposure, Shanhai City would surely be placed into an even more precarious position. The world would realize that unknowingly, Shanhai City had obtained such clout and influence. They even reached out its hands to the adventurers. And this was only the tip of the iceberg. What about the ones underneath the ocean? The true prowess of Shanhai City remained unknown.

Shanhai City, just when you thought that the curtains that masked its prowess were raised, what it revealed was just more mystery. How would a city like this not shock the world?

Since the world learned about their relationship, Ouyang Shuo didn’t plan to hide it anymore. He proceeded to send another 20,000 gold to his little aunt. He asked her to sweep away each and every piece of material in the hands of the adventurers.

For this, Ouyang Shuo ordered the Construction Division to choose a cave and modify it. They made it a special storage area to keep the overly excessive materials, especially the leathers that took up too much space. If he relied on the players to smuggle it through the teleportation portal, the teleportation fees would be 10% higher than the trading tax.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo just traded through the auction platform. He clenched his teeth and paid the 3,000 trading tax gold. As Gaia oversaw the trading platform, the players could not decrease the selling price to avoid the trading taxes.

As the acquisition went on, piles after piles of leathers, rolls after rolls of tendons, and all the other materials were sent over through the platform to Shanhai City. Then, they transported the materials to the cave to store them away.

Soon, they had nearly filled up half of the huge cave.

With such a large quantity of materials, the Bow and Crossbow Division Secretary Wu Peng and the Armory Division Secretary Wang Gao estimated that they had sufficient materials to make millions of bowstrings and over forty thousand sets of Mingguang Armor and leather armor.

The two of them felt the happiest about the lord’s material acquisition. They had never thought that their problem regarding the supply of materials would be cleared off overnight. Moreover, it went way beyond their expectations.

As for the other lords, most of them sat on the fence. They watched him, as he continually swept up the materials in the market. Firstly, they had just gone through the food crisis, so they were financially incapable of acquiring the materials. Secondly, even if they acquired the materials, they would not use the materials in the near future. The materials would simply take up space and consume gold. It was simply not worth the effort.

Most importantly, in the eyes of the other lords, there were wild creatures everywhere. They could just acquire the materials later from the adventurers when they needed it. As such, why go through all the troubles and fight with Shanhai City now?

Ouyang Shuo knew the thoughts of the other lords very well. He could only sneer coldly. No one could beat him in terms of understandings regarding Earth Online.

In theory, the wild creatures were indeed endless.

However, the creatures were distributed evenly across the world. Even if Gaia had spawned more creatures around the capital city in favor of the adventurers, their numbers would not be too high either.

Most of the creatures lived deep in the woods and high on the mountains, precarious places where the adventurers would normally drift away from.

And as the players got past the newbie stages, they wouldn’t need to kill these creatures to earn experience anymore. To be more precise, the experience they gained from killing these creatures was too little. At this time, the players would travel into the savanna or deserts to fight raiders and bandits.

Hence, players killed the most creatures during the first year of the game. This time was also the best time to acquire materials. After this, the supplies of materials would grow less and less. Additionally, when the players advanced to the higher levels, their personal wealth would also steadily increase. At that time, the gold that they could earn from selling materials would be nothing in their eyes. Sure enough, they would not have the motivation to kill these creatures and harvest these materials anymore.

Also, in comparison to the bow arms, the bowstrings were more easily worn. They required frequent changes. In the army of the Tang dynasty, a bow would require three bowstrings. Hence, they clearly had an immense consumption of tendons.

This round, Ouyang Shuo had swept away all the materials at just the right time. He had acquired all of the materials that the players had stored for nearly the whole year; he had taken the biggest and most delicious bite of the cake.

The acquisition had cost him a total of 33,000 gold. Other than the immovable 100,000 gold, he only had 3,000 golds left.

However, his marvelous action had consolidated the strongest foundation toward the military industry of Shanhai City. For an extended period of time, he wouldn’t have to worry about the supplies of materials anymore.

Chapter 255 -Battle Discussion

Handan County, meeting room.

“Outside of our expectations, we really managed to catch a big fish,” said Di Chen as he looked out the hall with an inexplicable expression. When he learned that Shanhai County was cooperating with Snow-War Rose, Di Chen immediately sent his envoy to get in touch with Snow-War Rose’s core members. Under the immense bombardment of gold, they finally received some news from one of the core members.

The news they received caught Di Chen off guard.

Juedai Fenghua icily sat in the room and slowly said, “Seems like we need to hasten our negotiations with Jianqi Zongheng. We cannot let Qiyue Wuyi get ahead of us again.”

Di Chen did not turn around. Instead, he placed his hands behind his back and said, “Yijian Xilai demands too much. It seems like it is not easy to manipulate this big fish.”

“According to the reports of my people, he had some emotional disputes with the master of Tingyu Floor, Jianqi Leiyin. Perhaps, we could use this as a breakthrough point to pry open Yijian Xilai’s mouth.”

“Right. Then, I’ll hand over this task to you,” Di Chen finally turned around and said in a deeply affectionate tone.

Juedai Fenghua’s beautiful eyebrows frowned, and she nodded without making any promises.

“By the way, Sha Pojun is not behaving nicely lately. He’s walking too close to Chun Shenjun,” Di Chen said as he took a sip of tea and sat down. Then, he bitterly said, “I never thought that we would do something that would jeopardize ourselves.”

Juedai Fenghua shook her and said, “Don’t worry too much. At least, through the probings of Asura, we managed to obtain first-hand information about Shanhai County’s army. As for Asura siding with Chun Shenjun, I do not think you have to worry too much.”

“Oh? Why so?”

“Chun Shenjun is a man of unfathomable depth and skepticism. Sha Pojun has followed us for a long time already. Suddenly, he decides to side with Chun Shenjun. You can’t possibly think that Chun Shenjun would trust Asura so easily, right? To him, Sha Pojun is just a chess piece on his chessboard.”

Di Chen nodded. He seemed agreed with Juedai Fenghua’s judgment.

However, Juedai Fenghua frowned again and said with worry, “Compared to Sha pojun, I am still more worried about Qiyue Wuyi. From the reports we obtained from all our sources, Shanhai County has spent the sum on those purchases.”

“Yeah,” lamented Di Chen. Then, he said bitterly, “Previously, grandfather thought that trying to sow discord between the Feng Family and Qiyue Wuyi would cut off the funds of Shanhai County. He thought it would make it impossible for them to survive the famine. Who would have thought that they would not only manage it without any losses but still have a considerable quantity of funds? God knows how he managed to gather up so much.”

When he recalled his grandfather’s angry face, Di Chen had no idea what expression or opinion to show. Ever since a young age, his grandfather had always been a humongous mountain that constrained him greatly. Unfortunately, things that could work well in reality would sometimes become incompatible in the game, which caused his grandfather to embarrass himself.

“Therefore, it seems like this coming anniversary auction will be another reign of terror. We must not let our guards down.” They already witnessed what had happened first hand during the last auction. They could never take the power of these enormous families lightly.

“Nothing we can do about it. We should probably control our spendings for the moment. No matter what, we must use all our efforts to obtain that item.” Di Chen was left with limited choices, so he could only feel helpless. He didn’t know if he should feel lucky or unlucky to have an opponent like Qiyue Wuyi.

Ouyang Shuo’s crazy purchases also gave rise to some discussion in the Shanhai Alliance channel.

“Whoa, Boss! You have definitely kept your cards hidden well! Who would have known that Snow-War Rose is also our ally,” said Gong Chengshi in a carefree tone.

“If you guys need to cooperate with the player guilds, you can go to them.” Since he had decided to reveal this matter, Ouyang Shuo directly brought the Snow-War Rose into the Shanhai Alliance channel.

“Yeah, sure. With the help of the guild, some things will be so much easier to accomplish,” said Xunlong Dianxue.

“Heh heh, it’s all for our mutual benefits.”

“Umm…. To be honest, our Consonance County is associated with Tingyu Floor in Dali.” Bai Hua took this opportunity to reveal her hidden cards.

Since the relationship between Shanhai County and Snow-War Rose was revealed, the master of Tingyu Floor, Mingyue Zhaodajiang, immediately contacted Bai Hua. After some discussion, they decided to reveal their relationship as well.

With this, in the guild wars, Tingyu Floor and Snow-War Rose could rely on each other and prevent friendly fire. They could also efficiently compete with the other top 10 guilds.

Her news did not cause much surprise among the members of the Shanhai Alliance.

Among all the members, other than Feng Qiuhuang, all of them knew the famous name of Consonance Studio. They were known for their management of their guilds in all the games they were involved in. As a matter of course, they surely would not say goodbye to their strengths even after they switched to territory building mode. Arranging a portion of their people to form a guild was just a natural phenomenal.

“No wonder!” said Xunlong Dianxue with some hidden and unexpressed thoughts.

Bai Hua smiled. Naturally, she understood the thoughts of Xunlong Dianxue. During the famine, the Four Seas Bank had taken root in the territories of every member in Shanhai Alliance—except Consonance County.

Everyone had felt curious about how Consonance County managed to deal with the famine so easily. The revelation of their relationship with Qingfeng Pavillion finally gave them an answer. With the fundings of Tingyu Floor, Consonance County will definitely pull off with ease.

“Wowowowow. How come I have a feeling that we, the Shanhai Alliance, could not only dominate the lord-type players, but also the adventurer-type players?” said the smiling Gong Chengshi.

Ouyang Shuo frowned as soon as he heard Gong Chengshi’s words. He quickly said, “Don’t let your guards down and don’t grow overconfident. Also, keep it a secret, the matter of Qingfeng Pavillion. Keep it hidden as deeply as possible. The longer we keep it a secret, the better.” As a man who likes to hide all the cards in his sleeves, Ouyang Shuo did not like to expose his full strength to everyone.

“Yes sir, understood!”

Feng Qiuhuang did not say anything at all until everyone fully digested the news. Then, she said, “Wuyi, according to the time calculation, I’m guessing that the third battle map will open soon?”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and replied, “Indeed, based on the previous patterns, my guess is that the battle map will appear after the 100th town upgrades to a county.”

“Which means it will be open soon? Should we start our preparations earlier?”

“How are you going to prepare for it? You don’t even know the campaign scenario that will open,” asked Gong Chengshi.

Feng Qiuhuang had obviously come prepared. She said, “According to the previous patterns, after Western Zhou, it should be one of the iconic battles in the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period.”

“Not bad. There are a huge number of famous historical figures in that era.” Clearly, Xunlong Dianxue focused more on this aspect.

“Yeah, an uncountable number of them. Just thinking of this already fires me up!”

“Try and guess what battle Gaia will choose then.”

“There are too many iconic battles during the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period, especially the Warring State period, where there was an incredible amount of wars. It’s so hard to guess,” said Xunlong Dianxue.

“Although there are a lot of iconic battles during that era, if I have to pick the one that is most symbolic and significant, I think it should be the Battle of Changping,” confidently said Feng Qiuhuang.

Everyone was surprised. They calmed down after they thought about it thoroughly again. There was a great chance that things would progress in the way that Feng Qiuhuang had guessed.

“Wuyi, what do you think about it?” seeing Ouyang Shuo did not say anything, Feng Qiuhuang immediately asked him with great curiosity.

Ouyang Shuo felt startled in his heart. Of course, he knew that the third campaign scenario was the Battle of Changping—just like Feng Qiuhuang had hypothesized. It seems like the players had started to decipher the patterns Gaia always used.

With his realization, Ouyang Shuo suddenly no longer looked forward to the battle map as much as before.

“Same here. I think there is a 90% chance it will be the Battle of Changping,” said Ouyang Shuo calmly.

“The Battle of Changping. One of the fiercest and cruelest battles in the history of China. Qin and Zhao threw in more than a million elite soldiers into the battlefield. All of these elites were equally as strong as our armies, maybe even more powerful. This campaign will definitely be very difficult. Are we strong enough for it?” said Xunlong Dianxue, who was very familiar with the history.

“I don’t think we will just be cannon fodder. In this campaign, there will be more than 10,000 players. Worst comes to worst, we can still put up a fight,” Feng Qiuhuang said with great hopes.

“The fact is, as history proceeds to the Warring States, dominating the battlefield with the advantage of advanced equipment like the two previous campaigns will no longer be possible.”

“Heh heh, maybe we can’t, but Boss, you can still do it. Tang dynasty’s Mingguang Armor and Song Dynasty’s Buren Armor. Advanced armors like these still did not exist in the era of Warring States,” said Gong Chengshi.

“Yeah, Boss. When will Shanhai County start selling us armor and weaponry? Qin Qiong is bugging me every day for that equipment!” said Xunlong Dianxue.

“We are still trying our best to build up a military industrial system. The earliest would be next year,” said Ouyang Shuo with a bitter smile. He knew that these guys had not given up hope on laying their hands on the armor.

“Hey hey hey, get back to the main topic!” interjected Feng Qiuhuang eagerly when the three men started to change the topic. She added, “If our prediction is correct, the campaign will be very difficult. As such, we should get ready earlier.”

“But there is a problem. We don’t know what period Gaia will set the campaign. The Battle of Changping continued for three years. There are too many unstable elements,” said the frowning Xunlong Dianxue.

Xunlong Dianxue’s words were the truth. Even Ouyang Shuo was unclear about how Gaia simulated the system.

If it’s the period of time before the Battle of Changping, before the King of Zhao swapped out Lian Bo with Zhao Kuo, then both Qin and Zhao will be equally matched. As such, choosing Zhao will be easier to make a comeback. However, if Gaia chose the period of time when the Qin army had the upper hand and surrounded the Zhao army, then choosing Qin will grant them an overwhelming advantage. Making a comeback would almost be impossible in such a scenario.

“It’s no use thinking too much. Might as well just wait for the announcement of the campaign scenario and discuss the situation it again,” said the temporarily clueless Ouyang Shuo.

“Fine,” said the unsatisfied Feng Qiuhuang.

“Wuyi, don’t forget about Yanhuang Alliance,” reminded Bai Hua, “They lost so badly in the previous campaign because they were not familiar with it. Additionally, your surprising moves caught them off guard. The third campaign scenario is very predictable. Di Chen and his allies are not fools, so they can definitely make the same prediction as ours. Therefore, with that, they begin at the same starting line as us. They definitely want to one up us, so we must be prepared.”

“What’s the big deal. If they want war, we will give them war!” said Gong Chengshi with great confidence.

Ouyang Shuo did not say anything, but he nodded.

Chapter 256 - Tianmo Spear

After closing the alliance channel, Ouyang Shuo was still thinking about the 3rd campaign scenario. Thoughts like which factions to join, what strategy to use, and what to do kept on stimulating his mind.

When he is still thinking about the campaign scenario, his secretary, Lang Bainan walked in and said, “My lord, the head of Armory Division, Wang Gao, asked you to head over there to discuss the weapon crafted for you.”

Ouyang Shuo was surprised by his words. It had been five days since he handed over Wang Gao the meteorite, and it should’ve been completed by now. Why did Wang Gao ask him to head over instead of sending it straight to him?

Without thinking much, Ouyang Shuo quickly walked out of the office.

When he rushed to the Armory Division, a young blacksmith stood in front of the door. When he saw Ouyang Shuo, he walked towards him and greeted him.

Under the lead of the young blacksmith, they walked to the personal workplace of Wang Gao.

Once they entered the workplace, they were welcomed with a non-stop heat wave.

In the workplace, there were another three assistants beside Wang Gao. They were helping Wang Gao in the final quenching of the spear. When they got there, it was clearly the crucial moment, and Wang Gao was full of sweat as sweat was all over his body, evaporating as soon as it dripped onto the workbench.

The young blacksmith walked towards to Wang Gao and whispered in his ears.

Wang Gao nodded and continued his final stage of the crafting. Without anything to worry about, Ouyang Shuo decided to stay there and to observe.

Ten minutes later, Wang Gao started to wrap things up by tidying up, putting away his tools, taking a towel to wipe off his sweat, before walking over to Ouyang Shuo and greeting, “My lord!”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, “So… what’s the purpose of you calling me here?”

“Weapons are deadly and they have their own spirit. Every time a godly weapon is crafted, it will need to be showered with the blood of the owner. My lord, later you will have to drip some of your blood onto your spear as a catalyst to hasten the birth of its spirit.” Wang Gao explained.

Ouyang Shuo finally understood what he meant. It was just something like using his blood as a password to ensure the weapon could only be used by him.

Without any hesitation, he pulled out his sword dangling on his waist and opened up a cut carefully. After that, he dripped his blood into a small bowl and filled it up with his blood. An assistant then quickly handed over a bandage and help him patch up the cut even though minor injuries like this would be recovered on the spot for the likes of Ouyang Shuo.

Wang Gao took over the bowl of blood, returned to his workbench, and asked his assistant to put the spear into the furnace. Once the entire spear turned red because of the fire, Wang Gao poured Ouyang Shuo’s blood onto the spear with lightning speed.

As soon as the blood touched the spear, the blood immediately seeped into the spear. In the blink of an eye, the spear was covered with a layer of bright-red radiance. The radiance kept blinking and blinking as if it were alive.

Then, in the midst of the raging fire and bright red glowing radiance, a demonic god appeared, emitting a fierce and murderous aura.

Then lightning so bright as if it could blind eyes flashed across skies, a thunderous roar followed after the eye blinding lightning; all of these sights and sounds were caused by the birth of this incredible spear.

“Right now!” All of these unnatural fantasy phenomenons did not manage to distract Wang Gao’s focus. He remained calm and shouted at his assistant to stay with him. Together, they took the spear out and started with the final quenching, annealing, and other various processes.

When Wang Gao struck down the final hammering, he immediately collapsed. The crafting of the spear had take a toll on him and he could barely even stand even with the help of the assistant. Albeit exhausted almost to the point of fainting, Wang Gao did not show any expression of tiredness but instead, joy and a sense of accomplishment was shown all over his face.

And at the same time, the system notification rang beside Ouyang Shuo’s ears.

“System notice : Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for his blacksmith, Wang Gao, advancing into a Grandmaster Blacksmith. Rewarding him 2000 reputation points.”

Right after that, an announcement followed.

“System announcement : Congratulations to Shanhai County raising the first Grandmaster Blacksmith in the game, specially rewarding Shanhai County the title of 【The Origin of Forging】.”

Ouyang Shuo checked the stats of the title of 【The Origin of Forging】. 【The Origin of Forging】increased the smithing masteries of blacksmiths that were in the territory by 10%, and blacksmith refugees were more likely to be attracted to the territory by 15%.

The two stats were very useful. According to the prediction of Ouyang Shuo, there should be probably other titles such as 【The Origin of Tailoring】 and so on.

The level advancement of Wang Gao and the stats brought by the title of 【The Origin of Forging】 would definitely speed up the level advancement of all blacksmiths in the county and would indirectly increase the development of the military industrial complex.

After taking a moment for a short break, Wang Gao picked up the spear, walked up to Ouyang Shuo, and said, “My lord, the spear is ready, please grant the spear a name.”

According to his request, the spear weighed about 35 kg, and its length was about 380 cm with its spearhead length about 37 cm. The color of the spear was entirely black.

The most unique part of the spear was that when the spear is crafted, carvings of the demonic god automatically formed on the spear. The carvings looked so real and the spear seems like an incarnation of the demonic god. According to Wang Gao, he did not carve them onto the spear but they were formed when the blood seeped into the spear.

Ouyang Shuo then immediately associated this with his demonic god’s bloodline and said, “Since the spear is made with the meteorites’ fall from the skies and it has been nourished with the blood of the demonic god, I decide to name it the Tianmo Spear.

【Name】: Tianmo Spear (Platinum Class)

【Durability】: 75

【Sharpness】: 65

【Tenacity】: 55

【Specialty】: Demonic vampirism (Has a chance to evolve every time the spear absorbs blood)

【Description】: Made with meteorites fallen from the sky and bathed with the blood of the demonic god. After a series of mutations, it has become a godly weapon and can only used by the person who dripped his blood on it. Untradeable, unthrowable and evolvable.

If there wasn’t the blood of Ouyang Shuo who had the bloodline of the demonic god, maybe the spear would’ve been ruined, being able to reach the level of dark gold at most.

The Tianmo Spear was undoubtedly strong, equally as strong as the Qing Feng Sword of Song Jia.

However, what was most important was that the Tianmo Spear was evolvable. Its specialty, demonic vampirism, had decided that when the spear was bathed with sufficient blood of decent enemies, then it might be able to evolve into a one and only spear that was top of the world.

While he gently brushed over the spear, Ouyang Shuo said, “Tianmo Spear, follow me into the battlefields, pierce through enemy chests and bathe in their blood. Let us forge our very own undefeatable legacy!”

The spear, as if it has become alive, vibrated suddenly and it’s red radiation started glowing.

Seeing this, Ouyang Shuo could not help but to feel extremely happy. He did not know that the spear has its own spirit at all; the bloodline of the demonic god was indeed powerful. He then started to think that next time, they should do the same when they were forging higher tiers of Mingguang Armor.

Finally, after obtaining a godly weapon, Ouyang Shuo also checked its stats.

【Name】: Qiyue Wuyi

【Title 1】: Lian Zhou Marquis

【Title 2】: Patriot

【Territory】: Shanhai County

【Occupation】: General (secondary job)

【Level】: 55

【Merit】: 90500/102400 【Title】: 3rd class marquis

【Reputation】: Well known (77000/100000)

【Internal Energy】: 5800/10000

【Body structure】: 18+8 【Talent】: 21+4 【Luck】:5 【Charm】: 8

【Leadership】: 75+10 【Strength】: 38+5 【Intelligence】: 20 【Politic】:56

【Talent】: Omit

【Specialty】: Omit

【Scrolls】: 《 Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique》(4/12 layer)

【Technique】: 《Baji Fist Art》(Perform with ease) 《Yang Family Spear Technique》(Become Proficient)

【Art of War】: Omit

【Skills】: Advanced scouting, advanced weapon mastery, wild beast taming technique (basic)

【Mount】: Omit

【Equipment】: Omit

【Armor】: Omit

【Weapon】: Tianmo Spear (Platinum class)

【Unique item】: Beads of cooling, 《Treasure map of Bei Hai Harbour》

The difficulty of leveling increased even further after players managed to reach level 50. Until now it had been 5 months ever since the Battle of Zhuluo, but Ouyang Shuo only managed to level up to 55 from level 48.

Among the acquired stats, whenever the stats after deducting additional stats added by equipments reached 80 points, it would need 5 free stats to raise 1 acquired stat; after 90, the need would need 10 free stats to increase by 1.

Ouyang Shuo has decided that when 【Leadership】reached 80 points, he would try his best to pump 【Strength】to 80 points and then pump 【Leadership】again.

There was still a gap between his stats and the stats of Luo Shi Xin. The gap was even bigger when it came to Ouyang Shuo and Shi Wanshui. His stats now were just equivalent to an intermediate class officer only.

Last month, Ouyang Shuo managed to reach level 4 of the 《 Huang Di Inner Scroll ・Chapter of Ki Cultivation 》, doubling up his ki capacity, reaching the point of 10 thousand points. He could now practice it everyday, increasing his ki capacity by 10 points each by circling qi. In one day, his ki would be able to increase by 120 points, and if he wanted to level it up to level 5, it would take him a month.

The most important thing was that Ouyang Shuo felt that he has reached his limits in terms of the number of his cycling of ki, or the inner qi that he gained each time since he reached level 4.

Without any miracle or special encounter, it would be hard for him to improve again.

Among Ouyang Shuo’s equipment, his mount, armor and weapon was platinum grade. The only problem was his equipments that consist of only a black iron grade 【ring of courage】and silver grade 【strength of barbarian】.

After closing his stats window, Ouyang Shuo left the Armory Division.

When he got back to the lord’s hall, Lei Xun was already there waiting for his return. Although Lei Xun was now engaged with the training of new army recruits, the operation of the Military Intelligence Division did not stop. Hence, any important information would still be reported to Ouyang Shuo.

“My lord, the recent news of the grassland has come.”

Ouyang Shuo has already prepared himself psychologically when he saw Lei Xun. It has been 3 months since Operation Wildfire, so the balance amongst all the tribes in the grassland should’ve been disrupted by now.

In the past 3 months, Ouyang Shuo did not stop his surveillance on the grassland at all.

After Operation Wildfire, Tian Qi tribe’s western army had collapsed, and it would take some time for them to reform the army. Due to this, they also lost their deterrence ability on the smaller tribes in the west.

The intermediate-sized tribes were the first to show their fangs. They ignored the warnings given out by the Tian Qi tribe and began to invade their smaller counterparts, plundering their cattle, stealing their resources, and occupying their ranches.

The result? Tian Qi Tribe only gave out warnings, but no other actions were taken. Their attitude had been interpreted that they had lost their power, and this caused even larger-scaled uproars.

Therefore, the flame of wars began to spread across the entire grassland from west to east, then from north to south.

In a blink of an eye, war had devoured the entire grassland. The market outside of Friendship County, however, managed to benefit from the war, gaining abundant Qing Fu Warhorses to arm the entire 2nd brigade by trading food and iron with the tribes.

Chapter 257 - Bait

“According to the reports of the spies, the grassland is gradually returning to its peaceful state.”

The reports of the spies said that after 3 months of chaos, the small tribes in the grassland had been wiped out. They either joined the other medium-sized tribes or entirely moved into the Tian Qi Tribe.

“Currently, there’s only the Tian Qi Tribe in the center, and 8 other medium-sized tribes in the grassland. There’s one tribe each to the north and south, and 3 tribes each to the west and east. About Tian Feng Tribe to the north of Friendship Town, after taking over the Tian Lian Tribe, they also took over the smaller tribes in the east and became the only tribe in the entire southern side.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. He is more concerned about what the grassland tribes would do next right now.

“Are there any signs that the medium-sized tribes are forming an alliance?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

According to the usual strategies, forming up together and eliminating the Tian Qi tribe was the best way out. The only problem now was even though Tian Qi Tribe suffered some losses, they still remained the biggest power in the entire grassland. It would be difficult for the medium-sized tribes to invade Tian Qi Tribe as they had been living under the shadow of Tian Qi Tribe for too long.

“Eight medium-sized tribes did form an alliance, but they lack people who are strong enough to guide them. The alliance is way too fragile with their weak management. In contrast, the tribes to the east and west had some arguments when they invaded the smaller tribes. It would be difficult for them to form an alliance.”

Ouyang Shuo smirked coldly and said, “Heh, this is the human nature. They might even want to destroy each other and loot their possessions.”

“My wise lord, it is indeed like what you said.”

“But the problem is, how are we supposed to interfere to stir up chaos again?”

As one of the three heads of the Military Intelligence Division, Lei Xun had his very own unique insights and was sensitive about things like this. Suddenly, a thought occurred to him and he quickly said, “My lord, there’s another report. According to the spies, after taking over the lands of the eastern small tribes, Tian Feng Tribe has now placed their eyes on Friendship City.”

Ouyang Shuo said coldly, “You’re saying that Tian Feng Tribe is planning to invade Friendship City?”

“Probably. My lord, the market outside Friendship City has a significant amount of trading every day. The tribes were busy raiding the smaller tribes, so they could only obediently trade for resources in the market. But now, since the war is over, their nature has decided that they might want to raid Friendship City.” interpreted Lei Xun calmly.

Ouyang Shuo suddenly had an idea as soon as he heard Lei Xun’s report and he said, “If so, let us wipe out the entire Tian Feng Tribe and interfere with the matters on the grassland directly. If I’m not wrong, it’s not only Tian Feng Tribe that is eyeing Friendship City; the other tribes are also the same.”

“But,” said the hesitate Lei Xun, “If so, wouldn’t we cause the other tribes to team up and resist us together?”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, “There’s a possibility that this will happen. So we have to do one thing, which is to crumble their alliance and divert their attention. Didn’t you say that the eastern and southern tribes are in bad condition? Arrange some spies to incite the hatred between the two and stir up a war between them.”

“Understood.” Suddenly, Lei Xun felt like his responsibility increased greatly.

From the 2nd of November to the 5th of November, the peaceful state of the grassland did not last long and it became noisy again.

In just a few days, on the eastern and southern borders, there had been more than 5 raids within the borders of 6 medium-sized tribes’ territories. The raiders seemed to be very experienced; they had a clear target and they left no survivors.

Blood spilled everywhere in the ruins of the tribes, showing the cruelty that happened to them.

All the evidence shows that the murderers crossed the borders and raided these tribes. Because of this, the hatred amongst the tribe people has been pushed to an even higher level. Now, they were always asking their chiefs to declare war on their enemies.

However, the higher ups in the tribe would not act rashly. They were worried that those with ill intentions were seeking to destroy the alliance, and tried to solve the problem peacefully.

However, before they could finish their investigation, the nobles among the tribes were being assassinated; they either died silently in their tents or in the wilderness.

Suddenly, the situation made all of them jittery.

And it was at this moment, that the 2nd brigade garrisoned in the city north camp left the camp using the name of training. Without hiding their tracks, they crossed Friendship river and mysteriously disappeared.

As soon as the brigade left, a huge amount of iron and food had been transported to Friendship City and stored in the warehouse of the market. They were kept just like that, lying in the bare eyes of these tribal people who were trading in the market.

Tian Feng Tribe, Chief’s Tent

“Chief, this is a great chance, we must not hesitate anymore!”

As the neighbor of Friendship City, the movements of the market and city north camp would surely be noticed by the Tian Feng Tribe. They already had their eyes on Friendship City before this, and once they got the news, they were even more agitated.

“That’s right, chief, we only need 1000 men, and we can surely take down the market.”

Dariachi sat at the head; his brows were locked and his voice was solemn. “Use your brains; their actions are too dubious. This is clearly a trap.”

“Chief, whether or not it is a trap, in the end, it’d all come to the sizes of our fists. As long as we’ve taken down the market, what can the Friendship City military to do us? Even if it was a trap, we would still beat them down to the ground, and make them soak in their blood.” The one who spoke was Dariachi’s side arm, a general of the tribe, Huqitu.

“Yes, yes, that’s right!” Huqitu’s words were resonant to the others.

Even Daraichi was moved. He would be lying if he said that he was not tempted by the resources in the market. However, as the chief of the tribe, he needed to look further and deeper for the sake of his tribe, taking in every possibility into consideration. “Huqitu, your words are right. But what concerns me is the assaults that kept happening in the savanna lately; this place is now like an active volcano that would erupt at any time. This is really not a good time to stir up any more trouble.”

“Chief, in my opinion, this is exactly why we should act more decisively. Seize the opportunity and earn ourselves a substantial amount of ore and food. They will be the assurance of our survival.” Huqitu was staunch and firm, and he said this with determination.

Huqitu’s opinion had echoed with those of the tribe heads.

Dariachi sighed in his heart. Huqitu’s words were too vigorous, making him to think that he was really too conservative. In order to strive for a high place in the world, caution was needed, but excessive caution would eventually turn into timidity, and would allow countless golden opportunities to slip past his grasp.

Chapter 258- The Army at the Border

The Chinese had a saying. ‘If the time was right, one would reap all the benefits; however, if the timing was wrong, one would suffer the consequences.’

"Good!" Dariachi decided. "Huqitu, I order you to lead 1000 men and take down the trading market." Dariachi lost his usual calm demeanor. Under the temptation of victory and profits, under the pushing of the noble families, his blood boiled.

"Okay!" Huqitu was highly confident.

11th month 6th day

Huqitu led his army, suddenly crossing the city protection river and attacking the trading market which was totally defenseless.

The army chased away all the merchants that were there, plundering the entire trading market. They didn't forget to set fire to and destroy the entire place.

As the fire spread and rose into the sky, the army brought their large amounts of trophies and items and left.

The trading market outside of Friendship City was an important trading spot between Shanhai City and the nomad tribes. Every tribe, including the Tian Qi tribe, had merchants housed there.

The action of the Tian Feng Tribe was like a whirlwind, and it spread across the entire grassland.

When all the tribes learned of the news, there were some who envied and others who were jealous. Many even regretted, regretted that they weren't the ones who thought about that.

The victors were naturally delighted, and when huge amounts of ores and grain were transported back to their tribe, the entire tribe was bustling, and they held a huge feast the same day.

Even Dariachi couldn't believe what had happened and felt fortunate that he didn't miss the opportunity.

Based on the calculations, the amount of grain could last the tribe for half a year. The ores was enough to make numerous arrows, knives and armor.

The Tian Feng Tribe were now a step closer to becoming the overlords of the grasslands.

The second day, before the celebratory spirit of the tribe had even passed, the messenger from Friendship City had arrived.

The messenger warned Tian Feng Tribe of their actions and demanded that the tribe return all their goods and 500 Qingfu horses back as compensation.

"Haha~Haha~" the words of the messenger attracted the mocking laughs of the tribesmen.

The messenger kept calm and his facial expression didn't change.

Dariachi sat in his tent, shaking his head in amusement. "And what if I don't?"

"If you decline, then we can only go to war."

"Such big words, do you know who you're talking to?" Huqitu chided, the success of the robbery had made his prestige rise and he was now seen as the tribe hero.

The messenger's eyes froze and he turned towards Hu Qitu, saying calmly, "This must be the general that robbed the trading market? My lord has said that such evil must be ended!"

"You!" Huqitu was furious. "Such courage, I'm going to kill you." As he said that, he pulled out the crescent knife by his side and leapt towards the messenger.

"Slow down!" Suddenly, Dariachi stopped Huqitu. He was puzzled and asked, "What did you say just now, lord? A small Friendship City and he dares call himself lord?"

Facing such a forceful opposition, the messenger didn't fear and continued to keep a straight face. Hearing Dariachi's words he turned around and said, "You insulted my lord and now there's no road to reconciliation, goodbye!"

"Stop!" Huqitu shouted and laughed coldly, "You still want to leave?"

"Why? You want to kill me, a messenger?"

"Stupid messenger, go to hell!" Huqitu raised his crescent knife and chopped down.

"Hold your blade!" Dariachi shouted and said solemnly, "We Chinese have a saying, two countries have a war, but we don't kill the messengers. We can't let them say that we are uncultured; let him leave."

"Chief!" Huqitu was a bit reluctant.

"I said, let him go!" Dariachi was furious that Huqitu was getting a bit out of control.

"Okay!" Huqitu was a smart person and when he felt the unhappiness in the voice of the tribal leader, he backed down.

Dariachi looked at the messenger and said, "Go back and tell your so called lord and ask him to not look for humiliation."

The messenger shook his head in amusement and walked away.

Long before the Military Intelligence Division sent out their spies, the Military Affairs Department had started to move their army.

The Tian Feng tribe's population had broken 8000. Based on the tradition that all members of the tribe were warriors, the original 1000 man army was expanded to 3000.

For this battle, Ouyang Shuo didn't shift over the city’s western and eastern camp forces. They were clearing out raiders, and to call them over would not only cause panic to the commoners, but even alert the raider leaders.

The forces that were sent included the 2nd regiment of the 1st division, the Guards regiment, the Shanhai City city protection regiment, Qiushui City’s city protection regiment, and Friendship City’s city protection regiment, a total of five regiments and 12,500 people.

Apart from the Shanhai City’s city protection regiment, the other 2 city protection regiments were just built. After forming, they didn't have chance to join in any practical battles so their combat strength was a little weaker.

What Ouyang Shuo mainly relied on were the Guards regiment and the 2nd regiment. Both of them were well equipped with Qingfu horses, Mingguang armor, and horse lances.

The 2nd regiment's Qingfu horses already had defensive armor, and could be called a real heavy armored cavalry. As for the Guards regiment, to maintain mobility, they gave up on the horse’s defensive armor.

The sudden military action had caused all military training in the western suburbs to stop.

To avoid raising any suspicion, the 10 man teaching group from the Rattlesnake mercenary group was sent back to Jianye and would return after the war.

Gaia first year 11th month 8th day, Friendship City

On the city walls, the lord flag of Shanhai City slowly rose and under the shine of the sunlight, looked majestic. It announced the power of Shanhai City, and that it was finally baring its fangs.

Facing the sun, the five regiments formed up neatly and waited for the lord's appraisal.

Ouyang Shuo was accompanied by Wang Feng and Lin Yi, climbing up the high platform, scrutinizing the forces, and also to chiding the Tianfeng Tribe forces for going against their partnership to destroy the trading market. Not only that, they also refused to cooperate and looked down on Shanhai City. For the sake of their honor, they could only fight.

"Fight! Fight! Fight!" Over 10 thousand warriors bellowed. The aura of the army swept around like they wanted to drown the grasslands and dye it red.

Ouyang Shuo stood up on the high platform and helped command and lead the troops. Seeing such morale, it made Ouyang Shuo's blood boil.

Chapter 259- Surrendering Without Fighting

With such great men, such a strong army would definitely be able to sweep the Earth.

Ouyang Shuo started to give instructions to the generals, "Wang Feng!"

"Present!" Wang Feng stepped out and knelt with one knee of the ground.

"You will lead the Guards regiment and be in charge of the left."

"Yes, my lord!"

"Lin Yi!!"

"Present!" Lin Yi stepped out.

"You will lead the 2nd regiment and be in charge of the right."

"Yes, my lord!"

For the left and right wings, Ouyang Shuo arranged the elite cavalry forces. The three city protection regiments were arranged in the center with Ouyang Shuo personally leading them. Shanhai City and Friendship City’s city protection regiments would lead the charge while Qiushui City’s city protection squad would act as the reserve. In the regiment itself, the archers would be in front, the sword shield soldiers at the back, and the cavalry at the wings.

Such a formation was invincible.

After which, Ouyang Shuo pulled out his Tang Blade and shouted, "Let's go!"

The giant army formation started to move. Apart from footsteps and the hooves of the war horses, nothing else was heard. The army went across the city protection river and marched straight for the Tian Feng Tribe.

Dariachi obviously didn't just lie there and wait. Although he appeared arrogant when he met the messenger, in truth after the messenger left he had been preparing for defense against Friendship City and didn't put down his guard.

Such a large scale military movement naturally couldn't escape his eyes.

Facing the huge army, no one wouldn't cower in fear. The cavalry troops that were training in the city north camp had returned at the right time too.

When the lord flag rose up on the walls of Friendship City, this was when Dariachi knew that Friendship City was just a subsidiary territory.

At this point, this was when Dariachi understood the true meaning of why the messenger had said ‘Lord.’

A person who didn't sweep the four corners and hold a lot of land wouldn't be called a lord.

In the tribe tent, Dariachi frowned.

He raged. "Scheme, this is a scheme. A huge scheme targeting our Tian Feng tribe."

The joy of victory had faded and what remained was endless regret.

Truthfully, Ouyang Shuo's actions were throwing bait. Sending the messenger was done so as to earn the moral high ground. In such a way, Tian Feng tribe was despicable, and naturally they wouldn't be able to make the other tribes join them.

"Chief, what should we do now?" The tribe nobles were like panicking birds and were terrified.

"What can we do? We can only fight," Huqitu said.

"Shut up!" Dariachi fumed. If it weren't for Huqitu persuading him and pushing him, he wouldn't have caused such a problem.

"General Hu must be joking; the enemy is 10,000 men strong, how can we fight?" The noble families were unhappy.

When attacking the trading market, the noble families admired and supported Huqitu. Now that the situation has changed, so did their attitudes as they all blamed him for his reckless act.

Everyone knew that when attacking the trading market, the ones that were the most eager were also this bunch of people.

Being dissed by both the tribe leader and the noble families, Huqitu was totally red and said ruthlessly, "How can their combat strength compare to that of our grassland men?"

Dariachi shook his head and didn't bother about Huqitu, turning around and looking at everyone. "The only plan now is to ask for help. What are your opinions?"

"Ask for help? From whom? It was our fault and the other tribes are laughing at us! If they don't strike us when we are down we should be happy. Why will they help us?"

"That's right!"

Dariachi supported his forehead with his hand as he had an intense headache. He said with annoyance, "This can't work, that can't work... so what should we do?"

All of the noble families looked at one another, all of them not knowing what to do.

"Why don’t we return the stuff to them?" One of the members said meekly.

"It's too late, if we had agreed with the messenger, it all would be ok. We rejected it and since the enemy has gathered their army, they won't let it rest.”

In the tent, the atmosphere became very suppressive.

At this point, a noble family member stood up and suggested, "Why dont... why don’t we surrender?"

The moment his words came out, everyone panicked as if he had opened a Pandora's box.

"Surrender?" Everyone stuttered.

"We can't. We are the children of the grassland; how can we surrender without fighting?" Huqitu shouted with discontentment.

Dariachi felt a shiver in his heart. He knew that the worst outcome was about to arrive. He had no power to prevent the fear and cowardice amongst the noble families.

One shouldn't treat the noble families as mice. In truth, they were the real core of the tribe and held all the power.

Since they wanted to surrender, even if as the leader he didn't agree, he wouldn't be able to control the army. The logistics of the army was controlled by all these noble families.

Dariachi closed his eyes; his ambition to be an overlord had ended.

After a long while, he opened his eyes and said, "Hai Rigu, about the surrender, you go and handle it!"

Hai Rigu was the guy who suggested the surrender. He stood up and said, "Ok!"

"Tribe leader, we can't. Our boys still can fight!" Huqitu tried to stop it.

"Men!" Dariachi didn't even look at Huqitu and instead called his Guards.

"Present!" Four Guards entered the tent.

"Capture Huqitu and throw him in jail!" Dariachi knew that one of the messenger's conditions was to hand him over.

To prevent accidents from happening, Dariahci had to lock up Huqitu.

"Tribe leader!" Huqitu had a face full of shock and was speechless.

Truthfully, he was the right-hand man of Dariahci and about locking him up, Dariahci couldn't bear to do it. Unfortunately, the situation forced his hand, and he had no choice.

"Capture him!" Dariahci couldn't bear to look on as he ruthlessly ordered.

"Yes!" The guards were all extremely loyal to the tribe leader. Although they were surprised, they did their jobs without hesitation.

Huqitu's heart turned cold and he stopped resisting.

"Disperse!"

He had failed his mission of becoming an overlord. His usual energy and spirit faded along with it. The noble families, upon seeing that, who knew what they felt in their hearts as they left silently one by one.

Chapter 260- Without Bloodshed

To be able to take down Tian Feng Tribe without any bloodshed was totally unexpected.

As the army reached the outer regions of the Tian Feng Tribe territory, they were faced with Hai Rigu, who hurried over and surrendered.

After understanding his intentions, Ouyang Shuo didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He didn't expect his actions to have such a good effect, able to help him persuade them without using a single troop.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo didn't put down his guard and ordered his troops to advance forward.

The huge army was like a whirlwind as they blew toward the Tian Feng tribe. Further away, one could see some light armored cavalry, which were scouts sent by the other tribes.

Ouyang Shuo didn't stop them and instead just showed off the military might of Shanhai City. The nomad tribes were like that; they feared the strong and bullied the weak.

Under the sky and white clouds, the tens of thousands of men army moved forward in an orderly manner. If one personally saw it, one would be awed. The biggest tribe in the grasslands, the Tian Qi tribe, only had 10 thousand men.

After arriving in the Tian Feng tribe camp, the nomads all walked out curiously. Seeing such a huge army formation, they all felt fortunate that they didn't choose war. If not, all of them would have probably perished on the battlefield.

Ouyang Shuo ordered the Friendship City’s city protection regiment to enter the camp and take over the defensive work. Following which, they would be to take over all the equipment and disarm the 3000 man army.

To surrender without fighting, be it the army or the commoners, they all were still a little wary and unsubmissive. Ouyang Shuo naturally would be careful in case they turned around to bite him.

Only after finishing with all the stuff did he not worry and start to meet the important people of the tribe.

Tian Feng Tribe tent

Ouyang Shuo was respectfully invited to sit; Dariachi brought all the noble families and bowed down to their new lord.

"Greetings to the lord!"

Ouyang Shuo noticed that his eyes were a little sour, and when he kneeled, he was unwilling.

As things were rushed, Ouyang Shuo didn't know what to do with them. "The many of you are sincere in surrendering, I feel very happy, so would all of you move to Shanhai City and enjoy our riches?"

The noble families all look at one another. This was another way of saying he wanted to keep a lookout on all of them.

As they had no choice, they could only agree with it.

Since the enemy took the initiative to surrender, Ouyang Shuo naturally wouldn't kill everyone and do anything stupid. To leave all these noble families in the tribe, however, Ouyang Shuo was worried. To bring them over to Shanhai City and spend the rest of their lives there was the best choice.

With that, they could act as a sign to the other tribes. If any of them couldn't survive and had no way out, surrendering was still a good choice.

Following which would be dealing strictly with the tribe.

In the long run, taking down the Tian Feng tribe had huge meaning. It announced the entry of Shanhai City into the grasslands, and acted as a springboard for the future.

As for the short term gain, what was most important was to obtain the Qingfu horses and the 3000 elite soldiers.

Based on his calculation, apart from the 6000 Qingfu horses prepared for 3000 of them, the Tian Feng tribe still had 3500 more.

The 3000 elite were separated by Ouyang Shuo and sent to the 2nd, 4th and 5th regiments. The 3000 cavalry that were replaced would become a part of the independent division and housed in the city north camp.

Out of the generals, the leaders of 10 men were appointed sergeants, and those with 100 under them were appointed lieutenants. As for the 3 with 1000 under them, they faced a different fate.

This wasn’t mentioning Huqitu, who was locked up. He would be sent to Shanhai City prison and spend his days there.

Of the remaining two, one was called Mori Genhe. He was 45 and was an old and experienced person. Ouyang Shuo arranged for him to retire and spend his old days in Shanhai City.

The one that Ouyang Shuo admired was the young man.

He was 26 and was given his name in the grasslands. He wasn't part of the tribe and was from a small tribe that was destroyed by Tian Feng tribe. Dariachi admired his qualities and broke the rule to allow him to lead 1000 men.

Name: Shaobu

Identity: Shanhai City Resident

Occupation: Intermediate General

Loyalty: 75

Command: 55

Force: 70

Intelligence: 42

Politics: 24

Specialty: Charging Assault (Raise movement speed by 10%), Shooting (Raise bow attacks by 10%)

Cultivation Method:

Equipment: Sediao Bow

Evaluation: Trained in archery since he was young, highly accurate. He has a carefree personality and cares for his subordinates.

After taking a look at his stats, Ouyang Shuo didn't hesitate and immediately named him the colonel of the independent regiment. With someone who was familiar with the grassland tribes, Ouyang Shuo believed that the city north camp was as strong as rock.

With the reorganization complete, the 2nd, 4th, 5th and independent regiments as well as Guards regiment all had Qingfu horses. The remaining 2000 were sent to the Jifeng Valley horse stables.

About the Tian Feng tribe’s main camp, Ouyang Shuo decided to change it into the city north camp. The general in charge would be Lin Yi, and Shaobu would be the deputy.

Apart from the noble families who were moved to Shanhai City, the normal farmers and herders were now under Friendship City. As they were nomads, Ouyang Shuo allowed them to make settlements outside of the city.

As for the destroyed trading market, as the times changed, it lost its use and there was no tribe willing to come over to trade. Hence, Ouyang Shuo didn't rebuild it.

The change with Tian Feng tribe had stunned and shocked all the other grassland tribes. Only then did they know that farther south was a territory known as Shanhai City which was staring at and observing them.

All of the sudden, a feeling of danger swept over them. Tian Feng tribe surrendering without fighting was the best show of strength. Needless to say, after the surrender, Shanhai City's strength would increase once again.

Facing such a change, those cowardly tribes decided to group up. The ambitious ones turned their attention to their neighbours as the best way to gain a foothold, and was naturally to expand one's own strength.

These medium-sized tribes didn't dare target Shanhai City. Tian Feng tribe was the example, and they didn't want to take the risk as who knew how many more troops Shanhai City still had.

Chapter 261- Flagrantly Declaring War

After he had finished dealing with the Tianfeng tribe matters, two days had already passed.

Just as he was on the way back to Shanhai City, a system notification sounded out.

"System notification: 100 cities have been successfully upgraded in the Chinese region, initiating the 3rd battle map, the Battle of Changping, which will start in 3 days. Please look forward to it. Friendly reminder: Only territories city grade and above can participate."

It was unexpected but logical.

The requirements to join the Battle of Changping had shot up a notch, only city grade and above, which meant that there would be less than 100 lords that joined.

Such a setting was undoubtedly to widen the gap between the lord gamemode players. Those who hadn't upgraded their territories to city level would lose their chance to join, which also meant they lost the chance to get merit points.

This meant that their road to upgrading their city would become harder and more tumultuous.

One could predict that missing out on such an opportunity would mean losing out on the chance to sweep the world. Apart from a few lucky ones who managed to chase up, the rest were pretty much destined to be swallowed up.

As many territories upgraded to city grade, more and more territorial wars had started to occur. Shanhai City wasn't the only one. The only thing special about Shanhai City was that it took things a step further.

As threats were removed one by one, Ouyang Shuo had set his sights on taking over the entire Lianzhou Basin. Of course, the prerequisite would be the first upgrade to a prefecture.

Shanhai City's population was nearing the 100 thousand max, and was ready to upgrade.

After the Battle of Changping, Ouyang Shuo would apply to upgrade. However, he himself didn't know what test he would face to upgrade to a prefecture.

Just as he was thinking about the future, an eye-boggling message appeared on the country channel.

"Di Chen: Qiyue Wuyi, during the Battle of Changping, the Yanhuang Alliance will choose the camp of Zhao Country, will Shanhai Alliance accept our battle and go against us?"

The players were in an uproar. This was the 2nd time Di Chen had challenged Ouyang Shuo.

The only difference was that this time he did it using the name of the Yanhuang Alliance. Obviously they had came to an agreement in this matter, and this wasn't the act of Di Chen alone.

Most importantly, everyone knew that the Qin Country had won the Battle of Changping.

For the Yanhuang Alliance to choose the losing camp, this meant that they were confident in rewriting history.

Such an attitude was something Ouyang Shuo had to deeply consider.

Ouyang Shuo kept quiet. Anyone with a brain would be able to guess that they had some insider news about the Battle of Changping, and had been preparing for that. That was the only reason why they had the confidence to challenge Shanhai Alliance.

This time, the situation was totally against them.

Before Ouyang Shuo could say anything, the alliance channel was already in an uproar. Especially Gong Chengshi, who was the fiercest and wanted a one vs one against Di Chen.

Even the normally quiet Xunlong Dianxue and the others were furious and wanted to accept the battle. Only Feng Qiuhuang said out loud the conjecture similar to Ouyang Shuo’s. Even so she couldn't calm everyone down.

"Wuyi, what are your thoughts?"

Everyone went silent, as everyone left the decision in the hands of Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo laughed. "If he wants a war, let's have one."

"Great!" Everyone came to the agreement that the honor and position of Shanhai Alliance shouldn't and wouldn't be challenged.

Even though he made such a comment, he didn't underestimate his opponent, as this was a war that he couldn't afford to lose.

The next day, the members of the Shanhai Alliance gathered in Shanhai City to discuss strategy.

Out of all of them, only Wufu was visiting Shanhai City for the first time. For the village building quest, he was like Bai Hua and Xunlong Dianxue, obtaining a silver village creation token, and also a king rank summoning token. Unfortunately, he summoned a civil servant, who was of no use in battle.

Similar to Wufu was Xiong Ba. During the Battle of Muye, Ouyang Shuo didn't see any historical general by his side.

Only beside Wandering Magic was a historical general.

The last time Bai Hua and the others came to Shanhai City, it was when Shanhai Town was trying to upgrade. Half a year had passed, and the city had changed a lot. Apart from the lord's manor, everything looked different.

Even the lord's manor had a huge change, with a huge "Lianzhou Lord's Manor” plaque hanging outside. Wufu said with envy, "When can my lord's manor also have such a sign?"

"You ah, give up!" Xunlong Dianxue dissed him.

"Wuyi, you really shock us time after time!" Bai Hua was amazed; the development of Shanhai City was unable to help motivate members, only making them worship and envy him.

"I came this time to take a look and learn from brother Wuyi." Wufu, who was keeping quiet, couldn't help but laugh.

Shanhai City's organization was a life-sized encyclopedia.

Ouyang Shuo laughed. "Let's talk in the manor." He led them into the hall in the front courtyard.

Out of the members, Wufu and Song Wen were new members, so they made use of this chance to get to know the other members.

"For this battle, what thoughts do all of you have?" Ouyang Shuo asked. All those seated were elites amongst lords. Even though they didn't have much understanding of the Battle of Changping, they had enough time to search up details about it.

Feng Qiuhuang was one of the most excited and said, "This battle is of utmost importance. For the Yanhuang Alliance to take the initiative, there are pros and cons."

"How so?"

"The pros don't need to be said. In the last two battles, Wuyi is the example. He made early preparations specifically for the battle. Be it the south-pointing chariot or the crossbow machine, it decided the battle. This time, Yanhuang Alliance has went all out and if they fail, they are ruined."

Bai Hua frowned. "We can't be so optimistic. Di Chen and the others have been bullied by Wuyi so many times and have already learned their lesson. Without some confidence, they wouldn't have provoked us in the country channel.”

Ouyang Shuo shook his head in amusement. How did he become a bully in her eyes?

Feng Qiuhuang didn't deny it and said, "I'm not blindly optimistic. Compared to the Yanhuang Alliance, we have an advantage; our ranks are much higher than them."

Chapter 262- Pride

"Out of all their ranks, the highest is only 2nd rank earl, and can only bring 1000 troops. Our big brother can bring 10 thousand troops, the same as 20 new lords. Adding all of us, we will have over 20 thousand and would be above 25% of the troops in the battle." Gong Chengshi agreed.

"Don't forget that the Battle of Changping is a battle of million troops. What can our 20 thousand do? The one that decides the victory is the troops of the two nations." Xunlong Dianxue wasn't as optimistic.

Ouyang Shuo didn't join in the discussion, and when they talked about troops, he then opened his mouth. "What use 20 thousand men can be of depends on what kind of troops we bring."

"Wuyi is right. Although we can't be the core, we can be the joker or the trump card." Feng Qiuhuang agreed.

"Seems like I need to bring out my elite troops again."

"Aiya, stop being so secretive. What troops should we bring?" Mulan Yue grumbled.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Qushou and asked, "About this question, it’s better for him to answer."

As the military advisor of the alliance, Qushou was very capable. With the help of Gaia, all these historical people had great knowledge of war, and one didn't need to specifically brief them on anything.

He stood up and bowed to everyone. "Out of the three types, infantry, cavalry and archers, archers aren't useful as the Qin country's infantry and cavalry like close combat. In such a chaotic battle it will be hard to use archers. Out of all the troops of the alliance, apart from the heavy armored mountain barbarian infantry from Shanhai City, the rest can't measure up to the infantry of the Qin Country. Hence, we can only send out cavalry."

"But after the Zhao Country revolution when they started to use cavalry with lighter armor who could bows, their cavalry are the best. Can this work?" Xunlong Dianxue questioned.

"I agree with Qushou." Ouyang Shuo said, "In this battle, Shanhai City will send 10 thousand elite cavalry. Before and after the war, the situations are different. Before the Spring and Autumn Period, war was just people lining up at a set location and fighting head on. They were like noble family battles where customs and manners were important. The Battle of Zhuolu and the Battle of Muye were such battles."

"During the Warring States Era, war became about killing and taking important land, and there weren't such rules anymore. The Battle of Changping was a typical battle of attrition, and it's important for one to be quick and flexible. No matter how strong their cavalry is, we have no choice and can only choose to send out cavalry."

The hall was totally silent, and everyone was digesting the new information.

"Big brother, you aren't going to bring such a strong force like the heavy armored infantry?" Gong Chengshi asked with doubt.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. "To tell the truth, we only have 2000 heavy armored infantry. Their armor is only good as defense, and in such a big battle, they won't be able to be of any use. They also won't be able to work together and assist the Qin Country soldiers, so there's no point bringing them."

"Since big brother has made such a decision, I've nothing to say. I'll bring all cavalry." Gong Chengshi laughed and firmly believed in Ouyang Shuo.

The others all nodded in agreement to Qushou and Ouyang Shuo's views.

Seeing that the various lords had reached an agreement, he said, "There's also another thing I have to remind everyone."

"Please speak!"

"In the Battle of Changping, the preparations for a long term war done by the Zhao Country was much better than Qin Country. Although the Qin Country accumulated a lot of grain, for them to become edible was difficult. Hence, it’s best if you all bring a bunch of military grain pills to reduce to burden on Qin Country."

Ouyang Shuo didn’t hide the manuals that he bought to build military grain pills and military tents from his allies and told them all about the manuals. Hence, apart from Stone City and Tianshuang City, the rest all were able to produce the two resources.

Ouyang Shuo estimated that Di Chen and his alliance most probably bought the manuals too. They had experts survey the market, and after the Battle of Zhuolu, they definitely wouldn't give up on such good weapons.

After the military discussion, Feng Qiuhuang asked another question. " Wuyi, do you want to contact some other lords to invite them to join the Qin Country camp?"

Ouyang Shuo frowned. "Do you think that Di Chen would take the chance to invite other lords to create an imbalance of players?" Ouyang Shuo immediately understood her meaning.

"Based on my understanding of them, they will definitely do that. They know that they can't beat us head on, so they have to scheme, and they are really good at that."

"That's right, during the territory acquisition wave, the medium and large powers bought many territories, and many of them have relationships with the Yanhuang Alliance." Song Wen suddenly said. He was the earliest beneficiary, and thus he understood.

Tianshuang City made use of the power of the Song family to get into the top 100 territories. Similarly, the people who acquired those territories had naturally became frontrunners in the game.

"How could commoners compete against the rich families?" Wufu had mocked. He was looked down upon and not trusted by Di Chen, thus he was forced to join Shanhai Alliance for protection. As such, he had many thoughts about this topic.

Ouyang Shuo kept silent. Whether he liked it or not, Shanhai Alliance and Yanhuang Alliance represented these two powers. Although the line wasn't so clear, with Shanhai Alliance having Feng Qiuhuang and Song Wen, and Yanhuang Alliance also having commoners like Wandering Magic.

"What do you all feel?" Ouyang Shuo didn't make a decision by himself.

"I think that this situation is all self volunteering. Both sides have made it clear which camp we chose, which team they support, and each lord would have his or her consideration. If they trust us, they will definitely join the Qin Country camp." Xunlong Dianxue saw it very clearly.

"That's right." Gong Chengshi agreed.

Bai Hua didn't object. After all, everyone had some pride and wouldn't want to beg others.

Ouyang Shuo had an idea himself and exclaimed, “Great, that's settled. We will be ready to face all situations. I would like to see how much influence Shanhai Alliance has on all the players.”

Chapter 263- Battle of Changping

After sending off the members of Shanhai Alliance, Ouyang Shuo started to make some final preparations for his army.

The army that he sent included the Guards regiment led by Wang Feng, the 2nd regiment led by Lin Yi, the light armored cavalry’s 4th regiment led by Luo Shixin, as well as the independent regiment’s light armored cavalry led by Shao Bu.

The 1st regiment guarded the city west camp, the 3rd regiment guarded the city east camp. Sun Chuan Lin led the 5th regiment to guard the city north camp, and the remaining 500 cavalry from the independent regiment guarded the city north camp.

Of course the two generals Shi Wanshui and Er'Lai would follow them to battle.

As they were all cavalry, they were able to all gather in the main camp within a day. As for logistics, Ouyang Shuo took 200 thousand military grain pills, which would last them 20 days. If one counted the war horses, then it would last 10 days.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to bring more, but firstly, the storage bag had a limited space, and secondly, the production speed of the military factory was limited. These 200 thousand pills were 1.5 months of hard work.

Hence, unless Qin didn't have enough food, Ouyang Shuo wouldn't make use of these.

Based on the calculation of one military grain pill being 1 copper, 200 thousand would equal 2000 gold. Adding the 10 thousand gold in teleportation costs, before the battle began, he had already spent 12 thousand. If he didn't gain anything from this battle, he would’ve lost a lot.

Gaia first year 11th month 14th day, 9 AM

The system notification sounded punctually.

"System notification: 262 B.C. the Qin army attacked the Han and took over Yewang. Their king was willing to give up Shangdou to stop the Qin troops. However, the shogun of the prefecture wasn't willing to surrender to the Qin, and instead sent someone to surrender to the Zhao instead. Zhao King naturally happily accepted them. The Qin King was furious and ordered his troops to attack Shangdou while the Zhao King sent troops to defend it, resulting in a standstill at Changping."

"In the third year, the Qin sent a large army to attack the Zhao. In the 7th month, the Zhao sent Zhao Kuo to lead the troops. The Qin secretly appointed Baiqi as the general and he attacked Zhao Kuo's weakness of being too arrogant. He acted like he was losing and backed off, drawing the Zhao troops out of their base and into a trap. They were surrounded and easily slaughtered, gaining victory for the Qin. The 3rd historical battle- Battle of Changping, officially begins!"

Shanhai City's 10 thousand elite cavalry were gathered in the square with all their equipment.

As usual, he had to verify requirements to join the battle, the number of people joining, and choose a camp.

"System Notification: Congratulations Player Qiyue Wuyi for activating battle teleportation. Teleporting 10 thousand men, deducting 10 thousand gold in fees."

"System Notification: Commencing Teleportation!"

After a short distortion in space, Ouyang Shuo and his troops appeared in the Changping battlefield.

"System Notification: Welcome player Qiyue Wuyi to the base of the Qin- Guanglang City."

On 262 B.C. the Qin gained the important city of the Han- Yewang.

It was a crucial point where the people in the Shangdou prefecture of the Han could contact those south of the Yellow River, who were also of the Han.

Losing Yewang meant that communications north of Taihang were cut off from the the capital, Xingzhen. As Shangdou was a region with few people, and to them it was just dead land, they decided to exchange it for peace and give it up to the Qin. However the shogun Feng Ting gave it to the Zhao instead, causing a war between Zhao and Qin over Shangdou, starting the Battle of Changping.

At that point, the Zhao court had an intense debate on whether or not to accept Shangdou, the king of the plains Zhaosheng felt that not using a single soldier and getting Shangdou was a great deal and he supported accepting it; the King of Pingyang Zhaobao felt that fighting against Qin would cause them to lose, so he resolutely disagreed against the deal.

Zhao Kuo on the other hand analyzed that the Zhao had to accept Shangdou.

If the Qin gained Shangdou and took control of Juhu Pass, and took over the 4th pass in the east, the Fukou Pass at Taixing, they could easily attack the capital of Zhao, Handan.

Hence because of that, Shangdou was useless to Han, but it was a matter of life or death for the Zhao. The Qin were on the surface fighting the Han for Shangdou, but in truth they were making preparations to attack the Zhao. Hence, no matter whether they accepted or not, they had to fight them. If they accepted, they could make preparations and defences. As such, it was the smarter choice.

In 262 B.C. General Lianpo from the Zhao accepted Shangdou and set up defences at Changping to stop the Qin army. The reason he chose Changping was because of the environment’s conditions.

Firstly, Changping had the best geological and strategic places in all of Shangdou. The region was mainly hills. It had many mountains but also many plains. The main river was the Dan River, and there were 5 smaller rivers, the Dongcang River, Xiaodong River, Dongda River, Liuxu River, and Yonglu River, which covered the whole area.

This kind of geography was good for battle. Mountainous ground made attacking risky. Especially from the west and north where there were the Gaoyu Pass, Changping Pass, Gu Pass, etc. where they could fortify and defend; the hills could allow troops to move secretly without much difficulty. The river and the plains aided the transportation of resources and troops, also solving the problem of food. Everything adding together was beneficial to the defenders and not the attackers.

Secondly, no matter if the Qin attacked Shangdou or Handan, they only had two mountain routes they could take. They could take the Wu Ridge and Laoma Ridge to the west or the Yangchang Hill, Tianjin Pass to the south. Either route they chose had to go past Changping. This meant that as long as Lianpo had a strong army to defend Changping, the Qin army not only couldn't take over Shangdou, but couldn't get close to Handan.

The Zhao army went west of Handan City, crossing the 4th Pass of the "8 passes of Taixing", going further west through the Hukou Pass and into Shangdou. They then went in the southwest direction, going past Bayi Village, past the Changping War Zone, going around the Xiaodong river and past Jingmen Town and Xuanshi before splitting up and setting up their defences.

Xuanshi was around the middle of the Dan River, where both the Dan River and the Xiaodong River flowed. Hence, this place was relatively damp, but it was open and spacious. Between the two rivers, there was 10 thousand square meters of open land, with many hills which didn't impede movement. One could follow the Dan River towards the southeast or go against the tide towards the northwest, towards the villages there.

When Lianpo entered the Changping region, he set up 3 defensive lines.

The first was at Laoma Ridge. In the middle of the ridge was a large pass known as the Gaoping Pass. Left of the pass was a cliff wall, and on the right a steep stream. One could only go through the middle. The pass was 350 meters long from east to west and 1000 meters long from north to south. To the east and west of the pass were rivers that led down the mountain. West of it was Duanmin River which flowed towards the Yuxi River. Although there were mountains blocking east of the pass, to the north and south of the pass was the Dan River that flowed towards two rivers, the Macun River and the Yuancun River which flowed towards the east. This made a good passageway to travel through, and was a place the military needed to block up.

After Lianpo set up defences at Laoma Ridge, he built a city at the mouth of the Macun River and the Yuancun River. He thought that with the two rivers and the Laoma Ridge behind him, it would be a situation where it would be well protected. The Er'Zhang City had its back facing the mountain and was facing the river, being a place where troops could group up, and they could reinforce the soldiers at the pass at any time.

East of the Macun and the Yuancun rivers where both met was the Kangyin Village. South of it was the Xu River, and south of the river was the Beiling Mountain. West of the village was Horse Village, and west of where the two rivers met was called Langshan. This village was protected by mountains and rivers, forming a self enclosed environment. The 3 valleys were crooked with many turns, making it an easy to defend but hard to attack strategic point.

The village was originally the important reinforcement and provisions base for the Laoma Ridge; after it was conquered by the Qin, it became the eastern base of the Qin army.

The place where Ouyang Shuo was teleported to was exactly this place.

Leaving this for later, let's introduce the other two defensive lines that Lianpo set up.

Secondly, it was the defensive line at the Dan River. The river originated from Gaoping, flowing east and south. It flowed from the middle of Gaoping south to Pu City, and into the Yellow River. The valleys were deep with a strongly flowing rivers, the coasts were very wide and was good for troops to move.

Lianpo made use of this natural shield, building a 2nd line of defense at the eastern shoreline of the Dan River, which would act as the main defense. This defensive line stretched from Xuanshi southeast towards Zhao Zhuang, Daliang Mountain, and Gaoping. It also went northwest to Dianyi, Qijiayuan, Weicheng, Shimen, Jiantou, Sanjun, Hanwang Mountain, Yonglu, Changping, and the Jueshui and Danzhu Ridges.

Daliang Mountain was where Lianpo stored all his grain. Going northeast from here, there was Guanjia Ridge, Qifo Mountain, the 3 forming a mountainous body. This mountain was the highest amongst the central region mountains. Looking towards the northeast, one could see the Gu Pass. Towards the southwest one could see Laoma Ridge, together with the Hanwang Mountain 10 thousand odd meters away, they formed the two eyes of the Zhao army, letting them know about everything on the battlefield.

Such a situation was especially advantageous from a military standpoint, especially in the cold weapons era without communication methods. To the left of the mountain was the valley of Xiaodong River, and on the right was the valley of the Dongcang River which stretched towards the northeast, pointing towards Handan, maintaining close communication and also near provisions of supplies.

Lianpo's manor was set at Daliang Mountain.

The Hanwang Mountain was 7500 meters high, and was the ridge that split the Dan River, Xiaodong River and Yonglu River. It touched the clouds and had a clear view of the surroundings. Like how during the 3 year period when Daliang Mountain was the manor of Lianpo, Hanwang Mountain was where Zhao Kuo stayed at during the final stages of the battle. It and the Dan River were where the main battlefield was and where the Zhao army was trapped in.

Changping Pass was located at the northern border of Gaoping and Changzi. North of it was the source of the Zhuozhang River, south of it was the Dan River that flowed southeast. East and west of it were mountains. The western mountain reached the Danzhu Ridge which was the highest peak. The north side was flatter, and it was sloping down, so one had the high ground advantage against the enemy who was climbing the slope.

Changping Pass as the second line of defence prevented Qin troops from coming down from the east or coming up from the north.

Thirdly would be the 50 kilometer defensive stone wall. This defensive line went from the northwest all the way to the southeast, with the main priority at the northwest. It started at Changping Pass towards the mountain south of Dongjin to Yangtou Mountain. It continued towards Jinquan Mountain to the Maanhe, at the boundary of the Hu Pass. As the structure of the mountains and ridges had reached 50 kilometres, thus it was named.

If one said that the Laoma Ridge was the front of Zhao's defence, the Dan River would be the main base and the 50 kilometer stone wall would be their escape plan. This was the deepest point northeast to the Zhao forces, and would be Shangdou and Handan's last line of defense.

On 262 B.C. Lianpo was at Laoma Ridge as Wang He and his troops prepared to attack from the shore. The defenders from the Zhao had met the scouts from the Qin and couldn't hold, being forced back by the Qin army.

Wang He broke through the dangerous Laoma Ridge and its defences, taking over its supplies base, forming Guanglang City which was protected in all directions by mountains and rivers. He got rid of all the obstructions in the Dan River and rushed his troops to the western shore of the river, forming the situation where they were one river away from the Zhao troops.

Lianpo found that they couldn't fight head on with the Qin army, and wanted to maintain their strength for future battles, so he didn't try to organise a force to cross the river to fight them. He retreated to the eastern shore of the Dan River and relied on the river, strengthening the defensive line.

At this point, Lianpo was adamant in waiting for the Qin forces to attack. The Qin challenged and provoked them but they wouldn't send their troops. Just like that, he made use of the geological advantage to defend, causing the stronger Wang He who yearned for battle to be unwilling to cross the Dan River.

The battle remained in a stalemate where neither side was able to pull out ahead.

The Qin army came from far away, so it was difficult for them to get new supplies. They were also known as killers so no one in Shangdou wanted to help them. The Shangdou commoners supported the Zhao Army and worked together with them, as such they had a lot of resources. This decided that the Qin Army was better at a fast and decisive battle, but Zhao Army was better at a long, drawn out war.

The situation couldn't stay as such for long. It was either it went as Lianpo planned, for them to retaliate to destroy the Qin Army, or for Zhao court or Qin court to make a decision themselves.

The outcome was that Lianpo's strategy was deemed as being cowardly and being afraid to fight.

The Zhao King felt that it was so and let Zhao Kuo take over Lianpo to attack the Qin; at the same time, the Qin made Baiqi as the general and Wang He as the deputy. With that, the three year stalemate between them was finally broken and the battle seemed to favor the Qin.

Ouyang Shuo teleported into Guanglang City. What he didn't know was which stage Gaia had place them in, during the 3 year face off, or during the final stages of the war between Zhao Kuo and Baiqi.

Chapter 264- Shocking Mystery

There was also a registration point set up in Guanglang City, with a Qin Army lieutenant who was in charge of the registration.

After Ouyang Shuo registered, he didn't immediately leave but asked, "General, how was today's battle?"

When the lieutenant was helping them register, he knew that Ouyang Shuo brought 10 thousand troops, hence he answered his question simply, "The King of Wu An used his troops well and sent General Ying Bao who led a group of iron cavalry to the back of the enemy, taking down Changping Pass and cut off the passageway between the Zhao troops and Handan. General Wang Ling led another group into the valley at Dongcang River and cut off the Zhao army from Gu Pass. Now, the 40 thousand odd Zhao army is stuck in the mountain plateau of Changping, becoming trapped animals."

"What?" Ouyang Shuo was astonished; he didn't expect that Gaia would actually place them at such a point. Based on normal logic, when it reached such a step, the Zhao Army was destined to lose.

Something was wrong, something was definitely wrong. First, Gaia definitely wouldn't make such a battle quest. Second, why would Di Chen and the others choose the Zhao camp even when they received insider news?

If one said that there wasn't something fishy going on, Ouyang Shuo wouldn't believe it.

In contrast to Ouyang Shuo’s reaction, the lords that were queuing up were elated upon hearing the lieutenant. They felt that they had chosen the right camp and had picked up an easy win.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head in amusement, leaving the registration point and looking for his allies.

Out of the allies, Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang were both 1st class Earls and could bring 3000 troops. The remainder of them, other than Song Wen, were 3rd class earls and could bring 1000.

Hence, the total strength of Shanhai Alliance was 20,500 men and they were all cavalry troops.

Out of them, the cavalry from Consonance City and Xunlong City were the most elite, their commanders being Zhang Liao and Qinqiong.

Of course, no matter what, they couldn't compare to the strength of Shanhai City.

Out of all the generals from Shanhai City, Shi Wanshui and E'Lai had both shown themselves. Only Luo Shixin was revealing himself for the first time, naturally attracting the envy of Bai Hua and the others.

Especially Feng Qiuhuang, whose territory didn't have a good general. Seeing Shanhai City having 3 great generals, she drooled, having none of the image of a mature woman.

Talking about that, Luo Shixin and Qin Qiong had known each person there, and upon meeting each other, many emotions were invoked.

Out of all the generals, Shi Wanshui was the most experienced at riding horses and also the oldest. As such, he was appointed the commander. Zhang Liao was the deputy, and Qin Qiong and Luo Shixin were one grade lower.

If one counted Mu Guiying, the leading forces of the Shanhai Alliance were really luxurious.

To make it easier to command, after discussing with Bai Hua and the others, Ouyang Shuo split the troops into squads of 10 thousand men. Shanhai City's 10 thousand cavalry formed a team with Er'Lai as the general, with Luo Shixin and Lin Yi as the deputies. The remaining 10,500 were in the other squad with Zhang Liao as the general, Mu Guiying and Qinqiong as the deputies. Shi Wanshui would be the commander to help lead and command both squads.

As for Bai Hua and the other lords, they didn't need to go on the battlefield. As for Ouyang Shuo, after gaining the Tianmo spear, he was raring to try it out. With his current strength, it was definitely sufficient to protect himself in battle.

Just as the Shanhai Alliance was busy organizing, the battle report sounded out.

"Battle Report: Battle of Changping, 100 lords participating, total strength 73 thousand men. Qin has 28 lords, and 31 thousand men; Zhao has 72 lords, and 42 thousand men."

In this battle, all 100 lords who reached the requirement had joined, and no one missed out. Out of all these lords, 80% and above were all rank 3 earls and could only bring 500 troops. Those remaining were mostly rank 2 earls and could bring 1000 troops. As for the higher ranked, there were only Ouyang Shuo, Bai Hua, and Feng Qiuhuang.

Di Chen and the others made use of their connections to successfully pull over 2/3 of the lords over to their side.

Unfortunately, Ouyang Shuo, Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang's rank had totally made up for the difference in numbers, and the strength of both sides wasn't too far apart.

"Battle Report: Qin camp is at a numerical disadvantage. Based on battle rules, Qin troops have received a 20% movement speed buff."

It was actually an increase in movement speed! To the Shanhai Alliance who were all cavalry, this was definitely a good thing.

"Battle Report: Based on the results from rank and merit points, the Qin player representative will be Qiyue Wuyi, rank 3 marquis. Zhao representative is Di Chen, rank 2 Earl."

Ouyang Shuo's position as the player representative was one that no one could touch. On the other hand, Di Chen, after the Battle of Muye had surpassed Chun Shenjun and became the representative of the Zhao.

The 30 thousand troops of the Qin were all sent to the Guanglang City barracks. After dealing with the military matters, Ouyang Shuo and his allies rushed to his tent for a meeting.

Ouyang Shuo told them all about what he had heard and learned of.

The Wu An lord had 5 generals under him, Wang He, Meng Ao, Wang Ling, Huan He and Ying Bao, after successfully surrounding the Zhao forces, they had around 500 thousand men.

Wang He didn't need any introduction. He faced off against Lianpo for 3 years, and at that time he and his 200 thousand men were camped at Laoma Ridge, building a fortress to block the passageway.

Guanglang City protector, Meng Ao, led 150 thousand men to build the southern line camp to block the Zhao army from going south down the Dan River.

Wang Ling and Ying Bao, the two secret units, had already been sent into play.

Wang Ling led 25 thousand cavalry and 30 thousand infantry to set up camp at the Gu Pass and Dongcang River intersection, blocking off the Zhao army from their supplies.

Ying Bao led 25 thousand cavalry and 10 thousand infantry to set up camp to the northeast of the rock wall, blocking any way out east from the Taihang Mountains.

Lastly was the 50 thousand cavalry led by Huan He, who hid in Guanglang City and acted as the reserve squad.

As for the manor of General Baiqi, it was set up outside the city and on top of Lang Mountain.

Similar to the Qin Army, the Zhao Army also had 500 thousand men, 400 thousand of which were trapped in the Changping Region. The remaining 100 thousand were at Gu Pass, which was the main granary of the Zhao army. Even without the support of Handan, this grain would be enough to last them for 2 months.

Such a one sided situation was something that Bai Hua and the others couldn't understand.

"This... Is Gaia fooling around? With such a situation, the Qin is bound to win. What kind of war is this? It's just free contribution points waiting for us to obtain them," Gong Chengshi said first.

"Stop fooling around. Gaia definitely has its reasons for arranging things like this," Xunlong Dianxue retorted.

"You!"

"Ok, stop fighting." Feng Qiuhuang interrupted both of them. "Even if Gaia is fooling around, Di Chen wouldn't be such a fool to jump into a loss and even challenge us outright."

"Qushou, if the Zhao army wants to break this situation, what can they do?" Bai Hua didn't join in the debate and wanted to see what Qushou had in mind. She was similar to Ouyang Shuo and trusted the professional advisor.

"Based on the current situation and what happened in history, the next step would be to fight to the death and attack Wang Ling's camp to meet up with his troops at Gu Pass and obtain their supplies." Qushou didn't immediately express his opinion and just analyzed the current situation first, "In history, this attempt to break through the trap ended in failure. In the end the 400 thousand strong Zhao Army had to surrender due to the lack of grain."

"Hence, I feel that their greatest chance would still be to try and break out. At the moment, they have numerous days worth of grain and also have their backs against the wall, their morale is their highest and its similar to fighting at their peak. In history, this attempt nearly succeeded but failed at the last moment. Now with the additional 40 thousand player troops, they might have a chance to overturn the situation.”

Ouyang Shuo frowned and asked curiously, "Based on what you said, although they have 40 thousand more men, we have 30 thousand more too. Based on strength, I don't think we will lose out to their 40 thousand player troops."

"That's right, not to mention the elite cavalry that big brother brought, with our cooperation and strength, the 10 thousand man disparity wouldn't be enough to change the direction of the war." Xunlong Dianxue was doubtful.

"Also, with Di Chen and their carefulness, they wouldn’t take such a huge risk with only such a small advantage. There are definitely other factors," Feng Qiuhuang said.

"If, I'm just saying if, they brought large amounts of military grain pills for the Zhao army?" Wufu raised a bold guess.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it and shook his head, "That's not possible. The Zhao army has a total of 400 thousand people, together with the war horses and player army's own use, they would use 600 thousand pills a day. That would be 6,000 gold a day, in not even 10 days, I think that they would definitely go bankrupt."

"Furthermore, even with the production power of Shanhai City, we can only produce 5000 a day. Millions of pills needed to be prepared so far in advance and make use of so many units of grain. With their strength and also the grain crisis from before, it’s impossible."

All of the sudden, the meeting was at a standstill.

Chapter 265- Solving the Mystery

Just as the meeting between the Shanhai Alliance was at a standstill, Mulan Yue suddenly stood out.

Usually, when the brothers and sisters were discussing, she would sit at the side and act as a quiet listener. This time she stood up, attracting everyone's attention.

She wasn't scared or anything and said, "Cough, actually I feel that what Qushou said was right. The key lies in the player troops."

"En?"

"Didn't we discuss this? They aren't enough to breakthrough,” Gong Chengshi said.

Ouyang Shuo waved him off and stopped the discussion. Then, he smiled as he looked at Mulan Yue, "What new idea do you have? Tell us."

"En." Receiving Ouyang Shuo's encouragement, Mulan Yue was even more confident and said, "I think that we have all been thinking that the player troops will be sent to the main camp with the main forces. What if they were sent to the camp at Gu Pass, how would the situation change?"

Ouyang Shuo was astonished. All the mysteries and doubts he had disappeared. He raised his head, looking straight at Qushou.

In a moment, everyone was shocked by Mulan Yue's view.

"This, this doesn't fit the battle settings, right?" Gong Chengshi said unconfidently.

Xunlong Dianxue shook his head and said solemnly, "Gu Pass is also a key base, if Gaia arranged it like that, it doesn't go against the battle settings."

Ouyang Shuo was pretty much certain that Mulan Yue's answer was right. He happily looked at her, giving her a silent commendation. He turned toward Qushou, "So, what would happen if Yue Yue is right?"

Although the others knew that it would be bad if the enemy player troops were sent to Gu Pass, they didn't know how much of an effect it would have on the battle.

Only Qushou could solve this difficult problem.

Qushou focused, after contemplating and playing the situation in his mind, he spoke. "If the enemy player troops were sent to Gu Pass, it would be totally beneficial to the Zhao. They have two choices. First, they can attack the Ying Bao troops at the north and regain the passageway to Handan. Second, they can work with the main force to attack Wang Ling, destroying him and regaining contact between them and the main force. After that, they could destroy Ying Bao's forces. No matter what, they would be able to destroy the cage set up by Baiqi.

Hearing Qushou's analysis, the tent was totally silent.

"Qushou, there's something I don't understand. It makes sense to attack Ying Bao's forces, but to pincer Wang Ling's forces, wouldn't it be the same as them just landing in the main camp?"

"Of course not," Qushou said confidently, "The building of the camp mainly defends the southwest against the main force, and they didn't care much about Gu Pass as Ying Bao's forces were dealing with them. In history, the Gu Pass was attacked by 30 thousand troops and was nearly broken through. If the 40 thousand player troops were added, before reinforcements arrive, Wang Ling's forces would be totally destroyed."

Qushou's analysis was so detailed that no one could retort.

Ouyang Shuo looked around and said, "Since things are like this, we must get ready for the worst case scenario. Ever if they force themselves through the trap, they will pay a heavy price and the battle will still favor us. Hence, we don't need to worry, preparing as we need to. "He looked at Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang, "You two will be in charge of liasoning with other lords."

Both of them nodded.

"Ok, let's disperse; I need to make a trip to see the Wu An Lord."

"This is only our conjecture. We have no proof, so do you think he will believe us?"

"No matter what, we need to give it a shot." Ouyang Shuo wasn't confident but he needed to act like he was filled with confidence.

Qushou walked over. "Lord, before you see him, I suggest you go look for the general, Meng Ao. He's our direct superior."

Ouyang Shuo froze and said in embarrassment, "You’re right, I forgot about it."

General Meng Ao's manor was in Guanglang City. With Ouyang Shuo's representative status, he didn't face any problems and was able to meet the general.

Meng Ao's battle style was based on being safe. Hence, he was given the important responsibility of taking charge of the southern line to go against the deputy general of the Zhao army’s Zhao Zhuang.

In history, Meng Ao served a total of four dynasties, leading troops and getting victory after victory.

Not only that, about his son Meng Wu along with his grandsons Meng Kuo and Meng Yi, they were all the backbone of the Qin. They helped the Qin family, attacking territories and risking their lives, helping the Qin emperor unite the six states.

"Qiyue Wuyi greets the general!" Ouyang Shuo said respectfully.

To speak the truth, Meng Ao didn't pay much attention or place much importance on the 30 thousand player troops. Meeting Ouyang Shuo was just a normal meeting and he didn't plan to get close to him.

Meng Ao said calmly, "Why do you want to see me?"

Ouyang Shuo felt that Meng Ao was distancing himself, but for the sake of victory, he had to speak, "General, I am here to report some military intelligence."

When he mentioned military intelligence, Meng Ao froze. "What military intelligence? Quickly speak!"

"General should know that the player troops were split into two camps. Based on my information, the Zhao Army has 42 thousand player troops, and as for where they are at, I don't know."

Meng Ao started coldly. "This is your so called military intelligence? The Zhao Army has been boxed in by us and lack grain. Even 40 thousand player troops change nothing. Such a small matter, why did you come to see me?"

Meng Ao was furious as a killing aura emanated from him. As a general, to have such an aura was normal, much less so the great general of the Qin army.

Ouyang Shuo felt everything turn cold and a bloody smell emanated. Luckily, he wasn't a rookie and with a cycle of the , he dispersed the aura and it didn't cause any discomfort.

In truth, in a blink of an eye, Ouyang Shuo had returned to normal.

Meng Ao's eyes froze. To him, he had already kept his aura. His actions were to warn Ouyang Shuo to let him know his place and not act wildly.

He didn't expect that the young man in front of him would be unmoved and easily displace the aura. This was when he knew that the guy in front of him wasn't simple.

Ouyang Shuo knew that he had finally earned Meng Ao's respect, making the general not underestimate him. No matter what, what mattered in the military was strength.

Winning his respect didn't mean that he could persuade Meng Ao.

Ouyang Shuo continued to act respectful, "What general doesn't know is that we aren't teleported to a fixed spot. If their forces were sent to Gu Pass, it would be a huge change to the battle."

Meng Ao was a capable character. Afte he heard Ouyang Shuo say that, he instantly understood. If Gu Pass had a sudden increase of 40 thousand troops, what kind of difference would it make to the battle?

He didn't dare to be careless and asked, "What proof do you have?"

In military tactics, intelligence was of utmost importance and without proof one couldn't make tactics.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. "It’s just a conjecture, so there isn't any proof."

"How am I supposed to act based on your conjecture?" His expression started to turn sour once again. Luckily, he knew that this matter was of utmost importance and Ouyang Shuo wasn't a person to talk nonsense, so he didn't blow up again.

This was where Ouyang Shuo was smart at. He knew that the generals wouldn’t pass over such important military intel, with or without evidence. Hence, he didn't need to falsify anything and just admit that it was his conjecture.

"Although it's just a conjecture, one out of two, there's a 50% chance. General, this affects the entire battle. Should we report this to the Wu An Lord?"

What Ouyang Shuo did was prohibited in military, going over his superior to report to an even higher level. If he was really Meng Ao's man, he would definitely die.

But Ouyang Shuo was helpless. The battlefield changed quickly and he was worried that they might miss the opportunity. If the Wu An Lord didn't get the news and the Zhao Army acted, it would be terrible.

As expected, Meng Ao's eyes stared coldly at Ouyang Shuo and his gaze was not as friendly. If he didn’t know that the players wouldn't stay for long, he would have blown up.

Facing his cold gaze, Ouyang Shuo wasn't fazed and instead became more resolute.

"You follow me to see the Wu An Lord!" Not knowing why, Meng Ao finally agreed.

Chapter 266- Asura Baiqi

To the east of Guanglang City was a mountain ridge where people sometimes saw wolves going in and out, thus they called it Lang Mountain. This ridge ran from the northwest to the southeast; it was very high up, the highest point of the Dan River. Apart from forest cover and caves, it was just flat highlands with very open plains.

Position wise, Lang Mountain and Guanglang City were a bit outside of the central portion of Laoma Ridge, directly opposite the Zhao Army manor in Changping.

Ouyang Shuo followed behind Meng Ao and climbed up Lang Mountain. As the armies had been at it for 3 years, there were no longer any wolves here; the only signs of their past were white, dried up, feces.

The manor of Wu An’s Lord, Baiqi, was inside one of the largest caves in Lang Mountain.

Under the rocks of the cave, the floor made out of green rock made the place look magnificent. On the walls hung two huge maps, and the title of the maps were four huge words- Shangdou Shanchuan.

Below the map sat Baiqi. He had exquisite armor, and a black golden cape. By his side was a large sword that only Tieying Swordsmen had. His hair was as white as snow; his whole body was tanned and his face was ragged.

Seeing Baiqi, Ouyang Shuo found it hard to contain the excitement in his heart. The man in front of him was one of the four famous generals in the Warring States period, and was called asura Baiqi, undefeated in battle.

Whichever country he attacked, no one would be able to defend against him.

In the end, he was killed by the king of Qin, adding a sad ending to his illustrious story. Ouyang Shuo really wanted to thank Gaia for giving him the chance to meet such a legend face to face.

"Player representative Qiyue Wuyi greets Wu An Lord!" Ouyang Shuo bowed behind Meng Ao.

Baiqi raised his head, his eyes were the typical Qin’s three-cornered eyes. He looked at Meng Ao. "Aren't you supposed to be at Guanglang Town; why did you come here?"

Meng Ao didn't dare to be slow and repeated the military intelligence that Ouyang Shuo had reported.

Only then did Baiqi turn to Ouyang Shuo. He frowned and asked, "Do you have confidence?"

The look from Baiqi made Ouyang Shuo feel very uncomfortable. As a lord, it has been a long time since he had been looked down on.

Habits were certainly a deadly poison.

Ouyang Shuo gathered himself and said respectfully, "There's more than a 50% chance."

Baiqi nodded, but he didn't say anything. Truthfully, Baiqi wasn't a rude person, him looking down on Ouyang Shuo was just setting the tone and to form up prestige in the military.

As the commander, Baiqi didn't want to have a force in his army that he couldn't control. The player force that appeared was certainly one. So, he acted as he did.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo quickly adjust himself, Baiqi was impressed. To be able to maintain a straight head and understand one's position was really important.

As compared to Meng Ao, Baiqi was far more decisive. "Since that's so, I'll immediately send Wang Ling to investigate. If it's true, we will make arrangements immediately." Baiqi's actions were naturally appropriate as without actual intelligence, he couldn't act.

However, Ouyang Shuo still felt a little worried. As the Wu An Lord had already made a decision, he couldn't say anything more and could only helplessly follow Meng Ao back to Guanglang City.

When they returned, it was already the afternoon.

After Ouyang Shuo returned, Bai Hua and the others came into the camp. After sharing with his allies about what happened he said, "Everything has already happened, so the only thing we can do is prepare well."

Upon hearing the news Ouyang Shuo brought back, they all felt very downhearted.

Only Gong Chengshi was more optimistic and laughed. "Cheer up guys, even if their plan succeeds, we will just have a war against them."

"Little lion, you finally said something that made sense." Xunlong Dianxue, who was closest to Gong Chengshi, teased.

The both of them always melted the cold atmosphere of the alliance.

Bai Hua stood up and said, “Wuyi, out of the 20 lords in the Qin camp, a total of 10,500 troops, they are only half of ours. Feng Wu and I calculated that they only have 3500 cavalry and the rest are infantry. How should we organize them?"

Ouyang Shuo had expected this and said, "In this battle, the Yanhuang Alliance is more famous than us. In the first two battles, we obtained such good results, but in the end, so few lords trust us."

"Wuyi, don't worry. Most of the commoner lords haven't upgraded to a city, resulting in such a situation," Bai Hua consoled.

"That's right." Feng Qiuhuang continued, "Wuyi, do you remember Hua Huo?"

"Hua Huo?" Ouyang Shuo thought hard. "Is it the lord of Qingyun Town, which had a historical general, Chen Tang?"

"That's right. However, now we should call it Qingyun City. This time, he chose to be in the same camp as us, so he's a lord that's worth recruiting."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. "We should organize it this way. The 3500 cavalry will be added to Zhang Liao's forces, the remaining infantry will be under Chen Tang. In this battle, we must focus on the cavalry and not waste energy on infantry."

"Okay, Feng Wu and I thought the same way." Bai Hua nodded in agreement.

"Since that's so, why didn't you all say it and beat around the bush? Bai Hua, are you all testing me?" Ouyang Shuo teased.

Bai Hua laughed in embarrassment but didn't say a thing.

Feng Qiuhuang at the side laughed in delight and acted cute. "That's right, we’re testing you."

"The tent became much more lively and Ouyang Shuo became a lot more relaxed.

"Okay, guys return to your tents and we will see what happens tomorrow!"

"What can happen? There will definitely be many days of peace before something big happens."

"Hope so!" Ouyang Shuo still felt very worried.

Zhao camp, Gu Pass

Just as Mulan Yue had guessed, Gaia had placed the player forces in Gu Pass.

In Di Chen’s tent, the Yanhuang Alliance members all gathered.

"How is it; is everything going smoothly?" Zhan Lang asked Di Chen, who had just returned from the manor.

In the Yanhuang Alliance, ever since Sha Pojun's fought with Di Chen because of Shanhai City, Di Chen slowly became a loner. His only ally was Feng Qiuhuang's cousin, Feng Tianlie.

It was Chun Shenjun who used the influence of the Chunqiu Alliance to pull in Feng Qingyang, Xiong Ba, and Wandering Magic to form a faction. Adding Sha Pojun who recently became close to him, they took up more than half of the Yanhuang Alliance.

In the Alliance, only Zhan Lang maintained a neutral stance and became the person to mediate things between Di Chen and a Chun Shenjun.

Hence, although the Yanhuang Alliance didn't have a leader, in truth, it was Di Chen, Chun Shenjun, and Zhan Lang.

Di Chen himself was certain that with Chun Shenjun around, his position within the alliance wasn't looking too good. Luckily, he was careful during the Battle of Muye and earned himself a lot of merit points, becoming the player representative and gaining a temporary advantage.

Apart from that, the insider news regarding the Battle of Changping was obtained by his family. Hence in this battle, Di Chen held absolute command.

To his question, Di Chen didn't hesitate and answered, "Everything is going well; the Gu Pass general has agreed with our plan."

To prepare for the Battle of Changping, Di Chen had thought hard. Using Zhan Lang's knowledge, before the battle even began, he had thought and thought to create a perfect plan. If this plan smoothly ran, they could help the Zhao win.

Hearing his reply, the tent instantly livened up.

"That's great!"

"Hehe, this time we will let Qiyue Wuyi see who’s boss!"

"That's right, he has no chance this time."

Zhan Lang frowned; the optimism of his allies didn't spread to him and he couldn't help but speak, "This is only the first step; isn't it too early to celebrate? Think about how many times we have lost to him! Haven't you all remembered? Looking down on him will get us nowhere!"

"Zhan Lang, isn't that too harsh? You are destroying your own prestige." Hearing his words, Feng Qingyang wasn't pleased, "How is this time the same? We have the initiative and the advantage. Amongst a million men, what can he do?" In the Yanhuang Alliance, Feng Qingyang was famous for not being afraid of anything so only he dared to talk like this to Zhan Lang.

"You!" Zhan Lang wasn't good with words, and being mocked like that, he was furious.

"Ok guys, we are all brothers, so why must we fight? Qingyang was only emotional, so Zhan Lang, don't take it to heart." Chun Shenjun looked like he was calming the situation down but in truth, he was helping Feng Qingyang get out of the situation.

Zhan Lang turned his head and kept silent.

Di Chen looked coldly on from the side, he knew that the biggest weakness was that the members weren't unified and had formed their own sides. This was bound to happen with big powers, as one wouldn't be happy with another and they all had their own plans and motives.

Chapter 267- Life and Death Assault

"Guys just go back first, we have a tough battle tomorrow waiting for us." Di Chen said.

The atmosphere in the camp was weird, and upon hearing Di Chen say that, they were all glad and left, returning to their own camps.

The next morning, the Zhao army that was boxed in suddenly started to act, making Ouyang Shuo uneasy.

It was the middle of the 8th month, and the sky around Shangdou Mountain was clear for miles.

At 8 AM, horns sounded out in Changping Valley; the large number of red flags moved toward the north and south, the galloping of horses resounded like endless thunder. The Zhao forces had started moving.

The 150 thousand troops in the north were led personally by Zhao Kuo and headed straight for Wang Ling's camp. The 250 thousand on the south were led by Zhao Zhuang, and were in charge of intercepting Wang He and as well as Meng Ao to prevent them from aiding Wang Ling.

The movement of the Zhao Army naturally couldn't hide from Baiqi.

The only thing that surprised him was how quickly the Zhao Army wanted to break through, much different from what they had predicted. Thinking about the report from Qiyue Wuyi yesterday, Baiqi felt uneasy. Yesterday, he had sent someone to order Wang Ling to investigate. Unfortunately, in a short half a day, they didn't get a reply.

Baiqi was a special person. He calmed himself down and climbed on the viewing platform on the Langshan Mountain and started to organize the troops.

Based on his arrangement, Meng Ao's troops were in charge of attacking the Zhao Army, Wang He's forces in the northwest only needed to hold their own; he needed to split off 60 thousand men to go and aid Wang Ling.

Baiqi made it very clear to Wang He; the Qin army's main goal wasn't to defeat the Zhao Army main force at Changping Valley, but break through the barricade to ensure that Wang Ling's camp wasn't lost. The reason why he wanted Wang He to split off troops was because Wang He's army was strong and ferocious.

The huge change naturally couldn't be hidden from Ouyang Shuo and the others. The 30 thousand player force was placed into the Meng Ao army, leaving the camp and getting ready to fight against Zhao Zhuang's army.

Ouyang Shuo knew that Shanhai Alliance's elite cavalry wasn't suited for this kind of defense-oriented head to head battle. He requested to be sent by general Meng Ao to be in charge of breaching, and to go north to help out Wang Ling.

Meng Ao was always careful with using troops, and although he knew that Ouyang Shuo made sense, he didn't dare to make the decision and reported his suggestion to Baiqi, asking him to make the final decision.

Open hearing the report, his eyes froze. He knew that with Meng Ao's personality, based on the 150 thousand army at the southern camp, it was enough to delay Zhao Zhuang's forces. On the other hand the 60 thousand Wang He troops made to breach through was lacking. He didn't expect Ouyang Shuo's vision and analysis to be so sharp.

"Order the player cavalry troops to meet up with Heng He and prepare to attack." Baiqi gave the order.

"Yes!"

When Ouyang Shuo received the order, he froze. Heng He's 50 thousand troops were all elite cavalry, gathering with them meant that they were going to fight to the death.

This battle, out of the lords, only Ouyang Shuo personally got out to battle while the rest stayed in Guanglang City.

"Wuyi, with all the generals commanding, wouldn't it be good for you to command in Guanglang City? Why must you personally act? What if something happens?" Bai Hua didn't agree with Ouyang Shuo.

Be it Ouyang Shuo himself or the 10 thousand elite cavalry from Shanhai City, they were the core troops of the player force. The moment he died, the Qin were bound to lose.

"Yes, I agree with Bai Hua. Brother Wuyi, didn't you not like to personally fight?" Mu Lanyue tried to persuade him.

Ouyang Shuo felt warm but he resolutely shook his head. "Don't worry, my strength can't be compared to last time. Anyways, I also have the Guards regiment protecting me, so nothing will happen. I won't do anything stupid, but I have a reason for going out."

"Tell it to us." Bai Hua didn't believe him.

"Firstly, the Battle of Changping is different. Meng Ao and the others are experienced generals, and there's no room for us to command, we can only act according to what they say. Hence, I won't have a say in all of that.”

He continued. “Secondly, the biggest factor in this battle would be Gu Pass. Whatever happens with that will decide the war. I have to personally see what happens at Wang Ling camp to take a look. If not, I will feel uneasy."

Hearing his explanation, Bai Hua and the others understood.

"Since that's the case, then be safe!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded, climbed up the Qingfu horse, and raised the Tianmo spear, getting ready to leave.

The 30 thousand player force split off at the gate of Guanglang City, then Chen Tang led 7000 infantry and followed the Meng Ao troops north to stop the Zhao Zhuang forces. Ouyang Shuo led the 24 thousand elite cavalry east and meeting with Huan He's troops who were hidden there.

Zhao Zhuang's army moved out in two directions towards the Qing army camps, who knew that a short kilometer away, they’d meet Qin Army's main force? On the west of Laoma Ridge were flags with "Wang" and on the north side of the Dan River were flags with the "Meng" word. The Qin Army coming out to fight was obviously so that they didn't want to be trapped fighting inside the camp.

Zhao Zhuang was also a war elite general, and upon seeing their forces, he knew that a deadly fight would occur. He immediately ordered, "The troops attacked the Qin troops from both directions, not allowing their troops to go passed the Changping Pass." As the war drums sounded out, a bloody war started out on four fronts.

The black Qin army and the red Zhao army were like two floods, charging at one another. The collision of the forces reverberated through the valley.

The sounds of spears and swords, the shooting of arrows, and the cries and shouts made the mountains and rivers tremble.

The loud killing shouts passed through the valley and echoed, making one's blood boil.

These were the two strongest armies in the Warring States Era, and both were unbeaten in battle. The troops clashed courageously and without fear, with their bloodied weapons and low grunts, the entire mountain region was covered by the aura of this primitive brutal slaughter.

Chen Tang led 7000 infantry and was like a wooden raft in the ocean, quickly swallowed and he could only bitterly struggle.

Bai Hua and the others stood on the city wall of Guanglang City, and watching the merciless slaughter outside, they were shocked. Such a huge army made the less than 10 thousand man army look too minuscule.

Among Huo Hua and the other lords in the Qin camp, some were happy while others were worried. They were happy about their contribution points that rose and worried about how many soldiers would be able to survive from all of this.

For the troops at the southern side, the key was whether or not Wang He could break through.

However as two hours passed, Wang He's cavalry was still unable to break through, and Baiqi frowned. The valley in which Wang Ling's camp was in was narrow, and although good for defense, they couldn't make use of their huge amounts of troops. The only way to defend it was to maintain reinforcements.

It seemed like it has reached the most important time, and as Zhao Kuo and his 150 thousand men army attacked, Wang Ling struggled to defend.

"Emergency report: Wang Ling camp is in danger!"

Baiqi's face sank. “I order Huan He's troops to immediately move out!"

"Yes my lord!" The man immediately turned to a red flag on the building, this was the signal which the Qin Army prepared for emergency circumstances.

Huan He who was looking up, upon seeing the red flag swing, immediately got up on his horse and shouted, "All units, move out!"

"Kill! Kill! Kill!" What relieved him was an earth shattering shout.

As for Ouyang Shuo's player force, Huan He didn't trust him and arranged them to be at the back.

Ouyang Shuo didn't mind that and allowed Huan He and his 50 thousand cavalry to be at the front. The other players' troops were in the middle, Shanhai City's 10 thousand in front and the 14 thousand cavalry led by Zhang Liao at the back.

With such an arrangement, Zhang Liao was nicely in the center of the army, and it was easy for him to command and make adjustments to the forces.

Although Ouyang Shuo participated, he didn't take over command of the army, leaving it to the various generals. He was at the front of his forces, with the Guards regiments at his side. Standing right next to him was Shi Wanshui and Wang Feng.

The 70 thousand cavalry rumbled outwards and rushed northward.

Zhao Zhuang's forces were busy fighting against the main force of the Qin army, upon seeing the dust and smoke rise up from the side, they feared something was wrong but they couldn't move their forces. The looked over as the black cavalry forces charged northward.

At the moment the Zhao army was distracted, Wang He hollered and the cavalry around him instantly charged, breaking out of the Zhao army and charging towards the wilderness.

Zhang Zhuang panicked and shouted, immediately leading his men to cut in and block the remaining forces of the Qin army. With such charging and blocking, around 30-40 thousand of Wang He's cavalry got past the Zhao army.

Zhao Zhuang wanted to split some forces at the tail to chase but was intercepted by a few 10 thousand troops led by Meng Ao, who made a detour and attacked from the back. Both sides didn't want to let either side get away, so the hundreds of thousands strong army forces was caught up in a heated battle with one another.

Huan He's troops rushed like lighting to the northern battlefield, and what he saw tore his heart. From afar, Wang Ling's troops were nearly destroyed and they were on the brink of being eaten up.

Knowing that things were bad, Huan He hollered, "Sound the cowhorn horn!" 30 odd cowhorn horns sounded out, and this army that hadn't participated in a fight and was full of energy charged towards the camp.

Chapter 268- Soldiers that Descended from Heaven

The northern battlefield, before both sides started fighting.

Zhao Kuo split the 150 thousand troops into three: the main infantry force of 100 thousand into two waves, changing every hour, not giving the Wang Ling camp any time to rest; 50 thousand cavalry as the wings and focused on killing the cavalry that Wang Ling had hidden in the valley to sneak-attack them.

Everyone in the Zhao army was clear that this battle would result in loss or victory, thus they were all very motivated and had high morale. Zhao Kuo's flag waved on top of the hill as 50 thousand infantry soldiers charged forwards to the sound of the horn. With two archer squads providing cover fire, the troops charging in front immediately used wood planks to block up the moat. When they faced fire moats, they immediately threw mud and dirt into it; charging past it, scaling ladders and various wooden ladders were placed onto the walls and the soldiers charged up.

In an hour when the first wave was slightly tired, the second wave took over and continued the attack.

With such a tsunami like, slaughter-filled blood bath, after four rounds, the Wang Ling camp was badly hurt. What was worse was that the 25 thousand cavalry he hid in the valley, under the interception by Zhao Kuo's 50 thousand cavalry, had lost their ability to sneak-attack.

The relentless attacks by the Zhao army were blocked with crossbows, alchemical fire oil cabinets, heavy rocks, etc., but such large-scale machinery broke down and weren't repairable. Luckily, Wang Ling was fast and gave up on defending the northern side, and reorganizing 10 thousand cavalry back into the camp, all their troops turned southwards to defend.

The Zhao army attacked wave after wave; their relentless assault seemed too much for the 30 thousand Qin troops, and they looked like they couldn't hold off any longer. Just at this moment, the shouts of 70 thousand men sounded out from the stone wall side, as the Qin army was surrounded on both sides by the red flood.

Wang Ling took out his sword and jumped out of the moat, shouting, "Brothers! Fight to the death! Kill them!" In an instant, all the Qin soldiers gave up on their machines and jumped out of the moat, waving their swords and spears while starting to fight head on.

Unfortunately, however, much courage couldn’t overcome the huge difference in numbers.

For this battle, Di Chen and the others had risked much, bringing their most elite soldiers. 40 thousand player troops along with the 30 thousand Zhao army at the Gu Pass were like soldiers that descended from heaven as they attacked the northern side of the camp.

The northern side at this moment was defenseless, as Wang Ling was forced to give it up due to the pressure from Zhang Kuo's army. Seeing the enemy charge in from the north, they were too late to defend and were now boxed in.

The emergency call from the northern side was something that Wang Ling could only helplessly ignore as there was nothing he could do. He could only watch on as the northern side of the camp was breached.

Di Chen and the others stood on top of the Gu Pass and looked on at the battle, all of them filled with confidence. In truth, the battle was happening as they had expected.

Be it the Qin Army or the Zhao Army, they were equally strong with elite equipment, and both were fearless and vicious.

The last straw that destroyed the Wang Ling camp was the 40 thousand player forces. Their addition was like a fierce lion, under Zhan Lang's leadership, they wielded the swords and spears in their hands and charged straight into the forces of Wang Ling, slaughtering them and taking life after life.

Seeing his men fall one after another, Wang Ling hollered.

When Baiqi was the leader of thousands, Wang Ling led hundreds of cavalry; since then he had been the cavalry general of the Qin Army. When Baiqi sent out a trump card, he would definitely choose Wang Ling as he was flexible and fearless.

The situation at hand was a close combat battle, the Qin army's only choice was to fight to the death until reinforcements arrive. Wang Ling's intelligence and flexibility wasn't of any use now.

When Huan He's forces arrived to assist, Wang Ling's forces neared total destruction with very little remaining.

Zhao Kuo commanded the troops atop of a hill nearby, and upon seeing the reinforcements, he laughed coldly. He ordered the troops who came from Gu Pass to continue to destroy the forces of Wang Ling to open up a path between the main force and Gu Pass.

At the same time, he ordered the troops that he brought to turn around to face Huan He's forces. After a morning of battle, the 150 thousand force was left with 120 thousand men. Even so, he was confident in stopping Huan He.

Zhao Kuo ordered his troops to get into formation to get ready for Huan He's forces. The cavalry temporarily backed off to the back of the formation and were getting ready to go together with the infantry to pincer Huan He's cavalry.

After the failure last time, Zhao Kuo had grown more mature. His plan and formation was strict and detailed, not leaving any chance for the enemy.

Seeing their formation, Huan He frowned. He knew that even if he broke through, Wang Ling's forces had a high chance of being destroyed. The best choice would be to retreat.

However once he thought about how Wang Ling was still defending hard and also about the thousands of brothers waiting for him to save them, Huan He could only leave all his worries and his only action was a fight to the death.

If Huan He was relying purely on his 50 thousand troops, he had totally no confidence in succeeding. But luckily for him, he had 20 thousand elite player cavalry behind him.

With the 74 thousand elite cavalry against the 120 thousand Zhao troops that had just fought a large battle, Huan He was confident in being able to save Wang Ling.

The horn that signaled the battle to the death sounded out as the cavalry charged forwards fearlessly.

The horn spread through the Dongcang Valley, and when the Wang Ling troops heard the familiar horn, they were on the verge of crying. They knew that reinforcements had finally arrived.

Only Wang Feng frowned as he thought about it sadly. "The reinforcements are too late; they won't make a difference."

When Ouyang Shuo rushed to the battlefield and saw the situation, he felt the same as what Huan He felt. The only difference was he noticed that amongst the sea of red attacking Wang Ling's forces, there was a thick black stream. Needless to say, they were definitely the player forces from the Zhao camp.

The scene in front of him definitely shocked him. Luckily he had already made the mental preparations, and seeing it happen, he sighed.

Seeing the army blow the horn, Ouyang Shuo didn't have much time to think and just followed the army and charged towards Zhao Kuo's forces.

Ouyang Shuo was thinking that even if they didn't manage to save Wang Ling, they had to destroy Zhao Kuo's forces.

Just at that moment, Huan He's orders were passed. He ordered the player cavalry force to intercept Zhao army's 40 thousand cavalry while he led 50 thousand cavalry to attack Zhao Kuo's troops.

The commander Shi Wanshui didn't hesitate and immediately ordered them to cut in from the right to intercept the 40 thousand cavalry.

This was the first time that the Shanhai city cavalry fought against an elite cavalry force. This was the best time to test the troops, and Ouyang Shuo wasn't sure what the outcome would be.

This time, the ones leading the charge was the 2nd regiment of the 1st division. General E'Lai rode on Luosha, and was at the front of the force.

The 2nd regiment was a heavy armored cavalry force, and could be said to be the strongest armored cavalry in the cold weapons era. Under the leadership of Er'Lai and Lin Yi, they were like an iron flood which collided with the enemy.

Ever since the Zhao started using the lighter armored cavalry, cavalry had been their stronger soldier type. They wore lighter and tighter leather armor, and were equipped with crescent knives.

With the light armored cavalry facing the heavy armored cavalry, especially when both sides have enough charging distance, the outcome was obvious.

The 2nd regiment was like a hammer which smashed a bloody path in the Zhao’s cavalry force.

Following this path, the Guards unit followed closely behind and destroyed the cavalry who tried to stop the second regiment, making the blood path wider and wider.

Ouyang Shuo followed beside the Guards regiment, using the Tianmo spear and showing off the strengths of the Yang Family spear technique. The bloodthirst specialty of the spear was activated and a demonic red glow emanated from it.

Seeing their Marquis being so magnificent, Shanhai city cavalry's morale was raised.

Following the hole that was created, the young General Luo Shixin led the 4th regiment and the independent regiment, and charged in.

Seeing Shanhai City's soldiers show their might, Zhang Liao, who was commanding in the center wasn't any worse, and he ordered the 14 thousand alliance soldiers to follow up and expand their advantage.

Just like that, the elite Zhao cavalry was, because of their arrogance, taught a huge lesson.

Be it Zhao Kuo who was commanding from the hill or Huan He who was leading his troops to attack, they were shocked to see such a scene. Obviously they weren't expecting the player force to have such strong combat ability.

Seeing the situation was getting out of hand, as they might actually break through and assist Wang Ling, this wasn't what he wanted. He hollered, "Cavalry, follow me!"

Zhao Kuo's 1000 man cavalry were all first rate warriors who were all highly skilled. The war horses that they used were also very rare and near extinct.

They were like a whirlwind which charged down the hill, and they rushed to block the 2nd regiment.

A traditional heavy armored cavalry like the 2nd regiment had really obvious strengths and weaknesses. Once they went ahead, they were unstoppable. The weakness would be that they could turn and their flexibility was bad. They had already slowed down, and facing the thousand man cavalry force led by Zhao Kuo, they were at a disadvantage.

Chapter 269- Wang Ling's Death

At the crucial moment, Zhao Kuo personally led the 1000 man cavalry to block off Shanhai City's 2nd regiment.

From the 2nd regiment's perspective, the cavalry of the Zhao army were like clouds, they seemed like they were beside you but you just couldn't hit them. When you drew back your blade, your enemy just charged towards you like a well oiled machine. It was really difficult to defend against this quick and vicious cavalry force.

Luckily with Er'Lai, the 2nd regiment was able to get into a defensive formation and it was enough to protect themselves.

After all, as the player troops had a limited amount of men, even though they could create a hole in the 40 thousand Zhao troops, they were unable to break through to assist the 2nd regiment.

The Zhao army cavalry immediately retaliated after they regained their senses, using their numbers advantage to box up the enemy troops.

About the 20 thousand player force, apart from a portion of them being elite cavalry, a larger portion of them couldn't compete against the Zhao army, especially the cavalry from the other lords.

At this point, the 2nd regiment were blocked off, and only the Guards regiment were weaving left and right through the Zhao army formation with the intention to try to break out.

Shi Wanshui took the initiative to replace Er'Lai and act as the arrowhead. Such a fierce general wasn't something Zhao Zhuang could compete against; even more so his other generals, as they were all no match for him.

The battle went into a stalemate once again.

With such a delay, the remaining Wang Ling forces under the relentless attacks of the army from Gu Pass had finally met their end.

Wang Ling looked around and tragically said, "Brothers, let’s give it our all!"

The remaining Wang Ling forces charged forwards towards the Gu Pass forces.

Viewing death as a liberation and not being afraid of it.

Zhan Lang who was on the opposite side was infected by the sadness and courage of the Qin army troops, staying silent.

However, this was war. Zhan Lang tossed aside his emotions and shouted, "Kill!"

If one compared Wang Ling's remaining forces as a rock, representing the stubbornness of the Qin army, then the red and blacks army of the Gu Pass were like a wave, striking the rock with tremendous power.

The rock which was already cracked immediately broke apart and exploded.

At that moment, one of Wu An Lord's six generals, Wang Ling, died in battle.

"Wang Ling!" Huan He cried out.

When he heard their last shouts, he knew that something wasn't right. In the end, he wasn't able to save Wang Ling's life and could only watch on as he died on the battlefield.

All of the sudden, the Qin soldiers emanated a tragic and depressed aura.

Just at this point, General Wang He had led 30-40 thousand cavalry and rushed here. Hearing Huan He's cries, he shivered, filling him with a bad feeling.

Wang He's forces gathered with Huan He's, upon seeing the sadness spreading around, he was even more uneasy, stuttering as he asked," Huan He, what happened to Wang Ling's forces?"

Wang He's words pulled Huan He back to reality, and his voice was cold as ice as he gritted his teeth."Wang Ling died. We must take revenge for him!"

"What?" Wang He was shocked; in the end he had came a step too late, making him feel guilty.

Compared to Huan He with his emotional outbreak, Zhao Kuo was much calmer as he ordered the 1000 man cavalry general to take over in leading them while he went back to the hill to command the forces.

He knew that Huan He's attacks had hurt Zhao's forces, so if Wang He's forces attacked too, it would be detrimental for them.

Luckily at the crucial moment, the Gu Pass soldiers were able to destroy the remaining Wang Ling forces. Zhao Kuo ordered for the Gu Pass army to cross the camp and meet up with the main force to defend against Huan He and Wang He's forces.

"General, shouldn't we head back to Gu Pass first?" The advisor suggested to Zhao Kuo.

His meaning was since the connection between the main force and Gu Pass had been restored, they should go back before making further plans.

"No!" Zhao Kuo refused. It wasn't that he was arrogant, just that as the overall commander, he was thinking much further. Although they destroyed Wang Ling's forces today, the main force of Qin army was still here.

If they backed off, then Zhao Zhuang's forces at the south line would be pincered and would end up in the same state as Wang Ling had.

And the moment his troops were destroyed, Zhao would lose their ability to rule. One must know that within the Zhao, they were unable to call upon any more soldiers.

Hence, in the larger picture, Zhao would still lose, and this wasn't what he wanted to see.

"I order all troops to push on; we go south to assist General Zhao Zhuang." Zhao Kuo ordered without hesitation. "Also, order Zhao Zhuang to compact his forces and wait for reinforcements."

"Yes!" The advisor immediately waved the military flag to spread the orders.

With his arrangement, in the entire valley, the armies of the Qin and Zhao would meet, both sides having forces boxed in by the enemy. It was very majestic.

To the north, it was Zhao Kuo's army which had joined up with the Gu Pass forces, after so much fighting, they had 120 thousand infantry and 35 thousand cavalry.

Opposite them were Wang He and Huan He's forces. With the player forces, they had 100 thousand cavalry.

Behind them were the Zhao Zhuang forces who were fighting against the Qin army. After a slaughter, they had around 200 thousand men with a mix of infantry and cavalry.

As for Meng Ao and Wang He's remaining forces, they had around 250 thousand troops left.

North of the 50 kilometer stone wall were still 35 thousand men from Ying Bao's forces. Similarly, the Zhao army still had 70 thousand men in Gu Pass to monitor Ying Bao's army.

Hence, in terms of strength, both sides were still very equal.

The 6 forces interlacing and fighting one another was an amazing spectacle.

At this moment, it was a huge test of the commander's ability. In this aspect, Baiqi had the upper hand.

Baiqi had been watching the battle atop of Lang Mountain, and every change in the battlefield couldn't escape his eyes. The only thing he didn't expect was for the Gu Pass to suddenly have the 40 thousand elite player force, which was something he couldn't react to in time, and caused the destruction of Wang Ling's forces.

With such a situation, both forces looked equally matched and both sides had a chance to win.

With Zhao Kuo, if Zhao Zhuang worked together to pincer Wang He and Huan He, they could eat up their cavalry forces. Similarly, Baiqi could pincer Zhao Zhuang from the north and south. What mattered now was who was more skilled.

In truth, the Qin army still held the advantage.

Firstly, Wang He and Huan He's forces hadn't participated in the war, so they were still fresh. They were the only people who hadn't used up any energy in fighting.

Secondly, their forces were purely cavalry, and in terms of flexibility and speed, they were much stronger than the Zhao army. On the other hand, Zhao Kuo only had 30 thousand cavalry left and the rest were all infantry, how could they contend against Wang He and Huan He's cavalry?

Thirdly was that the Zhao army was scared. After being boxed up, the Zhao army didn't dare to advance and go all out southwards to fight against the Qin army. If they were boxed in again, it would be disastrous.

Zhao Kuo wasn't stupid, and he also saw this. Hence, he only wanted to save Zhao Zhaung's forces and return to Gu Pass.

Both commanders were exceptional people. What Zhao Kuo lacked was mainly practical experience. The recent few wars had taught him lessons and had improved him a lot.

Baiqi, on the other hand, was able to see the situation clearly and make decisive decisions, ordering Wang He and Huan He to immediately group up and charge south to attack Zhao Zhuang's troops.

When Huan He received the orders, he looked at the enemy opposite them with disgust as he shouted, "Let's move!"

Receiving the order to retreat, the 2nd regiment stopped fighting with the 1000 man cavalry of the Zhao army, turning around and going down south. At this moment, the Guards regiment appeared to assist them. Along with the help of Wang He's forces, they smoothly got out from the grip of the Zhao army cavalry.

The two armies were interlaced and fighting, and to be suddenly separated was a huge test of the leader's ability. Especially when Huan He and the player force's cavalries retreated, they were leaving their backs open to the enemy.

Hence, they all retreated together. If not, it would’ve made them an easy target for the enemy.

Luckily, be it Wang He, Huan He, Shi Wanshui or Zhang Liao, they all had vast experience and knew how to retreat, cover, and arrange their troops.

This was adding with the fact that Zhao Kuo's army, who had attacked Wang Ling's camp, were already exhausted. They also had to forcefully hold off Huan He's army, and thus their strength was entirely used up.

Under the strict and detailed arrangements of the generals, they couldn't find a way to attack, and naturally just allowed them to leave.

Seeing the 100 thousand Qin forces charge towards Zhao Zhuang's army, Zhao Kuo could only focus. He ordered the Gu Pass force to be at the frontline and start to go south to assist them.

As the Gu Pass soldiers had only rushed out at the crucial moment to destroy the tired Wang Ling's forces, in terms of stamina, they hence still had a lot left.

Chapter 270- Fire-Beacon Lights up Again

Baiqi was good at analyzing the battle as well as his and the enemy's forces, and also to think of a correct strategy and tactic to destroy them. Sieging and gaining land wasn't his only goal, but rather to destroy the enemy’s strength. He was good in wildlands battles and when he fought, he wanted to crush the enemy.

Ordering Wang He and Huan He's troops to give up on attacking Zhao Kuo, but instead pincer Zhao Zhuang, showed how Baiqi used his men.

The plan to box in the Zhao army had failed, but it didn't make him depressed. His next goal was to destroy as much of the Zhao army as possible to achieve victory in future battles.

After seeing the strength of the player force, Huan He stopped looking down on the players. When they charged down south, he didn't ask the player force to stay at the back. Instead, it was Wang He's 30-40 thousand cavalry.

A hundred thousand cavalry charged towards Zhao Zhuang's forces with a lightning quick pace. Zhao Kuo's 150 thousand men could only chase them as the dirt and dust sprayed into their eyes.

At this moment, Zhao Zhuang's 200 thousand men were fighting together with Meng Ao and the remainder of Wang He's troops. To destroy their army, Baiqi gave the order to hold them there and not let them escape.

Meng Ao gave the order for his troops to go around the Zhao Zhuang army and block their way north. The infantry troops were like a metal chain wound around the Zhao Zhuang army.

Zhao Zhuang was also experienced, and after receiving Zhao Kuo's orders, he immediately reorganized his troops. He placed his infantry to the south and also set up a defensive line to block Meng Ao and Wang He. He shifted the cavalry to the northern side to break down the defensive chain that Meng Ao had set up.

Four hundred to five hundred thousand troops started to engage in battle in the Dan River Valley.

Baiqi sat atop Lang Mountain and looked down. With the golden view, he accurately commanded his troops to attack together and retreat together, locking up Zhao Zhuang's forces.

Zhao Zhuang was locked up, unable to see the whole situation, and could only fight on the back foot.

After several rounds of trying, Zhao Zhuang had given up on trying to escape with his ability. He reorganized the troops once again to defend against the Qin army who were charging down south.

Zhao Zhuang was clear that his goal was to delay until Zhao Kuo sent reinforcements. That was the time he could retaliate, and whoever won or lost would then be decided.

After he organized his troops, 100 thousand were in the middle and 50 thousand were at each of the wings, a total of 200 thousand troops.

About the cavalry troops at the sides, each one had a knife and a bow, and their troops were neatly organized.

Based on the situation on the battlefield, the organization of the central troops were a little weirder, changing based on what happened to the north and south.

The 20 lines from the front and back were all soldiers with leather shields and crescent knives, the next 15 were spear tossers, and the next line were archers. Each line had 1000 men. At the two sides of the formation were towers, each of which hung a giant red flag with the word "Zhao".

One could imagine, to adapt to the pincer by the Qin army, how much effort Zhao Zhuang placed into it. The cleverness was shown in how he could make arrangements and reorganize in the chaos of battle.

Seeing Zhao Zhuang adapt so well, Baiqi felt emotional.

No wonder that they were regarded as they only army in the period that could rival the Qin army. Be in infantry strength or their leaders ability, they were equal with the Qin army. The only thing they lacked was national strength.

They had successfully boxed in Zhao Zhuang's army, so Baiqi gave the order for Meng Ao's infantry troops to back down and gather with the main force, leaving some space for the 100 thousand cavalry that were arriving.

At the same time, Baiqi ordered the remaining Wang He forces to go towards the western side of Zhao Zhuang's forces. Meng Ao's forces were organized to the eastern side and formed another pincer formation.

Baiqi's goal was to use the troops from the east and west to hold down the cavalry at the wings, and cause them to fight with the cavalry that were coming down south.

His arrangement made Zhao Zhuang feel really uncomfortable, like a locked up beast. The only weakness was the southern side, which looked like the way out, but in truth it was the most dangerous one.

What made him helpless was that he was prepared for the north and south pincer, but he didn't arrange any preparations on the east and west. This made all his plans useless, and it was too late to change his arrangements.

The gap between Baiqi and Zhao Zhuang showed in this battle.

The thundering sound of horses galloping resounded in the ears. The sound travelled from afar, what seemed like miles away was now really close by.

Zhao Zhuang knew that the enemy's cavalry had finally arrived.

As the smoke for the fire beacon rose up once again, a battle was about to be unveiled on the Changping Valley.

"Raise your shields!" The commander ordered.

Compared to the heavy armored Qin army, the Zhao army were light armored, their leather shields were round and big, and their crescent knives were sharp and light.

The war horses of the Qin army all had armor, and the cavalry all had long swords and carried long bows.

This was a battle of spear and shield. Huan He knew that his goal was to lead the cavalry straight to Zhao Zhuang. If they couldn't get totally through, they would run the risk of being surrounded.

The two wings of the Zhao Zhuang army tried to cut in and face the Qin Army Cavalry. However, the Qin troops at the eastern and western sides were like a metal chain, and dragged them back into a battle.

The black flood braced the arrows and spears, and relentlessly attacked. After heavy casualties, the vanguard forces led by Huan He finally broke in to the front of the Zhao army forces.

Their cavalry were like unstoppable beings, making use of the momentum, not bothering about the crescent knife soldiers and charging in. They quickly broke through the first line, then the second, then the third.

The crescent knife soldiers of the Zhao Army didn't back down. The crescent knives in their hands were like water and accurately cut the legs of the horses. In an instant, the cavalry were flung off the horses, and what awaited him were knives to the body.

The player cavalry troops led by Shi Wanshui were located in the center of the 100 thousand men.

Luckily for that, they were able to avoid most of the arrows and spears. If not, they definitely would have suffered heavy casualties before they would be able to enter the Zhao army region.

Under the circumstances that Huan He's Army had paid a heavy price, they finally broke through the crescent knives soldiers and spear tossers. What was next were the totally defenseless archers.

Once they broke through to such a position, the pressure on the player force in the middle as well as Wang He's forces at the back lessened a lot. They were like a flood as they crashed into Zhao Zhuang’s forces.

When Huan He's troops fought into the center, they had already used up all their energy. He made the decision to lead his troops to attack the left and right, and destroyed the 30 thousand archers.

Shi Wanshui led the player force and followed through the bloody road opened up by Huan He's troops. They effortlessly broke through the crescent knife soldiers and spear tossers and came to the archer formation.

Under the instructions of Huan He, the player force didn't stop and continued to charge forwards.

After the archers, it was the spear tossers and crescent knife soldiers once again.

About Huan He's orders, Ouyang Shuo was furious. He thought Huan He had started to learn his lesson and become a nicer person. Instead he was letting his troops kill the defenceless archers while the player force went forwards to fight the hard part.

Since it was an order, Ouyang Shuo was helpless and told Shi Wanshui to continue on.

Thinking about it carefully, Huan He's plan wasn't that bad. Out of the three forces, Wang He's forces lost a lot, and Huan He's forces, which acted as the vanguard, also lost many.

The only ones who were perfectly fine were the player forces in the center.

Hence, the charging mission would definitely be given to the player force.

Luckily the Shanhai City army was strong, and they had fought many battles.

The archers in the center were chased around by Huan He's forces, and they ran into the formation in the back, making it messy and not as neat as before.

Shi Wanshui grabbed the chance to order his troops to charge forward. They had to break through in one swoop.

Compared to the Qin army cavalry, the 2nd regiment and Guards regiment were much stronger. Their Qingfu horses were much stronger than the war horses from the Qin army, giving Shi Wanshui the confidence.

The player force effortlessly charged through the spear tosser formation, they charged towards the crescent knife formation like a tsunami, sweeping past the Zhao army.

Seeing the middle of the formation being destroyed, Baiqi made the order for the forces on the west and east to charge forward and swarm Zhao Zhuang's troops.

In a moment, the sky changed. The once blue and sunny sky suddenly became gloomy and cloudy.

Zhao Zhuang was in the middle of everything; the guards by his sides were split apart, and he had lost all ability to command.

Such a huge army had instantly lost their direction and became chaotic. The soldiers started to fight for themselves and couldn't differentiate between north, south, east, and west, resulting in heavy casualties in a short time.

On the other hand, the Qin army under Baiqi's commands were a whole machine. They surrounded and attacked, taking bite after bite out of the Zhao Zhuang army.

Baiqi's commanding skills were at the pinnacle of the art.

His brain was like a machine, accurately calculating each step. Each small detail on the battlefield couldn't escape his eagle eyes, and was used to his advantage.

Zhao Zhuang's army was instantly in danger, and was on the verge of collapsing.

At the crucial moment, Zhao Kuo finally led his troops and rushed forward to reinforce them.

Chapter 271- You Win Some You Lose Some

The last minute arrival of Zhao Kuo's forces saved Zhao Zhuang, who was on the verge of collapsing.

The high capabilities and body qualities of the Zhao army were displayed to the fullest. Even though they were always in danger and suffered heavy casualties, no one escaped and all of them fought courageously.

One had to say that this was a huge miracle during the Warring States Period.

After Zhao Kuo arrived, he took over command and made the scattered Zhao Zhuang forces gather up again. With the addition of 150 thousand men from Zhao Kuo's forces, it created a lot of pressure for the Qin army.

Seeing that things weren’t going smoothly, Baiqi immediately ordered his troops to split off.

Zhao Kuo didn't chase them, and after gathering together with Zhao Zhuang's forces, they waltzed back to Gu Pass.

This huge battle occurred in 3 waves, and lasted an entire day with both sides losing over 100 thousand men. The Changping Valley became a deathland; fresh blood stained the ground, and it would never be used to plant crops.

After the battle, the Qin army arranged to gather the corpses and bury them. They collected all the weapons and armor that could be used and found the horses that were scattered around.

The sky of Changping was terrifyingly gloomy, signifying that the war was far from over.

When nighttime came, rain started to fall. Slowly, the rainfall got bigger and bigger and became a storm, enveloping the entire Changping region.

The rainwater washed off the blood on the battlefield, and the red water now flowed into the Dan River, staining it red too. The red rainwater was the best description of this battle.

After the storm, there was a huge change to the land, and it seemed like nothing had even happened.

In this battle, the Zhao army had successfully broke through from the cage that the Qin army had set up. Although their lost much, they had succeeded.

The Qin army was feeling depressed. Not only did the enemy escape, but their general Wang Ling had also died. His whole army going under was definitely a sad thing.

Based on the battle settings, when non camp leaders like Wang Ling died, after the battle ended, they would have no chance of appearing in the wilderness and were completely gone.

In the Lang Mountain manor, Baiqi's face was dark and gloomy.

All the generals and advisors sat on 2 rows of 6 stone stools, looking extremely serious. Ouyang Shuo, as the player representative, was invited to this meeting. He sat quietly at the corner, not saying anything.

Based on the military advisor's calculations, apart from the total annihilation of Wang Ling's forces, Huan He had lost over 10 thousand, Wang He lost 40 thousand, Meng Ao lost 30 thousand, and in total, the Qin army lost close to 150 thousand.

On the side of the player force, Ouyang Shuo made his own calculations. Of the 7000 infantry led by Chen Tang, there were around 4000 who successfully left the battlefield.

Out of the 24 thousand cavalry, around 20 thousand were left. Shanhai City's 10 thousand cavalry were in charge of attacking and suffered heavy casualties, losing 2000 men, paining Ouyang Shuo’s heart.

In the Battle of Changping, the 10 thousand cavalry that Ouyang Shuo brought was half of what Shanhai City had, and to lose 20% in a day was definitely heartbreaking.

"We lost this battle because of the 40 thousand player force that rushed out of Gu Pass. Yesterday Qiyue Wuyi told me about it, but I didn't place much importance on it and hence we lost."

What was surprising was that Baiqi didn't blame his generals or advisors and took up all the blame.

Wang He and the others shifted their gazes towards Ouyang Shuo, who was sitting in the corner. Out of all of them, Huan He's gaze was the most friendly as he had witnessed the strength of the player force.

Being the focus of all these generals and leaders, Ouyang Shuo trembled. He stood up and said, "Baiqi, the players landing in Gu Pass wasn't expected and couldn't have been predicted. In a short day for them to take action was impossible to defend against."

"That's right!" Everyone agreed.

Ouyang Shuo wasn't trying to find excuses for Baiqi, even though his planning was poor, but his commanding and leadership was what turned everything around.

Zhao Zhuang's forces had 50 thousand men left, a shocking number similar to the number of men that Wang Ling's forces had lost.

"Wu An Lord, the Zhao Army has gotten out, so what should we do next?" Wang He asked.

Baiqi looked at the map, and a long silence followed.

The meeting just ended like this. With Baiqi's ability, he also couldn't craft a shocking plan in such a short time, so he could only look on at the map.

After Ouyang Shuo got off the mountain, he reported the situation to the allies, and everyone were similarly speechless.

Since it was like this, Ouyang Shuo asked Qianshou to do a prediction for what was going to happen. Only until the dead of night did Qianshou leave from Ouyang Shuo's tent.

The contents of their secret conversation was something that outsiders would not find out about.

After rushing to Gu Pass, apart from the 70 thousand that were left there, the Zhao army had around 300 thousand men left.

Compared to the Qin Army, they had lost far more, close to 170 thousand. Purely Zhao Zhuang had lost over 100 thousand. Including those who attacked Wang Ling's camp, they had paid a heavy price.

Gu Pass wasn't able to keep such a huge army.

Helplessly, Zhao Kuo arranged a general to lead 50 thousand men to take over Wang Ling's camp and also Zhao Zhuang to take 150 thousand men and camp at the foot of Gu Pass. The remaining 100 thousand would remain there.

Zhao Kuo moved his base to Gu Pass, and after resting, the first thing he did was to clear the path to Handan. This was to obtain a continuous grain supply.

Gu Pass' grain supply could only last them for a month.

Compared to Zhao Kuo, Baiqi's reaction was faster and more decisive.

Just as Zhao Kuo had arranged 100 thousand men out of the pass to destroy Ying Bai's forces, he had received Baiqi's orders and had taken his men out of Changping Pass.

Baiqi knew that the main force of the Zhao army was the one attacking, and with only 40 thousand men, Ying Bak would definitely not be able to defend the Hukou Pass. Since that was the case, why not just retreat and reduce unwanted casualties?

With that, the two armies seemed to have went back to the situation of the 3 year faceoff between Wang He and Lianpo.

In truth, be it Zhao Kuo or Baiqi, they wouldn't make such a decision. A 3 year standoff, regardless of whichever country it was, the burden that war had on the nation was far more than what it could handle.

With large amounts of grains sent to the war front, numerous civilians enlisting to serve, numerous people helping to transport resources, and many young men sent to war, the country's economy was on the verge of collapse.

This was especially the Qin, who were fighting a war far away from home, making a long transport route. With every unit of grain sent, 4-5 units would be wasted.

If they continued to standoff, even a strong country like Qin wouldn't be able to hold on, and their country's power would be lost in the war.

Gu Pass, Di Chen’s tent

"The first step is successfully completed, isn't it time for the second step?" Xiong Ba asked.

Di Chen nodded. "I'll suggest it during the meeting tonight."

"Great!"

"Do you think Zhao Kuo will agree with our plan?"

"He definitely would. Today's victory is definitely enough to show the problem."

"Zhan Lang, what do you think?"

In the battle, Zhan Lang led the player forces to destroy Wang Ling, even taking Wang Ling down. In the battle contribution points ranking, he was second, only behind Ouyang Shuo.

The reason Ouyang Shuo was higher was because of the kills by Shanhai City's 10 thousand cavalry.

Hence, Zhan Lang's prestige in the Yanhuang Alliance grew.

Zhan Lang laughed. "Based on what I see, even if we don't raise it, Zhao Kuo would have already thought of it."

"How so?"

"Don't underestimate him. In history, under the pressure of the Qin army, Zhao Kuo could defend 46 days without grain and the army didn't riot. He would definitely learn his lesson from this battle and find another way to break the Qin. With his character, he definitely won't defend like Lianpo." Zhan Lang analayzed.

"Smart!" The allies commended him for his great analysis.

"It seems like we have a 60% chance of winning this battle." Di Chen said happily.

The news about the Zhao army killing Wang Ling had spread all over and gained the awe and uproar of every country.

Before that, the 400 thousand troops of the Zhao were trapped by 500 thousand Qin men. Zhao had sent men to request help, but as they couldn't see the situation, they wouldn't put their stakes on either side.

Now that the Zhao army had escaped and even killed a general, it had undoubtedly changed the heart of the 5 countries in Shandong.

The dream of the Qin to take over Shangdou was becoming more and more distant.

The various countries of Shandong were afraid of the Qin. At this point, the Zhao sent out people to persuade them to send troops to fight the Qin together.

This time, their attitudes changed and they started to prepare their troops.

Seeing the situation starting to become bad for the Qin, the prime minister Fanju started to use heavy rewards to bribe the Shandong countries for them not to send troops to attack the Qin.

With such a situation, a storm started once again amongst the states.

Chapter 272- Losing Yewang

Just as the various ambassadors for each country went around to try and persuade them, Zhao Kuo acted again.

The next day after the war, Zhao Kuo ordered Zhao Zhuang to lead 50 thousand elite light armored infantry east out of Fukou Pass, and then towards the southwest to attack Yewang.

Ever since the Zhao army started using such cavalry, each one of them would bring milk and jerky to be able to last a day in battle. To make sure, Di Chen and the other lords provided 40 thousand military grain pills. With that, Zhao Zhuang led 50 thousand men east without any signs of grain being used.

The Yewang stronghold was the resource base of the Qin, the only stronghold that the Han Country had in the entirety of Shangdou.

Three years ago, Baiqi ordered Wang Ling to attack it. When they took over, they immediately constructed a large granary and opened up a channel so that grain could be transported. A year later, ships kept on sailing and carts kept on traveling, so grain was continuously sent to Yewang.

During the 3 year face off, the grain supply had never stopped. Yewang had now accumulated several granaries full of grain.

Ever since Baiqi took over Wang He as the commander, the Qin army's strategy had changed north towards Duanshi Town west of Laoma Ridge.

Wang Ling, who was defending the Yewang Stronghold under Baiqi's orders, started to enter the Changping battlefield.

As the battle proceeded, to ensure their victory, Baiqi had taken troops from the back and pushed them forwards into Changping to box in the Zhao army, hence Yewang Stronghold had less men.

Zhao Zhuang led the 50 thousand cavalry and rushed. They took a day to reach the Yewang Fortress.

The defenseless fortress couldn't contend against the enemy upon facing such a sudden attack, although they fought hard and tried to defend.

Adding the fact that Zhan Lang and the others had followed and used the siege weapons they brought with their storage bag, after an intense battle, the Qin forces lost, and everyone died.

After attacking the stronghold, Zhao Zhuang gave the order to set alight all the grain.

The large fire blazed and covered half the sky. As there was simply too much grain, the fire lasted for three days and three nights, and still hadn't extinguished, a burning smell spread through the area.

When the Qin army heard the news and rushed to assist, Zhao Zhuang's forces had already left. Seeing the burnt and ruined stronghold, the Qin soldiers' faces were all ashen white.

If the Zhao army escaping and Wang Ling dying wasn't enough to let the various countries decide, this burning of grain let them see the hope of beating the Qin army.

Out of all the countries, the Wei and Chu were the most eager.

They eagerly tried to convince the other countries to send troops and destroy the Qin together. Even the Han activated their Shangdou protector Feng Ting; the meaning in it was very obvious.

The Battle of Changping gathered over 90% of both country's troops. If one side lost, they would be in a detrimental and irrecoverable position.

Handan, Zhao Country Palace.

King Xiaocheng said happily, "Zhao Kuo really hasn't let me down. He's the general of his time!"

The ministers and officials agreed, and only Lin Xiangru who sat to the side had mixed feelings.

Everyone in the Zhao had felt that they had definitely won this time.

The Qin army had lost their grain supply, and could only retreat so Shangdou definitely belonged to the Zhao.

Pingyuan Lord, Zhao Sheng, was still a little worried. "My king, Zhao Kuo is young, and I'm afraid this victory would make him arrogant. Since Yewang Stronghold is destroyed, we only need to defend the Gu Pass, and the Qin army would be forced to back off. I'm afraid he would use his troops again to have a fight to a death with the Qin army for no reason."

His words were like a cold breeze, making the entire court feel cold.

Thinking about the situation where the Zhao army was boxed in, the ministers and officials felt the chills. Baiqi's prestige was too high, and even in such a situation, no one would say that the Zhao army would definitely win.

The moment Baiqi grabbed a chance, he would turn the whole situation around in an instant.

Zhao Xiaocheng was similar to the Pingyuan Lord, and was still scared of Zhao Kuo using his troops to attack. When he found out that the Zhao army was boxed in, he was so afraid that he had many sleepless nights.

Hearing his words, Xiaocheng said, "Uncle Wang is right. I'll write a decree for Uncle Wang to personally bring the army to take over control from Zhao Kuo so he can't step out of the pass and fight them."

"Yes, my king!" The Pingyuan Lord finally felt at ease.

Handan, Lianpo Manor.Ever since he was removed from duty, Lianpo didn't listen to his good friend Lin Xiangru's arrangement to go to the Chu, and instead returned to the Handan Manor.

Hearing that the Zhao army attacked Yewang Stronghold, Lianpo was conflicted. He muttered, "Was I really wrong? Am I not as good as him? I hope that the Zhao army wins so I have no regrets in this life."

Qin Country, Xianyang Palace.

The King of Qin frowned as he looked at Fanju. "How is the situation with the other countries?"

The destruction of the Yewang Stronghold left this minister with no idea what to do. Several more white hair grew on his head as he said, "My king, the situation has changed and whatever we do won't make a difference. The key lies in Baiqi, and if he can turn the situation around."

Qin Zhaoxiang was monitoring the resources in Changping. Before he returned to Xianyang, he had talked to Baiqi. Outsiders naturally wouldn't know a thing about the conversation between the two. The only change was that after the secret conversation, the king was much more relaxed and wasn't as tensed up as when he heard that Yewang Stronghold was destroyed.

The words from Baiqi before he left replayed in his ear: the loss of one land or city isn't enough to decide victory. What decides the outcome is on the battlefield.

"Minister, continue to remain here to manage policies and try to send grain towards Duanshi Fian. I'll venture forwards towards the army and form up reinforcements with all young men 15 and above to assist the troops in Changping."

"Yes, my king!" Fanju solemnly replied. When the country was in dire straits both internally and externally, it was when the king and the prime minister had to worked together. Such a scene made him cry out, "Protect our Qin, solve the national crisis!"

"That's right, this is the most trying times in our country, I believe that we can survive this and make it through."

Compared to the Zhao civilians, the Qin civilians were much more stubborn in the face of adversity.

As many things happened around them, the Changping battlefield was still very quiet.

After successfully taking down the Yewang Stronghold, Zhao Kuo assigned 50 thousand men stationed outside the Gu Pass to defend the Hukou Pass. As the only pass between the Handan and Gu Passes, they needed to defend it to ensure that grain could be transported.

At this point, the Zhao army formed a defensive line from the Hukou Pass to Gu Pass to Wang Ling Camp, destroying any chance of the Qin army surrounding them.

Hukou Pass and Gu Pass were near to one another, so if the Qin army wanted to go north of the stone wall, they would be attacked from the front and back. Unless they used all their forces, it would not work.

Lang Mountain, manor.

The military advisor was introducing the organization of the Zhao Army troops, followed by reporting new military intelligence. "The Wei led 150 thousand troops out of Dalian into Henei Prefecture, coming straight for Changping. Apart from them, other countries are all preparing for war."

"Their moms!" Wang He, who had a bad temper, flared up.

They didn't have any grain and now they had a strong enemy. This was a danger that the Qin army had never faced before. Even so, the generals and officials didn't give up, the reason being Baiqi, the war god in their hearts.

"How's the grain situation?" Baiqi asked solemnly.

"Apart from the Yewang Stronghold, Duanshi Town, Laoma Ridge and Guanglang City, all have a portion of the grain, but it's not in large amounts. Altogether, it could last us for 20 days. Additionally, the king has started to transport grain to Duanshi Town. As the distance is long, we can't depend on it for the short term."

Baiqi nodded, looking around at the various generals and said calmly, "The Zhao army has 4 advantages. They have enough grain, they have reinforcements, the area is small and easy to defend, and their morale is high.”

He continued. “However, they also have four weaknesses. Firstly, although the defensive line looks like it can't be broken, the line is too long, and they can't protect the end of the line. If we try, we can definitely cut the line in half. Secondly, after they destroyed Yewang Stronghold, they didn't try to chase the victory and cut off our supply line. Their tactics aren't decisive enough and that gives us a chance to fight back. Thirdly, their consecutive victories and having reinforcements mean that they might get overconfident. Fourthly, them hiding in the pass means that they can only defend passively."

Everyone in the cave waited with baited breath. They were clear that before every battle, Baiqi would weigh the pros and cons of the enemy. Only after that would he think of a plan. What they were waiting for was this exact moment.

"To destroy our enemy, it's simple." Baiqi said and paused before continuing, "Surround them and destroy their reinforcements; fortify a place, but shift all the resources away. Attack their weaknesses; launch isolated sieges!"

Wang He asked, "Wu An lord, please elaborate."

"This strategy is focused on surrounding them, baiting the reinforcements before hitting their reinforcements instead. The Zhao army shrinking the defensive line gave us a chance. As long as we attack Gu Pass and attract their attention, and then send our main force to kill the Wei army, the Zhao army would be cornered by us once again."

Chapter 273- Surrounding a Point and Destroying the Reinforcements

The generals all exclaimed, respect and awe in their eyes. However, Baiqi was a very serious guy and rarely laughed, so the generals didn't dare to sing his praises in the tent. They all looked at him, their war god, with eagerness at how he was going to arrange the troops.

Ouyang Shuo sat in a corner, emotions filling him. Only such a person like Baiqi could become a commander-in-chief. Generals like Shi Wanshui and E'Lai could never be, the difference between them were very obvious.

Unfortunately, to try to to convince Baiqi, it was as difficult as scaling the heavens. Although the player force had made a commendable performance, it wasn't enough to earn Baiqi's respect.

"Generals, receive my orders!" Baiqi's words broke Ouyang Shuo's thoughts, making him focus once again.

"Yes general!" Huan He and Ying Bao replied.

Huan He being too late to assist resulted in Wang Ling's death. As such he felt a pent up anger. If the Wei wanted to disturb them, naturally, he was furious and wanted to teach them a lesson.

Ying Bao and the other generals didn't look up to anyone in the military, only respecting Baiqi.

"Tomorrow morning, Meng Ao will go close to the southern side of Gu Pass and make an aggressive stance to bait them. Wang He will react from the side and at the same time ensure the safety of the grain route."

Wang He and Meng Ao, one was courageous and fierce, while the other was stable. It was nice that they were polar opposites. As it was a fake attack, Baiqi purposely sent Meng Ao to attack. He was worried that Wang He would be rash and really attack, affecting the whole plan.

"Yes!"

After all the generals left, Baiqi looked for Wang He and secretly told him some words before letting him leave.

The next day, Meng Ao and his troops left and waltzed toward Wang Ling Camp, acting as if they were going to go all out.

Wang He's forces on the west also moved out, dust and dirt rising from their movements.

Atop of the Gu Pass, Zhao Kuo and Zhao Sheng stood together.

To the decree from the Pingyuan Lord, Zhao Kuo, although he didn't agree with it, he had no choice to accept it. Following the king's orders to build a defensive line, and not go out and fight.

Seeing Meng Ao's forces charging forward, Zhao Kuo didn't think much. He had sent 50 thousand men there and within a day, they had fixed the camp, and it was usable again.

Adding up Zhao Zhuang's 100 thousand forces which were at the foot of Gu Pass, he didn't think the Meng Ao's forces could succeed. Thinking back, even the 150 thousand forces he had couldn't take down Wang Ling's camp in such a short time.

"What is the Qin army rushing for?" The Pingyuan lord asked.

Zhao Kuo laughed. "Their grain supplies were cut off, so I think they want to go all out before our reinforcements arrive."

"Baiqi is a god when using troops, so why would he be so rash? Is there a scheme in all of this?" The Pingyuan lord couldn't understand and said uneasily.

"What a joke! Although Baiqi is smart, even the heavens favor us, what can he do?" Although Zhao Kuo had lost to Baiqi, he didn't believe that he was lousier than him and wanted to prove himself.

Seeing the arrogant and overconfident Zhao Kuo, the Pingyuan Lord kept quiet. He didn't have any proof and anything would just be a conjecture, so he could only believe in what Zhao Kuo said.

Using the cover of Meng Ao's forces and also the dust made by Wang He's troops, Huan He and Ying Bao led 100 thousand cavalry and sneakily left the camp, going toward Baijing to the east.

The iron cavalry of the Qin army weren't like the light armored cavalry of the Zhao army, and could bring milk and dried meat. What these soldiers brought were meat which needed a fire to cook. Compared to the Zhao army, it was much more troublesome.

Luckily, Ouyang Shuo and the lords of the Shanhai Alliance took out their military grain pills and lessened their logistical stress. If not, without such help, these troops would not make it so far.

In a short time, the troops managed to enter the Henei prefecture.

Henei prefecture, although it was a new prefecture that the Qin had taken over for a short while, as the Qin king commanded his men from there and provided rewards to the people. They were very happy and supportive.

Hence, these 100 thousand cavalrymen were like fish in water in the Henei prefecture.

The Wei country’s Xinling lord had led the 150 thousand troops, and entered Henei prefecture. However they were like sparks in a dark night. In Huan He's eyes, there was nothing mysterious or secretive about their movements.

Huan He was very clear that this operation; it had to be fast and swift. Firstly, they had little resources left and couldn't last for long. Secondly, if they come out for too long, they would raise the doubts of the Zhao army.

After Huan He and Ying Bao finished their discussion, they chose a route that the Wei army had to pass by and prepared an ambush. They wanted to attack them before they could react and destroy them in one fell swoop.

The ambush point they chose wasn't a canyon or a special ground but a very normal plain. It was hundreds of miles around and apart from a official road, it was just a few scattered villages.

A hundred thousand cavalrymen hid in the villages. Not far from the village was a dense forest; the dense vegetation was also a good cover for the troops.

Seeing such a huge army, the villagers were freaked out.

Apart from acquiring some grain from the villages, the soldiers didn't do anything too out of hand. Baiqi was very strict and didn’t allow his troops to rob civilians. Even a general like Ying Bao, who wasn’t afraid of anything, definitely wouldn't go against Baiqi's orders.

After the troops settled down, Huan He sent scouts to investigate and monitor the movements of the Wei army.

Two days later, the Wei army appeared as expected.

Looking from afar, the 150 thousand men army stretched out over 5 kilometers. Their army, which was once the best, had deteriorated and wasn't as good as they once were.

An army that was moving wasn't suitable for sneak-attacks as they stretched too long. Even if they killed the front enemies, the ones at the back could form up and they definitely wouldn't be able to effectively kill them.

Hence, the place that Huan He chose was where the Wei army set up camp. As they traveled for a long time, and adding with the fact that there were few Qin troops in Henei prefecture, they naturally didn't pay much attention when they set up camp.

What they didn't know was that not far away, a pack of hungry wolves were staring at them.

As the Wei army set up camp, a hundred thousand iron cavalry was like a black flood and rushed out of the forest straight toward them.

The thunderous galloping made the whole ground shake; it was like a tsunami. The black wave swallowed up the land; the green plains was now covered in black.

"Oh no, it's the Qin army!" the Wei army panicked. The soldiers in the Wei army had suffered a lot at the hands of the Qin army, and fear had built up in their hearts.

At that point, the Wei army had started to gather in the camp. Travelling non stop for a day was really tiring. They put down the heavy grain that they carried and were prepared to settle down. They didn't expect that enemy forces would attack, causing panic in the camp.

Screams, shouts, horse galloping, bowls and pots crashing, scolds and various noises resounded; it was like they were in a huge market.

Luckily, the Xinling lord was a capable man, and he calmed the troops while reorganizing them at the same time. He ordered the cavalry to gather and intercept the Qin army while the infantry formed up behind them.

A 150 thousand man army naturally wouldn't set up camp at one spot. They were split into three groups. When the front group set up camp, the central group would rush there while the back group would still be moving.

Huan He led 50 thousand men to attack the front group. Ying Bao led the player force to destroy the center group. Xinling lord Wei Wujin personally led the center group.

In the current day and age, the only ones who could match the Qin army was the Zhao army. The Wei army in front of them were far from their past glory and were easy pickings.

The front camp, after a charge by Huan He's forces, couldn't form up. Huan He led his men and led a slaughter in the camp.

History would remember this once nameless plains because of this battle.

The center group’s camp was where the commander Wei Wujin was located. Shi Wanshui requested to lead the player force to attack them. This was the only remaining group of the Wei’s elite soldiers.

Shanhai City's cavalry was a level higher than that of Qin army's. The Wei elite soldiers naturally couldn't withstand it, and facing the metal flood led by the 2nd regiment, they had no choice but to engage.

It was a battle of the spear and the shield, and it ended in a complete victory of the Shanhai City cavalry.

The Xinling lord, who was highly confident, could only lead his guards and escape.

Even for the prideful Ying Bao, upon seeing the strength of the player force, his eyes froze. Before this trip, he was unhappy that Huan He had treated the player force too well, but now he understood why.

Although the Wei elite soldiers weren't as strong as before, they were still an elite unit. In front of the player force cavalry, however, they couldn't even withstand a hit, stunning Ying Bao.

In the huge plains, the Wei troops who stretched for miles were destroyed by the Qin army. Not only could they not connect up with the rear group, but they were broken up into many parts.

The Wei army was mainly made up of infantry. The small number of infantry wasn't enough to stop the Qin army cavalry. Instead they were pincered by Huan He and Ying Bao, and directly destroyed.

As the army lost its cavalry, the remaining infantrymen were unable to resolutely defend; they were like a bunch of sheep under the chase of the Qin army wolves, running for their lives.

Chapter 274- Chariot Circle Formation

The vast plains were filled with escaping Wei army soldiers. They threw down their gear and weapons. Some even took off their armor, so as to run faster than their comrades.

Ying Bao was a bloodthirsty person, so how could he miss such a good chance? He ordered the troops to be ruthless and not accept any surrender. Wherever the iron cavalry passed, they only left behind lifeless bodies.

Huan He also wasn't any saint, and was also simmering with some anger, so he was just as ruthless.

Such a good chance was also what Ouyang Shuo wouldn't miss. The player force was claiming their enemy's lives, making Ouyang Shuo feel like his battle contribution points were rising quickly.

A 100 thousand cavalrymen were like precise war harvesting machines, efficiently killing the front and central groups of the Wei army. As they passed by them on their horses, their knives shone and heads fell to the ground.

Compared to Huan He and Ying Bao's forces, the 20 thousand player force under Shi Wanshui, Er'Lai and Zhang Liao's lead were more efficient and had higher killing power.

Especially the Shanhai City cavalry, with their gear and great horses, they causally charged into the enemy, leaving a bloody trail in their wake.

After destroying the front and central groups, Huan He left 20 thousand troops to chase down the deserters. Then, he met up with Ying Bao and rushed toward the rear group of the Wei army.

When the Xinling lord returned to the back group, he noticed that things were bad. He ordered the troops to leave their heavy loads and rush for their lives back to their country.

Just as the Qin army was chasing the Wei army, the Xinling lord had already escaped. Unfortunately, as long as the Wei Army was within the Henei prefecture, they wouldn't be able to escape from the Qin army.

The Qin army cavalry followed their path and were like experienced hunters, killing them one by one. The infantry heavy Wei army definitely couldn't shake off the cavalry.

The chase lasted for a total of 3 days and 2 nights. The Qin army was like a pack of hungry wolves, and they bit down on the Wei army, refusing to let go. When the sky turned bright, the Wei army who spent the night in fear could see their demons who were charging toward them.

The grain that the Wei army threw down instead became a huge help for the Qin army. It totally solved the problem of resources. One had to say it was pretty ironic.

The Qin army chased them to the border of the Henei prefecture, and the 150 thousand Wei army was now in tatters. The Wei that was already having problems would probably not be able to stand up after that battle, and their destruction was just a matter of time.

Wei Wujin, under the protection of his guards, brought his remaining troops back into their country. He was immediately removed from his position and locked up. Whatever happened next, let's not talk about it now.

After completely destroying the Wei army, Huan He didn't dare to act slow and gathered the troops, rushing back toward Changping. Destroying the Wei army was only an appetizer, and the real battle would take place in Changping.

On the way back, Ouyang Shuo took a look at his battle contribution points and found that they had reached a terrifying 250 thousand. On average, in the two battles, the Shanhai City cavalry had killed each killed two and a half men.

Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang had both fought up to and overtaken Zhan Lang, taking the 2nd and 3rd spots on the rankings.

Of course, the battle contribution points leaderboard didn't factor in the final bonus points, so with Di Chen and Zhan Lang's performance, their bonus wouldn't be small too.

Hence, the fight for the top of the leaderboard wasn't set in stone.

The news of the Wei’s 150 thousand troops being destroyed was like a blizzard as it swept across all the countries, calming down their impulsive and rash hearts.

The Zhao were rejected out of many of the other countries, and the Han once again removed Feng Ting from his duties. The 5 countries of Shandong immediately brought gifts and sent their ambassadors to Xianyang to try and repair the relationship.

Just as Baiqi had said, the destruction of the Wei army would break up the alliance that was forming.

At this point, the army that the Qin king had gathered in Henei slowly left Taihang Mountain.

With the arrival of rain, the Changping battlefield once again became cloudy and mysterious.

Gu Pass, Di Chen tent.

When Ouyang Shuo and the others' battle contribution points started climbing, Di Chen had already felt that something was up. After a few days of observation, he didn't see any signs of Shanhai City’s cavalry amongst the Meng Ao forces.

Since they didn't join the battle, how would their battle contribution points still increase, unless there was a war somewhere else? Di Chen told his conjecture to Zhao Kuo, but he didn't place much attention or care to it.

As expected, in the beginning, even Baiqi didn't care when Ouyang Shuo told him military intelligence. Furthermore, Di Chen's conjecture was so preposterous that the young Zhao Kuo definitely wouldn't bother about it.

When the news of the Wei army losing spread, Zhao Kuo was naturally shocked while Di Chen and the others were bitter.

"Are we really going going to lose to Shanhai Alliance again?" Sha Pojun was really salty, seeing the good situation slowly overturned, how could he be happy, even more so when the enemy was Ouyang Shuo whom he hated to the bone.

Zhan Lang shook his head. "This time, we didn't lose to Qiyue Wuyi, but Baiqi."

"That's right! No matter what we predicted, we wouldn't foresee such an old move coming. Even in such a disadvantage, he dared to move his troops to kill the Wei army."

"Thinking back on it, isn't this his style? It looked dangerous, but in truth he calculated everything clearly and predicted that Zhao Kuo wouldn't dare to attack," Zhan Lang said emotionally.

"What should we do now? Our plan has been broken, so we need to think of a new one."

"That's right. Even without the reinforcements, the Qin are equally matched with us, so we need a detailed plan. If not, they might really beat us."

Zhao Army Tent

After hearing that the Wei army was intercepted and killed, Zhao Kuo locked himself in his tent and didn't see anyone. Even the Pingyuan lord Zhao Sheng was rejected at the door.

Based on Zhao Kuo's character, after gaining the advantage, he wanted to chase it and not give the Qin army any chance to rest. In the end, the prudence of the Zhao king spoiled his plan.

Now, the Wei army was destroyed and there wouldn't be any more reinforcements coming to Changping.

With the current situation, the Zhao army had no choice but to defend. They could only use Lianpo's plan to standoff against the Qin army and see who couldn't last.

Comparatively, the Zhao army definitely held the advantage.

The problem was, the current situation was much different from the time when Lianpo and Wang He had their standoff.

During Lianpo's time, both armies held half of Changping, and they each formed three defensive lines. As for Zhao Kuo's Defence, it was just a single line, comparing the strength, it was obvious.

And with Meng Ao's forces in front of Wang Ling Camp, them wanting to change formations was impossible. The only plan was to fortify the defense.

Zhao Kuo was well-read in military books, and his knowledge was very vast. If one talked about defending and not attacking, he immediately thought of an idea. He suddenly stood up. "Immediately send for general Zhao Zhuang!"

Zhao Zhuang hurried over and seeing Zhao Kuo sitting solemnly behind the general’s table, he immediately bowed.

Zhao Kuo invited Zhao Zhuang to sit down on the floor opposite him and smiled. "How's the Meng Ao force's attack?"

"After intercepting and killing the Wei army and returning to Changping, their attacks hadn't decreased but increased instead If one said that they were faking their attack before, now it looks like they really want to take down the Wang Ling Camp and crush our defensive line." Zhao Zhuang said solemnly.

Hearing Zhao Zhuang mention the Wei army, Zhao Kuo's face cramped. It slowly returned back to normal as he said, “Since that's so, can you all handle it? The moment the Wang Ling camp is taken over, the army under Gu Pass would immediately face their threat." Zhao Kuo didn't reveal what he was thinking. Instead, he tested Zhao Zhuang.

"General don't worry, we definitely won't let the Qin army get away. However, what I'm worried about is that if they increase their forces once again, the troops defending would face immense pressure. General, shouldn't you organize more soldiers from Gu Pass to reinforce them just in case?"

Zhao Kuo shook his head. "If we increase troops, we will fall into their trap. They will take the chance to start a war and deplete our main force and prevent a long drawn out war."

"So, what should we do?"

"I have a formation that we can set up under Gu Pass which ensures that the Qin army wouldn't be able to attack an inch." Zhao Kuo was very confident.

"What formation is general referring to that will have such great effect?"

"Chariot circle formation!"

"Chariot circle formation?"

"Yes!"

"I heard that it was a long lost formation from Sun Bin. How did general learn of it?"

Zhao Kuo laughed but didn't say anything.

Zhao Zhuang knew that the general had a lot of confidence in it working and said happily, "As long as General remembers how to lay the formation and how it works, then it will definitely work!"

Zhao Kuo nodded. "Sun Bin mentioned that this formation was so amazing that one didn't need to make changes and adaptations to it. As for how to arrange the men, it's also very simple. Look!" He took a piece of sheepskin and started drawing. With his intelligence and quick thinking, in less than an hour, he had described the formation.

"Sun Bin is a war genius! This formation is so useful!" Zhao Zhuang exclaimed.

"It's okay if the Qin army increases their troops to attack. If they really do, we can only add a little more troops to defend Wang Ling camp. To fight head on isn't a smart strategy. The main force will set up the formation under Gu Pass to welcome them. I want to see how Baiqi breaks it."

"Yes, general!" Zhao Zhuang went away to prepare the formation so that they could set it up at the foot of Gu Pass. Apart from that, he also gave the responsibility of the formation to the advisor in the army for him to drill the soldiers such that they were well versed in it.

Chapter 275- A Star Will Rise

Lang Mountain, Qin Army Tent

Baiqi gathered all his generals to plan for the next stage of their mission.

Based on their original plan, the next stage would be to attack Wang Ling camp.

"Once we manage to conquer the camp, Zhao army will be trapped in Gu Pass, and it will once again be us surrounding them. Hence, we have to win the battle tomorrow." Baiqi rallied.

"We await your orders!" The generals replied.

"In the siege tomorrow, Meng Ao's forces will be the main while Huan He and Ying Bao will back him up by blocking the Zhao Zhuang troops at the bottom of Gu Pass. Wang He's troops will stay in the camp and wait for my orders!"

"Yes, general!"

Ouyang Shuo sat at one side, a sense of worry and doubt flashed across his face. Since they were trying to take over the camp, why wouldn't Wang He's troops be sent out? He looked at Wang He's expression and didn't see any unhappiness. Maybe Baiqi still has other plans.

Destroying the Wei Army not only destroyed the alliance that was forming. The Qin troops also gained a lot of grain and resources.

The Qin had sent almost all their grain toward the Yewang Stronghold. The fire set by Zhao Zhuang had destroyed the years worth of grain accumulated by the Qin. Hence, although they had regained the transport routes, the amount of grain that Fanju could gather within the country was limited.

As they kept trying to acquire grain, the commoners were grumbling. To support the troops on the frontline, even grain from their houses were asked to be contributed. Of course, they wouldn't be happy.

Hence, Zhao Kuo felt that if the two armies continued, that the Zhao army was stronger.

Fortunately, the destruction of the Wei who brought massive amounts of grain had really benefited the Qin.

The Qin king had already contacted commoners to help transport this batch of grain to Guanglang City.

The plains where the Wei and Qin armies fought was in Henei prefecture and really close to Changping. In a few days, they had managed to reach Guanglang City. Hence, the lack of grain was solved and the Qin problem wasn't as bad as Zhao Kuo expected.

The morning the next day, the sun rose; it was good weather.

Early in the morning, the Zhao Army started to get busy, moving all the chariots and usable things out to prepare the chariot circle formation.

Just as they began to get busy, the Qin army set out.

The black flood under the coordination of the drums, formed up into neat rows and walked out of the camp.

Baiqi stood on the tower and looked on as usual, looking down and commanding the troops.

The first one to leave was the 120 thousand infantry and cavalry led by Meng Ao. This army had been attacking Wang Ling camp for several days and had gotten familiar with the route. The only difference was the order to fight to the death given yesterday.

In the Qin army, the moment they decided to fight to the death, if anyone tried to escape, they would be killed mercilessly. If one was scared, he might be a burden to the others. Hence, for these battles to the death, the soldiers would all fight like their backs were against the wall.

In the rolling dirt and dust, Huan He and Ying Bao made use of the cover to follow closely behind. During the battle with the Wei, Huan He lost few troops and had 90 thousand men left who could fight.

Seeing Meng Ao's troops attack Wang Ling camp once again, the guards didn't panic. After several days, they were sure that the enemy was just faking.

The news of the Wei army losing was only known to generals of the Zhao army to not affect morale. Zhao Kuo ordered this to prevent its spread. If not, whoever disobeys it would be killed.

Hence, out of those defending, apart from the few generals, most of them didn't know a thing.

What they didn't know was that the Qin army today was very different from the last few days. The generals knew that and ordered for the soldiers to be on guard. Unfortunately, it didn't work.

During the few days of attacks, although Meng Ao didn't achieve much, at least they had filled up all the moats.

The huge army stepped over the moats and held the scaling ladders, starting a relentless assault against the camp that was originally theirs. The soldiers weren't afraid of dying and gave their all.

Such a fierce army was something the Zhao army didn't expect. Only then did they realize that the Qin army was attacking for real this time. However when they realized this, it was too late as they had already suffered heavy casualties.

Luckily, the Zhao army wasn't so average like the Wei army. Although they had a bad start, they reacted quickly and using the advantage of the wall, started to slaughter the Qin troops.

The alchemical fire oil cabinet and various defensive weapons were used to their fullest, causing huge damages to the Qin army.

Meng Ao, who was commanding the troops, didn't have any reaction and didn't care much about the loss of life. He coldly waved the flag in his hand, sending group after group up, not stopping until they achieved their goal.

The relentless attack gave a lot of pressure to the ones trying to defend. They didn't even have enough time to take a breath. Under the intense attacks, breaches and cracks appeared in some areas, although they were covered. If it continued, breaking through was just a matter of time.

Meng Ao was smart and fast, seeing that holes were appearing in the defense, he immediately sent the reserve force. In a moment, the Wang Ling camp was in danger. The soldiers had no choice but to send an emergency SOS signal to the main forces.

Although Zhao Zhuang was busy with the chariot circle formation, in truth, he was paying attention to this siege. Seeing the Qin army act as he expected and make a genuine attack, he immediately formed up a force to assist.

Just as they rushed to help, the Huan He and Ying Bao troops who were hiding behind Zhao Zhaung's army charged out and blocked their escape route.

Both generals did what they were tasked to, block as their first priority and kill as their second. The forces weaved around the Zhao Zhuang forces, not letting them move an inch.

Zhao Kuo stood at the city wall of Gu Pass. Seeing Zhao Zhuang's forces stopped, he knew that the Qin army was determined to take down Wang Ling camp.

Although he had prepared the chariot circle formation, Zhao Kuo didn't wish to lose the Wang Ling camp so early. Even more so, he wanted to save the 50 thousand troops inside.

Just as Zhao Kuo wanted to move the troops inside Gu Pass to save Zhao Zhuang's forces, someone reported, "General, there appears to be many Qin forces to the north of Gu Pass; they are carrying a lot of siege weapons; they look like they want to attack Gu Pass."

"What?" Zhao Kuo didn't believe it. When did the Qin Army go around the stone wall, when he was totally in the dark? The scouts were really useless. "How many of them?"

"More than 100 thousand."

Zhao Kuo shivered. A 100 thousand men, if he had sent out some soldiers out of Gu Pass to assist Zhao Zhuang, then Gu Pass would be in danger.

"That's not right!" Zhao Kuo frowned and muttered. "Why is it so coincidental?"

Thinking back, Zhao Kuo shivered. The Qin army on the north must have set out a few days back to be able to reach here at such a moment. Hence, they could prevent the soldiers in Gu Pass from assisting those in Wang Ling Camp. If Zhao Kuo didn't care and tried to save them, then it would become a real siege. Hence, either Gu Pass or Wang Ling Camp, one must be lost.

The importance of both, Zhao Kuo was naturally clear.

This was a scheme, and Zhao Kuo could only choose one or the other. He could only choose to defend Gu Pass and give up Wang Ling camp. As for coordinating with the troops in Hukou Pass to pincer the Qin army from the northern side, it was impossible.

The Hukou Pass was too far away from Gu Pass, and by the time they arrived the enemy would have been long gone.

This was the weakness of the Zhao army defensive line. It was too long and they couldn't smoothly coordinate with one another, giving a chance to the enemy.

At this point, Zhao Kuo had a deeper understanding on how Baiqi used his troops. It was apparent that in this battle, Baiqi had saw through the enemy weakness and made plans to counter it.

Comparatively, Zhao Kuo appeared very weak and inexperienced.

The hard part was that he not only had to sacrifice the Wang Ling camp and the 50 thousand inside, but if he really left them there, the morale of the army would drop.

They had no ability to save them, but if he didn’t save them the army would lose their heart to fight.

Zhao Kuo shook his head bitterly. "Order the troops to turn towards the north to defend; tell those in the camp to defend and once we deal with those sieging Gu Pass, we will send reinforcements."

Everyone knew that Zhao Kuo's reinforcements were just a blank piece of paper. When the main force had made the Qin troops on the north retreat, Wang Ling Camp would have been lost, what reinforcements would even be needed?

Although everyone knew it, after all it was quite logical, Zhao Kuo didn't want to give up Wang Ling camp. But because of the Qin Army, he had no choice but to give it up.

Only then would it not cause too much of an effect on their morale.

One had to say, although this move wasn't so outright and in the open, it was effective. A leader had to be ruthless and when one needed to sacrifice something, they had to be able to do it.

Baiqi had once again given Zhao Kuo a lesson.

After this Battle of Changping, Zhao Kuo grew and matured quickly. If he could survive and walk out of this battle zone, he would definitely become a star general.

Chapter 276- Regaining What Was Lost

Zhao Kuo's orders were basically declaring the death of Wang Ling camp.

When the generals received the order, their faces were ashen white. They foresaw the ending that awaited them. However, they didn't hate Zhao Kuo, but the guile of the Qin army.

"Brothers, fight to the death!" The guts of the Zhao army were never worse off than that of the Qin army.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

The scene from where Wang Ling's remaining forces jumped out of the moat and fought to their deaths were played once again. The same place, the same situation, the only difference was that this time it was the Zhao army.

Fate. Sometimes it was just so coincidental and so cruel.

The courage of the Zhao army was turned against them by Meng Ao. His calm eyes suddenly wavered and facing such an opponent, what he could do was to try his best and send them on their way.

Deafening roars sounded out inside and outside of the camp. The charge of the Zhao army provoked the thirst for blood in the Qin soldiers, and both sides fought to the death.

The intense battle lasted all the way into the afternoon. When they were tired, the Zhao army had their meals in the moat, not even having the time to return to camp. If they backed off, the enemy Qin army would charge forward.

As the sun shined onto the Wang Ling camp, it seemed exceptionally cold. The repaired camp was now once again in tatters, walls broken and smoke billowing from within.

As Meng Ao led the troops, he had a calm demeanour. The Zhao army's resilience was far more than he had expected. The moat looked like a dead zone which they could take over at anytime. But when the Qin forces rushed forward, there would be bodies that ‘revived’, taking the crescent knives in their hand and fighting against the Qin army.

Because of the battles time after time, the moat didn't exist anymore, covered by bodies and blood. Be it siege weapons or defense tools, they were all broken and no one bothered to go and fix them.

At the end of the battle, there were only soldiers taking knives and spears, and engaging in close combat. There was no skill and no tactics. This was the cold weapons era, the most bloody but the most eye catching moment.

Soldiers weren’t wheat that would grow back quickly after being cut.

The Zhao army, be it in combat strength or mental strength, were equal to the Qin army; however, there were twice the number of enemies in front. In the end, they lost. Like the Wang Ling forces, none of them surrendered and everyone fought to the death.

In this battle, after a whole day of intense fighting, Meng Ao's troops seemed to have lost as many men before being able to take down the Wang Ling camp before nightfall.

They had regained what they lost, only that the price seemed too much to pay.

The after battle report showed that the player infantry forces led by Chen Tang had nearly all been killed, with around 1000 remaining. The terrible state of the player force was the best description of the battle.

Taking down Wang Ling camp, Wang Ao followed Baiqi's instructions and led 70 thousand troops to guard it. To pay remembrance to Wang Ling, the name of the place wasn't changed.

Seeing Wang Ling camp taken over once again, Zhao Zhuang was furious and wanted to have a fight to the death with the Qin army. Luckily, Zhao Kuo's warning made him keep a clear head and order his troops to retreat to the foot of the Gu Pass.

The combined forces of Huan He and Young Bao dealt with Zhao Zhuang for an entire day and were exhausted. They retreated back towards Guanglang City to rest up. Both generals knew that the more crucial battle was about to happen.

As for the 100 thousand troops sent to disturb the Gu Pass, they were taken out from Wang He's camp. Wang He was given the secret mission before Huan He and Ying Zhao went to attack the Wei Army to go toward Gu Pass.

A few days ago when the Meng Ao Army was bluffing their attack on the Wang Ling Camp, the entire main camp of the Qin army only had 50 thousand men, like an empty city. The Zhao Army had 200-300 thousand free troops but they didn't use them. If Zhao Kuo took the risk and attacked, the battle would be totally different right now.

Unfortunately, there were no ifs in war.

In the morning, Zhao Zhang started to shift out all the old chariots and useful things out and spent five days forming the chariot circle formation at the foot of Gu Pass.

The formation had five layers: the outermost one was a walled trench, the second was composed of chariots and sword shield soldiers. The chariots were connected together, and behind the chariots were the sword shield soldiers; thirdly were infantry soldiers spaced out in a defensive formation; the 4th was the military tent used to switch out the defending soldiers and treat the wounded; the 5h was the golden drum tower with a giant ‘Zhao’ flag and this was where the commander would command all the troops.

When the formation was set up, it astonished the Qin army. The Qin army pointed from afar and looked in awe. When Baiqi got the report, he looked down from the highest point of Lang Mountain. From afar, it was a 5 kilometer burning circle, flags placed around, drums sounding out, and it looked really dangerous.

Baiqi looked at his generals and asked, "You have all been through hundreds of battles, can anyone tell me the history of this formation? What are its strengths and weaknesses, and how should we break it?"

At this point, Meng Ao was north of the stone wall to command the 100 thousand troops there. Meng Ao was in the Wang Ling Camp and was in charge of monitoring the movements of the Zhao Army in the Gu Pass.

Besides Baiqi were only Wang He and Huam He. Wang He had 50 thousand odd men were in Laoma Ridge. Huan He had taken over Ying Bao's forces and had a total of 80 thousand cavalry situated in Guanglang City, taking over Meng Ao's role.

Apart from the two generals, there was the player representative Qiyue Wuyi and Qianshou.

Wang He laughed. "Who cares what formation it is? We have 50 thousand cavalry. We can charge through it and destroy it!"

"Fifty thousand cavalry destroy that? They will all die and you still wouldn't know what happened. As a general, you are an important member of the country. Doing things rashly, how will you win the war?" Although Baiqi wasn't intense, he had a indescribable prestige and honor which made the generals respect and fear him.

Most importantly was that the whole army had utmost faith in Baiqi. Baiqi, who worked his way up from a soldier, was a terrifying swordsman when he was a soldier and was familiar with all sorts of warfare and weapons. If he walked around in the training school, he could point out the mistakes of everyone.

As the general was so good, the soldiers would naturally trust him. That wasn't all. His tactics were precise and his use of troops was sublime, his courage and ruthlessness, all this played a part. In the past 30 years, as long as Baiqi led them, in whatever battle, the Qin Army would win.

All in all, Baiqi was like a war god sent from the heavens.

Even given such respect, Baiqi didn't become arrogant and rash. He was always that calm and clear, and he was forever the guy whose goal was to destroy the enemy.

Apart for calling him a god, there was no other way to describe him.

Being scolded by Baiqi, Wang He was embarrassed, his face turning red instantly.

Baiqi knew Wang He's personality and didn't think about it much, taking the chance to ask the generals about the formation. Suddenly, a slow but firm voice spread out from behind. "If I'm not wrong, this is the chariot circle formation."

Baiqi was shocked. He turned his head only to see an old man, dressed up like a scholar, standing behind Qiyue Wuyi. The scholar looked at Baiqi and bowed.

Ouyang Shuo introduced. "Baiqi, this is the advisor of the player force, Qianshou."

Baiqi nodded. He wasn't angry because he got interrupted and instead praised, "I didn't expect there would be such a smart person amongst the players. Please explain." It wasn't that Baiqi was trying to make things difficult for Qianshou, it's just that once the formation was recognized, one could naturally say it's pros and cons.

Qianshou didn't hesitate and said, "The formation was thought of by Sun Bin, but wasn't used in battle before. He only left the blueprints of the 10 formations. As for how to use them he didn't explain. This formation is the one that made use of moats, chariots and infantry: the chariot circle formation."

"The strength of his formation was that the army could rotate in a circle like water to adapt to the situation; if we attack from one point, the troops will rotate and attack us from behind; if we surround them and attack, we would need to stretch out our troops and thus our strength would be weak and would not be able to siege."

"Pa pa pa!" Baiqi clapped and laughed. "Mister is a genius!"

"Thank you for your praise."

Baiqi waved him off, his expression turning serious once again.

Based on Baiqi's plan, the next step would be to coordinate with Ying Bao's troops to pincer Gu Pass. However this formation made the south impenetrable.

The Wang Ling Camp that Meng Ao used so much to gain was now also useless.

Not only that, Zhao Kuo could also coordinate with the Hukou Pass soldiers to surround Ying Bao. The situation instantly changed because of one formation.

Baiqi was impressed. Zhao Kuo had started to show signs of becoming a star general.

"To destroy the Zhao army, we need to first destroy the chariot circle formation!" Baiqi said resolutely.

Chapter 277- Using a Weird Method to Break the Formation

Hence, one chariot circle formation became the key to deciding the outcome of the Battle of Changping.

Within 10 days, the grain from Henei prefecture had safely been transported to Guanglang City, and the Qin army's grain crisis had been temporarily relieved. Fanju did all he could in Xianyang to make the commoners provide some grain for the military.

One could say that the Qin had placed everything they had on this battle.

As the Zhao army had enough grain, they were determined to outlast the Qin army.

After setting up the chariot circle formation and calming down the situation down south, Zhao Kuo, who was very ambitious, had already set his sights on Ying Bao's troops to the north. Within Gu Pass were 170 thousand troops, and adding with the 50 thousand in Hukou Pass, they absolutely could eat up the 100 thousand men of Ying Bao.

The long face off was also a huge burden for the Zhao. After listening to Zhao Kuo's plan, Zhao Sheng, who was in charge of monitoring the army, didn't disagree.

Although they had successfully taken out the reinforcements and taken down Wang Ling's camp, the situation was still bad for the Qin army. Just as Baiqi said, if they wanted to destroy the Zhao army, they needed to break the formation.

However, with such a legendary formation, and also with the Gu Pass reinforcements to the rear, it wasn't easy to break.

Baiqi stood on top of the Lang Mountain every day and stared at the formation. As he looked at it, it would usually take an entire day. Only until the sun set did he quietly return to his cave.

As many days passed, this wasn't a good plan.

Seeing that Zhao Kuo was already preparing to attack, if he didn't think of any plan, he would have to ask Ying Bao to retreat; the moment he did, it would be the same as announcing that Zhao Kuo's defensive plan worked.

If they wasted more time, the Qin had no ability to provide for such a large army. The best outcome would be for the Qin Army to back off and let the Zhao Country have Shangdou. However, the political outcomes which would arise frightened Baiqi.

Giving up Shangdou prefecture not only broke the eastern path of the Qin. Most importantly, the positions of strength and power would have to be rewritten.

Hence, the Qin Country couldn't lose; they couldn't afford to lose; Baiqi also didn't want to lose!

Since the Battle of Changping happen, there had been several huge battles. The two player forces of the Zhao and Qin armies seemed to be side characters. If one looked closely, however, they were influencing the movement of the battle.

Comparing the two, it was Yanhuang Alliance from the Zhao Country camp that was more eye catching. Shanhai Alliance just followed instructions and didn't suggest any ideas or influence the battlefield.

Compared to the glorious performances in the Battle of Zhuolu and the Battle of Muye, their performance this time looked very dull.

Noticing that point, Ouyang Shuo gathered up all his allies to discuss how to break the formation. Unfortunately, even a first grade general like Baiqi couldn't solve it, how could they?

Ouyang Shuo knew that to break the formation, one couldn't use a normal logic cycle. As in such an aspect, be it the players or historical people like Qianshou, they couldn't compare with Baiqi.

This day, Ouyang Shuo brought two guards and went up to Guanglang City tower. In his mind, he only thought about the chariot circle formation and nothing else.

In the morning sun, a flock of geese flew across the sky.

Ouyang Shuo froze, and an idea flashed across his mind. He tried his best to calm himself down, closing his eyes, he connected what he gained from the geese to the chariot circle formation, to try and catch that glimmer of light.

The chariot circle formation was closely linked with one another, one part depending on the other to not give the enemy a chance. Normally speaking, to break this formation, one could either not bother about it, making the formation useless, or gather up all the troops to attack it from all sides to make the troops in the middle pressured. Then, they naturally wouldn't be able to adapt.

These two methods would absolutely not work.

The first needed absolute patience, and the Zhao troops in the formation had an endless supply of grain from Gu Pass, so even before they ran out, the Qin Army was finished.

The second plan needed a huge army, and after a few hard battles, the Qin Army had lost half their men and couldn't use pure numbers to swarm the formation.

The flying geese gave Ouyang Shuo a brand new idea.

Since traditional methods didn't work, one needed to innovate. Ouyang Shuo was thinking, what if they could be like the modern military and parachute people into the core of the formation? As long as the core was chaotic and as the troops attacked from the outside, the formation was bound to break.

One had to say, the cooperation with the rattlesnake mercenary group had stimulated Ouyang Shuo's thinking and made it more of a mix of modern and ancient thoughts.

The hard part would be how could they parachute? The ancient times didn't have planes where they could drop people off.

Ouyang Shuo opened his eyes, and as he turned to the Daliang Mountain, his eyes brightened.

The Daliang Mountain was in the center of the rivers and stretched to the foot of the Gu Pass, right next to the formation.

If one could jump off from the peak, one definitely could, without relying on planes, land in the middle of the chariot circle formation.

Now for it to become a probable solution, there was just a final piece of the puzzle. How to find a replacement for a parachute?

Ouyang Shuo immediately thought of the military tents that the Shanhai City army brought. This far exceeded olden technology and was just the best replacement for the parachute.

After thinking carefully, Ouyang Shuo didn't hesitate and excitedly said, "Lets go to the Lang Mountain and meet Baiqi!" As he said, he walked down the city tower.

His Guards, upon seeing their marquis so happy, were delighted too and followed quickly behind.

When Ouyang Shuo rushed to the peak, Baiqi was still standing there and looking at the formation, not making a sound.

To Ouyang Shuo's arrival, Baiqi didn't have any reaction.

Helplessly, Ouyang Shuo could only say, "I've thought of a way to break the formation, please take a look if it's practical."

"What?" The motionless Baiqi immediately turned around, shocking Ouyang Shuo. He used his three-cornered eye that only Qin people had and stared at Ouyang Shuo, emotionally saying, "What method, quick, quick, tell me!"

Ouyang Shuo calmed himself down before saying out all his ideas and plans.

After hearing Ouyang Shuo's plan, Baiqi didn't make a sound. After a long while, he muttered, "There's actually such a method in this world, I'm really old and stupid."

"This was an idea that I randomly thought of, do you think it will work?"

Baiqi was, after all, Baiqi, and after Ouyang Shuo explained a little more, he understood the point and confidently said, "Although some points are lacking, overall it's still okay. We just need to be more detailed. Not talking about others, to accurately land in the middle without much training is impossible."

"Apart from that, how many to send is also a problem. We can't sent too many or we will expose our goal. We can't send too little or they won't be able to create chaos; when to land is also very important. If they were found before they landed, they would become living targets and even before landing, they would be shot."

Ouyang Shuo knew that talking about details he definitely wouldn't be Baiqi's level. He carefully said, "Based on your orders, all the player forces are under your command."

Baiqi nodded and said, "Qiyue Wuyi, you are amazing. It has been a few months since I've known you and you have given me so many surprises. Today you have solved the difficult problem. If we win, you will get all the credit."

Ouyang Shuo tried his best to hold in his emotions. "Thank you general for your praises, I’m only doing what I'm supposed to do."

Baiqi waved him off and said, "You also need to do a few other things."

"General, please tell!"

"Firstly, draw the blueprints and give it to the military to teach them how to sew it. Secondly, collect all the military tents."

"Yes general!" Ouyang Shuo nodded, but he still had something to say.

Baiqi's eyes were sharp. "What else do you have? Just say it."

"I have a small request. Out of the cavalry I brought, I have one Guards regiment who are all experienced soldiers and have received more advanced training. Can general allow me to choose a portion of them to join in this operation?"

Baiqi nodded. "Your guards regiment, I've also heard about them for myself. Huan He, Ying Bai and Wang He have all told me that they were well equipped, really strong, could charge down formations, and have a strong defense. However, they are cavalry, can they do infantry warfare too?"

Ouyang Shuo was elated. The Shanhai City army didn't let him down, leaving a strong impression amongst the generals, even making Baiqi take note of them.

"The guards regiment was chosen from all parts of the military, so they are all good at both."

"Great, I agree!" Baiqi agreed without any hesitation.

In Baiqi's plan, his 300 Tieying swordsmen were naturally the best choice. However 300 men was a little small, and since Ouyang Shuo suggested this, he naturally wouldn't refuse.

"Thank you general, for your trust!" Ouyang Shuo pushing for the guards regiment to be sent, he wasn't being selfish and purely wanted to increase the chances of victory. And furthermore, they had received training in the new camp and had seen a lot more things. With their combat power, they were more than suitable.

If not, for such a dangerous mission, he wouldn't have dared to send the Guards regiment.

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Chapter 278- Victory Is in Our Sights

The Battle of Changping had once again entered the rhythm of the Qin army.

Baiqi ordered Ying Bao and his troops to build a camp, digging moats and defend it. No matter what, they wouldn't come out and fight. If not, they would face military punishment.

If the 100 thousand men army set their hearts to defending, Zhao Kuo taking them down wouldn't be easy.

After settling down on the northern side, Baiqi ordered the Meng Ao forces to coordinate with Wang He's forces to attack and try to find the weakness of the formation.

Huan He's forces that were camped in Guanglang City split off 10 thousand cavalry to protect the grain and ensure that the enemy wouldn't have a chance to attack the route.

All this was just a facade.

Most importantly, the Qin army was making plans for the airborne soldiers operation.

They set the number of airborne soldiers at 1000. Apart from the guards of Baiqi, the 300 Tieying Swordsmen, the remaining 700 were all chosen from Shanhai City's Guards regiment.

Shi Wanshui was the leader of this operation, and the vice leader was the commander of Baiqi's guards.

The reason for the plan was that Shi Wanshui was a fierce general and could take up the task; and also because he was inside the martial temple, and even if he died, he could be revived.

The crafting of the parachutes also went smoothly.

After the first parachute was made, Ouyang Shuo tested it out.

For the test site, he chose it to be a cliff on top of the Lang Mountain. He ordered men to find a doll and placed a 50 kg stone in it, before tying it to the parachute.

The parachute with the doll flew down the cliff and slowly landed at the foot of the mountain.

The test results made Baiqi and the others watching from the side very pleased.

After resting on heavy objects, next was to test on real people. The guards regiment colonel Wang Feng was brave and was the first to test it out. Ouyang Shuo taught some parachuting skills to him.

Compared to the heavy object, Wang Feng's test was much more clumsy. As there weren't other secondary materials, the parachute was very simple and couldn't be opened in mid air.

Hence to be able to smoothly fly, one had to run before jumping off.

The landing portion was also hard for one to keep a good balance. It was shaking left and right, scaring Ouyang Shuo.

Luckily in the end, Wang Feng landed safely.

Although Ouyang Shuo wasn't too pleased, but to Baiqi and the others, this was unbelievable.

Baiqi was very confident and wanted the strikeforce to practice on Lang Mountain until everyone was familiar with the skill.

He also sent out spies to go atop Daliang Mountain to find a suitable spot. He also made modifications to the spots like simple running paths.

All of this were done in secret.

During this period, another small thing occurred, Feng Qiuhuang had luckily activated the recruitment quest for Wang He and surprisingly completed it. Once the battle ended, she could have him under her squad.

Towards her good luck, all members of the Shanhai Alliance sent her their congratulations.

Ouyang Shuo was happy that Fallen Phoenix City finally had a general, and to the Shanhai Alliance, it definitely was a positive.

No wonder from the start Feng Qiuhuang was so eager for the Battle of Changping. Ouyang Shuo guessed that she must have had some insider news and this luck was something that was bound to happen.

Towards her little selfishness, Ouyang Shuo could understand it. He couldn't ask all members of the alliance to be selfless. For each member to have a secret weapon was to be expected.

With such an occurrence, Di Chen and the others were recruiting the generals of Zhao.

In the army, the general Zhao Kuo and deputy Zhao Zhuang were all good choices.

Especially Zhao Kuo, the experience from the Battle of Changping had perfected him. Even if he couldn't be a general on the battlefield, for him to be an advisor was also very good.

Apart from that, in Handan there was still Lianpo waiting for the players to recruit him. Lianpo was forsaken by the king, so the chances of getting him was much higher.

As for Limu, as he was too far away and had nothing to do with the Battle of Changping, it would be near impossible to recruit him. Furthermore, Limu at that time was probably still young and hadn't reached the peak of his greatness.

Like Feng Qiuhuang, Di Chen and the others craved for historical generals.

Ouyang Shuo remembered that in the last life, Lianpo was recruited by Di Chen. Who knew if there would be any chances in this life.

The Battle of Changping had entered its final phases.

After being taught a painful lesson of having their grain supply cut off, Zhao Kuo didn't move the soldiers at Hukou Pass and instead prepared the 170 thousand troops in Gu Pass to take down Ying Bao's camp.

Gu Pass couldn't be left without any soldiers. Hence, the number that Zhao Kuo could use would be around 150 thousand.

Ying Bao followed Baiqi's orders and defended. Under the circumstances that the difference in strength wasn't insane, Zhao Kuo was helpless. He attacked several times without success.

Zhao Kuo was determined to take it down, ordering the Hukou Pass troops to attack together.

Similarly, the Qin army secretly moved their forces. The strike force had moved to Daliang Mountain and was ready to parachute in, what they waited for was the right time.

This day, during first light, in the Changping Valley, there was fog.

The white mist made the whole place cloudy and foggy like that of a paradise.

Baiqi woke up early as usual and started training. Seeing the white fog, he was on cloud nine. "Even the heavens are helping me!"

"Send my orders!" Following his orders, the Qin army started to act.

Wang He and Huan He's forces secretly left their base and got close to Gu Pass. After rushing to Wang Ling camp, they met up with Meng Ao's forces and the 200 thousand Qin army set out to Gu Pass.

The one in charge of the formation was the deputy general Zhao Zhuang.

The large scale movement of the Qin army definitely couldn't be hidden from Zhao Zhuang. He was immediately on alert. Although he was confident in the formation, the entire Qin army setting out still scared him.

Baiqi's reputation wasn't only in the Qin army. He probably found a way to break the formation. Zhao Zhuang didn't dare to be careless, ordering the 100 thousand men to be alert.

Just as both armies were nervously facing off, the strikeforce on top of Daliang Mountain was ready.

The white fog only lingered at the foot and at the peak, it was clear as day.

The strike force had practiced it hundreds of times, and under the lead of Shi Wanshui, they used the running path and jumped off. They were like a group of soldiers falling from the heavens, quietly descending.

The white fog was of great help to the strike force. The Zhao Army only looked at the Qin army and didn't expect troops to come from above. They didn't even lift their heads up, and with the cover of the fog, not until the strikeforce landed in the center of the formation did the Zhao Army react.

Shi Wanshui didn't care about their surprise and led the strike force to split out into a circle and charge towards the enemy, clearing out a space to provide cover for the landing members.

Zhao Zhuang was sitting in the drum tower and was the first to notice traces of the strike force. Although he was astonished, he quickly reacted and ordered the soldiers to surround them before they were firmly on the ground.

Just as the middle of the formation was in chaos, the Qin troops on the outside of the formation started attacking. The one leading the attack was Wang He and his 50 thousand men. This fierce general led his soldiers and dashed in fearlessly.

The pincer move made it very uncomfortable for the Zhao Army, and they couldn't look out for one another.

The 1000 man strike force, after landing, lost less than 100 men. Some were shot by archers, some landed outside of the formation and lost contact with the group. Some died in combat while trying to cover for others.

After the strikeforce sat foot firmly on the ground, Shi Wanshui set the drum tower as his target.

For this sneak attack, the strike force made sufficient preparations. With a shout, the members took out their axes and chopped down the command tower. Just in case, they also used alchemical fire oil to burn it cleanly to the ground.

The Zhao army were also prideful people, how could they allow enemies to do whatever they wanted in their territory? Tens of thousands of soldiers rushed from all directions to try to destroy this unit.

As the drum tower burned, smoke bellowed, and it looked like it was about to collapse. Zhao Zhuang, helplessly, along with the protection of his guards, escaped the tower.

At this point, the formation lost its commanding pillar and was unable to function effectively.

Baiqi, who was outside the formation, upon seeing such a great opportunity definitely wouldn't let it go, commanding his troops to all attack and destroy the formation.

The mission of the strikeforce was completed, and what they needed to do now was to survive.

Facing the charging Zhao army, Shi Wanshui snickered. "Time to let you witness the strength of Grandpa Shi!" He waved his spear as he said that, taking the initiative to attack.

The members of the strike force roared out and formed up, charging towards the Zhao army.

Out of all of them, be it Tieying Swordsmen or Guards regiment, they were all elites. Under the leadership of Shi Wanshui, they were like lions, charging around in a pack of wolves.

In a moment, the 10 thousand man Zhao army couldn't keep up with the 900 of them, so it was a shocking sight.

Shi Wanshui's spear was like a dragon. When he pointed to someone, they died. When he came into contact with someone, he injured them. He displayed the strength of one of the top 10 generals in history; he was a real asura.

In a short amount of time, the center of the formation was littered with bodies, and it was very explosive.

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Chapter 279- Encircling and Entrapping

Not mentioning Shi Wanshui who was in the middle of the chariot circle formation and slaughtering in all four directions, outside of the formation, Baiqi had left the Lang Mountain and personally started to command the troops.

Two hundred thousand troops under Baiqi's command had broken layer after layer of the chariot circle formation.

After the formation lost its middle command, although it was barely working, it had already lost its spine. It wasn't as smooth and coordinated and was now just a dead formation.

Comparatively, the Qin army under Baiqi's lead, be it attacking from the front or the back, coordination between infantry and cavalry, baiting the enemy or attacking upfront, was completely superior.

All these many forms, Baiqi commanded them like they were a whole body, precisely eating away at the Zhao army. The Zhao army was split into a few layers, and their advantage had instantly became their burden.

Zhao Zhuang escaped the burning tower and he tried to reorganize and lead the troops, but unfortunately it was too late.

At the foot of Gu Pass, the shocking battle had entered its crucial stages. Amongst the formation, killing shouts bellowed, and dust and smoke rose.

The paradise in the morning had now became hell on earth.

Within 5 kilometers, the 200 thousand Qin army and the 100 thousand Zhao army were interlaced, red and black mixing together, engaging in slaughter like a drawing of nature.

The land was the sketchpad, the soldiers were the colors, and Baiqi was the artist.

As the battle proceeded, the black color started to gain the upper hand, a black flood split up the red, surrounding them group by group, engaging in cruel encirclement.

Slowly, the red color became thinner and thinner, and the black became the main core. The chaotic red was surrounded in the sea of black as it got pushed around.

Nearing the end of the battle, the chariot circle formation had totally failed and the Zhao army had lost.

Zhao Zhuang was also very decisive. Upon seeing that things weren't going right, he wanted to save as many as possible. He ordered the troops to retreat and get back to Gu Pass.

Seeing them desert the formation and escaping, Baiqi immediately ordered them to stop chasing.

This large battle could be said to have finally ended.

In the battle report, the Qin army, with a cost of 10 thousand men, broke the formation and killed 30 thousand men, causing the remaining forces to run back to Gu Pass.

After breaking the formation, the grain that the Zhao Army left in the formation was taken by the Qin army.

Baiqi didn't slack off and ordered them to use the resources in the formation to build a camp right at the base of the Gu Pass, naming it the South Camp and locking off all ways the Zhao Army could go down south.

After the battle, Baiqi moved the base from Lang Mountain to Wang Ling Camp. Meng Ao's forces who was camped in Wang Ling camp met up with Wang He's forces and entered the South camp.

As for Huan He's iron cavalry, they entered the Wang Ling camp, acted as the reserve force, and also protected the grain transport route.

Of the ones who did the most in this fight, the 1000 man strikeforce, in the end only 400 odd men survived. Out of the 700 from the Guards regiment, around 300 survived.

When Shi Wanshui walked out from the formation, he was totally covered with the fresh blood of the enemy, like an Asura that walked out of hell.

The Qin soldiers looked at Shi Wanshui, their eyes filled with respect.

Ouyang Shuo was delighted. Be it the Battle of Zhuolu or the Battle of Muye, and even now in the Battle of Changping, Shi Wanshui could step out at the crucial moment and solve his problems.

Facing off against Chiyou, building the steel defensive line during the Battle of Muye, and now leading the strike force, he was really a war god and a fierce soldier.

Er'Lai upon seeing Shi Wanshui so amazing and so glorious, wanted to find a chance to prove himself. Luo Sha sensed his master's desire for fighting and growled, "Nian~~"

Ouyang Shuo laughed in amusement and shook his head. Once the chariot circle formation was broken, the whole situation was settled. It was already not far away from the end of the Battle of Changping.

Two things started to happen, so let's describe one of them first.

As the intense battle occured in Changping Valley, war also started on the northern side.

Zhao Kuo led 150 thousand soldiers from Gu Pass to meet up with the 50 thousand from Hukou Pass. They were like a fiery sea as they charged towards Ying Bao's camp.

The pressure on the Ying Bao camp grew greatly and they were in a dangerous situation. After a few modifications to the camp, it was an iron fortress, various machines and resources were lined up closely with one another. Ying Bao was also a strong general, leading the troops and chasing them away time after time.

In a moment, although the Zhao Army had an advantage, they couldn't breach the camp.

The battle to attack the Ying Bao camp became a long battle. Just at this moment, the chariot circle formation was broken and the news of the Zhao Zhuang army losing had spread to Zhao Kuo. It was like thunder on a clear day, blowing all his thoughts and plans apart. Zhao Kuo had never expected that such a formation would be broken so quickly by the Qin army.

The moment the chariot circle formation was broken, this meant that the south side faced the threat of a Qin army attack. With such a situation, how could Zhao Kuo siege Ying Bao's camp in peace?

He got more bad news. "A bunch of the Qin soldiers went around the Taixing Mountain and entered Hukou Pass. They wanted to take it down while we were attacking. The 10 thousand soldiers defending it have all died."

Upon hearing that news, his legs crumbled and he couldn't stay still. His face was ashen white, devoid of any blood, and in his eyes had a look of desperation and loss of hope.

Seeing their general like that, the scout was also nervous. The Zhao army had spent so much effort to overturn the situation, and in this instance, there was a 180 degree change.

If it were others, they wouldn't be able to accept it immediately. Even more so for Zhao Kuo, who was prideful.

After the Yewang Stronghold was destroyed, the Qing king set up a new army in Henei. This army wasn't deployed by Baiqi and just asked them to go up north and wait for a chance.

His original plan was to use them to stop all the reinforcements. He didn't expect the Wei Army to be so weak and be destroyed by the 100 thousand iron cavalry, scaring the other 5 countries so no one sent any reinforcements.

Even so, considering that the Qin army in the Changping war zone was doing okay, Baiqi asked the army to hide.

Based on the way he commanded troops, he still didn't give up on surrounding the Zhao army. This was the final part of the plan he had set. The Hukou Pass became the best point in Baiqi's eyes.

As expected, chances were given to people who sought them.

Under Baiqi's deliberate bait, the young Zhao Kuo couldn't resist and wanted to destroy Ying Bak's army and obtain a glorious victory. However he didn't know that he walked right into a trap.

The war happened as Baiqi had planned. The only exception would be the chariot circle formation which had given him quite a big headache.

Luckily with Ouyang Shuo's thinking, it was solved and the situation returned to what he had expected. Apart from Baiqi, no one would be able to come up with such a huge plan.

It was because of this that Baiqi had high praise for Ouyang Shuo. If it wasn't for his plan, Baiqi's entire plan would’ve gone to waste.

Taking the chance to conquer Hukou Pass, they cut off the grain supply lines of the Zhao army, as well as their only path back to Handan.

"Retreat, go back to Gu Pass!" After keeping quiet for long, Zhao Kuo said softly.

At this crucial moment, Zhao Kuo was still a little rational and didn't force the attack on Ying Bao camp. The destruction of the formation meant that before the Ying Bao camp would collapse, Gu Pass would first.

At that point, the 200 thousand Zhao army would have no camp to defend and no grain to support them. Thinking about such a situation, Zhao Kuo shivered.

Hence, he needed to rush back to Gu Pass and defend before the Qin army got ready, defending it and hoping that they could hold off until reinforcements arrived. Inside the Gu Pass was also enough grain to use for one month.

As long as the Zhao army defended, the Qin army wouldn't be able to take down Gu Pass.

After they retreated, Zhao Kuo fell sick and had a high fever, making him unable to think clearly. The Zhao army lost their soul and were now in a desperate situation. They were at the lowest point in their history.

Just at this moment, Zhao Sheng stood out and calmed everyone down.

Learning that Hukou Pass was taken over by the Qin Army, Di Chen and the others were furious. After so many intense battles, there were less than 10 thousand men left in their player camp and couldn't affect the battle as much. All their plans went up in smoke.

The only thing that they could feel happy was that they successfully recruited two generals. Di Chen rushed to Handan and persuaded Lianpo. Zhan Lang made use of his performance to recruit Zhao Zhuang.

Only Zhao Kuo, although Chun Shenjun triggered his quest, with the current situation, whether he would be able to recruit him was a huge question mark.

The battle was about to end!

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Chapter 280- The Final Battle

The news of the Zhao army being trapped by the Qin army had spread to all the countries. All their kings felt numb and could only look on with respect toward the Qin to the west.

Handan was in a deathly silence as the various ministers engaged in a debate.

Some suggested Handan to copy the Qin, enlist all 15 and above young men to form an army, and let Lianpo lead them to attack Hukou Pass. Some suggested to negotiate with the Qin, and with the price of letting off the trapped forces, they would give them Shangdou Prefecture.

Whichever one it was, it was really difficult.

Firstly, acquiring a huge army wasn't something that could be done in a day. Even before they got the army prepared, the Zhao army trapped in Gu Pass would have starved to death.

Even if they could form up an army, they had totally no experience and could never break down Hukou Pass defended by 60 thousand Qin soldiers. Although they were also rookies, they had the experience of one battle; secondly, they had the geological advantage, defensive weapons, and tools.

Hence, that plan would definitely not work; the various countries were scared of the Qin, so they wouldn't send anyone to help the Zhao.

Hence, they could only helplessly send their ambassador to Xianyang.

Be in the Qing king Fanju or Baiqi, their goal was to destroy the Zhao, so how would they let them off when they had the absolute advantage? Based on Fanju's word, Shangdou was already theirs so why should the Zhao give it to them?

Taking out the nail that was the Zhao, they would have a smooth route east and could work toward ruling the land.

Although they had decided to refuse to settle matters with the Zhao, when the ambassador came, Fanju acted like he was very warm and faked sincerity toward him.

Baiqi sent a letter and hoped that they could delay the ambassador and leave some hope for those in Gu Pass to prevent them from fighting with them all.

Fanju loved such as scheme and happily played along.

Hence, the Qing king was hiding away from the Zhao ambassador. While Fanju acted as a prime minister who was trying his best to calm the whole situation, delaying the ambassador and making him stuck in Xianyang.

Just as the ambassador was doing all he could to run around Xianyang, the Changping war zone experienced a moment of peace as both sides stopped fighting.

Everyone knew that this was just temporary, and once the negotiations broke down, the fighting would start once again.

Making use of the chance, Baiqi did a huge reorganization of the army, sending the 100 thousand new troops into the main force and also strengthened the Hukou Pass defense.

At this point, the soldiers defending the Hukou Pass included both old and new soldiers. Even if Handan sent a new army, it was near impossible for them to take down the pass.

After reorganizing the military, Baiqi heaved a sigh of relief. He knew that he had an 80% chance of winning this battle.

His master plan had dazzled Ouyang Shuo and taught him a lot. During the free time, Ouyang Shuo took the chance to talk to Baiqi and talk about territorial matters, and also to bring both of them closer.

Ever since he broke the chariot circle formation, Baiqi's attitude toward Ouyang Shuo had became very positive, and both of them grew much closer. Sometimes, he would discuss with Ouyang Shuo about how to take down Gu Pass.

Baiqi knew that this time, them surrounding the enemy was very different to the first time. The Zhao army now had a camp that they could defend, and they had a reason to go all out and attack before their grain ran out.

To be able to take down the Zhao army without spilling any blood was a near impossible matter.

Hence, no matter how Baiqi theorized and planned, it was still going to be an intense battle.

No matter how the Zhao army tried to breach and escape, they had to face the Qin army. As for how to take down Gu Pass, Baiqi had already starting to make plans. He wanted to smoothly take down the pass with the least casualties.

Up until now, although the Qin army held the absolute advantage, in truth, both sides lost close to half of their men.

In Changping Valley, the 500 thousand men of the Qin and Zhao forces laid in wait.

In a blink of an eye, half a month passed.

The Zhao ambassador achieved nothing in Xianyang, and understood that the Qin would not negotiate and had seen through their scheme, furiously leaving Xianyang.

Even though they saw through their schemes, there was nothing the Zhao could do.

During the time they sent their ambassador to the Qin, Handan didn't lay in wait. They sent out ambassadors with large amounts of goods and gifts to the various countries to try and get them to send troops, but unfortunately it didn't work.

In the Wei country, needless to say, Xinling Lord was locked up. The Qi king, under the advice of Pu Xianru, declined; the Chu king was on the fence in this battle; the worst was Yan country who even wanted to attack the Zhao.

Human nature was cruel, the world was harsh, and what everyone paid attention to were profits and self-gain.

The king of Zhao also activated Lianpo and started to recruit a new army in Handan.

Half a month had passed, and the 100 thousand newbie army had started to form. Even with Lianpo's ability, he didn't have any confidence in his army.

However, because of the tough times, the Zhao couldn't handle it if their entire force collapsed. The Zhao king could only order Lianpo to lead the troops to charge toward Hukou Pass.

However, one could imagine how a 100 thousand man rookie army would do. After the Qin army took over the camp, they reorganized their troops and sorted out their equipment. The soldiers were sent to the city wall and trained in the art of defense, getting familiar with the defensive facilities.

Not only that, Baiqi had also sent Meng Ao over to Hukou Pass. With him there, there would be definitely no chance for Lianpo to take them down.

What Lianpo was up against was such a pass.

Based on his original intention, he didn't want to attack the pass. Unfortunately, he couldn't go against the king's orders, and also because there were many of the men that followed him for years in the Gu Pass army, he couldn't leave them there.

With the continuous attacks, apart from the number of casualties increasing, they had no progress.

As Lianpo attacked the pass, Zhao Kuo, who was at Gu Pass, finally recovered. He naturally wouldn't sit and wait. He needed to break the entrapment before they ran out of grain.

North or south? Zhao Kuo needed to make a choice.

If they went north, not only did he need to go past Ying Bao's camp, but also Hukou Pass. Going south, he naturally needed to go against the South camp and Wang Ling camp.

Whichever side he chose, it wasn't going to be easy.

What was worse was he couldn't move all his troops. Gu Pass was trapped in the middle, and no matter where he chose, Gu Pass would be attacked by the other side.

After considering everything, Zhao Kuo ordered Zhao Zhuang to bring 70 thousand men and defend the southern part of Gu Pass. He led 200 thousand of their main force to attack Ying Bao's camp.

At this point, there were 140 thousand men there. Zhao Kuo, to take down such a camp with only 200 thousand men, was harder than ascending the heavens.

Before leaving, he did a final rally, “Brothers, this is our last chance. Either we succeed or we die trying. There's no third way out."

"Kill! Kill! Kill!" A sad and tragic feeling spread out of Gu Pass, giving them courage and the motivation to attack.

"Move out!" Zhao Kuo ordered.

Di Chen and the other player lords brought their remaining forces, looking on as they walked toward their deaths. At this point, if they refused, they would only be killed.

Both sides were in a life or death battle from the start.

There wasn't any testing out or any luck; it was either you die or I die!

Each battle, one could see the eagerness of each soldier. Each city wall needed one to continuously defend and attack. If the Zhao army took it down, then the Qin army would try to take it back.

The number of dead soldiers could be seen to increase with the naked eye.

Zhao Kuo split his army into two parts, taking turns to attack the wall, not stopping before they succeeded.

The Qin army also wasn't easy meat, Ying Bao leading an army of elites to be a ‘firefighting squad.’ Every time they appeared, they would take back the lost land.

The red sea and black wave struck at each other again; they stepped on the enemy's corpses and advanced. The cruel battlefield made every soldier into an Asura, and made the battlefield into a living hell.

In their eyes, there was only killing and nothing else.

A morning of attacking had resulted in the Ying Bao camp being in tatters. All the defensive tools were destroyed, and the Qin army could only use their bodies to block the attack. As the attacking force, the Zhao army was also feeling the pressure and their bodies piled up outside the camp.

Not being able to succeed made the Zhao army's morale dip. The huge deaths, continuous winning and losing was a crushing grinding and testing of their mental strength.

From now, it was a metal battle to see which side couldn't last.

The one that broke the balance of the battlefield wasn't either of the two sides that fought, but it came from the behind the Zhao forces.

Gu Pass, was broken by the Qin Army.

Chapter 281- The War Is Over

Just as Zhuo Kuo led his troops to attack Ying Bao's camp, Baiqi similarly dispatched his troops to attack Gu Pass.

Two hundred thousand troops surrounded the south side of Gu Pass.

With the help of the sets of three-bow arcuballistas that Ouyang Shuo and Mulan Yue brought, numerous step arrows were shot into the walls. This allowed the Qin soldiers to climb up and attack like a flood.

Zhao Zhuang's forces tried their best to retaliate, as numerous rolling wood and giant rocks pelted down from above the wall, crushing wave after wave of soldiers. The fire defense line formed by the alchemical fire oil cabinets burned the enemy. When their bodies fell to the ground, they instantly fell apart.

Apart from that, the Zhao army used their height advantage to rain down arrows.

The Qin army was also fearless. They used the corpses to fill up the moat and ate away at the defensive resources that the Zhao had. Under the city wall, the bodies of the Qin soldiers piled up to 2 meters high.

The soldiers stepped on the bodies and continued to climb upward.

The attack of the vanguard team became the last straw that crushed the Zhao Zhuang forces.

Gu Pass had finally fallen. The remaining soldiers inside had no other place to go. Hence, they raised their hands and surrendered.

The fall of Gu Pass meant that the Battle of Changping had entered its final stages.

Upon learning that Gu Pass was lost, the Zhao army, which was attacking the Ying Bao camp, no longer had the motivation to attack. Looks of despair filled their faces.

After a little struggle, shortly after Zhao Zhuang surrendered, Zhao Kuo surrendered too.

Based on Zhao Kuo's personality, he would rather die than surrender; furthermore, based on what Di Chen and the rest said, the Qin army would kill off troops that surrendered and wouldn't let them survive.

Only, history had already changed. Zhao Kuo would follow Chun Shenjun to step onto another journey and into another world to continue his fight against Baiqi.

At this point, the war was officially over. The Zhao camp had no way to fight back, and the battle notification sounded.

Maybe Gaia couldn't bear to see 200 thousand Zhao soldiers being slaughtered, thus ending the battle when they surrendered.

"Battle report: the Battle of Changping is officially over. Now based on player's contribution and their use in the battle, calculating bonus battle contribution points."

In this battle, Ouyang Shuo wasn't the only shining light. Di Chen, Zhan Lang, and Chun Shenjun had all affected the proceedings and played a huge role. As such they all gained high amounts of points.

A system notification resounded by Ouyang Shuo's ear.

"System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi, player representative of Qin Country, the Shanhai City cavalry that he led had huge contributions, and he thought of the method to break the chariot circle formation. Awarded bonus 20 thousand battle contribution points."

Compared to the two battles before, Gaia's evaluation of his performance had largely dipped and even his points was at its lowest yet.

Even so, based on the killings of the 10 thousand cavalry, his battle contribution points were still at the top of the leaderboard.

Rank- Name- Battle Contribution Points

1st: Qiyue Wuyi- 350 thousand

2nd: Di Chen- 150 thousand

3rd: Bai Hua- 120 thousand

4th: Zhan Lang- 100 thousand

5th: Feng Qiuhuang- 85 thousand

6th: Chun Shenjun- 55 thousand

7th: Xunlong Dianxue- 50 thousand

8th: Mulan Yue- 45 thousand

9th: Xiong Ba- 30 thousand

10th: Feng Qingyang- 25 thousand

Expectedly, the leaderboard was taken up by the Shanhai Alliance and Yanhuang Alliance. Apart from Ouyang Shuo being the untouchable first, the rest were inseparable.

With such results, although the Yanhuang Alliance lost, there was still glory in it.

Di Chen, Chun Shenjun and the others ranked up to 1st class earl and had finally cleared the obstacle to become a grade 3 ciy. The next would be to make preparations to upgrade to a prefecture.

Regretfully, Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang couldn't rank up to 3rd class Marquis. Both of them had to wait until the next battle before they could rank up.

As the lord's class increased, the number of troops they could bring increased too, making the main way to earn battle contribution points slaughter on the battlefield instead of quests and bonus points.

Taking this battle as an example, Shanhai City had 20 times the troops of a normal lord, and 10 times that of Di Chen and the others. Hence, their ability to get points weren't on the same level.

Therefore, although they took the initiative and spent time planning and scheming, they couldn't compare with Ouyang Shuo in terms of battle contribution points.

With pros, there were definitely cons too.

With such a huge army, one had to pay a high price too. After the battle, of Shanhai City's 10 thousand elite cavalry, only 6500 remained. The rest all died on the battlefield of Changping.

Not only Ouyang Shuo, but the other lord's forces had heavy casualties. Out of the 70 thousand player troops from both sides, less than 30 thousand survived.

Ouyang Shuo roughly remembered that during the year-end celebration, Gaia would do a small scale update, which would involve changes to the battles.

The lords used up large amounts of gold and troops. If they only earned merit points, it wouldn't be worth it. Hence, Gaia would release more tempting prizes to motivate lords to participate.

Ouyang Shuo earned 39 thousand merit points and now he had reached a total of 129500 merit points, ranking up to rank 2 Marquis, and he was a lot closer to the 204800 merit points required to rank up to rank 1 Marquis.

The ranking up didn't make Ouyang Shuo satisfied. What he cared about were the rewards that the Qin gave out.

During the Battle of Zhuolu, he had obtained the and the ; during the Battle of Muye, he gained the incense pills and the Shangdian. The latter boosted one's strength while the former increased the territory strength.

As usual, Bai Hua and the others went back to the main map while Ouyang Shuo went to the Wang Ling Camp to wait for his reward.

An official brought the reward from the Qing King, a jade pendant.

Name: Dragon and Phoenix pendant (platinum rank)

Type: Jewelry

Specialty: Deterrence (Raise the prestige of the wearer), Implication (Helps the cultivation of the wearer)

Evaluation: Dragon and Phoenix, represents peace and prosperity and also a high status. It shows a good sign and represents well wishes.

The specialty description was simple, and as for how it worked, Ouyang Shuo had to find out himself.

A pendant was naturally good. Unfortunately, it was still far from what he expected. He thanked the official and wore the pendant.

Ouyang Shuo came to say goodbye to Baiqi.

He seemed like he was specifically waiting for him. "Did you get your reward?"

"Yes, I'm here to say goodbye to you."

"Great, lets go!" Baiqi said casually.

Ouyang Shuo didn't react and stammered, "W-we?"

"Yes? You don't welcome me?"

Baiqi's words were like a huge pie that smacked him on the head.

Ouyang Shuo couldn't understand. He didn't trigger the recruiting mission, so why would Baiqi be willing to follow him?

If he didn't know the reason, he wouldn't be at ease.

"I don't understand."

As if he expected that Ouyang Shuo would ask that, he said, "My god told me that Lianpo and Zhao Kuo had went to the player world. The Qin no longer need me, so I want to go to the player world too. You are first rate, be it talent or territorial power, so you're obviously the best choice."

Ouyang Shuo understood; so it was the work of Gaia. If it was as he expected, recruiting him was the hidden reward.

How could it be just a jade pendant?

What Gaia told Baiqi probably didn't stop with Zhao Kuo. In history, after the Battle of Changping, Baiqi was killed by the Qing King, so that was another reason.

"Wu An lord, please!" Ouyang Shuo said solemnly.

Baiqi shook his head, "There's no more Wu An Lord, I am Baiqi." Following which, he took the lead and walked out.

After that, Ouyang Shuo led the troops back to the main map.

On the way back, he checked Baiqi's stats.

Name: Baiqi (God rank)

Title: Asura

Dynasty: Warring States (Qin)

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Special rank general

Loyalty: 75

Command: 98

Force: 90

Intelligence: 85

Politics: 45

Specialty: Annihilation in war: Raise troops morale by 40%; Hot pursuit: Raise troops movement speed by 30%; Field fortification: Raise troops Defence by 20%; Adapting to the enemy: Raise troops killing ability by 25%

Cultivation Method: Killing Sword sword technique

Equipment: Heavy type Qin Sword

Evaluation: The best of the 4 famous generals during the warring states, good with machines and mechanics, great courage, a cut above the rest, great at adapting, produces miracles, shocks the world, the best war god.

Compared to Shi Wanshui and Er'Lai, Baiqi's stats were terrifying. His command, force and intelligence were all first rate, and the only thing he lacked was politics.

His character specialties were an all-round buff for his troops.

Amazing, Baiqi!

Chapter 282- Philosopher Debate

When Ouyang Shuo returned to the main map, it was already the afternoon of the 19th. The moment he walked out of the teleportation formation, a system notification sounded out in his ear.

"System notification: The Battle of Changping had officially ended, the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period’s main historical people will automatically join the game. Players, please reach for them yourselves."

In these periods, the number of famous people were numerous, and something big was about to happen.

"System notification: Jiang Ziya lives in seclusion in Shanhai City. Officially triggering storyline quest. Philosophers automatically join the game. For specifics, the players may log onto the official websites to find out."

The moment the notification went out, the players went into an uproar.

The most vibrant and glorious moment of that time period had started. The attention it gained from the players made the fighting between the Yanhuang Alliance and Shanhai Alliance pale in comparison.

The Yanhuang Alliance also escaped and wasn't dissed and insulted by the players.

The players all rushed onto the website to check out the specific quest requirements.

The storyline quest, the other type of quest apart from battle quests, had finally showed itself.

Like the battle quests, the storyline ones were also triggered. When a certain dynasty's historical person joined the game, historical personnel that the lord had recruited might trigger the storyline quest.

For the storyline quest to be triggered, 3 requirements must be fulfilled at the same time.

Firstly, the historical person must be recruited by the lord. For example, when the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period’s people entered the game, and players then went to recruit those historical people, they wouldn't trigger any quest.

Secondly was when the dynasty that the storyline quest appeared in wanted to join the game. For example Jiang Shang had lived in Shanhai City since the Battle of Muye. Until the battle of Changping ended, and when the Apring and Autumn and Warring States periods entered the game was the storyline triggered.

Thirdly, the historical person must have the ability to trigger the storyline quest. This meant that the person had to be important such that he played a part in that storyline quest.

Hence, to trigger the storyline quest, it was pure luck and hard to come by. Alternatively, the moment it was triggered, the rewards were plentiful and it was something everyone yearned for.

The storyline quest was split into solo storyline, camp storyline, and map storyline. Each one was self explanatory for which players could participate.

The type of quest would be decided by the part the player played as well as his influence on the storyline.

The philosopher-type quest that Jiang Shang triggered was the biggest scale map storyline quest.

In the last life, Jiang Shang wasn't recruited by any lord, so the storyline quests that others triggered were only camp quests and didn't expand to the whole map.

In Ouyang Shuo's ear, another system notification resounded

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, your resident Jiang Shang has triggered the quest, will you accept the A rank branch quest?"

Reappear philosopher debate: the huge debate during the Warring States Period was a great wonder in Chinese history. It was the competitiveness of that period that gave birth to the base of Chinese civilization, and made it the peak of human culture.

Requirements: Reproduce the grandeur and the school of thought of those times with at least organize one huge debate with huge influence; out of the 10 school of thoughts, at least 3 must join your territory within 1 year. The territory will obtain the title: Culture Shrine

Ouyang Shuo was rewarded for triggering the quest with a side quest. Although it didn't look simple and had strict requirements, Ouyang Shuo accepted without hesitation.

"System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi accepted the Rank A branch quest. As the main area of the philosopher debate, Shanhai City's attractiveness toward famous people increased by 50%"

The moment the notification went out, the number of envious people were plentiful.

This was when the players reacted. When they were paying attention, they missed out a point—Jiang Shang lived in Shanhai City.

Thinking about that, the country channel was in an uproar. The lords who participated in the Battle of Muye knew that Qiyue Wuyi was in the Shang Dynasty camp, so how would Jiang Shang, who was in the Zhou Dynasty camp, run to Shanhai City?

News, shocking news!

The rumours and nosiness of the players spread like wildfire, and some rash players even left messages in the country channel to go toward Shanhai City to visit Jiang Shang.

Ouyang Shuo didn't have time to bother about the players as he arranged for the troops to return to their own camps. The compensation for the dead and replacement soldiers was handled by the Military Affairs Department.

At an earlier period of time, the city east and city west camps were clearing out raiders and helping the construction of the official road by clearing obstacles. Out of every batch of prisoners, the Military Affairs Department will choose the elite and send to the reserve force. As for the money earned, they were used to pay for the teleportation fees for the battle of Changping so little remained.

The elite raiders were normally cavalry. The independent regiment also used this chance to make the 3 thousand men Organization into the standard 2.5 thousand men.

The Military Affairs Department sent the remaining prisoners to Yongye Town, Guangshui Town and Yishui City. As the number of prisoners was huge, Yongye Town and Guangshui Town successfully upgraded to city grade.

After dealing with military matters, Ouyang Shuo personally brought Baiqi back to the Lord's Manor.

Returning to the main map, Baiqi became young again, around 30 years of age, back to his prime.

Ouyang Shuo's arrival surprised the directors and secretaries, who were working in the Lord's Manor. Ouyang Shuo took the opportunity to introduce Baiqi to them, officially helping him blend into the Shanhai City system.

Following which, Ouyang Shuo brought Baiqi into his book room, where both of them had a chance to have a deep conversation.

Not talking about other things, after the Battle of Changping, their roles swapped around, and they needed some time to adjust. Luckily, Ouyang Shuo wasn't a shameless person and was respectful toward Baiqi.

Ouyang Shuo introduced everything about Shanhai City to Baiqi, including the surrounding situation and the military, such that Baiqi could assimilate into the role.

Hearing about the new camp in the western suburbs, Baiqi was very interested and wanted to go take a look.

After the Battle of Changping ended, the teaching team would return from Jianye and continue to train the new soldiers.

Ouyang Shuo had reason to believe that with Baiqi's help, the selection for the special forces will fit in better with the cold weapons era.

Baiqi being willing to move into the new soldier camp helped solved one of Ouyang Shuo's big problems, which was the position he wanted to give him. The current military didn't have any vacancies. Based on what he planned, he wanted to wait until the territory was a grade 1 prefecture before making plans.

After discussing, Ouyang Shuo called Zisu and asked her to bring Baiqi to choose a mansion in the official residence region, also sending him 2 maidservants to serve him.

Ever since the Housekeeping Division was set up, Zisu had recruited a batch of maidservants and sent them to personnel of rank secretary and above. Based on the standards set by the division, secretaries would have 1 maidservant, while directors would have 2. As for the generals like Shi Wanshui, they would be treated like directors.

Apart from taking care of their daily lives and serving them, they also had the responsibility of supervision.

Shanhai City didn't have a safety unit, so Ouyang Shuo did so just in case. Of course, the people he was guarding against were the aboriginal people.

As for Fan Zhongyan, Shi Wanshui, and other such historical people, naturally the maidservants just served them and nothing else.

After settling everything, Ouyang Shuo finally had time to go onto the website and search the details.

Based on the introduction by Gaia, after the initiating of the quest, the key people and their disciples from the various philosophical school of thoughts would appear in the wild and travel various territories in a way that lords couldn't understand. With their standards, they would choose a suitable place to live in and build their sects and schools.

Be it whatever personal standards, the territory would have to fulfil 3 basic criterias:

At least one representative of a school chooses to live in the territory.

There's a place for that school that acts as the base.

The school must recruit at least 10 disciples to show its influence.

Hence, one could imagine how hard it was for Ouyang Shuo to solve the branch quest. Luckily, he still had time so he could take it slow. This was in addition to Shanhai City being the home ground for the debate, thus making it more attractive.

As some schools had more than one representative figure, the system rule would be first come first serve. This also meant that one school could only choose one territory.

Of course, if a school had different branches, it could set up different offices. For example, in history there was Legalism, which was split up into three factions.

The difference between the philosophers debate in history was that Gaia made all the various factions and schools appear at the same time. With that, the representative of the Mohists, Mo Zi, could cross time and have a debate with the Confucianism representative Kong Zi. People of different times of the same school could also have a discussion like Meng Zi could learn about the meaning of Confucianism from Kong Zi. Wasn't this interesting?

This was the charm of the game.

Not only that, as more dynasties entered the game, various schools and factions as well as secret legacies would appear.

The brightest moments in Chinese history were going to appear in the game!

Chapter 283- Upgrade Quest

The scale of the storyline quest was huge and it also took up a lot of time, so Ouyang Shuo didn't know where to start. He could only take it step by step. The only thing he could do now was to order the Construction Division to open a patio in Xinan University to be the place for the philosopher debate.

What Ouyang Shuo cared most about was to upgrade the territory. He opened the interface for the territory and applied for the upgrade. A notification resounded in his ear, which was checking for the basic requirements.

"System notification: Checking if Shanhai City meets upgrade requirements..."

"Requirement 1: Population reached the 100 thousand upper limit, requirement met!"

"Requirement 2: All basic structures are built, requirements met!"

"Requirement 3: Lord rank is at least a 3rd class Marquis, requirement met!"

"Requirement 4: Politics, economy, culture and military all not less than 65, requirements met!"

"Requirement 5: Core affiliate territories have at least reached grade 1 city, requirement met!"

Compared to the city grade, the upgrade requirements to a prefecture had requirements regarding the three affiliate territories. It was as if it was reminding the lords that at the prefecture grade, one shouldn't neglect the building of affiliate territories.

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for meeting all requirements, will you apply to upgrade?"

"Apply!"

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for successfully applying, assigning upgrade quests."

"Quest 1 [Recruitment]: Need at least one historical person who is willing to work for your territory."

"Quest 2 [Organization moves in]: At least one NPC Chamber of Commerce is willing to move into the territory and help the economy."

"Quest 3 [Culture Festival]: Hold a culture festival with a certain influence.

"Quest 4 [Army Group Trial]: An army group needs to go through a trial to prove its strength."

"System notification: Out of the 4 quests, one needed to complete 2 to upgrade; the more quests completed, the bigger the rewards."

Out of the 4 upgrade quests, they all made considerations out of all 4 aspects of the territory.

This was enough to show the difference between a city and a prefecture.

As the system mentioned, each lord when upgrading would face a different set of quests. Overall, their difficulties would be around the same level.

The upgrade quests didn't have a time limit or a punishment for failure. If one couldn't complete it, then they territory would be unable to upgrade, and one couldn't reapply.

This. This was the greatest punishment.

The next day, Ouyang Shuo gathered Fan Zhongyan, Cui Yingyu and Baiqi to divide up the upgrade quests. Fan Zhongyan was in charge of leading the Administration Department to prepare for the culture festival; Yingyu would be in charge of contacting the Cui Chamber of Commerce and discuss about them creating a branch; Baiqi would be the overall commander and would be in charge of the army group's trial.

What was the most uncertain was the [recruitment] quest. Ouyang Shuo could only inform the various offices in the system imperial cities and ask them to search and recruit.

After that discussion, everyone stood up and left.

Before Yingyu left, she looked at Ouyang Shuo with a weird expression. "Big brother, why do I feel that your entire temperament changed?"

"Really?"

"Ya, you have more prestige. When I first saw you, I was shocked."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, knowing that the Dragon and Phoenix pendant was working. The two specialties of the pendant were starting to show themselves.

Last night, when he was cultivating, he could feel that under the stimulation of the pendant, the Chi in his body had improved. In just a few days he could break through to the 5th layer. Based on what was recorded, if one broke through to the 6th, he would have good fortune.

After Yingyu left, Ouyang Shuo started to deal with the administrative matters that were piling up.

Bai Nanpu had already arranged the letters based on priority and placed them on his table.

The first letter he picked up was from Gushan County Magistrate, Lei Fan. In the letter, he mentioned that things went well contacting the central mountain tribes. When the new year came, more of them would come down.

Apart from that, Lei Fan mentioned that the mountain barbarians in the north were different. It was going to be winter but some tribes went deeper into the mountains for unknown reasons.

Lei Fan guessed that there was a huge change deep in the mountains. He arranged spies to go in to investigate. As this was a huge matter, he reported it to Ouyang Shuo for him to settle.

Ouyang Shuo frowned. The mountain barbarian tribes were important soldiers, and there wasn't any room for mistakes. He ordered the Military Intelligence Division to investigate and for Tian Wenjing to help out.

Putting down the worry of the mountain barbarians, Ouyang Shuo continued.

Now the letter in his hand was from the Four Seas bank treasurer, Meng Zhida. In it, he mentioned his suggestion for Shanhai City to use paper currency.

In olden china, during the South Song era, they used paper currency. Hence, it wasn't considered an advanced thing. To use that in the game, one needed to fulfil two requirements.

Firstly, one needed a facility to produce and print the money. The territory must at least have a paper workshop and printing workshop. The paper could also be bought from outside, but the printing must be done by the territory. Apart from that, a professional must do it, designing and ensuring anti-forgery.

Secondly, one needed to set up a credit system. If the paper note wasn't recognized, it was just a useless piece of paper without any value.

And to create this credit system, one needed to create a perfect reserve system. With Shanhai City as an example, if one wanted to use paper notes, the best choice would be the Four Seas bank. So, every 100 gold note would correlate with a 100 gold coins stored in the bank.

During the South Song Period, as the court mass-produced notes but didn't have enough reserve gold, it made the notes lose value and become useless.

As for notes, it wasn't that Ouyang Shuo didn't have any plans. It was just that he wanted to do so in the latter stages of the game and now was just too early.

If it was a suggestion from others, Ouyang Shuo would naturally ignore it. But Meng Zhida was different. He was a professional talent in finance and was very careful. Since he made such a decision, this meant he had his thoughts as to why.

Ouyang Shuo gathered his thoughts and raised his head. "Men!"

"Yes!" Bai Nanpu walked in.

"Call the Four Seas bank treasurer Meng Zhida." Ouyang Shuo paused for a while. "And Cui Yingyu, to discuss something!"

"Yes, my lord!"

Yingyu was right beside Ouyang Shuo so she reached quickly, "Big brother, you're looking for me?"

"Do you know about the Four Seas bank and the bank note thing?"

"Yes, Treasurer Meng raised the issue with me."

"What are your thoughts?"

Yingyu frowned. "When he reported to me, I thought banknotes and silver tickets were the same thing. He explained that it was a totally different concept. In truth, to such new things, I don't know much, but it seems fine."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Although Yingyu was improving her knowledge about modern finances, if it was related to money and goods, she was still lacking.

No wonder Meng Zhida sent the letter to Ouyang Shuo. It was probably what Yingyu asked him to do.

While the two of them were discussing, Meng Zhida rushed in hurriedly. When he saw the letter in Ouyang Shuo’s hand, he roughly knew what was going on.

"Uncle Meng, in principle, I agree with the banknotes, but as for the time, can we push it back?" When Ouyang Shuo discussed matters, he was always straight to the point.

"I think that to use banknotes, this is the best time."

"Oh? Please elaborate." Ouyang Shuo didn't expect for him to be so certain and that made him very interested.

"There are four reasons. Firstly, as the economy starts to prosper, the trade volume increases; between merchants, one has to bring large amounts of gold, so it's hard to bring and very inconvenient."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. NPCs didn't have storage bags; a gold coin was 20 grams, so 1000 gold was 20 kilograms, needing a professional to carry it.

Hence to solve this problem, people in the olden days decided to use banknotes.

"Secondly, as the affiliate territories upgrade to city level, inter-territory trade would prosper. For example, the seafood and salt from Beihai County would go from Youyi river and Qiushui river to sell in Tianfeng City; the trees from Yongye City would be sold in Beihai City. All this is pushing for the birth of banknotes.

Meng Zhida's words made Ouyang Shuo silent. The information he revealed was enough to raise his alertness. The trade in the territory was something he as a lord didn't pay attention to. Seems like the military action recently had taken away a lot of his time and energy. If it were before, such a situation will definitely not occur.

Luckily with the arrival of Baiqi, the general could release Ouyang Shuo from military matters.

"Thirdly, the Four Seas bank has a lot of gold, which is sufficient to print banknotes."

During the first 10 days of the 10th month, Ouyang Shuo injected 40 thousand gold into the main branch, which was what gave Meng Zhida the confidence to suggest this.

"Fourthly, it takes a long time to prepare. Naturally, it's better if we start the plan it early." Meng Zhida listed out the four big reasons.

Ouyang Shuo nodded; he was totally convinced. "Uncle Meng's words have opened my eyes. Since that's so, let's do it! Describe your specific plans."

Chapter 284- Currency and Taxation

After he gained Ouyang Shuo's approval, Meng Zhida started to describe his plan.

What was most important was to set up a banknote printing bureau in the main branch of Four Seas bank to be in charge of the printing of banknotes.

The planned banknotes included 10 gold, 20 gold, 50 gold and 100 gold. There would be no copper or silver banknotes, and no numbers less than 10 gold.

Based on Meng Zhida's thoughts, the banknotes would be a higher class currency and be mainly used for the buying and selling of goods. As for the daily expenses, they would still be done with copper, silver, and gold coins.

What Ouyang Shuo needed to do was to purchase the and the , paper workshop and printing workshop blueprints.

Luckily, Yingyu had to discuss with the Cui Chamber of Commerce about setting up a branch in Shanhai City, so Ouyang Shuo just passed her the responsibility of acquisition all to her. He also asked her to recruit some experienced artisans through the Cui Chamber of Commerce.

Making use of this opportunity, Yingyu raised the topic about changing the finances and taxes. "As the economy grows past its infancy and starts to prosper, the tax rate set up during the start of privatisation isn't suitable. The Financial Department feels that the time has come for us to raise taxes."

Ouyang Shuo remained silent. When he had set the tax rate to be 1/30, his goal was to motivate craftsmen and commerce to nurture the economy.

This proved that his original idea was right. Under the low tax and low interest rate loans from the Four Seas bank, privatisation had been blooming, and the territory tax returns had been increasing by the day.

However as Yingyu had mentioned, since their goal had already been reached, to adjust the tax rate to a normal level was needed. If not, as the territory's economy bloomed, the finances of the territory wouldn't benefit. Increasing the tax rates and financial profits wasn't to earn more gold, but to give them the funds to do better projects and for the public benefit.

"What level does the Financial Department feel that the tax rates should be adjusted to?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"5%."

"5%? This is the final answer of the Financial Department?"

"No, the most suitable rate would be 1/15, only..." Yingyu was a bit hesitant.

"Just that what?"

"The Financial Department is afraid that if we raise it so quickly, the people will be unhappy."

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. "The tax rate is an important part of the administration. We can't keep changing it and have to maintain it at a stable level. Since we need to change it, we must do it once and for all. There will probably be a little pressure, but we still have to get over it."

"Understood." With Ouyang Shuo's support, Yingyu would have more backing to push for this. "Apart from taxes, there's also the income of the affiliate territories. The Financial Department feels that the affiliate territories should give us 70% of their tax, and then the lord's manor will assign and deal with it."

Ouyang Shuo frowned. Financial matters wasn't an independent body, and must be done together with administrative matters.

"Let the Financial Department consider the economy advisor's views, and give me a full tax change report. After the territory upgrades, then we will discuss the exact measures." Ouyang Shuo postponed the suggestion from the Financial Department.

"Ok!" Cui Yingyu was a little demoralized.

Over the next few days, Shanhai City started to get busy for their upgrade quests.

The first one to have progress was the 2nd quest. After Shanhai City and the Cui Chamber of Commerce discussed, they agreed to set up a branch and buy up Shanhai City products: seafood and salt from Beihai City, tea and herbs from Qiushui City, fur and skin from Friendship City, wood from Gushan City, etc.

At the same time, the Cui Chamber of Commerce also set up a shop in Shanhai City selling rare items like china, spices, jade decorations, etc.

The setting up of the Chamber of Commerce would be able to stimulate exports and also increase the sources of imports, improving the sales structure and improving the economy.

Apart from that, the Cui Family bank was also attracted to Shanhai City to compete with the Four Seas Bank. If the loans from the Four Seas Bank were for daily life, then the Cui Family bank were purely for investment.

Be it the pottery factory or the Xila Lake pearl culturing base, they all became the investment targets of the Cui Family bank.

All these workshops that were invested in all welcomed a huge change.

Toward these outside investments, Ouyang Shuo accepted all of them. Of course, the industries and businesses controlled by the Financial Department were not included.

For the next step, Ouyang Shuo planned to put down the minefields and the logging camps and list them as investable items, leaving the Material Reserves Department with strategic resources like copper, iron and gold mines.

All this was done to shape the economy of the territory.

What the Cui Chamber of Commerce brought over wasn't only products and funds, but also large amounts of artisans and craftsmen. In the business street, they built up a grand restaurant- Shanhai Garden.

The Shanhai Garden combined food, lodging, and entertainment all into one. The tens of chefs brought various delicacies from around the land; the hired actors to perform every day.

No wonder one of the shareholders of the Sangu Restaurant, Qing'er kept shouting, “The Wolves are here!”

To this kind of competition, naturally Ouyang Shuo wouldn't interfere; whether or not the restaurant could survive depended on the ability of Gu Sanniang.

With the help of the Chamber of Commerce, it was like an injection of freshwater into the Shanhai City’s economy, so naturally Ouyang Shuo was very optimistic.

On the third quest [Culture festival], the Administration Department also made some progress.

Fan Zhongyan and Xu Shuda's opinion was to hold a grand Mazu Temple Fair. During the lantern festival, Ouyang Shuo did have such a thought, but because of certain restrictions, he couldn't do so.

As times changed, the Shanhai City of today naturally wasn't what Shanhai Town from before could compare to. It already had the ability to hold a festival, and with the addition of the Cui Chamber of Commerce, it further strengthened the base of Shanhai City.

One of the requirements of the quest was that the festival had to have a certain level of influence.

Since it needed to have influence, those that attempted the Mazu Temple Fair couldn't be restricted to Shanhai City commoners, and must have some outside visitors.

Ouyang Shuo first thought about the allies in Shanhai Alliance. But thinking about it again, they were all players and were not high in numbers, so they wouldn't have influence.

In the end, Xu Shuda had an idea. He suggested to spread the news that Mazu Temple had appeared in Shanhai City to the whole of Quanzhou to attract the priests, merchants, and civilians to attend.

Ouyang Shuo smacked his own head and felt that he was stupid.

Wasn't it that in real life, Fujian was the place where Mazu Culture originated from? If the aboriginals from Quanzhou knew that the Mazu Statue appeared in Shanhai City, they would definitely visit.

Ouyang Shuo immediately informed the office in Quanzhou.

To achieve a greater effect, Xu Shuda even exaggerated the origins of the Mazu Temple and wrote a descriptive essay, pasting it at the door of the offices.

Mazu held an important position in the hearts of all Fujian people. The moment the news went out, it attracted a lot of attention. At first they didn't believe it, only after people teleported and see it did they accept it.

Hence, the news spread all over Quanzhou, and there were huge amounts of merchants, priests and commoners coming into Shanhai City.

Some staunch believers even immediately migrated over.

The development of the situation far exceeded Ouyang Shuo's expectations. Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to shift a portion of the population to Yongye City and Guangshui City.

Some rash people didn't wait for Shanhai City to make some space for them, directly moving to the affiliate territories.

A large portion of the believers were attracted to Beihai City. As amongst these believers, a large portion were fishermen, and when they learned of such a place, they were delighted.

Not talking about faith, in the Quanzhou region, as there were too many fishermen and the problem of overfishing, how could they compete with Beihai Bay, such an unopened location?

Every day after that, thousands of aboriginal people would choose to move to Shanhai City. The city was unable to pay for their teleportation costs, so they could only do so themselves. Even so, that couldn't stop their determination and faith.

Later on, there were even cases of an entire fishing village moving to Beihai City.

The City Magistrate of Beihai City, Gu Xiuwen was obviously elated. He activated all the departments and divisions to do a good job in arranging accommodation for the aboriginal people.

Based on the report, there were around 10 thousand people who shifted to Beihai City. These aboriginals weren't like the refugees and had assets and families with them.

Beihai City once again had obtained some good luck.

Apart from Beihai City, Friendship City and Qiushui City both had 5-6 thousand people migrate in. As for Shanhai City, the number of migrants broke 20 thousand and was increasing non stop.

This also meant that there were 20 thousand excess people who were shifted to Yongye, Guangshui City, which caused both of them to break the upper limit of 20 thousand and upgrade to grade 2 cities.

Forty thousand migrants to Shanhai City was considered large, but to Quanzhou, it meant nothing.

Chapter 285- Baiqi Reorganizes the Army

As time went on, the migrant wave attracted by the Mazu Temple had slowly changed from commoners to the gentry level and merchant groups.

Shanhai City had a pleasant environment, good city planning, great law and order, a thick merchant atmosphere, and cultural development, attracting their eyes.

Xinan University, Yellow Emperor Temple, Recruitment hall, Shangding, etc. attracted a lot of attention.

Only then did they noticed that out in the wilderness was actually such an advanced place.

Shanhai City also had a thirst for talent, so they were both a good fit with one another.

It was like the floodgates were opened, and a large number of gentry and merchants chose to live in Shanhai City. Amongst them were people from humble backgrounds, and were also men of literature and writing, with many talented men amongst them.

Because of the presence of Jiang Shang, Xinan University was very attractive to men of literature and writing. Hence, they mostly chose to become officials.

The merchants started to open shops in Shanhai City; some even focused on the Mazu Temple business, selling incense related products and earning a huge amount.

After inspecting Shanhai City and especially after seeing the Cui Chamber of Commerce doing so well, some Chamber of Commerces in Quanzhou also started considering opening branches in Shanhai City.

The huge swarm of people brought a lot of business for the newly opened Shanhai Garden, to the envy of everyone.

With such a great opportunity, Ouyang Shuo immediately informed the Business Division Secretary Xu Zhenchang to prepare a recruitment meeting to introduce the investment plans and business environment in Shanhai City.

The Administration Department also worked together with the Household Registration Division, and started a talent recruitment to recruit talents into the various departments and and divisions.

The Mazu Temple had achieved far greater a result than the recruitment that the Cui Chamber of Commerce had in Dali, making Ouyang Shuo delighted.

The situation in front of him reflected an old statement: if you wish for something it won't come. If you don't wish for something it might appear out of nowhere.

The huge amount of talents helped build a solid foundation for when Shanhai City upgraded to the prefecture grade.

Ouyang Shuo had been worrying about the lack of talents if the territory upgraded, but now with the migrants, it has been totally solved.

As for the Mazu Temple fair, under the support of the Chamber of Commerces from Quanzhou, it was a huge scale.

The huge influence of Mazu even shocked the Quanzhou Court. They specially sent officials to send a huge signboard which read ‘Mazu Temple.’

With that, the Mazu religion spread like wildfire.

What made Ouyang Shuo happier was that after the blessing of all the incense, the Mazu Temple had be upgraded.

"System notification: Mazu Statue has been blessed by the incense and officially unsealed, returning back to normal. The stats of the Mazu Temple have greatly increased."

At this point, the Mazu Statue gave out a gentle shine which one could see from far away. Such a divine scene made all the believers who traveled from far to see it emotional and nearly tear up.

The migrant wave which had calmed down once again reached a peak. Quanzhou civilians believed that it was their sincerity that touched Mazu, and she sent them a sign to bless her believers.

Ouyang Shuo took the time to take a look at the new stats; what he saw pleased him.

Name: Mazu Temple

Type: Hidden class building

Function: Spread the faith of Mazu and raise happiness of residents by 30%, raises reputation of territory by 10%

Specialty: Sea God blessing (Navy ships have increased 40% Defence against storms), wind and waves (raise ships' sailing capability by 30%)

Evaluation: Mazu, with the southeast sea as core, spreads the Sea God faith.

The unsealed Mazu Temple had a huge increase in function. Not only that, it had also gained a 2nd specialty.

With these two specialties, it would be much easier for the Shanhai City’s sailors to rule the seas.

With the unsealing of the Mazu Temple, this temple fair ended on a wonderful full stop. Mazu Temple also became a huge bridge between Quanzhou City and Shanhai City.

Although the festival had ended, the effects of it didn't end there.

Although the peak of the migration had passed, there were still hundreds of Quanzhou aboriginal people who would rush to Shanhai City either to pray or migrate.

As Quanzhou started to find out more about Shanhai City, the migrant groups changed from believers to people who came here to try and make a living.

The situation that was happening at Shanhai City was something that all lords were jealous of. Some hurled insults while others congratulated him; there was a vast mix.

Ouyang Shuo naturally didn’t bother about the outside comments. After the Mazu Temple fair ended, Ouyang Shuo handed over the recruitment of Chamber of Commerces and the migration over to the Financial Department and Administration Department.

The talents that were recruited were temporarily given jobs by Fan Zhongyan, waiting for when the territory had upgraded to a prefecture before giving them a permanent position.

From city to prefecture, it was a breakthrough in the entire system and core of the territory. In terms of administrative structure, naturally there would be a revolution. Ouyang Shuo had already started considering the related changes in his mind.

After the festival, Ouyang Shuo started to turn to the 4th quest.

The army group trial needed a corp to pass a military trial. Shanhai City only had 1 division, so they had nothing to hesitate on and just made the 1st division take the trial.

The problem was that after checking the related settings for the trial, Ouyang Shuo hesitated.

Based on the system settings, a division and above could undergo the trial, and if they succeeded, they would get a unique specialty and be rewarded a military flag.

The crux of the problem was that after the trial, the members of the division that underwent the trial apart from the casualties couldn't be moved. If they did, the specialty would lose its effect.

This setting was to prevent some lords from cheating, using the elites in the territory to help military groups complete the trial.

The 1st division was just a temporary plan. It was split into three camps in the west, north and east of the city, and were ruled separately so they would definitely be split apart in the future.

The quest meant that Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to reorganize the military. He passed this mission to Baiqi for him to have total control, and for Ge Hongliang to assist him.

Baiqi's role was still undecided, and Ouyang Shuo just gave him a temporary title of overall commander, giving him the power to command the army of Shanhai City.

Ever since he came to Shanhai City, apart from staying in the west suburb camp, he went to the other three camps and inspected all the military groups.

After a week of inspections, Baiqi finally brought out his plan.

In the Lord's Manor reading room, there were only Ouyang Shuo, Baiqi, and Ge Hongliang, showing how important this meeting was.

Baiqi didn't directly describe his plan but described the problems he was facing. "Based on my investigation, the Shanhai City army has a few main problems:

“Firstly, the soldier types aren't balanced; we have too many cavalry and too little infantry. Of the 1st divisions, including the Guards regiment and the independent regiment, out of the 7 regiments, 5 are cavalry regiments, not including the light armored cavalry regiments in the 1st and 3rd regiment. The cavalry take up 70-80%.

“Secondly, we don't put enough emphasis on scouting and logistics. Not only does each regiment not have a scout and army cook, even the 1st division does not have such roles, which is really mind boggling.

“The Military Intelligence Division is responsible for peacetime scouting. Wartime scouting should be the responsibility of the participating forces. Military grain pills can't totally replace food and grains, so an army cook is absolutely necessary.

“Thirdly, the mix of light armored, heavy armored, cavalry, and infantry. With the 1st and 4th regiments in the city west camp as an example, there's the slow moving heavy armored mountain barbarian infantry and the fast moving light armored cavalry. The entire speed of the troops will be burdened by the slow moving mountain barbarians, and losing the advantage of the light armored cavalry.

“Fourthly, the types of soldiers are too little. The entire division only has cavalry and sword shield soldiers. Lancers, as well as bowmen, crossbowmen, spearmen, etc are all non-existent."

Baiqi's analysis made Ouyang Shuo feel very embarrassed and ashamed. Originally, he was quite pleased with his organization, but it was actually full of mistakes.

Ouyang Shuo stood up solemnly and bowed toward Baiqi. "Thank you for your help!"

Ge Hongliang was also blushing. As the Military Affairs director, he didn't manage to help the lord perfect the military system; it could be said that he failed at his job.

However, he couldn't be blamed as he was at most an advisor of a regiment. How could he handle such a huge army?

Apart from Ge Hongliang, only the three historical generals could assist Ouyang Shuo.

Shi Wanshui was, out of the three, the best at military matters, but as he was rash, he would only care about fighting wars and not about such small matters.

Er'Lai, needless to say, was from the Shang Dynasty when military planning was in its infancy. He was also a fierce general, so he wouldn't know much about all these fine details.

Luo Shixin had also just joined the army. His experience was little, so he wouldn't voice up his opinions.

Hence, it caused such a situation where Ouyang Shuo, who was totally inept at such a thing, had to organize the military and expand it to its current scale.

Thinking back, it wasn't easy.

Only when Baiqi arrived did the weakness of the Shanhai City army become exposed.

Ouyang Shuo was happy deep down that the Shanhai City army didn't expand to a scale that couldn't be salvaged and that Baiqi had come just in time.

Chapter 286- Rising From the Ashes

After discussing the weaknesses of the army, Baiqi simply described the strengths of the army. "Although the army has many problems, we have good equipment and great generals, so that's a plus point."

Ouyang Shuo froze, his depressed heart had a slight happiness.

After analysing the pros and cons, Baiqi started to throw out his organization plan. “We need to solve the problem that the three camps aren't under the same command, but they’re all part of the same division. I suggest the 1st division to be split into 3 divisions, each camp having one. As for the current manpower problem, we could prioritize one division first to join the army group trial and the other two divisions will be slowly expanded."

Ouyang Shuo nodded; Baiqi's thinking was similar to Ouyang Shuo's thoughts when he formed the 1st regiment.

Every time the military was organized, it would cause a lot of panic. Hence, each reorganization must be planned in advance, especially such large-scale planning.

"The 1st division will be in the city west camp. Shi Wanshui is good at both infantry and cavalry, and is a remarkable general. Hence, the 1st division will be a light armored cavalry and infantry mixed division. There will be sword shield soldiers, spearmen, bowmen, crossbowmen, and light armored cavalry. The sword shield soldiers wouldn't be the heavy armored mountain barbarians and instead focus on light armor to raise the mobility of the division."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Baiqi changed the lancers to spearmen and added the crossbowmen that he gave up on. In the allocation of soldier types, it seemed more logical.

"The 2nd division will be housed in the city north camp. It would be a purely cavalry division so it doesn’t need changes. As a cavalry division, it would have 2 heavy armored regiments and 2 light armored regiments, as well as one archer regiment."

Baiqi didn't choose whom to lead the city north camp, and even though Ouyang Shuo gave him the power, for such heavy personnel arrangements, he would just leave it to Ouyang Shuo.

The city north camp leader Lin Yi was just an intermediate ranked general, and couldn't lead an entire division. Ouyang Shuo had a suitable general in mind for the job.

"The 3rd division was camped in the city east camp. The current commander, Er'Lai, is a purely fierce general who isn't good at cavalry warfare. Hence, the 3rd division could be an infantry division with two heavy armored mountain barbarian infantry regiments, 2 spearman regiments, and a Mo knife soldier regiment."

The Mo knife was a long knife amongst the Tang blades, wielded by infantry and weighing 8 kilograms. It was 7 inches long, made of iron, and the handle was 4 inches long. It was mainly used against cavalry, and was really powerful.

The Mo knife was another Tang Dynasty weapon that the weapon workshop was working on recently and the army hadn't been equipment with it. He didn't expect Baiqi to know about it, and even included it in his plans. He was certainly special.

Up to this point, Ouyang Shuo totally understood Baiqi's plans. "General's thought is to focus on building the 2nd division?"

"That's right. Combining the 4th regiment, the city north camp’s 2nd regiment, as well as the independent regiment, and the 5th regiment of the city east camp, as long as we build one more heavy armored cavalry regiment, we could form a division already."

Baiqi didn't raise the topic about the Guards regiment, as that was Ouyang Shuo's personal army, and hence it was excluded from the 3 divisions.

Apart from that, the 1st regiment in the city west camp would use 2 heavy armored mountain barbarian infantry units to change for the archer and light armored cavalry units from the 3rd regiment to complete the reorganization.

After discussing the structures of the three divisions, Baiqi continued, "Each division must also have 1000 men. Five hundred would form up the personal Guards unit of the major general; the remaining 500 would form a scouting squadron, medical squadron, engineering squadron and two Chef squadrons. If in the future we have the ability, we still need to prepare spies, officials, clerks and other support staff."

Baiqi's army plan had basically solved the 4 problems he had raised. The last thing he mentioned had directly targeted the weakness of the current army.

Xinan University was only in charge of producing civil servants. As for military officials, they couldn't do anything. As for the militarists, without them the wars will be in a mess, and they couldn't be considered a passable army.

At the current moment, they could only take it a step by a time.

Ouyang Shuo envied Zhan Lang who didn't need to bother about such matters.

Ouyang Shuo calculated. For the three divisions to be in place, they needed 25.5 thousand more people including 1500 logistics men, which needed the Military Intelligence Division, God machine camp unit, Medical Department, and the Combat Logistics Division to settle together.

Not mentioning the others, purely class change fees would be 15 thousand gold, and with the equipment and other things, it was a scary amount. Much less the expenditure and their salary.

Although the costs of running it were huge, thinking about it, the moment the organization was in place, Shanhai City would have had a rebirth and a beautiful change.

"Good, let's follow your plan." Ouyang Shuo smacked the table and looked at Ge Hongliang. "Director Ge, how many members are there in the reserve force?"

"After the Battle of Changping, each division had been filled up with members, so around 5000 remain."

Ouyang Shuo kept quiet. The last round of expansion and the battle had already used up most of the reserve force. For them to have 5000 left wasn't easy.

However, this was not even a fifth of the people they needed. If they recruited new soldiers, not only would it need a long training time, but their combat power wouldn’t be high either.

Seeing that the Marquis didn’t speak, Baiqi and Ge Hongliang could only look on silently.

After a while, Ouyang Shuo regained his senses; he had made up his mind. "The military organization can't wait. However hard the problem is, we must solve it. I have 3 requirements. As for the specifics of the reorganization, I'll hand them to the both of you, you must ensure it's finished by the end of the year."

"Yes my lord!"

"Firstly, the 3rd division, the 2 heavy armored infantry regiments, and the Mo knife soldier regiments must all be mountain barbarian soldiers. The lack of manpower will be solved by Tian Wenjing and Leifan.

The Mo knife soldiers needed a lot of strength, so naturally the mountain barbarians would be a good fit. With Gushan City, Ouyang Shuo believed that to gather 5000 troops wouldn't be a problem.

"Secondly, the reorganization of the city protection units and city protection regiments. Shanhai City, Qiushui City and Friendship City, these 3 city protection regiments. Yishui City, Yongye City and Guangshui City, these three city protection units, as well as the 2 city protection units of Tianfeng City. A total of 10 thousand soldiers will all be added to the 3 divisions. With the reserve forces, a large scale recruitment would do the trick about the remaining 3000 shortfall."

Ouyang Shuo had cleared out all the city protection in an instant. He believed that with the 3 divisions, no one could attack Shanhai City.

"Thirdly, after the city protection unit and city protection regiments are reorganized, apart from Shanhai City, Qiushui City and Friendship City, the rest will recruit a city defense reserve force to be in charge of city defenses. As for the city defense regiments of Shanhai City, Qiushui City and Friendship City, they will be done after the territory upgrades to prefecture."

Building a city defense unit at Beihai City had meaning. The Beihai Naval fleet currently had two roles as sailors and protectors of the city. This reorganization didn't affect the navy, so any big changes to the navy would wait until after the new year.

"Yes, my lord!" Baiqi's eyes brightened. With such an organization to take down, the entire Lianzhou wasn't a far-fetched idea.

After they completed their discussion, what was next was personnel arrangements.

"Director Ge, pass down my orders!"

"Yes!"

"Shi Wanshui will be the major general of the 1st division in the city west camp; Luo Shixin will be the major general of the 2nd division at the city north camp; Er'Lai will be the major general of the 3rd regiment in the city east camp."

Ouyang Shuo first settled the major generals, and next would be the colonels of the regiments. Expectedly, Shihu, Shibao, Zhao Yan, Li Mingliang, Heiqi, and Jiang Kai were all appointed.

Guo Liang, Su Wang, and Liao Kai weren't appointed, but were appointed majors of the major general's personal Guards unit. Guo Liang was with Shi Wanshui, Su Wang with

Luo Shixin, and Liao Kai with Er'Lai.

The various city protection unit and regiment leaders all kept their jobs. After all, they were still needed to build up the defense squads. The only exception was Zhang Daniu and Hu Yobiao, who became the colonels of the 2 spearmen regiments of the 3rd division.

Out of the 3 city protection regiment colonels, only Zhao Sihu remained at his old job.

Taking the chance, Ouyang Shuo appointed Baiqi as general and overall commander. Such a huge role made the usually cold Baiqi emotional as he bowed. "Thank you, my lord!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded and smiled. "I hope that the 3 divisions can be reborn under your hands and become an elite army." He paused for a while before continuing. "Arrange the 2nd division to take the trial. The earlier you finish the earlier the territory can upgrade."

"Understood!"

After the discussion, Baiqi and Ge Hongliang left. In the upcoming month, there was much for them to do.

The next day, the reorganization and role changes were announced by the Military Affairs Department and caused a huge discussion.

Chapter 287- The truth is out

After the military reorganization, the entire Shanhai City military started to move.

The forces gathered up at the places where they were suppose to be; the generals went to receive their forces. Under the leadership of Baiqi, everything proceeded orderly and there wasn't a hint of chaos.

Shanhai City's many generals pretty much all joined in the Battle of Changping. As such, they had huge respect for Baiqi. Hence with him as the general, no one was unhappy.

The equipment made by the 4 military workshops were shipped to the 3 main camps. Ever since the large scale acquisition of resources, the Armory Division and Bow and Crossbow Division had started to produce large amounts of bows and armors.

Sent together with the equipment were large amounts of grain. It was quickly going to be winter and war would stop. This was the best time to train the troops, and naturally one needed to accumulate enough grain.

As the animal husbandry industry started to develop, the goods in the military, apart from grain, had large amounts of fish and meat. A large amount of goats and pigs were sent to each camp and reared. Among the fish, apart from seafood coming from Beihai City, there was a wide variety of freshwater fish from Xila Lake.

Apart from that, the Combat Logistics Division sent officials to go to the various tribes to buy Qingfu horses. The 3 divisions lacked around 5-6 thousand horses.

Ouyang Shuo temporarily didn't want to make use of the Qingfu horses which were bred by the Jifeng Valley horse stables. During the winter, the livelihood of the various tribes would become very tough, and hence they would be willing to exchange horses for food.

The equipment that was replaced by the troops filled up the arsenal. Little aunt Lin Jing brought her mercenary team members to and fro for about 20 trips before being able to clear it out. It was estimated that all this equipment could be sold for 30 thousand gold, and was more than enough to settle the class change fees.

The price would be the elite equipment that the 4 workshops produced. To date they hadn't sold any, and all the equipment produced was used internally. Hence, he was always teased by his allies.

The profits for the military industry would only come next year.

The extra gold from the sales were used by Ouyang Shuo to buy grain, buying tens of millions units and storing it in the granary in the west suburbs, solving the grain shortage.

Just as Shanhai City was reorganizing their army, an unusual change was happening in the wild lands.

Tian Qi Tribe, Kehan Tent

Kehan was looking weird and his face was unsettled. "Are you sure you saw it clearly?" Mengke's body wasn't as before. Even so, no one dared to be impudent in front of him.

"That person, even if he was turned to dust, I would recognize him." The one who replied was a tall male with a face covered with a beard. When he spoke, his eyes were filled with hatred.

On closer look, this man was the original west region’s commander Lakhshen. Who would have expected that he was released by Mengke and had even went to complete a mission and report to Mengke.

The person Lakhshen recognized was Lin Yi, the man who designed and planned the wildfire operation and killed the young generals of the west region. Before that, the city north camp was south of the city protection river, and as such it was hard to see Lin Yi's face.

After the city north camp took over the Tianfeng tribe area, Lin Yi's face wasn't a mystery anymore. If it weren't that his troops were made to join in the Battle of Changping, he would have been exposed even earlier.

This could be blamed on the carelessness of Ouyang Shuo who didn't expect Lakhshen to see the light of day.

In truth, not long after he was locked up, he was secretly released by Mengke. Mengke gave him a secret mission which was to check who attacked the west region of the town.

If he didn't investigate this, Mengke was unable to rest easy.

Lakhshen was misled by Ouyang Shuo and went to check mainly on the raiders and west side tribes. However he didn't expect that the enemy would come from the south.

Until the Shanhai City army took down Tianfeng tribe and established their position on the wild lands, this attracted his attention. He investigated and saw Lin Yi, the guy that destroyed his life.

Hence, the truth was revealed.

"So you mean the reason our Tianqi Tribe is in such a state is all because of them?" Mengke said coldly. He didn't show any hatred, making him even more cold.

"Not only that, I think that the chaos and killing of the mid-sized tribes were done by them. Their goal was to aid in the destruction of the Tianfeng tribe. Probably even the destruction of the Tianling tribe had something to do with them. They are a pack of hungry wolves that had their eyes set on our tribe." After a crisis, Lakhshen became more calm, only that he felt more devious and evil.

"Have you found out about their military strength?"

"Very strong. With their organization, just their two cavalry regiments have 5000 people, the same as our north region." Talking about this, Lakhshen was a little dejected. "Not only that, they seem to be reorganizing their army. Although I couldn't find anything more, their numbers will only increase. The horses they use are all our Qingfu horses, and their equipment is far better than ours."

Mengke's turned black. "So with our tribe, we can't beat them?"

Lakhshen noticed his expression and shivered. It seemed like he remembered how the west region was destroyed. Lakhshen shook his head, trying to toss aside the random thoughts in his head, saying carefully, "Although I don't want to admit it, it's true. Apart from the city north camp, they also have troops inside Friendship City."

"Hen, we can't do it but don't tell me we can't do it even if we consolidate all the power of the tribes in the wild lands?" Mengke was really decisive, immediately thinking about getting help.

"But would the mid-sized tribes agree?" Lakhshen was doubtful, now was different from last time, as the 7 remaining tribes were guarding against Tianqi tribe.

Lakshen also heard that the Shanhai City people were going around buying Qingfu horses, and the tribes all welcomed them. Those guys were bought over by their grain, tea, and salt.

Mengke seem to have seen through Lakhshen's heart. "You ah, don't look down on those tribes. They might look like they are getting close to Shanhai City, but that's because they don't know their true colors. Once we tell them the intelligence we gathered, I assure you, they will agree. After all, who wants to be like Tianfeng tribe? Them competing with us is an internal battle, now Shanhai City is our common enemy. " What Mengke didn't want to tell Lakhshen was that he wanted to use this chance to make Tianqi tribe the core leader of the wild lands.

"Mengke is smart!" Lakhshen had to admit that it terms of reading people, he wasn't on the same level as Mengke.

Mengke waved him off. "Getting help is only our 2nd option. Most importantly, we need to have a strong army. Such a long time has passed, and I think it's time we rebuild the west region forces. Lakhshen, i hope you won't let me down again."

Lakhshen was emotional beyond words. At this point, he was conflicted, emotional, joyous, grateful, regretful, etc.

He could only respectfully kowtow three times and swore, "I will be loyal to the death to you, to repay your kindness!"

Mengke nodded; this was what he wanted. Recently, there was some unrest amongst the nobles of the tribes, so rebuilding the west region would naturally be given to someone that was totally loyal to him.

Everything was controlled in his hands.

What happened in the wild lands, Ouyang Shuo knew nothing about it.

Now, he was gathering all the directors and secretaries to coordinate the reorganization of the military. Ouyang Shuo met Song San, Wang Yuanfeng, Old Qian, and Zhao Youfang to discuss logistical matters.

The Military Affairs Division was in charge of the scouting squadron. With the help of the Rattlesnake mercenary group, the skill levels of the spies were totally different from previous days.

Scouts were split between infantry and cavalry scouts, both having different scouting missions.

The god machine unit was in charge of forming the engineer squadron, which included artisans in the territory, crossbowmen, and people who used the scaling ladder and other siege weapons.

With a major like Wang Yuanfeng who was familiar with all large-scale machinery and mechanics, Ouyang Shuo was at ease.

The Medical Department was in charge of the medical squadron. When the department was set up, deputy director old Qian had developed a medical squadron which was directly sent to the 3 divisions.

The Combat Logistics Division was in charge of forming the cooking squadron. They had to hire chefs from outside to undergo military training before being able to form up the cooking squadron.

Chapter 288- Division Trial

During the 11th month, the Three Flowers Wine factory had profits of 4000 gold. Including the returns from the Beimu Saltpans, Langshan Minefields, and tax returns, the financial income was 28 thousand gold.

Ouyang Shuo kept 7000, increasing the amount in his storage bag to 110 thousand. he passed the remaining 21 thousand gold to the Financial Department to assign, in which the military expenditure took up a huge amount.

As it was close to the end of the year, many of the huge projects in Shanhai City had ended. The 3 bridges joining up Shanhai City, Qiushui City and Friendship City had been completed.

The official residence area, government department area, and commoner residence area were all nearly completed. Even though the population broke 60 thousand, it only took up 1/4 of the residence area.

The building of the two official roads were also near to completion. The road connecting Qiushui City to Friendship City would be completed within a week. The Tianhai Road to the west would be finished in the new year.

The hardest one was the Tianfeng City wall project. With the current speed, it needed to be dragged until next year.

In the 12th month, the Meritorious Service Division under the Administration Department would start its year-end assessment which would affect their bonuses and their positions. This was the biggest event in the administrative system.

As this was a matter of heavy importance, Fan Zhongyan personally chaired the assessment.

The biggest Chamber of Commerce in Qianshou, the Quanji Chamber of Commerce, had officially set up a branch in Shanhai City, and the migrant wave caused by the Mazu Temple had calmed down.

The philosopher debate quest hadn't had any progress. Shanhai City had not seen or noticed any philosopher visit.

Similarly, the various offices in the system imperial capitals weren't going very well. Ten days had passed, and they hadn't even seen a single historical person, not to mention trying to recruit them.

Gaia 1st year 12th month 1st day

Shanhai City's 2nd division had been built and officially set up.

The 2nd division was star studded. Apart from major general Luo Shixin, the colonels were Lin Yi, Sun Tengjiao, Shao Bu, Heiqi and Sun Chuanlin. They were undoubtedly the top in the Shanhai City army.

They also had a specialty, which was they were young.

Apart from the newly built heavy armored cavalry which was formed from the city protection units and regiments, the remainder of the 5 cavalry regiments were experienced and were the elite of the Shanhai City army.

Hence, the moment they formed, the 2nd division had high combat power and was the greatest out of the 3 divisions.

The next day, Ouyang Shuo arranged the 2nd division to go for the trial. Only the generals in the division could join in, so Ouyang Shuo and Baiqi couldn't.

City North Camp, drill ground.

The 13500 soldiers of the 2nd division formed up; Ouyang Shuo activated the interface and initiated the trial, instantly causing a notification to resound in his ear.

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for activating the army group trial, it will be split into division and legion trials, please choose the type!"

"I choose division trial!"

"System notification: choice selected, automatically deducting 5000 gold, will you immediately start?"

"Start!"

Instantly a teleportation gate appeared in the drill ground; it exuded a mysterious feeling.

The testing ground was like a battle quest space with different time settings. During the process, dead soldiers could be revived for free, and those that were revived would be downgraded to a grade 1 normal soldier.

In theory that was no limit in the number of times you could go for the trial. As long as you had money you could start it.

Luo Shixin brought the 5 colonels and walked to Ouyang Shuo. "Marquis!"

"Go!" Ouyang Shuo didn't say much as he trusted these soldiers.

"Yes lord!" Luo Shixin bowed, walking nonchalantly towards the teleportation gate.

Following closely behind him, the various troops followed their colonels through the teleportation gate.

When he went past the gate, what appeared in front of Luo Shixin was a vast grassland.

Looking across, aside from grass, it was still grass and nothing else.

Even so, Luo Shixin didn't put down his guard. He ordered the troops to get into formation to get ready for battle at any time.

As expected, when the last soldier walked through, the teleportation gate disappeared. At the same time, an announcement was made. "Division trial has officially started, lasting to the end would mean you passed!"

As the words were said, numerous wolves appeared in the once empty grass lands, estimated to be no less than 100 thousand of them.

Luo Shixin couldn't believe it; he had never seen so many hungry wolves before. Don't tell me that they would all rush towards them and attack them?

Before he could think, the wolves grouped up and surrounded them, charging towards them.

"Attack!" Luo Shixin was a fierce general who was courageous. He ordered the archer cavalry regiment and the 4 cavalry regiments to attack in 4 directions. As for the bow cavalry regiment, under the protection of the guards unit, they would aim at the wolves.

"Kill!" Lin Yi took the lead and led the first regiment towards the north.

Sun Tengjiao followed closely behind and led the 2nd regiment towards the east. Heiqi attacked the south and Shao Bu attacked the west. The 4 cavalry regiments were like a whirlwind, sweeping the wolves.

When they came into contact, the generals witnessed that these wolves were different. Not only were they fearless, they also had tactics, shocking them.

The vicious wolves were extremely crafty, focusing on the horses. If it wasn't that the 2nd regiment were using the flexible and quick Qingfu horses, there would have been heavy casualties.

Facing 10 times more wolves, the soldiers were riled up. How could they let only wolves sh*t and pee on them?

The 1st and 2nd regiments were heavy armored cavalry, they lacked speed, however as their horses were protected, the wolves did little to them.

Their main weapon was the lance. Unfortunately, it was too heavy and wasn't suitable for battle with the quick wolves. The soldiers placed it into their storage and took out the Tang blades by their side.

As the knives flashed across, the wolf heads fell to the ground.

Lin Yi and Sun Tengjiao gave up on the usual tactics, not charging orderly but instead using a squadron as a group to form up and slaughter wolves.

On the other hand, the 3rd and 4th regiment were light armored cavalry and their main weapon was the Tang blade. They were flexible and could make many changes, randomly moving in and out in the battlefield.

Hence, the tactic that Heiqi and Shao Bu used was to charge together and charge to and fro.

The 5th regiment was in the middle, providing cover fire and attacking from range.

Luo Shixin led his guards unit to sit in the center of the battlefield and didn't choose to attack. The Guards unit was his reserve force to only use when it reached the crucial moment.

The 500 soldiers were the elite chosen from the 4th regiment of the 1st division that Luo Shixin had led. Hence, they had a good understanding of one another.

As the major general, Luo Shixin knew that his role wasn't to slaughter but to make changes to the army based on the situation.

The situation made him frown as it wasn't looking good.

Although the wolf pack had heavy casualties, they seem to be endless. Hence, the cavalry were in a desperate situation and struggled to keep up.

Furthermore, within the four regiments they were fighting for themselves and even competing, making the situation even worse.

Luo Shixin was clear that the 5 colonels were all different, but were also all young and competitive. Thus, they didn't like to lose.

Out of the 5 men, Lin Yi was the most traditional and the one with the most experience. He went from a sergeant all the way to colonel. He had gained much military credits and helped kill many bandits, helping the lord conquer the land.

Luo Shixin was moved to the city north camp and took over Lin Yi, not knowing what he was feeling deep down. Although he was confident, be it skills or leadership, Lin Yi wasn't his match. But he couldn't stop him from having any other thoughts in his heart.

After all, ever since following Ouyang Shuo, Luo Shixin hadn't showed any skill.

Sun Tengjiao was from a refugee camp and followed them to join Shanhai City alongside Ge Hongliang and Xu Zhenchang. The three of them formed a iron triangle and had deep backgrounds.

When he battle started, Sun Tengjiao and been competing against Lin Yi. When he first arrived, he was always below Lin Yi, now both being colonels, how would he not want to prove himself?

Heiqi was a general of the raiders, and after passing an assessment, was finally put to use. Hence, he wanted to prove himself. After all, before surrendering there were more than 1000 men below him.

Shao Bu was a fallen general from the nomadic tribes. The people from the grasslands were competitive, so this was needless to say. Even though he was considered calmer, under the influence of everyone it was hard not to be riled up.

The most stable one was Sun Chuanlin. He was a general from Dali who wasn't happy with bowing down to the rich and famous and left Dali to join Shanhai City.

The tough experience made him cautious and low profile, and he didn't want to compete with others. He only wanted to thank Ouyang Shuo's good grace on the battlefield.

Thinking about this, Luo Shixin's head started to hurt.

Chapter 289- Murderous Surroundings

Luo Shixin was very clear that his first test as major general would be how to unite these 5 young generals by his side.

Probably this division trial would be a good opportunity.

In a blink of an eye, the situation on the battlefield changed.

The 2nd regiment was overconfident and unknowingly they were surrounded by the pack of wolves. As the soldiers were in a squadron as units, the sudden increase in wolves increased the pressure and casualties started to happen.

Luo Shixin waved his flag and ordered the 5th regiment to assist the 2nd regiment in order to save them. When Sun Chuanlin received the order, he ordered his troops to aim and shoot at the wolves on the west side.

The flurry of arrows resulted in heavy casualties for the wolves, allowing Sun Tengjiao to lead his troops to break out. As the second regiment returned back to the camp, they had sustained some casualties.

The medical squadron instantly rushed up to do some simple treatment on the wounded soldiers.

Seeing the actions of the wolves, Luo Shixin was certain that behind them there had to be a leader commanding. If not, it was impossible for them to retreat and advance at such opportune moments and even know tactics like surrounding the enemy.

The key to defeating them would be to find the leader.

Only that when one looked out, it was just a sea of grey and everything looked the same. In his eyes, each wolf looked about the same so how could he recognize which one was the lead wolf?

Luo Shixin started to change his thought process. The leader was a commander, so if he was like it, where would he hide?

With this question, Luo Shixin focused and tracked the movement of the wolf packs.

Hundreds of thousands of wolves surrounded the troops and engaged in a slaughter with the army. In the sky, wolf head after wolf head dropped down like it was raining wolf heads.

Their plan to surround the second regiment had failed, so the wolf pack had a new movement.

Their new target was the 1st regiment.

Similar to the 2nd regiment, the 1st regiment fought in squadrons. Luckily, Lin Yi was more experienced than Sun Tengjiao and didn't dare to advance rashly.

Even so, as the first regiment was heavy armored cavalry, it wasn't good at long battles, and long battles had a heavy burden on the bodies of the war horses. slowly the soldiers started to show signs of fatigue and their attacks slowed.

The wolf pack was really alert and upon sensing the enemy's weakness, they attacked. The other wolves on the three fronts also slowly gathered towards the north.

Luo Shixin laughed coldly, "Finally caught you."

He ordered the 2nd and 4th regiments to cut in from the east and west while the 5th regiment was to remain where they were. Luo Shixin led out his Guards unit and charged towards the north.

The Guards unit were dying for some action, and hearing the major general order them, they were like a group of wild horses that were released, charging relentlessly, killing any wolf in their way.

Luo Shixin led the way. He wanted to show off his skills in front of the generals, using the Bintie overlord spear to its limit. With a sweep, the head of a wolf was broken apart.

The generals were shocked, one must know that the skull was the hardest part of the body and he had just swept out at them.

Luo Shixin's spear technique was amazing, and with his god given strength he was just like an overlord. The other generals were nothing in front of him.

A Luo Shixin that tried hard was really terrifying. The wolf pack upon seeing him strut his stuff, a hundred of them surrounded him. Luo Shixin was unfazed and swept left and right, clearing out half of them.

Even so, the wolf pack was fearless and the next wave charged forwards. It seemed like behind them was something really important that they had to risk their lives to protect.

Seeing such a situation, Luo Shixin was more confident and he resolutely charged forward. The large wolf army couldn't stop him as he used the spear in his hand and burst apart head after head; the scene was very majestic.

Seeing their general being so godly, the soldiers all looked on in awe.

At this point, the morale of the soldiers had reached its highest point. A group of young men with their blood boiling, under the leadership of Luo Shixin, charged out of the encirclement.

Luo Shixin took the lead, and when he killed off the last batch of wolves, what he saw shocked him.

Behind them was the leader who looked exceptionally big, standing there motionlessly. This wolf, apart from being a little bigger, had no other unique points.

What was special was the little white wolf that laid on its head.

The wolf was the size of a cat, its fur was white without a single grey hair. What was special was its eyes, which were exceptionally quick at moving. A normal person's eyes wouldn't be as eye catching as those and filled with so much spirituality.

"Major general, is their commander the little pup?" The major of the Guards unit, Suwang, couldn't believe it.

"Heh, that's right. Think about it, which normal wolf would have eyes like that?" If it were before, Luo Shixin would not believe that there were spiritual beasts. Until he came to Shanhai City and saw the Nian Beasts, the world was filled with mysteries.

"So we kill it?" Suwang couldn't bear to.

"No." Luo Shixin shook his head. "This spiritual beast is very rare. Let's capture it and give it to the marquis. I'm sure 3rd miss would really like it."

"Hehe, major general. When did you start sucking up to the marquis?" Suwang teased.

"Tsk tsk tsk!" Luo Shixin was embarrassed. "Go take it down; if it escapes, you're at fault."

"Yes!" Suwang regained his focus and led the Guards unit to surround the white wolf.

At this moment, the wolf pack went insane and rushed towards the north. Luo Shixin was now sure that the little white wolf was the commander.

Seeing that victory was in their eyes, the generals gave it their all to match up with the sudden frenzy of the wolves.

Suwang although looked like he was joking all the time, but when he worked, he did it diligently and carefully, catching the little white Wolf quickly. The little thing was smart and not strong. It's combat power was similar to that of normal pups.

It was the mount of the little white wolf that died a terrible death in the hands of the Guards.

After being captured, the little wolf wasn't afraid, curiously looking at Luo Shixin and the others.

Luo Shixin picked it up from Suwang and grabbed it by its neck, dangling it in mid-air. "Little guy, I know you can understand me. Ask the wolf pack to retreat and don't make unnecessary sacrifices.

The little brat fixed Luo Shixin with a look, using its claws to scratch its little head before turning around and calling out to the wolf pack, "Ao wu~"

"Puchi!" Luo Shixin tried his best to hold in his laughter.

Such a cute sound was totally different from the position the little fellow held. What was key was its cry wasn't loud so Luo Shixin was worried whether the wolf pack could hear it.

What happened next stunned Luo Shixin and the others.

The wolf pack that had been fighting for their lives instantly stopped, looking toward the direction of the little white wolf before turning around and leaving.

In a moment, the wolf pack left like a flood, disappearing as quickly as it came.

Luo Shixin heaved a sigh of relief; he finally did it. What confused him was that there weren't any notifications, and that the teleportation gate didn't appear.

He didn't dare be careless and ordered the troops to set up defensive positions to wait for the next wave.

As expected, before the 2nd division could react, a huge change happened in the grasslands.

In the east, south, and west, fire started. As the wind blew, the fire started to spread and turned the grassland into a sea of fire.

Such a scene was what the soldiers had never seen before, throwing the forces into an uproar. However, Luo Shixin was calm and ordered the troops to compact their defenses and go towards the north where there wasn't fire.

Just at that moment, from the safest north direction, the rumbling of horses galloping could be heard.

Luo Shixin snickered; he knew that things wouldn't have been so simple. He ordered the troops to not panic and take the chance that the fire hadn't spread to form up properly.

In a short while, a black line from the north appeared. It was tens of thousands of grassland cavalry. Then cavalry followed the sound of whistles and surrounded the warriors of the 2nd division.

Luo Shixin laughed coldly. The 2nd division had no way out, and if they wanted to live, they had to break through.

He placed the 1st and 2nd regiments as the main force, the 3rd and 4th as the two wings, and the 5th regiment at the front line. Once they finished reorganizing, they instantly charged forward.

"Kill!" Once again Luo Shixin led the soldiers of the Guards unit and charged in front.

The rumbling of horse hooves exploded in the grasslands like a shocking tsunami.

The two groups of cavalry under the encampment of the fire had no choice but to give it their all.

The first to contact the enemy was the 5th regiment. Both sides had an archery battle. Compared to the grassland cavalry, the 5th regiment was weaker. Luckily, they had prepared crossbow machines.

The crossbow machine that the Bow and Crossbow Division had designed for the cavalry was light, fast, and easy to load. What it sacrificed was the range. Even so, the crossbow machine had a longer range than a bow.

The arrow rain met in mid air; both sides wanted to kill their enemy.

Luo Shixin's decisiveness to make the 2nd division take the initiative was what the grassland cavalry didn't expect, hence, they couldn't react in time.

Chapter 290- Back Against the Wall

Braving the arrow rain, Luo Shixin led the guards unit and led the charge into the enemy formation.

If one compared the grassland cavalry to wolves, then Luo Shixin was a lion, casually killing amongst the wolf pack. No one was a match for his spear.

His strength caused all the grassland cavalry to shiver in fear.

However they weren't beginners, and how could they allow such a small group to do what they wanted? Thus, they reorganized the army to surround the guards unit.

The soldiers of the unit weren't as strong as Luo Shixin, and instantly entered a tough battle.

Not only that, the grassland cavalry held the numerical advantage. In the battle of archery, they controlled the 5th regiment. Even the 3rd and 4th regiments which were at the wings were hurt by the arrow rain.

However, things changed quickly.

Just as the 5th regiment rushed in front and separated to the two sides, the 3rd and 4th regiments also followed behind and attacked the wings of the enemy.

The spreading out of the 5th regiment allowed the real main characters to enter.

The 1st and 2nd regiment grouped up and charged together. They grabbed their horse lances and with an unprecedented aura, galloped on.

For the invincible heavy armoured cavalry under the sun, their Mingguang armor reflected the golden light. They were like soldiers from heaven.

Facing such elite troops, the grassland cavalry had finally reached a point where their equipment was weaker.

The arrow rain, upon hitting the armor, just slipped off and did no damage. Five thousand heavy armored cavalry charged forwards right into their formation from start to finish, opening a bloody path.

In a moment, the grassland cavalry formation was in chaos and couldn't block the 2nd division. The various regiments also didn't care much about fighting and made escaping the encampment their main goal.

The grassland cavalry could only look on as the 2nd regiment broke through and gather behind them.

The battle had been overturned.

Just as both sides were fighting neck and neck, the fire had spread, and it was like a fire dragon, heading toward the grassland cavalry in the north.

The thick smoke covered the entire battlefield.

"Major General, do we have to block them? Let them burn to death." Sun Tengjiao suggested.

"No." Luo Shixin instantly rejected the idea. "Blocking them will not only will make them give their all, they will have the exact same mentality that we had. If all goes wrong, both sides will have heavy casualties."

"Then what should we do? We can't just let them out, right?" Sun Tengjiao was unsatisfied.

"They want to leave? Not that easy." Luo Shixin laughed coldly. "Organize the troops to leave a path in the middle, such that they can only leave from there. We will kill them from the sides."

"That's a great idea!" The generals were delighted.

Luo Shixin's plan not only gave them hope and made them not have the determination to risk everything; they could effectively kill them, killing two birds with one stone.

Lin Yi looked at Luo Shixin, his eyes had a complicated look to it. In this battle, Luo Shixin had used his personal strength and leadership to earn everyone's respect.

This time, he had made Lin Yi accept his defeat.

Maybe Luo Shixin noticed Lin Yi's expression, maybe he didn't. He didn't have the slightest of reactions as he continued to reorganize the troops to give the grassland cavalry a surprise.

Even ants wanted to live, much less humans.

Seeing the fire spreading to their sides, the grassland cavalry were already ready to risk it all, who would have thought that the enemy would leave a path? Although they knew that the enemy was scheming, under life threatening circumstances, they couldn't think well and rushed down the path in order to survive.

That path was the path to life but also the path to death.

Not talking about the 2nd division which was continuously shooting arrows, the grassland cavalry were fighting within themselves to try to escape. With the tens of thousands of men fighting for that road to survival, the scene was very gruesome and intense.

When they passed halfway through, Luo Shixin raised his flag. Instantly the 1st and 2nd regiments closed the path shut and blocked their way out, wanting to burn them alive.

The arrow rain formed a line of death where any one who dared to cross it would be killed instantly. There were one or two lucky ones who were able to rush to the front of the 2nd division, but they didn't make much of a difference.

The huge fire didn't care about their screams as it spread around with determination. The cavalry that were trapped were either shot by the archers in front or burned by the fire from behind.

Those who managed to escape had wanted to save them, but why would Luo Shixin give them the chance. The 3rd and 4th regiments had rushed across. If they were able to save their own lives, they should feel happy already.

After wiping out the half of the cavalry that were blocked, just as Luo Shixin wanted to chase the victory and kill the other half, a notification sounded out. "Division trial has ended, trial passed!"

Along with the words, the fire in the grasslands stopped, and even the corpses of the grassland cavalry disappeared. At the same time, the soldiers of the 2nd division who died were also revived.

The miraculous scene was like a dream. Only the little white wolf that laid in Luo Shixin's hands was proof that everything that happened was real.

In this battle, the 2nd division paid a price of 2000 men and passed the trial.

A teleportation gate appeared in the grasslands.

"Go, let's return!" Luo Shixin ordered the troops to leave while he was the last to go through.

The massacre in the grassland took less than half an hour in the main map. Just as the 2nd division teleported back, Ouyang Shuo who was waiting heard a system notification.

"System notification: Congratulations Player Qiyue Wuyi, Shanhai City 2nd division successfully passed the division trial. Rewarded one army flag, one commander flag. Player, please take a look!"

A white light shone across and two flags appeared in his hand.

Gaia was amazing; the design of the army flag was based on the flag that Ouyang Shuo designed for the vanguard unit: the blue was split into two by gold, above the blue was a volcano, in front of which was a Tang blade and horse lance, which were crossed.

As for the commander flag, it was a smaller version of the picture on the upper lefthand corner, and the middle of the flag had a red background with a large ‘Luo’ on it.

The design of the commander flag meant that they had passed the trial, and not only could they not change the soldiers, they also couldn't change the commander or the trial would be invalid.

As the division specialty was given through the flag, without it the speciality would not be active.

[Army Flag] (2nd Division): After gearing up, raise troops morale by 50%

[Commander Flag] (2nd Division): After gearing up, raise troops combat power by 20%.

The specialties of the army flag were all the same while one of the commander flag depended on the general.

Taking the opportunity, Ouyang Shuo held a flag ceremony to hand over the two flags over to Luo Shixin.

From today onward, these 2 flags would represent the honor of the 2nd division.

There was a flagbearer assigned where he was in charge of carrying the flag.

At this point, out of the 4 upgrade quests, Shanhai City had already finished 3 and was left with the 1st quest. As long as Ouyang Shuo wanted to, he could make Shanhai City upgrade to a grade 1 prefecture.

Of course he wasn't satisfied. Anyways, in the game he was the only lord which was Marquis rank, so no one would be able to compete with him.

Maybe things would change for the better.

After presenting the flags, Luo Shixin gave the little white wolf to Ouyang Shuo.

"What's this?" Upon receiving it, Ouyang Shuo asked doubtfully.

Luo Shixin gave a simply description of the battle. "This little white wolf is special, so I brought it to give to you."

Ouyang Shuo nodded and laughed. "You are too kind!" He took a look at its stats.

Name: White Wolf (Spirit Beast)

Level: ---

Skill: Telepathy (Can communicate with all wolf types), Charm (can use its appearance to charm the enemy)

Combat Power: ---

Evaluation: In legends, white wolves were the royalty amongst wolves, they were the descendants of the wolf god and as such have a high position and prestige, the ruler of all wolves.

It's called the leader of all wolves? This little fellow has a huge background.

What was more weird was that its level and combat power were both unknown, probably because it was still in its infancy.

Ouyang Shuo didn't hesitate and used the wild animal taming skill on it. After failing a few times, he barely succeeded.

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for taming White Wolf, awarded reputation points 500!"

As expected, it didn't become a territory protector beast like the Nian Beasts. This meant that it was a little weaker than them. After all, the Nian Beasts did have the bloodline of the Qilin.

After everything was settled, Ouyang Shuo brought White Wolf and returned to Shanhai City.

Xianyang, Shanhai County office.

On this day, outside the office stood a father and daughter pair. The father was over 50 years old, and his aura meant that he was a high official. The girl wasn't young and was a middle-aged woman, looking very elegant.

"Father, is this the place?"

"That's right!"

"That's great!" The lady was delighted; her happiness was indescribable.

Chapter 291- World's First Prefecture

On the same day, a system notification sounded around the earth.

"World Notification: Congratulations American region player Jake Dawson for becoming the 2nd Marquis ranked lord, awarded the title of Free Lord, awarded reputation points 15 thousand points, the imperial city you are in will give you your specific rewards."

After Ouyang Shuo, the world finally had a second lord that ranked up to Marquis. This meant that the battle for the first prefecture wasn't going to be a solo by Ouyang Shuo.

Shanhai City not upgrading to date gave Jake Dawson and his Free City a chance.

If he didn't care about the degree of completion and upgraded with 2 quests, he could possibly get ahead of Shanhai City and become the ‘World's First Prefecture’.

Ouyang Shuo wasn't sure whether or not Jake Dawson would not care about anything and just go for the glory. After all, during the city grade, he lost the opportunity from a winning position hence he would be more rash and wouldn't want to lose again.

Ouyang Shuo hogging the world’s first position had made the western lords unhappy, and they wanted to regain it and not let Ouyang Shuo's east be a one man show.

If Jake Dawson was able to take the World’s First Prefecture, all their dark clouds would fade away.

In a moment, Ouyang Shuo was conflicted between two choices.

Should he chase for perfection or solidify his position of being the world's first.

Towards this point, the Shanhai Alliance was also split.

Gong Chengshi, Wufu and Songwen all supported keeping the glory, as this could would raise the prestige of the Shanhai Alliance in both China and the world.

Most importantly was that both the world's first town and city were taken by Ouyang Shuo. If he didn't become the first prefecture, rumours and arguments would start.

The world was like this. When you claimed glory for your country, they would worship you and praise you; the moment you lose that honor they would criticize you and drown you.

Song Wen and the others, although their views had a little selfishness in it, they had logic.

Bai Hua, Feng Qiuhuang and Xunlong Dianxue supported completing all the quests as honor was fake. Getting the rewards was what really mattered, and that was the smarter choice.

After all, Shanhai City had already shocked the world and getting another world's first wouldn't make much of a difference.

Both of them debated back and forth, making Ouyang Shuo even more conflicted.

Honestly speaking, Ouyang Shuo wanted to achieve the triple crown. But rationally, he agreed with Bai Hua.

In the last life, he hadn't heard of any lords completing all four quests and achieving a 100% completion rate. Thinking back to the village creation quest at the start, the rewards were amazing; it even had a chance of being a unique reward.

The only thing was that the recruiting of historical people quest had too many uncertainties.

Ouyang Shuo firmly believed that with the specialty and fame of the territory, and being the background of the philosopher debate, they could definitely attract historical people.

The key being time.

Ouyang Shuo made the choice to ignore Jake Dawson and complete his own quest. Just as he was about to give up on the glory, the system pulled another joke on him.

On Gaia First year 12th month 5th day, two days after Jake Dawson was given the title of Free Lord, Wei Ran and his daughter Wei Lan arrived in Shanhai City.

Who was Wei Ran? A senior statesman for the Qin, given a position four times, the father-in-law of Baiqi. Hearing that Baiqi had come to Shanhai City, they specially came over. He wanted to become famous in Shanhai City and also wanted to help reunite his daughter and Baiqi.

Historical people under the support of Gaia, each had their own message system. If not, the players all having their territories in the wilderness, without correct intel, how could these historical people choose where to live?

The fame of the territory showed its magic in this system. The more famous the territory, the faster the news could spread to the ears of the historical personnel.

Wei Ran was a person with power, and after the Battle of Changping, he was added to the game. He had been going around getting news and getting ready to choose a good place to call home.

Hearing that Baiqi was well treated and given power in Shanhai City, Wei Ran decided to move here. Taking into account his daughter, there was no reason for him not to.

Name: Wei Ran (King rank)

Title: Rang Lord

Dynasty: Warring States (Qin)

Identity: Shanhai City civil servant

Occupation: Civil Servant

Loyalty: 75 points

Command: 50

Force: 48

Intelligence: 72

Politics: 75

Specialty: Well-rounded (Raise territory order by 25%), Keen eye (raise talent scouting of territory by 10%), Evaluate the situation (Raise efficiency by 15%)

Evaluation: The Rang Lord is intelligent and highly adaptable. He worked for the Queen Mother while supporting the King. Given four official positions and helped to block up Xinjiang. Helped in the destruction of the Chu and the Wei.

Wei Ran's arrival delighted Ouyang Shuo, sweeping up the gloominess.

The scene in which Baiqi and Wei Lan reunited wasn't as emotional as one expected. Baiqi was quite cold blooded, and even though he had reunited with his wife, he didn't lose his usual calm.

But upon careful inspection, one could notice a thread of warmth in Baiqi's eyes.

Under the arrangement by Zisu, Wei Ran moved into the official residence area and lived right next to Baiqi. As for his position, he wanted to wait till the territory upgraded before arranging it.

Also, there were 3-4 good talents from the Mazu Temple induced migration wave who were under the orders of Ouyang Shuo. The Administration Department gave them specific jobs.

After dealing with everything, Ouyang Shuo rushed to the meeting hall to upgrade the territory.

As Ouyang Shuo opened the territory interface and clicked on upgrade, a system notification sounded out in his ear.

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, completed all 4 quests. Will you upgrade?"

"Yes!"

The territory stone steele rose up from the ground, and a golden light shot up, bursting apart in mid air. The golden lustre spread out in all directions before disappearing.

"System notifications: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for upgrading to grade 1 prefecture. City grade manor will automatically upgrade to prefecture grade!"

At the prefecture grade, there weren't any basic building that could be provided by the system.

Following which was a flurry of system notifications.

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for being the first lord in the Chinese region to upgrade to grade 1 prefecture, rewarded 4400 merit points!"

……

The merit point reward was double that of the city stage. To Ouyang Shuo's rank, however, it was just a small bonus.

As the notification went out, the Chinese region flew into an uproar, as all players were witnessing another glorious moment.

As expected, shortly after the system notification, a global notification sounded.

"World notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for becoming the first lord to upgrade to grade 1 prefecture, rewarded 8000 merit points, 10 thousand reputation points, and given the title of World's First Prefecture.

……

"World notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for completing all four quests and achieving a 100% completion rate. Rewarded special building- collection house!"

……

At this point, Ouyang Shuo had managed to obtain his triple crown and had became the undisputed overlord.

As the world notification went out, the world was silent.

The western world was dead silent; Ouyang Shuo's strength made them breathless. No one cared about the secret building and all their eyes were on his triple crown.

Jake Dawson sent on the global channel, "Qiyue Wuyi, congratulations!" To be able to become a lord, even if one lost, one must have the tolerance to concede defeat.

"Thank you!" Ouyang Shuo replied.

Settling all the random stuff, Ouyang Shuo finally had time to take a look at the stats.

【Territory】: Shanhai Territory

【Lord】: Lianzhou Lord Qiyue Wuyi (2nd class Marquis )

【Title】: The World’s First Prefecture (Increase town fame by 50%)

【Title】: Home of martial arts (Raise residents' body capabilities by 20%)

【Governed Area 】: Shanhai city (grade 1 prefecture)

【Population】: 100 thousand/ 500 thousand

【Refugee Spawn Rate】: 500 * (1 + 50%) = 750 / day

【Territory area】: 50000 square kilometers

【Territory Specialty】:

+50% Refugee attraction rate, +25% Special talented people attraction rate, +50% Crop production rate, +25% Productivity of workers, +20% Experience earned by troops, +10% Chances of talented people in the territory to advance a level

【Political】: 75/100 (Affecting the administrative efficiency and morale)

【Economic】: 68/100 (Affecting the trading prosperity and tax)

【Cultural】: 70/100 (Affecting the education development and quality of residents)

【Military】: 78/100 (Affecting the military strength and stability)

【Affliate Counties】: Beihai City, Qiushui City, Friendship City...

【Finanical Institutions】: Four Seas Bank

【Territory Chamber of Commerce 】: Cui Chamber of Commerce, Quanji Chamber of Commerce

【Territory Specialties】: Lianzhou three flower wine, colored silk, white tea

【Special Building】: Collection House

【Hidden Building】: Mazu Temple, Recruitment Hall, Yellow Emperor Temple

Basic buildings list:

Wengcheng: the main defensive facility of a city, building a semi-circle small city to guard the gate. Building requirements: 50 thousand units of green bricks, 10 thousand units of stones. Building time: 20 days.

Painting Academy: A place that's in charge of painting, in charge of evaluating as well as developing painters and paintings. Building requirements: advanced painter, painting academy building blueprints, 10 thousand units of wood, 10 thousand units of green bricks, 8000 units of stones. Building time: 15 days.

Distribution Center: The region were resources and goods are gathered and distributed from. Building requirements: 20 thousand units of wood, 40 thousand units of green brick, 20 thousand units of stone. Building time: 15 days.

Compared to the city grade, the prefecture grade territory interface had some changes.

Firstly, the separation of the territory and the governed area was no longer discussed together. This would make the governing of the prefecture more complicated as more emphasis would be placed on the affiliate territories.

The governance area was the city where the Lord's Manor was situated.

With Shanhai territory as an example, apart from Shanhai City, it had 8 affiliate counties. Adding this together was far larger than the scale of Shanhai City. Hence, it wouldn't be suitable if one used Shanhai City to describe the land.

As the territory continued to expand, this would become more and more obvious.

Secondly, adding affiliate cities, financial institutions, as well as territory Chamber of Commerces into the stats page, which meant that the managing of the territory had reached a new level.

A grade 1 prefecture population upper limit was 5 times that of before, and now reached 500 thousand. Even with the strength of the territory specialty, to reach the upper limit needed 1.5 years.

What did this mean? This meant that for the territory to develop, he needed to steal from others.

Hence that was the reason why Ouyang Shuo tried to raise ‘poisonous insects’, such that the Lianzhou Basin could have enough of a population to upgrade.

As the population limit increased, there was also the territory area, and now it took up nearly 1/5 of the Lianzhou Basin. This meant that Yongye City, Guangshui City, Yishui City and Gushan City were now part of the area.

After becoming a prefecture, the basic building numbers had dropped and now just numbere three. Out of the three buildings, the Wengcheng was an essential facility for the outer wall.

The Painting Academy was simple. It was like the chess courtyard, and could be directly built inside Xinan University. The only requirement would be that you needed to spend 2000 gold to buy a blueprint.

Of course, one also needed an advanced painter. This was easy, as out of the migrants from Quanzhou, there was already a painter.

The last building, the Distribution Center, represented Shanhai City as a self-sufficient city, radiating toward the surrounding counties.

Lastly was the system reward. The collection house.

Ouyang Shuo built it in the inner portions of Xinan University to be the library of the university. As for its stats, Ouyang Shuo didn't have time to take a look.

No matter what, for it to be taken out as a reward by the system meant that it wasn't simple.

Chapter 292- Prefecture System

As the territory upgraded, the Lianzhou Lord's Manor also underwent a huge change.

The Lord's Manor was now 5 times larger and had the real feel of a Lord's Manor. The courtyard group, which was now 5 times larger, had a main gate, side door, covering walls, festooned doors were plenty, veranda, stone path, hallways etc, backseat room, side rooms, wing-room, lateral courts, etc.

As the size increased, the number of courtyards increased, making Ouyang Shuo a little dizzy.

With the festooned door as the divider, the Lianzhou Lord manor was separated into inner and outer. The outer region had the main hall, culture hall and martial hall as the core. Their functions were the same as the previous courtyard.

Ouyang Shuo specially built a beautiful courtyard in the outer region as his reading room which would act as his future office, so he didn't need to squeeze in with the directors and secretaries.

In the inner region, apart from living quarters, there was a special drill ground for him to train his martial arts.

In the martial hall, apart from the Guards regiment, there was a small courtyard to act as Baiqi's office. As the overall general, if Baiqi wasn't in the barracks, he would be dealing with military affairs.

After upgrading, the function of the Lord's Manor was overall becoming more and more perfect.

After upgrading, the territory was going to have a whole new military and administrative revolution.

Military-wise, with the appointment of Baiqi as well as the building of the 3 divisions, there wouldn't be huge changes in a short time. At most it, would be the creation of city protection regiment as well as the special forces.

The key would be the administrative reorganization.

That afternoon, Ouyang Shuo invited Fan Zhongyan, Tian Wenjing and Cui Yingyu for a meeting.

The meeting location was in Ouyang Shuo's meeting room. The secretary Bai Nanpu brought the three directors tea before leaving the reading room and waiting outside. He knew that this meeting was unusual.

What made Bai Nanpu uncertain was that out of the 5 directors, Ge Hongliang and Chang Shen Zhui weren't invited. If one said that Ge Hongliang was only part of military affairs, and as such wasn't invited, then why wasn't Shen Zhui invited?

Was he going to be shut out? Bai Nanpu had a shiver down his spine and didn't dare to think about it.

What Ouyang Shuo didn't know was that his actions had many interpretations by the secretaries. Even if he knew, he wouldn't have the time and energy to bother about it. What he cared about was the administrative system.

"About the current administrative system, say your thoughts!"

Fan Zhongyan had made all his mental preparations. They knew that every time the territory had upgraded a tier, the lord would make huge changes. The only difference was that he didn't throw out his plan and wanted to hear their thoughts.

The Marquis wanted them to speak, hence they had to say their thoughts. They also must make sense. If not, how would it be fitting of their position?

Fan Zhongyan took the lead. "I feel that reorganizing the administrative structure, we need to separate the Lianzhou Lord’s Manor from Shanhai City. Hence, it will emphasize the prestige of the Lianzhou lord, and made the subordinate-boss relationship clear."

Before, Shanhai City and the Lianzhou Lord's Manor were part of the same body. After upgrading, Shanhai City was only the governed area, so it wasn't right to mix the two up.

"If we separate Lianzhou Lord's Manor from Shanhai City, what will the relationship be between Shanhai City and the subsidiary territories?" Ouyang Shuo didn't agree or disagree, just throwing out a question.

"Since we want to separate, we must separate completely. The thing about the subsidiary territories must also be changed. I suggest that we have 3 systems: the prefecture, Lord's Manor, and the city to make clear the relationships."

Ouyang Shuo eyes brightened as he said eagerly, "Please be more specific!"

"The entire Shanhai Territory can be considered a prefecture, so we should temporarily call it Shanhai Prefecture. The Lianzhou Lord's Manor controls the power over the military and administrations of Shanhai Prefecture. In the west, with Tianfeng City as the center, set up the Tianfeng House. It would be in charge of Tianfeng, Yongye, and Guangshui City. In the middle with Shanhai City as the center, we could set up the Shanhai House or Jingzhao House, being in charge of Shanhai City, Qiushui City and Friendship City. In the east, Yishui and Gushan could set up a house temporarily."

"What about Beihai City?" Yingyu asked.

"Beihai City is located outside of the Lianzhou Basin, and its geography is special so we can give it its own House."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. "I largely agree with Xiwen's plan, but I have three points to improve on. Firstly, the next strategic movement of the territory would be to take over the entire Lianzhou Basin. Hence when we reorganize, we must use the entire Lianzhou Basin as the blueprint and make the whole basin the Lianzhou Prefecture. Secondly, although Tianfeng City will be where the Tianfeng House is built, it should be called Tianfeng City to standardize everything. Thirdly, a prefecture shouldn't have so many houses. Four is the most suitable. The future Lianzhou Basin will set up 5 in four directions and the center. Hence, Beihai County can be renamed as Beihai City, and currently under the jurisdiction of the Lianzhou Lords manor, they won't have their own house.

"Marquis is a genius! As for the name of Shanhai House, what will you name it?"

"Just name it Shanhai House!" Ouyang Shuo wasn't aiming too far.

"Yes, my lord."

After Fan Zhongyan finished, Tian Wenjing stood up. "Regarding the Shanhai House, I have an idea."

"Oh?" Ouyang Shuo knew that Tian Wenjing rarely spoke, but the moment he did meant that he had a great idea.

"Shanhai City, Qiushui City and Friendship City all defend the south of the Lianzhou Basin and are all very close to one another. Also, with the bridge joining the three of them, instead of calling them three cities, why not consider them one giant city? Hence I suggest to get rid of Qiushui City and Friendship City and combine all three, calling it Shanhai City. With this mega city, only then could it fit the bill of being the main city of our territory." Tian Wenjing's idea was expectedly shocking.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Tian Wenjing's idea was similar to what he thought of when he planned the two subsidiary territories. Only this giant city could be good enough to act as the capital of the country that they were building.

"Good, we will follow your idea."

The three of them worked together and basically solved the organization problems of the territory. What was left was naturally handled by the Administration Department.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it and felt that it wasn't enough. "Apart from reorganizing the prefecture, we must also reorganize the Lianzhou Lord's Manor."

Fan Zhongyan and Tian Wenjing exchanged glances, a shiver running down their spine. They immediately linked this issue to the reason why Shenzhui wasn't present.

As expected, Ouyang Shuo was about to get rid of the Material Reserve Department. “After upgrading to a prefecture, there isn't a need for the Material Reserves Department to exist. I have decided to disband the department. The Saltpan Division as well as Beimu Saltpans will be now under Beihai City, and a portion of their profits will be given to the Financial Department. As for the Resource Division and Transport Division, we will have other plans for them."

Ouyang Shuo being able to let go of his highest profit making tool, the Beimu Saltpans, showed his confidence. The times, when it single handedly supported the finances of the territory were long gone.

"The Resource Division will be disbanded, the logging camp and quarry will be under their respective location Houses, the mines will be under the Combat Logistics Division; the granary and Langshan Mine fields will be under the Industry Division. The other resources will be left to the merchants, and we won't bother about them."

"The transport division is disbanded. The Jifeng Horse Stables will now be under the Combat Logistics Division; the transport line and harbor will be under the Industry Division, only this time we will allow investments by merchants."

Ouyang Shuo's arrangement not only simplified the structure but also relaxed the control of the territory on its economy, increasing room for investment.

The Hequanji Chamber of Commerce and Cui Chamber of Commerce entering was a good opportunity.

At this point, the territory had the Administration Department, Internal Affairs Department, and Financial Department as its core. The Financial Department had been strengthened in this round of reorganization.

After settling the organizational structure, what was next was the appointments of key personnel.

The prefect of Shanhai House was already decided by Ouyang Shuo to be Wei Ran; there was nothing to be discussed about that. What needed to be planned was where Zhao Dexian and Zhou Haichen were going.

The prefect of Tianfeng House was a hot topic. The current City Magistrate Zhao Dewang would definitely not be able to handle it, so he needed to choose another talent.

There was also the appointments of Shen Zhui and the others after the disbanding of the Material Reserves Department.

"For the prefect of Tianfeng House, whom do you all suggest?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

Fan Zhongyan and the rest looked at one another. Such an appointment was very sensitive, and they didn't want to join in.

"Just say it. Say anything!" Ouyang Shuo wasn't going to let them off.

"What about Shen Zhui?" Tian Wenjing tested the waters, Shen Zhui could be considered half a disciple, and since he was relieved of his duties, he wanted to find a good job for him.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. "Shen Zhui still needs some training, I'll let him become the City Magistrate of Yongye City!" Although Ouyang Shuo had high hopes for Shenzhui, he didn't want to stunt his growth.

Fan Zhongyan looked at Yingyu. "I suggest Yishui City’s City Magistrate Cui Shousi." Fan Zhongyan's suggestion was quite interesting. Everyone knew that he was Cui Yingyu's brother.

If this plan was accepted, the Cui family’s brother and sister would both be at high positions, and together with the branch of the Cui Chamber of Commerce, the Cui Family would have a lot of influence in the territory.

The meaning within was really special.

Cui Yingyu looked up, remaining motionless.

Ouyang Shuo laughed, seemingly not noticing the mystery within. "City Magistrate Cui has been doing well. It's quite suitable for him to become the prefect of the Tianfeng House; it's settled!"

"Yes, my lord!"

Hence, everything was set and what was left were the remaining personnel and official arrangements.

Chapter 293- Jiang Shang Comes Out

The next day, the Lianzhou Lord's Manor sent out an official document to announce the related personnel changes.

Wei Ran was appointed the Shanhai House prefect and in charge of the central region; Cui Shousi was in charge of the Tianfeng House, guarding the western region; Gu Xiuwen was now the Beihai City city protector, in charge of the sea around it.

The promotion of Cui Shousi shocked the Cui Family. The homebred officials were paid more attention to than Wei Ran and Baiqi. This set of father and son-in-law duo would have huge influence in the military and administrative matters of the territory.

The original Material Reserves Department director Shen Zhui was moved to become the Yongye City’s City Magistrate, the current Qiushui City magistrate Zhao Dexian was appointed Guangshui City City Magistrate and the original Friendship City’s city magistrate Zhou Haichen was now the Yishui City’s city magistrate.

Out of the three cities, Yishui City had the most potential as it had used the token. Cui Shousi's promotion was living proof. Added to the fact that it was guarding the east, it was a crucial strategic point.

Hence, out of the 3 city magistrates, Zhou Haichen had the brightest future. During the time when he was Friendship City’s city magistrate, he had faced many threats from the nomads as such his sense for danger was very strong. This was one of the reasons Ouyang Shuo chose him, and the other being that he had underwent a proper education. His future was limitless.

In the old Material Reserves Department, the Resource Division Secretary Du Xiaolan was appointed the Industry Division Secretary; the Transport Division Secretary Zheng Shanpao was now the manager of the Jifeng Valley Horse stables; the deputy director of the department, Yuan Shaoping, would now only be the manager of the Langshan Minefields.

Zheng Shanpao and Yuan Shaoping were two officials who got promoted based on their talents and skills in a specific area. Hence, it was difficult for them to climb any higher. For them to focus on their specific field was putting their talent to good use.

As for Du Xiaolan's appointment, administration director Fan Zhongyan had a few qualms.

Du Xiaolan and the Taxation Division Secretary Qian Lifei were both Cui Yingyu's students, and if both of them worked in the Financial Department, they would be suggestions of foul play, so Fan Zhongyan opposed it.

Ouyang Shuo believed that Cui Yingyu knew what was right and wrong, and hence opposed his suggestion.

On the morning of the 6th day of the 12th month, Ouyang Shuo summoned Shanhai House prefect Cui Ran to discuss the town hall. As it affected the power segregation between the Lianzhou lord manor and Shanhai House, Fan Zhongyan and the other 2 directors joined too.

The merged Shanhai City now had three regions, the Shanhai region, the Qiushui region and the Friendship region.

Shanhai House town hall would be set up in the Shanhai region, which was the main region of Shanhai City. The administrative system which were left in the original Qiushui City and Friendship City would be changed into a region-grade administrative system, the same as a city-grade system.

After setting up the Shanhai House, some responsibilities and power belonging to the Lianzhou Lord's Manor had to be put down.

Firstly would be the authority over the buildings in Shanhai City. The overall planning of Shanhai City would be handed over to the Construction Division; for the specific plans and buildings, Shanhai House would be in charge.

Secondly, the authority over the culture and education of Shanhai City. Xinan University and Yellow Emperor Temple would be under the direct jurisdiction of the Lianzhou Lord's Manor; the private school, school, and temple would all be under Shanhai House.

Thirdly, the authority over the migrants would be under Shanhai House. The respective welfare would be borne by the finances of Shanhai House; the Household Registration Division would be in charge of tabulating the population numbers and details.

Fourthly, the law and order of Shanhai City. The Guards in the core region of Shanhai region would be from the Guards regiment; the outer defences would be by the City Protection Division; the order in the city would be under the Law and Order Division; Shanhai House would be in charge of the remaining areas.

Fifth, the tax in Shanhai City. The tax earned by Shanhai City would be given to Shanhai House, and they would turn over a certain portion of it. The industries under the Financial Department would still remain under the jurisdiction of the Industry Division.

What followed next was a series of personnel changes.

As the Lianzhou Lord's Manor placed down a lot of authority, as such a portion of the administrative workers and officials would be sent to Shanhai House to improve its organizational structure. The migrants from Quanzhou were pretty much all sent over to Shanhai House.

Ouyang Shuo didn't ask about the specific personnel arrangements, which would be decided by the 3 directors and the prefect. With Wei Ran's ability, Ouyang Shuo was sure that he could settle the situations quickly.

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo went toward Xinan University to check out the system reward collection house. It was near the moon lake, and not far from it was the newly-built Philosopher Forum Courtyard.

Name: Collection House

Type: Special building

Function: Read old books and manuals, all of which can be found here.

Specialty: Increase territory culture index by 15%

Description: This was a specific building to collect books, it has all the old books and manuals from people to read and check out.

Something dawned on Ouyang Shuo. Wasn't this the same as the modern day university library? It was also the best library in the whole Chinese region with all the books and old manuals.

Its value couldn't be measured.

With Ouyang Shuo's understanding of the game, the books inside the collection house were probably all the secret manuals and books that Gaia found while it was searching for information.

It wasn't hard to imagine how much attraction the book collection house would be to philosophers, and it would be an important way to improve the education levels of Xinan University.

The next step would be to choose a landlord.

Ouyang Shuo immediately thought of one guy who would be the most suitable, which was Jiang Shang living on Fallen Star Island. Ever since he visited Jiang Shang the first time, Ouyang Shuo had never been to Fallen Star Island.

Even so, Jiang Shang's every move was under Ouyang Shuo's control.

The servant that Jiang Shang sent to serve him, apart from caring for his daily life, was to act as eyes and ears and report back whatever he said to Bai Nanpu. After Bai Nanpu organized it, he sent it out in a letter format to Ouyang Shuo.

After living in hiding on Fallen Star Island, Jiang Shang hadn't taken a step out of the island. He would either be fishing by the lake or reading on the rocks.

As the book collection in the territory was limited, Ouyang Shuo could only take out the books and the secret manuals from his reading room and give them to Jiang Shang. After all, the number of books was limited, and Jiang Shang had already read numerous books before.

Ouyang Shuo was confident that Jiang Shang wouldn't be able to resist the temptation of the book collection house.

Coming onto the Fallen Star Island again, Ouyang Shuo was feeling totally different.

He had lost hope of asking Jiangsheng to become an official in Shanhai territory. As long as he was willing to make use of his influence to recruit talents in Shanhai Territory, it would be good.

That's right, Ouyang Shuo considered Jiang Shang as bait.

Jiang Shang was sitting on the rock and reading. Upon seeing Ouyang Shuo, he wasn't as cold as last time and said, "Why did the Marquis come here?"

"Do you know that the Moon Lake has a book collection house?" Ouyang Shuo didn't beat around the bush as he knew that when talking to such smart people, other than saying what he wanted to say, the rest of the conversation was just fake.

"Book collection house?" Jiang Shang didn't step foot outside Fallen Star Island, so obviously he wouldn't know.

"That's right, it’s a building that has all the books and manuals in history."

"Are you bluffing me?" Jiang Shang didn't believe him.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. "I wouldn't dare to. You can take a look yourself."

A tinge of excitement flashed across his eyes, followed by a flash of doubt. "Your tricks can't bluff me off of Fallen Star Island. In this world, how can there be such a building?"

"You don't need to test me. I didn’t come here to ask you to take up a position. I just want you to be the landlord of the building."

The temptations of the books were enormous.

Jiang Shang was ready to take the risk. "Okay, I'll believe you and follow you up. If it's really as you said, I will be willing to be the landlord."

Ouyang Shuo nodded.

Jiang Shang didn't even pack anything, following closely behind Ouyang Shuo and onto the raft.

Arriving at the book collection house, Jiang Shang started to believe. When he saw the amount of scriptures, he was captivated.

"How's the collection here?"

"It's huge!" Jiang Shang muttered. "Marquis don't worry, I won't go against my words."

Ouyang Shuo nodded and left on his own.

From today onwards the book collection house would have a mysterious old man with a terrifying background.

Walking out from the book collection house, Ouyang Shuo arrived at the Architectural College.

On the way there, he bumped into Sun Xiaoyue.

"Ouyang, when did you have time to come here?" Sun Xiaoyue teased, her eyes flashed a little bit of excitement and emotion.

Ever since she came here, Ouyang Shuo was either at battle or touring around. A large portion of his time was in the Lord's Manor and discussing matters.

"I'm here to take a look and walk around!"

"Wow my lord, you're so free to walk around. Just say, maybe I am able to help you with it." Sun Xiaoyue was speechless at the man in front of her.

Ouyang Shuo's skin was very thick as he talked as if nothing had happened. "Is old Li here? I've something to ask him about."

"Is it about the Shanhai City planning?"

"Smart!"

"Well of course! Let's go, I'll bring you there!" She turned around, Ouyang Shuo following behind her back.

"Actually regarding that, the college had started preliminary designs; we just aren't sure if it's similar to what you planned." On the way, Sun Xiaoyue started to talk about the city planning.

Ouyang Shuo nodded.

At the office of Old Li, Ouyang Shuo met him and described the plan about combining the 3 regions and forming Shanhai City.

"Wow, it seems like we need to redo the planning!"

"Thank you for your help Old Li!" Ouyang Shuo was a bit embarrassed and ashamed.

"Aiyo, to be able to be a part of such huge design is my good fortune." Old Li was very emotional and was very motivated to complete this.

"Then I can't wait to see what you produce!"

Chapter 294- Eliminated in the First Round

Based on Old Li's opinion, the overall plan could only be out after the new year.

Ouyang Shuo pondered. "Could you design the city wall first?"

"Why is that so?" Old Li didn't understand.

"The city wall is the core of the planning. It takes the most time and effort, and it'll definitely need the help of the civilians and commoners. There are four months until the spring sowing, so I hope to be able to complete the city wall before that."

"Okay." Old Li nodded, pleased. He commended Ouyang Shuo's care and concern for his people.

"I'll gather the students to rush day and night to take out the city wall plans within a week."

Ouyang Shuo thanked him. “Thank you for your hard work!"

The two of them discussed the requirements and specifics of the wall, and unknowingly outside, the sun had set. Only then did Ouyang Shuo turn around and leave the office.

"I'll send you!" Sun Xiaoyue chased out.

The two of them walked on the small walkway, both not making a sound and neither wanting to break this peace and quiet.

"Ouyang!" Before saying goodbye, Sun Xiaoyue said.

"What?"

"Never mind, it's nothing!" Sun Xiaoyue was demoralized. She hurriedly left, her footsteps seemingly rushed and panicky.

Ouyang Shuo looked at her back, softly sighing, a feeling of melancholy overwhelming him.

When he returned to the Lord's Manor, he was just in time for dinner.

In the courtyard, Bing'er had already come back from school and was playing with Little White. Little White was the little white wolf that Luo Shixin had given to him and was really close to Bing'er, even following her to school.

Ouyang Shuo suspected whether Bing'er had some talent to even be able to get so close with spirit beasts. No matter if it were the Nian Beasts or Blackfang, none of them were an exception.

"Brother, you are back!" Bing'er ran over. During this period of time, her timetable was filled to the brim.

The little brat seemed to have gotten through her rebellious phase and was now very well behaved, making Ouyang Shuo pleased.

"En." The brother and sister talked as they walked together into the side hall for their meal.

After upgrading to a prefecture, Ouyang Shuo had kept up with this busy schedule. Every day, he would be meeting with wave after wave of officials and generals to discuss military and administrative matters.

The matters of a prefecture were vast and messy.

Although Ouyang Shuo had already set down the basis and handed over the administrative matters to the three departments, there were still some parts in which he needed to personally make decisions.

The officials that were appointed elsewhere would purposely rush over to Lianzhou lord’s manor to say goodbye to Ouyang Shuo before accepting their new roles.

To all these important officials who were helping to rule a part of the territory, Ouyang Shuo naturally couldn't treat them lightly. He would personally greet each one of them to keep their loyalty and to let them know that their lord cared about them.

Luckily, as he cultivated the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique, Ouyang Shuo was more energetic. After the meetings in the morning, he would stay in the reading room at night to read books and jot down notes to plan for the development of the territory.

Ouyang Shuo's business made all the maidservants and ladies in the lord's manor feel heartbroken for him. Song Jia even purposely came back from the sect to tell Zisu to prepare supper every night and deliver it to the reading room.

12th month 9th day

Ouyang Shuo called Baiqi and Zhao Sihu in for a meeting.

The Shanhai City’s city protection regiment had been reorganized into one of the three divisions, leaving Zhao Sihu with no job. These few days, he just coordinated with the Military Affairs Department over conscription, and upon hearing that Ouyang Shuo wanted to see him, he hurried over.

During the battle of E'Shi Ridge, Zhao Sihu's performance was exceptional, impressing Ouyang Shuo, and he had even specially rewarded him the Wuhu Knife Technique secret manual.

Two months had passed, and Zhao Sihu had already gained a basic understanding, his body exuding an aura of a fierce tiger.

"How is it; is the conscription going smoothly?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"It's going okay, there has been more people wanting to join the army. The teens in our territory also have very good bodies and most people who came could meet the standard." Zhao Sihu was really excited.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. The various specialties of Shanhai Territory had started to show themselves.

After the greetings, Ouyang Shuo started to get into the main topic. "I have two reasons for calling you all here."

"Please speak!"

To speak the truth, about the position of the city protection regiment, Zhao Sihu wasn't confident about it and didn't know what Ouyang Shuo was thinking in regards to it. To be able to be of use to the marquis, he was already happy enough.

"Firstly would be the Shanhai City’s city protection squad. My idea would be to create a City Protection Division within half a year. What do the both of you think?"

Zhao Sihu wasn’t involved, so it wasn't right for him to voice his opinions, but deep down inside he was silently delighted. He didn't expect that even after disbanding the 3 city protection regiments, his lord would pull such a move.

Baiqi nodded. "With the scale of the future Shanhai City, a City Protection Division is needed."

Just as Baiqi said this, Shanhai City was the heart of the territory, and it must be defended. Although Ouyang Shuo didn't think that anyone would be able to attack Shanhai City, it was better to be safe than sorry.

If not, how would one allow the residents to live in peace?

Ouyang Shuo wasn't a person who chased short-term goals, and he wouldn't expand the army without thinking about the consequences. Him setting the half year deadline was so that it could be done slowly and not cause any strain on the territory.

After the three cities merged, every day there would be 1310 migrants spawning. In a month he could get 40 thousand men. As the city merger was the wish of Ouyang Shuo, he didn't gain any recognition from the system. Hence, when calculating the population of the city, the 3 were still calculated separately.

"Although the City Protection Division is to start from scratch, I don't wish for it's fighting ability and military culture and standards to be weaker than that of the other three divisions. As for their training, I'll leave it to you two."

Even with Zhao Sihu's courage, upon hearing the Marquis's requirements, he was facing a little difficulty.

Everyone knew that for a new army to form combat strength, apart from training hard, practical fighting and battles were important. The territory had three divisions in the three dangerous directions, so no matter what, the city protection division wouldn't be able to join the fight.

"Why, do you have difficulties?"

Zhao Sihu gritted his teeth. "I'm a brutish person, so I'll speak the truth. If we are talking about training, I'm not afraid; but in terms of practical battles, I'm afraid we might affect your plans."

Ouyang Shuo nodded and turned to Baiqi, "General, do you have any solution?"

"The only way is for the city protection division to split up into regiments and take turns to go to the various camps for battle."

"Great, that settles it. As for the building of the division, general will command it, while Zhao Sihu, you will execute."

Baiqi had became Ouyang Shuo's right hand man, so most of the military matters were passed to him. Hence, the Military Affairs Department under his bright light seemed to lose its luster and become an assisting unit.

Such a general like Baiqi wasn't suitable for handling the Military Affairs Department, as the battlefield was his home. The reason for setting up the department was because Ouyang Shuo wanted it to control the generals and form a balance. If not, the military generals could become a wild horse and go out of control.

Unfortunately, as they lacked a super talent, the Military Affairs Department had always been in a half-dead state, which made him very disappointed.

As the territory continued to expand, Ouyang Shuo didn't have the energy to personally participate in the building of troops, and could only pass the responsibilities to the generals.

The cons were that his control of the military had lessened. Luckily, the major generals of the 3 divisions were picked up and trained by him, so there wouldn't be many problems in the short term.

Ouyang Shuo tossed aside his thoughts and said, "The barracks of the City Protection Division will be moved outside the city. The barracks in the core region will be left for the Guards regiment."

Zhao Sihu nodded; he had expected this to happen. The City Protection Division and Guards regiment had different jobs, one internal and one external, so handing the core area over to the Guards regiment was going to happen sooner or later.

The Lianzhou Lord’s Manor and Shanhai House split up duties for law and order, which was already planned.

The Guards regiment was the other trump card Ouyang Shuo had to control the military. As long as this elite unit was in his hands, he had the strength to challenge anyone.

Once the various divisions settled down, it would be time to expand the Guards regiment.

Gaia first year 12th month 10th day, west suburbs new soldier camp

Out of 3250 soldiers, apart from those that died in the Battle of Changping, 2470 elites remained. They were going to face their first round of tests, which included a 5 kg weight run, a 400-meter obstacle run, and 40 push-ups.

During the training period, the soldiers had practiced this multiple times and were familiar with it. The key of the test would be whether the soldiers would be able to meet the standards.

Based on information, the soldiers that joined were all rank 8 elite soldiers and above. War elite soldiers took up 10% and could be said to be the strongest elites.

Ouyang Shuo was witnessing the entire process with Baiqi beside him.

Based on the teaching squadron captain Viper, Baiqi entering the camp gave them motivation and a lot of new ideas. The standards of the exam were modified after his suggestions.

After a day of tests, only 1845 soldiers passed with a total failing rate of 25%.

Those who failed returned back to their original units.

After entering, the new soldier unit's job was done and it was disbanded. The soldiers that passed would be sent to new camps where they would undergo the next stage of their devilish training.

Being enlightened by the modern learning style of the new soldier camp, Baiqi had personally set up a new training schedule and plan, as well as an exercise regime to be ready to be pushed out to the entire army.

Chapter 295- A Friend From Afar

Among the hundred thousand mountains in the north, at the intersection between Lingnan and Guangxi, was a land known as Wuzhou.

Half a year ago, Wuzhou was empty, and suddenly a mysterious tribe appeared. Under the tribe leader, they cleared out raiders, building a fortress and started farming and growing mulberry trees.

The leader was an amazing person, having a high prestige amongst the mountain barbarians. As the stronghold was built, the mountain barbarians around them all heard about the news and came to visit to see this mysterious leader.

The hundreds of mountain barbarian tribes who lived in the hundred thousand mountains thus felt that they had a new home, and they all moved to the Wuzhou Fortress without hesitation.

As time passed, 55 of the mountain barbarians tribes actually moved over, and even the biggest tribe with over 10 thousand men moved.

Last month, this migration started to spread to the southern region.

As the large numbers of mountain barbarians moved, it became a huge city. On the city walls were many black Phoenix flags exposed, their wings flying in the wind.

It was close to winter, the wild grass was all withered yellow, the birds stopped migrating, and the wilderness was a silent image.

Lianzhou Basin was located south of Guangxi and had the monsoon climate, but it wasn't affected by the winter. Entering the 12th month, the temperature was still maintained at 20 odd celsius.

Lianzhou Basin looked like it was all calm, but large things were taking place.

The Military Intelligence Division reported that the grassland tribes had stopped fighting and had signs of collaborating.

Under the orders of Baiqi, they appeared on the grasslands for training and to scare the tribes, also to try and pull the tribes closer to them.

The western region of the Tian Qi tribe had been rebuilt, and adding their east region along with Kehan's Guards, they had 12 thousand men, the same as the 2nd division.

Out of the 7 mid-sized tribes, each would have no less than 3000, adding this together would mean over 20 thousand men.

Before battles, the grassland tribes could also hold a recruitment, with the tradition that every nomad tribe had soldiers double the size of the military.

If the grassland tribes worked together, the 2nd division wouldn't be able to defend against that.

The Broken Blade County to the east were also making moves.

Because of the limitations of his rank, Broken Blade County was unable to upgrade to a grade 3 city. The strength of Shanhai territory had made Ba Dao unable to sleep at night. To protect his territory, he could only take risks and go for short term rewards.

He colluded with the Yanhuang Alliance and crazily built up subsidiary territories. Apart from 3 1st tier subsidiary territories, even the nine 2nd tier subsidiary territories were built, slowly growing towards a city.

The most direct benefit would be the enormous population growth to build an army. With the soldiers from the mountain barbarians tribes as well as the gold from the gold mines, Broken Blade County had already reach a division’s strength and could compete against Shanhai City.

If one said that Ba Dao was stepping on steel thread, then Ouyang Shuo was playing with fire.

The current situation had everything to do with Ouyang Shuo. After taking down Tianfeng City, he had the chance to take down Broken Blade County, only that he didn't want his poisonous insect plan to die, and hence allowed the city to survive.

If he didn't put a stop to it, it could be rearing a dangerous tiger.

What made Ouyang Shuo most worried were the hundred thousand mountains.

The huge mountain barbarians tribes were moving deep into the mountains. The Military Intelligence Division director Leng Qian had personally brought troops into the mountains to investigate, but still hadn't returned.

Ouyang Shuo had a feeling that deep within the mountains, there was an enemy staring at him.

As huge changes occured in Lianzhou Basin, an old man quietly entered Shanhai City.

He was 50 with a round face, and his brows formed a ‘ba’ word; he dressed very simply, a rough cloth shirt with a green scarf.

After entering the city, he excitedly walked around the city and looked at the vibrant business street. Seeing the residents so happy and everything so orderly, he couldn't help but nod his head.

Following which, he walked into the Xinan University and upon seeing a boy, asked, "I heard that there's a book collection house, may I know where it is?"

The young man was a student in the economy college, seeing that the man was that of the olden culture, he didn't dare to be slow and said, "It's at the Moon Lake, I'll bring you there!"

Ouyang Shuo had said that the book collection hall would be open to everyone. Hence, such people like the old men who visited were quite common.

"Thank you!"

The young man brought him into the book collection hall before turning around and leaving.

When he walked in, he was very emotional and excited.

He wasn't a normal person, but the war sage Sun Wu. The descendants all knew him as Sunzi. He, Kongzi, and Laozi were the 3 brightest stars during the end of the Spring Autumn time period.

Sun Wu and Jiang Shang had a deep connection.

Firstly, Jiang Shang was known as the ancestor of the philosophy of war. Sunzi, on the other hand, was the representative figure of the philosophy of war.

Secondly, Jiang Shang was the creator of the Qi country and Sun Wu was from the Qi.

All things considered, both of them had a huge connection. Hence, after knowing that Jiang Shang became the landlord, Sun Wu immediately made use of the secret system to come to Shanhai City for a visit.

Strictly speaking, Sun Wu could be considered half a hermit.

Before he was 30, Sun Wu wasn't famous, and when he was a hermit, he wrote the Art of War. After this, he became a general in the Wu country, and in 30 odd years he had won battle after battle. He retired and then became a hermit again to edit and hang his works.

His whole life was filled with legends and stories.

The master of philosophy Jiang Shang and the war sage Sun Wu, two saints had crossed time and met.

"Student greets Taigong!" Sun Wu gave a student greeting.

Jiang Shang used a famous quote from , defining their relationship, "A friend who came from afar, there's no need for such things!"

The two of them met and had unknowingly started talking about the philosophy of war, until the dead of night.

Unknowingly it was sunset.

Jiang Shang turned his head and looked outside. The red sunlight covered half the sky, and he said emotionally, "To have such meeting in my life, it's enough."

"It is mutual!" Sun Wu was also pleased.

"So now, would you be willing to allow me to visit your island?"

"I don't mind, it’s whether you want to."

Both of them laughed, Like two old friends meeting up, everything was an available topic.

Following Jiang Shang up to Fallen Star Island, Sun Wu admired the lake and commented in awe, "Such a place is the best to be a hermit; you are so blessed."

Jiang Shang shook his head, looking a little melancholy, "The Lianzhou marquis planned this."

"Oh?" Sun Wu looked surprised. "The Shanhai Territory is very famous, when I entered and looked around, it seemed that everything was true. Taigong being a hermit here, what thoughts do you have about this Lianzhou lord?"

"Why, you want to come out to work here?"

"No." Sun Wu shook his head. "I've no intentions to join the army; I want to be like you and be a hermit. If you don't mind, I'm willing to move to this island and read books and write military manuals. I heard the book collection house has tens of thousands scrolls. I want to get inspiration from them."

"Such a talent living in a small island, isn't it a waste?"

"Aren't you the same?"

"I'm different from you. I have a knot with the Lianzhou Marquis that hasn't been released, hence I'm not coming out. Even so, I've accepted the job of landlord!" Jiang Shang said honestly.

Sun Wu kept silent and after contemplating. Then, he said resolutely, "I'm still willing to follow my heart, leading troops on the battlefield isn't my goal; spreading the art of war is my life goal."

Jiang Shang nodded. "As it suits you, such things couldn't be forced. I think that tomorrow the Lianzhou Marquis will come visit you and invite you to be a general for him."

"It's okay. I have my plans."

"He is quite cumbersome and is a special person, so don't reject him upfront."

Sun Wu's eyes froze. He hadn't expected that Jiang Shang would have such high praise for this lord. "Hearing your words, I would really like to take a look."

"He won't let you down. Additionally, Baiqi had already became the general, pushing out an interesting training system. I’m sure you will be interested in it."

As expected from Jiangsheng, not going out but still being able to know everything.

As they talked, both men talked about tactics until late into the night.

The next day, Ouyang Shuo received a secret report from Fallen Star Island about a visitor around 50, wearing a robe who had a long conversation with Jiangsheng.

Ouyang Shuo got emotional after looking at the report. If it was as he expected, after the activation of the philosopher debate, to be able to talk so much with Jiangsheng had to be a special person.

"Men!"

"Hai!"

"Call general Baiqi here!"

"Yes, my lord!"

Ouyang Shuo was ready to bring Baiqi to go visit this mysterious man in hopes that such a person and role model like Baiqi could show the strength of Shanhai territory and increase his persuasiveness.

"Marquis!" Baiqi rushed here.

"Follow me to the book collection house."

"Oh? Someone came?" Baiqi's thoughts were sharp and he immediately guessed the reason.

Baiqi was considered one of the representative figures of the military. When Jiang Shang became the landlord, he took time to visit Baiqi. The two of them had a conversation about tactics and had an intense discourse.

"That's right."

"I would like to go and see who it is."

Chapter 296- The Night Before the Reshuffling

Moon Lake, Book collection hall

Jiang Shang and Sun Wu had a long conversation, and both of them had developed a close relationship. Seeing Ouyang Shuo and Baiqi visit, they both looked at each other and smiled.

"Greetings, Taigong!"

Jiang Shang nodded his head, pointing at Sun Wu next to him and saying, "This is Sun Wu."

Ouyang Shuo his heart trembled. "Greetings, war saint!" Baiqi, who was filling behind Ouyang Shuo, bowed immediately upon seeing that the person was the master philosopher of war, Sunzi.

Sunzi tilted slightly to the side. "I suddenly come to visit and made you come personally, sorry for the inconvenience."

"The gates of Shanhai City are always opened to any talent in the world." Ouyang Shuo continued. "You have came from afar, I've prepared a mansion in the official residence area for you; I hope you will accept it."

"I accept your good intentions. Unfortunately I've already retired and have no plans to return, I just want to be a hermit and live together with Taigong on the Fallen Star Island. I hope you accept it." Sun Wu rejected him.

Ouyang Shuo sighed in his heart. "We do not force anyone, and everyone must all be willing. Since you want to be a hermit, I won't interfere; I just feel a little regretful."

This magnanimity was something Ouyang Shuo had.

Ouyang Shuo's answer wasn't what he had expected, instantly winning his good favor. “Thank you lord for allowing me!"

"Don't mind me asking, are you being a hermit to correct and change ?"

"That's right!" Sun Wu replied honestly.

"You changing and improving the philosophy of war, is it to pass it on to the next generation?"

"That's right!" Sun Wu's eyes froze.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and suddenly his direction changed. "What do you think of our University?"

"Your views are advanced and teach both knowledge and values." A glimpse of suspicion appeared in his eyes.

"Since that is so, there's an even better place for you to live at!"

"Please speak!"

"Beside Xinan University is another empty space, we were preparing to build another university there. To rule this land, one needed be well rounded. Xinan University is a place of knowledge, but the other university would be a general cradle."

"The marquis is a genius!" Sun Wu didn't understand and asked, "What does that have to do with my living arrangements?"

Ouyang Shuo explained, "The planned university would be called the Army Military Academy and its the education institution in training army generals, and also where martial arts is taught at. The academy will be split into infantry, cavalry, engineer and supplies, with 3 classes A,B and C.

"Classes A and B will focus on military discipline like metaphysics, fortification, weapons, military science, hygiene and so on. They will also learn the military process like the "Dian", "Fan" and "Ling". The C class will learn the basic disciplines and basic military processes like chinese, ethics, painting, equipment, arithmetic, history, infantry exercises, array orders and so on. Then they will be split up into their specific subjects."

As Ouyang Shuo finished, Sun Wu didn't say a word; even Jiang Shang and Baiqi were totally absorbed.

Especially Baiqi who was in charge of conscripting and building the 3 divisions. He knew that what the army lacked was generals. If they were able to build such a military academy, it would be a huge achievement.

Sun Wu kept silent. This was because most of what he wrote in the Art of War was included in the teaching program and this was a perfect place for him to spread his teachings.

Not only that, he could make use of this academy to perfect his book and teachings.

Jiang Shang looked at Ouyang Shuo with a complicated expression before turning to Sun Wu, "Just as the marquis has said, the Army Military Academy is perfect for you to be a hermit at."

"Not only that, I promise that the moment the academy is completed, I'll build another building and move all the military and war related books and secret manuals over." Ouyang Shuo threw down another bait.

Sun Wu laughed. "The marquis is expectedly amazing. I'll admit it, I've been convinced."

Ouyang Shuo was delighted, and instantly a notification sounded out in his ear.

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for convincing saint rank historical person Sun Wu to live in Shanhai Territory, rewarded 3000 merit points, 15 thousand reputation points."

Following which was another one.

"System notification: War Saint Sun Wu has decided to move to Shanhai territory triggering [Ancient Philosophers]-philosophy of war extension, people believing in the philosophy of war will start to appear in the wilderness!"

The moment the notification sounded, the world was in an uproar.

The quiet country channel instantly started buzzing.

"Brother Wuyi, accept me!"

"Such an amazing life need no explanation, brother Wuyi is a beast!"

"Why is all the good things taken by Qiyue Wuyi, I, Zhao Ritian, can't accept it!"

"Brother Wuyi fan club is recruiting, please contact sister Ruhua"

"Ruhua, why are you here, go home and take your medicine!"

"Brother Wuyi support group is recruiting please contact sister Furong"

"Ugh, I've vomited."

"All of you wait and see, after Sun Wu, Wuqi is mine, old Wang's!"

"Old Wang!!"

"Brother Wuyi, you have convinced little sister, I request a night!"

……

The adventure mode players didn't care much and hence just added in to the fun. Ouyang Shuo had became the brightest star in the Chinese region, so everyone one was used to him pulling off such magic once in a while.

The lords on the other hand, weren't feeling good.

If one said which branch of the philosophies lord players emphasized, it was the philosophy of war.

The people it represented not only included Sun Wu, and Sima Rangju, but during the Warring States Period included Wuqi, WeiLiao, Zhao She, Baiqi, and even Zhang Liang and Han Xin.

Not one would have imagined that the brightest star in the philosophy of war- war saint Sun Wu would live in Shanhai Territory so early on. Obviously the players would be unhappy and feel that it was unfair.

If others knew that Baiqi was a general in Shanhai Territory, it would probably rile up another storm.

Apart from jealousy, the lords were excited. The system notification made it clear that the philosophers of war appeared in the wilderness.

Jingdu Region, Handan County.

Di Chen sighed, the joy of recruiting Lianpo had disappeared. He muttered, "Qiyue Wuyi, you are really an opponent that draws hate. However I won't lose to you, the good stuff is yet to come. This is what makes it interesting isn't it?"

Standing beside him, apart from the advisor Juedai Fenghua, was the sect leader of Jianqi Zongheng- Yijian Xilai.

After a few rounds of discussion, Handan County had finally started cooperating with Jianqi Zongheng.

Xiangyang Region, Pill Sun City.

Chun Shenjun was in the back garden of the lord's manor welcoming a special guest. He was the guild leader of 18 horsemen of Yanyun- Yanzi Lisan.

Out of the 10 biggest guilds, the territory belonging to their guild was the biggest and all their members were generals. As the adventure mode players continued to level up and equipment started to improve, their combat power couldn't be underestimated.

Adventure mode players had gotten past the infancy period and started to step onto the big stage.

A new round of reshuffling was happening quietly.

Just like the cooperation between Shanhai City and Snow-war Rose Mercenary group, the guild and the territory helping one another could strengthen both of them.

Lords with vision like Di Chen and Chun Shenjun took the opportunity; for those who were slower who waited for adventure mode players to show their strength, the cake would have mostly been eaten.

The strong could make their strength rise before things changed and cause the times to change; the weak ones follow the changing tide and get pushed along.

Chun Shenjun's vision was special.

His family was based in commerce; their powerful members all had to do with commerce. In terms of military or administrative matters, he couldn't compete with Di Chen and Zhan Lang, probably even not Xiong Ba.

Hence, he had chosen the 18 horsemen of Yanyun to cover his weaknesses.

Similarly, they had a high demand for equipment because of their occupation, and working with the rich Pill Sun City was a good idea.

When Yanzi Lisan heard the system notification, he teased. "That lord is really restless!"

"This kind of restlessness who doesn't wait!" Chun Shenjun mocked himself.

In the Battle of Changping, he had finally managed to recruit Zhao Kuo. However, he was weaker than Lianpo whom Di Chen recruited. For Qiyue Wuyi to pull that off made him even more demoralized.

Jianye Region, Blood Red County

In front of a Zhan Lang was a middle-aged general who looked fierce.

The middle-aged general, upon hearing the system notification laughed. "War Saint Sun Wu? I really want to take a look."

"An old antique from thousands of years ago, how could he compare to you?" Zhan Lang was confident. In terms of commanding, his teacher was better than any general in history.

"We can't say that." The middle-aged general shook his hand. "The Art of War is able to lead modern wars, why is that so? Especially in the cold weapons wars, we can't look down on these historical generals."

"Teacher is too humble. I feel that the military trained with modern science and methods is stronger than the old army." Zhan Lang insisted.

The middle-aged general slightly shook his head. If you don't believe me, so be it.

Chapter 297 - Hongmen Feast

Ouyang Shuo didn't know what was happening and stirring outside, so he peacefully checked out Sun Wu's stats.

Name: Sun Wu (Saint rank)

Title: War Saint

Dynasty: Spring Autumn (Qi)

Identity: Shanhai City Army Military Academy Principal

Occupation: Special General

Loyalty: 65

Command: 100

Force: 75

Intelligence: 95

Politics: 80

Specialty: ----

Book: Art of War

Evaluation: Sun Zi was a person from the Qi country, he was named Wu, helped the King of Wu write pages about the philosophy of war. Any army personnel from the olden times believed in the theories and teachings of Sun Wu. He was good at turning wars into his favor and surviving when the war was against him. His offensive and defensive strategies during war time numbered in the hundreds.

After checking out Sun Wu's stats, Ouyang Shuo was both delighted and worried.

As expected from a Saint rank historical person, his stats were terrifying. Out of his four stats, he didn't have one weakness and his command stat was maxed out.

Unfortunately, he had chosen to live in Shanhai City and wasn't willing to be a general, hence he wasn't considered to be recruited. Thus, his loyalty stat was low, and his specialty wasn't activated which couldn't help buff the territory.

After Sun Wu agreed, Ouyang Shuo immediately set up the Army Military Academy Preparation Committee who was in charge of the building of the academy.

The entire preparation process was split into two parts, one was the hardware and one was the software.

The hardware was obviously the facilities inside the academy. As they had experience with Xinan University, Ouyang Shuo didn't worry and passed on the job to the Construction Division and Architectural College.

The only difficulty was that the building of the academy clashed with the construction of the outer wall. Ouyang Shuo could only bear the weight and told the Construction Division to place the academy as the priority.

The software was more complicated. They needed a teacher squad. For the whole military academy to be held together by one Sun Wu was definitely impossible and he needed a strong teaching staff.

The Army Military Academy had 4 subjects, infantry, cavalry, engineering and supplies. Each subject needed a subject head. Each course also needed lecturers.

Sun Wu took up the role of principal of the Army Military Academy and temporarily acted as the infantry subject head, in charge of teaching them about weapons and discipline. The major of the god machine unit Wang Feng would be removed and would be the subject head of engineering to teach basic mechanics.

With Wang Feng leaving the god machine unit, Ouyang Shuo just disbanded it and passed all the members into the City Protection Division.

The core members of Fallen Moon Guild- mapographer Jiu Duanxian would be the teacher for topography; the deputy director of the medical department Old Qian would teach hygiene.

Chinese, ethics, arithmetic and history would be held at Xinan University. Infantry drills and military service teachers would be chosen from the members who were eliminated from the special forces trial. They had underwent strict and regimental training in both areas during their time in the west suburb camp.

The empty two subject head slots and many teachers could only be recruited from outside, as Ouyang Shuo couldn't shift too many generals to work in the academy.

Ouyang Shuo informed the many offices at the various system capitals and ordered them to spread the news that War Saint Sun Wu had set up an Army Military Academy in Shanhai City, hence attracting talents.

Apart from that, Sun Wu also made us of his influence to gather and invite many philosophers of war to the Army Military Academy through the special channel. After all, his main goal wasn't to help develop talent for Shanhai Territory but to spread the philosophy of war.

Apart from the teaching stuff, the student discipline, schedule and timetables, Ouyang Shuo left all the authority to Sun Wu.

The setting up of the Army Military Academy touched Jiangshang, when he talked to Sun Wu, he would raise up some of his views and suggestions.

With Jiangshang and Sun Wu, the two heavyweights, Ouyang Shuo naturally wouldn't butt in.

On the other hand, Ouyang Shuo contacted the guild leader of Rattlesnake Mercenary Group, Black Mamba, and invited him to send members to take up jobs at the academy.

When he received Ouyang Shuo's invitation, he was amazed. As expected from the Chinese region's number one lord, even before forming the special forces, he managed to make an academy.

Black Mamba was very intrigued with Ouyang Shuo's suggestion. Not mentioning what he said about pay, just for Sun Wu, many would be willing to work at the academy.

The Shanhai City and Rattlesnake Mercenary Group cooperation had started to reach the honeymoon stage.

With that, based on the deep pool of manpower and wealth of Shanhai City, they managed to set up the Army Military Academy.Ouyang Shuo didn't care about the remaining work, and left it all to the preparation team.

Ouyang Shuo's eyes had turned to the other lords in the Lianzhou Basin.

With the setting up of the Tianfeng House, the 20 odd lords in the western side of Lianzhou Basin were in an awkward position.

The area under the Tianfeng House, the north to the middle wilderness, east towards Guangshui City, south towards Yongye forest, and the west towards Xila Lake covered the entire western portion of Lianzhou Basin.

In truth, more than half of the area under Tianfeng House wasn't part of Shanhai City territory. The land between Tianfeng City, Yongye City and Guangshui City were taken by the 20 odd lords.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo wanted to steal their area.

Under Ouyang Shuo's instructions, the 1st division, which was in the city west camp, held raider clearing operations within the territory of Tianfeng House, announcing that the area was under the control of Shanhai Territory.

On the other hand, the 1st division didn't bother about the players in the area, which was really weird.

All of the sudden, the lords were in a terrible situation.

If they fought, they couldn’t win; if they ran, they had to give up the base that they fought so hard for.

The weird actions of the 1st division gave these lords hope, maybe the Lianzhou Marquis was nice and wasn't planning to attack them?

They were clear that that was just hopeful thinking and they couldn't count on it.

The 1st division didn't attack these territories, but only those which fell under the territory of Shanhai Territory.

Hence, once Shanhai City upgraded, that would be when they would be destroyed.

The situation the lords were in, Ouyang Shuo knew about it.

Once the 1st division was fully completed, he planned to totally solve the problem of the western player territories.

Based on the opinion of Shi Wanshui, naturally they wanted to wipe them all out to prevent future problems.

Ouyang Shuo couldn't randomly give up his plan of rearing poisonous insects. One must know that the upper limit of a grade 1 prefecture was 500 thousand. Purely relying on the spawning rate wasn't going to cut it.

Fur grows on the goat. Weren't these player territories the best farming spots for population?

After setting up the Tianfeng House, however, Ouyang Shuo couldn't bear for these territories to have their own army, and if he didn't bother about them, they would be a ticking time bomb.

The sneak attack from Yongye Town was a warning to Ouyang Shuo. In the end, they were lords, and no lord would wait to die. They would definitely try to fight back.

All things considered, Ouyang Shuo thought of a plan.

On the 12th day of the 12th month, the 23 lords in the western region received an invitation from Qiyue Wuyi for them to go to Shanhai City on the 15th for a meeting.

The invitation also mentioned that if the lord didn't turn up, It would mean disrespecting the Lianzhou Lord, and the 1st division would personally visit them.

This powerful and forceful invitation stirred up waves in the western region.

The lords panicked and didn't know what Ouyang Shuo wanted.

In their eyes, this was a Hongmen Feast.

What made them helpless was that even though they knew it was bait, they had to attend or the 1st division threat would wipe them out.

Some lords were more at ease. The way they saw it, rather than live in limbo, they might as well just settle everything; even if they would have to die, they would accept it rather than panicking and feeling nervous every day.

Some lords were furious and revealed the contents of the invitation on the forums.

The players in the Chinese region got into a frenzy.

A few days ago, Shanhai City had made news. One didn't expect that a few days later there was another one.

"Lianzhou Marquis brandishes his sword on Lianzhou, his ambitions to be the overlord is showing!"

"Because of Qiyue Wuyi's shameless acts, he's not worth to be the representative of the Chinese region!"

"Lianzhou Lord suppresses the other lords, showing his overlord spirit."

"China wants people to use values to gain respect, but Qiyue Wuyi uses force. He isn't a real man!"

"Qiyue Wuyi is despicable, if you have the balls why not fight the people from other countries!"

"The strong eat the weak, its the law of the jungle. Qiyue Wuyi, we support you!"

……

Apart from such comments, some players even posted posts on the forums about the meaning behind the invitation. Amongst them, Bai Xiaosheng's post was the deepest and pretty much covered everything.

He said that as the only prefecture grade territory in the world, Qiyue Wuyi who could have just destroyed all of them, but decided to solve the problem by discussion.

He predicted that some changes might have occurred after the territory upgraded to prefecture. A possibility would be an increase in the population’s upper limit. If not, Qiyue Wuyi wouldn't have wasted such effort.

He even predicted that after the grain crisis, population would be the thing lords fight over, and that a chaotic war period was going to begin.

His predictions started a wave and gained a lot of traction on the forums. Some adventure mode players even predicted that their time has arrived.

Chapter 298- The Merger of Three Cities

To the discussion and debate on the forums, Ouyang Shuo just laughed it off.

Ouyang Shuo not caring didn't mean that others didn't too. Even the Shanhai Alliance members who were frightened by Bai Xiaosheng's prediction abilities immediately sought out Ouyang Shuo.

Out of the Shanhai Alliance, Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang were the most anxious. Their territories had already upgraded to grade 3 cities, and were working towards grade 1 prefectures.

Ouyang Shuo naturally wouldn't hide anything and told them everything from the upgrade mission and the changes to the city to let them make preparations.

After Ouyang Shuo finished, the alliance channel was dead silent. They didn't expect that the upgrade quest would be so difficult and for the changes to the territory to be so huge.

Out of the 4 quests, even though Ouyang Shuo completed them seemingly easily, it would be impossible to complete even 1 for other territories. The recruitment of historical people, the impossible task of asking a chamber of commerce to move in, completing the culture festival, all these wouldn't have been possible without Cui Yingyu and the Mazu Temple.

The last division trial seemed the easiest but it wasn’t. Even the strongest division in Shanhai City, the 2nd division, had difficulties completing it, let alone for other territories.

In conclusion, the other territories didn't have the depth of strength that Shanhai City had.

Luckily, apart from Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang, the others were far away from upgrading to prefecture so they had a long time to prepare for it.

Taking a thousand steps back, as long as one completed two quests, the could upgrade so they shouldn't be too hard on themselves.

Dali Region, Consonance City

The four flowers gathered in their back garden to digest the news that they had just heard.

Bai Hua sighed. "The prefecture upgrade quest really makes one feel despair!"

"What are you scared about, we will solve it when we get there." Hong Ying said confidently.

"Although the upgrade quest is random, it wouldn't be too far off. The 4 quests of Shanhai City have huge value, so we can make specific preparations." Tsing Yi said.

"That's right!"

"Recruiting historical people and the Chamber of Commerce, we can leave those to Qingfeng Pavillion. They are familiar with Dali, so it wouldn't be too hard for them to get close to a Chamber of Commerce."

"En, I'll write a letter to my brother later." Tsing Yi's analysis gave a little bit of confidence to Bai Hua.

"Giving the army group trial to Zhang Liao shouldn't be a big problem. The last culture festival would need the four of us to plan."

After Tsing Yi's analysis, for Consonance City to complete at least two quests wasn't too difficult.

"Great!" Luo Zilan laughed walking over and rubbing Tsing Yi's head. "What's this little brat's head made of, why is she so smart? Such a hard problem, after a few words from her becomes easy instantly."

"Sister!" Tsing Yi muttered, instantly changing from a cold rational girl into a cute next door neighbour.

Luoyang Region, Fallen Phoenix City

Compared to Tsing Yi's easy analysis, Feng Qiuhuang had it a lot harder.

After leaving her family, she finally understood how much pressure was on her, making her unable to breathe.

If it wasn't that she was resilient and didn't want to lose, she probably wouldn't have been able to hold on.

In a blink of an eye, 4 months had passed since that day.

Fallen Phoenix City, under her charge, had underwent a huge change.

The bad part in all the good things was that her position was overtaken by Consonance City.

In the Battle of Changping, she made use of her insider information to convince Wang He, winning something back for herself.

Recruiting Wang He meant that the military was not the weakness of the territory anymore, and she could focus solely on administrative matters.

Apart from that, with Wang He, Fallen Phoenix City could play a bigger part in the next battle.

Although she didn't know much about military matters, she was confident in administrative matters. From youth, she had watched, learned, and experienced a lot.

Even so; facing the upgrade quest, she wasn't confident.

She wanted to compete with Bai Hua in this race to upgrade. It wasn't that she didn't like Bai Hua, it was just that them two were the best women players, so she didn't want to lose.

"I've no choice, I must make use of that hidden piece!" Feng Qiuhuang muttered.

The next day, Ouyang Shuo was in his reading room and listening to the report regarding the city wall.

The new design by Old Li had changed what Ouyang Shuo had originally planned and instead used an entire outer wall to block up Shanhai Region, Qiushui Region, and Friendship Region to form a huge city.

Between the 3 cities there definitely was a distance, around 10-15 kilometers, which Ouyang Shuo specifically left to be a strategic area. Now all this was included within the wall.

The outer wall was north of the 2nd wall at the Shanhai Region, east of the north side of the Friendship Region wall and on the same line as that of the Qiushui Region wall.

In such a way, the entire wall stretched 25 kilometers from east to west, 30 kilometers from north to south and took up 750 square kilometers.

This was 75 times larger than what Ouyang Shuo had planned for Shanhai City.

As it must be connected to the current city walls, the outer wall was 12 meters high and 6 meters wide, totally different to that of the design of Tianfeng City.

"This is too crazy!"

"If we don't plan it like this, merging the 3 cities would be a lie. In the hearts of the people, if they aren't protected by the same wall, how could they be said to live in the same city?" Old Li insisted.

"However, did you consider that based on your plan, the city is indeed one, it also takes up enough space, but the defensive ability has been weakened? How could such narrow walls fit with the stature of our future capital? Not only that, based on the design, the current core region has became the corner of the city. The moment an enemy attacks, they could easily reach the Lord's Manor." Ouyang Shuo was a little emotional.

"Ouyang, relax." Sun Xiaoyue calmed down the situation and explained, "Actually, we have already taken into account your worries when designing."

"How so?" Ouyang Shuo tried his best to calm himself down.

"If we wanted to talk about the defensive ability to the city, the future Shanhai City is definitely not strong and is just barely passable. However, a city's defense should be evaluated based on its environment. Think about it, the Lianzhou Basin is already ours. With the geography of the place, we only need to take note of Zhennan Pass, and everything is settled. Hence, why would Shanhai City's defense matter? If the enemy really broke through Zhennan Pass, we just need to make the walls thicker."

"But."

"And also," Sun Xiaoyue didn't give Ouyang Shuo any chance to counter and continued, "As for the core region ending up in a corner, it’s only your old thinking. Think about it. Which modern city has its core right at the middle?"

Thinking about it, what Sun Xiaoyue said made sense. With the uniqueness of Lianzhou Basin, Ouyang Shuo really didn't think that anyone could reach Shanhai City. If anyone could, then they would probably lose anyways.

Ouyang Shuo didn't expect Sun Xiaoyue, that brat, to have such a sharp mind.

"Xiaoyue, you make sense." Ouyang Shuo didn't insist on his views or try to regain any face.

"Of course!"

"Ok, we will work as planned. How much do you all estimate the load to be?"

"Don't worry, the workload isn't as much as you expected." Sun Xiaoyue calmed him down first. "The outer city wall has three sides, a total of 85 kilometers long. Not including the 3 city walls currently built, only 69 kilometers are needed and it's only 4 times that of the second wall of Shanhai Region."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. "What about the Wengcheng? Did you factor that in?"

"Of course. Based on the design, we will have at least 20 gates and 11-12 main gates. Each main gate needs to have a Wengcheng. Apart from that, we need to build a watergate where the rivers meet the city gates. Additionally, we will need 7-8 more bridges to increase the connection and convenience between cities."

Ouyang Shuo listened until his hair and skin was numb and waved it off. "Okay okay, you just go over this stuff with the Construction Division. Then, go to the Financial Department for funds and the Administration Department for manpower. We must finish this before the spring sowing."

Such a huge project was going to use so much gold. Ouyang Shuo actually wanted to leave a portion of the 12th month’s profits for the system auction, but it seemed like it wasn't going to happen.

One mustn’t forget that apart from the city wall, there was also an Army Military Academy waiting to be built.

"Me, me?" Sun Xiaoyue said with uncertainty and nervousness. Such a big project was hard to coordinate and she didn't have much confidence.

"Yes, you, the leader of this city wall protect." Ouyang Shuo needed to pass this project to someone he could trust. Furthermore she was very lazy usually, so he needed to give her more to do.

"What, you didn't ask for my opinion and just gave me work." Sun Xiaoyue grumbled.

"Why, you aren't willing to help me?"

"I’ll help, who is afraid of who?" Sun Xiaoyue wasn't one to be triggered.

"Ok then, that's settled."

After discussing the city wall, Ouyang Shuo took the chance to discuss with Old Li about the planning problems of Shanhai City.

However, this was bigger than the city wall by thousands of times. Just the design would need construction, architecture, planning, administration, waterworks, etc., and many professionals to work together for it to be completed.

Chapter 299- Releasing Military Control with a Glass of Wine

Gaia first year 12th month 15th day, Shanhai County.

The 23 military lords in the western region of the Lianzhou Basin all gathered in Shanhai County for a meeting.

None of them dared to miss it.

Ouyang Shuo personally received every one of them.

The meeting location was arranged to be the main hall.

As it was a meeting between lords, Ouyang Shuo didn't arrange Fan Zhongyan to receive them.

The many lord territories were basically hovering around grade 3 town, and only a few of them managed to upgrade to a grade 1 city. Seeing the vibrancy and brilliance of Shanhai County, they were shocked.

When they walked into the Lianzhou Lord's Manor and saw such a majestic residence, they felt even more demoralized. Compared to the Lianzhou Lord's Manor, their manor was a broken thatched cottage.

This was when they truly felt the gap between their territories and Shanhai territory.

For many of them, this was the first time they walked out of their own territory. When they were inside, they felt like a king and were arrogant. They were thinking so what if Shanhai County upgraded to prefecture, they are both lords, how different could it be?

Seeing the prosperity of the city, now they finally knew that they were frogs in a well.

The main hall was already neatly arranged with maidservants bringing tea and fruits.

After the Lianzhou Lord's Manor expanded, under the instructions of Ouyang Shuo, Zisu hired another batch of maidservants to ensure that the manor ran normally.

The huge Lord's Manor needed 10 people to just clean it.

As he didn't want the atmosphere to be too formal, he invited troupes to dance and sing.

Truthfully, this was also the first time Ouyang Shuo saw such performances, and they were actually beautiful and captivating.

Such a scene had made all the lords stunned; this was the real life of a lord, their small land was nothing compared to this.

Ouyang Shuo sat on the lord’s seat and raised his wine glass, looking around and smiling. "All of you came from afar, so sorry if I didn't welcome all of you well. Here's to all of you!"

Everyone raised up the wine glasses in their hands.

No matter what everyone thought in their heart, the place was noisy and warm.

Along with the performances, the lords all started chatting. They had so much fun that they forgot the reason why they came, like they were just here for a banquet.

Ouyang Shuo walked around the main hall and talked to each one of the lords.

Some of them treated him warmly, while some were cold.

Unknowingly, an hour had passed.

Seeing that it was about time, he waved the troupe to stop performing and the hall became silent. Luckily, one couldn't get drunk in the game. If not, it wouldn't have been easy to calm down the atmosphere.

The lords all felt a shiver in their hearts, knowing that the real show was about to begin.

Ouyang Shuo sat back and looked around. "I invited all of you here, apart from getting to know one another, to plan for the future of Lianzhou Basin."

Some rash lords immediately said, "For what purpose have you invited us here for? You can just directly tell us; there's no need to be around the bush." His words lacked politeness and respect.

"Ok, then I'll speak directly. Shanhai Territory set up the Tianfeng House, and naturally, it can't be removed. The problem between Tianfeng House and your territories can be solved only if you agree a few conditions. I promise that your territories will be untouched until it falls under the territory of Shanhai Territory."

The lords shivered. The line that Ouyang Shuo drew for them made them really uncomfortable.

"Haha the Lianzhou marquis really knows how to joke. With the speed of Shanhai Territory, it will be sooner rather than later when we are taken over. So whatever you suggest won't solve the root problem."

"That's right!" someone agreed, "What's the point with a moment of peace? We aren't ostriches who pretend that everything is okay."

"But what if I can promise benefits for you after your territory is conquered?"

"If our territories are conquered by you, what benefits will there be?"

"How can you ensure our interests?"

In a moment, the main hall was in an uproar.

Everyone had their say and threw out their displeasure, everyone got very emotional.

"Everyone quiet down and listen to me." He waited for the hall to be silent before saying, "Why not wait until I say my idea before you decide, okay?"

"Ok then tell us; how you can promise that we get benefits?"

Seeing that their fate of being conquered couldn't be changed, some smart lords started to request for profits and benefits, and didn't make noise for no reason.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, "Everyone plays Earth Online for two reasons. One is they like the game and enjoy it; the second is that they want to gain something, and in the second evaluation by Gaia raise their permission level. Am I right to say that?"

"That's right, but when our territory is conquered, everything will be wasted. What achievement value is there to speak of?"

"That's right!"

"Wrong." Ouyang Shuo resolutely shook his head.

"Wrong?"

"Yes you are wrong about that. The evaluation for achievement value is not based solely on territory. The Chinese region has over 10 thousand lords. In the end, how many of them can survive? Those who get conquered or destroyed, are they really going to get 0 achievement value? Definitely not. The achievement value is based on territory, wealth, occupation level and the like. Hence even if your territory is conquered, it doesn't mean you lose everything."

All the lords basically agreed with what Ouyang Shuo had said.

"Lianzhou Marquis, speak! What will you promise?" One of the lords called Xiaomi said.

She was one of the few female lords.

"Ok." Ouyang Shuo nodded. "As long as you agree to my conditions, I promise that after I conquer your territory I'll allow you to live in Shanhai Territory. Apart from that, all your fortune you've gained till now will be your personal assets. With that, you can use this money to either develop in the imperial city or be merchants in Shanhai Territory. It’s all your own choice."

"Speaking the truth, I believe all of you know that running a territory is risky, and the war between lords is very cruel. Out of hundreds of lords, only a few can survive. Hence, why not become merchants? You can earn large profits."

After Ouyang Shuo finished, the main hall was totally silent.

What he needed to say, he had already said. He had taken out enough sincerity, what was left was to see what decision they would make.

"Can you clearly state your conditions?" Xiaomi asked.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and smiled. "Of course. Actually it's simple, I have two conditions. Firstly, your armies will be reorganized by Shanhai County, and you can't recruit new soldiers. The defenses of the region will be under the 1st division. Secondly, your organization structure would follow Shanhai territory's standard. Of course, we won't interfere with whomever you appoint. The two points above will be in place until your territories are conquered. After it's conquered, you all can either live in Shanhai County or other places."

"Lianzhou Marquis, don't you think you are bullying us?" After hearing his terms, some people were unhappy.

"That's right, we aren't that weak, and you can't just do anything you want with us."

"And also, how can you ensure that you'll keep your promise?"

"If you don't believe me, we can sign a contract." Ouyang Shuo answered.

"That's the best!"

"How's that good, a bunch of soft eggs with no backbone."

"You!" Being insulted like that, the lord was furious.

Ouyang Shuo focused. He found out the guy who had insulted the other lord had been trying to stir things up like he was bent on creating problems.

His face instantly became cold, looking toward him. "I don't care if you are under orders from others, or you are doing it yourself. I now officially tell you that your territory won't be protected by us. Wait to be conquered!"

"You!" That guy's face turned red like he was stabbed.

"Men!"

"Please make this lord leave Shanhai Territory." Ouyang Shuo pointed to that guy.

"Yes, my lord!" The guards carried out the lord whose face was now ashen white. He didn't expect that Ouyang Shuo would be angry so quickly and not give him a chance.

Ouyang Shuo was actually considered magnanimous, allowing him to leave through the teleportation formation. If not, he would be wandering in the wilderness.

"Qiyue Wuyi, don't be too arrogant. There will be people taking care of you." That lord said viciously before he left, venting his frustration.

Ouyang Shuo didn't even look at him and instead looked at the other lords. "Have you all decided?"

That act of killing one to make the rest fear you worked on the other lords.

The lords all agreed to sign the contract.

After signing, they all say goodbye and left.

Ouyang Shuo immediately used the Feng Bird to give the orders to Shi Wanshui to bring the 1st division to bring the soldiers from the territories to Shanhai County.

As for that lord, they directly conquered his territory and the prisoners were naturally sent back to Shanhai County.

It was calculated that the 23 territories had a total of 12500 men. Of course, their combat power was weak and were using the equipment from the class change.

For the new army, apart from the missing members in the 3 divisions, the rest were sent to the new City Protection Division, speeding up the building process.

Chapter 300- Useless People

The contract that Ouyang Shuo signed with the various lords were quickly exposed on the forums.

Naturally, on the forums, it was a bloodbath.

Adventure mode players were there for the fun while lord gamemode players were there to learn new tricks.

Upon seeing the details of the contract, light bulbs lit up in their heads. They extracted the essence of it and copied.

The contract that Ouyang Shuo had made that focused on peace was termed by lord players as the Lianzhou model, and instantly swept through the Chinese region.

The Lianzhou model's meaning totally destroyed the current territories who were not doing anything. From the current military methods to using military with the addition of administrative and diplomatic elements. The three elements would push the current wars to a new level.

If one wanted to pinpoint it, it would be the same as farming population.

And to succeed using the Lianzhou model, one needed to fulfill two criterias.

Firstly, without a strong military everything else was useless.

Secondly, one must keep a firm grip on the territories that signed the contract; if not, they might fight back.

Even so, there were many territories which fulfilled the conditions. The ones included were not limited to the Yanhuang Alliance and Shanhai Alliance. As long as one was in the top 100, they had the ability.

All of the sudden, the big lords were grinding their knives while the smaller lords cowered in fear.

The Lianzhou model signified that the territorial war was entering its second phase: the big fish eating the small fish. The precious little shrimps had all died out and were extinct.

Ouyang Shuo, the butterfly that had traveled through time, had once again caused another storm. The territory warfare starting early had once again pushed the game toward an unknown progression.

As the strategy worked in the west, Ouyang Shuo started to turn his attention to the east.

The situation in the east was more complicated because of the presence of Broken Blade County. Hence, their influence and control of the east wasn't as strong as it was in the west.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo didn't give up.

He sent the same invitation over to the 25 territories in the east.

Even Ba Dao in Broken Blade County had received his invitation.

When Ba Dao received the invitation from the messenger, he was furious, immediately tearing the invitation apart. "Qiyue Wuyi, I’m not done with you!"

Ouyang Shuo definitely didn't expect Ba Dao to come, but he did it just for fun. When he thought about the expression Ba Dao would have when he received it, he felt delighted.

Although he didn't want to touch Broken Blade County, this chess piece, Ouyang Shuo also wouldn't let it develop as it wished. He wanted to stop it and cut off its wings, destroying its surrounding barriers.

As Broken Blade County didn't come, the effects of the 2nd banquet weren't as good as the 1st.

Out of the 25 lords, only 19 attended; the remaining 6 formed a small group with Ba Dao as the core, determined to compete with Shanhai City until the end.

On the surface, Ouyang Shuo's expression didn't change, signing the contract with the 19 lords and sending the 3rd division to reorganize the troops.

After the lords left, Ouyang Shuo coldly laughed. "Useless people!"

On the same day, the 2nd division, which was at the city north camp received Ouyang Shuo's orders to destroy the 5 territories other than Broken Blade County.

Those that follow me will prosper, while the others will perish.

When Luo Shixin received the orders, he immediately rallied the troops.

As this was a long distance sneak attack, Luo Shixin left the 1st and 2nd regiment to defend the camp, while he led the rest along the Qiushui river and cutting in from the east of the Lianzhou Basin.

Before leaving, Lin Yi and Sun Tengjiao both came into Luo Shixin's tent.

"Major General, don't. We don't have wars to fight often, so don't leave our second regiment here."

"That's right, the 1st regiment also wants to join in."

"Nonsense!" Luo Shixin had already established prestige in the 2nd regiment and thinking about it, he felt that he should still explain. "In this mission, the marquis wants it to be fast and accurate. You are heavy armored cavalry and aren't suitable."

"Although we are heavy armored cavalry, we aren't slower than the light armored cavalry."

"Yes, such extra weight is nothing to the Qingfu horses."

"No!" Luo Shixin rejected it once again. "If we all leave, who will defend the camp? The nomads on the north side are staring at us. We can't let our guards down."

"Ok!" Lin Yi knew the importance and replied.

"Don't be so draggy. Following the marquis. Do you think there won't be any wars?" Luo Shixin walked out of the camp, gathering the troops and got ready to leave.

The 2nd division rushed out, reaching their destination the same afternoon.

Seeing that it was still early, Luo Shixin decided that they didn't need to wait until tomorrow to start their attack.

Eight thousand cavalry were like a whirlwind and swept across. Before the enemy could react, they had already entered the Lord's Manor and conquered it.

In less than two hours, they had taken down 3 territories.

The last two territories were closer to Broken Blade County and had already heard the news, requesting for help.

The two lords were regretful. They shouldn't have been greedy and been tempted by Ba Dao. Now, they didn't get anything and their whole city was going to be lost.

When Ba Dao received the call for help, he was conflicted.

If he saved them, with the one division strength of Broken Blade County, he really didn't have confidence to fight against the 8,000 elite of Shanhai City.

If he didn't save them, he would lose peoples' trust. Most importantly, the moment both of them were gone, Broken Blade County would be a solo city.

As he was confident that Shanhai City wouldn't do anything to him, Ba Dao didn't make preparations for an all out war with Shanhai City. He also didn't seek help from Yanhuang Alliance.

As the thing had already happened, it was already too late to ask for help. War wasn't a child's game.

Finally, he hardened his heart: losing friends was better than he himself dying, the two of them had it coming!

At this point, Luo Shixin had totally enclosed the two territories and was purposely not attacking to try to bait Ba Dao to come help.

Although the marquis sent the order not to enter the territory of Broken Blade County, if Ba Dao came over to help, destroying them wouldn't be going against orders.

Unfortunately, he had overestimated Ba Dao.

Half an hour passed and there was no movement within the city walls. Luo Shixin rode on the horse and laughed, shaking his head in disappointment. "What a coward." He waved his hands and ordered the troops to attack.

The two lords within the city scolded out, as they were crushed.

Hence, in the entire Lianzhou Basin, there was only Broken Blade County left.

Ouyang Shuo was one big step closer to conquering the whole of Lianzhou Basin.

Holding hatred toward Ba Dao, both of them revived inside the Dali Reincarnation Hall.

They were fuming as they walked out. "Ba Dao, that thing actually left us to die. We trusted him so much."

"And also Yanhuang Alliance, dog sh*t. A bunch of rubbish actually scared of Qiyue Wuyi."

"I'm going to expose them on the forums, if I don't ruin his reputation I'm not a human!"

"Even if I don't act, Ba Dao wouldn't last for long, Qiyue Wuyi will destroy him."

"I don't care; I have to do something to vent my anger!"

"You're right. Let's go on the forums and rant!"

A ruckus was started just like that.

Their posts attracted a bunch of mocking and didn't stir any waves.

"Heh, throwing eggs at stone, you deserve it!"

"Which bird is Ba Dao? I don't know him!"

"Ba Dao? Xiang Ba? I can't tell the difference..."

"Two fools, getting played and still want to throw their face on the forums!"

"I'm feeling anxious for their intelligence!!"

"Anyone who goes against brother Wuyi is a bad person!"

"To be a good person you need to know your limits!"

"You can be a lord with such intelligence? Go home and raise your kids!!"

……

Looking at the comments on the forums, the two ex-lords vomited blood and had no face to live anymore. They could only live in secret in Dali and not reveal themselves until the game ended.

After the battle, Luo Shixin captured the prisoners and sent them back to Shanhai City.

As it was already dark, they could only return back the next day.

On the other hand, the 19 lords that cooperated with the 3rd division had heard about what happened to the five territories. They felt delighted that they weren't greedy and hadn’t accepted Ba Dao's invitation.

Ouyang Shuo's lightning quick actions had left a deep impression on the lords, and they didn't dare to do anything funny.

The next day, under the orders of Baiqi, the city east camp moved to the border of Broken Blade County and made use of the 5 conquered territories to build a defence line to monitor the every move of the enemy.

Seeing the enemy set up camp right in front of him, he was furious.

In the east region, including the prisoners captured, there were a total of 13,200 men. All of the soldiers not only filled up the 3 divisions and the City Protection Division, there was an extra 10 thousand.

Under Baiqi's suggestion, Ouyang Shuo sent the order to direct the extra troops to the city protection squad of each city.

The prefecture grade governed area had a Garrison Division; the House grade governed area would have a city protection regiment; the city grade area would have a city protection unit.

The city protection squads would be under the Military Affairs Department, but the grain and salary would be from the respective territory's finances. The newly built City Protection Division would belong to the Shanhai House city protection squad, and Shanhai City would be in charge of its grain and salary.

Based on the organization, Tianfeng House and Beihai City each had a city protection regiment. Yishui, Gushan, Yongye, and Guangshui cities would each have a city protection unit.

After filling up the various city protection squads, the remaining 3000 would be reserve forces.

The reserve forces which were originally recruited were now really reserves. They only needed to join the city defence squad trainings and didn't need to move into the camp.

Chapter 301- Western Region Development Operation

After the Battle of Changping, Ouyang Shuo was at the forefront of the news.

As the news that the War Saint Sun Wu had set up the Army Military Academy spread, many people who believed in the philosophy of war had travelled to the various offices of Shanhai City in the imperial cities and rushed to Shanhai City.

Those people were basically no names and the formed the base of the philosophy of war, filling up the positions of teachers and lecturers in the academy.

The other representative figures didn't appear.

On the forums, there was one guy who said that Wei Liao did in fact visit his territory, but he didn't choose to stay. Who knew if that claim was true or false?

As this news spread, Dali and Yongquan, the two system imperial cities that had a close relationship with Shanhai Territory, once again had a small influx of migrants.

A high number of generals who weren't satisfied with their positions all chose to come to Shanhai Territory.

Although this batch of generals were all basic ones, they were trained and came out of academies after all. They also had vast experience, so they were an invaluable asset.

They were the real cornerstones of the army.

Baiqi sent them to the three divisions and the City Protection Division to once again increase the combat strength of the military. The negative effects from expansion had basically all been relieved.

Shanhai City's army had both strength and talent. Apart from Zhan Lang, no one could compare to them.

Because of the influx of troops from the east and west territories, the City Protection Division was completed six months earlier than expected.

Although the City Protection Division belonged under the city protection squad, because it had the responsibility of supporting the missions of the main camp, they were actually formed based on the premise that they were going to participate in battles.

The only thing that made Ouyang Shuo feel regretful was that the City Protection Division lacked a major general who could support the whole group.

To make things easier, he could only allow Baiqi to temporarily be the major general; Zhao Sihu whom Ouyang Shuo felt had high potential was the deputy and would be in charge of the daily job of the City Protection Division.

Based on the new layout of Shanhai City, due to the intersections of the canals within the city apart from the usual arrangements of the City Protection Division, there was also an individual navy unit which was in charge of monitoring the river passages.

As the military development quickened, the field army, city protection and reserve forces were pretty much completed.

In regards to the future field army, apart from directly choosing from the prisoners of war, another way would be to directly choose from the various city protection squads before filling the gap up with reserve force troops.

After perfecting the three-tier army system and successfully preventing the territories from expanding their army, because of the rookies, the combat strength of the new army had dropped tremendously.

On the side of the navy, after taking over Moon Island, Ouyang Shuo instructed Pei Donglai to increase recruitment of the navy reserve force to make preparations for the expansion of the navy in the coming year.

Especially sailors, the barracks didn't have a class change for sailors, so they could only develop them step by step.

The Moon Island Naval Base was smoothly completed under the assistance of Beihai City. Apart from a navy unit, there were also 5000 commoners from Beihai City.

These commoners were basically the family members of the sailors. As such they were highly trustworthy.

The role of the navy unit there was to map the surrounding area, making it easier for future exploration missions.

Apart from that, investigating the neighboring water bandits was one of their important missions.

From the Beihai Bay treasure map, one could deduce that the strong water bandit organizations numbered in the hundreds of thousands and couldn't be underestimated.

Sailing wasn't something Baiqi was familiar with, so temporarily, they could only rely on Pei Donglai.

All in all, the Shanhai military was growing at a fast pace.

When reorganizing the army, the territory administrative system didn't slack off and also made huge changes.

The sweeping operations in the east and west sides brought in 30 thousand in population for Shanhai City, not even 1/10 of the population upper limit.

With both Wei Ran and Cui Shousi taking up the positions in the two houses, the organization structures had basically been completed and had started working.

The splitting up of duties between Lianzhou Lord's Manor and Shanhai House had already been completed and hundreds of officials were shifted from Lianzhou Lord's Manor to Shanhai House.

At the same time, the 200 odd students who graduated from Xinan University were sent to the various counties to work to gain experience after undergoing the administrative assessment.

Some of the top ones were chosen by the various secretaries and departments and sent directly into the core area.

Making use of this chance, Bai Nanpu's secretary room was expanded as well. The clerks and secretaries apart from helping Ouyang Shuo deal with letters, the three directors all had a personal secretary.

After half a year of training, all of the administrative personnel had underwent training at the university, all around 1-3 months.

Starting from next year, the people that the university recruited were students from the various private schools or colleges as well as from society.

The officials and personnel in the administrative system would not be enrolled into the university.

The teaching program was also official split into two, either a year or half a year. The year-long program was for those from the private school or the school; the half a year one was for the students who were from society.

Whichever course was taken, as long as one reached the time limit and passed the assessment, they could smoothly graduate.

At this point, Xinan University had walked onto the right path.

As there was a huge reorganization and many officials were shifted around, for the annually administrative assessment, Administration director Fan Zhongyan chose a calm method.

Apart from the immoral officials who were sacked, the rest were shifted over to the various Houses to deal with.

Near to the end of the month, the Tianhai Road was completed.

The completion of the Tianhai Road connected Tianfeng City and Shanhai City, representing that the west region had been officially merged with Shanhai Territory.

The raiders in the west have been practically all cleared out, giving the development of the region some safety.

Making use of this chance, Ouyang Shuo started to fully develop the west region.

The Lianzhou Lord’s manor was in charge of the plan on a whole while Shanhai House and Tianfeng House were in charge of the specifics, building numerous agriculture settlements along Tianhai Road.

The newly added refugees would all be sent to these settlements.

The purpose of these settlements was also set to be used to reclaim land and plant crops.

The land to the west shouldn't be wasted. Apart from keeping the hills, forests and special areas intact, the rest of the land was reclaimed for farming.

Based on the geography of that area, it would either be planting crops like potatoes and corn, or fruits and tea gardens, or mulberry trees and cotton.

All in all, he was going all out in developing agriculture.

Although Ouyang Shuo had been pushing for the commerce and handicraft industries to stimulate the economy since the start of the territory, he wasn’t stupid and recognized that in olden society, agriculture was the basis of a country and would always be number one.

The unique land area and geography of the Lianzhou prefecture made it a perfect place for that.

Based on Ouyang Shuo's planning, the future Lianzhou Basin, apart from being the main base of the territory, would be the agricultural core to provide food and agricultural products to let the military expand, providing powerful logistical support.

Ouyang Shuo's idea made the Financial Department, Agricultural Division, and Household Registration Division all instantly busy.

Luckily, they had agricultural professionals in tow.

To really succeed in this western region development operation, it wasn't an easy matter.

The first would be the enormous costs. Be it for buying farming tools, seeds, cows or the irrigation facilities, each needed huge financial input.

Apart from that was the revolutionized agriculture techniques like plowing, the waterwheel, and nurseries to raise the quality of the product.

Of course, the most important aspect was agricultural planning, which area was suitable for what crops.

Such matters weren't things Ouyang Shuo could settle alone. No matter how good he was, these jobs could only be done with the help of many officials and professionals.

At most, he would only take on the role of a coordinator.

The time where Ouyang Shuo controlled everything and micromanaged all aspects had already passed.

The western region development operation had brought with it the upgrade of certain industries. With this, the area of the mulberry gardens had an explosion in growth.

Ouyang Shuo passed on the colored silkworm growing to the various Houses. As for the specific arrangements, the textile association would be in charge.

Not only that, but be in Chamber of Commerce or individuals, all of them could grow their own colored silkworms.

Hearing that the Lord's manor was going to make such changes, the managers of the Chamber of Commerce were delighted and immediately invested huge amounts to rent land to grow mulberry trees and silkworms.

As successful merchants, they could see the commercial value of the colored silk.

There wasn't any free lunch in the world.

If the Chamber of Commerce wanted to learn the technique of breeding the colored silkworms, they needed to pay for it. They also needed to promise not to reveal it to a third party.

After a few rounds of negotiations, the final fee was set at 5000 gold.

Hence, the gold which the Chamber of Commerce paid for the technique was enough for the early stage investments for the development of the west region, a win-win situation.

Chapter 302- Mountain Rain is Coming

Gaia first year 12th month 25th day

A system notification sounded throughout the Chinese region.

"System notification: to celebrate the game's first anniversary, the system will hold the 2nd system auction on Gaia 2nd year 1st month 1st day at 10 AM. There will be many rare items on auction, so please look forward to it! Friendly reminder: please prepare enough funds, or else you will go home empty handed."

When the notification went out, the lords started to rub their palms in glee.

During the first system auction, Ouyang Shuo had stolen the spotlight and single handedly bought five of the ten items.

The effect of the auction had showed itself through the three battles.

Only because of the weapon and armor creation manuals was Shanhai County's army able to be so strong and achieve so many battle contribution points through killing.

As time passed, although there was a grain crises, those territories with a foundation of support and strength had already walked out of that and had accumulated thousands or maybe tens of thousands of gold.

Hence, the 2nd system auction would be a more intense battle.

Ouyang Shuo similarly did not want to miss out!

Just yesterday, the Financial Department had calculated the financial situation of the 12th month.

After the prefecture changes were pushed out, the financial tax plans, after being altered by professionals and checked by Ouyang Shuo, were pushed out.

Based on the new plan, the county grade taxes would be given to the House; the House ( including independent cities) would give a portion to the prefecture, directly to the Lord's Manor.

The types of taxes were different, and the percentages for them to hand over was different too.

Similarly, the income tax was pushed up to 1/15, double from the previous tax.

In the 12th month, Shanhai House handed over 15,500 gold, Tianfeng House 7500 gold, Beihai City 14,500 gold (including profits from Beimu Saltpans), Yishui County 3500 gold, and Gushan County 1000 gold for a total of 42,000 gold.

The Industry Division handed over 8,500 gold from the Langshan Minefields, Three Flower Wine Factory 7,500 gold, the mulberry gardens and other industries handed over 4000 gold, a total of 20,000.

In total, it added up to 62,000 gold.

The expenditure of the Lianzhou Lords manor mainly included the military expenditure, the administrative expenditure, as well as financial transfer payments. The military expenditure was the highest amount, including the salaries of the 3 divisions, the Guards protection regiment, Beihai Naval fleet, as well as other fees for a total of 27,500 gold.

The administrative expenditure mainly included the divisions and departments, the four military workshop, the cave military factory, Xinan University, and the Army Military Academy that was currently being built, for a total of 4,500 gold.

The military workshop and military factory held the highest amounts. Of course, once these equipment was sold to the outside, it wouldn't be a financial burden but a place of profit.

As for financial transfers, it included 40,000 for the official roads, 3,500 for the Tianfeng City city wall, 5000 for Shanhai City city wall, 2000 for the Army Military Academy, 1,500 for the migration of Gushan County for a total of 16,000 gold.

Once he totaled the expenditures, it cost him 48,000 gold.

Everything considered, the territory had a 15,000 gold profit in the 12th month.

Be it tax handed over or financial transfer payments, all was done through the various branches of the Four Seas bank, with the Auditing Division in charge of monitoring everything.

With Yingyu coordinating everything, the Four Seas bank banknote printing bureau was set up. The paper workshop and the printing workshop were built directly opposite to the main branch and managed personally by Meng Zhida.

Of course, they were still a period of time away from pushing out banknotes.

As he had to pay the costs for the division trial, Ouyang Shuo now had 105,000 coin in his bag. Hence, he stored away all the remaining profits for the 12th month.

He had a total of 120,000 gold, which he would bring in for the auction.

At the border of the hundred thousand mountains, a young male used a branch as a walking stick and climbed up the mountain path.

He hobbled a long distance. His hair was messy, there was even some bird sh*t on his face; his face was a little tan, and his eyes were sunken.

He was like a traveler who was tired and hungry.

Looking closely, his shirt was broken and through the holes in it, one could see his injuries, the blood seeping onto the shirt. Some wounds had already closed up while others formed pus after being infected.

Those scars weren't only wounds from falling; some were clearly left by sharp daggers.

All this showed that this man wasn't a simple traveler.

His mental strength was strong, and the hunger and pain couldn't waver him as he pushed on.

Walking into the morning sun, he finally walked out of the mountain, his face finally breaking into a smile. His tightened muscles finally relaxed. He wanted to continue forward but his body didn't listen and he fell into the ground.

The hunger and fatigue hit him as he instantly fainted.

"Hey, wake up! Wake up!" The soldiers who was patrolling found the fainted man.

"He has fainted!"

"Check him, maybe he has a insignia or something. He came from the mountains, that's unusual."

"Hai!" The soldier searched his body, finding an iron tablet.

"There really is one!"

"Let me see." The leader took over the tablet, he froze, “This is the Military Intelligence Division tablet."

"Military Intelligence Division?"

"Quick, he must be a spy sent to investigate the mountains. Send him to the hospital, I'll go inform the lord."

"Hai!"

When Leng Qian woke up, it was already night time.

Due to his job habit, he looked around and found that he was in a hospital. Not only was he wearing clean clothing but his wounds were tended to.

"Seems like I was saved!" Leng Qian heaved a sigh of relief.

At this moment, a doctor walked in and seeing him awake, smiled. "You're awake? Great, I'll bring you some food."

Hearing him say that, Leng Qian was indeed really hungry; his stomach was growling as he hadn't eaten in three days. "Thank you."

"There's no need to. You were sent here by the city protection unit, and the county magistrate even came to visit you." The doctor walked out of the room and went to prepare supper.

Ouyang Shuo heaved a sigh of relief once again. He remembered he had fainted at the border of the mountain. It seemed like the patrolling soldiers of Gushan County had saved him.

The hundred thousand mountain was a treacherous place; it wasn't a place for outsiders to enter.

A month ago, he brought 10 elite spies in to investigate. Only he alone survived, and even the Feng Bird with him had died.

Just as Leng Qian was thinking, the door opened again.

This time, apart from the doctor, there was also the county magistrate, Lei Fan.

The doctor placed down the food box and left the room, closing it shut. As for what Lei Fan wanted to say, he didn't care, nor did he dare to care.

Lei Fan had seen Leng Qian, and before he entered the mountain, they also talked to one another. He was the first to find out about the unusual mountain barbarians and had been waiting for news for the Military Intelligence Division.

What made him feel weird was that there was no news from them after they entered, like they had vanished, making him feel panicked and anxious.

What the two talked about wasn't as confidential as the doctor had thought.

Ever since the territory was built, the military and administration were separated. Hence, even though Lei Fan was the county magistrate, he didn't have the authority to ask.

Lei Fan was just here to care for him. He knew that Leng Qian was not only one of the three heavyweights of the Military Intelligence Division, but also an individual the marquis had high hopes for him. His future was very bright.

After Lei Fan left, Leng Qian ate his food, and after regaining his strength, he left the hospital.

Gushan County was close to the hundred thousand mountains, and was at the border of the territory; to make it easier to collect information, the Military Intelligence Division had a contact point in the county.

The place was very secret and even Gushan County didn't know about it.

After Leng Qian left, the first thing he did was rush there.

"Leader!" Upon seeing Leng Qian, the spy was pleasantly surprised.

Leng Qian waved him off and said, "Don't say or ask anything. Just prepare two of the fastest horses. I need to rush back to the main camp in the morning to see the marquis."

"Yes!" The spy had undergone good training and immediately turned around to prepare.

Leng Qian nodded. He found the Feng Bird in the contact point and reported to the Military Intelligence Division.

If nothing went wrong, they would receive the news at latest tomorrow morning.

Ever since they had gotten the Feng Birds from Xuanniao Tribe, the Military Intelligence Division had started to breed them on a large scale, forming a perfect information network.

If it hadn’t been for the fact that the Feng Bird that they brought had been killed by the enemy, there wouldn’t be no news from them for a month.

After arranging everything, Leng Qian went to his room to rest.

The next morning, he left sneakily and returned to Shanhai City.

Just as he set out, the Military Intelligence Division received the news he sent. When the secretary Song San heard it, he immediately rushed to the Lord's Manor to report.

Chapter 303- Chiyou City

When Song San entered the Lord's Manor, Ouyang Shuo was doing his morning practice.

Ever since his yellow emperor internal cultivation technique broke through to the 5th layer, his physique had experienced a large improvement. Be in strength, speed, vision, hearing, they all increased a grade.

His internal cultivation could be considered to have some small achievements.

Under the help of the strong internal strength, the Yang Family spear technique and Bajiquan also improved quickly. Especially with the Yang Family spear technique along with the Tianmo spear, Ouyang Shuo was like fish taking to water, improving at speeds visible to the naked eye.

Imbuing internal strength, the black spear head glowed golden, catching the eye.

As one's strength increased, Ouyang Shuo's temperament also changed slightly. His body had the aura of a lord, making one scared even when he wasn't angry; he had the murderous air of a general.

The two different auras mixing together formed an elegant demeanor unique to Ouyang Shuo.

The two-faced shura from the last life seemed to have returned.

The only difference was he was now at a higher position and he had loftier goals.

After completing his training, only then did he notice Song San and asked, "What's up?"

"My Lord, Leng Qian has safely returned to Gushan County. He is now rushing back."

"Great!" Ouyang Shuo heaved a sigh of relief. "Wait for me in the reading room, I'll be there shortly."

"Yes, my lord." Song San left.

Ouyang Shuo returned to the main courtyard and changed his clothes. He had a simple meal before he hurried to the reading room.

"Okay, speak. What exactly happened?"

"Based on the intel from Leng Qian, he investigated the reason for the mountain barbarians migrating. All the mountain barbarians went to a place in Wuzhou known as Chiyou City."

"Chiyou City?" Ouyang Shuo was astonished.

"That's right, it's located at Wuzhou; they are the Jiuli Tribe who appeared after the Battle of Zhuolu." Song San had participated in the battle so he knew about that part of history.

Although Shi Wanshui had killed Chiyou, but as the head of the camp, he would be immediately revived after the battle and lead the Jiuli tribe that appeared in the wilderness.

Only, didn't Gaia say that the Yellow Emperor tribe, Fire Emperor tribe, and the Jiuli tribes were hermit tribes? Why would the Jiuli tribe make such a huge appearance, and recruit so openly?

If one said that the one doing the recruiting was Chiyou, everything would make a lot of sense.

Close to the end of the battle, Chiyou led his tribe to the Xiongli Valley. That night, he arranged four of his brothers to lead a group of them down south to escape into the forests.

These people were the future Miao Race and Man Race.

Hence, Chiyou could be considered to be the ancestors of the mountain barbarians. His appearance would definitely make all of them bow to him and make him their leader.

"When Leng Qian returns, ask him to find me immediately." Ouyang Shuo was very solemn.

"Understood." Song San left, leaving Ouyang Shuo alone in the reading room to ponder.

Leng Qian whipped the horse, making it increase its speed. That afternoon, he reached Shanhai City. When he returned, he immediately reported to the Lord's Manor.

Ouyang Shuo brought Baiqi and Tian Wenjing together for a meeting.

Leng Qian started by reporting the intelligence that he had obtained. "I followed them in secret, walking north all the way, taking half a month to walk out of the mountain. Chiyou City was built at the foot and took up 60 square kilometers. They have reclaimed a lot of farmland. Hence, when mountain barbarians moved over, they didn't need to worry about not having food in the winter. The city wall had many flags, the same that the Jiuli tribe had during the Battle of Zhuolu. This was when I brought the spies to sneak into the city to investigate."

"What I didn't expect was for there not to be a single Chinese refugee. We weren't able to investigate deeply and were spotted. Hence, we could only run. The brothers who followed me died trying to cover me."

As he said up to this point, Leng Qian almost lost control of his emotions, as his eyes teared up. Those spies were the elites of the intelligence division, following him through life and death. Although they were subordinates, they were more like brothers.

Ouyang Shuo understood his feelings. To defend the territory, many men and brothers had died.

Leng Qian paused, calming himself down before continuing. "In the Chiyou tribe, there's a special spirit bird called the Ling Bird, similar to the one drawn in their tribe insignia. This bird is even better than the Feng Bird. After I escaped, the Ling Bird chased me. This Ling Bird killed the Feng Bird."

Although Leng Qian described it very simply, everyone could imagine how dangerous it was. All his brothers died and his Feng Bird had died too. He had to survive to bring the intel back.

On the way back, Leng Qian was attacked many times and escaped time after time. In the wilderness, there were numerous times where he woke up in shock.

Even so, Leng Qian didn't give up and made use of his reverse tracking and jungle experience to evade them. In the end, he walked out of the hundred thousand mountain even under circumstances where he lacked food.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that his eyes were bloodshot and that his body wasn't back to its best shape, he said warmly. "You've done well, go and rest! The Military Affairs Department will pay the deceased soldiers twice the standard remuneration and help their families."

"Thank you, lord!" Leng Quan tried his best to hold in his sadness and pain. Then, he left.

"How do you see it?" Ouyang Shuo asked Baiqi and Tian Wenjing for their views.

Tian Wenjing was the official who dealt with the mountain barbarians, so for such a thing to happen meant that he had failed his job. Now, what he had to consider was how to salvage the situation.

He thought silently before saying, "Chiyou's influence on the mountain barbarians can’t be further emphasized. No matter how we deal with the relationship with the Chiyou City, what's more important is the barbarian powers within our territory."

Ouyang Shuo froze and said, "Continue!"

"Those living in the territory, be it soldiers or their families, the settlements in the east suburbs, the ones around the minefields and those few tribes still living in the mountains as well as in Gushan County. There are many unstable elements within them, and they might be tempted by Chiyou, so we must be wary. Especially Gushan County, everyone there is a barbarian, and they are close to the hundred thousand mountains, so they are the most dangerous."

"How should we defend against them?"

"Firstly, the mountain barbarians soldiers. Forming our heavy armored infantry is the trump card of our territory. If something happens, the outcome will be very bad. I think we should move all their family to Shanhai City."

Ouyang Shuo nodded and looked at Baiqi. "General, you should visit the 3rd division when you are free."

"Don't worry."

"Secondly, the settlements east of Shanhai City. Those few tribes are those that entered the earliest and have been through a lot, pretty much assimilating into our community. Hence, we don't need to do much, just needing to slightly monitor them."

"Thirdly, those living around the minefield and up in the mountains. With Xuanniao tribe as the core, the sons of the tribes are mostly in the military and are living a good life. No matter what, they have to move down the mountain. If not, they are a ticking time bomb which could explode at any moment. As for the settlement area, I suggest the west suburbs. It’s convenient that the west region is developing and needs manpower. At the same time, the Langshan protection unit needs a change of personnel."

"Fourthly, Gushan County. It is purely run by mountain barbarians and haven't had a deep connection to the territory. Hence, they are the easiest to tempt. We need to move the entire county to the east region and arrange a military to supervise them."

Ouyang Shuo agreed with these few points.

When Tian Wenjing said the last one, Ouyang Shuo frowned. "That can't work. Not saying whether or not they will betray us, but if we do that, the mountain barbarians won't trust us. Not only that, it will make the other mountain barbarians feel that their race isn't treated the same as others."

"But..."

"You don't need to say anymore. I've decided that the policy with Gushan County will not be changed."

"Yes, my lord!" Tian Wenjing sighed.

"Don't worry. I'll ask Lei Fan to come over and have a deep conversation. With my understanding of him, he isn't a guy who is short sighted. He knows that staying here is far better than going to Chiyou City. If not, he wouldn't have reported the mountain barbarian activity in the first place."

"The marquis is smart!"

"As for convincing the mountain barbarians to move down the mountains, I need you to do so personally. The key would be the witch in the Xuanniao tribe. Bring a gift and visit her personally. As for Chiyou City, you can tell her about it. She is a smart person and will understand." Although he had just seen her once, he had a deep impression of her.

"Yes, my lord!"

Ouyang Shuo looked at Baiqi. "Military-wise, we need to prepare. The 3000 soldiers in the reserve squad would be of use now. Form a protection unit and replace the current people at Langshan. For the remaining 2,500 people, form an independent regiment belonging to the city east camp to defend Gushan County."

Ouyang Shuo believed that even if Chiyou looked down on him, he would choose this time to attack. For such an arrogant person, strengthening his power was the most important aspect.

Chapter 304- The Update That Wasn’t Supposed to Happen

After the discussions were completed, Shanhai City became noisy once again.

Tian Wenjing personally went to the Xuanniao tribe to see the witch, explaining to her the pros and cons, and asking her to come out and ask the tribes to go down the mountain.

If whichever tribe insisted on their tribal traditions and weren't willing, Shanhai City could only use violence.

No one could stop Shanhai City from removing all problems and threats.

Baiqi chose a unit and entered the Langshan minefields. He personally brought the independent regiment and sent them toward Gushan County, arranging them to patrol the border and also pay attention to the 3rd division.

The next day, the Gushan County’s County Magistrate hurried to Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo spent an entire morning talking to Lei Fan. As for the specifics, no one knew; one only knew that when he left the Lord's Manor, Lei Fan had a lot on his mind, instantly leaving for Gushan County.

A whole flurry of actions made everyone unable to react.

On the 27th day of the 12th month, Lei Fan returned to Gushan County, immediately forming 15 thousand mountain barbarian migrants and migrating to the west suburbs of Shanhai City, building a settlement there.

This batch of mountain barbarians were the relatives of those in the army.

The same day, Baiqi led the independent regiment and reached the Gushan County barracks.

Baiqi looked at the connecting area between Gushan County and the hundred thousand mountains, and started to build moats, sentries, hidden posts, and more, pushing the defensive line deep within the mountains.

If there was any movement inside the mountains, it wouldn't be able to hide from the hidden posts.

On the 29th day of the 12th month, the mountain tribes left the mountains and went toward the west region under the actions of Tian Wenjing, helping the western development.

Ouyang Shuo was at the Lianzhou Lord's Manor and personally went to meet the Xuanniao tribe witch.

Half a year had passed, and her body was getting weaker and weaker and needed support as she walked.

Even so, her intelligence earned Ouyang Shuo's respect. As they discussed, Ouyang Shuo found that he was learning more from her.

Her knowledge and expertise taught Ouyang Shuo a lot and made him gain much.

The high grade treatment that the witch received stirred up a storm amongst the mountain barbarians.

Ouyang Shuo's actions showed that he cared a lot about the mountain barbarians and treated them as one of theirs, not despising or being biased against them.

His action also sparked a tiny bit of problem.

The original Tianfeng tribe leader Dariachi represented the grassland tribe to request that their people be treated the same.

Ouyang Shuo promised that as long as the grassland tribes came over, they wouldn't despise or look down on them and give them good treatment.

Amongst the noise, the 12th month came to its end.

Gaia first year, 12th month, 30th day

A system notification sounded throughout Earth.

"World Notification: To date, Earth Online has run for a year and the game will have one new update, effective immediately. As for the specifics, players please check them out on the official website."

The players didn't feel much and only Ouyang Shuo froze. In his memory, during his last life, there wasn't any update at this point. His presence had started to influence the game’s progression.

Ouyang Shuo immediately went to the official website and checked out the updates.

Compared to the first update, this was simpler and was in bits and pieces, like it was fixing the game.

(1) Adding a potential setting: NPC will now have A, B, C and D potentials. The higher their potential, the easier for them to break bottlenecks.

Of course historical people wouldn't be included.

Based on the stats Gaia gave, there would be 0.05% A, 4.95% B, 35% C and 60% D. The exact numbers would be affected by the territory specialty and would either increase or decrease.

Those with A potential would be the advanced generals, grandmaster grade talents, and the wealth of the territory.

Based on that stat, out of 2000 refugees, one would be A potential.

The pushing out of the potential stat was good for the lord, lessening his burden and making his choices much easier. Although potential couldn't represent everything, it was a good indicator.

(2) Removing the setting that lord players can't leave their territory: Lord players are now like adventure mode players and can move to the various imperial cities through the teleportation formation.

Similarly, players who lived in the territories have regained their freedom and can teleport as they wished.

The second system auction will be held at the biggest auction house in Jingdou, not a separate space, giving the lords a chance to communicate.

Toward this setting, Ouyang Shuo was shocked.

If he didn't recall wrongly, in the last life until he was reborn, the lord players couldn't leave the territory. Why would such a thing change after just a year? he really didn't know.

(3): Changing the cost of teleportation: Battle maps no longer have teleportation costs: player teleportation, be it within territories or to imperial cities, will all cost 1 gold and the players themselves have to pay.

When players used the teleportation portal, half of the cost would be given to the territory.

As for the battle map not collecting fees, it made him heave a sigh of relief. Based on his current rank, he could bring 30 thousand troops, so teleportation alone would cost him 30 thousand gold.

Gaia was being nice once again and helping the players. If whichever lord decide to open up their territory to players, purely teleportation would result in a sizeable income source.

The 2nd and 3rd updates helped to increase interaction.

To lord players, it would increase the difficulty of managing player groups, increasing the demand of the lord's ability.

(4) The nine imperial cities will have a toll tax, half of the Super auction platform at 5%.

Increasing the toll tax was in truth encouraging players to open their trade routes and avoid the trading platform, bringing their items directly to the imperial city to sell.

Opening up trade routes in the wilderness was something that they needed to do sooner or later. The future Super auction platform would become obsolete.

(5) Removing the setting that players won’t get experience from the battle map.

Not being able to obtain experience, especially soldiers unable to upgrade, had been the biggest problem for lords.

(6) Addition of a rage point setting: General specialties need enough rage points before it can activate.

The rage setting was a nerf to the historical generals. The specialties on the generals weren't a permanent buff and now was only a temporarily active skill.

Ouyang Shuo guessed that this setting probably targeted him. Which lord in the last life could recruit so many historical generals in just a year?

(7) Regarding special raider camps: In the wilderness, new special raider camps would appear which are all above 10 thousand people.

The advanced raider camps in the wilderness weren't the opponents for lords. To increase the game difficulty, Gaia had a devious idea to add a special raider camp.

(8) Increasing hidden occupations: Be it adventure mode players or work occupation players, they all have unique legacy professions which are the so-called hidden professions.

Gaia didn't reveal the specific professions, leaving everything to players to find out for themselves. Gaia specifically said that during the auction, there would be a hidden profession scroll on auction.

A rock started a thousand-layer wave. The adventure mode players who didn't bother about the auctions were now looking forward to it.

What needed to be made clear was that NPCs could also take up the legacy professions.

(9) Increasing secret regions: In the wilderness, random secret regions will appear for players to explore. The moment they are entered and explored, they would disappear permanently.

Exploring secret regions would have a chance to obtain a godly weapon or a secret manual; everything was possible.

Apart from the secret regions that spawned in the wilderness, there was also a tool called a ‘secret region map’ that could create a temporary secret region and allow one to enter and explore without competition.

This was another setting for adventure mode players, meaning that they were slowly starting to be paid attention to by Gaia.

(10) Increased chances of adventure quests: in the imperial city or wilderness, one could trigger an adventure quest.

When players created their characters and chose their location, if one chose random, they can activate the adventure system. Unfortunately, when the players entered they were weak and even if they activated the adventure quest, they would die because of their lack of strength.

Now was different. Players had grown and had the ability to complete the quest.

In conclusion, from today onward, the lives of adventure mode players would be more vibrant and interesting .

All of a sudden, be it the forums or the global channel, adventure mode players hogged all areas.

"Wuwuwu, it's finally our turn!"

"The wheels of history goes forwards, finally time for a new bunch of people to take center stage!"

"Qiyue Wuyi I will fight with you for glory!"

......Even though he had not done anything, people took shots at Ouyang Shuo......

"With adventure mode in my hand and the secret manuals I have, I'll be invincible!"

"The god Gaia had finally remembered us!"

……

Ouyang Shuo didn't bother about the happiness of the adventure mode players. What he cared about were the effects this would have on the territory and his plans.

Chapter 305- Information Piece- Rising Up

Just as Ouyang Shuo was deep in thought, another wave started.

That afternoon, another system notification sounded.

"World notification: To date, Earth Online has run for a year, so the game will publish its first information piece [Rising Up]. For specific details, players please go online to the website to check it out."

Gaia had released one thing after another, which made people love them but hate them too.

[Rising Up] referred to the peasant uprisings in each country, like Spartacus, Sicily Slave Uprising, Scotland Uprising, Germany Farmer War, and the like.

Of course, the country that had the most peasant uprisings was China. The ones in China were the most frequent and the cruelest, directly or indirectly overthrowing a few kings and dynasties.

In the game, Gaia picked out the most representative peasant uprising figures and made them appear in the wilderness and raise wave after wave of uprisings to target the various lords.

Those that joined in the uprising army were not only the refugees, bandits, and raiders. Even robbers could turn robbery into serving justice for the heavens.

If the territory's public sentiment didn't reach the standards, or their taxes wee too high or commoners didn't get enough food, it could cause commoners and residents to join the uprising and overthrow the lord's rule.

Not only that, the peasant uprising would also affect a large amount of refugees, affecting the spawning rate of the refugees and migrants. If the law and order in a territory didn't reach satisfactory standards, it might not spawn anyone.

Gaia obviously didn't want the lords to relax and kept setting up problems and opponents for them.

During the first year, it was wild monsters, raiders, and bandits. The second year was the special raider camps and the peasant uprising. In the future, there would definitely be greater issues.

As the territories grew stronger, Gaia would arrange even stronger opponents.

The 2nd year of Gaia would be a totally chaotic year.

Those who were able to survive would rise from the ashes; those who couldn't would have to leave.

Whatever happened would have its advantages and disadvantages.

If the territory could lead the army to destroy the peasant uprising army, not only would they get a large population increase, but they could also earn a large amount of merit points and raise their rank.

The weak being food for the strong was obvious at this point.

The strong would get stronger, and the weak would get weaker. The strong would survive; the world was just so cruel.

It wasn't hard to imagine that for territories that were alone, apart from the top presences such as Shanhai Territory, it was hard to survive the peasant uprising. Forming up alliances would be their way to solve the problem.

In the future, large and small scale alliances would form.

The Shanhai Alliance and the Yanhuang Alliance, the two huge giants of the Chinese region, had once again became the focal point of lord gamemode players.

If one could join one of the two alliances, even if they couldn't live without any problems, they would have a fighting chance.

Unfortunately, be it Shanhai Alliance or Yanhuang Alliance, neither would lower their standards and recruit new members.

One would rather lack people than have useless and untrustworthy individuals. This is something that wouldn't change.

This period of time was also the best time for groups and overlords to rise up.

All the territories within the top 100 territories were filled with ambitious players. Although they didn't have as much of an influence as Ouyang Shuo, to build a regional alliance was still possible.

Especially with the new Lianzhou Model, this was further simplified.

In the span of a few days, there was a huge change.

Now, it wasn’t that the big territories were forcing the small ones into signing the contracts. It was the small ones forcing the large ones to protect them. If not, they couldn't survive.

If Ouyang Shuo hadn't remembered wrongly, in his last life, not more than 500 territories hadremained. If they didn't upgrade to a prefecture before three years, they were basically all wiped out.

His appearance totally changed the style of the Chinese Region, breaking the rule of the Six Tyrants of Handan.

Ouyang Shuo couldn't predict how the future would change.

Ouyang Shuo shook it off and continued to search for more details about the information piece.

As the Chinese region had the most uprisings, Gaia chose four of the most famous peasant uprisings, throwing all of them into the wilderness.

Uprising Name: Chensheng Wuchuang Uprising

Uprising Time: End of Qin

Uprising Leader: Chensheng, Wuchuang

Uprising Location: Zhongyuan

Uprising Evaluation: The first large scale peasant uprising in Chinese history.

Uprising Name: Huangjin Uprising

Uprising Time: End of East Han

Uprising Leader: Zhang Jiao, Zhang Bao, Zhang Liang

Uprising Location: North

Uprising Evaluation: The largest scale religious organization peasant uprising in Chinese history.

Uprising Name: Huangchao Peasant Uprising

Uprising Time: End of Tang

Uprising Leader: Huangchao

Uprising Location: Southeast

Uprising Evaluation: a long, large scale and highly influential peasant uprising

Uprising Name: Taiping Country uprising

Uprising Time: Qing Dynasty

Uprising Leader: Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing, Li Xiucheng

Uprising Location: Southwest

Uprising Evaluation: The largest scale peasant uprising in Chinese history.

The situation in the game was totally different from the environment of the peasant uprisings.

Hence, Gaia placed these four groups into four big regions, basically covering the whole region. As for those regions that weren't affected like Qiongzhou Island and Yizhou Island, they were considered lucky and escaped it.

Gaia didn't try to uphold absolute fairness in the game, as luck was a type of strength.

It was that phrase: there are advantages and disadvantages. There was nothing that was absolute.

The two islands didn't belong to any imperial city and were out at sea.

In Gaia’s settings, the two islands belonged to the wilderness region. Wild beasts roamed on it, and it was really dangerous. There were even chances of ancient beasts appearing there.

Apart from that, there were large amounts of indigenous people who hunted to survive. If one thought about it, for them to survive in a place where large amounts of primitive beasts thrived, it showed the strength of these indigenous tribes.

The above two elements made it hard for players to survive there too. If not, Ouyang Shuo would have chosen one of those islands and not the Lianzhou Basin.

The island was an out of this world paradise and also a jail.

Of the four uprising groups, the one that Ouyang Shuo paid attention to was the Taiping Country movement. This was because the place where this movement started was Guangxi Xunzhou Jintian Village.

Xunzhou was located on the north side of the Lianzhou Basin, located right outside Zhennan Pass. As for Wuzhou where Chiyou City was located at, it was the east side of Xunzhou.

This meant that if Ouyang Shuo wanted to enter Guangxi, he had to deal with the Taiping Country.

The Taiping Country Organization was secretive. They had many officials in their inner Organization and was the strongest Organization amongst the four groups.

With the strength of Shanhai Territory, they absolutely couldn’t contend against Taiping Country.

Luckily, the explosion of the uprising needed a long preparation time and wasn't something that would happen instantly.

At the start, the core members of the uprising would appear in the wilderness and recruit people before building a base, expanding outward, and taking over more territories.

Their final goal would be to build up a powerful country.

Hence, the uprising groups could be considered a lord group with a bug technique.

When they arrived, they already had the backbone of their system and had the strong skill of gathering refugees.

Ouyang Shuo prayed for the territories which were around the uprisings. They would be the first victims and couldn't block the strong uprising army.

In the last life, Ouyang Shuo remembered that some unlucky lords surrendered to the uprising group and managed to live as half an official.

Some lords actually made it and were really successful.

In truth, the settings in Gaia were very free.

After Gaia implanted the uprising groups into the wilderness, they wouldn't interfere in the game.

This meant that if these uprising groups were really strong or the lords were really lousy, then these uprising groups could really survive until the end.

Gaia definitely wouldn't remove the last information piece when the next one appeared.

They definitely wouldn't!

If the lords in a country worked together and couldn't beat the uprising group, it meant that it would be game over for all the lords.

In the end, the system imperial city had to send out troops to invade the uprising group to clean it out.

After which, the players could redo the village creation mission, obtaining the village creation token, building their villages and starting from scratch.

In such a way, when the country war started, this country would be easily slaughtered by other countries.

Hence, for lords to surrender to the uprising groups was a good way out.

If one could get a high position in it and even earn merit points from it, they could be able to become a founding hero and obtain land and a rank.

When the game ended, the calculated achievement value would be the same as owning a territory.

In such a way, this gave a way out for the unlucky lords and sent the game into a more complicated scene.

To lords, this was a huge challenge.

If not, why would lords player survive in the wilderness to the end?

To this, Ouyang Shuo could only laugh bitterly. What he could only do was to quickly unify the Lianzhou Basin and make a stable base for the territory.

As for the others, he could only solve them as they came.

Chapter 306- Assassination

Gaia 2nd year, 1st month 1st day, Jingdou

No matter how grand the news of the information piece was yesterday, it was something for the future. What players cared about most now was still the 2nd system auction.

Walking on the bustling streets of Jingdou, Ouyang Shuo couldn't help but be awed. Compared to the imperial city, his small land was nothing; it wasn't even close to being on the same level.

On the wide streets, people swarmed and carts and chariots were plenty. The shops on both sides were all two floors high and built with green bricks and red tiles. The amount of products were plenty and it was indescribably prosperous.

Besides Ouyang Shuo were Song Jia and Bing'er.

Compared to the bustling modern city, the olden one gave off a different charm.

"Brother, sugar-coated haws!"

Coming to Jingdou, her true colors were revealed. The little brat was holding a sugar man and also stared at the sugar-coated haws in the shop.

Ouyang Shuo had not followed Bing'er around, and he was feeling guilty in her heart.

To let her be happy, he would just let her do as she wished.

"Boss, give me a sugar-coated haw!" Ouyang Shuo passed him a silver coin.

"No, two sticks!" Song Jia suddenly said.

The two beauties, each one holding a stick of sugar-coated haws, slowly strolled on the streets and ate it deliciously.

Danger suddenly struck.

An ordinary-looking man standing behind Ouyang Shuo suddenly took out a sword.

As the sharp blade came out of the sheath, the blade shone in the light.

The blade stabbed straight toward Ouyang Shuo's heart.

Ouyang Shuo was astonished, goosebumps appearing over his body.

Feeling the killing intent from behind, Ouyang Shuo didn't have time to think and side stepped to try and dodge. The sharp blade stabbed into his chest and fresh blood flowed.

Ouyang Shuo jumped away and instantly opened the distance between the two.

Turning around, he saw a young swordsman. He charged closer and the sword in his hand was covered with blood.

"Wuyi!"

Song Jia who was walking in front shrieked, she pulled out her Qingfeng Sword and rushed forward.

Ouyang Shuo didn't turn around and kept focus. "Don't come over, protect Bing'er!"

Song Jia froze and instantly stopped, pulling Bing'er's hand and protecting her by her side, looking worriedly at Ouyang Shuo. She could feel that the sword skills of this assassin were special.

The assassin didn't give Ouyang Shuo a chance, leaping forward once again.

Ouyang Shuo looked stern. He totally didn't have the chance to take the Tianmo Spear from his storage bag. If he got distracted, there was a high chance he would be killed.

Luckily, apart from his spear technique, his bajiquan was good too.

The sword shone across, Ouyang Shuo push it to the side before trying to steal the sharp blade from his hand.

The assassin wasn't a novice, and saw that the opponent was better than he expected, totally different from the intel he had received. He didn't dare to be overconfident and went all out, not giving Ouyang Shuo a chance.

In a short moment, both of Ouyang Shuo's hands were covered with blood, and had several sword cuts.

If Ouyang Shuo wasn’t resilient, he would have been screaming out in pain.

Gaia had a 50% reduction in pain reception.

Bajiquan was good at close combat. As the assassin was quick and sharp, he immediately opened up the distance. The sword light flashed across incessantly, leaving either deep or small wounds on Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo was helpless. Without a weapon in hand, he couldn't do anything. In addition, the sword that the assassin stabbed into his chest at the beginning, he had no time to deal with it and nonstop blood flow.

The huge loss of blood made his strength drop profusely, and he couldn't focus anymore.

If this continued, he would definitely bleed out.

To an assassin, the best method now would be to continue wasting time and strength.

Unfortunately, one mustn't forget that this was the most bustling street in Jingdou.

An assassination on these streets instantly caused an uproar and everyone panicked.

Not long after, the experts in charge of the safety of Jingdou would arrive.

At that time, everything would be too late.

Just at that moment, from the 2nd floor of a shop, a sharp arrow accurately shot Ouyang Shuo's thigh. The huge impact caused him to stumble forward and nearly kneel on the ground.

"Wuyi!"

Song Jia cried out. She was heartbroken and wanted to rush forward.

However, she couldn't. Since there was someone firing arrows, it meant that the enemy had accomplices. She had to protect Bing'er's safety. She knew how important that little brat was to Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo knew that if this continued, he would definitely die and might even drag down Song Jia and Bing'er.

He could only take a gamble.

Ouyang Shuo purposely stumbled forward and knelt on the ground.

When the assassin saw such a good chance, he came forward and went straight for the kill.

Ouyang Shuo kept his head down as a cruel smile flashed across his face. Just as the sharp sword stabbed forward, he turned to the side and the sword stabbed into his lower rib.

A sharp pain spread from that region.

Ouyang Shuo gritted his teeth, as beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. He used strength, locking the sword in his ribs and not allowing the enemy to break loose.

The assassin wanted to pull his sword out and stab again but found that he couldn't. Instantly, a he had a bad feeling.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

Making use of the chance, a white light shone across and the Tianmo Spear appeared in his hand.

Holding onto the Tianmo Spear, Ouyang Shuo's aura changed and he was like an overlord.

The spear appeared and stabbed straight at the enemy. Although it looked normal, the blow was impossible to dodge.

The assassin was shocked, immediately letting go of the sword and barely avoiding the spear.

His attack failed, and seeing that the experts were arriving, the assassin was furious and embarrassed. He didn't expect that he, a peak level expert of the adventure gamemode players, would actually fail to kill a lord.

"Lianzhou lord really surprises people!"

As the assassin backed off, in his hand appeared another sword.

"Who are you?" Ouyang Shuo bore the pain, as he coldly looked at the enemy.

"You don't need to try to buy time. We are doing this for money and helping to solve another's problem!"

Ouyang Shuo frowned, feeling that this statement was familiar. "You are Blood Sword?"

"You, how do you know?" The assassin freaked out and couldn't keep calm anymore. It was like the greatest secret in his heart had suddenly been revealed.

Blood Sword, the most mysterious assassin Organization in china in his last life.

Their style was what the assassin had said: Take money to help solve problems.

The moment they accepted a mission, they wouldn't rest until they completed it.

No matter who it was, be it a lord or a sect leader, they were all within their assassination scope. At their peak, they even announced that there was no one they couldn't kill.

Previously Blood Sword was still secretly building up strength, so outside people had no knowledge of their existence.

Counting the time, it was about when Blood Sword had announced themselves to the world.

What Ouyang Shuo didn't expect was that he actually became the first target of Blood Sword.

Blood Sword wanted to make use of the assassination of such a well-known target to instantly get famous.

How would he have expected that his highly secretive identity would be revealed.

It was so shocking that he didn't know what to do.

"You guys are really Blood Sword." A cold smile flashed across Ouyang Shuo’s face.

"Are you trying to bluff me?" The assassin's face turned red. "That's not right; how do you know our name?"

"Since you tried to kill me, you must get ready for my revenge." Ouyang Shuo didn't know where their main base was located, as their members were all part time and even the inner circle didn't know about the identities of the others.

"Such big words!"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. With the Tianmo Spear as a support, he steadied himself. His wounds were still bleeding and seeping onto his clothes.

Even so, no one dared to underestimate him.

When the assassin saw that his identity was exposed, it made Ouyang Shuo seem more inscrutable.

The assassin was wary of him and wanted to find out whether or not he was lying.

With such a delay, the experts were about to arrive. The assassin didn't dare to take the risk and chose to leave. The moment one was captured by them, they wouldn't even manage to revive.

"The Lianzhou lord is indeed special, so let's meet next time!"

As he said this, he retreated and instantly disappeared within the hoard of people.

As expected from the Blood Sword, they were swift and didn't drag things out.

As the assassin left, this meant the end of the assassination attempt.

As long as Ouyang Shuo didn't die, this meant that he would continue to face their assassination attempts.

They had many styles and methods, but they were best at silent killing. Their plan today was to make themselves famous and known. Hence, they chose to kill openly.

After he left, Ouyang Shuo finally couldn't hold on any longer.

"Cough!" Ouyang Shuo's body couldn't take it anymore, as he coughed out a mouthful of blood.

"Wuyi!"

"Brother!"

Song Jia and Bing'er ran across to support Ouyang Shuo.

"Wuyi, are you okay!"

"I'm fine!"

When he had fought, Bing'er was really well-behaved, not making a sound and not crying out.

After the storm passed, she couldn't hold it anymore and looking at the blood stains on her brother. Tears started forming in her eyes. "Brother, is it painful?"

Ouyang Shuo reached out and rubbed her head, consoling her. When his hand was in the air, only then did he realize it was stained with blood.

"Baby, brother is fine!"

Just at this moment, the experts had arrived.

"Marquis!" The leader walked in front of Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo nodded as he described the appearance of the assassin. "I hope your men can give me an answer!"

He was a lord. After he was almost assassinated in Jingdou, he had the power to command and order them.

The constable said solemnly, "Lord, don't worry."

Chapter 307- Who's the Mastermind?

The Jingdou Auction House sat at the middle portion of the busiest commerce street, and everyone was already swarming through the doors. Be it lords of territories, leaders of guilds or sects, or even lone travellers, they all appeared.

Unprecedented.

Making use of the chance, before the anniversary auction began, the Jingdou Auction House held a large-scale auction as sort of a warm up event.

The items auctioned off were plentiful.

Although they weren’t as rare as those that would be on the anniversary auction, they were still excellent products. All items above gold rank, basically high-end player goods.

The anniversary auction wasn’t something that any player could obtain an item in. As such, most of the players at the scene were just there to take a look. Hence, this auction helped cater to their needs, making it unexpectedly popular.

At the door of the auction house, a group of players gathered up, seemingly anxious.

“Why hasn’t the boss arrived? The auction is about to begin. Did something happen?”

“Stop jinxing it!”

“Why doesn’t Gaia just make a long distance communication function?’

“Okay, okay, let’s have a little patience guys, let’s wait a while longer!”

“Guys, do you think that the boss forgot about the time as he was shopping with sister-in-law? Hoes over bros!”

“Little lion, how dare you talk bad about the boss. We will tell on you.”

“Ah?” Gong Chengshi forced out a smile. ”Haha, Xunlong you won’t do that right? Haha, we are all good brothers, good brothers.”

“Five treats at Qingfeng Garden!”

“Ha? Isn’t that too harsh?”

Qingfeng Garden was the biggest brothel in Jingdou. It cost a few hundred gold each time.

“So, no deal?”

“Deal!” Gong Chengshi silently cried, as he had asked for it.

Feng Qiuhuang heard the two of them getting out of hand and scolded, ”You two uncultured swines!”

“Feng Sis (what people in china call like escorts or like bar ladies) , we are very pure people!”

“What did you call me?” Feng Qiuhuang instantly raged.

Xunlong Dianxue looked at Gong Chengshi who was just looking for it and started gloating.

Gong Chengshi immediately felt like dying. He couldn’t control his mouth. He tried to suck up and say, ”Sister Fengwu, I’m wrong, I’m really wrong, really!”

Feng Qiuhuang stared at him and didn’t bother anymore, turning around and going toward Bai Hua.

The members of the Shanhai Alliance stood at the door of the auction house, attracting a lot of attention; not only were they famous, but Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang were both absolute beauties.

The assassination attempt that happened on the commerce street seemed to have no effect, like a drop of rain in the sea. It was like nothing had occurred.

Under the company of Song Jia, he went to a hospital and had his wounds dealt with before rushing to the auction house. No matter what, this was something that he couldn’t miss.

As for the constables’ investigation, Ouyang Shuo didn’t hold too high hopes.

As long as the assassins left Jingdou, they were practically free men.

Of course, the constables would draw up wanted posters and arrest warrants based on the Ouyang Shuo’s description and send it to all the imperial cities. However, the actual effect would depend on Ouyang Shuo’s influence.

Obviously, his current status wasn’t enough to make the other imperial cities act.

Ouyang Shuo cared about the identity of the mastermind more. The perpetrator behind whole thing who wanted him to die.

As a lord, level wasn’t important. Reviving once wouldn’t have a huge effect on him.

The crux of the problem was that if he died, he needed to spend half a day in the Reincarnation Hall. Hence, if Ouyang Shuo had died, he would have missed out on the auction.

The mastermind had really planned it well.

Ouyang Shuo’s arrival attracted a huge commotion. All the bandages made him look like half a dumpling, and if someone wasn’t familiar with him, they definitely wouldn’t recognize him.

“Boss, Boss?” Gong Chengshi ran over.

“Yes, it’s me.”

Gong Chengshi had the look one had when they looked at their cute pet, making Ouyang Shuo speechless.

“Boss, did you go peep at a a girl bathing? What happened?” Gong Chengshi didn’t give Ouyang Shuo a chance to explain himself.

If Ouyang Shuo could move about, he would’ve beaten Gong Chengshi up.

“Little Shuo, what happened?” Little Aunt and Xie Siyun walked over.

The others also surrounded him.

“I’ll explain it to you guys in detail after the auction ends. Let’s enter first.”

The Jingdou auction house specially prepared suites for the ten biggest territories and the ten biggest guilds. The members of Shanhai Alliance all went into Ouyang Shuo’s suite.

As they walked by, Sha Pojun suddenly exited from his suite.

His eyes were sharp, and he instantly recognized Ouyang Shuo, teasing, ”Well isn’t it the great lord Qiyue Wuyi? How did you become like this? Don’t tell me? Haha.”

Ouyang Shuo didn’t care about him and just walked toward his own suite.

“Hen!” Sha Pojun returned back into his suite.

Ouyang Shuo’s suite was the number one suite in the auction house and was more than enough for all the members of the alliance.

After settling down, Song Jia asked, ”Wuyi, could it have been Sha Pojun?”

As the representative of the grey powers, he had relationships with such organizations.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. ”It doesn’t look like it’s him.”

Sha Pojun didn’t have the motive to do so. He hated Ouyang Shuo, but he had limited funds and couldn’t do much during the auction. As such, he didn’t need to kill Ouyang Shuo and prevent him from coming.

A dog that bites wouldn’t bark, Ouyang Shuo suspected that it was Chun Shenjun.

During the first system auction, Chun Shenjun was very confident. In the end, Ouyang Shuo played him, leaving him empty handed. During this auction, he would have definitely prepared well and been more wary of Ouyang Shuo’s presence.

“What are the both of you talking about? Little Shuo, what’s with your injuries?”

Since Little Aunt asked, Ouyang Shuo decided to tell everyone about the assassination attempt.

In an instant, the suite was in an uproar.

“Despicable!”

“Jerk!”

“Such an asshole!”

Xie Siyun frowned. ”Why didn’t we have any news before?”

The others wanted to continue. However, the auction started at this very moment.

Compared to the first system auction, there were more items in the 2nd one, a total of 108. The top 10 items would all be left until last.

As there were too many items, the auction style would be different from the first.

The auction would be split into two parts. The first would be a silent auction. Players could all bid within an hour time limit; they could only bid once for each item and couldn’t change their bids.

After the bidding ended, the highest bid would win the item.

Ouyang Shuo picked up a manual that described the items of the auction.

In the list, there were actually various scrolls, tokens, treasures and even weapon crafting manuals. There were also equipment, pills, skill books and cultivation techniques that adventure gamemode players loved.

A whole load of different items.

Each item was at the dark gold level, and there were even one or two platinum ranked items.

As for the last few items, they were all kept a secret and weren’t revealed.

Out of the members of the Shanhai Alliance, apart from Ouyang Shuo, Bai Hua, Feng Qiuhuang and Snow-War Rose Mercenary Group, the rest had limited funds and didn’t care about the last 10 items.

Ouyang Shuo picked up a book and bid 2000 gold. After that, he didn’t act. His goal was the 10 items.

Quickly, an hour had passed and he smoothly obtained the book.

The others all had some gains. Bai Hua got a Shield Making Technique Manual and Feng Qiuhuang got a Heavy Sword Crafting Manual.

Only Gong Chengshi got nothing, as he had bid too little on the item that he wanted.

“Who asked you to be stingy!” Xunlong Dianxue gloated.

Gong Chengshi was on the verge of tears.

The 2nd stage of the auction was the fun part.

The best auctioneer in Jingdou Auction House walked onto the stage. Behind the auctioneer, there were 10 people with trays covered with red cloth.

After the simple speech, the auction immediately began.

“Now, for the first item!”

The first beautiful model walked to the front and opened the cloth, revealing a token.

The auctioneer introduced. ”This is a silver village creation token. Base price 10 thousand gold, buyout 30 thousand gold. Please place your bids.”

As expected, the first item was already so enticing.

If it was a year ago, this rare token would be sold for a sky high price.

Unfortunately, a year had passed and the powers had already formed up. Even with a silver village creation token, one wouldn’t be able to establish himself in the wilderness.

The key was even with funds, the rank was one that stopped one from upgrading.

Ouyang Shuo was moved, instantly making the decision. What seemed useless to others was like a god weapon in his eyes.

“11 thousand gold!” Someone tested the water.

After the bid, no one followed. It was unexpectedly cold.

The sudden situation caught the auctioneer off guard, ”11 thousand gold, 11 thousand gold, are there any other bids?” In her eyes, was a glimpse of pleading.

If the village creation token was auctioned off like this, she definitely wouldn’t be able to keep her job.

“15 thousand gold!” Ouyang Shuo placed his bid.

Wah~~~

All the players looked toward the first suite like fools. Everyone knew who sat inside, the strongest lord in the China region- Qiyue Wuyi.

One can afford to be willful if he’s rich.

If he had only slightly raised the bid, someone else might have tried to fight him, but Ouyang Shuo had directly spent 15,000 gold.

No one else could act as rich as Ouyang Shuo and casually throw out such a high amount.

Just like this, the first item landed in his pocket.

Chapter 308- Dark Horse

“Little Shuo, if you feel you have too much money, you can lend it to me. Must you be so stupid?”

The many people in the first suite definitely didn’t understand Ouyang Shuo’s actions, but to say it out so directly, only Lin Jing could do so.

“Sigh,” Ouyang Shuo had to explain, ”Little Aunt, I didn’t recklessly spend money. This village creation token is worth it.”

“Explain yourself. If you don’t make sense, I’m going to beat you up!” Lin Jing was a swordswoman and her combat strength and damage output were obviously very high.

‘The token is prepared for Bing’er for her to build a territory.”

“Are you kidding me? Bing’er is still a kid; how can she be a lord?”

Bing’er, who was sitting in the suite, curiously lifted her head when her brother mentioned her.

“Let me finish!”

Facing such an anxious senior, Ouyang Shuo was helpless.

“Speak!”

“Bing’er can’t manage it, but I can. I’m her guardian so based on the system setting, I can help her manage things until she reaches the legal age,” Ouyang Shuo explained.

“There’s such a setting. Why don’t I know it?”

“You aren’t a lord; of course, you wouldn’t know about it,” Ouyang Shuo muttered softly.

“Wuyi, I also didn’t know about this. Did any of youl know about it?” Bai Hua looked at the both of them bickering, so she wanted to help resolve the situation.

Xunlong Dianxue and the others all shook their heads, ” Nope.”

“Isn’t there another term on the lord’s interface? It’s written clearly there. All of you, did you even read it carefully?”

“Wow boss, we really worship you. This terms and conditions are so long and stupid, a total of 20 pages. You actually finished reading it!” Gong Chengshi teased.

“Worship +1”

“+2”

“+3”

……

“That’s enough,” Ouyang Shuo facepalmed.

Why did everyone start playing a fool.

Amidst the laughter, the auctioneer started to auction off the second item.

The item on the second tray was revealed, it was an old scroll.

The auctioneer said, ”This book is the Suozi Armor Crafting Manual. The base price is 11 thousand and the buyout is 35 thousand. Please make your bids.”

The Suozi Armor was a common armor—cavalry, infantry, or even archers could all equip it.

In terms of defense, the Suozi Armor was average. However, it was still naturally better than the system-generated armor. Hence, there was a serious competition for it.

“12 thousand!”

“13 thousand!”

“14 Thousand!”

……

“20 thousand!”

“22 thousand!:”

“23 thousand!”

The price continued to climb upward, and it quickly reached 25 thousand. The people who were left were Zhan Lang and Chun Shenjun.

Amongst the Shanhai Alliance, Ouyang Shuo had the Buren Armor and the Mingguang Armor, while Feng Qiuhuang had the Tiefutu Armor. Hence, they didn’t particularly need the Suozi Armor.

On the other hand, the Yanhuang Alliance were the ones who badly needed it.

In the end, Zhan Lang won the Suozi Armor with a bid of 28 thousand.

It wasn’t that Ouyang Shuo didn’t think about going in. After all, who would mind more armor varieties? Moreover, the Suozi armor also had some uses. Only, this was the 2nd item and he only had around 100 thousand, so it was better to play safer.

The speed of the auction started to slowly peak.

“Now, on to the third item of the auction. ”The auctioneer pointed to the third tray. ”Ming Dynasty Warship Building Manual, starting bid 15 thousand gold, buyout 45 thousand. Please make your bids.”

“Ah!” Ouyang Shuo breathed in a breath of cold air, unable to control the excitement in his heart.

The thing he needed finally came out.

Before the ocean trading and exploration of the Qing Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty Warship technology was basically the highest level in China.

At that time, it could also be considered the best in the world.

Better yet, this was a collective manual, similar to what Ouyang Shuo had obtained in the 1st auction.

Getting it would mean wielding the warship building technology of a dynasty and even an era.

No one could remain calm.

Out of the top 10 territories in the China region, apart from Ouyang Shuo, only Ba Wang and Xunlong Dianxue were close to the ocean.

If one considered the river flow and that the map was 10 times larger, the intersections of waterways and rivers, especially in the south were numerous and warships were definitely needed.

One could imagine how a war would break out for this manual.

In less than 10 minutes, the price was raised up to 28 thousand gold.

The poor Xunlong Dianxue had no choice but to give up. He still owed the Four Seas bank money. Hence, he could only watch on.

Luckily for him, he had a strong ally.

“Boss, is it time to act?”

Ouyang Shuo was calm and didn’t rashly join in.

“Wait a while longer!”

“Still?” Xunlong Dianxue didn’t believe that Ouyang Shuo would give up on this.

Just at this moment, the pace of the bidding picked up.

“30 thousand!”

“33 thousand!”

“35 thousand!”

……

At last, Ouyang Shuo couldn’t stay calm, this was of absolute importance to the territory and was even more important than his life.

“38 thousand!” Ouyang Shuo bid once again.

Basically, this price was the limit of what the players could handle.

After Ouyang Shuo placed the bid, only Xiong Ba remained.

Xiong Ba was in his own suite and said out toward Ouyang Shuo, ”Brother Wuyi really is rich, enough to make people feel despondent.”

“39 thousand!” Ouyang Shuo made a final gamble.

“40 thousand!”

Ouyang Shuo was firm and the moment Xiong Ba ended his words, he raised the bid. If Xiong Ba bid once more, he would buy out the item.

The whole place was in an uproar. A single item for 40 thousand gold was seemingly unbelievable.

“Brother Wuyi, mad respect.” Xiong Ba raised both hands and surrendered.

In the end, Ouyang Shuo won it with 40 thousand gold.

The sound of the hammer made everyone turn around.

Di Chen, on the other hand, was relieved. ”If this continues, Qiyue Wuyi definitely wouldn’t be able to compete with us for that item.”

Juedai Fenghua wasn’t so sure and said calmly, ”Did you forget about the first system auction?”

Di Chen froze. ”It’s different, Qiyue Wuyi has already spent 50 thousand. No matter how rich he is, he wouldn’t have much left.”

“I really don’t know how he has so much money. In theory, he has just upgraded and needs loads of money. How would he have so much free cash?” Di Chen couldn’t understand.

Juedai Fenghua didn’t say anything, showing that she she was confused too.

“Do you think he used up the money to build the territory?”

“Do you think he’s a person that rushes for short term gain?”

“No!”

The sudden silence made one uncomfortable.

Chun Shenjun had a weird expression on his face. ”Such a strong assassin also didn’t manage to kill you, you are really lucky.”

“I hope you won’t be my tripping stone, or else…”

Chun Shenjun was as cold as a snake looking at its prey.

After a short break, the auction continued.

“Now. we will begin on the 4th item.” The auctioneer held up a scroll and said, ”After using this, one can immediately class change to the hidden occupation—Chi Cultivator, starting bid 12 thousand gold. Buyout would be 35 thousand gold. Please make your bids.”

The moment the voice ended, the adventure gamemode players were immediately thrown into a state of uproar.

Chi Cultivator. It sounded like an incredible hidden occupation.

“18 thousand gold!”

“20 thousand gold!”

“22 thousand gold!”

……

“26 thousand gold!”

The blood of the adventure mode players’ was boiling, and they increased the bid 2000 by 2000.

Ouyang Shuo was impressed. There were so many rich people in the guilds.

The bids continued and even the first suite wasn’t an exception.

Xie Siyun, who was a priest, was similar to a Chi Cultivator.

“30 thousand gold!” Xie Siyun bid for a second time.

Seeing that the price was reaching the buyout, the bidding slowed.

In the end, it was a battle between the top 10 guilds.

Apart from the guilds formed purely of work occupation players, the rest wouldn’t easily give it up. Even if they couldn’t use it, they could still give it to their core members.

Just as the guild leaders were competing, a bid was suddenly thrown out in the public area.

“35 thousand gold!”

The one that raised the tablet was a random player.

The atmosphere instantly frozed; the sudden silence was frightening.

In an instant, the pause was broken and the players caused a commotion.

Be it the players in the suites or those in the public area, they all looked at the dark horse with their mouths agape, wanting to see who in the world he was.

Chapter 309- Hidden Aristocratic Family

The dark horse player was wearing a hood, and no one could see his appearance, making him look really mysterious. The minds of the leaders of the various guilds were like a thousand alpacas had ran across, they wanted to cry but no tears came out.

After raising the tablet, that player immediately left the public area. Then, they got up and exited the auction house.

Obviously, they had come for the class change scroll.

The 4th item had ended just like this. This dark horse player would become the biggest mystery during the second system auction.

Ouyang Shuo hadn't remembered that there was such a mysterious buyer in his last life.

Based on his conjecture, the person was either a solo player or he had completed some hidden quest and obtained a huge prize; or he was from a hidden aristocratic family. Only these two possibilities would explain why he had so much gold.

And he looked more like the latter.

For a normal solo player, even if he had gold, he wouldn't know what item would be up on the auction.

Was it that those mysterious aristocratic families finally couldn't stand the boredom and were coming out to play?

Thinking of this point, Ouyang Shuo had a weird expression on his face.

His rebirth had really changed many things.

To bring things into perspective, before Ouyang Shuo's identity was revealed, he was also thought to be a child of the aristocratic families. One could see how strong and mysterious they were.

Of the hidden aristocratic families, their numbers and members were unknown, whether they were good or bad were unknown, and they were like a fog that hung over the game.

Of course, hidden didn't mean they were hermits.

They were possibly your colleague, or some grandpa playing chess in the garden, or even the butcher or tailor.

Everything was possible.

As more and more powers took time to enter the field, the game was becoming more and more interesting.

The 2nd year of Gaia was destined to not be simple.

The auction continued.

"Now, let's begin the auction of the 5th item."

The auctioneer pointed to the item on the tray and said, "This is The Shanwen Armor making technical manual. Starting bid is 13 thousand gold, buyout is 40 thousand gold. Please make your bids."

Compared to the Song Dynasty Buren Armor, the Tang Dynasty Shanwen Armor was more pure. As the armor pieces were mostly in a ‘Shan’ shape, hence the name.

The Shanwen Armor was formed with three armor pieces, the typical Chinese model. The outer armor was beautiful and it fit the body, was easy to fix, and overall had a strong defensive ability, but as the crafting process was complicated, the cost was high, so it was mostly for generals and commanders.

Apart from Ouyang Shuo, no one was moved.

"14 thousand gold!"

"15 thousand gold!"

……

"17 thousand gold!"

"30 thousand gold!" Di Chen suddenly raised his tablet.

The auction pace was totally broken. His call had instantly brought the bidding price close to the buyout and showed he was determined to get it.

Di Chen wanted to use this method to obtain the item for the lowest price.

In the Shanhai Alliance, apart from Ouyang Shuo, only Bai Hua had the gold to continue.

The Yanhuang Alliance, Chun Shenjun, and Xiong Ba had the funds. However, oddly, neither of them didn't raise their tablets, seemingly having an understanding with Di Chen.

"31 thousand!" Bai Hua raised up her tablet.

Di Chen's eyes focused, he shouted without hesitation," 35 thousand gold!"

The huge jumps in bidding placed a lot of pressure on Bai Hua. She had only brought 40 thousand gold and had already spent a portion during the first round.

If she wanted to continue, she had to borrow money from Ouyang Shuo and with Di Chen's determination, he would choose to buyout the item.

After Bai Hua discussed with Tsing Yi, they chose to give up. One reason was that the price was too high, and secondly was that Shanhai City Army had already had the ability to sell armor. Hence, they didn't need to rush to make armor for themselves.

Suddenly, Ouyang Shuo suddenly whispered something in Bai Hua's ear.

Bai Hua was stunned and looked at him, speechless. She raised her tablet again, "36 thousand gold!"

Di Chen suite.

"Now what? Do we buy it out?" Di Chen asked.

Juedai Fenghua frowned. "Baihua probably has Qiyue Wuyi's support and wants to push us to the end, to be safe, we should buy it out."

Di Chen sighed, "That's the only way. If it wasn't that we had prepared well, we might have failed again this time." He still felt heart pained that he had spent 10 thousand more than expected.

40 thousand gold wasn't a small number and to prepare that sum, Handan County had lived frugally these past few months, and they pushed back many projects to be able to raise up the gold.

Di Chen tried so hard, but in the end, he still had no choice but to buy it out.

As usual, after the 5th item was auctioned, there would be a break.

During the break, the members of the Shanhai Alliance were curious about what Ouyang Shuo had said to Bai Hua. Based on the situation, she was ready to give up, so why did she suddenly continue?

Ouyang Shuo said calmly, "I told her to just bid. If she really won it, I'd pay the rest. Let's con Di Chen for a sum."

"Haha, boss, well done!"

"Wuyi, you are really too evil. How can you con someone like this? Next time remember to include me..."

"..." Ouyang Shuo was speechless.

"If Di Chen knew the truth, he would cry out in pain, wouldn't he?"

"Haha!” Everyone burst out laughing.

"And Bai Hua, the ice goddess, actually did bad with our boss. I really didn't expect that!"

"I'm innocent..." Bai Hua tried to defend herself.

"Stop bluffing us big sister, you’re an evil person too!" Tsing Yi exposed Bai Hua.

"Haha!" Everyone burst out laughing again.

"Stupid brat, watch how I take care of you later." Bai Hua's embarrassment turned into rage.

"Aiya, save my life. Big sister wants to kill me, save me ah..."

Everyone looked on from the side, no one wanted to help her.

"Sigh, all of you are betrayers!"

"Sister Tsing Yi, you asked for it, we can't help you!" Gong Chengshi helped fan the flames.

"Brother Shi, I will remember you!"

"Ah, I didn't do anything." Gong Chengshi had a face full of innocence.

"You deserve it!"

Hearing the laughter coming out from the adjacent room, Di Chen shivered. He had the feeling like he was played by Ouyang Shuo.

No, it couldn't be, Di Chen consoled himself.

No matter what, he had reached his goal and successfully won the item he wanted.

With the Shanwen Armor, Handan County could form an elite infantry. With Lianpo as the General, the Handan County Army would welcome a huge change.

The Huangjin Uprising in the north would be his opportunity to rise.

After the break, the second half started immediately.

The auctioneer re-entered the stage to host the auction. During the first half of the auction, apart from the first item, the rest were sold for high prices, making her feel confident.

"'Now, we will begin the auction of the 6th item." The auctioneer pointed at an old manual and said, "This mysterious region exploration scroll has a starting price of 10 thousand, and the buyout is 30 thousand. Please place your bids."

This was the dream prize of the adventure mode players.

Different from the class change scroll, the value of this was harder to predict as it only gave players a chance to explore the mysterious region.

As for after tearing the scroll, whether the person would be able to explore the mysterious region, or what they could get from it, there weren't any promises.

If one was lucky, one could get a godly secret manual or a God weapon; if one was unlucky, he could get crafting materials or gold rank equipment.

Everything was unknown.

Of course, the system wouldn't be too dumb.

Passing the mysterious region, one could at least get a dark gold rank equipment.

Even so, the great powers circled it like eagles.

This was because high grade equipment and secret manuals were hard to get from monsters and missions. Especially in regards to cultivation techniques and secret manuals, King rank and above were hard to get.

The mysterious region gave one a chance, a possibility.

If one could take down the 1st mysterious region, it would cause a rise in the reputation of the guild.

Lords like Ouyang Shuo didn't have much interest, as only players could enter the mysterious region and soldiers and generals couldn't.

Hence, it was hard for lords to form a strong team.

"11 thousand gold!"

"12 thousand gold!"

……

"18 thousand gold!"

"19 thousand gold!"

The bidding price continued to rise. Not only were the top 10 guilds bidding, but even second rate guilds and small squads were going for it.

"21 thousand gold!"

"22 thousand gold!"

……

The bidding price continued to rise, and it seemed like it was getting close to the buyout.

At this point, the players looking on were hoping and waiting to see if there would be another dark horse.

"30 thousand gold!"

Yet another buyout.

However this time it wasn't a dark horse but the leader of the first guild, Blood Romance.

He was worried that something might happen and preferred to just buy out, showing the strength of the 1st ranked adventure mode player.

Chapter 310- Godly Changing Point

"Now, time for the 7th item." The auctioneer pointed at the 7th tray and introduced, "This is a merger token. After use, one can merge the subsidiary territory village creation token with a current city. Thus, one doesn't need to rebuild from scratch. The starting bid is 5000 and the buyout is 20 thousand gold, please make your bids."

Ouyang Shuo didn't expect to see a second merger token.

Thinking about that, in the first merger token, there was still a spot that he hadn’t used.

Since these type of things were beneficial to Ouyang Shuo, he decided to obtain it even if he had to buy it out.

Ouyang Shuo understanding it didn't mean that others would. In the eyes of the other lords, the 2nd grade territory had 9 more spaces to use, so why would they need a merger token?

It was another unwelcomed product.

Ouyang Shuo didn't bid, as he didn't want to seem too eager. The others didn't bid, as they couldn't evaluate the worth of the token.

Zhan Lang and Di Chen had pretty much spent all their gold so they couldn't contest. Chun Shenjun and Xiong Ba wanted to hold their gold.

"6000 gold!" Someone from the public area bid.

With a ‘Shua’ sound, everyone turned and looked at him, thinking that they were witnessing a birth of another dark horse.

Suddenly becoming the focus of attention made that player filled with glee.

A minute has passed, and then, another...

As time slowly passed and no one outbid him, that player started to get anxious. As he thought about the consequences, his face grew ashen white.

He was just a small lord who wanted to get the spotlight and didn't want to obtain the token that he didn't even know the use for.

6,000 gold was all of his assets.

His expression naturally couldn't be hidden away from the eyes of the other players.

This was when the players realized that this wasn't a dark horse but a dumb horse.

The place grew raucous, as they laughed at that lord.

"6000 gold, are there any others that would like to bid?" The auctioneer was helpless, these fellows really couldn't see the value of it. "6000 gold once!"

That player's face was devoid of blood and his limbs were cold.

"6000 gold twice!"

The player had a face filled with despair.

Ouyang Shuo looked at the scene in amusement before slowly raising up the tablet.

Seeing that there was hope of it being a hot product, the auctioneer said excitedly, " 7000 gold! The first suite bids 7000 gold, are there any others that would like to bid?"

"Phew!" That player was relieved, and he laid on the chair like he had been revived. He looked gratefully at Ouyang Shuo and swore that he would find a chance to thank him.

The other players felt that Ouyang Shuo bid was to help out the other guy and praised him for his actions. Those people that wanted to try it out and bid also stopped wanting to contest.

Ouyang Shuo wouldn't stupidly clear the air, and with a cheap price of 7000, he obtained the token. Toward that player who was just trying to be famous, he was grateful.

If it wasn't for him, this merger token wouldn't have been at such a price.

Obtaining it, Ouyang Shuo still had 54,000 gold left, enough for one more item.

The cold reaction toward the merger token gave the auctioneer a headache. He loved but hated Ouyang Shuo as the two unpopular items were obtained by him. Such a lucky guy.

Then, the 8th item was revealed; it was actually a treasure sword.

Before the auctioneer introduced it, the adventure mode players became noisy. The second system auction actually had three items so far that were prepared for them.

"Now for the 8th item." The auctioneer pointed at the sword. "This is a god sword and is 5th on the top 10 sword list, crafted by Ou Zhizi and Ganjiang, the two grandmaster swordsmiths, the starting bid is 20 thousand and buyout is 60 thousand. Please place your bids."

The Qixing Longyuan was a really pure sword.

Legend said that Ou Zhizi and Ganjiang, to craft this sword, had chiseled the mountain and used the mountain stream water to form the Beidou Qixing beside the smithy furnace. After the sword was formed, looking down on the blade was like looking down from them mountain into the deep abyss, like there was a dragon's den. Hence, it was called Longyuan.

The god weapon, the first god weapon in the China region had actually appeared in the auction.

The players’ eyes were red like a rabbit’s and wished they could just rush forward and keep the sword.

No matter the lords or the adventure gamemode players, everyone was moved.

Hence, the atmosphere of the auction had reached its peak.

To the adventure gamemode players, they didn't care about the last item and only had the Qixing Longyuan in their eyes.

Unfortunately, the sky high price was something 99.9% of them couldn't afford.

Blood Romance's face was white and it was too late to regret. He regretted that he had spent the money at the front.

"Little Shuo I want this sword!"

Lin Jing took one glance at it and fell in love with the sword.

"Then bid!" Ouyang Shuo felt weird. He himself also wanted it. Even though his sword skills were lousy, it was good to add to his collection for a sense of achievement.

This was a god weapon, a god weapon he had dreamed of in his last life.

"I don’t enough money!" Lin Jing said in embarrassment.

For this auction, they had prepared 45,000. After they used 5,000 in the first round, they only had 40,000 gold left.

In the short time that they were talking, the price had went up to 30 thousand.

The people with the real strength hadn't acted yet. They were clear that the intense battle hadn't started and they were borrowing gold from their allies.

"How do you know If I have money? I spent so much at the start." Ouyang Shuo asked.

"You definitely have it!"

Shanhai City earning loads of money from reselling grain was something that Ouyang Shuo didn't hide from her. She definitely had an estimate of Ouyang Shuo's financial strength.

Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to lend her 20 thousand gold.

"Remember to return it!"

"Hen, stingy." Lin Jing now had enough to buyout the item, so she was very confident.

"Cough!" Ouyang Shuo looked at his elder which was around his age.

This was 20 thousand gold. It wasn't 2 hundred or 2 thousand.

When Lin Jing got the money, she didn't bother about Ouyang Shuo and instead discussed with Xie Siyun.

"Should we just buy it out?" Facing the item that she liked, she lost her calmness.

Xie Siyun thought about it. "Let's wait for a while, if we can save some money, we should." Using such a huge amount of money to buy something that only Lin Jing could use meant that they had to explain to the entire guild, it wasn't as simple as they thought.

Hence, they had to save what they could.

"32 thousand gold!"

"33 thousand gold!"

"35 thousand gold!"

"37 thousand gold!"

The price continued to climb with no signs of stopping.

"40 thousand gold!"

Finally the bid came to a point where the players bidding slowed down. To be able to last until now, thet were the real crocodiles. The cruel massacre had just began.

At this point, Yijian Xilai suddenly called out, "Let's not delay any longer! 45,000 gold!"

It was obvious that Yijian Xilai had already raised up the funds and wasn't going to give the others a chance. In such a short time, not everyone could raise up so much gold.

The 45 thousand gold bid had pushed the bidding to another levels.

"46 thousand gold!" The guild leader of 18 horsemen of Yanyun Yanzi Lisan closely followed.

Yijian Xilai froze, he didn't expect Yanzi Lisan to actually have the money.

Apart from the two of them, there wasn't a third person.

The two of them fought neck and neck; the victor wasn't determined yet.

1st suite.

"Should we follow?" Lin Jing was a little nervous.

"Wait for a while longer, I think that they are at their limits!" Li Siyun was as calm as normal.

"Okay, okay!" Lin Jing didn't want to wait.

She held the red tablet tightly in her hand, getting ready to raise it.

"47 thousand gold!" Yijian Xilai raised the bid.

"48 thousand gold!" Yanzi Lisan shouted.

The two of them started to fight one another and one didn't know how much gold the other brought.

"49 thousand gold!"

"50 thousand gold!"

The other players who were looking on nearly couldn't breathe, 50 thousand gold, such a huge number!

Lin Jing was so nervous that she was about to break the tablet, if it wasn't for Xie Siyun, she would have just bought it out.

A god weapon like the Qixing Longyuan was the ultimate dream of a swordsman and with it, one wouldn't wish for anything more.

"52 thousand gold!"

Yijian Xilai threw in all his gold.

Yanzi Lisan's face was ashen white, and he wasn't as calm as before. In truth, 50,000 gold was all he had. His heart wasn't as calm as his expression and he was just acting for Yijian Xilai.

He didn't expect that it would be of no use.

Seeing Yanzi Lisan's expression, Yijian Xilai was delighted.

"Haha, the Qixing Longyuan is mine!" Yijian Xilai couldn't help but laugh.

Yijian Xilai was a pure swordsman and was addicted to sword arts. That was why he agreed with Di Chen's conditions and managed to gather a sum.

The players looked toward him with envy and jealousy.

In the first suite, Xie Siyun softly said," Bid!"

"53 thousand gold!" Lin Jing instantly placed her bid.

"Hong~~" in an instance the place was in an uproar.

One wouldn't expect that in the end, a dark horse would appear.

No, no, it wasn't a dark horse but a wolf waiting in the dark.

Yijian Xilai's delighted expression had suddenly froze. He looked back at the first suite in disbelief and his face turned red.

This moment, he had lost all his face.

The auctioneer didn't bother about him and continued, "53 thousand once!"

"53 thousand twice! Are there anymore bids?"

"53 thousand thrice!"

"Peng!" As the auctioneer slammed the hammer, "Congratulations Snow Rose for getting the 8th item."

When Yijian Xilai regained his composure and looked at the mocking expression of the players beside him, he gave a deadly stare toward the first suite.

Snow-War Rose Mercenary group, I'm not done with you!

Chapter 311- Ten Famous Swords

"Haha, Yijian Xilai, you have lost so much face."

As the huge show ended, Yanzi Lisan had already calmed himself down, and seeing Yijian Xilai getting KO’ed, he mocked him.

The old phrase: The favor of heavens will go around, retribution will definitely make one unhappy.

Yijian Xilai was furious and didn't have the face to stay, directly leaving the auction house.

In the end, with a sky high price of 53,000 gold, Lin Jing had successfully won the bid.

She had also made an enemy of Yijian Xilai with no chance of reconciliation; with his character, he would definitely find a way to take his revenge.

The stats of the Qixing Longyuan was so strong that it made the members of the Shanhai Alliance drool.

Name: Qixing Longyuan

Hardness: 88

Sharpness:90

Toughness: 85

Specialty: unique, can't be dropped, can't be traded. Blade Breaker (if the hardness of the sword is lower, chance to directly break the sword.)

Killing skill: Beidou Qixing (summoning the power of the seven stars forming the Beidou sword formation which was like the horns of the goat, an unseen attack which can't be blocked.)

Compared to a platinum rank weapon, the stats of a god weapon were incomparable; apart from the usual stats, the specialty meant that the user could not drop or trade the weapon, so one didn't need to be afraid of the god weapon being stolen.

Apart from that, the god weapon had another stat that gained the envy of many.

The strength of the killing skill had to do with the user's internal strength. The stronger it was, the stronger the killing skill. Basically when it was used, all of the internal strength of the user would be used up.

Hence, if Lin Jing wanted to use the god weapon to its best effect, she needed an emperor level or above cultivation method. Unfortunately, those were only obtained by luck.

Looking at the stats, Lin Jing even wanted to join the Dongli Sword sect and cultivate.

In the game, to prevent cultivation methods from being stolen, there was a strict restriction on teaching and passing down techniques. Even core disciples could only cultivate around 80% of the real skill.

Furthermore, when players join a sect, they must be bonded to it. With her position and identity, joining the Dongli Sword Sect was impossible.

Of course, what was most important about the god weapon was the hidden setting.

Based on the setting, the god weapon could be recreated in the real world, and it would be free. As for platinum ranked equipment, not only would there be a chance of failure, one must also use some achievement points.

With the god weapon in hand, one can rule the world.

If not, why would one say that having a god weapon was the dream of all adventure gamemode players?

The moment Lin Jing got the sword, her eyes had never left it as she looked at it in awe.

Just as she picked it up, a system notification sounded out.

"System notification: Congratulations Player Snow Rose for obtaining god weapon, officially triggering series quest, ten famous swords appear in the wilderness!"

The moment the notification sounded out, there was another uproar.

The players in the auction house had personally witnessed how popular a top 10 sword was. To be able to get one, even if one didn't use it for himself, he could be able to sell it and survive happily for many years.

Getting rich overnight was no longer a dream.

Even the Shanhai Alliance members were excited. They had seen the strength of the stats of a god weapon and their desire for one was this much greater than that of normal players.

The presence of the god weapon had surpassed occupations, and every player wanted one.

Especially to swordsmen, the god weapon was a lethal poison. Hong Ying, who saw the stats of the Qixing Longyuan, was now bugging Bai Hua, making her speechless.

Even Song Jia, who had the Qingfeng Sword, desired the Qixing Longyuan. If the one who was in the auction wasn't Lin Jing, she would have asked Ouyang Shuo to buy it. Now, seeing the quest being announced, her eyes brightened and she swore that she would get one.

Seeing the huge commotion of the players, Ouyang Shuo shook his head.

The ten famous swords were: the Xuanyuan Sword, Zhan Lu sword, Chixiao Sword, Qin Ah Sword, Qixing Longyuan Sword, Ganjiang Sword, Moya Sword, Yuzhang Sword, Cunjun Sword and the Chengyin Sword.

The Xuanyuan sword was in the hand of the Yellow Emperor. As such, it was nearly impossible for players to get it. Zhanlu sword was in Yuefei's hand, so it wouldn't appear yet; Chixiao Sword was in Liu Bang's hand and temporarily wouldn't appear.

Hence, the players only had a chance to come into contact with 6 god weapons.

In his last life, someone had triggered the quest, and it wasn't as easy as one expected.

Five years in the last life, only 4 of the god swords appeared, which showed how hard the quest was.

Ouyang Shuo was really interested in the Chixiao sword, but that was the sword of an emperor.

Who knew if he would have fate with it in this life.

Compared to the ten famous swords, what interested Ouyang Shuo most was the swordsmith Ou Zhizi.

One must know that out of the 10, half were made by him. Adding his son-in-law Ganjiang and daughter Moyà, they made all 10.

Ou Zhizi was the only saint rank swordsmith, and based on the era, he was already born. If not, the system wouldn't have taken the Qixing Longyuan out to sell.

If he could find Ou Zhizi and have suitable materials, god weapons would be easy to come by.

Of course, to be able to attract Ou Zhizi, one must be a home of swordsmithing. In Ouyang Shuo's memory, Lianzhou Basin did not have such a place.

In the last life, Ou Zhizi chose a spot and focused on crafting swords.

In this life, Ouyang Shuo wanted to try to be able to find this master first.

After the system notification, the auction was nearing its end. The last two auction items were about to be revealed.

"Now, onto the 9th item." The auctioneer pointed to the old book on the tray and said, "This is a gunpowder making technical manual. Starting price 10 thousand, buyout is 30 thousand. Please place your bids."

Gunpowder wasn't a rare product in the wilderness. There would be more or less some sources. But to produce gunpowder on a large-scale, one needed a specific technical manual.

To other territories, gunpowder was a support item, but to the Shanhai City Navy, it was an important skill and was of great help to the research institute.

Ouyang Shuo didn't hesitate and before the others could react, he bought it out.

Before they reacted, the 9th item was already sold.

The auctioneer was really amazed by Ouyang Shuo’s lack of hesitation.

"Now, onto the 10th item." The auctioneer pointed at an old book on the tray, "This is the siege weapon crafting technical manual, starting price 15 thousand gold, buyout 45 thousand, please make your bids."

There were many types of olden siege weapons like scaling ladder, catapult, siege chariot, siege towers, ballista and the like.

An additional type of siege weapon was always good. Till date, Shanhai City could only make the scaling ladder.

Ouyang Shuo counted the gold he had in his storage bag, with the 7,000 that Little Aunt returned to him, he had 43,000 gold before he bought the 9th item.

He only had 13 thousand left after buying out the last item, not even meeting the starting price.

This was probably the goal of Chun Shenjun, thinking about the assassination on the streets, Ouyang Shuo was extremely cold; he wouldn't let Chun Shenjun get away with it.

"Bai Hua are you interested in getting this?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"Of course." Bai Hua nodded, she frowned," but I only have 35 thousand."

"I'll lend 10 thousand to you, but you have to get it; we can't let it fall into the hands of Yanhuang Alliance."

"Wuyi, why don't you take it?" Bai Hua felt weird.

"No money."

".."

"Damn, I thought boss had an endless supply of money. I didn't think there would be a day!"

Ouyang Shuo's mouth twitched, as he stared at Gong Chengshi.

Like a cold wind swept by, Gong Chengshi's heart shivered; he instantly kept quiet.

"Ok. I'll borrow from you and pay you back through the bank!" Bai Hua agreed in return to allow the Four Seas Bank to open a branch in Consonance County.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, so much easier to talk to smart people.

4th suite, Chun Shenjun was there.

He yawned and muttered, "Is it finally going to start?"

That's right. From the start, his goal was the 10th item and he had prepared 50,000 gold enough to buy it out.

Chun Shenjun was looking on from the side. Qiyue Wuyi had already won 4 items. No matter what, he wouldn't have enough money. As for others, he didn't even consider them.

He was now just ready to get it at the lowest price, the bidding was just a dumb situation.

The bidding process happened just as he had expected.

"16 thousand gold!"

"17 thousand gold!"

……

"21 thousand gold!"

"22 thousand gold!"

……

"30 thousand gold!"

Reaching 30 thousand gold, it pretty much stopped moving.

Chun Shenjun saw that the time was right, so he was ready to bid.

Suddenly, Bai Hua raised up the red tablet.

The auctioneer was elated and loudly announced, "Congratulations to Bai Hua in the 1st suite, buying out the item. This auction has ended. Thank you for your patronage!"

Chun Shenjun's expression was the same as Yijian Xilai’s, totally frozen.

"Haha~~"

From the first suite, there was uncontrolled laughter.

The scheming and well prepared Chun Shenjun had once again left the auction empty handed.

Chapter 312- Fangmo Duduan

Amongst the uproar, the curtains on the second system auction were drawn.

Out of the 10 items, Ouyang Shuo had 4, taking the silver village creation token, Ming Dynasty Warship Making Manual, merger token and the Gunpowder Making technical manual.

Apart from that, Lin Jing took the Qixing Longyuan, and Bai Hua took the Siege Weapon Crafting technical manual.

Shanhai Alliance had once again taken up most of the items in the auction.

Di Chen took the Shanwen Armor Making Technical Manual, Zhan Lang took down the Suozi Armor Making Technical Manual, Blood Romance took the mysterious region exploration scroll, and the mysterious player took the Chi Cultivator hidden occupation class change scroll.

After this auction, the Yanhuang Alliance would have a leap in their armor levels. As for the sad outcomes of Yijian Xilai and Chun Shenjun, no one would empathize.

The highest bidder won, it was obviously like that.

Ouyang Shuo brought 120,000 gold to the auction. In the end, he was left with 3000 gold. In the auction next year, who knew how intense it would get?

After the auction ended, Ouyang Shuo immediately returned to his territory. As for the assassination in Jingdou, Ouyang Shuo would wait until he completed all the stuff he had at hand before he had any free time to tackle that matter.

No matter who the mastermind was, Ouyang Shuo was going to take revenge on Blood Sword. Since they made him their target to announce their presence to the world, they had to be prepared for him to go all out for revenge.

Returning to the territory, Ouyang Shuo passed the Ming Dynasty Warship Making Manual over to the Beihai Shipyard and the Gunpowder Making technical manual over to the Research Institute No. 7.

With these two technical manuals, the Beihai Naval fleet would have a huge upgrade.

The merger token was used to merge with the 3 black iron village creation tokens from Qiushui County. Hence, inside Ouyang Shuo's storage bag were 4 more village creation tokens.

As for that village creation token that he obtained, he would deal with it after he has dealt with all matters at hand.

As for the location of the village, Ouyang Shuo had it planned.

After dealing with some matters, it was already late at night. Only then did Ouyang Shuo return to the lord's manor.

The next day, Ouyang Shuo directly headed to the Recruitment Hall to recruit a historical figure.

The Recruitment Hall had a year cooldown, making Ouyang Shuo feel heart-pained but happy at the same time.

As for the monthly recruitment of a special talent, it was nothing much to the territory. Among the refugees that spawned every day, there would be at least a high ranked talent.

The anniversary update increased the settings of the aboriginal people, and there was a new setting where the lord could use to check the different type of talents in his territory.

Ouyang Shuo only paid attention to the A class talents.

As expected, Cui Yingyu, Cui Shousi, Gu Xiuwen, Zhou Haichen, Zhao Sihu, Wang Feng, Sun Tengjiao, and the like were there. A few of the core members of the backbone were all of the A class.

As for those like Zhao Dewang, Zhao Youfang, Qian Lifei, Du Xiaolan, they only had class B potential. Zhang Daniu, Songsan, Zheng Shanpao, and the like had class C potential.

Overall, the leaders and talents in Shanhai Territory could be considered to be plentiful.

Ouyang Shuo pushed open the gate of the Recruitment Hall and walked beside the teleportation formation, placing his palm into the wooden tablet that caved in. A system notification sounded out.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for activating Recruitment Hall, you have one chance to recruit historical personnel and one chance to recruit special talent, would you recruit?"

"Recruit Historical Talent!"

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for recruiting emperor rank historical person-Du Ruhui, deducting 100 gold.”

A white light shone across and a middle-aged scholar walked out of the teleportation portal, "Keming greets lord!"

Du Ruhui, it was actually Du Ruhui!

Wasn't this the talent that Ouyang Shuo had always wanted? Thinking non-stop about something has its rewards.

Ouyang Shuo immediately rushed to help him up. Then, he said sincerely, "Sir, please get up!"

As one of the important advisors under Li Shimin during the Sui and Tang dynasty, they were able to run the camp well and gain the envy and praise of many.

During the years of the dynasty, Du Ruhui was the right hand men and also a high ranked military official.

The Du Ruhui in front of him was at his peak period. The only worry was probably his body and health. In history, he was sick during the fourth year of the dynasty and passed away, only 46 years old when he died.

When he walked out of the teleportation formation, he couldn't help but cough, his body was slightly slouched and his health wasn't that good.

A look of worry flashed across Ouyang Shuo's face.

As he brought him out of the Recruitment Hall, Ouyang Shuo took a look at his stats.

Name: Du Ruhui (Emperor Rank)

Dynasty: Sui and Tang

Identity: Shanhai city resident

Occupation: Civil Servant
loyalty: 75

Command: 75

Force: 40

Intelligence: 75

Politics: 85

Specialty: Quick thinking (Raise efficiency of territory by 20%), Vision (Raise the success rate of plans by 25%), Capable enough to be a prime minister (Raise handling level of the territory by 10%)

Evaluation: Number 3 mong the Lingyan Pavillion 24 officials. Smart, capable to be a prime minister, great analyst, morally upright inside and outside. Thinks for the future, able to plan for the country and help the country take over and rule; well read in culture and classics, radiates morals and is a good example.

Compared to Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui's reputation was a bit weaker, and it had something to do with him dying early. In terms of ability, the two of them were equal.

One was good at drafting out plans while the other was good at making decisions, they were known as the Fangmou Duduan.

Du Ruhui's appearance gave Ouyang Shuo a huge confidence boost.

Ouyang Shuo led him into his reading room and personally explained the situation to him.

Du Ruhui quickly got into character. He wasn't just a listener. At times, he would ask some questions, which Ouyang Shuo answered one by one.

In less than an hour, both of them were in a deep conversation.

"Keming, I’m thinkin of letting you lead the Military Affairs Department; do you have any opinions?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

Du Ruhui nodded; he had something on his mind.

During the conversation, Du Ruhui noticed that the lord had some worry about the imbalance in the military. The Military Affairs Department was unable to form prestige and status and couldn't form a balance with Baiqi who was the overall general; even the 3 divisions might not be tamed by them, which was undoubtedly a dangerous signal.

Leading the Military Affairs Department was a huge challenge.

Not mentioning the famous General Baiqi, even Shi Wanshui, Er'Lai and Luo Shixin were all excellent talents and to put them in their place and make them listen to you to form up a balance wasn't an easy thing to do.

As for how the current director Ge Hongliang felt, Du Ruhui didn't think about it. He knew that since the marquis had made such a decision, he would deal with everything and didn't need an official like him to worry.

What Du Ruhui didn't expect was for things to be so interesting the moment he arrived.

"Lord, don't worry. I won't let you down," Du Ruhui replied.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. This was Du Ruhui; he was direct and wouldn't drag things out in his dealings.

Following this, both of them had a deep conversation about military affairs.

The reason why the Military Affairs Department wasn't as it sounded, apart from Ge Hongliang's ability being limited, was that the internal structure was widely spread.

The four divisions under it, mainly the Military Intelligence Division, the War Logistics Division, the Armory Division, and the Bow and Arrow Division. Out of those four, the Military Intelligence Division was in charge of intel while the rest were focused on logistical support.

Out of the four, there actually wasn't a division that was in charge of directing and commanding. No wonder the generals would think that the Military Affairs Department was just a supporting unit.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to make use of the reshuffling of the Military Affairs Director to reorganize the structure of the department.

Du Ruhui had led the army. Hence, he was highly familiar with army related military affairs. His many ideas and views brightened Ouyang Shuo's eyes, and he learned a lot.

In a morning, both of them basically nailed down the new structure of the Military Affairs Department.

On that afternoon, Ouyang Shuo invited General Baiqi and the director and officials from the Military Affairs Department for a meeting.

In the main meeting hall, Ouyang Shuo sat on the upper platform, Du Ruhui sat on the first seat on the right. Baiqi sat on the 1st seat on the left.

Following which was Ge Hongliang and the four secretaries.

Seeing Du Ruhui, Ge Hongliang had a bad premonition.

During this period of time, as Baiqi took up the job, Ge Hongliang had a hard time. He was basically usurped by Baiqi and became a director with no power.

Such days were pretty much torture to Ge Hongliang.

Du Ruhui's arrival pretty much meant that a big change was going to happen.

Ouyang Shuo noticed his expression, and a thought flashed across his mind. He could have asked Ge Hongliang to enter his room and personally tell him the news, but he didn't do so.

He wanted to see how Ge Hongliang would react to such a tough situation, would he still be loyal?

This was a test for Ge Hongliang.

As the territory continued to expand, interest disputes started to be more common and factions started to form.

A year of training made Ouyang Shuo more calm and he had thoughts on how to defend against such situations.

The blood and fire training had made Ouyang Shuo cold and resolute.

As time passed, Ouyang Shuo became more and more serious and fierce. Now Qing'er and the others wouldn't dare to play a farce in front of him. Even Fan Zhongyan and the others had more respect for him.

The road to become an emperor, how would it be easy and smooth?

If one got more, one would lose more too. In the end, that person would become a lonely.

Chapter 313- One Up One Down

Before the meeting, Ouyang Shuo introduced Du Ruhui to the officials seated.

Hearing that Du Ruhui was once a high minister of the army, Baiqi had a flash of light in his eyes. Ge Hongliang on the other hand sunk down as his premonition came true.

As for the others, they didn't have the right to voice their opinions.

The meeting officially began and Ouyang Shuo directly announced the reorganization of the Military Affairs Department.

"The Combat Logistics Division will now become the Combat Logistics Department. Under it will be the three divisions as well as the cave military factory. Apart from grain and equipment, the department is also in charge of the reserve force and daily training. The director of military affairs will become the director of the Combat Logistics Department, the other 3 Secretaries will remain."

As Ouyang Shuo's words were completed, the expressions of everyone seated were very complex.

On the surface, it looked like Ge Hongliang's rank didn't change and was moved laterally; actually, in terms of power he was just in charge of logistics and his power largely decreased.

Ge Hongliang kept the same expression, bowing and saying, "Yes, my lord."

Going back to his seat, Ge Hongliang heaved a sigh of relief, it was like a huge rock had landed on the ground. The pressure on him was making it hard to breathe and this arrangement was a sort of a release.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Seeing Ge Hongliang act so calm, he was pleased.

After setting up the Combat Logistics Department, their position was very important and concerned the life of the entire army. If Ge Hongliang didn't put in effort, Ouyang Shuo wouldn't let him stay for long.

Song San and the other 2 Secretaries, upon seeing Ge Hongliang being so calm, also felt many different thoughts.

One couldn't say that Ge Hongliang didn't try his best. It was just that there were too many generals in the army and the competitive spirit was too high, so no matter how much he tried, he could only step back.

Hence, one could see that the lord chose his talents in such a way: those that were worthy would be promoted while those who weren't would be removed.

Thinking about that, the three Secretaries were nervous. Even the director could be replaced, as Secretaries, naturally they could be as well.

No one was irreplaceable, and having a high position didn't mean that they wouldn't be touched.

Song San was more panicked. As the territory continued to increase, the outer environment became more and more complicated, and the position of the Military Intelligence Division became more and more important.

The more important the division was, the higher the pressure was on Song San. He was scared that there would be a day that the marquis relieved him of his position.

Ouyang Shuo looked around and continued, "The Combat Logistics Department belongs to the Military Affairs Department, and at the same time, a War Division and a Military Law Division would be created under the Military Affairs Department. The War Division will be in charge of war planning and commanding, the Military Law Division would be in charge of military law. Du Ruhui will be the director of the Military Affairs Department and the secretary of the war division. The secretary of the Military Law Division will currently be left empty.

The military law secretary would also be called the military Chief Justice, and he needed to find one who wasn't afraid of power and could do his duty unfazed. Shanhai City temporarily didn't have such a talent.

At this point, the Military Affairs Department had control of 4 key areas: military intelligence, military law, war and combat logistics. With Du Ruhui's ability, he would be able to rebuild the prestige in a short amount of time.

The overall general Baiqi and military affairs director Du Ruhui each controlled one aspect. Baiqi was mainly in charge of war time commanding and troop training, while Du Ruhai was in charge of daily building and war time protection.

As the dust settled, Song San and the others were delighted but didn't dare show it.

The Military Affairs Department was so weak that Secretaries like them didn't have power to speak up. Now, changing directors to one who had vast experience, was highly capable, and highly trusted, it was a huge advantage to be his subordinates. With someone backing them, they didn't need to be bullied by the 3 divisions.

As for how the personality of their boss was like, they would find out as they worked with them.

With the appointment of Du Ruhui, in the 4 departments of Lianzhou Lord’s Manor, apart from Cui Yingyu, the leaders were all historical people.

The next day, the clerk room reported the appointments of Du Ruhui and Ge Hongliang to the various military headquarters.

Ouyang Shuo delegated a lot of power to Du Ruhui. The building of the War Division and the Military Law Division was passed onto him. Du Ruhui had the authority to take people from the military or the Army Military Academy to add to the Military Affairs Department.

Du Ruhui was a person who worked fast, and in the same day, he followed Ge Hongliang to inspect the reserve force and the 4 military workshops. On the second day, he went to the various division camps to see.

Gaia second year, 1st month, 4th day

The Rattlesnake Mercenary Group leader, Black Mamba, visited Shanhai City.

Black Mamba came in secret and didn’t bring any of his subordinates. He was an ex-special forces member. In reality, he was a famous personality, but in the game he was unusually low profile.

The planet migration as well as Earth Online in truth gave everyone the opportunity to start over afresh. One’s relationships and information would have to be reformatted and changed.

Black Mamba realized this point and wanted to make use of the game, leading a bunch of his brothers and complete a wonderful revival.

Changing was never an easy thing. Although Black Mamba did a lot of preparation, he lacked an opportunity or to better put it, a spark.

Ouyang Shuo had taken the initiative to be that spark, and it was the opportunity that Black Mamba yearned so much for.

The both of them clicked instantly once they met. As the cooperation between Shanhai City and Rattlesnake Mercenary Group continued to progress, the private relationship between Ouyang Shuo and Black Mamba also deepened, and it wasn’t just a normal business partner relationship.

The 500 strong crossbows that he promised had all been delivered to the Rattlesnake Mercenary Group, increasing their strength substantially. They also recently did some large scale buying and selling and had received a lot of rewards.

Towards Ouyang Shuo’s good intentions, Black Mamba remembered them deeply in his heart.

His personality was similar to that of Gong Chengshi. He was an unrefined person with a little bit of clinginess.

The only difference was that Gong Chengshi, that brat, had the tendency to look for trouble and was looking to be beaten up.

Black Mamba was different, bold and exquisite, cold and warm, four different personality types perfectly combined in his body. To brothers, he would help out at all costs, while to enemies, he was cold and ruthless.

The meeting place was arranged to be at Ouyang Shuo’s reading room.

When they were conversing, they were both very casual.

“I heard that during this auction, little brother, you once again took the limelight!” Black Mamba teased.

Ouyang Shuo laughed. ”Heh, I nearly got killed. Jingdou really isn’t safe, ah!”

Black Mamba’s eyes focused. ”Little brother is talking about the assassination? I’ve heard about it but it was just random rumors. Can you tell me exactly what is going on?”

“It’s the Blood Sword.”

“Blood Sword?” Black Mamba frowned. He had absolutely no clue.

“Even I stumbled upon them by accident, much less you.” Ouyang Shuo lied and said, ”Talking about that, they can be considered to be the same trade as you.”

“How so?” Black Mamba had unknowingly sat straight up.

As one always said, people from the same trade were enemies. Black Mamba had to pay attention.

“Have you heard of Canhua?”

“Canhua? The most mysterious killing organization in real life? Don’t tell me they are Blood Sword?” Black Mamba got emotional and his words were much faster and one question followed another.

“That’s right, it’s them!”

“No wonder!” Black Mamba sighed. ”If it was them then this is nothing special as their styles are exactly the same.”

Reaching up to this point, Black Mamba looked at Ouyang Shuo with a complicated expression and praised. ”Little brother’s identity really makes me curious. Be it us or Canhua, we can’t escape your eyes.” In truth, Black Mamba’s heart wasn’t as calm as what he appeared to be.

Ouyang Shuo laughed but didn’t make a sound.

He didn’t have any mysterious identity. It was just that he was relying on his advantage of having two lives. He naturally wouldn’t explain it even though the both of them were friends.

Many times, for one to maintain a little mystery was a good trump card to keep.

If one played this card right, it would make the enemy worry about you and be more cautious when plotting against you. At the same time, they will respect you and think twice about betraying you.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo naturally wouldn’t reveal this trump card. In his last life, he was betrayed and that made him stone-hearted. He wouldn’t totally trust a person.

Ouyang Shuo remembered that a person once said that: If one didn’t want to be betrayed, the best method was to not give them a chance or a reason to betray you.

Ouyang Shuo firmly believed in that statement.

“If Blood Sword is Canhua, that makes things hard.” Black Mamba skipped over the topic and didn’t talk about it again. He understood that everyone had their secrets and to maintain a long lasting relationship, one shouldn’t touch each others’ secrets.

“In reality, have you guys made contact?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

“We actually have.” Black Mamba said bitterly, ”We were doing an escort mission. In the end, our escort target was their assassination target.”

“You guys fought?”

“If not, what?” Black Mamba raised his arms wide, his laugh was a little depressed. Thinking about that encounter, he still had some regrets. “That time, we sacrificed a total of 30 brothers and still didn’t manage to save the target.” That was also one of the few failures of Rattlesnake.

Even the famous Rattlesnake had failed under the hands of Canhua, so this enemy was certainly different.

Chapter 314-Snake and Rat

The truth that Blood Sword was actually Canhua shocked Black Mamba.

At this point, Black Mamba finally understood why Ouyang Shuo had asked him to come to Shanhai County, so he took the initiative to say,” Little brother, what do you need me to help? If I can do it, I definitely will!”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Then, I wouldn’t hold back. I hope that you could help me investigate them and find out the location of their base.”

“Investigating them is no problem,” Black Mamba said without hesitation, “I also want to deal with them and bury the hatchet!”

When he thought about the brothers that had died, Black Mamba felt heartbroken. In reality, Canhua were like ghosts. He had put in a lot of effort, but he still didn’t manage to find their base.

He always thought about that issue, and it had become one of his greatest regrets.

He didn’t expect to have a chance to fight against them once more in the game!

“Little brother, do you have any clues?” Blood Sword obviously followed the style of Canhua; they had prepared for an entire year before they appeared in Jingdou.

The game map was ten times larger than real life, so to find them was harder than ascending the heavens.

“The members of Blood Sword all have two identities—one in the light, and one in the dark. Their location is definitely in one of the imperial cities, but that might not be their base. It might be a shop or a teahouse. They could even be in the Yamen; everything is a possibility,” Ouyang Shuo recalled what he had known about the Blood Sword in his last life.

Even so, his understandings of the Blood Sword were very limited.

They were simply too mysterious!

In his last life, up until Ouyang Shuo died, the leader of Blood Sword was still a mystery.

“Just these?” Black Mamba felt a little disappointed.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “I only know this.”

“How do they receive their missions?” Black Mamba asked the crux of the problem.

“Based on my understandings, the one in charge of getting the mission is a middle man. He will pass the information to the headquarters of Blood Sword through a secret method. Then, the headquarters will assign missions to the members. From start till end, the members won’t have any relationship with the client,” Ouyang Shuo explained.

“These bunch of tortoises. They really are mice that won’t see the light,” Black Mamba couldn’t help but scold, “Can we find some clues through the middleman?”

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “I’m afraid that will be very difficult. The middleman they choose are all work occupation players. Even if we find them, they wouldn’t tell us anything. Furthermore, with the communication methods in the game, even the middleman won’t know much about them.”

“No matter what, there’s still a chance. In this game, there is something worse than being dead. I don’t believe that if we catch the middlemen, he won’t say anything,” Black Mamba bared his white teeth.

If one talked about interrogation techniques, Black Mamba was a professional.

“I will inform the various offices in the imperial cities and help you all investigate. We can put our point of focus in Quanzhou. There, Shanhai County has a little influence,” Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to reveal a small trump card.

Black Mamba’s eyes brightened, “Little brother, you really are amazing, even managing to influence the imperial city. I really admire you.”

“Elder brother, you must be joking. I’m just lucky because of Mazu.”

“With the clues that you have provided, we will not be grasping at straws.” Black Mamba laughed, “Don’t worry, little brother. Give me a little time, and I will find their rat hole.”

“Thank you, brother. If you need anything, just ask!”

“Why are we saying such words. You.” Black Mamba waved him off, “This matter is also Rattlesnake’s matter, so you don’t need to worry.”

“Great!” Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Let’s go and have a drink!”

When he heard Ouyang Shuo mention drinking, Black Mamba instantly grew excited and laughed, “Haha, I also have that intention. I really want to drink your Three Flowers Wine.”

“When you return, I will prepare two big jars for you. I can promise that you will never be able to finish drinking it.” Ouyang Shuo knew that Black Mamba viewed wine as his life. As such, he took the opportunity to return a favor.

“That’s definitely necessary. Little brother really knows me!” Black Mamba didn’t hold back.

The paired downed the wine and started to talk about everything.

With half a kilogram of wine in his belly, Black Mamba was on cloud nine. Suddenly, he thought of the teaching squad still in Shanhai County and asked, “How are Viper and Cobra. They didn’t lose my face, right?”

Ouyang Shuo had bad alcohol tolerance, and he wasn’t used to drinking strong wine. Luckily, this was a game. If not, it would be really spicy and choking. Although one couldn’t get drunk, a person with poor alcohol tolerance would turn red if they drank a lot.

Ouyang Shuo’s face was already as red as a monkey’s butt. If you mentioned it, he couldn’t even speak fluently anymore, “How...How can that be, them two.., Are…talents, they make the special… special force, good training, making them up to...Up to par...”

Ouyang Shuo really wasn’t exaggerating, Cobra and Viper adapted to the cold weapons era and their battle conditions, instilled the modern special forces battle methods into the cold weapons era, and came up with several different ideas.

Ouyang Shuo couldn’t help but praise their ideas.

Apart from basic physical training, the special forces had to undergo four different types of training.

Firstly, fighting technique. Each person needed to master every type of weapon, which included swords, bows, spears, crossbows, axes and more. Each special force member could fight in many methods, areas, and times. They could fight in places like alleys, during the night, and they could also chase and escape from danger.

After the end of the training, Ouyang Shuo also planned to prepare suitable cultivation techniques for them to improve their combat strength.

Secondly, mobile technique training. Horse riding was a necessary skill and caring for the horse was also a basic requirement. Apart from that, they needed to learn how to sail a boat and cross rivers and seas.

In the future, as the territory continued to expand, there might be mounts like war elephants and wolves.

Thirdly, infiltration techniques. Parachuting, climbing, crossing enemy territory, understanding maps as well as long distance traveling—one had to be good at all of these.

Parachuting and climbing were the two training skills that Ouyang Shuo paid the most attention to. During the battle of Changping, the success of parachuting gave Ouyang Shuo hope and confidence.

Fourthly, investigation and spying techniques. Mainly infiltrating, listening, capturing, interrogating, drawing and describing the environment as well as other methods. One also needed to know how to communicate with hidden signals.

The spies in the Military Intelligence Division also had to undergo such training.

All in all, to prepare these training programs, Cobra and Viper had put in a lot of effort.

“That’s great. If not, I’m going to teach them a lesson!” Black Mamba was really a wine barrel as his facial color didn’t even change a little bit.

“Big brother has the luck to have so many great people. I’m so envious.” Under the influence of the wine, Ouyang Shuo stopped thinking about his words and just spoke what came to mind.

“Hehe, little brother, you don’t need to envy me! I heard that the number of historical people in Shanhai County is about to pass into the tens, and you even have the war saint.”

“Yes, my territory is so big, I have so many people but its still not enough.”

“You ah you!” Black Mamba pointed at Ouyang Shuo and laughed.

“And don’t lay your eyes on Cobra and Viper; they aren’t for sale!” Black Mamba was still a little worried and added.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and appeared a little embarrassed. Luckily, he was already red from the wine. If not, it would be a little awkward. He actually did think of poaching Viper and Cobra.

After they spent time with one another, Ouyang Shuo had found out the strengths of Cobra and Viper.

Viper was a more muscle type of guy. When training the members, he had his own style, especially in weapons use and grappling techniques. In these apects, his abilities were insane.

If he could poach him over, he would be the best choice to train new troops.

Cobra was different. Like his name, he was a little cold. In terms of intelligence gathering, he had a unique talent.

Song San and Leng Qian also couldn’t help but praise him. Lengqian was honest—in front of Cobra, he felt completely useless; it was like he didn’t know anything.

Ouyang Shuo had wanted to poach him over to lead the Military Intelligence Division.

If he thought about it, with Cobra sitting at the helm, be it obtaining information or the accuracy of the information, it would be several times higher.

As for the problems of trust, Ouyang Shuo wasn’t worried.

Since the Rattlesnake Mercenary Group were already on board, there was no reason to get off. Ouyang Shuo would think of a way to tie them straight onto then war chariot of Shanhai County.

Ouyang Shuo didn’t expect that even though Black Mamba looked like he drank a lot, he was still very clear headed. Black Mamba easily looked through his intentions and immediately rejected them.

Ouyang Shuo didn’t mind as it was to be expected.

Black Mamba not agreeing today just meant that their relationship wasn’t close enough. Or, putting it in another way, the chips that Ouyang Shuo had put out weren’t enough to move Black Mamba.

As long as both sides had the same goals, once Ouyang Shuo managed to tie down the Rattlesnake Mercenary Group to Shanhai County, everything would be settled.

Black Mamba cared about relationships, but he cared more about interests. If he could gain excellent rewards for letting go of Cobra and Viper, he would definitely agree.

Black Mamba was also a very arrogant person. Thus, Ouyang Shuo was very confident in his read of the Black Mamba’s character.

Chapter 315- Perusing Steel Technique

After he sent Black Mamba off, Ouyang Shuo returned to the Lord's Manor.

After they came back from Jingdou, Song Jia had already returned to Dongli Sword Sect. Currently, the huge Lord's Manor was really empty.

Bing'er was on her holidays now, so this little brat that had behaved herself for half a year could finally relax. At this time, she had brought little black and little white to god knows where to play.

This little brat was different from before; she wouldn't stick to her brother for the entire day.

After he drank a little wine, Ouyang Shuo felt slightly dizzy and just went back to his reading room to rest.

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo brought two Guards and went toward Research Institute No. 7.

When he saw that it was the end of the year, Ouyang Shuo wanted to understand what the research institute had managed to do in half a year. As for what they did in their day to day workings, Ouyang Shuo didn't bother.

The research institute was located in the east region and its building style was similar to the Alchemy Workshop beside it. A huge empty space laid behind the institute—they used this area to test out their creations.

Sun Xiaoyue's grandpa, Old Sun had spent much of his time in the Beihai Shipyard. The ones mainly in the institute were alchemist Magnus and Thermal weapons master Liumo. They were currently moving toward steelmaking.

The work at the research institute made the Magnus really excited. When he saw Ouyang Shuo, he said warmly, “Oh! Lord, welcome, welcome!" As he spoke these words, he really wanted to hug Ouyang Shuo.

When the Guards behind Ouyang Shuo saw this, they immediately ran up. Their left hands ready to draw their swords, as they assumed a defensive position.

When Magnus saw such a situation, he laughed. Ouyang Shuo wasn't the small lord from before.

"Is Liumo here?" Ouyang Shuo hadn't seen his sworn brother in a long time.

As a westerner, Magnus was more open-minded. As such, he just laughed off this awkward situation and smiled, “Liumo is in the testing field. He’s testing out the steelmaking technique."

"Oh? Has the steelmaking technique succeeded?" Ouyang Shuo felt delighted.

"Of course!"

"Go, let's go take a look!" Ouyang Shuo couldn't wait.

The olden Chinese steelmaking technique started during the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period. At the time, they mainly used two techniques—carburizing and decarburization. As the demand for steel increased, the supply couldn't keep up. At the later stages of the West Han period, the stir smelting technique came into being, which pushed steelmaking into its mature stage.

Smiths would forge iron at high heats for over a hundred times until it became elite steel. At the start of the Wei dynasty, the elite steelmaking technique became the most prosperous.

During the period of the Northern and Southern dynasties, steelmaking technology experienced another huge breakthrough with the perfusing steel method.

The perfusing steel method made use of both raw iron and worked iron. Raw iron had a high carbon content, as such its melting point was lower. The smiths let the melted raw iron perfuse into the gaps of the worked iron, which increased its carbon content and created steel.

During the Sui Tang period, this technique was commonly used and proliferated.

During the Song and Ming Dynasty, with cold smithing and air hardening techniques, the types of steel and their properties all increased. The steelmaking technology at that time led the world.

Unfortunately, during the Qing Dynasty, the king decided to lock up the country. As a result, China's technology didn't progress, and the westerners surpassed them.

The research institute had managed to recreate the perfusing steel technique from the Sui and Tang period.

As a thermal weapons expert, Liumo knew the olden steelmaking techniques like the back of his hand. He also had had access to the various books on the subject in the book collection house. Despite these factors, replicating the perfusing technique had a high level of difficulty.

The research institute had opened for half a year. After constant trial and error, they finally gained some results. If not, why would one say that technical manuals were precious? If they had one for the perfusing steel method, they wouldn't need to go through all these troubles.

In the backyard, there sat a huge furnace with a complete set of facilities.

Liumo busied himself in front of the furnace, as he taught the blacksmiths how to control the fire.

When they saw Ouyang Shuo, the blacksmiths bowed and greeted him.

Ouyang Shuo waved them off and asked them to continue their work.

"Brother Liu!" Ouyang Shuo called out.

As the territory expanded daily, Liumo and the other players' attitudes toward Ouyang Shuo changed. Although they didn't worship him like the aboriginal people, they wouldn't act so casual.

Liumo was a skill maniac. Hence, he didn't care much about such matters.

The two started talking in the backyard.

Based on Liumo's description, the perfusing steel method was only the first step.

Next, Liumo was prepared to build on the base of the perfusing steel method and breakthrough. Then, they could catch up with the western countries.

One factor was the choice of fuel.

Olden steelmaking used wood as fuel and didn't use any phosphorous solvents. As such, the amount of phosphor in the olden steel was very low. The temperature of the furnace was also too low and couldn’t merge the iron.

Liumo wanted to replace charcoal with coal.

Ouyang Shuo frowned; this was a problem. The main regions for coal in China was in the Mongol and the Henan region; Lianzhou totally didn't have any coal.

Feng Qiuhuang's Fallen Phoenix County coincidentally fell into the Henan Region.

It seems like he needed to have a good conversation with Feng Qiuhuang.

"About the coal, I will find a way to solve it. Big Brother Liu, you don't have to worry!"

"Great!" Liu Mo was elated.

As the steelmaking technique had already taken shape, Ouyang Shuo decided on the spot to create a large scale steel factory to satisfy the territorial steel needs.

For the location and construction, Ouyang Shuo gave all the authority to Liumo.

When he returned to the Lord's Manor, Ouyang Shuo immediately sent Feng Qiuhuang a letter to discuss the coal deal.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to invest in a large scale coal mine within her border through the Four Seas Bank. The coal obtained would specifically be sent to Shanhai County.

Of course, one needed to find a coal mining technical manual. If not, it would all be for naught.

Coal was called black stone during the olden times, and its uses weren't common. To find such a technical manual, one needed to spend a lot of effort.

Ouyang Shuo directly sought the help of the Hequanji Chamber of Commerce and the Cui Chamber of Commerce to help him search.

Mulan County, Lord's Manor.

After the New Years, the temperature in Lianzhou Basin started to slowly turn cold.

Looking out of her window, Mulan Yue was out of sorts. After coming back from Jingdou, she had heavy thoughts and would look out through the window in a daze.

If one didn't know, they would think that she was thinking about her lover.

Li Feixue stood behind her, as she played with the dagger in her hand. The dagger was really exquisite, a gift from Mulan Yue when they went to Jingdou.

After the battle of Zhennan Pass, Li Xuefei had joined Mulan County. At the start, her father's death made her very solemn and demoralized, but Mulan Yue's care helped her walk out of the shadow. Hence, she was very reliant on Mulan Yue.

So, she insisted on staying at Mulan Yue’s side to take the role of her personal guard.

Li Feixue might look like a small girl, but her martial arts skills weren't to be trifled with. With her by her side, Mulan Yue was safe. As such, Mu Guiying could spend most of her time in the barracks.

Without Mu Guiying, Mulan Yue became more independent and stronger. Her strength and ability started to show in the territory.

The little brat was able to aptly deal with territory matters.

Running a County was a big challenge to Mulan Yue.

Luckily, she had a talent for developing the economy of the territory. With her personality that didn't want to lose, she ran the county well.

If not, the Mulan Yue in Ouyang Shuo’s last life wouldn't be one of the three heads of the Lianzhou Basin, who would not lose in a battle against Ba Dao and Xiaofeng Canyue.

Her ability to learn from others was her strong point.

The local specialties of Shanhai County inspired her, so she pushed for cole planting.

As expected, the oil was very popular and helped the County profit.

Not only that, Mulan Yue also brought in the colored silkworms industry from Shanhai County and ran it well.

The economic ability of Mulan County wasn't that bad amongst the Shanhai Alliance.

In terms of administrative organization, she copied Shanhai County’s model.

Dealing with administrative matters was her weak point.

The NPCs that spawned, although they weren’t as old school as the olden chinese, but they still had doubts in a female lord.

This was the reason why most female lords couldn't become as famous.

Mulan Yue wasn't like Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang, who had a bunch of people at their sides. She lacked training, so she could only take things step by step in regards to administrative matters.

She passed a large portion of it to her subordinates to handle.

"Feixue, go call Sister Mu," Mulan Yue turned around and said.

"Ai!" Li Feixue replied. She stored her dagger and ran off. Her braid flung around in the air, and she looked really cute.

A few moments later, Mu Guiying rushed over.

"Sister, I thought about it. It's time to move Mulan County under Brother Wuyi's territory," Mulan Yue said something shocking; this was the matter on her mind. Finally, she had her answer.

Mu Guiying remained quiet. She knew that once Mulan Yue made a decision, it was hard to change it.

"Ok, let's make a trip to Shanhai County."

"Sister, you agree?" Mulan Yue said happily.

"Of course, I support you!" When she saw Mulan Yue slowly grow, Mu Guiying felt happy.

Chapter 316- Mulan Stronghold

Gaia 2nd year 5th day, Mulan Yue visited Shanhai County.

Before she came, Mulan Yue had already told Ouyang Shuo beforehand. Hence, Ouyang Shuo had made strict preparations. All four directors were present, including Baiqi and Du Ruhui, who had rushed back from the city west camp.

Ouyang Shuo also invited some of the members of the Shanhai Alliance to witness this historical moment together.

Mulan County officially left the Shanhai Alliance. It canceled the ally contracts and became a part of Shanhai Territory. They will leave all decisions—both internal and external—to Shanhai Territory.

Mulan Yue and Ouyang Shuo signed a contract that changed their relationship from allies to superior and subordinate.

Mulan County’s name will be changed to Mulan City.

They will set up the Mulan House, which included Mulan City and its three subsidiary counties, with Mulan City as the governing area.

Ouyang Shuo used his position as the Lianzhou Marquis to officially appoint her as the prefect of Mulan House. He also gave the people in Mulan House director level authority.

Hence, be it in theory or in actuality, Mulan County was now a part of Shanhai Territory.

Apart from his plans for Mulan House, Ouyang Shuo also had plans for Mulan Yue.

Mulan Yue was a rank 1 earl. Apart from Ouyang Shuo, she was the second noble in the territory. Hence, apart from the prefect position, Mulan Yue would also receive a noble’s treatment.

The Lianzhou Marquis could change the position based on appointment, but the noble title would forever remain.

Ouyang Shuo made Mulan House Mulan Yue's permanent residence. Additionally, 20% of the house’s income would enter her account as her expenses.

Apart from that, the Construction Division would build an earl manor in Shanhai County and Mulan City to act as her accommodation.

Ouyang Shuo's arrangements ensured that Mulan Yue's interests weren't affected. When the game ended, she could obtain high amounts of achievement value.

Bai Hua and the others were dazzled; they all had their own thoughts.

"Wuyi really put in a lot of effort and money into this."

"That's right. I’m actually a little envious of her. She became a noble and does not need to care about administrative matters. She is enjoying a status similar to a lord; she's living like a god!"

"...."

"If the other small lord's learned of this contact, they will be so envious that they vomit blood. The difference is like night and day!"

"How is that the same? Yue Yue is a member of the Shanhai Alliance!"

"That's right; it can't be compared!"

"I think that's enough. Even if you all are sucking up to Little Yue Yue, you don't need to exaggerate it so much, right?"

"..."

It wasn’t only Bai Hua and the others. Even Mu Guiying and the old members from Mulan County relaxed after they saw their princess being treated so well. Their fear of being ostracised disappeared.

After the ceremony ended, the other members of the Shanhai Alliance all left.

Ouyang Shuo asked Mu Guiying to stay behind to discuss the matter of military organization. Mulan Yue left the meeting hall. She was now only a prefect, so she wasn't involved in military matters.

Mulan City, as an ex-grade 3 city, had a similar military organization to Shanhai County. The three subsidiary territories all had a city protection unit; this didn't need reorganization.

The main camp had four regiments, a total of 10 thousand people. They had one cavalry regiment, one sword-shield soldier regiment, and two archer regiments.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to recruit Mulan City's city protection regiment from the existing reserve forces. With these four regiments as a base, they would form up the 4th division of Shanhai County.

Mu Guiying would take up the role as the major general of the fourth division.

With that, the fourth division separated from the Mulan House; Baiqi and the Military Affairs Department would lead it. Similarly, the Lianzhou Lord would pay their salary.

The salary that Mulan Yue previously paid totally couldn't compare to Shanhai County’s salary. If one thought about it, the soldiers would gain an increased sense of belonging to Shanhai County.

This would also greatly benefit the reorganization of the Military Affairs Department.

After they formed the fourth division, Shanhai County would have four divisions that could take part in battles, which amounted to a total of 54 thousand men. Coincidentally, they could just form a legion.

Ouyang Shuo temporarily didn't have any plans to form a legion.

Be it in terms of military or administration, one needed to consider balance.

If they formed a legion, Baiqi was his only choice for General. Now, Baiqi didn't have an actual appointment. He mainly just needed to take charge of wartime commanding.

The moment he became the General, the situation would change. Baiqi would control all the forces, which will pose a huge challenge to Du Ruhui who Ouyang Shuo had just appointed.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo wasn't afraid that Baiqi would betray him or something. However, he just needed to made a good environment for Du Ruhui.

He needed to wait until Du Ruhui had reestablished the prestige and position of the Military Affairs Department. Then, he could think about setting up the legion. At that time, a balance would be naturally reached.

Of course, be it Baiqi or Du Ruhui, they had to answer to Ouyang Shuo. He held the highest position in both military and administration. Everyone had to answer to him.

Returning to the topic.

The fourth division was a mix of infantry and cavalry. It was similar to the first division.

As for the base of the fourth division, it would be located at Zhennan Pass.

When he thought about Zhennan Pass, Ouyang Shuo had a headache.

The current pass was too small and at one side of the Basin. It was not suitable for investigating the situation of the enemies.

"Do any of you have any suggestions regarding the pass?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

The participants for this meeting, apart from Mu Guiying, were Baiqi and Du Ruhui.

Du Ruhui had just entered, so he wasn't familiar with the territory, especially in regards to the Zhennan Pass. So, he kept his silence and didn't voice out his opinion.

Baiqi had come a little earlier than Du Ruhui, but Zhennan Pass was under Mulan County's jurisdiction back then. As such, although he had heard of it, he didn't personally see it. Hence, he wouldn't voice his opinion.

Only Mu Guying could answer him.

She was very solemn; she naturally had the right to speak of Zhennan Pass. This was also the Marquis’ first test, so she had to show some skill.

She bowed toward Ouyang Shuo and cupped her fist toward Baiqi and Du Ruhui. Then, she said, “North of Zhennan Pass would be Xunzhou, where the Taiping Country uprising starts from. As expected, they will be our strongest enemy in the near future. Hence, before they have a firm footing, we must find a suitable spot in Xunzhou to set up a base. Only then can we advance and retreat as we wish."

"The current Zhennan Pass is old. If we place a large number of troops there, we cannot fend off the attack and defend Shanhai Prefecture. The pass is also too close to the Basin. To its north is a 100 meter long canyon. Out of it will be the Xunzhou area. I investigated before and found that the further north we went, the wider the canyon got. The exit is 100 meters wide. If the enemy builds a pass at the north exit, they could block off our route."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, everything had its pros and cons. Lianzhou Basin only needed to defend Zhennan Pass from external threats. Conversely, they could only use the pass to reach the outside world.

Mu Guiying continued, “My suggestion is to set up a large scale fortress at the north of the canyon. Then, we can station a large number of troops. Outside the fortress is all
plains, so we can attack Xunzhou at any time.”

Military fortress and a pass were two different concepts.

A pass had the function of collecting tax and acted as a passageway.

A military fortress was a small city. It had all the necessary facilities and had permanent defenses for long term defense.

A pass was easy to attack. On the other hand, attacking a military fortress was harder than ascending the heavens.

Her suggestion was similar to what Ouyang Shuo had in mind. He laughed, “Good, let's do it like that. The name of the fortress will be Mulan Stronghold. The Mulan House will be in charge of its design. The fourth division will be stationed there."

"Yes, my lord!"

After they set the direction, the Military Affairs Department handled the specific military organization. The various departments and divisions would work together on the design and construction. Ouyang Shuo didn't need to worry about that.

With the speed at which Taiping Country developed, there was definitely enough time to build the fortress.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to know what the forces of Taiping Country would feel when they waltz forward and saw such a gigantic fortress.

On the topic of Taiping Country, they should have made their move. Only thing was, which territory was the unlucky one that Hong Xiuquan first targeted.

Ouyang Shuo left the three of them to discuss, as he left the main hall and found Mulan Yue. He brought her to his reading room.

To tell the truth, Ouyang Shuo hadn’t expected her to make such a decision. For her to make this suggestion to him saved him that little bit of awkwardness.

This was why Ouyang Shuo felt a little closer to Mulan Yue.

The impression that she gave him was a little naive with a hint of annoyance.

But now, his view of her had totally changed.

On the surface, Mulan Yue was still clueless. As she followed him into the reading room, she looked around. She totally seemed like a curious little brat.

When he saw such a scene, Ouyang Shuo could only shake his head and sigh.

Toward Mulan Yue, Ouyang Shuo held high hopes. He hoped that her foresight wouldn't be restricted to Mulan House.

The future territory would be indescribably vast.

Ouyang Shuo hoped that she could fight forward and become a governor for him. A person who could help him defend an area.

Chapter 317- Hong Xiuquan

Xunzhou, Taiping Country Base.

Compared to the other peasant uprisings, talents filled the movement that Hong Xiuquan led in Taiping Country. At the start of the uprising, there were Yang Xiuqing, Feng Yunshan, Xiao Chaogui, Feng Changhui, and Shi Dakai—these five core members. Out of the five, Shi Dakai was really good at war and a much-needed general.

The five of them had met their ends in similar manners.

Feng Yunshan and Xiao Chaogui died in battle at the start of the uprising. During the middle portion, Yang Xiuqing grew arrogant from his victories and Feng Changhui murdered him. Not long after, Hong Xiuquan executed Feng Changhui.

The only lucky survivor, Shi Dakai, left because of Hong Xiuquan's jealousy toward him. Shi Dakai brought away his forces and fought independently. But due to his distance from the base, he couldn't escaped death.

Apart from the core five, there were the Tian Official Lin Fengxiang, Di Official Li Kaifang, Chun Official Hu Yihuang, Xia Official Lai Hanying, Qiu Official Zheng Lichang, Dong Official Xu Zhongchang and more. These people were all capable leaders.

Near the end of the uprising, Li Xiucheng, Chen Yucheng, and the like appeared in Taping Country. These were young leaders, Li Xiucheng was the most elite among them. Moreover, he was very loyal.

Based on the settings that Gaia created, these core members would appear too after the leader of the uprising appeared in the wilderness.

Of course, Gaia removed their negative experiences like jealousy, betrayal, arrogance, and biases.

The members of the uprising group that appeared in the wilderness all had the same dream and motivation.

They aimed to build their ideal country in the wilderness.

Hence, the moment Hong Xiuquan appeared in the wilderness, he had tens of generals besides him. In addition to his nearly bug-like refugee recruiting skill, he had three thousand refugees in less than five days.

Because of his appearance, the lords in Xunzhou found that their refugee spawning rate had dropped. In truth, Hong Xiuquan had taken them all away.

With three thousand refugees, Hong Xiuquan had the basic strength required to stand up in the wilderness.

As it was an uprising group, they were naturally all soldiers.

Over 10 generals, one main one deputy, split into units. They had split the three thousand refugees into six units. The generals made use of this time to give these refugees some basic training.

Next, they needed to take down a territory and build their base.

The player territories in the wilderness that survived till this day had at least reached grade 3 town, so their population had reached 10 thousand. The better ones had upgraded to grade 1 County and had a population upper limit of 20 thousand.

In addition to the subsidiary territories, the lords had a more optimistic situation.

If the three thousand refugees in the uprising army tried to take down a player territory, it would be akin to throwing an egg at a rock. The refugees were using vegetable knives to fight against a proper army—merely courting death.

In history, the uprising army used their numbers to gain an advantage. They had limited chances to create upsets as underdogs against bigger forces.

However, Hong Xiuquan had no choice but to take the chance.

One could describe the recruited refugees as a bunch of locusts. They could not produce grain, they brought too little food, and they were about to die in a few days.

Thankfully, their identity gave the uprising army a good cover.

As the leader of the uprising army, Hong Xiuquan had many ideas. After many days of observation, he chose a suitable territory and prepared to act the next day.

Early in the morning, he arranged Shi Dakai to lead a unit. They would act as new refugees and walk toward the city gates. When the guards saw the shabbily dressed refugees, they didn’t pay much attention despite the wrong numbers. After all, the numbers in these few days didn't have a pattern. It could suddenly increase by a hundred and no one would care. They would just allow them in.

The moment he entered, Shi Dakai made use of the chance to lead the troops to attack. The vegetable knives in their hands killed the guards, and they successfully took down the city gates.

The troops that hid outside the gates swarmed out and entered the city after they saw the plan succeed.

When he saw the army enter, Shi Dakai made the decision to gather the weapons the guards had left. Then, they rush toward the armory. He clearly knew that the strong forces were at the barracks. If these men came to reinforce, they wouldn't stand a fighting chance with such noob equipment.

Hence, they would only have a chance of winning if they managed to take down the armory.

The generals took down the various important points and were ready to fight. As the leader, Hong Xiuquan didn't slack off. He started to spread his beliefs and faith to recruit the masses.

In this territory, the people didn’t have a high level of patriotism and happiness. The lord was violent and the residents and commoners held a lot of resentment toward him. After Hong Xiuquan tempted them, many of them joined his forces.

Hence, with both things considered, victory was in their sights.

Shi Dakai's forces successfully took down the armory, but they had suffered heavy casualties.

The refugees couldn't bother to celebrate and just entered the armory. They simply took any weapon they saw. Besides, they wouldn't know how to use them anyways. They also randomly wore the armor.

After they equipped themselves, the leader gathered the refugees outside the armory, and they prepared for battle.

With such a delay, the proper army from the barracks had finally started to move toward the uprising army.

The proper army of a grade 3 Town had a total of a thousand men that were all well equipped and properly trained. If the opponent was just a normal group of three thousand refugees, these men could take them down without a problem.

Unfortunately, ten elite generals led these three thousand refugees, so victory or defeat was hard to predict.

Under the buffs of the various generals, the combat strength of the uprising army surged.

Furthermore, Hong Xiuquan had scary charisma. The refugees that he recruited were all firm believers and weren't afraid to die. Hence, the morale of the uprising army was really high.

A war was about to start.

At this point, there was no tactics to speak of—only head to head battle.

In the midst of the battle, both sides were equal. People would fall at every moment, which created a very gruesome scene.

At this very moment, the overlord Hong Xiuquan arrived!

The commoner force sauntered behind him. In a short hour, he had recruited a thousand members. His powerful brainwashing ability was really scary.

At the start of the uprising, everyone respected Hong Xiuquan.

Hong Xiuquan arrived at the middle of the battlefield. He braved the arrow rain. Then, he started to try and persuade the proper army to put down their weapons and join the uprising army.

Charm filled his voice. Unknowingly, one would be tempted.

Power filled his actions, and he filled people with hope.

He was the messenger sent from the heavens to save the brothers with problems.

Hong Xiuquan’s temptations, in addition to the heavy casualties from the war, made several members of the proper army lose their will to fight. They stayed in the same spot and did not move.

Compared to the normal soldiers, the generals were more clear headed. Hence, they weren't tempted. They tried their best to shout and wake the men up. They order the soldiers to fight.

Unfortunately, Hong Xiuquan was too much of a bug.

The proper army was like dominos, as more and more of them got tempted. The officials tried their best, but no matter what they tried, the soldiers wouldn't move.

Shi Dakai and the other generals of Hong Xiuquan were also good. They did not bother with those soldiers that did not move. They only attacked those who defended.

With that, the situation on the battlefield had become totally one-sided.

As time passed, those that Hong Xiequan tempted looked at their officers with weird eyes. As these soldiers stared at them, the officers felt a shiver down their spines.

These experienced officers knew that if they tried to force the soldiers to fight, the soldiers might kill them on the spot.

Although Hong Xiuquan didn’t manage to tempt the smart ones, they still made the intelligent choice and surrendered, joining the uprising army.

At this point, the uprising army had gained a total victory.

The lord of the territory was a middle-aged man cooped up in the Lord’s Manor. After he knew that the army had lost, he gave a bitter smile and quickly teleported away.

At the start of the uprising, only a few players were willing to join the uprising army. Most lords had backbone and didn't want to listen and be under NPCs.

The fall of the territory meant that Taiping Country officially had a footing on Xunzhou.

To the uprising army, ruling a place wasn't too hard. The commoners weren't afraid of them and everything developed in the right direction.

As expected, the Taiping Country uprising army was the first of its kind to take down a player territory. This action officially announced the start of the information piece.

Hong Xiuquan had shown his unbeatable charm out in the wilderness. He made use of his guile and broke the spirit of a thousand men.

The lord that left wrote everything that happened on the forums, which caused an uproar amongst the players.

Now, all the players genuinely felt the terror of the uprising. A huge change was about to come!

Some lords in Xunzhou were afraid that the moment they woke up, a huge uprising army would be outside their city wall.

Some of the others learned their lesson. They started to improve the lives of their people and made them happier.

As for whether or not it was too late, only the heavens knew.

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Chapter 318- Dragon Head

The events at Xunzhou failed to attract Ouyang Shuo's attention.

No matter the strength of the uprising army, they couldn't come to Lianzhou Basin in a short time amount of time. On the contrary, the expansion of the Taiping Country would help him destroy the other small territories in Guangxi. In the end, it would result in a situation where one person would take it all.

At that point, Ouyang Shuo would just step out to clean it up. As long as he destroyed the Taiping Country, he would own the entire Guangxi.

The Taiping Uprising Army was merely a living target in his eyes.

It wasn't that he had grown arrogant and wanted to make use of the Lianzhou Basin to take down Taiping Country. He also had other trump cards, which would come into play when the time came.

At that time, whoever dared to underestimate Lianzhou Basin would end up in big trouble.

To put it another way, east of Xunzhou, Wuzhou, there was still Chiyou City.

When two tigers fought, one was destined to get hurt.

Ouyang a Shuo could just watch on as the tigers fought.

As for whether things would proceed as he had expected, it was still unknown.

The ripple that the Mulan House caused and everything else slowly subsided. Shanhai Territory had regained its normality.

The only matter that gave Ouyang Shuo a headache was the issue regarding war horses. To form up the 4th division, one had to mention the Qingfu horses. The other three other divisions all used Qingfu horses. Hence, Ouyang Shuo had to handle things fairly. Changing the war horses of the 4th division to Qingfu horses also climbed up his priority list.

Unfortunately, the various grassland tribes had already become wary of Shanhai City after the Tianqi tribe stirred up the waters. They did not want to trade with Shanhai City. As such, attempting to purchase Qingfu horses from them wasn't a practical idea.

After trade broke, Ouyang Shuo grew more and more worried about the grassland tribes.

Although the Lianzhou Basin had good weather and didn't have winter, the grassland wasn't suitable for herding close to the new year. Hence, the livelihoods of the herdsmen and shepherds became a big problem.

If they could not purchase food from Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo had grounds to suspect that the various tribes would start a war.

Ouyang Shuo had ordered the Military Intelligence Division to increase their investigation into the grassland tribes and immediately report news. The leader of the second group, Leixun, was given the orders to do so.

However, the intel from Leixun puzzled Ouyang Shuo puzzled. The tribes had no intention for war and no tribe had asked for the herdsmen to join the army.

Everything seemed really weird.

The calm grassland seemed like it was on the verge of a huge storm.

Ouyang Shuo could only order the Military Logistics Department to quickly draw up a battle plan and craft logistics to get ready for a war; he ordered the Shanhai House to speed up the building of the city wall. They would prioritise the north wall and make it into an unbreakable fortress.

As the military size increased, the situation would change. In order to start a large scale war, he could not simply move the troops and immediately fight like before.

As they said, before the soldiers moved, the grain would move first.

For a huge war, they needed to prepare large amounts of grain, horses, chariots, arrows and many equipment. It was not something they could complete in a short time.

The four military workshops and the cave military factory had thousands of workers who rushed day and night to craft batch after batch of items. They sent the items to the various camps for them to equip themselves.

Especially the newly established fourth division, they only had the system gifted equipment from the class change, far from the standards of the Shanhai City army.

The newly appointed combat logistics director Zhu Hongliang was so busy that he did not even have time to eat.

Baiqi and Du Ruhui were busy preparing the military forces. They had also brought their personal guards, who entered the grasslands to take a look at the environment to prepare for the battle.

Baiqi's mind would not stop at any moment, as he continuously thought and found methods to outsmart the enemy. He mainly focused on the investigation and preparation work before the battle.

Du Ruhui was also very experienced and he had a sharp eye. He was a great military advisor and his tactics and war ideas were better than Baiq,i who was from the warring states period.

The two of them worked together and helped put Ouyang Shuo at ease.

With the two of them at the helm, Ouyang Shuo could take time and effort to look at other things.

For example, the Qingfu Horses.

The only way to obtain Qingfu Horses now was from the Jifeng Valley horse stables.

The stables had sent out four thousand Qingfu Horses before and they only had a hundred left.

The nurturing of a warhorse was a lengthy process. In such a short time, Ouyang Shuo definitely did not want to use the horses in the horse stables.

From a long term stand point, such a great horse like the Qingfu Horse could not meet the needs of the expanding army. Even if he unified the whole Lianzhou Basin, the amount of Qingfu Horses would still remain limited.

In future wars, one would need to use hundred or even hundreds of thousands of troops. Even if one owned all the Qingfu Horses in Lianzhou Basin, it also would not be enough.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo had decided to build the horse stables to plan for the future.

Of course, it was only a backup solution. It helped to ease the problem but not solve it. The best method was to find another mount.

For this method, Ouyang Shuo had some ideas. In his last life, he remembered some superior mount production areas. As long as the time was right, he could break the lack of mounts in the army.

For the time being, it was hard for him to make any decisions.

Mu Guiying understood his tough situation. She said that they could slow down the changing of war horses since the Mulan Stronghold was the main priority.

And hence, they settled the matter for the time being.

Another thing that worried Ouyang Shuo was the Beihai Shipyard.

When Ouyang Shuo passed the ship making manual over to them, he instructed them to quickly build ships, as he badly needed vessels.

They met his expectations. On the 15th day of the 1st month, after hundreds of smiths and workers in the shipyard rushed day and night, they built the first turreted ship. It was ready to enter the water.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he personally rushed over to Beihai City to witness the moment.

Apart from Ouyang Shuo, the Shipyard special advisor Old Sun, Zheng Dahai, and Pei Donglai were all at the dock. Baiqi and Du Ruhui were busy with army matters, so they could not get away. Otherwise, they definitely would not miss this chance.

The Beihai Shipyard was right next to the Beihai Bay. There were two large scale docks and more than ten medium sized ones.

The first turreted ship was in one of the large scale docks, as it waited to enter the water.

The giant boat was over five stories high and could carry three thousand men. Not only did it have a menacing outer appearance, the boat had spears and flags. It had the ability to attack and defend like a castle on water. The head of the boat had a iron point which they sailors could use to ram other ships. It also had a stern rudder so it would never steer off course.

As expected, the turreted ship also made use of the watertight bulkhead technology.

At the two sides of the turreted ship, there were six clapper poles.

The clapper poles were used to smack enemy ships. They were around five arms in length and were made up of a pillar, a cross pole, and giant rocks and potters tied to the head. The pillar helped support the cross pole and allowed it to swing around and smack the enemy boats with the giant rocks. Ropes connected the potters to the cross pole. As such, one could manually turn it to pull up the cross pole and raise the giant rock.

Such a destructive weapon was the nightmares of enemy ships before the birth of cannons.

If it was not for the time constraints, Old Sun would have wanted to modify the turreted ship to make it even scarier. Successfully creating an olden ship naturally made a ship specialist like Old Sun emotional.

As for Old Sun's efficiency, Ouyang Shuo was very pleased.

Of course, the turreted ship was not perfect and without flaws; it also had weaknesses.

The weakness was that it was too high and unstable, so its ability to withstand waves was weak. Hence, it was suitable for fighting in rivers or nearby seas, but not suitable for long distance travel.

If not, a storm could capsize the entire turreted ship.

Thanks to the protection of Mazu, the Shanhai City navy could largely avoid this weaknesses. The specialty of the hidden building raised the protection from storms by 40%, which ensured that the ships would remain safe as long as they did not face a huge storm.

Zheng Dahai, who was beside Ouyang Shuo, decided to test the waters when he saw the marquis so delighted and pleased, “Marquis, please name the turreted ship!"

Ouyang Shuo was in fact really pleased, so he smiled, “The territory's symbol is a dragon so this first boat will be called the Dragon Head."

"Great name!" Old Sun butt in and laughed, “it’s auspicious!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Dragon Head would be his flagship, and it follow him out to sea, "Captain Zheng, immediately complete the relevant functions and features of the Dragon Head. A few days later, I’ll set it out to sea."

"Yes, my lord!" Zheng Dahai froze, he did not expect the marquis to rush so much. It seemed like he needed to make the smiths work overtime for a few days. One must know that a huge quantity of features and facilities must be added to a large scale boat.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Pei Donglai," General Pei, the Beihai Fleet will follow us out to sea."

"What is your destination?" Pei Donglai felt confused.

Ouyang Shuo gave a mysterious smile," Qiongzhou Island."

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Chapter 319- Yazhou

The Qiongzhou Island in the game was a utopia and it was also another strategic location that Ouyang Shuo planned for.

After the game map was expanded 10 times, the size of the Qiongzhou Island reached 350 thousand square kilometres, bigger than even Lianzhou Basin. North of it, the Qiongzhou Strait intersected with Lingnan, west of it was Guangxi and Vietnam, east of it was the Yizhou Island, southeast of it were the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.

During the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court set up the Qiongzhou House on the island and split it into 3 states and 10 counties.

Out of the 3 states, Danzhou was to the west of the island. In terms of geography, it was closest to the Lianzhou Basin. Hence, in theory it would be a good place to come ashore.

Ouyang Shuo instead turned his eye to Yazhou at the southmost area of the island. Compared to Danzhou, it was more suitable to be used as a military port.

Yazhou would be the best base for Ouyang Shuo to use to enter the ocean.

Choosing Yazhou was a huge risk to Ouyang Shuo.

This was because on Qiongzhou Island there lived the Li race, Miao race, Hui Race as well as many other aboriginal races, amongst which the Li race had the longest history. These aboriginals mostly gathered in the middle and the south. Yazhou, which was located at the southmost area of Qiongzhou Island, was naturally the place where the various races gathered.

Choosing Yazhou would mean that he had to immediately face the threat of the aboriginal people.

In the last life, based on what Ouyang Shuo got from the forums, the lucky players who survived on the island built their territories to the north and east of the island, as that was where the Han Race gathered.

Gaia 2nd year 1st month 16th day, Lianzhou Lord's Manor.

Ouyang Shuo gathered the 4 directors and Baiqi for a meeting.

"2 days later, I'll lead the Guards regiment and the Beihai Naval fleet out to sea, I predict that I will only return around New Year's Eve. As for the matters of the territory, I'll leave to all of you to discuss and settle together."

When Ouyang Shuo said those words, they were all shocked.

The military affairs director Du Ruhui, who had just been appointed, was puzzled. The grassland situation was getting more and more serious and intense, and war might break out at any moment. In this kind of situation, the lord still wanted to leave, how could it not make him feel crazy?

Baiqi was unaffected. When he was in the Qin Country, he was used to controlling everything, and as long as the lord gave him enough power, he would be able to do a good job commanding the battle.

As for Fan Zhongyan and Tian Wenjing, they were in charge of the administrative matters of the prefecture, so to them it wasn't much of a problem. What they were worried about was with the Lord away from the territory, how the soldiers and the commoners would feel.

Out of the 5 heads, Yingyu had the least experience. As long as it had nothing to do with financial matters, she wouldn't make a sound. The recent storm in the territory had the spear pointing straight at her.

There were rumours that said that she was relying on the Marquis's love and trust and being his sister to climb to such a high position. In terms of ability, it was said that she was worse off than the other 3 directors, and not suitable to take up important tasks.

These rumors made Yingyu feel immense pressure and she often had sleepless nights. Although she didn't do anything against her conscience, she was unable to keep everyone from talking. Sometimes during the dead of night, Yingyu would start to doubt herself.

During this period of time, Yingyu was like a thin sheet of ice, unable to retaliate against such rumors; she could only try her best to succeed and use her results to prove them wrong.

When Ouyang Shuo got the news, obviously he was furious and ordered the Procuratorate Division to investigate. Whoever was creating those rumors would be punished.

Yingyu's hard work and knowledge was what Ouyang Shuo took notice of, what nepotism?

Ouyang Shuo was enraged. Apart from being heartbroken for Yingyu, he started to worry about this evil air in the territory. As the territory continued to grow and expand, more and more different types of people would appear and make it really messy and chaotic.

As various interests intersected with one another, it would make things complicated.

The villager spirit and carefree feel during the village building days were long gone.

This was something that Ouyang Shuo didn't want to see, but it happened in front of him. Ironically, he had no way to stop it. The Lianzhou Marquis title had raised his position and separated him from the commoners.

"What's the purpose of your trip?" Fan Zhongyan asked.

"My purpose is the island out at sea- Qiongzhou Island. I want to build another territory there to increase our strategic advantage." Ouyang Shuo briefly explained.

Ever since Bing'er entered the game, Ouyang Shuo helped choose the Lord gamemode as he had already had plans for Qiongzhou Island.

The reason why the plan hadn't come into fruition had 3 reasons.

Firstly, the territory wasn't stable, and it wasn't right to rashly open another territory; secondly, the Mengchong warship didn't have the ability for long distance travel; thirdly was that there wasn't a suitable village creation token. Tokens below silver rank were just not good enough.

The 2nd system auction had totally solved Ouyang Shuo's problem.

Hence, after the Dragon Head smoothly entered the water, Ouyang Shuo was raring to go.

On this trip, not only did Ouyang Shuo bring large amounts of troops, he brought a high number of basic level officials, various artisans, talents, and resources to ensure that the moment they got here they could get a stable footing.

Apart from that, he took some of the salt workers from Beimu Saltpans and was ready to open more saltpans at Yazhou.

About Ouyang Shuo's plan, the marquis wanted to open up and conquer new lands so they really had no reason to oppose. As for his safety, with the guards regiment there was pretty much no big problem.

Ouyang Shuo gave Baiqi the power to move the entire army and command it when he wasn't around. Be it starting a war or ending it, he would make the decision.

He appointed Fan Zhongyan the head of the civil servants, and he would be in charge of all administrative matters.

After appointing the two in charge of the military and administration, Ouyang Shuo immediately dismissed everyone. As for specific arrangements, he would find them individually, and there was no need to discuss those during the meeting.

After the meeting, Ouyang Shuo asked someone to go to Donglai Sword Sect to inform Song Jia to ask her to come along.

Yazhou was basically the Sanya in reality. During the new year, it was a good time to travel. Ouyang Shuo wanted to take this chance to bring Song Jia and Bing'er along and have fun at the seaside.

Before that, Ouyang Shuo had told Xiuwen to build a villa by the seaside at Beihai City so he could bring Bing'er to play.

Unfortunately as things were busy, it wasn't able to be completed.

After the villa was completed, it had always been empty. Ouyang Shuo heard that Gu Xiuwen had sent people there to clean it up to ensure that it was in a decent state.

After New Years, with the weather of Lianzhou Basin, it wasn't suitable to play by the seaside.

With a better place to go to now, Ouyang Shuo naturally wanted to make up for his mistakes.

One was work and one was play. Although Ouyang Shuo was a lord, he didn't want to just focus on work; taking breaks was something that was absolutely needed.

Furthermore, although the territory was important, loved ones were too.

Ouyang Shuo couldn't remember how long was it since he played with Bing'er. The time he spent with her was less than previously in real life. Thinking back to his promise, Ouyang Shuo felt ashamed.

In the afternoon, Old Sun suddenly visited.

"Ouyang, I heard you want to bring your sister to Yazhou for a holiday?" Old Sun didn't beat around the bush and asked directly.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and smiled. "Why? You want to go too?"

"I'm so old, why will I go to Yazhou? Furthermore, this is the busiest time for the shipyard, I couldn't leave even if I wanted to." Old Sun shook his head.

"Then your meaning is?" Ouyang Shuo didn't understand.

As Sun Xiaoyue's grandfather, he understood his granddaughter. That brat shared the same house with him for a year and naturally fell for him. This added with the charm he showed in the game, she was in love with him.

Unfortunately, he was already taken.

Ouyang Shuo that little kid had suddenly liked Song Jia and made it such a way that he was definitely marrying her.

Seeing his granddaughter so down, Old Sun was anxious too.

Old Sun sometimes hated that her granddaughter was too honest and didn't fight for what she wanted. Furthermore, she had known Ouyang Shuo first, and before Song Jia was officially married, she still had a chance.

Since that his granddaughter didn't fight, as her grandfather, he naturally needed to create a chance for her. Hearing that Ouyang Shuo was bringing Song Jia and Bing'er to Yazhou, that was why he rushed over to ask.

"It's like this, little Yue has been busy with the city planning for Shanhai City. I was thinking that it would be a good time for her to go with you to Yazhou and relax. Let me tell you, I only have this one precious granddaughter, so I can't let her be too tired of the territorial matters."

Old Sun's words had a hidden meaning.

A little awkwardness flashed across Ouyang Shuo's face. "Ok, as long as she wants to I don't mind." No matter how slow he was, he understood the meaning.

Old Sun nodded, as he said what needed to be said. Ouyang Shuo also wasn't dumb. He sighed to himself. Granddaughter, grandpa can only help you up to here.

"Ok, then I'll be off!" Old Sun stood up and left.

"Take care!" Ouyang Shuo got up to send him off.

Old Sun waved him off. "No need, as long as you understand my wishes it's okay."

"Ai!"

Ouyang Shuo sighed as he froze on the spot.

Chapter 320- Black hearted Prefect

As the Lord's Manor expanded, Cui Yingyu and Qing'er also obtained their individual courtyards. Ouyang Shuo even arranged for Bing’er to stay alone to develop her independence. Zisu would personally take care of her.

Although the Lord's Manor had expanded once again, they continued the dining tradition. No matter how busy Cui Yingyu and Qing'er were, they would rush to the main courtyard to eat with Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo made such arrangements because he did not want distance to affect their relationship.

Compared to Cui Yingyu, who the rumors affected, Qing'er was doing well. Her garment workshop had expanded once more, and it had become the largest workshop in Shanhai City. At this stage, just the tailors alone reached hundreds of people.

The orders the workshop accepted was not limited to the Financial Department welfare packages, as they took orders from commoners, the various settlements, and even the Chamber of Commerces.

For the next step, Qing'er wanted to bring in some weaving machines to build a large scale weaving workshop to solve the problem of material supply. In addition to the large scale garment shop, they basically covered the entire industry process.

In the future, Qing'er was even prepared to rent a large area in the west to set up mulberry gardens and cotton gardens to solve the problem of source materials.

Qing'er was personally in charge of the tailor shop, the designs, and the high class customizations.

She had used the industry chain theory that Ouyang Shuo had taught her to perfection.

As the industry expanded, Qing'er's profits kept increasing. She had achieved her dream of being rich. Her personal assets had reached ten thousand gold, which made her one of the rich people in the territory.

Ouyang Shuo had never expected her to possess such a talent.

However, she was still lacking in a certain aspect. Due to her complete obsession with money, she had neglected her skills. Although she was the first talent to become a master, she was not the first to become a grandmaster.

Even if you did not mention the grandmaster blacksmith Wanghao, even the master level shipbuilder Zheng Dahai was on the verge of a breakthrough after building the Dragon Head.

Regarding this matter, Ouyang Shuo especially looked for Qing'er and described the problem to her. He really did not want to see her talent in tailoring wasted for nothing.

As for the effect of his words, only time would tell.

The progress of the garment workshop basically mirrored the expansion and growth of the shops in Shanhai City.

After privatization, the first batch of workshop and shop owners basically got rich if nothing special happened.

As the quantity of wealth increased, the amount of merchants also followed.

Firstly, they had higher requirements for living conditions. The merchants were not happy with the small courtyards built by the Construction Division. Instead, they wanted to buy land and build their own villas and mansions.

To say the least, they were envious of the official residence area.

Luckily, the Shanhai City planning was done, and the Construction Division worked together with the Shanhai House to choose a piece of land that wealthy merchants could loan. This would allow the merchants to build their houses.

In the plans of the Shanhai City region, the core area where the Lianzhou Lord's Manor was located was known as the imperial city. Outside of that was the inner city, which included the area inside of the city wall of Qiushui County and Friendship County.

The region outside the city walls were known as the outer city.

The outer city took up 600 square kilometers, the size of eight Chang An cities. Shanhai House could afford to use such a huge region freely.

Purely from renting land, Shanhai House earned 50 thousand gold, and this earning continued to increase.

Apart from the merchants, the commercial ability of the soldier's families could not be neglected.

As time went on, the generals and the people in the army all married. Their large salary ensured that their families could live a rich life.

For the families of the soldiers, the territory gave them preferential treatment.

Shanhai House similarly planned a bigger region in the outer city for the housing of the soldiers' families. Their living conditions were much higher than normal commoners and they had more complete facilities.

Of course, one needed to pay for it and the sales price was not cheap. Though this method, Shanhai House prefect Wei Ran had wiped away all the hard earned salary of the soldiers.

Because of that, the soldiers termed him as the black hearted prefect and some of them even made noises at the Military Affairs Department.

The military affairs director Du Ruhui felt helpless. After all, Wei Ran was making logical and correct decisions. Furthermore, the splitting of duties and power meant that although he was the military affairs director, he had no power over Wei Ran.

When Ouyang Shuo heard about this matter, he just laughed it off. He did not expect for Wei Ran to have such an economic mind and replicate the modern housing industry in Shanhai City.

Apart from lending out land to let the rich build their mansions, Wei Ran eagerly tried to persuade the various Chamber of Commerces to buy land and build various workshops.

The Cui Chamber of Commerce were the first. With a price of 20 thousand gold, they bought a piece of land along Friendship River. Hequanji was not far behind and with a price of 30 thousand gold, they bought an even bigger piece of land.

The closer it was to the river, the more popular the land was.

Of course, everything had a process. The Chamber of Commerce could not simply purchase any piece of land they wanted; they had to fit with the overall planning of the city. They could only buy land in certain areas, and the land they bought must be grouped up and could not be all over the place.

Only after the land in one region was sold would the next region start selling.

Not only that, Wei Ran also personally rushed to Xianyang to persuade the Chamber of Commerces there to invest in Shanhai City and build their branches.

His words were really effective, till date, two had already agreed.

The construction of Shanhai City also attracted the attention of Quanzhou.

Based on the good relationship between the two, Wei Ran advertised the plans and development of the city to attract the commoners from Quanzhou to move over. With his action, another wave of migrants from Quanzhou started.

In just Quanzhou, there were four Chamber of Commerce that were willing to settle in Shanhai City.

After he tasted success, Wei Ran's ambitions grew. He started to contact the various offices in the system imperial cities and promoted their development plans. He attracted the Chamber of Commerces there to settle down in Shanhai City.

After all that, Shanhai City grew really famous, and its name spread all around.

Wei Ran wanted to use the assets of the people and their strength to collectively build Shanhai City.

If one thought about it carefully, Wei Ran really was black hearted. Not only did Shanhai City not sell the land, it also acted as the developers of the land, one upping the people in real life.

With such a method, Shanhai City could gain large amounts of funds, enough to support its future building projects. The Financial Department was still worrying about funds for the city but Wei Ran had already solved this issue on his own.

One must know that the wall building project was just a portion of the plans for Shanhai City. After it was built, the inner roads and the public facilities all needed investments.

Solely based on the financial subsidies and handouts from the Financial Department, these projects were obviously not viable.

This was also the reason why Ouyang Shuo did not interfere; they lacked money! After this matter, Wei Ran also managed to gain a footing in Shanhai City, and he had established his prestige.

Of course, for the entire construction of the city to really reach completion, they would need at least need one to two more years.

Back to the topic.

During dinner, Ouyang Shuo raised up the matter about going to Yazhou.

For this long trip, Zisu definitely was going to follow him.

Bing'er had heard this news long ago. She knew that Yazhou was the beautiful Sanya, which made her delighted.

In reality, Ouyang Shuo had brought her there once, and this little brat remembered that scene vividly.

"I also want to go!" When Qing’er saw Bing'er so happy, as she incessantly described the beautiful scenes at Yazhou, Qing'er grew really curious and started to bug Ouyang Shuo.

"Sure!" Ouyang Shuo naturally wouldn't object.

"Yay! Brother is the best!"

Just as Ouyang Shuo had predicted, Qing'er and Bing'er, these two brats, were really close and had become like a pair of real siblings.

"Brother can I bring little white too?" Bing'er suddenly thought of her partner. Little white laid in her arms. When she heard her little master speak, she looked at Ouyang Shuo with its sparkling eyes. It totally did not look like the royalty of the wolf race.

"Of course!" Ouyang Shuo could not reject.

Little White was really smart, and she could understand their conversation. When she saw Ouyang Shuo agree, she smiled till her eyes had closed up.

"What about little black?"

Ouyang Shuo felt speechless, “As long as you want to, you can bring anyone."

"Great!"

Cui Yingyu, who was sitting at the side, had a face filled with sadness when she saw the two little sisters playing around. Cui Yingu had a tough life, as one of the four directors, she could not get away and could only envy them.

Chapter 321- God

The next day, Song Jia returned to the Lord's Manor.

Under the leadership of Song Jia, the sect was doing great.

Of course, compared to Wudang, Quanzhen, etc big sects during the Song and Ming Dynasties, she was far off.

Firstly was that there was only 1 sect cultivation technique. She didn't have any other secret manuals that she could take out.

Secondly, the number of experts in the sect were too rare. Apart from Song Jia, there wasn't another expert and were all just students. Even Song Jia herself, because she cultivated for too short a time, wasn't famous in the field.

Thirdly, the potential of the disciples were horrendous. After the system released the potential system, Song Jia checked out the stats of the disciples and found that the number of A rank students were very lacking.

The only talented disciple was Cui Tianqi.

The difficulty of running a sect didn't seem to be less than the difficulty of running a territory.

To be a good sect leader wasn't easy.

As the history in the game pushed through the the Spring and Autumn Era, martial arts wasn't that famous yet. When it reached later into the game and with Tang and Song Dynasties, the various sects would all appear in the wilderness.

At that point, the battles of the underworld would truly begin.

Hence, Song Jia had to grab this precious opportunity to raise the strength of Donglai Sword sect. If not, when Wudang, Shaolin, etc. famous sects appeared, Dongli Sword sect would never get famous.

The problems that she faced were also something that Ouyang Shuo temporarily had no idea how to solve. When Li Feixue followed Mu Lanyue to Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo had wanted her to move to the Dongli Sword Sect.

Unfortunately, she was reliant on Mu Lanyue and wouldn't leave her.

Song Jia also had ideas and turned her sights to boxing master Lin Yue. He was running the dojo and was normally very low profile.

She wanted to invite him to become an elder at the sword sect and set up a hall naming it Baji Hall which he would be in charge of.

Hence, she would get both an expert and a secret manual.

The terms she handed out were great; she was also very confident.

The first time she went over, however, she was directly rejected.

Song Jia wasn't one to give up easily and she was thinking about how to persuade Lin Yue, she even asked Ouyang Shuo to help her out.

Ouyang Shuo was half a disciple of Lin Yue so he knew his personality. He was a resolute person who definitely wouldn't because of him asking change his mind.

Thinking of the past, Ouyang Shuo had invited Lin Yue to join the army and was similarly rejected.

The matter was delayed all the way until now and there was still no change.

Ouyang Shuo had hinted to Song Jia about the weakness of Lin Yue. Because of his illness, he was a little low on self esteem.

A person without any goals was real scary, how would one convince him? Any title or credit would not be able to tempt the current Lin Yue.

However, if one was able to find a treasure that was able to cure him, with his character, such a great help would naturally cause him to agree to anything.

Upon hearing Ouyang Shuo's plan, Song Jia was happy but also worried. She was happy that she found a direction to work towards, but worried that the medicine was hard to search for.

As for the secret manuals, Ouyang Shuo regretted selling all of them. He could have at least kept a few.

If he wanted to buy them back today, the price would be too huge.

After the auction, the super trading platform had many secret manuals that appeared. When Ouyang Shuo sold his, it was around 700 gold, earning him a lot.

The players that sold this time were worse. One book sold for 1000, making the adventure mode players furious, but they had no choice but bear the pain and buy it.

If Ouyang Shuo guessed correctly, the mysterious seller would be Feng Qingyue from Swordsman County. This young lady was really able to keep patient, waiting for a whole half a year.

After this sale, Swordsman County would probably earn 70-80 thousand gold at once.

Starting from yesterday, large amounts of men and resources, under the coordination of the Combat Logistics Department and the Household Registration Department, had started to gather at the Beihai Harbor. The boats coming to and from the river passage were endless.

Hearing that the Lianzhou marquis was about to travel, many sharp Chamber of Commerces quickly came along and said that they were willing to arrange a group to follow him.

When Ouyang Shuo heard the news, he shook his head in amusement.

As expected, merchants had an adventurous spirit. They knew clearly that an unexplored island had shocking wealth, resources, herbs, and many treasures for them to discover.

If there was no army protecting them, the Chamber of Commerces wouldn't dare to venture out to sea.

After the Beihai Shipyard stopped making Mengcheng Warships, they used their spare time and built a batch of large merchant ships. Their random act today certainly came in handy.

Ouyang Shuo ordered Zheng Dahai to sell all the merchant ships to the Chamber of Commerces. Purely based on that, the shipyard earned 20 thousand gold and made the first profit of the shipyard.

As worldwide trading proliferated, the future shipyard had huge potential. Ouyang Shuo told Zheng Dahai to split the shipyard into two. One part was to build warships and the other was for merchant ships.

Apart from the Chamber of Commerces, the military also started to move.

Receiving the military order, the Guards regiment temporarily stopped their training at the special forces camp and returned. They reached Beihai City first and made use of these two days to get familiar with the Dragon Head. It was their first time following their lord on a long journey, so the colonel Wang Feng was careful and didn't dare to be careless.

What he was worried about was that some soldiers would be seasick and affect their combat strength.

As for the Beihai Naval fleet, they were already prepared.

Just as everyone was getting ready for the long journey, Ouyang Shuo instead went to the Mazu temple.

With the spreading of the Mazu faith, more and more people started to swarm and visit the Mazu Temple. The Culture and Education Division had specially recruited a bunch of faithful believers to help to take care of the daily duties of the temple.

The abbot chosen was a 40 year old lady, and she looked very kind. Seeing the Marquis personally visit, she immediately came forward to welcome him.

Ouyang Shuo went to pray to Mazu, after which he said, "Abbot, I’m here to bring the Mazu Statue out to sea."

The Mazu Statue in his words wasn't that real statue in the temple but another that he asked someone to carve.

Although his statue couldn't be compared to the real one, as it was strengthened by the incense, there was a bit of god power added to it. It shall follow them out and spread the Mazu faith, which was the secret weapon that Ouyang Shuo planned to use to affect Qiongzhou Island.

The abbot said sincerely, "Marquis is trying hard to spread the Mazu faith around; Mazu will definitely protect you and ensure you have a safe journey!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded.

What was next was welcoming the statue.

It wasn't a small thing; there was a full process. If not, one would be insulting the god.

The abbot hosted it and respectfully moved the Mazu statue out of the temple, with the temple maids protecting it all the way until the Dragon Head. On the Dragon Head, there was a specially-built temple room which would be the temporary place for the statue.

Not only that, the Mazu temple also sent out 4 nuns to go out to see with them. They would be in charge of the future workings of the Mazu Temple on Yazhou.

Ouyang Shuo definitely wouldn't think that his actions in future days would bring how much trouble for the territory.

Mazu and the various gods on Qiongzhou Island's battle of faith had started. The battle between gods was sometimes more cruel than the battle between people.

Gaia 2nd year 1st month 18th day

Ouyang Shuo brought some of the maidservants from the Lord's Manor and rushed to Beihai City.

The current Beihai Bay was filled with people. Numerous sailors, artisans and coolies hired by the Chamber of Commerces were hauling resources onto the boat.

On this trip, apart from the Guard’s regiment and Beihai Naval fleet, there were 1000 men following. Ouyang Shuo was prepared to directly build the new territory.

After the turreted boat was completed by the shipyard, there would be a second and a third batch of migrants.

The Dragon Head was docked in the harbor; the giant boat was standing out amongst the fleet.

As there were many Chamber of Commerces that joined in, the fleet was huge, there was 1 large turreted boat, 30 Mengcheng Warships, and 20 merchant ships.

"Such a huge boat!" The maidservants were shocked, and seeing that they were setting it out to sea, they were all excited.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and brought them on board. At this point, the Guards regiment had already boarded and were in position.

At 10 AM, the fleet set off.

Yazhou was 2155 nautical miles away from Beihai City. The fleet was traveling at 14 knots, with the speed buff from the Mazu temple, the 30% increase in speed made them reach 18.2 knots.

When the winds were strong, they could reach 26 nautical miles per hour.

Under normal circumstances, they could travel 400 nautical miles in a day. Hence, if things went smoothly, they just needed 5 days to reach Yazhou.

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Chapter 322- Sending a Signal

As the sun rose up and shined onto the boundless Beihai Bay, it was really eye catching. The naval fleet from Shanhai City were formed up like a swallow migration formation and proceeded forwards.

This has already been the 3rd day they had travelled, and they would reach Yazhou in 2 more days.

Onboard the Dragon Head, Bing’er was chasing Little White and was playing happily.

Behind her followed Blackfang and Little Green. Little Green was a baby Nian beast and was the size of a calf. Compared to the light green armor of its parents, its armor was pure green, with its bloodline becoming more pure. It was because of its armor that Bing’er decided to name it Little Green.

The Nian Beast originally lived in the deep oceans and seas so it knew how to swim and dive. After boarding the Dragon Head, Little Green was like a fish in water and he would dive into the ocean to catch fish and prawns.

In the deep ocean, not only were there the basic fish types, but one would also see a group of sharks once in a while.

Little Green was really fierce, and facing the overlords of the ocean, it wasn’t afraid. It rushed across, and with a scratch with its claws, it could easily kill a giant shark.

The bite of the shark had totally no effect against the armor of Little Green.

It was the real overlord of the ocean.

Apart from sharks, there were even aquatics animals that evolved into spirit beasts like squids and tortoises. No matter what animal, compared to the Nian beast it was a lot weaker and became its food.

Ouyang Shuo had a feeling that Little Green was growing at observable speeds over these past few days.

Maybe the ocean was the true home of the Nian beast.

Ouyang Shuo cooping the Nian Beasts up at the back mountains of the territory was actually a mistake.

Little Green who grew by the day could already act as a mount for Bing’er. That little brat would ride on it when it was bored. When she was happy, Little Green would even bring Bing’er for a little swim in the ocean.

The speed at which Little Green swam in the ocean was super quick, as fast as the Dragon Head.

Bing’er’s laugh had a sort of magic that attracted all sorts of spirit beasts and made them happy.

With Bing’er having preferential treatment, Song Jia and Little Yue were both so envious. The Guards regiment soldiers, upon seeing the special ability of Bing’er this little princess, had a totally different impression of her.

As for Blackfang, it was in a worst state. It was only a basic wild beast and in front of spirit beasts like Little Green and Little White, it was at a disadvantage. Needless to say, Blackfang had a portion of the wolf race, and hence he was terrified of Little White. If it wasn’t for the consolation of Bing’er, Blackfang would not even dare to go close to Little White.

Blackfang was fearful of Little White but was also loyal to it.

The natural strength of the bloodline attracted Blackfang to forever protect Little White.

Bloodline was in actuality a magical strength.

In the sky, Xue’er flapped her wings and flew around. She was the most harmless and also the most fearless.

The four of them were like the four heavenly guardians protecting Bing’er and made everyone envious.

Ouyang Shuo was also feeling a little salty, as Blackfang and Little White had signed contracts with him. Blackfang was still okay, it was loyal and still recognized him as its master. Little white was cold and didn’t even bother with him.

Sometimes, Ouyang Shuo even wondered if Bing’er was the main character of the story. One time, he checked her stats and was so shocked that his mouth was agape.

Name: Ouyang Bing

Title: Nil

Territory: Nil

Occupation: Chivalrous Expert (Side Occupation)

Level: 1

Merit Points: 0/100

Rank: Nil

Reputation: Unknown (0/100)

Bone Structure: 20

Comprehension: 15

Luck: 20

Charm: 20

Command: 5

Force: 5

Intelligence: 5

Politics: 5

Talent: Soul of Nature (Possesses high affinity with spirit beasts)

Cultivation Method: Nil

Skill: Basic Gathering Skill, Basic Diplomacy Skill, Basic weapons mastery

Equipment: Nil

Out of Bing’er’s stats, her bone structure, luck and charm were all maxed out. She had also gotten a talent straight from birth, and it was the extremely overpowered Soul of Nature.

Thinking about his own pitiful luck and charm, Ouyang Shuo could only laugh bitterly.

Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to what unexpected benefits they would reap when she set up the territory at Yazhou.

In the last life, Ouyang Shuo heard that if a lord had high luck, the system could give extra rewards; if one had high charm, one could attract more advanced talents to move over to the territory.

**********

Under the protection of Mazu, the rest of the journey was very smooth.

Gaia 2nd Year 1st Month 23rd Day

The naval fleet had successfully reached Yazhou Bay.

Before reaching it, the fleet had passed two small islands. Legend had it that a fairy loved a fisherman and was punished by becoming two islands, the Xigu Island and the Yunu Island.

In the game, the Xigu Island was 12 square kilometers wide. The mountain had a verdant steep, and the towering cliff was like an axe. These two items could be modified to be the sentries for Yazhou Bay.

Yazhou Bay, the most western bay in Sanya.

When the naval fleet reached Yazhou Bay, it was close to dusk, and the Sun’s afterglow was beautiful beyond words.

“So beautiful!” Song Jia muttered like a fairy that came down from the heavens.

Facing such a beautiful scene, even the noisy Bing’er also quieted down.

The top of the Yazhou Bay was the entrance of the Ningyuan river into the ocean. The Ningyuan river was the longest river to the south of Qiongzhou Island, and originated from the center where the Li race was gathered at.

Ouyang Shuo chose the disembarkation point to be at the eastern region where the Ningyuan river entered the ocean.

After going onshore, the sailors started to haul all the resources down from the ships. As there was simply too much stuff, they could only haul down the important ones like tents and food first.

The Guards regiment went deep into the island and started to set up defenses.

Wang Feng left 2 units to act as guards, and he brought 3 units to go forward to investigate.

The disembarkation point was a vast beach, and the soft sand under the shine of the setting sun made it look like a golden island. Crossing the beach, it was a boundless wilderness. Different from the Lianzhou Basin, there were trees and grass growing all over. One couldn’t see carefully the objects in the distance, and the environment seemed very complicated.

As it was already late and their sight was affected, Wang Feng didn’t dare to venture too deep. He only brought his soldiers and fanned out, patrolling the area around the beach. This beach seemed to be untouched by other people.

The loud fleet seemed to have shocked and alerted the wild beasts in the area.

The moment they had went near the forest, they were attacked by the beasts. They suddenly jumped out from the bushes and trees, showing their claws and sharp teeth.

Luckily, each member of the Guards regiment had been through many battles and facing the suddenly appearing beasts, they didn’t panic, drawing their Tang blades and engaging.

Fighting one on one, the soldiers weren’t at any disadvantage. After all, they were all rank 9 and above elite soldiers.

As the shine of the blade crossed, soon all the beasts were cleared out.

Just as Wang Feng heaved a sigh of relief, it was like they had stabbed a beehive. With the death of the wild beasts, more appeared out from the forest, some of which were huge and weren’t normal beasts.

Wang Feng froze, he remembered the desolate beasts that the marquis had mentioned.

“Guys, don’t panic. We will form up in small squads and defend together!” Wang Feng shouted.

“Yes!” The Guards regiment were well trained and quickly changed their formation.

Wang Feng had aimed at the desolate beasts and personally grabbed his spear. He was in charge of clearing out the main threat.

A slaughter had started without any signs on the beach.

Originally, Song Jia and the rest had already gotten off the boat and were playing with water by the beach and enjoying their holiday. Suddenly hearing the sounds of killing, they turned around.

“Form up, prepare to defend!” The Guards regiment troops who were left behind quickly formed up to defend the people.

“Marquis, should we go assist?”

Hearing the commotion, The Beihai Naval Fleet Commander Pei Donglai came over and asked.

Ouyang Shuo looked really calm and waved him off. There’s currently no need to. Wang Feng hasn’t requested any help, which means that it’s under his control. Send my orders, all of you stay at your positions and wait for orders.” He believed that those wild beasts were no match for the Guards regiment. In Wang Feng, he had absolute faith.

“Yes my lord!” Pei Donglai backed down and started to assist the Guards regiment to form up the defense.

The merchants who followed the fleet, upon seeing such a huge group of beasts, started to panic. Luckily, they saw the lord being so calm, and the troops he brought were so well trained. That was why they didn’t retreat. If not, it would have been so embarrassing.

“Wuyi, everything will be fine right?” Song Jia and the others rushed over.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and smiled. “It’s alright. Bring Bing’er back to the boat first!”

“Ok!” Song Jia was fast and decisive. She knew that she wouldn’t be of any help and would instead distract Ouyang Shuo, so she might as well just return to the boat.

As the sky set, Wang Feng led his troops and rushed back. Their faces were solemn and serious.

The soldiers who returned were all stained with blood. Some of them were injured, but their morale wasn’t affected much.

“What’s the situation?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

“Marquis, I have went to investigate and the beasts in the island are plentiful and they are very strong. There are also scary desolate beasts which harmed our brothers. Hence, I suggest that before we build up our defense, it’s better for us to spend the night on the boat.”

Ouyang Shuo froze. “What’s the strength of the desolate beasts?”

“They are really strong. When fighting one on one, I can only take down two at once. Facing one needs at least the strength of one squadron.” Wang Feng had a lingering fear. Apparently, the desolate beasts on the island had left a deep impression on him and sent a signal to the Guards regiment.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. The Guards regiment were in fact the best of the best. For them to face trouble at the hands of the desolate beasts seemed like the beasts’ strength was more than what he had expected.

“Let’s follow what you said and arrange for the people to retreat back onto the boat. We will spend the night there.” Ouyang Shuo’s last instructions was so as to not make any rash decisions before understanding more about the island that they were on.

“Yes my lord!” Wang Feng turned around to make arrangements.

Ouyang Shuo raised his head and looked out at the bushes and trees that were slowly covered by darkness. It was like there was a fierce beast hiding within and staring coldly at these bunch of intruders.

As Ouyang Shuo expected, a pair of eyes were staring at them in the bushes. It was the native people who lived on the island.

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Chapter 323- Five Finger Mountain

As the 1st Sun slowly rose, the bright glow signified the start of a new day.

During the night, there were constantly sounds of desolate beasts roaring in the island, making one's hair stand. Ouyang Shuo had barely had any rest in last night and woke up really early.

He walked out of the cabin and went up onto the 1st layer of the boat, looking towards the distance.

Using the morning glow, the beauty and brilliance of Yazhou was exemplified.

The coast of Yazhou was the famous golden coast; what covered the entire beach area was a natural salt pan. Undeniably, sea salt would become the main economic avenues of Yazhou Territory in the future.

Northern Salt Fields couldn't even be compared to the Yazhou Shore.

Across the golden coast was the endless plains, wild grass proliferated. The Ningyuan river was like a huge dragon as it swerved left and right on the plains.

The fertile soil of the Yazhou Plains and the presence of saltwater made this a good place for agriculture.

Qiongzhou Island, which was located on the tropical region, had enough water and sunlight and was the most suitable to grow rice. Other plants like sugarcane, potatoes and corn were also very suited for this climate.

Apart from that, rubber and coconut which were common in tropical regions also had a bright future. Especially rubber, which was a highly important aspect in Ouyang Shuo's strategic plans.

Looking across the plains, there was the Five Finger Mountain.

The Five Finger Mountain was the tallest mountain range in Qiongzhou Island. It was located in the middle of the island and got its name due to there being 5 peaks which made it look like five fingers. The area was covered by tropical rainforests and there were layers upon layers of them.

The Five Finger Mountain wasn't the mountain range that Sun Wukong was crushed by in the Journey to the West, but there were other legends in which players had triggered special quests in the last life.

Ouyang Shuo remembered that player was called Wu Mingzhi whose occupation was a chivalrous expert, and he was also a solo player who liked to explore.

One time, he suddenly had an idea to rent a big boat in Quanzhou and float out in the ocean towards Qiongzhou. After thousands of near-death situations, he finally reached the Five Finger Mountain.

The tragedy was that Wu Mingzhi got lost.

Luckily for him, he probably sowed good karma. Just as he had lost his way, he had unintentionally walked into the house of one of the indigenous people.

Coincidentally at this moment, a bunch of pirates raided.

Wu Mingzhi didn't hesitate and used his strong martial arts to chase them away. After they left, to thank Wu Mingzhi for saving their life, the family gave him a sword.

Originally, Wu Mingzhi didn't care much about the reward. After all, they were just a normal family in the mountains, what treasure could they have? He didn't expect for that sword to actually be a god weapon.

Wu Mingzhi then realized that he had stumbled across an adventure quest.

The adventure quests that Gaia set didn't have any system notifications when the player triggered it. The choice was totally up to the player. If Wu Mingzhi had chosen to leave, he would have no affinity with the quest.

After he left, he shared his experience on the forums. However to protect that family from being hounded by other players, he didn't reveal their exact location.

Who knows, maybe Wu Mingzhi who was lost didn't even know where he was at.

After leaving the Five Finger Mountain, Wu Mingzhi relied on that god weapon and became one of the experts amongst adventure gamemode players. He made a name for himself in the underworld and was envied by many.

In this life, who knew who would become that lucky person?

As Wu Mingzhi didn't reveal the exact mission location, for Ouyang Shuo to find that family in the vast mountains was like finding a needle in a haystack. Needless to say, he had to conveniently face a water bandit’s attack. If not, he wouldn't be able to trigger the adventure quest.

Everything coming together was actually what the luck stat was for.

With Ouyang Shuo's luck, he pretty much didn't have any hope of that happening. However, Ouyang Shuo could send Song Jia in and try, although her luck wasn't as high as Bing'er’s, she was at 18 points.

Apart from the legend, the Five Finger Mountain was a treasure vault with many natural resources.

In the Five Finger Mountain, there were 1400 plant types, 150 types of high class wood, over 1000 medicinal herbs and 100 odd famous Five Finger Mountain flowers.

The mountains were a good place for spirits, and they nurtured many rare spirit beasts and desolate beasts. Amongst which was a spirit butterfly known as the golden spotted butterfly. It was very famous in the last life and highly adored by female players.

The golden spotted butterfly was not only beautiful, but it was also good at medicinal arts and illusions, making it the ideal pet for adventure mode players.

Conquering the Five Finger Mountain was one of Ouyang Shuo's goals for this trip.

In the last life, Ouyang Shuo remembered that Feng Qiuhuang had spent 100 thousand gold to buy one golden spotted butterfly, which became one of her representative icons, leading the craze for female players and pets.

Because of the presence of the golden spotted butterfly, the Five Finger Mountain became one of the training hot spots for adventure gamemode players in the last life. Large numbers of adventure gamemode players teleported to Qiongzhou Island and ventured deep into the mountains.

They hoped to be able to catch on golden spotted butterfly and become rich overnight.

Even if they didn't manage to, the Five Finger Mountain was also an ideal leveling spot. There were many high level desolate beasts, even some bosses which made it suitable for leveling up.

Of course, those weak players wouldn't think about it as they were too noob to gain anything.

Ouyang Shuo remembered that in the last life there was a player territory near to the Five Finger Mountain which earned tens of thousands of gold solely on teleportation costs.

Needless to say, the huge numbers of adventure gamemode players spending in the territory also helped its economy to develop.

Such a huge treasure trove, Ouyang Shuo naturally wouldn't give it up. At most he could build a subsidiary territory at the outskirts of the mountain to be used to welcome the adventure gamemode players.

As for how to promote it, Ouyang Shuo already had an idea.

The northern and eastern sides of the Yazhou Plains were basically circled by the Five Finger Mountain range. To the west was a vast grassland which one couldn't see the end of, so it would also be the main development direction of the territory.

Such a vast and fertile soil, wasn't it the best place to develop agriculture?

The south of the plains was the end of the Five Finger Mountain range and was another famous mountain on the island, the South Mountain.

It was the mountain located in the southmost portion of the China region, and was termed as the land of prosperity. There was a phrase in China: prosperity like the East Sea and longevity like the South Mountain. The mountain referred to this mountain.

The South Mountain was also the place where Buddhist Dharma was spread out from. Legends had it that Guanyin Pusa and Tang Sen had all stepped foot on the South Mountain and spread around Buddhism.

In the last life, as the Tang Dynasty joined into the game progression, the South Mountain temple appeared on the mountain. The god that the temple worshipped was Guanyin Pusa,

Ouyang Shuo couldn't predict how the future South Mountain Temple would affect the Mazu Temple as after all based on legends, Mazu was inspired by Guanyin Pusa.

Apart from that, South Mountain also had a small paradise. It was one of the few in the China region which was one of the mysterious regions that players could repeatedly explore.

In the last life, the South Mountain paradise was unintentionally found by an adventure gamemode player in the 4th year of gaia. Now that Ouyang Shuo had arrived on Yazhou, naturally he wouldn't miss out the chance to explore it.

The future South Mountain Paradise, apart from the Five Finger Mountain, would be another hotspot for adventure gamemode players.

All in all, Yazhou was a treasure island.

The prerequisite would be that Ouyang Shuo needed to have a firm footing on the island.

The engagement last night had displayed the dangers and cruelty of Yazhou. To be able to be stable in Yazhou, even though Ouyang Shuo had made a lot of preparations, it still wasn't easy.

What was in front of him were two choices. One was to enter the plains to find a suitable village building spot. The other was to temporarily stay by the ocean and build a port.

Both had its pros and cons.

If it was to build the village, they could immediately set up the teleportation formation to obtain reinforcements; there would also be new refugees, which meant their army would only get stronger.

The weakness would be that they currently had nothing. If they went too deep, they might be attacked by beasts and indigenous people.

With the strength of the Guards regiment and the Beihai Naval fleet, if there were too many enemies, not only would there be heavy casualties, they might even be overwhelmed.

The current situation in the Lianzhou Basin didn't allow Ouyang Shuo to move large amounts of troops. After all, Lianzhou Prefecture was the root of the territory, and they couldn't lose it.

As for building the port, the strengths and weaknesses were very apparent.

The strength would be that they would be safe. From the observation yesterday, Ouyang Shuo found that be it desolate beasts or indigenous people, they basically wouldn't come out from the bushes. So the chances of them being attacked would be very small.

The weakness would be the low efficiency. Building a port wasn't done in a day. Before it was finished, a large portion of the people would be useless and have nothing to do.

Apart from that, grain was a huge problem. They only brought limited grain, and without using the super trading platform or getting any supplies from Shanhai City, they could only last for half a month.

Half a month wasn't enough to complete a large port.

Firstly, they had limited workers, and secondly, the wood and stone resources were limited. Ouyang Shuo predicted that with their current circumstances, they needed at least 2 months before barely completing it.

Ouyang Shuo was in a terrible situation.

Chapter 324- Three Pronged Method

After eating his breakfast, Ouyang Shuo gathered the core members of the group for a meeting. Apart from the Guards regiment colonel Wang Feng, was Pei Donglai, Secretary Bai Nanpu, Song Jia and Sun Xiaoyue.

Ouyang Shuo briefly described his views and asked for their opinions.

As military generals, Wang Feng and Pei Donglai wouldn't say their views on such a strategic decision as furthermore this wasn't their specialty.

Song Jia was here to have fun, so naturally she wouldn't interfere in his decision. Sun Xiaoyue joined the trip as the overall architect, so she was in charge of the planning and organization of the new territory.

The only one who could express his views was only Bai Nanpu.

Ever since the day he became Ouyang Shuo's secretary, 10 months had passed. The impression that he gave Ouyang Shuo was that he was really low profile.

Although the position of secretary was similar to that of a assistant, it was a tough job. His responsibility apart from organizing the letters. He was also in charge of spreading instructions and helping with administrative matters.

Sometimes Ouyang Shuo would ask him for his opinion on some matters written in the letter.

Each part of his job was important, and to do it well, one would hold tremendous power. Hence, the secretary was a very popular person and was even one whom everybody wanted to make friends with.

What astonished people was that Bai Nanpu as a secretary was like an invisible person. Usually, even Ouyang Shuo wouldn't notice his presence.

More mysteriously was that when Ouyang Shuo needed him, he would appear at the appropriate moments. The letters placed on his desk were always so neat and well arranged.

Ouyang Shuo also hadn't heard about Bai Nanpu meeting any officials in private. He was always in the secretary office, either dealing with letters or reading.

Fan Zhongyan had given Bai Nanpu an evaluation, saying that he couldn't see through this young secretary, and that his perseverance and resilience were scary.

That's right, "scary" was the word that Fan Zhongyan had used.

Fan Zhongyan was one of the 3 heads of the civil servants in the territory. For him to evaluate you as 'scary' meant that you were really special.

At that moment, Ouyang Shuo had just laughed it off, but secretly he started to pay closer attention to this secretary.

Overall, towards this secretary, Ouyang Shuo was extremely pleased. As for his subtlety, Ouyang Shuo felt that it wasn't a problem.

For this long trip, Ouyang Shuo specifically brought him along to give him some training. After all, after being the secretary for a long time, his eyes were opened but he didn't have any administrative experience.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to let Bai Nanpu lead the early administrative works of the Yazhou Territory. Before leaving, he also specifically tracked him down to have a deep conversation.

Although he didn't say it directly, Bai Nanpu probably understood his intentions.

Meeting hall

Noticing the glance from the marquis, Bai Nanpu knew that the lord was waiting for him to answer. This answer was a test for him.

The previous words from the marquis had ignited a series of thoughts in his hard. The meaning from which made even his cool character feel emotional and excited.

Becoming an official and leading a territory was the dream of everyone.

What was better was to lead such a place like Yazhou, the importance of which didn't need to be further emphasized.

As for how to open up Yazhou, Bai Nanpu had pondered about it throughout the night before obtaining a short rest.

Bai Nanpu calmed himself down and said, "Marquis, I feel that to build the territory first is not right. The risk is too big, and isn't the rational decision. Furthermore, we also have the Chamber of Commerces following us and we can't endanger them or it would affect your honor." Bai Nanpu's words were the same as rejecting the first suggestion.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, not agreeing or disagreeing.

Bai Nanpu continued, "Building the military port is also too slow. At this moment, I suggest to split into three parts and work all at once."

"Have a go!"

"Firstly, the military port will proceed as usual, it would be of the utmost importance. Secondly, contact Shanhai City to form up the second batch of people, bringing over more workers and grain. Thirdly, explore the island and the region around us to better prepare to build our territory." Bai Nanpu came out with his 3-part plan.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, finally revealing a smile. "Not bad!"

Bai Nanpu relaxed and went back to his seat.

Ouyang Shuo looked around and started to give out orders. "General Pei!"

"Yes my lord!"

"Split the Naval fleet into two. Half will return to Beihai City and guard the next batch as they come here. The other will monitor the region around the island and draw up a nautical map and on the way, get rid of the pirates. It’s best if you are able to make a round trip around the island and obtain first hand intel."

"Yes my lord!" Pei Donglai was good at this, and as such he was filled with confidence.

"The Dragon Head will be under your charge!"

"Thank you my lord!" Pei Donglai was elated; he had been wanting and yearning for the Dragon Head.

If one were to make a decision between beauties and warships, Pei Donglai would definitely choose the latter.

Ouyang Shuo continued. "Wang Feng!"

"Present!"

Towards Wang Feng, Ouyang Shuo was warmer and it could be seen from his greeting.

"Split the Guards regiment into two. Three units will be to defend the camp and the rest will be to kill the beasts at the outer parts of Yazhou. Remember, remain in a unit until you reach the village building area. Apart from that, arrange an elite squadron to go deep into the island and get intel about the indigenous people."

Compared to the wild beasts and desolate beasts, Ouyang Shuo was more wary of the indigenous people who didn't appear. If he didn't know the current state and know more about his environment, he couldn't be at ease.

No matter how strong the desolate beasts were, they had a hunting region. The indigenous people were different, they have lived here for generations and knew every nook and cranny well. With such a huge population, they would also have strong warriors and also smart shamans, a strong enemy for the travelling army.

Different from the mountain barbarians, the indigenous people here wouldn’t easily bow down to food. If Ouyang Shuo wanted to buy their hearts using some grain, it was nearly impossible.

The Five Finger Mountain had huge amounts of food and without winter, the indigenous people had no lack of food.

The Guards regiment soldiers had all basically underwent a period of special forces training, and in terms of intel gathering they naturally had a bit of skill. Hence, Ouyang Shuo didn't bring the Military Intelligence Division over.

"Yes my lord!" Wang Feng was given a heavy responsibility.

After Ouyang Shuo delegated military duties, he looked once again to Bai Nanpu. "As for the building of the port, you will be in charge. Apart from that, remember to choose a plot of the shore to reclaim the salt pans. The salt workers must be given some work to do."

"Yes, my lord!" Bai Nanpu held the emotions on his heart and nodded. The plan that the marquis had made was more detailed and better than his suggestions, making him feel that his experience was lacking.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and was ready to to announce the end of the meeting. Using up so much time, the troops and people outside were waiting to receive their duties for the day.

Suddenly, Sun Xiaoyue stepped out. "Wuyi, I have a suggestion."

"Oh?"

"It's like this. I suggest that when the Guards regiment are clearing out the wild beasts, they could open up a region along the ocean which can be used to build a farm."

"Farm?"

"Based on the weather of Qiongzhou Island, this period is suitable to grow some vegetables. Apart from that, there should be large numbers of wild pigs and cows on the island. If we can obtain their calves, we could rear a batch of animals. With that, we could solve our food problems. Even if it means we will build the territory later, our group will be self sufficient and can last for a long time." Sun Xiaoyue said her thoughts.

After finishing, her heart was beating. She didn't know why she wanted so hard to help Ouyang Shuo and also why she so badly wanted his recognition.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. If based on her suggestion, there would be plenty of benefits and all the people brought over would all have something to do.

"Good, this idea is not bad." Ouyang Shuo turned and looked at Bai Nanpu, "Note it down!"

"Don't worry my lord." Although Bai Nanpu lacked creativity, he was really good at following orders and would do it to the best of his ability.

Song Jia sat to the side and gave Sun Xiaoyue a glance, but instantly returned back to normal.

This time Ouyang Shuo had taken up the role of a boss and passed around responsibilities while he didn't join in.

At this stage, if such things needed his personal management, it meant that he had failed and that he wasn't a passable lord.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to use the chance to spend time with Bing'er and Song Jia.

As for exploring the South Mountain Paradise, it would have to wait until the territory was built. With just him and Song Jia, they didn't have the ability to explore the mysterious region. Thinking about it, he probably had to invite Little Aunt down to help.

Of course, before the territory was built up, he wouldn't inform Little Aunt. It wasn't because he didn't trust her, but it was because he didn't trust the other members.

The betrayal by the Snow-war Rose Mercenary group the previous time showed that even if it was the core of the team, there were things that they couldn't totally control.

Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to be careful.

Chapter 325- Iron Armoured Beast

Editor:ryangohsff

_Lianzhou Basin._

Two men in black were in the wilderness, meeting in secret.

"How are the preparation going?"

"Everything is in place!"

"Great!"

"I heard that guy isn't in the territory?"

"That's right, it’s been confirmed."

"Hehe, evildoers don't deserve to live!"

"Stick to the plan, let's keep in contact."

After a few simple sentences, both of them quickly left and disappeared into the wilderness.

Just after they left, in one of the bushes not far away, walked out a young man. He looked ordinary and dressed ordinarily, the only thing special was a small bird perched on his shoulder.

The teen looked towards the men that had just left and muttered, "A bunch of rats, did you think being sneaky would let you escape our investigation and spying?"

After he finished, he said some words to the little bird on his shoulder. After it heard them, it flew in the air and towards the boundless sky, quickly disappearing.

Gaia 2nd year 1st month 27th day.

On the shore closest to South Mountain, people continued to move around, and it was really busy. This was the building place of the port. The exact location and design was all done by Sun Xiaoyue.

When she was still in Dali, Sun Xiaoyue was already an advanced architect. After half a year of training in the territory, she had upgraded to a master-ranked architect. For her to be in charge of the port design was highly suitable.

The planned South Mountain Harbour was bigger than Beihai Harbor, and it was going to act as the future military harbor.

The harbour was close to the South Mountain, so it was easy to obtain resources. Bai Nanpu had already arranged artisans to open up a quarry and a sawmill.

The carts that went to and fro South Mountain and the harbor were incessant.

To the west of the South Mountain was 5 kilometers of shoal. On it were large numbers of salt workers who were busy reclaiming the saltpan. The size of the first batch would be 10 thousand Mu, similar to another Beimu Saltpan.

On the western side of the shoal was the beach. The yellow sand was found everywhere and this was the famous Golden Coast.

Beside the shore was a two-story wooden building.

On the balcony on the second floor, was a bamboo deck chair. Ouyang Shuo and Song Jia were comfortably lying on it and enjoying their holiday.

If there were cold glasses of drinks, life would be perfect.

On the beach in front of the little building, Bing'er was barefoot and playing around with the four little beasts. Little Green swam in the river and would catch a big fish every once in a while, making Bing'er cheer.

Little White also followed and jumped into the ocean, being hugged by Bing'er. The little fella shook off the water on its hair unhappily which made Bing'er totally wet.

"Ya!" Bing'er grumbled before laughing out loud.

Blackfang was loyally protecting its little master and occasionally would be able to eat the fish that Little Green had caught, making it delighted and satisfied.

Not far away, Zisu was holding onto food and a blanket, waiting for them.

The scene in front of them made Ouyang Shuo feel very blessed. Sometimes, it was really that simple.

Ouyang Shuo stretched lazily and looked at Song Jia to the side and said, "Resting for a few days, I feel so at ease."

"You lazy bug!" Song Jia threw him a judging eye.

"Tomorrow I should go and stretch. These few days, Wang Feng has been facing some trouble."

The Guards regiment was having a hard time clearing out the wild beasts and desolate beasts. Not mentioning the wild beasts which grouped up which made it hard to kill them, the desolate beasts were the biggest enemy of the Guards regiment.

The desolate beast that they faced that in the evening were only one of the weaker ones at the edge of the island.

As they ventured further in, the desolate beasts got stronger and stronger. Wang Feng once said that he could handle two at once, but now even handling one was tough.

Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to move one more unit to participate in the operation.

"I'll go too!" After playing for a few days, Song Jia was getting restless.

"No!" Ouyang Shuo shook his head. "This is a military operation. You're a girl, so the soldiers will end up fearing for you."

"Hen, don't look down on people!"

"You ah!" Ouyang Shuo knew Song Jia was highly competitive and didn't want to crush her spirit. "I know a suitable place, but who knows if you dare to go?"

"I definitely dare!"

"Five Finger Mountain!"

"Five Finger Mountain?"

"That's right, it's a treasure trove for high level players and if your luck is good, you might experience a lucky break." Ouyang Shuo recalled the legends of the Five Finger Mountain.

"Really?" Hearing about a fortuitous encounter, Song Jia's eyes brightened.

"When have I ever lied to you. The problem is that it's far away and dangerous if you go alone, you would die in an instance."

"It's not as bad as you say." Song Jia wasn't so easy to fool," I'm not like the Guards regiment, so large and easy to spot. If I travel alone and be careful, I can totally avoid all the desolate beasts and indigenous people."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, agreeing with her.

"Just nice. My martial arts have reached a bottleneck, and I need some practical training. Such a great time!"

Martial arts which weren't practiced in battle were ones that were unable to be used on the big stages.

Song Jia had been cooped up in the sword sect and needed some field training.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it and took out something, passing it to her, "If you go, I'll support you all the way. remember to bring this."

"What's this." Song Jia took it, it was a little doll.

"This was the substitute doll that I bought from the first auction."

"Ya, isn't this the legendary substitute doll?" Song Jia looked at the doll in her hands in awe," I heard that it was being sold for sky high prices and no one sells it."

"Of course. As players level up, apart from us lords, everyone else doesn't want to die. This can allow players to revive without any punishment, of course it is sought after."

Song Jia thought about it and returned the doll back to Ouyang Shuo.

"??"

"This training needs to be a life or death trip. If I bring this, then it will be an insurance and I'm not sure if I'll still be able to fight with all my strength and give it my all."

Ouyang Shuo's eyes brightened. In the last life, he was also an adventure gamemode player so he obviously understood what she was saying.

If a person knew that even if he died there wouldn't be any consequences, then he would just choose to charge forward.

A real warrior would make use of courage and intellect at the crucial moment to try to survive and not go forward brainlessly.

"To be able to think like that, your training has partially succeeded."

Song Jia smiled.

The next day, Song Jia ventured out alone.

In the morning, one person and one sword disappeared into the wilderness.

Seeing her walk away, Ouyang Shuo turned around, "Let's move out!"

The Guards regiment including Ouyang Shuo didn't sit on war horses. Their mounts could only wait till the territory is built before being able to teleport them through the teleportation formation.

Ouyang Shuo took out his Tianmo Spear and walked at the front of the group. Moving past the bushes, in a short time, they managed to reach the place that they cleaned up till the day before.

The wild beasts on Qiongzhou Island included wild pigs, Long-armed apes, leopards, and bulls. The wild pigs and rhinoceroses usually lived on the plains while the Long-armed ape and the leopards rested in the forests on the Five Finger Mountains.

As for the desolate beasts, they came in all forms and types.

The common desolate beasts were evolved from the few types. Either their size increased, or a certain body part changed. For some rare desolate beasts, one probably needed to flip open books to be able to identify them.

Of course, in front of the strong scouting skill of players, all information was instantly obtained.

After reaching their destination, the Guards regiment soldiers started clearing out wild beasts orderly. They were in groups of squads and stuck close together, like a highly efficient killing machine and pushing forwards.

Facing the normal wild beasts, Ouyang Shuo wasn't going to interfere. The reason he came today was to train his spear techniques against the desolate beasts of the island.

The Yang Family Spear technique was trained to the 4th level, and there was a huge gap until the 5th level, which needed the technique to be imbued into one's mind.

To break through to the 5th level, what was most important was practical fighting. Only by using the different strokes and stances in battle would one be able to become well versed in them and adapt to anything that was thrown at them.

Facing an attack, one wouldn't need to think and their instincts would help them make the right choice. One would have lightning quick reactions, and the spear in their hand would react as quickly as their mind thought about it, only then would it be called imbued in them.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was deep in his thoughts, a low roar broke out.

Along with the roar, from the bushes walked out an iron armored beast which looked really ugly.

The giant beast was 5 meters long and 2 meters high, weighing in tonnes. Looking from afar, it looked like a meat mountain and gave one a strong suppressive feeling, making it hard for one to breathe.

The giant beast's body was thick and stupid, and its four short limbs were like 4 metal poles that supported its heavy body. Its body was covered with an armor-like skin, filled with hard scales and shining in the light.

Its huge head was like that of a cow with a single horn, similarly as hard as iron and shining in the sun. What was amusing was that at each side of its head were a pair of small eyes.

The giant beast roared as it charged towards the Guards regiment. As it trampled on the wilderness, the ground shook and the nearby trees and bushes ruffled.

"Form up!" Wang Feng didn't dare to take it lightly.

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Chapter 326- Devil Possession

Seeing the iron armored beast charging towards them, Ouyang Shuo was actually quite excited. He used his scouting technique to check out the stats of this desolate beast.

Name: Elite Iron Armored Beast (Desolate Beast)

Level: 70

Race: Rhinoceros

Skill: Ice (Ability to activate the power of ice), Charge (Raise the combat strength by 60%)

Combat strength: 480 points

Evaluation: Evolved from a basic rhinoceros, got its name from its iron armor.

Desolate beasts were the same standard as spirit beasts. The higher their level, the higher their combat strength. The iron armored beast in front of them was at a terrifying level 70 and could make use of ice. It wasn't an easy opponent.

Based on the settings of Gaia, a rank 1 soldier had a basic combat strength of 15, increasing by 5 at every rank, jumping by 10 when it became a trained soldier. Hence, a rank 4 trained soldier had 40 combat strength and each increase in rank would mean an increase by 10 points and 20 when it upgraded to an elite soldier.

Hence, a rank 7 elite soldier had a basic combat strength of 90 and every rank up would give him 15 points. When it upgraded to a war elite soldier, it would have an additional 30 point increase. A rank 10 war elite soldier had a basic combat strength of 165 points, increasing by 20 every rank. The highest rank 12 war elite soldier had a basic combat strength of 205.

A rank 9 elite soldier had 120 basic combat strength, and when it class changed to basic general, it increased by 50 to 170 points, similar to that of a rank of 10 war elite soldier. Class changing to intermediate general, it would mean a 100 point increase to 270 combat strength, exceeding that of a rank 12 war elite soldier.

Class changing to an advanced general, the basic combat strength could reach a shocking 500 points.

Apart from basic combat strength, weapons and cultivation methods would have an added points, different from person to person. For example, Wang Feng, who was only an intermediate general, his combat strength was at 400. But even as the strongest soldier in the Guards regiment, facing the iron armored beast, Wang Feng was weaker than it in terms of combat strength.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to solo this beast and asked Wang Feng and his troops to stand down.

The iron armored beast, upon seeing a human dare to face it alone, was so furious that white steam shot out from its nose, instantly becoming enraged. It's thick limbs looked small, but when it started running, it was like a whirlwind that rushed at Ouyang Shuo at fast speeds.

While running, the head of the beast would slowly lower and reveal its sharp horn. One could imagine that by being pierced by the horn, one would definitely be torn right apart.

Ouyang Shuo focused; he grabbed the Tianmo spear in his head, calming himself down and not moving. The yellow internal strength rushed around in his body, slowly infusing into the spear. Strengthened by the internal strength, the Tianmo spear had a golden pattern on it, making it look exquisite and mysterious.

The devil bloodline in Ouyang Shuo's body started to move, and it looked like it was close to boiling over.

10...8...6...4...2...

Ouyang Shuo could already smell the stench from the body of the iron armored beast, the wind alone that it brought blew Ouyang Shuo's hair, making it swing in the air.

Wang Feng and the other soldiers who were standing at the side were so nervous that they watched on with bated breath.

The iron armored beast, upon seeing that the human in front of it was not moving, it felt that Ouyang Shuo was definitely scared silly. It was a desolate beast and didn’t have a merciful heart. It bent forward and used the strength of all four limbs, jumping towards Ouyang Shuo.

The huge and ugly head thrusted forward and the sharp horn was like lighting as it aimed for Ouyang Shuo's chest. It was ready to enjoy the enemy's fresh blood and taste its victory.

It was hard for one to imagine that such a huge body could actually accomplish such a swift and flexible action.

Ouyang Shuo was also surprised. Luckily, he had vast experience and didn't panic. He side-stepped and avoided the horn of the beast.

Seeing that it had missed, the iron armored beast shook it off and tried to charge once more. The shining horn was about to pierce the side of Ouyang Shuo's body.

At this moment, Ouyang Shuo was taking in his breath, and trying to avoid it was highly difficult.

Ouyang Shuo was helpless and could only fall to the ground to avoid it. The reaction speed of the desolate beast was far greater than what he had expected.

After two tries and not succeeding, the iron armored beast was totally furious. Seeing that the enemy actually fell to the ground, it didn't think and raised its limbs to stomp. If this stomp hit, no matter who it was, they wouldn't be able to withstand it.

Although Ouyang Shuo was in a bad situation, he was still clear-headed. He was clear what kind of attack he was going to receive when he fell to the ground, so he prepared in advance.

He rolled to the side and once again avoided the attack of the iron armored beast.

The iron armored beast didn't care and used its two front limbs to stomp one after the other, not giving Ouyang Shuo any chance to rest. The huge impacts was like lightning, striking again and again.

Ouyang Shuo was like he was in the middle of an iron pole forest. The sky above his head would have pole after pole dropping down. If he had a misstep, he was going to die a terrible death.

The terrifying potential of dying had stimulated the adrenaline in Ouyang Shuo. The devil bloodline in him was like hot oil and was about to split apart.

Seeing that it couldn't handle the enemy at its feet, the iron armored beast suddenly opened wide its mouth and sucked it, before spitting out. Only to see hail formed from the cold air striking towards Ouyang Shuo.

Before the hail even came close, Ouyang Shuo already sneezed.

The area of effect of the hail was simply too big, and Ouyang Shuo had no way to escape. Ouyang Shuo immediately felt his body freeze up and his reaction speed slow down. What was more terrifying was that the cold air was seeping into his body and was going to freeze his blood.

This was bad. Ouyang Shuo was alarmed and instantly rotated his internal strength to counteract the cold air. The golden internal strength helped to make Ouyang Shuo's body return to normal.

After spitting out the cold air, its body also trembled. It was apparent that this move had used up a lot of its energy. Seeing the enemy being frozen, the iron armored beast wouldn't give up such a chance and stomped down. How are you going to dodge this time?

Ouyang Shuo gave a cold smile. He side-stepped and got away from the front limb. Making use of the iron armored beast being stunned, he flipped his body up and stood up.

Everything happened in an instant and dazzled everyone.

Getting away from the iron armored beast, Ouyang Shuo shouted, the bloodline in his body reached its limit, and finally burst apart.

"Devil possession!"

In an instant, the devil bloodline that was hidden in Ouyang Shuo's body was awakened. Stimulated by the blood of the devil, the golden internal strength in his body sped up.

As the golden internal strength merged with the devil blood, the gold and black mixed, making it look grand and mysterious.

The power of the bloodline had changed Ouyang Shuo's body and allowed him to use tremendous strength.

One could see the muscles in his body protrude and he seemed to have grown one size bigger. A bloody aura burst out from his body, making one petrified.

Being stimulated by the devil blood, the Tianmo Spear's spear spirit also fully awakened. The tip of the spear gave out a black, eerie, glow.

Activating the devil possession, Ouyang Shuo's combat strength had doubled. He held onto the spear and suddenly had the feeling that the iron armored beast in front of him wasn't that scary anymore.

The evil blood aura that came out from Ouyang Shuo caused the beast to freeze and even retreat a step. When it regained its senses, its embarrassment turned into anger.

It was a desolate beast, how could it be insulted like this. The iron armored beast roared out.

As it roared, the scales on the iron armored beast stood up and shone in the light.

The real battle was finally going to start.

Ouyang Shuo shook the Tianmo Spear and went on the offensive. The iron armored beast was totally covered by the armor and it's only weakness was its eyes. Unfortunately, it's eyes were too small and were protected by its eyelids, so it wasn't easy to hit.

The Tianmo Spear pierced forwards at the neck of the iron armored beast. Ouyang Shuo wanted to test out exactly how thick the scales of the iron armored beast were.

"Ding!" As the spear head and the scales met, a crisp sound resounded.

The huge strength made the neck of the iron armored beast tilt and the spear instantly lost its penetrative ability. Ouyang Shuo was reluctant to give up and slashed across its body. Sparks flew as the spear hit the scales.

The screech as iron scratched iron deafened everyone.

This fella's scales were actually all metal. Who knew how much iron essence it had to grow out all these scales.

Fighting head to head, Ouyang Shuo wasn't at a disadvantage.

With the manic character of the iron armored beast, it wasn't one to not retaliate when hit. Seeing the enemy being unable to do anything about the scales, it started being arrogant and charged once more towards Ouyang Shuo.

After falling for it once, Ouyang Shuo wouldn't make the same mistake and dodged the charge.

Just as the iron armored beast went past him, Ouyang Shuo pushed with his left hand, using one of the moves in Bajiquan: Tyrant guides the horse, to strike the heavy armor. The fist brought with it internal strength and passed through the armor and spread into the body of the iron armored beast.

That move was totally unexpected. A little more and the iron armored beast would have had internal injuries.

The iron armored beast was also amazing. The moment it was attacked, it immediately retaliated. It used its back limb to kick out at Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo was astonished and avoided it.

This fellow was really not simple; its combat ability was shocking. If one could train it into a mount, it would be amazing and similar to Luo Sha.

Although Ouyang Shuo was frightened, his reaction wasn't slow. After avoiding it, it stabbed forward with the spear, the place he aimed at was the butthole of the iron armored beast. It’s real soft spot.

Throughout the entire body of the beast, only this spot wasn’t protected by anything.

The Tianmo Spear pierced in with lighting quick speed and entered into its body. The spinning spear was like a drill which mashed up the innards of the iron armored beast.

The iron armored beast felt its ass being burst open and let out a painful growl.

Wang Feng, who was viewing the battle, clenched his butt cheeks upon seeing what had happened. A cold air blew across and he felt a shiver down his spine.

Ouyang Shuo, on the other hand, kept a straight face.

Chapter 327- Blessing In Disguise

As the butt of the iron armored beast was pierced by Ouyang Shuo, it was lethally injured. It decided to give its all and use its ultimate skill.

The iron armored beast braked in its tracks and turned around to face Ouyang Shuo. It once again opened its mouth and took in a deep breath; its stomach was bloated like giant meatball.

Ouyang Shuo froze. He knew that the iron armored beast was going to go crazy. Being stabbed by the Tianmo Spear, the iron armored beast was already bleeding internally, Ouyang Shuo was prepared to slowly wear it down, but it seemed like that wouldn't be possible.

The stomach of the iron armored beast suddenly revealed a blue light, looking extremely mysterious. It was obviously preparing to launch its ice techniques. It spit out and a huge blue ball was sent forth.

The blue sphere was emanating cold air. After all, it was formed by the pure ice energy.

Ouyang Shuo didn't dare to be careless and avoided it, and the blue sphere brushed past him.

What terrified Ouyang Shuo was that the blue sphere had a spirit. It stopped and turned around, chasing after Ouyang Shuo.

My god, what is that? Is he in a magical world? Ouyang Shuo didn't dare to believe it.

Ouyang Shuo pushed his speed to the max and made sharp turns to try and escape from the chasing blue sphere. Unfortunately, no matter how he tried to feint to escape it, the blue sphere was like it had eyes and chased closely after him.

Running like this wasn't a solution, and Ouyang Shuo didn't want to wait to die.

He ran and turned around to observe the sphere behind him.

On the surface it was a sphere of ice energy and there was nothing special about it. In theory it shouldn't be able to chase an enemy.

Unless the problem was the iron armored beast?

Ouyang Shuo turned and looked at the iron armored beast. Only to see it lay there and not move at all. It's stomach had already totally shrivelled and it appeared really weak.

Only that ugly head and those funny looking small eyes stared at Ouyang Shuo as he turned around.

When Ouyang Shuo went left, the eyes of the beast would go left; when he went right, the iron armored beast would look right. Its eyes never left Ouyang Shuo.

Was the blue sphere controlled by the iron armored beast?

Ouyang Shuo decided to give it a try.

Since it is controlled by the iron armored beast, there must be a distance restriction. As long as Ouyang Shuo ran far away, he didn't believe that the blue sphere could still follow him.

Ouyang Shuo did just as he thought. He stopped strafing right and left and just ran straight.

In an instant, the distance between Ouyang Shuo and the iron armored beast had past 100 meters.

He turned his head around. As expected, the blue sphere started to shake and wasn't as fast as before. The eyes of the iron armored beast also had a bit of anxiety.

Ouyang Shuo was not really calm. He knew that his guess was correct and continued to run forwards.

When the distance exceeded 200 meters, the sphere stopped chasing and started to fly back to the iron armored beast.

200 meters was the control limit of the iron armored beast.

Ouyang Shuo's eyes constricted, and a thought flashed through his mind. He finally thought of an item that was similar to the scene in front of him. Based on information, some lucky spirit beasts or desolate beasts would develop an inner pellet.

The inner pellet not only could increase the strength of the desolate beast, but it was also an attack method. The desolate beast could force the inner pellet out of its body and control the attack.

The reason why Ouyang Shuo didn't think about the inner pellet was because the beasts that managed to nurture a pellet was too rare. Out of 10 thousand, there might not even be one.

He totally didn't expect that the first one he met would nurture a inner pellet.

Such good luck!

Based on Ouyang Shuo's luck, he totally didn't dare to believe that such a good thing would land on his lap.

The inner pellet had multiple uses...

If players directly used the inner pellet, not only could it greatly increase inner strength, but there was also a chance to get a second talent. If you passed the inner pellet to a priest and he made it into a pill, the effects would be shocking.

Ouyang Shuo ran towards the iron armored beast, shouting at Wang Feng, "Quick, stop that ball. Don't let the beast return it back into its stomach."

The inner pellet leaving the body was a hard to get opportunity. At this point, the effect of the pellet would be the best. If one killed the desolate beast and obtained the pellet, the effects would be greatly reduced.

Wang Feng and the men were still on high alert and were ready to jump to help their lord. Hearing their lord's orders, they didn't even bother about the reason and immediately surrounded the beast.

The Guards regiment were well trained and didn't swarm forward. Only the most elite charged in front, and they were all basically lieutenant grade officers.

The elite squad was split into two, one under Wang Feng's lead surrounded the beast to make it distracted while the other ran towards the blue sphere to block it.

When the iron armored beast saw such a situation, it panicked. After releasing the inner pellet, it was unable to move and could only allow the enemy to attack it. This was also the reason why the desolate beast didn't release the inner pellet. If it wasn't that Ouyang Shuo really pissed it off, it wouldn't have done that.

Wang Feng's combat strength was similar to that of the iron armored beast, and he took up the role of the main attacker. He was also ruthless and followed Ouyang Shuo's plan to attack its butt.

The brutal scene had once again occured.

The iron armored beast had totally started going crazy. It started to direct the inner pellet to attack the Guards regiment soldiers. At this point, the inner pellet had returned to within 100 meters and its speed was quick. Ouyang Shuo wanting to escape it was already a little dangerous, much less for the Guards regiment soldiers. Even though they were the elite of the elite.

Whoever was hit by the inner pellet was instantly sealed and became an ice statue.

In a moment, the Guards regiment had heavy casualties.

Even so, none of them backed off.

Wang Feng, upon seeing his men being massacred by the iron armored beast, immediately stabbed the spear into the butt of the beast, pushing all the way until he hit the internal organ.

This wasn't it as Wang Feng turned the spear and mashed its innards. However, the life force of the iron armored beast was very strong, and it still commanded the inner pellet to attack the soldiers.

Luckily at this time, Ouyang Shuo had finally rushed in. He took up the duty of dealing with the inner pellet. After all, the iron armored beast was already hurt and was only barely holding on, so its control of the inner pellet wasn't so quick.

In front of Ouyang Shuo, the inner pellet was no longer a threat and could be easily dodged.

Seeing that the marquis had it handled, the Guards regiment soldiers backed down. They didn't forget to carry the bodies of their friends away and try to break the seal to save them.

Five minutes later, the iron armored beast had finally died through the loss of too much blood.

The inner pellet shook and fell right into Ouyang Shuo's arm.

What was magical was with the death of the beast, the inner pellet had shrank and became a pellet the size of a pearl. Although it was still blue, it didn't feel cold anymore holding it in his hand.

Ouyang Shuo took out a wooden box from his storage bag and placed the pellet within it.

Keeping the inner pellet, Ouyang Shuo didn't go to check on the corpse of the iron armored beast, and instead went to the frozen guard regiment soldiers. These soldiers were frozen not long ago and could still be saved.

Ouyang Shuo raised his palm and pressed onto the statue. The internal strength was injected into his palm and onto the ice. This ice was made up of a special energy which can only be resolved by internal strength.

Under the injection of the golden internal strength, the statue could be seen to melt at an observable rate.

Two minutes later, one ice statue was totally melted. The soldier inside was still alive but he had been badly hurt and needed to rest for a while.

Ouyang Shuo didn't dare to rest in his laurels and continued to melt the other ice statues.

In a short time, there were actually 10 soldiers that were frozen so Ouyang Shuo had to race against time.

What was bad was after melting the 2nd statue, Ouyang Shuo used up half his internal strength. This meant he could only save 4 of them. As for Wang Feng, even though he trained in Bajiquan, his internal strength was normal and not special, so he couldn't melt it.

Just as Ouyang Shuo melted the third statue, his body jolted, and a strong weakness enveloped him from within. The devil possession could only last for half an hour and had reached its max.

The disadvantage of the devil possession would be weakness like one had a huge disease.

This was also understandable. For all the energy in a person to burst out in a short time was a huge burden on the body. If Ouyang Shuo didn't want to hurt himself, he could only use that once a month.

Ouyang Shuo's body regained its normal size and a weakness spread from within his body. For the next week, he couldn't use his martial arts.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo continued to melt the statues as it concerned a person's life.

Forcefully pushing on, he barely melted the 4th statue before using up all the internal strength in his body. At this moment, his face was ashen white and he couldn't even stand properly.

Seeing the marquis trying so hard to save the life of their brothers, the soldiers were touched to tears.

Ouyang Shuo shook and he directly sat on the ground and started to rest and rotate the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique to replenish his internal strength. At this point, his dantian was totally empty and he didn't even have a single strand of internal strength.

The first time he used up all his internal energy and tried to rotate the cultivation technique, a sharp pain spread from his meridians. This was actually very dangerous. Experienced cultivators would never use up all their internal strength and would leave a single strand to help rotate their internal technique.

If not, the pain that Ouyang Shuo was experiencing would occur.

Luckily, Ouyang Shuo's meridians, under the long term nourishment of the golden internal strength had became very firm and strong. When the Dantian successfully formed its first strand of internal strength, Ouyang Shuo heaved a sigh of relief as he had passed the hardest part.

Thinking about it, he really worried for nothing.

What he didn't expect was the new internal strength was really pure.

Did this count as a blessing in disguise?

Ouyang Shuo wouldn't dare to do this next time, as who knew whether he would be able to handle it?

Chapter 328- Way of the Emperors and Kings

When Ouyang Shuo finished cultivating, two hours had already passed. The internal strength in his body had regained to around 20%. If he wanted to fully recover, he needed another 3-4 days of rest.

With such a delay, the remaining 6 frozen soldiers had all really died.

Ouyang Shuo gave out a long sigh and didn't say anything.

Ouyang Shuo got up and walked beside the corpse of the iron armored beast. The whole body of the iron armored beast was a treasure, so Ouyang Shuo naturally wouldn't waste it, using his advanced gathering skill and getting to work.

"System notification. Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for gathering 225 iron armored beast scales, one perfect horn, 540 units of desolate beast meat!"

Iron armored beast scale: Quality: 10, high grade armor scale, tougher than iron, light and is a good material to craft armor.

Perfect iron armored beast horn: Quality: 12, Black, oval shaped, on the surface it was dark black while insides it was slightly grey. High quality medicine, helps to cool one down, cure injuries and remove poison.

Desolate beast meat: Quality: 8, Medium grade ingredient, after consuming can strengthen body by a certain amount.

This were all good stuff!

Ouyang Shuo put the scale armor and horn into his storage bag, and gave the desolate beast meat to the soldiers. To the current Ouyang Shuo, the strengthening effects of the meat weren't of much use.

After ensuring everything was okay, the Guards regiment buried the bodies of the dead and continued their operation.

Maybe this region was the territory of the iron armored beast, as during the following period of time, they actually didn't meet any desolate beasts. The operation continued really smoothly, and in a day, they had moved forward by 2 kilometres.

Just as they previously planned, they kept the pups of the wild pigs and the calves of the rhinoceroses and reared them. The pigs and rhinoceroses that were killed weren't wasted as the pig meat and the rhinoceroses skin and tendons were all gathered by the Guards regiment.

The large amounts of wild pig meat that was gathered had largely alleviated the food crisis.

Close to nightfall, the Guards regiment returned with large rewards.

Near the harbour, a temporary base had been set up, and it was bustling. Ouyang Shuo directly returned to his little house by the seaside and didn't join in.

Who knew whether Song Jia was successful on her trip.

During the next few days, Ouyang Shuo didn't head out and stayed in his little house, adjusting his body condition. After 5 days, the side effects of the devil possession had all gone away and his internal strength had returned to normal.

Although Ouyang Shuo was in Yazhou, through the forums, he knew everything that happened elsewhere.

In a short half a month following the Taiping Country uprising army, the Chen Sheng, Wuguang uprising army and the Huangjin uprising army all appeared in the wilderness.

The year of the uprising had officially started!

Following the 4 uprising armies getting into position, the number of alliances between players had quickly increased.

Alliances like the Brother Alliance, Brotherhood Alliance, Baihe Alliance, Lashou Cuihua Alliance, Little Student Alliance, etc. all started posting on forums to invite all the lords to ally with them to fight against the uprising army.

Their alliance mottos were all really eye catching.

"Real Brother, we will die together or we will create greatness together!"

"Brotherhood and loyalty, we will take care of one another, form an alliance with our blood. Attack evil together!"

"Little students, we are invincible!"

……

These types of alliances were pretty much useless as they attracted attention but they didn't do much.

The real alliances were all in the dark and were over a small area or region. Only these kinds of alliances could survive, maybe even do well, and become the rulers of a region.

At this point, under the forceful push of the uprising army, the strong and weak in the China region were slowly separated.

About the strong people in each region, although they couldn't be compared to large powers like Yanhuang Alliance, they did have absolute prestige over a certain region. Even Yanhuang Alliance wouldn't be able to destroy them easily if they wanted to.

In the end, they would all affect the China region.

The road in front of Ouyang Shuo and the Shanhai Alliance was long and arduous.

After selling all their authentic secret manuals and earning large amounts of gold, Swordsman County had new activity. The Qingyang Sword Sect started to become a public sect and recruit disciples from player groups. All of this was free.

Apart from that, Feng Qingyang also used heavy rewards to invite various experts to join the sect. Their targeted audience weren't just players, but were also the experts from the aboriginal people.

In the field of martial arts sects, with Feng Qingyang representing the Swordsman County, they had the absolute advantage. The insider news they got in this area was much more than other large powers.

The expansion of the Qingyang Sword Sect was obviously in preparation for the future, to get ready for the appearance of the big sects.

Feng Qingyang was determined to compete and beat the future Wudang, Huashan Sects.

To martial arts families, the territory battle wasn't their real goal. Compared to war, what they were interested in was to take over the underworld and be the real overlord, the best martial artists in the entire underworld.

Even when the reached planet Hope, a strong martial arts sect had influence comparable to any other power or territory.

Especially with the fact that everyone in the world would be practicing martial arts, running a sect had its benefits.

It was hard to say what all of this had anything to do about Feng Qingyue.

Shanhai Alliance members had good news to share.

Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang, after a period of raider clearing operations, had finally reached the needed merit point mark and upgraded to rank 3 Marquis. Bai Hua was given the title of Consonance Lord, and Feng Qiuhuang was the Caifeng Lord.

At this point, the top 10 marquis in the world had all gotten in to place.

Out of the 10, the China region took up 3 and made people envious.

After upgrading to marquis, Consonance County and Fallen Phoenix County both applied for the territory upgrading quest. If they were successful, before the lunar new year they would both become prefectures.

Shanhai Alliance's influence in the China region had reached a historical peak.

Gaia 2nd year 2nd month 3rd day.

In his silent room, Ouyang Shuo took out the wooden box with the inner pellet.

After adjusting his body condition to its optimal state, Ouyang Shuo was ready to use the inner pellet. The best time to use it was within half a month of obtaining it. As time went on, the effect would be greatly reduced. In a short time, Ouyang Shuo wouldn't be able to find a priest to help make it into a pill, so he could only eat it.

The inner pellet was still shining a blue light and lying quietly in the wooden box and looking really mysterious.

In the last life, although Ouyang Shuo had never used an inner pellet, he had a rough knowledge on how to use it. It was actually very simple, just directly swallowing it.

Ouyang Shuo didn't hesitate and placed it directly into his mouth.

What was magical was that the moment it entered Ouyang Shuo's mouth, it dissolved into a cooling liquid and flowed down into Ouyang Shuo'a stomach, magically entering his dantian.

Ouyang Shuo's dantian, after 5 days of recovery, had already returned to normal. Thousands and thousands of internal strength formed up into a golden fog, and it was really thick like a golden cloud.

The golden cloud covered the core region of the dantian and spread out across the entire dantian. After his internal strength was squeezed dry, the new internal strength would be purer and stronger, the golden cloud would also be thicker.

The moment the liquid entered the dantian, Ouyang Shuo felt a cooling sensation which started from the stomach and spread over his body.

Ouyang Shuo immediately focused and observed the situation in the dantian.

The moment the blue liquid entered his dantian, it was like when an ice cube was placed in boiling oil, initiating a chain reaction.

One could only see the golden internal strength was like crazy and swarmed forward, wanting to consume the blue liquid. Quickly, the blue liquid was totally covered by all the golden internal strength.

The magical moment appeared!

After the golden internal strength consumed the blue liquid, it actually had a tinge of blue and gave off a chilly feeling.

That wasn't all. When all the blue liquid was finished, the golden internal strength actually started to consume each other. They wrapped around each other and tried to consume one another, forming little balls. The mysterious golden balls started to collapse inwards and shrank and shrank.

In the end, thousands of golden internal strength strands turned into a drop of primordial energy the size of a rice grain.

In less than 10 minutes, there weren't any strands of internal strength left, and all of them were drops of primordial energy.

This wasn't all, the primordial energy started to consume one another and became larger drops of primordial energy. In the end, it became a liquid form of primordial energy the size of an egg.

This liquid ball started to collapse inwards and started to shrink and shrink.

As the ball continued to shrink, the golden color became more pure and eye catching. The blue color that it had obtained had disappeared and dissolved in the primordial energy.

In the end, the liquid ball transformed into the purest primordial energy the size of a rice grain.

Ouyang Shuo's internal strength had underwent a form change, from gas to liquid. It also went from internal strength to primordial energy.

This also meant that Ouyang Shuo's cultivation had broken through to the 6th layer.

Just at this moment, a system notification sounded out by his ear.

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for using the iron armored inner pellet, successfully obtaining a second talent!"

"System notification: Congratulations Player Qiyue Wuyi for cultivating to the 6th layer, giving birth to the cultivation method specialty!"

This series of surprises made Ouyang Shuo squeal in joy.

Chapter 329- Lianzhou!! Lianzhou!!

Ouyang Shuo first took a look at his second talent.

Ice: Attacks have an icy effect

A very simple description with only a few words. Ouyang Shuo thought back to when Song Jia was training, and in the air there was an icy chill. The difference was that as it was a talent, it didn't need to be ignited from within; Song Jia's ice needed to be sparked off using internal strength.

For the specific effects, Ouyang Shuo needed to find out for himself in battle.

Ouyang Shuo then took a look at the new specialty born from the 6th layer of cultivation. The name seemed really amazing, but who knew what the effects were?

Way of the king: The cultivation route created by the 3 emperors and 5 kings, raising sensory abilities and giving birth to the aura of a king.

Another dumb description. Ouyang Shuo was about to go crazy. What sensory ability? What aura of a king? Gaia didn't explain anything.

Ouyang Shuo thought hard about it and still didn't understand anything. Cultivating to the 6th layer, his internal strength had became primordial energy and the primordial energy upper limit was 100 points.

Wow, he had to start from scratch again.

Ouyang Shuo tried again. Now he could only rotate 3 cycles a day, and each cycle would increase 1 point of primordial energy. This meant Ouyang Shuo needed only a month to break through to the 7th layer.

On the surface, cultivation seemed to have became much easier. Ouyang Shuo didn't believe it. With how Gaia is, it had definitely dug deeper holes for Ouyang Shuo to fall into.

The fight with the iron armored beast revealed to Ouyang Shuo his weaknesses. Out of all his cultivation techniques and martial arts, he had an internal cultivation technique, a spear technique and a palm technique, but the only thing he lacked was a dodging technique.

Although his cultivation technique and spear techniques had some movement skills, those weren't pure dodging techniques, so they weren't that effective.

During land battles, without a movement technique, one would be at a heavy disadvantage. If he had one during that battle, Ouyang Shuo wouldn't have been in such a bad state. When the opportunity came, he had to find a movement technique secret manual.

After breaking through, Ouyang Shuo joined in the beast clearing army. He could feel that the Yang Family Spear technique was at his bottleneck and needed practical battle.

Every day, Ouyang a Shuo would at least kill one or two desolate beasts. As for inner pellets, he couldn’t even think about it. They wouldn't be able to be so lucky.

What Ouyang Shuo had mastered was of great use against the desolate beasts. Unfortunately, the desolate beasts were weak or too ugly and weren't suitable to be mounts.

If not, Ouyang Shuo would have wanted to tame one to act as his mount.

Ouyang Shuo's addition made the operation much smoother, and it proceeded at breakneck speed every day. Ouyang Shuo predicted that in just half a month, he could clear until the village building spot he had chosen.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was trying to take over Yazhou, thousands of miles away, Lianzhou Basin was undergoing a huge change.

Ever since it became winter, various signs showed that the grassland tribes were about to launch a large scale wall against Shanhai City. Amongst this, there were signs of Broken Blade County being involved.

As for where to start this story, Ba Dao had actually mixed in with the Tian Qi Tribe.

The two biggest enemies of Shanhai City in the Lianzhou Basin had actually joined up. Needless to say, the Yanhuang Alliance was always hiding behind Broken Blade County.

After Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang upgraded to marquis, it was a huge provocation towards the Yanhuang Alliance.

If this continued, Yanhuang Alliance would be left in the dust by Shanhai Alliance. This was something they wouldn't like to see.

Using Broken Blade County to cause trouble for Shanhai City and maybe even taking it over was the best possibility. In the case of the Yanhuang Alliance, this was an amazing move.

The 3 sides had come to an agreement, and after the auction, they were planning their killing blow.

After a month had passed, the time was right.

The first to attack were the grassland tribes.

The various grassland tribes who were holding it in for a long time had suddenly announced war. In a moment’s time, all the farmers and herders prepared their war horses, bows, and grain, and started to gather in the barracks.

The young men were all familiar with bows and horses, and totally didn't need training as they were all passable cavalry.

Usually, the herders were split up into small groups based on the herding region. During war, these small groups would become the base of the grassland army.

In a short 5 days, the army had gathered.

With Tian Qi tribe as the leader, the grassland tribes had gathered 50 thousand men. Tian Qi tribe alone had gathered 15 thousand. The east commander Daiqin acted as the commander while Lahkshen was his deputy.

The last member of the 3 generals of the Tianqi tribe was the Guards commander Beiritie China. He led 8000 troops to defend the northern region to spy on Mulan City and defend their home.

Mengke Kehan listed out all the sins that the Shanhai City had done towards the grassland tribes.

"The despicable Shanhai City, destroyed the Tianling tribe, even trying to put the blame on others and spoil the relationships between the tribes; they sneak attacked the west region and caused the grasslands to be in chaos for 6 months; they sent troops to destroy the Tianfeng tribe. They are ambitions and dangerous. They have committed so many sins and cannot be spared. Blood must be paid by blood!"

"Blood debt! Blood debt!"

In a moment, everyone was excited and ready for war. For some of them, this was the first time they heard about the sins of Shanhai City and they were furious, their hesitation and doubts were thrown right out the window.

Mengke looked at the army below him and was delighted, it was like he was 10 years younger and had gone back to the glory days. In the eyes of the tribe leaders behind him, unease and worry flashed across in their eyes.

As time passed, the 7 mid-sized tribes who are able to stand against Tianqi tribe would not allow the Tianqi tribe to rule over them again.

Against the big enemy, the tribe leaders could only temporarily set aside such thoughts.

Fifty thousand warriors waltzed towards the Shanhai City.

At the same time, the only division in Broken Blade County exited their city and gathered at the border, looking straight at the 3rd division.

Based on the strength of the Broken Blade County Division, they definitely couldn't handle the 3rd division. Ba Dao knew that and directly asked the Yanhuang Alliance for help.

Yanhuang Alliance was also spontaneous and arranged Sha Pojun to lead 5000 troops to assist. The advance army would be in charge of holding down the 3rd division.

Be it Ba Dao or the Yanhuang Alliance, before the grassland alliance engaged, they wouldn't initiate the fight.

The grassland alliance was a great knife.

The Shanhai City protection squad including the 2nd division at the city north camp and the city protection division were a total of 27 thousand people, half of the grassland alliance.

The northern outer wall was completed and could be used. The problem was that the east and west were still empty and couldn't defend against the grassland alliance.

This meant that Shanhai City couldn't use the wall as a defensive barrier, and could only fight head to head.

The reason why Mengke chose such a time to attack was because of that. He knew that once the outer wall was completed, it would be extremely difficult for the cavalry of the grassland alliance to take them down.

This was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

The Military Intelligence Division knew the movements of the grassland alliance straight away.

As for the various tribes, the Military Affairs Department was worried about them. during this period of time, the military investigation had not stopped. Various war preparations had already started 1 month ago.

It wasn't the time to panic for Shanhai City.

Mulan Yue had contacted Ouyang Shuo through the alliance channel straight away. Although Mulan County was outside of the alliance, Mulan Yue was added to the alliance channel as a member of the Shanhai Territory.

When Ouyang Shuo got the news, he wasn't shocked. The only thing that surprised him was that the grassland tribes were working together with Broken Blade County. This also taught him a lesson: don't underestimate your opponent.

When the Military Intelligence Division found out, Ouyang Shuo had already left. Hence, he had no clue.

He let Mulan Yue send his orders that all military action would be passed to Baiqi and Du Ruhui. During war time, they could make all the decisions and didn't need his permission to act.

Ouyang Shuo also didn't forget to tell Mulan Yue to remind Baiqi and Du Ruhui that all military plans must include the fact that the Yanhuang Alliance could teleport in to help.

The teleportation to fight wars was really strange to Baiqi and Du Ruhui. Without him personally there, Ouyang Shuo had to made sure they understood these things.

Mulan Yue was really solemn and expressed that she would take up the duty that Ouyang Shuo was supposed to have.

The alliance channel was unable to contact people individually, so all the members found out. When they got the news, they expressed concern and said that they could send their army to assist.

Ouyang Shuo firstly thanked them and reminded them that apart from assisting Shanhai City, they should set up defenses against the tricks by the Yanhuang Alliance.

Ouyang Shuo wasn't worried that Shanhai City was broken into. He was worried that Yanhuang Alliance would use them as a distraction and attack another ally territory instead.

Such things were pretty common by Di Chen in the last life.

Ouyang Shuo's reminder made all of them frown. Especially Gong Chengshi, who was the eyesore of Yanhuang Alliance, and he was hated by Di Chen, being the easiest target.

Chapter 330- A Black Cloud Tries to Destroy the City

The Battle of Lianzhou was the biggest main map war between aboriginals and lords since the game was started.

Both sides added up to over 100 thousand troops.

Such a sudden war had made Shanhai City the focal point of the China region once again. Ouyang Shuo not being there also added a layer of mystery in this war.

The eyes of everyone were all focused on the Lianzhou Basin.

Many supported Ouyang Shuo who was a commoner player, and were sweating for him.

The current situation was highly disadvantageous for Shanhai City. 3 forces working together, whether Shanhai City was able to withstand this was a huge question mark.

No one felt that Shanhai City could easily get out of this situation. The best situation would be for them to hold on, leaving a broken Shanhai City.

Some people even started taking bets and betting how long Shanhai City could hold on for.

Not only players from the China region, even everyone in the world was looking at it. This was only because the main person was the best lord in the whole world. Hence, attention was being paid to him.

American Region, Free Territory.

Jack Dawson muttered, "Our old friend is going to take another step forward!"

"Are you so sure that the Lianzhou Marquis will win this battle?"

"Heh, if he cannot handle this small problem, how is he worthy to be my opponent?" Jack was confident.

"...."

"We must start to prepare to act against the aboriginals. We are too merciful." Jack said as he laughed, but his words were cold and ruthless. "Tell them if they don't surrender, we will wipe them out."

"No problem."

British Region, Avic Ford

William shouted unhappily at his secretary. "The Lianzhou lord already has the ability to start a 100 thousand man war, look at what we are doing?"

"..."

The secretary kept silent and the atmosphere was a little awkward.

William calmed himself down and asked, "How's the research on the steam machine?"

"Everything is going smoothly. In about 1.5 years, it would be good."

"1.5 years? Too slow! Too slow!" William was furious and was unhappy with the efficiency, he looked like he was going to rage again. "To reach the glory of the old British empire, we must be quicker!"

William was a noble in real life, and his dream was to rule the seas and colonize the Earth.

"Yes, I will quicken things up." The secretary said carefully.

"1 year, remember. I only give you 1 year! If you can't give me a good answer after a year, you know the consequences."

"No problem!"

The secretary was feeling really bitter, but he didn't dare to object.

Annan Region, Haiphong County

Haiphong County lord Ruan Tianque was solemn. "Our neighbor is really shocking!"

"Ya! He just destroyed Black Shark who was disturbing the seas."

Talking about Black Shark pirates, Ruan Tianque's face twitched. The Haiphong Town had nearly died under their hands, and when they wanted to retaliate, Black Shark was killed by Shanhai City.

"I really hope the Lianzhou Marquis will lose. If not, he will be a problem for Annan." Thinking about the future country wars, Ruan Tianque frowned. To have such a strong neighbor, one would definitely worry.

"To talk about country war now, would it be too early?"

"Early? No, not at all. If he wins this, the Lianzhou Lord wouldn't have any opponents. Who would he turn his eyes to?"

"..."

"Locate the northern territories and tell them that forming an alliance must proceed quickly." Ruan Tianque had a weird expression on his face, as ruling the north of Annan had been his dream, and now it was hard to succeed.

"It isn't easy; these fellows are all arrogant. Why would they submit?"

Ruan Tianque gave a mysterious smile. “Hasn't the chance presented itself? We just use the Lianzhou Marquis as an enemy and see how they could be at ease."

"Lord is smart!"

Lianzhou Lord's Manor, Meeting hall.

The 4 directors and Baiqi were all having a meeting. Military intelligence secretary Songsan, 2nd division major general Luo Shixin, City Defense Division deputy Zhao Sihu and Shanhai City prefect Wei Ran were all here.

As it was war time, Baiqi was in charge.

After Songsan reported military intelligence, the meeting hall was in a silence.

Military affairs director Du Ruhui spoke first, "The outer wall definitely can't be defended. Since that's so, why don’t we give it up and retreat to within the inner cities?"

"No!" Wei Ran immediately objected. "The outer city is building has large living areas and Commerce regions. Once we leave it, our economic loses will be immeasurable."

Since Wei Ran was appointed, he spent all his work on the outer city. For the army to desert the outer wall would mean all his hard work would have gone to waste.

"I also have doubts." Zhao Sihu said. "Not talking about the outer city being destroyed. If we retreat and defend the inner city, we will have to split into 3, the grassland troops are all cavalry, so they can cut off the contact between the three inner cities and make us fight for ourselves."

Baiqi wasn't affected by Wei Ran and Zhao Sihu, looking at Du Ruhui. "Do you have other plans?" Although he had known him for less than a mouth, but he was impressed with his ability. He had foresight and definitely would have thought about the problems raised.

The moment Baiqi said those words, Zhao Sihu's face flushed red; he was ashamed. He was too rash and eager to prove himself so he didn't consider the deep meaning in Du Ruhui's words.

Wei Ran looked really bitter as the outer city was his brainchild and he didn't want to see it lost.

Du Ruhui looked at Zhao Sihu, and his eyes brought with them encouragement and consolation. "Retreating to defend the inner city doesn't mean giving up the outer city. Giving up the wall doesn't mean not defending. Just as General Zhao said, the enemy is cavalry and aren't good at sieging.

"The outer city could act as our frontline defence. As for economic losses?" Speaking up to here, Du Ruhui was expressionless. "This is war. We are the defending party, so we definitely will have losses. Not talking about the outer city, even the city will have losses. This is a large-scale war, and to win we need to be able to make sacrifices."

Du Ruhui was expectedly a determined and quick thinking person.

Wei Ran was still very bitter and was about to retaliate. After thinking about it, he returned to his seat and didn't say a word.

Baiqi, seeing the situation, heaved a sigh of relief. He was afraid that Wei Ran wouldn't agree. The splitting of army and administration wasn't for nothing. Du Ruhui during wartime had absolute power over everything.

The reason he invited Wei Ran was because there were some military operations that needed his help. As for affecting military plans, he wasn't powerful enough as a prefect.

In the territory, only the lord could affect military plans.

The rumours were that of the father-in-law and son-in-law, one controlled the military, and the other the prefecture. Now that the lord wasn't here, the territory was all theirs.

Although Baiqi never had such a thought, he had to pay attention to it.

Wei Ran was also an old fox, and he obviously heard the rumors. Hence with such considerations, he suddenly gave up the argument with Du Ruhui.

As for his losses, he would be the one to have to deal with them.

"Director Du can relax, the Administration Department and Internal Affairs Department will help to calm down the masses." Fan Zhongyan helped the civil servants express their attitude and support.

Du Ruhui nodded.

What was next was the reorganization of troops. With only the 2nd division and city protection division, it would be hard to defend. But to attack and destroy the enemy was too difficult.

Although the marquis didn't make it clear, Baiqi guessed that he wanted to use this battle to settle the Lianzhou Basin and set the foundation for territory expansion.

Hence, he needed to move the other divisions to help out.

The 3rd division was blocked off by Broken Blade County. The 1st division would definitely be moved and the defenses of the west region could temporarily be given to the various city protection squads.

The crux of the problem was whether or not to move the 4th division.

The 4th division had always been a secret. Be it the scouts from the grassland or the spies from Broken Blade City, no one knew it existed.

They only knew that Mulan City had a large city protection squad. Hence, the grassland tribes arranged 8000 people to pay attention to the city.

The 4th division had basically switched up all their equipment and their combat strength had increased a level. The grassland army thought that their defensive power was still at the regiment stage.

This, this was the greatest battle changer.

After discussing, Baiqi decided to not use the trump card.

The last problem was whether the Beihai Naval fleet needed to join in.

The Beihai Squadron who returned from Yazhou. As the shipyard hadn’t completed the turreted ships, the 2nd expedition was delayed and the squadron remained in Shanhai City.

"Let them wait for orders just in case." Du Ruhui being decisive didn't mean he wasn't careful. In this kind of battle, one more strength was another chance.

"I agree!" Baiqi supported this, and hence everything was decided just like that.

Chapter 331- Scheme

After the meeting, the cogs of the territory war machines had stated spinning.

Lianzhou Lord's Manor announced a state of war, and all cities were in lock down. People could only enter but not leave. All relays were closed and the sending of letters was prohibited.

The Military Affairs Department used the Feng bird to spread the orders to the various divisions.

When the 1st division received the orders, they instantly left the city west camp. The 2nd division left the city north camp and before leaving they destroyed the camp. The third divisions was in the city east camp and waited for a chance. The 4th division secretly left Zhennan Pass and gathered in Mulan City.

The city protection division was in charge of increasing the Defence work of Shanhai City.

Before the war started, the scouts of both sides had already started killing one another. Joining the scouting Mission on the side of Shanhai City, apart from the military intelligence division spies, there were the 2nd division and city protection division scouting squads.

Based on riding skills, the grassland cavalry were naturally better; but on scouting, they were far off.

Every movement of the grassland alliance army was seen by the scouts. And every important intel was spread back to Shanhai City by the Feng Birds.

The commander unit apart from Baiqi, there was Du Ruhui's war division. After a month's preparation, the structure of the war division was set up and this was the first time it was shown.

The war division was made up of 12 people chosen by Du Ruhui, 6 from

Quanzhou or Dali Army and had vast experience; the other 6 were believers in the philosophy in war so they were very knowledgeable.

Two of them helping one another, it was perfect.

The war saint effect was still working as Everyday there will be people who come over to the city.

Under the instructions of Ouyang Shuo, the building of the Army Military Academy was very smooth and the main body was basically finished, half a month more and the whole project will be done.

The role of the war division was to make use of the intel and come up with a battle plan and act as Advisors.

The highly efficient intelligence network, highly skilled Advisors, logistics prepared beforehand... du Ruhui made the Military Affairs Department into a weapon for the army and was what Ouyang Shuo had always wanted for the department.

All this, from the standpoint of the grassland alliance was unimaginable. Since the start of the war, both sides were already on different levels.

With the support of the Military Affairs Department, it made the commanding of Baiqi easier and have less things to worry about.

Gaia 2nd year, 2nd month, 7th day, the 1st division arrived in Shanhai City.

Based on the arrangement by the commander group, the 1st division was in charge of the Defence of Shanhai City Region, city protection division was in charge of friendship city region while the 2nd division was in charge of the defense of the Qiushui City Region.

The next day, the grassland unit had arrived outside Shanhai City. The first group had 15 thousand cavalry, and they were led by deputy general Lakhshen.

The army decided to set up camp at the original city north camp, and the camp they set was directly opposite of the Friendship City Region, right across the river.

Closely after the first group, the main army of Daiqin arrived in the afternoon.

Alliance army tent.

Daiqin was a 30 odd years old male. He had thick eyebrows and big eyes, and his hair was tied into 5-6 braids, a typical mongol male.

Daiqin was sitting in the lead seat, and below him were the important leaders of the alliance. Apart from Lakhshen, the remaining 7 generals each represented one tribe.

The grassland army meeting was always decided by one person.

Daiqin looked around and said, "In the battle tomorrow, our main goal is to take down the city protection river. Who is willing to be the vanguard and help open us up to victory?"

Lakhshen immediately stood up and said loudly, "Commander, I'm willing!" The other generals seeing that Lakhshen was willing, didn't say anything.

Seeing that, Daiqin's eyebrows frowned, he purposely said, "Ok good, the vanguard also needs to be the good warriors of our Tian Qi tribe, I approve!"

As he said those words, the other 7 generals were unhappy and requested to lead them to battle.

"I'm willing!"

"Yes commander, such a matter like being the vanguard should be left to our Tianying Tribe!"

"Commander, Tianshu Tribe is willing!"

……

"Good!" Daiqin laughed. "Since that's the case, Hari Chagai and Hu Leigen will lead 10 thousand men as the vanguard and take down the city protection river.

Hari Chagai was from the Tianying Tribe and Hu Leigen was from the Tianshu Tribe.

"Thank you commander!" Both of them were excited.

"Commander!" Lakhshen appeared a little anxious.

Daiqin waved him off and didn't let him continue on. "This is already settled, so we will move on."

Lakhshen returned back to his seat in anger.

Seeing that, Hari Chagai and Hu Leigen were both even more pleased.

After the discussion, all the generals went back, only leaving Lakhshen.

Seeing Lakhshen stay back and having something to say, Daiqin regained his calmness.

"If you have any doubts, just say them."

"Commander, why don't you see me?” Lakhshen was unhappy.

Daiqin's face showed that he expected it and asked Lakhshen to calm down. "You ah, don't you know the purpose of Kehan starting his war?”

"Purpose? Isn't it for revenge and to destroy Shanhai City?" Lakhshen didn't understand.

"Dumbass!" Daiqin raised his voice. "War isn't a child's game, and our brothers aren't tools for revenge."

After being scolded by Daiqin, Lakhshen's face blushed red. "Commander, please clear my doubts."

"Lakhshen, not only did hate blind your eyes, it also blinded your head. You weren't so rash last time." Daiqin didn't care about his face and continued, "Destroying Shanhai City was the most obvious purpose. Most importantly, Kehan wants to use this war to establish our position in the grasslands.”

Lakhshen was shocked and understood.

"The position of overlord, what does it depend on? Military. Only by crushing the others can we tame them; everything else is fake. The war tomorrow will have heavy casualties. Your men are all the elite of our tribe, so how can we send them to fight?"

Lakhshen felt a shiver down his spine, Daiqin wanted to use this battle to weaken the other tribes. Thinking about those deep eyes of Kehan, Lakhshen flinched.

"Commander is a genius!"

Daiqin's face relaxed once again. "Ok now go rest, we will have many hard battles for you to participate in. Remember that our conversation is only between both of us."

"Understood!"

"Now go!" Daiqin waved him off, took up the book on his table, and started reading.

As Lakhshen left the tent, his face was ashen white. He felt that in the tent sat a beast and was just a wolf in sheep's clothing.

On the 9th day of the 2nd month, the Sun rose, and the land was totally red.

The seasonal wind from the valley brought with it the salty smell of the ocean.

Early in the morning, the alliance army had started to get busy. The night before, 50 thousand troops moved out and dug out large amounts of soil from the grasslands and placed them in straw bags.

Sacks of dirt were stacked up in a mountain in front of the camp, making them look majestic.

In front of the barracks, a 10 thousand man army was ready; they were the vanguard forces for today.

Hari Chagai and Hu Leigen rode their horses to the front of the group.

They wanted to motivate their men before the war.

"Warriors of the Tianying Tribe, the commander gave us this mission, which means he recognizes our bravery. We must battle beautifully, understood?" Hari Chagai took the lead.

Hu Leigen on the side used a louder voice and shouted out, "Tianshu tribe sons, we don't need to say anything. Kill the Lianzhou Marquis, take over Shanhai City!"

The morale was sky high and covered the land.

Such a scene would definitely made the blood of every men boil.

To the men and sons of the grassland, bravery was their highest goal.

The highest honor of a warrior, higher than even their own life.

The other soldiers of other tribes, upon seeing such scenes, looks of envy filled their faces.

The soldiers were discussing and ranting that their general was stupid and didn't get them the chance to fight the first fight.

The remaining 5 generals, upon hearing their discussions, their faces were really ugly.

Hu Leigen looked at Hari Chagai from afar, and his eyes had a bit of provocation.

Hari Chagai was naturally unhappy and shouted, "Let's go!"

"Buhe Haga!" The sons of the Tianying tribe replied to their general with the highest honor.

Seeing the army leave the barracks, Daiqin from afar had a weird expression on his face.

Lakhshen stood beside Daiqin. In his heart, he felt bad for Hari Chagai and Hu Leigen. They were used like pawns and were still so happy about it.

Who knows, the two of them might think that Daiqin were giving them a chance to become famous. Thinking about that, Lakhshen glanced at Daiqin. In his eyes were weariness and fear.

Daiqin didn't notice that; he was really calm like the wind.

Walking out of the barracks, the 10 thousand men were split in two. Hari Chagai was in charge of the west side of the city protection river, while Hu Leigen was in charge of the east side.

Such an arrangement made the two generals butt heads and compete with one another from the start.

There was no second best olden scripture, and no one remembered the second best martial artist. No one would want to lose. Needless to say, whoever took down the city protection river would be the bravest warrior on the grasslands.

The dirt bags that were prepared were taken up by the soldiers and were ready to be used to fill up the river.

The army waltzed forwards like two black lines, charging towards the city protection river.

The war had officially started.

Chapter 332- Changing the Moat into a Path

On the city wall, Zhao Sihu looked on at the advancing grassland army; his face was one of perseverance.

Under the instructions of Daiqin, Hari Chagai and Hu Leigen chose the river area that was farther away from the Friendship City Region. Daiqin's intentions were obvious, avoiding the inner city area of Friendship City and directly breaking into Shanhai City.

His small act was calculated by Baiqi.

On the only part of the outer wall that was built, 10 thousand archers were lined up. The god machine unit were lined up in the middle of the north wall; the bowmen and crossbowmen from from the city protection division were sent to the east side; the bowmen and crossbowmen regiments of the 1st division were assigned to the west of the north wall.

On the east and west, the grassland army came carrying sandbags. Before they even came close to the city protection river, a rain of arrows enveloped them.

The arrow rain made it hard for them to move forwards.

With every step forward, hundreds of soldiers would be hurt.

On the west, Hari Chagai was green, and in his heart, a bad feeling started to form.

The enemy was right in front of them, so he couldn't think too much. He had already ordered the troops only to advance and not retreat . If not, he would lose the face of his entire tribe.

Thinking about this, Hari Chagai raised up the sand bag over his head and covered his head while charging forwards.

Hari Chagai's actions instantly succeeded and had an effect.

The soldiers learned from their general and advanced while braving the arrow rain.

As the arrows hit the sandbag, the arrow stopped and was no longer a threat to the soldiers. It was a natural barrier, even more effective than shields.

All of a sudden, the soldiers on the west side moved quickly and managed to reach the city protection river.

Their goal was to fill up the river and to provide the army with a pass to cross.

On the city walls, in the 3rd regiment of the first division, the archer regiment colonel Jiangkai laughed coldly upon seeing the enemy use such an old method, "I really want to see how you guys will go back."

As expected, once the grassland soldiers threw the sandbags into the river, they didn't have any cover and was under fire from the arrow rain.

In that moment, death spread.

What was more painful was that the lucky ones still needed to carry a second sandbag to continue to fill up the river.

If it wasn't for their strong resilience, normal people wouldn't have the courage to make the second trip.

Hari Chagai, as the general, had guards raising shields for him when he went back, so naturally he was safe.

Unfortunately, shields weren't the standard issue, and normal soldiers didn't have such equipment.

A short 300 meters became a region of death. Every second, there would be someone dying. The 5000 man army was getting smaller and smaller every moment.

Seeing such a scene, Hari Chagai's face turned black, and he wasn't as confident as before. He could feel that he was scammed and he was scammed really badly.

The 5000 man army was 90% of the army of the Tianying tribe. If they all died here, Tianying tribe would be eaten up by the neighboring tribes.

Thinking about this, Hari Chagai felt a shiver down his spine.

"Go, report to the commander, say the enemy firepower is too strong and we request backup!" Hari Chagai wasn't dumb and knew to ask for some backup.

Since he was going to die, he’d rather drag some other tribe to die along with him.

"Yes!" The guard turned around and rushed.

Alliance army commanding unit.

The commanding unit had built a high platform, looking across at the battlefield from there, one could see everything.

On the high platform, Daiqin stood in the center, and beside him were Lakhshen and the other 5 generals.

When the 5 generals saw the slaughter on the battlefield, they turned white and were silently happy that they weren't rash yesterday. If not, the ones to get rained upon by arrows would be them.

Hari Chagai's personal guard rushed to the high platform at his fastest speed.

He directly knelt down, panicked, and said loudly, "Commander, the enemy firepower is too strong. We can't handle it, we need backup."

The moment he said that, the generals on the platform all had different looks on their faces.

Only Daiqin still had a casual expression and laughed, "Didn't Hari Chagai say yesterday that he was going to succeed? Why? It's only half an hour and he can't hold on?"

Although Daiqin's words were said with a smile, they were enough to make one embarrassed to death.

The guard's face turned red. His lord was insulted, and as a guard, he felt greatly insulted and embarrassed. Luckily, he was still rational, and thinking about his brothers dying on the battlefield, he cried, "Commander! You are magnanimous, please forgive our stupidity!"

As he reached the last few words, he was on the verge of tears. "Commander, please leave some face for the Tianying tribe! Our boys really tried their best, no one can say that we weren't courageous."

As his words were said, everyone's expression changed. The soldiers around also dropped their mocking expressions, and they changed to ones of respect. Thinking about it, under such an arrow rain, the Tianying Tribe didn't back off. They were indeed great men.

If it were them instead, they wouldn't be able to do any better.

Daiqin kept his smile and praised that guard. He really wasn't simple. With a few sentences, he changed the whole situation.

One wouldn't expect that beside the brutish and stupid Hari Chagai would be such a talent.

Just as Daiqin was about to speak, the personal guard of Hu Leigen ran over. He panted as he said, "Commander, the enemy firepower is too strong, request to retreat!"

"What nonsense!" Daiqin was furious and everyone instantly quietened down. "Do you think the military order is a joke, retreating as you wish?"

"..."

"Go back and tell Hu Leigen that I have made plans. If he tries to retreat, I'll take his life myself!" Daiqin stared at the terrified guard. In his eyes, one could see his contempt.

Both were guards, but the distance was just so huge!

"Understood!" Hu Leigen's guard replied before running off.

Daiqin definitely wouldn't let them die out. He wanted to suppress the other tribes but the prerequisite would be that they won the war. If not, it would all be for nothing.

He had mocked the personal guard of Hari Chagai so as to let the Tianying Tribe remember his good grace, such that it would be better for the future.

Although Daiqin was a general, he had a brain for governance and politics.

After the small interruption, Daiqin turned to the generals and asked, "Who is willing to help the two tribes?"

All of them looked at each other, respecting the Tianying tribe was one thing, but rushing over to assist was another. That was real and actual casualties; no one was a fool.

"Why? Don't tell me that the men of the grassland are all soft eggs and cowards!" Daiqin was unhappy, and at the same time he made a gesture towards Lakhshen.

"..."

Lakhshen understood; he knew that it was time for the Tianqi tribe to come into play. Although Daiqin was the commander of the alliance, he couldn't force the other tribes too badly, at the crucial moment, he had to act too.

If one said that the vanguard troops were volunteered, the Tianqi tribe not joining was still understandable; but if now the Tianqi tribe let other tribes sacrifice themselves while they did nothing, then that would be a problem.

No matter how good Daiqin was, he wouldn't be able to convince the rest.

Needless to say, the other tribes also had qualms and caution towards the Tianqi Tribe. If the biasness was too obvious, the other generals weren't fools to be played by Daiqin.

"Commander, I'm willing to assist!" Lakhshen stepped up.

"Good! You will lead 5000 men to assist the Tianying tribe." Daiqin smiled, he expression changing as fast as flipping a book. "Is there any other who is willing to assist the Tianshu tribe? If no one then I'll have to choose."

Lakhshen had stepped out, and the other 5 generals were now waiting to get picked.

At this point, they had no say and couldn't reject.

"Commander, I'm willing!" Tiangou tribe's Xirigou Lige stepped out.

Daiqin nodded, the Tiangou tribe and Tianshu tribe were secret allies, so for him to step out wasn't unexpected. "Ok you'll lead 5000 men to assist the Tianshu Tribe."

"Understood!"

Daiqin looked at Lakhshen and Xirigou Lige and said solemnly, "Remember, you have to level the river today. No retreating or you will be beheaded."

"Yes!"

The two armies walked out of the barracks to assist the Tianying and Tianshu tribes.

Zhao Sihu stood on the city wall, and seeing reinforcements, he muttered, "Baiqi really predicts things like a god!" He turned around and told his personal guards, "Send my orders, cavalry get ready!"

"Yes!"

After the reinforcements rushed there, Hari Chagai and Hu Leigen heaved sighs of relief. In a short hour they had lost a half of their strength. If they tried to hold on, the army was going to fall apart.

The only difference was that Hari Chagai was touched and thankful for the assistance. Hu Leigen was angry about the insult which Daiqin gave him.

Lakhshen looked at the arrow rain in front of him and froze. It didn't look like much from far away, but close up, it was really terrifying.

In a short period of time, the arrows formed up layer after layer on the ground.

It was difficult for the Tianying tribe to survive to now. Thinking about that, Lakhshen was also courageous and sent all his forces up.

When the reinforcements came, the rate at which they filled up the river sped up.

One could see that the river was about to be stopped and blocked in half.

Victory was in their sights, and both tribe armies were excited. They have finally gotten out of that nightmare.

Suddenly, the north gates of Friendship City opened. Cavalry burst out of the gates and charged straight at the Tianshu and Tiangou tribes.

To fill up the city protection river, the grassland army used their cavalry as infantry, facing the sudden rush of cavalry, there was nothing they could do.

Chapter 333- Fight and Retreat

The city guards division cavalry, under the leadership of deputy Major General Zhao Sihu, started to assault the alliance army.

Facing the Shanhai City cavalry who were like wolves and tigers, the alliance army which was on the verge of collapse couldn't even put up a fight. One charge by the cavalry, and the army on the east side was broken into bits.

What happened next was a one sided massacre.

The soldiers on the west side were getting ready to defend but upon seeing the Shanhai City army only attacking those on the east, they were relieved.

Hari Chagai felt that he had a total change of luck.

Alliance Army Commanding Unit.

Daiqin stood on the high platform, and upon seeing the Shanhai City army act, he smirked.

Since he dared to send out the vanguard force, he was obviously prepared. A 10 thousand man army was already laying in wait, just for such a situation to occur.

Daiqin was afraid of the enemy being like turtles and hiding inside. Since they were willing to come out, he was happy to oblige. Based on his orders, the cavalry forces not only had to save the Tianshu tribe and Tiangou tribe, but they also had to destroy the enemy.

The only thing that made him feel surprised was that the timing that the enemy chose was sublime.

Daiqin didn't hesitate and waved his flag. The cavalry forces who were hiding in the barracks burst out like an arrow and dashed into the east battlefield.

Zhao Sihu was a really wary and alert person. Furthermore with Baiqi's instructions, after killing for a while, he immediately asked the troops to retreat back into the city before the reinforcements arrived.

The cavalry who were there to reinforce, seeing the enemy retreat laughed out loud and mocked.

10 thousand cavalry, scolding under the city wall was quite majestic.

On top of the wall, the soldiers of the guards division were all furious.

Zhao Sihu looked down and gave a cold smile.

If it wasn't to prepare against the Yanhuang Alliance, with the 3 divisions, even in a head to head battle, it was enough to destroy the grassland army.

Under the protection of the 10 thousand cavalry, the situation on the east stabilized.

At this point, the grassland alliance army had taken down the city protection river after suffering heavy casualties.

Seeing the Shanhai city troops retreat, Daiqin shook his head in regret. He waved his flag once more and asked all his troops to advance.

Since they had already taken down the river, naturally he would move the camp to protect it and prevent Shanhai City from opening up the river again.

The huge army immediately started to pack up and move.

Zhao Sihu stood on the wall and looked at the huge army that covered the land, not making a sound. He focused and analyzed their troops, trying to see through their weakness.

There was really a weird aspect.

At the back of the alliance forces, there were 10 huge chariots. It was covered by cloth, so one couldn't see what it was. It was a bit too tall for one to say it was a grain cart.

Zhao Sihu didn't dare be slow and informed the guard to tell Baiqi.

When the alliance army finally set up camp at the north of Shanhai City, the sun was setting.

After the city protection river was taken down by the alliance army, the north city wall became a lone island.

The same night, the archers of the 1st division and city protection division left the wall. The archers of the first division formed up another defensive line in the outer city, while the city protection division was in charge of defending the Friendship City Region.

The Shanhai City army had totally given up on the north city wall.

The first day of the war ended just like that.

Shanhai City didn't even lose a single soldier and killed off 8000 men.

No matter if it was Daiqin or Baiqi, both knew that this was just an appetizer.

The real battle was about to start.

In the dead of night, there was total silence.

Alliance army camp.

A man dressed in black appeared at Daiqin's tent.

"Shouldn't you all act already?" Daiqin seemed to be familiar with this man and in his tone was one of slight unhappiness.

During the first day of the war, the alliance army already had heavy casualties, so naturally Daiqin was unhappy.

"Relax, the reinforcements are coming!" The man in the black shirt was expressionless.

"When's the exact time?" Daiqin wasn't pleased with his answer.

"The most crucial time!" The man didn't care. "Whats most important is for you to bait their main force and clear or the outer obstacles to create a chance for the final battle."

"I don't need you to teach me!" Daiqin was cold. They were risking their lives in the front line while the man hid in the shadows, obviously it was easy for him to say such a thing.

"I hope you all can have a victory tomorrow!"

After saying that, the black shirt man exited the tent and disappeared in the darkness.

After he left, Daiqin dissed, "Rat!"

The next day, the sun rose up as usual.

As the sun shined on the soil of the Lianzhou Basin, it was unable to give anyone a feeling of warmth.

War was always so brutal.

Because of war, the farmers outside of the city couldn't farm, and the workshops in the city didn't open up. The commoners were afraid and terrified that when they woke up they would be prisoners.

"Have you heard, yesterday the enemy took down the city protection river!"

"The grassland barbarians are really strong!"

In the midst of the people, the original men from the Tianfeng Tribe's face changed and they were overwhelmed with emotions.

They exchanged glances, looking excited but also nervous.

On the high buildings on the side of the road, two Military Intelligence Division spies were like hunters staring at their prey.

The calm Shanhai City was being pushed forward by a hidden current.

In every war, the dark side of society would slowly be revealed.

The discussions between the people naturally couldn't stop the war.

At 10 AM, the war began once again.

Daiqin led 12 thousand men and sat in the city north camp to survey the Friendship City Region.

The remaining 30 thousand troops were split into two, going around the north city wall and going straight for Shanhai City.

The west was led by Lakhshen; the east by Xirigou Lige.

The two armies were like a nail, embedded straight into Shanhai City.

In the current outer city, apart from the buildings, anything valuable was all moved into the inner city.

As Lakhshen entered the outer city, the scene in front of him shocked him.

The vast empty land of the outer city were laced with huge amounts of arrow turrets and barricades. This was especially true at the sides of the bridge towards Qiushui City and Shanhai City.

Apart from that, on the ground were scattered large amounts of iron barbed wires.

Be it the barricades or the barbed wires, they were all prepared by the Combat Logistics Department long time ago. The strong military industry showed its worth in battle.

Not only that, on the bridges were high numbers of soldiers. On the bridge towards Qiushui City, a cavalryman stood there solemnly, the flag he waved was of the 2nd division cavalry.

On the bridge towards Shanhai City, the 1st division’s 1st regiment sword shield soldiers laid in wait.

Baiqi's strategy was simple. Before the enemy showed everything they had, Shanhai City army would not go all out and would use the land to their advantage.

Even if the war was ugly, as long as it was effective, Baiqi didn't care.

Lakhshen felt numb and had a feeling of being unable to attack.

"General, what should we do?" The deputy official was also helpless.

Lakhshen's face turned black and shouted, "What can we do?"

Without removing these obstacles, the cavalry would be unable to proceed.

Helplessly, the alliance could only send out their daredevil force to clear out the obstacles.

Clearing everything, it was a bloodbath.

The Shanhai City archers stood on top of the archer tower and shot down. The alliance army could only shoot one or two arrows from their war horses and vent their frustration.

What was worse was that before the daredevil squad cleared the area to below the archer tower, the archers retreated and escaped.

Lakhshen was furious and scolded aloud. Where was there such a despicable fighting method?

When Daiqin received the news, he was also fuming. Now he knew what the black shirt man said about clearing the obstacles.

That stupid rat had obtained intel but hid it from them.

When Daiqin's reaction was spread to the troops on the east and west, Lakhshen and Xirigou Lige shivered and thought that their commander was angry at their speed.

Helplessly, they could only grit their teeth and send out more men out to die.

Throughout an entire morning, the daredevil squad was changed and changed.

Only just before noon did they manage to clear all the obstacles to the north of Friendship river and Qiushui river.

In just a morning, the alliance army lost 4000 men.

Using the break in the afternoon, Lakhshen asked Daiqin whether he should continue clearing the obstacles on the opposite shore or surround Friendship City.

What he got was that he had to take down the bridge.

Daiqin was also helpless, as he himself also wanted to directly attack Friendship City.

But if they didn't take down the bridge and block the passageway between the three cities, when they attack, they could be pincered in and surrounded.

At 2 PM, the intense battle over the bridge officially started.

This was the first real battle between Shanhai City army and the grassland alliance army. Even at the start, it was already very explosive.

One bridge obviously couldn't hold so many men.

On the narrow bridge, both sides gave their all.

In less than half an hour, the bridge was strewn with bodies. The fresh blood seeped into the gaps of the wooden floor and dyed the bridge red.

At the farther portions of the battle, to make space, soldiers had to throw the corpses off the bridge. The corpses thrown into the river floated up and looked like hell.

Apart from the battle for the bridge, both sides also shot at each other using the arrow towers.

The killing shouts made the commoners and residents in the inner city terrified.

All the way until 4 PM, under the fearless charging of the grassland alliance army, the Shanhai City army retreated and both bridges were taken over by the alliance army.

War had started to turn towards the direction that favored the alliance army.

As for the truth about the war? Everything was still unknown.

Chapter 334- Surrounding the City

2nd month 11th day

The grassland alliance troops surrounded the Friendship City Region.

After two days of slaughter, the alliance had 37 thousand men left and only the city protection division defended Friendship City. In terms of numbers, the alliance army didn't have the absolute advantage.

Apart from that, Daiqin arranged 2000 troops to guard the 2 bridges.

Although the grassland army was mainly cavalry, it didn't mean that they didn't know how to siege.

For this battle, the alliance army had been preparing for a long time.

One of which were siege machines. Apart from the simple siege ladder, the alliance also prepared a secret weapon, the trebuchet.

The trebuchet was provided by the Yanhuang Alliance.

If Ouyang Shuo could obtain the technical manual through raiders, naturally the Yanhuang Alliance could too.

Chances were equal.

The trebuchet was sneakily transported to the Tianqi tribe around half a month ago, and was kept a secret.

Today, the mysterious veil was finally revealed.

When 30 odd trebuchets were placed on the northern side of Friendship City, Zhao Sihu's face was bitter.

He had already reported the intel to the commander group, and they had also sent spies to find out what it was.

Unfortunately the alliance army kept it a secret, and anyone who tried to get close were mercilessly killed. As such no spy was able to get near it.

At 9 AM sharp, with the explosive sound of the trebuchets, the siege had begun.

Large amounts of stones were flung into the inner city by the trebuchets, destroying anything that could be destroyed. Be it archer towers or houses, none of them could hide.

Especially the arcuballistas mounted on the north city wall, they were the targets of the trebuchet.

Arcuballistas were the absolute counters to cavalry, so why would Daiqin let them off?

However, it front of the three-bow arcuballistas, normal trebuchets didn't have an advantage.

The range of the trebuchet was 400 meters, while the three-bow arcuballistas could reach 500 meters.

Hence, the trebuchets were totally in the range of the arcuballistas.

The god machine unit returned the favor and rained down bolts at the trebuchets.

Be it the trebuchets of arcuballistas, they were all very exquisite machines. Hence, the moment they were hit, they were easily broken and couldn't function normally.

In this battle, the god machine unit won.

Of the 30 odd trebuchets, in less than an hour, 20 were destroyed.

In comparison, only 10 arcuballistas were destroyed.

The god machine unit had once again done a miracle.

At the high platform of the alliance army, Daiqin's face was totally black. He remembered that when the Yanhuang Alliance gave them the trebuchet, they swore that Shanhai City had no way to defend against it.

Who would have thought that right from the start, his trebuchet strategy would fail?

At the crucial moment, he still needed the grassland children to fight. Daiqin was more and more annoyed by the Yanhuang Alliance. He send the orders for the army to use the sieging ladder and charge towards Friendship City.

With the protection of the god machine unit, whichever army wanting to siege it, the task was highly difficult.

With such a killing machine coupled with the archers on the city walls, they were a real life human life collector. Before the large grassland alliance could come close to the wall, they had suffered heavy casualties.

The thinly equipped soldiers were like wheat in the fields and got harvested batch by batch.

What was good was that the grassland alliance army was fearless, braved the arrow rain, and resolutely rushed towards the city wall. When they got near the wall with much difficulty and latched it on, what awaited them was an even bigger catastrophe.

Numerous rolling wood and huge stones pelted downwards from over the wall, taking away life after life.

Siege battles were all along the most brutal ones.

In the battlefield where blood and meat flew around, if one wasn't cruel enough, he would collapse instantly.

The siege lasted until noon, and Friendship City was still as strong as rock. The alliance didn't have a single soldier that managed to get on the wall and cause a threat for the city protection division.

In the end, without the trebuchet, the grassland alliance army was still weaker.

On horses, they were heroes; at sieging, they were total noobs.

Making use of the break, the city protection division could finally take a breather. With only one division to defend such a huge area, it wasn't as easy as it seemed.

As for the arcuballista archers of the god machine unit, these were strong men as they had been continuously operating the arcuballista. Not only did they use up all their energy, but their hands were also swollen and shaking.

Not only the strong men, but those soldiers in charge of throwing the rolling wood and stone had it tough too. The enemy was really too fearless and kept on attacking. They could only follow and move around the rolling wood and throw it down.

The continuous battle had totally exhausted the soldiers.

Luckily at this time, the Combat Logistics Department had arranged for the commoners to bring delicious and warm rice.

The alliance army was similarly cooking rice, but their atmosphere was really depressing.

Their morale had been crushed by problem after problem, and was at its lowest. Some soldiers even felt despair and that no matter what, they wouldn't be able to take down Friendship City.

This depressing mood that spread around the camp made Daiqin frown.

For him to hold on until now was for the promise reinforcements by the Yanhuang Alliance. Those stupid rats still not appearing at this time, what tricks were they playing?

The alliance army was on the verge of collapsing, and one small mistake would push them over the edge.

Daiqin could feel in the eyes of the various tribe generals that they had the intention of retreating. In the end, the only one with a deep hatred for Shanhai City was the Tianqi tribe.

If it wasn't that Shanhai City had endless amounts of riches, they wouldn't have responded to Kehan's call and lead their troops to attack the city.

3 days had passed and they haven't achieved anything. Their army was half destroyed.

Whoever it was, they wouldn't feel good.

In the afternoon, under the pressure of Daiqin, the alliance army launched another assault on Friendship City.

The current alliance army's morale had dropped tremendously and they weren't as fierce as before.

After a noon of readjustment, the city protection division had barely managed to recover. After some casualties, they managed to block the alliance army assault.

The third day has ended just like that.

Night, alliance army tent.

Daiqin was furious, he wasn't as calm and easygoing as before.

The meeting that just ended, the 6 tribe generals, apart from Hari Chagai who kept quiet, the other 6 pressured him to disperse the troops of not they would leave.

Those bunch of rats!

Do they think dispersing the army will make things fine? When you bare your fangs, wanting to close your mouth wasn't that easy.

After this battle, when Shanhai City recovered, would they let them off?

Stupid to the maximum!

To the alliance army, there was already no way out.

Advancing was a road filled with thorns; retreating was a cliff.

Unfortunately, no one believed his words. They’d rather be an ostrich and not give their all.

Bastards!

Daiqin raged, and he smashed the things in his tent.

Lakhshen stood at a side quietly. This was the first time he saw Daiqin lose control, so even when he loses his senses, even he will lose control of himself.

Lakhshen realized that he wasn't as fearful of him anymore.

Daiqin turned around and seeing Lakhshen's expression, he immediately regained his senses.

"You go back first!" Daiqin regained his calmness.

"Yes!" Lakhshen backed out of the tent quietly.

Daiqin looked at the view of Lakhshen’s back, giving a weird expression.

Not long after Lakhshen left, the black shirt man visited the tent once again.

When Daiqin saw the black shirt man, all his pent up anger was released. He pulled out the crescent knife by his wait and held it at the neck of the men, "Where's the reinforcements that you promised? Give me a satisfying answer or else you won't leave here!"

The black shirt man was unfazed. "General, why are you so angry?"

"Asshole! It's because of all of you. Those generals are about to leave. I probably can't escape but your hopes are now all lost." Daiqin was really going to be angered to death, he gritted his teeth as he said.

"The reinforcements will come tomorrow!" The black shirt man wasn't fast or slow and didn't bother about the knife at his neck.

Daiqin's eyes froze and he kept the crescent knife back into his sheath. "Are your words true?"

"General will know tomorrow, when have I lied to you."

"Good, I'll trust you one last time." Daiqin was helpless, now he could only advance and his only hope was the reinforcements.

The black shirt men laughed coldly, his grasp of human nature was at the peak. The timing at which the Yanhuang Alliance would act was predicted and strategized by the advisors from the military.

On the surface, he was still expressionless. "Goodbye, tomorrow I still need you to put up a good show for us."

"Hen!" Daiqin didn't answer.

The black shirt man didn't care and left, disappearing into the darkness once again.

In the night, a 20 thousand man army appeared in Lianzhou wilderness. The army was like a ghost, silently staring at Shanhai City.

Amongst the slowly advancing army, there was Chun Shenjun, Xiong Ba, and also a special existence, Baiqi's old friend, Zhao Kuo.

Zhao Kuo rode on the horse, looked towards Shanhai City, and muttered, "Wu An lord, we are going to meet again! This time I'm not going to lose to you."

Shanhai City was welcoming its greatest danger.

Chapter 335- Shanhai City Is Lost?

Walking in the morning sun, the 20 thousand reinforcements from Yanhuang Alliance sneakily appeared to the west of Shanhai City.

At the same time, to the east of Shanhai City, a 20 thousand man army led by Zhan Lang and Feng Qingyang appeared, charging straight at the city east camp.

In Broken Blade County, Di Chen and Wandering Magic led 5000 elites to assist Sha Pojun's unit.

Amongst the group, there was an old general- Lianpo.

Adding with the 5000 that Sha Pojun led, the Yanhuang Alliance had invested 50 thousand of their elite.

Their strategy was to surround the city and not attack. The Broken Blade County city protection division pincered the 3rd division together with the 10 thousand elite from Yanhuang Alliance and the 20 thousand led by Zhan Lang.

After destroying the 3rd division, they would proceed west and siege Shanhai City.

Their appetite was unexpectedly huge.

Their plan wasn't only that. Di Chen and Chun Shenjun also used their connections and contacted the various big power lords to send troops and form up at the border of the various Shanhai alliance allies.

Their goal was to prevent them from sending reinforcements.

One had to say that they were making a huge move.

If they succeeded, not only would Shanhai City be totally destroyed, but the Shanhai alliance would also be greatly affected.

With that, the Chinese region would belong to Yanhuang Alliance and return to the path that Di Chen and them planned. The changes that Ouyang Shuo had triggered would then cease to exist.

This was the strongest blow that the Yanhuang Alliance dealt since they formed.

Even as their opponent, one would have to say that they made a good move.

Ouyang Shuo had no idea was happening with any of this.

Daiqin, seeing the reinforcements arrive, heaved a sigh of relief in the alliance army tent, .

Early in the morning, the various tribes had started to pack up and were ready to leave. Seeing the suddenly appearance of reinforcements, the various generals rushed to the tent to ask Daiqin what was happening.

Daiqin gave a simple explanation and then said, "The reinforcements have arrived. It's time to attack Shanhai City."

"We will follow commander's orders!"

At this time, obviously no one would want to retreat and disperse the troops.

The 20 thousand reinforcements were like a strengthening agent, and once again raised the morale of the troops.

Compared to the alliance army tent, the Shanhai City commander unit had a more serious atmosphere.

Baiqi's eyebrows were locked. What he was worried about wasn't the 20 thousand reinforcements but the position they came out from wasn't correct. Based on logic, they should have came from the east, so how did they come from the west?

The count of the commander unit was something only Ouyang Shuo could answer.

To be able to keep contact with him, Mu Lanyue had remained in the Lianzhou Lord's Manor.

When she got the news, she relayed it to him straight away.

The alliance being able to come from the west means that one of the lords had destroyed the contract and allowed them into Lianzhou.

As it had special meaning, the contract in game had lawful implications. The player breaking the contract would have to be punished.

To prevent such a thing from happening, he made strict demands. If one went against it, not only must he pay heavy economic consequences, but must also go to jail.

Not only that, a one sided breaking of the contract will also affect the player's credit evaluation and was detrimental to both his life and game.

In conclusion, the consequences were very heavy.

He didn't expect for the Yanhuang Alliance to actually have such huge connections.

Ouyang Shuo was unable to think about what conditions Yanhuang Alliance had promised to allow that lord to be willing to go to jail.

The bottom line of the Yanhuang Alliance was far more than Ouyang Shuo expected. The connections and influence of these old men were simple terrifying.

Usually one wouldn't notice, but the moment they bared their fangs, it was a bloody slaughter.

In this aspect, Ouyang Shuo was just a rookie and wasn't on their level.

Ouyang Shuo had no time to think, and his first reaction was to ask Mu Lanyue to remind Baiqi to take a look at the east. Since the west broke their contract, the east side would as well.

Yanhuang had planned so well, so they probably covered everything.

If the east had allies as well, the 3rd division would be in deep trouble.

In truth, Ouyang Shuo didn't place any high hopes on his reminder.

Since the allied troops to the west appeared, it was already too late. Ouyang Shuo just hoped that the Military Intelligence Division was sharp and could catch the eastern troops to buy some time.

As for the allies of Shanhai Alliance, Ouyang Shuo had only one sentence: adapt to changes.

As one said, danger was a chance.

If they could make use of the chance and expand their strength, they could clear those people around them. As for Shanhai City, it didn't need reinforcements at this time.

Ouyang Shuo's words helped stabilized the chaotic situation within the alliance.

After calming down, it was time to make a plan.

Right now, it was far from when victory and defeat was decided.

Hearing Mu Lanyue's words, Baiqi kept silent. He ordered all the divisions to stop their movement. Following which, he stayed in the room alone, planning for god knows what.

Lianzhou East Region.

Before, the prevent the mountain barbarian tribe from talking to Chiyou City, the military intelligence group had planted many eyes around the east region. Following which was the Battle of Lianzhou.

Tianqi Tribe working together with Broken Blade County was found out by the military intelligence 1st group.

As compared to the area in the west, the entire east region was under surveillance by the military intelligence 1st group.

Hence, the moment the east army appeared, they were found by the military intelligence first group. The spy immediately used the Feng bird, informed the city east camp, and asked the 3rd division to make preparations.

Zhanlang was around a day away from the city east camp. If they rushed, it was less than a day's journey.

The high speed of the Feng bird had earned the 3rd division half a day of time.

This half a day allowed the 3rd division to escape death.

The moment the intelligence officer in the camp received the intel, he immediately reported to major general Er'Lai.

When Er'Lai received the news, he immediately gathered or the colonels for a meeting.

"There is no time, whatever ideas you have, throw it out." Although Er'Lai was fierce, he was very civil when he did things. He knew his weakness, and hence was able to listen to the ideas from his subordinates.

The tent suddenly quietened down.

Those generals were basically brutish. They could bring soldiers out to battle, but such suggestions were too much for them.

Out of the five colonels, Er'Lai had high hopes for one of them; he was the second regiment colonel Lei Jingtian. Lei Jingtian came out of the Leidian Tribe and Gushan County Magistrate Leifan was his brother.

Although Lei Jingtian was a mountain barbarian, his senses were sharp and he was good at using troops.

As expected, seeing no one speak, Lei Jingtian stood out and said directly, "The enemy is two to three times ours. Relying on the city east camp, we can't defend it. I feel that we should retreat before the enemy arrives."

"Retreat, to where?"

"Gushan County!"

"Gushan County?"

"That's right. Firstly, mostly mountain barbarians live there and the independent regiment was housed there. Secondly, the county has good defenses, and is much better than the city east camp.

As his words were heard, all the generals agreed.

"Agreed!"

"Agreed!"

……

"Ok, that's settled. All of us will retreat to Gushan County."

"General, we must plan it well and not let the enemy see any weaknesses." Guards unit major Liaokai reminded.

"En, we really need to plan." Er'Lai brushed his moustache and turned to the intelligence officer. "Immediately send all our intel and plans to the commander unit. At the same time, ask them what we should do next."

"Understood!"

In truth, when the Military Intelligence Division spy located Zhan Lang, they had sent two reports, one to the city east camp and the other back to the headquarters.

The only thing they needed to inform the commander unit was only the issue with retreating.

Time was tight and after dispersing, the city east camp started to get busy.

To not alert the 3rd division, Di Chen's forces hid in Broken Blade County and didn't show themselves.

Opposite the city east camp were only the Broken Blade County city protection division and Sha Pojun's forces.

Both armies were at a standstill for many days and nothing happened.

To trick the enemy, Er'Lai had specially arranged a guards unit, the only cavalry unit in the 3rd division to provoke the enemy.

The main army had quietly left through the back of the camp.

Of all this, Ba Dao and Sha Pojun didn't have any clue.

The hatred both of them had for Ouyang Shuo was deep in their bones. Every moment, they would imagine the feeling of the upcoming revenge.

As time went on, Yanhuang Alliance's plan was revealed.

The forums were in an uproar and they were basically mourning Shanhai City.

"Shanhai City is about to be destroyed, Yanhuang Alliance is more skilled!"

"Yanhuang Alliance had stayed quiet, but when they act, it's truly shocking!"

"Well played Yanhuang Alliance!"

"The situation in China Region is changing, who will commoner lords look to now?"

……

There were all kind of comments. Some were cheering while some were sad. Be it people who opposed or supported, no one felt that Shanhai City could get out of this.

At this moment, the professional commentators that Yanhuang Alliance hired had announced that Yanhuang Alliance had considered far ahead and the complacency and arrogance of Shanhai City had given them the chance.

Even the global forums were shocked at such a change.

Jack Dawson, who felt that Shanhai City would survive, was speechless. The China Region really had many hidden tigers and dragons, the competition in it was so intense.

At this point, the fame of the Yanhuang Alliance rose and they claimed all of the spotlight.

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Chapter 336- Empty City Plan

At 5 PM, the troops led by Zhan Lang had rushed near the city east camp.

Seeing him appear, Di Chen also led his troops out of the city and both forces had successfully surrounded the city east camp as planned.

As it was already late, both forces agreed to fight the next day.

It was because of that decision that provided enough time for the 3rd division to escape.

That afternoon, the Feng bird released by the Military Intelligence Division from the city east camp had flown to Shanhai City with the new intel.

The way things stood, the 3rd division was fine. With Gushan County’s support, they could at least last for 4-5 days.

With these few days, they could plan and prepare.

Baiqi, was preparing a huge gift for the enemy.

After settling the camp, Zhan Lang brought Zhao Zhuang, climbing up the high platform and viewing the city east camp in front of them.

"The camp, why is it so quiet?" Zhao Zhuang had some doubts.

Zhan Lang paid attention and frowned. "It is too quiet!"

"Do we need to arrange spies to go investigate?"

Zhan Lang shook his head. "No need, anyways tomorrow morning we will launch the attack."

"Ok, I'll go take a look at our troops." Zhao Zhuang turned around and left.

Zhan Lang looked at the fading back of Zhao Zhuang and nodded. Towards him, Zhan Lang was very pleased, although he wasn't talented like Zhao Kuo, his personality wasn't very likeable, and he didn't speak up much.

He, however, had a quality which Zhan Lang admired. He did everything he was told.

Zhao Zhuang had quietly arranged everything about the army advance, finding a suitable camp spot, planning the camp, getting the resources, arranging the sentries, etc.

Under Zhao Zhuang's supervision, everything ran well and Zhan Lang didn't need to worry.

This was a general that allowed one to relax.

The next day, the alliance army launched their assault on the city east camp.

What was weird was that facing the advancing enemy, the city east camp was still very quiet.

Seeing that, a feeling of unease rose up in Zhan Lang's heart.

The attack was unexpectedly smooth and without any resistance, they managed to enter the camp.

At this time, even a fool would realize that something was wrong.

The two armies gathered in the city east camp.

Seeing the empty camp, Zhan Lang and Di Chen's faces were really ugly.

In the camp, the scarecrows which had armor on were staring at the alliance army, like little clowns mocking them....

"Dammit!" Sha Pojun shouted. He swung his sword and broke a scarecrow to vent his anger.

Di Chen was more calm, he went beside Zhan Lang and asked, "What do you think?"

"It's obvious, our army has been monitored so they had news early. I think they retreated yesterday in the afternoon." Zhan Lang was a little anxious.

This kind of feeling when things weren't in your control was certainly uncomfortable.

Di Chen nodded and agreed with Di Chen's analysis. "The northern and southern sides are blocked by us, so where can they escape to?" As he said to here, he called out to Ba Dao whose face was also black and asked, "Are there any subsidiary territories in this region?"

"Yes. To the west there's Friendship County; east near the hundred thousand mountain, there's Gushan County. These two territories are under Shanhai Territory."

Di Chen nodded and continued, "Which direction do you think they escaped to?"

"This..." Ba Dao was stunned and he wasn't sure.

Just at this moment, Zhao Zhuang and Lianpo walked over.

Di Chen respectfully asked, "General, have you found anything?"

Lianpo brushed his moustache, "Based on my observations, they escaped last afternoon, and they should have went east." As expected from an old general, he had vast experience.

"Is there a chance that they were purposely trying to mislead us?" Zhan Lang was still worried.

"There is such a chance." Although he said that, in truth he was still very sure of his answer. But because of the situation, he just didn't want to be too direct.

Being retorted like that by Lianpo, Zhan Lang's facial expression changed.

Zhao Zhuang who was standing at the side had an awkward expression. He understood Lianpo too well.

"Cough!" Di Chen helped Zhan Lang get out of the awkwardness and looked at Ba Dao. "Is there anything special about Gushan County?"

Ba Dao's only role in this was to answer nicely. “Gushan County is a mountain barbarian run county; the mountain barbarian race stays there." Apparently, Ba Dao had done a lot of work on Shanhai Territory.

"Oh, ya!" Ba Dao suddenly smacked his head and said loudly, "Apart from a city protection unit, they also have a fighting regiment, probably to defend against the beasts in the hundred thousand mountains!"

Di Chen and Zhan Lang looked at one another, having made their decision.

It seemed like the 3rd division was most probably at Gushan County.

Di Chen looked around and raised the morale, saying loudly, "The enemy just retreated and are probably nearby. Even if they reach Gushan County, they can't prepare for the battle. A small county can't defend against our huge army."

"That's right. The enemy retreating meant they didn't have the confidence to face us, they are cowards." Zhan Lang stepped out an said, "Now we will go towards Gushan County."

"Advance to Gushan County and destroy the 3rd division!" Wandering Magic shouted.

"Advance to Gushan County, destroy the 3rd division!"

The roar deafened and spread through the wilderness.

In a moment, the morale of the alliance army skyrocketed as they reorganized their forces and marched towards Gushan County.

The 3rd division rushed day and night and finally reached Gushan County in the early morning. It was also a coincidence that at the exact same moment, the alliance army was attacking the city east camp.

County Magistrate Lei Fan had received the news and personally welcomed them.

The core members were in the County Manor meeting hall.

Apart from the generals, were the independent regiment colonel, the city protection unit major as well as Lei Fan joining the meeting.

It was an emergency, so after Er'Lai gave a rough overview, a state of emergency was announced.

"Based on wartime rules, as the main general at the city east camp, in the highest commander in the east region, receive my order. The Gushan County independent regiment and the city protection unit are now under the 3rd division."

"Yes commander!" The two generals stepped out to receive the order.

Er'Lai nodded his head, looking towards Lei Fan and saying, "County Magistrate Lei, it’s a state of emergency so all commoners regardless of age or gender must follow military orders."

"No problem!"

At the start of the Battle of Lianzhou, the various Houses had received the level one warning from the Lord's Manor. Lei Fan was smart and had started preparing combat logistics.

"What's most important is that we must announce a recruitment, to recruit all the young men into the reserve force for them to help us defend the county."

"General don't worry, everyone in the county have a common goal!" Lei Fan was very confident.

"Good, time is of the essence, lets go prepare!"

"Yes!"

After the meeting, the county started to get busy.

With more preparations done now, they would be able to lose less blood later on.

The mountain barbarians were expectedly bloodthirsty, and the moment a call to arms was announced, hundreds and thousands of young mountain barbarians registered.

The 3rd division was made up of all mountain barbarian warriors. Their elite equipment, rich salary and a high status made them admired by all the young mountain barbarians.

To have the chance to join the army, of course they were eager to join.

The entire Gushan County had suddenly come alive.

Shanhai City.

After Chun Shenjun and Xiongba led their 20 thousand troops and rushed to Shanhai City, they set up camp to the west.

When the reinforcements arrived, Daiqin had a conversation with Chun Shenjun.

The result was that both sides left unhappily.

The divide between the both of them was which city to take down first.

Daiqin wanted to attack Friendship City, the reason being that it needed a soft push to be taken over after the heavy attacks of the grassland alliance army.

Chun Shenjun didn't agree as he only had one goal which was the Shanhai City Region.

As for Qiushui City, both of them neglected it.

Although they knew that on the walls of Qiushui City hung the army flag of the 2nd division, they also knew that the second division were made up of cavalry and weren't good at defending cities.

Firstly was that Qiushui City weren't hit by anything yet and secondly was that its value wasn't high.

Different from Daiqin, the ambition of the Yanhuang Alliance was to totally take over Shanhai City, and to do that, they had to destroy the stone Steele in the Lianzhou Lord's manor.

Hence, Chun Shenjun didn't want to waste his troops to attack Friendship City. He wanted to persuade Daiqin to attack Shanhai City together with him.

Although in this operation it could be said that the entire Yanhuang Alliance participated in it and it was a cooperation of all of them, this didn't stop Chun Shenjun from being selfish.

Based on his thinking, if he could take over Shanhai City together with the grassland alliance before Di Chen and Zhan Lang arrived, that would be great.

If that were the case, be it in the Yanhuang Alliance or the China Region, he will be the absolute star.

With such selfish thinking, Chun Shenjun had been bugging Daiqin. To persuade him, he made many promises that slowly tempted him.

Both of them were making small calculations, but they didn't know that the current Qiushui City was an empty city.

Chapter 337- Transition

Baiqi had played a wonderful empty city plan right under the noses of the alliance army.

When he had given out the city defense roles, the 2nd division had sneakily hid in the Shanhai city barracks. As for the soldiers patrolling at the city gate of Qiushui City, they were just a bunch of reserve force members dressed like cavalry.

The only 2nd division soldiers that were there were the cavalry unit that defended on one end of the bridge.

As what Zhao Sihu was worried about was that if the 3 divisions defended the inner cities, they would be forced to fight alone and for themselves.

The war happened as predicted.

The allied army had taken control of the 3 bridges and thus cut off contact between the three cities.

Hence, Baiqi decided to sneak the 2nd division into Shanhai City.

To bluff the enemy, Baiqi had ordered them to hang the 2nd division flags on the city wall of Qiushui City. During the battle over the bridges, it proved once again that the 2nd division was inside Qiushui City.

As they had their own goals, be it Daiqin or Chun Shenjun, they didn’t bother about Qiushui City.

To Baiqi, how to move and use the 2nd division depended on the layout of the enemy.

If the alliance army focused on attacking Shanhai City, then the 2nd division will sneak attack.

If the enemy was unable to immediately take down Shanhai City, then Baiqi would transition to dealing damage.

What it would result in would be that under the continuous assault of Shanhai City, they would have heavy casualties and would be forced back. Even with reinforcements, they wouldn't be able to attack.

To Baiqi, this was the best decision.

The only change was the problem with the 3rd division.

Luckily at the crucial moment, the Military Intelligence Division had worked its magic and helped them escape.

Receiving the intel from the Military Intelligence Division, Baiqi made the decisive step.

And this was also the biggest present Baiqi prepared for the alliance army.

2nd month 13th day

It was the turning point of the Battle of Lianzhou.

On this day, the 3rd division had retreated to Gushan County and escaped from being pincered.

On this day, Di Chen and Zhan Lang met up in the city east camp and decided to attack Gushan County.

On this day, Chun Shenjun tried to persuade Daiqin to attack Shanhai City together.

The key was:

On this day, the 2nd division teleported from Shanhai City to Mulan City.

After confirming that Shanhai City was temporarily okay, Baiqi activated both trump cards, the 2nd and 4th divisions, and targeted Beiritie China's forces.

He only had 8000 cavalry, and inside Mulan City was two divisions, one of which was the trump card of the Shanhai City Army.

Together with the newly built city protection regiment, the total strength was close to 30 thousand.

Before the 2nd division left, Baiqi left Luo Shixin with a few words: end it fast.

Time was of the essence for Shanhai City.

The empty city plan could only work for a while, and if time is dragged out, it would definitely fail.

Luo Shixin immediately ordered them to prepare for battle and promised that in a day he would destroy their forces.

To achieve that goal, after Luo Shixin teleported, he discussed with Mu Guiying and both of them chose to surround Beiritie China's forces.

Mu Guiying led the 4th division and city protection regiment from the front to attract attention.

The 2nd division sneakily went out of the west gate and circled behind their forces to break their escape route.

In these few days, Mulan City was very silent and nothing occured.

As the main general, Beiritie China naturally wouldn't let down his guard.

The soldiers on the other hand were different. Some were grumbling about their mission to spy on the sea. From their point of view, charging towards Shanhai City and plundering its riches was the most glorious.

What they didn't know was that their friends not only didn't obtain a single copper, but that 20 thousand of them died on the battlefield.

Things in this world were actually so magical. When you are envying others, they are envying you too. Those who attacked Shanhai City were envying Beiritie China's forces for being safe.

Hence when Mulan City's south gate suddenly opened and a huge army waltzed out like a black swarm, the grassland cavalry troops were stunned.

"Sneak attack! Sneak attack!"

"Quick, prepare for battle!"

"Cavalry units form up!"

"Prepare the horses! Prepare the horses!"

……

Various noises spread out in the camp, and it was total chaos.

When Bieritie China got the news, he walked out of the tent and onto the high platform.

The 4th division was made up of light cavalry and infantry with the main force being infantry. There was only one light armoured infantry regiment protecting the left wing. The right wing was the city protection regiment.

The center was the biggest and formed up of sword shield soldiers, spearmen, and archers in that order.

The huge army charged forwards in an orderly formation, shocking the heavens.

Beiritie China's eyes focused as he knew that the enemy had finally acted. He was originally a hot blooded person and being cooped up for so many days made him feel uncomfortable. Seeing the enemy troops come out, his blood boiled.

Although their number were more than expected and twice the number of the grassland cavalry, Beiritie Ahci wasn't fazed and he believed in his invincible iron cavalry that they would be able to crush the enemy.

The grassland cavalry were well trained and in a short time, they formed up.

Beiritie China rode his Qingfu Horse and walked to the front of the army, waving them forward to attack.

The cavalry started charging fearlessly towards the enemy.

Before they even reached the front, the 4th division archers gave them a warning.

After the 4th division was re-equiped, the bows that they used were all elite equipment produced by the bow and crossbow division, be in range or precision they were all of high grade.

The arrow rain that covered the sky was like a huge net that rained down on their heads.

The grassland cavalry had misjudged the range of the archers.

All of a sudden, both humans and horses fell onto the ground.

The vanguard forces of the grassland cavalry were like wheat getting harvested as one by one they were killed in the arrow rain.

The powerful arrow rain made the grassland cavalry cower in fear. They hadn't faced such a powerful weapon before and their own bows were like toys in comparison.

Beiritie China had a serious expression on his face and wasn't as confident as before.

He was a rash person and the blood on the battlefield ignited the blood in his heart.

He decided to risk it all and give it their all to continue their charge into the enemy.

The short 500 meters was destined to becoming a killing field.

Finally after paying heavy casualties, the grassland cavalry had bumped into the sword shield soldiers and spearmen of the 4th division.

The high speed cavalry had a destructive effect on them.

The sword shield soldiers weren't like the heavy armoured mountain barbarians which were able to withstand the charge of any cavalry. One could see that the middle army was about to be broken right through.

At the crucial moment, the light cavalry at the sides cut in.

With the help of the light armoured cavalry, the attack of the grassland cavalry was affected and their attacking momentum was messed up.

Making use of this chance, the center group under the lead of Mu Guiying formed up once again to prevent the cavalry from charging through.

The grassland cavalry were strong as expected.

They had, under the situation of being under armoured and outnumbered, to be able to deal so much damage, they were really worthy to be called the grassland iron cavalry.

Just as the situation entered a stalemate, a huge rumbling spread out from the back. The deafening sound was even louder than the charge of the grassland cavalry.

Beiritie China was astonished. He turned around to see and in an instant he was on the verge of giving up.

Before his army was a huge force of cavalry charging forwards. They were wearing shiny armor which under the sunlight reflected a golden shine.

The 2nd division had arrived at the crucial moment.

Before the grassland cavalry could even react, the 2nd division had already rushed to the front, and together with the 4th division had totally surrounded the grassland army.

What happened next was a total slaughter!

Two hours later, the remaining grassland cavalry couldn't hold on and decided to surrender.

In this battle, apart from the 3000 who surrendered, the remaining ones all died.

Their commander, one of the 3 generals of the Tianqi tribe, had died.

The Sun hung overhead and shone down, revealing a beautiful red glow.

The death of Beiritie China was a turning point to the grassland tribes. It signified that the grassland tribe rule of the middle region was over and the time of Shanhai City had arrived.

In the later parts, the various grassland tribes named the place where Beiritie China died as the origin of blood.

Time after time, some grassland herders would come over and mourn and remember the glory of the past.

His death was the turning point of the Battle of Lianzhou.

After the battle, the prisoners were sent back by the city protection regiment back to Mulan City. Along with the prisoners was the head of Beiritie China which would be teleported back to Shanhai City.

As the main force of this battle, the 2nd and 4th divisions would directly continue on in the battle. They would follow the orders of the commander unit and continue fighting.

The 2nd division went east, and their target was the empty Broken Blade County, to totally destroy the Broken Blade County city protection division to help out with Gushan County.

As for the 4rth division, they came down south towards the base of Tianqi Tribe.

The two divisions were like two assassins, under the planning of the commander unit, to take out the heads of the enemy.

In the blue sky, a wild goose flew across, both sad and lonely.

Chapter 338- Striking at the Foot of the Problem

It was still the 13th day of the 2nd month, and all the things that happened today was enough to make one dazzled.

At 1 PM, the 2nd and 4th division set out.

At 2 PM, the head of Beiritie China was sent to the commander unit.

At 5 PM, Di Chen and Zhan Lang's forces had reached Gushan County and cornered it.

At 6 PM, Chun Shenjun finally persuaded Daiqin, and he agreed to attack Shanhai City.

……

Night, Shanhai City.

The Military Affairs director brought one guard and secretly advanced towards the grassland alliance camp.

Daiqin was in the tent and met Du Ruhui alone.

Du Ruhui entered the black tent and said, "General, are you okay?"

Daiqin said roughly, "If you have anything just say it."

"General is indeed frank!" Du Ruhui didn't care and smiled. "I would like general to retreat!"

"What?" It was like he heard a huge joke and said in a low voice, "Do you believe that if you continue to stay stupid things, I'll kill you?"

"Why not general? First take a look at the present we prepared for you?"

"Present?"

"Bring it forward!" Du Ruhui waved his hand and the guard brought a wooden box in front to the table.

Du Ruhui made a gesture to invite Daiqin to open it, saying calmly, "Please take a look. I believe that when you see it, you will change your mind."

Daiqin's eyes froze. He knew that the other party was a capable person and definitely wasn't bluffing him.

For him to visit so late at night, he must have something important.

"Why not have your guard open up the box!" Daiqin said.

Who knew whether there were any hidden weapons. Although the risk was low, Daiqin still didn't want to.

Du Ruhui nodded.

The servant opened the box only to see a bloody head in the middle of the box.

"Ah!" Even with the calm demeanour of Daiqin, seeing the thing in the box, he couldn't help but call out.

"Commander!" The Guards outside the tent immediately wanted to rush in.

"I'm fine! Stay outside." Daiqin prevented the Guards from entering.

"Yes commander!" The guard replied and silence was restored.

Only then did Daiqin regain his senses and stared at the head in the box, saying coldly, "Beiritie China?"

"That's right. This afternoon, his forces were totally killed by ours and some surrendered. Not only that, Shanhai City's 4th division has already set out toward Shenjuan Lake Camp." Du Ruhui gave a simple description of what happened.

Daiqin felt a shiver down his spine and his face was extremely ugly. He gritted his teeth. "Do you think with just one head that I'll trust you?"

As one of the three generals of the Tianqi tribe, he knew that the current Shenjuan Lake Camp was just a defenseless camp.

The army of the tribe were all in the alliance army and what remained were just a small amount.

When he thought about how the tribe’s noble families like Kehan and even his own wife was going to be attacked, his face turned ashen white.

"If you don't believe, you can go check it out. As for whether or not you reach in time is another story."

Daiqin's face was totally white. He didn't dare to take the risk and said solemnly, "Ok, I'll retreat my troops tomorrow."

Du Ruhui shook his head and laughed.

"What? What do you want? Don't go overboard!" Daiqin gritted his teeth and scolded.

"Overboard?" Du Ruhui suddenly kept his smile and said coldly, "General actually dares say that I'm going overboard? When you attacked our city, did you think that you were going overboard? When you attacked Friendship City, did you think that you were going overboard? Why? Now that I want to destroy your home you come and talk to me about this?"

A majestic aura spread out from Du Ruhui.

The current Du Ruhui made one fearful as what he represented was the entire Shanhai City.

Daiqin's face blushed red and he didn't speak.

Inside the tent was a really awkward silence.

"Speak, what exactly do you want?" After a long time, Daiqin said once again, his voice was now really bitter and sad and lacked the confidence as before. "As long as you promise not to harm my tribe I'll agree with everything."

Du Ruhui nodded, it seems like he had finally tamed this wild tiger.

"With the crimes you committed, no punishment would be too much." Du Ruhui said solemnly, "Luckily for you the Marquis is merciful and is willing to give you guys a way out."

"Please elaborate!" The prestige of Daiqin was totally crushed.

"The grassland tribes will come under Shanhai Territory and enjoy the same treatment as ordinary residents."

In the afternoon, the news of the big victory had spread back to the commander unit and they contacted Ouyang Shuo for his opinion. To Ouyang Shuo, integrating all the grassland tribes was the best choice.

Ouyang Shuo wasn't one to do things on a whim.

"This..." Daiqin was speechless. "I'm only a general, I can't make the decision."

"Don't worry, we won't put you on the spot." Du Ruhui continued. "As for surrendering, my Marquis will discuss with Kehan and the other tribes. What you need to do is to lead your troops to go under Shanhai City."

Daiqin sighed and muttered, “Maybe this is the decision of the heavens. The Lianzhou Lord uniting Lianzhou is not something one can prevent."

Thinking about the fate of the various grassland tribes, Daiqin didn't know whether to worry or be happy.

In this year, the various tribes had been cooperating and breaking up, cooperating and breaking up with Shanhai City.

Both sides had done close trading and also hated one another because of the betrayal.

Daiqin's foresight was so far in the future. To him, when the relationship between the grassland tribes and Shanhai City was the closest, he felt the impact of Shanhai City's resources on them.

Surrendering and living in Shanhai City wasn't a bad choice.

"Don't worry, I won't have any second thoughts. Tomorrow I will lead my forces." Daiqin looked at Du Ruhui and said, "As a criminal in this war, I'll also take up responsibility."

In his words, Daiqin already had the intention to die.

From his perspective, the Lianzhou Marquis was kind-hearted and could allow normal soldiers to survive, but as a commander, he would definitely not be let off.

At the crucial moment, Daiqin showed the courage and responsibility of a general.

This was a real man that was worthy of respect.

Du Ruhui looked at Daiqin with a complicated expression. "General doesn't have to do this. In truth, the marquis hopes that you will forget about the past and continue to work for the Shanhai City army.

"?" In Daiqin's eyes, a glimmer of hope shone.

When Du Ruhui saw the doubt in Daiqin's eyes, he said, "General doesn't need to have doubts. Have you heard of Shaobu? He had fought against Shanhai City, and now he's also extensively used by the Marquis."

Daiqin nodded, and hope rose up in his heart.

Which man wouldn't want to conquer territories and build up fame and a career?

"Your prestige, the marquis had long heard about it. It’s only that he isn't in Shanhai City and is unable to meet you personally. The marquis wants me to tell you that as long as you are willing, you can lead a division."

In the short conversation, Du Ruhui had many good words for Daiqin.

Daiqin's heart shivered. The promise made by the Lianzhou Lord definitely meant something. Thinking about the 4 major generals of the Shanhai City, which one wasn't a famous general?

He thought he was definitely going to die and now seeing hope, he couldn't hold back the emotions in his heart and said, "Thank you for your good grace, I'll work hard to repay you!"

Du Ruhui stood at the side and silently nodded.

When Daiqin regained his composure, Du Ruhui continued, "As for the battle tomorrow, we need you to help us out."

"Sure, please speak!" Daiqin had already adjusted to his new identity.

"Tomorrow morning, you will lead the army as usual to attack Shanhai City..."

In the tent, Du Ruhui started to discuss the scheme with Daiqin, spreading the order of the commander unit.

It was only in the dead of night when Du Ruhui prepared to leave.

As for how Daiqin was going to convince the other generals, it wasn't his problem. He believed that with Daiqin's ability and the head of Beiritie China, it was enough to shock them.

The 4th Division didn't attack Shenjuan Lake but instead, all the camps of the tribes were in their range. Du Ruhui wouldn't believe that any leader will be so stupid to do anything out of the ordinary."

On the grasslands were their wives and their families.

One had to say that Baiqi striking at the root of the problem was such a brilliant strategy, turning the whole situation around.

Before leaving, Du Ruhui said, "Oh yeah, there's still one more thing I forgot to tell you."

"Please speak!"

"The original Tianfeng tribe leader Dari Ahci and his followers had been taken down by the Law and Order Division and sent to jail, awaiting the court’s decision."

"..." Daiqin had no words.

Dari Ahci was contacted by him. The goal was to use them to open up the Shanhai City gate.

They didn't expect that before the operation even began, it would be blown up by Shanhai City.

It seemed that Dari Ahci was under supervision by Shanhai City. Thinking about how Dari Ahci was acting so confidently, Daiqin could only give out a bitter laugh.

As for Shanhai City's spy methods, Daiqin understood another layer of it.

Daiqin himself understood that the reason that Du Ruhui brought this up was to remind him that since he was surrendering, to not play any tricks. If not, he would be killed.

"You can relax!"

At this point, Daiqin didn't have any other thoughts.

"Good!"

Du Ruhui stood up and left, disappearing in the night.

The night sky was dark like ink and it was really quiet.

A new day was about to begin.

Chapter 339- Going Berserk

2nd month 14th day, Gushan County.

The blistering sun rose from the east and shined brightly on the earth.

As the sunlight shined outside Gushan County, it reflected off the armor of the huge army.

The 30 thousand man alliance army had joined up with the Broken Blade County city protection division and totally surrounded Gushan County.

Using their storage bag, the alliance army brought a large amount of siege weapons.

A hundred trebuchets were lined up at the front of the battlefield into a line.

Gushan County was only a county grade governed area. No matter how rich Shanhai Territory was, they couldn't fix large numbers of three-bow arcuballistas on its city wall.

The entire Gushan County had only 4 sets, and facing 100 trebuchets, they appeared to be lacking.

"Shoot!"

The commanding officer shouted as the 100 trebuchets fired forwards, a sky full of rocks pelting straight at Gushan County.

The huge rocks smashed into the city wall and when it landed, there was a deafening sound.

Like lighting striking, the rocks exploded at the border of the 100 thousand mountain.

The huge explosion scared off the animals as they escaped deep into the mountains.

The whole situation was very majestic.

Not only that, amongst the normal rocks, there were some burning with alchemical fire oil. These special rocks when lit up were like giant fireballs flying in the air.

The fireball was like it had shot out of a volcano, giving one the feeling of the apocalypse, causing shivers down one's spine.

Such power could nearly compare to that of a cannon.

In the olden times, the trebuchet was known as a cannon and was the best siege weapon in the cold weapons era.

The reason was because of that.

A step forward, and trebuchets could even shoot gunpowder weapons, increasing its strength to an even higher level.

Some evil people might even shoot poison or corpses, letting the corpses spread diseases around. This method was highly devious and was one of the earliest forms of bioweapons.

Anyone who was hit by the rock was unable to survive.

The unfortunate soldiers were smashed into meat paste and the arcuballistas were dislodged from the walls. Even the strong and firm city wall had a few cracks and openings.

The power of the siege weapon was evident.

Luckily within 20 meters of the wall, no houses were allowed to be built. Usually some temporary shops or food carts would be set up there.

During the war, such vendors had closed shop long ago.

If not, 100 trebuchets were more than enough to crush this region.

Along with the trebuchet showing it's might, the alliance army started to attack.

The closely packed soldiers carried the siege ladders as they braved the arrow rain, charging fearlessly towards the city wall. From above, the alliance army was like a black tide, determined to drown Gushan County.

The 3rd division was a pure infantry division and their types included heavy armoured infantry, spearmen and Mo Knife soldiers. The only thing they lacked were archers which was highly disadvantages for them in a defense.

At the crucial moment, Er'Lai could only let the cavalry independent regiment to act as the archer regiment and cooperate with the city protection unit to barely be able to launch an arrow rain.

Zhan Lang noticed the lack of archers and pushed forth his troops to attack.

At this point, the alliance army had successfully reached the bottom of the city wall.

What followed next was their real nightmare.

In a day, Er'Lai managed to recruit 3 thousand reserve force members.

For these mountain barbarians, although it was their first time, they were totally unafraid. Their only duty was to continuously throw down rolling wood and stone pieces.

As there were too many alliance army troops, no matter how they threw, they would definitely hit someone.

As for the soldiers that managed to climb the wall, the 3rd division would handle them.

Although the 3rd division couldn't do long range battles, in short range, they were invincible.

Be it the heavy armoured infantry or the spearmen, all of them were experts in close combat.

Hence, although the alliance army managed to climb the wall, they were forced to retreat time after time by the resolute defenses.

The current city wall was like a meat grinder, making one fearful of it.

Di Chen stood at a high point. Looking at the battle situation in front of him, he couldn't help but be awed by it.

"The Shanhai City heavy armoured infantry are really worthy of their praises."

Zhan Lang nodded. "It's time to send out trump card team!"

During the 2nd system auction, Zhan Lang and Di Chen both obtained items. Be it to Suozi armor or Shanwen armor, they were both elite armors.

In a month’s time, the two of them used the armor as a base, and both of them built a trump card force.

Although it was just one unit, it couldn't be underestimated.

Especially with the Shanwen armor which was one of the most elite infantry armors.

Di Chen nodded and agreed with Zhan Lang.

Zhan Lang waved his flag and the 2 trump card units broke out of formation. Under the cover of the normal army, they started to siege the city wall.

Er'Lai was on top of the wall, shooting his bow left and right and engaging in quick slaughter. Seeing that the enemy rushing up were well equipped, he didn't care much and swung his halberd, sweeping them off the wall.

The mountain barbarian heavy armoured infantry facing the Shanwen armor infantry still held the upper hand. They were all people who had been through countless battles. They were born with immense strength, thus the so called trump card unit was nothing in their eyes.

The only difference was killing one or two.

Even so, the two trump card units had slowed down the tempo of the 3rd division.

The alliance army took the chance to quicken theirs.

Huge amounts of soldiers started to successfully climb up the wall and engage with the third division.

All of a sudden, danger loomed at every corner of the city wall.

After all, the 3rd division didn't have the numbers advantage and for the other side to suddenly have a new force, they couldn't handle it.

What made one even more worried was the moment the alliance army was able to gain a footing on the city wall, there would be even more reinforcements.

If they weren't able to push back this wave, the Gushan County city wall might be lost.

Luckily, Er'Lai showed off his might once again upon seeing such a situation.

He swung his halberd and specifically aimed at the Shanwen armor heavy armoured infantrymen. For each one he struck, none survived.

Er'Lai was the fierce beast of the olden times.

When he showed his might, he was like an Asura, no one could stop him.

When he appeared, calamity followed and bloodshed was bound to happen.

In an instant, the Shanwen armored infantry had heavy casualties, and they were nearly all wiped out.

Seeing their general show his skills, the mountain barbarians roared out like wild beasts, the eyes were bloodshot and their muscles protruded. The blood of the wilds hidden in their veins were stimulated and the immediately all became desolate beasts.

"Berserk! It's actually berserk!"

Di Chen and Zhan Lang panicked.

That's right, the mountain barbarians soldiers went berserk.

The current mountain barbarians had a huge increase in strength and were simply unstoppable.

The alliance army that climbed up the war were slaughtered, and in fear, they backed off.

All of the sudden, the control of the city wall returned to the hands of the 3rd division.

Seeing their brothers suddenly go berserk, the 3000 reserve forces were happy and also envious.

This was an olden legend amongst the mountain barbarian tribes, and today it finally came true.

One must know that this was the greatest goal of all mountain barbarian warriors.

In countless of years, all the mountain barbarians who were able to go berserk all became leaders in the tribe.

And now in the battlefield, hundreds and thousands of mountain barbarian soldiers actually all turned berserk together.

Everything was because of Er'Lai.

It was like he came from the wilds and brought with it the aura of his time, triggering the bloodline and with the exciting battle, all this occurred.

Seeing Er'Lai's strength, Lianpo couldn't help but feel awed.

Di Chen and Zhan Lang's faces were indescribably ugly.

Seeing victory was in their grasp, and suddenly this happened?

Their trump card unit had basically been wiped out, and to launch another sneak attack was impossible.

"Lord, let me go!" Zhao Zhuang requested to fight.

"No!" Zhan Lang refused.

What a joke, the current Er'Lai was an invincible presence. Although Zhao Zhuang was strong, he wouldn't be able to do anything. He didn't want to lose another general after losing his trump card unit.

"Ai!" Zhao Zhuang let out a long sigh.

As a general, to not be able to join in such an intense battle was a regret.

"Retreat, today's battle ends here!" Di Chen was still very calm.

Zhan Lang nodded and ordered the troops to back off.

"Lord doesn't need to worry. They can berserk once but not twice; there will definitely be side effects. Their troops are mostly used up, so tomorrow we will definitely take down Gushan County."

Lianpo had vast experience and his words summarized everything.

"Good!"

Hearing his analysis, the numerous soldiers managed to get out of their depression and sadness.

"Let them live for one last day!" Sha Pojun's eyes were totally red.

Ba Dao was shouting, but deep down he feel heartpained.

In this battle, his city protection division acted as the frontline and had heavy casualties.

In his heart, he also started to waver. To join the war between Yanhuang Alliance and Shanhai Alliance, was it the right decision? Up until now he hadn't even gotten a single benefit and instead had became a lackey for the Yanhuang Alliance.

Most crucially, Ba Dao didn't feel a single shred of dignity.

In their eyes, he was probably a useless chess piece.

Or a dog?

Ba Dao laughed bitterly.

The world is tough, being a lord wasn't easy!

……

Zhan Lang stared at the city wall quietly, and unease built up in his heart.

He wasn't as optimistic as the others.

Time, the crucial thing was still time.

Many days had passed since they entered Lianzhou, and they hadn't even achieved a single battle objective.

A few days later and the Shanhai City army was still totally quiet.

It seemed like they were only defending and didn't make any moves.

However, with such a huge army, and also with such a general like Baiqi, Shanhai City's actions were out of the ordinary.

Weird!

Zhan Lang sighed and walked into his tent.

Seeing the enemy retreat, Er'Lai heaved a sigh of relief.

The mountain barbarian soldiers had awoken from their berserked state.

Er'Lai had received orders from the commander unit that he had to defend.

At most 2 days.

In the north of the wilderness, the 2nd regiment were using their fastest speed to make a long distance assault.

Chapter 340- Life is All About Acting

The same day, Shanhai City.

At the same time that the alliance army attacked Gushan County, Chun Shenjun and the grassland alliance launched their assault on Shanhai City.

Chun Shenjun and Xiongba led 20 thousand troops and focused on the west of Shanhai City.

Thirty thousand grassland alliance troops attacked the north, and at the same time guarded the bridges to prevent reinforcements.

The west was the core region of Shanhai City.

As they had come to an agreement with the grassland alliance army, the 1st division had to mainly defend the west.

As for the north, only a few reserve force members were stationed there.

The war at Shanhai city, because of the cooperation of the grassland alliance, wasn't as intense as that of Gushan County.

Although the alliance army did bring huge amounts of trebuchets, Shanhai City wasn't Gushan County, and all the city walls they had numerous arcuballistas. Their defense was absolutely shocking.

Hence, solely relying on the 20 thousand alliance troops, they could do nothing about the defense of the 1st division.

As a light cavalry and light infantry mixed division, the 1st division had sword shield soldiers, spearmen and archers, the best combination to defending city walls.

In a morning, the alliance army had heavy casualties but didn't achieve anything.

Shanhai City was as strong as rock as it stood tall in the wilderness.

Chun Shenjun wasn't a fool and the weird actions of the grassland alliance, he had noticed it all.

In the afternoon, Chun Shenjun went to find Daiqin.

"General, what is the meaning of this?" Chun Shenjun's face was extremely ugly and he burnt the bridge instantly.

Daiqin said apologetically. "I had no choice. I eagerly supported your decision to Attack; but the other generals have their opinions. They grumbled and said that you came too late and caused them heavy casualties. Hence, this siege, naturally you will be in charge and we will be in charge of dealing with Friendship and Qiushui County.

Chun Shenjun froze.

The last few days, he watched on and caused many deaths of the grassland alliance army.

He didn't think that karma would strike back so quickly.

Luckily he was really well trained and he smiled. "I didn't delay on purpose, we had already rushed day and night, I hope you can explain that to them and I wish we can put aside all this and cooperate. As long as we take down Shanhai City, wouldn't we recuperate all losses?"

"You are right, I'll try my best."

Chun Shenjun didn't have absolute faith and could only helplessly make another promise. "As long as you help us out, I promise that after I take down Shanhai City, you will be in charge how about that?"

Daiqin laughed bitterly in his heart. If his home was safe, he would naturally agree. Unfortunately, Shanhai City was so highly skilled. Even if you promised mountains of gold and silver, it would be useless.

Putting it another way, if the grassland army didn't lose many troops and generals and could take down Shanhai City quickly, Daiqin would also have such a thought. If they could take down the city, naturally he could use it to protect his family. Unfortunately, the current Shanhai City was something they couldn’t take down in one or two days.

When they eventually manage to achieve that, the grasslands would probably be dyed red.

Daiqin looked at Chun Shenjun with apathy. This guy was probably still having dreams about taking over Shanhai City.

Daiqin's face didn't have any weird expression as he said emotionally, "Really?"

"Of course!"

In truth, Chun Shenjun was cursing in his heart: this bunch of brainless barbarians, a simple promise and they believe it. When I really take over the city and the alliance army gathers up, what say will you guys have?

The two old foxes looked at one another, both thinking that they had victory in their grasps.

Their smiles had a tinge of sincerity but it was mostly fake.

If one didn't know, one would think that they were really close friends.

Xiongba, who followed along upon seeing Chun Shenjun's smile, felt a shiver down his spine.

Just as both sides engaged, the city protection division housed at Friendship City sneakily left the city, going across the city protection river, turning west, over the Friendship river and going behind the alliance army.

At this point, the Shanhai City army had totally surrounded Chun Shenjun's forces.

To prevent alerting the enemy, the grassland alliance army continued to help siege.

They only needed to wait for the 2nd division to take down Broken Blade County, and then this army could take down Chun Shenjun's forces.

The huge net created by Baiqi was finally in place, and they just waited to reel it in.

The attack in the afternoon became more intense under Chun Shenjun's rushing. To help the grassland alliance act, Shanhai City had to send more soldiers to defend the north.

Even so, the siege was still a failure.

Chun Shenjun had no reason to doubt Daiqin and could only return to his tent.

The day's battle came to an end just like that.

2nd month 15th day, the Battle of Lianzhou reached its most crucial day.

In the morning, the 2nd division whipped their horses and finally reached Broken Blade County.

After reaching Broken Blade County, Luo Shixin didn't immediately attack and instead like Heiqi led the 4th regiment and attack the territory that Zhan Lang teleported in from.

This time, Baiqi wanted to totally destroy the escape route of the alliance army and trap them in Lianzhou Basin.

The appearance of the huge army was something the Broken Blade County wasn't prepared for.

The current county was like an empty city.

Facing the strong 2nd division, they just rolled over and died.

The 2nd division entered effortlessly, and the sounds of horse hooves spread out.

If it was that before leaving, Baiqi instructed them not to kill the innocent, which would infect their rule of Broken Blade County, Broken Blade County would have probably become a living hell.

After entering, Luo Shixin led his troops and went straight for the lords manor.

It still had some defenses, but unfortunately, facing the 2nd division, they was all useless.

In less than half an hour, the lord's manor was taken over.

Lin Yi led his few generals and entered the meeting hall and attacked the stone steele.

At this moment, Ba Dao received a system notification.

"System Notification: your territory is under attack!"

……

The sudden notification made him tremble in fear. He didn't know what to do and immediately informed Di Chen and Zhan Lang.

The current alliance army was getting ready to launch its 2nd assault on Gushan County.

Hearing the news, Di Chen and Zhan Lang both felt uneasy.

"Is it the Shanhai City army?" Di Chen wasn't so calm anymore.

"Apart from them, who can it be?" Ba Dao totally panicked.

"How did they appear?"

"Who knows?"

……

The alliance army held a discussion but they couldn't find a solution.

The development of the situation was far more than they expected.

Without detailed intel, even a general like Lianpo couldn't do anything.

Seeing such a situation, Ba Dao shouted out, "I don't care, I'm leading my troops back before it's too late!" In his words, he had totally lost his patience with the Yanhuang Alliance.

"It's too late, why not help us take down Gushan County!"

Di Chen tried to stop the rash action of Ba Dao, the territory stone steele could at most last for an hour so there was no point in rushing back.

Strictly speaking, his suggestion wasn't wrong.

Unfortunately, the party he was trying to persuade was a lord that had lost all rationality.

"Help you?" Ba Dao mocked, he was practically shouting. "My territory is about to be taken over, how can I help you? Take down Gushan County, stop bragging! Without 2-3 days you can't do it! At the beginning I shouldn't have listened to you and just signed the contract with Shanhai City, I could have become a rich man."

Ba Dao went crazy, his words weren't as courteous as before.

"Are you shameless?"

Sha Pojun couldn't stand it anymore. Towards Ba Dao, he didn't have a good impression of him.

A nameless player who only had a relationship with the Yanhuang Alliance because his territory was in the Lianzhou Basin. If not, who would bother with him?

Ba Dao's face was as black as charcoal. He stared at Sha Pojun and shouted, "Go to hell!"

After that, he immediately led his troops and left.

"You!"

Sha Pojun was furious and wanted to chase.

"Enough!" Di Chen rolled his eyes at Sha Pojun. "Isn't it enough? Haven't you lost enough face?"

Di Chen looked at Sha Pojun with unhappiness. this rash fellow couldn't do his part and instead messed things up. Originally he had a chance to persuade him but Sha Pojun had totally pissed off Ba Dao.

Seeing Di Chen so mad, Sha Pojun shivered and didn't dare to speak.

All of a sudden, the alliance army fell apart.

Seeing Ba Dao leave, the heads of the Yanhuang Alliance looked at one another.

Zhan Lang acted as the mediator and said,"Ok, ok, everyone calm down."

"Yes, the crucial thing now is what we should we do next." Piao Linghuan followed, trying to shift their attention.

As the words registered, there was total silence.

That's right, what should they do?

Not talking about whether or not they could take it down, even if they did, they would suffer heavy losses. Would they have the ability to attack Shanhai City then?

Any smart person would know that before their siege even ended, it was already a failure.

A depressed emotion spread out amongst the alliance army.

Thinking back, when planning for this, everyone was so pumped up. Thinking about giving Qiyue Wuyi a taste of his medicine and giving him that killer blow, everyone was so exicted.

During the start of the war, everything was smooth and as expected.

On the forums, everyone was mourning for Shanhai City.

However, when did the situation start to change?

All of a sudden, no one could give a definite answer.

After a long while, Di Chen stood up and said, "Let's retreat!"

As the breeze blew across, there was total silence.

Chapter 341- Reeling in the Nets

Seeing the alliance army retreat, cheers spread out within Gushan County.

To the residents, war was an evil that they best stayed away from and they would rather not see.

On the city wall, the generals came to E'Lai's side.

"General, why did the enemy suddenly retreat?" Lei Jingtian asked.

E'Lai guessed that it had probably had something to do with the commander unit.

"Who cares!" Hu Yibiao said.

"General, what should we do next?"

"Attack!"

Er'Lai immediately made the decision that no matter what, they couldn't let the enemy retreat comfortably.

"Wouldn't that be taking a risk?l Lei Jingtian was a little hesitant. "What about Gushan County?"

Er'Lai wave his hand. "They have no intention to attack Gushan County already, let the independent regiment defend in case."

"Gather the troops and move out!"

"Yes general!"

Just like that, the 3rd division followed closely behind the alliance army and monitored their every movement.

Ba Dao led his city protection division away, and tried to save Broken Blade County.

However before his army even covered 5 kilometres, a notification sounded out in his ear.

"System notification: your territory have been occupied, all players inside will be teleported to Dali!"

"No!"

Ba Dao led out a sad scream, instantly turning into a white light and disappearing from the Lianzhou Basin.

Ba Dao's ending made one shiver in fear.

At this point, the three overlords of the Lianzhou Basin had all disappeared and Lianzhou Basin was unified.

A new era was about to begin.

Seeing their lord suddenly disappear, the city protection division didn't know what to do, they were like abandoned children who sat in the wilderness.

After occupying Broken Blade County, Luo Shixin didn't stop and continued to move west.

Broken Blade County was occupied, so the teleportation function had disappeared, there was totally no need to defend.

Luo Shixin's goal was the retreating alliance army.

Halfway there, the army conveniently met the abandoned Broken Blade County City protection division.

"Which force are you from?" Guards unit major Suwang asked.

The deputy major general of the division recognized the Shanhai City army and guessed that they were the reason for the disappearance of the lord. Unfortunately, they had lost all courage to go against Shanhai City.

"We are the city protection division of Broken Blade County!"

Luo Shixin smiled. "What a coincidence! Broken Blade County is occupied by us, are you willing to surrender?"

The soldiers upon seeing the situation all looked at one another, they did think about taking revenge but they didn't have the ability to do so.

"We surrender!"

"We surrender!"

……

A flurry of surrenders were heard and it didn't stop.

"Great!" Luo Shixin was delighted with the city protection division, turning around and saying, "Sun Chuanlin!"

"Present!" Sun Chuanlin went to the front.

"You lead your men and bring the city protection division back to Gushan County."

"Yes general!" Although Sun Chuanlin had some doubts, he followed the orders.

Seeing the army leave, Suwang asked doubtfully, "General, why did we send them to Gushan County?"

Luo Shixin smiled, "The reason is simple. Broken Blade County is their old home and where their family is at. The moment they returned, things might escalate."

"General is smart!"

The other colonels also felt immense respect for Luo Shixin's wit.

Luo Shixin waved them off," move off! We might have a huge battle waiting for us!"

"Yes general!"

Shanhai City.

The 2nd division occupying Broken Blade County had long ago spread to Ouyang Shuo.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for occupying Broken Blade County, rewarded 1000 merit points."

Ouyang Shuo immediately informed Mu Lanyue through the alliance channel and asked her to inform Baiqi.

At the same time, Ouyang Shuo also said something in the channel. "Guys it's time to reel in our nets!"

Instantly, the channel was bustling.

"I was waiting for these words, these fees days have been horrendous!"

"Hen, those people who looked down on the Shanhai Alliance, it's time to teach them a lesson!"

"That's right, slap them, papapa!"

……

It was apparent that the mourning of the public towards Shanhai Alliance on the forums had affected their feelings.

Everyone was feeling cooped up and quietly arranged their troops. They waited for the situation at Shanhai City to be settled before sending out their troops, giving the territories around them a lesson.

It was a sudden movement, like that of a gun.

In the China Region, Shanhai Alliance territories all attacked at the same time, sending out all their troops.

The allies of the Yanhuang Alliance to date hadn't gotten any news.

Facing the huge army, they were unable to react.

All of a sudden, a huge territory war swept over the China region.

All of a sudden, various people with information went online.

The forums went into an uproar.

The proactive strike from the Shanhai Alliance members didn't seem normal.

Everyone didn't understand what was happening.

One could only be sure that something unusual had definitely happened in the Battle of Lianzhou.

The nosiness of the players had started to burst apart and spread.

Unfortunately, be it Ouyang Shuo or the Yanhuang Alliance, neither were interested in revealing the latest developments on the forums.

As for the lord players in Lianzhou, during wartime, they didn't even go out and knew nothing about the Battle of Lianzhou.

Various commentators started to use all the methods they could to gain new intel about the Battle of Lianzhou.

No matter how noisy it was in the outside world, the momentum of Shanhai City wasn't affected.

When Baiqi gained the news that Broken Blade County was occupied, he jolted to his senses.

The time has came to reel in the nets.

"Men!"

"Present!"

"Fire the signal bullet and order the city protection division and grassland alliance army to immediately reel in the nets!"

"Yes!"

The guard turned around and quickly two signal bullets shot up into the sky.

In the grassland alliance army tent, Daiqin upon seeing the signal, his heart felt very complicated.

He had no time to think and immediately waved the army flag.

Receiving the military orders, the grassland alliance army that was attacking the city wall immediately backed off.

In less than half an hour, they had successfully gathered up.

Daiqin walked to the front of the army and waved his hand forward, the army immediately turned to the west and went to the north side of the alliance army.

At the same time, the city protection division that was camped at the west attacked.

At this point, the alliance army was surrounded.

On the north was the 30 thousand strong grassland alliance army; east was Shanhai City city wall with the first regiment defending; south was the mountain range with nowhere to go; west was the city protection division.

The alliance army, with only 15 thousand men, was surrounded by 56 thousand men.

The alliance army was in a state of chaos.

"Lord, we are surrounded!"

"Those grassland barbarians betrayed us!"

"I know!"

Chun Shenjun gritted his teeth. Only he schemed against people, no one had ever schemed against him.

Daiqin, ah Daiqin, if I get out of this, I won't let you go!

"General, what should we do?" Chun Shenjun asked Zhao Kuo for help.

Zhao Kuo's face was black as well. From the start he thought he had a chance to compete with Baiqi. He didn't expect that before they even engaged, he had lost.

Luckily after the battle of Changping, Zhao Kuo was a lot more calm. "We can only charge west and use the teleportation formation and leave."

"Okay!"

Chun Shenjun led Zhao Kuo lead the troops to break out.

He didn't expect to hear news in his ear that made him freeze in his spot, his face ashen white.

"Lord, what happened?"

Zhao Kuo didn't understand why Chun Shenjun would suddenly be like this.

The current Chun Shenjun was like he lost his soul and his face was as white as a ghost.

The alliance channel spread that the 2 player territories to the east and west that they bribed had been destroyed .

The two lords didn't forget to inform them after they were teleported to Dali and remind them that they did their job and for them to remember their promise.

The moment the news was out, the alliance channel was dead silent.

Not only Chun Shenjun, even Di Chen and Zhan Lang stood still on the spot.

The alliance army was in a desperate situation.

The one that destroyed the east territory naturally was the 4th regiment led by Heiqi.

The one that destroyed the territory to the west was the city protection regiment that was guarding Tianfeng City.

Before that, Ouyang Shuo had already ensured that the territories on both sides didn't have any soldiers left.

Compared to the Military Intelligence Division first group, the special operation group in charge of the west didn't notice Chun Shenjun's appearance and was berated by Du Ruhui.

After the scolding, Du Ruhui demanded that the special operation group investigate which territory broke the contract and allowed Yanhuang Alliance to teleport.

The leader had long changed from Songsan to a new elite spy.

Being scolded by the director, naturally he would be furious and left his men with harsh words. "Guys if we can't find out which territory it is, I have no face to see the Marquis and I can only kill myself. but before I do that, I will kill all of you first."

All of a sudden a cold breeze spread out in the group.

The special operation group spies were like hunting dogs, checking each and every house. Finally they found a clue and confirmed which territory it was.

Getting the intel, Baiqi immediately gave the order for the Tianfeng City city protection regiment to monitor it and get ready to destroy it.

The whole plan had totally blocked off any road for the alliance army to escape.

"Lord?" Zhao Kuo asked once more.

"Oh!" Chun Shenjun regained his composure and said bitterly, "We have nowhere to go!"

"What?" Zhao Kuo was alarmed.

"The territory in charge of sending us back has been destroyed. We have no place to retreat to!"

The moment his words registered, the army tent was dead silent.

Chapter 342- Abandoning Men

2nd month 15th day. Nighttime. Shanhai City.

The moon shone outside Shanhai City, making it look sad.

Outside the west gate, it was a scene of devastation.

After surrounding the enemy, Baiqi didn't give the alliance army any time; he just launched their attack.

The armies from all three directions suppressed the alliance army until they couldn't move.

After an afternoon of battle, the alliance army lost. They either died in battle or they surrendered.

In this battle, Chun Shenjun was killed, and Zhao Kuo was captured.

The list in this battle was enough to hurt the backbone of Chun Shenjun's territory. Not only did Zhao Kuo get captured, but all his elite generals were either captured or killed in battle.

This was a huge blow to Pill Sun County, whose military wasn't strong in the first place. Especially the capture of Zhao Kuo, which would be the greatest loss for Chun Shenjun in this year.

It seems that Chun Shenjun would need a long time to heal this wound.

The Battle of Lianzhou was destined to be the Battle of Waterloo for Chun Shenjun.

When Zhao Kuo was captured, he was mentally prepared for execution.

What was weird was he wasn't sent to the prison but escorted to the Lianzhou Lord's Manor.

Ouyang Shuo had plans to use Zhao Kuo.

As a lord, the main goal was to put suitable people in suitable positions.

Zhao Kuo had a stage that belonged to him.

With Chun Shenjun's death, he dropped all his equipment. Based on what Mulan Yue said, out of the equipment, there was a piece of platinum rank jewelry suitable for Ouyang Shuo. As for what it was, she didn't want to tell him and wanted him to unravel the mystery when he came back.

As for the other main character of the Yanhuang Alliance, Xiongba received a different treatment.

Xiongba was prepared to die but instead he was given a chance to live.

Baiqi listened to Ouyang Shuo's instructions, releasing Xiongba and his important generals. He allowed them to teleport out from the Shanhai City teleportation formation, leaving Lianzhou Basin.

The reason Ouyang Shuo did this was to build a relationship with Xiongba and also to plant a seed amongst the Yanhuang Alliance.

Secondly, he purposely wanted to split Chun Shenjun and Xiongba. The two of them were in the same camp, but they experienced totally different treatment. Even if Chun Shenjun could see through the devious intentions of Ouyang Shuo, he was still petty towards Ouyang Shuo.

Xiongba couldn't reject such good intentions.

To a lord, he himself dying wasn't important.

The death of basic soldiers were still okay.

The key was the generals. The moment they died, it would be a catastrophe to the army. Thinking about developing the talents from scratch again, it would be highly difficult.

This move by Ouyang Shuo was an outright scheme but Xiongba couldn't refuse.

After the battle, the various troops started to tabulate casualties.

The alliance army had 8000 troops that surrendered, and they were all locked up.

Shanhai Army also had casualties.

The grassland alliance army lost 2000 men and 28 thousand remained. What awaited them was a reorganization by the Military Affairs Department.

The city protection division lost 4000 men, which was the highest number. The main casualties happened when the grassland alliance army attacked Friendship City.

Hence, this was why the city protection division was wary of the grassland alliance army.

Because of this, even Zhao Sihu and Daiqin had an awkward relationship.

This problem wasn't one that was easy to solve.

As for the 1st division, they lost 1500 men, which was considered good.

After dealing with the alliance army to the west, Baiqi turned his attention to the alliance army to the east.

After the battle, he ordered the 1st division to rest up for a night before rushing to the east war region.

The city protection division would stay in Shanhai City, and the grassland alliance army would wait for reorganization.

Before the tribes officially surrendered, Baiqi was still wary of the grassland alliance army and didn't want them to leave his sights and enter the battlefield.

The same sunset, the same coldness.

Wilderness, east alliance army tent.

Di Chen, Zhan Lang, Wandering Magic, Sha Pojun, Lianpo, and Zhao Zhuang had gathered together.

"The troops to the west were destroyed. If everything happens as expected, tomorrow, Shanhai City will attack us. Do any of you have any ideas?" Di Chen took the lead.

Total silence, the continuous blows had made everyone feel despair.

"We can only fight to the death!"

"Fight to the death? Even if we fight to the death, can we walk out of Lianzhou Basin alive?"

"Then, we can't surrender, right? Even if we die, we must bite off a piece of them!"

"Stupid!"

"You!"

"Be serious!" Di Chen was a little ruffled.

Di Chen's methods were deep, much more so than Sha Pojun’s. Upon knowing that Broken Blade County was attacked, Di Chen had used a hidden method to contact his family.

Learning of what happened in the Battle of Lianzhou, the elders of the family were astonished.

They gathered their knowledge and resources to think of a plan.

The only plan would be to persuade another territory to break the contract.

This was difficult but not impossible.

On this earth, there was nothing that was absolute. It only depended on whether you paid a high enough price.

Based on the strength of Di Chen's family, they naturally had the ability.

Thinking about it, at the latest, they would have a result tonight.

What Di Chen needed to think about was how to escape from the Shanhai City army. The 3rd division were like hunting dogs, close on their heels.

If they waited until tomorrow, there would definitely be more troops surrounding them.

At that point, even if they contacted the territory, he wouldn't be able to lead the troops to teleport out.

The only way was to abandon someone to save the rest.

Thinking about that, Di Chen's eyes swept across everyone seated and kept silent.

It was impossible for all of them to leave. There definitely needed to be one or two left behind to attract Shanhai City army's attention.

Lianpo was someone he definitely needed to bring away. Zhan Lang was his best ally. Since he left, Zhao Zhuang would have to leave too.

What remained was only Wandering Magic and Sha Pojun.

Piao Linghuan was the best friend of his enemy Xiongba, so he was the first to be abandoned.

What was left was Sha Pojun.

Thinking about his rashness and also about the relationship between him and Chun Shenjun, Di Chen decided to abandon this pawn.

As he decided on his plan, Di Chen felt relaxed and slowly looked at everyone who were fighting.

Out of all of them, only Zhan Lang could notice the weird expression on Di Chen’s face.

In the end, the meeting ended unhappily.

Zhan Lang stayed to the end and as expected, Di Chen called for him.

Upon hearing his plan, Zhan Lang felt very conflicted.

His style of doing things was totally different, but Zhan Lang couldn't blame Di Chen.

After all, everyone was different.

"I'll remember this good grace!"

Zhan Lang said as he walked out of the tent.

Di Chen looked at the fading back of Zhan Lang, not saying anything. Being born in a family like his, how would everything be as he wanted?

At night, a 100 man group left the camp and disappeared in the wilderness.

The next day, the alliance army woke up.

Sha Pojun and Wandering Magic noticed that Di Chen and Zhan Lang were missing.

This was also true for their generals.

"We were abandoned!" Wandering Magic was furious.

Sha Pojun snarled, "Di Chen!”

The two poor bugs that were abandoned looked at one another speechlessly.

He knew that Xiongba was released by Shanhai City. Sha Pojun was the enemy of Qiyue Wuyi, so he would definitely die here. Maybe he had a chance to not die together with him.

"Now, what should we do?" Sha Pojun asked.

Wandering Magic, who had other thoughts in his head acted, as if he were helpless. "Before they reach us let's just stick to here!"

"What stick to here? Since we are going to die here, why not lead our troops to kill them!"

Wandering Magic knew that his chance had come.

On the surface, he was still unaffected, "Ok, let's discuss in my tent."

"Go!"

When he entered the tent, he was immediately taken down by Piao Linghuan and died under his blade.

Sha Pojun, if you wanted to blame something, just blame yourself for being too arrogant!

Thus, like this, Sha Pojun was totally abandoned.

After killing him, Piao Linghuan took the news of his death and sent people to tell the 3rd division that they were willing to surrender.

When Er'Lai heard the news, he gathered the generals to discuss.

"There's something wrong with this!" Lei Jingtian was a born conspiracy theorist.

"Who cares whether it’s a scheme; let's take them down first!" Zhang Daniu continued, "Let's let Baiqi and the Marquis decide the rest."

"That's right, take them down first!" Er'Lai nodded in agreement.

Things were decided just like that.

On the 16th morning of the 2nd month, Piao Linghuan led the alliance army and surrendered.

After they surrendered, the 2nd division arrived.

Upon seeing the situation, Luo Shixin was shocked. He thought that he would need to fight again.

As for the 1st division, they had just left Shanhai City not long ago.

The Battle of Lianzhou had ended in such a comical way.

After getting Ouyang Shuo's agreement, Wandering Magic and his generals were all released.

With that, the Battle of Lianzhou had officially ended.

In this battle, Yanhuang Alliance had lost everything. Not only that, there would be subsequent betrayals about to happen. Cracks had already formed in the alliance.

Sha Pojun and Di Chen had totally burned the bridge, and he was enemies with Wandering Magic.

Chun Shenjun and Xiongba weren't on the same page. To protect Wandering Magic, Xiongba and Sha Pojun were against one another.

All in all, it was a total mess.

Only Di Chen was okay; his strength wasn't greatly affected, and he even managed to get a great ally like Zhan Lang.

This helped solidify Di Chen's position as the leader of the Yanhuang Alliance.

Di Chen, who was slowly maturing, was getting scarier and scarier.

Chapter 343- The Dust Settles

After the Battle of Lianzhou ended, the aftermath continued.

Not mentioning the Shanhai Alliance members, who struck out in all directions and quickly expanded their territories, the players cared about the star—Shanhai City.

The two lords who had their territories destroyed secretly sold the information to Bai Xiaosheng.

Bai Xiaosheng combined the information with other intel and wrote a long analysis online.

The moment he posted it up, it immediately caused an uproar.

Only then did the players know that the Battle of Lianzhou was actually turned around. The Yanhuang Alliance not only failed to gain the upper hand, but were instead in dire straights. They did not gain anything and also lost things in the process.

The moment this news was out, naturally, people were stunned.

All of a sudden, everyone everywhere was face palming.

"Shanhai City turns it around!"

"Yanhuang Alliance is badly hurt and is no longer able to compete with the Shanhai Alliance!"

"Retreating to advance, Shanhai City planned it out well!"

"Bait! It was a bait!"

……

"Asura Baiqi is really invincible; the alliance army is no more!"

"Chun Shenjun dies for the second time against the Shanhai City army!"

"Sha Pojun died three times!"

"The biggest joke of the China region, Yanhuang Alliance returning to the peak? Haha~"

Apart from the mocking, there were a few people supporting Ouyang Shuo.

"Qiyue Wuyi rules over Lianzhou!"

"He didn't even need to personally act and defeated the Yanhuang Alliance. What a god!"

"Big powers have collapsed; commoner players rise!"

"Shanhai City shocks the world once more!"

……

On the forums, it was another bickering session. Those who were mourning for Shanhai City, who supported Yanhuang Alliance, were now embarrassed. They didn't dare to hang around on the forums.

The normal players went to enjoy the atmosphere, while those who really cared felt fear in their hearts.

Be it Jack from the American Region or Ruan Tianque from the Annan Region, they were all looking very serious.

The nearby Dongying Region and Gaoli Region were even more silent.

Amongst the noise, what players craved for were the details of the battle.

Unfortunately, apart from the Shanhai City Commander unit, no one would know the specifics of the entire war.

Nobody knew until the Army Military Academy was set up and War Saint Sun Wu invited Baiqi to teach about the Battle of Lianzhou and make it a case study.

Baiqi even took time off to purposely teach students for a semester.

His first lecture would be about the Battle of Lianzhou.

The Battle of Lianzhou also became another brilliant example of Baiqi combining many tactics like defending, surrounding, distance war, and head on fighting, all into one.

The only difference was that this war was more complicated with teleporting and communications needed to be taken into account.

Baiqi was undoubtedly learning and using his newly acquired knowledge as he progressed.

When he faced the allied army teleportation, he also used his own teleportation to the extreme. This was the first time the 2nd division teleported, and it was a master stroke that single handedly won them the war.

Baiqi used such a method to announce his existence.

Shanhai City had once again stunned the world.

Just as the forums mocked, after this battle, the Yanhuang Alliance needed to keep silent for a while.

They needed to slowly heal up and power up in the darkness.

As for them really sinking into the abyss, Ouyang Shuo wasn't sure that would happen.

The various powers had deep pockets, and they showed that in the Battle of Lianzhou.

Especially at the last stage when Di Chen managed to escape really terrified Ouyang Shuo. To be able to convince a lord to ally with you under such conditions….

Furthermore, the ones to really make use of all their resources in this battle were Chun Shenjun and Sha Pojun. The other allies only lost some teleportation costs and some elite soldiers.

To the territory, these could be accumulated and slowly recovered over time.

From this battle, Ouyang Shuo didn't dare to underestimate these old powers.

In the last life, he was an adventure mode player and didn't even have the ability to fight with the Six Tyrants of Handan, so his knowledge of them was limited.

Was the strength displayed by Yanhuang just the tip of the iceberg?

Everything was unknown.

After the Battle of Lianzhou, every grass and tree in Shanhai City was revealed to Yanhuang Alliance. There were no more secrets to speak of, and this was also why Ouyang Shuo rushed to explore Yazhou.

He had to win some strategic benefits for the territory and hold some more trump cards.

Apart from that, the determination revealed by the Yanhuang Alliance also scared Ouyang Shuo.

In this battle, the Yanhuang Alliance plotted and their goal was obvious—to take him down.

As Shanhai Alliance's influence rose, he had become the eyesore of the Yanhuang Alliance and naturally should be removed.

The way Yanhuang Alliance acted was also slowly coming to light.

They wouldn't usually attack, but the moment they did they would go all out.

Ouyang Shuo felt overwhelmed that a commoner like him was able to challenge all the big powers in the China region.

In the journey to become an overlord, one didn't have any time to rest.

After the war, the Military Affairs Department entered overdrive.

The first thing was to reorganize the military.

During this battle, the 4 divisions and the city protection division lost a total of 12 thousand men. The heaviest casualties came from the 3rd division and the city protection division, as they fought a tough war.

In terms of prisoners, Beiritie China had surrendered 3000 men, the grassland alliance army had 28 thousand men, Chun Shenjun's forces had 8000 men, 7000 from the Broken Blade County city protection division, and 20 thousand from the east alliance army for a total of 66 thousand men, a huge and terrifying number.

The first step would be to select members from the prisoners to reinforce the casualties. After filling in the gaps, the remaining 54 thousand prisoners would wait to be reorganized into the 4 divisions.

As the number of prisoners was too huge, Ouyang Shuo personally ordered the Military Affairs Department to cut off some injured or lousy soldiers and make them retire.

The main goal would be the grassland cavalry and the Broken Blade County city protection division. Some of the cavalry were recruited before the war; the latter were just randomly formed.

As for the alliance army, they were basically all elite, so apart from some loyal members and the injured, the rest were all kept.

The Military Affairs Department's mission was to organize 3 divisions as well as 2 city protection regiments. Including the cavalry independent regiment was also in the reorganization plan.

The remaining prisoners were sent to the reserve forces.

Apart from reorganizing the military, the Military Affairs Division had to take care of post war matters and logistics.

Of course, they also had to calm down the situation on the grasslands.

After the east alliance army surrendered, Baiqi ordered the 2nd division to rush to the grasslands and help the 4th division calm down the situation.

Before this, Mu Guiying had led the 4th division to directly enter Shenjuan Lake. Before the Tianqi tribe could react, they captured all the noble families and the royal family.

The mission of the 2nd division was to capture all the noble families of the seven medium-sized tribes and bring them to Shenjuan Lake for Ouyang Shuo to handle when he returned.

In truth, when they got the news that the grassland alliance army had failed, all of them had given up. The war had squeezed dry all the forces of the tribes, and to form another huge army was impossible.

Before they could have any thoughts, the 2nd division arrived.

The noble families had no choice and could only follow the instructions.

The last mission was for the Beihai Naval Fleet.

During the Battle of Lianzhou, the Naval fleet didn't do anything and basically had no chance to do anything.

After the battle, they sent the second batch of migrants to Yazhou.

The second batch had more workers, especially masons, bricklayers, and carpenters. Apart from that, they also brought huge amounts of resources and vegetables that could be stored for the long term.

Baiqi had asked Ouyang Shuo if he needed to arrange a huge army to act as reinforcements at Yazhou.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it and rejected that plan. For the military, he had it planned out and it needed him to return before implementing plans.

Apart from military affairs, Ouyang Shuo had plans for the administrative blueprints of the Lianzhou Prefecture.

Setting up Broken Blade House, and after changing its name from Broken Blade County to Broken Blade City, Yishui County and Gushan County would be under the jurisdiction of the Broken Blade House.

Following which, Ouyang Shuo announced two appointments: Yishui County County Magistrate Zhou Haichen would be the prefect of Broken Blade House, while Zhao Dewang would replace him.

The two of them didn't need to wait for Ouyang Shuo to personally appoint them. They took up the jobs straight away.

What was placed in front of Zhou Haichen was a dirty job that needed him to calm down civilians, regain productivity, and also plan for future development.

This tested his all around ability. His performance would decide whether he would have a part to play in the future blueprints of the territory.

The city wall projects of Tianfeng City had reached their end, within which Zhao Dewang took a lot of credit. Naturally, Ouyang Shuo wouldn't treat this old worker of his badly. He sent this old worker to Yishui County, which had immense potential.

As he was limited in education and skill, his future would most likely end at this stage.

As for the plan for the grasslands, it would wait until Ouyang Shuo was back.

Just like that, Mulan Yue helped Ouyang Shuo spread the message and settled all of the Lianzhou Prefecture major issues. What remained would be handled by the 4 departments.

After settling everything, Ouyang Shuo turned his gaze toward Yazhou.

Chapter 344- The Girl in the Family Grows Up

2nd month 7th day till the 16th day

The Battle of Lianzhou lasted a total of 10 days.

In these 10 days, the building in Yazhou didn't stop for even a second.

Under the guidance and leadership of Bai Nanpu, the harbor, saltpans, farms, quarries, and logging farms were all built. Everything was basically in order and they just needed to wait to harvest the fruits of their labor.

The Guards regiment felt depressed that they had missed out on the Battle of Lianzhou. To these guys who loved to fight, they really wanted to join that battle. They didn't dare to blame the Marquis and could only vent their frustrations on the wild beasts and desolate beasts.

During these 10 days, the Guards regiment were like they were on drugs. They went all out, hunting beasts everyday at first light until sunset before they returned to the camp.

The nearby wild beasts were killed, and the efficiency of their operation increased. The work planned for half a month was now near its end.

The next day, Ouyang Shuo was going to bring Bing'er to set up their territory.

Gaia 2nd year 17th day, Yazhou.

After breakfast, Ouyang Shuo called out to Bing'er, who was about to go out and play.

During this period of time, the little brat acted like she was crazy. The beach wasn't near the main area and the nearby region was already explored and visited by her.

Because of this, Ouyang Shuo had to arrange four guards to keep her safe.

Every day, she would bring the four little beasts and fool around, making it hard for Ouyang Shuo to even see her.

The bigger she got, the more independent she grew.

Because of the age gap, Ouyang Shuo even got the feeling that his daughter was growing up.

"Baby, don't go out today. I'll bring you to do something interesting."

"What interesting thing?"

Ouyang Shuo decided to act playful and knocked on her little head, "You'll find out when you get there!"

"Oh!"

Bing'er touched her head, as she looked at her bad brother.

Hen, brother must be jealous of Bing'er playing around all day, so he wants to bully me.

It must be like this!

Thinking about that, the cute Bing'er decided to forgive her brother.

The little brat copied what Ouyang Shuo usually did, putting her hands behind her back, taking short steps and saying, "Brother, let's go. Bing'er will play with you today."

Ouyang Shuo shook his head in amusement.

Walking out of the camp, the Guards regiment were in formation waiting for them.

Apart from that, Bai Nanpu had also brought the Chamber of Commerce leaders along.

To these people, today was a historical day. All those who held a certain position naturally would come over and want to witness this.

Seeing this, Ouyang Shuo decided to give a short speech and recap on the difficulties of this journey, as well as what he hoped for the future of Yazhou.

To the various Chamber of Commerces who had supported him, Ouyang Shuo was really thankful.

Ouyang Shuo was experienced in these kinds of speeches, and he gave an exceptional one.

At 8 AM, the forces went out towards the village creation point.

The place that Ouyang Shuo chose was in the north south direction and was the central region of the Ningyuan river and South Mountain. Twenty kilometers east would be the Yazhou Bay. Sixty kilometers to the east was the Five Finger Mountain.

With the hard work of the Guards regiment, the few tens of kilometers around the area was fully cleared out and had become a safe zone.

Ouyang Shuo took out the silver village creation token and called Bing'er to his side. As her guardian, he could control her territory, but the building had to be done by her.

On the way there, Ouyan Shuo had already explained the basics to Bing'er.

She was smart and naturally understood everything. She could feel that this was extremely important to her brother, so she was very focused and serious.

Although this little brat liked to tease her brother, deep inside, she really loved him.

Bing'er received the village creation token from Ouyang Shuo's hand and stabbed it into the ground. Following this, she bit her white and tender finger and dripped a drop of blood onto it.

Throughout the whole process, Bing'er didn't even frown.

All the other people, upon seeing that, couldn't help but nod.

Strictly speaking, Bing'er was the princess of this army. Seeing her so tough at such a young age, being able to withstand the pain of biting her finger, she really had the aura of a lord.

As the fresh blood dripped onto the token, it turned into a silver light.

The light burst forth into the sky and burst apart. The silver luster spread all around to the borders of the territory before disappearing.

At the same time, where she stood, a silver stone steele slowly rose up. It was three meters tall and one meter wide. Bing'er placed her hand onto it. Instantly, a system notification sounded.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Ouyang Bing for successfully building a village, please name your village!"

"Yashan Village." Bing'er read out the name that her brother told her.

After she said that, the words appeared on the stone steele.

"System Notification: Player Ouyang Bing is underage, a guardian can be set to help manage the territory. Will you assign a guardian?"

"Yes!" Bing'er said as she assigned Ouyang Shuo as her guardian.

"System Notification: Guardian fits the requirements, successfully assigned!"

At the same time, a system notification sounded out by Ouyang Shuo's ear.

"System Notification: Player Ouyang Bing has chosen you as her guardian, you will have equal rights as her and have control over Yashan Village."

Before it finished, a few more system notifications sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: Player Ouyang Bing has high luck, village creation token has upgraded and has become gold rank, congratulations!"

"System Notification: Player Ouyang Bing has extraordinary charm, awarded emperor rank historical general Fan Lihua, congratulations!"

"System notification: Player Ouyang Bing has extraordinary talent, rewarded hidden building spirit beast hall, congratulations!"

What a god, Ouyang Bing was really overpowered!

With that, the starting point of Yashan Village was higher than even Shanhai Village.

At this moment, Ouyang Shuo had to admit that he was jealous. Jealous of his sister.

At the beginning, he made use of his last life advantage to complete the village building quest before obtaining a gold rank village creation token and an emperor rank summoning token.

Bing'er, on the other hand, didn't need to do anything and just used her natural luck and charm to get the exact same thing.

What was more overpowered was that there was a hidden building.

That little brat had obtained all the good stuff. How would one not be jealous of her?

Thinking about his pitiful luck and charm, Ouyang Shuo felt very bitter.

Ouyang Shuo continued to configure the territory.

After which, he took a look at its stats.

Territory: Yashan Village

Lord: Ouyang Bing

Assistant Lord: Qiyue Wuyi

Title: None

People's thoughts: 70

Security: 75

Population: 1570/200

……

Territory specialty: take a look at Chapter 6

……

Existing Buildings: Village grade Lord’s Manor, Basic Market

Hidden buildings: Spirit Beast Hall

Basic Building list:

……

The stats of Yashan Village were largely similar to when Shanhai City had started. The only differences were the population and the hidden building.

For the population, the Guards regiment was not included inside. The population included all the masons, talents, and basic level administrative personnel.

Ouyang Shuo took a look at the stats of the spirit beast hall.

Name: Spirit Beast Hall

Type: Hidden Building

Function: Helps to evolve and improve spirit beasts

Specialty: Increase attraction rate of special talents by 10%, territory fame increased by 10%.

Evaluation: A hall specially designed for spirit beasts. At most three spirit beasts can train inside at once. Their training time cannot cross one hour a day.

The introduction was simple but its effects weren't.

The moment the spirit beast hall appeared, Little White and Little Green eagerly rushed in.

Just at this moment, the free general from the system rushed over from the village entrance.

She was riding a white horse and wore a red dress and silver armor. She wielded a long knife in her hand. Her beauty was unparalleled like that of a pear in full bloom. She was one of the four famous heroines in China—Fan Lihua.

She ran in front of Bing'er, getting off her horse, and kneeling on one leg, "Greetings, princess!”

Bing'er had seen such things before. After all, she had spent so much time in the Lord's Manor.

The little brat helped her up and called out, "Pretty Sister!"

"Haha!" The beauty laughed and instantly liked this little princess.

Ouyang Shuo took a look at her stats.

Name: Fan Lihua

Title: One of the Four Heroines

Dynasty: Tang dynasty

Identity: Yashan Village General

Occupation: Special level general

Loyalty: 80

Command: 75

Force: 80

Intelligence: 78

Politics: 50

Specialty: Smart and courageous (raise morale by 40%), conqueror (raise movement speed by 30%); insight (raise troops Attack by 20%)

Cultivation Method: Xiurong Knife Technique

Equipment: Xiurong Knife

Evaluation: Smart and courageous, beautiful beyond compare, righteous, cares about the large picture, and fights evil with good. A magnanimous woman and a very strong martial artist.

Chapter 345- Prefecture System and Enfeoffment System

Compared to Mu Guiying, Fan Lihua was a little better and was regarded as one of the four heroines.

Legend had it that Mu Guiying and Fan Lihua were both students of the Li Mountain Old Mother. Other disciples included great women such as Zhong Wuyan, Zhu Yingtai, Bai Su, and the like.

When Gaia built the in-game world, the Li Mountain Old Mother was just a small presence.

While Ouyang Shuo was taking a look at Fan Lihua's stats, a system notification sounded out by his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Feng Qiuhuang for becoming the 2nd player in the China region to upgrade to grade 1 prefecture, rewarded 4200 merit points!"

……

"System Notification: Congratulations player Bai Hua for becoming the 3rd player in the China region to upgrade to grade 1 prefecture, rewarded 4000 merit points!"

……

When the system notification rang out, the players in the China region were very calm.

After Feng Qiuhuang and Bai Hua were given their titles, the players had already predicted for their two territories to upgrade. If it wasn't for the Battle of Lianzhou, they probably would have been even faster.

What was interesting was that Fallen Phoenix Prefecture was actually quicker than Consonance Prefecture.

Feng Qiuhuang had her ways!

While Ouyang Shuo felt it was interesting, the four sisters felt a little depressed. They were highly confident in taking 2nd place in China, but instead they were usurped by the lone player Feng Qiuhuang.

Hence, one should never underestimate their opponents.

Feng Qiuhuang had given the four sisters such a lesson.

The prefecture grade, to an ambitious lord, was the starting point. Only after upgrading to a prefecture would it mean that your territory had taken root and started building its foundation.

Be it the raiders in the wilderness or the uprising army, to take down a prefecture was harder than climbing the heavens.

Prefecture, the start of being an overlord.

Gaia’s 2nd year would also become the year of prefectures.

If at the end of the 2nd year, your territory had not upgraded to a prefecture, this would mean that you had lost your ability to rule the world.

The jump from county to prefecture was a rise in the entire substance of the territory. It not only represented the change in rank, but it represented that the territory would change from one small city to a whole prefecture.

And for the lords, while they would gain more power, it also meant that they would face greater challenges.

Talents, especially those of high rank, would become more and more important.

As the lords were basically young men, to control and lead a prefecture was highly difficult. Even people like Di Chen, without those around them helping, would not be able to manage.

This was true much more for others like Gong Chengshi and Xunlong Dianxue. They were normal people in real life and when they played the game, it was only for fun.

As for the experience and skill necessary to manage a territory, one could only slowly learn.

A grade 1 county was still manageable.

When it reached the prefecture grade, as long as you didn't pay attention, it might totally backfire.

Gaia had a good grasp in this area, accurately predicting things that would happen.

Its end goal would be to develop a batch of leaders for the real world. If a lord could last until the end, it would be 10 years of hard work. From a village to a town, to a county to a prefecture and finally setting up a country, this training would be able to make a raw diamond into a polished one.

The Shanhai Alliance members were considered lucky in such an aspect.

With such a model lord as Ouyang Shuo leading the way, they just needed to copy him and basically they wouldn't make any huge mistakes.

Of the ideas Ouyang Shuo pushed out in his territory, some he created himself but mostly they were things lords personally went through and developed in the last life.

In the end, Ouyang Shuo was just standing on the shoulders of giants.

For him to be able to last all the way until now, this was because he relied on his last life. His knowledge and mental strength far exceeded his peers. Moreover, he had a huge batch of historical people helping him.

After Shanhai Prefecture upgraded, Ouyang Shuo decisively made changes and pushed for the prefecture system, the reason was obvious.

The Battle of Lianzhou was a show of strength.

Even if Ouyang Shuo wasn't there, the commander unit had Baiqi and Du Ruhui; the various major generals were all famous generals and had the ability to think under pressure. Furthermore, they had an administrative system that ran efficiently and smoothly.

How would they lose?

Hence, the further behind one got, the more one needed to rely on teamwork.

The lord was the navigator of the ship.

In the last life, towards the strategies of running a prefecture, the lords didn't agree on a single system.

In short, there were two methods that could work.

The first would be the prefecture system that Ouyang Shuo was pushing for. It was suitable for most territories. Its positives were that it was able to raise the lord's power, but it needed large numbers of exceptional talents.

If everything was smooth, it would prosper, but if not, riots and unrest would easily occur.

The 2nd method would be the enfeoffment system that was equally popular amongst players.

In the last life when the enfeoffment system appeared, many people chose it. One type of people were the various powers represented by the Six Tyrants of Handan. They were huge, and the internal power struggles were highly complicated.

To balance out all of this, enfeoffment was an acceptable choice.

The reason why it didn't work now was because a county was too small, and enfeoffment was pointless. Hence, various large powers had reached a tacit understanding.

Before reaching prefecture grade, they would fight against outsiders.

After the prefecture grade, they would start splitting the cake. The further they went, as the territory grew bigger, more people would step out because they wanted a piece of the cake.

In the end, with this method, they would form up a huge conglomerate.

Not only that, the various big powers were also planning something in the dark.

During the Battle of Changping, how did Yanhuang Alliance pull over so many lords to their side?

Relationships and connections were only for show. Most crucially, some of these lords were just people from the big powers.

They just didn't show themselves and did not attract any attention.

With Di Chen's Handan County as an example, when Handan Village was being built, their family had sent people to acquire village creation tokens and built these territories around Handan Village.

Once Handan County became a prefecture, these territories would immediately surrender and merge with Handan Prefecture.

With this, Handan Prefecture had it so easy, being able to claim the nearby territories without doing anything. Some innocent lords even wanted to ally with some of these territories to go against Handan County.

Unexpectedly to them, some of their allies were members of the family.

As for these kind of lords, they had already fallen into a trap; they just didn't know it.

Only huge powers could use such a method.

As for commoners, they didn't even need to think about it.

Hence, when Ouyang Shuo predicted that what they showed was just the tip of the iceberg, it was a correct conjecture.

There was another group which liked the enfeoffment system. They were the various alliances that had formed up most recently.

At the start of the alliance, all of them would team up and fight those around them.

When they had cleared up all the surrounding territories and only the alliance remained, the internal war and conflict was going to start.

Internal conflict was the worst choice, as it would reduce their strength.

So, how would they solve the splitting of interests and not let the alliance fall apart?

The enfeoffment system was a good choice.

The leader was the emperor, and the other members were basically officials. The officials were all independent but were all united against outside enemies.

From a historical standpoint, the prefecture system came after the enfeoffment system. But in the game, it would just depend on the player’s preference.

Going back on topic.

After Yashan Village was built, everyone started getting busy.

The first course of action was to move the camp to the village.

Although Ouyang Shuo acted as Bing'er's guardian and could manage the territory, he couldn’t use his rank to allow the village to break the restrictions.

Luckily, the game was open and allowed one to build various buildings without breaking through.

Hence, apart from the already built quarry and sawmill, as well as the saltpans, farms and harbor that were being built, the other buildings were directly planned and organized according to the prefecture grade.

Ouyang Shuo had prepared all the building blueprints.

Ouyang Shuo directly ordered others to change the name from Yashan Village to Yashan City.

The overall planning of Yashan City was naturally done by Sun Xiaoyue. During this period of time, Xiaoyue had brought her planning squad to follow the Guards regiment and walk along the border of the territory.

The basic city planning had already formed.

Based on the planning, the 1st course of action was to build the city wall. The harsh surroundings of Yazhou had decided that the only way they could be safe was to build a solid city wall.

There were going to be two city walls, splitting the city into the inner city and the outer city. The wall of the inner city would be 3 kilometers long, while the outer wall would be 10 kilometers long. Its scale would follow that of Shanhai City.

As there was limited manpower, they chose to build the inner wall first.

Luckily, the 2nd batch of migrants was already on the way and would reach Yazhou soon. After this, the construction speed of Yazhou would reach new heights.

As for the specifics of the city planning, Ouyang Shuo didn't interfere in them and left them all to Sun Xiaoyue.

After Yashan City was set up, the basic level administrative personnel started to follow the set structure and started to build up and start doing their jobs.

Bai Nanpu was appointed by Ouyang Shuo as the mayor and was in charge of the early building. As for the future mayor, Ouyang Shuo was ready to choose a stronger person to take up the role.

After arranging these matters, Ouyang Shuo was ready to return to Shanhai City.

This was not only because Shanhai City had a bunch of stuff waiting for him, but the 20th day of the 2nd month was Chinese New Year's Eve, and he had to go back.

What made Ouyang Shuo worry was that Song Jia hadn't returned from Five Finger Mountain. Every day, she would report to Ouyang Shuo through the alliance channel to say that she was alright.

Based on what Song Jia had said, her martial arts were on the verge of breaking though. As a result, she temporarily couldn't return. It seemed that during this festive period, she would have to spend it in the mountains.

As for the quest Ouyang Shuo mentioned, Song Jia didn't get it.

Gaia 2nd year 2nd month 18th day.

Ouyang Shuo had arranged and planned out all the work for Yashan, and brought Bing'er and Fan Lihua back to Shanhai City through the teleportation formation.

As for the Guards regiment, they would remain in Yashan to guard it for a period of time.

Chapter 346- God Physcian Bianque

When Bing'er returned to Shanhai City, the four small beasts did not follow her.

Little white and little green were training in the spirit beast hall. Blackfang wanted to protect little white, so it did not return.

What was special was Xue'er, that little fella could actually cultivate in the spirit beast hall.

Xue'er was a high-class artificial intelligence and had entered the game only to act as a pet. One would not expect the spirit beast hall to actually be so mystical.

Out of the four of them, Xue'er had the highest intelligence. Based on what she said, when she entered the spirit beast hall, a mysterious voice sounded out in her mind. The voice wanted to teach her spirit beast cultivation methods.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Xue'er was becoming more and more like a player. Needless to say, the cultivation method she learned was probably the same as the secret manuals that could be brought back to reality.

Who would have expected Xue'er to have such luck?

As he walked out of the teleportation formation, Ouyang Shuo was amazed.

Compared to when he left, Shanhai City actually did not undergo much change. The destruction from the Battle of Lianzhou had already been repaired, and all the civilians had returned to their normal lives.

All the barricades and arrow towers outside the city had been dismantled.

In a short few days, one could not see any traces of the war anymore. Who would have known that this place was the focal point of the world and a territory that people thought would fall?

Only the west cemetery had a few thousand more graves, showing that war was cruel and heartless.

As the festive season neared, the happy atmosphere helped to lessen the pain and sorrow.

The commerce street was bustling with people seeking various New Years goodies. Compared to a year ago where Ouyang Shuo had to purchase such goodies from the market, it was the difference between heaven and earth.

The Chamber of Commerces that had invested in the territory did not just bring funds and opportunities. They also brought various goods and items that satisfied consumer needs.

The people who appeared on commerce street was not limited to the civilians of Shanhai City. Instead, there were also other merchants, as well as travelers from other houses and counties in the prefecture. There were even mountain barbarians and grassland nomads.

Shanhai City was slowly becoming the political, economical, and cultural center of Lianzhou.

At the intersection of Friendship River and Canyon River, a huge distribution center was set up. Every day, the many ships would travel to and fro through the distribution center.

The original dock was expanded, and it had now become a small sized city.

The House of east and west made use of the Friendship River and the Qiushui River, which crossed a big part of Lianzhou, to make their relationship with Shanhai City become closer and closer.

Shanhai City continued to prosper under the management of Wei Ran.

Before Ouyang Shuo returned, he did not inform anyone. As a result, no one came to greet him. Only when he returned to the Lord's Manor did he surprise everyone and cause an uproar in the big manor.

The territory had many matters that needed Ouyang Shuo to decide. It was highly inconvenient to depend on Mulan Yue to spread the message. So, when they learned that the marquis had returned, the various high ranking officials and generals all rushed over.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head in amusement, as he had expected such a situation.

Du Ruhui, Fan Zhongyan, and many more had matters to talk to him about, but Ouyang Shuo waved them off and said, “Everything will be left till after the new year!"

After they heard these words, Du Ruhui and the others were dumbfounded.

When he saw all his officials with sad faces, Ouyang Shuo frowned and teased, “If you guys are so hardworking that means your subordinates are too. If that's the case, they might be grumbling about me. One should have a few days of rest in a year, shouldn't they?"

Du Ruhui and Fan Zhongyan looked at one another and smiled, “Let's do as the Marquis says!"

"That's right, you are all the backbone of the territory, so you must care about your bodies!"

Du Ruhui's body had always been poor, so Ouyang Shuo's words also acted as a reminder to him. He had heard that Du Ruhui had worked like mad and experienced many sleepless nights.

"Thank you, Marquis, for your concern!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded and continued, “A year has ended, so there'll probably be some interesting things. With the two of you in the lead, prepare rewards for the military and the administration. Fetch the money from the Financial Department."

Fan Zhongyan laughed slightly, as he recalled what had happened during the last New Year's Eve.

That time, the Marquis personally bought his gift. The Marquis also decided the standard of the gift. As times changed, this kind of thing wasn't too high on the priority list for Ouyang Shuo.

After he gave these two officials something to do, Ouyang Shuo finally had time to return to his reading room.

As for Fan Lihua, little princess Bing’er naturally helped to show her around.

When Bing'er returned to the Lord's Manor, it naturally grew chaotic again. Everyone remembered her playfulness that made everyone love her and feel a headache too. Luckily, the four small beasts weren't here, which lessen the burden.

Although Bai Nanpu wasn't here, the secretary room still functioned.

The important letters were placed neatly on the table, as they waited for Ouyang Shuo to deal with them.

Ouyang Shuo postponed the meetings to after the new year; he wanted to use these few days to familiarize himself with everything in the territory.

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo went to visit Jiang Shang and Sun Wu. Although these two heavyweights didn't participate in city matters, one couldn't underestimate them. Since Ouyang Shuo had returned, he naturally needed to visit them.

This time, Ouyang Shuo hoped to acquire their help.

For the next step of the territory, Ouyang Shuo had already made plans. But before he officially pushed them out, he hoped to garner the opinions of the two.

As time went on, Jiang Shang's feelings for Shanhai City had deepened. As a result, he warmly replied to Ouyang Shuo.

A few sentences had helped to change his opinion.

When he saw the young lord in front of him, many thoughts filled Jiang Shang. This knowledgeable young man had depth and courage. More astoundingly, he had foresight.

A few of the ideas and plans of Shanhai City were like a stroke of god from Jiang Shang's perspective.

Such a young man in such a position, not only was he not arrogant, but he was willing to ask for help!

Hard to come by!

Even when the Wu King was young, he wasn't this capable.

As the army military academy was about open, Sun Wu was busy with the teaching materials. For Ouyang Shuo's visit, his warmness was naturally overflowing.

Sun Wu was the War Saint. As expected, he managed to point out the flaws in Ouyang Shuo's plan.

The knowledge of the olden people definitely could not be underestimated.

Near the end, both of them exchanged opinions about the building of the academy. Ouyang Shuo wanted to choose the first semester students from the current military.

Sun Wu nodded in agreement, as he clearly knew the weak aspect of the Shanhai Army.

Ouyang Shuo had come to his decision after much consideration.

After he bid the War Saint farewell, Ouyang Shuo took a walk around the city before he returned.

The Shanhai City population had already broken 300 thousand. Not all of the citizens in the city recognized him. If it was not for the Guards behind him, they might have treated him as an ordinary rich man.

The next day, after his morning training, Ouyang Shuo continued to settle administrative matters. Although he had asked his officials and subordinates to rest, he did not.

Yesterday's lessons helped to clear up Ouyang Shuo's thinking. He needed to be alone to clear up everything.

Ouyang Shuo instructed the secretary room that if nothing important came up, do not disturb him.

In this room, Ouyang Shuo was alone. In the other room, Shanhai City had two very important guests.

The two of them had coincidentally met and had decided to travel together.

One of them was an old men, who looked very energized. He was dressed up like a doctor.

The other was still young, but he was paralyzed and could not walk. He sat in a wooden wheelchair, and the old man pushed him forward.

He had a unique feature on his face, from his left eye down ran a long scar. If one was familiar with punishments, this was a scar from branding.

A city guard stopped the two of them.

"Who are you?"

The old man laughed, “I’m a travelling physician. I heard this city has many expensive herbs, so I’ve come to visit."

The guard nodded and pointed to the man in the wheelchair, “And who is this?"

Shanhai City will have Thousands of people would enter the gates of Shanhai City every day and the Guards would not check them one by one. However, this young man was just too special.

The guard was from the military, so he could recognize the scar. Normally, to get branded, you were either a slave or you committed a huge crime.

Regardless who he was, it was enough to attract attention.

This check caused a hundred people to gather at the gate.

When they saw his appearance, everyone started to gossip. Some pitied, him while others mocked him.

The young man did not care seem to care about all the hustle around him, seemingly used to all this.

The guy raised his head; his face was extremely handsome. The scar did not spoil his appearance. Instead, it added a special kind of charm.

"I'm here to find my grandfather!"

"Grandfather? Who is your grandfather?"

The young man waved at the guard and asked him to come forward.

The guard did not suspect anything and immediately approached.

The young man softly said out a name in his ear.

"Ah, it's actually him? Is this true?"

When the guard heard this name, he called out.

The young man said, “If you don't believe me, you can follow me to see my grandfather. Just nice. I’m not familiar with the way, so can you bring me there?"

As he said these words, the guard did not bother about the civilians at the side. He simply brought the two in.

All this naturally attracted the gossips of the people. Everyone tried to guess the identity of the young man’s grandfather that had managed to shock the guard.

One most know that the guard was an elite of the city protection division. He was usually very calm.

Chapter 347- The Grandfather and Grandson Pair Meets

The man in the wheelchair was one of the representative figures of the philosophy of war, Sun Wu's grandson, Sun Bin.

Sun Bin came a few generations after Sun Wu. Since they both appeared at the same time in the wilderness, Gaia arranged that they were grandson and grandfather to avoid making things weird.

After he heard that his grandfather was living in Shanhai City, Sun Bin did not come straight away. Instead, he went traveling until New Year's Eve before visiting.

The old man beside him was the god physician Bianque from the Spring and Autumn period.

Bianque called himself a traveling physician, as he did not stay in one city. In history, Bianque and his disciples traveled four thousand miles around.

Under the guidance of the guard, Sun Bin managed to see his grandfather, Sun Wu.

The meeting between the two was certainly an amazing event.

When he saw that the young man was truly Sun Wu’s grandson, he did not dare to disturb them and left.

After he left, the guard did not return to the city wall. Instead, he went to the Lord's Manor to report to the manager there.

When the manager received this news, he immediately went to report to the Marquis. However, the secretary stopped him.

"The marquis has orders. Unless it's something important, no one should disturb him."

The manager understood and told the secretary the information. As for how he handled it, be it immediately reporting or doing nothing, it was not the manager’s problem anymore.

After the secretary heard the news, he waved the manager off and asked the latter to leave. He thought about it and decided to wait till the Marquis came out before telling him.

After all, Sun Bin came over to spend the lunar new year, so he would not be in a rush to leave.

Otherwise, it would be horrendous if he disturbed the lord and broke his train of thought.

The Lianzhou Manor did not have a specific organization to scout out news and intel about the territory. Hence, they could only rely on maidservants, guards, and the like to spread news.

As for the Military Intelligence Division, they were only in charge of military matters and would not cross the line.

Sun Wu residence.

Sun Wu's residence was not in the official residence area. Instead, he stayed in the Army Military Academy.

After the two of them met, Sun Bin introduced Bianque to his grandfather.

"Grandfather, I met this god physician on my journey. His name is Bianque. The whole way, he has taken care of me!"

After Sun Wu heard such words, he immediately said, “Thank you kind sir!"

Bianque would not dare to accept that, so he said, “I was just doing what I could. I wasn't purposely taking care of him!"

Sun Wu nodded and smiled, “Since you have come to Shanhai City, you will be able to gain a lot!"

"How so?" Bianque's eyes brightened.

"Have you heard of the book collection house?"

"I came because of that. I heard that it contains a lot of old and new books. Is that true?"

"Definitely! The medical works of various dynasties are all in there."

Bianque was delighted, so he smiled and said, “Seems like my trip will be worth it!"

"Not only that, Shanhai City has a medical department. They have olden arts and medical skills that the players brought. Especially one surgical technique, which even I have to commend."

When Bianque heard those words, he grew even happier.

"I can't wait anymore!"

Sun Wu laughed; it was pretty understandable, as he too was like that when he came here. Sun Wu waved and called for one of the servants, “Bring mister to take a look at the book collection house."

"Yes, sir!"

Bianque understood Sun Wu’s intentions, so he followed the servant and left.

Firstly, he desired to read the medical works. Secondly, he also knew that the grandson and grandfather pair definitely had something to talk about.

After he sent Bianque away, the two felt much more relaxed.

Sun Wu felt a heartache when he saw his grandson's paralyzed legs.

Sun Bin was really sharp and said, “Grandfather, even though my legs are paralyzed, I can still lead thousands and ten thousands of troops." His words contained a hint of pride, and it also held a little bit of burden.

Sun Wu nodded, “God Physician Bianque also can't do anything about this?"

Sun Bin kept silent and shook his head.

Once he saw that, Sun Wu did not continue with this serious topic and smiled, “Grandson, the Sun Bin art of war that you wrote, I've read it. It made me feel really happy."

"Thank you for your praises!"

"You don't need to behave humble in front of your grandfather. However, you also can't be arrogant. During this period of time, I've read many famous works and learnt a lot. Although the books we wrote are good, they have a lot of limitations."

"Thank you for your teachings!" Sun Wu sat in the wheelchair as he said, “I came here to accompany grandfather and also to cultivate my art of war."

Sun Wu shook his head and pointed at Sun Bin. He laughed and said, “In front of your grandfather, you don't need to hide. I can feel that you want to go to the battlefield. However, you decided to make such a decision instead because of me, right?"

"Grandfather is sharp." Sun Bin was a little embarrassed, “I don't want to hide it from you, but yes, I want to enter the military and put what I learned to use."

Sun Wu nodded, “I chose to be a hermit, as I'm old. I don't want to go through that torture and pain again. Even so, the Lianzhou Marquis persuaded me to lead the Army Military Academy. You are still young, so you should go all out to learn. Be a man and head to the battlefield."

"Is the Lianzhou Lord really so amazing? He actually managed to persuade you?"

Sun Bin was surprised. Instantly, he felt eager to meet this famous lord that he had heard so much about.

Sun Wu nodded, as he thought about Ouyang Shuo's visit yesterday. Then, he said, “The foundation of Shanhai City is very thick and firm; it can definitely rule the earth. The Marquis is good at using talents. Furthermore, the generals under him are given power, and he trusts them. With the Battle of Lianzhou as an example, Baiqi commanded the entire thing."

When Sun Bin heard about this, he was so excited.

In his book, he described that a lord needed to trust his soldiers and not interfere, allowing them to handle military matters.

Ouyang Shuo’s actions were the perfect example of the relationship between a general and a lord.

When he noticed Sun Bin's expression, Sun Wu reminded him, “Since you have made the choice, I have to remind you. Shanhai City not only has Baiqi, it also has historical generals like Shi Wanshui and Er'Lai. If you want to gain a solid foothold in the military, it won't be easy."

When Sun Bin heard this, he solemnly said, “Don't worry, grandfather, your grandson knows what to do!"

After they spoke about such matters, the pair started to casually converse.

As for the god physician Bianque, he only returned at night after the servant reminded him. The many medical books and scrolls in the book collection house had left this god physician very engrossed.

Ouyang Shuo similarly spent an entire day in the reading room.

Zisu even had to send lunch to his reading room for him to hurriedly eat.

After he left the reading room, the secretary immediately went up.

This whole day, the secretary had not just slacked off. He had found out everything about the identity of the two men.

"Lord, the territory has two guests. One of them is the god physician Bianque, the other is the grandson of Sun Wu, Sun Bin."

This news piqued Ouyang Shuo’s interest.

In truth, after Sun Wu moved over, Ouyang Shuo had looked forward to Sun Bin's arrival.

This wait had lasted an entire two months.

To a paralyzed person like Sun Bin, although he did not join many famous battles, everyone could change the path of history. Although he was not so famous, he was still considered a great general.

Putting it another way, Sun Bin should be considered a strategist, similar to Zhang Liang, Zhuge Liang.

As for the god physician Bianque, he was a pleasant surprise.

Of course, the book collection house was great at attracting philosophers. However, even if they came to Shanhai City, that did not necessarily mean they would move in.

Ouyang Shuo said to the secretary, “Send someone to visit the War Saint Manor and tell them that tomorrow morning, I'll personally visit the two guests."

"Yes, my lord!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded and went to the back hall.

A night of total silence.

Gaia 2nd year, 2nd month 20th day, Shanhai City.

At night, it was the lunar New Year’s Eve evening.

The servants in the Lord's Manor had started to get busy under Zisu’s orders. Some were in charge of cleaning, while the others hung up lanterns and paintings.

The back kitchen was even busier. Early in the morning, the chefs had started preparing for the dinner. The Marquis had said that he would hold the dinner at the Lord’s Manor. Additionally, all the generals and officials were invited.

The square in front of the Lord's Manor was bustling, and they had built performance platform there.

At night, the troupe would perform on the platform and share the joy with the commoners.

Even the commoners could watch the performance, not just the important generals that joined the Lord's Manor.

When Ouyang Shuo left, four Guards followed him.

He quickly went to the Army Military Academy. The construction of the academy had almost finished. He did not have any thoughts of walking around. Instead, he directly entered Sun Wu's Residence.

After they got the news yesterday, the residence had prepared to welcome him.

Even Bianque had to put down his desires for medical books to stay in the residence and wait. Based on Ouyang Shuo's current position, even if he summoned them both to the Lord's Manor, there would be nothing wrong with that.

Personally visiting them showed them the utmost respect.

Of course, Sun Wu's influence played a part in this.

In the olden times, the position of physicians was not high. However, Ouyang Shuo, as a modern person, naturally would not look down on them.

Toward Sun Bin and Bianque, he treated them equally.

Chapter 348- Rhino Horn Poison Curing Pill

In his meeting with Ouyang Shuo, Sun Bin wasn't cold. Instead, he was really excited.

Since Sun Bin had the intention of coming out and joining the military, he naturally expressed his intentions.

When Ouyang heard this, he was elated.

Yesterday, he had put together Sun Wu's suggestions to reorganize the military structure. The arrival of Sun Bin helped to solve the most important component.

As the time was not right, the two did not have a deep conversation about the topic.

Ouyang Shuo asked him to come to the reading room tomorrow afternoon.

After meeting Sun Bin, Ouyang Shuo tuned to Bianque and smiled, “Mister, you came to Shanhai City, so I'll try to do my best as a lord. The medical department has a mansion that's currently empty. Would you like to live there?"

Bianque had heard of the rumors, so he naturally understood what the Lianzhou Lord wanted. The lord wanted him to settle down. In reality, the lord was inviting him to work in the medical department.

When Ouyang Shuo saw Bianque’s expression, he let out a slight smile, “Mister, you don't need to consider it, as the medical department won't restrict your freedom. Not only that, we will prepare servants and resources for your long trips. The only requirement would be for you to recruit a few disciples to help out the department."

Ouyang Shuo knew that if he did not raise up anything, Bianque would have his doubts. In fact, he wanted Bianque to register as part of Shanhai City. Of course, if he could meet the requirements for physicians to settle in the city, that would be the best.

After Bianque heard these words, he was actually tempted. When he thought about Sun Wu's introduction, he made his mind up, “I simply cannot reject all your kindness!"

"Great!" Ouyang Shuo was on cloud nine.

When he saw Bianque, Ouyang Shuo thought of a person and said, “Mister, there's someone with a hidden disease. I have tried every common treatment, but it didn't work. Can you help diagnose him?"

"Oh? There's such a weird illness? I'm really interested to go and take a look."

To someone like him, the more complicated and challenging the condition, the better it was to helping to raise his skills.

When he saw Bianque being so eager, Ouyang Shuo bid farewell to the grandfather and grandson pair. He smiled, “Since that's the case, there's still time now, so I'll bring you there."

"Great!"

Bianque entered his room and took out his medical suitcase. Then, he followed Ouyang Shuo out.

The person Ouyang Shuo referred to was his half master—Bajiquan Master Lin Yue.

Song Jia was having problems convincing Lin Yue. Since there was a chance, Ouyang Shuo was willing to give it a shot.

Since long ago, more dojos had spread across the entire territory. But the one Lin Yue set up remained the most famous one. The dojo was now named the Baijiquan Dojo, and its location had shifted many times.

Currently, it was located in the inner city commoner area, and it took up a huge area.

The disciples had increased from less than a hundred to thousands. A large portion of the disciples would choose to enter the military after training.

The earlier batch of disciples was doing really well.

Wang Feng was the colonel of the Guards regiment; he was one of the most trusted generals. The other disciples had all reached the rank of major.

As time passed on, Bajiquan slowly became an important power in the military.

Not to mention the fact that Ouyang Shuo himself learned Bajiquan. The other disciples naturally felt honoured, as if they were born to serve Ouyang Shuo.

When Ouyang Shuo rushed to the dojo, the disciples were preparing for the festivities.

After they noticed his arrival, all of them grew excited and went forward to greet him.

"Marquis!"

"Marquis!"

……

On the way, the sounds of greetings continued.

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand in acknowledgment. Under the guidance of a disciple, he entered the main hall.

Lin Yue rushed over upon hearing the news.

After the greetings, Ouyang Shuo asked everyone to back down. Lin Yue knew that the lord definitely had an important matter to mention.

All of a sudden, only the three of them remained in the main hall.

Ouyang Shuo introduced Bianque to Lin Yue, “This is god physician Bianque, he's here to treat you!"

When Lin Yue heard this, he felt a jolt in his heart. His disease had already become an unbearable pain in his heart, and he had felt despair after failing to find a cure for it.

If it were not for the dojo, Lin Yue would not know how to survive. To a martial artist, their art was their life.

Lin Yue looked at Bianque with a complicated expression. Although he felt eager, he also felt afraid of his hopes being crushed. His current feelings were not something anyone could understand.

Bianque was really experienced, and he had diagnosed an uncountable number of patients. Lin Yue’s feeling were normal in his eyes.

Many patients with weird diseases all felt a similar way.

Bianque smiled and said, “Please sit down; I’ll feel your pulse."

Lin Yue sat down like a well-behaved baby, totally different to his usual strict master demeanor.

Ouyang Shuo stood at the side and did not dare to interrupt.

The current Bianque was the main star of the hall.

In truth, the moment he entered and saw Lin Yue, the diagnosis had begun.

Chinese medicine focused on all aspects, and Bianque was a master of this art. He was especially good at looking at the patient’s color to make a diagnosis. He could even infer what had happened.

The famous story of when he visited Caiheng showed his skill.

After feeling Lin Yue’s pulse, Bianque had a rough idea of what had happened. Then, he asked a few more questions. Just like that, he diagnosed the problem and could cure it.

Oddly enough, after his series of questions, Bianque kept quiet, and his face looked a little ugly.

When Lin Yue saw this, his heart went all the way to his throat. One could say that Bianque was his only hope. If even the god physician could not cure him, he would lose all hope.

After a long time, Bianque opened his eyes and spoke, “There is a special ice poison in Lin Yue's body. An expert with a poisonous ice nature internal strength injected this into his body. This poison is highly venomous, and it will eat into the organs and cause organ failure."

When Lin Yue heard this, his eyelids twitched, as if he had remembered some unpleasant memories.

He raised his head and said, “As expected of a god physician. In fact, an expert who was good at Yin Ice Kungfu injured me."

Bianque nodded and continued, “If it weren't for your strong internal strength that could suppress it, you would have died. Even so, it has stayed in your body for a long time and caused much damage. If you don't cure it, you might not live past the New Year."

When Ouyang Shuo heard this, his eyes narrowed.

Lin Yue was more optimistic. He smiled; this was the same as he had predicted.

Bianque said, “I know that there's a pill that can cure your ailment."

"Is that true?"

Lin Yue could not remain as calm anymore. His eyes revealed a light of hope and delight.

Even Ouyang Shuo was feeling happy for Lin Yue. However, he was calmer as a bystander. He felt that things would not be that simple. Otherwise, Bianque would not make such a troubled expression.

As expected, Bianque nodded. But then, he shook his head, “Don't be so happy yet. There's a pill known as the Rhino Horn Poison Curing Pill."

"What's the difficulty?"

"Although I know the recipe and the pill making method, the required main ingredient is rare."

"What main ingredient?"

Lin Yue regained calm, but in his heart was a glimmer of hope.

The cause of one’s desperation was not seeing the problem, but failing to see a way forward.

This was the first time Lin Yue had heard of an exact way to cure his problem. Naturally, he was delighted. He had made up his mind—whatever the ingredient was, he would find it.

"Rhino Horn!"

When Bianque spoke out, his words made one’s spectacles drop to the floor.

"Rhino horn?" Lin Yue thought he had heard wrongly and asked, “Isn't that found in every herb shop?"

Bianque shook his head, “If it was a normal Rhino horn, of course, it would be easy to find. What you need is a spirit beast level Rhino horn."

Lin Yue's face turned white.

A spirit beast was incredibly rare. Furthermore, they needed to find a Rhino spirit beast.

Ouyang Shuo felt elated when he heard those words.

Everything in the world followed a cycle.

Wasn't there an iron armored beast horn in his storage bag? It was mutated from a rhino and met all the requirements.

When he saw Lin Yue’s depressed state, Ouyang Shuo knew it was time for him to speak.

He took out the horn and passed it to Bianque, “Mister, this is from a mutated desolate beast. Its name is the iron armored beast. Can it be used?"

In a moment, this horn became the focus of everyone.

Out of the three of them, Lin Yue had the most complicated feelings. He was happy, emotional, and nervous.

Bianque took it. After he observed the horn, he laughed, “This beast is even better than spirit beasts; this horn is very suitable."

When Lin Yue heard this, he went before Ouyang Shuo and emotionally said, “I'll never be able to repay your good grace!"

As he said that, he wanted to kneel on the spot.

Ouyang Shuo immediately stopped him, “Brother Lin, you don't need to do that. When you came to Shanhai Village, I already said that I would cure you. Today, I've fulfilled my promise."

When Lin Yue heard these words, he was very grateful. He did not expect Ouyang Shuo to remember that promise all the way till now.

Only death could repay such a huge favor.

Ouyang Shuo heaved a sigh of relief. It seemed like he had solved the matter he promised Song Jia.

Ouyang Shuo did not stay for long. He left Bianque and returned to the Lord's Manor.

Chapter 349- Luxurious Lineup

Ouyang Shuo returned to the Lord's Manor and prepared himself to meet a special guest—Zhao Kuo, who they currently held in the Lord's Manor. They currently held him in a courtyard that people rarely visited, a place at a corner of the manor.

When Ouyang Shuo entered, Zhao Kuo was drinking in the patio; his beard currently in a mess.

After he experienced failure in the Battle of Lianzhou, Zhao Kuo seemed older and sadder. He did not look as handsome and as confident as before.

A hero's heart had totally fallen into the abyss.

When he saw Ouyang Shuo, Zhao Kuo held the wine flask and walked over. He was drunk, and his voice was hoarse, “Lianzhou Lord?" His voice contained a tinge of teasing and a sense of giving up.

Currently, Zhao Kuo was a man that lacked purpose and will.

"That's right!"

Ouyang Shuo did not care. He sat down on the stone seat and looked over at Zhao Kuo.

"You, you came here for what? To humiliate me? Or are you ready to behead me, behead me~" Zhao Kuo stuttered, as he vented the frustration and anger in his heart.

Zhao Kuo did not care about life and eath anymore.

More specifically, although he currently lived, it felt like a living death to him.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “If you want to give up on yourself, I won't stop you. But if your father learns that his son is useless, what would he think?"

His father was the famous general Zhao She, the ancestor of the Ma family.

Ouyang Shuo noticed that when he mentioned Zhao Kuo’s father, the latter tightened his grip over the wine flask. Obviously, his father held a special place in his heart.

After the Battle of Changping, Zhao She had also appeared in the wilderness. Despite this, he did not go to Pill Sun County to look for Zhao Kuo. Needless to say, he did not recognize Zhao Kuo and was not willing to meet him.

This was a huge pain in Zhao Kuo’s heart, as he desired his father’s recognition.

Zhao Kuo's face was ashen white, as he said, “What can I do? At most, I'll just die."

"Well, you can die. Only, there are thousands of ways to die. Which one will you choose? Dying for your sins or dying from alcohol?"

"You!" Zhao Kuo's face flushed red and he shouted, “You can kill me, but don't humiliate me!"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “You're wrong. I'm not humiliating you. Your current actions are just throwing away the face of your father. You're just asking for ridicule."

Sometimes, one had to be harsh to solve such problems.

Zhao Kuo had already given up, so Ouyang Shuo needed to use words to ignite his spirit.

Otherwise, how would Zhao Kuo be of any help to him?

"Ah!" Zhao Kuo stood still as he raised the wine flask and took a swig. The wine that spilled out soaked his shirt, but he did not care. He was merely drowning away his sorrows.

After a long while, he raised his head and looked at Ouyang Shuo, “I'm the general of a losing army, so what can I do?"

His words contained endless feelings of bitterness and sadness.

Ouyang Shuo kept silent. After all, Zhao Kuo was also unlucky—his first opponent was Baiqi. In the end, he had lost, which left his reputation ruined.

Additionally, he would be remembered and humiliated because of the Battle of Changping.

"I have a position that can let you make a comeback."

Ouyang Shuo threw out the bait.

"Oh? Keke, is the Lianzhou Lord trying to recruit me?"

In Zhao Kuo's eyes, disbelief could be seen.

"You lost because you chose the wrong position. You are knowledgeable and know a lot about the philosophy of war. You're good at advising but not at leading troops to war. The Lianzhou Lord's Manor has the Military Affairs Department, which oversees military matters. Under it is the War Division that is in charge of war planning and coordination."

Ouyang Shuo gave Zhao Kuo a brief description of the territory’s military structure.

When Zhao Kuo heard such words, his eyes brightened. However, he felt a little unhappy about Ouyang Shuo's evaluation. He felt that he had the ability to lead men to war.

Ouyang Shuo saw Zhao Kuo’s hesitation, so he threw out another bomb, “The Military Affairs Department and the army aren't directly related. Instead, they depend on one another."

Once Ouyang Shuo made this point clear, someone as smart as Zhao Kuo could definitely understand his meaning. If one mentioned the enemy of Zhao Kuo, it had to be Baiqi.

The Military Affairs Department and Baiqi had a relationship where they cooperated but also acted against one another.

When Zhao Kuo heard this, he was really interested as expected.

After Ouyang Shuo stopped speaking, Zhao Kuo knew that Ouyang Shuo wanted him to express his views.

Zhao Kuo sighed and threw down the wine flask, which broke it apart. He straightened his shirt and bowed, “Losing general Zhao Kuo greets the Marquis!"

Ouyang Shuo helped him up and said, “General, go wash up and prepare for the feast tonight! Every festive season, one will think of their family. If Zhao She knew that you have picked yourself up, he would feel happy."

When Zhao Kuo heard these words, his voice choked.

Ouyang Shuo slowly left.

He let Zisu to prepare new clothes for Zhao Kuo. He also arranged two maidservants to help him wash up.

After he left the courtyard, Ouyang Shuo used the Lord’s gamemode interface to check out Zhao Kuo’s stats.

Name: Zhao Kuo (King Rank)

Dynasty: Warring States (Zhao)

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 70

Command: 75

Force: 45

Intelligence: 75

Politics: 58

Specialty: well-read (Raises strategy crafting efficiency by 25%)

Evaluation: Zhao Kuo has studied the philosophy of war since a young age. He loves to talk about military methods.

Gaia's evaluation of Zhao Kuo was not too high. However, he was certainly more than sufficient to lead the war division. With Zhao Kuo’s assistance, Du Ruhui would carry less of a burden.

After he checked Zhao Kuo’s stats, Ouyang Shuo remembered that he had not checked out Sun Bin and Bianque's stats.

Name: Sun Bin (God Rank)

Dynasty: Warring States (Qi)

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Special level General

Loyalty: 80

Command: 99

Force: 50

Intelligence: 88

Politics: 55

Specialty: Destruction is the only outcome (Raises morale by 40%). Race horse (raises movement speed by 30%). Surround Wei to save Zhao (raise defense by 20%). Adapt to the enemy (Raise damage by 25%)

Cultivation Method: Sun Bin Fist Technique

Equipment: Nil

As expected, Sun Bin was exceptional at command. His command stat was even higher than Baiqi’s.

However, the aspect that surprised Ouyang Shuo was Sun Bin’s possession of a self-created fist technique. No wonder that despite being paralyzed, his force stat could still reach 50.

After Baiqi, the territory had acquired one more god rank person.

Name: Bianque (God Rank)

Dynasty: Warring States

Title: One of the five huge medical physicians in olden China

Identity: Shanhai City resident

Occupation: God rank physician

Loyalty: 70

Specialty: Careful planning (Raises territory trade profits by 1%)

Evaluation: In terms of medicine, Bianque is the ancestor. His techniques were precise and accurate. Future generations followed his methods and ways.

Bianque was known as the ancestor of Chinese traditional medicine. He created the diagnosis method and also the treatment method.

The five greatest physicians of the olden times were Medical Ancestor Bianque, Medical Saint Zhang Zhongjin, God Doctor Hua Tuo, Medicine King Sun Simiao, and Medical Scientist Li Shizhen.

Of the five, Zhang Zhongjin and Sun Simiao were saints. They were listed among the twenty four saints. Sun Simiao was the medicine Saint, and Zhang Zhongjin was the Saint Doctor. The other three were god-level historical people.

The five of them were the representative figures of Chinese medical studies.

Hence, Medical Ancestor Bianque moving into Shanhai City was not enough to consider that medical studies had moved into the city. He needed either Zhang Zhongjin or Sun Simiao to move in.

After lunch, nighttime soon arrived.

The various generals and officials all rushed over to Shanhai City.

Out of the civil servants, there was Tianfeng House prefect Cui Shousi, Mulan House prefect Mulan Yue, Broken Blade House prefect Zhou Haichen, and Beihai City City mayor Gu Xiuwen.

Of course, there was also Shanhai House prefect Wei Ran.

Apart from the feast, the various houses rushed back to the Lord's Manor to talk to the lord. Especially Zhou Haichen, who had not talked to Ouyang Shuo before he took up his appointment.

There was one other civil servant invited, the Yongye County County Magistrate Shen Zhui.

This message was very clear. Anyone could guess that Shen Zhui would be put to huge use after the New Year.

Then, there were four major generals.

Apart from them, two others were invited, Daiqin and Lin Yi.

Of course, Baiqi, Du Ruhui, Sun Bin, Fan Lihua, and Zhao Kuo were naturally invited.

Daiqin being invited was also a sign. After all, when Du Ruhui persuaded Daiqin to surrender, he had promised Daiqin to put him to good use.

Then, Lin Yi's arrival was similar to Shen Zhui.

Obviously, Lin Yi was going to receive an important appointment.

The many generals did not gather here just to attend the feast.

Before the New Year, the Military Affairs Department followed Ouyang Shuo's order to make three divisions from the prisoners.

During his return, he would obviously settle the choices of the three major generals.

Hence, although the military meeting after the New Year had not even started, it had already gained a lot of attention.

Shen Zhui and Lin Yi, these two young men were naturally the focal point of attention.

If one included the specially invited Jiang Shang and Sun Wu, as well as the three heads of the civil servant system, the people who came to join this feast could be said to be of historical proportions.

Chapter 350- New Year's Red Packet Snatching Event

Mulan Yue teleported over to Shanhai City and gave Ouyang Shuo a present. She handed him the platinum rank accessory that Chun Shenjun had dropped when he died.

Name: Golden Qilin Seal (Platinum Rank)

Type: Accessory

Specialty: Purify Evil (Doesn't get corrupted; evil avoids you)

Evaluation: A sealed emperor seal. The essence of a country protecting Qilin is needed to unseal it. After it's totally unsealed, it can suppress a country's fortune, a priceless treasure.

Ouyang Shuo trembled; he immediately thought of something—Imperial Jade Seal.

In the last life, Di Chen's Handan City had built a country first. For a lord to establish a country, apart from his rank, he needed two other things—an imperial decree and also an imperial jade seal.

Ouyang Shuo did not expect Chun Shenjun to possess such a treasure.

The lost of the golden Qilin Seal was enough to make Chun Shenjun’s heartache for a long while.

If he knew of the real use of the golden seal, he would probably just burst into tears.

Regretfully, the golden seal needed the injection of Qilin essence to unseal. The Qilin was an ancient prosperity beast. To find one and make it give up itself was harder than ascending the heavens.

The golden Qilin seal was a holy treasure, so one could not place this item into a storage bag. As such, they could only bring it around. If not, Chun Shenjun would not have lost it.

Luckily, the seal was not too large, so Ouyang Shuo could place it in a gold bag, which allowed him to conveniently hang it on his waist.

Gaia 2nd year 2nd month 20th day, New Year's Eve night.

The Shanhai City's lights shone brightly, and the atmosphere brimmed with the festive spirit

The loud explosions of fireworks filled the air.

In the main hall of the Lord's Manor, Ouyang Shuo welcomed the group of officials.

At both sides, famous figures had lined up.

As the music played and people danced, dish after dish of delicious delicacies were brought up to the tables.

Such a huge feast was something that Ouyang Shuo could not imagine a year ago.

His only regret was that Song Jia was not present. Currently, Song Jia had ventured into a mountain farmer's house. In there, she had spent an unforgettable New Year’s eve night.

Not only Shanhai City, the entire China region was immersed in the Lunar New Year spirit.

This was also the first time the China region players had gathered in the game, so it naturally held a special meaning to them.

Be it the global channel or the forums, both bustled with activity.

In the originally quiet wilderness, one could see flames rise into the air and light up the night sky.

Be it adventure mode players or lord mode players, they all celebrated the New Year in their own way.

The nine system imperial cities bustled with excitement and players pretty much swarmed these places.

Following the customs of the aboriginals, they spent the New Year's Eve with their families. To players, it was truly a different experience.

The New Year’s spirit and feelings had utterly awakened the memories of the players.

Some of the old men were filled with emotions and even secretly wept.

As for the children, they were even happier. All of them formed up into small groups and took small fireworks and firecrackers. They enjoyed a totally different New Year compared to the one they could experience in a modern city.

Bing'er, this little brat, ate a few mouthfuls of food and disappeared like a monkey.

To the kids, this was the happiest of times.

This was also the first time that the China region players could not look at New Year's Eve programs and performances.

Hence, after they finished their New Year's Eve dinner, the players all felt that something was not right. Something felt missing. Furthermore, they did not have any phones and could not grab red packets, so the teens all the more felt that something was off.

Luckily, be it the various large territories or the imperial cities, they all had show platforms that held performances for the people. These events allowed the people to throw away their regrets.

After the feast, the people in the Lord's Manor all walked out to the square to watch the performances.

The performing troupe did not just come from the theatre. There were also troupes that the Chamber of Commerces sponsored. On the other streets, there were also other smaller-sized performance platforms.

As the lord, Ouyang Shuo would naturally enjoy these performances with his people.

After the players had their meals with their family, they all had nothing to do. As such, they went on the forums.

All of the sudden, there were numerous bored people.

At this time, the players hoped that Gaia would hold a New Year’s event.

On the New Year's Eve night, the people would naturally look forward to the Nian beast event.

The only special one was Shanhai City.

Since the Nian beasts had become their city protectors, naturally, no more Nian beasts would come.

To normal players, the Nian Beasts were too rare and not all of them would face these monsters. Some of the players went on the forums and demanded for an event where all players could participate.

In truth, Gaia had really prepared a huge surprise for the players in the China Region.

At 9 PM, a system notification punctually sounded out.

"System Notification: Gaia 2nd year 2nd month 20th day, 9 PM. The Nian Beast ascend on the wilderness. All lords, please prepare!"

……

The Nian Beast event had officially started.

Only this time, Ouyang Shuo was a total bystander. Similar to Ouyang Shuo, a whole bunch of other players could not join the event. As such, they started a ruckus on the forums.

10 minutes later, just when the players had grown really bored, another system notification sounded.

"System Notification: Gaia 2nd year 2nd month 20th day. Today is the traditional New Year's Eve in the China region. To add to the festivities, 10 minutes later, we will open the Red Packet Snatching Event. Please look forward to it!"

……

When the notification rang out, all the players grew excited.

Red packet snatching was such a memorable phrase, so it instantly triggered all the players' festive spirits.

Along with the system notification, the system released the Red Packet Snatching Event rules on the forums.

Ouyang Shuo scrolled through the forums, as he watched the performance. Mulan Yue, who was sitting beside him, was already on the forums. To a little girl, the performances were nothing interesting.

In truth, there was such an event in his last life. Ouyang Shuo only went online to confirm it.

The Red Packet Snatching Event was very simple.

Firstly, the players who joined must voluntarily send Gaia a red packet. The could place as much gold as they want inside, but they had to at least put in a silver.

Gaia would pile all the red packets together and randomly distribute the gold to participating players.

There were hundreds of millions of players in the China region. If everyone gave a single silver, that would result in a million gold.

If one was lucky, one could strike a jackpot. Maybe if you gave Gaia a silver, you could get a return of a thousand or even ten thousand gold.

Of course, your luck might be bad, and you might only get one copper.

This kind of game was suitable for everyone. It also had a slight gambling edge similar to buying the lottery.

Of course, some players might just decide to give Gaia one silver and take the chance that they might earn a lot. Even if they did not earn much, they would only lose a small amount.

Toward this kind of action, Gaia had taken some preventive measures.

In the rules, there was another interesting setting. If a player gave Gaia a huge red packet, they could receive a lottery ticket. The bigger the amount, the higher the chances.

Additionally, to make the players more eager, if one reached a hundred gold, they were guaranteed to receive one coupon.

If the red packet was big enough, one had the chance to gain a few lottery tickets.

Not only that, the coupons were split into ranks in a similar manner to equipment. The ranks ranged from copper to platinum. Of course, players could not receive the highest god rank, as that would break the game balance.

Gaia also described the function of the lottery ticket.

Naturally, the lottery ticket gave the chance to draw a prize.

At 10 PM sharp, a player with a ticket could participate in a lucky draw. The prizes were dazzling, and it included equipment, cultivation methods, skill books, special items, and more.

The items inside included black iron rank equipment, mysterious region scrolls, emperor rank cultivation methods, and more. They were really attractive prizes.

Some of the items had a rarity equal to those sold during the second system auction.

Gaia made it clear that the higher the grade of a lottery ticket, the higher one’s chances of drawing a rarer prize.

This interesting setting had totally ignited the interest of all the rich players. It involved a complicated gamble, it was not something a calculator could compute.

Gaia's settings were really interesting and took care of all players. Those who had some money could gamble to try and win big. Maybe, they could actually win a grand prize.

One could just treat it as buying a lottery ticket.

Those with assets could even try to obtain a high grade lottery ticket.

Suddenly, all of the players in the China region were totally absorbed and attracted to this event.

From now on, players could send a red packet to Gaia. Each player would only receive one chance. After they sent the packet, they could not change the amount, and they could not send another packet either.

Each player only had one chance.

The deadline was set at 9:50 PM.

"Brother Wuyi, how much are you ready to gamble?" Mulan Yue read the specifics of the event and asked Ouyang Shuo.

Not only Mulan Yue, everyone in the China region was currently discussing this same question.

The Shanhai Alliance channel also brimmed with activity.

Some players had started to talk about this dilemma. If one gave too much and only raffled a piece of normal equipment, they would lose a lot.

If one gave too little, one would not feel good.

After all, the temptation of platinum ranked items dangled right there.

Which player would not have such a dream? Gritting your teeth and spending a hundred gold to obtain a chance of these rare items. If one really got lucky, wouldn’t they become rich overnight?

The China region players were now stuck in a painful predicament. However, they were happy about it.

Not only that, Gaia also brought out another prize. Gaia opened a broadcast channel, and the channel would report the names of anyone who sent five hundred gold or more.

With that, it made the rich people even more tempted to gamble.

All of a sudden, the country channel started to refresh at a crazy speed and numerous people honorably appeared on the new channel.

Chapter 351- 100 thousand points of pain

So, how popular was the Red Packet Snatching Event that Gaia pushed out?

From two details, one could probably make a good guess.

The 1st was Bing’er’s reaction.

The little brat was playing a fool outside. However, when she heard the news, she immediately ran before Ouyang Shuo. Then, she opened her hands and said, “Brother, where’s my red packet?”

“Baby, what would you need it for?”

Ouyang Shuo had his doubts. This little brat took everything she wanted in Shanhai City. Then, Zisu who followed her would just pay for the items. Hence, Bing’er would not need any gold.

“Snatching red packets!”

Ouyang Shuo nearly fainted on the spot.

This event really attracted people of all ages.

Helplessly, Ouyang Shuo handed Bing’er a hundred gold. As she was still young, Ouyang Shuo did not want this little brat to come into contact with too much gold.

Bing’er did not say anything. Instead, she directly handed all the money that Ouyang Shuo had passed her to sister Gaia.

As for Ouyang Shuo himself, after he considered everything, he bet 500 gold. He did not think about obtaining any big prizes; he just wanted to participate.

With his sad luck, his chances of winning the jackpot were really slim.

Mulan Yue was more casual, and she directly placed two thousand gold in. She had obtained this gold from the first huge payout from the Mulan House. As such, her wallet brimmed with money.

Another detail would be the broadcast channel that Gaia opened.

The channel had opened for less than 10 minutes. However, too many people had bet five hundred gold, so the number of players that spoke in it caused their words to just flash across the channel. One could not even see carefully.

Due to this occurrence, Gaia had no choice but to raise the cost to one thousand gold.

This was also the first time Gaia had to change the rules all of a sudden.

The strength of the China region players was really unique.

At 9.50 PM sharp, the system sounded out.

“System Notification: The New Year’s Red Packet Snatching event in China has officially closed. A total of 87,503,472 red packets were obtained, and a total of 158,236,550 gold and 72 silver was amassed. All the gold will be randomly distributed to the players who have joined in. The lottery tickets will be given out at the same time!”

……

The moment the notification rang out, the first reaction of the players was to look at their mail boxes.

Ouyang Shuo made a quick calculation using the stats that Gaia provided. Around 90% of the China region players had participated in this event. Additionally, on average, everyone had sent two gold.

Such a huge amount could really give birth to two super jackpot winners.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was feeling some hope, a system notification sounded out by his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations Player Qiyue Wuyi for obtaining a red packet and a black iron lottery ticket. Thank you for your participation, and Happy Chinese New Year!"

Ouyang Shuo bitterly smiled; he had used up five hundred gold and only obtained a black iron lottery ticket. He had such bad luck. He held no hopes for the money inside the red packet.

He sighed, as he opened it. He only saw a copper coin that quietly laid inside.

The copper coin was like a stick that directly smacked his head.

There was nothing worse than this.

His bad luck could not be this bad, could it?

Gaia! God!

Why do you have to bully me like this? You're just smacking me in the face!

Can't we just be good friends?

Ouyang Shuo really felt like crying. He felt like a hundred thousand alpacas had run across his face.

Ouyang Shuo held the pain in his heart. He was about to place the red packet into his storage bag, as he did not want someone to see it. If someone saw it, he would lose a huge amount of face.

Unfortunately, things did not happen as he wished.

Mulan Yue, that little kid, was sitting right next to him.

She had just opened her red packet and was delighted. Obviously, she had obtained something good. She turned around and saw Ouyang Shuo, just as he was about to place his packet into his storage bag. She asked, “Brother Wuyi, how much did Gaia give you? Mine had a five thousand gold ticket!"

Five thousand gold, five thousand gold, five thousand gold.

Ouyang Shuo really felt like running into a wall. How could the difference between people be so huge?

"Cough!" Ouyang Shuo tried to calm himself down and forced a smile, “Congratulations, Yueyue. I’m not as lucky, only getting a pitiful a hundred gold."

When he told this lie, Ouyang Shuo's facial expression did not show the slightest change.

"Actually, a hundred gold isn't that bad, as long as it's not one copper. Who knows which unlucky fool got one copper!"

"Cough cough!" Ouyang Shuo's face stiffened up, “Yeah, that's true."

“Unlucky fool~ Unlucky fool~"

Yueyue, ah. The unlucky fool you're referring to is sitting right next to you!

Ouyang Shuo could feel a hundred thousand points of pain.

It's the New Year’s, so why did it feel so painful?

Why couldn't it be fun?

Ouyang Shuo held much resentment toward this Red Packet Snatching Event.

Mulan Yue did not realize that her current brother Wuyi was badly hurt. She happily waved her lottery ticket and continued stabbing, “And also, brother Wuyi, I got two silver tickets, and one dark gold one. What about you?"

"...."

Ouyang Shuo had given up all hope. He just waved his ticket, “I only have a useless black iron ticket."

"...."

Toward Ouyang Shuo's luck, Mulan Yue was stunned. She did not know how to console him, “Brother, it's okay. Maybe your black iron lottery ticket can give you a dark gold item?"

As she said these words, she did not believe in them herself.

"Haha, it's fine. What's important is participation!" At this point, Ouyang Shuo had adjusted his mindset, and he had a greater understanding of his own luck.

At this moment, another flurry of system notifications sounded out.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Tong Yan for receiving a ten thousand gold red packet!"

……

"System Notification: Congratulations Player Fengyi for receiving a twenty thousand gold red packet!"

……

Any player who received more than ten thousand gold would receive a system notification in the country channel.

"Wa, they are the lucky ones!"

Mulan Yue also heard the notifications and exclaimed.

Just at this moment, another system notification sounded out through the China region.

"System Notification: Congratulations Player Ouyang Bing for obtaining the special prize, the two hundred thousand gold red packet!"

The moment this notification came out, the China region fell completely silent.

After a short lull, the region sprang into an uproar, as the country channel bustled with excitement.

"Oh my god, who is Ouyang Bing?"

"Super lucky girl! Why wasn't it me?"

"Two hundred thousand gold! The richest player is born!!"

"Getting rich overnight is no longer a legend!"

"Ouyang Bing, let me be your friend!"

……

Those who knew of Ouyang Bing's real identity were also shocked.

Ouyang Shuo's first reaction—another player with the same name.

Once he thought about it, he realized that could not be right. After all, the game would not allow it.

Bing'er's overpowered luck really made others despair!

At this moment, Ouyang Shuo felt both happy and depressed.

They were siblings but their difference in luck was too vast.

That brat received such superstar treatment. It really made one unable to feel calm.

The Yazhou Territory building had actually stunned Ouyang Shuo already. He did not expect to receive such a surprise now.

If there was some luck, Bing'er would have a limitless future.

Apart from Ouyang Shuo, only a few such as little aunt, Sun Xiaoyue, and Song Jia knew of her identity. Even Bai Hua and the rest were not clear. They only knew that Ouyang Shuo's sister was called Bing'er.

Of course, Mulan Yue knew.

She was so shocked that she did not know what to say.

"Little Shuo, you gave Bing'er money to join?"

Such a huge bomb, even little aunt could not help it. So, she directly asked Ouyang Shuo through the alliance channel.

"Yeah."

"...."

Suddenly, the alliance channel exploded.

Everyone was smart. They guessed that Ouyang Bing was the sister of Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo did not bother about the chaos in the channel. Right now, he needed to find Bing'er. When he thought about her holding two thousand gold, he felt terrified.

After Bing'er took her red packet, she had disappeared.

Just when Ouyang Shuo was about to look for her, she suddenly ran back.

"Brother, look at what Sister Gaia gave me!"

Ouyang Shuo looked closely, only to see two tickets in her hand.

She ran over and passed the two tickets to Ouyang Shuo.

"Brother, here, give it to you!"

Ouyang Shuo accepted it. One ticket was the two hundred thousand gold ticket, and the other was a platinum rank lottery ticket.

When he saw the lottery ticket, Ouyang Shuo already felt a little numb.

Since she received the special prize, obtaining a platinum rank lottery ticket was normal.

Mulan Yue also came over. When she saw the two tickets, she drooled. Compared to Bing’er’s luck, Mulan Yue felt that her rewards were so dull.

"Bing'er, do you know you won the special prize?"

Mulan Yue carried Bing'er and pinched her cheeks, “Lucky fellow!"

Bing'er laughed," I know, Sister Gaia told me!"

Chapter 352- Luck Hiding in an Unfortunate Situation

"Sister Gaia?"

Ouyang Shuo finally reacted and realized the weirdness of her words.

"Yeah!"

Bing'er had a face of doubt. She did not know what was unusual.

"Baby, you talked to Gaia, cough, sister Gaia?"

Ouyang Shuo had to carefully choose his words.

Bing'er rolled her eyes. This little brat was not as dumb as before. She pulled Ouyang Shuo to her side and sneakily said, “Sister Gaia often talks to Bing'er. However, she says I shouldn't tell anyone. Bing'er will only tell you!"

Ouyang Shuo understood and rubbed her head, “You did good!"

As the brain of Skynet, Gaia possessed a much higher intelligence than humans. The federation had already listed it as an AI, not a cold-blooded machine.

Ouyang Shuo did not know why Gaia would pick Bing'er.

He only knew that this matter would be better off if he did not know about it.

"Baby, brother will just act like he doesn't know anything. You also don't need to talk to brother about it, okay?" Ouyang Shuo instructed.

"En!"

"And also, this gold ticket. Brother will help you take care of it!"

Ouyang Shuo waved the two hundred thousand gold ticket. He was worrying about the funds for Yazhou. Now that he had this, the problem was totally solved.

There was practically no one else who could have so few responsibilities and have it so easy as a lord like Bing’er.

As the siblings continued to talk, it was already 10 PM. The Lottery event was about to begin.

"Baby! Draw your prize!"

Ouyang Shuo passed the platinum rank lottery ticket to Bing'er.

"Okay!"

Bing'er was very excited about the lottery; she looked forward to it.

A virtual spinner would appear before the players who won lottery tickets. As there were simply too many items, Gaia made a selection and only twelve items would appear in front of them.

The chances of getting a prize was actually one in twelve.

Of course, different people would have different obtainable prizes.

"Brother, Sister Gaia said that Bing'er can choose one out of the twelve!"

Bing'er had not even drawn her prize, yet she secretly revealed this information to Ouyang Shuo.

"...."

"Gaia was simply too good to Bing'er.

The twelve items all had different values. To players, some items were suitable for them, while others were not. Naturally, they wished to obtain a suitable item.

Bing'er, on the other hand, could just choose what she wanted.

"Baby, just choose any item that you like. You don't need to consider anything else."

This was her luck, so Ouyang Shuo naturally would not interfere.

"Yeah!"

Shortly after, Bing'er chose her prize, only to see a book appear in her hand.

Ouyang Shuo took it over for a look and was stunned. It was actually a secret manual.

Name: Wugou Heart Sutra

Rank: ??

Level: 1/18

Stat: For every level gained, bone structure increases by 4, comprehension increases by 2, and all other stats increase by 2

Specialty: Unique, cannot be dropped, cannot be traded

Evaluation: Unsullied. Heart is pure and calm. Needs to be cultivated from a young age. No impure thoughts, not tainted, pure body.

Note: This cultivation technique is a special heart sutra. It needs a pure environment to cultivate.

Ouyang Shuo was amazed, the Unsullied Heart Sutra was basically made for Bing'er.

Although one could not see its rank, but based on its stats, it was even better than Ouyang Shuo’s Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique.

Ouyang Shuo estimated that only after he manage to merge the three cultivation techniques into one could he surpass the Unsullied Heart Sutra.

Before this, Ouyang Shuo was actually thinking about what cultivation method to get for Bing'er.

Now that the problem was settled, everything was good.

Ouyang Shuo returned the manual to Bing'er and said, “Baby, this book, use it when you are about to sleep."

Since Gaia had such plans, naturally, it would tell Bing'er how to cultivate this technique. As such, Ouyang Shuo did not need to worry.

When he thought about this, Ouyang Shuo removed the cooling bead that he wore and hung it around her neck.

"Brother what is this? It's so cooling."

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “This is my New Year’s gift to you. Do you like it?"

"Yes!"

The little brat smiled so sweetly that her eyes formed a thin line.

Bing'er was happy not because of the cooling bead. Instead, she felt joyous because Ouyang Shuo still remembered to give her a New Year’s gift.

This matter was what truly made this little brat so happy.

Ouyang Shuo pinched her nose, as he naturally knew her current thoughts.

A warm feeling built up in both their hearts.

"Oh yeah, baby. When you were drawing, what other prizes were there?" Ouyang Shuo could not control his curiosity. What other items could compare to the Wugou Heart Sutra?

Bing'er scratched her head and said, “Nine Yang Cultivation Method, Sunflower Precious Manual, etc. All such bad names. There was also some city creation token, treasure sword, and treasure bead. Oh, there was also another treasure armor. The rest I can't remember."

"...."

"Baby, ah. Do you know that every one of those items are enough to drive players crazy? You even despised their names. If other people learned this, they would feel so jealous."

It seems like Bing'er drawing the Unsullied Heart Sutra was not unexpected.

As for the players with huge prizes, Gaia helped announced them to the public.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Car on Qiuming Mountain for drawing a dark gold sword, Fengye Sword!"

……

"System Notification: Congratulations player War heart Fengyan, for drawing king rank cultivation method Sancai Sword Manual!

……

Oddly enough, the system did not announce the Unsullied Heart Sutra that Bing'er gained. Ouyang Shuo knew that Gaia was protecting her. If the system announced her prize, it would be too astounding.

At this point, Mulan Yue had finished drawing her prize.

"Brother Wuyi, look at this!"

She held a sword in her hand.

She bragged,”This is a dark gold sword known as the Shuangyue Sword."

"Not like you can use it!" Ouyang Shuo teased her.

Being worse off than Bing'er was okay, but even Yueyue teased and made fun of him.

"Hehe," Mulan Yue did not care and said," I can't use it, but I can give it to Xue Fei!"

Mulan Yue was a girl that cared a lot about friendship and brotherhood. Since Li Feixue had protected her, she was willing to give away such a precious gift so easily.

"Brother Wuyi, you haven't drawn a prize. Quickly, I want to take a look!"

Ouyang Shuo was speechless. This little girl was just mocking him.

He did not mind and really started to draw his prize. As for whatever he got, he did not hold much hope. He did not even bother to check what items were available. He just directly started to draw.

The needle in the lottery started to spin quickly before it finally stopped.

Ouyang Shuo looked and was rendered speechless.

What did you think? The place where the needle stopped was actually another rusty copper coin.

Don't tell me that Gaia is outright going against me!

This is too much!

Ouyang Shuo was simply furious!

Even if he did not expect to obtain anything good, it should not have given him a copper coin. A dirty copper coin!

Ouyang Shuo even had the urge to kill himself. Big Sister Gaia, we are siblings, so why must you treat us so differently?

When the copper coin appeared in his hand, Mulan Yue laughed out loud.

"Haha, Brother Wuyi, what is this? A copper coin? Haha~" As she laughed, she covered her stomach, “Aiyo, haha, I can't, my stomach hurts!"

Ouyang Shuo frowned, “Yueyue, big miss, please maintain your image, please."

"It's really funny!" Mulan Yue tried to keep it together, but she could not help but mock, “Brother Wuyi, what's your luck stat? How are you so unlucky?"

"5."

"...."

Mulan Yue had a face of sympathy and muttered, “No wonder! Such low luck, if you walked down the hill, a rock on the mountain will probably hit you."

"Cough cough."

This little girl’s thinking truly triggered Ouyang Shuo.

"Brother, Bing'er also finds this copper coin ugly. Why not throw it away?"

He did not expect for the little brat to join in the fun.

When Ouyang Shuo heard her say that, he actually wanted to throw it away.

At the last moment, he decided to just take a look at its stats.

Name: Yingyang Copper coin (Yang)

Type: Special Item

Speciality: After use, can revive without any losses

Evaluation: Yingyang Copper coin, one Ying and one Yang.

After he looked at its stats, Ouyang Shuo smirked. This copper coin actually had a special effect, the same effect as the substitute doll.

Ouyang Shuo immediately thought about the similar rusty copper coin in his red packet.

As he took it out, as expected, it was the Ying Copper coin.

The moment the two coins touched, they merged together and the rust instantly disappeared. Now, the copper coin looked mysterious.

On the surface, it had a weird grim reaper, which seemed like it was about to come alive.

There was one phrase, ‘Hidden in unfortunate circumstances is some good luck.’

It was true!

This god, Gaia, seemed to have some conscience.

With the Yingyang Copper coin, Ouyang Shuo could give the substitute doll to Bing'er and keep the coin.

When they saw the changed copper coin, Mulan Yue and Bing'er mouths both gaped open.

Especially Bing'er, who had never seen such a magical scene. Her current expression was really cute.

Mulan Yue had seen more than Bing'er, so she instantly guessed that the copper coin was not ordinary. It was definitely special.

"Brother Wuyi, let me see!"

"No!"

"Hen." Suddenly, she said, “Brother Wuyi, the other copper coin was from the red packet, right?"

"...."

"Ha!" When she saw his expression, Mulan Yue acted like she had discovered a new continent. She shouted out loud, “It definitely is! You actually lied and said you won a hundred gold, liar!"

Ouyang Shuo instantly felt awkward and embarrassed. After she exposed him, he naturally could not retort.

"So what if it is? It proves that it isn't a normal copper coin!"

"...."

Toward Ouyang Shuo's thick skin, she really had nothing to say.

Amongst the laughter, the New Year's Eve night came to an end.

Chapter 353- Coronation

Gaia 2nd year 2nd month 21st day, 1st day of the Lunar New Year.

The bustling New Year's Eve night had come to an end. A new year was about to arrive.

The thin, morning fog drifted up and down under the blow of the north wind, which created a dream-like scene. Shanhai City had slept for a night, and a thin veil of fog covered the city. The fog made the city look like a paradise.

The commerce street looked like a road in heaven under the fog’s engulfment.

As the birds chirped, Shanhai City started to awaken.

As the city doors opened, the merchants that spent the night outside started to form up and enter. There were some commoners among the merchants. They had rushed here to spend the New Year.

The middle Commerce street and the one at its side woke up the earliest.

The assistants in the store riled up their spirits. Under the leadership of their employers and bosses, they opened up the doors of their shops. Then, they swept the floor, arranged the items, and got ready to welcome the first batch of customers.

From the first day of the Lunar New Year till the Lantern Festival, Shanhai City would hold a Mazu Temple temple fair for half a month. Numerous believers had once again come from across Quanzhou to join in.

Not only that, numerous civilians from the various Houses in Lianzhou Basin had all rushed over to either visit friends and family or purchase various goods.

The Mazu Temple temple fair was not limited to the worship of Mazu. Instead, it was a huge annual gathering of commoners in the Lianzhou Prefecture. It was a time for them to have fun together.

The middle commerce streets that ran along the inner city river had become the most bustling street in the city.

The peddling noises of the sellers, the greetings from familiar people, the kids playing around, and the women chatting. Together, they formed up the picture of a bustling street.

Shanhai City had slowly become a place similar to a huge city.

Worshipping activities had totally taken up Ouyang Shuo’s plans in the morning.

Early in the morning, Zisu had helped him wear the lord dress that the Imperial Court handed to him. Then, he waited for his coronation.

As one said, one's clothing affected one's aura.

After he wore the coronation dress, Ouyang Shuo's entire atmosphere changed. Instantly, he emitted the aura of a lord. The effects of the Dragon Phoenix Jade Pendant and the Qilin Golden Seal, as well as the emperor prestige from the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique added to his presence.

Ouyang Shuo's prestige had slowly climbed as a result of a change in his aura. This was the aura of an overlord. It was not something that one could neglect.

The prestige of a lord made one terrified.

Everywhere he went, all the people in the Lord's Manor would bow their heads and worship him.

If one said that previously, the fear and respect the people held for Ouyang Shuo was because of Gaia; then now, it came from their own hearts. They truly respected their lord.

In Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo needed to personally attend the sacrificial ceremonies in the Yellow Emperor Temple, the Confucius Temple, the Martial Temple, and the Mazu Temple. The Shanhai House would attend to the other temples like the Chenghuang Temple and the Earth Temple.

As the main location of worship, the Yellow Emperor Temple stood as the core of the sacrificial ceremony. Ouyang Shuo had specially invited the respectable Jiang Shang to lead the proceedings and help offer wine.

All the officials and generals in the territory attended the sacrificial ceremony.

Early in the morning, all of them gathered outside in the square before the Yellow Emperor Temple.

The officials were on the left, while the generals were on the right.

At 8 AM, Ouyang Shuo punctually appeared.

The Guards, who traveled alongside him, shouted, “The lord arrives!"

"Greetings, lord!"

All of a sudden, all of them knelt on the ground.

Ouyang Shuo proceeded forward through the path in the middle.

When he reached the temporary high platform, Ouyang Shuo slowly turned around and faced all of them, “Please rise!"

"Thank you, my lord!"

All of them stood up. When they saw Ouyang Shuo, their eyes narrowed.

Dressed in the coronation wear, he looked awe-inspiring, as he displayed might.

Fan Zhongyan felt emotional, as he stood below. He was here from the start and had witnessed the lord grow. A year had passed. Now, the once rookie teen had become a real Lianzhou Lord.

In his heart, there was only happiness.

All of them naturally wanted to see a more mature and powerful lord.

Even Jiang Shang, who stood at the side, felt emotions fill him when he looked at Ouyang Shuo. The growth of this lord was far faster than he had expected.

Jiang Shang asked himself whether or not he was the one growing older.

Zhao Kuo similarly had a complicated expression. He had accepted the mission from the lord, and he would become the deputy director of Military Affairs, as well as the Secretary of the War Division.

He held an even higher position than the director of the Combat Logistics Department, Zhu Hongliang.

For the future, Zhao Kuo felt confident.

Father, watch me. Your son will become famous and show a change in Shanhai City.

In his heart, Zhao Kuo had such thoughts.

Just at this moment, a system notification sounded out in Ouyang Shuo's ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi. After going through so much, you have finally developed the aura of a lord. Because of this, loyalty of all residents and talents increased by 10%."

Ouyang Shuo looked at all the officials and generals below him; his heart was very calm.

He wished for this to be a brand new start.

A really grand sacrificial ceremony followed.

It lasted for the entire morning. When it ended, it was already noon.

After a break, in the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo planned to meet two waves of important guests.

The first wave was the tribal chiefs of the various mountain barbarian tribes.

There were a total of twenty four mountain barbarian tribes that lived within the Lianzhou Territory, a total of seventy eight thousand. All of them were scattered around, and they formed up an important component of the Lianzhou Territory commoners.

As the New Year had just passed, the tribal chiefs all bought gifts to see the lord.

They arranged for the meeting to take place at the main hall. The administration director Fan Zhongyan was also present.

They had rushed thousands of miles to arrive at this place. Obviously, they did not just come here to give their gifts.

They also had other problems and requests.

Apart from the first settlement in the east, the other mountain barbarian tribes had missed the second grain planting season when migrating to the Lianzhou Basin.

They all faced the problem of a lack of grain.

Before that, Ouyang Shuo had promised that the territory granary would lend them grain and help them get past these times. When the first harvest arrived, they would return the grain they took.

Hence, since the start of the year, the various tribes had started to reclaim farmland. They set up irrigation systems, as they prepared for the planting after the Lunar New Year.

Alongside Friendship River and Qiushui River, there was an abundance of water and fertile soil. The territory turned most of this turned into farmland. In a short winter, hundreds of thousands of mu of farmland were reclaimed in the prefecture.

The population had started to boom. Solely from the Battle of Lianzhou, a total of 56 thousand people were added. Needless to say, after they took down the grasslands, there was an even bigger batch of people they needed to feed.

After all, didn’t the grassland alliance army also attack because of a lack of grain?

The territory would have to bear this burden after taking down the grassland alliance.

The territory was similarly lacking in grain. Every month, the Financial Department had to purchase large amounts of grains through the various Chamber of Commerces.

In the end, they had allowed them to open rice shops and sell to the commoners.

Some Chamber of Commerce had directly brought large carts of rice. They entered the grasslands to do business.

The merchants used rice to exchange for furs and animals from the herders.

With this, the Business Division had no choice but to set down some laws to end such activity.

If he did not restrict the Chamber of Commerces, with their profit-driven nature, who knows what they would do.

Because of the lack of grain, Ouyang Shuo had also specifically asked to see the Agriculture Division Secretary, Sun Yannong.

He ordered the Agriculture Division to ensure that the territory could become self sufficient in the latter half of the second year. At that time, they must not need to purchase grain from the market.

To achieve this, the Financial Department had even prepared ten thousand gold as subsidy to purchase farming tools, nurture sowing cows, build irrigation facilities, and the like.

Ouyang Shuo did not even keep a single gold from the income of the first month of the year.

The tribal leaders that had rushed over all hoped that the Agriculture Division could help them out at their self-governed area.

After all, they were farming for the first time and were not familiar and good at the task.

Toward the cries for help from the tribal chiefs, Ouyang Shuo responded positively. He promised that they would provide all the seeds, tools, and sowing cows to the self-governed area.

They were all delighted to secure the promise of the lord.

"Thank you, my lord!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded. However, his facial expression did not change. Instead, he used this chance to make a small request.

"Tribal chiefs! I have a suggestion. Why don’t you guys go back and think about it?"

"Please tell us!"

Since they had received the lord’s help, all of them naturally gave him a friendly reply.

"To tell the truth, if you guys want to really integrate into the Lianzhou System, you have to put in more work. The tribe system has its positives and reasons, so I won't criticize it. However, it is growing more and more unsuitable for Lianzhou." The moment Ouyang Shuo spoke, it was like the sky broke.

All of them felt a tremble in their hearts, was the lord trying to make an example out of all of them?

When they faced the lord who sat above them with such prestige and intent, all of them had trouble breathing.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, as he had seen through their thoughts. He said, “You guys don't need to worry. Letting you all govern yourselves was my original promise and that won't change."

"Phew~"

All of the tribal chiefs let out huge sigh of relief.

As long as he allowed the mountain barbarians to self-rule and did not break through that bottom line, there was still room for discussion.

Ouyang Shuo naturally would not act so rashly, and he said, “I mean to separate the tribal leader, and the tribal chief."

Apart from the Gushan County, the tribal leader held the position of tribal chief in the other settlement points.

Fan Zhongyan had grumbled about it, as their system made it easy for them to group up.

Be it the tax officials or the household management officials, they would all face problems when they tried to find out the exact details of the settlements.

They either hid their population or hid their land size.

The problem was that the mountain barbarian tribes had too deep of a tribal view. They would place the interests of the tribe over the territory. When both did not match, problems would obviously arise.

Fan Zhongyan had suggested they throw out some administrative changes.

Ouyang Shuo had shelved these suggestions at the time. Ouyang Shuo clearly knew what troubles and problems he would face.

Undoubtedly, he needed to find a good timing.

Now was the best time. The tribes all had something to ask of the territory. Moreover, Ouyang Shuo's prestige and power had grown, making the tribal leaders fear him.

Furthermore, Ouyang Shuo had accepted one of their demands, giving the tribal leaders a way to back down. After all, the Lord's Manor did not force an agreement.

At least, the lord was still asking for their opinion.

Furthermore, this was not a small suggestion.

As expected, after they listened to his suggestion, the various tribal leaders all fell totally quiet. They were all the elites of their tribes, so they naturally knew the implicit meaning.

After a long while, one of the tribal leaders acted as the representative and stood up, “For the lord's suggestion, we need to return and ask our shaman. I believe we will be able to give you a good answer."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Then I don't have anything to worry about!"

Fan Zhongyan sat at the side. When he saw the lord play such tricks, his expression was complicated. The current lord, be it prestige or ability, had grown tremendously.

And this was much needed for one to become a great leader.

Chapter 354- Incentives and Penalties

After he sent away the various tribal leaders of the mountain barbarian tribes, Ouyang Shuo was ready to see his second batch of guests.

This batch had a more special identity.

They were the leaders of the various grassland tribes. Apart from Kehan Mengke, who could not personally come due to health reasons, the other seven medium-sized tribe leaders all arrived.

During New Year's Eve, the second division had ‘invited’ the various leaders over.

When Ouyang Shuo returned to Shanhai City, he was busy, so he did not have the time to see all of them.

"Greetings, my lord!"

As he walked into the main hall, all of them greeted him in unison.

This was a historical moment.

The various tribe leaders knelt down, an action that represented the grassland tribes’ successful pledge of allegiance to Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo sat on the leader seat and emotionlessly said, “Please take your seats."

"Yes, my lord!"

All of them went back to their seats; most of them had exceptionally anxious expressions.

Among them, representing the Tianqi Tribe, was Mengke's oldest son, Jida. He was close to thirty years in age. Compared to the other leaders, he looked really arrogant and sat right at the front. He wore a huge gold necklace, and he had equipped himself with a gold sword.

When Ouyang Shuo saw such a scene, he could not help but frown.

The other leaders all saw what was going on, and they gloated in their hearts.

Jida was really arrogant. He did not know his place. At this point, he was still acting like he was the leader of the best tribe in the grasslands.

Compared to the warmth and friendliness he projected when he welcomed the mountain barbarians, the current Ouyang Shuo looked really cold, “Before all of you surrendered, on the grasslands, a leader named Dari Ahci also surrendered."

The moment his words sounded out, they felt a shiver run down their spines.

During the Battle of Lianzhou, Dari Ahci had tried to help the alliance army. As a result, he was sent to jail; this news had long since spread through the grasslands.

When they heard the Lianzhou Lord suddenly bring this out, the meaning could not be more obvious.

As expected, Ouyang Shuo had a face full of rage and said, “We have never treated him badly. I didn't expect him to act so ambitious and try to betray us. Toward such a person, I won't give him any other chances. The Procuratorate Division has already decided to execute him tomorrow on the streets."

The various tribe leaders were all ashen white with fear, as they trembled, “Wise decision, lord!"

This feeling was really a mixed one.

"I won’t hide anything from all of you. Some of my officials told me in the past that Dari Ahci was the role model of the grasslands. To the grassland tribes, I should show no mercy and rip out their roots to make them loyal."

Ouyang Shuo was emotionless, but the words that dripped from his mouth were cruel and bloody.

"What do you all think?"

Ouyang Shuo's words did not only intend to scare them.

The official that he mentioned was the internal affairs director, Tian Wenjing.

The Internal Affairs Department had handled the whole case of Dari Ahci. After Tian Wenjing reported the situation to Ouyang Shuo, he suggested that they wipe out the leaders and roots of the grassland tribes.

At that time, Ouyang Shuo did not think much about it and shelved the proposal.

Compared to killing them, Ouyang Shuo was more inclined toward more peaceful methods to prevent the build up of resentment. He did not want to kill all the noble families of the tribes.

After all, Dari Ahci was just one example.

The current grassland tribes could not go against him even if they tried.

Most crucially, since Ouyang Shuo wanted the grassland tribes to support him, he had to treat these noble families well.

If not, many many side effects would build up.

Ouyang Shuo did not want to see the grassland tribes creating unrest under his rule. His goal was to rule the entire Lianzhou Basin and make it like an iron fortress.

Putting it another way, if he really slaughtered the noble grassland families, not only would it affect the grassland tribe, it would also affect the mountain barbarians.

The various tribe leaders looked at one another, as their faces grew whiter and whiter.

As they watched the situation grow more and more against them, the leaders could not sit still. They all stood out and pledged their allegiance.

"Lord! Lord!" One of them directly laid face down on the floor and cried out. They did not have the dignity and pride of a leader, “Lord, Dari Ahci can't represent us all. We are all sincere, and we don't have any other intentions!"

"Please, my lord!"

Out of all of them, only Jida did not plead. He despised them and even scoffed at the attitude of the other leaders.

His actions instantly made him stand out. Even if he did not want to attract attention, he already had.

"Prince Jida seems to have another opinion?"

Ouyang Shuo looked calm, but his words contained anger and provocation.

When Jida heard this, he replied, “Ever since the world started, the loser dies. As such, Dari Ahci deserves it. It won't happen to me, as the Tianqi tribe doesn't have such losers."

Ouyang Shuo's eyes brightened. Jida’s words contained a hint of hardness in his soft reply.

He showed his stance. At the same time, he also maintained his arrogance and dignity.

A short sentence actually had so much depth.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo had a totally new evaluation and opinion of this person.

It seems like Mengke had brought up a good son.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Good, well said."

He looked around, his voice was slow but powerful, “As a lord, I have a responsibility to my territory, but I'm magnanimous. I know when to give mercy. However, if one of you tries to disrupt law and order, I wouldn't mind letting blood flow!"

His strength and prestige filled up the entire hall.

He emitted an unblockable killing intent and pride.

All of the leaders knelt down, even Jida did the same.

All of them kept silent. No one dared to make a sound; the hall instantly fell quiet.

When he faced their terrified faces, Ouyang Shuo was delighted. All of the men in front of him were top-level people. They represented the peak of the grassland tribes.

Now, they were all under his feet and did not dare to speak up.

This was the charm of power.

No wonder from the past till now, numerous heroes had charged into battle because of this.

That afternoon, Ouyang Shuo made a promise.

He allowed the leaders and the noble families to take their assets and move into Shanhai City.

Shanhai City would set aside a region in the outer city and build a street for them to live in.

On normal days, the noble families could not walk out of their houses. They could not make contact with the other tribesmen.

The moment they were found committing such an act, they would be heavily punished.

Apart from that, their punishment would drag down their tribe.

The light punishment was the confiscation of assets, while the harsh punishment would involve the forced performance of hard labor.

If one tried to stir unrest, his whole tribe would be slaughtered.

2nd month 22th day, second day of the New Year.

On this day, Ouyang Shuo threw down all of his matters on hand and met the various prefects and city magistrates in his reading room.

The four prefects and one city magistrate took turns to be dispatched by him.

Ouyang Shuo met them one by one and discussed their objectives. The main person he wanted to meet was naturally Broken Blade House prefect, Zhou Haichen.

Although Ba Dao had a weak army, he had left behind a very strong base.

Based on his report, Broken Blade County had a total of 210 thousand people, similar to two max population grade 3 counties.

Broken Blade House became the most highly populated area in the territory after Shanhai House.

Even Mulan House had much less.

Such a huge population would take an unknown amount of time for Shanhai City to build up. Broken Blade House was the most successful example after Ouyang Shuo used the poison insect project.

Apart from that, the greatest wealth of the House was the gold mine.

Similar to the Langshan Mine Fields, it was called the Beishan Mine Fields. The gold mine was really huge, and Ba Dao had only opened a small part of it.

Ouyang Shuo immediately promised to place the mine into the control of the Broken Blade House. He hoped that they could use it to improve their financial situation.

When Ba Dao was in charge, he used 90% and above of the finance for military. Public and residential spending was nearly zero.

Broken Blade House desperately needed to recover itself.

Of course, the Beishan Mines was under Broken Blade House. The Lord's Manor would not care about it. They only needed to hand over a set ratio of the income.

Ouyang Shuo also ordered Langshan Mine Fields to send experts over to teach the Beishan Mine Fields, which would raise the skill levels and efficiency.

In the end, Ouyang Shuo raised three requirements with Zhou Haichen.

Firstly, Broken Blade House needed to build the Xila Lake Sailor unit to clear out the water bandits around the lake. Be it obtaining water products or producing pearls, they needed to start early.

Secondly, the various counties under the House, especially the tier two subsidiary territories, needed to be removed. Their populations would all move to the main city.

Thirdly, the plan for the outer wall must proceed quickly. Before the spring planting season, they had to finish building it. If they failed, they would have to postpone it till after the spring planting season before continuing.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo had sent instructions to the Military Affairs Department to take charge of building the Broken Blade City city protection regiment.

Compared to Gushan County, Broken Blade City was even closer to a hundred thousand mountain.

The future city would act as the frontline of the defense against Chiyou.

After Ouyang Shuo described their roles, the prefects set forth for their governed areas the next day.

Spring was the most important part of the year. As prefects, they simply did not have enough time to laze around. Even Cui Shousi only had a simple meeting with Cui Yingyu before leaving.

Before Zhou Haichen left, Ouyang Shuo handed him a token. It was the village creation token Ouyang Shuo had used the merger token on. This token would revive Broken Blade City.

After he gave out this token, Ouyang Shuo now had three such tokens remaining in his storage bag.

Chapter 355- Shenjuan Moving Forward

Gaia 2nd year 2nd month 23 day, 3rd day of the Lunar New Year.

On the third day of the New Year, Ouyang Shuo had a totally packed schedule.

In the morning, Ouyang Shuo had arranged to meet the three directors, as well as the Yongye County County Magistrate, Shen Zhui.

After the grassland tribes submitted, Shanhai needed to build a city in the grasslands to strengthen their rule over the area. Fortunately, Friendship County had three tier 2 subsidiary territories that had not been used.

Ouyang Shuo planned to build Shenjuan City beside the Shenjuan Lake. Additionally, he would also build two cities on the east and the west.

With three cities as the base, they would build Shenjuan House.

In the future, Shenjuan House would become the largest House in the entire Lianzhou Prefecture.

Ouyang Shuo's choice for prefect was naturally Shen Zhui.

Ouyang Shuo always held high hopes for Shen Zhui. Since he had trained in the Material Reserves Department and had taken the role of County Magistrate, he had enough in terms of both skill and experience to become the prefect of Shenjuan House.

In contrast to the other Houses, Shenjuan House would practically start from scratch.

Early in the morning, Ouyang Shuo and the three directors started to make a four point planning of Shenjuan House.

Firstly, all of the grassland tribes would move into the three cities.

On the grassland, including the Tianfeng Tribe, there were a total of one large-scale tribe and eight medium-sized tribes. Their total population was about 130 thousand men. After the Battle of Lianzhou, excluding the dead soldiers and the cavalry that were reorganized, they had less than a hundred thousand people remaining.

The Shenjuan House had a vast amount of land but a small population. Husbandry was their livelihood. They gathered the herders into the city with the intentions of ending their current scattered state. They wanted to change to building large-scale farms and ranches.

Secondly, the building of city walls.

The future Shenjuan House would be a place where the various grassland tribes and other people coexisted. The prerequisite of building a city would be the construction of a solid city wall.

Only with that could they attract agriculture experts to merge into the nomad culture.

There were no wooden resources on the grasslands and no stone resources either. Hence, it was a huge test to build a city wall here. Luckily, the grasslands had plenty of red dirt that could be used to make large bricks.

Shenjuan House's city wall would mainly be formed from dirt, while the outer layer would be composed of green brick.

The inner city buildings would mainly consist of brick. It would include the various specialties of the grassland tribes. One could consider making a special region in the inner city to allow the nomads to build yurts.

The crossing of two different cultures would be a future specialty of Shenjuan House.

Similarly, this would also be a huge test for Shen Zhui.

Ouyang Shuo even suggested to choose talents to take up roles in the House and County.

Even the noble grassland families who lived in Shanhai City, if they possessed great ability, they could also be placed at high positions.

The workings of the Shenjuan House would still be closely linked to the various tribes.

This job needed Shen Zhui to work together with the Administration Department and the Internal Affairs Department to complete.

Of course, the people they chose had to move to Xinan University to undergo three months or even half a year of training. After graduating, they would receive appointment and roles.

Thirdly, the development of the industries in the grassland.

Husbandry was the core of the grassland, but it was not enough to support the economy of Shenjuan House. As the Battle of Lianzhou had ended, various Chamber of Commerces had started to turn their eyes to the vast grasslands.

The merchants purchased the fur and animals that the herders had spent so much on at low prices.

Ouyang Shuo naturally would not allow this to continue.

Adding work and different industries was the only way for the grasslands to prosper.

Be it leather, goat fur, milk, goat milk, they all needed processing. Goat fur could be made into carpets, leather could be made into coats or boots.

Even milk could be made into cheese and other dairy products.

Fourthly, the protection of the natural environment. They also needed to ensure that Qingfu Horses could still grow and prosper.

The future Shenjuan House's greatest contribution to the territory would be the Qingfu Horses. Ouyang Shuo would utilize the nurturing and development of the Qingfu Horses on a strategic level.

Shen Zhui needed to gather up all the Qingfu Horses and build a large-scale horse breeding farm.

The Shenjuan Lake breeding farm would be farm bigger than the Jifeng Valley Horse stables.

To ensure the number of Qingfu Horses, they needed to protect their growing environment. The development and building of the Shenjuan House was done without hurting the environment.

After setting the development direction of Shenjuan House, Ouyang Shou would not interfere with the remaining members, resources, and financial distribution. Shen Zhui had to coordinate with the departments himself.

Before he left, Ouyang Shuo gave him the three black-iron village creation tokens.

A merger token had not been used on the three tokens. It was directly obtained from the Friendship City Stone Steele.

At this point, the nine tier 2 subsidiary territory city building tokens were all accounted for.

The Beihai City ones were used on Tianfeng City, Yishui County, and Broken Blade City. The ones from Friendship City were used on Shenjuan House, while the ones from Qiushui City were still lying in Ouyang Shuo's bag.

After settling all these matters, it was already noon.

Ouyang Shuo left the reading room and went to the back hall to eat his lunch.

"Brother, you're back!"

Bing'er was waiting to start the meal. After cultivating the Unsullied Heart Sutra, there were no observable differences, other than her appetite increasing.

Ouyang Shuo knew nothing about the heart sutra.

He could only observe the changes quietly.

Based on Zisu’s words, apart from three meals a day, Bing'er also often ate cakes. Sometimes, before meal time, she would grumble that she was hungry.

However, she also wanted to wait till Ouyang Shuo returned before eating together.

Ouyang Shuo was helpless; he could only end work on time.

After the meal, Ouyang Shuo went back to his room for a little nap.

In the afternoon, he still had an important meeting that needed him to be well-rested for.

2 PM, main hall.

Three departments, twelve divisions, a total of fifteen main officials had all gathered.

Ouyang Shuo sat at the lord’s seat and helped hold the first administrative meeting after the Lunar New Year.

It was unknown when meeting was changed to administrative meeting.

The difference of one word changed the entire meaning.

Administrative denoted the fact that civil servants were now proper. They had status and power, becoming totally separate from military affairs.

At the same time, it also announced that the power and prestige of the lord was growing.

It represented that Ouyang Shuo had split his position as the lord and the civil servant group into two different levels.

As compared to the meetings from before, these administrative meetings were totally different.

Firstly, the number of things that the divisions and departments needed to work together on had increased. As the territory grew bigger, some things were beyond what a single department or division could handle.

For example, the building of the Lianzhou Prefecture road network. It involved the Building Division, the Auditing Division, and the Four Seas Bank.

The Building Division was in charge of planning, the Auditing Division calculated costs, and the Four Seas Bank obtained the funds and paid for the operation.

Apart from that, many other divisions were dragged in. For example, the building of relays along the roads would draw in the Law and Order Division and the Culture and Education Division.

Needless to say, there would be numerous settlements along the way. Which the road intersected and which settlements it didn’t wasn't something done simple by calculations.

The matters involved were highly complicated, and it was not something that one could imagine during the town or county stages.

While it was a test for the various officials, it was also a huge test to the three directors.

As the matters were highly complicated, there was a huge amount of concern regarding the interests involved.

During the administrative meeting, Ouyang Shuo would take the role of listener most of the time. He would not express his views.

This stance was also the second change.

Ouyang Shuo had slowly changed his role.

From a participant to a pure strategist.

Unless it was a huge strategic decision, under normal circumstances, Ouyang Shuo would let the directors and the secretaries decide. He would not interfere in their work.

With that, the power of the three directors climbed quickly.

Their positions also faced a huge change.

Before the meeting, Ouyang Shuo normally made all decisions. The directors just performed their roles and followed his decisions.

Ouyang Shuo totally overshadowed their shine and glow.

Now, they finally had the ability to make decisions and show their skills.

To Fan Zhongyan and Tian Wenjing, the chances to show their skills had finally occurred.

In the future, as both of them each led a department, what kind of great achievements could they bring about?

Only time would tell.

To the various secretaries, life was about to become a little tougher.

Power and trust could never coexist.

While Ouyang Shuo gave them more power, they also had larger responsibilities. If they failed and cost the territory profits, they naturally would have to answer for it.

Those mistakes that were not so serious would result in a lower grade in the year end evaluation. Serious situations might even lead to their removal from their position.

Out of the twelve secretaries, three to four were not very stable. They all had a common point—they grew up in the wilds and had limited capabilities. Naturally, they faced problems and challenges.

The current Household Registration secretary, Chang Duquan, tax secretary Qian Lifei, and Business Division secretary Du Xiaolan had the most shaky positions.

As long as the time was right, Ouyang Shuo would shift them under some Houses.

As for the Meritorious Services secretary Qin Shijian, Agriculture secretary Sun Nongyan, and Construction secretary Hao Jiancheng, these three were still under evaluation.

As for the other six, be it ability or experience, they were the standouts. Temporarily, they were fine.

Chapter 356- General Picture

Translator: TeamTWO

2nd month 24th day, 4th day of the New Year, sunny.

It was another tiring day for Ouyang Shuo.

Yesterday, he had held the administrative meeting. Additionally, he would the military meeting today in the morning.

The location was similarly the main hall.

Compared to the civil servants, the generals looked more like a star-studded group.

Du Ruhui led the Military Affairs Department. The department also had Zhao Kuo, Zhu Hongliang, and Song San. Baiqi and the other four major generals led the army. Apart from them, there was Sun Bin, Fan Lihua, Daiqin, and Lin Yi. There was also guards regiment colonel Wang Feng, who had teleported over from Yashan City.

Out of all of the stars, only one person felt uneasy and out of place.

He was the secretary of Military Intelligence, Song San.

If one said that Zhu Hongliang had a bit of skill and thus the confidence to sit behind Du Ruhui, then Song San felt a sense of low esteem when he faced the generals of legends.

Furthermore, the Military Intelligence Division was one of the most important divisions in the department.

All of a sudden, Song San felt like he was sitting on needles.

If it was possible, Song San even wanted to resign from his position and return to the army. Based on his experience, he could easily become a colonel, and the position would be far more relaxed.

Even Lin Yi and Wang Feng, these two high potential generals, were really serious. They did not dare to take this meeting lightly.

In this year, Lin Yi had participated in numerous battles. Now, he was at the brink of breaking through to advanced general. He would become the first to upgrade to advanced general amongst the home grown soldiers.

As for Wang Feng and Zhao Sihu, they were still a distance away from becoming advanced generals.

As for the other generals, it was even harder.

Some generals could not even see the hope of breaking through.

The difficulty of upgrading to an advanced general was evident from this fact.

In Ouyang Shuo’s last life, some territories had to compromise because of a lack of advanced generals. The divisions that they built could not find a proper major general. Either the lord himself took up the role, or handed someone the role of deputy major general. In these cases, the deputy would perform the duties of the actual major.

It was similar to the situation with the city protection division deputy major general Zhao Sihu.

As a city protection force general, Zhao Sihu did not have the rights to participate in this military meeting.

Out of all the generals, Zhao Kuo, Sun Bin, Fan Lihua, and Daiqin were here for the first time.

Hence, before the meeting started, Ouyang Shuo decided to arrive half an hour late.

He intended to leave some time for them to get to know one another.

Out of the four of them, Zhao Kuo could be considered somewhat familiar. During the Battle of Changping, many of the generals in the Shanhai Army had crossed swords with Zhao Kuo's forces.

During that time, he was an ambitious young commander.

Now, he had willing decided to work in the Military Affairs Department.

Among the generals, Baiqi was the one most familiar with Zhao Kuo.

Although they were familiar with one another, they could not be considered friends. When they met, it often felt awkward.

Of course, this was only because of Zhao Kuo’s overthinking.

To Baiqi, be it the battle map or the main world, he considered Zhao Kuo a small general. Although he had huge potential, he was far from being Baiqi’s opponent.

As for the lord placing Zhao Kuo at the helm of the War Division, Baiqi thought that this move was a master stroke.

With Zhao Kuo's ability, the War Division was most suitable for him.

As for the rivalry between him and the Military Affairs Department, Baiqi could keep calm and notice that. As long as the lord trusted him and his methods, then there was no need to object to any of the plans and arrangements.

Only a lack of their lord’s trust could make a general afraid

Restricting him, on the other hand, proves that the lord trusted him a lot.

Out of the four of them, although Sun Bin was a stranger, he could be considered a famous person.

Apart from Er'Lai, many of the generals were around during Sun Bin's period.

Most importantly, as a general, who wouldn't have read Sun Bin's art of war?

Sui Bin created the chariot circle formation that Zhao Kuo used during the Battle of Changping.

Be it Baiqi or Shi Wanshui, they all worshipped Sun Bin.

Hence, the moment this teen who sat on a wheelchair entered Shanhai City, although he had not done anything, he had established prestige and power amongst the generals.

As for prestige in the military, it could only be built up during real battles.

Since he possessed such fame, Sun Bin had the highest number of generals looking for him for a chat in the main hall.

As for Sun Bin himself, he also felt shocked when he saw all these famous generals.

At this point, he realized what his grandfather was talking about.

And his blood started to boil at the same time.

Thinking about it, with so many famous generals, his dream had a chance of coming true.

His grandfather was right. Shanhai City was the best place for him to take up a role.

Although it was his first time joining the military meeting, he knew some matters concerning the Shanhai City army.

After their first meeting, Ouyang Shuo had met with Sun Bin for a deep conversation.

No one else knew about the specific details of their conversation.

Most crucially, it had something to do with the military meeting today.

When they were talking, Sun Bin had still lacked confidence. But today, after he learned of all the generals in the main hall, Sun Bin's heart had grown calmer and calmer.

Soon, he would lead a huge army.

Of the four, only the female general Fan Lihua appeared a little awkward.

A few days was enough to let Fan Lihua realize the relationship between her princess and the Lianzhou Lord. Hence, Fan Lihua was very self-aware and integrated herself into the Shanhai City system.

Of course, in her heart, she felt a little closer to Ouyang Bing, her little princess.

Bing'er was a natural diplomat.

As long as one came into contact with her, there would not dislike her.

During these few days, Bing'er did not just play around. Her main mission was to bring her sister around Shanhai City.

It made Fan Lihua realize the prosperity of the city.

Of course, as a commander, Fan Lihua had seen the world. Although Shanhai City was prosperous, it was far from Chang An city.

Fan Lihua was not nervous. However, she did not know anyone, which made her seem a little cold.

Only one other general talked to her.

She was also one of the four heroines in Chinese history - Mu Guiying.

Based on the legends, they were both disciples of the same master.

When she saw Fan Lihua keeping quiet and not talking, as an old general in the territory, Mu Guiying took the initiative to look for her.

It was only then that the two golden flowers of the Shanhai City army officially met.

Between the two of them, there were many similarities.

They were both daughter-in-laws of famous generals. Both of their husbands were captured in battle, which made them widows. However, they both managed to win a huge battle and received the reward of the imperial court, making them famous generals.

Similar situations would naturally make them feel close to one another.

The two of them, although meeting for the first time, felt like they were sisters.

Fan Lihua was just feeling awkward. In comparison, the last person out of the four, Daiqin was more similar to Song San. Daiqin felt really uneasy.

At this point, after sitting in the main hall, Daiqin finally had a new understanding of the Shanhai City army. To think that he was actually confident when he attacked. Now, he felt embarrassed.

It was obvious that the Shanhai City army did not even treat the grassland alliance army as an actual opponent. They only defended against the Yanhuang Alliance.

Daiqin had stayed in Shanhai City for a period of time.

As for the arrangements the lord had for the grasslands, he had heard about them. To say the truth, for the grassland alliance to end up in such a state, he held the responsibility as the commander of the army.

However, deep down in his heart, he did not feel that submitting to Shanhai City was a bad thing.

It was only bad if you were a member of the noble families.

If you were a normal farmer or herder, you could count yourself lucky.

When he saw the prosperity of Shanhai City and how advanced it was, Daiqin realize the backward living standards of the grasslands.

Even though he thought in such a way, it did not mean the grassland people would trust him.

To them, they would only believe in what they could see.

In truth, they had trusted Daiqin and sent their sons and husbands to the military. What returned were ice cold corpses.

Daiqin also heard that on the grasslands, many unfavoring rumors had spread about him.

Some said that he was a total novice and he cost the grasslands.

Some said that he was greedy for glory and had submitted to the enemy. As such, he was not fit to be honored by the grassland people.

Ever since he surrendered, Daiqin had not seen Mengke even once.

That was probably for the best.

Daiqin did not even want to imagine what it would be like if he met Mengke Kehan.

Although he did not feel any guilt in his heart, he could not hide the sadness.

All in all, the grasslands had already become a knot in his heart that could not be untied.

Daiqin only wanted to lead an army to fight wars outside and leave this sad place.

In truth, Ouyang Shuo was full of praises for Daiqin.

Since returning to Shanhai City, when he chatted with Baiqi or Du Ruhui, all of them gave high praises to Daiqin. All of them said that he was an amazing general.

None of the homegrown generals could compare to him.

Even the Tianqi tribe general Lakeshen was nothing compared to him.

As he possessed a deep hatred for Ouyang Shuo, after the alliance army surrendered, Lakeshen did not join the army. Instead, he decided to return to the grasslands.

To Lakeshen, it was better if he became a normal herder for the rest of his life.

Everyone had their own ambitions. Ouyang Shuo did not try to keep Lakshen. Nor did he do anything to him. Afterall, Ouyang Shuo had caused the events that happened to Lakeshen.

Amongst the uproar, Ouyang Shuo finally arrived!

Chapter 357- Glory is my life

Ouyang Shuo's arrival into the main hall represented the start of the military meeting.

The main topic of the military meeting was very clear to—discuss the arrangements of the three divisions.

Appointing the three major generals was one topic.

Most importantly, the territory would now add three more divisions to the current four. Now, they had the ability to build a higher level military legion.

Based on the organization, four divisions would form one legion. A legion differed from a division because it did not have a subordinate unit. Only the general themselves would get a guards unit.

If one said that a division was the main pillar of an army, then the legion represented a real military force. Apart from an army corp, this represented the highest unit in an army.

Based on normal circumstances, a military would only form up an army corp from several legions during wars.

Hence, a legion would normally be the highest unit in common day military operations.

Normally, one legion would be enough to control and dictate a war.

To build such a huge and important piece, they naturally needed to be very careful.

One could even say that the establishment of a legion was a historical moment for the military.

As for how to build the legion, Ouyang Shuo already had his plans.

Before the meeting started, Ouyang Shuo had decided to keep it a secret and not directly announce it.

Amongst the military, there was a special unit that would always remain the highest level. The units position could never be shaken—they were the guards of the lord.

The guards were the tools to protect a country.

In his last life, some lords described this unit as such, ‘The guards are the sharp sword in the lord's hand, spreading their name and honor.’

"Honor is my life." This phrase drove the guards on.

The current guards regiment was close to being like them.

If one did not include the city protection forces, the territory had close to a hundred thousand troops. For such a huge army to only have a small and sad guards regiment, it was not right.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to reshape the guards structure.

The first item on his agenda was the guards regiment.

Ouyang Shuo ordered the renaming of the guards regiment to palace guards. Now, they would be based on the structure of three thousand palace guards. Their leader would be appointed as the palace general. They would hold a position on the same level as a major general.

Wang Feng was the first palace general appointed.

No one in the military had any objections to this appointment.

Since the building of the guards, from the guards unit to the regiment, Wang Feng had played the role of Ouyang Shuo's bodyguard.

The palace general role naturally belonged to him.

The place guards were Ouyang Shuo's personal guards.

During peacetime, they took charge of guarding the Lord's Manor.

During war time, they were his personal army. Wherever Ouyang Shuo went, they would follow.

The structure of the place guards was not just a simple change of name.

Ouyang Shuo had set down several requirements—all the members must be trained like special forces, and they must pass several tests.

The palace guards would be the special forces of the army.

If the current guards regiment soldiers were eliminated in the tests, they could not enter the palace guards. Apart from special forces training, Ouyang Shuo had two strict requirements.

Firstly, the set of a minimum rank—rank 10 war elite soldier.

Secondly, their potential could not be lower than B.

With such high standards, it set up the prestige and honor of the palace guards.

Toward the formation of the palace guards, Ouyang Shuo also set really strict restrictions.

In the near future, the palace guards would have three thousand people. Others could only join it if current members were injured and needed replacement.

Ouyang Shuo's goal was to not only let the palace guards possess the same status as a division. He even wanted their strength to be around the same level.

The requirement would be for every palace guard to be able of handle four men on their own.

A day ago, the second batch of migrants had reached Yazhou.

The members of the guards regiment would return with the Beihai Naval Fleet to Shanhai City for their trial.

Their main mission would be to complete their special forces training.

So where would the eliminated members go?

This would be the second level guards in Ouyang Shuo's structure.

Ouyang Shuo ordered them to build a guards division.

The guards division would be under Ouyang Shuo's direct command. Usually, they would be in charge of defending the imperial city—Shanhai City. They would form the last line of defense.

During war, they were the main force.

All the replacements of the palace guards would be chosen from the guards division. The members of the guards division would be chosen in the same manner as the previous guards regiment. The members will be selected from the various divisions.

The selection standards would be the exact same as the ones for the guards regiment.

If one said that the palace guards were Ouyang Shuo's bodyguards, then the guards division was his personal army.

The two of them added together would form his strong and resolute guards force.

In truth, the planned structure of the guards system had two more levels.

Only the current territory did not meet the requirements to set up the two levels. He could only wait till the time was right

For the major general, Ouyang Shuo unexpectedly chose Lin Yi.

Undoubtedly, among all the divisions, the guards division was the most eye-catching one.

Some people could not understand why Ouyang Shuo appointed someone who was not even an advanced general.

The moment his words landed, the main hall sparked into a heated discussion.

The generals didn't have any objections towards the formation of the guards force. However, they did not understand the choice of the major general.

After all, everyone would want this position.

Even special generals like Shi Wanshui and Er'Lai were interested, especially Er'Lai.

However, in the eyes of Baiqi and Du Ruhui, this seemed pretty normal.

Since it was the guards force, then be it the place guards or the major general of the guards division, they would only be in charge of the daily management of the force.

During war time, the lord would directly lead it.

Hence, although these two positions looked great, they lacked chances to show off. Arranging a young general to it was totally expected.

Not only would it strengthen the lord's control over the guards force, it also acted as a chance to train a young general.

This was killing two birds with one stone, so why not?

In truth, Ouyang Shuo wanted to choose Luo Shixin.

Not only was he fearless in war, he also had high morals, making him the perfect choice.

Regretfully, they had already passed the division trial. Hence, Luo Shixin couldn't leave the division or else everything would go to waste.

Balancing everything, Ouyang Shuo decided to choose Lin Yi.

After he received such an appointment, he felt delighted but also anxious.

The eyes of the surrounding generals made Lin Yi feel really uneasy.

Even so, Lin Yi still wanted to thank the lord for his trust. As for the doubts of his comrades, the only way to prove himself was through battle.

The military was a place where one spoke with strength.

After forming the guards division, in truth, only two divisions were left.

As for these two divisions, Ouyang Shuo already had plans.

Ouyang Shuo announced that the first, second, third, and fourth divisions would form the dragon legion.

The dragon legion would represent the first legion of Shanhai City.

Future legions would be based on leopard, tiger, eagle, phoenix, and the like when established.

The Shanhai City army would also break away from the numbers and each legion would be given an unique name.

After the legion trial, each legion would also have their unique flag.

As expected, he appointed Baiqi as the general of the dragon legion. As for the four major generals, they all remained unchanged.

At this point, Baiqi could be considered to be holding the most power in the army.

The name of the General was really showing itself.

The dragon legion itself would be based in the Mulan Stronghold.

The dragon legion would have two roles. They would be in charge of guarding the Lianzhou Prefecture, and they would face the challenges from the Taiping Country and Chiyou City.

As Lianzhou Prefecture grew more and more peaceful, the future dragon legion would focus more on the north.

This was also the main reason why Ouyang Shuo housed them in the Mulan Stronghold.

The Mulan Stronghold was the frontline separating the north from the main camp.

After he appointed Baiqi, the Military Affairs Department would undergo a new change in the defensive regions of the four divisions.

Amongst these changes, the third and fourth division would camp in the stronghold. The third division was a pure infantry division, so it was a good choice to defend the stronghold.

The first division that Shi Wanshui led would take over the third division and defend the east.

The first division was a mix of light armored infantry and cavalry, so they had high mobility. They were enough to defend both the east and the west. Their main objective was the a hundred thousand mountain on the east.

Based on the plan, the first division cavalry regiment would be in charge of patrolling the west. The remaining four regiments would be arranged along the a hundred thousand mountain range.

As for the second division, they would be housed in the grasslands temporarily. Only after it stabilizes would they move based on the needs and status of the north battlefield to assist the Mulan Stronghold.

As for the defense of Shanhai City itself, the city protection division protected the outside and the guards division protected the inside.

This included the outer wall, which was due for completion in one or two months.

The main camp had no more worries!

Chapter 358- Tiger Legion

Apart from forming the dragon legion, Ouyang Shuo also built the second legion—the tiger legion.

Ouyang Shuo gave the order and appointed Sun Bin as the General. He was now only second in power to Baiqi.

Sun Bin was the second person after Baiqi to be granted a title. Baiqi was titled as the commander-in-chief, while Sun Bin was titled the great general.

Currently, the tiger legion would only have two divisions.

The first division would have Fan Lihua as the major general. The main troops would be the prisoners from the Yanhuang Alliance—mainly a mix of cavalry and infantry.

The second division would have Daiqin as the major general, with the grassland alliance army as the main force—a pure cavalry division.

These two divisions were the same as the first and second division of the dragon legion.

The Military Affairs Department would be in charge of reorganizing the prisoners of war. Apart from soldiers, there were also some middle level generals. Out of them, there were some generals from the alliance army and some from the grassland alliance.

Ouyang Shuo had his own plans for this bunch.

The overall principle would be for them to take up roles on the opposite force.

For example, the second division colonels Sun Tengjiao and Heiqi would be shifted to the position of colonels in the second division of the tiger legion.

Of the seven generals of the grassland army, one died, one was badly hurt, and one was unsuitable for the role of colonel.

Of the remaining four, three were arranged to the second division of the dragon legion, while the last one was sent to the tiger legion to work under Daiqin.

The remaining two colonels of the tiger legion would be chosen from the surrendered generals of the alliance army.

Similarly, the first division of the dragon legion and the tiger legion would swap generals. Zhao Zhan and Li Mingliang would be moved to the tiger legion.

The generals who surrendered or chosen majors would fill up the remaining positions. The three Guards unit majors Guoliang, Suwang, and Liaokai were all promoted.

Promoting old generals ensured Ouyang Shuo's control over the two legions.

The main base of the tiger legion would not be in the Lianzhou Prefecture. Instead, it would locate itself in Yashan City.

When the Beihai naval fleet returned, the tiger legion would follow the third batch of migrants to Yashan City.

Qiongzhou island would be their battlefield.

Sun Bin and Daiqin wanted to conquer Yazhou; it was also where Fan Lihua belonged.

Such a plan was a masterstroke.

Shortly after its inception, Yashan City had two strong divisions.

Ouyang Shuo believed that a normal aboriginal tribe would not dare to face Yashan City. When the tiger legion reached the city, the city would enter a booming development phase.

At this point, the reorganization of the military came to an end.

After Ouyang Shuo finished appointing people and setting up the structure, he handed the remaining matters to the Military Affairs Department.

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo gave himself a break.

From the first day of the New Year till now, he had been busy all the way. He did not have any time to rest.

Now, he finally managed to find half a day!

Tomorrow, he still had many matters to attend to, as the members of Shanhai Alliance would gather in Shanhai City for an annual feast.

Apart from the lords, Ouyang Shuo invited guilds like the War-Snow Rose mercenary guild, Qingfeng Pavillion, Tingyu Floor, and Rattlesnake Mercenary Group.

Tingyu Floor was the guild that was working together with Feng Qiuhuang in secret.

After Fallen Phoenix City upgraded, Feng Qiuhuang announced her relationship with the guild leader, Jianqi Leiyin. Only by relying on the strength of Tingyu Floor could Feng Qiuhuang upgrade quicker than Bao Hua.

Before the Feng Family broke up, Feng Qiuhuang had started funding them in secret.

Because of animosity with the Jianqi Zongheng sect leader Yijian Xilai, Jianqi Leiyin had left and set up Qingfeng Pavilion to go against them.

When she started the guild, it was hard for Jianqi Leiyin as a girl. Feng Qiuhuang was smart. Although it was her first time playing, she had a huge investment foresight.

Feng Qiuhuang had gone to find Jianqi Leiyin. Then, she said that she could support the development of the Qingfeng Pavillion.

This was how the two of them started working together.

Even after the Feng Family broke up, Jianqi Leiyin did not give up on their cooperation.

The two of them had stood the test of time, and their relationship had grown more solid.

Feng Qiuhuang looked for her for the same reason she looked for Ouyang Shuo—to break away from her family control and to amass strength.

Time had proved that her decision was highly successful.

One had to say that her manipulation of the whole field was really great. In Ouyang Shou’s last life, for her to be named the TOP beauty was definitely not just for her looks.

……

In the back garden, Ouyang Shuo casually sat in a pavilion.

On the grass patch outside, Bing'er was playing catch with a bunch of kids.

Some of these kids were aboriginals, while others were children of players.

The world of kids was totally different from the adults.

To them, they were no different to the aboriginals; they were all friends.

If some kids did not bother and looked down on them, it would be the result of their parents' teachings.

When he saw that Bing'er could make friends, Ouyang Shuo was really happy.

As he was free in the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo let Bing'er bring her friends to the back garden and play there. In the back garden, apart from the beautiful scenery, Zisu had also prepared various fruits and cakes.

To the kids, it was a happy thing to be able to play in the Lord's Manor.

Normally, the back garden was a restricted area.

"Brother!"

Bing'er ran over; her head covered in sweat, while her cheeks blushed red.

"Baby, you must be tired!"

Ouyang Shuo passed her a towel and helped her wipe her sweat.

"No!"

She took the towel, wiped a bit, and ran off again.

Such a monkey!

Ouyang a Shuo laughed in amusement, stopping her, "Playing for so long, why not ask your friends to have a rest here? Sister Zisu has prepared some food for you!"

"Ok!"

The little brat ran back to the grass patch to call her friends.

All of a sudden, over ten kids ran over.

The oldest kid was only ten, and the youngest was around six to seven. As they ran to the pavilion, they did not forget to greet Ouyang Shuo.

The greetings came in a huge variety.

"Uncle!"

"Brother!"

"Lord!"

……

The ones who called him lord were mainly the aboriginal kids.

When their parents learned that the princess invited their kids to the Lord's Manor, they were so honoured they spread the news to all the neighbors.

Before leaving, they had reminded their kids to greet the lord.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and greeted them one by one.

At Bing'er's age, a person’s view of the world started to form. Ouyang Shuo would naturally allow her to mix with her friends. If he did not, it might be bad for her or even annoy her.

As expected, when she saw her brother welcome her friends, she laughed sweetly at the side.

There was one little girl who was only six. She had round cheeks and huge eyes. Along with her long eyelashes, she looked really cute. When Ouyang Shuo saw her, he could not help but carry her up.

This little fellow was not afraid of strangers; she continued laughing.

Her crisp laughter made him instantly energetic; it wiped away all his tiredness.

When a person saw these cute kids, any problems and worries would fade away.

Just as they were happily playing , Zisu walked over.

"Lord, Lin Yue requests to see you!"

"Oh?" Ouyang Shuo thought about it and guessed the reason. When he thought about the time, Bianque had probably made the pill and gave it to Lin Yue for consumption.

The reason he came was most probably because Bianque had cured his illness, so he had come to thank Ouyang Shuo.

"Lead him in!"

Ouyang Shuo did not want to return to the reading room. He would rather just see him in the garden.

"Yes, my lord!"

A short while later, Lin Yue entered the back garden.

When he saw the lord playing along with a bunch of children, Lin Yue felt shocked. In his eyes, the lord was mysterious. It was truly rare to see his lively side.

"Brother Lin, come over!"

When Lin Yue heard that, he sat down anxiously, only taking up half of the seat. With the status of the lord, not many people could sit opposite him. Lin Yue asked himself and knew that he was not on the same level.

Although Bing'er was playful, she was also very well-behaved.

The little brat brought her friends to another pavilion to play.

"The little princess is really smart!"

Lin Yue could not help but praise.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and smiled, "She only knows how to play; I cannot handle her!"

Lin Yue did not reply, he just stood up and kneeled onto the ground.

"Thank you lord, for your kindness."

When Ouyang Shuo saw these actions, he helped Lin Yue up, "Brother Lin, you do not have to."

Lin Yue bowed, "Luckily, Bianque managed to cured me. The lord has basically saved my life."

"This is a good thing, we must celebrate. Men, bring the wine!"

"Yes, my lord!"

A while later, a small spread was prepared.

Ouyang Shuo raised the wine glass, "Come, Brother Lin. Congratulations on your illness being cured!"

When Lin Yue saw the lord’s actions, he grew very emotional and trembled, as he raised the wine glass. Although he was a man, his voice had gotten a little hoarse at this point. His voice contained his gratefulness, and also his joy of curing his illness, "Thank you, lord!"

As he finished these words, he emptied the wine glass in his hand.

Chapter 359- Meeting of Nineteen

"Brother Lin's illness has passed, so have your skills recovered?" Ouyang Shuo asked with concern.

Lin Yue had already controlled his emotions and said, "For the ice to freeze three inches, it is not chased away by a day of winter. Although the poison has been removed, but body has suffered damages. Luckily, Bianque has given me some prescriptions. As such, after a month or two, I can totally recover."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, "The Lord's Manor also has some nourishing medicines. I'll get someone to send some to you."

Some of these precious herbs were given by the mountain barbarians, others by the Chamber of Commerces.

When he noticed that Lin Yue wanted to reject once more, Ouyang Shuo jumped in, "Brother does not need to reject. Take it as my kind intentions. It is also a waste to just leave these medicines in the manor, so just use them."

He had already made matters so clear, so Lin Yue had no way to reject.

"Thank you, lord!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded and picked up the teacup on the table.

Lin Yue understood and left.

From start till the end, neither discussed the matter of the Bajiquan Dojo moving into the Dongli Sword Sect. Lin Yue was a smart person. Ouyang Shuo believed that when he recovers, he would naturally give Ouyang Shuo a pleasing answer.

After Lin Yue left, Ouyang Shuo observed that Bing'er was having fun. As such, he did not disturb them and just headed for the horse stables.

Ouyang Shuo's personal horse stables were located at a corner of the Lord's Manor.

Black tornado and the current elite Qingfu Horse were inside.

Apart from them, there was also a really handsome and majestic horse. It was also a Qingfu Horse, but it was bigger than the elite Qingfu Horse besides it. Overall, it looked really mysterious.

When the heads of the grassland tribes visited Ouyang Shuo on the 1st day of the New Year, they naturally all brought gifts.

Amongst these gift, the one from the Tianqi tribe was really valuable.

Their gift was the Qingfu Horse King.

The Qingfu Horse King was the leader of all the Qingfu Horses in the grasslands and Mengke Kehan had kept it. To protect his other assets, he had to bear the pain and hand this horse to Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo was delighted. On the spot, Ouyang Shuo appointed Mengke's Son Jida at Shenjuan House. Jida did not need to move to Shanhai City.

When Jida heard this, he felt emotional and knew that he had made the right bet.

Reality proved that the charm of the Qingfu Horse King was very lethal to a general.

Ouyang Shuo instantly named the horse Qingdian the moment he got a hold of it.

Name: Qingfu Horse King (spirit beast)

Alias: Qingdian

Weight: 200kg

Speed: 120 kilometres/day

Consumption: 10 units of grain/day

Skill: Sentient (creature is sentient), Lightning Quick(increases movement speed by 50%, lasts for half an hour.)

Evaluation: Legends have it that the Qingfu Horse was the child of the ancient god Qingfu and a wild horse. Hence, it inherited the God will of Qingfu and became the most elite warhorse.

Ouyang Shuo paid a lot of attention to Qingdian. No matter how busy he was, he would spend time to personally feed Qingdian to get close to the latter.

Undoubtedly, Qingdian was really arrogant.

Before this Mengke had fed him. In response to this sudden change in new environment, he did not bother about Ouyang Shuo.

These few days, Ouyang Shuo did not even have a chance to ride it.

If Ouyang Shuo did not use the taming technique on this horse, Qingdian would probably not even eat a mouthful of food that Ouyang Shuo fed it. Instead, it would rather just die.

This time, Ouyang Shuo came to the stables.

Be it black tornado or the elite Qingfu Horse, both were delighted.

Only Qingdian stared at Ouyang Shuo. It snorted and went back to dealing with its own mane.

What an arrogant fellow.

Ouyang Shuo did not mind, as he continue to feed the three as usual. After he fed them, he helped Qingdian comb its mane to deepen their relationship. In around half an hour, he left the stables.

When he returned once again to the back garden, it was already 5 PM.

Coincidentally, it was getting dark and the little kids were getting ready to say goodbye.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this, he told the guards to escort them home.

The law and order in Shanhai City was naturally great. Ouyang Shuo gave this order to give Bing'er some face. When eating dinner, her excitement revealed how much that meant to her.

2nd month 25th day, 5th day of the Lunar New Year.

Before 9 AM, Ouyang Shuo brought Mulan Yue to stand besides the teleportation formation to welcome their allies.

This Shanhai Alliance meeting could be considered their first meeting to discuss cooperation within the alliance. Hence, this matter was between players, so their historical people did not come along.

On the side of Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo did not arrange for Fan Zhongyan to come along either.

The four flowers had all gathered in Consonance City, looking exceptionally beautiful. Especially Zi Luolan, who stunned everyone the moment she appeared. Compared to her, Mulan Yue was like a little girl.

On the forums, Zi Luolan had a bunch of loyal fans that called her the purple enchantress.

Along with them was also Bai Hua’s brother, the sect leader of Qingfeng Pavillion, moon shines over the river.

Although he was older than her by only two years, he looked really old. If one looked at him, one would think that he was a middle-aged man. However, he had a bold personality.

They heard Zi Luolan’s gossip. Moon shines over the river was chasing Hong Ying, making one drop their spectacles in shock.

Logically speaking, the one closest to the moon would get it.

With his sister Bai Hua covering, if moon shines over the river chose to chase the purple enchantress Zi Luolan or the pure, cute, and flat-chested Tsing Yi, he would have an absolute advantage.

Who knew that he would actually fall for the fake little kid Hong Ying?

Who would have thought that Hong Ying, who announced that she would not have a boyfriend, would silently accepted his courtship?

After Bai Hua, Feng Qiuhuang brought Qing Luan. The sect leader of Tingyu Floor, Jianqi Leiyin, had also come along.

The three beauties all had different personalities.

Feng Qiuhuang had a rich feel to her, Qing Luan was small and cute, while Jianqi Leiyin was really cold.

Rumors had it that Jianqi Leiyin was a real beauty, and she was really famous for this reason.

Unfortunately, ever since the change with Yijian Xilai, her personality had warped. She started to become more like a person who would end the world.

Even in such an environment, she emitted an icy aura that no one would not dare to approach.

Rumors had it that Jianqi Leiyin had once openly announced that every man was bad.

A woman who had been hurt was extremely terrifying.

A strong women who was hurt was even more terrifying; they could even destroy the world.

From Xunlong County and Stone County, Xunlong Dianxue and Wufu both came along. From their interactions, the two had started to grow close and had become close friends.

Black Lion County, Gong Chengshi brought his good friend Fat Tiger.

If one said that Gong Chengshi was on the road to seeking death, then Fat Tiger was a living baby.

These two, who knows how they got together.

Rumors had spread that Black Lion City was being turned into chaos due to this pair.

Jushou had to clean up after them everyday. As a result, this old man that always did as he was instructed without grumbling finally lost it. He announce, "I cannot take it anymore, I want to leave!”

These words scared the small heart of Gong Chengshi. He begged and also swore to the heavens.

Jushou handled all big and small matters in the Black Lion County be it military or administrative. The moment Jushou left, Black Lion City would be on the verge of collapse.

Gong Chengshi swore to the heavens. Only then could he convince Jushou and appease his anger and desire to leave.

After Jushou gave him such a scare, Gong Chengshi became more well-behaved and honest. As for how long this medicine could last for, only Gong Chengshi himself could tell you that.

From Tianshuang County, Song Wen and Song Wu came along.

Compared to the calmness of Song Wen, Song Wu was more active. Luckily, he was really talented at leading troops. He led the newly built city protection division.

As for the Snow-War rose Mercenary Group, Xie Siyun and Lin Jing naturally came over.

As adventure gamemode players started to pop up, the status of the two of them started to rise. Their reputations were even being compared to Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang.

Not only the two of them, Jianqi Leiyin and the sect leader of Thread Qing Sikou similarly had their popularities rise. They were listed as the four heroines of the adventure gamemode players.

Out of the four of them, Lin Jing was the most famous.

Not because of any other reason, but because she possessed one of the ten famous swords.

After she obtained the god weapon, her combat strength exploded. In a short two months, she successfully challenged many experts of the underworld. All of a sudden, even the top player Blood Romance was challenged.

Luckily, at the crucial moment, Blood Romance led the elites of the Blood Evil mercenary guild to successfully pass the mysterious region. He had opened this area with the mysterious region exploration scroll that he obtained from the auction.

This was also the first mysterious region that players had passed through.

In the region, Blood Romance had obtained many rewards. Not only did he get the sect teachings of the blood knife sect, the emperor rank cultivation method blood knife art, he also gained a platinum rank blood knife.

Combining the two, Blood Romance’s power boomed, and he successfully kept his position as the best adventure gamemode player.

Along with the rise of Lin Jing, Snow-War Rose also benefited. A bunch of female players chased her fame and moved to Jianye from the other imperial cities to join them.

In a short two months, they had opened two more branch guilds and were growing quickly.

Lastly, the specially invited rattlesnake mercenary guild arrived. The guild leader, Black Mamba was as low profile as usual. He visited Shanhai alone.

In addition to Ouyang Shuo and Mulan Yue, it was a total of nineteen people.

The nineteen of them were the most core members of the Shanhai Alliance.

After all of them arrived, Ouyang Shuo called this the ‘Meeting of Nineteen.’

Chapter 360- Trading Cooperation

As this was not an official meeting, Ouyang Shuo specially chose the back garden as the alliance meeting location.

There was a little pond at the southwest corner of the back garden.

The area contained many white doves and koi fishes that played around in the water.

Three pavilions arranged in a triangular formation stood besides it.

Curved drains surrounded the pavilions, and a really clear water slowly flowed through it.

This place was built according to the olden phrase of Qushui Liushang, which meant for one to drink water from a canal to wash away ominousness. Such a place was the best location to gather friends and spend a good time together.

"Qushui Liushang, Brother Wuyi is really elegant!"

Even Wufu could not help but commend him.

Although Wufu was a man of few words, he was well-read and very well brought up in regards to Chinese culture. Hence, he was very pleased with Ouyang Shuo's arrangements.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, "Please sit!"

The three pavilions all had teas, fruits, and cakes on the tables.

After Ouyang Shuo gave his instructions, the servants started to place Three Flower wine cups at the start of the stream. As it flowed down and went past the pavilions, whoever it stopped in front of would take it and drink.

Ouyang Shuo invited Song Wen, moon shines over the river, Black Mamba, Xie Siyun, Bai Hua, and Feng Qiuhuang to sit together.

Mulan Yue, who could be considered half a master, invited Lin Jing, Jianqi Leiyin, Qingluan, Zi Luolan, Hong Ying, and Tsing Yi. These seven girls sat together.

Xunlong Dianxue, Wufu, Fat Tiger, Gong Chengshi, and Song Wu sat at the last pavilion.

Out of the three tables, Ouyang Shuo's table was where the most important people sat.

Song Wen was only invited because he was the brother of Song Jia.

Of course, once the feast began, everyone would walk around and not just stick to one spot.

Such an arrangement let Bai Hua and the others feel like VIPs.

During the morning, they pretty much only had casual conversations.

Some of them took the chance to have conversations about cooperation. There were some in groups and others one on one.

Ouyang Shuo took the chance to discuss with Feng Qiuhuang regarding the coal cooperation.

The large-scale steel mill that Liu Mo led had pretty much been built. It was located at the end of the canyon river, opposite the harbour and located in the Qiushui City region.

They chose such a spot because it had a water source and wooden resources. Before they obtained coal, they could only use wood to make charcoal and use it as their main fuel.

Apart from that, building it besides the river would make transporting the steel much easier.

As a large order had appeared in front of her, Feng Qiuhuang naturally did not object.

Just as Ouyang Shuo had predicted, the Fallen Pheonix Prefecture was filled with coal sources. It was just arranging some coal workers to her. After upgrading Fallen Phoenix City, she had worried about how to raise money.

Based on Liu Mo’s estimations, from next month onward, Shanhai City would purchase no less than 1500 gold worth of coal.

"Wuyi, you’re the god of fortune!"

After signing the electronic contract, Feng Qiuhuang giggled as she spoke.

Bai Hua, who was sitting at the side, decided to butt in when she saw them discuss serious matters, "Fengwu, do not get cheated by him!"

"Ah?" Feng Qiuhuang did not understand.

Bai Hua shook her head, "What's the point of Wuyi investing in the steel mill?" Without waiting for Feng Qiuhuang’s reply, Bai Hua continued, "Isn’t it to make better steel for better weapons?"

After she said that, if Feng Qiuhuang still did not understand, then she really was not Feng Qiuhuang.

That’s right, the equipment Shanhai City made would be sold back to them.

In the end, they would all foot the cost of the steel mill.

They were also unable to reject the equipment that Shanhai City sold.

This meant that she was being a free coal worker for Ouyang Shuo.

After she understood that, Feng Qiuhuang's expression grew a little depressed.

Ouyang Shuo bitterly smiled. With two smart partners, he did not know whether to laugh or cry.

"Fengwu, do not listen to Bai Hua. No matter what, as long as you earn, isn’t it good?"

Feng Qiuhuang shook her head and sighed, "I can only think of it that way."

"Talking about equipment, Wuyi, where is the equipment you promised us?" Bai Hua took the chance to lead the topic back to arms trading.

Feng Qiuhuang also paid a lot of attention to this problem.

In the alliance, apart from Shanhai City, the strengths of Consonance City and Fallen Phoenix City were the most important.

Although they were not like the basically self-sufficient Shanhai City, who were building warships, bows, tang blades, horse lance, buren armor, and mingguang armor, they both had their killing points.

Consonance City was good at siege weapons and shields.

Fallen Phoenix City was good at Iron Futie Armor and heavy swords.

These four things were all things that Shanhai City needed.

Siege weapons did not need to be mentioned, as Ouyang Shuo was very interested about the trebuchet.

During the Battle of Lianzhou, the Yanhuang Alliance had brought many trebuchets. As a result, they managed to badly damage Shanhai City.

The shields that Consonance City made through the technical manual were definitely better than the ones built in the factories of Shanhai City.

Although the Iron Tiefu Armor was similar to the Mingguang Armor, Shanhai City still need it. As the Mingguang Armor was too expensive and cost too much to make, it was not suitable for arming a huge army.

The heavy sword was the weapon that Baiqi specialized in. Additionally, his original units used heavy swords.

After he became the General of the dragon legion, Baiqi could build a guards unit.

Based on his intentions, he wanted to train another Iron eagle swordsmen unit.

Unfortunately, compared to the tang blades and the horse lances, crafting heavy swords was totally different.

The only way was to buy these heavy swords from Fallen Phoenix City.

As they specialized in one area each, both cities had the ability to sell their goods.

Although two months had passed since Bai Hu had obtained the siege weapon making technical manual, siege weapons had blueprints, which made it easier to make. Secondly, siege weapons did not need any large-scale production.

As for Fallen Phoenix City, their own strength restricted them. The requirements of the Iron Tiefu Armor to war horses was something that the Mingguang Armor could not catch up to.

Fallen Phoenix City could not compare to Shanhai City, who could build two to three cavalry divisions.

After a year of quick development, the factories and workshops in Shanhai City had the ability to sell their items.

The three of them clicked. After some discussion, they decided to trade their items.

Ouyang Shuo used twelve thousand Tang Blades to exchange for ten thousand shields. He wanted to use these shields to equip the two heavy armored mountain barbarian infantry regiments of the third division. Each soldier would have two shields.

He used eight hundred Buren Armor to exchange for two hundred trebuchets.

He used fifteen thousand Tang Blades to exchange for one thousand heavy swords. Baiqi would use these to build his iron eagle swordsmen. Similarly, each of them would have two heavy swords.

He also used seven thousand strong bows to exchange for three thousand Iron Tiefu Armor.

A heavy armored cavalry regiment would equip this armor.

Between Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang, they similarly came to an agreement.

The three of them agreed that trading to one another would be the priority. Until they completed their deal, they could not sell to others.

A cooperation that involved equipment did not look like much. However, in reality, it actually tied together the three territories. Other territories wanting to shake them faced a near impossible task.

They had no choice. Who asked the other territories to not have any equipment making technical manuals?

Ouyang Shuo also hoped for all the other members to obtain one or two killing blows.

After all, the strength of one territory was limited.

Even Shanhai City could not complete the building of all types of equipment.

When she saw the three heads come to an agreement, Xie Siyun could not remain calm at the side.

The equipment the territory produced was something that even guild leaders would feel highly tempted by.

Out of all the types of equipment, players loved shields, heavy swords, and strong bows. As for full body armor, not many players worshipped this type of thing, as they were too cumbersome.

Only General occupation type players would own mounts and would use such heavy armor.

Similarly, the Tang Blad, belonged to the cold weapons era in the eyes of players. As such, it was suitable for the battlefield.

Adventure mode players loved swords the most.

When territories crafted such equipment, it was split into soldier, sergeant, and general ranks, similar to gold, dark gold, and platinum ranks.

After a year, gold equipment was not rare anymore. Most of the high-end players would own one or two gold rank items.

As for dark gold equipment, it was still rare and only the really high-classed players would own it.

As for platinum equipment, they were the pinnacle.

Hence, to use the territory made equipment to equip the elite forces was highly suitable.

Compared to the lords, the guild leaders did not lack money.

In fact, they were even richer than lords in terms of income.

As the treasury system grew more and more perfect, the guild leader could receive a lot more funds.

During the second system auction, this allowed the various guild leaders to take out so much money.

The thirteen thousand gold that Lin Jing borrowed from Ouyang Shuo during the auction was returned in a short two months. As for the ten thousand gold that Bai Hua had borrowed, she had not returned it even now.

If one compared the two, one could see the advantages of a guild.

It was not that a lord did not have money. However, the income of the territory had to be spent on buildings and military expenses.

After Consonance County upgraded, it required a huge spike in funds.

Not talking about money, if Bai Hua did not continue borrowing funds through the Four Seas Bank, it was already great. This was the benefit of having the support of the Qingfeng Pavillion.

Chapter 361- Military Industry Coordination System

When Xie Siyun brought up purchasing a set of strong bows, shields, and heavy swords from Shanhai City and the other two territories, Ouyang Shuo realized the need for a military industry coordination system.

With Xie Siyun joining in, Moon Shines Over the River, Black Mamba, and Song Wen all entered the fray. It was not hard to imagine that Jianqi Leiyin, who was not in the pavilion, would also have such a request.

As the leader of the alliance, Ouyang Shuo needed to balance everything out.

The overall rule would be a prioritisation of trading over selling. Additionally, small orders would be completed before large ones. If one faced similarly large orders, they would need to break them into small orders to complete on a monthly basis.

Ouyang Shuo announced his ideas and plans to all of them.

"I agree!"

Feng Qiuhuang was the first to express her opinion. The heavy swords and Iron Futu Armor that Fallen Phoenix City produced was popular amongst both lords and guild leaders. They were the second biggest military industry in the alliance.

One could predict that just relying on these two items, the financial situation of Fallen Phoenix City would slowly improve and they would eventually escape their current financial predicament.

"I also agree!"

Bai Hua followed. The territories and guilds sorely needed the siege weapons and shields that Consonance City produced. However, they only required a limited amount, so there basically would not be the issues in coordinating supply.

With the siege weapons as an example, apart from during a large-scale war, one could not use it.

On the other hand, Consonance City was a huge importer of military arms, so setting up the coordination system was greatly beneficial to them.

Of course, everything would change in the future, and no one knew what kind of technical manuals they would receive next. Hence, it was best to build the system right now.

When he saw the two of them express their agreement, Ouyang Shuo nodded, "Since that's the case, we must appoint a contact in charge of the specifics and for communication. Do you all have a suitable choice?"

Feng Qiuhuang shook her head, "I cannot. I only have Qingluan as an assistant."

When both Ouyang Shuo and Feng Qiuhuang looked at her, Bai Hua laughed in amusement, she thought about it and said, "Then let's let Zi Luolan act as the contact. She has been in charge of this aspect for the territory."

"Great, Zi Luolan is a good choice."

Ouyang Shuo nodded in agreement.

"Who's calling me?"

Coincidentally, at the exact same moment, Zi Luolan walked over with a wine glass in her hand.

Ouyang Shuo was calm. After facing beauties such as Song Jia and Mulan Yue everyday, he had already grown immune. As a rich man, Song Wen was also used to seeing beautiful ladies.

Black Mamba was a mercenary; wine and girls were his medicine after a mission. Meanwhile, the middle-aged uncle Moon Shines Over the River only had Hong Ying in his mind.

After she saw the four males having no reaction toward her, Zi Luolan felt that her action were performed to a wall. She rolled her eyes. Deep inside, she felt somewhat sad.

Bai Hua looked over in amusement. It was not often that she saw Zi Luolan’s dejected face.

"Come over, we’ve something to discuss!"

Bai Hua gave a short introduction and description of the military industry coordination system.

After the briefing, Zi Luolan rolled her eyes and grumbled, "Great lord Wuyi, this must be your idea, right? You treat me as a coolie, so you should take something out to show your sincerity, right?"

Ouyang Shuo was not going to fall for that and calmly said, "Bai Hua recommended you. If you want benefits, look for her!"

"You!" Zi Luolan raged, "I don’t care; if there are no benefits I won’t do it!"

It seems like she was determined to obtain what she wanted!

A beauty doing that, even a god could not stop it, so Ouyang Shuo could only ask Bai Hua for help.

Bai Hua acted like she did not see it. She picked up her tea cup and took a sip; her actions possessed an elegant flair.

Despicable Wuyi, he actually wanted to use her as a shield, and now he wants her help? No way!

As for the others, they were there to enjoy the show.

Song Wen and the other guys sat on alert, afraid of drawing the fire to themselves.

Ouyang Shuo knew that he could not escape this.

Since she wanted a reward, a normal present was not enough.

After he thought about it, Ouyang Shuo took out a small wooden box from his storage bag and passed it to Zi Luolan.

"What is this? You better not take out a stupid cheap present and think that's enough!"

This was the real personality of Zi Luolan; her words had grown more direct and bold. As for the purple enchantress in the fan's eyes, it was all their wishful thinking.

"Won’t you find out when you open it?"

When Zi Luolan opened the wooden box, a gentle white light shone from within. Focusing on the contents, one could see a piece of beautiful yellow silk as the base of the box. A string of twenty four pearls sat on top. Each one was the size of a thumb, luscious and filled. The rare factor of these pearls were their uniform size.

"Wa, so beautiful!"

Feng Qiuhuang exclaimed, as awe flickered through her eyes.

Girls naturally did not have the ability to resist pearls.

If placed in the real world, this pearl necklace would also be a priceless treasure.

"This, are you really giving this to me?" Zi Luolan's words were not as clear anymore. She asked for benefits just to disturb and tease Ouyang Shuo; she did not expect to get such a huge surprise.

"Of course it's for you. Are you satisfied with it?"

These pearls were from Xila Lake and were the highest quality ones collected from the artificial pearl field. After Cui Shousi returned to Shanhai City to find Ouyang Shuo, he presented it to Ouyang Shuo.

Originally, Ouyang Shuo planned to give this to Song Jia.

Thinking about it, Zi Luolan becoming the military industry contact, she was pretty much a volunteer. As the leader of the alliance, he needed to reward her. Hence, he decided to give the pearls to her.

Anyways, as long as the pearl field remained, he did not need to worry about a lack of pearls to give Song Jia.

"This, this reward is too valuable. I can’t accept it."

Zi Luolan was a little embarrassed, and she tried to return the wooden box to Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo waved her off and laughed, "Accept it! Since you’ve accepted this reward, you must do a good job!"

The reason Ouyang Shuo said these words was to ensure that Zi Luolan would not feel awkward.

Zi Luolan was also an old girl. When she heard this, she accepted the pearls happily.

After accepting the present, Zi Luolan was highly motivated. She immediately left the pavilion to look for Jianqi Leiyin and Xunlong Dianxue to discuss military equipment needs and matters.

After Zi Luolan left, Feng Qiuhuang snuck up besides Ouyang Shuo and said, "Wuyi, do you still have more of those? Give me one!"

Even Bai Hua, although she did not ask directly, she still intentionally or unintentionally looked over at Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo instantly felt a headache. He did not expect a string of pearls to cause such a huge problem.

"I won’t hide it from all of you. That string of pearls was the pearl field's three months of effort. If you are not afraid of waiting, within a year, there should be no problem!"

"So long!" Feng Qiuhuang was a little disappointed.

"Those are the highest quality pearls. Do you think they are cabbage?"

"Ok, I'll wait, but you better keep them for me!"

"...."

Ouyang Shuo did not expect Feng Qiuhuang to be so stubborn when it came to pearls.

……

After the small side track, the pavilion bustled again.

While casually conversing, Black Mamba suddenly said, "Do you guys remember the mysterious players that bought out the item during the system auction?"

"How can we not?"

"It's so fresh in our memories!"

"Do you have some insider news?"

"That's right. Based on my news, this player is called Xingzhe Zichen. He's a descendant of an aristocratic family. Two days ago, he appeared in Jingdou as a Chi cultivator. He set up a guild known as Star Alliance."

"Is there really such a thing as hidden aristocratic families?" Moon Shines Over the River did not believe that.

"Yes." Feng Qiuhuang came out to bear witness.

"These aristocrats, why do they need to act so sneaky?"

Feng Qiuhuang was born in a huge family, so she knew a lot about such news. This news was something that even rich people like Song Wen did not have the right to know.

She laughed and said, "Actually, since the start, the outer world has a misunderstanding about hidden aristocratic families. They are not definitely strong families."

Everyone were silent.

That was the truth. Their mysteriousness came from the rumors that people spread about them.

"The current hidden aristocratic families are all descendants of officials and generals from the past. Some were tribes from previous dynasties, others were families that escaped abroad during war and came back. Of course, some famous aristocratic families do in fact have some remaining legacy."

Feng Qiuhuang helped unveil the mysterious mask that covered the hidden aristocratic families.

"They have two special points. Firstly, their family dates back to long ago. So, they still keep some of the traditions of an olden aristocratic family. Secondly, they are very low profile. To maintain their traditions for hundreds of years means that they cannot be too involved in a dynasty. If not, they might incur punishment and the death of their family."

"Out of all of them, there are some that have huge resources and great relationships due to their extended period of existence. As a result, their network of friends is highly complicated. However, there are others who met chaos. Due to other reasons, they are barely surviving. Some hidden aristocratic families are left with just one branch, and three generations only having one kid. The only thing that proves their past glory were family books and stories."

This news amazed all of them.

"Then that's weird." Moon Shining Over the River still did not understand, "Since Xingze Zichen is a hidden aristocratic family member, shouldn’t he be low profile and mysterious?"

"That I do not know."

Black Mamba had unexpectedly obtained such intel during his investigations.

Chapter 362- Guild Alliance

"The weirder matter is that no matter how we look at it, it still feels so awkward."

Moon Shining Over the River still did not understand, "Since he wants to build a guild, with his identity as a Chi cultivator and his stunning appearance in the auctions, as long as he did a simple advertisement, he could definitely attract players. Why must he be so low profile when building the guild? If you did not tell us this, we would not have known about him."

"Is this the unique passion or tendency of aristocratic children?"

Song Wen and Feng Qiuhuang both fidgeted.

"Brother, I do not have such a tendency!"

"Ah, haha! I'm wrong, I'm wrong~"

Moon Shining Over the River was also stunned, as he realized he had mispoken.

Bai Hua, who was at the side, felt speechless when she saw her brother fail to control his mouth.

Ouyang Shuo was silent. He guessed that perhaps the family behind Xingzhe Zichen was still split on whether to reveal themselves. This would explain his weird behavior and contradictory actions.

"There's something more interesting!"

Although Black Mamba did not know the reason, he had more insider news to leak.

"What?"

"Have a guess. When Star alliance was formed, Di Chen personally went there to congratulate them."

The pavilion fell totally silent.

This intel that Black Mamba revealed made all of them curious.

Did Di Chen and the others plan to team up with the hidden aristocratic families? After their failure in the Battle of Lianzhou, the Yanhuang Alliance had fallen totally silent, Internally, they were hurting from it.

If they could recruit some hidden aristocratic families, it would definitely be a good move for them.

"Let's not bother about anything else; let's just do our things well."

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand and smiled.

Based on the strength and influence of the modern day Shanhai Alliance, they had the power to challenge anyone.

"Wuyi is right. In the end, we speak with our strength."

Everyone present had been through so much. The small actions of the Yanhuang Alliance were nothing to them. Without mentioning Ouyang Shuo, even Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang had benefited a lot in this round of territory war.

The Yanhuang Alliance’s biggest weakness was also their merit points.

If Di Chen and the others did not increase their rank to Marquis, their territories would be unable to stand out.

"Talking about the Star Alliance, I have a thought."

Xie Siyun suddenly said, "Among the top ten guilds, our alliance has taken up three of them. Additionally, there is the Rattlesnake Mercenary Group. Why don’t we build a guild alliance? This way, we can attack and defend together in some guild operations."

"I agree with this idea!" Moon Shining Over the River assented, "I won’t hide it from the rest of you. Actually, I had thought of this long ago, just that I did not have enough power to raise the idea."

"I also agree!" Black Mamba said.

"Since that's the case, call Jianqi Leiyin over. Let's discuss this together."

"I'll go call her!"

Feng Qiuhuang turned and left.

Toward Xie Siyun building the guild alliance, Ouyang Shuo did not interfere, as he was really optimistic about the idea.

Before this, the War-Snow Rose Mercenary Group and the other guilds could only be considered a part of Shanhai Alliance. However due to system restrictions, guilds and territories could not become allies.

The cooperation between the two did not have the insurance of a contract.

Hence, the guilds relationships with Shanhai Alliance could not be considered tight.

Apart from that, some of the cooperations within the alliance was just limited to a one on one cooperation between territory and guild. For example, War-Snow Rose Mercenary Group and Shanhai City, Qingfeng Pavilion and Consonance City, Tingyu Floor and Fallen Phoenix City.

Between the guilds, there was no actual cooperation.

If one could build a guild alliance under the structure of the Shanhai Alliance, everything could change.

Xie Siyun’s idea of building a guild alliance also had a huge background.

As adventure gamemode players started to pop up, between guilds, especially between guilds in the same imperial city, friction would increase and small-scale guild wars would break out.

After territory wars, guild wars would also start to grow common.

Talking about this, one had to go over the settings of the imperial cities.

The nine imperial cities were just one by one separate lonely cities, but they were a complete living environment.

The outer environment of the imperial city could be split into three circles.

The closest area to the imperial city was called the village region—an area closely packed with NPC villages.

Their main function was to provide food and vegetables for the commoners and adventure mode players living in either the wilderness or the city.

To the adventure mode players, the NPC villages were like newbie villages.

In the villages, they could obtain some quests like hunting or collecting items.

The middle-aged players and the old players were the main groups of casual players. If they did not like the life in the imperial city, they could choose to live in the NPC village and spend their life farming.

The second region was the location of resources.

These resources included large-scale farms, pastures, tea gardens, fruit farms, forests and mine fields.

Undoubtedly, these resources were meant for the artisans in the imperial cities.

These spots were also locations that work occupation players loved. Players were hired to work there, and they would earn small amounts of salary while training their skills.

The third region was the main battlefield for the adventure gamemode players.

The forests, grasslands, deserts, cemeteries, mountains, and lakes.

Various land forms had different high-level monsters for players to level up against.

The deeper they went in, the higher the level of the monsters.

At the same time, this was where rare materials were collected.

After the work occupation players upgraded to intermediate rank, they needed rare resources to train their skills. If they just spent time in the second region, it was hard for them to make it.

Outside the third region was the true wilderness, and the territory of the lord gamemode players.

The various guilds would all focus and fight for the third region.

They would compete for leveling spots and rare resources areas.

The guilds basically held up all the good places.

It was really difficult for solo players to survive in the third region. Hence, adventure mode players, even those that really hated groups, would form up small adventuring squads when they ventured there.

Previously, when their levels were still low, and they did not have good equipment, they could only survive in the first and second regions. Now, with the elite groups of the various guilds, they could survive in the third region.

A year had passed, and the situation had changed.

A huge amount of players now had the ability to explore the third region.

Naturally, fights for resources would follow.

Hence, the battle between the guilds had just started to heat up.

War-Snow Rose Mercenary Group was the second largest guild in China region. In Jianye, there temporarily was not any other guild that could shake their position.

Even so, Xie Siyun had to prepare for the future.

If there were enough ants, they could bite an elephant to death.

If faced with millions of players, the strength of a single guild was limited.

Similar to territory wars, guild wars were a total possibility.

Within guilds, the strength of an elite force was highly terrifying, and it could totally change the direction of a war.

Through building a guild alliance, one could help one another.

As they knew one another, the setting up of the guild alliance happened really smoothly.

The four guilds officially formed an alliance. The moment it was formed, they became a huge powerhouse in the China region.

The guild alliance stated that members needed to look out for one another and share intel.

The alliance sent was as simple as just adding a few allies.

With Qingfeng Pavillion as an example, after joining the alliance and having it as a shield, it would have more strength and power to expand in Dali.

For the guilds in Dali to group up and retaliate, they would need to consider to reinforcements.

When he saw the completion of the alliance, Ouyang Shuo threw out the matter regarding Yazhou.

To adventure gamemode players, Yazhou was highly attractive.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to invite the guilds to send their elites to explore Five Finger Mountain.

After they heard his description of Yazhou, the four guild leader's eyes widened. The mysterious Five Finger Mountain and the South Mountain mysterious region was really tempting.

"Little Shuo, you have done a good job keeping this secret!"

This was the first time Ouyang Shuo revealed Yazhou to his allies. Even during the Battle of Lianzhou, Bai Hua and the others did not know where he had gone.

Ouyang Shuo laughed, but he did not reply.

After forming up the tiger legion, Yazhou now had the strength to welcome visitors.

Ouyang Shuo knew that the eyes of other powers would exist in their guilds. So, the moment he invited the guilds, Yazhou would be exposed to the world.

Without the legion’s protection, Ouyang Shuo definitely would not do that.

Ouyang Shuo also hoped to make use of the power of adventure mode players to clear out the wild beasts. Similarly, they would also help develop the economy.

Hence, this was a win win-cooperation. Both sides would obtain what they needed.

The two hundred thousand gold that Bing'er obtained seemed like a lot. But to a city, it was definitely not enough to spend.

Not talking about others, just the enormous grain needed was already a huge sum.

The price of grain on the market was set at twelve copper per a unit.

The tiger legion had twenty seven thousand men. In addition to their horses, they would use a hundred thousand units of grain every day.

In theory, Qiongzhou could have three rice planting seasons a year due to its weather. Unfortunately, due to technological limitations, it temporarily could not be done.

Hence, there were still three months till the first harvest in the 6th month.

As a result, he needed to prepare at least ten million units of grain. Calculating other uses of grain, he needed to spend fifteen thousand gold.

Military grain only accounted for a small portion. The other territory projects and military salary formed the bulk.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo would spend every moment thinking about how to make money.

Chapter 363- Warlords

Based on the agreement, on the 3rd month, 1st day, the three guilds would each send an elite force and teleport to Yazhou.

Each elite force would have five hundred men. Since the rattlesnake mercenary group only had six hundred men, they could not participate in this.

After their discussion about Yazhou, it was close to noon. Ouyang Shuo held a feast in the back garden.

After the feast, it was free time for everyone.

Everyone grouped up to either tour Shanhai City or find spots to discuss projects with one another.

Who knows what Zi Luolan was thinking. She actually persuaded Mulan Yue to bring the girls over to Beihai Bay for a swim. At this time, the seawater was really chilly, and it was not suitable for swimming.

Luckily, players had special bodies, so they were able to enter the waters.

Ouyang Shuo had totally underestimated the attraction of the beach and ocean to the girls. Not only Zi Luolan, out of the ten, only Hong Ying did not want to go.

Hong Ying not going was probably because moon shining over the river had booked her.

Gong Chengshi, Fat Lion, as well as the other males wanted to follow along but were cruelly rejected.

"Despicable!"

Zi Luolan rejected them like that.

"...."

Their attempts died in this simple manner.

Gong Chengshi dragged his good friend and went to the brothel. He even shamelessly said that he was trying to learn from the entertainment industry of Shanhai City.

Song Wu followed them there.

Compared to the pure and clean Song Wen, Song Wu's private life was totally rotten. He was a typical playboy, and he would change girlfriends at least once a month.

Song Wen, on the other hand, followed Xunlong Dianxue and Wufu to tour the city.

As a living example of territory building, Shanhai City had so many things for them to learn from and copy. Many details of city building could only be learned when lords personally experienced these factors and observed them.

Meanwhile, Ouyang Shuo called Black Mamba over to his reading room.

Ouyang Shuo personally brewed a cup of hot tea and pushed it in front of Black Mamba, "Brother, in regards to Blood Blade, have you found anything?"

Since he handed over investigations to rattlesnake, Ouyang Shuo had not checked up on it. This time, he invited Black Mamba over to the Shanhai Alliance meeting to help him expand his connections. He also wanted to ask about the investigations.

Rattlesnake Mercenary group had investigated them for two months, and it was time to stop. If they dragged on any longer, it would be useless. After all, Blood Blade would soon wipe clean all clues.

"This matter is more serious than we thought." Black Mamba was really solemn, and he rarely had this kind of expression. This clearly showed how good the Blood Blade were.

Ouyang Shuo did not speak and just took a sip of tea.

The current him would not feel anxious over anything. It was thanks to his martial arts cultivation.

"Based on the clues you gave us, we actually located the meeting place of Blood Blade in Jingdu. Unfortunately, we were late. When we reached there, everyone was gone."

Black Mamba was a little depressed. Just chasing this clue had used up a lot of resources, to think that it was all for nothing.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Blood Blade knew that after their assassination attempt had failed, Ouyang Shuo would seek revenge. Hence, they gave up their meeting spot in Jingdu.

It was a huge headache to face such a well-trained opponent.

"Apart from this, was there any other news?"

Black Mamba froze and gave an awkward smile, “We found out by chance that they have stopped their killing order regarding you."

As they had easily received this intel, Black Mamba was wondering whether or not Blood Blade intended for them to find out.

This was really interesting!

Ouyang Shuo frowned, "They probably intentionally released this news. When did your men get this intel?"

Black Mamba said with certainty, "Ten days ago."

"Ten days ago?" Ouyang Shuo smirked, "Ten days ago? When the Battle of Lianzhou ended? Blood Blade seems to have fast intel sources."

"Oh? Your meaning is?"

Ouyang Shuo nodded and did not explain.

With how it went, Ouyang Shuo could roughly guess that the strength Shanhai City displayed during the Battle of Lianzhou had stunned the higher ups of Blood Blade.

Probably, amongst the alliance army, there were some spies from Blood Blade.

Facing such an opponent, Blood Blade naturally needed to weigh up the pros and cons. If they went up against Shanhai City and wanted to assassinate him, even if they succeeded, they would gain nothing.

In addition to the secret investigations of the rattlesnake mercenary group, Blood Blade could feel the strength and influence of Shanhai City. They could tell that it was not limited to Shanhai City’s own territory.

Even in the grey regions, Shanhai City had connections and help.

Going against such a Shanhai City was totally not worth it.

Hence, they would release this news; this explained their intentions.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it, "How about this? Brother, can you help me leave a word for Blood Blade."

"Please speak!"

During the Battle of Lianzhou, Blood Blade was not the only one shocked. Even Black Mamba, who was working closely with them, felt astonished when he heard the news.

From an outsider point of view, the Yanhuang Alliance was a huge behemoth.

Even such a power that planned so much and went all out lost.

Maybe Ouyang Shuo himself did not know how much outsiders feared Shanhai City.

Hence, Black Mamba worshipped and respected Ouyang Shuo more and more.

Ouyang Shuo could feel it and did not say anything. He continued, "Tell them that I want to see Chun Shenjun assassinated in public. Once it is done, everything is forgiven."

Toward Blood Blade, Ouyang Shuo did not want to continue having problems with them.

Who knows, maybe there would be a time when he needed them. Since they wanted to make up with him, Ouyang Shuo did not mind gaining one more friend.

However, Ouyang Shuo could not forgive Chun Shenjun.

Although, Chen Shenjun had died during the Battle of Lianzhou and even dropped the Qilin Gold Seal, Ouyang Shuo could only bury this anger if assassinated was Chen Shenjun.

When Black Mamba heard these words, he laughed,"This idea is great! You are really evil!"

Ouyang Shuo wanted Blood Blade to kill Chun Shenjun. This obviously told them that he knew who had hired them in the first place.

At the same time, he was telling Chun Shenjun that he had seen through his little parlor tricks.

As for how they chose to act, it depended on their sincerity.

It seems like when their higher ups receive Ouyang Shuo's message, their faces would be very interesting.

"Let's not talk about them." Ouyang Shuo waved his hand and continued,"Brother, have you thought about my suggestion?"

Ouyang Shuo had suggested for Cobra and Viper to take up roles in Shanhai City. Cobra as the secretary of military intelligence, and Viper as the overall examiner of the special forces training base.

During this period of time, Ouyang Shuo had talked to both of them. Both of them were willing to take up the respective roles. After all, the positions that Ouyang Shuo had arranged for them were all high and really crucial.

Especially for Cobra, the position of secretary of military intelligence was really tempting.

On the other hand, both of them were very sentimental and could not bear to leave their war buddies.

Black Mamba kept his smile, he felt very conflicted internally.

In the mercenary group, apart from himself, there were five other core members, Cobra and Viper being two of them.

The moment the two left, it would have a huge impact on the group.

Black Mamba was also worried that the moment this precedence was opened, it would make the guild harder to run in the future.

This was fatal.

When Ouyang Shuo saw Black Mamba’s expression, he understood.

He naturally knew that if he could not come up with a solution, this dream would fail and it would even affect the cooperation between the two.

After all, the moment doubts were raised, it would become impossible to continue working closely together.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it and decided to throw out his trump card.

Just like Black Mamba had worried about, Ouyang Shuo actually wanted to start taking one or two members from the group, eating up the entire group.

Thinking about it, his original plan lacked some thinking.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo wanted to try and see if he could totally solve the problem with one step.

"If you don't mind me asking, what is your end goal with the rattlesnake mercenary group?" Ouyang Shuo threw out a fatal question.

When Black Mamba heard this, he formed a bitter smile.

"We actually haven't thought about it. You also know that we are a bunch of militants. Apart from war, we don't know anything. Be it in the real life or in the game, we can only accept jobs and earn money. Use the money to drink and get girls, that's our goal."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Although his words were crude, it made sense.

"Since that's the case, why don’t you let me be the sore hirer of the rattlesnake mercenary group?"

"How so?"

He knew that for Ouyang Shuo to say those words, he definitely had plans.

"It's easy." Ouyang Shuo did not brag about anything, "All of you move to Shanhai City and work for me. I'll double your total income."

"How about that?"

Black Mamba had to admit that Ouyang Shuo had totally stunned him.

Chapter 364- Black Snake Guards

Even though Ouyang Shuo had proposed such a high offer, Black Mamba still had many doubts.

"Money is only one aspect." Black Mamba paused for a while, "Most crucially, we are used to going around. We might not be used to staying in one spot."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, "Brother doesn't need to reject me so quickly. You can hear my plans first before deciding."

"Please speak!"

"Upon joining Shanhai City, you can choose from four jobs. Firstly, be a spy for the Military Intelligence Division. Secondly, be a teacher at the special operations base. Thirdly, enter the military and become a captain or a major. Becoming a colonel is also possible."

The position of colonel was where Ouyang Shuo drew a line. Only a NPC could take up the role of major general. No matter how much he trusted a person, he would not dare to hand a ten thousand man army to one player.

Ouyang Shuo's first three points had already tempted him, especially the third.

Black Mamba knew that the current Shanhai city military did not contain a single player in it. To pull them in, Ouyang Shuo was willing to break that precedence.

His sincerity was there for everyone to see.

Most importantly, there were three different jobs that covered the three types of people. This would allow them to live happily and find a suitable position for themselves.

Even so, Black mamba did not express anything.

After all, although the first three were tempting, they all needed them to stay in the territory. As such, it failed to solve the crucial problem.

As mercenaries, their members liked scouting for news and going around. They did not want to just stay at one spot.

"The last one has something to do with you."

Ouyang Shuo looked at Black Mamba and smiled.

"It has something to do with me?"

Instantly, Black Mamba was really interested.

The reason for Black Mamba’s hesitation, apart from the fact that the members were scattered, was that he subconsciously also rejected the idea.

A big part of it was a lack of anything for him. As the leader, he could not accept suddenly losing all his power.

"That's right." Ouyang Shuo nodded, "You should know that Shanhai City has built an office in all nine imperial cities. On the surface, it is just a contact point. In actuality, it's an intel reporting station."

Black Mamba understood; such an arrangement was all too common. In real life, embassies often acted the same way and carried the same responsibilities.

"Building the intelligence reporting station is a good idea, but it is hard to execute. Their work has been unsatisfying. They have not given us any important intel."

As he said that, Ouyang Shuo could only shake his head and sigh. If the various intel stations worked harder to investigate some matters, would he even need to ask Rattlesnake Mercenary Group?

"You mean you want me to lead these intel stations?"

Black Mamba felt a little annoyed. A small intel reporting station manager was nothing compared to the secretary of military intelligence.

He could not be worst off than Cobra, right?

Ouyang Shuo laughed, "naturally I wouldn't belittle brother like this. I want to create an organization known as the black snake guards. With the 9 intel stations as the core, to go across the china region to do intel gathering and analysis. Will you be interested in building up and leading them?"

When Black Mamba heard that, his eyes brightened up.

Based on his description, the power of the Black Snake guards was huge. They were similar to the American CIA and were in charge of foreign intel.

In Ouyang Shuo's planning, the military intelligence division, black snake guards and the not yet built safety division will be the future 3 important intelligence organizations.

The intelligence division will be in charge of military intel, the black snake guards will only work outside of the territory.

The safety division will monitor any activity inside the territory. It's position was higher than even the military intelligence division and black snake guards, the most core organization.

With the monitoring work of the safety division, only then would Ouyang Shuo be able to relax and allow Black Mamba to build the black snake guards.

The reason why the safety division was not yet built was because Ouyang Shuo couldn't find a suitable candidate to lead it.

Undoubtably, the one in charge must be someone that Ouyang Shuo trusts the most.

At the same time, since it must monitor the military intelligence division and black snake guards, his skills must be much superior. For the current NPCs, to hold up the military intelligence division was already difficult, how would they be able to do such a task.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo could only push back his plans.

As the military intelligence division and black snake guards slowly built up, building the safety division was becoming a priority.

The promise that Ouyang Shuo made had a lot of sincerity.

After weighing all pros and cons, Black Mamba accepted it.

Following which, he got up and bowed towards Ouyang Shuo, "Black Mamba greets the lord!"

Ouyang Shuo accepted it.

Black Snake, officially became Black Mamba's code name in the black snake guards.

Following which, the two discussed some specifics.

Firstly was to quit the newly formed guild alliance and disband.

The 500 members will choose where to go based on their preference.

From today on, the rattlesnake mercenary group will seize to exist and become a name in history.

Secondly, every member will get 200 gold to settle them down. The 5 core members will obtain a one time off amount of 1 thousand gold.

As for Black Mamba, he will get 5 thousand.

The families of the members will all be moved to Shanhai City. Each family will be given a free courtyard along with a set of living necessities.

Just this used up a total of 120 thousand gold.

Towards Ouyang Shuo's free spending and huge gesture, Black Mamba had nothing to say.

To Ouyang Shuo, to use only 120 thousand gold to achieve all that was worth it. One can see that their entry into Shanhai City would bring an all round upgrade.

Not talking about others, just intelligence gathering, it would improve by leaps and bounds.

As the territory continued to expend and the outside environment started to get more and more complicated, intel will be of crucial importance.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo wasn't a fool, there was definitely a need to sign a contract.

500 members will each sign a employee contact and a confidentiality agreement, the cost of breaking it was huge.

With that, he could largely prevent betrayals from occurring.

For Black Mamba, this was equally an important test.

Handing the black snake guards over to him, he had to ensure the loyalty of the members.

Thirdly was regarding the spending of the black snake guards.

Ouyang Shuo promised that every month this year they would get 3 thousand gold.

The next year costs will be determined by their performance. The overall principle would be that the expenditure of the next year wouldn't be lesser than this year’s.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also prepared 10 thousand gold as funds for the black snake guards.

With that, the spending he planned was truly shocking.

Helplessly, Ouyang Shuo could only make use of the 200 thousand gold coupon that Bing'er had gotten.

Luckily he had the 2nd month profits and also the cooperation with the other guild members that Ouyang Shuo planned, in a short time, he could earn a large amount of funds.

When he had a cash flow, Ouyang Shuo would be able to fill up his cash that he used. The 200 thousand from Bing'er was used to build Yashan City so Ouyang Shuo wouldn't use it recklessly.

After discussing everything, Black Mamba didn't stay and instantly returned to Jianye. The disbanding of the mercenary group and the move to Shanhai City will be orchestrated by Black Mamba.

After he left, Ouyang Shuo looked for Wufu.

Wufu's Stone County was located in Jingdu Region.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to understand Di Chen's latest movements through Wufu.

Based on what he said, after the battle of Lianzhou, Di Chen suddenly quickened his act against neighbouring territories.

In less than 2 months, in the Basin that Handan County was located in, all other lords were wiped out. They either submitted or were destroyed.

Although Handan County didn't upgrade to a prefecture, but it had achieved the same strategic goal as Shanhai City.

When Ouyang Shuo heard it, he frowned.

As expected, the ability and foundation of the large powers weren't to be underestimated.

Probably ever since choosing the starting location, Di Chen's family had been planning for this.

The actions that they had done today were just them reaping their rewards a little earlier.

Di Chen probably noticed that under the circumstances that he couldn't upgrade to a prefecture, to prevent being tossed far back by Shanhai City, this was the only way.

Of course, if Di Chen didn't have a merger token and continued such a strategy, it would breed problems. For example, his population numbers will take a hit.

To Di Chen, to solidify his position, such a small problem could be accepted.

After all, these large powers had great recruitment and attraction so at most they would just get players to enter their territory.

Chapter 365- What’s Happening in Lingnan

Compared to Ouyang Shuo, Di Chen had a higher degree of control over the player population.

The various large families had a really skilled system used to control players. In truth, their families and teams all contained management geniuses. As a result, shifting those skills into the game was not difficult at all.

Hence, Di Chen did not need to behave like Ouyang Shuo and act so wary toward players. Di Chen did not need to fear betrayal and could just allow them to do whatever they wanted.

With Di Chen's actions, it was not hard to predict the future course that Zhan Lang and the others would take. The Yanhuang Alliance had taken a hit during the Battle of Lianzhou. Naturally, they would try to find some way to make it up.

Following the multiple failures of the Yanhuang Alliance, the depth of their foundations and roots were slowly revealed.

For Ouyang Shuo, an unknown and mysterious Yanhuang Alliance was the scariest. Moreover, Ouyang Shuo did not know the number of trump cards the current Yanhuang Alliance possessed.

To acquire all of this intel, he would have to rely on the Black Snake Guards to investigate and find out.

As his position slowly rose, his views of the world was also changing. When facing player groups, Ouyang Shuo had grown more and more confident.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo was wary and careful with the Lianzhou Prefecture being the main area of his territory. However, in regards to Qiongzhou Island, Ouyang Shuo could behave more open and daring.

Leading the three big guilds into Yazhou was the first step.

In the future, Ouyang Shuo would attract more players to live in Yazhou.

After all, it was not enough to develop Yazhou quickly if he only depended on migrants from Shanhai City. Yashan City was limited in growth. Additionally, due to Bing'er's rank, the number of refugees they had were limited.

Outside of Yazhou, the vast land was waiting for Ouyang Shuo to reclaim and use.

Precious riches filled the land.

After talking to Wufu, Ouyang Shuo went to look for Song Wen.

Tianshuang County was located in Lingnan.

Ouyang Shuo had made some plan in regards to Lingnan. Hence, he needed to set up the traps beforehand.

Tianshuang County was undoubtedly a good choice.

After all, they all had similar interests and had familial connections. As a result, both sides had the basic trust.

"What thoughts does big brother have toward Lingnan?"

As a heavy economic province, Lingnan's importance could not be underestimated. However, the four financial groups that the Song and Yuan Family represented were only strong in the financial field. The real people with power were not them.

With the Taiping Country temporarily fooling around in Guangxi, Lingnan had benefited greatly. Making use of this time, the lords in Lingnan had already started to form alliances.

Ouyang Shuo was not clear about the specific details.

He only remembered that in his last life, the four big financial groups did not have much fame in Lingnan. Instead, it was a guild known as South Alliance. Their leader was called Hefo, and he hailed from an aristocratic family.

Hearing Ouyang Shuo ask about Lingnan, Song Wen was shocked. At that moment, many thoughts flashed across his mind, and he was wondering why Ouyang Shuo asked that.

On the surface, he was calm and said, "I do have some knowledge about the situation in Lingnan."

"Please tell!"

"The four financial groups are now split into two. The Zhou family is closer to us, while the Zhao Family is close to the Yuan family."

Ouyang Shuo realized that the splitting up of the four financial groups had to do with him. Without his presence, the marriage plan between the Yuan and the Song family would have gone ahead. Now, however, the two parties had become enemies.

"The most scary point is not that. In Lingnan, there's an alliance known as the South Alliance. To go against our Song Family, Yuan Ping has joined the South Alliance."

As he spoke till this point, Song Wen's heart was filled with sorrow.

It was apparent that their situation in Lingnan was not good. Because they belonged to the Shanhai Alliance, everyone would naturally gang up and go against them.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this, he laughed.

It seems like Yuan Ping still had not accepted defeat. He thought that joining the South Alliance would give him the ability to go against Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo did not care much about this.

However, the current situation of Tianshuang County caused Ouyang Shuo to frown. His brother-in-law could be said to be cultured and well brought up, but he lacked the spirit of an overlord.

The current state of Tianshuang County had all to do with Song Wen not taking the initiative to attack.

Ouyang Shuo had several conversations with the Song Family. According to his impressions, they were very calculative and lacked humanity.

They treated the territory like a company, so how could it actually prosper?

This was also the reason why Di Chen could suppress Chun Shenjun.

Although Di Chen had made a series of errors that affected his prestige, he could still pick himself back up.

Chun Shenjun, on the other hand, could not. After the Battle of Lianzhou, it seems like he would need a long time before he could recover.

The identity of being part of the Shanhai Alliance should not make others target you.

Instead, you should use it like a weapon.

In this aspect, Feng Qiuhuang had undoubtedly used the advantage of the alliance to its maximum. She created a territory alliance under the wing of the Shanhai Alliance known as the Shanhai Alliance—Phoenix Alliance.

With that, Fallen Phoenix City would shelter anyone who joined the Phoenix Alliance; this was the same as receiving the Shanhai Alliance’s protection.

Ouyang Shuo was highly supportive of her actions.

Ouyang Shuo hoped that while the members maintained the honor and strength of the Shanhai Alliance, they could build up influence in their own regions.

With their territory as a core, they would radiate their influence on the entire China region.

Only then could they build a solid base, planting deep roots and forming a huge network. Then, they could earnestly go up against the Yanhuang Alliance.

Compared to Feng Qiuhuang, Song Wen was disastrous.

Ouyang Shuo told Song Wen about Feng Qiuhuang’s actions and said, "Big brother does not have to worry. I do not believe that the territories are so dumb that they do not know how to choose between the Shanhai Alliance and the South Alliance."

Ouyang Shuo made it very indirect, but in truth, he was reminding Song Wen that if he continued to lag behind, they would be isolated. Even their current ally, the Zhou Family, would go join the South Alliance.

When Song Wen heard this, he made an uncomfortable expression.

"Do not worry, I know what to do!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded. After all, he was his elder brother-in-law. Ouyang Shuo could not lecture him.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo definitely would not just leave Tianshuang County to die.

He promised that Shanhai City would support the development of Tianshuang County through the Four Seas Bank.

Ouyang Shuo wished for Song Wen to step up and shine the name of the Shanhai Alliance, attracting players to go against the South Alliance.

He did not wish for Lingnan to fall under the control of other forces.

If the circumstances permitted, after stabilizing Yazhou, Shanhai City would employ their troops to assist Tianshuang County if Taiping Country did not attack Mulan Stronghold.

Their goal would be to take over the Leizhou area opposite that of Qiongzhou.

Ouyang Shuo already saw Qiongzhou Island as a restricted territory, and he did not wish for other lords to use Leizhou as a stepping board to enter Qiongzhou.

After talking with Song Wen, Ouyang Shuo did not look for any other members to talk to.

At 5 PM, all the girls returned from Beihai City.

At night, Ouyang Shuo held a feast in the Lord's Manor. During the feast, he arranged dancing and singing performances.

After dinner, he invited everyone to return to the back garden to join a campfire party.

His plan was to bring everyone closer. He hoped that everyone would not be just business partners but brothers and sisters. Not only would they look out for one another in the game, but also in the future planet Hope.

Out of all the members, especially for the lords, it was easy to grow depressed if they only talked to NPCs in the long-term. People like Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang that had friends around them were still okay.

People like Wufu and Xunlong Dianxue were very lonely. Hence, the two of them got close really quickly and became friends.

For a lord to reach the current level, they had to endure a huge amount of pressure.

Becoming a lord was not as glorious as outsiders thought.

The pressure they were under was something that adventure gamemode players could not imagine.

Even Gong Chengshi, who looked pretty useless, was actually just trying to release the stress in his heart. If not, Jushou would not have done what he did to set an example.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo emphasized communication between members. Only relying on the alliance channel was not enough to aid his plan.

After all, the alliance channel was a public channel, so one could not talk about private stuff in it.

The moon hung high above; the night air felt warm and pure.

In the garden, a campfire was set up.

Nineteen teens sat in a circle, drinking and talking casually.

As she grew excited, Zi Luolan even started dancing olden dances over the campfire. One could not help but admire her sexy dance moves.

The charm of the purple enchantress was released and no one could block it.

Everyone cheered out.

"Great!"

"Sister Zi, your dancing is so good!"

"Beautiful!"

Gong Chengshi and Fat Lion, these two gross freaks, started to blow wolf whistles and roar out loudly.

Thanks to the actions of Zi Luolan, the atmosphere of the campfire party got warmer and warmer.

Making use of the chance, the only couple present naturally became the focus of everyone. Moon shining over the river, under the coaxing of everyone, invited Hong Ying to dance.

She was also bold girl; she was not embarrassed and outright accepted his invitation.

With that, the atmosphere reached its climax.

A bunch of young people surrounded the campfire, singing and dancing.

At that moment, they were not lords or guild leaders, they were just young teens chasing their dreams.

Chapter 366- Touring Lianzhou

The next day, the members of the alliance left Shanhai City one by one.

Before they left, Ouyang Shuo prepared a small gift for each of them.

Ouyang Shuo hoped that such an alliance gathering would become a yearly occurrence. Moreover, he wished for the gathering next year to take place in other territories, not just in Shanhai City.

The members would take turns to hold it.

After most of the members left, only Xie Siyun and Lin Jing stayed. Shanhai Alliance and War-Snow Rose Mercenary Group still had a big business deal to complete.

As the Dragon and Tiger Legions were formed, the military had eliminated another huge batch of equipment. Including the equipment that they cleared out from the battlefield of the Battle of Lianzhou, they pretty much had a mountain of equipment.

The Combat Logistics Department calculated that they had over a hundred thousand weapons and ninety thousand sets of armor.

If they sold these equipment for a gold a piece, they could pocket two hundred thousand gold. Needless to say, amongst all the items, there were still a few elite items.

A rough estimation would place the value of this batch of equipment at three hundred thousand gold.

As the main sales merchant of Shanhai City, the War-Snow Rose Mercenary Group would naturally make a killing. As the sum was too enormous, they only took half of the profits.

With that, through selling this set of equipment alone, Ouyang Shuo could earn back three hundred thousand gold. In truth, this sum was similar to the profits the four military workshops earned.

They needed to replace the eliminated equipment with better ones, and the elite ones did not appear from thin air. The four workshops needed to make them.

The military industry started to shine and become one of the most profitable industries in the territory.

This base of cash was the sole reason he possessed the confidence of acquiring the Rattlesnake Mercenary Group.

For the financial income of the second month, Ouyang Shuo had instructed the Financial Department to not keep a single gold and transfer it all into the territory.

As the Lianzhou Prefecture was being built, many large-scale projects began at the same time.

The Construction Division considered the building of the outer city of Shanhai City, the construction of the Mulan Stronghold, the roadworks and the building of Shenjuan City the four big projects.

Each project cost no less that 230 thousand gold.

Amongst these projects, the construction of the outer city formed a bottomless pit. According to Wei Ran, this historical megacity would take an entire year just to form its structure.

According to estimations, the completed Shanhai City could hold more than five million people.

The Shanhai House would mainly spend their gold on basic public facilities like roads, ports, distribution centers, bridges, parks, temples, drum towers, schools and more.

Based on this alone, the construction costs would reach more than two hundred thousand gold.

Out of this sum, the Lord's Manor would subsidise a portion, while Shanhai House paid for the rest.

In order to raise funds, Wei Ran sold land!

Wei Ran inspired Shenjuan House prefect Shen Zhui to use a similar method to raise funds when building Shenjuan City. Shenjuan City was split into inner and outer city.

The House Office would build all of the inner city, while the outer city would be mostly sold.

The Lord’s Manor would pay for the Mulan Stronghold and the road networks.

Needless to say, the roads belonged to public facilities of the Lianzhou Prefecture. The Mulan Stronghold was purely a military stronghold, so it would not allow commoners to invest and involve themselves.

Based on the estimation, the road network needed half a year to be built, and it would cost a hundred thousand gold. The Mulan Stronghold would take three more months, and the cost of production would be seventy thousand gold.

Basically, the future half year or more of financial income from the Lianzhou Prefecture would be invested into construction projects.

If he added the other medium-scale protects, as well as the huge military expenditure, then Ouyang Shuo would not be able to keep a single cent from the income in the 2nd year of Gaia.

Who knows, Ouyang Shuo would probably need to think of a way to raise money to make up for financial deficits.

Gaia 2nd year would become the most crucial year in the construction of Lianzhou Prefecture.

Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to Lianzhou Prefecture's economy flourishing and becoming a stable and strong shield. At the same time, it would become a reliable backbone of the territory.

That afternoon, Ouyang Shuo was in the reading room. He personally met Du Ruhui, Cobra, and Viper, as well as the three heads of the Military Intelligence Division.

Songsan would be removed from his position and appointed as deputy secretary. At the same time, he would still be the leader of the special operations team.

Cobra would leave the special forces training camp and officially take up the role of secretary.

The reason Ouyang Shuo planned it this way was to control and restrict Cobra. The three team leaders in the division were all people he highly trusted.

For Cobra to do anything funny in the Military Intelligence Division was near impossible.

Even in the future, when rattlesnake members joined the division, their positions would still be lower than the three team leaders.

Ouyang Shuo personally oversaw the organization of the Military Intelligence Division. Temporarily, it would only have three teams; this would not change in the short term.

In this time, Ouyang Shuo hoped that Songsan, Lengqian, and Lei Xun could quickly grow under Cobra's leadership.

With that, the Military Intelligence Division still remained under his control.

Furthermore, the four divisions under the Military Affairs Department, apart from the Military Law Division, were pretty much completed.

Temporarily, the position of secretary could only be given to Du Ruhui.

Be it Zhao Kuo, who led the War Division, Zhu Hongliang, who led the Combat Logistics Department, or Cobra who the led Military Intelligence Division, they had all earned Ouyang Shuo's trust through their ability.

Ever since Du Ruhui’s appointment, the scale of the Military Affairs Department had expanded four times. Now, it had become the most important department.

Apart from Cobra, Viper would officially become the main teacher at the special forces training base. He held a position similar to a colonel. There would be five deputies under him, their positions similar to that of an army major.

The special forces training base would become a normal organization in the military. They would be placed under the control of the Military Affairs Department, helping to produce scouts and special forces members.

27th day, 7th day of the Lunar New Year.

Black Mamba led the Rattlesnake Mercenary Group and all their family members to move to Shanhai City.

On that day, all 550 of them chose where they wanted to go.

The final tabulated results was that 113 entered the Military Intelligence Division as spies, while forty-five entered the special forces training camp as teachers.

Seven entered the division and became the captains of the scouting squadron, fifteen entered the military and became majors. Amongst the five core members, Ouyang Shuo appointed one known as Collar Snake as colonel, he entered the Dragon Legion.

The remaining 370 odd people all entered the Black Snake Guards to form its backbone.

In two days, Black Mamba had formed the basic structure of the Black Snake Guards and reported back to Ouyang Shuo.

The headquarters of the Black Snake Guards would be built in a small courtyard in the official residence area. It would mainly be in charge of consolidating intel, intel analysis, and target selection.

Black Mamba would personally remain in the headquarters and help coordinate with the various intel stations.

The intel stations in all nine imperial cities would all have one conductor who would be in charge of that area.

The Black Snake Guards would all use Code Names, apart from the leader Black Mamba, the Nine Conductors would be called Red Snake, Orange Snake, Yellow Snake, Green snake, Blue Snake, Purple Snake, White Snake, Ink Snake, and Jade Snake.

The other members would be split into black guards and snake guards.

The black guards would mainly use force to capture and interrogate, similar to the special operations team in the Military Intelligence Division. The snake guards would infiltrate and obtain intel in secret, similar to the first and second teams of the Military Intelligence Division.

Both teams would have a leader and he would be called Black Guard One and Snake Guard One, the rest would all follow this naming system and be numbered downward.

The two choices for leader were the remaining two from the five core members.

The Black Guards leader was called Bai Meifu, the Snake Guards leader was called Zhu Yeqing.

To Ouyang Shuo’s surprise, Zhu Yeqing was actually a girl. Moreover, she was a girl that looked really delicate and pretty. However, the eyes of all the other members only contained fear when they looked at her.

One could see how skilled she was. Weak and delicate was just her appearance.

The two leader positions were below Black Mamba, but higher than the Nine Conductors.

Ouyang Shuo was very pleased with Black Mamba’s efficiency.

That afternoon, Ouyang Shuo handed over all the funds set aside for the Black Snake Guards.

The Black Snake Guards started to officially kick into gear.

In the territory, apart from Ouyang Shuo, only the four directors knew of the existence of the Black Snake Guards.

This mysterious organization did not receive any unveiling ceremony, and even their headquarters did not have a sign. There was only an Ash Tree in their front yard.

In the future, this small courtyard would terrify the world with its name—Ash Courtyard.

2nd month 28th day, 8th day of the New Year.

The handling of the eliminated equipment had temporarily come to an end. Next, the members of the War-Snow Rose Mercenary Group would need to use their storage bags to transport all these items back to Jianye to sell.

Just like that, Xie Siyun and Lin Jing left Shanhai City.

After sending them off, Ouyang Shuo started to tour Lianzhou Prefecture.

He brought a Guards squad. Going out from the west, he passed by Yongye County and Guangshui County. Then, he headed to Tianfeng City, turning toward the north to Mulan House and Mulan Stronghold. After his departure, he went down south to Broken Blade City, Yishui County, and Gushan County before he returned to Shanhai City.

The whole tour needed a full twenty five days. As a result, when the elite groups of the three guilds arrived in Yazhou, he would still be on his tour.

Ouyang Shuo had sent Sun Xiaoyue a letter, asking her to represent him to welcome them.

Apart from returning on New Year's Eve for the dinner, she spent the rest of her time in Yazhou to lead the construction works.

Chapter 367- Staying Dormant

When Shanhai Alliance held their alliance gathering, Yanhuang Alliance had not sat around while doing nothing.

Jingdu Region, Handan County.

"Second brother's appetite is really big!"

Di Chen stood by the window, his body straight, and his facial expression really complicated.

Outside the window, the white snow covered the earth.

The huge snow storm last night had covered the dirt of mankind.

"You promised him?"

Fenghua Juedai was wearing a white coat. She held a cup of hot tea in her hands. The steam from it slowly rose into the air, forming a thin fog.

"I promised him? Impossible!" Di Chen coldly smiled, "Handan County is what I built up. However, this second brother, who watched on from the sidelines, wants to snatch it over now that we have problems."

After he vented his frustration, he gave out a long sigh, "Grandpa is very disappointed in me!"

Di Chen's words led Fenghua Juedai to think of that merciful-looking old man. Her calm demeanor could not help but shiver and cramp up, as she thought about some unhappy experience.

"Actually it's not only second brother! For us to so smoothly rule the basin this time, if one said that there was nothing done behind the back, I would not believe it."

Di Chen saw the entire situation very clearly. He was very certain about his brothers and sisters.

His words left Fenghua Juedai stunned, "What are you preparing to do?"

"Heh!" Di Chen laughed coldly, "They think that they are sneaky, but they do not know that I'm just playing along. When the time comes, they are definitely going to cry."

Fenghua Juedai raised her eyebrows but did not reply.

The current Di Chen had grown more and more mysterious. Even Fenghua Juedai could not understand his thoughts some of the time.

Di Chen raised his head and looked at the sky, "Qiyue Wuyi, wait for me. Our war is far from over."

Xiangyang Region, Pill Sun County.

Different from Di Chen and his brothers and sisters, Chun Shenjun was the sole heir to his family. Moreover, his operation to sweep up Jingzhou went very smoothly.

Even so, he was not happy.

Due to the family tradition, those running the surrounding territories were all branch family members or the weaker ones in his family.

The real elite family members were hidden in the various imperial cities. They used the funds and resources of the family to open up Chamber of Commerces.

Each Chamber of Commerce would hand over 30% of their profits to Pill Sun County to support the development of the county, which was also another reason why Chun Shenjun held so much funds.

However, with the end of the Battle of Lianzhou, his prestige was badly damaged and his ability was questioned by all of his family.

Under the instructions of their head of families, some of the Chamber of Commerces started to fake accounts to reduce the amount of money they had to hand over.

"They are just striking us when we are down!"

When Chun Shenjun heard the report, he was furious and shattered the tea cup in his hand.

During the Battle of Lianzhou, Pill Sun County had lost many troops and generals. As a result, he currently needed large amounts of gold for rebuilding purposes. However, his brothers and sisters wanted to reduce the amount of gold. How could he be happy about that?

"Lord, do not be angry!"

The butler quickly asked servants to clean up.

Chun Shenjun looked really cold and scheming, as he gritted his teeth, "Since they do not treat me as family, I won’t either!"

"What's your plan?"

"I'm going to find my father to expose them." His biggest backing was the absolute support of his father, "I'm also going to send auditors to check their books."

The butler added at the right time, "It's best if we can station auditors there to keep watch!"

With that, the various Chamber of Commerces would have no chance to fake their books.

"Not bad, that's a good idea!"

Chun Shenjun looked at the butler with praise in his heart. He felt that he was still not vicious enough, that he was still too nice to his brothers and sisters.

"Lord, even if the Chamber of Commerces pay what they are suppose to, we still have a lack of funds. If we want to recover in a short time, it will be difficult."

Although this butler was a lap dog, he was one with some skills. If not, Chun Shenjun would not trust him so much.

Chun Shenjun frowned, "How much?"

The butler raised his palm and said, “At least fifty thousand gold."

"Fifty thousand? Are you sure you did not calculate wrongly!" Chun Shenjun freaked out.

"Definitely, I've done the maths several times."

The butler definitely would not tell Chun Shenjun that he would secretly take a portion of the sum that the Chamber of Commerce handed over.

"I know, you can leave!"

Chun Shenjun waved him away, his expression looking exceedingly serious.

"Yes, my lord!" He got up and left.

Chun Shenjun was left alone in the reading room. In his heart, he was weighing if it was possible to raise the percentage of profits handed over to 40%.

Although his father fully supported him, he could not underestimate the presence of the other uncles.

However, such a huge lack of money was something that Chun Shenjun had to take the risk for.

"I do not care anymore!"

A look of viciousness flashed across his face, as he left the reading room.

"Brothers and sisters, this time, I'll make all of you cry. And you Qiyue Wuyi, this hatred and debt will be paid!"

Jianye Region, Blood Red County.

If one said that during the Battle of Lianzhou, which lord lost the most face, it had to be Zhan Lang.

The lost of Chun Shenjun, although it looked ugly, the one who really planned everything was Zhan Lang. As a result, he needed to take responsibility.

At the last moment, if Di Chen did not save him, he would probably end up like Sha Pojun. His general Zhao Zhuang would also probably be reunited with Zhao Kuo.

After the battle, Zhan Lang locked himself in his reading room and did not come out.

Even when his army was sweeping and clearing Qinghe, Xue Lang, Er Lang, and Gui Lang performed the task.

Baiqi had given the generals alongside Zhan Lang a good lesson.

How should war in the cold weapons era be played?

The defeat of the alliance army was because they were too arrogant. Moreover, they had underestimated their enemy.

If they had worked together with the grassland alliance army from the start and directly attacked Shanhai City, they would probably have a greater chance of victory.

The result was that they watched the grassland alliance army be eaten up before slowly entering the fray.

They split their troops into two, but neither could obtain any success.

Sometimes, if your appetite and ambitions were too much, it was not a good thing.

They were arrogant and underestimated their enemy.

They looked down on the investigation and monitoring abilities of Shanhai City in Lianzhou Basin, and the spies had spotted their routes.

They looked down on the fighting strength of the elite forces of Shanhai City.

During the battle at Gushan County, they showed the alliance army what a true elite army was like.

All of this made Zhan Lang feel ashamed of himself.

Only after the New Year did Zhan Lang walk out of this dark shadow.

When one faced defeat, one would grow smarter.

The Battle of Lianzhou was probably a good thing for Zhan Lang.

The current Zhan Lang had chosen to enter hibernation and train a truly elite army before the next fight.

The elite division would all be equipped with the Suozi Armor, and they would be entirely formed from retired military personnel who had class changed to generals.

The name of the army would be Red Blood.

Quanzhou Region, King County

During the Battle of Lianzhou, Xiong Ba was able to leave.

Apart from losing some basic soldiers, their strength was not depleted by much. They had already recovered, probably even improved.

Similarly, they had also completed their unification of Quzhou.

Everything had its pros and cons.

To do anything, a price had to be payed.

The price Xiong Ba paid was that the Yanhuang Alliance now doubted him.

Before this, he had a very close relationship with Chun Shenjun. Now, it was non-existent.

During the alliance meeting, Chun Shenjun had directly ignored him.

Their relationship had reached a freezing point.

Xiong Ba did not care much about this, as he too was an arrogant person.

Taking the chance when the Yanhuang Alliance was not making moves, Xiong Ba allied with Wondering Magic, who similarly did not suffer any losses. In this way, they became the third part of the alliance.

Xiong Ba had officially gotten out of Chun Shenjun's shadow and had started to have a greater influence.

His battle with Di Chen was starting to heat up.

If one said that only doubt existed between Xiong Ba and Chun Shenjun; then he and Di Chen were sworn enemies.

This did not only stem from the two of them but also from their families.

This was also why during the Battle of Lianzhou, although Xiong Ba had lost, his position in the family had actually risen, as they saw a chance of winning in the fight against the Di Family.

The other members kept their silence.

Sha Pojun had lost a lot and now he had animosity with Wandering Magic.

What a coincidence that their territories both belonged to Xiangyang Region.

The last member, Feng Tianlie, was still building up. Currently, he did not amount to much.

Chapter 368- A Quiet 3rd Month

Gaia 2nd year 3rd month 1st day, Yashan City.

War-Snow Rose Mercenary Group, Qingfeng Pavillion, and Tingyu Floor, the three elite forces from these three guilds, a total of 1500 players, arrived in Yashan City.

After the three of them had formed a guild alliance, they formed a great understanding among one another. Lin Jing led the elite force of the War-Snow Rose Mercenary Group, while the captains of the respective guilds led the other two groups.

Such an arrangement was pretty much admitting that War-Snow Rose Mercenary Group would act as the leader.

Sun Xiaoyue went out to welcome the three.

They would rent a living area to act as their base and supply site.

For the elite forces, there were two places they wanted to explore.

Firstly, the South Mountain mysterious region—their main goal.

Although the South Mountain Cave could be explored numerous times, the first time would grant one extra rewards. The system would also report it. Hence, it was a great advertisement opportunity.

As there was only one cave and three guilds, they needed to take turns.

Lin Jing came out and gathered the two captains for a discussion. The result was that the three guilds would explore in the order of War-Snow Rose Mercenary Group, Qingfeng Pavillion, and Tingyu Floor.

Whoever ended up taking down the reward would be based on their skill and luck.

Although the War-Snow Rose Mercenary Group was first to explore, they did not gain any advantages.

Based on what the Blood Evil Mercenary Group revealed, if players died inside, they could revive without any penalties. However, there was one restriction. After they revived, they could not re-enter right away; they needed to wait for the next chance.

Gaia also made the rule that one player could only revive three times without penalties in the same mysterious region. After these three chances, the player would really face penalties, and their level would drop back to zero.

Gaia’s arrangements were not a result of mercy. Instead, it because the mysterious region was really too difficult.

To explore and pass through the first time was pretty much impossible.

When the Blood Evil Mercenary Group explored the region, they had spent one and a half months and changed five waves of people. Over two thousand people had died before they successfully passed.

The bigger the reward, the greater the risk.

Reality proved that the rewards that they earned were enough to cover for the losses they incurred.

Different mysterious regions would also have different upper limits set.

The upper limit of the South Mountain Cave was a hundred players.

Hence, an elite group could be split into five and take turns to explore.

Based on the type of mysterious region, they also had different settings on how many times it could be opened.

Adventure mysterious regions could only be explored once. Regardless of the result, they would disappear.

Scroll mysterious regions could be explored once a day until it is passed.

Public mysterious regions would be opened twice a day and would never disappear.

The South Mountain mysterious region was a public mysterious region. As such, it would open twice a day.

Three elite forces, fifteen teams. It would pretty much take them a week for all of them to go once.

Even so, there would be a team that would not have a chance to enter.

Hence, while they were not exploring the mysterious region, they would explore the Five Finger Mountains.

Their goal was not the normal beasts but instead the desolate beasts.

With that, not only could they level up, they could also acquire high grade resources. If they were lucky, maybe they would obtain an inner pellet too.

Apart from that, players could use contract scrolls to form contracts with the desolate beasts and make them pets or mounts.

Hence, Yazhou was pretty much a heaven to all of them.

After the elite force finished their preparations, they were ready to start their first exploration of the South Mountain Cave.

A day before the elite forces arrived, the third batch of migrants had set off from Beihai Harbor.

The main force of migrants were the ten thousand farmers taken from around Lianzhou Prefecture.

Their mission was to go and reclaim land. Yashan City needed to rush to complete the reclamation job before the Qingming Festival.

Following them was The Tiger Legion.

Apart from that, there were a hundred merchant ships.

The building of Yashan City was undoubtedly a huge chance for all the Chamber of Commerces. Especially when they heard that Lianzhou Lord wanted to send two elite divisions over, the Chamber of Commerces were more at ease.

The natural resources of Yazhou triggered their sensitive senses and made all of them eager to join in.

Various Chamber of Commerces bought huge quantities of land in Yashan City to build shops and workshops. At the same time, they also rented large amounts of land to reclaim and form farms.

Hence, the fleet of merchants, apart from carrying resources, also brought along a large amount of workers they hired from the imperial cities.

Of course, based on Ouyang Shuo's requirements, these workers would become members of Yashan City.

With that, the development of Yashan City would start to progress on the fast track.

Due to the restriction of Bing'er's rank, the strategy Ouyang Shuo employed was to attract more migrants. However, taking them from Lianzhou Prefecture was like taking a piece of a wall to fix another part of the wall.

The third batch of migrants would be the last batch of support from Lianzhou Prefecture to Yashan City.

The future population would come from other methods, such as attracting the Chamber of Commerces to move in and bring along workers with them. They could also attract adventure gamemode players, or aim for the natives on Qiongzhou Island.

All in all, Ouyang Shuo would not allow Yashan to develop as its current rate. With the support of Lianzhou Prefecture, Yashan City was destined to progress at a far faster speed.

During the 3rd month, Ouyang Shuo was still touring Lianzhou Prefecture, while Yashan City was slowly developing.

During the 3rd month, all the other lord gamemode players were unusually quiet.

After the Battle of Lianzhou, the Yanhuang Alliance had gone silent to prepare their strength.

After the Shanhai Alliance reached their goals, they sheathed their swords and started to collect the fruits of their labor.

The China region territory war that had started with the Battle of Lianzhou had stopped, and the wilderness had become calm once more.

As for the other lord gamemode players, they were consolidating their alliances.

Hence, the wilderness seemed really quiet.

Of course, the four uprising armies were growing and expanding as usual. They were like a plague, spreading through the wilderness.

Among all the lack of action, the only sky breaking news was the assassination of Chun Shenjun in Pill Sun County.

A lord being killed in his own territory. Undoubtedly, that was some great news.

After this event, many lords started to strengthen their personal guards, and they did not dare to relax even in their own territories.

Being assasinated in front of your subordinates and commoners, it would result in a huge hit to your prestige.

The weirder part was that the assassin did not even try to hide his identity.

Ten minutes after the assassination, Blood Blade announced on the forums that they were the ones who performed the act.

Using this chance, they started to take up missions from players.

The death of Chun Shenjun had totally boosted their reputation.

Compared to lord gamemode players, the adventure gamemode players were the ones currently making the moves.

The friction between guilds continued to rise.

Small-scale guild wars continuously occurred in the wilderness.

As the guilds started to use their powers, it was harder and harder for small groups of players to survive.

Because of the strict death penalty, the moment a solo player died, not only was their level back to zero, they would also lose their earned equipment.

They were not like a group operation like guilds, who could have members help to take their equipment when they died.

As for their levels, the guild would also arrange people to help boost them back up.

For solo players, this was impossible. The moment they died, it was pretty much over.

The direct consequence was that solo players that died would feel depressed. They would just change occupation and become a work occupation player.

Based on Gaia’s settings, when players died, they had a chance to choose their occupation again.

Of course, there was only one chance. The next time they revived, they could not change their occupation.

A large portion of players who died would immediately join guilds after they revived. Hence, guilds could continuously attract fresh blood. As a result, conflicts brewed.

Murder and slaughter started to fill the underworld.

Blood had started to spread amongst the player groups.

As a result of these events, out of the ten biggest guilds, one had started to face problems.

It was Thread.

As a pure work occupation guild, its combat strength was pretty much zero. As the skill levels of the players increased, their need for higher-level resources also increased.

And these resources were held by all the other strong guilds.

The result was that Thread was stuck in a really awkward situation.

Of course, Thread also held a lot of charm and attraction.

Be it lords or guilds, they were all interested in their work occupation players. Some guilds even used high grade resources as a threat. They wanted Thread to merge with them.

Amongst these parties, the one who took up the hardest stance was Jianqi Zongheng, which was also in Jingdu.

Rumors had it that under the forceful actions of Jianqi Zongheng, Thread had started to lose members.

At this very moment, a theatrical change occurred.

Star Alliance, who placed their base in Jingdu, suddenly announced their presence.

Rumors had it that Star Alliance was interested in Thread.

The weird thing was that seeing the Star Alliance make a move, Jianqi Zongheng started to back off.

If one said that there was nothing funny going on, no one would believe it.

Ouyang Shuo knew that this must have resulted from Di Chen’s interference.

All of a sudden, the influence of Star Alliance started to climb.

Star Alliance also started to openly recruit members. Probably, their hidden aristocratic family, after much deliberation and argument, decided that it was time for them to announce themselves to the world.

Chapter 369- Land of the Military Strategists

Thread was not the only thing that Star Alliance was interested in.

Rumors had it was that Xingzhe Zichen was chasing after Qing Sikou.

As rumors spread, this matter started to gain more and more attention.

All of a sudden, a lot of attention was paid to Jingdu.

Toward Thread, Ouyang Shuo had a similar idea.

Before this, Ouyang Shuo had been recruiting work occupation players through War-Snow Rose Mercenary Group. Thread was exactly what he wanted.

Currently, Ouyang Shuo was waiting for the right chance to strike.

He had already instructed Black Mamba to use the Black Snake Guards to closely follow this development.

Ouyang Shuo remembered that in his last life, Jianqi Zongheng had pressured Thread into merging with them. Weirdly, their guild leader Qing Sikou did not join them and just disappeared.

Where she went was a total mystery.

Rumors had it that she had given up and just became a casual player.

As the 3rd month came to an end, the footsteps of spring started to arrive.

Along with it, life started to awaken, and the wilderness started to become full of life.

Spring was a crucial point of the year.

To the lords, the spring planting season had begun.

After the grain crisis, none of the lords dared to be careless. They started to personally order the spring planting such that they could get at least half a year of grain from it.

3rd month 25th day, Ouyang Shuo ended his tour and returned to Shanhai City.

The moment he returned, the Four Seas Bank treasurer Meng Zhida came to find him.

After a few months of preparation, the first batch of bank notes were finally ready.

He came to allow Ouyang Shuo to inspect the finished products.

Ouyang Shuo took over the hundred gold bank note and started to scrutinize it.

In ancient printing, there were only two colors—black and white.

The banknote in front of him was bigger than one in real life. It had a picture of the Lianzhou Basin on it, taken from the map.

On the front, it used the symbol on the lord's flag.

Before this, Meng Zhida wanted to use Ouyang Shuo's face, but he had rejected the idea.

When using bank notes, apart from good-quality printing, the key was how to prevent forgery.

As they currently had a limited level of technology, Meng Zhida could only use a laborious process—stamping the Lianzhou Lord's stamp onto every note.

The Lianzhou Lord seal was the symbol of the lord; it could not be forged or replicated.

Whoever tried to do so, nine generations of their family would be wiped.

After receiving Ouyang Shuo’s support, the bank notes would be rolled out in the 4th month.

Coincidentally, the War-Snow Rose Mercenary Group had just finished its equipment sale; they had sold all of it.

In the end, Ouyang Shuo received 286,700 gold. Thirteen thousand gold was used to make up for the costs of building the Black Snake Guards.

Ouyang Shuo kept fifty thousand gold for backup funds. He sent the remaining gold to the Four Seas Bank to support the launch of the bank notes.

The timing was nice. At this moment, Ouyang Shuo also needed to increase his support of the Tianshuang County through the Four Seas Bank.

Although his brother-in-law Song Wen lacked style, he was very by the books when he did things. Under Ouyang Shuo's support, he built the Shanhai Alliance-Tianshuang Alliance to fight with the South Alliance.

All of a sudden, the lords of Lingnan had a decision to make.

Of course, the leader of the South Alliance Hefo was not an easy person to deal with.

Their battle had just began.

Ouyang Shuo naturally sat in. He waited and watched on as a storm brewed in Lingnan.

The next day, under the company of Du Ruhui, Ouyang Shuo attended the Army Military Academy unveiling ceremony.

Actually, a month ago, they had already completed the academy construction. However, they could only push back the unveiling ceremony because they had to wait for their lord-cum-principal to return.

After the unveiling, a system notification spread across the China region.

"System Notification: Representative Figure for Military Strategists Sun Wu has moved into Shanhai City to manage the Army Military Academy and accept disciples. At the same time, the three requirements for one of the hundred philosophy branches—Philosophy of War, to move in has been met."

……

"System Notification: Military Strategists have moved into Shanhai City, given the title Home of the Military Strategists as a reward. Congratulations, player Qiyue Wuyi!"

……

The unveiling of the Army Military Academy meant that military strategists had a place to share their thoughts in Shanhai City.

There was a total of a hundred people for the first semester, and they were split into two classes, A and B. All of the students were current soldiers that the divisions recommended. In a pleasant coincidence, they met the third requirement.

With that, the philosophers of war could naturally move into Shanhai City.

The moment the notification sounded, the China region was sent into an uproar.

When the news that War Saint Sun Wu was living in Shanhai City spread out, players could already foresee this happening. As a result, they were not too shocked.

What people felt was just envy.

With that, the Army Military Academy had officially announced itself in the China region.

Ouyang Shuo felt regretful that military strategists did not belong to the ten mains schools. Hence, it could not help him complete the quest.

The Ten Schools of Thoughts referred to Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, Logician School of thought, Yin Yang School of Thought, the Miscellaneous School, School of Diplomacy, as well as the School of Minor-talks, Legalism, and the School of Agriculture. As the school of minor-talks referred to arts, it was not considered a stream of thought.

The Art of War appeared later, during the Spring and Autumn Period. During the philosophy debate, the Art of War was not a power yet. Hence, it was not listed as one of the Nine Streams of Thoughts.

Ouyang Shuo consoled himself while checking the stats of the title.

Land of Military Strategists: Soldiers rank up speed increased by 10%, chance of generals breaking through increased by 10%, soldiers quality increased by 15%, morale increased by 10%.

After he checked the stats, Ouyang Shuo's regret all disappeared. This title was an all round upgrade for the military.

One could see that with the help of the buff, the military would welcome a new batch of intermediate generals. Even advanced ones were not a dream.

Compared to this, the quest was nothing.

Of course, completing it and obtaining the title would grant him a whole bunch of more terrifying stats.

3rd month 27th day, Shanhai City.

After the Beihai Naval Fleet sent the third batch of migrants over, they returned to Beihai Harbor.

They had already cleared out the pirates around Qiongzhou Island. As they had formed a stable foundation in Yazhou, they did not need the protection of the Beihai Naval Fleet anymore.

Even if they needed a fleet, they would just build their own in Yazhou.

The duty of the Beihai Naval Fleet was to protect Beihai City and guard the waters of Lianzhou Prefecture.

Hence, strictly speaking, they were better at close sea combat.

As the Dragon and Tiger Legions were built, the development of the navy seemed to have fallen behind. Firstly, it took time to build the turreted ships. Secondly, they lacked navy generals.

If one said that the building of ships could be solved with time; then the lack of generals was fatal and could not be solved.

Pei Donglai was only an intermediate general. Be it in terms of skill or experience, he could not hold the flag of the navy.

When Ouyang Shuo went to visit Beihai City, Pei Donglai had raised a few points about navy development, which gave Ouyang Shuo a lot of ideas.

During this period of time, Ouyang Shuo took a look at the books during the Qing and Ming dynasties and gained a clearer understanding of how to build a navy.

Hence, he specially invited Pei Donglai and Du Ruhui to discuss this problem.

The three of them spent a whole day in his reading room before confirming the future plans and also the current organizations of the sailors.

Based on the plan, the future navy would be split into fleets, squadrons, divisions, and units. A fleet was similar to an army corp, a squadron similar to a legion, and a division was a division.

They would set up the Nanyang Navy to be in charge of the water battles around the South Pacific; it would have one admiral position. The Nanyang Navy would have several squadrons based on the situation.

Beihai Naval Fleet would be renamed the Beihai Bay Squadron. They would mainly be in charge of the battles around Beihai Bay. There would be one fleet admiral in charge, and his position would be the same as a general.

The Beihai Bay Squadron would be under the Nanyang Navy. At the same time, they would build the Yashan Squadron in Yazhou. They differed from the Beihai Bay Squadron in that they would mainly be in charge of the long distance battles in the South Pacific.

The Beihai Bay Squadron and the Yashan Squadron would be the two main squadrons under the Nanyang Navy.

Under the Beihai Bay Squadron, there would be four divisions.

The current Beihai Naval Fleet would be the 1st division of the Beihai Bay Squadron, and there would be one chief general, who would hold the same power as a major general. The sailor units under the division would each have a major.

The difference between the army and the navy was the lack of a regiment.

Pei Donglai was officially named the chief general of the first division.

The position of admiral and fleet admiral were both left empty.

At the same time, the war ship arrangement was also planned.

The basic arrangement was that a sailor unit would have a turreted boat and four Mengchong Warships as the main combat force, along with twelve cima boats as scouts.

Apart from cima boats, each warship would have one captain, chief officer, second officer, and third officer. Since the cima boats were small and only in charge of scouting, they would only have one captain.

With this, the Shanhai City navy had finally gotten onto the right track.

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Chapter 370- Intel Network

The completion of the changes in the Beihai Bay Squadron was only the first step.

Next, they needed to find a navy general.

The top ten navy generals in China included the Three Kingdoms Era Zhou Yu, Tang Dynasty Liu Rengui, South Song Era Li Bao and Zhang Hongfan, Yuan Dynasty Yu Tonghai, Ming Dynasty Zheng He, Deng Zilong, Yu Dayou, and Zheng Chenggong, and the last was Shi Lang from the Qing Dynasty. Near the end of the Qing Dynasty, when Deng Shichang was a general, they already had iron warships.

Out of all these generals, the earliest Zhou Yu appeared during the Three Kingdoms Era.

After the Battle of Changping, the next was the Battle of Julu. The end of the Battle of Julu would mark the start of the Qin Dynasty. It was an entire time period before the The Kingdoms Era.

Hence, it was impossible to achieve this through normal recruiting methods.

There were only two ways: either through the recruitment hall, or the summoning token.

The recruitment hall needed a year of cooldown time. As for the summoning token, without mentioning the difficulty of obtaining one, even if they had one, they must be lucky enough to summon a navy general.

Toward this matter, Ouyang Shuo really had no ideas.

He was so far away from achieving his target of setting up a strong navy.

He could only amass various warships, especially turreted ships. At the same time, he ordered Pei Donglai to continue training sailors for future expansion.

The large-scale storage of ships posed a problem. If sailors were not using them, it would result in a waste of resources.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo could only take it step by step.

3rd month 28th day.

Black Mamba found Ouyang Shuo and reported the results of a month's work done by the Black Snake Guards.

After a month of preparation, the Black Snake Guards had started operating in the nine imperial cities.

The Black Snake Guards had 370 odd mercenary group members as the core. Along with the NPCs, they had a total of five hundred men.

Apart from that, the conductor of the various intel stations spent large amounts of cash to purchase eyes all around. This included the likes of merchants, beggars, coolies, brothel girls, and more.

Although they did not look like much, they could bring in a lot of intel for the Black Snake Guards.

The next step was to take down the maidservants of the royals and the nobles, as well as the imperial city guilds.

With that, they would basically have a complete intel network in the imperial city.

Of course, as resources were limited, be it the targets or the normal folk, the intel needed time to be obtained.

After they bought over these eyes and ears, the Black Snake Guards needed to help them rise in power. After all, these people could not obtain much intel yet due to their low positions.

For example, for the chosen beggar, they needed to make him the head of the beggars of a region. For a brothel girl, they needed to make her famous. For a coolie, they needed to help make him successful.

All in all, nurturing intel sources was a long and complicated process. It could not be rushed.

Only by nurturing their sources step by step would they be loyal and reliable.

For players, they were mainly gathered in guilds and territories.

Guilds were broken in through bribing or infiltrating. They probably would not learn much, just the rough direction the guild was moving in.

Similarly, if they got promoted to a position of power, their value would grow greater. If they were able to become a core member, then they would have really succeeded.

Different from NPCs, the player’s loyalty was a problem.

Hence, for some guilds, the snake guards themselves had to go undercover to personally obtain intel.

Basically, all the guilds in the TOP 10 had undercover snake guards, including those in the alliance.

For territories, they had formed hidden contact points.

Then, the manager of that contact point would build a network in the territory.

As the territories were special, they decided for the managers of these contact points to be NPCs. If players took up these roles, it was easy to raise the doubts of the lords.

Hence, the Black Snake Guards were training the various NPCs in the intel stations, forming an elite batch of spies.

As they were still training the NPCs, the infiltration of territories had not begun.

Lastly, the Black Snake Guards took over the eyes and ears the Rattlesnake Mercenary Group had placed down. At this point, their intel network was barely staying afloat.

When Ouyang Shuo heard all of this news, his mouth was agape.

If they could really follow Black Mamba's plan, that would be amazing. The future China region, be it the imperial cities, guilds, or territories, these groups could not escape their eyes.

Of course, a plan was just a plan. For it to work, time and effort were needed.

Even with a bunch of professionals and huge financial support, it would take a year or more to build such an intel network.

When he saw this, Ouyang Shuo took out twenty thousand gold from his backup funds and passed it to Black Mamba.

Toward Ouyang Shuo's support, Black Mamba was naturally really excited. What he was currently doing was far more interesting than what he did in the Rattlesnake Mercenary Group.

Black Mamba could feel the cold blood inside him start to boil once again.

The reason Ouyang Shuo supported the Black Snake Guards was also because he felt some danger in what they described. If they could build such an intel network, couldn’t Di Chen and the others do so too?

Maybe, a territory was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of their powers.

The large powers probably could not compare with Ouyang Shuo in running a territory or knowledge of the game. But in other areas, they far surpassed him.

Building an intel network was naturally something they were good at.

He was too careless!

During the Battle of Lianzhou, three territories betraying him was already a sign. The intel network of Di Chen had in fact already seeped into the Lianzhou Basin.

However, Ouyang Shuo had not known.

When he thought about it, he felt a shiver run down his spine, and he told his thoughts to Black Mamba.

When Black Mamba heard this, he kept silent.

After a long while, he calmly said, "Do not worry, lord. I'll personally clean up Lianzhou and within two months I'll find all the spies hidden here."

What Black Mamba said was find, not remove.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this, he nodded. Some spies, as long as they just scrutinized them, did not need to be removed. Maybe, they could have some uses too.

"Thank you!"

Black Mamba nodded and did not say anything more.

Apart from the intel network, Black Mamba also heard some interesting news.

The matter Ouyang Shuo paid the most attention to was naturally the events between Star Alliance and Thread.

"The Rumor between Xingzhe Zichen and Qing Sikou is a fact. On the other hand, Star Alliance is really pushing Thread into a corner."

"It seems like it's time for us to act!"

Ouyang Shuo laughed, appearing very confident.

When Black Mamba heard this, he looked at Ouyang Shuo with a weird expression. He did not understand what trump card Ouyang Shuo possessed to have such confidence in snatching Thread from the mouths of Star Alliance.

Although they were newly built, they had a strong ally in Jianqi Zongheng. They also had the backings of Handan County. To beat them was not an easy matter.

Without mentioning other factors, even Xingzhe Zichen's family was not something to underestimate.

For a hidden aristocratic family to come out, naturally, they would give it their all. If Ouyang Shuo wanted to beat them, he needed to pay a price.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo would not explain anything to Black Mamba.

That afternoon, he brought four Guards and teleported to Jingdou. Then, he entered the office there.

The conductor of that intel station was White Snake.

Out of the nine imperial cities, Jingdu was really important, so White Snake was one of the best out of all of them.

White Snake described in detail the intel that they had obtained.

Based on what they knew, under the oppression of Star Alliance, Thread was nearly in chaos. They could not buy any rare resources, and the members had started to grow unhappy.

Their leader, Qing Sikou, had started to release control. She was right about to give up and surrender.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this news, he said, "Help me ask Qing Sikou out for a meeting."

"No problem."

The Black Snake Guards had moved into Jingdu for a month. They definitely had ways to contact her. As a professional, White Snake naturally would not ask about Ouyang Shuo’s reason and goal.

To him, he just needed to follow orders.

After he left, Ouyang Shuo remained alone in the room and prepared for the meeting tomorrow.

Chapter 371- Relocating

3rd month 29th day, Ouyang Shuo arranged to meet Qing Sikou.

Their meeting location was a tea house in Jingdu known as Yi Pingxiang.

Ouyang Shuo arrived half an hour early and chose a room on the second floor. Not only could they admire the scenery outside, this move also ensured their secrecy.

Qing Sikou was a cold girl. When she came in, Ouyang Shuo was brewing the tea.

"Lord Wuyi, I've heard so much about you!"

"I've also heard much about you, guild leader Qing." Ouyang Shuo smiled. He personally poured a cup for her and said, "Golden emperor chrysanthemum tea, please enjoy!"

Qing Sikou picked up the cup, her actions very gentle and graceful. As she took a sip, her eyes lit up instantly, "I did not expect Lord Wuyi to know so much about tea."

Drinking flower tea in spring, there was nothing more perfect than that.

As the guild leader of Thread, Qing Sikou naturally knew all about tea, wine, food and the like.

In real-life, Qing Sikou was an especially refined and elegant lady. Not only did she look graceful, her taste was also refined. It was not easy for Ouyang Shuo to receive her praise.

In his last life, Ouyang Shuo did not like to drink wine, but he loved to drink tea. This became his hobby, so he knew a lot about tea.

"I just know a little. It's nothing compared to guild leader Qing."

Qing Sikou looked at Ouyang Shuo expressionlessly. In her eyes, there was a tangible tiredness, she did not want to beat around the bush and directly said, "For Lord Wuyi to invite me here, it definitely is not just to drink tea, right?"

To tell the truth, if it was not Ouyang Shuo, she would not have come. The current her had too many problems, and she did not have any energy to attend such meetings.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, "You can probably guess the reason why I am here!"

"Oh? You are also interested in Thread?"

In her words, there was an obvious coldness. The atmosphere was not as friendly as before. Recently, a similar strong man had forced her, making her feel really annoyed.

When she saw Ouyang Shuo, she could not act too rudely, but her originally good impression of him was gone.

Ouyang Shuo expected this reaction, "Guild Leader Qing, why not hear me out?"

When he thought of his identity as the best player, Qing Sikou held down her unhappiness. Xingze Zichen had recently forced her into a corner, and she even had thoughts of quitting. When she met Ouyang Shuo, she only held a slim hope of him being able to help.

She said calmly, "Please speak!"

"Guild Leader Qing, have you heard of Yazhou?"

"Yazhou?" Qing Sikou was confused.

Players, especially adventure gamemode players, were not very sensitive toward the China region map.

Ouyang Shuo added, "Qiongzhou island?"

"Qiongzhou Island?" Qing Sikou was astonished.

One of the two biggest islands on China. Naturally, Qiongzhou Island had a thunderous fame amongst players.

When he saw her reaction, Ouyang Shuo nodded.

That was right.

The secrecy of the three elite guild forces till date was something that pleased him. Evidently, no news regarding Yazhou had spread to the adventure gamemode players.

He noticed that Qing Sikou still had her doubts, so Ouyang Shuo gave her a simple introduction to Yazhou.

After she heard his, she kept silent for a long while.

As a guild leader, she naturally was not stupid. From Ouyang Shuo's description, she could roughly understand that Yazhou was a paradise for work occupation players.

"Lord Wuyi is not afraid that I will leak this?"

Ouyang Shuo laughed confidently, "I trust your character, and I also trust my own eyes."

"...."

What a confident person.

"Can you be more specific?"

Qing Sikou realized that maybe this was the chance she had been waiting for.

"Of course." Ouyang Shuo nodded, "Thread will move their headquarters to Yashan City and will be protected by it. Outside the city, there are swathes of land that work occupation players can use. In the city, there are also different places for talents and artisans to practice their craft."

"What about rare resources? How will you solve this?" Qing Sikou was not satisfied. The reason Thread was in such a situation was still due to the other guilds hogging the rare materials.

"The future Yashan City will attract large amounts of adventure mode players and also many guilds. The resources of the Five Finger Mountain are plentiful, and I believe Thread will be able to cooperate with these players.”

Qing Sikou's eyes brightened.

When he saw that she was a little tempted, Ouyang Shuo threw down his last assault, "War-Snow Rose Mercenary Group, Qingfeng Pavillion, and Tingyu Floor. Toward these three guilds, I have some influence. Even if Thread is not able to get rare resources from other players, I can help you out."

When Qing Sikou heard this, she was astonished.

"I have to say, Lord Wuyi has nearly persuaded me but…."

Qing Sikou stopped.

Ouyang Shuo frowned; he had not expected this reaction.

Rationally speaking, compared to the merger plans of the Star Alliance and Jianqi Zongheng, his proposal had less restrictions on Thread.

Basically, it was an equal-level cooperation.

Ouyang Shuo could not think of a reason why she would reject this deal.

"Guild Leader Qing, why not speak out your qualms or fears? Please do not doubt my sincerity."

"I naturally do not doubt your sincerity."

Qing Sikou sighed; she was also feeling regretful about missing such an opportunity, "Do you know Xingzhe Zichen’s identity?"

Ouyang Shuo understood; no wonder she was worried. Naturally, a hidden aristocratic family scared and terrified normal players.

In his last life, Ouyang Shuo was similar, and he was very respectful to such big powers.

This life, it was very different.

Different experiences had given Ouyang Shuo a different determination. He calmly said, "It's just a hidden aristocratic family, it is not enough to worry me. There’s no need for you to worry about this.”

"What? You actually know his identity?"

Qing Sikou was shocked. She looked at Ouyang Shuo with awe.

This man was really unfathomable.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, "Guild Leader Qing, you do not need to worry. Shanhai City will help you out against Star Alliance and Jianqi Zongheng."

"With your promise, I have nothing to worry about!"

Ouyang Shuo's promise had totally helped rid Qing Sikou of her worries.

In a short half an hour meeting, the man in front of her had totally convinced her. Her confidence and impression of Ouyang Shuo had increased by many folds.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and raised his hand, "Happy cooperation!"

"Happy cooperation!"

The two of them had officially agreed to work with one another. Next, they had to work out the specific details.

As one of the TOP 10 guilds, apart from a main guild, Thread also had ten branch guilds. All of them were maxed member large-sized guilds, with a total of 110 thousand.

Compared to the other top guilds, they could be considered to have relatively lesser members.

The ones with the most were the first-ranked Blood Evil Mercenary Group, with a total of three hundred thousand members. Basically, all the other guilds in the TOP 10 had around two hundred thousand.

Due to the recent changes, many had quit Thread, mostly from the branch guilds.

Hence, their numbers had fallen to around a hundred thousand.

Toward these members, Ouyang Shuo was still wary of them. Among these people, there would be many spies.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to use this chance to clean out the guild.

Qing Sikou did not express any objection toward Ouyang Shuo's views.

In truth, large numbers of members leaving was the reason why Qing Sikou felt so disappointed. She did not think that the guild she tried so hard to run would actually fail to withstand this test.

Ouyang Shuo also promised Thread a series of benefits after they shifted over their headquarters. For example, half rent and tax for a year.

At the same time, the Four Seas Bank branch in Yashan City would loan money to Thread members to open shops or farms.

As for the specifics, it needed both parties to discuss.

After they reached an agreement, both of them left.

Qing Sikou needed to tell the members about the move, while Ouyang Shuo had other matters to handle.

The two of them agreed that Thread would need to move over two days later, on the 4th month 1st day.

This news definitely could not be hidden from the Star Alliance.

Ouyang Shuo could not foresee what would happen. He could only prepare for the worst. Based on Ouyang Shuo's character, he always thought the worst of people and made preparations based on such a premise.

When Qing Sikou returned to the headquarters, she immediately sent a message through the guild channel.

"Members, I’m Qing Sikou!"

With her sudden appearance, the guild channel went from total silence to total excitement.

During this period of time, Thread was in chaos. She had not expressed any opinions about this, causing the members to panic.

Now that the guild leader had stood out, it seems like everything would be solved.

Some members were distraught, while others were excited.

They were about to face the judgement of fate.

The spies that the Star Alliance had arranged in Thread were excited. The way they saw it, their master must have successfully taken her down.

When they thought about this, these spies did not even wait for her to announce anything. They spread the news to their superiors because they wanted to gain credit.

In less than ten minutes, Star Alliance leader Xingzhe Zichen received the news.

The spies were delighted. Based on their work, they could definitely get a position inside the Star Alliance. The identity of their leader was not some secret in the inner segments of the guild.

Hence, the members felt that the guild had potential. As a result, they worked so hard.

If they could be highly regarded by Xingzhe Zichen, would that not settle their lives?

Chapter 372- When the Tree Falls, the Monkeys Scatter

However, the spies that the Star Alliance had planted in Thread were not happy for long.

Qing Sikou announced the news in the guild channel.

"Facing the current situation, I've decided to allow members to leave. You can either be solo players or join other guilds; I won’t interfere with any decision you make."

The moment her words landed, the guild channel exploded.

The 110 thousand members were split into two groups.

One group chose to leave upon hearing her words. Since their leader had given up, what was the point of them staying?

Why not just leave on good terms?

As work occupation players, the members were not afraid of failing to find a new home.

Of course, some of them had gotten sick of the backstabbing that occured in guilds. Hence, they decided to become solo players. They would run a shop in the imperial city to earn money and raise their skills.

The other group were the loyal members who tried to stop Qing Sikou.

"Guild leader, don’t. We don’t want to leave Thread."

"That's right. It's our home; we won’t leave!"

"Leader, we built this up with so much hard work, don’t disband!"

"Leader, say something!"

"If Thread disbands, what can we do?"

Some of the members were thrown into disarray; they seemed like baby wolves that lost their mother.

Qing Sikou was currently feeling very conflicted.

On one side, she could hear notifications of members leaving, while on the other, she could hear members begging.

The members that stayed let her know that there were still loyal people in the guild. They were connected and belonged to the guild.

Even so, she had to continue this cruel test.

Qing Sikou shouted out once again, "Thread will not disband, but we won’t merge with any other guild. If despite that, you want to stay, I won’t say anything."

Even some of the loyal members started to waver the moment she said that.

After these few occurrences, Thread had fallen down the guild rankings and had an unknown future.

As a result, the ambitious members chose to leave.

More and more members chose to leave.

At first, it was just the outer group members. Now, even the elite and core members chose to leave.

When Qing Sikou saw this scene, a tinge of sadness appeared in her eyes. Especially after she saw core members leave, it left a huge impact on her. These people were the ones that had fought by her side for so long over many games.

She did not expect them to choose to leave at this crucial moment.

The real life interests that Earth Online affected were simply too big. The motives of playing were not so pure anymore, and these interests greatly tested the loyalty of the players.

If the tree falls, the monkeys will leave.

Suddenly, she also felt a sense of relief. She hoped that after this, Thread would revive itself in Yazhou.

In an entire afternoon, a total of forty thousand members had left. Those who had not left yet were mainly still exchanging guild contribution points for items.

Before they left, the members would basically spend up all the contribution points they had accumulated.

All of a sudden, the resources in the storage of Thread that had piled up like mountains started to disappear at a fast rate.

As the guild leader, she could prevent them from exchanging, but she did not. After all, they had earned the points with their hard work, and they also had the right to leave.

This series of events had totally fallen outside of the expectations of the spies. Their excitement turned into shock. They could only laugh bitterly and report the new intel.

After they heard that a large amount of the Thread members had left, the guilds in Jingdu bustled with excitement.

When both Jianqi Zongheng and Star Alliance acted, the other guilds who knew that this would happen backed off.

Since Thread refused to merge with other guilds, the members that left would not belong to anywhere and could be recruited.

The various guilds started to recruit members who had left Thread on a large-scale.

At the start, they went to receive the new members one by one.

As things progressed, they decided they would rather just set up a recruitment station outside Thread, as there were just too many of them.

The Thread members that chose to leave packed their stuff. Then, the moment they left the base, various guild members pestered them.

This scene was highly explosive.

Some guilds even fought right on the streets to snatch members.

In the imperial city, fighting was prohibited. If not, the moment they were caught, they needed to go to jail. They were not Blood Blade, who could escape easily as a single person.

Hence, they could only quarrel or have some simple fist fights. Even if the constables rushed here, as long as it was not a riot, they could explain the situation.

Not only the Thread headquarters, the other ten branch guild bases also had similar scenes. Around the headquarters were the large-guilds, while around the branches were the middle-sized guilds.

As for the small-sized guilds, Thread members definitely would not consider going to them.

Jianqi Zongheng was present too.

Since Star Alliance could not take down Thread, naturally, Jianqi Zongheng would not care. They ordered their managers and recruiters to take in large amounts of Thread members.

Such a scene even alarmed other imperial cities.

Blood Evil Mercenary Group, Streamer, and Eighteen Horsemen of Yanyun even came over to poach people.

This scene was like a buffet.

And Thread was the only dish.

In this feast, the angriest and most annoyed person had to be Xingzhe Zichen.

After he received the initial intel, he was delighted that his first battle had ended in a victory. With that, the people who disagreed in his family were totally proven wrong.

However, the feeling in his heart was not as good when he got the second news.

He went from the peak, right into the deep trenches.

He scolded out, "Scum! Actually choosing to disband rather than joining me."

Xingzhe Zichen totally hated Qing Sikou, the person who had caused all of this.

He had never faced such humiliation in his life.

He was so furious that he was about to lose his rationality. He even wanted to send people to take revenge.

Luckily, there were some smart people in Star Alliance.

At the crucial moment, their advisor stepped out, "We can take revenge next time. What's more important is for us to attract more members of Thread now."

When Xingzhe Zichen heard these words, his anger faded. He patted the advisor’s shoulder and commended, "You're right. You'll be in charge of this."

"Thank you, leader!"

He backed off and started to join the feast.

This lasted all the way till the afternoon of the next day before it ended.

On the 3rd month, 30th day, 4 PM, there were less than ten thousand members left in Thread.

Facing such a situation, Qing Sikou felt heartbroken.

When she had agreed on this test, she had expected large amounts of members to leave. But she did not think that 90% of them would.

She even doubted herself and wondered if she was a failure of a guild leader.

Now, the ones that remained were the truly loyal members. All the spies were basically cleared out.

Star Alliance only had one spy left. They were only there because Xingzhe Zichen still hated her and wanted to take revenge.

During this feast, Star Alliance had only recruited three thousand. Jianqi Zongheng, on the other hand, recruited ten thousand and could form a work occupation branch guild.

All the guilds in Jingdou got a cut.

As for the other guilds in other imperial cities, they also gained a little bit. Blood Evil Mercenary Group had recruited five thousand, even more than Star Alliance, who was positioned at Thread’s home ground.

The influence of Star Alliance was obviously not as great as he had expected. Three thousand compared to ten thousand, the large difference made him furious.

He had decided to take revenge on Thread and make them leave Jingdu.

The three guilds in Shanhai Alliance also joined in the feast.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he did not do anything. He was the alliance leader, but he would not interfere in their internal decisions.

At 5 PM, Qing Sikou performed a rough calculation. Out of the ten thousand, the main guild had three thousand left.

When she got the numbers, she felt a little happier.

At least the main group was trustable. Additionally, out of the hundred core members, half of them stayed.

As for the ten branch guilds, most of them left. Some had one thousand remaining, mostly less than that. One or two newly set up branches basically only had a few left, while the rest had all left.

Helplessly, she could only gather all of them into the main guild. As for the ten branch guilds, they would be left as empty shells.

Qing Sikou gathered her feelings and started to speak in the guild channel.

"Fellow members, I am Qing Sikou!"

The same words sounded out, but they contained a totally different meaning now.

The change that the guild had undergone had left the ten thousand of them terrified.

This was the weakest moment of Thread but also its strongest moment. The remaining members were totally united, they could only ride through this by staying together.

"Through troubles, we can see the truth. At the crucial moment, I've seen your loyalty, and I'm really touched by this. Now, I'm going to announce that our headquarters will move to Yashan City."

"Yashan City?"

"Yashan City is a base that Qiyue Wuyi has built in Qiongzhou Island. It will be where we spend our future. If you do not want to leave Jingdou, you can leave the guild. I won’t force you."

Qing Sikou did not describe Yashan City much. Even so, the golden signboard of Qiyue Wuyi made all of them see some light in this darkness.

When they heard these words, only a few members left the guild because they did not want to leave Jingdou. Qing Sikou prepared some compensation for these members.

After all, they had passed the test. Naturally, they should get some rewards.

In the storage of the guild, there was only a portion of resources left. After all, they were just basic resources and Qing Sikou had kept the rare ones.

The valuable resources were the industries that the guild set up in Jingdou, including the hundreds of workshops and fifty to sixty shops.

Some shops were even in the bustling areas of Jingdou.

These businesses were what they amassed in this year. Their goal was to build a stable platform that would provide the guild with their main source of gold.

Qing Sikou sold all the products that the members processed.

The only thing she kept was the main courtyard. Firstly, she wanted to keep it as a memory. Moreover, she wanted to leave some assets in Jingdou for when they return.

Even the empty shells of the ten branch guilds were sold to other guilds.

Qing Sikou had raised 160 thousand gold considering everything. This would be the capital Thread would use to rise up again in Yashan City.

Chapter 373- Arrogant and Domineering

Xingzhe Zichen was furious when he learned that Thread would move over to Yashan City. More so when he found out that Qiyue Wuyi caused all of this.

"Despicable, I won't let you get away with this!"

Xingzhe Zichen gritted his teeth, as viciousness flashed across his eyes.

"Men!"

"Leader!"

The advisor walked in. The failure of Star Alliance in recruiting the members of Thread made him very anxious. He was afraid that the guild leader would blame him. However, it was not that he did not put in effort. It was the simple fact that Star Alliance did not have enough strength.

Although Xingzhe Zichen was angry, he was still rational. Since he hailed from an aristocratic family, he had a good upbringing. He called the advisor over and gave them a mission.

After the advisor heard the details, he was astonished. After he thought about it, he held back his words. The guild leader was still really angry. Trying to persuade him was just looking for trouble.

Xingzhe Zichen could see his weird expression and coldly said, "If you have anything to say, just say it!"

When the advisor heard this, he knew that he had no choice but to express his views.

The advisor arranged his words and said, "Guild leader, this isn't beneficial to the Star Alliance. Instead, we will make a huge enemy. Isn't it not the right thing to do?"

Xingzhe Zichen shook his head, "You're wrong! Qiyue Wuyi is the enemy of the Yanhuang Alliance. As such, he's also our enemy. The Star Alliance has just joined the Yanhuang Alliance, and it’s time for us to do good. If we can insult him and also raise our status, isn't that good?"

When the advisor heard those words, he felt that it made sense and could not retort.

"Let's just set it like this!"

Xingzhe Zichen had lost all of his patience and waved the advisor off.

"Yes, guild leader!"

The advisor backed down and followed the orders of the guild leader.

4th month, 1st day, Jingdu.

The Thread members had finished packing up. They officially said goodbye to Jingdu and waltzed toward the only teleportation formation in Jingdou.

It was only now that the other guilds finally received the news that Thread was actually about to leave Jingdou.

When they saw such a scene, many of the players were shocked.

A guild that ranked in the TOP 10 had disappeared in a short two days. This huge change was something normal people could not understand.

Along the way, players pointed and commented on this group.

"Where's Thread moving to?"

"Who knows? They probably just want to leave this sad place."

"Aiyo, the symbol of the work occupation has ended just like this. Is there any way for us to get famous?"

The sighs of one of the tailors received a lot of agreement.

"The strong prey on the weak. What can we do?"

On the sides, there were even old Thread members. The symbols and badges of their new guilds were on their chests. When they saw their old comrades, their expressions were complicated.

Some felt regretful, while others mocked Thread.

Qing Sikou walked at the front, as she expressionlessly faced everyone. In her heart, she swore that she would return. Moreover, they would be even more glorious that before.

The other members were not as calm as her. Being criticized and judged in public was not something that felt good, and many of them felt embarrassed.

They only wished that this journey could end fast.

The teleportation formation stood in the biggest square of Jingdu. Compared to the ones in territories, the teleportation formation in the imperial city was a lot more busy. Every moment, people would teleport in and out.

The current square was a little unusual.

Twenty thousand Star Alliance members formed up circle after circle, surrounding the teleportation formation. Xingzhe Zichen stood at the outermost layer, as he waited quietly for Thread to arrive.

On the east side of the square, in one of the tea houses, Ouyang Shuo and his four guards quietly watched things unfold.

Ouyang Shuo felt that it was to be expected that Xingzhe Zichen would act. However, the latter’s shameless methods left him speechless.

Shameless.

The imperial city did not allow player killing, but it did not control where the players could stand. The Star Alliance members were allowed to stand like that.

With this move, Thread could not teleport out—a huge slap to their face. It was not just a slap to Qing Sikou but also to Ouyang Shuo.

After he thought about this, Ouyang Shuo took out something and passed it to one of the guards. He gave the latter some instructions. The guard nodded and left the tea house, disappearing.

In these two days, Ouyang Shuo had not just lazed around.

When the Thread members rushed to the square and saw such a formation, they were stunned.

"Xingzhe Zichen what's the meaning of this?"

Qing Sikou coldly stared at him, furious.

Originally, she was a little fearful. After all, he hailed from an aristocratic family. However, when she saw him perform such a despicable act, that fear disappeared. Only despise and hatred remained.

"There's no meaning!"

Xingzhe Zichen was delighted in his heart, but he acted really innocent on the surface.

"Don't you think this is too much?" Qing Sikou scolded.

"Too much?" Xingzhe Zichen blew up; his expression changed, as he loudly said, "Despicable b*tch! You dare to talk to me about being too much? You agreed with me but turned and jumped into Qiyue Wuyi's arms. If I don't kill you, how am I supposed to appease this anger?!"

"You!" All of a sudden, Qing Sikou was so furious that she did not know what to say. No one had ever insulted her so badly since she was born.

People filled the current square. Naturally, everyone heard their exchange.

Uproar!

Qing Sikou was one of the four heroines of the adventure gamemode players, yet someone insulted her to such an extent.

"You're too much!"

"That's right. Luckily, we did not join the Star Alliance. What a dog sh*t guild leader, such trash!"

All these men who grumbled only did so quietly. No one dared to stand out to say this.

When he witnessed such a scene, Xingzhe Zichen grew more and more delighted.

As a heir of an aristocratic family, he was asked to act low profile since his birth. Even though they held so much power and money, he could only act as a normal person.

This long period of suppression had made him lose his original nature; it had changed his personality.

Now, he really enjoyed the feeling of attention and the eyes of everyone.

He, the son of an aristocratic family, the mysterious Chi Cultivator, was destined to be the shining light.

Compared to Di Chen, who came from a large power, Xingzhe Zichen had undergone traditional aristocratic family education. In his heart, there was nothing that said everyone was equal.

Hence, that was why he would call her a b*tch and did not even hesitate when he scolded her. He did not find anything wrong with it.

It was not that no one in the square dared to go against the Star Alliance. They were silent as they were digesting the other intel that Xingzhe Zichen had revealed.

Qiyue Wuyi!

Behind Thread actually stood Qiyue Wuyi. This was something that no one had expected.

These two powers had no relation to one another, but they actually grouped up, shocking everyone.

Then, they realized that Xingzhe Zichen was not just going against Qing Sikou. He was also acting against Qiyue Wuyi, the huge giant that stood in the China region.

Just the thought of challenging him would make one tremble.

Hence, they did not do anything because they did not think Shanhai City would just let this side. Since that was the case, they just needed to wait and watch the show.

They were calm, but that did not mean that the Thread members were calm. When they saw their guild leader being insulted, they blew up and looked like they were about to pick a fight.

"**, kill them!"

"Let’s step on them!"

Luckily, Qing Sikou maintained her rationality and stopped her members from fighting. It was impossible for work occupation players to go against combat occupation players twice their number.

Qing Sikou was just waiting for the arrival of one person.

When Xingzhe Zichen looked at the angry faces of the Thread members and saw that none of them dared to rush up, he became more arrogant and laughed, "All you young kids, go back to your mummies!"

Along with their guild leader, the members of Star Alliance also mocked Thread.

Ouyang Shuo picked up his tea, as he sat in the tea house. He took a slow sip, "I don't like this guy."

White Snake heart tightened when he heard those words, as he sat opposite Ouyang Shuo. He knew exactly how much weight those words held. It was basically a death sentence for Star Alliance.

White Snake took a look at Xingzhe Zichen, as pity appeared in his eyes. He was too young and rash. Did he really think that a hidden aristocratic family was very big in the game?

Sadly, he did not know how powerful Ouyang Shuo was.

Even Yanhuang Alliance would act careful and wary when they faced Ouyang Shuo. After failing several times, some members even had a phobia, like Sha Pojun.

White Snake really could not understand why Xingzhe Zichen would feel so confident. White Snake only knew that he needed to infiltrate Star Alliance and lay a path for his lord.

Not only that, it was time to act on the other guilds in Jingdou.

Star Alliance was the first sharpening stone for the Jingdou intel station.

At this point, the guard had returned and whispered something into Ouyang Shuo's ear. Ouyang Shuo nodded and stood up, "We should head down. Let’s not make our friend wait."

Chapter 374- Arrogant? I'm More Arrogant!

When Ouyang Shuo walked down the stairs, he bumped into a white shirt scholar.

This man looked very handsome. He seemed talented but reserved, making one feel inspired.

Ouyang Shuo's eyes focused; he did not expect to meet such a peerless and graceful figure in the tea house. As he had some matters to attend to, Ouyang Shuo could not start a conversation with him. He just slightly nodded and brushed past the latter.

In the square, Star Alliance and Thread stood in a stalemate.

At this very moment, a team of constables suddenly ran over. They had around two hundred men. A middle-aged constable led them. He wore a Wuliang Crown on his head and a Yulong robe on his body. Additionally, he had a Xiuchun knife on his waist.

"Who dares to create trouble in Jingdou?"

This middle-aged constable was the head of a hall; his position was not low. Above him were the elder, deputy commander, and the commander.

When he saw the police force suddenly appear, Xingzhe Dichen was shocked. He felt a bad premonition. As he noticed the leader asking them questions, Xingzhe Dichen told his advisor to go up and answer.

Although the advisor felt alarmed, he was still calm. He walked out and bowed, "We are members of the Star Alliance. We are only having a gathering here. We do not dare to create trouble."

The middle-aged constable laughed coldly. How could such poor acting fool him? He barked, "Impudence! You are obviously here to affect the order of the teleportation formation. Men, place them all into the jail!"

"Yes, sir!"

In an instant, two hundred constables went up with chains to capture them.

Two hundred constables up against twenty thousand players. Despite that, the constables did not show any fear. In Jingdu, no guild would dare to go up against the police force, as they represented the Jingdu Imperial Court.

Without mentioning the hundred thousand palace guards, even the police force had around ten thousand men. Furthermore, great martial artists filled their ranks.

They really did not need to use any energy to take down the Star Alliance.

The crowd that was just standing around felt dazzled when they saw the sudden change in the situation.

"What happened? Why did the police force come?"

"Did the Star Alliance make enemies with someone? They have knocked into an iron brick!"

"Hehe, there’s something nice to watch now!"

"What is this called? Trying to embarrass someone but being embarrassed instead?"

"I did not expect Thread to have such a backer!"

"If they were so strong, Qing Sikou would not be in such a situation!"

A player retorted.

"You're right, so who is helping Thread?"

Along with these words, the group of people crowding around looked toward someone.

This player was called Dalang Taosha. He could be considered someone with a little knowledge. Once he saw himself become the centre of attention, he did not get happy. Instead, he tried to dampen it, "Are you all stupid? Did you hear what Xingzhe Zichen said? That Thread got Qiyue Wuyi to help them? Think about it, which lord has the most power in Jingdu?"

"That can’t be true!" The other players did not believe it, "No matter how strong Qiyue Wuyi is, he can’t possibly activate the police force!"

In their eyes, the police force was an unassailable presence.

Even their most ordinary member could compete with the pinnacle of players.

Dalang Taosha scoffed, "Shallow. Don’t forget that he's different from us. The imperial court officially granted him his title. Activating the police would be the least of his powers!"

When the players heard this, they threw glances of admiration at Dalang Taosha. In his heart, he felt delighted. However, he acted like nothing had happened on the surface.

When the other players saw this, they were really impressed—this guy was smart!

Some of the smart ones wanted to add him as a Friend and have relations with him.

Dalang Taosha did not reject any; he even pulled the group to a corner very secretively. They looked on in excitement, eager for what he was about to reveal.

However, they only saw him take out an old armor, "Armor making, silver quality. Five gold for one. Do you all want one?"

His current eyes were so sincere.

"...."

Their image of him instantly crumbled.

They did not think that this guy was actually a scum merchant. He would try to sell such an old armor for five gold. They all shook their heads and left. Some of them even deleted him from their Friends List.

"Aiyo do not leave. It’s all silver quality from Shanhai City. A definite elite item!"

His expression instantly changed, and he formed a shrewd smile.

"Do not pull me!"

When the other players heard his words, they ran even faster and quickly disappeared.

"Brother, we can discuss the price. Do not leave!"

All of a sudden, all the players had left and no one remained.

Dalang Taosha shook his head and sighed. He saw that one guy at the corner had not left, so he smiled and asked, "Brother, do you want one?"

The player looked at the armor and drooled, "Skilled player, skilled player. I-I only have one gold." He took out one gold as he said that.

It was obvious that this gold was all of his assets. As such, he cherished it a lot.

Dalang Taosha did not know whether to laugh or cry. The armor he was trying to sell came from the War-Snow Rose Mercenary Group. He wanted to resell it to earn the difference in price.

His purchase price was one gold.

When he saw the rookie in front of him, his heart softened, and he decided to sell one to him. Maybe, he had remembered what he was like when he started in the game. As a result, he decided to sow some good karma.

Unfortunately, the kid that started out pure had turned into a scamming merchant.

When the player received the armor, he felt delighted and was emotional beyond words, "You are a good person. Thank you, thank you!"

Faced with the pure small warrior, Dalang Taosha could only act valiant and magnanimous. He said, "It is not worth much. Little brother, good luck!"

"En!" The rookie nodded his head.

Unknown to Dalang Taosha, his actions had created one of the future experts of the game.

However, this was a matter for the future. It was not important now.

He saw that the situation was growing out of hand, so Xingzhe Zichen quickly stepped up.

He walked to the side of the middle-aged constable and sneakily handed over a gold note. Then, he softly said, "Sir, sorry for this. We will leave now. This is just a little token of our sincerity. Please accept it."

Only the heavens knew how angry and annoyed Xingzhe Zichen was now. He really lost too much face today. He really did not expect the police force to suddenly rush over.

Under normal circumstances, if there were no major incidents or assassinations, the police force would not care no matter what the players did. Who knows what medicine they ate today to suddenly bother about this small matter.

It was not that Xingzhe Zichen did not think that Qiyue Wuyi might have caused this, but even a lord could not activate the police force. In Jingdu, there were so many of them.

The elders in the police force would not take orders from the lords and help them solve their problems.

It was just as he had expected. The police force would not easily make a move. However, Ouyang Shuo was different.

During the first day of the New Year, after Ouyang Shuo faced an assassination attempt, the police force had failed to find the assailant. The one in charge was the middle-aged constable before him.

Hence, he felt like he owed Ouyang Shuo something.

Faced with Ouyang Shuo's request for help, he did not hesitate and instantly agreed.

Hence, these series of events occurred.

When he saw the two hundred gold ticket that Xingzhe Zichen passed to him, a look of despise flashed across his face. The Lianzhou Lord had rewarded him with five thousand gold.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo did not spend so much gold just for this matter. He also wanted to create relations in Jingdou. In the future, the work of the Black Snake Guards would have some backing.

Strictly speaking, two hundred gold could be considered a lot, and it was close to half a year of the middle-aged constable's pay.

Unfortunately, someone had offered a higher price.

He laughed coldly, "Wow, someone actually tries to bribe an official. Men!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Take this man down and hand him over to the Yamen."

"Yes, sir!"

They did not hesitate and immediately chained up Xingzhe Zichen.

"Ah?"

Before he could even react, he was taken. Even till now, he did not understand what he did wrong. He followed the usual act of paying a fee to gain better relations. This was the usual method to make the other party give him a chance. However, they actually did not fall for it.

"Bring him away!"

The middle-aged constable was expressionless.

When they saw their guild leader being taken down, the Star Alliance members could only follow on without making too much noise.

The police force were quick and used long metal chains to chain them all up into line after line. Then, they brought them back to the Yamen.

This scene was really majestic.

When the crowd saw this scene, their mouths gaped open.

……

"Star Alliance won’t be able to survive in Jingdou anymore!"

Being seen as monkeys, the members of the Star Alliance hung their heads low; they felt utterly embarrassed.

When the members of all the powers saw this scene, their hearts tightened.

One would rather make enemies with the God of Hell than the Lianzhou Lord!

The middle-aged constable did not care and went before Qing Sikou. Then, he warmly said, "Guild leader Qing? Please forgive me for not doing my job and inconveniencing you."

Normally, he would not act so well-mannered and polite. All of this was just a matter of giving the Lianzhou Lord face.

When Qing Sikou heard these words, tears nearly rolled down her face. The embarrassment and insult that she suffered, Ouyang Shuo had made up for it by several times; this respect was more important than anything else.

At this moment, the Thread members held their heads up high.

"Thank you, sir, for your help!" Qing Sikou bowed.

The middle-aged constable waved her off. Then, he led his force and left. He had done all that he could do.

Only after the police force had taken away all the members of Star Alliance did Ouyang Shuo finally appear. Although everyone had guessed that he had used his power to create this situation, he did not want to confirm that he had activated the police force.

When they all saw Ouyang Shuo appear, the square was sent into a state of uproar.

In the end, in this whole episode, Ouyang Shuo was the main character.

Chapter 375- The Enemy of My Enemy, Is My Friend

Ouyang Shuo walked in front of Qing Sikou. Then, he only said one sentence, "Take care!"

She nodded; the two of them had formed a tacit understanding.

Saying anymore would just be a waste of words.

After this simple goodbye, Qing Sikou brought Thread and teleported to Yashan City. At this point, Sun Xiaoyue was already waiting besides the teleportation formation.

Ouyang Shuo did not follow along to Yashan City, as Shanhai City still had some matters for him to handle. He also believed that Yashan City, with both Sun Xiaoyue and Bai Nanpu, could temporarily handle things.

As this matter came to an end, the smart players knew that the animosity between the two men would create future developments.

Jingdu was destined for a lack of peace and quiet.

After he sent away Thread, Ouyang Shuo walked back toward the tea house. Ouyang Shuo felt that the white shirt scholar was not a simple person, and he wanted to get to know them.

Unfortunately, when Ouyang Shuo rushed back to the tea house, he did not see any signs of the scholar.

"Waiter, did you see a white shirt scholar?"

Ouyang Shuo handed over a piece of gold, as he asked one of the waiters in the tea house.

When he received the gold, the waiter smiled widely; this gold coin was equal to two months of his pay, "There's such a person, but he has already left."

"How long? And in which direction?"

"He just left. As for which direction, I do not know!"

Ouyang Shuo felt disappointed, but he did not want to give up. As such, he said to his four Guards, "He should not be far away. Let's split up and chase, quickly!"

"Lord, this...." the Guards were faced with a difficult situation.

"What?"

"Lord, if we all leave, what will happen to you?"

After the Jingdou assassination incident, Wang Feng had chosen eight of the finest Guards from the Guards Regiment—the current palace guards—to work in two shifts to protect Ouyang Shuo twenty-four seven.

"It's fine. I'll follow the lord!" White Snake stepped out.

The Guards wanted to say something, but Ouyang Shuo interrupted them. He asked them to quickly give chase.

Ouyang Shuo, on the other hand, brought White Snake and chased toward the east.

Compared to Shanhai City, Jingdu was bustling. The roads intersected one another, and there were numerous streets and alleys. Amongst the sea of people, Ouyang Shuo did not manage to see the white shirt scholar.

"Forget it. Let's stop chasing!"

Ouyang Shuo sighed. Half an hour had passed, and all clues were lost.

His stupid luck stat. It really did not give him any opportune moments.

Ouyang Shuo was pretty sure that the scholar was a historical figure from the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period.

As for whether he was from a period before that, he would have either come out already or became a hermit, so it was not possible. Even the Shang Dynasty famous figure Yiyin was recruited by a player known as Chen Hang.

Based on the sources, Chen Hang was a strong lord in Jianye. After he recruited Yiyin, his reputation in the area bloomed, and he became the leader of an alliance in the area.

Not just the Shang Dynasty, even a large portion of the figures from the Spring and Autumn Era had already taken up roles. The players tried to keep many of them a secret, but as more and more alliances were built, they were slowly revealed on forums.

The current territories basically all had one to two historical figures, either civil servants or generals.

In regards to this point, Gaia was very fair.

The most stunning one was Wuqi, who had taken up a role in King County. Who knows what Xiongba, that old fox, did to convince Wuqi.

Wuqi could be said to be a presence equal to Sun Bin. In fact, he might even be better.

When White Snake noticed the lord’s disappointment, he said, "Lord, I feel that we might find clues if we return. With the nature of scholars, since they chose one tea house, they would frequent it."

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, his eyes brightened, and he face palmed, "Why didn’t I think of that!"

"Go, let's return to the tea house!"

When they returned, all of the other guards had also gotten back.

As expected, they did not manage to find anything either.

Ouyang Shuo was not dejected. He found the waiter and asked, “Does that white shirt scholar frequent this tea house?"

The waiter knew that he was speaking to a lord, so he did not dare to tarry, "Lord, you've asked the right person. That fellow does not come everyday; he only comes when the tea house has chess games."

"Chess games?"

"That's right, to attract customers, the tea house will hold five chess games a month. Customers can drink tea and watch the games at the same time," the waiter proudly introduced.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “When's the next one?"

"In five days!"

When Ouyang Shuo heard this, he took out another gold coin and passed it to the waiter, "Five days later, I'll come once more. Help me book a room. If that mister arrives earlier than me, lead him to that room. Do you understand?"

"Do not worry, I'll do it!"

After he received this reward, the waiter was elated. Such generosity, as expected from a lord.

After he left the tea house, Ouyang Shuo arrived into the little courtyard that was the Jingdu Office.

White Snake followed and asked, "Is the lord prepared to wait all the way in Jingdou, or?"

Ouyang Shuo thought about it, "I'll just wait here. In the meantime, I'll deal with the Star Alliance."

"Your intention is?"

To deal with the Star Alliance, he had to take into account the interference of Jianqi Zongheng.

"Go and contact one or two of the guilds in Jingdou. I think that they will be interested in working with us."

As a pleasant coincidence, Ouyang Shuo had just wanted to deal with Jianqi Zongheng.

During the last system auction, in order to fight for the god weapon, Jianqi Zongheng had become mortal enemies with the War-Snow Rose Mercenary Group.

If he had a chance, Ouyang Shuo definitely would not mind teaching them a lesson.

Although there was a rise in adventure gamemode players, they did not have the ability to compete. As a result, they needed the backing of Ouyang Shuo.

In the late game, the situation would change.

Now, Ouyang Shuo had enough to go against Jianqi Zongheng.

When White Snake heard these words, his eyes brightened, "I understand. Do not worry lord, it will happen in these two days."

Ouyang Shuo nodded and did not say anything more.

4th month 3rd day Jingdou.

In a pavilion, four young men sat separately.

Ouyang Shuo sat at the host position, while White Snake sat opposite to him. In the dark, he was the conductor of the intel station; on the surface, he was the manager of the office.

On Ouyang Shuo's left, sat a cool-looking young man—he was the guild leader of Shadow Alliance, Ji Yinghu. On the right, sat a gentle and polite-looking young woman—she was the guild leader of Yimeng Pavilion, Mengyun Tunding.

These two guilds were ranked second and fourth on the Jingdu guild rankings.

In the third spot on the Jingdu guild rankings was Star Alliance.

After these two guilds received Ouyang Shuo's invitation, both of them felt excited and anxious at the same time.

The news of what happened in the square had already spread around. They both knew that members of the Star Alliance were still locked up in jail.

Xingzhe Zichen was in the worst position, as he was sentenced to a month in jail.

The fellow in front of them terrified the two.

When White Snake invited the duo, he revealed that Shanhai City wanted to act against Star Alliance.

Ji Yinghu did not express his stance toward this matter, while Mengyun Tunding was eager.

It had been a short two months since Xingzhe Zichen came to Jingdu, yet he managed to usurp Yimeng Pavillion. Mengyun Tunding’s thoughts of Xingzhe Zichen were obvious.

Ji Yinghu came because of his target—Jianqi Zongheng.

As the 3rd ranked guild in the China region, Jianqi Zongheng suppressed every guild in Jingdu until they could not breathe.

However, the waters in Jingdou were deep and there were many hidden tigers.

There were many who wanted to challenge the position of Jianqi Zongheng.

Ji Yinghu was such a character.

When Shadow Alliance first came out, they went straight against Jianqi Zongheng, but their actions failed to bear any results. However, they solidified themselves at the second spot. Even Star Alliance could not shake them.

The strength and toughness of Ji Yinghu was not ordinary.

When he received this invitation, Ji Yinghu knew that his chance had arrived.

Ouyang Shuo could feel something from the short time it took for them to accept the invitation. He could tell that White Snake was very clear about the animosities and relationships between the various guilds in Jingdu.

The ability of this conductor could not be underestimated.

Compared to the previous intel station, the Black Snake Guards were several times better. Ouyang Shuo felt that the hundreds of thousands of gold he spent on them was totally worth it.

"Both of you are the top figures in Jingdu. Are you interested in working with Shanhai City?"

After the greetings, Ouyang Shuo directly delved into the topic.

Based on his current position, whether speaking or doing things, he no longer needed to beat around the bush. Whatever he did he would be very clear and direct.

"We are willing to hear your suggestion!" Although Mengyun Tunding was very eager, the way she spoke still showed class.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, "Simple, Shanhai Alliance will sell you two a batch of elite equipment including strong bows, heavy swords, and shields. As a requirement, the Star Alliance must not be able to survive in the 3rd region."

The 3rd region of the imperial city was the most hotly contested area for guilds. If a guild was unable to gain a foothold there, that would pretty much mean they were not a first-rate guild.

Ouyang Shuo's requirement basically meant that Star Alliance would fail to prosper in Jingdu.

In truth, his requirements tempted both of them. These elite equipment were the dream of all the large guilds.

Now was the crucial moment for the guilds in the 3rd region. With these equipment, they could form one or two elite squads.

The moment they took the initiative and got ahead, the benefits were limitless.

If not, Xie Siyun would not have been so anxious during the Shanhai Alliance meeting.

Ouyang Shuo agreeing to sell these items did not affect his deal with the other members. He was just taking out half of the equipment he traded for.

After all, when he ordered the heavy swords and shields, Ouyang Shuo prepared half for his own use and half as a reserve.

Chapter 376- Mysterious White Shirt Scholar

As for the terms that Ouyang Shuo suggested, Ji Yinghu instinctively wanted to bargain.

"Going against the Star Alliance is not an easy matter."

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, he laughed. Ji Yinghu looked like a cool fellow, but he liked to beat around the bush when he spoke.

"You're wrong. To me, going against them is just to vent my frustrations. However, for the two of you, it's a great opportunity. What you get is proportionate to how much you put in, isn’t that right?"

Ji Yinghu froze, he had not expected for Ouyang Shuo to actually be so confident.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo was confident. If Shadow Alliance did not work with them, he could just find another guild. At that point, the ones facing troubles would be the two in front of him.

He believed that Ji Yinghu would not give up this opportunity.

For negotiations, as long as one grabbed the other’s bottom line, everything was easy to discuss.

Ji Yinghu could only smile awkwardly when he noticed that he was baited. He was also a decisive person. Since he saw that he could not bargain for more, he immediately gave up and agreed.

With this, the cooperation of the three sides was achieved.

Ouyang Shuo did not want to draw these two guilds into the Shanhai Alliance. Even if he considered such a matter, it would have to wait till they finished off Jianqi Zongheng and Star Alliance.

On the other hand, Thread had successfully entered Shanhai Alliance under Ouyang Suho's recommendation.

In truth, Ouyang Shuo did not expect Shadow Alliance and Yimeng Pavilion to take down Jianqi Zongheng. Just taking down Star Alliance would suffice.

How strong was Jianqi Zongheng to rule Jingdou? The hidden ariocrastic family behind Star Alliance would go all out since they decided to come out.

Ouyang Shuo's goal was to let the guilds in Jingdu fight one another and stunt each other’s growths.

With this, Ouyang Shuo would be pleased.

When the time where he needed to finish the two guilds arrived, the Shanhai Alliance would probably do the deed.

After sending them away, Ouyang Shuo was left cooped up in the courtyard with nowhere to go. As a result, he planned to spectate and enjoy the action that would happen in Jingdu.

That afternoon, the promised batch of equipment arrived at Jingdou. The batch included one thousand strong bows, one thousand God arm crossbows, five hundred heavy swords, and two thousand shields.

Ouyang Shuo sold them to Shadow Alliance and Yimeng Floor for a total of 44 thousand gold.

He sold it to them at a price 10% higher than what he paid for internally. Even so, it still made the two of them delighted.

Such elite equipment would be a further 10% more expensive if placed on the market to sell.

For the funds he gained from the sale, Ouyang Shuo kept twenty thousand gold to make up for the investment on the Black Snake Guards. He did this to keep his gold at hand to fifty thousand.

As for the remaining 24 thousand, he sent it to the Financial Department.

This sum would flow into a specialised fund used to expand the four military workshops.

Based on the plans of Shanhai City, the east region military workshops would continue to expand toward the east, all the way toward the Canyon River. Even a portion of the harbor would be used as a military harbor.

After the expansion, the military workshop region would be five times larger. After a year of development, numerous intermediate artisans were born, which helped to lead the fast development of the military industry.

Since they had gained the support of Shanhai City, both Shadow Alliance and Yimeng Pavillion felt confident.

On the 4th day of the 4th month, Yimeng Pavilion secretly attacked the Star Alliance levelling squad in the 3rd region. As a result, they caused heavy casualties.

The core members of Star Alliance were still in jail, so Yimeng Pavillion could force them back. They were forced out of their training spots and resource collecting areas.

When they saw this, Jianqi Zongheng wanted to send reinforcements but Shadow Alliance stopped them.

All of a sudden, the atmosphere around Jingdu became very tense.

On the 5th day, the main force of Star Alliance was released. They counterattacked and fought against Yimeng Pavilion under the leadership of all of the heads.

Yimeng Pavilion had the momentum, so they were naturally fearless and welcomed the battle.

The war fires in Jingdou burned stronger and stronger, officially unveiling the start of guild wars. The various guilds in the China region were similar to the territories, as they welcomed a series of tough battles.

The strong would survive while the weak would die.

Thanks to their influence, many challengers from the nine imperial cities appeared. They tried to challenge the TOP 9 guilds.

With Thread out of the picture, each imperial city coincidentally had one guild in the TOP 9. Which guild would replace Thread? All the players looked forward to the answer to this question.

The Guild Alliance under Shanhai Alliance made use of this chance to show themselves.

Three of the TOP 9 and one ex-member of the TOP 9 caused the war fires to stop.

The guilds in Jianye, Luoyang, and Dali instantly kept their flags and stopped fighting.

With the wars stopping in three imperial cities, the wars in the other cities grew fiercer and more intense instead.

Apart from Jingdu, Xianyang had the Blood Evil Mercenary Group, which no one dared to challenge. Xiangyang had the Eighteen Swordsmen of Yanyun, which Chun Shenjun supported. Hence, they were pretty stable.

The Jin Yi Wei in Chang An, Streamer in Quanzhou, and Laojun Temple in Chengdu had not allied with any territories. As a result, they became the targets of ambitious players.

Especially Laojun Temple, which was ranked last. Thanks to this, they faced the highest amount of pressure.

Chengdu had a guild known as Spark, its leader, Mingye, was similar to Xingzhe Zichen. They were both heirs of hidden aristocratic families. Mingye’s ancestors were also from the royal family.

The appearance of Spark caused Chengdu to go from one main guild to two. Rumors had it that Spark had started to work together with Swordsmen County.

With that, Laojun Temple faced an even larger pressure.

As Spark grew stronger, they became the best example of this messy guild war.

The Black Snake Guards took this opportunity to plant spies in all the guilds. Ouyang Shuo just sat on and watched. Little did he know that he was the spark that caused this huge fire.

4th month, 6th day.

Ouyang Shuo brought White Snake to the tea house.

The waiter recognized the two, and he warmly brought them to their room.

"That white shirt mister has not arrived yet?"

"Not yet!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded and waited on patiently.

After half an hour, the white shirt scholar finally entered the tea house.

The waiter had been waiting at the door. When he saw the scholar, he immediately went up to welcome the latter.

"Mister, please!" He said as he led him toward the room.

The scholar followed behind him. When he saw that their destination was one of the rooms, he said, "I'm just looking for a seat in the main hall. I do not need a room."

The waiter smiled, "I won’t hide it from you. There's actually a VIP waiting for you."

"VIP? But I don’t know anyone in Jingdu?"

"You'll know once you go in!"

The white shirt scholar did not mind it much, "Okay, then I'll go take a look!"

Once he pushed open the door, he only saw a young man brewing tea. The young man seemed highly focused on the task.

When the young man heard the sound, he looked up. He was Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo placed down the teaware. Then, he stood up and adjusted his shirt. He followed the olden customs. He cupped his hands together, the back of his palm faced outward, and he pushed the front forward before he placed it in front of his chest, "I am Qiyue Wuyi. Sorry for disturbing you!"

The white shirt scholar froze. He obviously knew who Qiyue Wuyi was.

Among the historical people, nearly everyone knew of him.

He returned the greeting, "I am Wei Yang. Greetings, Lianzhou Lord!"

When Ouyang Shuo heard this name, his heartbeat slowed by half a beat. He was even more shocked than Wei Yang.

Wei Yang, the representative figure of legalism. He was the one who pushed for the Qin Country to unify the land. Any one of his achievements could make anyone worship him.

Ouyang Shuo’s decision to wait on was right.

"Please!"

White Snake stood up and sat behind Ouyang Shuo.

Wei Yang sat opposite him; his actions were really respectful and polite. At this point, Wei Yang recognized that Ouyang Shuo was the young man he met on the stairs.

It seems like the Lianzhou Lord had purposely waited for him.

In an instant, Wei Yang had deciphered all that had happened and the current events.

Both of them were smart people, and they did not need to state the obvious. Since they were sure of each other's identities, Ouyang Shuo did not rush. Instead, he happily accompanied Wei Yang to watch the chess game downstairs.

A huge hall with a giant chess board. When the two people made a move, men would replicate it on the large board. They would move the huge pieces on the board for the customers to watch.

Ouyang Shuo did not know much about chess.

In his last life, he was an adventure mode player, so he did not have so much time.

It was only after Jiangshang moved over did Ouyang Shuo occasionally play chess with him. Although he lost every time, his skills had improved really quickly.

Hence, when he watched the chess game downstairs, Ouyang Shuo could understand it. As for Wei Yang, he was the pinnacle of the game.

The whole chess game lasted for two hours.

White Snake, who sat behind Ouyang Shuo, could not handle it anymore.

As a mercenary, he would rather kill people or go undercover. But chess? It was basically torture.

He felt like looking at the full chess board was the same as reading books. He really did not understand why the lord would not ask Wei Yang immediately after recognizing him. Instead, the lord would do this.

Doing such a thing with low-efficiency was not how lords handled matters.

How would White Snake know that Wei Yang was different? Such a talent, it would be difficult to persuade him unless he personally wanted to take up a role.

Based on his style, he would rather spent his time in the tea house than go to other places to visit. Ouyang Shuo knew that Wei Yang was already starting to have thoughts of becoming a hermit.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo seemed to be just waiting on the surface, but deep down, he was contemplating about what Wei Yang needed. What could he do to persuade this legalism representative?

So difficult!

Chapter 377- Legalism

After the chess game finished, the atmosphere totally changed. White Snake's heart tightened, as he knew that the crucial moment had arrived.

"Legalism talks about personally setting an example, so what happened to mister?"

Ouyang Shuo took the initiative to ask the difficult question. He mocked Wei Yang for giving up on himself.

"I failed to push my ideology out in the end. It was like the bubble of a dream bursting, so how can I not?"

Wei Yang’s eyes flashed with a glimpse of loneliness and pain.

"How can you say you failed when the ideology that you taught is one of the pillars of society?"

Ouyang Shuo was not exaggerating, Wei Yang could be considered one of the first total revolutionaries of China. His legalism school of thought did not just affect the Qin country. Its effects even went beyond its time period, influencing the following thousands of years of Chinese history.

"Qin Country only lasted for two hundred years. Obviously, it was a failure."

Once he entered the wilderness, Wei Yang naturally gained knowledge about the five thousand years of Chinese history. As a result, he felt incredibly dejected.

He was an ideologist with a strong passion; he promoted legalism in the Qin Country and pushed for them to change. Although he died in the end because of his ideologies, that did not cause him to have any regrets.

Only the fact that his ideologies had vanished caused him to feel regret.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, "Mister, you should think about it this way. The reason why the Qin Country lasted for two hundred years was because they firmly believed in your ideas and did not progress. Thinking about those times, mister entered the Qin Country. You did not accept a position and entered the wilderness to observe them, to create suitable laws. Why? As it was crafted for them."

When Wei Yang heard those words, he fell silent and did not give a reply.

With his talents, he obviously understood the meaning in Ouyang Shuo's words. Despite that, it was hard not to be emotionally invested because he was involved in the whole matter.

Ouyang Shuo continued, "With your talents, spreading the name of legalism is what you should do. Change with the times and adapt your laws. If you continue to just drink in tea houses, you would be insulting your work."

When Wei Yang heard his words, he dejectedly said, "Where's Duke Qiao?" The success of his ideology was largely due to the support of the Duke.

To meet such a person was really a once in many lifetimes opportunity.

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, he stood up and bowed, "Although I'm not good enough, I'm willing to be your Duke Qiao."

Wei Yang was moved, Ouyang Shuo's words were like a promise.

The promise of a lord was worth its weight in gold.

At that moment, the atmosphere froze, making it hard for one to breathe.

Ouyang Shuo waited with bated breath for Wei Yang's reply.

After a long while, he let out a sigh, stood up, and adjusted his clothing. Then, he bowed and said, "Lord!"

With this bow, they had sealed the master and servant relationship.

White Snake, who had witnessed the whole entire process, could not help but feel impressed and amazed.

Name: Wei Yang (God rank)

Title: Shang Lord

Dynasty: Warring States (Qin)

Identity: Shanhai City Resident

Loyalty: Civil servant

Command: 72

Force: 35

Intelligence: 88

Politics: 95

Specialty: Legal System (Raises administrative efficiency by 25%, territory honesty by 30%), Iron-faced (raises prestige by 20%), open and fair (raises honesty by 20%)

Book: Shang Lord Book

Evaluation: Wei Yang, believer of legalism, a strong administrative personnel. Helped the Duke of Qin set up laws to punish the dishonest and protect the weak in a way that balanced the odds. The punishments he set out were based on the severity. He convinced the people to farm, and convinced everyone to focus on that one thing. He used troops to expand the land, the troops were the riches of the country, helping to make the Qin Country invincible.

After he recruited Wei Yang, Ouyang Shuo did not continue to say in Jingdu. He simply went back to Shanhai City on the same day.

When he went back, he did not immediately arrange duties for Wei Yang. Based on Wei Yang’s character, he needed to observe Lianzhou before he could suggest changes.

Ouyang Shuo arranged two Guards to follow him. Although Lianzhou was peaceful, there were still small groups of bandits; it was not totally safe.

At the same time, Ouyang Shuo passed a token to Wei Yang. With this token, he could meet anyone in the prefecture and no one would stop him.

Ouyang Shuo had already planned out Wei Yang’s appointment.

Out of the three big departments, the Internal Affairs Department that controlled laws and punishment in the territory suited him the most.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo had to arrange something for the current director Tian Wenjing. If Ouyang Shuo just made him the deputy director, it would be a waste of Tian Wenjing’s talents. The territory lacked civil servants, so Ouyang Shuo could not act so stupid.

Hence, he wanted to let Tian Wenjing lead Yashan City.

If events went smoothly, he would be the choice of governor for the future Qiongzhou Prefecture.

This was the best place for Tian Wenjing to show off his abilities. It would also allow him to lead a whole area. He was a model governor during the Qing dynasty.

Allowing him to preside over Yashan was the most suitable.

Ouyang Shuo had finished a series of arrangements, which made Yashan City's roots more and more stable. All they needed was a strong personnel to enter the fray.

Be it Sun Xiaoyue or Bai Nanpu, they lacked the talent to do so.

In the early half of the year, before Taiping Country threatened Lianzhou Prefecture, Ouyang Shuo would place his energy into Yashan City to form a strategic base.

The next day, Ouyang Shuo called Tian Wenjing over to his room.

"Wenjing, do you want to govern an area?"

When Tian Wenjing heard these words, he was stunned.

If it was to govern, with his position, the role of prefect would be beneath him. Furthermore, Lianzhou Prefecture did not have any empty slots—only Yashan City had space.

Don’t tell me?

When his thoughts reached this point, his heart started to tremble in excitement.

Naturally, he was clear about the strategy to explore Qiongzhou Island. He also knew the strategic importance of the island. Even if you did not mention the future, the current Yashan City was only less important than Shanhai City.

"What you’re saying is?"

Compared to the others, he had a far better composure.

Ouyang Shuo held really high hopes toward this important official, "I want you to take up the role of mayor of Yashan City. However, it won’t be limited to that. You will handle the matters of Qiongzhou Island."

When Tian Wenjing heads this declaration, he grew emotional.

Governor! The first governor of the territory!

Facing such a huge responsibility, no one could remain calm.

However, Tian Wenjing was still Tian Wenjing; this cold-faced director could remain so calm it was terrifying. He quickly collected himself, "Then what about the Internal Affairs Department?"

Wei Yang's arrival was really low-profile, so Tian Wenjing still did not know about it.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, "Wei Yang has already come to our territory and is now touring it. When he returns, you should go acquaint yourself with him before you leave for Yashan City."

"Wei Yang?"

Finally, Tian Wenjing could not contain himself, as he exclaimed in surprise. The name of the Shang Lord was too shocking.

"That's right!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded. It was not an easy task to make this cold-faced director so shocked.

"Congratulations lord!"

After ending the conversation, Ouyang Shuo left Tian Wenjing with these words, "Use this period of time to think about how to make Yashan City and Qiongzhou Island great!"

"I won’t let you down!"

Just as Ouyang Shuo was about to say something, a system notification sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations Player Qiyue Wuyi, territory martial artist Lin Yue has recovered. Additionally, after breaking through a bottleneck, he has become a fist style grandmaster. Player is rewarded two thousand merit points."

Grandmaster, the second one in the territory was born.

Lin Yue certainly did not disappoint. In a short month, he had recovered and even improved to become a grandmaster.

Shortly after, another system notification rang out.

"System Notification: Congratulations Shanhai City for giving birth to a grandmaster martial artist, awarded the title Home of Fist Styles. Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi."

……

The moment the system notification sounded out, the players were naturally amazed.

Shanhai City kept on producing miracles, causing players to call it the city of miracles.

Hence, this system notification did not cause much uproar.

The only effect was that players that specialized in fist styles were now a lot more interested in Shanhai City. One could predict that in the future, there would be more players who would head for Shanhai City to learn their martial arts.

After Tian Wenjing left, Ouyang Shuo looked at the stats.

Home of Fist Styles: Raises territory resident body quality by 10%, raises their familiarity with fist styles by 10%, raise prestige of fist styles by 10%.

Incredible. Its stats were even stronger than the ones the Home of Martial Arts granted with the creation of the Dongli Sword Sect, especially for fist style users.

Be it in the militants or residents, they would all benefit from this.

Even Ouyang Shuo, who trained in Bajiquan, experienced a raise in his ability.

At this point, Shanhai City already had five titles, ‘The World's First Prefecture, Land of Military Strategists, Home of Forging, Home of Martial Arts, and Home of Fist Styles.

Just at this moment, another system notification sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, territory's titles Home of Martial Arts and Home of Fist Styles can be merged, will you merge them?"

"Merge!"

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, territory titles have merged successfully. Shanhai City has obtained the title . Original two titles have disappeared."

: Raises resident body quality by 30%, raises fist style familiarity by 10%, raises territory fist style prestige by 10%.

Note: This title can be further upgraded to Land of Martial Arts. Upgrade requirements are to obtain two more terms like home of sword arts, home of spear arts and more.

Ouyang Shuo was speechless, the merger was just a simple stacking of effects. The only thing he looked forward to was the final title—Land of Martial Arts.

However, to obtain that title, he needed two more martial arts grandmasters, how difficult!

Chapter 378- Teen Swordsman

With the merger of the titles, Ouyang Shuo thought that maybe the other titles like Home of Forging could also merge.

For example, Home of Forging, Home of Tailoring, and the like could merge into a title that encapsulated all work occupation players.

There seemed to be a chance if one thought about it that way.

The regretful matter was that the lucky break that Qing'er still had not obtained the lucky break she needed to break through to tailoring grandmaster. On the other hand, master rank shipbuilder Zheng Dahai had a chance to become a grandmaster through the Ming Dynasty Shipbuilding Technical Manual.

Since Lin Yue had upgraded, the necessary matters had to be completed.

The moment Song Jia entered Five Finger Mountain, they had lost contact with her. Till date, she had not returned.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo had to help out with the sect matters.

In the afternoon, Lin Yue arrived as expected.

After becoming a grandmaster, his aura had changed. Although he still restrained his aura, he had undergone a qualitative change.

Before this, he had no choice but to restrain his aura and energy since he could not control it. Now he could freely manipulate it as he wished, making him look really stable.

There were already no need for formalities between the two of them.

"Lord, the Bajiquan Dojo disciples are all ready. They can go up to the mountains at anytime."

The way Lin Yue handle things was always so decisive and crisp.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, "The dojo in the city does not need to be closed down. Brother can arrange a good disciple to run it. The place can act as the outer building of the Dongli Sword Sect."

With the buff of the title, it was the best time to recruit disciples. Dongli Sword Sect was located so far away. Moreover, it was not a place that could handle many disciples.

When Lin Yue heard these words, he laughed, "Lord has thought it through. Let's do it as you say."

Lin Yue was emotionally invested in the Bajiquan Dojo, so if he did not need to close it down, that would be for the best.

"Sect Leader Song is not here. As such, I'll personally accompany you up the mountain tomorrow."

Lin Yue did not reject this proposition. For someone from the underworld, joining a sect was a grand matter. It was acceptable to have the lord personally come along.

The two of them had a brief conversation before parting ways.

4th Month 8th day, Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo brought four Guards to lead the five hundred odd Bajiquan Dojo disciples to Dongli Sword Sect.

Without Song Jia, Cui Tianqi and Banxia performed the daily duties in the sect. When they heard the news, both of them led all the disciples and waited to welcome them.

After not meeting for half a year, Cui Tianqi had already become a handsome teen that brimmed with energy.

Based on Song Jia’s words, Tianqi had strong potential, and his comprehension was also very high. He had already gotten a grasp of both the Nin Yin Cultivation Method and the Yuenu Sword Technique.

If placed in the underworld, he would be considered an exceptional teen.

The negative aspect was that this originally open and extroverted kid now had a more dark aura that incited fear. This was probably a result of him training in the Nin Yin Cultivation Method. Ouyang Shuo also heard that in the sect, this elder brother had really high prestige. He was also very strict to all the other disciples, making all of them fear him.

Luckily, he was a cultivation maniac, and he spent most of his time training in his room or practicing in the back mountains. He rarely hung out with the other disciples.

On the other hand, Banxia, as the elder sister, was not strict toward them. As a result, none of the disciples showed disrespect toward her.

When a male cultivated the Nine Yin Cultivation Method, he would become dark; if a female cultivated it, her charm would grow as her strength increased.

Banxia originally looked good, so it was no wonder she charmed many male disciples.

"Greetings, lord!"

Cui Tianqi led all the disciples to kneel down.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. He walked beside him, patted his shoulder, and smiled, "Not bad!"

Cui Tianqi's heart felt warm; his relationship with the lord was highly complicated. The lord was his benefactor, his brother, and also his liege.

Obtaining the lord’s praise was undoubtedly the greatest joy.

Unfortunately, since he gained mastery of the Nine Yin Cultivation Technique, Cui Tianqi had forgotten how to smile. His current expression looked very stiff. Moreover, when he smiled, it looked worse than crying.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this, he kept his silence.

Every successful person had to invest a lot to reach their current level.

For example, Banxia. Both of them became disciples at the same time, and her potential was not bad either. However, her skill was far from Cui Tianqi’s. Why was that?

The environment of the sect, the honor of the position of elder sister, and the love and attention she received.

All of this made her forget why she became a disciple in the first place. Furthermore, she even thought that her influence in the sect was higher than Cui Tianqi.

She also looked down on his crazy training.

The difference between the two really made one emotional.

Ouyang Shuo was not her master, so naturally, he would not lecture her. He just slightly smiled.

Banxia similarly had complicated feelings toward the lord. She was grateful and respected him; she even worshiped him.

All of this changed during that morning.

The lord wanted to set up rules in the manor. He did not care about their master-servant relationship and kicked her out. If Zisu and the rest did not beg for her, Banxia would not even have a chance to become Song Jia's disciple.

In that instant, hatred grew in her heart.

That thorn still grew in her heart; she could not totally remove it.

Half a year had past, and she still felt really complicated when she saw the lord once again.

Compared to half a year ago, the man in front of her had become more and more charming. His every action displayed his might and prestige.

In front of the lord, she unknowingly displayed her charm. She hoped to get him to notice her. When she learned that the lord was coming, she specially woke up early and dressed up.

Unfortunately, Ouyang Shuo had seen so many beautiful girls. In his eyes, Banxia was just a green apple.

He only slightly smiled and did not spend any time on her.

When Banxia noticed that, her heart felt cold, and the smile disappeared from her face.

"Let's go to the main hall!"

"En!" Cui Tianqi nodded as he led the way.

After half a year of construction, Dongli Sword Sect had grown more and more majestic. It had the appearance of a large sect, at least in terms of infrastructure.

In the main hall, Ouyang Shuo officially introduced Lin Yue to them.

Ouyang Shuo looked around, "Brother Lin is a fist style grandmaster. He has accepted the position of elder in the sect. When your sect leader comes back, we will have the official ceremony. At the same time, he will open a hall known as Baji Hall for the teaching of Bajiquan."

When Lin Yue heard these words, he stepped up and cupped his fist at everyone in greeting.

"Welcome Elder Lin!"

"Welcome Elder Lin!"

All the disciples shouted; it created a really ecstatic scene.

The sect developing and expanding more was naturally a good thing to them.

"Elder Lin will handle matters during the period that your sect leader is not here."

Ouyang Shuo announced a series of rules to ascertain Lin Yue's position in the sect. Basically, Lin Yue was the second-in-command in Dongli Sword Sect.

"Yes, lord!"

All the disciples replied unanimously. However, their voices were not as loud and united as before.

Joining the sect was one thing, the sect having another leader was a different matter.

Naturally, the disciples felt wary and alert since Song Jia was not in the sect. As a matter of course, they did not feel as relaxed now that a new elder would come in to handle daily matters.

Especially Banxia, her heart jolted.

Banxia was similar to a young master in the sect. After all, Cui Tianqi basically did not care about matters.

Lin Yue's arrival removed her from her position of power.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this scene, he frowned. However, after he thought about it, he did not lecture them. He believed that Lin Yue had ample ability to handle all of them and develop some prestige.

Who was Lin Yue? Naturally, he saw through everything that was happening. Before he came, he had already predicted this much. Of course, he was not afraid.

Ouyang Shuo dispersed them after announcing these matters.

Banxia led Lin Yue toward the prearranged courtyard.

Ouyang Shuo called Cui Tianqi to have a conversation.

"Lord, Sister Banxia…."

Cui Tianqi stopped; he looked really calm, but he had many thoughts in his heart.

Ouyang Shuo waved him off, "Let's not talk about her. Tianqi, what plans do you have now that Elder Lin is taking over?"

"Plans?" Cui Tianqi did not understand, "Train!"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, "To become a real expert through purely training is not possible. You need to go out and explore like your master."

"Can I?" Excitement flash across his eyes.

"Of course. Why don’t you pack up and leave the mountain today? If you do not want to go alone, you can choose a few other disciples."

"En." Cui Tianqi nodded his head furiously.

Ouyang Shuo took out a heavy sword and a gold ticket; he passed these items to Cui Tianqi. The heavy sword was specially designed; it was a highly valuable dark gold weapon.

This was not Ouyang Shuo acting biased, since this weapon did not suit Banxia.

"Lord?"

Cui Tianqi recognized the specialness of this sword and felt astonished. When he looked at the gold ticket, he saw that it was a thousand gold, which freaked him out. Since a young age, he had never seen such a huge amount.

"Take it. Without a good weapon, how can you train?" Ouyang Shuo smiled, "The gold is what your Sister Yingyu told me to bring."

"Thank you, lord!"

Cui Tianqi felt warm in his heart. When he thought about his sister, he felt very thankful and grateful.

"When you go off, you should go and see your sister. She misses you, and she'll be delighted to see you progress so much."

"En!"

"Ok, since that's all, I'll take my leave!" As Ouyang Shuo stood up, Cui Tianqi quickly followed.

Ouyang Shuo patted his shoulder once again, "You do not need to send me off! Continue training hard. When you become a true expert, I've plans for you!"

"Yes!"

To help the lord was Cui Tianqi's ultimate goal.

Chapter 379- Mighty Lord

On the 4th month, 10th day, Cui Tianqi brought eleven fellow disciples down the mountain toward the Lord's Manor.

When Lin Yue heard that Cui Tianqi would head out to train, he sent six of the disciples with the most potential from Baji Hall. They totalled at twelve, six males and six females, including Banxia.

Ouyang Shuo recommended they head for the Five Finger Mountains. Who knows, they might bump into Song Jia.

The administrative matters of the Lianzhou Prefecture were now running smoothly. Ouyang Shuo did not need to personally handle all of the matters. Bing'er had also started school, so the entire Lord's Manor had become much colder.

Little Green and Little White were together with Xue'er. They had been training together in the Spirit Beast Hall. Who knows what changes would happen to them.

Since Ouyang Shuo needed to wait for Wei Yang’s return, he purposely pushed back his trip to Yashan City.

Ouyang Shuo made use of this free time to pay more attention to training his martial arts. The assassination attempt in Jingdou had affected him after all.

Ouyang Shuo started to place more emphasis on his own strength. After all, even though he had guards, increasing his own strength was still safer.

Situations change. In the future, there would definitely be times when the guards could not protect him.

Even the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique needed to be cultivated daily. Apart from that, there was also the tiring training of spear techniques and palm techniques.

Ouyang Shuo would not just train alone. He would also find a few Guards to spar with him. First, he would take on one, then two, then three, slowly increasing.

Ouyang Shuo could feel his body and skills improving everyday. Every time he trained, the Guards would hurt him; it was really painful for him.

In an intense fight, one would definitely get hurt.

Ever since his Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique reached the sixth layer, he had welcomed tremendous progress.

At the start of the third month, when he was touring Lianzhou Prefecture, he had already broken through to the seventh layer. The new upper limit for his primordial energy was five hundred points.

Even with this increase, Ouyang Shuo's efficiency did not change. He could only increase the energy by three points each day. If things went smoothly, it would take him till the seventh month to reach a break through.

Every time the technique increased a level, it did not just bring an increase in primordial energy, as it also increased the strength of his meridians. The expansion of his dantian would also result in an all round improvement of his body.

One could say that only by training the technique to the sixth layer could they be considered a martial arts practitioner. At this stage, the strength of his body had reached that of one ox.

Do not look down on such a level, as it was actually really amazing.

A normal person could be considered really strong if they had the strength of a hundred kilograms. The power of one ox was six hundred kilograms, which was enough to shatter rocks.

Every time he leveled up his Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique, his strength would increase by one ox unit of strength. As a result, Ouyang Shuo, who had reached the seventh layer, had reached the power of two oxen.

With one punch, he could kill a man even without using his Bajiquan.

When he wore the current 45 kilogram armor, it felt really comfortable. Moreover, he could wear it for long durations without feeling worn out.

The 35 kilogram Tianmo Spear felt like an extension of his body—like it was a part of him.

Not only that, the primordial energy helped him to recover quickly. Oftentimes, when Ouyang Shuo trained till he was drained, he would use the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique at night. After that, he would fully recovered by the next day.

Under the nourishment of the Yellow Primordial Energy, the injuries to his muscles that the training and cultivation caused all disappeared. They became as good as new.

Not only that, the toughness of his muscles also rose, which gave rise to flexibility and explosiveness.

A strong body, terrifying explosiveness, and a fast recovery speed.

Finally, Ouyang Shuo could be considered a passable general thanks to these three positive facets stacked upon one another.

As his body quality continued to rise, the combat experience hidden in his subconsciousness from his last life started to awaken.

In his last life, Ouyang Shuo did not gain the title of the ‘Two-faced Shura’ by luck.

His combat experience did not fit with his body due to its relative weakness. Hence, it had hid itself in his mind and did not awaken along with his memory.

Hence, although Ouyang Shuo was an adventure gamemode player in his past life, in terms of martial arts, he had to start from scratch when he reincarnated.

Additionally, as this portion of his memory awakened, his skills also improved quickly.

In his last life, Ouyang Shuo had wielded the halberd, a similar weapon to the spear. Hence, after his combat memories awakened, his spear technique vastly improved day by day.

In a short time, his Yang Family Spear Technique broke through to the fifth layer. At this point, he had achieved mastery through comprehension. Next, there were only two more layers—peak of perfection and back to basics.

After comprehending the technique, Ouyang Shuo did not need to think about which stroke to use. Instead, he would subconsciously adapt based on the enemy's attack.

His adaptive abilities on the battlefield rose tremendously thanks to this.

The battlefield was an unpredictable ground. It was a place with different strokes, different angles. As such, the adaptive ability of a martial artist was the most important factor.

Even more so when one was surrounded.

Martial God Zhao Zilong from the Three Kingdoms Era could effortlessly fight thousands of troops. Apart from his skill in the spear, his adaptive ability was another reason for his might.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo had just reached a passable level. He could only show the strength of the Yang Family Spear Technique when he achieved perfection.

Out of the Shanhai Alliance generals, Shi Wanshui and Luo Shixin were both spear masters. Their spear skills had reached the pinnacle of perfection.

As for the highest level, back to basics, it was impossible unless one had become a spear grandmaster.

Hence, compared to Luo Shixin, Ouyang Shuo was still a huge distance away.

Apart from the Yang Family Spear Technique, Ouyang Shuo also tried to merge Bajiquan into his spear technique to create his own art.

This was a huge goal.

To merge martial arts techniques, one needed to totally understand both techniques.

The basic requirements would be for his Bajiquan to also reach the level of mastery through comprehension. Luckily, as Lin Yue had reached fist style grandmaster, the territory had received a title. Hence, it had gotten much easier for Ouyang Shuo to train his Bajiquan.

He had a feeling that in less than a month, he could reach that level.

Apart from his improvements in spear techniques, the awakening of his past memories also brought him a huge surprise.

In his last life, the other techniques that Ouyang Shuo trained were basically all gold rank, except for two king rank techniques—one halberd and one movement technique.

The halberd technique was useless now.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo searched his memory. After spending an extensive amount of effort, he managed to let his famous martial art, Floating Ghost Shadow, appear in the game once more.

"System Notification: Congratulations Player Qiyue Wuyi for the self-created technique, Floating Ghost Shadow. Player is rewarded ten thousand reputation points!"

The Floating Ghost Shadow Technique was considered a king rank movement technique. Since it inculcated special techniques, it was an authentic secret technique.

In his last life, Ouyang Shuo’s use of the Floating Shadow Ghost, in addition to his bloody eyes when he killed, earned him the epithet of Shura.

This technique helped him to fill the gap of not possessing a movement technique.

In a short half a month, Ouyang Shuo's ability took a huge leap.

It was not an exaggeration to say that the generals in the territory, apart from Shi Wanshui and Luo Shixin, were all not his opponent.

Ouyang Shuo even dared to fight Daiqin, who was called the black tiger of the grasslands. In Shanhai City, his force stat could rank in the top 10.

Out of all the of generals, Baiqi had the highest stats, followed by Er'Lai and Shi Wanshui. Then it was Luo Shixin. Further behind was Fan Lihua and Mu Guiying.

As for Sun Bin, although he had created his own fist technique, he was only slightly stronger than a normal person. Lin Yi, Wang Feng, and Zhao Sihu were the three at the back.

Not only that, the ten thousand reputation points that the system awarded him let his reputation stat break a hundred thousand points and upgrade to .

Next was the last grade for reputation points, known as . However, it needed one million points, which could not be done in a short time.

He could only reap such great rewards by joining world wars. It was also the meaning behind the title. Only by winning against other countries could one be well known in the world.

"System Notification: Player reputation points have broken one hundred thousand, becoming . Specially awarded the title Mighty Lord, congratulations!"

As for the last stage, the title he would earn was most probably Overlord.

Mighty Lord: Raises good feeling of historical people by 45%, raises historical people recruitment success rate by 20%.

Undoubtedly, after he gained this new title, his fame amongst the circle of historical people had risen.

One could foresee that in the future, many more historical people would come over to Shanhai City.

Chapter 380- Zhao Kuo's Plan

4th month 25th day, Shanhai City.

Military Intelligence Secretary Cobra reported the latest military intelligence to Ouyang Shuo.

When Ouyang Shuo appointed Cobra, the Lianzhou Basin had just been unified. At that time, Cobra had helped to reorganize the Military Intelligence Division.

Team one was in charge of intel gathering around the hundred thousand mountains and Chiyou City. Team two was in charge of Xunzhou, where Tianping Country was located.

The special operations team was in charge of the highest level of intel gathering work. For example, they would enter Chiyou City and Taiping Country.

With this, the position of the special operations team was higher than teams one and two.

The spies and members of the divisions exited Lianzhou Prefecture and focused on their intel gathering missions.

Within the prefecture, the Black Snake Guards were in charge of the remaining player territories, mountain barbarians tribes, and grassland tribes.

Ouyang Shuo could only use the Black Snake Guards for this purpose before he established the Safety Division.

With Cobra’s appointment and a large number of the original Rattlesnake Mercenary Group members joining, the strength of the division grew. Moreover, their intel collecting ability rose by several levels.

Cobra met Ouyang Shuo mainly to report about Taiping Country and Chiyou City.

In these four months, Taiping Country had acted like locusts—unstoppable as they swept past Xunzhou.

Taiping Country had taken over all the territories in Xunzhou.

After taking over, the uprising army started to build their capital, and they named it Tianjing.

In history, the Taiping Country rose quickly but fell quickly too, especially due to the corrupted nature of their king, Hong Xiuquan.

After the Taiping Army entered Tianjing, they immediately expanded the Yamen into the Tianwang House. They destroyed many houses and used millions of labor force. In 1854, they rebuilt the area. The entire area within a five kilometer radius of the palace was grand and glistening.

If one set a bad example, the rest would follow.

The construction of the East King House also used up large amounts of wealth and resources. For example, the dresses, coronation attires, horses, and the like were all very extravagant. Apart from that, the king also continued to choose pretty ladies to enter the palace.

According to history, his palace had close to thousands of beauties.

Based on the arrangements of Gaia, the core members of the uprising army would not have any memories of this kind of affair. Only their leader would have a perfect and intact memory.

This basically meant that Gaia helped revive the leaders of the uprising armies.

Hence, after learning from his past mistakes, he would not do the same things when leading the Taiping Country. Instead, he would strive to rule and build his ideal country.

After building their capital, the uprising army started to expand.

After learning from his past mistakes, he did not randomly crown kings and lords. Yang Xiuqing, Shi Dakai, and Xiao Chaogui all appeared as generals.

Hong Xiuquan would stay in Tianjing and command and lead from there. The uprising army had twenty thousand troops in each direction. They called themselves the Hundred Thousand Army because their goal was to expand their territory in one swoop.

In the east, Xiao Chaogui and Feng Yunshan led the troops to Attack Zhen An.

On the north, Shi Dakai and Li Kaifang led troops to attack Guiling.

On the east, Yang Xiuqing and Li Fengxiang attacked Wuzhou.

On the south, the two young generals Li Xiucheng and Chen Yucheng attacked Lianzhou.

Out of the four directions, the Hundred Thousand Army on the west and the north were unstoppable. The players there either surrendered or got destroyed.

The uprising army was like a snowball, growing larger and larger.

The lords in Guangxi had even formed an alliance; their name was really sad. They were known as Dare to Die Alliance. Unfortunately, they stood no chance against the uprising army.

The fall of Zhen An and Guilin was something that would happen sooner or later.

On the east, they faced the strong Chiyou army.

Ever since building Chiyou City, Chiyou had led troops and taken over the entire Wuzhou. For the uprising army to attempt to invade Wuzhou, they would naturally face resistance.

The Chiyou army was entirely composed of elite mountain barbarian warriors.

The uprising army that Yang Xiuqing led naturally took down the player armies easily. However, it was too great a task to fight against the elite mountain barbarians.

The hurriedly formed uprising army was just like a peasant army. Apart from their morale and their general's ability, they were especially lacking in terms of weaponry.

Yang Xiuqing did not feel demoralized about the east troops being forced back. Instead, he set up the east camp on the border of Xunzhou and Wuzhou. They took this chance to start training their army and establishing discipline.

As Chiyou City’s population restricted them, they did not take the initiative to strike.

The east side entered a stalemate just like this.

On the south, there was also another stalemate.

In the middle of the 4th month, Li Xiucheng and Li Yucheng led their twenty thousand strong army to strike against Lianzhou. When they rushed to the canyon and saw the giant stronghold, they were stunned.

The current Mulan Stronghold was one and a half months away from completion. However, the outer walls were already built. Only the internal structures and defensive constructs were left.

The uprising army that had not even brought basic siege weaponry had no methods at all when faced with such a huge stronghold. Helplessly, they could only set up the south camp five kilometers away from the stronghold.

Because of the situation at hand, Baiqi personally took control of Mulan Stronghold. The 3rd and 4th divisions of the Dragon Legion also entered the stronghold and camped there.

It was okay if they did not come, but if they really did come, they would be in for some trouble.

Once he heard the report, Ouyang Shuo kept silent and did not say anything.

With the strength of the Dragon Legion, they could destroy the enemy south troops and take down Tianjing if they attacked and used this opportunity. They could destroy the whole uprising army right now.

The crux of the problem was whether this was really the best time?

With the settings of the wilderness, to lords, land was not important. Population and other resources were the most precious.

This was the difference between territory wars and real-life wars.

If purely based on a fighting for land perspective, Ouyang Shuo could just use the Dragon Legion to attack not only Guangxi; he could even sweep up Lingnan easily.

But the problem was what would happened next.

Accepting an area with a lot of land but little people was detrimental instead of beneficial.

Hence, the battle over territories was a huge test of the ability of a lord to grasp the correct timing.

If the war started early and the fruits were not ripe, it would not be worth it. If it was too late and the enemies were ready, taking them down would not be easy.

The appearance of Tianping Country was a huge opportunity for Ouyang Shuo.

If he could let them attack Guangxi and make it strong, then attack them and claim the fruits of their labor, it would be the best conclusion.

This was also another huge strategic plan since his poisonous insects in Lianzhou Basin. He termed this plan as raising wolves.

Compared to poisonous insects, the hard part about raising wolves would be to avoid them eating you.

With the rate they were expanding, they would definitely take down Zhen An and Guilin, even maybe further toward Yunnan and Guizhou.

At that point, would the Dragon Legion really be able to stop them?

It would be difficult.

However, if he attacked now, Ouyang Shuo did not feel that it was right. If he took them down now, Dare to Die Alliance and Chiyou City would benefit.

To take down the Dare to Die Alliance would also be a difficult matter.

Undoubtedly, if they saw the chance, Dare to Die Alliance would be like Broken Blade County. They would ask for help from Yanhuang Alliance.

Ouyang Shuo did not want every fight to be so tough.

He wanted to easily take over the entire Guangxi Region.

Hence, to fulfil this strategic objective, the difficult part would be to allow Tianping Country to expand, while also ensuring that they remained under control. At the same time, he needed to defend against Chiyou City.

Do not underestimate Chiyou City.

Based on Cobra’s report, they had around thirty thousand troops. If needed, they could get twenty to thirty thousand more from the tribes.

All the mountain barbarian tribes on a hundred thousand mountain had already moved to Wuzhou.

Not only that, the other region's scattered mountain barbarians, including the river barbarians, had all gathered in Wuzhou. Wuzhou had become the main base and home for the barbarian race.

If they did not solve this problem, Chiyou City would similarly become a cancer.

There was news that Chiyou was preparing to build Jiuli Country in Wuzhou.

The moment this country was built, the ambitions of the mountain barbarians would be strengthened.

When that time came, even if they could attack Jiuli Country, it would be unknown whether he could recruit people like the times with the mountain barbarian tribes.

The situation that faced Shanhai City was not optimistic.

Ouyang Shuo did not forget that he was the number one enemy in Chiyou's eyes.

He had to deal with the problem of how to face Tianping Country and Chiyou City.

Luckily, he was not fighting alone.

After Cobra left, Ouyang Shuo sent a message to Mulan Yue. He asked her to tell Baiqi to come over the next day for a meeting.

4th month 26th day.

9 AM, Baiqi returned back to Shanhai City through the Mulan House teleportation formation.

Ouyang Shuo gathered Du Ruhui and Zhao Kuo, along with Commander in Chief Baiqi to discuss about the situation in the north. Cobra was also authorised to join in.

Under the instructions of Ouyang Shuo, he reported the intel from yesterday.

After that, Cobra directly left.

The following meeting was highly classified, so Ouyang Shuo could only allow the four of them to sit in.

Ever since Zhao Kuo became the secretary of the War Division, he had not shown any of his ability. After listening to the report, his eyes brightened.

He knew that his time to shine was here.

Chapter 381- Going Through Lingnan

Ouyang Shuo briefly introduced his raising wolves plan. Then, he looked around and said, "This is the current situation, so please state your opinions."

As soon as his words sounded out, Zhao Kuo stepped out and bowed, "Lord!"

"Please speak!"

Ouyang Shuo knew that Zhao Kuo possessed really good strategic foresight.

Thinking back, the Zhao Country had accepted Shangdou from the Han Country because of Zhao Kuo. Although they lost in Changping, the original strategy was correct.

If not, the Qin Country would have easily taken down Shangdou, and the Zhao Country would have been lost even faster.

Zhao Kuo unintentionally looked at Baiqi. Based on their ranks, Baiqi should speak first as the commander-in-chief. Who knew what Baiqi was feeling now that Zhao Kuo had snatched the opportunity.

Baiqi remained expressionless on the side; no one could see what he was thinking.

Zhao Kuo shook his head, facing such an opponent, he really was inferior, "In the face of the current situation, we need to make a strategic choice between Taiping Country and Chiyou City. To take down Taiping Country, then wipe out Chiyou City, or take down Chiyou City, then wipe out Taiping Country?"

When Ouyang Shuo heard those words, he nodded.

In truth, with the way that both sides were developing, he had to control one. If not, the Dragon Legion would be unable to stop and keep both powers in check.

"Based on your strategy, it’s apparent that we should not attack Taiping Country. Hence, the only choice would be to take down Chiyou City first. With that, we can eliminate the threat from a hundred thousand mountain. We can also increase our troops and build one or two more heavy armored infantry divisions”.

Zhao Kuo tossed out his view—take down Chiyou City.

"What do you all think?"

Ouyang Shuo did not take a stance. He just asked for the opinions of Du Ruhui and Baiqi.

Du Ruhui's specialty was his decisiveness, not coming up with plans.

When Baiqi heard the plan, he said, "I also agree with taking down Chiyou City. Only that if we want to attack them, we need to go across Xunzhou. What plans do the Military Affairs Department have about that?"

When Zhao Kuo heard these words, he froze. He was gleeful that Baiqi had agreed with him, but he did not expect Baiqi to directly throw out such a hard question.

To attack Chiyou City from Lianzhou, there were only two roads. Firstly, they could head out of Mulan Stronghold from Xunzhou into Wuzhou. With that, they had to face both the south and east forces.

It was obvious to deny this route.

The only remaining way would be to go across the hundred thousand mountains.

Thinking about this, even Ouyang Shuo felt a headache.

It was the hundred thousand mountains, even when the Military Intelligence Division spies went through, they felt into a bad state. it was highly difficult for a huge army to move through.

Apart from the 3rd division's two mountain barbarian heavy armored infantry regiments, the others did not have the confidence to say that they could definitely do it.

However, Ouyang Shuo did not dare to use these regiments to attack Chiyou City.

The position of Chiyou in their hearts was really too high, so making them attack Chiyou City was really taking a huge risk.

Even under the restrictions of military law, although they would not do anything out of hand, their morale and focus would both definitely be affected.

Why not just not let them go to the front lines?

The more troublesome part was that half of the Dragon Legion were cavalry. How could they cross the mountain?

Facing Baiqi's question, Du Ruhui and Zhao Kuo both pondered. Especially Zhao Kuo, who yearned and desired to beat Baiqi, even in terms of strategy.

All of a sudden, the reading room became quiet.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Zhao Kuo, only to see cold sweat appear on his forehead.

It was obvious that Zhao Kuo was thinking really hard.

Ouyang Shuo really hoped that this war secretary could bring him some surprises.

After a long while, just as Ouyang Shuo started to feel a little disappointed, Zhao Kuo suddenly raised his head as his eyes glistened.

"I've got it! Lord, I found a solution!"

Zhao Kuo suddenly stood up and started dancing; he could not hide the happiness and excitement in his voice.

Ouyang Shuo laughed, "Please speak!"

When Zhao Kuo saw this response, he felt a little embarrassed. He calmed himself and sat back down, "Lord, actually there's another place in Xunzhou that we can use to enter Wuzhou and that's Zhaoqing.”

"Zhaoqing?" The one that asked this question was Du Ruhui. As the director of Military Affairs, he understood the surrounding area. Although Zhaoqing was connected to Wuzhou, it was within Lingnan.

"That's right!"

"But Zhaoqing is in Lingnan, and it's totally not connected to the territory. How will we reach it?"

Du Ruhui did not understand Zhao Kuo’s confidence.

When Zhao Kuo heard these words, he laughed confidently, "There are two ways."

"Oh? Speak!"

Du Ruhui did not expect that Zhao Kuo would actually think of two methods.

"First would be for the army to teleport to Tianshuang County before travelling to Wuzhou."

"That would not work!" Du Ruhui immediately rejected this possibility; he felt a little disappointed in his heart, "Attacking Chiyou City, we need to send at least three to four divisions, along with huge logistical support. It would cost fifty to sixty thousand gold. It's not suitable."

As the Military Affairs Director, Du Ruhui had to consider the financial expenditure.

Since the financial expenditure of the military had risen by the day, the Financial Department was already complaining. Luckily, Ouyang Shuo had personally helped to appease both sides.

As the director, Du Ruhui naturally felt a lot of pressure that the troops and generals could not feel.

Attacking Chiyou City would use a lot of gold and resources.

Furthermore, after taking it down, one could foresee that it would not be a positive on finances. It could even become a burden with the building ability of the mountain barbarians.

One did not even need to mention the one or two new divisions that would come out of it.

Du Ruhui could imagine the face of Cui Yingyu. This time, he naturally would not approve of such a wasteful military operation.

When Zhao Kuo heard this reaction, he was not discouraged and said, "Since that's the case, then we will use the second method."

"What is it?"

When Du Ruhui heard this, he was already riled up and not as calm.

Zhao Kuo said, "First, we take down Leizhou. Then we cross Zhaoqing to attack Wuzhou."

The moment he dropped these words, everyone was astonished.

His idea was really bold.

To take down Chiyou City, Zhao Kuo actually suggested they start a pre-war war. First, they would take down the southest point of Lingnan. Then, they would use Zhaoqing as a stepping board to attack Chiyou City.

Leizhou was an ocean away from Qiongzhou Island and was just a forest away from Lianzhou Prefecture.

Before this, Ouyang Shuo had already thought about taking down Leizhou to prevent others from disturbing Qiongzhou Island.

His suggestion was totally the same as Ouyang Shuo's Lingnan strategy.

One had to say that it was really bold.

Ouyang Shuo and the others had a fixed thought; they had never thought of entering through Lingnan.

Even Baiqi's eyes brightened up; he looked at Zhao Kuo with praise.

The current Zhao Kuo was very calm. Faced with Baiqi’s praise, he did not look delighted or happy. It was apparent that successfully one upping Baiqi had wiped out the knot in Zhao Kuo’s heart.

With that, it was like gaining a new lease of life.

Zhao Kuo was very thankful, thankful that he had joined Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo's eyes were like lightning and he saw all of this.

He was also very happy. Before this, Zhao Kuo was very emotional when he did things and would not have become a good secretary. Now, Zhao Kuo could be said to be on the right path.

Ouyang Shuo looked around, "I agree with his suggestion. What's next would be for you to make a battle plan for me to review!"

"Yes, my lord!"

Du Ruhui and Zhao Kuo both stood up and bowed.

In the Shanhai City military, the Military Affairs Department would do the war planning. The leading generals would only be decided during the war.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Baiqi, "Commander, do you have anything to say regarding these arrangements?"

In contrast to the other generals, as the commander-in-chief, Baiqi had the right to participate in such high-level decision making. He was not a general that just followed instructions.

When Baiqi heard these words, he thought about it before he said, "We cannot easily give up on the route from a hundred thousand mountain. We can still arrange an infantry force to go across the mountains to sneak attack."

This suggestion displayed his ability.

One actual force and one surprise force; this was the right way to use troops.

When Zhao Kuo heard this proposal, he also felt awed. He really could not underestimate Baiqi.

"Please describe your plan!"

"The 3rd division will defend Mulan Stronghold. The mission to cross the mountain will be given to the 1st division. The remaining second and fourth will form the main force and enter through Zhaoqing. To play it safe, it's better if we make use of the Guards regiment."

Shanhai City would use four divisions, a total of 54 thousand troops. Their goal was to storm and take down Chiyou City before Taiping Country could react.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, "Okay. The Guards regiment and the 2nd division will perform the mission of attacking Leizhou.”

The 4th division will temporarily camp in Mulan Stronghold!"

For one small Leizhou, they did not need to move three elite divisions. Moreover, once they sent out troops, they would expend a huge amount of resources.

Chapter 382- The Good Go Up, the Unworthy Go Down

"It's better if Baiqi leads the Battle of Leizhou." Ouyang Shuo had no intentions of personally commanding the battle.

"Yes, my lord!"

After confirming everything, Ouyang Shuo dispersed the meeting.

Next up were matters such as war planning, logistics support, army organization, and the like. The Military Affairs Department would handle all of this.

This was another huge battle after the Battle of Lianzhou. Moreover, just the prefecture preparation work needed half a month or longer.

To attack Leizhou, the fastest method would be from the sea. Hence, the Military Affairs Department also needed to work together with the 1st division of the Beihai Bay Squadron to transport troops and resources.

Ouyang Shuo asked to see Black Mamba after dispersing the meeting.

"The territory plans to take down Leizhou, so it's time for the Black Snake Guards to act. Tell the Quanzhou intel station to quickly infiltrate the various territories in Leizhou and help the military gain an advantage." Ouyang Shuo was really direct.

When Black Mamba heard this news, he was jolted awake and solemnly said, "Do not worry, my lord!"

The Black Snake Guards were formed after heavy investment; it was finally time to check out the fruits of their labor. Black Mamba knew what this meant for them—there was no room for error.

"Go!"

After Black Mamba left, Ouyang Shuo sat alone in his reading room, closing his eyes and thinking.

The Battle of Leizhou was a battle that Shanhai City could not afford to lose. Additionally, it was the first time they would fight outside their territory. It was a huge test on the abilities of the members responsible for logistics and intel.

Apart from activating the Black Snake Guards, the Military Intelligence Division was also in action. Their mission would be to gain details about the geography of Leizhou and the size of the armies of the various territories.

The two intel organizations both had their importance.

As the lord, Ouyang Shuo had to consider more things. He needed to plan for the future of Leizhou. When they set up the Leizhou Prefecture in the future, the position of governor was the biggest problem.

The territory temporarily did not have a passable civil servant that could take up this task. Out of all the prefects, only Wei Ran had the ability. Unfortunately, Shanhai City needed him.

Among the people in the departments, Fan Zhongyan could do the job, but he was also immovable. He had moved Tian Wenjing to Yashan City, so he needed Fan Zhongyan to steer the ship.

Not only that, Leizhou was located outside of the territory. How to manage it was also another problem.

All in all, this matter was highly complicated.

Ouyang Shuo had a headache thinking about this. The current civil servants that the territory possessed were really too little.

Everything would straighten itself out when the time came.

Ouyang Shuo could only console himself like that. However, this kind of mentality was not one that a lord should have.

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo called Fan Zhongyan for a talk.

He told Fan Zhongyan his plan of attacking Leizhou and Chiyou City, "Xiwen, from now on, you must choose civil servants that have the potential to take over Leizhou and Wuzhou."

When Fan Zhongyan heard these words, he was placed in a tough spot.

The building of Yashan City and Shenjuan City had taken away two batches of civil servants from him.

Even with the Xinan University, as well as the students from the colleges in each House, the basic-level officials could not handle the demands of two prefectures.

When he saw Fan Zhonguan’s expression, Ouyang Shuo smiled, "Xiwen, you do not need to frown. The most important thing is to choose some young civil servants. As for the basic-level ones, we can choose from their local population."

When Fan Zhongyan heard this, his expression relaxed, "If that's so, I understand!"

Ouyang Shuo waved him off, "Ok then, go get busy!"

"Yes, my lord!"

After Fan Zhongyan left, Ouyang Shuo wrote a letter to Song Wen.

Tianshuang County was located in the Zhaoqing Region. As such, Ouyang Shuo hoped that when they passed through Zhaoqing, the Tianshuang County could provide some logistical support.

In order to thank them, the Shanhai army would stop over at Zhaoqing for a period of time to help them unite Zhaoqing. Whether or not they could grab the chance, it would depend on Song Wen's strength.

Other than this, the Leizhou Region also had some members of the Tianshuang Alliance, so Ouyang Shuo asked Song Wen to provide him with a list. Ouyang Shuo would let them off lightly if they were willing to surrender.

After finishing up all these matters, Ouyang Shuo could finally heave a sigh of relief.

All these plans pretty much set the stage for the Battle of Leizhou. Now, he needed the army to fight the war, while he was in charge of clearing away all the obstacles outside of the battlefield.

4th month, 28th day.

In the morning, Shanhai City welcomed a special guest—Jingjian from the Qin Country. He was the one that supported Wei Yang; his most important right-hand man.

When he heard that Wei Yang took up a role in Shanhai City, Jingjian purposely came over.

This was the influence of the high-level people. For example, Jiangshang’s appearance had attracted Sun Wu, which then attracted Sun Bin.

As the one that pushed for legalism and one of the huge powers of the Qin Country, Wei Yang's influence could not be underestimated.

Among all of this, the title of Mighty Lord also had a hidden effect.

Jingjian was a lanky middle-aged man. Since he was a general, his body was very strong. He was a warm person. However, his heart was really tough, and he was a really good talent.

Ouyang Shuo personally welcomed him and temporarily housed him in the Lord's Manor.

Name: Jingjian (King Rank)

Dynasty: Warring States (Qin)

Identity: Shanhai City resident

Occupation: civil servant

Loyalty: 75

Command: 55

Force: 55

Intelligence: 55

Politics: 70

Specialty: Worthy Talent (Raises reputation of territory by 5%), concerned about the nation (raises efficiency by 20%)

Evaluation: The favored official under Duke of Qin. He once pushed and supported Wei Yang.

After looking at his stats, thoughts filled Ouyang Shuo’s mind.

These all-round stats could be considered ordinary, and he did not have any real outstanding points. However, the hard to understand part was the lack of any obvious weaknesses. He could easily adapt to both military and administrative positions.

Since Jingjian came over because of Wei Yang. When arranging his position, Ouyang Shuo naturally had to consider this point. Fortunately, Ouyang Shuo had planned to make some changes to the Internal Affairs Department.

Coincidentally, the next day, Wei Yang returned to Shanhai City.

When he learned that Jingjian had come over, Wei Yang was exceptionally delighted. Before this, he had not kept in contact with the people from the Qin Country. He did not expect the moment he appeared in Shanhai City, his old friends would come along.

Old friends meeting was naturally a happy occasion.

When he saw Wei Yang’s expression, Ouyang Shuo guessed that in Wei Yang’s one month tour of Lianzhou, he had gained some new thoughts. When he returned and met his old friend, it was happiness upon happiness.

That evening, Ouyang Shuo held a feast to welcome the two.

During the feast, naturally Ouyang Shuo accompanied both of them.

Wei Yang was delighted. He talked a lot about what he saw and heard on his trip.

The foundations of Lianzhou Prefecture were a lot better than he had expected. Compared to the old Qin Country, it was a level higher.

Lianzhou, which he spent so much effort to run, was the life's work of Ouyang Shuo. Be it the standard of rule or the life of its residents, they were both above the passing mark.

Of course, it was not without its problems.

The aspect that left the greatest impression on Wei Yang was that as the income gap increased, the rich had started to grow more powerful. Furthermore, far away from the main camp, some bad things were brewing.

All of these matters were the job of the Internal Affairs Department.

As expected of Wei Yang, he could see the crux of the problem.

After the feast, Ouyang Shuo brought the two into his reading room and handed them their jobs.

Both of them were relatively happy with their jobs. Toward the adjustment to the structure of the Internal Affairs Department, Ouyang Shuo sought their opinions, and they were both happy with it.

4th month 30th day, Ouyang Shuo held an administrative meeting.

Before he started the meeting, he introduced Wei Yang and Jingjian to everyone. Both of them were famous figures. With a simple mention of their names, everyone knew them.

Especially Wei Yang, whose name was really famous.

Ouyang Shuo looked around, "Before we begin, I'll announce a few personnel changes."

The moment his words sounded out, the main hall fell into total silence.

"Tian Wenjing will be the new Yashan City Mayor. Wei Yang will replace him as director."

The first change was already shocking.

They did not expect Ouyang Shuo to change the director.

From director to mayor was a drop in a grade, but there was no emotion or change in Tian Wenjing's eyes. The smart officials could probably guess that within this matter was a great opportunity.

Tian Wenjing and Wei Yang both stepped out and accepted their appointments.

"Thank you lord, for your trust!"

Wei Yang stepped forward and bowed.

When Wei Yang appeared, Procuratorate Secretary Song Yin was delighted. Strictly speaking, he could be considered half a disciple of the legalism school of thought.

Ouyang Shuo continued, "The name of the Auditing Division will be changed to the Supervisory Division. Apart from the original duties, they will be in charge of supervising the officials and civil servants of each House and County."

Yet another huge bomb.

The new Supervisory Division, with its additional power and role, could definitely be considered among the top three.

"Auditing Secretary Qinsheng will be moved to the position of Secretary of Taxation. Original Secretary of Taxation Quan Lifei will become the Shanhai House Taxation Secretary.”

The main hall remained totally silent.

Qian Lifei became the second person after Songsan to be demoted. At this point, his face was ashen white. The other secretaries were all highly anxious.

The message that the lord sent today was really obvious; there was no one that was safe. The able would be promoted, while you would be demoted if you did not have the ability.

Ouyang Shuo announcing these changes in appointment acted as a warning to all of them. Following these appointment changes, he said, "Jingjian will replace Qinsheng as the Supervisory Division Secretary."

"Thank you lord, for your trust!"

At this point, the new round of personnel appointments had come to an end.

Chapter 383- Land of Legalism

Although the administrative meeting ended, the aftermath lingered.

The reallocation of Tian Wenjing was like a layer of dense fog that no one could see through.

However, news that the lord wanted Tian Wenjing to manage Qiongzhou Island slowly spread. Only then did a light bulb light up in all of their heads. No wonder he was not dejected and instead looked pumped and excited.

A governor of an entire prefecture was comparable to a director. In the foreseeable future, governors would also be the highest level administrative personnels.

Qinsheng becoming the Taxation Secretary did not raise any questions or cause any waves. With his experience and ability in the Auditing Division, managing the Taxation Division would not be hard.

Qinsheng's reallocation actually benefited and helped to strengthen the Financial Department.

On the other hand, the appointment of Jingjian instantly raised the value of the secretaries in the Lord's Manor by several grades.

Not long after Zhao Kuo became the war secretary, a civil servant historical person finally become a secretary. As the territory continued to develop and expand, such a situation would become more and more common.

As a matter of course, this came with the instability of the other secretaries’ positions.

The demotion of Qian Lifei shocked all the civil servants.

Previously, Songsan was demoted to deputy secretary, similar to dropping half a grade. Meanwhile, Qian Lifei went from a Lord's Manor secretary to a secretary of a House, a full grade lower.

If one also considered the organization of the prefecture, he would be considered to have dropped two grades.

No one knew the reason for his situation. They did not know why he was not liked and promoted by the lord. Even his boss Cui Yingyu was kept in the dark.

It was apparent that Ouyang Shuo had no intentions of explaining this.

After the administrative meeting, Tian Wenjing brought Wei Yang and Jingjian to take up the duties of the Internal Affairs Department. The next day, the lord would accompany him to Yashan City.

The moment Wei Yang officially took up the job, a notification sounded out in the China region.

"System Notification: Legalism representative figure Wei Yang has taken up a role in Shanhai City, managing internal affairs and accepting disciples. He also meets the three requirements of a school of thought moving in, legalism school of thought has officially moved into Shanhai City."

……

"System Notification: Legalism school of thought has moved into Shanhai City, rewarded Land of Legalism title. Congratulations, player Qiyue Wuyi!"

……

Legalism could be taught and spread in the Internal Affairs Department. Members of the department were believers in the school of thought. Naturally, since Wei Yang had taken up the role of director, legalism had officially moved into Shanhai City.

The moment the notification came out, the China region was sent into an uproar.

Last time, when the military strategists moved in, the players were already prepared for it. This time, it was just too sudden. No one expected that in such a short amount of time, the Lianzhou Lord could rope in Wei Yang.

"Legalism legend, Wei Yang, please accept my kneel!"

"I'm a legalism disciple. I'll follow Wei Yang wherever he goes!"

"Forming a team to go to Shanhai City, please register quickly!"

……

Undoubtedly, the players mainly talked about Wei Yang.

Even Ouyang Shuo himself became a bystander.

With the legalism school of thought moving in, the philosopher debate quest that he started had finally taken its first step. He was now only six months away from the completion deadline.

It was such immense pressure just thinking about it!

Ouyang Shuo suppressed the worry in his heart and took a look at the stats of the title.

Land of Legalism: Civil servant's honesty increased by 25%, chance of civil servants breaking through bottlenecks increased by 10%, quality of civil servants increased by 15%, purifying the administrative environment by 20%.

As a huge school of thought comparable to the Philosophy of War, its stats were equally strong.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head in pleasure; his hard work was worth it.

Thanks to the buff from the title, the quality of the civil servants in the territory received a huge upgrade. For the territory that would soon expand quickly, it was a huge saving grace.

5th month 1st day, Yashan City.

Ouyang Shuo and his group appeared at the Yashan City teleportation formation.

Outside of the it, secretary Bai Nanpu was respectfully waiting. As for Sun Xiaoyue, she would not purposely come over to welcome him. She was probably fooling around with Qing Sikou and Lin Jing.

With these three women at the same place, Yashan City had become more bustling than expected.

Ouyang Shuo walked out of the formation. When he saw Bai Nanpu, he patted his shoulder, “Great job, it has been tough on you!"

When Bai Nanpu heard these words, he felt really emotional, "To be able to work for the Lord, it is my honor!"

In truth, news about the administrative meeting yesterday had already spread to Yashan City. Bai Nanpu knew about the small earthquake of changes that had happened. The meaning was certainly different to gain recognition from the lord at such a time.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and turned toward Tian Wenjing, "This is Yashan City, how is it?"

Tian Wenjing smiled, "To say the truth, it is much better than I expected."

Since they built Yashan City, only two and a half months had passed.

Looking around, the inner city wall had already been built and work on the outer wall had already started. The planning of the inner city was roughly in place, and the city was managed and organized well.

The outer city was still in a mess, and there were construction sites everywhere.

Such a seen was enough for it to be worthy of ‘Not bad.’

Tian Wenjing took a look at Bai Nanpu and said, "You are amazing!"

How would Bai Nanpu dare to accept such praise? He stuttered, "I do not dare to accept such glory. For Yashan City to have such a scale, it is all because of Sister Sun's planning. I only did some simple logistical work."

Tian Wenjing wanted to continue on, but Ouyang Shuo waved both of them off and said, "Let's talk in the Town Hall."

Strictly speaking, Yashan City belonged to Bing'er.

Hence, based on Ouyang Shuo's instructions, they built a town hall to act as the administrative work office outside of the Lord's Manor.

As for the Lord's Manor, Sun Xiaoyue temporarily lived in it.

As the Tiger Legion that moved into Yazhou, they had started to sweep out the aboriginals and the raiders. Firstly, to help eradicate the dangers, and secondly, to help raise Bing'er’s rank.

After an extended period of time, the merit points accumulated raised Bing'er to rank 1 viscount. She was just a little away from rank 3 earl.

Hence, strictly speaking, Yashan City was still a grade 3 town. As such, it could only get seventy-five refugees everyday.

The next step was to help her reach rank 3 earl. This would allow the city upgrade to a grade 1 county. At that time, the city could have a daily refugee spawn rate of three hundred.

As for the raider's siege when the territory upgraded to county, there was nothing to fear with the presence of the Tiger Legion.

Town Hall, meeting room.

Bai Nanpu started to describe the construction situation in Yashan City. From the sides, Ouyang Shuo and Tian Wenjing listened on intently.

Firstly, the administrative structure. Based on the territory standards, Bai Nanpu had already built up the structure of the town hall with basically personnel taken from Shanhai City.

A portion of these people were also recruited from the refugees.

One must not forget that the village token of Yashan City was also gold rank. Occasionally, usable talents would spawn.

Toward the personnel arrangements of Yashan City, Ouyang Shuo would not interfere. He just left it up to Tian Wenjing.

Secondly, the construction projects.

The South Mountain Harbor had already been constructed and many merchant ships travelled to and fro between there and Beihai Harbor. After three batches of migrants, the sea route was basically set, and it was really safe.

Furthermore, the Beihai Bay Squadron 1st Division had been clearing out the pirates around Beihai Bay.

The future merchant trade routes would only get safer.

Some of the merchants from Quanzhou had already started to think about setting up trade routes from Quanzhou straight to South Mountain Harbor.

Of course, this was only a plan for the future. Currently, this region was littered with pirates. Without a navy, merchants would not dare to do such a thing.

The inner city construction of Yashan City was basically completed and only the outer city remained.

Based on the city organization, be it shops or workshops, they were all built in the business region in the outer city.

Hence, the outer city would be more bustling and exciting than the inner city.

Thirdly, industry planning.

Shili Beach's first stage of saltpans had already been reclaimed, and it had started to produce salt. Each month, it could produce eight thousand gold in profits, the largest till date for Yashan City.

Outside the city, many million mu of farmland had been reclaimed to plant crops. The planting of rice had already been completed, and they were growing nicely.

Things like the sugarcane garden, rubber plantations, carrot farms, tea garden, and the like, as well as pig styes intersected in the middle of the farmland. Overall, it created a really interesting scene.

Due to population restrictions, Thread and the Chamber of Commerces ran the farmlands and the gardens. Yashan City only collected land rent, agriculture tax, and business taxes from them.

The factor that attracted the Chamber of Commerces was not just the resources in Five Finger Mountain.

The various farms and gardens were also a huge treasure trove. The natural environment in Yashan was really too suitable for the planting of sugarcane, rubber, and the like.

Fourthly, the territory defences.

The Tiger Legion belonged to the wilderness fighting force. It was not housed inside Yashan City. Instead, they were situated five kilometers north of the city.

Obviously, in Sun Bin's eyes, the aboriginals in the north were the biggest threat to the territory.

In the city, due to population restrictions, they had only set up one city protection unit. Their main job was the daily patrol of the city and to solve internal disputes.

In contrast to Shanhai City, Yashan City was a complicated place with many players. Occasionally, there would be disputes and conflicts.

After hearing Bai Nanpu’s report, Ouyang Shuo nodded his head. The development of Yashan City was far better than he had expected.

Tian Wenjing was really delighted. With such a base and infrastructure, he was a lot more confident in making Yashan City the second biggest city outside of Shanhai City.

Chapter 384- Mountain Army

At 10 AM, Ouyang Shuo ordered the officials in Yashan City to see him. He also announced the appointment of Tian Wenjing.

After Bai Nanpu completed the turnover, he would return to Shanhai City. Yashan City's training would become one of his greatest riches.

To show his support for Tian Wenjing, Ouyang Shuo did not move into the Town Hall. Instead, he stayed in the Lord's Manor. Although the town grade manor was shabby, it was still okay to stay in for a period of time.

Ouyang Shuo was not a person greedy for such enjoyments in life.

When he walked into the Lord's Manor, Sun Xiaoyue, Linjing, and Qing Sikou were all coincidentally there.

When she saw the four Guards behind Ouyang Shuo, Lin Jing teased, "Stupid brat, you’re getting more and more powerful!"

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, he could only keep silent. After all, she was his elder. Deep in his heart, he kind of enjoyed this teasing. As his position and power increased, there were very little people who would dare to treat him in such a manner.

It was cold when you were so high up.

When Qing Sikou saw their exchange, she felt that it was really interesting. The Lianzhou Lord that everyone looked at highly was just a little boy being mocked.

Ouyang Shuo asked the Guards to step down. Then, he sat opposite his little aunt, "Have you all passed through the South Mountain Cave yet?"

"Soon!"

Lin Jing frowned when she thought about this issue.

The exploration in these two weeks had really been an unforgettable experience. After all, the three guilds had taken turns. They were far different from the Blood Evil Mercenary Group, who had entered all by themselves.

Although two months had passed, they still had not fully explored the cave. However, from her words, the exploration had reached a crucial moment.

In a week, they would pass the cave if nothing went wrong.

Who would claim the riches was still unknown.

Although the three guilds were allies, in this exploration, they were competing against one another. Their exploration progress was kept a secret from one another.

He saw that her expression seemed really confident.

The reason why Ouyang Shuo paid attention to the exploration speed was because it concerned his plans.

He could officially open up to adventure gamemode players the moment they completed the exploration. The first batch of players would mainly be members of the three guilds. Apart from them, small teams would also be picked.

The Black Snake Guards and the Military Intelligence Division would set up an intel station here at the same time. This would strengthen their control over Yashan City and allow them to monitor every move in the city.

Ouyang Shuo turned and looked at Qing Sikou. He smiled and asked, "Guild leader Qing, are you okay here in Yazhou?"

After he had tried so hard to move Thread into Yazhou, this lord had come around one month later. It did not feel right.

Qing Sikou did not mind and nodded her head, "It's much better than I expected."

Thread had taken root in Yazhou. Using the resources that she had gathered in Jingdou, they had invested in numerous workshops and shops in Yashan City. Outside the city, they had also opened up four manors and two farms.

Their investments in Yashan City was even crazier than the Chamber of Commerces.

The ten thousand members left in Thread were not only loyal, but they were also intermediate rank and above. This just happened to nicely fill up the gap of talented individuals in Yashan City.

The current Thread was a power in Yashan City that could not be underestimated.

As for rare resources, they bought these from the elite groups or from the headquarters of the three guilds. As Yashan City started to grow more open to the public, rare resources would not be a problem anymore.

Thread was on the road to being reborn.

Even though she had talked to Ouyang Shuo before, Qing Sikou was still expressionless. This woman definitely would not reveal her thoughts and feelings to people easily.

Her coldness was a level higher than Bai Hua’s.

Oddly enough, she actually became close friends with Sun Xiaoyue.

Sun Xiaoyue was not ready to move before Yashan City was built. Leading the construction of a city gave her a huge sense of achievement.

Naturally, Sun Xiaoyue would not speak any words of thanks toward him.

A tacit understanding had formed between the two of them.

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo headed for the Tiger Legion camp.

Since Yashan City had already gotten on the right path, in addition to Tian Wenjing taking charge, Ouyang Shuo would not interfere too much. The only thing that worried him was the clearing of the aboriginals.

For the minute details, he needed to discuss with Sun Bin face-to-face.

Sun Bin was a master of formations. He had built up the main base of the Tiger Legion with well with hidden formations. In the camp, apart from the troops that were sent out to clear the aboriginals, the remaining trained in the fields.

The whole army camp, apart from the sounds of training, lacked any other sound.

Sun Bin's strict rule was evident.

On the way to the commander's tent, Ouyang Shuo met a young soldier and nearly bumped into him.

The soldier was holding a sack of potatoes that weighed around fifty kilograms. It looked like he was about to feed the horses in the stables. He effortlessly carried the huge sack.

Maybe because he was in a rush, but he did not see Ouyang Shuo.

"Who dares to bump into the lord!"

The guard took out his blade and wanted to take down the soldier.

Ouyang Shuo raised his head. The soldier was only around seventeen to eighteen years old. His skin was slightly tan. He was really tall but exceptionally strong like a leopard.

He could feel the soldier’s bloody scent and untamable spirit. This was really interesting; a small soldier actually had such an aura.

When he heard how the guard referred to Ouyang Shuo, the soldier was so nervous his heartbeat quickened.

However, this was not a result of fear, but a result of excitement.

As he had trained the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique to the seventh layer, his senses had grown really sharp. He had captured the emotional changes to the soldier.

Really weird!

"Sorry lord, sorry lord!"

At this point, the soldier regained his senses and knelt on the ground. The words that came out of his mouth were not fluent. It was like he had just learned to speak them not long ago.

Ouyang Shuo frowned and stopped the guard, "Stand up!"

"Thank you lord; thank you lord!"

The soldier picked up the potatoes and quickly left.

The guard walked up and said softly, "This person is a little unusual."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, "Contact the Black Snake Guards to investigate. Remember, do not alert him."

"Yes, my lord!"

After this small interruption, Ouyang Shuo finally arrived at the commander tent.

"Lord!" Sun Bin sat on his wheelchair and greeted Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and sat down, "Talk about the situation regarding the aboriginals!"

Qiongzhou had two big groups. One was the desolate beasts, and the other was the Li Race Aboriginals. Especially in the Yazhou Region, the Li Race tribes were scattered everywhere.

The arrival of the Tiger Legion naturally alerted all these tribes.

In the beginning, the tribes retaliated. Unfortunately, in front of an elite army, the aboriginals still using wooden spears could not compare. Furthermore, they fought on plains, so they were badly defeated.

When the aboriginals saw that things were not going well, they backed off into the Five Finger Mountains.

The deep mountains and forests were their real home. Even Sun Bin did not dare venture in carelessly.

The war situation had entered a stalemate just like this.

Luckily, the plains region was enough to let Yashan City gain a foothold.

Hence, Sun Bin's strategy had changed. The current mission of the Tiger Legion was to clear out the beasts and desolate beasts on the plains. They also had to train their forces.

Of course, to the aboriginals that retreated into the Five Finger Mountains, Sun Bin did not give up and sent out spies to investigate, preparing them for future military operations.

The Li Race were really the king of the forests and mountains. Even the well-trained spies from the Black Snake Guards got lost in the mountains or fell into traps.

There were more than thirty spies that were sacrificed in the Five Finger Mountains.

Based on the military organization, one division only had one scouting squadron. All the spies in the legion added together were only two hundred men.

These sacrifices could not be considered small.

The Five Finger Mountain was about to become a forbidden region.

Luckily, when Sun Bin saw one plan failed, he made another.

On the grassland fields, the Tiger Legion had already destroyed ten Li Race tribes and captured thirty thousand of their people.

80% and above of the prisoners were sent to work in the various farms and gardens. The remaining 10% and above, around five thousand people, were all young and strong men. They were chosen to enter the army.

Sun Bin's strategy was to train the Li Race teens into a strong mountain region army. He was ready to use the Li Race warriors to fight against other Li Race members.

One had to say that this plan was really bold.

If Ouyang Shuo had not given Sun Bin the power to make decisions before he left, Sun Bin would not have dared to do this. One must know that in normal circumstances, the Military Affairs Department must raise the idea and Ouyang Shuo must approve it for one to organize and expand the military.

Ouyang Shuo only decided to give him such power because Qiongzhou Island was located out in the ocean, and Sun Bin was also a god rank genera.

To make the Li Race teens submit was not an easy task. Training a loyal force was also a tough matter.

Since Sun Bin was so confident, Ouyang Shuo was also looking forward to it.

Ouyang Shuo suddenly thought of the soldier that he had met, Don’t tell me that he was a Li Race teen?

Just at that moment, the Guard that left walked into the tent, "Lord, that soldier's identity has been identified. He's a newly recruited Li Race teen."

As he had expected.

Toward the doubt on Sun Bin's face, Ouyang Shuo explained in simple terms what had just happened.

"The lord's meaning is that the fellow's identity is not so simple?"

Sun Bin was a really smart person, from Ouyang Shuo’s words and actions, he could roughly guess everything. With the power and rank of the lord, if it was just a normal soldier, he would not have made such a big fuss.

"Let's just wait and see!" Ouyang Shuo turned toward the guard, "General Sun will be in charge of the investigations."

These things could not be considered difficult for Sun Bin.

"Yes, my lord!"

Chapter 385-Good Fortune

Ouyang Shuo left the barracks and returned to Yashan City.

That night, he held a banquet in the Lord's Manor to welcome the various power representatives in the city. These people included the team leaders from the three guild's elite forces as well as high-level players from Thread, some of the heads of the Chamber of Commerces, and even the leaders of the Li Race tribes that surrendered.

Apart from that, there were also the civil servants that Tian Wenjing led and the generals Sun Bin headed.

Ouyang Shuo took this banquet as an opportunity to push Tian Wenjing to the forefront.

Most importantly, through the banquet, Ouyang Shuo sent out a clear signal that Yashan City would continue to focus on becoming an open society where everyone could coexist.

Before this, Bai Nanpu had managed Yashan City, and he did not even have a title.

The various powers were worried about the future of Yashan City.

The lord personally coming out and making things clear at this moment instantly gained the welcome of everyone.

Ouyang Shuo was the absolute star of the banquet.

The various powers came forward to drink with him to strengthen their friendship. Ouyang Shuo was already accustomed to toward such occasions. His smile was really natural, as he enjoyed the night.

The next day, Ouyang Shuo was involved in many opening ceremonies and feasts.

After they received the message from the Lianzhou Lord, the Chamber of Commerces naturally were happy. They came forward to invite him to attend their shop opening ceremonies.

Even the shops that were opened before reopened with a grand ceremony.

Under the persuasion of the other members, even the cold Qing Sikou had to personally come out and invite Ouyang Shuo to attend the opening ceremony of Thread's largest overall store, Yi Pin Xuan.

The members of Thread worshipped Ouyang Shuo. The occurrences at Jingdu square were unforgettable.

Needless to say, Star Alliance had recently been embroiled in a tough battle. They were not as strong as before. All of this happened because the Lianzhou Lord was taking revenge for them.

The Thread members were mostly girls. During the opening ceremony, all of them surrounded Ouyang Shuo.

The girls simply went to war. They pulled him over for autographs and pictures, while some of the bolder ones even hugged and kissed him.

It was simply too terrifying when girls went crazy.

Players all had selfie functions. Ouyang Shuo did not dare to think about what Song Jia would think when these photos were placed on the forums.

He begged for Qing Sikou’s help, but she just stood at the side and watched on.

In the end, he barely managed to escape under the protection of his Guards.

"Wah, Brother Wuyi is so handsome!"

"Yeah, even when escaping, he's so handsome. I really love him!"

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, he ran even faster.

……

In the day, he attended the opening ceremonies. At night, the Chamber of Commerces invited them to their mansions for feasts. The feasts were incredibly grand and even better than the one at the Lord's Manor.

Seafood and delicacies, wine and great food, all of these were just the surface. The various performances were the part they put a lot of effort into.

Merchants liked to compete to see who was better.

Some performed dances, and some were more creative; they came in all types. Some even asked for help from their main base to teleport some famous songstresses.

Ouyang Shuo welcomed all of this.

He was determined to go all the way in terms of bonding with his people.

When they saw the delight of the Lianzhou Lord, some of the Chamber of Commerces grew even bolder. For example, a middle-sized Chamber of Commerce from Quanzhou arranged a beauty to take care of Ouyang Shuo.

It would be a lie to say that the beauty before him did not tempt Ouyang Shuo. He was also a virgin, so how could he resist such a temptation?

However, the moment he thought about the female tiger at home, his desires were extinguished, and he declined their good intentions.

Ouyang Shuo could not fall asleep that night.

The next day, when Sun Xiaoyue heard about this matter from one of the guards, she directly rejected that Chamber of Commerce’s application for land.

When that Chamber of Commerce learned this news, they were in tears.

In the future, no other Chamber of Commerce would do such a thing.

Amidst all the festivities, five days passed.

Based on Ouyang Shuo's plan, he would stay a week or so in Yashan City before he headed back.

Leizhou, Chiyou City, Taiping Country….

In the upcoming time, Shanhai City would face foe after foe. He could not feel at ease if he left the main camp for long periods of time.

Unexpectedly, he received a message from Song Jia.

After three odd months, her training had come to an end, and she was on the way back. Not only that, she had actually completed the secret quest.

One had to say that nothing could stop you when luck knocks on the door.

Legends had it that Ahli and Wumai had five children. They were said to have lived a hard life, farming half a mu of land.

One night, Ahli dreamed of a white-haired saint, who told him about a treasure hoe and a treasure sword.

The next day, their whole family went to work, and they really found these two treasures. They used the sword to cut trees and the hoe to farm. As a result, their lives grew better.

Many years later, Ahli died. The children followed their mother’s wishes and buried the treasure sword along with their father.

A scum known as Yawei spread the news to pirates. The pirates gathered hundreds of people to the place. They even killed Wumai and captured the five children.

Yawei placed all of them in chains and tortured them to reveal the location of the treasure. However, none of them revealed the location, and they were all killed.

Their bravery touched all the animals in the region. The beasts united and killed Yawei and the pirates.

The animals shifted large quantities of rocks and mud to make five high graves to bury them. These five burial mountains looked like five fingers pointing upward, hence they were called Five Finger Mountains.

On New Year's Eve, Song Jia entered Ahli's house. However, this time, he had not passed away.

She has not triggered the mission. Naturally, she would not know how special this family she lived with was. She just treated them as a temporarily layover.

After training for a period, she would return to the house to rest.

Just a week ago, Ahli suddenly passed away.

With this, the quest activated. If she had left a step earlier, she would have probably missed this great opportunity.

Next, the events that happened to Wu Mingzhi in Ouyang Shuo’s last life basically happened to her.

She made use of her martial arts to destroy the pirates. After she chased them away, to thank her, the family gave her the treasure sword.

Based on Song Jia’s words, she also found two treasures on the bodies of the pirates.

As for what these treasures were exactly, Song Jia refused to tell him.

Ouyang Shuo decided to just stay in Yashan City until she returned.

5th month 8th day, Song Jia returned.

When she left, it was the start of autumn. Back then, the city was not even built. When she returned, it was already summer.

After training in the Five Finger Mountains, her aura had totally changed. She seemed like a sharp sword that inspired fear.

A swordsman of a generation had officially stepped foot into the underworld.

Ouyang Shuo also noticed that the sword by her waist had changed. The Qingfeng sword from before was changed to the treasure sword.

Since they had just met, Ouyang Shuo did not want to ask about the treasure sword.

Since they had not seen one another for so long, they got close, and no one dared to disturb them.

She looked at Ouyang Shuo, "Wuyi, the forums say that there is a playboy. Do you know who he is?"

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, he froze. As he had expected, the photos from the Thread opening ceremony were posted online.

A group of girls surrounding him was really shocking.

As a result of this event, the Brother Wuyi Fan Club even started a war with Thread on the forums. Thread was not good at fighting. However, in terms of arguing, they were still pretty good.

Both of them went at each other and fought unhappily.

Since Ouyang Shuo's reputation was too big, this event naturally spread across the entire China region.

In the end, even if Song Jia did not want to pay attention to it, she could not.

As the person in the picture, Ouyang Shuo could only keep silent.

He also knew that those girls did not have any bad intentions. They were just little girls playing around.

If Ouyang Shuo came out and tried to clear things up on the forums, he would be just asking for it.

"Jiajia, let me explain!"

Just as he was about to speak, Song Jia suddenly raised her index finger and shushed him, "Dummy, I'm just kidding. Do you think that I don’t trust you?"

"...."

Ouyang Shuo was speechless; she had teased him once again.

When she saw his stunned expression, Song Jia burst out laughing.

"You actually dare to tease me. Watch how I teach you a lesson!"

Ouyang Shuo charged toward Song Jia.

Chapter 386- Navy General

Ouyang Shuo leapt toward Song Jia, hugging and tickling her.

Song Jia feared tickles the most. She immediately begged, "Haha, Wuyi, I’m wrong, haha, I won’t dare anymore."

"Call me husband!"

"Husband, haha, I really don’t dare anymore."

After fooling around, their clothes were really unkempt.

The next day, Song Jia showed Ouyang Shuo her gains from the trip.

Firstly, the reward from the hidden quest, one of the top ten famous swords—Chunjun Sword.

Name: Chunjun Sword (God Weapon)

Hardness: 87

Sharpness: 85

Toughness: 84

Specialty: Blade Breaker (May break opposing weapon if hardness is lower than the Chunjun Sword. Unique, cannot be dropped, cannot be traded).

Killing Technique: Water Hibiscus (releases sword energy. Like the light from the stars, formless and unavoidable). Cooldown time: one week.

Evaluation: Chunjun Sword is a unique sword. It has an appearance like a shining star. When looking at it in the light, it seems like water in a pond. The sword is crafted from tin from the mountains, copper from the lakes, thunder from the heavens, and coal that the gods used. It is truly a heavenly sight.

Next, the spirit beast, a Golden Spotted Butterfly that Song Jia caught on the mountain. In order to capture this spirit butterfly that she called Little Gold, Song Jia had stood in the bushes for five days and five nights.

If she did not have the military grains pills supporting her, she definitely would not have survived.

Name: Golden Spotted Butterfly (Spirit Beast)

Level: 68

Specialty: Illusion (can instantly place the enemy into an illusion that lasts for thirty seconds). Cure (stops blood loss and helps to regain strength and energy).

Combat power: 120

Evaluation: The Golden Spotted Butterfly is exquisite and beautiful. The queen of butterflies. Its wings shine with a green light, and it has curved golden green spots on its front. On its back, it has a few golden yellow spots. Its back wings are shaped in a long and sharp manner with a golden speck at the end.

Armed with the Chunjun Sword and the Golden Spotted Butterfly, Song Jia could enter the top 10 among adventure gamemode players. In addition to her Nine Yin Cultivation Technique and her Yuenu Sword Technique, top three was not a dream.

In the hands of NPC disciples like Cui Tianqi, the Nine Yin Cultivation Technique was only based on how well they trained. However, in her hands, it had layers like the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Techniques.

In contrast to the Nine Yin Cultivation Technique of the legends, the one that Gaia created was only an internal cultivation technique. It did not record other martial techniques.

It had nine layers. After tiring cultivation, Song Jia had reached the 5th layer. As for the Yuenu Sword Technique, she had reached the 4th stage—perform with ease.

For Song Jia to have her achievements of today, apart from her talent, focus and diligence were the key. Not many adventure gamemode player could dive deep into the mountains and forests and spend three months there.

The current Song Jia had the style of a sect leader.

After she learned that Lin Yue had chosen to join the Dongli Sword Sect, Song Jia felt elated. She was raring to go back immediately. As for the disciples that were training in the Five Finger Mountains, she did not want to disturb them.

If one does not experience rain, how will there be a rainbow?

Before she left, Song Jia gave Ouyang Shuo the two items she obtained from the bodies of the pirates.

Two items: one map, one token.

Beihai Bay Treasure map (3): Beihai Bay has given birth to a very famous pirate, who people called Blood Slaughterer. After he died, all his riches disappeared. Prior to his death, he buried his treasures in a forsaken island and drew a map. He split it into three and passed a section to each of his three most trusted generals.

That was interesting. It was actually this map.

Ouyang Shuo had obtained the first map when they attacked Yue'er island. With that, they only lacked the second map. Then, he could search for the treasure.

Now, this mysterious treasure really tempted Ouyang Shuo.

Of course, to obtain the last part of the map, he needed fate and a lot of luck.

Just like how Song Jia had obtained the third piece of the map. Who would have expected an ordinary pirate to hold it?

The token was a summoning token—an item that all lords dreamed of.

This was a king rank summoning token. Who knows what talent he could summon with it?

Ouyang Shuo did not mind who it was. If it was a civil servant, he had a use for all of them. If it was a general, Ouyang Shuo wished to summon a navy general.

After sending Song Jia off, Ouyang Shuo could not wait any longer. He tore the token, only to see a white light shine across. An average looking middle-aged general was summoned.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, recruiting king rank historical person, Cai Mao. Rewarded reputation points 100, congratulations!"

When the middle-aged general saw Ouyang Shuo, he kneeled on the ground and solemnly said, "General's name is Cai Mao. Greetings, lord!"

Wow, he actually summoned a navy general.

Although Cai Mao was not so famous, he was actually a pretty strong navy general during the Three Kingdoms Era. Especially in terms of training the navy, even Zhou Yu feared him.

"General, please rise!"

Ouyang Shuo walked toward Cai Mao and helped him up.

Name: Cai Mao (King Rank)

Dynasty: Three Kingdoms

Identity: Yashan City General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 75

Command: 80

Force: 75

Intelligence: 50

Politics: 45

Specialty: Wave treading (movement speed on water increases by 10%), water combat (raise sailor's combat power by 15%), navy training (efficiency of training increased by 25%)

Cultivation Technique: Nil

Equipment: Han Sword

Song Jia was really Ouyang Shuo's lucky start.

Since he had summoned Cai Mao, he could start the construction of Yashan City's navy construction.

Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to stay in Yashan City longer because of this small accident.

On the same day, he pulled Cai Mao along and had a long conversation with him regarding the construction of the navy.

The next day, Military Affairs DIrector Du Ruhui teleported over for a discussion.

Based on the original Nanyang Navy organization, the future Yashan City would have a Yashan Squadron. As such, Cai Mao had arrived at just the right time.

Ouyang Shuo immediately decided to name him the Chief General of the 1st division of the Yashan Navy Squadron.

The Beihai Shipyard built all the warships of the navy. Pei Donglai had also trained a batch of sailors. As a result, they just needed to let the sailors sail toward South Mountain Harbor to finish the process.

Cai Mao needed to recruit real navy soldiers and train them into an army.

Cai Mao appeared very confident about the mission the lord had handed him. That was to be expected. After all, training a navy was not anything difficult with his experience.

In the future, when Yashan City had created its 1st division, Qiongzhou Island would become a step safer. The navy could also sail deeper into the seas and eradicate various pirate organizations.

All in all, the addition of Cai Mao was equivalent to obtaining a squadron.

Shanhai City had finally obtained a decent navy general.

After dealing with the Yashan Squadron, two days had already passed. Just as Ouyang Shuo was about to return, a system notification sounded out in his ear, which stopped him in his tracks.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, Nian Beast Little Green has trained well in the Spirit Beast Hall. It has automatically become the protector of Yashan Town, player awarded 500 reputation points!"

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, descendant of the Wolf God, Little White, has trained well in the Spirit Beast Hall. It has automatically become the protector of Yashan Town, player awarded 500 reputation points!"

That was unexpected. The two had actually become protector beasts of the territory.

The mysterious Spirit Beast Hall was really something one could not grasp. Just a short while had passed, but the two of them had broken through.

Ouyang Shuo did not care about this. He simply went and checked their stats.

Name: Little Green (Spirit Beast)

Home: Yashan Town protector beast

Level: 45

Skill: Slayer (raises fury stat by 85%), Charge (raises combat power by 70%)

Combat Power: 100

Specialty: Deterrence (Raises territory safety by 25%), protector (raises territory defence by 15%)

Cultivation Method: Black Qilin Seven Purgatory Technique

Evaluation: Fierce beast of olden legends; the descendant of the fierce dragon and the black qilin. As a protector beast, its qilin blood can be stimulated, and it can evolve.

Compared to its parents, little green's stats were better. Most crucially, it also had a cultivation method, which showed its potential.

The name of the cultivation method also raised many thoughts and ideas in his mind.

Did this mean that if Little Green trained this technique, it had a chance to become a real Qilin God Beast?

Name: Little White (Spirit Beast)

Home: Yashan Town protector beast

Level: 40

Skill: Telepathy (can communicate with all wolf-type beasts), Charm (Charms enemies with its appearance)

Combat Power: 85

Specialty: Deterrence (Raises territory safety by 25%), Protector (raises territory defence by 15%)

Cultivation Method: Wolf God Manual

Evaluation: Legends have it that the white wolf was royalty in the wolf tribe, and the descendant of the Wolf God. It has a high position among all wolves; they all worship it.

Compared to Little Green, the stats of Little White were even more insane. This little fellow really had a mysterious past. Its potential was even higher than Little Green, who could become a qilin.

Chapter 387- The Situation in Leizhou

5th month 12th day, Ouyang Shuo returned to Shanhai City.

After Little Green and Little White became protector beasts, they were all the more unwilling to leave the Spirit Beast Hall. Ouyang Shuo went to take a look at both of them and Xue'er before returning to Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo looked forward to the future achievements of these three.

The moment he returned, Ouyang Shuo called for Du Ruhui, Zhao Kuo, and Cobra. Half a month had passed since he asked them to come up with a plan, so Ouyang Shuo felt that they should have made some new progress.

Cobra was the first to report, "The Leizhou Region is of similar size to the Lianzhou Basin. There are twenty-seven territories, twenty-two grade 2 counties, and five grade 3 counties. There are no grade 1 counties."

When Ouyang Shuo heard this information, he nodded his head.

If he took down Leizhou, not including Qiongzhou Island, his territory would double in area.

Six months had passed since the Battle of Changping.

Even if no new battle map showed, the ranks of the lords would rise from killing raiders and bandits. Most had basically reached rank 2 earl and above.

With this conjecture, the ranks of Di Chen and the others should not be far from rank 3 Marquis.

Ouyang Shuo remembered that the fourth battle map in his last life activated with the birth of the fifth prefecture. The current China region already had three prefectures. As long as two more from the Yanhuang Alliance ranked up to Marquis and upgraded, they were really close to the fourth battle.

The prefecture quests were nothing to the big powers.

Cobra paused before he continued, "The territories in Leizhou have pretty much all hit their upper limit, which means that a grade 2 County has two regiments of around five thousand. The five grade 3 counties all have a city protection regiment. The entire Leizhou region has around 180 thousand troops. If we add the subsidiary territories, to be safe, we can say there are around two hundred thousand troops.”

Two hundred thousand men. If they all grouped up together, it was enough to destroy the Dragon Legion.

Luckily, the situation had not escalated to such a bad state.

Song Wen had already replied Ouyang Shuo. Eight territories in Leizhou had joined the Tianshuang Alliance, all grade 2 counties.

As for these territories, when they saw that his army had gained the advantage, Ouyang Shuo believed that they would know what to do.

Black Mamba reported that they had completed their infiltration of five territories.

With that, it was the same as nullifying a third of the enemy.

Even so, based solely on the Dragon Legion's 2nd division and the Guards division, it was hard to smoothly take down Leizhou, not to mention the casualties.

Ouyang Shuo was confident that under the buffs of the territory, thanks to their elite equipment and overpowered generals, Shanhai army could take on three times their number.

If one considered Baiqi, Shanhai City Army could go one against four. More would be a huge test.

Furthermore, considering that the Battle of Leizhou would mainly consist of sieging, it was even more difficult. Hence, conservatively speaking, he needed to throw in another one or two divisions to successfully take down Leizhou.

Out of the four divisions of the Dragon Legion, the 1st division needed to go past the hundred thousand mountains, and the 3rd needed to guard Mulan Stronghold. As such, only Mu Guiying's 4th division could move.

Moving them would involve a certain amount of risk.

The moment he used the 4th division, in addition to the Guards division taking part in the attack, the entire Shanhai City defence would lie in the hands of the city protection division. Without any reserve forces, this was a very dangerous prospect.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it and decided to keep the three thousand palace Guards in Shanhai City. Although he did not feel that the Yanhuang Alliance would choose to attack at this point, he still had to defend his territory.

Playing safe was always the best virtue.

At the same time, the Dragon Legion 1st division would push back the time that they would cross the hundred thousand mountains. They would temporarily camp in Tianfeng House, near the hundred thousand mountains.

When the situation in Leizhou stabilized, Shi Wanshui would lead them on a long and arduous journey to deal the killing blow to Chiyou City.

With that, the city had the city protection division and the palace Guards, while on the outside, they had the 1st and 3rd divisions defending. There should be no problems.

Even if Yanhuang Alliance tried to attack, they could not take down Shanhai City.

Moving the 4th division was only to equal the numbers.

Ouyang Shuo's goal was to quickly take over the entire Leizhou. Hence, the best method was to throw in another division.

Once he thought about this, Ouyang Shuo raised his head and looked at Du Ruhui, "Send orders to the Tiger Legion, order the 1st division to prepare to enter the Leizhou battlefield. The 2nd division will prepare to defend Shanhai City at any moment."

"Yes, my lord!" Du Ruhui nodded.

"Leizhou is near the ocean, so there might be sailors. During the Battle of Leizhou, the Beihai Bay Squadron’s 1st division will join in to monitor the ocean situation."

Although they could not help with the sieging, they could act as a great special surprise force. Counting in the sailors, Shanhai City would send seventy thousand troops to this battle.

Shanhai City was destined to stun the world once again.

After the military meeting ended, the war machine which was Shanhai City started to turn.

The 2nd and 3rd divisions of the Dragon Legion left their camps and did not gather in Shanhai City. Instead, they boarded ships disguised as merchant ships along the Friendship and Qiushui rivers. From there, they went down the stream to Beihai Harbor.

The Guards division made use of the darkness to leave the city and rush to Beihai Harbor.

As Beihai City developed, they had built a commercial harbor at the other side of the territory. The merchant ships could not come close to Beihai Harbor. As it was a military harbor.

The 1st division of the Tiger Legion would board warships from the South Mountain Harbor and head straight to Leizhou.

The warships prepared for the Yashan Squadron had already left from Beihai Harbor. After they received supplies in South Mountain Harbor, they would send the 1st division toward Leizhou.

Just like this, before anyone knew anything, Shanhai City had gathered all their men and resources.

The navy would play a large and important role in the upcoming battle.

The entire Beihai Bay was the territory of the Shanhai City navy. Here, they could do whatever they wanted.

His plans for becoming the overlords of the sea were finally coming into fruition.

Since the army they moved was too huge, the Beihai Bay Squadron 1st division could only send one division at a time. Hence, they needed to build a sentry base in Leizhou.

Luckily between Leizhou and Lianzhou, the shortest route was only a day, while the longest route was four to five days.

Although they were both besides the ocean, Leizhou was very different from Lianzhou Basin. Lianzhou Basin only had one ocean entrance, and it had a limited shoreline.

Leizhou was like a carrot; a huge half or it laid in the ocean. In terms of geography, it was east and west small, while north and south long.

Based on this strategic geography, Baiqi decided to split the troops into three and attack together.

The north would be the 4th division of the Dragon Legion that Mu Guiying led, while the middle was the Guards division that Lin Yi led. Baiqi would follow them and act as the commander. The south was the 1st division of the Tiger legion that Fan Lihua led.

Lastly, the 2nd division of the Dragon Legion that Luo Shixin led. It was the only cavalry division. It used its huge mobility to act as backup.

Baiqi planned to sweep up a huge half of Leizhou before anyone could react.

If not, once the twenty-seven territories worked together, it would be a huge problem.

For this battle, Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to break the alliance rules; he bought one thousand trebuchets from Consonance City.

Mu Guying and Fan Lihua both took three hundred, while the Guards division took four hundred.

Ouyang Shuo had basically swept up three to four months of Consonance City’s trebuchet production.

Apart from the trebuchets, Ouyang Shuo also bought a hundred siege chariots and five hundred siege towers. In addition to the thousands of scaling ladders that Shanhai City made, this would totally change the face of the Battle of Leizhou.

Buying this set of siege weapons alone had used up 35 thousand gold.

Toward Ouyang Shuo's actions, as the military coordinator and contacter, Zi Luolan grumbled a lot.

As for why he bought so many at once, although his allies were curious, they did not ask. Even Zi Luolan just randomly sprouted words and did not mean it.

Toward the understanding from his allies, Ouyang Shuo naturally felt very thankful to them. The Battle of Leizhou was a battle that Shnahai City could not afford to lose. He had to be careful.

Apart from siege weapons, Ouyang Shuo also bought a huge amount of grain from the various Chamber of Commerces.

When the troops gained a footing in Leizhou, the various merchant ships would transport millions of units of grain to Leizhou.

It was the same as saying that the Chamber of Commerces would help to solve half of the grain transport problem.

Once the grain was transported to Leizhou, how it was transported internally would depend on Shanhai City. For this, the Combat Logistics Department arranged fifty prisoners to enter Leizhou.

Fortunately, the spring sowing season had just ended. Otherwise, it would be difficult to amass such a huge prisoner force.

One must know that the construction projects in Lianzhou Prefecture had never stopped, and the demand for labour was terrifying.

Based on rough calculations, solely on the logistics, Shanhai City had spent sixty thousand gold. As a result, they had used up the fifty thousand that Ouyang Shuo had saved up in his storage bag.

This amount did not consider the costs of the military workshops and factories. If those were considered, the sum would easily pass a hundred thousand.

If not, why would one say that war was based on one's economic ability.

After a huge war, if one could not achieve their goal, it was enough to cause the economy of a territory to collapse.

Chapter 388- Cool Vanguard

They needed to make an outpost. At the same time, they needed a place to act as the logistics base of the army. Hence, the first goal of the army was the grade 3 counties.

The target of the north troops was the grade 3 County, Hengshan County. It laid on the north-west side of Leizhou. The target of the middle troops was Leishan County, which sat in the middle of Leizhou. The south troops target was Hai An County, which stood at the southmost point.

With that, out of the five grade 3 counties, three were removed. They had taken out the hard bones of Leizhou.

Most importantly, these three counties were located at the border of Leizhou. After the army landed, they did not need to make any detours. They could just launch their attack. If not, Baiqi would have rather chosen to attack a grade 2 county.

A lone army behind enemy lines was what a military strategist worried the most about.

As the plan was set, the troops set out.

5th month, 15th day, the Guards division acted as the vanguard force and attacked first.

As the overall commander, Baiqi set out together with the Guards division. Ouyang Shuo, on the other hand, returned to Shanhai City after sending the troops off at Beihai Harbor.

As a lord, he also had his responsibilities.

At the current moment, the most important matter was for him to manage Shanhai City. With him there, he could calm the masses, and others would not dare to make any moves.

Beihai Harbor was still a certain distance away from the middle of Leizhou.

5th month, 18th day, the Beihai Bay Squadron 1st division reached their destination. They stopped in a place known as Motu Harbor Bay. Nearby, apart from a small fishing village, there were no military personnel present.

One week earlier, the Black Snake Guards had investigated this small fishing village with three hundred to four hundred people. The village consisted entirely of NPC villagers, and there were not any players.

To prevent adventure gamemode players from accidentally entering the fishing village, the Quanzhou intel station even arranged a snake guard to standby. Hence, the squadron could come to shore at ease.

To dock an olden warship was not as simple as finding a spot. These warships needed a harbor or a bay. If not, there was a chance for the ship to be stranded, especially in the case of huge warships like the turreted ship.

After the divisions docked, the Guards division followed and sneaked ashore.

Apart from the army, they also needed to unload the siege weapons and logistic supplies.

They got busy all the way till noon before they completed this task. At this time, the division returned. Now, they were in charge of sending Mu Guiying’s 4th division toward the second destination in the north of Leizhou.

At the three landing points, the Black Snake Guards made specific arrangements.

Black Mamba had given an order for them to show the value of the Black Snake Guards during the Battle of Leizhou.

After the army gathered up, they prepared themselves for a day in the fishing village. For many of the soldiers, this was the first they had traveled on a boat. It was unavoidable that they would feel uncomfortable and could not directly head to battle.

Appear from that, there were the war horses that were transported along with the troops.

Compared to soldiers, the Qingfu horses were much more valuable, and they needed a good rest.

As the big army rested, a group of people could not. They were the patrol squadron of the division.

Under the leadership of their captain, all the patrol members walked toward Leishan County.

Their mission, apart from confirming a correct route, was to clear obstacles along the road.

After all, the Military Intelligence Division had only spent half a month in Leizhou, so they could only investigate the rough geography of the area. For the specific geography of a region, the various divisions had to depend on themselves.

The first day of the Battle of Leizhou passed peacefully.

Fifty kilometers away, Leishan County did not even know that a huge army had snuck under their noses.

Early morning of the next day, the army had rested for a day and a night. They were fully energized.

The real war was about to start.

In the wee hours of the morning, the moment they formed up, they did not waste anymore time. They rode on their Qingfu horses and rushed toward Leishan County.

At this time, any further delays would mean a chance of being exposed.

The most difficult part was the transportation of siege weapons.

Although these weapons were really amazing, they were a pain to transport.

Baiqi made the decision to leave two units to take charge of the transportation, while the main force rushed forward.

The morning air of Leizhou was foggy and really humid.

The Guards division made use of the dim light and the cover of the fog. Like a spectre, they swiftly proceeded under the leadership of the scouts.

Baiqi never used his troops in an orthodox manner.

The way he saw it, to attack the enemy so that they could not react, he needed to send a vanguard forward to take down the city gate. This would allow him to prevent a siege battle.

If the entire army charged forward, the sounds of the rumbling hooves would be enough to shock the enemy. Hence, the vanguard force had to be a small group, ideally a unit.

With the strength of a unit, it seemed impossible to take down the city gate of a grade 3 county even if they sneak attacked.

The chips in Baiqi's hands were the unstoppable elite of the Guards division. These soldiers were war elite soldiers chosen from each division. Each individual could take on five times their number.

Baiqi was highly confident in them.

After Baiqi spoke of his plan, Lin Yi volunteered to lead the charge.

"Commander, I'm willing!"

When Baiqi heard his words, he decided right away, "Okay, you will lead the personal Guards unit to act as the vanguard. The 1st regiment will be the frontline and follow closely behind. I'll lead the rest."

The personal Guards unit, the most elite unit in the Guards division. No other unit was more suitable to act as the vanguard.

Lin Yi was also a really strong general.

The combination of the two made Baiqi really confident.

"Thank you, commander!"

Lin Yi bowed and leaped onto his horse. He led the personal Guards unit, breaking away from the main force and charging quickly ahead.

Closely behind them was the 1st regiment. Their duty was to ensure that after the vanguard unit took down the city gates, they could reinforce them.

If not, everything would be wasted.

Under the command of Baiqi, the huge army was like cogs in a machine, relying on and helping out one another.

At 9 AM, the personal guards unit led by Lin Yi rained down on the city gates. They were like soldiers from the heavens; the enemy did not even have time to react.

The city protection forces even thought that they were their men who were returning from patrol.

When they were less than five hundred meters away, the city protection force saw the shiny Mingguang Armor. Finally, they realized that the enemy was attacking.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!" The guard shouted.

The originally peaceful city gate instantly grew busy. The commoners that were queuing up to enter were pushing their way in, fighting for their lives to enter the city.

"Close the gates. Quick, close the gates!"

The general in charge of guarding the gates shouted.

"General, the city gates are blocked by the people. We can't close it!"

"Chase them away. If they won’t leave, kill them!"

His face instantly turned cold. If they lost the city gate, he would be beheaded. At that point, there was no mercy left.

"Yes!"

The soldiers immediately spread the orders.

"Archers, ready!"

The general still was not at ease. He asked the archers on the city walls to prepare themselves.

"Yes, general!"

The moment the military orders were sent, the city gate grew even more chaotic.

At the start, the guards told the commoners that the enemy was just aiming for the gates. They would not harm them, so the guards asked the commoners to just stay outside.

However, the commoners did not even listen to these words. Instead, they tried to squeeze into the city.

When they saw such a scene, the guards were helpless. They could only use their blades.

"Ah, the military is killing people!"

At this point, the situation totally blew up.

Such a deterrence made a portion of the civilians terrified. They really start to leave.

Just as the guards were ready to pull up the bridge, the personal Guards unit arrived.

The five hundred meter distance was just a short charge.

"Personal Guards unit, charge!"

Lin Yi unsheathed his Tang Blade and led the troops.

"Kill!"

The personal Guards unit would not bother about the lives of the civilians. Whoever stood in their way, they would kill. At this point, they were rushing against time, and they could not show any mercy.

"Shoot the arrows! Don't let them come over!"

The enemy general was shocked when he saw such a scene. How was there such an elite army?

The Guards division, iron soldiers.

The personal Guards unit, the strongest iron of them all.

Under the leadership of Lin Yi, their hearts were like stone. They did not bother about the arrows and resolutely rushed straight for the city gates. Nothing could stop them.

Finally, right before the gates were about to close, Lin Yi's forces managed to arrive.

"Kill!"

As Lin Yi waved his blade, a light shimmered as heads fell to the ground.

"Kill!"

In less than five minutes, the hundred city gate guards were all slaughtered. None were left alive.

The personal Guards unit had successfully taken down the city gate.

"Cut the ropes!"

After taking down the city gates, Lin Yi remained as calm as usual.

"Yes, general!"

"We can't let them cut the ropes. City protection unit, follow me, kill them!" The city protection general was also a vicious character. He led the guards down the city walls to welcome the battle.

"Ants!"

When he saw the enemy charge over, Lin Yi did not even look them in the eye. He simply waved his hand, "Kill them!"

"Yes, general!"

Five hundred personal Guards facing around one thousand city protection guards. Despite the numerical difference, the personal Guards showed zero fear.

The moment they engaged, the difference in strength was obvious. The normal city guards were totally not their opponents.

The city protection force was beaten badly; their corpses piled up all around the city gate.

Lin Yi did not participate in this massacre. He rode on his horse and looked at the horizon, only to see a huge army rumbling toward them.

Under the shine of the sun, they reflected a bright golden glow.

The 1st regiment of the Guards division had arrived.

Chapter 389- Huwei General

The 1st regiment rushed to the battlefield. When they saw that their troops had already taken down the city gate, the 1st regiment colonel ordered the troops to charge.

"Charge!"

When the city protection general saw that the enemy still had reinforcements, he panicked, "Defend, our reinforcements will arrive soon. We can't let the enemy succeed, or the territory will be in danger!"

"Rather die than retreat!"

The remaining city protection forces gave it their all to defend.

"Tsk!"

Lin Yi looked at them coldly. He whipped his Qingfu Horse and instantly appeared before the general. At the same time, Lin Yi stabbed out with his spear.

The general was shocked. He raised his blade and struck out at the spear. With a loud dang sparks flew from the collision.

A powerful energy spread out from the spear and numbed the guard general’s hand. As a result, he nearly lost his footing.

Even with the added momentum of the charge, such power could stun the guard general.

He knew that he definitely was not the opponent of the young general before him.

In the instant that he hesitated, Lin Yi attacked again.

Lin Yi's long spear was highly flexible. Since he had stunned the enemy, he took the opportunity to fake a stab before he aimed straight for the guard general’s chest.

"Ah!"

The guard general spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. He slowly lowered his head; he looked at the spear embedded in his chest with disbelief.

Lin Yi expressionlessly pulled out his spear, which caused blood to spurt out.

The guard general knelt on the ground and died right there.

A city gate general could not survive three of Lin Yi’s moves.

"Great!"

The personal Guards unit soldiers cheered on for their general.

On the other hand, the city guard soldiers were astonished, and their morale instantly plunged to a freezing point.

"Quickly, clear the city gate entrance!"

Lin Yi's expression remained the same, as he personally led the killing.

"Yes, general!"

After a long, drawn out battle, the city protection unit finally failed to hold on and were forced back.

"General, the 1st regiment is here!" greeted the colonel.

Lin Yi nodded, "Arrange a unit to defend the city gate. The rest, come with me."

"Yes, general!"

Lin Yi knew that the current enemy troops were unstable. Additionally, they lacked intel about the battlefield; this presented a perfect opportunity. With the 1st regiment, he had complete confidence of fighting the enemy division.

If they waited for the rest of the troops to arrive, they would definitely have to fight head-on against the enemy troops.

"Kill!"

The invincible iron cavalry were like a black flood. They surged into the city and directly headed for the Lord's Manor.

The shops along the streets had closed earlier when the killing at the city gates started. On the large streets, there was not a single person. It created a very cold and chilly scene.

The residents looked through the gaps of their doors at the iron cavalry that galloped across the streets. The current events terrified them.

Another chaotic time!

The guards regiment had only traveled for a short distance before they met the city protection division.

They had just exited the barracks and were about to head assist the city gates. Who would have expected the enemy to breach their city in just twenty minutes?

Since they had met in a narrow passage, the brave would come out victorious.

"Charge!"

Lin Yi did not hesitate at all, as he ordered the cavalry to charge forward.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

The guards division was menacing.

"Get into formation!"

The general of the city protection division had no choice but to order his forces to form up and defend. The narrow streets caused the forces of the city protection division to drag out into a long line. As a result, the front could not see the back.

"Raise your shields!"

Under the orders of their commander, the sword-shield soldiers at the front raised their shields.

"Arrows!"

The archers at the back started to aim at the enemy troops.

All of this seemed systematic and none of them panicked.

Unfortunately, the city protection division was faced with the overpowered guards division. Their shields were like paper.

The guards division was like a lawnmower. They charged forward at 75 kilometers per hour, stamping over the enemies before them into cold corpses.

The narrow long streets became the nightmare of the enemy.

How fast was the charging speed of the Guards division? The archers of the city protection division were the best people to ask about that.

When they took out the arrows from their quivers, the enemy was still a kilometer out. However, when their armed themselves and got ready, the enemy was only five hundred meters away. When they finally aimed and were about to shoot, the enemy was right in front of them.

Sword-shield soldier formation?

Get out of my way!

Cavalry formation?

Get out of my way!

Spearmen formation?

Get out of my way!

Archer formation?

Trample them!

The city guard division was closely packed on the long streets. However, such a formation was useless against the Guards division.

The Guards division was like an Asura from hell. They mercilessly reaped life after life.

One formation after another. Torn apart one by one like paper.

The army that had seemed so orderly and well-formed instantly became a pot of mixed-up porridge.

The cavalry knocked aside numerous soldiers, who fell into the smelly drains on the side. Injured soldiers instantly filled up the drains.

"How can this happen?"

When he saw the strength of the enemy, the city protection division commander's face turned ashen white.

"General, we can't defend. What should we do?"

As they had lined up into formations on the streets, they did not have any space to make any other movements. The face of the commander looked really ugly right now. He shouted, “What can we do? We have no way back. We can only fight to the death!"

"Fight to the death!"

……

"Fight to the death!"

Unfortunately, facing the iron cavalry that showed no signs of slowing down, their shouts were not in unison. Purely relying on raising morale could not win them the war.

Despair flashed across the face of the city protection division commander.

The Guards division was like a god weapon that bisected the city protection division into two.

Under the leadership of Lin Yi, all the soldiers were determined. No matter who the opponents were or how many they numbered, the Guards division would only charge, charge, and charge.

Blades flashed across, spears stabbed forward, and horse lances charged.

There were simply too many enemies; they could not kill them all. A large half was left in chaos and chased to the sides of the streets.

Facing such an enemy, the city protection division did not dare to take them head-on. They just stared in shock, as the enemy charged toward the Lord's Manor.

The Guards division had created another record.

With the strength of just a single regiment, they had broken through an enemy five times their number.

"General. Should, should we give chase?"

"It's useless!" The commander gave up, “Such a strong army isn't something we can contend with!"

One hour later.

It only took one hour for the Guards division to take down Leishan County.

When Baiqi led the rest of the troops to Leishan County, the Shanhai territory flags already hung from the city walls. At this time, the group in charge of transporting the siege weapons were only halfway there.

The Guards division had opened the war on a good note, which earned them glory and honor. This was the first battle since they were built, and they had performed as expected.

At the time that Leishan County was taken, Ouyang Shuo was alone in his reading room.

Suddenly, a system notification sounded in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for taking down Leishan County, rewarded one thousand merit points."

Ouyang Shuo smiled, as he picked up his teacup and took a sip.

Less than an hour after the battle, Ouyang Shuo received an in-depth battle report from Black Mamba through the relay.

Using the relay, the Black Snake Guards formed a highly efficient network. Each team and force had members of the Black Snake Guards, who followed them to spread the latest orders and intel.

Ouyang Shuo raised his head. He remained silent for a while before he shouted, “Men!"

"Yes, my lord!"

Bai Nanpu walked in.

"Give my orders. The Guards division has performed well. Reward major general Lin Yi with the title of Huwei General and grant him a badge to commend his bravery. The other warriors will also be rewarded."

"Yes, my lord!"

This was the first time Ouyang Shuo had given a general a title because of war deeds.

Apart from Wang Feng, who became the general of the palace guards. Ouyang Shuo had given him the title of palace general. Before this, only Baiqi and Sun Bin had military titles.

Baiqi was the commander-in-chief, while Sun Bin was the great general

If one followed the old system of the Han and Tang Dynasty, this was the highest level of reward.

The title of Huwei General was often handed to generals that displayed valiant efforts in battle.

During the Three Kingdoms Period, Yujing, Lumeng, Zhaoyun, and the like got this title.

For Lin Yi to receive this title was already an utmost honor. It was also a first in Shanhai City.

One could predict how excited the other generals would be when the news spread out. They too would hope to receive such a title.

The Battle of Leizhou was the best opportunity.

In this way, the friendly competition between the Shanhai generals also began.

With reward also came motivation.

In the future, Ouyang Shuo would grant ranks to the generals based on their military credits and contributions.

After obtaining a title, it would not change until the general gained enough achievements to upgrade their title.

After taking down Leishan County, the middle forces treated it as the main camp. Following which, large amounts of siege weapons and grains were transported from the harbor to Leishan County.

Leishan County was temporarily under military rule.

When the lord of Leishan County revived in Quanzhou, he still did not know what had happened.

Even at this point, he did not know who had attacked and destroyed his territory.

After taking down Leishan County, Baiqi did not sweep out to destroy the other bases because he did not want to alert the others. The destruction of one territory could just be an accidental occurrence. If many fell one by one, even a dumb person could guess what was happening.

Baiqi was waiting for the other two groups of troops to arrive.

21st day, the Beihai Bay Squadron returned to Beihai Harbor.

23rd day, Mu Guiying led the north side forces to their destination.

24th day, Fan Lihua led the south side forces to their destination.

25th day, Luo Shixin led the 2nd division to start their journey to Leishan County.

The Battle of Leizhou had begun on all fronts.

Chapter 390- Hidden Killing Intent

Yazhou, Tiger Legion station.

The moon hung high in the dark night sky. Only a few little torches burned brightly.

In the camp of the mountain army under construction, two young soldiers made use of the chance when patrolling to come into contact with one another.

When Sun Bin set up the mountain regiment, apart from the colonel and the majors taken from the 1st and 2nd division, the remaining captains and sergeants were all selected from the Li Race Tribes.

The Li Race soldiers were really wild. They naturally used martial art skills as the only standard to determine the boss.

The ones with high skills would become sergeants.

Those with even greater skill would become the captain.

They were both dressed in the clothes of captains; their positions in the military were not low. They could be said to be unordinary.

"Young tribe leader, I've found out that the 1st division has boarded a ship. However, we don’t know where they’ve left to,” said a thin-faced middle-aged man. He had a long scar on his face. It looked like some wild beast left it.

When he talked and the scar on his face moved, he looked very vicious.

"That's great. It's really an opportunity sent by the heavens."

If Ouyang Shuo was present, he definitely would have noticed that this young tribe leader was the soldier that had knocked into him. His name was Shanzhu, and he had the title of the bravest warrior of the Li Race Tribe.

Shanzhu's identity was also not simple. Out of all the Li Race tribes, he was the young tribe leader of the largest tribe. The leader of that tribe was called the Li Race Ruler.

One could see that his position as the young tribe leader was very important.

When the normal tribe leaders saw Shanzhu, they would have to bow in respect.

For Shanzhu to earn the title of bravest warrior, he did not depend on his identity. Instead, he relied on his fighting results.

Since he was eight, he had started to enter the mountains to hunt.

The first time he hunted, he killed a 150 kilogram wild boar.

During that time, this event caused a huge uproar. However, that was only the start of his story.

Following which, everytime that he hunted, he managed to kill the most ferocious of beasts. His prey included creatures such as wolves and leopards. Even the strongest black bear was not his match.

Because of his ability and his bravery, Shanzhu was appointed as the deputy leader of the tribe hunting squad at merely ten years of age.

When he was fifteen, he became the leader of the hunting squad. His name and reputation spread far and wide, and he was deemed as the only choice for the next tribe leader.

At this time, Shanzhu's targets had already changed to desolate beasts.

Shanzhu was born with god-given strength. During his hunting time, he had created and perfected a set of killing techniques that were effective against even desolate beasts.

Apart from hunting, Shanzhu did not even blink when it came to killing.

Although Li Race tribesmen came from the same roots, they often got into fights because of hunting spots.

Rumors had it that a Li Race soldier had to cut off the head of an enemy before he could be considered to have come of age. If not, the tribe would not recognize him.

Through this, one could see the ruthless and merciless nature of the battles between the tribes.

And Shanzhu, who had gotten his first kill at the age of ten, broke the record for being the youngest to have come of age.

Since then, his name had reverberated through the mountains and the forests, terrifying the enemy.

The nearby tribes, in an attempt to stop this tumor from growing, attempted to assassinate him several times. However, they did not succeed.

When Shanzhu reached the age of fifteen, there was already no one who dared to face him head-to-head.

After Shanzhu took charge of the hunting squad, the tribe grew bigger and bigger each year.

The Tiger Legion moving into Yazhou also became a turning point of Shanzhu's life.

When he saw each tribe being beaten back by the Tiger Legion, as the young tribe leader, he decided to volunteer.

One time, the Li Race tribe he was assisting to fight against the Tiger Legion was about to lose. They wanted to wanted to bring Shanzhu away. However, he thought of an idea; he wanted to infiltrate the enemy as a prisoner and gain intel.

Such a method could be considered really bold.

Luckily for him, Sun Bin coincidentally wanted to create a mountain regiment. As a result, the strong Shanzhu was naturally chosen; he was even promoted to captain.

Shanzhu was also a hardworking person. He studied the Art of War, as he investigated the enemy.

When he saw the 1st division leave the camp, Shanzhu started thinking about activating his tribesmen who had retreated to the Five Finger Mountains. They would attack the Tiger Legion.

Shanzhu was not only strong, but he was very smart too.

In his short encounter with the Tiger Legion, Shanzhu clearly knew that if he could not deal a deadly blow to the Tiger Legion before the mountain regiment formed up, they would not have any chance in the future.

"But the 2nd division is still here. Can we win?"

The scar-faced middle-aged man was a little hesitant. The 2nd division had surrounded and captured his tribe. So many strong and courageous warriors could not even struggle under the might of the 2nd division.

"Heh, don't we still have people on the inside? As long as the mountain regiment acts, victory is in our hands."

Many prisoners in the mountain regiment still recognized and worshipped this young tribe leader. Naturally, they would be loyal to him. This scar-faced man was one of them.

"Young tribe leader is smart!"

The two could be considered as careful. After a few sentences, they left and disappeared into the darkness.

Little did they know that a pair of ghostly eyes were staring at them from within the darkness.

"Hei, the prey has finally taken the bait!"

Even Shanzhu would not believe that solely because of that meeting with Ouyang Shuo, the Military Intelligence Division would spy on him. The division monitored all of his actions.

After learning of his identity, general Sun Bin still did not decide to act yet.

Firstly, Sun Bin admired Shanzhu. He had the intentions of appointing him as a major. Based on Sun Bin's thinking, he wanted to develop a few Li Race generals to become majors or even major generals.

Only true blue Li Race warriors could tame and placate other Li Race warriors.

Secondly, Sun Bin wanted to take the chance to investigate their motives.

In the dead of night.

In the commander tent of the Tiger Region, the flame was still shining bright.

The orange-yellow light gave one a sense of warmth.

Sun Bin sat on his wheelchair inside the tent, using the light to read his war books. Before he came to Yashan City, he had borrowed over ten war books. Every night, he would research and analyze them.

The guard on duty walked in, “Commander, the Military Intelligence Officer wants to meet you!"

"Please let him in!"

"Commander, there's a new development with the big fish!"

When Sun Bin heard these words, he placed down his book and rushed forward, “Quickly speak!"

The officer repeated everything that he had seen from head to tail.

After a long while, Sun Bin sighed, “Unfortunate, really unfortunate!"

"Commander, did you overestimate him?"

Seeing Sun Bin sigh so regretfully, the officer felt a little peeved.

Sun Bin shook his head, “You won't understand."

"Then what should we do next? Should we just take them down?"

The officer knew that the territory was fighting a huge war in Leizhou. At this time, they could not allow anything to happen to Yazhou.

"Take them down? No." Sun Bin shook his head resolutely, “Amidst the danger, there's a chance. I was worrying that I had no way to get them out. Since they chose to leave the mountains, I'll gladly welcome them."

When the officer heard these words, he did not express his views.

He was only an intel personnel and could not interfere in military decisions.

Sun Bin also did not expect him to give any reply, “Continue to monitor them."

"Yes!"

The officer backed off.

The full-scale invasion of Shanhai City was like a huge bolt of lighting, blowing Leizhou apart.

5th month 24th day, Mu Guiying led the north side army and took down Hengshan County.

5th month 25th day, Fan Lihua led the south side army. After a day of battle, they took down Hai An County.

The next day, with the three grade 3 counties as cores, the three armies crazily swept forth. Each army basically swept up Leizhou at the speed of a city every two days.

Beitan County, Jishui County, Liangdong County, Chengyue County, Songzu County, Dianjie County, and Qianshan County.

One after another, the territories fell. The moment the residents of the territories woke up, they realized that their lord had already changed.

The reincarnation hall in Quanzhou had stream after stream of players reviving.

Those who did not know would think that outside Quanzhou City, a huge war had occurred. Who would have expect that these players were killed in their territories?

The entire Leizhou screamed and cowered under the might of the Shanhai City army.

In less than a week, half of Leizhou had fallen.

Leizhou was shocked; Lingnan was shocked; the entire China region was shocked.

Who would have expected that the Lianzhou Lord would have such ambition to use his troops to attack Leizhou like this?

In contrast to the uproar that Ouyang Shuo had created, the Yanhuang Alliance seemed unusually quiet.

Yanhuang Alliance seemed to have no intentions to interfere. In Leizhou, many lords sought help from them, but they were all rejected without exception.

Hence, there were rumors that Yanhuang Alliance were afraid and did not dare to accept the challenge.

Ouyang Shuo naturally would not be so arrogant. The way he saw it, there were two reasons.

Firstly, even if they helped, they would gain no benefits.

They were not stupid enough to let others use them as a weapon.

Secondly, they could not be distracted, as they were preparing for their own military actions.

After a period of inaction, Yanhuang Alliance, be it members or the internal workings of the powers, they had washed away all their differences.

The important matter before them was to raise their rank to Marquis. If not, everything else was useless.

They also needed to quickly rise. Without a battle map, the uprising armies were the best target. As long as you took them down, the merit points awarded would definitely be more than joining one battle event.

After all, this was an actual extermination of a rebellion on the main map.

Since Yanhuang Alliance did not interfere, Ouyang Shuo was naturally delighted.

To smoothly run the ten territories that he had taken over, Ouyang Shuo sent the four directors to Leizhou.

All of them would each take care of one aspect each.

Du Ruhui would be in charge of choosing people from the prisoners to form an army; Fan Zhongyan was in charge of choosing civil servants and assigning roles to them; Wei Yang was in charge of law and order and also the investigation of the important people; Cui Yingyu was in charge of rebuilding the economy and restoring it.

They each brought their helpers to run between each city.

Ouyang Shuo was in Shanhai City as usual, taking overall control of the situation.

Based on the current situation and momentum, taking over the whole Leizhou was something that would happen soon.

However, 6th month, 3rd day, the situation in Leizhou suddenly changed.

Chapter 391- Yanhuo Yaonie

Since more than half of Leizhou had fallen and Yanhuang Alliance had no intentions of helping out, one of the lords stepped forward. He was the lord of Yanluo County, Yanhuo Yaonie.

Yanluo County was also a grade 3 county, located in the south-middle portion of Leizhou. It was situated right next to Leizhou Bay. Compared to the other three grade 3 counties that had fallen, Yanluo County was temporarily okay due to its geographical location.

Lord's Manor, Meeting Hall.

As the master, Yanhuo Yaonie sat on the lord's seat.

On the left of the hall, there were five lords. Their territories were located in the mid-south region of Leizhou. Amongst them, there was a man around twenty years old, who looked a little anxious. His name was Po Zuozi.

Po Zuozi's territory was known as Tanmu County.

Based on the attacking speed of the south troops, in less than two days, Tanmu County would be taken down.

Hence, Po Zuozi was the most supportive and eager about this lord’s gathering.

On the right sat two men with big backgrounds. The one in front was an old man with a round face; he looked merciful. His name was Bao Shuya, a subordinate of Yanhuo Yaonie, and his most important civil servant.

In truth, although his ability was not good enough to manage everything, he was still a capable official. The reason he lacked fame was because of Guanzhong, who appeared during the same era.

Living under his shadow, Bao Shuya would naturally appear a lot duller.

Name: Bao Shuya (King rank)

Dynasty: Spring and Autumn (Qi)

Identity: Yanluo County Prime Minister

Occupation: Civil Servant

Loyalty: 80

Command: 45

Force: 30

Intelligence: 70

Politics: 70

Specialty: Righteous (Raises honesty of territory by 40%), Promotion of talent (raises development of talents in territory by 25%)

Evaluation: With him at the helm, everything will be safe. Forming miracles and good relationships with people, he becomes known.

Besides Bai Shuya was a middle-aged general dressed like a scholar. He looked really cold and handsome; his face was like a sword. His appearance would instantly inspire fear.

This middle-aged general was Caogui.

When talking about Caogui, one would definitely have to raise up the historical famous text, Caogui War Theory.

Name: Caogui (King rank)

Dynasty: Spring and Autumn (Lu)

Identity: Yanluo County city protection division major general

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 80

Command: 75

Force: 45

Intelligence: 55

Politics: 70

Specialty: Motivation (Raises troops morale by 30%)

Evaluation: Advisor-type general. Makes use of his knowledge to fight tough battles and to take unexpected victories.

Although Caogui was weaker compared to Luo Shixin and other generals, he was still an exceptional general. The harder to understand aspect was his fortes—strategy and beating stronger enemies.

Bao Shuya and Caogui, one civil servant and one general; these two were Yanhuo Yaonie's trump cards.

Yanhuo Yaonie was a very low-profile person. Even though he possessed two historical characters in his territory, no one outside knew.

Only at a crucial moment was he willing to expose his trump cards.

When they saw these two people, the five lords who had come over felt a little more confidence.

In their territories, they also had one or two historical characters. However, it was highly difficult to find their names in history books.

Some were totally unrecorded in history.

The most famous one was called Bai Lishi. He was the son of Bai Lixi, also a general.

Bai Lixi was an official that Qin Mu used five black sheepskin to exchange from the market. This famous official helped the Qin Country become one of the five giants during the Warring States Period.

The famous one was Bai Lixi but his son?

"Guys." Yanhuo Yaonie looked around at everyone," Shanhai City is coming with bad intentions. It's highly crucial that we unite if we want to get past these troubling times."

The lords all nodded in agreement.

"Brother Yaonie, what idea do you have? Just say it out and we will follow you."

"That's right, just say it."

"Great!" Yanhuo Yaonie was delighted, “Since all of you trust me, I'll say it directly. We must form an alliance. Making use of our teleportation advantage, we will attack and catch the enemy off guard!"

The moment his words landed, the hall fell into a frenzy.

"Brother Yaonie, forming an alliance is okay. The problem is based on your plan, we will gather our forces together. If we do so, what will happen to our territories? Without an army defending them, we will be taken down in seconds." The lords were also smart; they were not dumb.

"Stupid!"

The one that spoke up was not Yanhuo Yaonie but Po Zuozi.

Po Zuozi stood up emotionally and loudly said, “Don't you guys know the simple theory that if the lips die the teeth will feel cold? If we can't destroy them, what is the use of a dead city?" He looked at one lord and shouted word by word," What use is there?"

The lords were unable to give him a reply.

"Let me ask you. With your forces, do you have confidence in defending against them?"

The meeting hall fell silent once again.

Out of everyone present, none of them would dare to say that they could go up against Shanhai City's army.

Think about it, in just one week, they had taken down ten territories. Such a bloody battle reward and achievement could let all the lords present accept this cruel reality.

Seeing that the lords were all deep in thought, Yanhuo Yaonie said once again, “The situation is as such. We should all just accept the facts. We can only give our all and hope for the best."

"I agree!"

"Agreed!"

With this, the alliance was formed.

Following which would be the specific battle plans and strategies.

In this aspect, they needed Caogui. As the major general of the city protection division, he could also take the role of commander of the alliance army.

The combat strength of all six territories together totaled close to forty thousand.

Their target was the south side troops.

6th month, 2nd day, Tanmu County.

Under the leadership of Fan Lihua, the south side army finally arrived at Tanmu County.

Only to see that there was just a small amount of guards on the city walls.

"General, there seems to be too little enemies."

Fan Lihua frowned, as she realized that something was up.

"Lets not care about that and just attack!"

"Yes, general!"

Since disembarking into this land, the south side army had swept ahead and claimed everything in their path. The successive victories made all the soldiers, including their general, underestimate their opponents.

Even though Tanmu County looked a little weird, Fan Lihua did not take it to heart.

The siege went smoothly.

In less than an hour, the vanguard squad claimed the city wall.

Fan Lihua frowned, “There's something wrong. Order the troops to be wary!"

"Yes, general!"

After they entered the city, they actually found no one on the streets.

This was quite usual.

During every siege, the residents would hide.

The clattering of the horse hooves was really ear piercing.

The moment the whole army entered the city, things changed.

Suddenly, a secret door appeared on the city gate they had already taken down. From it, many troops swarmed out and shut the gates.

"No good, we are trapped!" Fan Lihua was alarmed and shouted, “Form up, defend!"

It was too late.

Only the sight of all the streets swarmed with many soldiers greeted them.

The worst part was that a large number of archers had appeared on the roofs.

The arrow rain pelted straight toward the army.

In an instant, they suffered heavy casualties.

"General, what should we do?"

"Why are you panicking? Sword-shield soldiers cover and destroy the shop boards, form a defensive formation and just defend."

Fan Lihua would not dare to hide in the shops. If the enemy set these places on fire, the entire army would be lost.

"Yes, general!"

The 1st division was undoubtedly an elite force; they did not panic.

The sword-shield soldiers formed up to block the arrows, while the archers at the sides shot back. The strong bow and hard crossbows showed their strength. Although the enemy had the height advantage, the 1st division managed to go head-to-head with them.

The archers on the roofs were shot and corpses rolled down one after another.

The threat from the roofs were slowly negated.

As for the other soldiers, they bravely rushed to the shops at the side and pulled down boards.

Fortunately, there was a grain shop at the side filled with grain. The soldiers shifted bags of grain onto the streets to form a simple defense.

Relying on this, the 1st division actually miraculously survived.

Caogui sat on one of the arrow towers in the city gate and looked at the south side troops, “As expected from an elite army, they can adapt in such a situation."

In a situation where they did not possess an absolute advantage, Caogui did not dare to fight them head-on.

If not, who would lose was not that certain.

The war was now in a stalemate.

However, everyone knew that this was just temporary.

Fan Lihua stood behind one of the wooden boards. She shook her head in regret, as this was all her fault. She did not expect that in a short few days, the enemies would create a regional alliance.

Making use of the teleportation formations, the enemy had caught them off guard.

Luckily, the 1st division were not scrubs. As long as they fought normally, they stood a chance.

Fan Lihua's trump card was Luo Shixin's division.

As long as he led the 2nd division of the Dragon Legion over, this problem would be solved. Not only that, the alliance would be in big trouble.

With that, the mid-south portion of Leizhou would have totally fallen.

Fan Lihua was waiting; Caogui was waiting too.

Although the alliance army had an advantage and twice the numbers, Caogui did not have the confidence of killing them all.

Caogui was also waiting for reinforcements.

Yanhuo Yaonie had contacted other territories to pull them into the alliance. Then, they would teleport over to Tanmu County.

Both sides were in a race against time.

Luo Shixin's forces needed at least two days to rush over.

Could Yanhuo Yaonie’s reinforcements arrive within these two days?

All of this was unknown.

The news that the south side troops were trapped had spread all around Leizhou.

This victory came at a really opportune time.

The invincible image of the Shanhai Army was immediately destroyed.

The Battle of Leizhou experienced its biggest change yet.

Chapter 392- Falling into the Trap

The situation in the mid-south of Leizhou let the north region see a glimmer of hope.

Under the organization of the last grade 3 county, Gantang County, the seven territories swiftly formed an alliance. They gathered a nearly fifty thousand strong army to fight against Mu Guiying's north-side army.

The commander of the alliance army was the major general of Gantang County's city protection squad, Weizhang.

When talking about him, one had to mention one other person, the representative figure of the strategist school of thought—Zhang Yi.

Weizhang and Zhang Yi had a similar relationship to Baiqi and Wei Ran. They were an official in the imperial court recommending a general he trusted.

After the king died and Qin Wu inherited the throne, Zhang Yi was chased out of the country. Similarly, Weizhang was chased out, and his stories were not recorded.

Undoubtedly, Weizhang was also a good general.

Name: Weizhang (King rank)

Dynasty: Warring States (Qin)

Identity: Gantang County major general

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 80

Command: 75

Force: 85

Intelligence: 55

Politics: 45

Specialty: Push-on (Increases troops movement speed by 15%)

Evaluation: Weizhang, a strong general, date-of-birth not detailed. In 312 BC, he defeated the Chu Country at Danyang, killing eighty thousand and taking over Hanzhong.

Under the leadership of Weizhang, the alliance army restricted the attack of the north-side army.

As the situation in Leizhou entered a stalemate, the entire battle entered its second stage.

Leishan County, army camp.

Baiqi sat in front of his desk. Behind him was a map of Leizhou that the Military Intelligence Division provided.

Although the situation had changed, Ouyang Shuo did not give Baiqi any new orders. Instead, he granted Baiqi the power to do whatever he wanted. Ouyang Shuo would not interfere.

The trust of the lord touched Baiqi; he needed to use results to return this trust.

Luo Shixin’s 2nd division had already set off for Tanmu County to save the south-side troops. Now, the only unit that Baiqi could use was the Guards division.

The mid-south and the north region had formed alliances, so the only place that remained a defensive whole was the middle. The Guards regiment was still charging around and taking over land.

"Men!"

"Present!"

"Send my orders. Guards division 1st regiment will go and attack Yanluo County. Beihai Bay Squadron 1st division will proceed to Leizhou Bay and assist the 1st regiment."

"Yes, general!"

Baiqi was about to set out to kill the head. If the Yanluo County was surrounded, the middle-south region alliance would face a bad situation. Would the lord of the county choose to save the alliance army or his own territory?

As for the problems the north faced, Baiqi was not worried. Both sides were stuck in a standstill. With Mu Guiying’s ability, she would not make the same mistake.

Although the battle situation in Leizhou looked bad for Shanhai City, in truth, the end neared. As long as they took down both alliance armies, Leizhou would quickly collapse.

Now, it would depend on whose plan was more highly skilled.

Just as Leizhou changed, thousand of miles away in Yazhou, a change also brewed.

6th month, 3rd day, morning.

The salty morning breeze blew up the morning mist.

At the borders of the Five Finger Mountains, the birds were chirping atop the trees.

Suddenly, the peace and quiet of the forest was shattered.

Rumbling noises spread out from within the forest.

A while later, a red wave broke out from the forest and charged out.

Upon closer inspection, they were all Li Race warriors.

Each soldier wore red armor and wielded either a pike or a hunting knife. They all had bows on their backs. Their faces had mysterious patterns drawn on with god knows what ink.

This was a battle for revenge.

In the words of the tribal leaders, the stupid invaders had taken over the land that belonged to them. Moreover, they made them unable to hunt boars and leopards.

They needed to use the blood of the enemy to strengthen their honor.

This time, the Li Race tribes had gathered sixty thousand troops. They had suddenly exited the mountains to attack the Tiger Legion.

The troops waltzed forward, sweeping everything in their path.

They let out weird shouts as they passed, like hunters heading to claim their prey.

The moment the army walked out of the forest, a signal bullet flew into the sky and burst apart. Like they had received an order, a signal bullet would rise up ever two to three kilometers.

Looking into the sky, the signal bullets formed a dragon that stretched from the Five Finger Mountains to the base of the Tiger Legion. The whole process took less than fifteen minutes.

And this time, the Li Race army were hundreds of kilometers away.

Tiger Region commander tent.

"Commander, the fish has taken the bait!"

The major general of the 2nd division, Daiqin, walked into the tent.

Sun Bin was really calm; he did not even look up from his book, “Stick to the plan."

"Yes, general!" Daiqin quickly left.

In the mountain regiment base, the soldiers were doing their drills.

Amongst the group, a few soldiers that were not focusing. This included the Li Race young tribe leader, Shanzhu. He had already used a mysterious method to contact his tribe.

Today was the day that they had agreed to attack.

Tiger Legion had separately made the mountain regiment base. It had walls all around, making it easy to patrol.

Daiqin rode his war horse and walked in front of the group. Following behind him were the Guards unit soldiers.

"General!"

The two colonels of the mountain regiment came over and bowed. They seemed confused and did not know what was happening. To keep matters secretive and confidential, these two had not learned anything about the plan.

"Gather the troops."

Daiqin did not explain anything and just gave his orders.

"Yes, general!"

The two colonels turned and left.

"Gather!"

The people of the regiment started to chatter. Amongst them were many soldiers connected to Shanzhu. They knew that today was the day. At this time, any change would trigger their sensitive moods.

They all turned around and looked toward him.

He felt a shiver down his spine and had a bad feeling. He could be considered calm, as he formed up along with the other soldiers.

No matter how slow the colonels were, they could smell the unease in the air. Their faces grew solemn and serious.

"General, the mountain regiment has gathered!"

Daiqin rode on his horse and said, “I order all of you to put down your weapons."

The weapons for the mountain regiment were all Tang Blades. Since they were doing drills, they had brought along their Tang Blades for practical training.

The colonel shivered. They did not ask anything or saying anything. They simply sent down the orders.

"All of you put down your weapons. Put them back into the armory."

"Hua!"

The group was sent into an uproar once more, and the unease started to grow.

"Why must we put our weapons down?"

"Yeah, what for!"

Some soldiers retorted unhappily.

"Impudence!" The colonel fumed and scolded, “This is an order! You have trained for so long already. Have you forgotten the most basic discipline?"

"We don't want to!"

The soldiers did not bother and continued to cause a racket.

Their faces instantly turned black. In front of the major general, their own troops were so ill disciplined, which caused them to lose all face.

Shanzhu, who stood amongst them, also looked really ugly. With his instincts, he could feel that their operation had already been revealed.

At this time, if they placed down their weapons, it would be asking for death.

When he thought about this, he strengthened his grip on the Tang Blade, and his eyes grew cold.

Seeing Shanzhu like that, more soldiers broke out of the formation and gathered around him. Amongst which, the faces of those who were not by his side turned ashen white.

Everyone knew that something big was happening.

"Are you all trying to rebel?"

At this point, Daiqin rode over on his horse.

Shanzhu stared right at him, not saying a word.

The air froze at this instant, making it hard for one to breathe.

A mutiny was about to occur.

Daiqin's face instantly turned cold, as he waved his hand forward.

With this action, closely packed archers in the wooden walls around the camp appeared one after another appeared. These archers were the cavalry of the 2nd division.

Tens of thousands of arrows were aimed right at the mountain regiment.

"Hua!"

The group fell into chaos once again. The faces of those who backed Shanzhu looked ashen white. The situation was obvious. If they tried to act, they would all die.

Shanzhu's face was white too.

He knew that he had failed.

Not only him, his entire tribe had failed.

Amusing, really amusing.

Amusing that he thought that he was smart and did not think that he was being monitored. At the current moment, he could only give it his all and try to save some dignity.

Thinking about this, he raised the Tang Blade in his hand and loudly said, “Warriors, use the blood of the enemy to reclaim our honor. Are you willing to follow me in death?"

"Die together!"

"Die together!"

As expected from the hot-blooded youths of the tribe.

Daiqin did not react. He moved the internal energy in his body, his voice spreading into the ears of everyone, “Shanzhu, is it?"

"Yes!"

Shanzhu was prepared to give it his all.

Daiqin shook his head, “To think that the commander liked you. You're just a coward!"

"You!" Shanzhu raged, “The honor of warriors cannot be taken away from us!"

"Stupid!"

Daiqin scolded out; his voice buzzing in all their ears.

"Your death here will be quick, but have you thought about your people? To want to be a hero and not think about your tribe, what kind of hero are you?"

When Shanzhu heard these words, his face grew even whiter.

"Surrender, give your people a chance!"

Ding!

The Tang Blade dropped to the floor and let out a crisp sound.

Chapter 393- Failing Because of Wine

The two mountain regiments, a total of five thousand warriors, started to collect the weapons and lock up the rebels. The Military Law Division would trial Shanzhu and the other main people who fanned the flames.

After settling the internal tumor, Daiqin led the 2nd division to welcome the sixty thousand Li Race army. To recruit them, shedding some blood was definitely necessary.

After hearing Sun Bin's report, Ouyang Shuo even sent the three thousand palace Guards over to help.

To win against a huge army with a smaller number of men, the best way would naturally be to set a trap.

When the Li Race army approached the Tiger Legion camp, they saw a quiet and silent camp.

The commander of the army was Shanzhu's father, Shan Hu.

"Leader, it looks like an empty camp!"

The one who spoke up was a young warrior known as Shanying. His combat strength was only lower than Shanzhu’s.

"Did the enemy escape?"

"There's a chance that this is a trap. The enemy is really cunning!"

"Then what should we do?"

All of them started to discuss this matter, as they did not know what would be the best course of action. The current scene in front of them was something they had not expected.

Shan Hu frowned, “Shanying, bring a squad over to take a look!"

"Yes!"

Shanying was also really courageous. He brought a hundred men and entered just like this.

"Be careful of traps!"

Shan Hu was still worried, so he reminded Shanying.

"Don't worry, commander!"

Shanying and his men carefully entered the camp.

Looking around, they found no one. On the bare ground there were empty sacks of rice. Some sacks had broken, and the white rice grains had fallen to the ground.

Apart from that, there was also some meat, yellow beans, and the like.

"Captain?"

The members all looked toward Shanying.

"Let’s search the houses."

Shanying looked like a really arrogant fellow, but he was a very careful person deep inside.

"Understood!"

The soldiers all focused and searched house after house.

Ten minutes later, they all returned.

"Reporting to the captain, there's no one!”

"No one!"

"Nobody!"

"Heh, those bunch of cowards must have escaped." Shanying laughed, “Let's go back to report to the tribe leader."

"Yes!"

Shan Hu led the troops and waited outside the camp; he did not hear any fighting sounds. As such, he got a little worried. He did not know what happened to Shanying that made him not appear.

Just at this moment, Shanying ran out.

"Leader!"

"How is it?"

"It's an empty camp with grain and meat thrown all over. They probably left in a hurry."

"Have you searched everywhere?" Shan Hu was still worried.

"We have searched it all. Even the houses have no one left."

"Great." Shan Hu was delighted. He turned his head and said, “Listen up, we will all go in and rest for a day. Tomorrow, we will attack Yashan City."

"Great!"

The troops cheered, as their morale was at an all time high.

The Tiger Legion camp was built based on four divisions. Hence, there was enough space for the sixty thousand Li Race soldiers.

Seeing the rice and meat scattered around, the soldiers cheered. When they opened the granary and saw the stacked up rice and meat, they were ecstatic.

There was even wine in the corners of the granary.

Wine, the love of the Li Race Tribe warriors.

When they smelled the wine, the soldiers all drooled.

"Tribe leader?"

Shanying took the lead, looking expectedly at Shan Hu.

Shan Hu was also happy, "look at how hungry you guys are. Tonight we will have a feast!"

"Great!"

The soldiers leaped up in happiness. The smart ones had already ran out of the granary and spread the news.

Instantly, the camp bustled with excitement.

Shan Hu kept his smile and pulled Shanying to the side. He ordered, "Check if the grains have any drugs."

"Understood!"

That night, the camp was lively with noise and excitement.

The warriors had fun with singing, dancing, eating meat, and drinking wine.

They continued all the way till the late of night. Finally, the warriors returned to their tents after their sergeants chided them.

Only then did the camp slowly quieten down.

Shan Hu was still worried. He arranged for troops to take shifts to prevent a sneak attack.

Undoubtedly, his worries were unfounded.

The entire night, not a single person appeared.

This lasted all the way till the middle of night. At this time, the outside of the camp was so dark you could not even see your own hands. Finally, Shan Hu returned to the camp.

In such darkness, if you were to attack, you would be just asking to lose.

The huge camp started to quieten down until the sound of insects could be heard.

One soldier after another started to climb out of their tents to look for a toilet.

As there were simply too many of them, a huge line formed up.

Some of them could not hold it in and found an empty spot to solve their problems.

All of a sudden, a huge stench filled the entire camp.

As time moved on, more and more soldiers shouted out in pain. They shouted, as they ran out to deal with their problems.

Even Shan Hu was not an exception.

"Stupid Han Race people. They are too cunning!"

Shan Hu held his stomach as he yelled out.

"Go, call Shanying!" Shan Hu was furious, "Ouch!"

"Yes!"

The soldier held onto his stomach, as he went looking for Shanying

A while later, Shanying rushed over. He seemed to lack strength and energy.

"Didn't I ask you to check if there was any poison?"

When he saw Shanying, Shan Hu immediately scolded.

Shanying sulked, as he innocently replied, "We checked everything, from the grain to the meat. We fed it to the animals."

"Then what is all this?" Shan Hu was furious.

"The wine." Shanying replied confidently, "It must be the wine."

"Wine?" Shan Hu was stunned and instantly believed his words, "Dammit, I'll never ever drink wine ever again. It messes up everything!"

The guard at the side had a face full of disbelief.

Who did not know that the tribe leader treated wine like his life.

"Leader, what should we do?"

"What can we do?" Shan Hu muttered, "How many men didn't drink it?"

"No one!"

The Li Race warriors loved to drink and all of them knew how to consume alcohol. Those who had poor alcohol tolerance would even be laughed at. Hence, the whole army was tricked. They had drank more than a thousand vases of wine.

In the night, the army kept on going to the toilet. Some even decided to just do their business on the empty ground.

Overnight, the entire army became weak shrimps.

The next day, the entire camp was horrifyingly smelly.

The next day, when the 2nd division surrounded them, the soldiers all covered their noses.

It was simply too smelly!

Daiqin rode on his horse. Upon seeing such a scene, he really worshipped and respected Sun Bin.

"Rush in and capture them all!"

"Yes, general!"

During wartime, their battle tactics and discipline were obvious.

They were covering their noses moments ago, but when they were ordered to head in, it was like they had no noses. They expressionlessly charged in.

The Li Race soldiers were now weak. Facing the Shanhai Army, they just surrendered.

Seeing that things had proceeded smoothly, Wang Feng, who had followed behind the army, bid goodbye to Sun Bin.

"General, I'll take my leave!"

Sun Bin, who was sitting on his wheelchair, laughed, "Go, help me thank the lord!"

Just like this, the strong and menacing sixty thousand men Li Race army was taken down.

After locking them up, the first order from Sun Bin was to clean up the camp.

Only after a full day of cleaning did they manage to rid the smell.

Shan Hu, Shanying, and the other main members were brought into the commander tent. They had a resentful look.

"Why, unhappy?"

"Despicable!" Shan Hu's eyes were as big as a cow’s.

"If you all really hid in the Five Finger Mountains, I wouldn't have done anything. But you all decided to come out, so I have a hundred ways to beat you. Do you believe me?"

"Stop bragging!" Shan Hu did not care.

Sun Bin shook his head and turned to the guard, "Bring him up!"

"Yes!"

Quickly, Shanzhu and the scar-faced man were brought into the tent.

"Shanzhu!"

Shan Hu was stunned. However, happiness flashed through his eyes.

Originally, he had thought that in such a situation, Shanzhu was most probably dead. He did not expect him to still be alive and well.

"Father!" Shanzhu solemnly said with a face full of guilt.

"How is it? Do you still have confidence in defeating us?" Sun Bin asked.

"Hen!" Shan Hu knew that since Shanzhu was exposed, his plan had failed long ago. However, he still insisted, "We aren't afraid of you in real combat!"

Unexpectedly, Sun Bin nodded, "This I believe."

Shan Hu was stunned. The young man in front of him was really weird.

"On the battlefield, what matters is the outcome. And the outcome is that we won and you lost. Am I right?"

Shan Hu was stunned and furiously said, "If you want to kill me, just do as you wish."

Chapter 394- Surrendering

"Why would I kill you?"

Sun Bin naturally would not do such a stupid thing.

The position and meaning that Shan Hu held amongst the Li Race aboriginals was exceptional. If they really killed him, Yashan City would become mortal enemies with the Li Race. In such a scenario, it would be impossible to recruit them.

"Then release me!"

Since he saw that nothing would happen to his life, Shan Hu grew arrogant once again.

"Release you? Impossible."

Sun Bin has been reading war texts and learned of Zhu Geliang, who captured and released Meng Huo seven times. Naturally, he would not do something so dumb that wasted time and energy.

"You!" Shan Hu was furious, "What exactly do you want?"

"Cooperation!"

"Cooperation?"

"That's right!"

"Hen, our Li Race lives here. We definitely won't cooperate with all you Han people." Shan Hu was defiant. He had a strong sense of distrust toward Han people.

Sun Bin shook his head in regret, "You don't want to cooperate? Then I have no choice but to kill all of you. I really want to see how the old and sick left in the mountains can fight against us."

It was easy for Sun Bin to speak these words, but his description sent a shiver down their spines.

"Hen, kill us if you wish. The Li Race doesn't have any cowards."

Shan Hu remained adamant. Even after knocking into a wall, he did not want to turn back.

"Good, what guts you have there!" Sun Bin nodded. His face suddenly turned cold, "Men!"

"Present!"

Four guards walked into the room.

"Drag them all out and behead them for all to see!"

"Yes, general!"

The guards dragged Shan Hu and the other two out.

Shan Hu was stunned. One moment, this young general was so relaxed. The next, he was so cold and vicious; the speed at which he changed was totally unexpected.

Stupid Han people, they are really too cunning.

A tinge of regret flashed through his heart. However, it was impossible to make him admit his mistake.

"Stop!"

The one that spoke up was Shan Hu's son, Shanzhu.

When he saw that the situation was not right, Shanzhu regained his composure. If no one would speak up, it probably would not be just them. The entire tribe would be dragged into this.

Compared to Shan Hu, Shanzhu was younger and his thinking was more open. Especially after living in the military for a time, the experience made him realize the excitement of life.

Being cooped up in the tribe was like sitting in a well and looking at the sky.

When he was locked up, he kept on thinking, How should the tribe proceed? Is walking out of the mountains really a mistake?

Even if he did not talk about other matters, just the Han people’s Art of War attracted him.

"Speak!"

Sun Bin waved his hand to stop the guards.

He just wanted to scare Shan Hu. He would not really kill them.

Sixty thousand people, Sun Bin was definitely not such a cold killer.

When Shanzhu heard this response, he turned and said, "Father, I feel that we should hear them out before making a decision."

Shanzhu was at a loss; he had to take into account the face of his father.

Shan Hu gave out a loud "hen," which was a silent acceptance of his proposal.

Shanzhu looked toward Sun Bin, "How do we cooperate?"

Shanzhu felt really complicated about Sun Bin. Shanzhu treated him as an enemy, but he also looked at him with respect. Especially after he heard Daiqin say that Sun Bin had high hopes for him. Those words made him feel even more complicated.

"As for the specifics, I have no power to decide. You must speak with the lord."

Sun Bin was only a general. Naturally, he did not have the power to make such decisions. Although the lord had granted him much power, Sun Bin knew his limits and would not cross it.

If not, that would be a huge crime.

Following the rules and power boundaries were the bottom line and rule of every great leader and general.

"Ok. General, please bring us to the Lianzhou Lord."

When in someone else's house, one had to lower one's head.

For an unknown reason, Shanzhu's mind flickered to the memory of when met the Lianzhou Lord.

What would the future hold?

The next day, under the accompaniment of Sun Bin, Shan Hu and Shanzhu teleported to Shanhai City to meet Ouyang Shuo.

After he received the news, Ouyang Shuo waited for them in the main hall.

As they were still prisoners, they entered in a tied up state.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this, he said, "Guests from afar. Men, release their ropes."

"Yes, lord!"

"Marquis?"

Sun Bin was a little worried. He knew how strong Shanzhu was. The moment they untied him, it would be bad if he tried to fight his way out.

"Dont worry!"

Ouyang Shuo smiled with confidence.

Although Shanzhu was strong, Ouyang Shuo had nothing to fear with his current strength. There were even guards waiting outside to help him, just in case.

When the guards heard his orders, they released the prisoners.

As the guards backed off, Shanzhu really thought about taking the lord hostage.

However, when he saw Ouyang Shuo’s stable and large figure, Shanzhu felt a shiver run down his spine. He realized that he could not see through his opponent.

When he saw Shanzhu not cause any problems, Sun Bin heaved a sigh of relief.

Ouyang Shuo did not mind and smiled, "Please sit!"

Both of them sat at the sides, while Sun Bin faced Ouyang Shuo. The four directors were in Leizhou now, so it was not convenient for them to come over.

Since the two of them had entered the main hall, they judged Ouyang Shuo, and they realized that he was not ordinary. After fighting and killing beasts in the mountains, they had acute, beast-like senses.

Based solely on their instincts, they could feel the strength and killing intent from the Lianzhou Lord. It was like they were facing the king of the mountains and forests. They felt totally restricted.

As Ouyang Shuo's memories had returned, the killing aura from his last life had started to influence him. The Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique locked down this aura.

On the other hand, this killing aura stimulated the devil bloodline.

If Ouyang Shuo was not paying attention, this killing aura would leak out.

With their auras totally suppressed, they lost all their confidence.

They were up against a lord that they could not take lightly.

Before the meeting, Ouyang Shuo did not talk about the Li Race tribes. Instead, he introduced the life of the mountain barbarians and the grassland tribes in Lianzhou.

When Shanzhu and Shan Hu heard his description, they felt awed.

Not talking about the grassland tribes, the mountain barbarians were a tribe equal to the Li Race Tribe. Since the Lianzhou Lord could recruit them, this showed that he was a real ruler.

If it was just as the Lianzhou Lord had stated, getting off the mountains would be a great idea.

Shanzhu was delighted; he felt that his decision was correct.

Looking at the shocked state of the two, Ouyang Shuo added, “If you have doubts, you can move over to Lianzhou Prefecture to have a look and see if what I'm saying is true. After which, we can move onto discussion."

Shanzhu and Shan Hu exchanged glances and stepped out, "We can trust the lord."

"Great!"

Ouyang Shuo smiled.

Sun Bin sat at the side. When he saw how the lord had managed to persuade them so easily, he felt amazed.

From the meeting, it was decided that the more than twenty tribes would move into Yashan City. They would end their hunting lifestyle and become farmers. They would open up settlements on the west of the city with tribes as a unit.

Based on the territory’s strategy, each tribe would be granted free land, farming tools, and a month of grain and resources. If they needed more grain, they could borrow it from the city granary.

At the same time, to take care of those who were not willing to farm, Yashan City built the first subsidiary territory—Ningyuan Town, at the foot of the Five Finger Mountains.

The future Ningyuan Town would act as the sentry post for adventure gamemode players who entered the mountains. Yashan City was too far away, so it was not a convenient place to restock and replenish.

One could look forward to the future prosperity of Ningyuan Town.

Ouyang Shuo naturally would not take all of the sixty thousand troops that surrendered. Most of them would be sent back to their tribes to become farmers.

Keeping in line with the strategy of having an elite army, Ouyang Shuo ordered Sun Bin to form three mountain regiments using the elites out of their forces.

In addition to the current two, they formed a mountain division, which became the 3rd division of the Tiger Legion.

The major general position would temporarily be left empty.

Shanzhu, who Sun Bin favored, became the deputy major general and colonel of the 1st regiment. Meanwhile, Shanying became the colonel of the 2nd regiment.

With Shanzhu’s successful appointment, Shan Hu did not feel as doubtful.

Toward Ouyang Shuo, Shanzhu felt really thankful.

Name: Shanzhu (Gold rank)

Identity: Tiger Legion 3rd division deputy major general, 1st regiment colonel

Occupation: Intermediate General

Loyalty: 75

Command: 55

Force: 85

Intelligence: 45

Politics: 40

Specialty: God given strength (Raise troops' fighting power by 15%)

Cultivation method: Nil

Equipment: Nil

Evaluation: The bravest warrior of the Li Race, born with god given strength.

As expected of someone with a god given talent. Without any training, he was straight away an intermediate general. After Sun Bin taught him for a bit, Ouyang Shuo expected Shanzhu to upgrade to advanced general.

As for the problem of cultivation method, Ouyang Shuo immediately thought about the technique that Er'Lai trained in.

If there was a chance, he would just ask Er'lai to teach Shanzhu.

With this, the South of Qiongzhou Island was finally peaceful.

The population of Yashan City had ballooned to over 160 thousand. Based solely on this battle, Bing'er's merit points had quickly risen; she was now a rank 2 earl.

On the same day, Yashan City became a grade 2 county.

At the same time, the Battle of Leizhou entered a crucial stage.

Chapter 395- Hanging on a Thread

Leizhou, Tanmu County.

An originally unattractive, humble, and small city became the hotspot of the entire Battle of Leizhou.

Overnight, the small city that could be considered prosperous swiftly fell apart due to war. Death floated in the air, and the busy commercial streets became a wasteland.

The clean stone floors had become dirty and chipped, smudged with puddles of blood. In the drains at both sides, bodies had piled up. The faces of the deceased were simply covered up without a proper burial.

The fire had burned down the shop walls that had carvings and paintings. Parts of the buildings had collapse and smoke from the embers bellowed.

All this scenery described the cruelty of war.

Under the orange setting sun, Caogui stood on the city wall, his eyebrows tightly locked.

A full day and night of attacking.

The south side Shanhai Army, who were trapped in the streets, still stood strong. They were resolute like a mountain.

Caogui had tried all kind of methods, fires, sneak attacks, night attacks, and the like. All of these strategies were useless. The enemy troops were like the undead, their stubbornness alarming.

No matter what you did, I won't budge.

The north side of Leizhou had also formed an alliance. Consequently, this reduced the danger on that side, which also meant that his lord, Yanhuo Yaonie, failed to recruit any new members.

The north and south were separated and rendered apart. Each side fought for themselves.

To survive, one could not act noble.

Yanhuo Yaonie begged the north alliance army to assist Tanmu County and destroy one side of the enemy. The reply they receive was ‘Why don’t the south side troops teleport to Gantang County instead?’

Yanhuo Yaonie was left speechless.

Not everyone had the same courage and strategic foresight as him. Before being totally pushed to the wall, people would only care about their own interests.

After one full day, only two territories joined the south alliance, which brought them to ten thousand men.

Yanhuo Yaonie sent someone to pass the message—there would be no further reinforcements.

Caogui did not dare to wait anymore. He started to launch successive assaults against the enemy. He knew that the Shanhai City cavalry forces were rushing day and night over to Tanmu County.

The stubbornness of their army had exceeded Caogui's expectations.

Caogui could not imagine how a female general managed to train a bunch of hot-blooded men to become so strong and resolute. The balance of the war had started to tilt in the enemy's favor.

"Men!"

"Present!"

"Send my orders—retreat. The army will rest for a night. Tomorrow morning, we will launch our final assault."

Caogui was like a compulsive gambler; he had decided to bet it all.

"Yes, general!"

Following the rushed bell sounds, the alliance army backed off like a flood.

"Phew!"

Fan Lihua let out a sigh of relief.

"General, from the look of their formation, it seems like they won't sneak attack us tonight, "said the 2nd regiment colonel, Liaokai.

Fan Lihua nodded, "Even so, we cannot let our guards down."

"Understood!"

"Call Zhaoyan overl. It's his turn!"

"General?" Liaokai was astonished; excitement flashed across his eyes.

"General Luo has already sent a message. Before noon, the reinforcements will arrive."

The Military Intelligence Division used the intel network formed from Feng Birds to send crucial intel quickly and efficiently.

"That's fantastic!"

Liaokai felt very emotional. Finally, the tough days of the 1st division would come to an end.

"Go!"

Fan Lihua waved him off.

"Yes, general!"

Zhaoyan was also a general since the start of Shanhai territory. He was the colonel of the 1st regiment. His men were all sword-shield soldiers; they were the absolute main force during the day battle.

The reason why the 1st division could last until now was because of them.

Compared to Liaokai, who was flexible and smart, Zhaoyan was just a pure, courageous, and fierce general.

Zhaoyan rushed over. His armor and helmet were stained with blood, and even the Tang Blade in his hand was dripping.

If one did not know better, one would think that he was a ghoul that had crawled out from hell.

However, the soldiers around him did not show signs of fear. Instead, they respected and worshipped him.

Normal soldiers were the ones that respected such courageous and strong generals the most.

"General!"

Zhaoyan smiled and bowed.

Fan Lihua nodded, she did not mind Zhaoyan's appearance. Although she was a girl, she had been through all kinds of fights and wars as a general.

Such a small matter could not shake her.

One had to say that this calmness alone was enough to amaze all the men of the 1st division. Even Zhaoyan did not dare get out of hand in front of Fan Lihua.

"Go wash up and choose five hundred elite. Stick to the plan."

Zhaoyan's eyes brightened up, as he loudly said, "Understood, I'll definitely complete the mission!"

"Remember, the successful or failure of this entire battle depends on you."

Fan Lihua instructed solemnly.

"General, don't worry, there will be no mistakes. If there are, you can take my head."

Fan Lihua nodded and waved him off, "Go and prepare!"

"Yes, general!"

Zhaoyan bowed once more before he confidently walked out.

Under the cover of the night, Zhaoyan led five hundred of the most elite members of the 1st regiment to sneak out from the back of some shops. They disappeared into the night sky.

As the alliance army was preparing for the battle tomorrow, they failed to notice this.

6th month, 5th day, morning.

The most important day in the Battle of Leizhou had arrived.

Early in the morning, the alliance army gathered up once more.

Fifty thousand troops swarmed up from all fronts toward the enemy camp in a relentless assault.

The alliance army commander, Caogui, had given the orders—this attack must succeed!

All the soldiers would either die on the battlefield or step on the bodies of the enemy and proceed forward. There was no third option. They would kill those who tried to escape.

For this, Caogui had specially set up a supervision squad to follow behind the soldiers and kill anyone who tried to escape.

The bloody military order made the alliance army soldiers shiver in fear.

They had to give it their all this time; they had to succeed.

"Kill! Kill! Kill"

At a place that could not be seen, Luo Shixin led the 2nd division of the Dragon Legion to rush over.

Suddenly, due to just his instinct as a general, he raised his head and looked at Tanmu County in astonishment. He could feel a strong killing aura that encapsulated the city.

This definitely was not anything good.

Luo Shixin smacked his horse and hollered, "Speed up!"

"Yes, general!"

Caogui once again walked out into the city wall. This time, he did not walk to the commander seat. Instead, he stood besides the war drums. He took the sticks and helped to smack the war drums, raising the morale of the troops.

The thunderous war drums reverberated throughout the city.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

Using the tempo of the drums, the fifty thousand alliance army attacked from both sides of the streets. Many archers appeared on the roof; they aimed their arrows at the enemy base.

This battle of life and death had officially started!

South side army base.

Fan Lihua still looked confident, which reassured all the soldiers.

"General, they are attacking!" Liaokai walked over.

Fan Lihua was expressionless; this colonel always liked to spout meaningless words. She did not turn back and calmly said, "Is everything prepared with Zhaoyan?"

"At 3 AM, the Feng Bird sent a message. They told us that everything is done."

"Great." Fan Lihua was relieved, "Tell the soldiers that they have to defend until noon!"

"Yes, general!"

This was the Tiger Legion’s hardest battle so far.

As they were too deep inside enemy territory, their logistics and supplies were cut off. They did not have any food, so they could only use the rice that they had found to make pots of porridge.

Even the water was dug up from the drains.

The soldiers lacked medical supplies. They had used up all their supplies since too many of them were injured. Now, they could not even find a clean bandage.

Even so, the soldiers of the 1st division continued to fight valiantly.

They could continue because their general ate the same food as them, drank the same dirty water as them.

Following such a general, they did not mind dying for her.

Under the pressure of the alliance army, the 1st division was pushed back.

To achieve this, the alliance army had paid a heavy price. Every step forward, hundreds died. It was hard to imagine that the ratio of casualties was one to five.

When he thought about how the enemy did not have any supplies but could still hold on so well, even Caogui was filled with respect.

This was a bunch of men that deserved respect, a true elite force.

Although there were heavy casualties, Caogui felt more and more relaxed. The scales of the war now favored them. Any price was worth it as long as they could annihilate the enemy.

Caogui slammed the drums and continued to rile up his troops.

The longer the battle dragged on, the more intense it grew.

At 11 AM, outside the county, the clatter of thunderous horse hooves suddenly rang out.

Caogui, who was on the city wall, felt a shiver run down his spine.

Not good, how did the enemy reinforcements arrive so fast?

As they were pressed for time, Caogui could not think too much.

Luckily, he was a general with vast experience.

He knew that the most negative situation that you could predict was often the one that had the highest chance of happening. If you predicted the situation to turn very bad, it would be that bad.

Hence, Caogui had arranged a two thousand men army near the city.

With them defending, the cavalry reinforcements could not break the city gates.

As long as they destroyed the south side army before the reinforcements took down the gate, the situation would remain under their control.

Caogui had this confidence.

Chapter 396- Leizhou Ruler

However, this confidence did not last for long.

In less than half an hour, a messenger ran over in a panic. His face was ashen white, as he said, "General, it’s bad. The enemy reinforcements are in the city!"

"What?"

Caogui freaked out; his body trembled, and he nearly lost his footing.

He instantly dashed up and grabbed the collar of the messenger. He scolded, "Bullsh*t. The city gate has two thousand troops defending it, how could it fall so fast? I’ll kill you for faking military intel!" As he spoke, he wanted to pull out the sword at his waist.

Caogui’s actions left the poor messenger petrified. His neck was restrained, so he could not breathe. He felt a shiver run down his spine; this time, he was dead.

"General, general!"

Luckily, a guard rushed over and saved the messenger.

These words alerted Caogui, and he came to his senses. He tried to calm himself down. With a slightly shivering voice, he asked, "How was the city gate broken?"

The messenger took two quick gulps of air, and his red face slowly returned to normal. He looked guiltily at Caogui. Then, he carefully said, "The enemy hid a small force that the defence force could not adapt to. Under the attack of both forces, inside and outside, the gate quickly fell.”

The one that hid inside the city were naturally Zhaoyan and the five hundred elites.

Last night, Zhaoyan had led his troops to infiltrate the civilians near the city gate. The moment Luo Shixin's forces arrived, they immediately charged out.

"Hidden troops?"

Caogui was really smart; he managed to figure out what had happened.

"We were careless!"

Caogui did not expect the enemy to still hide a unit in such a desperate situation. This battle, Caogui had lost; he had totally lost.

A huge sense of failure overwhelmed him; he felt like his soul had left his body.

"General, what should we do now?"

"How?" Caogui muttered.

After a long while, he finally managed to force out the words—let's surrender.

Caogui did not want the soldiers to die for nothing. Fighting on no longer held any meaning.

There was a moment of silence.

Like jumping from heaven and right into hell, this kind of feeling was really uncomfortable.

"Let's surrender!"

Caogui repeated his words once more. This time, his tone was a lot more resolute.

Lord, I've failed you.

In his eyes, a desire for death flashed out.

The rumbling of horses sounded out on the streets. It was a total nightmare for the alliance army that were attacking.

The iron cavalry charged in from afar, knocking people from the back and sending them flying forward.

In just a moment, the alliance army suffered heavy casualties.

Luckily. this nightmare arrived fast and ended fast too.

In less than ten minutes, white flags hung from the city wall. The alliance army soldiers immediately threw down the weapons in their hand. They were afraid of being slaughtered by accident.

Compared to the sad and terrible state of the alliance army, the south side troops were naturally celebrating.

They had accomplished it. They had held on under the attacks of fifty thousand men.

As expected of the 1st division of the Tiger Legion.

After celebrating, a huge sense of tiredness and lethargy overcame them. In order to prevent night assaults from the enemy, the soldiers had not experience a good night sleep for a full two days.

Some of them did not care about the blood and gore on the battlefield. They just directly fell asleep.

The soldiers used the corpses on the battlefield as pillows.

When Luo Shixin led his troops and arrived, this weird scene greeted him.

As the alliance army had surrendered, the battle of Tanmu County ended in Shanhai City’s complete victory.

Fan Lihua stood on the broken battlefield; her face lacked even a tinge of happiness.

This victory was simply too hard fought.

During this battle, the 1st division of the Tiger Legion had lost three thousand soldiers, including one colonel and six majors. If you added in the injured, they had a casualty count of close to a third.

This was the time since the formation of the Shanhai City army that a colonel died.

The list was heavy.

The dead colonel was the 1st division cavalry regiment colonel, Li Mingliang.

Li Mingliang was also a long serving general. Since the establishment of Shanhai Village, Ouyang Shuo had utillized him, all the way from sergeant to captain to major, and now, to colonel.

No one expected him to fall in the battle of Tanmu County.

The atmosphere of the battlefield was really depressing.

When she saw the situation, Luo Shixin led the troops to lock up the prisoners.

Of the fifty thousand alliance army men, only thirty thousand were left. Amongst them, some were injured and needed to retire. In the final parts of the battle, the monitoring squad had executed thousands.

This battle was simply too brutal.

Fan Lihua was a very resolute female general. After feeling affected for a while, she quickly recovered.

Round up the prisoners, heal the wounded, clear the battlefield.

Apart from that, they had to complete the occupation of Tanmu County, restore its order, and apply military rule to the county.

Post war work was simply too complex.

Po Zuozi, the lord of Tanmu County, had already escaped when Luo Shixin and his troops attacked.

Out of all the prisoners, the one with the highest profile was still Caogui.

When she had time, Fan Lihua specially paid him a visit.

On the city wall, Caogui had tried to kill himself, but the Guards stopped him.

When Fan Lihua received the news, she immediately sent men to monitor Caogui to prevent him from killing himself. It was not easy to capture him. If she let him die, Fan Lihua did not know how she would have the face to see the lord.

When all the lords received the battle report, there was absolute silence.

Everyone was clear that the mid-south region of Leizhou was lost, and there was no way to recover it.

Some of the lords did not wait for the Shanhai City army to arrive. They just took all their assets and left.

The entire mid-south region of Leizhou was thrown into chaos.

Some raiders even took the chance to raid the territories.

Leizhou desperately needed a lord to restore order.

That afternoon, the 1st Guards regiment arrived outside Yanluo County.

The lord, Yanhuo Yaonie, had already received the news of the alliance army’s defeat.

In contrast to the other lords that surrendered, Yanhuo Yaonie's method was a bit weird. He directly exited the city to surrender.

When the 1st regiment saw his actions, they felt a little hesitant. They were afraid of a trap.

The lesson that the south side forces learned was still clear in their minds. The ones who were responsible for that event were right in front of them.

When Yanhuo Yaonie saw the the 1st regiment not move forward, he did make any astonishing move. He simply brought out Bao Shuda and carried the lord's stamp to surrender.

Upon seeing that, the 1st regiment finally put aside their worries and entered the city.

Weirdly enough, he did not leave. Instead, he moved into a mansion beside the Lord's Manor with his man, Bao Shuda.

The 1st regiment colonel did not make any decisions. After occupying the county, he reported everything that had happened to the main camp and waited for further instructions.

This wait was a big half a month.

As the Battle of Tanmu County had ended, Baiqi was also busy. A battle report was handed over to him almost every hour.

There were some asking about logistics, some about prisoners, some about the next steps, and the like.

However, Baiqi could not leave the reports alone; he had to personally approve them. At such a time, how could he bother about such small matters? The battle reports had stacked up on his desk and no one had asked about it.

As the alliance army fell, Luo Shixin continued up north to help the north troops. As for the mid-south region, Fan Lihua would clear up all the loose ends.

Under the lead of Fan Lihua, the 1st division of the Tiger Legion charged forward at the speed of one city a day. They used just a week to sweep up the mid-south region.

All the raiders ran away in all directions.

The chaotic mid-south region instantly quietened down.

The various officers and officials who took over the cities complained to their superiors about how busy they were.

The four directors did not have any time to listen to their complaints. The directors were far busier than them.

Investigating scholars, appointing officials, dealing with prisoners, calming down the masses….

They were so busy that they did not even have time to eat themselves. They could only eat while listening to reports. They would also give instructions at the same time.

Fan Zhongyan was busy, but Du Ruhui was frightened.

The entire 1st division was busy clearing raiders and territories. They had taken over sixty to seventy thousand prisoners, but they only had one regiment looking after them.

When he thought about this matter, Du Ruhui was so worried that he could not fall asleep.

His officials were so busy in Leizhou. Meanwhile, Ouyang Shuo, as the lord, was lazing around in Shanhai City. He had no intentions of helping out.

As Luo Shixin's troops proceeded north, the battles there were simple and easy.

They easily helped the Guards division wipe out the middle of Leizhou.

Following which, both forces went further up north.

When the troops reached the north side army, the entire north region was already cleared out.

Only then did the north alliance regret not listening to Yanhuo Yaonie’s suggestion. They had all lost as a result.

The loss of the Tanmu County alliance army was like the push of the first domino. After which, the entire Leizhou region battle situation collapsed.

Although Weizhang was a great general, he could only surrender when up against three divisions.

The battle lasted till almost the end of the sixth month before Leizhou was completely taken down.

Leizhou was about to welcome a new ruler!

Chapter 397- rewarded based on performance

6th month, 20th day, Ouyang Shuo arrived in Leizhou.

Ouyang Shuo held an administrative and military meeting in Leishan County to arrange the post-battle plans.

Secretary Bai Nanpu stood behind him.

On the left of the main hall, commander-in-chief Baiqi sat at the head spot. The four major generals sat behind him. On the right sat the four directors, apart from them, no one else was present.

The moment the meeting started, Bai Nanpu read out a series of rewards.

"Dragon Legion 2nd division swept across the plains from south to north. Major general Luo Shixin is awarded the title of Yingyang General for his contributions and bravery. The soldiers of the 2nd division will also receive rewards."

Luo Shixin stepped out and kneeled onto the ground on one knee. He emotionally said, "Thank you, lord, for the reward!"

During the Battle of Tanmu County, if the 2nd division had not rushed their troops over the limit, the war might have ended in a different way. Their contributions to the battle were undeniable.

Receiving the title of Yingyang General was expected.

"Dragon Legion 4th division fought well, sweeping the north region. Major general Mu Guiying is awarded the title of Xuanwei General for her contributions and bravery. The soldiers of the 4th division will also receive rewards."

Mu Guiying stepped forward to show her thanks.

"Dragon Legion 1st division overturned a tough situation, sweeping the south region. Major general Fan Lihua awarded the title of Zhaolie General for her contributions and bravery. The soldiers of the 1st division will also receive rewards."

Fan Lihua stepped out to thank Ouyang Shuo, but her expression looked a little unnatural.

Of the three forces sent out, only her troops were ambushed. How would she not feel embarrassed?

At this point, the four major generals that participated in the Battle of Leizhou were all given titles.

After the rewards, the four directors reported on the post war situation.

The first to report was naturally the Military Affairs Director, Du Ruhui.

"In the Battle of Leizhou, the four divisions lost a total of 6,400 men. 7,500 have suffered light injuries, while 1,500 are heavily injured."

After hearing the injury report, Ouyang Shuo frowned.

He had not expected that Leizhou would be such a tough nut to crack. He would need to pay around twenty thousand gold solely for post war compensations.

Du Ruhui continued, "The Military Affairs Department rounded up a total of 114,300 prisoners. Amongst them, fifteen thousand are heavily injured and plan to retire."

They had captured over a hundred thousand prisoners. They must quickly arrange jobs for them. Otherwise, they would incur a sky high sum.

"How are the quality of the prisoners?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

When Du Ruhui heard this question, he solemnly replied, "Not so optimistic. The war prisoners, out of all the prisoners, are all city protection forces. As a result, they lack experience. The worst part is that after the battle, some of them have already developed a hate of war. Forcing them to stay wouldn't be a good choice."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, "Since that's the case, choose the elite. Just retire those who don't pass or hate fighting."

"Understood!"

"Let me think about it." Ouyang Shuo took a moment before he raised his head, "Out of the prisoners, split them into two types. One for city protection and the other for wilderness fighting."

When he mentioned this, Ouyang Shuo turned his head and looked at Fan Zhongyan, "Leizhou will become Leizhou Prefecture. The five grade 3 counties will act as the core to create three houses, namely Leishan House, Hengshan House, Hai An House, Gantang House, and Yanluo House. The remaining twenty-three counties will be split according to region into the five houses.”

Fan Zhongyan nodded solemnly. This time, he needed to appoint one governor, five prefects and twenty-two county magistrates all at once.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Du Ruhui, "Based on the Shanhai City arrangement, a county will have one city protection unit, a House will have a city protection regiment, and the prefecture will have a garrison division."

"All things considered, solely the defence forces will need thirty-seven thousand people. As for the wilderness fighting forces, form two divisions. One would be under the Tiger Legion as their 4th division. The other will temporarily be an independent 1st division.”

Du Ruhui nodded, based on the arrangement of the lord, thirty-six thousand people will be out of jobs. This batch of people would turn into reserve forces.

The costs to cut the army was also another huge sum.

Ouyang Shuo turned to Baiqi and Du Ruhui, "The three major general spots, do you two have any recommendations?"

During this battle, they had captured a total of three historical generals, namely Cuigui, Weizhang, and Bai Lishi. The problem laid in the suitability of using fallen generals as major generals. Which general would take on which division?

Of the three divisions, the position of the garrison division was the lowest.

Apart from that, the newly built Tiger Legion 3rd division also lacked a major general.

The way he saw it, they had a lack of generals.

The main hall suddenly became quiet.

This was the first time that Ouyang Shuo had asked for their opinions on the choice of major general and did not make the decision on his own.

Du Ruhui looked at Baiqi and said, "Lord, regarding the choice of major general for the garrison division, I think it's best to choose from one of the colonels."

"That makes sense." Ouyang Shuo nodded.

The Leizhou garrison division would be in charge of the Leizhou Prefecture. Apart from all the defense matters, they also had a hidden mission to suppress the unlawful and chaotic elements.

Under such circumstances, if one used a Leizhou general to take charge, it was not suitable. The major general of the garrison division looked useless, but they were actually very crucial.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Baiqi, "For the position of garrison division major general, we should just choose from the colonels who performed well in the battle. Who do you think is the most suitable?"

As the overall commander of the Battle of Leizhou, Baiqi naturally had the highest say.

When they heard these words, the four other major generals looked nervously at Baiqi.

If the colonel that was promoted came from their division, it would undoubtedly be a huge honor.

Baiqi took a deep breath and slowly said, "I feel that the 1st regiment colonel of the 1st division, Zhaoyan, is a suitable choice."

"Ok then. That's settled."

This time, Ouyang Shuo totally went with Baiqi’s choice.

After settling the matter of the major general of the garrison division, Ouyang Shou had some rough plans regarding the arrangements of Caogui and the other two, "Caogui will be the major general of the 3rd division, Bai Lishi will be the major general of the 4th division of the Tiger Legion, while Weizhang will be the major general of the independent division."

"Yes general!"

Du Ruhui supported these appointments.

The 3rd division was the mountain division. They had a good deputy major general in Shanzhu, but they lacked a little in terms of strategic ability. Hence, placing the military strategist Caogui there was a good move.

Two of them, one strategic and one stormy in martial arts, the perfect match.

Seeing this, it seemed like the lord had really high hopes for Shanzhu. He even arranged such a good teacher for him.

"Lord, talking about Caogui, I have something to report."

"Speak!"

"After we captured Caogui, he has tried to kill himself many times. It will be not easy to persuade him and make him willingly serve you," Du Ruhui said.

"Oh? Such a thing happened?" Ouyang Shuo raised his eyebrows, "It seems like the lord of Caogui is someone amazing, making his men so loyal."

"If I don't remember wrongly, he's a general of Yanluo County."

"That's right. The lord is called Yanhuo Yaonie. He also has a civil servant known as Bao Shuya."

The one who spoke these words was administration director, Fan Zhongyan.

"This is interesting, Leizhou actually has some hidden dragons." Ouyang Shuo smiled, "Are there other captured civil servants apart from Bao Shuya?"

"Yes." Fan Zhongyan nodded, "There's also He Shiwen and Zang Wenzhong."

"Oh?"

Ouyang Shuo did not have much impression of these two.

This was because countless people acquired a certain degree of fame during the Warring States Period.

"I know a bit about these two." Different from Ouyang Shuo, Fan Zhongyan read books for fun, so he knew a lot about history.

"Oh? Please tell!"

"Zang Wenzhong was from the Lu Country and worked with four lords. He has open thinking; he removed passes to increase business and trade. He also has great knowledge and isn't afraid to learn new things."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. This person seemed like a great civil servant.

"Shiwen is a musician and can be considered a master during that period." Fan Zhongyan only gave a simple introduction of Shiwen, as he knew the lord would not be interested.

As expected, Ouyang Shuo only nodded.

A musician could only be sent to the Xinan University to teach. They would not be of much use.

Just when Fan Zhongyan introduced the two them, Baiqi had a weird expression on his face.

Only after talking about Yanluo County did Baiqi remember a battle report he had thrown to a corner. He had a shocking memory. After just one sweep, he roughly remembered everything.

The colonel of the 1st regiment of the Guards division had reported that Yanluo County was weird. The weirdest part was their lord.

When he thought about this, Baiqi said, "Lord, to convince Caogui, the words must come from the lord Yanhuo Yaonie."

"How so?"

Baiqi repeated the essence of the battle report.

"Such a weird thing actually happened?" This news hooked Ouyang Shuo's interest, “It seems like I have to go and meet this lord."

Even without mentioning Yanhuo Yaonie, Ouyang Shuo was really interested in Bao Shuya.

Chapter 398- Picking up a Burden

After listening to Baiqi, Ouyang Shuo thought about the matter and said, "Men!"

"Present!"

"Bring a group of men over to Yanluo County. Bring Yanhuo Yaonie and Bao Shuya to Leishan City."

"Yes, lord!"

Fan Zhongyan's eyes focused, "Lord, are you going to make Leishan City the main governing area of Leizhou?"

"That's right!"

Out of the five Houses, Leishan City and Yanluo City were both located in the middle of Leizhou, so both were suitable. However, compared to Leishan City, Yanluo City was better built.

It was totally unexpected for the lord to choose Leishan City.

The governing body of an entire prefecture was really important.

Ouyang Shuo did not bother to explain his decision and said, "Receive my orders, Bao Shuya will be the Leizhou Prefecture governor, Zang Wenzhong the Lianzhou Prefecture Broken Blade House prefect, and Zhou Haichen will move over to become the Leishan House prefect."

A light bulb lit up in Fan Zhongyan's mind, so that was the reason.

Bao Shuya taking the position of governor was not too unexpected. He had ample ability to rule a Prefecture. Of course, this was partially due to the territory lacking talents.

Even so, they had to appoint him away from Yanluo County. As a result, they had to sacrifice Yanluo County and not choose it.

Governance was just so cruel.

At the same time, the lord sent Zhou Haichen, who he trusted, to Leishan House. He would keep an eye on Bao Shuya.

He trusted him but also kept a lookout on him.

It seemed contradictory, but it was a genius idea.

Ouyang Shuo continued, "The other four prefects will be chosen from Leizhou civil servants. Of the twenty-two county magistrates, half will be from Leizhou, while the other half will come from Lianzhou."

"Yes, my lord!"

With that, they had solved the local interests, while promoting officials from the main camp at the same time. Some of them would also bring over the ruling methods of Lianzhou Prefecture.

Based on Fan Zhongyan’s words, Leizhou Prefecture had a group of decent officials. They were appointed roles in their original territories and were the right hands of their lords.

Ouyang Shuo would naturally make use of these officials. Of course, he could not avoid the most basic criss-cross appointment. Apart from that, the Internal Affairs Department would strictly investigate and monitor them.

At this point, Ouyang Shuo had settled the prefecture matters in just a few sentences. It might seem casual, but he had actually already set up the basic structure and principle.

The Administration Department would perform the necessary tasks. Fan Zhongyan certainly had the ability to implement these matters.

After discussing the official matters, financial director Cui Yingyu took over.

Ouyang Shuo raised his head. When he saw Cui Yingyu's bitter face, he roughly guessed that the economic situation looked bad.

"Originally, the economy of the Leizhou Prefecture could be called barely passable. However, this whole battle made the situation worse. Without mentioning the destruction of the territories, the worst part is that the lords brought all their gold with them when they left. Now, there is not a single copper left in the treasury of all the Leizhou territories."

After she spoke till this point, she sighed, "The Financial Department roughly calculated that a hundred thousand gold is needed to restore the economy and infrastructure.”

As her words landed on their ears, everyone present gasped.

Ouyang Shuo's face also grew darker and darker.

Shanhai City had already spend over a hundred thousand gold even before the Battle of Leizhou started. In addition to the compensations to the families, the expansion of army and the retrenchment of soldiers would require another huge sum.

Ouyang Shuo thought that he could obtain a gold mine after occupying Leizhou. Who would have thought that he would receive a burden instead?

"Is it really that bad?"

Cui Yingyu nodded affirmatively, "This is also the most conservative calculation. Apart from repairing the cities, if the five Houses need to expand and build outer walls, it would look even worse."

The five Houses definitely needed to expand. Especially Leishan City, which would become the prefecture grade governing city. If it did not reach a hundred square kilometers, it could not take the role.

When she saw Ouyang Shuo's face turn cold, Cui Yingyu carefully said, "Of course, the economy of Leizhou is pretty good. As long as we tide past these times, the financial income is really sizeable."

"Additionally, Leizhou is besides the sea and can replicated the well-developed ship building and salt industries. We can also move over industries like the colored-silk."

"That's not enough." Ouyang Shuo shook his head, "Only moving over industries is not going to cut it. The Financial Department must develop the territory’s potential and develop new industries and open new sources of income."

"Understood!"

Ouyang Shuo's expression relaxed slightly, "At this point, we can only try to raise funds. We will borrow all the necessary gold from the Four Seas Bank. If it is not enough, let's just obtain the needed gold from the various Chamber of Commerces."

As the Four Seas Bank continued to grow and develop, they had started to hold a huge amount of savings.

Ouyang Shuo's so-called borrowing used the future income of Leizhou Prefecture as down payment. He would also return the money with a certain amount of interest.

It seemed preposterous, but it was a normal action in modern day society. Four Seas Bank treasurer Meng Zhida was a huge financial personnel, so he could definitely handle this matter.

"Chamber of Commerce?"

"That's right." Ouyang Shuo nodded, "Tell the various Chamber of Commerces that we will allow them to set up branches in Leizhou if they are willing to help us get through these tough times."

Ouyang Shuo believed that the various Chamber of Commerces would be able to see the development potential of Leizhou Prefecture.

As long as there were profits to be made, the Chamber of Commerces would be willing to help out.

Furthermore, Ouyang Shuo was just borrowing from them, and he would return the funds with interest. He was not asking for donations.

Cui Yingyu's eyes brightened up, "No problem." She was thinking about whether she should ask her father to make the Cui Chamber of Commerce loan a huge sum to them.

With the help of Lianzhou Prefecture and Yashan City, the Cui Chamber of Commerce was doing exceptionally well.

When he saw Cui Yingyu's excited expression, Ouyang Shuo sighed.

He was helpless.

If he told others that Shanhai City needed to borrow money to survive, none of his allies would believe him. Shanhai City was the richest amongst the rich in their eyes.

It seems like he needed to speed up the development of Yazhou.

Ouyang Shuo also needed to find other ways to increase the sources of money.

Lastly, Internal Affairs director Wei Yang reported on his investigations into Leizhou Prefecture.

After they took down Leizhou Prefecture, under the iron fist of Wei Yang, the unstable elements on the surface were completely wiped out. The difficult part was the hidden powers that tried to blend in using the chaos.

It was not easy to deal with these people.

Out of them, there were a few loyalists of their old territory, merchants that lost everything, and civilians that lost their families.

This job needed the Internal Affairs director to persist on for the long haul.

Luckily, with his ability and leadership, it would be a relatively simple matter. Anyone who tried to sow chaos and cause problems would be cruelly treated.

On this aspect, Ouyang Shuo had a very strong stance.

After Wei Yang completed his report, the entire meeting came to an end.

In the next few days, Ouyang Shuo personally stood charge at Leishan City and met a host of generals and officials. He paid special attention to the newly appointed major generals and prefects.

On a particular day, while Ouyang Shuo was meeting Weizhang, a system notification sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations War-Snow Rose mercenary group led by Snow Rose for passing the public mysterious region, South Mountain Cave, for the first time. Rewarded ten thousand reputation points, congratulations player."

……

Compared to the week that Lin Jing promised, they were a full month late. It seems like the elite squad faced some problems when killing the final boss.

The moment the notification sounded out, the adventure gamemode players exploded. Just the words ‘public mysterious region’ were enough to drive them crazy.

It was a public mysterious region, the first one since the system opened mysterious regions.

Players asked around to find out the exact location.

Naturally, people asked members of the War-Snow Rose mercenary group the most. Unfortunately, Yazhou remained a huge secret, and normal members did not know about it.

However, one person with connections managed to find out that South Mountain Cave was located near Yashan City.

All of a sudden, Yashan City became the center of attention.

When players wanted to teleport over, they found out that the teleportation formation was restricted to certain people only.

As for riding over on a boat, don’t kid me!

All of a sudden, the forums were sent into an uproar.

Players grumbled and insisted that Yashan City be opened to them. Some people even scolded. These people acted like Yashan City should naturally be open to them.

Toward this, Yashan City kept silent.

Without Ouyang Shuo's instructions, they would not open the teleportation formation.

The next day, Ouyang Shuo ordered that the current city only open itself to members of the Shanhai Alliance guild alliance. As for other players? Not at the current moment.

Ouyang Shuo was not a philanthropist.

Based on Lin Jing’s words, the South Mountain Cave dropped strategist equipment.

Coincidentally, Qingfeng Pavillion and Tingyu Floor were mainly composed of strategists. War-Snow Rose Mercenary group had almost every occupation, so they also had many strategists.

At such a time, they naturally had to meet their internal demand first. Such alliance benefits would help to increase the members sense of belonging to their guilds.

One could foresee that in the future period of time, the three guilds would have many members swarm into Yashan City. To take care of this, Ouyang Shuo sent a letter to Song Jia to let her take charge of Yashan City. She would be in charge of adventure gamemode player matters.

Chapter 399- End of Huangjin

On the 6th month, 25th day, guards escorted Bao Shuya and Yanhuo Yaonie into Leishan City.

Once they met, Yanhuo Yaonie opened up, "Lianzhou Lord, I guess you have some questions for me?"

"That's right!" Ouyang Shuo said expressionlessly.

"The theory is simple. If I cannot become a lord, so I'll become the right hand of a lord; that's my style."

Ouyang Shuo nodded.

"What makes you so confident that I will use you?"

In the eyes of players, Ouyang Shuo could not be considered an open player. Instead, he seemed strict and unfriendly. The matter with Yashan City South Mountain Cave was a perfect example.

“Lianzhou Lord, why don’t you take a look at my stats."

Yanhuo Yaonie laughed confidently and showed his stats bar to Ouyang Shuo.

When Ouyang Shuo raised his head and scanned Yanhuo Yaonie’s stats, his eyes froze.

Yanhuo Yaonie was also a general. His stats could be considered normal. However, two things astonished Ouyang Shuo. Yanhuo Yaonie’s innate talent—Naval Warfare Adept, and the king rank cultivation method—Surging Wave True Technique.

Naval Warfare Adept: During naval warfare, raises cannon or bow range by 10%, raises ship speed by 20%, raises warship defense by 25%, reduces chance of ship sinking by 15%.

It was a totally overpowered talent, simply made for a navy general. No wonder Yanhuo Yaonie was so confident. With such a talent, being a lord was simply a waste.

Ouyang Shuo could not imagine what would have happened if the Ming Dynasty warship building technical manual from the auction had landed in Yanhuo Yaonie’s hands. What kind of broken lord would be born if that happened?

Not only that, the cultivation method he trained in was similar, and it helped to buff his talent.

This guy was really lucky; he actually found such a matching authentic secret manual.

"State your terms!"

One had to say that Ouyang Shuo felt really tempted.

The lack of navy generals was the weakness of Shanhai City. Ouyang Shuo would not want to let any go.

Weirdly, in his last life, Ouyang Shuo had not heard of such a lord. Who knows if he was too low-profile, or if he was KO-ed early like now.

As long as it was not an infamous player, Ouyang Shuo was confident of ruling over them.

"I've heard that Shanhai City has built a Beihai Bay Squadron. I just want to work in the squadron."

"That simple?"

"Yes, that simple." Yanhuo Yaonie was very frank, "Compared to being a lord, I want to roam the seas. Instead of being restricted to China, why not attack other regions?"

Ouyang Shuo kept silent. In his last life, the reason why this fellow was not famous probably had something to do with this.

"Ok, I agree!"

"Ah?"

This time, it was Yanhuo Yaonie's turn to feel surprised. He did not expect Ouyang Shuo to agree so quickly.

"You feel very shocked?"

"That's right!" Yanhuo Yaonie nodded, "The Lianzhou Lord from the rumors is not someone who trusts other lord players."

Yanhuo Yaonie was beating around the bush to avoid directly saying that Ouyang Shuo was too wary of other players.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, "Times have changed. Shanhai City already has a perfect system, so if you try anything funny, I'll know."

Yanhuo Yaonie was shocked yet again. He did not need to be so direct, right?

"Of course, the place of appointment has to change. The Beihai Bay Squadron is more of a close water squadron. With your specialty, it's better if you go to the Yashan Squadron."

"Yashan Squadron?" It was already very impressive for Yanhuo Yaonie to know of the Beihai Bay Squadron, but he knew nothing about the Yashan Squadron.

Ouyang Shuo roughly explained, "The leader of the 1st division of the Yashan Squadron is Cai Mao. You can work under him and be his deputy!"

"No problem!"

Yanhuo Yaonie's eyes brightened. He was not sad or dejected because of the low position.

He also knew that although he had an insane talent, he lacked practical experience. The chance to learn from Cai Mao was a blessing.

When he thought about that, Yanhuo Yaonie bowed, "General greets the lord!"

At this point, Ouyang Shuo had genuinely persuaded and awed him.

If you doubt someone you would not use them, but if you use someone, you would not doubt them. Such magnanimity was not something a normal lord could achieve.

Undoubtedly, this decision would be his changing point in the game. When the sailors get their break, he would have a stage to display his brilliant skills.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was busy calming down the situation in Leizhou Prefecture, the Huangjin uprising army in the north had reached their end.

Earlier in the 6th month, Di Chen had started to plot a plan to destroy the uprising army.

At this time, it was not long since Shanhai City had started the war in Leizhou. Naturally, Di Chen had his own problems, so he rejected the Leizhou lords call for help.

After half a month of communication and discussion, Di Chen used all the methods available to him, not even using his family, to successfully make the thirty odd territories in Jingdou form a temporary alliance.

Although the lords knew that cooperating with Handan County was helping the enemy, they could only form an alliance to face the Huangjin uprising army that was growing stronger day by the day. They would think about the consequences later.

After all, if the Huangjin uprising army wiped them out, everything would be for naught.

One had to say that in terms of recruiting and persuading players, Di Chen was leagues ahead of Ouyang Shuo. Adding Juedai Fenghua into the mix, who helped thread the needles, the alliance formed up really smoothly.

6th month, 16th day, Lianpo acted as the commander of the Jingdou alliance army. He led a total of 150 thousand men to launched their assault against the Huangjin uprising army.

At this time, the uprising army had cleared out Zhending House; they were ready to expand outward.

120 thousand troops split into four directions and attacked outward.

Similar to the Taiping Country uprising army, famous generals filled their ranks. Apart from the three brothers Zhang Jiao, Zhang Bao, and Zhang Liang, there was also Zhang Mancheng, Bocai, Han Zhong, and the like.

In addition to Zhang Jiao possessing his memories from the past, they formed a deadly force.

Who would have expected that the alliance army would deal a fatal blow to Zhang Jiao at such a moment.

Lianpo took the chance when the uprising army split their troops to lead the alliance army to battle. They destroyed the north and east forces in just four days.

The north general Zhang Man died, while the alliance captured the east general Zhang Liang and deputy Bocai. At the same time, there were a few small generals that the lords split up amongst themselves.

With the first battle ending in a victory, the morale of the alliance army rose. As a result, they did not even bother about the south and west troops. They just directly attacked Zhending City.

The ones in charge of Zhending City were Zhang Jiao and Yi.

General Yi died in history because Tang Zhou leaked a secret. Naturally, he became Zhang Jiao's right hand man. He led thirty thousand guards to defend the city.

With the base under attacked, even with his memory, Zhang Jiao could not do anything. He could only recall the south and west troops and order them to save the king.

Zhang Jiao fell right into Lianpo's trap.

Lianpo attacked Zhending City to bait the reinforcements. Then, they changed targets.

A tragedy fell just like that.

The south and west troops that had hurried back were ambushed. In just two days, both forces were broken down.

The south general Zhang Bao, the west general Guanke, and some small generals were either killed in battle or captured.

In this battle, it was a total victory for the alliance army. Not only did they recruit many rare generals, they even recruited many prisoners. Their morale had reached its peak.

The prestige and honoor of Di Chen in Jingdou naturally climbed.

The only one that was not friendly with him in Jingdou was probably Stone County.

Wufu's Stone County belonged to the Shanhai Alliance. Naturally, they were excluded from the alliance army. In this war, he became a total passerby.

After decimating the south and west troops, the alliance army started to surround and siege Zhending City.

At the Zhending City gate, Zhang Jiao looked out at the stream of forces. He had a dejected expression on his face. He did not expect that even after reviving, he could not change the fate of Huangjin.

Destiny was always so cruel.

Yi walked over and said, "General, let's take the chance to escape. Even if I die, I'll definitely be able to protect you."

"Escape? To where?" Zhang Jiao's eyes showed that he had already given up, "Even if we escape, we will have to live in hiding. What's the difference between that and dying?"

"If we survive, we do not need to feel afraid!"

Zhang Jiao shook his head, "You do not need to try and persuade me. Just let me die together with the city."

"...."

Yi was speechless.

6th month, 22nd day, the alliance army launched its final assault on Zhengding.

The Zhending City protection force viewed death as a reprieve.

The hundred thousand civilians inside the city were all loyal Huangjin believers.

In this battle, they let the alliance army see and realize the meaning of passion.

Under their relentless assault and their use of trebuchets and scaling ladders, they finally broke through after five days. Their losses in the siege alone was more than all the previous battles combined.

Zhang Jiao and Yi both died in battle.

Along with them, twenty thousand soldiers and several tens of thousands of civilians had perished.

As Zhending City fell, a system notification announced the end of the Huangjin uprising army.

The moment the notification sounded out, the China region was sent into an uproar.

Only half a year had passed and the Huangjin uprising army was already destroyed; this really made one feel respect and worship.

Di Chen's prestige and fame ballooned; he chased right for Ouyang Shuo.

Based on the merit points from this battle, Di Chen became a rank 3 Marquis.

Handan County would soon upgrade to prefecture.

Chapter 400- Heroes Rising

After occupying Zhending City, the atmosphere within the alliance army became really weird.

In this battle, the alliance army had captured Zhang Liang, Bocai, Hanzhong, as well as Guan Ke. They had obtained twenty odd small generals and eighty thousand prisoners.

Such a huge cake, how would they split it?

Apart from that, there were the territories that the uprising army had occupied, especially Zhending City, who would take it?

The interests involved in this matter were simply too huge.

The lords were not dumb. In order to defend against Handan County eating up all the rewards, they had formed smaller alliance earlier to go up against Di Chen.

Di Chen was also really tempted, if he could make use of this battle to destroy the alliance army, the entire Jingdou region would belong to him.

Unfortunately, he was up against a bunch of smart people. None of them were that stupid. In this battle, the lords were really wary of Handan County.

During this war, be it in terms of generals, equipment, or battle strength, Handan County had sent higher level personnel than the other territories.

Hence, many other lords formed up into groups to rival him. After five days of discussions, they finally decided on how to split the cake.

In the end, Handan County would receive Guan Ke and two other generals, as well as ten thousand prisoners.

As Zhengding City was too far away from Handan County, Di Chen had no choice but to give it up.

An alliance formed from the five closest territories took the city; they would manage it together.

After splitting the cake, the alliance disbanded and everyone went off in their own directions.

Di Chen rode on his horse. He turned back to look at Zhending City and muttered, “The benefits I gave out today will one day return to my hands."

The end of the Huangjin uprising army only caused a small ripple in the chaos of the China region.

Gaia 2nd year, the year of chaos was not over just like that.

As they entered the second half of the year, the various territories started to surround and fight back against the remaining uprising armies.

In the middle region.

The Chengsheng Wuguang uprising ran rampant around the mid plains.

Chun Shenjun was located in the Luoyang Region, while Piao Linghuan and Sha Pojun were in Xianyang. Feng Qiuhuang was in Taiyuan. These three regions boxed in the mid plains.

The one closest to the uprising was Fallen Phoenix City.

In contrast to Wufu, Feng Qiuhuang had already formed up an alliance army with the other Phoenix Alliance members to face the uprising army.

Although Chun Shenjun, Piao Linghuan, and Sha Pojun had some animosity between each other, they would still group up to fight against the Chensheng uprising army.

The mid plains were different from Jingdou, as it covered a far bigger region. To replicate Di Chen’s feats was impossible. The only people that were closest to fighting them was the Luoyang Alliance, a regional alliance.

Although they asked for help, unfortunately for them, neither side was willing to send forces. It was similar to what Ouyang Shuo had considered.

Zhongyuan was in a struggle under the suppression of the uprising army.

It was only a matter of time before they occupied the entire Zhongyuan. At that time, Chun Shenjun, Feng Qiuhuang, Piao Linghuan, and Sha Pojun would show their might.

The only change happened in the Zhongyan province, imperial city Luoyang.

If the uprising army was arrogant and stupid and tried to attack Luoyang City, they would just be courting destruction. Ouyang Shuo knew that each imperial city had a hundred thousand men strong elite force housed.

In the first few years of the game, no territory would dare to touch the imperial cities.

Southeast Region.

Compared to the middle plains region, the southeast region was much bigger, covering over five to six provinces. Zhanlang, Xiongba, Gong Chengshi, and Xunlong Dianxue were all located in separate provinces.

Coincidentally, the base of the Huangchao uprising Army was located in the Wannan Province.

Connected to that province was Jianye Region, where Blood Red County was located, Jiangnan Province, where King County was located, and Jiangzhou Province where, Black Lion County was located.

As for the Quangzhou Region, where Xunlong County was located, it had nothing to do with the Huangchao uprising Army. If he wanted to join this battle, he could only teleport to Black Lion County and attack together with Gong Chengshi.

The difference with the mid plains region was that Jianye Region was very long and narrow. Zhanlang's territory was only two hundred to three hundred kilometers away from Wannan Province.

Based on the news, Zhanlang had copied Di Chen and formed up an alliance with the lords in the Jianye Region. They would attack Fengyang City, where the Huangchao Uprising army was based.

Of course, compared to Jingdou, Jianye Region was only a quarter in the size. If he wanted to make use of one battle to totally destroy them, it would not be so easy.

Especially with the destruction of Huangjin, it would definitely make the other uprising armies wary.

Zhan Lang's goal was just to earn merit points and to raise his rank to Marquis soon.

The weird part was obviously the southwest region.

Feng Qingyang's territory was located in Shu, which was nearly impossible to attack. Shanhai City, Consonance City, and Tianshuang City formed a three way pincer on Taiping Country.

However, Ouyang Shuo's attitude was not obvious at this moment. Shanhai City did not attack Taiping County. Instead, they went to attack Leizhou. Be it Bai Hua or Songwen, they had both sought his opinion and asked about his intentions.

Ouyang Shuo made it clear that he temporarily had no intentions of attacking Taiping Country.

Bai Hua and Songwen could only keep silent.

After all, the territory which was truly connected to the Taiping Country uprising army was Shanhai City.

Be it Consonance County or Tianshuang County, they were still a distance away. Especially Tianshuang County. With Chiyou City between them, it was basically impossible for them to attack Taiping Country.

If Shanhai City did not attack, the two could only stay put and not move.

The only one badly affected was the Willing to Die Alliance located in Guangxi Prefecture.

Just when Shanhai City went to attack Leizhou Prefecture, the north and west troops of Taiping Country had successfully taken down Guilin Prefecture and Zhen An Prefecture.

The Willing to Die Alliance had fallen.

After taking over three prefectures, Hong Xiuquan officially announced in Tianjing the setting up of the Taiping Country.

Hong Xiuquan could still be considered logical. After setting up the country, he did not opt for a quick expansion. Instead, he started to consolidate the prefectures he had taken over.

At the same time, he ordered his generals to start forming an army. They needed to train the original peasant army into a real army.

The strength of the Taiping Country was like a snowball, rolling larger and larger.

Ouyang Shuo naturally did not just watch on as this matter developed.

Be it the Military Intelligence Division or the Black Snake Guards, they both made use of the chaos for infiltration.

Shanhai City’s plan was progressing steadily.

In the entire 6th month, the flames of war rose up in the China region.

Apart from Shanhai Alliance and Yanhuang Alliance, many regional alliances started to show themselves. The most dazzling ones were naturally the Dare to Die Alliance, Luoyang Alliance, and Wannan Alliance.

The common point of the three was that they were all directly facing the invasion of the uprising army.

The Dare to Die Alliance was already destroyed, so how long could the other two alliances last?

Who could survive, and who would drown out?

This was just the beginning.

The flames of war in the next half of the year would only burn brighter.

7th month, 1st day, a system notification sounded out in the China region.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Di Chen for becoming the 4th player in the China region to upgrade to Grade 1 Prefecture, awarded 3,800 merit points."

……

In just one week, Handan County had managed to upgrade.

This upgrade meant that the time of prefectures was slowly creeping forward.

After they upgraded, Handan County had reached the same starting line as Shanhai City again. On the same day, Di Chen announced on the global channel that he would recruit two hundred thousand adventure gamemode players to move into Handan City.

Two hundred thousand players was pretty much the advantage in population that Shanhai City had accumulated in this half a year.

To attract players to move over, Di Chen listed a bunch of benefits on the forums. One of these benefits included a mansion for each family.

The moment the news got out, the China region was in an uproar.

Adventure gamemode players were exceptionally warm to the idea, as they had enough of being cooped up in the imperial cities. If they could receive a mansion, they would be willing to do anything. Furthermore, Handan City did not make them do anything; it was all for free.

As the competition between the guilds grew more intense, more players, especially those in small groups, would choose to leave the imperial city because they were having a hard time.

Di Chen's proposal exactly aligned with their needs.

The moment the post went out, Handan City received many tens of thousands of applications.

It was apparent that Handan City was going on a totally different path from Shanhai City. With his family supporting him, Di Chen was confident in managing all the players.

Not only that, using his performance in the destruction of the Huangjin uprising army, all the uncertain elements from before were temporarily wiped out.

Di Chen's family had reached an agreement to support Handan City's development. All their resources, be it the above ground ones or the hidden ones, would all start to funnel into the city.

Although he was half a year later than Shanhai City, their development speed was not slower. The further behind, the bigger the platform to show the family's strength.

The more terrifying aspect was that compared to the arrogance he possessed when he entered the game, Di Chen had grown more task-oriented and mature.

One had to say that the lord gamemode in Earth Online really helped to train and develop leaders.

Di chen's growth was the best example.

Gaia wanted someone that could take control and rise up; there was no difference between a commoner and someone from a big power to it. It would not be biased to one side.

Di Chen's family would probably feel very happy about this.

Compared to the achievements in the game, a superb heir was the biggest gain to the family.

Chapter 401- Huge Change

7th month 1st day, night, Leishan City.

The Lord's Manor of Leishan County had already been changed into the town hall of Leishan Prefecture.

Ouyang Shuo chose to reside in a quiet little courtyard in the west of the city. He set down these principles for himself to try his best to not interfere in the running of the town hall.

He did not want to take all the attention and rights from the prefect.

Hence, after Bao Shuya’s appointment, Ouyang Shuo left the town hall.

Along with Bao Shuya’s appointment, the organizational structure of Leizhou Prefecture, the five prefects and the twenty-two county magistrates were all appointed with the help of Fan Zhongyan.

The Four Seas Bank had already set up a branch in Leishan City and contact points at the various House counties. A huge sum of funds flowed into the construction of Leizhou Prefecture.

A bank was a basic structure for a grade 2 town. As such, the Four Seas Bank did not need to construct new banks. They just had to change the signboard and train a batch of workers.

The banknotes that the Four Seas Bank distributed were naturally circulated in Leizhou Prefecture too.

The circulation of the banknotes naturally pleased all the various Chamber of Commerces.

Be it the Cui Chamber of Commerce or the Hequanji Chamber of Commerce, their businesses had spread across Lianzhou, Qiongzhou, and Leizhou. With the banknotes, together with the Four Seas Bank, transactions would become a lot more convenient.

As Shanhai Territory grew stronger and stronger, the various Chamber of Commerces of the imperial cities also started to gather in Shanhai City.

Especially the Cui Chamber of Commerce. They utilized Shanhai City to experience a complete rebirth. This made the other Chamber of Commerces in Dali envious, and they all contacted the Financial Department to request to move into Shanhai City.

The business division naturally would not reject them.

There were now over ten Chamber of Commerces in Shanhai City. The businesses and industries there were becoming more and more prosperous.

The financial director Cui Yingyu was really skilled. In just a few days time, she had managed to raise 150 thousand gold from the Chamber of Commerces; a sum far greater than the amount needed.

The Cui Chamber of Commerce itself decided to loan fifty thousand gold.

Ouyang Shuo welcomed all this money. One could foresee that the future Zhaoqing Prefecture and Wuzhou Prefecture would similarly require huge amounts of construction funds.

Relying solely on the financial aid of Lianzhou Prefecture was definitely insufficient.

With the biggest financial problem solved, the newly appointed governor Bao Shuya had a stage to perform. Compared to Yanluo County, Leishan Prefecture was a more suitable stage.

……

City West Courtyard.

Although it was not big, it was exquisite. With guards waiting outside, it was certainly safe. Ouyang Shuo would usually stay in the courtyard and welcome people from the Leizhou Prefecture.

The uproar and noise in the day seemingly had no effect on Ouyang Shuo's cultivation.

In his room, Ouyang Shuo sat cross-legged on his bed, closing his eyes as he cultivated. The golden primordial energy was like a stream, slowly flowing along his meridians.

As the number of layers in the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique increased, Ouyang Shuo's meridians were strengthened and opened. Till date, all twelve organ channels had totally opened.

Out of the Qijing eight meridians, the Ren Meridian had opened. As such, if he managed to open the Du Meridians, he would breakthrough to the 8th layer.

Every time he went up a layer in the cultivation technique, the route of flow through the meridians would also change and become more complicated. One rotation cycle would also last longer and longer.

At this point, Ouyang Shuo had reached the most crucial moment.

If one saw it, they could see that he was on the brink of breaking through; he was just one step away.

Ouyang Shuo moved the golden primordial energy. It rotated faster and faster, even forming brushing sounds against the walls of his meridians.

In the end, the primordial energy prepared to infuse itself into the Du Meridian.

A piercing pain spread out from within his meridians.

The huge pain made huge beads of sweat form on Ouyang Shuo's forehead. At the same time, steam rose from above his head.

Ouyang Shuo gritted his teeth. He could not give up, if he did, his efforts would all be for naught.

"Break for me!"

Hong!

The golden primordial energy unleashed its strongest blow. Finally, it broke the walls of the meridian. It was like a wild horse released into the wilderness, charging into the empty meridian and filling it up.

Ouyang Shuo carefully controlled the primordial energy. After he rotated a round in the Du Meridian, he slowly backed out and returned the energy to his Dantian.

"Phew!"

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for successfully opening the Ren and Du Meridians. Bone structure +5, Comprehension +4, Luck +1, Charm +2, all other given stats +5. Congratulations player!"

……

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for successfully cultivating to the 8th layer of the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique. Bone structure +2, Comprehension +1, all other given stats +1. Primordial energy upper limit increased to two thousand points. Congratulations player!"

The Ren and Du meridians were two of the main channels in the human body. If they were both opened, many other meridians would open. This would improve one’s body quality, the strength of their bones and muscles, while also improving circulation.

If the two meridians were not open, the primordial energy would accumulate in the Dantian. If one did not train hard, it would slowly dissipate. However, if the Ren and Du meridians were opened, the primordial energy could flow all over the body and circle all around. It would not dissipate, and it would even grant the body a level of protection.

Opening the Ren and Du meridians was a very symbolic event for Ouyang Shuo. His body had once again improved on an existential scale. He had experienced a true rebirth that let his power reach that of three oxen.

The moment he broke through, his real body inside the game cabin also started to mutate.

If someone saw him, they would see a golden glow glisten on the surface of his body. It looked mysterious but noble. Under the control of the AI, a huge quantity of nutrition fluids was injected into Ouyang Shuo'a body.

At the same time, his body excreted a huge amount of black waste. It formed a film over his body. The cleaning function of the game cabin cleaned up the waste until not even a single speck remained.

After the cleaning process, Ouyang Shuo's body appeared crystal clear. It looked like he had ice muscles and jade bones. Strand after strand of primordial energy flowed slowly under his skin.

At this moment, the huge migration fleet was slowly proceeding forward in the dark universe.

In the middle of the fleet, there was a huge spaceship that several guard ships closely protected. This was the flagship of the entire fleet—its brain and heart.

This was because the main machine of Gaia was in the flagship.

To put it another way, the entire flagship was modified to become Gaia's main system.

On the hundred odd guard ships, there were around 80% of the military of the federation. These soldiers were not allowed to enter the game. Their only mission was to ensure the safety of the fleet.

The soldiers who could enter the game had left the force earlier.

In the flagship, there were people with A or S permission levels. Apart from them, there was one more core team.

The mission of this team was to ensure the smooth running of the fleet. They would also keep in contact with the explorer team on planet Hope to set up future plans.

These workers were also not allowed to play the game.

Even if they logged in, it was on a casual basis. They could not affect the runnings of the game.

The moment Ouyang Shuo's body mutated, Gaia received a notification.

Ding!

"Spaceship number ZGMD105, game cabin serial number ZG10050078 has triggered game clause number 51, reaching requirements for level D permission level, please confirm!"

"Confirm!"

The one giving the confirmation was a young woman with a low but really pleasant voice.

"Confirmation complete, following federation rule number 51-002, granting game cabin serial number ZG10050078 higher grade nutritional fluid, raising AI level of cabin, raising the citizen's permission level."

Ding!

"Connecting high-grade nutritional fluid!"

Ding!

"Game cabin serial number ZG10050078 AI level upgraded!"

Ding!

"Citizen number ZG350825216810058271's permission level increased to D."

After the notification, Gaia returned to normal.

This series of events remained unknown to Ouyang Shuo.

He only knew that after the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique leveled up to the 8th layer, he could increase his primordial energy by five units every day. With his normal cultivation speed, he needed another three hundred days to upgrade once more.

The road was long and arduous!

7th month 5th day, Leizhou Prefecture.

After ten days of reorganization, the 4th division was already in place, and the newly built three divisions were already completed. The soldiers that were retrenched were sent to the various Houses.

What remained was the slow and hard process of training the forces.

Based on the Military Affairs Department’s plan, the 1st division of the Tiger Legion, as well as the newly built 4th division, would sail from Hai An City back to Yashan City.

After calming down and settling the Li Race aboriginals in the south, Ouyang Shuo personally ordered Sun Bin to attack the middle and north regions after they built the 3rd division.

He wanted to settle the entire Qiongzhou Island within two months.

The Guards division would follow Ouyang Shuo and return to Shanhai City.

The 2nd and 4th divisions of the Dragon Legion, as well as the independent division, would remain in Leizhou Prefecture.

The next step would be for these three divisions to continue up north to attack Zhaoqing Prefecture.

Of course, the city protection division of Tianshuang County would also help them in this battle.

Ouyang Shuo still left the command of the troops in the Battle of Zhaoqing to Baiqi.

Compared to Leizhou Prefecture, the situation in Zhaoqing was a lot better.

Firstly, with the Leizhou Prefecture as the logistics base, they had no problems with supplies and resources.

Secondly, they had Tianshuang County helping them.

In addition to the high morale they possessed from taking down Leizhou, it was only a matter of time till they took down Zhaoqing. The only problem would be the future of Zhaoqing.

Song Wen was smart and sent a letter to Ouyang Shuo. He stated that after Zhaoqing Prefecture fell, Tianshuang County was willing to copy Mulan County and merge into the Shanhai Territory system.

Ouyang Shuo was really happy to accept this proposal.

Chapter 402-Nanjiang Governor-General House

After checking and inspecting the three newly built divisions, Ouyang Shuo stepped onto his path back home.

At this point, all the military and administrative matters of Leizhou Prefecture were on point, and Ouyang Shuo did not need to personally look over all of them.

The next day, Ouyang Shuo left Leishan City and rode a warship from Heitu Harbor back to Shanhai City.

Heitu Harbor was the place where the Guards division had disembarked onto land. Compared to a month ago, this place had become a huge construction site and was really boisterous.

In the future, this would become a large-sized port directly connected to Beihai Harbor. The trading route between the two would form an important passageway that the Lianzhou Lord's Manor would manage.

Although Leizhou Prefecture was a lone territory, with this naval route, commuting between the two territories would become really convenient. Even a normal merchant ship would need only four days to travel this distance.

At the same time, Hai An City and Yanluo City would each have a harbor. The Hai An City Harbor was mainly used to connect Leizhou Prefecture to Qiongzhou Prefecture.

The Yanluo City Harbor would connect to Lingnan's Jiaozhou Prefecture and even to the imperial city, Quanzhou.

Along with the establishment of Leizhou Prefecture, the sea trade of Shanhai City entered a high speed development phase. Because of the geography of Lianzhou Prefecture, sea trade would become their most important connection to the outside world.

7th month, 9th day, Ouyang Shuo returned to Shanhai City.

The Guards division and the four directors returned alongside him.

Since they had the perfected the organization structure of Leizhou Prefecture, the four directors would naturally return. In the month that they left Shanhai City, the administrative matters of the Lord’s manor were already enough to give them a headache.

After returning to Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo started a huge revolution of the territory structure.

Along with that, he naturally made a series of personnel arrangements.

After the establishment of Leizhou Prefecture, there was a need to consider the future Qiongzhou Prefecture and Zhaoqing Prefecture. Ouyang Shuo felt that the time to upgrade the Lianzhou Lord’s Manor had matured.

First, he would officially establish the Lianzhou Prefecture City Hall, separate from the Lianzhou Lord’s Manor. As expected, he appointed Wei Ran as governor of Lianzhou Prefecture.

He chose Shenjuan City to be the governance area of Lianzhou Prefecture. Currently, the city was still being built.

Additionally, he took this chance to officially split Shanhai City from Lianzhou Prefecture. It would become an independently run region and the future capital city.

There were two reasons for setting Shenjuan City as the governance area.

Firstly, Shenjuan City was located in the middle of Lianzhou Prefecture.

Secondly, the position of governance area would increase and promote the growth of Shenjuan City.

Since Ouyang Shuo had appointed Wei Ran as the governor, Wei Ran had to leave Shanhai City. This helped to cool the rumors about him and Baiqi. Moreover, it was a blessing toward the development of Lianzhou Prefecture.

After officially building the Lianzhou Prefecture, they would also build the garrison division to take charge of the daily defense of the prefecture. As for the city protection division, they would be in charge of defending Shanhai City.

The establishment of the garrison division was similar to liberating the Dragon Legion. The 1st division, which was in charge of protecting the prefecture, could now move into Mulan Stronghold.

As for the members of the garrison division, Ouyang Shuo aimed for the prisoners of Zhaoqing Prefecture to fill this role.

Hence, he could only build the Lianzhou garrison division after taking down Zhaoqing Prefecture. Ouyang Shuo chose Hu Yibiao for the role of major general.

Hu Yibiao was the 4th regiment colonel of the 3rd division. Similar to Zhaoyan, he was also a strong and experienced general that Shanhai City developed.

Although this batch of old generals could not become the major generals of a wilderness fighting division, they could still manage a garrison division. This was also the last help Ouyang Shuo would provide to this batch of generals that had been with him since the start.

After Shanhai City became independent, he would create the role of Shanhai Magistrate.

For the position of first Shanhai Magistrate, Ouyang Shuo chose the newly appointed Broken Blade House Prefect, Zang Wenzhong.

Zang Wenzhong stuck out due to his administrative thinking and his identity as an outsider.

Gushan County County Magistrate Lei Fan would take over as the prefect of Broken Blade House.

Lei Fan was always an official that Ouyang Shuo looked up to. During the Battle of Lianzhou, he showed exceptional talent. Ouyang Shuo naturally wanted to use this chance to promote him.

At the same time, Ouyang Shuo officially named Tian Wenjing as the governor of Qiongzhou.

At this point, the Lord's Manor officially ruled over three prefectures.

In the future, more prefectures would enter the ruling scope of Lianzhou Lord's Manor. As for whether or not he wanted to create an organization structure above the prefecture grade, it would probably happen many years later.

The most difficult problem right now was the unofficial state of Lianzhou Lord's Manor's rule over the territories.

Based on the settings of the game, the territory of the Lianzhou Lord's Manor was limited to fifty thousand square kilometers. However, its actual ruling area extended fifteen to sixteen times greater than the set amount.

In Ouyang Shuo’s last life, Di Chen and the others also met a similar problem.

The only solution was to ask for the positions of governor, provincial governor, or governor-general from the imperial court. Only then could one have jurisdiction over the territories they had taken over.

Undoubtedly, Ouyang Shuo needed such a position.

Such an important position naturally would not come for free.

One of the requirements would be to pay a certain fee to the imperial court every year. Not only that, if one did not have a certain level of reputation, the imperial court would not accept you.

The imperial court that Ouyang Shuo chose was naturally the one in Dali.

After all, the Dali Imperial Court had granted him the position of Lianzhou Lord.

Since he had made a decision, Ouyang Shuo chose a messenger to travel to Dali to meet the king.

Based on Ouyang Shuo's intentions, he wanted to become the Governor-General of Nanjiang. In turn, he would build the Nanjiang House.

One had to say that his appetite was really big.

The position of governor meant absolute control, while the position of general meant that he could lead troops. As such, a governor-general was an overall ruler, the biggest official of an entire region.

Nanjiang simply covered a really huge region.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to change everything in one step. Before he set up a country, he would use the structure of the Nanjiang Governor-General House to prevent the need for constant change.

In his last life, Di Chen and the others had all asked for positions to rule a region. For example, the position of Huajie Governor. They would build up a provincial governor house before slowly climbing up.

Who would act like Ouyang Shuo and attempt to directly climb all the way up?

In all likelihood, the Dali Imperial Court lacked the power to make the decision. They would need to ask the Quanzhou Imperial Court. Only then would Gaia approve his request.

This was going to be really difficult.

Luckily, Shanhai City had a bit of a relationship with the Quanzhou Imperial Court. Especially with the aid of Mazu, their relationship had grown closer and closer.

For this reason, Ouyang Shuo possessed such confidence.

If he did not have such beneficial elements, Ouyang Shuo definitely would not have even thought of such a thing.

Next, he had to decide on who to chose as the messenger.

Different from the intense wars during the Spring and Autumn Era, the war between the lords in the territories usually ended in mutual destruction.

Hence, the use of diplomats and messengers were not as important as that in history. Not only did Shanhai City not set up a diplomatic department, he could not even find a professional diplomat.

When he thought about this matter, Ouyang Shuo felt a headache.

Helplessly, he could only ask the four directors for their opinions.

"Who do you all think should be the diplomat?"

The four directors looked at one another; they did not know how to reply.

The financial director Cui Yingyu could not be the diplomat. As a woman, she was still okay in the territory. After all, with Ouyang Shuo's protection, no one dared to say anything. However, to enter the court, the emperor would not even want to see her.

Administration director Fan Zhongyan? It would not work.

Fan Zhongyan was a just and fair person. If Ouyang Shuo wanted to show the prestige and strength of the territory, Fan Zhongyan was naturally a good choice. However, this trip was a private event to try and obtain an official position. Naturally, Fan Zhongyan was unsuitable.

The ones that remained were Du Ruhui and Wei Yang.

Ouyang Shuo had no choice. He immediately decided to send both Du Ruhui and Cui Yingyu to Dali.

Du Ruhui would take the role of ambassador. His main duty was to meet the emperor and form a strong relationship. Cui Yingyu would be the deputy ambassador. She would use the power of the Cui Family to hold activities.

On the other hand, Wei Yang and Jingjian would visit Quanzhou.

Ouyang Shuo knew that Jingjian was an ambassador for the Qin Country. As such, he had a certain amount of experience.

After choosing the ambassador, he needed to prepare a gift.

Apart from the meeting gifts for the various officials, the most important aspect was setting the yearly payments.

To obtain the position, Ouyang Shuo had decided to give it his all.

He personally decided that Shanhai City would give twenty thousand gold, ten thousand sets of colored silk, fifty kilograms of White Tea, a hundred strings of precious pearls, and two thousand jars of three flower wine to each imperial court.

The total sum value of the goods was over a hundred thousand gold.

Ouyang Shuo knew that only these territory specialties could move the emperor. Normal goods would just be throwing his own face.

Out of all the lords, probably only Ouyang Shuo could manage to take out such a huge sum.

The moment his words left his mouth, the four directors took in deep breaths.

Luckily, the four of them were people with foresight. When Ouyang Shuo suggested the building of the Nanjiang Governor-General House, the four of them understood what it meant for the territory.

One could say that if they were successful, it would be a monumental event for the development of Shanhai Territory.

Compared to taking over Leizhou Prefecture, this was just as important.

Du Ruhui and Wei Yang stepped out and bowed. Then, they solemnly said, “Do not worry, lord. We will not let you down!"

In truth, with such a huge yearly payment as the base, their chances of success were really high.

Just because of that, the two of them seemed really confident.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and did not say anything more.

The next day, the two ambassador teams brought their gifts and left.

Chapter 403- Game Hotfix

Just as Ouyang Shuo was planning on how to obtain his position, the battle on the southeast front had entered a crucial moment.

7th month, 2nd day, Zhan Lang and twenty odd territories in Jianye Region formed a 120 thousand men strong alliance army. They crossed over the the border of the Wannan Province to attack Fengyang City.

Blood Red County's mysteries middle-aged general finally appeared and acted as the commander of the alliance army. Under his leadership, the alliance army suddenly appeared right outside Fengyang City on the morning of the 8th.

The Huangchao uprising army was caught completely off guard.

After learning a lesson from the Huangjin uprising army, they did not expand in all four directions. Out of their 110 thousand men, they only sent sixty thousand down south. The remaining fifty thousand all camped in Fengyang City.

Compared to people like Hong Xiuquan and Zhang Jiao, Huangchao and Chensheng were a little weaker in terms of attracting the masses.

The difference in strength of the various uprising armies was really evident.

The destroyed Huangjin uprising army had 150 thousand troops. After Taiping Country took over Zhen An Prefecture and Guilin Prefecture, their numbers reached a terrifying 180 thousand. The Chengsheng, Wuguang uprising army only had 120 thousand men. Huangchao was even more pitiful at just 110 thousand men.

Even so, it was still highly difficult and really risky for the Jianye Alliance army to try and attack a city guarded by 50 thousand men.

No one felt that they could smoothly take down Fengyang City.

One must know that Huangchao was a through and through nutcase. In history, under the circumstances where their grain supply was cut-off, Huangchao started a large-scale planned cannibalism activity.

Such a thing was totally unheard of and rarely happened in history.

In the first three days of the war, as expected, the alliance army launched a relentless assault but it did not work.

Fengyang City stood tall.

Just as everyone thought that the alliance army would fail badly, their chance came.

The one that broke the balance was the Blood Red Army that Zhan Lang had trained in secret.

The Blood Red Army temporarily only had one division, the soldiers all retired military personnel. They all wore Suozi Armor, and the army was heavily disciplined and well-structured.

The three days of attacking was just a trick to lower the Huangchao Army’s guard.

On the morning of the 4th day, the hidden Blood Red Army finally made their move.

Their probings during the first three days allowed the middle-aged general to see clearly the defence schedule and mechanism of Fengyang City, allowing him find their weakest point.

The Blood Red Army precisely attacked this weakest point.

The huge army braved the arrow rain and proceeded toward the city wall in an orderly formation. The three days of siege was not totally useless, as the city protection rivers outside were totally leveled.

The army quickly arrived under the city walls for a really small price.

When they stood at the foot of the city walls, the Blood Red Army soldiers’ actions made one drop their spectacles.

The ones at the front, row after row, followed their training to toss out stone slabs from their storage bags.

Stone slab after stone slab was quickly passed to the front and placed at the foot of the city wall.

Following which, the first soldier backed down and a soldier from another unit went up. They took out the stone from their back and formed the second layer.

Just like that, layer after layer was formed.

In less than half an hour, the Blood Red Army had braced the rain. With discipline and fearlessness like steel, they built a flight of stairs under the city wall.

This flat of stairs led from the bottom of the wall all the way to the top.

The soldiers on the city walls were stunned. With their little knowledge, how could they understand such a magnificent and mind-blowing construction process? It just seemed like magic.

The alliance army also watched on with their mouths agape.

Just like that, the Blood Red Army made use of the player storage bag to create a brand new siege method.

Obviously, this strategy was premeditated to catch the enemy off guard.

While the others remained shocked, the Blood Red Army naturally would not stand there and wait. The soldiers stepped onto the stairs and easily attacked up the wall.

What followed next was imaginable.

During a city wall defence, once a point was broken through, it would cause a whole scale collapse. As the Blood Red Army showed off their might, the morale of the alliance army ballooned. The taking down of Fengyang City was within sight.

After an afternoon of battle, Fengyang City officially fell.

Huangchao was a famous coward and was really experienced in escaping. When the Blood Red Army managed to breach the wall, he had already brought a group of people and left.

As long as the south army lived, his chances of rising up again remained.

Before his departure, he ordered his men to burn up all the grain in the city.

As they were a travelling army, their grain supply and logistics were a problem. Since Huangchao had led some troops to escape, the alliance army could only give up and not chase him.

As for Fengyang City, it was sold to the Wannan Alliance.

Although they did not succeed, the Blood Red Army grew instantly famous overnight in the China region.

When the other lords received the news, they felt amazed that such a siege tactic actually existed. It seems like adventure gamemode players were becoming more and more attractive.

Immediately, many lords were prepared to build a similar player squad. Of course, it was nearly impossible to become as fearless and regimental as the Blood Red Army.

Unfortunately, a system notification wiped such thoughts from their minds.

"System Notification: Due to players using storage bags or communication methods during war time to gain a huge advantage, badly affecting the game balance, the game will have an update."

……

"System Notification: During war time, players cannot use their storage bags, guild channels, alliance channels, global channels, or any similar communication method. Players are also restricted from logging onto forums."

……

The moment the notification sounded out, the players were sent into an uproar.

Zhan Lang and his Blood Red Army were really famous this time. To make the strong Gaia god change the game all of a sudden was a first since the game’s release.

Compared to the adventure gamemode players who were just watching the fun, lord gamemode players felt totally annoyed.

The moment the update was out, Gaia had totally nullified the advantages of players during war. Such tactics as the one they had just seen would cease to exist.

One had to say that it was a real waste.

This time, Gaia was really ruthless. It did not allow players to use storage bags or communication channels, and even forums were disallowed. This meant that during war time, players were on a similar level to NPCs.

The only difference being that players could revive after dying. Unfortunately, the death penalties made it the same as just dying.

When Ouyang Shuo heard the system notification, he had a really complicated look on his face.

When the tactic the Blood Red Army employed was revealed to the public, Ouyang Shuo had already expected such an outcome.

This series of changes were totally the same as what had happened in his last life.

No matter who managed to figure out such a tactic, Gaia would come up with a hotfix to remedy the problem.

Hence, all of this did not surprise Ouyang Shuo.

His revival had changed many things. At the same time, there were some things that still proceeded along its intended path. Even he could not affect these matters.

Zhan Lang had probably foreseen such an outcome when he designed this tactic.

Hence, he would throw out this killer tactic at the most crucial battle.

Similarly, Zhan Lang had obtained huge benefits. Through the merit points gained from killing the uprising army soldiers, Zhan Lang had surpassed Chun Shenjun and upgraded to a rank 3 Marquis.

The upgrade of Blood Red County was imminent.

At the same time, this event meant that the fourth battle loomed.

The hotfix that Gaia applied would have vast consequences and effects on future territory wars. Any lord with a brain would know that this fix did not just have the effect of stopping insane tactics.

Some specifics on the battlefield would change too.

For example, Ouyang Shuo and Di Chen had previously used storage bags to transport siege weapons. The system even prohibited this kind of tactic now.

This update also nullified the strategy Ouyang Shuo used during the Battle of Muye.

Apart from that, the restriction on communications affected war time information spreading.

During the Battle of Lianzhou, the Yanhuang Alliance made use of the alliance channel to communicate over regions. Such a method would not appear in future wars and battles.

The only way left was a messenger system.

At this time, the Feng Bird system that Shanhai City had established grew exceptionally precious.

In the future, other players would discover similar communication networks. After all, the creatures in the game were more vast than in real life and more mysterious.

Apart from the Feng Bird, there were the common messenger pigeons. They could even employ rats and the like.

Based on the logic of Gaia, the future wars would have a decreased chances of players cheating. Gaia would likely restrict and stop the current mailing system at a certain time.

War was becoming more and more realistic.

Be it lords or generals, the number of elements they needed to consider was increasing.

Most simply, just the problem of logistics was enough to give them a headache. In ancient times, logistics decided the outcome of war; it was pretty much a lifeline.

A series of adjustments and changes would follow.

Who could adapt to the new rules and changes? Who could rise up and shine?

Chapter 404- Territory Luck and Prosperity

Xiangyang Region, Pill Sun County.

After learning that Zhan Lang had reached rank 3 Marquis, Chun Shenjun's face grew dark and solemn.

Zhan Lang had chased up from behind him. As a result, Chun Shenjun not only lost to Di Chen, even his position as second in the alliance was in danger.

Moreover, Chun Shenjun was helpless and could not do anything.

Pill Sun County was located in Jingzhou, south of Jingchu Province and eighteen thousand miles away from Luoyang Region—the location of the Chensheng Wuguang uprising army.

Relying on the huge amounts of funds his family had amassed, Chun Shenjun trained up a huge elite army. Furthermore, he managed to get the famous general Tiandan to join him.

Unfortunately, Zhan Lang was still faster than him.

Chun Shenjun felt furious; he smashed all the things in his reading room once more.

7th month, 14th day, Dali.

It had been three days since Du Ruhui and Cui Yingyu arrived in Dali.

The two of them made use of the Cui Chamber of Commerce to build strings and bridges. These connections allowed them to make contact with the middle-level officials. Through these contacts, they formed relationships with the officials in the imperial court.

In the end, through the imperial court officials, they spread the word to the emperor.

They had expended a vast amount of gold and resources. After two days, they finally met the Dali Emperor.

Imperial palace, Jinluan Hall.

"Lianzhou Lord subordinate Du Ruhui greets his majesty!"

The emperor sat high up on his dragon throne, dressed in a dragon robe. Strangely, the emperor's face was a blur; a thin layer of fog obscured the emperor's real face.

"Why did you come to see me?"

The emperor's voice was also fuzzy and indistinct.

"My master, the Lianzhou Lord, is really thankful for your title and specially wants to gift something to the imperial court," Du Ruhui said as he passed the gifts he had prepared to the eunuch.

The eunuch carefully accepted the gift and passed it to the emperor.

As the emperor opened the gift, he remained emotionless. After a long while, he said, "The Lianzhou Lord is really filial, I should reward him. Speak, what reward does the Lianzhou Lord seek?"

"Thank you, your highness, for your reward. My lord will definitely not let you down." Du Ruhui carefully said, "The Lianzhou Lord has been exploring and developing the Nanjiang Region. He hopes to be granted a name or title, while he works for the emperor to repay your kindness."

"The Lianzhou Lord really has a huge appetite!"

The emperor was not a simple person. Instantly, he understood the meaning in his words.

"My lord does not dare to be greedy, he only wants to help your majesty open up new lands. He wishes to be an official that guards the animals and the resources."

"?" The emperor did not understand.

"..."

Du Ruhui did not reply. At this point, silence was gold.

After a long while, the Dali Emperor took a glance at the gifts and said, "I approve!"

"Thank you, your majesty!"

Du Ruhui was delighted. At least he did not let down the Lord.

At the same time, Quanzhou.

In contrast to Du Ruhui and Cui Yingyu, Wei Yang and Jingjian had a much smoother time.

Not because of any other reason, but solely because of their special gift—a Mazu Statue blessed by the flames of incense in the Mazu Temple.

The civilians of Quanzhou had long looked forward to such a statue.

Ouyang Shuo sending away the Mazu Statue was similar to losing a huge batch of Shanhai City tourists.

Such a heart pain!

The emperor of Quanzhou personally attended the Quanzhou Mazu Temple opening ceremony. Wei Yang took this chance to successfully met the Quanzhou Emperor.

The ensuing question and answer were swift and decisive.

The emperor did not lose much from granting the title of governor-general to Ouyang Shuo. Anyways, the wilderness was not their territory. Moreover, since they could receive such a huge yearly payment, why not?

Of course, Ouyang Shuo’s rank played a crucial important role in the whole affair.

He was the first person in the world to be granted the title of Lord.

Shanhai City was also awarded the title of World’s First Prefecture.

With all these factors stacking up, he managed to increase the chances of success.

The calculations within were not as simple as one would think. It was nearly impossible for Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang to receive a similar treatment even though they were also given titles.

Of course, compared to Di Chen, Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang still had their advantages.

7th month, 16th day, Shanhai City.

The two ambassador teams returned to Shanhai City and brought the two imperial decrees from the emperors.

Ouyang Shuo received the two imperial decrees and a notification sounded out near his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, both the Dali Emperor and the Quanzhou Emperor have conferred you a title. Will you accept the position of Nanjiang Governor-General?"

"Yes!"

"System Notification: Appointed as the Nanjiang Governor-General, awarded the personal seal of the governor-general!"

With a flash, the two imperial decrees in his hands merged together. Then, a grand looking golden seal appeared.

The Nanjiang Governor-General Seal was much more exquisite than the Lianzhou Lord Seal.

From now onward, the Lianzhou Lord's seal would act as his personal seal. As for official letters, he would make use of the Nanjiang Governor-General Seal.

Name: Nanjiang Governor-General Seal

Type: Accessory

Specialty: Watch over Nanjiang (the territory under the lord's jurisdiction is not limited to the land area of the territory. The entire Nanjiang will be under the authority of the seal wielder, protected and recognized by the imperial court).

Evaluation: With this seal, the lord can establish Houses and appoint officials under his command.

The function of the seal was shown in the specialty [Watch over Nanjiang]. The moment one was protected and recognized by the imperial court, the sentiments of the people in taken over territories would swiftly rise.

The retaliation of the local groups and loyalists would also become too weak to matter.

Once granted power, everyone would submit to you, such was the situation.

If not, Ouyang Shuo would not have tried so hard to obtain such a position.

Just when Ouyang Shuo was checking out the stats of the seal, another notification sounded next to his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, the Nanjiang Governor-General seal and the Lianzhou Lord Seal can be merged into the Gold Qilin Seal to help unseal it slightly. Will you merge it?"

Ouyang Shuo was elated.

"Merge!"

Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate at all. The Gold Qilin Seal was an important key to building a country. As such, Ouyang Shuo was willing to do anything to unseal it.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, the Nanjiang Governor-General Seal and the Lianzhou Lord Seal have successfully merged into the Gold Qilin Seal. The two seals have disappeared and the stats of the Gold Qilin Seal have changed!"

With a "Shua" sound, the two seals turned into two golden lights and entered the Gold Qilin Seal. The dark surface of the seal instantly brightened.

Name: Gold Qilin Seal (platinum rank)

Type: Accessory

Specialty: Ward off devils and spirits (incorruptible and helps to chase away evil), Watch over Nanjiang (the territory under the lord's jurisdiction is not limited to the land area of the territory. The entire Nanjiang will be under the authority of the seal wielder, protected and recognized by the imperial court), Conferred Lord (increases sentiments of people by 10%), Injection of Luck (the Gold Qilin Seal has received the added buffs of two huge titles, guiding the luck and people sentiment into the golden seal to help unseal it. The higher the local sentiment and the larger the territory, the faster the seal will break).

Evaluation: This is a sealed emperor seal. It requires the injection of a country protector Qilin essence to be unsealed.

It seems like the functions of the two golden seals were to help inject the luck and prosperity of the territory.

Luck and prosperity were largely mentioned in Fengshui. It was a mostly imaginary concept with no actual presence. When Gaia was gathering details about Fengshui, it had added its settings into the game.

To players, the luck stat in the game was a manifestation of a person's prosperity.

A lord cared the most about the prosperity of the territory and the future dynasty. If it was not strong, calamities could strike and cause unrest amongst the people.

In the game, luck and prosperity had to do with the governing standards and people sentiment. Gaia wanted to use this stat to make the lords care more about the people.

A common goal of the people and a unified sentiment were the greatest prosperity of the people.

At the same time, the luck and prosperity of a nation would affect the lord. Hence, Ouyang Shuo's luck stat would strengthen or weaken due to the territory prosperity.

All in all, the two depended on one another.

After merging, the Gold Qilin Seal gained the stats of both the other seals. It even gave birth to a new speciality—Conferred Lord.

This was a case of one plus one being greater than two. This merger was similar to the territory title merger and received a similar effect.

After the merging, Ouyang Shuo was only left with one seal. He could not use one for work matters and one for personal matters.

Next, a system notification sounded out in the China region.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi. Both the Dali and the Quanzhou Imperial courts have conferred you a title. Appointed as the Nanjing Governor-General, granted the right to build the Nanjiang Governor-general house."

……

The moment the notification sounded out, the players all felt confused. The title of Nanjiang Governor-General seemed really huge, but the players did not know of its actual use.

However, based on the fact that it could cause a system notification, it must hold some hidden meaning to it. As expected of the Lianzhou Lord, he could do what other players could not expect.

Compared to the adventure gamemode players, the lord gamemode players paid more attention to this notification.

Especially Di Chen and the others, who wanted to guess the deep meaning behind all of this.

As for Bai Hua and the others, Ouyang Shuo directly informed them about the matter.

Instantly, all of them wanted to try and receive the role of provincial governor from the imperial court.

Chapter 405- Battle of Julu

Jingdou, Handan City.

"Nanjiang Governor-General?" Di Chen muttered to himself.

As expected from the multi-talented and well-read Fenghua Juedai, she was very clear about what the role of Governor-general represented. She directly explained the matter, "Nanjiang ah, the Lianzhou Lord really has a huge appetite."

"He, he wants to rule over the south?"

Di Chen's voice sounded a little weird. It was like he did not agree with Ouyang Shuo’s thinking, but it also seemed like he was gloating. Shanhai City and Handan City, one north and one south, it was probably impossible for the two territories to meet in the game.

On the other hand, his old opponents, Xiong Ba and Chun Shenjun, one was located in Jiangnan Province, the other in Jingchu Province. In the near future, their territories would most likely connect with that of Shanhai Territory.

Thinking about how these two fellows needed to face Qiyue Wuyi in the future, he felt delighted deep inside.

"Why did he request for this position for no reason?"

Di Chen could not understand this matter.

"It probably has something to do with the Battle of Leizhou that has just ended!"

"Oh?"

Fenghua Juedai frowned, “The Lianzhou Lord is the first lord to occupy two prefectures. Right after the Battle of Leizhou, he applied for such a position. It is definitely not a coincidence."

Di Chen nodded, breaking into a slight grin. His job was a lot more relaxed thanks to Fenghua Juedai making plans and strategies for him. When compared to other strategists, Fenghua Juedai was comparable or even better.

If she was in the olden times, she would be comparable to Zuo Wenjun and Ban Zhao, both talented women.

"Go investigate!"

Fenghua Juedai was the leader of Handan City's intel collecting network.

Fenghua Juedai nodded; her brows still locked.

"What's up?" Di Chen did not understand. He rarely saw such an expression from her.

"Don’t you find it weird?"

"Weird? What's weird, who's weird?" Di Chen felt really confused now.

"Lianzhou Lord!"

"What's up with him?"

"His understandings toward the game seems too advanced. Since the start, he has been able to take the lead and stay in front of every player. If he was just a beta player, he probably could not do that."

Di Chen's eyebrows rose, “If you put it that way, it really seems like the case." He paused for a while, before continuing, "How's the progress with investigating his real-life identity?"

"That's what I find weird." Fenghua Juedai sighed, "Using our lead on Lin Jing, we finally found out his real-life identity. The problem is that he's just a normal student that has just graduated."

"What about his sister?"

"That little brat is a lot weirder. We wanted to use the civilian information network to search up her personal information. However, Gaia encrypted it, and we do not have the permission level to check it out."

"...."

The two looked at one another, speechless. Your personal information must hide some secret if Gaia encrypted it.

Nobody knew that this was a huge misunderstanding.

Gaia discovered that Bing'er possessed huge innate talent. Naturally, it encrypted her personal information.

However, this misunderstanding made Ouyang Shuo's life a lot easier.

Although it was said that he had already reached this level and was unafraid of his identity being revealed, stopping people from spying was still the best.

One had to say that Bing'er was really his lucky star.

7th month, 20th day, yet another system notification.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Zhan Lang for becoming the 5th player in the China region to upgrade to Grade 1 Prefecture, awarded 3600 merit points!"

……

"System Notification: the China region already has five prefectures, triggering the battle system. The fourth battle—the Battle of Julu, will begin in three days. Friendly Reminder: only lords with grade 3 counties and above can join."

……

The Battle of Julu was the battle that made Xiang Yu famous; it was the most well-known piece in .

Zhang Han had just destroyed the main Chu Army force. Liu Bang had split his troops to go toward the west. Only Xiang Yu and his remaining few men were left. Giving it their all, they destroyed the hundred thousand Qin forces that Wang Li headed. They also destroyed the two hundred thousand troops Zhang Han led.

Xiang Yu killed Su Jiao, captured Wang Li, made Zhang Han surrender, and totally turned the face of the battle. Xiang Yu pulled the rebellion army from the borders of death and pushed them toward victory.

During this battle, many of the Qin Country's main force died.

However, such a glorious battle left many doubts and questions in the minds of future generations.

For example, Xiang Yu had only brought three days of grain, and they had decided to give it their all. However, Wang Li only surrendered two months later. Moreover, in , they clearly state that he surrendered to the cowardly prince army that did not join the battle.

Xiang Yu's forces managed to single handedly defeat Zhang Han without needing the prince's army to help. They destroyed Wang Li right under the nose of Zhang Han. Despite that, why did they fail to destroy Zhan Han in six months after gathering up with the prince's army?

Furthermore, Zhang Han suggested an alliance that Xiang Yu accepted on the surface before launching a sneak attack. Even that was not enough to destroy Zhang Han.

Xiang Yu's strength was undoubted, and his contributions and merits were undeniably. This general was an absolute monster in battle, and his military commanding ability was also top notch.

Summing up the various sad hero stories, the future generations would remember this West Chu Country king.

However, if you were just talking about the Battle of Julu, the truth had a layer of mist obsure it. What was the logic behind Wang Li’s surrender? Moreover, the helplessness when Zhang Han accepted reorganization, and the Qin Dynasty internal conflict, all these matters became a mystery.

No one knew how Gaia would interpret this historical battle.

Compared to the Battle of Changping, the requirements for the Battle of Julu had risen by two grades.

Out of the remaining two thousand territories in the China region, all of them were above grade 1 county, while most were grade 2 counties. As for grade 3 counties, there were around four hundred.

Based on the settings of the battle, a grade 3 county could not bring three thousand troops. If all the grade 3 counties joined in, the overall numbers would reach 1.2 million.

Such a terrifying number of men would far exceed the numbers of troops present in the Battle of Julu.

During this battle, the most important variable was the players.

This would be the first time that the players brought more troops than the soldiers in the camps.

Why was Ouyang Shuo so sure about this?

Because grade 3 county was a huge bottleneck. If one could pass it, their future was limitless. If one could not, they would be bound for elimination, either by other players or the uprising army.

After the Battle of Julu, the time of prefectures would arrive.

Hence, any lord with ambition would not miss this battle. This would be their best chance to rank up to rank 3 Marquis.

If they missed the chance, it would be too late to feel regret.

Facing such a huge army, the strength of just one alliance seemed really pitiful. Be it Shanhai Alliance or Yanhuang Alliance, they could not call the shots in the battle.

Among the Shanhai Alliance, Ouyang Shuo brought twenty thousand troops, while Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang brought ten thousand each. The rest brought three thousand.

After adding all their troops together, they would have 52 thousand men, only 4% of the total.

As for Mulan Yue, since her territory had merged with Shanhai City, she could independently lead troops. Yashan City was in a similar situation.

Xunlong Dianxue, Xiong Ba, and the like were blocked by the rank 3 Marquis requirement. Hundreds of other players had caught up to them.

Their only advantage was that they were just one step away from rank 3 Marquis. Undoubtedly, after the Battle of Julu, they could all upgrade to a prefecture.

A month ago, Ouyang Shuo had started to think about the role they would play in this battle. What role would the Shanhai Alliance play?

After a month, Ouyang Shuo finally had an answer in his heart.

The moment the system notification sounded, the members of the alliance gathered in Shanhai City once again.

The Lianzhou Lord Manor sign had been removed and replaced with the Nanjiang Governor-General sign.

In the main hall, the members split up and sat.

As for the choice of camp, they were undoubtedly going to choose Qin Country.

Not because of any other reason but because of Baiqi.

Since Baiqi was such a Qin Country military god, be it Wang Li or Zhang Han, they would automatically give up their commanding rights. If Ouyang Shuo did not utilize such an advantage, he would be a fool.

Although Ouyang Shuo respected Xiang Yu, he had no choice. Amongst the players, there were many who also respected Xiang Yu. Who knows what choices they would make?

The moment the system notification went out, Ouyang Shuo sent a letter to Baiqi to ask him to quickly return.

As for the Battle of Zhaoqing that had yet to occur, they could only push it back. During the battle map, player's territories were protected and could not be attacked.

Hence, even if Ouyang Shuo wanted to attack Zhaoqing, he could not do so.

Similarly, the uprising army would take a break and not attack players.

Apart from recalling Baiqi, Ouyang Shuo also recalled another huge General—Er'Lai.

Summoning Er'Lai was naturally to go against Xiang Yu.

Er'Lai would lead the 1st regiment of the 3rd division of the Dragon Legion to join the battle. The other forces included the Guards division and the three thousand palace guards.

In addition to the personal guards unit that Baiqi brought, they had five hundred heavy sword soldiers and a total of 19,500 men. As for the remaining five hundred, Ouyang Shuo gave up the spots.

They had formed the Shanhai City Army long ago.

Ouyang Shuo would not summon another group of troops just for five hundred more soldiers. In a battle of millions, five hundred soldiers were just a drop of water in the ocean.

Chapter 406- Deploying Troops

"Wuyi, what are your views on the Battle of Julu?"

The moment Bai Hua said these words, all the members turned and looked at Ouyang Shuo.

In their hearts, Ouyang Shuo's battle understanding was many levels higher than them. The reason why Shanhai Alliance could obtain such stellar results in the first three battles proved this.

Unknowingly, everyone started to get used to listening to Ouyang Shuo's arrangements.

When Ouyang Shuo heard her words, he frowned.

This was not a good sign. If everyone started relying overly on him, they would slowly lose the energy of a team. Ouyang Shuo was not a god, so for some battles, he would not have an idea.

Using the strength of the team to the greatest extent was the best method.

"The Battle of Julu affects many interests and things. It is impossible to team up with a large portion of players like the last three battles. This not only concerns whether or not one can upgrade to prefecture. Hence, scuffles would occur, even within camps."

Ouyang Shuo looked around and continued, “As such, during this battle, we must mentally prepare ourselves for Shanhai Alliance to not be the only shining star."

The moment his words landed, everyone started thinking.

Amongst them, the ones that were the most nervous were naturally those that had not upgraded to prefecture. Xunlong Dianxue and Gong Chengshi were slightly better, as they were just one step away from rank 3 Marquis.

After the Battle of Julu, it would not be much of a problem for them to rank up to rank 3 Marquis.

As for Wufu and Song Wen, they were in a neck and neck battle with the other lords.

"With Baiqi on our side, big brother, are you worrying too much?" Gong Chengshi asked.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “Baiqi's use is definitely undeniable. The problem lies with Gaia. With your knowledge of Gaia in this year and a half, don't you think that Gaia will restrict it?"

"Yes!"

"So, even though Baiqi can help us, it will only be within the rules. It can't affect other players. With Baiqi's personality, he will also treat all troops the same." Ouyang Shuo paused for a moment, before continuing, “Hence, we should toss aside wishful thinking and prepare for a hard war."

"I agree with big brother." Xunlong Dianxue stepped out, “It’s time to let the lords in the China region witness our brutality."

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, he nodded his head and laughed.

"And also, during the battle period, I might disappear for some time. Don't be too alarmed if that happens." Ouyang Shuo alerted them first, in case misunderstandings arose in the battle map.

Feng Qiuhuang looked at Ouyang Shuo, squinting her eyes viciously and smiling, “Wuyi, what are you going to do? Can you bring me along?"

Ouyang Shuo was speechless.

One must imagine how a goddess suddenly acting tough and gangster must feel.

What Ouyang Shuo felt was such an impact.

Of course, he knew the meaning behind Feng Qiuhuang's words. During this battle, apart from him, neither Bai Hua or Feng Qiuhuang had any pressure. Moreover, everytime Ouyang Shuo acted alone, he would obtain unexpected gains.

"Bring me too!"

Bai Hua joined in.

These two goddesses, who were arrogant in their territories, returned to their usual personalities among the alliance.

As for the others, they could only drool in envy. They knew that during the Battle of Julu, their mission would be to follow the main force and earn merit points.

As for other thoughts, that would have to wait for next time!

In truth, Ouyang Shuo did not want to go solo for this matter. If not, he would not have announced it, "Then prepare five hundred elite forces. When we are in the battle map, follow me to hunt."

"Great!"

The two goddesses were delighted, their expressions indescribable.

At this point, the Shanhai Alliance meeting came to an end.

At the same time, the Yanhuang Alliance were similarly meeting in Handan City. As for what they discussed, it would only be truly revealed during the battle.

A huge war was about to begin.

22nd day, Er'Lai led the heavy armored mountain barbarian infantry troops back to Shanhai City through the teleportation formation.

That afternoon, the cave military factory sent over 150 thousand military grain pills.

During the battle map, Ouyang Shuo could not use his storage bag to transport pills. He would give this batch of pills to the soldiers to bring along.

Of course, the ones who received the pills were the three thousand palace guards. Each member received fifty.

Each pill was placed in a grain bag, a small pouch. At the same time, the Military Logistics Department also prepared a leather water bag for each cavalry.

When a water bag was fully filled with water, it would hold enough to supply a day's worth of water for a soldier.

The learned how to create the leather water bag from the grasslands after recruiting the tribes that surrendered. The leather used was tailored with leftover materials from the Armory Division.

The palace guards were the elites of the elites, so their consumption was also shocking. One palace guard, including his horse, needed to use five military grain pills a day. Hence, fifty pills would only last for ten days.

Large-scale use of military grain pills was no longer possible.

23rd day, 5 PM, Baiqi rushed back to Shanhai City.

Along with him were the five hundred iron eagle swordsmen that he had personally trained.

Baiqi's expression was a little complicated.

After coming to the main map, Baiqi had learned everything about the history of the Qin Country.

They had swept over the lands and finally conquered all six countries. However, they could not last for over three generations, making Baiqi disappointed.

As a person from the Qin Country, his patriotism toward the Qin Country was something others could not understand. Even Wei Yang probably did not feel it as much as Baiqi.

Now, Baiqi would join the Battle of Julu. He would see his country and soldiers once more. As a military god in the Qin Country, such a special feeling was something that outsiders could not comprehend.

That night, Ouyang Shuo had a deep conversation with Baiqi in his reading room.

Gaia 2nd year, 7th month, 24th day, 9 AM, a system notification sounded out.

"System Notification: 209 BC, twelve years after Qin Shihuang took over the entirety of China, the internal court experienced internal conflicts, throwing the country into chaos. With the original noble families of the six counties as the core, the rebellion army and the Qin Dynasty army started an all out war around the nation.

“208BC, the main force of both sides gathered around Julu City, undergoing a huge battle that would decide their fates. This battle ended in a victory for the rebellion. The fourth battle map—the Battle of Julu officially opens!"

Twenty thousand of the most elite Shanhai City soldiers gathered in the square, ready to go.

After checking the requirements for joining the battle and the number of people joining, they chose the camp….

The Battle of Julu was split into the Qin Dynasty Camp and the anti-Qin Camp. Naturally, Ouyang Shuo chose the Qin Dynasty Camp.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for activating the battle map teleportation. Teleportation number: 19,500 men."

During the second system update, battle map teleportations stopped collecting transportation fees from the players.

If not Ouyang Shuo, would fall into bankruptcy once more.

"System Notification: Teleportation begins!"

After a short while of the sky turning and their vision blurring, Ouyang Shuo and his men appeared on the Julu battlefield.

"System Notification: Welcome player Qiyue Wuyi to the Qin Dynasty camp, Jiyuan City."

210 BC, after Qin Shihuang died, Hu Ke under the help of Zhao Gao and Li Si managed to grab the emperor spot through schemes and continued to rule with brutality and cruel acts, making the entire nation unhappy.

The Chensheng Wuguang uprising in 209 BC started the anti Qin sentiments. Before the Battle of Julu occurred, the 6 counties during the warring states period, Zhao, Qi, Yan, Wei, Han, Chu all succeededin obtaining their own land and weapons.

And the Qin Imperial Court lacked the preparation for this. The number of anti rebellion personnel they could activate were only two forces, the Zhang Han army and the Wang Li Army.

The Zhang Han army was made up of criminals from Yuanli Mountain and when the war broke out, they numbered 300 thousand.

As they were criminals and the time that they were formed was relatively short, their combat strength although was weaker than the main Qin Army force, but they still had some skill.

Wang Li's army was the Qin Army that was camped in the north. As one of the main forces of the Qin Army, they were highly disciplined and their specially was fearless, quick and smart cavalry.

As Qin North army was around 300 thousand as they had the job of guarding the border, they couldn't be shifted down south.

When Qin Shihuang was at his peak, these troops still hadn't went down south. One could see how strong the Qin Army was that didn't even need them to

Move so many troops.

During the Battle of Julu, Wang Li led 150 thousand elite troops to go down south.

Both forces added together, there were a total of 450 thousand men.

At that time, south of the yellow river till the Huai river which originally belonged to Chu Country was where the uprising voices were the loudest. So the two forces of the Qin army came here to head anti rebellion operations.

Zhang Han destroyed Zhang Chu of the uprising army then Xiang Liang of the Chu Country, killed the Qi King Tian Dan, wiping out the Wei King Wei Jiu, pretty much destroying all the anti Qin powers south of the yellow river.

As for Wang Li's army, history books only recorded that he was defeated.

At this point, north of the yellow river an internal conflict occured. The Zhao King Wu Chen was originally a general of Chensheng who after being ordered to Attack Zhao Country, took down Handan and called himself the Zhao King.

His subordinate Li Liang was furious due to him being humiliated by Wu Chen's Sister and killed both of them.

The prime minister Zhang Er and Chen Yu escaped, conferring the title of old Zhao Country noble family member Zhao Xie as Zhao King. They defeated Li Liang who chased after them causing Li Liang to ally with Zhang Han.

With Li Liang's intel, Zhang Han had a better understanding of the uprising north of the yellow river. After Zhang Han defeated the main Chu Army force and killing Xiang Liang, he crossed the river to Attack the Zhao Country.

At this point, the Battle of Julu begun.

The situation in Chu land got better and Zhang Han felt that the uprising army wouldn't cause a huge threat so he swiftly went up north. The first step was to defend Guangyang Path such that the rebellion army couldn't go down south and take over Luoyang.

This strategic point was Jiyuan. Jiyuan City would become the main base of the Qin Army.

……

Qin 2nd generation 2nd year 9th month, Wang Ali's army surrounded Julu.

A month later, Zhang Han's army broke through Handan.

After which, as the land had deep resentment and rebellion intent, to prevent them from rebelling, Zhang Han destroyed the city wall and moved the people within the river.

This move planned to remove the hidden cancer which was growing between their main base and Julu while also getting grain and shipping it to Jiyuan.

Zhang Han swept Handan and the neighbouring region, sending the sizeable amount of grain back to Jiyuan City. As there was no more grain, the locals could only move to other places.

What happened next was Zhang Han reinforcing Wang Li's army.

Zhang Han at this point had split his troops to go to the south of Julu and to Jiyuan. They built a tunnel from south of Julu through to the yellow river. With this, there was a complete grain route to reach Wang Li's army.

After Julu was surrounded, the connections of Zhang Er came into play. Anti Qin forces kept on coming but facing such a huge and strong Qin Army, no one dared to proceed forwards and only looked on from afar.

At this point, there were a total of 80 thousand Zhao Army troops within and outside of the city.

Adding together all the anti Qin forces, there were 300 thousand men.

……

When Zhang Han and Wang Li attacked Handan and Julu, King Chuhui ordered Song Yi and Xiang Yu over to help. Song Yi didn't want to save the Zhao Country so he decided to be a bystander.

After the Chu Country army set off, he stopped at An Yang for 46 days.

Song Yi commanded the troops, bringing Xiang Yu to camp at Julu, Yuzhou as well as An Yang to wait for the right chance. The other generals Qing Bu and General Pu had reached the battlefield and camped near the yellow river, waiting for Song Yi's orders.

Xiang Yu who had a deep hatred for the Qin Country decided to kill Song Yi and take over command. He led 60 thousand men to gather with Qing Bu and General Pu.

Out of the 60 thousand Chu Army, the core made up of Jiangdong Baqian disciples took up 30 thousand.

Hence, the entire anti Qin alliance reached 400 thousand men.

On such a huge battlefield, both sides had similar numbers.

However in terms of combat strength, the Qin Dynasty army was slightly stronger.

When Xiangyu rushed over to the Yellow river, it had been 2 months since Julu was surrounded.

The time period that Gaia set the war at was when Xiang Yu and his troops rushed to the yellow river. And the camp for the anti Qin players was set at the camp beside the river.

If no players interfered, the most extravagant battle in the Battle of Julu was about to occur.

Zhang Han had built up a 10 kilometre grain transport route from south of Julu to the yellow river, sending men to defend it.

Xiang yu's tactic was to send when to sneak Attack a part of the passageway to cause grain shortage and weaken their combat strength before sending their main force across the river.

As for the Chu Country sneak Attack, as they had a lot of grain they couldn't bring over, to be able to steal the grain from the enemy, Xiang Yu decided to give it their all and only bring 3 days of grain to ignite the fighting spirit of the Chu Army.

What happened next was capturing Wang Li and making Zhang Han surrender.

To players, this huge war had just begun.

Chapter 407- Baiqi Takes Charge

Battle Map, Jiyuan City.

After teleporting to Jiyuan City, Ouyang Shuo passed the commanding rights of the Guards division over to Baiqi. Ouyang Shuo himself would only lead the Palace Guards.

This time, the Shanhai Alliance Army was not segmented after it joined the war. They were not reorganized like the first three battles. Their own generals led them, while Baiqi took the overall command.

Zhang Liao from Consonance City, Wang He from Fallen Phoenix City, Qinqiong from Xunlong County, and the like.

After registering in the inner city, the players were assigned to the barracks at the west of the city. Just when the Shanhai Alliance members had some free time after registering, the system notification sounded out.

"Battle Report: Battle of Julu, total of four hundred lords, total number of 1,244,500 men. The Qin Dynasty Camp has 228 lords and 714,500 troops; the Anti-Qin Camp has 172 lords and 530,000 troops."

Shanhai City choosing the Qin Dunasty camp was an open secret.

After the last three battles, the lords in China finally grew some brains. During this battle, many of them decided to choose the same camp as the Shanhai Alliance.

As for the Yanhuang Alliance, needless to say, they all chose the Anti-Qin Camp. This choice was not a result of any incredible plan or tactic. Instead, they made this choice based on their pride; they did not want Baiqi to order them around.

Both camps had their strengths and weaknesses, so there were not any obvious advantages for choosing either.

As for the lords who chose the Anti-Qin Camp, half of them had dreams of recruiting Xiang Yu. Ouyang Shuo could only weep for these lords. With the character of Xiong Ba, how would he let such a person slide?

In his last life, no one managed to recruit him.

Of course, some of the lords who knew history turned their eyes to a quiet general under Xiang Yu's camp.

His fame in the later parts of life rivalled Xiang Yu’s. He even tempted Ouyang Shuo a lot. Unfortunately, they were not in the same camp, so he was helpless. If not, he would have wanted to try to recruit him.

In the Anti-Qin Army, there was also a group of really famous people like Xiao He.

These people were following besides Liu Bang and were currently in Peng City. Peng City was four to five hundred kilometers away from the Julu battlefield.

King Chu Huai granted Liu Bang the title of ‘West Conquering Army Commander’. However, he only had a few thousand men under him. Even though he was really courageous, he did not dare to head west and attack the Qin Country base.

"Battle Report: As the Anti-Qin Camp is weaker than the Qing Dynasty Camp, based on the battle rules, the Anti-Qin Camp will automatically receive a 25% Defence buff."

The difference in the amount of soldiers of the two camps was 184,500, a massive difference.

"Battle Report: Based on rank and merit points, the Qin Dynasty Camp representative figure is Qiyue Wuyi, rank 2 Marquis. Anti-Qin Camp representative is Di Chen, rank 3 Marquis."

Di Chen's position as the player representative had grown more and more stable.

"Battle Report: Officially opening the battle contribution point trading in the Commerce City; players can choose to use their points to exchange for items."

Finally, after the merit point rewards, Gaia threw out another huge bait.

Ouyang Shuo took a look at Commerce City; it sold a huge variety of items. There were even five weapon technical manuals.

In contrast to the super trading platform, the special items in Commerce City were all unique and none of them were repeated. The moment someone bought an item, other players could not trade for it.

Ouyang Shuo counted the number of items in the entire Commerce city; it totalled at two hundred for both camps of players. In theory, half of the lords could buy a special item.

In truth, there obviously was not such a good thing.

Taking Ouyang Shuo as an example. If he accumulated enough points, he would buy several items.

Ouyang Shuo took a look at the special items; the prices were not cheap. The most expensive ones were the five equipment crafting technical manuals.

The Guangyao Armor technical manual cost forty thousand battle contribution points.

Without mentioning how many lords could achieve such a high amount, even if they could, it was hard to say if they would be willing to spend it. After all, their main goal was to raise their ranks.

In conclusion, the opening of the Commerce City was good and bad for the lords.

At the very least, it provided an extra choice.

After settling down, Ouyang Shuo directly brought Baiqi to visit Zhang Han.

Jiyuan City, Lord's Manor.

Zhang Han was a fearless general of the Qin Dynasty. He fought all over the lands; no one dared to go against him. However, because of Zhao Gao’s scheme, he surrendered to the Chu Country.

In history, the most believable reason for why he surrendered was Zhao Gao’s worries that Zhang Han was destabilizing and threatening his position.

Hence, Zhao Gao badmouthed him to the second-generation king and made him wary of Zhang Han.

The pain and fear from the king’s lack of trust forced Zhang Han into surrender. If not, Xiang Yu could not have defeated him.

What happened to Zhang Han was largely similar to what had happened to Baiqi.

Prime minister Fanju could be said to have caused Baiqi's death.

One could say that this was a common problem in the Qin Country.

Similar to Xiang Yu, Zhang Han had also taken his own life. The only difference being that Xiang Yu was remembered and worshipped in history, while because Zhang Han was a defeated general. As a result, he drowned away in the pages of history.

There were people that commented that Zhang Han was only weaker than Baiqi. They felt he held a higher position than even Wangjian.

However, those were only the words of one family.

Talking about it, Zhang Han really had a little connection with Shanhai City, as his ancestor was Jiangshang.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo was confident about recruiting him.

Zhang Han was in the hall to receive Ouyang Shuo and Baiqi.

Looking at him, the current Zhang Han had just gained victory in the south, so he seemed really confident. As a result, his thin features did not look as scary and uncomfortable.

Ouyang Shuo paid attention to specifics however and felt a sense of sadness emanate from him.

After taking down Handan, Zhao Gao started to feel wary of Zhang Han. The sharp Zhang Han probably guessed that the imperial court had started to have a negative change toward him.

When he attacked the south, the king really trusted him, granting him all the power he needed. Even Wang Li was under his command.

Who was Wang Li?

The grandson of the famous general, Wangjian, the son of Wang Ben!

The Wang family's three generations were all famous generals.

With that, one could see Zhang Han's ability.

"Player representative Qiyue Wuyi greets the general!"

Ouyang Shuo bowed and greeted Zhang Han.

Baiqi, who was sitting behind him, looked at Zhang Han with interest.

Zhang Han nodded. Then, he raised his head and looked at Baiqi. His actions were simply too eye catching.

As he looked up, he froze.

He looked the same. Exactly the same!

The painting of Baiqi was something that all the generals in Qin had seen before.

"Th-this general is?"

Zhang Han, who was always calm and composed, was now a little rattled.

"Baiqi!"

Baiqi looked at Zhang Han, as a flash of praise entered his eye. A god general like him could appraise someone with just a look.

It was apparent that Baiqi paid attention to this fellow’s ability.

Baiqi's voice was really calm, but it was like a bolt of lightning in Zhang Han's ear.

"Wu An Lord! It really is you!"

Zhang Han was astonished, as he bowed.

"Zhang Han greets the Wu An Lord!"

Based on the settings of the game, the China region would cross five thousand years. As a result, such scenes would commonly happen. Hence, Gaia made certain changes to the NPCs.

When Zhang Han saw Baiqi, he would not ask questions about revival, or why he was not dead. He would just accept it, saving a lot of time.

Baiqi nodded, accepting his greeting.

After the greetings, the three of them sat down.

Zhang Han naturally would not dare to sit in the main seat. He wanted Baiqi to sit there. However, Ouyang Shuo was Baiqi's lord. Of course, he could not sit below Baiqi.

This resulted in Ouyang Shuo sitting in the main seat.

Ever since the battle maps started, this was an unprecedented even. A player representative was actually sitting in the main seat of the camp.

Luckily, Ouyang Shuo was smart and just kept silent throughout the entire process.

As for the question and the answers, they were already exchanged between Zhang Han and Baiqi.

Zhang Han did not even hesitate and told Baiqi about everything that happened in this year, the battle situation, as well as the current problems they faced. After finishing, he bowed once more, “Wu An Lord, please command the troops, Zhang Han is willing to lead them!"

He was going to hand over his power!

Ouyang Shuo looked at Zhang Han; the meaning in his look was indescribable.

To be able to give up power so easily, Zhang Han really was not a simple person.

Power was the life of a general.

Zhang Han giving it up power was similar to giving up his life to Baiqi.

If it was another general, Zhang Han naturally would not do so. One must know that the current him had not met any failures; he was just building up his fame and contributions.

However, Baiqi was different, he was the god general of the Qin Country.

Changing generals all of a sudden was the worry of military strategists.

However, such a worry was non-existent to Baiqi. His reputation in the Qin Country was simply too huge. When he died, all the people prayed to him.

Hence, none of the soldiers would reject him. Instead, they welcomed him.

As for the other general, Wang Li, he would not likely do the same as Zhang Han. He was the most traditional Qin Country soldier, so he worshiped and respected Baiqi to the core.

Just like that, Baiqi easily obtained the Qin Dynasty Camp commanding rights.

Chapter 408- Fall Back

After Baiqi took over control, a system notification sounded out in Ouyang Shuo's ear.

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, General Baiqi has obtained the commanding rights to the Qing Dynasty Camp, rewarded fifty thousand battle contribution points, battle contribution points multiplier increased by 20%."

Overpowered!

Fifty thousand points were enough to make other players bleed with jealousy. The multiplier also meant that if Ouyang Shuo obtained ten thousand points, he would get an extra two thousand.

With the battle results of the Shanhai City Army, Ouyang Shuo would receive a huge amount.

Following which was another battle report.

"Battle Report: Shanhai City General Baiqi has achieved a hidden requirement and obtained the commanding rights of the Qing Dyansty Camp. Baiqi will replace Zhang Han to lead the 450 thousand troops as well as the player forces."

The moment the notification sounded out, the lords felt really conflicted.

The lords in the Qing Dynasty Camp felt like they had taken the right side. Baiqi leading them was much better than Zhang Han doing so.

Most importantly, the commands of the imperial court would not affect Baiqi.

After he received the commanding rights, he first ordered Wang Li's troops to retreat and back off to Jiyuan City.

This order was totally unexpected.

Even Zhang Han did not understanding the rational.

"Wu An Lord, it was really difficult for us to surround them. Why did we retreat?"

Baiqi shook his head, “In your opinion, solely based on them, can we take down Julu?"

"No!"

Zhang Han resolutely shook his head. If they could, they would not have failed to make any progress in two months. Looking back at the Battle of Julu, history had forgotten one hero.

This hero was the Zhao Country official Chen Yu.

It was mentioned that Li Liang murdered Wu Chen and his sister.

After Zhang Er and Chen Yu escaped, they conferred Zhao Xie as king and defeated Li Liang.

That Chen Yu was this Chen Yu.

The real tactician and planner of the Battle of Julu was Chen Yu.

How so? Let us see what he did during this battle.

Firstly, he gathered the scattered forces.

After Julu was surrounded, Chen Yu sought reinforcements and formed the army north of the river.

Secondly, communicating with Julu City.

During the period where Zhang Er and Zhao Xie were trapped in Julu, they could only get into contact because of Chen Yu.

Thirdly, linking up Xiang Yu's army with the Zhao Army.

Xiang Yu killed Song Yi. As for leading the troops to save Julu, and the communication between the two armies, Chen Yu orchestrated all of this.

Hence, inside and outside the city, the true core of the communications was Chen Yu.

Under the linking of Chen Yu, relying solely on Wang Li, it was difficult to take down Julu City.

The moment Zhang Han spoke, before Baiqi could explain, Zhang Han frowned. Thinking carefully, asking the troops to return seemed like the right choice.

With the addition of the player troops, the Qin Army could go and assist the Wang Li Army. However, they could not forget that the Chu Army opposite the yellow river also similarly had over five hundred thousand players.

It was the same as saying that to attack Julu, the Qin Army would split into two.

A portion was in Julu City, a portion was in Jiyuan City.

If the two armies could link up with one another, it would be fine. The hard part was that Xiang Yu’s Chu Army were stuck between the communication line of both armies.

They were like a snake being stepped on.

Continue attacking Julu? They could not take it down in a short time. Defend and wait? They would be under threat.

They were in a really bad situation.

Under Baiqi's instructions, they prevented the situation where Xiang Yu destroyed the Wang Li Army while Zhang Han watched on. However, to use this to defeat the Anti-Qin Army was highly difficult.

At best, both sides would enter a stalemate. However, who knows when that would end. If they did not pay attention, the Chu Army might catch a loophole to take them by surprise.

Hence, after Baiqi understood the situation, he decisively gave up the encampment of Julu, making them turn around to defend Jiyuan City.

This was a case of Baiqi not using soldiers based on common logic.

Retreating was just the first step in his strategy, as he had further considerations.

The way Baiqi used troops was that he like to ponder, ponder about the opponent, ponder about the battle. He could often find the decisive action and point out the key of the battle.

Seeing that Zhang Han had understood, Baiqi continued, “The key to this battle is grain."

After Zhang Han took down Handan, he transported all of the grain to Jiyuan City. Hence, in history, when the Zhang Han Army was trapped for half a year, they still had sufficient grain.

As for the Anti-Qin Alliance, if the encirclement of Julu was broken, their grain problem would be solved in the short term.

In truth, the danger lurked within the player army.

As they say, fortune and misfortune were closely related.

Anything had its pros and cons.

The fifty-three thousand player force in the Anti-Qin Camp brought with it huge combat strength. At the same time, it brought a huge burden on the logistics of the alliance army.

When Julu City was surrounded, the grain in the city was already insufficient.

If would be okay if it was only the alliance army, they could probably sustain themselves for half a month. However, with the player force, they would run out in less than a week.

In a pleasant coincidence, the surrounding region lacked grain that the enemy could collect.

Hence, comparing the two, the Qin Army housed in Jiyuan City were in an infallible situation.

At the same time, Baiqi made a complete analysis on Xiang Yu’s character.

Based on his personality, he definitely would not drag things on with the Qin Army. The only way out would be to use his most familiar method; he needed to forcefully attack Jiyuan City.

With that, the Qin Army would possess the strategic advantage.

All of the sudden, the Qin Army held the absolute advantage.

One had to say that Baiqi's plan was a level higher than Zhang Han’s.

When Zhang Han heard it, he was in awe and worship.

The following discussions focused on how to ensure the smooth retreat of Wang Li's forces and how to avoid being attacked. In this aspect, Zhang Han was experienced and did not need Baiqi’s instructions.

On the first day, Baiqi changed the whole landscape of the battle.

Of course, Xiang Yu's personal strength and terrifying explosiveness was an unpredictable factor. Whoever dared to underestimate him would be asking for defeat. He did not hold the title of strongest general in the ancient times for no reason. In history, be in Wang Li or Liu Bang, they all lost under his hand.

When Xiang Yu led the Jiangdong Warriors to go berserk, it was an alluring sight.

The Battle of Julu was far from reaching a foregone conclusion.

In the following two days, under the cover of the Zhang Han army, Wang Li and his forces successfully returned.

Before his troops left, they gathered up all the grain in the camp. They destroyed the grain that they could not bring away and left nothing behind for the alliance army.

At the same time, Xiang Yu had just finished the organization of the player force.

After learning that the Wang Li Army had left and the encirclement outside Julu City was unexpectedly undone, he immediately ordered his troops to cross the yellow river and move into Julu City.

At the same time, the three hundred thousand prince army that were sitting on the fence followed. At this point, the Battle of Julu was heading in a totally different path from history.

Each camp held a city and were north and south of one another.

Jiyuan City was located at Shuizhi Town, west of Anyang. At this place, in the north, south, and west directions were mountains like that of a pocket. Shuizhi Town was at the bottom of the pocket.

Anyang City sat nicely in the opening of the pocket.

West of Shuizhi Town was a road that crossed the mountain range through Linzhou. Then it went down south to enter Henei Prefecture, which was the back of Zhang Han's forces.

The location was highly treacherous. The water ridges possessed both shallow and deep water regions, which traveled from west to east, forming a natural barrier.

After Baiqi gained control of the army, he arranged the troops to rush construction work on the front lines of Jiyuan. He arranged three separate works all the way until they reached under Jiyuan City.

Although they retreated to defend Jiyuan City, Baiqi wanted to proactively defend.

Building defence projects was his strong point.

At the same time, Baiqi also reorganized the 450 thousand Qin Army and the seven hundred odd thousand player force. He assigned them to various defence regions.

The 150 thousand Wang Li Army, which were mainly light cavalry, were assigned to the position of reserve army. They would be in charge of assisting various points of the battlefield.

Of the three hundred thousand Zhang Han Army, 150 thousand would camp in Jiyuan City. The remaining would form a defensive chain using the three defensive projects as the core.

The seven hundred thousand odd player force were either arranged on the three defensive works or on the city wall.

Each group had their own specific duties.

With that, for the player army, if they wanted to gain battle contribution points, they had to outdo their enemies at the regions they took charge of.

Victory was all in their own hands; if they lost, they could not blame others.

Baiqi's plan totally reduced the chance of the player force having internal conflicts.

Toward this arrangement, the lords in the Qin Dynasty Camp naturally had nothing to say and the doubts in their hearts were wiped out. After Baiqi gained command, they had originally thought that he would act bias toward the Shanhai Alliance.

The truth proves that they were just too wary about him.

Baiqi really managed to treat everyone equally.

The only weird thing was that Ouyang Shuo’s three thousand palace Guards had disappeared in Jiyuan City.

After that, until the battle ended, the lords in the Qin Dynasty Camp would not see him. Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang were also along with him.

Toward this matter, although the lords had their doubts, they did not take the matter to heart.

As long as the Shanhai City Army defended Jiyuan City, anything else would not be a problem. In such a huge battle, the influence of a single lord was really minute.

Chapter 409- Face-off

Battle map, Julu City.

Although Xiang Yu was strong, but the princes would not just follow his commands so easily.

In history, Xiang Yu could form up his prestige in the Anti-Qin Army after he ordered his troops to cut off their own retreat path through burning their boats and destroying their cooking woks. During this battle, he had not found the opportunity to do so.

Hence, the current Julu City did not follow his instructions.

The various princes might seem unopposing or useless, but they each had their own plans.

How should he tame the thre hundred thousand odd men prince army, including eighty thousand Zhao troops to become the only leader of the Anti-Qin Camp. This was biggest problem Xiang Yu had ahead of him.

Without the cooperation of these two groups, it would be impossible to succeed.

To Xiang Yu, the easiest method would be to kill someone to make everyone else fear him.

However, there were not any living targets like Song Yi for Xiang Yu to show off his might.

Just when Xiang Yu was deep in thought, Di Chen represented Yanhuang Alliance to step out.

Similar to Shanhai Alliance, famous generals filled the ranks of the current Yanhuang Alliance.

Amongst which was a person that had a deep relationship with Handan City, with the Zhao Country—the old general, Lianpo.

During the Battle of Huangjin, Lianpo had proved himself and earned the trust of Di Chen. The current him had become the most trusted general under Di Chen's charge, similar to Baiqi’s position in Shanhai City.

Similar to Baiqi, Lianpo felt conflicted about the Battle of Julu.

The Zhao Country from before had already disappeared and become specks of ash in history. The revived Zhao Country was just a small ripple in a wave and did not amount to much.

Even so, Lianpo felt really emotional.

Zhang Han had totally destroyed Handan, the capital of Zhao Country. It became a total wasteland.

Toward the Zhao Country, Lianpo still felt guilty.

The Battle of Changping was where everything went south for the Zhao Country.

Similarly, in the hearts of the citizens of the Zhao Country, Lianpo was a general deserving of respect.

Hence, with the coordination of Lianpo and Zhao Zhuang, the eighty thousand strong Zhao army smoothly joined Xiang Yu's camp.

Apart from that, Wuqi, who was under Xiong Ba, had a certain influence on both the Wei and Chu countries. Chun Shenjun's general, Tiandan, also had an influence on the Qi Country.

With the cooperation and help of the Yanhuang Alliance generals, all the attitudes of the princes changed. In the end, they decided to let Xiang Yu lead them.

After this matter, the position of Yanhuang Alliance in Xiang Yu's heart rose.

What followed next was how to fight this war.

The generals discussed and discussed; the only solution they came up with was attacking Jiyuan City.

A head on war laid before them.

The geographical location of Jiyuan City was simply too good, and they could only take the initiative to attack.

Most crucially, Julu City did not have enough grain. If they did not attack before the grain ran out, the consequences would be dire.

On the 5th day of the battle, the war between the two cities finally broke out.

At this point, where was Ouyang Shuo?

Before the battle even started, Ouyang Shuo had already turned his attention to Liu Bang, who was far away in Peng City. The current Liu Bang did not have any strong soldiers under him. However, the bunch of famous generals alongside him were great targets.

Apart from that, Liu Bang also held onto an item that Ouyang Shuo badly needed.

After Baiqi took over command, Ouyang Shuo followed the plan he had set out and sneakily left Jiyuan City.

Alongside him were the three thousand palace Guards, as well as Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang, with the five hundred elite each that Ouyang Shuo had told them to bring along.

The elite troops that the two brought were of a similar standard to the palace guards and only a little weaker.

This group was actually not really eye-catching and attention seeking. Apart from trying to travel unnoticed, they were also trying to travel quickly.

From Jiyuan City to Peng City, there were many Anti-Qin camps.

If they waltzed in, they would definitely be asking for trouble. Although most of their forces were gathered in Julu, there were still scattered troops along the way.

Needless to say, there were many bandits and raiders that rose up because of the chaos.

Although Ouyang Shuo did not fear anything, he did not want to fight all the way till he reached Peng City.

Time was of the essence.

Julu City had limited grain, so the war between the two sides would not be a war of attrition. Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to end the fighting before the war at the main battlefield ended.

Jiyuan City was around four hundred kilometers away from Peng City.

In his hands, he only had a compass and a rough and simple map of the area Zhang Han had passed him.

The personal guards that Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang had brought along were riding on high grade horses comparable to the Qingfu horses. If everything went smoothly and they rushed day and night, they would reach Peng City in three to four days.

When Di Chen and the others were still discussing and coordinating matters in Julu City, Ouyang Shuo was already a hundred kilometers out.

This morning, Ouyang Shuo was travelling ahead.

Suddenly, the vanguard, Wang Feng, rushed over.

"Lord, we’ve noticed an enemy army."

Ouyang Shuo froze. Finally, they had bumped into an enemy force.

"Who are they?"

"The enemy is really weird. They aren't raiders, but they aren't the rebellion army. They are really similar to us and are moving really carefully."

"Oh?"

Ouyang Shuo smirked. He turned around to look at Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang, as he smiled, "Guess we aren't the only smart people. Seems there are others who are interested in Liu Bang."

"En, everyone is like you, greedy with bad intentions."

Feng Qiuhuang laughed, teasing Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo was speechless. Why did he take all of the blame?

"How many enemies are there?"

"Three thousand!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded, it seems like it was a lord of a grade 3 county.

Not only were they ambitious, they seemed to have their own methods.

The moment the player force appeared and registered themselves, they could not move out of the camp at will. If there were not any restrictions, such a huge number of players would just engage in slaughter in the battle map.

The reason why Ouyang Shuo could come out was because Baiqi was the commander. The enemy must be an Anti-Qin Camp lord, who escaped the rules with a special method.

For them to get ahead of Ouyang Shuo’s group, it seems like they had set out a long time ago.

Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate and shouted, “Chase up to them and kill!"

"Yes, my lord!"

All of them whipped their horse and charged forward.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, looking toward the two ladies, “You two stay back. I'll go meet up with them!"

"Be careful!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded, spanking Qingdian.

After a few months of developing their relationship, Qingdian finally submitted to Ouyang Shuo. This was also the first time Ouyang Shuo had ridden it to battle.

Qingdian loved war and was really smart. He knew what was about to happen, so he could not help but neigh loudly.

Ouyang Shuo seemed to understand its meaning and laughed.

"Haha~"

Seeing Ouyang Shuo charge ahead, Feng Qiuhuang muttered," The man and the horse are the same. Both just like to fight."

When Bai Hua heard these words, she burst out laughing and nodded her head vigorously.

When Ouyang Shuo rendezvoused with the main force, they had already engaged the enemy under Wang Feng’s lead.

Seeing this, Ouyang Shuo retrieved his Tianmo Spear and jumped right in.

The old Ouyang Shuo could not compare to the current him. His combat strength was terrifying, especially after the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique broke through to the 8th layer.

A group of palace Guards automatically gathered around Ouyang Shuo to protect his safety.

Where his spear pointed, a head would definitely plop to the ground.

The Tianmo Spear had not tasted blood for a long time. At this moment, it gave out a ghostly aura. The killing stimulated the devil blood in Ouyang Shuo's body to a boil.

The killing aura of the Asura had started to spread.

The palace Guards around him could not help but feel a shiver down their spine.

Currently, they looked at Ouyang Shuo with even greater respect and worship.

"Ha!"

Ouyang Shuo was feeling great, as he let out shout after shout.

Influenced by Ouyang Shuo, the three thousand palace Guards were like drugged up men, fighting harder and harder. The enemy troops were losing badly, and they were on the verge of collapse.

Just at this moment, the enemy lord recognized Ouyang Shuo.

There was no way around it, the current Ouyang Shuo was just too eye-catching. He was like an Asura charging all around, and no one was his opponent.

"Lianzhou Lord!"

The lord was shocked. Unfortunately, he had no choice but to go all out.

He decided to take a gamble.

"Focus your fire and kill the Lianzhou Lord!"

"Yes!"

To be able to walk till this step, this lord was not ordinary. The three thousand men under him naturally weren't total scrubs. If not, he would not have been so confident in bringing three thousand troops to kill Liu Bang.

At this very moment, a general walked out besides the lord.

This general was his greatest trump card.

Who was he?

He was the general under Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms Period, Xu Huang.

"Give me your life!"

Xu Huang hollered, as he waved the axe in his hand and charging forward.

"Protect the lord!"

Wang Feng immediately shouted, dashing forward to welcome the battle.

Ouyang Shuo's eyes focussed; he could feel the blood in him boiling. The reason why his martial arts had not broken through was because he had not meet a comparable opponent.

When Luo Shixin and the others sparred with him, no matter what he told them, they would act a little careful and would not use all their strength.

Wasn't Xu Huang the best whetting stone?

The Asura from the last life was not a person that feared battles.

Ouyang Shuo took in a deep breath, "Wang Feng, back down."

When Wang Feng heard those words, his mouth gaped open.

As the General of the palace Guards, his duty was to protect the safety of the lord.

If the lord was hurt, let's not mention how the lord would punish him. Du Ruhui, Baiqi, Fan Zhongyan, and more would skin him.

The problem was that in the current situation, he did not dare to go against the orders. The position of the lord in his heart was simply too, too high.

Wang Feng had an anguished face, as he brought a squad of the most elite soldiers to form a circle to protect the lord.

The palace Guards looked toward the lord with awe and worship.

Ouyang Shuo smacked Qingdian, grasping the Tianmo Spear, as he charged toward Xu Huang.

Chapter 410- General Soul

"Dang!"

When the Tianmo Spear and the large axe met, sparks flew.

As they crossed swords, Ouyang Shuo felt a numbness in his hand.

After the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique broke through to the 8th level, he had already reached the power of three oxen. He had not expected it to be lacking in this situation.

One really could not underestimate the combat strength of a king rank general.

The two of them turned their horses around and charged at the same time.

During such a standoff, if both sides had similar strengths, it would result in a very long battle of attrition.

Unknowingly, the two of them had battled for thirty odd rounds.

The current Xu Huang was also really solemn. He had not expected a player to actually have such combat strength. Ouyang Shuo was more and more excited; even his mount was brimming with killing intent.

The soldiers of both sides had stopped fighting at this point and split into two sides, closely watching this battle.

Amidst the shouts, Xu Huang waved his cold axe, overflowing with killing intent, as he hacked forward. If one was stuck by this axe, they would definitely be cut into pieces.

Ouyang Shuo was not fazed, as he tilted to a side to dodge. The axe brushed past his skin, leaving a cold air on his body.

Making use of the gap in which Xu Huang was regaining energy, Ouyang Shuo stabbed the Tianmo Spear forward.

This unexpected move stunned Xu Huang. At that moment, he had not even withdrawn the axe in his hand. It looked like he could not block this spear.

However, Xu Huang had vast amounts of experience. In that split second, he leaned back for ninety degrees and barely dogged the spear.

At the same time, the axe in his right hand blocked directly in front of his body, nullifying Ouyang Shuo's spear. Not only that, using the momentum of the block, Xu Huang got back up.

With that, Xu Huang had broken Ouyang Shuo's exquisitely done move.

As the two went at it again, they tried to probe the weakness of one another.

Ouyang Shuo was not rushing to end it, as he savored the feeling of battle.

Seeing that he could not take down Ouyang Shuo, anxiousness flashed in his eyes. He knew that he needed to kill Ouyang Shuo to break this dangerous situation for his lord.

Thinking about this, a red glow flashed across his eyes.

The red glow became brighter and brighter before his eyes grew totally blood red.

Xu Huang had actually opened his bloodthirst talent; he had entered a berserk state, which increased his combat strength by two folds. The giant axe in his hand also emitted a red glow.

Xu Huang, who was on his war horse, seemed like an Asura.

The lord who was watching on felt delighted, and anticipation filled his eyes. Wang Feng, who was opposite, him felt astonished. At this moment, his heart was right up his throat.

Everyone knew that the climax of the face off had arrived.

Dai!

Xu Huang waved the axe in his hand and charged forward for the umpteenth time. Xu Huang’s aura had stimulated his mount, which also had eyes stained red.

Ouyang Shuo focused his vision and all his energy, his palms sweating.

This was the enemy’s strongest move.

Dang!

As the axe slashed across, Ouyang Shuo's hand jolted; he had nearly lost his grip on the Tianmo Axe.

Ouyang Shuo was stunned.

Xu Huang did not give Ouyang Shuo any chance to breathe. He was brimming with energy, and the axe in his hand struck down blow after blow, forming afterimages in the air.

Ouyang Shuo tried his best to calm down and block attack after attack. In the face of such a ferocious assault, he totally could not find any chance to fight back.

Ouyang Shuo's body was forced lower and lower.

"Ha!"

Xu Huang grasped onto this advantage, as he wielded the giant axe in his hands to the pinnacle of axework. It seemed like a foundation of energy filled his body, incessantly filling him up.

As the battle went on, the blood in Xu Huang's veins boiled. The red glow in his eyes looked like it was about to jump right out.

Ouyang Shuo was screaming out in agony; he could feel the huge power spreading from the spear to him. The huge impact of the axe made his arms numb, and even his organs felt like they were going to shift.

The more terrifying aspect was that red glow. It spread from the giant axe onto the Tianmo Spear, before swiftly proceeding toward Ouyang Shuo's body.

This could not continue on!

Ouyang Shuo immediately rotated the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique. The gold primordial energy flowed around his body, helping him stabilize his organs and veins, relieving him of the numb sensation.

The gold primordial energy also swallowed the red glow that had just entered his arm.

The Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique really was not simple.

Anxiety flashed across Xu Huang's face. His bloodthirst skill was similar to burning all the potential in his body; it could not last for long. Moreover, it would bring about serious consequences.

If things went badly, it might even affect his lifespan.

At this moment, the killing aura slowly influenced his brain, causing him to lose control. His only goal was to take down the enemy in front of him.

Seeing that his attack had failed, Xu Huang hollered once more, his body mutating once again.

Only to see a red glow shine out from his body. The current Xu Huang was bathed in red. It looked as if he was splashed with blood, really shocking.

Xu Huang had actually activated the highest tier of Bloodthirst. Even if he won this battle, he would lose many years of his lifespan. If he did not nurse himself properly, he would even become a vegetable.

Xu Huang was going all out!

Ouyang Shuo felt amazed when he saw that.

During this battle, Xu Huang's killing intent had started to draw out Ouyang Shuo's killing intent, making it thicker and thicker. The devil bloodline in his body had also started to slowly awaken.

At this point, Ouyang Shuo could use the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique to restrict the blood.

However he did not do so!

Ouyang Shuo kept silent and allowed the devil bloodline to awaken.

"Ao!"

Ouyang Shuo could feel the veins in his body release feelings of happiness.

The moment the powerful blood activated, it sent a shiver down Xu Huang's spine. If one mentioned Bloodthirst, the devil was the old ancestor of it.

Its bloodline was incredibly arrogant, so how could it allow such a low-level bloodline to challenge it? An almost tangible killing aura charged toward Xu Huang, shaking his body.

Seeing the situation, Xu Huang gritted his teeth and charged forward once more.

Ouyang Shuo was fearless; he grabbed his Tianmo Spear. The red and black glows intersected as they engaged in combat.

The battle was more and more intense and each move was a deadly one.

On the battlefield, many soldiers watched on with baited breath, as they locked their eyes onto the battle.

As time dragged on, it grew worse and worse for Xu Huang.

The Bloodthirst that he activated was too intense. His blood was not simply boiling anymore; it was burning. It was like all the veins and meridians in his body were being roasted, and he felt an intense, surging pain.

Pain and agony flashed across his face.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he felt more relaxed. He focused on defence to drag on the battle. His devil bloodline could last for half an hour, which was more than enough.

Seeing the enemy behave so crafty, Xu Huang grew more anxious.

Unfortunately, he already had no more strength, and the bloodline in him could not improve anymore.

Not only that, the effects of Bloodthirst was wearing off. The huge difference made his body shake, and he looked like he would fall off the war horse.

Seeing that the time was right, Ouyang Shuo took the initiative to attack. When the people at the side saw this scene, they roughly knew the outcome of this battle.

Xu Huang was about to lose.

The lord on the opposite side locked his eyes on the scene, he was unwilling!

Thinking about this, he sneakily took out his bow and shot an arrow out.

"Pew!"

An arrow shot toward Ouyang Shuo from afar and directly pierced his back.

"Si!"

Ouyang Shuo took in a cold breath.

"Despicable!"

When Wang Feng saw this action, he was infuriated.

"Kill them!"

Wang Feng ordered the soldiers to slaughter the enemy, while he rushed over to protect the lord.

Ouyang Shuo was similarly furious, and the killing intent in his eyes could not be concealed. He felt a poison seeping into his body and a weakness spread out from within his body.

Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to rotate his cultivation technique to prevent the poison’s invasion.

He was angered!

His killing intent spread out. His eyes were like Xu Huang's, instantly turning red. The Asura from the last life had returned.

"Ah!"

Ouyang Shuo was resilient, he blocked the poison and charged toward Xu Huang.

The Tianmo Spear seemed to sense the killing intent of its owner; it grew darker and more devilish. Even Qingdian neighed out.

One man, one spear, one horse, perfectly combined into one.

This was Ouyang Shuo's strongest attack; it contained his belief.

The Tianmo Spear was like the horns of a sheep, stabbing right into Xu Huang’s heart before he could react.

Originally, Ouyang Shuo wanted to recruit Xu Huang.

Now, he just wanted to kill.

"Argh!"

Xu Huang looked down, only to see the spear embedded in his chest. He spat out a mouthful of blood.

At this moment, the Tianmo Spear was like a devil. It crazily consumed Xu Huang’s blood essence, causing a crimson pattern to emerge on the spear.

Xu Huang visibly shrunk and whitened. In less than two minutes, the Tianmo Spear consumed him entirely.

Ouyang Shuo could feel a pure essence transfer from the spear into his body. This essence worked together with the golden primordial energy to stop the poison.

The poison was also not normal, as it still tried to eat into Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo pulled out his Tianmo Spear, causing Xu Huang to fall off the war horse and crash to the ground.

At this very moment, a system notification spread out from his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for killing king rank general Xu Huang. Your reputation will spread far and wide, awarded twenty thousand reputation points, two thousand merit points, congratulations!"

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, rewarded one General Soul."

A jade pendant appeared in his hand.

Upon close inspection, a soul floated inside the pendant, looking really mysterious.

Name: General Soul (Xu Huang- King Rank General)

Type: Special item

Function: Placing it into the Martial Temple can allow the revival of a king rank general.

Chapter 411- Special Poison

The appearance of a General Soul gave the generals in his territory a layer of insurance. At the later stages of the game, the lords would rather revive a general than accept one that surrendered.

An old General, be it in terms of loyalty or familiarity with the territory, was not someone a surrendered general could compare with.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, Tianmo Spear has absorbed enough blood essence, automatically transforming into a god weapon."

Surprises really came one after another.

Name: Tianmo Spear (God Weapon)

Hardness: 92

Sharpness: 80

Toughness: 85

Speciality: Blood Absorption (high chance to absorb blood essence of enemy to evolve)

Killing Technique: Devil Kill (Releases the killing aura of the devil, shocking and terrifying the enemy. It can even directly scare the enemy to death. The exact damage will depend on the courage of the opponent), Cooldown Time: one week.

Evaluation: Crafted from an extraterrestrial rock, nourished by the blood of the devil. It has mutated, becoming a god weapon. Recognizes its master by blood, cannot be traded, cannot be dropped, can be evolved.

The Tianmo Spear had finally grown into a god weapon, and all of its stats had experienced a huge upgrade. It even developed a killing technique. Seeing the introduction of the skill, it seemed like a mental attack skill.

A general would not normally have low courage.

Based on his interpretations of the skill, it seemed like normal generals would fall under the might of the skill.

What shocked Ouyang Shuo was that even after evolving to a god weapon, it could still evolve further. Above god weapon, there was the legendary grade known as saint weapon.

During the first five years in his last life, no saint weapon appeared in the world.

Who knows whether Ouyang Shuo will break this record.

Ouyang Shuo's current weapon, armor, and mount could be called very extravagant.

Thinking about his last life, his brother actually turned on him because of a platinum rank equipment, tossing aside years of friendship. Ouyang Shuo felt really emotional. Who knows if they would ever meet in this life?

In his last life, Ouyang Shuo and his three brothers had formed a mercenary group known as the Liangshan Mercenary Group.

Out of the four, Ouyang Shuo was the third oldest. The others were big brother Song Pu, second brother Yi Zhangqing, and fourth sister Zhang Ziyue.

Out of the four, Zhang Ziyue was pampered the most. She had developed a crush on Ouyang Shuo. However, it ended because he could not take hints.

The base of Liangshan Mercenary Group was Quanzhou. They could be said to have possessed a little fame in his last life.

Ouyang Shuo did not let the Quanzhou intel station specially investigate the Liangshan Mercenary Group.

He would leave everything up to fate.

If he really met them, Ouyang Shuo did not mind giving his big brother a little lesson.

If he did not, he would just count his big brother as lucky.

Although it could be said that without that betrayal, Ouyang Shuo would not experience this revival. However, Ouyang Shuo deeply remembered that feeling of being betrayed by the person you trusted the most.

After the battle ended, Ouyang Shuo's Bajiquan finally improved to the 5th stage, mastery through comprehension. Following which, he could genuinely start to try and combine the Bajiquan and Yang Family spear techniques.

The enemy sneak attacking the lord naturally angered off Wang Feng. He led the palace guards to decimate the enemy. Even so, he did not stop and chased all the way till he killed the enemy lord.

When Wang Feng returned, Ouyang Shuo was treating his wounds in the temporary tent.

The side effects of the devil bloodline, in addition to the corrosion of the poison, made Ouyang Shuo's face really pale. Wang Feng did not dare to disturb him and only waited anxiously outside the tent.

At this moment, Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang both rushed over.

All the troops had already heard the news that Ouyang Shuo was injured.

Feng Qiuhuang asked with concern, “Wuyi what happened, is it serious?" Don't look at how she often teases and mocks Ouyang Shuo. In truth, she cared about him a lot.

Even Bai Hua gave Feng Qiuhuang a weird expression.

Wang Feng did not dare to be slow and repeated the situation all over.

"This dumbass. He only know how to act courageous." Feng Qiuhuang took out a small porcelain bottle and said, “There's an antidote in here. Give it to Wuyi."

When Wang Feng heard this, he was delighted and reached out for the bottle.

However, Feng Qiuhuang thought about it briefly and decided to keep the bottle, confusing Wang Feng.

"Never mind. I'll feed him personally!"

As Feng Qiuhuang said that, she directly walked into the tent.

Bai Hua followed suit.

Wang Feng was instantly stunned Obviously, he would not stop these two girls.

As she walked into the tent, Ouyang Shuo was rotating his cultivation technique. The more worrying part was the green strand that slowly crawled around his face.

Needless to say, Ouyang Shuo's cultivation was not going as planned.

When the two girls reached the tent, Ouyang Shuo already knew that they had arrived. He sighed and slowly opened his eyes.

He did not expect the poison on the arrowhead to be so potent. The golden primordial energy actually could not suppress it. One strand of the poison could even consume the primordial energy and become stronger.

Such a special poison gave Ouyang Shuo a huge headache.

Moreover, due to the side effects of the devil awakening, he needed to use a large portion of the primordial energy to calm down the devil bloodline.

Who would have known that this poison was so amazing? It would use this chance to rile up and make waves in his body.

On first glance, it seemed like Ouyang Shuo could not hold on anymore.

If his internal cultivation technique was not strong and his body was not of high quality, he would have definitely died.

"Wuyi how are you?"

When the two girls saw the green line on his face, they were terrified. Their voices even shivered. Everyone knew that this was a sign that the poison was spreading.

"I was too careless!"

Ouyang Shuo bitterly smiled. He did not expect the enemy to be so despicable. He did not just shoot him, he also shoot a poisonous arrow.

"Who let you be arrogant. As a lord, you didn't command them. Instead, you lead them to fight. You asked for it." Feng Qiuhuang muttered as she took out the antidote.

"This is an antidote pill. Eat it please!"

Antidote: Can cure hundreds of poisons, has a special effect on special poisons.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, taking the pill and swallowing it.

Feng Qiuhuang passed a water canteen to Ouyang to let him drink some water.

The clean, refreshing water slid down his threat, making Ouyang Shuo feel really comfortable.

"How is it?"

Feng Qiuhuang was really concerned. She might have given up the pill easily, but it was really hard for her to obtain.

Ouyang Shuo rotated his cultivation technique, in his meridians, there was something to be happy and sad about.

The happy part was that the antidote was special; it forced the poison to one small corner. The worrying part was that the poison did not disappear.

Obviously, the poison was special too.

If Bianque was here, that would be great, Ouyang Shuo helplessly shook his head.

"Thank you!" Ouyang Shuo looked at Feng Qiuhuang and smiled, “The poison has been controlled. It won't be a problem in the short term."

"What about after that?"

"Don't worry! After the war, I'll look for God Physician Bianque."

"That's great."

During this whole process, Bai Hua remained a bystander.

The atmosphere in the tent suddenly turned quiet.

"Wang Feng!"

"Present!"

Wang Feng walked in guiltily, kneeling right onto the floor, “General has failed to protect you, please punish me."

Ouyang Shuo waved him off, “Stand up. I don't blame you."

"Please punish me, my lord!"

Wang Feng continued kneeling, his personality was as stubborn as a mule.

Ouyang Shuo looked at this palace guard general. He only spoke up after a while, “Since that's the case, you will be beaten twenty times by the rod. After your punishment, we will continue moving."

"Yes, my lord!"

Wang Feng immediately walked out of the tent.

"Wuyi, why don’t you rest? Can your body handle it?"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “Don't worry, it's fine. We don't have much time. if not, things might change. I suspect there are other lords rushing there too."

Feng Qiuhuang look right at Ouyang Shuo, not arguing anymore.

After half an hour, the troops continued on.

Wang Feng rode on his horse, his back dripping with blood.

The military rod was not as simple as a normal one. One hit would split your flesh.

Twenty hits were more than enough.

The palace guards that dished out the punishment did not dare to do it lightly.

Seeing his expression, he felt that he deserved it. Even after twenty hits, this iron-hearted man did not even make a sound.

It was obvious that without these hits, this palace guard general would feel guilt for life.

After the army set off, they still met with a flurry of problems.

On the way, as Ouyang Shuo expected, they met four to five waves of enemies. Apart from armies led by their lords, there were raiders and anti Qin troops.

The three thousand palace Guards and the one thousand elite troops of Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang could be said to have killed their way through to Peng City. The successive battles were enough to let the three earn a sizeable amount of contribution points.

At the current main battlefield, a war was breaking out.

Although Ouyang Shuo did not know what exactly was happening, from the increasing battle contribution points and experience, he could deduce some things.

The strong guards division and the heavy armored mountain barbarian infantry regiment were slaughtering enemies like they were nothing. They terrified the other player force troops.

It was because of this matter that Ouyang Shuo felt afraid of spending too much time on the road.

The more intense the battle, the closer it was to the end.

After two days of rest, the poison in his body was totally controlled, and the green lines on his face had disappeared.

The side effects of the devil bloodline awakening had disappeared. Now, Ouyang Shuo could make use of the primordial energy to control the poison. As time went on, Ouyang Shuo could even join in for fights.

As Ouyang Shuo's condition improved, the morale of the troops increased.

On the 9th day of the battle, the army had finally reached fifteen kilometers outside Su County.

At the same time, a mysterious army also arrived.

An unexpected battle was on the cards.

Chapter 412- The Mantis Stalks the Cicada

On the surface, Ouyang Shuo's target was Peng City, but in truth, it was the nearby Su County.

When Song Yi led the troops to save Zhao, West Conquering Army Commander Liu Bang was camping in Dang Prefecture.

Liu Bang sent out troops from the Dang Prefecture, going up north and clearing up the scattered troops of Chen Sheng and Xiang Liang. Then, he went down to attack the Qi Army, destroying Wang Li's forces.

The Wang Li forces around this area were just 150 thousand fringe members.

Following which, he led his troops through the west, where he met Peng Yue and Chang Yi.

The two of them joined hands to attack Chang Yi, but they failed. Liu Bang returned with his troops to Su County were he met the Gangwu Lord and took over his troops. As a result, he increased his numbers to over four thousand.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to face a county with around six thousand troops. Although they did not have high numbers, Liu Bang had a flurry of famous generals by his side.

Xiao He, Cao Can, Zhoubo, Fan Kuai, Luwan, Xia Houying….

A series of names, enough to make one dazzled.

Apart from that was Liu Bang's luck. In history, trials and tribulations filled Liu Bang's road to becoming a ruler, and he was pushed to the brink many times. However, he miraculously survived it all.

One had to say that he had really high luck.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo did not dare act careless. When the troops reached outside of Su County, Ouyang Shuo ordered them to set up camp. Following which, he sent out scouts to investigate the enemy.

In the afternoon, although he did not receive any intel on the county, he received some very surprising news.

The scout reported that east of the county, a player army hid in the forests seven kilometers from them.

This group arrived a little earlier than Shanhai City, and seem to have nefarious intentions on Su County. Ouyang Shuo was impressed. It seems like there were many talented lords; he really could not underestimate them.

Ouyang Shuo ordered solemnly, “Immediately investigate their background!"

"Yes, my lord!"

Before understanding anything about this neighbor, Ouyang Shuo did not dare to make any moves.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo summoned Wang Feng and ordered the troops to hide themselves. Within five kilometers of the camp, they needed to camouflage and cover their tracks. They could not let the enemy scout realize their presence.

At nightfall, the scouts submitted a more detailed intel report.

Who knew that the enemy was actually an ‘old friend’.

The enemy was actually Sha Pojun and his two allies, a total of eight thousand men. One had to say that Sha Pojun was really ambitious. He broke away from the Yanhuang Alliance at this time to hunt alone.

He probably received some advice from a genius.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo could become the mantis stalking its prey.

When night fell, the entire army seemed totally invisible. Since they used military grain pills, they did not need to start a fire to cook.

Only the scouts were out there paying close attention to the movements of Sha Pojun's troops.

Morning of the next day, Sha Pojun camp.

Sha Pojun was well dressed. He looked like he had slept really well; he seemed energized, as he walked out of the tent.

"Lord!"

A general guarded outside the tent and bowed upon seeing Sha Pojun.

This general was built like a cow, with a full beard on his face; his eyes looked like a copper bell. He was Hua Xiong, one of the famous generals during the Three Kingdoms Period, and the only famous general under Sha Pojun.

Hua Xiong was a general under Dong Zhuo during the ending years of East Han, becoming a governor for him.

191 BC, Guandong Army went up against Dong Zhuo, and the Changsha Prefecture Chief Sun Jian killed Hua Xiong.

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms wrote this period of history differently, saying Guan Yu killed Guan Yu; this story was termed as ‘warm wine behead Hua Xiong’ and was spread down to later generations.

Sha Pojun nodded his head, “All troops proceed, we must take down Su County.”

"Yes, my lord!"

The eight thousand strong elite army walked out of the forest they were hiding in and waltzed toward Su County.

Liu Bang's troops were housed in Su County, and they were monitoring the Battle of Julu. Before the Battle of Julu reached a certain outcome, Liu Zhang would not randomly take the risk to enter the west.

Who knew that not only would they not receive any battle reports, they would instead welcome a huge army.

Based on the settings of the battle, if players attacked the NPC in their same camp, not only would they not gain any battle contribution points, they would also receive punishment.

The most important line would be that they could not receive a single merit point. If their luck was bad, their own camp could even list them as a wanted person, and they would get hunted down.

Undoubtedly, this was a red line.

However, sometimes, some lords would step across this red line for huge gains.

Sha Pojun was one of them.

He gave up the sizeable battle contribution points in hopes of obtaining one or two famous generals. If they could capture and recruit all of the generals around Liu Bang, that would be for the best case scenario.

For this, Sha Pojun had been planning for such a long time.

He tried so hard and contacted many people before he managed to purchase an invaluable ‘Punishment Exemption Gold Medallion’.

After use, one could freely move in the battle map and would not be wanted or punished.

It was only with this gold medallion that Sha Pojun felt no fear. To ensure that he could take down Liu Bang, Sha Pojun had also contacted his two closest allies.

To prevent the others from trying to make their own schemes and plans, Sha Pojun naturally needed to skip past the Yanhuang Alliance.

Truthfully, the position of Sha Pojun in the Yanhuang Alliance was really awkward. Di Chen was obviously split off from him, while Chun Shenjun's attitude was not clear, making him feel totally out of place.

This treatment naturally filled Sha Pojun with hatred.

Especially after Di Chen deserted him during the Battle of Lianzhou. His hatred for Di Chen was even greater than the hate he felt for Ouyang Shuo.

Sha Pojun was not a magnanimous person. If he was, he would not have hated Ouyang Shuo so much.

Attacking Su County was Sha Pojun’s final roll of the dice, and it was also his crucial chess move.

If he succeeded, Sha Pojun could make a comeback. If he failed, not only would he lose the medallion, he would also lose a huge chance to earn merit points.

If he really failed, Shura County would be totally squeezed out of the top few territories in China.

Hence, Sha Pojun needed this battle to succeed.

Apart from using the medallion, Sha Pojun also fully equipped his eight thousand elite troops. Military grain pills, elite armor and weapons, more elite war horses, and the like.

Eight thousand elites represented Sha Pojun's ambition.

Hence, his forces were able to reach Su County even faster than Ouyang Shuo.

Two days allowed Sha Pojun to gain some intel about the inner city. However, he could not wait any longer.

He was more worried that other lords had the same plans, and they would snatch Su County from his hands.

At 10 AM, the forces reached outside Su County.

When Liu Bang heard the news, he was discussing matters in the town hall with Xiao He.

Facing the enemy attack, Liu Bang was shocked; Su County was not prepared to defend.

Based on Liu Bang's thinking, the troops around Su County were all uprising armies. It was fine if he did not bully others, who would have expected others to attack them?

"Is that Chang Yi's army?"

Liu Bang looked up at Fan Kuai, who came over to report.

"No it's a player army!"

"Player army?" Liu Bang frowned, “Why will they be here?"

"They have bad intentions!"

Xiao He also frowned. This morning, he had a bad feeling. As expected, something big happened.

"Hei, they really think that I, Liu Bang, am soft!"

The feeling of being underestimated was just too uncomfortable.

"How big are their forces?"

Fan Kuai took in a deep breath, “They have around seven to eight thousand men. Their numbers won’t exceed nine thousand."

Liu Bang scoffed, he pulled out the Chixiao sword by his waist. The sword shone with a red light, as he shouted, “Fan Kuai, gather the troops and follow me out of the city to welcome them."

"Yes!"

Fan Kuai was a person that loved to fight, so he directly ran out of the town hall.

"You can't!"

Xiao He immediately stopped them.

"En?"

"The enemy is attacking us. We have the advantage, so we should just defend."

Liu Bang shook his head, “They only have eight thousand men. What do we have to fear?"

During this period of time, resentment was building up in Liu Bang's heart. Especially when he learned that Xiang Yu killed Song Yi. Not only was Xiang Yu not punished, he even took over control.

The current Xiang Yu was probably doing really well in Julu.

What about him? Housed near Peng City, he was stuck in a totally useless state. Even to attack Chang Yi, he could not do so. With only six thousand soldiers, how could he fight with Xiang Yu?

Comparing the two, how could Liu Bang not feel anxious?

Who would have thought that even in such a case, someone would attack him.

Such underestimation was simply what Liu Bang could not bear.

When Xiao He saw that, he gave out a long sigh and did not stop him. He understood what Liu Bang meant. If he did not vent this anger, it would build up.

Who cares, it would just be a simple battle.

Most importantly, Xiao He did not think that the eight thousand men army could do anything to them. Although the standard of their troops were not fantastic, they still had many strong generals.

As they said, a soldier could handle one man, while a general could handle a group of them.

A General would provide a very obvious buff to the combat strength of an army.

Not to mention that Fan Kuai was the strongest general under Liu Bang's charge. In the early years, he was a dog slayer, and he saved Liu Bang during the Hongmen Feast.

Xia Houying was in charge of the horse stables in the early years. After Liu Bang gained power, he followed Liu Bang to fight all around; he was also a great general.

Cao Can worked as the Pei County prison warden, and he was an old friend of Xiao He. His descendants remembered the term of ‘Xiao setting the rules and Cao following’. He was great in martial arts and administrative matters, becoming the second minister of west Han.

Zhou Bo was born poor, but he loved martial arts and practiced on his own. After living in Pei County, he weaved reeds, worked on silkworms, and took the role of drummer during weddings or funerals to maintain his livelihood.

Similar to Cao Can, Zhao Bo was good at martial arts and administrative matters. He became a minister in the end.

In addition to Lu Wan, they formed an incredibly extravagant lineup.

Chapter 413- The Oriole Lurks Behind

Outside Su County.

Sha Pojun and his eight thousand elites were getting ready to attack the city gates. Who would have known that the city gates would suddenly swing open and let loose a huge army? They were the six thousand Liu Bang troops.

"Right on time!"

Sha Pojun was also a vicious character; he immediately ordered his troops to charge!

"Kill!"

The eight thousand elites were all elite cavalry. On the opposite side, half of Liu Bang's troops were cavalry, and the remaining were all infantry.

Hence, Sha Pojun felt very confident.

Liu Bang similarly unsheathed his Chixiao Sword and hollered, "Kill!"

"Kill!"

The two armies charged at one another outside the Su County walls.

This was destined to be a decisive battle.

The killing shouts spread out through the wilderness, shocking many birds and causing them to fly off.

The commoners in the city were already used to it. As people of a chaotic time, they were already numb to war.

Hua Xiong walked at the front, getting into a fight with Fan Kuai.

Both of them were strong generals. This battle that spanned passed time and space was a really interesting one.

Sha Pojun was also a born soldier; he chose Cao Can as his opponent. The generals under the other two lords chose Xia Houying and Lu Wan. The remaining Zhoubo guarded beside Liu Bang and helped him engage in slaughter in all four directions.

As for Xiao He, he naturally stayed put in the town hall.

The advantage of generals quickly displayed itself on the battlefield.

As the two sides went head to head, apart from Hua Xiang and Fan Kuai, who managed to hold their own, the rest of the men barely hung in there.

Although Sha Pojun’s sub-occupation was general, he could not compare to Ouyang Shuo. When he engage Can Cao, although he was not instantly defeated, he still struggled.

Xia Houying’s opponent was stuck in a particularly dangerous predicament.

Xia Houying was a strong general, and his opponent was only a basic general. How could he compare?

The more terrifying aspect was that the generals under Liu Bang had all activated their specialties. Under the buffs of all the specialties, their combat strength increased by a large grade. It was like they were injected with drugs.

Although Sha Pojun held the numerical advantage, they were unable to claim victory due to their generals being at a total disadvantage.

The battle entered a stalemate.

Just as both sides engaged, outside of the battlefield, a huge army slowly crept onward.

They were not anyone else, but Ouyang Shuo.

Before this had occurred, Ouyang Shuo was still worrying about how to use his four thousand men to take down the Su County. He did not expect the battlefield to experience such a huge change. He did not expect Liu Bang to actually act so rashly either.

If he knew that this would happen, why would he have waited?

In a blink of an eye, a new change occurred on the battlefield.

With a stab of his spear, Xia Houying directly sent his enemy off their horse.

Sha Pojun's forces had lost their first general.

When Lu Wan saw that, he did not back down, and in just five minutes, he similarly killed his opponent.

With that, the morale of Sha Pojun's army plummeted. Especially the five thousand men of the two ally armies. Since their main generals were slaughtered, they were instantly like headless chickens.

When Sha Pojun saw that, he ordered the two lords to personally go to battle, as he struggled to handle Cao Can. As the two lords respected Sha Pojun, they did not dare to reject his demand.

Thanks to this, the allied army barely hung on.

Even so, the morale of Liu Bang's forces soared.

Especially Xia Houying, Zhuo Bo, and the like. They could not find an opponent, so they slaughtered their way through the enemy forces.

If these troops were not Sha Pojun’s elites, they probably would have just collapse right there.

Similarly, Hua Xiong was paying close attention to the situation. In his battle with Fan Kuai, he already held a slight advantage. He knew that at such a time, he had to do something.

At this moment, Fan Kuai’s eyes were already red with bloodlust.

It was rare for him to meet an opponent who was around his standard, making him feel pumped.

When Hua Xiong saw that, he laughed coldly, turning his body slightly to the side to avoid Fan Kuai's killing move. At the same time, he cut down toward Fan Kuai's neck before the latter could react.

With such a huge blade, the outcome could be expected.

Fan Kuai's head flew up and dropped to the ground with a loud peng!

Fan Kuai had died in battle!

"Fan Kuai!"

Liu Bang, who was far away, exclaimed when he saw Fan Kuai fall.

The entire battlefield was stunned.

The morale of both sides immediately dropped by a grade.

One must know that Liu Bang had lost one of his core generals.

"Great!"

Sha Pojun was impressed. As expected from his general, he did not let him down.

"Kill!"

Sha Pojun avoided Cao Can and started to command the army to charge at the enemy. He knew that at this moment, facing off against the other generals held no meaning. They needed to kill the enemy army.

"Kill!"

Sha Pojun's forces used the momentum of the huge victory; their morale climbing up to the sky.

The rumbling noises of the horse hooves stunned the hearts of Liu Bang's army.

"General, let's back off!" suggested Cao Can when he saw the situation.

"No!" Liu Bang shook his head, he was not crazy, scolding, "I want to take revenge for Fan Kuai!"

Fan Kuai ah, he was Liu Bang’s loyal and reliable brother. They had scrapped through so many huge battles. Who would have expected him to die here? The current Liu Bang was far from the cold and ruthless man in history.

"Revenge!"

Zhou Bo, Xia Houying, Lu Wan, and the rest were all on the verge of tears. They had lost a brother who had been through thick and thin with them just like that. How could they feel good?

Cao Can sighed; he could only charge along with the troops.

This battle finally entered its climax.

The killing intent permeated the battlefield, making one feel a chill run down their spines.

No matter how hard they tried, Liu Bang's forces were forced back.

Sha Pojun’s elite army was unexpectedly amazing. If nothing went wrong, they would win this battle right here and now.

Thinking about that, a pleased smile appeared on Sha Pojun’s face.

Di Chen, Chun Shenjun, wait and see!

Sha Pojun did not know that Ouyang Shuo closely monitored this entire situation.

"Lord?"

Wang Feng came to Ouyang Shuo’s side, asking if it was time to strike.

Ouyang Shuo was focused on the battlefield, “Let's wait awhile longer."

The battle still had not resulted in heavy casualties.

Ouyang Shuo still did not have the confidence to handle both sides.

He did regret Fan Kuai’s death. However, Ouyang Shuo did not get hot headed. His goal was Xiao He and the Chixiao Sword. As for the other generals, they would not make a huge difference to Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it before he said, “Order a unit to move near the city gate."

He was worried that Liu Bang's troops would retreat back into the city.

"Yes, my lord!"

The slaughter far from them was still in play, and it was getting more and more intense. Liu Bang's troops were falling into an increasingly worse situation.

"Let's retreat, general!"

Cao Can came to Liu Bang's side once again.

When Liu Bang heard Cao Can’s words this time, he did not resolutely decline.

In the end, compared to the loyalty to his brothers, his end goal of ruling over everything was more important.

Liu Bang sighed before he said, “Retreat!"

"Not good, they want to escape, stop them!"

Why would Sha Pojun allow Liu Bang to leave? He did not want to face a siege battle.

Liu Bang's troops were mainly infantry. When fighting, both sides had intertwined with one another, so retreating was not easy. The more they tried, the greater the casualties.

All of a sudden, Liu Bang's army suffered a heavy loss.

At the same time, Sha Pojun ordered for a cavalry force to make a detour to block the city gate.

This time, Liu Bang had no way out.

"Your mother!"

Liu Bang was furious. He personally led his forces to crush the enemy in front of the gates.

Zhou Bo and Xia Houying, one left, one right, covering his sides, as they instantly killed a way out.

Just as he was about to heave a sigh of relief, a general blocked the gates.

It was Hua Xiong.

As people would say, when enemies meet, they would naturally be filled with killing intent.

Zhou Bo and Xia Houying did not say anything; they just charged forward.

Hua Xiong was amazing. In a one versus two scenario, he was temporarily not losing out.

Currently, Zhou Bo and Xia Houying were not as strong as they were at their peak of their history. On the other hand, Hua Xiong was summoned at his peak.

Comparing the two, there was naturally a gap.

In this battle, Hua Xiong was undoubtedly the key person.

The battle at the city gate grew more and more intense.

Although Liu Bang's forces had suffered heavy casualties, Sha Pojun's forces were not in a good shape themselves.

When the war just started, the eight thousand men army had already experienced huge losses. At this stage, Liu Bang's army fought like locked up animals, and their killing intent and combat power were shocking.

Only five thousand were left from the eight thousand strong army.

As for the six thousand strong Liu Bang army, they had already lost around half of their count.

The crucial matter was that the battle was still ongoing.

If it was someone else, there might be a chance of surrender.

However Liu Bang would not, he naturally would not surrender to a player.

Both sides went at one another, no one willing to rest.

What they now competed in was a battle of perseverance. Which army could hold on and not collapse in the face of heavy loses?

At the same time, Xiao He, who was in the town hall, could not sit still any longer when he heard the news. He gathered a five hundred strong men and rushed out to help Liu Bang.

Although five hundred was not a lot, it was still an injection of life.

At first glance, it seemed like Hua Xiang would fail to defend the city gate.

The pincer by Zhou Bo and Xia Houying was really deadly.

At the crucial moment, Sha Pojun led his troops over to assist.

This battle really had many ups and downs.

The small city gate became the main contention point of both sides.

Liu Bang had already lost all intentions of taking revenge. At this point, he just wanted to retreat into the city.

Naturally, Sha Pojun did not want all his efforts to be wasted, so he tried his best to prevent their escape. Even though his troops had suffered heavy loses, his goal did not waver once.

To him, even if he used up his entire army to exchange for Xiao He and a few others, it would still be more than worth it.

Hence, Sha Pojun was not afraid to make sacrifices.

If the situation continued to follow its current development, Sha Pojun's victory was imminent.

Now, Sha Pojun was afraid of soldiers accidentally injuring the generals of Liu Bang's army. Especially Xiao He, who was a huge treasure.

Fan Kuai’s death had already pained Sha Pojun.

Unfortunately, Sha Pojun's ambitions were destined to go to waste.

In the midst of the killing, another general in Liu Bang's camp died. He was another one of his good brothers—Lu Wan.

After he learned that Lu Wan had died, Liu Bang's eyes turned fully red. Fan Kuai and Lu Wan were his two closest brothers. He had not expected that both of them would actually die today.

Being provoked like this, Liu Bang could not keep cool anymore. At the same time, the Chixiao Sword in his hand emitted a bloodthirsty glow.

Chapter 414- End of Liu Bang

Liu Bang. Descendant of the Fire Emperor.

In the game, Gaia increased the significance of his heritage as the ‘Descendant of the Fire Emperor.’ It allowed Liu Bang to possess a true dragon aura.

When Liu Bang hollered, an illusionary red dragon rose up from his body and bared its claws and teeth. Although it was merely an illusion, it still emitted a terrifying aura.

This was the spirit of a true dragon.

The moment the dragon spirit appeared, all the war horses on the battlefield trembled and knelt onto the ground.

When Sha Pojun saw that, he could not help but feel stunned.

He had never expected the ordinary looking Liu Bang to actually posses such a skill.

"True dragon!"

When Liu Bang's army saw the dragon spirit around their leader, passion and fervour flashed from their eyes.

"He really is the Descendant of Fire Emperor!"

The ancient people held an undeniable respect toward dragons. They linked the appearance of a true dragon aura to being the Son of God.

Even Sha Pojun's soldiers were stunned, and respect filled their expressions. Huge courage was necessary to make them go up against a true dragon.

All of a sudden, the morale on the battlefield changed once again.

Liu Bang waved his treasure sword and heads tumbled to the ground. At this time, he even had thoughts on not returning to Su County and just wiping out all the enemies in front of him.

He had transformed into an Asura. The Descendant of the Fire Emperor, slayer of Bai She, had appeared on the earth once again.

"Hen, it’s all just fake."

Sha Pojun did not want to wait any longer, so he purposely downplayed the presence of the dragon spirit.

"All of you charge forward and kill Liu Bang. Whoever does so will be rewarded one thousand gold!"

Under the enticement of a heap of gold, some people would definitely grow courageous.

To normal soldiers, one thousand gold was riches that they could not earn in their entire lives.

Among the elite soldiers, which one of them was not a bloodthirsty and driven individual? They were not normal civilians, who would feel really terrified and be unwilling to fight upon seeing the true dragon.

The cavalry slapped their horses and charged at Liu Bang's army once more. Unfortunately, although the soldiers were not afraid, their horses were. Their steeds were not as fearless as before.

The charge of Sha Pojun's forces seemed less terrifying and menacing.

As the two troops intertwined in battle, they were actually of equal strength.

With the strength of Liu Bang alone, he had saved his army from the brink of destruction.

On the battlefield, he was like a god, killing everyone in his path.

Such ferocity and fearlessness made even Hua Xiong terrified.

The deafening shouts continued to last for over an hour.

Since the start till now, both sides were already red with killing intent. The aura of the true dragon had even provoked the ever calm Cao Can; his blood boiled.

On the battlefield, there was only one person who kept calm since the start.

He was Xiao He.

As Xiao He monitored the situation on the battlefield, his eyebrows were locked. Although Liu Bang's army were not being beaten, if this situation carried on, it would not be long till they suffered heavy losses.

Even if they could win, so what?

After this battle, will their army still have the ability to rule?

Without mentioning others, just Chang Yi's uprising army would be enough to destroy them.

Rash!

Xiao He sighed. Since the start, he had not supported the idea of fighting outside of the city.

As expected, it resulted in such an outcome.

He had to stop Liu Bang from continuing this fight. The smartest plan now was to back off into Su County and recuperate.

If not, everything would be lost.

"General!"

Xiao He smacked his horse and arrived by Liu Bang's side.

"En?"

When Liu Bang turned around to look at Xiao He, his blood red eyes did not contain a single tinge of emotion.

Cold!

When Xiao He saw that, he felt a shiver run down his spine, and he swallowed a deep breath.

"General, please retreat and leave a foundation for our army!"

When Liu Bang heard these words, a flash of fury appeared in his eyes.

When Xiao He saw that, he felt another shiver run down his spine. At this moment, Xiao He even thought that Liu Bang would draw his sword on him.

"Hen!"

Luckily, Liu Bang seemed to have maintained a shred of rationality. He did not even turn back; he simply waved his Chixiao Sword and cut down another head.

Liu Bang used his actions to reply Xiao He.

Xiao He gave a long sigh.

Is this it? Will their conquest end here?

No, he was not willing.

Thinking about it, since they formed their army, how much had they experienced to reach such a state.

The pain and suffering was not something others could understand.

Amongst the team, Xiao He was the most tired member.

Liu Bang was the commander and the spiritual leader. Zhou Bo and the other generals were only in charge of killing.

What about Xiao He?

He was the most important minister under Liu Bang, both a strategist and a diplomat, while also a logistical officer. All the administrative and logistical matters depended on him.

Even so, Xiao He did not complain.

He liked it and felt contented.

Not for other reasons, but only because he was resolute in his ambition of ruling, and he was confident in Liu Bang.

"Leader!"

Xiao He gave out a shout; his voice filled with sadness and despair.

However, he was helpless. Liu Bang did not care and continued on. The killing aura on his body grew stronger and stronger, and the illusionary red dragon seemed to gradually corporealize.

Sha Pojun's troops were so shocked that their morale dropped.

However big the reward, one needed to be alive to enjoy it.

All of a sudden, no one dared to approach Liu Bang. Even his own troops did not dare to get close to their commander.

Xiao He's actions, on the other hand, had woken up the other generals. Cao Can was stunned, and he raised his head to look at the battlefield.

"Xiao He!"

Cao Can and the other generals arrived at Xiao He's side.

Xiao He said solemnly, “We need to bring the leader back to Su County."

"Yes!"

When the three generals saw the current situation, they knew that they had reached a crucial moment.

However, as the killing intent built up, Liu Bang lost himself and only thought about killing. When Zhou Bo tried to approach, Liu Bang would lash out in attack.

"Leader!"

Zhou Bo gave out a sad roar, hoping to awaken Liu Bang.

Unfortunately, it was not to be.

At the current moment, Liu Bang was not famous yet, and the emperor aura within him was too weak to control the dragon spirit. After he activated the true dragon possession, the dragon spirit had taken control.

The emperor of a generation was destined to fall here.

Liu Bang had lost his senses.

The red dragon within him had started to turn evil, evident from its eyes.

When his army saw that, they were astonished.

Was this still the red dragon? Was this the Descendant of the Fire Emperor?

This was simply an evil dragon!

"Liu Bang has lost it. Soldiers, follow me to kill evil!"

Sha Pojun really grabbed the chance.

"Kill evil!"

When the fear a person had toward something reached its peak, one would not feel so fearful of it anymore. Sha Pojun and his troops had reached such a state.

"Protect the leader!"

Although Xiao He was dejected, he did not totally give up.

The huge battle had reached the final act.

The focal point of the battle was the red-eyed, cold, and expressionless Liu Bang. This battle had been fought since morning till now, and it was time that it ended.

Suddenly, the sound of horse hooves spread out from outside the battlefield.

So sudden!

Both sides were stunned. They thought that the enemy’s reinforcements had arrived. Undeniably, the side that had reinforcements would be able to claim victory.

Xiao He raised his head to see a player force; his heart was already in despair. Whether these people were reinforcements or not, it would not be a good thing for them.

How was Xiao He so sure that they were players?

It was actually quite simple.

Be it Sha Pojun's forces or the reinforcements, they both wore armor that did not belong to this era.

When Sha Pojun raised his head, he also had a face full of despair.

Amongst the rumbling horses, the flags of three lord fluttered in the air.

The flag in the middle section was especially eye-catching. Pretty much everyone in the China region recognized it—the famous Shanhai City Lord Flag.

"Qiyue Wuyi!"

Sha Pojun gritted his teeth. Words could not describe the sense of anger and failure he felt in his heart.

He could see victory in his sight, but it was being stolen from him. What kind of feeling was that?

It was the case of the mantis stalking its pray and unaware of the oriole behind it.

Ouyang Shuo did not bother about the emotions of the two other sides.

The four thousand strong army charged in formation, as they entered the battlefield. Be it Sha Pojun or Liu Bang's troops, they were within their killing range.

That was right, it was a massacre.

After a day of fighting, both sides were already exhausted to the max. Of Sha Pojun’s eight thousand elites, only four thousand men remained, while Liu Bang was only left with two thousand.

How could these two tired forces face the fully energized palace Guards?

Team up to go against them?

Do not kid me; the vengeance and animosity between the two ran too deep. Most importantly, Ouyang Shuo totally did not give them time to consider teaming up.

Four thousand troops charged out of the forest that they hid in; the whole process took less than twenty minutes.

Outside Su County, it was a total massacre.

The only weird part was Liu Bang. He had lost his sanity, so he still raised his blade and killed.

"Qiyue Wuyi!" Sha Pojun's eyes turned cold, and he said viciously, “if I can't get it, you won't either. To pick the rewards of my hard work, go dream on!"

His defeat was destined.

Since that was the case, then let us all lose together!

Sha Pojun smiled coldly and ordered his troops to surround Xiao He.

Why choose Xiao He?

This was because Xiao He was a civil servant. Basically, he did not have too much combat strength. As for Zhou Bo, Xia Houying, and the other generals, Sha Pojun did not have much confidence in taking them down.

Most importantly, Sha Pojun was not stupid, and he knew that the one that everyone drooled for in Liu Bang's army was Xiao He.

Liu Bang's army clearly did not expect that the enemy would act so crazy at such a time. They totally ignored the new enemy and just kept on attacking them.

The guards besides Xiao He were dying at a visible rate.

It looked like Xiao He was about to die on the spot.

"Protect him!"

Cao Can reacted and rushed across to assist.

Xiao He himself had a face of indifference.

Their road to being an overlord had ended, and his ambition had died. His lord had lost his senses, and he himself did not possess the ability to stop him. Since that was the case, why not just die together with his lord?

Xiao He gave a smile of despair. He did not even look Sha Pojun in the eye or even try to dodge.

"Hei!"

Sha Pojun gave a cold smile; he looked like he was going crazy.

"Go to hell!"

Sha Pojun waved his spear, as he stabbed toward Xiao He.

He would be the first to personally kill a god rank civil servant.

This trip, Sha Pojun's defeat was worth it.

Too worth!

Qiyue Wuyi?

Heh, go and cry!

Chapter 415- Suppressing the Dragon Spirit

Just when Sha Pojun was about to slay Xiao He, a sharp arrow pierced through the air.

Pew!

The sharp arrow accurately penetrate Sha Pojun's head. One shot and blood splattered.

"Uh!"

Sha Pojun stopped in his tracks, just as the spear was about to touch Xiao He, it dropped to the ground.

Dang, this sound signified the failure of Sha Pojun's mission.

In the last moments, Xiao He had escaped the depths of hell.

The one who saved him in the nick of time was Zhou Bo.

Amongst Liu Bang's generals, Zhou Bo was the most familiar with bows. Since he saw that it was too late to reach Xiao He, Zhou Bo decisively shot an arrow at Sha Pojun.

Sha Pojun transformed into a white light and disappeared. Along with him, Hua Xiong and his troops were all teleported out of the battle map.

Zhou Bo saving Xiao He also pushed Liu Bang's forces toward the end of their road. The moment Sha Pojun's forces disappeared, the remaining soldiers were not the opponents of the Shanhai Army and its allies.

In less than half an hour, the entire battlefield returned to normal.

The remaining soldiers either surrendered or were killed. Sha Pojun's two allies were similarly unable to escape their fates and were sent out of the battle map.

Although Sha Pojun had failed, he could not be called stupid in this case.

He was so close to succeeding.

At the last moment, if he killed Xiao He, he would have left Ouyang Shuo devastated. Similarly, Sha Pojun had gained something, Since his forces had killed Fan Kuai and Lu Wan, they had obtained two General Souls, which were similarly worth a lot.

After experiencing such a matter, Ouyang Shuo did not dare to be blindly confident.

He definitely could not underestimate anyone, especially people that were below him.

Seeing that things had ended like this, Cao Can, Zhou Bo, and Xia Houying could only surrender.

The only exception was Liu Bang.

The current Liu Bang had totally lost it and could not think straight. However, his current combat strength was terrifying, even Ouyang Shuo did not have the confidence of taking him down.

Luckily, Ouyang Shuo still had one killing move.

The killing aura on Liu Bang was like a real entity; the red dragon on his body became more and more evil.

There was no one within ten meters of him.

Ouyang Shuo held onto his Tianmo Spear and slowly entered the circle.

Outside of the encirclement of the army, a flash of anxiousness appeared on Feng Qiuhuang’s face.

The special poison in Ouyang Shuo's body was just temporarily suppressed, and it was not removed. Feng Qiuhuang was worried whether the current Ouyang Shuo could still fight.

Especially when facing such an opponent.

It had never crossed Ouyang Shuo's mind to go head-to-head against Liu Bang. He slowly walked toward Liu Bang, raising his head and staring at the red dragon.

The red dragon seemingly felt his gaze and turned to look at Ouyang Shuo.

Chi!

When it saw Ouyang Shuo, it grew even crazier.

Seeing the red dragon provoke him, Ouyang Shuo coldly smirked. He took out the Golden Qilin Seal. Instantly, a strong emperor aura charged toward the red dragon.

Aang!

When the red dragon saw the Golden Qilin Seal, a flash of fear appeared in its eyes.

The emperor aura was the weakness of all evil.

The specialty of the Golden Qilin Seal suppressed all evil.

Ward off Devils and Spirits: Incorruptible and wards off evil.

A golden light shot out from the seal and entered the red dragon.

Ao!

The red dragon could not even avoid the ray; it let out a painful cry.

The golden light exploded within the red dragon's body, and the evil power dissolved at a visible rate. The red color slowly disappeared, and the red dragon gradually regained normality.

It raised its head and looked at Liu Bang. It actually did not care and broke out of his body. It charged straight toward Ouyang Shuo.

It was as if the red dragon wanted to change its master.

It could feel the vast and overflowing emperor aura in Ouyang Shuo's body.

Luck and prosperity were normally used to nurture dragons.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he gave out a cold smile.

Ouyang Shuo did not want the red dragon.

Just as the red dragon was about to enter his body, Ouyang Shuo suddenly aimed the seal toward it. A huge suction force came out of the seal and sucked in the dragon spirit.

Ao!

The red dragon was stunned. The golden seal pulled the red dragon’s illusionary body part by part into itself. Then, the red dragon disappeared.

When the surrounding soldiers saw the situation, they were awed.

They had not expected Ouyang Shuo to suppress and tame such a special dragon spirit so easily. The more shocking part was that Ouyang Shuo was indifferent toward the true dragon possession that everyone wanted.

The palace guards had a face full of worship.

Ouyang Shuo did not bother about the uproar and looked at the golden seal, only to see a small red dragon swimming around inside.

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo nodded his head in glee.

To unseal the Golden Qilin Seal, he needed the essence of a Qilin. Hence, the dragon spirit would only have minimal effects on the seal. Ouyang Shuo had other plans for this spirit. For now, he just temporarily stored it in the seal.

Ouyang Shuo raised his head and looked at Liu Bang.

The moment the red dragon left his body, Liu Bang instantly looked tens of years older. His energy dropped by a large grade.

Xiao He raised his head to take a look and found that Liu Bang’s face seemed more obscure.

Totally different from his previous appearance.

Seeing that, Xiao He let out a long sigh.

After the red dragon left his body, Liu Bang gradually regained his consciousness, and the blood red color in his eyes disappeared. Although his mind was still a little blurry, he knew what had happened around him.

After he regained his senses, he was even more stunned.

"Liu Bang!"

Liu Bang turned his head and looked at Ouyang Shuo.

"You lost!"

When Liu Bang heard that, he laughed, looking at his army that was taken down he said, “I've failed, deal with me as you wish."

The current Liu Bang still possessed his arrogance.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, as his eyes turned to look at the Chixiao Sword in Liu Bang’s hand. At this time, he really did not have the face to personally take the sword.

Luckily, Wang Feng was alert.

He walked up and retrieved the blade.

"You can leave!"

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand and asked Liu Bang to leave.

"Hen!"

Liu Bang snatched a war horse. He did not even turn his head, as he left. As for Xiao He and the others, Liu Bang knew that there was nothing he could do.

Out of all his generals, Fan Kuai and Lu Wan were the most loyal to him. The others were basically friends with him because of the way he acted.

After such a fiasco, their thoughts had changed and wavered.

Was the current Liu Bang worth them following?

Probably!

However, Ouyang Shuo did not give them any time to think, as he wanted to recruit all four of them. He called Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang over.

"Out of the four, you can each choose one!"

Since the start, their two elite troops had contributed a lot. Without the thousand of them, it would be really risk to solely rely on the three thousand palace Guards.

Hence, Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang naturally had the rights to split the rewards.

"Anyone?"

"Anyone!"

Feng Qiuhuang teased, “Then I want Xiao He!"

"Er!" Ouyang Shuo's face froze.

"Ha, got you!"

Feng Qiuhuang shook her head in amusement. Bai Hua also rolled her eyes at Ouyang Shuo. The two of them were really smart. They knew that Ouyang Shuo came all the way because of Xiao He.

Naturally, they would not take it too far. They were already grateful that Ouyang Shuo brought them along, so they would not ask for too much.

Out of the four, Xiao He was obviously the top and worth ten of the others.

Apart from them, Cao Can and Zhou Bo were a little better than Xia Houying.

In the end, Bai Hua chose Cao Can and Feng Qiuhuang chose Zhou Bo.

Both of their strengths were comparable, and they were all rounded.

Comparatively, Cao Can was better as a civil servant, while Zhou Bo was better as a general.

Consonance City had Zhao Liao as its general, so they needed a good civil servant.

Consonance Studio used to run guilds, so they were lacking in terms of territory running skills. Cao Can was undoubtedly the most suitable for them.

Meanwhile, Fallen Phoenix City had Wang He. Although he was a great general, he lacked a little in quality. Hence, Zhou Bo was more suitable for Fallen Phoenix City.

In terms of running a territory, Feng Qiuhuang was better than Bai Hua.

Naturally, the remaining Xiao He and Xia Houying went to Ouyang Shuo.

As for what the four wanted?

They were all prisoners, so they did not have a say.

If they were not willing to work, they would still have to move over.

Once they returned to the main map, as long as they were not as stubborn as Jiangshang, it would be okay.

This was why Ouyang Shuo had allowed Liu Bang to leave.

He did not arrange for Wang Feng to kill Liu Bang to earn some additional battle points. With his current status, he should be more magnanimous when handling matters.

Looking back, killing King Zhou Wu during the Battle of Muye seemed a little petty.

If not, the matter with Jiangshang would not have ended in such a manner.

Packing up all the things, Ouyang Shuo ordered the troops to rush back to the Julu Battlefield. After leaving for so long, who knows how the battle had progressed.

With Xiang Yu's ability, he would not concede without a fight.

The current Julu was definitely in flames.

One to two million troops massacring one another. Solely thinking about it was enough to send a chill down one’s spine.

Comparatively, the battle outside of Su County was a small matter.

Thinking about that, Ouyang Shuo did not even think about walking into Su County. He just hurriedly left.

Hopefully, they would be able to make it back in time.

On the way back, Ouyang Shuo took a look at their stats.

Name: Xiao He (God Rank)

Title: One of the Top 10 Ministers in History

Dynasty: West Han

Identity: Shanhai City Official

Occupation: Civil Servant

Loyalty: 60

Command: 75

Force: 40

Intelligence: 85

Politics: 98

Specialty: Famous figure (raises honesty of territory by 40%, raises efficiency by 25%, raises civil servant standards by 15%, raises quality of territory administration by 30%)

Book: Jiu Zhang Lu

Evaluation: As an official, Xiao He did no wrong. He helped Liu Bang in his uprising, staying behind to defend the pass, making it a stronghold to transport resources to Liu Bang's army. He helped implement many rules and laws that helped to shape the country with great effect. Even after the death of Liu Bang, he continued his hard work.

Shanhai City finally had a proper minister. However, it was not easy to make Xiao He willingly work.

The most badly affected individual in this battle, apart from Liu Bang, was Xiao He.

Xiao He's loyalty points were only at 60, just passing.

Name: Xiahou Ying (King Rank)

Dynasty: West Han

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 65

Command: 68

Force: 80

Intelligence: 50

Politics: 35

Specialty: Chariot (Raises movement speed of troops by 20%), Taipu (raises animal husbandry by 10%)

Cultivation method: Nil

Equipment: Heavy Sword

Evaluation: In charge of chariots and horses, started off working in a county office. A good help to Emperor Liu Bang. He assisted Liu Bang in coming up with plans to take over the city.

Not only was Xiahou Ying famous, his descendants were famous too.

Ouyang Shuo could not check whether Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang really did not know about this period of history. He had no way of knowing if they were purposely acting dumb.

Chapter 416- Overlord Xiang Yu

Ouyang Shuo received the Chixiao Sword from Wang Feng.

Upon closer inspection, seven colored pearls decorated the Chixiao Sword, Jiuhua Jades. The blade emitted a chilly, eye-piercing light. The blade almost seemed like snow, and engraved on the sword body were two words—Chi Xiao.

It really was a treasure sword!

Name: Chixiao Sword (God Rank)

Hardness: 95

Sharpness: 85

Toughness: 88

Specialty: Blade Breaker (when the hardness of the opposing weapon is lower than the Chixiao Sword’s, chance to directly break it). Unique, cannot be dropped, cannot be traded.

Specialty: Way of the Emperor (raises prestige of lord by 30%, raises attraction of historical figures by 20%)

Evaluation: Chixiao Sword—a sword that reflects the Way of the Emperor, forged from iron, recorded in books as Chi Xiao, it is three feet in length. The weapon of ancestor Liu Bang, a crimson sword created during the uprising. The sword body copied the style of Qin Swords, with engraved patterns.

In contrast to Lin Jing and Song Jia's treasure swords, Chixiao Sword did not have a killing technique. Instead, it had a second specialty.

The Way of the Emperor was obviously great for lords.

In Ouyang Shuo's ear, a system notification sounded out.

"System notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, the Chixiao Sword is compatible with the specialty—Way of the Emperor, of the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique. Naturally giving birth to a third specialty—Might of the Emperor.

During Ouyang Shuo’s cultivation of the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique, it gave birth to the specialty Way of the Emperor when he broke through to the 6th layer.

Way of the Emperor: created by the three emperors and the five kings, raises interaction between heaven and man, giving birth to the Might of the Emperor.

With this, the Chixiao Sword had an unprecedented three specialties.

Might of the Emperor: raised morale by 30%, raised lord’s prestige by 20%, raises talent attraction rate by 10%.

That was too overpowered!

This god weapon actually had three specialties.

Although Ouyang Shuo did not know any sword techniques, just the possession of the sword buffed his entire being.

Apart from that, the red dragon spirit sealed inside the Golden Qilin Seal was something Ouyang Shuo prepared for the Chixiao Sword. If he infused the dragon spirit into the sword, who knows what change would occur.

With the Tianmo Spear as an example, a weapon spirit was slowly born. And after upgrading to a God Weapon, the weapon spirit would slowly awaken. However, it would still be very weak.

The dragon spirit was different. If one directly used it to replace a weapon spirit, the God Weapon would experience a huge rise. This also meant that it was not an impossible dream for the Chixiao Sword to become a saint weapon.

The only problem was that to infuse the dragon spirit into the sword, one needed a god craftsman.

Ouyang Shuo thought of one highly suitable fellow—Ou Zhizi. Who knows where this current master was

The journey back was comparatively peaceful.

After four days of rushing day and night, their army finally returned to the outskirts of the Julu Battlefield.

At the moment, it was already the 14th day of the battle.

Outside Jiyuan City, it was total chaos.

The enemy had totally broken through and destroyed the three defensive chains that Baiqi arranged.

Outside the city, corpses littered the ground and blood flowed like a river. Fresh blood dyed the entire land red.

Corpses filled up moat after moat.

Streams of black smoke rose up on the battlefield—the smoke from burning bodies.

Such a scene was like hell on earth.

Even Ouyang Shuo, who was already used to scenes of war, could not help but feel affected.

Ouyang Shuo could not imagine what exactly had happened here in just ten days.

He checked the battle contribution points leaderboard and was aghast.

His name was naturally high up on the leaderboard, as his Guards division possesed undeniable killing ability.

The part that shocked him was the battle contribution points of the others.

The 100th person on the leaderboard had already reached a terrifying 23 thousand points.

Are these people crazy?

Ouyang Shuo made a rough calculation. With everything tallied, close to four hundred thousand soldiers had died on the battlefield.

Four hundred thousand deaths, what kind of concept was that?

This meant that every day, there were forty thousand deaths.

This was too crazy!

For merit points, the lords went all in!

"Wuyi, how do we return to Jiyuan City?"

That's right, how do we return?

Outside the city had already become the anti-Qin forces’ territory.

The closely packed tents formed up line after line outside the city, spreading all the way till the horizon.

At this point, Ouyang Shuo did not even dare to stick his head out.

Their current position was a small hill outside the city, which allowed them to see the battlefield from afar.

"Difficult!"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head; he did not expect the war to be so intense.

Furthermore, he did not expect the anti-Qin Army to be so ferocious under Xiang Yu. They broke the three defensive chains in just ten days.

Overlord, as expected from an overlord.

Now, the best method was just to stay outside of the city until the battle ended.

If they tried to take the risk to enter the city and were caught, it would be catastrophic for the Qin Forces. The forty to fifty thousand Shanhai Alliance forces being teleported away would cause enough problems for them.

"Why don’t we sneak Attack Julu City?"

Feng Qiuhuang suggested.

"No use." Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “Julu is an empty city. Even if we take it down, it won't help anything. It would just reveal us."

"Why don’t we look for Zhang Liang? Saint strategist ah!"

A light shone from Feng Qiuhuang's eyes; she looked really needy.

Ouyang Shuo was speechless, “We don't even know where he is. How could we find him?"

The vast battle map was not a place for an army to randomly roam around.

If they did not pay attention, they might cause problems for themselves and be wiped out.

"Then how? We can't just wait here, right?"

Feng Qiuhuang felt a little dejected.

"It's good to wait." Bai Hua cut it, “To be able to recruit a king rank general, I'm happy already."

"That's true." Feng Qiuhuang grumbled, “But it's going to be the decisive battle soon. Not being able to personally join seems really regretful.”

When Ouyang Shuo heard her words, he speechlessly shook his head.

He also wanted to return to Jiyuan City. In fact, he needed to return.

In the city, Zhang Han was waiting for him to recruit. If he did not return, there were no guarantees that Zhang Han would follow Baiqi back.

But as a lord, Ouyang Shuo could not take the risk.

He could not risk the entire camp for his personal benefit.

"Let's just wait! Tonight at the latest, we will receive the battle report."

When Bai Hua heard his words, she looked at Ouyang Shuo and nodded. She knew that Shanhai City had a mysterious communication method.

Since the system hotfix, channel communications were prohibited. If not, Ouyang Shuo would not need to use the Feng Birds.

Jiyuan City, Lord’s Manor.

"Commander-in-chief, the lord has sent a letter!"

Huwei General Lin Yi walked in, a document the Military Intelligence Division decrypted in his hands.

Lin Yin did not have the authority to read the lord’s secret letter.

When Baiqi heard the news, he solemnly accepted the letter and opened it.

After a short pause, he let out a rarely-seen smile. He looked toward Lin Yi and said, "The Lord obtained it. He's camping outside the city right now."

"That's great!" Lin Yi was delighted, “General, why don’t I head out to welcome the lord?"

"No!" Baiqi shook his head, “That's too risky. The lord doesn't want to enter temporarily; this battle will rely on us."

Lin Yi nodded his head seriously in response.

Since the start of the battle till now, the Qin Camp had not managed to gain an absolute advantage.

In the siege defence, the anti-Qin camp lost 250 thousand men, while the Qin Dynasty Camp lost 150 to 160 thousand men. Even the Guards regiment lost six to seven hundred men.

The explosiveness of Xiang Yu was too terrifying.

Xiang Yu broke through all three defensive chains, with his Jiangdong Warriors as the vanguard. Under the motivation of Xiang Yu, those warriors could each take on ten enemies.

The soldiers of normal players were like paper in front of them.

Even the Guards division and the heavy armoured mountain barbarian regiment were inferior. Probably only the palace Guards could go head-to-head against them.

Baiqi glanced at Lin Yi with a weird expression.

Since the start of the battle, this general—Lin Yi—was full of confidence. He acted like he had the strongest army on the planet. He did not expect to be disadvantaged against the Jiangdong warriors.

Luckily, after experiencing the setback, he understood that there were always people better.

It was also time for the Guards division to wake up.

During the Battle of Leizhou, Lin Yi's confidence had ballooned too quickly.

Such matters were also a common problem amongst young generals.

Comparatively, Luo Shixin was more stable.

What about Lin Yi? As the flag bearer of the local grown generals, he had been in the army for one and a half years.

Such quick promotion definitely brought with it side effects.

The lord had noticed this.

On the eve of the battle, Ouyang Shuo had personally talked to Baiqi about it.

Not only was Baiqi good at war, he had also taught a bunch of great generals. During the Qin County period he nurtured Wang He, Wang Lin, Meng Ao, and more.

Baiqi had high hopes for Lin Yi.

Although he was young and ambitions, he was of high quality and could be molded.

Thinking about this, Baiqi really had to give it to Ouyang Shuo. Amongst all the local generals, in Baqi’s eyes, only Lin Yi and Zhao Sihu could become great generals.

Even the palace Guards general Wang Feng was lacking in leadership.

Evidently, the lord could see that, so he took Wang Feng out from the Guards division and made him the General of the palace Guards. This positioned required less leadership and commanding skills.

If not, asking Wang Feng to command the Guards division would be too tough a task.

As for the other locally grown generals, only Zhaoyan and Hu Yibiao had a little potential. Li Mingliang was also a great seed. Sadly, he passed early.

The others like Zhang Daniu, Zhou Feng, they all could not make it.

With that, one could see how hard it was to train and develop a general. Even with such great conditions in Shanhai City, they could only develop two worthy generals.

As for how to fight this decisive battle, Baiqi had already arranged and planned a strategy from the start.

Chapter 417- Han Xin's Plan

"General, what's the next step?"

Although Baiqi heard these words, he did not respond. He just sat behind his desk and wrote his battle report for the lord. At the same time, Baiqi included his plans for the next part of the battle.

"Men!"

"Present!" An iron eagle swordsman walked into the room.

"Send this letter to the lord!"

"Yes, general!"

The iron eagle swordsman took the letter and swiftly backed away.

After replying to the letter, Baiqi turned around to look at Lin Yi, "We will defend the city and not go out. No matter how he provokes us, remember, don't go out."

"Understood!"

Lin Yi nodded his head in response.

All the Shanhai City generals respected and listened to commander-in-chief Baiqi.

Talking about a face off, one had to mention the overlord, Xiang Yu.

After successively breaking through the three defensive lines, Xiang Yu led his troops to the east gate of Jiyuan City.

Xiang Yu was not only good in battle but also a great strategist. He knew that even though over ten days of battle had passed, the Qin Dynasty Army had not suffered much losses. Their main force remained in the city.

Facing a fortified place defended by a million soldiers, Xiang Yu did not have the confidence to take it down.

No matter how arrogant he was, he would not act so stupid.

Luckily, Xiang Yu had his own ways of doing things.

He charged ahead with his horse, spreading the word under the east gate. He wanted to fight one against four. No matter which four generals the Qin Dynasty sent out, he would fight them all.

Such provocation instantly sent the Qin Dynasty Camp into an uproar.

Er'Lai was furious and wanted to head out.

Luckily, Baiqi managed to stop him in time.

Xiang Yu’s courage was unmatchable.

However, for him to say that he would take on four generals alone was still really preposterous. He definitely did not know that amongst the players, there were so many strong generals. Er'Lai, Zhang Liao, Qinqiong, Wang He….

Apart from that, the other lords also had many fierce generals.

If Baiqi had not made matters clear, a face off would have been imminent.

Baiqi definitely would not be baited.

To face off against Xiang Yu would be bad whether they won or lost.

If they lost, they would lose a general; if they won, the enemy would surrounded and kill them.

Needless to say, it was hard to win against Xiang Yu and even harder to kill him.

If they could not kill him, it would all be rendered useless.

Furthermore, Baiqi hated such one-on-one battles to the core.

As a military god, the battlefield to Baiqi was between big armies.

Childish!

Long before Xiang Yu attacked the defence chains, Baiqi had arranged for Wang Li's forces to go along the Taihang route and enter the Henei Prefecture.

From there, they would head north to enter Anyang City.

It was mentioned that Jiyuan City occupied a very special position, the bottom of the pocket. Anyang City was the opening of that very pocket.

Every line of defence the Anti-Qin Army broke through, they would venture further into the pocket. When they broke through all three, they had totally entered the valley.

Just as Ouyang Shuo had guessed, the current Julu was an empty city.

The moment Wang Li's army reached Anyang City, he could coordinate with Jiyuan City to collapse onto the Anti-Qin Army.

Baiqi's arrangements were really simple.

His three defensive lines were defence constructs, but they also acted as bait.

The reason he was so confident that the Anti-Qin Army would fall for it was because he understood Xiang Yu’s personality, and the core problem he faced—grain.

In terms of battle prowess, Baiqi naturally could not beat Xiang Yu. But in terms of strategy, Xiang Yu could not catch up even if he tried.

It was not that no one sensed the trap that Baiqi set. Unfortunately, Xiang Yu would not listen.

The person that noticed something was the grain general, Han Xin.

Han Xin was really smart. When he observed the surrounding land area, he started to suspect that something was up. When the Qin Dynasty Army kept backing off, as they advanced, he grew more and more suspicious.

Han Xin went to look for Xiang Yu to discuss his suspicions, but he only received mocking and indifference.

In Xiang Yu's eyes, he had taken down the defence with his own strength. How could it be a trap? One could tell how much disdain he felt when Han Xin brought up such an idea.

When Han Xin walked out of the tent, he gave out a long sigh.

"Mister, why are you sighing?"

At this moment, a young man slowly walked over.

"Your are?"

They were currently outside Xiang Yu's tent; this was not a place that normal people could enter. Although Han Xin was not treated with importance, he knew all the generals under Xiang Yu. A person like this did not exist.

The young man smiled and bowed, “Player representative Di Chen greets mister!"

"Player representative?"

Han Xin eyes tightened.

"That's right."

Han Xin nodded. He did not saying anything and just wanted to leave. Han Xin had not come into contact with the players before, and he did not want to talk much.

However, Di Chen would not give up.

One must know that Di Chen had waited a week before he managed to meet Han Xin.

The lords in the Anti-Qin Camp had all done their homework. They knew that under Xiang Yu, there was a God General that could match up to Baiqi.

Unfortunately, his position in the army was low and no one recognized him.

Only Di Chen could use his position to look for Han Xin in the camp.

Even so, he did not obtain any rewards so far.

In the end, Di Chen decided to just camp there and wait.

The heavens would not forsake hard-working men.

Finally, Di Chen managed to meet Han xin.

"I've prepared some simple wine. Please, give me some face."

"I don't drink."

Han Xin shook his head and rejected Di Chen once more.

"Mister!" Di Chen bowed, "Please, sir. Give me some face!"

Since he was so sincere, Han Xin could not reject, so he could only nod his head.

Di Chen was delighted to see this response.

Sometimes, if your face was thick enough, it would be of great use.

"Mister, please!"

Di Chen was well-versed in olden culture and led the way.

Han Xin followed swiftly behind. In the camp, there were people that recognized him. When they saw Di Chen treat him so respectfully, their gazes turned weird.

Han Xin did not mind all of this.

When the two of them entered the tent, as expected, there were wine and dishes prepared.

Currently, Han Xin was frustrated, so when he saw the good wine, he gulped it down immediately.

Di Chen did not say anything; he just accompanied Han Xin to drink.

As they toasted to each other, they slowly grew familiar with one another.

Since he saw that the time was right, Di Chen asked, “Mister is a genius, so why just you be a grain general?"

"Haiz!"

Han Xin sighed; a look of loneliness appeared on his face.

"Unfortunately, I didn't meet an intelligent master!"

"If you don't mind, you can join me."

"You?"

Han Xin scanned Di Chen with his eyes, as he expressed his doubt.

Di Chen did not mind and introduced the situation in the main map, "if you want, I am willing to grant you the role of commander-in-chief."

These words tempted Han Xin.

"Although there are only tens of thousands of troops under me right now, as time passes, I will have hundreds of thousands and even millions of troops. It will just be a matter of time. All of them will be under you, general."

Di Chen promised Han Xin once again. He even changed the way he referred to Han Xin to general.

Han Xin judged Di Chen once more, still unable to make a decision.

Di Chen bitterly smiled. It was really not simple to convince a God Rank general.

"Toward tomorrow's battle, what thoughts does general have?"

Di Chen knew that such matters could not be rushed, so he changed the topic.

"We will definitely lose!"

Han Xin was very confident about this prediction.

"Oh?"

Di Chen was astonished; he did not expect his casual question to receive such a reply. In his eyes, his army would win. How could they lose?

But who was the guy in front of him? He was Han Xin.

Di Chen had to believe him.

"General, please teach me!"

Di Chen bowed once more.

Di Chen’s response pleased Han Xin, who nodded his head. Then, he spoke out his views.

When Di Chen heard Han Xin’s analysis, he felt a cold sweat run down his spine.

Thinking about Baiqi's use of strategy during the Battle of Leizhou, Di Chen could not doubt Ha Xin’s conjetures.

"This can't do. I need to convince general Xiang."

As Di Chen spoke, he was about to stand up and proceed to Xiang Yu's tent.

Han Xin sat there, unmoving, "It's no use."

"Oh?"

"General Xiang is too arrogant. How would he listen to you?"

After he drank the wine, Han Xin's words started to grow more fearless and lacking in respect.

When Di Chen heard these words and thought about Xiang Yu's character, he bitterly smile.

That was right!

Although the Yanhuang Alliance helped Xiang Yu gain leadership and control, in this matter, Di Chen had no confidence in changing his mind.

"Do we really have to watch our troops lose like this?"

Di Chen was anxious.

Half of it was true, and the other half was done for Han Xin to see.

To this response, Han Xin judged Di Chen for the third time. Suddenly, a flash of light appeared in his eye, as he said slowly, “There's still a way."

"General, please teach me!"

Di Chen was unsure how many times he had bowed to Han Xin.

Whatever, it was all just for show.

Di Chen was determined to use his sincerity to persuade Han Xin.

Han Xin did not bother about whether Di Chen’s words were real or fake. He just said, "If we use a huge army to attack Anyang City, we will break their plan."

These words caused Di Chen’s expression to turn unstable and ruffled.

He naturally understood the meaning.

He needed to take the risk of Xiang Yu’s punishment and disobey orders to attack Anyang City.

If matters did not go well, Di Chen would fail to gain anything from this Battle of Julu.

Di Chen took a glance at Han Xin and was shocked.

This was a test for him.

If he did not even have such determination, how could he deserve Han Xin’s loyalty?

To hell with it!

As long as he could persuade Han Xin, everything was worth it.

Di Chen made the decision.

"Ok, I'll listen to general's arrangements."

When Han Xin heard that, he nodded.

As they were secretly moving their troops, naturally, they could not use too many. However, as they needed to defend Anyang, the numbers could not be too small either. At last, they decided to move thirty thousand troops to attack.

Apart from Di Chen's forces, he persuaded six to six other allies.

As for the other Yanhuang Alliance members, Di Chen did not hold any hope, as they would not take the risk along with him.

Di Chen would take all the benefits, but they would have to share the risk?

Even Zhan Lang would not agree.

Luckily, Di Chen's influence amongst the lords were huge. Amongst the Anti-Qin Camp lords, he had a huge bunch of followers.

Just like that, by night of the same day, Di Chen had arranged everything.

The next morning, he would lead his troops and leave for Anyang City.

The same night, Ouyang Shuo received Baiqi's letter. After Ouyang Shuo learned of Baiqi’s plan, he decided to move to Anyang City to gather up with Wang Li's troops.

The current Anyang was an empty city. Apart from hundreds of civilians, there was nothing else.

After entering, the palace Guards smoothly took over the defence work.

Ouyang Shuo did not know that an unexpected battle awaited him. Moreover, the current Wang Li troops were a day away from Anyang City.

Chapter 418- Wang Li Deserves to Be Executed

Night, Anyang City.

After settling in Anyang City, Ouyang Shuo and his men entered the Lord's Manor.

The officials in Anyang City had escaped a lot earlier.

The current Lord’s Manor was empty, with various items and furniture thrown all over the place.

Seeing that, Wang Feng arranged a small squadron to help arrange and organize the manor. Luckily, Ouyang Shuo was not a person that cared much about such stuff, so after a simple clean up, he started to deal with matters.

As for the rooms, Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang were in charge of them.

Their storage bags contained a full set of sleepwear and items, so there was no need to worry.

In this aspect, Gaia was still humane. Although it said that storage bags could not be used during war time, there were still some exceptions. If not, the players would definitely cause a racket.

Facing such an elite army, none of the aristocratic families, merchants, or civilians in Anyang City dared to do anything. They were all like a bunch of sheep waiting for slaughter.

However, Ouyang Shuo still went out to receive all the representatives of the merchants and aristocratic families. Considering Baiqi's strategy, Ouyang Shuo naturally needed to have Anyang City under his control.

The first thing was to make all the civilians feel at ease.

There were many people around that were anti Qin. Anyang was also located within Zhao Country, so there were numerous people unhappy with the Qin Dynasty.

Since Zhang Han had raised all the grain in the city, only a tenth of the people remained.

Those that stayed were either aristocratic families or merchants.

Zhang Han gave these people a chance. He also knew that to provide for this entire war, he could not push the aristocratic families and the merchants to the edge. If not, it might backfire on them.

Ouyang Shuo took a firm stance. He directly used his identity as the Qin Dynasty Camp player representative to state his views: whoever dared to help the uprising army spread information would have their entire family wiped out.

His terrifying threat left the various families and merchants in fear.

As this was a battle map, Ouyang Shuo did not need to do things like bribe them for their loyalty. He just directly announced that from tonight, Anyang City would enter a full lockdown under military control.

The various Guards of the aristocratic families needed to gather up. They were placed under the control of the palace Guards.

Ouyang Shuo definitely would not allow an armed force to run wild under his charge.

The various Chamber of Commerces needed to gather up all their resources for the army to use. However, Zhang Han had swept the area around Julu, and the uprising army had subsequently followed suit. As a result, there was not much grain left.

Ouyang Shuo only had a small amount of military grain pills left. Naturally, he needed grain to replace it.

Not only did Ouyang Shuo lack grain, so did the Anti-Qin Army.

To ensure the grain supply, Xiang Yu had arranged Fan Zeng to personally head to Peng City to obtain grain.

The transport team was different from the palace Guards, who could reach Julu in four to five days. A safe guess would be that they would need another four days before the first batch of supplies could arrive.

At night, Ouyang Shuo could finally get some much needed rest.

Although Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang were not great at fighting wars, they were good at logistics, helping out Ouyang Shuo a lot. If not, things would not have been so smooth for him.

The next morning, Anyang City started bustling again.

The palace Guards mobilized the civilians to fix the walls and gather the city wall protection items. The palace guards protected the various city gates and did not allow anyone to leave.

As this was really important, Ouyang Shuo had to be careful.

He only hoped that nothing serious would happen before Wang Li's troops arrived. The originally unassuming Anyang City was destined to be the deciding factor of this war.

Last night, Ouyang Shuo had already sent a small unit to receive Wang Li's forces.

The Feng Birds also followed them.

The reason Ouyang Shuo initiated such a plan was to ensure that both forces kept in contact, just in case.

Who would have guessed that his plan would really come into use.

At the same time, Anti-Qin Camp.

The thirty thousand troops sneakily gathered. Then, they left the camp under Lianpo’s lead.

The players camp and the Anti-Qin Army camp were situated separately. In this name, Di Chen was in charge, so he used this loophole to lead his troops out.

Even so, when Xiang Yu hears the news, Di Chen could not escape the punishment.

Di Chen was highly confident in their attack on Anyang City.

It was just an empty city.

The hard part would be to defend it and block off the Qin Dynasty troops.

Although Han Xin saw through Baiqi's plan, he was unable to answer the questions of how many troops would be there or when they would arrive.

Hence, Di Chen invited Han Xin to follow them.

Who would have expected Han Xin to shake his head and reject the offer?

They only had thirty thousand troops. Moreover, they already had Lianpo leading them, so Han Xin was not interested in butting in.

Furthermore, he was the grain general of Xiang Yu's army. If they found out he left his post, he would be severely punished on the basis of military law.

Seeing this, Di Chen shook his head regretfully.

His invitation hid complex meaning.

Firstly, with Han Xin along, their chances of winning would increase.

Secondly, there was Di Chen’s personal goal. He wanted to make Han Xin go against the law and make him unable to stay in Xiang Yu's camp.

If one talked about tricks, this aristocratic heir was really adept.

Unfortunately, Han Xin did not fall for it.

Helplessly, Di Chen could only lead his troops and head for Anyang City. The Anti-Qin Army base was only half a day away from Anyang City.

Around noon, they reached the outskirts of the city.

Di Chen sat on his war horse and looked at Anyang City from afar. Their victory or defeat in the Battle of Julu would depend on this play.

Just at this moment, the vanguard came to report.

"Report!"

"Speak!"

"Lord, there are troops housed inside, and it isn't an empty city."

"What?"

Di Chen was shocked, did he come too late?

Lianpo, on the other hand, was more calm and asked, "How many men are there? Which force?"

"General, there are no flags on the walls, so we don't know which army. From afar, there are only civilians fixing the wall, and there aren't many soldiers."

Lianpo’s eyes brightened when he heard this; he turned to Di Chen, “Lord, it’s definitely the vanguard force of the Qin Army that has just arrived. As long as we take it down before their main force arrives, everything will go as planned."

Originally, Lianpo did not believe Han Xin's deduction. But the appearance of the Qin Army vanguard proved it right.

Lianpo started to respect Han Xin.

"That's right!"

Di Chen nodded his head vigorously, “There's no need to wait. Go all out and take them down!"

"Yes, my lord!"

The thirty thousand troops increased their speed toward Anyang City.

The huge army naturally could not escape the eyes of the palace Guards.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he was astonished.

"How many enemies are there?"

"No less than thirty thousand, with infantry as their core. It looks like a player army."

"Not good!"

After experiencing a few tough battles, of the three thousand palace guards and the one thousand elites from Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang, only 3,500 were left. Even after adding in the Guards that they had recruited, they only had five thousand men.

With this five thousand, how were they going to handle thirty thousand?

No matter how Ouyang Shuo thought about it, he could not guess why the enemy would suddenly lay their eyes on Anyang City. After all, just a week ago, Anyang City was empty, and they did not move in.

Remarkably, the second day that he moved in, a player army would attack.

Such a coincidence made Ouyang Shuo feel doubt.

Was there a mole?

No!

Only Ouyang Shuo, Bai Hua, and Feng Qiuhuang knew about it, so there was no such possibility.

Or was there someone within the city that had tipped them off?

Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo's eyes turned cold, sending a chill down the spines of everyone present.

Ouyang Shuo tossed aside his thoughts; this was not the time.

"Have we managed to contact Wang Li's troops?"

"We did. Based on his reply, as they needed to search for grain in Henei, they will be two days late. The vanguard force will most likely reach here by tomorrow afternoon."

"Tomorrow afternoon?"

A tinge of fury flashed across his face.

Preposterous, not sticking to orders.

Yesterday, in Baiqi's letter, it was already said that Wang Li would reach the city this afternoon at the latest. Who knew that he would be late by a full day.

One day was enough to change the entire landscape of the battlefield.

Baiqi's plan was incredibly precise, and he had also calculated that if Xiang Yu's army failed to take down Jiyuan City, they would notice Anyang City at the back.

Hence, he instructed Wang Li's forces to set out so early.

Who knew that Wang Li would be so bold.

Thinking about it, if Ouyang Shuo did not rush over from Su County and move into Anyang City, Baiqi's plan would be totally wasted.

Such an outcome was simply unthinkable.

For committing such a huge mistake, he simply deserved execution.

In Ouyang Shuo's eyes, killing intent flashed.

He tried to calm himself down and said, "Send the order to Wang Ling's army, his vanguard force must arrived by tomorrow morning. If not, I will behead them."

"Yes, lord!"

The personal guard trembled and quickly backed down; he rarely saw the lord so angry.

Although Ouyang Shuo was just the player representative, he could order Wang Li. This seemed illogical, but it was actually totally normal.

The day Wang Li rushed to Jiyuan City, Baiqi had summoned him. At that time, Ouyang Shuo was there, sitting on the Lord Seat.

Obviously, in the current Qin Dynasty Camp, Ouyang Shuo was the second lord.

As for the Qin King in Xianyang, who would care about him?

Hence, Ouyang Shuo could order Wang Li.

After arranging everything, Ouyang Shuo called Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang over, roughly briefing them on everything. Then, he said, “The logistics will depend on you two!"

"Don't worry, leave it to us!"

The two of them were heroines, and they were already used to this kind of situation.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, as he hurried out of the Lord's Manor.

At the door, the Guards had already brought Qingdian over.

Ouyang Shuo mounted his steed and said, “To the city west gate."

The enemy attack would come from the direction of the city west gate.

Chapter 419- Forming an Army Spirit

Anyang City, City West Gate.

As they headed deeper into autumn, the wild grass grew a withered yellow, and the freezing autumn breeze blew.

Ouyang Shuo stood on the top of the city wall, scrutinizing the enemy troops from afar. His red cape rustled, as a gust of great wind blew it around. Qing'er had personally tailored this cape for him, not only was it waterproof, but it could also act as a mattress.

As he raised his head, he saw a massive flag that danced in the wind. The word ‘Lian’ was written on the flag in a large font, looking really eye-catching.

Lianpo?

Ouyang Shuo grew solemn; he did not expect to actually meet an old friend. He and the Yanhuang Alliance were really enemies to the core. They could meet everywhere.

This time, he had no way out.

"Lord!"

Wang Feng walked over and bowed.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, but he did not turn his head, “Tell the boys that we have to defend for a day. Tomorrow afternoon at the latest, our reinforcements will arrive."

"Yes my, lord!"

Wang Feng acknowledge his command. However, he did not leave.

"En?"

Wang Feng gritted his teeth, “Lord, you are injured. Please return to the city manor to command. Leave the city wall to me. I won't let you down!"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head.

"Lord!"

Wang Feng was a little anxious.

Ouyang Shuo waved him off, “Say no more!"

"Yes, my lord!"

Helplessly, Wang Feng could only back down. His attempt had already used up all of his courage.

For such a dangerous and important battle, Ouyang Shuo needed to personally lead the troops to raise their morale.

This battle was bound to be a bloodbath.

On the bright side, at least he could use this fight to test the results of the palace Guards’ training. Baiqi had said that Xiang Yu's Jiangdong Warriors could one versus ten. Ouyang Shuo believed that his palace Guards were no weaker.

"Men!"

"Present!"

"Erect the Lord Flag on the city wall. This city is Shanhai’s."

"Yes, my lord!"

The guard was jolted to his senses, and he quickly went to work.

Amongst the palace Guards, there were designated flag bearers in charge of the Lord Flag.

When the Lord Flag flew high on the Anyang City wall, the palace Guards had no way to back down. At this moment, the three thousand palace Guards were motivated. They were willing to die to protect this flag.

Far away, astonishment broke out.

"Look lord, Anyang City wall is flying a huge flag!"

When Di Chen heard these words, he raised his head. In an instant, he froze, before breaking out in delight, “Shanhai Flag. Hei, it actually is Shanhai Flag. Enemies always meet, ah. Qiyue Wuyi, this time, let's see where you run to."

"Men, attack Anyang City with everything you have. Whoever climbs the wall first, I’ll reward him with five hundred gold!"

"Yes!"

Under the monetary motivation, the morale of the troops soared.

The huge army waltzed toward Anyang City; they quickly reached the city protection river.

Anyang City was located on the north shore of Hengshui River. The same river flowed through its other three sides, forming a natural city protection river.

To break into the city, they had to first break this city protection river first.

Long before the army had arrived, the drawbridge had already been pulled up.

After Gaia published the hotfix, the players could not use their storage bags during battles. Naturally, Di Chen could not bring huge amounts of siege weapons.

Furthermore, in Di Chen’s eyes, Anyang City was just an empty city.

Hence, although the thirty thousand of them were mainly infantry, they still lacked sufficient siege weapons.

However, this did not pose too big a problem for Lianpo.

Thirty thousand troops, even if they used the lousiest of ladders, it would still be enough to take down Anyang City.

The Battle of Anyang started at an intense climax without any build up.

Tens of thousands of sword-shield soldiers raised their shields and dragged sandbags, which they threw into the city protection river. The palace Guards on the city wall immediately returned fire with arrows.

Palace Guards, elite equipment, familiar with both horses and bows, good at both infantry and cavalry.

The Shanhai City strongbow brought forth an air shattering sound, as it sentenced the enemy troops to death.

Lianpo, who stood far away, was unmoved.

If they had moving arrow towers, they could retaliate. Unfortunately, they did not.

Before they filled up the city protection river, they could only endure the hits.

Their current sacrifices were all temporary.

In less than half an hour, blood dyed the city protection river red.

Corpse after corpse floated on the river surface and flowed the current toward Hengshui.

At the start of the battle, Di Chen naturally handed control over to Lianpo.

He sat at the back of his army, deep in thought.

He was wondering whether or not to report this matter to Xiang Yu. If Di Chen informed him, Xiang Yu could lead his men over. Anyang would be taken over in an instant.

However, in that case, his glory would be taken away from him.

Let us wait a little longer!

Di Chen was confident that the thirty thousand men could take down Anyang City. At that point, he would be the greatest contributor to this battle.

Under the steel-like mental strength of Lianpo, the army was not afraid of sacrifices. They filled up the city protection river in an orderly manner. Even the corpses were used as materials to fill the river.

Two hours later, they had totally leveled a portion of the city protection river.

"Kill!"

Lianpo waved his sword forward, and the raring to go army carried the ladders and flooded toward the city wall.

The siege was about to begin.

Anyang City was only an empty city, so it lacked defence items. Even basic rocks and rolling wood were scarce. As for alchemical fire oil and other resources, do not even think about them.

The defence machines were also old; it truly made one feel helpless.

In less than half an hour, the enemy army was already on the wall and engaging with the palace guards.

At this point, they could only fight head on.

Ouyang Shuo shouted. His Tianmo Spear swept out, pushing down the three soldiers that had just climbed up the city wall.

They were still in mid-air, but they each spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.

His sweep did not only cause them to fall off the wall; it also caused internal injuries.

"Great!"

Seeing their lord show off his strength, the palace Guards felt their blood boil.

The battle on the city wall had entered a white-hot stage.

Lianpo had the numerical advantage, so he did not think about giving them any chance to rest. Under his command, they rushed up the wall wave after wave unceasingly.

The palace Guards stood on the city wall. It was like they were standing in front of the waves, as wave after wave struck.

The huge waves looked like they were going to swallow them at any moment.

Facing the waves, one had to be stubborn, like the current Ouyang Shuo.

He stood at one position, unmoving. No matter how many enemies rushed up, his Tianmo Spear would either sweep, pierce or block. He took them all on.

The fresh blood of the enemies flew everywhere. Some onto his helmet, some onto his armor, and even some on his face.

Under the cover of the fresh blood, his red cape grew more and more evil looking.

The continuous battle was a huge test on a person’s physical ability and mental strength.

Ouyang Shuo was already numb. He stood still; his mind without any thoughts. He only wanted to wipe out any enemy in front of him and welcome the next wave.

Below the city wall, the corpses of the fallen enemies had already reached the height of two people.

In the city protection river, corpses litter the river surface. It was to the point that one could not even see a single drop of water. It looked more like a mountain of bodies than a river.

Ouyang Shuo did not fall, nor did his palace Guards.

His body stood strong. His body was the soul of the palace Guards.

"Ah!"

In a momentary lapse of attention, a sword-shield soldier hacked at Ouyang Shuo’s left arm. He resisted the pain and pierced the enemy with his spear.

"Lord!"

The Guards at his side surrounded him to help relieve the pressure.

"I'm fine!"

Ouyang Shuo's expression did not change, as he took out bandages from his storage bag as well as medical ointments. He applied them to his wound and bandaged it after that.

In his last life, such bandaging was a simple routine, like eating rice.

After which, Ouyang Shuo returned to the battlefield.

When Ouyang Shuo was injured, the frontline was stunned.

The enemy troops took the chance to rush up the city wall.

When Ouyang Shuo reappeared, the palace Guards could put down their worries and continue killing. Their killing aura grew stronger. Those scums had actually injured their lord.

Each palace Guard exuded a killing aura.

The gathering of hundreds and thousands of these auras were enough to scare the enemy.

"Kill!"

Ouyang Shuo swept left and right. He killed the enemies that climbed up the wall.

"Wang Feng!"

"Present!"

Blood covered Wang Feng’s body, as he hurried over. He had always hung around Ouyang Shuo’s side.

"Lead a squadron to clear out the trash on the city wall."

"Yes, my lord!"

The enemies that managed to charge up had already impacted their defence. If they did not clear them out, it might cause their entire defence to collapse.

Wang Feng also understood this fact, so he brought a squadron to sweep out along the way.

He could not lead an army to war, but in the aspect of killing enemies, Wang Feng was simply an Asura.

The eyes of this palace Guard general were crimson, while blood covered his body. He simply looked like a devil from hell. The palace Guards around him were all the same.

The strength of the palace Guards were revealed to the world for the first time.

With his operation, the situation calmed down once more.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head in glee, as he killed the enemies.

Outside of the city, Lianpo's expression turned exceedingly cold.

He could feel that he had nearly crushed the enemy.

He did not expect the enemy to regain their footing at the last moment.

Such a strong army!

Even so, Lianpo did not waver. Instead, a smile broke out on his face.

Since there was a first time, there would definitely be a second time.

Their attack strategy was correct. The longer this battle dragged on, the harder it would be for the enemy to hold on. No matter which side started to fall, it was enough to make the enemy collapse entirely.

Lianpo was very confident.

While Lianpo could notice that, Ouyang Shuo, who was deep in battle, could notice it too.

Although Ouyang Shuo could not be considered a person born to lead troops, the influence of the generals around him had greatly improved his ability to analyse the situation.

If not, he would not feel confident enough to personally lead the palace Guards and the Guards Division.

Ouyang Shuo immediately told Wang Feng's squadron to not return to their original defence region. He wanted them to continue their current job. Whenever danger showed up, they would assist that area.

This was in truth a fire fighting squadron.

The flames of battle were still burning, and it only grew stronger.

In the following fight, Ouyang Shuo was injured several more times. Ever time, he would just treat it simply before he raged on.

As they watched on, the palace Guards started to worship their lord more and more.

Their lord was an unbeatable Asura; no one could take him down.

The enemy could not, neither could the pain.

Ouyang Shuo was leading the palace Guards and forming an army spirit.

An undefeatable army spirit.

Chapter 420- Drunken Beauty

The skies above Anyang City were blood red.

The flames from the battles burned from morning till night in an endless blaze.

The blood glow that rushed into the sky mixed with the sunset.

Like a dream, like an illusion.

Among the flames of war, the unassuming Anyang City stood tall and did not fall.

Lianpo rode on his war horse; his eyebrows locked tight.

The stubbornness of the enemy troops far exceeded his expectations. In the afternoon, there were three to four times when they nearly took down the city wall. Time after time, they were repelled.

A true iron army.

Thinking about the current Jiangdong Warriors, who were going all out on the main battlefield, probably only they could go head-to-head against these enemy troops.

Amazement was amazement, but his eyebrows tightened up more and more. Although the lord did not make matters clear and did not blame anyone, he could feel that the lord was not happy with the situation and him.

Thirty thousand troops, attacking one whole day, yet they still could not take down Anyang City.

If this dragged on, things would change.

In just one afternoon, they had lost seven thousand soldiers. Such huge casualties were too scary. Under the city wall of Anyang City was a dense graveyard and a blood river.

A group of eagles circled in the sky, waiting for a chance to make their move.

Under the cover of the dusk sky, the eagles’ eyes flashed with red glows. Influenced by the killing, some grew crazy and did not care about anything. They simply rushed down to eat the ‘delicacies’.

On the city wall, the Lord Flag of Shanhai City fluttered, looking more and more extravagant.

The generals of the palace Guards were similarly infallible.

In this battle, only a few remained of the 1,400 aristocratic family Guards.

The elites that Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang brought had similarly suffered heavy casualties. Compared to the palace Guards, they were weaker in terms of not just combat strength, but also in morale and killing intent.

The three thousand palace guards now had the same army spirit. That infallible body was their spirit. From that moment onward, all of them were willing to die for their lord.

They would not regret it, even in death.

This day, another five hundred palace Guards left this world forever.

As the sun set, the last inch of red disappeared.

The night was about to arrive.

Lianpo let out a long sigh, "Tell the troops to fall back!"

"Yes, general!"

Amongst the thunderous noises, the sieging soldiers backed off like a receding flood. When they passed the corpses of their allies, they only felt a sense of fortune in their hearts and endless amounts of tiredness.

They could not imagine why the enemies on the city walls seemed to have boundless amounts of energy.

Lianpo took one last look at the city wall and turned his horse around. He made his way back toward the camp.

Tomorrow, tomorrow morning, no matter what price he had to pay, he had to take down Anyang City.

In his eyes, a killing aura flashed out.

Anyang City, city Lord’s Manor.

The Ouyang Shuo that the soldiers revered and worshipped collapsed when he returned to the manor. The aura that surrounded him disappeared.

Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang carefully took care of his wounds, feeling pained for him in their hearts.

"Aiyo!"

Suddenly, Feng Qiuhuang tapped onto his wounds, making him shout out in pain.

"You asked for it!"

In her eyes, tears had built up.

Drunken beauty, cares a lot about relationships.

Young man, when will he sigh.

Plays a sad song on the flute.

Tears of the beauty, heartbroken.

Even Bai Hua grumbled at Ouyang Shuo.

"Wuyi, you must know that to Shanhai City, to Shanhai Alliance, and even to the entire Qin Dynasty Camp, how important you are? A lord doesn't join in the war and put themselves in danger. Don't you know that theory?"

"I understand, but…."

"There are no buts. At most, we will just back out of Anyang City. From the time the war started till now, we still have the advantage. We don't need to take this gamble and put ourselves in danger."

"That's right!"

Feng Qiuhuang agreed; her expression filled with unhappiness.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “In theory, that's true. But you all know that if we miss this chance, Baiqi would have to plan for a new strategy. That would take really long. During this period of time, how many more people will die?"

Silence. Total dead silence.

It was not that they were heroes and feeling righteous for their men.

It was just that on the death list, the names of their soldiers would definitely appear, and they would definitely take up the bulk.

War was just so cruel.

After a long while, Ouyang Shuo broke the silence, “This attack, someone definitely orchestrated it from the back. That's why we shouldn't let Di Chen get away with it. If not, who knows who will win."

"Someone orchestrated it?"

"That's right. Baiqi's plan was so obscure, yet this guy still saw through it."

"Who is it?"

"Think about it. Who in the Anti-Qin Camp could go up against Baiqi?"

"Wuqi?"

"No." Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “If it was Wuqi, Xiong Ba would have come instead of Di Chen."

"Is it him?"

Suddenly, Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang exclaimed.

Both of them could be considered knowledgeable. Moreover, as lords, they had to increase their knowledge of history.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “That's right. It should be Han Xin."

Feng Qiuhuang was not entirely convinced, “Why are you so sure?"

"Because Di Chen came. As a player representative, only he had the chance to meet Han Xin."

Ouyang Shuo had been the player representative four times already, so he was familiar with the related powers.

"Why not Lianpo?"

"Lianpo? If he thought about it, they wouldn't be here so late."

Although Lianpo and Baiqi were among the four generals of the Warring States Period, they still had a gap in skill level.

"That makes sense."

"Han Xin. Ah, that's a real talent." Ouyang Shuo even had a look of envy in his eyes, “If he went head-to-head against Baiqi, who knows how long this war would last."

"So tomorrow, we definitely need to hold on until Wang Li's army arrive."

Ouyang Shuo's voice was resolute.

Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang looked at each other; they could not say anything else.

"Wuyi, is there anything we can do to help?"

"Yes!"

Ouyang Shuo's words were astonishing.

"You two forgot that our squad has four more strong generals." Ouyang Shuo smiled, “If they are willing to go all out, our chances of winning will increase."

"That's right, how can we forget Zhou Bo and the others!"

"Ha! With the three of them, wouldn't it be like adding wings to a tiger?"

"Don't be happy too early." Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “Their problems with us won't be solved so easily.”

"Don't worry, leave it to us!"

Feng Qiuhuang was highly confident. Although she could not fight on the walls, she was good at handling such matters.

"Then, I'll wait and see."

"Hen!"

Feng Qiuhuang turned around stylishly. She pulled Bai Hua along, as they both left.

After the two of them left, a young official walked in.

"Lord!"

He was the intelligence division intel officer, who had followed along. Worship and respect filled his eyes, as he looked at the lord. The lord's actions this afternoon had spread across the army.

"Did Wang Li reply?"

"Yes!"

The intelligence officer passed the reply letter.

When Ouyang Shuo opened the letter, his tightened brows relaxed slightly.

Wang Li had hastened his troops; they would reach the city by tomorrow afternoon.

"You can leave!"

"Yes, my lord!"

As the intelligence officer backed down, a look of worry appeared on his face. Although they had won today, it was a tough victory. Even if they managed to hold on tomorrow, the palace Guards would suffer heavy casualties.

Most importantly, he was exposed, exposed in front of the Anti-Qin Camp. Ouyang Shuo could not imagine what kind of scene would form if hundreds of thousands of troops attacked Anyang City.

If that was the case, he could only give up the city and escape.

If not, the moment he was caught, they would definitely lose.

Difficult!

In such a situation, what should he do?

He could not retreat; he could not defend.

Who cares; he would just leave this to Baiqi. Right now, his job was only to defend.

Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo started to write a letter for Baiqi. In the letter, Ouyang Shuo introduced the situation, as well as Wang Li's movements.

In his letter, he made it clear that he would defend Anyang City till reinforcements arrived. As for the job of dealing with Xiang Yu's army, Baiqi would be in charge of that.

Baiqi would definitely think of a way.

After all, Ouyang Shuo only needed Baiqi to buy him half a day.

Under the cover of the night sky, the boisterous Anyang City regained its silence.

All the ugly things were hidden in this cover.

Outside the city, Di Chen's camp.

Di Chen sat dazed alone in his tent, drinking.

A huge sense of defeat, along with the tipsy feeling, rushed up his heart.

Di Chen did not expect that the trump card of Shanhai City would be so strong. Compared to them, the elites he was so proud of were not even dog farts.

The most dejected matter in the world was not losing to an enemy. It was crossing a mountain and thinking you had caught up, only to find that the enemy had already ascended a step higher.

No!

Viciousness flashed across his eyes.

Under his observations, in the current situation, even after tomorrow, their army might not be able to take the Anyang City down.

Di Chen did not dare to gamble anymore.

Qiyue Wuyi, since you are so confident, let’s have you face a huge army tomorrow!

Thinking about that, Di Chen placed his heart into writing the letter and quickly finished it.

After he thought a little more, he wrote a second one.

"Men!"

"Present!"

"Pass this letter and rush it to General Xiang. Say that it's important military intel."

"Yes, my lord!"

Di Chen took out a second letter out and said, “Pass this to General Han."

"Understood!"

This guard was the right-hand man of Di Chen, so he knew of the existence of Han Xin.

"Go!"

Di Chen waved him off; he had a weird expression on his face.

Tomorrow, it would be another diamond-cut-diamond battle.

Chapter 421- Overlord, Will You Battle?

This night was exceptionally long.

Jiyuan City, Lord’s Manor.

Ouyang Shuo's letter had reached Baiqi's table in less than two hours.

Baiqi opened it. After he read the letter, he muttered, “Han Xin? That's interesting."

"Men!"

"Present!"

"Raise the tent for the meeting!"

"Yes, general!"

The guard took this matter really seriously and immediately informed the other generals. Although it was late at night, no one would grumble about raising the tents for a meeting.

Military matters were really urgent, so being woken up in the middle of the night was normal.

In less than fifteen minutes, Zhang Han, Er'Lai, Zhang Liao, Qinqiong, Wang He,Lin Yi, and the rest all gathered in the meeting hall.

These generals all knew the way that Baiqi handled things, so they did not dare to tarry. As for the generals of the other lords, they all came late, which displeased Baiqi.

"Tomorrow, which of you dare to accept the battle against Xiang Yu?"

The moment his words sounded out, the generals were shocked and could not react. Didn't the commander not agree to go one-versus-one against Xiang Yu? Why did his attitude change?

Baiqi sat expressionlessly behind his table.

"Commander, I'm willing!"

Er'Lai was the first to step out. He was not one to care about the reasoning behind matters. In these few days, Xiang Yu’s provocations had infuriated Er'Lai.

"Great!"

Baiqi nodded, as expected from a general under him.

"Who else?"

"I'm willing!"

Zhang Liao, Qinqiong, Wang He, and a few others were all raring to go.

These few generals had all been holding in their anger.

"Great!" Baiqi raised his head and looked around, "Tomorrow morning, General Er'Lai, General Zhang Liao, General Qinqiong, and General Wang He will face off against Xiang Yu."

"Yes, commander!"

The generals that were named were unanimously delighted. Those that were not, like Lin Yi, felt dejected and disappointed.

When all the generals left, Baiqi called Lin Yi to discuss some matters.

After a while, Lin Yi finally left the tent.

Making use of the night, the Guards Division sneakily exited the city and disappeared into the darkness. Thanks to their unique special forces training, they were confident about traveling at night.

Night, Anyang City.

Apart from sending Baiqi a letter, Ouyang Shuo did not sit just still and do nothing.

Before the war ended, Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang moved the civilians to clean up the battlefield. They removed the corpses on the city wall to create space for the soldiers.

Most importantly, they retrieved the stone pieces and rolling wood they had thrown out. They moved these items back onto the city wall.

They had no choice; their resources were scarce, so this was the only way.

As for reopening the city protection river, firstly, the commoners did not have the ability. Secondly, it might alert the enemies on the other side.

Apart from that, one had to mention the two ladies.

During the day, apart from settling food matters, they also handled something important.

There were so little civilians left in the city, so there were many empty houses.

The two of them ordered people to dismantle all the houses to obtain stone and wood. In just one day, hundreds of houses were dismantled.

Making use of the night, they moved these resources to the city wall.

With that, they had more defensive resources for the next day.

Ouyang Shuo admired the intelligence of these two.

After being busy all the way till the late of night, Anyang City finally regained its peace and quiet.

Even so, the civilians inside could not sleep. As long as one was not blind, they would know that a tough battle awaited them tomorrow.

No matter which camp took over Anyang City, the commoners and civilians would experience a hard life.

If they won, the civilians would have a tough life.

If they lost, the civilians would still have a tough life.

These statements were not false.

Anti-Qin Camp, Chu Army Camp.

When Di Chen's messenger rushed to the camp, it was the middle of the night, and the camp was totally silent.

"Who is there?"

Before the messenger even got close to the camp, the guard on patrol stopped him.

"I'm the messenger of player representative Di Chen. I have emergency intel for General Xiang Yu."

The guard asked in a testing tone, “Di Chen's messenger?"

"That's right!"

The messenger calmly replied. As the player representative, Di Chen's position in the army was still quite high.

However, the messenger did not foresee that an unexpected situation would occur.

"Hen, so bold." The guard's face changed, and he scolded, “Take him down!"

"Yes!"

Four guards appeared and took him down in just a few moments.

"What are you doing?" The messenger fumed, as he struggled, "You're delaying military intel. Do you want to die?"

"Hen!" The guard gritted his teeth, “The General has orders. Di Chen left his post and deserves death. How bold, sending himself to die."

When the messenger heard these words, he felt bitter.

They had considered everything, but they had made incorrect assumptions about Xiang Yu’s personality.

Who was Xiang Yu? How arrogant was he?

How would he allow people to challenge his honor in the military?

Di Chen dared to go against his orders. Naturally, Xiang Yu wanted to capture him.

The messenger was helpless, so he said respectfully, “Brother guard, I have serious matters that need to be reported to General Xiang Yu."

"No, general has already slept. He can't be disturbed."

The guard did not want to budge.

"Brother guard, how about this. Pass this letter to him."

The messenger could only beg and beg.

Only then did the guard nod. He received the letter and waved his hand, “Take him away!"

"Yes!"

"Brother guard, you have to pass it to General Xiang Yu. It’s urgent!"

As the messenger got dragged away, he did not forget to look behind to remind the guard. As for the letter, it was up to the heavens.

How would the guard listen to him? He just kept the letter and continued his patrol.

At this time, how would he dare to disturb the general?

The next morning, after washing up, Xiang Yu finally received the letter.

After he saw the letter, Xiang Yu remained silent.

"Han Xin, Hen!"

Xiang Yu was not a fool. He guessed right away the person who had started this scheme.

This was a slap to his face. He had mocked Han Xin's conjecture, and the results proved that he was wrong.

"I'll punish you after all this ends!"

Being angry was being angry, but as the overall commander, he still cared about the entire situation. He also knew that if the enemy launched a pincer attack, they would immediately lose.

"Men!"

"Present!"

"Let Ying Bu come over."

"Yes, general!"

In a moment, Ying Bu arrived in the tent.

Ying Bu was punished under tattoo punishment, and he was also called Qing Bu. Originally, he was under Xiang Liang. Afterward, he became a general of Xiang Yu. After the Han Dynasty was built up, he was titled the South King, and he was one of the three famous generals along with Han Xin and Peng Yue.

"General!"

Xiang Yu simply introduced the situation at Anyang City, “You lead fifty thousand troops and take them down before the Qin Army troops arrive."

"Don't worry, general!"

Ying Bu was a great general. Naturally, he was highly confident.

If they could not take down one small Anyang City with fifty thousand troops, he should just knock his head and die.

At this very moment, someone came in from outside to make a report.

"Come in!"

"Reporting to the general. The Qin Army wants to face off against the general."

"Good!" Xiang Yu was delighted, “These bunch of cowards finally show themselves."

"Men, give me my armor!"

Xiang Yu was so excited that he wanted to immediately don his armor and head to battle.

When Ying Bu heard this report, his eyebrows frowned, and he said, “General!"

"En?"

"I need to go and assist Anyang City. Coincidentally, the Qin Army accepts the battle request. Are there any schemes behind this?"

Ying Bu carefully spoke. He was afraid that Xiang Yu would misunderstand.

"Hei!" Xiang Yu laughed, "The Qin Army wants to occupy you so that we can't assist Anyang City. How will such a simple plan succeed?"

"No matter which general they send, I'll definitely kill him." Xiang Yu was highly arrogant, “Go ahead. With me here, nothing will go wrong."

After Xian Yu spoke these words, there was not much Ying Bu could say.

Shortly after, fifty thousand troops charged straight for Anyang City under Ying Bu's lead. As they wanted to launch a siege, Ying Bu brought large amounts of siege weapons.

Hence, Ying Bu's troops could not move as quickly as Di Chen's troops.

The sun rose up into the sky and shone down.

Under the morning sun, a layer of gold covered Anyang City. The blood stains of yesterday’s battle hung on the city wall.

In the future, Anyang City was destined to be remembered because of this battle.

Going against the rising sun, Lianpo led his army to launch another attack against Anyang City.

Although Di Chen had asked for Xiang Yu’s assistance, he held a little hope that he would be able to take down Anyang City before reinforcements arrived.

This time, Lianpo changed his attacking strategy.

Without siege weapons, it was simply too hard to take down the city wall.

Lianpo aimed his eyes at the city gates. If they could take that down, they could take down the city. The only problem was how to fix the gates in a short time.

After all, if they took over the city, they would face the attack of the Qin Army's main force.

However, to take down the city, Lianpo could not care about much anymore.

The city gate was small and narrow, and it was certain that only small amounts of soldiers could be stationed there. Lianpo sent out the most elite-force to battle at this area.

The main aim of the attack was the city west gate.

As for the other gates, Lianpo did not bother about them.

Water surrounded Anyang City, so attacking two to three gates would necessitate the filling up of more parts of the city protection river. With their current numbers, it was not possible.

Hence, Lianpo chose to focus on the city west gate.

Ouyang Shuo wore his symbolic red cape. He reached the city wall really early.

After a night of treatment and the use of Bianque’s metal inflicted wound medicine, Ouyang Shuo's wounds were all okay. Only the poison in his body was slightly moving and affecting him.

Behind him there were three more generals, Can Can, Zhou Bo, and Xia Houying.

Ouyang Shuo could not understand what the two ladies had done to make the four of them come out.

The current Xiao He was taking care of the logistics in the city.

The flames of war would start once again.

Chapter 422- Di Chen's Magnanimity

Dong! Dong! Dong!

Along with the beat of the drums, the siege began.

The huge army formation slowly pushed forward. They looked like a huge mountain that directly headed forward. When they reached the city protection river, the formation suddenly constricted, as they used the sandbags on the river to swarm under the city wall.

After crossing the only ‘bridge’, the army suddenly spread out once again. In an instant, the army covered the entire west city gate; they did not leave a single gap.

The entire process happened like flowing water.

One had to say that Lianpo's commanding ability was really something.

To be able to command a hurriedly assembled army at such a level and order, one had reached the standards of a huge army general. Those generals that could only lead their own men to battles were all just rash men.

The Handan City elites were sandwiched in the huge army. They carried large blocks of wood, as they charged straight toward the city gate.

Ouyang Shuo, who stood on the city wall, let loose a cold laugh when he saw this scene.

He had expected this.

On top of the wall, they had piled large amounts of stone into small mountains. Apart from that, a palace Guard squadron patiently waited. They were assigned to defend the gate.

The moment the enemy got close, they would rain down a flurry of arrows and large amounts of rocks.

The arrow rain was still okay, the shields blocked the majority, so it did not cause any casualties. After all, a squadron of soldiers were too little, and they could not form a collective effect.

The most dangerous part was still the rock pieces that pelted down.

Huge rocks dropped down from above and slammed down. As the rocks struck the shields, it squashed both the men and their shields.

Dang!

The struck soldier immediately spat out blood and could not get up.

The numerous rocks crashed down like rain and created low-pitched hitting noises.

Like playing whack-a-mole, each rock could take a live. The palace Guard soldiers were not normal commoners, and they had strength in excess. Their control of their power was also really precise.

The stone pieces that they tossed out were vicious and accurate.

The elites of Handan City could be said to have some backbone. None of them let out a scream or a shout.

They braved the giant rocks and tried to initiate their attack on the city gate.

Unfortunately, by the time they reached the city gate, the group had already suffered heavy casualties and they could barely lift up the entire giant wood block. They were unable to form any combined strength and momentum to strike the gate, so the impact was akin to scratching an itch.

The narrow city gate became a meat grinder.

Peng!

Peng!

Peng!

The seemingly endless supply of giant rocks simply made one feel desperate.

Before they could even launch their assault on the city gate, the Handan City elites had already suffered heavy casualties.

Di Chen, who looked on from afar, felt his face cramp. These were the elites that he had spent so much effort to train.

Lianpo was still expressionless. He sent group after group of elites to their ‘execution’ to replace the already paralyzed and badly hurt group in front of them.

He did not believe that the enemy could prepare that many stone pieces.

During the siege yesterday, Lianpo had noticed that in the latter half of the battle, the city wall did not thrown down any stones, which showed that all their resources were used up.

Unfortunately, he was destined to regret his decision.

No matter how many soldiers he sent up, it was all useless.

Half an hour later, huge rocks completely blocked the front of the city gate. Together, the rocks formed a small mountain. Pincered in between the rocks were the blood and the meat of the Handan City elites.

To attack the city gate, they had to remove the stone pierces.

This was simply an impossible task.

No matter how many elites troops they had, no matter how fearless they were, they could not be sent to die like this.

Lianpo's siege plan had officially failed.

The design of the old city was highly emphasized and a lot of work was put into it. Especially the gate, which was the weakest point.

If they could break the gate so easily, the siege armies would not need to bring ladders.

In siege battles, the sieging side would often just choose to use a trebuchet to blow a hole in the wall instead of directly attacking the gate.

The reason was this.

The defensive force had an exceptional level of defense at the gates. Not only that, even if they broke through, there were defense machineries that could instantly block up the gate.

Lianpo obviously did not know anything about this. According to his calculations, the enemy had limited amounts of defensive resources. Who knew that they would dismantle all the houses?

Facing such a tough opponent, Lianpo felt a headache. Even so, he was not fazed. As a commander, he was as resolute as steel.

Since they could not take down the city gate, Lianpo could only attack the city wall. As long as they did not care about the consequences, they could definitely take it down.

Lianpo had no doubts about this.

Di Chen also had high tolerance. At this moment, he still did not interfere. He knew that at such a moment, if their opinions clashed, it would result in total chaos.

In war time, he could only choose to believe Lianpo.

The Shanhai City army had lost large amounts of troops, so it had grown a lot tougher for them to maintain their defense.

While Di Chen had lost many troops, in a unit sense, the attacking numbers had not decreased. Only the number of rotations of units they could do decreased.

Lianpo was also vicious. He constantly pushed the army, reducing their rest time.

As long as the commander was resolute, the army would not collapse.

Under Lianpo’s command, the army was like one body that relentlessly assaulted the city.

Under their relentless assault, it seemed that Anyang City would have to face a tough defensive situation.

However, he did not know that three more fierce generals stood on the city wall.

This intel error was simply fatal.

Yesterday, Ouyang Shuo was the only core of the army.

Now, it was different. Ouyang Shuo, along with Zhou Bo and the others, took a defensive region each. Together, they formed a defensive line.

Four points in a line; it was largely solid.

In a city wall defense, the use of a fierce general could not be underestimated. When Zhou Bo rushed to the front, within five meters, no one could climb onto the wall.

The general’s great strength was a huge motivation to the soldiers.

The palace Guards grew stronger as they fought.

Each one of them was a cold slaughterer; they did not even care about the enemy.

The Anyang City wall was like a black hole, swallowing the lives of the soldiers.

Not only that, under the arrangements of Xiao He, they continued to transport huge amounts of stone and wooden resources up the wall.

Xiao He announced some words to the city: With the way the enemy was acting, if they break through, they would kill everyone within. These words scared all the commoners, and they were willing to even give up the coffins they had prepared for themselves.

Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang were stunned.

What is called professional? This was professional!

This small change had made the defense work a lot easier than the previous day.

As time moved on, Lianpo could not keep his calm any longer.

Damn it, what kind of army was he facing? How could they be so stubborn?

Di Chen's face was also terrifyingly black.

At this moment, his allies could not look on anymore. Losing two to three thousand soldiers for nothing. In return, they only obtained a pitiful amount of battle contribution points.

This business was such a huge loss!

"Alliance Leader Di. I think we need an explanation."

One lord could not hold it in anymore. He doubted Di Chen. Of the three thousand troops he brought, only a thousand remained.

"That's right. We trusted you and came out with you. Now, what happened? There's no chance of winning."

Facing such doubts, Di Chen was speechless.

Talking about this matter, the alliance members had really held it in. They only brought it up now.

"Guys!" Di Chen said solemnly, “The failure today and its losses, I'll make it up to you after the battle ends."

"This…." the other lords looked at one another.

One had to say that Di Chen was really magnanimous in dealing with such things.

In theory, them coming out with Di Chen was all their own decision. It was war, so there was victory and there was defeat; they could not blame anyone. Even so, Di Chen did not push away the responsibility. It really showed the honor of a son of an aristocratic family.

This hand was really played beautifully.

After calming down his allies, Di Chen arrived by Lianpo's side.

"Lord!"

When he saw Di Chen, Lianpo felt ashamed.

Di Chen waved him off, “You're not to blame. The enemy is too strong."

The expression on his face relaxed slightly. He felt grateful in his heart. He thought that he would definitely be punished for this matter. After all, last night, he had sent out a military order in front of the lord.

He did not expect such a situation to occur.

"Lets back off!"

After saying these words, Di Chen felt a huge stone lifted off from his chest.

Let us just admit defeat and stop struggling.

"Lord?"

Lianpo was shocked.

"Fall back!"

Di Chen said once more; his tone really resolute.

When Lianpo heard this command, he had a complicated expression on his face. He also knew that no matter how they fought, they could not take down Anyang City. Hence, why not just back off earlier and cut down the casualties?

Not everyone had the ability and courage to cut their wrists and fight.

Their defeat in this battle was due to intel.

They did not expect Anyang City to actually have Qin troops stationed, so they did not bring any siege weapons. If not, given their strength, Shanhai would fail to defend Anyang City.

Amongst the rumbling, the Hadan alliance army once again backed down.

Cheers erupted from Anyang City.

At this very moment, the boom of horse hooves resounded from the horizon. When one looked over, they could see a huge, black wave swarm toward Anyang City.

The cheers on the city wall stopped.

Oh my god!

Is that the Anti-Qin Army?

The appearance of another army at such a moment could spell a huge catastrophe for Anyang City.

Even Ouyang Shuo could not help but tremble.

He raised his head and looked toward the sky. It was probably one to two hours till noon. This meant that Wang Li's vanguard force would need at least an hour before they arrived.

With just the current few thousand men, could they block off these new enemies for an hour?

Ouyang Shuo's expression was unprecedentedly solemn.

At the same time, in his heart, he looked forward to the battle.

On the other side, Di Chen and his men were also excited.

Especially Di Chen.

Based on his predictions, if the reinforcements rushed here, they should have already appeared.

"The heavens didn't forsake me!"

Di Chen let out a long sigh. He felt fortunate inside. He felt lucky that he did not act too arrogant and asked for Xiang Yu’s help. If not, he would become a huge laughing stock.

The huge army charged forward from afar, heading straight for them.

Chapter 423- Xiao He's Heart

The rumbling horse hooves spread from afar, and the mysterious army finally showed their true colors. The army that rushed over was not actually the reinforcements from the uprising army, but the guards division that Lin Yi led.

Last night, the Guards Division had sneaked out of the city. They had specially used the mountain routes to head around the Anti-Qin Camp defense region to reach Anyang City ahead of Ying Bu's forces.

When he saw the Shanhai Lord Flag atop of the Anyang City wall, Lin Yi gave out a long sigh of relief.

He had made it in time.

If the lord was captured, Lin Yi could only use death to make up for his sins.

"Troops, charge!"

Lin Yi raised his spear and ordered the troops.

"Kill!"

In an orderly manner, the soldiers raised up pole after pole of horse lance, which glinted in the light.

The army charged forward, causing dust to rise from the ground and into the air.

Currently, Di Chen’s army had just backed off from the city wall and were relaxing. How could they expect a sneak attack from outside of the city? How could they know that the recently arrived army were not reinforcements but the enemy?

Everything was too late.

The Guards Division covered the one to two kilometer distance in an instant.

Even with Lianpo's ability, he could not reorganize the formation in such a short time. The moment he saw the Guards Division, Lianpo knew that it was over; he knew that they had no way out.

Lianpo arrived besides Di Chen and anxiously said, “Lord, let's go before it's too late!" The entire army was already in chaos. If they stayed, they would definitely die.

The moment he saw the Guards Division, Di Chen's smile froze. He could not imagine why Shanhai City's army would arrive here, weren't they cooped up in Jiyuan City?

How was that possible? How did they rush here ahead of Xiang Yu's army?

"How did this happen?"

Di Chen could not believe his own eyes. Things had changed too quickly, and it had caught him off guard.

"Go? Go where?"

Di Chen was crestfallen, like his entire being had lost its soul.

Under this huge psychological blow, Di Chen was about to collapse.

F*ck tolerance….

Di Chen wanted to scold out; he wanted to vent the frustration in his heart.

When Lianpo saw these changes, he tried to persuade Di Chen, “If we survive, we can find a way back!"

"Hah!" Di Chen laughed coldly; he did not bother about Lianpo.

"Quick, cover the lord and leave."

When Lianpo heard this response, he could only forcefully bring Di Chen away.

"Yes, general!"

When the guards heard this order, they grabbed Di Chen and hurried away.

The other lords had already run away for their lives under the protection of their personal guards.

This scene was really majestic.

Anyang City Wall.

"Lord, look, it's the Guards Division."

Wang Feng arrived at Ouyang Shuo's side. He pointed at the army outside, delighted.

In a short amount of time, the palace guards dropped from heaven to hell. Then, they quickly rose back up. It was too exhilarating.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, Baiqi was really too dependable.

"Lord, should we go out of the city to kill them?"

"No!"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and firmly said, “Defend, don't be stupid. Leave the enemy to the Guards Division."

"Yes, my lord!"

From the reactions of the uprising army, Ouyang Shuo roughly guessed that Di Chen had also asked for reinforcements.

Unfortunately, the Guards Division had arrived earlier.

At the current moment, Ouyang Shuo naturally needed to keep his calm.

How was it a battle outside the city? It was simply a massacre.

The charging Guards Division were simply too terrifying. They were like a pack of hungry wolves charging into a flock of sheep. The sheep panicked and ran around to escape.

Di Chen's army could be considered an elite army. Unfortunately, blow after blow had caused them to collapse. Their lord’s departure was also another element that added to their collapse.

Lianpo led the cavalry forces and hurriedly left the battlefield.

The remaining infantry naturally became sheep for slaughter.

The killing of the Guards Division were undoubtedly highly efficient.

Ouyang Shuo stood on the city wall. He looked at his stat page; his battle contribution points and experience constantly rose and totally did not stop.

After the second system update, the battle maps were fixed and changed. The first change cancelled the rule that players could not obtain experience from the battle maps.

After this huge war, Ouyang Shuo's level, which had not risen in awhile, rose several times.

Once a player's level broke past level 60, adventure gamemode players needed half a month before they could level up once. If Ouyang Shuo did not participate in wars, leveling would be the same as a snail crawling.

Ouyang Shuo checked it, till date, his battle contribution points had reached a staggering 458,530. It had exceeded his total points during the Battle of Changping, and no one on the leaderboard could touch his position.

Considering everything, it was the same as each member of their army killing two people.

The accumulated battle contribution points had the gains of the Guard Division and the mountain barbarians, as well as the palace Guards from the start.

The battles that the three thousand palace guards went through were far more than the Guards Division. As a result, they earned a lot of points. Purely at Anyang City, they had earned seventy to eighty thousand points.

The massacre outside of Anyang City was even scarier.

Seeing such a vast amount of points, Ouyang Shuo's eyes turned to the battle Commerce City.

Till now, he still had not exchanged for a single item.

Guangyao Armor making technical manual, forty thousand battle contribution points.

Buy!

Guangyao Armor was same as the Mingguang Armor, in the sense that both were types of Tang Dynasty Armor.

Ouyang Shuo brought the Guangyao Armor to increase the variety of armors in the territory. Tang Dynasty Armor had thirteen different types. Comparatively, the current armor types in the Armory Division were pitifully little.

With the crafting experience from the Mingguang Armor, it would be much easier for the Armory Division to make the Guangyao Armor.

Olden Agriculture Tool Technical Manual, one hundred thousand battle contribution points.

Buy!

Although olden agriculture tools looked unassuming, there were simply too many of them, and there were thirty to forty types. It affected every area of agriculture production.

A few simple examples.

Xuanyuan Plough: The earliest ploughing tool, which appeared in the late stages of the Tang Dynasty in the Dongjiang Region.

Kongming Waterwheel: A watering tool the East Han created and perfected during the Three Kingdoms Period.

Animal Drawn Seed Plough: Appeared during the West Han.

China was an agricultural nation since olden times. Its agricultural tools had improved and changed over the years. This was the collection of all the olden agricultural knowledge.

For this item, one hundred thousand battle contribution points was not expensive at all.

With this manual, Shanhai territory's agricultural level would experience a huge rise.

The people survived on food.

Agriculture would always remain important.

As for the other items, Ouyang Shuo were not interested in them.

What he needed the most now was a sword technique. Unfortunately, those in the Commerce City were only gold rank. Naturally, Ouyang Shuo did not bother about them.

Without mentioning gold rank techniques, Ouyang Shuo would have to consider the merits of learning even king rank techniques.

After buying all the items he needed, Ouyang Shuo closed the shop interface.

Outside Anyang City, it was a total slaughter.

In less than one and a half hours, twenty thousand troops were decimated. Apart from the five thousand cavalry that escaped, the Guards Division killed off the remaining enemy troops.

Ouyang Shuo stood on the city wall and nodded his head, “Open the city gates!"

"Yes, my lord!"

After a short while, Wang Feng turned around.

"Oh?"

"Lord, the rocks have blocked the west gate, so we can't open it."

"...."

Ouyang Shuo froze.

"Spread the message to the Guards Division. Ask them to go to the south gate."

"Yes, my lord!"

After Wang Feng left, Ouyang Shuo also stood up. He needed to go to the south gate to welcome Lin Yi and his men. Before he left, he called Zhou Bo, Cao Can, and Xia Houying along.

These three generals had really performed well in this battle.

They had witnessed the strength and bravery of the Guards Division, making them feel fortunate and happy.

Such an elite army was really amazing.

The performance of the palace Guards these two days was already stunning enough. However, their numbers were simply too little. Zhou Bo and the others did not expect that Shanhai City’s army division grade troops would also be so strong.

Zhou Bo looked toward Xia Houying with envy.

Xia Houying held his chests up high. When he looked at the lord in front of him, he felt no more doubts in his heart.

Ouyang Shuo's performance yesterday had totally won over Xiao He and Xia Houying. A lord being able to set the example and lead his men, having both brains and brawn, what more can one ask for?

Even Liu Bang might not have done as well as Ouyang Shuo.

Especially Xiao He, who observed things the most closely and gained the most thoughts. For him to come out and help, aside from the two girls persuading him, Ouyang Shuo's performance also played a huge factor.

South City Gate.

Lin Yi led the Guards Division to form up at the city gate.

When he saw Ouyang Shuo, he immediately demounted from his horse and bowed.

"Greetings, lord!"

At the same time, tens of thousands of soldiers got down and bowed at the same time, which created an incredibly alluring scene. The eyes of Xia Houying and the others, who had followed behind him, froze.

Ouyang Shuo nodded.

After a simple welcome, Ouyang Shuo brought Lin Yi into the Lord's Manor.

Under the arrangement of Wang Feng, the Guards Division started to set up their defenses in the city. The Anti-Qin Army could arrive at any moment, so they could not relax.

The only difference was with the Guards Division there, Ouyang Shuo would not need to personally fight.

The consecutive battles had made Ouyang Shuo feel that the poison was nearly going out of control. Upon closer inspection, a faint green vein had appeared on his face.

As the poison acted up, Ouyang Shuo felt tremors of pain in his stomach. To not worry the generals, he could only forcefully hold it in. However, beads of sweat formed on his forehead.

How sharp was Lin Yi? He instantly noticed something weird about Ouyang Shuo.

"Lord, you?"

"I'm okay!" Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, sitting down in the meeting hall, “Speak, what did the commander tell you before you came."

"Yes!"

Lin Yi immediately took out a letter and passed it to the lord.

As Ouyang Shuo read it, he did not say anything.

The war had already proceeded to such a stage. It was time for them to haul in their nets.

Chapter 424- Qing Bu, Die!

After a short while, Xiao He, Bai Hua, and Feng Qiuhuang walked into the meeting room.

"Lord!"

Xiao He bowed to Ouyang Shuo.

When Ouyang Shuo raised his head and saw Xiao He, he nodded his head, pleased, “Sit!"

All of them were in the meeting room to discuss post-war matters.

At this very moment, someone arrived at the door to make a report.

"Report!"

"Come in!"

"Lord, Wang Li's army has arrived outside of the city."

"Great!"

Ouyang Shuo felt elated. At least, Wang Li was not totally out of hand and arrived on time.

With that, the danger that Anyang City faced was eliminated.

Wang Li’s fifty thousand vanguard force arrived at around 11 AM. The army set up camp outside the city. Wang Li only brought two guards with him to the Lord's Manor to meet Ouyang Shuo.

After all, since he was not a general under his direct charge, Ouyang Shuo just said a few words and did not scold him.

Based on Wang Li’s words, the one hundred thousand main force had already transported the grain they gathered from Henei and were rushing here. Tomorrow afternoon at the latest, the army would be able to reach Anyang.

With the grain problem solved, Ouyang Shuo heaved a sigh of relief.

If not, the numerous troops in the city would have to starve.

After the greetings, Ouyang Shuo quickly described the next step in the plan.

Purely defending and not attacking was not Ouyang Shuo's style.

Ouyang Shuo immediately ordered that Wang Li's troops did not need to enter the city. Instead, they would hide in the forest outside the west gate. He wanted to prepare a big gift for the Anti-Qin reinforcements.

After they arranged everything, in less than half an hour, Ying Bu's troops arrived outside Anyang City.

How close.

When Ying Bu reached the area and saw the terrible situation, his eyebrows tightly locked.

The situation was not right.

Did the player army get totally destroyed? Based on the intel, the Qin Troops in Anyang City should not be enough to destroy them.

Don't tell me that the Qin Army sent reinforcements?

Ying Bu looked at the Lord Flag that hung on the city wall; his expression cold and unstable.

"General, what should we do now?"

"Continue to siege!"

"Siege? The situation isn't clear. To siege doesn't seem right."

"Because we aren't sure, we have to siege."

"I'm stupid, please explain!"

Ying Bu relaxed a little, “Launch a test assault. Use it scout whether their strength is real or fake."

"General is smart!"

Yiung Bu did not bother about his flattery, “I have already sent a military order in front of General Xiang Yu, so there's no way back. No matter what, we must take the city down. Understood?"

"Understood!"

The army pushed a huge number of siege weapons to the front of their formation.

On the city walls, the Guard Division had already taken over the defense work from the palace Guards.

The first to show their might were the arrow towers, the siege ladders, and the small number of trebuchets. Under the employment of these machines, Ying Bu launched his scouting assault.

The attack went unusually smooth.

Huge amounts of soldiers rushed up the city wall and engaged with the Guards Division soldiers.

When Ying Bu saw this scene, he let out a smile.

As expected, the enemy had suffered heavy losses and had pretty much used up all their city defense resources.

"Go all out!"

Since he already had an answer in his heart, naturally, he would not give the enemy a chance.

"Yes, general!"

The huge army swarmed toward the city in wave after wave.

It was true that they had used up the defense resources on the city wall. The Guards Division soldiers had rushed day and night. Now, they had to fight such a huge battle, so their fitness could not keep up.

Most importantly, Lin Yi had received orders to attract Ying Bu's troops up to the city wall.

Thanks to their coordination, Ying Bu's forces naturally held an advantage.

Both sides went head-to-head with one another on the city wall.

Ying Bu was also a famous general. The moment he noticed a weakness in the enemy, he would not give them any chance to breathe and launch a relentless assault.

However, the Guards Division were not useless, and they immediately retaliated.

Just when both sides engaged, Wang Li’s hidden army attacked.

Wang Li's army had rushed day and night to arrive here, which had already tired them. However, after resting in the forest, they had recharged themselves. The army consisted entirely of light armored cavalry. They suddenly appeared and stabbed the enemy from behind like a sharp knife.

More than half of Ying Bu’s army was currently at the foot of the city wall.

With Wang Li’s charge, they instantly fell into chaos.

Ying Bu never would have thought that enemy troops would attack them from behind. As such, he did not set up any defenses and instead arranged troops on both wings.

"Oh no, we fell into a trap!"

Ying Bu panicked; his face turned ashen white. He wanted to reorganize the troops, but unfortunately, it was too late.

"Qing Bu, die!"

Wang Li aimed Ying Bu and led his men to charged forward.

When Ying Bu heard these words, he was furious. He hated people calling him Qing Bu.

"Ignorant Wang Li!"

The two generals crossed swords.

Both sides were fierce generals, and they went head-to-head.

To honestly decide the winner and the loser, they would need at least a hundred rounds.

Unfortunately, time waited for no one.

Currently, the Ying Bu forces who were attacking were at a total lost. They could only back down and assist the main army.

Those that backed down gathered with the main forces but with no one to command them, the situation grew even more chaotic. Wang Li's army slaughtered them as they wished, their goal was to make sure that Ying Bu’s could not gather and get into a formation.

At this very moment, the palace Guards who had rested up came over from the south gate and stabbed into Ying Bu's army.

Stuck in a pincer attack, Ying Bu's forces immediately collapsed.

In the midst of a battle, if one side fell into chaos, there was no chance for them to gather up and fix their formation.

All that remained were their deaths.

The soldiers ran in all directions, and the battlefield was in a total mess.

At the later stages, even the Guards Division soldiers came out to fight.

Ying Bu's army was in chaos, but the Qin Army was not.

The three cavalry forces orderly moved on the battlefield, coordinating with one another to reap life after life. The commander, Cao Can, stood on top of the city wall.

Using order flags, Cao Can moved the three cavalry forces to attack Ying Bu's army.

When Ying Bu saw that, he knew that they were in trouble, and he did not want to remain tangled with Wang Li.

He shouted, as he blocked Wang Li's attacks. He led his men to escape toward the uprising army camp.

Wang Li followed after hism, chasing closely after.

Only after chasing ten kilometers did they return back to Anyang City.

In this battle, out of the fifty thousand, only ten thousand of Ying Bu's army escaped. The remaining all died under the walls of Anyang City. This battle did not take a single prisoner.

If they did not live, they would have to die.

At this point, Baiqi's strategy was truly on track.

He needed to wait for Wang Li's troops to transport the grain to Anyang City.

At that point, Anyang City would be safety theirs.

At that point, he could start the second part of his plan.

The noisy Anyang City had finally regained its peace and quiet after two days.

Under the organization of Xiao He, the civilian in the city went out to clean up the corpses, collect armor and weapons, war horses, siege weapons, grain and the like.

Looking out at the corpse mountains and blood seas, all the aristocratic families looked at the Qin army in fear. All their childish and foolish thoughts immediately disappeared, and they did not even dare to think about it.

After the war ended, Ouyang Shuo returned to his room to rest and did not meet anyone.

He handed all the matters in the city to Xiao He and the two ladies.

Outside Jiyuan City.

After Ying Bu left, Xiang Yu donned his cape and grabbed his spear, ready for battle.

Xiang Yi was a martial arts genius: knife, sword, halberd, spear, he was good at them all. His spear was the Overlord Moon-snatching Spear, his sword was the Leiting Sword, and his halberd was the Dragon City-breaking Halberd.

As this was a one-versus-one battle, and they would fight on horses, Xiang Yu chose the spear.

The news of the battle had already spread across all the troops.

Outside the city, there was a huge empty space.

Er'Lai, Zhang Liao, Qinqiong, and Wang He were similarly well-equipped, as they led their forces out of the city.

The five of them were all born from different dynasties, spanning a total of 1,600 years.

Er'Lai came from the Shang Dynasty, Wang He from the Warring States, Xiang Yu from the Qin Dynasty, Zhang Liao from the East Han Three Kingdoms, Qinqiong from Sui Tang Dynasty.

This was a true battle of the ages.

On both sides, the two troops of soldiers stood in their formations and cheered on their respective generals.

Apart from the shouts, both sides also brought out their war drums to help raise the morale.

One-versus-one was the most intense matter in the military.

Which man did not want to be the focus of hundreds of thousands of people and kill the enemy?

Before the battle even began, the atmosphere had already burned up.

The shouts spread out and echoed across the valley.

Baiqi stood on the city wall; he looked really calm.

On both sides sat Zhang Han and the other lords.

After a short while, Xiang Yu rode on Wuzhui and entered the cleared area.

The moment he appeared, he received loud cheers and claps.

After over ten days of fighting, his prestige and position in the army had climbed higher and higher.

At the start, merely circumstances had forced the alliance to follow his lead. Now, they were all willing. There was no other way, Xiang Yu and the Jiangdong Warriors he led were simply too strong.

Under Xiang Yu’s leadership, this was an invincible iron army.

At the current moment, the three thousand Jiangdong Warriors had lined up at the front of the uprising army as the main force. In their eyes, Xiang Yu was their undefeatable war god.

On the opposite side, Er'Lai felt unhappy when he saw Xiang Yu receive so many cheers the moment he appeared.

Behind the four fierce generals were their elite forces. Formed up behind Er'Lai was the heavy armored mountain barbarians. This steel wall was unbelievably eye-catching on every battle.

There were even some people who termed this force as the Wall of Shanhai.

With them in the formation, it would be as solid and impregnable as stone.

Even the Jiangdong Warriors had suffered losses against the mountain barbarians at the area that they defended.

The mountain barbarian regiment, the earliest formed infantry regiment of Shanhai City. Based solely on combat strength, they could even hold their own against the palace Guards.

This was a true trump card force.

Behind Zhang Liao, Qinqiong, and Wang He stood the trump card forces of Consonance City, Xunlong County, and Fallen Phoenix City.

In contrast to Shanhai City, these three generals were the top generals of their territories, so they were treated differently. Bai Hua and the others had invested all their resources on them.

A history-shocking war was about to occur.

Chapter 425- The Overlord's Last Song

Along with the deafening beats of the war drums, the one-versus-one battle started.

At the front of the formation.

Xiang Yu mounted his Wuzhui Horse. He held the god weapon, Overlord Spear, in his hands. The weapon looked menacing and created an untouchable aura around him. Under the cheers of tens of thousands of people, the current Xiang Yu seemed like the pet of the heavens.

The glory of a war god was on full display.

Although it was four-versus-one, and they could go at him all at once, it would not look good. On the Qin Dynasty’s side, the strongest Er'Lai went up first.

Er'Lai had donned the Buren Armor, and he wielded a halberd in his hands. His mount was Luosha, who was not in the slightest bit weaker than Xiang Yu's Wuzhui horse.

The moment he appeared, loud cheers and shouts welcomed him. The ones that cheered the loudest were the mountain barbarians.

Luosha, this special mount, also instantly became the focal point of everyone.

"What beast is that?"

"Don't know. It doesn't look like something you would want to provoke."

"Hei, both the man and the mount are ugly."

……

"Who are you? Report your name."

When Xiang Yu saw that his opponent was not ordinary, he grew more and more excited.

Er'Lai smacked Luosha and arrived at the front of the formation,"I am Er'Lai, and I am here to teach you a lesson."

"Er'Lai!"

Excitement flashed across Xiang Yu’s eyes. Although he was a fierce general, he was not a dumb person. Not only was he well-read in military books, he also knew about history, so he had heard of Er'Lai.

In history, Er'Lai was a strong warrior that could go up against rhinoceros, bears, and tigers.

Facing such a strong opponent, Xiang Yu naturally relished the chance.

Er'Lai was also born with god given strength. In terms of strength alone, he was similar to Xiang Yu. However, Xiang Yu’s strength did not purely come from his god given strength. He also possessed exceptional martial arts.

In terms of martial arts, Er'Lai was much weaker than Xiang Yu.

"Ha!"

Er'Lai was fearless and took the initiative to attack.

Luosha was a smart beast and instantly charged forward.

Everything happened in an instant.

Xiang Yu gave out a confident smile and smacked his horse.

As the two of them approached each other, Xiang Yu made use of his weapon's length to causally stab across.

Er'Lai did not dare take to take this blow lightly, so he raised his double iron halberd to block the attack.

Dang!

As expected, although Xiang Yu’s strike looked casual, it was still really powerful.

If Er'Lai did not possess god given strength, and if Luosha was not a spirit beast, that hit would be hard to take. If it was a normal general, this move would easily fling him off his horse.

"Great!"

When Xiang Yu saw Er'Lai easily receive his stab, excitement built up within him. The Overlord Spear in his hand swung down. But whether it swept out or blocked, his expression was casual and not serious.

Er'Lai, on the other hand, was growing more and more solemn.

Xiang Yu's spear technique had already reached a level where he made the difficult look easy, and the seemingly easy strokes hid many exquisite martial concepts. If Er’Lai did not pay attention, he would be badly hurt.

If he failed to block or was too late to block, he would be badly hurt at any moment.

Even with Er'Lai's terrifying body qualities, under the successive hits, he still felt a terrible sensation in his chest.

If the Overlord Spear swept someone, even if they did not die, they would still lose a chunk of skin.

What an overlord, expectedly different.

Just like this, the two of them fought for thirty odd rounds, and Er'Lai slowly felt the difficulty rise.

In the battle, Er'Lai was basically forced to defend and remained on the back foot. Even so, he still felt his energy draining. On the other hand, Xiang Yu did not even break a sweat.

Xiang Yu was relaxed from start to finish.

Anyone could see that Xiang Yu held the advantage. Even without putting in his full effort, he made it difficult for his opponent to breathe.

Seeing their general's strength, the anti-Qin uprising army let out deafening roars.

On the other hand, the Qin Army was totally silent.

Only the heavy armored mountain barbarians were trying their best to raise the morale with their shouts.

At this point, Er'Lai finally realize the extent of Xiang Yu’s strength.

Zhang Liao, who was watching on from the side, came over when he saw the situation, "General Er'Lai, let me help you."

Zhang Liao's eyes were really sharp. He knew that if this situation dragged on, an accident might occur. Zhang Liao used the Moon-tooth Halberd, a long weapon similar to the Overlord Spear.

When Xiang Yu saw his actions, he did not panic at all and laughed, "Great timing!"

Such a figure, in a one-versus-two scenario, he was still so relaxed.

He struck out with his spear and chased after Er'Lai. Then, he used his spear to push aside Zhang Liao's halberd. Each spear was like the horn of a sheep, hard to see but totally deadly.

To Xiang Yu, his spear techniques acted as an attack and a defense.

Zhang Liao's halberd technique was also exquisite. However, his strength was far weaker than Xiang Yu. As such, he fell into a disadvantaged state.

It was clear that he had landed a blow on Xiang Yu, but his attacks were easily pushed aside.

Like a skilled kid facing a giant. No matter how good the swordsmanship, without strength to back it up, one hit from the giant would be enough.

The current Xiang Yu's martial arts had already reached a certain realm—the peak of martial arts.

Facing such a war god, everyone would feel weak and useless.

"Good!"

The uprising army camp cheered out when they saw their general show off his strength.

One-versus-two and not falling behind.

One must know that the people battling him were not scrubs. Be it Er'Lai or Zhang Liao, they were the pinnacle of their generation.

The three of them fought for thirty odd rounds more, yet they still could not do anything about Xiang Yu. At this time, Er'Lai was already exhausted. On the other hand, Xiang Yu only let out small beads of sweat. He possessed such terrifying stamina.

The strength of an overlord did not just come in power and skill; his body was also overpowered.

One could say that he had no weakness.

Such a general, only the war god Lu Bu during the Three Kingdoms Period could compete with him.

Who knows if one could witness the day when these war gods went head-to-head.

Just thinking about it made one's blood boil.

The charm of the game was on full display in these series of battles. Even the lords on both sides could not help but feel their blood heat up.

The generals that did not come out to fight fidgeted in their positions, and they wished that they could join in.

The atmosphere outside of Jiyuan City grew more and more intense. It had reached a point that was even more intense than a huge war.

"Since Xiang Yu is so savage, I'll join in!"

The one that spoke up was Wang He.

At this point, Xiang Yu was going one-versus-three.

"Who cares, do I look like I have any fear?"

Xiang Yu was still so arrogant; he did not see anyone as his level.

Only overlords had the ability to look down on everyone his age.

Er'Lai, Zhang Liao, and Wang He, these three generals formed up a three pronged formation and surrounded Xiang Yu within.

Xiang Yu showed no fear; his horse was also highly intelligent. It could move about freely in the tight space, changing his positions to coordinate with Xiang Yu's attacks.

One man and one horse combined into a whole.

The heavy Overlord Spear was not a weapon a normal person could wield. However, in his hands, it seemed so light, and he wielded it perfection as if it was a wooden stick.

The three of them attacking at once had piled a little pressure onto Xiang Yu.

Wang He was not a total no name, and he was a fearless General under Baiqi. When he was looking on from the side, he could already feel his blood boiling.

Once he joined the fight, he did not care about anything and just attacked.

If Zhang Liao did not help out, Xiang Yu would have struck Wang Li several times.

The three generals helped one another attack and defend.

Xiang Yu grew more and more solemn.

These three generals could not be found in the entire Qin Dynasty. Such a battle left Xiang Yu contented.

This huge battle was dazzling for all the soldiers watching on.

One might ask, had anyone seen a bigger battle than this in their lifetime?

No!

Another forty rounds passed, yet the winner and the loser remained undecided.

At this point, even Baiqi had to admit that Xiang Yu’s words were not merely born of arrogance; he had the ability to back it up.

Seeing the three of them attack together and still fail to win against Xiang Yu, the uprising army grew even happier, and their cheers got even louder.

The last general of the Qin Army could not sit still any longer, so he joined in.

Four-versus-one, this was unprecedented in history and was taking place outside of Jiyuan City.

The addition of Qinqiong also increased the pressure on Xiang Yu.

Qinqiong used a horse lance, which was the long weapon out of long weapons. His lance technique was similarly perfected. If not, Ouyang Shuo would not have allowed him to be a lance technique teacher.

In additon, he was young and filled with motivation and energy.

The four generals surrounded Xiang Yu and attacked.

Xiang Yu's eyes grew more and more intense.

Since the start of the battle till now, Xiang Yu's full strength was finally forced out. Only the residue image of the Overlord Spear remained visible, as Xiang Yu kept up with all their attacks.

Such a scene was really alluring.

One must know that the Overlord Spear weight hundreds of kilograms; it was not a small wooden stick.

As Xiang Yu showed off his skills, their battle entered its climax.

The soldiers on both sides led out ear piercing shouts to cheer on their generals.

Being influenced by these voices, the five generals could feel their blood boil.

One must not underestimate the influence of the environment on a general. It even influenced the overlord, Xiang Yu. This environment relaxed his body and mind.

To him, this battle was much more fun than commanding hundreds of thousands of men.

It was not often that he met such a suitable opponent.

This feeling, if one was not at the same level, one could not understand it.

"Haha!"

Xiang Yu laughed out boisterously, as he wielded the Overlord Spear in his hand with more and more strength.

Being provoked and influenced by Xiang Yu, Er'Lai and the other three generals pushed their skills to their maximum.

Through this battle, Qinqiong could even feel his skills, which had stagnated for years, actually experience signs of breaking through.

Meeting an expert was like that.

This battle was destined to be recorded in history.

Even Baiqi, who sat on top of the city wall, could not help but focus.

Although, he had arranged this battle, he could not control the procesl. Baiqi just wanted to waste Xiang Yu's time. It was obvious that he had achieved this goal, but the price was a bit too steep.

After this battle, Xiang Yu was pretty much immortalised in the uprising army.

In the previous battles, the soldiers had witnessed Er'Lai’s strength. They had not expected Xiang Yu to be able to one-versus-four and not fall to a disadvantage.

The entire Jiyuan City was bustling and raucous.

Chapter 426- Capturing Fan Zeng Alive

Outside Jiyuan City, the cheers were as loud as thunder.

The overlord Xiang Yu had fought one against four for over thirty rounds without any signs of falling off. The current Er'Lai seemed like he would fail to hold on and was just about to lose.

Baiqi looked up at the color of the sky. The red sun hung right in the middle. Unknowingly, it was noon.

"Retreat!"

"General?"

Zhang Han was shocked, backing off at such a moment seemed like a bad move.

Baiqi remained silent.

When Zhang Han saw this response, he could only order the troops to retreat.

The moment the military orders were passed down, the outside of the city was sent into a total uproar.

Both sides were unhappy.

Such a seismic battle, without even deciding the victor or the loser, why back off?

But it could not be helped; military orders were as large as the mountains.

No matter how unwilling they were, Zhang Liao and the others could only back off.

Only Er'Lai heaved a sigh of relief. He was the first to enter the fight, and he had battled for over a hundred rounds with Xiang Yu. He had already reached his own limit. He could even feel that his organs had shifted.

Xiang Yu, on the other hand, did not give chase. In truth, he was also a little tired. If this carried on, victory or defeat was really hard to say.

Seeing the Qin Army back off, the Anti-Qin Army grew more and more arrogant. They even started hurling abuse at the Qin Army.

After over ten minutes, seeing that the Qin Army was not willing to fight, Xiang Yu ordered his troops to back off. This historical battle ended just like that, leaving many regrets.

Afternoon.

After this huge battle, Xiang Yu was also totally exhausted, so he took a beautiful nap.

Who would have known that his good dreams would not last for long.

At 3 PM, a messenger rushed outside his tent anxiously.

"Who are you!"

The guard stopped the messenger.

"Emergency intel. I need to report to the General!"

"No, the General is sleeping. You can't disturb him."

The huge battle in the morning had raised Xiang Yu's prestige. Hence, his guards naturally felt some honor.

"It's an emergency. Time cannot be wasted."

The messenger was in total disarray.

These words also put the guard on the spot.

Just as he hesitated, Xiang Yu's voice sounded from within the tent, “Who's making noise outside the tent?"

When the guard heard these words, his face turned ashen white, and he stuttered, “General, it's the messenger."

"General it's bad!"

When the messenger heard Xiang Yu’s voice, he directly shouted in response.

"Absurd!"

Xiang Yu hollered, obviously unhappy.

"I'm wrong, General! I'm wrong!"

When they heard that, both the guard and the messenger kneeled on the ground.

Xiang Yu had a terrible temper. If one spoke incorrectly, they would definitely receive punishment.

The tent was totally silent.

After a while, Xiang Yu's voice sounded out again, “Enter!"

When the messenger heard this response, he entered and kneeled once again.

Xiang Yu frowned and scolded, "What matter is so urgent?"

"General, Ying Bu's army lost!"

"What?"

Xiang Yu was astonished; he smacked the table and stood up.

"The frontline reported that Ying Bu's army was ambushed, and they were nearly fully destroyed."

When Xiang Yu heard this report, he uttered no words.

The entire tent fell into dead silence.

The messenger did not even dare to breathe. He was afraid that he would disturb the thoughts of Xiang Yu.

"You can go!"

Xiang Yu said tiredly. The battle in the morning had not made him feel so exhausted. Even an overlord would have times when he felt that he did not have enough strength.

The messenger took this as his chance and dashed off.

Xiang Yu knew exactly what would happen once Ying Bu's troops lost.

He had no doubts about Ying Bu's ability to lead troops.

The only explanation was that from start to finish, Anyang City was just a bait that Baiqi set up.

Genius!

With Jiyuan City as the main camp, hiding inside and not coming out, attracting all the attention. In the dark, making use of the unassuming Anyang City to give the uprising army a huge surprise.

The defeat of Ying Bu naturally meant that the thirty thousand player force from before had lost too.

All of a sudden, Anyang City had swallowed eighty thousand troops.

A huge sense of failure rose in his heart.

If that was the case, the battle in the afternoon was just a show?

What a great plan, what great calculation.

Hei, to think that he was even pleased. He had unknowingly fallen into a trap.

Xiang Yu was feeling indescribably bitter.

No, he could not admit defeat.

His eyes glinted with a flash of light, and his fighting spirit was reignited.

The news of Ying Bu's defeat had spread across the army.

Apart from that, the failure of Di Chen's army also became known.

The consecutive blows caused the entire uprising army camp to totally fall silent.

Originally, they were already outnumbered, and now, they had lost eighty thousand men.

All of them felt that their future was bleak.

Some of the smart ones even smelled danger from Anyang City being taken over.

Grain!

Finally, this curse tightly hung over the heads of the uprising army.

Unstable emotions covered the entire uprising army camp. The happiness in the morning instantly became a total joke.

At night, the defeated Ying Bu army returned.

Personally witnessing their terrible state, the uprising army felt even more uneasy, and the entire camp could not sit still.

As for Di Chen's army, they did not even have the face to return after their lost, so they just hid in some deserted cave.

Han Xin?

Do not even think about it.

When Ying Bu returned, he immediately rushed to Xiang Yu's tent to ask for forgiveness.

Unfortunately, he could not even enter the tent.

The furious Xiang Yu nearly just killed him with a single sword.

Helplessly, he could only kneel outside the tent and ask for forgiveness.

At night, Xiang Yu gathered all the generals for a meeting.

When they saw Ying Bu kneeling outside, they all looked at him with varying expressions.

Some mocked, while others empathized.

Everyone was clear how bad the situation was for their army.

Fan Zeng's grain transporting group would reach Julu soon. The moment the Qin forces took over Anyang City, they broke the grain transport line of the anti-Qin forces.

Such a situation was enough to make one feel despaired.

In the tent, Xiang Yu was solemn. He looked around and gritted his teeth, "Even if we lose everything, we must take down Anyang City."

"Yes, general!"

All of them were clear that they had their backs against the war, so they could only take a gamble.

Unfortunately, Baiqi would not give them such a chance.

The next day, before they even started to act, the Qin Army forces from within Jiyuan City attacked out. They formed up their formations and stared right at the uprising army.

Their goal was simple, to delay the uprising army.

If they dared to attack Anyang City, hundreds of thousands of men would chase them down.

One must know that Anyang City had more than a hundred thousand men stationed. In order to take it down, they would need two to three times more men.

The uprising army were originally at a numerical disadvantage. If they sent two hundred thousand men over, how could they handle the assault of the main Qin Army force?

Just thinking about it made one feel hopeless.

All of a sudden, the uprising army was stuck in a difficult situation.

All the lords and princes called for an emergency meeting to discuss plans.

At this time, Xiang Yu did not have the authority to decide everything alone.

Sending Ying Bu to attack Anyang City was his idea. On this matter, he had committed a mistake, and his underestimations of the Qin Army had caused them to lose.

Ying Bu kneeled down outside for a night, but he still did not manage to meet Xiang Yu.

Everyone was clear that Xiang Yu was the main person to blame, just that no one spoke up. Poor Ying Bu became the scapegoat.

Time did not wait for anyone.

Just as the uprising army hesitated, the one hundred thousand men strong Wang Li main force reached Anyang City.

At the same time, the Guards Division left the city under Baiqi’s instructions. They were heading east, and their target was the grain transport group that Fan Zeng led.

In the news he received, the Qin Army was locked up in Jiyuan City, so he had not expected them to intercept his group. Facing the Guards Division, they could only surrender.

The grain that the Chu Army spent so much effort to gather was now in the hands of the Qin Army and transported to Anyang City. Even Xiang Yu's strategist and advisor Fan Zeng became a prisoner.

Compared to Saint Advisor Zhang Liang, Fan Zeng seemed a lot duller.

Not just in terms of political foresight, but in terms of convincing his lord, Fan Zeng was weaker than Zhang Liang. Some people said that it was because Xiang Yu was arrogant, which resulted in Fan Zeng's plans not being used.

In truth?

As a high-level advisor, if one could not find a suitable method based on the personality of the lord to convince them to accept your plan, you were a failure.

Fan Zeng loved to take pride in himself for being experienced, and he did not consider the personality of Xiang Yu. When the two butt heads, he naturally annoyed Xiang Yu.

Hence, Fan Zeng was a person with knowledge, but he was not a passable strategist.

A truly passable strategist would not have suggested to set up a Chu King to restrict Xiang Yu. He also let him bear the title of starting a coup.

A truly passable strategist would not allow Xiang Yu to overlook Han Xin.

A true strategist would not beat around the bush during the Hongmen Feast; they would directly kill Liu Bang.

A truly passable strategist would not be despised by Xiang Yu, even after being called his second father.

Looking down at this old man, emotions filled Ouyang Shuo.

Bai Hua spoke, "Wuyi, do you want to recruit that person?"

The Guards Division had captured Fan Zeng. Naturally, Ouyang Shuo would handle him.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head.

"Why? You don't want him? Why not give him to me?"

When Bai Hua heard his response, she bugged him.

"Wishful thinking."

Fan Zeng was not some useless cabbage. Naturally, Ouyang Shuo would not let him go.

"What do you want?"

Bai Hua was speechless.

Fan Zeng was in the hall, totally furious. He did not expect to receive such a treatment.

"This person is really useful. Don't forget, Xiang Yu still has a god general. Think about it, to use him to exchange for the god general, will Xiang Yu agree?"

When Bai Hua heard these words, she rolled her eyes at Ouyang Shuo, "Wuyi, you're too evil!"

Chapter 427- Han Xin Appears in Front of Us

"Men!"

"Present!"

"Send a letter to Xiang Yu. Say that his second father is in our hands, and ask him to use Han Xin to trade for him. If not, Fan Zeng will immediately die in Anyang City."

"Yes, my lord!"

Using Fan Zeng to exchange for Han Xin, this business was totally worth it.

After his men dragged Fan Zeng away, Ouyang Shuo continued the discussion before ending the meeting.

The current Anyang City had vast amounts of soldiers and resources. Ouyang Shuo was confident that even if Xiang Yu personally led his forces over to attack, Anyang City could at least defend for numerous days.

The army defending Anyang City included 140 thousand Wang Li troops, ten thousand Guards division, 2,400 palace guards. In total, they had close to 160 thousand troops.

The five hundred elites that Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang had brought were basically spent. Ouyang Shuo decided to just remove them from the equation. He asked them to protect the safety of the two women.

Cao Can and Zhou Bo, these two generals temporarily acted as guard generals.

Similarly, Xia Houying also followed Ouyang Shuo around as his personal guard.

This was a good point about the game. The moment a general recognized you as his lord, he would not betray you. As a result, Ouyang Shuo naturally did not need to worry that Xia Houying would kill him in his sleep to take revenge for his old master, Liu Bang.

The most important one was still Xiao He.

Making use of his free time, Ouyang Shuo looked for Xiao He numerous times to discuss territorial matters.

The Battle of Julu was not important to Ouyang Shuo anymore. His plans and energy had already been placed on after war affairs, including the arrangements and changes to the main map.

The current Xiao He was far from his peak in history.

However, Ouyang Shuo did not worry at all.

As long as they returned to the main map, Gaia would modify the historical person to allow them to have their peak skill level.

Uprising Army Camp.

When Xiang Yu received the letter, he felt both astonished and furious.

As expected, everything was written in the letter.

Just as all the uprising members were still getting at each other's throats and debating, Baiqi's knife had already cut down.

Everything was already too late.

Using Han Xin to trade for Fan Zeng was not something Xiang Yu cared much about. After all, Fan Zeng was his second father, so he had to save him. The key was that their grain was seized, and the uprising army was now at the brink of collapse.

His attempt at creating an empire was going to fail.

"Men!"

"Present!"

"Drag Han Xin up here."

"Yes!"

The Guards did recognize Han Xin. After all, he had entered Xiang Yu's tent several times. Unfortunately, he did not manage to be integrated and accepted by them.

After a short while, Han Xin was ripped up and forced into the tent.

If one looked carefully, Han Xin was actually very calm. He naturally knew the events that had happened in the army these past two days, and he had seemingly predicted such an outcome.

Xiang Yu raised his head and looked at Han Xin, his expression complex.

For a long while, Xiang Yu did not say anything.

When Han Xin saw that, he smiled slightly.

"If general wants to turn defeat into victory, the only way would be making use of the time of the hostage exchange to create a fake peace, but in truth, go all out to attack Anyang City."

How smart was Han Xin? He had realized Xiang Yu’s dilemma.

Han Xin's deductions had been proven right numerous times. Naturally, Xiang Yu was now interested in listening to his suggestions. Unfortunately, he had rejected Han Xin's proposal many times before, and he had even mocked Han Xin.

With his personality, how could he open his mouth to admit defeat?

When Xiang Yu heard these words, his expression grew more and more complicated.

After a long while, he shook his head, "That's my father. I can't risk his life."

"Haiz."

Han Xin gave out a long sigh and did not say anything else.

The next day, Han Xin was all tied up and sent to Anyang City.

Ouyang Shuo kept his promise and immediately released Fan Zeng.

"Untie General Han Xin."

"Yes!"

Although Han Xin was a prisoner, he was unusually calm.

"General, please sit!"

When Han Xin heard these words, he just directly sat down on the spot.

"I've admired and heard of General's name for a long time. If there's anything I did wrong, please forgive me."

Ouyang Shuo was really respectful of Han Xin.

Han Xin did not care much about that.

When Ouyang Shuo noticed this, he asked, "Did Di Chen try to recruit you?"

"That's right!"

"General, why didn't you accept?"

Ouyang Shuo was nervous, and he was really afraid that Han Xin might speak some remarkable reasoning.

"The time wasn't right."

"Oh?"

"If he managed to take down Anyang City, I would have agreed. Unfortunately, he didn't."

"...."

Ouyang Shuo was speechless; that was so close, Di Chen nearly succeeded. It was hard to imagine what waves Di Chen would cause in the north if he had both Lianpo and Han Xin.

Luckily, Baiqi was a level higher.

"What thoughts does the General have about Baiqi’s plans?"

Ouyang Shuo changed the topic.

Han Xin said two words expressionlessly, "Not bad."

"Just that simple?"

"Just that simple."

Ouyang Shuo's mouth twitched; Han Xin was salty. That was right, if he was the commander of the uprising army, the ending would probably be different.

"General are you willing to move to Shanhai City?"

Ouyang Shuo trod this topic very carefully, he was really worried that Han Xin would directly reject him.

Ouyang Shuo had a higher attraction rate to historical people compared to Di Chen. The territory specialties of Shanhai City was not something that Handan City could compare to.

However, Ouyang Shuo still was not totally confident.

"I'm willing!"

Cough. Ouyang Shuo choked.

“Please, you're a god general. Aren't you supposed to think about it?”

"You don't understand?"

"A little."

Ouyang Shuo honestly admitted. He really did not expect Han Xin to agree so quickly.

"I roughly know how to judge people, and I find that on your body, there's the aura of an emperor. It is hard to find a good lord. I've been searching for a good lord all my life, so what reason do I have to reject?"

When Ouyang Shuo heard this explanation, all his questions were solved.

The aura of an emperor had already taken root in his body?

If it was not Han Xin that said that, Ouyang Shuo would not have believed it.

He only knew that after he removed the dragon spirit from Liu Bang, the Gold Qilin Seal became more mysterious. Moreover, when he cultivated, he could feel that he formed a mysterious connection with the seal.

Apart from that, the other generals became more respectful of him.

Seems like everything had a connection with the aura of an emperor.

Ouyang Shuo's fortune and essence had totally changed. This change functioned on a spiritual and mental level. Hence, it would manifest itself in reality.

Who knows what it would become in the end.

The gap between Ouyang Shuo and Di Chen was so obvious.

One tried so hard and could not get it, while the other easily got it with a few words.

Was it the aura of an overlord written in the legends?

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo was delighted that he managed to convince Han Xin.

During this battle, he gained Xiao He and Han Xin, one martial and one civil servant.

Out of the three famous people during the initial Han period, Ouyang Shuo had obtained two. How could he not be pleased?

"General!"

Ouyang Shuo bowed to Han Xin, recognizing the latter as his general.

Han Xin solemnly bowed back, “Greetings, lord!"

At this point, their positions as master and servant were set, and Ouyang Shuo obtained another God General.

Ouyang Shuo checked out Han Xin's stats.

Name: Han Xin (God Rank)

Title: War Immortal

Dynasty: Qin Han

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Special General

Loyalty: 70

Command: 99

Force: 70

Intelligence: 85

Politics: 45

Specialty: Strategy (Raises troops morale by 40%, raises movement speed by 30%, raises defence by 20%, raises damage by 25%)

Book: Han Xin Art of War Three Passages

Equipment: Ancestral Sword

Han Xin's command stat was even higher than Baiqi’s, close to War Saint Sun Wu. Baiqi was both a commander and a fierce general, while Han Xin was a pure command-time general.

With Han Xin commanding the troops, there would be many benefits.

How difficult was it for one to get the name of War Immortal?

Apart from that, Han Xin was also a military theorist and a representative figure of the military strategists. He had studied scriptures and books together with Zhang Liang and wrote three books of his own.

Compared to Baiqi, Han Xin had some slight character flaws. Ouyang Shuo could naturally could accept that. All the generals in his army did not have to be righteous and flawless men.

After learning that Ouyang Shuo had recruited Han Xin, Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang were both envious and jealous.

"Why do you get all the good things?"

Feng Qiuhuang was unhappy.

"No choice. Looks decided one’s luck."

Ouyang Shuo was in a really good mood, so he joked around.

"Tsk, you obviously aren't handsome."

"That's right, not tall either."

Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang did not allow him to have his fun, so they teased him.

"Jealousy, you two are obviously just jealous."

Facing his thick skin, the two girls were left speechless.

The Battle of Julu had almost reached its closing stages.

The stolen grain announced the end of the uprising army.

A million Qin Army had cornered six hundred thousand uprising army troops into the valley, so they could not proceed or retreat.

They lacked grain, and it looked like they were going to run out at any moment.

The first people who could not sit still anymore were not the various princes, but the player lords in the Anti-Qin Camp. The lords had already obtained great rewards from their killings in the early parts of the war.

They did not want to be buried along with the uprising army. To prevent losses, each lord thought of a great idea, which was to kill themselves.

The moment they did, their troops could safely return to their territory.

In a short few days, many lords who had no more grain left killed themselves.

All of a sudden, the uprising army had a huge shrink in numbers, which caused a chain reaction. Apart from the ambition filled lords, the other lords had already left the battle map.

The moment the player armies left, the defeat of the uprising army was fixed.

The glow of the setting sun covered the valley, looking unusually cold.

Chapter 428- Four Side Chu Swansong

On the huge battlefield, only three hundred thousand troops remained.

In Xiang Yu's tent, the various princes and lords had gathered once again.

"General Xiang, what should we do now?"

Xiang Yu sat in the commander seat. He kept silent and did not speak a word. Fan Zeng sat at the side; his eyebrows tightly locked.

The experience of being captured made Fan Zeng really sensitive. He felt that the eyes of the lords and princes looked at him with contempt and mocking.

In truth, why would they think that?

After a long while, one of the princes carefully said, “Why don’t we surrender?"

The air in the entire tent instantly froze like they had touched upon some kind of forbidden curse.

"Bastard!"

Xiang Yu raged. He slammed his palm onto the table, which caused the wine on it to fly everywhere.

"Even if I die fighting, I won't surrender to those Qin thieves."

Xiang Yu hollered; filled with arrogance.

All of the lords and princes froze. When they thought about his skills on the battlefield, their timid faces had already turneed ashen white.

"Whoever dares to surrender, I'll kill them."

Xiang Yu looked around; his eyes filled with killing intent.

Total silence.

The moment a king grew furious, blood would flow.

Even so, that would not stop the lords and princes from making their own plans.

They were not fools and would not act as hot blooded as Xiang Yu.

At the start of the uprising, their main goal was naturally to overturn the tyranny of the Qin Dynasty. When they gained power, their goal had changed to gaining more interests for themselves.

Seeing that there were no hopes of victory, their desires died out.

Their blood was warm but their hearts cold.

Although they displayed submission to Xiang Yu, in their hearts, they had already made their decisions.

Rather than wait and die, why not try to live?

In the end, this meeting ended unhappily as all of them could not reach a common consensus.

The moment they left, Xiang Yu was so furious he smashed the wine cups.

"A bunch of bastards!"

Fan Zeng sat at the side and coldly said, “General, did you see that?"

Xiang Yu did not reply, as his face slowly blackened.

"Their eyes already show the intention to back off. Without the Qin Army forcing them, they would have already surrendered."

Fan Zeng's voice contained an indescribable sadness and disappointment.

Xiang Yu still did not say anything. His gaze toward Fan Zeng was ice cold.

The entire tent had an awkward atmosphere.

When Fan Zeng saw such a response, his embarrassment turned into anger, so he walked off.

After numerous days, the various troops could not hold on any longer and surrendered.

The grain in the camp could not last for even one more day. If they did not surrender, they were going to starve to death.

Even if they did not starve, how would a bunch of hungry soldiers survive against the Qin Army’s attack? Rather than wait for that, why not just surrender?

Relying solely on tens of thousands of troops, they could suppress two hundred thousand odd soldiers from the princes and lords. Xiang Yu's threats were just empty words. In front of a huge army, an individual's strength was nothing.

No matter how vicious he was, he could not lead the Chu Army to attack the princes and the lords.

Their surrender instead made the Qin Dynasty players unhappy. They wanted to use the last battle to obtain another bunch of battle contribution points.

Because of the battle map settings, the moment the NPCs surrendered, players could not kill them.

The army that surrendered were all handed over to Zhang Han to keep watch.

The lords could only scold out at the princes for being soft and weak.

How smart was Gaia? The moment the outcome was decided, it would not give the players chances to obtain easy rewards. The Battle of Changping had followed a similar ruleset.

The surrender of the Zhao Army signalled the end of the war. It did not give the players a chance to kill the prisoners.

After the various princes surrendered, even the Chu Army could not hold on anymore.

This army was mostly made up of troops taken from Song Yi; they were not his own army. Hence, at such a moment, they really did not want to listen to him.

As for his personal army, he only had the three thousand Jiangdong Warriors. However, after the numerous clashes, only two thousand remained.

What Xiang Yu found unacceptable was that along with the players leaving, the generals in his tent all left one by one to follow their new lords.

Ying Bu, Long Qie, Ji Bu, and Zhong Limei, all four of them left. Along with them, the last player army also left.

Of the entire uprising army, only Xiang Yu and his two thousand Jiangdong Warriors remained.

Betrayal.

In the end, even Fan Zeng left Xiang Yu.

To save Fan Zeng, Xiang Yu even gave up their last chance at victory.

Ironically, even Fan Zeng left him in the end.

People were complicated and hard to predict.

He was besieged on all sides.

Quite ironically, the famous four side Chu Song would not actually happen right here.

The overlord Xiang Yu was on his last leg.

This was the final battle.

Xiang Yu definitely would not surrender.

There would only be a dead overlord and not one that surrendered.

After hearing the news, Ouyang Shuo led his forces to the main battlefield to witness the battle.

The huge Qin Army rushed out of the city and formed up outside.

To express their respect, they sent their strongest force.

In terms of generals, Er'Lai, Zhang Liao, Qinqiong, and Wang He led the charge. For soldiers, they sent the palace Guards and the heavy armored mountain barbarians.

Only the palace Guards, who had formed an army spirit, dared to fight head on with the Jiangdong Warriors. As for the other player armies, they did not dare to face such a wild pack of monsters.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo still sent the mountain barbarians. The combination of sword and shield would create a buffing effect.

This was the climax.

No warm up, no morale booster.

Both sides straight up slaughtered one another. They did not spare the enemy any mercy.

Silence, silence enveloped the entire valley.

Only the sound of metal striking metal reverberated through the air.

The surrounding millions of soldiers were totally silent. They quietly watched on as this historical battle unfolded.

No cheering.

Focus was their best respect.

This battle was fought all the way till the mountains and rivers changed colors, till the light faded from the skies.

As the sun set, Xiang Yu rode on his horse and looked around.

Horses torn apart, blood flowing like rivers.

Two thousand Jiandong Warriors, none of them would ever stand up again.

The invincible Jiangdong Warriors finally fell to the palace Guards.

The coordination between the mountain barbarians and the palace Guards that wielded their Tang Blades displayed the glory and honor of Shanhai City.

In this battle, one thousand palace Guards had died. They had similarly suffered heavy casualties.

Even so, the Qin Dynasty Camp lords looked at them with respect.

What kind of army was that?

The strength of the Jiangdong Warriors was something that all the lords knew about. Such a bunch of freaks actually fell to the palace Guards.

In Ouyang Shuo's ear, a system notification sounded out.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, after countless battles, the palace Guards have formed an army spirit. After killing the Jiangdong Warriors, their killing intent has moulded them, and they have officially upgraded to divine martial Guards."

The lucky 1,400 surviving palace Guards emitted a terrifying aura, and their killing aura spread across the battlefield.

Each and everyone of them had a red glow behind them, as a red cape appeared. Upon close inspection, the cape was one designed like Ouyang Shuo's cape.

The cape had dragon patterns on both sides, making it look really threatening.

Name: Divine Martial Cape (Dark Gold Rank)

Stats: Raises morale by 40%, raises combat strength by 45%, increases movement speed by 25%

Specialty: Divine Martial (can revive once without any punishments)

Evaluation: The cape of the divine martial Guards. Limited to three thousand in number; it is the symbol of the Guards. Unique equipment, cannot be dropped, cannot be traded, cannot be removed, till death will they part.

Strength!

Gaia had officially renamed the palace Guards, while placing a limit of three thousand. Each member would automatically receive a cape.

After equipping the Divine Martial Cape, their combat strength pretty much rose by half.

If they fought with the Jiangdong Warriors again, even without the mountain barbarians, they would also win.

The change of the divine martial Guards astonished all the lords present.

Even an idiot could tell that the palace Guards had obtained something good.

From this day on, the divine martial Guards would become the symbol of Ouyang Shuo.

In the whole world, there would only be one such army.

The divine martial Guards were not the only focal point.

Everyone turned to look at Xiang Yu.

Some lords were tempted and wanted to get the honor of killing him. However, they did not act because they feared the palace guards and the Shanhai Alliance.

Everyone knew that the Shanhai Alliance, or better put it, Shanhai City, was the greatest contributor.

After four battles, Ouyang Shuo's prestige amongst the players had grown. At least now, no one would dare to challenge them.

Ouyang Shuo smacked his horse and arrived before Xiang Yu.

"Who are you, state your name, I won't kill a nameless fellow."

Even though Xiang Yu had fallen to such a state, his arrogance did not reduce. He noticed that Even Baiqi and Er'Lai respected and worshipped this young man.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, "I'm player Qiyue Wuyi. Greetings, General Xiang."

Unexpectedly, his words did not contain any killing intent.

"Hen." Xiang Yu did not believe that, ‘You want me to surrender? Impossible."

Ouyang Shuo looked at Xiang Yu and shook his head and emotionlessly said, “Kill yourself then!"

The moment his words sounded out, the player lords were thrown into an uproar.

They did not understand why Ouyang Shuo would give up the reward for killing him.

They did not know that heroes pitied heroes.

Ouyang Shuo did not want to see an overlord of a generation die to someone useless.

When Xiang Yu heard these words, he kept silent and did not say anything.

After a long while he said, “Qiyue Wuyi? I will remember you, I owe you one."

As he said that, he stabbed himself. Just like that, Xiang Yu died under his own sword.

Chapter 429- End of the Battle

Along with Xiang Yu killing himself, the battle officially ended.

"Battle Report: The Battle of Julu is officially over, congratulations to the Qin Dynasty Camp for successfully changing history. Each lord is awarded one thousand merit points; their battle contributions points increased by 50%. Friendly reminder, the bonus contribution points aren't calculated into the rankings."

When Baiqi obtained the Qin Dynasty Camp commanding rights, the system gave Ouyang Shuo a bonus 20% contribution points. Summing up the two, Ouyang Shuo had a 70% bonus, close to double.

"Battle Report: The Battle of Julu is officially over, now calculating contribution points based on your contribution to your camp."

In Ouyang Shuo's ear, a notification sounded out.

"System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi, Qin Dynasty camp representative figure, taking over Anyang City, wiping out Ying Bu's army, and facing off against the Jiangdong Warriors. Contribution is immeasurable, rewarded fifty thousand bonus battle contribution points.

Ouyang Shuo had once again obtained the ‘immeasurable’ evaluation. This time, it was just luck. Ouyang Shuo had only wanted to go hunting; he did not expect himself to become an important piece in the puzzle when he returned.

Thinking about it, without the three thousand palace Guards defending Anyang City, it would fall into the hands of the Anti-Qin Camp.

The entire war would have probably changed.

Compared to Ouyang Shuo, Di Chen only lacked a little luck. Just a little more, and Di Chen could have been the most important figure in this battle.

Even so, the bonus rewards that Ouyang Shuo obtained were just average. He had obtained much higher bonuses in the Battle of Muye.

When Baiqi obtained the commanding rights, he was already awarded fifty thousand points. Hence, in his evaluation, these points were not included into his bonus points calculation.

With just these two rewards, Ouyang Shuo had already gotten a hundred thousand battle contribution points.

After calculating all the bonus battle contribution points, the final standings were in place.

Rank- Name- Battle Contribution Points

1st: Qiyue Wuyi- 684,000

2nd: Zhan Lang - 235,000

3rd- Feng Qiuhuang- 228,000

4th: Bai Hua- 225,000

5th: Di Chen- 154,000

6th: Xiong Ba- 85,000

7th: Chun Shenjun- 84,500

8th: Xunlong Dianxue- 75,200

9th: Caiyun Zinan- 72,500

10th: Gong Chengshi- 72,000

Taking a look at the rankings, it was not hard to see the importance of troop numbers in battle. Zhan Lang, Bai Hua, Feng Qiuhuang, and Di Chen were all rank 3 Marquis. As a result, they could roughly bring ten thousand troops, three times that of a rank 1 earl.

The contribution points of the four were also far higher than the other lords.

As for Ouyang Shuo, it was needless to say. Not only was his rank the highest, his army was the strongest. His bonus rewards were also the most, and he had accumulated a total of 680,000 battle contribution points.

The second tier group, Xiong Ba, Chun Shenjun, Xunlong Dianxue, and Gong Chengshi were all close to one another. In terms of points, Xiong Ba and Chun Shenjun edged ahead. With that, one could see that the large powers still possessed an added advantage.

Xiong Ba had Wuqi, while Chun Shenjun had Tian Dan, both top-grade generals. The armies that they brought were also much more elite compared to Xunlong County and Black Lion County.

The further behind they fell, the harder Xunlong Dianxue and the others would find it to keep up with Ouyang Shuo's pace.

Internally, Feng Qiuhuang also surpassed Bai Hua for the first time and took the third spot.

Although Shanhai Alliance took up half of the spots on the rankings, in truth, they had done so with much difficulty.

In the previous battles, Xunlong Dianxue and the others could do as they wished solely because the battle was small-scale. In those cases, Ouyang Shuo alone could control everything.

Only because of Ouyang Shuo could they act like fish to water.

Only by using the advantages they accumulated in the first three battles, could they compete with Xiong Ba and the others.

If not, they would have dropped out a lot earlier.

In Ouyang Shuo’s last life, Xunlong City was not as glorious and famous as now.

As the scale of the battles and wars increased, Ouyang Shuo’s influence would diminish greatly.

The Battle of Changping had already showed some signs.

The Battle of Julu was even more so. Facing millions of troops, how could Ouyang Shuo alone control the battle?

In the subsequent battles, they could only depend on themselves.

Apart from that, the element of generals could not be taken lightly.

During the first three battles, Xunlong Dianxue and the others were lucky to obtain suitable generals early on. The game had limited Xiong Ba, as he did not have suitable generals.

Now, it was different. The general supply of the various powers had surpassed them.

This was strength.

Following which, if Xunlong Dianxue and the others did not make any large moves, they would be suppressed all the way with no way to move.

During the Huangjin uprising battle, Wufu being left out was already a dangerous signal.

After the battle, the top ten territories would definitely all upgrade to the prefecture grade.

The upgrade mission was another huge step.

In this matter, Xiong Ba would once again surpass Xunlong Dianxue.

The strength of the Yanhuang Alliance was slowly exploding out. Commoner alliances like Shanhai Alliance would find it really difficult to beat them.

To Di Chen and the others, Ouyang Shuo was the only one that stood over their heads.

Of course, it was not that Ouyang Shuo lacked a plan to handle them. Raising Bai Hua and pulling Feng Qiuhuang along, they would form the strongest iron triangle; this was their best bet at going against the Yanhuang Alliance.

The battle between the two alliances was far from over.

On the rankings, the biggest change would be the dark horse—Caiyun Zinan.

A lord from neither of the top two groups had suddenly reached the top 10 rankings. It caused an uproar bigger than the fact that Ouyang Shuo had taken the top spot once more.

The scene of the Yanhuang Alliance and the Shanhai Alliance solely occupying the top rankings was broken.

The part that embarrassed Gong Chengshi was that he had fallen 500 points behind her.

Ouyang Shuo knew a little about this dark horse.

The Black Snake Guards were created to take charge of monitoring all the big territories.

The territory of Caiyun Zinan was known as Caiyun County. Located in Xiangnan Province, it was connected to Chuannan Province and Lingnan Province that Shanhai Territory was located in.

The Xiangnan Prefecture temporarily did not have any members of the two large alliance in it.

Caiyun Zinan was the strongest power there and the alliance leader of the Caiyun Alliance.

Before this, the appearance of local powers only showed small signs. The total appearance of Caiyun Zinan had undoubtedly announced the emergence of local powers.

The China region had many lords that were not content to stay in the shadows of the two major alliances.

Ouyang Shuo remembered that in his last life, Caiyun Alliance had a firm grip on Xiangnan Province. It was a heavy weight that could sit on the same level as Bai Hua.

The wheels of history really could not be stopped.

Even the rebirth of Ouyang Shuo could not prevent the development of such powers.

The future Nanjiang was destined to not to be calm.

With this, the Nanjiang Governor-General did not only need to face the challenge of the Yanhuang Alliance.

The moment the rankings were released, the uproar continued to fester.

The matter the current lords were most concerned about was not the rankings. What they cared about was whether they had enough merit points to upgrade to rank 3 Marquis.

The other lords turned their eyes to the battle Commerce City.

This was a once in a lifetime chance.

Ouyang Shuo also looked at his merit points. As for the shop, he was not interested in it.

His basic battle contribution points was 684,000, after the 70% bonus, it was 1,162,800 points. Deducting the 140,000 he spent, he was left with 1,022,800 points.

It had to be mentioned that the contribution points spent would also be calculated in the rankings, and it would similarly give bonus points.

If not, none of the lords would be willing to exchange for goods during the battle.

One million battle contribution points were enough to make other lords go crazy. Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate and exchanged them for merit points in a 10:1 ratio, so he obtained 102,280 merit points.

Apart from that, he also obtain two hundred merit points from killing Xu Huang.

Lastly, he obtained the extra four thousand merit points for his first placed ranking, as well as for rewriting history, which gave him an extra one thousand merit points.

Just from this battle alone, Ouyang Shuo had amassed 109,280 merit points, a terrifying amount.

Ouyang Shuo took a look at his total merit points. They had reached 262,180, and he had ranked up to a rank 1 Marquis. The next rank would be Duke.

The merit points required for a Duke was one million, so terrifying.

Ouyang Shuo was happy for a while before stowing away his emotions. His merit points were just a quarter of the amount needed for the Duke rank.

Apart from Ouyang Shuo, Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang both upgraded to grade 2 Marquis.

Di Chen and Zhan Lang, as they had just upgraded to rank 3 Marquis and were part of the Anti-Qin camp, did not get the bonus multiplier. As such, they were close to rank 2 Marquis.

Chun Shenjun, Xiong Ba, Xunlong Dianxue, Caiyun Zinan, and Gong Chengshi had ranked up to rank 3 Marquis. All of which was expected; no accidents had occurred.

Apart from that, which other lords became rank 3 Marquis were unknown.

In Shanhai Alliance, Wufu and Song Wen made use of the camp multiplier to arrive at just a step away from rank 3 Marquis. When they returned to the battle map, as long as they worked hard, it would not pose no problem.

Chapter 430- Qin Shihuang Appears

After tabulating the total battle contribution points, the Commerce City was also emptied.

At this point, the battle had truly ended, and the lords quickly teleported back to the main map.

Only Ouyang Shuo stayed behind as usual.

The Shanhai Alliance members were already used to this, so they said their simple goodbyes and left.

When Ouyang Shuo waited for the final rewards, he specially went to meet Zhang Han.

As for the other Qin Army General, Wang Li, probably because he noticed that Ouyang Shuo was unhappy with him, he did not follow along. Instead, followed the black horse, Caiyun Zinan.

Who knows what terms Caiyun Zinan set down to pry Wang Li away.

Just leave, Ouyang Shuo did not mind.

After spending a period of time together, Zhang Han had totally recognized Ouyang Shuo. He did not even wait for Ouyang Shuo to open his mouth. He simply greeted," Zhang Han greets the lord!"

"Good, General Zhang, please rise."

Shanhai City had obtained another general. Naturally, Ouyang Shuo felt happy.

Which lord would complain about having too many martial generals? Much less someone of Zhang Han's caliber.

In the Battle of Julu, not only did Ouyang Shuo obtain large amounts of merit points, he also obtained the Guangyao Armor Making Technical Manual and the Olden Agriculture Tool Crafting Technical Manual.

Of course, most importantly, he recruited Xiao He, Han Xin, Zhang Han, and Xia Houying.

One had to say that Ouyang Shuo was the biggest winner once more. This was even before considering the reward from taking the top spot on the leaderboard.

Making use of the time, Ouyang Shuo took a look at Zhang Han's stats.

Name: Zhang Han (Emperor Rank)

Title: Yong King

Dynasty: Qin Dynasty

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Special General

Loyalty: 75

Command: 90

Force: 72

Intelligence: 65

Politics: 45

Specialty: Valiant General (raises morale of troops by 30%, raises movement speed by 20%, raises combat strength by 15%)

Cultivation Technique: Nil

Equipment: Qin Sword

Evaluation: Zhang Han was a valiant general of Qin. If he did not lose, Qin would not die out. He went out and killed Zhou Zhang, broke Chen She, and forced Wei Jiu to surrender. His troops were strong and made war seem like hunting rabbits.

Zhang Han was Shanhai City’s fourth emperor rank general after Shi Wanshui, Er'Lai, and Fan Lihua.

In the afternoon, the final reward was delivered to his hands.

Ouyang Shuo took a look; it was a secret manual. Upon closer inspection, it was actually an emperor rank sword technique, which delighted him.

This battle had left him no regrets.

Name: Killing Sword Sword Manual (Emperor Rank Cultivation Method)

Strokes: Killing Sword Seven Kills: first killing life, second killing soldiers, third killing sergeants, fourth killing generals, fifth killing oneself, sixth killing all life, seventh killing spirits

Special Move: 100 Miles Slaughter (the moment this killing sword is used, it will leave no one within 100 miles alive)

Evaluation: User of the killing blade, the Qin Army wielded the Qin Blade on the battlefield. It is an ultimate technique refined through battle.

As expected from the Qin Army Sword Technique. Before he even cultivated it, a simple look at the introduction resulted in a killing intent striking him face first.

Ouyang Shuo stored the manual away and did not immediately try to cultivate it. This sword technique needed a quiet spot to analyze. The battle map was obviously not suitable.

"Let's go!"

Ouyang Shuo had obtained so many rewards in this battle. Naturally, it was not without sacrifices.

In this battle, the Shanhai City Army had suffered heavy casualties.

Of the three thousand palace Guards, half had died. Luckily, they remaining upgraded to become Divine Martial Guards. Of the 2,500 mountain barbarians, eight hundred had died, similarly suffering heavy casualties. The Guards Division had suffered the most, losing 2,400 men.

Those that had died were the most elite soldiers of Shanhai City.

When Ouyang Shuo returned to the main map, it was already the 7th month, 27th day. The moment he walked out of the teleportation formation, a system notification sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: The Battle of Julu has officially ended. Important historical figures during the Qin Dynasty have automatically joined the game. Players please search for them yourselves."

……

The Qin Dynasty had a short history. Apart from the famous ministers and generals during Qin Shihuang's time, a large portion had either continued on into the West Han Period or were recruited by players in the battle map.

The only one remaining that people wanted was probably the Strategy Saint, Zhang Liang.

Hence, compared to the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period, lords did not look forward to the Qin Dynasty as much. The other dynasties that could compare with the Spring and Autumn Period were very, very little in number.

Following closely behind was another system notification that blew the lid off everything.

"System Notification: The emperor of olden times, Qin Shihuang, has officially moved into Xiangyang City. Xianyang Imperial Court has changed to Qin Imperial Court. Li Si, Wei Liao, Wang Jian, Wang Ben, Meng Tian, Meng Yi, and other famous officials and generals have officially enter the Qin Imperial Court."

……

The moment the notification went out, everyone was in an uproar.

Qin Shihuang moving into Xianyang was a whole new setting. Players could not predict whether the other future imperial cities would have a change in dynasties.

Apart from Qin Shihuang, the other generals in history who fought alongside him would also come to his side. That way, Qin Shihuang would not be lonely with no one to depend on.

Such a change, how would it affect the wilderness? Everything was totally unknown.

Only Ouyang Shuo remained the most calm.

In his last life, Qin Shihuang had similarly moved into Xiangyang, so there was nothing unexpected about it.

Last time, when Du Ruhui met the Dali Emperor, he could not see his real face because the emperor was not decided.

As the game proceeds and the battles end, all nine imperial cities would have a true emperor taking control.

Of course, an emperor taking over an imperial city did not mean they would immediately attack the wilderness. With Xianyang as an example, if Qin Shihuang wanted to develop and expand, which lord in the Xianyang Region could stop him?

None!

For historical emperors to move into imperial cities was only to increase the possibilities of the game. No only for lords but also for adventure gamemode players.

Apart from that, it also increased the difficulty for the lords to attack the imperial cities.

In the future, if Ouyang Shuo wanted to take over the Dali Region, he could not avoid Dali City.

Taking down an imperial city was not an easy matter.

In his last life, none of the imperial cities fell even in five years.

The appearance of Qin Shihuang had already surprised all the players. Who knew that Gaia was not done and would continue to drop another huge bomb.

"System Notification: West Chu Overlord Xiang Yu officially moves into the wilderness and builds the Chu Country in Peng City. Xiang Yan, Xiang Liang, Xiang Bo, Xiang Zhuang, and more relatives have automatically moved into the Chu Country."

……

Xiang Yan was the grandfather of Xiang Yu and had three children.

The eldest Xiang Qu, who was Xiang Yu's father, died early.

Zhang Han had nursed the second-born Xiang Liang in the Battle of Dingtao.

The third, Xiang Bo surrendered to Liu Bang. He was granted the surname Liu and the title Seyang Lord.

Xiang Zhuang was Xiang Yu's cousin.

Yu Ji was Xiang Yu's wife; she did not appear in the Battle of Julu.

The entire Xiang family had basically been revived. They had Xiang Yu as their core and Peng City as their capital, cleanly setting up the Chu Country.

Although it was a country, in truth, it was just a city.

Along with the system report, in the northeast point of Jianye Region, at the area closest to Pannan Province, a suddenly white light flashed across and a city appeared.

Peng City was the earliest imperial city of the Yellow Emperor, and it was located in a quality geographical position.

North of it was Lu Dong Province.

East was Jianye Region.

South was Pannan Province.

West was the Zhongyuan Province.

Along with the establishment of the Chu Country, the southeast region of the China region grew more and more interesting.

The one who had the biggest headache was most probably Zhan Lang's Blood Red City.

Between the two cities, there was just a short distance.

Different from Qin Shihuang, Xiang Yu and his Chu Country would compete for the wilderness.

The appearance of the Xiang Family had already completed the second information piece.

The future wilderness would grow more and more busy.

With the two system notifications, there would be a huge change to the world.

Under such changes, who could lead the charge and adapt, who would become to strongest?

To Ouyang Shuo, it was also similarly a huge test.

Returning to Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo gathered all the officials and generals and did a simple introduction. He mainly just introduced the four new people to everyone.

Ouyang Shuo announced a series of personnel adjustments.

Firstly, establishing the third legion—Leopard Legion. Wei Zhang would lead the 1st division known as the Leopard Legion First Division.

Han Xin was also given the title of Great-General. He would become the General of the Leopard Legion.

Ouyang Shuo granting him the title of Great-General and not commander-in-chief meant that Baiqi was still the highest authority.

After receiving his duty, Han Xin followed Baiqi and proceeded to Leizhou Prefecture to command the Battle of Zhaoqing.

Baiqi would be the main commander and Han Xin his deputy, what a stellar combination.

Zhang Han was temporarily the deputy general of the Leopard Legion. In the future, after they took down Zhaoqing, he would be in charge of building the 2nd division.

Xiao He and Xia Houying temporarily remained in the Nanjiang Governor-General Manor.

Xiao He was a huge talent. Unfortunately, there temporarily was not a suitable position for him. Ouyang Shuo could only neglect him for the time being and let Xiao He assist him in administrative matters.

As for Xia Houying, Ouyang Shuo did not want to place him into the military.

At the moment, he did not lack generals, so he had a more suitable stage in mind for Xia Houying to shine.

It was mentioned that Xia Houying was the Taipu. He had vast experiences in managing chariots and transport horses. It would be a waste to place such a talent in the military.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it. Why not set up a unit similar to the Taipu Temple? It would be in charge of the horses and transportations in the territory.

Temporarily, the horse breeding grounds only had the Jifeng Horse stables and the Shenjuan Lake Army Horse breeding ground. As the territory grew, there would definitely be more and more of these places.

War horses were a strategic resource in the military.

Not only horses, in the later stages of the game, there would be other mounts that the cavalry would use. Ouyang Shuo understood in his last life that there were rhinos, wolves, elephants, and the like.

Hence, setting up a specific organization was much needed.

Before this, the Lianzhou Lord Manor had a Transport Division, but along with the Material Reserves Department disbanding, the Transport Division was also removed. If he used the name of Transport Division once more, it did not seem appropriate.

As for the specifics, he still needed to put more thought into it.

After the simple meeting, Baiqi, Han Xin, and Zhang Han immediately left for Leizhou. Er'Lai also led the mountain barbarian regiment and returned to the Mulan Stronghold.

Although the battle had ended, the flames of war would continue to rise in the main map.

Chapter 431- Debate of Confucianism and Legalism

Night, Nanjiang Governor-General Lord’s Manor.

God Physician Bianque arrived at the manor, personally taking Ouyang Shuo's pulse and diagnosing him.

"How is it?"

The one that spoke was Song Jia.

When she heard that Ouyang Shuo got hurt in the battle map, Song Jia immediately exited the mountains and returned to the manor.

Bianque's brows were locked tight, “The poison that afflicts the lord is called the poison of Hanya. It's very rare."

"The poison of Hanya, are there any antidotes?"

"Difficult."

"How can this happen? Even you have no way?"

Song Jia was anxious.

"The poison of Hanya is a weird poison that's very tough. It can be suppressed, but it's difficult to remove completely." Bianque was very familiar with this poison.

"Is the poison of Hanya a type of ice poison?"

"That's right."

"Then will the rhino horn antidote pill we made last time have any use?"

“Compared to the ice poison that afflicted Master Lin, the poison of Hanya is far worse." Bianque shook his head and suddenly said, “If I deduced correctly, my lord has used the inner pellet of the desolate beast?"

"That's right."

Ouyang Shuo's emotions and expression were very calm.

"If it wasn't for the inner pellet, the poison would have acted already."

"Since that's the case, is the iron armored beast's inner pellet effective in treating this poison?"

In response to these words, Bianque took in a deep breath, "If it's a normal desolate beast, it wouldn't work. It has to be the inner pellet of a king beast. Mixing it with the special grade rhino horn antidote pill is the only way we can totally remove the poison of Hanya."

"As long as there's a way." Song Jia was delighted.

Bianque shook his head, "Based on what I know, the iron armored beast is already very rare. The king beast is even rarer. To find one and even kill one isn't an easy matter."

"I don't believe that on the entire Qiongzhou Island, I can't find a single king beast."

Song Jia was adamant; her eyes filled with determination. She decided that she would personally head for Yazhou to search for a king beast.

With just a glance, Ouyang Shuo saw through her plans and laughed, "You don't need to personally make the trip. I'll just write a letter to Tian Wenjing and Sun Bin. I’ll ask them to handle it."

"No." Song Jia shook her head, "Searching for a king beast isn't something the military specializes in. It's better if I bring some of the disciples along and give them some training."

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he stopped trying to persuade her.

Thinking about it, Tianqi and the others were still training in Yazhou. Who knows whether or not they were safe?

The matter was settled just like that.

After Bianque left, Song Jia gave Ouyang Shuo a displeased expression and grumbled, "You're so big already, yet you don't know how to take care of yourself."

Ouyang Shuo laughed and did not say anything.

"Jerk!"

Song Jia was both angry and amused.

"Oh yeah, my brother sent me a letter."

"Oh?"

Song Jia frowned, "Our family is split up on the matter of Shanhai City attacking Zhaoqing Prefecture. The one that opposes the idea the most is my second uncle."

"Does your uncle treat Zhaoqing Prefecture as something that he owns?"

Song Jia gave out a long sigh.

Amongst her family, there were overly arrogant people.

They did not stop to think that the entire Zhaoqing Prefecture was not something that the Tianshuang County could control alone.

Needless to say, Ouyang Shuo with his title of Nanjiang Governor-General, not to mention a Zhaoqing Prefecture, the future Lingnan Province was within his target.

At that point, how could anyone harbor hidden ambitions?

They did not stop to think that without Shanhai City supporting them from behind, Tianshuang County would have found it difficult to even gain a foothold in Lingnan Province, much less have the results and glamor of today.

However, as a member of the younger generation, it was not nice if she bad mouthed her elders behind their backs.

"It's okay." Ouyang Shuo patted her shoulder and laughed, "I’ll handle it."

When he decided to attack the Zhaoqing Prefecture, Ouyang Shuo had already predicted such an outcome

The Song family was also an aristocratic family, so how would it lack ambitious players?

Ambition was just ambition, in the face of absolute power, it was useless.

After considering Song Jia's feelings, Ouyang Shuo naturally would handle the matter well.

"En."

Song Jia nodded and snuggled tightly into Ouyang Shuo's embrace.

She knew that this man had experienced a lot, and he was not the no-name from before. His methods, actions, knowledge, and magnanimity were unbelievable.

Song Jia felt really thankful, thankful that she had confessed that day.

"Oh yeah. Take some time and bring your parents over to Shanhai City."

"Oh?"

"Why, I want to see my future-in-laws, can't I?"

"Hen, who knows what you're thinking." Song Jia did not believe that Ouyang Shuo simply wanted to meet them. If not, he would not have waited for such a moment.

"You're smart."

Ouyang Shuo did not try to deny it.

Since the Song Family had split, he naturally needed to support his future father-in-law to totally take over control of family matters.

They needed to go into the specifics if this matter.

If Ouyang Shuo rushed to Tianshuang County, the Song Family people would surround him, and he might not have the chance to talk to his future father-in-law.

How smart was Song Jia? She roughly understood his intentions.

"Wait for my return from Yazhou!"

"Great!"

As long as the poison in his body remained uncured, Ouyang Shuo could not cultivate. Even the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique was used to suppress the poison, so he could not form any new primordial energy.

He would have to push the Killing Sword Sword Manual he had just obtained back to a future stage.

The next day, Ouyang Shuo sent off Song Jia.

Before leaving, he reminded her that she definitely needed to bring back Tianqi and his group when she arrived there, as he had plans for them. Song Jia gave him a weird look, not saying anything and just nodding.

Mentioning this matter, Ouyang Shuo had supported the Dongli Sword Sect from the start. It was time for them to show their use.

After sending her away, Ouyang Shuo asked to meet Black Mamba.

"Lord!"

Black Mamba was dressed entirely in; he even had a hooded black cape.

He only removed the hood when he saw Ouyang Shuo.

After creating the Black Snake Guards, the original Black Mamba had totally disappeared, replaced with the mysterious Black Snake. Even the people of Shanhai City rarely noticed the presence of Black Snake.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo was an exception.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, "Two missions. First, send someone to search for god craftsman Ou Zhizi. Second, increase the infiltration of Caiyun Alliance, especially that Caiyun County."

"Understood!"

Black Snake was very brief and simple with his words.

Neither of these missions were easy, but he was confident. After a few months of expansion, their influence in the China region was not something that could be overlooked.

With the nine intel stations as the core and with the huge financial support of Ouyang Shuo, the Black Snake Guards had already set up a huge intel network.

Of course, compared to Handan City's Difeng, the Black Snake Guards were still lacking.

The establishment of Difeng did not just use the resources of Di Chen's family; they also used the mysterious resources Fenghua Jueda owned.

This mysterious beauty was not just Di Chen's advisor.

Even Di Chen's family did not dare to command and disturb her.

These hidden resources were things that the Black Snake Guards could not compare to.

The strength of Difeng was due to their deep relations with the player groups. The attack direction of the Black Snake Guards was naturally toward the NPCs. In this aspect, Shanhai City held a huge advantage.

The specialty and buffs of the territory were not for nothing.

At the same time, the strength of the Black Snake Guards also made Ouyang Shuo wary.

Although he still had the confidence to control them for now, he could not be sure that they would not go around him and make other deals.

In the building process of the Black Snake Guards, Ouyang Shuo obviously would not totally let go and let Black Snake handle everything. Ouyang Shuo personally took care of some of the personnel arrangements.

Black Snake accepted the way Ouyang Shuo handled this.

Black Snake knew that if Ouyang Shuo did not make such arrangements, it would be weird instead.

That would mean the lord did not trust the Black Snake Guards.

The most effective way was to complete his original idea.

Three intelligence organizations keeping one another in check.

The problem was the most crucial Safety Division; he still had not managed to set it up.

It seemed like he needed to establish the division more quickly.

After Black Snake left, Wei Yang walked in.

"Lord!"

"Sir!"

"Does the Internal Affairs Department have anything to report?"

"No."

"Oh?"

Wei Yang's expression was a little weird, "A few days ago, Meng Zi of Confucianism came over."

"Meng Zi?"

Ouyang Shuo froze. After he calculated the time, he realized that the philosophers’ debate was almost upon them.

That was interesting.

"That's right."

"It seems like he's ready to have a debate with you. Are you confident?"

"I'm totally confident."

"Great." Ouyang Shuo laughed, "Since that's the case, let's make it big. I'll hand out invitations to invite all the philosophers for a feast."

Ouyang Shuo could feel that the time to organize a philosopher debate had matured.

In philosophical studies, Confucianism, Legalism, Mohist, and Taoism were the four greatest.

Amongst them, Confucianism had many battles.

The debate of Confucianism and Legalism centered on whether one should rule with laws or with the heart. The debate of Confucianism and Mohist focused on charity or universal love. The debate of Confucianism and Taoism was on whether to act or not to act.

The Qin Dynasty had Legalism as its tradition.

The initial Han dynasty used Taoism, so it focused on ruling without taking action.

During Han Wudi's time, Confucianism took over.

Of course, each school of though contained elements from each other.

On the surface, Confucianism was the main one, but Legalism was still used. When one needed to be killed, they had to die.

Hence, the most crucial debate laid between Legalism and Confucianism.

Meng Zi, as the representative figure of Confucianism, naturally did not come here just to sight see. Everyone knew that the representative figure of Legalism, Wei Yang, was here.

Confucianism and Legalism were destined for battle.

As the lord, Ouyang Shuo naturally would not join in. After all, he promoted was coexistence and variety.

Hence, he would use this momentum to start up the philosophers debate.

Chapter 432- Philosopher Debate

The next day, Ouyang Shuo headed for Xinan University to visit Jiangshang.

Compared to the previous days, the current Xinan University was totally different. In the campus, students passed to and fro. The moment they saw Ouyang Shuo, they would all bow slightly.

The economics college, the natural sciences college, the architecture college, the business college, the chess college, and the art college. Each college had no less than two hundred people. Especially the economics college and the natural sciences college, which each had thousands of people.

The natural sciences college, the architecture college and the business college were not as run down as the time they were first established.

Old Sun and the others did not slack around, as they used their contacts and even the forums to bring in various professional professors over to teach.

The teaching circle was a huge net. With Old Sun and a hundred odd professionals acting as the core, they could recruit endless amounts of talents.

It was not an exaggeration to say that 10% and above of the pinnacle professors lived in Shanhai City. This helped to add to the prosperity and foundation of Shanhai City.

To be able to obtain such stellar results, apart from the relationships of Old Sun, the most important factor was the learning environment here.

The first point would be the position of Shanhai City in the China region. The current Shanhai City was the first mega city after the nine imperial cities.

Even Di Chen's Handan City could not reach the level of fame of Shanhai City.

Inclusivity; this was the main goal of Ouyang Shuo for Shanhai City.

The Shanhai Magistrate, Zang Wenzhong, was a smart official. He understood Ouyang Shuo’s intentions and did a good job of running Shanhai City.

The Xinan University was the window to the teaching circle.

Along with the Leizhou Prefecture settling down, a large batch of students were recruited over to study.

Even other territories in the Shanhai Alliance started to send people over.

The first was Bai Hua's Consonance City.

Bai Hua knew that no matter how she ran her college, she could not make it as good as Xinan University. Why not just send them over for an exchange?

Consonance City sent over a hundred person squad to make use of Xinan University to develop their talents.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo approved all of this.

Ouyang Shuo knew that Xinan University had been developed to the pinnacle in his territory. It needed to raise its influence and could not stay stagnant.

Making use of his allies and accepting their exchange squads was a great step.

With Bai Hua taking the lead, the other allies naturally would not fall too far behind.

Hence, this resulted in another student influx for Xinan University.

The learning environment in Shanhai City grew denser and denser. After all, Shanhai could only continue to improve with exchanges.

Apart from Xinan University, he even opened up the Army Military Academy to his allies.

When they heard the news, Bai Hua and the others grew even more delighted.

Even Shanhai City had problems with basic level officials, needless to say about the others.

And what kind of place was the Army Military Academy?

The principal was War Saint Sun Wu, while the infantry, cavalry, engineer, and logistic deans were all knowledgeable military strategists. The Lecturers were all top class too.

To be able to develop and learn in the Army Military Academy was the fortune of a lifetime.

Ouyang Shuo's magnanimity really impressed the rest of them.

This alliance leader was looking more and more like the real deal.

With this, Ouyang Shuo only laughed and did not say anything.

If setting up branches of the Four Seas Bank was to increase the economic relations between allies, then opening up the two universities was to increase their political and cultural relations.

Ouyang Shuo was silently building the alliance into one whole body.

Only that he worked very silently and did not make a sound.

While he was thinking about something in his heart, Ouyang Shuo had already arrived at the book collection house.

During the daytime, Jiangshang would remain cooped up here. This special fellow had already become a famous sight in the university.

"Taigong!"

Jiangshang nodded. His attitude was warm, and he invited Ouyang Shuo to sit opposite him.

"Every time you come, I will feel terrified."

That old fox. Before Ouyang Shuo could open his mouth, he clammed it shut.

Ouyang Shuo pretended that he did not understand. At such a time, being thick skinned was good, "Meng Zi has come over and wants to debate with Wei Yang. I was thinking to make use of this chance to organize a philosophers’ debate. I want to reignite the philosophers’ debate of old."

When Jiangshang heard these words, his eyebrows arced up. He seemed interested, but he did not express his views.

Ouyang Shuo was helpless and continued, "The others are okay already. We only lack a famous and respected person to chair the debate. Are you willing?"

If one let the ancestor of the philosophers, Jiangshang, chair the event, it would naturally look several times better. The philosophers who originally did not want to come would also come over to join in.

Jiangshang was a smart person, so he naturally understood Ouyang Shuo's intentions.

After a short silence, Jiangshang stroked his white moustache, "I have a requirement."

"Taigong, please speak."

Ouyang Shuo was delighted. Conditions were okay; he was just afraid that Jiangshang would directly reject his request.

"Before the official philosophers’ debate, add in two more proceedings; this is mandatory."

"Please, speak."

Ouyang Shuo was calm. He knew that Taigong was really interested. Otherwise, he would not say such words.

"The first proceeding: reading. Before the philosophers debate, they need to understand the other schools of thought. Hence, they need to spend ten days reading in the book collection hall before they can join in."

"Sure."

Ouyang Shuo did not even think and just agreed. Didn’t this just help to raise the attraction of Shanhai City?

"The second would be: introductions. Each school of thought will describe and introduce their schools. They can only speak but cannot debate."

When Ouyang Shuo heard this requirement, he looked respectfully at Taigong. As expected from this old fox; he possessed such deep ability. Seemingly simple, but these proceedings held such a profound meaning.

These two proceedings helped to solve the unneeded debates from popping up.

Listening first would help one understand better; it was such a theory.

Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo rose and respectfully bowed, "Thank you, Taigong!"

Jiangshang smiled, rubbing his moustache, pleased," At least you can be taught."

Ouyang Shuo felt slightly shocked, but he left quietly.

After receiving Jiangshang's approval, the philosophers’ debate preparations officially started.

Xiao He would take the lead.

He knew that this debate held a profound meaning.

The lord handing this matter to him was the greatest recognition.

The next day, he sent out invitations to the nine imperial cities in the name of Shanhai City.

In the invitation, they used the famed name of Jiangshang. Even the three proceedings that Jiangshang designed were written out clearly.

Obviously, Xiao He understood the irreplaceable position of Jiangshang in this debate.

The invitation made use of the name of Shanhai City and not Nanjiang Governor-General, and there was a reason for that choice.

Nanjiang Governor-General had a meaning of taking over one region, so it might spark the annoyance of some people. Shanhai City, on the other hand, was a city. The term did not bring with it any allegiance, so it was the most welcoming and suitable choice.

Just from this small detail, one could see Xiao He's intelligence.

Apart from handing out invitations, Xiao He also designed an inn in the university for philosophers or scholars to rest.

The name of the inn was Juxian House.

Only a person who could understand Ouyang Shuo's intentions could think of such a name.

Holding this philosophers’ debate, Ouyang Shuo's main goal was to receive talents and recruit people for the city.

If he could use this chance to pull in two or three school of thoughts, that would be great.

In the entire China region, apart from Shanhai City, no other territory had such great ability.

The moment the invitations were sent out, it caused a lot of discussion.

The players all agreed that the Lianzhou Lord was trying something big once more.

Shortly after getting the spotlight in the Battle of Julu, he did not even rest. Instead, he directly started another wave on the main map. The former was martial arts related, the second culture related.

Normal players could only look on in awe.

As for their opponents, no matter how unhappy they were, they could only be salty and could not stop the proceedings. It was their own fault that they did not have Jiangshang, did not have the book collection house, and did not even have one school of thought that moved in.

A hidden circle was even more bustling.

……

Xiangyang City, an unassuming little courtyard.

A young man held the invitation and entered.

In the courtyard was a merciful looking old man, who was holding an old scroll and reading happily.

"Teacher!"

The young man respectfully passed over the invitation.

When the old man read it, he smiled, "Great, I had wanted to go visit Taigong."

"What?"

"Pack up, we are going on a journey!"

"Yes!"

……

Quanzhou City, a small farm on the outskirts.

A simply dressed middle-aged man picked up the invitation; his expression very complicated.

……

Jianye City, one of the mansions.

A handsome middle-aged man muttered, "Hei, Confucianism? It's time to put an end to it."

On the table not far away from him was an invitation.

……

Xianyang City.

An old man placed down the scroll in his hand and laughed.

"The debate between Confucianism and Legalism. Philosophers’ debate? Interesting, interesting."

……

Chengdu, a small pond on the outskirts.

Another old man was fishing. On the grass not far away was an invitation.

……

In a short few days, the invitations were handed out to all the philosophers with a mysterious method.

The people in all the imperial cities were amidst deep conversation.

Such an event, how could they miss it?

Those who had partners went together, while those alone travelled alone.

Some wanted to learn, while others held the attitude of winning.

The small invitation letters had perked the interests of numerous hearts.

Shanhai City was destined to become a place where fishes and dragons coexisted, never to be peaceful.

Chapter 433- Qin Shihuang Chases out Confucianism

Just as Shanhai City was preparing for the philosophers’ debate, Xianyang City released the Quru Order.

Qin Shihuang announced that Xianyang City would solely run on Legalism. Moreover, any Confucian followers would have to leave within three days or face arrest.

The moment the news got out, everyone clamored.

The Quru Order had pretty much pushed the battle between Legalism and Confucianism to the forefront.

All the Confucianism followers were furious.

This Quru Order led one to think back to the famous historical event where Qin Shihuang ordered the burning of all books and the burying of all Confucian scholars. Firstly, one had to mention that both these events happened at different times.

One had to start with the story where Qin Shihuang united the six counties.

After which, his changes in administrative and economic matters did not proceed smoothly. Just when he was about the unite the countries, they had a huge debate on whether or not he was going to grant the various lords the title of kings.

The prime minister Wang Wan suggested that he send the lords to the Yan, Qi, and Chu lands to become kings, as such an action was useful in solidifying his rule.

However, Li Si firmly disagreed. He felt that the only reason the Warring States happened was because they gave up power. Only through removing this act could they prevent chaos.

Qin Shihuang agreed with Li Si. He perceived that setting up countries was to make enemies.

Hence, they decided to go with the prefecture ruling system.

Eight years later, in a feast that Qin Shihuang held in the palace, another debate between the old and the new happened.

This event sparked the burning of books.

During the feast, Zhou Qing, who was in charge of the books, started to flatter Qin Shihuang. Professor Chun Yu Yue used Zhou Qing’s words against him and raised up the motion of restoring the old rule of splitting up power.

Qin Shihuang did not react. He gave the suggestion to the various officials to discuss.

Li Si made it clear that he did not agree with this view and retorted, “The battles of before were due to the old rule. Confucianism is behind the times. If we don't stop it, our rule of the land will be broken."

Qin Shihuang agreed with Li Si and ordered to burn all the historical books, apart from the recordings of Qin. He even ordered the burning of medical books and poems from scholars.

Anyone who dared to talk about poems and books were sentenced to death. Learning by oneself was prohibited and those who wanted to learn Legalism had to find an official to be his teacher.

The second year of the book burning, the burying of the Confucianism scholars happened.

The burning of the books did not directly cause this event. Instead, it happened because scholars and Confucian believers insulted Qin Shihuang. After Qin Shihuang obtained all the powers and riches, he greatly feared death. The day he unified the land, he tried hard to search for an immortality pill.

Everyone tried to search for this pill for Qin Shihuang. Based on Qin Laws, anyone who told a lie or people who gave fake medicines would be sentenced to death.

Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng knew that they could not find the medicine. Not only did they escape, they also slandered Qin Shihuang for being arrogant and power hungry.

They also said that immortality was not something Qin Shihuang could reach, and it was not something a small pill could grant you. They got close to the emperor not to create the pill but to spread Confucianism to the world.

When Qin Shihuang heard these words, his embarrassment turned into anger; he felt that they were playing him.

He burned the texts before burying the Confucian scholars alive.

Qin Shihuang ordered the Guards to investigate based on the crime of spreading false rumors about the emperor. He personally found 460 people guilty and buried them alive in Xianyang.

The burying of Confucianism was not actually the burying of the ideology. Instead, it was just the burying of the Confucian scholars.

The act of burning books and burying Confucianism was an act of unifying all thoughts.

After Qin Shihuang united the six countries, he administratively did away with the system of enfeoffment. Culturally, he united the language and made the lesser seal the official language. In economics, he standardized the currency and its weightage.

All these changes were a basic requirement to unify a country, and it was also an element that violence could keep in control.

However, some things were hard for a country to fully enforce, especially at the start of the Qin Dynasty. At that time, the philosophers were still debating, and it was philosophical chaos. If a country wanted unity, they needed to form a common value.

Hence, having a common way in terms of administrative, economic, and cultural methods was not enough. The crucial matter was a common value and way of thinking, only with these could all the plans and actions work out.

The two biggest school of thoughts at that time were Confucianism and Legalism.

Mohism placed more importance on agricultural advancement. Taoism more on researching the heart and values. The Logicians focused on logical thinking.

Confucianism was ancient, while Qin Shihuang unification of China was something new. All the changes he chose to adapt were different and did not align with Confucianism theories. The noble families of the six countries tried to use the Confucian theory of denying oneself and returning to propriety to try to restore the enfeoffment system and regain their lost power.

Hence, for the newly unified Qin Dynasty, unifying the way of thinking was an important step. As such, after looking for a few Confucian scholars, his cultural revolution started. His actions were too intense, but the effects were obvious.

Although the Qin Dynasty only lasted for tens of years, all the rulers after them placed unifying the schools of thoughts as their key action.

When Han Wudi chose Confucianism, the unification of ideas finally came into fruition. All the rulers after him basically used Confucian teachings as the core.

The burying of Confucianism during the Qin Dynasty and the respect of Confucianism during the Han Dynasty were similar; they all wanted to unify the thoughts of the people.

In truth, since the Han Dynasty, all the rulers basically used Confucianism in the light and Legalism in the dark. Alternatively, they used Legalism but called it Confucianism. On the surface, they said that they used Confucianism, but in truth they used Legalism values.

The emperors used Legalism methods to rule but Confucian teaching methods to educate the people.

Legalism placed importance on law, strength, and method, so the olden people used this as the emperor's tool to rule over the people. Confucianism focused on respect and mercy; their greatest benefits were forming up a sense of awareness of morals. It promoted that not using violence was good, protecting peace and prosperity.

Qin Shihuang having such a foul name because of the book burning and Confucianism burying were actually the result of exaggeration. In truth, these numbers were actually really small.

In the long history annuals, killing numerous people occurred countless times.

However, this matter had insulted the Confucian believers. Since the Warring States, the Confucian people were a very arrogant bunch, and they felt that if you wanted to rule you had to use Confucianism. As such, when Han Wudi got rid of all the philosophers, it gave the Confucians important power.

After they gained fame, they pushed the blame to Qin Shihuang. Hence, he was said to be a tyrant and was left in notoriety.

Qin Shihuang actually did not relish in killing; his kills were all backed with reason. Stealing money from the country was an act of treason, and one needed to pay with their head.

Although they lost many valuable books, one aspect made people sigh—the killings were a logical course of action.

Hence, after Qin Shihuang moved into Xianyang City and learned of China's five thousand years of history, he learned of how the Confucians insulted him after his death. How could he not be furious?

Hence, the Quru Order was born.

Not killing off all these people, one could say that Qin Shihuang was already merciful.

The Confucian Scholars in Xianyang also knew that. Their predecessors had acted immorally; this was karma.

All of a sudden, many officials and civil servants in each organization of the imperial court tendered their resignations.

However, the wave of resignations did not affect the running of Xianyang City. Only because Qin Shihuang was not alone. He had a bunch of important ministers like Li S along with himi.

One had to say that that was a divine step. Qin Shihuang did not just chase away the Confucianism he hated. He also smoothly gained control of Xianyang, killing two birds with one stone.

After the Confucian Scholars quit, everyone focused on where they would head.

Go to other imperial cities?

Difficult.

Talents already brimmed in each other city, so how could they accept newcomers?

The Confucian believers were only left with two choices.

Firstly, totally go into hiding.

Secondly, join a player territory.

None of the lords in the China region were stupid.

The moment the order was placed, the lords were like sharks that smelled blood; they gathered at Xianyang City.

This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to the players.

Although the Confucian scholars in Xianyang City were not historical people, they had around the same level of use to a territory, especially the officials in the imperial court.

Their experience was vast, and they were highly qualified; they were hard to obtain talents.

To word it more clearly, officials like Zhou Haichen and Xu Zhen in Shanhai City were common in Xianyang City. With one grab, you could obtain a handful of them.

As for those better than them, they were not in small numbers either.

Such talents, how would the lords not be tempted? Even Ouyang Shuo really yearned for them.

Unfortunately, in terms of fighting for the Confucian people from Xianyang City, Ouyang Shuo was destined to face problems. Theoretically, Shanhai City had great terms and should easily win. However, in truth, that was not the case.

Firstly, the enemy of Confucianism, Legalism’s main field, was in Shanhai City. Its representative figure Wei Yang had taken up a role in the Nanjiang Governor-General Manor.

Thinking about this, just that point alone would keep a large portion of them out and make them wary.

Secondly, Baiqi, Wei Ran, as well as Zhang Han, were all from the Qin Country.

Although these few basically did not have any contact with Qin Shihuang, in the eyes of Confucian Scholars, Shanhai City was the same as Xianyang City.

Because of that, Ouyang Shuo took a hit for no reason.

Although Shanhai City's strength was acceptance, that was just Ouyang Shuo's words. They did not personally see any proof, and they would not believe it easily.

This fight to snatch talents was something Shanhai City was destined to lose.

Chapter 434- Territory Situation

All the happenings in Xianyang City, Shanhai City was only an onlooker.

Ouyang Shuo was calm about it. A setback was only a setback; there was nothing he could do about it.

Shanhai City, Nanjiang Governor-General Manor.

Within the main hall, the 7th month administrative meeting was currently taking place.

The 7th month was an unusual month for the territory. In this month, they officially had control of three prefectures of land, and they had formed the Nanjiang Governor-General House.

7th month, under the leadership of wheelchair general Sun Bin, the Tiger Legion swept across Qiongzhou Island. Be it aboriginals or players, they were all mercilessly destroyed.

Clearing out Qiongzhou Island was of little test to Sun Bin’s ability.

This young commander would definitely perform more eye-catching acts in future big battles.

The most terrifying aspect was that Sun Bin was still improving.

Ouyang Shuo had casually talked to Sun Wu. He knew that Sun Bin would write letters back to his grandfather to discuss military strategies and theories.

From Sun Wu's tone, it was not hard to see that the War Saint had high hopes and commendations for this young man.

This was the good fortune of the War Saint and also the good fortune of the territory.

The 2nd division major general of the Tiger Legion Daiqin was awarded the title of Dangkou General for his fearless performance. This ‘grassland black tiger’ had finally climbed out of the shadow of the Battle of Lianzhou and regained his glory.

Apart from Daiqin, the deputy major general of the 3d division, Shanzhu, also had stellar performances. Based on the simple description from Sun Bin, this Li Race young leader was a god of improvement.

Under the teachings of Caogui, Shanzhu's commanding abilities grew stronger by the day.

A star was slowly rising on Qiongzhou Island.

After the battle, the Tiger Legion had captured a total of seventy thousand warrior prisoners. Amongst which, there were soldiers from territories, Li Race people, as well as aboriginal soldiers.

As for the normal commoners, they had captured over four hundred thousand. There were more than forty Li Race tribes. The entire Qiongzhou Island groaned under the sharp blade of the Tiger Legion.

After their deflection, the combat prisoners formed the Qiongzhou Prefecture Garrison Division. Su Wang, previously the 2nd division third regiment colonel, was appointed as the major general.

After establishing the Garrison Division, the Tiger Legion could assist other battlefields at any time.

Under the flames of war, the Tiger Legion 3rd division, and the 1st mountain division of the territory had slowly taken form. They now possessed terrifying strength.

Especially in mountain battles, where they were exceptionally eye-catching.

To be able to take down the north mountain region in one swoop, it all depended on them.

After receiving the news, Ouyang Shuo immediately ordered the Military Affairs Department to move the 3rd division to gather at Shanhai City. They would move along with the Dragon Legion 1st division toward the hundred thousand mountains to attack Chiyou City.

Shi Wanshu’s Dragon Legion 1st division had been housed in Broken Blade House, on the border of the hundred thousand mountains. During this period of time, Shi Wanshui had not slacked off.

He had trained his units hard in mountain battle. He even purposely found mountain barbarian tribes to learn the experiences needed to survive in the forest, as well as tips and tricks.

Apart from that, they needed to send out scouts to find a suitable route. Along the route, he set up resource points to ensure that the army had enough resources and logistics.

Not only was Shi Wanshui a strong fighter, his commanding experience was very vast. With the two divisions gathering up, Ouyang Shuo had more confidence in them passing the hundred thousand mountains.

The moment this force succeeded, it would result in a whole different battle. Not only did it provide a route for the soldiers to attack Chiyou City, it also opened up a contact route from Lianzhou Prefecture to the outside.

As the territory expanded, the geographical weakness of Lianzhou Basin would slowly be exposed.

Being boxed in had its pros and cons.

When the territory was weak and small, locking one in was naturally the best choice. After all, this would prevent the interference of other powers.

The uprising army failing to disturb them was the greatest proof.

However.

After the lord grew stronger, this had more cons than pros.

As the heart of the entire territory, the location of Shanhai City was too secluded, which made it hard for the Nanjiang Governor-General House to run the other parts of the territory.

In olden times, good official channels and water routes were the lifeline of a rule. Without one of them, it was easy to lose control of the territory.

In the case of Shanhai City, this posed an even more serious problem.

Apart from the Mulan Stronghold, Shanhai City did not have a second pathway out to the outside world. The current Qiongzhou and Leizhou Prefectures were both run from water routes.

But what about the future?

Zhaoqing Prefecture, Wuzhou Prefecture, Xunzhou Prefecture.

All these places could not be managed from water passages.

Hence, opening up a pathway from Lianzhou Prefecture to the outside seemed to grow in importance.

After the war, the entire Qiongzhou Island had totally been inculcated into their rule.

Qiongzhou Prefecture had officially established the Yashan House, the Danzhou House, as well as the Qiongshan House.

Yashan City was confirmed as the governing area of Qiongzhou Prefecture.

The three Houses would be governed by the three tier 1 subsidiary territories of Yashan City.

Yashan City used a gold-rank village creation token, so its tier 1 subsidiary territories were all silver rank. They had a huge potential as a governing area.

Qiongzhou Island was large but lacked men. The most important factor was the need to unify the aboriginals on the island.

Governor Tian Wenjing had previously taken up of the role negotiator with the mountain barbarians, so he had vast experience with dealing with other races. Under his charge, the aboriginals of Qiongzhou Island were integrating into the territory.

The completion of the first season of rice crop harvesting in the first half of the year helped in particular. It solved the grain problems of Qiongzhou Prefecture, and they did not need to import any more grain. This helped make administrative matters much easier to handle.

Qiongzhou Prefecture was located in a divine location; they had fertile soil, which was highly suitable for agricultural development.

To support the agriculture development of Qiongzhou, Ouyang Shuo even instructed the Xinan University to form an agriculture consultant group to visit Qiongzhou. They would help to set out agriculture projects.

Agriculture was also the base. If Qiongzhou wanted to develop further, they needed to make use of the adventure gamemode players.

The entire island, apart from the Five Finger Mountains, and the South Mountain mysterious region, there was a place that attracted the players—the boundless oceans.

The vast oceans had many islands and numerous pirates.

Treasures? Rare materials? Adventures?

These matters filled all of their imaginations.

The vast ocean was far more tempting to adventure gamemode players than the Five Finger Mountains.

Sun Xiaoyue, who took charge of Yashan City, had written messages to Ouyang Shuo based on the news she got. She suggested they construct a shipyard to build merchant ships and small-sized war ships.

The ships would either be sold or rented to adventure gamemode players to sail the seas.

When Ouyang Shuo received the letter, he immediately replied—agreed.

Sun Xiaoyue's eyes were expectedly sharp.

The unassuming suggestion would bring Yashan City endless amounts of fortune in the future.

The members of the Shanhai Alliance Guild Alliance had heard the news, and they immediately agreed to form a squadron to explore the neighboring islands.

Lin Jing was the worst. She directly asked Ouyang Shuo to gift her a turreted ship to act as her flag ship. She wanted to personally explore the oceans.

After they explored the South Mountain Cave, Lin Jing had hung around the Five Finger Mountains.

At that time, similar to Song Jia, she had also obtained a golden-spotted phoenix butterfly.

After which, the attraction of Yashan to Lin Jing decreased a lot. Just when she was ready to return to Jianye, such huge news appeared; how could she not feel excited?

When Ouyang Shuo heard her request, he could only agree. After all, she was his little aunt.

The built turreted ship was named War-Snow. It was docked in the harbor and looked really stunning.

The only unhappy one was probably Xie Siyun. This strong woman grumbled that Lin Jing went crazy and did not help out at Jianye.

Toward their relationship, naturally Ouyang Shuo just kept silent.

In the sale of ships or exploring vessels to outsiders, Yashan City had signed extra agreements.

Those who wanted to buy had to promise to share any geographical intel they found through exploration with the Yashan Squadron.

At the same time, Yashan City had the first rights to occupying the various surrounding islands.

After calming down the entire Qiongzhou Prefecture, it was time for Ouyang Shuo to open it up. The entire Yashan City would now open to adventure gamemode players.

When they received the news, the China region players were delighted.

Following which, the news of the sale of warships made their passion and eagerness explode.

All of a sudden, Yashan City became a gathering ground; all the major guilds and organizations swarmed in. Solely the teleportation fees made Yashan rich.

One could foresee that the future Yashan City would be a cash cow and bring in unprecedented profits.

The development of Qiongzhou Prefecture was only one small part of the territory.

Apart from that, Leizhou Prefecture was also stellar.

Under the support of the Four Seas Bank, Leizhou Prefecture's rebuilding and expansion projects had reached their end. Only huge projects were left, such as the few harbors.

If Leizhou Island became stable, it would definitely help the territory greatly in the future.

Governor Bao Shuya’s performance was also eye-catching. Under his charge, the entire prefecture regained its prosperity, and the dark figures ceased to exist.

Especially after the establishment of the Nanjiang Governor-General House, the internal resistance in Leizhou Prefecture got weaker and weaker.

Before this, Ouyang Shuo also treated those territories that helped Shanhai City nicely.

Based on the promises, the territory allowed them to be merchants in Leizhou.

With such new business powers, they used their gold advantage and local connections to go up against the various Chamber of Commerces.

This was the outcome that Ouyang Shuo wanted to see.

Toward Hequanji and even Cui Chamber of Commerce, Ouyang Shuo maintained a necessary level of wariness.

Chapter 435- Animal Husbandry Department

Merchants chased for profits, which made them one of the hardest bunch to control. While they made contributions to the development of the territory, they too earned a lot.

An unavoidable matter was that due to profits, merchants would join in the battles and fights in an area.

Towards this, Ouyang Shuo would naturally be wary and defensive.

Apart from the Financial Department Business Division managing everything, they needed to develop more Chamber of Commerces to prevent a monopoly.

Local Chamber of Commerces would knock heads with the big ones.

Of course, this only solved the problem in the short term; the root cause remained.

Ouyang Shuo was planning to build a Business Association to increase the monitoring levels on the various Chamber of Commerces.

This matter still needed much planning.

After all, the current territory was still in the basic development stages, and they needed to borrow the strength of the various Chamber of Commerce. Hence, they could not land a blow to their eagerness.

Out of the three prefectures, Lianzhou Prefecture naturally developed the quickest.

Although Shanhai City was cut out from the Lianzhou Prefecture, the Lianzhou Prefecture that had four Houses and one city remained the biggest of the bunch.

The newly established Shenjuan House had already survived the toughest time period, and the city building had reached its later stages. Its unique industries like animal husbandry and leather processing was growing everyday.

Tianfeng House and Broken Blade House focused on water products and pearl cultivation to bring in money. Apart from that, one could not underestimate the tea gardens and the mulberry gardens located around them.

Especially the mulberry gardens, which along with the colored silkworm production, was enough to make one's eyes red with envy.

The colored silk that Shanhai City produced had long started selling in the nine imperial cities. The merchants and the rich men loved this silk, forming sort of a trend.

Out of the four Houses, Mulan House was formed from a territory merging over. Regretfully, as it had a special geographical position, their profits were a little awkward.

The most important aspect was Mulan House’s lack of advantageous industries.

Probably only after they occupied the Guangxi Province would Mulan House rise from the ashes.

Of course, however eye-catching the three prefectures were, they could not cover the glow of Shanhai City.

The outer city construction of Shanhai City was still spreading like wildfire. Everyday, no less than a thousand people would move over. These people were newly spawned refugees but commoners from the various imperial cities.

Shanhai City's population had already broken through four hundred thousand. Ouyang Shuo predicted that by the 10th month at the latest, Shanhai City could upgrade to a grade 2 prefecture and break through the five hundred thousand population upper limit.

The current Shanhai City was a place where roads and paths intersected. If Ouyang Shuo did not bring a guide with him, even he would lose his way. His area of activity was basically limited to the imperial city.

On the other hand, Bing'er, who was on holiday, started to crazily run around the city like a released wild horse. Occasionally, she would even teleport to Yashan City to take a look at her ‘territory’.

In Yashan City, she was basically a princess.

Governor Tian Wenjing not only sent men to build the Lord's Manor extravagantly, he even built a wild animal park for Bing'er to play around in outside of the city.

The construction of the zoo was all because Bing'er said, “There are so many animals here."

When Ouyang Shuo learned of this matter, he shook his head speechless.

He did not expect the cold faced Governor Tian Wenjing to actually love Bing'er so much and pamper her.

As the main camp of the territory, Shanhai City was the most prosperous. Based on the calculations of the Business Division, till date, a total of 37 Chamber of Commerces had moved in.

The nine imperial cities all had Chamber of Commerces that moved in.

Apart from the Business Division, the military industry naturally supported the development of Shanhai City.

After more than a year of development, the military industry finally started to explode. Along with the building of the east region, the overall production capacity of the military industry increased by three folds.

Till date, the production of equipment in the city not only met the requirements of the army, it even met the orders of the Shanhai Alliance members.

The military industry that was firing on all cylinders could be called a real money maker.

The administrative meeting began.

Financial Director Cui Yingyu reported the financial situation of the 7th month.

"Shanhai City has earned 85,700 gold, Lianzhou Prefecture handed over 52,700 gold, Leizhou Prefecture currently has no money, while Qiongzhou Prefecture handed over 41,500 gold. Including the profits of 55,000 gold from the Business Division, the total profits of the 7th month is 234,900 gold."

When he heard that the monthly Income had crossed two hundred thousand, Ouyang Shuo was delighted.

It was not easy.

However, what she reported next made Ouyang Shuo's face turn black.

"7th month, 80,000 gold was spent, which mainly consisted of the 20,000 gold used on Shanhai City’s city building and 60,000 on Leizhou Prefecture. Apart from that, Nanjiang Governor-General House spent eight thousand gold and military expenditure was 135,000 gold."

One legion would normally require around 35,000 gold.

In the army, the Dragon Legion and Tiger Legion were full. Including the 1st division of the Leopard Legion, the Guards division, and the palace Guards, its expenditure had reached 95,000 gold.

The Nanyang Navy included the 1st division of both the Yashan Squadron and the Beihai Bay Squadron, its expenditure was around twenty thousand gold.

All things considered, daily expenses alone would cost 115,000 gold.

The 7th month military expenses also needed to consider the payments to families during the Battle of Leizhou and the Battle of Julu.

Hence, military expenditure used up more than half of the overall income.

This was just the game. If he really ran a country like this in real life, his people would definitely revolt.

As Cui Yingyu reported the military expenses, she had unconsciously eyed Du Ruhui.

Du Ruhui knew the reason and did not say anything.

At this point, before the armies fully formed up, they could earn extra income through raiders.

At the moment, the military expenses were not a huge burden to the territory finances.

Building a legion, especially after building the divisions, resulted in the Shanhai City Army becoming more commercial and orthodox. The raider jobs would be left for other units.

Hence, on the surface, the army would have a negative effect on finances.

The army itself would never be able to create any extra riches.

Attacking strategic land as they were occupying it, they could not pillage and burn it.

Of course, one could not just look at the surface.

With the Battle of Leizhou as an example, it seemed stupid in the short run. But in the long run, it would provide financial income that far exceed the current input.

Expanding the territory was always the way to becoming stronger.

These matters were something both Du Ruhui and Cui Yingyu understood.

Cui Yingyu was silently asking the Military Affairs Department to not expand the military stupidly. If not, the territory finances could not keep up.

In truth, Du Ruhui also had it cut out for him.

The organization of the military all followed the instructions of the lord.

The Military Affairs Department was in truth just the scapegoat.

Ouyang Shuo, who sat at the lord position, naturally noticed this. He knew that Cui Yingyu was silently making matters clear to him.

This little sister really was not someone easy to handle.

Along with the rise of Ouyang Shuo's position, Cui Yingyu would not directly scold him. Instead, she would use such silent methods to remind him.

In truth, Ouyang Shuo had also paid attention and controlled the scale of the military.

Not mentioning other matters, just take the Battle of Qiongzhou as an example.

Sun Bin’s Tiger Legion had captured a total of seventy thousand warriors, yet Ouyang Shuo had only asked them to form a Garrison Division.

In addition to the various protection squads of the Houses, only one third of the soldiers were enlisted.

However, no matter how he tried, the military would need to expand daily. Without such an elite army, how would Ouyang Shuo have the confidence to challenge the world?

At this stage, Ouyang Shuo needed to choose between military and administration.

A strong military was the core goal.

After establishing the Nanjiang Governor-General House, Ouyang Shuo did not keep any of the territory's gold from himself. In his storage bag, he only had ten to twenty thousand gold as pocket money.

The income of the territory was basically invested back in.

A strong territory would result in his own strength.

Based on Cui Yingyu’s report, the territory had only earned 11,900 gold in the 7th month.

The next month, the profits would probably increase.

At the very least, Leizhou Prefecture did not need any more funds channeled in; they could even provide some income.

Toward this matter, Cui Yingyu was not as optimistic as Ouyang Shuo.

Not for other reasons, but only because the Battle of Zhaoqing was about to occur.

One could foresee that the future Zhaoqing Prefecture would result in another mess that was waiting to be cleared up.

After Cui Yingyu made her report, she sat down.

Following which, the discussion of the Animal Husbandry Department came up.

After setting up the Nanjiang Governor-General House, in terms of organization, they became more and more ordered.

Ouyang Shuo made the rule that the officials could suggest the establishment of organizations. After the Administration Department analyzed the suggestion, it could be brought up in the administrative meetings for discussion. Ouyang Shuo would make the final decision.

Such an arrangement was to prevent Ouyang Shuo from losing foresight.

A person holding a high position for a long time and got used to making all the decisions could easily have their foresight blinded. If this developed further, they might not listen to his fellow officials.

Ouyang Shuo did not want to become such a person.

However, without a logical system, in the current situation, he would definitely become such a person. Hence, Ouyang Shuo would take the opportunity while he was still clear headed to restrict himself.

All the officials were delighted about this.

With such a smart lord, they would definitely succeed.

With the suggestion of Xiao He, after gaining the approval of the Administration Department, they all agreed to set up the Animal Husbandry Department under the Military Affairs Department.

Establishing the animal husbandry department had two roles.

Firstly, to take charge of the carriages of the Nanjiang Governor-General House.

When Ouyang Shuo went out, he usually rode horses and would not sit in carriages. As Shanhai City's construction was slowly perfected, under the suggestion of Fan Zhongyan, he would have no choice but to usually sit in a carriage when he went out.

Based on their thinking, this had to do with the law, and they could not act casually about it. Only then could they show the prestige and power of the Nanjiang Governor-General. Toward these suggestions, Ouyang Shuo could only comply.

Luckily, he only had few chances of going out.

With his character, he really could not grow used to carriages.

Secondly, to take charge of the horse policies in the territory.

The various army horse breeding grounds would all be under their charge.

The director of the Animal Husbandry Department would obviously be Xia Houying.

With that, the four talents from the Battle of Julu all had positions.

Chapter 436- Scholars Unite

As the invitations were sent out, scholars all around started to swarm to Shanhai City. The Juxian House in Xinan University was already completed, and they welcomed the philosophers to move in.

Amongst the philosophers, the earliest to arrive were Shen Buhai and Sheng Dao from the Legalism school of thought.

Legalism had three factions: law, tactics and power. Their representative figures were respectively Wei Yang, Shen Buhai, and Sheng Dao. When the school of though reached Han Feizi’s time, he combined the three together.

Wei Yang appeared to welcome Shen Buhai and Sheng Dao.

Shen Buhai was a slightly thin man who looked really clean. He was not good at speaking and smiling, and he appeared cold and handsome. Those who understood him knew that he was the typical guy—cold on the outside and warm on the inside.

Sheng Dao was totally different; he was an old man who could make you feel comfortable right from the start. Apart from being one of the famous Legalism experts, he was also one of the representative figures of The Old Huang Faction of Taoism.

The three of them had met during the Warring States Period. Meeting up once again was naturally a joyous occasion.

"Brother Wei Yang, quick. We need to discuss how to find problems for Confucianism." Shen Buhai was an eager chap. Right after meeting up, he wanted to drag Wei Yang to discuss about the debate.

When Wei Yang saw Shen Buahai’s behavior, he laughed in his heart.

Wei Yang could not say that he totally understood the intentions of the lord. However, he had grasped a large portion of it. He knew that the lord's goal was not really to have both schools of thoughts fight it out to find the real winner.

In truth, it was really difficult to do so.

Today was different from other years. The philosophers came from different points of time to gather here. What kind of joyous occasion would that create?

Confucianism had Laozi, Meng Zi, and Xun Zi.

Legalism also had the fellow that combined all the Legalism teachings—Han Feizi.

The debate between Wei Yang and Meng Zi was not something that could be replicated. China's five thousand years of history had already proven that both school of thoughts had their pros and cons.

Confucianism was morals—the spiritual home.

Legalism was the law—the cornerstone of society.

Neither could be lacked.

After becoming the Internal Affairs Department, Wei Yang did not stop there. In Shanhai City, there were many legal experts from the real world. Wei Yang partook in many discussions with them about the problem of ruling through law and having laws.

Legalism and modern day laws were different. Although both ruled through laws, in truth, they were as different as night and day. Legalism could be said to be wielding the law to enact punishment.

The laws in Legalism were the rules of the king, meant to serve the king.

The way of Confucianism was also the way of the king, meant to help and serve the king and his family.

Hence, this debate would be totally different from the one that occurred in history.

Jiangshang's knowledge was really vast and deep. He had secluded himself in Xinan University. After reading and analyzing tens of thousands of scrolls and books, his knowledge was far greater than the Jiangshang in history.

It was because he saw the nature of the philosophers’ debate that he set up the two proceedings.

Wei Yang's knowledge was also seemingly immeasurable.

Seeing Shen Buhai so eager, he laughed slightly, “Brother Shen, why so eager? For this battle, we need to wait for Han Feizi to appear."

"That's right." Shen Buhai nodded, "Since that's the case, why not lead us to meet Taigong?"

"I have that intention."

Sheng Dao stood at the side and quietly listened to the two of them. Finally, he laughed and said, “Let's go, let's go."

"Haha."

The three of them looked at each other and laughed.

Shanhai City West outskirts, Qingyang Temple.

Just as Wei Yang was welcoming his guests, Qingyang Temple similarly welcomed four special guests.

Temple Priest Ge Yan personally led the four into his room, looking really respectful.

This was expected, as those who came were the ancestors of Taoism.

The four guests were all old men with white hair, and they included Laozi, Zhuang Zi, and Yang Zhu. The last fellow was a friend of Zhuang Zi, the representative figure of the Logician school of thought—Hui Shi.

When mentioning Hui Shi and Zhuang Zi, one had to talk about the famous Debate of Haoliang.

At that time, Zhuang Zi and Hui Shi were traveling around Haoliang.

Zhuang Zi said, "The fish are out swimming, so they are joyous."

Hui Shi said, “You aren't a fish. What would you know about the happiness of a fish?"

Zhuang Zi said, ‘You are not me. What would you know about whether I know about the happiness of a fish?"

Hui Shi said, “I'm not you, so I can't know. The same follows that you aren't a fish, so you wouldn't know."

Zhuang Zi replied, “The thing is when you asked the question, I already knew what you were going to say. I knew it long ago."

In this simple debate, it was not hard to see that Hui Shi's logic was stronger than Zhuang Zi’s. After all, the school of logicians studied logic.

Of course, Zhuang Zi was only using the swimming fish to describe his own happiness.

Similar to Legalism, Taoism was also split into three factions: Old Zhuang Faction, Old Huang faction, and Yangzhu Faction. The most famous faction was the Old Zhuang Faction that Laozi and Zhuang Zi represented.

The least famous was the Yangzhu Faction.

Yangzhu Faction's main way of thinking was the avoidance of harming others, and it emphasized life. It opposed harming others and also self-harm.

After the Spring and Autumn Warring States, it disappeared since it was not well received.

All of them sat quietly with Ge Yan accompanying them.

"Taoist Ancestor, are you all joining the philosophers’ debate?"

Although Laozi was not the creator of Taoism, he was often termed as its ancestor.

When Laozi heard this question, he laughed but did not say anything.

Zhuang Zi did not bother either and focused on the teacup in front of him.

Only Yangzhu raised his head and looked at Ge Yan, “We came to visit Taigong and to read at the book collection house. We aren't joining in the debate."

When Ge Yan heard these words, he understood.

As expected, with the character of Old Zhuang, he definitely would not join the debate. Mentioning this topic, Kong Zi of Confucianism was half a student of Laozi.

The next day, Xun Zi of Confucianism brought a bunch of his followers and rushed to Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo arranged Administration Director Fan Zhongyan to welcome them. He wanted to use Fan Zhongyan to send them a message.

Shanhai City accepted everyone and was not restricted to any school of thought or faction.

Apart from Confucianism and Legalism, the other school of thoughts all came. Their goals were similar to Laozi and Zhuang Zi.

Apart from joining the philosophers debate, their main goal was still to meet Taigong and read at the book collection house.

Theoretically, the book collection house had appeared for so long, so why did they choose to come now?

One had to mention the hearts of the various school of thoughts and factions.

If it was not for the debate and they came at other times, Ouyang Shuo would definitely bug them.

Out of all the philosophers, not everyone was willing to move into Shanhai City.

Hence, to prevent problems, they could only suppress their desires. Only when Shanhai City opened up for the debate did they dare to rush here.

At this time, Ouyang Shuo did not have the face to meet and bug every single one of them.

One had to say that they were all schemers.

Out of those who came, there were those that came out in the open like Shen Buhai and Sheng Dao. There were also others like Lao Zhuang, who came secretly.

For example Mo Zi.

When Mo Zi came to Shanhai City, he did not alert anyone. The place he chose to stay was not the Juxian House that they prepared or an inn in the city.

Instead, he chose an unassuming wood workshop.

The owner of the workshop was a believer in the Mohist school of thought.

Compared to the other school of thoughts, Mohism had already infiltrated all the territories. They only held such a convenience because the members of the school of thought belonged to the lower ranks of society.

The disciples of mohism were termed as Mobians. Additionally, those who practiced martial arts were called Moxia.

Their leader was called Juzi.

Out of all the philosophers, only the Mohists had fully infiltrate the territories.

Thinking about it, it was quite terrifying.

Of the philosophers that reported their names, Nanjiang Governor-General House would always send people to receive them. This included Xu Xing from the agricultural school of thought. He was a middle-aged men, with a long beard, dressed really simply like a farmer.

The school of thought gained fame through their emphasis on agriculture. Ouyang Shuo specially arranged the Agricultural Division Secretary Sun Yannong to receive and accompany him to read agricultural books in the book collection house.

One of the famous works was the one return by Jia Sixie—Essential Skill to Benefit the People.

Seeing such a famous work, Xu Xing was delighted.

Apart from reading books, Sun Yannong also followed him to look around the outskirts.

During the Battle of Julu, Ouyang Shuo had obtained the Olden Agricultural Tool Crafting Technical Manual. After which, he handed the manual over to the Agricultural Division.

Sun Yannong was naturally delighted to receive the manual. He immediately arranged people to build an agricultural tools workshop to craft the tools. Their goal was to quickly spread all these tools to the whole territory.

Sun Yongyan brought Xu Xin around and the main area he visited was the Agriculture Tool Workshop.

Looking around, Xu Xing was surprised beyond belief. To him, there was nothing more attractive than this place.

Apart from tools, Shanhai City's method of nurturing of crops was also filled with surprises. One must not forget that Xinan University had many modern day agricultural experts.

The same day, Xu Xing decided to move into Shanhai City.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he decided without hesitation to set up an agricultural college in Xinan University. It would be the place where he could spread the agricultural school of thought. He would hire Xu Xing as the dean.

The few agriculture experts in the territory were moved to the agriculture college.

In a short few days, the agriculture college was completed.

The first batch of students were the basic level officials the various Houses and counties recommended.

On the day school started, Ouyang Shuo received a system report.

"System Notification: Agricultural school of thought representative figure Xu Xing has taken charge of the agriculture college in Shanhai Territory, attracting disciples, and meeting the three requirements. The agricultural school of thought has officially moved into Shanhai City."

……

"System Notification: The agricultural school of thought has moved into Shanhai City. Shanhai City awarded the title of Land of Agriculture. Congratulations, player Qiyue Wuyi!"

……

The moment the notification sounded out, the other lords could only feel jealous.

Everyone knew that Shanhai City was about to hold the philosophers’ debate.

No one expected Shanhai City to already take down the agricultural school of thought before the debate even began.

It was really the case of there would always be someone better than you.

Chapter 437- Lu Buwei

Ouyang Shuo took a look at the stats received from the title ‘Land of Agriculture’.

Land of Agriculture: Production of territory agricultural products increased by 25%, crops ability to withstand calamities increase by 20%, territory agricultural tools research standards increased by 15%, and territory agriculture technique research level increased by 20%.

As expected from the agriculture school of thought; it increased the agriculture related stats of the territory. After the added buff of the title, Shanhai Territory's agriculture industry would possess a huge lead over other territories.

The addition of the agricultural school of thought meant that he was only one step away from completing the quest—Reappear Philosophers Debate.

Quest Requirements: Restore the prosperous environment of last time, must hold a philosopher debate with deep influence. Out of the 10 school of thoughts, at least three must move into the territory.

The philosophers debate was the first requirement of the quest. As for the second requirement, the Legalism and Agricultural school of thoughts had already moved in. He just needed to recruit one more, and he could complete the quest.

Ouyang Shuo did a simple count, the remaining schools were: Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, Logician, Yin Yang, miscellaneous, diplomacy, and minor-talks.

Let us talk about the last school first.

Although it was considered a school of thought, it was not viewed as one of the nine orthodox ones.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and even during the Qin and Zhan Dynasties, the school of minor-talks did not have a huge impact. Only when the Ming Dynasty arrived did it gain fame.

Hence, they could be excluded, and temporarily he did not need to consider them.

In all likelihood, no one from the school of minor-talks would attend this philosophers’ debate.

When mentioning Confucianism, Taoism, and Mohism, these three were the huge school of thoughts. It was really difficult to gain their recognition. Ambition to influence the entire territory permeated Confucianism, so it was hard for them to move in, even when another school of thought had already done so.

Those who did move in could only be Confucianism scholars but not their representative figures.

Taoism focused on ruling by not taking action, so it was hard to gain their recognition in an environment like the wilderness.

Hence, Lao Zhuang and the others would choose to seclude themselves.

Moving on to Mohism, they were similar to Confucianism; they also had ambition. The only difference being that Confucianism had the base and ability to complete their ambition, while Mohism could only develop in the dark.

If they wanted to appear and choose a territory to move into, it seemed like a good choice. The only matter was whether or not the current Shanhai City interested Mozi.

Following which would be the school of logicians, Yin Yang school of thought, and the school of diplomacy. These three school of thoughts had their own focuses. Moreover, if used well, they could be of great help.

One had to mention the difference between the school of logicians and the school of diplomacy.

Similarly, the school of diplomacy developed debating talent. The difference is that the school of logicians focused on logic, while the school of diplomacy focused on politics.

Hence, disciples of the school of diplomacy could become diplomats, while people from the school of logicians could not.

The Yin Yang school of thought promoted the five elements beginning story.

The five elements referred to earth, wood, gold, water and fire. Based on their theory, everything in the universe went along with these five elements. Anything that happened was the result of the five elements acting on one another.

Before the Battle of Julu, Ouyang Shuo would not have believed any of that.

However, during the Battle of Julu, Ouyang Shuo had personally witnessed Liu Bang's red dragon spirit. Hence, he had no choice but to believe in the five elements. Obviously, when Gaia designed the luck and prosperity stats, it used the concept of the five elements.

If Ouyang Shuo did not remember wrongly, among the basic buildings of a grade 3 prefecture, there was one observatory that was really suitable for Ying Yang school of though disciples.

The famous Qin Tianjian was in charge of predicting the weather and forming the calendar.

The last school of thought was the miscellaneous school, and its representative figure was Lu Buwei.

Strictly speaking, the miscellaneous school was not a school of thought, as it did not have a way of thinking or tradition.

Ever since the placed Lu Buwei into the miscellaneous school, this school of thought was officially formed.

After Qin Shihuang moved into Xianyang, Lu Buwei definitely would not remain there. Who knows whether this legendary figure would appear in Shanhai City.

All things considered, Ouyang Shuo was most confident about the Ying Yang School of thought, followed by the Mohists.

As for how it all went down, he had to wait for the philosophers’ debate.

A few days after, more and more scholars swarmed into Shanhai City.

In the campus of Xinan University, people went to and fro. Especially the book collection house, which was filled to the brim.

Out of all the philosophers, no matter who it was, they would first go to visit Jiangshang and not Ouyang Shuo.

Luckily, the philosophers knew their place and those who went to see Jiangshang were the representative figures.

The normal disciples could only look on from afar and not greet him. If not, Jiangshang, who enjoyed peace and quiet, would probably be annoyed to death.

Since the various disciples all moved into the Juxian House, squabbles would obviously occur.

As they said, in terms of studies, there was no first.

When philosophers met, they would naturally debate and disagree with one another. Needless to say, during the Warring States Period, every school of thought had some animosity with others.

As the representative of Ouyang Shuo and the organizer, Xiao He decided to just move in. He brought men to help settle disputes and fights.

In the end, Jiangshang had no choice but to make a stand.

He officially announced the start of the first proceeding—reading. The philosophers did not need to debate with one another. They would just move into the book collection house first for a week.

No one dared to go against Jiangshang’s announcement.

Hence, this small storm was calmed.

Apart from squabbles and disagreements, the scholars who moved in were also gourmets.

Not everyone was like Lao Zhuang, who did not care about anything.

Let us not mention how much they knew about their own school of thought. Solely their material needs made one frown.

When the forest was big, there were many kinds of birds.

Based on Xiao He’s words, there were numerous frauds among the scholars.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this report, he was not furious. As a lord, he should possess some magnanimity. He ordered Sangu Restaurant to provide food and drinks for Juxian House.

Only then did the scholars’ cries for food calm down.

There were even some shameless people who directly went to the restaurant to eat. They would not pay and directly say: I'm from X school of thought before leaving straightaway.

Such an action really brought shame to the various school of thoughts.

These scholars basically did not belong to the main branch or schools. The names they spoke out were ones that Ouyang Shuo had never heard about.

Speaking of which, the Warring States Period was said to have hundreds of school of thoughts. As for how many there actually were, the people at the time did not verify. If one was exaggerating, one person alone could be considered a school of thought.

They also did not care about the goal or proposition that the school of thought would hold, just raising its flag first without thinking.

On this topic, even famous school of thoughts like Mohism started to fade. As for other obsolete ones, it was even harder to survive.

Who knows how Gaia created them.

Some people only wanted to make use of the philosophers’ debate to obtain a sense of existence.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo did not take them lightly.

Who knows? Maybe amongst them, one or two would be real talents. As long as he got one of them, he would be earning. Who cares about the food money?

Even if he did not get any, he would be earning a good reputation.

These scholars were getting good food and wine here, so when they went back, they should at least put in a few good words, right?

Each one saying one good sentence was enough to make Shanhai City sound like heaven.

Reputation seemed obscure, but it was really useful at crucial moments.

Take the Quru Order as an example. The other territories gained benefits, and only Shanhai City obtained nothing. Wasn't this caused by reputation?

Based on the information he received, Di Chen had recruited a few talents from Xianyang City, making Ouyang Shuo's eyes red with envy. Even the other members of the Shanhai Alliance had obtained rewards.

Thinking about how Gong Chengshi bragged on the alliance channel, Ouyang Shuo really wanted to beat him up.

So disappointing!

The only thing that Ouyang Shuo felt happy about was that the Confucian Scholars from Xianyang City did not chose to join any territory. They followed Meng Zi and the rest to Shanhai City for the philosophers’ debate.

Whether or not he could take the chance all depended on this event.

On this topic, along with the older generation of each school of thought arriving, only Laozi and Han Feizi had not appeared.

Ouyang Shuo found this really surprising.

Ouyang Shuo had specially let Lianzhou Governor Wei Ran rush back to Shanhai City to accompany Lu Buwei. He did not have high hopes that he could make Lu Buwei work for him.

To say the truth, even if Lu Buwei was willing, Ouyang Shuo still had his worries.

This person was too smart, so Ouyang Shuo did not dare to use him.

On the other hand, Ouyang Shuo was interested in Suqin and Zhang Yi, these brothers from the same school.

It was mentioned before that Shanhai City did not have any diplomats.

With Ouyang Shuo's experience from his last life, diplomats grew more useful the later the game proceeded.

The battles between lords could be categorized into three stages.

First, everyone developed themselves and did not disturb one another.

Second, territories would swallow up one another.

The current wilderness was in the second stage, and this stage would last the longest.

The last would be the stage where everyone tried to hold on.

After the swallowing of one another finished, one region would have many overlords standing off against one another, making it hard to unify the area. Such a situation was like the Warring States Period in history.

At that time, diplomats would take the center stage.

Apart from that, the further the game went on, the greater the threat the lords would have to face from the aboriginals.

With the China region as the example, its surroundings would have people joining in like Mongol, Nuzhen, and Xixia.

One could even say that they were stronger than other lords.

Conquer outside or ensure your territory was safe and peaceful.

This decision solely lied in the hands of the lords.

Chapter 438- King Beast Scale Armor

On the subject matter of Zhang Yi, he did in fact have some link with Shanhai City. The first division major general of the Leopard Legion, Wei Zhang was an official from the same place, and they had formed a close relationship.

Because of that, Ouyang Shuo had confidence in persuading Zhang Yi.

However, Wei Zhang was still outside in battle and could not return. Ouyang Shuo could only silently hint at Wei Ran, who was in charge of welcoming them, to reveal the information to Zhang Yi to keep him here.

As for moving in and taking up a role, these matters would be discussed in the future.

8th month 2nd day, Shanhai City.

Just as Shanhai City was preparing for the big occasion, Song Jia had already sneakily returned.

In total, she took less than five days.

Returning along with Song Jia were Cui Tianqi, Banxia, and the rest of the ten disciples. They had spent a hundred odd days out training, similar to Song Jia.

Practical experience definitely helped to mould and shape a person.

The ten young disciples looked tan and had lost their childish feel. They looked more calm and solem. Especially Cui Tianqi, who led the group. As the elder brother disciple, he had taken care of his younger brothers and sisters, and he had grown quickly.

This young swordsman had started to emit the aura of a proper expert.

Ouyang Shuo noticed that the sword by his waist had already changed to the Qingfeng Sword.

The Qingfeng Sword was the sword that Ouyang Shuo originally gave to Song Jia. After she gained the god weapon, she naturally replaced the Qingfeng Sword. For Tianqi to obtain the sword was a form of Song Jia’s recognition.

It seems like Song Jia paid a lot of attention to this disciple.

Although Ouyang Shuo was injured, his senses were still as sharp as before. He could smell the blood scent on Tianqi's body. Evidently, the experience on the Five Finger Mountains was not easy.

The ten disciples all had scars of battle.

Amongst which, one had his little leg ripped off by a desolate beast, making him disabled for life.

Practicing martial arts was never as glamorous as it looked; injuries were common place. Not to mention them, even Song Jia had a body covered in injuries when she returned.

This training had an even larger impact on Banxia and the other girls.

In her eyes, there was less arrogance and a few added points of fear.

Ouyang Shuo frowned when he saw this.

This was not a good thing. How did she become more timid after practical training?

Ouyang Shuo did not say anything. Song Jia probably knew this matter too.

"Greetings, lord!"

In the side hall, all the disciples bowed, as they greeted Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and signaled to the guard that stood at the side.

Almost instantly, they carried a heavy wooden box into the main hall.

After they carried the box into the middle of the hall, they opened it, which revealed ten swords and ten cultivation uniforms.

The Weapons Workshop had crafted the swords; they were all hard to acquire elite products. Qing’er had tailored the cultivation uniforms. Not only did they look exquisite, they also brought with them some stats.

After wearing the uniform, one's internal cultivation speed would increase by 5%.

Although it was not a seismic increase, after daily and monthly accumulation, it would still result in a sizeable sum.

Qing’er had used rare materials to craft the cultivation uniforms. If not, Ouyang Shuo would have just sold it to the outside world. Qing’er had rushed out these ten sets.

Ouyang Shuo naturally bore the material costs.

After Ouyang Shuo chided her, Qing'er had started to refocus on her skills. Cui Yingyu felt heart pained for this little sister, so she told the Cui Chamber of Commerce to acquire large amounts of tailoring blueprints for Qing'er to study.

The cultivation uniforms were one of her proud works.

The first set was naturally given to Ouyang Shuo, as she treated it like a treasure.

Toward Qing'er, Ouyang Shuo had a love-hate relationship.

Through the birth of the cultivation uniform, it was not difficult to see that her talent was heaven-defying. If she put in effort, her future would be limitless.

Just that this girl had headed on the wrong path, falling into the money trap.

If it was not for Ouyang Shuo's scolding, who knows how long it would take for her to learn.

At least it was not too late to turn back.

Probably, in a short amount of time, Qing'er would reach the grandmaster rank tailor.

As an elder, Ouyang Shuo felt heart broken for her.

After spending so much time together, he would naturally develop a lot of feelings for Qing'er and Cui Yingyu. At this point, it was hard for him to look at them as just a bunch of numbers.

In his eyes, they were proper, living human beings.

In the future, Ouyang Shuo would definitely bring both of them out into the real world.

They were the true loved ones of Ouyang Shuo.

Not only him, Bing'er probably felt the same way. Apart from her real brother, that little brat was closest to the two of them.

Especially Qing'er, their ages were relatively similar, and their relationship was closer than even real siblings.

Seeing the disciples drooling as they looked at the swords, Ouyang Shuo smiled, “These are prepared for you. One set per a person, take it!"

"Thank you, my lord!"

Cui Tianqi took the lead to express his thanks, while the other disciples all looked elated.

After splitting the equipment, Ouyang Shuo said, “Guys, since the training has ended, I'll give you all a choice. Either return to the sect to cultivate or join the Nanjiang Governor-General House. The choice is yours; I or your sect leader won't interfere."

Regarding this matter, Ouyang Shuo had already discussed it; this act could not be considered power abuse.

Having some of them join the Nanjiang Governor General House was preparation work for building the Safety Division. The future Safety Division would take responsibility of intel collection and the capture of prisoners.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed a group of martial arts experts to join.

In front of him, was there not such a suitable bunch?

Of course, everyone had their own ambitions; Ouyang Shuo would not force them. After all, when a person entered the Safety Division, unless they died, they could not leave.

The disciples looked at one another, not knowing what to say.

Only Cui Tianqi stepped out without hesitation. With one knee on the ground, he said, "Lord, Tianqi chooses to join the Nanjiang Governor-General House." In his eyes, there were signs of emotion.

Seeing their senior brother take the lead, four other disciples decided to join too.

The remaining disciples, including Banxia, decided to return to the sect.

Lastly, he needed to handle the disciple who was handicapped. After gaining his opinion, Ouyang Shuo instructed Zisu to find a management position for him.

This disciple was called Qu Yepin; he was naturally grateful. The moment he was handicapped, he felt utterly depressed. To a martial artist, losing a leg was more difficult to handle than death.

Qu Yepin had already mentally prepared himself for abandonment. Who knew that he would receive such an ending? The position of manager at the Lord's Manor was an honourable position that everyone vied for.

"Thank you, my lord!"

He knelt on the ground and cried out.

"Get up!"

Following which, Banxia led her three junior sisters back to the sect. Cui Tianqi's and the four other disciples stayed. Out of the five, there was one female disciple.

Firstly, Ouyang Shuo arranged for them to train at the special forces base. They naturally would not undergo fighting training there. Instead, they would learn investigation, camouflage, and interrogation skills.

Those that passed were not enough. One had to have elite grades to enter the Safety Division.

Ouyang Shuo allowed a guard to lead them to the special forces base. In the side hall, only Song Jia and Ouyang Shuo remained.

As for Song Jia’s quick return, in truth, Ouyang Shuo was surprised.

Of course, he was also very touched.

Song Jia was probably worried about the poison in his body. As such, she had rushed. Who knows what she went through to find the iron armored king beast.

Just as Ouyang Shuo wanted to thank her, the guard outside suddenly reported.

"Lord, God Physician Bianque is waiting."

Who knew that Bianque was also so efficient.

"Invite him in."

"Yes, my lord!"

When Bianque entered, he bowed to Ouyang Shuo.

Song Jia did not say anything. She simply took out a rhino horn and a small box. Inside the box was naturally the inner pellet of the King Beast.

When Bianque received it, he looked really emotional.

To a god physician, seeing medical resources that he had not seen before was a blessing.

"How is it?"

Song Jia was even more nervous than Ouyang Shuo.

"Elite product, elite."

Bianque was amazed.

When Song Jia heard these words, she heaved a sigh of relief.

Bianque carefully covered the box and raised his head," Lord and madam, please don't worry. I'll finish the pill in three days."

"Thank you!"

Bianque stood up and left.

After Bianque left, Song Jia took out a scale armor from her storage bag and smiled, “Blockhead, look; this is top-grade scale armor."

Ouyang Shuo took a piece, only to see a scale armor which was tough and closely packed. He used his strength to pull at it but could not budge it. How shocking.

One must know that Ouyang Shuo had the strength of three oxen. Although he had not used all of his strength, he had still applied a lot of force.

Such a scale armor was really a top-grade item.

"Infuse your primordial energy and try it again."

Obviously, the secrets of the scale armor was not limited to its toughness.

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, he directed a thread of golden primordial energy into the armor. Only to see it swim away and unable to harm the armor’s structure.

"This?"

Ouyang Shuo was astonished.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo's expression, Song Jia nodded her head in glee and smiled, “This scale armor is not only tough. The rarer aspect is that internal strength can't damage it. It is a top grade armor ingredient."

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head.

Apart from that, the scale armor had other magical uses. He predicted that after using primordial energy on it, the toughness would increase.

"How did you kill this king beast?"

Thinking about that, Ouyang Shuo looked at Song Jia with doubt.

The strength of the king beast was not hard to imagine since it had such an armor protecting it. At the start, when Ouyang Shuo killed a basic iron armor beast, he had expended a lot of energy to do so.

Moreover, that iron armor beast was nothing compared to the king beast.

"Secret!"

Song Jia smiled, but she did not reveal her methods.

Chapter 439- Iron Armored Beast Division

Ouyang Shuo looked at Song Jia with love and pity.

This silly girl just wanted to seem strong.

"Give me the scale armor. I'll pass it to Qing'er. So many pieces, probably enough to make three to four sets of inner armor."

The inner armor was secondary, the primary matter was that with so many valuable materials, Qing'er had a chance to reach the grandmaster level. Last time, that little girl was still grumbling to him about not having enough rare materials to break the bottleneck.

Ouyang Shuo had passed her the scale armor from the iron armored beast, but it was not good enough for her.

"Great!"

Song Jia passed them all to Ouyang Shuo, ‘Oh yeah, there's also this." As she spoke, Song Jia took out a book from her storage bag.

"What's that?"

Ouyang Shuo received it and took a look. Then, his mouth gaped open.

Iron Armored Beast Domestication Technique Manual: After use, naturally learns the technique to domesticate the iron armored beasts.

"This king beast also dropped this?"

"Yeah."

"That's not bad!"

Ouyang Shuo smiled. In his heart, there was not too much shock.

One must know that even on Qiongzhou Island, the iron armored beasts were a rare species. Hence, even with this manual, one could not start a large scale domestication process, as they would lack the numbers required.

"You ya."

Song Jia looked at Ouyang Shuo. She was somewhat speechless, so she unhappily said, "Don't look down on people. What if I said that I found a valley with thousands of them living in it?"

"What?"

Ouyang Shuo did not notice that his voice was quaking; her words had shaken his entire train of thought.

A valley with thousands of them? What kind of concept was that? Combining the manual and these beasts, it would birth a whole new type of cavalry.

Iron Armored Beast Division? The thought alone made one emotional.

One must know that the iron armored beasts were actual desolate beasts; they could compare to spirit beasts. Such beasts could be much better mounts than Qingfu Horses.

After all, no matter how you compared them, the Qingfu Horse was just a normal warhorse.

Think about the massive size of the iron armored beast. In tandem with their strength and explosiveness, such a cavalry would create a nightmare.

Probably, the only lacking aspect would be stamina.

However, that would not pose a problem. An iron armored cavalry force must form the strongest heavy armored cavalry. They would be a terrifying presence that could decide the outcome of a battle.

Heavy armored cavalry did not need to embark on long distance battles.

Their goal was to directly slaughter the enemy in front of them.

Of course, to control such a strong mount, it would ask a lot from the rider. The first people to come to Ouyang Shuo’s mind were the mountain barbarians.

Probably only the similarly strong mountain barbarians could ride such a desolate beast.

Quickly, a basic plan formed in Ouyang Shuo's mind. As he thought about this matter, Ouyang Shuo turned around and looked deep into Song Jia's eyes, "Jiajia, you really are my lucky star."

As he spoke, he suddenly hugged her.

"Stupid blockhead."

Song Jia could not block his sneak attack. Her face reddened with embarrassment.

"Haha."

Ouyang Shuo was on cloud nine.

When the guards outside of the hall heard the noises from within, they acted obliviously. These Guards were the soldiers of the Divine martial Guards, his most loyal soldiers.

At this moment, Ouyang Shuo thought about actual matters.

"Men!"

"Present!"

"Invite Du Ruhui, Zhu Hongliang, and Xia Houying over to the main hall."

"Yes, my Lord!"

When she saw that Ouyang Shuo needed to hold a meeting, Song Jia was ready to leave.

Song Jia knew her place. Although she was the female owner of the manor, she would not interfere in his work matters. She knew that along with Ouyang Shuo’s rise in power, some matters would become untouchable.

Especially with her family behind her, who did not know their place.

Political interference would always worry a Lord.

Relatives interfering was an even more worrying matter.

Song Jia was a smart girl, as she had grown up in such an environment. She knew how she should behave.

Ouyang Shuo was very pleased about this point.

"Wait up."

Ouyang Shuo called her and laughed, "Invite your mom and dad over tomorrow."

Since Song Jia had returned, the matter of dealing with the Song Family had shifted up his agenda.

Ouyang Shuo knew the Battle of Zhaoqing like the back of his fingertips.

Compared to the Battle of Leizhou, he had only sent three divisions to the Battle of Zhaoqing. They were the 2nd and 4th division of the Dragon Legion and the 1st division of the Leopard Division.

Amongst which, the Leopard Division had newly formed, so they lacked combat strength in comparison.

In theory, they should increase the number of troops in this attack.

However, Du Ruhui considered everything and could only shake his head and say no.

The 1st division of the Dragon Legion and the 3rd division of the Tiger Legion had already gathered in Broken Blade House. They were ready to go past the hundred thousand mountains to attack Wuzhou.

The 3rd division of the Dragon Legion was housed in Mulan Stronghold.

Along with the establishment of Taiping Country, as well as the swallowing of Zhen An and Guilin Prefecture, Taiping Country's troops had increased to nearly 200 thousand in number.

The troops housed north of the fortress had increased to 40 thousand. With only the 3rd division, the defence was really nervous.

Thanks to the stronghold, they could use one division to go against 40 thousand troops with little issue.

The key question was what if they suddenly increased their troops?

In that case, Mulan Stronghold would fail to remain rock stable.

With the ambitions of the Taiping Country, there was a chance that it might happen.

After all, as long as they took Mulan Stronghold down, their troops could directly attack Lianzhou Prefecture.

However, Hong Xiuquan did not know how many elite troops were housed in Lianzhou. If not, he would definitely launch an attack.

Since Shanhai City had the Military Intelligence Division and the Black Snake Guards, in terms of intel, the Taiping Country were totally on the back foot. They were not even on the same level.

Their every move was known to Shanhai City.

On the contrary, they knew nothing about Shanhai City. No one could pass through Mulan Stronghold. Even a fly could not enter.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo was confident in their ability to crush and suppress Taiping Country.

The other three divisions of the Tiger Legion had just finished the Battle of Qiongzhou, so they needed to rest up.

Apart from that, there was another reason—some of the aboriginal tribes had not submitted. The resistance and sneak attacks happened constantly, which affected the construction in Qiongzhou Prefecture.

These aboriginals were very crafty. They would not attack the large cities. Instead, they chose small settlements and villages.

Under such circumstances, Ouyang Shuo naturally could not move the Tiger Legion.

He sent a letter to General Sun Bin and Governor Tian Wenjing. He asked them to with one another. The officials would take a soft stance, while the military would take a hard stance to suppress the violence and situation.

Although Ouyang Shuo did not scold anyone in the letter, both of them could sense his fury.

The moment he blew up, Qiongzhou Prefecture would experience another bloodbath.

Before he moved into Yashan, Ouyang Shuo could tell that the aboriginals there were hard to handle. However, he did not expect them to face so many problems even with a full legion defending.

Their toughness had far exceeded his expectations.

He could only send a letter and hope for them to clear up the matter. If not, he did not mind fighting fire with fire and killing them all.

During the entire Battle of Qiongzhou, he had not ordered the extermination of any tribe. If the situation really went out of hand, he could only take such an action to send a message.

Apart from the two legions, only the Guards division and palace Guards remained.

Unfortunately, the Battle of Julu caused heavy casualties to both these groups. The losses in men could not be replenished in a day or two.

The palace Guards were still okay, as they could directly chose men from the Guards division. At the same time, the unit was renamed to the Divine Martial Guards.

The Guards division faced more of a problem. They were already lacking men. Now, 1400 were taken away; it was tough.

The major general Lin Yi ran over to complain once every few days.

Unfortunately, as it was still war time, they could not reduce the combat strength on the frontline forces. As such, the Military Affairs Department could only choose from the 3rd division of the Dragon Legion, 1st division of the Dragon Legion, and 3rd division of the Tiger Legion at Broken Blade House.

They could only slowly fill up the missing members of the three divisions,

Shi Wanshui and the other generals all had small grumbles about this matter. One must know that although they were not on the frontlines yet, they would soon be.

At this time, suddenly taking hundreds and thousands of elites, although it was not enough to affect the essence, it was enough to give them a headache.

Ouyang Shuo did not let this matter fester.

In order to alleviate their complaints, he could only promise to quickly replenish their members. At the same time, he promised to give them more equipment and grain.

Only then did this matter come to rest.

When the territory enlarged, problems would arise.

As the Lord, he could not just protect the Guards division and the Divine Martial Guards. If not, the other units would start to have problems and unrest.

The new members sent from the three divisions were not directly used. They had to be sent to the special forces base for two weeks of training.

Trump card forces like the Guards division and the Divine Martial Guards were strong. However, the moment they suffered loses, it was difficult to regain strength. Otherwise, Ouyang Shuo would not have just built group of them.

Hence, everything considered, they could not increase the number of troops to attack Zhaoqing.

Baiqi and Han Xin could only lead three divisions.

Apart from that, there was the help from the Tianshuang County city protection division.

Although they had a logistic supply advantage compared to the Battle of Leizhou, it was much harder in other aspects.

For the Battle of Leizhou, they had caught the enemy off guard. When Leizhou fell, not only the Lords in Zhaoqing, but the Lords in the entire Lingnan Province were shouting that the wolves were here.

At this point in time, it was impossible to launch another sneak attack.

They could only attack head on.

Chapter 440- The Way Out for the Song Family

Not long after Song Jia left, Du Ruhui and the others hurried over to the main hall.

"Lord!"

"Sit!"

Ouyang Shuo provided a simple description of the iron armored beast valley situation to them.

All three of them were smart people, and they immediately understood why Ouyang Shuo called them over for a meeting. Especially the newly appointed animal husbandry director, Xia Houying. Excitement flashed in his eyes.

Xia Houying did not expect to meet such great news so soon after his appointment.

Ouyang Shuo passed Xia Houying the Iron Armored Beast Domestication Technical Manual and said solemnly, “The iron armored beast valley shall be under the jurisdiction of your department, so you must take good care of it."

"Don't worry, my Lord!"

To Xia Houying, this was a great chance to win the Lord’s trust. Even if Ouyang Shuo did not mention it, he still would have taken care of the matter beautifully.

Domesticating iron armored beasts was not going to be an easy matter—everyone knew this.

Although the iron armored beasts were mutated from rhinoceroses, they were not as calm or as gentle. Solely approaching them and making them accept humans would pose a huge problem.

Apart from that, what were their habits and preferences?

What do they eat? What do they not eat? What happens if they get sick? When does it give birth? The answer to such questions were recorded in the technical manual, but knowing it was one thing and handling it was another.

Take purely food as an example.

The iron armored beast was a herbivore. When it was in the wilderness, it would naturally eat everything. If humans were to feed it, they would have to specifically choose herbs and grasses. Purely in a knowledge sense, it was a really hard to obtain.

The breeding farm was one matter. What about when the beasts enter the army? What would happen to their food supply? This problem was another huge headache.

Domesticating the iron armored beast was not as straightforward as war horses. Even so, Xia Houying was very confident, solely because of his vast experience in horse breeding.

The two still had its similarities.

Apart from domesticating the iron armored beast, the Combat Logistics Department's role was to make armor for the beasts.

The iron armored beast was much rarer that the Qingfu Horses. Naturally, they had to be protected. Each death would result in a massive loss. Knives and swords had no eyes on the battlefield, which was why it was hard for mounts to survive.

Apart from protecting its stomach, joints, head and other important areas, the horn also had to be protected. If it was used well, their horns would form a killer weapon.

In this aspect, Ouyang Shuo had experience.

On the battlefield, if the horn struck someone, even if they did not die, they would still suffer heavy injuries.

Lastly, the selection of members, which was the hardest part.

As there were a limited number of iron armored beasts, the could only temporarily form a guard—three thousand men.

After all, the number of mountain barbarians were also limited.

From the mountain barbarian tribes living in the territory, they basically chose all of the elites. They were mainly gathered in the two heavy armored infantry regiments in the 3rd division of the Dragon Legion.

Ouyang Shuo naturally would not take them apart, so he could only search for new members. Unfortunately, with the establishment of Chiyou City, the mountain barbarians on top of hundred thousand mountains were basically swept clean.

The only way was to take down Chiyou City.

Luckily, the construction of the iron armored beast ranch, the breeding of the iron armored beasts, and the research and crafting of the armor all needed some time.

Especially the breeding of the iron armored beast, which would not take a short time.

Establishing the iron armored guards would not result in short term gain. They could not totally use up all the iron armored beasts in the valley, and they needed to wait until the number of beasts reached a certain scale.

This matter still needed planning and discussion.

8th month 3rd day, Song Jia headed to Tianshuang County.

That afternoon, she brought her parents over to Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo had been waiting beside the teleportation formation. Only Zisu accompanied him. Ouyang Shuo personally welcomed them, but he did not order a large scale event.

Song Jia's father would probably understand the deep meaning behind this.

Song Jia's father was around fifty years old, and he looked highly energized and healthy. Occasionally, a spark of energy would appear in his eyes, indicating that this person was smart and had a business mind.

In reality, he ran the Song Family Financial group.

Song Jia's mother was a gentle and demure woman. Her dressing seemed simple, but it was tasteful, and each aspect of her clothes was exquisite.

Song Jia mostly inherited her genes from her mother.

"Uncle, Auntie!"

Ouyang Shuo walked up and greeted them.

"Are you little Shuo? Hearing your name is not the same as meeting you ah."

Song Jia's father walked up and shook hands with Ouyang Shuo; his attitude warm.

"Uncle is too kind!"

Song Jia's mother stood next to Song Jia, behind them, as she judged Ouyang Shuo.

This morning, Ouyang Shuo had specially chosen scholar clothes. Along with his handsome face, he looked elegant and mature.

As the saying goes, ‘When one’s father-in-law and mother-in-law looked at their-son-in-law, they would like him more and more.’

Song Jia's mother first impression of him was not bad.

"Jiajia you have good taste."

"Of course, it's me you're talking about."

In front of her mother, Song Jia was just a little girl; she would not act humble.

"That's right. Whose daughter are you?"

"Mother!"

Song Jia was helpless against her mother's teachings.

The personality of the two were really similar. It seems like when her mother was young, she was as playful as her.

"Please!"

Ouyang Shuo led the way.

When Shanhai City expanded, they also rebuilt the imperial city.

On the square in front of the Governor-General House was a pond. In the middle of the pond stood a statue, the symbol of Shanhai Territory. In the mouth of the dragon, water spurted out.

Under the shine of the sunlight, a rainbow appeared.

Ouyang Shuo led Song Jia and her parents to the back hall. After a short rest, they went to the back garden.

They would constantly reconstruct the entire back garden, so it had grown more and more exquisite and scenic, having the feel of an emperor’s garden. In the current season, the garden bloomed with flowers, as the birds chirped and the fishes swam.

On the grass, there were even little deers playing around.

Occasionally, one could see rabbits, mountain goats, peacocks, and other animals. Needless to say, all of these animals were domesticated because of Bing'er.

The entire back garden was her playground.

Ouyang Shuo had even built a modern playground at a corner. Inside it was swings, slides, and the like, and it even had a small-sized castle.

Ouyang Shuo's love for her was simply like no other.

Hence, only especially close people were invited to the back garden.

On the loft, Zisu had already asked for servants to prepare afternoon tea.

The four of them walked on the stone path and went to the loft. Looking from afar, one could see the lakes and the mountains. Drinking and eating in this environment created an exceptional feeling.

At the side of the loft, a girl was playing on a zither.

The soothing zither sounds merged perfectly with the sounds of the birds.

All of these aspects were perfectly planned; Ouyang Shuo had done this to especially welcome the two.

"Little Shuo has planned everything well!"

Song Jia's father nodded his head pleased and said, “We really made you busy." With Ouyang Shuo's position, to spend so much effort really showed his sincerity.

Of course, Song Jia's father was silently reminding him not to be materialistic. Although the sights and scenery were beautiful, a Lord should not focus on such aspects.

Ouyang Shuo understood these words, which he remembered in his heart.

However, in truth, he rarely came over to the back garden, as he totally lacked the time.

As they talked, two hours passed in a blink of an eye.

"Jiajia, bring me around the garden!"

Song Jia's mother was really smart. She knew that they should leave the two men some time to talk alone.

"Okay!"

Song Jia smiled as she got up

After the two of them left, Ouyang Shuo finally started talking about the detailed matters.

"What Jiajia's second uncle is thinking, I believe Jiajia has already told you?"

"Yes, she has."

"What are your views on it?"

Song Jia's father looked up at Ouyang Shuo; his expression complicated.

Ouyang Shuo slightly smiled, “The key isn't how I see it, but it is how you see it."

"...."

Silence, a long silence.

"Haiz!"

Song Jia's father let out a long sigh; he picked up his teacup and drank.

"His ambitions are too great."

If only his second brother opposed, Song Jia's father would not feel afraid. The problem laid in the fact that even his father was not making a stand about it.

The entire Song Family had an impetuous air around them.

It was because Ouyang Shuo noticed such a point that he did not express his views. The internal affairs of the Song family were not something he should interfere in.

"Uncle, you should step out!"

Seeing him unable to decide, Ouyang Shuo had to speak up.

"Oh?"

Song Jia's father raised his head; his sharp eyes seemingly about to pierce Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo remained calm.

His words were said after careful consideration; they definitely were not random.

With the current state of the Song Family, the only way to solve this matter was for Song Jia's grandfather to totally step down and for her father to take over.

Only then could Ouyang Shuo work with them without worries.

If not, both sides would have a level of distrust regarding one another.

Another period of silence.

Ouyang Shuo was helpless. Merchants were like that, considering so many things.

He was not a merchant but a lord, a future king. He liked spontaneous action when he deemed it necessary.

"You are right."

Maybe he felt Ouyang Shuo's ambition and determination, as Song Jia's father finally made up his mind.

"It's time to lay out the cards with my father."

The moment he said these words, Song Jia's father grew a lot more relaxed.

His father was the huge mountain pressing on all their heads. If one wanted to challenge him, they needed plenty of courage and ability.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this reply, he nodded happily.

Toward the future plans of the Song Family, Ouyang Shuo had made a rough outline. After taking over Zhaoqing, the Song Family would have to leave Tianshuang County. As compensation, Ouyang Shuo would allow them to continue their old profession.

Shanhai Territory would not restrict the Song Chamber of Commerce.

This was the promise Ouyang Shuo made to Song Jia's father.

Apart from that, Song Wen and his brother would also hold high positions in the structure of the territory.

Chapter 441- South Alliance Strikes

An hour later, Song Jia and her mother returned to the loft.

When Song Jia saw Ouyang Shuo and her father casually drinking tea, she knew that they had settled the official matters. Even so, Song Jia looked at Ouyang Shuo with worry. Only after he nodded did she cease to fret.

At night, Ouyang Shuo held a feast in the manor to welcome them. From his side, Cui Yingyu and Qing'er attended the feast. Oh, and of course, little Bing'er attended too.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo treat the two NPCs sisters so well, Song Jia's mother could not help but frown. However, she did not mention the matter during the feast.

Song Jia's parents spent a night in Shanhai City before leaving the next afternoon.

In all likelihood, a massive storm awaited in Tianshuang County.

However, Ouyang Shuo did not need to worry about this matter.

In their short interaction, Ouyang Shuo had already ascertained that his future father-in-law was not a simple person. Although he seemed invisible in the game, in truth, one could not underestimate the influence he had in his family.

Song Jia’s father was highly supportive of Ouyang Shuo's proposal to establish a Song chamber of commerce.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was planning for post-war Zhaoqing matters, little did he know that a storm was slowly sweeping over Zhaoqing.

Lingnan Province, Jiaozhou Prefecture, Jade Buddha County.

Jade Buddha County was located at the southeast tip of Jiaozhou Prefecture. It was similarly a port city, and outside the city was the biggest harbor in Lingnan Province, Jiaozhou Harbour.

The seventy odd members of South Alliance had gathered here to discuss certain matters. The leader of the meeting was the Lord of Jade Buddha County, and the alliance leader, Hefu.

"Guys, Zhaoqing is about to fall. We can't just sit and wait." Hefu said solemnly, “If we don't take action, Shanhai City will target either Shaozhou or Jiaozhou next. In the end, the entire Lingnan Province will fall into their hands. Qiyue Wuyi building the Nanjiang Governor-General House shows his ambition."

"That's right. We must stop their invasion."

The one who spoke was Yuan Ping, the previous love rival of Ouyang Shuo. This aristocratic family son had watched his marriage attempt fail. Ouyang Shuo’s actions had insulted and humiliated him, making him a laughing stock amongst aristocratic families.

When he mentioned Shanhai City, Yuan Ping gritted his teeth.

The Yuan Family was a pinnacle existence in South Alliance. Hefu and Yuan Ping's expressing their opinions caused an uproar in the meeting hall, as the Lords discussed amongst themselves.

They would need a lot of courage to go up against Shanhai City. Amongst the Lords, more than half had joined the Battle of Julu, where they had witnessed the strength of the Shanhai City Army.

Especially the final battle of the palace Guards. Their red capes were basically the stuff of nightmares.

It left such a lasting impression.

They could not imagine how an army could be so strong. Even the invincible Jiangdong Warriors lost. In comparison, their armies were basically uselessness.

Most crucially, that was in the battle map. The Lords did not know how many elite forces Shanhai City had in the main map.

After a period of time, Shanhai Territory was not a secret anymore.

A single Lord taking over Lianzhou Prefecture, Qiongzhou Prefecture, and Leizhou Prefecture, a simply terrifying affair. The other Lords could not dare to imagine how many troops Shanhai had.

The thought alone made people feel despair.

Now, they wanted to face Shanhai City head on, which obviously required courage aplenty.

However, Hefu’s words made undeniable sense.

Before this, the fall of Leizhou Prefecture had stunned all the Lords in Lingnan Province. They did not expect Shanhai City to possess such a huge the appetite. Directly after occupying Leizhou Prefecture, they instantly turned their sword to Zhaoqing Prefecture.

If they watched on as Zhaoqing fell, it would be their turn next. The theory of slowly heating water to kill a frog was something they all understood.

However, knowing it was one thing, acting was another. Luckily, at the crucial moment, Hefu had stepped out. He insisted they start a war with Shanhai City.

"Leader, just say it. What should we do?"

After a tough battle, the members of South Alliance finally came to an agreement to act together.

When Hefu heard this response, he laughed heartily. At least they were not stupid. He looked around and said, “Send our troops to Zhaoqing and chase the Shanhai City Army out; it is best if we destroy them."

"Ah?"

The other Lords did not expect their alliance leader to have such a huge appetite. They thought that just stopping Shanhai City’s attack was good enough.

Who would have expected that Hefu even wanted to destroy the Shanhai City Army.

Undeniably, if they could win this battle, South Alliance could gain great fame.

"Guys, please don't have doubts. Half of the Lords in Zhaoqing have already agreed to join South Alliance."

"Leader is a genius!"

Hefu had not even finished his words, and he had already won himself praise.

One could only say that Hefu was a man that placed a lot of heart into his actions. Long before Leizhou Prefecture fell, he had started to contact the Lords in Zhaoqing to discuss the formation of an alliance.

He really had foresight.

If not, in Ouyang Shuo’s last life, Hefu could not have led the South Alliance to take control of Lingnan Province.

The current Zhaoqing Prefecture was split into three factions. Apart from a few that were neutral, they either were in the Shanhai alliance - Tianshuang Alliance or they had joined South Alliance.

On the verge of death, no Lord would willing just wait there.

With that, the situation in Zhaoqing grew more and more complicated.

After roughly knowing one another, they focused on the specific battle plans. South Alliance had seventy Lords, above half of which were grade 3 counties. Some of the leading ones were just a step away from upgrading to a prefecture.

Hefu suggested that for fairness sake, each territory would sent three thousand troops to form a 210 thousand alliance army to assist Zhaoqing Prefecture.

The three thousand army number was similar to the amount one would send to a battle map.

In that case, the teleportation fees and logistics was something each territory could somewhat afford. Even if they lost three thousand troops, the territory would not be badly hurt.

Even in the worst case, Shanhai City attacked Jiaozhou Prefecture or Shaozhou Prefecture, each territory would have enough soldiers to defend themselves.

Three thousand was a number that Hefu had chosen after much contemplation. Any higher would cause opposition.

Expectedly, even three thousand was a number that worried some grade 2 counties. To them, three thousand was a third of their troops.

Soldiers were important to a territory. They determined the life of death of a territory.

Each battle and war must be treated carefully.

If one was not a Lord, they would completely fail to understand the pressure from within.

One must know that in the wilderness, one mistake would cause a Lord to lose. At that point, even their entire territory might suffer destruction.

Additionally, sending out troops to help Zhaoqing Prefecture was to defend against a common enemy. Even if they won, they would not receive any rewards.

They could not say that once they won the war, they would stay in Zhaoqing and not leave, right? If that was the case, the entire South Alliance would break in minutes.

Hefu would not be so dumb.

Hefu took care of all their doubts.

Toward certain territories with problems, the alliance lowered the number of troops they had to send to two thousand. After these adjustments, the alliance army reached a nice two hundred thousand men.

In addition to the local armies of Zhaoqing Prefecture, Hefu was confident in their attack. He believe that they would not only chase Shanhai City Army out of Zhaoqing, they could even attack Leizhou Prefecture.

Of course, the prerequisite would be that Shanhai City would not send reinforcements.

Shanhai City was not foolish; they definitely would have some countermeasures.

The Battle of Leizhou and its happenings had already spread in South Alliance. The only change was the alliance Yanhuo Yaonie created.

After the Battle of Leizhou, Shanhai City had prepared for such a scenario.

Even so, Hefu was confident that Qiyue Wuyi would never have thought that not only the Zhaoqing Lords had allied, even the entire Lingnan Province Lords had gathered up.

"The wolf is coming!" These were not just empty words, as Shanhai City's threat to the neighboring territories was simple too great.

On the forums, some people said that the uprising armies in the wilderness were less scary than Shanhai City. They would rather face the threat of the uprising army than face Shanhai City.

However, a strong dragon was only equal to a local snake.

Hefu was confident that with 200 thousand troops, even though Shanhai City was a dragon, they could force Shanhai City to bow their heads.

After discussing the number of troops to send, they had to choose the target.

Based on the news from the Zhaoqing Prefecture Lords, the current Zhaoqing battlefield was locked in a stalemate. Thirty odd territories, which belonged to different factions at different positions, were biting at one another.

The three divisions of Shanhai City had split into three, as they pushed toward the south.

Any faction that stood in the attack path of the army surrendered without exception. Baiqi was calm; he did not move the troops rashly.

They would need to renovate and modify each city that they occupied.

He would wait until the city, as well as the subsidiary territories, formed some level of retaliation ability. Then, he would move forward. Step by step, he pushed Zhaoqing Prefecture to the edge of the cliff.

Baiqi saw it clearly. The Lords in Zhaoqing were unable to form up, and they did not dare to gather up to go all out against the Shanhai City Army.

With that, the battlefield proceeded as expected for the Shanhai City Army. If nothing went wrong, they would slowly swallow up Zhaoqing Prefecture.

To break out, the only way was to shift the army to the north of Zhaoqing. They would need to gather up the local armies to form unified a fighting strength.

With that, two hundred to three hundred thousand troops waltzed from north to south, searching for the Shanhai City Army for a head on battle.

However, Hefu did not think that way.

Chapter 442- Target Tianshuang County

"Guys, where do you all think the key to the Battle of Zhaoqing lies?"

Hefu looked around and asked solemnly.

"Surprise?"

"No." Hefu shook his head, “The Shanhai City Army isn't composed of amateurs. Even if we launch a sneak attack, we would fail to gain victory with a single battle alone. You guys have probably heard of the battle of Tanmu County?"

"How would we not?" a Lord replied, "Shanhai City had a division trapped. Even then, the attacking army couldn't do anything to them."

At this point, all the other Lords probably understood.

That was right, under such terrible conditions, the alliance army still failed to do anything to the Shanhai City Army. It was just wishful thinking to try and replicate such a situation.

After such a lesson, the Shanhai City Army would unlikely fall for the same trick.

Winning stably and safely was their strategy.

Amongst the uproar, Yuan Ping suddenly stood up and loudly proclaimed, “I feel that the key to the battle is how to prevent reinforcements!"

When the other Lords heard that, they fell into deep in thought.

Only Hefu could not help but frown. Before the meeting, Hefu had a short conversation with Yuan Ping and a few other Lords.

At that time, the few of them had already arrived at a consensus.

If not, Hefu would not have confidence to push such an agenda during the meeting.

What made Hefu unhappy was that Yuan Ping actually did not stick to the agreement. He just directly spoke the conclusion to their meeting. Originally, Hefu was supposed to speak those words.

Hen, you want to increase your influence in the alliance?

The idea was right, but it was such a selfish decision. In his heart, he was already unhappy.

When Yuan Ping noticed the expression on his face, he did not care much.

In such a huge alliance, Hefu alone was not enough. He could not hold such great power, as he did not have the charm. To be able to obtain power, one needed to fight for it. Who cares about going through some despicable means?

Hefu was too old school.

Seeing that his words had shocked all the other Lords, Yuan Ping decided to strike while the iron was hot; he continued, “With the current three division strength of Shanhai City, we aren't afraid. What we fear is the situation where they send more troops. Think about it, if Shanhai City wants to send reinforcements, what is the fastest way?"

"Tianshuang County!"

At this point, some of the Lords reacted.

"That's right." Yuan Ping nodded. He did not seem to notice that Hefu's face had slowly turned black, as he continued, “The fastest way would be to teleport to Tianshuang County. Hence, the main goal is to strike down Tianshuang County."

The moment his words sounded out, applause broke out.

Some of the Lords were looking at Yuan Ping with awe and worship.

Of course, some old foxes smelled the gunpowder in the air, so they did not make a sound.

Luckily, Yuan Ping knew what was enough and returned to his seat. He also knew that he could not successfully challenge Hefu in just a day.

Hefu looked coldly at Yuan Ping. However, he wore a large warm smile on his face, “Yuan Ping's words make sense, and I agree."

"Now, the key is how to take down Tianshuang County without alerting Shanhai City?"

The teleportation formation had not been destroyed before, so the moment a territory was occupied, the teleportation formation would disappear. This was the way it would normally work.

No one had heard of any teleportation formation being destroyed.

Hence, the moment they attacked Tianshuang County, Shanhai City's Army could teleport over to assist. If that happened, wouldn't everything go to waste?

The only way was to prevent Tianshuang County from contacting Shanhai City.

After the system update, during wartime, Gaia had already prevented all communication channels. If one wanted to spread information, they had to go through relays.

Apart from that, Tianshuang City could also directly teleport to Shanhai City to report to them.

Hence, to achieve a situation where both sides did not notice, one had to block up both sides.

This was too hard.

Song Wen was not a fool. During wartime, Tianshuang County was heavily guarded.

You want to send someone in to sabotage?

Difficult!

Even if you infiltrated Tianshuang County and blocked up the teleportation formation and relay, the moment the army arrived, it was over.

Hence, this mission was impossible to complete.

Even Hefu did not have the confidence.

Prior to this meeting, the results of the few Lord’s discussion were: they needed to infiltrate first. Then, would see how long they could cause sustained damage to the structures.

The main goal was to gather up the troops and crush Tianshuang County. Even if the Shanhai City Army teleported over, they would also be finished.

Hefu's confidence came from two sources.

Firstly, the expensive teleportation costs meant that Shanhai City could not teleport over too many at once; thirty to forty thousand troops was the max.

These troops could not face off against a two hundred thousand men army.

Secondly, Shanhai City could not gather enough troops in such a short amount of time. Shanhai City was not a town but a prefecture, so their main forces would not all be in their main city.

Hence, they could at most send the troops housed in Shanhai City. Those elsewhere, even if they rushed back, South Alliance would have already crushed Tianshuang County at that point.

Based on these two points, Hefu was confident.

Of course, there was an element of risk. After all, the number of troops in Shanhai City was a mystery. No outsider could be certain how many there were.

Apart from that, there would be the possibility of interference from the other Shanhai Alliance members.

The moment Qiyue Wuyi asked for help, they would have a problem at their hands. A hundred thousand men could teleport over at any moment.

Thinking about it, one already had goosebumps.

After all, could they move allies to disturb the other Shanhai Alliance members?

Could they do that? No.

In the end, they were just a regional alliance, without connections and power.

Ask for help, work together?

That was not reliable.

Such a shark, the moment one made contact with them, they would be hard to shake off.

An olden phrase was great here, ‘Inviting a god was easy, sending them away was hard.’

This was only a battle of reinforcements, not one of survival. Hefu definitely would not be willing to associate himself with those wolves.

Hefu was also from an aristocratic family, so he understood the ways of Di Chen and the others.

Too risky.

Hefu was also one with ambition; he would not allow others to take control of him.

So, what should he do?

As the alliance leader, he faced the greatest pressure.

The moment he failed, not only would his alliance leader position be lost, the entire Lingnan Province would be affected. Then, it would merely be a matter of time before they fell into the hands of Shanhai City.

Hence, any battle strategy needed to be carefully thought out to the extreme.

In serious terms, they needed to do everything perfectly. However, the current situation did not allow them to be so careful.

As they all thought about this, the hall fell totally silent. All the Lords seated were not fools. This was a life or death battle; all sides wanted to win.

Attacking Tianshuang County was still risky.

However, they had to do so and quickly at that.

Everyone knew that Tianshuang County was a huge nail in their sights on Zhaoqing. If they did not remove it, they could not go all out against the Shanhai City Army.

If not, when both sides went head-to-head and a huge army suddenly rushed out of Tianshuang County, their plans would be spoilt.

"Why don’t we surround them but not attack?" someone suggested.

"What do you mean?"

Hefu was stunned and asked.

"I mean that we should arrange sixty to seventy thousand troops to surround Tianshuang County. However, we won't attack them, just surround them. How about that?"

"That's interesting."

"However, in that case, we would have to reduce the number of alliance army troops."

"That's right, taking out sixty to seventy thousand troops all of a sudden, do we still have the confidence to destroy their main army? You must know that apart from the three divisions, they still have a Garrison Division in Leizhou Prefecture. Along with the Tianshuang County city protection division, their numbers would already reach sixty to seventy thousand."

"There's a risk, but it's better than sieging!"

"If no one has any other ideas for the battle, then that is our only way."

Hefu sighed and looked around, ‘Any of you have any ideas? This is really important, so please chip in your thoughts."

The moment his words sounded out, the hall burst with various voices.

The Lords spoke incessantly; they said out their ideas one by one, which were all rejected.

Half an hour later, the voices grew weaker and weaker.

It was obvious that no one had a good idea.

Only Yuan Ping sat calmly at a corner, his mouth slowly turned into a gleeful smile, and his chest pumped up with confidence.

The most crucial person was naturally left last.

"Guys."

Yuan Ping suddenly stood up. His voice was not loud, but he had become the focal point of the entire hall.

When Hefu saw Yuan Ping’s actions, he felt a growing annoyance. This a**hole, he only knew how to snatch the limelight. However, Hefu did not express his thoughts because of his good upbringing.

Yuan Ping did not care about Hefu’s feelings. For this battle, Yuan Ping was highly confident. He wanted to use this chance to expand his influence in the alliance.

Yuan Ping walked to the middle of the hall and looked around. He smiled, as he said, “Guys, I've an item that can break Tianshuang County's teleportation formation."

Earth-shattering, truly earth shattering!

"Yuan Ping this matter is huge; you can't sprout nonsense. The teleportation formation is system-built, so how can you break it?" Hefu could not take it anymore and scolded out.

When Yuan Ping heard this response, a flash of coldness appeared in his eyes, as the corner of his mouth revealed a slight mocking expression.

Hen, I was waiting for these words.

Watch how I'll deliver a slap to your face.

As expected from a scheming prince, Yuan Ping had really planned it all out. What item was he going to take out that made him feel so confident?

Chapter 443- Formation Breaking Talisman

Only to see Yuan Ping smirk, as he took out a talisman from his bag.

"Guys take a look, this talisman is known as the Formation Breaking Talisman. Its specific purpose is to break teleportation formations. This is a treasure that I expended much effort to find. I'm especially taking it out to aid the alliance."

The Lords took the talisman and passed it around. Instantly, shock and awe filled the hall.

Formation Breaking Talisman: Once you paste this talisman onto a teleportation formation, you can stop its operation for a day.

Strictly speaking, this talisman could not be called a real formation breaking talisman, as it did not really break the teleportation formation. It would just stop it for a day.

Apart from that, the talisman also made it clear that it could only be used on territory teleportation formations, not on imperial city teleportation formations.

Even so, this talisman could be considered priceless. Especially to South Alliance, its presence was comparable to a god weapon.

Although it was only one day, if used properly, they could take down Tianshuang County with no problem.

Even Hefu was shocked, he did not expect Yuan Ping to actually possess such an item.

Such schemes, such methods.

Yuan Ping had this talisman all along. However, he did not leak anything before the meeting. Even during this meeting, he had kept his silence and allowed the other Lords to discuss.

Only at the very end did he reveal his huge secret.

Utilizing this method, the members of South Alliance would feel gratitude toward Yuan Ping. At the same time, after Hefu doubted Yuan Ping, his reputation was dealt a blow.

Hefu cold smiled, as they would say, ‘Intelligence in turn, turns around to bite you.’

Yuan Ping was too scheming, and he had underestimated his allies. Did he really think that others would not notice his small actions?

Childish!

Inside the meeting hall, many Lords were ecstatic. The young Lords were naturally pleased with Yuan Ping, while the more experience and smart Lords silently frowned.

This Yuan Ping was really a jerk.

He had a special weapon from the start, but he did not take it out. Instead, he allowed them to discuss until they hit a dead end.

Was he just bent on seeing them make a fool out of themselves?

Yuan Ping was not a fool either, so he could sense the weird atmosphere in the hall. After a brief moment of thought, a realization him.

He was too greedy, too greedy.

He needed to do something. Otherwise, he would waste all his effort.

"Guys, I, Yuan Ping, has joined this large alliance. Seeing the alliance in such danger, I'm willing to give up this talisman. Not only that, for the task of infiltrating Tianshuang County, I'm willing to take responsibility for that matter too." Yuan Ping seemed to be smiling, but he was bleeding deep down.

Originally, he had expected the alliance to purchase this talisman. If he placed this talisman on the market, it could sell for more than tens of thousands of gold.

This time, he could only bear the pain.

"Great, Lord Yuan Ping is righteous."

Yuan Ping's actions had gained him praise. Without bothering about the reasons behind his actions, just his contributions to the alliance were evident to everyone.

When Yuan Ping heard such a response, he secretly heaved a sigh of relief.

After the meeting ended, some Lords took the initiative to talk to Yuan Ping.

Yuan Ping replied to them one by one, as he enjoyed the fruits of his success. Only Hefu had a weird expression on his face.

8th month 6th day, Tianshuang County.

The entire Tianshuang County was already in a state of high alert; outsiders could not even enter. They had even set the teleportation formation to specified teleportation, where only people the Lord selected could use it.

The people within Tianshuang County were scared and jittery.

Not only because of the imminent Battle of Zhaoqing, as within the Song Family, a change had also occurred. After Song Jia's father returned, he laid all the cards out on the table with his father that very night.

All of a sudden, a storm brewed.

The entire Song Family was flipped upside down.

Some people supported Grandfather Song, while some supported Song Jia's father.

The battle of control between the two generations had officially entered a crucial moment.

These past two days made the situation really clear. Song Jia's father, Song Tianxiong, acted quickly and suppressed his second brother, Song Tianli, as he slowly obtained the upper hand.

Song Jia's Grandfather was slowly pushed into a tough spot.

If matters proceeded like this, giving up control was his best option.

At this point, he was also a smart person; he was already prepared to accept his failure. He really did not expect to lose to the hands of his own son.

However, today, the situation suddenly changed.

The grandfather of the Yuan family expressed that he could not bear to watch the younger generation humiliate Grandfather Song, so he wanted to come over to Tianshuang County to seek justice along with two other families.

When Grandfather Song received the letter, he weighed everything and decided to agree.

He did not know the true reason the Yuan Family was so eager; they were scheming something. However, he was currently in a pickle, so the Yuan Family was his best chance.

At this point, he could only try his best to save his own skin.

When Song Tianxiong received the news, he felt furious, but he did not dare to reject.

Aristocratic family; aristocratic families were a circle of friends. If he wanted to live on in that circle, he could not have the title of someone who humiliated the older generation. If not, he would not be able to gain a foothold in the circle.

That morning, the representatives of the three families teleported over to Tianshuang County. The moment the four families met, naturally, each side would express their own views, thinking that they were right.

However, they could not resolve the situation. As such, it ended in a stalemate. The same day, the representatives of the three families decided to just stay; they stated that they would not leave until they settle this matter.

Song Tianxiong was very unhappy about their behavior.

No matter what they said, this was an internal matter.

Why are you all being such busybodies? Even if you are, you can't just stay here and not leave, right?

The entire Tianshuang County was thrown into chaos.

Song Tianxiong's brother, Song Tianli, thought he had found a backing, so he started to make noises again.

Amidst the chaos, a huge scheme slowly creeped in. That night, a man in a black shirt walked out of an inn and headed to the teleportation formation. He stuck a talisman onto the teleportation formation.

A white shine glowed, and the teleportation formation immediately stopped working.

Everything was done in a ghostly manner; no one else even noticed.

The next morning, a fellow that looked like a butler arrived at the relay.

"Who are you?"

During wartime, members of the city protection squad guarded the relay. Song Wen had sent out orders to not allow strangers to collect and send letters at the relay.

"I'm the Yuan Family’s guard. I'm here to send a letter for the Grandfather."

The guard stopped him and said, “The Lord has orders. During wartime, strangers cannot use the relay."

"Are you blind, am I a stranger? Even if I am, is the Grandfather of my house a stranger?" The butler instantly raged out and scolded.

Seeing the situation, the guard did not do anything, “Please calm down, this is my duty. Without orders, no one is allowed to enter."

"You!" The butler was furious, “Such nerve, you wait!"

As he said these words, he was about to leave.

Coincidentally, Song Tianli passed the relay.

When the butler saw Song Tianli, he shouted in delight, “Sir, sir."

"Who's calling me?"

Song Tianli walked over.

"Sir, I'm a butler of the Yuan Family. We met yesterday."

"Oh, it’s you."

After the reminder, Song Tianli recalled that such a person worked for the Yuan Family Grandfather.

Seeing the letter in his hand, Song Tianli asked, “Why, are you here to send a letter?"

"That's right. The Yuan Family Grandfather had something urgent, but he pushed it away to rush over. Now, he's away, but he still needs to handle the urgent matter at home."

"He's so righteous, help me thank him."

When Song Tianli heard these words, he felt touched, See, that is called brotherhood, that is called righteousness. Without the help of the Yuan Family, he would have really lost.

Song Tianli pointed to the guard in front of the relay and asked, “Then what's this?"

"Haiz." The butler sighed, as he frowned," I wanted to send the letter, but I was stopped. They said that it was the orders from Lord Song Wen."

The butler purposely emphasized the words ‘Lord Song Wen.’

"Hen, preposterous."

As expected, when Song Tianli heard these words, he immediately exploded. This master was hot tempered. Furthermore, he had been through a lot today, so he was in a bad mood.

"Insolent servant, do you recognize me?"

"Yes, yes."

Although the guard felt humiliated, he did not dare to retort. No matter what, Song Tianli was a member of the Song Family, and he was a member of the people who lead the county. He, as a guard, did not dare to anger them.

"Good, apologize immediately to the guest."

Song Tianli said in a forceful and fierce manner.

The guard was helpless, and he could only do as said. Who knew that the humble-looking butler would now put on such an arrogant and despicable face.

He had no choice; he was lower ranked than him.

Tianshuang was not like Shanhai City. Rather, there was no other territory that treated NPCs the way Shanhai City treated them.

Knowing or unknowingly, one would feel that you were better than the NPCs.

The butler arrogantly accepted the apology.

Only then did Song Tianli's anger feel appeased, “What are you standing there for? Step aside and let the guest send the letter. If you affect their matters, can you handle it?"

When the guard heard these words, he was put in a tough spot.

Apologizing was not a huge matter but stepping aside was difficult.

Looking at Song Tianli, the guard stuttered, “But, but, the Lord has orders...."

He could not say out the following words, as the furious Song Tianli had walked up and slapped him.

"Bastard. My words cannot be compared to his orders?!"

The guard did not dare to say another word.

The other guard was smart. Seeing the situation, he stepped out to resolve it, "Second master's words, we naturally will listen to. He's new and doesn't know the rules. Please don't be angry."

"Hen." Only then was Song Tianli appeased.

Chapter 444- Tianshuang County Falls

When the butler Song Tianli’s actions, he turned around, looked at the latter, and cupped his fist.

"Thank you, Elder Song."

Song Tianli waved him off and walked away. In his eyes, this butler was only a servant; he was just a servant in a somewhat higher position.

In the end, he was still a servant.

Hence, facing such a person, Song Tianli did not have the mode to deal with him.

When the butler saw this treatment, he lowered his head modestly, but coldness flashed in his eyes, Stupid fellow, to actually underestimate me like this. Today is the death day of your family.

After Song Tianli had completely left, the butler waltzed into the relay.

When he passed the guard, he purposely stared at him arrogantly.

The guard did not bother reacting.

The butler walked into the relay and found the manager.

When the territory built a relay, the system would naturally spawn a manager to be in charge of the collecting and sending of mail. The manager did not belong to the territory, so if he died, he would revive in a day.

The manager laughed as he waved, "Guest, are you sending or receiving?"

"Neither."

"Neither? Then what are you here for?"

"To kill you!"

"You!"

Before the manager could even finish his words, a needle stabbed into his heart with lightning speed. The poison entered his body and spread, causing him to die instantly.

This unassuming butler was actually a martial arts expert the Yuan Family had spent a large sum to hire. For this operation, the Yuan Family had really expended a lot of effort.

With a flash of white light, the body of the manager disappeared. He would only revive a day later. The guards outside did not hear anything, so naturally, they would not enter to take a look.

The butler cleaned up the scene and walked out cooly. Just like that, they had sabotaged both the teleportation formation and the relay, completing blocking the Tianshuang County’s communication route to the outside.

After the butler left, the arrived at a remote alley and shot out a signal bullet before disappearing.

"Who shot the signal bullet?"

Song Wen had just gotten up and was training in the courtyard.

"Men!"

"Present!"

"Go investigate."

"Yes, my Lord!"

At this point, any small movement would trigger his sensitive being. His Father was trying to rally the family and as the eldest son, he had to ensure that nothing went wrong with Tianshuang County.

When he woke up, Song Wen already felt that something was off. When he suddenly saw a signal bullet, he felt a bad premonition, as if something big was about to happen.

Just as Song Wen was frowning deep in thought, the two hundred thousand troops of South Alliance had swarmed toward Tianshuang County. The huge army directly entered the surroundings of Tianshuang County through the teleportation formation.

The moment they received the signal, they immediately charged out of the camp.

The guards at the city gate trembled in fear upon seeing the huge army bear down toward them.

Two hundred thousand troops; when they lined up together, one could not see the end of them. Instantly, a black tide gathered around the city and swarmed toward the county like a flood, as they threatened to swallow up Tianshuang County clean.

Under the blue sky, the black flood charged, their flags waving in the sky.

Formation after formation gathered up orderly, sword-shield soldiers, archers, and cavalry. In the midst of the troops were siege chariots, trebuchet, as well as archer turrets.

Before the army even reached the city, their overbearing presence engulfed the city.

The killing intent covered the sky, making it hard for one to breathe.

"Kill!"

"Kill!"

"Kill!"

The heaven-breaking shouts reverberated through the wilderness.

The soldiers stepped forward along with the beat of the drums, as they shouted their chants. They crushed everything in their way to dust. The commoners living outside the city were all killed; they did not even have a chance to run away.

Within several square miles of the city, the soldiers filled any and all empty space.

Run? Where to?

Amongst the formation, an arrow rain shot out and sent the commoners down the path of the Yellow Springs.

The army did not even flinch, as they stepped on the bodies and moved on. They did not waste any time. It seemed like they felt they had not killed people with lives but a bunch of ants.

In a chaotic world, what pity remained?

The city gate was a disastrous mess.

"Don't squeeze; don't squeeze!"

"Let me in; let me in!"

"Son, where's my son; has anyone see my son?" Amongst the crowd, a madame was walking in the opposite direction, looking worried.

"Close the gates. Quick, close it!"

At this crucial moment, the city guards did not even bother about the lives of the people and directly pulled up the drawbridge. They killed anyone who dared try and stop them.

"Ah, murderer! The army killed people!"

"Devils! You are all devils!"

"You are all going to hell!"

"It's me, your neighbour, save me!" One woman shouted at one of the soldiers, anxiety evident in her words, but her voice still contained a thread of hopefulness.

That guard seemed as calm as water, like he was totally deaf, as he waved his sword. However, on his face, two stream of tears flowed down.

These people were their neighbours; some were even their family members.

Today, however, the soldiers needed to sacrifice them, what kind of cruelty was that? That woman was killed amidst the chaos before she could be saved; her expression filled with shock.

The other woman, who had lost her child, was still shouting out to try and locate him.

"Son, Son!"

Just at this moment, at the corner of the city gate, a young child walked out.

The woman let out tears of joy, as she walked up. She tried to push the people away to get to her son. His face similarly had a wide smile; he looked truly adorable.

Suddenly, a sharp arrow pierced through the air and directly embedded itself in her chest.

"Argh!"

The happy expression remained on her face, but immense fear and worry filled her eyes. At this moment, all she thought about was the safety of her child. Her own life was not important.

"Waaaa!"

When the young child saw his mother fall and not rise up, he cried out.

His cries, amidst all the chaos, seemed exceptionally ear piercing. At this very moment, a guard could not take it anymore, so he rushed out to carry the child.

"Waaaa!"

The young child could not stop crying, as his head constantly turned back to the position where his mother fell.

The eyes of the brave mother, upon seeing her child saved, flooded with gratefulness. Along with her, many other civilians were sacrificed.

Before the battle even began, bodies and blood filled the city gates.

In such moments, human life was like dirt.

"Quick, report to the Lord!"

The guard trembled, as he spoke with clattering teeth.

"Yes!"

One guard hurried down the city wall and dashed straight for the Lord's Manor.

Even with the guards report, the sound of the war drums had already caused unrest in the city. The commoners inside were far too familiar with this sound.

All of a sudden, the commoners panicked.

Just as Song Wen rushed out of the Lord's Manor, he bumped into the guard that was on his way to report.

"What's happening?"

Song Wen tried to calm himself down. At such a moment, everyone could panic, except for him.

"Lord, Lord it’s bad. An enemy, a large army."

The guard was obvious freaked out, as he stuttered in his speech.

"How many, which army?"

Songwen was not furious, as he asked in a soothing and concerned tone; his words had the power to calm one down.

Hearing Song Wen's words, the guard regained his composure, “We couldn't count them all, but there are at least more than a hundred thousand. There were many flags that we have never seen before."

When Song Wen heard these words, his eyebrows locked up tightly.

Within Tianshuang County, there were only three thousand troops. Song Wu led the main force, which joined the Shanhai City Army under Baiqi.

Song Wen did not expect the enemy to turn their eyes to Tianshuang County.

This did not make sense; it did not make any sense.

The Lords of Zhaoqing Prefecture could not even protect themselves. Why would they launch an attack on TIanshuang County?

Thinking about how the guard mentioned many unknown flags, Song Wen realized that powers outside of Zhaoqing had thrown themselves into the mix.

As for their identity, it was not important anymore.

Most importantly, he had to think of how to get past this situation; Tianshuang County could not fall.

If they fell, they would not just affect Shanhai City's strategy. Most importantly, the county was the hard work of their family. If it fell, the Song Family would lose everything.

Thinking up to this point, Song Wen felt a shiver run down his spine.

"Men!"

"Present!"

Song Wen took out his lord verification item and passed it to the guard, “Take this and teleport to Shanhai City. Ask for help, and say that it is an emergency."

"Don't worry, my Lord!"

The guard knew that a serious matter was on hand, as he turned around and dashed for the teleportation formation.

Similar to Shanhai City, the teleportation formation in Tianshuang County was near the Lord's Manor. Just as Song Wen was about to check on the battle, the guard's shouts rang out.

"Lord, it's bad!"

The guard ran over; his face ashen white.

Song Wen felt another chill run down his spine, as his bad premonition grew stronger and stronger.

"Say it, quickly!"

"Lord, the teleportation formation has stopped working; we can’t use it."

"What?"

Song Wen panicked, unable to maintain his calm.

At this moment, Song Wen knew that Tianshuang County had lost, and the Song Family was finished.

"Lord, Lord!"

The guard looked at Songwen with concern, as his expression grew more and more anxious.

"I can't fall. Even if we battle to the last one, the Song Family will not surrender."

Song Wen tried his best to calm himself down. He already had no mood to investigate why the teleportation formation had failed. The most important matter was to inform Qiyue Wuyi and Baiqi of the situation.

"Go and check to see if the relay is working."

Song Wen wrote a letter and instructed the guard.

This weird situation made Song Wen sense a huge scheme. At this moment, anything weird and outlandish was possible.

The relay was the only communication channel to the outside for Tianshuang County.

Please be okay, Songwen prayed in his heart.

Chapter 445- Song Wen's reply

A short while later, the guard returned, his face ashen white.

Song Wen raised his head. His heart stilled upon seeing the guard’s expression.

"Speak!"

"Lord, the relay manager was assassinated."

Bada!

The brush in Song Wen's hand fell to the table, the ink splattered everywhere, making the unfinished letter messy and dirty.

It was too much of a coincidence!

Song Wen knew that if something was too much of a coincidence, it was not a coincidence but a plot. Thinking back to the broken teleportation formation, it was obvious that someone purposely tampered with it.

Who would it be?

During wartime, Tianshuang city was on high alert; no outsider could enter the city.

Is it them?

Thinking up to this point, Song Wen's expression turned cold.

"Men!"

Song Wen's voice was really low, filled with disgust.

"Lord!"

The same guard replied; he was Song Wen’s right-hand-man.

"Go check. In these past two days, who went to the relay? Especially from last afternoon to this morning."

"My Lord!"

"Oh?"

The guard did not move. Instead, he approached Song Wen and said softly, “Lord, when I went to the relay to check, I asked the guard there, and he said that a butler of the Yuan Family had entered."

"Bastard!" Song Wen was furious, as he smacked the table, “Didn't I say, without my orders, no one can enter? You can’t even stop a simple butler?"

"My Lord, please don't be angered."

"Based on the guard’s words, second elder ordered them to listen, and he even slapped one of the guards."

When Song Wen heard this news, his face turned so dark that water was about to drip out. The brush in his hand had snapped into half, resulting in an ear piercing pa! sound, showing the anger in his heart.

This Lord was on the verge of exploding, merely moments away.

A traitor in the family!

Before this, Song Wen could not understand his father’s actions in the family. He thought that his father was too cold. He did not expect Tianshuang County to fall because of his own family.

Even if they managed to survive, it was time to settle family matters.

"Send men to gather up the Yuan Family people."

Song Wen's voice was icy and completely emotionless.

"Yes, my Lord!"

The guard felt shocked; this was the first time he saw his Lord so angry and emotional. In his eyes, Song Wen was a calm and polite Lord.

This was the first time he had completely closed up his heart.

After the guard left, Song Wen started to plan. He was clear that without reinforcements, Tianshuang County would definitely fall.

To fight head on was not a smart idea.

He needed to consider how to minimise their losses.

The Song Family was not truly lost. For such an aristocratic family, they obviously had a way out. When he first built Tianshuang County, the Song Family had already prepared an escape route.

Who knew they would need to use it so quickly?

After Song Wen walked out of the room, he met his father before leaving the Lord's Manor.

His father would naturally inform the family members. Song Wen, as the Lord, had better things to do. He arrived at the treasury and emptied out all the gold and resources.

Following which, he went to the storage room and swept up all the rare resources. The resources were not like gold, which took up space. As such he chose to take away items such as tokens, secret manuals, and technical manuals.

He could only leave the other items for the enemy.

Lastly, Song Wen walked into the Four Seas Bank branch. He was clear that the gold inside the bank branch was a lot more than the gold in the treasury of Tianshuang County.

The worst part was that NPCs were in charge of The Four Seas Bank branch. Without his help, they could not move the money. Most crucially, Song Wen would not forget them.

Whether the Song Family would rise up, it all depended on Shanhai City.

Compared to the scenes on the streets, the bank was really calm.

Upon seeing Song Wen, the treasurer respectfully bowed, “Greetings, my Lord."

At this time, Song Wen did not have time to worry about greetings, so he directly said, “Based on the current situation, we can’t defend Tianshuang County, so I'll help you to bring all the gold out. You guys also follow me."

"Thank you, Lord."

The treasurer was also a smart person, so he did not say any useless words. He directly brought Song Wen to the gold vault.

Inside the vault, glittering gold coins were stacked up like mountains.

The treasurer opened the books and said, “My lord, there's a total of 67,542 gold, 127,580 silver and 257,300 copper."

Song Wen sucked in a cold breath. He knew that the Four Seas Bank was rich, but he did not think they would be so rich. The gold, apart from the sum the main branch provided, was largely composed of the commoners’ savings.

"My Lord, don't worry. The savings of the people, we won't take a single cent. When you return to Tianshuang County, we can exchange all of their money back."

The treasurer misunderstood Song Wen when he saw the weird expression on the latter’s face.

When Song Wen heard these words, he nodded. No wonder the Four Seas Bank could expand to such a scale; they relied on honor and reputation.

If it was other banks, they would have just taken the money and ran.

When they left the bank, the treasurer said something to Song Wen that surprised him.

"Thank you, my Lord, for your good intentions. The workers in the bank will stay in the bank. Even if Tianshuang County falls, the bank will still operate normally."

Song Wen remained silent at these words for a moment.

"Great!"

As he said that, Song Wen left and blended amongst the people on the streets.

Seeing Song Wen leave, a worker behind the treasurer walked over, “Sir, the intel has been sent through the Feng Bird."

"En."

The treasurer nodded and turned around, walking into the bank.

Who knew that the Four Seas Bank branch was one of the hidden locations of the Black Snake Guards?

The South Alliance members would have never expected that under such circumstances, the enemy could still relay information out.

In less than two days, Baiqi could receive the news.

The treasurer decision to stay in the county, apart from continuing the operations of the bank, the main reason was to spread the intel in the city to the commanding force.

Of course, even if the enemy destroyed the Four Seas Bank, the Black Snake Guards still had other locations.

This point was something even Song Wen did not know.

The intel network that the Black Snake Guards had stitched up was shockingly wide and powerful.

When Song Wen walked out of the bank and saw the chaos, he could not help but frown.

With an army bearing down on them, rumors would naturally spread. Those who saw the situation would know that Tianshuang County was about to fall. What happened at the city gate had spread around the city.

All of a sudden, a sad and worried atmosphere enveloped the city.

The commoners all tried to use their own methods to avoid the battle. The most common method would be to lock themselves up and be an ostrich. The smart ones would choose to hide in more obscure hiding spots like rice vases.

Amidst the chaos, the scums of society emerged. Some took the chance to rob, stealing from stores, raping women, and deeds of the like.

The guards in the city were either defending the city walls or had other duties. They did not have any time or effort to care about such matters.

When Song Wen saw this situation, he frowned yet again.

He looked at the stats of the territory, only to see that the law and order stat and the people’s sentiment stat dropping. In less than an hour, it fell 10 over points.

This could not do.

The moment he lost the hearts of the people, it was too hard to win them back.

"Men!"

"Lord!"

The other guard following behind Song Wen walked over.

"Use a squadron of men to settle these scums."

"Lord?"

The guard could not understand. At this time, each soldier was precious, yet the Lord wanted to use them to suppress scums?

"Go quickly. Are my words useless?"

"Yes, my Lord!"

The guard was stunned, but he did not dare to take the matter lightly, as he ran off quickly.

Back in the Lord's Manor, the guards had captured the Yuan Family and the others.

"Song Wen why do you capture me? Let us go."

Grandfather Yuan immediately scolded out.

"Hen, what despicable acts you committed, you guys should know." Song Wen was not polite anymore. He scolded back in retaliation.

When Grandfather Yuan heard such a response, his face reddened with embarrassment.

"Hen, what did I do? Say it clearly."

"Ok." Songwem was furious, but he smiled, “Didn't you sabotage the teleportation formation? Didn’t you kill the relay manager? You dare to commit the act, but you don't dare to admit to it?"

"What proof do you have?" The Grandfather insisted his innocence.

"You want proof? Bring him up."

The guard who protected the relay walked in and repeated everything that had happened in the morning.

"Don't sprout nonsense. I didn't let anyone send a letter."

These words made Song Wen frown; it seemed like this fox was prepared. He turned his head and looked at the guard, “Do you remember which butler it was?"

"Yes!"

"Take a look, which one is it?"

The members of the Yuan Family and the other families were all captured and present.

When the guard heard this command, he raised his head to look, but he could not help but frown.

Grandfather Yuan laughed gleefully, “Is there? If there isn't, you are blaming a good man."

This damn fox, that butler must have hidden himself.

Now that it was so chaotic, they definitely could not find him.

At this very moment, his grandfather walked in, with Song Tianli in tow.

"Wen'er what's this?"

"Grandfather!"

Song Wen did not dare to be slow, so he repeated everything to his grandfather as it happened.

When Grandfather Song heard the details, he frowned. Although he was not happy with his son vying for power, it was a family matter after all; this pertained to the survival of their family.

If the Yuan Family had actually committed such acts, they were truly evil.

Such an action was not something that they could take sitting down.

Thinking up to this point, Grandfather Song asked Song Tianli, “Tianli, is what Wen'er said true? Did you allow a butler into the relay?"

Chapter 446- Grain

"No, never."

When Song Tianli heard this accusation, he immediately denied association.

Song Tianli already knew that others had used him. However, he did not want to admit it. The moment he made an admission, he would become the guilty party in the family. He could never gain a foothold in the family again.

"It was all done by Second Elder."

The guard that was called suddenly pointed his finger at Song Tianli.

These words caused Song Tianli’s face to turn black; he sent the guard a deathly stare. However, the guard did not back down and gave it his all. The humiliating experience in the morning had made this guard unhappy to the extreme.

Grandfather Song obviously was not a fool. He could tell what was happening, so he raised his head and looking at Grandfather Yuan. He calmly pronounced, “Leave the criminal, as for the rest, execute them."

The siege had started outside the city, and the enemy had almost leveled out the city protection river.

The soldiers on top of the city wall had suffered heavy casualties under the hefty hits of the trebuchets. The moment the enemy crossed the city protection river, Tianshuang County would fall.

Members of the Song Family hurriedly gathered their assets. Under the protection of two hundred guards, they left through the secret tunnel and exited Tianshuang County.

They had kept the location of the tunnel as a highly guarded secret. Even if the enemy took over the county, they would not find the tunnel in a short amount of time. Hence, their family had enough time to escape.

Before they left, they burned up all the grain in the city, leaving none of it behind.

Originally, Song Wen did not have such thoughts. Burning the grain would cause the troops to disturb the families and commoners. In the end, the ones hurt would be the people.

Grandfather Song was much more vicious; he did not hesitate and directly gave the order. In his eyes, it was enough as long as it delayed the enemy.

As for the lives of the commoners, it was not within his current considerations.

During noon, the alliance army successfully sieged Tianshuang County.

Members of the South Alliance Army raised their chests, as they walked into Tianshuang County.

The lacking part was that there were no civilians there to welcome them. The vast streets did not even have a single person. One could only see puddles of blood the scums and hooligans left behind.

Hefu rode on his horse at the front of the army; a wide smile hung on his face.

The first battle ending in victory had made him partially relieved. The next step was to search for the main force of Shanhai City and end them. As long as they successfully chase them away, South Alliance could solidify their positions as rulers of Lingnan Province. No one could shake their position.

Hefu was already imagining the future of South Alliance.

The future alliance would start a closer level of cooperation. It was best if they could build a combined city, linking their economies and armies.

With such actions, they could make Lingnan Province truly infallible.

Yuan Ping followed closely behind. He had a happy expression, but his expression also contained a hint of worry.

Undoubtedly, he carried the most credit for the Battle of Tianshuang County. To obtain victory, he had paid a weighty price. Using his own grandfather as bait was a risky move.

In the game, even if his grandfather was killed, he could be revived. As such, to a casual player like him, in game death did not mean anything. The key was that he would lose plenty of face.

Especially to old people, where death was something they all feared. Even in the game, no one expected to be killed and revived, much less someone like Yuan Ping's grandfather, who cared much about his face.

The moment they broke through, Yuan Ping sent people to search for his grandfather.

The news he received sent a shiver down his spine.

Based on the reports, all the NPC followers had been killed, their bodies hung on the square opposite of the Lord's Manor.

Only the butler that performed well had successfully escaped.

Don't tell me they really killed him?

Truly a vicious move. After all, their families had tens of years of relationships.

Yuan Ping grew more and more worried, while Hefu's face also started to change.

After they entered the city, they instantly took down the important structures like the Lord's Manor, the treasury, and the granary. The news they received made the members of South Alliance bleed deep inside.

There was no one in the Lord's Manor; it was like the Song Family had disappeared into thin air. There was not even a single copper in the treasury, and the storage only had a bunch of useless iron left. The granary, on the other hand, was burned. No grain was left.

The entire Tianshuang County did not have anything left but people.

"Bastard!" Hefu was furious, “They must be nearby; chase them!"

"Yes!"

Instantly, two thousand cavalry hurried out of the city and disappeared into the wilderness.

Members of South Alliance looked at one another. They were all clear that finding them in the wilderness was as difficult as ascending the heavens. Now, they could only try their best and hope for a miracle.

These events washed away the joys of victory.

The alliance army originally wanted to use this county as their base of operations to sweep down south to take on the Shanhai City Army. However, now they faced grain problems. Helplessly, Hefu could only order them to gather grain and ask the Lords in Zhaoqing to send grain over.

Two hundred thousand troops, including war horse, would use up four to five hundred thousand units of grain in just a day. Without millions of units of grain as logistical supply, the army would not even dare to act.

Teleportation formations could not transport grain. During wartime, even the Super Trading Platform was closed. To obtain grain, one could only manually transport it.

To transport tens of millions of units of grain, solely labourers, they would need around two hundred thousand people. They naturally threw this task to the commoners of Tianshuang County.

The poor commoners not only had their houses swept, they even had to help the army transport goods, such bad luck.

Hefu was still okay, as a son of a aristocratic family, he had some good upbringing. The other Lords were far worse; they just did as they wished in the city.

The entire Tianshuang County cried out under the alliance army.

However, due to the burden of grain, the alliance army had no choice but to prepare and gear up themselves in Tianshuang County.

This change in plan helped Shanhai City gain valuable time.

One had to mention that ginger was hotter the older it grew. Compared to his grandfather, Song Wen was too inexperienced. Mercy was good, but it depended on the situation.

At crucial moments, one needed to viciously act.

To Lords, especially to Lords, one had to take cold and merciless action.

Zhaoqing Prefecture, Cangcheng County.

8th month, 9th day, the Feng Bird the Black Snake Guards sent out had smoothly flown to the command unit and brought with it the newest intel.

In the main base was the middle troops that Baiqi led, including Mu Guiying’s 4th division of the Dragon Legion, as well as the Tianshuang County’s city protection division, which Song Wu led.

The left wing troops were Luo Shixin’s 2nd division of the Dragon Legion.

On the right was Han Xin’s 1st division of the Leopard Legion. Zhang Han was at the back, in charge of prisoners and choosing the elite to form the 2nd division.

After he read the new intel, Baiqi's eyebrows perked.

Baiqi had predicted that the enemy would form alliances in the middle and ending parts of the war to try and retaliate. However, he did not expect South Alliance to hold such attraction, able to send two hundred thousand troops.

With that, the originally easy and peaceful Battle of Zhaoqing would turn into a full-scale war that exceeded the Battle of Leizhou.

And this situation was not what the Lord desired.

During this period of time, Shanhai City was focused on the philosopher’s debate to expand their cultural influence. Qiongzhou Prefecture and Leizhou Prefecture were still growing, and they were not ready for such a huge war.

Only now, matters had already developed to such a stage. They had to fight, even if they did not want to.

Strategic retreat?

In Shanhai City’s dictionary, the word retreat did not exist.

Immediately, Baiqi ordered the left and right side troops to reduce their defence line. They would use the currently occupied territories as bases and keep close to the middle troops.

The three wings of the troops must be ready to assist one another.

At the same time, Baiqi sent a letter to the Military Affairs Department to suggest they move the Garrison Division in Leizhou Prefecture to assist. If they could, it was best to move another two divisions to help.

Baiqi's attitude was care. Since they wanted to fight, we would too.

After he received Baiqi’s letter, Du Ruhui immediately ordered the Leizhou Garrison Division to move toward Zhaoqing Prefecture and meet up with the middle troops.

Earlier, when he had built the Nanjiang Governor-General House, he had given power to the Military Affairs Department to move the city protection forces. Amongst the army, regiment-level armies could be moved without his permission.

As for division level, as a director, he could not make the decision.

In the current Nanjiang Governor-General Manor, Ouyang Shuo was meeting Zhang Yi. Based on Wei Ran’s words, this representative figure of the school of diplomats had the intentions of moving into Shanhai City.

Hence, after curing the poison in his body, Ouyang Shuo took some time to meet him.

In the reading room, both of them chatted happily.

It was obvious that in this first meeting, Ouyang Shuo had left a great impression on the other man.

Ouyang Shuo could basically say with certainty that Zhang Yi would move into Shanhai City. With that, he could complete the quest.

At this very moment, the guard reported,

"My Lord, Director Du requests to meet you. He says it's an emergency."

Ouyang Shuo frowned.

When Zhang Yi saw the situation, he stood up and bid Ouyang Shuo goodbye. Although there were some things that were not said clearly, it was nearly there. After all, outsiders should not interfere in military affairs.

Ouyang Shuo personally sent him out and received Du Ruhui.

In his heart, uneasiness rumbled. One must know that Du Ruhui was a very calm and composed person. If it was not a huge emergency, he would not disturb his Lord.

Especially today, when he was meeting such an important guest.

"Sorry Lord, I didn't mean to interrupt."

Ouyang Shuo waved him off, “There's no need to apologize for that. What happened?"

Du Ruhui took out the letter that Baiqi had sent, and he respectfully handed it to Ouyang Shuo.

When Ouyang Shuo read the news, he stayed silent for a long while.

"The rain has come!"

Chapter 447- Losing All Face

"Keming, what's your opinion?"

Ouyang Shuo placed down the letter and looked toward Du Ruhui, expressionless.

In the truth, the fall of Tianshuang County surprised Ouyang Shuo; it also infuriated him. This loss was too huge. The extent of the loss was something that even Baiqi and Du Ruhui probably did not understand.

On the surface, because the Lord of Tianshuang County was Song Jia's brother, the fall of county made him lose face.

Ouyang Shuo could imagine that some would laugh at Shanhai City after this battle.

A few days ago, Ouyang Shuo had just discussed with his father-in-law about the post-battle situation. Who knew that a few days later, he would receive a slap to his face. The humiliation from within was not something an outsider could imagine.

Arrogance would lead to defeat.

In the end, this loss stemmed from Ouyang Shuo underestimating South Alliance.

Black Snake had reported to Ouyang Shuo that South Alliance was making some weird moves, but it did not raise Ouyang Shuo’s suspicions. In his view, such a scattered regional alliance could not do anything.

In truth, the powers of South Alliance were much stronger than Ouyang Shuo had imagined. Evidently, the alliance leader was not a total scrub, and he had his methods too.

Baiqi and the others were NPCs after all, so they could not completely understand the players’ motives. However, Ouyang Shuo was different, as the number one Lord in the China region, he should not have acted so arrogant.

The consecutive victories had really clouded his mind.

Before this, Ouyang Shuo had thought that taking down Zhaoqing was just a matter of time. He did not expect South Alliance to actually have such courage and strategic foresight.

He was too careless!

Tianshuang County was a hugely important territory in his plans. It was not because of any special properties, but because he could control the Lord of the county.

Hence in his plans, Tianshuang County had a similar role to Mulan territory. He planned to merge it into the Shanhai City system. With that, Shanhai City would gain one more teleportation point in Lingnan Province.

After all, compared to real life, the in game map was ten times larger.

This meant that if one wanted to rule a territory effectively, they had to make use of teleportation formations.

If not, solely one trip around the Lingnan Province would take one to two months.

Tianshuang County was at the center of the future Lingnan Province. Unfortunately, he failed to protect this core. This loss was not something that one could measure in gold.

Despite the self blame and anger, Ouyang Shuo remained calm on the surface.

During this period of time, his cultivation had improved.

Du Ruhui was unable to see any signs from the words or expression of the Lord. As an official, he needed to understand and think like his Lord. However, in this case, he did not know what Ouyang Shuo was thinking.

Whether the Lord would choose to fight or retreat, he could not see a decision.

"I feel that we should gather up our troops."

In the end, Du Ruhui chose to describe his own opinion. After receiving the letter, he had made contact with Zhao Kuo. Combining the information in the letter with the intel from the Military Intelligence Division, they made a battle simulation.

Ouyang Shuo remained unmoved.

"On the battlefield, we will move the 2nd division and the 4th division of the Tiger Legion and seven divisions to prepare for a final battle. Meanwhile, we will arrange two squadrons out to attack Jade Buddha County from the sea. It’s the brain of South Alliance. The moment it falls, South Alliance will fall into chaos. The moment the alliance grows disorderly, the time for the final battle will arrive."

Du Ruhui was in charge of strategic planning, while specific battle commands were left to the commander-in-chief.

Ouyang Shuo nodded; Du Ruhui had described his intentions accurately.

He had to grab back the face he had lost.

The only way now was to show his strength in battle.

If Shanhai City chose to retreat, the drop in morale would allow the enemy to see a weak point.

The moment they exposed a level of weakness to their enemies, they would face more problems that just alliances like South Alliance in the future.

The pack of wolves in Yanhuang Alliance definitely would not give up such an opportunity. In such a scenario, Shanhai City would have to face enemies from all four sides.

They needed to fight, and they needed to act fast as well.

"Sneak attack Jade Buddha County. Apart from the two squadrons, send out the Divine Martial Guards. We must take down the county before they notice. Apart from that, immediately gather the Guards Division and send them to assist the troops on the main battlefield."

Ouyang Shuo did not just agree with his plan, he even upped the stakes. In this battle, Shanhai City could be considered to have gone all out, as Ouyang Shuo even threw out all his trump cards.

The entire Shanhai City only had its city protection division left to defend them.

Luckily, they had totally cleaned out the Lianzhou Prefecture. Enemies could not use teleportation formations to directly enter the Lianzhou Basin.

If not, with just one legion, they could take down Shanhai City.

"Yes, my Lord!"

Du Ruhui knew of the importance of this battle; he nodded solemnly.

"On the side of the Divine Martial Guards, we need to send a military advisor. Keming, do you have anyone in mind?"

Wang Feng was a really strong general, but in terms of strategy, he was truly lacking. Asking him to lead an army, Ouyang Shuo would not feel at ease.

Especially a sneak attack, where any sort of situation could occur; they needed a commander that could adapt.

Originally, Ouyang Shuo personally leading them would be the best choice. However, the philosophers debate had started, so many people had swarmed into the city.

It was not appropriate for him to leave in this situation.

Apart from Ouyang Shuo, Du Ruhui was also a suitable choice.

However, similarly, as the Military Affairs Director, he could not leave during war time. He needed to prepare and arrange logistics, personnel movement, strategic planning, and related affairs.

"Zhao Kuo can handle it."

Du Ruhui's choice surprised Ouyang Shuo.

"Zhao Kuo?"

"That's right!"

Ouyang Shuo looked at Du Ruhui, deep in thought.

Du Ruhui was a really calm and stable person; he could clearly judge a person's character. If he said that Zhao Kuo could do it, there was an 80% chance that he really could.

It seems like Zhao Kuo had really changed a lot in the Military Affairs Department. With his past personality, it would have been hard for him to take up such a role.

The only possibility was that he had completely changed.

In his impression of Zhao Kuo, the only shining moment was in the strategic planning of the Battle of Chiyou City, where he suggested they use Zhaoqing as a base to launch their attack.

As for other moments, Ouyang Shuo did not have much time to meet him.

Du Ruhui was different. Both of them worked in the Military Affairs Department, so they probably bumped into one another everyday.

"Okay, that's settled."

Ouyang Shuo immediately made the decision without hesitation.

When Du Ruhui saw his decisiveness, he nodded his head happily. Ouyang Shuo’s swift decision could be said to be trust in Zhao Kuo, but it was more so his trust in Du Ruhui.

Zhao Kuo's performance would be his own personal test, as well as a test of Du Ruhui's ability to judge a person.

If the situation went south, Du Ruhui could only resign and seclude himself.

After settling all the matters, Du Ruhui stood up and went to plan everything.

This involved three divisions, two squadrons, and the Divine Martial Guards. The only happy matter was that they had finished the first grain harvesting season in Leizhou, so they had enough grain.

If not, they would need to transport grain over from Lianzhou. In such a situation, they should just surrender and not fight at all.

After Du Ruhui left, Ouyang Shuo sat alone in the reading room, closing his eyes, as he fell into deep thought.

Through one failure, one gains knowledge.

The fall of Tianshuang County was something that Ouyang Shuo had to be blamed for.

The strategy set out before was probably overconfident. Would Chiyou City and Taiping Country really follow their set plan like a script?

Probably not.

Let us talk about Chiyou City first. The entire Chiyou City was being constantly constructed. The situation in it was not something spies from the Military Intelligence Division or the Black Snake Guards could find out.

The black bird of Chiyou City was simply too scary.

The entire city was a mystery.

Chiyou, after one year, who knows what scary thing they would have prepared inside.

Chiyou City was not purely composed of mountain barbarians. From other areas of Wuzhou, Chiyou accepted tribes and commoners.

However, the higher ranked people in the territory were all mountain barbarians.

If one said that Chiyou City was a small illness, Taiping Country was a cancer. Ouyang Shuo really did not have the confidence of taking them down alone anymore.

With their current strength, it did not seem possible.

At such a stage, he would probably need to rely on his allies.

Thinking up to this point, Ouyang Shuo let out a sigh.

Thorns and problems covered the road to becoming an Overlord. Using his advantage, he had built a solid base. However, this preparatory work only allowed him to get on the same starting line as Di Chen and the others.

There were still many changes in the China region.

Apart from their enemy, Yanhuang Alliance, there were other local strengths that he could not underestimate.

At this point, Ouyang Shuo thought of Caiyun Alliance.

It seems like they needed to increase their infiltration of Caiyun Alliance.

Although the Black Snake Guards had formed an intel network, they had just built it after all, so they could not come into contact with high-level secrets. As for core information, that was needless to mention.

The appearance of South Alliance, including them sending troops, didn't they avoid the Black Snake Guard’s detection?

In the future, Ouyang Shuo would not allow such matters to happen. The fund to the Black Snake Guards could not be stopped and must be increased instead. Even if they had limited funds, he must support their expansion.

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo asked to meet Black Snake.

Apart from the matters of the Black Snake Guards, most importantly, he needed to inform them to work together with the Divine Martial Guards to attack Jade Buddha County.

As people would say, ‘A sneak attack without internal information is very difficult.’

Black Snake nodded; his face incredibly solemn. This time, they did not investigate properly and failed to notice the movements of South Alliance. Although the Lord did not say anything, Black Snake himself felt pissed off to the extreme.

It was time to display their skills.

Chapter 448- Using Your Plan Against You

"Lord, I have a plan."

Black Snake was not willing to fail just like this; he had thought of a great plan.

"Speak."

"In the South of Zhaoqing Prefecture, there's a territory known as Wulong County. Our Black Snake Guards has basically infiltrated it. I advise us to temporarily ally with them and direct our troops directly behind the allied army."

When Ouyang Shuo heard this suggestion, he looked at Black Snake curiously, ‘Do you have confidence?"

Forming an alliance was okay. They only feared that the alliance would fail and alert the enemy instead. Along with the fall of Tianshuang County, the Shanhai Alliance-Tianshuang Alliance had also fallen.

In Zhaoqing Prefecture, Shanhai City was now alone without allies.

"I'm willing to give the military order."

"Great, I'll give you two days."

With such a chance, Ouyang Shuo was willing to gamble. Although Black Snake might look brutish, he was exceedingly precise in his actions. Since he dared to speak so confidently, no problems would occur.

8th month 10th day, the army of the Nanjiang Governor-General House started to act.

From Shanhai City, three thousand Divine Martial Guards rushed to Behai Harbor under the leadership of Wang Feng and Zhao Kuo. They gathered and left along with the Beihai Squadron 1st division, heading toward Jiaozhou Bay to attack Jade Buddha County.

The entire journey was close to four thousand nautical miles, requiring ten days of travel.

Qiongzhou Prefecture, Sun Bin led the 1st division of the Tiger Legion to continue to take charge of Qiongzhou, suppressing the local rebellion forces. The 2nd and 4th divisions rushed to Qiongzhou House. They immediately took a boat over the Qiongzhou Strait onto Leizhou Prefecture, heading for Zhaoqing Prefecture.

The entire journey exceeded two thousand kilometers. Even if they rushed, it would still take them twenty days. With that, one could see how difficult and vexing it was to fight a war without teleportation formations.

Moving two divisions this time, apart from increasing the help in Zhaoqing Prefecture, also held another meaning.

The operation in Qiongzhou Prefecture to clear out the opposition had basically reached its end. To continue leaving the Tiger Legion in Qiongzhou was a huge waste.

Ouyang Shuo was planning to let Fan Lihua lead the 1st division and stay in Qiongzhou, basically ensuring its safety. One must not forget that Yashan Squadron was expanding, and the future Qiongzhou Prefecture military would mainly be composed of navy.

On the island, with one division and also the Garrison Division, they would have more than enough troops.

Taking the chance, Ouyang Shuo wanted to slowly shift the Tiger Legion to the Lingnan Battlefield. The next step, be it to attack Chiyou City or Taiping Country, would require a huge army.

Apart from that, after they took down Zhaoqing, the east region would similarly need large amounts of troops.

At the same time, the 1st division of the Yashan Squadron set off from the South Mountain Harbor to meet with the Beihai Squadron 1st division to head for Jiaozhou Bay.

This was the first time both squadrons had fought together; it would be good training.

The only difference would be the city protection division.

The moment the Guards Division gathered up, they received another military order to temporarily remain in their camp.

Even if it was for sneak attacking the back of the alliance army, Ouyang Shuo still would not push both the 2nd and 4th division of the Tiger Legion up. If the three divisions were in the back lines and did not receive enough grain, the outcome would be catastrophic.

Such an important task was something only a trump card force like the Guards Division could handle. Ouyang Shuo believed that even without a stable grain supply, they could solve that particular problem themselves.

As they say, before the soldiers move, grain would move first.

The supply of the Combat Logistics Department never stopped. Various counties and Houses each built military granaries and amassed large amounts of grain, with the local city protection forces protecting it.

Hence, no matter the location of the army, they could still receive sufficient logistical supplies.

This also helped to save up a lot of manpower.

As the Battle of Zhaoqing opened up, under the coordination of the Combat Logistics Department, large quantities of grain were transported to the front lines.

Now that the situation had changed and more troops would be thrown in, the initial amount they calculated was not enough. Hence, the Combat Logistics Department started a new round of grain transportation.

Director Zhu Hongliang personally stood watch in Leizhou Prefecture to monitor the grain transportation.

Apart from grain, there were weapons, equipments, arrows, siege weapons, and the like. Hence, the Combat Logistics Department had set up a main arsenal in every prefecture and one in each House and county.

The Shanhai City weapons workshop did not provide normal bolts and arrows. Instead, the various weapons workshop in each prefecture would craft them. After a huge battle, they would use up around a hundred thousand bolts and arrows.

If the war lasted for an extended period of time, the military would use up millions of arrows. If they solely relied on the supply of Shanhai City, the transportation costs alone would account for more than the costs of the bolts and arrows themselves.

Be it grain or logistical supplies, they all used up actual gold. Other territories could not truly understand the consumption of funds during a war.

Zhu Hongliang's planning and logistical structure gained Ouyang Shuo's praise.

Combat logistics was the lifeline of the war.

Undoubtedly, Ouyang Shuo felt pleased about this combat logistics director.

In the future, the military works in Shanhai City would only craft high end equipment like Mingguang Armor and Buren Armor. As for other items like the horse lance and arrows, the other workshops would complete them.

Apart from considering the element of craftsmen, iron and resource supply posed another problem.

In this area, Gaia had made the situation life like. Although a mine might have a huge capacity, the workers would have difficulty mining the deeper they dug.

With the mining standards of olden times, they could only mine a small portion of the ores. Those ores deeper in, if they tried to mine, they could lose of lives.

The two iron mines in the west of Shanhai City, the earliest one found at the village stages, had already been used up. They could not mine it anymore.

The second mine already approached its limits.

In this one and a half year span, Shanhai City had crafted a massive quantity of weapons and equipment. Solely the usage of iron and ores was shocking. Apart from that, the steel making factory was also a huge client for iron.

Ouyang Shuo found experts to calculate the depletion rate. The supply of mines in the entire Lianzhou Prefecture would only last for another one and a half years at their current consumption rate.

In one and a half years, Shanhai City would face an awkward situation of possessing no usable iron.

When he received the news, Ouyang Shuo instantly panicked.

He did not expect a new round of resource crisis to appear for the territory so quickly after the grain crisis.

In his last life, Ouyang Shuo was just an adventure gamemode player after all. Although he had some impression of the grain crisis, he did not pay much attention to the iron prices.

He did not expect that, so he nearly commited a grave mistake.

Luckily, he realized the problem soon enough and there was still enough time.

If Shanhai City did not have such a monstrous consumption rate of iron, this problem would not have surfaced so early. At that time, it would really be too late.

Ouyang Shuo was also a decisive person. He immediately ordered the local mines to slow down their mining rate by half to ensure that they had enough backup iron supply.

After all, to transport iron from other places was a hugely expensive matter. This transportation was a much more complicated than moving grain.

Slowing the mining speed only mitigated the problem on the surface.

Ouyang Shuo commanded all the prefectures to investigate their mines and report to the Combat Logistics Department.

The good news was that in Qiongzhou and Leizhou Prefecture, they had over ten large-sized iron mines.

Ouyang Shuo immediately ordered that of the iron mined from these two prefectures, apart from the ore they needed for their own consumption, they must transport more than half to Shanhai City.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo also specifically instructed the shipyard to build transport ships. Compared to land transportation, sea transport was more faster and cheaper.

With that, he temporarily solved the iron shortage problem.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo did not dare to grow careless.

It was foreseeable that as the territory expanded, the scale of the army would increase, and their need for equipment would increase. At the same time, their consumption of iron would only grow greater and greater.

Apart from that, one had to mention Research Institute No. 7.

The number of experts there had expanded to over a hundred people. After they built the steel making factory, the steel research had progressed quickly.

In the future, the creation of guns, cannons, and even steel warships were possible, or even a necessary. In such a scenario, the need for iron would turn into a huge, bottomless pit.

Ouyang Shuo could not be sure that the prefectures he took over in the future would have plentiful iron supplies. Hence, iron importation became necessary.

In the late game, when territories realize this problem, it would be too late.

Shanhai City had to remain a step ahead of them.

Ouyang Shuo immediately instructed the Financial Department to grant the Combat Logistics Department a sum of money every month to buy iron on the market. At the same time, they would sign iron purchasing agreements with the various Chamber of Commerce.

From now on, Shanhai City would start to amass iron.

Ouyang Shuo also commanded them to build ten large-sized iron storages on the east of Shanhai City.

Purchasing iron did not cost a small amount. On the market, a unit of iron ore cost 120 copper, more than six times the price of grain.

If they acquired iron on a large scale, they would place a huge burden on the territory’s finances.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo needed to grit his teeth and stick to this strategy.

Apart from importing iron, there was another method—pillaging. In the South Ocean, there was a huge landmass known as Australia.

In reality, it was a massive iron exporter.

In the game, with the strict settings of Gaia, it naturally would be the same. As long as he occupied Australia, the entire territory would not face iron supply problems.

Unfortunately, the current Shanhai City was too small, and they could not start a country war.

One must know that with the game map having ten times the area of reality, Australia had reached a colossal size.

At the very least, it would not be a barbarian land like Qiongzhou Island.

To attack it posed a high level of difficult.

During the mid-game stages, they could probably think about iron trade deals. Naturally, the end goal was to take over Australia entirely.

Chapter 449- Alliance Army Heads down South

8th month, 12th day, Tianshuang County.

In the meeting hall, members of South Alliance were having a discussion.

"Leader, the first batch of grain has already been transported to Tianshuang County. Should we continue to wait for grain or?"

"What do all of you think?"

Hefu did not directly answer. Instead, he looked toward the other members. Although he had an idea in his mind, he did not want to leave his allies with the bad impression that he made all the decisions alone.

In the last few days, he had made a decision for the alliance on his own, and it was not right if he took such action again.

"I think we should wait till we amass enough grain before going all out."

Voiced the Lords that wanted a more calm and sure battle.

"I don't agree. Our alliance army took down Tianshuang County because we were fast and swift. At this point, we should just head down south in one breath for a final battle.”

Countered the Lords that craved battle. Their voices were much louder, and the moment this suggestion sounded out, they cheered out.

"That's right!"

As expected, no matter the location, hot blooded people would outnumber others.

"Our current grain can only last us a week. What if we run out? Two hundred thousand troops, if we set out, there is no way back. Naturally, we need to be careful."

"That makes sense; we cannot be reckless." Another group of cheers broke out, these bunch of people really did not want to take a side.

"This isn't being reckless. If we act too slow, we will miss the opportunity. Shanhai City Army aren’t scrubs; their commander is Baiqi. Since the Song Family has escaped, they definitely know that Tianshuang County has been conquered. If we just wait, they would have time to prepare and everything would be for naught."

The three thousand cavalry sent after the Song Family returned the same day.

Needless to say, they achieved nothing.

At this moment, the Song Family had already reached the command force of the Shanhai City Army.

The entire hall was completely silent.

Be it those who wanted to wait, or those who wanted to fight, they all frowned with a solemn expression.

The name of Baiqi certainly made everyone terrified and fearful.

Battle of Changping, Battle of Lianzhou, Battle of Leizhou, and Battle of Julu. Four major battles where Baiqi was the absolute star.

The name of Baiqi had already spread out across the China region.

Facing such an invincible Asura, no one felt confident, even if they outnumbered the Shanhai City Army. Even if they had ten times more men, no one could say they would win for sure.

The way one saw it, waiting might seem safer, but in truth, such a choice would lead to a dead end.

"Attack!"

……

"Strike!"

The atmosphere in the hall suddenly flared up and war cries belted out.

In the end, South Alliance came to a common consensus—they had to strike

When Hefu saw the result of their discussion, he let out a slight smile, “Since that's the case, let the army rest for a day to prepare things. Tomorrow morning, all our troops will head down south."

"Yes!"

The members agreed in unison. Although they felt fearful, they also felt excited about the upcoming war.

After the meeting, the entire Tianshuang County grew busy.

Housed in Tianshuang County, apart from the two hundred thousand allied troops, there were also the troops from over ten Lords in Zhaoqing Prefecture. They either used the teleportation formations or rushed over to reach Tianshuang County.

Calculating everything, purely the Zhaoqing Alliance Army had reached a hundred thousand men.

In contrast to South Alliance, the Lords of Zhaoqing sent out all their troops. They were crystal clear about one thing—they could only win and not lose this battle.

The moment they lost, no matter how many troops they had left, it was useless.

Why not just take a gamble?

Hence, the small Tianshuang County housed three hundred thousand troops. They filled the barracks in the city to the brim, while various troops just camped outside of the city.

Tent after tent covered the city in white, creating a majestic scene.

Inside and outside of the city, in the alleys and streets, armored soldiers walked around with weapons. The commoners, apart from the old and sick, were basically shifted to the grain transportation force to help move grain for the army.

On the road toward Tianshuang County, transport carts and horses continuously moved. To increase the speed, the officer in charge did not mind using his whip.

Now, mountains of white rice filled the previously empty granary in the city.

The moment the order for war was given, the entire city woke up.

When the soldiers received the order, they hurried back to their units to report. The grain and resource transportation forces would start leaving even before tomorrow.

Hefu had prepared thirty thousand troops housed in Tianshuang County to take charge of the grain transportation routes. He already knew what would happen if the grain was stolen.

It could be said that all the Lords in the north of Zhaoqing had gathered. However, with his character that doubted all, he still was not at ease. If amongst the Lords, one of them worked for Shanhai City, they could create a nightmare for the alliance army.

How did they attack Tianshuang County?

Hefu was unsure if Shanhai City would try to pull the same trick on them.

Hence, he needed to be wary and prepared.

The main matter he needed to be wary of was Tianshuang County. Apart from that, he needed to remain on guard against the other territories in Zhaoqing Prefecture.

The only part that made him feel uneasy was that the Lords of Zhaoqing Prefecture had sent all their troops. As such, only some city protection forces or reserve forces remained.

If Shanhai City really attacked, these territories would fail to put up a defence.

The problem was that Hefu could not reject their good intentions. More importantly, he could not reject a hundred thousand troops. In truth, with just two hundred thousand alliance army troops, Hefu did not have confidence.

However, with a hundred thousand more, the situation would completely change.

Hefu had the confidence to start a huge war with Shanhai City. He did not believe that they would lose when they had ten times the troops.

At night, Hefu tossed and turned, thinking about what would happen if the Shanhai City Army suddenly appeared in the north of Zhaoqing.

For the entire night, he could not catch an ounce of sleep.

When he woke up, he had black eye circles under his eyes. He splashed his face with cold water and finally made a decision.

He would take out 25 thousand cavalry from both the alliance army and the Zhaoqing Alliance Army to form a cavalry force of fifty thousand to take care of the north of Zhaoqing Prefecture.

In the morning, the members of South Alliance and the Lords of the alliance army gathered once more.

During the meeting, Hefu described his worries. Some did not bother about his suggestion, while others felt impressed.

The first ones to express their support were naturally the Lords of Zhaoqing Prefecture.

In truth, going all out this time was something that made them extremely nervous. During the Battle of Leizhou, didn't the Lords there lose their bases because they went all out?

To have a cavalry force protecting them helped to put them at ease.

When they observed the situation, the South Alliance members found it not good to straight up oppose the suggestion, so the matter was settled.

Hence, apart from the thirty thousand troops guarding Tianshuang County, and the fifty thousand cavalry, they only sent out 220 thousand troops. Even so, they still had a colossal force.

Since they had 220 thousand troops, they naturally could not go out all at once.

Fifty thousand cavalry acted as the vanguard and went out first. In the middle stood the one hundred thousand main force. Lastly, they had a mixed force made of seventy thousand infantry and cavalry. At the same time, these last members were in charge of transporting the grain.

The huge army left the county, like a black dragon, they surged southward.

A titanic battle was about to unfold.

The moment the army left, the intel station of the Black Snake Guards received the news. An unassuming Feng Bird flew into the air and disappeared.

After the alliance army took over Tianshuang County, they naturally had to clean it up. The first place they went to handle was the Four Seas Bank.

It was different from previous days. Not only was the Four Seas Bank famous among the Shanhai Alliance, even the entire China region knew of its existence.

Hefu and the others were no exception.

As for how to deal with the bank, the members of South Alliance were split.

The reason for the split was because they failed to find a single copper in the entire bank. Even a blind person could tell that the Song Family took away the money.

Only a building, a treasurer, and twenty odd workers were left.

Yuan Ping suggested that they kill them all, and some of the Zhaoqing Lords agreed with him.

Hefu had other ideas. The way he saw it, killing them did not bring any benefits.

Killing a few people would not harm Shanhai City. If there was harm, it was only harming their face.

Yuan Ping's goal was also just that.

But after venting their frustration? They would only be left with a major trouble.

Hefu was very clear on one thing. Even if the alliance army won this battle, they could not shake the foundations of Shanhai City. Lianzhou Prefecture, including Qiongzhou Prefecture, were far too stable.

No one would be so arrogant to think that they could destroy the best Lord in the world in one battle.

Hence, they had to consider post-war plans. The way he saw it, both sides could agree for Shanhai City to give up on conquering Lingnan Province, while the South Alliance would not go any further either.

South Alliance was located in Lingnan Province. As such, no matter what, they had to come into contact with Shanhai City.

It was not a smart idea to break the bridge just because they wanted to vent their frustration.

Attacking Tianshuang County was part of war. No matter what they did, no one could say anything about it. However, if you won but still decided to kill the workers in their bank, you would have committed an immoral action.

If it was Hefu, he would not let it rest.

Based on that basic consideration, Hefu shut down Yuan Ping's suggestion and only monitored the Four Seas Bank.

One had to say that this action saved his life in the future.

Chapter 450- Kong Zi

Zhaoqing Prefecture, Cangcheng County.

8th month, 14th day, Zhao Yan led the Leizhou Garrison Division and arrived at Cangcheng County at the stipulated time. He brought along vast amounts of grain and resources.

If they were not transporting items, the Garrison Division would have probably arrived a day earlier.

After Zhao Yan took charge of the Leizhou Garrison Division, he did not dare to act slow. Apart from coordinating with the officials to take down criminals, he would clean out bandits and suppress resistance. On normal days, he would seriously trained his division.

He felt exceedingly grateful toward the Lord. From a normal soldier, he worked his way up and the Lord eventually promoted him to the rank of major general. If he did not do well, he would not feel good about himself.

Passion and love for the army filled this steel blooded male.

During normal days, he trained his troops like crazy. He would teach what he had learned in the special forces training camp to his division.

Based on his words, although the Garrison Division was a regional protection force, they could not look down on themselves. They must train themselves like a war unit, prepared for battle at all times.

After such tiring training, the soldiers in the division naturally let out cries of pain.

However, their respect for their major general grew by the day. Apart from those who were there to grab food and wait for death, no one in the military was willing to let others look down on them.

The members of the Garrison Division were all former war prisoners. They were all born the same, so why could not they enter the war armies and enjoy higher pay and better equipment?

They were unhappy!

Members of the Garrison Division were unhappy. They trained hard day and night. From hunting bandits and raiders, they raised their rank and combat strength.

They eagerly awaited the day when they could return to the main battlefield and display their strength.

Hard work always paid off.

Their chance had arrived!

When they received the military order, the entire division's blood boiled.

The training levels of the Leizhou Garrison Division were not far off from the war troops. Their combat strength, although it could not compare to the war troops, could still allow them to fight on equal grounds with the alliance army.

The same day, Baiqi inspected the Garrison Division outside of the city.

He had a rarely seen smile on his face.

Gaining the recognition of the commander-in-chief, the entire Garrison Division's blood boiled. Facing the upcoming war, they were not afraid. Instead, they looked forward to it.

Most recently, the Military Affairs Department had started to implement the military reward system.

Before this, the titles that Lin Yi and the other generals received was a trial Ouyang Shuo conducted. In the future, major generals, colonels, majors even lieutenants and sergeants would receive rewards for meritorious deeds.

They would award anyone who performed well.

The Military Affairs Department had already sent out the news that the military reward system would be effective from the Battle of Zhaoqing onward. Although the battle had changed greatly, it became a good chance for them to gain favor.

Needless to say, Du Ruhui sneakily spread out this news.

In truth, how would this whole system get past Ouyang Shuo? In regards to their specific progress, Ouyang Shuo was clearer than anyone.

The preliminary idea was still on his desk, waiting for his approval.

Setting a military reward system was not a small matter. Not only did it involve the welfare of the military, it also affected other areas like rank.

Rewards would come in the form of gold, positions, and ranks.

As for nobility, Ouyang Shuo did not have the power to confer that.

The money portion had to do with the military expenses, so they could not decide it so easily. The moment they decided, they could not change it easily. Otherwise, Cui Yingyu would probably kill Du Ruhui.

The salaries of the soldiers already made the commoners extremely envious. If the additional rewards were too high, it might make others unhappy.

If it was too little, it would have no point.

After all, without temptation, how would the soldiers risk their lives?

Hence, Ouyang Shuo thought of a middle ground. They would mainly use monetary rewards and only use rank rewards when necessary.

In truth, to majors and above, glory meant more than money. For example, when Lin Yi received his title of Huwei General, many other generals grew red with envy.

Hence, to set up a reward system, they needed to set up a rank system as well.

They could not work out all the small details in a short amount of time.

It was obvious that Du Ruhui threw down a smoke bomb.

His actions naturally aimed to raise the morale of the troops, his intentions benign. Hence, Ouyang Shuo did not oppose the spreading of the new. He could only rush them to perfect the reward system before the war ended.

He did not want the soldiers to lose their trust him.

When Du Ruhui received the news, he frowned and begged for mercy.

Unfortunately, Ouyang Shuo remained unmoved.

What was this called?

Smashing your own foot with a rock.

Since the Lord had already given the order, the entire Military Affairs Department could only work overtime. They had to consider frontline matters, while also rushing to complete the system.

As he had no other choice, Du Ruhui had to borrow additional people from the Army Military Academy. If not, they would not have enough manpower. Luckily, Sun Wu was nice, sending over ten teaching staff to help out.

The next day, the news that the alliance army was travelling down south spread to the command force.

Their actions had exceeded Baiqi's expectations; they were a week faster than he had anticipated.

It seems like they were really anxious!

In the tent, Baiqi stared at the map of Zhaoqing Prefecture, as his eyes focused in thought.

On the map, the three points where the Shanhai City troops were housed in were marked with red. They were on the west, while the left flank troops were located in Yaogu County, the middle Cangcheng County, as well as the east of Genglou County.

The three counties formed a triangle, with the two others less than two hundred kilometers away from Cangcheng County. If they rushed, they could reach each other within two days.

Above the three red dots was Tianshuang County.

A huge black arrow stretched from Tianshuang County to Cangcheng County.

Their actions meant that Baiqi had to make a choice. Should he continue to defend the three counties or focus his forces all in Cangcheng County?

For the entire morning, his eyes never left the map.

……

In the afternoon, military orders were sent to the various divisions through the relay.

It was obvious that Baiqi had already made a decision.

The order was for the 4th division of the Dragon Legion, as well as the Leizhou Garrison Division housed in Cangcheng County, to move to Yaogu County.

The Dragon Legion 2nd division housed in Yaogu Region would leave and move outside of Genglou County to hide and wait for further orders.

With that, he strengthened the troops of both Yaogu and Genglou County, while the command force only had the Tianshuang County city protection division.

Is Baiqi attempting another empty city plan?

The military order specifically mentioned that the three counties must erect the flag of their main general.

Cangcheng County naturally erected the flag of Baiqi, Yaogu County erected the flag of Xuanwei General Mu Guiying, while Genglou County erected Han Xin's flag.

Undeniably, this was another one of Baiqi’s schemes.

As for whether the alliance army would fall for it, only time would tell.

8th month 15th day, Shanhai City.

Just as the flames of war on Zhaoqing battlefield experienced a short rest, Shanhai City welcomed a prominent figure.

The Knowledge Saint Kong Zi brought his disciples on a learning journey all the way to Shanhai City. A day prior, Han Feizi of Legalism had sneakily reached Shanhai City.

The two heavyweights of Confucianism and Legalism had finally gathered.

Everyone knew that the most intense aspect of the philosophers’ debate would be the debating segment.

During this half a month, the philosophers followed the plan. First, they entered the book collection house for a week to understand the various achievements of each school of thought and faction in the various dynasties.

One had to say, they learned a lot.

Especially Confucianism, it changed and progressed a lot as time went on.

Following which, the philosophers' forum would begin.

Various school of thoughts and factions could head to the forum to describe their own thoughts and main goal. The prerequisite was for the contents to be new. If it was the same as the old thoughts, they did not need to go up.

The most attractive one was Wei Yang.

As one of the representative figures of Legalism and the person who affected the Warring States, Wei Yang, with his new identity as the director of internal affairs, headed to the forum.

His experience in Shanhai City had taught him a lot. All of his previous views were changed or improved because of his experiences.

In his last life, Wei Yang had always said that people should either be farmers or soldiers; there was no third option. Everything was to serve their country.

Focusing on agriculture and less on commerce was his strategy. The cruel punishments were his way of rule.

Everything in Shanhai City went against his strategy.

The commercial system of Shanhai City was something that opened up his eyes. Interestingly, Shanhai City's agriculture was similarly prosperous. Promoting both commerce and agriculture seemed possible.

His way of thinking naturally changed.

Of course, his core Legalism thinking still remained rock steady. What changed was the methods and strategy; the way he pushed out.

Undeniably, his words had won him plenty of praise. Confucian scholars like Meng Zi all had solemn expressions when they left.

The next day, it was Meng Zi's turn.

Interestingly, he described the ethical relationship between aboriginals and players, which extended to the legal problem of player Lords.

One had to say that Gaia really created a bunch of monsters.

Think about it, Meng Zi and the others were all smart people in history. Now, Gaia had given him five thousand years of knowledge and also let him live in such a wonderful world.

It made him stronger and stronger.

The first battle between Confucianism and Legalism ended in a draw.

Chapter 451- Zhang Yi Moves in

Editor: Nora

Han Feizi and Lao Zi, one after another arrived at Shanhai City. However, they received different treatments.

Let's first talk about Han Feizi, who came a day earlier.

After he came to Shanhai City and greeted Jiang Shang, he was dragged off by Wei Yang, Shen Buhai, and Sheng Dao to Wei Yang's residence.

During this period of time, Shen Buhai and Sheng Dao did not move into Juxian House and stayed at Wei Yang's residence instead.

The four giants of Legalism had finally gathered.

If someone else was present, they would feel astonished. As for what the four discussed, it was not about how to win against the Confucians. Instead, they talked about the thinkings of Legalism.

In their eyes, the way of Legalism obviously held a far greater importance than this debate.

Han Feizi, the man who combined the three factions, caused a lot of sparks when he met the three founder.

After all, when Han Feizi combined the three factions, he could only use records. Mistakes in understanding and recording would definitely occur.

Their meeting truly made them feel that they should have known each other earlier.

As they talked, they forgot about the passage of time.

Only after their stomachs growled did they look at one another and laugh.

"Quick, quick!"

Wei Yang laughed boisterously and ordered the maidservant to bring the prepared dishes into the reading room.

The four of them ate and discussed at the same time.

The olden rules were not to talk during eating or sleeping times. However, the four of them were so happy that they tossed this old rule to the back of their heads. When they started to drink some of the Three Flowers Wine, they started to grow high and even more unrestrained.

After hurriedly consuming their lunch, they continued to talk.

This conversation took up another day, as they forgot all about the flow of time.

The four giants of Legalism, although their main ideas were different, they were still extremely similar to one another.

At night, Han Feizi naturally stayed in Wei Yang's residence.

In a huge coincidence, Kong Zi brought his disciples to Shanhai City the very next day.

The moment Kong Zi entered the city, he directly went to greet Jiang Shang. Kong Zi's main idea was to recreate the old; he followed and respected the rites of Zhou.

Although the main promoter of the rites of Zhou was not Jiang Shang but Zhou Gongdan, Jiang Shang was still one of the founders of Xizhou. As such, he was worth Kong Zi’s visit.

Kong Zi, this cultural giant, was an exceedingly humble person. He was a role model for everyone. The fake Confucians and corrupt Confucians were truly a disgrace to him. They were in completely different leagues.

Along with his appearance, Lao Zi, Zhuang Zi, and other important figures all appeared.

A previously lackluster cultural occasion had welcomed its brightest moment.

Observing that the time was right, the ancestor of philosophers, Jiang Shang, unexpectedly invited Kong Zi, Meng Zi, Zhuang Zi, Mozi, as well as Han Feizi and his companion to the Fallen Star Island.

Before this, Jiang Shang only met the philosophers in the book collection hall.

Obviously, this conversation would be highly unusual. One must know that the invited individuals were all heavyweights of their school of thoughts; the highest existences out of all philosophers.

The only one unhappy about these arrangements was probably Lu Buwei.

After all, he did not receive an invitation. If one mentioned this matter, it actually seemed pretty normal. Lu Buwei did not even get a ‘Zi’ title, so he could not be considered an ancestor of a faction.

On Fallen Star Island, this gathering of saints was an event history would record. As for their exact words, no one knew. Even Ouyang Shuo knew nothing of their exchange.

Only at noon did Jiang Shang finally send someone to tell Xiao He that the philosophers’ debate would officially start the next day.

He also sent out a small paper note.

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo sat in the main hall for a meeting with the four directors. Apart from them, Xiao He, as well as one of the representative figures of diplomacy, Zhang Yi, was present.

They were discussing two matters, one being the establishment of a diplomat organization, second would be to settle the philosophers' debate matter.

Fan Zhongyan suggested they name the organization Honglu Temple. Members of the temple would spread the good name of the territory.

The main officer of the Honglu Temple would be called Honglu Temple Minister, taking charge of all diplomacy issues. They would naturally appoint Zhang Yi to the position.

The established Honglu Temple would not be placed under the control of the four departments. Instead, it would report directly to Nanjiang Governor-General House and Ouyang Shuo. The rank of the Honglu Temple Minister would be situated between director and secretary.

The basic level officials and civil servants would be taken from the Administration Department.

The culture and traditions that the Culture and Education Division took charge of had the most similarities to the job of Honglu Temple. Hence, the officials under the Culture and Education Division that they sent to the Honglu Temple could easily pick up Zhang Yi’s teachings.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also granted Zhang Yi the permission to choose elites with good personalities from the school of diplomacy. Zhang Yi could decide all personnel changes.

This trust made Zhang Yi grateful to the point of tears.

"Thank you, Lord, for your trust!"

The moment they established the Honglu Temple, a system notification spread out from his ear.

"System Notification: School of diplomacy representative has moved into Shanhai City, taking charge of the Honglu Temple and accepting disciples. Shanhai City has met the three requirements for a school of thought to move in. The school of diplomacy officially moves into Shanhai City."

……

"System Notification: School of diplomacy has officially moved in. Shanhai City is awarded the title of ‘Maneuvering Amongst Political Groups’."

……

When the system notification sounded out, the other players in the China region did not have much of a reaction. Only Hefu and the others, who were on route, felt their faces cramp up.

Problematic fellow!

They were fighting a war here. Meanwhile, their enemy actually stayed in his main base maneuvering amongst political groups.’

Comparing with others would genuinely make one die from anger.

This system notification was a significant blow to Hefu and the others.

The moment they heard it, Hefu and the others experienced a shocking reality check. It made them realize again that they were going to face a terrifying opponent.

Compared to him, they were not even on the same level. They needed to personally lead their troops, while he could remain in Shanhai City and expand his circle of influence.

Philosophers, Hefu would dream and crave for them.

To Shanhai City, it was like eating rice. One after another, school of thoughts moved into Shanhai City.

As Hefu rode his horse, he felt thankful in his heart. Thankful he acted calm and rational when dealing with the Four Seas Bank. He felt lucky that he did not do anything out of hand.

Facing such an opponent, anyone would feel a headache.

If he could, he totally would not want to fight Shanhai City. Helplessly, this was the cruel reality of the wilderness—a win-win situation did not exist.

It was either you die or I die.

Since he had no way out, he could only move forward.

His expression suddenly turned more resolute, and he looked a lot more courageous.

Ouyang Shuo did not have any time to think about the thoughts of Hefu and the others. He only wanted to check the stats of the title.

Maneuvering Amongst Political Groups: 15% increase in territory reputation, 25% reduction in animosity toward territory, 20% decrease in trade difficulty, 30% increase in favoritism of tribes.

Compared to the other titles, not only was the title granted by the school of diplomacy different, even the stats headed in a different route.

The other three schools gave a one-sided raise.

Only this title had buffs and debuffs. It was not hard to see that these stats were comparable to the rest.

Raising the territory’s reputation, needless to say, was a rare stat. It was one that would only normally appear on hidden buildings.

Shanhai City’s ability to attract so many talents had to do with such stats.

As for lowering animosity and lowering trade difficulty, it might look useless for now, but in the late game, it would be an overpowered stat.

Let's not talk about animosity yet. Purely in terms of trading, the phrase would make one drool. With this buff alone, Ouyang Shuo felt more confident in his trading with Australia.

The last stat was great for his strategy toward tribes.

In the territory, he had three tribal groups, mountain barbarians, nomads, as well as the Li Race aboriginals. Apart from the mountain barbarians, who voluntarily moved over, they had forced the rest to join them through war. Hence, they still held some negative feelings toward Shanhai territory.

With this new title, such feelings would definitely be abated to an extent. It would greatly help in their soft approach in regards to Qiongzhou.

Apart from the current tribes, it was also helpful for the integration of future races.

One must not forget that in Chiyou City, a huge number of mountain barbarians lived. Ouyang Shuo had worried over the fact that even after conquering Chiyou City, the mountain barbarians within would not be willing to join them.

After all, Chiyou's influence on mountain barbarians was simply too great.

With this added stat from the title, he had an additional 30% chance.

Most importantly, this title did not only apply to races like the mountain barbarians in Chiyou City. One must know that in the settings of Gaia, commoners in other regions were also listed as other races.

With that, the meaning behind it was huge.

One could foresee that with this step, if Shanhai City started a global war in the future, they would have an easier time ruling over new territories.

With such an analysis, one could see the incredible strength of this title.

Undeniably, this title would be an unparalleled existence in the later parts of the game.

This time, he had really picked up a treasure.

After Ouyang Shuo finished looking at the stats, he thought about whether or not he should try and recruit the other representative figure, Su Qin, to prevent other territories from receiving the title.

Thinking up to this point, a cold look flashed across his eyes.

Chapter 452-Bingshan Goddess

TWO Chapter 452-Bingshan Goddess

Ouyang Shuo regained his focus and continued the meeting.

The philosophers debate, apart from the debating portion, would also hold an important ceremony—the heaven worship ceremony. Ouyang Shuo, as the host, would have to lead the philosophers to pay respect in the Yellow Emperor Temple.

The Yellow Emperor was the ancestor of the Chinese race. He also set up the ruling systems of China, so they naturally had to worship him.

After settling all the important matters, Ouyang Shuo announced the end of the meeting. He left Xiao He with the task of making contact with Su Qin to see whether or not he was willing to work in Shanhai City.

As the organizer of the philosophers’ debate, Xiao He also had an important task apart from arranging daily matters. He had to contact the various philosophers and invite them to move into Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo believed that Xiao He had the ability; he could help them recruit some talents.

The results proved that. In this half month, no less than a hundred philosophers had already expressed their willingness. These people belonged to different factions and schools, so they were suitable for different industries.

Based on their specialities, Xiao He coordinated with the four departments to arrange everything in an orderly manner.

At this time, Xiao He's elder official identity played a crucial role. In the territory, apart from Ouyang Shuo, only he had the power to move the four departments.

Through the philosophers’ debate, Xiao He was slowly building up his prestige in Shanhai City.

Everyone was clear that Xiao He would replace Fan Zhongyan as the head of the officials sooner or later. However, Fan Zhongyan himself did not mind, as Xiao He was truly amazing.

The talents that Xiao He recruited either entered the four departments or moved into the various Houses and counties. Those who did not want to be an official entered the two schools to teach the various industries as advisors, or they would establish an association.

One must know that there were hundreds of types of philosophers apart from the ten school of thoughts, although the rest were not that famous. However, their values had spread down in the various professions like wood craftsmen, carvers, and leather workers.

The industry associations in Shanhai City appeared like bamboo shoots after a rain.

Before this, the main associations in Shanhai City were the textile association and the fishing association. In less than half a month, more than ten associations registered at the Financial Department. The most famous ones among them were the carpenter association, carving association, and the leatherwork association.

Apart from establishing associations, some philosophers themselves were high level talents of their industry. Based on Xiao He's calculations, about five of them had reached the master rank.

When they received the buff from Shanhai City’s specialty and ranked up to grandmaster one by one, Shanhai City's work occupation would truly boom.

Apart from Ouyang Shuo feeling delighted, work occupation players who lived in Shanhai City were similarly ecstatic. These mysterious disciples and masters were all people that they wanted to learn from.

If their luck was good, the players could even receive the inheritances of these NPCs in the form of quests. They could become a successor of some faction or school of thought.

All of a sudden, members of the Fallen Moon Guild crazily swarmed the streets.

Amongst which, a lucky person called Zhi Shui actually triggered the inheritance quest of the carpenters. This lucky fellow, probably because he was too happy, revealed the matter on the forums.

This time, the pot really blew open.

Work occupation players in the China region grew red with envy.

The guild leader of Thread even directly teleported to Shanhai City when she received the news.

"Lord Wuyi, you can't be so biased. Thread and Fallen Moon Guild are both under Shanhai City, so you can't treat us differently."

Bingshan Beauty, if her cold glance bore into a normal person, they would surrender right away.

Luckily, Ouyang Shuo was experienced. He knew that if he really allowed members of Thread to come down to Shanhai City to fight with members of Fallen Moon Guild, Sun Xiaoyue would rip him apart.

Although Sun Xiaoyue might look like a gentle next-door-type girl, she was terrifying when angered.

Thinking about this point, Ouyang Shuo felt a shiver run down his spine.

"Guild leader Qing, I am not being biased. After all, Shanhai City is where Fallen Moon Guild is registered, while Thread is registered in Yashan City, right?"

When Qing Sikou heard this response, she froze. She did not expect this jerk to not even hesitate before he rejected her. Was her charm really so useless?

However, beauties with cold exteriors had the strongest of hearts.

When she was in Jingdou, the number of guys chasing her could probably form two circles around the Jingdou city wall. Qing Sikou did not even glance at these suitors.

Especially the chasing incident of Xingzhe Zichen, which made Qing Sikou more and more cold. After she moved into Yashan City, there basically was not as much action.

Even so, it did not mean that Qing Sikou did not like it when others praised her. It did not mean that she could stand guys not falling for her charm.

For girls, especially beauties, they could not tolerate such a reaction.

However, toward Ouyang Shuo, she was helpless.

Who was the guy in front of her?

He was the best player in the China region, probably even the world, and the most pinnacle existence. His words and actions were the focal point of the China region. Some envied him, some despised him, and some even worshipped him.

However, no one dared to act insolent toward him.

After all, this man held incredible power.

Thinking about this point, Qing Sikou felt more and more annoyed. Anxiously, she could not control her feelings and blew up, “I don't care, help me out."

In her words, there was actually a tint of playfulness. When Ouyang Shuo heard her, his eyes widened.

Bingshan Goddess acting playful?

When she saw his expression, only then did Qing Sikou realize that she had lost her demeanor, and her face instantly reddened.

The atmosphere instantly became awkward.

Ouyang Shuo calmed himself down. He knew that at such a time, he needed to give Qing Sikou a way to step down. Otherwise, she might really freak out.

"Cough, how about this, arrange twenty people over to Shanhai City to either take a master or accept quests. As for whether they can become successors, that will depend on the heavens. Is that okay?"

"Yes."

Qing Sikou took in a deep breath. She was not willing to stay anymore, so she turned around and left.

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo let out a long sigh.

Was she trying to kill me?

Not long after, Ouyang Shuo received a letter from Sun Xiaoyue in Yashan City.

When he opened the letter, he only found a white sheet of paper.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this, he shook his head, that girl was really too jealous.

……

Apart from scattered individuals obtaining jobs, if schools or factions moved in, they could even open a college in Xinan University to accept disciples.

The moment this news spread out, even Mohism and the other big school of thoughts felt tempted. After all, they all wanted to spread their thoughts in an influential school.

Furthermore, Xinan University also had Jiang Shang and the book collection house. Even if the various schools and factions did not station themselves in Shanhai City, just opening a college in Xinan University was still possible.

Xinan University's ability to accept all slowly gained everyone's recognition.

After this battle, Shanhai City's foundation grew more and more stable.

The entire China region could not compare with them.

……

When the Lord asked him to invite Su Qin, Xiao He looked at the Lord with a weird expression. In theory, with Zhang Yi in charge of the Honglu Temple, why would the Lord feel interested in Su Qin?

Xiao He could only keep such thoughts to himself and not speak them out loud. He only nodded his head in response.

After Xiao He left, Ouyang Shuo looked at the blue sky through the main door, deep in thought.

Su Qin ah, Su Qin. I hope that you're smart enough and don't make me take that final step.

Nanjiang Governor-General Manor, Wuji Palace.

The night sky looked like water, and the frogs croaked. The Wuji Palace, on the other hand, was silent. Be it the patrolling guards or the maidservants, they all walked quietly, afraid to disturb the Lord.

Wuji Palace was where Ouyang Shuo slept.

When they built the Nanjiang Governor-General Manor, they expanded the entire palace once again. The Yingyu sisters, as well as Bing'er, all had their own palace wing.

Bing'er, that little girl, had slowly grown up. It was time for her to learn to live independently.

As the Shanhai City system grew more and more perfect, class systems were starting to show. Although Ouyang Shuo did not want this to occur, this game was set in the olden time after all. He could not alter the natural progression of things.

Cui Yingyu and the others, as the sisters of the Lord, all took chariots when they travelled.

The number of servants in the manor grew by the day. The rules in the manor became more and more strict. The Housekeeping Division they set up long ago started to play a more and more important role.

Zisu performed well and took good care of the back palace.

Even Ouyang Shuo did not expect Zisu, that brat, to be so capable. Be it Cui Yingyu, Qing'er, or even Song Jia, everyone felt impressed.

Although the palace had expanded many times, the decorations in Wuji Palace were still relatively humble and simple. Although Ouyang Shuo possessed many riches, he was not a materialistic person.

Due to Ouyang Shuo’s influence, the entire manor was very simple.

Inside the sleeping chamber, Ouyang Shuo took out the secret manual—Killing Sword Sword Manual. After he removed the poison from his body, Ouyang Shuo had rested for several days to prepare to cultivate this sword manual.

The killing sword would soon appear in the world.

Chapter 453- Path of the Killing Sword

Ouyang Shuo pressed his right hand onto the secret manual, prompting a system notification to sound out.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for obtaining the Emperor Rank cultivation method, Killing Sword Sword Manual. Will you learn it?"

"Learn!"

With a Shua! the secret manual turned into a crimson light and shot into the middle of his brows. All of a sudden, his consciousness was pulled into a blood red battlefield.

A red sun, withered grass, cold air, and the scent of blood, which filled the nostrils.

Ouyang Shuo was familiar with this scene.

The last moment, before he revived, he had seen this exact same scarlet sky.

On the battlefield, the sounds of war horses bellowed toward the heavens.

On the vast wilderness, one red, one black, two huge armies engaged one another. Upon closer inspection, the two armies were not equally numbered; the red side had four times more troops than the black army.

Even so, the massacre on the battlefield was split extremely evenly.

This was because amongst the black army, there was an Asura.

A blurred out middle-aged general in the black army had attracted Ouyang Shuo's attention. He wore Qin Armor and held a Qin Sword, while the killing aura around him boiled, as he killed wantonly.

The exquisitely forged Qin Sword was long and heavy, and the thick scent of blood enveloped the blade itself.

As the blade flashed, a head fell to the ground.

The weirder part was that the middle-aged general could seemingly feel Ouyang Shuo's attention. He was cold, as he picked up his sword. He actually started practicing his sword arts in the middle of the battlefield.

"1st, killing life!"

The middle-aged general calmly pronounced, as he cut down forward with his sword. He simply killed an enemy with a horizontal strike.

"2nd, killing soldier!"

He did not retract the blade that chopped downward, as he slashed sideways toward a soldier. Before the soldier could react, the middle-aged general had slit his throat.

"3rd, killing sergeant!"

The middle-aged general seemed numb to killing, expressionless. It was like he had found a home in this chaos. With a sidestep and a block, he stopped the crescent blade of the enemy sergeant. He pushed it upward and before the sergeant could react, the middle-aged general stabbed down on his chest.

The sharp Qin Sword directly pierced the armor and embedded itself in the sergeant’s heart.

"4th, killing general!"

As the sergeant died, a black-faced enemy general blocked the middle-aged general. The enemy wore a red armor and held an exquisite crescent blade. His aura was extremely strong. With a glance, one would know that he was not simple.

The middle-aged general maintained his expressionless face. The Qin Sword in his hand moved in more and more complex manners. The sword arts before were just the most basic. However, there were now many changes.

The long sword parried and blocked, chopped and cut, leaving Ouyang Shuo dazzled.

Ha!

The middle-aged general cried out. Exerting all his strength, he directly broke the enemy’ crescent blade into half.

The black-faced general was shocked.

In just that instance, the Qin Sword swept past, one stroke.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this move, his blood boiled.

As expected from the killing sword, a real battlefield massacring sword technique.

One stroke and one stance. Nothing for show; it was all just to kill the enemy.

"5th, killing oneself!"

As the middle-aged general started to practice the fifth stroke, Ouyang Shuo felt extremely confused.

Killing oneself? Would he really commit suicide?

That seemed rather contradictory!

The middle-aged general seemed to notice Ouyang Shuo’s doubt, and he suddenly gave out a weird smirk. For a blurred out face to suddenly smirk, it looked truly creepy.

When Ouyang Shuo saw the smirk, he felt shivers run down his spine.

Only to see the middle-aged general turning the sword around and aiming for his abdomen. The sword plunged through his body and did not stop, directly piercing a general behind him.

So that was it.

Ouyang Shuo was enlightened. The so-called killing oneself was a move to deal the highest damage, while paying the smallest price.

This move needed one to have exquisite control over the position and timing of the sword. If not, you would die before the enemy.

"6th, killing all life!"

The middle-aged general pulled out the sword from his own body. Blood splattered everywhere, but he did not even frown.

Looking over, although the general was strong, his army did not have an advantage, and the enemy slowly withered them down.

The middle-aged general laughed coldly and swung his sword.

This unassuming swipe caused a colossal change. A lightning bolt crashed down from the vast sky.

Then, the bloodthirst and killing intent on the middle-aged general’s sword formed a crimson blade, killing life. In an instance, over ten soldiers fell.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this move, his brows tightened. He could not understand it. In his last life, he was a decent player amongst adventure gamemode players, so he understood a bit about the martial way.

When Gaia designed martial arts, it did not break away from reality. Based on theory, even with a buff, a move could not bend the laws of physics.

This move was something he could not understand.

What kind of move was that? The middle-aged general used the killing aura of his sword to create a formless killing intent. It was like the action of a god.

After all, to killing using just their aura, wasn't that the action of a god?

Or maybe, the Killing Sword Sword Manual was not a true secret manual. Maybe it was just an in-game thing? That could be it, but Gaia should not be so contradictory.

Before this, Gaia had pointed out that all ‘manuals’ and ‘scriptures’ were real. Hence, this made Ouyang Shuo exceedingly confused.

Did Gaia really predict martial arts to reach such a level?

Thinking in this direction, it did make sense.

Unfortunately, the middle aged-general was not planning to explain things to Ouyang Shuo. He just showed the move. Whether Ouyang Shuo could understand or not depended on his own ability.

If he learned it, then that was good. If he did not, then too bad.

Ouyang Shuo could only memorize what he had seen.

"7th, killing spirits!"

The middle-aged general did not pause. He cleared out all the enemies around him and charged straight for the enemy commander. He would kill anyone that dared to block his path.

Ouyang Shuo noticed that when the middle-aged general killed, he used the first four strokes seamlessly.

It was obvious that the way of the killing sword was not a simple seven strokes. Instead, the moves interconnected with one another to create thousands and thousands of variations, allowing one to easily kill even when surrounded by many enemies.

The killing sword was a way of killing and also the way of survival.

To kill the enemy, one must first survive.

Apart from assassins, no one would not know how to protect themselves.

The killing sword took this idea to the extreme.

That was because the killing sword was the way of the battlefield. On the battlefield, swords had no eyes and dangers lurked everywhere. The method to survive and protect yourself was a true art.

The middle-aged general had practiced the sword to an extreme, each stroke was a killing blow.

The huge army could not even stop him for a moment. Everywhere he passed, bodies fell and blood flowed like a river.

"Quick, stop him!"

The enemy commander panicked.

"Kill!"

The red wave fearlessly charged.

Numerous crescent blades formed light after light, as they encompassed the land.

"Hen!"

The middle-aged general did not care; these lines of soldiers were not at his level. Regularly, the middle-aged general would use the 6th killing move to slay enemies.

Ouyang Shuo looked on in astonishment.

Based on theory, Shi Wanshui and Er’Lai were also emperor rank generals, but Ouyang Shuo did not see them possess such strength, able to kill the commander among millions of troops.

Where did this manual come from?

He could not believe that such a technique only stood at the emperor rank.

What secret did it hide within?

Ouyang Shuo did not have time to think anymore, as the middle-aged general had already charged to the front of the commander.

Yet another sweep, killing anything in his path.

The commander rode high on his warhorse, his expression exceedingly serious. He could also fight, and he wielded his spear in preparation for a final clash.

The middle-aged general smirked coldly. He jumped up from the ground, and the sword in his hand pierced forward. He totally ignored the spear plunging toward him.

The sword was like a shooting star, slashing through the sky and into the chest of the enemy.

"Ah!"

The enemy commander lowered his head in disbelief and looked at the sword in his chest.

The spear brushed against the body of the middle-aged general before falling to the ground. At the crucial moment, the blade of the middle-aged general was faster by a step.

The essence of this move was speed.

Ouyang Shuo looked on; his eyes did not even blink. Killing spirits did not really mean killing a spirit. Rather, it alluded to killing the enemy commander.

All the killing sword moves were designed for battle. Each move was focused on the enemy.

No wonder the evaluation would contain such a line: User of the killing blade, Qin Army using Qin Sword on the battlefield, an ultimate technique refined through battle.

The way of this sword truly befitted the title of ultimate.

Seeing their commander killed, the furious soldiers rushed forward to destroy the middle-aged general.

The middle-aged general jumped down from his horse, as his sword glowed with an evil red light. He raised up his head and looked at Ouyang Shuo coldly, “A hundred mile massacre!"

Ouyang Shuo felt a shiver run down his spine; this was the final killing move of the killing sword.

The red glow of the sword seemed to suck up and absorb a certain quantity of blood from the enemy general body. Instantly, an enormous blood energy exploded into millions of small swords.

Silence, the entire battlefield fell completely silent.

Numerous soldiers instantly died.

Bug, this was a bug! Ouyang Shuo exclaimed in head.

Ouyang Shuo originally thought that it was just a description, who knew that it would actually be true?

A hundred mile massacre?

Ouyang Shuo muttered.

Chapter 454- Marketplace

Killing sword was the sword of killing.

The moment the sword left the sheath, it must taste blood. Otherwise, it would not be withdrawn.

The moment these words left the middle-aged general, the entire blood red illusion broke down. Ouyang Shuo slowly opened his eyes. In his mind, he was still thinking back on the sword strokes he witnessed.

Just at this moment, a system notification sounded out.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, bone structure exquisite, comprehension strong. Player has obtained the teachings of the blood red illusion, Killing Sword Sword Manual has reached the ‘just learned the fundamentals’ level."

……

The sudden appearance of the blood red illusion, receiving comprehension out of nowhere.

At this point, Ouyang Shuo was sure that the Killing Sword Sword Manual hid a huge secret.

The other cultivation methods did not have anything like this, including the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique, the Yang Family Spear Technique, and the rest. None of them created such an illusion.

"System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi lacks comprehension, 7th killing temporarily sealed."

……

"System notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi lacks comprehension, 6th killing temporarily sealed."

……

"System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi lacks comprehension, 5th killing move temporarily sealed."

……

The three successive system notifications left him speechless. He looked at his own stats. With the help of the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique, his comprehension had reached a terrifying 32 points.

Even so, it was not good enough.

These facts aligned with the truth. After all, when he was in the blood red illusion, Ouyang Shuo did not understand anything about the last two strokes.

Making use of this chance, Ouyang Shuo took a look at his own stats.

Name: Qiyue Wuyi

Title: Mighty Lord (45% increase in NPCs’ relationship, 20% increase in the success rate of recruiting historical people)

Occupation: General (sub-occupation)

Territory: Nanjiang Governor-General House

Level: 70

Merit: 26200/1000000

Rank: 1st Class Marquis

Reputation: 173000/1000000

Primordial Energy: 710/2000

Body Structure: 39

Comprehension: 32

Luck: 8

Charm: 10

Command: 80

Force: 75

Intelligence: 27

Political: 65

Talent: Wargod (Permanent 20% increase in combat power)

Talent: Ice (Attacks have an additional icy effect)

Speciality: Magic God Possession (200% increase in combat power for 30 minutes, followed by a period of added weakness)

Specialty: Way of the King (raises sensory abilities and gives birth to the aura of a king)

Internal Art: Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique (layer 8/12)

Technique: Ba Ji Fist Art (achieved mastery through comprehension). Yang Family Spear Technique (achieved mastery through comprehension). Killing Sword Sword Manual (learned the fundamentals).

Movement Skill: Floating Ghost Shadow

Art of War: ‘Liu Tao’ (Wu Tao Volume)

Skills: Wild Beast Taming Technique (Intermediate)

Mount: Qingdian (Platinum)

Equipment: Tianmo Spear, Chixiao Sword

Armor: General Mingguang Armor (Dark Gold)

Cape: Divine Martial Cape

Accessories: Qilin Golden Seal (Platinum), Dragon and Phoenix Pendant (Platinum)

Unique Items: Yin Yang Copper Coin, Beihai Bay Treasure Map

Ouyang Shuo's current stats, even compared to adventure gamemode players, could allow him to be considered a pinnacle existence. Out of all his equipment, he only lacked a pair of good boots.

In the last few days, Ouyang Shuo had passed the king beast scale armor that Song Jia had gathered to Qing'er. He instructed her to tailor two inner armors and two pairs of boots.

That brat was really confident. For these few days, she had locked herself up in her shop.

Based on her normal speed, she should finish up soon.

Although it was dead at night, Ouyang Shuo was not tired at all. He got up and took out the Chixiao Sword.

Shua! the red sword exited its sheath. Contrasted to the night sky, it looked exceedingly elegant.

Ouyang Shuo held the sword in his hand, as he started practicing in the room. Each stroke and move closely followed the seven killing strokes that he had understood. He practiced it very slowly, as he ran it through his memory. Sometimes, he would even stop and close his eyes and fall into a moment of deep contemplation.

The original sword strokes, which seethed with killing intent, lacked that certain fire in his hand.

If an expert was present, they would feel shocked.

That was because Ouyang Shuo's strokes seemed weak and floaty, but in truth, his movements contained the essence of the sword strokes. Although it seemed formless, it actually concealed a hidden killing intent.

After a short while, Ouyang Shuo sheathed the sword.

In just that short while, the practice had left his forehead covered in sweat, while his face looked ashen white.

"Killing sword?"

Ouyang Shuo muttered.

As the light wind blew, the night remained utterly silent. The only audible sounds were someone sighing.

As the night sky passed, a red sun rose up from the east mountains. The golden glow of the sunlight scattered onto Shanhai City, waking up this titanic beast.

Outside the city, in the cover of the night, the farmers either pushed their carts or carried their items. They were bringing the fruits and vegetables that they had grown to sell in the city.

The moment the city doors opened, the farmers formed up lines and entered the city orderly.

Friendship River riverside, the area of the various Chamber of Commerces. It took up the greatest area and sold a large variety of products from the nine imperial cities. Naturally, it was the most bustling area.

Canyon Riverside, people crowded the harbor. Numerous merchant ships docked at the harbor, waiting to unload or load up the Shanhai City specialties onto their boats to sell elsewhere.

The coolies on the harbor had reached more than a thousand in number.

The streets and alleys of the city already brimmed with people.

At the private schools at the sides of the streets, sounds of children studying spread out.

Today, the number of private schools in Shanhai City had reached a number no less than a hundred. One could see such private schools everywhere. Some were built by the Culture and Education Division, some by Shanhai City, while others were built by funds that scholars donated.

Shanhai City's cultural luster was predicated on this.

Maybe a famous scholar would appear from these schools in the future.

The women who woke up early dressed up prettily, as they carried their baskets to purchase vegetables in the market. On the way there, they would purchase buns from the breakfast shop to take back home.

Seeing familiar neighbors, some people would definitely start chatting on the streets, talking about things at home, prices of vegetables, materials of their clothes, and the like.

Some vain ones could even talk about make-up.

All along, Shanhai City was an exceedingly open society. They would not look down on women. Especially with the rise of prominent women like Cui Yingyu, Mulan Yue, and Mu Guiying. They helped to push females to a high point.

Hence, these women could do as they wished.

Some of their family males even followed them to the breakfast shop to have soy milk and breakfast, as they gossiped about rumors on the streets.

Amongst them, some people had connections. They talked about the rumors inside the Governor-General Manor.

"Little princess is being so naughty at school. She drew turtles on her friends' face while they were taking a nap."

"Cui Hua, who lives beside us, has been recruited as a maidservant. Her whole family is so honored now."

"Some servants didn't follow the rules and took vases from the manor to sell. After being found out, they were sacked and sent to the Procuratorate Division."

"In the back garden of the manor, there's a playground and a weird looking castle."

The people would gossip about everything they heard regarding the manor. Moreover, the biggest topic today was naturally the philosophers’ debate.

The people naturally understood a lot about the philosophers. The officials placed so much importance on them, and they could be seen all around.

"I heard that four to five factions and schools have decided to base themselves in Shanhai City."

"What four to five, I think more than ten."

"That's right, on this earth, there's no place more suitable than our Shanhai City."

"I really want to make a trip to the imperial city to take a look. What do you think it looks like inside?"

The people that spoke were migrants that came not long ago.

After the three cities merged, the imperial city became a forbidden ground for the commoners.

"Hei, talking about that, I've been there before and stayed there for a while."

The one that spoke was an old man over fifty in age.

"Old Zhang, did you really? Tell us about it!"

A table of people instantly crowded around.

Even those from neighboring tables peeked across, their eyes all filled with curiosity.

When Old Zhang saw such a response, he smiled, “You all came too late. Last year, when I arrived, Shanhai City wasn't so big."

"That's right, that's right. I heard that Shanhai City was only a small city. The Lord brought everyone and built it up step by step."

"What small city? I heard that it was a small village."

"Old Zhang, you are wise, and you have seen a lot. What do you say?"

"It really was a village."

"That's amazing!"

"Stop asking questions and let Old Zhang speak about what the imperial city is like."

The teen from the start eagerly said.

"That's right!"

"The imperial city, ah. It's really amazing. Golden tiles on the floor, jade as walls, paintings hung around; that place is beautiful beyond belief. There's a temple of heaven for worshipping, the temple of our old ancestor, the Yellow Emperor, is also built there. However, the most amazing thing is still the old Lianzhou Lord’s Manor…."

Old Zhang's words were half real and half fake but mostly his exaggerations. The teens crowding around were all stunned and amazed. They all exclaimed out in awe.

These events at the corner of the streets was just a small happening in the city. The same scene would happen at other corners, forming a realistic, lively, and beautiful painting.

Chapter 455- Worshipping the Heavens

Nanjiang Governor-General Manor, Wuji Palace.

Under the help of his servant, Ouyang Shuo donned his coronation costume and crown. On the left side of his waist hung the Chixiao Sword, while the Qilin Golden Seal hung on his right.

After he wore everything, he walked out of the Wuji Palace, and exited through the gates.

At the main gate, a carriage specifically crafted for the Lord was already prepared. Five elite Qingfu Horses pulled the carriage, their fur entirely green.

The entire carriage was not locked up but open instead. On the top, there was an imperial canopy design. Ouyang Shuo boarded the carriage and walked toward the Temple of Heaven. Along the way, the Divine Martial Guards stood at attention.

Under the blue sky, the marble floored Temple of Heaven seemed endless and vast.

The Divine Martial Guards carefully guarded the Temple of Heaven. Sentries stood guard every three to five steps. This subgroup of the Divine Martial Guards only had two hundred people; they were the core strength that guarded Ouyang Shuo. They never headed out to war with the army.

They all had solemn bearings, as their fresh red divine martial capes floated in the wind.

On the Temple of Heaven square, in front of the Yellow Emperor Temple, all the important generals and civil servants apart from Baiqi had gathered. According to their ranks, they stood orderly on the sides of the square.

Elder Official Xiao He stood at the front of the group.

Beside him was the principal of the Army Military Academy, Sun Wu.

Closely behind them were the four directors, then Honglu Temple Zhang Yi, Shanhai Magistrate Zhang Wenzhong, and Lianzhou Governor Wei Ran. Lastly, there were the secretaries and the few prefects of Lianzhou Prefecture.

They had also invited the various deans and lecturers of Xinan University and Army Military Academy to the ceremony. Apart from that, they also invited two hundred odd student representatives from the two schools.

All of them wore a standardized uniform, and they all looked majestic.

On the left side of the square, naturally, it was the philosophers.

The ancestor of philosophy, Jiang Shang, was the deacon of the ceremony. As such, he stood at the front.

Closely behind him was Kong Zi, Lao Zi, Mozi, and Han Feizi. Further behind was Zhuang Zi, Meng Zi, Lu Buwei, Sheng Dao, Xun Zi, Huishi, Zhou Yan, and Su Qin, the representative figures of the nine school of thoughts.

Lastly, there stood the representatives of the other factions and school of thoughts.

Apart from that, they also extended an invitation to the scholars who decided to move into Shanhai City.

This was also the first time that all the philosophers had gathered together.

Such a scene would only occur once in a lifetime.

At the two sides of the Yellow Emperor Temple stood a hundred odd ritualists and music officials the Culture and Education Division trained. The ritualists were in charge of arranging the sacrificial ceremony items, while the music officials were in charge of all the tunes and music during the ceremony.

On the large square stood four hundred odd people, but it was not a tight fit at all.

Each group stood orderly and strictly arranged by rank.

Although the ceremony had not begun, the square was utterly silent and extremely dignified.

Undeniably, they needed to conduct this worship ceremony before the philosophers’ debate. Ouyang Shuo wanted to use this chance to display the power and ability of Shanhai City.

The carriage stopped at its designated area and Ouyang Shuo slowly disembarked.

Under the shine of the sun, Ouyang Shuo seemed larger than life, his presence domineering.

Secretary Bai Nanpu loudly proclaimed, “Shanhai City Lord, Nanjiang Governor-General, Lianzhou Lord arrives!"

The Nanjiang Governor-General post that the imperial court granted him was just a position. To Ouyang Shuo, the Lianzhou Lord title held the most value, and it was also one of his significant titles as a Lord.

"Greetings, Lord!"

Xiao He led the officials to greet and bow to him.

"Greetings, Lianzhou Lord!"

Jiang Shang led the philosophers; they similarly bowed, as they greeted.

In the entire square, only Ouyang Shuo still stood up straight.

Seeing such a scene was enough to make one's blood boil.

When he saw Kong Zi and the others bow to him, Ouyang Shuo felt an immense sense of pride.

During the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period, the philosophers were really respectful to the Lords. Hence, in such a situation, Ouyang Shuo could accept their bows and greetings.

The taste of power truly made one feel drunk.

Even if the road forward had many thorns that he would have to face alone, Ouyang Shuo would have no regrets.

His mindset was slowly improving.

A truly mighty Lord was rising in the wilderness. The future Ouyang Shuo would act even colder; he would toss aside his burdens completely and use his own power to climb to the apex.

He had to complete his mission to become an overlord in this life.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Do away with the formalities."

"Thank you, Lord!"

"Thank you, Lianzhou Lord!"

Under the guidance of the ritualist, Ouyang Shuo sat right in front of the offering.

Observing this, Xiao He announced, “Please take your seats, the offering has begun!"

"Welcome, Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor."

As his words finished, the music officials started playing the music and the drums.

The sound spread across the Temple of Heaven, past the city walls of the imperial city, and throughout Shanhai City.

The commoners in the city were praying at their own homes, similarly worshipping the Yellow Emperor. Instantly, the invisible power of incense gathered around the Yellow Emperor Statue.

Jiang Shang moved forward and raised his hands toward the sky, “Ancestor Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor, please return!"

Xiao He sang, “Dianbi."

Following which, they followed a set of complicated rituals.

The entire ceremony was exceedingly strict and severe; they did not miss anything out.

Be it Kong Zi or Lao Zi, they were all knowledgeable about such ceremonies, so they could not afford to make a mistake.

After the three offerings, Xiao He sang, "Read the blessings."

Jiang Shang faced the altar of the Yellow Emperor and knelt, as he read the blessings.

"Gaia 2nd year, 8th month, 6th day, bright and aunt day. Shanhai City commoners, as well as philosophers, have gathered here at the Shanhai City Yellow Emperor Temple to worship our Ancestor, Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor. Our ancestor has performed many good deeds, building the palace and blessing our people. Teaching us agriculture and letting us live. Riding cows and horses, opening up roads and paths. Correcting our dressing and creating books and traditions. A Lord everyone worshipped; someone who united the nine states. Pushed for education and for everyone to practice the same religion. The core of Chinese culture; the pride of our people. The pinnacle of the Chinese, the dragon bloodline will continue. In the wilderness, the philosophers will rise. Worshipping the ancestor; please bless us with prosperity. The worship ceremony is complete!"

After the blessings were read, Xiao He sang, "Enjoy the wine and meat."

Yet another set of complicated rituals.

Lastly Xiao He sang, "Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor has left; the worship ceremony has been completed!"

Only then did they finish the entire ceremony.

The moment it ended, the Yellow Emperor Statue suddenly emitted a golden glow. The radiance directly shone past the temple and spread across the entire Shanhai City.

Seeing such a scene, be it the philosophers or the commoners, they all felt delighted beyond tears.

A sign of god!

"The ancestor has sent a sign!"

At the corner of his face, Ouyang Shuo let out a smile.

The Yellow Emperor showing his spirit was enough to prove that Ouyang Shuo’s city running standards were recognized. As a Lord, his morals were approved.

Only a city ran well could receive such an auspicious sign.

Especially Kong Zi, a smile covered his face.

Originally, Kong Zi thought that the Lianzhou Lord had exploited Wei Yang. As such, some of the people in the territory would complain and feel unhappy. Who would have guessed that such a scene would occur?

At the same time, a system notification sounded out by his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi. Ancestor auspicious sign has descended onto Shanhai City, 2 point increase in people’s sentiment, instant 25% increase the quality of the people in the city. Congratulations!"

Don't think that 2 points were very little. One must know that Shanhai City had reached 92 in this category, so they were already near the max. Each point was exceptionally precious.

The matter was not over, following which, another system notification rang.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, Yellow Emperor Temple has been worshipped by the philosophers. Stats have greatly increased."

Name: Yellow Emperor Temple

Type: Hidden Building

Function: 50% increase in resident satisfaction, 20% increase in reputation of territory.

Specialty: Ancestor Blessing (55% increase in body quality of residents). Cultural Prosperity (30% increase in resident culture).

Evaluation: the Yellow Emperor Temple has the name of "First Temple in The World" and is where the south Chinese people worshipped the ancestor of the Chinese race.

The worshipped Yellow Emperor Temple had a new specialty, and its other stats also rose.

Ouyang Shuo did not expect to receive such a pleasant and unexpected surprise.

Thinking about this point, Ouyang Shuo turned his eyes to the Confucius Temple and the Martial Temple beside the Yellow Emperor Temple. Not because of other reasons, but because Kong Zi and Jiang Shang were present.

Such a scene was also once in a lifetime.

Apart from Shanhai City, no other territory could have such an overpowered opportunity.

After worshipping the Yellow Emperor, the next step would be to move to Xinan University for the philosophers’ debate.

However, Ouyang Shuo hurriedly kept Kong Zi and Jiang Shang. He asked them to rewrite the horizontal inscriptions in the Confucius and Martial Temples respectively to act as a memory of such an occasion.

When the both of them heard his request, they did not reject it.

Of course, without the previous scene, Kong Zi probably would not have agreed. One must know that Kong Zi was an exceedingly humble person. He would not easily leave any personal writings.

When he obtained the precious writings, Ouyang Shuo felt delighted. He immediately asked Xu Shuda to follow it and rewrite the horizontal inscriptions.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to see what kind of changes would occur to the two temples.

Following which, Ouyang Shuo led everyone to Xinan University.

Seated scholars filled up the entirety of the philosophers’ platform.

Ouyang Shuo sat at the front of the hall; he was prepared to quietly listen.

On the platform, there were only three people, Jiang Shang, Kong Zi, and Han Feizi.

The debate of Confucius and Legalism had entered its second stage.

Oddly enough, be it Kong Zi or Han Feizi, neither looked desperate to win. Ouyang Shuo had a feeling that this debate might have a wholly different outcome.

Chapter 456- Land of Culture

Xinan University, Philosophers’ Platform.

Kong Zi and Han Feizi did not go straight at each other's throats, nor did they try to pinpoint each other's faults. The entire debate was peaceful. Rather than calling it a debate, it was more akin to a sharing and exchanging of ideas.

Be it Kong Zi or Han Feizi, they had hung around the wilderness for a long time, so they had a clear understanding of the social structure of the wilderness. These experiences had a hefty influence on their ideas.

Not only that, the players also influenced both of them.

That was right, players like Ouyang Shuo. The China Region was so huge, and there were many hidden dragons and tigers. Even other territories would more or less use an advanced ruling system that contained elements taken from the real world.

These new and special systems and the bold ideals of these territories undoubtedly came as a huge blow to both of them.

The world in the game and the Warring States Period were two completely different concepts.

However, they were saints. No matter how the world changed, their ideals would still stay strong. From the things they learned through their travels, solely a few words about it could make one reflect and think deeply.

"Amazing!"

Within the hall, cheers would regularly erupt.

Even as you grow old, you would continue to learn.

These two knowledgeable heavyweights used their own actions to give all the philosophers a real lesson.

In the future, Confucianism and Legalism, even the rest of the philosophers, would continue to have debates. However, it would have a new requirement—they would need to accept the thinkings of other. They must not hold onto the path and close themselves up; they develop with the times.

Lastly, Jiang Shang walked up the stage.

"Philosophers, each faction and school of thinking has its strengths and weaknesses. Debating is not for deciding a victor but to motivate one another. Let's hope that this age of debating lasts forever!"

Ouyang Shuo stood up and led the applause.

The age of debating, well said.

The regret the Spring and Autumn philosophers felt was not because of who won or lost, but because the debating atmosphere and cultural platform was totally wiped away. It only allowed one school of thought and one faction to take the stage.

This action was good in that it preserved a rule, but to cultural progression and thinking, it was detrimental.

Ouyang Shuo turned around and looked at all the philosophers. Then, he made a solemn promise.

"Shanhai City will accept everyone and every school of thought. We won't cling solely on one faction or school of thought. Every philosopher can move into Shanhai City and lay their roots here."

Within the hall, thunderous applause broke out.

At this point, the philosophers’ debate officially ended.

The moment it ended, a system notification sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyu for completing the A rank quest ‘Reappear philosopher's debate.’ Player rewarded 4000 merit points and 40,000 reputation points."

……

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, Shanhai City is awarded the title of ‘Land of Culture’. Please take a look."

Ouyang Shuo immediately looked at the stats that the title granted.

Land of Culture: 45% increase in education standards of people, 10% increase in culture value of territory, 25% increase in civil servant standards, 35% increase in talent attraction rate.

As expected from such a title. With it, Shanhai City did not need to worry about failing to attract talents.

This completed the grand event. However, it did not end just yet.

Ouyang Shuo had past through many trials and hardships. Now, he had finally obtained the recognition of Jiang Shang after the debate. This ancestor of the philosophers accepted Ouyang Shuo’s invitation, and he officially became the principal of Xinan University.

The moment the news went out, the philosophers were shocked.

The first to express their interest were the Confucians. Although Kong Zi still mainly took traveling and learning as his core, he announced that he would teach at the university for a month.

The moment the news went out, all the Confucians in the world were stunned.

Before this, Kong Zi had travelled around. He would hurry around and travel mysteriously, never living for long in an area. This time, he would spend a month here, breaking the old precedence. One could foresee that in the next few days, many Confucians would swarm in to Shanhai City to listen to him.

Ouyang Shuo instructed Fan Zhongyan to use this opportunity to recruit some talents.

This event wiped away the unhappiness and disadvantage Ouyang Shuo felt because of the Qin Shihuang incident. Who knows, maybe those Confucians who left Xianyang and were ready to seclude themselves would come to Shanhai City.

Apart from Kong Zi, Meng Zi also accepted Ouyang Shuo's invitation to become the Dean of the Economics College. He would help to spread and research of economics.

Along with Meng Zi, a large number of Confucians stayed too.

The economics college now brimmed with talent.

In the future, the college would produce a large number of economics professors for the territory.

However, there was still one cause for regret. Due to the presence of Kong Zi, even if Meng Zi chose to base himself in Shanhai, it did not mean that Confucianism had moved in. One could foresee that Confucianism would probably not base themselves in any territory.

Following behind Confucianism was Legalism.

The powerhouse of Legalism, Han Feizi, accepted Ouyang Shuo's invitation to set up a law college. Apart from that, Sheng Dao would also become the vice dean of the law college.

With these two huge heads forming the base of the Law Division, they would develop Legalism disciples including commissioners, jail officers, and forensics officers.

The other representative figure of Legalism, Shen Buhai, entered the Nanjiang Governor-General House to work. Compared to the others, he was more ambitious.

Not because of other reasons, but only because the main ideology his faction pushed for was technique.

His technique was a blade, a blade created for the lord. Hence his technique could only have place through serving a Lord.

Using this blade, the Lord would have the power to kill, and his position as the Lord of the territory would not be threatened

Apart from using the knife to blade, one must have the ability to control the officials.

In other words, they must have the ability to monitor, test and prevent the officials from misusing their powers.

The above two were acts that they showed to the world. Apart from such Yang methods, they must also utilize Ying methods that were hidden in the dark.

The Lord needed to place ears around, to understand the situation amongst his officials. The moment he found any problems or schemes, he could prevent or sack the related individuals.

Ouyang Shuo understood Shen Buhai's ability, so he immediately thought of a suitable position. It was the Safety Division that he had always wanted to create.

Shen Buhai was greatly attracted toward Ouyang Shuo's suggestion, so he happily accepted the job.

Just like that, before anyone else knew anything, they secretly established the biggest intel organization in Shanhai City.

Under his suggestion, they named the division the Shanhai Guards; they would guard and protect the power and administrative ability of Shanhai.

The Shanhai Guards was not only in charge of monitoring the officials, but they also kept an eye on the Black Snake Guards and the Military Intelligence Division.

Shen Buhai was appointed as the commander.

Apart from him, Shanhai City also recruited a bunch of Legalism and Mohism scholars to join in.

That's right, Mohists.

Following Confucianism and Legalism, Mohism also made its stand.

Mozi accepted Ouyang Shuo’s suggestion and became the dean of the natural sciences college.

Mohism had vast amounts of knowledge in the areas of Cognition, Logic, Geometry, Optics, Mechanics, and Engineering.

It was highly suitable for Mozi to become the dean.

The moment he accepted the role, a system notification sounded out.

"System Notification: Mohism representative figure Mozi has entered Shanhai Territory and joined the natural science college to recruit disciples. Philosophers’ school of thought, Mohism, has officially based itself in Shanhai City."

……

System Notification: Mohism has officially moved in to Shanhai City. Awarded the title, Land of Mohism, Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi!"

……

Ouyang Shuo smiled and took a look at the stats.

Land of Mohism: 35% increase in territory technology levels, 40% increase in siege weapons research efficiency, 15% increase in territory talent skill familiarity, 10% increase in territory law and order.

As expected, Mohism mainly increased the skill branches of the territory.

The research of the Mohists on siege weapons and siege tactics was first rate. Apart from Mozi, they also had another important figure who would become a chief at the Army Military Academy.

Additionally, their scholars would also enter the academy to teach matters such as engineering, city building, and sieging.

Amongst the Mohists, apart from the research faction, there was another faction adept at martial arts.

The Shanhai Guards recruited this faction. Furthermore, the commoner intel network they had created would be placed under the control of the Shanhai Guards.

Ouyang Shuo specially made one of the best disciples of Mozi the Shanhai Guard Garrison Officer, his position only lower than Commander Shen Buhai.

Hence, the newly established Shanhai Guards became a place of both Mohism and Legalism.

Although Ouyang Shuo trusted Shen Buhai, he would not completely trust him. Instead, he would try to balance the powers between the Shanhai Guards. Only then could he fully control them in his hands.

Be it Shen Buhai or the Mohists, to control the power of the Shanhai Guards, they needed the support of Ouyang Shuo.

An organization like the Shanhai Guards was the easiest way for subordinates to wrestle leadership and render it useless.

Ouyang Shuo knew the importance of the organization, so he would prevent that from happening. Apart from letting Mohism and Legalism control one another, he also had a trump card—Cui Tianqi and the other disciples training in the special forces camp.

Cui Tianqi was his real right hand men.

In the future, the kind of role he could play in the Shanhai Guards would depend on him.

Mohism now held really high positions in both the universities and the Shanhai Guards. Their position could be compared to that of Legalism and Confucianism, as expected from a large school of thought that had a solid foundation and ability.

Out of the four main schools of thought, only Taoism was determined to not stay. After the debate, Laozi, Zhuang Zi, and the rest all disappeared.

The entire Shanhai City slowly regained its calmness and peace.

Chapter 457- Land of Philosophers

Out of the philosopher groups, other than Confucianism, Legalism, Mohism, and Taoism, the other factions and school of thoughts all had disciples move in. More than half chose to either study in Xinan University or accept disciples.

The philosophers were the best at the research of theories.

Hence, Xinan University was the most suitable place for them. With all the philosophers moving in, Xinan University was comparable to any learning institute in history, probably even better than all of them.

After all, which learning institute had Jiang Shang, Han Feizi, Mozi, Sheng Dao, Xu Hang, and more?

They also preserved the philosophers’ platform from the debate.

Based on Principal Jiang Shang’s plans, every month in the future, Xinan University would hold one debate.

The age of debating was slowly showing its glamor.

From this philosophers’ debate, Shanhai City had reaped insane rewards. However, amongst the joy, they also felt numerous regrets.

Hui Shi, Sun Long, Lu Buwei of the miscellaneous school of thought, Su Qin, and the others, were like Lao Zhuang. They left right after the debate ended.

Especially Su Qin, no matter how much Xiao He insisted, Su Qin rejected him. Based on Su Qin’s words, he did not want to work together with Zhang Yi. He wanted a different platform.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he seemed calm and composed. However, a flash of coldness appeared in his eyes. That afternoon, Cui Tianqi, who was still undergoing training, was summoned to his reading room.

"Lord!"

Since this was the first time Ouyang Shuo had summoned him, Cui Tianqi felt both nervous and excited.

"Do you dare to kill someone?"

Cui Tianqi felt a shiver run down his spine, but he cupped his hands and said, "if the Lord wants me to, I'll jump into flames without hesitation." When he trained in Yazhou, Cui Tianqi's sword had already tasted human blood—the blood of raiders.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this response, he shook his head in amusement. Who knew who he learned those words from.

Ouyang Shuo picked out a portrait from his desk and said expressionlessly, “Get rid of this person."

"Yes, my Lord!"

Cui Tianqi walked up and carefully accepted the portrait. He took a look before he stored it away. He definitely would not ask who the person was or why the Lord wanted to kill him.

No matter what the Lord instructed, he just had to act.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this, he nodded his head, pleased. Although Cui Tianqi was young, he was very mature and reliable. He knew his position and was not hot blooded, a real good seedling.

"Remember, you must keep this matter a secret. Don't let anyone know."

"Understood!"

Cui Tianqi had a solemn appearance, and his heartbeat quickened a beat.

If this matter was revealed, even Ouyang Shuo could not imagine how he would deal with the consequences. After all, it was truly unbecoming for a Lord who announced during the philosophers’ debate that he would accept everyone and be gracious to assassinate a philosopher the next day.

Ouyang Shuo would not give any justification. However, anyone who stood in his way was an enemy. Toward any enemy, Ouyang Shuo naturally would not grant any mercy.

If you wanted to blame someone, just blame that person for not knowing what was good for them.

"Go! After you finish, go back to the base; there's no need to come back. If you fail, you must inform me straight away. Definitely do not do anything rash."

As this was Cui Tianqi's first mission, Ouyang Shuo had to specifically instruct him.

"En!"

Cui Tianqi nodded his head like a little kid. Then, he turned around and left the reading room.

Ouyang Shuo looked at the fading back of Cui Tianqi and let out a soft sigh. Who knows whether leading this kid on this path was right or wrong. If Cui Yingyu knew what he did, she would probably be triggered.

At 4 PM, just when Ouyang Shuo was dealing with official documents, a system notification suddenly sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, Shanhai City's Confucius and Martial Temple has obtained the writings of both saints; its glory shines. Shanhai City awarded the title of ‘Civil and Military Assemble’.”

Xu Shuda was really efficient; he had quickly carved the words written in the morning into boards.

Civil and Military Assemble: 15% increase in quality of civil servants, 15% increase in quality of soldiers.

Although the name of this title seemed overpowered, its stats were only decent; it could not be compared with the other titles. At least, it was better than nothing, so Ouyang Shuo was still pleased.

Unexpectedly, the changes did not end there.

At this moment, another system notification sounded out.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, Land of Military Strategists, Land of Legalism, Land of Agriculture, Land of Mohism, Land of Culture, Maneuvering Amongst Political Groups, Civil and Military Assemble, these seven titles can be merged."

Who knew that Shanhai City had actually amassed so many titles; it truly drove one crazy.

The last merger of titles had let Ouyang Shuo realize that merging would not result in harm. Instead, it would result in a strengthened title.

However, this time, he was not merging gold titles like Home of Fist Arts but platinum titles.

"Merge!"

Ouyang Shuo gritted his teeth and decided to take the gamble.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, Shanhai City has obtained the title of Land of Philosophers; the seven other titles have automatically disappear."

Ouyang Shuo eagerly checked out the new title, as his heartbeat quickened. He was afraid that some accident might happen.

Title: Land of Philosophers

Specialty: 25% increase in territory reputation, one grade increase in territory commoner potential, 25% increase in territory industry prosperity, 25% increase in the four territory indices.

Unique Specialty: Respect the King (25% increase in deterrence to outside races).

Evaluation: Merged from numerous titles and buffed by the philosophers; it raises every industry. Unique, cannot be improved, cannot be traded.

"Phew!"

Ouyang Shuo let out a huge sigh of relief; he had made the correct gamble.

The original seven titles, a total of twenty-six stats, were all combined into four specialties and one unique specialty. Although each of them seemed simple, it meant a lot.

The buff to the territory’s reputation, needless to say, was a pretty standard speciality, but it was still a rare one.

However, the insane part was the increase in grade of the commoners’ potential. During the last system update, their potential was split into A, B, C, and D; a huge divide separated each grade.

This grade affected the NPCs speed in raising their skills, their ability to break bottlenecks, and increase research standards. It was similar to the bone structure stat of players.

Now, this buff would raise their potential by one grade. What kind of concept was that? It was incredibly overpowered. Just this one specialty was better than the specialities that the other seven titles granted him.

Undeniably, under this buff, the NPCs with an A grade would improve rapidly. Who knew whether those with original A grades would experience any change?

The problem was that the A grade was already the highest. In that case, did Gaia have any hidden settings planned? This problem could only be solved in the future.

Raising the prosperity of industries, be it agriculture, business, handicraft, was an overall raise.

This specialty not only took over the title of Land of Agriculture and Land of Mohism, it even improved the two stats, covering all the industries.

Raising the territory indices was a huge overall increase for the four indices. It was similar to what the Land of Culture and the Land of Military Strategists brought. Apart from that, it also helped to raise the economic index.

Last of all was a totally new concept, the unique specialty, Respect the King.

It was obvious that this stat replaced the diplomacy stat. It improved it and even directly increased the prestige and deterrence of the Lord.

Strength!

When Ouyang Shuo read the information about this unique specialty, he could not help but grin.

The title of Land of Philosophers was the best explanation of this philosophers’ debate. With this title, Shanhai City was in an unbeatable position in the China region.

In terms of NPC quality, no other territory could compare with them.

In the future, the territory would explode, and they could receive endless benefits.

Along with the philosophers’ debate coming to an end, the scholars who wanted to work in Shanhai City had already expressed their intentions. They would move out of Juxian House and enter the official residence area.

Those who wanted to could even directly move into the two education areas, which had many facilities and hundreds of mansions.

Those who did not move in started to pack up and leave Shanhai City. If they were scholars from the imperial city, naturally, they left through the teleportation formation.

If they were historical people added to the game after the war ended like Lu Buwei, they would disappear into the wilderness. With Gaia’s buff, they could travel thousands of miles in a day.

Ouyang Shuo had previously asked Wei Yang about this matters.

It seem that each historical person would receive a Divine Travelling Talisman from Gaia. With this, they could travel thousands of miles in a day and remain totally safe.

If they choose to work for a territory, Gaia would take back that the talisman.

When Ouyang Shuo heard about this, he felt incredibly envious. Such a talisman was pretty much the god weapon of god weapons. If he had such a talisman, he could visit territories everywhere, everyday.

Tomorrow, Lu Buwei and the others would leave.

That night, Juxian House was bustling. The philosophers were still relishing and reliving what had happened during the day, and they only dispersed late at night.

Just as everyone fell asleep, a black dressed man sneakily arrived outside Su Qin's room. Seeing that no one was around, he carefully pushed open the door.

After he entered, he did not even stop. He directly charged straight at Su Qin, who was deep in his slumber.

Coldness flashed across the man’s eyes, as he used his hand to press onto Su Qin's mouth, while the other hand slashed at his throat.

This representative figure of diplomacy fell just like that.

The black dressed man quickly took out a black bag and placed the body inside. Then, he left the room and disappeared into the night sky.

The next day, even if people found out that Su Qin was not present, they would just assume that he had left early.

The night was just so dark.

Chapter 458- Personally Leading

8th month, 17th day, Shanhai City.

Xiao He represented Ouyang Shuo to send off the philosophers. Weirdly enough, Xiao He could not seem to find any signs of Su Qin. Thinking back to Ouyang Shuo’s expression, Xiao He felt a chill run down his spine.

Although the event had ended, Shanhai City had grown busier instead.

The establishment of the Shanhai Guards, the law college, the change in personnel of Xinan University and Army Military Academy, the welcoming of the Confucians scholars who came over to listen to Kong Zi, and more.

Luckily, Ouyang Shuo had officials handling all these matters, so he did not need to personally settle the matter. After dealing with the philosophers’ debate, Ouyang Shuo turned his eyes back to the Zhaoqing Battlefield.

Based on the intel Baiqi had sent, just yesterday, fifty thousand alliance army vanguard troops had housed themselves in Yun An County. Yun An County was located north of Cangcheng County, just a short distance away.

Shortly behind them, the hundred thousand alliance army main force also arrived.

A huge battle was about to erupt.

At the same time, the 2nd and 4th division of the Tiger Legion had just crossed the Qiongzhou Straits. To rush to Cangcheng County, they still needed two weeks.

The anabasis squadron, on the other hand, had reached Jiaozhou Harbor.

Along with the alliance army gathering up, on the main battlefield, Shanhai City Army did not have any advantage anymore. At this point, it was time to send out their trump card, the Guards Division, to assist them.

Black Snake had previously promised him that they had successfully infiltrated Wulong County, and they had the Lord there sign an alliance contract with Shanhai City. Ouyang Shuo promised him the position of a County Magistrate and a rank of grade 1 viscount.

The Guards Division could teleport there at anytime.

The only problem was based on the battle report, the alliance army had eighty thousand troops at the back. Would it be enough to purely relied on the Guards Division?

At least till now, South Alliance had not shown any weakness.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo was ready to personally set out. Firstly, he had settled the required matters in Shanhai City, so they did not need him present. Secondly, he wanted to get in on the action. After all, staying in the city was really boring, and his body was growing sore.

Once he took this trip, he could not return to Shanhai City in a short time.

The Battle of Zhaoqing, logistical preparations, the Battle of Chiyou, and the like would definitely take up a lot of time. He would probably return to Shanhai City at the time of the next battle map.

The fifth battle map trigger point would be the presence of fifteen prefectures in the country.

Twenty odd days had passed since the Battle of Julu ended. In this period of time, King County, Pill Sun County, and Xunlong County had all upgraded to prefecture grade.

The China region was seven territories from reaching the fifteen prefecture target. Ouyang Shuo predicted that within two months, they would not trigger the fifth battle.

Despite this, before he left, Ouyang Shuo still needed to carefully plan all matters.

"Men!"

"Present!"

"Summon the Guards Division. Tomorrow, they will set off together with me!"

"Yes my Lord!"

When the guard heard his orders, he excitedly turned around and left. If the Lord was about to head to battle, their two hundred personal guards squad would have to follow.

At 2 PM, Ouyang Shuo gathered the four directors and Xiao He to discuss certain matters.

In just one morning, the news that the Lord would head out to battle had spread amongst the entire Nanjiang Governor-General House. Although in the eyes of Xiao He and the civil servants, it was normal for the Lord to take charge from Shanhai City, they did not dare to try and persuade him.

In a chaotic world, for the Lord to personally lead the troops was really normal.

"For this trip out, I don't think I'll return in a short amount of time. During this time, apart from important matters that will be sent through letter to me, Senior Minister Xiao He will handle all daily matters."

This decision was the outcome of Ouyang Shuo’s heavy deliberation.

During the war between Chu and Han, Liu Bang went to war, while Xiao He guarded the back and ran the country. Hence, Xiao He had the ability to take up this task.

The only disadvantage of this choice was that Xiao He had just joined, so his prestige was not too high. However, through the philosophers’ debate, he had shown beautiful work and started to gain recognition.

Furthermore, with the instructions of Ouyang Shuo, there would not be much problem. This was also the reason why Ouyang Shuo called the four directors over. As long as the four of them supported him, everything would be okay.

When Xiao He heard this command, he stood up and bowed solemnly, “Thank you, Lord, for your trust." Xiao He knew the preciousness and degree of importance of this trust.

When the four directors saw his actions, they all nodded one by one.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and continued, Toward the four departments, I have some plans."

"Please instruct us!"

"Firstly, the Military Affairs Department. Apart from supporting the front lines, you have two more missions. First, perfect the logistics support system. Second, set the military rewards system and the military rank system."

"Yes, my Lord!"

This matter was of utmost importance to him, and Du Ruhui understood its significance.

"Next, the Administration Department." Ouyang Shuo looked at Fan Zhongyan, "The department will make use of the philosophers’ debate and the new people to start a personnel change."

The four directors and Xiao He were astonished; they could all smell blood.

"We took over the other two prefectures of Qiongzhou and Leizhou just a short while ago. To ensure the stability of the two, in terms of officials, we had to take a discount. Now that stability has been restored, it's time to solidify our rule."

Ouyang Shuo was resolute, "I recommend that the Administration Department use one to two months to test all the officials in the territory. The worthy will rise, while the poor will be sacked. It's a good opportunity for the students that graduated Xinan University and the scholars we have recruited."

To put it bluntly, of the current officials in the territory, more than half lacked proper training and were raised from the ground up.

The reason why such a situation occurred was naturally because they lacked talents when they were building the territory. Even Shanhai City had faced the same situation, with Zhao Dewang and some others as examples.

As Shanhai City had taken over those territories, their problems were now theirs.

However, undeniably, amongst this batch of people, the fire had moulded a few talents like Zhao Dexian. However, sixty percent and above remained useless, slowly becoming a burden to the territory.

Ouyang Shuo was slowly receiving news of corrupt officials in the various Houses and counties. Some officials had started to leech off the people. Ouyang Shuo naturally could not tolerate such actions.

The territory did not have a complete talent selection system like the imperial examinations. Even if they wanted to implement such examinations, they currently lacked the ability. At the current stage, they could only choose personnel through the tests and examinations of the Administration Department.

This job not only used up a lot of time, but it also affected the interests of many parties.

If they did not act carefully, situations might occur.

To prevent such a scenario, they had to implement these tests quicker, and they needed to remove this tumor from the territory.

If they just let these people do as they wished, this small cancer would continue to grow into a huge aberration. At that time, not only would they hurt the people, it could even affect the entire rule.

Ouyang Shuo was exceedingly wary of this point.

This was also part of the reason for his establishment of the Shanhai Guards. The future Shanhai Guards would act as a sharp sword that hung over the heads of the civil servants and the military generals to instill fear.

In the road to kingship, wars only formed the surface, and internal rule was the main matter. Only by ruling well could one amass enough energy to start wars and expand.

If not, blindly expanding would mean destabilizing the base. In the end, just like a sandcastle, it would look good but crumble with a small push.

Undeniably, taking this job would make it extremely easy to make enemies.

Ouyang Shuo believed that only the fair and uncorrupt Fan Zhongyan could take this task.

"Xiwen, this matter depends on you."

"Don't worry, my Lord!"

The Lord’s worries aligned with his own. To him, as long as he could stabilize the rule and help the people, his personal loses did not mean anything.

Ouyang Shuo nodded; he believed that Fan Zhongyan had the ability to do so.

"Let's talk about the Internal Affairs Department."

When Wei Yang heard these words, he focused. From the missions the Lord had given to the Military Affairs Department and Administration Department, Wei Yang did not dare to lower his guard. The senses of the lord were truly sharp.

Each request he made cut directly into the jaguar of each department.

Wei Yang had heard that the Lord had single-handedly built the entire structure of the Nanjiang Governor-General House. Before this, he had some doubts; he vaguely thought that Fan Zhongyan and the others were acting humble.

Now that he thought about it, he was genuinely impressed.

Although the Lord was young, he had the foresight of a king. No wonder Fan Zhongyan, Du Ruhui, and other great people would respect him so much.

In truth, Wei Yang was not the only one shocked.

In Xiao He's heart, waves had also broke out. This was the first time he had seen the Lord plan for the future of the territory. He basically performed like a born king.

In comparison, the Liu Bang he had followed was nothing.

"The matter the Internal Affairs Department needs to handle would be the establishment of a perfect inspection, judgement, and review system. In the future, the case settling powers will be handed to the internal affairs director of each House and not their Prefect or County Magistrate."

This action broke the olden tradition.

In the olden days, the County Magistrate handled all cases.

In Ouyang Shuo’s eyes, such a choice was stupid.

A County Magistrate should take charge of the overall picture, not judge cases. This command aimed to make the Internal Affairs Department establish a real world politics and law committee.

In the department, the Law and Order Division was in charge of maintaining law and order and catching criminals, the Procuratorate Division would judge and review cases, while the Supervisory Division took charge of regulating officials and taking up charges.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to give up power and allow them to truly run. His first step was to remove the County Magistrates and the Prefects’ power to deal with cases.

Purely this first step was astonishing.

When Wei Yang heard this command, he felt his blood boil. The feeling of a huge burden had never felt so good.

Chapter 459- Territory Law System

Ouyang Shuo looked toward Wei Yang before continuing.

"Apart from establishing a system, we must also develop professional officials. Luckily for us, we can make use of the recently built law college. Including the law system of the territory, we can use the resources of the law college."

"Yes, my Lord!"

Wei Yang nodded, highly motivated.

If one said that the Shanhai Guards supervised and monitored in silence, the Internal Affairs Department acted as the supervisory system. The Shanhai Guards were the method, while the department was the way.

The law system reflected the way of the Internal Affairs Department. With the system, the department would have something to rely on to solve and deal with cases. They would not have to based decisions solely on one person's deductions and experiences.

Only with the law system could the Internal Affairs Department have something to fall back on.

One could say that the law system formed the core of the entire department.

The law system was something that Ouyang Shuo had talked to Wei Yang about when the latter first took up the role. He only did this because the matter was too complicated, and it involved many aspects. It concerned too many things, so it was not something Wei Yang could handle alone.

The arrival of Han Feizi, Sheng Dao, and Shen Buhai let Ouyang Shuo heave a sigh of relief.

When the four heads of Legalism were free, they all showed a great amount of interest in the territory’s setting of the law system. This was also the reason why Han Feizi and Sheng Dao were willing to teach in the Xinan University.

For Legalists, if they could craft a suitable system, it would naturally be much better than any theory they could think up.

A system was a raise in the entire Legalism culture.

The four of them were confident that with the potential and development speed of Shanhai City, their system could radiate through the entire wilderness.

In this way, no matter what faction, they could not look down on Legalism.

However, due to these factors, they also needed to exercise extreme caution. Based on the calculations of Wei Yang, if they could finish a draft by the year end, it would be remarkable.

Apart from the four of them, the team also consisted of law experts from real life.

To these professionals, they had two motivations for joining in the creation of the system.

Firstly, they could use the chance to understand the thinking of the Legalists and open their own eyes. Although Legalism was different from modern day thinking, there were certain areas that overlapped.

Hence, be it for Wei Yang or the law professionals, working together presented a learning opportunity.

Wei Yang and the others were also very interested in the theories the law professionals pushed out.

Secondly, the law professionals wanted to make use of the chance to try out and explore.

In the future, when the spaceships reached planet Hope, the laws of the Federal Government would also need to change because of the societal structure and the running system changes.

The law professionals were exploring the section on laws for the Lord. How should the laws grant the Lord enough power but also monitor and supervise his or her actions?

This was a problem that the law world had not faced before. After all, the model of the territory on planet Hope would not have the same restrictions on the Lord. If not, it would affect their eagerness to explore.

Undoubtedly, this was an interesting question.

Hence, the law professionals living in Shanhai City saw the opportunity and decided to try out ideas and experiment.

Of course, there existed a time difference, one was olden times, the other modern. Their current law system would not work on planet Hope.

However, some of the laws were similar.

The law professionals were bored after all this time, so they naturally held a trying attitude and threw themselves into this project. Their eagerness even shocked their own family members.

Not only that, they also spread the news out amongst the law world, which made interested folks teleport over.

Amongst these law professionals, they had people who covered business laws, administrative law, economic law, and various important law topics. They greatly helped Shanhai in setting a law system.

Of course, when Ouyang Shuo met these professionals, he made it clear that this system's main goal was to protect the sole rule of the Lord.

If not, he definitely would not support the law system they designed. Ouyang Shuo naturally would not allow ideas like all humans are equal, freedom, and other such sayings.

His shamelessness shocked the professionals. Where would they find such a person, who could openly pronounce that he was the only one to hold power? Weren't such words supposed to be spoken in the dark?

Some professionals could not accept his attitude, which they perceived as arrogance, so they directly left. Ouyang Shuo politely sent them away; his attitude sincere and resolute.

Hence, even those who left could not say much. After all, each person had the right to chase for their own interests. Furthermore, this was just a game.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo’s attitude also left some of professionals awed. In their eyes, the exploration of planet Hope needed a talent like him.

Only an overlord could calm a chaotic time.

All in all, everyone had their own tastes.

……

After dealing with the Internal Affairs Department, he was left with the Financial Department.

"The Financial Department also has two matters to handle. Firstly, adjust the role of the Industry Division. The future Industry Division must focus on setting and leading the industrial strategies of the territory. As for the running of the territory, this aspect should be left to the locals. For example, the Three Flowers Wine factory, and the Langshan Minefields can be passed to Shanhai City. The hands of the Industry Division only needs to hold the mines, the military industry, the shipbuilding industry, and other core matters."

Cui Yingyu nodded to show that she had remembered his words.

Apart from the military industry, the future shipbuilding industry also had a bright future. Its profits could compare to the military industry.

Aside from the various Chambers of Commerce, adventure gamemode players also bought ships.

As they slowly opened up Yashan City, merchants ships and small-scale warships became hot products. Especially after Lin Jing’s exploration team found a treasure island; the other guilds went crazy, and they each formed their own exploration teams.

To players, it felt great to have the opportunity to explore the unknown. All of a sudden, sea exploration became a new craze.

Now, if a guild did not have a sea exploration team, they would not have the face to show themselves.

Based on Sun Xiaoyue’s words, the influx of people had reach nearly two thousand a day. Solely collecting teleportation fees was enough to cause their hands to ache.

Apart from that, when the various guilds went out to explore, they only had Yashan City as a supplies base. These sales alone generated more than half of Yashan City's income.

Ouyang Shuo saw the business opportunity, so he directly sent the excess equipment from the Shanhai City military to sell there.

The empty islands that players found came in a huge variety; there was a chance to encounter desolate beasts, rare mines, and even the burial places of pirates.

There was even a chance that they could find aboriginals. If they were unlucky, they might land on an island that pirates had taken as their base.

Of course, they were most likely to find an uninhabited island with nothing at all.

As there were many possibilities, the players felt their blood boil.

Of course, exploring came with risks. Amongst which, the part that gave the most headaches were naturally pirates. The Yashan Squadron had only removed the pirates in the vicinity of Yashan City.

Apart from pirates, deep in the oceans lurked giant beasts that also posed a huge threat to ships.

Rather than putting their hopes on the Yashan Squadron, some guilds like the War-Snow Rose Mercenary Group started to form up their own elite navy squad to face the pirates and water beasts.

After all, be it pirates or deep water beasts, although they were terrifying, they would leave behind amazing rewards if defeated.

A chase of riches and excitement aptly described the current situation.

Amongst the adventure gamemode players, especially the leaders of guilds, there were many with foresight. They had another goal—to prepare for the future country battle.

Everyone knew that in the future country battles, the enemy would most likely attack the various island countries. Especially Japan, which saw China as a nail in their sights that they needed to remove.

Maybe because the Lords had too much to consider, so they had some doubts. Adventure gamemode players were different. When their blood boiled, they were willing to do anything.

The various guilds did not lack hot blooded individuals.

Even Ouyang Shuo had participated in the war against Japan in his last life. The animosity and patriotism they felt was not something that players from other countries could understand.

Ouyang Shuo could still recall the high intensity of that battle.

In the end, the troops from the China region suffered heavy loses and retreated. This was the second exploration mission that the China region had formed up; they would not rest until they destroyed Japan.

Thinking about this matter, coldness flashed across his eyes.

The regret of his last life, he would end in this one.

Because of such considerations, the various guilds were eager to explore. The two navy squadrons that Shanhai City had built was also a clear sign.

Toward the foresight of Ouyang Shuo, the leaders of the guilds felt really respectful.

All of this was the result of Ouyang Shuo’s silent manipulation, and Lin Jing's exploration was also instructed by him.

To obtain victory in a country war, they needed to develop a strong navy. Solely depending on Shanhai City was not enough, so he needed to borrow the strength of the entire region.

Ouyang Shuo was playing a massive chess game.

Check out our first eBook here! The World Online - Rise of Shanhai!

Chapter 460- Era of Sea Travel

Apart from adventure gamemode players, Ouyang Shuo also treated lord gamemode players the same way.

In the future, if those territories located around the sea wanted to buy warships from Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo would not reject them. He wanted to raise the navy strength of the China region from the start to prepare for country warfare.

As for whether doing so would in turn increase the navy strength of other territories and threaten Shanhai Territory, Ouyang Shuo did not fear such a scenario.

It was not due to arrogance or magnanimity. Any person with foresight could look past the obvious interests to achieve long run gain.

As the territory continued to expand, Ouyang Shuo had grown more confident, and his attention had started to break away from this small area. He had started to pay attention to the entire China region.

The higher you stood, the further you could look.

Strengthening oneself and forever suppressing your opponent was a reliable method. Moreover, it was time place the Yashan and Beihai Bay Squadron under some pressure.

Ouyang Shuo was confident that Shanhai City could easily reign as the overlord of the seas in the China region.

Based on what Cai Mao mentioned in the letter, Yanhuo Yaonie had performed stellarly in the 1st division of the Yashan Squadron, and he was improving at godspeed.

A naval star general was slowly being born.

Ouyang Shuo believed in Cai Mao's judgement. As such, before the Yashan Squadron set out, he promoted Yanhuo Yaonie to the position of deputy general of the Yashan Squadron 1st division, his position only lower than Cai Mao’s.

When the Yashan Squadron reached Jiaozhou Harbor and returned, if Yanhuo Yaonie performed well, Ouyang Shuo would allow him to lead a navy squadron. Moreover, he would grant Yanhou Yaonie the rank of chief general.

The island exploration boom did not just stimulate the shipbuilding industry. It also increased the trading in Yashan City.

For the rewards they gained from the explorations, some of the players were not willing to go back to the imperial cities to trade. As such, they directly dealt at Yashan City. Thanks to this, a bunch of guilds started to solely collect items from adventure gamemode players.

Amongst which, the biggest purchaser was Thread.

Just from relying on the resources gained from Five Finger Mountain and the islands, Thread managed to solve their resource problem. Under the leadership of Qing Sikou, the guild quickly moved onto the right path.

From the money spent by the adventure gamemode players in Yashan City, at least 10 percent entered the pockets of Thread. Thread produced everything adventure gamemode players needed, be it medicine, equipment, special items, bags, or anything else that adventure gamemode players needed.

Apart from that, as Thread was the first guild to move into Yashan City, the shops that they bought were all in prime locations and would definitely prosper.

Not talking about other matters, as Yashan City prospered, solely the value of the shops that Thread owned had doubled. Obviously, Qing Sikou would not stupidly sell her shops.

All of the above proved that Ouyang Shuo had fulfilled his promise to Thread.

Of course, Yashan City and Thread were both in a win-win relationship.

The rise of Thread was no doubt a huge humiliation and insult to Xingzhe Zichen and his associates. Some people had already predicted that in less than a year, Thread would regain their position as one of the top 10 guilds.

In comparison, Star Alliance was having a tough time.

Under the silent support of Shanhai City, Shadow Alliance, and Yimeng Pavilion had risen through the chaos and entered a stalemate against Jianqi Zongheng and Star Alliance.

A single party did not rule the current Jingdou. Instead, they formed a four way deadlock.

As a result, the growth of Star Alliance stunted. If Di Chen had not lent a helping hand at the crucial moment, Star Alliance would most probably fade from existence.

Putting it another way, the current Jingdou was a battle between Di Chen and Ouyang Shuo. The two guilds that they each supported were pitted against one another.

Star Alliance, who were able to gain the limelight for a while, had totally fallen. They were now just a chess piece.

The trading interests of players had let Yashan City become a trading city.

The development of Yashan City was enough to prove the strategic foresight of Ouyang Shuo. The potential of island cities was enough to make Lords located along the sea red with envy.

Ouyang Shuo had heard news that Xiong Ba had started to turn his attention to Yizhou Island. Similar to him, many other Lords had the same idea, including Xunlong Dianxue.

As an island that was similarly famous to Qiongzhou Island, and after witnessing the money making ability of Yashan City, Yizhou Island became a sausage that everyone wanted a bite of.

Even Ouyang Shuo had such thoughts.

However, Shanhai City was facing their own problems, so it was not the right time to join a battle for Yizhou Island.

No one knew who Yizhou Island would fall to in the end. However, no matter who took it, Ouyang Shuo planned to steal it sooner or later.

He was just so obnoxious!

Ouyang Shuo raised his head and looked toward Cui Yingyu, "Apart from that, the Industry Division needs to establish a freight squadron to totally open up the trade routes between the three prefectures. This trade can help stimulate the economy of the territory."

Ouyang Shuo also had another goal for building the freight squadron; he wanted to form a solid base for future long distance trade. It would help them develop talents and amass experience.

The next step naturally had to do with Jiaozhou Harbor, which would help to open up sea trade between Shanhai City and Lingnan Prefecture. After that, he would turn his eyes to the Quanzhou Harbor of the imperial city.

Step by step, they would set up Shanhai City’s sea trade network.

Undeniably, sea trade would be the core adventure of the territory. Ouyang Shuo had taken this point into account since the county grade.

Ouyang Shuo’s plan this time had something to do with the upcoming third system update. Now was the end of the 8th month, just four months till the 3rd year of Gaia.

Based on normal circumstances, Gaia would have one system update at the third year.

If nothing changed, according to his memory, the third system update would bring about a huge ecology change.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo would use his advantages to plan for the future.

After Cui Yingyu nodded her head in acknowledgement, Ouyang Shuo ended the meeting.

Although Ouyang Shuo had just spoken a few words to the four departments, they would have to expend a lot of effort to achieve his goals.

As for the normal matters, Ouyang Shuo believed that they had the ability to decide for themselves. Even if they did not have the confidence, Xiao He was present to help settle problems.

Such a plan, even without Ouyang Shuo here, the territory could still develop as he had envisioned. He would quickly blow his competitors out of the water.

Ouyang Shuo could finally rest his worries and start leading his troops.

During dinner, Ouyang Shuo did not see any signs of Qing'er.

Although the Lord's Manor had expanded, they preserved the tradition of eating together. Although he had grown colder and colder, he did not really want to become a complete loner.

"Qing'er, that little brat, why isn't she here?"

"I know why." Cui Yingyu, who was sitting opposite to him, placed down her chopsticks, "Big Brother is going out tomorrow, right? Because of this, Qing'er wants to rush the inner armor and boots."

"That brat." Ouyang Shuo shook his head, as he felt warmth in his heart. These two little sisters were so smart, so smart that it made one’s heart feel pained, "Zisu, prepare a lunch box and send it to Qing'er."

"Yes, my Lord!"

"I also want to go!"

Bing'er, who was sitting to the left of Ouyang Shuo, started to become restless.

Ouyang Shuo knocked her little head, "You're not going; don't disturb her."

"Hen, Brother is so evil. I just want to go see sister; I won't be naughty." As she spoke, she turned her head and made an angry expression.

When Ouyang Shuo saw her response, he laughed in amusement.

"Hei, you still dare to spite your brother. I still haven't taught you a lesson for drawing a turtle on my face." Ouyang Shuo brought up an old matter.

When Bing'er saw him bring this up, her face turned bitter, and she did not dare to throw a tantrum. This matter had become a blot in her life. The smart Bing'er should not have acted so careless, allowing her brother have something over her.

After dinner, Ouyang Shuo dragged Song Jia to talk.

Ever since Tianshuang County fell, Song Jia had stayed in the Governor-General House and had not returned to the sect. She only felt relieved after she learned that her family had reached Cangcheng County.

Even so, her eyebrows were tightly locked every day.

The fall of Tianshuang County was a huge loss to her family. As one of them, she could not do anything, so she naturally blamed herself for the matter.

These few days, Ouyang Shuo was busy, so he did not have the time to console her. Tomorrow, he was going to leave, and who knows when he would return.

"Jia Jia don't worry. The fall of Tianshuang County is not a bad thing for the Song Family."

"En?" Song Jia felt confused; she laughed, "Blockhead, don't try to console me."

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, "Do you think that I'm lying to you?"

"Then tell me why it isn't a bad thing."

Hope filled her eyes; she was like a drowning person that yearned to grab onto something. She knew that Ouyang Shuo would not spout things randomly. Since he spoke such words, he might really have something in mind.

"Although your father managed to win over power, he didn't win it cleanly. Your second uncle and some of the family still weren't happy, and the Yuan Family butted in. These uncertain elements all disappeared with the fall of Tianshuang County."

Along with the fall of Tianshuang County, Song Tianli had lost the faith of his father. After experiencing blow after blow, Song Jia's grandfather had decided to retire and live life happily.

As for the Yuan Family, they still had a score to settle. How would they interfere in the Song Family business?

With that, Song Tianxiong taking over control of the Song Family would not face any obstructions. The only bad point was that as the Lord, Song Wen had to take responsibility for the fall of Tianshuang County.

He had to take responsibility for this failure.

Luckily, still had Ouyang Shuo’s support behind them.

In truth, the fall of Tianshuang County was something that Ouyang Shuo held the most responsibility for, and he should take most of the blame. At the appropriate time, he would compensate Song Wen.

Check out our first eBook here! The World Online - Rise of Shanhai!

Chapter 461- Imperial Chamber of Commerce

When Song Jia heard his explanation, she relaxed slightly and asked, "Then where do we rise from?"

In her eyes, the current Song Family was a burden; her father taking control was not something to feel proud about. Instead, he was just carrying an exceedingly hefty burden.

Ouyang Shuo smiled slightly, "Before this, I mentioned something to your father. After Shanhai City takes over Zhaoqing Prefecture, the Song Family would back out of Tianshuang County and change to establishing a Chamber of Commerce. Before your brother left, did he not bring all the funds of Tianshuang County out? Is this not a good time to establish the Song Chamber of Commerce? You can send a letter to your father and talk about this."

"Shanhai City has so many Chambers of Commerce. With our little funds, it is incredibly difficult for us to gain a footing." Song Jia was an intelligent woman; she also had knowledge in business matters.

For a Chamber of Commerce to gain a certain status, they needed opportunity, time, luck, and connections; they could not lack a single aspect. Even so, numerous generations of people must run it before it could increase its scale and grow solid and stable.

The Song Chamber of Commerce, apart from some starting funds, did not have any connections nor have any items they could sell. To enter Shanhai’s commerce so suddenly, others would eat them up in minutes.

The business field was like a battlefield, fraught with uncertainty.

"Luckily, I'm the future son-in-law of the Song Family. Naturally, I will not treat them badly." Ouyang Shuo could see Song Jia’s worries, “Firstly, the sixty-eight thousand gold Song Wen brought out from the Four Seas Bank branch, I will not take it back. Instead, I'll loan it back to him for a low interest loan. Secondly, the Song Chamber of Commerce will become the sole pearl distributor of the territory. Thirdly, we will fund ten merchant ships. Just like that, your Chamber of Commerce will have funds, items, and a right channel. As for how to develop, I think your father has the experience and the know how. I believe that with your father's experience and ability, the rise of the Song Chamber of Commerce is only a matter of time."

When Song Jia heard his words, her eyes turned red, and she said in a low tone, "Wuyi, you don’t need to do that." She knew that for her family, Ouyang Shuo had broken a precedence.

This was the first time an Imperial Chamber of Commerce had appeared in Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo planned the matter in such a way, apart from making things up to the Song Family, because he did not want to put Song Jia on a spot. She was the eldest daughter. During such a tough time, if she did not help out, they would crucify her.

Taking a step back, Ouyang Shuo helping them out at such a moment resulted in a win-win situation.

In the circle of Chambers of Commerce, having one he genuinely trusted did not harm Ouyang Shuo at all. The potential for problems lied in whether or not the Song Chamber of Commerce would abuse his support and destroy the rules of the marketplace.

Ouyang Shuo believed that Song Tianxiong was not a dumb person. In fact, not only was he not dumb, he was actually keenly intelligent. With his ability, he could definitely enter the circle of Chambers of Commerce like a fish to water.

He also did not wish for Chambers of Commerce like Hequanji to block up the future distribution channels of Shanhai City products.

As the commerce in Shanhai City grew more and more prosperous, their reliance on imperial cities for goods would decrease. Thanks to the help of the Chambers of Commerce, they could obtain spices, fine ceramics, and jade items. Thanks to the Chambers of Commerce’s workshops, such as the blusher powder workshop, and the pearl processing workshop that Shanhai lacked, they did not need to import anymore.

The only problem laid in the supply of ingredients and raw materials.

They could gather the fragrance tree needed for the blusher powder on Qiongzhou island. This was also the reason why the various Chambers of Commerce loved Yashan City so much. The mountains contained many priceless raw materials.

The only source of regret was the lack of a single jade mine in the three prefectures. They had to import all of the raw jade. The moment a lack in raw materials appeared, the jade item market would immediately skyrocket.

Out of the four great jade lands in China, none were located near Shanhai City. On the other hand, Myanmar, a place connected to the Yunnan Prefecture, exported jade. In the future, Ouyang Shuo would definitely turn his eyes onto it.

Apart from jade, various precious stones were also in limited supply.

Shanhai City had a great geographical location, but in terms of rare resources, they did not have any advantage. At the same time, its people were rich, so they had an ever increasing demand for gems and jade.

Just this one aspect was enough to let the various imperial city Chambers of Commerce make a killing. Especially those from Xianyang and Luoyang, who were the main jade sellers.

The jade supply of the city were in the hands of these Chambers of Commerce.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo planned to nurture them.

Apart from the Song Chamber of Commerce, he would do the same for the Cui Chamber of Commerce. The relationship between the Cui Family and Shanhai City had grown closer and closer. Ouyang Shuo had also heard the news that the Cui Family had plans to move their headquarters over.

With the support of these two Imperial Chambers of Commerce, Ouyang Shuo could finally feel more free and relaxed.

Of course, pros and cons both existed.

As more and more powers entered, the conflicts of interest in Shanhai City would become more and more complicated. The way to handle these interests would pose a huge test to Ouyang Shuo.

At this point, it was a true test of a Lord's standard.

……

After settling the worries of Song Jia, he needed to discuss another matter with her.

For this expedition, the moment he entered Zhaoqing Prefecture, Gaia would block his access to the alliance channel. Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to arrange for someone to carry out his duties in the alliance.

Although the Shanhai Alliance members rarely gathered up, in truth, they handled ninety percent of their matters through the alliance channel.

When this big war erupted, Xunlong Dianxue and the others wanted to send reinforcements, but Ouyang Shuo rejected them.

In his eyes, the current situation was still under his control, so he did not need backup just yet. If he needed to pull in his allies just to take over one prefecture, the luster of Shanhai City would a lose its sheen.

The role of his allies was to expand their influences in their respective regions.

The fall of Tianshuang County was the greatest learning experience. Although Song Wen had agreed to the Shanhai Alliance-Tianshuang Alliance under Ouyang Shuo’s suggestion, the alliance that they formed alliance was just a clump of scattered sand that could not stand up to any challenge.

At the crucial moment, the members of the Tianshuang Alliance did not band together, which truly disappointed Ouyang Shuo. He did not want the other regional alliances of his allies to be so weak too.

Amongst all his allies, the one in the toughest spot was naturally Wufu. In the entire Jingdou Region, there were probably not many Lords that dared to ally with him.

Based on the news Ouyang Shuo received, Di Chen was ready to press down on Stone County once again, his end goal to totally remove it.

After all, Di Chen saw the entire Jingdou Province as his own. Everyone knew how angry and annoyed he felt to have a territory part of the Shanhai Alliance in his core area.

Since they knew about Di Chen's plans, Ouyang Shuo would naturally not allow him to get away with it.

Recently, Ouyang Shuo had the intentions of increasing his support of Stone County, including priority equipment purchases and monetary support through the Four Seas Bank.

Stone County was Shanhai City’s bridge in the north; they could not lose it.

Not only Ouyang Shuo, the other allies all supported Wufu. Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang similarly prioritized sales to Stone County. As for the other allies, they had no complaints.

Wufu was originally thinking that the alliance would forsake and abandon him. Who knew that there would be such an outcome. Wufu was a quiet man and not a person good with words. Nonetheless, he swore that he would remain a stubborn rock and resolutely stand in the north.

Apart from Wufu, Gong Chengshi in Jiangchuan Province, and Xunlong Dianxue in Minnan Province were both facing strong opponents. In the face of such tough challenges, their situations did not look all that optimistic.

Even Feng Qiuhuang was facing many challenges. On the east of Fallen Phoenix City stood Asura County, with Handan City to the east, Fallen Leaf County southwest, Luoyang at the south, and Pill Sun City further south.

If one looked at it, the Yanhuang Alliance completely surrounded Fallen Phoenix City.

The reason behind this situation had to do with the Six Tyrants of Handan at the start of the game. Before the game had started, the six powers had already arrived at a consensus to devour the center area of the China Region.

As a result, the six territories were all basically located in the middle plains region.

Who would have guessed that Feng Qiuhuang would quarrel with her family and break out of the alliance?

With that, her old allies naturally surrounded Fallen Phoenix County, resulting in her bleak situation.

At the current stage, the various powers of each region had not exited the province. However, in the mid to late game, when territories started to fight for provinces, Fallen Phoenix City would face an exceedingly perilous scene.

As a result, Feng Qiuhuang’s planned to go all out in the future, raising her influence in Taiyuan Province to try to quickly solidify her rule.

Amongst all his allies, only Bai Hua had a smooth time. This overlord of the Yunnan Province in his past life was slowly climbing to the top, as she slowly took over territories in the province.

Toward the entire situation in Nanjiang, Ouyang Shuo actually had a large-scale plan. However, some matters were not easy to announce, so he needed them to silently find out.

And to fulfil his strategic plan, the various members must grow strong. At the least, they must become the strongest power in their respective provinces.

If not, everything would just be a bunch of empty words.

Hence, in this period of time, not only would Ouyang Shuo not ask them for help, when the time came, he would even send troops to support them.

The entire alliance would exchange information everyday.

The moment Ouyang Shuo was not able to receive any information, the entire alliance would probably fall into chaos.

Before this, when Ouyang Shuo was not here, Mulan Yue took up this role.

However, she was still the prefect of Mulan House, so she was extremely busy. Based on Ouyang Shuo’s observations, that Yue Yue brat had great potential, so he was ready to develop her to another level.

In the future, when the time was right, Ouyang Shuo was even ready to promote her to the governor position.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to find a replacement.

Sun Xiaoyue had also played a similar role before, but she seemed to have set her mind on remaining in Yashan City. She was not prepared to leave in the short term.

Helplessly, Ouyang Shuo thought of Song Jia.

Thinking about it, she was the most suitable candidate. The alliance members knew that she was his girlfriend and the future female Lord of Shanhai City.

Most importantly, she had enough ability to take up this task.

One must not merely look at her wielding blades and swinging them around. In reality, she was a business genius. Be it in terms of communication skills or coordinating skills, she was amazing.

However, was she willing to descend the mountain?

Check out our first eBook here! The World Online - Rise of Shanhai!

Chapter 462- Blessed Land of Artisans

"Ok!"

The moment Ouyang Shuo opened his mouth, Song Jia cleanly agreed without hesitation.

"Eh?" Ouyang Shuo was pretty astonished.

"In truth, I wanted to help you out long ago." Song Jia turned her body to face Ouyang Shuo; her eyes incredibly alluring and stunning, "Everyday, I see you so busy, but I was unable to help you. I could not stop worrying."

"What about your dream of being a heroine? Jia Jia, I don't want to burden you."

This aspect worried Ouyang Shuo.

"Who says that without a sect, I cannot become a heroine? Furthermore, at the current stages, there are no proper sects and factions of the martial way yet, so there's no rush."

After staying at Dongli Sword Sect all day long, Song Jia had started to feel a little bored.

"Since that's the case, I have nothing to worried about."

Ouyang Shuo immediately announced this matter through the alliance channel. From this day on, Song Jia would represent Ouyang Shuo in the Shanhai Alliance and coordinate all alliance matters.

Song Jia officially announced herself at this forefront stage.

This legendary woman, what kind of the role would she play in Shanhai Alliance?

……

After the talk, Ouyang Shuo did not return to Wuji Palace. Instead, he went to Qingji Palace.

Qingji Palace was the sleeping quarters of Qing'er. Qing'er had specially ordered people to build a tailoring workspace inside it. As such, when she wanted to research her art, she did not need to run all the way to her shop.

As Shanhai City expanded, Qing'er's tailoring shop had shifted to seven to eight kilometers away from the Lord's Manor.

Within the hall, the flames flicked, indicating that the owner of the hall was not asleep. Upon seeing Ouyang Shuo, the servants within backed off to the sides and bowed.

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand and told them to not disturb the owner. Then, he walked toward her workspaces in the west courtyard.

The entire west courtyard had five to six rooms, but in actuality, they were mostly her workspaces. There was the leather storage room, the garment storage room, processing rooms, and two rooms for disciples.

Apart from, there was the blueprint room, the technical manual reading room, and her workstation. There were so many things, which packed up the entire west courtyard.

The Qingji Palace completely did not look like a sleeping quarters of a girl.

The moment this little sister dedicated and focused herself on something, like tailoring, others could not help but respect her.

Ouyang Shuo walked across the corridor and stood outside of the workspace. Then, he looked in.

The huge workspace only contained Qing'er. The oil lamps around her let out small, flickering sounds, while the mighty wind caused the flames to cast shadows onto the walls.

Under the light, Qing'er focused, and the needle in her hand moved like the wind, leaving only afterimages behind. An inner armor was slowly taking shape, and it seemed like she would complete it very soon.

The magical part was that her needle easily penetrated the originally tough king beast scale armor like paper. Ouyang Shuo guessed that this was a result of her skills.

A master tailor definitely was not ordinary.

Apart from that, the needle in her hand was not some common item.

Last year, Ouyang Shuo had gifted her a dark gold tailoring kit. However, she recently used her own money to purchase a platinum tailoring kit.

Just these tools used up half of the money she had accumulated. This money freak was incredibly obsessed with her savings, so Ouyang Shuo could imagine her pained expression when she bought this item.

Hence, that unassuming needle was likely a platinum item.

Ouyang Shuo also noticed that beads of sweat had formed on her forehead. Obviously, such a high difficulty job took a huge toll on her physical strength and stamina.

Not far from the workstation was a food box.

Needless to say, this brat had not touched the food box that Zisu brought over.

Ouyang Shuo did not want to disturb her, so he quietly waited outside of the door.

In about half an hour, she formed the inner armor. An ecstatic look appeared on her face, while her soft cheeks looked extremely cute and beautiful under the shine of the candles.

At the same time, a system notification sounded out in Ouyang Shuo's ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations Shanhai City for giving birth to the first grandmaster tailor. Shanhai City awarded the title of Home of Tailoring; please take a look."

……

Qing'er had finally, through the help of the king beast scale armor, taken an important step and successfully upgraded to the grandmaster rank.

Ouyang Shuo stood outside and checked out the stats of the title.

Home of Tailoring: 10% increase in speed of tailoring in territory due to tailoring skill familiarity raise, 10% increase in territory tailoring bottleneck breaking chance, 25% increase in territory attractiveness to tailoring commoners.

Amazing, this girl had made a huge contribution.

Compared to the Home of Tailoring title, that inner armor was nothing in Ouyang Shuo's eyes.

Ouyang Shuo believed that currently, the tailoring players who had not fallen asleep would feel excited. Just this small title, who knows how much effort it could save them all?

Shortly afterward, another system notification sounded out.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, territory titles Home of Smithing, Home of Shipbuilding, and Home of Tailoring can be merged."

Not long ago, Zheng Dahai had become a grandmaster shipbuilder, so the territory had obtained the title Home of Shipbuilding.

Home of Shipbuilding: 10% increase in speed of shipbuilding in territory due to shipbuilding skill familiarity raise, 10% increase in territory shipbuilding bottleneck breaking chance, 25% increase in territory attractiveness to shipbuilding commoners.

Along with the rank up of Zheng Dahai, the territory’s shipbuilding industry had welcomed a titanic explosion. Till date, apart from Beihai Harbor, the territory also had large-sized shipyards in South Mountain Harbor and Leizhou Harbor.

The three shipyards would all have daily profits.

"Merge!"

This time, Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Ouyang Shuo, territory titles merged successfully. Shanhai City has obtained the title of Blessed Land of Artisans."

Title: Blessed Land of Artisans.

Specialty: 10% increase in territory reputation, 10% increase in speed of skills due to territory skill familiarity, 10% increase in territory bottleneck breaking chance, 25% increase in territory attractiveness.

Specialty: Spirit of the Artisan (15% increase in beneficial effects to artisans)

Evaluation: This title can be upgraded to Land of Artisans. Upgrade condition: possess two more skill titles."

When Ouyang Shuo read the stats, he let out a long sigh. This was an all-round buff for talents in the territory. It seems like members of Fallen Moon Guild and Thread would feel delighted.

Of course, the one that benefited the most in the end was the territory.

Which was why Ouyang Shuo really yearned for the title of Land of Artisans. This was not a result of blind confidence but because of the philosophers that settled in the city.

With the buff of this title, those unassuming legacies would give birth to two to three grandmaster rank talents.

Ouyang Shuo could even imagine the future, where talented individuals would rise up in the city. Just as Ouyang Shuo stood stunned outside, Qing'er noticed his presence.

"Big brother, why are you here?"

Surprise and tiredness filled Qing'er's voice.

When Ouyang Shuo heard her words, he raised his head and walked into the workshop. Then he said in a caring tone, “You, ah. Silly girl." He took out his handkerchief and wiped the sweat from her forehead.

When Qing'er heard his words, she felt happy deep down.

"Men!"

"Present!"

The servant, who stood at the corridor, quickly walked in.

"Instruct the kitchen to prepare a meal. I’ll eat together with the second miss. Also, ask them to prepare a ginseng chicken soup for her."

"Yes, my Lord!"

The servant quickly backed off and left.

The kitchen of the Lord’s Manor was open twenty-four hours a day. As such, when Ouyang Shuo wanted to eat, there was food waiting for him.

Needless to say, Zisu had especially instructed the kitchen to ready themselves to prepare food at any time.

It was obvious that Zisu understood Qing'er's personality well. She knew that the moment the latter started to get busy, she would forget all about food.

"Big brother, it's already so late. I can eat by myself. You need to leave tomorrow; go rest."

"It's okay!"

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand and asked her to stop attempting to persuade him.

"See, this is the inner armor I made. Take a look; there's a surprise."

The inner armor looked simple and was deep grey in color.

The magical part was that the entire inner armor lacked signs of being welded together, despite being made from the scale armor. It just seemed like a full armor in the first place.

Ouyang Shuo was quite curious about this armor, so he took a look at its stats.

Name: King Beast inner armor (Platinum)

Type: Light Armor

Weight: 2 kilograms

Defense: 105

Toughness: 85

Specialty: 20% increase in internal cultivation technique speed.

Evaluation: Made from the rare king beast scale armor, it is high quality and can be improved using primordial energy. Channeling primordial energy into it can raise its stats and even upgrade it.

The entire inner armor only weighed two kilograms, but its defense and toughness were higher than the General Mingguang Amor. Who knew how she performed this feat.

The more amazing aspect was that Qing'er had actually used the specialty she understood from the training uniform on the inner armor, and she even improved it.

As for the possible upgrades through primordial energy, it was the specialty of the king beast scale armor itself.

With the way Gaia was, Ouyang Shuo predicted that things were not as easy as they seemed. It would not only take a few simple months to upgrade it. The process would probably take a few years before he gained a chance.

"Amazing." Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Little brat, you're really a genius."

"Of course."

Qing'er, this little girl, was so happy that her face squished together, and her eyes formed a single straight line.

Check out our first eBook here! The World Online - Rise of Shanhai!

Chapter 463- Du Sijing

In terms of defense equipment, apart from the inner armor, Qing’er also crafted a pair of boots.

Compared to the unassuming and normal looking inner armor, the war boots seemed a lot more extravagant. It had a tiger head design, golden sides, and looked as intricate as the Mingguang Armor. Qing'er had an incredibly elite aesthetic sense as always.

Ouyang Shuo took the war boots and looked at their stats.

Name: Qingmang War Boots (Platinum)

Type: Armor

Weight: 1.5 kilograms

Defense: 85

Toughness: 75

Specialty: 10% increase in movement speed

Evaluation: Crafted from the rare material, king beast scale armor, it possesses a high grade toughness. High in quality, primordial energy can improve it. Channeling primordial energy into it can raise its stats and even upgrade it.

Another elite product.

The specialty of the Qingmang War Boots was the best for a pair of boots, as it raised the wearer’s movement speed by 10%. With that, along with the buff from Floating Ghost Shadow, Ouyang Shuo's movement speed had reached a terrifying level.

With the addition of this pair of war boots, Ouyang Shuo was now stacked with high quality equipment.

"Go, let’s go and eat!"

Ouyang Shuo stored both the armor and the boots. His mood was simply too good, and he tapped Qing'er's head.

"En, I'm so hungry!"

Qing'er grabbed Ouyang Shuo's hand and hopped out of her workstation.

8th month, 18th day, imperial city.

The morning fog had not faded, while the fog blocked off the thin rays of sunlight.

As the morning breeze blew, it brought with it a cold feeling.

Ouyang Shuo had donned his golden Mingguang Armor, and his red divine martial cape. Additionally, he had the Chixiao Sword at his waist. Under the accompaniment of Song Jia, Cui Yingyu, and the others, he walked out of the Nanjiang Governor-General Manor.

A month had passed since Ouyang Shuo had worn all of his gear. This signaled the end of the internal changes of Shanhai City. Now, their expansion would quicken. The Southern regions of China would soon witness a blood rain.

The fully equipped Ouyang Shuo was not the warm and nice Lord of past. Now, he was a merciless general.

In the square of the imperial city, the Guards Division had already gathered up.

For this trip, they planned to teleport behind the enemy lines. Hence, they kept their mission a highly guarded secret. They had sealed up the entire imperial city, so outsiders could not see the situation within.

Xiao He and the other officials had all gathered really early in the square to send him off.

"Farewell, my Lord!"

"I'll leave the territorial matters up to all of you!"

He had already spoken the words he need to, so there was no need to repeat anything. Hence, Ouyang Shuo only nodded, as he flipped himself onto the horse and took the lead to the teleportation formation.

The two hundred Divine Martial Guards followed quickly behind him.

As he passed them, each and every Guards Division soldier bowed in an orderly manner.

This was also the first time the Guards Division had headed out with Ouyang Shuo. Before this, although the Guards Division was the direct unit of the Lord, Baqi had always commanded them.

No wonder all the Guards Division soldiers were so pumped up this time.

"Brother, come back soon!"

Bing'er's clear and crisp voice seemed exceptionally warm amongst the solemn military formation. Xiao He and the other officials could not help but smile. The solemn atmosphere was instantly lessened and lightened.

Ouyang Shuo waved back at her from his horse, smiling as he disappeared into the teleportation formation.

"Let's go!"

When Lin Yi saw them go, he led the Guards Division and followed closely behind.

Zhaoqing Prefecture, Wulong County.

Wulong County was a grade 3 county, located at the northmost point of Zhaoqing Prefecture. In order to not expose himself, the Lord, Spicy Snack Prince, had no choice but to lead three thousand troops of his own down south with the alliance army.

The one guarding Wulong County was his most important official, Du Sijing.

Du Sijing, also known as Zi Jinpu. They treated him really well in the Pan Manor, where he learned from Xuheng. He was the government sub-prefect of Pingyang. Then, he became the censor, calendar ministry assistant minister, minister of the secretariats, and finally the supervisor of Shun De, An Xi.

28th year of Zhiyuan, he was appointed as a secretary and was allowed to join meetings. 10th year of Dade, he became a minister. While he was working, he grew interested in medical arts.

Although Du Sijing was not famous, he was a capable official. He was born in the Yuan Dynasty that the Mongols ruled. For a Han man to become a minister was not easy.

For Spicy Snack Prince to receive such a helper, he could be considered lucky to the extreme. Unfortunately, he met an obnoxious neighbour, Ouyang Shuo, so he had no choice but to surrender.

As they would say, only a wise man could understand the situation.

For Spicy Snack Prince to make such a decision, Du Sijing caused it. In his eyes, no matter if they won or lost, the Lords of Zhaoqing Prefecture would not have a good outcome.

If they lost, needless to say, the outcome was certain. Even if they won by luck, the Lords of Zhaoqing, who had lost many resources, would either be eaten up by the South Alliance, or they would face a second attack.

Whatever the outcome, it was not optimistic. This was the helplessness of the weak.

Rather than that, why not just place their bets on Shanhai City?

Sending help when one needed it was better than being the icing on a cake.

Naturally, Du Sijing was not the only to accurately judge the situation of Zhaoqing Prefecture. But to have such decisiveness, only Spicy Snack Prince managed to do so. Just based on this point, he was better than many others.

Reality proved that his choice was right.

His good intentions had granted him great rewards. A County Magistrate position and a rank. Although such fruits could not compared to being a Lord of Wulong County, it was still very stable.

After the Battle of Julu ended, the battles between the Lords in the wilderness had entered its climax. In the vast lands of China, wars would break out every day.

Territories were constantly wiped out, becoming a part of history.

The victors were delighted, while no one would care about the losers.

Only the strong could survive.

Each and every Lord were under a lot of pressure. They feared that when they woke up, an enemy would have taken down their territory. Hence, for Spicy Snack Prince to back down happily and gain such a stable job, he was fortunate.

Normally, when Lords surrendered, Ouyang Shuo might not accept it. After all, accepting too many Lord gamemode players was bad for his rule; they acted as an uncertain factor.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo would rather pay a heavier price to clear out the enemies in battle. However, South Alliance had forced him into a corner, so he had no other choice.

Apart from strategic considerations, Du Sijing was also one of the key elements. He sent his troops to Wulong County. Apart from attacking the enemy from behind, he also wanted to observe Du Sijing closely.

Before coming, Ouyang Shuo had even taken the time to research Su Sijing. His experience could be considered eye-catching, since he had handled administrative matters and worked in the imperial court.

If nothing went wrong, after the battle, Ouyang Shuo could grant him the position of Governor.

Amongst the civil servants of Shanhai City, scholars and student that graduated from Xinan University basically filled up the middle level and basic level officials. He only lacked important civil servants.

Especially choices for governors, which was exactly so.

With the game map being ten times larger than reality, a governor was more like an inspector-general of a province.

Inspector-General. In any dynasty, it was a huge position. It was a position that tens of thousands of officials would never reach.

Hence, scholars who did not have much experience definitely would not be up to the task.

For example, Leizhou Governor Bao Shuya had once held the position of prime minister of a country, but the size of the Qi Country was like the Shandong Province. In the game, it was just a prefecture.

The position of Governor was basically Bao Shuya's limit.

Compared to him, Du Sijing was not any worse. In fact, he might even be better. The only problem was his loyalty toward Ouyang Shuo.

This was the problem with such talented people.

Since he was attacking Zhaoqing Prefecture, Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to plan for its future Governor.

Ouyang Shuo originally planned to choose Song Wen, but his performance in Tianshuang County was lacking. If he allowed Song Wen to take the position, he would be unable to appease the people.

Hence, Song Wen needed to gain more experience before he could receive a chance. The fall of Tianshuang County could be considered a huge lesson for him.

If he could learn from the matter, his future potential was something to look forward to.

Excluding him, there were even better choices.

……

The appearance of the Guards Division in Wulong County had caused a frenzy, as the commoners looked on in fear and apprehension.

Everyone knew that the current county only had several thousand city protection forces. If these troops were enemies, the county would fail to survive.

Luckily, the scene that followed let the gathered commoners heave a sigh of relief.

"Du Sijing greets the Governor-General."

Du Sijing led the officials in the city to greet Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo could not act arrogant toward him. After all, they were still partners for now; they were not master and servant.

"Sir Du, I've made you wait!"

Ouyang Shuo dismounted from his horse and cupped his fists; he looked warm and mysterious.

"Please!"

Seeing that the Nanjiang Governor-General was not arrogant, he also felt relieved. If nothing went wrong, the person in front of him would be his future Lord.

If one said that Du Sijing was not a little selfish, no one would believe him.

Lin Yi led his forces and took over the defense of Wulong County. Ouyang Shuo led the two hundred personal guards and moved into the Lord’s Manor.

Although Ouyang Shuo was confident that they would not try to pull any tricks, he had to be safe. Who knows whether Wulong County had any spies of the other Lords.

After moving into the manor, Ouyang Shuo had to meet the powers and nobles in the county. After the greetings, he used the excuse of feeling unwell to return to the accommodation that Du Sijing had prepared for him.

In less than ten minutes, the person in charge of the Black Snake Guards in Wulong County rushed outside Ouyang Shuo's courtyard. The Divine Martial Guards waiting outside knew of the existence of the Black Snake Guards. As such, after checking his identity, they allowed him to enter.

"Lord!"

"Speak, what's the situation?"

Currently, Ouyang Shuo did not have his usual polite and warm expression. In fact, he was cold beyond belief.

Check out our first eBook here! The World Online - Rise of Shanhai!

Chapter 464- Famous General Di Qing

After listening to the report of the Black Snake Guards, Ouyang Shuo's brows tightly locked together.

In the entire north region of Zhaoqing Prefecture, including Wulong County, there were a total of twelve territories. Each city had around one to two thousand troops.

The problem laid in the fifty thousand iron cavalry on patrol.

The camp of the fifty thousand iron cavalry was fifteen kilometers north of Tianshuang County.

Based on the intel from the Black Snake Guards, the twelve cities had formed a wartime alliance. The moment one of them were attacked, the fifty thousand iron cavalry would learn of the news and head to assist.

It seems like a smart person was instructing the South Alliance. The entire north region of Zhaoqing Prefecture was airtight, and it did not seem to have any weakness.

Ouyang Shuo's goal was to take down Tianshuang County, which acted as the grain base of the alliance army.

Wulong County was a three days journey away from Tianshuang County.

The fifty thousand cavalry patrolled the entire north side. Hence, to attack Tianshuang County, they needed to deal with the cavalry first. If not, the enemy could easily pincer them in.

With only one division to fight fifty thousand soldiers, it was another one versus five scenario.

Considering that there were around thirty thousand troops housed in Tianshuang County, they could only play it smart in this battle. Without specific intel, Ouyang Shuo did not dare to strike.

The same day, Ouyang Shuo sent out around ten spy squads to investigate the movement patterns of the enemy.

Zhaoqing Prefecture, Yun An County.

220 thousand alliance army troops had already gathered up at Yun An County. Along with them, there were also large amounts of grain and siege weapons. They transported the endless supply of grain from Tianshuang County to Yun An County.

The fifty thousand vanguard force had investigated the locations of the Shanhai City Army. The South Alliance members had gathered once again to discuss tactics.

Hefu did not solely make decision anymore.

The other Lords brought their advisors and generals, who would voice their opinions one by one. After all, they were better at wartime commanding. Hefu and the others were only in charge of strategic decisions.

Amongst the generals, one of them was the most eye-catching, he was the famous General of North Song, Di Qing.

Di Qing had a tattoo on his face, and he was skilled at riding and shooting. He was born in a cold and povertous area, a courageous man. During the Song Xia War, he wore a bronze mask and charged to the front, gaining many war credits.

In the imperial court, Yin Zhu, Han Qi, Fan Zhongyan, and other important generals all had relationships with him. Fan Zhongyan had given him the Spring and Autumn Annals, causing him to start to read and get familiar with the art of war.

Di Qing had participated in a total of twenty-five wars, and he gained fame for his night assault on Kunlun Pass. However, the imperial court had doubted him, which resulted in him dying of depression. After his death, he was respected and worshipped, given the title of Wuxiang.

"For military matters, what we worry the most about is a person who doesn't know much giving orders to people who are more experienced." Hefu looked around, “Hence, I suggest that we Lords don't do anything. We will leave the military matters to the generals. What do you all think?"

"Alliance leader is right. I agree!"

"I agree!"

"Good, so that is settled." Hefu continued, “Since that's the case, we must choose a commander to lead all the troops. The order of the commander is equal to my orders, so whichever general dares to betray or go against the orders, the commander will deal with them based on military law. We Lords won't interfere. What do you think?"

"Great!"

"I agree!"

The Lords knew that although the alliance army was strong, it had many problems. The biggest issue was that the soldiers came from many territories. Without military law controlling them, they were just like scattered sand.

Just a few simple words from Hefu solved the two biggest problems of the alliance army. Even Yuan Ping felt impressed, and he did not jump out to create problems.

As expected, Di Qing was pushed to become the commander of all the troops.

In front of all the Lords and generals, Di Qing was handed the power. Hefu and the others backed out of the tent and allowed Di Qing to lead the battlefield.

Di Qing was a person of few words. Only after considering everything and thinking clearly would he strike. He desired absolute certainty. His style was similar to Baiqi’s.

Di Qing had planned the troop distribution to the north of Zhaoqing Prefecture.

Di Qing knew that in a war, grain was of utmost importance. As the grain base of the army, they needed to defend Tianshuang County; they could not lose it.

As the Lords backed down, Di Qing officially started the meeting. Like the legends said, he wore a bronze mask and had disheveled hair. He sat at the lead position, emitting the aura of a leader.

Not all the generals in the alliance army were happy with him leading them.

"The enemy is housed in three cities, forming a triangle formation. How should we break it?"

Di Qing was an eccentric character, directly throwing the hardest question to the generals seated.

When the other generals heard his question, they all looked at one another. They did not know what he meant.

This was the intelligence of Di Qing in play. He knew about matters of the military. It might seem like the other generals did not have any objections to him taking the lead, but in their hearts, it was different.

Since the olden times, there was was no second to martial arts.

Hence, Di Qing decided to act independently from the start. He wanted to use this chance to clearly learn the characters of the generals present. After knowing them, he would make plans.

Only by knowing oneself can you win all wars.

"Why, you all don't have any ideas?"

Seeing the tent remain silent, Di Qing took the chance to speak, stimulating the generals.

"We should gather all our troops and attack one city."

As expected, one of the generals could not hold it in and stood up.

Di Qing shook his head, “Since the enemy has formed a triangle formation, they would naturally help one another out. If one side gets attacked, the rest would act. If we aren't careful, we might get caught. We mustn't forget that their general is the invincible Baiqi. Even Han Xin is in their ranks. Their ability, I'm sure all of you know about it."

"..."

All the other generals were left speechless.

"Commander don't praise them too much and dampen your prestige." The generals in the alliance army were all bold; none of them were cowards. One of them got up and retorted, “Our army has the absolute advantage in numbers. Naturally, we can defend against the other two sides while taking down one. With that, the cities will each be fighting for themselves."

"Well said!"

The generals cheered.

When Di Qing heard this response, he gave a slight nod and said, “Your words are logical but you have forgotten something."

"Please enlighten me!"

The General that retorted did not dare to act truly preposterous.

"The enemy is in three cities. They have formed a formation of three, and it is easy for them to switch around. Although we have the numerical advantage, they are much stronger. Moreover, our armies are not well meshed. Just these two points alone are enough to lower some of our advantages. Hence, the gap isn't really as big as it seems."

There was also another point that Di Qing did not speak out to save some face for the generals. To put it bluntly, their generals were weaker than that of the enemy.

Any general from the Shanhai City Army was a famous general; their ability far stronger than any of them present. In such a large-scale battle, this advantage would grow exceedingly obvious.

As expected, although the generals felt slightly miffed, they did not oppose his words.

When Di Qing saw the situation, he looked around and said solemnly, “Which is why the current situation doesn't allow us to be careless. If the troops we send to attack are too little, we can't take the city down. If we send too much, the defending troops won't be able to hold on, and we might lose."

Through these words, one could see how careful Di Qing was when he commanded troops.

When the other generals heard these words, they could help but look on in awe.

"Thank you, General, for your words."

At this point, the other generals finally woke up. Their commander had done a large-scale analysis of this battle.

When Di Qing heard such a response, he knew that the time was right, and the other generals had basically acknowledged him. Hence, he finally spoke out his plan, "The key to this battle is just real and fake, two words."

"What's real, what's fake? There are two meanings. Firstly, the enemy troops. The enemy troops are in three cities. Now, we only know whose the main general there. As for how many troops are in each city, we have no idea. If we can't find out the truth about the troops, we can't fight them. Which city would be a trap that we shouldn't touch it?"

The other generals all nodded at these words.

"Secondly, our own troops. Although we don't have an absolute advantage, we must make it such that our enemies cannot see through us. Before we officially attack, we must make it that the enemy doesn't know which city we will attack. When we reveal the truth, it must be too late for them."

Clap! Clap!

Applause broke out in the tent.

With such an analysis from Di Qing, all the generals felt a lot more confident about this battle.

Di Qing pressed his hand down to calm down the atmosphere in the tent, “These two words, real and fake, are easy to say but hard to execute. The key would be investigating and scouting. Hence, after this meeting ends, we need to send out more spies. Around the three cities, we mustn't miss out anything."

"Yes, commander!"

"Spies investigating is only the first step. The enemy troops are in the city, so all the gates should be tightly locked. Hence, to find out about the enemy, the most effective method is to attack them. We should use the smallest number of sacrifices to exchange for first hand intel."

As a result of Di Qing's words, only the gods would know how many soldiers they would sacrifice.

The generals all understood that the enemy was not simple. In order to test them out, normal probes would not work. Rather than a probe, it was more of an assault. The alliance army could only relentlessly attack the enemy until they revealed their weakness.

Even so, no one said anything.

"Please give the order!"

"We await your order!"

The more than ten generals all stood up and shouted.

"Tomorrow, we will split our troops into three and attack the cities. Before they reveal their weakness, we mustn't back off. If any one of you doesn't give your all, don't blame me for being merciless."

With a Shua! Di Qing unsheathed the sword at his waist. With a shine of light, a corner of the table was cut off. A chilling aura spread out from his body. Along with the bronze mask, it was an overbearing presence.

"We will follow your orders!"

The other generals were all stunned, and they did not dare to take him lightly.

The next day, the alliance army split into three routes and launched probing attacks against Yaogu County, Cangcheng County, and Genglou County.

Chapter 465- Risky Use of Troops

On the Cangcheng County city wall, Baiqi looked at the black ocean of troops bearing down on them; his eyes seemed unsettled.

The enemy was moving exceedingly slowly. After they covered a short distance, they would stop to organize themselves. The reason behind this was that the army was made up of ten different forces, so their timings were different. As a result, they moved in a disjointed fashion and would need of reorganization.

If they did not stop, before they even reached the city wall, they would fall into a scattered chaos.

Baiqi's observations were so sharp and intricate.

He counted silently in his heart. The intervals between their stops were getting shorter and shorter. The entire army had grown more orderly and familiarized with the movement speeds of one another.

The enemy was an extremely careful person.

Baiqi defined the enemy commander.

220 thousand alliance army troops, apart from forty thousand in Yun An County, the remaining 180 thousand were split into three and pressed on toward the three counties.

On the rods, the flags swung around all over, while swords and spears were held upright. Dust rose, as they moved.

The enemy troops were like three sharp knives, which stabbed toward the Shanhai City Army.

Sixty thousand troops, for Yaogu County that had two divisions, defending should not pose too much of a problem. Even Genglou County, under the adjustments and leadership of Han Xin, would not face any problems.

The key was the main camp, Cangcheng County.

There only had ten thousand troops, and they were the Tianshuang County city protection division that were comparatively weaker. If they faced the attack of forces six times their number, Baiqi was not confident.

Under consecutive attacks, the city protection division would reveal their weakness.

What should he do?

Baiqi knew that he needed to do something. Otherwise, the next attack could be eighty thousand or even a hundred thousand men.

Should he activate the 2nd division of the Dragon Legion that hid outside of Genglou County?

That was reserved for the worst case scenario.

The moment he made use of Luo Shixin's division, it would reveal the real and fake of the Shanhai City Army to the enemy. Not only that, it would rent Baiqi's plan so far useless.

Baiqi did not turn his head and asked, “Whose their general?"

"Di Qing."

The one who replied was the intel officer that the Military Intelligence Division had sent out.

During every large-scale war, the Military Intelligence Division would send intel officers to take charge of intelligence matters. Even in the patrolling squadrons, they would have an intel officer leading them during wartime.

With that, through the Military Intelligence Division, the army could build a highly efficient and unified intel network that would effectively use the available resources to obtain the best intel.

"Di Qing?"

Baiqi frowned. He only knew a little about history.

"Immediately send a letter to the Military Affairs Department and ask them to prepare a detailed report on Di Qing."

"Yes, General!"

……

As the sun set in the west, along with the last rays of the sun, the alliance army abandoned the thousands of bodies and retreated like a flood. They completely lacked the intentions of staying.

Under the cover of the night shade, the soldiers were tired. Some felt fortunate, while others were pumped up.

This was war!

Compared to the determined faces of the alliance army, exhaustion filled the soldiers on the city wall. Some soldiers directly fell into a deep slumber on the city wall, while they grabbed tightly onto the spears in their hands.

In just one day, the city protection division had nearly fallen apart. If it was not for the leadership abilities of Baiqi, the enemy would have seen through the weakness of Cangcheng County.

Although they had survived, Baiqi's eyes lacked even a sliver of joy. They were already at their limit. At tomorrow at the latest, their weakness would be revealed to the enemy.

Baiqi had to make preparations for the worst, so he ordered Luo Shixin's division to get ready to assist them.

In truth, Luo Shixin did not feel good today either.

The enemy scouts were like mad dogs, charging aimlessly around the wilderness.

He had no choice but to send out scouts of his own. In the wilderness, the scouts killed one another to prevent the enemy’s investigation.

Although the scouts that he sent out had successfully misdirected the enemy, if this continued, the enemy would uncover the hiding spot of the division. After all, they were a cavalry division so trying to hide was really difficult.

Night.

Cangcheng County, which was busy throughout entire day, had finally regained its peace and quiet. On the streets, the soldiers on patrol could not see a single person outside.

The soldiers, who had fought valiantly for a day, had already fallen asleep in preparation for the huge battle tomorrow.

In the room of Commander-in-Chief Baiqi, the oil lamps still burned bright.

Within the room, Baiqi sat upright, as he read the information on Di Qing that the Military Affairs Department had sent.

The profile only had four pages with thousands of words. It not only had an introduction of his life, but also a personal evaluation by Du Ruhui.

"Uses soldiers carefully? Seems like that's the case."

Baiqi muttered.

"Since that's the case, let’s use a plan against his plan!"

Baiqi placed down the document and decided to take a chance.

Baiqi rarely took risks in war, but the situation had forced his hand.

"Now, the only change would be the Guards Division the Lord is leading."

Baiqi looked up. Outside of the window, the clear bright moon hung high above the sky. Bright moon and little stars, tomorrow would have good weather again.

Wulong County, Lord's Manor.

After receiving Baiqi's latest intel report, Ouyang Show knew that he could not wait any longer. The moment the main battlefield fell into a disadvantage, the consequences would be dire.

At that time, what would Spicy Snack Prince think?

Ouyang Shuo did not want to place the fate of the territory in the hands of someone else, even an ally.

People were always complicated.

If Shanhai City lost their advantage, Spicy Snack Prince could betray them.

Ouyang Shuo had once read a book and liked one of the phrases inside, ‘If you don't want to be betrayed, don't give other people a chance to betray you.’

In his last life, he did not understand this concept, so he was betrayed.

In this life, he understood that phrase.

As he contemplated, a cold flash appeared in his eyes.

"Men!"

"Present!"

"Invite Mr. Du over!"

"Yes, my Lord!"

The guard turned around and left.

A short while later, Du Sijing hurried over. Doubt filled his eyes, as he did not know why he was summoned.

"Sit!"

Ouyang Shuo's face did not reveal anything strange.

When Du Sijing heard this, he sat down respectfully, as he grew more and more anxious.

"I have something I need you to instruct me on."

"Please ask!"

The more polite Ouyang Shuo acted, the more uneasy he felt. He had just sat down, but now he stood up once again.

"Mr. Du, don't worry."

Ouyang Shuo raised his hand and asked Du Sijing to calm down.

When Du Sijing heard these words, a flash of astonishment appeared in his eyes. His performance today was really unkempt and inappropriate.

"I've heard that the moment the twelve territories are attacked, they can inform the fifty thousand iron cavalry, right?"

"That's right!"

"Does the attack have a sort of judging standard, or can anyone send an alarm that reinforcements will definitely respond to? Apart from that, the army that arrives, is it the whole fifty thousand or just a portion?"

"Lord, please elaborate." Du Sijing calmed himself down, "Since the establishment of the wartime alliance till now, no territory has set off the alarm. Only, before the war, the commander sent orders to the territories. If they are attacked, they must make the number of enemies clear."

When Ouyang Shuo heard these details, he nodded, “In that the case, can Mr. Du spread the word tomorrow that Wulong County is under attack and needs reinforcements?"

"This…." Du Sijing could not understand, “Wouldn't that expose the Lord?"

Ouyang Shuo smiled but did not say anything.

Suddenly, a light bulb lit up in Du Sijing’s mind, and his face instantly turned ashen white. He had understood what Ouyang Shuo was talking about. He wanted to bait the fifty thousand cavalry. Then, he would wipe them out.

This plan was simply toxic.

The problem was that this plan was not within the terms they had discussed.

It was easy to forsee the result that would occur the moment Wulong County lied about intel and led the troops over. No matter their fate, it would reveal the betrayal of Spicy Snack Prince, who was amongst the alliance army. He would fall into trouble.

At that time, death would be something that he wished for. How the furious alliance army would treat a traitor, one could only imagine.

Just the thought alone sent a shiver down Du Sijing’s spine.

Seeing Du Sijing's expression, Ouyang Shuo sighed. He knew that the other man had already seen through his plan. He also knew that this course of action treated Spicy Snack Prince unfairly.

Unfortunately, Ouyang Shuo could not wait any longer.

Who knows since when, but Ouyang Shuo's heart had grown colder and colder.

However, he needed Du Sijing to spread the news of the attack. Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to calm him down. If not, the plan would not work.

This was also a dangerous move on Ouyang Shuo’s part.

The South Alliance were impressive, as they could force both Ouyang Shuo and Baiqi to take risky moves at the same time.

"After this war, I'll give an explanation to your Lord."

Ouyang Shuo took a look at Du Sijing, but he did not make any promises. Du Sijing would understand. At the current moment, any promises could not compare to an explanation from Ouyang Shuo.

Although Ouyang Shuo had become cold-hearted, that did not mean he was a liar. On the contrary, his words were worth their weight in gold. One he said something, it would not change.

If not, it would cause a deadly blow to his prestige and reputation.

When Du Sijing heard this promise, his expression turned mixed.

Ouyang Shuo, on the other hand, was relaxed. He picked up the tea cup and took a sip.

From how Du Sijing had persuaded Spicy Snack Prince to form an alliance with Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo knew that he was a person who knew how to measure pros and cons.

Dealing with such a person would only be beneficial to him.

As long as he saw that the temporary loses could be exchanged for greater benefits, he would agree. Unexpectedly, Du Sijing raised up a requirement, "You have to promise that after the war, you will rescue my Lord from the alliance army."

Du Sijing's expression was resolute.

If Ouyang Shuo did not agree, he would not budge. Who cares if his life was on the line, he was not afraid of such matters.

It seems like Du Sijing had tossed death out of his worries.

Spicy Snack Prince had developed a great minister.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Du Sijing, delighted in his heart. This only proved that his judgment was correct. If Du Sijing had agreed without hesitation, he would have felt disappointed instead.

"I promise you."

Chapter 466- Life of a Spotter

On the vast ocean surface, waves rose up one after another, forming a beautiful ripple effect.

Two squadrons in around two hundred small-sized warships. They formed up into their battle formations, as they sailed forward. On the masts of each warship hung many flags, including a majestic golden dragon and a vast blue dragon.

The two dragons added to the radiance and beauty of one another.

Amongst the squadron, two huge five floor turreted ships were the most eye-catching.

These two ships were the flagship of each squadron. The flagship of the 1st division of the Beihai Bay Squadron was Flying Cloud, while the flagship of the 1st division of the Yashan Squadron was Gaihai.

Two ships, one on the left and one on the right. They were like two giants on the deep ocean, leading the other warships.

In their journey here, apart from a rare few pirates, they had faced no opponents. Even the large-scale pirate organizations nearby retreated upon seeing such a huge fleet.

On the first floor of the Flying Cloud, three generals stood and looked ahead. In the middle was the military advisor for this trip, War Division Secretary Zhao Kuo.

As the two squadrons were not under the same rule, Zhao Kuo was both the military advisor and the commander.

To his left was a younger general, the leader of the Divine Martial Guards, Yulin General Wang Feng. On the right, it was naturally the captain of the Beihai Bay Squadron 1st division, Pei Donglai.

Above Gaihai was the captain of the Yashan Sqaudron 1st division, Cai Mao and the deputy captain, Yanhuo Yaonie.

The leadership ability of Cai Mao was more than a level higher than Pei Donglai’s.

Pei Donglai's presence was partially due to his status as one of the ancestor of the Shanhai City Army. Moreover, they had set up the 1st division of the Beihai Bay Squadron first, so the soldiers had higher ranks and greater combat strength. Hence, for this battle, they were the main force.

This was also the reason why Zhao Kuo and Wang Feng stayed on board the Flying Cloud.

As for Wang Feng, his role was for the battle after they landed. Naval warfare was something the Divine Martial Guards would not join. Although, if nothing went wrong, the naval force would basically not fight any navy war.

The strong ocean winds blew their capes around, creating a distinct sound.

Pei Donglai held onto the map and pointed at the shoreline that they could vaguely see, "Commander, in about an hour, we will reach Jiaozhou Bay!"

Zhao Kuo nodded and asked, “Has the Cima Boat we sent out reported any news?"

"Yes. Jade Buddha County has built a port and a harbor there. They also have a bunch of sailors patrolling the sea region. However, they are small-sized warships and won't pose a problem."

"Order the troops to get ready to fight."

When Zhao Kuo heard this news, he knew that a fight was unavoidable.

"Yes!"

Pei Donglai waved his flag and sounded the war drums. The entire fleet increased their speed and charged ahead. As such a fleet definitely needed to land at a harbor, there was no need to act discreet.

Jiaozhou Bay.

Ten small-sized warships patrolled the bay, free and relaxed.

Jiaozhou Bay was considered an inland harbor, where pirates were not active. The entire Jade Buddha County Unit was more of a life saving unit, rather than a group that protected the safety of the fishers.

Zhao Wu was one of the spotters on board one of the navy unit ships. He was hanging on top of the mast, similarly doing nothing.

The ocean was mysterious; you would see different sights everyday.

However, looking at it day in day out, no matter, who it was, they would feel bored to death.

Zhao Wu was like that. He was just praying that he could quickly complete this patrolling mission and return to the city to find his girlfriend.

Sigh!

Zhao Wu sighed and looked out the ocean habitually to check for any unlucky fishers that needed their help.

In truth, Zhao Wu really hoped for something that they could do.

A spotter was a lonely person. Apart from the wind, they did not have any companions, not even someone to talk to.

After being a spotter for so long, Zhao Wu had even started to mutter to himself. Toward the air, toward the birds, and even toward the ocean, he would speak to all of them.

The words that he spoke were basically about things that had happened between him and his girlfriend. However, the surrounding birds had grown sick of him, and they did not want to visit his spotting platform.

Hearing too many mushy words, one would vomit out the food they had just eaten.

After squatting all day on the spotting platform, sores were about to form on his butt. The cold and salty ocean breeze caused his cheeks to hurt and cracks to form.

Everytime he went back to the city, his girlfriend would pity him and cry for him.

Women, they were all made out of water.

When they were gentle, they were feminine and tender like water. At such times, even their waists were like snakes, where each twist and turn would ignite a fire in one’s heart. A man would not mind dying on a woman’s voluptuous and white body.

However, this water was sometimes a massive problem.

Each time she cried, Zhao Wu would be in trouble.

Young women were like that. Most of them could not handle a little pain.

In truth, these cracks were nothing to him.

Zhao Wu, on the other hand, wished that he could have a real fight with pirates. He wanted to receive a few injures and obtain some battle scars. Only then would he be a true man. Who knows, he might obtain some rewards that would allow him to buy her some gifts.

Compared to now, with his pitiful salary, which clinged and clanged in his pocket. He had caused his girlfriend to suffer along with him.

Men had to have money.

If one did not have enough money, no matter how good or skilled they were, in life, they were bound to be the underling of someone else.

"This stupid job!"

Zhao Wu grumbled, as he scolded out toward the ocean, a mouthful of saliva splattering out. Just as he was about to turn around, something stunned him. He rubbed his eyes and looked out at the horizon once more.

This look scared the soul out of his body.

He saw warship after warship charge toward them like beasts on the surface of horizon. There were too many, so Zhao Wu could not count them all.

Warships filled his entire visual line.

Apart from the numbers, the key laid in the domineering appearance of the approaching warships. They were several floors high, even higher than the Jade Buddha County Lord’s Manor.

Zhao Wu swore that he had never seen such a tall warship in his life.

Was that still a ship? It was practically a castle on water.

In comparison, their warship was a shrimp.

All of a sudden, Zhao Wu was astonished beyond words, and his whole mind went completely blank.

"It's over. It's over; this time I am going to be buried in the ocean!"

Zhao Wu's face was ashen white; he was not as ambitious and as confident as moments ago. What military contribution, what reward, to hell with that! He was only praying that he could escape with his life.

Although life was tough, as long as you were alive, there was hope. The moment you died, nothing remained.

"Alarm, sound the alarm!"

Zhao Wu tried his best to calm himself down, thinking about his job and pulling the alarm on the spotter platform.

All of a sudden, the atmosphere of the entire bay grew exceedingly serious.

Of course, the sailors on deck did not mind him. They thought that Zhao Wu, that idiot, was trolling them again. Zhao Wu pulled these kinds of act often.

When patrolling became boring and mundane, such things were a source of pleasure and excitement.

Zhao Wu sounded the alarm, as he looked out once again. However, what he saw stunned him again; the enemy squadron was visible to the naked eye.

"Oh? No pirate flag?"

For Zhao Wu to become a spotter, his eyesight was naturally perfect. Although the approaching warship was far away, he could already clearly see the flag that flew on the enemy ship.

"Golden dragon? What kind of flag is that? Is that the legendary Quanzhou Imperial City Squadron?"

Zhao Wu was only an ordinary, low-class commoner. He only knew of the existence of the imperial city because of his occupation as a sailor.

If not, he would only be exposed to Jade Buddha County, this small piece of land. Apart from Quanzhou, Zhao Wu's brain could not think of any other place.

The ships were getting closer and closer!

Zhao Wu could even start to see the soldiers, who were all equipped with their armor.

Under the shine of the sun, the ice cold armor reflected a glaring light into their eyes.

They really were not pirates.

Zhao Wu was already certain that pirates would not have such a soldier formation. Those bunch of scums were all despicable humans, and they did not emit such an aura.

In his heart, a sense of eagerness built up.

"It's not an enemy, not an enemy!"

At the current moment, the deck was in chaos. Without the need for confirmations, the soldiers on board could clearly see the ships charging toward them.

Apart from praying, as a spotter, he could not do anything else.

This kind of feeling where you could only depend on the heavens truly did not feel good.

Unfortunately, his prayers were useless.

In an instant, an arrow rain broke out and turned the Jade Buddha County Navy Unit into a bunch of arrow porcupines.

Unfortunately, Zhao Wu was also hit, right in the heart.

"Wow, I'm really unlucky."

Zhao Wu could not hold on any longer; he fell down from the platform and onto the deck. With a loud smash, he instantly died.

At the last moment, the waist of his girlfriend came to his mind.

"I really want to touch that again!"

In the next moment, he completely fell into the darkness.

The massacre in Jiaozhou Bay started and ended fast.

In less than half an hour, the huge bay, apart from Shanhai City ships, lacked any other perfectly fine warship. Bodies littered with arrows, and broken ships floated on the surface.

Even the nearby fishermen who could not move away in time were stuck too.

"Get to shore and disembark!"

On the Flying Cloud, expressionlessly Zhao Kuo watched the scene unfold in front of him. Such a victory did not mean anything; the real war had not even begun.

"Yes!"

The two large squadrons orderly docked. The first to disembark was naturally the Divine Martial Guards.

The real war had started!

Chapter 467- Sacrificing the Knight to Protect the King

The entire harbor was a total mess.

Wang Feng led the Divine Martial Guards. They stepped onto the wooden boards the placed Flying Cloud placed down and disembarked first.

Jiaozhou Harbor was similar to Beihai Harbor in that both the military and commoners used it. The Jade Buddha County Navy Unit still had two hundred more soldiers guarding the camp.

Only a bunch of fishers remained.

Ouyang Shuo had instructed his troops to not act as mindless killing machines. Unless they really had no choice, they would not massacre defenseless people.

Hence, the moment the Divine Martial Guards disembarked, they charged straight for the navy camp.

Navy soldiers still had combat strength on land. The two squadrons on this trip all disembarked, apart from a portion left behind in the harbor.

If not, solely relying on the Divine Martial Guards, they would not be able to take down Jade Buddha County.

When the two sides fought the naval battle, the troops in the units had already gathered up. Facing the fierce enemy troops, the major wanted to retreat into the city, but he did not dare to do so.

Escaping from battle was a death crime.

Of course, even if they stayed, only slaughter awaited them. In front of the Divine Martial Guards, they were defenseless. After clearing out the soldiers at the harbor, the entire squadron could finally disembark.

The two navy squadrons, apart from those guarding the harbor, could gather into eighteen thousand men to fight on the land.

In addition to the Divine Martial Guards, the had over twenty thousand soldiers. After a short rest, they charged straight for Jade Buddha County.

The current Jade Buddha County was in a state of high alert, the city gates tightly shut. The city protection forces were waiting in formation on the city walls. If they were purely a navy squadron, they really could not do anything to the county, unless they had cannons.

Shanhai City had made preparations for this battle for a long time, so how could they lack arrangements? The enemy waited, only to see arrow towers and scaling ladders taken down from the ships and assembled together.

The hundred odd movable arrow turrets were the key to this battle.

Apart from the sword-shield soldiers, they navy forces were mainly archers.

Thanks to the help of the movable arrow turrets, they suppressed the firepower of the defending troops. The Divine Martial Guards acted as the front unit, using the scaling ladders to climb up the city wall in less than an hour.

Of the Jade Buddha County city protection division, Hefu had taken away five thousand of the elites, so only around eight thousand men remained. Facing a sieging force of around twenty thousand, they should not feel so pressured.

Unfortunately, the opponent that they faced were the Divine Martial Guards, who had taken down the Jiangdong Warriors. Each and every one of them could take on ten alone.

This bunch of warriors trained in hell. The moment they rushed up, the outcome was already predictable.

At 11 AM, the Divine Martial Guards had completely occupied the city wall.

They had broken the defences of Jade Buddha County.

After taking down the county, Zhao Kuo followed Ouyang Shuo’s instructions and did not destroy the stone steele. Instead, he arranged for five hundred Divine Martial Guards to defend the teleportation formation.

In the surroundings, two thousand archers waited.

If Hefu dared to teleport back to try and help, before he even walked out of the formation, arrows would rain on his troops.

Apart from that, Zhao Kuo also arranged for ten thousand soldiers to control the Jade Buddha County city gates, arrow towers, treasury, granary, and other important areas.

The entire county had now fallen under their control.

Meanwhile, one thousand Divine Martial Guards led the remaining soldiers out of the city to destroy the subsidiary territories of Jade Buddha County; they swept the entire territory.

When Jade Buddha County was attacked, Hefu who was thousands of miles away had already received the notification.

At that moment, his face turned ashen white.

His first reaction was to lead his troops back to help out.

He was about to look for Di Qing, but he stopped prior to walking out of the room.

He could not go.

The moment he went back, the entire alliance army would fall apart.

The worst part was that Yun An County was just a territory that Shanhai City had occupied before. As such, the place did not have a teleportation formation. He needed to travel back to return through teleportation.

This was where Baiqi’s genius showed.

When the alliance army came down south, Baiqi had started to consolidate their defenses. He had given up territories they had taken over, making the main camp as the core area to defend.

With that, Baiqi created a situation where the enemy could not directly teleport their troops without alerting the Shanhai City Army. If they teleported reinforcements to the back, the Military Intelligence Division would definitely find out.

Now, the question that remained was whether the alliance army had the courage to cut off all means of retreat and charge ahead.

……

When Hefu summoned Di Qing, the latter felt a little confused.

After the probing attack in the morning, Di Qing had basically confirmed that the enemy main base, Cangcheng County, was the weakest point.

Baiqi had truly played it well.

Unfortunately Di Qing did not fall for it. The prestige of the Asura did not deter or scare him.

Di Qing was already planning to adjust the forces and focus their attack on Cangcheng County. The moment it fell, the enemy would face imminent defeat.

He was highly confident about this battle.

As a result of his careful nature, he would not give the enemy any way back into this.

The moment he discerned the enemy's weakness, he would go all in and destroy them before they could react.

Even the Asura, without soldiers under his control, was like a lion without claws.

The chance to defeat Baiqi on the battlefield caused waves to break out in Di Qing's calm heart.

At this very moment, his Lord had suddenly summoned him.

In his heart, a bad feeling arose. He obtained the commanding rights because of his Lord. Logically, in the current morning, his Lord would not interfere in military matters.

Unless... unless an unthinkable situation had occurred.

Di Qing's premonition came through. When he heard the news that Jade Buddha County had fallen, his mouth widened. His expression was exactly the same as Hefu’s.

"What a genius!"

In his heart, he was not arrogant any longer.

Jade Buddha County was thousands of miles away from Shanhai City. Even by ship, they would need over ten days to cover such a distance. This meant that even before the war started, Shanhai City had planned to attack Jade Buddha County.

In terms of strategic planning, the alliance army had lost.

"What are the Lord's intentions?"

Di Qing looked at Hefu; doubts and questions filled his mind. With his experience, he knew that sending reinforcements would not do anything. Instead, they would just fall into the enemy’s trap.

Jade Buddha County was attacked, but there was no notification of enemy occupation, why?

There were two possibilities.

Firstly, the enemy had failed to take down the county, so it remained under their control.

Secondly, the county had already fallen, but the enemy had not landed the final blow.

Without even thinking, Di Qing dismissed the first option. The generals of Shanhai City were not fools. Since they had planned this out so long ago, how could they fail to bring enough troops?

If they were not confident, why would they even act?

Hence, Di Qing was sure that Jade Buddha County had fallen. If they teleported back now, what awaited them were not their commoners but an arrow rain.

Even so, Di Qing did not dare to directly try and persuade his Lord to give up such an idea. He knew incredibly clearly what a territory meant to a Lord.

In Hefu's heart, he was struggling. He called Di Qing over to ask him to come up with a plan. Hearing Di Qing's question, Hefu sighed. It seems like he was the one who had to make the decision.

"If we don't return, do you have confidence in taking down the Shanhai City Army?"

Hefu looked up at Di Qing solemnly.

When Di Qing heard this question, he felt shocked. He knew that the Lord was giving up his own base and putting it all on this battle.

Weighing everything, Di Qing said carefully, “With the current soldier strength and my deductions of the battlefield, defeating them should not pose a problem. But crushing them or annihilating them is impossible."

Di Qing's reply was full of substance; he did not dare exaggerate anything.

Any false information could adversely affect Hefu’s judgement.

When Hefu heard these words, he had a complicated expression. As expected, Di Qing had not disappointed him. In just two days after he took control, he had found a way to victory.

However, just defeating them was not enough.

Hefu would only give up Jade Buddha County if he could rise up again in Zhaoqing Prefecture. In such a scenario, using Jade Buddha County to exchange for the South of Zhaoqing was worth it.

To be able to gain a footing, he had to decimate and crush the Shanhai City Army. He had to make it so that they could not send another force in a short amount of time.

Only then could he have the time to form up his army and build up his defenses to fight against Shanhai City. Even taking back Jade Buddha County was a possibility.

After hearing the plans of his Lord, Di Qing was speechless.

Ambition filled his words, and he wanted to try and rise up from the ashes.

Now, the key laid within Di Qing’s hands.

After a long silence, and only afterl he considered all elements, Di Chen spoke once more, "Lord, give me another fifty thousand troops, and I will crush them. I can even chase them out of Zhaoqing Prefecture."

"Great!"

Hefu smacked the desk and stood up, "The problem with the number of soldiers, I'll settle it. Matters of the battlefield, I'll hand it to you. I hope that you can do as you say and not disappoint me."

"I'm willing to set a military order. If we don't win, I'll give you my head!"

Di Qing was also exceedingly serious, so he bet his own life on this battle.

Hefu shook his head, "I don't want your head. I want victory, do you understand?" The current Hefu was like a gambling addict, gambling his last chance at survival away.

"Understood!"

Di Qing nodded.

"Go!" Hefu waved his hand in an exhausted manner, his voice hoarse, “At the day after at the latest, fifty thousand troops will rush here!"

Di Qing bowed when he heard these words. Then, he left.

After sending Di Qing away, Hefu walked out of his room. He needed to gather the members of South Alliance to hold an emergency meeting. Moreover, he needed to find a suitable reason to convince them to send more reinforcements.

He knew how difficult this would be.

Sending three thousand troops already approached their limit.

Now, to send another thousand, that was basically cutting at their flesh.

Chapter 468- Chess Master

"I do not agree!"

In the Yun An County Meeting Hall, Yuan Ping was the first to stand up and oppose Hefu's suggestion, "The war is already in our favor. Why increase the troops and raise the risk?"

Although Yuan Ping did not know the reason behind Hefu’s suggestion and the latter’s hidden motives and considerations, he knew based on his gut instincts that he could not let Hefu get what he wanted.

If not, Hefu's influence in the South Alliance would reach a simply unassailable state.

"Lord Yuan is right. Alliance leader, please give us an explanation."

After the Battle of Tianshuang County, one could not underestimate Yuan Ping's influence in South Alliance. Similarly, a bunch of allies in the alliance went up against Hefu.

Hefu had guessed that his allies would oppose the suggestion. Hence, he looked around and repeated Di Qing’s prediction, "Guys, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. If we can crush them, not only will we gain fame in Lingnan Province but the entire China region."

"Apart from that, the entire south of Zhaoqing would be ours for the taking. With that, the losses of this trip would be recouped and even earned back, so why not?"

Hefu wanted to use fame and fortune to drag his allies along with him.

"This is only the judgement of Di Qing alone. What if it fails? Did the alliance leader even consider that if we utilize so many troops, the entire Lingnan Province will fall into chaos in the event that we fail?"

Seeing that Hefu’s words tempted some people, Yuan Ping stepped out once again.

One had to say that Yuan Ping had a good grasp on human nature and the human heart.

A normal Lord would not have the courage and boldness of Hefu. In comparison, they would subconsciously want to mainly protect themselves. During the Battle of Zhaoqing, if Shahai City was not about to reach their doorsteps, South Alliance probably would not have even acted.

"Anything has its risk. How is there anything with complete certainty?"

Hefu was annoyed with Yuan Ping’s attempt to stir up trouble.

"Even if there's a risk, alliance leader should not drag us all down for some personal gain."

Yuan Ping bit on; he did not want to let go. He had the intentions of taking this argument all the way.

When Hefu saw Yuan Ping’s attitude, he knew that there was no meaning in arguing with the latter. As such, why not just go around him, "Since that's the case, this reinforcement is purely voluntary. However, after the victory, the rewards will be based on the number of troops sent. How is that?"

"Great!"

Hefu's suggestion was immediately passed.

If one wanted to take the risk, they could increase their troops. If not, they could choose not to.

The search for riches was always dangerous; no one would force it upon others.

The truth proved that there were still many greedy Lords. In the end, they added a total of sixty thousand troops, surpassing Di Qing's prediction.

When Yuan Ping saw this situation, his expression was one of awkwardness. After all, he had lost once again.

After they dispersed the meeting, the Lords sent letters to the territory, starting to move troops and generals. Tomorrow at the latest, they could gather up at Yun An County.

When Di Qing heard this news, he decided to announce that they would rest for a day and wait for reinforcements. On the 8th month, 22nd day, they would launch their assault on Cangcheng County.

Of course, he would not relax their surveillance of the Shanhai City Army.

8th month, 20th day, Wulong County.

The night was like ink, the light from the stars dim.

In a corner courtyard of the Lord’s Manor. Although it looked unassuming, it was actually heavily guarded.

This courtyard was the place where Ouyang Shuo stayed.

The entire courtyard, apart from Divine Martial Guards, there was not even a single maid or servant. The personal Guards handled all of Ouyang Shuo's food and living matters.

In his eyes, he was fighting a war. Naturally, everything would be done according to military rule. If he arranged for maids and servants and the soldiers saw that, what would they think?

Although they would not say anything, Ouyang Shuo wanted to set a good example. During the period that he stayed in Wulong County, he did not consume a single drop or wine.

Be it nobles or merchants who invited him to feasts, he rejected them all.

Ouyang Shuo had let out the word that now was wartime, so everything should be simple. If they wanted to celebrate, wait until the war was over. Then, he would invite them all.

Not just Ouyang Shuo. Although the tens of thousands of warriors he brought along took over the defence of Wulong County, they were polite and did not do anything unbecoming toward the commoners in the city.

The warriors of Shanhai City were all professionals with huge salaries. If they still killed and pillaged to earn extra money, Ouyang Shuo would kill them.

Especially the Guards Division. As the personal army of the Lord, they faced even harsher discipline.

As a result, the commoners of Wulong County felt a sense of security from the presence of the Shanhai City Army, rather than fear.

Just based on this point, Ouyang Shuo had gained a good reputation in the county.

The huge courtyard was completely quiet. It was like a different world, with no noise at all.

The bustle and hustle of the outside world seemed to have no relation with this place.

In the main room, through the window, one could see a orange-yellow glow, warm but quiet. The Divine Martial Guards that were on duty tonight felt their hearts warm when they looked through the window.

They could see a man sitting up straight, reading books.

Ouyang Shuo sat in front of the table, as he dealt with all the letters that were sent here.

Amongst the letters, there were battle reports from Zhao Kuo, Baiqi, and even the latest meeting decisions from Spicy Snack Prince.

Hefu definitely would not expect that even within the alliance, Ouyang Shuo still had eyes. Every action of the South Alliance was relayed back to Ouyang Shuo through letters.

If there was a need to, Ouyang Shuo would send the intel over to Baiqi. For example, the reinforcement matter today and Di Qing's plan, Baiqi was clear about all of it.

Apart from that, there were letters from Xiao He regarding territory matters, asking for his opinion and help.

The letters on his table had stacked up to one foot high.

Apart from letters, there was secret information from the Shanhai Guards and the Black Snake Guards.

As there were simply too many matters to handle, Ouyang Shuo could only burn the midnight oil.

All of the things that had happened today were simply too much; too many changes had occurred.

Ouyang Shuo personally sat in charge of Wulong County and looked at the eye of the storm that was so far away. In truth, he was the heart of this entire war. Any movement could not escape his eyes.

The current Ouyang Shuo was not a rash Lord that dashed in head first. He was a true Lord that no matter could shock.

His heart was calm like water as he planned tactics.

Be it Baiqi, Zhao Kuo, or Xiao He, they were all chess pieces of Ouyang Shuo.

He had expected the fall of Jade Buddha County. Only the reaction of Hefu exceeded his projections. The surprises that Hefu had given him had already surpassed his expectations three times.

He was a truly interesting opponent.

In this game of chess, Hefu had bet everything. Unfortunately, he was not the chess master.

In the morning, Du Sijing followed Ouyang Shuo's instructions and sent out the emergency signal. Based on the secret letters of the Black Snake Guards, the fifty thousand iron cavalry were on their way.

This noon at the latest, the army would reach Wulong County.

The arrangements of Hefu were a step late in the end. Who knows what Hefu's reaction and expression would be when he learns that his back garden was on fire.

Ouyang Shuo could not see through such a gambler.

That was fine, as the situation on the battlefield had already reached his planned state. He was the true chess master. No matter how Hefu struggled, he could not escape.

At this very moment, Huwei General Lin Yi asked to meet Ouyang Shuo.

"Come in!"

The moment Lin Yi entered, he bowed, "Lord, everything is arranged!"

After the trainings of the few wars, this general had matured greatly, roughly having the feeling of a great general. This young general was slowly completing his transformation.

"Okay!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded and continued dealing with the letters.

When Lin Yi heard this response, he left and lightly closed the door, disappearing into the night.

"Quick, keep up!"

On the road toward Wulong County, dust flew into the air.

Fifty thousand iron cavalry galloped across the land. Amongst the forces, there were occasionally the shouts of the generals.

Qu Yi rode on his prized mount at the front of the force.

During the end of the East Han, Qu Yi was a general under Yuan Shao. He was good at battling and earned many battle merits. In the earlier years at Qiongzhou, he was well-versed in war and tactics, leading Yuan Shao's elite forces.

In the end, because he grew arrogant from all his achievements, Yuan Shao killed him.

In the game, Qu Yi was summoned by players through the summoning token and appeared once more. Defending the backline was the mission handed to him.

For a few consecutive days, the north of Zhaoqing remained incredibly peaceful.

Qu Yi was so restless and bored that he would rather just charge to the main battlefield and fight a real war.

When he received Wulong County’s call for help, his energy perked, and he immediately gathered his men and charged. He wanted to see which idiot dared to fool around in his territory.

"Faster!"

Qu Yi slapped his horse and scolded the men behind him. After many years of leading the cavalry, he had earned a vast experience in cavalry warfare. Such quick movement of troops was normal; it was like eating rice to him.

However, he had forgotten that the soldiers he was leading were just ordinary soldiers of the alliance army, not the elite under Yuan Shao.

Rushing day and night was something that some of the cavalry could not handle.

Seeing that, Qu Yi remained merciless.

During the period of the Three Kingdoms, soldiers were the property of the generals. If they died, they could just recruit more men. During a chaotic world, soldiers commonly thirsted to join the army. At the very least, they could get food in the army.

10 AM, Wulong County was already in their sights.

Amazingly, Qu Yi had actually reached them two hours earlier than anticipated.

Chapter 469- String of Plans

"General, that's Wulong County."

The vanguard general arrived beside Qu Yi and pointed at the city a distance away.

Qu Yi looked over, only to see a city standing tall. However, its city walls looked torn and tattered, like the aftermath of a huge war.

"That's bad, are we a step too late?" Qu Yi frowned, “Go, let's go take a look!"

As they proceeded forward, they could see the drawbridge of the city protection river broken and dangling on the shore. The city gate stood slightly ajared, and on the floor, there were dried up blood stains that had not been cleaned up.

"General, what should we do?"

The situation in front of him had greatly exceeded his expectations.

"Lets enter the city and take a look."

"This…." the vanguard general thought for a moment, "General, to prevent a possible plot, let me bring some men to take a look first!"

"Okay!"

Qu Yi had been through hundreds of battles, so he was not a rash person at such times.

The vanguard general brought with him two hundred iron cavalry, preparing to cross the city protection river. At this very moment, the city gates suddenly opened and out came ten odd men on horses. Their leader was a civil servant.

When the vanguard officer saw these people, he pulled back on his horse.

The civil servant crossed the city protection river and rushed to the front of the army. Then, he dismounted, "Wulong County Minister Du Sijing greets general."

Before the Lords situated north of Zhaoqing headed out for battle, they had all left a minister behind to handle matters. These ministers were all registered with Qu Yi.

Qu Yi recalled his name and believed that he was in fact the minister of Wulong County. He did not dismount from his horse. Instead, he pointed at the blood on the city gates and asked, "Mr. Du, what is this? You sent out the emergency signal, so where's the enemy?"

"This matter is a long one; let's speak in the city."

"Okay, lead the way!"

After confirming Du Sijing’s identity, Qu Yi had basically lowered his guard. He definitely would not expect that Du Sijing was on Shanhai City's side.

This entry into the city was one of no return. However, Qu Yi did not know that.

Since they had fifty thousand troops, they naturally could not all enter. Qu Yi led two hundred personal guards in, while the remaining soldiers set up camp outside of the city.

Du Sijing rode on a warhorse and followed beside Qu Yi. Seeing that Qu Yu was enjoying the sights and welcome of the commoners, he felt sad and empathy for the latter.

The plotting ability of the Lianzhou Lord were simply too terrifying; he considered even the smallest of details.

Be it the broken drawbridge, the blood stains on the city gates, or the welcoming commoners, all these matter were planned out.

The goal was to let Qu Yi completely lower his guard.

With such an interruption, it was already noon.

Du Sijing had arranged a feast in the Lord's Manor to welcome Qu Yi.

At the same time, he also arranged men to send wine and dishes to the soldiers outside. After rushing all day, the fifty thousand cavalry were all famished. With such good food before them, they naturally felt delighted.

The military had their rules; the army camped outside the city could not accept the food of the people inside. If they wanted to eat, they could only consume the rations they brought and drink water.

As for drinking wine, that was prohibited.

However, Du Sijing’s welcome was just too warm. He said that this gesture was the good intentions of the people in the city. He did not want Qu Yi to reject them. If not, they would feel uneasy, and it was like Qu Yi was looking down on them.

Facing such words, Qu Yi could not say anything; he could only agree.

Since their general agreed, the fifty thousand soldiers naturally feasted. They took out all their exhaustion and hunger on the dishes and wine.

Qu Yi himself was the same. He drank wine and bit into a drumstick, looking exceedingly rough and unkempt.

"Speak. What exactly happened?"

Qu Yi was still responsible, and he had not forgotten his role.

"A day ago, a two thousand strong enemy army attacked Wulong County. My men and I tried our best, and we barely fended them off. We did not expect that the enemy general would say that they were only the vanguard forces, and that more troops would come tomorrow. I did not dare take him lightly. As such, I asked for help."

Qu Yi nodded, "I see. What's the background of the enemy?"

"As for their specific background, I do not know. They were wearing a black armor without any flags."

"Black armor?" Qu Yi also had no idea, "No matter who it is, if he dares to come, he will not leave."

"On behalf of all the people, I thank the general!"

When Du Sijing heard these words, he hurriedly stood up and bowed.

Qu Yi waved him off. He was an old brute and did not care about such customs.

Suddenly, a servant walked in.

"Sir, someone wants to meet you!"

"Let him wait. Can’t you see that I'm with the general?"

Du Sijing raged.

"But he said that it's an emergency and needs to tell you face-to-face."

"No!"

Du Sijing rejected.

Sigh, this time, Qu Yi spoke, "Mr. Du, just go."

Qu Yi waved his hand impatiently, as he grabbed a drumstick and chomped down.

When Du Sijing saw this response, he got up and left. He did not return.

The feast was held in one of the courtyards in the east of the Lord’s Manor. The Guards that Qu Yi had brought along all stood guard in the courtyard.

Just as he left, hundreds of bowmen and crossbowmen suddenly appeared on the four walls of the courtyard. Each one grasped a god-arm crossbow, and they fired a round at the guards.

Instantly, cries of pain broke out.

"What happened?"

Qu Yi was also highly alert, and he immediately picked up his weapon and charged out. He did not even bother wiping the oil on the sides of his mouth. The sudden sneak attack had caused them heavy casualties and less than fifty of the men remained.

"It's a trap!"

Qu Yi was stunned, and his face turned ashen white.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

"Charge out with me!"

Qu Yi knew that if they tried to fight here, only death awaited them. Their only path to survival was to charge out and gather with the troops outside.

Although the chance was slim, it was his only choice. He courageously charged out under the protection of his few remaining guards.

Just at this moment, the doors of the courtyard opened up and a bunch of armored soldiers charged in.

They were the personal Guards of Ouyang Shuo, the two hundred Divine Martial Guards.

Qu Yi's personal Guards were not a match for the Divine Martial Guards.

The only tough opponent was Qu Yi himself, as he was a King Rank general.

His opponent was not anyone else but Ouyang Shuo.

"Who are you? Say your name, who dares to act so despicable?"

Qu Yi engaged with Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo wielded the Tianmo Spear in his hand, as he matched Qu Yi without too much difficulty, "Listen up, I do not change my name or my surname; I am the Lianzhou Lord."

"What?"

When Qu Yi heard these words, he was astonished and knew that he had no way out.

The name of the Lianzhou Lord was famous in the entire Lingnan Province. As a general, Qu Yi had naturally heard of him. For him to appear in Wulong County, the consequences were dire.

"Lord, I'm willing to surrender!"

At this crucial moment, Qu Yi was able to think smartly.

Ouyang Shuo laughed coldly, "Unfortunately, I do not accept your surrender!"

"You!"

Qu Yi felt infuriated and utterly humiliated.

"Since that's the case, give me your life!"

Qu Yi was a man after all, so he decided to give it his all.

The two of them fought one another, creating a dazzling scene.

Unfortunately, the current Ouyang Shuo was not some weakling. Facing this King Rank general was nothing to him. After fifty rounds, Qu Yi died under his spear.

Ouyang Shuo did not think about recruiting him. First, he was arrogant in history and Ouyang Shuo did not favor him. Secondly, for him to surrender in such circumstances, his loyalty was questionable.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo would rather just kill him and obtain a general soul.

In less than half an hour, they took out the remaining guards.

Needless to say, this was all a trap. When Qu Yi received the emergency signal, the fates of his fifty thousand men and himself were already set.

Apart from surrounding Qu Yi, outside of the city, Lin Yi’s Guards Division had already engaged the enemy camp.

After traveling a long distance, these fifty thousand troops were enjoying a feast, so they were caught totally unprepared. Needless to say, the food they had sent contained extra ingredients that would made the eater weak.

Facing a trump card force like the Guards Division, the fifty thousand iron cavalry could only surrender.

After killing Qu Yi, Ouyang Shuo brought the personal Guards back to the meeting hall. In less than an hour, Lin Yi returned to report.

"Lord, of the fifty thousand cavalry, we killed twelve thousand. We captured and locked the rest in the city barracks, apart from a small number that escaped."

Lin Yi's efficiency was incredibly high.

"Not bad." Ouyang Shuo nodded his head, pleased, "Follow the plan!"

"Understood!"

Lin Yi backed down to handle the future matters.

Just taking down the fifty thousand cavalry, Ouyang Shuo naturally would not feel pleased. His goal was to attack Tianshuang County and cut off the enemy’s grain supply.

Tianshuang County was a stronghold, and they even had an army defending it.

Although the Guards Division was strong, without siege weapons, it was a useless endeavour.

Hence, he could only plot.

Ouyang Shuo had designed a string of plans for this matter.

Taking down Qu Yi was only the first step. In just two hours, the Guards Division had taken off their Mingguang Armor and equipped themselves with Qu Yi's army's armor.

Apart from that, they swapped out their identity tokens, flags, and miscellaneous items.

Ouyang Shuo was trying to make use of information and time difference.

The news of the iron cavalry falling definitely would not spread so quickly. As such, the Guards Division would disguise themselves and attack Tianshuang County.

Chapter 470- Baiqi Loses Cangcheng

8th month, 22nd day, Yun An County.

After a few consecutive gloomy days, it was finally sunny today. The clear sky contained no clouds for thousands of miles.

Outside of Yun An County, three well-equipped armies were ready to go.

Yesterday afternoon, the sixty thousand reinforcements troops that South Alliance had transferred over reached Yun An County. At that point, the originally unassuming Yun An County had gathered 280 thousand troops.

The entire county instantly became a giant army barracks.

Apart from the soldiers, there were the commoners in charge of logistics. Apart from them, there were no other people. Be it the Black Snake Guards or the Military Intelligence Division, neither could infiltrate Yun An County.

Members of South Alliance stood on the city wall and focused on the army that was about to set out. Each and every one of them felt confident.

During the rest period yesterday, the three cities opposite them did not have any movements. This meant that the Shanhai City Army would not receive any reinforcements.

Victory was right in front of them.

The famous Asura was unable to stop the determination of the alliance army.

The only unharmonious matter would be that Spicy Snack Prince had left the troops at night and disappeared into the wilderness.

After destroying Qu Yi's troops, Ouyang Shuo did not go too far. He ordered Du Sijing to write a letter to Spicy Snack Prince, asking him to find a chance to leave.

Luckily, Spicy Snack Prince was not a famous figure in the alliance, so his disappearance was not a hot topic.

The eyes of the alliance army only saw the imminent battle.

During the night, Di Qing had burned the midnight oil to plan for the battle.

280 thousand troops, on the left and right routes, he planned for eighty thousand troops to monitor Yaogu County and Genglou County. The remaining 120 thousand would charge straight for the command base of Shanhai City—Cangcheng County.

He focused all of the siege weapons that the alliance army brought on the middle.

Di Qing wanted to take down Cangcheng County with breakneck speed. He would not give the enemy any chance.

After a simple morale rouser, the troops moved out simultaneously.

The commander, Di Qing, personally led the middle route troops, as they pushed forward valiantly toward Cangcheng County.

At noon, the army had already reached the outskirts of Cangcheng County. At this point, they reached the camp that the alliance army had set up the day before. Di Qing ordered his troops to take a slight rest before they attacked in the afternoon.

……

On the Cangcheng County city wall, Baiqi stood at his familiar position, as he once again looked out.

The opposition army waltzed forward, and they did not bother to hide their tracks.

Water far away was not able to quench your thirst.

The victory at Wulong County was not able to save the dangerous situation at Cangcheng County. Baiqi had already made preparations to give up Cangcheng County. To try something when you know it was not possible did not fit his fighting style.

Defeat; this was a defeat.

However, before he left, he wanted to give his opponent a hefty lesson.

……

The attack in the afternoon went as predicted, perhaps surprisingly smoothly.

Although the army that defended Cangcheng County remained stubborn, they were helpless against the huge number of enemies. Under the relentless assault, they were forced back in defeat.

2 PM, the city protection river fell.

5 PM, the north city wall fell. 5:30 PM, the north city gate fell.

Shanhai City had chosen to give up on this base in the end, and they exited through the south gate. After this large-scale war, of the ten thousand city protection division members, only around two thousand survived.

The Tianshuang County city protection division would probably become history.

The alliance army was like a flood, swarming in through the north gate and completing their occupation of Cangcheng County.

This was a historical moment.

This was the first time the Shanhai City Army had lost their base in a battlefield and was forced to escape.

The name of Di Qing would be remembered in history.

Just with this one battle, South Alliance would gain fame.

Once they received the news that Cangcheng County had fallen, Yun An County was delighted and celebrated wildly.

Members of South Alliance had already started the festivities. Some had arranged for players to teleport back to their territories to remove the channel and forum restrictions, as they prepare to brag about this feat.

Even the calm and composed Hefu could not help but cheer out loud.

The result of this battle pushed Hefu's reputation and position in the alliance to the peak. He had solidified his position as the alliance leader. His prestige in South Alliance was somewhat comparable to Ouyang Shuo’s in Shanhai Alliance.

Members of South Alliance were already discussing how to split the spoils of war. The ten plus cities were like a massive cake waiting for them to cut up.

A sense of regret filled those members that did not send reinforcements.

A crazy atmosphere enveloped the entire alliance.

Apart from members of South Alliance, the Lords of the north of Zhaoqing Prefecture were also delighted. This victory meant that their territories were safe.

These Lords only stopped short of putting up fireworks to celebrate.

Luckily, Spicy Snack Prince was not in Yun An County. If he was present, he would be petrified.

……

Cangcheng County.

Surrounded by all the Lords, Di Qing walked into the city with his chest held high.

"Commander, do you want to give chase?"

One of the generals excitedly ran in front of Di Qing and asked.

"No." Di Qing shook his head, firmly declining, "The enemy still has a hidden division that has yet to appear. If we, chase we might fall into a trap."

Although Di Qing felt excited, victory did not cloud his mind, and he remained calm.

"Commander is intelligent!"

Di Qing's judgement amazed the Lords. To say that he was exceedingly careful in using troops was not an exaggeration.

Occupying Cangcheng County, breaking the enemy formation, and breaking their spirit. At this point, he had reached his strategic goal. He did not want to do anything more and risk losing.

Now, the initiative of the war laid firmly in their hands.

Based on Di Qing’s style, they should fight calmly and not give the enemy any chance to turn the situation around.

In truth, there were no hidden troops outside of the city. Even under such circumstances, Baiqi did not make use of Luo Shixin's division.

After a few rounds of battle, Baiqi had a rough understanding of Di Qing's character. He was careful in using troops, and he would not blindly give chase.

In comparison, Baiqi was still a skill level higher. A god general was a god general. Apart from combat strength, a god general also had the ability to recognize the character of the enemy and subsequently exploiting it.

Baiqi had set up this hidden move within the city but not for the sake of a sneak attack. With the character of Baiqi, since they were going to fight, he wanted to maim the enemy. Small fights were not his style.

……

After taking down Cangcheng County, the remaining a hundred thousand troops all entered.

Night, Cangcheng County, Lord's Manor.

The Lord's Manor was once the command center of the Shanhai City Army and where Baiqi worked. Now, the owner of the manor changed hands to Di Qing.

After settling the troops, Di Qing once again held a meeting to discuss the war that would happen tomorrow.

After taking down Cangcheng County, the alliance army had two choices. Firstly, attack Yaogu County on the west, or secondly, attack Genglou County on the east.

On the surface, Yaogu County had two divisions and held the strength advantage. Hence, some general suggested to coordinate with the right route army to take down Genglou County before surrounding Yaogu County.

Di Qing did not see the matter in the same way.

"Tomorrow, we should focus all our strength and destroy Yaogu County. Their two divisions are the core of their strength. If they fall, they would only have one division left."

Di Qing's voice was still so calm and low, "On the contrary, if we attack Genglou County first, the troops in Yaogu County can create problems if they retreat or launch a counterattack. Genglou County is different. Since it only has one division, they cannot cause any huge waves."

"Commander is a genius!"

Di Qing nodded, ready to give out the military orders.

Suddenly, screams and shouts sounded out from outside the door.

"Commander, Commander it's bad."

"Who’s making noise outside; bring them up!"

When Di Qing heard these words, he felt furious. He could not stand when his men did not follow the rules.

The shouting soldier was dragged into the meeting hall.

"Speak, what has happened?"

"Commander it’s bad; there's a fire!"

The guard had totally freaked out; it was like his soul had left his body.

"What fire? Where?"

Di Qing was merciful; he was not too harsh on the soldier.

"The city, everywhere…."

Dang!

The teacup in Di Qing's hand instantly dropped onto the floor and smashed into pieces.

Asura Baiqi!

This turn of events had happened too quickly.

It had just turned dark, and the alliance army was having their meals in the barracks.

Since the enemy had just entered and the situation was still chaotic, the Shanhai City daredevil squad hidden all over the county took the chance to appear, and they lit up the timber they had prepared.

Instantly, flames rose up to the heavens.

The entire Cangcheng County turned into a sea of flames.

The fire mainly spread to the four city gates.

The houses in Cangcheng County were mainly composed of wood. The flames were like merciless death gods, as they turned the county into an ocean of fire.

Amongst the flames, numerous screams pierced the ear.

Under the protection of the generals, Di Qing struggled to escape from the city.

The alliance army soldiers and the people within the city were not as lucky as him.

The fire had spread too quickly, and it was all too sudden.

The flames blocked all the roads and exits, and there was no way out.

Apart from that, along with the fire, the rising black smoke was also akin to a death god. Numerous people suffocated to death within the billowing smoke.

"Baiqi, you mad man!"

Looking at the huge flaming county, Di Qing cried out.

To kill the alliance army, Baiqi had dragged along hundreds of thousands of civilians with them.

Killer!

Asura!

Utilizing such a cruel method to gain victory, Baiqi announced the return of the Asura.

Post battle calculations showed that less than twenty thousand alliance army troops had escaped. Including the civilians in the city, a total of 140 to 150 thousand people had died in one night.

The entire Cangcheng County had completely burned to dust.

Baiqi and his cold heart used a massive fire to turn the battle around.

After the battle ended, the after effects were serious to the extreme.

From that day onward, whenever Ouyang Shuo toured Zhaoqing Prefecture and got near Cangcheng County, he would take another route. He was afraid that the moment he appeared, the commoners would try to tear him to shreds.

Chapter 471- Han Xin's Shocking One Shot

If one said that the fire that Asura Baiqi ignited in Cangcheng County created a nightmare for Di Qing and South Alliance, one had to say that their nightmare was far from over.

8th month, 23rd day, Genglou County.

Early in the morning, before nature had awakened and the wilderness was still utterly silent. Dew gathered on the branches and formed small droplets, which shone like crystals under the morning light.

The camp of the left road troops of the alliance army was similarly silent. Yesterday afternoon, the news of the victory had spread to the camp, and the entire left road troops relaxed.

The only shocker was probably the flames that rose up from Cangcheng County’s direction at night.

However, because the two cities were too far away, they did not know what had happened in Cangcheng County. They might even think that the people there were starting a campfire to celebrate the victory.

Suddenly, the thunderous sounds of horse hooves and birds scared from their tree perches shattered the tranquil atmosphere.

Large quantities of morning dew splattered around, as the warhorses trampled over them. It was like a vivid and peaceful ink painting had suddenly transformed into a boisterous troupe.

The smell of smoke rose in the air.

Han Xin, who had not moved his troops yet, finally showed his claws. He struck the enemy at their weakest moment.

This was Han Xin, the assassin that no one could predict. Facing a prey, Han Xin had enough patience. Moreover, he had unrivalled decisiveness and insight.

It was okay if he did not strike, but if he did, his one strike would be deadly.

When he received Baiqi’s letter last night, Han Xin had already planned for this stunning strike.

The 1st division of the Leopard Legion that stayed in Genglou County rushed out, working with the 2nd division of the Dragon Legion outside of the city to suddenly assault the left route troops of the alliance army.

Two divisions, one north and one south, pincering the enemy completely.

The enemy camp was just a temporary base, and they did not even have wooden walls. Numerous tents were scattered around, and it was like a refugee camp.

The two huge armies were like knives. At their fastest speeds, they charged into the camp.

The camp, which was silent moments ago, suddenly became boisterous. The shouts of the patrolling soldiers, the sounds of the officers asking them to gather, and the neighs of the horses. When all these noises combined together, it would make one annoyed.

The left route army, which were deep in slumber moments ago, hurriedly put on their ice cold armor under the scolding of their officers. They picked up their spears and walked out of the tent, ready to face their enemy.

The entire camp became a hot mess.

The soldiers could not find their horses, and the soldiers could not find their officers.

The left route army, who hurriedly tried to put up a resistance upon facing the elites of Shanhai City, had no retaliation ability. The Shanhai City Army chased away the entire eighty thousand men alliance army like sheep.

The war horses neighed, and blood boiled on the battlefield.

Luo Shixin led the Cavalry Division, the elite force that was only second to the Guards Division. The tens of thousands of golden armored cavalry were like gods, as they unleashed all the anger that had pent up over these past few days.

Spears struck out, and the blades glinted under the light.

The godly troops had descended!

Under Luo Shixin's command, the cavalry split up and attacked, slicing the entire camp into pieces. The alliance army could not even gather together.

The golden armored cavalry would quickly disperse any group that managed to gather into groups of above a thousand.

The light armored infantry cavalry mixed division were not to be outshone. In the camp, they proceeded calmly and attacked together, dragging numerous enemies into the depths of hell.

When the battle reached such a situation, the alliance army was unable to form up any form of retaliation. Even if Di Qing was present, he would not be able to do anything. Much less the current general, who was just a normal general.

He did not have the ability to obtain victory from this chaos, nor did he possess the prestige necessary to help the army regain their footing.

Over ten armies originally formed up this entire army. In such a negative situation, this weakness was exposed, and they instantly became a bunch of scattered dirt.

Each army started to fight for themselves.

In the chaos, the soldiers subconsciously grouped up with the other soldiers from their territory.

The more such events occurred, the more chaotic the situation grew.

The General was unable to gain a grasp of the situation, and he was unable to command the troops. The moment an army lost contact with the commanding core, it would just collapse.

In the end, it was a full-scale collapse.

Tens of thousands of soldiers cried out, as they were utterly crushed. Some even threw down their helmets and armor to try and escape.

Just like that, they completely defeated the left side of the alliance army.

Han Xin’s knife was fast and accurate.

During this battle, the Shanhai City Army had killed fifteen thousand men and captured over forty thousand. The entire left side of the alliance army was only left with twenty thousand cavalry, who had escaped to Yun An County battered and bruised.

It was not over yet.

Han Xin ordered Wei Zhang's division to take charge of cleaning up the battlefield and collecting prisoners. Luo Shixin's division would continue to give chase. If possible, they would take down Yun An County in one fell swoop.

One must know that the current Yun An County did not have a single soldier. The moment the Shanhai City Army broke the left side of the alliance army, a straight road to victory laid before them.

Han Xin wanted to treat them like how they tried to treat him. He desired to take away all their hope.

Luo Shixin led the Cavalry Division and chased. Just like how one would peel an onion, they took down the twenty thousand alliance army layer by layer.

Numerous soldiers fell off their horses and formed a road similar to hell.

The cavalry of the alliance army could only blame their warhorses for being too slow. They did not even think about the fact that their remaining numbers were much more than Luo Shixin's division.

They had completely lost their fight and determination, so they did not dare to retaliate.

Their only thought was to run and to run with all their life.

As long as they ran faster than their associates, they would have the chance to survive.

Along the way, many tragedies played out. On some narrow roads, for the numerous cavalry to quickly pass, they kicked their friends and partners down from their horses.

Turning on one's brothers….

When they had reached the outskirts of Yun An County, they only had half their numbers left.

If Di Qing did not lead the remnants of the middle troops and return in the nick of time to Yun An County, it would have probably fallen.

Han Xin’s strike had pushed the alliance army to the end of the road.

Luo Shixin led his men and did a round around the city. Upon seeing that there was no chance to lay siege, he led his men and left.

He had finally vented the anger and frustration in his heart

On the city wall, members of South Alliance heaved a sigh of relief when they saw the cavalry leave. They immediately ordered the right side troops to return to Yun An County.

Yun An County, Lord's Manor.

Dead silence.

An atmosphere filled with despair and a sense of defeat permeated the hall, bearing heavily down on them.

Members of South Alliance, including the Lords in the north of Zhaoqing Prefecture, had finally experienced the feeling of dropping down from heaven to hell. The higher you climb, the harder you fall.

Yesterday afternoon, they were still celebrating their historical victory, dancing and singing away. The moment they woke, they found out that the entire world had turned on its head, and they were now stuck in dire straits.

Thinking about how they told their men to prepare to brag about their victory on the forums, the Lords felt utterly embarrassed.

Loss of face, a huge loss of face!

This time, South Alliance had truly gained ‘fame’ in the China region.

If one said that the loss of the middle troops broke their wings; then the lost of the left side troops had pushed them down into hell.

In just one day, the 280 thousand alliance army troops were reduced to less than 110 thousand, less than half of their original numbers.

Victory could cover up embarrassment.

However, the moment they lost, these embarrassing moments would jump out to the forefront.

The first people to create problems were the members of South Alliance.

Under Yuan Ping's instructions, his cronies stepped up and openly chided the commander, Di Qing.

"The loss of Cangcheng County is all because of the army’s misjudgment. After victory, the commander let down his guard. The enemy had set up such a trap, and the middle troops completely failed to notice. Truly an unforgivable mistake."

"That's right. This time, as the commander, Di Qing, needs to step up and take responsibility."

"I agree!"

"He must be heavily punished!"

"The army losing its advantage, the commander is useless!"

All of a sudden, voices that scolded Di Qing filled the hall.

Everyone knew that just yesterday afternoon, in the same place, the same bunch of people had praised Di Qing up to the heavens. They even said that he was a god general better than Baiqi.

In the blink of an eye, he became the target of everyone’s insults.

Scolding Di Qing was in fact also scolding Hefu, who stood behind him. Yuan Ping wanted to take the chance to drag down Hefu from the leader spot.

Hefu sat at the main seat, completely expressionless. He only used his gaze to stop Di Qing from talking. He knew that at this time, whatever he said was wrong, so he might as well just not say anything.

Within the alliance, Hefu also had his aides. Some people might go against him, but some would support him.

"Who would have thought that Asura Baiqi would be so cold and merciless, killing an entire county of people? Hence, this defeat is just an accident. General Di Qing’s strategy was correct. The only problem was that we underestimated the thinking of Baiqi."

"That's right."

"How is he not to blame? At the very least, he should be blamed for misjudging the situation, right?"

All of a sudden, the entire hall fell into a mess.

The alliance was merely inches away from collapse.

No matter what one did, this defeat had cause Hefu to lose all his say in the alliance.

After Yuan Ping observed the situation, he did not say anything more. After all, his goal was to pull Hefu down, not for the alliance to collapse.

If that was the case, it would be a loss-loss situation, and no one would benefit.

One had to mention that Yuan Ping, this descendant of an aristocratic family, was much better than Song Wen. His actions and knowledge were much better than a normal person.

If he had the chance, rising up to the top was not completely impossible.

Chapter 472- Hiding from Everyone

"Everyone!"

Yuan Ping stood up, attracting the attention of all the people in the hall. Many of them thought that Yuan Ping was planning to personally create problems for Hefu.

The atmosphere in the hall grew more and more serious.

"Everyone." Yuan Ping looked around, "Everyone, please listen to me. Now is not the time to chase responsibility. The most crucial question is, what do we do now?"

The moment his words sounded out, the hall fell silent.

All of their moods instantly became heavy, and they all lost the mood to quarrel.

That's right, what should the alliance army do now?

At this point, they had two choices.

Firstly, they could continue to reinforce the troops and go all in against Shanhai City.

Although the alliance army had suffered heavy loses, they still had deep pockets after all. The 110 thousand troops that remained were twice the numbers of the Shanhai City Army.

If they gritted their teeth, they could take the fight.

Secondly, they could accept the defeat and escape.

The back side of the alliance army was still stable for now. As such, if they chose to retreat, the Shanhai City Army could not do anything about them. However, this had a downside—if they did so, South Alliance could never raise their heads again.

Apart from the problem of face, there were also strategic considerations.

The moment the alliance army retreated, the fall of Zhaoqing would be imminent. The moment they lost this barrier, the other few prefectures in Lingnan Province would be at risk.

Hence, in a long term standpoint, retreating would not be a good idea.

Unexpectedly, the majority of the Lords decided to retreat. Baiqi and Han Xin’s two strikes had blinded these Lords, causing them to lose all their courage.

They only saw the actual threat in front of them. As for the long term implications, there was still time, so who knows what would happen?

Typical ostrich mentality.

"Everyone, the longer this war drags on, the more beneficial it is for them. They will have enough time to gather more troops to attack us. At that time, even if we want to escape, it would be too late. Why not just leave now and keep our losses to a minimum? Our side has low morale, so if we leave, we can wait till the spirits rise to have a final fight with them. This strategic retreat will give us the chance to deal a heavy blow to Shanhai City in the future. No matter what, we have taken down Cangcheng County in this battle and forced Baiqi to escape, so we have already attained good achievements."

"Well said!"

Yuan Ping's words gained the approval of everyone.

This fellow's eloquence was truly commendable. Based on Yuan Ping’s’ words, the alliance army had not lost, and they had won this encounter instead.

Although Yuan Ping hated Ouyang Shuo to the core, he still supported the decision to retreat. He had his own plans. Despite their side losing this battle, it was not all bad for the alliance.

From this battle, it was enough for them to realize the terrifying strength of Shanhai City. When they returned to their territory, they would definitely increase their preparations.

Apart from that, they would band together.

Under the suppression of Shanhai City, not only would South Alliance not disband, it would even grow closer, increasing their cooperations with one another. For example, the city-state system that Hefu had used in the last life might come to work.

With this, Yuan Ping would have a chance to rise up. In the alliance, the prestige of Hefu had plummeted to the ground. Naturally, Yuan Ping now had a chance to win the position of alliance leader.

If he could lead the alliance and successfully build up the city-state system, he could solidify his position. Not only in Lingnan Province, but even the entire China region.

Most importantly, only this move could grant him the capital to go against Ouyang Shuo.

Hence, Yuan Ping resolutely decided to retreat.

Thanks to Yuan Ping rallying and motivating them, even some neutrals chose to join the retreat camp.

Of course, there were obviously some who insisted on staying, like Hefu for example. His territory had already fallen, so he had no way back. Taking down the south of Zhaoqing was his only hope.

The moment his territory fell, Hefu had already lost the way of return.

Unfortunately, Hefu's words held no weight now.

As time moved on and both sides continued their debate, the people who supported leaving gradually gained an overwhelming advantage.

Just as Yuan Ping was ready to enjoy the fruits of this small victory, a shout jolted everyone's senses.

"We cannot leave!"

This shout was incredibly loud, so it immediately attracted everyone's attention.

Looking over, the ones who spoke up was one of the Zhaoqing Prefecture Lords, who had not made a sound till this point. For South Alliance to retreat, the Zhaoqing Prefecture Lords would naturally not agree. If they left, that meant that they would be left alone against Shanhai City.

"This brother, it seems like you do not understand the situation."

A member of the South Alliance stepped up and mocked, "In the end, our South Alliance came down as a form of humanitarian help. Why? The Lords of Zhaoqing Prefecture still dare to order us around? We will leave if we want to. Can you even stop us?"

"That's right; we only came to help!"

The attitudes of the South Alliance members were atrocious, and they instantly angered the Lords of Zhaoqing Prefecture. The honeymoon period between the two sides was about to end.

"Sh*t teammate!"

When Yuan Ping heard these words, he shook his head.

It is okay if you want to back off, but why sprinkle salt onto their wounds?

That is so stupid.

The Zhaoqing Lord that had spoken up stepped out once again, his tone similarly mocking, "The way I see it, you're the one that does not understand the situation. If you want to leave, we will not stop you. However, our teleportation formation is reserved for friends only. If you are not our friends, you can just walk back yourself!"

"...."

These words left the South Alliance members speechless.

This was when they realized something they had forgotten in the heat of the moment. The teleportation formations were still in the hands of the north region Zhaoqing Prefecture Lords. If they did not agree to help, South Alliance could not teleport out.

This time, they had lost all their face.

Hefu looked on, as he coldly watched these developments.

A bunch of idiots!

This was great, they broke the bridge and even harmed themselves in the process.

"Brother, everything can be discussed. I apologize on the behalf of that brother."

When Yuan Ping saw the situation, he could only try to salvage the situation.

Unfortunately, the Lords of Zhaoqing Prefecture did not buy it.

The entire meeting entered a standoff just like that, neither side happy with the other.

Luckily for them, Shanhai City army did not act at this moment.

However, the Guards Division would soon break this stalemate.

8th month, 24th day, Tianshuang County.

Lin Yi led the disguised Guards Division and finally reached the outskirts of Tianshuang County.

Under his lead, a soldier walked up and shouted at the guard on the city wall, "Open the gates! Quick, open the gates!"

"Who are you?"

The thirty thousand alliance army troops were in charge of defending Tianshuang County. As the logistical core of the alliance army, their defence was airtight.

Even during the day, they kept the city gates locked tight.

There was only a small door opened at the side to transport grain. Even this small door was totally shut before the Guards Division had arrived.

"Are you blind? we are Qu Yi's forces." The soldier Lin Yi chose was truly an acting genius. He projected an attitude of arrogance.

The city guard had little understanding of Qu Yi's forces. Upon seeing the cavalry dressed in fancy armor, they had already believed in half of the story.

In the entire north region of Zhaoqing, the only active cavalry force was Qu Yi's troops.

Even so, the city guard did not relax and asked, "Since it’s General Qu Yi's forces, what are you all doing here?"

"We do not have enough grain, so the general has sent us here to rush the transportation of grain."

This was the reason that Ouyang Shuo came up with after discussing the matter with Lin Yi. As the grain supply of Qu Yi's forces truly came from Tianshuang County, there was nothing false about this part of their story.

"Do you have any token of identification?"

"Naturally, we brought the personal insignia of the general."

"Bring it up!"

As they spoke, they lowered a basket from the city wall.

The soldier went up and placed Qu Yi's personal item in the basket.

After the city guard saw the item and verified it, he would never have guessed that Qu Yi's forces had all fallen.

At this time, the city guard had no reason to stop them.

"Since it’s members of General Qu Yi's forces, based on the rules, no more than five hundred of you can enter. As for the rest, wait outside!"

The city guard really followed his duty.

"What bullsh*t. I'm following orders from my general to rush here, so both my horse and I are tired. We only want to enter the county to rest. You actually want us to camp outside, how bold are you? When I go back, I'll report this matter to the general!"

"This…."

When the city guard heard this outburst, he was put on the spot.

"What rights do you have?"

……

"Let us in!"

Under the silent cues of Lin Yi, the Guards Division vented their frustration.

When the city guard saw their actions, he wiped off his sweat. He truly did not dare to mess with this bunch of people. After weighing the pros and cons, he decided to let them in. After all, they were their allies, and this was not going against the rules.

A short while later, they slowly lowered the drawbridge of the city protection river, and the city gate opened.

Just like that, the Guards Division smoothly entered the city.

What happened next, they did not need to describe it in words.

After entering the city, the Guards Division suddenly attacked and took control of the city gate. Their second target was the relay. They wanted to prevent the spreading of the news of Tianshuang County being sneak attacked.

A massacre followed.

Facing the sudden attack from right beside them, the thirty thousand alliance army in the county were caught completely unprepared. In less than three hours, the Guards Division had taken full control.

The thirty thousand alliance army soldiers either died in battle or were captured.

Half a month later, Tianshuang County had fallen into the hands of Shanhai City once again.

Chapter 473- Battle of Zhaoqing Ends

Shanhai regaining control of Tianshuang County signified the upcoming end of the Battle of Zhaoqing.

The same day that they took down the county, Lin Yi led the 1st and 2nd regiments of the Guards Division to continued down south.

8th month, 25th day, the 2nd and 4th division of the Dragon Legion suddenly attacked from the east and west, blocking off the retreat path of the alliance army up north.

This course of action confused the alliance army, who were still locked in their arguments.

8th month, 26th day, Zhang Han led a temporarily established division to meet up with Baiqi. Baiqi immediately ordered the troops to rush up and surround Yun An County.

During that day, the alliance army tried many times to break out, but they were unsuccessful.

8th month, 27th day, Lin Yi led his troops and gathered up with the two divisions of the Dragon Legion.

The escape route up north for the alliance army was completely blocked.

8th month, 29th day, Sun Bin’s 2nd and 4th legion of the Tiger Legion rushed day and night to arrived on the battlefield a day earlier.

With that, they had gathered the Guards Division, two divisions from both the Dragon and Tiger legion, one from the Leopard Legion, one Garrison Division, and one temporarily formed division in Zhaoqing Prefecture. In total, they had eight divisions and 110 thousand people.

Meanwhile, they had trapped the 110 thousand alliance army troops inside Yun An with no reinforcements. Moreover, these troops did not have grain inside.

Surrender became the only choice of the alliance army.

Some of the members of South Alliance remained stubborn, and they refused to surrender even in death.

When Ouyang Shuo learned of the frontline news, he immediately ordered the Guards Division to coordinate with Luo Shixin's division to sweep the north of Zhaoqing and clear every territory.

The current north region of Zhaoqing Prefecture only had a small amounts of troops left in the territories.

In less than a week, they totally cleared the north out. Gaia teleported out the Lords of Zhaoqing Prefecture to the Quanzhou imperial City.

9th month, 5th day, Xiao He led a number of officials and teleported over to Wulong County to start running Zhaoqing Prefecture.

The last hope of reinforcements was destroyed, and South Alliance fell into despair. Yuan Ping and the others knew that there was no chance to escape, but they did not want to be kept as hostages. As a result, all of them committed suicide within the city and returned to their territories.

The moment they returned to the territory, the South Alliance members all announced that they were expanding their military to ten thousand men in preparation of the threat of Shanhai City. Yuan Ping also officially replaced Hefu as the alliance leader of South Alliance.

9th month, 10th day, the only Lord left, Hefu, led his forces out of the city to surrender. Along with him was the famous general, Di Qing, as well as one hundred thousand alliance army forces.

At this point, the Battle of Zhaoqing, which had lasted for one and a half months, officially ended.

Along with the end of the battle, Gaia removed the lock on the channels and the forums. All the rumors and news about the war instantly flew onto the forums.

Everyone knew that Shanhai City had once again obtained an important victory.

9th month, 14th day, Wulong County.

Baiqi, Han Xin, and all the other generals left their troops and rushed to Wulong County to meet their Lord. Along with Baiqi and the generals were Song Wen, Hefu, and Di Qing.

Ouyang Shuo held a military and administrative meeting in Wulong County.

The people attending this meeting, apart from the generals, included Xiao He and the four directors.

In this battle, apart from the Tianshuang County city protection division that were wiped out, the other divisions had all suffered casualties. In total, the death count exceeded twenty thousand.

Of course, they also captured a sky high number of soldiers.

In the south region battle, they had captured forty thousand prisoners, which they formed into a temporary division under Zhang Han.

Outside Wulong County, of the fifty thousand Qu Yi forces, they captured thirty-five thousand.

Outside Genglou County, of the eighty thousand troops, they captured forty thousand.

Inside Tianshuang County, of the thirty thousand alliance army troops, they captured twenty thousand.

Of the one hundred thousand troops in Yun An County, all of them surrendered.

They needed to organize a total of two hundred thousand prisoners, much higher than the total number of troops in the Shanhai City Army.

How to organize and arrange such a huge army also posed great issues.

The Battle of Zhaoqing exposed the lacking numbers of the Shanhai City Army. Hence, Ouyang Shuo was determined to undergo a large-scale expansion.

Although reorganizing the troops laid in the scope of the Military Affairs Department, everyone knew that above them, the Lord made the decision.

Even Du Ruhui would not make a sound now and kept his his silent.

After Hefu surrendered, Ouyang Shuo started to set and plan the reorganization matters.

During this meeting, Ouyang Shuo officially tossed out his proposal.

First, they would disband the Tianshuang County city protection division, reassigning the two thousand remaining forces.

This decision also ended Song Wu's role as a major general.

The Tianshuang County city protection division was run too deeply by the Song Family. In this military group, many generals were members of the family. Even if they were his future-in-laws, he would not allow such a situation to occur.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to make use of this chance to completely remove this cancer.

At this time, the Song Family had to heavily rely on him. Even if they felt unhappy, they did not dare to say anything.

When the Song Family regained their powers, it would not be as easy for Ouyang Shuo to make such movements.

Secondly, they needed to replenish the twelve thousand casualties.

To make up for the losses of the various division, Ouyang Shuo set a new rule. After any major war, the various fighting divisions would have the priority to choose elite soldiers.

After they refilled the various divisions, they would reorganize the remaining prisoners together. As a result, the most elite prisoners would enter the various large divisions.

Only then would their combat strength not fall to an obvious extent.

Thirdly, they needed to build the Garrison Division.

Apart from the planned Zhaoqing Prefecture Garrison Division and Lianzhou Prefecture Garrison Division, Ouyang Shuo built two more.

One would help to supplement the Shanhai City city protection division.

As the core of the territory, only relying on one city protection division seemed too little. As a result, he had to mobilize the Guards Division.

Hence, making use of this chance, Ouyang Shuo would expand the city protection division to two divisions. With that, even without the Guards Division, the could keep the main camp safe.

In the future, Ouyang Shuo's goal would be to make the city protection division into a city protection legion.

It seemed like having two divisions would suffice for now. If he directly made four divisions to form up a legion, their finances would fail to keep up even if they had enough soldiers.

Shanhai City was progressing and prospering everyday, and they now generated a sizeable economic income. However, overall, they were still in the developmental stages and needed a sizeable investment.

Ouyang Shuo did not want to cause too much of a financial strain on the territory.

He prepared the other Garrison Division for Jade Buddha County.

Jade Buddha County was a nail that Ouyang Shuo had stabbed into Jiaozhou Prefecture. To protect it and prevent South Alliance from removing it, he had to defend it.

They would quickly decide the four Garrison division major generals.

The major general of the Lianzhou Prefecture Garrison Division was Hu Yibiao, which was already set. The Zhaoqing Prefecture Garrison Division would be the young general, Suwang.

Ouyang Shuo would leave the two remaining choices to the Military Affairs Department.

No matter what, Ouyang Shuo had to respect Du Ruhui’s power and grant him enough authority and space to perform his job.

If not, in the long run, he would have a tough time.

Using this chance, Ouyang Shuo also arranged the duties of Song Wu. He appointed Song Wu as the deputy major general of the Leizhou Garrison Division.

If Song Wu performed well, Ouyang Shuo could in turn promote him.

In this battle, the performance of the Leizhou Garrison Division had gained the recognition of Baiqi. The colonel, Zhao Yan, had naturally returned to the eyes of Ouyang Shuo.

At the crucial moment, Ouyang Shuo was ready to move him back into a fighting army.

Fourth, the expansion of the Leopard Legion.

Ouyang Shuo was ready to completely organize the Leopard Legion all at once.

Zhang Han replaced Wei Zhang as the major general of the 1st division. Wei Zhang, in turn, would become the major general of the 2nd division of Zhang Han’s temporarily formed division.

In the legion, the 1st division till the 4th division might all look the same, but in terms of rank, they were different. The higher their position, the higher their rank.

The major general of the 1st division would be the person who had the highest chance to become the legion general in the future. Before, Shi Wanshui or Fan Lihua were the candidates.

Now, Zhang Han became the third person.

After all, with Zhang Han's ability, even the position of legion general was possible. At the appropriate time, Zhang Han would be promoted once more.

Apart from that, they would form up two divisions from the prisoners to form the 3rd and 4th divisions of the Leopard Legion.

Fallen general Di Qing would become the major general of the 3rd division.

Di Qing's ability had shone during the Battle of Zhaoqing. In fact, compared to Wei Zhang, he was a little better. However, as a new general, he could only be ranked lower than Wei Zhang.

Under Luo Shixin's charge, there were two young generals, Shao Bu and Sun Chuan Lin were both top-class cavalry generals. During this battle, they had performed excellently.

Sun Chuan Lin was a fierce general, but he was also exceedingly composed. Hence, Ouyang Shuo chose him to take up the position of major general of the 4th division.

After Lin Yi, another major general had developed from local talent.

Coincidentally, be it Lin Yi or Sun Chuan Lin, they had both worked under Luo Shixin. In addition to Shao Bu and Sun Tengjiao, they were the current best four young generals.

Luo Shixin's division was the best cavalry division and the first to pass a division trial. Its position was only lower than that of the Guards Division.

The two cavalry divisions were the two walls of the territory.

Luo Shixin, this young general, had become more and more recognized by Ouyang Shuo. His potential was endless, and he could still improve.

Ouyang Shuo was waiting for the day that Luo Shixin upgraded to emperor rank.

Chapter 474- Organizing the Military

The ability of Land of the Philosophers to raise the potential of the NPCs was slowly showing in the military.

Sun Chuan Lin, Shao Bu, Sun Tengjiao, Zhao Yan, Liao Kai, and the like, this bunch of home grown generals had broken through the obstacle of advanced general. It seemed unachievable before, but today, it seemed as though the bottleneck did not exist.

In the future, Shanhai City would welcome a bunch of advanced generals.

They did not need historical generals to take up the positions of major general anymore. This buff solved the future problem of advanced generals when Shanhai City expanded their army.

Apart from that, they had the Army Military Academy. At the end of the year, the first batch of people would graduate, and they would have a huge batch of professional military officers like logistics officers, clerks, strategists, and the like to join the various divisions.

In the future, each division could fight independently.

Replenishing members, expanding the Garrison Division, and organizing the Leopard Legion; all of these activities used up a hundred thousand odd prisoners. They still had a hundred thousand prisoners that needed organization.

Out of the one hundred thousand prisoners, excluding those injured and those who did not meet the standards, while also excluding the various county and House city protection squads, they had about sixty-five thousand potential troops remaining, enough to form another legion.

Ouyang Shuo did not choose to form a new legion. Instead, he expanded the current three legions. The current legions were made up of four divisions and each had 13,500 people and a total of 54,000 thousand men.

A legion, by definition, was sizeable enough to participate in a large war. However, based on the current battle situations, fifty thousand troops were not enough to control the battlefield.

One South Alliance could easily gather up two hundred thousand troops.

Hence, expanding the legion was urgently needed.

Ouyang Shuo decided to expand the four divisions to five, which coincided with the standard of five of the Shanhai City Military. He would also prepare a subordinate regiment for each legion.

With that, the strength of a legion would rise from 54,000 to 70,000, an addition of 16,000 people.

Seventy thousand elite troops were enough for a battle.

If they expanded the three divisions, they needed 48,000 men, similar to one legion.

After the expansion, they needed to appoint three more major generals.

Ouyang Shuo's principle was to try and choose from the generals that had greatly contributed in the war.

Hence, Shao Bu and Sun Tengjiao, the two cavalry generals, successfully became the 5th division major generals of the Dragon Legion and the Tiger Legion respectively.

As for the 5th division major general of the Leopard Legion, they would be chosen from one of the fallen generals.

In this battle, out of the two hundred thousand prisoners, only Di Qing was promoted. Such an obvious difference in treatment would definitely make the fallen troops feel excluded. Balancing everything, Ouyang Shuo decided to promote another fallen general.

As for the exact choice, it would be up to Du Ruhui.

After this full round of organization, Shanhai City had added four Garrison Divisions, as well as six fighting divisions, expanding to a total of 130 thousand men, a count close to the previous number of troops they had.

The fighting divisions, which were part of the three fully filled legions, had reached a total of 210 thousand troops. Apart from that, there would be Ouyang Shuo's three thousand Divine Martial Guards and the Guards Division.

Of the remaining seventeen thousand prisoners, Ouyang Shuo made them all change professions to bailiffs.

That's right, bailiffs.

Raising the position of the Internal Affairs Department, apart from giving them the power to trial cases, the second step was to prepare a strong bailiff squad for them. The bailiffs of the Law and Order Division were similar to modern day police squads.

Maintaining law and order, capturing thieves, and stopping crime organizations. Such matters were all left to the Law and Order Division.

Hence, they greatly needed to build a strong bailiff squad.

Once the Law and Order Division had enough bailiffs, they would be able to lessen the burden on the city protection squads and allow them to focus on military operations.

Ouyang Shuo required the city protection squads to be ready for the main battlefield at any moment.

He wanted to use all of these two hundred thousand prisoners to their best ability. He did not let many of these soldiers go because of the need to expand but also because the quality of these soldiers were relatively high.

The two hundred thousand prisoners were basically the entire alliance army.

During this battle, the alliance army had brought over the elite soldiers from their territories. As a result, their overall quality was above average.

After all, if he recruited and trained soldiers, and threw them into battles subsequently, the whole process would need more than three months.

Using prisoners of war was a short cut.

After this huge war, not only did the strength of the Shanhai City Army not weaken, it even increased instead. Thinking about this point, Ouyang Shuo really needed to thank South Alliance.

After confirming the plans for organizing the military, the following organization would naturally fall to the hands of the Military Affairs Department. This organization involved one hundred thousand troops and many different legions and divisions.

According to conservative estimations, without a month, they could not complete the first step of the reorganization.

For military organization, the Military Affairs Department already had a complete system.

First, they would remove the injured soldiers and the ones that did not meet the standards. They would pass these retired soldiers over to the Internal Affairs Department, who would handle them and give them new jobs.

These soldiers were all great laborers; everyone wanted to employ them.

After considering the population of people in Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo instructed the Household Registration Division to try to arrange for this batch of ex-soldiers to work in Shanhai City and raise the population.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to let Shanhai City reach the population upper limit and upgrade to grade 2 prefecture.

Secondly, they needed to register the remaining prisoners of war and add them to the military records.

The moment they finished the military registration, they would officially integrate these people into the Shanhai City System. Others would not look down on them, and they could also enjoy the advantages of the territory. Of course, if they tried to run, they would be wanted by the entire territory.

To register two hundred thousand people, recording their soldier type, specialty, basic information and the like was a massive task. Solely relying on the Military Affairs Department was impossible.

Du Ruhui had no choice but to go and ask for help.

His first choice was naturally members of the Household Registration Division. This was their specialty, after all. Apart from that, he also took a bunch of students from the Army Military Academy to assist the Military Affairs Department.

This was also a chance for them to intern and get closer to the real action.

After the registration process, the soldier selection process would take place.

Shanhai City expanding ten divisions meant they needed fifty colonels and 250 majors. For these middle-level generals, they chose a portion from the old troops of Shanhai City, while a potion was chosen from the fallen troops.

After all, there were many elite generals among them, so Ouyang Shuo could not act biased against them.

The battle before was just them fighting for their Lords.

Now, they were one family. As their parent, Ouyang Shuo needed to treat everyone equally.

Of course, for the crucial positions, naturally, Ouyang Shuo had to grant them to generals he relied upon. The people he trusted would infiltrate all the divisions through the military reorganization.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo took a small number of officers from the Divine Martial Guards and Guards Division to become majors or colonels.

Be it the Divine Martial Guards or the Guards Division, they were people that Ouyang Shuo trusted the most. They were loyal to him and were willing to die for him.

Giving them roles in the divisions helped him keep control.

Ouyang Shuo had never planned to let go of his control of the military. Moreover, he wanted to prevent generals from growing arrogant and working for their personal gain.

He always thought that people were ambitious and selfish.

As a Lord, he needed to keep this ambition locked up in a cage from the start. He would not give it a chance to jump out.

Ouyang Shuo spent a vast amount of gold to pay for their salaries. Forming a professional army was with all these matters in consideration.

Apart from that, the salaries were standardized and transparent. The generals could not take the salary of the people under them. If they did that, the soldiers could report them to the Military Law Division.

With that, if any general dared to stage a coup, as long as Ouyang Shuo gave the order, the general would not be able to even move his troops, which would force them to surrender.

After exerting various methods, Ouyang Shuo could finally relax and allow the generals to bring the troops out to war. As a result of his identity, the chances of him personally leading them out would decrease in the future.

Even if he wanted to, the officials in the territory would not let him.

Of course, after they reorganized the military, he needed to go and meet each force. He needed to care for them and show his presence.

This move aimed to influence them.

Thirdly, they needed to replenish the divisions. Normally, the major generals could personally choose their troops under the accompaniment of the Military Affairs Department officials.

After all, there were many different types of generals, and their requirements of soldiers were different. Sword-shield soldiers, spearmen, archers, and more.

After the selection process, they needed to report back to the department and apply for items such as equipment, warhorses, and resources. After all, after the organization, the equipment would follow the Shanhai City standard.

This point alone was a massive expenditure.

Fourthly, and also the last step, was something the generals could not participate in.

Based on the Lord’s plan, the Military Affairs Department would organize the remaining soldiers. With a division as a unit, they would hand them over to their respective units.

Throughout this process, the various major generals and generals could not interfere.

After they completed this task, the Military Affairs Department would order the division to head to a specified location to receive their forces. This method could reduce the interference of the generals on the organization of the military to a minimum.

Of course, Baiqi and the others would not just stand around and do nothing.

As commanders who would lead their men, they could ask for benefits for their soldiers and also recommend promotions for their best generals.

Chapter 475- Military Rank System

After announcing the military organization plan, the rewards based on respective contributions came next.

Wei Zhang was granted the title of Yanglie General. The other generals, including the soldiers who had contributed a lot, were all granted rewards. Of course, all the rewards were based on the rank and reward system that the Military Affairs Department had set up.

After busying himself for an entire month, Du Ruhui had managed to lead the Military Affairs Department to finally complete the reward and rank systems a day prior. Afterward, he obtained Ouyang Shuo's approval for the system.

This time, the reward for contributions followed the ‘Shanhai Territory Military Reward system.’

Based on this system, the rewards for military contributions were split into three categories:

Firstly, monetary rewards.

This was the most basic and common reward type. Gold, silver, jewels, gems, silk, equipment, elite warhorses, cultivation methods, and the like.

Amongst these, the monetary reward was the most common.

The system clearly listed how much reward for how much contribution. The contribution list of generals and soldiers were all listed.

Of course, this system naturally rewarded those that performed well.

In other words, they would not hand out rewards on a large scale. Only the strongest warriors that killed the most enemies or those that created miracles had the chance to obtain the rewards.

Only then could they ignite the spirit of the soldiers and motivate them to do their best.

Secondly, upgrade of rank.

Based on the system, the ranks were split into General, Lieutenant, Officer, Sergeant, and Soldier, for a total of five stages and eighteen grades.

Generals were split into five grades, first being the highest and fifth being the lowest. Each 1st grade general would have a specific and unique title. Lieutenants were split into three grades, top, middle, and low grade.

The officer and sergeant ranks followed the same pattern. As for soldiers, there were split into top grade soldiers, 1st grade soldiers, 2nd grade soldiers, and private.

Their rank tied into their role in the military.

The General rank was only given to major generals and above. The Lieutenant rank was only given to colonels, Officer to majors, Sergeants to captains, and Soldiers to sergeants.

Apart from that, the private rank would only be given to soldiers that were not part of the military. Every newbie that reached rank 5 would automatically earn the private rank.

Any soldier below rank 5 would just be called a newbie; they would not have a rank.

From this standard alone, one could see the elite soldier strategy of Shanhai City. Based on this standard, anyone below rank 5 was a rookie, and they did not even have the right to head to the battlefield.

If one looked at other territories, a rank 5 soldier could already be considered an elite.

Each officer would have a basic rank after they received their job, with low grade as the standard. For example, a soldier who became a sergeant would become a grade 2 sergeant.

Of course, reaching top grade sergeant would be their max. They could only advance further if they became a captain. With this standard, the major generals would be grade 5 generals.

The military rank decided the relationship of the people in the military. Lower rank personnel must follow those above them; this was the iron law. With that, during the war, chaos would not occur.

With one unit as an example, in normal circumstances, if the major died, no one could immediately replace him or her. The captain did not have the rights to command them, so the entire unit would fall apart.

With ranks, the situation would completely change.

The moment a major died, based on military rules, the highest rank person would replace them as the temporary commander. If the replacement also died, the next highest ranked person would replace them. This process would repeat itself until the unit won or all of them died.

Just this one part of the system was better than thousands of people and horses or any territory specialty. Nothing could compare to a perfect system.

Apart from setting the relationship between boss and subordinate straight, this system also pertained to their salaries.

Making use of this timing, Du Ruhui once again revamped the salary system. In the future, the salary would only be linked to their rank and not the soldier’s position and strength.

For example, before this, the salary of a sergeant was one gold a month. After the change, a top grade sergeant would receive one gold a month, a grade 1 sergeant eighty silver, and a grade 2 sergeant sixty silver.

Basically, a top grade sergeant was similar to the previous military standard. This act also silently lowered the military salary expenditure.

However, they could not say anything about this. The military was a place where strength was the most important. If you were not happy, you should work hard to raise your rank.

With that, it would motivate soldiers to work hard to receive promotions.

Du Ruhui's act was a stroke of god; he cheated them, but they still could not say anything.

Similarly, the system adjusted the various rank military salary standards. The basic principle was that they were eighty percent of the higher rank one. Which meant that in the same grade, lowering one rank would mean a twenty percent lower salary.

A top grade sergeant captain received five gold, a middle grade sergeant captain four gold, and a low grade sergeant captain three gold. A top grade captain major earned twelve gold, middle grade fifteen gold, and low grade twelve gold.

A top grade lieutenant colonel earned fifty gold, mid grade forty, and low grade thirty.

The general ranks were different too.

Based on the rules, the generals received a yearly payment. A grade 5 general would receive one thousand gold, grade 4 two thousand, grade 3 three thousand, grade 2 four thousand, and grade 1 five thousand.

Apart from the yearly payment, they also enjoyed other special treatments.

According to the rules, each general would be awarded a general manor in Shanhai City. Based on their ranks, the size of the manor would also differ.

For example, Lin Yi, a grade 5 Huwei General, was awarded the Huwei General Manor. Baiqi was a grade 1 commander-in-chief, so he was awarded a Commander-in-Chief Manor.

Ouyang Shuo planned the matter out like this because he wanted the generals under him to also enjoy the warmth of hope apart from fighting wars. Returning to Shanhai City, they would have a place to live.

Based on the Gaia’s arrangements, the family of historical people would appear in the wilderness when their dynasty entered the game’s proceedings.

For example, Baiqi's wife arrived in a similar manner.

Similarly, the families of Sun Bin, Er’lai, Zhang Han, and the like all came to Shanhai City.

In the military system, apart from the differing treatments of generals, the privates and rookies were treated differently too. Similarly, as the salary of the system adjusted downward, their income was changed too.

A grade 1 to 4 rookie would earn twenty silver. A grade 5 to 9 one forty silver. Grade 10 to 12 war elite warriors earned sixty silver, similar to a grade 2 sergeant.

Du Ruhui was also vicious. With just this change, he cut off ten percent of the military expenditure. Before this, a unit with an average of grade 4 soldiers could receive 275 gold.

After the change, it dropped all the way to 237 gold.

Projecting this outward, the income of a division dropped from 8250 to 7200 gold. A full legion cost around 36,000 gold.

To cut down the military expenditure, Du Ruhui truly went all in this time.

Similarly, the Military Affairs Department made the salary of the Garrison Divisions crystal clear.

Their ranking system was similar to the war fighting army. However, their salary was eighty percent less. The city protection forces acted as a group that was always on alert, so they were given the same rate as the fighting armies.

With ranks, there were naturally similar medals.

Based on Ouyang Shuo's instructions, they medals had a dragon design.

The generals all wore a golden dragon medal.

The number of gems that the dragon spat out was used to differentiate the various grades. The higher the rank, the more gems. Starting from one to five for a grade 1 great general and six for a grade 1 Commander-in-Chief.

Ouyang Shuo, as the overall commander of all the troops, would also wear a golden dragon medal. However, his medal depicted a nine-clawed golden dragon that spat out majestic golden-colored dragon balls.

Nine golden claws, five at the front, four behind.

The dragon balls of the generals were white. Their golden dragons only had seven claws, four in front and three behind.

Lieutenants, Officers, and Sergeants all had silver, iron, and bronze dragon medals respectively. Similarly, the number of dragon balls were based on their grade.

Each medal was made up of the material in its name.

The golden dragon medal was made out of gold.

As for the lowest rank, they did not have the right to wear a dragon medal. Their medal was made of bronze, and the symbol depicted a Tang Blade and a heavy sword crossing each other. Bars were used to differentiate between the ranks.

Privates had one bar, grade 2 soldiers two bars, grade 1 three bars, and top grade soldiers four bars.

Undeniably, the pushing out of the rank system signified that the Shanhai City Military was walking on the path of becoming a professional military.

They would naturally hand this large-scale reorganization to the generals.

Based on the arrangements of the Military Affairs Department, they would hold the rank award ceremony right after they completed the military reorganization.

At that time, Ouyang Shuo would personally chair it.

The last type of military reward was to grant them nobility titles.

Undeniably, in olden times, nobility titles were much better than rank rewards. Anyone who obtained a nobility title would bring glory to their ancestors.

Unfortunately, Ouyang Shuo, be it as the Lianzhou Lord or the Nanjiang Governor-General, did not have the right to grant ministers or generals nobility titles.

Only a Lord of a country could.

Hence, they shelved the third type of reward for now. When they had finally set up their country, they could give out such a reward.

Du Ruhui only listed this out to give the generals a dream and a rough idea of the future.

Chapter 476- Zhaoqing Prefecture Organization

The Military Affairs Department military rewards and military rank system similarly suited the navy. However, as a different field, they would have a different base color for their medals.

It had a blue base, representing the endless oceans and seas.

The cavalry forces had red as its base color, representing a fiery red passion. The infantry used yellow to represent an earth like solidness and resoluteness.

The three soldier types all had their own meanings.

Apart from the specifics of the military ranks and the military salary, they also set the different military rewards. They split the entire reward system into three tiers and nine grades, with grade 1 being the highest and grade 9 being the lowest.

Grade 1 to three were called top tier, grade 4 to 6 mid tier, and grade 7 to 9 low tier.

The different grades all had different rewards.

Top tier rewarded one with nobility titles, mid tier with military ranks, and low tier with monetary rewards.

The evaluation standard of their contributions was calculated from the number of kills and other factors such as leadership, logistics, strategy, and cover.

Similarly, the grading system was different from generals and soldiers of different ranks. For example, the role of a general was to lead, not to simply brutally kill the enemy.

Another example would be for the advisors, who needed to come up with strategies to achieve victory.

The possibilities and types were limitless, so they could not be specified.

The inspectors and generals of the troops would complete the evaluation of the military contributions together. The lowest rank general to take part in this evaluation was the majors.

With both sides monitoring each other, they could prevent false reports or negative issues like kill stealing or stealing other people's contributions.

Of course, the entire evaluation system lacked testing so far. As a result, problems would probably exist.

This was a test of Du Ruhui’s ability.

More often than not, you could try to create an extremely perfect system, but in execution, matters would always go south. The end result could be harmful instead of helpful.

The revolutions and changes in history had more than a few bad examples.

Be it Wang Mang, who tried to create his ideal society or Wang An Shi, they all met problems at the execution stage.

Of course, the root cause was that they did not combine their systems with practical happenings in the world. They did not try to predict future problems, so they ended up with failure.

Apart from that, one had to understand the essence of doing things step by step.

This was a game. In the real olden society, such a change would totally not happen. As an emperor, one could not even ponder such a possibility.

The moment an emperor raised such a matter up, many people would fight for their own interests or the protectors of tradition would prevent it.

The game was completely different. The entire territory lacked aristocratic families, nobles, and confucian scholars, so the people's thinkings were more open as a result.

Because of the above reasons, Ouyang Shuo was highly confident in the success of these systems.

During this period, apart from establishing the two systems, they had also made some progress in perfecting the logistical support system that Ouyang Shuo had tasked them to create.

On the military and administrative meeting, Du Ruhui made a simple report.

This time, the Combat Logistics Department targeted the normal wear of soldiers, apart from their armor. With sword-shield soldiers as an example, apart from armor and helmet, they must wear a cotton shirt and shoes.

Hence, the Combat Logistics Department had opened two large-scale clothes factories in Lianzhou and Leizhou Prefecture. They mainly produced the daily clothes, shoes, cotton socks, cotton blankets, towels and other daily products the soldiers needed.

All these items seemed unassuming, but they were highly important to the soldiers.

In the olden day armies, if they could distribute armor and weapons to everyone, that was already considered amazing. The normal clothes they wore were brought from home. During winter, they still needed their family to send them stuff.

This time, the Combat Logistics Department was caring to the maximum, and they solved all these problems at once.

Undeniably, a scientific and logical logistical support system was one of the hallmarks of a professional army.

The Combat Logistics Department was walking on the correct path.

……

After dealing with military matters, they would have to discuss the organization and structure of Zhaoqing Prefecture.

Ouyang Shuo still chose Tianshuang County to act as the governing base of the prefecture. They would rename it as Tianshuang City. Although it had experienced the chaos of war, its basic facilities were still the best in the entire prefecture.

Similar to Leizhou Prefecture, Zhaoqing Prefecture would also have five Houses.

After this meeting, they would occupy the current Wulong County and destroy the teleportation formation. They would rename it as Wulong City, and it would act as the governing base of Wulong House in the north of Zhaoqing.

Although Ouyang Shuo liked the teleportation formation in Wulong County, he did not dare to place the control of a teleportation formation under the hands of people he did not trust.

After Spicy Snack Prince escaped from Yun An County, he had already returned to Wulong County. Ouyang Shuo really could not give this person the same level of trust he gave Mulan Yue.

After all, both sides were not close, and it was merely a trade of interests.

After the meeting ended, Spicy Snack Prince would take up a role in a county in Leizhou Prefecture; Ouyang Shuo would totally remove him from Zhaoqing Prefecture.

In the end, Ouyang Shuo remained exceedingly wary about players.

They renamed the camp of the alliance army in Yun An County as Yun An City. It would become the governing area of the center region. They would place Yaogu County and Genglou County under the jurisdiction of the Yun An House.

Originally, Cangcheng County was much more suitable to act as the governing area of a House. Unfortunately, Baiqi had set it ablaze, leaving it in total ruins.

Ouyang Shuo did not plan to rebuild Cangcheng County. After all, such a choice might raise negative emotions amongst the locals.

As a result, the choice of Yun An House prefect was highly important. The person must have high morals and great ability, which would allow them to slowly calm the people.

In the end, Ouyang Shuo chose Lianzhou Prefecture Tianfeng House Prefect Cui Shousi.

Cui Shousi was doing excellently in Tianfeng House, and each of its indices were far ahead of others. Based on the Regulatory Division’s report, the locals all had an exceedingly good opinion of their prefect.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo believed that Cui Shousi could run Yun An House well.

Apart from Tianshuang House, Wulong House and Yun An House, there was also the Shui Tai House and the Muge House. Shui Tai House was located in the south, and Muge House was right next to Jiaozhou Prefecture in the east.

As for the governor of Zhaoqing Prefecture, Ouyang Shuo decided on Du Sijing.

After getting to know him in this period of time, Ouyang Shuo had a rough idea about him. He was vastly experienced in governmental matters. He knew how to achieve benefits while avoiding problems. He was also incredibly smooth in his work, so making him a governor was a decent choice.

Name: Du Sijing (King Rank)

Dynasty: Yuan Dynasty

Identity: Nanjiang Governor-General House Zhaoqing Prefecture Governor

Occupation: Civil Servant

Loyalty: 75

Command: 50

Force: 35

Intelligence: 65

Politics: 75

Specialty: Stabilize (20% increase in efficiency of administrative matters in the territory, 10% increase in territory prestige, 15% increase in probity standards of territory).

Evaluation: Du Sijing was born in the Pan House, and he strove to learn since a young age. He researched medical studies, writing ‘Jisheng Bacui.’

As for the remaining choices of prefects, the Administration Department would select them and ask Ouyang Shuo for his approval.

Coincidentally, the Administration Department had opened up their evaluations of officials in the entire territory. Zhaoqing Prefecture was not as rushed as Leizhou Prefecture, so all the officials must meet the standards before they could take up roles.

Undeniably, of the local officials in Zhaoqing Prefecture, they would remove a large portion of them.

Ouyang Shuo would ruthlessly handle this matter. Moreover, they had two hundred thousand troops in Zhaoqing Prefecture, so no one could truly cause any waves.

After settling the structure of Zhaoqing Prefecture, Ouyang Shuo left the remaining matters to the four departments, as well as the newly appointed governor to settle.

After the large-scale reshaping of Leizhou Prefecture, the four departments were familiar with this kind of task.

Making use of this free moment, Cui Yingyu reported to Ouyang Shuo about the finances of the 8th month.

Shanhai City handed over 95 thousand gold, Lianzhou Prefecture 55 thousand gold, Leizhou Prefecture 22 thousand gold, Qiongzhou Prefecture 84 thousand gold. Along with the direct income of the Industry Division of 80 thousand gold, the territory had earned 336 thousand gold in the 8th month.

This was a total of one hundred thousand gold more than the 7th month, a staggering forty percent increase.

In terms of good news, there were three.

First, Leizhou Prefecture had profits for the first time. Although it was not as much as the other prefectures, it was still decent.

The development of Leizhou Prefecture was enough to prove that the way of the king was to expand. Even if war used up many resources and one had to invest a lot at the start, one could make a lot at the later stages.

This deal was worth it!

Second, Qiongzhou Prefecture's earnings had doubled.

As the age of sea travel arrived, the finances of Yashan City exploded, bringing the finances of Qiongzhou Prefecture to a whole new level.

With the current situation, it was also possible for Qiongzhou Prefecture to surpass Lianzhou Prefecture.

After all, ever since Shanhai City was cut out from the Lianzhou Prefecture, its competitive advantage was weakened by thirty percent.

Third, the boom in income from shipbuilding.

Similarly, because of the age of sea travel, the Industry Division that followed Ouyang Shuo's instructions and let go of the Three Flowers Wine Factory, Leishan Minefields, and other similar industries did not lose profits. In fact, their profits grew.

This also gave rise to a small increase in the Shanhai City finances.

Based on Cui Yingyu's estimations, the bonuses from sea travel would continue for a long time.

One could foresee that in the next half a year, the territory finances would be more relaxed. This was also why when Ouyang Shuo had chosen to expand the army, the Financial Department did not make any noise or opposition.

Since the financial income increased and the financial outlay decreased, the territory made a record profit of 185 thousand gold.

With money, one naturally had more chips to play with.

Chapter 477- Basic Public Services

With money in his pocket, some of his ideas could come to fruition.

During this period of time, Ouyang Shuo had been pondering about a certain problem. The territory had developed to this stage, and they owned four prefectures of land. If this was during the olden times, their land area would be similar to a real country.

At this stage, how should he change and improve the territory?

In his past life, the scattered territory ruling experiences that Ouyang Shuo had picked up through the forums were not enough to lead and guide him to plan for the long term future of the territory.

In his past life, after five years, Di Chen's territory reached a similar state to the current Shanhai Territory. In other words, Ouyang Shuo took less than two years to complete what Di Chen did in five.

Hence, there really was not another layer of experience that Ouyang Shuo could borrow.

At this stage, Ouyang Shuo had to rely on himself. Be it Xiao He, Fan Zhongyan, or the others, although they had knowledge of history, in terms of ways of thinking, they were still restricted to the olden times.

Hence, they could perfectly complete Ouyang Shuo’s plans if he directed them. Xiao He could finish all the work that Ouyang Shuo instructed him to do flawlessly. He would not need to worry.

However, for them to stand at the forefront and point out the direction for the Lord, that was a little difficult. Let us not mention Xiao He, even Zhang Liang would not have the ability.

They did not lack intelligence or capability. However, their way of thinking was fundamentally different to players.

This difference could be called a generation gap, but to put it in a bigger sense, it was the defining difference between the times.

In stories where the main character went back in time, the reason why the main character could rule the world was not because of his modern knowledge but because his way of thinking was superior.

As a result, they could jump out of the fences and create an unusual path.

Ouyang Shuo was currently playing such a character. Hence, no one could help him, only himself.

Ouyang Shuo had predicted such a situation to occur a year ago.

Hence, he would always bury himself in books, and he would continuously seek help from Fan Zhongyan and the others. His goal was to improve himself. He wanted to become the leader of his own destiny.

Thinking up to this point, Ouyang Shuo got up and stood at the window.

The courtyard outside of the window was silent as usual without the bustle of daytime. The moon hung high, and the pure moonlight shone gently on the courtyard.

Under the cover of the night, Ouyang Shuo seemed exceedingly lonely.

Top leaders are all lonely!

The rebirth had made Ouyang Shuo even more lonely than others.

No one to confide in, no one to share his thoughts with.

Ouyang Shuo's current achievements had far exceeded his expectations. Compared to his last life, the situation of Bing'er and himself were like night and day.

Logically, Ouyang Shuo should feel contented and enjoy his life.

Unfortunately, he could not!

Ouyang Shuo could not feel happy about his current state. Due to his heart as a man, as he continued to progress onward, he would forever have the lingering goal of kingship.

To hold all the power in the world and grasp all the beauties.

Which man in the world had never possessed such a dream?

Now, Ouyang Shuo had such a chance.

Standing at crossroads, Ouyang Shuo did not want to miss his chance.

To become a hero, one needed the right time—time was of essence.

The wheels of history had pushed Ouyang Shuo to his current position. He already had no way back.

The road to kingship was like rowing a boat against the current. If you did not progress forward, you would end up slipping back.

If Ouyang Shuo dared to relax, numerous enemies would charge for him and tear him to shreds. He would suffer a far worse outcome than the end of his last life.

How could the road to kingship be a bed of roses?

Ouyang Shuo wanted to claim the world, so he was destined to lose his freedom.

The moonlight was like water, washing his heart and calming him down. The loneliness from before suddenly spread out in his heart and disappeared.

Ouyang Shuo closed the window and returned to the front of the table.

The military and administrative meeting during the day had only solved the important problems at hand. There were still many matters that Ouyang Shuo needed to find the related officials to discuss one by one about.

For example, after they organized the military, the problem of where to attack would surface. Should they attack east toward the weakened Jiaozhou Prefecture or Shaozhou Prefecture? Or should they continue with the old plan and head west toward Chiyou City and attack Taiping Country afterward.

Ouyang Shuo had already allowed Taiping Country to grow for close to a year now, and it had become a colossal monster. One had to say that Ouyang Shuo's previous prediction was too confident and overly optimistic.

The current Taiping Country was not something that Shanhai City could easily overcome.

Ouyang Shuo did not expect that the recruiting ability of Hong Xiuquan would be so overpowered. Think about it, it was tough enough for Shanhai City to take down Leizhou and Zhaoqing Prefecture.

On the other hand, Taiping Country had easily taken down Zhen An Prefecture and Guilin Prefecture. It was just like collecting items for them.

Between the two, it was obvious who fared better.

This monster had already turned into a cancer for Shanhai City.

Rearing a tiger turned into a problem!

In the future, Shanhai City was destined for a tough war against Taiping Country.

Apart from that, there were the changes in the territory.

The military rank and reward system was just Ouyang Shuo testing the grounds.

The next step would be for Ouyang Shuo to make larger changes. His eyes aimed at the public services, which they had always overlooked so far.

Public services formed the core ideas of modern day public administration and governmental changes, including building public faculties, developing education, technology, culture, hygiene, politics, culture, and the like.

Throwing it into the game, everything apart from sports was relevant.

Firstly, education.

Needless to say, from the education of kids in the private schools to Xinan University, it was done with the aim to educate the people and produce talents for the territory.

Next, technology.

Technology was the first production strength. If not, what was the point of being a leader in this world? The other Lords would snatch away the various technical manuals.

Next, culture.

Culture and education were similar; they relied on one another and controlled one another.

Lastly, hygiene.

Hygiene, apart from public hygiene, included medicine and medical services.

The current territorial plans had weaknesses and even problems in these four main aspects. Before this, the territory only had a vague overview, but now, they needed to run it in depth.

Taking education as an example.

The territory education organizations like Xinan University and Army Military Academy were the highest level, even in the entire territory.

The private schools, under the help of Ouyang Shuo, had also developed quickly.

The problem was that between the private schools and the university, there was a break in the education system.

In olden times, a more complete system started from child education, county school, prefecture school, to college, and finally to the imperial college. Together, they formed a chain.

This chain, strictly speaking, was also present in the territory.

In the various Houses and counties, there were colleges that acted as the second level of education. The Xinan University played the role of imperial college.

The problem was not the college level but the type of classes.

At the primary level, items such as the three-word classics and the book of family names were normal. The Xinan University had eight colleges, so they could be considered dazzling.

However, they missed out on a prefecture grade education entity.

They had obtained the other prefectures through war. They naturally inherited the schools set up in these territories after they occupied the places.

These schools mainly taught the confucian classics.

As a result, the various prefecture schools could only send students to the economics college of Xinan University. The other colleges like law college, business college, and the others could not accept them.

The other colleges recruited students from society or from the basic level officials. These people would enter the college to learn and be molded.

This was not a long term plan.

The reason why this problem did not stand out before was because Shanhai City was only one prefecture. The Xinan University could still accept the society students in the territory.

However, the territory now had four prefectures.

Even the artisans in Zhaoqing were willing to travel thousands of miles, spending close to a month on the road to learn at the university.

Students of the four prefectures were enough to fill the university up to the brim.

Hence, they needed to build a transit ground in the middle.

As a result, in the prefecture schools, they needed to set up similar classes like calculus, business, and law. This was to let the students from there gain the qualifications to enter the university.

Similarly, if they used the various schools to group up and choose the students, only the elite ones would gain the ability to enter Xinan University.

With that, not only did it solve the problem, it would also raise the quality of students in Xinan University, making the level of the students fit the status of the university.

If not, and you asked Han Feizi and Xu Hang to teach a bunch of useless students, wasn't that a waste of resources?

Apart from that, the moment they formed the system, it would naturally become a perfect selection chain. Through the various tests at different levels, they could choose talents. This way, they did not need an imperial exam.

Anyone who managed to graduate successfully from Xinan University would naturally be one of the most outstanding talents in the territory.

Chapter 478- Science, Education, Culture, and Health Department

Wasn't Ouyang Shuo's plan great?

Of course, because this was basically a copy of modern day education, there was no need to pass an imperial exam. Instead, they would give round after round of exams to choose out the talents.

However, to execute this plan was extremely difficult.

Firstly, the lack of teachers.

The main map of the game mainly used Confucianism teachings, and the talents amongst the people were mainly Confucian believers. Hence, to set up other subjects in the prefecture schools, they would need to prepare the appropriate teachers.

Now, the only place that could develop teachers was Xinan University.

Firstly, they could choose a bunch of the current teachers in the colleges and place them into the prefectural schools to teach lessons. Secondly, they could choose a portion of the students that graduated to become teachers.

With the help of the two, they could set up the prefecture school structure.

Taking into account the current situation, setting up various subjects at a prefecture school level was already difficult. To do so for House schools and County schools, they really did not have the ability.

Ouyang Shuo was eager, but he would not rush the entire process.

After the prefecture schools were up and running, the students that graduated could in turn be placed down into the House schools. Like that, they could repeat the process to the county schools, and even the private schools.

Simply put, they were working from top down.

Hence, this was destined to be a long process. Ouyang Shuo predicted that it would at least take two years to complete this cycle.

Secondly, the increase in the number of subjects meant that the education costs would rise rapidly.

The education expenses belonged to the public finance expenditure. Within the territory, be it the private schools, the colleges or Xinan University, they were all free. The territory bore all the education costs.

As the number of subjects increased, the number of students would as well.

As a result, education costs would double or even triple. Including the money needed to expand the schools, they also had to account for the salaries of teachers, the maintenance of the schools, and the costs of ink and brushes.

Hence, if the finances of the territory were not on the right path, Ouyang Shuo would not have dared to make this change.

Thirdly, how to ensure fairness.

Education fairness posed a big problem since the olden times. Fairness in recruiting students, fairness in examinations, and fairness in recommendations. Each and every aspect was a tough problem.

These three tough questions were all exceedingly hard to solve, but if they solved them, it would not just affect the education system. Rather, it would change the entire official ecosystem.

Why?

The olden field was split up into officials and minor officials, these two different levels. The two would not even communicate with one another. No matter how the official was insulted, he would not be called a minor official. No matter how much the minor official got promoted, he could not become an official.

Officials were the masters and the higher class, while the minor officials were the servants, born to serve the officials.

Officials changed jobs every three years, while minor officials might stick to a position for their whole life. Officials came from elsewhere, while minor officials were local. The minor officials laid their roots there, and the son would take over for the father.

This difference in status had its benefits in that officials could not form up a power network in an area. Minor officials were familiar with the area, so they knew how to make changes and decisions.

However, in terms of executing matters, problems would arise like minor officials holding up the system and causing the whole administrative system to be stuck.

The relationship between officials and minor officials were also exceedingly complicated. Even if one rambled on for three days and three nights, they could not finish describing it.

Ouyang Shuo's basic public education was trying to blur the gap between the two, so it was bound to touch some nerves.

The new subjects, including calculus, laws and the like, were for developing minor officials.

During olden times, minor officials and officials had two different selection channels. Now, Ouyang Shuo was going to place them into the same education structure, truly groundbreaking.

What changes this move would cause, in truth, Ouyang Shuo could not clearly tell himself.

Luckily, this was in a game. If it was the real world olden times, and he dared to suggest this, he would be kicked off his position in minutes.

In the game, the basic education system and even professionalizing the administrative system were extremely beneficial, similar to the public servant system in the real world.

With that, Ouyang Shuo did not need to worry about minor officials in an area holding up the entire system. As for future minor officials, they would not need locals to take up the role, and it would not be hereditary.

At that time, the various changes that he pushed out would not easily mutate at the various execution stages. Although resistance would exist, the problems they face would be much less than the revolutions in history.

As such, Ouyang Shuo decided that he should resolutely push for this change. If it was simply to make the people smarter, he did not need to act so extravagant and large scale in doing it.

Pushing out a basic education system would set the foundations for his future changes.

The three biggest problems of education needed a strong force to solve it. The current Culture and Education Division was barely holding on. The key of the problem was that Ouyang Shuo's ambitions were far greater than this.

Apart from education, technology, culture, and hygiene all needed to be revolutionized.

With the Mohists moving in and real life experts gathering, Shanhai City's high end technology field had reached an unparalleled level. Even so, Ouyang Shuo was not satisfied.

His goal was to push for a prefecture grade technology standard.

In the cultural field, there temporarily was not any need for a revolution.

The title of Land of Philosophers had let Shanhai City become a monster in the culture field. It only needed proper directions and control right now.

The hygiene field was the second field that Ouyang Shuo planned to attack. Building a perfect public health system was his target.

In the olden times, be it doctors or physicians, they all operated in private. The only hired ones were the royal doctors.

Hence, in the olden times, the problem of hard to be treated, and treatments being too expensive was much worse than modern society.

The Lord could not see it, but many commoners had to sell their children because they had no money to cure their illnesses. Otherwise, they would fall into bankruptcy.

Basically, a worst enough disease could push a family to the brink of collapse.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to build a medical system to solve this problem. He was ready to make the Medical Department, currently a public organization, into a half official organization.

In contrast to the problems faced when trying to push out the basic education system, a lack of teachers, the territory did not lack physicians. The development of the Medical Department was quite ferocious, and their physicians numbered in the hundreds. Each location had the presence of doctors and physicians.

As long as they hired all these wandering physicians and had them work at the local Medical Department, they could solve the problem.

The difficulty of the medical revolution lied in funds instead.

To fulfil his public medical system, the Medical Department's running fees, and slides for the doctors; the territory needed to pay for all these matters.

Even in terms of medicine and herbs, if they must sell at a discount, and they would not receive profits out of it.

In such a scenario, the public healthcare would place a huge burden on the finances. As a result, they could not make medicine like education and have it to be free.

If not, even though the territory finances were in the green, it would fail to hold on.

One could foresee that education and healthcare would be the two biggest spenders of the territory’s budget.

Consultation costs, how to ensure medicine supply, how to protect the rights of the doctor, how to get into contact with medicine suppliers, they needed to solve all of these problems.

Without a department handling the matter, he could not make this plan come into fruition.

Taking into account all considerations, Ouyang Shuo was ready to make a structural change to the Culture and Education Division. He could draw the blueprint at the highest level.

Education, Science, Culture, and Health Department. They would take charge of technology, education, culture, and public health matters. After the change in name, they would still be under the Administration Department.

This department would contain four divisions: technology division, education division, culture division, and health division.

If he made Yu Shuda, the original Culture and Education Secretary, the director, some people would feel unhappy. After all, the newly formed department would face a tough revolution, and it affected all parts of the territory.

Be it in terms of his skills or experience, he was not enough for the task. Hence, Ouyang Shuo planned to make him the education secretary to continue in the education field.

The first director had to be a strong hand to take care of this ship.

Based on logic, the current Administration Director Fan Zhongyan was a great choice.

According to his original plan, Ouyang Shuo wanted to let Xiao He replace Fan Zhongyan as the administration director. Unfortunately, Fan Zhongyan was leading the evaluation of the officials and could not be moved around.

Furthermore, when Ouyang Shuo was not around for long periods of time, he needed someone like Xiao He to replace him.

Hence, now was not a suitable time for such a plan.

Thinking about it, Ouyang Shuo could only make Xiao He the Education, Science, Culture, and Health Director for now. This was also a good base for Xiao He to continue building up for the future.

After all, this revolution had far reaching effects on the territory that could not be measured. If he completed this matter, his achievements in the territory would be comparable to anyone.

Coincidentally, he was currently handling the daily duties of the Governor-General House. His position as director was of great help in pushing out these changes in both the education and medical fields.

This also exposed the tough situation in Shanhai City. Ouyang Shuo was currently treating Xiao He like a universal treasure, plugging him anywhere that needed help.

Apart from him, there was no one else who could handle this.

Chapter 479- For the People

9th month, 15th day, Wulong City.

The formerly unassuming county had become the temporary main camp of Shanhai City. The teleportation formation in the territory shone endlessly, as people traveled between the two cities.

During the military and administrative meeting, Ouyang Shuo had set the military reorganization and the Zhaoqing Prefecture structure. Both the military and the Governor-General House felt like a fire burned at their butts, as they started to get busy.

A large number of civil servants started to move over from Shanhai City to help matters.

To Shanhai City, the post-war matters were similar to the war that had just ended, only with a lack of bloodshed.

In order to smoothly integrate Zhaoqing Prefecture into the Shanhai City rule, they depended on these civil servants.

They would spread the system and ideals of Shanhai City into each and every corner of Zhaoqing Prefecture.

As the Lord, Ouyang Shuo had a sleepless night, as he planned for the future. He finally managed to fall asleep at the dead of night.

Luckily, he had a strong body that brimmed with energy. After cultivating the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique, he could instantly enter a deep slumber, where one hour was the same as two hours of regular sleep.

If he wanted the men under him to do their best, he could not slack as their Lord.

When the rooster outside his window started to crow, Ouyang Shuo had already woken up. After a simple wash up, he arrived at the empty floor in the courtyard and began to cultivate.

He did two rounds of Bajiquan to loosen up his muscles. Then, he did half an hour of spear practice. Toward the similarities between Bajiquan and the Yang Family Spear Technique, Ouyang Shuo had already caught some inspiration.

He believed that as long as he continued to diligently train, combining the two was just a matter of time.

After training his spear, Ouyang Shuo started to train his sword technique. The killing blade he trained in was like usual, without a hint of a killing aura. Rather than saying he was training his sword, it looked more like a sword dance.

But upon careful inspection, you would be astonished.

An invisible energy would slice the fallen leaves in the air in half, even before they got close to the Chixiao Sword. Although there was no wind in the courtyard, one could feel small explosion like knife cuts.

Whenever Ouyang Shuo trained his sword, the guards would run far away and stand at a distance. These guards, who had been through hell and back, were extremely sensitive to blood and killing aura.

The current silence was far better a raucous environment.

By the time Ouyang Shuo completed his training, two hours had unknowingly passed. He returned to his room and changed into a set of clean clothes before preparing for breakfast.

When he walked into the dinning hall, Ouyang Shuo instructed the guard, Chen Da Meng, "Da Meng, go call Mr. Xiao and ask for him to look for me in the reading room."

"Yes, my Lord!"

Chen Da Meng was a brute that was built unusually burly. He was 195 centimeters in height with bulging muscles. His body was comparable to that of a human-sized fierce beast.

Do not just look at his large size, which might make him look stupid. One could not underestimate his Bajiquan.

Before he came to Shanhai City, he was a hunter, and his life depended on his hunts. Apart from a sickly little brother, he had no other family members.

To treat his brother's illness, he had entered deep into the forests to fight tigers, leopards, and wolves. In his homeland, he was a relative famous as a fellow who could fight anything.

When he came to Shanhai City, he entered the Bajiquan dojo and became a disciple under Lin Yue. Who knew that this guy, who looked burly and stupid, would actually possess a super strong comprehension, and his understanding of fist techniques shocked even Lin Yue.

Lin Yue paid attention to him for three months and decided to accept him as a direct disciple, teaching him the essence of Bajiquan.

With that, his martial art skills skyrocketed.

In contrast to Lin Yue's eldest disciple, Wang Feng, who was adept at spears, Chen Da Meng loved fist techniques. A pair of fists, who knew how many heroes and soldiers had died under it. With one fist, he could even down a cow.

Apart from fist techniques, the only weapon he knew how to use was a dagger. Hence, he could only fight on the ground and not on a horse.

After he learned everything, Chen Da Meng followed his elder disciples and chose to join the military.

After a period of training, he successfully became a member of the Divine Martial Guards. Not long ago, Ouyang Shuo chose him to be the captain of the Royal Guards.

Ouyang Shuo's first bodyguard, Wang Feng, currently led three thousand soldiers. As such, it was not suitable for him to just stick next to Ouyang Shuo.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo chose another two hundred people from the Divine Martial Guards to take the role of his Royal Guards that would guard him twenty-four-seven.

Chen Da Meng was the captain and also his closest bodyguard.

In olden times, any bodyguard of the Lord had exceptional martial arts, such as Dian Wei and Xu Zhu under Cao Cao.

Chen Da Meng naturally could not compare to them.

However, for now, it was enough.

Ouyang Shuo was still unwilling to use a famous general as his bodyguard. After all, he was a player, so even if he was assassinated, he could revive. Hence, he did not need a large number of guards to protect his safety.

When Ouyang Shuo was eating, Xiao He followed behind Chen Da Meng and hurried over. Seeing that the Lord was still eating, Xiao He decided to wait outside.

"Mr. Xiao is here? Please enter."

"Lord!"

When Xiao He heard these words, he walked into the dinning hall and bowed.

A Lord meeting an official in a dinning hall. If such news spread out, the scholars would scold him to death.

Ouyang Shuo did not care and just did what he wanted. He laughed, as he said, "Mr. Xiao rushed over, so you must not have eaten yet? Da Meng, prepare a bowl and chopsticks for Mr. Xiao."

"Yes, my Lord!"

Chen Da Meng, who stood outside, acknowledged the order and went to prepare.

When he went out to war, Chen Da Meng was both his bodyguard and his butler. To make this large man carry tea and food, probably only Ouyang Shuo could think of that.

Chen Da Meng himself did not overthink the matter. Before he lived in Shanhai City, he took care of his brother all by himself, so he was familiar with such tasks.

Washing clothes and cooking rice, he knew how to do it all.

The ones that felt awkward were only the officials like Xiao He.

Seeing this tall and fierce warrior hand over a pair of chopsticks, it truly felt weird. The small bowl and chopsticks looked like toys in his massive hand.

Xiao He was anxious that if this fellow used a little strength, the items would break.

In olden times, to eat together with a king was a considerable honour. Although Xiao He was born in the wilderness, he had probably eaten together with Liu Bang before.

However, facing the Lord opposite him, he felt a little anxious.

Although the Lord was young, he was resolute and emitted a certain aura.

Ouyang Shuo had invited Xiao He, but he did not start talking about work at the table. The olden theory of keeping quiet while eating and sleeping had its rights.

After eating, the two of them came to the reading room.

At this point, Chen Da Meng had prepared tea for them. He was of the same level as the maidservants in the Nanjiang Governor-General House. Some newcomers were not even at his standard.

"Look at this!"

Ouyang Shuo sat at his desk and picked up a document. On the document, the words ‘Top Secret’ were written in red ink. Evidently, this document was only allowed to spread to a small circle.

When Xiao He heard the prompt, he got up and walked in front to receive the document respectfully before returning to his seat.

Ouyang Shuo had prepared this document yesterday. It discussed the new department and the revolution regarding education and medical areas.

When Xiao He read the document, waves rose up in his heart.

As it was a top secret document, Ouyang Shuo had specifically detailed the areas and future implications.

Ouyang Shuo wrote about these matters to show him the importance and meaning of this revolution. He did not wish for Xiao He to possess misunderstandings that could result in the revolution being a failure.

As such, after he read the document, Xiao He felt terrified. This revolution was something he had never heard about, entirely different from the dynasties and actions of other kings.

At the same time, Xiao He was an intelligent official.

He realized the use of this revolution to the territory. Especially to the people, this was a chance to change their destinies entirely.

"Lord is a genius, loving the people like his children. Such a Lord is the blessing of the people."

Xiao He got up once more and respectfully bowed.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and looked at Xiao He. Then, he solemnly said, "I'll let you take the lead and be in charge of building the Science, Education, Culture, and Health Department. Do you have confidence?"

"To work for the Lord, even in death, I will not reject it!"

Xiao He solemnly knelt down and swore. At the current moment, an uncontrollable aspiration and pride rose up from within him.

As a famous minister of a generation, his heart had a substantial political and governmental burden. To be able to help the ruler of the world was the aspiration of every scholar.

To work for the world, to use your life for the people, to continue learning and to spread world peace.

This revolution helped to improve the lives of the people, which gave Xiao He the feeling that he was standing at the start of a new generation.

Probably, in this simple reading room, during this dull morning, Xiao He had completed his most significant transformation in his life.

The moment he was reborn and escaped from the fences of this era, Xiao He could proceed upward and assist Ouyang Shuo in the future real world.

Ouyang Shuo was the only witness to all this.

Chapter 480-Zhenhai City

After sending Xiao He away, Ouyang Shuo met another person, Hefu.

After learning that Jade Buddha County had fallen, South Alliance not only removed him from his role as alliance leader, they even kicked him out. The current Hefu was truly a lonely person.

The only thing of value would be the control over Jade Buddha County.

After learning that Tianshuang County had fallen, Ouyang Shuo was eager to find another city in the center of Lingnan Province.

In the end, Ouyang Shuo had set his sights on Jade Buddha County. Apart from the fact that he needed it during the war, its harbor was another attractive factor.

Coincidentally, Jiaozhou Harbor was located between Beihai Harbor and Quanzhou Harbor, so it could act as a transit point for goods.

Be it merchant ships or warships, they could only carry a limited amount of freshwater and food. If they brought too much, it would affect the number of other goods they could carry.

Hence, during a routine naval journey, people would choose to stop at a few harbors along the way.

The position of Jiaozhou Harbor was special.

With Jiaozhou Harbor, Ouyang Shuo's plan to transport goods through the sea from Quanzhou could become a reality.

This was also the reason why Ouyang Shuo had ordered Zhao Kuo to not destroy the stone steele.

The bright sunlight shone into the courtyard, as the blooming flowers bloomed emitted a vibrant vilatality.

Hefu, who the guards escorted, was looking really down. His face now had a beard, and he looked defeated. He did not have the aura of a Lord or the prestige from before.

Maybe because he was not used to the light, but Hefu used his hand to shade his forehead, as he squinted his eyes.

Ouyang Shuo stood in the corridor. He looked at Hefu, who walked step by step towards him. If you lost, you became a prisoner. Today's outcome could serve as a lesson for others.

"Lord Hefu, I've long been looking for you!" Ouyang Shuo greeted.

When Hefu heard these words, he raised his head and looked at Ouyang Shuo, as his mouth turned into a self-deprecating smile. With a hoarse voice, he said, "I am a fallen man. Lord Wuyi is joking!"

The man in front of him was the Lord that destroyed his dreams and ambitions.

Weirdly enough, the current Hefu did not feel any anger or regret. It was like all his moments had disappeared the moment he lost.

The man in front of him was of similar age, but he stood at the pinnacle of the game. There was also a moment that he himself was one step away from approaching such a position.

That small distance had resulted in the current difference between night and day.

This displayed the luck and misfortune of life.

Thinking about this point, Hefu felt more and more desperate. He only wanted to use the last of his chips to exchange for some money. Then, he would find an imperial city to seclude himself.

The two opponents stood facing one another, not saying anything.

"Please!"

In the end, Ouyang Shuo broke the silence and led Hefu into the reading room. Toward this person and such an opponent, Ouyang Shuo still held a great deal of respect for him.

Hefu did not mind, nodding his head and walking in. He sat on his own and said tiredly, "Lord Wuyi, what terms do you have. Please state them!"

His voice contained a mix of his sense of failure and his exhaustion.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this, he knew that the words he had prepared would not come into play. He smiled slightly, "Lord Hefu is frank. Since that's the case, I will not beat around the bush. I have twenty thousand gold here; hand over Jade Buddha County over to me."

"Fifty thousand!"

This time, Hefu's voice was resolute.

Ouyang Shuo frowned; this was a bit of a ripoff. However, he had to admit that the actual value of the county was not twenty thousand.

But the problem was that the current Jade Buddha County was already in his hands. Ouyang Shuo was only buying the teleportation formation.

"Thirty thousand gold, no more bargaining. Lord Hefu, you should know that you do not have much bargaining room." In the end, Ouyang Shuo decided to give in slightly and add in an extra ten thousand gold.

Thirty thousand gold was enough to let Hefu live as he wished. If he did a little business, he could easily become rich.

Silence, a long, long silence.

Hefu closed his mouth. He did not even speak a word, as he had a final internal struggle.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo's attitude remained unchanging. At this time, sympathy had left his body, and there was only coldness and rationality left.

A difference of twenty thousand gold was enough to let Shanhai City do many things.

In the financial profits of the 8th month, apart from the funds needed for the education and medical revolutions, Ouyang Shuo needed ten thousand gold to fund the Shanhai Guards.

Hence, the amount of money on hand was not enough for him to spend thoughtlessly.

He had already spent a considerable sum of money when he formed the Black Snake Guards. Now, to create the Shanhai Guards, which stood at a level higher, the amount of funds would naturally reach an even more terrifying number.

After all, to develop and maintain a bunch of spies was not an easy matter.

The Battle of Zhaoqing and the changes in Wulong County were enough to prove the value of intel. Ouyang Shuo's investment into the Black Snake Guards had not gone to waste; his investment had bore fruit.

Just as Ouyang Shuo started to feel a little impatient, Hefu finally let go.

"I agree!"

Hefu raised his head and looked at Ouyang Shuo, “Who should I let it go to?"

"Song Wen!"

"Song Wen?"

Hefu felt a little surprised. It was a person who had lost to him.

"That's right!"

Amongst Lord gamemode players, there were not many people he trusted. Apart from Song Wen, there were none left. As a result, Ouyang Shuo had much such plans when Tianshuang County fell.

Moreover, this was a sort of the compensation from Ouyang Shuo to Song Wen.

"Okay!"

Although Hefu felt that it was strange, he did not care much. He immediately opened the territory interface and chose to hand over control.

"System Notification: Player Hefu, will you hand over control of your territory?"

"Yes!"

"System Notification: Please set player to take control. Friendly Reminder: the set person's occupation must be a Lord."

"Song Wen!"

"System Notification: Searching for Song Wen…."

"System Notification: Player meets the requirements. Will you hand over control?"

"Yes!"

"System Notification: Control has been handed over. Automatically removing the position of the Jade Buddha County Lord."

At this point, Jade Buddha County had a new Lord.

Hefu took the thirty thousand gold and left through the Wulong City teleportation formation. After that, Ouyang Shuo did not hear any news related to him.

Initially, the Black Snake Guards wanted to follow him and assassinate him once as revenge.

However, Ouyang Shuo did not agree for a simple reason. In Tianshuang County, Hefu had displayed some goodwill actions toward the Four Seas Bank that Ouyang Shuo wished to repay.

After Hefu handed over control of the territory, Song Wen went to find Ouyang Shuo.

Before this, Song Wen did not know that Ouyang Shuo had any plans. Then, he suddenly receives this notification, which made him feel astonished and very touched.

He did not expect that after losing Tianshuang County, he would be given the even better Jade Buddha County.

Although both were territories, Song Wen knew that they were fundamentally different.

Tianshuang County was the private territory of the Song Family, so they could decide everything.

Jade Buddha County was different, as it belonged to Shanhai Territory, to Ouyang Shuo. To put it bluntly, Song Wen was just a high-level employee.

He was not a Lord of a territory but a city. His identity was similar to Mulan Yue’s. Moreover, he did not hand over a territory, so he had a lower position than her.

When the two of them met, the atmosphere was also exceedingly awkward.

The last time they met was at the Shanhai Alliance gathering. Even during the Battle of Julu, the two rarely talked.

During the meeting, as Song Wen was the son of the Song Family, he had the power to talk to Ouyang Shuo equally as friends.

But now, as times had changed, the situation had also changed. Their identities and roles had changed completely.

Now, when Song Wen met Ouyang Shuo, he felt the need to lower himself. Song Wen himself knew that he needed to reevaluate this person in front of him. He would have to change the way he acted.

The current Ouyang Shuo was his master.

Since Song Wen came to him, Ouyang Shuo decided to describe his plans for Jade Buddha County.

Jade Buddha County was renamed as Zhenhai City.

Ouyang Shuo changed the name because Jade Buddha County had the mark of Hefu's name.

Song Wen would become the mayor of Zhen An City.

Apart from that, he did not receive land or rank like Mulan Yue. Members of the Song Family could not move over and had to stay in Shanhai City.

This was a warning from Ouyang Shuo.

The day that Song Wen’s accomplishments satisfied Ouyang Shuo, he would grant the former rank and land.

Apart from that, as the mayor, he was only in charge of administrative matters. As for military affairs, Ouyang Shuo had other plans.

Apart from forming a Garrison Division, Ouyang Shuo was ready to create another naval division. Temporarily, they would just call it the Jiaozhou Squadron Dirt Division.

As for the captain, Ouyang Shuo chose Yanhuo Yaonie.

Although in the attack of Jade Buddha County, the two squadrons did not have the chance to show off, Yanhuo Yaonie had already met the mark to receive a promotion.

This time, Yanhuo Yaonie had obtained a stage to show off his talents. Whether he was able to lead the Jiaozhou Squadron 1st division and guard Zhenhai City was Ouyang Shuo's test for him.

Chapter 481- Shanhai City Region Planning

After dealing with Zhenhai City matters, Ouyang Shuo finally had some free time.

Organizing the military and calming down Zhaoqing Prefecture; these two jobs would take place at the same time. Even so, without a month, they could not reap any rewards.

Making use of this rare rest time, Ouyang Shuo was ready to set off and tour Zhaoqing Prefecture.

Although Zhaoqing Prefecture had calmed down, the hearts of the people had not. The government had posted announcements to try to soothe them, but they all remained frightened.

The death of their Lord, the loss of their army, and the surrender. Even after a month, they still remembered these events fervently.

Fear and uncertainty shrouded the entire Zhaoqing Prefecture.

Over the skies of Zhaoqing Prefecture, the gloomy clouds signaled death and despair.

Based on the reports of the Black Snake Guards, hundreds of people had move out of some of the cities.

In the wilderness, people formed their most significant strategic resource.

Ouyang Shuo’s heart pained from the loss of people in Zhaoqing Prefecture. He ordered the Internal Affairs Department to strengthen their control, and he was also ready to personally go down.

At such a moment, as the Lord, Ouyang Shuo naturally needed to calm his people.

The 1st regiment of the Guards Division accompanied him. Although they had pacified Zhaoqing Prefecture, Ouyang Shuo still did not dare to set off alone.

With the Guards Division’s presence, he would face no danger.

Of course, the night before he set out, Ouyang Shuo booked the most prominent restaurant in Wulong City. He held a feast to thank the scholars, the officials, the merchants, and the old people of the city for their support of the Shanhai City Army.

Ouyang Shuo had promised this thanking feast when he had just moved in. Hence, before he left on his tour, he had to fulfill it.

Making use of this chance, he also sent Song Wen and the others off.

Tomorrow, Song Wen would move to Zhenhai County, while his family would move to Shanhai City, where Song Jia would receive them.

Ouyang Shuo had already instructed Shanhai City Mayor Zang Wenzhong to grant a piece of land to the Song Family in the west region.

Not long ago, when they perfected the basic structure and roads in Shanhai City, the Construction Division had helped to reorganize and plan the districts in the city.

Before this, Shanhai City was separated into Imperial City, Inner City, Qiushui City, Friendship City, and outer city. The sizes between the regions completely did not match.

Especially the outer city, which took up two-thirds of the land area. It stretched out to every corner of the territory, and one totally could not call it an outer city.

As Shanhai City prospered day by day, many people would swarm in endlessly, including merchants, scholars, and tourists that came over to play. The position of Shanhai City in China was growing more and more critical. As a result, they needed to logically plan out the regions and districts now. If not, they would become a laughing stock.

In the end, Shanhai City made use of the classic three by three grid to split up the city, dividing the city into nine regions.

The nine regions would have its central area located at the intersection between Friendship River and Qiushui River. East, west, north, and south; these four huge city regions, as well as northwest, northeast, southwest, and southeast.

After the reorganization, the original Friendship City was at the current north region, the inner city at the current southwest region, and Qiushui City at the southeast region.

Apart from that, the imperial city and the inner city would combine into the imperial city. After the merge, the commoner region and business region would move from the inner city to the west region.

As the territory increased in size, the starting imperial city would become too small, not fitting of the position of the Nanjiang Governor-General House. As such, they needed to expand the imperial city.

Apart from planning the city regions, they had to make clear the functions and uses of each region.

The water roads met at the middle region. The traffic built up here was called the pier region. The east and west regions were called the business regions and connected to the pier through the water roads.

The south region was defined as the technology research region; the military workshops and the technology research bases were set here.

The original Friendship City Region was the current north region, while Qiushui City region was the southeast region; these two areas would be the residential regions.

Lastly, the military regions located at the northwest and northeast regions. They would house one of the two divisions of the city protection division in each of these two regions to protect Shanhai City.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo planned to let the Song Family live in the west region.

Song Wen received an appointment, and the Divine Martial Guards in Zhenhai City temporarily could not return. They had to wait for the Zhenhai City Garrison Division to become organized and fully equipped.

Hence, the Divine Martial Guards needed to spend a period of time there.

On the other hand, Ouyang Shuo instructed the Beihai Bay Squadron to return.

Beihai City was the door to defending Lianzhou, so they could not lose it. The Beihai Bay Squadron could not leave for extended periods of time. If not, and pirates attacked in their absence, the results would be catastrophic.

As for the 1st division of the Yashan Squadron, they would temporarily camp in Jiaozhou Harbor.

Cai Mao guided Yanhuo Yaonie to undergo the preparatory work to build the Jiaozhou Squadron; this included choosing soldiers, modifying the harbor, and other similar tasks.

The shipyard had already received the news, and they would arrange to send a batch of warships over.

Before they completed the 1st division of Jiaozhou Squadron, Cai Mao’s Yashan Squadron would not leave. Zhenhai City still needed to depend on them for now.

Apart from the Song Family, Xiao He would also to return to Shanhai City.

He did not dare to handle the matters Ouyang Shuo had left to him too slowly. He shifted the duties of the Zhaoqing Prefecture to the four directors, as he needed to return to start planning and organizing his new department.

After he drafted his proposal, he needed Ouyang Shuo to approve it.

The next morning, Ouyang Shuo did not nag anyone. He just led his troops and set off. His touring plan and route remained highly confidential. Apart from the Shanhai Guards and the Black Snake Guards, no one else knew.

Ouyang Shuo toured the entire Zhaoqing Prefecture with the speed of a city a day. When he reached the cities, he would meet all the people, both to announce that he was in power and also to calm them down.

Apart from that, he wanted to test the local officials.

After a long time of training, Ouyang Shuo's judgment had improved. When he saw a person, especially an official, he could evaluate them thoroughly with just a few simple words.

Ouyang Shuo would even meet some of the officials that the locals had received well alone.

Every day, Ouyang Shuo would write down all that he had seen and felt into a letter and send it to Fan Zhongyan. Undoubtedly, any official that Ouyang Shuo praised would be placed into high positions.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo did not make the final decision. Instead, he left it to the Administration Department. For the people that he mentioned, the Administration Department would pay more attention to during their evaluation.

To ensure the prestige of the Administration Department in the area of evaluating officials, Ouyang Shuo was setting an example.

The titles of Lianzhou Lord and Nanjiang Governor-General were a considerable deterrence to the ordinary people.

Every place that he visited, all the people would come out to welcome him. Gentry would gather up, and all the merchants would swarm out like mice that had smelled cheese.

Ouyang Shuo treated all of them equally. He showed his might and position at times, while he also made conversations with them and described the ideals of the territory.

In their conversations, Ouyang Shuo also vaguely announced the revolution in the education and medical regions.

With that, the people would have a general idea, and they would not resist as much when the changes occurred.

At the same time, Ouyang Shuo wanted to use the chance to show the people his true feelings. He wanted to let them clearly see that their future lives would be much better.

The people all cared about benefits, so whoever treated them well, they would support that person.

Hearing about how in the future, their children could go to school for free, and how when they were sick, the government would settle it, cheers broke out.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo's personal visit was more useful than any people calming notifications or announcements.

Apart from ensuring that they did not worry and evaluating the local officials, Ouyang Shyo gave himself another mission - to assess the local produce and finances.

Workers of the Financial Department were not as sharp at identifying new industries and unknown resources.

For example, when he went passed the Yingshan Mountain Range, he found a magical stone the locals knew as the Ying Stone.

After thousands of years, the Ying Stone had slowly formed. Exquisitely carved, textured patchwork, having a specialty of being thin, creased, and transparent.

However, no one paid attention to such a particular stone.

The same day, Ouyang Shuo sent a letter to Cui Yingyu to ask her to let the Industry Division collect these stones on a large-scale. Be it acting as a decoration or putting it in forests, the Ying Stone was suitable.

One time, Ouyang Shuo went passed a city and heard people saying that someone had dug out an unusual item, but he did not know what it was.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this news, he immediately ordered someone to take the item.

When he saw it, he realized that it was a type of ginger.

Although ginger had some uses in olden China, people did not commonly use it in food. So it was not surprising that the people did not recognize this kind of wild ginger.

Undoubtedly, Ouyang Shuo had found another local product for the territory.

For the development of the territory, Ouyang Shuo had been doing all he could.

This tour was also a chance for Ouyang Shuo to expand his horizons.

As they said, reading a thousand books was not as effective as walking a thousand miles.

In his journey, he crossed rivers and mountains and passed the wilderness.

In the wilderness, although there were not many people, there was another feeling.

Wild and rough, these words were the best description of the wilderness.

At this point, Ouyang Shuo recalled his past life and his many adventures in the wilderness.

Thinking up to this point, those memories were exceedingly precious.

Chapter 482- Financial District

9th month, 20th day, Shanhai City.

As Ouyang Shuo toured Zhaoqing Prefecture, the Song Family settled down in Shanhai City. To compensate them for the loss of Tianshuang County, Ouyang Shuo gave them a large span of land space, enough to purchase a huge mansion, shops, and a workshop, which they could build into an independent, small-sized neighborhood.

Of course, the Song Family would have to shoulder the construction fees themselves.

Along with the various Chambers of Commerce located in Shanhai City, and the rise of private ownership, there were many public teams in the current Shanhai City apart from the construction teams of the Construction Division.

These public teams just needed to register with the Construction Division. After obtaining the legal paperwork and qualifications, they could take up construction projects within Shanhai City.

Even in government construction projects, if the Construction Division lacked manpower, they could subcontract the project to these public teams.

The reason behind this change was to further stimulate the private economic activity of the territory.

The planning of Shanhai City was simply too large-scale, so if they solely relied on the government team, who knew how long it would take. As such, the Construction Division came up with such a plan.

Ouyang Shuo really did not expect that under his leadership, such a modern day construction organization would actually appear in his territory. This showed that the business atmosphere of Shanhai City was truly thick and prosperous.

Not to mention the construction teams, even the architectural college of the Xinan University started to accept projects. Some graduated students had already prepared to set up teams to accept private projects.

The real world full industry chain of the construction industry was slowly starting to form in Shanhai City.

In the future, the government could entirely step out, apart from public services.

The role of the Construction Division would change from leading the constructions of the territory to setting the standards for constructions, monitoring the projects, and making overall plans for the regions.

The government could just rely on the money from selling and renting land to get rich.

With that, funds for activities such as building the city walls, repairing the roads, water facilities, and public gardens would become available, and it would not burden the territory.

This was also the magic of the market.

Of course, they would still ensure the basic living conditions of the people; this was a line that Ouyang Shuo would not cross.

The land that the government sold could only be for stores, workshops, private mansions, and the like.

As a result, the proceeds from selling land would basically flow to public constructions, and it would not form one of the primary financial income sources of the territory.

The rise of the construction industry would be a result of the private economy of Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo's hard work was finally paying off.

The rise of a private economy did not just bring up Shanhai City; it influenced the entire territory. The news was passed to him that in the other parts of the territory, other public teams were appearing.

Shanhai City was going to become the financial center of the territory.

Any new wave of ideas of matters started and prospered mainly from Shanhai City.

The people of Shanhai City, especially the ‘elder generation,’ were all people Ouyang Shuo's thinking had influenced.

In the public construction teams of Shanhai City, more than half emerged from the first construction team of Shanhai City, back when it was still at the village stage.

These people were also the strength that helped to support and uphold Ouyang Shuo's rule.

Nanjiang Governor-General House, Shuangyun Palace.

Shuangyun Palace, the sleeping quarters of Song Jia, located at the east side of Ouyang Shuo's Wuji Palace.

In the main hall, Song Jia was having a conversation with her father, Song Tianxiong.

For the Song Family to move over to Shanhai City, the happiest person was Song Jia. This way, she could accompany Ouyang Shuo, and she did not need separate from her family.

This was killing two birds with one stone.

Of course, the other members of the Song Family would not think of this matter in the same way.

Being under someone's control definitely did not feel that way.

Especially those who knew his real-life identity, they truly did not feel good. How would they have thought that a poor boy in reality would become one of the greatest powers in China?

On the other hand, they, who controlled everything and had so much power in real life, were now under this poor kid. Their roles were now reversed entirely.

This kind of role reversal was one that most would not feel good about.

Song Tianxiong did not feel that way, and even if he did, he would suppress it in his heart. A merchant giant like him had faced many problems in his life.

Compared to those challenges, what was this small situation?

After settling down his family, building the Song Chamber of Commerce became the most important matter to him. Before Ouyang Shuo left Shanhai City, he had set three terms for the Chamber of Commerce.

Now, the three terms were all completed.

First, the sixty-eight thousand gold low-interest loan that Song Wen had told Song Tianxiong about at Wulong City. The day that Song Tianxiong came to Shanhai City, he had already completed all the paperwork at the Four Seas Bank.

Including the gold from the Tianshuang County vault, Song Tianxiong had about one hundred thousand gold on him.

Of course, if one wanted to build a large-sized Chamber of Commerce, one hundred thousand gold did not seem much. Just the Song Family home they planned already cost ten thousand gold.

Second, the context of the pearl sole dealership contract. The Industry Division had already drawn it up and passed it to Song Jia. As long as Song Tianxiong signed it, it would come into immediate effect.

This contract would also be one of the money making points of the Song Chamber of Commerce in the early stages.

Ouyang Shuo had asked the Industry Division to calculate the possible earnings. From this contract alone, the Song Chamber of Commerce could earn two thousand gold every month.

Third, the ten merchant ships that the shipyard had already completed. These ships were now parked in the docks near the Shanhai City central region.

Based on the current market price, these ten merchant ships would cost up to forty thousand gold.

After understanding the situation, Song Tianxiong truly could not imagine what other things he could ask from Ouyang Shuo. Ouyang Shuo had really helped Song Tianxiong out in every way he could.

Even so, it would remain difficult for the Song Chamber of Commerce in Shanhai City.

As one of the merchant sharks in the real world, how could he feel content to let the Song Chamber of Commerce be useless and obscure in the game? After all, the development of the Chamber of Commerce would affect his future.

Amongst the members of the Song Family, Song Jia, needless to say, would have a high permission level. Even without Ouyang Shuo, her achievements in martial arts and her identity as the Dongli Sword Sect sect leader was enough.

Song Wen and Song Wu, these two brothers, had entered the Shanhai City system and had taken up the role of official and general. If they worked hard, their futures were bright too.

Apart from them, the other members of the family had uncertain futures. With no territory and now being under someone else, they would not have a chance to shine.

Just to maintain their luxurious lives and the expenses of a hundred family members would cost another vast sum. If they relied on the profits from the pearl business, they would not have enough.

Their only hope would be through the Song Chamber of Commerce.

Hence, Song Tianxiong needed to think of a way to let it prosper. Since he took over the control of the family, he naturally had the responsibility to take care of them.

After Tianshuang County fell, his father had been exceedingly dejected. As a son, he truly could not bear to see his father like that, as it meant that he was not filial.

Although to fight for power, the two of them had strained their relationship, they were still blood-related, and the other man was his father.

Song Tianxiong did not come to Shuangyun Palace complain but to visit his daughter. Her situation was his only consolation now.

"Dad, I heard Wuyi say that the fall of Tianshuang County had something to do with the Yuan Family?" This father and daughter duo talked about some family matters before she carefully spoke about this sensitive topic.

"That's right!"

In front of his daughter, Song Tianxiong did not hide anything.

Of the three family representatives who came over, the Zhou Family was actually close to the Song Family. They did not know anything about the intentions of the Yuan Family. They were purely there to calm things down and were used.

The territory of the Zhou Family was located in Zhaoqing Prefecture.

After the end of the war, as the Zhou Family's position wavered, Ouyang Shuo did not spare them and annihilated their group.

Song, Zhou, their two families had more than ten years of relationships. Now, they had walked to the end of their paths.

The Zhao Family was close to the Yuan Family, and they were also one of the members of South Alliance. Although the Zhao Family was not completely clear about the plans of the Yuan Family, they still knew something about it. They went to Tianshuang County to help act as cover.

Hence, the Zhao Family could be considered the partners of the Yuan Family.

The representatives of the two families, including Grandfather Yuan, were currently locked up in the Song Family Mansion in Shanhai City.

The moment the war ended, the Zhao and Yuan Family had sent over a string of letters that stated they were willing to use money to exchange for their family members.

Especially Yuan Ping, who was really anxious, as the person locked up was his grandfather.

Just this morning, he had sent his fourth letter and raised the money to twenty thousand. It was evident that in the Yuan Family, he was under a lot of pressure.

After all, he followed Yuan Ping's plan into the tiger’s mouth.

After Song Jia heard about everything, evident disgust appeared on her face, "Dad, you should just raise the price to thirty thousand and let him go. Do not keep them here and dirty our land."

Even if Song Jia wanted revenge, she did not want to have many dealings with them. Ouyang would destroy the Yuan and Zhao Families soon, so such actions lacked purpose. At that time, they would lose everything.

The current small actions were pointless.

"Okay!"

Song Tianxiong also felt there was no reason to drag this matter on.

Chapter 483- News About Fan Li

Shuangyun Palace.

"Father, what items will the family Chamber of Commerce sell?" After talking about the Yuan Family, Song Jia took the initiative to change the topic once again.

"I still have no idea."

Talking about this point, Song Tianxiong had a massive headache, and his eyebrows locked tight.

The game had a lot more item types that they could sell compared to reality. But any special items needed the related technical manuals, which already formed up a sort of technical barrier. For example, stationery. The large Chambers of Commerce controlled the raw material market for items like jade and gems.

It was not easy to slash their way out of this competitive environment.

On the other hand, work occupation guilds like Thread directly avoided the competition between NPC Chambers of Commerce and targeted adventure gamemode players, earning beyond their wildest dreams.

Song Jia's brows trembled, as she said with uncertainty, "I keep hearing Wuyi say that us players landing in the game world is the same as collectively teleporting to olden society. Can you discover some new item channels from this perspective?"

When Song Tianxiong heard these words, he felt amused. Since a young age, his precious daughter had been a strong woman with her own views. Ever since she started to follow Ouyang Shuo, who knew how he had influenced her. Now, her words would echo his.

Although he felt amused, his daughter's idea had lit up a light bulb in his head. However, he was a traditional merchant, so he did not understand much about the passing through time thing.

"What new methods?"

Seeing that she had captured her father's interest, Song Jia eagerly started rambling on, "Since we went back in time, we must invent something that the olden times did not have, like glass, perfume, soap, and the like."

"Perfume? Soap?"

A baffled expression appeared on Song Tianshuang's face. According to what he remembered, these things did not fit into the background of the game.

"Will that work?"

"Yes, it can." Song Jia gave him a confident expression, "There's a book called ‘Elite Product’ that got really popular. The main character got rich by selling perfume and soap."

"...."

Song Tianxiong was not convinced. After thinking for a while, he hesitated and said, "Do you know how difficult it is to make such products in olden times?"

"Father, you're really out with the times. Do not forget that we can log onto the forums at any time and check for information. Furthermore, these daily products are not restricted by the technology tree, so Gaia will not prevent us from researching them."

"Technology tree?"

"...."

Song Jia facepalmed, as she realized that her father had such a low understanding of the game. Of course, all these ideals and ways of thinking spread from Ouyang Shuo to her.

Helplessly, Song Jia could only explain about the settings of the technology tree to her father.

The moment her father heard this information, his eyes brightened. He was a merchant after all. Although he did not know much about technology, he had an extremely sharp eye for the potential market reaction.

Just as Song Jia had said, if they really managed to invent perfume and soap, they could create a massive moneymaker.

"Great, let's take a gamble!"

Song Tianxiong smacked his palm onto the desk. As a merchant, he brimmed with an adventurous spirit. He finally had a direction for the future of the Chamber of Commerce, making him feel a lot more hope.

When Song Jia saw such a response, she gave out a slight smile.

Just as Song Jia was talking to her father, Shanhai City had once again welcomed another special guest.

The new arrival was a vibrant and exquisite woman. She had bright eyes and white teeth; she wore a white dress and rode a white horse. Behind her was another girl dressed up like a maidservant; they both looked pretty cute.

"Miss, is this the Shanhai City that mister is working at? It's so boisterous; comparable to Xianyang City." The maidservant was really energetic, as she looked at the crowds of people and exclaimed in awe.

The white dressed woman did not reply, as she used her eyes to judge the shops on both sides of the streets. She was a merchant that had a unique smell for various goods. In such a short amount of time, the business atmosphere in Shanhai City had astonished her too.

Master and servant, especially the white dressed woman, even in Shanhai City, they were bright existences. As they asked questions on the streets, they caught the eye of anyone that passed by.

The moment they entered the city, the Shanhai Guard spy had already started paying attention to them.

When Shen Buhai had established the Shanhai Guards, Ouyang Shuo's first order was for him to have a death grip on Shanhai City. Based on what he said, nothing that happened could escape the eyes and ears of the Shanhai Guards.

Out of the funds that Ouyang Shuo had prepared for them, more than thirty percent was used on building up an intel network in Shanhai City. The eyes and ears that Zisu had set up through the Lord's Manor was also merged into this network.

Hence, in a short period of time, the Shanhai Guards managed to set up a network to monitor the entire city.

The unassuming sellers at the city gate, the owner of the inn, the coolies at the pier, and other such individuals; they acted as eyes everywhere.

No matter what stranger entered Shanhai City, the Shanhai Guards would immediately monitor them.

The master and servant duo were so eye-catching. Naturally, more emphasis was placed on them.

The petite maidservant suddenly approached the white dressed woman and whispered, Miss, someone is spying on us." Who knew that such a pure looking girl would actually be so sharp.

The white dressed woman did not react and smiled, "It's okay."

The two of them walked and shopped. From the side door of the north gate to the north city region, the middle region, and the west region. Their last goal was the imperial city located in the southwest corner.

This whole trip took the entire morning.

At noon, when the two of them arrived at the main gate of the imperial city, they guards stopped them.

The current main gate was a prohibited zone for the common people. Hence, the Guards Division had specially built a city guard regiment to guard the imperial city.

"The imperial city is a sacred ground; strangers cannot enter!"

"What are you getting so fierce for!"

When the petite maidservant saw the guard, she felt no fear. It was evident that she had a special identity and was a person that had experienced a lot.

When the white dressed woman heard these words, she stopped the maidservant and said warmly, "Please inform Wei Yang that Bai Xue is here to visit."

Seeing that she was not ordinary, the guard did not dare to take her lightly and asked, "Is that the Internal Affairs Director Mr. Wei Yang?"

"That's right."

"How are you related to him? I apologize for this, but this is my duty."

Being a guard was also a tough job. Being too harsh would make enemies of those with noble identities but being too nice would make them easily played and taken advantage of.

"Listen well; she's his wife."

The maidservant could not help but step out and answer.

When the guard heard such a claim, he quickly said, "Please wait up!" He turned around and left hurriedly.

In less than twenty minutes, Wei Yang followed behind the guard and ran over in a haste.

That's right, he ran.

This internal affairs director looked really strict and fierce usually. At the same time, he emphasized the law, so something like running on the streets was unheard of.

This moment held a significant meaning.

Wei Yang had entered an emotional state, and he was unable to pull himself out of it.

When he saw her, it was like the entire world suddenly stood still. In his eyes, there was nothing else but her.

At this moment, Wei Yang felt like he owned the world.

"Bai Xue!"

A simple greeting held such a profound feeling.

Wei Yang instantly choked up, as his eyes turned red, and he dashed across.

Such a scene even stunned the guard.

"Bai Xue!"

"Husband!"

The white dressed woman laughed brightly.

Her smile was like a lotus blooming, as if the world rotated around her.

This smile filled Wei Yang's heart with warmth and happiness.

"Bai Xue!"

Wei Yang could not help it anymore, so he walked up and hugged her.

These two lovers had once again reunited after thousands of years.

Seeing such a scene touched everyone.

Even the maidservant was on the verge of tears.

"Mister!"

She walked up and bowed to Wei Yang.

"Mei Gu!"

Wei Yang let go of Bai Xue and smiled warmly. From this moment on, Wei Yang became a person with flesh and blood. He was not the cold internal affairs director.

"Bai Xue, Mei Gu let's go."

Wei Yang collected himself, as he wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and led the way.

Who was Bai Xue?

Bai Xue, Warring States Period Wei Country merchant. Not only did she have a beautiful appearance, she also had rare knowledge and intelligence too.

Although she was the owner of the Bai Trading Company, she did not fight for gold and power. Instead, she supported Wei Yang all the way, affecting his life.

The Bai Trading Company that she ran not only sold items, but it also built up a unique intel network that spread across the land. With her addition to the wilderness, the Bai Trading Company also appeared in Xianyang City.

Apart from coming over to reunite with Wei Yang, Bai Xue also brought clues about Fan Li. This could be considered a special gift that she had prepared for the city.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news during his tour, he immediately ordered the Black Snake Guards to go all out to find Fan Li.

Chapter 484- Time of City-States Has Arrived

The relationship between Bai Xue and Fan Li stemmed from her father, Bai Gui.

Bai Gui was a disciple of Gui Guzi, who was called the Business Ancestor. Meanwhile, Fan Li was called the Business Saint.

Although they were not born in the same generation, they were all representative figures of the business school of thought. After they appeared in the wilderness, they would naturally contact one another.

During the philosophers' debate, members of the business school of thought did not participate. This was because people of the olden days looked down on business. Even if they participated, they would be humiliated and laughed at.

Of course, Bai Gui and Fan Li were different.

The two of them were not only merchants but also politicians and military personnel. Especially Fan Li, who helped the Yue King destroy the Wu Country. Afterward, he changed his occupation to merchant.

Bai Xue also received the news in her father's letter that Fan Li was together with Xi Shi. This god-like couple currently secluded themselves in a famous scenic location in Jiangnan.

As such, Ouyang Shuo ordered the Black Snake Guards to go all out in their search for him.

Shanhai City, Wei Manor.

Wei Yang was still bathing in the joy and happiness of reuniting with his love. Even the creases on his forehead had disappeared.

Rumors were spreading that no matter how cold and ruthless he was, if he was not a humble gentleman in real life, he would have failed to successfully chase Bai Xue.

"Bai Xue, since you came here, why not just live here? Although Shanhai City cannot compare to Xianyang at the moment, in the future, it might even surpass it. The Bai Trading Company will also have a limitless future in the city."

Although Wei Yang had historically helped to build up Xianyang, at the current moment, he had nothing to do with the Qin Country in his heart; he only cared about Shanhai City.

Being granted the powers of the Internal Affairs Department to form the law system, and expand the bailiff teams; all of these were significant events. Since the Lord trusted him so much, he definitely had to give it his all.

Not only Wei Yang, Han Feizi and the other Legalism greats were similarly motivated.

Bai Xue's eyes revealed that she was touched.

"Since I came here, naturally, I should stay with you." She laughed, "Only, if the Bai Trading Company wants to gain a foothold here, you need to help me out."

Wei Yang laughed with happiness, and he immediately thumped his chest and said, No problem."

In truth, Shanhai City did not have many restrictions toward Chambers of Commerce moving in. It was an open business environment. For the Bai Trading Company, it would be like a fish entering water.

Since Bai Xue could take control of the Bai Trading Company, she evidently had her abilities.

Probably, from today onward, the imperial Chambers of Commerce in the territory would increase to three. The Cui, Song, and Bai companies would form three chariots that would lead the territory.

What kind of long-term effect would Bai Xue's arrival have on Shanhai City? No one was sure. However, outside of Shanhai City, a huge change was brewing.

9th month, 25th day, half a month after South Alliance surrendered, a big move finally occurred.

Facing the colossal threat of Shanhai City, South Alliance experienced a considerable internal change. This change did not only affect the situation in Lingnan Province but the China region as a whole.

This day, South Alliance officially announced that they would rename themselves as the Lingnan City-State. At this point, they announced that they would use a city-state system to take root in the China region officially.

Compared to the current alliance system, the city-state system differed greatly.

Firstly, the specific meeting and discussion organizations.

After the members discussed with one another, they all agreed to have a Lords Committee. This committee would handle and solve all critical decisions.

The first head of this committee would be Yuan Ping. The head would change every half a year, and they would be in charge of chairing the meetings. Moreover, they acted as a symbol of the city-state to the outside world.

The Lords in the city-state were all members of this committee, and they had the rights to speak and vote. Each topic needed over sixty percent to agree and vote on before it could be passed.

As a result, compared to an alliance, members of the city-state were working with one another administratively. As for the territory itself, the committee would not interfere. However, for the external decisions, the power would lay in the hands of the Lords Committee.

Which meant that from today onward, to the outside world, the entire Lingnan Province three prefectures, sixty territories, were a single entity and one city-state.

Secondly, they would merge their economy.

Compared to the limited and scattered cooperation of an alliance, as a city-state, they took their collaboration a step further. Firstly, the Lords would all come out with money to build the Lingnan Bank.

The future Lingnan Bank would act as the engine that drove their economy forward. Each member of the city-state could borrow from the bank to develop their territory.

Of course, all of this came at a price.

The city-state declared that to protect the amount of gold inside, the banks in each territory must all merge into the Lingnan Bank and become its branch. With that, out of the sixty-odd territories, all the money of the people would now flow into the Lingnan Bank.

The sudden rise of the Lingnan Bank had made it the second largest player bank under the Four Seas Bank.

Apart from the bank, between members, they would also open up more frequent and free trade. All trade would be free and no tax.

Additionally, the merchants and artisans in the territory could move around as they wished.

With that, they could greatly stimulate the economy of the city-state.

Ouyang Shuo had a better understanding of this matter. This was because at the end of the year, during the third system update, there would be a considerable change to the way territories traded with one another.

The Lingnan City-State had unknowingly progressed.

Thirdly, the integration of their military.

Apart from the city protection teams of their territories, they would also build an alliance army. Its scale would be set at one hundred thousand men for a start. In the future, they might expand their army once again.

All the members would bear the expenses of the alliance army. This alliance army would be equipped with the best equipment and undergo the strictest of training.

Based on Yuan Ping’s statement, the alliance army was a trump card army, the elite of the elite.

Similarly, the alliance army would also have a commander.

As for their choice for this position, they kept it a secret and did not announce it to the public.

Although they did not announce the alliance army commander, Yuan Ping had made their base a high profile topic. The one hundred thousand troops would be based at the border between Zhaoqing Prefecture and Jiaozhou Prefecture to ensure the safety of the city-state.

Who they were defending against and warning, it was pretty obvious.

Just these three points alone could show that the Lingnan City-State would be working close with one another in terms of administrative matters, the economy, and the military. This cooperation was on a whole different level compared to an alliance.

Apart from the three points, between members, there were other cooperations, making up to a hundred points. Only because they had just created the city-state, so they had not entirely settled the details.

In addition to the above benefits, building a city-state also had another advantage—it prevented the chance of betrayal. During the Battle of Zhaoqing, a traitor had influenced the outcome of the battle profoundly.

Learning from this lesson, when building the city-state, they created a set of strict policies. For example, the members were not allowed to form alliances, and the Lords Committee would monitor their teleportation formation permissions.

If a territory did not agree, they would be viewed as an enemy.

With that one point, Yuan Ping had stabilized the Lingnan City-State.

The future Lingnan City-State would be an entity with a common goal that fate joined. No matter who it was, they could not crush them from within.

Everything was adding up, and it was undeniable that the Lingnan City-State would become a power that the China region could not overlook.

Shanhai City's road toward the east was going to be difficult.

Luckily, Ouyang Shuo had stuck a nail in Jiaozhou Prefecture. As the city-state built up, the strategic location of Zhenhai City would grow more and more important.

Ouyang Shuo was already considering whether or not he needed to send reinforcements there.

The establishment of the Lingnan City-State had a significant impact on the various powers in the region.

Anyone with a brain could understand the purpose of them building up the city-state. Although the other local alliances had not faced a threat like Shanhai City, who was to say that in the future, such a threat would not appear? At the very least, Di Chen and his gang were going to pose a huge problem.

Looking at the bigger picture, the future regional alliances would work together even closer. Building a city-state was without a doubt a good decision.

Only then could they face up against such enormous powers. For example, the Xiangnan Province Caiyun Alliance already had such intentions.

After Shanhai Alliance took down Zhaoqing Prefecture, if they headed east, they could attack Lingnan. If they headed north, they would attack Xiangnan Province.

Hence, Xiangyun Alliance definitely had the motivation to build a city-state.

As for when and whether they could, that would depend on the ability of Caiyun Zinan, and how much influence he had in the alliance.

After all, the city-state system had its pros but also its cons.

If one joined, they could not do whatever they wanted. The city-state would control their words and actions.

Apart from the regional alliances, Shanhai Alliance, Yanhuang Alliance, and the like were affected.

Amongst the alliances, although they could work together like a city-state, having closer cooperation was sorely needed. If not, they would lag behind the times.

The era of city-states was about to arrive!

Chapter 485- World in Smoke

The Lingnan City-State was not the only factor slowly changing the situation in China.

As they entered the winter season of the Gaia second year, the flames of war rose up.

After the Battle of Julu ended, all the territories entered a power transition. The winners of the battle were enjoying their spoils, as the employed the benefits they had gained. As for those who had lost, they were just hoping that they could survive.

While the fires of war blazed, blood dripped on the battlefield.

The blood-red clouds covered the China skies, not scattering for a long time.

During this period of time, Caiyun City, Fallen Leaf City, and Black Lion City, as well as Swordsman City all became grade 1 prefectures.

The China region now had twelve prefectures.

The next stage, Wufu's Stone County and Sha Pojun's Asura County would also upgrade. The China region was one step away from the fifteen prefecture requirement to trigger the fifth war.

The strong Lords in their region were naturally trying to grind their blades to grab that last spot. After all, when the war began, those that had upgraded to prefecture would reap immense benefits.

No one wanted to lag behind.

The entire wilderness had an impatient atmosphere.

Especially the north of China, as they did not have much time left. In just about two months, an icy air would sweep up the entire region.

At that time, let us not talk about fighting wars, even letting soldiers perform their normal training would pose difficulties. Snow and ice would cover everywhere, bringing freezing temperatures. The entire north region would fall quiet as it went through the winter.

Hence, the Lords had to reach their targets before that happened.

In truth, those feeling impatient and acting up in the wilderness were not only the Lords.

Apart from Huangjin, which was already exterminated, the remaining three uprising armies were planning something.

10th month, 1st day, after Chensheng led his troops to attack the territories in Zhongyuan Prefecture. Afterward, he announced the establishment of his country, officially setting up the Zhangchu Regime in Chen County.

The moment he established it, it became a considerable force in the region. Even Shanhai City, which covered four prefectures, did not match it in terms of size of territory.

The day he established the regime, the Lords in the region hollered in unison, "The wolves are here!"

After Chensheng established his country, he did not foolishly attack Luoyang. He did not even have the intentions of attacking other provinces. His main goal was to calm the people and rest and solidify his rule.

Chensheng, who was living a second life, was not the farmer that others used as a spear. The first peasant uprising leader in China’s history was now walking onto the path to kingship.

The land size of the Zhangchu Regime was simply too great, so they faced enemies on all sides. On the north, there was Fallen Phoenix City, west there was Fallen Leaf City, and on the south, there was Pill Sun City.

East, there was the West Chu Regime of Xiang Yu.

The day that he established the Zhangchu Regime was the day when the wolves started to split the cake.

Almost simultaneously, Fallen Phoenix City, Fallen Leaf City, and Pill Sun City started to gather the territories around them, forming three huge armies and gathering at the border.

A huge war was about to begin in the middle region of China.

Amusingly, the Shanhai Alliance and the Yanhuang Alliance had actually become allies for this one time.

Chensheng obviously did not want to surrender. In order to break the situation, he acted in a decisive manner. The same day, he announced that they had officially formed an alliance with the West Chu Regime on the east.

Xiang Yu led the West Chu Regime. After entering the wilderness, they had turned their blades to Ludong Province, north of Peng City. As for the Zhongyuan Province right next to it, they did not move for it.

Probably, at that time, the two powers had already come to a tacit understanding.

After all, Xiang Yu was under Chensheng during the early days, so they had a level of relationship. When they were tossed into such a dangerous position, the two regimes decided to trust one another.

The alliance of the two regimes had made the region more and more complicated.

With that, not only did Chensheng get rid of the threat to the east, he could even obtain help from Xiang Yu.

This alliance had immediately solved the problem of Chensheng lacking able generals. Be it Xiang Yu himself, his grandfather, father, or Xiang Zhuang, they were all generals that one yearned for.

As expected, the day that they allied, Xiang Yan traveled to Chen County to help Chensheng in his military and his establishment of defense lines.

Chensheng even boldly named Xiang Yan as the Zhangchu Great General. With that, it showed that the relationship between the two Chu Regimes were exceedingly close.

Zhangchu was facing off against three player alliance armies.

On the north, the Shanhai Alliance-Phoenix Alliance that Feng Qiuhuang built up had gathered 150 thousand troops. On the west, Piao Linghuan had gathered up one hundred thousand soldiers. On the south, Chun Shenjun had formed a 180 thousand strong army.

Of course, Zhangchu was not a soft egg. After taking over an entire province, their overall soldier strength hit close to six hundred thousand.

Adding up the number of soldiers on both sides, it was close to a million troops.

Undeniably, this war was going to be the largest scale war so far on the main map. It would also cover the largest land area since the start of the game.

The Zhongyuan Region covered a total of five provinces, and they were all embroiled in this battle.

There were even rumors that Di Chen, located in Jingdou, had the intentions of forming another alliance army to come down south to attack.

The Zhongyuan Province was going to face a situation where the powers all wanted a piece of it.

Of course, there was also a chance that all of these powers would face defeat. After all, they were not allies. Not to mention Feng Qiuhuang and Chun Shenjun, who were not even in the same camp.

Even within the Yanhuang Alliance, many did not see eye to eye.

Chun Shenjun and Di Chen, Chun Shenjun and Piao Linghuan; they were enemies.

The three sides were all just fighting for themselves.

It seemed like endless flames of war would envelop the entire Zhongyuan region. Moreover, you might think that all of this had nothing to do with Ouyang Shuo and Shanhai City.

You could not be more wrong.

The entire China region was like a chessboard. Any small movement would radiate out and affect every area.

Furthermore, the Zhongyuan Region was a place where dynasties were started. If there was chaos there, there would be chaos in the entire China region.

The four uprising armies that Gaia had planned were hardly useless.

Furthermore, a pillar of the Shanhai Alliance, Feng Qiuhuang, was entangled in this matter. Ouyang Shuo was not worried about how she did in the main battlefield, but what if Yanhuang Alliance was plotting something?

Hence, Ouyang Shuo instructed the Black Snake Guards to monitor the region closely. At the same time, they would share the intel they obtained with Feng Qiuhuang.

Members of the Shanhai Alliance also gave priority to Fallen Phoenix City. With Ouyang Shuo as an example, even though Shanhai City was expanding their army and needed equipment, he still sold ten thousand god arm crossbows to her.

Ouyang Shuo even promised that if things went south, he would send reinforcements.

One could foresee that the Yanhuang Alliance would naturally do something similar. At the very least, Xiang Ba would care for Piao Linghuan and support him.

With that, it was the same as saying that this huge war had brought in the two most significant alliances. Just with that, it affected the entire China region.

Maybe they thought the world was not chaotic enough. Huangchao, who had kept a low profile for a time, once again appeared. In these few months, they had regained a footing in the south of Wannan Province.

Huangchao followed after Chensheng. He also announced that he had established a country, forming the Daqi Regime in Anqing.

At this point, the three remaining uprising armies had all established their countries and named their kings.

After they established their regime, their ambitions grew once more, and they immediately announced that they were going north to reclaim their lost land.

The Daqi Regime acting meant that the neighboring provinces were wrapped up in this battle. Jiangchuan Province in the south, Jiangnan Province in the southeast, Jianye Region in the northeast, and even the West Chu Regime in the north made moves.

All of a sudden, the southeast region of China started to grow chaotic.

To prevent Daqi from growing, the three provinces started to move their soldiers.

On the south, Gong Chengshi started to form up the Jiangchuan Province alliance army. On the east, Xiong Ba and Zhan Lang were preparing a colossal alliance army.

For this battle, Zhan Lang was hell-bent on destroying Daqi. If not, this kind of peasant uprising would continue to rekindle if they escaped.

From this, one could see that Di Chen leading the alliance army to take out Huangjin was a smart decision. Amongst all the chaos, only Jingdou remained peaceful.

Apart from the Huangchao Uprising Army, the Taiping Country was also making moves.

After swallowing Guilin and Zhen An Prefecture, Hong Xiuquan was going to expand once more. The Chuanbei Province and Yunnan Province were both in the area of attack.

All of a sudden, with the three uprising armies as the core, the entire China region entered a time of chaos.

The peasant uprisings that had built up for ten months finally reached its peak.

The year of the uprising had finally exploded two months before the end of the 2nd year.

These last two months would decide the future fate of the China region.

If they could destroy the three uprising armies, the strength of the Lords would take a step up. On the contrary, if they failed, the future would be a huge mess.

All of this was a test Gaia gave to the Lords.

Who could stand out from this test? Gaia would pay extra attention to those who managed to do so.

Chapter 486- World Situation

As the flames of war brewed in China, the rest of the world was not peaceful either. Along with the 3rd year of Gaia coming along, the situation in the entire world slowly evolved.

Some small countries had limited land space, limited players, and limited population. After two years, the top powers in the country had showed themselves, as they started to consolidate the strength of the country and unite it.

The situation in the different regions grew clearer and clearer.

The most obvious one was Europe. Norway, Iceland, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands and other countries had already been unified. Germany, England, France, Switzerland, and the like were all approaching such a situation.

In his past life, the entire Europe Continent had even formed an alliance. The European Alliance was a mega region that the world could not underestimate.

The only group that could go up against these Lords were the aboriginals.

Similar to the peasant uprisings, Gaia had thrown in similar aboriginal powers based on their history to go up against the Lords.

All in all, Gaia would not allow the Lords to relax.

The wilderness was always a place fraught with dangers and opportunities.

Compared to them, China had a longer history. In terms of battles and aboriginals, there were many choices. Other countries were different, as their olden times were relatively non-existent.

One could even say that some modern-day countries lacked a history.

Toward these groups, Gaia also had its way.

Even if history did not record such matters, Gaia took ideas from books, films, and movies to create battle scenarios for the Lords.

If even film products were too little, Gaia could only use its robust calculation and speculation abilities to create a cold weapons era scenario.

All in all, toward each country, Gaia would try its best to remain fair.

That was right, try its best.

Still, with China as an example. China had a long history with many great talents and a more detailed recording. The numerous battles and generals were all recorded. Hence, Gaia had plentiful amount of information to work with. Therefore, regarding building such characters, Gaia could grant them higher tier AI.

On the contrary, for those characters that Gaia made up, their AI values would naturally be lower. This was a difference between cultures of countries, so no one could really complain about this aspect.

In comparison, Europe was more special.

A few massive empires that spanned across the entire continent had appeared in European history. Amongst which, the biggest one that covered the most land space was the Rome Empire.

Hence, the Lords of Europe even had a chance to compete and fight with one another.

The moment the battles reached such an era, the countries that were originally involved could all join the same battle.

As a result of such interactions, the various countries would form alliances.

Of course within the European Continent, there were many ambitious players. For example, France, who had given birth to Napolean's country, and Italy, where the Rome Empire was born.

All in all, the countries in Europe were allies but also competitors. Their relationship was highly complicated and difficult to describe in words.

Apart from that, there were two other reasons behind Europe’s strength.

Firstly, Europe had given birth to many strong seafaring countries, and even some overlords of the oceans.

Portugal, Spain, Holland, France, and England; these countries were all strong on the sea. Hence, Gaia took such matters into account when it set their technology tree.

As a result, these countries, be it sailors, shipbuilding techniques, or sea navigation techniques, they were stronger than other countries.

The navies of these countries were all progressing rapidly. Their voyagers could even start long distance adventures to open up ocean routes.

They were the greatest opponents of the Shanhai City Navy and even their enemy.

If based on wooden ships, the Ming Dynasty warships stood on the same level. However, the moment these countries developed iron-armored warships, even the strongest turreted ships could not compete.

As such, from the start, Ouyang Shuo had built up the No.7 Research Institute to research relevant technology. Although they could not compete with England and Holland, at least they would not fall too far behind.

Secondly, Europe was where the industrial revolution started.

The revolution of technology was the deadliest.

Avic Fort's steam engine research had entered its final stages. At half a year later at the most, the first steam engine would appear in the world.

The roots of the industrial revolution were slowly growing.

The moment it exploded out in England and spread out to the entire Europe, it would bring about a terrifying strength.

In his last life, China did not have the ability to fight against these countries.

Europe was a continent that they could not look down upon.

Apart from Europe, Africa, and Asia were all quickly reaching unification.

On the Africa Continent, the prominent chiefs held absolute power. Hence, they did not even need to compete and could unify their country easily.

Below them were the intermediate and small chiefs.

In Africa, chiefs were people that were feared and worshipped. They were the rulers of the tribes and had control over various factors.

In the game, people of the country were willing to unite beside the chief and aim at a common goal.

Because of the cultural elements in Africa, the continent of Africa united first. Of course, this so-called unification was just between tribes and countries.

After they were unified internally, the various countries, under the leadership of the prominent chiefs, exploded out with a pent up thirst for war because of the long period of peace.

The entire Africa Continent broke out into countries and started to war.

The frequency of wars and their cruelty toward their enemies was something comparable to the China region; it even exceeded China in some aspects.

To them, such a war that could change their lives was not a war. Rather, it was a game. As such, all of them enjoyed the craziness.

In the entire world, probably only the African players could genuinely enjoy the game. They looked like they wanted to throw out all the cries for war and thirst for blood they had stored up over the years.

Hence, they were the craziest, and they would not submit. They needed to let one country destroy the other before the war would stop. The players of the destroyed country would revive and rejoin the battle afterward.

In his last life, even after five years, the entire Africa remained a massive mess.

Even the countries of other continents did not have much interest in the impoverished African region. As a result, these prominent chiefs were able to continue their crazy wars and battles.

In the future wars, probably only Egypt and South Africa, and a small number of countries would play a role. The others were just immersed in their own little games.

Africa, an interesting continent.

The situation in Asia, apart from China, was similar to that of Europe. Of course, thanks to the influence of eastern culture, the process of unification was a little harder.

In Vietnam, Zhenhai City Lord Ruan Tianque had basically occupied the entire northern region of Vietnam. Another power already occupied the south. These two were destined to fight to the death to decide the ruler of Vietnam.

In Japan, Lord players and adventure gamemode players were each under different rules.

For Lord players, Honda Keisuke's Sanli City became the ruler of Japan. In terms of guilds, the Black Dragon Guild had completed the unification of guilds, taking control over the only imperial city, Tokyo.

The entire Japan was quickly merging and even Sanli City and Black Dragon Guild had started to work together.

The eyes of the Japanese people had started to turn from their own land to overseas. Their invasive character meant that they were not happy to just stay in one area. The vast shoreline of the China region had become the target of the Japanese.

In his last life, the Japanese had assaulted and disturbed the territories in the China region.

As a result, the players of the China region set out on a long journey over to destroy Japan.

The situation in Korea was actually similar to the case in Vietnam.

Due to historical problems, the country formed a north versus south standoff. Park Wins' Ulsan City currently ruled over South Korea.

The only imperial city in Korea, Han City, was also in a messy state.

Ambition also filled the Korean players. In his last life, the Koreans had also attacked the north region of China, amongst which was Jingdou Region.

Di Chen, in Ouyang Shuo’s last life, cared too much about the benefits in Zhongyuan, so he did not care much about the attacks. As such, the China players scolded him.

In this life, Wufu's Stone City would act as the frontline against the Koreans.

Apart from Japan and Korea, island countries such as Philippines and Malaysia also posed hidden problems. They were like a pack of hungry wolves surrounding China and staring intently.

Asia was the most complicated region in the world.

Apart from that, there would be America.

Of the Americas, the one that posed the most substantial threat would still be North America.

In North America, amongst America, Canada, and Mexico, America still reigned as the strongest.

Toward America, Gaia had some biases during the settings of the technology tree. If not, Jack Dawson would not already own a musketmen team before he upgraded to the county level.

The thermal weapons technology tree of America stood out as the most advanced in the world. Guns and cannons would all be born in America. Meanwhile China, who still used cold weapons, would face a difficult state.

This was the so-called fairness that was previously mentioned.

While China had a vast number of historical generals and civil servants, they had to bear with these countries with shorter histories owning thermal weapons.

Of course, Gaia would set restrictions on such thermal weapons.

If not, the so-called fairness would become totally unfair.

Ouyang Shuo even predicted that in the future game, Gaia would completely remove the technology tree restrictions on players. However, as for the exact time, he could not be sure.

In his last life, at least five years into the game, such a change did not happen. Of course, at that time, the world did not have the ability to cross the oceans and battle. A large-scale world war had not erupted yet.

Everything was still unknown.

All in all, the future leaders had started to bear their fangs.

The world was changing. However, China region was still trying to fight for internal control. Even Ouyang Shuo, who knew how the game went, could not get ahead.

Being in such a situation, there was nothing much he could do.

Chapter 487- Setting up a War Zone

No matter how the world changed, Ouyang Shuo still had to take matters step by step.

However, on the 10th month, 5th day, an emergency letter from the Military Intelligence Division broke his touring plans. It made him end his tour of Zhaoqing early and hurriedly rush back to Wulong City.

Just as Chensheng and Huangchao were jumping around, Hong Xiuquan, who had been holding it in, finally made a move. The moment this king made his move, Shanhai City would face a perilous situation.

10th month, 2nd day, the second day that Chensheng had established his country. Hong Xiuquan came to a tacit understanding with Chiyou. The representatives of both sides signed a peace agreement at the Wuzhou border. As a result, their people would not bother or harm one another.

One would head west, and the other would head east.

The moment they signed this treaty, the Taiping Country troops camped at the border of Wuzhou Prefecture left. They even torn down the entire east camp out of the ground and broke it down.

At the same time, the army that Chiyou City placed on the west border also left.

No outsider knew how the two sides had actually communicated. They could surprisingly reach a conclusion that let them trust each other to such an extent. It was the same as saying that both sides would not defend against one another.

The entire conversation remained highly secretive, and only the higher ups of both camps joined in. If not, the Military Intelligence Division and Black Snake Guards would have caught hold of some information.

The retreat of the troops of both sides was just the first step.

The east troops from Taiping Country gathered up with the South troops. Then, they directly charged for Mulan Stronghold. A total of 150 thousand men headed right for Mulan Stronghold with a suppressive aura.

It seems like Taiping Country was hellbent on taking the stronghold down.

Who knows what was so important about the Lianzhou Prefecture that made it worthwhile for Hong Xiuquan to gather up so many troops.

When the Military Affairs Department received the news, they immediately sent the city protection division up north. They would enter the stronghold to assist Er'lai's 3rd division of the Dragon Legion.

With that, the entire Shanhai City was an empty city with no soldiers defending it.

Du Ruhui immediately ordered the various city protection squads of the Houses and counties to enter level one alert and prepare for further orders. The only lucky matter was that the Beihai Bay Squadron 1st division had successfully returned to Beihai City.

The door to Lianzhou was temporarily safe.

The 1st division of the Tiger Legion in Qiongzhou also moved into Yashan City. If the situation changed, Fan Lihua would lead them to assist immediately.

Apart from attacking the Mulan Stronghold, Taiping Country also merged its north and west troops into a new west army of two hundred thousand, which they aimed at Kunming Prefecture of Yunnan Province.

Kunming Prefecture was the prefecture that held the largest land area in the province, about one-thirds of it. Moreover, it was the area under the control of Consonance City.

After a period of expansion, Consonance City had taken over more than half of the prefecture. However, the prefecture was just too huge. As such, for them to control the entire prefecture, it would still take more time.

However, before they could even get such a chance, this situation occurred.

It was not that Consonance City did not have any preparations for Taiping Country. The problem was that Taiping Country had three prefectures of land. Apart from going west, going north to Chuanbei or Pannan Provinces were both excellent ideas.

Who knew how Hong Xiuquan's brain worked, as he changed his strategy of attacking four sides. Instead, he focused his attack on Kunming Prefecture.

With that, the situation of Consonance City looked dire.

The location of Consonance City was coincidentally close to the intersection between Yunnan Province and Chuanbei Province. As a result, Consonance City was going to bear the brunt force of this attack.

When they received the news, the entire Consonance City went up to level 1 war alert.

Zhang Liao led fifty thousand troops and rushed toward the border to form the first defensive line. The entire Consonance City had a total soldier number of five divisions and around seventy thousand soldiers.

This time, Bai Hua was going all out.

She had no choice but to do so. After all, if Taiping Country broke through, she would lose her territory.

What made her feel helpless was that in the entire Kunming Prefecture, those territories Consonance City had not occupied just decided to stay on the fence. They did not join the alliance army.

In all likelihood, these Lords were looking forward to watching Consonance City’s destruction. They would rather such a situation than let Consonance City slowly consume them. As for how they should face the Taiping Country in the future, that was for another time.

As a result, Consonance City temporarily had no reinforcements.

All of a sudden, Consonance City cried for help.

Consonance City was a crucial piece in Ouyang Shuo's puzzle, so he could not afford to lose it.

At the current moment, only Shanhai City could help out. The other allies of Shanhai Alliance were embroiled up in their own battles.

This massive war in the China Region had finally pushed Shanhai Alliance to the edge of the cliff.

As for how to send reinforcements, Ouyang Shuo still needed to plan the matter out.

Not because of other reasons but because this move was not solely against Taiping Country.

Ever since the western border forces retreated, Chiyou had his one hundred thousand mountain barbarian army gather in the east and aim toward Zhaoqing Prefecture.

After a year of loneliness, the space of one prefecture was finally not enough for Chiyou's appetite. This devil finally bared his fangs at the wilderness.

Shanhai City was once again dragged into this affair.

At the same time, Lingnan City-State, which had just established itself, started to grind their knives. Yuan Ping announced that they would build a one hundred thousand men alliance army in the shortest amount of time. Then, they would station the army at the border of Zhaoqing Prefecture. If the situation permitted, there was a chance that they might invade Zhaoqing Prefecture.

Apart from that, north of Zhaoqing, Xiangnan Province's Caiyun Alliance had agreed to build the second city-state in the China region.

The moment they established this city-state, Caiyun Zinan announced on the forum that to protect the safety of the city-state, they were considering placing troops at the southern border.

All of a sudden, enemies surrounded Shanhai City.

Under such a situation, Ouyang Shuo had to whip his horse and rush back to Wulong City.

Initially, Ouyang Shuo was hesitating after the military reorganization. Should they attack east or west? Who knew that the enemy would make the choice for him.

Now, Shanhai City was in danger from three sides.

To break this situation, they needed a good strategy.

10th month, 8th day, Wulong City, Meeting Hall.

Only four other people attended this military meeting. Du Ruhui, who had hurriedly teleported over from Shanhai City, Commander-in-Chief Baiqi, Great General Sun Bin, and Great General Han Xin.

They were the four magical stabilizers of Shanhai City.

Du Ruhui did a simple introduction of the surrounding situation. Then, he reported on the progress of the military organization, “From the 9th month, 14th day, the military has started a large-scale reorganization. Twenty-five days have passed, and it has nearly reached completion. We only lack a portion of the equipment, which has not been transported yet because of the long distance. The various generals can start to go and collect their forces."

The moment Du Ruhui spoke these words, a burst of energy erupted within the hall. To face the situation in front of them, reaching a large scale army was their greatest insurance.

One had to say, this expansion of the army came at a perfect time. Previously ,Ouyang Shuo was still worrying about this matter. However, if he had cut out one or two divisions, their situation today would be much worse.

Based on the plans of the Military Affairs Department, the four Garrison Divisions had already moved into their bases.

The Zhaoqing Prefecture Garrison Division was housed near Tianshaung City; they were the earliest to arrive. The Lianzhou Garrison Division and the 2nd division of the city protection division had gone down south, taking a ship north of Leizhou Prefecture to reach Beihai City.

In less than three days, both Garrison Divisions would be fully prepared.

With that, the crisis in the main camp was temporarily solved. Zhao Sihu’s city protection division 1st division could also stay in Mulan Stronghold without any worry.

If not, without any troops in Shanhai City, even Ouyang Shuo would tremble. What if the adventure gamemode players caused a riot? In such a situation, he could only rely on the two thousand bailiffs.

Similarly taking a boat down south was the Zhenhai City Garrison Division.

The South of Zhaoqing Prefecture also had a shoreline. The Zhenhai Garrison Division was going to disembark from the hurriedly built harbor.

The entire journey took less than a week.

In less than five days, the Zhenhai City Garrison Division would be in place. Like that, they could release the three thousand Divine Martial Guards and allow them to teleport to Wulong County.

Apart from the Divine Martial Guards and the Guards Regiment, they could also move the three fully formed divisions.

Since Shanhai City faced attacks from three sides, Ouyang Shuo was planning to split up the three divisions with each in charge of one region.

At this point, Ouyang Shuo had a new concept of zonal fighting.

"Everyone," Ouyang Shuo looked at the three god generals under his command, "To settle the current situation and to also form up a defence zone for the future army, we need to establish a system. I've decided to establish the first official war zone in Shanhai City. This war zone will be the highest commanding organization, and it will direct the strategy and direction of the battle. The war zone will have one command center and one commander."

The moment his words sounded out, Baiqi and the others felt stunned.

Without a doubt, compared to generals, the war zone commander held a higher level of power. Moreover, he would take up some of the responsibilities of the Military Affairs Department.

Ouyang Shuo decided to set up war zones because he had considered the expansion of the territory and the military, as well as the complicated external environment. The Military Affairs Department was unable to be ready for everything.

Hence, to ensure that the frontline remained flexible and on the initiative, they could not allow the long distance to cause commanding problems.

Forming up war zones was the best choice.

Apart from big decisions, the war zone command center would be similar to half a Military Affairs Department.

Chapter 488- Han Xin Versus Chiyou

Wulong City, Meeting Hall.

The sunlight shone into the hall and left streaks of shadows. In the hall, a military meeting that concerned the fate and future of Shanhai City was taking place.

Ouyang Shuo was implementing his war zone plan. He raised his head and said, "Sun Bin!"

"Present!"

Sun Bin, who sat in his wheelchair, cupped his fists. He looked fully energised, and his face even turned red due to the excitement and gratefulness he felt. Sun Bin did not expect that the first general the Lord would pick would be him.

In comparison, Baiqi was the longest serving general, and he had the most experience in the military.

The sunlight shone on his face, illuminating his ashen white that was currently flushed red.

Ouyang Shuo focused his eyes on this handicapped general and said solemnly, "I've decided to establish the Lingnan War Zone with you as the commander. The Lingnan War Zone, as the name suggests, will cover the entire Lingnan Province, including Qiongzhou Prefecture."

"Lingnan War Zone will employ the Tiger Legion, Qiongzhou Garrison Division, Leizhou Garrison Division, Zhaoqing Prefecture Garrison Division, and Zhenhai City Garrison Division, with an overall force of 120 thousand. At the same time, the 1st division of the Jiaozhou Squadron will also be under you. As for the Yashan Squadron, it will remain under the Military Affairs Department."

Placing the various Garrison Divisions under the war zone commander changed the power structure of the military. As the number of Garrison Divisions increased, the Military Affairs Department would start to fail in keeping each and every one of them in check.

Why not just place them under the jurisdiction of the war zone commanding force?

Apart from the Garrison Division, the navies in the area were also in the war zone. As a result, within the war zone, every type of troops existed. Hence, it would be a huge ask of the ability of the war zone commander.

Within the territory, currently only Baiqi, Sun Bin, and Han Xin had this ability.

Ouyang Shuo obviously had his reasons for choosing Sun Bin.

Firstly, Sun Bin started out in Qiongzhou, and the Tiger Legion was housed in Lingnan Province.

Hence, concerning geography, he was a suitable choice.

Secondly, the needs of the battle.

Baiqi was left out because he used soldiers to efficiently siege and claim territory.

The main battlefield, where they fought fire with fire, was where he truly belonged.

The most intense area of the battlefield would forever have the image of the Asura Baiqi.

Han Xin was a god at using troops, and he was also suitable choice for commander of a war zone. However, he had only joined Shanhai City recently, and he had not displayed enough of his skill to warrant the respect of the others.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo chose Sun Bin.

"Thank you, my Lord!"

Sun Bin cupped his fists once again, as his voice calmed down. He could feel the burden on his shoulders.

The Lingnan Warzone, apart from the defence of the base, the core would face the Lingnan City-State. Including the Xiangnan City-State in the north, they were all part of the defence region of the Lingnan War Zone.

Apart from that, Zhenhai City was located all alone with no help, and it must be ready at all times.

With these roles, the 120 thousand troops seemed lacking.

"The command center of the war zone will be set in Tianshuang City. The structure will follow that of the Military Affairs Department, with a Military Intelligence Division, a Combat Logistics Division, a War Division, and a Military Law Division. Members of the divisions will be taken from the Military Affairs Department to form up the required structure. At the end of the year, when the students graduate, we will fill up the lacking areas."

Based on Ouyang Shuo's plan, apart from a commander, the war zone would also need an advisor. Unfortunately, the territory only had Zhao Kuo, and there were no other suitable advisors.

Moreover, Zhao Kuo needed to take charge of the War Division and could not be moved.

With that, they could only leave the position of Lingnan War Zone military advisor temporarily empty.

The establishment of the commanding group was a core element. With a stable command center, it would end the usual movement of forces during wartime.

In the future, the command center would take complete control of the entire Lingnan battlefield. Be it moving troops or logistical supplies, war planning, and other related matters, the commanding group would settle it.

Of course, the Military Affairs Department would still hold authority over the war zone commanding group. Ouyang Shuo was trying to establish a highly efficient system. He did not want the generals have their own power to use troops.

Especially the Military Law Division, whose officials were sent out by the Military Affairs Department. They had their own independent rights.

"The defense of the east depends on you!"

"I will not let you down!"

This sentence was the highest promise that the civil servants and the generals of Shanhai City could make.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and turned to Baiqi and Han Xin, who had not made a sound, "Pure defence is not our style. After stabilizing the east defence line, we can show our powers to take down both Chiyou City and Taiping Country."

In his words, his arrogance showed.

The expressions of Baiqi and Han Xin remained the same. They had been through all kinds of matters and seen all sorts of situations.

Be it Hong Xiuquan or Chiyou, they were not at their level. In the end, they needed to use their strength to speak, and it was not that easy to destroy Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo gave Baiqi and Han Xin clear duties.

"General Baiqi!"

"Present!"

"General lead the Dragon Legion 2nd and 4th division and the new 5th division back to Lianzhou Prefecture and into the Mulan Stronghold. The north against Taiping Country will depend on you."

At the start, Baiqi was the commander of the north camp of the territory. Now, he was returning to his old job. Baiqi was exceedingly familiar with the Mulan Stronghold.

"Do not worry, Lord!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded and followed, "General, remember that against the Taiping Country, temporarily defend against them. The key is to the ensure that our ally, Consonance City, remains safe. Hence, when you go back, you must strengthen the cooperation between the two armies. If needed, you can send Luo Shixin's division to assist. Please remember that Consonance City cannot fall."

Mulan Stronghold, an iron stronghold.

On the walls, just the three bow arcubalistas numbered a hundred. Ouyang Shuo believed that even with only four divisions, with Baiqi’s presence, everything would remain safe.

Even if Taiping Country added more troops, one could not forget that within Lianzhou, there was still the Lianzhou Garrison Division and the 2nd division of the city protection division.

These two could assist Mulan Stronghold at any moment.

Ouyang Shuo did not know what exactly gave him such confidence, to want to attack the strongest stronghold in China. No matter what, he was bound to bleed.

The part that worried Ouyang Shuo the most was Consonance City.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo would arrange for Luo Shixin's division, such a trump card, to assist them if necessary.

However, even with his assistance, facing two hundred thousand troops, Consonance City was still in danger. Needless to say, the other Lords in Kunming Prefecture might backstab them.

Time was running out, and Ouyang Shuo temporarily could not think of any other plans.

After all, for Shanhai City to face so many enemies, they had a limited amount of soldiers. Sending a reinforcement of one division was already his limit.

Now, Ouyang Shuo could only hope that Bai Hua had a way to save herself. The Yunnan Overlord of the last life, it was time for her to show off her shine and radiance.

Baiqi nodded and did not say anything.

This Asura usually spoke little words, but the moment he acted, the world would bleed.

During the Battle of Zhaoqing, the entire city burning plan allowed him to completely change the situation. After the matter, Fan Zhongyan, and other officials secretly complained to Ouyang Shuo that Baiqi did wrong and had killed innocent lives.

Not only Fan Zhongyan, Meng Zi, and other members of Confucianism all scolded Baiqi. However, since Ouyang Shuo was not in the territory, they did not have someone to complain to.

Baiqi's image in front of the civil servants had fallen.

‘Cold-blooded slaughterer’ was the nickname that the civil servants had given him.

There were pros and cons.

In the military, his prestige had reached a sky high state.

The name of the Asura had spread far and wide.

Baiqi did not bother about the debate and words outside.

Ouyang Shuo knew that Baiqi had his own way of life and his personal mantra. Others could not shake him.

This way of life was not the way of killing that the outside world misunderstood as.

Killing was only what it appeared to be.

Baiqi's calculations were all for the war. To win, whatever method was usable. He was like an AI, like a machine, tossing aside all feelings on the battlefield.

What remained was only rationality.

As a result, outsiders would think that he was cold; he looked cold, and his heart was even colder.

Some people even joked that even Gaia had more emotions than Baiqi.

Ouyang Shuo did not agree with such words. At least toward other people, Baiqi was an emotional and nice person.

His coldness was solitude and loneliness, a loneliness that outsiders could not understand.

At the apex, you would definitely be lonely.

Lastly, Ouyang Shuo looked toward Han Xin. The small showing during the Battle of Zhaoqing had shown a glimpse of the way that Han Xin used troops. His grasping of opportunity was sublime.

This time, Ouyang Shuo was going to give him a considerable task.

"General Han Xin, lead the Leopard Legion, Guards Division, and the Divine Martial Guards, including the one hundred thousand mountain border Shi Wanshui Division and Shanzhu Division to defeat the Chiyou Army."

Ouyang Shuo needed to defend against the movements of Lingnan City-State and Taiping Country. But against Chiyou, he needed to launch an all-out offensive. His goal was to utterly destroy the Chiyou Army and take over Wuzhou Prefecture.

Only by destroying Chiyou could they take control of the situation.

Undeniably, this was going to be a fierce battle.

One must know that Chiyou had not revealed his trump card yet.

Chapter 489- Grade 2 Prefecture

Facing such a dangerous situation, Ouyang Shuo split the Shanhai City Army into three main groups.

Sun Bin was in charge of the Lingnan War Zone; he took charge of the east line. Baiqi would move to the Mulan Stronghold and command the north forces. Han Xin would lead a huge army to fight against Chiyou head on.

All the plans were underway. Next, they needed to move the troops and finish the last parts of the war preparations.

As for the combat logistics, it had already started a month ago. After all, be it Chiyou City or Lingnan City-State, Ouyang Shuo knew that a battle with them was only a matter of time.

Hence, they had planned and executed the movement of resources even before they had moved out.

After the meeting ended, the various generals went forth to perform their duties.

Sun Bin led his forces and moved into Tianshuang City, building the Lingnan War Zone command center. At the same time, he set up the east defence line. Even though Yuan Ping was causing a racket, Ouyang Shuo did not believe that he would dare to launch a frontal attack.

At most, he would try some sneak assaults when Shanhai City fought with Chiyou City.

Unfortunately, Ouyang Shuo would not give him such a chance.

The Lingnan War Zone that Sun Bin led was not only going to defend passively. If needed, they could launch probing attacks on Jiaozhou Prefecture.

Baiqi brought his personal guards unit and directly teleported to Mulan City. Then, he proceeded toward Mulan Stronghold. As for the Dragon Legion, they would travel to Lianzhou Prefecture through the sea.

Ouyang Shuo could not bear to spend such vast amounts on teleportation costs.

The troops of Taiping Country were waiting for grain, so the real war would not start so soon.

Han Xin led his troops toward the Zhaoqing Prefecture border to set up a frontline command center. Based on Ouyang Shuo's instructions, it was best to not let the war enter Zhaoqing Prefecture.

Each army had a god general leading them, so Ouyang Shuo was not worried. With the Military Affairs Department helping out, everything proceeded smoothly.

As for the war, such matters would not alarm Shanhai City since long ago.

Making use of this hard to obtain break time, Ouyang Shuo left Wulong City and teleported back to Shanhai City.

He returned to complete the upgrade quest.

Earlier in the 10th month, 1st day, Shanhai City had reached the five hundred thousand population upper limit.

However, because Ouyang Shuo was in Zhaoqing Prefecture at that time, the matter got delayed. Making use of this chance, he wanted to complete the territorial upgrade.

Ouyang Shuo’s return to Shanhai City did not alarm anyone. He had a short conversation with Song Jia before he entered the main hall alone. Ouyang Shuo had already completed the upgrade procedure nine times, so he was very clear about it.

He muttered ‘territory upgrade’ to himself and a white light shone across. In the middle of the hall, a golden stone steele slowly rose up once again from the ground.

Ouyang Shuo pressed his right hand on the stele, and a system notification sounded out.

"System Notification: Checking Shanhai Prefecture upgrade requirements…."

"Requirement 1: population reached five hundred thousand upper limit. Requirement met!"

Five hundred thousand people were far from the population that Shanhai City could handle. Based on the planning, if they opened up the entire city, they could at least hold above five million people.

As a result, the current population was only one-tenth of the population that Shanhai City could hold.

However, Shanhai City's construction was far from completion.

"Requirement 2: All basic buildings completed. Requirement met!"

The constructions teams had built up the Wengcheng, the Painting Academy, and the Distribution Center. The Wengcheng was built and designed along with the city wall, and the painting academy was located in Xinan University.

The last to be built was the Distribution Center, currently located in the center city area near the pier.

"Requirement 3: Lord has reached at least rank 2 Marquis. Requirement met!"

In the entire China region, apart from Ouyang Shuo, who was a rank 1 Marquis, the two rank 2 marquises were Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang. Di Chen and the others were a step further behind them.

At this stage, Ouyang Shuo's rank advantage was something that no one could catch up to.

However, Duke was a massive stage, needing a total of one million merit points, five times that of a rank 1 Marquis. This meant that at this bottleneck, anyone could catch up from behind him.

If nothing unusual happened, Ouyang Shuo would be unable to complete the upgrade in a short amount of time.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, Shanhai City meets all the requirements, will you upgrade?"

"Upgrade!"

From the stone steele, a golden light shot up into the sky and exploded outward in a golden luster that spread toward the boundaries of the territory.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for successfully upgrading the territory to Grade 2 Prefecture. Lord's Manor automatically upgraded, please take a look!"

Ouyang Shuo did not care much about the upgrade to the Lord's Manor.

After all, the current Nanjiang Governor-General Manor had already exceeded the scale the system had planned.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, upgrading the territory to Grade 2 Prefecture. After upgrading, one teleportation formation can be added; please choose the location to construct it!"

Who knew that upgrading your prefecture would come with such benefits?

In his last life, Ouyang Shuo had little knowledge of prefectures, so he was not clear of such occurrences.

To a giant city like Shanhai City, the addition of a teleportation formation had a deep meaning.

The current teleportation formation was located within the imperial city.

Hence, for the people to use it, after considering safety problems, it was also highly inconvenient. When something happened, and the imperial city entered a lock down state, the teleportation formation would also enter the same state.

However, Shanhai City's influence on the China region was too great. Be it scholars, merchants, or talents, everyone came.

The Guards Division were having a tough time guarding the imperial city.

Now, he was presented with a great chance. With an additional teleportation formation, Ouyang Shuo could make some differences. Only officials, military personnel, and the people he invited could use the formation in the imperial city.

The additional teleportation formation would be for the common people.

With that, he could remove potential problems, and the Guards Division could be more at ease.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it and decided to place the second teleportation formation in the north city region.

Firstly, the northern region was the door to the city, and it was also the commoner district. As such, it was a highly convenient location. Secondly, the central region was located down from the northern region, which would make it easy to travel to other regions.

Lastly, the city protection divisions stayed at the sides of the north city region.

Hence, if there were really people that dared to do something funny, the nearby troops could rush over and lock up the entire region.

Without a doubt, after this new formation was set up, the Black Snake Guards and the Shanhai Guards would play close attention to it. They would arrange members to monitor it.

After choosing the location, another system notification sounded out in his head.

"System Notification: Teleportation formation location selected. Formation automatically created; please take a look."

……

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for successfully upgrading territory to Grade 2 Prefecture. After the upgrade, the Lord can make a slight change to the geography of the area. The system will decide the degree of change. Friendly Reminder: The adjustment of the geography is just changing what is originally present. Player cannot choose to change the type of the land. Player can choose changes such as expanding rivers and raising mountains."

Ouyang Shuo's eyes brightened up; this was getting more and more interesting.

This action by Gaia should be sort of a compensation to the players. After all, when they chose the village creation location, they would only consider two points. In terms of geography, there would definitely be regrets.

For example, Ouyang Shuo. His biggest regret was that Lianzhou Basin was locked off from the outside world, with only two canyon passages.

It used to be a pro, but now it was a con.

Ouyang Shuo could not change the Zhennan Pass or the Mulan Stronghold Canyon. The moment he took such action, the stronghold would be rent useless, and Taiping Country could just walk in.

Ouyang Shuo would not shoot himself in the foot. Hence, he directly chose to change the canyon river on the south. He hoped that after this change, large-sized ships could directly enter the Shanhai City Pier.

"Expanding Friendship River, Qiushui River, as well as the canyon river path where the two rivers intersect."

"System Notification: Confirming the change, widening the river and digging deeper is underway."

……

"System Notification: Changes completed. One hundred meter expansion of both rivers, two hundred meter expansion of the canyon river path. The depth of the rivers has also been relatively changed."

……

In such an instance, both rivers were expanded to twice their original size.

The commoners on both sides did not have any particular feelings. It was like time had just stopped and the river had suddenly widened. Seeing such a scene, the people knelt on the ground and prayed to the heavens.

In their view, it was naturally the river god exerting its power.

At this point, Qiushui River and Friendship River had river gods that the people worshipped.

The people built river god temples at the sides of the rivers and prayed to them regularly.

After the river widened and deepened, even large-sized turreted ships could enter. With that, large-scale merchant ships did not need to offload their products at Beihai Harbor.

Just like that, it made freight transport and sea trading much more convenient for Shanhai City.

Of course, the defense of the city would also face challenges. After all, if turreted ships could enter the city, pirate ships could too.

Beihai Bay Squadron seemed more and more important.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo was willing to take such a risk. For Shanhai City to become a presence comparable to the imperial cities, it could not lock itself up.

The future capital city must look like one, and it should not have the attitude of a little kid.

At this point, the upgrade of the territory was completed.

A system notification sounded out by his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for becoming the first Lord in the China region to upgrade to Grade 2 Prefecture, awarded 4400 merit points!"

……

The upgrade of Shanhai City did not cause any uproar this time, as the entire China Region was ensnared in a frenzy. All the Lords had focused their minds on the battlefields.

Chapter 490- Planning the Steel Industry

10th month, 9th day, Shanhai City, Nanjiang Governor-General Manor.

Although the upgrade of Shanhai City was silent and did not start any uproar, to Shanhai City itself, it was an immense achievement.

Not because of other reasons, just the addition of a teleportation formation and the expansion of the river caused a massive impact on the future development of the city.

Who knew what surprises Gaia had prepared for the next upgrade.

Within the main hall, the territory stone steele had sunk into the ground once more. Ouyang Shuo took a look at the stats of the territory.

Territory: Nanjiang Governor-General House

Lord: Nanjiang Governor-General, Lianzhou Lord Qiyue Wuyi (1st Class Marquis )

Main Title: The World’s First Prefecture (Increase town fame by 50%)

Sub Title: Home of Martial Arts, Land of Philosophers, Blessed Land of Artisans

Governed Area: Shanhai City (Grade 2 Prefecture)

Population: 500 thousand/1 million

Refugee Spawn Rate: 500 * (1 + 50%) = 750 / day

True Refugee Spawn Rate: 750+700+700= 2150/day

Territory area: four prefectures, approximately 800 thousand square kilometres

Territory Specialty: -

Political: 80/100 (Affecting the administrative efficiency and morale)

Economic: 85/100 (Affecting the trading prosperity and tax)

Cultural: 88/100 (Affecting the education development and quality of residents)

Technology: 50/100 (Affects technology levels and technology tree)

Military: 78/100 (Affecting the military strength and stability)

Affiliate Counties: Lianzhou Prefecture, Leizhou Prefecture, Qiongzhou Prefecture, Zhaoqing Prefecture, Zhenhai City

Financial Institutions: Four Sea Bank

Education Institutions: Xinan University (Principal Jiang Shang), Army Military Academy (Principal Sun Wu)

Philosophers: Military Advisors, Legalism, School of Agriculture, School of Diplomacy, Mohism

Territory Chamber of Commerce : Cui Chamber of Commerce, Song Chamber of Commerce, Bai Trading Company

Territory Specialties: Lianzhou Three Flowers Wine, Colored silk, White Tea

Special Building: Book Collection House

Hidden Building: Mazu Temple, Recruitment Hall, Yellow Emperor Temple

Basic Buildings List:

Guqin Academy: An official department in charge of Guqin. Apart from researching tunes, it trains up teachers and students. Construction Requirements: Guqin Academy building blueprints, 20 thousand units of wood, 20 thousand units of green brick, 10 thousand units of stone. Construction Time: 20 days (note: already completed)

Wholesale Market: A market for sellers to sell wholesale government products or services. Construction Requirements: Mature wholesale item and channel, 30 thousand units of wood, 50 thousand units of green brick, 30 thousand units of stone. Construction Time: 20 days.

The interface of the grade 2 prefecture has a huge change.

The most notable change would be the addition of the technology index.

This indicated that as the game progressed, the technological standards would become more and more important. Shanhai City's technology index was only 50, far off from its other four indices.

For his next step, Ouyang Shuo was prepared to invest largely in technology research.

In the 9th month, although Ouyang Shuo was not in Shanhai City, the Financial Department still handed over the financial report for him to read. Compared to the previous month, the income had improved once more and crossed two hundred thousand.

Of course, they had not deducted the costs incurred from Zhaoqing Prefecture, as well as the military expenditure from the military expansion.

After deducting these two huge sums, there was probably around a hundred thousand gold in profit.

As for how to use this sum of money, Ouyang Shuo had a rough sketch. Shortly after, he would look for Cui Yingyu to discuss.

Apart from the territory indices, other areas also had some slight changes.

Compared to a grade 1 prefecture, the upper population limit had doubled. As for the affiliate territories of Friendship County and Qiushui County, they had upgraded to prefecture, so the average spawning rate of Shanhai City had reached 2150 people.

With this normal speed, he needed another two to three hundred days to reach the upper limit once more. If he considered the commoners from the imperial cities that moved over, this time would be shortened.

Ouyang Shuo predicted that in the 5th to 6th month of the 3rd year, Shanhai City could upgrade once more.

Initially, Ouyang Shuo was not so pumped up by this upgrade. After all, the 4400 merit point reward was not that attractive to him.

Shanhai City also had no reason to be first and ascertain its position as best in the world. If there really was a need, that would be the future fight for the world's first capital city. And that would take place at least two years later.

Ouyang Shuo remembered that in his last life, even after five years had past, not a single Duke had appeared in the game. Who knows, maybe he could break that record.

Only after this upgrade did Ouyang Shuo realized that Gaia gave out such huge rewards. This immediately made him more eager and motivated for the next territory upgrade.

Apart from the upper population limit, the territory size changing, and other things like philosophers were all tweaked based on the happenings of the game.

Apart from the territory interface, there were the new basic buildings.

The basic buildings of a grade 2 prefecture were a pitiful two.

In regards to the Guqin Academy, needless to say, they had already captured the Master Musician Shi Wen when they took down Leizhou Prefecture. Less than half a month after the war, they had established the Guqin Academy in Xinan University.

The only tough part was the wholesale market.

The construction did not require a building blueprint, but he needed to satisfy a requirement. How to complete this criteria was something that Ouyang Shuo understood.

Firstly, since it was a wholesale market, there should naturally be suitable items.

Only widespread items needed to be sold like rice, salt, cloth, and leather.

Secondly, they needed to build a perfect channel.

The sale of normal item were done by merchants or Chambers of Commerce, who directly bought from the people or the farms.

If they built a wholesale market, that would mean the addition of another one or two ways of selling.

Merchants did not need to run down all the way to purchase, and they could just allow the local sellers to pick them up and sell on the wholesale market instead.

The middleman would earn a bit of profit, while the Chambers of Commerce would save manpower and time.

Both sides would end up happy.

The above two points ensured that after they built the wholesale market, a demand would exist. It would also not end up on the verge of closing just after it opened.

As for the second point, the territory had not perfected it yet.

Hence, there was still a period of time before they could build the wholesale market.

After checking the stats, Ouyang Shuo left the main hall and returned to his reading room. Since he still had some time, he decided to settle some matters before returning to Wulong City.

When Liu Mo walked into the Nanjiang Governor-General Manor, doubt filled his heart.

Toward his sworn brother Ouyang Shuo, Liu Mo only felt respect in his heart. He did not expect Ouyang Shuo, who looked so unassuming in real life, would actually be so amazing in the game.

Liu Mo had spent all his time on guns and cannon research, and he basically did not care about the events outside. However, the continuous system notifications would remind him that Shanhai City was still developing crazily.

As such, he did not want to fall behind.

In terms of gun research, as he cooperated with Magnus, they had already made some significant progress. Liu Mo was wondering whether he was called over because of that reason.

When Liu Mo stepped into the reading room, Ouyang Shuo was discussing some matters with Cui Yingyu.

As Ouyang Shuo spoke, Cui Yingyu listened on intently, as she earnestly jotted down notes.

"The Industry Division must plan the matters of shipbuilding well. The shipyards must build on this foundation and add another three more. Zhenhai City can build one large scale shipyard and Yanluo City can too. The last one can be built in Qiongzhou Prefecture. The shipbuilding industry will be one of the pillars of our territory. In the future, be it merchant ships or warships, the demand will only increase."

"Understood!"

"Although the military expansion used up a lot of funds, there's a way to make up for it. Contact Director Du and transport all the equipment eliminated from the army, as well as those collected from the battlefield. Then, send the items to Yashan City to sell. With that, we can save a bunch of sales tax. I predict that this batch of equipment can be sold for at least three hundred thousand gold. The current Yashan City is filled with adventure gamemode players, and they have a high demand for such equipment."

When Cui Yingyu heard his plan, her eyes lit up. It seemed like she was going to earn a huge sum this time.

"Of course, toward the military industry, we must increase our support. I'll let the various imperial city intel stations work together with the Financial Department to start a large-scale recruitment. Offer high pay and great welfare to attract blacksmiths and tailors to Shanhai City to work in the workshops. Apart from that, the various prefecture military workshops can do the same."

The military industry was the silent worker in this military expansion.

Without the work of numerous artisans, how could Shanhai City change out all their equipment? How could they take the eliminated equipment to sell and replenish military funds?

As a result, the treatment of the artisans of the military workshops were among the best.

During the restructuring of Shanhai City, they directly named the south region as the military region. Apart from meeting the expansion needs of the workshops, it was to obtain better treatment and benefits for the artisans.

The Shanhai City House that was in charge of the construction had built mansions for them. Any artisans that worked in the military workshops could enjoy free housing.

Just this benefit alone gained them the envy of everyone around them.

Chapter 491- Crazy Coal

"Brother Liu Mo!"

Ouyang Shuo raised his head and saw Liu Mo standing by the door.

"Please enter!"

Ouyang Shuo stood up and brought Liu Mo to a seat. Although this thermal weapons specialist looked unassuming, in the future, he would act as the core of the territory’s weapons technology.

"This time, I called big brother over to discuss the steel factory construction." Ouyang Shuo did not need to put up any fake courtesy with Liu Mo, so he directly dived into the topic.

"Lord, you want to build one more steel factory?" Liu Mo looked calm, most technology researchers were like that. He replied, "The first one has mainly grasped the technology, and it has the ability to expand."

"No." Ouyang Shuo shook his head, as his left and right fingers intersected to form a cross, "Not one but ten."

"Ten?"

These words astonished Liu Mo, and he could not help but jump right up from his seat. Even the eyes of Cui Yingyu, who was at the side, widened in disbelief. She looked toward Ouyang Shuo, wondering if he had gone mad.

"For the current steel usage of the territory, adding one more is enough. Ten seems to be a bit exaggerated." Liu Mo looked at Ouyang Shuo, reminding him that he should not expand blindly.

Ouyang Shuo laughed slightly, as he pressed his hands down to ask Liu Mo to calm down. He smiled and said, "Let me finish first. Building ten steel factories at once is definitely not something I decided in the heat of the moment. It's something that has been planned for a long time."

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo had an idea in his heart about the territory’s need of iron. The reason he wanted to build ten more steel factories pertained to the next system update.

During the third system update, Gaia would completely remove the Super Trading Platform.

This also meant that players could not transport any items in the game through the system. All items must be transported through relays or the sea.

And what items did the steel factory need the most?

Iron and coal!

Shanhai Territory lacked these two resources the most. Especially coal, which the territory did not even have. For this particular resource, they had to purchase it from Fallen Phoenix City.

The moment the system removed the Super Auction Platform, it would pretty much require a utopia to transport hundreds and thousands of coal from Fallen Phoenix City to Shanhai.

At the very least, they could not complete such transactions in a short amount of time.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo decided to make use of these last two months to boldly build steel factories. At the same time, he would use funds to crazily purchase coal and iron ores.

Ouyang Shuo's ambition was to make a one-time purchase of coal that would last the territory for the next few years.

This act was similar to his large-scale purchase before the first system update. Only now, it was much crazier.

The gold involved reached hundreds of thousands and even millions.

However, he could not explain such matters to Liu Mo and Cui Yingyu. Now, he could rely on the prestige and trust he had built up over the times.

Especially in the eyes of Cui Yingyu, Ouyang Shuo was like the reincarnation of a god of foresight and knowledge.

Any territory decisions that he came up with and made were proven absolutely right and actions with great foresight.

For example, before the grain crisis, his large-scale purchase of grain. Like the leather in the adventure gamemode player's hands, buying all of it when it was not in demand.

Another example would be when everyone was looking at the wilderness. At that time, Ouyang Shuo had turned his attention to the sea to gain riches from there instead.

There were many different examples.

Hence, seeing Ouyang Shuo so resolute, Cui Yingyu kept her doubts to herself. She decided to give her vote of confidence and stand on his side.

When Liu Mo saw this exchange, he could only laugh awkwardly.

"Probably, to be able to become such an important leader in the world, one must have an unexplainable foresight. Although I do not understand it, as long as you are sure, No.7 Research Institute is willing to go along completely."

If they planned to build steel factories, it would naturally involve the No.7 Research Institute.

Without a doubt, if they wanted to build ten steel factories at once, all the researchers would have to stop their work for the next two months. They would need to go around to teach the artisans how to build the factories.

Steel factories were exceedingly professional buildings, and they included large amounts of steelmaking equipment and facilities. Without the building blueprints, they could only have the members of the research institute present to help out.

Telling them to stop their research for two months pretty much took the lives of these people. Without a doubt, the moment Liu Mo went back to announce this, Ouyang Shuo would be given the nickname ‘cold blooded funder.’

A shred of embarrassment appeared on his face.

He did not possess any special foresight; he only relied on his last life.

Ouyang Shuo felt warm in his heart from Liu Mo’s support. Although they had seldom come into contact, these two had already formed an untaintable brotherhood.

"Great, with both of your supports, let's do well." Ouyang Shuo collected his feelings and continued, "In regards to the ten steel factories, I am planning it like this. In Lianzhou Prefecture, along Friendship River and Qiushui River, build one at each location. Similar to the Shanhai City steel factory, we need to form a strong steel corporation."

No matter how the territory changed, Lianzhou Prefecture would always remain the heart of the territory and the prefecture that needed the most iron. Building three steel factories here, in the future, they would all come into use.

Building the steel factories by the river could solve the water source problem and make sea transportation easy. Especially after the territory upgraded, the rivers had expanded, allowing larger merchant ships to pass through.

Most recently, Old Sun and Zheng Dahai had started to research a freight ship specifically designed to transport iron ore and steel raw materials.

The moment they succeeded, they would solve the problem with iron ore transportation.

In terms of shipbuilding, Old Sun could not be more familiar with the subject. Under his instructions, the types of ships that the shipyard built exceeded that of the technical manual.

The types of ships in Shanhai City had further diversified, with tugboats in charge of consigning, fishing boats, and more.

Especially the modifications to the warships; there were many changes.

The new generation of turreted ships in Shanhai City had far exceeded the standards of the Ming Dynasty.

Some old modification ideas of Old Sun had utterly exploded out after he obtained the Ming Dynasty Shipbuilding Technical Manual.

One of the turreted ships, one of the warships had already been modified so much that they looked completely different.

After all, any idea must be tried out. The truth proved that some of his ideas were possible. There were other ideas that Gaia judged as too advanced, so it did not allow them.

……

"Apart from that, each one of the three shipyards will have a steel factory nearby. Beihai City will also have one. The remaining four would be in Zhaoqing Prefecture, Leizhou Prefecture, and Qiongzhou Prefecture."

Building a steel factory near the shipyard exemplified Ouyang Shuo's ambitions. In the future, if he wanted to research and produce armored warships, they would have a colossal demand for steel.

As a result, he wanted to build the steel factories near the sea.

Liu Mo was extremely sensitive to technical issues, so he could read Ouyang Shuo's intentions. Thinking up to this point, the sense of responsibility in his heart felt exceedingly heavy.

To produce the armored warships, the biggest bottleneck still laid with the No.7 Research Institute.

To build the armored warship, the movement system of the ship must jump past sails and toward the steam engine. Moreover, the steam engine had not even been born in the place where the industrial revolution happened—England.

Just relying on Magnus, this European, was far from enough.

The research speed of Shanhai City for steam engines was far behind that of England and even Europe in general.

The road in the future was an exceptionally long one.

Ouyang Shuo looked toward Cui Yingyu and instructed, "The Financial Department must tweak the budget for the next three months. We must take out funds to purchase iron ore and coal. Especially coal. Of the supply that we buy, we will separately store them in the ten steel factories."

When Cui Yingyu heard this command, her face revealed a bitter smile.

Ouyang Shuo’s move had messed up the previous plans of the Financial Department.

"Big brother, can you give me an idea of how much we should purchase?"

Ouyang Shuo resolutely said, "However much there is on the market. We will buy it all."

Siii!

Cui Yingyu could not help but let out a cold breath.

"If need be, we can borrow money from the various Chambers of Commerce." Ouyang Shuo added, showing that his plan must and would be fully executed.

In his mind, loaning money was never an embarrassing matter. To be able to loan money and use the borrowed money to make more money, that in itself was an incredible feat.

"I understand!"

Cui Yingyu nodded; she was already prepared to grind out the next few months. They would need to reduce the other expenses of the territory.

"Next, we need to try and sell all the large-scale items like salt and silk. We must try to get rid of them before the year end."

After they took down Qiongzhou Prefecture and Leizhou Prefecture, the territory had already become one of the largest food salt producers in the China region. The colored silk also pushed up production by ten times.

These two items could only be sold in Quanzhou through sea routes.

The problem was that Quanzhou was also located around the sea, so its sea salt market was always self-sufficient. In the future, the salt from Shanhai City would face a problem of not being able to sell.

Salt to Shanhai City held a deep meaning.

At the start of the territory’s development, they had relied on the profits from the Beimu Saltpans to maintain their growth.

Toward this problem, Ouyang Shuo temporarily could not think of any good solutions. He could only take it step by step. If they really could not sell it off, it would be a huge burden to the territory finances.

Cui Yingyu was not prepared to probe, so she just nodded to show that she understood.

At this point, Ouyang Shuo had spoken all that he had wanted to say.

Chapter 492- Business School of Thought

10th month, 10th day, Shanhai City.

Upon his first glance of Bai Xue, Ouyang Shuo felt stunned. She was alluring and a total beauty.

"Miss Bai Xue, welcome to Shanhai City."

Ouyang Shuo stood at the door of the main hall and personally welcomed the owner of the Bai Trading Company.

Such treatment made her feel welcomed and astonished.

After telling Cui Yingyu about the purchasing matters, Ouyang Shuo's next goal was to persuade the Cui Chamber of Commerce and the Bai Trading Company to move into Shanhai City.

The moment the system updated and removed the Super Trading Platform, the various Chambers of Commerce in the imperial cities, apart from Quanzhou, would have no easy method to contact Shanhai City.

Especially Xianyang. The Yanhuang Alliance territories separated them from Shanhai, and the trade routes were difficult to open up.

Ouyang Shuo would naturally plan ahead in regards to this matter.

The Cui Chamber of Commerce already had the intention of moving over. The relationship between the Cui Family and Shanhai City was growing tighter and tighter. Amongst the Cui Family children, apart from Cui Shousi, two others had become County Magistrates in Shanhai.

The Cui Family had an undeniable influence in both the political and business worlds of the territory.

Considering the pros and cons, Shanhai City was much more attractive to them than Dali.

The future of the Cui Family in Shanhai Territory was filled with imagination. Hence, after Ouyang Shuo released some news, the head of the family immediately decided to start moving over.

The Cui Chamber of Commerce had been running in Shanhai City for the longest time, so they had taken a huge plot of land in the west city region. Hence, the Cui Family moving over was not something rushed and haphazard.

Probably, the head of the family had planned for this for some time.

Of course, the migration of an entire family was not a simple matter. They had to sell and keep some of the shops in Dali, and they would need to continue to station people there to maintain the shops they kept.

They needed to settle the thousands of workers and managers that the family hired. Those that were willing to move over would naturally retain their jobs.

As for those that were not willing, they would not force them and everyone would separate happily.

As for their relationships with the people in Dali, those that should be continued would still need to be continued. The Cui Family head possessed good foresight, and he knew that the future of the Lianzhou Lord was limitless.

Probably, in just a few years, the entire Dali would fall under the rule of Shanhai Territory.

The difficult to settle matter was the Bai Trading Company.

Although Bai Xue was the young miss of the trading company, there was still her father, Bai Gui. This Business Ancestor was the real master of the ship behind the scenes, and he held the fate of the Bai Trading Company in hands.

Bai Gui was someone that Ouyang Shuo temporarily could not meet. As such, his only way was to persuade Bai Xue, who stood in front of him. In a business to business conversation, Ouyang Shuo did not want to use his relationship with Wei Yang to force Bai Xue.

As one would say, there were some things that a real man did and some that he could not do.

Apart from that, the Bai Trading Company and the Cui Chamber of Commerce were fundamentally different. The Cui Chamber of Commerce was the power of the aboriginals of the main map, and their relations in Dali were deeply rooted.

Of course, the influence of the Cui Chamber of Commerce was only limited to Dali.

The Bai Trading Company was different. They had suddenly appeared after the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period and entered the game.

Hence, in regards to the foundation and ability of the Bai Trading Company, Ouyang Shuo knew exceedingly little. On the surface, they just look like an unassuming Chamber of Commerce located in Xianyang.

As for the truth, it was hard for outsiders to know.

After all, the Bai Trading Company in history was a massive monster that dealt with trade and information.

Ouyang Shuo estimated that Bai Gui had purposely asked his daughter to reveal the news about Fan Li to get into Ouyang Shuo's good books.

Amongst all these affairs, what plans did Bai Gui have? Were the philosophers of the business school of thought ready to surface and fight for riches?

Between Bai Gui and Fan Li, what kind of understanding and plans did they have?

All of this posed a huge mystery.

Although the philosophers’ debate had ended, the debates and fights between school of thoughts had just begun.

Ever since the Qin Dynasty, there were signs of the philosophers vibrant on the stage of history. The only difference was that they did it outright in the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period and in the dark after that.

The disputes between the philosophers would continue on for the rest of the game.

Because of the game, school of thoughts and factions that were not prevalent in history could potentially gain traction in the wilderness.

The business school of thought was such an example.

In the wilderness, it was not only Ouyang Shuo that focused on the development of business and commerce.

News had spread that Pill Sun City's business atmosphere could almost compare to Shanhai City’s. After all, Chun Shenjun's family was a business aristocratic family.

Business was what he was best at handling.

Apart from Chun Shenjun, the other Lords were not fools, and they were not limited to olden thinking. They would not do anything stupid like focusing on agriculture and suppressing commerce.

Hence, the business school of thought was growing popular.

Furthermore, during the dynasties, the business school of thought could be called fairly famous. If the like of Shen Wan San, Qiao Zhiyong, or Hu Xueyan were placed in modern society, they would be mammoth existences.

Which was why Bai Gui and Fan Li would not keep silent; they would rise up.

The mysterious circle of historical people was something that neither the Black Snake Guards or the Shanhai Guards could infiltrate. Gaia had obviously planned against such attempts.

However, no one knew Gaia’s end goal.

Ouyang Shuo asked to meet Bai Xue for two reasons. First, to discuss the prospects of the Bai Trading Company moving over. Second, to test out their strength and to see what exactly Bai Gui was planning.

As the two of them entered the main hall and took their seats, they judged each other, their eyes filled with probing.

Ouyang Shuo was curious about Bai Gui and Fan Li.

Bai Xue was curious about Ouyang Shuo.

After all, how could Bai Xue not be curious about Ouyang Shuo? She was exceedingly clear about her husband’s character. If he had not met a leader that could change the world, he would not easily take up a job.

In history, Wei Yang had traveled across many countries and rejected numerous invitations. In the end, he had surprisingly settled in Qin Country, which was weak and on the verge of defeat.

One of the reason was because of Qin Xiaogong.

What kind of person was the man in front of him, to possess enough much charm to make Wei Yang follow him with loyalty?

On the surface, he looked simple. The many successive wars and battles had made this tender youth resolute and resilient.

His face was life a knife, hard and cold.

Although he tried to control it, Ouyang Shuo's body emitted a killing aura and an aura reminiscent of a king.

These two different auras actually perfectly merged together in his body.

The way of killing and the way of mercy were interchangeable to a Lord; they were not mutually exclusive.

Hence, even though Ouyang Shuo looked warm and gentle, no one dared to try anything funny.

Bai Xue did not dare to underestimate the person in front of her.

However, she could not understand the reason behind his invitation.

Based on logic, as a guest that was visiting Shanhai City, she should visit Ouyang Shuo, the Lord. Only that when she had visited, Ouyang Shuo was away in Zhaoqing.

His return was something that only a few people knew about. Just last night, the governor-general manor guard went to Wei Yang’s residence to say that the Lord wanted to meet Bai Xue in the morning.

"I was wondering what the Bai Trading Company thinks of the Shanhai City market?" After some courteous greetings, Ouyang Shuo headed for the main topic. Even if Ouyang Shuo wanted to probe someone, he did not need to beat around the bush.

"Shanhai City's businesses are prosperous. The government supports the Chambers of Commerce. In terms of openness, even Xianyang cannot compare."

When Bai Xue heard his question, she regurgitated the words she had prepared.

When she saw Wei Yang, she had joked that she wanted Wei Yang to help her establish the Bai Trading Company in Shanhai City. In truth, she would not truly make use of him.

She was too clear about the kind of person her husband was.

To Wei Yang, everything had to go by the book, and he definitely would not abuse his power for her.

Hence, when she came to meet Ouyang Shuo, she wanted to find a way to break in. As long as the Lord opened his mouth, the Bai Trading Company could truly gain a footing in Shanhai City.

If not, they would not even be able to set up a shop, much less obtain enough land to build a workshop district.

The current Shanhai City was far different from the time when they had just started construction.

When Wei Ran was running it, to increase the construction speed and attract Chambers of Commerce, he had opened up the doors, selling them land and catering policies to their needs.

This action had fixed the basis of the early development of Shanhai City.

Now, it was different, as Shanhai City had passed that open period of their development. After Zang Wenzhong’s appointment, he had started to control the sale of land.

With the three by three city planning pushed out, it was even harder for Chambers of Commerce to purchase land. The entire Shanhai City only had the east and west business regions that allowed Chambers of Commerce to build workshops.

As for the central region, the competition was even more intense.

The various Chambers of Commerce used many different tactics and acts just to obtain a portion of the pier.

One could imagine how difficult it was for a newbie like the Bai Trading Company to gain a foothold.

After all, many Chambers of Commerce, like Hequanji, had supported Shanhai’s development from the start. They had helped out when Shanhai City was in a tough situation.

The construction of Leizhou Prefecture was something that many of the Chambers of Commerce had played a part in.

Hence, the Business Division would definitely grant them some benefits.

What about the Bai Trading Company? At the very least, Shanhai City could not see its value.

Bai Xue guessed that if she had not brought news of Fan Li, she could not even gain the Business Division’s help without Wei Yang’s assistance.

As a result, Bai Xue really cared about this meeting.

Wei Yang's love for he was undeniable. At the same time, Bai Xue was also an independent woman, and she yearned to craft a business of her own.

Entering Shanhai City was probably a test her father provided.

Bai Xue did not want to fail.

Chapter 493- Palace Guards

"Since that's the case, will your trading company consider moving your main headquarters over?"

Ouyang Shuo smoothly continued her words and directly reached his first goal.

"Moving headquarters?"

Ouyang Shuo's request left Bai Xue stonished.

"That's right!" Ouyang Shuo nodded, “If Bai Trading Company is willing to move your headquarters over, you will receive the same treatment as the Cui Chamber of Commerce. How about that?"

Ouyang Shuo immediately saw through what Bai Xue needed the most at this moment. Hence, he directly emphasized that he would grant them preferential treatment to attract them.

If Bai Xue did not agree, Ouyang Shuo could only give up and not harp on any further.

A war loomed before him, and Chiyou was grinding his blades.

Ouyang Shuo could not stay in Shanhai City for long. Moreover, before he left, he needed to settle all matters relating to the next system update.

If not, he would be wasting his revival advantage.

Truthfully, the terms that Ouyang Shuo had set out tempted Bai Xue. If the Bai Trading Company could receive the same treatment as the Cui Chamber of Commerce, their rise in Shanhai City would not face any obstacles.

Unfortunately, moving the headquarters was not something she could decide.

"I feel the Lord’s sincerity in my heart. However, this current matter is huge, so I need to ask my father before I can reply to you. Is that okay?"

Ouyang Shuo nodded; he had expected such a reply.

As expected, all decisions laid in the hands of Bai Gui.

"Naturally. However, my offer will only hold till the end of the year. After the New Year, even if Bai Trading Company is willing, it will be really difficult. Please help me tell your father this point."

"Great!"

Bai Xue had some doubts, but she still agreed without hesitation. She had a feeling that her father had asked her to come over because he was in truth tempted about moving the headquarters to Shanhai City.

Hence, this decision would not take long to make.

Nanjiang Governor-General Manor, Southwest Corner, an unassuming side palace. The place did not have a name. Hidden in the greens and waters; it was quiet and without people.

Even the people who walked in and out did not make a sound. In their faces, one could not see any emotion. The special aspect of this place was that the dark atmosphere that covered the area.

In the future, the officials of the territory would learn to fear this place.

That was right, this was the headquarters of the Shanhai Guards.

After a period of construction time, in addition to the support of Shanhai City, the structure of the Shanhai Guards was basically complete. Now, they were up and running.

They monitored all of the tens of thousands of officials in the four prefectures.

Before the end of the year, the Administration Department acted openly, while the Shanhai Guards moved in the dark. Both of them would cooperate with one another and complete a large-scale and total investigation. Ouyang Shuo named this operation as the ‘Sharp Sword Operation.’

Once the sharp sword leaves its sheath, blood would flow.

After a quiet noon and sending Bai Xue off, Ouyang Shuo sneakily arrived at this side palace. Behind him followed a cool-looking young man—Cui Tianqi.

Cui Tianqi and the others had complete the special forces base training topics. He had graduated from the base as first in the exams.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he immediately summoned Cui Tianqi to the manor to receive a new duty.

After undergoing the training at the special forces base, Cui tianqi had grown icier and quieter. He emitted the feeling that any stranger should not approach him.

The teen swordsman of old had completely transformed into a killer.

That was right, a killer.

Cold, merciless.

Cui Tianqi's personality was actually the best choice for a killer. Last time, when Ouyang Shuo ordered him to assassinate Su Qin, he performed the act cleanly like water. He did not disappoint Ouyang Shuo.

This time, Ouyang Shuo wanted to personally bring Cui Tianqi to obtain his job in the Shanhai Guards.

When Shen Buhai saw Cui Tianqi, he did not feel shocked.

When they began creating the Shanhai Guards, Ouyang Shuo had already revealed to Shen Buhai that he intended to make a special unit in charge of assassination missions.

This unit would be called the Shadow Guards.

The Shadow Guards acted as the shadow of the Shanhai Guards.

Hence, apart from the Shanhai Guards Commander Shen Buhai, who had info on them, no one else except for Ouyang Shuo knew of their existence.

The one in charge of the Shadow Guards would have the position of garrison officer, and their rank would only be lower than that of the commander. Without a doubt, Cui Tianqi was the person Ouyang Shuo chose.

Members of the Shadow Guards were mostly martial artist, equipped with god arm crossbows. They were in charge of assassinating spies of other territories, and they would even perform cross-territory killing.

Based on Shen Buhai's reaction, within Shanhai City alone, there were already many rats.

Naturally, they needed to storm and take out all these spies.

Apart from taking out such people, the Shadow Guards were also in charge of killing the traitors of the territory. Shanhai City had expanded through war, so there would no doubt be residue and evil left from the old regimes.

The Shadow Guards would show no mercy such people.

If they often sent the military to try and calm the situation, it was easy to terrify the people. Sending the Shadow Guards was different, as they could settle the issue without anyone knowing.

Hence, the Shadow Guards were a blade that Ouyang Shuo hid in the dark.

The moment he used it, blood would flow.

Of course, the Shadow Guards, and even the Shanhai Guards, were a different concept to the Ming Dynasty Silk Clothed Guards. The Shanhai Guards only had the power to investigate, and they only possessed a limited authority to capture and interrogate.

The real capture and interrogation rights remained under the Internal Affairs Department.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to monitor the people, not create an uncontrollable monster. In his planning of the system, controls and restraints were evident everywhere.

After handing Cui Tianqi to Shen Buhai, Ouyang Shuo got up and left.

The current Cui Tianqi did not need him to nag and could act independently.

Next, Ouyang Shuo visited Song Tianxiong. Then, he rushed Bing'er to make her do homework. After meeting with Song Jia, he left Shanhai City.

His entire journey was hurried.

The pressure that Chiyou gave Ouyang Shuo was simply too great.

10th month, 12th day, Ouyang Shuo teleported to Wulong City.

The same day, Wang Feng led the Divine Martial Guards and teleported over from Zhenhai City to meet with Ouyang Shuo. Before he left, the Zhenhai City Garrison Division was already in place.

After which, Ouyang Shuo did not stay in Wulong City. Instead, he led his troops toward the frontline. Before he left, Ouyang Shuo completely destroyed the teleportation formation in Wulong City.

This teleportation formation had completed its duty, so he should not leave it here anymore.

Ouyang Shuo did not want any accidents to happen.

10th month, 14th day, Ouyang Shuo led the Divine Martial Guards. They rushed to the command center that Han Xin had set up at the border.

The place he chose was a small county twenty kilometers away from the border.

Before this, Han Xin had led the Leopard Legion, including the Guards Division, in completing their preparations. Large amounts of grain had poured over.

Near the border, the army's tents had closely packed with one another.

Flags stabbed into the ground and spears stood upright.

Apart from that, the 1st division of the Dragon Legion and the 3rd division of the Tiger Legion were already ready on the hundred thousand mountains.

When the command center gave the order, the two divisions would directly strike Wuzhou Prefecture.

Similarly, Chiyou’s one hundred thousand mountain barbarian army was slowly approaching Zhaoqing Prefecture.

The scouts on both sides had already met in the wilderness and fought. Everyday around sunset, the scouting group would return with a few dead bodies.

The scouts from Shanhai City had all undergone training in the special forces base.

Even so, they still took casualties.

With that, one could see that the Chiyou Army was not a pushover.

The flames of war had been lit.

The real war was about to ignite.

In this battle, Shanhai City had sent a total of eight divisions and the Divine Martial Guards, for a total of 110 thousand troops. This was the first time Shanhai City had more troops than the opponent.

Even in the main battlefield, Shanhai City had planned 86 thousand troops, just fifteen thousand less than the one hundred thousand of Chiyou.

Despite their numerical advantage, this battle would be unprecedentedly tough for Shanhai City. One could foresee that the Battle of Wuzhou would be harder than the Battle of Zhaoqing.

Not because of other reasons, but because their opponent was the devil Chiyou and his mountain barbarian army.

Although the Military Intelligence Division could not infiltrate them, from long term monitoring, they could tell that these one hundred thousand troops were all well-equipped elites.

Especially with the news that the scouts had brought back, they confirmed it.

Chiyou had spent more than a year and a half in Wuzhou, and the entire prefecture was ran like an iron bucket, deep in strength.

Mountain barbarians were not really barbarians.

There were reason why Taiping Country was unwilling to fight Chiyou City.

The strength of the mountain barbarian army was something Ouyang Shuo was clearer about than anyone. The Er'Lai led mountain barbarians regiment was the nightmare of every enemy in battle.

And this time, Shanhai City needed to face one hundred thousand of them.

Just the thought alone was terrifying.

On the contrary, the Leopard Legion under Han Xin, apart from the 1st division, the remaining four were recently built.

What was going to happen, one really could not tell.

This was why Ouyang Shuo needed to lead the Divine Martial Guards and the Guards Division to personally take charge. At the crucial moment, they would have to send out his trump card unit.

Different from previous battles, the Battle of Wuzhou would take place in the wilderness.

Shanhai City was the one defending, but Ouyang Shuo could not allow them to cross the border. Chiyou City was the one attacking, but with Chiyou's character, he would not forget his defence.

With that, both sides would fight a large-scale war in the wilderness.

The dark clouds of battle covered the entire sky, making one feel short of breath.

Chapter 494-Fighting Dragons

The word chaos summarized the wilds of the 10th month. Be it Lords or aboriginals, they were preparing for the huge war before winter.

The earlier they fought, the earlier it ended. The winner would be crowned king, while the loser would become a dog.

Within the wilderness, a serious killing aura spread out.

As they put it, if the heavens wanted blood, the skies and planets would shift. If the earth wanted blood, snakes and dragons would appear, and when humans wanted blood, the world would turn on its head.

The invisible killing intent permeated from the various groups of people, like a red colored sword energy charging for the skies.

Numerous killing intents met in the sky and collided, and even the clouds changed colors. The crimson clouds hung overhead in the sky, an ominous sign.

In a random patch of land in the wilderness, the representative of the Ying and Yang school of thought, Zhou Yan, wordlessly focused on the red clouds above him. Such a phenomenon was something that was rare even during the Warring States Period where war was common.

As one of the leading figures of the Ying and Yang school of thought, Zhou Yan could see more than normal people. He focused, and it was like he could see past more than one hundred thousand miles. In the sky, the north, east, and south each had a dragon. Amongst which, the dragon positioned at the south had the most killing intent, and it was the most eye catching.

Around each colossal dragon, there were numerous small dragons.

This was the so-called dragon fighting pattern.

The clouds that formed the dragons were the appearance of luck and prosperity. It was the luck and prosperity of the Lord and also the territory, rising up and taking shape.

Apart from the dragons, there were other beasts in the skies. There were phoenixes, bear, tigers, and the like.

The shape that the luck and prosperity formed represented the will of the Lord.

At the end of the Gaia second year, even Ouyang Shuo could let his own luck take shape. It appeared beforehand because of this rarely seen killing intent.

The moment it disappeared, everything would disappear with it.

Hence, at the current moment, it was the best time for the people of the Ying Yang school of thought to take a look at the luck and fortune of their Lords. When other people looked into the sky, they would see nothing but crimson clouds.

"A time of war; a time of chaos!"

Zhou Yan muttered and disappeared into the wilderness. He did not choose Shanhai City was probably because he did not want to be embroiled in this war.

The killing intent of men. Started by men; it could also influence men.

In the wilderness, any soldier that the red clouds affected would have their eyes reveal a tinge of bloodthirst. Each one of them would feel their blood boil with a desire to fight.

The killing intent that formed charged into the clouds once more.

These two points pushed one another and caused the crimson clouds in the sky to grow more and more vibrant. The vibrant red made one unknowingly want to pray toward it, as it was the color of the emperor's power.

Within the wilderness, the Lords numbering in the thousands were not willing to keep lying in wait.

Even the plants could not stay the killing aura, so they withered early, leaves dropping onto the ground. From north to south, the entire wilderness seemed to have entered winter early, with no signs of life.

The scarlet sky and the withered ground formed a rarely seen scene.

The winter this year had come early, and it felt especially cold.

After this, who could survive and who would be buried in the wilderness, everything was unknown. Even Gaia, who was planning everything, could only act as a quiet bystander.

The land was a chess board, and the people were the chess pieces.

The game has already been set with the people as the pieces, so no one could change the situation of this game alone.

The entire China region did not have an inch of peaceful land. Anyone who tried for peace would be eliminated. Only those who threw themselves into this bloody wave would have a chance to survive.

This was the result of the killing intent, which had gathered up between the heavens and the earth. It needed to be let out.

The first to explode was the Zhongyuan Region.

Chensheng and Zhangchu's West Chu Alliance faced off against the five territory alliances of the neighboring five provinces. After half a month of preparation, this huge war had finally started.

Numerous leaders had gathered there.

The first to attack was the one hundred thousand men alliance army led by Piao Linghuan. The one hundred thousand troops had suddenly entered through the west border.

Zhangchu's capital city, Chen County, was located on the east side of Zhongyuan Province.

On the west, their defence was the weakest.

Hence, Piao Linghuan's army did not face too much resistance, as they waltzed in.

This victory naturally ignited the spirits of the others.

Once one person acted, everyone acted.

Just like they had triggered some button of a machine, the cogs of the war machine started to spin.

Closely after Piao Linghuan, Chun Shenjun led 180 thousand troops and attacked from the south. The moment he entered, they charged straight for the core area of Zhangchu.

The two armies were like a pair of scissors, stabbing right into the heart of the Zhangchu Regime.

Only the 150 thousand troops led by Feng Qiuhuang did not act and remained at the border.

The Luoyang Imperial City was the close neighbor of Fallen Phoenix City in Taiyuan Province. Hence, on the north, as the Zhangchu Regime knew of the presence of Luoyang, they did not pose much of a threat to Taiyang Province.

At the same time, even if Feng Qiuhuang and the others took over the north of Zhongyuan Province, considering the presence of Luoyang, they could not peacefully run their new area.

One must not forget that the next battle map would be set in the Han Dynasty. If nothing went wrong, Chang An was left from the Tang Dynasty, so Luo Yang definitely belonged to the Han Dynasty.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo sent Feng Qiuhuang two sentences.

If the enemy does not move, I do not move.

If it attacks, I'll give it a swift blow.

Ouyang Shuo believed that with her intelligence, she would understand what he meant.

Chensheng was not a person without skill. If not, he could not have taken down the entire Zhongyuan Province in just half a year.

Under him, apart from Xiang Yan who came to assist, there were many famous generals like Wu Guang, Wu Chen, Zhang'er, and Chen Yu.

Wu Chen, Zhang'er and Chen Yu would be the three who directed the Battle of Julu.

Apart from that, the six hundred thousand troops of the Zhangchu Regime were not to be underestimated.

After receiving the news, Chensheng started to move his troops and generals.

He ordered Great General Xiang Yan to lead two hundred thousand troops down south to strike Chun Shenjun. Wu Guang would personally lead 150 thousand troops to face Piao Linghuan in the west.

Zhang'er would lead two hundred thousand troops up to the north border to defend against Feng Qiuhuang. At any moment, they could head down south to attack Di Chen.

The capital city, Chen County, only had fifty thousand troops left, headed by Chen Yu.

For this battle, Chensheng could only go all out.

If he won, he could gain some much needed time for the Zhangchu regime. The span of the entire winter would allow Chensheng to digest the province, as well as the new land he had occupied.

When the New Year arrived, the Zhangchu regime would not fear any challenge.

Of course, if they failed, they would lose everything.

How would Chensheng, who was given a second life, allow himself to fail once more?

The explosive war in the Zhongyuan region ignited the war in the rest of the land. Closely after, the southeast region also started to fight.

Huangchao was ambitious, while Zhan Lang and the others were resolute.

Out of the two sides, only one would survive the second year of Gaia.

Zhan Lang had once again gathered one hundred thousand troops and entered the north of Wannan Province, preparing to head from north to south. Of course, he was careful to avoid the West Chu territory.

Zhan Lang and the others would not dare to disturb this overlord.

In truth, when Peng City appeared in the wilderness, the most worried individual was Zhan Lang. His Blood Red City was just a few hundred kilometers away.

With such a neighbor, not one could ever rest at ease.

Between West Chu and Blood Red City, a war would definitely occur; it was just a matter of time.

But not now, as Zhan Lang was clear about one matter. The matter at hand was to wipe out the Huangchao Army. If not, if they allied with Xiang Yu, the consequences would be dire.

Similarly, Xiang Yu did not have the intentions to attack Blood Red City at the moment.

Their first strategic target was up north; they wanted to occupy Ludong Province.

The Lords in Ludong Province had seen through his intentions, so they all huddle together in fear. At the moment, they had formed a two hundred thousand army.

Between the two of them, a war was also going to break out. The question was when and whether or not it would affect the war in the Zhongyuan Province.

In the southeast region, apart from Zhan Lang, Xiong Ba was also a rash person. Just as Zhan Lang sent out his troops, Xiong Ba led 150 thousand troops from south to north to sweep the area.

The two armies would pincer the Huangchao Army.

At the current moment, Gong Chengshi led eighty thousand troops and formed up on the south of Wannan Province. His situation was extremely awkward, as if the current battle had nothing to do with him.

One had to say that in such a situation, the power of a strong family revealed itself.

Be it connections or communication channels, Gong Chengshi could not compare to them. If not, Bai Hua would not have faced such a situation in Yunnan, where she had no allies to help her out.

Of course, there was another reason why the Lords of Yunnan Prefecture were unwilling to send troops to attack Taiping Country. The reason was Shanhai City.

Everyone knew that Shanhai City was aggressive.

Not taking about Chuannan Province, even the neighboring Lingnan Province, Shanhai City had taken half of it. Hence, how could Shanhai City allow anyone to taint Chuannan Province?

In their eyes, attacking Taiping Country was just helping Shanhai City. They were like food waiting to be eaten by a tiger. They lacked the strength to take the three prefectures of land under the Taiping Country.

Since that was the case, why not remain a bystander?

Why not just sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight? Just let Shanhai City and Consonance City fight to the death with Taiping Country.

The truth was exactly like that.

Consonance City was being pushed to the edge.

Chapter 495- Chiyou Blood Guards

Toward the current situation that Consonance City faced, Ouyang Shuo wanted to help, but he lacked the resources to do so.

The current Ouyang Shuo had no time or effort to bother about things outside of the direct battlefield, as one hundred thousand Chiyou soldiers had appeared ten kilometers away from the Shanhai City command center.

Ten kilometers. Even infantry would take at most two hours to easily cross such a distance. As for light armored cavalry, they could enter the enemy territory in just half an hour.

It was the same as saying that at such a distance, both sides could initiate the war at any moment.

The real war between the two sides had officially started.

Han Xin started to plan the army formations.

He named Zhang Han as the left general; he would lead the 1st and 4th divisions of the Leopard Legion. Di Qing would take the role of right general; he would lead the 3rd and 5th divisions of the Leopard Legion to act as the right wing.

Han Xin would take charge of the middle and lead the 2nd division. The Guards Division would also temporarily be under his charge, and they would act as the middle forces of the army.

Ouyang Shuo would lead the three thousand Divine Martial Guards as the backup for the army.

Eighty thousand troops spread out at the border, spanning several kilometres.

Two days earlier, Shi Wanshui and Shan Zhu had received orders from Han Xin. They were to immediately set off, avoiding the patrols and scouts of Wuzhou Prefecture to sneak attack Chiyou from behind.

Han Xin was not ready to attack Chiyou City.

It was only Chiyou City when Chiyou was there.

Without him, it was just an empty city.

Hence, sneak attacking his camp was a completely useless action. If they started fighting, no matter whether the city fell or not, Chiyou would lead his army forward.

As a result, as long as they could crush the one hundred thousand army, the Battle of Wuzhou Prefecture would come to an end.

These were just simple calculations.

Han Xin had seen through this point, so he was ready to focus all his men on attacking the Chiyou Army.

As for the current Chiyou, what was he doing?

At the highest point of the area.

The mountain was less one hundred meters in height, and Chiyou's tent stood at the peak. People would call this point the Devil's Slope, signifying the place where devil Chiyou had set up his tent.

Although the mountain was high, the trees still flourished.

The more surprising aspect was the huge cluster of osmanthus trees at this peak.

The 10th month was originally the time when the osmanthus flower bloomed. Unfortunately, the solemness and killing aura of the wilderness had destroyed this beautiful scenery. All the osmanthus trees on the mountain had withered in a night.

The osmanthus flowers that bloomed fell off their branches and onto the ground. After the mountain barbarians continuously trampled them, they were left in a terrible state.

They had become a part of the ground; the only sign of their existence was a faint smell.

As the autumn breeze blew across, the air still had some of the fragrance of the osmanthus flowers, which did not fit the seriousness of the wilderness.

Chiyou probably chose this place for this reason.

To the outside world, the mountain barbarians were uncultured. Their leader, Chiyou, was naturally vulgar, stupid, evil, and ugly.

He was a devil!

The people would fear him, but they would not worship him.

All this was merely biasness and a misunderstanding.

At the very least, Ouyang Shuo did not think of them in that way.

As one of the few Lords that had come into contact with the mountain barbarians, Ouyang Shuo did not think that they were a stupid and uncultured race.

Amongst them, there were many amazing and exceptional people.

Be it the shaman of the Xuanniao Tribe, Rui Zhi, Shi Hu, or Shi Bao, they had all left a deep impression on Ouyang Shuo.

Needless to say, the leader of the Leidian tribe, Lei Fan, had used his ability to obtain the position of Broken Blade House Prefect.

Administratively or military-wise, mountain barbarians could take up either positions.

In contrast to the trickery and cunningness of the mid plains, the mountain barbarians were more reliable and loyal.

Hence, as their spiritual leader, how could Chiyou be a stupid person? Long ago, during the olden days, Chiyou’s tribe had technology far ahead of its time.

This proves that he was actually an intelligent person.

If not, he could not have taken control of such a large area and become a huge force in the wilderness. Meanwhile, Yellow Emperor and Fire Emperor, who were from the same era as him, had disappeared.

Of course, smart did not meant that he was merciful.

The violence of Chiyou was an undeniable fact.

Every one of the mountain barbarians guarding the mountain emitted a killing aura. These Guards were his elite, the Chiyou Blood Guards.

Compared to the Han Race warriors, they had a similar height. Weirdly enough, they were actually much taller than normal mountain barbarian warriors, exceeding two meters.

Their strong muscles protruded, filled with explosiveness.

The even weirder part was their blood red eye. Even in the night, their eyes emitted a scarlet glow.

This was also how the name Chiyou Blood Guards came about.

Each blood guard was a standard human killing machine.

They had no feelings and could not feel pain.

They only knew how to kill.

The development of the blood guards was top secret. Even in Chiyou City, very few people knew about their existence.

In the city, he built a secluded courtyard to train the Blood Guards. The walls were extremely high and separated them from the outside world. Commoners of the city could hear the cries of pain from inside.

Pain was buried into their bones; their shouts were like beasts, desperate and sad.

No one knew what kind of pain the soldiers sent in had to experience.

Every day, body after body would be carried out and buried. Even the bodies taken out were covered, so no one could see their real faces.

As time went on, some secrets were no longer secrets.

Finally, someone saw the faces of the corpses. It was said that the mountain barbarian was so shocked that he had a stroke and nearly died.

A devil from hell!

The body carried out had a blurred face, while the blood vessels all around the body had exploded, and the corpse bled from all holes.

He was just a bloody mess.

No one knew what kind of method Chiyou used to train these Blood Guards.

Apart from that, there were even people who saw that large amounts of Han Race people would be sent into the courtyard. These innocent people, no one ever saw them walk out.

Even when the war started, the courtyard remained shut, and no one saw them walk out.

The long training had made even Chiyou himself violent. His eyes were like that of the Blood Guards, completely blood red.

A year and a half, tens of thousands of mountain barbarians were sent in. In the end, he had only trained up one thousand Blood Guards.

The remaining nine thousand all became cold, lifeless bodies, and they were placed to rest in the cemetery.

Such a massive death rate would have caused problems within the various tribes if he did not possess such a high reputation and prestige; he was pretty much their god.

One must know that the mountain barbarians sent to train were all chosen from thousands or tens of thousands of people. They were the elite of the elite. Such a high fatality rate was totally unheard of.

The soldiers that survived the training from hell did not seem like they belonged on this earth.

The moment they transformed, they lost their own consciousness. They were unclear about their past; they did not recognize their loved ones, and they did not even having feelings.

Only obedience and a killing instinct remained.

They would obey their master, Chiyou, to kill everything in front of them.

These one thousand Blood Guards were Chiyou’s strongest trump card.

Apart from that, there would be the changes he made to the warriors of the various tribe. Chiyou City was formed from numerous groups of mountain barbarian tribes. At the start, it was a tribal alliance.

Chiyou was the alliance leader.

The Chiyou Army in history was formed in exactly the same way. Rumors had it that Chiyou had eighty-one brothers. In truth, it was eighty-one different tribes.

In the Battle of Zhuolu, Chiyou had lost badly.

Hence, after he appeared in the wilderness, he had already learned his lesson. He was an extremely smart person, so he understood the ways the Lords used their troops.

Chiyou ordered for the soldiers of all the tribes to gather together for reorganization.

In the end, Chiyou formed ten groups of ten thousand soldiers. Each ten thousand soldiers group would be split into one thousand soldier groups. They would continue to split until they reached ten men squadrons.

Chiyou's organization of his troops was similar to the method the grassland army employed. Such an organization method was good because it was simple and did not require much ability from the commander.

Just with this point, one could see Chiyou’s intelligence, as he learned and employed his new knowledge.

After forming the military, the one hundred thousand soldiers could finally form their strength. They were not under the control of their various tribal leaders and that gave Chiyou absolute control of the military.

Apart from that, Chiyou also appointed his ten brothers as the leaders of the thousand men groups.

With that, Chiyou had a firm grasp of his army. His few brothers had gone through death with him, and they were absolutely loyal.

The various tribes had lost their right to talk in the military.

Apart from the organization of the army, Chiyou also paid a lot of attention to weapons research.

In history, the copper weapons that he used were much better than the stone ones the Yanhuang Army employed. Although they did not win the war, their weapons held an evident advantage.

Hence, in the wilderness, he naturally paid close attention to weapons research. He used the Han Race artisans in the wilderness with the secret methods of the Jiuli Tribe to create unique weapons and armor.

Although these equipment could not compare to pinnacle weapons of history like Mingguang Armor and Tang Blade, they were definitely better than the ones that the system gave.

Hence, even in terms of equipment, the Shanhai City Army did not possess much of an advantage.

Chiyou's confidence stemmed from the above three points.

Chiyou had the confidence to crush the opponent in front of him and enter Lingnan Province.

Chapter 496- Barbarian War Song

The sunlight in the morning shone through the thick red clouds and down onto the ground.

Devilish.

On the wilderness floor, the withered wild grasses had dew form upon them. Under the red sunlight, they reflected small scarlet dots.

Cold, beautiful.

Such a scene was like the old barbarian period.

Peng!

Peng!

Peng!

Along with the drums of the mountain barbarians, the one hundred thousand mountain barbarian army moved out!

Amongst the military formation, there were leather drums with numerous sides dragged by olden carts. Each side was as large as a mill disc and exquisitely crafted. To play these drums required a certain amount of strength.

The ten ten thousand men groups had all spread out, spanning a huge distance. The soldiers followed the drum beats and moved in unison. Their steps shook the ground, causing the mountains to tremble and the rivers to stop flowing.

The mountain barbarian army was a full infantry army, and about seventy percent of them wielded axes as their weapon. After all, knives and axes were Chiyou’s most proficient weapons.

Under Chiyou’s influence, the weapons that the mountain barbarians used the most were also these two.

Knives were the large knives, while the axes were the giant axes.

Be it the war knife or the war axe, they were both heavy and tough, filled with the style of the barbarians.

Apart from the knife-axe soldiers, there was a small number of archers and spear throwers amongst them. All of them wore iron armor.

Leather armor to the mountain barbarian soldiers was nothing.

Even the twenty kilogram iron armor on their bodies was like nothing.

The iron armor design was exceedingly savage, patterned with the barbarian giant beast. The black iron armor emitted a cold shine under the red glow.

As iron ore was rare, and they did not have enough artisans and craftsmen, their armor did not cover everything. It just protected the joints, head, and chest; these important areas. Their other areas were exposed, and their bulging muscles showed pure strength and beauty.

This was an army that came from the barbarian times. Their bodies reflected the savage and ruthless ways of the barbarians.

Simple, direct.

Along with the war drums, the warriors clanked their weapons, as they sung their war song.

Our king orders us to fight, we slam the war drums.

Repair my armor, we fight anyone.

Kill everyone, spill their fresh blood.

I fight not for myself, I won’t regret death.

Our king, our king, we fight for him!

The lyrics were simple, and it was just a repeat of those few lines. The meaning was straightforward; Devil Chiyou had gathered all the soldiers to bring them to war and spill fresh blood.

The old war song reverberated through the wilderness. Even Ouyang Shuo, who was ten kilometers out, could feel the barbaric aura radiating out.

Amongst the huge army formation, Devil Chiyou's chariot was the most eye-catching.

The entire chariot was ten meters high; it seemed like a moving building, standing tall. It was pulled forwards by twenty desolate beasts and traveled forward slowly in the army.

One thousand Chiyou Blood Guards surrounded the chariot like loyal bodyguards.

Chiyou held a giant axe in his hand, and he wore a similarly savage-looking armor, with a red cape. He stood at the highest point of the chariot. Like the devil coming out of hell, he looked upon the vast wilderness.

At this moment, he was like the king of the land, looming over everyone.

The army proceeded forward, as their aura seemed to strengthen by the minute.

Be it the sounds of the drums or the war song, each aspect seemed to have a magical strength. It made the blood in the mountain barbarians boil, as their morale grew sky high.

When the two armies engaged, their morale would have reached its highest point.

The killing aura would crash down and crush the enemy into dust.

The secrets of the barbarians were not as simple as it seemed. At the very least, amongst all the Lords, no one knew that seemingly normal music could hold such mystery.

Morning, 10 AM, the one hundred thousand mountain barbarian army gradually appeared on the border.

The flood of black slowly appeared. At first, it looked like a black line. Shortly after, the black line started to spread and extend till only black remained.

Pure black, a suppressive black.

The movement of the black flood had completely crossed the border and spread across the wilderness, becoming many kilometers wide and thousands of meters long.

They raised their flags confidently; they held their knives and axes upright.

Facing them, the Shanhai City Army had already waited for a long time in a strict formation. In front of the middle troops, Lin Yi led the Guards Division and stood at the front.

The golden shine of the Mingguang Armor was the symbol of Shanhai City.

In this battle, Ouyang Shuo did not hold back his use of the Guards Division. They were a sharp blade of the middle army, used right at the start to stab the enemy.

Ouyang Shuo similar stood high on a commanding platform and looked forward. With his eyesight, he could clearly see the faces of the mountain barbarians; all of their eyes were red.

He raised his head and stared straight at Chiyou.

Compared to the Battle of Zhuolu period, the current Chiyou seemed much stronger, filled with vigor and vitality. Thanks to this influence, the devil blood in his body started to be riled up.

Ouyang Shuo felt astonished, and he immediately circulated the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique to suppress the bloodline. After all, his devil bloodline originated from Chiyou himself.

Both of them had the same bloodline.

However, in comparison, Ouyang Shuo's bloodline was more than a level weaker.

One was the original, while the other was a imitation.

Like he had felt the gaze of Ouyang Shuo, Chiyou turned his head toward the latter.

His eyes were calm and ruthless.

Just one look and Chiyou turned away once again.

Ouyang Shuo felt his heart shake, like something invisible had stabbed into his eyes, making them burn.

Chiyou had become so strong?

Ouyang Shuo's eyes focused. Compared to the Battle of Julu, his strength had risen more than two to three times, rising like a rocket, as he grew stronger day by day.

With his current strength, he even had a chance against an emperor rank general.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo could not see through him. This could only mean that the distance between the two was more than a rank.

Was Devil Chiyou really that strong?

Ouyang Shuo sucked in a cold breath. Chiyou's personal strength formed an uncertain factor in this battle. Apart from that, the warriors around the chariot attracted Ouyang Shuo's attention.

They were the Chiyou Blood Guards.

Although Ouyang Shuo did not know what they were called, he could feel the blood, killing intent, and killing aura emanating from their bodies.

Ever since he had cultivated the killing sword, Ouyang Shuo had grown more and more sensitive to killing intent. These weird soldiers could not escape his notice.

Yet another surprise.

Ouyang Shuo could feel that the vitality and vigor of these warriors even surpassed the Divine Martial Guards.

What were the Divine Martial Guards?

They had defeated the Jiangdong Warriors, and they were awarded a title from Gaia.

Even so, they were not good enough.

Devil Chiyou, what kind of monsters did he actually bring up?

Ouyang Shuo could even feel that the vigor in their bodies were calling out to Chiyou's. Like Chiyou's body was the fountain of all their vitality and vigor.

Chiyou and the warriors that he had trained were like one entity.

This kind of feeling was exceedingly strange. Based on what Ouyang Shuo knew, in his last life, no one possessed such personal strength. Didn’t this game emphasise teamwork?

What level did Gaia actually push Chiyou's strength to? Or putting it another way, what kinds of secrets does the game hide that Ouyang Shuo did not manage to come into contact with in his last life?

At that moment, Ouyang Shuo felt less confident of his knowledge from his last life.

As they say, the higher you stand, the further you see. In his last life, he was simply too weak; he could not even see the real face of the world.

Only at this moment was the truth of the world slowly revealing itself to him.

One must always be wary and respectful.

Ouyang Shuo suddenly remembered the words that an old man had told him in his last life.

Respectful?

Ouyang Shuo looked on at the mountain barbarian army and fell silent.

Beside him was the commander of this battle, Han Xin.

Han Xin was a pure command-style general, and his personal martial arts could only be considered average. Hence, he did not feel anything weird like Ouyang Shuo could.

What he saw was different from what Ouyang Shuo saw. What he saw was their formation, their equipment and their morale.

In his eyes, the enemy formation was stupid and horrendous. Even a commander who had just graduated from the Army Military Academy could do better.

The mountain barbarian army had very few soldier types, and they were also chaotically grouped up. Forming into a formation, it was ten thousand men by ten thousand. Their groupings lacked strategy and tactics.

When the real war started, those generals would just lead the charge, and they could not control their troops.

A swarm of bees, that was the only description for the mountain barbarians.

On the contrary, the Shanhai City Army already had a professional commander and generals. Along with the flag system and the messenger officer system, it made commanding the troops exceedingly simple.

Han Xin had caught onto the decisive element of this war.

At the same time, the equipment and morale of the enemy made Han Xin solemn.

In history, the barbarians used their strength. They destroyed and even made the agricultural societies surrender. They relied on pure violence and an unprecedented morale.

The current mountain barbarian army was equipped with both.

Han Xin knew that the Leopard Legion under his charge was just formed from prisoners, and it was at its lowest point. These warriors had not fully formed their recognition of Shanhai City.

In terms of morale, the Shanhai City Army was more than a level weaker.

This was going to be an arduous battle.

Han Xin recalled the prediction of his Lord, and his face grew extremely serious and solemn.

Chapter 497- Han Xin Uses the Troops

Wuuu!

Almost simultaneously, both sides blew their war horns, signaling the start of the attack.

The long, powerful sounds of the horns were like a signal gun, instantly waking up the silent battlefield. The armies in their formations waved their weapons, and under the leadership of their generals, they charged forward.

Even the crimson clouds in the sky instantly thickened considerably, imbued with killing aura. If there was a person from the Yin Yang school of thought present, they would definitely notice a massive dragon within the cloud layer; the dragon spanned numerous kilometers, and it roared out.

Opposite of the massive dragon stood a black-colored devil.

The spiritual entities faced off against one another.

The crimson cloud layer formed their battlefield, while luck and prosperity was their food. In this battle of luck and prosperity, the loser would be completely consumed.

On the battlefield, the first to strike was the Guards Division. In the middle of the battlefield, Lin Yi’s Guards Division moved like a wild horse given free reign, as they swiftly charged forward.

"Up!"

Lin Yi hollered.

With a Shua! sound, the well-trained cavalry trained raised their enormous horse lances in unison. In an instant, they had formed up a horse lance meat grinder. The tips of the lances glinted with a cold shine.

Even the strongest and most courageous mountain barbarian warrior could not defend against the charge of the mixed armored cavalry if they did not have heavy armor and giant shields.

Originally, the Guards Division were considered a heavy armored cavalry force. However, the Qingfu Horses were simply too overpowered. Moreover, the Guards Division used the elite Qingfu Horses.

The elite Qingfu Horse could still charge forward quickly even with a body of armor.

Hence, the current Guards Division could only be termed as a mix armored Cavalry Division, as they had both the flexibility and speed of a light armored cavalry, combined with the defence of heavy armored cavalry. They were simply a nightmare for enemies.

Lin Yi had received the order to lead the Guards Division to mess up the enemy lines. They were tasked with destroying the enemy’s commanding system. They needed to make the front and back unable to assist one another, and the right and left unable to work with one another.

The mountain barbarians did not know anything about formations, so Han Xin decided there was no point in him having formations either. His goal was to destroy their commanding system in one stroke and force them to fight for themselves.

Only then could the Leopard Division behind them claim victory amongst the chaos.

Using attack as a form of defence and taking the initiative; this was Han Xin's strategy.

If one looked down from the top, they could clearly see that the Guards Division was like a golden stream charging around amidst the mountain barbarians. In the middle of tens of thousands of men, they killed their way out.

There was no group of soldiers that could stop their advance.

No one could.

Even if Chiyou sent up his Blood Guards, they would also fail to stop the Guards Division. When a cavalry charged at high speed, it could turn any enemy in front of them to meat and grind them into dust.

Furthermore, the great training of the Guards Division was another key to victory.

The Guards Division was closely linked with one another link as a single entity, and they could replace the people in front of them when they turned. With that, they would switch members, as they progressed. Such a method ensured that they would not run out of energy.

Such a tactic could only be performed after long and arduous training.

When the cavalry charged, the lead horse was the most important, and they were also the most tired one. Facing mountain barbarian soldiers that numbered in the tens of thousands, they needed courage to fearlessly usher the way.

Every time, the one at the front would either be a colonel or Lin Yi.

The Guards Division had never lacked such good men. After all, they were the trump card of Shanhai City, the sharp sword of the territory, and their general was the one granted the title of Huwei.

From above, one could see the Guards Division charging straight. When they entered the midst of the mountain barbarian, they suddenly turned left and shifted. As a result, the mountain barbarian soldiers that had started to run over were tossed aside. They kept on changing their directions, throwing the enemy into a frenzy that did not know how to react.

Ten thousand cavalry swept up the dust in the midst of one hundred thousand soldiers. The only point they avoided was Chiyou’s chariot. Lin Yi wanted to kill Chiyou, but he was afraid of being scolded for disobeying orders.

After all, Chiyou was the soul of the enemy. If they attacked him, the enemy would go crazy. When Lin Yi thought about how the mountain barbarians might stop attacking and just surround the Guards Division, he felt a chill run down his spine.

Even so, this attack could be called a brilliant victory.

Just like this, the Guards Division went around Chiyou's chariot and sent the mountain barbarian army into turmoil. This move had completely frozen the forward momentum of the mountain barbarians.

Under the leadership of Zhang Han and Di Qing, the two troops on the left and right wings first used the archers to eat away at the enemy vanguard forces. Along with the cavalry disturbing the enemy, the infantry finally appeared.

The use of the various troops flowed smoothly like water. This was true war, the art of tactics. In comparison, Chiyou's army was just a bunch of boorish mountain barbarians.

For the start of the war, the Shanhai City Army had unexpectedly gained the advantage and initiative of the battle. Through this, one could see Han Xin's sublime control of troops.

Such a head-to-head battle in the wilderness was a great test of the commander's ability.

In such a huge battle, there were no special tactics, only a grasp of the battle situation. Moreover, the battle situation was not just mysterious, but it often changed quickly. If you stopped paying attention slightly, you would lose your opportunity to strike.

As the commander of the entire army, Han Xin did not only need to ensure victory. He also need to ensure that they did not take too many casualties. If not, after one war, the army would be utterly broken.

If that happened, even with the foundation and base of Shanhai City, they would fail to sustain a couple of battles.

The reason Shanhai City could grow stronger and stronger depended on grasping the biggest victory through the smallest of losses. In the last few wars, Baiqi had achieved this objective.

This was the first time Han Xin had commanded the troops independently, and he did not want to lose to Baiqi.

Although he had obtained the upper hand, there was not a shred of happiness on his face. He was exceedingly clear that the engagement of the infantry of the two sides would be the key to this whole battle.

Their early advantage was not enough to decide the outcome.

The mountain barbarian army was simply too strong. Even after the Shanhai City Army took first blood and destroyed their command system, all the red-eyed mountain barbarian warriors still growled, as they followed the beats of the drums forward.

They did not need any commands, and they only had a single thought in their hearts—charge!

Charge forward; brace the arrow rain!

Charge forward; do not fear any knife or spear!

Charge forward; as their king watched on, kill the enemy!

Blood was honor.

Every single mountain barbarian held an infallible faith. No strike could make them back off. The word retreat did not exist in their dictionary.

Hence, the moment the infantry forces of both sides engaged, Shanhai City was pushed on the back foot.

The early defeat did not affect their morale. Instead, it awakened their killer instinct, causing their violence urges to all pour out.

They finally faced the damn infantry of the enemy, so the mountain barbarian soldiers slashed down with their knives and axes without hesitation. At this moment, only flesh and blood could exchange for glory and honor.

Suddenly, tens of thousands of knives and axes struck down, smashing down on the defence line of the Leopard Legion like a huge wave, forcing all of them to take a step back.

Such power was simply alluring.

Even Han Xin's eyes focused. The strength of the enemy had exceeded his expectations. For the current moment, Han Xin did not do anything, as he left the decision to the generals on the frontline.

"Steady!"

"Do not be afraid!"

"Steady!"

Although the leaders on the frontlines were shocked, they were not afraid. These leaders were selected from other divisions and gathered at the newly formed legion, so they were all extremely experienced.

"Form up!"

"Move you, brat!"

The Leopard Legion prepared themselves for the mountain barbarian army. Facing such a strong enemy, fighting head on was not a good idea, so they had to use some strategy.

They would use formations.

If their enemy was a rock, what would be their nemesis? Either wield a harder rock, or become water and use gentleness to fight against toughness.

The formation that the Leopard Legion practiced followed such a principle. Under the leadership of the commanders, the mountain barbarian warriors were led one by one into the formation and surrounded.

Just like that, they sliced the entire barbarian army into small pieces. Following which, the Leopard Legion soldiers would force a situation where they outnumbered their direct enemy and ganged up on them.

Just like that, the entire defence line actually miraculously stabilized.

Along with the cavalry troops running disturbances, the entire tempo of the battle aligned with Shanhai City’s desired state.

Han Xin's serious expression relaxed a little.

The formation that he had specially picked out proved effective.

In an infantry battle, the mountain barbarians did not just have the strength advantage, as they also held the numerical advantage.

If they went head-to-head, they would be suppressed. Like quicksand, they would not be able to slip out.

The strength of a formation was evident.

However, at this very moment, a titanic change occured.

Chiyou, who stood on the high platform, suddenly roared out toward the opposite end.

Kong!!!

His roar caused the surrounding wilderness to tremble.

On the battlefield, it seemed like all the mountain barbarians had received a chicken blood injection, as their eyes reddened further and their strength quickly rose.

Ouyang Shuo was familiar with such a scene.

"Berserk!"

That damn Chiyou. With just his own strength, he actually caused his entire army to enter the berserk state.

That was simply too terrifying.

When did berserk become such a common matter?

After all, what kind of concept was that? Imagine one hundred thousand mountain barbarians entering the berserk state simultaneously!

Ouyang Shuo had finally lost his calm and composed expression.

Shanhai City might lose this battle!

Chiyou ah, Chiyou, what kind of monster are you, to actually be so godly?

Chapter 498- Battle to the Death

Suddenly, a ferocious wind started to blow across the ground.

After the one hundred thousand mountain barbarians collectively entered the berserk state, they completely flipped the situation of the Battle of Wuzhou. Shanhai City had never been forced by an enemy into such a difficult situation.

Facing one hundred thousand berserk soldiers, the weakness of the Leopard Legion was exposed and obvious, as they were quickly forced back. No matter how strong a formation, it would appear useless before absolute strength.

The mountain barbarians were like a bunch of violent slaughterers, as they waved their giant axes and shattered the formation with brute strength. They swiftly launched a counter attack, killing the Leopard Legion soldiers.

Sometimes, being barbaric was the way out.

All of a sudden, the Leopard Legion suffered heavy casualties, and the defence line wavered on the brink of collapse.

"We cannot go on like this!"

Ouyang Shuo raised his head and looked at Chiyou, as fear filled his heart. Chiyou’s holler had totally frightened Ouyang Shuo.

The largest scale of the berserk state among the Shanhai City mountain barbarians only involved Er’Lai’s 3rd division during the Battle of Gushan County. The event had occurred unexpectedly, caused by both the battle situation and Er’Lai.

On the other hand, Chiyou could apparently control the berserk state of the mountain barbarians.

To them, this ability held a profound meaning. After all, the combat strength of the mountain barbarians would double from their original base under this state.

Ouyang Shuo truly wanted to know what secret technique Chiyou employed to elicit such a reaction. With his sharp senses, he could feel the vigor and vitality of Chiyou instantly decrease by half.

Evidently, Chiyou’s shout had a price.

"Phew."

Ouyang Shuo let out a sigh of relief.

If nothing happened to Chiyou after he made such a move, Ouyang Shuo would genuinely suspect Gaia of bias. Since the situation was so, having them all go berserk once was already Chiyou's limit.

Unless he wanted to risk his vitality drying up and used it again.

Ouyang Shuo believed that if the situation turned grim, Chiyou would personally fight.

This devil had not truly displayed his powers.

Even so, with that shout alone, he sent the Shanhai City Army into a terrible situation.

Devil Chiyou, truly befitting of his name.

"Wang Feng!"

Ouyang Shuo suddenly turned his head and looked at the young general beside the guard.

"Present!"

"Gather the forces and head out together with me!"

"Yes my, Lord!"

Wang Feng did not say anything; he just quickly walked down the commanding platform.

"Lord?"

When Han Xin heard the news, astonishment filled his eyes. The battle had just started, and he actually needed the Lord to personally enter the battlefield. Such an event truly made him feel ashamed.

"General does not need to be like that. No one expected Chiyou to be so strong."

"But Lord, your body is worth its weight in gold. What if…." Han Xin tried his best to persuade Ouyang Shuo, "Let me think of a way; the army is far from collapsing."

"Say no more." Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, his attitude resolute, "As for commanding the troops, I’ll leave it to general."

As he spoke these words, Ouyang Shuo turned around and walked down the commanding platform.

When Han Xin saw his Lord’s actions, he helplessly sighed. Only after the Lord disappeared by the staircase did he turn around and refocus on the battlefield.

At this moment, Han Xin felt crystal clear about his role in this battle. He needed to prove to the Lord down there that the troops he had brought were not weak shrimps.

If not, Han Xin would really have no face to remain in the Shanhai City military.

Ouyang Shuo did not choose to lead the troops out of arrogance. He made this decision because he had considered the outcome. It was exceedingly clear to him that at the current moment, the troops needed a morale booster.

At the current moment, what would be more effective than himself? He could only put himself at risk.

Originally, Ouyang Shuo was prepared to wait till the end for a final battle with Chiyou, but the current situation had forced him to act.

He definitely did not think that with his strength, he could alter the entire situation. He only needed to help the Leopard Legion settle down and prevent them from collapsing.

As long as they could the battle drag on till Shi Wanshui and Shan Zhu arrived, they could win. Ouyang Shuo did not wish for the battle to end before they arrived.

If not, they would not only lose this battle, as a lost here would cause a chain reaction.

The moment Chiyou's army won, they would enter Zhaoqing Prefecture. In such a scenario, Sun Bin's troops on the east would face a pincer attack.

It would not end at the lost of Zhaoqing, as such an event would throw the entire Shanhai Territory into chaos. Needless to say, the fall of Shanhai City would mean that the other allies of Shanhai Alliance would face a difficult situation.

Shanhai City stood as the flag bearer of the alliance.

In such a chaotic world, there was no news worse for them than Shanhai City falling. Di Chen and the others would probably wake up laughing from their slumber.

Not talking about matters too far away, at the very least, Bai Hua's situation would worsen. If this dragged on, it would destroy Ouyang Shuo's entire dream.

As such, Ouyang Shuo could not allow this event to happen.

Hence, he had to place himself at risk.

This terrible situation was a result of two factors. Firstly, the environment of the China Region. Secondly, Shanhai City had expanded too quickly.

As a result, Shanhai City faced enemies on all sides.

If he was not careful, he would lose the entire plot.

Of course, if they won, everything would be great for Shanhai City.

This was the most crucial battle since he created the village.

This battle was one that Shanhai City definitely could not afford to lose.

As they were moving stealthily, Shi Wanshui's and Shan Zhu's divisions could not move too quickly. If not, Chiyou's scouts would discover them.

Last night, the intelligence officer had received news sent through the Feng Bird. At 2 PM at the latest, their troops would be able to arrive.

Ouyang Shuo raised his head and glanced at the blazing sun.

It should be around an hour away from noon. This time meant that the Leopard Legion needed to hold on for three more hours.

Ouyang Shuo's mission was to drag this battle on for three hours.

A difficult task!

The berserk state of the mountain barbarians could not actually last for long, so the most crucial matter was to block their strongest assault and not let the army collapse.

If he had the Dragon Legion for this battle, Ouyang Shuo would not feel so worried.

The Dragon Legion was the oldest in the territory. Apart from their new 5th division, the other four divisions had experienced hundreds of battles. Even if they faced the berserk mountain barbarians, they would not feel afraid.

Unfortunately, the ones facing the mountain barbarians were the newly formed Leopard Legion.

One could only hope for them to grow up quickly through this trial of fire.

On an empty space in front of the commanding platform, the three thousand Divine Martial Guards had gathered up.

After Ouyang Shuo came down, he did not say anything. He simply jumped onto Qingdian and grabbed his Tianmo Spear.

"Let’s go!"

He pointed his spear forward and led the way out of the camp.

"Kill!"

The three thousand Divine Martial Guards followed closely behind him. Under the cover of the crimson clouds, their red capes appeared even brighter.

Along with the appearance of the Divine Martial Guards, the golden Lord Flag immediately appeared on the battlefield.

"Lord!"

……

"It's the Lord!"

……

"The Lord is here!"

…

Seeing the golden flag from afar, the entire Leopard Legion felt pumped.

Ouyang Shuo’s face remained serious, as he directly led his men into the core area of the battlefield. His spear stabbed out and immediately killed a berserk mountain barbarian. Under his spear, the berserk mountain barbarian was only a small warrior.

As he flourished his spear, mountain barbarians fell. None of them could even withstand one of his spear strikes.

Probably due to the crimson clouds, but Ouyang Shuo could feel the Tianmo Spear in his hand grow more lively and bloodthirsty.

On the spear body, blood flowed. It looked like a syringe that craved fresh blood.

Ouyang Shuo smiled slightly, as he rode Qingdian, no enemy could match him.

Meanwhile, the Divine Martial Guards were like a tornado that tore up the battlefield.

"Great! Seeing their lord so majestic, the neighboring Leopard Legion soldiers felt a huge rise in morale.

Killing the enemy was not his goal.

His mission was just to calm them. Hence, he would display his skills and kill the enemy in the most stunning and amazing manner possible.

The mountain barbarians were like paper tigers in front of him.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to let the soldiers realize that the mountain barbarians were not anything to fear. He aimed to remove the fear from their hearts.

As long as one was not afraid, they could make miracles appear on the battlefield.

Ouyang Shuo led his troops around. Everywhere he went, he would mercilessly slaughter and show off the pinnacle of the Yang Family Spear Technique.

Everywhere he went, the Shanhai soldiers would calm down.

Ouyang Shuo's acts were highly effective, as their fear dissipated. They started to rally themselves and use the formation they had prepared.

Only this time, surrounding the enemy was the main goal, killing them was secondary.

They allowed the mountain barbarians to charge about in the formation. They just surrounded them and did not go for the kill. These berserk soldiers felt like they were using all the strength in their bodies to punch a sponge.

Depressed, annoyed.

When their berserk state ran out, the battle would rise again.

Half an hour, in just half an hour, Ouyang Shuo had managed to calm down the troops.

On the commanding platform, Han Xin was both delighted and regretful.

The Lord had completed his mission, so it would be his turn next.

Han Xin stood high on the platform, taking in everything on the battlefield. His brain was like a calculator, working at high speeds.

A moment later, he started to wave the flag and move the troops and generals.

Under his command, the cavalry forces of the various divisions were released. Each soldier type on the left and right wing helped one another out to form one massive formation.

Numerous small formations connected with one another to form a giant formation.

The one hundred thousand mountain barbarians felt like they had suddenly entered a maze, and they could not tell the direction.

Chapter 499- Wei Zhang Dies in Battle

The blazing sun hung high up in the middle of the sky, shining through the red clouds.

In the vast and empty wilderness, both armies killed one another.

Thanks to the hard work of Ouyang Shuo and Han Xin, they had the situation under control. They pulled the Leopard Legion back from the brink of collapse.

Another tough battle would follow.

To both sides, this was a battle that tested mental and physical ability.

At noon, the sun had reached its highest point.

The massacre in the wilderness did not seem to have any intentions of stopping, and no one dared to rest.

Killing shouts and cries filled the ears.

The warriors seemed to be unable to feel hunger, and only killing existed in their eyes. Their killing intent gathered up in the clouds, as the crimson clouds seemed to grow heavier and heavier.

The berserk state of the mountain barbarians had ended, so their battle strength had greatly faltered. The aftereffects of the berserk state also gradually started to show. The mountain barbarian army began to suffer large amounts of casualties.

As they would say, take your life when you were sick.

Han Xin possessed a top-class ability to grasp the opportunity during a battle. He decisively adjusted the formation and ordered the army to mercilessly slaughter the mountain barbarians.

The entire Leopard Legion was like a giant meat grinder, as they sent the mountain barbarian army down to hell.

The mountain barbarian soldiers fell one by one.

On the high platform, this was the first time Chiyou had failed to remain expressionless. Although he had started to learn from the Han people after he entered the wilderness, he still did not understand much about military formations.

Chiyou did not expect that the unassuming formation would actually cause his men to fall to the losing side. However, as he looked at the golden flag, a gold smile appeared at Chiyou's mouth.

The next moment, Chiyou disappeared.

Wuuu!!!

An even more majestic and louder horn sounded out across the battlefield.

"Not good!"

Han Xin was shocked. He looked over at the high platform, but there were no signs of Chiyou. The guards around the chariot had all disappeared.

Along with the sonorous horn, Chiyou led his one thousand Blood Guards. Like a red arrow, they suddenly entered the battlefield. Abruptly, all of the mountain barbarians felt their blood boil.

Their king had appeared.

Similar to the mountain barbarians, Chiyou did not possess a mount. He wielded a giant axe in his hand, as he ran like the wind. In a short while, he appeared in the middle of the battlefield and charged right at the Divine Martial Guards.

"Protect the Lord!"

In the midst of the army, 2nd division Major General Wei Zhang saw through the intentions of Chiyou. As such, he immediately moved his army to try and set up layers to block Chiyou.

"Ants!"

Chiyou roared; his voice thundered through the wilderness, and the giant axe in his hand swept forward.

Hua laa!

Like he was cutting tofu, he instantly bisected ten soldiers into two with his giant axe. Their bodies flew into the air, an expression of disbelief still on their faces.

"Ah!”

Such a scene was simply too shocking. As a result, the entire battlefield fell silent.

"Hurray!"

Following which, the soldiers of the mountain barbarian army cheered out.

"Hurray! Hurray!"

“Our king is invincible!”

Chiyou laughed coldly, still not satisfied. His giant axe struck down, and the shadow of his weapon would cover any enemy that stood in his way.

The Devil Chiyou had started his slaughter.

"Ah, save me!"

Cries filled the ear.

All of a sudden, broken limbs littered the area and flesh blood splattered. Even the faces of the soldiers that had experienced hundreds of wars paled upon seeing such a violent and gory scene.

The Blood Guards that followed behind Chiyou were similarly brutal. The one thousand Blood Guards could face an entire division without losing out. Such a scenario was completely unheard of.

The red tornado swept around the middle of the battlefield, and no one could stop it.

Chiyou’s Blood Guards had finally showed themselves to the world. Each one of them was a cold killing machine. They had great individual skill, but they also knew how to coordinate with one another.

Such soldiers were truy unheard of.

"Protect the Lord!"

When Wei Zhang saw Chiyou killing everyone in his path, he charged over and engaged Chiyou.

"Ant!"

The Devil Chiyou was as arrogant and crazy as in the past.

The giant axe hacked down; Wei Zhang managed to block this seemingly normal and unassuming move. However, both Wei Zhang and his horse shook. The elite Qingfu Horse was unable to take the move and knelt down onto the ground.

Such ability was unheard of. Even the overlord Xiang Yu did not possess such ability.

However, Wei Zhang would not back down, and he smacked his horse and accepted the challenge.

"Interesting!"

Chiyou laughed coldly. It was like he was preparing to have some fun with Wei Zhang.

Although Wei Zhang rode a Qingfu Horse, the two of them stood at roughly the same height. With that, one could see how much taller Chiyou was compared to a normal person.

As such, it was not surprising that he did not possess a mount.

In the wilderness, even desolate beasts could not take his weight.

Chiyou himself was a human beast.

Wei Zhang temporarily handled Chiyou, while the warriors of the 2nd division valiantly charged forward and fought the one thousand Blood Guards.

Further away, Han Xin ordered the troops to surround and kill Chiyou.

Han Xin was taking a risk. However, as long as they could kill Chiyou, this battle was theirs.

When the mountain barbarians saw their movements, they were not happy and roared, blocking the path of the Leopard Legion. All of a sudden, the battle grew more and more intense.

Each person was competing against their enemy; none of them wanted to lose out.

This entire battle had its ups and downs, changing constantly.

Similar to Ouyang Shuo, Chiyou had utilized his personal strength to drag the mountain barbarian army out of the dirt.

The entire situation was seemingly going to continue on like this.

Ouyang Shuo, who was not that far away, could see many things. He noticed that as Chiyou killed, his vitality and vigor miraculously increased.

Perhaps Chiyou’s weapon had a property like the Tianmo Spear in his hand, where it could absorb the blood of the enemy?

Thinking about such a possibility, Ouyang Shuo felt terrified.

How many more surprises did Chiyou want to give him!

"We cannot let Chiyou continue killing!"

Ouyang Shuo was resolute. The moment Chiyou absorbed enough energy and sent them into the berserk state once again, this battle would truly be over.

"Chiyou, since you dare appear, prepare to die!"

In Ouyang Shuo's eyes, there was not even a tinge of fear. He was such a character, a person that grew stronger in the face of greater opponents.

"Divine Martial Guards, follow me to kill Chiyou!"

Ouyang Shuo smacked his horse and dashed into the center of the battlefield.

"Lord, no!"

This time, Wang Feng opposed the Lord’s actions, something that he rarely did.

Everyone knew that the current Chiyou was really invincible.

If the Lord headed over now, there was a high chance that he would die. As the commander of the Divine Martial Guards, Wang Feng did not want the Lord to take such a risk. That was because he did not have the confidence to protect the safety of the Lord before Chiyou.

"Impudence!" Ouyang Shuo stared coldly at Wang Feng, as his words actually seethed with rage. This Wang Feng, does he not know how much of an emergency this was? He actually still behaved like an old lady!

"Lord, do not be angry; it's my fault! Let me deal with Chiyou!"

Wang Feng's attitude remained incredibly resolute. He used his eyes to signal for Chen Dameng to block the Lord, while he led the Divine Martial Guards into battle.

"You!"

Ouyang Shuo was furious; he had not expected Wang Feng to act in such a manner.

"Move aside!"

Watching as Wang Feng led his troops forward, Ouyang Shuo scolded.

Who would have thought that Chen Dameng was also an idiot? He knew that he could not stop the Lord with his strength, so this brutish man went all out.

Chen Dameng suddenly placed his knife against his own throat and declared, "If the Lord goes, I'll kill myself!"

"You!"

Ouyang Shuo flipped out.

Chen Dameng's expression truly made Ouyang Shuo want to smack him. Why did he not notice before that this guy was so annoying?

"Revolting, you're all revolting!"

Their actions infuriated Ouyang Shuo, but there was really nothing that he could do. He knew that Chen Dameng would definitely act upon his words.

"Watch how I teach all of you a lesson later!"

Ouyang Shuo stared into Chen Dameng's eyes before turning his head to look at the battlefield.

After the Divine Martial Guards rushed over, the 2nd division could finally heave a sigh of relief. In such a short while, thousands of people from the 2nd division had died.

The two guard groups were going to battle for supremacy.

In a one-on-one situation, the Chiyou Blood Guards were fifty percent stronger than the Divine Martial Guards.

What a bunch of monsters.

Luckily, they only numbered a thousand.

If not, the Divine Martial Guards would definitely lose.

Seeing the enemy elite force rush over, Chiyou did not have any more heart to play around. His giant axe suddenly grew fiercer and fiercer, and each blow from his axe was stronger than the last.

Wei Zhang was one of the strongest generals in Shanhai City. In fact, his strength was even above Lin Yi and Wang Feng.

Even so, he was helpless before Chiyou's strikes. He was like a lone boat, while the enemy was the vast ocean.

Wave after wave struck him. If he was even a little distracted, he would really die.

"General!"

The soldiers of the 2nd division started to head over to assist when they saw Wei Zhang fall into such a bad state.

Unfortunately, they were too late.

Or putting it another way, things happened too quickly.

Chiyou hollered once more. His body suddenly expanded a size, and the giant axe in his hands was like the scythe of a death god, cutting down Wei Zhang.

This time, he had caught Wei Zhang completely off guard, and it was too late to block.

Wei Zhang could only watch on as the giant axe struck down from his shoulder, splitting his body in half.

Blood splattered.

Shanhai City general Wei Zhang dies in battle!

"General!"

The soldiers of the 2nd division cried out; their eyes red, as they charged toward Chiyou.

"Chiyou give me your life!"

"A bunch of ants!"

Chiyou laughed icily, as he wiped away the fresh blood on his face, making him look even more savage.

Chapter 500- Mystery of the Devil Bloodline

Wei Zhang's death had brought Ouyang Shuo out of his fury. This was the first time that Shanhai City had a general of such a level die in battle. However, the current battlefield was merciless, and it did not allow him to feel sad nor did it allow for the soldiers to cry.

"Chen Dameng!"

Ouyang Shuo's current voice sounded exceedingly calm.

When Chen Dameng heard his tone, he felt a shiver run down his spine, like a cold wind had blown across.

"Present!"

"Send a letter to Han Xin and ask him to command the troops to surround the mountain barbarians. Chiyou and his Blood Guards will be up to us, so choose another ten fierce generals for us to fight him with."

"Yes, my Lord!"

This time, Chen Dameng did not dare to oppose the order. He had a feeling that if he dared to go against this order, he would die at the very next moment.

This strong man might seem brutish, but he was exceptionally smart and quick.

Ouyang Shuo was angry, but he had not lost his rationality. He could clearly see that although Chiyou seemed careless for entering the battlefield, he had actually disrupted the tempo.

In the original battlefield, the Shanhai City Army held the advantage. After all, the mountain barbarians that suffered from the side effects of the end of the berserk state were worse than normal soldiers.

Based on that tempo, even if Shi Wanshui could not rush over, they could still crush the mountain barbarian army; it was just a matter of time.

However, Chiyou had also seen that point. As such, he appeared battlefield. Furthermore, his appearance had stunned everyone. Han Xin had moved the troops to attack Chiyou, giving the mountain barbarians a chance. It was not a smart decision.

It was the same as saying that Shanhai City Army had panicked upon seeing Chiyou's strength.

This was not a good sign.

Now, Ouyang Shuo needed to remedy this mistake.

The moment they controlled the mountain barbarian army, no matter Chiyou’s individual strength, he would not be able to win.

One's personal strength would always remain limited in a huge battlefield. Even Devil Chiyou was not truly invincible. Ouyang Shuo did not believe that if ten thousand arrows were shot at him, he could block them all.

After a short while, Chen Dameng returned. Behind him were ten strong generals.

If they could not take him in a one-versus-one situation, they would just have to gang up on him.

Ouyang Shuo was not a righteous person. On their battlefield, righteousness held no meaning.

Victory was righteousness. Defeat was dog sh*t.

"Kill!"

Ouyang Shuo wielded the Tianmo Spear and led them.

"Kill!"

The two hundred Royal Guards and the ten fierce generals followed behind him in an orderly manner, as the army automatically gave way for them.

"Chiyou, we meet again!"

Ouyang Shuo slapped his horse and moved in front of Chiyou, as the Royal Guards automatically surrounded him. The Chiyou Blood Guards wanted to assist, but Wang Feng's forces blocked them off.

"Hen!"

In Chiyou's eyes, a killing intent gleamed.

How could Chiyou forget his nemesis Ouyang Shuo? It was this person who had helped the Yellow Emperor defeat him. Chiyou had not forgotten about this deep hatred for even a moment.

"You actually have some balls. I thought you would continue being a cowardly turtle." Chiyou mocked Ouyang Shuo. However, when his words were combined with the fresh blood on his face, he looked somewhat comical.

"I could defeat you before, so I can defeat you once more. Only after this time, you won’t see the light of day again." Ouyang Shuo did not bother about Chiyou's provocation.

The current Ouyang Shuo was not some rash child.

He only cared about obtaining victory in this war.

"Stop the useless talk, eat my axe!"

Ouyang Shuo was not enraged. On the other hand, Chiyou found himself infuriated.

The giant axe bore down and a chilly breeze struck his face. However, Ouyang Shuo remained unfazed.

He raised his Tianmo Spear and blocked the battle axe.

Dang! Yet another heavy blow.

However, Ouyang Shuo was not Wei Zhang. After training in the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique, his strength had reached incomparable heights. Moreover, the Qingfu Horse he sat on was the king of Qingfu Horses.

This strike did not achieve anything.

Chiyou's eyes widened, as Ouyang Shuo's strength had exceeded his expectations. During the Battle of Zhuolu, Ouyang Shuo did not act, and the one who fought with Chiyou was Shi Wanshui.

The current Chiyou was more than two times stronger than during that battle. If he fought against Shi Wanshui again, he was sure that he would win within a hundred moves.

"Hen!"

Chiyou could not accept it, so he launched a relentless assault.

Ouyang Shuo also wanted to measure the standard that his current strength had reached. He asked Chen Dameng and the others to stand aside and allow him to have a one-versus-one fight against Chiyou.

The two of them fought, one standing, one on a horse.

Chiyou's axe was heavy and strong, and each strike seemed to carry earth splitting might. Ouyang Shuo's Tianmo Spear was devilish, together with the Yang Family Spear Technique, he could not be underestimated.

The two of them fought for over ten rounds.

Ouyang Shuo needed to pay one hundred percent attention to every strike from Chiyou. On the contrary, Chiyou could easily block every attack from Ouyang Shuo.

Comparing the two, the stronger one was easily determined.

The current Ouyang Shuo was not the opponent of a devil like Chiyou.

After over ten rounds, Ouyang Shuo started to pant and beads of sweat formed on his forehead.

Even Qingdian could not hold on, as it breathed out white air through its nose. After all, around half of the force from Chiyou’s attacks transferred from Ouyang Shuo to Qingdian.

If this was a normal horse, it would have been flattened already.

Ouyang Shuo did not want to tangle with Chiyou any longer, so he used his spear to push aside the axe before backing off to a side. When Chen Dameng and the others saw his actions, they surrounded Chiyou to received his attacks.

"Despicable!" Chiyou raged.

Under the orders of Chen Dameng, the Royal Guards formed a huge circle.

During this fight, when they faced Chiyou, the Divine Martial Guards would receive one stroke before immediately backing off.

The cold ones would even sneak attack Chiyou from behind.

Such despicable tactics enraged Chiyou. However, the Divine Martial Guards were not normal soldiers. No matter how strong Chiyou was, he could not kill a bunch of them with just one blow from his axe.

Although the Royal Guards were strong, they did not dare to act careless when facing Chiyou. If they were not careful and Chiyou grabbed his chance, they would definitely be killed.

The Devil Chiyou was titled as a war god presence by many.

Hence, even though the Royal Guards were as careful as they could be, and acted as shameless as possible, some of them would still fall despite having the help of ten fierce generals.

This time, the Royal Guards had suffered heavy casualties.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this scene, his facial muscles twitched. These members were all his babies. Seeing Chiyou easily take away the troops he had spent so much to train, Ouyang Shuo even had the thought of skinning him alive.

Luckily, they had the situation temporarily under control.

Since they could deal with Chiyou, the mountain barbarian army would fall to a disadvantage.

After receiving Ouyang Shuo’s instructions, Han Xin shifted the Guards Division over to massacre the mountain barbarian army.

In the scuffle with the Royal Guards, Chiyou was unable to absorb enough vitality. Ouyang Shuo stood at the side and could feel the situation with Chiyou’s body. If something weird happened, he would take special measures.

"Ah!!"

Chiyou was growing more and more annoyed, and he finally could not take it anymore. He let loose a long and loud roar. All of a sudden, the vitality and vigor of his body disappeared.

Chiyou had actually mutated once more.

His body was originally terrifying. However, this change had made him a huge step taller.

Chiyou was now three meters tall, and even the armor on his body had ripped open, dangling from his body. His muscles bulged like little mountains.

Ouyang Shuo guessed that the current defence of Chiyou’s body could probably almost compare to armor.

What a monster!

"Devil Possession!"

Ouyang Shuo immediately knew why this had happened to Chiyou.

During the Battle of Zhuolu, Chiyou had also undergone a similar mutation. However, his height was not so shocking at that time. Had the devil bloodline in his body grown purer and purer?

Chiyou’s mutation had caused the devil bloodline in Ouyang Shuo's body to feel like it was being pulled out by some mysterious energy. Suddenly, his bloodline grew restless.

This was far more painful than the previous few times. Ouyang Shuo could feel the primordial energy in his body failing to suppress the devil bloodline.

"Damn it!"

Ouyang Shuo's face instantly turned ashen white, as a piercing pain spread out from his abdomen. Each and every blood vessel in his body looked like it was on the verge of exploding, while his blood tossed and turned; his chi chaotic.

"Lord!"

Chen Dameng noticed Ouyang Shuo's situation and was about to rush over.

"Do not panic." Ouyang Shuo withstood the pain, as his voice instantly grew hoarse.

When Chen Dameng heard these words, he stopped in his steps.

"Hei, does not feel good, right?"

Chiyou noticed the weird situation with Ouyang Shuo, and he grinned coldly.

"You know the reason?"

Ouyang Shuo sent Chiyou a deathly stare, as his eyes filled with doubt. He was not sure why their bloodlines would form such a reaction. It was evident that the devil bloodline in his body was at a disadvantage in front of Chiyou; it was completely suppressed.

"Hen, wait for it; the more painful stuff is still to come!" Chiyou did not answer Ouyang Shuo's question and teased, "Absorbing my devil bloodline, how could you not pay a price?"

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, he remained silent.

"Big devil, die!"

The Royal Guards truly could not stand seeing their Lord in such a state. They did not want to play any more shameless tactics, and they all charged forward together. They wanted to kill Chiyou on the spot.

"Hen, a bunch of ants."

After mutating, Chiyou’s arrogance had increased.

"He!"

Chiyou hollered, as the axe in his hand transformed into a white light that seemed almost invisible.

As the axe swept across, before the Royal Guards could even react, the axe broke the legs of their war horses, and they knelt on the ground.

All of a sudden, both men and horse flipped.

Devil Chiyou was about to start a massacre once again.

Seeing the Royal Guards fall one by one, Ouyang Shuo stood at a side with a pained expression. The feeling of not having the strength and ability to help was something that he rarely felt.

The pain in his body seemed to grow stronger with each burst of pain.

Ouyang Shuo could feel the blood in his body acting like hot oil, totally bubbling and burning, charging straight for the walls of his blood vessels.

It seemed like Chiyou would break out of their envelopment.

Chapter 501- Ganging up on Chiyou

Just as Chiyou was about to escape the encirclement, a thunderous bellow rang from the battlefield outside.

"Your arrogance ends here, Chiyou. Shi Wanshui is here!"

When Chiyou heard these words, his eyes froze. He would still remember this voice even if he was squashed into pieces. This was the person that killed him during the Battle of Zhuolu.

As they said, your eyes will redden with anger when you meet your enemy.

Chiyou raised his head and turned his sights away from the battlefield. He saw a huge army suddenly appear behind the mountain barbarian forces and waltzed forward. The moment they entered the battlefield, they charged toward the mountain barbarians without hesitation.

This sight left Chiyou astonished.

Apart from that, two generals charged toward Chiyou.

These two generals were Shi Wanshui and the young general Shan Zhu.

The two of them had arrived at the perfect moment.

Ouyang Shuo raised his head and looked to the sky, as he let out a thankful and happy expression. It was around 1:30 PM in the afternoon. Shi Wanshui had arrived thirty minutes early.

Shanhai City would definitely win this battle.

When Chiyou saw Shi Wanshui, he stopped killing the Royal Guards and just waited in the middle of the battlefield.

He wanted to right his wrongs through this battle.

After a short while, Shi Wanshui and Shan Zhu both arrived.

When the Royal Guards saw them arrive, they intelligently backed down and surrounded Ouyang Shuo to protect him.

The devil bloodline in his body was boiling more and more intensely. He could feel that a mysteries power was being birthed inside him.

However, it was like it was locked up, unable to break out.

Truly a horrendous feeling.

Seeing that his safety was not threatened anymore, Ouyang Shuo dismounted. Then, he crossed his legs and focused on rotating the Yellow Emperor Cultivation Technique. At the current moment, only the golden primordial energy could control the devil bloodline.

On the other side, Shi Wanshui had engaged Chiyou, while Shan Zhu fought alongside him.

As the best warrior among the Li Race, Shan Zhu was also born with god given strength. When he was in Lianzhou, Er'Lai was also asked to teach him the cultivation of the Desolate Tiger Art.

This precious technique was like fish to water for Shan Zhu, and his strength surged daily. In terms of the force stat, the current Shan Zhu would rank in the top five of Shanhai.

The two generals pincered Chiyou.

Even so, this battle remained incredibly tough.

During the Battle of Zhuolu, Shi Wanshui had Li Mu and Chang Xian to help him. At the current moment, Shi Wanshui only had the help of Shan Zhu.

Most importantly, the current Chiyou was much stronger than during the Battle of Zhuolu.

The two sides fought for over fifty rounds; their exchanges filled with dangerous and close moments.

Luckily, the Shanhai City Army did not lack great generals. The arrival of Shi Wanshui and Shan Zhu's divisions was the nail in the coffin for the mountain barbarian army. Under the command of Han Xin, they cut them down and surrounded them piece by piece.

Defeat was just a matter of time.

Even the Chiyou Blood Guards were surrounded and suffered heavy casualties. They no longer looked as valiant as before.

Especially after Chiyou activated the devil possession and used up his own vitality. It was like the Chiyou Blood Guards had lost their soul, and their strengths plummeted.

The Divine Martial Guards definitely would not miss this great chance, and they inflicted hefty damage.

Seeing that the battle was pretty much settled, Wang Feng, Lin Yi, Sun Chuan Lin, and the like joined in to attack Chiyou.

This time, Chiyou faced heavy pressure.

Even though he was strong, it was not enough to face so many of them.

Amidst the chaos, God Archer Sun Chuan Lin made the biggest contribution.

Facing such an expert, firing thousands of arrows at once was the best choice.

Unfortunately, Shi Wanshui and the others were tangled with him, so it would not work out. Furthermore, Chiyou was not a fool, so he would not easily become a living target.

However, Sun Chuan Lin was different, as his archery had already reached the peak of perfection. In the chaos, he continuously shot, trying to hit Chiyou. Furthermore, his every arrow targeted the same area.

Such archery was truly unbeatable in the world.

After the devil possession, Chiyou's defence had reached an inconceivable level. Normal arrows would only leave a white mark upon hitting his body.

Sun Chuan Lin was different, as his arrows were accurate and vicious. Each one of them could rip of a layer of Chiyou’s skin. After numerous strikes, even if Chiyou was a genuine devil, he would have to die on the spot.

What made matters worse was that Chiyou could not even hit Sun Chuan Lin.

Shi Wanshui and the others were intelligent people. Since they saw that Sun Chuan Lin's strategy was working, they collaborated to surround Chiyou and create chances for Sun Chuan Lin.

"Ah!"

The Devil Chiyou roared in disgust. In this battle, he really could not do anything! Although the mountain barbarians in the distance could hear his shouts, there was nothing they could do; they were in danger themselves.

Chiyou could not care less. If he had to die, he would drag one of them down with him.

Naturally, he chose Shi Wanshui.

Chiyou naturally hated Shi Wanshui to the core.

Chiyou was growing crazier and crazier. He did not care about the attacks of the others, hellbent on killing Shi Wanshui. This time, Shi Wanshui was in a tough spot.

However, he needed to hold on.

Shi Wanshui was also a general that had been through numerous wars. A situation he had never seen before simply did not exist.

Facing the flurry of attacks, Shi Wanshui was totally on the back foot. He could only hope that none of the strikes hit.

All of a sudden, Chiyou was helpless.

At the same time, the young generals like Lin Yi took their chances to stab at Chiyou's body. He started to bleed till blood covered his entire body.

The war god Chiyou was slowly walking to the end of the road.

This battle was so similar to the Battle of Zhuolu, the battle at Xiongli Valley.

"No!"

Chiyou definitely would not let himself fall in the same manner twice. His eyes were stained red, and the blood in his body started to magically boil.

"Not good!"

When Shi Wanshui saw this scene, his heart trembled. Chiyou was going to give it his all.

Devil Chiyou was such a tough opponent!

Chiyou leaped, jumping over four meters and appearing before Shi Wanshui. Before he even landed, he used all his strength to chop down with the giant axe in his hand.

This time, Shi Wanshui had no time to dodge, so he could only grab his spear and block.

Peng!

Shi Wanshui could feel a terrifying strength spread through his spear. The vibrations broke his hands, and the strike also caused his organs to shift.

"Pu!"

Shi Wanshui spat out a large mouthful of blood, immediately suffering heavy injuries. The war horse under him had also received a heavy impact. It knelt on the ground, looking like it was on the verge of death.

Chiyou's strike was really shocking.

"Hei!"

Seeing that his strike had worked, Chiyou let out an evil smile. He still was not satisfied, so he raised his axe and chopped down again.

If this axe hit, Shi Wanshui would definitely die on the spot.

Shi Wanshui was also a tough man, so he beared the pain and suddenly rolled to the side, dodging Chiyou's attack.

Chiyou was not discouraged, and his giant axe chopped down again and again.

Shi Wanshui was in terrible shape, as he continuously rolled around on the ground. His shifted organs caused him to bleed internally after he made such movements.

If he did not have such a good physical body, he would definitely become paralyzed.

Even so, Shi Wanshui did not dare to be careless. He focused all his energy, as he tossed aside the pain and tried his best to avoid the hits.

There were a few times where the giant axe grazed his body.

If he was a normal person, he would definitely be frightened to death.

Shi Wanshui could only pin his hopes on his allies.

No one had expected Chiyou’s leap. Seeing Shi Wanshui in danger, the rest of them hurried over, as they stabbed their spears at Chiyou.

It was like he suddenly had eyes on his back, as he swept his axe and smacked the spears away.

Yet another chaotic battle.

Luckily, they had finally dragged Shi Wanshui back from the brink of death.

Shi Wanshui dodged Chiyou's final strike and immediately fainted, his mouth still bleeding. The Royal Guards rushed over and carried him to the command center for treatment.

Even after heavily injuring Shi Wanshui, Chiyou was not feeling any better, as he got shot twice by Sun Chuan Lin in the process. The last arrow had even penetrated his body, and fresh blood flowed out like a faucet.

Lin Yi and the others were now riled up, and they used all they had learned against Chiyou.

This seismic battle was simply too shocking. Soldiers of both sides had unknowingly stopped and started to pay attention to this battle.

Devil Chiyou was fighting one against five, but he was not at a disadvantage.

Killing Wei Zhang and heavily injuring Shi Wanshui, such feats were unheard of. Even the crimson clouds were influenced, as they started to toss and turn.

As the battle went on, the wounds on his body could not be stopped. Fresh blood covered Chiyou completely.

As the fight continued, they could also feel Chiyou’s strength waning.

This devil finally could not hold on.

However, they did not dare to be careless. When fighting a locked up monster, their last strikes were often the strongest.

Hence, they intelligently changed their strategy and tried to drag on the fight. All of them were good riders. Using their horses and the advantage of their long spears, they did not let him approach.

Chiyou did not have the strength to leap up like before.

The devil of a generation was about to fall.

Chiyou's eyes were completely red, and he had started to lose consciousness.

At this moment, Shan Zhu bravely stepped out and attracted all of Chiyou's attention.

Making use of the chance, the rest of them stabbed into Chiyou’s back.

This was their strongest attack. It held all their beliefs, and the tips of their spears shone brightly with killing intent.

The two spears were like life taking talismans, as they bore through his chest.

Pu!

The devil could not withstand the massive hit, and he coughed out blood.

Even so, he could still retaliate. His axe swept backward, cutting the poles of both spears.

His immense power swept both Lin Yi and Wang Feng from their horses.

This was Chiyou’s last strike. After this move, he did not have any more strength. His huge body could not stand upright any longer, so he collapsed onto the ground.

The war god Chiyou had finally fallen.

Chapter 502- Devil Blood Apparition

The moment Chiyou died, the entire battlefield fell silent.

The devil of a generation had perished just like that.

The remaining mountain barbarian warriors had lost their souls. They just stood still on the spot, not knowing what to do.

Along with Chiyou collapsing on the ground, something strange happened.

Chiyou's huge corpse turned blood red. A red gas spat out from his body, and it transformed into a red fog.

As time went on, this blood red fog grew thicker and thicker. On the contrary, Chiyou's body withered at a noticeable pace.

In the end, no more blood came out.

At this very moment, the blood red fog started to move. It was like something amazing would soon come into existence. Even in the skies, a large thundercloud rumbled.

Finally, on top of Chiyou's body, a blood red devil appeared.

The devil was only an apparition. It had the head of a cow and the mouth of a bird, three heads and six arms, with a black wing behind its back. Each one of its hand held a different weapon.

"Great devil!"

When the mountain barbarians saw the apparition, they immediately knelt down and prayed emotionally.

Originally, the image of the devil was just something that the mountain barbarians prayed to. Since the start, they did not expect it to actually appear. However, thinking about it, it was not that weird. After all, Chiyou was seen as the ancestor of the mountain barbarian race and the son of the devil.

When the Shanhai City Army saw this scene, their mouths gaped open. Shan Zhu and the other generals tightly clenched their weapons and guarded seriously. They were really worried that Chiyou would revive once more.

In truth, they did not need to act in such a manner.

The moment the blood apparition of the devil appeared, Chiyou's body only had skin and bones remaining.

Along with the blood in Chiyou’s body being sucked dry, the Chiyou Blood Guards that managed to survive all died one by one. Each one of them bled through all their orifices, creating a truly gruesome sight.

Such a scene really made one's hair stand on their ends. Even the mountain barbarians, who worshipped the devil, were filled with confusion.

The remaining Chiyou Blood Guards were all their closest brothers.

When everyone was stunned, the blood apparition started to move once more.

The apparition suddenly waved its hands in mid air, and all the Blood Guards spat out their blood.

The blood seemed sentient, and it automatically gathered near the blood apparition, merging with it. In less than ten minutes, all the Blood Guards became dry corpses.

The blood apparition grew more and more tangible.

Instantly, an evil, bloodthirsty, and violent air lingered around the battlefield, making it hard to breathe.

Such an unexpected scene.

At this very moment, Ouyang Shuo suddenly spat out a large amount of blood. The black blood splattered onto the ground and let out zizi! sounds.

The devil bloodline in his body had started to boil, and even the golden primordial energy could not suppress it. He could feel that his entire being was being burned.

Something was attracting the blood, making it excited.

"Lord!"

Chen Dameng was astonished, and he did not know what he could do.

All the others also came over, their faces filled with panic and anxiousness.

Ouyang Shuo slowly opened his eyes and wiped the blood from his face. He struggled to wave his hand to tell them not to worry. His face was not ashen white anymore, as it started to turn redder and redder; his face was so red that it was terrifying.

Just at that moment, something weird happened.

The devil blood apparition seemed to have noticed Ouyang Shuo. The huge apparition slowly turned around and flew toward Ouyang Shuo.

In the bubbling red fog, there were a pair of evil eyes that stared straight at him.

Cold, merciless.

Ouyang Shuo felt a shiver run down his spine. Did the devil blood apparition trigger his bloodline?

The first time he saw it, Ouyang Shuo was reminded of Liu Bang’s red dragon spirit. Both of them were spirits, and they had a certain amount of intelligence.

The key was that both of them needed to rely on a Lord to survive.

Did the blood devil apparition choose him? He was the only one on the entire battlefield that had the devil bloodline, so he was the best choice?

Thinking about this point, Ouyang Shuo felt terrified. Seeing what happened to Chiyou, he was not willing to let such a spirit possess him. Just the thought alone sent shivers down his spine.

Ouyang Shuo did not want it but that did not necessarily mean that it would not happen.

The devil blood apparition let loose a high pitched screech, similar to the red dragon spirit, as it charged straight for Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo freaked out, but his current body was badly injured, so he could not run.

"Block it!"

He could only place his hopes on Chen Dameng and the others.

When they saw the scene, they immediately surrounded Ouyang Shuo and guarded him.

These soldiers were all moulded and trained in the fires of war. Although the devil blood apparition was wicked and horrific, it was not enough to shock them senseless.

Unfortunately, it was useless. It was an apparition, so it directly passed through their bodies and headed straight for Ouyang Shuo.

All of a sudden, Ouyang Shuo was stunned, and he could only watch as it charged over.

When he watched the apparition enter his body, Ouyang Shuo could clearly see the excitement in its eyes and its evilness.

The scent of blood filled his nose, and it was enough to make one vomit.

However, at this very moment, the Tianmo Spear beside Ouyang Shuo emanated a black glow that wrapped up the devil blood apparition.

The devil blood apparition had not expected such a situation.

The black glow seemed unassuming, but it was unusually tough, dragging the devil blood apparition bit by bit into the spear.

The devil blood apparition naturally was not willing, so it used its weapons to struggle.

Nonetheless, all its actions were futile.

The black glow was like the ultimate counter to the blood apparition. Although it looked simple, it actually held incredible power. In less than a minute, it dragged the blood apparition into the Tianmo Spear. Then, it disappeared.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he heaved a huge sigh of relief.

If his conjecture was correct, the black glow was the weapon spirit of the Tianmo Spear.

Since the day of its birth, the Tianmo Spear already had a weapon spirit after being stained with Ouyang Shuo's blood essence. During these numerous battles, the weapon spirit had continued to absorb blood essence and slowly grow.

It finally gained a level of sentience when it became a god weapon.

The blood devil apparition was just a bundle of blood with a little sentience. It was nothing but a huge gift to the Tianmo Spear.

Thinking about this point, Ouyang Shuo was really fortunate, having something to save him at the crucial moments. Before, it was the golden qilin seal. Now, it was the Tianmo Spear.

After suppressing the devil blood apparition, the weapon spirit of the Tianmo Spear sent Ouyang Shuo a message.

The blood devil apparition was too strong, and it was too much for the weapon spirit to absorb all at once. The weapon spirit must enter a period of hibernation to completely consume this blood.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this news, he stored the Tianmo Spear in his storage bag.

Before the weapon spirit awakened, he would use the Chixiao Sword. Who knows what kind of surprises it would bring to Ouyang Shuo when it woke up.

Along with the disappearance of the devil blood apparition, the blood in his body calmed down.

After such an incident, Ouyang Shuo felt fearful. It seems like the devil bloodline in his body was a massive cancer.

The only one who knew the reason had died, so Ouyang Shuo had no one he could ask.

Ouyang Shuo could only take it step by step. Who knows what interesting items Chiyou had dropped this time.

Along with his death, the Battle of Wuzhou officially ended.

In the blood red clouds above, the battle between the dragon and the devil had also ended. The giant dragon looked like it had obtained a mysterious energy, as it grew rapidly.

On the contrary, the devil withered.

The dragon swept the devil up with its tail, wrapping up the devil and pulling it over. Then, it swallowed the devil in one gulp. Instantly, the giant dragon expanded quickly and covered numerous kilometers.

The might of the dragon spread out. In the entire south region, all the spirits could feel the might and power of the giant dragon, making them all tremble.

In the south, no one could compete with this giant dragon.

After the battle came to an end, the matter of settling the remaining mountain barbarians became a huge problem. They were different from the soldiers who surrendered, as they were resolute.

The key laid in the fact that they had their own beliefs. A bunch of warriors with their own beliefs would not easily submit, even if they lost. To organize them and conscript them would be difficult.

Before obtaining their loyalty, Ouyang Shuo would not dare to use them.

He could not kill them all, right?

One must know that the territory had mountain barbarians too. If he really wanted to kill these mountain barbarians, it would probably cause the entire race to hate him.

Unifying Wuzhou Prefecture would pose a massive problem.

Ouyang Shuo currently faced a dilemma. Going ahead and backing off were both difficult, giving him a great headache. However, at that very moment, something that he did not expect to happen, happened.

Chapter 503- New King Coronation

To the mountain barbarians, it was a dark day.

Everything that transpired on the battlefield had made their feelings fall from sky high to rock bottom. In this life, they had never experienced such a shocking battle.

Firstly, their king, their invincible war god, had died in battle. Next, the devil god that they worshiped actually chose a Han person, their enemy, as its host.

The mountain barbarian warriors were shocked to the point where their jaws were about to drop to the ground.

However, what occurred next shocked them even further. The devil god that they held in the highest of regards was actually suppressed by the enemy’s weapon. Such a scene was simply too stimulating.

The esteemed image they had held of the devil god was on the verge of collapse.

In just a short day, the mountain barbarian warriors had lost their king and the god that they worshipped. Such a loss, the helplessness and fear that they felt was not something outsiders could understand.

Even in the Shanhai City camp, Shi Hu, who came over with Shi Wanshui to help, had a complicated expression. He was one of the first mountain barbarians to follow Ouyang Shuo.

Without mentioning Chiyou, even the devil god was something that Shi Hu had worshipped since a young age.

But today, in front of his eyes, the Lord’s weapon had actually suppressed it. He felt shocked and sad, but he could also sense that the shaman’s prediction was right.

The Lord was a person that could control the world.

Amongst the mountain barbarian soldiers in Shanhai City, there were three young generals that were the most outstanding. They were Shi Hu and Shi Bao from the Xuanniao Tribe and Lei Jingtian from the Leidian Tribe.

Out of the three, Shi Hu was the best, followed by Lei Jingtian.

Ouyang Shuo had expended effort to develop Shi Hu. He had purposely taken Shi Hu out of the heavy armored regiment and placed him beside Shi Wanshui. Ouyang Shuo wanted to let him learn the art of war from Shi Wanshui.

Today, he was a great general. Be it his skills or his leadership, both aspects were incomparable to the past.

In such a short time, he had changed tremendously.

Based on logic, be it experience or ability, he could take the position of major general. However, even Sun Chuan Lin was promoted, while he remained a colonel.

Naturally, all of this occurred as a result of Ouyang Shuo’s planning.

Ouyang Shuo took Shi Hu out of the mountain barbarian force because he hoped that one day, Shi Hu would return to take control of it.

Taking Shi Hu out was a training for him, helping to increase his knowledge.

Shi Hu realized the Lord’s intentions in the end. Of course, one of the reasons was the shaman’s advice. If not, Shi Hu would still feel annoyed about the matter.

Shi Hu was not a person greedy for fame and fortune, but he was still afraid of losing the trust of the Lord. He still remembered the words that Ouyang Shuo had spoken when he went to the Xuanniao Tribe.

The shaman had realized Shi Hu's problem and helped him analyze the situation. The extent of the Lord’s care for him had touched Shi Hu, and he also felt guilty for his thoughts swaying.

At this moment, Shi Hu was only a short distance from the Lord.

Seeing the Lord's brows locked tight, Shi Hu knew the thoughts on the Lord’s mind.

After all, he was also a mountain barbarian, so he understood the way the mountain barbarian army thought.

At this moment, Shi Hu felt that he should step out and help his Lord. If not, he would have truly wasted all the effort the Lord had invested in him.

Thinking up to this point, Shi Hu stepped out and looked toward the surrounding mountain barbarian soldiers.

"Brothers, I am Shi Hu, also a mountain barbarian. I come from the Xuanniao Tribe." As he spoke these words, Shi Hu removed his armor, rolling up his sleeve to show the Xuanniao pattern on his arm.

The patterned was a unique mark of a mountain barbarian, tattooed by the tribe. As such, it could not be faked.

All of a sudden, the mountain barbarians believed Shi Hu’s words.

However, they did not understand his intentions. Some of the soldiers even looked at Shi Hu with animosity like he was a traitor.

Shi Hu did not care about their hostility and changed his tone, "I am sure all of you remember the legend regarding the devil god?"

"If you have something to say, just say it. Stop beating around the bush!"

"That's right; just say it!"

The mountain barbarians were unhappy, so they were just venting their frustration. Of course, there were some intelligent ones. After hearing Shi Hu’s words, shock appeared in their eyes.

"Okay!" Shi Hu shouted, "l’l speak directly. The legend states that anyone that's recognized by the devil god will become the master of our race. I believe that all of you have seen the events of today. My Lord has been recognised by the devil god. Naturally, he should be coronated as king."

Obviously, Shi Hu chose not to mention how the devil god was suppressed. He also believed that the mountain barbarians would also rather not mention that part, as it would cause their faith to waver.

As expected, the moment his words landed, the entire battlefield fell silent. The boldness of his statement stunned the mountain barbarians. Even Ouyang Shuo and the others looked on with their mouths agape.

Seeing Shi Hu act, Ouyang Shuo chose to remain silent.

He had the feeling that his dilemma could truly be solved.

"He's from the Han Race, how can he be our king?"

"That's preposterous!"

"That's a total joke!"

After they regained their composure, some of the mountain barbarians retorted.

"Why not? My Lord has the devil bloodline in him. His bloodline is even purer than ours, so why can't he be crowned king?"

Ouyang Shuo's bloodline secret was not some sort of huge secret in the territory.

"Ah?"

This time, the mountain barbarians broke into an uproar.

"No wonder the devil god would choose him."

The moment Shi Hu revealed Ouyang Shuo's bloodline secret, the whole mystery was answered. All of a sudden, they looked at Ouyang Shuo differently, and their gaze had a sort of closeness and respect.

In the olden times, bloodline was more convincing than race.

Being related by blood was the most important aspect.

To possess the bloodline of the devil god was pretty much a gift from the heavens.

Of course, if they knew that Ouyang Shuo's bloodline was obtained through killing Chiyou, who knows what they would think.

Seeing that the time was right, Shi Hu decided to push the matter further. He turned toward Ouyang Shuo, kneeled down, and shouted, "Greetings, my king!"

The mountain barbarians called the common leader of all the tribes ‘king’. The old king was Chiyou.

Instantly, a mountain-like might and an aura of an emperor as deep as the sea emanated from Ouyang Shuo's body.

All of a sudden, even the Shanhai City warriors could not help but kneel down.

Tens of thousands of warriors knelt down in unison; the whole scene incredibly majestic.

On the vast battlefield, Ouyang Shuo was like a god, quietly standing in the middle. Around him were scattered weapons, corpses, and kneeling soldiers; all these aspects added a sort of might and arrogance to him.

The moment the king appears, the world would bleed.

The mountain barbarian soldiers stood still; they did not know what to do. In their eyes, that unassuming man had suddenly become enormous and amazing.

All of a sudden, it was like they saw their old king back to life.

Although Ouyang Shuo's size was a lot different to Chiyou’s, the aura of the emperor was similar.

"Greetings, my king!"

Shi Hu sincerely greeted once more.

When the mountain barbarians saw that, they finally reacted, as tears filled their eyes.

Finally, they had a new king.

These tears were filled with sadness and also joy.

"Greetings, my king!"

All of a sudden, the mountain barbarian soldiers started to kneel. Like a tsunami, wave after wave bowed to worship their king. The unwilling soldiers had no choice upon seeing such a scene.

Now, Ouyang Shuo was crowned as their king and became the leader of all the mountain barbarian tribes.

The mountain barbarian tribes had regained their faith once again.

At this very moment, a system notification sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, possessing the devil god bloodline, obtaining the recognition of the mountain barbarian race, becoming their king. Given the title of Barbarian King, awarded 10 thousand merit points and 40 thousand reputation points. Reputation and prestige amongst the mountain barbarian tribes has reached the highest level."

Ouyang Shuo raised his head and looked at all that knelt, "Please rise!"

"Thank you, my Lord!"

"Thank you, my king!"

The two armies had suddenly become one family.

With Ouyang Shuo being crowned as king, his worries were naturally solved. After some slight organization, the seventy thousand barbarian warriors could directly head into battle.

However, now was not the right time to organize the military yet.

Han Xin rushed over at this moment.

Ouyang Shuo passed all the duties of cleaning up the battlefield, dealing with the prisoners, and the like to Han Xin. As for what to do with the mountain barbarians, Shi Hu would take charge of that aspect.

It was time for him to walk to the front of the stage.

As for how to organize them, Ouyang Shuo had an idea.

Now, he needed to first check Chiyou's corpse. First, he had to check whether he dropped anything. Next, they must arrange his funeral.

Such a legendary figure must receive a proper burial.

When Chiyou died, he did not drop a general soul. Instead, he dropped three times, an old bottle, his giant axe, and a similarly old book.

Chapter 504- Awakening Bloodline

Ouyang Shuo first took up the small bottle. Once he opened it, he found a drop of blood essence.

Devil Blood Essence: After use, activates the full devil bloodline.

It seems like the Chiyou Blood Essence Ouyang Shuo obtained last time was just half of the devil bloodline. However, apparently the heavens would not forsake anyone. This time, he could solve the problem of his bloodline.

Ouyang Shuo covered the bottle and carefully stored it in his storage bag. Then, he picked up the giant axe.

Name: Heaven Splitting Axe (God Weapon)

Hardness: 90

Sharpness: 88

Toughness: 75

Specialty: Weapon Breaker (if opposing weapon hardness is lower than the Heaven Splitting Axe, chance for the axe to break it. Unique item, cannot be dropped.)

Killing Technique: Pangu Splits the Heavens (Releases a strong killing aura like that of splitting the heavens to cut the enemy in half, turning them into dust. Cool Down: one week.)

Limitation: only equippable by mountain barbarians.

Evaluation: In the legends, Chiyou split the heavens; this is a legendary axe forged using the ninth heaven cuprite.

As expected, Chiyou's Heaven Splitting Axe was a rare god weapon. Regretfully, only mountain barbarians could use it.

Lastly, the small book.

Name: Hell Slaughterer True Manual (Emperor Rank cultivation method)

Level: 1/12 levels

Specialty: For each level increase, bone structure +1, comprehension +1, all other stats +1

Restriction: limited to mountain barbarians

Evaluation: the cultivation method of Devil Chiyou, includes internal cultivation technique, battle strategies and the like; a combination-based cultivation technique.

Yet another item with a race restriction.

When Ouyang Shuo read the description, he could only shake his head regretfully.

With that, both the Heaven Splitting Axe and the Hell Slaughterer True Manual should be used together. It was enough to train a mountain barbarian warrior into a legendary general.

The first person that came to Ouyang Shuo’s mind was Shi Hu.

Shi Hu had played a huge part in persuading the mountain mountains, so he should be rewarded.

After checking the stats of the three items, Ouyang Shuo immediately ordered people to craft a coffin to store Chiyou's corpse first. They would choose a place to bury him later.

Apart from that, they also dealt with Wei Zhang's corpse.

The Shanhai City Martial Temple had two king rank general souls. Hence, as long as they returned to Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo could use one of them to revive Wei Zhang.

After dealing with all the matters, Ouyang Shuo returned to the command center.

Ouyang Shuo instructed Chen Dameng to inform all the generals about a meeting at 8 PM. However, before that time, no one was to disturb him.

Inside his room, Ouyang Shuo carefully took out the bottle with the blood essence and gingerly drank it.

The moment the devil blood essence entered his stomach, his calm bloodline started to boil once again, giving out cheering noises.

Pudong! Pudong!

Ouyang Shuo could feel his heartbeat suddenly speed up, beating five to six times a second. A normal person’s heart only beat one to two times a second.

Along with the increased heartbeat rate, all of the blood in his body started to move and flow quickly. A short while later, the devil blood essence mixed in with the blood around it and did not separate.

Instantly, a huge and endless blood energy exploded out from within his body. Chen Dameng, who stood guard outside, felt shocked and backed off upon feeling the vigor and vitality that spread out.

A blood red color covered Ouyang Shuo’s entire body.

The surging blood energy started to change and modify his body.

The bloodline lock that Ouyang Shuo felt prior to this started to break under the attacks of this energy. In an instant, he could feel a happiness spread out from the deepest parts of his bloodline.

It was like his entire existence had improved by a level.

He had broken through the fences and entered a new world.

A black layer of filth excreted from his pores, smelling extremely horrible.

Ouyang Shuo had once again undergone a transformation.

Under the power of the blood, the blood in Ouyang Shuo's body continued to flow quickly. All his blood seemed to almost turn into paste, exceedingly sticky, reaching the ‘cultivating blood into paste’ level.

At this stage, his vigor and vitality became extremely huge, and his body’s regenerative abilities had improved. The strength of his body evidently improved and growed at a noticeable pace.

The strength of his body had risen to four oxen.

The more terrifying part was his skin, which became tough like copper. His bones had also hardened, while the blood producing function of his spine has increased.

Copper skin, iron bone, indestructible.

The secret behind Chiyou's transformation laid in such factors.

The power of blood was the fountain of Chiyou's strength.

After the washing of the blood energy, Ouyang Shuo's body had undergone a complete transformation. From this moment onward, Ouyang Shuo could compete with generals like Shi Wanshui.

The benefits did not end there. As a result of the blood energy explosion, the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique had absorbed enough energy and upgraded to the ninth layer.

Just that alone helped him to save months of cultivation time.

Good things really came in pairs.

After the upgrade of the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique, Ouyang Shuo's physical body had increase; he now had five oxen of strength. In a short time, his strength had doubled.

With just one punch, he could split apart rocks and mountains.

At this point, the blood in his body slowly calmed down.

Suddenly, a system notification sounded out by his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, consuming devil blood essence and triggering the devil bloodline, completing the first awakening. Awarded 20 thousand reputation points."

Following which, another report rang out.

"System Report: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for being the first person in China to awaken the bloodline, awarded one Peiyuan Pill and 40 thousand reputation points."

……

With a shua! a white line shone and a small white bottle appeared in his hand. The bottle contained a red pill the size of a yellow bean.

Peiyuan Pill: Solidified Peiyuan, effective for badly injured people.

Ouyang Shuo kept the bottle in his storage bag. His brows were tightly locked, and his expression looked solemn.

This change was truly serious.

Firstly, why would a seemingly normal bloodline awakening trigger a system report? That in itself was unusual.

Gaia was not a good person, so it would not announce the matter if it was not a huge event. The moment it made an announcement, it meant that the bloodline awakening was special.

Secondly, the way the notification was written held a hidden meaning.

Based on Gaia’s words, he had not changed his bloodline. Instead, he had triggered and brought out the bloodline hidden in his original blood.

At this moment, he thought back to the bloodline lock thing from before.

It meant that the devil blood essence only helped lead him to awaken the devil blood in his body.

When did Ouyang Shuo become the descendant of the devil?

Ouyang Shuo remembered clearly that there was nothing about race or bloodline when he created his character.

Moreover, this was only the first awakening. Which meant that when the time arrived, there might be a second or third awakening.

What kind of secrets were hidden in human blood? What level had Gaia's research on human blood reached? Were all these matters just part of game or were they related to real life?

All of these matters were a mystery.

Just like what Ouyang Shuo had felt before, the higher he stood, the more blurry things looked to him. Now, more mysteries bothered him.

Swordsman City.

The moment the system notification went out, the other players did not know what was going on. Only Feng Qingyang's face turned utterly green.

As a descendant of an old martial arts family, he had a far better understanding of the martial arts and bloodline settings of the game.

Since the start, Feng Qingyang had known of the secrets of the bloodline, and he had been working toward awakening it. He did not expect Qiyue Wuyi to be a step faster than him.

"That fellow, what kind of dog sh*t luck does he have!"

Toward conquering lands, Feng Qingyang had little interest; he only cared about the bloodline.

The moment Ouyang Shuo awoke his bloodline, his cabin in the immigration spaceship traveling through the vast black galaxy also started to change.

A red colored blood fog covered Ouyang Shuo. In the nutritional fluid tube, large amounts of high grade nutritional fluids pumped into his body.

In the end, the blood fog actually coagulated into a blood nest and in it, one could hear his heartbeat.

At the same time, in the command core of the fleet, Gaia’s location, an order was given.

"Di!"

"Checked that spaceship zg105, cabin number zg10050078 has triggered section number 31 of the international federation, completing the first high grade bloodline awakening. Reaching requirements, commander please confirm!"

"Confirm!"

"Confirmation completed, based on section 31-004, giving number zg10050078 the highest grade nutritional fluid, raising cabin AI level, raising his permission level."

"Di!"

"Connecting highest grade nutritional fluid tube!"

……

"Cabin number zg10050078 AI has been upgraded, will monitor him 24/7 to ensure his safety!"

……

"Civilian number zg350825216810058271 permission level raised!"

Chapter 505- Situation in the World

Post-awakening his bloodline, filth covered Ouyang Shuo's body.

After a simple wash up, Ouyang Shuo visited the treatment room to take a look at the badly injured Shi Wanshui.

Chiyou’s shocking strike had knocked him out, and he still had not woken up. The doctor that followed the troops could only help him bandage his wounds and treat the physical wounds.

The doctors in the Shanhai City Army, especially the legion level doctors, were all the elites that the Medical Division developed and trained. Some were even players who were specialists in real life.

Hence, although Shi Wanshui's injuries were grievous, it was not too big of a problem. As for his internal injuries, they could not do anything about them. They would need to wait for Shi Wanshui to deal with them himself when he woke up.

Of course, there were still some risks.

If Shi Wanshui did not wake up early enough, and his internal injuries took too long to heal, it could leave behind problems. In the worse case scenario, he could lose all his martial arts skills.

To someone like Shi Wanshui, losing his skills was the same as losing his life.

When Ouyang Shuo saw the situation, he did not hesitate and took out the Peiyuan Pill. Then, he passed it to the doctor to give it to Shi Wanshui.

As expected, after Shi Wanshui consumed the pill, he immediately looked better. His ashen white face started to have some red.

The doctor took his pulse and turned around, “Lord, don't worry. General Shi is fine."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Take good care of him." He turned around as he spoke these words. Since the war had just ended, there were still many other matters he needed to attend to.

After he returned from the treatment room, Ouyang Shuo met Shi Hu in the main hall meeting.

"Greetings, my Lord!"

Although Ouyang Shuo was the Barbarian King, in the military, Shi Hu still called him Lord. The great shaman had trained up this mountain barbarian warrior. Be it in terms of IQ or EQ, he was top class.

He had the simplicity and honesty of the mountain barbarians but also the quick thinking of the Han people. These two different characteristics mixed together to form his unique character.

Pushing Ouyang Shuo to kingship was his most eye catching performance.

"Stand up!"

Ouyang Shuo sat on the leader seat, the war axe and the small book on the table.

When Shi Hu heard this command, he simply stood on the spot.

"These two items, do you recognize them?"

Ouyang Shuo pointed to the axe and the book on the table, smiling as he asked this question.

"I do!"

When they collected Chiyou's corpse, Shi Hu was present. Naturally, he recognized both items. Especially the Heaven Splitting Axe, which was the symbol of Chiyou. All the mountain barbarian warriors dreamed of this weapon.

"Now, they are yours!"

Ouyang Shuo's words were simple, but they Shi Hu stunned. His heartbeat quickened; his heart was about to explode from his chest. All of a sudden, he did not know what to say.

"Why, you don't like it?"

This general followed the rules too strictly sometimes. As a result, Ouyang Shuo wanted to tease him.

"Lord, this is too precious."

Shi Hu still had not regained his composure.

"Just take it, you deserve it." Ouyang Shuo stood up and placed the two items into Shi Hu’s hands.

"Thank you, Lord, for your reward!"

Seeing that, Shi Hu knelt on the ground once more and respectfully bowed.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and returned to his seat, "The meaning and power these two items represent, I am sure you understand. I only hope you don't insult their name."

"Yes!"

Shi Hu nodded his head vigorously; his face completely red. Of course, he knew what the Heaven Splitting Axe meant; it was a symbol of climbing up to the strongest warrior throne.

Whether he could make the throne his own would depend on his personal strength.

The Lord could give him weapons, but the Lord could not help him stop the gossips and doubts.

The mountain barbarians had always worshiped the strong and everything depended on one’s own power.

"At the appropriate time, spread the Hell Slaughterer True Manual to Shi Bao and Lei Jingtian." Ouyang Shuo was not going to act like Chiyou and only let one person cultivate it.

Of course, since it was an emperor rank cultivation technique, it had a high requirement on talent and comprehension, so it was not something that every warrior could cultivate

Ouyang Shuo wanted the Hell Slaughterer True Manual to end at his time.

"Understood!"

When the Lord mentioned Shi Bao and Lei Jingtian, he was obviously warning Shi Hu to not grow arrogant. There were still other talented mountain barbarian generals behind him.

The mountain barbarians he obtained this time would require generals from his army to lead them. It was more suitable for a mountain barbarian general to lead the mountain barbarian force.

"Back down. On the side of the mountain barbarian army, you still need to put in more time and effort."

Although the mountain barbarians had surrendered and recognized Ouyang Shuo as their king, in the end, they had still lost. As a result, their emotions were a bit out of control, which could potentially lead to them causing chaos.

Since the overall situation was a huge rush, they did not have a full month like the Battle of Zhaoqing to reorganize. Ouyang Shuo was planning to leave in just two days.

"Understood!"

Shi Hu nodded and backed down.

After Shi Hu left, Ouyang Shuo finally had the time to read the battle report that the Black Snake Guards sent.

Zhongyuan Region.

Piao Linghuan and Chun Shenjun's two armies had entered together. However, they faced Zhangchu's army’s heavy resistance. Their advances were totally controlled and suppressed.

The entire battlefield had entered a stalemate situation, where victory was tough to decided. News had spread that Di Chen was ready to send his troops down south at any moment.

Hence, the battle situation in the Zhongyuan Region was wholly uncertain.

Southeast region.

Xiong Ba's and Zhan Lang's north and south pincer attack placed Huangchao in a terrible situation. After all, they had already lost at the hands of Zhan Lang. Along with their lack of generals and troops, their weaknesses were exposed.

Based on what the Black Snake Guard stationed at the Jianye intel station had analyzed, if things continued smoothly, they would decide victory in a month.

Zhan Lang and Xiong Ba were both opponents that could not be underestimated. One of them was maturing by the day, and his military talent was showing. The other was an old fox with a lot of help.

With these two working together, it was enough to give Huangchao a headache.

In comparison, Gong Chengshi and Xunlong Dianxue, who both belonged to the southeast region, seemed dull. In the end, not every commoner Lord could grow as strong as Ouyang Shuo.

The part that disappointed Ouyang Shuo was that the alliance Gong Chengshi had formed had not crossed the border till date. It was not that Gong Chengshi did not attack, it was just that his allies did not want to take the risk.

Obviously, Gong Chengshi's control of the Jiangchuan Province was rather weak.

As for Xunlong Dianxue, as a province stood in the middle of them, he was a total onlooker. Ouyang Shuo had instructed him to just give up on hopes of joining in on the southeast battlefield. He should just assist Bai Xue's Consonance City.

Ouyang Shuo was just trying to quickly cut back his losses.

This chaotic war situation had exposed the weaknesses of the Shanhai Alliance. After this war, the prestige of the Shanhai Alliance would not be as high.

On the other hand, the Yanhuang Alliance finally showed signs of making a comeback after the previous setback.

Southwest Region.

Facing the two hundred thousand troops of Taiping Country, even with the help of Luo Shixin's division, Consonance City troops faced defeat after after.

In just a week, they lost four cities.

In the middle part of the war, Bai Hua had to request help from her brother, Moon Shines over the River. She could only ask him to gather twenty thousand adventure gamemode players to join the war.

The moment players died, their levels would fall to zero, and they would lose all their items.

All the members of Qingfeng Pavilion were elites, and it was not easy for them to reach their current level. Who knew how much work Bai Hua and Moon Shines over the River had to put in to make them willing to join.

Solely the compensation fees for the players who died could empty their treasury. However, Bai Hua was forced to the edge of the cliff, so she went all out.

In Ouyang Shuo’s last life, Bai Hua probably also used this trump card.

Of course, in his last life, without the existence of Shanhai City, their situation was better, and they could gather up a bunch of allies.

Ouyang Shuo still remembered that Taiping Country in his last life did not cause much of a storm.

In this life, the reason why Taiping Country could act so arrogant was because of Ouyang Shuo. It was because Ouyang Shuo had allowed the birth of such a monster.

Bai Hua could be said to be taking the blame for Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo did not feel good about this matter, which was why he sent Luo Shixin's division over and persuaded Xunlong Dianxue to send his troops.

Ouyang Shuo bore the teleportation fees for Xunlong Dianxue's division.

Luckily, under the help of both the adventure gamemode players and Xunlong Dianxue, Consonance City managed to maintain their defense line.

This was also the first time that adventure gamemode players had joined a city war on a large scale.

Who knows what kind of chain reaction Qingfeng Pavilion would cause on the future of the China region.

At the very least, Lords would grow more and more interested in the various guilds.

……

Looking at the battle report, Ouyang Shuo's brows relaxed.

To word it nicely, after the Battle of Wuzhou ended, the hardest time for the Shanhai Alliance had ended too.

After dealing with the Chiyou Army, with Ouyang Shuo unexpectedly becoming the Barbarian King, the strength of Shanhai City had risen instead. At this time, no matter how they assigned their troops, they were too strong.

As such, Ouyang Shuo wanted to hold a meeting to plan for the following military operations.

Chapter 506- Attacking Taiping Country

8 PM, Ouyang Shuo held a meeting.

Attending the meeting, apart from Shi Hu and Shan Zhu, the rest were all at least major generals. Of the two of them, one represented the 1st division of the Dragon Legion, while the other the 3rd division of the Tiger Legion.

Before the meeting, Han Xin reported the losses of the battle.

"In this battle, including important members, we lost a total of 21,500 men. Amongst which, the Leopard Legion 2nd division suffered the heaviest casualties of more than half. Even their major general, Wei Zhang, was killed."

When the generals heard this report, there was a moment of silence.

The Shanhai City Army could be said to have lost both soldiers and generals in this battle, suffering heavy casualties.

More than eighty percent of the soldier losses came from the Leopard Legion.

The three thousand Divine Martial Guards had also suffered many causalities in this battle with the Blood Guards, losing seven hundred men. Surprisingly, the Guards Division, including Shi Wanshui's and Shan Zhu's divisions that acted as the reinforcements, suffered the fewest casualties.

"Out of the one hundred thousand mountain barbarian soldiers, apart from the casualties, seventy thousand have surrendered. They await us to organize them. As for how to do so, Lord, please instruct!"

Han Xin bowed to Ouyang Shuo and returned to his seat.

In the Battle of Wuzhou, Shanhai City had lost twenty thousand troops to capture seventy thousand elite mountain barbarians. All things considered, Shanhai City had gained more than fifty thousand more troops.

Of course, if Ouyang Shuo did not unexpectedly become the Barbarian King, these mountain barbarians would not easily submit. They would either try to escape, or they would get killed for resisting.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and looked at the generals; he solemnly said, “The Battle of Wuzhou has ended. However, there remains a bigger scale war waiting for us. Generals, we cannot slack now."

"Yes, my Lord!"

The generals replied in unison; they all looking exceedingly serious.

"Shan Zhu!"

Ouyang Shuo directly started to appoint roles.

"Present!"

Shan Zhu did not think that he would be the first general to get called.

"You will lead the Tiger Legion 3rd division to set off tomorrow and rush to the Lingnan War Zone. After handing your forces to General Cao Gui, return to Shanhai City and report to the Military Affairs Department."

The Tiger Legion had already been drafted into the Lingnan War Zone. Since the Battle of Wuzhou had ended, Ouyang Shuo naturally needed to return Cao Gui's division to strengthen the defense on the east.

As for Shan Zhu, he was Ouyang Shuo’s choice for the major general of the iron armored beast division he had planned.

From Du Ruhui’s letter, Animal Husbandry Director Xia Houying had worked hard to breed the iron armored beasts in the valley, and it was slowly working out.

The Combat Logistics Department had already started to craft armor for the iron armored beasts. The iron armored beasts equipped with full armor would form a terrifying presence on the battlefield.

Shan Zhu was from the Li Race. As such, he understood the iron armored beasts the most. He was also a strong general, so he was the best choice for becoming the major general of the division.

The members of the division would be chosen from the mountain barbarian soldiers.

"Yes, my Lord!"

When Shan Zhu heard the command, doubt filled his heart. The Lord asking him to lead the troops to Lingnan War Zone was not the weird part. The weird part was the Lord asking him to return alone.

However, he could only keep his confusion to himself.

Apart from sending away Cao Gui's division, Ouyang Shuo placed emphasis on the Leopard Legion. The Leopard Legion now lacked close to twenty thousand members. How to fill up that gap posed a huge problem.

Ouyang Shuo decided to form a heavy armored infantry division from all the mountain barbarian prisoners; they would be under Zhang Han. All the current soldiers under him would be moved to other divisions.

Apart from that, Shi Wanshui's division, apart from keeping the two regiments, the remaining soldiers would enter the Leopard Legion. With that, the number of Leopard Legion soldiers would basically get restored.

The remaining shortfalls could only wait till after they defeated Taiping Country.

Moreover, such a reorganization did not just give the Leopard Legion the elite mountain barbarian soldiers but also gave them the experienced soldiers of Shi Wanshui's division.

Along with the trial by fire of the Battle of Wuzhou, the strength of the Leopard Legion did not fall. In fact, it had increased instead.

Shi Wanshui was badly injured. Even after consuming the Peiyuan Pill, he only woke up temporarily. As for truly recovering, it would take more than a month.

It was the same as saying that Shi Wanshui's legion had lost their main general.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo decided to just name the colonel of the 2nd regiment of Shi Wanshui's division as the deputy major general. He would lead the division, bringing along Shi Wanshui and the body of Wei Zhang over the one hundred thousand mountain passage and back to Lianzhou Prefecture and the Mulan Stronghold.

The three regiments of mountain barbarian soldiers would return with Liao Kai. These soldiers were sent into Er'Lai's division. Before this, he only had two regiments of heavy armored mountain barbarian infantries. Hence, Ouyang Shuo decided to form a pure mountain barbarian infantry division in one go.

The three regiments from Er'Lai's division nicely entered Shi Wanshui's division.

With that, the three legions of the Shanhai City Army were totally split up, and they were not mixed together in battles.

The Dragon Legion would be housed in Mulan Stronghold, the Tiger Legion in Lingnan War Zone, and the Leopard Legion temporarily in Wuzhou Prefecture.

After this whole reorganization, there were still a total of fifty thousand mountain barbarian warriors left, which were formed into four independent divisions. As for their names, it would be confirmed after the battle.

Of course, one of the divisions were prepared for the iron armored beast division. However, as it was currently wartime, Ouyang Shuo kept the division by his side to face the threat of Taiping Country.

The major generals of the four divisions, apart from Shi Hu who became the major general of the 1st division, the remaining three would temporarily come from the generals of the Divine Martial Guards.

The commander of their forces would temporarily be Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo did things this way because he had no other choice. After all, the mountain barbarians had just decided to switch sides. Apart from him, no one else could control them.

Furthermore, they were the best choices for heavy armored infantry soldiers. Ouyang Shuo naturally would not be so silly to break them apart and place them into various divisions.

The mountain barbarian heavy armored infantry divisions would form the most terrifying forces.

As for the two major generals of the heavy armored infantry division, Er'Lai was one of them. Needless to say, he had been leading them for a long time, so training and suppressing the new members would not be too difficult.

Zhang Han, this famous general might seem quiet, but he was a vicious person. If now, how could he manage to train a bunch of Lishan prisoners into such a strong army?

As such, Ouyang Shuo would not need to worry if he allowed Zhang Han to lead one division. If it was other generals, even Di Qing, Ouyang Shuo would have to worry.

After the reorganization, Ouyang Shuo had two legions, including the Guards Division and four mountain barbarian divisions for a total of two hundred thousand elite troops.

This time, Ouyang Shuo wanted to see how the Taiping Country showed their arrogance.

The next day, Shan Zhu and Liao Kai led their troops and left.

Han Xin led the Leopard Legion; they would stay at the command center for two days. First, to complete the organization of the troops. Second, to deal with post-war affairs.

Two days later, he would lead them south. Along with the Dragon Legion, they would pincer the Taiping Country south forces outside of Mulan Stronghold.

Ouyang Shuo, on the other hand, would lead the Divine Martial Guards, the Guards Division, and the four mountain barbarian divisions into Chiyou City to announce the birth of a new king.

The end of the Battle of Wuzhou did not mean that Wuzhou Prefecture had entered Shanhai City's rule.

At the very least, Ouyang Shuo had to obtain the recognition of the various tribes.

After all, those that had witness his coronation were only these mountain barbarian warriors.

The other tribesmen, especially those who lived in the city, did not see it.

Hence, he needed to show his existence at the fastest speed possible in case some other matters occur.

Ouyang Shuo brought the Divine Martial Guards and Guard Division along to prevent accidents. With such a key power in his hands, even if something bad happened, he would have the strength to face it.

Apart from that, ruling Wuzhou Prefecture would also be a problem.

In contrast to Leizhou and Zhaoqing, the people who ruled Wuzhou were all mountain barbarians. The Han people in the prefecture were all looked down upon. Between the two races, a deep conflict always ran.

After obtaining Wuzhou, the problem of balancing interests of both sides would be a huge problem.

If he took away the power of the mountain barbarians straight away, it would definitely come back to haunt him. But it he did not restore the position of the Han race, the economy of Wuzhou would not be able to rise.

Although Chiyou ran Wuzhou well, in terms of economy, it was a total mess.

The entire Wuzhou Prefecture was a burden.

Its economy was no different from a backward society.

Hence, to push it back on the right path was a long and arduous journey.

The key was to choose a suitable governor. This person must be firm to be able to suppress the mountain barbarians, and they must also have smarts and flexible knowledge to balance out the interests of both races.

Apart from that, the governor must be economic minded to revive the economy.

Last night, Ouyang Shuo had already sent a letter to Xiao He and Fan Zhongyan, appointing Fan Zhongyan as the governor.

At the current moment, only he could perform this job.

Xiao He would naturally cover the administration director position. As for the official evaluation, Xiao He would carry on with it, and it would not stop.

Before Fan Zhongyan led his officials over to take care of Wuzhou Prefecture, Ouyang Shuo needed to personally take charge of the situation.

Baiqi and Han Xin would settle the matter of Taiping Country, so there was not much of a problem.

Ouyang Shuo had to remind himself of his identity; his role was to settle his rule. Leading troops to war could be left to others to handle.

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Chapter 507- Secret of Chiyou City

The red clouds hung overhead, and the cooling breeze blew down.

Ouyang Shuo led his troops and walked through the wilderness, feeling the different and more warm atmosphere of Wuzhou Prefecture.

When he went past the Devil’s Slope, he could smell the slight scent of osmanthus flowers. In this serious wilderness, such a smell jolted one to their senses and helped them regain focus.

"Where is this place?"

"This slope is where Chiyou stopped his troops."

"Does the mountain have osmanthus flowers?"

"That's right. On the mountains, there is a whole patch of osmanthus trees. However, because the weather in the wilderness changed, all the osmanthus flowers that bloomed withered in a day."

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, he looked at the peak in silence. Others could not see through his expression.

After a long while, he opened his mouth once more, "Since this is where Chiyou and his troops stayed, and there are also Osmanthus flowers, it can be considered a treasured land. Let's just bury Chiyou at this peak!"

Originally, Ouyang Shuo planned to bring Chiyou back to the city to bury. However, he had changed his mind.

"Yes, my Lord!"

The army stopped and conducted a simple burial for Chiyou.

The moment the burial ended, a system notification sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi. Burying mountain barbarian leader Chiyou, displaying values and virtues, and touching the mountain barbarians. Loyalty of all mountain barbarians increased by 10."

When Ouyang Shuo heard this notification, he let out a long sigh.

Ouyang Shuo had learned a lot from what happened to Chiyou. In the wilderness, one's personal strength was limited. In order to achieve what one wanted, they needed good people by their side.

Do not just pay attention to Ouyang Shuo's strength increasing by the day. His heart remained as resolute as iron, and he would not let his achievements get to his head.

As the wind blew across, it brought away Ouyang Shuo's sigh and the fragrance of the osmanthus.

As the army left, the Devil’s Slope fell quiet once more.

From this day on, every 10th month of the year, the osmanthus flowers on Devil’s Slope would bloom exceptionally beautifully, as their fragrance spreaded far and wide, making this a popular scenic location.

Everyone knew that the devil of a generation was laid to rest here.

Gaia 2nd year, 10th month, 25th day, Chiyou City.

After four days of traveling, Ouyang Shuo arrived outside of Chiyou City. A day earlier, Shi Hu had already led the vanguard group and rushed here, announcing the results of the Battle of Wuzhou.

When they heard the news that their leader, Chiyou, had died in battle and the army had fallen, the mountain barbarians in the city fell totally silent at first. Then, an uproar broke out. Especially the news that Ouyang Shuo was crowned as Barbarian King; it caused a huge wave in the city.

All their shock and surprise was gathered into one sentence.

"Chiyou City was going to change!"

At that moment, there were actually people sowing chaos in the city, but Shi Hu suppressed them.

As the vanguard officer, Shi Hu's duty was to ensure that before the Lord arrived, Chiyou City would be under Shanhai City rule and there would not be a second voice.

If not, it would mean that he had failed to perform his duty.

Of course, some people were happy. At the very least, those Han people felt delighted. However, they could not display their feelings.

The mountain barbarian rule over the past year had left a large shadow in their hearts.

At the south gate, Shi Hu had gathered up the various tribe leaders, including some core people. They lined up orderly on both sides of the city gate to welcome Ouyang Shuo.

Based on the olden city concept, the south gate was the most important gate. The true south gate of the country was called the ‘country gate’. The Big Ming Gate during the Ming Dynasty and the Big Qing Gate during the Qing Dynasty were true south gates.

Ouyang Shuo entering the city through the south gate was a very clear signal. After today, he would be the new owner of Chiyou City and Wuzhou Prefecture.

The various tribal leaders stood outside of the city, bearing the cold winds. Although their faces did not dare to show any complains, they were unhappy in their hearts. They had not truly recognized Ouyang Shuo, this new king.

However, they were helpless, as Shi Hu had led the vanguard force to coerce them into this; they had no other choice.

Chiyou had moved the army in Chiyou City. Only some scattered forces remained, and they were totally not a match of Shi Hu's forces.

In the hands of all the tribes, there were not any powers or troops that could compete with them.

Chiyou defended fully against all the tribes, and he drafted all their elites into the army. The various tribes were not allowed to keep soldiers.

Even then, they still held a sliver of hope in their hearts that this was a lie. Or rather, when the mountain barbarian army returned, the tribal leaders hoped to get their members back.

Unfortunately, when the huge army appeared outside the city, the numerous tribal leaders were stunned.

In the serious and disciplined military formation, Ouyang Shuo wore the Mingguang Armor with his red cape. He rode on the King Qingfu Horse and slowly approached under the protection of the Divine Martial Guards and the mountain barbarian soldiers.

Undeniably, the various mountain barbarian warriors had already recognized the rule of this Barbarian King.

With no troops in their hands, there was nothing they could do.

The faces of the various tribal leaders suddenly turned ashen white. In their hearts, they felt really bitter.

As he past the various tribal leaders, Ouyang Shuo did not even dismount; he just proceeded directly into the city.

The huge army waltzed into Chiyou City.

At this point, the Han race people in the city could finally confirm that Chiyou had really died. The new ruler of Chiyou City was a Lord. Most crucially, he was from the Han race.

Instantly, numerous Han people walked into the streets to view the celebrations of the army.

Occasionally, they would let our cheers and each cheer was louder than the next.

This was the first time Ouyang Shuo had received such an intense welcome. The Divine Martial Guards and the Guards Division held their chests up high like heroes returning victorious.

The mountain barbarians, on the other hand, looked toward this huge army with complicated expressions.

Some were confused, others in awe.

After he entered the city, Ouyang Shuo immediately ordered the four independent divisions led by Shi Hu to move into the barracks. No other random people or strangers were allowed in or out.

Including the mountain barbarian warriors, they were not allowed to contact their family.

Ouyang Shuo was not ready to give the various tribes a chance to contact their tribesmen.

The Guards Division would take over the defence of Chiyou City. The guards of the Lord's Manor would naturally be taken over by the Guards Division as well. With that, no one could stir up problems in the city.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo act so careful, those tribe leaders who were planning something looked worse and worse.

When everything settled down, Ouyang Shuo still had not asked to meet all of them. He was hellbent on leaving them out to dry. On the other hand, he asked people to move all the files of Wuzhou Prefecture into his reading room for him to browse.

The more he saw, the worse his expression grew.

On the way here, Ouyang Shuo had already predicted the horrendous situation that awaited him. The people struggling to survive, the rulers suppressing them, and the conflicts between mountain barbarians and Han people.

After looking at the file, Ouyang Shuo felt even more speechless.

The entire Wuzhou Prefecture was not a system. Rather, it was Chiyou's personal territory.

The various cities did not have officials.

It only had the royals of the various mountain barbarian tribes abusing their power.

The entire prefecture did not even have a decent industry.

Apart from agriculture, it was mining and equipment crafting, there was not a single merchant.

The population of Wuzhou Prefecture was the lowest out of all the prefectures, at around half of Lianzhou. A large number of the Han people had left their homes, as they would rather leave everything behind to try and escape this place.

Ouyang Shuo grew more and more frustrated. In the end, he just threw the book aside. This whole mess would be up to Fan Zhongyan to handle.

The only thing that made Ouyang Shuo happy was probably the Chiyou City Treasury.

Wuzhou Prefecture had its back facing the one hundred thousand mountain, and the mountain barbarians had found two large-sized gold mines in it. As there was not any commerce, the gold was not spent, so it was just gathered in the treasury.

Preliminary estimations had the total gold at no less than one hundred thousand.

At least that would settle the starting construction fees for the prefectures.

Ouyang Shuo had used the income of the territory for these few months to purchase iron ore and coal, so he did not have any extra funds to support the construction of Wuzhou.

Originally, Ouyang Shuo was getting ready to borrow more money.

In Chiyou's room, Ouyang Shuo discovered two books.

One was called the ‘Jiuli Blood Domain True Manual,’ which taught one how to train the mountain barbarian Blood Guards.

Ouyang Shuo took a closer look before closing it. The training methods described were simply too cruel and immoral.

Thinking about it, Ouyang Shuo decided to just burn the entire book in a fire. Such an evil technique should not be allowed to exist. He should destroy it in case it caused problems.

The other book was called the ‘Jiuli Nine Crafting Method.’ It described the crafting methods of the Jiuli tribe. The armors of the mountain barbarian army was crafted from this technique.

This was decent.

If he gave it to the Combat Logistics Department, the research of the Shanhai City weapons would have some progress.

Other than that, there was just some random stuff that was not worth mentioning.

Strictly speaking, Chiyou was not a Lord that abided his power. The place where he stayed was really humble.

Even maidservants were rarely seen.

The only flaw was that he was just too violent. Based on what the servants said, Chiyou still liked to eat raw meat. Huge pieces of beef, dripping with blood; he would directly eat it raw.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this, he felt speechless.

After taking a short walk in the manor, Ouyang Shuo got up and left. He decided to take a look at the courtyard where Chiyou trained the Blood Guards.

Although he had destroyed the manual, Ouyang Shuo did not want to leave without seeing this place.

Everyone had curiosity in them.

The entire courtyard had no one living near it in hundreds of meters. Even when Chiyou led his troops and left, no one dared to enter and take a look.

Chapter 508- Ming Dynasty Cannon

10th month, 25th day, Chiyou City.

Before Ouyang Shuo even walked into the courtyard where Chiyou trained the Blood Guards, a bloody scent gushed out from within.

"Open up the gates!"

The Royal Guards Captain Chen Dameng, stepped up and kicked the wooden gate into pieces after he heard this command. He smashed the door aside, not even bothering about the lock.

"So rough!"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and walked into the courtyard.

What he saw inside caused his face to instantly turn ashen white.

Inside the courtyard, it was practically hell on earth.

He saw broken limbs scattered everywhere. Blood covered the courtyard walls, and there were many bloody handprints. Even the floor was dyed in blood.

Numerous flies and bugs were enjoying a ‘feast’ in the courtyard.

At the corner of the courtyard was a stone pool, five meters long and three meters wide. A thick blood scent permeated from the pool.

Upon closer inspection, it was actually a massive blood pool, an utterly bottomless pit with many white bones dispersed. Fresh blood filled the entire pool, and it would occasionally bubble.

Wasn't such a scene only possible in hell?

Ouyang Shuo remembered the contents he skimmed through in the manual. He knew that this pool was the key. Each day, the Blood Guards would soak themselves in the pool to absorbed the vigor and vitality from the blood.

The bones in the pool must belong to the Han Race people, who were captured to become the nutrients of this pool. Such a huge pool of blood, how many people were actually sacrificed?

Such a scene was grievously immoral.

Only the devil would do such a thing, treating human life like dirt and the Han people in his territory like dogs.

Even the faces of Chen Dameng and the others turned ashen white when they saw this scene, and they were about to vomit.

"Open this land to the public for a day. After that, destroy it." Ouyang Shuo did not have the heart to continue looking so he turned around.

"Yes, my Lord!"

Chen Dameng replied resolutely; anger filled his eyes.

As a person from the Han race, seeing his people face such treatment, he obviously did not feel good.

The moment the mystery of the courtyard was revealed, it immediately caused an uproar amongst the people.

Do not mention the Han people, even when the mountain barbarians saw this scene, they felt furious, as some of the broken limbs belonged to the mountain barbarian warriors.

Numerous loved ones, be it Han people or mountain barbarians, found the bodies of their family members in the courtyard. They cried out in agony.

The image of Chiyou tumbled.

The tribal leaders of the various tribes did not dare to act arrogantly anymore. They all ran to the Lord's Manor to meet the Lianzhou Lord and recognize his position as Barbarian King.

Ouyang Shuo did not care much about these actions.

He was planning to make these tribe leaders a little more eager.

After he returned to the manor, Ouyang Shuo still was not able to calm down.

The scene of the bloody pool replayed numerous times in his head; he could not wipe it away. The cruelness of the wilderness had appeared in front of him and knocked on his senses.

Originally, Ouyang Shuo thought that he was cruel enough, thought that he could face all kinds of cruel acts. Who knew that Chiyou’s actions would once again cross his bottom line.

The cruelness of the wilderness far surpassed his expectations.

No wonder they said that blood and bones filled one’s road to emperor.

Ouyang Shuo could not help but ask himself, Was he really prepared?

"Lord, there's urgent military matters!"

The military intelligence officer's arrival broke his train of thought.

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, he took the letter the military intelligence officer had received from the relay. The letter was from Baiqi, and it reported the latest situation at the Mulan Stronghold.

Mulan Stronghold.

After half a month of preparation, they had transported numerous siege weapons and grain resources to the South Camp.

A batch of secret weapons arrived along with the items.

Apart from that, Hong Xiuquan sent an extra fifty thousand troops. He even sent the orders that they would stop at nothing to take down Mulan Stronghold.

The current Tianjing City had less than forty thousand troops stationed.

Everyone thought that Hong Xiuquan was crazy.

In reality, how could the Hong Xiuquan who was given a second life be a fool? In his hands, he held a secret manual that needed a harbor to fulfil his ambition.

Hence, even if he paid the greatest of prices, he needed to take down Mulan Stronghold and attack Lianzhou Prefecture. As such, he worked together with Chiyou.

Hong Xiuquan's determination would not be shaken.

……

The south army of the Taiping Country was formed from the south and west troops, along with the fifty thousand from Tianjing, they now had a total of two hundred thousand troops.

The main general was Yang Xiuqing, with young general Li Xiucheng as the deputy general. Apart from them, there were two other generals, Li Fengxiang and Chen Yucheng, who were the generals of the left and right troops respectively.

Hong Xiuquan was determined to take down Mulan Stronghold and open up Taiping Country to the ocean.

A day before Ouyang Shuo arrived at Chiyou City, during the 10th month, 24th day, the south troops finally attacked Mulan Stronghold.

Defending the stronghold were the 3rd, 4th, and 5th divisions of the Dragon Legion. Apart from that would be the 1st division of the Tiger Legion led by Zhao Sihu.

As for the Lianzhou Prefecture Garrison Division, they were awaiting orders in Mulan City.

The first wave of Taiping Country had suffered unprecedented casualties.

As the top stronghold in Nanjiang, how much money and manpower was thrown into the Mulan Stronghold? There were a one hundred three bow arcuballistas and fifty trebuchets, which launched a huge welcoming blow to the south army.

Before they even got close to the foot of the city wall, rocks and arrows pelted them.

The three blow arcuballistas shot out sharp arrows. Not only were the weapons long ranged, it also shot in high quantities. It was basically a human meat grinder.

A total of one hundred three bow arcubalistas and 150 normal arcubalistas were placed on the walls, forming a huge defensive line.

The arrow rain was like a modern day machine gun, recklessly spending ammo.

In just a morning, they had used up fifty thousand arrows and bolts, a terrifying number. Only Shanhai City could manage such a huge consumption of bolts and arrows.

Apart from the arcubalistas, the trebuchets were also highly destructive.

Mulan Stronghold had prepared modified fireballs from the stones. The alchemical fire oil that Ouyang Shuo had crazily purchased a year ago appeared once more.

The soldiers covered numerous giant stone balls in oil. After ignition, they became giant fireballs that smashed into the Taiping Country army formation.

The closely packed formation was virtually heaven for the fireball.

The moment one smacked down, it caused a wide area of damage. The fire burned numerous soldiers, who let out cries of pain.

The number of fireballs were uncountable.

This time, the Taiping Country forces were thrown into total chaos, and they could not even form up.

Under both of these defence weapons, in just one day, the south troops lost fifteen thousand soldiers. Moreover, they had not even touched the wall of the stronghold.

This time, be it Yang Xiuqing or Li Xiucheng, both were stunned.

Such a fortress was not something anyone could take down.

Just as Baiqi thought that the Taiping Country Army would back off, they actually mercilessly assaulted the stronghold again on the second day. They seemed to be following the notion of ‘Not stopping till they got what they wanted.’

In front of the firepower of Mulan Stronghold, they had no choice but to bring the secret weapon of Taiping Country out early. Along with the army, in the midst of their formation, five cannons appeared.

These cannons were Hong Xiuquan’s secret weapons.

When Hong Xiuquan started the uprising, the Qing Dynasty was reaching its end. The use of cannons were really commo. Hence, when he appeared, he naturally obtained the Ming Dynasty Firearm Making Technical Manual.

Helplessly, the making of cannons, be it the requirements on raw materials or skill, were very high level. As a result, the failure rate was extremely high as well. Moreover, increasing the number of cannons would not increase the damage output once they gathered too many, so it was not suitable to equip a large-scale army with these weapons.

Hong Xiuquan wanted to attack Mulan Stronghold because he wanted to find a port to build warships. After equipping them with cannons, he could fulfil his ambition.

Five cannons formed an astounding strength.

Facing the copper and iron gates and walls of the stronghold, they blew hole after hole. If this continued, Mulan Stronghold would actually fall.

Regretfully, they only possessed five cannons, which also had a short range. As such, they needed to use troops to protect the cannons and pushed them near the wall under the fire of the arcuballistas and trebuchets.

All of a sudden, both sides suffered heavy damage.

The walls of Mulan Stronghold were damaged, while Taiping Country lost troops. A trebuchet had even destroyed one of their cannons.

A day had passed and Mulan Stronghold. Although the cannons had surprised them, they did not face true danger yet. That night, Baiqi immediately ordered the Lianzhou Prefecture Garrison Division to move in to help the defense.

The Taiping Country south troops similarly were not feeling good, as they had lost ten thousand more soldiers. If this carried on, the south army would collapse before they even passed the stronghold.

That night, Yang Xiuqing sent a letter to Hong Xiuquan, asking to retreat. He advised they changed the strategic position to Chuanbei Province on the north.

Regretfully, Hong Xiuquan rejected his suggestion.

This was also the first time the two of them had differing opinions. One must know that the position of Yang Xiuqing in Taiping Country was only second to that of Hong Xiuquan.

Chapter 509- Foundation of Aristocratic Family

Mulan Stronghold had suddenly turned into the hot spot of the southwest battlefield.

Since Hong Xiuquan insisted on fighting, Yang Xiuqing naturally needed to follow his orders to the end no matter the sacrifice. After all, at least in the current moment, Hong Xiuquan's prestige in Taiping Country was unassailable.

Just as Taiping Country's south army was attacking Mulan Stronghold, Han Xin led the Leopard Legion to rush his troops to assist Mulan Stronghold, as he had received instructions from the Military Affairs Department.

Since they had spent two days at the command center, even if they rushed, they could only reach Mulan Stronghold at the 28th at the earliest.

Hence, Baiqi's troops needed to defend for at least two days.

Apart from that, they had just occupied Wuzhou Prefecture, and it was not officially under Shanhai Territory's rule. As a result, the logistical supplies of the army came from Zhaoqing Prefecture.

One could say that Han Xin leading his troops to Mulan Stronghold was a risk in itself. However, Han Xin was a person who would grasp his chances; he knew that if this chance was lost, it would not come again.

Taiping Country attacking Mulan Stronghold meant that their attention was solely on the frontline. The moment the Leopard Legion attacked them from the back, they could lose immediately.

For victory, Han Xin was willing to take this risk.

As for the Liao Kai’s 1st division of the Dragon Legion, they were still traveling through the one hundred thousand mountains. They most probably would not make it in time for this battle.

Furthermore, due to the current situation in Wuzhou Prefecture, Ouyang Shuo did not dare to send the Guards Division.

Using just one division to control the entire Wuzhou Prefecture was something that already caused Ouyang Shuo to feel fear. After he left the courtyard, he ordered Lin Yi to lead two regiments and one mountain barbarian division to sweep all the other powers in Wuzhou Prefecture.

The number of mountain barbarian tribes in Wuzhou numbered in the hundreds. Amongst which, sixty lived in Chiyou City, while the remaining became the powers in Wuzhou Prefecture.

The day that Ouyang Shuo reached Chiyou City, he had already instructed Wang Feng to lead a one hundred man squad to post notices to announce Shanhai City’s rule.

Based on the letter that Wang Feng sent back, some places had even locked out the Divine Martial Guards.

Facing these ignorant mountain barbarians, Ouyang Shuo naturally had to show his hand. He also wanted to make use of the chance to clean out the stubborn powers in Wuzhou Prefecture. Such actions would help clean out the obstacles for Fan Zhongyan and his rule of Wuzhou Prefecture.

The Black Snake Guards, including the Military Intelligence Division, had never given up on infiltrating the various counties and cities in Wuzhou. Under the help of both intelligence organizations, Lin Yi's lightning operation would definitely succeed.

……

In the letter from the Black Snake Guards, they reported that Tianjing City only had forty thousand troops stationed. Ouyang Shuo was actually tempted to just lead the Guards Division and the four mountain barbarian divisions to attack it and remove their main camp.

In truth, this idea was actually exceedingly tempting.

After thinking about it clearly, Ouyang Shuo decided to give up the idea for three reasons.

Firstly, Tianjing City was not easy to occupy.

After Hong Xiuquan received a second life, he would definitely run his city well. Based on what the Black Snake Guards sent, the city walls of Tianjing City, including the defences, were all top grade in the wilderness.

Based on grade, it was half a grade higher than a prefecture and laid between a prefecture and a capital city. If one gave him a little more time, he could truly achieve the scale of a capital city.

Hence, without siege weapons, taking it down was just a pipe dream. Not for other reasons, but because he was sure that there would be cannons mounted on the wall.

Cannons might not be good for sieges, but for defending purposes, they were a real killer weapon. Shooting down from the walls, if the enemy lacked protection, it would really kill anything in its path.

Its power and killing ability was even scarier than the three bow arcuballista.

With only the current independent mountain barbarian divisions, Ouyang Shuo did not have the confidence to take the city down.

Secondly, Xunzhou Prefecture was not some back garden.

Hong Xiuquan's rule had religious teachings as its core.

Hence, in Xunzhou, be it the officials or the people, they were all the believers of the Taiping religion.

Ouyang Shuo believe that the moment he entered their territory, no matter how careful he acted, his troops would be revealed to Hong Xiuquan, and they would have nowhere to hide.

Hence, a sneak attack was completely impossible.

Hong Xiuquan's rule was truly an iron bowl. All the people in Taiping Country were his believers, and they acted as his eyes and ears. Any movement, however slight, could not escape his attention.

In comparison, Chiyou's rule was merely cruel and inhumane.

Thirdly, Wuzhou Prefecture was not stable yet.

This instability did not just lie in the previously stated elements, as there was a more important point—he had to defend against the Wannan City-state up north.

After the Battle of Zhaoqing, any neighbor of Shanhai City had realized an important point—if they did not want Shanhai City to swallow them, just defending was not enough. They needed to maintain vigilance at every moment. Moreover, when the moment arrived, they should even attack, attacking as a form of defense.

If not, at any moment, they could be like frogs in warm water, getting killed off one by one.

Furthermore, the leader of Wannan City-State, Caiyun Zinan, was not a simple figure. Before this, he was so quiet. However, during the Battle of Julu, he had finally revealed his strength.

Moreover, the moment he showed himself, he had actually achieved ‘it is fine if I stay silent, but I will shock the world if I act.’

For the Wannan City-State to be built up in such a short time, apart from the threat of Shanhai City, Caiyun Zinan’s prestige in the alliance was another reason.

In comparison, both Xunlong Dianxue and Gong Chengshi were inferior.

Ouyang Shuo did not think that after the Wannan City-state was established, they would act like a well-behaved baby. At the crucial moment, Caiyun Zinan would still have the courage to cross swords with Shanhai City.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo did not dare to relax his control on Wuzhou Prefecture.

Based on the intel from the Black Snake Guards, Caiyun Zinan and Yuan Ping had been talking. Between the two, they had probably come to an agreement to form an alliance and attack Shanhai City at the same time.

As such, the situation at both the north and east sides of Shanhai City was a case of if one acts, both would. Further expanding the territory would be really difficult.

At such a time, why would Ouyang Shuo take the risk and attack Jingdou?

With his character, he preferred to stay safe than sorry.

As long as Han Xin's legion reached Mulan Stronghold in time and destroyed Taiping Country's south troops, with the two legions, they could easily destroy Xunzhou Prefecture.

Stability was the goal that Ouyang Shuo had set. As long as he was stable, Shanhai City would not fall. However, if he was rash and took unnecessary risks, the enemy might have a chance to come back.

The difference between Ouyang Shuo and Di Chen was that his foundation was not thick enough.

Be it Di Chen, Chun Shenjun, Zhan Lang, Xiong Ba, or even Sha Pojun, who was near to destruction, they could still stand back up and even improve no matter how many times they lost to Ouyang Shuo.

What did they depend on? They depended on the deep pockets and foundations of their aristocratic families.

But Ouyang Shuo was different. Although he used his advantages to help the territory increase their foundation, he had reached a crucial stage. If he suffered a massive setback, there was a chance that he could never crawl back up.

Why?

Because Ouyang Shuo's personal foundation was not strong enough. If he tried to play solo, he definitely was not the opponent of the aristocratic families.

However, he could make use of the advantages of a second life, and the specialty of the territory to acquire more historical talents. He would also develop the locals so that he could fight against the aristocratic families.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo could not commit a mistake. The moment he did, a bottomless pit awaited him.

The China region had a weird phenomenon, and it was one that Ouyang Shuo only noticed recently. That would be that compared to his last life, at the same stage, the territories of Di Chen and the others were stronger.

Why?

That was because Ouyang Shuo had forced them to grow quickly.

The role that Ouyang Shuo played in the China region was pretty much a ‘sh*t stirrer’. However, he did plated his role too well, so he had totally woke up this bunch of kids from the aristocratic families.

This kind of situation was similar to the catfish effect.

Ouyang Shuo was the catfish in the pond.

When Ouyang Shuo realized this problem, he truly did not know whether he should laugh or cry.

10th month, 26th day, the third day of the battle.

The south troops of Taiping Country were ready to go all out. Close to two hundred thousand troops charged out.

The most eye catching aspect was none other than the remaining four cannons.

After learning their lesson from yesterday, Yang Xiuqing ordered the men to rush some protection for the cannons overnight to prevent them from being destroyed by the trebuchets.

The cannon was strong, but it was also incredibly expensive.

Apart from cannons, the south army also had a second killing move—hundreds of moving arrow turrets. To prevent the arcubalistas from suppressing these turrets, the south army needed to create some height.

This time, it was a battle of the archers of both sides.

Apart from that, the frontline of the south army contained only sword-shield soldiers.

Yang Xiuqing's goal was very simple, and he did not expect to break through within a day, nor did he expect to rush up the city walls and engage in hand to hand combat yet.

He wished to maintain the fire power of the cannons and try to destroy a portion of the wall. He wanted to create a chance for tomorrow.

Apart from that, he aimed to destroy the arcubalistas and trebuchets on the walls.

If he did not destroy them, the south army could not attack up the city wall.

Yang Xiuquan was born poor, and his family had survived on agriculture and burning coal. However, he was an extremely talented and smart person. Be it in terms of politics or military, he had performed exceptionally.

Chapter 510- Blowing a Massive Hole

In history, Yang Xiuqing had taken control of Taiping Country matters. If he did not grow overly ambitious and greedy, trying to replace Hong Xiuquan, his achievements would not have ended there.

As a result, the Hong Xiuquan in the wilderness was extremely wary of Yang Xiuqing. From the start, he had placed the latter in the military and totally did not want him to play a part in national matters.

Hong Xiuquan was decent In terms of building his religion, forming the organization, and using his powers. However, when talking about running a country, he was a true and true outsider.

Hence, the three prefectures of land under Taiping Country were not doing so well economically. Only Hong Xiuquan’s personal prestige allowed them to maintain their rule.

The people under their rule were all living miserable lives.

Even though times change, one’s personality did not.

Although Hong Xiuquan was not as extravagant as in the past, he still enjoyed life at suitable moments.

In this life, Hong Xiuquan was a person who held onto his power.

……

Turning back to the battlefield, Yang Xiuqing led his troops to launch the third attack on Mulan Stronghold.

On the battlefield, smoke bellowed.

Hong Long!

The continuous blows of the cannon placed Mulan Stronghold under a strenuous test.

The south troops of Taiping Country did not fear death. The soldiers carried their iron shields, not afraid of dying, as they valiantly defended the four cannons, determined to blow a massive hole in Mulan Stronghold.

How powerful was the Ming Dynasty cannon?

The great bombardment eventually blew a huge hole in a corner of the east city wall.

"Aim at that hole and burst it open!"

The cannon commanding officer looked excited, as he saw the light of victory.

The four cannons shot to collective, one after another the ‘thunderclap bullets’ pummelled the city wall, enlarging the hole.

Due to the deficiencies of the Ming Dynasty cannon itself, it was quite terrible in terms of accuracy. Out of the four cannonballs could hit it, it would be considered really lucky.

During the Ming Dynasty, guns or cannons were both used on a large scale. However, why didn’t they completely replace cold weapons like the west?

There were four main reasons.

Firstly, cannons needed to be able to fire ‘blooming cannonballs’—cannonballs that would explode.

Why? Only an exploding cannonball could turn the cannon from a siege weapon into a ground war weapon and cause large scale damage. If they only shot iron cannonballs, the damage would be naturally limited.

Meanwhile, an exploding cannonball would release numerous fragments and cause a wide area of effect damage.

The cannon barrel of the ‘Toxic Fire Feibo’ created during the Ming Dynasty was crafted from wrought iron, and it used over 10 types of gunpowder. The cannonballs themselves were made of cast iron and contained sulphur poison. After being shot, it would fly three hundred meters and explode, injuring people.

Unfortunately, this technique did not mature during the Ming Dynasty, so it did not see large scale use.

Later, during the Qing Dynasty, not only did the technique fail to improve, it actually went backward. They started to use iron as its core and even stone to replace cannonballs.

Before the self-strengthening movement, the power of the Ming Dynasty cannons naturally only reached the power of toys.

During the 19th century seventies, Zuo Zongtang went out to sea and found the ‘blooming cannonballs’ at Shanxi Fengxiang. He was filled with emotion, “Such a lethal weapon was in China three hundred years ago, causing someone to pay attention to this. How did the island race people conquer the seas, while we were stuck being arrogant for more than tens of years?"

During the opium war, the conservativeness of the Qing Dynasty in terms of weapons had caused them to pay a hefty price. Before the self-strengthening movement, in two hundred years of the Qing Dynasty, their thermal weapons were even weaker than that of the Ming Dynasty. Compared to the progressiveness of the Ming Dynasty, one could see the flaws of the Qing Dynasty ruler.

Secondly, the cannon was not flexible.

The cannons were not flexible, so they were not suitable for gathering together. The Ming Dynasty cannons, be it the short barrelled mortar Folang Jichong or the Hongyi Cannon later, none of them were flexible.

Although the short barrelled mortar was not that big, it still needed to be nailed to the ground prior to firing. The Hongyi cannon was originally a ship cannon from the Portuguese, weighing hundreds of kilograms. As such, it was cumbersome and only suitable for defending.

On the contrary, the westerners had cannons that were light, and they could use horses to form cannon formations in a short time. The Ming army also had cannon carriages, but the power of the mounted cannon was too small.

Just like the five cannons Taiping Country had transported from Tianjing. They had already expended so much time and effort to get these weapons to Mulan Stronghold. If not, there would be ten or even more cannons on the current battlefield.

Thirdly, they needed a sufficient number of gunner troops.

Even if an arquebus had a greater advantage than bows, not to mention the flintlock gun that could fire four to five bullets per minute. During the battle of Japan, Oda Nobunaga's three section gunner hit was famous for an era.

Regretfully, the Ming Dynasty never had a meaningful gunner force.

Those big and small handguns were standardized. Some even needed people to use it, which was highly inconvenient.

Fourthly, cannons needed the ability to control fire.

Fire control meant gun regulation, such as gun length and gunpowder loading techniques. Without these controls, the hit rate would just be a massive joke.

An elite gunner had to estimate the distance from the enemy before taking a shot. Although one could estimate through the use of a telescope, the method of moment could allow for more accurate guesses of distance.

At the start of Chongzhen's rule, the Ming army had already started to mass produce the Hongyi cannons. However, unlike the westerners who used instruments to raise their accuracy, the Ming army lacked such tools, which always remained the weakness of the many gunners of the Ming army.

After Hong Xiuquan acquired the Ming Dynasty Firearm Making Technical Manual, he naturally lacked the ability to improve the cannons. To produce them was already highly difficult.

Hence, the four cannons of the south army were merely average in terms of accuracy.

The four of them successively aimed and shot for a morning, but only eight cannonballs struck the hole—the others all missed.

This scene caused Yang Xiuqing’s face to turn totally black but there was nothing he could do about it.

During the entire morning, the south army lost another six thousand men. All things considered, they had already lost thirty thousand men with no progress.

Thinking about Hong Xiuquan’s letter that asked him to go all out, Yang Xiuqing's expression grew worse and worse. He ordered the troops to hold on, and they would not retreat until they destroyed the wall.

……

On the city walls of Mulan Stronghold, Baiqi's expression was unprecedentedly serious.

Although the enemy cannons had not succeeded, they still greatly shocked Baiqi.

As a general born during the Warring States Period, he was a complete stranger to firearms. Seeing the enemy push out such a monster that could blow through their thick walls, how could he not feel shocked?

Baiqi noted that the appearance of cannons would revolutionize the future battles.

As a god general, he would not be content with his current standards, and he would desire to continuously improve. After this war, it was time for him to increase his knowledge of firearms.

It seems like it was just a matter of time before the enemy destroyed the wall.

Baiqi immediately ordered the soldiers to move ten Knife Blockage Chariots near the area of the city wall that was under attack.

Knife Blockage Chariots were defence weapons used to block and jam up the city gate. There were twenty steel knives at the front, and the chariot could be pushed toward the hole. It could kill enemies, while blocking all their arrows and stones. This made it difficult for enemies to climb.

Hence, the Knife Blockage Chariots were the best weapon for when an enemy breached the city wall.

Mulan Stronghold had a complicated city gate design. Not only did they construct two consecutive Wengchengs, they also used huge stones to block up the main city gate, and one must use machinery to pull up the stones.

This machinery was modified after the Mohists moved in.

Hence, to the south army of Taiping Country, it would be easier for them to directly destroy the wall than to break through the gates.

Mulan Stronghold’s only weakness was its lack of a city protection river.

Now that the enemy wanted to destroy the city wall, Baiqi could only move the Knife Blockage Chariots to increase the defence.

Apart from that, Baiqi also summoned Er'Lai, asking him to lead the two heavy armored mountain barbarian infantry regiments of the 3rd division to wait at the north city wall, which was currently under attack.

The moment the enemy broke through, a bloodbath would ensue.

To block the enemy's attack and defend the hole would be the key to this battle. At this moment, Baiqi naturally had to move the elite troops of the army to join in the defence.

In the entire army, there was no group more suitable.

With everything planned out, Baiqi heaved a sigh of relief, as he had already planned for the worst.

……

At 2 PM, the biggest change in the battlefield finally happened.

Hong Long!

As one iron cannonball accurately struck the gaping hole, the enemy finally broke apart the wall at the east.

Instantly, the Taiping Country south troops let out deafening cheers; it was like they though they had already won.

Yang Xiuqing's expression also changed for the better. He knew that the current morale was good, and he did not need to continue the attack tomorrow. He immediately ordered the troops to launch their most vicious attacks through the huge hole in the wall.

They needed to win with this fight.

The ones at the front were the troops led by Li Xiucheng.

"Kill!"

The young General Li Xiucheng led the vanguard troops, which were the most elite infantry under him. They charged toward the hole; their eyes blood red. They did not care about death.

And the moment that the city wall was broken, the Shanhai City soldiers quickly cleared out the rocks and stuck two Knife Blockage Chariots into the hole.

The mountain barbarian heavy armored regiments led by Er'Lai waited behind the chariots. Luosha, who Er'Lai had mounted, roared; it was eager to just rush into battle.

The most difficult part of this siege and defence battle would occur at this relatively narrow hole.

Chapter 511- Overbearing Fiend

Yet another sunset.

The only difference was that the sunset today was exceptionally devilish; the orange red sun and the blood red clouds created a suppressive feeling, covering the skies.

Looking out, the heavens and the earth were utterly red.

Moving and tragic.

The autumn breeze blew across, bringing along a low, whirring sound.

The bloody battle at the bottom of the Mulan Stronghold city wall had ended. The thick-armored mountain barbarian warriors rested on the city walls, as they gasped for air.

Knife marks and blood stains covered their armor.

Not far from them, the hole in the city wall had bodies littered around it. Some were mountain barbarians, but most of them were Taiping Country soldiers. Their yellow army uniforms were really eye catching on the battlefield.

In the intense battle in the afternoon, both sides gave it their all around this hole; neither party wanted to back off. The small hole was like a zone that prohibited all life. Whoever dared to walk in would be like someone walking into an abyss. Only the strongest warriors could struggle out of this venture.

There were many times that the Taiping Country troops had rushed through the hole, fearlessly attacking the stronghold. However, they were forced back time after time by Er’Lai and his mountain barbarian warriors.

The control over this small area changed five to six times in just an afternoon.

Every inch of land was smothered in the fresh blood of numerous warriors.

Many scattered blood stains covered the wall; it looked extremely cold and chilling under the sunset glow.

This was the most brutal battle since the war between the two sides had started.

Relying on the stubbornness of the mountain barbarian warriors, Shanhai had managed to defend the base. Not only that, Er'Lai had also captured a big fish—the deputy general of the south troops, Li Xiucheng.

As one of the pillars of Taiping Country, he was born from a poor family. When he was young, he would search for food with his parents, leading a exceedingly arduous life.

After joining the Taiping Country Army, his intelligence and bravery in battle let him quickly climb the ranks from a normal soldier to a young general. After the Tianjing chaos, Chen Yucheng, Li Shixian, and Li Xiucheng helped calm the situation and obtained victory of Jiangbei camp, Sanhe Dajie, Jiangnan camp. Hong Xiuquan then titled Li Xiucheng as King Zhong.

After Tianjing fell, Li Xiucheng was captured and killed.

Although Li Xiucheng looked gentle, he was a resolute and steely person on the inside. From the day he was born poor, he had paid a lot of attention to the pain and lives of the people, putting his efforts into promoting the people rather than earning titles and fame.

Li Xiucheng's opponents, such as Zeng Guofan, said that he was crafty like a fox but also genuinely brave.

When he led the troops to attack the hole, he charged too far in front, and the soldiers were not able to guard him. As such, Er'Lai took the chance to injure and capture him.

His capture pushed the afternoon battle into a white-hot stage.

Seeing their general captured, Li Xiucheng's forces went crazy, and they fearlessly launched wave after wave of attacks. They did not even care about their lives.

Even the strong mountain barbarians could not handle such a fierce and ferocious force. If it was not for Er'Lai being an absolute monster and raising the morale, the Taiping Country soldiers would have managed to charge in.

Even so, the mountain barbarian soldiers suffered heavy casualties.

A total of five hundred elite mountain barbarians were out to rest under the city wall, while the dead Taiping Country soldiers numbered in the thousands.

During this clash, no less than four thousand soldiers died at the hole.

At the end of the battle, just the corpses alone plugged up the hole. The Taiping Country soldiers had no choice but to clean them out time after time before they could launch their attacks.

When the sunset appeared, Li Xiucheng's forces were utterly broken.

Even so, these bunch of men still wanted to charge forward. One could see how much Li Xiucheng meant to them, and he was definitely loved for them to act so crazy.

Finally, Yang Xiuqing personally gave the order to Li Xiucheng's remaining troops to leave the battlefield.

……

"Boys, get up. The commander-in-chief has spoken. You have all done well and should be rewarded!" A coarse shout suddenly broke the quiet and peaceful atmosphere.

Of course, the one who had spoken was the general who contributed the most, Er'Lai.

This overbearing fiend had never known fear or exhaustion. After an afternoon of intense battle, the strong mountain barbarian warriors all laid on the ground in exhaustion.

On the other hand, this main general treated it like nothing had happened. After the battle, he immediately ran to Baiqi to ask for rewards.

When he returned this time, a pure smile was plastered on his face.

As he had left in a hurry, he had not cleaned up the blood on his face. His smile moved his facial muscles, along with all the dried up blood.

When the soldiers saw that, they all felt a chill.

Of course, the mountain barbarians respected their general, Er’Lai, from the bottom of their hearts.

Mountain barbarians were a race that respected the strong.

And Er'Lai was synonymous with strength.

During the battle in the afternoon, no less than a hundred people died under his double halberd. Needless to say, his shocking one shot had even captured the enemy general.

Such achievements made all the mountain barbarian warriors look on in awe.

Er'Lai was strong, and he even had a hint of selfishness and arrogance, but he would not look down on these warriors. As a result, the mountain barbarians treated him as one of their own.

Some of them even joked that mountain barbarian blood definitely coursed through his body.

If not, how could his personality and actions be so similar to them?

Even toward their Commander-in-Chief Baiqi, the mountain barbarians did not show as much respect.

However, this time, they were really too tired.

They were so tired that their brains had stopped working, and they just wanted to lie on the walls and have a good sleep.

When Er'Lai saw their reactions, he felt unhappy and shouted in his deafening voice, "Hey, my boys, I've praised you all in front of the commander-in-chief. Why, after just one afternoon, you all don't have the strength to reply?"

The soldiers could only roll their eyes toward their general’s mocking.

Seeing the way their general was still moving and shouting with so much energy, there was nothing the soldiers could say.

"Haha!"

Observing the scene, Er'Lai was delighted and laughed boisterously.

The current Er'lai was like a great devil, as he could still laugh so happily on the battlefield.

As he laughed, he remembered the important matter and announced, “The commander-in-chief has orders, the 1st and 2nd regiment are all given grade 6 rewards. All soldiers will upgrade 1 rank. At the same time, the commander-in-chief even said to increase your meals tonight and give you barbecued meat!"

This time, the mountain barbarian warriors regained their energies, and their eyes simultaneously lit up.

Chapter 512- The Craziness of Religion

Ever since the Shanhai Military pushed out the military rank system, the ranks to the soldiers were like their lives and honor.

The soldiers did not expect Commander-in-Chief Baiqi to act so generous; he actually promoted all of them by one grade; this was such a great reward.

When Er'lai saw their reaction, his mood was also extremely good. He laughed, "My boys, let's go and eat some meat. If we head there too late, the good meat would be gone!" As he spoke, he walked toward the camp.

Hua la!"

The mountain barbarian warriors, who were lying lifelessly on the city wall, suddenly felt a surge of energy; they ran faster than even rabbits toward the camp.

"Haha!"

Er’Lai let out a devil-like laugh at this sight.

Compared to the festivities in Mulan Stronghold, the south camp of the Taiping Country was bitter and sad.

The pain and successive failures they experienced while attacking, along with the enemy capturing deputy general Li Xiucheng, had caused their strong and resolute mental strengths to wane.

After backing down from the battlefield, Li Xiucheng's remaining forces went to the commander tent and shouted, demanding that General Yang Xiuqing send troops out tomorrow to save Li Xiucheng.

The insolence of these soldiers utterly infuriated Yang Xiuqing.

The soldiers that led this movement were captured and given twenty strokes of the whip.

Observing their general’s fury, the Taiping Country soldiers felt emotionally cold. The entire camp remained silent, and no one dared to make a sound. When the soldiers ate their meals, they also did not dare to speak out loud.

Yang Xiucheng locked himself in his tent and did not meet anyone; he did not even eat dinner. Only at 9 PM did he suddenly inform all the generals to gather for a meeting.

A short while later, the generals gathered in the commander tent, their hearts pounding out of their chests.

The ones to lead were naturally Lin Fengxiang and Chen Yucheng.

Lin Fengxiang, who led the left troops, was a famous general of their north advancing army. He was also born as a farmer. He joined the Taiping Army as a member of the Palace Guards and climbed the ranks to Jinghu Lord.

Back then, the north advancing army of the Taiping Country fell into a terrible situation because they went too deep in without enough grain. Moreover, it was winter. Year 1854, they backed off to Fu City, where Ji Wenyuan died, and they retreated again to Dongguang Lian Town.

Year 1855, 2nd month, the Qing army attacked Lian Town. Commander Lin Fengyang fought and dealt heavy damage to the enemy. In the 3rd month, Lian City was lost and Lin Fengxiang was captured. Later, he killed himself in Beijing. At that point, he was thirty-one years old.

After which, Hong Xiuquan granted him the title of Qiu King.

Although Lin Fengxiang was not of noble birth, he was calm in battle, and he could lead the troops into battle and command them effectively. Hence, he was an important general in the ranks of Taiping Country.

The general of the right troops, Chen Yucheng, was a young general that was as famous as Li Xiucheng. Similar to other generals of the Taiping Army, Chen Yucheng was also a Hakka person. He was given the title of Ying King after his valiant fights and battles.

Chen Yucheng had moles below both of his eyes, so his foresight was as strong as those with four eyes.

Year 1862, Taiping Country traitor Miao Peilin tricked him and sent him into the Qing camp. In front of the enemy, he was righteous and did not give in, choosing to kill himself. At that point, he was only twenty-six years old.

Chen Yucheng was also one of the few amongst the Taiping Army proficient in martial arts skills. Since a young age, he had trained his spear art. As a result, he was given the title of ‘Thirty Brilliant Back Spear Thrust.’

The two of them, one left and right, while the other generals sat based on their positions and rank.

Yang Xiuqing, sat at the front, completely expressionless. He looked around and said, “The failure today isn't enough to decide the outcome. We still hold the advantage and the initiative of the battle."

After these words, Yang Xiuqing paused, like he needed to boost his own confidence before spoke the next words out loud, “As such, we mustn't feel demoralised, and we can't have any other thoughts that we shouldn't have. I'll start this off with something that sounds bad, but no matter what the price, we must take it down."

"We pledge our loyalty to the king till death!"

The soldiers replied in unison, filled with passion and eagerness.

One had to say that Hong Xiuquan's brainwashing was simply too amazing.

On this matter, Ouyang Shuo was far off him.

Amongst the Taiping Country, be it generals or soldiers, they were all passionate believers of the world that Hong Xiuquan described.

The strength of belief was exceedingly terrifying.

Although the Taiping Army had suffered successive defeats in three years, this strength allowed the army's morale to remain unaffected, and they were still raring to go.

"Great!" Yang Xiuqing suddenly got up and said, “Since that's the case, tomorrow, we will go all out. If one hole can't break it open, we will break two, three holes. Even if the Mulan Stronghold is made of copper and iron, it can't block our determination."

"Fight till the end!"

When the generals heard these words, they felt grew crazier and more passionate. Even Lin Fengxiang and Chen Yucheng felt their blood boil.

Of course, at this time, the generals obviously did not mention the captured Li Xiucheng. After all, to the generals of Taiping Country, the moment they were captured, killing themselves was the best choice.

No one expected him to survive.

The king had mentioned that if the soldiers of the army died loyally, they would receive immortal life in their heavenly country.

For this reason, the actions of the remaining Li Xiucheng troops infuriated Yang Xiuqing. These soldiers had touched a huge scar and wound of the army.

"Go and prepare!"

Yang Xiuqing did not gather the generals to think of a strategy. He only wanted to raise their morale. As for tactics, apart from forcing the attack, there was no other way.

After sending them back, Yang Xiuqing led out a long sigh.

Yang Xiuqing was clearer of the situation than anyone else.

If this carried on, even if they managed to take down the stronghold, they would still lose half their troops. After taking it down, a huge army definitely awaited them behind the mountains.

For a port, to sacrifice so much, was it worth it?

Hong Xiuquan’s decision left Yang Xiuqing feeling highly doubtful. He admitted that building warships could show the strength of the cannons.

But, weren't they rushing it?

The advance of the west troops were not as smooth as they had imagined. After obtaining a few victories at the start, they now faced the stubborn defence of the enemy.

The west troops were in a stalemate.

At this point, to sacrifice the south troops for no reason was not worth it. Be it reinforcing the west troops or attacking the north, both were great choices.

Yang Xiuqing could not understand why the king would not bend.

In truth, when he first appeared in the wilderness, he could sense the doubt and wariness of the king.

This kind of doubt made no sense to Yang Xiuqing.

Chapter 513- Tough Nut to Crack

As the sunset faded away, only scattered stars remained in the sky.

Even the constant red clouds, under the cover of the night sky, temporarily left the field.

The Mulan Stronghold, which was enshrouded in darkness, was like a sleeping beast. It laid in wait at the mouth of the valley, deep and silent. This was the only time that this giant human meat grinder would emit a thread of warmth.

Torch after torch lit up on the city walls, forming a fire dragon along the city wall.

The soldiers in charge of the night patrol wore iron armor, and they carried long spears. They braved the night wind. Squadron after squadron walked on the city walls. The night was long, so the soldiers gathered together to discuss their life stories and gossips.

The huge battle that ended during the day naturally became one of the hot topics of their conversation. They had never seen cannons before. Then, there was the courage of General Er'Lai, and the strength of the mountain barbarian soldiers; every one of these topics were enough to pique their interest.

"That iron pimple was so amazing. Moreover, that huge cannonball could actually blow through the city wall. I was guarding on top of the city wall and was nearly scared to death."

"Er'Gouzi, you are really useless!"

"Haha!"

The soldiers around all burst out into laughter.

The night was long and arduous, having something to tease made it much easier.

That face of the young soldier nicknamed Er'Gouzi instantly turned red. He was so angry that his back instantly straightened, and he retorted, "San'Pizi, don't show off in front of me. Why not you go and try? The blow was enough to make a person deaf, and my ear is still whirring now."

"I'll try; who's afraid of who!" San'Pizi was not old, but he was an unreasonable fellow. Filled with courage, he smacked his chest, "Tomorrow, I'll request to be moved to defend there."

"Great!"

The soldiers around him cheered out.

When San'Pizi heard their response, he felt more and more delighted; it was like he had won a battle.

"Have you all heard?"

Just at this time, a soldier came over and tried to attract the attention of everyone.

"What?"

"The mountain barbarian warriors that defended the hole in the day were promoted a rank by the commander in chief. At night, they also had good meat. Those fellows are having it good."

"Haiz, their lives are real good. When will such a good thing happen to us?" The young soldiers had never known fear; they only wanted military rewards.

"You guys ah!" An older soldier stepped out, “They exchanged for the rewards with their lives. The battle in the day was so brutal you know? Five hundred or so of those big mountain barbarians died in battle, even though they were wearing precious iron armor like the Buren Armor."

"If you were the ones that went up, the moment you got up, you all would probably be killed!"

"Hey, old man, don't look down on us."

This time, the young soldiers were unhappy. They were like wild dogs, as they barked out. Those who did not know what was happening would think that they had rushed into the enemy camp under the cover of the night.

"That's right. The mountain barbarian soldiers are amazing, but we aren't scrubs either."

The soldiers all chimed in, wanting to display their bravery.

As they would say, there was no first in culture, but there was no second in martial arts.

In the military, the various divisions and various soldier types competed with one another. These soldiers were also part of the Dragon Legion. As part of such a strong legion, their tempers and confidence levels would naturally be much greater.

Apart from the Divine Martial Guards, there probably was not another group that could make them admit defeat willingly.

When the older man saw this, he shook his head speechlessly, as his eyes flashed with a reminiscent look. Thinking back to the old days, he was also a hot blooded man that followed the Lord into such life and death situations.

Being young was truly great!

A sound that one did not know if it was a sigh or a thought about the past lingered in the cold night sky.

At the story’s location, the giant hole, loud ping, ping, pang, pang! noises rang out, even in the dead of night. Under the instructions of the commander in chief, the construction squadrons of the various divisions started to repair the walls. They were trying to block up this gaping hole in a night.

Looking over the city wall, it was line after line of tents.

Mulan Stronghold was a military fortress, so its architecture naturally emanated a thick military style. The tents were all neatly placed, and they looked really appealing to the eye.

As the stronghold was built near the mountains, they had sufficient stone. Furthermore, due to the battle requirements, the stronghold was mainly built from stone and green bricks.

On the other hand, wood was rare in the stronghold.

The architectural style of the entire fortress had a clear military style—hardy, simple, and practical. Even the commerce region and the commoner region in the stronghold were not an exception.

The most eye catching structure in the stronghold was naturally the base of the Dragon Legion.

The army was not housed in a normal area. Instead, they stayed in a five-storey-high stone tower. If one stood at the top of the tower and looked out, they could view the entire north wilderness.

The office of Baiqi was built on this level.

Naturally, this also became the command center of the entire army.

The night sky was pitched black. However, Baiqi's room light continued to burn bright. The men under him were clear that their commander was a work maniac.

It was the dead of the night, and the entire stronghold was totally quiet.

Just at this moment, the sound of footsteps sounded out in the walkway, breaking the peace and quiet of the night. Shortly after, an officer of the Military Intelligence Division walked into Baiqi's room and bowed.

"General!"

"How was it? Did he tell us anything?"

Baiqi had buried his head on his table, writing the battle report for the day. He was ready to pass it to the Lord who was thousands of miles away. Seeing the military intelligence officer enter, Baiqi placed down his brush and asked this question, as he raised his head.

"No, he's really stubborn, and no matter how much we torture him, he won't say a word." The stubborn fellow mentioned was naturally Li Xiucheng, who they had captured during the day.

"What a tough nut of crack!"

"I've failed you. Please punish me, my general!"

Baiqi did not say much, but it was enough to scare the military intelligence officer. Naturally, he thought that Baiqi was unhappy with their results.

If he was unhappy, he was naturally unhappy about the Military Intelligence Division and the officer. Thinking up to this point, cold sweat formed on the young officer’s forehead.

The entire Dragon Legion had seventy thousand soldiers, and all of them feared Baiqi. Even Er’Lai and Shi Wanshui, these kinds of famous generals, felt uncomfortable in his presence, and they did not dare to act out of hand.

It was not because Baiqi was fierce but because he was vicious.

During the Battle of Zhaoqing, his viciousness not only scared the enemy but his allies as well.

"No one said to punish you."

Baiqi waved his hand, "Since that's the case, just lock up the guy."

"Yes, my general!"

Chapter 514- Switching Sides

"Remember, do not let him kill himself; I want him alive."

At the end, Baiqi was still not fully at ease, so he reminded the military intelligence officer.

Baiqi had a rough impression of Li Xiucheng. When he discussed matters with the Lord, the Lord had given him a short evaluation of all the generals.

Amongst the Taiping Country generals, there were three that the Lord paid the most attention to. They were Shi Dakai, Li Xiucheng, and Chen Yucheng. Hence, Baiqi naturally needed to keep Li Xiucheng alive.

As for how the Lord would manage to convince him, it was not within Baiqi’s consideration range.

"Do not worry, my general!"

As the intelligence officer spoke these words, he turned around and left. Li Xiucheng had continuously tried to kill himself since the captured, and he declined food in protest. However, if the young officer could not even handle such simple matters, he was unsuitable for his occupation.

The Military Intelligence Division was not useless.

After the short interruption, Baiqi continued to write the battle report. He also wrote of the situation regarding Li Xiucheng at the end.

That evening, the report was passed through the relay to Chiyou City.

Wuzhou Prefecture Chiyou City, Lord's Manor.

Similar to Baiqi, Ouyang Shuo was still awake. The Battle of Mulan Stronghold concerned the entire situation. Without receiving the latest battle report, Ouyang Shuo could not rest at ease.

Just half an hour after Baiqi sent the battle report, Ouyang Shuo received it.

The appearance of cannons astonished Ouyang Shuo. He did not expect Taiping Country to actually possess such a bug weapon; he was really feeling a cold sweat for Mulan Stronghold.

Of course, this was a dangerous situation but also a great chance.

Just the thought of Hong Xiuquan holding the relevant technical manual made Ouyang Shuo’s his blood boil.

Cannons were something that Ouyang Shuo had yearned for for a long time.

Of course, he did not think that with cannons alone he could step into the thermal weapons era.

Such thinking was not practical.

Ouyang Shuo just wished to equip the warships with cannons. With that, the navy could use cannons instead of just bows.

A navy squadron with and without cannons were two utterly different concepts. One could even say that cannons were an indicator of whether the squadron was a local squadron or a squadron that could survive in the seas and oceans.

Without cannons, the squadron could basically only travel through inner rivers. Ouyang Shuo ambitions for the oceans meant that he could not accept that.

The appearance of cannons presented a divine opportunity.

Apart from that, cannons could also be placed on the city walls to increase the defence. Think about that, with both the three bowed arcubalistas and the cannons, the territory defence would be a huge nightmare for the enemies.

Most importantly, the existence of No.7 Institute meant that Shanhai City had the ability to modify and improve the Ming Dynasty Cannons.

With that, they could close the technological gap with the western countries.

All of the above were enough to make Ouyang Shuo feel pumped up.

Thinking about these points, Ouyang Shuo immediately wrote a letter to Black Snake to ask him to use the spies hidden in Xunzhou Prefecture. Especially those in Tianjing City; they needed to investigate those cannons.

Most importantly, he needed to confirm whether the cannons that appeared in Mulan Stronghold were rare or mass produced; this would confirm whether the technical manual existed.

Compared to Wuzhou Prefecture, the Black Snake Guards and the Military Intelligence Division were highly successful in their infiltration of Taiping Country. After all, when Hong Xiuquan had entered the wilderness, the two intel organizations had fixed their eyes on him.

Furthermore, they had recruited people on a large scale, so it was naturally easy for them to infiltrate.

Till date, the spies of the two organizations had spread across the three prefectures of Taiping Country. One could even say that beside the important people of Taiping Country, spies of the Black Snake Guards had infiltrated every other group.

Ouyang Shuo believed that Black Snake would definitely give him a satisfying answer.

……

Li Xiucheng’s capture surprised Ouyang Shuo. Of course, his stubbornness was also expected. These Taiping Country generals were all famous for being as stubborn as rocks.

Before dealing with Hong Xiuquan, Ouyang Shuo did not have any high hopes of persuading any of the generals.

Even when they took over Taiping Country in the future, Ouyang Shuo would not instantly make use of these fallen generals. To the current Ouyang Shuo, loyalty was the most important aspect.

……

However, towards Yang Xiuqing and the like, Ouyang Shuo was planning something.

After Li Xiucheng’s capture, as the main general of the south troops, Yang Xiuqing would definitely be chided by Hong Xiuquan. These two opponents in the last life would grow further and further apart.

Thinking about this point, Ouyang Shuo immediately wrote a letter to Baiqi

In it, he wrote, ‘Yang Xiuqing can be used, but one must treat him carefully. If the Taiping Army fails, general can release him to go against Hong Xiuquan.’

Although Yang Xiuqing was an ambitious person, that was during the chaotic times of the uprising army.

If he was given some chances in a peaceful time, he could have become a famous official. His experiences were somewhat similar to Cao Cao.

However, since he was born in a poor environment and lacked the chance to study, he fell upon his current situation.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to let Yang Xiuqung go against Hong Xiuquan so that he could gain influence in Tianjing Country. His core goal was still to obtain the technical manual.

When he replied to the letter, it was already the dead of night.

Ouyang Shuo stood up and walked to the window, only to see that it was pitch black outside. In the sky, a huge red star shone with a devilish crimson glow; it was the most eye catching object in the sky.

"Devilish star representing something bad is going to happen?"

When Ouyang Shuo saw this star, he muttered to himself.

10th month, 27th day, the 4th day of the Battle of Mulan Stronghold.

Seeing the hole that they had spent so much effort to blow open being fixed in a night, Yang Xiuqing nearly vomited blood in fury.

Trying to blow open the city wall was not practical anymore. Thinking back to the bloody battle yesterday, Yang Xiuqing felt fearful. He was not a stubborn person, so he immediately changed his strategy.

Yang Xiuqing ordered his troops to change the targets of the four cannons to the three bowed arcubalistas mounted on the city wall. They would destroy the strongest weapon of the enemy.

The various troops, with the help of weapons such as siege chariots, arrow turrets, siege turret, and scaling ladders, launched wave after wave of attacks on the Mulan Stronghold city wall.

Of course, all these actions were a waste of energy.

Under the leadership of Baiqi, the defence of Mulan Stronghold stood as stable as Mount Tai. The vicious attacks of Taiping Country seemed scary, but it posed a far smaller threat than yesterday.

When Yang Xiuqing saw these results, his face blackened.

Facing such a situation, he had no more plans, so he could only throw all his troops in. The moment he thought about the strict letter that he receive, Yang Xiuqing felt more and more depressed.

The huge battle lasted all the way from morning to afternoon.

The evening sun slowly set and the sunset hung overhead.

Just as the soldiers on both sides thought that the Taiping Country would retreat and end the battle for they day, a shocking change occurred further up on the battlefield.

Behind the Taiping Country, the rumbling noises of horse hooves thundered.

Looking out, one could see a huge army charging straight toward the back of the Taiping Country south army. All of a sudden, their killing intent boiled, and the dust on the ground was sent flying.

When the generals of Taiping Country saw this army, they felt flustered, and their faces turned ashen white.

Consecutive days of battles had made the Taiping Country Army grow complacent about protecting their backlines. Especially the battle today, where they sent all their troops up to the fight.

Facing the enemy forces, there was nothing they could do. They could only look on and watch the enemy start a slaughter in their backlines.

All of a sudden, Yang Xiuqing's mood sank into an abyss.

"It's over! Everything is over!"

A feeling of despair festered in his heart.

An uncontrollable panic ensued. Thinking about the eyes and reactions of the king, Yang Xiuqing's heart was like sealed by ice, never to feel a thread of warmth.

And this despair quickly spread throughout the army.

Everyone knew that the Taiping army was dead.

The troops that rushed here were naturally the Leopard Legion led by Han Xin. Under his leadership, the Leopard Legion had reached the stronghold a full night earlier.

Just an hour ago, the Leopard Legion was ten kilometres away, and it was already 5 PM.

After numerous days of rushing, the troops were exhausted.

Looking at the sky, Zhang Han suggested for the army to take a break and attack the next day.

"No!" Han Xin resolutely declined, his reaction firm, "Our troops are tired, but the enemy has fought for a day and are even more tired. This is the best chance. If we miss it, the enemy would be well rested tomorrow. To destroy them, we would need to put in two, even three times more men and effort."

In his eyes, excitement flickered, "Order the troops to grit their teeth. When we succeed later, I'll personally ask the Lord for rewards."

"Yes, my general!"

When Zhang Han and the other generals heard his words, they felt impressed.

Following which, the entire army struck out before the enemy noticed, and their cavalry acted as the vanguard. The huge infantry force covered them from behind, collecting their battle rewards.

Under the steely mentality of Han Xin, the Leopard Legion displayed astonishing killing strength. The already tired army did not seem exhausted at all, as they were sent forth. They all looked like tigers.

Of course, their high morale and movement speed were partly thanks to Han Xin’s specialty.

He increased morale by 40%, movement speed by 30%, defence by 20%, and killing strength by 25%.

Along with the buffs of Zhang Zhan and Di Qing, it was basically adding wings to a tiger.

Chapter 515- End of the Road

If Han Xin was an assassin, Baiqi would be a great swordsman.

When Baiqi saw the Leopard Legion launch a sneak attack on the Taiping Country Army troops and throw the enemy into total chaos, he did not sit still and do nothing. He immediately ordered the 3rd, 4th, and 5th divisions of the Dragon Legion to leave the city and join the fight.

With that, the Taiping Army faced a pincer move.

Yang Xiuqing, Lin Fengxiang, and Chen Yucheng wanted to form up the defences of the army. Unfortunately, things had happened too quickly. Although the Taiping Country army had been through a lot of training and were not beginners, they still had not reached the level where they would not make mistakes.

In the face of such strong power, they could do nothing at all.

The timing that Han Xin had chosen was simply too lethal. He attacked when they were the most tired and also when they felt the most at ease. The soldiers were already thinking about backing off and having their meal.

Who would have known that they would suddenly face a life or death test? Fate was always so cruel, dealing you a lethal blow when you least expected it.

The large scale collapse of the Taiping Country Army occurred right before their eyes.

The sunset grew brighter and brighter; it had already spread past half the sky.

The merciless slaughter did not slow down despite the arrival of darkness. Each man on the battlefield faced a life or death test.

The tens of thousands of Taiping Country Army soldiers were performing their final struggles. Their deafening shouts reverberated through the wilderness, and their voices echoed off the city walls.

On the battlefield, soldiers would fall at every moment, collapsing into the bloody ground under the sunset.

The orange red sunset dyed this current moment in a beautiful light.

This was the color of life.

The last moment before the soldiers fell, their eyes would reflect this special sunset.

Beautiful, while holding a little warmth.

The red sun that hung in the sky finally had enough and hid below the horizon. The night sky finally arrived and a few rare stars appeared.

The killing shouts in the wilderness finally neared their end.

The shouts grew weaker and weaker. In the wilderness, a blood ocean flowed.

The war horses neighed and smoke spread.

The one hundred thousand odd Taiping Country south army soldiers were finally broken in one swoop.

Most of the soldiers either fought or tried to run.

Seeing that they had no chance of victory, some even chose to surrender. Many of the soldiers were commoners that Hong Xiuquan had brainwashed and tempted. They joined the military to live.

Hence, they cared about their lives more than anything else.

Line after line of soldiers and wave after wave of men surrendered.

They placed down their weapons and stood solitary on the blood red battlefield, filled with helplessness and fear.

Even the sounds of weapons falling to the ground appeared incredibly ear piercing.

These were the sounds of a lost country.

At its brightest moment, Taiping Country suffered this lost. Consequently, they would fall to the bottom of the valley. After this battle, less than ten percent of their two hundred thousand soldiers remained.

At this moment, Yang Xiuqing and the other generals gave up their final struggle. They led their elite troops to a final attempt of breaking out.

Unfortunately, be it Baiqi or Han Xin, they would not let that happen. The most elite forces of both legions were sent out to surround the escaping troops. When they saw such menacing enemy troops and their main generals escaping, many of the Taiping Country Army soldiers finally surrendered in despair.

Under the night sky, they would definitely fail to outrun them.

Which was why they would rather choose to live.

After all, everyone cared about their own lives.

This hunting operation finally ended in the dead of night.

Facing the chase, the three generals of Taiping Country all had different fates.

Lin Fengxiang led his troops to try and break out from the southwest, but Shao Bu's division cornered them. Their forces had suffered heavy casualties. In the end, Lin Fengxiang died in battle, and the soldiers could only surrender.

Chen Yucheng's forces tried to escape from the northwest, but Sun Chuan Lin’s chased them. The god archer shot and captured Chen Yucheng.

Seeing their general captured, the soldiers could only helplessly surrender.

The only one that escaped was Yang Xiuqing.

The one in charge of chasing him was Mu Guiying. Under Baiqi's instructions, she allowed Yang Xiuqing to luckily escape. To cover for him, his forces had suffered heavy casualties.

In the end, only three thousand people escaped along with him.

At the end of the battle, this life or death battle, apart from the three thousand that escaped with Yang Xiuqing and a few lucky ones that escaped into the forest, the rest either died or surrendered.

The Taiping Country south army had disappeared into dust.

Along with this collapse, an important pillar of the Taiping Country fell. How far could Taiping Country go with one leg broken?

Everything was still unknown.

The most crucial battle in the southwest region had come to an end.

In the night sky, Yang Xiuqing led the remaining three thousand men and escaped. They had run over twenty kilometres, and they only stopped to rest after they could not see any chasing troops.

The soldiers took out their drinks and dry rations in silence, and they started to start a fire to cook. Others either gathered some sticks and twigs for the fire or went to collect water with their water canteens and bottles.

Some dragged their exhausted bodies to act as sentries.

The entire group was terrifyingly silent.

Under the mighty glow, they all felt numb and terrified. The face of their main general, Yang Xiuqing, was so tight that it looked like it could tear at any moment.

After simply eating some things, all of them went to sleep, as it was late in the night.

They would set off once more the next morning.

After personally checking on the sentries, Yang Xiuqing dragged his exhausted body and walked into his temporary tent. Unfortunately, everything that happened in the day replayed in his mind, and he could not fall asleep.

"Hu!" Yang Xiuqing got up.

Outside the tent, it was still pitch dark; the only glow came from some stars.

Yang Xiuqing wore his coat and walked out of the tent. He raised his head and looked at the sky, deep in thought. The night sky seemed to give him an eureka moment, as his thoughts grew clearer and clearer.

A night breeze blew across, bringing along a slight chilliness. As a result, he unknowingly pulled the cape around his body.

At this moment, Yang Xiuqing was really thinking about too much.

About the king, Hong Xiuquan; about the fate of the entire Taiping Country.

This defeat made one thing clear to him. Although Taiping Country seemed strong, it was like a sandcastle. Just one wave would break it apart.

Thinking about this point, Yang Xiuqing felt more pained. It was him who sent them on this path. In the night sky, his body seemed lonely and helpless.

"What's the general thinking about?"

Suddenly, a low voice sounded out from behind him.

"Who?"

After all, Yang Xiuqing had spent a long time in the military, so he had a built-in sensitivity. With a Shua! he drew the sword by his waist; his weapon shone with a cold light.

When he turned his head, he saw a normal soldier. However, he did not look familiar.

"Whose man are you, and why are you not in your tent?"

In his words, there was anger and annoyance. He did not like it when his men did not follow the rules.

"General!"

At this very moment, the sound of him drawing his blade had alerted the soldiers on patrol, so they rushed over.

"General, you do know that your death date is coming, right?"

The face of this normal soldier looked totally unfazed, and his words caused Yang Xiuqing to shiver. A coldness appeared in his eyes.

"I'm fine; you guys can continue patrolling."

Yang Xiuqing frowned. First, he sent away the soldiers that were on patrol. Then, he turned to the weird soldier and said, "Follow me." As he spoke these words, he walked toward his tent.

The weird soldier followed quietly from behind.

Within the tent, Yang Xiuqing suddenly turned around. His eyes suddenly turned sharp, and his killing aura was suppressive. He stared right at the soldier and enunciated word by word, "Speak, you, who are you?"

"Who I am does not matter. What matters is that I can help you."

"Heh, big words!"

"Let’s put it this way. General, you know the situation you are about to face, right?"

"...."

Yang Xiuqing could not rebut these words. He was not a fool, so he knew the arduousness of his current situation. Thinking about the ice cold eyes of the king, he felt a shiver run down his spine.

"With his wariness toward you and your big loss of both men and generals, how could he allow you to leave?"

The soldier did not hold back his words, and he exposed the exact situation that Yang Xiuqing faced.

When Yang Xiuqing heard these words, his face turned darker and darker; he kept silent.

Just at this moment, the soldier suddenly changed his tone, "Don’t you have doubts about why the king would be so wary of you?"

"You know?"

When Yang Xiuqing heard these words, his eyes widened, and even his words started to shake.

This problem was the biggest knot in his heart. Ever since he entered the wilderness, he was completely loyal toward both the king and the country.

He did not expect the king to doubt him.

This kind of feeling was simply too uncomfortable. Ever time he spoke with the king, he could feel a pair of eyes judging him from behind.

That kind of feeling made one's hairs stand on their ends.

However, this very night, a weird soldier told Yang Xiuqing that he had the answer to the greatest riddle that plagued Yang Xiuqing’s heart, so how could he not feel shocked?

In the air, the smell of a brewing scheme wafted.

"I know a little." The soldier nodded, "If you can trust me; I'll tell it all to you."

"Speak!"

Yang Xiuqing was also an exceptional person. He calmed himself down and focused, waiting for what the soldier would say.

Chapter 516- Weird Military Order

"Regarding this matter, we have to start from history…."

During this quiet night, in a temporary tent, Yang Xiuqing learned about the start of the Taiping Country uprising and every interesting matter that happened.

The soldier stopped at what happened in Tianjing. After hearing all of this, Yang Xiuqing had mixed feelings.

In history, Yang Xiuqing had walked down the path of no return due to his ambition.

After hearing the description from the soldier, Yang Xiuqing's heart felt like a stirred up ocean.

The mystery from before was completely answered.

At this moment, Yang Xiuqing felt absolutely blurred; he even felt a hint despair.

If he led his troops back to Tianjing City, would King Hong Xiuquan still forgive him?

The chances were slim.

The soldier looked on at Yang Xiuqing with a mixed expression.

This soldier was a high level spy that the Military Intelligence Division had hid at Yang Xiuqing's side. His mission was to, at the crucial moment, utterly destroy the relationship between Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing. He was to recruit Yang Xiuqing over.

"I have a plan that can help general transform from a caterpillar to a butterfly. Only, would you be willing?"

When Yang Xiuqing heard these words, he sent the soldier a wary look and asked, "You spent so much effort to approach me; you probably have some motives. Why, you still can't tell me who your Lord is?"

"With your intelligence, you’ve probably guessed it already!"

The soldier laughed, appearing exceedingly confident.

Yang Xiuqing was astonished, “Don't tell me, is it Shan…."

"That's right!"

"Hei, didn't expect that, didn't expect that."

"My Lord has admired you for a long time. He says that if you go over, you will definitely be well utilized." As he spoke, the soldier took out a secret letter and passed it to Yang Xiuqing.

Ouyang Shuo had specially passed this letter through the Military Intelligence Division. Of course, he had written it two months ago.

The letter only spoke of a bunch of promises.

It was not just this spy; the other spies also carried similar letters. When they time was right, they would pass these letters to the enemy members.

After Yang Xiuqing read the letter, his heart felt flustered, and he was unable to stay calm.

Ouyang Shuo had promised Yang Xiuqing the role of governor.

Governor, be it in Taiping Country or Shanhai City, was a hugely important role.

Such a promise was filled with sincerity.

Although the letter only contained a few lines, Yang Xiuqing could still sense the magnanimity of the Lianzhou Lord. When contrasted to the wary Hong Xiuquan, the two were literally incomparable.

To be able to work for such a Lord was a great blessing.

One had to say that Ouyang Shuo's title of ‘Mightly Lord’ played a huge part in this. This sort of influence was massive on a historical person.

If it was someone else, it would not be so easy to convince Yang Xiuqing.

Yang Xiuqing did not expect the Lianzhou Lord to plan so far. He had buried so many cards in Taiping Country long ago.

With that, one could see how badly they were infiltrated internally. Amusingly, Hong Xiuquan actually thought that everyone in his country believed in him and was loyal.

Thinking about this point, the future of Taiping Country looked bleaker and bleaker.

As they would say, good birds would leave for greener pastures.

Since Hong Xiuquan could not trust him, Yang Xiuqing could only change his Lord.

In the end, Yang Xiuqing let out a long sigh and stored the letter in his pocket, “From today onward, you will be my bodyguard!"

When a person was at their most desperate moment, they would be unable to reject any helping hands.

Yang Xiuqing was not an exception.

"General is smart!"

The spy was delighted and backed down.

As for the specific plans, they naturally needed to discuss it later.

After all, it was already so late, and the two had already talked for so long. Any longer and they might attract unneeded attention.

The soldier was not worried that Yang Xiuqing would expose him. The smarter the person, the more they would be able to balance pros and cons. To Yang Xiuqing, going forward was the deep abyss and backing off was the clear sky.

It was an easy choice.

Yang Xiuqing was not loyal to Taiping Country to such a point.

Outside the tent, the night sky grew darker and darker. It looked like ink, and one could not even see their own fingers. After tonight, the fate of Taiping Country would be like the night sky, unable to see any light.

10th month, 28th day, Mulan Stronghold.

When the sun rose up once more, a busy scene started outside of Mulan Stronghold. As the battle had ended so late last night, they did not have the time to clean up the battlefield.

When the sun shone onto the battlefield, a shocking sight greeted the eye.

On the numerous miles of the battlefield, corpses were strewn all over, and blood rivers flowed. After a night, the blood had sunk deep into the soil.

Preliminary estimations found that just last night, at least fifty thousand soldiers had died on the battlefield.

Taiping Country Army really had so many staunch believers.

Baiqi and Han Xin stood on the city wall. They looked out at the battlefield, not making a sound.

The two legions had successfully linked up and worked together to destroy the south army. As for what to do next, they were waiting for the Military Affairs Department’s or rather, the Lord's instructions.

The battle report from yesterday had already been sent to Chiyou City.

At this morning at the latest, they would receive a reply.

Post battle calculations show that they had captured 120 thousand men. They had also obtained a lot of resources, including twenty thousand war horses and the four cannons.

Apart from that, out of the four enemy generals, one had died in battle, while the other two were captured.

This battle was a complete victory for Shanhai City.

Of course, the two legions had also paid a price in the final bloodbath. A total of ten thousand of their soldiers laid to rest on the field outside of the stronghold.

Han Xin turned his head and took a glance at Baiqi.

Toward this Asura, Han Xin felt a sense of worship, but he was not happy to lose out to Baiqi. He always wanted to compete with Baiqi for the position of god general of the Shanhai City Army. He would not give up easily.

What about Baiqi?

No matter when and where, Baiqi would always wear a solemn expression that no one could see through.

In this battle, both of them had performed well.

However, in comparison, the long distance decisive sneak attack was the key to this victory. Hence, in this battle, Han Xin had gained a slight edge.

The name of war immortal was really well given.

"General, the Lord has sent a letter!"

Just at this moment, the military intelligence officer that stayed in Mulan Stronghold hurried over.

The two of them turned around at the same time, and their eyes lit up.

The Lord replying so fast was actually something that surprised them.

As the main commander of the battle, Baiqi took the letter, read it, before passing it over to Han Xin.

After Han Xin read the letter, he remained silent.

The Lord’s instructions in the letter baffled both of them.

After a few congratulatory words, the letter described the plans for both legions.

The Lord ordered them to rest up and prepare for a few days after the two legions met up at the stronghold. Liao Kai would lead the 1st division to rush to the stronghold. Then, they would strike.

They would hand the fallen Taiping Country soldiers over to the city protection division.

The two legions would set off from the stronghold and split into two, one heading east and one heading west. They would slowly proceed toward Tianjing City. As they head forward, they were to siege the cities and remove all threats. No one was to escape.

Members of the Administration Department would send officials to accept and take over the occupied cities.

As for attacking Tianjing City, there was no rush.

The last sentence was something that Baiqi and Han Xin could not understand.

Based on logic, they had just destroyed the Taiping Country south army, and the enemy west army was still in Kunming Prefecture, a long distance away. This was the best time to rush and take down Tianjing in one fell swoop.

Wasn't the Lord's intentions to attack and occupy Tianjing City?

The reason behind everything really confused them.

However, because it was the Lord's orders, they could not go against it; they had no choice.

After a simple discussion, Baiqi would lead the Dragon Legion from the east up north, while Han Xin would lead the Leopard Legion west up north.

The two legions would meet up again outside Tianjing City.

Based on the battle report from Liao Kai, the 1st division would walk out of the one hundred thousand mountains in a few days. Hence, the date they moved out would be in the 11th month, 4th day, five days later.

Why would Ouyang Shuo make such a plan?

For the reason, one had to start from when Ouyang Shuo received the battle report yesterday.

After learning that the two legions had met up and destroyed the south army, Ouyang Shuo was naturally happy. This result meant that the situation in the southwest was basically solved.

As for why he did not want to directly attack Tianjing, that had to do with the cannon.

In history, Hong Xiuquan had died in battle because he insisted on defending Tianjing City and did not want to retreat. In this life, Ouyang Shuo did not believe that he would remain as stubborn.

Hence, if a huge army advanced, Hong Xiuquan could just escape and desert his city. With that, the firearms technical manual would naturally disappear along with him.

This was something that Ouyang Shuo could not accept no matter what.

Hence, the only way was to ensure that Hong Xiuquan stayed there.

The two legions would rest up and slowly push into Tianjing, giving Hong Xiuquan some hope. Then, he would order Shi Dakai to lead the west troops back to defend.

Hence, the thought of deserting and leaving the city would not occur.

Just like that, he could also solve the problem of Consonance City.

Apart from that, Yang Xiuqing was also another factor.

Although Ouyang Shuo had already buried chess pieces around Yang Xiuqing, to use them, they needed to wait till he rushed back to the city at the very least.

Hence, no matter what, the two legions could not proceed forward easily.

After all, Baiqi and Han Xin were generals, so they were not clear about such schemes. As a result, they would find Ouyang Shuo's orders weird.

For the cannon, Ouyang Shuo was putting in so much effort.

He only hoped that the two large intelligence organizations would not disappoint him.

Chapter 517- Carrot on a Stick

Chapter 517- Carrot on a Stick

10th month, 30th day, Chiyou City.

After numerous days of travelling by foot, Fan Zhongyan and his men finally arrived at Chiyou City under the protection of a military force.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he personally welcomed them at the city gate.

Only Fan Zhongyan could receive such special treatment.

The officials and minor officials that followed along numbered around three hundred, a huge lineup. Amongst which, there were some officials from the Nanjiang Governor-General House and also officials that the various Houses and counties recommended.

Other than that, there would be the fifty students from Xinan University who graduated early.

Three hundred people, their greatest similarity and strength was their young age.

Based on the information from the Administration Department, the average age of the officials in Shanhai City was less than thirty. Meanwhile, those that followed Fan Zhongyan here were even younger, with an average age of twenty-seven.

Leading such a young team to run an entire prefecture, Fan Zhongyan had heavy responsibility and foresight.

At noon, Ouyang Shuo held a feast in the Lord's Manor to welcome the group.

The officials that came along felt incredibly emotional and touched when they saw how much importance the Lord placed on them. In fact, they even teared up. Obviously, they would give it their all to help Fan Zhongyan run Wuzhou Prefecture well.

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo met Fan Zhongyan in the reading room alone.

After spending a week in Chiyou City, Ouyang Shuo had obviously been doing things; he had not slacked. He currently had a rough understanding of the situation in Wuzhou Prefecture.

Hence, before Fan Zhongyan took over, Ouyang Shuo was going to personally introduce and explain the matters to Fan Zhongyan.

Wuzhou Prefecture had a lot of land but very little people. As a result, they would only create four Houses here. As for the specific personnel arrangements, Fan Zhongyan and the newly appointed administration director Xiao He would discuss it.

As the territory continued to expand, the job of prefect appointment was slowly shifted under the jurisdiction of the Administration Department.

Unless it was some special talent that needed Ouyang Shuo to personally arrange them, he would not interfere.

Fan Zhongyan suggested that to reduce and remove the influence of Chiyou in the prefecture, they should change the name of Chiyou City.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it but decided to reject the proposal.

After they buried Chiyou in Devil's Slope, they had also buried all past grievances. Chiyou City held a special place in the hearts of the mountain barbarians.

As the Barbarian King, Ouyang Shuo had to care about their feelings and thoughts.

He needed to possess such magnanimity.

Since Ouyang Shuo did not mind, Fan Zhongyan naturally would not say anything more.

Rushing over, Ouyang Shuo had gained a rough gauge of the situation in Wuzhou Prefecture. Although things were much worse than he had expected, he had confidence in developing the prefecture.

This Lord and minister spent an entire afternoon in the reading room.

During their conversation, they settled future development structure of Wuzhou.

As they talked, Ouyang Shuo realized that choosing Fan Zhongyan as governor was truly a smart choice. The many development plans that Fan Zhongyan had thought of for Wuzhou Prefecture made his eyes brighten.

For example, to break the ice between the Han people and the mountain barbarians, Fan Zhongyan suggested they moved some of the mountain barbarians to Zhaoqing Prefecture.

Similarly, he would move some of the people from Zhaoqing Prefecture over.

With that, not only did they largely improve the population structure of Wuzhou Prefecture, the new Han race people could help remove the divide between the two races, killing two birds with one stone.

Ouyang Shuo was highly supportive of this suggestion.

After sending Fan Zhongyan away, he let out a long and comfortable sigh.

The next morning, Fan Zhongyan would officially be appointed. Him and his three hundred odd officials would be sent to the various Houses and counties to become the backbone of Wuzhou Prefecture.

His arrival had finally freed Ouyang Shuo from the heavy administrative workload.

Next, Ouyang Shuo would have to consider the problem of building the Wuzhou Prefecture Garrison Division.

Be it the Guards Division or the four mountain barbarian independent divisions, they could not stay here for long. They urgently needed to create the Garrison Division to maintain the peace in Wuzhou.

Within a week, Lin Yi had led the Guards Division to sweep up the entire Wuzhou Prefecture, removing all the other local powers.

The entire Wuzhou Prefecture was finally unified under one power.

Taking the chance, he captured another batch of mountain barbarian warriors.

Being inspired by Fan Zhongyan's idea, Ouyang Shuo decided that the Wuzhou Garrison Division would also be formed from a mix of both races, allowing them to keep each other in check.

Almost immediately, Ouyang Shuo wrote letters to both the Military Affairs Department and the Lingnan War Zone.

Based on Ouyang Shuo’s plans, they would take two regiments from the Zhaoqing Garrison Division and put them into the Wuzhou Garrison Division. The prisons of the Taping Country in the Mulan Stronghold would fill in the lack of manpower.

Apart from that, he would form another regiment from the Taiping Country army prisoners and place it into the Wuzhou Garrison Division. The remaining two regiments would be formed from the mountain barbarian prisoners.

With that, the Wuzhou Prefecture Garrison Division would have three sides that constantly monitored and competed with one another. Be it the Han people or the mountain barbarians, they could not abuse their power.

For major general of the Garrison Division, Ouyang Shuo ordered Er'Lai to choose from the mountain barbarian infantry regiment. The deputy major general would be one of the colonels from the Zhaoqing Garrison Division.

With that, they had a firm grasp on the Wuzhou Prefecture Garrison Division.

When they completed the division, Ouyang Shuo could lead his troops east into Xunzhou and take out Taiping Country once and for all.

Based on his estimations, these moves would not have any conflicts with the plans he made for the Dragon and Leopard Legions.

10th month, 1st day, Fan Zhongyan was officially in office.

The huge administrative machine had started working at high speeds.

This was when the people of Wuzhou clearly realized that Wuzhou was changing.

The mountain barbarians that had controlled the important departments were mercilessly swept out. Only those who were recognized and approved by the two intelligence organizations could obtain a job in the system.

Seeing Shanhai City officials move into Chiyou City and fill up all the important roles, the various mountain barbarian tribes panicked.

In just one morning, they had come several times to the Lord's Manor to seek an audience with Ouyang Shuo.

Seeing that the time was right, Ouyang Shuo agreed to meet them in the hall.

In truth, Ouyang Shuo would not fully suppress the various mountain barbarian tribes.

Shanhai City's policy toward other races also applied to Wuzhou. As such, Ouyang Shuo needed to remove the special privileges that the mountain barbarian tribe had enjoyed.

From today onward, any race would be treated equally.

Those mountain barbarians that were removed from their roles could apply once more. As long as they passed the test of the Wuzhou Prefecture Administration Department, they could be appointed.

Of course, the Han people in the prefecture could do the same.

Wuzhou Prefecture was incredibly big. If they just relied on the three hundred officials that Fan Zhongyan had brought, they would not even manage to keep Chiyou City running.

Hence, to rebuild the administrative system using a set structure, they needed a large number of officials.

Regretfully, the Han people living here were all normal people; there were no scholars around.

Such a situation surprised Ouyang Shuo, and he found it really weird. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about it.

Seeing that the Lord was not planning to wipe them out, the various tribe leaders felt a slight sense of relief amidst their feelings of loss.

"Greetings, my king!"

Within the hall, the various tribe leaders knelt down and officially recognized his position as Barbarian King.

Seeing all of them behave in such a manner, Ouyang Shuo did not know what to feel. He had used a series of plans and acts to finally make them yield and completely submit.

Within the territory, only Ouyang Shuo could have special rights.

The other people needed to obey his rule before they could survive within the territory.

This was the bottom line that Ouyang Shuo had drawn, and it could not be crossed.

From today onward, the special treatment of the mountain barbarians in Wuzhou would truly disappear. Of course, due to the existence of Chiyou City, Wuzhou Prefecture would still be the place where most of the mountain barbarians would gather.

In truth, the mountain barbarians in the China region were not solely limited to Chuannan Province and Lingnan Province. Other regions had mountain barbarians too.

At the very least, the Shu Area had a large number of them.

Who knows whether in the future his title of Barbarian King would work on those unknown mountain barbarian tribes.

They were simply born warriors.

No matter which tribe, Ouyang Shuo yearned for more of them.

"Please rise!"

Ouyang Shuo stood at the helm. His voice contained a threatening and mighty air without him even doing anything.

"Thank you, my king!"

The various tribe leaders got up one by one, and the way that they looked at him was now totally different.

Amidst the respect, there was a slight closeness.

Their gazes were highly similar to how the mountain barbarian soldiers looked at him.

No matter what, the mountain barbarian race had a new leader, so they would not really collapse.

"Within the Wuzhou Prefecture, why isn't there a single Han official? Do you know the reason?"

Looking down at these mountain barbarians, Ouyang Shuo suddenly recalled this problem.

Before Chiyou lost, these tribe leaders were his high level personnel. As such, they should have a rough idea of the situation.

As expected, Ouyang Shuo had asked the right people.

The various tribe leaders looked at one another, communicating through their expressions. In the end, the tribe leader with the highest standing stepped out and said respectively, "My king, I know the reason."

"Speak!"

"Because Chiyou doesn't like Han people, all the officials were kept within a secret prison."

"What?" When Ouyang Shuo heard this, he did not know what expression he was suppose to have, so he smacked his desk and asked, "Are these officials still alive?"

"Yes." The old tribe leader thought about it and decided to tell the truth, "However, their situation isn't good. Based on what I heard, some of them have died because they couldn't hold on anymore."

"...."

The actions of Chiyou truly left Ouyang Shuo speechless.

Chapter 518- Pei Ju from Wenxi

On the west of Chiyou City, within a secret prison, Ouyang Shuo met the officials that Chiyou had locked up.

The gloomy and dark prison had humid floors. Cockroaches and rats were everywhere. In a small cell, there were hundreds of officials, all of them thin to the bone.

Currently, they were deep into autumn, but the officials were all wearing thin prison clothes, causing them to shiver.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this scene, his heart felt pained.

This batch of officials were the elite and essence of the territory, yet Chiyou actually treated them in this way.

Seeing the Lord's face like that, the head of the prison had beads of sweat form on his forehead. He was afraid of being scolded, so he rushed up and opened the cell doors.

Instantly, the sunlight shot into the dark cells, causing these ‘inmates’ to be unable to immediately react.

"All of you have had it rough!"

Ouyang Shuo did not care about the dirty water on the ground. He walked into the cell and bowed.

"...."

After being locked up for such a long time, their thinking had grown numb, and they could not react. The mountain barbarian tribe leaders standing behind Ouyang Shuo all had weird expressions.

"Fellows, this is the Lianzhou Lord, Nanjiang Governor-General. Wuzhou is now under his rule, and you are all saved." Royal Guards Captain Chen Dameng stood out and introduced Ouyang Shuo.

Instantly, the quiet cell broke into a series of low discussions.

Although they were unsure of Ouyang Shuo's identity, that last sentence was as clear as day. Their suffering had finally come to an end.

Some of the civil servants instantly cried.

Only an old man in the corner had a light glimmer in his eyes.

When Ouyang Shuo saw the situation, he knew that this was not the right place to talk. He immediately ordered men to bring this batch of civil servants to the Lord's Manor to wash up.

Then, they were to prepare good food for them and have the physicians check their health.

After being locked up for a long period of time in such a bad environment, for civil servants whose bodies were originally weak, such a torture would definitely leave behind some illnesses.

Based on the reactions of the mountain barbarian tribes leaders, there were tens of people who could not hold on and passed on.

Walking out of the prison, Ouyang Shuo's brows were locked tightly. According to his observations, after being locked up for so long, be it physically or mentally, they had all suffered huge pain and trauma.

In a short time, they probably could not be appointed.

The next morning, Ouyang Shuo welcomed all the saved civil servants in the main hall.

After nourishing their bodies and having a good rest, the colors of their faces had improved tremendously. Last night, they had heard of the changes in Wuzhou from the mouths of the servants.

Chiyou dying, Wuzhou changing Lords, Shanhai City moving in, and the mountain barbarians no longer having special privileges.

This series of changes left their mouth agape.

Now, they had a clear understanding of Ouyang Shuo’s identity.

"Greetings Lord, thank you for saving us!"

The hundreds of civil servants all kneeled down and bowed; it created a truly solemn scene. They were all willing to pledged their loyalties to him. After all, meeting such a Lord was a huge blessing to them.

"Please rise."

Ouyang Shuo raised his head and looked at the old man at the front of the row, deep in thought.

Last night, Ouyang Shuo had already instructed Fan Zhongyan to perform some preliminary research on the civil servants. He found that they were all real talents.

Twenty of them could become county magistrates, and three could even become prefects. Amongst which, there was even a big fish—the old man in front of him.

This old man was not some random nobody. Rather, he was a famous minister during the Sui Tang Era—Pei Ju.

Name: Pei Ju(Emperor Rank)

Title: Wenxi County Lord

Dynasty: Sui Tang

Identity: Shanhai City civil servant

Occupation: civil servant

Loyalty: 70

Command: 65

Force: 35

Intelligence: 75

Politics: 88

Specialty: wide knowledge and versatile talent (15% increase in administrative efficiency of territory, 25% increase in territory prestige, 20% increase in purity and honesty of territory, 10% increase in feel of territory)

Evaluation: Pei Ju, a politician, diplomat, strategist, and geographer during the Sui Tang era. His theory involves history and many other elements. He was loyal in his work and was always putting in all his effort, working late into the night for his Lord. He has a vast experience and spent many years working in administrative matters. Although it was a chaotic time, he did his work carefully and performed well.

On the topic of Pei Ju, some people might not know but in the written by master Huang Yi, Pei Ju was the name given to King Ya Shi Zixian in the imperial court.

Although this was only fiction, one could see the influence that Pei Mo had during that time.

Pei ju, his real name was Shi Ju. Born in Hedong Wenxi, he was the grandson of provincial governor Pei Tuo, son of Beiqi prince Pei Na. It could be said that he was born in a famous family.

Pei Ju who was born in Hedong, and he worked for North Qi, North Zhou, Sui Dynasty, and participated in the Sui destruction of Chen. During that time, he led three thousand soldiers to settle Lingnan and calm down the people. He was the vice minister of the public ministry, vice minister of the internal officials, vice minister of the minor official department, and more, before he was eventually given the title of Wenxi County Lord.

During the Daye years, Pei Ju was utilized a lot, along with Su Wei, Yu Wenshu, Pei Xi, and the like, they controlled the politics and administration. He helped the Sui emperor run the west region and helped split apart the Turks. After the jiangdu uprising, Pei Ju worked for Yuwen Huaji and was respected.

In the 4th year of Wude, Pei Ju surrendered to the Tang rule, taking up the role of attendant censor in the hall, Shuzi of the prince, vice supervisor of the household of the prince, and similar roles, and he was given the title of Anyi County Lord. He was highly recommended by Tang Gaozu and Tang Taichong. On the first year of Zhenguan, he passed away because of an illness at eighty years of age. His name was forever remembered in history and worshipped.

His entire life was magnificent, flying high and far.

On this topic, Pei Ju and Shi Wanshui were both ministers of the same hall, and they had a level of relationship.

During the 19th year of Kaihuang, Dulan Kehan and Datou Kehan worked together to defeat Qiming Kehan.

Qiming Kehan fled south to the Sui Dynasty and the emperor appointed Taiping Lord Shi Wanshui as the manager of the troops and Pei Ju as the elder of the army. Their mission was to strike out and attack the Turks.

Similarly, in the 12th month, Dulan Kehan was killed by his own subordinates and Datou Kehan took control.

20th year of Kaihuang, Shi Wanshui had broken through and succeeded in his attack on Datou Kehan. However, Sui Wendi wrongly killed him. Pei Ju's war records were not recorded because of that, and he was later asked to serve Qiming Kehan and promoted to government minister.

If it was other Lords, they might only pay attention to Pei Ju himself. Ouyang Shuo was different, as the part he cared about was where Pei Ju was born.

The Wei and Jin Dynasties, all the way till the Sui Dynasty, were times when the aristocratic families were the strongest. The most famous one was naturally the Guanlong Group that ruled the land.

The Guanlong Group originated from Wei Dynasty and grew big during the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

Sui Wendi was born of the Guanlong Group, and even the Tang Dynasty Li Ming who replaced the Sui Dynasty were all part of the Guanlong Group. This organization controlled all the strong martial artists and intelligent people in Guanlong Huhan, and everyone in the group would either become ministers or generals.

As Sui Yangdi wanted to destroy and remove this group, in the end, it cost him his name and reputation.

Apart from the Guanlong Group, Hebei Pei Family was also a huge aristocratic family.

Spanning thousands of years in China, they were a unique aristocratic family and was one of the longest lasting and most famous ones.

Based on what was recorded in the , the Pei Family had 59 prime ministers, 59 great generals, three empresses, and four concubines. Moreover, there were three thousand people ranked above grade 7 official, six hundred summoned by the king.

Just in the Tang Dynasty, they had seventeen prime ministers.

Flipping through just two scrolls of the Pei Family Genealogy, from Han to Qing, of the two hundred people, each one had made a contribution to China’s history. To finish writing all their contributions would probably take a humongous book. The Pei Family had numerous stars.

Such a huge and powerful family, Ouyang Shuo obviously paid attention to it.

Gaia was nearing the end of the 3rd year.

Based on the game progression after the first information piece, the 2nd one would be released soon. Moreover, this information piece would have a close relationship with the aristocratic families.

What kind of effect would the appearance of Pei Ju have on the territory?

Ouyang Shuo was temporarily unable to make his comment.

Ouyang Shuo judged Pei Ju and Pei Ju judged him in turn.

Any historical person in the wilderness would have definitely heard of Ouyang Shuo—this mighty Lord.

Pei Ju was summoned into the wilderness through a player Lord. He was also really confident and wanted to succeed in the wilderness.

Unfortunately, he was born in the wrong time. Before he could do anything, things changed.

After the Battle of Zhuolu ended, Chiyou moved into Wuzhou Prefecture. No one within the prefecture could stop him, and they were all removed one by one. It was also at that time when Pei Ju was captured and locked into the secret prison.

Being locked up by Chiyou, Pei Mo felt a sense of despair.

He did not expect a little more than half a year later, he would be saved.

The death of Chiyou, Qiyue Wuyi moving in.

Compared to his previous Lord, the man in front of him was many times better. However, the experience of being locked up made him downhearted, and he could not find any motivation or drive.

Both of them were smart people, and they did not have a deep conversation in the main hall, just showing themselves.

Last night, Ouyang Shuo had already thought of how to deal with these people in front of him. He decided to send them to rest up in Shanhai City. After he destroyed Taiping Country, he would arrange for them to take up jobs.

Of course, even if they recovered, Ouyang Shuo would not send them to Wuzhou Prefecture. No one could ensure that these people would not take revenge on the mountain barbarians for what Chiyou did to them.

Hence, the best choice was to move them away from Wuzhou Prefecture. Of course, their families would be moved together with them to Shanhai City.

Chapter 519- Mystery in Tianjing

11th month, 2nd day, Xunzhou Prefecture, Tianjing City.

The towering Tianjing City was like a massive dragon coiled up in the middle of Chuannan, showing off the ambition of Hong Xiuquan.

After a year of hard work, the population of Tianjing had crossed five hundred thousand and was enough to compete with the grade 1 prefectures of players.

Just when Ouyang Shuo welcomed and met the civil servants, Yang Xiuqing led the remains of his troops and arrived outside of Tianjing City.

Long before his return, the news that the South Army had fallen at Mulan Stronghold had spread out in Tianjing City. The huge city was in a solemn mood.

The civil servants and generals of the country could not imagine how two hundred thousand elite troops fell in one night. This great blow caused the entire imperial court to be unable to breathe.

The fate of the entire country seemed to become precipitous all of a sudden.

On the day he received the news, Hong Xiuquan smashed his tea cup during the imperial court meeting. Following which, he folded his sleeves and left, leaving all of the ministers standing there and looking utterly awkward.

The same day, within the palace, a concubine carelessly mentioned Mulan Stronghold and was dragged out and executed.

Such a scene sent shivers down their spines.

The entire Tianjing City was covered in a terrifying and horrible atmosphere.

The usually bustling city instantly turned cold and quiet.

On the city walls, squads of soldiers patrolled, their eyes sharp and their expressions serious. Everyone knew that the loss of the South Army meant that the entire Xunzhou Prefecture was exposed in front of the enemy.

The rising wind forebodes a storm.

Hence, when Yang Xiuqing and his troops arrived at the city gate, they saw many different expressions on the guarding soldiers and the people around them.

Shock, despise, anger, curiosity.

When Yang Xiuqing saw their faces, he felt truly bitter and sad.

As for the three thousand soldiers he brought back, they felt a massive sense of guilt under the weight of such stares.

Members of a defeated army, what courage and honor could they speak of?

A feeling of regret and shame rose up from within them.

Every soldier wanted to use their helmets to cover their faces, as they had no face to meet the people in the city.

However, the soldiers in charge of guarding the city did not dare to block them. Only one guard instantly ran when he saw them. He ran toward the King Palace in the city.

Yang Xiuqing was expressionless, as he led the three thousand men. He calmly passed through the city gates and headed toward the barracks in the city. If one did not know, they would think that the battle had never occured.

The spy that the Black Snake Guards had planted by Yang Xiuqing's side could not help but nod his head at Yang Xiuqing's performance.

Yang Xiuqing was really special.

On the matter of his calm demeanour alone, there were not many that were his match.

Everyone knew that in suffering this huge defeat, as the main commander and general, his responsibility was the greatest.

The fury of the king was also incredibly merciless and violent.

Pretty much everyday, there would be people scolded or punished by the king. It would be the ministers who spoke, his concubines, or soldiers that did not perform their duty well.

The fall of the South Army had caused the negative side that Hong Xiuquan had tried to hide to explode out. He suddenly became an impulsive and irritable person, annoyed at nearly anything.

A massive sense of failure pressed onto his head and turned him crazy.

The moment he thought about the empire he had built up crashing down because of this battle, Hong Xiuquan wanted to just skin Yang Xiuqing alive.

As they say, when one fails to meet their goals, one would definitely grow crazy in anger. Hong Xiuquan was now at the verge of total insanity.

Under such circumstances, the fate of Yang Xiuqing was fairly obvious. His best possible outcome would probably be a complete corpse.

Not only Yang Xiuqing, his family would probably be massacred.

The events of history would replay once more.

However, Yang Xiuqing did not choose to surrender to Shanhai City or flee into the woods. Instead, he would rather return to the city resolutely.

All of this was something that other people could not understand.

In truth, two days ago, Hong Xiuqing had obtained the location of Yang Xiuqing through his mysterious intel network.

Hence, Hong Xiuquan could not understand the other man’s plans.

Weirdly enough, on this day, be it Yang Xiuqing or Hong Xiuquan, neither took any extra actions. Yang Xiuqing entered the army camp and Hong Xiuquan did not ask to meet him.

Everything seemed calm.

Anyone with a brain would know that this was merely the eve of the storm.

In the cold city, the dark currents and hidden powers started to act.

When Yang Xiuqing arrived at the camp, he sent a soldier he trusted to the palace to pass a letter to Hong Xiuquan.

It was this letter that temporarily preserved his life.

Apart from the people involved, no one knew what words the letter contained. It could actually calm down the killing intent of Hong Xiuquan.

As a result, the dark currents within the city started moving quicker and more vigorously.

Especially under the provocation of the two intelligence organizations, the entire city became a mess.

Various powers were probing one another.

Anyone with power was trying to see the direction of the country’s progress through this thick fog.

Unfortunately, all of these actions were destined to be useless.

Because Shanhai City, who had been preparing for a long time, finally bared their fangs.

11th month, 2nd day afternoon, Chiyou City.

The hundreds of civil servants that were previously locked up in the secret prison brought their families and started to move to Shanhai City.

Out of all of them, only one stayed—Pei Ju. Based on Ouyang Shuo's plan, Pei Ju would follow him and enter Xunzhou Prefecture.

Pei Ju was good at both martial arts and administrative work. Moreover, he was a great minister.

Hence, after this peaceful noon, Ouyang Shuo asked to see Pei Ju alone in his reading room. It was the first time the two of them got to meet alone, so they poured their hearts out and talked about almost anything.

Ouyang Shuo knew that he needed to use his lofty goals and ambitions to reignite the fire in Pei Ju’s heart.

As such, not only did Ouyang Shuo tell him about the plan to destroy Taiping Country, he even told him about the plans for the next year.

After listening to Ouyang Shuo’s grand blueprint, Pei Ju was jolted awake. If his plan succeeded, his empire would not merely be the size of the Tang empire at its prime.

In just an hour, Ouyang Shuo had managed to convince Pei Ju and gain his recognition.

Pei Ju could only laugh awkwardly at this.

This trip was to give Pei Ju a close look at the Shanhai City Army.

11th month, 3rd day, Ouyang Shuo led the troops and left Chiyou City. Following them included the three thousand Divine Martial Guards, the Guards Division, and the threee independent mountain barbarian divisions.

Only the 4th independent division, which would become the the iron armored beast division, stayed. They were in charge of the area defence before the Garrison Division was built up.

For this trip, Ouyang Shuo would lead his men west to the intersection between Guilin Prefecture and Xunzhou, blocking off the north escape route of Hong Xiuquan.

The next day, the Dragon and Leopard Legions would split into two and invade Xunzhou Prefecture.

The battle to destroy Taiping Country had officially started.

Chapter 520- Upping the Stakes

11th month, 4th day, the situation on the southwest battlefield suddenly changed.

Shanhai City's three roads of troops divided and conquered, sweeping Xunzhou Prefecture.

East.

Baiqi’s Dragon Legion left a trail of slaughter along the way. Anyone that stubbornly blocked their path were killed without hesitation. One city who did not want to surrender, so when the Dragon Legion broke in, they killed all the people and commoners.

Bones fell, smoke rose.

The city was lit up in flames that burned on for three days and three nights before a sudden rain stopped the fires. Probably even the heavens did not want to see such a cruel and terrible scene.

The moment the news escaped, the world was sent into an uproar.

The name of Asura reverberated through the wilderness once more.

Such a bloody army trained in hell caused every city on the east of Xunzhou to cower in fear. After this battle, basically before Baiqi's army arrived, the defending army would just directly run away from the city.

The commoners left did not dare to act slow, and they would fearfully open the gates to surrender.

Baiqi and his Dragon Legion did not do anything to those that surrendered.

The moment this news spread out, the number of people who surrendered rose.

With that, the journey of the Dragon Legion turned peaceful and smooth.

When Hong Xiuquan received the news, he was furious and chopped off the heads of three generals that deserted their cities, displaying their bodies outside the city. Only then did the situation become slightly better.

Even so, Baiqi and his Dragon Legion progressed quickly on the east side.

West.

The Leopard Legion led by Han Xin took a more flexible and canny approach. Strictly speaking, this was the first time that Han Xin took charge of sieging.

The two battles before this either focused on defence or sneak attacks.

The ability of Han Xin was shown mostly during sieges.

Probably because of Baiqi’s stimulation, Han Xin also gave it his all. He employed numerous strategies; he would bait the enemy out or launch sneak attacks, or he would surround the enemy or forcefully attack. He would act based on the situation, and he was flexible in his execution.

Sweeping across, nothing could stop him either.

As he proceeded west, there was a feeling reminiscent of how he led his sole army to sweep four countries in one swoop. No matter the situation, he would be able to think of a plan.

That was why he was called the war immortal.

The east and west were like a pair of handsome siblings, shining brightly in the sky. The entire south of Xunzhou let out painful cries under the hooves of this army.

On the north, Ouyang Shuo led his troops and played a very safe and passive approach.

Lin Yi’s Guards Division had broken away from the main squad to lead the way, taking control of the passageway between Xunzhou Prefecture and Guilin Prefecture.

After many bloody battles, the two most important passes fell into the hands of the Guards Division.

The strength of the Guards Division had toppled the enemy once again.

Ouyang Shuo, on the other hand, led the three mountain barbarian divisions to pick up their spoils of war.

Compared to the east and west armies, Ouyang Shuo’s actions were more dull and less eye catching. Luckily, he had Pei Ju coming up with plans and tactics besides him, so he was not that far off from the other two armies.

Even so, the north of Xunzhou Prefecture fell quickly.

After all, Ouyang Shuo was leading four divisions, all of them wild cards. Needless to say, there was also the supreme presence of the Divine Martial Guards as their vanguard.

Under the pincer of the three armies, Xunzhou Prefecture was in more and more danger. In less than a week, they had lost half the territory, and they would basically lose one city a day.

At a glance, the three armies were getting closer and closer to Tianjing City in the middle.

All of a sudden, Tianjing City fell into a state of panic.

Fear and terror grew and spread within the city.

Some of the commoners in the city started to pack their bags, and they were ready to leave at any moment. Influenced by the war, the prices of goods in the city rose to sky high numbers.

Just rice tripled in price in just one day.

The rise in prices further increased the demand and fighting for goods.

As time went on, this vicious cycle caused the prices to grow more and more out of hand.

The rulers of the country did not have much experience, so they could only use the army to suppress and kill the merchants who were amassing goods.

Within a day, the officials closed down two Chambers of Commerce

With that, although they stabilized the prices temporarily, their actions increased the fears in the people’s hearts. Some merchants even started to smuggle goods out in fear for their lives.

Before Hong Xiuquan could notice, the resources in the city disappeared at a visible rate and were all sold through the Super Trading Platform.

Apart from the fear of the people, in the imperial court, there was also chaos.

Bad new after bad news spread forth, making the generals and officials painicky.

Debates and fights filled the imperial court of the Taiping Country.

On the question of whether to leave or stay and defend, everyone could not agree. Undeniably, the civil servants suggested leaving, while the generals insisted on fighting till the end.

Both sides were unable to convince each other, so they could only leave the matter to Hong Xiuquan.

The crux of the problem was that as the imperial city of the Taiping Country, Tianjing City could not be forsaken. If they left it, it would be the same as announcing the end of the country.

Even Hong Xiuquan was not willing to make such a decision.

In the end, after two days of debate, Hong Xiuquan decided to recall the west troops to prepare for a life or death battle at Tianjing City.

At the same time, he also arranged for men to rush to Guilin Prefecture up north to prepare their escape.

As they say, a witty hare has three burrows.

Since he had another chance at living, Hong Xiuquan was not the same stubborn person, and he knew to leave himself a way out.

Apart from recalling the west army, he also ordered all the city protection squads to return to Tianjing City. Anyone who did not follow his orders would be beheaded.

All of a sudden, the city protection squads of three prefectures gathered up in Tianjing City.

With that, one could see that Hong Xiuquan was supportive of defending the city.

After all, it was his life's work, and he was not going to give it up so easily.

Apart from the army, Hong Xiuquan had also decided on what to do to Yang Xiuqing.

After the imperial court meeting, Yang Xiuqing was given an imperial decree to move out of the barracks and back into his manor. Without orders, he was not to take a step out.

It was the same as saying that Yang Xiuqing was under house arrest.

Such an ending was merciful.

Probably to Hong Xiuquan, since the country was facing a crisis, he did not want to kill a general for nothing and cause chaos in the military.

No matter what, his loyalty toward the country was undeniable.

The entire Tianjing City, under the smoke of the flames of war, was also covered in a dark current. As Shanhai City grew closer, this current became stronger and stronger.

All of this was seemingly covered up by the war.

Only when it exploded would one truly realize its strength.

11th month, 7th day, Consonance City.

Above the city wall, Bai Hua finally let out a sigh of relief, as she watched the Taiping army retreating like a flood.

Successive battles had seen the west army under the leadership of Shi Dakai push forward stubbornly, as they slowly but resolutely attacked territories. Only two days ago, they had gotten closer and closer to the Consonance City main camp.

Seeing Consonance City surrounded by the Taiping Country Army, Bai Hua frowned.

Just when everyone thought that a bloodbath would ensue on the walls of Consonance City, the Taiping Country unexpectedly decided to leave.

The root of this change naturally laid in Hong Xiuquan’s orders.

After calming herself down, Bai Hua looked toward the generals around her, cupping her fists, "Thank you, generals, for your help. I, Bai Hua, represent Consonance City to express our immense gratitude to all of you."

The generals included Zhang Liao and Cao Can, Luo Shixin from Shanhai City, Xunlong Dianxue, and Qinqiong from Xunlong City. The last group would be the adventure gamemode players gathered by her brother.

Even such a lineup was broken apart by Shi Dakai.

The best general of the Taiping Country Army truly deserved his name. Of course, his followers Xiao Chaogui, Feng Yun Shan, and Li Kaifang were also strong.

"Lord Bai Hua is too courteous. We are all just following orders."

Luo Shixin represented Shanhai City and said.

"That's right. The Shanhai Alliance is one family, so there's no need for such words."

Xunlong Dianxue spoke up at the appropriate time.

After the changes that happened during this period of time, be it Gong Chengshi or Xunlong Dianxue, their positions in the alliance were slowly changing.

Before this, both of them even had the confidence to reach the same level as Ouyang Shuo.

Now, they were not doing anything, while Shanhai City was growing bigger and bigger. The two of them even felt a slight sense of worship toward Ouyang Shuo.

Which was why when Ouyang Shuo asked him to assist Consonance City, he did not even think and just agreed.

In the current alliance, probably only Feng Qiuhuang and Bai Hua had the ability to be on the same level. However, after this huge battle, Bai Hua's attitude would probably experience a change.

Ouyang Shuo’s position in the Shanhai Alliance was getting more and more stable.

"Guys, do not stand just here. Let's return to the manor to talk!"

The one who spoke was Cao Can.

Ever since he joined Consonance City, after the Battle of Julu, the role of Cao Can was like that of a prime minister. He handled administrative matters and had gained the trust of Bai Hua.

That night, Bai Hua held a feast to thank the various generals. The ally troops who came to help were rewarded gold and wine. A happy and joyous atmosphere permeated the entire Consonance City.

Since Shi Dakai's troops had left, why not follow them? Even if they could not destroy them, they could delay their route back and buy time for Shanhai City.

They had their reasons for not doing so.

Firstly, Shi Dakai was an experienced general. Even though he had led his troops to hurriedly retreat, he would have planned his escape. He would not give the enemy a chance to strike.

Secondly, it had to do with Ouyang Shuo’s plan.

Compared to attacking the west army, Ouyang Shuo suggested the army in Consonance City play a bigger hand.

Chapter 521- Change in Game Style

Consonance City, Lord's Manor Main Hall.

After the feast, the various generals did not leave. Instead, they gathered together for a meeting.

Toward the discussions that would take place tonight, the various people had a rough idea. Hence, although the feast was rowdy, everyone controlled how much they drank to maintain a clear head.

As the host, Bai Hua naturally sat at the main seat.

Left of her was naturally the representatives of Consonance City. Apart from Cao Can and Zhang Liao, these two generals, Zi Luolan, Hong Ying, and Tsing Yi were all present.

On the right were the representatives of the allies. There were only three of them, Xunlong Dianxue, Luo Shixin, and Qinqiong. The only exception was her brother, who was not in the main hall.

The truth was that the moment the feast had ended, the adventure gamemode players had all teleported back to Dali City. As for the following military operations of Consonance City, they would not participate.

After this battle, Qingfeng Pavilion had suffered heavy loses. Amongst the elite unit, five fell and six were heavily injured. Although they had received huge rewards in compensation fees, they would have to rest up for a long time to regain their strength.

One must know that in Dali, there were many guilds that were eyeing their position. Seeing Qingfeng Pavillion face such a setback, one could not say with uncertainty that these guilds would not try something ambitious.

Luckily, Moon Shines over the River was not as open as he looked, and his actions were decisive and accurate. Bai Hua and her brother were the pinnacle of professional players.

Qingfeng Pavillion joining in the battle had caused a small wave in the China region. Adventure gamemode players could become mercenaries and join Lords in battles for pay. The actions of Qingfeng Pavillion basically formed a new way of playing the game.

Although the risk was great, the rewards were astonishing. Apart from the most common gold rewards, some Lords even gave equipment, secret manuals, and items that adventure gamemode players dreamt of.

As one said, under the temptations of hefty rewards, people would become courageous.

Now, in the China region, even mercenary guilds appeared. Some guilds even changed their names to XX mercenary group.

It was not only a change in name, as even the entire structure changed.

Members of the mercenary guilds were basically combat members. To aid in field battle, their occupation combinations would change and be totally different from when they were trying to level up.

Leveling groups basically had every occupation and focused on balance.

Mercenary groups were different, as they focused on surviving. They did not face small scale skirmishes but large scale wars.

Hence, the occupations of the mercenaries were really important.

On the battlefield, adventure gamemode players would treat themselves like normal soldiers. Like that, only then would they follow orders and would not become a bunch of scattered sand.

Some guilds that were struggling to survive, under such a change, started to rise from the ashes. These guilds were all fighting style guilds that were not good at management.

The role of mercenary fitted them perfectly.

With that, player Lords and mercenary groups could help one another out in the areas they were lacking. The Lords provided good logistical support, while the mercenary group gave them combat strength, resulting in an equal value trade.

A strong mercenary group was a movable fighting division.

The various guilds, especially the top 10 guilds, had noticed this problem. Based on Lin Jing’s words, War-Snow Rose had started to build a specific mercenary group under them.

For this, she also wanted to apply for a batch of equipment from the alliance.

One could say that the actions of Qingfeng Pavillion was slowly changing the player structure of the China region. The divide between adventure gamemode and Lord gamemode players was slowing being filled up and broken.

As a reincarnated person, Ouyang Shuo understood that the situation forced this change. In the west, where mercenary guilds were the most progressive, this model had already matured.

In his last life, it would take one more year for this style to rise up in the China region. Ouyang Shuo, this butterfly, was continuously changing history.

Of course, territories like Shanhai City were not going to hire mercenary groups.

In his eyes, rather than spending money to feed a bunch of greedy wolves, training a loyal army was better.

However, in the eyes of the Lords of smaller territories, mercenary groups held a huge attraction. Compared to territory army divisions, they had two advantages.

Firstly, they did not need to be developed.

As long as a Lord had money, they could summon a huge army and start a war. Be it attack or defence, it would work out.

Moreover, to develop an army for the territory would take at least three months.

Hence, the more urgent the situation, the bigger the market for mercenary groups.

Secondly, the cost of hiring mercenary groups was relatively low.

From a long term standpoint, developing an army was more worth it. But in the short term, spending on a mercenary group actually cost less than building an army.

After all, building an army, apart from occupation change fees, one needed to give equipment, and salary, which would result in huge expenditure.

Just with these two points alone, the market for mercenary groups would only grow bigger and bigger.

One could even say that even some prominent Lords like Di Chen might hire mercenary groups during emergencies.

It was the same as saying that the appearance of mercenary groups was granting big powers like Di Chen a trump card. After all, the material goods in their territories were plentiful.

More importantly, through the mercenary group model, adventure gamemode players would participate more and more in the game. The rise in their use and status would also be forced and rushed under such a situation.

And this was also what Gaia wanted to see.

Earth Online, apart from being used to choose leaders, must include everyone. As the highest level of AI, it was neutral, and it was not biased to any side.

Within the main hall, Cao Can, as the representative, reported the battle situation.

During this battle, facing the two hundred thousand Taiping Country west army, the various divisions had suffered relatively large loses. The ones who suffered the most were naturally the Consonance City Legion, and they had directly lost fifty thousand people.

Apart from that, Luo Shixin's division lost 1600 men, while Xunlong Dianxue's division lost two thousand men.

After the battle, the various divisions were all badly hurt.

However, based on Ouyang Shuo’s plan, they did not have the time to rest.

The reason Consonance City faced such a tough situation during the Taiping Army west conquest was mainly because the other Lords of Yunnan Province just watched, although Ouyang Shuo letting it happen was also a factor.

Especially those in Kunming Prefecture, not only did they not help, they even arranged troops at the border and stared right at Consonance City.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo suggested that taking the chance while the Taiping Country army left, before the other Lords got the news, they could secretly turn around and destroy the other Lords in Kunming Prefecture.

One had to say, Ouyang Shuo's idea was really too bold. Even Bai Hua was shocked when she heard it. However, after thinking about it, it did make sense.

Firstly, although Consonance City had lost troops and men, if one counted Luo Shixin and Xunlong Dianxue's divisions, their strength had increased.

Both of them led top class divisions.

To assist Consonance City, Xunlong Dianxue had expended a lot of effort, and he had even sent the heavy armored cavalry division trained by Qinqiong.

The equipment of this division was comparable to the Guards Division of Shanhai City. Xunlong Dianxue had nearly spent all his money before he managed to purchase the equipment for them all.

Mingguang Armor, Horse Lance, Tang Knife, Strong Crossbow, and more; they were all well-equipped.

In addition to the leadership of Qinqiong, this division was comparable to Luo Shixin's division.

Moreover, the strength of the Consonance City Legion, after the trial by fire of this battle, had undergone an explosive growth. Their personal strength had increased. Most importantly, they had gained more battle experience.

Not all territory armies could be like the armies of Shanhai City, being bathed and improved through battles on the main map. Normal armies would only have such a chance during the battle maps.

During normal times, they could only fight raiders.

Shanhai City was different, as they expanded their territory, their troops participated in many battles.

Which was why the Shanhai City Army would get stronger and stronger, and the gap between them and the other territory armies would grow bigger and bigger. One could say that only after being bathed in battle could one truly become an army.

Consonance City had undoubtedly gone through such a trial. In addition to the leadership of General Zhang Liao, in the China region, Consonance City could be considered a strong army.

The sum of the two was a reason why they had confidence for this conquest.

The second reason was pretty obvious.

The Lords of Kunming Prefecture were busy looking on at the action. Never in their wildest dreams would they think that Consonance City would swing their swords at them at this moment.

As it was unexpected, be it the Lords of Kunming Prefecture or Yunnan Province, they would not have the chance to ally up and form an alliance army.

Hence, as long as they planned the matter well, they would win with just one battle.

As long as they took over Kunming Prefecture, Consonance City would truly gain a footing in the Yunnan Province. The other territories, including alliances, would not be able to challenge Bai Hua’s position.

After all, Kunming Prefecture took up a third of the entire Yunnan Province.

Chapter 522- Sweeping Kunming Prefecture

The military meeting in Consonance City only ended in the dead of night.

In the sky, a shooting sky flashed across the horizon and disappeared into the west.

In the meeting, everyone came to the agreement that Zhang Liao would lead the Consonance City Army legion as the middle army, while Luo Shixin's division would act as the left army, and Qinqiong as the right army.

For both the left and right armies, Consonance City had arranged a guide to point them in the right direction.

Early next morning, the three armies would set off at the same time. Without a sign, they would strike out at the ten plus territories in the west of Kunming Prefecture. Their goal was to conquer the entire prefecture in four days.

Cao Can was appointed as the logistics officer of the army, and he was in charge of taking care of grain transport, officials to take over occupied territories, and the like.

After handing control of the army over to Qinqiong, Xunlong Dianxue would return to Xunlong City.

As the Lord, he could not leave his territory for a long time, especially when his city lacked many capable administrative personnel.

At the same time, he also left Consonance City to avoid arousing suspicions.

In contrast to the previous defence battle, this time, they were striking out at other territories. This matter definitely would involve the division of rewards. Xunlong Dianxue leaving early obviously indicated that he was stepping out of this, and he was not asking for anything in return.

To the Shanhai Alliance, this round of reinforcements by Shanhai City and Xunlong City was the first time the alliance assisted one another. There were a few cooperation elements that had not been perfected yet.

In the future, they definitely needed to strengthen this aspect.

After all, one or two times was okay, but if this happened often, they really could not help their allies for free. Otherwise, it would cause problems within the alliance.

Thanks to the current situation, Ouyang Shuo could only turn a blind eye to that aspect.

11th month, 8th day, Kunming Prefecture.

To Kunming Prefecture, this was a memorable day.

The situation in the wilderness had never ceased to change. Within a day, it was turned on its head. When the sun rose up to the horizon, the three armies had already appeared at the west border.

The various armies of the territories were all camped at the border, causally bathing in the sun. They had no idea that a shocking change was on the verge of occurring.

The three armies mainly consisted of cavalry. As they rushed forward, the rumbling horse hooves caused the entire wilderness to tremble in its wake.

Before the troops could even react, the army had already crossed the border and launched their assault.

Everything happened so suddenly. Even before the beacon tower was lit, the various troops had fallen.

Three armies, all led by strong generals, all with pent up emotions and a desire for revenge.

How could normal troops be the opponents of this overpowered army? Moreover, they lacked a city to defend from, which made matters worse. Facing the elite cavalry in the wilderness, they were destined to be trampled.

With just one collective charge, they scattered the hurriedly assembled enemy formation.

The neighs of the horse sounded out, as the soldiers charged by.

They held their spears and blades upright, as a cold glow spread through the wilderness.

Anywhere that the army passed, corpses dropped and blood flowed.

The red clouds over Kunming Prefecture became thicker, as the killing aura charged toward the clouds.

And at the backlines, Cao Can led the city protection squads. They acted like a road sweeper, as he picked up the armor and equipment and cleaned out the battlefield. He accepted the cities and put out notifications; he took care of everything in a really orderly manner.

Zi Luolan and Tsing Yi were sent to Cao Can's side as assistants. As for Hong Ying, she had accepted a role as a colonel, and she was thrown right into battle.

After destroying the enemy troops, the army did not stop and directly pierced deep. They were like a bunch of wolves that had awakened from winter hibernation, chasing the fastest and meatiest prey.

As they needed to be quick, the army could not stop at any affiliate territories, so they just went around these areas. They aimed straight for the main city. Destroying the stone steele was their main goal.

The city protection squads of the affiliate territories were unable to pose much of a threat to the army. If they really dared to try anything, Cao Can's troops at the back would take them all down.

Hence, the role of Cao Can was to clean up all the problems and worries of the main army.

The role of the three armies was singular: attack, attack, and attack. Attacking cities and occupying them was their only goal; sweeping past Kunming Prefecture was their destiny.

A cavalry force without backline worries, how ferocious could they be? Some territories only reacted when the enemies had arrived right under their city wall. Unfortunately, it was too late.

As the army passed, even the grass could not live.

The bloody glow spread over the skies of Kunming Prefecture.

In the current wilderness, the main goal was to take down the three uprising armies.

However, at this time, Consonance City had suddenly started a war between territories.

This war was more gruesome and cruel.

In the wilderness, only the strong could survive. The weak were only fit to live in the imperial cities. In the battles between Lords, there was only victory and defeat; no middle ground existed.

Even surrendering became a pipe dream.

"The wolves are here!"

Only in the afternoon did the entire Kunming Prefecture let loose such terrified shouts.

Unfortunately, it was all too late.

How could a bunch of late reacting sheeps block the assault of a pack of hungry wolves? The flames of war spread from east to west.

The fear of the Lords, the cries of the people, the numerous soldiers that fell in this bloodbath....

The western region that was still so peaceful in the morning had warped into hell. Smoke rose, and the flames of war broke out.

None of them knew what had happened exactly.

These Lords were paying a heavy price for their laughable ambitions.

"The prestige and status of the Shanhai Alliance cannot be challenged by anyone."

Ouyang Shuo used his actions to emphasis these words.

Only at this point, when the Lords revived in the imperial city, did they start to regret and remember a fact: without the power, do not go and try to provoke the Shanhai Alliance.

If you do, you must be prepared to die. Their mistake was that they did not understand this theory and provoked the tiger.

The reason why Ouyang Shuo wanted to sweep Kunming Prefecture was to reestablish the prestige and might of the Shanhai Alliance.

In the wilderness, blood and fire were always the strongest weapons.

……

Only on the second day did those territories that fortunately survived have a moment to think about setting up alliances.

Unfortunately it was all too late.

The speed of the cavalry was simply too quick, so quick that it would make one feel despaired.

In just one day, four territories fell.

There were only nine territories remaining in Kunming Prefecture.

The three armies were already at their doors, so how could those Lords keep calm and measure the pros and cons?

They only wished to receive reinforcements to help them in this tough situation.

Unfortunately, too many people had such thoughts.

Who to save? Who not to save?

Everything was undecided.

The Lords who rushed to meet one another could not come to a common consensus in such a short time. Furthermore, Kunming Prefecture did not have a famous and strong leader, causing the meeting to be a total mess.

The hall was noisy and everyone chimed in.

After an entire morning of discussions, all their eardrums had basically turned deaf from the noise. Despite this, they still had no plan. Meanwhile, the sharp blades of Consonance City had never stopped for even a second.

The people of their territories were squealing and crying under the iron hooves of the enemy.

After noon, some of the Lords finally gave up hope and turned and left.

In the end, this alliance could only end in unhappiness, leaving everything up to fate. The only hope of the Kunming Lords had ended. Their fates and what was going to happen to them was fairly predictable.

The advance of the Consonance City troops proceeded unusually smooth.

The successive victories had raised their morale, and they swept away the dark clouds that hung over them due to the battle against the Taiping Country Army. The army was pumped up and filled with killing intent.

At the later stages of the battles, some territories just surrendered and opened their gates.

Such might caused all the Lords of the other four prefectures in Yunnan Province to cower in fear.

"The wolves are here!"

The entire Yunnan Province exclaimed.

The Lords were unable to confirm whether this operation targeted only Kunming Prefecture or the entire Yunnan Province.

Shanhai Alliance's support for Consonance City, how far did it reach?

After all, from the news on the battlefield, troops from Shanhai City and Xunlong City had appeared. At the later stages, who could say with certainty that the other members would not send help?

Especially when the news of Shanhai City sweeping Xunzhou Prefecture spread out; the entire China Region trembled.

Out of the four uprising armies, Taiping Country can be said to be ranked second. Such a strong existence was actually going to be soloed by Shanhai City.

The strength of Shanhai City had once again shocked the world.

In comparison, the situation in Zhongyuan was laughable.

Be it Chun Shenjun or Piao Linghuan, they had no progress. They had lost the luster and shine they had before. Because of that, unhappiness had risen up in the alliance armies and calls for a retreat had started to sound out.

The victory of Shanhai City placed a huge pressure on both of them.

Based on the information from the Black Snake Guards, Chun Shenjun and Piao Linghuan had seemingly placed down their animosity to work together and fight. The alliance army led by Di Chen had also reached the border up north.

One could say that whether or not they could take down the Zhangchu regime was a huge test to the Yanhuang Alliance.

The situation in the wilderness had started to slowly change. The alliance army led by Gong Chengshi, with the might and prestige of Shanhai Alliance, had started to act.

Which was why the Lords of Yunnan Province would feel so terrified. Immediately, the voices calling for the establishment of the Yunnan City-State grew louder and louder.

Moreover, they had already decided to leave Kunming Prefecture to their own fates.

Chapter 523- Collapse of the West Army

Kunming Prefecture, Consonance City.

11th month, 10th day, the huge battle ended. In just three days, one day faster than they had estimated, they united Kunming Prefecture. From this battle, the prestige and might of Shanhai City exploded, and they were now unchallenged.

After the battle, the armies returned to the city.

The Xunlong City Division led by Qinqiong immediately teleported back to Xunlong City after they returned. Bai Hua paid for their teleportation costs. Although Consonance City was tight on finances, Bai Hua truly acted in a magnanimous and generous manner.

Luo Shixin's division, after a short rest, entered Chunnan Province Zhen An Prefecture and tailed the west army of the Taiping Country.

Following which, there was a battle that Luo Shixin did not want to miss out on.

To repay the help of Shanhai City, Bai Hua arranged Zhang Liao to lead an elite cavalry division to follow them and enter Zhen An Prefecture.

Although the other Lords of the four prefectures in Yunnan Province were preparing to build the Yunnan City-State, Bai Hua was not too worried about that matter.

Firstly, it was not an easy matter to establish a city-state. Without a great leader leading the way, it was normal for the whole situation to drag on for half a month.

After the city-state was established, the organization of an alliance army would also take a long time.

Hence, Consonance City had enough time to digest the territory that it had just occupied.

After three days of monumental battles, Consonance City had captured sixty thousand prisoners, making up for the losses in the battle with Taiping Country all at once. They even gained some additional numbers.

Based on Bai Hua’s plans, Consonance City would borrow the organization of Shanhai City Army, building a city protection division, a wild fighting legion, and a Kunming Prefecture Garrison Division.

The city protection division would be led by Hong Ying, and it would be in charge of defending Consonance City. The fighting legion would have five divisions like Shanhai City for a total of seventy thousand men. Zhang Liao would be their general.

As for the Kunming Prefecture Garrison Division, it was naturally used to defend Kunming Prefecture.

Bai Hua would use this huge army to go against the Yunnan City-State.

The only negative element would be that they were connected to the other prefectures, and the borders were long, making it a burden to defend.

Moreover, even if the Yunnan City-State reached completion, with the current might of the Shanhai Alliance, they would not dare to attack.

In some ways, Yunnan City-State was only a strategic defense alliance.

It might seem like along with the establishment of Yunnan City-State, many city states were being built up in China. In actuality, there was only one proper one, the Lingnan City-State.

Even the Xiangnan City-State still had unsettled problems.

Every Lord had their ambitions.

Entering a city-state agreement strengthened the safety of the territory, preventing other Lords from invading. However, at the same time, it reduced the chances for the Lords to further expand.

Within a province, all the Lords would live peacefully.

Such a model did not seem to fit into the style and way of life of the wilderness.

The weak being able to save themselves, they naturally liked it. However, the restraint made the strong feel a little uncomfortable. The moment the outside threat lessened, internally conflicts might rise.

Unless there was a truly strong person that could integrate all the resources of the city-state and join up all their interests, the city-state would not last for long.

In the last life, there were only three true city-states in the entire China Region.

Ten days had passed since Shanhai City sent troops to Xunzhou Prefecture.

In a short ten days, half of Xunzhou Prefecture had already fallen. The three armies had resolutely pushed up toward Tianjing, and the largest battle on the southwest region was about to explode.

At the same time, the west army led by Shi Dakai was only a day away from the city. Behind them, the two cavalry divisions tailed closely behind like ghosts.

Zhen An Prefecture was still the territory of Taiping Country.

Hence, their two divisions had not escaped Shi Dakai's eyes. However, because Hong Xiuquan's orders were growing more urgent day by day, Shi Dakai did not have a chance to deal with them.

Toward his ‘tail’, Shi Dakai could only turn a blind eye to it. He could only add some additional defenses on the back lines. The wariness and care in his use of troops could be called average.

On the north of Xunzhou Prefecture, Ouyang Shuo led the mountain barbarian independent divisions. They had already taken over the defense of the two passes. The Guards Division that had taken down the passes had suddenly disappeared from the eyes of Taiping Country.

On the south, the armies led by Baiqi and Han Xin were still pushing forward quickly. Considering their situation, Hong Xiuquan recalled all the city protection squads in the south back to Tianjing.

Which was why the South of Xunzhou Prefecture was like a hunting ground for Shanhai City, completely falling apart.

With that, one could see that Hong Xiuquan was determined to use the cannons and city walls of Tianjing City to defend. Based on information they received, Hong Xiuquan had set up twenty-four cannons on the city walls.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this news, he felt a shiver run down his spine.

When Shi Dakai led the 150 thousand troops back, along with the fifty thousand housed inside, and the city protections squads, Tianjing City would reach a safer situation. Who knows, Taiping Country could even destroy the Shanhai City Army.

One had to say that Hong Xiuquan’s plans were basically flawless. The only flaw was that he had underestimated them; he had underestimated the strong intelligence forces and the strength of their army.

This flaw was going to drag them down to hell.

That very night, the west troops that Hong Xiuquan was waiting and yearning for would never arrive.

When he had heard of the cannon defence set up in Tianjing, Ouyang Shuo gave up on sieging it.

Facing such a strong city, he could only use an intelligent method against it.

Hence, when the west army retreated earlier, a huge plot started to develop. And when they were about to reach Tianjing City, the plan was in place.

That night.

Forty kilometers from Tianjing City spanned a several kilometer long mountain slope. Shi Dakai led the west army to rest there. After tonight, they would be able to reach Tianjing City tomorrow.

At this step, he should have heaved a sigh of relief.

But for some reason, he had a feeling of unease that would not disperse from his heart.

In the night sky, the stars scattered across the skies. The rarely hung up galaxy glowed in the sky. The moon covered the entire camp in a mystifying white light, creating an illusionary feeling.

After patrolling the camp one last time and seeing that everything was normal, Shi Dakai placed down the worry in his heart and returned to his tent to sleep. Tomorrow, a huge battle awaited them.

At this moment, he needed to be well rested.

In truth, the house arrest of Yang Xiuqing had added a layer of unease to his unhappy heart.

The country might seem peaceful, but the internal struggles were getting more and more intense. The brotherhood that they showed when they first appeared had started to change after the victories.

During his western conquest, Shi Dakai had actually come into contact with numerous players.

He had even accepted some player Lords into his army. From their mouths, he understood the history of Taiping Country. After he learned of the entire matter, he had mixed feelings.

Would the tragedy of history repeat itself?

Shi Dakai shook his head, trying his best to toss out all these complicated thoughts, as he prepared to sleep.

Just as he was falling into slumber, thunderous horse hooves rang out in the night. It was deafening and built up fear and unrest in one's heart.

Following which, killing shouts and roars erupted.

Shi Dakai was alarmed, and he quickly got up and exited the tent. Because he was feeling so uneasy, he did not even take off his armor when he went to sleep.

"What happened?"

Shi Dakai grabbed a guard and asked nervously.

"General, general look!"

The guard outside the tent was also alarmed; he was lost for words, so he just pointed outside of the camp. His eyes were filled with astonishment and fear.

When Shi Dakai heard these words, he felt his heart sink.

He raised his head and looked out and saw a closely packed army outside their camp. There was both cavalry and infantry. Before the army arrived, a rain of arrows had rained down first.

Apart from that, a flurry of fire arrows had also rained down on the camp.

The entire camp started to blaze, and the night sky became brighter and brighter.

With his experience, he knew that there were no less than ten thousand troops. Moreover, a cluster of shadows had entered the camp behind the cavalry.

It was obvious that this was planned out.

With how careful he was, he could not have imagined that the real sneak attack would not come from behind but would come from the front where everything looked calm and nothing could possibly happen.

After all, based on the intel from the king, the area before the troops should be totally peaceful. Based on logic, the three armies of Shanhai City were a distance away.

In truth, when the south city protection squads moved long ago, the two armies of Shanhai City on the east and west were left as empty shells.

The real main forces had sneakily backed off, away from the eyes and ears of Taiping Country. Then, they gathered in a secret location and subsequently moved west and laid in wait at a route where the west army had to pass by.

At the same time, the Guards Division that disappeared reappeared once more.

The two legions, plus the Guards Division, added up to a total of 140 thousand men for this attack.

Ouyang Shuo's plan was to sink Shi Dakai's troops outside of Tianjing City. With that, it would truly be sending them to the end of their path. Taiping Country would be guarding an empty city, and they could only surrender peacefully.

"At the most impossible timing, give the enemy the most lethal blow."

Such an act was always the way that Shanhai City liked to do things.

Chapter 524- End of Taiping Country

Night, cold like water.

As the autumn breeze blew, it brought along a chilly air.

In stark contrast, the current Taiping Country west army base was up in flames, bright as day.

The glow from the fires rose up into the sky and lit up the entire night sky. This light seemed to have awakened the boundless and silent wilderness.

When the Shanhai City Army attacked, a portion of the soldiers had already fallen into deep slumber due to rushing on the road for the entire day. Apart from the soldiers on patrol, it was basically a camp with no defences up.

In all of this, even the heavens were helping Shanhai City. The bright moonlight and the glittering stars worked together to light up the entire camp like it was day, clear for everyone to see.

This was probably luck and prosperity showing its worth, affecting the way the moon and the stars turned and worked. Ever since he defeated Chiyou, Ouyang Shuo's luck had truly formed up in the southwest region and no one could come close to him.

As they say, a son with luck and prosperity would definitely be protected by the heavens.

Taking advantage of the bright night sky, the Shanhai City Army were like wolves and tigers as they engaged in slaughter.

At the same time, the two Cavalry Divisions tailing at the back had finally completed their fake bait mission, so they burst out and charged into the camp.

Facing the pincer of the two armies, the total defeat of the west army was just a matter of time.

Shi Dakai looked at the chaotic camp, as a feeling of desperation rose up in his heart for the first time.

The heavens had forsaken Taiping Country!

This steely man gave out a long sigh; he did not want to give up and tried his best to gather up the troops and break out. As long as he successfully broke out toward the direction of Tianjing City, he would have a chance to live.

Unfortunately, that was not to happen.

The Shanhai City Army had both Baiqi and Han Xin in charge. Once they launched an attack, how would they leave any chance for the Taiping Country Army to breathe? Any way out was tightly sealed.

The various armies worked together, advancing and retreating as one, as they launched a relentless assault, efficiently killing off the entirety of the Taiping Country Army.

In every direction and every corner, they were troops placed around.

The west army camp was like a jail cell, surrounded by the Shanhai City Army with no way out.

The killing shouts reverberated through the wilderness, and the echoes did not fade for a long while.

When Luo Shixin's and Zhang Liao's divisions rushed over, the situation was basically settled. The two elite Cavalry Divisions used the light from the flames to sweep around, killing anyone that tried to put up a fight.

Zhang Liao's forces felt their emotions rise, as they killed the enemies.

The army in front of them had been causing them to be unable to breathe over the past few days.

Who knew that in such a short amount of time, the roles of the two would be completely swapped. Now, the Taiping Country Army was the one getting massacred.

Such a huge difference truly made it hard for one to believe the situation.

In Zhang Liao's heart, he also felt incredibly emotional.

In comparison, the Shanhai City army was really something special.

The soldiers of the Taiping Country Army did consider using the cover of the night to escape into the wilderness.

Unfortunately, how would Han Xin allow that to happen?

Outside the camp, the two legions arranged tens of thousands of archers on alert. If they spotted anyone escaping, they would turn them into living targets.

Facing such an arrow rain, no matter how courageous you were, you would hesitate.

The only way out was to surrender.

Among the spreading flames, there were finally soldiers that gave up and chose to surrender.

They were very clear that they were the last hope of their country.

Now, their hopes were destroyed, and their lives were at risk. Even if they were lucky and escaped, they would not be able to hide from the chasing troops.

Taiping Country was now a broken ship that was about to sink. Rather than sinking along with them, why not board a new ship?

It was with such a mentality that nearing the end, more and more of them surrendered. They were like dominos, surrendering group by group.

At the later stages, if the generals tried to stop them, their soldiers would instantly chop them down. Seeing such a scene, no more generals tried to act as the good guy.

Only till the dead of night did this unassuming slope start to calm down.

All the surrendered soldiers were locked up together, and their weapons and equipment were all taken. The big camp had instantly turned into a temporary jail.

In just one night, everything had changed.

The night sky became darker and darker.

Even the shine from the stars became dimmer and dimmer.

The noisy wilderness regained its previous silence.

Of course, after this period of darkness, the morning quickly arrived.

For the entire night, no one in the camp had any rest.

The Shanhai City soldiers were busy gathering up prisoners, and they did not dare to sleep. Moreover, the Taiping Country soldiers had just become prisoners, so they were feeling really emotional and could not fall asleep.

Two hundred thousand odd soldiers spent four of the hardest hours of their lives together in the darkness.

At 6 AM, the sun finally rose up from the east horizon.

Along with the red sun, the darkness faded away.

The night sky was like a tide, disappearing at a visible rate.

Dawn had once again arrived.

Only at this point did Baiqi and Han Xin have the time to do post battle calculations.

To possess such a high efficiency, one had to thank the professional advisors and talents in the legions.

In the end, the results shocked even Baiqi.

In this battle, out of the 150 thousand forces of the Taiping Country west army, forty thousand died, ninety thousand were captured, and less than twenty thousand escaped.

Out of the four important generals, Shi Dakai was escorted to safety by his personal guards, Li Kaifang was killed, while Xiao Chaogui and Feng Yunshan were captured.

As it was a night battle, the Shanhai City Army had suffered some casualties, but it was a relatively small count.

When the sky turned bright, Zhao Liao and his troops rested for a while before leaving. Since the west army was destroyed, the destruction of Taiping Country was imminent, so they did not need the extra help.

After all, Kunming Prefecture had just become peaceful, and the army needed reorganization. As the legion general, the earlier he returned, the better it was.

Luckily, they were all soldiers, and the military lacked complicated courtesy.

After some simple greetings and goodbyes, they left.

After this period of help, the relationship between Shanhai City and Consonance City had become closer. Not only between the generals but also between the soldiers.

The Cavalry Division led by Luo Shixin naturally returned to their unit. Considering that they had been continuously fighting and were tired, Baiqi decided to let Luo Sixin send the ninety thousand prisoners back to Mulan Stronghold. As they were within the Taiping Country border, he asked the 5th division to follow them to prevent accidents.

When Luo Shixin received the order, he was obviously not happy. He actually wanted to have a look at Tianjing City. Now, it seemed like he would not have the chance.

But as it was a military order, he could only nod his head and agree.

The remaining three divisions of the Dragon Legion and the Leopard Legion would now charge for Tianjing City.

At this point, this battle that had lasted for over a month was finally coming to its end.

11th month, 16th day afternoon, Tianjing City.

Shi Dakai led his remaining troops and fled back to Tianjing City, and their state caused imaginable shock. The news of the west troops being crushed was like a tsunami, shaking the entire Tianjing City.

Despair started to permeate.

The panicky mood was like a virus, spreading as quickly as lightning.

A pessimistic atmosphere instantly enveloped the air of Tianjing City.

News spread that when Shi Dakai went into the palace to meet the king, he wanted to kill himself. If it was not for the guards being a step faster, he would have probably died on the spot.

Seeing that, how could Hong Xiuquan bear to scold this loyal general?

Especially along with the west army falling, the Taiping Country Army, which previously seemed as bright as the stars, now looked a lot dimmer. If they let Shi Dakai die, they really would have no generals to lead them.

And Hong Xiuquan knew that the defeat of the west army was his responsibility.

He arrogantly said that the country was in his control, but he did not expect that Shanhai City had hid everything from him right under his nose.

The humiliation he felt was not something an outsider could understand.

The two of them talked for two hours. As for what they said, outsiders would never know.

They only knew that when Shi Dakai left the palace, he did not even return home. Instead, he went straight for the barracks to organize the troops, packing some clothes and grain.

Those who were sharp would know that the king was getting ready to flee.

That's right, facing such a massive defeat, Hong Xiuquan did not have the confidence to hold and defend the city. Rather than die trying, why not just escape early?

As for the direction of escape, it would naturally be Guilin Prefecture up north.

Taiping Country covered three prefectures. Needless to say, half of Xunzhou had been lost. Zhen An Prefecture was close to Kunming Prefecture, so it was not safe either.

Hence, the only choice was to flee to Guilin Prefecture.

Although Ouyang Shuo had taken down the two passes, Hong Xiuquan had run Xunzhou for close to a year after all. As such, he had a way to break out of this lock.

Furthermore, including the twenty thousand troops of Shi Dakai, Hong Xiuquan had one hundred thousand men at his disposal.

Even if they forcefully attacked the pass, they would still have a chance of winning.

The unusual actions of Shi Dakai caused an uproar in the city. All of a sudden, rumors started flying and the city was about to get out of control.

Helplessly, Hong Xiuquan could only forcefully administer lock down and use the military to calm the situation.

Chapter 525- Tianjing Coup

11th month, 16th day, night, Tianjing City.

As the large number of troops walked the streets, the boisterous Tianjing City instantly quietened down. Although the city seemed quiet and peaceful, the fear in the hearts of the people grew.

During chaotic times, the weak were often the most helpless, always stuck in an easily controlled position.

East of the city, Yang Xiuqing’s residence.

Among the chaos and the storm, Yang Xiuqing, who was still under house arrest, seemed to be left out of the matter, as if he had nothing to do with everything.

There were two huge storms in Tianjing City.

Tang Xiuqing was the eye of one of them. He was under home arrest, but numerous people in the city had placed their stakes on him.

Amongst which, apart from those that supported him because of his huge influence, the Military Intelligence Division and the Black Snake Guards also played an important role.

After developing for close to a year in Taiping Country and receiving sufficient financial help, be it Military Intelligence Secretary Cobra or Black Snake Guards Commander Black Snake, they both had channelled a part of their energy into this place.

There were numerous civil servants and generals in the city that kept in contact with them. Of course, be it the Military Intelligence Division or the Black Snake Guards, they used the identities of mechants when coming into contact with these people.

Now, it was time to reap their rewards. The Dragon Legion and the Leopard Legion being able to avoid Hong Xiuquan's eyes and ears was their credit. However, that could only be considered a small test.

This ‘huge show’ in Tianjing City was the true test of these two intelligence organizations.

"General, we just received the top secret news that the king will get rid of you before he leaves Tianjing." The one who spoke was naturally the spy that the Military Intelligence Division had planted by Yang Xiuqing's side.

Yang Xiuqing was sitting opposite him expressionlessly. Only a bright light flashed across his eyes.

In his heart, waves broke out. First, he was shocked by Hong Xiuqing’s ruthlessness, not wanting to give him a way out. Secondly, he was surprised about the great intel gathering skills of the Military Intelligence Division.

To be able to gain information talked about in the palace, just that was enough to make Yang Xiuqing look at him differently.

One must know that the wariness and caution Hong Xiuquan had toward the people in the palace was really strict. Even a general like Yang Xiuqing did not know anything going on in the palace.

If the maidservants, eunuchs, or the others were found to be communicating with the outside, they would be beheaded. Even so, these measures failed to stop the infiltration of Shanhai City.

"General, it's time to end it."

When he saw Yang Xiuqing still acting slightly hesitant, the soldier had no choice but to increase the intensity of his words.

The moment Hong Xiuquan left Tianjing City, they would have no choice but to talk to the Lord. Hence, no matter what, they had to act today to prevent the fleeing tomorrow.

Silence, dead silence.

At that moment, it was as if the air in the room had frozen.

Only Yang Xiuqing knew how much bloodshed ‘ending it’ would cause.

The moment he took that step, there would be no turning back.

After a long while, he nodded and calmly said, "Since he's not benevolent, he should not blame me for not remembering our brotherhood." As he spoke these words, he tossed out all the doubts and hesitation.

Yang Xiuqing knew that ever since he accepted the conditions of the person in front of him, the relationship between him and Taiping Country had grown further and further apart, and there was no way back.

In such an administration that focused on religion, betrayal was not a simple matter.

If he betrayed them, what he betrayed was not just Hong Xiuquan but the entire faith. The feeling of faith collapsing was more painful than knives and blades cutting the body.

"That's right; let's allow all this pain to end tonight!"

Yang Xiuqing slowly closed his eyes and did not say a word.

When the soldier saw this, he did not say anything more and left. It was their turn next.

Middle of the city, the king’s palace.

The huge palace spread out numerous kilometers from the center of Tianjing City. The number of pavilions and buildings counted in the thousands. There were tens of thousands of halls, filled with endless richest, emanating with the aura of royalty.

Compared to the Nanjiang Governor-General Manor that Ouyang Shuo had expanded, it was a level better.

On normal days, when it reached nighttime, the palace would be completely silent and peaceful. None of the thousands of maids, eunuchs or guards would dare to make a loud sound.

Tonight, it was totally different.

Based on the king's instructions, the palace today was really busy and boisterous. The court ladies and eunuchs were busy packing up all the precious goods in the palace and placing them onto carriages.

Just the private items of the king filled up ten carriages.

Apart from that, they had to move the personal items of his wife and concubines, including the pictures, jewels, china, and silk.

Hundreds of chariots were filled up one by one.

As the darkness enveloped the king’s palace, there was an air of indescribable irony.

A crestfallen-looking Hong Xiuquan dragged his tired body and slowly walked into his sleeping quarters.

The ambition and confidence was sucked from his body, making him feel empty.

His dream of becoming a king of a generation had ended.

Within a night, it seemed like Hong Xiuquan had aged tens of years. Lines and lines of wrinkles appeared on his forehead, and even his hair had started to turn white.

When one's heart died, this was the result.

Hong Xiuquan was extremely clear that even if he retreated to Guilin Prefecture, he would not be able to have peace.

In the huge wilderness, there was no place or stage for him anymore. To Hong Xiuquan, who was living for a second time, this blow was simply too great, and it was something he could not handle.

As they say, the bigger one's hope, the bigger their disappointment.

His current mood was like falling from the skies.

As a result, he hated Yang Xiuqing to the core. Even if he was to leave, he would not let Yang Xiuqing live peacefully. Hong Xiuquan would rather just kill him.

In Hong Xiuquan's mind, the failure of the South Army caused this chain reaction. He did not think that if he had listened to Yang Xiuqing's suggestion to retreat, the current landscape would be totally different.

At the very least, he would not have fallen to this current state.

In the end, since the start, Hong Xiuquan had a knot in his heart.

The betrayal in his last life was still bugging him in this life, and he was not able to find peace.

Occasionally, Hong Xiuquan would awaken from his sleep with the worry that Yang Xiuqing would lead one hundred thousand soldiers to suddenly turn around to attack him.

In truth, it was only by curbing the devils in his heart did he manage to let Yang Xiuqing lead the troops.

With such a heart, how could he lead a regime to stay afloat in the wilderness? With such a king, the defeat of the Taiping Country was all a matter of time.

When Hong Xiuquan walked into his sleeping quarters, he found that it was not Concubine Xiao present but Concubine Chen, making him frown as anger appeared on his face.

Since he appeared in the wilderness, he had married ten concubines. He specially made a timetable and planned a fixed concubine every day to sleep with him.

Hence, he knew who was suppose to come every night.

"Why is it you? Where is Concubine Xiao?"

Hong Xiuquan sent her a deathly state; his eyes did not contain a single thread of warmth and was ice cold. In his eyes, the use of girls was just to breed and to relieve sexual pleasures.

Even if they were his concubines, he did not see them as people. Their positions and statuses were not much different from palace maids.

Hong Xiuquan, as an olden educated person, had even established the society of god worshippers based on western religion. In his bones, he had inherited a certain stubbornness and evil.

Concubine Chen did not dare to show any disrespect and carefully said, "My king, Concubine Xiao is sick, so the empress sent me here instead."

"Is that true?"

When Hong Xiuquan heard these words, he relaxed a little.

Even so, he still sent people to Concubine Xiao's place to confirm.

He was not worried about others; he just could not stand the concubines using acts and methods to earn his love.

In truth, he did not need to do so.

If you asked around, every concubine was scared and fearful when it was their turn. How would they even think about plotting to win his love?

Hong Xiuquan, this person was really interesting.

Even after having a second chance at life, he still thought he was the center of everyone's world. He was the god of the people, the heavens of the concubines, and he controlled everyone's life.

"Sleep!"

The situation today obviously meant that he was not in the mood, so he asked Concubine Chen to change before sleeping.

"Yes, my king!"

Concubine Chen's nervous heart was finally able to relax.

After a short while, the candle was put out and the sleeping palace was covered in darkness.

Seeing that, the entire surroundings of the palace fell into total silence. Even the palace maids and eunuchs who were handling the items took a different route.

However, Concubine Chen, who laid next to Hong Xiuquan, did not fall asleep. A chilly glow flashed in her eyes.

This girl, apart from her identity as Concubine Chen, she also had a mysterious identity. She was a high-level agent planted by the king's side by the Black Snake Guards.

She was a pinnacle existence amongst the Black Snake Guards.

Among the Snake Guards, there was a special spy know as a Death Guard. Each Death Guard would only be in charge of one mission during their life. As it would be a very dangerous mission, even if they completed it, they would basically die. If they fortunately survived, the Black Snake Guards would help plan a comfortable life for them.

To let Concubine Chen be accepted smoothly into the palace, the Black Snake Guards had expended a lot of effort. This chess piece was a core existence in Tianjing City.

They had changed numerous Snake Guards before succeeding with Concubine Chen. This was also the reason why the Black Snake Guards had the confidence to start up waves in Tianjing City.

Chapter 526- Hong Xiuquan Perishes

Of course, Concubine Chen was naturally not the only one that the Black Snake Guards had planted in the palace.

This was because no one could confirm how long they needed to wait to use this trump card.

The only way was to ensure that when the time was right, no matter it whose turn it was to sleep with the king at night, they could turn that person into Concubine Chen; that was their goal.

The manipulation involved was enough to make one dazzled.

Unknowingly, it was the seas of night.

However, Concubine Chen's eyes only grew brighter and brighter. In the brightness, there was a sliver of death.

She lightly reached into her mouth and pulled out a pearly white tooth. Upon closer inspection, this tooth was actually a fake tooth that contained a small wax pill.

This wax pill was the size of a green bean and completely whole with a slight crack on it.

To avoid the strict checks of the palace, the Black Snake Guards had really expended a lot of effort.

Concubine Chen carefully took out the pill and pressed it, causing it to burst open. Instantly, a small green smoke wafted out.

Hong Xiuquan, who slept next to her, instantly sucked in the green smoke.

This green smoke was a unique poison that the mountain barbarians had presented to Ouyang Shuo. It was called the Yanluo Miasma, a highly rare item. One could only find it in the deep mountains and forests where the miasma was thick. It could be found near some old ponds or trees.

Using a secret technique, one could seal the poison into a pill.

When using this poison, no medium was needed. The pill only needed to break open, and when a normal person took it in, in less than an hour, they would definitely die.

Hence, even the mountain barbarians needed to pay a hefty price to obtain a little of it. Basically those who went to try and hunt for the poison would most probably not survive.

However, such a poison, the moment it was produced, if it was not collected within ten minutes, it would merge into the pool of water and disappear.

Hence, to collect this Yanluo Miasma, both luck and sacrifices were required, neither could be lacking.

Such strict requirements were just the cycle of the heavens.

If not, someone could harvest large amounts of Yanluo Miasma and a huge loss of life would occur.

After all, the strength of the Yanluo Miasma was in it being a formless and silent killer, unlike other poisons that needed to be injected through blood or water to be effective.

In olden times, they did not have gas masks. Hence, if the person who released the poison was not careful, they would also die. However, Concubine Chen had never expected to be able to walk out of the palace alive.

As the Yanluo Miasma wafted over, the both of them immediately got poisoned.

As for Hong Xiuquan, he was sleeping soundly and did not notice a thing.

Such a way of dying was probably the best and most fortunate way for him.

The one that had it tough was Concubine Chen.

After taking in the Yanluo Miasma, Concubine Chen could only close her eyes and wait for her death, slowly welcoming its arrival. The most beautiful flowers often withered at their best time.

….

The next morning.

When the palace maids entered the king's sleeping quarters in preparation to serve the king and Concubine Chen, they only found two corpses.

Yanluo Miasma, the name was beautiful, and the effects were too.

If one was poisoned, there would be no weird signs on their bodies. It was just like they had fallen into a deep sleep.

All of a sudden, the news that the king had died spread through the entire Tianjing City.

All of a sudden, the entire city was shocked.

The numerous officials and generals, who had gotten ready and packed everything overnight, all stood still on the spot. They did not know how to react.

An unexpected storm had swept up the entire Tianjing City.

The fate of Taiping Country, how would it proceed on, no one knew.

9 AM, king’s palace, main hall.

No matter what, since the matter had already occured, the officials and generals obviously needed to discuss a solution.

This was because the empress was basically a stick figure and was absolutely useless.

Hence, the ones that truly held power were the officials and generals in the hall. They would decide the fate of Taiping Country.

Of the group of generals, Shi Dakai was naturally their leader.

As for the civil servants, it was also another historical talent, Su Zhe.

Su Zhe was a North Song writer, poet, official, and deputy prime minister, a member of one of the eight big families of the Tang and Song Dynasty. Moreover, along with his father, Su Huang, and his brother, Su Shi, they were known as the Three Su.

When Hong Xiuquan appeared in the wilderness, apart from Yang Xiuqing, he had no other decent administrative personnel. However, how could he actually let Yang Xiuqing have a hand in administrative and government matters? As such, the only way was to use outsiders.

Su Zhe was a talent that he had recruited when he destroyed the territories of some players.

Apart from him, there were two other historical officials, but as they were not really famous, there was no point in mentioning them.

In theory, after the death of the king, the most important matter would be to decide a successor.

However, Hong Xiuquan had appeared in the wilderness for less than a year, and he had not left any children. Furthermore, Taiping Country was in chaos. Even if he had a young child, they would not be able to take up responsibility.

Hence, the officials felt that they should choose a person that spawned by the king's side in the wilderness to take over for him.

The most important matter right now was obviously leading everyone out of this danger.

The first person to be suggested was expectedly Shi Dakai.

Shi Dakai was a Taiping Country elder, and he was also a general that held power in the military. During such a chaotic time, he was naturally the most capable. Last night, the king had also met him alone, so one could see how well he was being treated.

Logically, there was no one that could compete with Shi Dakai.

As for he himself, due to the defeat yesterday, he still wavered and did not speak a word. His silence was naturally understood by the others as having quietly accepted the role.

At this very moment, a lanky official stepped out and said loudly, "General Shi naturally is suitable, but I feel that there's one other person that is more suitable."

"What a joke, is there anyone in our country that's more suitable than General Shi?"

The supporters of Shi Dakai instantly stepped out to disagree, their expressions arrogant.

"There obviously is." The official said at a decent speed, "General Yang Xiuqing, be it in experience or ability, he's better than General Shi."

Needless to say, this official was a strong supporter of Yang Xiuqing's camp.

Last night, after Yang Xiuqing sent away the soldier from the Military Intelligence Division, he started to contact the various officials to discuss a coup. Originally, these people were highly doubtful.

After all, the king had high prestige and to openly challenge it was not something anyone had the ability to do.

But just this morning, the news that the king had died started to spread. When these allies got the news, they let out a breath of cold air.

If one said that between the two there was no correlation, you could beat them to death and they still would not believe it.

At that moment, they had all made their decisions.

At this time, they naturally needed to help Yang Xiuqing garner support.

"Haha, what a joke!" The one that retorted was the official from just now, "A losing general and one that was locked up by the king, how can he succeed the previous king?"

"That's right, so? If I did not remember wrongly, General Shi is also a losing general. And his defeat buried the fate of our country."

"...."

The entire hall fell into total silence.

The expression on Shi Dakai's face turned into one of remorse and embarrassment. If it was not for the people beside him pulling him down, he would have just turned around and left.

"This, how is this the same?"

The supporters of Shi Dakai were speechless. Even they themselves were not confident in their own words.

The lanky official chased for the winning shot and loudly said, "General Yang was ordered to attack Mulan Stronghold. He even requested to retreat but was rejected. What about General Shi? Leading 150 thousand troops and being sneak attacked on our own front door, is that not more amusing?"

The moment his words sounded out, more officials looked at Shi Dakai with doubt.

"Hey, no matter what, Yang Xiuqing was locked up and General Shi was not. Is that not enough to say something? Aren’t their positions in the king's heart obvious?"

"What locked up? It was just to protect him from words and discussions."

"Bullsh*t!"

"Shameless!"

……

Such speech techniques caused numerous officials to be dragged into the debate.

Within the hall, a flurry of debates began.

The supporters of Yang Xiuqing and Shi Dakai quarreled and neither side was able to convince the other.

In this debate, Su Zhe and the other civil servants were complete bystanders. He was clear that as outsiders, they had no right to decide the fate of Taiping Country.

At this moment, only the other generals and the officials had the ability to decide.

When Shi Dakai saw this scene, he could not take it, so he stood up to leave.

Just at this moment, outside the main hall, a casual voice sounded out, "Brother Shi!"

When Shi Dakai heard this call, he immediately stopped and looked out.

Only to see the one who came was Yang Xiuqing that had been locked up.

His appearance caused an uproar in the hall. His supporters were delighted, while the supporters of Shi Dakai were all furious.

"Yang Xiuqing, how bold are you? The king gave orders that you are not to leave your manor. Now that he's dead, you actually immediately disobey him."

The one who scolded out was Ji Xianfeng from Shi Dakai's camp.

When Yang Xiuqing heard these words, a cold glimmer appeared in his eyes, but a wide smile remained on his face, "After the king’s death, as a minister, isn’t coming into the palace to pray expected?"

"You!"

When Yang Xiuqing heard this response, he shook his head and turned to Shi Dakai, "Brother Shi, can we have a word?"

Shi Dakai looked at Yang Xiuqing in surprise before nodding his head in the end.

Chapter 527- The Knot in Shi Dakai's Heart

In a side courtyard on the west of the king palace, Yang Xiuqing and Shi Dakai sat facing one another.

This side courtyard was usually the office of the various ministers of Taiping Country. However, it was really quiet now. Apart from the two of them, there was no one else in sight.

The death of the king had caused a sort of terrifying and chaotic atmosphere to rise in the palace. The palace guards and eunuchs looked on at the items they had packed without knowing how to react.

If it was not for these two taking charge, the entire Tianjing City would have fallen into total chaos.

After learning that the king had died, Shi Dakai had directly arranged for the troops to patrol the streets. He would administer force over the city to prevent any disturbances.

Logically, Shi Dakai, who had power over the military, could just snatch the position of king.

Unfortunately, with his character, this was something that he would not do. In truth, he had completely no intentions of inheriting the job.

The future of Taiping Country was just a dream in his eyes.

Now, it was like waking up from a dream, and he himself was lost. It was like his life, which he had been rushing at high speeds, suddenly lost a goal and direction.

"Brother Shi, I am sure you know about what happened in history?"

Yang Xiuqing picked up his tea cup, taking a sip as he asked emotionlessly.

"That's right!"

"Then, in your eyes, do you think that the dream of Taiping Country can succeed in the wilderness?"

"...."

Shi Dakai did not know how to reply. Probably even Hong Xiuquan did not think that way.

"This is a chaotic age, so only a mighty Lord with a sharp sword in his hand can conquer the four directions and open up a new age of peace." As he spoke these words, Yang Xiuquan started to grow emotional.

"Mighty Lord?" When Shi Dakai heard these words, his eyes froze, as this was the first time he had a change in expression, "Is that you?"

"No." Yang Xiuqing shook his head and laughed, "I definitely do not have the ability."

"Then who?"

Shi Dakai did not understand, as he had thought that the reason Yang Xiuqing had called him over was to ask him to give up the race for power.

"Let me ask you, in the southwest region, who else is more suitable than that fellow?" Yang Xiuqing smiled slightly, as he slowly revealed his cards.

"It's him?"

Shi Dakai was astonished, and he nearly got up from his seat.

"That's right, it's him!"

Yang Xiuqing stared right into Shi Dakai's eyes and stated resolutely.

"I did not expect that, truly did not expect."

When Yang Xiuqing heard this response, he also had mixed feelings. He was clear about the meaning in Shi Dakai's words.

"So, you had a change of heart long ago?"

Shi Dakai kept his emotions, as his eyes suddenly became sharp. Instantly, a killing intent emanated from his body, an aura that made one focus.

This was a fierce tiger. Usually, he was calm, and he would only bare his fangs when he faced danger. Even Yang Xiuqing, who had been through hundreds of wars, felt shocked.

Shi Dakai, a tiger general of a general, as expected from him.

Yang Xiuqing was clear that if he did not reply carefully, he would die here. Luckily, he was also an exceptional person. The teacup in his hand remained motionless, and the tea did not even waver.

"No!" Yang Xiuqing shook his head, "When I lost, the enemy did come into contact with me. However, I had not decided back then. I only made my choice after the king decided to remove me."

The words of Yang Xiuqing were half real and half fake, so Shi Dakai could not notice any lies from it. Thinking about the conversation yesterday with the king, Shi Dakai led out a long sigh.

At this stage, it was hard to tell who was loyal and who was not.

"So the death of the king has something to do with you?"

The killing aura of Shi Dakai was not kept, as he asked this crucial question.

When they found out that the king had died, the doctor had rushed over and performed an autopsy. They only found that the king and Concubine Chen had both died of an unknown poison. As for others, they did not find anything else.

In the last moments of her life, Concubine Chen had placed the pieces of the pill back into her fake tooth. The only clue had disappeared.

Hence, the only conclusion was that the king was assassinated.

But based on what the palace guards had described, no one suspicious had entered.

This entire case became a mystery.

Of course, some suspected that the guards had purposely spoke as such to avoid punishment.

No matter what, one would not be able to find out the truth in a short time. Moreover, with their current situation, who in the country would pay attention to the truth behind this mystery?

In truth, Yang Xiuqing also did not expect the king to die.

This operation was completely orchestrated by the Black Snake Guards.

"It was not me."

Yang Xiuqing did not know what to say, so he just spoke out those four words.

"Heh!"

Shi Dakai was deep in thought, unable to calm down.

Although Shi Dakai did not have much feelings and emotions toward the king, the magnanimity and trust the king had placed in him had touched him.

Hence, Shi Dakai naturally wanted to take revenge for the king.

Unfortunately, the current him did not have the power. This was because a huge shadow loomed over the skies of Tianjing City, making it hard for one to breathe.

Yang Xiuqing understood Shi Dakai's weakness and said, "Brother Shi, for the people of the country, please do not do anything stupid."

When Shi Dakai heard these words, his expression became more and more complicated.

"To take revenge for the king and drag so many people to die with you, is it worth it?"

Shi Dakai had to face a choice.

Silence, dead silence once more.

The last two pillars of Taiping Country sat opposite one another, filled with emotion.

Compared to Shi Dakai, Yang Xiuqing was calmer. He believed that he would not misjudge someone. When one saw through the character of their opponent, they would never lose.

As expected, Shi Dakai gave out a sigh. He slowly took out the soldier token at his waist and placed it on the table, "Please give them a way out."

The ‘them’ that Shi Dakai referred to were naturally the people that supported him.

Seeing that, Yang Xiuqing was astonished, "Brother Shi, you do not need to do this. As long as we come to a consensus, it does not matter who controls the military."

"No." Shi Dakai shook his head, "I've lost all ambition and have no intentions to lead."

"Brother Shi is still young; this is the best chance to create a future, why be like this?"

When Yang Xiuqing heard Shi Dakai’s response, he frowned. His words contained a hint of fury that Shi Dakai was not fighting. The reason why he felt this was that apart from feeling pained that Shi Dakai was giving up on himself, was because he had a mission.

The Lord behind all this had made it clear that he wanted to keep Shi Dakai.

"So that's it!"

Shi Dakai had no intentions of defending himself, so he stood up to leave.

"Wait!"

Yang Xiuqing followed, "Can I ask, where will you go?"

"The wilderness is vast; I can go anywhere."

Shi Dakai did not turn around; his voice filled with exhaustion. He was really tired, and it was time for him to have a good rest.

"Since Brother Shi has no place to go, why not go to the Army Military Academy in Shanhai City?" Yang Xiuqing said sincerely, "The principal is the War Saint Sun Wu. If you go, you will definitely learn a lot. You can get away from all the conflict and also gain knowledge, so why not? It's better than strolling around aimlessly in the wilderness, right?"

When Shi Dakai heard these words, he stopped in his tracks, but he did not saying anything and just left.

Looking at the back of Shi Dakai, Yang Xiuqing let out a sigh.

He had done what he could.

Even if the Lord scolded him, there was nothing much he could have done better.

The chaos in Tianjing City had quickly come to an end after these two giants arrived at an agreement.

Yang Xiuqing held the soldier token in his hand. Under the support of his close allies, he smoothly took control of the troops in the city. No matter what, his prestige and power in the military was still really high.

Along with all the strategizing by the Military Intelligence Division, everything naturally came into place.

In the hall, seeing that Yang Xiuqing had taken control, the officials that had originally supported Shi Dakai were all terrified. Luckily for them, Yang Xiuqing promised not to kill them and only placed them under house arrest.

As for Shi Dakai, he had disappeared.

After taking control, Yang Xiuqing did not ascend the throne as everyone had expected. His first order was to announce that Taiping Country had ended, and they were now under the rule of Shanhai City.

The moment the news got out, the city was thrown into a state of an uproar.

The loyal believers were unhappy, so they went on the streets to protest.

However, Yang Xiuqing’s attitude was really resolute, and he used blood to suppress them. He was very clear that since he had decided to submit to Shanhai City, he could not leave anything up to chance.

To help the Lord clear out all the obstacles in Tianjing City was his most important mission.

……

Hong Xiuquan dying, Yang Xiuqing taking control, Taiping Country surrendering, all of these events were like a whirlwind that swept through the Chuannan Province and through the entire wilderness.

All of a sudden, the world was shocked.

The players knew that Shanhai City taking out Taiping Country was just a matter of time. What shocked them was that it ended so quickly in such a genius manner.

They were in awe, just how many more trump cards does the Lianzhou Lord hold?

At the same time, along with the surrender of Taiping Country, a shocking fact was placed in front of all the players in China.

Shanhai City Lord, Lianzhou Lord Qiyue Wuyi, had officially taken control of a province.

When 90% and above of Lords had not even upgraded to prefecture, the wide expansion of Shanhai Territory caused one to look on in despair.

Only a king could show such dominance.

The world was shocked; this mighty Lord of a generation was baring his fangs.

In a short time, no one in China could face off against the Lianzhou Lord.

With this influence, Shanhai Alliance had once again gotten in front. The prestige that the Yanhuang Alliance tried so hard to establish had collapsed.

The entire southwest region seemed to be covered in Qiyue Wuyi's shadow.

The Nanjiang Governor-General title seemed to make more and more sense now.

Chapter 528- Three Governors

South of Guilin Prefecture, a cluster of mountains stood tall, spanning thousands of miles.

In the mountains and forests, trees flourished and fierce beasts roamed around. Bandits were uncommon and people even more so. There were only a few paths that one could use to cross the two prefectures.

Two large passes and ten small passes connected Guilin Prefecture to Xunzhou Prefecture.

Of the two large passes, one was Guiping Pass and the other was Xuanwu Pass.

Amongst which, Guiping Pass was the most magnificent and majestic, connecting the two traffic choke points of the two prefectures.

The current Ouyang Shuo was leading troops to camp in Guiping Pass.

Yang Xiuqing taking control of Tianjing City was news that the Black Snake Guards had written to Ouyang Shuo immediately.

The success in Tianjing City caused Ouyang Shuo's heart to jump, filled with happiness toward the Military Intelligence Division and the Black Snake Guards. The systems that he had spent so much money on was finally bearing fruit.

During this battle, for Shanhai City to be able to take down the strong Tianjing City without using a single soldier, it was all down to these two intelligence organizations.

They would naturally be rewarded for their contributions.

Regretfully, the Black Snake Guards were an organization that could not see the light, so Ouyang Shuo was not able to give them any overt rewards. As for the Military Intelligence Division, Ouyang Shuo ordered the Military Affairs Department to grant them a grade 4 reward.

As for individual rewards, it would be up to the evaluation of the Military Affairs Department.

The part that made Ouyang Shuo even happier was that the Black Snake Guards had even managed to obtain the Ming Dynasty Firearm Making Technical Manual from Hong Xiuquan’s sleeping quarters. This was something that he had dreamt of.

Originally, Ouyang Shuo thought that Hong Xiuquan had only obtained the cannon making technical manual, he did not expect it would be the firearm technical manual.

With such a killer weapon, the technological standards of Shanhai City would be able to reach another level.

After Yang Xiuqing took control of Tianjing City, he immediately locked up the palace. All the riches were sealed together and would wait for the Lord to handle.

As a result, the Black Snake Guards were able to enter the palace freely. They were clear on the item the Lord wanted to obtain.

He immediately sent a letter to the Black Snake Guards, asking them to send the technical manual back to the No.7 Research Institute.

At the same time, they would bury the person who had contributed the most - Concubine Chen, codename Cauliflower Snake.

Apart from rewarding the Black Snake Guards and the Military Intelligence Division, Ouyang Shuo also sent out several orders regarding the administrative matters for the post war.

These matters had actually already formed up in his head around a month ago.

Only after they had truly succeeded was it easy for him to put the plan into place.

He ordered Huwei General Lin Yi to lead the Guards Division into Tianjing City to take over defence work.

Although the Tianjing City Army was under Yang Xiuqing's control, Ouyang Shuo was worried that as time went on, a level of internal chaos might occur.

After all, out of the one hundred thousand men, there were only thirty thousand that were the close and trusted subordinates of Yang Xiuqing. The remaining seventy thousand were handed over by Shi Dakai.

Along with the threat and might of Shanhai City, only then did Tianjing City calm down.

Hence, only the Guards Division could represent the territory to move in and ensure that everything was peaceful. Luckily, they were nearby, and in less than a morning, they arrived at their destination.

Lin Yi's abilities were enough to shock everyone present.

He ordered Commander-in-Chief Baiqi to lead the Dragon Legion's three divisions to turn around toward Zhen An Prefecture and sweep out the other forces.

Although the city protection squads of Taiping Country were basically all moved over to Tianjing City, there were still some remaining forces and even local militants in the other counties.

Toward a territory where a religious group had set up a country, Ouyang Shuo did not dare to take it easy. If he did not arrange the army to sweep through the land, how could he arrange for his officials to take over?

Ouyang Shuo did not wish for the officials that Shanhai City sent out to be assassinated, chased out, or rejected at the door.

If that happened, it would cause a huge loss of face to Shanhai City.

At the same time, as Zhen An Prefecture was basically a bystander in this battle, the local powers would not be affected. Naturally, they would not agree to Shanhai City taking over control.

Hence, no matter what, Ouyang Shuo had reasons to send his troops over.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo believed that Baiqi would see through his reasoning and would not engage in a senseless slaughter there.

Asura Baiqi would only kill those people he think should be killed, and he would be too lazy to kill even an extra one.

At the same time, he also ordered the two divisions of the Dragon Legion, who were sending the prisoners too, to go west and meet up with the legion after handing over the prisoners.

He would use this chance to shift the Dragon Legion camp west. At the southwest border of Zhen An Prefecture, they would build the new legion headquarters, looking right at Kunming Prefecture and Mengding Prefecture.

It was not that Ouyang Shuo was wary of Consonance City. Rather, it was him using the chance to change and reorganize the war zones and also the future war regions.

The future Dragon Legion would be in charge of the safety of the west of the territory.

At the same time, the Dragon Legion would work with the Kunming Prefecture to attack the other four prefectures in the Yunnan Province. The first to get hit was naturally the connected Mengding Prefecture.

Of course, even if they wanted to start another war, it would have to wait till the next year.

The territory had just taken down the three prefectures of Taiping Country, so they still needed time to digest it.

However, the early intelligence work could be started beforehand. After all, after this huge battle, no general would ever dare to look down on the power of intel.

At the same time, Ouyang Shuo ordered Han Xin to lead the Leopard Legion up north through Guiping Pass to clean out Guilin Prefecture.

Similarly, Ouyang Shuo wanted to put the camp of the Leopard Legion at the north of Guilin Prefecture. The future Leopard Legion would be in charge of the north region of the territory.

This meant that they would be in conflict with Chuanbei Province and Wannan Province.

Guilin Prefecture was connected to a total of two thousands of miles of borders. Hence, be it Han Xin or the Leopard Legion, guarding the north would be a huge and important task.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo had the utmost faith in Han Xin.

After the three battles, all the generals recognized his ability to lead troops.

The title of war immortal was not easily earned.

With that, the three legions of the territory each guarded one side. The Dragon Legion on the west, the Leopard Legion in the north, and the Tiger Legion to the east.

As for the south, it was the ocean, so naturally the navy would take charge of that.

After dealing with the military matters, Ouyang Shuo sent letters to the Nanjiang Governor-General House to plan administrative work.

He ordered Administration Director Xiao He to arrange officials into the three prefectures to take over.

Most importantly, they needed to appoint the three governors. Only by appointing the most crucial roles would Ouyang Shuo be able to relax regarding the future development of the prefecture.

After consideration, Ouyang Shuo decided to let Pei Ju become the governor of Guilin Prefecture.

Although Pei Ju was good at military work, he was best at governing. Along with the civil servant group being slightly weaker, he could only temporarily appoint him to such a lowly position.

As for this arrangement, he was actually quite delighted.

Guilin Prefecture was located at the north of Chuannan Province, and it was connected to both the Chuanbei and Wannan provinces. Furthermore, it was the retreat route that Hong Xiuquan had planned. Naturally, the resistance there would be stronger.

Hence, to run it well would not be an easy matter.

At the current moment, only a famous minister like Pei Ju could take up this responsibility.

For the Xunzhou governor, Ouyang Shuo settled on the current Leizhou Governor Bao Shuya. As for Yang Xiuqing, he would be shifted to be the Leizhou Governor position.

Of course, before Bao Shuya rushed over to Tianjing City, Yang Xiuqing would temporarily handle the administrative work.

No matter how much he trusted Yang Xiuqing, Ouyang Shuo still would not arrange for him to be the governors of one of the three prefectures under Taiping Country.

That was too dangerous, and it would not be a good thing for Yang Xiuqing either.

It was still those same words. If you did not want to be betrayed, do not give someone the chance to betray you.

Hence, the only way was to move him away.

Only after he moved to Leizhou Prefecture could Yang Xiuqing put down his huge burden and show his talent.

Who knows, a minister of a generation could be born.

Xunzhou Prefecture was the center of Chuannan Province and the root of Taiping Country. During the war, the Shanhai City Army had swept the land, and the local powers were largely destroyed.

Hence, out of all the prefectures, being governor of this one was the easier task.

Ouyang Shuo chose Bao Shuya as a form of recognition of his work at Leizhou Prefecture. His duty would be to calm the people and quickly build up the economy of Xunzhou Prefecture.

The potential of Xunzhou's economy was the strongest out of the three.

As for Zhen An Prefecture, Ouyang Shuo chose Mulan Yue. As the first Lord that pledged allegiance to him, it was time to reward her.

Mulan Yue was also the only person out of the three governors that was promoted.

Moreover, the Dragon Legion that Mu Guiying was a part of was also housed in Zhen An Prefecture. This layer of relationship would make military and administrative decision making easier.

After settling on the legion fighting zones, the daily supplies would naturally be taken charge by the local counties. The Combat Logistics Department did not have the ability to ship grain and supplies over tens of thousands of miles.

It was not practical, and it was not logical.

Hence, in the future, the legions would have a lot of contact with the local Houses. As such, this was an aspect that the Shen Buhai led Shanhai Guards had to keep a close watch on.

Chapter 529- Grabbing Food from the Tiger's Mouth

Ever since the territory was built, Ouyang Shuo had strictly enforced the separation system of military and administrative entities.

Hence, he would not allow the generals and local officials to have any unneeded relationships and have any interest convections with one another.

Only Mulan Yue was different. This brat worshipped Ouyang Shuo and was truly dedicated to her work. As such, Ouyang Shuo trusted her and was not worried.

Raising her position was in truth to help pave a path for her future when the game ends.

Of course, her personal ability was something that Ouyang Shuo recognized. If not, he would not take a prefecture and hand it over to her to develop her and give her experience.

Compared to famous ministers like Pei Ju, Mulan Yue was naturally lacking. Hence, Ouyang Shuo specially mentioned in the letter that the officials and minor officials they sent to Zhen An Prefecture should be those with vast experiences.

Ouyang Shuo really spent a lot of effort on Mulan Yue.

The only problem was that when she accepted her role in Zhen An Prefecture, she would not be able to use the teleportation formation to find Ouyang Shuo.

However, there was nothing much he could do about this.

Besides, if one did not face a storm, how could one grow strong?

When the eagle grows old, it definitely needed to fly solo in the skies.

As his territory expanded and grew bigger and bigger, Ouyang Shuo's mentality also became older and more experienced. Just like how Song Jia put it, he was a kid in his twenties, but he acted like a middle-aged uncle.

Toward Mulan Yue, Ouyang Shuo had the feelings of being an elder.

However, the two of them were only several years apart.

One had to say that Ouyang Shuo had really gotten ‘old’.

Furthermore, in this past year, Ouyang Shuo had not spent a lot of time in Shanhai City. He had been running around outside, really a tough life.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also moved Cui Shousi, who he had high hopes for, to Zhen An Prefecture to be the administration director and help Mulan Yue.

Of course, based on the administration system of Shanhai City, the director in a prefecture was half a grade higher than that of a prefect.

If one talked about Cui Shousi, one had to mention the Cui Family.

Based on the letter from Song Jia, the Cui Family had moved over a month ago. As for the Bai Trading Company, they still had not given Song Jia a definite reply.

Who knew what Bai Gui was trying to do.

The operation of the Black Snake Guards in looking for Fan Li had some small leads. From their letter, in about a month, they would be able to pinpoint his location.

Ouyang Shuo guessed that perhaps Bai Gui was waiting for Fan Li?

All these merchants kept beating around the bush and were not direct people.

Although Ouyang Shuo had secured the three governors, to Administration Director Xiao He, the troubles had just begun.

The governor was chosen but to assign the various officials also posed a huge problem.

Since the commencement of the Battle of Zhaoqing, in less than four months, Shanhai City had taken over five prefectures.

Compared to before, their land area had expanded by close to two times.

In such a short amount of time, such an expansion was really too much and would bring with it numerous negative points. It would shake the foundations and weaken the core of the territory.

The core problem would be the lack of talents.

Lianzhou Prefecture was the prefecture in the territory with the strongest foundation. The next best was Qiongzhou Prefecture. Although it had started off bad, under the buff of Yashan City territorial specialty, it grew stronger by the day.

The Leizhou Prefecture they recently occupied was also decent as Lord players ruled it.

Even including Zhaoqing Prefecture, it had a certain foundation. After their occupation, under the territory specialty buffs, they could quickly catch up to Lianzhou Prefecture.

However, for the four prefectures that he had just occupied, Ouyang Shuo was not as optimistic.

One did not need to mention Wuzhou, which was left in a total mess under the brutal rule of Chiyou. Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to send out his important minister, Fan Zhongyan, to take control of the situation.

Xunzhou Prefecture, Zhen An Prefecture, and Guilin Prefecture, under Hong Xiuquan's rule, only focused on expanding, so its internal affairs were in chaos too.

If it was not for Su Zhe and the others helping, it would be even worse.

Taiping Country had messed up these three prefectures of land for close to a year, destroying any foundation they had. The essence of the three prefectures was probably gathered by Hong Xiuquan and used to develop Tianjing City.

Hence, to run these three prefectures, it was a long and hard journey.

If these three prefectures followed the system of Shanhai City and built various Houses and counties, the number of officials needed would reach quite a shocking number.

Furthermore, during this period of time, the Administration Department had followed Ouyang Shuo's instructions and performed a full-scale evaluation of all local officials, removing a large number of them.

Hence, even if he used such a strong talent producing machine like Xinan University, he still could not keep up with this expansion speed. Based on the numbers that Xiao He had churned out, the territory had a shortfall of 1500 officials.

As he had no other choice, Xiao He personally visited the various imperial cities and used the title of Land of Philosophers to recruit scholars.

Of course, Xiao He did not dare to go to Xianyang City. Even if he did, it would be useless.

Despite his efforts, he could only recruit the basic level officials. As for the real talents, they were doing well in the imperial city and would not bite the bait.

The huge lack of people was something that worried Xiao He, and the matter made it hard for him to eat and sleep.

As they had no choice, Xiao He could only discuss with Jiang Shang to graduate the winter season students of Xinan University early. Those who passed the exams would get jobs.

At the same time, Xiao He also asked economics dean Meng Zi to use the influence of the Confucianism school of thought to hire Confucians to work for Shanhai City.

Xiao He also implored the other philosophers.

With such numbers, they were barely able to gather one thousand men. As for the lacking numbers, one could only use the current local officials.

Xiao He joked that he was just making up the numbers with noobs.

After all, a shortfall of 1500 officials was the number Xiao He reached after including the officials from the three prefectures that could be used.

Hence, temporarily, those who were appointed included useless people.

All of a sudden, the standards of the officials in the territory had dropped by a grade.

Toward this matter, be it Xiao He or Ouyang Shuo, they were both helpless.

If it was not for Taiping Country getting stronger and stronger, Ouyang Shuo would not want to push it too quickly. Unfortunately, the situation had forced his hand.

Of course, there were pros and cons to everything.

The moment Shanhai City managed to digest these territories, a brand new huge territory would ascend in the southwest region.

At that time, the territory would rise from the ashes.

At that time, a dynasty would slowly take shape.

That's right a dynasty.

If one considered the current land area, it was similar in terms of land size with olden dynasties apart from the foundation and power.

Of course, as the foundation and power difference were too far away, one could only say that a foundation was forming.

After dealing with the post war military and administrative matters, Ouyang Shuo was ready to pack up and leave for Tianjing City. Although Taiping Country had surrendered, only by taking charge of Tianjing City could he really calm everything down.

Furthermore, the current Tianjing City had many things that needed him to personally decide on. Like how to deal with the one hundred thousand troops, the officials, the generals of the country, and the riches.

There were many things to deal with. As Yang Xiuqing was very careful and safe, he would want Ouyang Shuo to make those decisions.

11th month, 18th day, Ouyang Shuo led his troops out of Guiping Pass.

As he was officially appointed by Ouyang Shuo as the governor, Pei Ju naturally stayed when Ouyang Shuo left.

Pei Ju would meet up with Han Xin's Leopard Legion and move into Guilin Prefecture.

At the same time, Only two mountain barbarian independent divisions would follow Ouyang Shuo into Tianjing City. The remaining division would be settled at the Guiping and Xuanwu passes.

Five thousand men would guard Xuanwu Pass, while the rest would guard Guiping Pass.

Only after Han Xin led his forces there and accepted the two passes would this independent division go down south and meet up with Ouyang Shuo.

The huge army left for the pass and disappeared into the horizon.

Far away, there stood a huge city, this was Tianjing City.

Ouyang Shuo would spend a period of time at this city to plan and draw up his magnificent blueprint.

One could say that the surrender of Taiping Country was a huge milestone.

He had officially stepped onto the path to be a real king, solidifying his position in the wilderness. At this stage, normal failures would not be able to shake his rule.

This was foundation.

However, just as Ouyang Shuo was planning the blueprint of his territory, a sudden change forced him to alter his plans and dealt him a hefty blow.

Gaia 2nd year, 11th month, 19th day, north border of Guilin Prefecture.

The bright morning light shone on the vast and empty wilderness, warm and peaceful.

Just at this moment, a huge army suddenly appeared in the wilderness. Looking out at them, one would see flags carried upright, with spears and knives forming a huge and endless black wave.

The endless army was like a ghost, suddenly slaughtering their way into Guilin Prefecture.

The next day, when Ouyang Shuo led his troops to leave Guiping Pass, the ten odd Lords in Chuannan Province, together with the Wannan City-State's one hundred thousand alliance troops, suddenly invaded.

Two armies, a total of two hundred thousand troops, forcefully invaded Guilin Prefecture at a breakneck speed.

Chapter 530- A Massive Blunder

Suddenly, the two hundred thousand alliance army troops engaged in endless slaughter in the Guilin Prefecture.

Strictly speaking, the defence troops in Guilin Prefecture were not moved to Tianjing City by Hong Xiuquan. After all, Guilin Prefecture was the escape route that he had planned. Naturally, he would not cut off his own escape routes.

Apart from the various protection squads, there was even a twenty thousand strong unit housed there.

Along with Yang Xiuqing taking control of Taiping Country, Guilin Prefecture had fallen into chaos. After all, the troops housed in Guilin Prefecture were the most trusted troops of Hong Xiuquan.

Seeing their king die and the successor to the throne actually instantly surrendering to Shanhai City, the army felt furious.

However, they were not bold enough to try and kill their way to Tianjing City.

The troops had no place to let out their frustrations, so they could only vent it out on the people.

As for the various protection squads in Guilin Prefecture, their attitudes were much warmer. Their loyalty toward the king had not reached the level where they would risk it all for revenge.

Furthermore, most of these soldiers were born in Guilin Prefecture, so they had a duty to protect their own land. Naturally, they would not allow the other soldiers to fool around and do whatever they wished.

As a result, both sides had ended up facing off.

This was also the reason why Ouyang Shuo had arranged for the independent mountain barbarian division at the two passes. It was to prevent this chaos from spreading to Wuzhou Prefecture.

Originally, Ouyang Shuo could have led his troops into Guilin Prefecture to stop this chaos.

Regretfully, the situation in Tianjing City was not stable yet and urgently needed Ouyang Shuo over there. After weighing the pros and cons, Ouyang Shuo still decided to put down Guilin Prefecture first.

When Han Xin led his troops there, all the problems would be solved easily.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also had another nefarious intention. He wanted to use the chaos in Guilin Prefecture to let the army there that had lost their rationality destroy the reputation and people sentiment that Taiping Country had built up in the location.

Ouyang Shuo did not wish for the people under his rule to still have any good thoughts and emotions for the old Taiping Country.

Wouldn’t this chaos help dig the grave?

As for the casualties and damages that this choice would cause, it was not within the considerations of Ouyang Shuo.

As a Lord, how could he be so soft hearted in dealing with every single matter?

Needless to say, Ouyang Shuo also felt really gleeful about his plan.

He did not expect that his neglect would also give the enemy a chance to strike.

How would the chaotic Guilin Prefecture be the opponents of two hundred thousand tigers and wolves?

Furthermore, among the enemy army, there was seemingly a great commander and many generals. Naturally, they could not be locked, and they won all their battles.

In just three days, half of Guilin Prefecture had fallen.

At this time, the alliance army commander unexpectedly split the army into three.

Sixty thousand would remain in Guilin Prefecture to complete the unfinished business. Eighty thousand would continue south and head straight for Guiping Pass.

The remaining sixty thousand would attack the other pass - Xuanwu Pass.

It was this splitting up of forces that completely nailed the victory of the alliance army.

Naturally, the alliance army lacked the ability to cross the pass, head into Xunzhou, and fight a life and death battle with the Shanhai City Army.

However, it was necessary for them to occupy the two passes and block the way up north of Shanhai City. If not, Guilin Prefecture would be under the threat of takeover at any moment.

Just thinking about that made one feel uncomfortable.

Hence, their only path to success was conquering the pass.

They had to complete everything quickly.

The alliance army needed to occupy the two passes before the Shanhai City Army sent reinforcements.

If not, their whole plan would fail.

Hence, be it the alliance army or the Shanhai City Army, both were racing against time.

Turning back time to two days ago, 11th month, 20th day, Guiping Pass.

Within the pass, there were eight thousand elite mountain barbarian soldiers. In charge of them was the young general Shihu that Ouyang Shuo had high hopes for.

Moreover, on the 2nd day that the alliance army had attacked Guilin Prefecture, the intel from the Military Intelligence Division had already reached Guiping Pass.

Be it the Military Intelligence Division or the Black Snake Guards, their infiltration of Taiping Country was mainly focused on Xunzhou with Tianjing City.

As they had limited manpower and energy, their infiltration of the Guilin and Zhen An Prefectures was lacking. Even so, they were able to gain the actual intel on just the second day.

When he received the news, Shihu was stunned.

Two hundred thousand troops suddenly attacking without any prior signs.

Such a sudden pressure pressed onto him, making it hard for him to breathe.

This was also the first time that Shihu was leading troops alone, yet he had to face such a test. To such a young general, it was really too cruel.

If one did not go through it yourself, you would not be able to understand such pressure.

Some of the generals in the army even instantly collapsed and broke down under that pressure. Their were thousands of lives on their shoulders. One slight mistake would cause many people to die.

Luckily, within Guiping Pass, there was another talent, Pei Ju.

At the crucial time, he stepped out and took the role of advisor. During the period of time when Ouyang Shuo was attacking Xunzhou, he had brought Pei Ju along and often sought help from him.

Hence, Shihu trusted Pei Ju a lot.

Thanks to the advice and comfort of Pei Ju, Shihu managed to calm down and think of a plan.

Compared to the young Shihu, Pei Ju's vision was incredibly sharp. He instantly guessed that the enemy attacking Guilin Prefecture should not be simple, and as long as they were not dumb, they would definitely attack Guiping Pass.

Hence, he immediately assigned numerous messenger soldiers to ride the fastest horses to inform the Lord that was on the road. At the same time, he started to order them to complete the defence facilities of the pass.

Guiping Pass and Zhennan Pass were similar, there were both stronghold type structures in the wilderness.

The basic defensive facilities in the pass could be said to be complete. After Hong Xiuquan took control of Xunzhou, he arranged smiths and artisans to modify and improve the pass.

It also contained a sufficient amount of items and resources.

The only regret was that Hong Xiuquan’s precious baby, the cannon, was not fixed in the pass.

Hence, the so-called completing of defence facilities was just repairing the damage caused when the mountain barbarian army attacked. At the same time, they needed to move defence resources up onto the city wall.

11th month, 21st day, noon.

The blistering sunlight shone through the red clouds and scorched the earth.

On the horizon, a cavalry soldier wearing light armor suddenly appeared. Alongside him was a bunch of war horses galloping away, causing the dust on the ground to be swept up in the air.

Just at this moment, joy appeared in the cavalry's eyes.

He finally saw the army of many tens of thousands of men before him.

"Lord, emergency!"

He charged forward, continuously swinging the flag by his back and shouting.

"Lord, emergency!"

……

On this usual afternoon, Pei Ju sent a messenger soldier. In just a day and a half, he caught up to the troops led by Ouyang Shuo. Because of this, three elite war horses were tired to death.

Even the messenger soldier instantly fainted after completing his mission.

When he was travelling, Ouyang Shuo was unable to receive letters.

Hence, he only obtained news about the alliance army's attack a full two and a half days later. The current Ouyang Shuo was less than two days away.

Based on calculations, Han Xin's Leopard Legion was three days away from Guiping Pass. As they were still on route, he could not contact them, so they could not be depended on for this battle.

After getting the news, Ouyang Shuo was shocked, and a sense of anger slowly arose.

"Those stupid thieves actually dare to step on my land!"

Ouyang Shuo really did not expect the Lords of Chuannan Province to link up with the Xiangnan City-State. The worst part was that they actually challenged Shanhai City together.

Thinking about it another way, Ouyang Shuo could only laugh bitterly.

One had to say, the enemy truly chose a perfect moment to attack.

The current Shanhai City looked like it was at the peak of its rule. However, it was actually at its weakest point, as it had so much empty land without a suitable amount of troops to defend it.

Only after completing the reorganization of the one hundred thousand Taiping Country troops would Shanhai City become truly strong.

However, the enemy had grasped this opportunity to attack.

It seemed like the enemy had predicted that Shanhai City would not dare to start a large-scale war at such a time.

In all likelihood, the enemy has someone amazing commanding them.

Ouyang Shuo slowly calmed down, as his mind fell into deep thought.

What he did not know was that just as the alliance army entered Guilin Prefecture, the one hundred thousand Lingnan City-State soldiers also started to cause chaos at the border.

Without a doubt, this was a carefully planned scheme.

After Shanhai City took down Taiping Country, the wariness and fear of the players around Shanhai City had reached its peak.

This time, a total of three provinces worked together to curb the rise of Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo tossed aside his thoughts and immediately ordered the troops to turn around and head back to Guiping Pass.

Since the alliance army knew of the importance of the pass, how could Ouyang Shuo not know? Hence, he directly led his troops back without hesitation.

Hope, he could only hope that Guiping Pass could hold on.

The part that left him feeling helpless was that the two mountain barbarian divisions that he led were all infantry. Even if they rushed back, it would take two days.

At that time, it would be too late.

Luckily, Ouyang Shuo had cavalry on hand, the three thousand Divine Martial Guards.

Ouyang Shuo immediately decided to lead the Divine Martial Guards to head out first. As for the mountain barbarian independent divisions, they would follow behind and rush back at their quickest speed.

Everything was a race against time.

Chapter 531- Fierce Battle at Guiping Pass

11th month, 22nd day, morning, Guiping Pass.

Under the morning sun, eighty thousand alliance army troops marched uphill and proceeded forward confidently.

In front of Guiping Pass was a long and narrow path, twisting and turning numerous times. Eighty thousand troops formed up into squadrons, stretching numerous kilometers. If one looked on, they would not be able to see the end, and the black wave would pressure their heart.

The army that pushed on confidently was like a black dragon, coiling around the mountains and rivers.

Looking over, one had a feeling of awe.

These were a bunch of lions and wolves, a collection of stone cold killers.

At the front of the army was a full sword-shield soldier formation. They would act as the main force in attacking the pass. Behind them was line after line of bowmen and crossbowmen.

As the mountain paths were narrow, the alliance army could not bring any large scale siege weapons; they could only bring scaling ladders. Apart from those, there would be a few heavy battering rams.

Lastly, the ten thousand elite cavalry.

In the middle of the cavalry formation, there was a middle-aged general that looked extremely eye catching. He looked resolute and confident; he wore a red robe, silver armor, and a golden helmet. Moreover, he rode a special war horse.

This middle-aged men was the commander of the alliance army tasked to attack Guiping Pass, the overall commander of the entire alliance army - Warring States famed general Li Mu.

Li Mu, a famous General of the Zhao Country during the Warring States Period. Along with Baiqi, Lianpo, and Wang Jian, they were the four famous generals of the Warring States. During the Battle of Changping, Li Mu was just one of the good generals at the north border of the Zhao Country.

He only displayed his skills near the end of the Warring States Period.

Li Mu was first at the north of Zhao Country, fighting against the Xiongnu people. After which, because he went against the Qin Country, he earned the title of Wu An Lord after damaging them heavily at Yi An. During 229 B.C., the Qin Country drove a wedge in the relationship between the Zhao King and Li Mu, causing the king to take back his power over the army and killing him not long after.

The one who sowed the discord was Wang Jian.

Undeniably, Li Mu was a famous general that could not be underestimated.

Along with Li Mu's appearance, the four famous generals of the Warring States Period had all appeared in the wilderness. Baiqi was loyal to Shanhai City, Wang Jian worked for the Qin King, Lianpo was under Di Chen, as for Li Mu, his Lord was a mystery.

One only knew that it was one of the Lords of the alliance army.

With such a great general in the alliance army, it was no wonder that they could take over half of Guilin Prefecture in a short three days. They basically did not face any obstacles.

One must know that if one wanted to travel the entire Guilin Prefecture, they would need three to four days to do so. This was because Guilin Prefecture was narrow from north to south and long from east to west.

Li Mu looked on at the stronghold in the distance, deep in thought.

The scene in front of him seemed to have been more than he had expected.

Firstly, Li Mu did not think that a large number of troops would actually be housed inside the pass. Logically speaking, since Taiping Country had surrendered, be it Shanhai City or Taiping Country, neither troops would have reason to remain in the pass.

If there were so many of them, why didn’t they enter Guilin Prefecture?

All of this was a mystery.

After all, Ouyang Shuo's plan and thinking was not something that other people could know.

Secondly, Li Mu did not expect that the enemy had already learned of their existence.

The intel system of Shanhai City was really eye opening.

With that, Li Mu linked it to another point. Since the enemy in the stronghold knew of them, the Shanhai City Army in Xunzhou would also know.

Who knows, maybe reinforcements were on their way too.

With this conjecture, attacking Guilin Prefecture was not the right idea. The moment reinforcements arrived, Li Mu really did not have the confidence to take them down all at once.

"My plan seems to need to have some changes."

Li Mu muttered, but his expression became more resolute instead. No matter what change occurred, it could not stop their strategic goal—they must take down Guiping Pass!

Although Li Mu was best at cavalry battle, he still knew some things about sieging.

When two met on a narrow path, only the strong would survive.

….

Within the stronghold, on the city walls.

When the menacing-looking alliance army appeared on the mountain roads before Guiping Pass, they faced a bunch of guards lined up solemnly. These people had sworn to defend this place to their deaths.

At this moment, the blood in the mountain barbarians started to boil.

During this battle, they would fight for their new barbarian king, proving their loyalty and courage.

All the losses and humiliation would be washed off with the blood of the enemy.

Battle contributions were always the greatest glory for warriors.

Old minister Pei Ju stood on the middle of the city wall, looking on at the huge army far away. He had a really solemn expression. The numbers of enemies had far exceeded his expectations.

The enemy was ten times their number, so how long could they defend for?

Apart from Guiping Pass, Pei Ju was more worried about another pass—Xuanwu Pass.

However, for Xuanwu Pass, there was nothing he could do.

In truth, the two passes were not together and were separated by hundreds of miles.

Hence, Pei Ju could only try his best to defend and ensure that Guiping Pass remained standing. Toward Xuanwu Pass, Pei Ju did not give it up and did not move the five thousand mountain barbarians over from Xuanwu Pass.

After all, if Xuanwu Pass did not have a single force defending it, the enemy would be able to take down the pass without breaking a sweat. They could even go around Xunzhou Prefecture and attack Guiping Pass.

Hence, be it Guiping Pass or Xuanwu Pass, neither could be lost. These two passes were the most important doorways for Shanhai City to the north.

The moment these two doors were opened, they would suffer a huge defeat.

"Wuuu!"

Along with the low horn sounds, the war started without any signs.

Both sides did not provoke one another; they did not scold each other.

The two armies had both entered their most intense state of battle from the start.

The reason why Pei Ju had a little confidence in defending the pass was because of the strength of the mountain barbarian soldiers and because the pass was narrow and unsuitable for a large-scale assault.

Hence, even if the alliance army had a huge force, they could only send in a limited number of soldiers at a time.

As they say, if a pass only allowed one man through at a time, even if you had ten thousand men, it would be useless.

For one to call it a magnificent pass and an amazing choke point was not false.

Now, what they needed to test was the mental and combat strength of the eight thousand mountain barbarians. They had to survive the relentless attacks of the enemy without any rest.

The moment they were tired, weaknesses would appear in their defences, which the enemy would exploit.

The low and bellowing killing shouts reverberated through the valley.

Every moment, every second, there would be people dying.

Batch after batch of alliance army troops were thrown up and batch after batch fell.

The strength of the mountain barbarian soldiers shocked the alliance army.

The defence line formed up by the eight thousand of them braved the arrow rain of the alliance army. They were like a group of asuras, slaughtering the enemy in a highly efficient manner.

The soldiers were cold, but their eyes were filled with passion.

The commander of the mountain barbarians, Shihu, led the soldiers, killing the enemy courageously.

These mountain barbarians were born for battle, and no enemy could cause them to back off a single step.

In the entire morning, the alliance army sent out five waves, but they all lost. A meter-high mountain of corpses started to pile up under the city walls.

Similarly, under the washing of the arrow rain, the mountain barbarians on the city wall also suffered heavy losses.

The mountain barbarians were strong, but they were too courageous and not flexible. When they fought, they did not know how to defend themselves from the arrow rain, so they were killed off one by one.

A thousand mountain barbarian soldiers were forever laid to rest at Guiping Pass.

Seeing that it was already noon, Li Mu did not even want to give the mountain barbarians any chance to rest.

A fully energized bunch of soldiers switched out for the exhausted ones, as they launch assault after assault.

The switching speed was so fast that it made one look on in awe.

The mountain barbarians on the city wall only had time to grab some water and swallow some ice cold mantous before the closely packed enemy soldiers used the scaling ladders to swarm up the city walls once more.

"Brothers, kill!"

Shihu swallowed the last mantou, raising his Tang Blade and chopping off the head of one of the alliance army soldiers.

The fresh blood splattered onto the mantous of the mountain barbarians. However, they did not care; they did not even wipe off the blood and just directly swallowed the mantous.

They had gotten used to blood and gore during Chiyou's reign.

Seeing the scene in front of them, the alliance army felt a shiver run down their spines.

The enemy in front of them were not like humans, they were like a bunch of devils from hell.

Before the battle, they were already scared.

However, the attack horns unceasingly sounded.

The alliance army could only grit their teeth and engage these devils.

This massacre caused the heavens and earth to change colors.

The red clouds on top of the battle turned into a huge whirlpool, slowly turning. The endless killing aurae and blood energy were absorbed into the spiral.

This battle was a race against time and also a battle of the mental strength of both sides.

Facing an endless assault, the mountain barbarian soldiers were like invincible asuras. Their bodies were filled with a fountain of energy, and they did not feel tired at all.

Seeing the night sky slowly rising from afar, Li Mu's expression grew more and more solemn.

The enemy was much stronger than he had anticipated.

At this point, Li Mu even thought of his old opponent, the strong Qin Army.

The Qin Army from before was as strong as this.

"I really did not expect that there would be such an iron-blood army in the wilderness."

Li Mu sighed and ordered his troops to retreat and prepare for the battle on the next day.

After a day, although the alliance army had suffered heavy casualties, losing 25 thousand men, based on his estimations, the troops inside the stronghold had lost half their members.

How would the remaining four thousand troops face the attacks tomorrow?

If everything went well, they would be able to take down Guiping Pass in the afternoon.

Li Mu's determination had never been so resolute.

Shanhai City was a huge dragon that was about to take flight. They had to deal a fatal blow before it could spread its wings.

If not, no other territory would be able to survive in the southwest region.

"Even if you are a dragon, you will kneel!"

Chapter 532- Willing to Die

When the morning sunlight shone down once again over the city walls of Guiping Pass, the battle once again played out.

The two armies that had rested for the night threw themselves without hesitation into this life or death battle.

It was obvious that the progress of the alliance army was smoother today.

The four thousand mountain barbarian soldiers looked on at the seemingly endless army; it was the first time they had doubt in their eyes. Just based on them, they could not even occupy all the space on the city wall of Guiping Pass, so they could only leave some empty spots.

Occasionally, there would be some alliance army soldiers who fearlessly climbed the walls through these empty spaces.

Shihu had no choice but to lead a firefighting squad to go along the city wall and extinguish all the dangers. Even so, there were many close calls, and they took heavy casualties.

Looking at the situation, it would be hard for them to hold on.

The numerical difference was simply enormous, and the balance of the battle started to tilt toward the alliance army.

Even the strong mountain barbarians, who employed all of their skills, could not properly face such a strong army.

Furthermore, thanks to the commands of Li Mu, the alliance army knew when to attack and retreat, coordinating well with one another. The sword-shield soldiers and archers had a tacit understanding, and the cover fire seamlessly mixed with the close combat fighting.

Although their enemies had suffered heavy casualties, Li Mu did not grow overconfident. This was the difference between a great general and a normal general.

All of a sudden, Guiping Pass teetered on the verge of collapse.

Pei Ju stood on the city wall, his expression extremely serious. Suddenly, a look of pain appeared on his face, as he stood up and arrived at Shihu's side, "General Shi, get ready to retreat!"

"What?"

The young general was covered in blood, but even the blood could not mask his shocked expression.

"I said, retreat!"

Pei Ju understood the feelings of generals like Shihu at the current moment, but he had no choice but to make the most rational decision, "Guiping Pass cannot be defended; let's not make unneeded sacrifices. Let's leave some foundation for the 1st independent division of the mountain barbarians; let's not let them disappear."

"...."

Shihu was speechless; he turned around and looked at the men who were trying so hard, as a pained expression appeared in his eyes. After this battle, the elite legion that the Lord hoped for would probably not exist.

"No." Unexpectedly, Shihu shook his head once more, as a rare smile appeared on his bloodied face, "Mister Pei, you are an important minister to the Lord. You are different from us brutes and should not fall here. I'll arrange a guards squad to escort you out."

"What about you?"

Pei Ju looked at Shihu, as his heart grew more and more uneasy.

When he heard these words, the young general actually smirked. Under the sunlight, this smile looked incredibly pure, filled with a kind of beauty that one could not turn their eyes away from.

At that moment, Shihu's heart seemed to have been cleansed.

"Mister, we are different."

Shihu turned around and looked at the horizon. Under the blood red skies was a mysterious power, directing this young mountain barbarian general, allowing him to gain an unknown comfort.

"We are warriors, mountain barbarian warriors, the most loyal soldiers of the Barbarian King." Shihu's voice was low and calm; it was like the burden in his heart was placed down and only acceptance was left.

"Mountain barbarians can only die in battle; we do not retreat!"

Shihu tightly grabbed the blade in his hand, smiling once more, "This is our destiny."

When Pei Ju heard these words, he grew emotional. At this moment, his impression of the mountain barbarians completely changed. Before this, in his eyes, especially after what Chiyou did to him, the mountain barbarians were the definition of brutish and arrogant.

But at this moment, he truly felt the elite qualities of this race.

Tenacious, courageous, resilient, not good with words, willing to self-sacrifice….

They all had good qualities in them.

This was a race that was able to earn one's respect, and they would not hang ‘loyalty and kindness’ around their mouths every day. Instead, they would show such virtues during the crucial moment.

As one said, it was easy to know but hard to execute.

To be able to do that, how elite and amazing were the mountain barbarian race?

Thinking about it, for the Lord to recruit the mountain barbarian race was definitely not a split second decision. He had probably seen through their qualities and planned the matter long ago.

Thinking about this point, Pei Ju sighed.

He did not expect himself to grow so old, to the point where bias would appear in his eyes.

Pei Ju took a glance at Shihu, as he decisively and warmly said, "Since that's the case, this old bag of bones will stay here with you all!"

"Sir, you cannot!"

Shihu, who had looked calm and composed, suddenly became panicky and anxious.

"Why not?"

Pei Ju had already made up his mind.

"Sir, you are a civil servant, ruling the land is your strength. How can you stay with us and sacrifice yourself for nothing?"

"No." Pei Ju shook his head and smiled, "General, you are wrong. My current identity is the advisor of the Guiping Pass troops. I am an actual military personnel, not some civil servant."

"But…."

Pei Ju waved his hand, "There are no buts, this is decided! General, go back to your post. Even if we die, we must make the enemy pay a heavy price. The glory of Shanhai City must be upheld."

Shihu took a close look at Pei Ju, as his eyes gave out an emotional and touched expression.

At this moment, it seemed the barrier between them had suddenly fallen, allowing them to understand each other's thoughts.

In the end, the young general did not say anything, bowing solemnly to Pei Ju before leaving. Pei Ju, on the other hand, stood on the same spot, looking out at the army outside of the city, deep in thought.

Pei Ju had not expected there to be a day when his blood would boil once more. Everything that happened in history replayed in his mind, filling him with emotions.

Remembering the past, cherishing the moments.

The nicely dressed kid, giving out young and adventurous vibes.

The air of a scholar, challenging anything he did not like.

Conquering the Turks, running the western region, gaining the title of Lord.

Sending troops to Liaodong, setting up the north Fan Town.

Remembering the waters of the river hitting the raft, the waves crashing.

Working for the Tang Dynasty, greeting the king.

Everything in the past, all of it ends in gossip and laughter.

……

Along with the motivating words of Pei Ju, the remaining mountain barbarians launched their strongest attack.

"Kill, kill kill!"

The tempo of the battlefield quickened, as the killing intent covered the heavens and spread across the wilderness.

A bunch of mountain barbarians started to sing their race’s war song. Even when facing an enemy ten times their number, they feared nothing. One by one, they threw themselves into the embrace of the death god.

They used their actions to prove their promise to the Barbarian King. The mountain barbarian soldiers would not disappoint him; they would not humiliate the glory of the legion.

Life appeared so frail at this moment.

Every moment, there would be a mountain barbarian soldier falling.

The pained Shihu had totally become a blood colored tiger, sweeping around the battlefield.

Each brother that fell made the blood red color in his eyes thicken. At the end, he showed his might, letting loose a thunderous roar.

"Ah!"

Shihu's shout made him go berserk, and his body expanded and became filled with energy.

All of a sudden, he was invincible on the battlefield; no one could stop him.

Probably because of his influence and the atmosphere, the remaining mountain barbarian soldiers also let out roars and one by one went berserk.

In a moment, their killing aurae gathered.

The attacks of the alliance army were blocked, and the entire attack route was forced to a standstill.

Such might was really alluring.

Every time the mountain barbarian went berserk, it would surprise the enemy.

Only Li Mu, who was behind the troops, let out a smile. He had heard of the berserk state of the mountain barbarians. He knew that although they became strong, it was just a last ditch effort.

If the alliance army was able to hold off this wave, victory would be in their sights.

Li Mu raised his head at the sun overhead.

It was about two hours away from noon.

Which meant that he could take down Guiping Pass earlier than expected.

On the battlefield, what mattered was the size of an army. A small number of elite soldiers could last for a moment, but they could not last for long.

This was war, not some warriors competition of martial arts.

….

The sad song at Guiping Pass still played on.

It was like even the heavens were not willing to let this army perish.

A change was about to occur.

Just as Shihu's troops entered their last leg and started to embark on their final path, on the north mountain roads of the pass, smoke bellowed and horse hooves thundered out.

"It's the Lord, the Lord is here to save us!"

The spotter at Guiping Pass saw the army that appeared outside the pass.

When Pei Ju heard these words, he felt a jolt in his heart, as he quickly turned around and looked out. The golden dragon flag was like a lighthouse, saving the boat of the mountain barbarians from getting lost.

"It really is the Lord!"

When they got the news, the mountain barbarians on the city wall cheered out. Their cheers grew louder and louder, astonishing Li Mu.

A bad premonition rose up.

"Has the variable finally appeared?"

Li Mu muttered.

….

Ouyang Shuo raised his head and looked at Guiping Pass as it grew bigger and bigger in his sight. When he saw the Shanhai City Lord Flag that waved high up on the pass, he let out a comfortable sigh.

He had led the Divine Martial Guards to rush day and night. Apart from taking care of the war horses' rest, they even ate their meals on the horses. Finally, at the last moment, they managed to reach Guiping Pass.

Chapter 533- Li Mu's Decisiveness

The arrival of Ouyang Shuo was like a strengthening agent injection for the Shanhai troops at Guiping Pass.

Although the Divine Martial Guards that he brought along only numbered three thousand, they were a truly invincible group. They had been through numerous battles, and they had never lost.

Be it the strong Jiangdong Warriors or the cruel Chiyou Blood Guards, neither could take them down.

Each member of the Divine Martial Guards had already upgraded to grade 12 war elite soldier, which was the max grade for any soldier. In terms of personal combat strength, they were able to compete with basic generals and even intermediate generals.

Ouyang Shuo was confident that solely relying on the Divine Martial Guards, they could defend the pass for a day.

Moreover, at the back of Guiping Pass, there were still two more mountain barbarian divisions on the way. Apart from that, the Leopard Legion led by Han Xin was only two days away from Guiping Pass.

The hopes of the alliance army taking down Guiping Pass was probably going to end up in smoke.

……

When Ouyang Shuo led his men into the pass and saw the scene on the city wall, his eyes could not help but tense up. Numerous mountain barbarian soldiers laid prone in the bloody pools.

Many arrows stuck out from their bodies.

Even before the four mountain barbarian divisions that Ouyang Shuo had organized received its name, one pillar had already been broken. Even the alliance army probably did not know how much harm their operation had caused to Shanhai City.

It was obvious that the mountain barbarians were facing their toughest time.

Hence, without any greetings, the Divine Martial Guards immediately struck out. They blocked up the spots of the dead mountain barbarians and slaughtered the alliance army.

Even Ouyang Shuo did not say anything, simply taking out the Chixiao Sword in his hand and directly charging forward. Even though he did not say anything, his actions alone raised their morale and motivated them to fight.

"Lord!"

"King!"

Along with the appearance of Ouyang Shuo, cheers broke out on the city wall. The soldiers shouted out the name of their Lord and slaughtered the enemy.

Moreover, the moment Ouyang Shuo arrived at Guiping Pass, the blood colored whirlpool on top of the pass stopped. A colossal blood dragon suddenly appeared and suppressed the whirlpool.

The blood colored whirlpool instantly stopped spinning.

Instantly, an invisible power of luck and fate enveloped the Shanhai soldiers.

If one looked on carefully, they would notice that of the tens of thousands of arrows that the alliance army fired, more than half had changed their trajectory and missed.

All of a sudden, the number of casualties were reduced.

And this was the appearance of luck and fate.

The Battle of Guiping had changed because of the timely appearance of the Divine Martial Guards. Although the alliance army had the upper hand, Li Mu did not have the confidence to take down the pass before noon.

Moreover, the number of casualties that the alliance army suffered made him shiver.

The main force attacking the pass was made up of fifty thousand sword-shield soldiers and twenty thousand archers. As for the ten thousand cavalry, they acted as a backup.

In the battle yesterday, they had lost half of the sword-shield soldiers. Including today, they had less than twenty thousand sword-shield soldiers left.

And on Guiping Pass, apart from the 2,300 Divine Martial Guards Ouyang Shuo brought, there were still the two thousand odd mountain barbarian soldiers, making up a total of five thousand men.

With twenty thousand sword-shield soldiers, Li Mu did not have the confidence to take down the five thousand trump card soldiers of Shanhai City.

Not to mention that this was their best of the best, even just a normal elite force of the enemy would be difficult in a four versus one siege situation.

Moreover, they were attacking a narrow and dangerous pass.

"This cannot go on!"

Li Mu shook his head, looking at the cavalry on his right and left and gave a gory order. He commanded the ten thousand cavalry to dismount and act as infantry to siege.

One must know that all these cavalry were elite soldiers that Li Mu had trained up, and they were best at wilderness cavalry battles. Now, he needed them to give up their war horses and climb scaling ladders.

Li Mu felt really pained in his heart.

Unfortunately, the change in the situation forced his hand.

Li Mu was clear that only by maintaining a huge numerical advantage could they stand a chance.

If not, they would have no hope.

One had to say that Li Mu was really a great general.

At the crucial moment, he could decisively make such a cruel decision without hesitation.

The cavalry forces were the personal guards army of Li Mu. Naturally, none of them were weaklings. When they received the orders from their general, they all dismounted without hesitation, pulling out the crescent knives by their waists and proceeding forward in a formation.

Ten thousand elite cavalry soldiers were suddenly thrown onto the front lines.

The pressure on the Divine Martial Guards grew.

The worst part was that the berserk state of the mountain barbarians had ended, and they had started to suffer from the side effects. All of a sudden, the entire defence line seemed to be on the verge of collapse.

Even without mentioning the mountain barbarians, even the Divine Martial Guards were exhausted after traveling continuously for a day and a half. The current battle was squeezing dry all the energy in their bodies.

One had to say, this battle was really full of changes.

Both sides could tilt the scales at any moment with just one decision.

Ouyang Shuo was incredibly sharp, and he immediately realized what had happened, causing him to frown.

The decisiveness of the enemy commander had exceeded his expectations.

Currently, they needed a brand new force to swap out for the mountain barbarians. If not, making the exhausted mountain barbarians hang on would only cause more damage.

If all of them died, no matter how strong the Divine Martial Guards were, they would not be able to hold on.

It was obvious that Ouyang Shuo was too optimistic previously.

The commander of the alliance army was a tough opponent.

The problem was where to find a new force now?

Ouyang Shuo frowned, as he tried his best to not let go of any potential points.

Suddenly, a unit appeared in his mind.

Thinking about that, he hollered, "Pei Ju!"

"Present!"

Pei Ju had never left the city wall. Upon hearing the Lord's shout, he rushed over.

"Bring up the Taiping Country soldiers that are locked here and give them weapons."

When the Guards Division attacked Taiping Pass, around three thousand of the Taiping Army soldiers surrendered; they were currently locked up.

Now, these surrendered soldiers had become his only hope.

"Lord, this...."

When Pei Ju heard this command, he hesitated.

The surrendered soldiers of Taiping Country were different from other surrendered soldiers. Even if they surrendered, amongst them, there would probably be some who were still loyal to Hong Xiuquan.

Hence, these soldiers presented a huge unstable factor.

Only after the Military Intelligence Division screened them could they be organized and used.

Now was obviously not a good time to use them.

If the matter went wrong, the opposite effect might happen and cause a tragedy.

Hence, before the Lord led his troops over, even in the most desperate times, Pei Ju had not even thought about using the three thousand surrendered soldiers.

Of course, this was partially because his prestige was lacking.

Ouyang Shuo understood his worries and waved him off, "We cannot think too much; let's just settle the situation in front of us. I'll send a squadron of Divine Martial Guards to aid you."

As he spoke, Ouyang Shuo gave Pei Ju a deep look filled with a lot of meaning and thought.

It was obvious that Ouyang Shuo had doubts too, but he had no choice. The best way was to arrange one hundred Divine Martial Guards to monitor and command them.

"Understood!"

Pei Ju knew that it was an emergency, so he did not say anything else. The Lord chose him to deal with the surrendered soldiers because no one else could. Moreover, he had placed his hopes on Pei Ju's diplomacy skills.

Whether they could calm down the hearts of the Taiping Army surrendered soldiers would completely depend on Pei Ju.

……

Ouyang Shuo had no time to think anymore. He turned around and jumped right into the action.

This battle was the toughest battle that Ouyang Shuo had participated in.

Even the battle against the Chiyou Army did not push him to such a degree.

One had to say that this hand from the alliance army was simply a masterstroke.

Another half an hour passed.

The weakness in the bodies of the mountain barbarians grew stronger and stronger, and even holding up their weapons tired them. Moreover, at this moment, the reinforcements that Ouyang Shuo had hoped for still had not arrived.

"Did a change occur when Pei Ju went to convince them?"

Ouyang Shuo felt his heart sink, as a sense of failure filled him.

At this time, asking the mountain barbarians to forcefully hold on was useless.

He had no choice but to order them to back off.

The Divine Martial Guards took over the entire defence.

All of a sudden, the pressure mounted.

Even Ouyang Shuo could not relax; he had no time to think about anything else.

Every moment, numerous alliance army soldiers would charge at him.

The Chixiao Sword in his hand emanated a bloody glow.

This was also the first time that the Chixiao Sword was shown to the world.

Unfortunately, there was no one to admire it.

Ouyang Shuo used the sword techniques of the Killing Sword to perfection.

Probably at this moment, Ouyang Shuo truly understood the meaning and essence behind the technique.

The killing sword was the sword of the battlefield.

The battlefield was its destiny.

A divine sword technique that was lost in history had reappeared one more, bringing along slaughter and death.

Probably influenced by the killing sword, Ouyang Shuo's mind was actually exceedingly calm, without any thoughts. He did not care about anything around him or about why Pei Ju had not returned yet.

All that remained in his heart was the sword intent behind the killing sword.

Any enemy in front of him would be enveloped by his sword intent.

Chapter 534- It Ends

The red sun hung high up in the air, and the killing in Guiping Pass still showed no signs of stopping.

At the middle portion of the city wall that had Ouyang Shuo as its core, something magical happened.

On this chaotic battlefield, Ouyang Shuo had actually entered a contemplation realm known as ‘forgetting oneself’.

This so-called realm was not literally forgetting that one existed.

It meant to put down all the thoughts in one’s heart and focus on one's true heart.

Ouyang Shuo's true heart was the Killing Sword Sword Technique.

Hence, in his heart, apart from the killing sword, there was nothing else.

It was such a pure realm that made his heart, soul, mind, and body all combine into one, as he was thrown into the comprehensions of the killing sword.

A moment in this realm was like a day in normal life, even numerous days.

Most importantly, some hard to grasp concepts could be easily explained and understood in this realm.

This was called enlightenment.

Hence, anyone who walked the path of cultivation would yearn for and wish to enter this realm.

In this realm, although Ouyang Shuo did not focus on the outside world, his Chixiao Sword continued to move, displaying the Killing Sword Sword Technique.

The emanated sword intent could capture any killing intent from the enemy. The sword intent would automatically lock in anyone who wanted to kill Ouyang Shuo.

Hence, be it soldier or general, Ouyang Shuo's killing intent would cover anyone who stood before him.

Under the killing sword, no one could live.

With the Chixiao Sword in hand, Ouyang Shuo did not look like an emperor but an asura. He turned and charged on the city wall. Each time he slashed out, he would be able to take the life of one or even several alliance army soldiers.

Under the cover of his sword intent, any action or intention of the enemy would become as clear as day before him.

As time moved on, Ouyang Shuo grew more familiar and attuned with the Killing Sword Sword Technique. Moreover, along with endless killing, a blood aura had started to manifest around the sword.

Chixiao Sword, the sword of an emperor.

The sword itself was not like the Tianmo Spear, which knew how to absorb the blood essence of the enemy.

Hence, the blood aura could only congeal on the sword, becoming thicker and thicker. This scene was also similar to the nameless general that appeared when Ouyang Shuo had just started practicing the Killing Sword Sword Manual.

This also meant that Ouyang Shuo had truly started to grasp the essence of the killing sword.

Such terrifying might and majestic strength was something only a general of a generation possessed. No one expected such an aura to appear on a Lord, whose body and identity were so precious.

On the battlefield, be it the Divine Martial Guards or the mountain barbarian warriors that were resting at the side, both could feel their blood boil.

To be able to fight for such a Lord, they would even be willing to die for him.

The morale of the entire army swelled.

"Kill him!"

The alliance army sword-shield soldier commander was a brute with a moustache. His large eyes and fierce face sent shivers down one's spine. As he had a huge moustache, he was called General Huzi.

Seeing the scene, General Huzi personally led his troops to surround and kill Ouyang Shuo. In an instant, hundreds of soldiers, including General Huzi, swarmed toward Ouyang Shuo.

"My Lord!"

The Divine Martial Guards were alarmed. They wanted to assist Ouyang Shuo, but the alliance army soldiers blocked them.

"Lord, be careful!"

The mountain barbarians wanted to pick up their weapons, but they found that they did not even have the strength to stand. The side effects of the berserk state had entered its most crucial phase, where one would feel sore and be unable to use their strength.

It seemed like Ouyang Shuo would perish in the chaos.

General Huzi let out a cruel smile upon hearing the shouts from the Divine Martial Guards. He grinned, as he knew that he had captured a big fish.

As long as they killed this fellow, they would win.

General Huzi was even thinking about the scene where he would receive a reward from his Lord.

Apart from that, the sword in Ouyang Shuo’s hands made Huzi drool.

Such a god sword obviously looked special at a glance.

If he could snatch it away and give it to his Lord, how good would that be?

Thinking about this point, General Huzi grew more and more vicious, slashing out with his large blade.

The current Ouyang Shuo was still engrossed in comprehending the killing sword, knowing nothing about the surrounding events. He could only wave his sword instinctively.

"Kill!"

In a moment, hundreds of swords slashed at Ouyang Shuo from all directions.

"Lord!"

Be it the Divine Martial Guards or the mountain barbarian warriors, their eyes turned blood red.

Just at this moment, Ouyang Shuo grinned, and like happiness, like comprehension, he slowly spat out the words, "Kill all life!"

Suddenly, he spun 360 degrees on the spot, sweeping out with his Chixiao Sword.

Instantly, the blood aura that covered the sword broke out and transformed into sharp red blades that shot out at the soldiers around him.

Numerous soldiers fell, and even General Huzi was hurt.

The enemy encirclement was broken.

"Great!"

The Divine Martial Guards cheered out.

Such might; one might ask who on this earth could challenge their Lord.

Now, the worship and respect the soldiers felt toward Ouyang Shuo had reached the highest level.

The mountain barbarians at the side even started to shed tears from all the emotions.

They all recognized their Barbarian King.

The new Barbarian King possessed strong martial arts skills, and he was both intelligent and morally upright.

It was truly a blessing for the mountain barbarian race to have such a great Lord.

The warriors were so happy that they continuously shed tears.

What about Ouyang Shuo? His killing had not stopped.

The Chixiao Sword in his hand shone brightly, as it reaped soul after soul, life after life.

"4th, killing general!"

Ouyang Shuo's eyes focused, as the Chixiao Blade in his hand thrusted out like the horn of a goat, suddenly appearing in front of General Huzi.

A general fell just like that.

"General!"

The soldiers all around him cried out in alarm. Their general dying had caused their morale to fall.

On the contrary, the morale of the Divine Martial Guards was sky high.

Just like that, relying on Ouyang Shuo’s courage, the army miraculously held on once more.

At this very moment, rushed footsteps sounded out from below the city wall.

Pei Ju led the three thousand surrendered soldiers and finally appeared. If one looked on carefully, they would notice that less than three thousand soldiers had actually appeared.

Moreover, flecks of blood covered even Pei Ju's body.

It was obvious that convincing the surrendered soldiers did not go smoothly. Some hiccups must have occured.

Luckily, the end result was an acceptable one.

With the addition of the new blood, the defence of Guiping Pass slowly calmed down.

This batch of Taiping Army soldiers were the original defenders of the pass, so they were really familiar with it. They were able to smoothly enter their role, and they did not need any time to adapt.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he heaved a sigh of relief.

The toughest moment had finally passed.

With the Divine Martial Guards as the core, and the Taiping Army soldiers as a support, the entire defence line was as stable as Mount Tai.

This battle could be said to have had three peaks.

This intense battle lasted from morning till night.

Both sides went all out, not leaving any stones unturned, as they showed all their trump cards.

When the two thousand mountain barbarians recovered and reappeared on the city wall, the battle was settled.

The alliance army had lost their chance to take down Guiping Pass.

……

Under the cover of the sunset, Li Mu's expression was exceptional ugly. A battle that he was so confident in had ended up with his troops suffering heavy casualties, forcing him to retreat in failure.

Attacking Guilin Prefecture was his most important military operation since he appeared in the wilderness. Before attacking Guiping Pass, everything had gone so perfectly.

But the pass in front of him had caused him and his army to suffer heavy losses.

"Back off!"

As expected from a general of his generation. Although his heart was filled with regret, he did not lose his rationality. He was clear that with the remaining soldiers on hand, taking down Guiping Pass was a total pipe dream.

Since that was the case, why not back off to Guilin Prefecture to discuss future plans?

Li Mu believed that with the strength and ability of the advisor, he would be able to think of a way.

As the sun set, less than forty thousand troops backed off from the front lines. After some slight adjustments, they followed the uneven mountain path back into the valley.

This soul shocking battle of the pass ended beautifully at this point.

Guiping Pass, city wall.

Looking at the alliance army that slowly backed away, Ouyang Shuo fell into deep thought.

"Who is the general?"

"Based on what the Military Intelligence Division reported, he's the famous Warring States general, Li Mu. Not only is he the main commander for the troops attacking Guiping Pass, he's the commander of the overall alliance army."

The one replying to Ouyang Shuo was Pei Ju.

"Li Mu, huh? No wonder."

Ouyang Shuo raised his head and looked at the vast night sky, not saying a word. As he stood straight under the cover of the setting sun, he appeared incredibly majestic.

Pei Ju looked at the back view of the Lord, feeling guilty in his heart. He had learned of the battle situation. If it was not for the Lord going all out, the outcome would be detrimental to them.

Since the reinforcements had come too late, the Lord had nearly died.

Be it any territory, this could be considered an offence worthy of death.

However, when the Lord saw Pei Ju, he calmly said, "You are here!"

Following which, he continued to throw himself into the battle.

There was not a word of blame nor a word of question.

As a result, Pei Ju felt really uncomfortable. His Lord trusted him, but he had nearly messed up. Hence, he was filled with guilt.

Remembering what had happened in the prison, Pei Ju would always feel regretful and afraid.

Thinking back to an hour and a half ago.

Pei Ju had led a hundred Divine Martial Guards to the prison. This was called a prison, but in truth, it was more like a small-sized barrack.

The three thousand Taiping Army soldiers were locked up here.

Chapter 535- Bearing This Anger

Guiping Pass, jail.

When Pei Ju stepped into the jail, pairs of doubtful eyes looked toward him.

Although the surrendered soldiers were all locked up, they were not totally cut off from the world. They were clear that the current Guiping Pass was under attack, and the situation was bad.

In such a situation, for the Shanhai City minister to come here, his purpose was quite obvious.

"Guys." Pei Ju looked around, his voice suddenly filled with a lot of charm, "There's no need to hide anything. I'm sure all of you know that Guiping Pass is under attack."

The moment his words sounded, chatter broke out.

Listening about it was one thing, but learning the truth from the minister was another. A weird glow appeared in some of their eyes.

"The situation is dangerous now, and we may fall any moment." Pei Ju raised both his hands to calm them down and continued, "If it falls, Shanhai City will suffer heavy losses. Your lives might also be lost. Guiping Prefecture has already been occupied, and the Taiping Army there has already been cleared out. Hence, I ask all of you to not have any false hopes of the enemy treating you nicely."

Pei Ju's words were the same as extinguishing the hopes in some of their hearts.

Unfortunately, some of them did not fear death, or they were loyal to their king till death. After hearing that Guilin Prefecture had fallen, they were not angry. Instead, they were a little happy.

The enemy of the enemy is a friend.

It was obvious that to those loyal people, Shanhai City was their enemy.

Pei Ju had incredibly sharp eyes, so he immediately noticed their weird expressions. However, they did not come out to sow chaos, so it was hard for him to deal with them. As such, he could only look on.

"Guys, it's time to prove your loyalty to Shanhai City. Don the armor, take the weapons, and fight along with the Lord's personal army - the Divine Martial Guards!"

"For Shanhai City and also for yourselves!"

Pei Ju knew that time was of the essence, and he did not expect a long speech would convince them. He could only link the battle with their lives and hope to ignite their spirits.

As he spoke, the Divine Martial Guards that followed him opened up the arsenal and passed some armor and weapons to each fallen soldier.

After receiving the weapons, the aurae of the surrendered soldiers changed. The originally soft squad instantly turned bloodthirsty, becoming a force that had been through many wars.

"Hen, you just want us to risk our lives for your Lord!" Suddenly, resentment spread out amongst the crowd, the voice filled with contempt and anger.

A wave would cause thousands of waves.

"That's right! You cannot hold on anymore, so you thought about us. Isn’t that too late?" With weapons in their hands, they had the strength to speak, so their attitudes became arrogant.

"That's right, you locked us up like prisoners. When did you even see us as humans? Now, with problems cropping up, you suddenly think of us as your own people; what a joke!"

"Hen!"

All of a sudden, the voices of doubt toward Pei Ju and Shanhai City rose up. The Divine Martial Guards unsheathed the Tang Blades around their waists and solemnly waited.

"Why, you want to kill us to make us keep quiet? Bring it on!"

With weapons in their hands, some of the soldiers even became fearless. Amongst them, it was obvious that someone was fanning the flames to cause problems.

"Brothers, look, they need us now, so they treat us so politely. Once the battle ends, we will be forsaken and deserted once more."

"That's right. Rather than fighting for them, why not kill our way out?"

"That's right, kill our way out. They cannot even save themselves, so why will they stop us?"

Under the words of some people, the group started to fidget.

Some of the surrendered soldiers started to look at Pei Ju with nefarious intentions.

When Pei Ju saw that, he felt a shiver run down his spine.

If the three thousand of them really wanted to cause problems, the one hundred Divine Martial Guards would fail to suppress them.

The key was that Pei Ju was worried about the safety of their Lord.

The longer this lasted for, the more dangerous the situation would grow.

Thinking about that, his expression became sharp, and he hollered, "Why, you want to rebel?" Instantly, a forceful aura broke out, stunning everyone.

The surrendered soldiers were terrified.

They did not expect this polite looking old man to emit such an aura when he was angry.

"I want to rebel; what can you do about it?!" There were still a few men who were not scared, and they directly charged out with their blades.

When Pei Ju saw that, he was calm and unafraid.

"So bold!"

The Divine Martial Guard standing behind him raged, moving past Pei Ju and beheading the man with one stroke.

Fresh blood splashed onto Pei Ju's robes.

Instantly, the entire place fell totally silent.

Everyone was shocked by the strength of the Divine Martial Guard. They did not even see clearly when he had slashed out, and the head had already landed on the ground.

Such blade skills were truly next level.

"They killed someone. Brothers, let's kill them!"

After the silence, an even louder uproar broke out, as the group grew emotional.

The fresh blood on the ground did not scare them. Instead, it ignited their killing intent.

When Pei Ju saw that, his eyes instantly turned ice cold. He knew that he could not drag on for any longer, so he signaled to the Divine Martial Guards.

They quickly took out their bows and shot at the group of surrendered soldiers.

Cries broke out.

Upon closer inspection, those in the crowd that had sowed the most chaos were shot and fell to the ground.

Such archery shocked all the surrendered soldiers.

The one hundred Divine Martial Guards actually suppressed the three thousand surrendered soldiers.

When Pei Ju saw that, he knew it was time for him to speak, "Guys, think about it, what should you do to benefit your family? I do not wish for all of you to risk your lives because other people are fanning the flames."

After a short pause, he continued, "In this battle, anyone who contributes will be able to get rid of their identity as a fallen soldier. The Lord will be magnanimous in your rewards."

"One path was a dead end to hell; the other was the path to riches. What choice should you make, is it not really clear?"

Along with the blood scattered all around, Pei Ju's words were highly convincing.

The remaining surrendered soldiers fell into deep thought.

Without other people fanning the flames, a large portion of them turned rational. Especially those who were born in Xunzhou Prefecture. Thinking about how their family members were in Shanhai City's hands, they calmed down.

"Mister, say what we should do. We will just follow your words."

Finally, someone stepped out and expressed his willingness to follow the commands of Shanhai City.

When Pei Ju saw that, he let out a sigh of relief and pointed to the Divine Martial Guards, “You've seen it just now. They are the personal guards of the Lord, the strongest warriors in Shanhai City."

"Now, they will lead you into battle."

The surrendered soldiers had a direct impression of the Divine Martial Guards. Naturally, they accepted their lead.

As time was of the essence, after hurriedly forming up, Pei Ju brought them up the city walls. Hence, only then did they see the scene before Ouyang Shuo’s eyes.

On the city wall, just as Pei Ju started to think about the past, a hurried shout alerted him.

"Lord, emergency military intel!"

He looked over and saw a messenger hurry over.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he turned around and accepted the letter.

Flecks of eye-piercing blood covered the letter from Xuanwu Pass. In his heart, a bad feeling started to grow.

Just now, he had looked out on the city walls, worried about the situation in Xuanwu Pass. Without reinforcements, could the five thousand soldiers there hold on?

In truth, Ouyang Shuo had no confidence at all.

But between the two, Ouyang Shuo had to make a choice.

The wilderness was just so cruel.

After opening the letter, he found more blood red. The entire letter was actually written in fresh blood.

‘To General Shihu:

Xuanwu Pass was suddenly attacked. The soldiers and I will defend it to the end. However, there are too many enemies, and they are about to overrun us. As for the hopes and well wishes of the Lord, I can only thank him in death.

General, there's no need to reinforce Xuanwu Pass, as I'm the last survivor. After sending out this letter, I'll die together with my brothers.

I hope in the next life that we will still be brothers.

Help me greet the Lord on my behalf and thank the king! -nameless mountain barbarian soldier.’

Looking at the letter, Ouyang Shuo grew furious, as tears started to form up in his eyes.

The valiant and fearless soldiers had sacrificed their lives to show their loyalty.

And as the person they were loyal to, Ouyang Shuo did not have the ability to save them. He could only watch them fight to the death and die one by one.

This was the first time that Ouyang Shuo hated this game, hated it for being so real.

"Pass this letter to Shihu."

Ouyang Shuo's voice was sore, filled with an unspeakable exhaustion. After passing the letter to Pei Ju, he turned around and looked toward the horizon.

The sunset at this moment looked exceptionally bright.

The back view of Ouyang Shuo seemed lonely and crestfallen. He even wanted to bring the Shanhai City Army into the Guilin Prefecture and start an all out war with the enemy to take revenge.

Unfortunately, his current situation did not allow him to do so.

The current Shanhai City did not have the strength to support another huge war.

Ouyang Shuo could only bear it, temporarily bearing this pain and suffering.

Chapter 536- Strategy Saint Zhang Liang

Guilin Prefecture, Bushan City.

Bushan City was located in the central region of Guilin Prefecture, and it was the largest city inside the prefecture. Outside of the city flowed the famous Lijiang River in a downward stream. The sights and scenery of Guilin were completely beautiful.

The command center of the alliance army was set in Bushan City.

Along with the sweeping operation of Guilin Prefecture coming to an end, the various Lords shifted their troops over to the city.

During the Battle of Zhaoqing, members of the South Alliance traveled along with their troops. In the end, they all had to commit suicide to return to their territories. Since that incident, Lords were really careful about following their troops to battle.

Among the Lords of the Xiangnan City-State, only Caiyun Zinan and another Lord called Gu Henxiao followed the troops.

Gu Henxiao was the Lord of Li Mu.

As for the Chuanbei Province, as they temporarily had not formed a city-state, the ten Lords had to follow their troops out. Their representative figure was a person known as West Gate Big Official.

The reason he named himself that was because he was a famous playboy in reality. When he entered the game, he relied on his family's support to grow powerful.

In the Chuanbei Province, West Gate Big Official could be considered the number one figure.

The Lords had gathered at Bushan City to command the troops, but most importantly, they were here to discuss how to split the spoils of war. The huge Guilin Prefecture was a piece of fatty meat no matter how one looked at it.

After taking it down, they needed plenty of discussion to decide on how to divide this cake.

Apart from that, how to arrange the troops to defend the prefecture was another topic. Since they took it down, no matter who it was, they would want to keep it.

Moreover, to run Guilin Prefecture, one naturally needed to house a large number of troops.

Although the alliance army had caught Shanhai City off guard, their worry and fear of them did not decrease in the slightest. Instead, they became even more wary of this tiger.

Based on their sources, the Chuanbei Province had already started to build a city-state to effectively counter Shanhai City.

As such, the alliance army wanted to immediately take down both passes.

As long as one defended both of these passes, they would not lose Guilin Prefecture. On the contrary, if they lost the passes, defending Guilin Prefecture would be a task of the highest difficulty.

24th day, morning, the battle reports for the two passes were passed on to the command center.

Xuanwu Pass was smoothly taken down. However, Shanhai City successfully defended Guiping Pass.

When the various Lord received this news, their breath got stuck in their throats. It could not go up or down, making them feel extremely uncomfortable.

The loss at Guiping Pass terrified all of them. They were worried that when they woke up, the huge Shanhai City Army would bear down on them in an all out confrontation.

The only person that remained calm and composed was the Lord of Caiyun City - Caiyun Zinan.

Lord's Manor, West Cross Courtyard.

This courtyard was the place where Caiyun Zinan stayed. Both the inside and the outside of this courtyard were heavily guarded.

Caiyun Zinan sat in the middle of the main hall.

Below him sat a middle-aged scribe, his face white without a beard, and his features exceedingly distinct. This scribe was the advisor that Li Mu had mentioned, and he was similarly another amazing person.

He was none other than the person who was given the title of Strategy Saint, Zhang Liang.

Zhang Liang, also known as Zi Fang. He was an exceptional military advisor that appeared at the end of Qin. Along with Han Xin and Xiao He, they were termed as the three greats of Han. He was born in an aristocratic family, and his grandfather, father, and previous generations were all ministers of the Han King.

As the Han Country was destroyed by the Qin Country, Zhang Liang decided to go against the Qin.

He convinced Liu Bang to act humble during the Hongmen Feast and not show off his power. He also worked together with Xiang Yu's father, Xiang Bo, to ensure that Liu Bang was able to escape. After which, he came up with a plan to help Liu Bang obtain the world during the Chu Han War. He helped Liu Yi become the prince and was given a title of Lord.

Zhang Liang was an olden thinking type of person, and he did not care about power. In his later years, he followed Chi Songzi out to travel.

Liu Bang once evaluated him with these words, "Zhang Liang's plans in the tent helps to decide battles thousands of miles away."

Descendants respected his strategies and plans, terming him as the Strategy Saint.

As a result of this title, his evaluation grade was higher than Baiqi, Han Xin, and Xiao He. He was an actual Saint rank historical person.

To be able to gain the support of Zhang Liang, this alone showed that Caiyun Zinan was special.

One must know that although many Saint rank figures like Jiang Shang, Sun Wu, and Meng Zi lived in Shanhai City, they did not truly work for Shanhai City, different from Zhang Liang and Caiyun Zinan.

Caiyun Zinan was probably the first Lord to have a saint grade figure work for him.

One had to say, this person had great ability, and he had kept the matter really close to the chest. No wonder he could shine during the Battle of Julu and become the brightest dark horse.

In truth, during the Battle of Julu, Caiyun Zinan had activated the recruitment quest of Zhang Liang. After the Battle of Julu ended, Caiyun Zinan went through a tough and arduous test in the wilderness before finally gaining his trust and allegiance.

This arduous journey was not something that Lords like Ouyang Shuo, who recruited historical talents so easily, could understand. After all, be it on the battle map or in the wilderness, Ouyang Shuo had smoothly recruited people without much difficulty.

The only exception was probably Jiang Shang.

That old man only agreed to become the principal of Xinan University after Ouyang Shuo tried so much.

Apart from that would be Fan Li.

Who knows whether the Black Snake Guards had managed to find him yet.

……

"Zi Fang, this time, Guiping Pass was not taken down. What plans do you have to salvage the situation?" As it was hard for him to recruit Zhang Liang, Caiyun Zinan had the utmost faith and trust in him.

When Zhang Liang heard that, he smiled, "Lord does not need to worry, even though it was much of a surprise that we did not take it down. But after all, our opponent is not a simple person."

"Since that's the case, Zi Fang, do you have a plan?" Caiyun Zinan asked.

"That's right. We did not take down Guiping Pass, but that is not much of a problem. We just need to build a large-sized pass at the entrance to Guilin Prefecture. With that, we can similarly defend against the enemy."

"Brilliant plan!" Caiyun Zinan was delighted.

"Lord must take the matter of defending the Xuanwu Pass seriously." Zhang Liang changed the topic, "The Xuanwu Pass is not considered a dangerously steep area, so we were able to take it down easily. This also means that they could naturally take it back easily. Hence, the important matter would be to fortify the pass with more troops."

"That makes sense; I'll make arrangements." Caiyun Zinan nodded, "The troops in charge of sweeping Guilin Prefecture have finished their mission, so they can move into Xuanwu Pass."

"Adding troops only solves the problem on the surface. To solve the core issue, we need to build a stronghold," Zhang Liang added.

"Building two strongholds at once will use up a lot of resources."

When Caiyun Zinan heard that, he knew that he was in a tough situation, and his expression showed it.

Zhang Liang was intelligent, and he could guess the situation from that slight change in expression, "What thoughts do the other Lords have on the post war plans of Guilin Prefecture?"

Based on the plan that Zhang Liang had made before the war, the cooperation to take down Guilin Prefecture was not to occupy the land. Rather, it was to create a buffer zone between them and Shanhai City.

After all, to the Lords of the two provinces, apart from Caiyun City, the rest were still at the county grade. They did not need to worry about a lack of land.

Just the land within the prefecture itself was enough to give them a headache.

Hence, if it was solely to occupy the land, there was no need for them to do so much.

At its roots, attacking Guilin Prefecture was a strategic plan. After all, if Shanhai City took it down, the territory would be connected to the two provinces.

With an enemy sleeping beside you, how could you be able to fall asleep?

As such, they started the war.

Taking down Guilin Prefecture meant that the situation had changed.

If Shanhai City wanted to go up north to attack the two provinces, they had to go past Guilin Prefecture. With that, the two provinces would have time to react and adapt.

Apart from that, fighting in Guilin Prefecture would allow them to accomplish their goal of defending their own territory, not allowing the flames of war to spread to their own province.

This act was killing two birds with one stone.

Hence, before the battle, the alliance army had a clear internal plan for Guilin Prefecture. They would turn it into a military region that was under shared control. All the income from the prefecture would be poured into the alliance army troops housed there.

With that, they would be able to maintain a huge alliance army, and it would not cause a burden on their territory’s finances. It was the same as spending others money to develop your own army.

Be it the plan before the war or the arrangements post war, the entire plan was closely linked, and it had a high developmental potential.

And the person who came up with this plan was the Strategy Saint Zhang Liang.

It was this plan that attracted the Lords of the Wannan City-State and the Lords of Chuanbei Province, with West Gate Big Official as their representative.

However, Zhang Liang did not expect that once they succeeded, under the huge temptations of the rewards, some of the Lords could not sit still.

Which was to say that on this matter, some of the Lords had started to become selfish.

Actually, before Caiyun Zinan came to meet Zhang Liang, he had met up with the other Lords. Their intentions were to directly split up the rewards before having further discussions.

As such, when he heard Zhang Liang’s suggestion to build two passes at once, he was placed in a tough spot.

Chapter 537- Humiliation Stone Steele

"Lord, on this matter, you have to be firm."

Seeing Caiyun Zinan acting a little hesitant, Zhang Liang instantly reminded him, his attitude resolute like iron.

Zhang Liang knew that if they were not able to complete the two strongholds in a short period of time, the rewards obtained from the battle would not last long.

"I understand."

Caiyun Zinan nodded his head and smiled, "Do not worry, Zi Fang. I will think of a way to convince them." However, his smile was a little forced.

"Actually to you, this might be a good thing." Zhang Liang continued, "As long as you succeed in this, not only the Wannan City-State, even in both provinces, you will have a say. This will definitely aid and help you in future matters."

When Caiyun Zinan heard that, his eyes lit up, and he excitedly said, "Since Zi Fang has put it that way, even if I lose all my face, I'll get this matter settled."

In the end, anyone who had great potential would definitely have great ambition too.

Zhang Liang's words had definitely struck the sweet spot with Caiyun Zinan.

If not, why would one say that Zhang Liang was the Strategy Saint. He could pinpoint the weakness of his Lord to come up with a different viewpoint to persuade him.

In comparison, Fan Zeng, who was born in the same generation, was worlds apart.

After the discussion, Caiyun Zinan turned and left.

Zhang Liang looked at the fading back view of Caiyun Zinan, as anxiety appeared in his eyes.

"In the end, was the plan too small-scaled?"

Within the hall, a sigh broke out.

……

That afternoon, the alliance army’s discussion had a breakthrough.

Who knows how Caiyun Zinan accomplished it, but in the end, they accepted Zhang Liang’s plan and gave up on splitting the spoils of war.

The gold that they obtained this time, apart from using it on the compensation money for the casualties, they spent the remaining on building the two strongholds to ensure the safety of Guilin Prefecture.

Apart from that, in regards to the number of troops, the various Lords had all come to a consensus.

Guilin Prefecture would maintain 150 thousand prepared troops, amongst which, one hundred thousand would come from Wannan City-State and fifty thousand from the Chuanbei Province. The overall commander of the troops would still be Li Mu.

This army would establish an unbreakable defense line with the two strongholds as its core.

As for the shortfall in terms of troops, a portion would come from the surrendered troops of the Taiping Country Army, while the various territories would contribute the rest.

To come to an agreement, Caiyun Zinan had no choice but to make way in terms of the appointment of officials in Guilin Prefecture. As the person who had started this war, in the end, his control of the Guilin Prefecture was minimal.

On the contrary, Gu Henxiao, who contributed General Li Mu, had the greatest speaking power in Guilin Prefecture. Even the choice of governor was suggested by him.

Although the various Lords did not barbarically try to split up the prefecture, they still did not give up on increasing their influence in the area. The cooperations and conflicts within were not something that could be described in a short while.

Luckily, Zhang Liang’s plan was basically fulfilled.

11th month, 24th day, Guiping Pass.

At around 3 PM in the afternoon, the two mountain barbarian independent divisions finally arrived at Guiping Pass.

Unfortunately, the huge war at the pass had already ended.

The mountain barbarian soldiers only saw a heavily damaged pass in tatters. In the deep forests outside of the pass, there were thousands of new gravestones, creating a truly eye-catching scene under the shine of the sunlight.

That afternoon, all the mountain barbarian warriors rushed to the cemetery to send off their dead comrades.

Under the setting sun, this scene seemed really heart wrenching and emotional.

Ouyang Shuo stood on the city wall, looking out at the distance for an entire afternoon, not moving in the slightest.

The soldiers felt that since yesterday when the Lord had found out that the five thousand mountain barbarian soldiers at Xuanwu Pass had all died, he had become really down and quiet. He often looked out afar, and no one knew what he was thinking about.

Such a scene also affected the moods of the soldiers in the pass. The entire pass was enveloped in a solemn atmosphere, one that was hard to climb out of.

Even the soldiers that had done well and made contributions did not approach the Lord as usual to receive their rewards.

When Pei Ju saw the situation, a flash of worry appeared in his eyes.

Logically speaking, as a leader, as a Lord, one should not expose their personal feelings, especially one’s weaker side to those under them. Such an act would be a huge blow to the might and prestige of the Lord.

Any action by Ouyang Shuo would be overly read by his men and cause chaos and worry.

This was where Pei Ju needed to step in to do his job.

Under the dim lights, there was nothing weird or unusual about Ouyang Shuo’s expression. In his hand was a blueprint, the building blueprints of Guiping Pass.

“Minister Pei Ju greets the Lord!”

Seeing that, Pei Ju bowed slightly.

“You came? Sit!”

Ouyang Shuo casually raised his head. His voice sounded stale and uninterested, lacking his usual aura.

“Lord….” Pei Ju spoke up then stopped.

Ouyang Shuo’s mood was bad but that did not mean his senses were not sharp. Finally, he noticed that this minister was not acting right. Putting it another way, he was acting really strange.

He placed down the blueprints and laughed, “What words do you want to say, just say it.”

“Then, I will be bold,” Pei Ju said.

“It’s fine.” Ouyang Shuo nodded.

“The dead are already gone. You need to put down the burden and look toward the future. Pick yourself up. A loss should not make you lose your soul to such an extent.”

Pei Ju’s words were really direct, so direct that it made Ouyang Shuo feel a little ashamed.

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, he let out an awkward smile, “For these past two days, I’ve been thinking about a problem. There are somethings that are not as others think.”

“Lord, please elaborate!” Pei Ju nodded.

“Look at this!” Ouyang Shuo took up the blueprint once more, “During these two days, I’ve been thinking. The fall of Guilin Prefecture has already happened, so how can we make up for it?”

“Lord, what you’re saying is?”

In Pei Ju’s eyes, a light started to shine up.

“Build a stronghold!” Ouyang Shuo was determined, “With the Guiping Pass as the base, we will expand it into a stronghold comparable to the Mulan Stronghold.”

Ouyang Shuo’s thoughts were exactly the same as Zhang Liang’s.

“We are unable to make sure whether the enemy has the ambitions to enter Xunzhou Prefecture. No matter what we may think, Guiping Pass is our only barrier toward the north. This barrier was exchanged for by the blood of tens of thousands of soldiers, so we cannot afford to lose it.”

As he said that, Ouyang Shuo started to grow a little emotional.

“In a short period of time, I do not think we will have the ability to take back Guilin Prefecture.” In Ouyang Shuo’s eyes, sadness flashed across, “Which is all the more why we have to house troops in the north. The Leopard Legion, which was originally planned to be stationed at Guilin Prefecture, will now be temporarily housed here.”

“That works.” Pei Ju nodded his head.

“This stronghold, I would like you to be in charge of it, are you willing?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

“It’s exactly what I wanted.” Pei Ju nodded.

Based on Ouyang Shuo’s previous plan, Pei Ju was going to work in Guilin Prefecture. The sudden fall of Guilin Prefecture meant that he had lost his job, making his situation extremely awkward.

To Pei Ju, the fall of Guilin Prefecture made him feel ashamed, and it was a stain in his life.

Hence, Pei Ju had wanted to personally wipe off this stain. Taking charge of building the stronghold would be his first step to redeeming himself.

If Ouyang Shuo made him work at Shanhai City, he would have been unhappy about it.

One had to say that Ouyang Shuo’s eyes were really sharp, and he often found the right person for the job.

“The new stronghold, will it be called Guiping Stronghold?” Pei Ju asked.

“No.” Ouyang Shuo shook his head, as a cold glow appeared in his eyes “At Guilin Prefecture, at Guiping Pass, Shanhai City faced an unprecedented failure. The glory of the golden dragon flag was stained for the first time. Such a humiliation, how can I forget it in a day? Hence, let’s call the new stronghold the Withered Flower Stronghold to remember this huge lost. To take revenge, let’s reclaim the glory of this withered flower!”

“Withered Flower Stronghold.”

As Pei Ju spoke those words, the deep and heavy meaning behind it weighed on his heart.

“Since that’s the case, I suggest we build a huge humiliation stone steele in front of the pass to remind all the soldiers housed here to not forget about the humiliation of this day.”

The night was dark and the two of them had come to a consensus once again.

“I’ll leave now!”

Pei Ju looked out at the pitch black sky, getting up to leave.

“Pei Ju.” Just as Pei Ju walked out of the gate, Ouyang Shuo spoke, “Your reminder today is something I will remember deeply in my heart.”

When Pei Ju heard these words, he turned around and smiled, “For the Lord to think that way, I have no worries.”

The Lord and the minister looked at one another and laughed.

….

The next day, Han Xin’s troops smoothly arrived at Guiping Pass.

The three armies had finally met up in Guiping Pass.

Ouyang Shuo naturally had immense faith in Han Xin. Even Li Mu would face a lot of problems at the hands of Han Xin.

The arrival of Han Xin also signaled that it was time for Ouyang Shuo to leave.

Originally, Ouyang Shuo should have reached Tianjing City long ago. However, this abrupt change had delayed him by several days. Who knows what chain reaction this event would have on Tianjing City.

In a short amount of time, it would be impossible to take back Guilin Prefecture. Ouyang Shuo could only bear the pain and deal with the things at hand. On the same day, Ouyang Shuo spent the whole day discussing matters with Han Xin and Pei Ju.

On the second day, Gaia 2nd year, 11th month, 26th day.

The black-faced Ouyang Shuo led the mountain barbarian army back on their path to Tianjing City.

Chapter 538-Evil Remnants of the Religion

The red sun hung overhead; the wilderness was utterly silent.

Suddenly, from a small road on the side of the official path, a man’s shout broke out.

“Stand still!”

“Quick, catch him; do not let that little wimp run!”

A short while later, a frail-looking woman dressed in a tattered dress limped out from the small path. Dirt covered her dress, and there was even a hole at her knee area. One could even see some blood stains.

The young woman was terrified, as she ran forward for her life. Time after time, she would turn her head around as if a bunch of devils were chasing after her.

Following closely behind her were naturally not some devil but three men. They were not that old, and the oldest among them was probably not even forty. From his appearance and clothing, he seemed like a nearby farmer.

The only unusual area was a white cloth on their heads and around their arms.

Ahhh!

Probably because of the immense stress, she did not notice the path ahead of her. She tripped on a rock, stumbling before crashing onto the ground.

When the men behind her saw that, they were delighted.

“Haha, let’s see how you will continue running!”

As he spoke, the three of them quickened their pace and was about to grab her.

A look of despair appeared in the eyes of the girl, and she had already prepared herself for the worst.

At this very moment, at the far end of the path, the rhythmic sounds of horse hooves rang. When the girl heard this, her eyes showed a strong will to live once more, as she hollered, “Save me!”

“Save me!”

When the three men heard her scream, they froze immediately. They quickened their steps; they wanted to drag the girl back into the side path that they came from before someone else arrived.

However, the sounds of the horse hooves did not stop.

A well-equipped cavalry soldier emerged from the official path, with a golden dragon flag in his hands.

When the three men saw this flag, their faces turned ashen white.

Anyone under the rule of Shanhai City knew that the golden dragon flag represented the personal guards of the Lord.

“What a downer!”

At this sight, the three men scolded the girl and wanted to escape. Unfortunately, at that moment, an arrow broke through the air and stopped them in their tracks.

The arrow stopped three inches from them; it was obviously a warning. If they continued to run forward, the arrow would greet their bodies.

All of a sudden, the three men broke out in cold sweat, their faces completely white.

In the end, they were just normal farmers, so what kind of knowledge and confidence would they have?

After a short while, the leading cavalry soldier arrived and from atop his horse, he shouted, “How bold, you actually dare to try and forcefully capture a woman in broad daylight!”

“Sir, this woman is my my wife. She wanted to run away from home, so I’m just trying to catch her.” One of the young men stepped out and said expressively.

“Oh?” When the cavalry heard this claim, he did not believe it, so he turned his head to the woman and asked, “Are his words true? Do not worry, we are the personal army of the Lord. We can help you.”

When the girl heard these words, her eyes brightened, and she pitifully said, “Sir, save me!”

“Speak!”

“He is really my husband, but I was not misbehaving. They wanted to kill me and use me as a burial sacrifice for King Hong,” the girl replied.

“Burial sacrifice?” The cavalry frowned, “The funeral matters of the old king will be handled by Tianjing, what does it have to do with you?”

“This….” When the girl heard this question, she was a little hesitant.

“If you want to live, speak!”

The cavalry could feel that this whole matter was highly complicated, and his expression became really serious.

When the young girl saw that, she disregarded the eyes of the men and said resolutely, “When the old king died, the various sacred religion believers all wanted to hold burial ceremonies for the king. One of the points was to choose young women to be sacrifices to be buried with the king.”

As she stated this, the girl was filled with both sadness and anger, as she pointed at the young man that spoke, “Since there are no suitable girls, he actually targeted his own wife. I had no choice but to escape from the village.”

“Preposterous!”

When the cavalry heard this news, he was furious and knew that the situation was unusual.

“Men!”

“Present!”

“Tie them all up and interrogate them before handing them over to the Lord!”

“Yes!”

Needless to say, these cavalry were members of the Divine Martial Guards, and the vanguard forces of the army.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he immediately ordered the army to stop their advance. The three captured men and the woman were interrogated by the Military Intelligence Division.

They were all normal people, so how could they hold on under the torture of the Military Intelligence Division? As a result, they spilled everything.

It was just as the girl had said. Everywhere in Xunzhou, people who believed in the religion spread by Hong Xiuquan decided to take such action upon learning that he had died.

Such acts basically happened at the various villages and avoided the detection of the officials.

The part that left Ouyang Shuo astonished was that based on their words, some of the minor officials and scholars had actually secretly rushed back to attend the sacrificial ceremonies.

It seemed like that although Hong Xiuquan had died, his religion had already taken root around the land, as he had formed a strong believer base.

In a short time, it would be hard to remove them.

This was a dangerous signal toward the future rule of Shanhai City. Even Ouyang Shuo did not think that the believers of the religion would run so rampant.

It seemed like he had to take charge of Tianjing City as soon as possible.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo immediately decided to leave a Divine Martial Guards squadron to investigate this matter. The army would proceed at their fastest speed toward Tianjing City.

During the battle at Guiping Pass, only two thousand mountain barbarians from Shihu’s 1st division led survived. Apart from the injured, only 1500 of them were left.

As for the Divine Martial Guards, they also suffered heavy casualties.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo decided to move all the survivors of the 1st independent division into the Divine Martial Guards to maintain the three thousand member number.

Although these mountain barbarians had not undergone much training, they were all top-class soldiers. Moving them into the Divine Martial Guards would not reduce the group’s combat strength.

On the other hand, bringing them in was also the greatest reward to these warriors.

Of course, the title of mountain barbarian 1st independent division had also disappeared. As for the young general Shihu, he would become the major general of the 2nd independent division.

As for the surrendered soldiers that participated in the battle at Guiping Pass, Ouyang Shuo did not treat them badly. He moved them into Han Xin’s Leopard Legion.

When Wuzhou Prefecture was organized, the Leopard Legion had a shortfall of thousands of men. Now, after several battles, although their core was not that badly affected, they had still lost five to six thousand members.

Hence, even after adding in the surrendered Taiping Army troops, they still lacked a few thousand men.

Not only the Leopard Legion, the Dragon Legion, the Guards Division, and even the 1st division of the city protection division housed in Mulan Stronghold needed more members.

The Taiping Army troops would naturally fill up this shortfall.

The Battle of Mulan Stronghold had net them 120 thousand prisoners. During the Battle of Xunzhou, they had also captured forty thousand city protection forces.

After destroying Shi Dakai’s west army, they had captured a further ninety thousand prisoners.

Lastly, there was the one hundred thousand Taiping Army troops housed within Tianjing City.

Summing up everything, a total of 350 thousand Taiping Army soldiers awaited reorganization. This did not take into account the prisoners that would appear as Baiqi led the Dragon Legion to sweep Zhen An Prefecture.

For Shanhai City to defend their vast land, they needed to completely digest this batch of surrendered soldiers.

Military Affairs Director Du Ru Hui personally took charge at Mulan Stronghold and the 250 thousand prisoners there.

The main part of the job would be to remove the injured members, including the soldiers that lacked combat strength. Secondly, they needed to work together with the Military Intelligence Division and the Black Snake Guards to dig out the cancers in the army.

Out of the three thousand surrendered soldiers at Guiping Pass, there were many dead loyalists to the old king. It was not hard to imagine how many there were among one hundred thousand troops.

If they did not get rid of these people, how could they reorganize the army?

During this period of time, the interrogation experts from the Military Intelligence Division, the Black Snake Guards, and the newly built Shanhai Guards all gathered at Mulan Stronghold.

Based on lines and lines of information, they investigated each and every one of the hundred thousand surrendered soldiers.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo was still not certain if this round of washing would leave only trustable soldiers. There would definitely be some people that infiltrated the army.

As long as it did not affect the big picture, Ouyang Shuo would have the charm and confidence to make use of this batch of surrendered soldiers.

Of course, according to the usual practice, this batch of surrendered soldiers would be broken up and sent into the three legions.

The weaker soldiers would even be sent into the various Garrison Divisions. At the same time, the elites of the Garrison Division would be moved to the combat army.

Hence, this reorganization mission would affect every part of the military. If they really wanted to organize everything, it would at least take two to three months or even an even longer period of time.

As such, Ouyang Shuo did not have the ability to start a huge war against Guilin Prefecture.

11th month, 30th day, Ouyang Shuo and his troops reached Tianjing City.

The fall of Guilin Prefecture had made the atmosphere in the city exceedingly weird.

At this point, the officials of Taiping Country realized that in the southwest region, there was actually a presence that could fight against Shanhai City. All of a sudden, hidden forces started to act in the city.

Luckily, Yang Xiuqing remained resolute, and he managed to temporarily stabilize the situation.

Moreover, the arrival of Ouyang Shuo would put an end to this hidden current.

Chapter 539- Luring the Snake out of its Hole

11th month, 30th day, night, Tianjing City.

On the day that Ouyang Shuo led his troops to enter the city, the city was naturally in a peaceful and vibrant state. All the inharmonious elements were suppressed under the iron fist of Yang Xiuqing.

Based on Yang Xiuqing’s arrangements, Ouyang Shuo met the officials and generals from the old regime. He pardoned thousands of the normal criminals and handed out daily items to the people in the city.

Basically, anything that was lucky and auspicious.

Yang Xiuqing was well-versed and familiar with planning such matters, so this could also be considered the specialty of Taiping Country.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he could not help but feel amazed.

Ouyang Shuo was kept busy for the entire day. The show only ended after the feast at night.

In the end, when choosing a place to rest, Ouyang Shuo moved contrary to Yang Xiuqing’s arrangements for the first time. Based on Yang Xiuqing’s plan, Ouyang Shuo would stay in the palace Yang Xiuqing had sealed up.

Ouyang Shuo politely declined this suggestion.

Instead, he chose a courtyard in the city. This courtyard previously belonged to the fallen general, Lin Fengxiang. It could be considered majestic, and it was not an insult to his identity.

When Yang Xiuqing saw that, he did not insist.

He could feel that there were reasons behind why the Lord did not want to move into the palace.

After the formalities, Ouyang Shuo finally had time to deal with actual matters.

That night, the Guards Division major general, who was temporarily in charge of the defence of the city, Huwei General Lin Yi, the people in charge of the Black Snake Guards, the Military Intelligence Division, and the young General Shihu gathered in Ouyang Shuo’s courtyard.

This was obviously an internal Shanhai City meeting.

Even Yang Xiuqing was not invited by Ouyang Shuo.

In fact, before Ouyang Shuo had arrived in Tianjing City, the relevant intel gathered by the two intelligence organizations had been sent to Ouyang Shuo for him to read.

As for the small hiccup that occured on their way to Tianjing, it was enough to show that they were putting too much focus on the city and missed out on the villages.

Through the intelligence sent from the two intel organizations, Ouyang Shuo knew that a hidden power currently resided in Tianjing City. Moreover, this power aimed to go against Shanhai City.

Amongst this hidden power, there were generals from the military, ministers, and officials from the old regime. There were even merchants and the like. Basically, there were people from every level of society.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to hurry up and clear out this hidden power before Bao Shuya arrived to take up his role. If not, the moment Tianjing City lacked a huge army keeping control, chaos and riots would start at every moment.

The current problem was what actions he should take.

Lin Yi’s suggested they send out the military and wash the city with blood.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this suggestion, he instantly shook his head and rejected it.

Lin Yi was purely a military person, so it was not weird for him to have such a thought. After all, it was also a viable choice. However, it was a bad idea to Ouyang Shuo.

Since Shanhai City took down Tianjing City so easily, there were naturally pros and cons.

Think about it, if they had forcefully taken the city, Ouyang Shuo could have used the might from that victory to start a slaughter based on the intel gathered by the Black Snake Guards and the Military Intelligence Division.

At that point, there would probably be no one who would oppose them.

Now, it was different because Tianjing City had surrendered.

Facing surrendered people, it was not easy for them to use violence.

If they ignored this concern, it would make the commoners cold to them. Moreover, it would make people like Yang Xiuqing, who had pledged their allegiance to Shanhai City, feel uncomfortable and guilty.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo was really careful when dealing with matters regarding Tianjing City. For this reason, he accepted Yang Xiuqing’s plan and put up with that huge show in the afternoon.

Apart from that, there was another problem that meant that Ouyang Shuo needed to exercise caution.

In the hands of the two intelligence organizations, there was indeed a namelist containing the names of some of the people in this hidden power. However, they were unsure if the list was complete. Even the two in charge were not confident.

The moment the military started to cleanse the place, they would definitely alert the enemies, scaring those people into hiding and making them hide even deeper.

Hence, if they wanted to wash them out, they would need a plan.

The few of them discussed till the dead of night before they finally thought of a suitable solution.

Needless to say, they would monitor and keep in check the already identified enemies to ensure that they could be taken down at any moment.

As for those hidden members in the military, they would be left for Lin Yi to handle.

For this matter, Ouyang Shuo had also instructed Shihu to lead the two independent mountain barbarian divisions to aid the Guards Division, with the reason of protecting the safety of the Lord. They would use this chance to increase their control over the city and take over Tianjing City.

Especially toward the one hundred thousand Taiping Army troops inside the city; they had to be wary of them. They would restrict their logistical supplies and range of activity to lower the risk to a minimum.

At the very root of this, Ouyang Shuo would still need to meet Yang Xiuqing and the other generals to discuss what to do with the one hundred thousand soldiers.

As long as they removed the threat of the military, anything else were just small matters.

Hence, the meeting tomorrow would be a huge test to Ouyang Shuo. He knew that among the generals of Taiping Army, there were definitely at least one or two that were still loyal to Hong Xiuquan.

As long as they did not find a chance to rebel, they would remain undetectable and continue to lie in wait.

Thinking about this point, dealing with such an opponent was definitely not a simple matter.

On the other hand, if he wanted to draw out the other hidden rebels in the city, Ouyang Shuo thought of a method called, ‘Luring the snake out of its hole.’

“Luring the snake out of its hole?” Lin Yi asked.

“That’s right.”

“What great idea does the Lord have?” Lin Yi smiled and asked once more.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this question, he also smiled, “Think about it, in the city, is there any place that is considered a holy ground to the people that are still loyal to Hong Xiuquan?”

“The king’s palace?” Lin Yi and the others replied in unison.

“That’s right!”

“The Lord wants to purposely destroy the king’s palace to anger those loyalists to Hong Xiuquan to make them jump out on their own?” Lin Yi asked.

“No.” Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “To burn it up in flames, won’t it be a huge loss for us?”

Strictly speaking, Ouyang Shuo was still greedy for riches.

As Xunzhou Prefecture and Zhen An Prefecture badly needed funds, Ouyang Shuo naturally needed to think of a method to settle their monetary problems.

As for his specific plan, Ouyang Shuo did not reveal it.

Early the next morning, Ouyang Shuo gave out his first imperial edict since moving into Tianjing City.

The edict stated that since Tianjing City was chosen as the governing city of Xunzhou Prefecture, it should naturally have a suitable provincial office to allow the governor and four departments to use.

After some research, the location of the king’s palace was the best place to build this provincial office.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo had to bear with the pain and demolish the palace to build a standard and practical office.

The moment the imperial edict went out, the city was thrown into an uproar.

The normal people were shocked by the heroism of the Lord. As for those loyal to Hong Xiuquan, removing the king’s palace was the same as breaking the last connection they had with their king. It felt much worse than tearing down their own house.

Hence, the moment the edict went out, many people begged the Lord to take back the order. These people that stepped out naturally entered the books of the Black Snake Guards.

Not to mention those people who were dead loyal to Hong Xiuquan, even Yang Xiuqing was confused by the Lord’s order. After all, as a minister of the old regime, he knew how important the king’s palace was to the people and to the believers of the faith.

If he wanted to build a provincial office, there was no need to go through so much trouble.

Firstly, as long as he made some simple modifications to the palace, it would become a really majestic office. Secondly, even if they did not modify it, choosing another place to build the office was possible.

After all, what he wanted to build was a provincial office. It was not a new palace, so there was no need to pay so much attention to fengshui.

Thinking back to how the Lord insisted on not moving into the palace, Yang Xiuqing guessed that the Lord was really determined to tear the palace down.

Soon, he was going to rush to Leizhou to become its governor, so he naturally did not want to go against the Lord’s intentions and oppose his decision.

There were actually many people who looked for him to ask him to speak out and ask the Lord to retract his decision.

When Yang Xiuqing heard those words, he could only give them an awkward smile.

Needless to say, all those people were blocked out of the courtyard by the Divine Martial Guards, and they did not even manage to see Ouyang Shuo’s face.

Before tearing down the king’s palace, Ouyang Shuo did not show any intentions of using the ten carriages of treasures. Instead, he asked the Business Division to discuss with the various Chambers of Commerces about selling the items off.

Firstly, he was not a materialistic person. Secondly, he wanted to remove the influence of Hong Xiuquan from both prefectures.

Based on conservative estimations, the treasures taken from the palace amounted to three hundred thousand gold; this allowed one to see how luxurious Hong Xiuquan’s life was.

With this huge amount of gold, the finances of the two prefectures would not need the support of the Nanjiang Governor-General House.

As for the palace maids and eunuchs in the palace, they were naturally removed from their duties.

That afternoon, numerous smiths and artisans started to tear down the palace.

That's right; the place was torn down.

The high class materials, the stone carvings, statues, and the other item were all carefully gathered up. They were not destroyed like Lin Yi had thought.

Ouyang Shuo announced that they would hold an auction to sell these old items from the palace. The people from both prefectures could participate.

These items could act as souvenirs in their homes. Even if they did not want a souvenir, the materials and decorations themselves were all rare products.

Seeing that they were unable to prevent him from tearing down the palace, Ouyang Shuo believed that the loyalists of Hong Xiuquan would not be able to maintain their calm. They would jump out to buy all these products.

With that, he could earn some money and also capture those rebels, killing two birds with one stone.

Chapter 540- Reorganization of the Taiping Army

12th month, 11th day afternoon, Lin Fengxiang residence.

Ouyang Shuo had gathered the main generals of the Taiping Army to discuss the military reorganization.

Before the meeting began, the atmosphere of the entire hall was incredibly solemn.

Firstly, not long after the Lord sent out his first imperial edict, he had followed it with a second imperial edict.

The decree stated that from tomorrow onward, Tianjing City would be under the charge of the Guards Division and the two mountain barbarian divisions. The one hundred thousand Taiping Army soldiers would remain in the military, but they were not allowed to go out without a proper reason.

Anyone with a brain could see that the Taiping Army was becoming a cold turkey.

Secondly, the symbolic edifice of Tianjing City, the king’s palace, was being mercilessly torn down. Be it the generals who were close to Yang Xiuqing or those who were his enemy, they all felt uneasy about the matter.

Under such a backdrop, for Ouyang Shuo to gather up the various generals held an unusual meaning behind.

At 3 PM, all the generals had already gathered. After they waited for an hour, Ouyang Shuo finally arrived. Behind him, Lin Yi and Shihu followed.

Apart from that, there was one more person; he was Yang Xiuqing.

Before meeting the various generals, Ouyang Shuo had asked to meet Yang Xiuqing alone and had an hour-long conversation with him. After that meeting, Ouyang Shuo finally came out to meet the other generals.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo chose to do so annoy and anger the other generals. Moreover, he wanted to make it clear to them who the real ruler of Tianjing City was.

Compared to the meeting on the first day, the current Ouyang Shuo had suddenly become exceedingly solemn and serious. His Mingguang Armor and the Chixiao Sword by his side added a killing aura around him.

During the battle at Guiping Pass, Ouyang Shuo had experienced a lucky break, and his Killing Sword Sword Technique had risen to the perform with ease stage. He had also understood the sword intent behind the killing sword and the 6th stroke, Killing All Life.

With that, the shura killing aura he had gathered up in his last life merged with the killing aura of this one.

His current killing aura lacked bloodiness, but it was more imposing and mighty, becoming purer.

More importantly, Ouyang Shuo could freely control this killing aura. Usually, he would not release it, so it would only charge toward others when he desired it.

At the current moment, the six Taiping Army generals in the hall felt a suppressing might. All of a sudden, they broke out in cold sweat and felt in shock.

In just that short moment, Ouyang Shuo had completely changed his aura, and the gentle image that he had emitted became as hard as steel.

“Fellows.” Ouyang Shuo looked around and spoke, ”You are all commanders. Naturally, you know the importance of following orders. Since you are all under Shanhai City, your forces would naturally follow our plans and be reorganized. What do you all think?”

The moment his words sounded, the hall became utterly silent.

The various generals all looked at one another, not knowing what to say. The moment they surrendered, they had expected a future reorganization. However, they did not expect that day to come so quickly and suddenly.

However, they could not reject or oppose him.

After all, for a surrendered army to be reorganized was an expected matter.

Apart from Yang Xiuqing, out of the six of them, two had been the right and left hand men of Shi Dakai. Two were the main and deputy commander of the fifty thousand troops housed in Tianjing City, while the other two generals commanded the local city protections forces.

Out of the six, two of them had no power to speak. Naturally, these two were the city protection force members. Added together, they had less than thirty thousand soldiers, and they were all ordinary ones.

However, amongst them, there was one known as Lin Qirong, who was loyal to Hong Xiuquan. Ouyang Shuo had decided to directly remove this person after the meeting.

The remaining one was known as Yang Buqing; he did not hold much power. If he knew his place, Ouyang Shuo did not mind making him a general of a local city protection squad.

Although Shi Dakai had resigned and left, his trusted aides still controlled the remaining twenty thousand west army forces. Since this army could break out of the encirclement with Shi Dakai, they truly had strength. They were indeed the elite of the elite.

The left hand general of Shi Dakai was called Hu Yihuang. He had made it clear to Yang Xiuqing that he was willing to pledge his loyalty to Shanhai City. The Military Intelligence Division and the Black Snake Guards had also investigated him, and they did not find anything wrong.

Hu Yihuang had played a massive role in Yang Xiuqing’s smooth take over of the army.

As for the right hand general, he was known as Shi Zhenji, and he had displayed a strange attitude. He was not loyal to Hong Xiuquan but Shi Dakai instead. The worst part was that he was from the same clan as Shi Dakai.

As a result, he naturally felt some resentment toward Yang Xiuqing. As a byproduct, he naturally lacked any good feelings toward Shanhai City, and he even opposed them.

Ouyang Shuo needed to rope Shi Zhenji in. Firstly, Shi Zhenji was close to Shi Dakai, and he had a high-level of prestige in the west army, similar to taking over from Shi Dakai. Secondly, considering that he would have a chance to recruit Shi Dakai, Ouyang Shuo naturally knew he had to give this person opportunities.

As for the fifty thousand troops housed in Tianjing City, they were also an elite force. If not, Hong Xiuquan would not confidently pass the protection of the main camp to them.

The commander of the fifty thousand troops was known as Ceng Tianyang, while the deputy was known as Qin Ri Gang. Ceng Tianyang was an old and experienced general loyal to Hong Xiuquan. However, this person was really crafty. On the surface, he seemed to follow Yang Xiuqing’s leadership, but in truth, he was preparing to start trouble.

Hence, Ceng Tianyang was the most unstable factor. As the primary leader of the troops in Tianjing City, his control over this unit was stronger than Yang Xiuqing’s.

Furthermore, this person was an old fox; he was really respectful to Yang Xiuqing on the surface, so one could not find fault with it. As a result, he obtained the protection of the troops.

If Ouyang Shuo went too hard on him, the soldiers might revolt.

As for Qin Ri Gang, he was a trusted loyalist of Yang Xiuqing. Qin Ri Gang’s presence made Ceng Tianyang not dare to lead his forces to revolt, which also allowed Yang Xiuqing to gain control over the troops housed in Tianjing City.

One had to say that the Military Intelligence Division did a great job in recruiting Yang Xiuqing. Only someone like Yang Xiuqing could have influence in both the administrative and military sides of Tianjing City.

If it were any other person, they would not have such influence.

……

“My Lord!” Seeing that Ouyang Shuo was about to place everything under control, the old fox Ceng Tianyang finally could not take it and stepped out, asking gently, “Can the Lord tell us whether our roles will change after the reorganization? Can we still take charge of our original forces?”

Ceng Tianyang’s words directly aimed at the two most significant problems of the military reorganization.

As a commander, he had to care about his position. After the reorganization, it would be good if he was promoted, but if he got demoted, he would lose face.

Apart from their position, a general also cared about their old forces. If one was moved to a new army and did not have anyone trusted around them, even if they ended up in a high position, they would feel exceedingly uncomfortable.

Of course, the above two points only targeted those generals that chased for titles and glory.

For examples, generals like Han Xin and Di Qing, even if they were not given prominent positions, it did not matter. They would not be resentful about it, as they believed in their own abilities.

It was evident that the Taiping Country Army had little to no influence over these two points.

Hence, many generals agreed with Ceng Tianyang’s words. Even Hu Yihuang and Qin Ri Gang, who had expressed their loyalty, looked toward Ouyang Shuo with concern.

When Ouyang Shuo saw the situation, he exchanged glances with Yang Xiuqing.

Ceng Tianyang was truly an old fox.

Unfortunately, no matter how cunning a fox, it would be unable to escape the chase of humans.

Before this, Ouyang Shuo had discussed with Yang Xiuqing, and they had theorized and predicted how the generals would create problems for him during the meeting.

Hence, Ceng Tianyang’s question was something that Ouyang Shuo had expected.

Although Ouyang Shuo was not a military genius, after spending so much time around god generals like Baiqi and Han Xin, he had grown familiar with military matters.

Seeing that Ceng Tianyang had riled up the generals, Ouyang Shuo pressed his hands down. He actually laughed at Ceng Tianyang, which made this old fox panic, and his face tensed up.

“Fellows, even if General Ceng did not raise this up, I would still have to explain the situation to all of you. All of you should already know that the Shanhai City Army uses regiments, divisions, and legions as its core structure; each legion has a total of seventy thousand men.”

Ouyang Shuo paused and gave them some time to digest his words before he continued, “I promise here that all of you can become major generals. As for generals of a legion, that will depend on the merits and contributions you amass in the army. In the military, if you want to convince the masses, you have to accumulate contributions and results.”

When the generals heard this explanation, they all heaved sighs of relief, and their expressions relaxed.

One must know that a major general position, even in the Shanhai City Army, belonged to advanced generals. It was a prominent position. Amongst them, although some of them controlled smaller numbers of troops, regarding quality, it was actually a raise.

Even Ceng Tianyang could not retort it. After all, although he currently led fifty thousand soldiers, Ouyang Shuo naturally could not give him the position of legion general.

Even if his face was incredibly thick, he did not have the confidence and ability to line up alongside Baiqi, Han Xin, and Sun Bin.

Chapter 541- Vicious Bait

"As for the old troops that you commanded."

When Ouyang Shuo raised this matter up, he noticed that the six generals that had just relaxed suddenly tensed up once more. He laughed in his heart, “Shifting them all under your control is impossible, but I'll make sure that in your new division, half of the force will be composed of your old soldiers. How does that sound?"

Ouyang Shuo’s two promises could both be considered sincere. Hence, the generals seated basically had no reason to reject.

"The Lord treats us so well. We will be loyal to you till death!"

Hu Yihuang and Qin Ri Gang were relatively loyal generals, and they stood out at the right time to express their loyalty.

"We will be loyal to you till death!"

Following which, the local protection squad general Yang Fuqing pledged his loyalty. Yang Fuqing was clear about the situation. Moreover, those two promises satisfied his wishes.

More importantly, he currently led less than ten thousand men. If he could become a major general, it would be a promotion. Naturally, he felt delighted.

When Ouyang Shuo saw them voice their loyalty, he nodded his head. If the time was right, arranging Yang Fuqing to become a major general of a Garrison Division was also possible. It could be considered a reward to him.

Only Lin Qi Rong, Shi Zhenji, and the old fox Ceng Tianyang remained.

The three of them looked at each other. Evidently, they had not expected the situation to end up like this. Facing such great terms, if they dared to go against it, their ambitious hearts would be revealed.

After a short while, the three of them had no choice but to suck it up, kneel down, and swear their allegiance.

Although that was the case, the faces of Lin Qi Rong and Ceng Tianyang lacked any unusual expression. On the contrary, they looked like they were touched and grateful.

Ouyang Shuo sat on the Lord’s seat, with a happy expression, as he laughed and looked down at these two actors deep in their acts. These two probably did not know that the Military Intelligence Division had long since noticed their nefarious intentions.

In truth, a cold and delighted feeling had started to rise in Ceng Tianyang's heart.

Ceng Tianyang had not expected the Lord in front of him to actually pay such a hefty price to recruit their old forces.

He really is stupid, Ceng Tianyang exclaimed in his heart.

Originally, he was still thinking of starting a storm within Tianjing City, leading his troops to attack Lin Fengxiang residence to kill the Lord and enact revenge.

Now, however, he had temporarily shelved that thought.

Ouyang Shuo had promised him a major general position, and he could also retain half of his old forces. As a result, he could take this chance to infiltrate the Shanhai City Army.

This was truly a divine opportunity.

With that, he could play many more different tricks.

Be it spreading the religion around within the Shanhai City Army to recruit believers and expand his strength, or giving Shanhai City a fatal blow during an important battle, both were incredibly tempting ideas.

Just thinking about it made him excited.

In comparison, killing Ouyang Shuo just once seemed a little dull.

Hence, to Ceng Tianyang, Ouyang Shuo's actions were basically leading the wolf into the room.

Just these thoughts were enough to leave Ceng Tianyang delighted.

Ceng Tianyang and Lin Qi Rong took a quick glance at one another. They knew what the other was thinking about without any verbal communication.

……

If one said that Ceng Tianyang and Lin Qi Rong were acting, then Shi Zhenji's expression was peculiar, as it was a mix of confusion and unhappiness.

In contrast to his clan Brother Shi Dakai, Shi Zhenji was a young general filled with ambition. In truth, prior to the meeting, he had a terrible impression of the Lord because of his biases toward Yang Xiuqing.

Before this, Ceng Tianyang had secretly probed out Shi Zhenji's thoughts. The old fox had revealed his desire to start a coup when the Lord arrived in Tianjing City.

Shi Zhenji did not express any interest or reaction toward Ceng Tianyang's probe.

This meant that he was tempted in his heart, just that he had not decided to act.

Old fox Ceng Tianyang was incredibly crafty, so he immediately understood Shi Zhenji’s thoughts. Recently, Cui Tianyang had increased his meetings with Shi Zhenji.

Originally, Shi Zhenji was exceedingly close to being convinced by Ceng Tianyang.

Unexpectedly, the meeting today had entirely changed Shi Zhenji's impression of the Lord.

In truth, Shi Zhenji was extremely curious about this Lord that he had never met. He was curious about what kind of person could lead such an army and destroy the Taiping Country.

During the meeting yesterday, Shi Zhenji had only looked on from afar. At that time, Ouyang Shuo had appeared extraordinarily gentle and warm, which was not something that would appeal to generals like him.

During this close encounter today, Shi Zhenji had gained a whole new understanding of Ouyang Shuo.

Although the man who sat on the Lord seat was young, his young age was not noticeable. He sat there stable like a mountain, and he possessed a sort of aura and might that made one afraid to do anything stupid before him.

This was the case even for these generals.

Although Ouyang Shuo had not said much, the entire military meeting had remained under his control.

His two promises undoubtedly proved that he was magnanimous, and he was also an ambitious Lord with both charm and schemes.

Shi Zhenji could not help but compare him to the old king.

In this comparison, the winner and loser were instantly decided.

When he was in the military, he had heard his clan brother Shi Dakai speak about how he did not agree with some of the king's decisions. However, since the king had made his orders, Shi Dakai had no choice but to abide.

Shi Zhenji also felt that the old king was exceedingly scheming and a little fake. In truth, he was a pretender that lacked the air of a king.

Especially compared to the man in front of him, the old king’s lacking points became even more apparent.

Hence, the current Shi Zhenji wavered. For his clan brother to waste his potential and future, even his dreams and ambitions, was it worth it?

That was probably not what Shi Dakai wished to see.

Shi Zhenji had a feeling that the Shanhai City Army was his ideal home.

All of these thoughts happened the instant he pledged his loyalty. At that moment, he was unable to ascertain how much of his loyalty was real and how much of it was fake.

……

After the six generals had finished pledging their allegiance, Ouyang Shuo followed through by announcing the specific organizational matters.

The Guards Division 1st regiment would escort the thirty thousand city protection forces led by Lin Qi Rong and Yang Fuqing to Mulan Stronghold for organization.

These thirty thousand soldiers would form a garrison force, mixing in with the other Garrison Divisions.

The twenty thousand troops led by Hu Yihuang and Shi Zhenji would be split into two groups. Hu Yihuang would lead ten thousand west to meet up with the Dragon Legion that was sweeping Zhen An Prefecture.

The Guards Division 2nd regiment would escort the ten thousand led by Shi Zhenji toward the Withered Flower Stronghold that was under construction for organization.

This plan seemed casual. However, it was really well thought out.

Hu Yihuang was a general that could be trusted. Hence, he was sent to Zhen An Prefecture, which was currently in a relatively chaotic state. On the other hand, Shi Zhenji was a rather uncertain element, so he was organized into the Leopard Legion.

After all, the entire Xunzhou Prefecture was under the control of Shanhai City, so even though only one regiment escorted them, if Shi Zhenji had any weird thoughts, he would not be able to cause any waves.

And looking at Shi Zhenji’s current expression, as long as Ouyang Shuo called him for a meeting alone, he might be able to completely recruit this young general.

Ouyang Shuo really cherished talents.

Similarly, Qin Ri Gang would lead 25 thousand Tianjing City troops toward Zhen An Prefecture along with Hu Yihuang to meet up with the Dragon Legion.

Likewise, Ouyang Shuo had arranged the 3rd regiment of the Guards Division to escort them.

It was not that Ouyang Shuo did not trust Qin Ri Gang, but he was afraid that the 25 thousand soldiers might cause trouble. As such, he had arranged a Guards Division regiment just in case.

As for the old fox Ceng Tianyang, he led the 25 thousand remaining Tianjing City troops to Withered Flower Stronghold for organization.

This time, Ouyang Shuo had arranged for the 4th and 5th regiments to act as escorts.

Ouyang Shuo was not ready to deal with Ceng Tianyang in Tianjing City. However, when he arrived at Withered Flower Stronghold, what happened to him would not be up to him. Ouyang Shuo believed that Han Xin would not let him down.

At this point, the one hundred thousand Taiping Army troops were moved out of Tianjing City.

Ouyang Shuo had given them two days to prepare. These two days was the time needed to gear up and prepare. It was also his last test to the rebels in the army.

After all, the moment they left Tianjing City, it would not be so easy for them to cause problems.

The various generals naturally did not have any objections toward his proposal. At this point, the military meeting had officially ended.

Looking at their fading back views, Ouyang Shuo let out a cold grin.

Today, Ceng Tianyang and the rest were so ‘well-behaved’ because they were afraid of exposing themselves, but more importantly, Ouyang Shuo’s two promises tempted them.

They were probably thinking about using this chance to infiltrate the inner workings of Shanhai City.

Unfortunately, they did not know that it was all a bait Ouyang Shuo had set down.

The moment they bit onto it, they could never get free.

Ouyang Shuo had set out such a plan because they did not know the difference between the military system of Taiping Country and Shanhai City.

In the old Taiping Country, a commander held enormous power. They could develop trusted soldiers, appointing generals in their army, and also prepare grain for their missions.

It was the same as saying that as long as they followed the orders of the king, everything else was up to the general. His one word could send people to their graves.

In comparison, Shanhai City had a far more complete and strict military system, restricting and controlling all the generals.

Chapter 542- Structure of Legion Corps

Hence, the moment Ceng Tianyang and the others took up their roles in the military, they would feel really uncomfortable.

Needless to say, Ouyang Shuo had sole control over the duties of the generals in the military that were major general and above. Even Baiqi and Han Xin, these legion generals, could only suggest ideas.

For generals below major general rank, they would follow orders from the Military Affairs Department. Even major generals like Ceng Tianyang could only make suggestions and could not interfere in the roles and assignments of people in the military.

The Combat Logistics Department would settle the logistics of the army, including weapons and equipment. Even if one went to another location, the local Combat Logistics Department would still control the logistics.

Hence, a major general could not interfere with the logistics and could not abuse their power.

Apart from that, compared to the lax system in the Taiping Country Army, the system in Shanhai City army was stricter, and they had a full system similar to a modern day army.

There were numerous military law officers around, and they would make the major generals feel that the military law was more significant than their rank.

There were many reasons that ensured that when Ceng Tianyang and the others entered the Shanhai City Army, they would not be able to cause any waves. On the contrary, they would be forced and taught to become proper Shanhai City soldiers.

At that time, it would naturally be the moment for Ceng Tianyang to back off.

One had to say that Ouyang Shuo's move was exceedingly vicious.

Ouyang Shuo was using a huge bait to reduce the destructive ability of the Taiping Country Army to Shanhai City. Hence, he ensured the smooth transitioning of power.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo had arranged the one hundred thousand troops into three groups for organization. It was not something randomly thought up, and it had something to do with the new structure he was planning for the army.

Since they had gained 350 thousand Taiping Country troops, no matter how he tried to reduce it, after deducting the shortfall for the two Garrison Divisions, he could still form three new legions. This new count was double the current number of troops in the territory.

How to set up the camps and positions of these three new legions, and how to ensure the prestige and positions of Baiqi, Han Xin, and Sun Bin would pose a huge problem that Ouyang Shuo was trying to solve.

That night, Ouyang Shuo drafted a letter that contained the thoughts he had gathered up over these few days to have a considerable reorganization of the army.

This reorganization would set up a solid base for the future army of his dynasty.

Ouyang Shuo decreed that the Dragon, Tiger and Leopard Legions would be upgraded to Legion Corps, or corps for short. Each corps would have two to five legions under them.

When needed, one could adjust the number of legions in the corps based on the situation that they were facing.

The marshal of the corps must be a god general, and they must at least have the title of great general.

Compared to a legion, the establishment of a corps was a seismic change to the military. That was because when compared to a legion, the number of troops in a corps was huge.

Hence, during wartime, the Military Affairs Department could flexibly order the corps based on the different strategic needs. For example, if the further main attack direction was the west, they could first expand the Dragon Corps in charge of the west region when expanding.

Apart from that, the legion corps and war zones could perfectly coexist with one another.

With the Lingnan War Zone as an example, after the Tiger Legion became the Tiger Corps, the Lingnan War Zone command center would become the main base of the Tiger Corps.

Similarly, the future Tiger Corps marshal would be the commander of the Lingnan War Zone. During wartime, there could even be more legions or corps moved to the war zone.

With that, the entire army would be highly flexible. It would reduce the commanding red tape but result in a strong ability to adapt, scout, take the initiative, employ firepower, and use combat strength.

The future expansion of the army also did not need him to make any substantial scale changes to the structure of the military.

As for the current dangers that the territory faced, with just one legion, that is seventy thousand troops, Ouyang Shuo was worried. Only a legion corps would be able to safely defend his land.

If a corps had five legions, a total of 350 thousand troops, even if it faced an entire province, it would show no fear.

Hence, a legion corps was the most significant foundation for a safe army.

Based on their current numbers, the three corps would each have two legions under them. It was the same as saying that each corps would have an additional legion, digesting the three new legions.

With the Dragon Legion as an example, after becoming a corps, it would be called the first legion of the Dragon Corps, while the additional second legion would raise the total troop number to 140 thousand.

Commander-in-Chief Baiqi would naturally become the marshal of the Dragon Corps. At the same time, he would temporarily take up the role of general of the 1st legion of the Dragon Corps.

As for the general of the 2nd legion, Ouyang Shuo chose Shi Wanshui.

As the first historical general in the territory, Shi Wanshui was extremely loyal to Ouyang Shuo, and he had made many contributions to the territory. He was also an emperor rank general, so be it terms of ability or experience, he had enough to become a legion general.

Such an upgrade was a huge reward to this old general.

As for the major general position that was emptied out by his promotion, it would go to the deputy major general Jiang Kai.

One could see that the local talents that the territory had developed were one by one climbing up the ranks to major generals.

Similarly, Han Xin would become the marshal of the Leopard Corps, as well as remain as the general of the 1st legion. As for the legion general of the 2nd legion, Zhang Han would take charge.

After the Battle of Julu had ended, Zhang Han had pledged his allegiance to Ouyang Shuo. At that point, he could have already become a legion general, but as they had limited spots in the military, Ouyang Shuo had made him a major general.

This upgrade to Zhang Han could be considered as putting him back on the stage where he belonged.

Lastly, Sun Bin would become the marshal of the Tiger Corps, as well as temporarily the 1st legion general. At the same time, he would continue to be the commander of the Lingnan War Zone.

As for the legion general of the 2nd legion, Di Qing would take up the role.

Be it Shi Wanshui and Zhang Han, they were both promoted within their legions; this was in line with the traditions and culture within the military.

For example, the brutality of the Dragon Legion, the ferociousness of the Tiger Legion, and the adaptability of the Leopard Legion; all of these qualities were formed under the teachings and leadership of their generals.

Only Di Qing was the first legion general appointed from another legion.

Ouyang Shuo had his reasons for such an arrangement. Firstly, out of the five major generals of the Tiger Legion, only Fan Lihua, Cao Gui, and Bai Lishi were historical generals, but none of them were not up for the role.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo could only move Di Qing from the Leopard Legion to the Tiger Legion. To Di Qing, this was an opportunity for him to display his abilities.

During the Battle of Zhaoqing, his commanding ability had left a deep impression on Ouyang Shuo. Compared to Zhang Han and Shi Wanshui, Di Qing was not any bit weaker.

It was also a coincidence. His way of using troops was similar to Sun Bin; they were more calm and safe. Zhang Han was similar to Han Xin, as they liked long distance sneak attacks.

At this point, Shi Wanshui, Zhang Han, and Di Qing, these three famous generals, had stood out from the rest of the major generals. They had officially become the 2nd squad below that of Baiqi, Han Xin, and Sun Bin.

The three of them all had a commonality, which was that they were all emperor rank generals. It was apparent that the future choices of legion generals would naturally come from the emperor rank historical generals.

Er'Lai and Fan Lihua were the two next best choices.

Of course, this was not certain. For example, the young general Luo Shixin was a rarity among historical generals, as he was still improving.

Under Baiqi's personal guidance, he had a bright future ahead of him.

Furthermore, out of the generals, the elite Cavalry Division led by Luo Shixin had won battle after battle, gaining the name of ‘firefighting vanguard’ in the army.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo did not exclude the possibility of granting Luo Shixin a wider stage at a suitable time.

After Zhang Han and Di Qing received their promotions, their old positions as major generals were taken over by Liao Kai and Heiqi. Apart from that, the three new legions all needed fifteen new major generals.

Hu Yihuang, Qin Gang, and even Shi Zhenji were suitable choices.

Apart from that, there would be the few generals from the Taiping Army that were captured like Li Xiucheng, Chen Yucheng, Xiao Chaogui, and Feng Yun.

The only uncertain matter was their loyalty.

Apart from the seven Taiping Country generals, Ouyang Shuo had no clue about the other choices for major generals. He could only pass this headache to Du Ruhui, who would try his best to choose from the exceptional colonels.

At this point, the planned military structure had finally been completed.

As the territory continued to expand, Ouyang Shuo would lose the ability to gather the generals all together for a meeting. With Sun Bin as an example, let's not talk about rushing to Shanhai City, just rushing to Tianjing City would take half a month. To and fro would take a full month, which was a total inconvenience.

As such, the various legion corps needed a god general to take charge and lead them.

Ouyang Shuo wrote his plan into a letter and through the relay, he passed it to the Military Affairs Department. At the same time, he also sent copies to Baiqi, Han Xin, and Sun Bin; these three marshals, to inform them to make preparations to aid the Military Affairs Department.

In this plan, the only thing that Ouyang Shuo did not mention was the Guards Division, including his plans for the three mountain barbarian independent divisions.

In truth, when he defeated Chiyou earlier, Ouyang Shuo was already planning to upgrade the Guards Division to a Guards Legion.

However, this plan had little to do with the reorganization of the three hundred thousand Taiping Country Army troops, which was why he did not initiate the plan yet.

When he returned to Shanhai City, he would finally start the related changes and reorganization.

After all, the three legions all became legion corps, so the Guards Division system also needed expansion to protect the absolute might of Ouyang Shuo in the military.

Chapter 543- Su Zhe's Choice

Gaia 2nd year, 12th month, 2nd day, Tianjing City.

This was Ouyang Shuo's third day here, and the atmosphere within the city had changed entirely.

The site of the king's palace was bustling with activity. The precious materials that were torn down were stacked up on the square in front of the palace like mountains.

On the square, batch after batch of procurators appeared.

Even merchants from Xunzhou Prefecture and Zhen An Prefecture had rushed over to Tianjing City to take part in this auction.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this news, he immediately ordered the Business Division to choose some of Hong Xiuquan's personal items from the ten carriages of precious items for the auction.

"Remember, purposely choose all those secretive but not too valuable products for the auction."

Ouyang Shuo reminded the official from the Business Division.

"Yes, my Lord!"

"Also, make the starting bids higher and advertise more."

"Yes, my Lord!"

The Business Division official carefully accepted the task, while wiping off some cold sweat. He had a completely new understanding of the Lord’s meticulous planning and great schemes.

Of course, Cui Yingyu would just call him greedy and black-hearted. However, this person was just a basic level official from the Business Division. Naturally, he would not dare to voice such words.

On the other side, the barracks situated at the west of the city was also exceedingly busy. One hundred thousand Taiping Army troops were using the time to pack up for their journey tomorrow to their respective areas.

As for the hidden currents in the military, after Ouyang Shuo threw out the bait, the situation calmed down.

The only exception would be last night when the city protection force general Lin Qirong actually got dead drunk in a restaurant. After which, he even went to a brothel.

As he was drunk, he ‘accidentally’ fell into a river and died. Only during the next morning did the road cleaner find his body floating on the river. The road cleaner immediately reported the matter.

The government office ascertained that he had died from drowning and excluded the possibility of him murder.

This matter was left just like that.

When Ceng Tianyang heard the news, he felt that something was suspicious, but there was no way he could confirm his doubts. After all, Lin Qirong did like drinking and based on his subordinates’ words, they did drink together with him last night.

After they left, Lin Qirong had separated from his subordinates and left alone. The next they heard of him, they learned that he had drowned.

In the end, Ceng Tianyang could only say that this matter was a total coincidence.

"Preposterous!"

Ceng Tianyang was furious at Lin Qirong’s uselessness.

Seeing a huge matter ahead of them, losing a valuable ally would obviously leave Ceng Tianyang angry. What made matters worse was that last night, he had once again tried to probe Shi Zhenji's position.

This time, Shi Zhenji had actually rejected him outright, catching Ceng Tianyang utterly off guard.

"Ungrateful idiot!"

From Ceng Tianyang's point of view, Shi Zhenji's refusal was a betrayal toward the old king.

As Ceng Tianyang cursed out at Shi Zhenji, he also started to feel an added layer of worry about the Lord. Just a simple meeting had changed the viewpoint of Shi Zhenji.

"Unfortunately, I have no way out, and I need to repay the king for his kindness."

Ceng Tianyang was alone in the room, sighing out loud. He looked unusually lonely.

Probably every bad person had a past that no one knew about. Thinking about it, from another viewpoint, wasn’t Ceng Tianyang the most loyal minister of Hong Xiuquan?

One's evaluation of others would often reach an extreme for people standing on different sides.

Lin Fengxiang Residence, Ouyang Shuo's reading room.

After dealing with the two problems regarding the king's palace and the Taiping Army, Ouyang Shuo finally had time to meet the officials in the city.

Amongst which, the one he paid the most attention to was Su Zhe.

Compared to his bold brother Su Shi, Su Zhe was more calm and composed. This personality trait allowed him to walk further than his brother.

Of course, at the core, the two of them were similar.

Su Shi had once commented on his brother like this.

"Zi You is a really humble servant. If one does not know him, they would think that he has no ability. His skills are so good, but he does not want others to know about it. He is a simple person that does not like to show off."

From this, one could see Su Zhe’s low profile nature.

Su Zhe's education and thinking were greatly influenced by his brother and father, and he was exceedingly good at political and history theory. It was because of this specialty that the then prime minister Wang An Shi chose him. At that time, Wang An Shi was hell-bent on pushing through reforms and moved to the division of regulations.

Su Zhe absolutely opposed the reforms that Wang An Shi suggested. Unfortunately, the ambitious Wang An Shi did not agree with his words, so they ended up on opposite ends of the revolution.

Not long after, because of his differing opinions, he was chased out of the city, and his career was affected.

After Song Shenzong fell, Song Zhezong inherited the throne. However, he was too young, so his queen mother Xuanren made the political decisions for him and removed the new reforms Wang An Shi had pushed out. Only then did Su Zhe start to be favored. In the end, he became prime minister.

After some time, Song Zhezong took over, and the reforms started to be favored once more. Hence, Su Zhe, who had opposed the reforms, was ridiculed.

From his experiences as an official, one could see the intensity of the political power struggles at that time.

Due to the official system during the Song Dynasty, the writers then had a high status. This was the golden age of politics in China. As such, they all participated actively.

The political specialty focused on fighting for power.

After Fan Zhongyan, all the famous writers were embroiled in this power struggle without exception. This decided their fates and also affected their works.

The Su brothers Su Zhe and Su Shi obviously could not exclude themselves from the situation.

Probably because of the previous harmed he had suffered from his political opponents, Su Zhe strayed far away from the politics of Taiping Country. He maintained his neutrality and dealt with matters with a low profile.

Even during the fight for power between Shi Dakai and Yang Xiuqing, Su Zhe, as the head of the civil servants, chose to keep silent. After Ouyang Shuo moved in, Su Zhe even decided to just lock his doors and not go out.

He only received the personal summon of Ouyang Shuo this morning.

Before this, when choosing the three governors, Ouyang Shuo had not considered Su Zhe. It was important to note that he did not doubt Su Zhe’s abilities or made the choice out of bias.

In truth, with Su Zhe's ability to be the prime minister of the Song Dynasty, it was not hard for him to run a prefecture. During the North Song Period, the official system was perfected, and the training of officials had already reached a reasonable level.

During that time, the Yamen were really busy with matters and demanded skilled officials. Hence, compared to the civil servants of the Warring States Period, Su Zhe was around the same level.

In truth, when he found out that Su Zhe was an official of Taiping Country, Ouyang Shuo thought of a role that was really suitable for him. This was the role of director of the Science, Education, Culture, and Health Department.

Along with Fan Zhongyan becoming the Wuzhou Prefecture governor, Xiao He would become the administrative director. However, Xiao He still had to perform his previous role as the Science, Education, Culture, and Health Director.

Out of the four departments, the Administration Department was the busiest.

Having two roles was exceedingly inconvenient for Xiao He. As such, he had written letters to beseech the Lord to choose a new director.

The problem was that the Science, Education, Culture, and Health Department involved the revolution core of the territory and was exceedingly important. As such, Ouyang Shuo could not hurry this decision.

As a person that was both a writer and a prime minister, Su Zhe was a very orthodox person. Naturally, he entered Ouyang Shuo's eyes as a suitable choice for the role of director.

Apart from that, the Science, Education, Culture, and Health Department focused on public work. It had nothing to do with political powers and badly needed someone to steer it in the right direction. This was a great match with Su Zhe's personality.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo had the confidence to convince Su Zhe to work.

Ouyang Shuo chose the reading room and not the main hall to express his willingness to get close.

Their meeting could be called really calm and tranquil.

The reputation and title of a Lord did not have much of an effect on Su Zhe. The part of Shanhai City that attracted him was the presence of Fan Zhongyan.

During the North Song, be it in the official field or the debating platforms, Fan Gong had a special status. For the Lord to be able to gain the loyalty of Fan Gong, it was a tremendous recognition to Su Zhe.

Especially after he heard of the introduction of the Lord toward the Science, Education, Culture, and Health Department; his already calmed heart started to move once more. Out of all the writers that came out of North Song, none would be unwilling to throw themselves into becoming an official.

He did not want to become an official to enjoy fame and riches. Rather, he wanted to work for the people and show what he had learned.

Just like what Fan Gong wrote in Renovation of the Yueyang Tower: a leader should be first to show concern and the last to enjoy oneself.

Just that sentence was the most moving statement to describe how the North Song people were willing to care for the people and work for the future of the country.

Naturally, Su Zhe was not an exception.

Taking charge of the Science, Education, Culture, and Health Department was a good chance to work for the people.

"Greetings, my Lord!"

At this moment, Su Zhe had officially pledged his allegiance to Ouyang Shuo.

Name: Su Zhe (King Rank)

Title: Eight houses of Tang Song

Dynasty: North Song

Identity: Shanhai City official

Occupation: civil servant

Loyalty: 70

Command: 35

Force: 25

Intelligence: 75

Politics: 80

Specialty: Cultural Calmness (15% increase in territory administrative efficiency, 5% increase in cultural index, 15% increase in honesty of territory)

Evaluation: Su Zhe, also known as Zi You, a writer and prime minister from North Song.

He was an extremely talented official well-versed in Confucianism teachings. He was sensitive to issues and meticulous. Su Zhe excelled in the shi, ci, and fu forms of poetry.

Chapter 544- Leaving Tianjing City

Ouyang Shuo managing to recruit Su Zhe represented him basically gathering all the civil servants of Tianjing City.

Su Zhe did not want to involve himself in the faction struggles during his time in Taiping Country, and he just focused on doing his job well. As a result, he had formed an incredibly high-level of prestige and respect amongst the civil servants.

The real talents and scholars all started to make friends and form relationships with him.

Hence, since Su Zhe had recognized Shanhai City, a group of the civil servants would follow him along.

That afternoon, Ouyang Shuo sent out his third imperial edict after taking charge of Tianjing City.

The contents targeted the civil servants of both prefectures.

The officials of the old dynasty, apart from those the two intel organizations blacklisted, could find a position in the various prefecture offices.

Of course, all the officials in the two prefectures would follow the same procedure as Wuzhou Prefecture. All of them would be removed from their post, then the Administration Department would hire them. As for the original official environment they had set up, it would be refreshed and renewed.

The fall of Guilin Prefecture brought one benefit, which was that Xiao He did not have to make up the numbers. The one thousand officials that the Administration Department had prepared were enough to run both Xunzhou and Zhen An Prefecture.

12th month, 3rd day, the one hundred thousand Taiping Army troops left Tianjing City.

Along with the Taiping Army leaving, the situation in Tianjing City became clearer and clearer. At least on the surface, there was no one who would outright go against the orders of Shanhai City.

When Yang Xiuqing saw this happen, he knew his position, so he slowly broke away from the administrative matters of the city, passing it to the Lord. Meanwhile, he started to seclude himself in the manor, packing up his items to prepare to head for Leizhou Prefecture.

On the same day, the Dragon Legion officially completed their sweeping operation of Zhen An Prefecture. The next day, Baiqi would start to choose a place for their base. At the same time, he would help the Military Affairs Department build the Legion Corps Command Center.

At the same time, Baiqi would act as the envoy of Ouyang Shuo to contact Bai Hua's envoy Zhang Liao. They would discuss the problems both territories were facing in hope of building a long lasting relationship.

At the same time, such action aimed to reduce misunderstandings and to prevent the two sides from shooting one another at the border.

The Dragon Legion’s move into Zhen An Prefecture was a huge blow to the Yunnan City-State that was building up. No one would think that the troops Shanhai City had moved into Zhen An Prefecture was to defend against Consonance City.

The direction the troops were pointing toward did not need to be stated explicitly.

Before this, Shanhai City and Consonance City had worked together. In a short three days, they changed all the flags in Kunming Prefecture. Now, after dealing with Taiping Country, these two heavyweights truly made others feel terrified.

The next day, Yunnan City-State announced their establishment. Such an efficiency truly made one's mouth gape open.

Although the fall of Guilin Prefecture had an adverse effect on the public opinion of Shanhai City, no one could deny that Shanhai City, which had swallowed two prefectures, was the most significant power in the China region. Its position was unshakeable.

You have not heard about it, right?

The Chuanbei Province had worked together with the Wannan City-State to take down Guilin Prefecture. After West Gate Big Official returned, he contacted the other Lords in the province first to discuss the establishment of a city-state.

Especially after Han Xin brought his troops into Withered Flower Stronghold, to the Chuanbei Province. Just one Guilin Prefecture was not enough to make them to feel at ease.

They needed to quickly build the Chuanbei City-State.

The moment the news got out, the China region was thrown into an uproar.

With that, around Shanhai City, from west to east, there was the Yunnan City-State, the Chuanbei City-State, the Wannan City-State, and the Lingnan City-State.

All of a sudden, the southwest region became the focus of attention of the entire China region.

How would Shanhai City break out from this encirclement? This had become the greatest focus and interest of all the players. Some experts even started to debate and discuss the matter online, describing their theories.

The most accepted solution was for Shanhai City to attack west.

Which meant that Shanhai City would work together with Consonance City to remove Yunnan Cty-State, calming down the west territory before dealing with the other city-states.

Such a theory, along with the Dragon Legion increasing their presence in the area, terrified the Yunnan City-State. In the following new year, it seems like all these Lords would not be able to feel at ease.

12th month, 4th day, the king’s palace was completely torn down.

The vast king’s palace had been reduced to flat land, and it was now a thing of the past. At the same time, the same place, they started the construction of the Xunzhou Prefecture prefecture office.

The new replacing the old represented the change from old to new political philosophies.

At this point, Taiping Country had officially fallen, and they had dropped out of the race for the wilderness.

That afternoon, the Business Division held a massive auction on the square in front of the old palace. In less than two hours, all the items were sold out, fetching 110 thousand gold.

Amongst them, there were some actual merchants that planned to sell the raw materials, commoners that needed to renovate their residence, and also the loyalists to Hong Xiuquan.

The Military Intelligence Division and the Black Snake Guards worked with one another, checking through all their backgrounds and trying their best to not allow anyone to slip through. They would utterly silence the influence of Taiping Country on the two prefectures.

At the same time, the Black Snake Guards had started to investigate the tens of thousands of villages in the two prefectures. They cleaned out all the people that secretly worshipped the old king and dealt with all of them heavily.

All of these actions were naturally to pave the way for the rule of Shanhai City.

As for the funds they obtained from the auction, Ouyang Shuo did not throw it into the construction of Xunzhou and Zhen An Prefectures. Instead, he directed it toward the costs of expanding the military and the compensations for those that had suffered casualties.

With that, the two newly occupied prefectures, including the Wuzhou Prefecture from before, did not cause any burden on the territory finances.

Along with the auction ending, the Black Snake Guards started to initiate a cleaning operation within the city. Those that were on the blacklist, be it officials, merchants, or those loyalist buyers during the auctions, were all sentenced to death.

In just one day, two hundred people had died.

All of a sudden, the matter caused a ruckus within Tianjing City.

Helplessly, Ouyang Shuo could only personally come out to calm the people, making it clear that they were just getting rid of the scum. Only then did Tianjing City return to normal.

12th month, 5th day, Bao Shuya finally arrived at Tianjing City.

Cui Shousi had come along with him. Cui Shousi would spend one day here to obtain the instructions for his role before moving off to Zhen An Prefecture.

Two days earlier, Mulan Yue had led five hundred odd officials to move into Zhen An Prefecture and take over the administrative matters. The 1st and 2nd divisions of the Dragon Legion protected them on the way.

Along with Mulan Yue was also her bodyguard, Li Feixue.

It was said that Li Feixue was ready to establish a sect in Zhen An Prefecture and Mulan Yue fully supported the matter.

Towards this, Ouyang Shuo naturally abided and supported it too.

The next day, under the accompaniment of a personal guards squad, Yang Xiuqing started to set off for Leizhou Prefecture.

12th month, 8th day, Ouyang Shuo started his trip and left Tianjing City.

The two independent mountain barbarian divisions left together with him. As for the others, they would temporarily remain in the city until the Xunzhou Garrison Division was established. Then, they would make their way to Shanhai City.

At this point, the Wuzhou Garrison Division had already been completed, and the 4th independent division of mountain barbarians was already en route to Shanhai City. They would reach the city in a few days.

Originally, Ouyang Shuo wanted to spend a period of time here in Tianjing City. Unfortunately, a letter from the Black Snake Guards gave him no choice; he had to leave.

Based on Black Snake Guards’ report, they had finally found Fan Li and Xi Shi.

And on the same day, Bai Xue had officially informed the Business Division of their decision. She said that her father had already acknowledged moving the Bai Trading Company over to Shanhai City.

If they said that between Fan Li and Bai Gui there was not something going on, even if one beat Ouyang Shuo to death, he still would not believe it.

As for the invitation from the Black Snake Guards, Fan Li was unexpectedly casual with it, accepting it before leaving to move into Shanhai City.

Based on their words, as long as they reached the nearest imperial city, they would be able to teleport to Shanhai City quickly.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to set off early on the path back home.

If one took note of the time, Ouyang Shuo had left Shanhai City for a total of two months, and it was time to return.

12th month, 12th day, Ouyang Shuo led his troops and reached Mulan Stronghold.

Inside the stronghold, Ouyang Shuo had a short one day stay. During his stay, he had an in-depth discussion with Du Ruhui about the specific military organization and related personnel changes.

As expected from this capable official, in such a short time, he was able to turn the rough plan into an over ten page, more than ten thousand words, proposal.

Of course, he had some help from the various divisions under the Military Affairs Department. Especially War Secretary Zhao Kuo, who played a considerable role. He had become Du Ruhui’s most important assistant.

The next day, Ouyang Shuo led his troops and left once more.

Along with him was Li Xiucheng, Wang Yucheng, Xiao Chaogui, and Feng Yunshan. These four were really stubborn, and till date, they still were not willing to surrender.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this situation, he decided that he would rather just bring them all back to Shanhai City and deal with them there.

12th month, 15th day, Ouyang Shuo smoothly reached Shanhai City.

At the north gate of the city, Xiao He led the officials and generals out, kneeling down to welcome him. Such a majestic scene shocked the entire Shanhai City.

This officially announced the return of the king.

When he returned to Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo allowed both mountain barbarian independent divisions to move into the imperial city barracks. Following which, he did not see anyone and just directly moved into the Governor-General Manor back hall.

After leaving his home for so long, Ouyang Shuo naturally missed his family.

The cute Bing'er, and the gentle Song Jia; he had thought of them every day and night.

Only at this moment was Ouyang Shuo able to put down the pressure and stress from his work and fully relax.

Chapter 545- Seeking Advice from Jiang Shang

Shanhai City, Martial Temple.

After a day of rest and recuperation, Ouyang Shuo directly headed to the Martial Temple to revive Wei Zhang.

Luckily, the game did not have the problem of corpses rotting, as two months had passed since Wei Zhang's body was transported to Shanhai City.

After his body reached Shanhai City, it was left in the Martial Temple.

Ouyang Shuo walked in and pressed onto a general soul. Instantly, a system notification sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: Found a king rank general corpse, meeting resurrection requirements, will you use one king rank general soul and three thousand gold to revive him?"

"Yes!"

Ouyang Shuo did not expect that when reviving a dead general, he would need to spend gold.

"System Notification: Revival has been confirmed, taking place immediately."

With a shua! a blue light drifted out from the general soul jade pendant and entered Wei Zhang's corpse in the middle of the front hall. Then, it disappeared.

At the same time, the jade pendant broke into seven to eight pieces, ceasing to exist.

Ouyang Shuo guessed that the blue light represented the three immortal souls and the seven mortal souls. To use the soul of dead generals to replace other general’s souls, this was probably something that would only happen in the game.

If this happened in reality, Taoists would definitely laugh boisterously.

As the light entered his body, Wei Zhang’s pale complexion improved. After a short while, he woke up.

"Lord!"

To Wei Zhang, it was like he had just woken up from a dream. His memory still remained stuck to the battlefield.

Looking at the environment around him, he felt a little confused. Luckily, he was highly adaptive. As such, when he saw Ouyang Shuo, he reactively greeted.

"General Wei, it has been tough on you. Rest up for a few days in the city before going back to your unit!"

"Yes, my Lord!"

Wei Zhang nodded; he had already calmed down. For the remaining matters, Ouyang Shuo did not need to worry.

After he walked out of the Martial Temple, Ouyang Shuo headed for the Xinan University located in the imperial city.

Although the wilderness had just undergone a round of merciless killing, it remained business as usual in Shanhai City. Even the skies did not have a single red cloud. In fact, it was entirely blue without any clouds.

All of this was naturally due to the blessings of the territory. Additionally, they had the Yellow Emperor Temple, the Mazu Temple, and the other temples, so ordinary evil would not dare to take root here.

As a large number of students had graduated early and were sent to Xunzhou and Zhen An Prefecture, the entire university was much colder. It was not as vibrant and boisterous as usual.

However, the spring season student recruitment for the next year had already started.

During the spring season of next year, each college would recruit three thousand students. Amongst which, eight thousand would be half-year students, while the rest would be here for one year.

Ouyang Shuo came here specifically to pay Jiang Shang a visit. The territory had entered a tough period, and he needed a master to give him advice.

Hence, he thought of Jiang Shang, Jiang Taigong.

In regards to the current territorial situation, probably only Taigong could help him out.

After taking charge of Xinan University, apart from his home on the island, he had another living quarter within the university. This place made it convenient for him to deal with school matters.

It seemed like he had predicted the arrival of Ouyang Shuo, as Taigong was especially waiting for him at his home.

Both of them sat opposite to one another.

"Taigong, what should I do?"

Ouyang Shuo did not introduce the current situation in the territory. Instead, he directly went to the main topic. He believed that although Taigong was in the university, nothing in this world could escape his eyes.

As expected, he smiled and slowly said out one word, "Wait!"

"Wait?"

When Ouyang Shuo heard this advice, he fell into deep thought.

"Taigong wants me to rest and gather up strength and not do anything for now?"

"This boy is worth teaching!" Taigong laughed.

"Is there a time frame?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

Conquering in the wilderness was like traveling against the current. If one did not go forward, they would end up going backward. If one laid in wait for too long, others would definitely catch up. When that time arrived, making a move would no longer be as easy.

Hence, a grasp of timing was incredibly important.

Although Ouyang Shuo had reincarnated, he lacked the ability to grasp the time needed.

"Minimum half a year, maximum a year. There will definitely be changes in the world," Taigong said.

"Half a year to a year; is that the case?"

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, his eyebrows furrowed tightly.

Since the game had started until now, only two years had passed. Now, Shanhai City needed to lay in wait for more than half a year; this was a tough call for Ouyang Shuo.

Half a year would lead to many different changes.

Ouyang Shuo could not be sure that the base and strength of Shanhai City could allow it to hold on for half a year.

When Taigong saw his reaction, he did not speak and allowed Ouyang Shuo to make his own decision.

"Taigong, please teach me!"

"The territory is facing two tough situations." Seeing his response, Taigong finally helped Ouyang Shuo solve his problems, “Firstly, it has a weak base due to the rapid expansion. Secondly, it has many enemies surrounding it."

Ouyang Shuo nodded; he had clearly recognized these two points already.

As for how to break the situation, he lacked a clear plan.

"One must first calm down the internal situation before dealing with the external situation." Taigong said directly, “For Shanhai City to break out of this situation, it needs to set a firm root. If one's roots are firm, one would not need to fear anything. However, what is the current situation?"

As he spoke up to this point, Taigong's appearance turned more solemn and continued, "The prefectures of Wuzhou, Xunzhou, and Zhen An are tainted by an evil religion, so one has to change the rule and win the sentiments of the people. Although Leizhou and Zhaoqing do not face any huge problems, it still has some small ones, so one can just place development as the priority for the time being."

"Qiongzhou Prefecture seems glamorous and prosperous, but it's too reliant on Yashan City, and the other regions are not developed. For a year, the Lord has been busy fighting and has not paid attention to the territory itself. The people have yearned for the care of the Lord."

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, he could not help but break out into a sweat.

Originally, after Mulan Yue and Bao Shuya took charge, Ouyang Shuo felt great about the prefectures and thought that they were on the right path.

Who knew that just a few words from Taigong would expose so many problems with the territory.

"There's one more point. Your regime has had some small success, but let's not talk about leaving an heir, even a proper wife has not been decided. The people of your territory have already started to worry." Taigong raised up another problem.

"Song Jia is the wife that I've chosen, so why does Taigong say that it's undecided?" Ouyang Shuo did not understand the problem.

Taigong shook his head, “Since the Lord had chosen, you obviously need to announce the matter to the people. You need to share the good news with them to calm them down."

"You mean there is a need to hold a wedding to confirm her title and status?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"That's right." Taigong nodded.

"Okay, we will hold the wedding before the end of the year. At that time, we hope that Taigong can chair it," Ouyang Shuo said.

After hearing Taigong’s words, Ouyang Shuo also felt that it was time to grant her a proper title. The two of them had not met in so long. As a result, Ouyang Shuo felt that he had let Song Jia down.

The two had been separated for so long, and they had not met up much. Furthermore, Ouyang Shuo had turned colder and colder, so it was really unfair to Song Jia.

"Sure." Taigong laughed.

"How should I build up the strength of the territory?" Ouyang Shuo asked once more.

"Let nature take its course," Taigong said.

"What do you mean?"

Ouyang Shuo did not understand what he meant. Letting nature take its course did not seem to fit in with the wilderness. However, since Taigong mentioned such a method, he definitely had his reasons and had considered all possibilities.

Taigong laughed, “The one who should do nothing is not others but you alone."

"Taigong, please elaborate," Ouyang Shuo asked.

"Within the territory, be it in politics or the military, there is no lack of talent. The only regret would be that the Lord has directed the development of the entire territory and has restricted them from showing off their talent. That is a huge waste of talent. The territory does not lack a person to lead. The people lack the chance to show off their talents."

When Ouyang Shuo heard this perspective, he was shocked.

Since the village grade, Ouyang Shuo was used to using the experiences of his last life as a blueprint for the territory. Be it the administrative or military structure, Ouyang Shuo made the final decisions alone.

Be it Xiao He, Fan Zhongyan, Wei Yang, or the generals such as Baiqi and Han Xin, they were all the talents of a generation. However, under the charge of Ouyang Shuo, they took up the role of followers. They only followed and executed his orders.

In this aspect, he was not smart.

Hence, when the experiences of his past life were unable to guide him anymore, he was lost.

At the same time, a long period of taking charge and making all the decisions had made him subconsciously not give up power to his officials to let them show their ability.

It seemed that Ouyang Shuo was doing his job, but in truth, he was restricting the ability of his people.

If this carried on, the territory would be under great danger.

Long ago, Ouyang Shuo had worried about such a problem, and he had even sought ways to prevent such a situation. Who knew that now, looking back, he had committed the same mistake.

Everything was just so magical.

At this moment, Taigong had finally woken up Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo got up once again. Then, he looked toward Taigong and respectfully bowed.

"How should I break this situation?" Ouyang Shuo asked once more.

"You do not need to do anything, and it would be broken."

Taigong continued, “The enemies are working together because they fear the invasive personality of Shanhai City. It is really unfriendly toward everyone around them and makes them feel threatened. It is like a flock of sheep suddenly meeting a wolf. To avoid being eaten, they naturally have to gather together."

"But the moment the wolf enters hibernation, would the sheep still gather together?"

"No, they won't." Ouyang Shuo's eyes brightened.

Taigong laughed, “That's right. In the wilderness, there really is not a sheep that is totally harmless. Even if they seem harmless, they still need to eat grass. Hence, the moment the wolf goes away, the harmless sheep will turn into ferocious mountain goats and fight one another. At that time, your chance will come. The Honglu Temple set up by the Lord will have a chance to show themselves."

"Thank you for your teachings!"

Ouyang Shuo was truly in awe.

Chapter 546- Guards Legion

Jiang Shang’s analogy of the relationship between wolves and sheep had given a lively depiction of Shanhai City and its neighboring territories. With such advice from Taigong, things became much clearer in Ouyang Shuo's heart.

A huge plan started to slowly take shape in his mind.

Of course, everything would have to wait till the next year. Especially before the 3rd year arrived, since there was still half a month, there were still things that Ouyang Shuo needed to settle.

The first mattered concerned the creation of the Guards Legion.

When the Dragon Legion moved into Zhen An Prefecture, the two mountain barbarian generals went the opposite way, breaking away from the main force and moving back to Shanhai City because of the Military Affairs Department.

The two of them were Lei Jingtian and Shi Bao, the standout generals of the mountain barbarians. Especially Lei Jingtian. Ouyang Shuo was not the only one paying attention to him, even Lei Jingtian’s boss, Er'Lai, strongly recommended him.

After leaving Xinan University, Ouyang Shuo turned around toward the barracks in the imperial city, officially announcing the establishment of the Guards Legion.

The newly established Guards Legion would not only temporarily have four divisions, but even the most important legion general position would temporarily remain empty. Ouyang Shuo would take the commander role for the time being.

Lin Yi’s Guards Division would be renamed the 1st division. At the same time, his division would be defined as a pure cavalry division.

Shihu’s 2nd independent mountain barbarian division would be renamed as the 2nd division, a mountain barbarian heavy armored infantry division. Making use of this chance, Ouyang Shuo officially promoted Shihu to major general.

The 3rd independent mountain barbarian division would be renamed as the 3rd division. Similarly, it would be a heavy armored infantry division. Ouyang Shuo chose Lei Jingtian to be the major general.

Likewise, the 4th independent division would become the 4th division of the Guards Legion. This was the planned iron armored beast cavalry division. Ouyang Shuo chose Shan Zhu as their major general.

Mountain barbarian general Shihu was named the deputy major general of the 4th division. With the help of Shihu, who was a mountain barbarian, it would be easier for Shan Zhu to take charge.

From the Qiongzhou Prefecture Iron Armored Beast Valley, the first batch of five thousand armored beasts had reached Shanhai City. The Armory Division had hurried the creation of their armor, and it would be completed soon.

The iron armored beast division was a new soldier type, so they lacked precedence. Hence, how to train them up was the biggest problem presented to major general Shan Zhu.

The first problem would be how to tame the iron armored beasts.

Chinese taming techniques had a long history. Hence, one would not face problems when taming war horses. Iron armored beasts, on the other hand, were an entirely different story, as they were wilder and harder to train.

Apart from that, due to their bloodline, war horses were born adaptable to the noises and killing on the battlefield. As for iron armored beast, it was all completely unknown how they would react.

Luckily, Animal Husbandry Director Xia Houying had solved the other huge problem of how to feed the iron armored beasts. The only difficulty would be how to make the iron armored beast recognize the mountain barbarian warriors.

To solve this problem, Shan Zhu took a trip to find more than thirty beast tamers to help the soldiers tame and train the iron armored beasts. Only then could they become loyal and reliable partners.

The Li Race people had lived on Qiongzhou Island for such a long time, so they obviously had a good understanding of the iron armored beasts. Amongst the tribe, there were occasionally people who tamed the iron armored beasts to replace cows to sow the fields.

Hence, there were more or less one to two people who knew how to tame these beasts in each tribe. This time, Shan Zhu had used his identity as a young master of the Li Race to move all of these people to Shanhai City.

It was a considerable honor and glory for the Li Race for Shan Zhu to possess a high position in the Shanhai City Army. Hence, when listening to his request, the various tribes were exceedingly willing.

Apart from that, one had to mention the barbarian beast taming technique that Ouyang Shuo had acquired. Ouyang Shuo had used two days to tame each and every iron armored beast.

If not, even with the Li Race beast tamers helping out, it would not be effective.

To train up the iron armored division, the Military Affairs Department had even specifically allocated land for them on the northern outskirts of the city, where they built a large training field.

In the future three months, the division would spend their time there. Ouyang Shuo even especially postponed the usual special forces base training.

As for the 5th division that was temporarily empty, it would be built when the time was right.

The most significant difference between this time and the last was that he did not make use of troops from the other legions. Instead, he just used the three mountain barbarian independent divisions.

With that, one could see how much importance he placed on the mountain barbarian warriors.

Ouyang Shuo trusted them. Moreover, his position as Barbarian King played a factor. He believed that this batch of warriors would be his most loyal soldiers that would follow him everywhere.

Making use of this chance, he could also increase the sense of belonging the mountain barbarians felt toward the territory.

From now on, the three independent mountain barbarian divisions would have an official name. Furthermore, they would become one of the core forces.

They would all enter the special forces base to undergo a month of special training.

Ouyang Shuo hoped that would learn to be smart enough, not just fearless. After all, warriors that only used brute strength would not amount to much.

Different from the other legions, the Guards Legion lacked a subordinate regiment. To them, the three thousand Divine Martial Guards were their strongest ally.

After dealing with the Guards Legion, Ouyang Shuo took the chance to meet the four Taiping Army fallen generals.

When they were captured, the four of them had made preparations to kill themselves.

However, along with their king’s death and Tianjing City surrendering, Taiping Country had become a part of history. Their hearts suddenly felt empty. Abruptly, they had no goal to chase.

It suddenly seemed like an extreme foolish course of action to kill themselves.

After all, the king and dynasty they were loyal to no longer existed.

Along with Shi Dakai leaving and Yang Xiuqing taking up the job as governor of Leizhou, these four generals had no place to go.

One must know that those two were the key figures in the Taiping Country Army. However, neither showed any animosity toward Shanhai City.

If not, Shi Dakai would not have handed over control of the military so easily.

Apart from that, the four of them were not tortured during their imprisonment. Instead, they were treated well and graciously. The only matter that hit them was when they learned about what happened to Taiping Country in history from Shanhai City.

This was a massive hit to Li Xiucheng and the others.

The tragedy that happened to the country and to each of them caused their built up faith to crumble.

They were different from the people of Xunzhou Prefecture, who had come into contact with the religion when they were in the wilderness. They did not have a chance to understand the darkness behind the religion.

As a result, the people of the two prefectures still believed in Hong Xiuquan.

Li Xiucheng and the others had followed Hong Xiuquan and appeared in the wilderness. Gaia had given them the thoughts of following him to start a dynasty in the wilderness.

Hence, when they found out about the truth in history, it was hard for all of them to accept it.

It was this bit and piece of information that caused their rejection of Shanhai City to slacken bit by bit. However, for them to become truly loyal, something was still lacking.

When Ouyang Shuo passed Mulan Stronghold, he wanted to bring the four of them back to Shanhai City. They did not reject his proposition. Similarly, Ouyang Shuo did not treat them as prisoners.

They were like normal generals in the army, given total freedom to do whatever they wanted.

The only difference was a lack of specific roles.

This was a chance for let them to observe the Shanhai City military from close quarters.

This period of observation naturally allowed them to make comparisons.

After moving out from Mulan Stronghold, they passed through Mulan House and Shenjuan House. The lives of the people in these two houses shocked them greatly.

Developed businesses, efficient offices, rich people, perfect welfare system….

Every point dealt a blow to their weak minds.

It was like Shanhai City was the perfect world that Hong Xiuquan had described and was working toward.

This feeling was quite bizarre.

The goals they had wanted to achieve for their whole lives had actually appeared in the enemy territory.

When they reached Shanhai City, the shock they felt soared.

A huge and majestic city, logical city planning, even more developed businesses, much richer people, a much more efficient government system, and an extremely prosperous atmosphere.

Every aspect showed that this city was filled with life and prosperity.

In comparison, Tianjing City was lacking.

When they entered the imperial city, the splendor and beauty of the city left them mesmerized.

Hence, for Ouyang Shuo's invitation to succeed, everything seemed to be proceeding perfectly.

However, in an unexpected turn for them, Ouyang Shuo did not want to let them lead the military right away.

He wanted to send them all to the Army Military Academy to undergo three months of lessons. After the 3rd month, when the military reorganization was completed, they would return.

The four undeniably possesed great talents. If not, they could not have become such great generals despite such poor backgrounds.

The only thing they lacked was probably a proper military education. Entering the Army Military Academy would help make up for this shortfall.

Apart from the four, the Military Affairs department chose one thousand lieutenant, three hundred majors, fifty colonels, and even five major generals to enter the academy.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to use this chance to raise the standards of the generals.

This was only the 1st batch. Three months later, they would send in the second batch. Half a year later, he wanted to have all the generals in the army finish their education.

It was evident that Ouyang Shuo had accepted Jiang Shang’s suggested plan to lay in wait for now.

Chapter 547- Business School of Thought

Nanjiang Governor-General House, South reading room.

On the third day that Ouyang Shuo returned to Shanhai City, he finally found some time to meet the business ancestor, Bai Gui. Along with Bai Gui was his daughter and Wei Yang's wife, Bai Xue.

Apart from the workers and managers of the Bai Trading Company that had moved over, there was also a group of exceptional people. They were the disciples of Bai Gui, a total of around a hundred people.

Bai Gui was one of the earliest people from the business school of thought to accept disciples. After an exceedingly strict selection process, he had taken in a number of disciples under his wing.

The standards of his selection criteria for disciples was exceedingly high, and some people once said, “I run agriculture and businesses at the same level as Lu Shang uses plans, Sun Bin uses troops, and Wei Yang runs the law system. His disciple must be smart but not too smart that they wants to take over power, courageous but not too bold, merciful but not so that people can climb over their head."

During the Warring States Period, merchants were ranked last during the industry segregation of , ‘scholar, farmer, worker, and merchant.’ Its position had always remained low in Chinese history. However, Bai Gui used the highest moral standards of society at that time, treating the economy as important as politics and the military.

Evidently, Bai Gui wanted merchants that were cultured and morally upright. This truly befit his ideals of running businesses with humanity.

As a result, he earned the great title of Business Ancestor.

"I’m really glad that Mr. Bai decided to move the Bai Trading Company over to Shanhai City." Ouyang Shuo started.

"We came for profits and our own interests."

Bai Gui was exceedingly direct and honest, as expected from a merchant.

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, he laughed. He definitely did not believe that Bai Gui's reasons were so pure. Riches were not important to the current Bai Gui.

The position of the business school of thought worried Bai Gui.

Ouyang Shuo thought of this point after a long period of contemplation.

This was the reason behind Ouyang Shuo’s confidence.

"Old mister is incredibly well-learned and has so much experience. Yet, you say you came here for interests and not to obtain talents?" Ouyang Shuo laughed.

When Bai Gui heard these words, his eyes lit up, full of thought.

It seemed like his feelings were right, the player Lord in front of him was special.

The two of them smiled, forming a tacit understanding between them.

On the contrary, Bai Xue, who was sitting at the side, felt confused.

"Have you heard of Xinan University?" Ouyang Shuo changed the topic.

"I've heard of it long ago. It is a place where even the gods visit."

The expression on Bai Gui's face became happier and happier.

On this earth, the happiest thing was to meet someone who understood you.

Bai Gui felt more and more delighted with Ouyang Shuo.

If he knew that this was the case, Fan Li and he would not have needed to do so much.

"The Xinan University has a college known as the business college that focuses on teaching the way of business. The position of dean of the college has always remained empty, are you willing to take up the position?"

Ouyang Shuo tossed out his chips.

"Definitely!" Bai Gui laughed.

A position of a dean would obviously make Bai Gui.

After all, the current Xinan University had become the saint land for philosophers in the wilderness. The principal was the ancestor of philosophers, Jiang Shang, while all the other colleges had famous philosophers as their deans.

The moment Bai Gui moved into the business college, it would represent the business school of thought entering the echelon of philosophers.

With that, how could Bai Gui not feel happy? After all, he wanted the business school of thought to prosper?

Ouyang Shuo had seen through that wish. As a result, he made such a plan.

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo officially appointed Bai Gui as the dean of the business college. The moment he moved in, a system notification sounded out through the entire China region.

"System Notification: Business school of thought representative figure Bai Gui has moved into Shanhai City and taken charge of the business college. The business school of thought has officially moved into Shanhai City."

……

"System Notification: Business school of thought has officially moved into Shanhai City, awarding Shanhai City with title of Land of the Business School of Thought, congratulations Qiyue Wuyi!"

……

Initially, the two system notifications ended just like that, but who knew that another one would soon follow.

"System Notification: Business school of thought has moved into Shanhai City. The current Land of Philosophers title has overshadowed the title, so the benefits of the title have been removed. Awarding Shanhai City the hidden building Silver Prayer House instead, congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi!"

……

The moment the news rang out, the world was thrown into an uproar.

Other territories would be happy to obtain a single philosopher school of thought. Who knew that Shanhai City was so great that a normal title meant nothing to the territory.

Such strength was truly unbeatable.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this news, he grinned.

With such a precedence, it seems that if other philosophers move in, the system would reward him with hidden buildings in the future.

Just thinking about this aspect would make one emotional.

Along with the notification, a four-story hidden building automatically formed beside the recruitment hall. The entire building emitted a precious aura, looking exceedingly rich and awe-inspiring.

Looking at the building from the west, every detail of the building pertained to wealth. The floor was made of copper, the base of the ground was iron, while the walls were made from high-grade wood.

Every floor of the building had their own symbol.

The 1st floor had a rice valley, symbolizing the fountain of wealth.

The 2nd floor had a weighing scale to show that riches were accumulated.

The 3rd floor had a copper coin, showing that coins and items represented riches.

The 4th floor had a silver ingot, representing the growth of wealth laid in silver and money.

At the highest point of the building was a giant pot-sized gold ingot that looked exceptionally eye-catching, representing the pinnacle of wealth.

Of course, the core function of the entire building was naturally still prayers.

Name: Silver Prayer House

Type: Hidden Building

Function: One can pray every half a year

Specialty: 20% increase in attraction of merchants increased, 5% increase in territory reputation

Evaluation: A building focused on prayers. Every half a year, the Lord can spend a certain amount to pray. The gold spent will be relative to the difficulty of the prayer.

For every activated of the function, the minimum gold cost is ten thousand, while the highest is one hundred thousand. If the Lord's wish exceeds one hundred thousand, the prayer will fail. At the same time, the system will automatically deduct ten thousand gold.

At the same time, the prayer chance would also be deducted.

Hence, the silver prayer house was not godly, and it had a definite limitation.

Even so, this was a extremely overpowered hidden building, and it could easily fulfill wishes like reduced rainfall.

Chapter 548- Prayer

To find out the specific effects and functions of the Silver Prayer House, Ouyang Shuo needed to personally test it out.

Entering the Silver Prayer House, he found an interface console on the first floor hall. After he walked over and activated it, a system notification sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for activating the Silver Prayer House. Since it is your first time activating it, you have obtained one chance to pray, will you pray?"

"Yes!"

"System Notification: please choose the type of prayer!"

In an instant, five choices appeared on the console.

The first choice was the rice valley on the first floor, representing an agricultural type wish. Every choice below it had a clear distinction. The second layer weighing scales represented a business related wish, the third layer copper coin represented a culture related wish, and the fourth layer silver ingot represented a technology related wish. Finally, the gold ingot on the top layer represented other types of wishes.

The higher one went, the greater the difficulty, and the higher the gold cost.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it and chose the most simple agricultural type wish.

"System Notification: Prayer type confirmed, please choose the prayer mode. Friendly Reminder: there are two prayer modes, one is the self-decided prayer, while the other is a random prayer."

The self-decided prayer was easy to understand. One just needed to speak their wish. It just had to be the same as the prayer type and could not exceed the one hundred thousand gold upper limit.

For example, for the current agricultural wish type that Ouyang Shuo chose, he could pray for about the weather, the growth of his crops, fertile soil, and the like.

The good part about this system was its straightforwardness. The cons would be that if one was unable to grasp the difficulty of the wish, it might exceed the one hundred thousand threshold and cause the player to waste a prayer opportunity.

After a moment of consideration, Ouyang Shuo decided to test out the random prayer.

The good thing about the random prayer was that all the wishes had a 100% chance of coming true.

"I choose a random prayer!"

"System notification: Prayer mode confirmed, prayer has officially begun!"

The moment these words landed, Ouyang Shuo saw a familiar spinning wheel.

On the virtual spinning wheel, there were 24 wishes. Each wish had a specific gold cost that went from ten thousand all the way to one hundred thousand.

The ten thousand gold wishes were definitely the most simple ones. Ouyang Shuo took a look; there were some that raised the territory fertility by 5%, or raised the precipitation in the territory by 8%.

Further up, there were wishes for 5% increase in yield, 10% increase in sunlight, 10% increase in the anti-pest ability of crops, and 10% reduction in land reclamation difficulty.

Apart from that, each type had a different chance, reflecting the difference in gold cost.

Ouyang Shuo made some rough calculations. No matter which wish he chose, it would bring greater effects than the gold it used.

Which meant that unless the prayer failed, it would definitely bring benefit. The more gold spent, the higher the rewards.

Thinking about this point, Ouyang Shuo regretted choosing the most simple agricultural wish type.

All wishes had one similarity; they all lasted for a year. A year later, the buff would disappear.

Such a setting could be called logical. If not, it would really be too overpowered.

As the prayer started, the spinning wheel began to move.

As Ouyang Shuo looked on, the spinning wheel needle started to spin slower and slower, seemingly close to stopping. The time, Ouyang Shuo had no control over where it stopped. If not, it would not be called a random prayer anymore.

The needle wavered at a section with three wishes around it. In order, they were raise territory fertile land by 5%, with a cost of ten thousand gold, raise the anti-pest ability of crops by 15%, with a cost of thirty thousand gold, and raise territory crop production by 15%, with a cost of one hundred thousand old.

Seeing these wishes, Ouyang Shuo's heart was in his mouth.

Even an idiot would know that the third wish was the most valuable. Just one hundred thousand gold could raise the agriculture production by 15%.

With just the current scale of agriculture in the territory, it could still produce over five hundred thousand gold.

One must know that agricultural products did not only refer to items such as rice; other times such as cotton, peanuts, and potatoes were also within this range.

With the agricultural scale of the seven prefectures, a 15% raise in production was incredibly humongous.

As such, it was not hard to understand why territorial specialties would have a more substantial impact the further the game progressed.

Just when he blinked his eyes, the needle passed the first wish and spun on the second wish. However, the needle had nearly used up its momentum, and it looked like it was about to stop.

"Move some more, move some more!"

Ouyang Shuo could not help but mutter these words; it was like he was cheering on the needle.

As if a century had passed, the needle moved like an old man. Although it was hard for it to move, it still inched forward.

It seemed like the needle was going to move past the second box and enter the third one.

Ouyang Shuo raised his voice once more, "Move a bit more, a bit more!"

Unfortunately, the needle seemed to have lost all its momentum, and it stopped turning. In the end, it stopped at the intersection between the second and third box.

This sight left Ouyang Shuo stunned.

"So what's the situation now?"

Luckily, the system gave him a prompt answer.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, drawing the wish ‘raise anti-pest ability of crops in the territory’, automatically deducting thirty thousand gold. Friendly Reminder: The effective date of this wish is from Gaia 3rd year ,1st month, 1st day, to Gaia 3rd year, 12th month, 30th day."

When Ouyang Shuo heard this notification, his face instantly turned black.

"Your grandma is a freaking bear!"

Ouyang Shuo could not help but curse his own luck stat. Even if he had the buff of the luck of the entire territory, he still had such a bad stat.

If Bing'er had performed the draw, Ouyang Shuo was 100% sure that the system would choose the third wish and not the second one.

His face darkened; it was really a case of being unlucky no matter where he went.

Ouyang Shuo facepalmed and let out a sad sigh.

The next time he did a prayer, he would definitely bring along Bing'er, this ‘super invincible lucky star.’

Luckily, it was already the middle of the 12th month, so based on the time regulation of the hidden buildings, he could make a wish once again on the 1st day of the 1st month.

As a result, in just half a month, Ouyang Shuo could make his second wish.

Moreover, at that time, Ouyang Shuo could also enter the recruitment hall and recruit another historical person. Who knows which great person he would obtain at that time.

Chapter 549- Discussing Firearms Again

After he walked out from the Silver Prayer House, Ouyang Shuo turned around and left the imperial city, heading toward the south city region.

The south city region was the expanding military region.

A month had passed since the Black Snake Guards found the Ming Dynasty Firearm Making Manual in the king's palace. Who knows how the research of Liu Mo and the others had progressed since then.

Since he had returned to Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo naturally needed to go and take a look.

Firearms represented the highest level and the main direction of their future weapons technology.

The Ming Dynasty firearms had two types. Firstly, handguns and arquebuses; they had small sizes and were usually equipped with iron or lead bullets with a ten to two hundred step range.

If converted into meters, the maximum range would be around two hundred to three hundred meters.

Out of the handguns, the more famous ones included the Three Eyed Gun, Guaizi Gun, Lianzi Gun, Thunder Gun, and Wulei Shenji.

Amongst these guns, one had to mention the Guaizi Gun.

It was an arquebus with a curved handle that could be fired in bursts. It had length of 37.5 centimeters and had a reload style similar to a western gun. It could fire three shots consecutively with a range of 150 meters. The Ming Dynasty termed it as a gun that would win against the western styled guns in ten thousand battles.

The second type would be the guns fixed onto frames, the large-sized cannons. These cannons would use large rocks, iron, lead, or simply solid bullets as ammunition. A small number of them would be equipped with explosive spherical bullets. These cannons had a range of a few hundred miles to two to three thousand miles. It was mainly used for defence and sieging cities and was used in land, water, and sea battles.

Hong Xiuquan had mainly focused on the second type of firearms from before.

The cannons in Tianjing City were transported over to Shanhai City for the No.7 Research Institute to research.

The more famous types of Ming Dynasty cannons were the short barreled mortar, the western style cannon, and the Hongyi Cannon.

Amongst these cannons, the Hongyi Cannon was called the General Cannon. It was built with western technology at the end of the Ming Dynasty. It had trunnions and aiming distance. It had an adjustable range, and the cannon would last for a long time. The large ones weighed 1.6 tonnes and could shoot up to 1.9 kilometers.

Apart from handguns and cannons, there was one more type of firearms—missiles. Missiles included the Cluster Missiles, the Flying Crow, and the Fire Dragon Comes Out of the Water.

The Flying Crow had a crow-shaped body filled with explosives. The gunpowder had a connecting gunpowder line to the gunpowder box, which was in charge of sending the missile into the air.

When shot, the gunpowder string would ignite and make the middle section fly, causing the missile to fly toward the enemy. Then, the gunpowder inside the crow would explode. It was an excellent weapon for sieging and destroying enemy formations, as it would help to destroy troops and burn their horses.

As the name Fire Dragon Comes Out of the Water suggests, this weapon was exceedingly effective in water battles. It was a missile with many layers. The first layer missile was wrapped around with paper, while inside the mouth of the dragon, there was a second layer that increased the range of the missile. It was used during water attacks and had a range of up to 1.5 kilometers.

It seemed like the Ming Dynasty firearms were really advanced and could be used in real battles. However, when compared to the standards of west, they were not even on the same level.

Let us talk about the handguns.

The Three Eyed Gun was the primary handgun of the Ming Dynasty, but its real killing range failed to even reach ten meters. Only in a four meter range did it possess a higher killing ability. Moreover, it was not accurate, and it could only serve as a stick to hit the opponent if you missed.

The Guaizi Gun was a handgun taken from the west. Unfortunately, the limits of their own technology meant that they could not replicate and produce it.

Even if they could, be it in terms of safety or strength, it would be significantly reduced.

Firstly, the material.

In terms of metallurgy, the Chinese rarely used pig iron and wrought iron. However, the barrel of the handgun needed to be crafted from these materials. This made it extremely difficult for the Chinese people. It reached a point where they had to give up.

However, Shanhai City had already solved this dilemma.

Before Ouyang Shuo left Shanhai City, he had already planned the steel industry. As of right now, all ten steel factories had reached completion, and they had begun production.

The Financial Department had thrown in a large amount of gold to purchase thousands of units of iron ore and coal to support the production requirements of the factories.

Let us talk about cannons.

The so-called short barreled cannon had an exceedingly thick cannon bore because of the tragedy of the Chinese’s metallurgy. Moreover, it could only could shoot a snooker ball sized stone out one hundred meters. The distance could not be adjusted, and it did not even have a wheel.

The western style cannon was a cannon that faded from use in western small merchant ships, and it was called a toy without actual fighting strength. However, this item became a great firearm when placed in the Ming Dynasty.

This firearm exceeded all the high-end technology items produced in the country during the Ming Dynasty. Without westerners teaching them, they could not produce these cannons.

The cannons the Chinese produced often blew up in the barrel. The number of Chinese killed by these cannons often exceeded the number of enemies the cannon itself killed.

This was a tragedy from head to tail.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, they brought in western technology. The Hongyi Cannon created at that time was the strongest firearm in the entire Ming Dynasty. In essence, it was no different from the western style cannon; it was just bigger and had a larger range.

The Ming Dynasty standards in terms of building large-sized cannons were appalling. The cannons were lousy in quality and all useless products. Hence, they needed westerners to succeed, but the quality still remained terrible. For example, the body of the cannon was exceedingly thick, being two meters in length. It was a giant cannon that they claimed could shoot up to ten miles, but in truth, it could only reach one mile.

In comparison, the Super Movable Cannon built during the Mogul Dynasty had a length of three meters, while the cannon barrel reached twenty meters. It weighed fifty tonnes and had a twenty kilometer range.

Between the two of them, there was completely a lack of grounds for comparison.

Hence, after Ouyang Shuo obtained the Ming Dynasty Firearm Making Technical Manual, he did not plan to build each and every firearm described the manual.

Of course, to the current Shanhai City, achieving such a feat was not difficult.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to use the technical manual as a blueprint to modify and improve the firearms.

His first goal would be to come up with a firearm at the same standard as western firearms. He also wanted a new type of cannon.

Only that.

As for other firearms like handguns and rockets, he was not interested in them at the moment.

Only like that could Ouyang Shuo lead the China region and prevent them from repeating the tragedies of history in the world wars.

And to achieve this point, Shanhai City would have to build up a perfect industry system. Building the steel factories was only one step in this system.

Chapter 550- Industry System

When Ouyang Shuo walked into the unique stone building of No.7 Research Institute, he noticed that Liu Mo and the others were waiting.

"Why, are the three divisions having an important meeting?" Ouyang Shuo joked.

Ouyang Shuo would joke around with these research personnel; he would not act as his usual Lord self.

Out of the more than ten core members of the institute, apart from the exception Liu Mo, the rest were fifty to sixty years old. As for their students and helpers, they naturally did not have the chance to attend such a meeting.

"We have been waiting for you!"

Liu Mo smiled and invited Ouyang Shuo to his seat.

Ouyang Shuo sat down, and his eyes could not help but glance at the document on the table. It seemed like Liu Mo had come here prepared.

"Speak, what difficult problem do you face that needs my help?" Ouyang Shuo knew that these research people would not beat around the bush, so he went directly for the topic.

When Liu Mo and the others heard his question, they laughed and did not feel any awkwardness.

After all, efficiency was their life.

"Take a look!"

Liu Mo stood up and passed the document on the tea table to Ouyang Shuo. At this time, Liu Mo wore a rarely seen solemn expression.

Ouyang Shuo took the document and opened it up, only to see the first page had the title of ‘Future Industry System Planning Draft of Shanhai City for the Next Two Years.’

"Industry system?" Ouyang Shuo smiled and asked.

"That's right!" Liu Mo had a passionate and excited expression.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, as the strategic plan the No.7 Research Institute suggested directly aligned with his own plans. It seems like Taigong was right, Shanhai City did not lack talents. In fact, their overall intelligence was far greater than his personal ability.

In the future, Ouyang Shuo still needed to show that he was in power once in a while.

In reality, an industry system was not a strange phrase.

The so-called industry system referred to the relationship between economic and work activities of a certain industry type. They would form a cooperation in terms of workspace and items, creating a system.

The organization of the system, apart from the industry production organizations, included many other organizations such as the planning and administrative organizations, the research and development organizations, the raw material discovery organizations, the processing or mechanizing facilities, and the transport and sales organizations.

Out of these three great elements, even one could not be lacking.

A simple example would be the steel industry.

To form a complete industry, one needed to include iron ore mountains, limestone mines, iron factories, steel factories, rolling steel factories, coking factories, fireproofing factories, mechanizing factories, as well as organizations in charge of buying, transporting, and selling.

In terms of the bigger picture, one needed organizations to design, research, analyze, and obtain intel and information.

All of these organizations needed to work as a system. They must possess a direct relationship with one another to form a passage of information and goods.

Moreover, to a territory, apart from the different mines and factories, the other organizations needed to split into various factories like the steelmaking factory; the departments in the yamen like the Industry Division under the Finance Department, and the Construction Division under the Administration Department; organizations like the No.7 Research Institute, and education organizations like the Xinan University. As such, the internal relationships formed were exceedingly complicated in an industry system.

Comparing the two, Shanhai City’s current system was not enough to sustain an industry system.

Firstly, the territory lacked iron ore mountains with huge reserves. Hence, there was a significant reliance on imports. As for coal, needless to say, it was an utter rarity.

Just the factor of materials alone had choked the neck of the industry. Although the Finance Department had invested a large sum into purchasing iron ore and coal recently, it only solved the problem at the surface.

Secondly, the territory technology had only developed to the level of steel making. As for the next step of rolling steel, they were only researching and testing it out. The more advanced coking and fireproofing stages were only at the starting stages of their research.

As for the last step of mechanizing the process, let us just not talk about that.

The only comforting factor had to do with the transportation of the coal and iron ore. They were under the Finance Department, which had controlled the whole process well.

Even so, the Financial Department still lacked departments under it, resulting in extremely rough and lax management.

Moreover, this was only the steel industry. A real industry system was more complicated.

It would involve many industries such as coal, oil, black metal, colored metal, food, medicine, garments, wood, chemicals, rubber, plastic, transport, and water.

Hence, for the territory to build up a perfect industry system, it was really a long-term goal, and a type of dream. After all, there were really too many elements and restrictions.

Moreover, to the researchers of the No.7 Research Institute, building a complete system in the wilderness would be an extremely great achievement.

Other than that, they also possessed a subconscious good feeling and pride toward their race. After all, the Chinese never lacked smart people, they only lacked a cultural understanding, which caused them to miss out on the industrial revolution.

If he could make up for this regret in the game, it would be completely worth it.

Luckily, Liu Mo did not reach beyond his ability.

Ouyang Shuo took a look. The so-called plan for the next two years basically referred to the industries with steel as its core. The researchers were not overly ambitious and did not try to build a complete industry system.

Even so, it was exceedingly difficult.

The first thing it needed was an enormous amount of funds.

Ouyang Shuo looked at the financial estimation at the end and was shocked and stunned silent on the spot.

Based on logic, Ouyang Shuo could be considered someone experienced. Even a few hundred thousand gold was not a significant sum in his eyes.

But this time, Ouyang Shuo was still greatly shocked.

This was because the funding requirements that they suggested was a full 1.2 million gold. As such, in the next two years, they estimated a need to spend fifty thousand gold each month.

"Can it be lower?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"This is already a conservative estimation; it cannot be one gold less." Liu Mo was insistent.

"Okay!"

Ouyang Shuo bitterly smiled.

When they completed the three legion corps, the military expenses would definitely double.

Although attacking Wuzhou, Xunzhou, and Zhen An did not require any extra gold, Ouyang Shuo was still not that optimistic about their financial situation for the next year.

Along with Ouyang Shuo’s considerable plans regarding facilities, he would need to spend money in every area. Ouyang Shuo could even imagine what kind of face Cui Yingyu would give him.

Chapter 551- Four Beauties

Apart from monetary support, to go along No.7 Research Institute’s industrial plan, he also needed to make some arrangements with the Nanjiang Governor-General House structure.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to wait till after the new year to gather the officials for a discussion regarding this point. After all, it was time for them to renew the current Governor-General House.

After receiving Ouyang Shuo’s promise, Liu Mo and the others were naturally delighted.

"At least I didn't waste a pot of good tea!" someone grumbled secretly.

"...."

Before leaving the research institute, Ouyang Shuo gave Liu Mo a requirement to meet. He wanted the No.7 Research Institute to work together with the Beihai Shipyard to modify the Dragon Head and add cannons to it.

Liu Mo and the others wanted to build up the industrial system. One of the reasons for this desire was their firearm research and crafting process. However, to achieve that goal, they still needed a period of time.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo wanted them to equip some old style cannons on the warship.

If one talked about the Dragon Head, Ouyang Shuo had only boarded it a few times when he explored Qiongzhou Island. As for the others times, it was just docked at Beihai Harbor.

It was Old Sun who treated the Dragon Head like his old lover. Every time he had any new ideas, he would test it out on the Dragon Head, treating it as a total guinea pig.

The current Dragon Head was entirely different from before.

Now, however, Ouyang Shuo suddenly wanted to modify the ship that he had shown no concern for previously.

No matter how one looked at it, it was unusual.

"Why do I think you have other intentions?"

Liu Mo took a look at Ouyang Shuo and said with uncertainty.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and did not say anything.

"Are you thinking about going out to sea?" Liu Mo was a busybody.

Ouyang Shuo did not care about him and just left.

"Just treat it like a normal matter!" Before leaving, Ouyang Shuo was still worried, so he threw down a sentence.

"Don't worry!"

Liu Mo returned to his workplace; he was still a little depressed about not obtaining any rumors or news from Ouyang Shuo.

Who said that research personnel did not care about gossips.

They only appeared quiet to the outside world.

……

After leaving the research institute, Ouyang Shuo did not go anywhere else. Instead, he simply returned to the Governor-General Manor where he accompanied Bing'er as she studied.

It was the 12th month, and the virtual school was not on holidays yet.

In the afternoon, it was the time for Bing'er to learn about ancient Chinese civilizations, no matter how much she hated it and did not want to.

Out of the four types of musical instruments, chess, books, and calligraphy, the little brat only liked calligraphy.

She did not have the slightest interest toward playing instruments or chess. Ouyang Shuo dissed her for not having any cultural genes.

One had to mention that her talent in calligraphy was exceedingly strong.

In just three months, her writing already possessed some standard.

In his last life, Ouyang Shuo had spent five years in the game, writing five years of brush writing. Although he could not be considered really good, he still had a little knowledge regarding the matter.

This brother and sister pair each one wrote a line and were immersed in the front.

"Brother, are you going to marry Sister Song Jia?"

While writing, the little brat suddenly raised her head and popped this question.

Ouyang Shuo was stunned, and he placed down the brush in his hand and smiled, “That's right. Why, are you unhappy?"

The two of them were simply too familiar with one another.

Any change in her tone would not be able to escape his ears.

A day ago, Ouyang Shuo had discussed with Song Jia about marriage matters.

This unexpected happiness had struck her down, and in a short while, the news had spread over the entire manor.

The entire Nanjiang Governor-General House had started to run and prepare for the marriage of the Lord. When the people of Shanhai City received the news, they were also delighted, and their joy was evident on their faces.

In just a day, the people sentiment rose by one point. Only then did Ouyang Shuo realize how important the marriage and the childbirth of the Lord was to the people.

This was a tough and personal question.

Under such a situation, Ouyang Shuo was not surprised that the smart and resourceful Bing'er obtained the news.

"A little." Bing'er seemed a little crestfallen and really pitiful.

"Why?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"When Brother gets married, you won't be Bing'er's brother, and you won't dote on me anymore."

She grumbled; the way that she acted really made others uncontrollably adore her.

As she grew older, this little brat would not yearn for attention every day like before. She started to slowly grow independent, especially after training in the Wugou Heart Sutra.

Only at this moment did Ouyang Shuo realize that this little brat was still the little brat from before. Her reliance on her older brother had not changed a single bit.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Who did you hear that from? What kind of weird theories are you talking about?"

"The sisters are all saying that." Bing'er was annoyed.

"Silly girl."

Ouyang Shuo touched her little head.

If this was like last time, she would definitely feel unhappy, as she did not want her brother to treat her like a little kid. Only this time, she did not reject it.

Ouyang Shuo bent down to her eye level and said solemnly, “When brother gets married, not only will I still love you like before, you'll have the addition of a sister-in-law who loves you just as much. Didn’t you know that?"

"Really?" Bing'er was a little unsure.

"Bo!"

Ouyang Shuo flicked her head, “Why? Now you don't even believe what brother says?"

"Ouch!"

The little brat pressed her head, as she stared at her brother with annoyance. However, her eyes showed a trace of bliss and happiness.

"Write your words properly, stop slacking." Ouyang Shuo got up.

"Oh!" Only then did the little brat started being honest.

Ouyang Shuo sighed in his heart, This little brat has grown up, thinking about so much.

At that moment, Ouyang Shuo really did not know what he should be feeling.

12th month, 20th day, Fan Li and his group entered Shanhai City.

The Black Guards from the Black Snake Guards had escorted him along the way. Apart from Fan Li, there was another famous person that followed him. She was one of the four beauties of olden China - Xi Shi.

Everyone knew that the four beauties of olden china were Xi Shi, Wang Zhaojun, Diao Chan, and Yang Yuhuan. They were given the title of a beauty that caused fish to sink down and geese to fall, the moon hides her face at her beauty, and the flowers feel ashamed about their appearance.

The sinking fish had to do with the story of Xi Shi washing yarn on the riverbed.

The falling geese described the story of Zhaojun leaving her home country.

The moon closing her eyes discussed the story of Diao Chan praying to the moon.

The ashamed flower talked about the story of Yang Yuhuan getting drunk while viewing flowers.

The beauties of legend had finally appeared in the wilderness for the first time, letting the ordinary people witness their beauty.

Xi Shi was a girl that washed yarn. She had distinct features, a peach-colored face, with an extraordinary appearance. When she was washing yarn by the river, the reflection of the clear water made her look a lot more beautiful. The fishes in the river felt that she was too pretty and sank down into the river, ashamed to show their faces.

This was how the story of the sunken fishes came about.

Chapter 552- Business Saint

When he really saw Xi Shi, Ouyang Shuo sort of felt like his fantasy was destroyed.

When Fan Li started his seclusion, he was already a white-haired old man. With just a little bit of thought, one could guess that Xi Shi, who had stayed by his side, would have already lost her past beauty. Her glamor and looks would not be able to escape the passage of time.

As time went on, only a merciful and quiet look was left.

Now, one could only see a slight glimpse of her past beauty from her current gentle expression.

Although the couple did not have their youthful looks anymore, one could not help but feel envious when they looked at the two of them.

This was really the definition of growing old together.

After the courteous greetings, Fan Li and Xi Shi officially moved into Shanhai City.

"Greetings, my Lord!"

Fan Li bowed toward Ouyang Shuo, confirming their Lord and servant relationship. Ouyang Shuo accepted his bow and took a look at his stats.

Name: Fan Li (Saint Rank)

Title: Business Saint

Dynasty: Spring and Autumn (Chu Country)

Identity: Shanhai City Civil Servant

Occupation: Special rank merchant

Loyalty: 70

Command: 85

Force: 45

Intelligence: 98

Politics: 95

Specialty: A Rich World (5% increase in territory’s economy index, 15% increase in trading prosperity, 5% increase in tax returns, 25% increase in skill familiarity of merchants)

Book: Fan Li Two Scrolls

Evaluation: Known as Fan Li in the Yue Country, Chiyi Zipi in the Qi Country, and Tao Zhugong in the Wu Country. Loyal to his country; his intelligence allowed him to survive. He ran his business to acquire wealth, and gained fame throughout the land. In the end, he passed down his wealth and success to his future generation.

As expected from the Business Saint, his stats were solid. Not only was his intelligence and politics stat close to the maximum, but even his command stat reached 85. He was indeed an all rounded talent.

Especially his specialty, which could actually raise the tax returns of the territory. Such a matter was something unheard of.

That aspect alone was worth one hundred thousand gold.

Since he was checking stats, Ouyang Shuo also took a look at Xi Shi's stats.

Name: Xi Shi (God Rank)

Title: The Head of the Four Olden Beauties of China

Dynasty: Spring and Autumn (Yue Country)

Identity: Shanhai City resident

Occupation: imperial court dancer

Bone structure: 20

Comprehension: 15

Charm: 25

Luck: 8

Specialty: Washing Yarn (15% increase in garment production efficiency, 5% increase in cotton production, 10% increase in reputation of territory)

Evaluation: Born in Zhulo Village, as she stayed in the west of the village, she was called Xi Shi, also known as Yi Guang. Her looks were like that of a fairy. If she was a little fatter, one would think that she was too fat, and if she was a little thinner, one would say that she was too thin. She was the top beauty in olden times.

Similar to the ten famous generals in China, the four beauties were also defined as god ranked historical figures.

However, in contrast to officials and generals, her stats were similar to the stats of players, with 20 as their maximum.

However, her charm had actually broken through the max and reached a stunning 25 points. As such, one could see how beautiful she was. Regretfully, her luck stat was only 8 points, so one could see how unlucky she was in life.

A beauty always has a tough life; this was always the case.

Legends has it that after the Wu Country fell, Xi Shi was drowned in the river, showing how sad and unlucky her life was.

In the game, Gaia chose to use their love story as a blueprint, helping to rewrite a new legend for the top beauty of China.

Her specialty was one that should not be overlooked. Apart from the usual raising of efficiency and production, it actually helped to raise the reputation of the territory.

This point was quite rare among historical people specialties.

Ouyang Shuo guessed that this matter had to do with her charm and her title as the top beauty in China.

This husband and wife duo were truly living legends of their time.

Ouyang Shuo guessed that the news of Bai Gui moving into the business college had spread to his ears. Otherwise, Fan Li would not have accepted his proposal so quickly.

No matter what, he was the first Saint rank person to willing to take up a position in Shanhai City.

Xi Shi, on the other hand, did not speak a single word from start to finish.

And the moment that the two of them moved in, Ouyang Shuo received a system notification.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, Xi Shi has moved into Shanhai City, activating B rank storyline quest ‘Four Beauties.’ Will you accept the storyline quest?"

Quest Name: Four Beauties (B rank)

Quest Background: the four beauties of olden China are Xi Shi, Wang Zhaojun, Diao Chan, and Yang Yuhuan; they were given the title of a beauty that caused fish to sink down and geese to fall, the moon hides her face at her beauty, and the flowers feel ashamed about their appearance.

Quest Requirements: Obtain the recognition of at least three of the beauties, having them move in to live in Shanhai City.

Completion Time: Within three years

Quest Reward: Territory will obtain the title of Capital of Charm. At the same time, the Lord will be awarded with 8 charm stat points.

The difficulty of obtaining the recognition of three of the four beauties within three years was no less than the philosopher quest. His low luck and charm stat were truly becoming the bane of his existence.

Calculating the time, after the next battle ended, West Han would enter the game proceedings. At that time, Wang Zhaojun would also appear.

After that would be Diao Chan of East Han then Yang Yuhuan of Tang Dynasty. If everything went smoothly, there was indeed a chance of completing this quest in three years.

Long before Fan Li arrived, Ouyang Shuo had already planned his role.

Ouyang Shuo wanted him to replace Cui Yingyu as the Finance Director. As for Cui Yingyu, she would become the deputy director and the secretary of Industry Division.

In history, be it in terms of being an official or being a merchant, Fan Li had obtained excellent results. Be it his planning or his foresight, both aspects made him an excellent choice for the position.

Hence, he was definitely the best choice for the position of Finance Director.

As the territory expanded, it was becoming more and more difficult to keep Cui Yingyu at her position. The negative opinions of her in the territory, especially within Shanhai City, had not ceased at all.

As such, for her to take a step back was not a bad idea at all. In fact, it would help her instead.

Of course, before he appointed Fan Li, Ouyang Shuo needed to discuss this matter with this sister of his.

The location of choice was not the reading room but the back garden. His intentions were obvious; this was a conversation between siblings and not a Lord talking to his vassal.

Chapter 553- Financial Budget

Nanjiang Governor-General Manor, Back Garden.

It was winter, but the back garden was still brimming with life. Hundreds of flowers were in full bloom, and one could smell the scent of the flowers and hear the sounds of the birds.

At the east side of the back garden, there was a building known as the Donglin Pavilion. Ouyang Shuo would usually spend a lot of time at this place. Previously, he had welcomed Song Jia's parents at this pavilion.

"Big brother, are you looking for me regarding Fan Li?"

Cui Yingyu's thoughts were really so sharp; she could guess Ouyang Shuo’s thoughts right away.

"That's right."

When talking with Cui Yingyu, Ouyang Shuo naturally would not beat around the bush, so he smiled, “If I want you to step down from the Finance Director position, could you bear to do so?"

Out of the four directors, only Cui Yingyu had not been moved.

Now, it was time to usher in a new era, a new leader.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to push Fan Li up to this role so early because of the incoming organizational changes. Hence, confirming the new ship captain of the Financial Department was critical.

"A little bit." In front of Ouyang Shuo, there was no need for Cui Yingyu to hide anything.

One must not simply look at her gentle appearance, as she was a really strong person in her bones. Although she was a person of few words, she was a truly resolute person that had dedicated herself to running the department.

Now, for Ouyang Shuo to suddenly ask her to hand over her powers to others, if it was any other person, they would not feel happy about it either.

However, rationally speaking, she was clear that such a day would come sooner or later.

Even though Ouyang Shuo had trusted and supported her so much, as the territory expanded, the other officials and the people of the territory would not allow a girl to take up such an important position.

Cui Yingyu was not a person that was greedy for fame and fortune. She just wanted to contribute.

Especially after hanging around Song Jia and Sun Xiaoyue, her female instincts had started to slowly awaken.

"Who says women were weaker than men?"

For example Mu Guiying and Fan Lihua, these two femme fatale women, had already proven their worth on the battlefield. Cui Yingyu naturally wanted to reach their level of achievement in the civil servant field.

Although Mulan Yue was a woman, she had already obtained the position of Zhen An Prefecture Governor. However, everyone knew that they were different. In this aspect, players had a particular priority.

Ouyang Shuo laughed, "Everyone should do their best no matter what position they hold. Although I'm taking you off the director position, your next job will only be more important, so do not be disappointed."

As he said these words, Ouyang Shuo introduced his plans to her. Following which, he said, “You have been the Finance Director for so long, so you should know that the potential of the Industry Division is limitless. The future industry strategy of the territory is one that the Industry Division will head; it’s the core of the core."

When Cui Yingyu heard these words, her eyes brightened.

"After the new year, the entire Governor-General House structure will change. You must assist Fan Li and help him ease into his role and familiarize with the workings of the department. Moreover, I want to hear your views regarding the Industry Division changes. Do not disappoint me!" Ouyang Shuo said.

"Big brother, do not worry!" Cui Yingyu was really confident.

"Then I'll await your good news!" Ouyang Shuo smiled.

This brother and sister duo continued to talk about other causal matters before bidding farewell.

21st day, the Nanjiang Governor-General House officially announced the appointment changes of Fan Li and Cui Yingyu.

Fan Li would become the Finance Director, while Cui Yingyu would become the Industry Secretary, as well as Deputy Finance Director. As for Du Xiaolan, who was the original Industry Secretary, she will take up a role in the department.

At this point, the two representative figures of the business school of thought, Bai Gui and Fan Li, had both moved into the core of the territory operations. One worked in the university to teach the students, while the other worked in the imperial court.

The business school of thought had officially announced their arrival in the wilderness.

The so-called Bai Gui Plan had officially taken its first step and obtained excellent results.

What was next?

One could only look on in anticipation!

Along with Fan Li's appointment, the directors of the four departments formed a truly spectacular lineup. Xiao He, Wei Yang, Fan Li, and Du Ruhui; they were all famous officials of their generations, even famous prime ministers.

With such a formation, Ouyang Shuo really had no need to worry anymore.

At the same time, the Governor-General House also announced Su Zhe's duty.

Su Zhe would take over the Science, Education, Culture, and Health Department that Xiao He had temporarily helmed.

In the next few days, Ouyang Shuo started to meet the officials, especially the four directors, to discuss the reorganization of the structure.

Apart from that, there were also two more critical matters.

Firstly, they needed to discuss the financial budget for the next year.

Undeniably, this was the first time the territory had planned the budget with the year as its unit. With that, it announced that the territory finance system had finally taken shape after a period of long-term practical training and construction.

The Financial Department had recruited many professionals working in the various divisions and various prefectures. Amongst which, many officials were players, and they all had famous backgrounds and were important people in the financial sector. Some of them were even people who had worked for the federation.

It was evident that through this game, the entire society would undergo a massive reset.

In his last life, Ouyang Shuo would have never imagined a day when he recruited a large number of scientists, entrepreneurs, and other high-leveled people as their Lord.

In reality, these people were people that he worshipped and aspired to be.

In the 3rd year of Gaia, apart from the regular military expenses and the yamen expenditure, there were two huge focuses. One was naturally the industry system by the research institute, while the second would be the public utilities under the Science, Education, Culture, and Health Department.

The plan that Liu Mo and the others had set out for the industry system needed 1.2 million gold in a two year period. This sum was not given out monthly.

At the early stages, the amount of funds needed was even greater.

In just the 3rd year, they would need to inject eight hundred thousand gold.

As for the public utilities project, Xiao He made some calculations. He said that it would cost no less than six hundred thousand gold for the year.

Apart from that, there were hidden financial expenditures from the intelligence organizations.

During the 2nd year of Gaia, the three intel organizations, especially the Black Snake Guards, had performed exceptionally. Especially during the Battle of Taiping Country, the usefulness of intel had become more and more evident.

Similarly, the pros and cons of the intel organizations were really obvious. Due to the lack of funds and manpower, the range and area that the intel organizations could work in were restricted.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo set his mind to increasing his support to try and have a real intel network that covered the entire China region in just a year.

And this motion naturally needed a large amount of funds from Shanhai City.

Chapter 554- Ou Zhizi

Based on normal circumstances, the costs of the public utilities would take up a considerable part of the financial budget. Only as the yamen built up would the various prefectures carry these expenditures themselves.

As such, the Nanjiang Governor-General House needed to lead the planning of an official pathway and relay system that covered the entire territory.

Paths that linked up the prefectures, paths within the prefectures, and relays; the Governor-General House needed to pay for half of these construction costs.

Firstly, they needed to entirely open up the mountain path between Lianzhou Prefecture and Wuzhou Prefecture to strengthen their control over the Wuzhou and Zhaoqing Prefectures.

Apart from that, the Construction Division also planned to open up a mountain path near Broken Blade House Gushan County to open up a path to Leizhou Prefecture.

The current Shanhai City could only reach Leizhou Prefecture via ship. Although it was fast, generally only merchants took this path. For other people, traveling across the land would be a better choice.

Ouyang Shuo gathered all the officials together for another important matter apart from settling the financial budget. They needed to discuss the administrative standards, waste disposal standards, and the water system in the territory.

The goal was to push out the municipal administrative system of Shanhai City to the other parts of the territory.

The construction of Shanhai City could be described as the merger of olden construction techniques and modern architecture. It kept some of the essence and beauty of olden Chinese buildings, but it also incorporated modern-day city planning and municipal construction, combining the two perfectly.

As for the water irrigation system, naturally, it was for the agriculture industry. In order to increase the crop production and raise the yield of the crops, one definitely needed to perfect the water irrigation system.

The water paths of Nanjiang had many intersections, so it did not lack water but did possess a risk of flooding. Hence, the logical plan would be to change the water system and build up dams.

Ouyang Shuo stayed in his reading room and did not go out for a full four to five days.

The officials entering his reading room did not cease.

Sometimes, when he discussed the important matters, he would even forget to eat his meals.

As for late night meetings, these were something exceedingly common occurrences.

In this process, plan after plan that concerned the core of the coming year was pushed out piece by piece.

12th month, 24th day, after Fan Li and Xi Shi, the Black Snake Guards found the famous swordsmith Ou Zhizi. Moreover, they successfully invited him back to Shanhai City to help Ouyang Shuo forge swords.

Ou Zhizi was a member of the Yue Country from the end of the Spring and Autumn Period to the start of the Warring States Period. He was the ancestor of olden sword forging in China, and he had crafted the Longquan Sword and the Zhanlu Sword.

When he was young, Ou Zhizi learned metallurgy from his uncle and started to craft items such as copper and iron swords, iron axes, and work tools.

He used his brain and had extraordinary intelligence. Moreover, he had a strong body, and he was a hard worker. Ou Zhizi noticed the difference between copper and iron, forging the first into the Longxuan Iron Sword. He created the start of the cold weapons era of China.

Ou Zhizi had crafted a series of famous copper swords.

He had once crafted five prized swords for the Yue King: Zhanlu, Juque, Shenxie, Yuchang, and Chunjun. For the Chu King, he had crafted three swords: Qixing Longxuan, Taia, and Gongbu.

For the Black Snake Guards to successfully invite Ou Zhizi, it was all due to the Chixiao Sword.

Ou Zhizi had made it clear that he came to Shanhai City with no intentions of moving in. After forging the sword, he would leave Shanhai City to search for another land of sword forging.

He had no intentions of selling his art and working for kings. After appearing in the wilderness, his only wish was to find a new land of sword forging to forge another precious sword.

When Ouyang Shuo received this news, he could only helplessly accept the matter.

He could not force such matters.

Ouyang Shuo had sought Ou Zhizi to seal the Red Dragon Spirit inside the Qilin Golden Seal into the Chixiao Sword and complete the upgrade of the Chixiao Sword.

When they received the news that Ou Zhizi was coming, the happiest person was not Ouyang Shuo but Wang Hao.

Wang Hao was the first grandmaster level smith in the territory and the secretary of the Armory Division.

The Tianmo Spear was crafted by Wang Hao.

Ou Zhizi was basically an ancestor level presence to a blacksmith like Wang Hao.

If one said that blacksmiths or rather swordsmiths could form a faction or school of thought, Ou Zhizi would undoubtedly be their representative figure.

Hence, Wang Hao specially prepared the most significant and most majestic sword smithing room for Ou Zhizi to use. This room was one that the No.7 Research Institute had modified.

Besides the room was a furnace that could forge steel.

As a sword forging master, Ou Zhizi was extremely sensitive to materias. If not, he would not have been able to discover the difference between copper and iron.

Hence, steel, which was far superior to iron, would definitely attract Ou Zhizi.

After gaining a basic understanding of steel from Wang Hao, Ou Zhizi was immediately attracted.

Ouyang Shuo, who had followed behind them, grinned at this sight. He knew that to such a swordsmith, steel had an absolute attraction.

This time, even if Ouyang Shuo asked him to leave, Ou Zhizi would not be willing to do so.

Facing the further questions from Ou Zhizi, Wang Hao was placed in a tough situation.

Although the man in front of him was an ancestor-level figure, the steel making technique was a high-level secret of the territory. Even if Wang Hao was ten times bolder, he would not dare to reveal a single bit of the secret.

"Master, this...." Wang Hao paused.

When Ou Zhizi saw this reaction, he understood. He was a swordsmith master and knew that such a secret could not be revealed. Wasn’t his sword smithing skills precisely the same?

Thinking about this point, he turned around, bowed to Ouyang Shuo, and said sincerely, “Lord, please accept me and allow me to learn the mysteries behind this material."

Ou Zhizi had a prediction that with this new material, he would find new sword smithing inspiration. In the future, making god weapons like Qixing Longxuan would not be impossible.

Perhaps, he could even touch the unassailable Saint weapon realm.

Since that was the case, he had no need to continue running around to search for the land of sword forging.

Wasn’t the Shanhai City in front of him the best place for swordsmithing?

As for his past words, to go against them was nothing to Ou Zhizi.

A swordsmithing master was a sword idiot.

Since he was obsessed, he naturally did not care too much about life matters.

Only then could he focus on one path.

Ouyang Shuo laughed, "For master to move into Shanhai City, it's simply a blessing for the territory." He obviously did not mention Ou Zhizi’s previous words.

Chapter 555- Land of Artisan

At this very moment, a system notification sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, God Rank Swordsmith Ou Zhizi has moved into Shanhai City, territory title Blessed Land of Artisans has upgraded into Land of Artisans, congratulations player!"

……

The moment the notification sounded out, the entire China region was shocked once more. The players did not expect Shanhai City to even find the secretive Ou Zhizi. Moreover, they even convinced him to move in.

As expected from the best territory in China, strong!

In the global channel, people exclaimed in awe.

Of course, some people were jealous, salty….

All in all, it was impossible to not have some unhappy people.

Ouyang Shuo naturally would not bother about the bustle. He directly went to take a look at the stats of the title.

Title: Land of Artisan (God Rank)

Specialty: 20% increase in reputation of territory, 20% increase in skills familiarity speed, 20% increase in success rate for breaking through bottlenecks, 45% increase in attraction to skills talents.

Unique Specialty: Spirit of the Artisan (25% increase in beneficial effects to artisans)

Evaluation: the final title for artisans, cannot be upgraded.

Compared to the title of Blessed Land of Artisans, the various stats of Land of Artisans seemed to have doubled.

A God Rank title was truly overpowered.

With these buffs, along with the Land of Philosophers title, Ouyang Shuo felt more and more confident about the industry plan that Liu Mo had raised up.

After all, the base for developing an industry system required a large batch of trained artisans.

When he saw that Ou Zhizi was so excited about steel, Ouyang Shuo laughed. He left the Chixiao Sword and the Qilin Golden Seal before departing.

After returning to the manor, Ouyang Shuo met one person alone - Honglu Temple Zhang Yi.

Similar to the clerk office, Honglu Temple was an independent presence and under the direct control of Ouyang Shuo. After a period of construction, the structure was finally completed, and everything was roughly in place.

Based on Zhang Yi’s words, they were all ready and were just waiting for the Lord to give his orders.

History really had many shocking similarities.

During the Warring States Period, after Wei Yang pushed out Legalism, the Qin Country made use of its power to become the helm of the Seven Warring States. Their strength shocked the six countries east of Tong Pass, and they did not know what to do.

Su Qin from Luoyang set out to suggest working together to fight against the Qin Country. The basis of the strategy was for the Six Warring States to work together and help one another.

333 B.C., Su Qin successfully persuaded everyone. The six countries worked together and formed the Anti Qin Alliance. The six countries agreed to an action plan to go against the Qin Country. The six countries that were connected to the Qin Country used their collective strength to survive for hundreds of years in front of the strong Qin.

After which, King Qin Huiwen used the Lianheng plan to break Su Qin's Hezong plan.

The origin of Zong and Heng was such that the north and south directions were termed as Zong, while the east and west were termed as Heng. Qin Country was located in the west, with the other six countries in the east. The six country alliance became a north-south direction alliance, hence it was called Hezong. Meanwhile, the east-west direction alliance of the six countries was called Lianheng.

In the wilderness, Shanhai City took down Chiyou City and Taiping Country in one fell swoop, suddenly becoming strong. It immediately caused the Lords of the neighbouring provinces to feel uneasy and establish their united city-states. The four provinces had formed a Lianheng situation.

Such a situation was really similar to what Qin Country faced in history.

As such, he needed Zhang Yi to appear again and show his skills.

Of course, in the wilderness, the players presented an uncertainty factor, which would make breaking the Lianheng situation numerous times harder than breaking the Hezong of the six countries in history.

Ouyang Shuo did not expect Zhang Yi to break the situation in one shot.

However, he did not have the patience to stay locked in a stalemate like Qin Country in history for so many years.

"I hope that the Honglu Temple can break a small gap out of the four province encirclement."

Ouyang Shuo looked at Zhang Yi and stated his desires.

Zhang Yi looked up and said, "Toward the four city-states, I do have some understanding. It is not hard to find their individual weaknesses if we compare them to the six countries of history."

"Oh? Please elaborate!" Ouyang Shuo was hooked.

In truth, Ouyang Shuo did not think much about these four neighbors. As for Zhang Yi, he had spent so much time in the Honglu Temple, so he definitely had some thoughts about the subject.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo was really interested in what he had to say.

"The Lingnan City-State is enemies with Shanhai City due to the Battle of Zhaoqing. It was that battle that made the Lords realize the threat Shanhai City posed. When they regained their calm, they hurriedly formed the first city-state in the wilderness," Zhang Yi said.

"Since that's the case, they should be the most united group. Where's the weakness in that?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"Their weakness is Yuan Ping," Zhang Yi replied.

"Yuan Ping?" Ouyang Shuo did not understand.

"That's right." Zhang Yi nodded, “During the Battle of Zhaoqing, it was the disappearance of Hefu that allowed Yuan Ping to claim his current position."

"I feel that Yuan Ping is an ambitious person. However, he is also arrogant and has an agenda against you." Zhang Yi's intelligence work was truly well done, “When the city-state was just established, all the Lords would be of one mind. But as the situation stabilizes, Yuan Ping would want to obtain much more power from within."

"This would cause those Lords who were close to Hefu to feel annoyed. The old and new factions will then start to compete with one another."

"Hefu has already left, so how could his allies win against Yuan Ping?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

No matter how noob Yuan Ping was, he was still from an aristocratic family.

Compared to other Lords, his ambitions, abilities, connections, and methods were much higher. To take care of Hefu’s old forces should not be a difficult matter.

The wilderness was incredibly merciless. No one would carry the flag of a loser and continue forward.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo was really doubtful about it.

"If no outside force enters, it might be as you said." Zhang Yi's expression suddenly turned hard to read, as he cupped his fists, “That's why we need the Lord to mobilize the Black Snake Guards to help us to put on a good show there."

When Ouyang Shuo heard this request, his eyes instantly lit up, and he smiled, “Let's follow what you say. On the side of the Black Snake Guards, I will personally organize and coordinate them to help you."

"Thank you, Lord!" Zhang Yi was delighted.

Chapter 556- Zhang Yi Talks About Lianheng

"Then what about the Xiangnan City-State, where is there weakness?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

The leader of the Xiangnan City-State, Caiyun Zinan, has Strategy Saint Zhang Liang helping him, and he holds an unassailable position. Along with the prestige that he built up during the Battle of Guilin, in a short while, no one could touch his position.

Even if the Black Snake Guards or the Honglu Temple wanted to try anything, Zhang Liang would easily break their attempts.

Zhang Yi remained incredibly casual, “The weakness of the Xiangnan City-State is Zhang Liang."

"Oh?"

Ouyang Shuo felt even more shocked. All of Zhang Yi’s words truly surprised him.

"Lord, think about it. If your ally has a saint helping them, what would you think?" Zhang Yi did not directly explain. Instead, he just threw down a question.

If it was Ouyang Shuo, needless to say, he would naturally want to think of a way to snatch the saint over. The problem was that the ones facing the situation were normal Lords.

Ouyang Shuo thought about the matter. Using the thinking methods of normal Lords, he answered, “Are you saying that the other members will be wary of Caiyun City because of Zhang Liang?"

"That's the case." Zhang Yi nodded, “In history, Liu Bang was able to walk up step by step among so many Lords due to Zhang Liang. During the Battle of Guilin, Caiyun City did not take any benefits, so we can instead say that he is really ambitious."

"A Lord with ambition, combined with a saint level strategist. Even if we did not stir up problems, hidden currents would move and act."

"With Zhang Liang's intelligence, he would naturally notice this problem. As long as he leads the Xiangnan City-State to turn their swords outward time after time, wouldn’t this cancer just remain unsolved?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

When both sides had the same interests, a hidden problem would not be a hidden problem anymore.

"Well said, Lord!" The sharpness of the Lord amazed him. He continued by changing his tone, “But Lord, think about it, what is around Xiangnan Province?"

When Ouyang Shuo heard this question, he thought back to the geography of Nanjiang.

North of Xiangnan Province was Jingchu Province, where Chun Shenjun resided. To the east was Chuanbei Province, where Black Lion City was situated. South was Lingnan Province and Chuannan Province. Meanwhile, Chuanbei Province was west, and Feng Qingyang was located there.

The north and northwest areas were the traditional strongholds of the Yanhuang Alliance.

Under the circumstances where they were enemies with Shanhai Alliance, Caiyun City naturally did not dare to provoke the Yanhuang Alliance.

The Lingnan City-State on the south and the Chuanbei City-State in the west were their allies, so they had no reason to attack them.

As for the Chuannan Province where Shanhai City was located, with Han Xin and the Leopard Legion there, Caiyun City would not have the courage to try and cross.

The only possibility would be the Chuanbei Province on the east.

Firstly, Chuanbei Province belonged to the Shanhai Alliance, so Caiyun City did not have a mental barrier when attacking it. Secondly, Black Lion City had a limited influence in the province, and it was not enough to unite the entire area.

No matter how one looked at it, Chuanbei Province would be their chance.

"Black Lion City is in trouble?" Ouyang Shuo had a somber expression.

"It's a danger and also a chance," Zhang Yi said, “If Gong Chengshi is smart enough, he can make use of the invasion to gather up the powers in the province. As the two provinces go head to head, with our support, it will not be easy for Caiyun City to succeed."

Ouyang Shuo reacted and smiled, “So you mean that Honglu Temple will focus on Chuanbei and not Xiangnan?"

"Lord is wise!" Zhang Yi bowed once more.

"That's fine. Let's treat it as planning for the future!" Ouyang Shuo nodded, seemingly recognizing and agreeing with the plan. However, his eyes contained something difficult for others to grasp.

When Zhang Yi saw that, he did not dare to speak anymore.

Ouyang Shuo did not mention it and turned to ask, "What about Chuanbei City-State? What are your thoughts."

Around the territory, the one that made him the most uncomfortable was the north.

That was because the north had two provinces working together to defend against them.

The Battle of Guilin had undoubtedly proved that the two provinces had a close understanding and were really close. Along with Guilin being such a key position of contact for both of them, it made one feel even more uncomfortable.

With the intelligence of Zhang Liang, he would only increase the cooperation between the two and would prevent any disputes.

Hence, to make the two City-states fight one another was an impossible task.

However, Zhang Yi had his own views regarding this matter, as he smiled, “The weakness of Chuanbei City-State is in the change of interests in the north and south, as they are unable to come to a consensus."

"How so?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"Chuanbei Province, its north is connected to the Shu Lands and South Shanhai City. On both the north and the south, they have a vast border. To the Lords in Chuanbei, compared to Shanhai City, Shu poses a bigger threat." Zhang Yi said, “During the Guilin Battle, the north Lords not joining in was enough to prove that."

"Shu Lands? You mean Swordsman City?" Ouyang Shuo asked once more.

"That's right. Feng Qingyang's Swordsman City is located on the lost south part of Shu, and it is only miles away from Chuanbei Province." Zhang Yi answered, “Originally, the land that the Shu govern is bigger than two Chuanbei Provinces, so Swordsman City can expand inside Shu. Regretfully, its covered with forests and mountain ranges, so it is easy to defend and hard to attack."

"Hence, it is highly difficult for him to expand in Shu. Compared to that, Chuanbei Province is naturally a better choice."

"I see." Ouyang Shuo was enlightened, “It seems like Swordsman City is doing us a huge favor."

After such a prompt from Zhang Yi, Ouyang Shuo started to think deeper and further.

Within the Yanhuang Alliance, compared to Di Chen and the others, Feng Qingyang was relatively uninterested in fighting.

Unfortunately, he was part of an aristocratic family, so he carried the burden of his family on his shoulders. No matter how much he did not want to fight, he needed to adequately expand the territory.

If not, if it was someone like Di Chen helming Swordsman City, Chuanbei Province would have fallen into chaos long ago.

"Do you think we can form a hidden alliance with those north at Chuanbei?" Ouyang Shuo looked at Zhang Yi, smiling as he asked.

"I hope that they can be the factor that allows us to break the current situation." Zhang Yi said carefully and calmly, “As long as we have them, we can mess up the Chuanbei City-State then challenge the Xiangnan City-State. With that, the current situation would definitely be broken."

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, he did not express his views. He neither said yes or no.

Chapter 557- Problem with Consonance City

"Let's talk about Yunnan City-State, what's its flaw?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

More than half of the prefecture's territory boundary was a border. The north side was Tibet, which was harder to access than the Shu Lands. Moreover, it was easy to defend and hard to attack. The only threat to it would be Consonance City and Shanhai City.

One could say that the Yunnan City-State did not have much to worry about.

Of course, with pros, there would definitely be cons.

Such an excellent geographic location would also definitely restrict their ability to expand.

Hence, since the establishment of the Yunnan City-State, they had the goal of protecting their own land. Similar to the other few city-states, they were formed with defensive goals in mind.

As they said, one could become austere if they lacked selfish desires.

It seemed that the only viable option to take on the Yunnan City-State was to forcefully attack it.

At this point, Ouyang Shuo had already placed the bulk of his attack focus next year on the Yunnan City-State.

"They have two weakness." Zhang Yi was still unfazed, "Firstly, they lack someone like Yuanping or West Gate Big Official to lead them. Secondly, in terms of geography, there are not connected like the other three city-states, so they are utterly alone.

Ouyang Shuo noticed that Zhang Yi chose the word weakness instead of flaw.

It was obvious that to Zhang Yi, Yunnan City-State was also a tough nut to crack.

"I actually do not feel that these two points are their weaknesses." Ouyang Shuo shook his head, as he presented a different idea, “If we looked at this individually, it might seem like a problem. But combining the two, it becomes their strength instead. An individual alliance needs to be ruled by many. Only then can they maintain stability and not change any set strategies."

"The Lord is wise!" Zhang Yi was impressed once more.

"Toward the Yunnan City-State, the Honglu Temple can increase its attention. However, we should leave the specific strategies to Consonance City. We do not need to care too much." Ouyang Shuo instructed.

Ouyang Shuo still needed to give his ally Bai Hua sufficient respect.

No matter what, Kunming Prefecture was the one that was truly connected to the Yunnan City-State. As for how to deal with them, Bai Hua had probably thought of some answers.

Hence, Shanhai City could not jump past Consonance City and directly start acting in the Yunnan Province. If that were the case, their interests would clash, and it would make it difficult for Bai Hua.

At most, both parties would work together.

As for the Dragon Legion housed on the west side, they were first there to collect intel. Secondly, during the real war, they would help Consonance City attack the Yunnan City-State.

In the future, the problem of how to deal with the Yunnan City-State would be one that both sides would definitely have issues and disagreements on.

News had spread of Shanhai City occupying Zhen An Prefecture and eating up the ninety thousand west army prisoners. Within Consonance City, there were already people that were unhappy.

After all, from their point of view, they had paid a huge price to block the west army. In the very end, they made the sacrifice but did not gain any benefits.

On the contrary, Shanhai City just made one sneak attack and plucked all the fruits from this tree.

If Luo Shixin's division did not help Consonance City swiftly take down Kunming Prefecture, giving them a peaceful home, these unhappy emotions would be much more intense.

Although Ouyang Shuo did not feel guilty about this point, it was enough to raise his wariness.

In history, many allies had ended up splitting due to interest problems.

Although Ouyang Shuo believed that Bai Hua and he could control the disputes, they were unable to stop the thoughts and wishes of their subordinates.

Thinking deeper about this, it involved the future standing of Consonance City.

Bai Hua was not Mulan Yue, and Consonance City was not the Mulan County from before. Hence, it was impossible for them to directly go under Shanhai City’s rule.

After all, Consonance City did not represent Bai Hua's interest only. Instead, it served the interests of a collective group of people. Even Qingfeng Pavillion was wrapped up into this.

Dealing with this matter was going to be a massive bother.

"During the gathering next year, I should have a good discussion with Bai Hua."

Ouyang Shuo gave out a slight sigh.

……

Zhang Yi nodded; he continued, “Apart from the four city-states, there's actually a fifth group that has been staring intently at Shanhai City from the outside, just like Qi Country during the Warring States."

"Are you referring to the Yanhuang Alliance?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"To Shanhai City, the Yanhuang Alliance is a long term presence that we cannot neglect. Especially as we expand, the conflicts between the two groups will spread from battle maps to the wilderness. As long as Shanhai City breaks through the lock of the four city-states, we will have to fight them on the Shu Lands and the Jingchu Province. Hence, I feel that they definitely will not simply watch on and do nothing as we break this situation."

Zhang Yi's words were not said just to frighten Ouyang Shuo.

Before this, when Shanhai City wanted to take over the Lianzhou Basin, the Yanhuang Alliance had already interfere.

Cooperating with the four city-states to restrict and control the expansion of Shanhai City was a necessary move for the Yanhuang Alliance.

Following this train of thought, it was time for Shanhai City and Yanhuang Alliance to have another good battle around these four city-states. Who knows who would be laughing in the end.

To counterattack reactively was not Ouyang Shuo's style.

"Since we have noticed the threat of Yanhuang Alliance, it's time for Honglu Temple to strike. Compared to us, the Yanhuang Alliance members have many more problems in their own areas." Ouyang Shuo smiled, “There's no reason to allow them to peacefully develop and still let them butt into our matters."

"Understood!" Zhang Yi nodded.

"The main point would be Asura City and Fallen Leaf City. Try your best to spoil their relationship," Ouyang Shuo said.

Sha Pojun's Asura City and Wandering Magic's Fallen Leaf City belonged to the same province. In the middle, there was also Xianyang City and Chang An City impeding them. If they did not create problems for these enemies, it would be a dumb decision.

On the topic of this matter, the massive battle in Zhongyuan had not ended. Moreover, compared to the currently low-profile Sha Pojun, Wandering Magic was making headlines. Who knows how Sha Pojun, who loved to win, was feeling at this moment.

As the new year approached, along with Zhan Lang and Xiong Ba working together to destroy the Huangchao Army, out of the four uprising armies, only the Zhangchu Regime still stood in the wilderness.

This was a truly awkward matter for Chun Shenjun and Wandering Magic.

Unfortunately, they did not have a strong enough army, so no matter how awkward they felt, they did not dare to move lightly.

Seeing that the third year was about to arrive, even Di Chen temporarily gave up his plans to attack the Zhangchu Regime. Everything would wait till after the new year.

Chapter 558- Gaia Year End Reward

The part that made everyone feel helpless was that the cold winter up north had come as expected.

Chun Shenjun and Di Chen only had an extremely small amount of time left. Moreover, if the matter dragged on, when the winter season arrived, they definitely would not be able to use troops.

If that happened, the Zhangchu Regime could escape unscathed. Who knows what kind of changes would occur in the wilderness in the new year.

At the last part of their conversation, Ouyang Shuo looked at Zhang Yi and half-jokingly half-seriously said, “Next year, The Honglu Temple will take center stage. I expect good things from all of you."

"We will not let you down, Lord!"

Zhang Yi made a solemn promise; he was serious and emotional.

….

Gaia 2nd year, 12th month, 29th day, a system notification sounded out in the entire China region.

"System Notification: The first information piece, Rising Up, has officially come out for a year. At this one year anniversary, the contributions of the various Lords toward wiping out the uprising armies will be collated, and rewards will be given out. For the specific details, players please take a look for yourselves!"

……

The moment the announcement sounded out, the players started buzzing.

Only now did everyone know that apart from the reward they obtained from destroying the uprising army, there was also a chance for a year end reward. How would this matter not make other players, especially adventure gamemode players, red with envy?

Such a reward method was similar to the battle map model.

Gaia would calculate contribution values based on the contribution of the Lords in attacking the four uprising armies. After which, Gaia would turn these values into merit points to decide the final reward.

At the same time, those that had the top three values would also receive a special reward.

Gaia would directly pass the special reward to them and would not release the specifics to the public. One must know that the champion, second, and third rewards had a tier difference for each subsequent position.

Ouyang Shuo opened the rankings for the year end reward to take a look.

Position- Name- Merit Points

1st: Qiyue Wuyi - 85000 points

2nd: Di Chen - 75000 points

3rd: Zhan Lang - 68000 points

4th: Xiong Ba - 55000 points

5th: Bai Hua - 30000 points

6th: Chun Shenjun - 27000 points

7th: Wandering Magic - 25000 points

8th: Earth-shaker - 20000 points

9th: 10-tailed Dark Fox - 18000 points

10th: Yu Diao - 15000 points

As expected, since Shanhai City had basically taken down the entire Taiping Country alone, they had once again achieved the top spot.

85 thousand merit points were equivalent to the reward received from a single battle map.

Followed closely behind was Di Chen, who had led the Jingdou Region Alliance Army to destroy Huangjin. If he did not lead the alliance army, with his highly efficient method, his contribution points would definitely exceed Ouyang Shuo’s.

In third place was Zhan Lang, who had led the alliance army to attack the Huangchao Uprising Army. In the end, he had worked together with Xiong Ba to destroy the Qi Country that Huangchao had built up.

And Zhan Lang's ally, Xiang Ba, had placed fourth.

As for Bai Hua, Chun Shenjun, and Piao Linghuan, they had not done a lot, so they filled up the fifth to seventh spots.

After the seventh spot, there were no more Lords from the Yanhuang Alliance or the Shanhai Alliance. Be it Feng Qiuhuang, Xunlong Dianxue, Gong Chengshi, Sha Pojun, or Feng Qingyang, they were all simply onlookers in the battle against the peasant uprising.

Three dark horses had taken the last three spots on the rankings. Ouyang Shuo guessed that these three were from Di Chen, Zhan Lang, or Xiong Ba's alliance army.

From the rankings, one could say that the Shanhai Alliance had definitely lost. Only Ouyang Shuo and Bai Hua got on the board. The Yanhuang Alliance, on the other hand, had five people, taking up half of the spots.

Apart from that, the last three were allies of the Yanhuang Alliance.

It would not be farfetched to call this a total defeat for the Shanhai Alliance.

If Ouyang Shuo did not grab the top spot, without this covering cloth, the face of the Shanhai Alliance would have been lost.

Before this, Ouyang Shuo already had an inkling. These rankings showed the weakness of the Shanhai Alliance to the rest of the world.

Toward this matter, Ouyang Shuo could only let out a long sigh.

Just at this moment, a system notification sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for contributing greatly toward wiping out the peasant uprising in the 2nd year of Gaia. You are given one special reward, please choose!"

Instantly, a virtual screen appeared in front of him, listing ten prizes.

1. 20000 merit points

2. 1 x special buildings blueprint

3. 50000 gold

4. 1 x king rank true cultivation method

5. 1 x extra chance to make use of a hidden building

6. 1 x technical manual

7. 1 x special item

8. 1 x dark gold equipment

9. 1 x raise reputation points by one hundred thousand

10. 1x random prize

Seeing such great rewards, Ouyang Shuo drooled.

If one did not know better, they would have thought that this was a small-scale system auction.

"When did Gaia become so generous?"

Just as Ouyang Shuo was getting drunk on the moment, a system notification suddenly sounded out.

"System Notification: Player can choose three prizes as the final reward, please choose!"

"...."

Black lines instantly appeared on his face, Gaia ah, do you really have to play with people's feelings like that?

He got happy for nothing.

Human nature was truly a curse!

It seems like the second place could choose two, and the third place could only choose one. Who knows whether the ten choices they had were the same as his.

Three out of ten, Ouyang Shuo really had to give this matter some thought.

"Can I use an elimination method?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"Yes!"

"Hmm, gold, and reputation points are useless. I'll remove them first."

It was not easy to have such a great chance, so Ouyang Shuo obviously would not choose such common items.

Instantly the third and ninth choice disappeared from the screen.

"The king rank cultivation method and the dark gold equipment are too low grade, remove them."

For him to say such words, was he really not afraid that other players would gang up on him and beat him up?

Every single one of these items were top grade existences to other players. However, in his eyes, they were just dirt.

If you compare with others, you would only grow annoyed.

Luckily, Gaia did not have such emotions, and with a shua! sound, the fourth and eighth choices disappeared.

There were only six choices remaining, and he could only choose half of them.

Chapter 559- Zhang Tingyu

"Remove number seven and number ten." Ouyang Shuo said.

Be it special items or random rewards, luck played too great a factor, which did not fit Ouyang Shuo's style. As a Lord, he focused on being calm and stable, and he did not have a gambler's mentality.

The remaining four choices included the second choice, the special building blueprints, and the fifth choice, to use a hidden building once more; these two choices were must choose ones.

Needless to say, each hidden building was extremely valuable.

As for the chance of an extra use of the hidden building, Ouyang Shuo could use it on Recruitment Hall or the Silver Prayer House. Naturally, the Recruitment Hall was more worth it.

This also meant that there were two days where Ouyang Shuo could use the Recruitment Hall consecutively. He was looking forward to what kind of historical person he would summon.

In the end, between the merit points and the technical manual, Ouyang Shuo still decided to pick the merit point reward.

Although twenty thousand merit points were not much, if Ouyang Shuo wanted to promote to duke soon, he could not give up any chances to earn merit points.

As for the technical manual, he could only bear the pain of that loss.

After Ouyang Shuo made his choices, a system notification sounded out.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for performing well during the Gaia 2nd year uprising army event, rewarded twenty thousand merit points, one special building blueprints, and one extra chance to use a hidden building, congratulations player!"

With a shua! sound, a building blueprint appeared in his hands.

Nautical Lighthouse: A type of building used to guide ships located at the shore or the harbor. Construction Requirements: nautical lighthouse blueprints, five thousand units of wood, ten thousand thousand units of green brick, and five thousand units stone. Construction Time: Five days.

During the Ming Dynasty, in the 10th year of Yongle Emperor's reign, they built a three hundred meter long, one hundred meter high lighthouse at the river mouth of Changjiang Liu River to guide ships in and out of the river mouth.

This was the first time the Chinese government had built a signal light.

During that period of time, Zheng He Went went to the western world. It was the pinnacle of the Ming Dynasty maritime history.

The light source of the lighthouse was called the ‘light’ and used an open fire method.

In the world seafaring records, they first used an open fire. Eventually, it was replaced with candles. After which, they even used whale oil, vegetable oil, pig oil, and fuel. Finally, they developed the modern day lighthouses.

Apart from the fuel source, another modern aspect of the western lighthouse was the parabolic glass reflector that helped to increase the range of the light.

A modern-day lighthouse could reach thirty nautical miles, and the strength of the light was comparable to hundreds of millions of candles.

As a special building, the nautical lighthouse naturally had some unique areas. If not, and it was only a simple lighthouse, Shanhai City could build one itself without the blueprint.

The most unique and valuable part would be the light of the lighthouse.

Based on the blueprints, as long as one built the lighthouse, Gaia would automatically spawn the light. Its range and brightness would be 80% of modern day lighthouses.

In the age of olden sea travel, this was extremely overpowered.

With this nautical lighthouse, the sailors of Shanhai City, including merchant ships, would have an increased level of safety while traveling.

Ouyang Shuo was already planning to build a series of nautical lighthouses on the Beihai Bay region and even in distant regions.

It was also a signal of the territory.

Any region that had the nautical lighthouse belonged to Shanhai Territory.

Shanhai City, Recruitment Hall.

Ouyang Shuo once again walked into the Recruitment Hall. Then, he pressed his hand onto the caved in portion, and a system notification sounded out.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for activating the Recruitment Hall. One extra chance to use a hidden building discovered, meeting Recruitment Hall requirements, will you use it?"

"Yes!"

Ouyang Shuo was hoping to use this chance to recruit a navy general.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for obtaining a chance to recruit a special talent or a historical talent, which will you recruit?"

"Historical talent!"

Ouyang Shuo paid no particular heed to special talents. Even if he recruited them, they also did not do much. He just asked Bai Nanpu to recruit the special talents every month.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, recruited emperor rank historical figure - Zhang Tingyu, deducting one hundred gold."

A white light flashed, and a middle-aged scholar walked out of the teleportation formation, “Greetings, my Lord!" This person had a memorable face. Especially his eyes, which were sharp. His eyes would induce fear in those that looked into them.

Interestingly, he had a long braid.

Undoubtedly, this was an official from the Qing Dynasty.

In truth, Ouyang Shuo was somewhat familiar with Zhang Tingyu from history, and he was full of worship for this figure. Hence, although Ouyang Shuo did not recruit a navy general like he wanted, he was still extremely emotional.

Zhang Tingyu was also known as Heng Chen. He was born in Tong City Anhui Province.

He passed the imperial exam as a scholar in the 39th year of Kang Xi, entering the Hanlim Academy. Later, he entered the South Reading Room. During the Kang Xi reign, he became the punishment department assistant minister, while during Yong Zheng's rule, he took the role of the minister of the Board of Rites, Minister of Revenue, and Minister of Minor Officials. He was also a member of the grand council and other important groups.

At the end of the Kang Xi reign and the start of Yong Zheng’s rule, he revamped the lax system and perfected the military system.

Zhang Tingyu served Kang Xi, Yong Zheng, and Qian Long, these three generations of emperors. After death, he was granted a plaque at the Imperial Ancestral Temple. He was the only Han official to be included in it.

Just this point was enough to show the strength of Zhang Tingyu.

If he was not born in a Manchu Race ruled Qing Dynasty, he would have become a prime minister of a generation.

Ouyang Shuo took a step forward, helped him up with both hands, and said respectfully, “Mister, please rise!" As he spoke these words, he brought Zhang Tingyu out of the Recruitment Hall, taking the chance to look at his stats.

Name: Zhang Tingyu (Emperor Rank)

Dynasty: Qing Dynasty

Identity: Shanhai City Official

Occupation: Civil Servant

Loyalty: 75

Command: 55

Force: 30

Intelligence: 85

Politics: 90

Specialty: Culture Unity (35% increase in territory honesty, 30% increase in efficiency, 10% increase in cultural standards of the people, 25% increase in the territory ruling standards of minor officials)

Evaluation: Zhang Tingyu was an upstanding civil service officer, and he was highly praised for both his upright character and his principled background. Having considerable skill in literature, he compiled the History of Ming in 1739. Zhang Tingyu died of illness in 1755, and he was granted a plaque at the Imperial Ancestral Temple according to the wishes of the Yongzheng Emperor.

Chapter 560- Third System Update

As expected from a famous minister. Not only did his politics stat reach 90, even his intelligence stat reached 85. His command stat, which civil servants generally did not excel in, had also reached a solid 55 points.

Apart from that, his specialty was a huge all rounded buff for the officials in the territory. As expected from an emperor rank minister, he was a level better than Fan Zhongyan and Tian Wenjing.

The arrival of Zhang Tingyu made it much easier for Ouyang Shuo to modify the Nanjiang Governor-General House structure.

Before this, Ouyang Shuo had worried about who to appoint to take charge of the governing of officials.

Now, he had his best choice.

Xiao He, as the Administrative Director, needed to help out the various secretaries and did not have any extra energy to deal with the governing of officials. However, this was also a critical matter in the territory.

Since that was the case, he needed to choose an incredibly experienced person.

Zhang Tingyu was a genuinely suitable choice.

At the end of Kang Xi's reign, the style of governing was really relaxed, and the system was not fixed. During this time, Zhang Tingyu was appointed as the deputy minister of the officials to remove corruption and punish the immoral. He withstood various pressures and punished the immoral official Zhang Laohu, and he was termed as the deputy minister that suppressed the tiger.

Zhang Tingyu first started from the small areas, blocking up all the holes. Since he gained the deep trust of Emperor Kang Xi, he became the examiner of the imperial exam three times, which was an unprecedented matter.

Apart from settling the governing of officials, his arrival also helped perfect the memorial letter system to the king.

In truth, the letters in the territory were really casual.

Ouyang Shuo had spent a lot of time outside, and if he had commands, he would use the letters to pass his words to the relevant people through the relay. For example, the plans for the military structure.

In the middle, there were no records.

Due to this lack of records, there was no trace of Ouyang Shuo’s commands to his subordinates, and it was all based on their own hunches.

The territory was not that big before, so for ordinary matters, Ouyang Shuo roughly knew what was going on. As for the officials under him, no one was the scheming and tricky type, and they would complete the tasks handed to them.

However, as the territory officially had seven prefectures of land now, he could not be so casual anymore.

The letters every day numbered more than ten.

Even if he was a god, he would probably not be able to handle it.

As such, when Ouyang Shuo returned to Shanhai City this time, he handed down an imperial edict regarding the expansion of the secretary office.

Apart from that, establishing a logical letter memorial structure was exceedingly important.

At the start of the Qing Dynasty, officials would use Tiben for work matters and Zouben for private matters. Tiben would need them to stamp, while Zouben did not. These two letter types were public and not useful for reporting the feelings of the common people to the authorities. Furthermore, the Tiben procedure was extremely complicated, and it was also easy for secrets to leak.

During Yong Zheng’s rule, Zhang Tingyu changed the system. For those important matters, the officials would first make drafts of memorials to the king, only after he approved would they make it into official documents.

This system lasted all the way till the end of the Qing Dynasty.

Zhang Tingyu had also created a perfect secrecy system to ensure that the details of the memorials were not leaked. He had created an ideal memorial letter system, making it more all-encompassing.

At this point, they had set the memorial letter system, which was a part of the civil servant system. It not only affected the way orders and political decisions were made, but it also concerned the power distribution between Lord and official.

Hence, if one was not a middleman, they definitely could not lead such a revolution.

Even Xiao He would not be as professional and well-planned as Zhang Tingyu in terms of setting a memorial letter system due to the restrictions of his dynasty.

Ouyang Shuo first brought him to the Governor-General House. Ouyang Shuo was not overly eager to give Zhang TIngyu a role. Instead, Ouyang Shuo placed him in the secretary office. He would be the political advisor of the Lord, in charge of setting up the memorial letter system.

Zhang Tingyu could also use this chance to understand the structure and runnings of the Nanjiang Governor-General House. After all, it was much different from the various eras and dynasties.

Zhang Tingyu could be called a person that carried out his work with drive. That very afternoon, he started to get busy.

Ouyang Shuo instructed Bai Nanpu to help Zhang Tingyu out before getting busy with his own matters.

As the year reached its end, Gaia would make a series of big moves.

As a Lord, Ouyang Shuo needed to pay attention to the system report to understand the latest changes to the game.

Gaia 2nd year, 12th month, 30th day, a system notification sounded out around the globe.

"World Notification: At this point, Earth Online has run for two years, and the game will have its 3rd system update, effective immediately. Players, please log onto the federal website to check out the changes."

Both adventure gamemode players and Lord players would pay a lot of attention to the yearly system update. Just one small change could alter their future plans.

The 2nd system update, hidden professions, mysterious regions, as well as the adventure system all affected the way adventure gamemode players would play the game.

In a year, their positions experienced a considerable rise. The appearance of a large number of mercenary groups was evidence for this.

Making use of this chance, the guilds in the nine imperial cities all had an extremely deep reshuffling.

Who knows what interesting things would happen during this system update.

Hence, the moment the notification sounded out, Ouyang Shuo immediately logged onto the official website to check the update.

1: removal of the Super Auction Platform.

The Super Auction Platform, which had run for two years, would go offline from today onward. Trading between players, including between players and Chambers of Commerce, would only be done face to face.

Apart from that, one could use the auction houses in the various big cities and shops.

They could not send any of these items through the teleportation formation of the Super Auction Platform anymore, effective immediately.

To players, especially Lord players, this point was a huge shocker.

Ouyang Shuo had foreseen this. Hence, he was exceedingly calm.

Ouyang Shuo had a rough idea of Gaia’s intentions.

Undoubtedly, at the start of the game, the Super Auction Platform's long-distance goods trading function helped Lords to take root in the wilderness.

The nine imperial cities also took up the role of system cities and even nannies.

Now, the game had already run for two years.

Even the weakest remaining Lords had made it to grade 2 county.

It was obvious that Gaia felt that the nanny role that the imperial cities played should come to an end.

It was time for the Lords in the wilderness to live independently.

After all, the role of Gaia was not to act merciful and perform charity work. It aimed to choose the strong survivors.

Chapter 561- Strengthened Escort

Apart from that, Gaia also had other reasons for removing the Super Auction Platform.

Although the territories in the wilderness were basically self-sufficient, as they were in different regions, they had different distribution of resources. Hence, each territory, including Shanhai City, needed to trade with other people.

Either to sell products, buy raw materials, or conduct other transactions.

After the Super Auction Platform went down, the Lords could only use channels to fulfill their trading needs.

The first method was to pass through the wilderness to trade with the imperial cities. However, this matter was impossible in a short period of time, since the territories were too far away from the imperial cities.

As such, the second method remained, which was to trade with other territories.

The most convenient method would be to trade with their neighbors.

However, the main point of the wilderness was the survival of the fittest.

In normal scenarios, there were basically no good neighbors. Hence, it was tough to start trades.

Gaia knew this, and it wanted to use this to tell the Lords in the wilderness that their race did not only include war, there was also trading.

After all, when they reached planet Hope, there was a chance they would need to trade with the natives there. As future leaders, they naturally needed to be prepared for such events.

Since the four city-states surrounded Shanhai City, apart from dealing with Consonance City, they had no other easy option. Luckily, Ouyang Shuo had already planned for this matter, and he had opened up the sea trade route with the Quanzhou Imperial City.

Hence, although they were not close to the imperial city, they could use the convenience of sea trade to continue trading with the Quanzhou Imperial City. They only lacked the ability to trade with the other imperial cities.

Of course, challenges still existed for Shanhai City.

Firstly, the salt trade of Shanhai City would be affected.

Quanzhou was a city located near the ocean, so it did not need to import food salt. Hence, Shanhai City would have to sell the food salt they did not consume internally to other territories.

Food salt was a huge pillar item for the territory.

Be it Beihai City at the beginning, Qiongzhou and Leizhou Prefecture, or even Zhenhai City, the profits brought from food salt marked one of the primary financial inputs of the territory.

Secondly, the channels to purchase iron ore, coal, and similar resources were limited.

Although Ouyang Shuo had already made preparations for this particular problem, it was not a long-term plan. Their ability to find a stable supply would impact the future industrialization strategy of the territory.

As for other impacts, they would need the Industry Division to perform some analysis.

All in all, the removal of the Super Auction Platform was a massive test toward all territories.

When Chun Shenjun received the news, his face instantly turned ashen white.

One must know that his family was based around business. Members of his family were running the chambers of commerce in the imperial cities. The removal of the Super Auction Platform would mean that these chambers of commerce would become independent from the main family.

This matter was huge for Pill Sun City, which relied on their support.

2: removal of the global channel, the guild channel, and the alliance channel. Communication between players will either be through the relay or through the forum.

This was another update that made the players feel uncomfortable or even pained.

This move was to make the wilderness more realistic.

Removing the global channel would make players more independent, as they could not communicate through the same channel. Regional powers would be strengthened or even solidified.

Removing the guild channel made it extremely difficult for one to run a guild. In turn, it also restricted the scale of guilds.

Obviously, Gaia wanted a simplified guild structure.

Removing the alliance channel forced members of alliances to increase face-to-face communication and interaction.

This point did not really affect Ouyang Shuo.

In his last life, he had already grown used to not having these channels.

In truth, when players slowly got used to not having such channels, it would liberate the game and make one feel much closer to the wilderness.

At the same time, the lines between players and NPCs would also grow blurrier and less defined.

3: removing player levels, replacing it with combat strength evaluation.

The evaluation levels were split into copper, black iron, silver, gold, dark gold, and god rank. Each rank was divided into three tiers.

The combat strength value was a moving value that fluctuated. It was an all round evaluation of a player's level, stats, equipment, cultivation methods, and other related elements.

Ouyang Shuo took a look, and his evaluation standard was high-silver rank.

With that, one could see how difficult it was to achieve a high combat strength value.

In his last life, the top expert in China had only reached the low dark gold rank. The further the game progressed, the harder it was for players to raise their rank and the longer it would take.

For players to break through to god rank, there were also specific quests.

Removing the player level was naturally Gaia's attempt to make the game more realistic. Ouyang Shuo also knew that in the future, even personal stats and equipment stats would be removed.

4: all round upgrade to the relay, officially opening up the carriage system.

The relay from before was only in charge of sending letters, which did not fit its name. After the update, all the relays in the city would have carriages.

Be it players or NPCs, they could sit on these carriages to head to various cities.

Naturally, it would cost gold, so the profits would be split half-half between the system and the territory. This also meant that the more prosperous the territory, the higher their income from this area.

Apart from these carriages, the relay also rented carriages and helped to transport goods.

The goods transport service was similar to an improved olden escort service.

Of course, it cost gold too.

The unique part of the relay system was the speed of the carriages. It was twenty times faster than ordinary carriages.

With that, not only did it reduce the ten times map expansion element, it even made traveling two times faster.

One could foresee how popular the various relays in each city would become. Even officials and the yamen would have to use the relay system.

Of course, to use the relay to move a large number of troops was impossible. Gaia had placed strict restrictions on such actions.

The upgrade of the relay showed that Gaia was keeping a good balance between making the game realistic and keeping it somewhat convenient for the players.

At the very least, Gaia did not go all out in chasing for realism.

Chapter 562- Information Piece: Aristocratic Families Rise

In truth, the update of the relay had plenty to do with the removal of the Super Auction Platform.

In the wilderness, even if territories wanted to trade with one another, the long distances would pose a huge problem to the size and scale of the game. Just a single trip could take half a month to a month, maybe even longer.

Such a matter was incredibly detrimental to promoting trade.

Hence, Gaia granted them the relay transport system. Merchants only needed to pay a small fee to quickly send goods to their desired destination.

In truth, this was simply a weaker version of the teleportation formation.

Of course, to the wilderness, it was still an improved escort system.

5: Removal of the outer barrier of the imperial cities so that they are completely connected to the wilderness.

Before this, the imperial cities had a natural barrier separating each city from the territories in the wilderness. This update removed this natural barrier.

With that, the imperial cities were not special presences anymore; they were simply giant cities.

At the same time, this update made it convenient for territories in the wilderness that were close to the imperial cities to trade with them. The relay system between cities would be connected.

Of course, Gaia also had a deeper reasoning behind this particular change.

From now on, the nine imperial cities would slowly stretch into the wilderness, affecting the situation either outright or in the dark.

To the Lords, this meant that they had a few more opponents to think about and plan against.

Although there were only five updates this time, every single update would have a significant influence on the wilderness.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, many emotions filled him.

The third year of Gaia was destined to welcome many changes.

….

That afternoon, another system notification sounded out.

"World Notification: At this point, Earth Online has run for two years, so the game will release the second information piece: Aristocratic Families Rise. Fo the specific details, players please log onto the forums to check it out."

Aristocratic families, the great and influential families related to each dynasty and era.

At the end of the West Han, a relative of Emperor Wang Mang seized the throne and founded the Xin Dynasty.

After he took the position, to lessen the conflicts between the various groups of people, he changed the system. However, this change increased the burden on the people. Moreover, many natural catastrophes occurred during his reign, which did not help the situation. Consequently, this gave rise to many large-scale peasant uprisings.

Liu Xiu, who was part of the West Han imperial lineage, joined the Lulin Uprising. He relied on the support from landowners to defeat the other uprising armies. Afterward, he established the East Han.

Those tyrannical landowners were all families of the high ranking officials. They had private land and also a large number of private troops. Liu Xiu had granted them high positions and formed familial relationships with them to recruit them. He made them the ruling pillars of the East Han Dynasty.

These people could be called the starting points of the aristocratic families.

During the East Han, the aristocratic families slowly started to control the election system of choosing officials. These elections became their personal tools to recruit scholars and form factions.

Scholars were not only loyal to their emperor but also to those who hired them, which created a situation where they had both a boss and a Lord. This set the cultural and intellectual basis for warlordism at the end of East Han.

The warlords that formed up at the end were mostly from the various aristocratic families.

The Hebei Warlord regime Yuan Shao was a four generation, huge aristocratic family. They controlled many officials and minor officials. Hence, one could say the warlordism at the end of East Han and the rise of the three kingdoms were due to the power of aristocratic families swelling up without control.

Cao Pi usurped the Zhan Dynasty and obtained the support of the aristocratic families. In order to thank them, he created a nine rank system to choose officials. Consequently, the power was gathered into the hands of the aristocratic families.

Near the end of Cao Wei's reign, the power struggle between the emperor and the aristocratic families grew more and more intense.

Later on, the aristocratic family led by Sima Yi staged a coup and obtained the highest ruling power from Cao Wei. His grandson, Sima Yan, managed to usurp the Wei Country to build Xiji. His success was also because he had obtained the support of the aristocratic families.

After Xiji destroyed Shu and Wu Country, the power of the aristocratic families increased once more. It formed a situation where if you were from an aristocratic family, you would not fall to the position of a lower ranked official. At the same time, if you were a normal person, it would be hard for you to climb to a high rank.

After Xiji established itself as a country, Cao Wei's power waned, so he had to grant titles and land to the aristocratic families to protect his rule.

Emperor Jinwu made the incorrect decision of choosing his idiotic kid Jinhui to succeed him. The kings were all ambitious. As such, they all thought each other to obtain the throne, resulting in the chaos of the eight kings of the Sima House.

After which, Sima Yue obtained victory and he and the aristocratic family of Wang from Langya Prefecture obtained the true power of government. Later on, Sima Yue died from illness and Wang Yan died in battle.

The Wang Family went east and cooperated with the Langya King Sima Rui. Wang Dao used various methods to unify the aristocratic families in the south. Moreover, under the circumstance where the West Ji was destroyed, they helped Sima Rui form up East Ji.

After East Ji was established, Sima Rui depended on Wang Dao for administrative matters, while he depended on Wang Dun for military affairs. This formed a situation where the Wang and the Ma families shared the power. When Sima Rui wanted to reduce the influence of the Wang Family, Wang Dao started a rebellion, forcing him to yield to Wang Dun. It became evident that a situation where the aristocratic family would decide the court had become an unpreventable fact.

The East Ji's power laid in the hands of the Wang Family, the Qiao Country in the hands of the Hen Family, Chen Prefecture in the hands of the Xie Family, while Yingchuan was under the Yu Family. In all these places, the emperors became puppets.

Liu Yu usurped East Ji and established the Song Country. Although he was born in a normal family, he supported the aristocratic families fully. From the backgrounds of the four ministers that helped him run the country, one could clearly see this fact.

During the Southern Dynasty, aristocratic families were still the core of the various rules.

Although the sixteen kingdoms and the northern dynasty that merged with the southern dynasty were mostly nomads, they respected the interests and powers of the aristocratic families and granted them good positions.

The northern Lu aristocratic family from Fanyang, the Li Family from Longxi, the Yang Family from Hongnong , the Suo Family from Dunhuan, the Li Family from Zhao Prefecture, the Cui Family from Qinghe, and the various other aristocratic families were all doing very well in each country and kingdom.

The North Wei Emperor Xiaowen revolutionized and restored the hereditary system of aristocracy, allowing the aristocratic families in the north to grow much stronger.

West Wei Minister Yu Wentai used the conscription system to bring troops north. Especially in the pass where the aristocratic families and the Xuanbei Clan worked together and formed the Guanlong Army Group.

During the Sui Tang Dynasty, the emperors of the two dynasties both came out from the Guanlong Army. But to win over the hearts of the Shi class of people, they established the imperial exam system to choose officials. However, this system was extremely limited and aristocratic families still mostly controlled the regime.

At the end of the Sui Tang Dynasty, many aristocratic family members took charge, while people born in normal families rarely became officials.

Huangchao, who came from a humble and poor family, was not happy about this situation. As such, he started a rebellion against the Tang, occupying Chang An. Then, he fought against the power of the aristocratic families. As a result of this clash, their power that had affected and influenced China for nine hundred years was no longer seen from that point onward, and they basically stepped off the stage of history.

Chapter 563- Exchanging Achievement Value for Gold

‘Aristocratic Families Rise’ was an information piece that occurred using this part of history as a backdrop.

Based on the settings from Gaia, after its release, there would be three types of aristocratic families that would appear in the wilderness.

Firstly, the dynasty aristocratic families.

An aristocratic family from the times of East Han appeared in Luoyang Imperial City, an aristocratic family from the Wei and Jin Dynasty appeared in Quanzhou Imperial City, while an aristocratic family from the Sui and Tang Dynasty appeared in Chang An Imperial City.

The other imperial cities would more or less have aristocratic families appearing.

Of course, the famous people in history from those families temporarily would not appear. They would wait for their corresponding dynasty to enter the wilderness before showing themselves in the game.

Undeniably, their appearance would bring about a different sort of change to the imperial cities.

The virtual and fake looking imperial courts in the eyes of the players, as well as the various aristocratic families in the cities, would slowly appear and show themselves, becoming more and more realistic.

The adventure gamemode players in the imperial city would have a chance to trigger more quests.

The connection and interaction between the two would also become more close knit.

Apart from that, this update removed the outer barrier of the imperial cities. Hence, there might be a chance that the imperial cities would exert some kind of influence on the wilderness.

Lord gamemode players would have more chances to recruit talented individuals.

Secondly, wilderness aristocratic families.

This type of aristocratic family would directly appear in the wilderness and engage in face-to-face competition with Lords.

In truth, Xiang Yu’s West Chu was considered a type of aristocratic family, even though his family came from the end of Qin. This also meant that Gaia 2nd year was only a warm up. They would truly show their strength in the 3rd year.

As for the 2nd year, the four uprising armies were the main characters of the wilderness.

In contrast to the uprising armies, the aristocratic families in the wilderness would not appear all at once. They would wait till the battle maps of their respective dynasties were completed or some sort of quest was triggered before they appeared.

Hence, they had a huge uncertain factor about them.

Thirdly, territory aristocratic families.

The historical people that the territory had recruited, if they belonged to a certain aristocratic family, their people would appear one by one. Of course, whether you could make them work for you was another problem.

Apart from that, the various counties and prefectures in each territory would also give birth to local powerful families.

To the territories, this situation presented both pros and cons.

The pros did not need to be stated. Although the aristocratic families would restrict their rule, these families had many talents. It would be an instant solution to a territory’s talent shortage problems.

The cons were similarly obvious. When these powerful families formed within the territories, they would cause a sort of restriction to the prestige and political right of the Lord.

All in all, this information piece was not as simple as the uprising one. It was not as violent; instead, it was more mysterious. It would affect the inner workings of the territories.

To the Lords of the wilderness, this was a true test.

Shortly after the release of the information piece, another world notification stunned everyone.

"World Notification: Since it’s the 2nd anniversary of Gaia, we will open up a one time achievement value exchange event. For the specific details, please search on the federal website."

Achievement values was a very sensitive topic for all the players.

Their amount of achievement value would affect their permission levels on planet Hope. Players such as Ouyang Shuo were working hard in the game to obtain more achievement values and raise their permission level.

Now, however, Gaia allowed one to exchange for it.

It was an incredibly huge hit to players.

Even Ouyang Shuo was stunned.

He did not recall such an exchange event taking place in his past life.

Obviously, his revival had once again changed the course of history.

Based on what Gaia had revealed on the website, the exchange would happen between in-game gold and achievement value.

Players could use the achievement value they obtained on earth to exchange for gold, or they could exchange the in-game gold for achievement value.

The ratio was 1:200; one achievement value to two hundred gold.

During the migration, the assets that people owned greatly decreased in value due to the calculations. Especially the billionaires, where their divisor amount had reached 0.0001.

A person who owned one hundred million credits could only obtain ten thousand achievement value.

As the game had run for two years, the production of gold had greatly increased, and the exchange rate had fallen.

Hence the 1:200 ratio could be considered extremely logical.

Still, with the millionaire as an example. If he exchanged all his achievement value for gold, he would gain two million gold straight away.

The credit to gold exchange rate was 50:1.

Apart from that, one also had to consider the depreciation of gold as a result of the large amount of exchanges. In truth, the exchange ratio should have been even less.

Hence, exchanging achievement value for gold was an all out gamble.

Normal players had very little assets, and the assets divisor amount during the calculation was low, so it was actually worth it for them to make the exchange.

A normal grown man had around one thousand achievement value. If he exchanged it all, that would give him two hundred thousand gold, a sizeable fortune.

Of course, to prevent the gambler mentality of players, Gaia restricted the exchangeable achievement value to a third of their current amount.

As a result, a person with one thousand achievement value could at most exchange for 333 points and obtain 66600 thousand gold.

And to the various powers, this was truly a chance to gamble.

With Chun Shenjun as an example, he currently had an extremely awkward position in the game. Without outside help, it would be difficult for him to return to the peak. If he exchanged his huge and boundless achievement value, he could stage a comeback in the game.

If he did that, then there was really no way out for him in the game.

He could not afford to lose.

As for exchanging gold for achievement value.

At the current stage, none of the players could afford to do that.

Even the world’s best Lord, Ouyang Shuo, only had two hundred thousand movable, liquidated funds. Two hundred thousand gold could only be exchanged for one thousand achievement value.

The moment one exchanged gold for achievement, it would be like quenching a thirst with poison, destroying the game balance in the process.

After all, even Ouyang Shuo was not sure how Gaia would evaluate their assets in the game after the ten year period.

Hence, exchanging early on was definitely not a wise choice.

Chapter 564-Grandmaster Voyager

The deadline for the achievement value exchange was 12 AM on the 3rd year, 1st day, 1st month.

Players only had one day to make their choice.

As for the annual system auction, it would be pushed back to the morning of the 2nd day.

Ouyang Shuo could already imagine the bloody scene of this auction. He already lacked confidence to stand out during this auction.

Out of the one hundred million Chinese players, a portion of them would definitely choose to go all in and change their achievement value for gold and take the gamble.

During this auction, the funds in the hands of the players would definitely reach a shockingly enormous sum.

Out of the 12th month income, Ouyang Shuo had only kept 150 thousand gold. This sum was all he had prepared for the auction.

With only 150 thousand gold, he could consider it fortunate if he obtained even one item.

Ouyang Shuo was not planning to join the exchange. After his bloodline awakened, his permission level had risen to C. In theory, he had one hundred thousand achievement value.

Unfortunately, Gaia was the one who had raised his permission level. Hence, a portion of this achievement value was locked and could not be exchanged.

If not, Ouyang Shuo would have also exchanged a portion of his achievement value for gold.

After all, the items at the system auctions had never disappointed him.

Gaia 3rd year, 1st, month 1st day, Shanhai City.

Last year, at this time, Ouyang Shuo had headed for the auction house.

However, this year was an exception.

Since he still had some time, Ouyang Shuo headed for the two hidden buildings and used up his chances.

Who knows what kind of surprise the Silver Prayer House and the Recruitment Hall would give him.

Firstly, Ouyang Shuo walked into the Silver Prayer House. This time, however, he brought the lucky star, Bing'er.

The activation and usage of the hidden buildings were not limited to Ouyang Shuo. As long as he granted them access, they could also use the hidden buildings.

If not, Bai Nanpu could not use the Recruitment Hall every month to recruit special talents.

Bing'er was also extremely interested and fascinated by the hidden buildings.

"Brother, which one should I choose?"

After Ouyang Shuo granted her permission, Bing'er was raring to go.

"Choose the gold ingot!"

Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate; he asked her to chose the highest rank gold ingot.

Although it represented other types and had a huge element of randomness to it, with Bing'er's luck, no matter how random the outcome, it would still grant a decent reward.

Bing'er followed his words and chose the prayer type.

Following which, he could choose the prayer mode.

If Ouyang Shuo was the one choosing, he definitely would self-choose. However, since it was Bing'er, he asked her to choose the random mode without hesitation.

Ouyang Shuo was still uncertain about the self-choosing mode. If the difficulty was too low, he would waste one good opportunity. However, if the difficulty was too high and exceeded the one hundred thousand gold upper limit, the prayer would fail.

On the other hand, the random mode was purely luck.

Only the person who activated the system could see the virtual spinning wheel.

At this moment, Ouyang Shuo could not see it, and only heard Bing'er say, “Stop!"

Following which, a system notification sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for drawing the wish 55% increase in territory sailor wave and wind resistance, automatically deducting one hundred thousand gold. Friendly Reminder: this wish will run from Gaia 3rd year, 1st month, 1st day to Gaia 3rd year, 12 month, 30th day."

Disgusting, truly disgusting.

Bing'er's luck had reached a state where everything always went well for her. As expected, she had drawn the highest one hundred thousand gold wish, and it was also an exceedingly valuable seafaring buff.

The Gaia 3rd year would be the developmental year of territory sailors, so this buff came at the right time. With this buff, Ouyang Shuo had more confidence in completing his plans.

As for the deducted one hundred thousand gold, Ouyang Shuo was not concerned in the least.

This buff, in conjunction with the Mazu Temple specialty, would let the sailors of Shanhai City move like there were on flat ground no matter how dangerous the sea region was.

Long distance voyaging was no longer a dream.

Ouyang Shuo now prayed that the Recruitment Hall would grant him a navy general.

"Bing'er you are amazing!"

Ouyang Shuo could not help but pinch her cheeks.

"Of course!"

This little brat remained arrogant. However, her eyes could not hide the happiness that was bursting out.

"Go, lets go to the Recruitment Hall. Help brother recruit a god general."

Ouyang Shuo led the way out of the Silver Prayer House.

"En!"

The little brat nodded her head and followed closely behind.

Within the Recruitment Hall, Bing'er placed her tender white palm into the sunken in spot.

Instantly, a system notification sounded out in her ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations Ouyang Bing for activating the Recruitment Hall, the recruitment hall has one chance to recruit a special talent and one chance to recruit a historical person, which will you recruit?"

"Recruit historical person!"

Bing'er was extremely smart. She had remembered each word that Ouyang Shuo had told her.

Instantly, a system notification sounded out in Ouyang Shuo's ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, successfully recruited god rank historical person Zheng He, deducting one hundred gold."

A white light flashed and a middle-aged men walked out, “San Bao greets the Lord!"

When Ouyang Shuo saw this situation, he felt a headache.

Was the gap between people really so huge?

Bing'er's luck was really too overpowered.

The moment she acted, she recruited a god rank historical person, who was also a rare naval talent. If it was Ouyang Shuo, he could be considered lucky if he recruited an emperor rank talent.

Zheng He, ah, a legendary figure in Chinese history.

Ouyang Shuo truly felt that even the heavens were trying to help him. He felt so emotional that he forgot to greet Zheng He and just directly checked out Zheng He’s stats.

Name: Zheng He (God Rank)

Dynasty: Ming Dynasty

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Special Rank General, Grandmaster Voyager

Loyalty: 75

Command: 92

Force: 70

Intelligence: 80

Politics: 70

Specialty: Annihilation in Battle (20% increase in cannon range and power, 40% increase in warship speed, 35% increase in ship defense, 45% increase in morale of sailors)

Cultivation method: Voyager Treasure Manual

Evaluation: Zheng He, also know as San Bao, was a famous voyager and diplomat. He traveled down to the western world seven times, competing a great feat in human history. He knows the art of war, and he is brave in battle, able to command troops.

Chapter 565- Star Guiding Technique

The Nanyang Navy currently had three squadrons, the Beihai Bay Squadron housed in Beihai City, the Yashan Squadron housed in Yashan City, and the Jiaozhou Squadron housed in Zhenhai City.

Out of the three, the strongest one was the Cai Mao led Yashan Squadron. It had now expanded to three divisions. Even without mentioning his commanding ability, Ouyang Shuo had recognized Cai Mao's incredible sailor training ability. In a short period of time, he had managed to make the Yashan Squadron the strongest squadron in the territory.

Pei Donglai’s Beihai Bay Squadron ranked second with two divisions.

As for the newest Jiaozhou Squadron, it only had Yanhuo Yaonie leading one squadron.

Based on the military organization, the navy was similar to a legion corps. The squadron was equivalent to a legion, while the divisions in the navy were like the divisions in the army.

Currently, the three legion corps of the army had all been formed up.

On the other hand, even though the navy had obtained their title the earliest, they were still in a mess. The three squadrons added together had six divisions, only slightly better than one army legion.

The navy in the territory was lagging behind; this was already an undeniable fact. There were three reasons behind this matter.

Firstly, a lack of navy generals.

This was the most crucial point. After all, the best navy general in the territory was only Cai Mao.

As for the earliest navy general, Pei Donglai, he had already broken through the bottleneck and upgraded to advanced general with the help of the territorial buffs. If he wanted to go up another step, it would be as difficult as ascending the heavens.

Yanhuo Yaonie, on the other hand, had immense potential. It was only a matter of time for him to become the shining star of the navy army.

In comparison, the army of the territory was littered with stars.

Secondly, it was difficult to train sailors.

In contrast to the army, the navy consisted of sailors apart from the navy soldiers. Their training period was long and their needs were huge. Naturally, this restricted the expansion of the navy.

Apart from the normal sailors, the captains, chief officers, and second officers were all extremely difficult to train. Each captain was hard to come by.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo had already especially arranged the Military Affairs Department to recruit these talents in Quanzhou. Even so, they still could not meet the expansion needs of the navy.

Thirdly, a lack of seafaring experience.

Cai Mao was a typical local navy general. Asking him to train the navy in Yashan City was already pushing it. If one asked him to head out into the ocean, it would exceed his capabilities.

However, if it was just nearby sea warfare, there was no need to possess such a huge navy army. Instead, such a navy would cause a huge burden on the territory finances.

Hence, they restricted the expansion of the navy.

Even Military Affairs Director Du Ruhui kept a conservative attitude toward this problem.

Apart from that, during the Gaia 2nd year, the numerous threats had forced Ouyang Shuo into putting all their strategic effort and resources into the army.

Now, internally, Ouyang Shuo had already decided to take a break.

The territory could use this time to develop the navy.

Recruiting Zheng He at this time was a huge lucky event for the navy.

If not, why would he call Bing'er a super invincible lucky star.

Whatever Ouyang Shuo wanted, she summoned. Along with the buff from the Silver Prayer House, it was a match made in heaven.

Zheng He was born in the 4th year of Emperor Hongwu's reign, the second son of Ma Ha.

During the winter of the 13th year of Hongwu, the Ming Dynasty troops attacked Yunnan. Ma He was just ten years old, and Ming Army Deputy Commander Lan Yu took him into Nanjing. There, he was castrated and entered Yong Le's Yanwang Manor.

In the first year of Yong Le's reign, a monk accepted Ma He as a disciple of the Bodhisattva precept. His monk name was Fu Jixiang.

During the 2nd year of Yong Le, Zheng He had achieved many victories in war. Yong Le awarded him the surname Zheng for his war contributions and called him Zheng He. Then, he was promoted to the internal official eunuch, a 4th grade official only lower in rank compared to the eunuch of the imperial ceremony office. Zheng He was intelligent and able in battle, causing the Yong Le Emperor to rely on him a lot.

From 1405 to 1433, he sailed down to the west seven times, completing an unprecedented feat. On the 8th year, 4th month of the Xuande Emperor’s rule, he died in India and was buried on the Nanjiang Nushou Mountain.

Let's not mention his troop commanding ability, just his identity as a grandmaster voyager and his vast experiences in sea travel would bring about a huge change to the navy army.

His voyaging technique made use of astronomy, landmarks, compasses, and water depth measuring. As the Pacific Fanguo Records recorded, “Using chopped trees as a base, engravings as words, and a floating needle on water to direct the ship."

Amongst these techniques, the most famous one was the Star Guiding Technique.

Star Guiding Technique was not some witchery. Rather, it employed a scientific method to deduce the direction and location through stars.

This technique was groundbreaking at that time amongst voyagers.

At the same time, as the boat had stored freshwater, the stability and anti-sinking ability problems were all solved. These factors allowed him and his crew to sail on even during the harshest of conditions.

During the day, they would hang different colored flags to communicate with one another.

At night, they would use lanterns to reflect the situation. If there was poor visibility due to factors like a fog, they would use drums and horns to communicate.

All in all, Zheng He was a living voyaging treasure. With him, the territory navy would have the confidence to step into the deep oceans.

That afternoon, Nanjiang Governor-General House gave out an imperial order.

It appointed the god rank general Zheng He as the fleet admiral of the Nanyang Navy. He would obtain the title of Commander-in-Chief, similar to a marshal of the legion corps.

Zheng He had just arrived. Even without having time to grow familiar with the situation, he was directly thrown into a high ranking position.

Such a special honor was something that not even Baiqi and the others had obtained.

One could see how much importance Ouyang Shuo had placed onto him.

As a legendary voyager, although his personal martial arts skills were strong, his commanding ability could not compare with Baiqi. However, he had a strength that the other generals did not possess.

He could lead a huge, long distance traveling navy.

This was the reason why Ouyang Shuo treated him so well.

Ocean warfare, especially after the warships were equipped with cannons, totally did not need personal strength. The important factor was someone to lead them forward.

Zheng He undoubtedly had such an ability.

Ouyang Shuo had reasons to believe that under his leadership, the Nanyang Navy could truly be built up.

Chapter 566- Third System Auction

Gaia 3rd year, 1st month, 1st day, afternoon, Nanjiang Governor-General Manor.

Ouyang Shuo, the newly appointed Nanyang Navy Commander-in-Chief Zheng He, and the Military Affairs director Du Ruhui, who returned from Mulan Stronghold, held a meeting in Ouyang Shuo’s reading room.

They naturally discussed the voyager plan that Ouyang Shuo had wanted to enact.

In the 1st half of the 3rd year, the territory would focus on internal affairs to form a solid foundation. They would not launch wars against their enemies for now.

During this period of time, Zhang Yi’s Honglu Temple would have a chance to show off their skills.

As for Ouyang Shuo, he would turn his eyes toward the boundless oceans.

Before this, the voyager plan was all just a dream.

After obtaining the Ming Dynasty Firearm Making Technical Manual, the seafaring buff, and Zheng He, this plan could finally come into fruition.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to use this chance to extend his lead in the Chinese region. He wanted to make it so that even Di Chen and the others could not catch up. Even if they exchange all their achievement values for gold, they would still fail to surpass Shanhai City.

Zheng He had headed down the atlantic in history, but he only managed to reach Africa. However, Ouyang Shuo had turned his eyes to Europe's England.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to complete a ground breaking trade there.

One had to say that Ouyang Shuo's thoughts were exceedingly crazy. Even Zheng He felt his blood boil, and his loyalty stat rose by 10 points.

The sea was Zheng He’s calling.

Ouyang Shuo only raised the idea. As for the specific plans and preparations, Zheng He would lead the matter and the Military Affairs Department would help him out.

As such, they needed Zheng He and Du Ruhui to work with one another.

Du Ruhui would pass the army organizational matters to Deputy Director Zhao Kuo. Following which, his job was to help Zheng He complete his legendary plan.

The three of them discussed the matter till deep into the night before ending the meeting.

The next day, under the accompaniment of Du Ruhui, Zheng He left Shanhai City.

He was heading toward the bases of the three squadrons to plan the voyager project and to start the early preparation work.

Voyaging, especially long distance ones, were never easy.

From the building of the warships, to the recruitment and training of the sailors, to the preparation of men and resources, and the formation of the expedition squadron; every single one of these tasks were not completed in a day.

However, since winter neared, they needed to set off as early as possible.

China was next to the ocean, so the northeast monsoon would sweep them toward the Indian Ocean. If they missed this opportunity, they would most definitely fail to make the trip.

Hence, before the invention of the steam engine, long distance voyaging adhered to extremely strict timings.

……

At the same time, Ouyang Shuo brought one hundred thousand gold and headed toward Jingdou with his guards.

The Shadow Guards of the Shanhai Guards had already gained some control in Jingdou. Commander Cui Tianqi had personally visited Jingdou to ensure Ouyang Shuo's safety.

It was obvious that none of them wanted another assassination attempt to occur.

Meanwhile, Song Jia would remain in Shanhai City to prepare for their wedding.

Ouyang Shuo's position was special, so his wedding was naturally different from a normal commoner’s. As a result, the preparations were aplenty and highly complicated.

For this, they even had to set up a Wedding Preparation Division.

Jiang Shang personally took charge, acting as its secretary.

As for the specific tasks, the Culture Division under the Science, Education, Culture, and Health department would take charge.

Jiang Shang controlled the processes of the entire wedding, while the Culture Secretary Xu Shuda left no stone unturned.

The Financial Department was also exceedingly generous, providing one hundred thousand gold to prepare for the wedding.

The day was set on the 2nd day of the Chinese New Year, the 4th day of the 2nd month.

……

His use of the Silver Prayer House had cost him one hundred thousand gold. Helplessly, to not cause any more of a burden on the Financial Department, Ouyang Shuo had to reduce his auction funds.

One hundred thousand gold, Ouyang Shuo truly could not imagine if this amount would have any use.

Even so, he still needed to go.

This auction would be massive, so Ouyang Shuo definitely would not miss it.

Jingdou, prosperous as usual.

The only difference was a sort of scent of royalty and power that grew thicker and thicker in the city.

The information piece had slowly started to affect the atmosphere of the imperial city.

On the forums, there were already players who were claiming to have received relevant quests. Who knows whether those claims were true or false.

In contrast to the usual times, due to the removal of the Super Auction Platform, the players lacked an outlet for all the random items they received through quests and adventures.

Their intelligence was boundless. Some of the smart ones had even opened stalls in front of the auction house.

Looking out, stalls filled the entire middle street, and the sounds of people hawking their items could be heard.

During the times of the Super Auction Platform, such scenes were rarely seen.

As Ouyang Shuo walked down the street under the protection of his guards, he was reminded of his last life. During those times, he had also walked down the stall-covered streets.

At that time, he hoped that he could obtain an expensive equipment to save a little gold.

However, each and every time, he went home disappointed.

Thinking about those times, Ouyang Shuo was filled with emotion.

Ouyang Shuo looked at stall by stall, and he would occasionally shake his head. To the current Ouyang Shuo, how could normal items catch his eyes?

Even in the busy middle street, Ouyang Shuo and his group formed the most eye-catching presence. Hundreds of the strongest personal guards was enough to make the other players give way.

Quickly, there were some players who recognized him.

"It's the Lianzhou Lord!" Sharp bystander 1.

"It really is him. Is he so bored? To actually stroll the streets and look at stalls like us." Jealous bystander 2.

"So handsome~~" brainless girl.

The entire street became more excited and bustling because of his appearance.

Ouyang Shuo’s face had an awkward expression.

The Chen Dameng led personal guards were enough to ensure that no one could approach him.

Hence, he could still stroll aimlessly.

However, since his identity was revealed, the sellers all looked at him differently. They picked up their items and promoted them to him desperately.

Everyone knew that he was a big spender.

Woah, no, he was a rich tycoon!

Chapter 567- Beihai Bay Treasure Map

Facing the warmth of the stall owners, Ouyang Shuo took it with a smile.

Obviously, he would not buy their ‘treasures’ just because they treated him nicely.

Ouyang Shuo was not a spendthrift.

Even if Ouyang Shuo did not buy anything, no one would dare to say that he was stingy.

This was the difference between god tycoons and normal players.

Just as he slowly started to lose interest and was ready to leave for the auction house, a map suddenly entered his sights and shocked him.

"Beihai Bay Treasure Map (2)!"

This map instantly reminded Ouyang Shuo of the other two pieces kept in his storage bag.

Ouyang Shuo had originally thought that he lacked fate with the treasure. The two pieces of the map had started to gather dust in the corner of his storage bag.

Who would have guessed he would find the last piece at this stall.

Fate was truly magical.

At this moment, Ouyang Shuo really thought that Bing'er's luck had rubbed off onto him.

If the Super Auction Platform was not removed, and these stalls had not made him reminisce of the past, he would not have encountered this map fragment.

Although he was shocked in his heart, his face remained calm and did not show any abnormality. After that first glance, his eyes did not sweep past that treasure map. Instead, he gazed at the other items.

The owner of the stall was a male player, and his eyes were filled with excitement. Although Ouyang Shuo did not want to take advantage of this fellow, he could not allow this stall owner to extort him.

"How is it? Have you seen anything that you like?" The stall owner said with a wide smile.

"How much for this item?"

Ouyang Shuo pointed to a territory specialty scroll and asked.

"Five thousand!" As expected, the owner wanted to rip him off.

This specialty scroll was just a basic scroll that increased rainfall by 5%. Moreover, it had a time limit of three months.

It was something that the territory did not need to have.

He actually wanted five thousand gold for such a useless scroll.

He really thought Ouyang Shuo was an idiot?

Ouyang Shuo smiled toward the stall owner in a manner that did not feel Iike a smile.

Although he did not say anything, the stall owner could feel an invisible pressure.

Ouyang Shuo was telling him a simple message, ‘Do not take me for a fool.’

The stall owner awkwardly smiled, “1500 gold."

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and acted like he was about to leave.

"Sigh, one thousand, one thousand; that's the lowest price!" He had finally met a prominent Lord, so he did not want to mess up this deal.

"Okay!" Ouyang Shuo saw that he had bargained enough, so he did not waste anymore time. As such, he casually asked, “Are there any more interesting items?"

"Yes,yes, yes!"

He said excitedly, accepting the one thousand gold from Ouyang Shuo.

To normal Lords, one thousand gold was an enormous amount. When the neighbouring stall owners saw this exchange, they all looked on in envy.

This situation caused the stall owner to feel more and more delighted.

"What about this?" He picked up a Suozi Armor.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head.

"What about this?" This time, it was some random circular ball.

Ouyang Shuo once again shook his head, as his expression started to show some impatience.

"What about this treasure map? This is a treasure." In the end, the stall owner still picked up the map that Ouyang Shuo desired.

"Treasure map?" Ouyang Shuo acted like he was interested.

"That's right. This treasure is in the northern bay; that's your territory." The stall owner purposely sucked up to him, as his smile grew brighter and brighter.

"Let me see!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded and took the map, once again confirming the authenticity.

The stall owner looked on nervously at the tycoon in front of him. Only to see Ouyang Shuo's expression turn from anticipation to disappointment. In the end, he shook his head and sighed.

"A flawed map?"

When the stall owner heard these words, he laughed awkwardly. He obviously knew the weakness of this item. If it was complete, he would have sold it on the Super Auction Platform, why would he wait for today?

"No matter how flawed, it's still a rare map. Who knows, you're so lucky, so you might get the other two." The stall owner did not want to give up.

"My basic luck stat is 5…."

"...."

The stall owner could not say anything, a great awkwardness hung on his face.

"How about this? Speak a suitable price, and I'll buy it as a collector’s item." Ouyang Shuo's tone was so calm that one could not see any flaws in it.

The long term training in the territory was obviously something other players could not compare with.

No matter how smart the stall owner was, he could not beat Ouyang Shuo, this old fox.

"Twenty thousand!"

This guy truly wanted money and not his life.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to just leave; he felt speechless. Let us not talk about the map being flawed. Even if he found the treasure, it might not even be worth twenty thousand.

"Haiz, haiz... No, no!" When he saw that Ouyang Shuo truly wanted to leave, the stall owner blamed himself for being too greedy.

"Five thousand! Five thousand gold and you take it!" The owner panicked.

Ouyang Shuo calmly replied, his face resolute like iron, "Three thousand!"

His tone could not be doubted.

When the stall owner heard this demand, he knew that he could not rip Ouyang Shuo off, so he agreed.

Ouyang Shuo took the map and left; he was not in the mood to shop anymore. Who knows what kind of riches this lucky encounter would bring Shanhai City.

Just as Ouyang Shuo placed the map into his storage bag, a system notification sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for gathering the three pieces of the Beihai Bay Treasure Map. Map can be merged, will you merge it?"

"Yes!"

With a brushing sound, the three map fragments became one, turning into an old and complete treasure map.

The life riches of the most famous pirate in Behai Bay’s history, Blood Slaughterer, had finally revealed itself to Ouyang Shuo.

After leaving the stall, Ouyang Shuo immediately took out the complete treasure map.

According to the description of the treasure map, the treasure was buried on a deserted island. Moreover, this island was in the Northern Bay region.

The part that made Ouyang Shuo frown was the location; it was near Annan Region. To obtain the treasure, he would have to alert the players in Annan Region.

As expected, the heavens would not grant anyone free gifts.

Chapter 568- Another God Weapon

On the topic of Annan, this region was also within Ouyang Shuo's strategic attack range.

"Why not, let's use this chance as a warm up!"

Ouyang Shuo kept this matter in mind, as he quickly walked toward the auction house. Just as he walked toward the main door, he bumped into Chun Shenjun.

"Oh, is it not Lord Wuyi?"

After eating numerous successive defeats at the hands of Ouyang Shuo, Chun Shenjun could not treat Ouyang Shuo with a false sense of courtesy anymore.

"Yes, it's me!" Ouyang Shuo was exceedingly calm.

"You are definitely going to show off your strength again during this auction, right?" Chun Shenjun winked, "Speaking of which, you're famous for buying out the auction!"

His words were true. After all, during the last two system auctions, Ouyang Shuo had used his gold advantage to buy up nearly half of the items.

Of course, when these words came from Chun Shenjun's mouth, they contained a different meaning.

Ouyang Shuo smiled. Obviously, he saw through Chun Shenjun's intentions, "It won’t happen this time. I'm here to watch the battle. I think I'll be able to witness the glory of the richest tycoon in China."

"Hen, glad you know your place," Chun Shenjun said.

"Well said, someone has finally opened you up to your real place!"

Suddenly, a player behind Chun Shenjun spoke up.

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, his eyes turned cold.

"Haha, just joking, just joking!"

Although the fellow said that he was joking, his face showed his undeniable mocking intent.

Ouyang Shuo naturally would not bother with these useless people, so he said to Chun Shenjun, “Then let me congratulate you in advance. I hope you can get what you invested this time and not end up empty handed again."

When Chun Shenjun heard this jibe, his face instantly turned black.

Obviously, his family had used the one time achievement value exchange opportunity to gather a huge sum of gold; they were willing to go all in.

Chun Shenjun had an immense amount of pressure on his shoulders.

This auction was a sign of things to come.

During the last two auctions, Chun Shenjun had obtained insider information, and he had also prepared enough funds. However, time after time, Ouyang Shuo had messed up his plans. Naturally, he was filled with hatred toward Ouyang Shuo.

Meeting him at the door, Chen Shenjun naturally wanted to mock him.

However, Ouyang Shuo saw through his intentions and did not bother, directly walking into the auction house.

Looking at his back view, the teasing smile on Chun Shenjun's face disappeared, and only seriousness remained. It was obvious that his show had failed.

"Don’t tell me that guy has some secret funds?"

Having such thoughts, Chun Shenjun followed him into the auction house.

Before this auction even began, rivalries had already begun to take off.

"Wuyi, over here!"

Bai Hua had entered the auction house earlier than him, and she called out to Ouyang Shuo.

During every auction, the members of the Shanhai Alliance would gather together. This had already become a tradition.

Such a power like the Shanhai Alliance was something that even the Jingdou Auction House did not dare to offend. Hence, the number 1 suite on the 2nd floor was left for them.

Bai Hua's shout instantly alerted the entire auction house. In contrast to the previous years, a portion of the players did not look at Ouyang Shuo with fear. Instead, their eyes contained an eagerness to challenge him.

It was obvious that the achievement value exchange Gaia had pushed out was extremely popular. After all, such an event would only happen once. It seems like there was a relatively large portion of the players that had decided to go and try their luck.

Of course, a single person was not terrifying. However, an entire guild or a huge family was worthy of fear.

These groups had many members. As long as a person exchanged for one to two thousand gold, the guild or huge family could accumulate an enormous sea of funds.

Lin Jing had revealed to Ouyang Shuo that the War-Snow Rose Mercenary Group had gathered up a few million gold. There was also a large number of members that kept some funds in their own hands.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this news, his head swelled up.

In comparison, Shanhai City was a poor egg.

Of course, no one would spend all the gold that they had exchanged for all at once.

If not, they would just be drinking poison to quench their thirst.

An economist with a little knowledge would know the kind of detrimental effect an enormous amount of funds would have if they suddenly flowed into the market.

If that was the case, the gold that they had risked so much to exchange for would depreciate by ten times.

No one would be such a fool.

Normally speaking, players would store up the gold and use it over a few years.

Everyone knew that as the game went on, the amount of funds needed would turn into a huge sum. During the 1st year, Ouyang Shuo had one hundred gold and was considered rich. Now, everyone had hundreds of thousands of gold in their hands.

After all, as the production of the game gold increased, a certain amount of inflation would occur. Moreover, as the rank and grade of the items grew higher and rarer, they would naturally be more expensive.

This news caused a light bulb to light up in Ouyang Shuo’s mind.

Obviously, Ouyang Shuo had picked up a business idea during this limited time exchange.

If he could attract the players to place their funds into the Four Seas Bank, this could be a huge opportunity for the bank.

For this matter, Ouyang Shuo had especially looked for Treasurer Meng Zhida to discuss.

As for the specific evaluation, Meng Zhida had already started working on it.

……

When Ouyang Shuo walked into the suite, everyone had basically gathered.

It seems like he had used a lot of time strolling around.

After a short while, the auction officially began.

In contrast to last year, this auction did not have any warm up auctions. Instead, it went right to the ten items. Evidently, Gaia knew that many millionaires had joined this event.

Their eyes would naturally be locked onto the ten best items. As for normal items, there were many that were auctioned off in the monthly auctions, and they did not need to waste their time at such an event.

Same as the previous years, the top auctioneer of the auction house walked up confidently. Ten beauties formed up in a line behind him. Each one of them held a tray covered with a red cloth.

After a simple introduction, the auction immediately began.

"Now, let's auction the first item." The auctioneer laughed.

The first beauty walked up and pulled away the cloth, revealing a sword.

"This is one of the ten famous swords, the Taia Sword. The Sword of Might, it is ranked 4th on the list. The bottom price is 53 thousand gold, and there is no buyout price. Please make your bids." The auctioneer introduced.

The moment his words ended, the whole place was thrown into an uproar.

Gaia was determined to let all the players have a huge fight, actually not setting a buyout price. This also meant that there was no upper limit to the price.

Even Ouyang Shuo did not expect Gaia to pull such a move. Just the starting item was a god weapon.

The atmosphere started to boil up in excitement.

All the people were delighted and eager, determined to obtain this first item.

Chapter 569-Scattering Bean That Turns into Soldier Talisman

Gaia had set the starting bid for the Taia Sword as the same as the final price that Lin Jing had bought the Qixing Longyuan for.

"55 thousand!"

"65 thousand!"

……

"85 thousand!"

"100 thousand!"

In less than ten minutes, the price of the Taia Sword had rushed up to one hundred thousand gold. The worst part was that none of the old faces had opened their mouths yet.

This one hundred thousand gold price was just a sign of the things to come.

As the price climbed higher, it would be time for the more familiar faces to compete.

"150 thousand!"

The guild leader of Jianqi Zonglai - Yijian Xilai, took the lead to break the silence, adding fifty thousand gold all at once. He instantly set up a barrier that blocked most of the normal players.

"200 thousand!"

The one that bid next was an old rival of Yijian Xilai, Tingyu Floor's Jianqi Leiyin.

When Yijian Xilai heard this price, he looked toward Jianqi Leiyin with a pained and emotional expression on his cold face. Unexpectedly, he gave up on the item.

The ten famous swords were the most fitting weapons for sword wielders.

Yijian Xilai and Jianqi Leiyin, this ex-couple, could be considered the most famous pair of sword wielders in the game.

However, they both ran different guilds.

Hence, they could both be considered the most powerful competitors for the Taia Sword. Yijian Xilai giving up was naturally to give in to Jianqi Leiyin.

It seems like some old feelings still existed between the two.

"What a complicated relationship, ah!"

Ouyang Shuo tilted his head and looked at Jianqi Leiyin. They were in the same suite, as she was part of the Shanhai Alliance. However, he was unable to see any emotion.

The heart of a woman was truly hard to see through.

After Yijian Xilai gave up, it seems like Jianqi Leiyin was bound to win.

"250 thousand gold!"

At this very moment, someone suddenly appeared to spoil the situation. He was the guild leader of Star Alliance, Xingzhe Zichen. Obviously, as a descendant of an aristocratic family, he had the funds and ability to participate in this matter.

Although the development of the Star Alliance in Jingdou was slower than he had expected, thanks to the support of his family, he had managed to gain a stable footing.

Since they had already revealed themselves to the world, Xingzhe Zichen had grown even more ambitious.

His occupation was the hidden occupation - Chi Cultivator. Logically speaking, he had little need for the Taia Sword. As such, no one understood why he had placed a bid.

When Yijian Xilai saw the situation, his eyes froze.

Speaking of which, the two of them were allies, so this act by Xingzhe Zichen made him extremely annoyed.

Even Di Chen could not help but frown when he saw the situation.

For Star Alliance to become stable in Jingdou, they had obviously relied on the full support of Jianqi Zongheng. If not, Shadow Alliance and Yimeng Pavilion, who Shanhai Alliance supported, would have eaten them clean.

At this moment, Xingzhe Zichen went to provoke the old lover of Yijian Xilai.

Was he tired of living?

Di Chen shook his head. For the first time, he started to weigh the pros and cons of his act.

"300 thousand!"

Evidently, Jianqi Leiyin would not accept defeat.

The moment her words sounded out, the entire auction house broke into a huge discussion.

No one had expected the first item to break the three hundred thousand gold mark.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this number, he basically gave up on picking up any scrapes. He knew that he was just here to watch the fun.

……

Although he belonged to the Yanhuang Alliance camp, Xingzhe Zichen did not share the same suite as Di Chen and the others. Instead, he chose to have his own suite.

At this moment, within the 4th suite, an interesting conversation was occurring.

"Young master, let's stop while we can!"

The one who spoke was a middle-aged man sitting behind Xingzhe Zichen.

"Let me play a little more!"

Xingzhe Zichen grinned. He was sure that Jianqi Leiyin would play on, which was why he was so fearless.

His goal was to rip her off.

This kind of act that harmed others and did not bring any gains to oneself was something that only a person sick in the head could do.

"350 thousand!"

As expected, Xingzhe Zichen raised the price once more.

"400 thousand!"

Jianqi Leiyin was utterly triggered.

This time, the entire hall fell silent. No one had expected for the first auction item to reach such a price.

The guild had money, but money was not waste paper. For purchasing a god weapon that cost four hundred thousand gold, Jianqi Leiyin would definitely face a lot of pressure from within the guild.

After the dust settled, the Taia Sword officially entered the hands of Jianqi Leiyin.

The result of the first item had obviously pleased the auctioneer, and he revealed the second item with a smile on his face. It was actually a small talisman.

"Scattering Bean That Turns into Soldier Talisman. After use, can summon fifty thousand elite troops for half a day. Base price of sixty thousand gold. Similarly, there's no buyout, please make your bids!" The auctioneer announced.

Woosh!

A cold air rose through the venue.

This time, Gaia had really thrown out something unusual. The first two items were both absolutely rare.

Even legendary items had started to appear in the game.

All of a sudden, the eyes of the Lord gamemode players burned with fire.

Based on the definition of the system, the elite forces would be a 7th rank or higher soldier. Currently, amongst all the player territories, there were definitely less than three digits that met such a standard.

Fifty thousand elite troops were enough to decide the outcome of a battle.

The more terrifying aspect was that this fifty thousand could be summoned at any time, which would allow the user to catch their enemy completely off guard. If it was used well, it would be highly efficient and effective.

No wonder they could only last for half a day.

If not, it would truly be too overpowered.

Even so, it was a god item to Lord gamemode players that was worth fighting for.

"200 thousand!"

Just the first bid destroyed the hopes of the normal Lords.

"250 thousand!"

……

"300 thousand!"

The price of the bid climbed at a terrifying speed.

It would almost certainly break the bidding record of the Taia Sword.

"400 thousand!"

The one that bid was the richest person out of all the Lords - Chun Shenjun.

When Ouyang Shuo heard him bid, he looked at Bai Hua and muttered, “He desperately needs this item!"

"It's a saving grace for him!" Bai Hua replied.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and turned his head back to the auction situation.

"450 thousand!" Wandering Magic made a bid.

Ouyang Shuo noticed that before Wandering Magic made his bid, he had exchanged glances with Xiong Ba.

Chapter 570-Yijing Jin

Since Ouyang Shuo could notice this little action, Chun Shenjun, who was in the same suite as them, could obviously notice it too. As such, his brows frowned up.

"Do we have to fight amongst ourselves?" Chun Shenjun looked toward Wandering Magic before turning his eyes toward Xiong Ba.

Wandering Magic was born in a small family. As such, he could not have obtained much from the achievement value exchange. Since he possessed such a huge sum of money, Xiong Ba was naturally supporting him.

When Wandering Magic had gathered the alliance army to attack Zhangchu, Xiong Ba had also acted behind the scenes.

Chun Shenjun knew that, which was why he directly looked at Xiong Ba instead of Wandering Magic.

When Wandering Magic saw Chun Shenjun’s actions, his face could not help but cramp up. The feeling of being looked down on truly felt uncomfortable.

"There is no need." Xiong Ba nodded.

When Chin Shenjun heard this reply, he was delighted and thought that Xiong Ba planned to compromise. Although he was surprised, he also felt that it was expected. After all, Chun Shenjun did not think that Xiong Ba would go all out because of Wandering Magic.

Who knew Xiong Ba that would continue, dragging Chun Shenjun down, “Since you're so righteous, then I thank you in advance!"

Xiong Ba looked at Chun Shenjun with a mischievous smile filled with delighted, like he had sunk Chun Shenjun's boat.

Chun Shenjun’s face instantly turned black.

"Then let's see who's better!" Chun Shenjun said coldly.

At that moment, the conflict between the two had reached an irreparable state.

Di Chen quietly sat at the side and did not saying anything. However, the look in his eyes became more and more complicated.

Although the Yanhuang Alliance had signs of rising back up, the internal cracks had worsened. No one knew how long the entire alliance could last for.

Making use of the exchange event, Chun Shenjun wanted to raise his status in the alliance.

However, be it Di Chen or even Xiong Ba, neither of them was willing to look up to others.

With the three of them existing together, it was enough to push the entire alliance toward an unknown future. The cooperation between strong people was like that, someone needed to compromise.

If not, they would just butt heads and bleed.

In this aspect, the young children of the aristocratic families were far from the level of their parents.

Each aristocratic family was trying to use this chance to mould and train their next generation.

Most importantly, in order to maintain the stability of the alliance, they needed to choose a boss.

However, ever since Di Chen crashed and burned, the position of Yanhuang Alliance leader had been left empty.

The atmosphere in the 2nd suite suddenly turned extremely weird.

Of course, the auction still continued.

"550 thousand gold!"

Chun Shenjun threw out a bid that made everyone else feel despair.

No matter how magical the item, 550 thousand gold was truly too much.

"560 thousand gold!"

Wandering Magic, or in truth, Xiong Ba, accepted the challenge.

"580 thousand!" Chun Shenjun did not hesitate in the slightest.

"590 thousand!"

"600 thousand!"

Finally, Chun Shenjun pushed the price to a whole new peak. The atmosphere in the entire auction house froze, as they witnessed the two powerhouses of the Yanhuang Alliance go head-to-head.

When he saw that Wandering Magic wanted to bid again, Zhan Lang, who had remained silent, suddenly spoke up, “Brother Xiong Ba, let's stop here; there's no need to be like this."

Only the neutral Zhan Lang could stop the current internal conflict. As for Di Chen, there was hatred between him and the two of them, so he naturally had no room to speak.

As expected, Xiong Ba's expression turned solemn when he heard Zhan Lang speak up.

During the battle to destroy the Huangchao uprising army, the two of them had a close working relationship. These two neighbors still had many opportunities to work together in the future.

Hence, Xiong Ba naturally needed to seriously consider Zhan Lang's suggestion. Additionally, the bid was already close to his bottom line.

Seeing that, he nodded to Wandering Magic. He was truly a formidable character; he knew when to pick things up and when to place down things.

When Zhan Lang saw Xiong Ba concede, he smiled in delight.

Xiong Ba giving him face and respect made him feel honored.

This huge internal conflict ended just like that.

Di Chen had to feel the most despondent; he remained silent.

As time was limited, the third item was quickly revealed - a book.

"Yijing Jin (Art of Tendon Changing): A pinnacle emperor rank internal cultivation heart cultivation method. It has the miraculous effect of changing tendons and washing bones. Base price of fifty thousand, no buyout option." The auctioneer introduced.

Everyone in the China region would have heard of this name.

Undeniably, be it adventure gamemode players or Lord gamemode players, they would all crave this technique. One could only obtain such a great cultivation method through pure luck.

A person would be blessed for the rest of their life if they obtained such a technique.

Especially the players, as they could directly use this authentic internal body and organ cultivation method, which made it even more valuable. The earlier they cultivated this technique, the greater their advantage and lead.

For Ouyang Shuo to obtain the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Method was a grace from god. Just by cultivating this technique, his permission level had risen by two levels.

If this matter was announced, many people would feel jealous.

One could say that no one was able to resist the temptation of the Yijing Jin.

Within the 1st suite, Lin Jing was the most excited.

Since she had obtained the Qixing Longyuan, she had strived to obtain a top rank cultivation method to complement it. Amongst which, her sword technique was king rank, so she was temporarily using it.

As such, she currently lacked such an internal cultivation technique.

During last year's new year, when Bing'er obtained the Wugou Heart Sutra, the one that felt the most jealous was Lin Jing.

Hence, she currently felt a deep desire to grab this item.

After all, in terms of financial ability, War-Snow Rose was ranked first or second out of all the guilds.

This item also raised the interest of Jianqi Leiyin, who had just obtained the Taia Sword.

She had the exact same idea as Lin Jing.

Apart from them, this item also tempted Moon Shines Over the River, Ji Yinghu, and Mengyun Tunding, these three guild leaders. The only guild leader that showed no interest was Qing Sikou.

As for Bai Hua, Xunlong Dianxue, Gong Chengshi, and the others, they wanted this item but lacked the ability to obtain it.

They were like Ouyang Shuo, only coming here to take a look. This trip was just destined to be a sort of excursion and nothing would come out of it.

Since Feng Qiuhuang had lost the support of her family, she was also in the same situation.

One could say that the 3rd system auction was destined to be a battle between the prominent guilds and families. Other people, including Ouyang Shuo, could only watch on as bystanders.

Chapter 571-Assist

As expected, the Yijing Jin caused a new round of crazy bidding.

"60 thousand gold!"

……

"150 thousand gold!"

……

"250 thousand gold!"

……

"300 thousand gold!"

Ten minutes, in just ten minutes, the price skyrocketed to three hundred thousand gold.

The base price that Gaia set completely lacked value as a reference point. Instead, the players used the previous two bidding prices as a gauge.

"400 thousand gold!"

Lin Jing finally made her bid. It was the price that the Taia Sword went for, reaching the first mark.

The entire auction house stopped.

A short while later, a greater eagerness and excitement broke out.

400 thousand gold was not enough to scare them off.

There was only a total of ten items a year during the yearly auction.

One could be considered extremely lucky if they grabbed even one item.

Hence, as long as one had prepared some gold, they were not ready to miss any chances.

"420 thousand gold!"

"450 thousand gold!"

The bids the players called out continued to rise without any intentions of stopping.

A serious expression finally appeared on Lin Jing's face.

She had not expected the Yijing Jin to actually cause such a crazy reaction.

Everyone present acted like they were utterly crazy.

Some even wondered if Gaia had placed all the good items at the front.

Everyone was filled with excitement and interest.

"600 thousand gold!"

The second time Lin Jing threw out a bid, it was the price that the talisman was sold for.

She also wanted to use such a strategy to force out the lucky survivors. At the same time, she wanted to tell her opponents that she badly wanted the Yijing Jin.

As expected, after she made this bid, all the players became extremely careful.

600 thousand was not an easily acquirable sum, even to a big guild. Furthermore, they were bidding for an internal cultivation technique that only one person could use.

No one could not truly spend the guild funds as they wished.

The 600 thousand gold that she had bid already approached the limit of the funds that she could use.

Last year, she had spent a huge amount of gold to obtain the Qixing Longyuan, which caused some unhappiness in the guild. Luckily, Ouyang Shuo had opened up Yashan City, allowing Lin Jing to help remove such negative effects through a series of good guild decisions.

Everyone was looking on, focusing on whether or not the auction record would be broken once more.

Outside of the auction house, they were broadcasting the auction in real time.

When Lin Jing bid the sky high price of six hundred thousand, the people on the entire street felt their blood boil. Their cheers mixed with one another and combined like a huge wave.

Toward these normal people who had set up stalls, six hundred thousand was a sky high price.

They were all witnessing a myth of riches and wealth.

"650 thousand!"

Myths were meant to be broken.

The one that bid was Chun Shenjun, who had obtained the Scattering Bean That Turns into Soldier Talisman.

This move surprised everyone.

Even Ouyang Shuo could not help but turn his eyes toward the 2nd suite.

It seems like this time, Chun Shenjun's family was determined to go all in on the game.

"700 thousand gold!"

Before the wave died down, another rose up.

Just as Chun Shenjun made his bid, a third person broke it.

Moreover, the bidder had risen the price by a full fifty thousand gold!

The Yijing Jin possessed a greater charm and temptation than expected.

The new bidder was also a member of the Yanhuang Alliance, Feng Qingyang.

This matter did not surprise anyone.

Feng Qingyang was a famous martial idiot. In fact, him giving up on the Taia Sword had already shocked everyone.

However, he obviously had no intentions of giving up on the Yijing Jin.

After all, his family's internal cultivation technique could not compare to this.

Most importantly, he had found out that the Yijing Jin had a hidden specialty; it could greatly raise the bone structure stat of players.

Since Feng Qingyang solely focused on martial arts, there was nothing more important to him than the Yijing Jin.

As such, he had given up on the race for the Taia Sword.

Of course, this was in part because the Taia Sword did not fit with his sword technique. Out of the ten swords, he mainly cared about the tenth sword, the Chengying Sword.

The Chengying Sword was the formless sword; it was the most mysterious and unpredictable sword.

……

When they saw the price of the Yijing Jin rise to seven hundred thousand all of a sudden, Lin Jing and Xie Siyun exchanged glances and gave each other a pained smile, giving up on this race.

Lin Jing was not a foolish person.

Although they could take out seven hundred thousand gold without too much difficulty, it was not worth it.

Furthermore, it was not the most suitable technique for Lin Jing, so she did not need to go all in to purchase it.

On the other hand, Chun Shenjun's expression made one feel many thoughts.

If someone else had bid for this item, Chun Shenjun would have raised the price without hesitation.

However, it was Feng Qingyang this time.

Feng Qingyang could be considered one of his closest allies in the Yanhuang Alliance.

The only problem was that Chun Shenjun also craved the Yijing Jin.

Of course, the martial way was not his goal.

He wanted to use this internal technique to strengthen his body. Moreover, since he had so much funds, it was hard for him to really give up on it.

Everyone was waiting for Chun Shenjun to bid once more.

Chun Shenjun was not the only person that had not given up on this item.

The others were just looking at the battle between the two before deciding when to act.

However, the auctioneer had started the count down.

"700 thousand going once!"

Chun Shenjun did not react; his expression was extremely difficult to read.

"700 thousand going twice!"

Chun Shenjun raised his head and looked at Feng Qingyang, as he opened his mouth.

The eyes of everyone focused on the 2nd suite.

From his expression, it looked like he was about to make his move.

The other players all rubbed their palms together, preparing for the final battle.

"700 thousand gold, thrice!"

At this very moment, the auctioneer slammed the hammer.

Unexpectedly, Chun Shenjun did not make a bid, directly giving up on the race.

The whole field was shocked.

Some people reacted and realized that Chun Shenjun had played them as fools.

When the auctioneer called the bid once, Chun Shenjun had probably hesitated.

But at the second call, he decided to give up and give Feng Qingyang a beautiful assist. It allowed Feng Qingyang to obtain the Yijing Jin at a minimized price.

At this current moment, everyone felt extremely frustrated.

Unfortunately, the dust had settled.

One could only say that they were too greedy.

On the other hand, Feng Qingyang looked toward Chun Shenjun with a bright and wide smile.

Chapter 572-Mongol Iron Cavalry Training Manual

Chun Shenjun was extremely a shrewd person. Between his personal strength and his family’s future, he had decided to choose the latter. He gave up on the Yijing Jin and won the friendship of Feng Qingyang.

This deal was definitely worth it.

Obviously, Chun Shenjun had thought the matter through. His family was giving everything they had, and they could not allow him to act arrogant or stubborn. His every action must serve the family.

As for personal interests, he temporarily could not care about those.

In the end, Feng Qingyang smoothly obtained the Yijing Jin for a sky high price of seven hundred thousand gold.

Among the first three items, each successive item was better than the last, making the hearts of the players unable to hold on.

Finally, Gaia slowed down the pace and tempo of the auction.

The fourth item was a substitute doll.

During the 1st system auction, Ouyang Shuo had purchased a substitute doll for 250 gold.

At that time, players had not realized the value of the substitute doll. Now, it had already become the pinnacle collector item for players.

A treasure that allowed one to revive without penalty had become more and more valuable as the game progressed. If a player managed to possess many substitute dolls in their hands, they could finally feel safe.

However, this item was extremely hard to obtain.

A person could only obtain this item as a reward through large-scale chain quests. Based on incomplete results, there were less than twenty of these dolls in the entire China region during the 2nd year of Gaia.

From that, one could see how rare this item was.

Hence, although it failed to attract as much excitement as the first three items, it was nonetheless popular.

In the end, it was sold for two hundred thousand gold.

From that day onward, a new craze over the substitute doll started.

Undoubtedly, from the 3rd year onward, more and more quest teams would purposely focus on chain quests to obtain substitute dolls to earn gold.

As long as they could obtain one of these dolls, becoming rich overnight would no longer be a dream.

……

The auctioneer still had a wide smile, as his efficiency was higher than normal.

Next, the auction of the fifth item.

The red cloth was pulled away, revealing another old book.

None of these books, be it cultivation secret manuals or technical manuals, were worthless or useless.

The players were hooked once more.

"Mongol Iron Cavalry Training Manual. After use, one can obtain the entire secret training method set of the mongol iron cavalry, allowing one to train up an elite cavalry unit. Base price of sixty thousand gold, there's no buyout price. Please place your bids." The auctioneer announced.

There were two ways for players to train a special soldier type.

Firstly, to train using a related general.

For example, Baiqi training the iron eagle swordsmen.

Secondly, to use the related training manuals.

The Mongol Iron Cavalry Training Manual was the second case. It was suitable for territories that lacked the related general. As long as one gave their generals the equipment, even normal generals could train up these special soldier types.

Hence, any Lord with some knowledge could see the immense valuable of this manual.

Especially for the Lords in the north; their eyes were on fire.

The Lords in the north lacked good war horses. If their war horses were unable to compare to the old mongol war horses, even if their cavalry forces took shape, they could not reach the combat strength of the mongol elite cavalry.

Even the number of Qingfu Horses in Shanhai City could not keep up with their expansion speed.

Ouyang Shuo was already planning to look for new war horse sources.

Unfortunately, he saw little result.

The northern territories were different. They were close to the mongol plains, and they could train with the tribes. The current mongol plains had not welcomed that almighty king.

The ones who bid the most eagerly were the Lords in the north.

"120 thousand gold!"

……

"250 thousand gold!"

……

"400 thousand gold!"

The bidding price had once again reached a level where normal Lords could only look on in despair.

The only people that remained were Sha Pojun and Di Chen.

It was another internal Yanhuang Alliance PK.

During this auction, the Yanhuang Alliance had truly stood out.

Be it Asura City or Handan City, they were both close to the mongol plains.

Hence, they both naturally had a strong desire for this manual.

Especially Sha Pojun, who had remained silent for too long. He needed to slowly walk out into the public eye once again.

This auction was probably a good time for him to rise up once more.

Hence, he did not care about Di Chen’s expression. He simply continued to bid, determined to go all the way.

"450 thousand gold!" Sha Pojun shouted.

Di Chen's face looked a little ugly. During the achievement value exchange, because of other considerations, his family did not rashly exchange for gold. Hence, he only had a limited amount of gold compared to the others.

"500 thousand gold!" This was his maximum bid.

"550 thousand gold!"

However, Sha Pojun was loaded with cash.

When Di Chen heard this bid, he was expressionless and just gave up.

As the dust settled, Sha Pojun had successfully clawed one back and smoothly grabbed the Mongol Iron Cavalry Training Manual. In the near future, a strong cavalry force would probably be born in Asura City.

……

In the blink of an eye, half the auction was over.

Some people were happy, while others were sad.

The ones who had obtained the best returns were naturally Yanhuang Alliance, taking up three items on their own.

The next half of the auction was destined to be even bloodier.

After a short rest, the show continued.

The sixth beauty walked forward and removed the red cloth, revealing another book.

"Glass Making Technical Manual. After use, grasps the glass making technology. Base price of forty thousand gold; there's no buyout price. Please make your bids!" The auctioneer introduced.

Glass was not a modern day material. In fact, it was already present in the olden times.

However, in the olden times, the glass making process was extremely complicated. It was an item that was comparable to gold and gems, to the point where only the upper class could use it.

As it was an item from Gaia, it was naturally not an ordinary item.

The glass heating technique in the manual was far superior to the techniques of the olden times. It was only a little worse than the modern day techniques.

Hence, this was a money making opportunity for the territory that grabbed this technical manual.

A monopoly of a technique was far greater than a monopoly of funds.

Hence, toward those Lords with a lot of money on their hands, using their funds to purchase this manual was a way for them to open up a money making route.

Undoubtedly, it was a worth it decision.

While gold would continue to depreciate, monopoly on technology was hard to break due to the restrictions to the technology tree in the game.

Hence, even Ouyang Shuo felt tempted when he saw it. Unfortunately, he lacked the ability to compete.

Chapter 573- God Weapon Set

The Glass Making Technical Manual had given rise to a whole new round of craziness. In less than twenty minutes, the bidding price had soared to four hundred thousand gold.

Ouyang Shuo wondered if Gaia was using this auction to take back a vast quantity of gold. Apart from the substitute doll, no item was sold for less than four hundred thousand, which was a terrifying matter.

"550 thousand!"

For the first time of this auction, Xiong Ba made his bid. This price basically approached his limit.

Originally, Chun Shenjun had wanted to obtain this technical manual.

The problem was that Xiong Ba had already allowed him to obtain the talisman.

If he continued to compete with Xiong Ba, things might turn ugly.

In the end, the manual fell into the hands of Xiong Ba.

The Yanhuang Alliance won another round.

The seventh item of the auction was a huge gem.

"Giant Interspatial Stone. It can expand the space of the storage bag to ten thousand cubic meters. The starting bid is forty thousand; there's no buyout option. Please place your bids," the auctioneer introduced.

Ouyang Shuo had used a large interspatial stone on his storage bag, so it had a space of a thousand cubic meters; this giant interspatial stone was a good fit for him.

Thinking about the voyaging plan, Ouyang Shuo was instantly tempted.

"Little aunt, can you lend me 200 thousand gold?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

After not obtaining the Yijing Jin, she had a huge sum of funds in her hands.

"You're interested in it?" Lin Jing asked Ouyang Shuo.

"That's right!"

"Okay!" Lin Jing agreed without hesitation.

Speaking of which, she had borrowed money from him to obtain the Qixing Longyuan last year. He rarely opened his mouth to ask for help, so she naturally had no reason to reject his request.

During their short conversation, the price had already risen to two hundred thousand.

If the price rose any higher, the players would grow more careful.

After all, to a portion of the players, the giant interspatial stone had no use. Especially in battle, which prohibited storage bags.

To normal players, a large or even a medium-sized storage bag was enough. If a huge influx of gold did not occur due to the exchange event, the price would not even reach two hundred thousand gold.

Of course, there were still a large number of people who were willing to bid.

Seeing the situation, Ouyang Shuo bid for the first time, “300 thousand gold."

All of a sudden, the auction house froze.

His bid did not shock the players. However, this was the first time he had placed a bid. As the most shining presence in the previous auctions, others would scrutinize his every move.

His background was not a secret.

He was born from a common family. Despite that, he actually became the world's best Lord. This had spun into numerous different versions on the forums, and the common players worshipped him.

Hence, even if he momentarily fell behind because of this exchange event, no one would say anything.

Shanhai City did not need to prove anything to the world. Its existence itself was a huge threat.

However, he still acted.

Hence, everyone chose to watch on and spectate. Even Xingzhe Zichen, who liked to stir up trouble and Chun Shenjun, who hated Ouyang Shuo, did not come out to spoil the moment.

This was might! This was power!

In the end, Ouyang Shuo smoothly obtained the giant interspatial stone.

The seventh auction item could be said to have ended with no excitement.

Even so, the auctioneer’s next actions launched the auction house into a frenzied ocean.

The eighth and ninth beauties step out together to reveal the mysterious items on their trays - a set of armor and a pair of war boots.

Be it the armor or the boots, their surface shone with a bright lustre.

Those who knew a thing of two about weapons would clearly know that only god items would possess such a light.

Probably only Gaia would have the boldness to auction off two god equipment at once.

Everyone present sucked in a deep and cold breath.

The people on the middle street outside felt their blood boil, and excitement poured out even before the auctioneer introduced the item.

The players' eyes were filled with greed and desire.

God weapons were items that every player dreamt of.

When the auctioneer saw their reaction, he smiled and introduced, "The armor is known as the Golden Beast Swallows Cloud Armor, and the boots are known as the Flowing Clouds Chasing Moon Boots. These two god items belong to the God Weapon Set, War Blood, and they will be auctioned off together. The base price is 120 thousand, no buyout option. Please make your bids."

Si!

The generosity of Gaia had once again exceeded their expectations. It was actually the pinnacle grade god set, no wonder they were auctioned off together.

If they were to separate these two items, they would definitely earn the ire of the players.

Any equipment, apart from the specialty of an individual item, would also have a stronger set specialty.

Gathering a god equipment set was the end goal of any adventure gamemode player.

In front of them, two pieces of god equipment had appeared at once.

Although the remaining pieces, especially the weapon that stood as the core of the set, was very difficult to obtain, it was still enough to drive players crazy over it.

None of the guild leaders could maintain their composure.

On the contrary, the normal players had lost hope, and they did not even show interest in bidding.

"550 thousand gold!"

Eighteen Horsemen of Yanyun's guild leader Yanzi Lisan broke the silence and made the first bid.

As expected, just the first bid made all the normal players despondent.

This item auction was destined to be a battle between the prominent leaders.

The War Blood Item Set was obviously suited to general occupation players. Sword wielders like Yijian Xilai and Lin Jing were unwilling to wear such heavy armor.

Yanzi Lisan was the most orthodox war general. Moreover, he was a cavalry general. Hence, this War Blood Set naturally tempted him.

"600 thousand!"

Yimeng Pavillion Guild Leader Mengyun Tunding had the intentions of competing for this item. He was also a cavalry general.

This auction was not just a battle between the top 10 guilds.

"700 thousand!"

Another one joined the chase for the War Blood set - Moon Shines Over the River.

Qingfeng Pavillion mostly had strategists, but the guild leader was a general.

"800 thousand gold!"

Each increase in bid was actually in the hundreds of thousands.

Such a scene was enough to drive a person crazy.

The bidder this time was the top adventure gamemode player in the China region, the guild leader of Blood Evil Mercenary Group - Blood Romance.

Blood Romance was also a general.

The four war generals in the China region threw themselves into the chase one by one.

However, all of them had a huge guild supporting from behind.

Even Blood Romance did not have the confidence to say that he would win 100%.

Now, it all depended on who was willing to go all out.

As expected, the first bidder Yanzi Lisan chose to follow strongly. He had no intentions of giving up.

The smell of gunpowder grew stronger and stronger.

Everyone watched on with bated breath at this historical moment.

Chapter 574-Territory Structure Adjustment

As tens of thousands of eyes watched on, a stunning number suddenly jumped out.

"One million gold!"

The bidder was Blood Romance.

When Moon Shines Over the River heard this price, his face froze up, and he was the first to back out of the chase. The funds in his hand were not only to support the development of the guild. He also needed to care about Consonance City, so he could not continue his gamble.

"1.1 million gold!"

Yanzi Lisan gritted his tooth and chose to follow up.

In the end, it was a battle between Blood Romance and Yanzi Lisan.

"1.2 million gold!"

Blood Romance naturally had no reason to give up.

"1.25 million!"

A tinge of struggle filled Yanzi Lisan’s eyes.

Everyone could see that this bid had already reached his limit.

Now, it all came down to whether Blood Romance would continue to bid.

"1.35 million gold!"

As expected from the number one adventure gamemode player in the China region, Blood Romance had increased the bid by one hundred thousand gold. Then, Blood Romance said to Yanzi Lisan, who stood a distance away, “Brother Yan, this will be my final bid."

Evidently, Blood Romance did not want to continue this battle without a limit.

1.35 million was already a sky high price. Even Lin Jing could not take out so much gold.

As expected, the Blood Evil Mercenary Guild had an amazing foundation.

When Yanzi Lisan heard these words, he sighed and backed out of the bid reluctantly.

……

In the blink of an eye, the auction had reached the last item.

The final item had finally been revealed - a talisman.

"Emperor Rank Historical General Summoning Talisman. After use, there is a 100% chance of summoning an emperor rank historical general. Base price is one hundred thousand. There is no buyout option. Please make your bids," the auctioneer said.

The summoning talisman was even rarer than the substitute doll.

Not only was the summoning talisman an emperor rank talisman, but it was also a type specific one, lowering the randomness.

After the baptism of the War Blood Set, the players were much calmer when they saw this item.

The ones who really needed this item was the Lord players.

Or put it another way, those that lacked a general that could help them lead the lines needed this item.

However, all the Lords that had the power and the funds came from Yanhuang Alliance.

Amongst the Yanhuang Alliance, Di Chen had Lianpo, Chun Shenjun had Tian Dan, and Xiongba had Wuqi; they were all famous generals of their times. Zhan Lang had Zhao Zhuang, so he did not desperately need more generals.

As for Feng Qingyang, he was utterly uninterested in this aspect.

Hence, the one who really craved for the summoning talisman was Sha Pojun. Especially after he obtained the Mongol Iron Cavalry Training Manual. He needed a general to lead and command his army.

Unfortunately, within the alliance, the number of people who were close to him were little, and no one would let him easily get what he wanted.

Although Di Chen and the others had famous generals in their territory, they did not mind adding another one. After all, when compared to Shanhai City, their general lineup was incredibly lacking.

After a hard chase, Sha Pojun finally obtained the talisman for 650 thousand gold.

The entire auction officially ended.

The 10 items were sold for a total of 5.25 million gold.

This auction was destined to be a tale of riches that would be forever etched in history.

After the auction ended, the auctioneer announced a shocking piece of news.

As they say, good things do not cross three.

This year's auction would be the last system auction in the China region.

In future years, it would be impossible for players to purchase valuable items like those displayed during this auction.

When the players heard this news, all of them instantly exclaimed.

Only Ouyang Shuo remained exceedingly calm.

As someone experiencing a second life, he had already predicted this event.

He also knew that in the 4th year, although there was not a Jingdou Auction, Gaia would organize a worldwide auction.

At that time, everyone in the world would fight for ten precious items. Just the thought alone would make one's blood boil.

After setting the time for the gathering of the Shanhai Alliance with Bai Hua and the others, Ouyang Shuo left the auction house.

Of course, he did not leave Jingdou.

Since he came here, he naturally needed to have a conversation with his allies Ji Yinghu and Mengyun Tunding. The location was still chosen to be the office of Shanhai City in Jingdou.

The three of them chatted for an entire afternoon before they dispersed.

That night, Ouyang Shuo left Jingdou and returned to Shanhai City.

The next day, after half a month of discussion and planning, the new structure plan for the Nanjiang Governor-General House was officially out and announced. It signified another step forward for the territory governing system.

The entire plan involved three reorganizations.

Firstly, they would upgrade the four departments.

The Administration Department, the Financial Department, the Internal Affairs Department, and the Military Affairs Department all became bureaus.

Behind this name change was an actual practical use.

Firstly, the Internal Affairs Department had the science, education, culture and health department, while the Military Affairs Department had the combat logistics department. As such, their names would cause some mix up and blurred lines.

After making these a bureau, these worries would cease to exist.

Secondly, the three grades of government offices: prefecture, House, and county, would follow the structure of the Nanjiang Governor House. Only the Military Affairs Department remained an exception.

Hence, there was also an unclear definition and positioning between the other departments and the Nanjiang Governor-General House. After the change, the four new bureaus would become unparalleled and unique presences.

Although the names of the departments changed after the upgrade, the title of director was not changed.

Ouyang Shuo had thought about naming them ministers.

Helplessly, although he had the power to open up Houses and grant people power, he did not have the right to name people ministers.

To term them as ministers privately was already crossing the line. Ouyang Shuo naturally did not dare to officially name them ministers.

Only after setting up the country could he really take such action.

Secondly, expanding the four departments.

After destroying the Taiping Country, the territory had seven prefectures of land.

The current structure of four departments and seventeen divisions was not enough to maintain the territory’s rule.

For example, the Meritorious Service Division.

Based on his starting idea, they would be in charge of the territory ruling of officials. In truth, the division was only in charge of the examinations of officials and minor officials, which was completely different from actually controlling the officials’ style of governing.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to try and revamp this style of governing, so he had no choice but to directly affect the administration director.

That was the case.

If one expanded the Meritorious Service Division, one would not face such a problem.

A similar problem happened in the Science, Education, Culture, and Health Department. Ouyang Shuo wanted to push out the basic public facilities revolution, but he knew the Culture and Education Division could not handle it. Hence, he could only give it an upgrade.

There were many similar administrative problems.

Hence, they needed to expand the four departments.

Chapter 575- Alliance Army All out Attack

In truth, expanding the four bureaus created a more specific separation of duties of the divisions under them. This was so to keep up with the heftier and more complicated problems of the territory.

When the conditions were fulfilled, the divisions could also rise up to become departments.

The first step was to promote the Meritorious Service Division under the Administration Bureau into the Official Ruling Department.

The Official Ruling Department was similar to the Personnel Department of olden times. Under it, there was the Personnel Division, Merit Title Division, Evaluation Division, and the Records Division. It was in charge of the evaluation of officials, their promotions and demotions, as well as their rewards.

For the position of the first director of the Official Ruling Department, Ouyang Shuo chose Zhang Tingyu.

The letter memorial system that Zhang Tingyu had previously taken charge of had already been approved; it was currently in use. It was time for him to be pushed up to a more important post and display his excellence.

Apart from being the director of the Official Ruling Department, Zhang Tingyu would also act as the Deputy Director of the Administration Bureau. As a result, he had a say in the other departments and divisions under the bureau.

Even Su Zhe did not obtain such special treatment.

With one jump, Zhang Tingyu became the second man in the Administration Department; his position was only lower than Xiao He’s.

Evidently, Ouyang Shuo held him in extremely high regard.

The original Meritorious Service Secretary Qin Shijian would become the Secretary of the Evaluation Division.

Although he did not have any eye catching performances, he had worked hard and fulfilled his tasks in the Meritorious Service Division. Especially after helping the two Administration Directors get familiar with their roles; he had helped stabilize the rule of the territory. His ability could also called exceedingly steady and impressive.

With that, he also gathered up a lot of civil servant evaluation experience.

His placing in the Evaluation Division showed that he had gained Ouyang Shuo’s recognition.

Secondly, they would upgrade the Regulatory Division into the Regulatory Department.

The role of the Regulatory Department was similar to the censorate in olden times; it mainly audited, impeached, and gave suggestions. At the same time, it also had the power to trial important cases.

The upgraded Regulatory Department would hold power aplenty, and it would also shoulder many huge responsibilities.

The future Internal Affairs Bureau would be a combination of the olden censorate, the ministry of justice, and the Supreme Court all in one.

The Director of Internal Affairs would be the Minister of Justice for the state.

The original Regulatory Secretary Chang Jingjian would continue to be the Regulatory Director.

As an official, Chang Jingjian was iron faced and fair. He dared to speak the words on his mind, and he was naturally a good choice to take the role of censor. He had the decisiveness of martial artists and the intelligence of civil servants, so he was a very well rounded individual.

Only such a person could take charge of such an important and crucial department.

As for his personal relationship with Internal Affairs Bureau Director Wei Yang, Ouyang Shuo believed that it would not affect his rationality and decisiveness.

Thirdly, the Industry Division under the Financial Bureau would upgrade to the Industry and Development Planning Department.

When Ouyang Shuo informed Cui Yingyu that he was going to ask her to step down, he revealed that he planned to raise the position of the Industry Division. This adjustment had fulfilled his promise.

The Industry and Development Planning Department would be in charge of industrial development, investment, and regulation. It was a more modern type of organization that would take charge of the core industries of the territory.

This department would lead the industrialisation strategy of the territory. Any related unit in the Nanjiang Governor-General House would be merged into this department to prevent the crossing of roles and responsibilities.

Without a doubt, Cui Yingyu would continue to manage this department.

The three upgraded departments were the most core organizations in the four bureaus.

After dealing with these three departments, the administrative efficiency of the Nanjiang Governor-General House would rise by at least 100%. As for the other divisions, Ouyang Shuo did not completely adjust them.

The main problem was still the lack of civil servants that could work independently.

In the future, Ouyang Shuo would upgrade the divisions based on the needs of the territory.

……

Fourthly, the relevant personnel arrangements.

This organization adjustment involved hundreds of civil servants.

They made the adjustments based on the civil servant evaluation that they had just concluded.

In the Governor-General House, the civil servants that were not up to par were sent to other prefectures and counties for training. Similarly, civil servants from other places that performed well would be moved to the core area of the territory.

With that, it helped the core and the other places have an orderly and systematic exchange and interaction.

This organizational adjustment plan was released late to the public because they wanted to complete the personnel changes first.

At this point, the entire plan had finally reached completion.

Only after completing this plan did Ouyang Shuo have the confidence to solidify the foundations of the territory during the 1st half of the Gaia 3rd year.

Just as Shanhai City was busy adjusting its organization structure, the China region did not remain calm.

The most busy area was the Zhongyuan Region.

As Ouyang Shuo had expected, Chun Shenjun was not willing to fail just like that. He wanted to take a gamble before the winter season completely arrived. He wanted to take down the Zhangchu Regime in one swoop.

The day the auction ended, Chun Shenjun mobilized a million gold to hire people in the various imperial cities. Overall, he hired one hundred thousand adventure gamemode mercenaries.

His use for them was obvious.

It seemed like the north had calmed down because of the winter.

The war in the Zhongyuan Region was still stuck in a stalemate.

The one time exchange event Gaia pushed out had become Chun Shenjun's saving grace.

He was going to give it his all before the winter came to launch a stunning blow against the Zhangchu Regime.

……

Gaia 3rd year, 1st month, 5th day, Zhongyuan Province.

Chun Shenjun's number one general, Tian Dan, led the 150 thousand alliance army, the 100 thousand mercenaries, and the 50 thousand soldiers from the Scattering Bean That Turns into Soldier Talisman. Overall, they had 300 thousand troops, which they used to suddenly attack the south troops of Zhangchu.

This was a totally unexpected move.

They had originally prepared to rest for the winter.

Who knew that the enemy would launch such a ferocious attack at this time. Moreover, they even had 150 thousand more troops.

In just a day, the alliance army broke the south army; the south army could only attempt to flee.

When Tian Dan saw their actions, he lead the troops out and aimed straight for Zhangchu's capital city, Chen County.

All of a sudden, the capital city was thrown into a state of panic.

Chen Sheng had no choice but to move the troops housed in the north back to reinforce Chen County.

When Di Chen saw this move, he went down south and officially declared war on Zhangchu. Ten thousand troops headed down from the north of Zhangchu.

Af the same, Wandering Magic's troops on the west turned from passive defending to aggressive attacking.

The three armies acted with great coordination.

This operation was a result of the internal coordination of the Yanhuang Alliance. In the face of victory and defeat, they had placed down their differences and worked together.

With that, the Zhangchu Regime was attacked from three sides and faced a perilous situation.

It seemed like the last uprising army was going to end up in ashes during this winter season.

Chapter 576-The Earth Is White

"It's snowing!"

Ouyang Shuo stood under the eaves of the building, looking out at the distance.

Lianzhou Basin's four seasons were warm as spring. However, the current skies had a rare sight - snowflakes were floating down. The snowflakes transformed Shanhai City, dressing it up in silver, forming a truly enchanting scene.

The Lianzhou people had never seen snow before, so this snow was undoubtedly the most heart warming gift from the heavens during this winter season.

The entire city entered a craze because of the snow.

The streets and alleys were filled with playful children having snowball fights, and even the adults could not help but join in. At unassuming corners stood snowman after snowman, decorating Shanhai City in an exquisite manner.

It was not only the Lianzhou Basin. In fact, snow covered the entire China region.

The solemn killing intent gathered during the winter season had finally reached its peak. Before this, the red clouds that hung overhead had miraculously disappeared.

The devilish red transformed into a pure white.

From north to south, the snow grew bigger and thicker.

Gaia 2nd year, the wilderness massacre lasted for a full year, leaving behind many bloodstains and corpses. After this sudden coming of snow, they were all covered and ceased to exist.

Looking out, the heaven and the earth was left under a boundless white.

The white snow covered all the dirt and ugliness of the world.

The world looked like it had returned to a peaceful time.

At the same time, the wilderness welcomed the arrival of the new year.

Even the recently chaotic Zhongyuan Region regained a hard to come by peace.

Winter brought along an unblockable cold and had officially arrived in the north.

Under the joint assault of Chun Shenjun, Di Chen, and Wandering Magic, Chen Sheng's Zhangchu Regime finally could not hold on, and they were forced back.

Especially after the fall of the South Army, causing the entire Zhangchu to collapse.

As they say, a slight move in one part would affect the whole body.

In just one week, Zhangchu's territory was mostly lost.

During the later stages of the battle, Feng Qiuhuang could not remain a spectator any longer, and she send out her troops. She wanted to cut off a fat piece of meat from the weak Zhangchu.

No one could have expected that the regime would be so weak that it could not take one hit.

If West Chu Overlord Xiang Yu did not personally lead troops to reinforce the Chen County at the crucial moment, Chen Sheng would have failed to even keep his imperial city. He would have crashed and burned with his empire.

News spread that the moment the battle had ended, Chen Sheng fell sick.

In this cold winter, Zhangchu was on its last legs.

The four uprising armies could not avoid their fate, and they all fell under the blades of the Lords.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news, his eyes froze.

Xiang Yu did not lead his troops to assist Chen County out of pure motives.

Who knows how this West Chu Overlord would shock the world during the Gaia 3rd year.

It seemed like before one wave died down, a new wave would rise up once more.

Ouyang Shuo had a feeling that a new king was going to appear in the Zhongyuan Region.

During this battle, the losers felt desolate, while the victors also did not obtain any huge joy.

The moment the battle ended, the four armies that had worked together started to be on guard against one another.

Everything was a chase of self-interest.

After taking down the Zhongyuan Province, splitting this huge cake would involve a lot of discussion.

Logically speaking, Chun Shenjun had invested two million during this battle, so he should be the biggest winner. Unfortunately for him, Pill Sun City was just too far away from the Zhongyuan Province.

Furthermore, be it the one hundred thousand mercenaries he hired or the fifty thousand soldiers from the talisman, they had all left after this battle.

Chun Shenjun's forces did not have an advantage in terms of combat strength.

On the contrary, even though Feng Qiuhuang had not moved her troops, she became the strongest side. If it was not for Di Chen and the others working together, Feng Qiuhuang would truly become the biggest winner.

After all, Fallen Phoenix City was not far away from the Zhongyuan Province.

The four powers were destined to have another battle with one another during this cold winter. Compared to a war, this was a complicated and hard negotiation.

The four fought for population, resources, land, surrendered soldiers, and other such factors.

Especially population, which was what everyone wanted.

Be it Chun Shenjun, Di Chen, or even Wandering Magic, they were too far away from Zhongyuan Province to run this region of land.

The only way would be to shift the population of people in Zhongyuan Province.

Population would always remain the most valuable resource in the wilderness.

After all, population represented an endless supply of production power.

Before this, after Zhan Lang and Xiong Ba worked together to destroy the Huangchao Uprising Army in Wannnan Province, they had taken a three empty policy approach.

They emptied out the population, resources, and surrendered soldiers.

The huge Wannan Province became an empty region after this battle. After the alliance left, the province became a place where bandits ruled and returned to an extremely primitive state.

Everything returned to its starting point.

……

The part that made them helpless was that the snow had blocked up the mountains, making it hard to travel.

The plans of Chun Shenjun and the others could only take a break and wait for the coming year.

It seems like the Lords in the Zhongyuan Region could not have a calm new year. Who knows what would happen during this winter.

It seems like the current Chun Shenjun would face the worst situation. He definitely would not have thought that this snow would come so suddenly and quickly.

In just one night, the earth had totally changed color, looking completely new.

After paying two hundred thousand gold, Chun Shenjun needed to think of a way to get back his money and even earn some interest.

In the end, Chun shenjun was still a businessman.

Such people would always chase profits.

Before setting out, the elites of the Chun Shenjun family had already calculated that even without the year end reward from Gaia, if everything went well, they could still get something out of this war.

However, the sudden snow had disrupted all their plans.

As such. Ouyang Shuo had to push back the meeting of the Shanhai Alliance to give Feng Qiuhuang time to deal with the matters of Zhongyuan Region.

Originally, Ouyang Shuo had planned for them to hold this year's alliance meeting at Fallen Phoenix City.

Helplessly, this huge snow made all the members not want to head up north. Even Feng Qiuhuang wanted to escape this damn winter.

After a discussion involving everyone, they actually chose the meeting point to be Yashan City in the end.

In the entire China region, only Yashan City currently had good weather.

No wonder it was a favored holiday destination in real life.

All the members of Shanhai Alliance wanted to enjoy a beach party during this winter.

Chapter 577- The Sudden Battle

Everyone had thought that this huge snow would bring about a period of utter silence to the wilderness.

At least before the lunar new year, they had thought that things would be relatively calm.

No one had expected this peace to be broken so quickly.

No one had thought that before the lunar new year, the fifteenth territory would upgrade to prefecture in the China region.

This upgraded prefecture was also a dark horse. It was the Lord that had grabbed the 8th placing on the rankings during the year end rewards - Earth-shaker.

Earth-shaker had obtained twenty thousand merit points and upgraded to a class 3 marquis. After half a month of hard work, he completed the upgrade mission and his territory became a grade 1 prefecture.

Hence, he successfully triggered the fifth battle.

Gaia 3rd year, 1st month, 15th day, a system notification sounded out in the China region.

"System Notification: 15 territories have upgraded to prefecture in the China region, triggering the 5th battle map, Battle of Mobei. It will start in three days, please look forward to it. Friendly Reminder: the Battle of Mobei is not a compulsory battle map, and only the top 50 territories can sign up."

The Battle of Mobei had suddenly struck!

During the 4th year of Yuanshuo, Emperor Wu of Han moved 140 thousand cavalry, 140 thousand war horses, and 100 thousand infantry. Wei Qing and Huo Qubing took the position of commanders, separating into east and west troops, as they set out toward Mobei.

When the Xiongnu Chan Yu (leader of the tribal alliance) heard the news, he shifted their elite troops toward the north of the desert to welcome the Han troops.

When Wei Qing exited the stronghold and learned that Chan Yu did not go east and proceed forward, he ordered Li Guang and Zhao Shi to flank from the east. Wei Qing led his troops and traveled thousands of miles across the desert to face off against Chan Yu's forces, who were already prepared for battle. He arranged heavy armored chariots in a ring, creating mobile fortresses that covered the archers and crossbowmen. Then, he sent five thousand cavalry to act as reinforcements to these mobile fortresses.

At sunset, when the winds started blowing and the sand and stones smacked the enemy in their face, Wei Qing led his cavalry to surround Chan Yu from the wings.

He observed that the Han Dynasty Army held the numerical advantage. Moreover, their soldiers and war horses were stronger. As such, his chances of winning were slim, so he led hundreds of elite cavalry to break out from the north west.

Wei Qing hurriedly sent the light armored cavalry to chase, as he led the main forces forward. By the time they reached Zhao Xin City, they had killed nineteen thousand and burned down the resources of the enemy.

Li Guang and Zhao Shi lost their way in the desert and failed to meet up with Zhao Qing in Mobei. Wei Qing summoned Li Guang to his manor for questioning, causing him to commit suicide out of embarrassment and anger.

After Huo Qubing left the stronghold, he brought small amounts of resources and heavy equipment, making the captured Xiongnu prisoners act as vanguards to lead the way. They crossed the desert and the river, capturing Chan Yu's important minister, Zhang Qu. Then, they crossed the Nanhou Mountains, capturing three Xiongnu lords and 83 nobles.

During this expedition, Huo Qubing's men captured 70,443 men with a loss of ten thousand of their own. At this point, Xiongnu's left and right wings were cut off, and only Xiongbu remained in Mobei.

Huo Qubing conducted a series of rituals on the Khentii Mountains to symbolize the Han victory. Then, he continued his chase up to Lake Baikal, where he effectively ended the Xiongnu Clan.

After this battle, the three famous generals of their time all faced different treatment.

As his contributions were offset, General Wei Qing did not obtain any rewards.

Old General Li Guang killed himself, causing the people to weep when they received the news.

General Huo Qubing was greatly rewarded and was living the high life. Two years later, he suddenly died at only 24 years of age.

Without a doubt, all the players would fervently chase these three famous generals, especially Wei Qing and Huo Qubing.

Even Ouyang Shuo was not an exception. One must know that both of them were listed among the top 10 generals of olden China. They were people on the same level as Baiqi and Han Xin.

"System Notification: Congratulations players Qiyue Wuyi for meeting the requirements to join the Battle of Mobei. During this battle, no matter how high your rank, you can only bring three thousand men. Please prepare in advance."

When Ouyang Shuo heard this news, he could help but frown.

Three thousand men was only the limit of a normal 1st class earl.

He was now a 1st class marquis. Based on the usual rules, he could bring fifty thousand troops.

Comparing the two, it was a sixteen to seventeen times difference; it was like comparing heaven and earth.

Gaia definitely did not make this rule of everyone bringing the same number of troops because of Ouyang Shuo alone. One could only say that this battle would be greatly different from the previous ones.

Rank had always been the most important and core goal of Lords.

Ouyang Shuo definitely did not believe that he as a 1st class marquis would receive the same treatment as a 1st class earl. If not, what purpose would there be for his hard earned merit points?

As for what compensations he would obtain, he would probably only find out when he entered the battle map.

Apart from the number of troops, Gaia also restricted the number of Lords that could join.

Currently, around five hundred territories remained in China.

Apart from some poor ones, the rest had basically reached grade 3 county.

If everyone joined, even if every single Lord only brought three thousand men, it would still result in a huge 1.5 million player troops.

However, Gaia had taken out 90% of the Lords with this one shot.

At this stage in the territory development, upgrading to prefecture was extremely difficult. As such, the grade difference between territories were not as obvious as previous years. However, this did not mean that there was not a difference in development between the various territories.

In the China region rankings, when the grade of the territories were the same, the four territory indices would decide the positionings.

The higher their four indexes, the higher their relative positions.

Before this, the battle of rankings was just a battle of face. The further in front one was, the more face they obtained.

From now on, the battle for territory rankings meant much, much more. After all, whether or not one could join a battle map was a huge influence on the development of their territory.

In a serious context, it would affect whether one could upgrade to the prefecture grade or not.

In the future, as Lords strived to upgrade their territories, they would not forget to pay attention to the four indexes. After all, these four basically covered all aspects of the territory.

Internal administration and external diplomacy, a territory could not be lacking in either aspect.

To train these young Lords, Gaia had truly expended a lot of effort.

With that, even if all fifty eligible Lords joined the battle map, the number of player troops would not cross 150 thousand.

It seems like the players could not cause a definite influence to the Battle of Mobei.

Since they would bring the same number of troops, the many Lords would start on the same starting line. Something like this had not happened in a long while.

Shanhai City did not have their usual numerical advantage this time.

"This battle will be extremely difficult!"

Ouyang Shuo let out a long sigh.

More importantly, during this battle, how would players choose their camps? Would players actually choose the Xiongnu camp that was destined to lose?

Even if one wanted to take a gamble, they could not get past the race divide.

Help the Xiongnu fight the Han Army? One would get a headache just thinking about it.

Furthermore, Xiongnu did not even have any generals that were worth recruiting. Meanwhile, the side of West Han had three famous generals and a number of other smaller and weaker ones.

Which side to choose was such a simple question.

Wouldn’t Gaia be afraid that the difference in player numbers of the two camps would be huge?

Amongst all this, what was Gaia planning?

Everything was a total unknown.

Even Ouyang Shuo, who was living his second life, did not know what was going on.

In his last life, any information related to this battle was rarely revealed on the forums.

If not, Ouyang Shuo would have started preparing for it a lot earlier. All he could do now was order the Combat Logistics Department to make some preparations based on the uniqueness of the desert.

For example, they would produce a huge batch of military grain pills.

Grain supply was the hardest problem while traveling in the desert.

If not, Emperor Wu of Han would not send one hundred thousand infantry troops to take charge of the logistic of the cavalry.

Now, Gaia had restricted each Lord to only three thousand men. With that, all of his previous plans were useless.

"What a bad beginning!"

Since he could only bring three thousand men, Ouyang Shuo did not even hesitate and decided to bring the Divine Martial Guards.

After all, he could not possess a numerical advantage, so Ouyang Shuo could only hope to obtain some advantages through the combat strength of his troops.

Such an advantage was not too large.

One could ask, in the wilderness, which territory would not be able to bring out three thousand elite cavalry? Their elite troops would not be that much weaker compared to the Divine Martial Guards.

As for the generals that would follow him, Ouyang Shuo was not going to summon Baiqi or Han Xin.

It was not that they could not rush over.

After the system update, if an army member wanted to join the battle, they did not need to use a specific teleportation formation. As long as Ouyang Shuo submitted a name list, no matter where they were, they would be teleported to the battle map.

This setting was made after considering that as the territories expanded, three days of preparation would not be enough to gather up forces.

For example, if Ouyang Shuo wanted to bring fifty thousand troops, he would have to move the three legion corps.

Just the travelling time would cover more than three days.

On this point, Gaia was really humane and flexible.

Ouyang Shuo did not summon them, as he did not want to act excessively and make himself stand out too much. Moreover, three thousand Divine Martial Guards did not give Baiqi or the others much to work with.

Even if they considered all the troops of the Shanhai Alliance, they had less than twenty thousand in total.

If he mobilized Baiqi, that would be like killing a chicken with a butcher’s knife.

Why not just let them stay in the wilderness to continue organizing the army?

At the current stage, Ouyang Shuo could be considered a strong general.

Apart from that, he was also planning to take along an advisor. The person he chose was the Deputy Director of the Military Affairs Department and the War Secretary, Zhao Kuo.

Chapter 578-Choosing Wei Qing or Huo Qubing

For this battle, Ouyang Shuo did not gather the other members of the alliance for a discussion.

They had already reached the 5th battle map and everyone knew how to prepare, so he did not need to micromanage them.

Furthermore, for their territories to develop to such a stage, they were all capable individuals.

If he added more words, it might just worsen the situation.

People were like that. As their positions grew higher, their attitudes would change too.

Let us not mention the prideful Feng Qiuhuang and Bai Hua, even Gong Chengshi and the others were all great Lords in their region, and a large portion of players worshipped them.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo paid a lot of attention to his actions and words.

Instead, he took the time to fetch Little White from Yashan City.

If one continued to call it Little White, it would seem a little inappropriate.

Since Yashan City’s establishment, the three spirit beasts had been training in the Spirit Beast Hall in Yashan City. Apart from Xue'er, who was a little special, Little Green and Little White were close to maturity.

Little Green, the Nian Beast, was close to its parent in size. The sight of Little Green was enough to incite fear. During the time it cultivated in the hall, Little Green would sometimes go out to play around at the beaches and sea regions of Yashan City.

Basically all the players that frequented Yashan City recognized this special Nian Beast. Many players viewed it as the protector beast of Yashan City.

In truth, that was indeed the case.

The neighbouring sea regions became incredibly peaceful thanks to Little Green. The beasts in the sea did not dare to approach Qiongzhou Island. If they careless got close, they would become its food.

Little White grew bigger by the day.

It was no longer the little wolf pup from the start. Instead, it was now a ferocious and handsome white wolf. However, its eyes remained as lazy as before.

As for Xue'er, it became much more mysterious.

Even after cultivating for so long, there were no visible differences on the surface.

It was still so pure and romantic.

Ouyang Shuo could not even check out its stats.

Cultivation in the Spirit Beast Hall was undoubtedly incredibly dry and boring.

When they saw Ouyang Shuo, the three were exceedingly warm and close. Especially Xue'er, who stuck to him like glue.

If Bing'er did not come here to visit them often, they probably would not have managed to hold on till now.

Ouyang Shuo bringing away Little White caused Little Green, who had never bothered about him, to feel a little reluctant.

Ouyang Shuo just had a feeling that the Wolf God Little White could help him during the Battle of Mobei. As for the other two, they naturally could not follow along.

As for the voyaging mission, Ouyang Shuo could consider bringing Little Green along.

In the following two days, everything went on as usual.

All the battle preparations were completed in an orderly fashion.

To the current Combat Logistics Department, preparing for three thousand people was an easy matter.

Each Divine Martial Guard was equipped with the best.

Items such as Mingguang Armor, Tang Blade, Horse Lance, and God Arm Crossbow were all standard issue items handed out.

Especially the God Arm Crossbow, which the Combat Logistics Department had specially modified. Even at charging speeds, as long as one was trained, they could fire three successive shots.

Apart from that, the Divine Martial Guards skilled in archery were also equipped with a longbow. On the other hand, the mountain barbarian warriors chose single-handed shields based on what they were comfortable with.

Every Divine Martial Guards had their equipment tailored to their needs.

The value of an entire set was no less than a hundred gold.

Each one of them brought a full bag military grain pills, which was enough to last their horses and the individual soldiers for more than a month.

After heading deep into the desert, it would be extremely difficult for the Han Army to obtain resources and logistical supplies even if they wanted to.

Hence, they needed to bring a sufficient amount of military grain pills.

Ouyang Shuo believed that the other Lords would make similar arrangements.

The only difference was that Shanhai City's Combat Logistics Development led the region.

It was reported that the Combat Logistics Department was researching a Super Military Grain Pill. One small pill could last a cavalry and his horse for one full day.

They had also brought a sufficient number of military tents.

After the new generation of military tents were fully folded, they were only the size of a backpack. As for the weight, it was practically nothing to the elite Qingfu Horses.

If one did not have a tent when travelling the dessert, it would be extremely hard for them to get past the night.

Apart from that, the Combat Logistics Department also modified the capes of the Divine Martial Guards and added a hoodie to the capes. When worn, the hoodie could largely reduce the effect of the sandstorms.

Ouyang Shuo had originally planned for the Combat Logistics Department to research a type of goggles.

Helplessly, Shanhai City did not obtain the Glass Making Technical Manual, so they could not proceed with the matter.

Apart from that, the boots, backpacks, daggers, belts, and even their inner shirts were all the new generation of gear.

When building the special forces base, they had already started researching these relevant equipment.

Now, all of the equipment were basically complete.

The current Divine Martial Guards could be considered to have the structure of an olden special force unit.

Of course, there were some problems that the Combat Logistics Department could not solve.

For example, water.

Water was just as important as grain when traveling in the desert.

One could even say that it was the most important item.

Helplessly, there was nothing in this world that could compress water.

Just the water in their bags was definitely not enough.

However, for this point, he could only leave it to the Divine Martial Guards to settle the problem themselves.

During the auction, the giant interspatial stone he acquired could expand the storage bag to ten thousand cubic meters.

Unfortunately, the storage bag could not be used in the battle map.

……

Gaia 3rd year, 1st month, 18th day, 9 AM, system notification sounded out on time.

"System Notification: 119 BC, after the Monan and Hexi Battles, although Xiongnu led his troops to mobei, they kept on attacking the north prefecture of the Han Dynasty. They were trying to bait Xiongu’s troops over the desert. Emperor Wu of Han sent General Wei Qing and General Huo Qubing to each lead fifty thousand men, separating into two groups to enter Mobei to destroy the main force of Xiongnu. He also gathered one hundred thousand infantry and many horses to act as logistical support.

This battle was a strategic attack by the Han Dynasty against Xiongnu, and it was also Xiongnu Chan Yu’s fight for coexistence against West Han. In the end, the Han Army achieved complete victory. The 5th battle map, Battle of Mobei, officially begins!"

Shanhai City, imperial city square, the three thousand Divine Martial Guards had formed up, awaiting departure.

“Checking participation conditions, confirming number of men participating.”

Just as Ouyang Shuo was about to choose his camp, a system notification sounded out.

"System Notification: For the Battle of Mobei, all players are in the West Han camp. There is no need for selection."

"Forced selection? Interesting." Ouyang Shuo muttered.

It was not over yet, as another system notification sounded out.

"System Notification: West Han camp, split into Wei Qing Army and Huo Qubing Army. Please choose."

"What's this? Before the battle even begins, we need to choose a side?"

Ouyang Shuo frowned; this battle was filled with mysteries.

In history, the Battle of Mobei was indeed split into two lines of troops.

Wei Qing led his troops and set off from Dingxiang, while Huo Qubing set off from Daijun.

Hundreds of miles separated the two cities.

In that case, there was truly a need to choose a side to join for the battle proceedings.

"Is there a difference?" Ouyang Shuo was still not at ease.

"Your choice will affect the General recruitment quest." Gaia finally revealed this matter.

"How?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"If you choose the east line, the first to reach the Khentii Mountains can recruit Huo Qubing. If you choose the west line, there are two quests."

"What two?"

Hearing that he could directly recruit Huo Qubing, Ouyang Shuo's heart directly convulsed.

This time, Gaia was ready to go all out.

"If you follow General Wei Qing, as long as you kill Chan Yu, you can recruit General Wei Qing. If you chase after Li Guang and Zhao Shi, as long as you can find them and guide them on the right path, preventing Li Guang from committing suicide, you can recruit him." Gaia was extremely specific.

"..."

When Ouyang Shuo heard this news, he was utterly speechless.

This time, Gaia was just putting the three famous generals on a plate for everyone to fight for.

At first glance, it seemed like the chance to recruit these generals was there for the taking.

However, this just made Ouyang Shuo worry even more.

There was no such thing as free lunch in this world.

One definitely had to pay a price to recruit a god general.

Most importantly, even if one paid a heavy price, they might end up with nothing.

There were only three famous generals and over fifty participating Lords.

The bigger test was the quest itself. None of the quests sounded easy to complete.

"First to reach Khentii Mountains?"

That was an unprecedented task the genius general Huo Qubing completed alone.

Could the player Lords complete this task with just three thousand soldiers?

"Assassinate Chan Yu?"

Even the great General Wei Qing could not do that.

Even finding Li Guang was completely based on luck. Even Li Guang, who had fought against Xiongnu for his whole life, could lose his way in the desert.

For the player armies that were coming into contact with the desert for the first time, they needed more than normal luck to succeed.

Hence, no matter which task they chose, it would seem almost impossible.

It was like Gaia was giving the fifty Lords a sweet illusion.

To make matters worse, Gaia had told them about this fact right before they had to set off.

Because of that, be it Shanhai alliance or Yanhuang Alliance, they could not discuss matters and work together with their allies. Their individual choices were completely random.

However, they were helpless, as this bait was simply too alluring.

Even Ouyang Shuo, who knew that this was a hole, could not help but close his eyes and jump in.

Now the crucial question was which to choose?

Chapter 579-Mobei Battle of Speed

Wei Qing, Huo Qubing, and Li Guang; Ouyang Shuo needed to choose one out of these three to pursue.

Ouyang Shuo eliminated the old General Li Guang first, despite having plenty of confidence of finding this general. After all , he had brought along the descendant of the Wolf God, Little White.

However, Ouyang Shuo was not willing to give up on the other two generals.

For the current Shanhai City, one more general like Li Guang could not cause any breakthrough like results. On the contrary, one more god general would be enough to lift up the 4th legion corps.

As such, eliminating Li Guang first was the obvious choice.

However, Ouyang Shuo found it hard to decide between Wei Qing and Huo Qubing.

Wei Qing and Huo Qubing; this uncle and nephew duo were the two pillars of the Han Empire.

Both of them were extraordinary generals, and even their best tactics were similar. They both liked to pierce deep into the enemy lines and grab miraculous victories; they also employed long distance attacks and encirclements.

Wei Qing was the inventor of this lightning quick battle style, while Huo Qubing made it famous.

Of course, between the two, there was still a huge difference.

Wei Qing was good at commanding the entire field, and he did not care how many men he sacrificed. He focused on strategic targets, dealing the enemy an economic blow and obtaining their resources. He would cause his opponents to lose their foundations, beating them in such a manner.

One could say that Wei Qing was a commander with a clear strategy. He was modest and humble; he loved his soldiers, and he was a really kind-hearted general.

Huo Qubing was different. He was a genius vanguard that was flexible, and he did not stick to a certain battle pattern.

During battle, he did not bother about the enemy resources. Instead, he concentrated on killing the enemy. The army just needed to take the enemy down, and they would not wait for their reinforcements and resources.

With that, he could maintain the mobility and flexibility of his own troops, ensuring that they could catch more enemies and harm more of them.

Between the two of them, each had their pros and cons.

Hence, no matter which one he acquired, they were both extremely suitable for Shanhai City.

As such, Ouyang Shuo needed to weigh the differences in the quests to recruit them.

Wei Qing's quest was to kill Xiongnu Chan Yu.

In truth, this mission had an extremely great randomness factor. Along with the fact that Ouyang Shuo only had three thousand troops and lacked any suppressive advantage, recruiting Wei Qing was difficult.

On the contrary, the recruitment quest for Huo Qubing was to reach Khentii Mountain first.

Although this road was extremely dangerous and tough, with Little White, Ouyang Shuo's chances were greater than the other Lords.

Hence, after weighing everything, Ouyang Shuo decided to choose Huo Qubing in the end.

"Choose Huo Qubing line," Ouyang Shuo said.

"System Notification: Line chosen; congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for activating the battle map teleportation. Number restricted to three thousand; teleportation begin!"

After a short delay, Ouyang Shuo and his men finally appeared on the Mobei Battlefield.

"System Notification: Welcome player Qiyue Wuyi. Descending on the main camp of the West Han east line, Daijun."

Ouyang Shuo landed in the barracks outside of Daijun City.

In the barracks, white lines shone, indicating that the player forces had descended.

At this very moment, another system notification sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, since you are a 1st class marquis, you will receive a special compensation of 500 battle resource points. Friendly Reminder: these points can be used in the barracks or along the way to exchange for military needs. These points are extremely valuable, so please use them wisely."

"Battle resource points? Another new trick from Gaia!"

Ouyang Shuo guessed that since he had obtained 500 points, a 2nd class marquis would get 200, and a 3rd class Marquis 100.

As for a 1st class earl, they had just reached the three thousand men requirement mark, so they would receive no compensation.

Now, Ouyang Shuo felt much better inside.

Things did not end there; another system notification sounded out.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi. Since you are a 1st class marquis, you are rewarded ten thousand merit points, and your battle contribution points are increased by 15%."

The battle had not even started, yet he had easily obtained ten thousand merit points as basic compensation. However, these ten thousand points seemed too little, since it could not compared to the reduction in his number of men.

Originally, Ouyang Shuo had wanted to obtain at least obtain one hundred thousand merit points from this battle.

It seemed like he only had an extremely slim chance of grabbing that many points.

As for the extra 15% battle contribution points, how much he could obtain would depend on the ability of his troops.

As expected from Gaia, it was fair and did not purposely target him.

At this point, the compensations ended.

Ouyang Shuo let Wang Feng lead the troops to rest, while he looked around the square. He wanted to observe what other strong opponents had chosen the same line as him.

Looking around, the player armies came and went; it was a bustling scene.

This was not surprising. After all, Huo Qubing was a king level presence in their eyes. In the wilderness, Lords that liked Huo Qubing could be easily grabbed and spotted.

Furthermore, this recruitment quest seemed the easiest. Naturally, more people would choose this quest line.

As expected, the battle report ended up confirming his guess.

"Battle Report: Battle of Mobei, a total of 45 Lords have joined. Huo Qubing line has 22 Lords, Wei Qing 18, and Li Guang 5."

45 Lords; this count meant that before the battle had even started, five Lords had given up.

Those who had given up probably did not hold much hopes for this battle. Sometimes, decisively giving up was also a wise choice.

As expected, Huo Qubing was the first choice of many Lords.

Around half of the Lords had chosen his quest line.

Old General Li Guang was a sad case, with only five Lords choosing him. If these five did not have any secret weapons, they would have to go into the battle blind.

"Such intense competition!"

Ouyang Shuo was filled with emotion, as he continued to search for his targets.

He truly met a few old faces.

The first was Ouyang Shuo's old rival; the one who had stood out during the auction - Sha Pojun.

He had also brought three thousand elite cavalry.

Upon closer inspection, they were different from the Zhongyuan Cavalry. They wielded the rarely seen curved knives, and even their war horses were all mongol war horses.

"Mongol Elite Cavalry?" Ouyang Shuo's eyes focused.

It seems like Sha Pojun had achieve a level of progress with the Mongol Iron Cavalry Training Manual. These three thousand elite cavalry must be the results of the training.

Three thousand mongol elite war horses, Sha Pojun was truly going all in.

A general that stood beside Sha Pojun caught Ouyang Shuo’s eyes.

Originally, Ouyang Shuo did not recognize this person.

The Han Army soldier in the barracks was the first to recognize this general.

"Lieutenant greets Commander Zhou!"

There was a commotion in the barracks.

Ouyang Shuo thought for a moment and immediately guessed the general’s identity.

"West Han famous general, Zhou Yafu?" Ouyang Shuo muttered.

Sha Pojun was truly lucky to the max. He had actually managed to obtain such a famous general through the summoning talisman.

On the topic of Zhou Yafu, his best war result was during Emperor Jing of Han's time. At that time, he had settled the mess of the seven countries. Based on the battle map time, the time of his death was less than twenty years from now.

No wonder the Han Army soldiers could recognize him.

With this person helping him, Sha Pojun could receive a level of special treatment.

Originally, Ouyang Shuo had also thought about bringing Han Xin over to pull some strings. However, thinking back to Han Xin's ending, he tossed aside that thought.

It was better that he did not raise up the sad past of this god general.

Further on this topic, Zhou Yafu was also a founding minister of West Han, and the son of Zhou Bo. Moreover, Zhou Bo had pledged his loyalty to Feng Qiuhuang after the Battle of Julu.

Originally, when the West Han entered the wilderness after the Battle of Mobei, Feng Qiuhuang would have a chance to recruit Zhou Yafu.

Who knew that Sha Pojun would recruit him through the talisman.

It was really a case of enemies often crossing paths.

"This guy is a formidable enemy!"

Ouyang Shuo did not want to look at Sha Pojun's gleeful expression, so he continued to search for other targets.

Within the Yanhuang Alliance, apart from Sha Pojun, two more had chosen the Huo Qubing line; they were Di Chen and Zhan Lang.

The cavalry that Di Chen brought also rode on mongol war horses.

As for Zhan Lang, he was a level weaker.

After all, the Jianye Region lacked good horses.

As for the Qingfu Horses in the Lianzhou Basin, they were an abnormality.

Di Chen choosing the Huo Qubing line did not surprise Ouyang Shuo. After all, Di Chen had already recruited Lianpo. If he could recruit the young genius Huo Qubing as well, he would have found a match made in heaven.

What surprised him was that Zhan Lang was actually interested in Huo Qubing.

The charm of a genius general was really different.

In truth, when Ouyang Shuo saw Di Chen and the others, they had also noticed his presence. Of course, Di Chen and the others were not happy to find him here.

Especially when Di Chen and the others noticed the Divine Martial Guards beside Ouyang Shuo.

This unit was already famous across the land, and everyone knew about it.

Under even circumstance, no one in the entire China region had the confidence to fight against the Divine Martial Guards.

"So unlucky!"

Di Chen could not hide his disappointed.

Zhan Lang smiled. However,his eyes contained a thread of fighting spirit.

On the side of Shanhai Alliance, Ouyang Shuo was obviously not alone.

Bai Hua and Xunlong Dianxue had also chosen the Huo Qubing line. Needless to say, their main generals were Zhang Liao and Qinqiong.

Comparing the two alliances, Shanhai Alliance was not at an absolute disadvantage.

Chapter 580-Use of Battle Resource Points

The three members of the Shanhai Alliance naturally gathered together.

Ouyang Shuo asked Bai Hua why she would choose Huo Qubing's line. After all, traveling thousands of miles was a very arduous journey.

Hence, when he saw Bai Hua in Daijun, Ouyang Shuo was extremely surprised.

"That's because Huo Qubing is handsome!"

Bai Hua's reply could not hide the fact that she was a star struck fool.

"...."

Black lines covered Ouyang Shuo's forehead. What kind of stupid reason was that!

Speaking of which, when the show Haney Great Emperor was broadcasted, the Huo Qubing actor had dazzled millions of girls. Who knew that Bai Hua had also been poisoned.

"Big sis, let's stop messing around, can we?" Ouyang Shuo felt conflicted.

"F** you." Bai Hua would not act courteous toward Ouyang Shuo. She punched him lightly and smiled, as she explained, “I'll stay here and see if there are any branch quests. I will leave the real expedition to Zhang Liao."

"That's more like it." Ouyang Shuo let out a sigh of relief.

At that very moment, the person in charge of the camp gathered the various Lords for a meeting.

For the Battle of Beimo, Gaia did not even choose a player representative, dragging everyone into the meeting.

In the barracks, Ouyang Shuo saw the main general.

This person was not the famous Champion Lord General Huo Qubing. Instead, it was a nameless general.

"What's happening, where's the Champion Lord?"

This made everyone who wanted to witness the glory of Huo Qubing extremely disappointed.

Amongst which, there was naturally a love sick girl.

"Everyone, please calm down." The main general of the barracks knew that he was a placeholder, so he explained, “The General has already led the troops out."

The camp was thrown into an uproar.

"He has already set out on the expedition? Then what about us?" Some Lords asked.

"The current barracks is only the logistics supply of the army. All of you can grab some resources for now. Tomorrow morning, you will lead your troops into the desert and chase after him."

Immediately, the soldiers carried maps and passed them to the various Lords.

"What you all are receiving is the abbreviated drawing of the troop movement plan." The main general explained.

When Ouyang Shuo took it and had a look, he frowned.

"This really is too simple!"

The entire map was made of goat leather, and only it had a few squiggly lines that depicted the movement plan of the troops from Daiqun to Khentii Mountain.

As for the water sources, supply points, and where the Xiongnu tribes were located, there was no information regarding those things at all.

Ouyang Shuo even felt doubtful about smoothly crossing the desert, let alone reaching the mountains.

"Gaia god. Are you hell bent on making us Lords unable to recruit Huo Qubing?"

Ouyang Shuo could not help but complain in his heart.

The other Lords were also extremely unhappy when they saw the so-called troop movement plan.

They were only at the first step of the recruitment quest, yet they had handed everyone a tough problem already. Those Lords who had held hopes of getting lucky instantly regretted it.

It was apparent that the difficulty of this quest had far exceeded their expectations.

Before the battle, they had wanted to lead their troops to follow the main army.

Who knew that Gaia would actually toss out such cards without a basis of normal logic.

Li Guang was an old general that had faced off against Xiongnu for an incredibly long time. Even so, he could get lost in the desert.

With that, one could see the treacherous nature of the desert environment.

If the players decided to try their luck without someone guiding the way, they would most likely end up with a terrible outcome.

Taking a step back, even if they walked out of the desert, how would they find Huo Qubing and his men on the vast grasslands?

One must know that Huo Qubing's troops were famous for their mobility and flexibility. Even the Xiongnu people could not catch them, so how could the Lords do so?

Furthermore, they had already set off three days ago.

To chase up to them was an impossible task.

The scary part was that they might not find the Han Army main force. Instead, they might bump into the Xiongnu tribes.

Just thinking about it, their futures looked bleak.

Some of the Lords already had the intentions of giving up.

"This is such a scam!" some of the Lords grumbled.

The main general of the barracks did not care, and he announced the end of the meeting.

The Lords were helpless; they could only shake their heads and leave.

……

Once they had walked out of the tent, Bai Hua asked, “Wuyi, what are your thoughts?"

Before Ouyang Shuo replied, Xunlong Dianxue took the opportunity, "Gaia would not give us a baseless quest. We only have no idea because we have not found the clues for the quest yet."

As expected from the quest maniac, his understanding of quests were extremely accurate.

Even Bai Hua could not help but nod her head when she heard these words.

"Then where do you think the clues will be?" Bai Hua asked.

"The barracks!"

Xunlong Dianxue was exceedingly confident.

"Oh, why so?" Bai Hua was curious.

Xunlong Dianxue pointed at the tents and smiled, “Daijun or the barracks is the main camp of Huo Qubing's troops and also the core of the logistics. This is the only place where we can come into contact with, so there's not much chance that the clue will jump out of this boundary."

"Is there a chance that it's within the city?" Bai Hua stated her own thoughts.

"I would not exclude that possibility."

Xunlong Dianxue did not wildly come to conclusions.

"It seems like we need to split up and act." Ouyang Shuo cut in at the appropriate time.

In truth, Ouyang Shuo's heart was not here at the moment.

In the camp, he had paid special attention to Sha Pojun and the others.

Who knew that he would actually manage to notice something out of the ordinary.

Ouyang Shuo noticed that when the other Lords were crestfallen, Sha Pojun had broken out into a smirk.

Although it was a momentary change, it could not escape Ouyang Shuo's eyes.

Evidently, he was not a Lord that could not keep his emotions in check.

Compared to the shrewd Di Chen and Zhan Lang, Sha Pojun was unable to keep his happiness to himself.

It seemed like the Yanhuang Alliance, or at least Sha Pojun, had obtained some internal information about this battle beforehand.

This was also the advantage of a strong family, something that Ouyang Shuo was helpless against.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo was more inclined to believe that Sha Pojun himself had obtained some relevant intel.

If not, the Yanhuang Alliance would have planned even harder and schemed even more for this battle. However, in the end, only three of them chose this line.

"Hmm, this is really interesting!"

Ouyang Shuo's fighting spirit was ignited.

However, he did not raise this finding with Bai Hua and Xunlong Dianxue.

No matter what, finding the clue was the most important mission right now.

Bai Hua prepared to head into the city, while Xunlong Dianxue would search the barracks.

As for Ouyang Shuo, he did not go anywhere. He just headed straight for the logistics point. He wanted to understand what resources and items the Han Army had provided.

Apart from that, he also needed to be clear about how to use the 500 battle resource points.

Based on the general’s words, all of the players could obtain supplies.

The one in charge was naturally the grain officer. He was around thirty years old, and he was really fat with a huge belly that almost tore his uniform.

In front of the storehouse, there were many Lords who had come over to make inquiries.

Ouyang Shuo did not rush. He just stood to the side, patiently waiting.

Through his observations, Ouyang Shuo understood many matters.

Normal Lords without battle resource points could only obtain a one time resource supply pack limited to three thousand people.

Based on the grain officer’s words, do not even think about obtaining an extra grain of rice.

The grain pack received would only include basic resources such as biscuits and forage. At most, one could obtain some roughly made bolts and arrows.

They would not even have a chance to see proper equipment.

Those Lords that coveted small advantages and did not bring any resources all broke out into tears. They had hoped that the situation would be like the previous battle maps.

Was Gaia trying to force all the Lords into a dead end?

Ouyang Shuo waited for the Lords to disperse. Only then did he step forward.

It was also a weird situation. The grain officer seemed really proud and confident in front of the other Lords.

However, when he saw Ouyang Shuo, his attitude seemed to change by 180 degrees, and he smiled widely like he had seen his own mother.

Smiling like that for no reason, are you hiding nefarious intentions?

Ouyang Shuo's heart instantly became wary.

He also noticed that although this grain officer looked really useless and incapable, he was actually extremely smart. Moreover, deception filled his small eyes.

Otherwise, he could not have reached the important role of grain officer.

"Lord, are you here to replenish resources?"

This grain officer bowed unctuously. Who would have guessed that he could bow so flexibly with his body size.

As they say, do not hit the smiling person's face.

No matter how wary Ouyang Shuo felt in his heart, his face did not show anything. He asked, “Sir, have you heard of battle resource points?"

Ouyang Shuo noticed that the grain officer's eyes instantly lit up.

The smile on his face became more and more flattering.

"I've heard about it, heard about it."

When Ouyang Shuo heard this reply, he felt a chill run down his spine.

"How do we exchange these battle resource points?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"Lord take a look!" Like magic, a thin booklet appeared in the hands of the grain officer. He respectfully handed it over to Ouyang Shuo, his eyes filled with yearning and greed.

That grain officer was dressed untidily, and his hands were oily.

However, the booklet was extremely clean and lacked any filth. Obviously, it was a precious item.

Ouyang Shuo bore the grossness that built up in his heart and took the booklet.

Flipping it open, his eyes instantly lit up.

"So that was where the mystery laid!"

He found a series of rare items listed in the booklet.

The first item on the list made Ouyang Shuo delighted.

‘Specific Troop Movement Plan.’

Just the name alone allowed a person to tell the incredible value of this item.

Undoubtedly, all these rare items needed battle resource points to exchange for.

However, just a single map needed a hundred battle resource points.

"Con, what a con!"

Chapter 581-Despicable

Battle resource points were a good thing, but it made one’s heart pained to use it.

Even as the only 1st class marquis in the China region, Ouyang Shuo only obtained 500 points. He could only exchange for a few items from this mysterious booklet.

He needed to give the matter deep thought.

Apart from the map, there were two other items that Ouyang Shuo wanted to exchange for.

Rapid Troop Movement Scroll: After use, 50% increase in movement speed for four hours without any negative effects. Costs 200 battle contribution points.

Undoubtedly, this was a last minute sprint weapon. With the movement speed of the Divine Martial Guards and the buff from this scroll, they could travel two hundred miles in four hours.

More crucially, after using this scroll, there would not be any side effects. If not, just one use of the scroll would cause many war horses to die, which was completely not worth it.

Ouyang Shuo bought this item without any hesitation.

The other item was not an object but a living person.

It was something Ouyang Shuo lacked the most right now - a Xiongnu Guide. This guide was a person familiar with the desert and the grasslands.

The guides sold by the grain officer also had different grades.

The highest grade Xiongnu Guide was not just familiar with the route. They could easily find the water sources, and they were great cavalry warriors with a strong sense of smell.

In the words of the old Emperor Wu of Han, they were the highest grade of hunting dogs.

Amongst Huo Qubing's army, there were presences that could freely roam the Xiongnu lands.

A guide was good, but the price was not cheap. A single guide cost 250 resource points.

At the current stage, only Ouyang Shuo could afford it.

The problem was that if he bought the guide, he would not have the resource points to purchase the map.

He could not get both.

Since he could obtain a living map, there was no need for a dead one.

In the end, Ouyang Shuo gritted his teeth and bought the highest grade guide.

In just a short time, he had used up all the battle resource points on hand. Ouyang Shuo took a look, but there was nothing meaningful he could exchange for anymore. As such, he just kept the remaining 50 points.

Didn't Gaia say that there were replenishment stops on the way?

Who knows, he might have a use for these points!

Ouyang Shuo generous spending made the grain officer on cloud nine. His fat tummy shook up and down, as he laughed.

Ouyang Shuo even speculated that Gaia had given the grain officer some special orders.

However, Ouyang Shuo had no intentions of investigating this matter further. He wanted to test the wares now.

He stored away the Rapid Troop Movement Scroll, while the guide revealed its true appearance.

At first glance, he was a typical Xiongnu person, and his five features were really distinct from the Han people. He wore an exquisite Han Army uniform.

"Greetings Lord, my name is Huyan Qiu."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Then he brought Huyan Qiu and left.

After completing such a huge transaction, the grain officer showed some rare generosity. He promised Ouyang Shuo that he would sincerely equip and gear up his forces.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this promise, he nodded his head in thanks.

……

4 PM, Bai Hua returned to the barracks.

Regarding clues about the quest, Bai Hua had returned empty handed. However, she had obtained a few branch quests. With that, she decided to stay in the city.

Ouyang Shuo raised the matter of battle resource points with Bai Hua.

Bai Hua was a 2nd class marquis, so she had 200 battle resource points.

Amongst the Lords, she could already be considered a really rich person.

When Bai Hua heard his news, her eyes lit up, as she turned and left.

As for the quest maniac Xunlong Dianxue, he had actually found a clue.

Apart from some broken information, he had fortunately managed to recruit a limping guide. Although this guide could not compare to Huyan Qiu, he was free. It would be around the same level as the basic guide that was sold, allowing him to save 100 battle contribution points.

One had to mention that in terms of completing quests, Xunlong Dianxue was truly a level higher than others.

As for the use of battle resource points, Xunlong Dianxue had naturally found out, and he did not need Ouyang Shuo to tell him about it.

Ouyang Shuo did not ask what the two of them had exchanged for. After all, only one person could recruit Huo Qubing.

Although they were allies, strictly speaking, they were currently competitors.

At most, they would help each other out at the early stages.

As for the later stages, it would be good if they did not backstab each other.

……

Amongst all the rushing and chaos, night finally fell.

Daijun was located at the border of the desert, so its weather was also extremely dry.

Looking out, one could roughly see a circular sun slowly sinking. The glow of the setting sun dyed the desert a golden yellow, creating a truly beautiful sight.

Who could imagine what kind of malicious things hid in this beautiful desert.

Under the instructions of Huyan Qiu, the three thousand Divine Martial Guards once again geared up.

The grain officer kept his promise, and he actually gave them fifty war horses.

One must know that during the Han Dynasty, a good war horse was worth tens of thousands of gold.

When players entered the battle map, they could not bring any extra war horses. Each cavalry could only bring one. Hence, although each Divine Martial Guard had three horses, they could not bring them in.

Although fifty war horse were not that much, they might still come in handy at certain times.

Apart from war horses, there was also some secret weapons the Han Army had prepared to combat the weather.

There were so many items that Ouyang Shuo did not understand it.

On the contrary, when Huyan Qiu saw these items, he could not help but nod his head.

Evidently, the grain officer had actually taken out many of his treasures.

The sight of this treatment caused the eyes of the other Lords to turn red with jealousy.

……

As the sun set in the west, the night sky officially descended.

The barracks that had been boisterous for the entire day finally quietened down.

Tomorrow morning, the troops would all set off.

The next step was naturally for them to have a good rest and replenish their energy. To the player army, this was going to be their best night's rest.

The entire camp was exceedingly quiet.

In the wee hours of the morning.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was about to fall asleep, he heard a Wuwu!

"Not good!"

Ouyang Shuo instantly woke up, as he recognized that the sound came from Little White.

Back when Little White appeared in the barracks, it had attracted many people's attention.

No one had expected the Lianzhou Lord to bring in a spirit beast white wolf into the battle map. Thinking about the desert environment, some of the Lords could not contain their envy.

Ouyang Shuo quickly got up and quickly headed out of the tent.

"Lord!"

The personal guards bowed.

Ouyang Shuo waved them off and followed the noise, walking toward a corner in the barracks.

The guard members glanced at one another and felt that something was weird with their Lord, so they quickly followed. As they walked, they tightly grasped the Tang Blades at their sides.

The atmosphere in the barracks instantly became nerve racking.

Wuwu!

The sounds from Little White became even more rushed, and there was even a hint of pain.

When Ouyang Shuo heard these sounds, his face turned cold, as he broke out into a run from his brisk walking pace. The two guards behind him knew that something was wrong. One of them quietly left.

A short while later, after turning past a tent, Ouyang Shuo finally saw Little White.

The sight before his eyes made him furious.

He saw ten soldiers around Little White that were stabbing it with spears.

If Little White had not cultivated in the Spirit Beast Hall, it would have already died. Even so, blood covered its body.

Ouyang Shuo even noticed two soldiers prone on the ground behind the encirclement, their status unknown.

If things were as expected, Little White had managed to harm them.

"Who are you?"

The bunch of soldiers were alert.

"Preposterous!"

Ouyang Shuo shouted, as his Chixiao Sword exited its sheath and gleaned with a cold light.

The current sword was far different from before. The red dragon spirit was infused into it, creating a sword spirit.

Although the sword did not advance to the realm of saint weapons, its power had become much stronger than a normal god weapon.

If he experienced another lucky break, it would only be a matter of time before the Chixiao Sword became a saint weapon.

When the Chixiao Sword exited its sheath, the other swords by their waists could not help but tremble. The current Chixiao Sword had the power of the king of swords.

Other prized swords were a level lower in front of it.

"Lianzhou Lord!"

Someone recognized Ouyang Shuo and panic appeared in his eyes.

This time, the soldiers did not hesitate; they wanted to escape.

"You want to leave? Too late!"

Ouyang Shuo raised his sword and charged toward them.

The killing sword once again appeared.

The formless killing intent covered the entire area. The soldiers that had tried to escape could feel a force preventing them from running.

This was an aura.

The aura of the killing sword.

Such might was extremely alluring and terrifying.

Ouyang Shuo flowed around like water. As his sword gleaned, enemies fell. The guard behind Ouyang Shuo and Little White also joined the battle.

In less than ten minutes, the fifteen soldiers all collapsed to the ground.

Ouyang Shuo did not kill them, as he wanted to investigate their background.

The intentions of the enemy were truly vicious.

They must have noticed that Little White was special. Afraid that Ouyang Shuo would take the lead, they wanted to get rid of Little White to remove a potential cancer.

However, they had not expected the unassuming Little White to be so strong. Under the encirclement of so many elite soldiers, it still had not fallen to too much of a disadvantage.

Furthermore, they did not expect Ouyang Shuo to be so alert. Even when he was supposed to be asleep, he had come to reinforce the spirit beast so quickly.

If not, their scheme would have definitely succeeded.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to see who had employed such despicable methods.

Chapter 582-Entering the Desert

Right as Ouyang Shuo took down the ten or more soldiers, a flurry of footsteps sounded out in the darkness of the night.

Ouyang Shuo's eyes contracted, while he grasped the sword in his hand.

An entire squadron of soldiers appeared in his line of sight. They wore the same uniform as the previous group of soldiers.

"They are in cahoots?"

Ouyang Shuo muttered.

In a one against one hundred situation, Ouyang Shuo would need to carefully weigh his options.

Luckily, he was not fighting alone.

Just as the enemy wanted to attack and retrieve their injured brothers, another flurry of footsteps sounded out. It was Chen Dameng and the personal guards; they emitted a suppressive aura.

The personal guard on night watch felt that something was weird, so he went to inform his captain.

Chen Dameng finally arrived before both sides engaged.

These two forces bumped into one another coincidentally.

As the space was small and limited, it appeared extremely cramped.

The smell of gunpowder permeated the air.

"Lord!"

Chen Dameng glared at the enemy before calmly bowing toward Ouyang Shuo.

"Take them down!"

Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate at all. The enemy squadron that had just arrived should be the troops in charge of clearing up loose ends. Since their plan had failed, they wanted to destroy the bodies.

How could Ouyang Shuo allow them to act so bold and shameless?

After receiving the order, Chen Dameng did not say anything else. He simply led his men and charged toward the enemy.

In a head to head battle, the Divine Martial Guards did not fear anyone.

Furthermore, the personal guards formed the most elite presence among the Divine Martial Guards.

The battle between the two sides had totally shattered the peace and quiet of the barracks. Everyone was alerted and woke up.

After a short while, many Lords had gathered outside the tents to take a look at the situation.

The sight of Ouyang Shuo standing there with his sword in hand left them stunned.

Then they noticed the bloodied Little White beside Ouyang Shuo, and they started to grasp the situation.

These people just watched on and did not help.

Ouyang Shuo remained expressionless when he saw that.

Chen Dameng did not let him down.

When the Han Army patrol rushed over, Chen Dameng's forces had already taken down the army.

"Lord, what is going on?" The leading officer asked.

Ouyang Shuo described the entire course of events to him.

This time, the situation had completely blown over.

He had living evidence and material evidence, so the culprit could not refute his allegations.

However, this was a battle map. Each of the Lord's troops were not registered individually. As such, finding out which Lord this group of men belonged to would be highly difficult.

The officer had a difficult expression on his face, he was truly afraid that Ouyang Shuo would use this matter to stir up trouble.

Ouyang Shuo looked around at the surrounding Lords and coldly uttered, “Why, you dare to do it but do not dare to admit? What a scum, to use such despicable methods."

"...."

The entire field remained silent. Since the culprit had acted secretly, they would not stupidly step out and admit their wrongdoings.

Be it those who were present of those who were not, they were all suspects.

Since no one admitted to the matter, Ouyang Shuo was also helpless. Moreover, as time was limited, he could not interrogate them one by one.

"Officer, why don’t you leave these men for me to deal with?"

Ouyang Shuo turned around and looked at the patrolling officer.

"Lord, please proceed!"

The officer was naturally delighted to rid this problem from his hands.

Normally speaking, for battles between players, they would try their best to not interfere.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. His eyes suddenly turned cold, as he signaled to Chen Dameng.

Chen Dameng understood. He led his troops forward, and each one of them pulled out their Tang Blades. They held their weapons against the necks of the enemy, ready to enact justice.

The captured soldiers were real men; none of them pleaded for mercy.

At this sight, Chen Dameng cut down with his Tang Blade first.

Instantly, around one hundred heads dropped to the ground one by one, and blood spilled everywhere.

The fresh red blood vividly described the cruelty of this battle. Before the army had even set out, the Lords had started to stab at one another.

Amongst the Lords present, some of their faces could not help but tense up.

When the surrounding Lords saw the mercilessness of the Lianzhou Lord, they felt a chilly wind.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to use action to establish his dominance; he wanted to warn his other enemies to not have any ideas about him.

Do not touch a tiger's rear.

If not, you would not only fail to steal the chicken, but you would lose the rice you had fed it too.

Ouyang Shuo had no intentions of finding out the mastermind right now. As long as this quest had not ended, the fox tail of the enemy would surely reveal itself.

After the commotion, the barracks regained its peace and quiet once more.

As for whether or not some people could sleep peacefully, that was a whole other matter.

The next half of the night remained tranquil.

Early next morning, the barracks grew busy once more.

The events of last night had zero effect on the eagerness of the Lords.

Some of them had even led their troops to hurry out of the barracks, throwing themselves into the desert. Ouyang Shuo did not hang around; he gathered Zhang Liao and Xunlong Dianxue and left together.

Early in the morning, the red sun started to rise.

The desert seemed utterly calm; the sand dunes were like waves, having many ups and downs. It looked incredibly gentle, reducing the worries the Lords had for the desert.

Only Huyan Qiu entered his zone the moment he stepped into the desert. He looked around at the shapes and surroundings of the desert, and he would occasionally glance up at the sky. He did not have a relaxed expression.

Ouyang Shuo rode on his war horse and looked around.

As they had just entered the desert, the troops were all close together. There were player forces all around him. The sharp-eyed Ouyang Shuo also noticed that some of the Lords were looking at him strangely.

He had felt these same eyes on him last night.

Since his morning, the strange feeling had grown stronger and more intense.

Upon closer inspection, it was not hard to see that more than six groups of troops were following behind them.

They were being stalked!

"Big brother, something is not right!"

Xunlong Dianxue was not a fool. He had also noticed them, so he came over to Ouyang Shuo's side.

"It is not right." Ouyang Shuo nodded.

"But why? There's no reason for them to go head-to-head with us. They’ll get nothing in return." Xunlong Dianxue could not hide his doubts.

"Normally, they would have nothing to gain. But what if someone spurred them on on propose?" Ouyang Shuo slowly gathered his emotions.

"Are you talking about Di Chen?"

Xunlong Dianxue immediately reacted.

"Apart from them, who else likes to play these kinds of games?" Ouyang Shuo replied.

"What would make those Lords willing to take such a risk?" Xunlong Dianxue muttered before he slowly said, “Items exchanged for by battle resource points?"

Ouyang Shuo nodded and smiled, “Eighty percent chance of that."

Just the detailed troop movement map was enough to tempt all those Lords. Without it, they had no chances of winning.

As a result, those Lords were willing to take such a risk.

“Truly despicable!"

Xunlong Dianxue could not hide his despise toward Di Chen and the others.

Ouyang Shuo showed no emotion.

Who knows, their plan might backfire on them instead.

After all, to squeeze into the top 50 territories of China, you could hardly be a fool.

Thinking about it further, it was not hard to come to certain conclusion.

In comparison, the three alliance armies of the Shanhai Alliance was a harder bone to chew on.

Di Chen and the others had probably noticed this point.

Setting out in the morning, Ouyang Shuo paid special attention and noticed that the three of them were not present.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo believed that a bunch of rats had also followed them.

In the current situation, their two alliances had become the prey of the other Lords.

"This battle quest is becoming more and more interesting." Ouyang Shuo smiled.

Xunlong Dianxue gave him a stunned expression. How could Ouyang Shuo laugh at this moment?

……

Just like that, Ouyang Shuo slowly led his troops forward across the boundless desert, as a huge tail followed them.

The Lords following behind them were not willing to charge forward to try and forcefully snatch the guide.

If they could follow the Shanhai City troops all the way, why do anything extra? Of course, if someone else was willing to act as the vanguard, that was another matter.

The morning had an extremely harmonious and weird atmosphere.

The players had finally dived deep into the desert.

Looking out left and right, it was all endless desert.

In their eyes, apart from sand, there was more sand.

Their curiosity toward the desert at the start slowly became boredom and disinterest.

Especially as time went on, the temperature in the desert grew higher and higher. At noon, the sun hung high overhead. The fiery sun scorched the earth, making one unable to raise a single bit of energy.

These player troops did not have any desert battle experience. Hence, under such circumstances, all the troops appeared really spiritless.

Even Little White was listless and showed a lack of energy.

Last night, Ouyang Shuo had taken a look at its wounds. Luckily, they were only some skin deep wounds.

"Lord, something is not right."

Suddenly, Huyan Qiu, who had not spoken anything since the start, galloped on his horse over to Ouyang Shuo.

"What's wrong?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"Looking at the situation, it seems like a sandstorm approaches." Huyan Qiu reported the bad news.

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, he looked up, only to see the clouds hanging high up in the sky. Nothing seemed to be off.

Of course, Huyan Qiu was professional, so Ouyang Shuo heeded his advice. He immediately ordered his troops to shrink their formation.

Facing the sandstorm head on was a bad idea.

Chapter 583-Desert Bandit Ambush

"Lord, there are some stone structures ahead. We can use those to avoid the sandstorm."

As expected from the living map of the desert. Huyan Qiu had paid attention to the unassuming landmarks and knew their exact location in the desert.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he heaved a sigh of relief.

Just this point alone was worth the 250 battle resource points.

He immediately asked Huyan Qiu to lead the way, so they could settle the army before the sandstorm arrived.

The tail at the back also wanted to follow them.

This time, Ouyang Shuo did not remain courteous.

He asked the Divine Martial Guards to give those behind them a rain of arrows as a warning.

After this warning, as expected, they did not dare to get close. They only arranged a few scouts to keep a lookout. As for their main force, they trudged on slowly behind.

In their eyes, there were still many days to go, so they did not need to rush. As long as they knew the location of the Shanhai City Army, they would not be afraid of getting lost in the desert.

Little did they know that Ouyang Shuo was digging a hole for them using the sandstorm.

Half an hour later, they really saw the stone structures.

Ouyang Shuo ordered everyone to dismount and act like they were resting.

In truth, the army was silently getting into formation and setting up camp.

At this time, the sky above the desert suddenly became gloomy and dark.

The terrifying sandstorm had arrived as expected.

Dust suddenly flew about the desert, which was calm moments ago. Further away, a huge sandstorm swept forth like a wave.

The beautiful sky instantly turned pitch black.

Only the sounds of strong winds filled the entire vicinity.

Only at this moment did the players following the Shanhai Army notice the arrival of the sandstorm. They also wanted to copy the Shanhai Army and hide at the stone structures, but it was too late.

A nine thousand elite cavalry strictly guarded the stone structures. Any enemy that tried to rush over was met with an arrow rain.

This time, the player armies were left in total desperation.

No matter how they moved, they would face a dead end.

The crazy sandstorm was like a cavalry soldier, sweeping toward them.

In the desert, horses and people flipped.

The players finally learned of the brutal and cruel side of the desert.

Even the Shanhai City Army, who had their backs against the stone structures, were barely holding on. If they did not pay attention, the sandstorm would also sweep them away.

The Shanhai City Army surrounded Ouyang Shuo, who stood in the middle. He could not open his eyes at all. When he tried to open his eyes to look around, he only saw the sandstorm. It was like he was in the middle of an apocalypse.

Occasionally, one would still hear painful screams.

Every second, every minute felt so long.

In front of the might of the Earth, a single person seemed so small and powerless.

Who knows how long they waited before the sandstorm finally swept past and disappeared into the distance.

Ouyang Shuo tried his best to open his eyes; his whole body was dusty and covered in sand.

Moreover, he could be considered lucky.

Further away from them, the players who were unfortunate enough to get caught up in the sandstorm were left in terrible states.

However, Ouyang Shuo did not feel any sympathy for them at all.

"Generals where are you?"

Ouyang Shuo raised his energy and shouted.

"I'm here!"

Wang Feng, Zhang Liao, and Qinqiong stepped out.

Before leaving, it was settled that Ouyang Shuo would take the position of sole commander of the army.

He was going to lead all three armies.

Hence, Zhang Liao and Qinqiong, these two generals, also followed his instructions with the utmost respect.

"Immediately gather up our forces and destroy the enemy, as they are unstable and all over the place."

Ouyang Shuo unsheathed his sword and pointed it forward.

"Roger!"

The three generals felt their blood boil.

They liked this kind of clean and direct warfare.

As for striking the enemy while they were down?

This was war and not a game; it was not a place to talk about manners and morals.

After a short while, the army had formed up neatly.

"Kill!"

Under the guidance of the three generals, the army swarmed out.

On the other hand, Ouyang Shuo remained under the protection of the personal guards and commanded the troops from the backlines.

To the other players, this was simply the worst situation.

The sandstorm had caused them to lose more than half of their soldiers. A large portion were either dead or swept away, buried under the sand dunes.

If they saved them in time, they could probably recover a large number of their troops.

Unfortunately for them, Ouyang Shuo did not give them such a chance.

The strong Shanhai City Army directly charged toward them.

To these Lords, this moment felt like the heavens were collapsing on them.

Regret!

This only occurred because they fell for Di Chen's temptations.

A quick battle in the desert ended without any surprises. In less than two hours, the five to six player forces that had followed behind them collapsed.

Even those soldier that scattered and tried to escape were chased down and killed.

On the desolate grounds of the Gobi Desert, many corpses laid strewn.

As the wind blew, these bodies would be quickly buried.

A month later, no one would know that a battle had occurred here. Only the white bones buried deep under the sand would tell of this piece of human history.

This was the calm, violent, gentle, and viciousness of the desert.

Each and every side was its true self.

The part that made Ouyang Shuo feel weird was that during the massacre, he could actually see his battle contribution points swelling, "Killing people of the same camp also gives me battle contribution points?"

Gaia, Gaia was really evil!

This battle totally did not have any camps!

As long as you were from different territories, you were enemies.

There would only be one winner.

Ouyang Shuo started to understand the intentions of Gaia.

With that, it seemed like the killing between Lords would grow more and more cruel. Even if they were unable to recruit Huo Qubing, earning some contribution points and merit points was good.

After the battle, as they were still rushing, Ouyang Shuo did not even clean up the battlefield. Instead, he directly led them forward. They still needed to cover a distance before the sun set.

The period before night was the best time to travel. At this time, the weather was cooling, and it was not too hot or too cold. If night arrived, they would have no choice but to sleep in their tents.

After getting rid of their tail, the army could finally travel at ease.

‘Plumes of smoke rise up into the evening sky of the Great Desert, while the Yellow River dims, as the setting sun goes down.’

Looking at the orange sun, Ouyang Shuo thought of this old poem.

Did the poet Wang Wei also have this kind of thought?

The glow of the setting sun cast out onto the golden yellow sand dunes. The army that had traveled for the entire day chose a suitable spot to set up camp, following Huyan Qiu’s instructions.

Shortly after they stopped, Huyan Qiu brought a squad to fetch water.

The cavalry were equipped with water bags. If they used the water wisely, it could last for two days.

The battle in the day placed an intense toll on the water supply. Hence, they needed to replenish their supplies during this break period. If not, they could not travel tomorrow.

Ouyang Shuo could not imagine how they would be able to smoothly find water in the desert without Huyan Qiu.

Would it be the same case for Di Chen and the others?

Who knows if they had managed to escape the sandstorm that occurred during the day.

Malicious thoughts appeared in Ouyang Shuo’s mind.

……

The following two days were peaceful and without action.

Ouyang Shuo did not even see any player squads. He guessed that after entering deep into the desert, the players that were lucky to survive had scattered.

"Lord, in three more days, we can walk out of the desert!"

After setting up camp, Huyan Qiu reported to Ouyang Shuo as usual about their progress.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and nodded, “It has been tough on you!" Ouyang Shuo was not saying this out of courtesy. If they did not have Huyan Qiu, their journey would not have been so smooth.

Huyan Qiu was able to find a water source basically every day.

The ten thousand troops had never lacked water even once.

One had to say that this itself was a small miracle.

Apart from finding drinking water, they also noticed marks left by the Han Army along the way.

This made Ouyang Shuo extremely excited.

Just thinking about Huo Qubing's forces being not far away caused Ouyang Shuo's excitement to burn brightly.

Accidents often happen without one noticing.

On this night, Shanhai City Army would face a massive test.

On the sand dunes not far from their camp, two people suddenly appeared.

These two people were dressed in tattered clothings and were fully wrapped with clothes. Their grey wear made it hard for one to notice them in the desert.

They had been tracking the Shanhai City Army for more than a day.

"Big Brother, look at their formation, it does not look like the normal Han Army." One of them said with a hoarse voice.

"It really is not normal." The slightly older man replied.

"Then should be book it?" The younger one was a little hesitant.

"Book it? I also want to." In his tone, there was an indescribable sadness and bitterness, "Unfortunately, our stronghold has no more grain, and if we do not do anything, we will have nothing to eat."

"Isn’t this too risky?"

The Han Army was a force that these desert bandits could not easily mess with. The moment they stabbed the bee's nest, if they did not pay attention, they would get killed instead.

Hence, not attacking soldiers had basically become a hidden rule amongst the bandit circle.

Of course, there were exceptions to everything.

For example, when one had no other options.

During this period of time, the Han Army had frequently used troops on Xiongnu, cutting off their merchant routes.

As a result, the lives of the desert bandits became extremely tough.

In the end, these bandits got by through their blades and stealing. If they had no way to live, they could make any crazy moves.

Wasn’t it the case right now? A group of desert bandits had set their sights on the Shanhai City Army. They desired the military grain pills that the cavalry carried. These miraculous pills caused the desert bandits to drool after they noticed it.

They had not acted yet because they were still gathering reinforcements.

This time, the two strongest desert bandit groups in the desert were going to work together.

The two people on the sand dune were just the sentries in charge of monitoring the army.

The real force numbered in the tens of thousands. They were behind them, secretly gathering up.

They had set the time to act to that evening.

Chapter 584-Cold and Cruel Poisonous Snake

The desert bandits had chosen to strike at 8 PM in the evening.

At this time, the soldiers had already started sleeping.

The entire camp was extremely quiet.

The only sound was the night breeze blowing, causing the campfire flames to quiver.

Looking out into the sky, the stars shone bright. The Milky Way hung upside down, while the moon hung up high. Along with the vast and never ending desert, it gave one a truly lonely but peaceful feeling.

"Who?"

The soldier in charge of sentry duties noticed a few torches in the distance.

Puchi!

A sharp arrow replied to him.

The desert bandits, who had laid in wait for so long, finally revealed their fangs. Forty to fifty thousand desert bandits charged over from all directions, encircling the entire camp.

Torches that counted in the tens of thousands lit up the desert.

Successive arrows shot the soldier in charge of sentry duties.

His low cries alerted the other patrolling soldiers.

Following which, the entire camp woke up.

In an instant, a buzz replaced the silence.

Since they were travelling in the desert, Ouyang Shuo had already given out strict orders.

Apart from arranging people to patrol, all the soldiers were to sleep with their armor on and weapons beside them. These measures ensured that they could be thrown into battle. After all, Ouyang Shuo was wary of other players.

Who would have thought that desert bandits and not players would attack him first?

"What's the situation?"

Ouyang Shuo grasped his sword and walked out of his tent, emitting a stern and fierce aura.

"Lord, the desert bandits are attacking us."

Chen Dameng, this loyal soldier, had rushed over to the commander's tent right away.

"Desert bandits?" Ouyang Shuo was stunned, “They really are bold."

Ouyang Shuo's voice was not loud, but everyone could feel the killing intent within.

"Personal Guards!" Ouyang Shuo once again unsheathed his sword.

"Present!"

"Follow me out to battle!"

Ouyang Shuo was ready to personally fight this time.

"Yes, my Lord!"

The entire camp was already in a killing frenzy, and it was an utter mess. To form up any formation or tactic was a pipe dream. The only way solution was to go head on against the desert bandits.

To overwhelm and destroy them.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo did not even need to think about his commands.

He simply raised his sword and brought his personal guards into the battlefield.

One had to say, the desert bandits had truly chosen a good time.

The desert bandits excelled at night warfare, especially in the darkness. Such a situation was their home, and they were familiar with every aspect of it.

On the other hand, the alliance army was suddenly assaulted, and they were in a bad state. More importantly, the nine thousand alliance army troops were all cavalry.

Now, the cavalry had to fight a close combat battle against the desert bandits and not the high speed charging battles they were accustomed to.

This was what people feared!

Luckily, they had the three thousand Divine Martial Guards standing at the front.

The Divine Martial Guards were excellent at both infantry and cavalry battles.

On their horses, they were invincible cavalry; off their horses, they were the most valiant soldiers.

"Kill!"

Some of the desert bandits noticed Ouyang Shuo and his men, so they quickly surrounded them.

Ouyang Shuo laughed coldly; he twisted his Chixiao Sword and slashed out, cutting down one desert bandit. Following which, he slid forward, entering the midst of the desert bandits and engaging in close quarter slaughter.

The killing sword was meant for the battlefield.

How could normal desert bandits be Ouyang Shuo's opponents?

Especially their equipment, to use the words simple and crude would be a total understatement.

It was useless!

Among the desert bandits, none of them even have iron armor.

Most of them had leather armor loosely hanging from their bodies, while some even wore linen and cloth.

Ouyang Shuo could not imagine who gave them the courage to actually sneak attack his troops.

Their level of defence was like tofu before the Chixiao Sword.

Ouyang Shuo led his personal guards to slaughter across the battlefield.

Shortly after, more than ten bodies of desert bandits laid at his feet.

This sight caused the morale of the soldiers to skyrocket.

The leader of the desert bandits was not stupid, and he immediately noticed the changes on the battlefield.

Normal warriors could not even approach him.

Should he shoot an arrow?

The personal guards seemed to stand around loosely in bad positions, but in truth, they covered Ouyang Shuo tightly.

The desert bandits finally realized the terror of a proper elite army. It was night and day compared to the merchant protection squads they usually fought against.

After the army fought past their most chaotic period, even though they did not have the numerical advantage, they still managed to retaliate in an orderly manner. The soldiers grouped up in squadrons and weaved in and out of the battlefield.

On the contrary, the desert bandits were thrown into an utter mess.

The situation started to go sour for the desert bandits.

A sense of regret started to rise up in the desert bandit leader’s heart.

Unfortunately, the arrow was on the bowstring, and he had to fire.

The desert bandit leader was ready to personally enter the battle. His target was exactly Ouyang Shuo. He gathered the most elite desert bandits and leaped straight for Ouyang Shuo.

"Finally some challenge?"

Chen Dameng spoke savagely, as he waved his giant blade and chopped off the head of a desert bandit. From the way he spoke and his tone, he was more backward than the desert bandits.

However, his personal guards captain was not someone to be trifled with.

Under Ouyang Shuo’s personal training, his combat strength had grown by the day.

Even Wang Feng needed over one hundred rounds to take down Chen Dameng.

The desert bandit leader had met his match.

The two brutes engaged one another, making it hard for others to differentiate between them.

Ouyang Shuo, who stood at the side, did not think about killing the leader to show off his strength. To him, this battle was the best place to train his killing sword.

Even the elite bandits were no match for the sharp blade of the killing sword.

Especially as the battle progressed. The blood fog once again gathered on the Chixiao Sword, making it look alluring.

Dang!

The Chixiao Sword struck a long sword.

"Something isn’t right!"

The moment they came into contact, he felt that this desert bandit was not simple. His sword seemed weak, but he struck out at extremely precise angles. His sword strikes were also amazingly quick, and each stroke aimed for his life.

"An expert!"

Ouyang Shuo looked up at the enemy, but it was a desert bandit that looked normal.

"Hen!"

Ouyang Shuo scoffed and raised his sword once more. He did not believe that someone that could match him would exist amongst the desert bandits.

The more they fought, the more Ouyang Shuo felt that something was wrong.

The enemy was a crafty fox, or one could say that he was a venomous snake. He utilized the flexibility and mobility of his body, and he did not go head to head against Ouyang Shuo. Instead, he used the crowd as cover.

He struck when Ouyang Shuo did not notice.

Every time he attacked, it shocked and surprised Ouyang Shuo.

"Despicable!"

This enemy left Ouyang Shuo enraged.

His Chixiao Sword was sharp, and each stroke was a lethal blow.

"Since you want to hide, I'll kill all that's in front of me."

Ouyang Shuo thought back to why he would feel so furious. Since he had cultivated the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique and the killing sword, he had not faced such a situation.

He had even dared to face Chiyou.

Now, a nameless person had stunned him.

How could he not feel angry?

The Chixiao Sword seemed to be able to feel Ouyang Shuo's thoughts, as it grew more excited. Ouyang Shuo could clearly feel the sword spirit spreading its feelings to him.

"Go all out?" Ouyang Shuo muttered, “Okay, as you wish!"

This time, Ouyang Shuo used the primordial energy in his body.

The golden primordial energy covered the Chixiao Sword.

Gold and red mixed together.

The primordial energy sharpened the Chixiao Sword.

Before an enemy could even come close, they could feel the sharpness of the sword; it was sharp like a needle. As soon as the weapon of the desert bandit touched the Chixiao Sword, it was sliced into half.

Such might was unparalleled.

Ouyang Shuo looked like he was randomly killing, but in truth, more than half of his energy was focused on defending against the desert bandit that was sneak attacking him.

This time, he wanted to slay him.

As expected, when the normal-looking desert bandit saw Ouyang Shuo engrossed in killing, he grinned and sneakily moved behind Ouyang Shuo. The long sword in his hand was like a venomous snake, stabbing straight for Ouyang Shuo's heart.

"Finally got you!"

Ouyang Shuo smirked coldly; he moved his legs and body, suddenly tilting to the side and dodging the enemy’s strike. His body had not turned completely, but the sword in his hand had slid across the enemy’s blade.

The sword glistened, and the Chixiao Blade seemed sentient, as it directly stabbed into the enemy.

Only at this point did Ouyang Shuo turn around.

The moment he succeeded, Ouyang Shuo naturally would not give his enemy any mercy.

He twisted the Chixiao Sword and jolted, tearing apart the organs of the enemy.

Wuu!

That desert bandit stared at Ouyang Shuo in disbelief, as he collapsed on the ground.

"Leader!"

The surrounding desert bandits exclaimed.

"No wonder!"

Ouyang Shuo felt a light bulb light up in his mind.

That normal looking desert bandit was actually the leader of the other organization. While the other leader was fighting with Chen Dameng, this leader had sneaked beside Ouyang Shuo to try and sneak attack him.

Who knew that in the end, he would still lose his life to the Chixiao Sword.

The moment the leader died, the desert bandits lost their will to fight.

The entire battlefield started to loosen up.

When the leader that was fighting against Chen Dameng saw the situation, his face sunk, and he decisively shouted, "Retreat!"

Turning around, he disappeared from the battlefield under the protection of his bodyguards.

"Scum!"

When Chen Dameng saw them flee, he was furious. He felt like he had lost his face.

Along with the leader backing off, the remaining desert bandits retreated like a flood.

As expected from the local snakes, just as the Shanhai City Army wanted to chase them, they lost sight of them.

One could not notice them when they came, one could not find them when they left.

In the end, there was nothing they could do.

Meanwhile, Ouyang Shuo causally picked up a token.

The desert bandit leader had dropped this token after his death.

Apart from that, there was nothing else.

After this massive battle, Ouyang Shuo's battle contribution points increased by tens of thousands.

Chapter 585-Out of the Bandit Nest but into the Wolf Den

After the battle, the three generals entered Ouyang Shuo's tent to report on the casualties.

Although they had forced back the desert bandits, the alliance army had also paid a price. Consonance City and Xunlong City had lost around five hundred troops each. Even one hundred people from the Divine Martial Guards were lost.

The fierceness and brutality of the desert bandits were not a lie.

After they left, Ouyang Shuo finally had time to check out the token.

War Token: An unknown token that can only be used in a specified location.

The token’s description confused Ouyang Shuo, as he had no idea how to use it. The only clue was that it could be used in the battle map.

Everything else was completely unknown.

As for this battle map, there were still many mysteries that Ouyang Shuo did not understand.

Gaia’s settings for the Battle of Mobei had overturned all previous norms. Ouyang Shuo could not gain an advantage in every area like the other battles.

On the contrary, he was always on the back foot and had faced many problems.

The blistering sun, the sandstorm, and the desert bandits.

The tests from Gaia came one after another, making him unable to relax. Based on the current scenario, it seemed that less than ten player forces would walk out of the desert.

The next day, the army set off once more.

Probably because they had scared off the two largest bandit organizations, but their journey became exceedingly smooth. On the morning of the 5th day, the army finally crossed the desert and entered the grassland.

The desert that was devoid of life intersected with the green and colorful grassland.

Sudden, but natural.

One side represented death, while the other side represented life.

These two completely different entities perfectly merged at this area.

The line between life and death was drawn incredibly clearly.

Even so, looking out at the boundless green plains, Ouyang Shuo did not feel the slightest hint of happiness.

Gaia was not a philanthropist. Exiting the desert was merely the preliminary test for the Lords. The real test was on this seemingly harmless grassland.

Numerous Xiongnu tribes lived here, so it was difficult for the Lords to defend.

The players would soon face a much crueler test.

They would have to kill each other.

After both tests, only the strongest could walk out as the victor.

How could a god rank general be so easy to recruit?

"Send down my orders; ask the troops to stay on guard!" Ouyang Shuo commanded.

"Yes, my Lord!"

Suddenly moving from an intense environment to a place that made one feel peaceful and at ease would easily cause one to relax.

But the moment they relaxed, only death awaited them.

They were helpless, as the cruel battle map rules forced the troops to travel quickly, not slowly and carefully. As this was a battle of speed, carefulness meant falling back.

Falling back meant that one could not recruit the god general.

Hence, the troops needed to stay on their guard while traveling quickly.

……

Although Ouyang Shuo was careful, the enemy was craftier than him.

As the army went past a small hill, the rumbling of horse hooves sounded out all around them. In addition to a whistling sound, it did not seem like a friendly hello.

"Not good, we are surrounded!"

The troops in charge of sentry duty on the outskirts immediately waved their flags.

Considering that they were in Xiongnu territory and lacked numbers, the patrolling forces did not dare to spread themselves too thinly in case they alerted the Xiongnu people.

The main force had remained in battle formation, and they were not spread too wide. Moreover, the grassland was boundless and wide, so they did not need to consider entering a narrow space.

Ouyang Shuo led the Divine Martial Guards at the front as the vanguard, Qinqiong led the middle, while Zhang Liao guarded the rear.

"Do not panic, keep calm!"

Ouyang Shuo remained exceedingly calm. He had already expected it to be the Xiongnu people.

Between the two of them, this battle would happen sooner or later.

Facing them earlier was better, as they could put this matter behind them quicker.

However, Ouyang Shuo had completely miscalculated this time.

After a short while, the battle intel spread to Ouyang Shuo.

This sneak attack was actually from a player force, and the preliminary estimations placed their numbers at more than thirty thousand men. As such, at least ten Lords had participated in this movement.

Ten?

Ouyang Shuo was astonished.

Based on his conjectures, not more than ten of the Lords could walk out of the desert. This meant that all the lucky survivors were participating in this attack.

Needless to say, someone was pulling the strings behind this entire affair.

As for their identity, wasn’t it obvious?

Ouyang Shuo led the personal guards and quickly rode up a nearby hill. From his vantage point, he could see the thirty thousand enemy cavalry charging toward them from all directions; it seemed like a force that could swallow up mountains and rivers.

At the most north end, right in front of the army, Ouyang Shuo noticed Sha Pojun's forces. The mongol war horse and the curved blades were too easy to identify.

In front of the army, Zhou Yafu stood emotionlessly. Beside him was actually a squadron of Han Army soldiers. Upon closer inspection, they were actually members from the main camp.

On the left, Di Chen's forces appeared.

On the right, Zhan Lang's wolf head flag waved in the wind.

When Ouyang Shuo saw all of this, everything clicked.

Seeing these three together here seemed to explain all the impossible scenarios.

Obviously, this matter was carefully planned.

Their goal was to remove Ouyang Shuo and his group; they wanted to eliminate their greatest opponents.

Ouyang Shuo could not imagine how they had actually convince the other Lords to place down their suspicions and work together.

After all, such a course of action was basically trying to skin a tiger.

Everyone knew about the ambitions of Di Chen and the others!

The greatest possibility would be that they had obtained tangible benefits, which made them decide to give up and instead help the Yanhuang Alliance fulfil their strategic plan.

For example, the Yanhuang Alliance might have bought over these Lords with money.

Thinking back to the achievement value exchange, it was not hard to imagine how rich Di Chen and the others had become.

A questionable point still remained; the enemy was well-prepared, and they had purposely waited at a road that the Shanhai City Army needed to pass. As a result, they had caught Ouyang Shuo off guard.

The Shanhai City army had the living desert map, Huyan Qiu, allowing them to walk out of the desert so smoothly.

Then, what about Sha Pojun and the others?

They had actually exited the desert before Shanhai City, which Ouyang Shuo had not expected.

Apart from guides, the only possibility was Zhou Yafu.

Thinking back to the Han Army beside him, Ouyang Shuo's face turned cold. He had not expected that Zhou Yafu could influence the Han Army of this generation.

What a miscalculation!

It had resulted in the situation at hand.

"Big brother, what now?"

Xunlong Dianxue rushed over from amongst his troops.

"Let's split up and break out of this," Ouyang Shuo replied.

For the current situation, fighting head on would give them little chances of winning.

Eight thousand against thirty thousand.

Ouyang Shuo had confidence in the Divine Martial Guards, but he did not feel the same for the other troops. They were only on the same level as the enemy troops ahead of them.

As for the commanding generals, the enemy held the upper hand with generals such as Lianpo, Zhou Yafu, and Tiandan. Furthermore, the current situation was already against them, so fighting head on would only result in heavy casualties.

Ouyang Shuo would not do something so idiotic just to show off his bravery.

The battle quest was his end goal.

As for the schemes of Di Chen and the others? There would be plenty of time to deal with them in the future.

Ouyang Shuo did not want to allow Di Chen and the others to gain rewards just because he acted on impulse.

Hence, the best method would be to break out of this encirclement before it fully formed.

Of course, his reasoning also contained some slight selfishness.

Ouyang Shuo called Zhang Liao and the three of them to set the meeting point.

Following which, they had to choose the direction to escape in.

Ouyang Shuo took up the task; the Shanhai City Army would charge forward.

Without a doubt, the enemy defended the front the most, so it was the hardest bone to chew on.

The Xunlong City and Consonance City forces would separately break out from the left and right.

As for how many of them would remain, that was all up to the heavens.

"Brother, take care!"

Xunlong Dianxue cupped his fists and left.

"Lord, take care!"

Zhang Liao led his troops and left.

On the battlefield, things changed extremely quickly, so one could not hesitate.

After the discussions, the three forces started to try and break out.

Ouyang Shuo arrived at the front of the Divine Martial Guards, unsheathing his Chixiao Sword with a Shua! sound.

"Boys, step on them and kill our way out!" Ouyang Shuo hollered.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

Shouts that reverberated through the heavens replied to his call.

The Divine Martial Guards feared nothing.

Since Ouyang Shuo had chosen to break this encirclement, he wanted to do so while dealing the most damage. He chose to head straight for Sha Pojun' troops, the most elite force ahead of them.

He did not act like this out of arrogance but because he had the ability to do so.

Such an attempt, probably even Zhou Yafu would not have expected it.

Since that was the case, their chases of winning would be higher.

Under the leadership of Ouyang Shuo, the three thousand Divine Martial Guards charged forward fearlessly.

If one looked down from the sky, they would see a truly stunning spectacle.

The Shanhai Alliance Army’s front, middle, and back instantly split up. The front army continued to charge forward, while the middle suddenly turned left, and the back abruptly turned right.

The three forces were like sharp arrows, as they shot forward.

In front of them was the alliance army.

This was a breakout attempt that concerned their lives.

Only the courageous would win.

There was no need to exchange words.

The cavalries of both sides seemingly charged at each other at the same time.

On this vast grass plain, the land of the Xiongnu people, the paradise of the cavalry, the remaining player forces of the Huo Qubing line entered a battle.

This was cavalry versus cavalry, elite versus elite.

Blades out of their sheaths; war horses shrieked.

The blood of the warriors boiled.

This was a battle to decide their fates!

Chapter 586-Killing Zhou Yafu

Exactly how terrifying was three thousand Divine Martial Guards charging together?

Only their enemy could tell you the answer to that question.

Sha Pojun focused on the Divine Martial Guards, who were getting closer and closer. He felt the killing intent crash into his face, and he grew more and more serious. He had not imagined that Qiyue Wuyi would actually choose to break through from his side.

These series of schemes were all of Sha Pojun’s design, from planning to kill Little White, to revealing the use of the battle resource points, to smoothly exiting the desert, and finally to this massacre.

Even Di Chen and Zhan Lang were merely following along.

This made Sha Pojun feel confident. He had been holding it in for so long. Moreover, his opponent this time was his greatest enemy, Qiyue Wuyi.

However, this development totally failed to follow his script. Originally, he had prepared himself for a tough battle.

Thirty thousand troops surrounding nine thousand. Oh, no, now it was eight thousand.

No matter how one looked at it, his chances of victory was high.

Even if they could not completely eliminate the Shanhai troops, they could severely damage their forces.

With that, utilizing the presence of Zhou Yafu, Sha Pojun would become the one with the greatest ability to recruit Huo Qubing.

Who knew that Qiyue Wuyi was actually so spineless.

Moments after encountering them, he actually chose to retreat.

"The script was not like this, okay?"

Sha Pojun was furious.

In a short while, the two sides had already engaged. The two high speed cavalry forces collided.

All of a sudden, people were flung from their horses.

The strength of the Divine Martial Guards was illogical.

In the face of absolute strength, a numerical advantage meant nothing.

The three thousand Divine Martial Guards stuck together under Ouyang Shuo's leadership. They were unbreakable and fearless, as they dove into the enemy lines.

No one could stop them.

They charged at high speeds, and their three thousand horse lances directly pierced the enemy formation, leaving behind a bloody trail.

This sight sent a chill down Sha Pojun’s spine.

Ouyang Shuo remained expressionless.

After Sha Pojun and others made schemes regarding him, it would be a lie to say that Ouyang Shuo was not pissed off.

He needed to release this anger.

And his target was Sha Pojun's troops.

Even though they were breaching an encirclement, Ouyang Shuo wanted to tear off a piece of Sha Pojun’s flesh.

After smoothly breaking into the enemy formation, his ambition grew. This time, he wanted to teach Sha Pojun an unforgettable lesson.

"Follow me!"

Ouyang Shuo smacked his warhorse and made a sharp left turn. Che Dameng and the personal guards quickly followed, with Wang Feng and his Martial Guards closely behind.

The Divine Martial Guards easily performed this high difficulty maneuver.

This change of direction made Ouyang Shuo's target extremely clear.

Zhou Yafu was on the left side of the Divine Martial Guards, where he stood under the cover of the Han Army and commanded the troops.

Ouyang Shuo actually wanted to take down Zhou Yafu.

"Qiyue Wuyi, you dare!"

This sight caused panic to flash across Sha Pojun’s face.

At the crucial moment, Sha Pojun immediately led his troops to rush over and help.

Unfortunately, the battlefield was in utter chaos, so it was highly difficult for him to reach Zhou Yafu.

The Divine Martial Guards possessed an incredibly quick and sharp speed.

The troops in front of Zhou Yafu tried to cover for him to allow him to escape.

Unfortunately, it was all futile.

A short while later, Ouyang Shuo led his troops and killed to the front of Zhou Yafu.

"Zhou Yafu, prepare to die!"

Ouyang Shuo did not bother hiding his intentions.

As a general of a generation, Zhou Yafu had personally settled the chaos of the seven states, so how could he be an average individual?

Despite the Divine Martial Guards charging over, his eyes did not even show a trace of fear.

"Soldiers, kill the enemy together with me!"

Zhou Yafu unsheathed the sword at his waist and actually took the initiative to start the fight.

"Yes, general!"

The Han Army around him were all ironed up soldiers.

"Great!"

Ouyang Shuo smacked Qingdian and led the way. This time, he wanted to personally end Zhou Yafu.

A general of a generation?

Ouyang Shuo did not give a f***.

As long as they were enemies, they would remain enemies to the death.

Ouyang Shuo loved to make use of talents, but he would not act stupidly at this moment.

Dang!

The Chixiao Sword smashed against Zhou Yafu's sword.

Zhou Yafu was a true fighting general.

His sword strike carried immense weight and aimed an extremely precise angle.

"Chixiao Sword!"

Zhou Yafu’s exclamation surprised Ouyang Shuo.

Chixiao Sword was the sword of the Han Ancestor, Liu Bang.

As a West Han General, Zhou Yafu was able to recognize the sword in Ouyang Shuo’s hands.

"It is Chixiao!"

Ouyang Shuo said as he stabbed out.

"You actually dare to use the sword of the almighty emperor, such boldness!" This matter enraged Zhou Yafu and his sword strikes grew stronger and fiercer.

The sword in his hand was a typical Han Sword. Although it could not compare to a god weapon, it was also a decent sword.

His sword techniques were also extraordinary.

In this battle, they were both fighting neck and neck.

Ouyang Shuo finally understood the strength of an emperor rank general compared to a king rank one. Swiftly killing an emperor rank general was almost impossible.

Furthermore, time would not allow Ouyang Shuo to delay any longer.

Not far away from them, the anxious Sha Pojun had quickly led his troops over to help. The moment the enemy surrounded the Divine Martial Guards, they would completely lose their way to break out.

However, it was impossible for Ouyang Shuo to give up like this.

Ouyang Shuo gritted his teeth and pulled out a talisman from his bag.

Bloodthirst Talisman: After use, user enters a bloodthirsty state. Combat strength increases by two times, lasting for half an hour. After the effects wear off, user will enter a weak state for two days.

This talisman had an extremely similar effect to the berserk state of the mountain barbarians.

The Wild Boar King had dropped this talisman during the Siege of Beasts in the 2nd month, 1st year of the game. All along, Ouyang Shuo had remained busy with administrative matters, so he had rarely led the lines.

Hence, he had not needed to use this item.

However, his martial arts had greatly improved recently, so he had started to bring along a few of these talismans.

Apart from this, there was also items like the Stamina Talisman and the Movement Talisman.

This time, Ouyang Shuo was ready to borrow the strength of items.

With a Shua! sound, Ouyang Shuo tore the Bloodthirst Talisman into two. A blood red glow spread out from the talisman and entered Ouyang Shuo's body.

Ouyang Shuo's eyes suddenly turned red.

He could feel a sudden surge of strength emanate from within his body.

Naturally, the power the talisman ignited did not come from nowhere. It had brought out the potential hidden within his body. For this reason, this item had such strong after effects.

"Kill!"

Ouyang Shuo used this strength and the killing intent gathered within his body to slash out.

Zhou Yafu knew that something was wrong, so he completely focused on Ouyang Shuo.

Dang!

The two swords clashed once more.

This time, Zhou Yafu felt his hands numb from the impact, leaving him stunned.

After the 3rd system update, Gaia had removed the player levels and replaced it with a combat strength rank.

Ouyang Shuo's current combat strength had reached the high silver rank. After using the talisman, his combat strength had doubled, allowing him to enter the realm of low gold rank.

Silver rank to gold rank was a rise in nature itself.

Naturally, this power was not easy to describe.

The current Ouyang Shuo was like an asura. He suppressed Zhou Yafu, and the latter had no way to fight back.

Ouyang Shuo did not let his guard down, and the Chixiao Sword in his hand was like a part of his body. The sword strikes of the Killing Sword flowed out like water. The talisman had provoked the blood aura around the sword, causing the aura to thicken more and more.

It seemed like Zhou Yafu could not hold on any longer.

Sha Pojun, who was still a distance away, could not help but scold out, “Qiyue Wuyi, don’t you try!"

He had injected a shocking amount of internal energy into his shout, so even people on the other end of the battlefield could hear it.

Di Chen turned around and coincidentally saw the scene.

Slight hesitation flashed across his eyes.

To save or not to save.

Logically, they were currently allies, so he needed to save Zhou Yafu.

But thinking back to the arrogant expression Sha Pojun had these past few days, Di Chen really did not want to save the former’s general. Furthermore, they were competitors in the race to recruit Huo Qubing.

If Qiyue Wuyi actually killed Zhou Yafu, Di Chen would feel happy instead.

Thinking about these points, Di Chen considered lying in wait and observing the situation.

"Lord, if the lips die, the teeth will feel cold!"

Lianpo saw through his intentions and reminded him.

"En."

When Di Chen heard these words, he felt a little annoyed.

The old General Lianpo was strong, but he was too direct. Simply put, he was too rational and did not know how to look at matters from his Lord’s perspective.

"Since that's the case, general, please help out!" Di Chen was still Di Chen. Even if he was unhappy, he would not easily deal a slap to the best general under his charge.

"Yes, my Lord!"

Lianpo did not care about Di Chen’s thoughts and left.

However, even the relatively nearby Sha Pojun could not help out, so what more could Lianpo do since he was far away?

Lianpo naturally knew these facts.

As such, he only traveled a short distance before stopping.

He grabbed his bow and directly aimed an arrow at Ouyang Shuo.

Lianpo also possessed exceptional archery.

A sharp arrow broke through the air from a few hundred meters out.

It actually struck Ouyang Shuo's left arm.

Chi!

Currently, Ouyang Shuo had focused his attention on his battle against Zhou Yafu, so how would he expect an arrow to fly toward him?

This time, Ouyang Shuo was utterly enraged.

Ouyang Shuo used one stroke to sweep away Zhou Yafu's sword. Then, he slashed down and broke the arrow in his left hand, leaving the arrowhead stuck in his flesh.

Following which, Ouyang Shuo actually did not bother attending to his injuries.

He was determined to kill Zhou Yafu here and now.

The Chixiao Sword slashed down mightily and shattered Zhou Yafu's treasure sword.

The power of a god weapon was undeniable.

Ouyang Shuo's courage and ferocity stunned Zhou Yafu.

"4th, killing general!"

As expected, Ouyang Shuo launched his strongest strike.

The swordless Zhou Yafu had nowhere to hide.

Chapter 587-Xiongnu Cavalry

"Qiyue Wuyi, I'll get you for this!"

The moment Zhou Yafu fell, Sha Pojun cursed out.

As for Ouyang Shuo, he did not even bother listening to Sha Pojun.

He picked up the General Soul that Zhou Yafu had dropped, as well as a booklet. Then, he turned around, ready to leave. He was afraid that if he continued to stay, Sha Pojun would truly devour him.

There was also another reason why Ouyang Shuo needed to leave. The Bloodthirst Talisman only had an effective time period of half an hour. If he did not leave now, he would get killed.

When Zhou Yafu died, the forces around them were thrown into chaos.

On the other hand, the morale of the Divine Martial Guards reached a sky high state.

With the personal guards acting as the vanguard, they valiantly broke through the defences.

Sha Pojun was furious, and he led his troops to chase.

However, even the elite mongol war horses could not compare to the Qingfu Horses. After chasing around ten miles, the Divine Martial Guards had already disappeared into the distance. Sha Pojun was so angry that he bit into his lips and blood flowed.

Ouyang Shuo was really the cryptonite of Sha Pojun.

Sha Pojun had single-handedly planned everything. However, in the end, he had tricked himself. The cavalry unit that Asura City had just built would lose its direction because they had lost their commander.

Asura City’s rise was going to halt mid-way just like that.

Sha Pojun was unlucky, but Ouyang Shuo was not in a good state either.

Not long after breaking out, the side effects of the talisman started to impact him. Ouyang Shuo could not muster any strength in his body, and he could not even hold onto the reins. If Qingdian was not intelligent, Ouyang Shuo might have fallen off.

Sha Pojun's chase truly terrified Ouyang Shuo.

Luck did not come in twos; misfortune does not come alone.

Not long after the Divine Martial Guards broke away from the chase, just as Ouyang Shuo was about to heave a sigh of relief, a Xiongnu cavalry force charged over.

The Xiongnu Cavalry force was like a pack of wolves that had spotted sheep, crying out.

Wuahhula!

From this distance, one could feel the sturdiness and cruelness of the Xiongnu people.

Their curved war blades shone coldly.

Upon close inspection, one would notice that blood stains and pieces of flesh stuck to the Xiongnu force’s weapons.

This was a pack of real wolves.

Ouyang Shuo once again had a new understanding of his luck stat.

When one was unlucky, even drinking cold water would cause one's teeth gaps to be blocked.

Before this, although the Divine Martial Guards were able to break out courageously, they had also suffered heavy losses. Around six hundred Divine Martial Guards had perished on the battlefield.

Now, they had to face thousands of Xiongnu cavalry, so they really had to gamble with their lives.

However, they had no choice; they could only fight this battle.

Firstly, the Xiongnu warhorses were all elite warhorses. Furthermore, their troops were all adept at horse riding, so it would be extremely difficult to escape from the Xiongnu forces in the manner they got away from Sha Pojun's forces.

Secondly, the plains were the territory of the Xiongnu people.

Even if they could temporarily escape, they would not be able to cover their tracks.

In the end, they would still have to fight.

Who knows, fleeing might even attract more Xiongnu cavalry over.

Hence, the only way was to face the problem head-on and stand their ground.

However, Ouyang Shuo was now completely weak, and he did not have the energy to personally lead them.

In the following battle, Wang Feng would have to lead the lines and set the formations.

Zhao Kuo, who had followed along, would replace Ouyang Shuo as the battle commander.

During this battle, the personal guards would not participate. Their mission was to ensure Ouyang Shuo’s safety.

Ouyang Shuo, who had performed so well moments ago, had now become the burden of his army.

Just thinking about this matter made one feel helpless.

Under the leadership of Wang Feng, the two thousand Divine Martial Guards engaged the four thousand Xiongnu cavalry.

The Xiongnu people thought that they were facing a flock of sheep. They had not expected to fight a pride of lions that had descended the mountains.

This was a battle between wolves and lions.

Neither side had a way to back off.

The Xiongnu cavalry was mainly composed of light armored cavalry. Especially in the case of such a scattered force, they were completely made up of light armored cavalry.

In their battles against the Han Army, they had made use of flexible tactics to cause the Han Army to suffer many loses.

However, they faced a tough bone this time.

The cavalry tactics of the Divine Martial Guards were unparalleled and also unseen in this era.

Ouyang Shuo had invited calvary generals like Luo Shixin and Shi Wanshui to teach the Divine Martial Guards. With such a stellar squad, how could the troops they had trained up be lousy?

Even Wang Feng was influenced and started to study cavalry tactics.

Advisor Zhao Kuo was also familiar with such tactics.

The Zhao Country in history had pushed out the riding and shooting tactic. As a general of that period, how could he not know about cavalry tactics?

Wang Feng and Zhao Kuo working together was a match made in heaven.

One charged in front, one commanded from the back, forming a flawless pairing.

It was not an exaggeration to say that in terms of cavalry battle, Huo Qubing's forces were not on the same level as the Divine Martial Guards. After all, Huo Qubing's cavalry tactics and strategies had yet to mature.

Hence, from the very start, the Xiongnu cavalry were completely suppressed. Their proud tactics were like child's play in comparison.

In terms of riding skills, the Divine Martial Guards matched them.

In terms of archery, although their skills were not as good, they were more than a level better than the Xiongnu people thanks to the God Arm Crossbow.

In terms of equipment, there was no comparison.

The Tang Emperor had especially designed the Mingguang Armor to face the Turk cavalry. Even the strong Turks could not do anything and fell against the Mingguang Armor.

What more could the current Xiongnu people do?

Their bows were much worse than the Turk bows. Facing the Mingguang Armor that countered arrows, the Xiongnu people were so depressed that they vomited blood.

Even so, this battle remained extremely intense.

The Xiongnu people were still the Xiongnu people.

No matter who the opponent, their brutality and guts would not change. Using their numerical advantage, the Xiongnu people inflicted great damage to the Divine Martial Guards.

Both sides went all out for the lives of the enemy, causing even the sky to change color.

As time went on, the balance of the battle finally shifted to the Divine Martial Guards' side.

The arrogant Xiongnu cavalry had finally tasted the bitter fruits of underestimating your opponent.

If they knew that they would meet such an opponent, they would not have charged over so rashly.

The history of this Xiongnu cavalry was not very glamorous.

It was not a coincidence that they had passed this area, as they were the survivors from the battlefield.

The genius general Huo Qubing, who was like a shooting star streaking across the sky, had defeated them.

Four days ago, Huo Qubing had led his troops and ordered the captured Xiongnu people to act as the vanguard to help open the path for the Han people. They crossed the desert and captured the minister Zhang Qu and killed the North Cheqi King. Then, they turned to attack the left two generals and obtained the enemy flag and drums.

This battled could shock even the heavens.

He had stunned the Xiongnu people, and the fear he had inspired lasted for numerous days.

Huo Qubing’s name resounded throughout the entire grassland. This young general was like a massive shadow cast over the skies of the Xiongnu people, suppressing them to the point that they could not breathe.

Some people even spread that Huo Qubing was the god sent to punish the Xiongnu people.

A day ago, Huo Qubing had already led his troops back into their journey.

These cavalry were the subordinates of the defeated North Cheqi King, who had left the battlefield amidst the chaos.

Who knew that they would bump into the Divine Martial Guards.

They had a lot of pent up frustration after suffering losses at the hands of Huo Qubing, so how could they let this opportunity go?

In their eyes, the devil Huo Qubing was already far away. The HanAarmy at the back should be a reserve force that could not match their might. As such, they wanted to take these forces out to vent their anger.

Who knew that this army was just as strong as Huo Qubing's forces.

As the situation developed, the Xiongnu cavalry commander was left on the verge of tears.

"When did the Han Army cavalry become so strong?"

First, there was Huo Qubing. Now, even their backup forces were so strong?

As the commander of the Xiongnu cavalry, he felt a little depressed.

He could not help but feel worried about the future of his tribe.

The Han Army that they had previously handled and killed easily had truly become strong! The carefree plundering lives of the Xiongnu people was about to come to an end.

Before sunset, the four thousand Xiongnu cavalry were utterly crushed.

In this battle, three thousand of them were killed, while the remaining chose to surrender.

The bravery of the Divine Martial Guards had caused the Xiongnu cavalry commander to lose the courage to fight. From his perspective, this was destiny at work, and no one could change it.

Of course, the Xiongnu people had also made the Divine Martial Guards pay a heavy price.

Eight hundred Divine Martial Guards had fallen; they would be buried on the grasslands.

Of the three thousand Divine Martial Guards that had set out for this battle map, half were lost after three encounters

War was just this cruel.

Luckily, this was the battle map.

After a soldier perished, the Lord could use battle contribution points to revive him.

If not, such heavy casualties to the Divine Martial Guards would cause numerous problem for Ouyang Shuo.

However, to revive the soldiers, he had to wait till the entire battle map finished.

Hence, in the following few battles, Ouyang Shuo could only rely on the less than 1500 men he had left.

Thinking back to the dangers of this journey so far, this was the first time he felt uncertain about the road ahead.

Such a string of challenges, was Gaia trying to push them to the brink?

Ouyang Shuo dared to bet that it was not a coincidence that they had met the Xiongnu cavalry.

Who knows how the other two members of the Shanhai Alliance had fared?

When they had tried to break out, the situation was hectic and chaotic.

Ouyang Shuo did not have the time to pay attention to whether the others had successfully broken out.

If they broke out, did they meet something similar to the Xiongnu cavalry?

Under such circumstances, they could only fight for themselves.

As night fell, Ouyang Shuo ordered the troops to camp for the night. At the same time, he could interrogate the surrender soldiers.

Apart from his worries regarding the road ahead, Ouyang Shuo was most concerned about the direction Huo Qubing's troops had headed.

Chapter 588-Using Battles to Replenish Troops

The moon hung high above, while the surroundings were dead silent.

On the vast grassland, many green tents had suddenly appeared, merging with the plains.

Seeing the Han Army set up their tents so quickly, the surrendered Xiongnu soldiers felt extremely impressed. They could not imagine how a backpack-sized item could become a massive tent that could house so many.

Because of the side effects of the Bloodthirst Talisman, Ouyang Shuo had returned to his tent to rest long ago. He had left matters such as camp arrangements and the interrogation of prisoners to advisor Zhao Kuo.

As it was still early, Ouyang Shuo naturally would not fall asleep.

He held a jade pendant and a book in his hands.

The jade pendant was the General Soul Zhou Yafu had dropped.

On this topic, it was the first time that Ouyang Shuo had obtained an emperor rank General Soul.

In the Martial Temple of Shanhai City, there was still a king rank General Soul.

Wei Zhang's revival let Ouyang Shuo clearly see the importance of General Souls.

The future territory wars would only grow crueler and crueler. Shanhai City was massive, and they had many stars gathered, so who knows when one of them would fall.

At that time, a General Soul could save a life.

Without this General Soul, Sha Pojun could not revive Zhou Yafu. As a result, he had chased them relentlessly.

The current Sha Pojun would probably be coughing out blood in anger.

"So this teaches you that one should not be too arrogant!" Ouyang Shuo muttered.

As they said, personality decides destiny. Sha Pojun was an incredibly arrogant person, and he was condescending toward everyone. He did not know when to stop, which resulted in his defeat today.

On the contrary, Di Chen, who had suffered multiple defeats at the hands of Ouyang Shuo, had grown more and more mature. During this plot, he had hidden behind Sha Pojun, becoming a fisherman.

The Divine Martial Guards had suffered heavy losses, while Di Chen's forces remained perfectly fine.

During this battle, Ouyang Shuo did not leave everyone in his wake. If he did not act decisively and kill Zhou Yafu, the future situations would be much worse.

On this topic, the growth of these aristocratic family children during these two years was truly shocking. They were not at a complete disadvantage anymore in their battles against Ouyang Shuo.

Even Chun Shenjun had grabbed a big win during the year end.

Sha Pojun was the only exception. After this defeat, it would be hard for him to climb back up.

This time, Ouyang Shuo had indirectly helped Wandering Magic.

It was said that after the exchange event, in the battle of Guangxi Province against Wandering Magic, Sha Pojun had suppressed him at every opportunity. He acted like he was the big boss of the entire province.

……

As for the small book, it was an unexpected reward.

After he obtained this item, Ouyang Shuo had been on the run, so he had lacked the time to take a look.

Mongol Cavalry Training Diary: This diary records what the famous general Zhou Yafu learned while reading the Mongol Cavalry Training Manual, as well as his thoughts when he trained the soldiers.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this description, he could help but break out into laughter.

The gods worked themselves in their own ways.

In the end, the two items that Sha Pojun had obtained from the auction had basically fallen into Ouyang Shuo’s hands.

Although this diary could not allow Shanhai City to train an elite mongol cavalry, it could act as a guide to raise their cavalry training standards.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also thought of Sun Wu. With the abilities of the War Saint and this diary as a base, he could probably start up mongol cavalry training classes in the Army Military Academy.

It was not impossible for the mongol cavalry training method to appear in Shanhai City.

This time, Sha Pojun had done Shanhai City a great favor.

After placing the two items into his storage bag, Ouyang Shuo started to cultivate. The side effects of the Bloodthirst Talisman lasted for two days, but the period could change and differ based on the person.

Ouyang Shuo possessed a strong body. As a result, the time period of the after effects would shorten.

Now, Ouyang Shuo wanted to use the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique to speed up the healing process.

The Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique was a body changing medical technique.

Hence, the golden primordial energy was extremely good for healing internal injuries.

In the end, the Bloodthirst Talisman only activated the potential of one’s body. As long as he nourished his body with the golden primordial energy, he could replenish himself and remove the side effects.

In such an uncertain world, it would be a huge matter if he really could not use his martial arts for two days. Hence, the earlier he recovered, the better.

……

At 8 PM, Zhao Kuo entered Ouyang Shuo's tent.

"Lord!"

Zhao Kuo entered the tent and bowed before starting to report the interrogation findings.

The current Ouyang Shuo had finished adjusting his body.

The Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique did not disappoint him. Latest tomorrow noon, he would fully recover.

With the help of the military intelligence officer that had followed along, the interrogation process went incredibly smoothly. All of them, including the Xiongnu cavalry commander, had reported everything they knew.

After learning that these cavalry forces had just retreated from the front lines, Ouyang Shuo grew extremely interested. Regretfully, they did not know where his next target laid.

"Lord, how do we deal with these prisoners?" Zhao Kuo asked.

"What are your views?"

"I think we should keep some and remove some." Zhao Kuo replied.

"How so?" Ouyang Shuo smiled.

"During this battle, the Divine Martial Guards have suffered heavy casualties and badly need new members. Hence, I suggest that we learn from the Han Army and use the Xiongnu war prisoners to fight against the Xiongnu people." Zhao Kuo was truy implementing what he had learned.

"Since that's the case, why remove a portion of them?" Ouyang Shuo asked once more.

Naturally, removing some meant killing them.

In history, military rumors stated that killing the surrendered would result in bad consequences.

Baiqi did that and he had a bad end.

Li Guang did that and he had to commit suicide out of shame.

Hence, generals in the army were extremely against and worried about killing surrendered soldiers.

"Firstly, there's a limited number of Divine Martial Guards, so too many prisoners will pose a huge risk. Secondly, their standards vary, and the weak ones should be eliminated." Zhao Kuo explained.

Ouyang Shuo looked at him and did not speak for a long while.

After Zhao Kuo described his views, he was also expressionless.

Ouyang Shuo had no idea whether Zhao Kuo’s words were his true feelings or if he was testing his Lord. Logically speaking, in history, Zhao Kuo's troops were conned by Baiqi into defeat.

Although Zhao Kuo had not personally killed the surrendered, he must have been familiar with the idea.

The thoughts of this advisor before him ran far deeper than most of his other generals. Sometimes, even Ouyang Shuo as his Lord could not grasp what he was thinking.

Of course, Zhao Kuo's loyalty was undeniable.

It was not that Ouyang Shuo had high perception or great deciphering ability. It was just that Zhao Kuo’s loyalty stat had reached 90.

"In that case, for those surrendered soldiers that do not pass, take their equipment and their horses. Keep them out of the camp, and let them survive on their own." After a long while, Ouyang Shuo gave his final instructions.

"Yes, my Lord!"

Zhao Kuo nodded. The moment he lowered his head, happiness flashed across his eyes.

After Zhao Kuo bid goodbye, Ouyang Shuo was no longer in the mood to sleep.

The Battle of Mobei was a battle that Ouyang Shuo had the least idea about. From start till now, he had been passively solving everything that was thrown at him.

If it was not for the strength of the Divine Martial Guards, he would have been kicked out of this race.

Recruiting Huo Qubing was just a dream.

Zhao Kuo's suggestion had totally opened up Ouyang Shuo's eyes. During the Battle of Mobei, fighting alone was a bad idea. Using the aboriginal and native powers was the key to claiming victory.

With just three thousand men, they definitely could not keep up with their losses.

Only by replenishing themselves from the battle could they succeed.

Thinking about these points, Ouyang Shuo walked out of his tent.

Outside of his tent, the night curfew was already in place. All the soldiers were to stay in their tents and not come out unless new orders were given.

The entire camp was extremely quiet.

Only the place where the surrendered troops were locked up had cries and shouts.

Ouyang Shuo raised his head and looked at the sky; the stars were bright and the moon hung high overhead.

“Tomorrow will be another day of good weather!"

"Lord what are you looking at?"

Suddenly, a question sounded out from behind Ouyang Shuo.

"Who's there?"

Ouyang Shuo was extremely alert, and he pressed his hand against his sword. At this moment, he also felt that this matter was exceedingly strange. This was the camp of the Divine Martial Guards, so how could an outsider enter?

Turning around, the person that came into view stunned Ouyang Shuo so much that his mouth gaped open.

"Lord does not recognize me?"

His smile contained an undisguisable greed and trickiness.

The person that had suddenly appeared behind Ouyang Shuo was actually the grain officer of the main camp. His huge tummy was blinding to Ouyang Shuo's eyes.

"How is it you?"

Ouyang Shuo did not try to hide his surprise.

"I'm the grain officer. Naturally, I’m to send the Lord some supplies."

"Supplies?" Ouyang Shuo frowned. Then his eyes lit up, and he asked uncertainly, “You mean to exchange for battle resource points?"

"Lord is smart!"

The grain officer was incredibly smooth when he tried to flatter someone.

"But I currently only have a pitiful 50 points, just that can make you busy?" Ouyang Shuo did not dare to underestimate this person.

Obviously, this grain officer was similar to the mysterious merchants; he was a special NPC Gaia had arranged.

"Lord has a treasure in his hands, how can he be pitiful?"

The grain officer was as toady as usual.

"Treasure?" Ouyang Shuo was a little confused.

"Battle map token!" The grain officer unveiled the mystery.

Ouyang Shuo was enlightened. He retrieved the token from his back; it was the item he had obtained from the desert bandit leader. He still did not know what uses this item had, “How many battle resource points is this worth?"

The grain officer shook his head, “The Lord can use this token to make a request."

"Any request?" Ouyang Shuo's interest was piqued.

"The Lord can raise a request. Then I'll judge if it's viable or not," the grain officer replied.

Ouyang Shuo frowned; this trap of his was extremely deep! How would Ouyang Shuo know how much the token was worth? What if he raised a request that was too small, wouldn’t he lose out on so much?

Ouyang Shuo could not help but think about the Silver Prayer House that was similar in nature.

It was truly a case of a leopard unable to change its spots; the grain officer was still incredibly crafty.

Ouyang Shuo definitely did not want to let himself be taken advantage of.

Chapter 589-Chasing Huo Qubing

"I want to lead my troops and directly teleport to the general's tent, is that possible?" Ouyang Shuo held the battle token and probingly raised his first demand.

"...."

Ouyang Shuo's exorbitant demand left the grain officer speechless. The grain officer was already incredibly shameless, but he had not expected someone with the position of a Lord would be just as shameless.

"To achieve big things, doesn’t one need to be efficient?"

The grain officer scolded Ouyang Shuo in his heard and replied, “Lord, you have to be joking!"

"Cannot do?" Ouyang Shuo was a little disappointed inside, and he continued, “Then taking a step back, can you revive all the dead Divine Martial Guards?"

To Ouyang Shuo, the three thousand Divine Martial Guards formed his biggest trump card in this battle. If they could recover their full strength, it would provide a massive benefit to his strategy of using battles to grow his forces.

The first request was just a joke.

The second request was his real goal.

After asking this question, Ouyang Shuo looked at the grain officer nervously.

The plump grain officer hesitated for a moment. It was like he was considering the pros and cons of this request. Finally, he nonchalantly replied, “Okay."

"Phew~"

Ouyang Shuo heaved a huge sigh of relief, while he scolded out in his heart, Your Father!

He even suspected that the grain officer was purposely sent here to make a fool out of him.

Seeing the grain officer fervently look at his battle token, Ouyang Shuo grabbed it tightly and asked, “Can I ask for another small request?"

"One token, only one request," the grain officer replied resolutely.

"Then it's okay, cancel my first request too."

As Ouyang Shuo spoke these words, he acted like he wanted to place the battle token into his storage bag. He was certain that the grain officer had rushed over because he definitely needed to retrieve this token. Otherwise, he would not have given up so easily.

As expected, the grain officer let out a bitter smile and desperately said, “Lord, do not put me on the spot. How about this, regarding your request, I'll see if I can help?"

"Nice!" Ouyang Shuo smiled, “I want an item that the General carries along with him."

Ouyang Shuo's request was extremely weird, and it had caught the grain officer off guard. This was not a really difficult task for the grain officer to complete.

As a special NPC, he was basically omnipotent to an extent that the players did not know the range of his powers.

However, he still could not and did not dare to break the rules Gaia had set.

"How about this? Lord, you take out your remaining 50 battle resource points, and I'll help you fulfil your request," the grain officer said politely.

"Deal!"

Ouyang Shuo read the situation well and knew when to stop.

"The Lord is intelligent!"

After the deal was completed, the grain officer was delighted, and his fat tummy jiggled up and down.

The two foxes both smiled, as they both thought that they had pulled a fast one over the other.

After the grain officer bid him goodbye, a pair of socks that belonged to Huo Qubing suddenly appeared in Ouyang Shuo’s hands.

Even though the General was born into wealth and lived a life of riches, the smell of his socks was beyond pungent. Ouyang Shuo even suspected that this was the last prank that the grain officer was pulling on him.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and rushed into the tent, calling out, "Little White, come out!"

Awuu!

Little White reluctantly walked out. By now, its injuries had completely healed up.

Ouyang Shuo passed the smelly pair of socks to Little White, "Smell it, can you track it??"

Wuu!

Little White took a sniff and rolled its eyes at Ouyang Shuo in a human-like fashion.

The noses of wolves were many times better than humans. Normally, wolves or dogs had a sense of smell forty times stronger than humans. Moreover, Little White's sense of smell was more than a million times stronger than humans.

That's right, a million times; it was an uncountable figure.

Hence, to Ouyang Shuo, this sock was smelly, but to Little White, the smell nearly made it faint.

The genius general Huo Qubing also had times when he was abandoned and hated.

"Can you track it?" Ouyang Shuo asked once more.

Wuu!

Little White proudly raised its head.

"Then I'll depend on you tomorrow buddy."

Ouyang Shuo understood what it meant and smiled, as he stroked its head.

Little White nodded, before proudly returning back to its tent.

"Huo Qubing ah, Huo Qubing, you won’t escape this time!"

Ouyang Shuo raised his head; he looked at the sky in the distance and smiled.

The next morning, the army set off once again.

The dead Divine Martial Guards were all quietly revived. However, be it the Divine Martial Guards or the captured Xiongnu soldiers, neither group paid much attention to this weird scene.

The strength of Gaia was truly something that mere mortals were unable to measure.

After a few rounds of selection, they only chose five hundred of the Xiongnu cavalry to follow them.

Those that remained were naturally thrown into the camp.

Luckily, this was the territory of the Xiongnu people, so there was no risk of these people dying for the most part. As for the battle contribution points, after weighing everything, Ouyang Shuo decided that it was not worth breaking his promise for.

After setting off, Little White walked at the front of the troops.

With its keen sense of smell, even if Huo Qubing was thousands of miles away, he could not escape.

During this army expedition, they were not blind anymore. Now, they travelled with a guide. Even without the detailed troop movement plan, the Divine Martial Guards could accurately locate the Han Army.

Along the way, they would meet Xiongnu soldiers that had lost on the front lines.

These calvary often sung the name of Huo Qubing. It made Ouyang Shuo understand more about this god general and made him set his heart on recruiting Huo Qubing.

The three thousand Divine Martial Guards had regained their full strength.

At the same time, Ouyang Shuo had completely removed the after effects of the Bloodthirst Talisman.

Naturally, they did not show courtesy toward these Xiongnu cavalry; they only knew one word: kill!

As long as the enemy army did not cross ten thousand in number, they could not match the strength of the Divine Martial Guards.

Sweeping across the area, Ouyang Shuo's battle contribution points continued to increase. Two days after he had set off, his battle contribution points had passed one hundred thousand, and it was still rapidly increase.

Amongst the force, the Xiongnu surrendered soldiers were changed wave after wave.

With the strength of the Divine Martial Guards, they did not face any pressure even when controlling three thousand surrendered Xiongnu soldiers.

Hence, after each battle, Ouyang Shuo would choose a batch of elite warriors to join the surrendered soldier camp. During every battle, this camp would act as the vanguard.

The moment the surrendered soldiers were injured, they would immediately be replenished.

Zhao Kuo’s suggested tactic of replenishing troops through battles was being well executed.

The effect was incredibly apparent.

At the latter stages, the Divine Martial Guards did not even need to personally fight, and the surrendered soldiers could settle the battles by themselves.

With that, the Divine Martial Guards slowly became a sort of strategic threat.

Ouyang Shuo was using the Xiongnu soldiers to kill the Xiongnu cavalry and earn battle contribution points.

Such a method was pleasing to the max.

Hence, the losses for the Divine Martial Guards dropped greatly. After ten odd battles, they only lost less than five hundred Divine Martial Guards.

If one said that Huo Qubing was the nightmare of the Xiongnu tribe; then the Shanhai City Army that followed closely behind had become the devil to the survivors.

The strong Xiongnu tribe had become a sick cat all of a sudden.

At the later stages, the Xiongnu surrendered soldiers had gotten used to killing their old comrades in return for a chance to live.

Ouyang Shuo even made a blank cheque. All the surrendered soldiers that performed well would be reported to Huo Qubing, who would reward them.

With that, the Xiongnu soldiers grew more and more motivated.

Ouyang Shuo had successfully replicated Huo Qubing's strategy on the grasslands.

Of course, the situation going in his favour did not make him proud. He did not forget his most primary goal - catching up to Huo Qubing.

Hence, at the latter stages of the battle map, Ouyang Shuo tried to avoid those unneeded fights.

The cavalry swept forward swiftly, trying their best to catch up with the Huo Qubing led main Han Army force.

Based on what Little White communicated, the distance between the two was getting smaller. If everything went well, in at most four more days, they could catch up.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this news, he was completely energized.

"Are we finally going to meet the legendary General?"

Amongst the happy news, there were also things that worried him.

Two days ago, Ouyang Shuo had led his troops to the meeting point. However, he did not manage to find any signs of the Consonance City or Xunlong City troops there.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo had spent a full day there resting. He even sent out scouts to investigate.

Helplessly, he could only arrange ten Divine Martial Guards to lay in wait there.

The main force continued to proceed.

Between the two, they continued to communicate through Feng Birds.

This battle was a competition of speed.

Ouyang Shuo could not waste so much time just to wait for his allies. Who knows what kind of problems Zhang Liao and Qinqiong were facing?

The next day, another interesting matter occurred.

The scout sent out did not find the alliance army. Instead, they found traces of Di Chen's forces.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he immediately decided to give Di Chen a massive gift.

As they say, when one gives you a present, you must return it.

Since the Yanhuang Alliance had plotted against him, he should return the favor.

The current Shanhai Army had reached its peak.

With the help of the surrendered Xiongnu soldiers, even if Di Chen's forces were unharmed, they would still fall to them.

Furthermore, Ouyang Shuo had Huyan Qiu.

This guide did not lose his lustre because of Little White. Even without considering other factors, without his translations, Shanhai City could not have obtained any intel from the Xiongnu soldiers.

As for recruiting them to fight, it would have been impossible.

Chapter 590-Giving the Enemy No Way Out

Huyan Qiu was the key to Ouyang Shuo's tactic working.

The current grasslands were like the back garden of Shanhai City.

The moment Di Chen's forces revealed their movements, they could not escape from Ouyang Shuo. With the Xiongnu surrendered soldiers and the sentries, they could capture Di Chen’s every action.

Very quickly, they crafted a complete plan to ambush Di Chen.

……

10th day, morning of the battle.

Di Chen was leading his troops up the grasslands.

After their attempt to ambush Ouyang Shuo, Di Chen, Zhan Lang, and Sha Pojun had split up and gone their separate ways.

The other Lords had varying fates. Some were destroyed and backed out of the battle, some gave up and focused on branch quests, while others continued forward in hopes that they would get lucky. On the entire grasslands, no more Lords traveled together.

Everyone knew that this battle had reached its crucial moment. So called allies could become enemies at any moment. Since that was the same case, why not just travel separately?

However, not every army was as strong as the Divine Martial Guards. Nor did everyone have a guide like Huyan Qiu. Furthermore, not all of them would try to replicate Huo Qubing's strategy.

The suppressive and daunting Xiongnu cavalry made all the players taste defeat.

The Xiongnu calvary had crushed at least six Lords, forcing them to back out of the battle.

Even the most eye catching Sha Pojun was unfortunately swept from the battle map when he encountered the Xiongnu cavalry. After all, Zhou Yafu had died, and his three thousand elite mongol cavalry had suffered heavy casualties against the Divine Martial Guards.

Similar to Ouyang Shuo, Xunlong Dianxue's troops had met the Xiongnu cavalry army after breaking out. They fought a tough battle but eventually lost. Hence, they were helplessly kicked out.

Even Zhang Liao's troops found it hard to breathe.

As such, they failed to reach the designated meeting point to group up with Ouyang Shuo.

On the other hand, Di Chen was relatively lucky.

Under the leadership of Lianpo, they killed everyone in their way. Currently, they still had two thousand men remaining.

Their current advantage was partially thanks to Di Chen’s craftiness.

During the ambush, Di Chen's troops did not even try to block the Shanhai Alliance troops. He allowed the alliance army, which they had paid, to take all the damage.

On the other hand, he had sat back and relaxed. If he did not make that choice, he could not act so carefree at this stage.

Today, Di Chen's good luck was going to come to an end.

A scene similar to that of their ambush played out once more on the grasslands.

Suddenly, three thousand Xiongnu surrendered soldiers, along with the near full strength of the Divine Martial Guards, attacked Di Chen and his troops.

"Qiyue Wuyi!"

Di Chen immediately recognized the golden dragon flag of Shanhai City. His first thought was to follow the same course of action as Ouyang Shuo, to break through and escape.

Unfortunately, Ouyang Shuo did not give him that chance.

Huyan Qiu had chosen an exquisite location. There were small hills to the left and right, while a lake laid not too far ahead. As for behind them, it was the strong attack point of the Xiongnu cavalry.

At this moment, Di Chen and his troops were trapped and could not escape.

As expected from the old General Lianpo, he immediately noticed the bad situation and reported, “Lord, it’s really hard for us to get out."

When Di Chen heard these words, his face turned ashen white.

His first reaction was to think back to not long ago, when Qiyue Wuyi killed Zhou Yafu. Was Qiyue Wuyi going to act so ruthless again?

Thinking about this point, Di Chen's brows were locked tight.

If Lianpo was slain, Di Chen could not imagine what kind of detrimental effect it would have on Handan City.

Although they had recruited a few king rank generals during this period of time, Lianpo had always stood as the pillar and spine of the territory.

If he fell, the Handan City Army would need at least half a year to climb back.

Di Chen could not afford to pay this heavy price.

The problem was that it was six thousand versus two thousand.

No matter how valiant they were, Di Chen's forces were still being forced back.

"No, I won’t allow it!" When Di Chen saw that the situation was not right, decisiveness flashed across his eyes. He tightly clenched the sword by his waist.

"General, do you have confidence in breaking out?"

Di Chen asked Lianpo as a form of final confirmation.

Lianpo was definitely not a rash individual, and he knew that his Lord had a reason for asking this question. He replied in an incredibly frank manner, "Lord our chances are less than 30%."

"Is that the case?" Di Chen muttered.

A 30% chance, if it was two years ago, Di Chen might have actually taken it. However, he now had a more careful personality. Hence, he did not dare to take the gamble.

"Since that's the case, let’s back out." As Di Chen said these words, he turned his sword and killed himself.

His decisiveness made it difficult for Lianpo to stop him.

Di Chen’s death caused the remaining Handan City forces to be teleported out. Through such an extreme method, Di Chen saved Lianpo's life.

In comparison, Sha Pojun lacked such decisiveness.

When Sha Pojun was hesitating and hoping that he could save Zhou Yafu, Ouyang Shuo had already killed Zhao Yafu.

This was the gap between them.

If one relied on luck, it was hard to cut off their desires, which was the biggest worry of a Lord.

Seeing Di Chen disappear, Ouyang Shuo naturally knew what had happened. He felt a chill run down his spine over Di Chen's decisiveness.

A person who knows when to pick up and when to let go was a terrifying opponent.

……

The result of ambushing Di Chen was not what Ouyang Shuo had planned.

Hence, other thoughts were born in his mind.

From the start of the battle till now, he was not impatient to chase after Huo Qubing's forces. Ouyang Shuo's plan was to undergo a large-scale hunting operation behind the main forces.

If he could kill all the other Lords, the end victor would be him.

This logic was just too simple.

Ouyang Shuo relied on the Xiongnu surrendered soldiers to gain an advantage.

Apart from Huyan Qiu, Ouyang Shuo also found many talents amongst them.

Some were good at tracking.

Some were good at hiding and camouflage.

Furthermore, all of them were locals of the grassland.

With the help of Little White, Ouyang Shuo felt confident about finding the other Lords one by one.

After listening to Ouyang Shuo's plan, Zhao Kuo was speechless.

He had to admit that his foresight was still lacking compared to the Lord.

Such a tactic had broken far away from the plan that he had suggested.

Following this, Ouyang Shuo's plan was put into play.

From the start till now, the lucky survivors apart from Shanhai City would not number more than four.

As such, Ouyang Shuo was able to waste some time.

On the 1st day of the plan, one player force was killed.

On the 2nd day, there was no news.

Ouyang Shuo was not impatient; he continued to approach Huo Qubing’s location while searching for enemies.

The two points were not contradictory.

After all, the final goal of everyone was to find Huo Qubing. Without the lead of Huo Qubing, no one was confident of reaching the Khentii Mountains.

Huo Qubing had become the bait of Ouyang Shuo's hunting mission.

If this god general knew what he was doing, who knows what he would think.

On the 3rd day, they found Zhan Lang's forces.

In contrast to Di Chen, Zhan Lang was a fighter of a Lord. During the ambush, he went all out. During his journey here, he had also fought many small battles.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo only needed to face a broken army.

Seeing the golden dragon flag, an anguished expression appeared at the side of Zhan Lang’s mouth.

When Qiyue Wuyi broke out, Zhan Lang had a feeling that they would meet again. However, he had not expected the tables to turn to such an extent.

In terms of decisiveness, Zhan Lang was no different from Di Chen.

Only their choices were different.

Di Chen chose to kill himself, while Zhan Lang chose to fight to the death. The end of a soldier would always be the battlefield. Zhan Lang led his troops and charged into the lines of the Divine Martial Guards. All of a sudden, they engaged in all out slaughter.

Ouyang Shuo gave the utmost respect to such an opponent.

The two Lords went head to head.

As expected from Zhan Lang. Although he was not able to train an emperor rank cultivation method like Ouyang Shuo, his skills were also extraordinary.

The two of them fought for a full three hundred rounds.

Even the soldiers around them could not help but stop to look at this battle.

In the end, Ouyang Shuo used the primordial energy of the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique and the sharpness of the Chixiao Sword to slay Zhan Lang.

"Carefree!" Zhan Lang looked at the sword in his stomach and laughed, “Qiyue Wuyi, if we were not in different camps, maybe we could be friends."

Ouyang Shuo laughed and spoke with deep meaning, “There will be a day."

"Haha!"

Zhan Lang laughed three times before dying.

……

The death of Zhan Lang truly filled Ouyang Shuo with a lot of thoughts and emotions.

It was not a lie when he said that there would be a day for them to be friends. After all, compared to Zhan Lang, Ouyang Shuo was extremely clear about the direction of the game.

The 3rd year of Gaia was already in their faces.

In the game, the world war system that ignited one’s hearts would soon start.

One must not look at how the Shanhai Alliance and the Yanhuang Alliance fought like their lives depended on it. When the world war arrives, the two alliances would have no choice but to work together.

Currently, they fought for the leadership position of the future world war.

Ouyang Shuo was familiar about the game’s direction. Naturally, he would not allow that power to fall into their hands. He wanted to personally lead the Lords of the China region to take control of the world.

However, Di Chen and the others were born arrogant, so how would they allow others to lead them?

Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to use his strength to convince them.

If they were not happy, he would beat them into submission.

For this reason, conflicts were present between the two alliances.

Chapter 591-Killing Tuqi King of the Left

Along with Zhan Lang’s elimination, Ouyang Shuo basically had no opponents in the Huo Qubing quest line of the Battle of Mobei

In the next two days, Ouyang Shuo wiped out the remaining Lords one by one. Even the lost Zhang Liao troops were smoothly gathered with them.

Following which, Ouyang Shuo did not waste anymore time and headed for Huo Qubing.

As there were no more opponents, it was naturally a smooth journey.

15th day of the battle.

Under the guidance of Little White, the army finally met up with Huo Qubing's troops.

A tanned face, sharp brows, and glistening eyes; he looked extremely handsome.

He left an incredibly clear first impression on Ouyang Shuo.

During the Wu King of Han’s reign, the minister once gave Huo Qubing such an evaluation, ‘A knife that is sharpened too quickly is too sharp and easily breaks.’

His words came through in the end. The genius general Huo Qubing rose up like a shining star; he streaked across the skies of West Han but passed away early.

"Player Qiyue Wuyi greets the Biaoqi General!" Ouyang Shuo bowed.

"It's great that you are here. Tomorrow, we will face the Tuqi King of the Left's forces. You lead your troops and join in!" Huo Qubing did not hesitate and simply gave an order; his voice sounded extremely sure and strong.

"Yes!" Ouyang Shuo replied and said, “General, my army has some surrendered soldiers that have performed well for the Han Army. Please reward them."

As Ouyang Shuo spoke, he passed over a book recording their war deeds.

When Huo Qubing heard these words, he was extremely interested and took a look, “Not bad. Since they have performed well, they should be recorded. After this battle, I will report their deeds to the court."

Huo Qubing liked Ouyang Shuo’s way of dealing with things. Naturally, he was happy about this matter.

This was the best way to get close to someone.

"Thank you, General!"

Ouyang Shuo smiled, with Huo Qubing’s assurance, his promise of rewards was no longer empty. When the surrendered Xiongnu soldiers heard the news, they would definitely fight harder tomorrow.

This was Ouyang Shuo’s plan.

He was the first and only player to reach the frontlines. Moreover, he was a 1st class marquis. Even Huo Qubing would not dare to treat him lightly.

For tomorrow's battle, Ouyang Shuo was named as the Baijiang, and he would lead the left wing of the army.

In contrast to his treatment of Wei Qing, the Wu King of Han did not arrange a Baijiang for Huo Qubing. He did not want to restrict the general's command over the troops, and he did not feel the need to try and keep him in check.

The king had sent him fifty thousand elite cavalry, the strongest in the Han Army.

The Wu King of Han declared that Huo Qubing could select the soldiers that he liked. Such treatment was something that not even Wei Qing received.

If Huo Qubing did not say that he only needed fifty thousand, the king would have sent even more troops to him.

From this, one could see how biased the king was toward Huo Qubing.

Some people said that Huo Qubing was the general that the Wu King single handedly brought up. For the king, seeing Huo Qubing was like seeing his youthful self.

As a king, he was unable to lead his troops out to battle. In essence, Huo Qubing on the battlefield also brought the emotions and feelings of the Wu King.

Hence, it was not hard to imagine how sad the Wu King felt when Huo Qubing suddenly died. He also directly built Huo Qubing’s grave beside the emperor tomb.

Under his charge was also the personal soldiers of Huo Qubing. Amongst which, a few generals were surrendered generals of the Xiongnu tribe. For example, the most famous one was Zhao Ponu, who was in charge of the right troops.

Zhao Ponu wandered the Xiongnu region when he was young. After that, he joined the Han Army and became Huo Qubing’s advisor. After numerous expeditions, he was given the title of Junji General.

Ouyang Shuo obtaining this position was partially because his tactics resembled Huo Qubing’s. If not, with Huo Qubing’s character, he would not have even bothered about this Lord.

During the battle tomorrow, without including the Shanhai City Army, there were fifty thousand Han cavalry and thirty thousand Xiongnu surrendered soldiers.

Huo Qubing personally led the middle troops, which included thirty thousand Han soldiers and twenty thousand Xiongnu soldiers. The right army of Zhao Ponu had ten thousand of each.

This left Ouyang Shuo with ten thousand Han soldiers.

Huo Qubing’s plan could be called exceedingly last minute. It was made after considering the six thousand troops of Shanhai City.

Although Huo Qubing had not seen the strength of the Divine Martial Guards in battle, with his deduction abilities, he knew that this was a true trump card army.

Even without considering other factors, just the killing aura that the Divine Martial Guards emitted left him extremely interested.

In comparison, Huo Qubing's personal troops were much weaker.

How could he not respect such a strong army?

With that, Ouyang Shuo had obtained his respect and trust.

After understanding his orders, Ouyang Shuo left the commander tent.

As they said, arriving at the right time was better than coming early.

Based on history’s progression, after he killed the forces of the Tuqi King of the Left, Huo Qubing wanted to kill Chan Yu, so he led the troops up north to the Khentii Mountains to worship the gods.

For the battle tomorrow, if nothing went wrong, it would be a crazy chance to obtain a massive number of battle contribution points.

Only one matter made Ouyang Shuo wary.

In history, the Tuqi King of the Left had led his personal guards to escape. If he could, Ouyang Shuo wanted to kill him as a form of a greeting gift for Huo Qubing.

In the Han Army tent, Xiongnu people in the Han Army uniform could be seen everywhere. Hence, it was not really shocking when Ouyang Shuo brought his three thousand surrendered Xiongnu soldiers in.

After setting up camp, Ouyang Shuo summoned Zhao Kuo to discuss about the battle tomorrow.

Based on Huo Qubing’s arrangements, the Shanhai City Army would be on the left wing; Ouyang Shou would control everything there.

Under such circumstances, to smoothly kill the Tuqi King of the Left was highly difficult.

After all, orders were king in the military.

Without Huo Qubing’s orders, Ouyang Shuo did not dare to do anything stupid.

His only hope was that the performance of the Divine Martial Guards would attract the general’s attention.

……

The next morning, the army immediately moved out.

The current Tuqi King of the Left did not know that Huo Qubing eyed him. In his eyes, the current Huo Qubing should be thousands of miles away.

Who knew that their forces were like a ghost.

Before noon, eighty thousand Han troops had charged into the Tuqi King of the Left's army, catching them completely off guard.

The two armies engaged in slaughter on the grassland.

The Han Army was strong, and the Xiongnu Army panicked.

As expected from a genius general. His constant victories did not come from luck but from his commanding skills and tactics. Ouyang Shuo felt impressed.

In Shanhai City, probably only Baiqi and Han Xin were better than him. Even the god general Sun Bin was a little weaker.

Under the leadership of Huo Qubing, the Han Army relentlessly attacked wave after wave.

The elite Tuqi King of the Left was suppressed to the point where he could not retaliate.

The Xiongnu people were adept at cavalry warfare, but they could do nothing before the Han Army.

At 3 PM, the Tuqi King of the Left's army looked like it was about to collapse.

"The general has orders!"

Ouyang Shuo was commanding at the left wing; he did not personally participate in this battle.

Wang Feng led the Divine Martial Guards and went to and fro on the battlefield, helping Ouyang Shuo earn an endless supply of battle contribution points. At a glance, he was close to crossing the two hundred thousand mark.

Even the kills of the three thousand Xiongnu surrendered soldiers added to his points.

Apart from that, even 20% from the ten thousand Han Army soldiers was included.

Ouyang Shuo did not expect that the role of left general would grant him such great rewards.

It seems like after this battle, he could make good use of these points.

Just as the killing reached its most intense state, a messenger ran over, "The general orders the left wing to route to the back of the enemy to cut off their retreat path!"

"I follow!" Ouyang Shuo was delighted.

He had gotten his wish.

Ouyang Shuo was worried that the Tuqi King of the Left would escape?

Huo Qubing immediately sent an order.

In normal situations, the one in charge of blocking the retreat path was the elite commander the main general recognized.

This time, Huo Qubing did not use the Zhao Ponu’s right wing. Instead, he chose the left wing for this role. With that, it seemed like the performance of the Divine Martial Guards had completely impressed him.

In the end, he did not let Ouyang Shuo down.

During the tactical meeting yesterday, Zhao Kuo had suggested that Ouyang Shuo let the Divine Martial Guards fight without caring about loses and sacrifices. They needed to be at their strongest level on the battlefield.

Only then could he obtain Huo Qubing’s recognition.

In the end, it was just as Zhao Kuo had said.

During this battle, Zhao Kuo had performed well twice.

Bringing him was worth it!

In Shanhai City, this general was previously scolded as a paper general. Now, he had finally shone brightly.

……

With a Shua! Ouyang Shuo unsheathed the Chixiao Sword from its scabbard once more.

"Personal guards, follow me out!" Ouyang Shuo slapped his war horse and charged out.

This time, he wanted to personally kill the Tuqi King of the Left.

"Kill kill kill!"

When they saw their Lord personally act, the Divine Martial Guards felt their blood boil.

Everyone knew that whenever their Lord struck, it was the most intense moment of the battle.

Ouyang Shuo led three thousand Divine Martial Guards, three thousand surrendered Xiongnu soldiers, and also the ten thousand Han troops to leave the battlefield and charge toward the back of the enemy.

The vast grassland became the world of the cavalry.

With Huyan Qiu leading the way, Ouyang Shuo did not need to worry about getting lost.

"Tuqi King of the Left, your head is mine!" Ouyang Shuo muttered.

Chapter 592-Completing Everything on Khentii Mountain

Ouyang Shuo led the army from the side of the battlefield to directly stab into the back of the enemy.

The current Tuqi King of the Left was planning to retreat, so he was gathering his personal guards. Who would have guessed that just one hundred meters after they left, Ouyang Shuo would kill his way over?

"Tuqi King of the Left, where do you think you're going?"

Ouyang Shuo rotated his primordial energy and shouted, and his voice echoed through the wilderness.

On the battlefield, both sides could hear this shout.

When Huo Qubing heard his voice, his eyes constricted; he felt astonished. He did not think that this player Lord that had not revealed anything before him would possess such a strong and deep cultivation.

"What an amazing person," Huo Qubing muttered.

The strength of the Divine Martial Guards had already shocked him. Hence, he was curious about the might of their leader.

From that shout, Huo Qubing gained a little understanding.

Unknowingly, Huo Qubing started to think back to the king. Both of them kept their cards close to their chests. However, when they showed their skills, it was truly shocking.

This was the first time Huo Qubing had started to feel interested in Ouyang Shuo himself.

……

When the Xiongnu cavalry heard that loud shout, they all turned around with dubious expressions.

The scene that they saw left them in disbelief.

They were still fighting on the front lines, while their king was actually preparing to desert them.

The Xiongnu cavalry screamed.

This was definitely a fatal blow to their morale.

Huo Qubing was extremely sharp. He immediately grabbed the chance to launch a relentless attack.

At the same time, he ordered people to recruit the surrendered to affect the fighting spirit of the Xiongnu cavalry.

When Tuqi King of the Left heard this shout, his expression turned exceedingly ugly, and he did not dare to raise his head.

A sense of guilt and shame lingered in his heart.

It seemed that it would be hard for this king of the desert to raise his head in front of his people ever again.

At the sight of this, Ouyang Shuo decided to leave the Han Army and Xiongnu forces to attack the main Xiongnu Army. He would lead the Divine Martial Guards to chase after the Tuqi King of the Left.

The prideful Little White ran at the front of the army, looking exceptionally mighty.

However, Ouyang Shuo had not expected this chase to last for ten odd miles.

The Xiongnu war horses were all exceptional. Moreover, the king’s mount was an elite of the Xiongnu horses, comparable to the Qingfu horses.

To chase up to them was not an easy matter.

Furthermore, this region was also within the power range of the king.

No matter how familiar Huyan Qiu was with the area, his knowledge was still a distance from the king who owned this place. The king was also extremely crafty, and he used the geography of the area to trick the Divine Martial Guards several times.

As they continued the chase, the distance between the two slowly grew wider and wider.

This was no surprise, as Huo Qubing's troops had chased them all the way to Khentii Mountain and still failed to catch him. The craftiness of the Xiongnu king was far beyond an average level.

Another half an hour passed, and the Tuqi King of the Left had completely disappeared from their sights.

Luckily, he still had Little White.

His scent was still within Little White's range.

When he say that they could not make it otherwise, Ouyang Shuo gritted his teeth and bore the pain. He took out the scroll and directly tore it.

A white light shone and charged into the sky, covering the three thousand Divine Martial Guards. The white light flashed and disappeared into the bodies of the Qingfu horses.

Instantly, the Qingfu horses went crazy and charged forward.

This scroll was the Rapid Troop Movement Scroll that Ouyang Shuo had spent 200 battle resource points to purchase.

Originally, Ouyang Shuo had wanted to use this item for the final sprint. Now that the quest line was in his hands, he naturally did not need it anymore.

Even the remaining Zhang Liao troops numbered less than a thousand.

Zhang Liao had made it clear that he had given up on this chase. He knew that the relationship between Consonance City and Shanhai City stood at an exceptionally sensitive stage, so he naturally needed to act carefully.

In order to kill the Tuqi King of the Left, Ouyang Shuo was paying a great price.

After all, even if the scroll was not used when assaulting enemies, it had miraculous effects in other areas.

Rapid Troop Movement Scroll: After use, 50% increase in troop movement speed for four hours.

Under the strong buff of the scroll, the Divine Martial Guards were like soldiers from heaven, as they madly charged across the grasslands. In less than an hour, the forces of the Tuqi King of the Left once again appeared in his field of sight.

The rumbling sounds of horse hooves made the king’s heart tremble.

Moments ago, he had started to feel gleeful about finally getting rid of that annoying fly. He did not expect the enemy to appear here.

Looking at the enemy troops that were getting closer and closer, his face turned ashen white. He could not imagine what kind of war horse they rode that could travel so quickly.

It seemed like no one could answer this question.

In an instant, the Divine Martial Guards had already arrived at their doorsteps.

At this time, any words were useless.

In this battle, it was either you die or I live.

Ouyang Shuo personally led his troops and jumped right into the enemy formation. His goal was the heavily protected king. This Xiongnu noble freaked out like a bird reacting to the twang of a bow.

The king had less than two thousand personal guards.

Facing the three thousand Divine Martial Guards, they had no ability to react.

The successive changes today were too exciting and exhilarating for the Xiongnu people.

Ouyang Shuo rode Qingdian, and the Chixiao Sword shone with a cold light. He moved amongst the enemy lines as he pleased. He used the killing sword’s crowd control effects to its pinnacle.

No one could stop Ouyang Shuo's advance.

Ring after ring of Xiongnu cavalry troops were sliced open like paper.

Especially under the buff of the scroll, the assault from the Divine Martial Guards was incredibly alluring. The massive horse lances were like lightning bolts that pierced the enemy formation.

If the Divine Martial Guards did not possess strong bodies, the force behind the horse lances could have caused heavy damage to both sides. Even so, their hands felt numb from the impact.

On the other hand, the Xiongnu cavalry were similarly in a bad shape.

The high speed horse lances were no different from the death god, as they directly gored through multiple cavalry.

During the first assault, they pierced more than half of the cavalry and instantly killed them.

Such a battle result could be called a miracle.

Even the Divine Martial Guards themselves could not believe it.

Only Ouyang Shuo’s expression remained unchanged, as he was clear that this was the strength of momentum.

Originally, he had wanted to do this to impress people.

The Divine Martial Guards swung their horse lances. However, there were too many bodies strung on, so they actually failed to swing the bodies off.

"Abandon the lances!"

When Wang Feng saw the situation, he made a decision.

Dang!

The horse lances and the bodies strung on them were all thrown to the ground. The entire battlefield instantly transformed into hell.

"Use your blades!"

Wang Feng shouted out once more.

Shua! They unsheathed their Tang Blades in an orderly fashion.

The entire process was as smooth as flowing water, taking less than half a minute.

With that, one could see how well trained they were.

When the Xiongnu soldiers saw their actions, they were stunned.

The current Tuqi King of the Left wished that his enemy was Huo Qubing. He would rather face that general than the devil before him.

The assault continued.

The killing was far from over.

Ouyang Shuo led the personal guards and approached the Tuqi King of the Left. Only a row of his most loyal soldiers remained.

"Killing all life!"

The blood aura on the Chixiao Sword corporealized and Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate to activate the 6th stroke of the killing sword.

The blood aura suddenly shot out from the sword and turned into sharp crimson daggers that reaped life after life. In a moment, the ten soldiers collectively collapsed.

The entire battlefield fell completely silent.

The Tuqi King of the Left was so scared that he shrieked.

As the killing sword struck out, blood flowed.

Even though the king had participated in hundreds of battle, he had not seen such a high level sword stroke.

Ouyang Shuo grinned, as the Chixiao Sword chopped down without any hesitation. Before the king could react, his head was already floating in the air.

The Tuqi King of the Left had died!

In just a short while, Ouyang Shuo had obtained ten thousand battle contribution points.

The moment the king died, his remaining forces lost their will to fight and wanted to surrender. However, Ouyang Shuo did not accept it. These soldiers did not amount to much, so he might as well kill them.

Most importantly, the sky was turning black, and he still needed to lead his troops to rush back to the camp before nightfall. The effects of the Rapid Troop Movement Scroll would last for two more hours.

The Xiongnu surrendered soldiers could not enjoy the buff of the scroll.

Hence, bringing them along would only be a burden.

In less than half an hour, a large portion of the remaining soldiers fell to the ground and died. As for those that escaped, Ouyang Shuo had no intentions of chasing them.

After the battle, the Divine Martial Guards swiftly cleaned up the battlefield.

Most importantly, they picked up the horse lances they had dropped in the battle. The Combat Logistics Department had crafted the horse lances that they wielded, and each lance was worth ten gold.

Ouyang Shuo used a torn cloth to wrap the Tuqi King of the Left's head and hung it behind the warhorse. A while later, he led his troops forward like a tornado.

He did not even bother to check the items that were dropped. Instead, he hurriedly kept them in his bag.

No one would know that the king of Xiongnu had fallen here.

Before leaving, Ouyang Shuo had started to think about the matter of the Khentii Mountains. There was nothing standing in the way between them and the mountains.

The sun set in the west.

The last bit of sunset reluctantly backed off from the horizon.

A circular moon slowly crept up into the night sky.

On the main battlefield, it was an utter mess, even tragic.

Under the command of Huo Qubing, the remaining Xiongnu cavalry finally surrendered unhappily. After this battle, the Tuqi King of the Left had lost most of his forces, and they would not pose a threat to the Han border.

Huo Qubing rode his warhorse and stood on the battlefield, as he quietly looked into the distance.

It was like he was waiting for someone to arrive.

Chapter 593-Recruiting Huo Qubing

Naturally, Huo Qubing was waiting for Ouyang Shuo and his army.

Under the night sky, the Divine Martial Guards were like a tornado, as they charged into the messy camp. When Ouyang Shuo threw out the head of the Tuqi King of the Left, the entire camp bustled with excitement.

"General, I've fortunately completed the task!"

Ouyang Shuo walked to the front of Huo Qubing and reported the battle results.

"Well done!"

Huo Qubing was a person of little words. However, his eyes contained an undeniable happiness and even a slight amount of shock.

After coming into contact with the Xiongnu people for an extended period of time, Huo Qubing had grown extremely clear about the incredible escape speed of the Tuqi King of the Left. Even Huo Qubing lacked the confidence to catch that fellow.

As such, he had never expected to see the Tuqi King’s head taken down in less than four hours.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was thinking about how to approach Huo Qubing, a battle notification sounded out.

"Battle Notification: Congratulations player I’m Called Big Bad Wolf for locating the lost Li Guang and his men and successfully recruiting them. The Battle of Mobei Li Guang questline is officially over."

……

"Battle Notification: General Wei Qing successfully led his troops to attack Zhaoxin City. Xiongnu Chan Yu escaped; no one managed to kill him. Wei Qing recruitment quest failed, Battle of Mobei Wei Qing questline is officially over."

……

"Battle Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for helping General Huo Qubing kill the Tuqi King of the Left. As the Huo Qubing questline only has Qiyue Wuyi remaining, he has completed the mission and successfully recruited god rank general Huo Qubing. Battle of Mobei Huo Qubing questline is officially over."

……

The three consecutive battle notifications dazzled all the Lords that remained in the battle map.

Three days ago, Wei Qing had already taken down Zhaoxin City.

Out of the eighteen Lords, there were only eight Lords left at the time of taking down Zhaoxin City. This included the likes of Feng Qiuhuang, Chun Shenjun, and Xiong Ba.

However, no matter how much they searched the grasslands, they could not find the Xiongnu Chan Yu.

They received no news for a few consecutive days.

Not to mention the Lords, even the Xiongnu people could not find their own Chan Yu. As the Chan Yu had lost contact with his troops during the battle, some people thought that he had died. As such, they crowned the Right Guli King as the new Chan Yu.

As for the Lord I’m Called Big Bad Bolf that found Li Guang, it was not pure luck. Like his name, this person owned a spirit beast wolf.

Just relying on this spirit beast, he had located Li Guang extremely early on and smoothly recruited him.

Gaia had not reported the matter to wait for the Huo Qubing questline. Before which, the Mission was to reach the Khentii Mountains first.

However, Ouyang Shuo had killed the Tuqi King of the Left, removing Huo Qubing’s original target. If the script continued, Huo Qubing would end up returning to the palace.

As such, Gaia cleanly judged that the questline was over.

Since Zhang Liao's forces had given up and Ouyang Shuo's troops had contributed greatly, he was naturally deemed as the victor of the questline.

The moment this questline ended, Gaia also ended the Wei Qing questline.

This decision crushed the last hopes of the Lords.

Ouyang Shuo had previously held some slight ambitions regarding this matter. Originally, he had planned to convince Huo Qubing to lead his troops to assist Wei Qing. With the abilities of Little White, he would definitely find Chan Yu.

Who knew that Gaia would act so spontaneously.

The Battle of Mobei neared its end.

Along with the battle notification, the roles of Ouyang Shuo and Huo Qubing were immediately reversed.

In the main troop tent, Huo Qubing went to greet Ouyang Shuo.

"General Huo Qubing greets the Lord!" Huo Qubing bowed solemnly.

"General, please rise; I've admired you for so long!"

Ouyang Shuo smiled as spoke. Then, he eagerly checked out Huo Qubing's stats.

Name: Huo Qubing (God Rank)

Title: Top 10 Olden Chinese Generals

Dynasty: West Han

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Special General

Loyalty: 75

Command: 95

Force: 85

Intelligence: 88

Politics: 42

Specialty: Cavalry Battle (30% increase in cavalry morale, 50% increase in cavalry movement speed, 35% increase in killing strength of cavalry, 40% increase in stamina of cavalry)

Cultivation Method: Broken Capture Sword Code

Equipment: Eight-sided Han Sword

Evaluation: Huo Qubing used the Xiongnu people against their own country, making the Xiongnu tribes live in terror. During his ten years in battle, he attacked Wang Ting, climbed up the Khentii Mountains, and shocked the Xiongnu.

Huo Qubing's stats were on par with Baiqi. Interestingly, his politics stat was 3 points lower. He was a political idiot.

This was not surprising. After all, he had done little in the imperial court.

In comparison, Wei Qing's politics stat would be more than 80 points; he was an able minister.

However, the part that caught Ouyang Shuo’s interest was his specialty.

As expected from the cavalry genius. Under the buff of his specialty, the combat strength of a cavalry basically doubled.

This trip was worth it since he had managed to recruit such a god general.

It was already late into the night, so Ouyang Shuo led his troops to take a rest.

The next morning, another battle notification sounded out.

"Battle Notification: The Battle of Mobei officially ends. Now, it is time to tabulate the contribution scores based on player contributions."

As all the Lords belonged to the same camp, there was no winner or loser camp. As such, the process directly entered the final battle tabulations.

A system notification sounded out by Ouyang Shuo's ear.

"System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi killed many enemies along the way, fighting the sandstorm, killing the desert bandits, making the Xiongnu surrender, and killing the Tuqi King of the Left. Awarded an extra forty thousand battle contribution points."

Compared to the previous battle map, the rewards for this one paled in comparison. The standout point of this battle would be the fight for the three historical generals.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo had still earned a sizeable amount of battle contribution points.

After tabulating all the extra battle contribution points, the final rankings were confirmed.

Position-Name-Battle contribution points

1st: Qiyue Wuyi- 300000 points

2nd: Chun Shenjun- 200000 points

3rd: Feng Qiuhuang- 180000 points

4th: Bai Hua- 150000 points

5th: Zhan Lang- 125000 points

6th: Di Chen- 120000 points

7th: Xiong Ba- 115000 points

8th: I’m Called Big Bad Wolf- 100000 points

9th: Xunlong Dianxue- 85000 points

10th: Sha Pojun- 80000 points

Looking at the rankings, all the battle contribution points of the Lords had greatly shrunk. Even Ouyang Shuo, who had fought over ten battles during this battle map, had only obtained half of the points he gained during the Battle of Julu.

The main reason was still the number of soldiers that joined. Be it the players or the natives, there were only one hundred thousand at most, a number incomparable to the battle maps that had millions.

This battle definitely would not leave that great of an influence on the classes of the Lords.

During the Battle of Mobei, I’m Called Big Bad Wolf was the biggest winner.

For every battle to birth a dark horse was truly an interesting matter.

Of course, even though he had shone brightly, he still could not compare to Ouyang Shuo. Even without taking into account other reasons, Ouyang Shuo had obtained first place in five consecutive battle maps.

It was not an exaggeration to say that Ouyang Shuo ruled the battle contribution points rankings.

Needless to say, after Huo Qubing officially moved into Shanhai City, who knows how many Lords' hearts were broken.

From the start of the battle, Ouyang Shuo had obtained an extra 15% of battle contribution points. Hence, his final count reached 345 thousand.

By the time the battle ended, a total of five hundred Divine Martial Guards had died.

Based on the battle map settings, to revive one dead soldier would cost 20 points; this was two times the points obtained from killing a normal soldier.

Gaia was truly black hearted, doubling the amount in a blink.

Hence, to revive the Divine Martial Guards, Ouyang Shuo used up ten thousand points.

In the end, based on the 10:1 exchange rate, Ouyang Shuo had obtained 33.4 thousand merit points. As for the commerce city, there was nothing that caught his interest.

Along with the ten thousand merit points he was given at the start, Ouyang Shuo had earned 43.4 thousand merit points during the Battle of Mobei.

With that, Ouyang Shuo checked his merit points total. It had reached a nice figure of 420 thousand. He was around halfway till the duke rank.

With such a rate, who knows how long it would take. It seemed he could only rely on world wars to quickly obtain merit points.

After the tabulation of the battle contribution points, the players also swept the commerce city clean.

At this point, the battle map had truly ended, and the Lords teleported back to the main map.

Ouyang Shuo, who had taken the crown of the battle map for the fifth time, stayed back once more.

Who knows what kind of special reward he would obtain for being the champion this time? With the generosity of the Wu King of Han, it should not be a small item.

Seeing that there was still some time, Huo Qubing invited someone to meet Ouyang Shuo.

He was Zhao Ponu.

As someone loyal to Huo Qubing, Zhao Ponu naturally wanted to come along.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that request, he laughed.

He did not expect that when recruiting generals, there was actually a two for one deal.

Of course, Zhao Ponu was not considered a prominent general. Even though he was graded as a king rank general, he was still one of the relatively weaker ones.

Chapter 594-Hanwu Emperor Appears

No matter what, Ouyang Shuo still needed to take a look at Zhao Ponu's stats.

Name: Zhao Ponu (King Rank)

Dynasty: West Han

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: advanced general

Loyalty: 70

Command: 70

Force: 72

Intelligence: 45

Politics: 35

Specialty: Breakthrough (10% increase in attack power of troops, 20% increase in movement speed of troops)

Cultivation method: Broken Capture Sword Manual (24 styles)

Equipment: Six-sided Han Sword

Evaluation: Zhao Ponu was born in the plains, and he spent his youth in the Xiongnu territory. Then he joined the Han Army and became the advisor for Huo Qubing's army. In the end, his whole family was killed because of the 91 B.C. attempted coup on Emperor Wu of Han.

Zhao Ponu's stats truly were not amazing. Even his command and force stats were at the lowest standard of 70. As for his intelligence and politics stats, they were even worse.

However, his specialty was a saving grace.

Overall, Zhao Ponu was exceedingly average, and he lacked any eye-catching performances. After Huo Qubing died, Zhao Ponu led twenty thousand cavalry to fight the Tuqi King of the Left. In the end, he was surrounded by eighty thousand enemy toops and was captured alive, and his forces fell.

Ouyang Shuo was not too disappointed about this matter.

The expansion of the three legion corps meant that they needed generals. No matter what, Zhao Ponu could still take up the role of a major general. Compared to the locally trained generals, he was a level better.

Since there was still some time, Ouyang Shuo recalled the items that the Tunqi King of the Left had dropped. As he had hurried to sleep last night, he did not have the time to take a look at them.

It was a book.

Xiongnu War Knife Crafting Technical Manual: After use, user learns the Xiongnu War Knife Crafting Technology.

Shanhai City already had the Tang Blade, so they did not have much need for the Xiongnu War Knives. At most, they would merge the crafting techniques to modify the Tang Blades.

Of course, the Mongol Cavalry Training Diary that Zhou Yafu had dropped would make building an elite mongol army possible.

To possess a variety of cavalry was always Ouyang Shuo's goal.

The Xiongnu cavalry including the Xiongnu cavalry each had their strengths. If not they would not have been able to rule the earth.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo was thinking about how to earn money.

Shanhai City did not need the Xiongnu War Knives. However, this did not mean that other territories did not need it. Furthermore, it was a very attractive item for adventure gamemode players.

Especially the chivalrous experts that loved war knives.

Hence, this manual could help Shanhai City create another money making route.

"The Tuqi King of the Left is a good fellow!"

During that short period of time, the final reward was finally delivered to his hands.

Ouyang Shuo took the item; it was actually a token.

Xiongnu Horse Token: After use, user can obtain ten thousand elite Xiongnu warhorses.

"A masterstroke!"

After Ouyang Shuo checked the description of the horse token, he could not help but cheer for the Hanwu Emperor.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo estimated that those Xiongnu warhorses were the battle rewards from this war. The Hanwu Emperor used these winnings to reward the best player Lord, while he himself did not lose much.

Before this, Ouyang Shuo had certain worries. Since the number of territory troops had increased too fast, even with the Shenjun Lake horse breeding farm and the Jifeng Valley horse stables, they still would not have enough.

Using this horse token, the Animal Husbandry Department could totally build another farm. With that, they could satisfy the short-term warhorse needs.

Training methods, warhorses, and war knives were all connected. As a result, Shanhai City would give birth to a strong mongol elite cavalry army.

After getting what he wanted, Ouyang Shuo did not waste any more time and led his troops out of the battle map.

When he returned to the main map, it was already the 1st month, 20th day. When he walked out of the teleportation formation, a system notification sounded out.

"System Notification; Battle of Mobei is officially over. The West Han historical people will automatically join the game. Please search for them!"

……

Unknowingly, the history period of the game had progressed to the West Han.

Amongst the people of the West Han, Ouyang Shuo paid the most attention to Wang Zhaojun, as she concerned the Four Beauties quest. As for the other figures, it would be up to fate.

Next, the chaotic East Han period would follow. Especially the ending years of East Han, where wars started everywhere and many famous generals came into prominence. This was a period that could compare to the Warring States.

Zhou Yu, Zhao Yun, Lu Bu, Zhuge Liang....

Each name was a famous one that everyone knew of.

There was no Lord that did not wish for the arrival of East Han.

As for the sixth battle map that was going to start soon, Ouyang Shuo already had the inklings of a plan.

Regarding the specifics, he still needed to wait a little longer.

This was because Gaia had set the requirement for the sixth battle to fifty prefectures in the China region. Currently, the China region only had fifteen prefectures, so they were unlikely to meet that requirement in a short amount of time.

Following which, another system notification sounded out.

"System Notification: Wu King of Han has officially moved into Luoyang City, the Luoyang Imperial Court will become the Han Dynasty. Famous ministers such as Wei Qing, Zhang Qin, Sima Qian, and Sima Xiangru will follow him."

……

Qinhuang Hanwu was not just a saying.

Following Qin Shihuang, another mighty lord of ancient China, Wu King of Han, had finally appeared in the wilderness. Of course, since Qin Shihuang had sent a precedence, the players were not too shocked this time.

Based on logic, the capital city of West An should be Chang An City. As for Luoyang, it was the capital city of East Han. Helplessly, the Tang Dynasty capital was also Chang An.

Hence, after Gaia calculated and weighed everything, it decided to choose Luoyang City as the capital city of the Han Dynasty.

There were nine imperial cities, so only nine emperors and kings. If Gaia based it on the dynasties, there would be far more than nine. Hence, Gaia naturally needed to make some sacrifices.

Even Ouyang Shuo did not know about this entire matter.

After all, in the five years of the game, there were some dynasties that did not join.

Along with the Hanwu Emperor entering Luoyang, the Zhongyuan Province that had just calmed down would grow busy once more. One must know that during the 3rd system update, Gaia had removed the outer barriers around the imperial cities.

The Imperial cities, especially the ones with dynasties, were going to have an immense impact on the wilderness.

At the very least, the decisive Hanwu Emperor would not allow players to taint the Luoyang Prefecture. It would be the same as the surrounding territory of Xianyang City, which Qin Shihuang had occupied.

After the Chinese New Year, a battle would probably take place in the Zhongyuan Province.

Of course, this worry was only limited to the nearby territories. Meanwhile, the hearts of the other Lords felt pained, as they could not recruit Wei Qing and the other famous generals and ministers.

If Ouyang Shuo had not recruited Huo Qubing, he would have probably entered the dynasty too.

The only way to recruit them was to destroy the imperial city and become their new king.

Of course, probably not many Lords had the ability or courage to compete against Qinhuang Hanwu.

……

After arriving at the wilderness, Huo Qubing's mind was suddenly filled with a large quantity of historical information. After learning that the Wu King of Han had appeared in the wilderness, who knows what Huo Qubing was feeling.

On the other hand, Zhao Ponu, who learned that his race was wiped in the end, did not miss the king anymore. Ouyang Shuo even received a notification that his loyalty had risen by 10 points.

That was truy ironic.

Ouyang Shuo's treatment of Huo Qubing was unfaultable. The moment he returned to the manor, he immediately announced the duty of Huo Qubing.

He appointed him as the legion general of the Guards Legion and granted him the title of Great General. At the same time, Zhao Ponu would become the major general of the Dragon Legion Corps, 2nd legion, 4th division.

Based on logic, as a god rank general, Huo Qubing could rule a legion corps like Baiqi and Han Xin.

However, Ouyang Shuo did not appoint him to such a position.

Firstly, the territory army had just expanded, so it would not be easy to build another legion corps. secondly, the newly built guards legion badly needed a general.

With the position of the Guards Legion in the territory, it was not an insult to his ability.

Most importantly, Huo Qubing was a keen dagger. He was a great general but not a good commander. Leading troops in battle was his strength. However, making him command and lead a legion corps with many different soldier types would be asking too much.

Taking a step back, as the personal army of Ouyang Shuo, the Guards Legion needed such a general.

All things considered, before the battle map, Ouyang Shuo had planned everything clearly. He knew what position he would grant Huo Qubing if he succeeded.

After settling Huo Qubing, Ouyang Shuo immediately summoned Animal Husbandry Director Xia Houying.

"Greetings, my Lord!"

Towards this summon, Xia Houying was a little surprised.

"Take a look at this." Ouyang Shuo passed the Xiongnu Horse Token over.

"This, this is!"

When Xia Houying saw the token, emotion and excitement filled his face.

As the director, Xia Houying was more worried about warhorse matters than Ouyang Shuo. He clearly knew what this horse token meant to the territory.

"Quickly choose a grassland to build a horse breeding farm in the territory." Ouyang Shuo smiled.

In the game, the map was ten times larger than reality.

Choosing a horse ranch was not too difficult a matter.

"Lord do not worry. Three days, at most three days, we will have some rewards." Xia Houying was exceedingly confident.

As the director of animal husbandry, Xia Houying had performed an investigation on the parts of the territory suitable for building a horse breeding farm.

He just needed three days time to make a selection based on their research.

"With Director Xia doing things, I am naturally at ease."

This director left Ouyang Shuo extremely pleased.

Chapter 595-Chasing All Philosophers Out, Only Leaving Confucianism

After he returned to Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo started to prepare for the alliance gathering.

On the 2nd day of the new year, the 4th day of the 2nd month, Ouyang Shuo would hold his wedding. Hence, he had especially moved forward the date of the alliance gathering to before the new year.

On the side of Yashan City, Tian Wenjing had already built the courtyard for the alliance meeting and was just waiting for the guests. Considering the need for scenery, the courtyard was built at the Tianya region west of Yashan City.

As for the specific location, it was the famous Cape Haijiao. The entire bay was cordoned off for the courtyard to enjoy alone.

Only in the game could one receive such heaven defying treatment.

As for the specific preparations, Ouyang Shuo naturally would not micromanage.

Instead, he focused on the contents of the meeting.

During this year's alliance gathering, Ouyang Shuo was ready to start off with a bang; he wanted to strengthen the alliance’s power.

Xunlong City, Black Lion City, and Stone City were slowly falling off, causing Ouyang Shuo to sense a hint of danger. As the alliance leader of the Shanhai Alliance, Ouyang Shuo needed to step up at this time.

1st month, 21st day, Luoyang.

The 2nd day after the Hanwu Emperor moved in, he announced the political proposition of his rule, ‘Remove all other school of thoughts, only Confucianism remains.’

In Luoyang City, schools and even the official courts had professors of the five classics: the Book of Songs, the Book of History, the Classic of Rites, the Book of Changes, and the Spring and Autumn Annals.

The study of classics would become the only recognized subject in Luoyang.

In essence, this moved aimed to protect the order and tradition of the rule. It worshiped and immortalized the rule of the emperor. As a result, it was a mainstream idea for two thousand years of Chinese culture and tradition.

All of a sudden, the numerous philosophers in Luoyang City were chased out.

The world was changing.

This historical event of West Han was repeating itself in the wilderness. One could not help but think back to Qin Shihuang’s actions when he entered Xianyang.

It seemed like these two emperors were going to have a silent face off in the wilderness.

The conflict mentioned by the philosophers was once again going to be a popular topic in the wilderness.

Interestingly, despite the proponent of Confucianism being the only school of thought and Dong Zhongshu personally inviting Kong Zi to teach in Luoyang, he was still rejected.

It was obvious that Kong Zi did not completely recognize this study.

There were some differences between the two.

The study of Confucianism classics modified the thinkings of Kong Zi to protect the power of the emperor. It was utterly different from his main view.

Hanwu Emperor's actions benefited Shanhai City the most. As the Land of Philosophers, the many people chased out naturally saw Shanhai City as their first choice.

Over hundreds of philosophers joined Shanhai City everyday.

Along with the philosophers, there was also one more exceptional person. He shared the same father as Huo Qubing, buy they came from different mothers; his name was Huo Guang.

Huo Guang's father was called Huo Zhong Ru. During 141 B.C., he was sent as a minor official to work in the house of the Pingyang Lord. He and one of the maid servants there called Wei Shao'er had a child, Huo Qubing.

After Huo Zhong Ru completed his job there, he returned home and married a wife, who he had Huo Guang with.

During 121 B.C., Huo Qubing was given the role of Bianqi General. En route to killing the Xiongnu, the Pingyang Lord invited him over. There, he had sent someone to bring over his father for them to meet.

Huo Qubing helped Huo Zhong Ru buy land and servants before leaving. On his expedition, he once again visited Huo Zhong Ru and brought his brother Huo Guang to Chang An.

Huo Guang was only over ten years olds back then. However, with Huo Qubing's help, he became an official.

During 1167 B.C., Huo Qubing passed away. Huo Guang was appointed many roles in the palace like Fengche Duwei and Guanglu Dafu, and he served besides the Hanwu Emperor for over twenty years without committing a single mistake. Hence, he gained the emperor's trust and became an extremely powerful minister.

Compared to Huo Qubing's fame in the army, Huo Guang's achievements were massive too. He had worked for the Hanwu Emperor, the Hanzhao Emperor, and the Hanxuan Emperor. During his time, he was granted titles such as the Great General and the Great Advisor.

During Hanxuan Emperor's time, because Huo Guang had contributed to making the Xiongnu surrender, he was part of a drawing of eleven ministers that was displayed in the Qilin Court.

Huo Guang was listed as the top contributing minister out of the eleven ministers.

The two brothers were completely different in terms of their desire for power.

Huo Qubing had the loyalty and strive to fight for his country, and he did not bother about fame and riches. Meanwhile, his brother was totally different.

In history, others often incriminated Huo Guang. In the end, he was blamed for staging a coup to overthrow the emperor.

As a result, the Huo Family had a deeply saddening ending. Two years after his death, news that the coup had failed caused the entire family to be killed.

Along with the West Han entering the game, Huo Guang’s family all entered too. After Huo Guang learned of the historical events, he naturally did not have the courage to work for the Hanwu Emperor.

Hence, heading to his brother’s location was not a bad choice.

Huo Qubing died early. As such, when he entered the wilderness, he was only around twenty. As his brother, Huo Guang arrived in the wilderness as a young teen and not the old famous Great General.

However, he kept his memories and abilities.

Along with him was his wife Zi Xian, son Huo Yu, and daughter Huo Chengjun.

Huo Yu was the reason why the Huo Family was wiped out.

Huo Chengjun was the second empress of the Hanwu Emperor’s time. After her family was wiped out, she was placed into the cold palace. Twelve years later, she killed herself.

The two of them were both four to five years old kids. Especially Huo Chengjun, who was a cute little loli. When she looked at the prosperous Shanhai City, she was extremely excited.

She ascended to the position of empress because her mother bribed the physician to kill the first empress.

These events were made into a T.V. drama known as Wulong Chuang Qing Guan, and the main female lead Huo Shui Xian was built in the image of Huo Chengjun.

When this drama came out, it was immediately popular.

Huo Shui Xian, who was played by Chao Yin, instantly became the goddess in the hearts of all men.

……

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo welcomed Huo Guang's arrival.

In history, the main reason Huo Guang managed to hold so much power as a minister was because of the weak emperor.

Compared to the other important ministers in Shanhai City, Huo Guang lacked a solid base. Naturally, he could not become a minister that held too much power. During the Hanwu Emperor’s time, Huo Guang did not show a single sign of being a minister who took control.

Furthermore, Shanhai City brimmed with talents.

Without even mentioning the four directors, just department grade directors like Zhang Tingyu and Su Zhe were enough to match Huo Guang. Hence, the only way for Huo Guang to do well here was to blend into the system.

Taking off the robes of a powerful minister, his administrative abilities were actually extremely high. Hanxuan Emperor even compared him with the best prime minister of West Han, Xiao He.

In the main hall, Ouyang Shuo welcomed Huo Guang and his family.

"Huo Guang greets the Lord!"

Huo Guang knew his position, and he bowed when he saw Ouyang Shuo. His past glory had all turned to nought. The current Huo Guang was only a basic official that was just starting out.

Huo Guang had a clear understanding of this point.

"Greetings, Lord!"

Following Huo Qubing, Huo Yu and Huo Chengjun both knelt down. The little loli Huo Chengjun looked at Ouyang Shuo with a curious gaze; she was not afraid at all.

"Please rise!"

Ouyang Shuo smiled, completing the act of treating his subordinates with respect and politeness.

Making use of the time, Ouyang Shuo took a look at Huo Guang's stats.

Name: Huo Guang (Emperor Rank)

Dynasty: West Han

Identity: Shanhai City civil servant

Occupation: civil servant

Loyalty: 75

Command: 70

Force: 55

Intelligence: 70

Politics: 90

Specialty: Powerful General (20% increase in efficiency, 10% increase in territory politics index, 15% increase in administrative standards).

Evaluation: Huo Guang was given the duty of bringing up the new young emperor, making him one of the trusted ministers of the dynasty. He crafted many evil plots, and he made his daughter the empress. He cared a lot about interest and profits. However, three years after his death, his entire family line was wiped out!

Huo Guang was truly extraordinary. Gaia had actually graded him as an emperor level person. Out of his four stats, none of them were exceptionally weak.

That afternoon, the Governor-General announced his appointment.

The Tax Division under the Financial Bureau would be expanded to become the Tax Department.

Huo Guang would become the 1st director of the Taxation Department.

The original Taxation Secretary Qin Shen would become the deputy director.

Ouyang Shuo had put in a lot of thought into the matter of Huo Guang’s appointment.

Xiao He had taken charge of the Administration Bureau. As such, to prevent suspicion, Huo Guang could not take up a director role there. Apart from that, only the Internal Affairs Bureau and the Financial Bureau remained.

Considering that Huo Qubing had taken up the role of Guards Legion general, it would not be easy for Huo Guang to take up a role in such a sensitive bureau like the Internal Affairs Bureau.

In the end, Ouyang Shuo decided on the Financial Bureau.

With his ability, taking charge of the taxation department was fine. Of course, if he performed well in the future, his roles could change.

However, the army was an absolutely prohibited place for him.

Ouyang Shuo did not forget that the 3rd year of Gaia was the rise of aristocratic families. The matter of how to balance and restrict the rise of aristocratic families in the territory was something that weighed heavily in his heart.

Most crucially, he needed to enact strict prevention measures at the source.

Chapter 596-Famous General Zhao She

As the new year approached, it seemed to be an extremely suitable time to find loved ones and visit friends.

Following Huo Guang's arrival, another person came to Shanhai City the next day. This person was a general and Zhao Kuo's father - Mafu Lord Zhao She.

On the topic of Zhao She, his most famous moment was during the Battle of E Yu.

During this battle, Zhao She had led his troops to defeat the arrogant Qin Army, spreading his name across the six states. After the battle, the Zhao King awarded him the title of Mafu Lord, and he became a presence on the same level as Lianpo.

After the Battle of Changping ended, Zhao She had already entered the wilderness.

Zhao Kuo’s loss at Changping broke the foundation of the Zhao Country, making Zhao She feel extremely ashamed. As a result, he did not want to reunite with this son of his. However, blood was thicker than water after all, so he continued to pay attention to his son's performance.

Currently, Zhao Kuo was shining brightly in Shanhai City. He was even Ouyang Shuo's advisor during the Battle of Mobei and had made miraculous contributions.

Hence, Zhao Kuo had finally obtained the recognition of his father.

Fittingly, the Chinese New Year neared, so he chose such a time to arrive. The other members of the Zhao Family also came along.

Regarding Zhao She’s arrival in Shanhai City, the happiest person was definitely Zhao Kuo.

Yearning, recognition….

Various emotions interlaced in his heart; a complicated series of feelings.

The reunion of father and son was truly a touching scene.

At the current moment, be it Zhao She or Zhao Kuo, both were filled with thoughts and emotions.

Ouyang Shuo did not disturb them. On the contrary, Zhao She was the one who put his feelings on hold and immediately greeted Ouyang Shuo and swiftly announced his loyalty.

This was exactly how generals dealt with their matters.

At this point, Shanhai City had acquired another strong general!

Name: Zhao She (King Rank)

Dynasty: Warring States (Zhao)

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: advanced general

Loyalty: 75

Command: 78

Force: 70

Intelligence: 58

Politics: 55

Specialty: Chase (15% increase in combat strength of troops, 20%15% increase in movement speed of troops.)

Cultivation method: -

Equipment: -

Evaluation: Mafu of the Zhao State, a majestic and chaste person. Started off as a minor officer and performed his duties well. He caught aristocrats who did wrong and was in turn promoted to the land tax collector. During the war, he was appointed to lead troops. In the end, he was promoted to the position of administrator of a district called Mafu.

Zhao She's stats could be considered a pinnacle presence amongst king rank generals. If the Warring States was not such a star studded period, he would definitely be considered an emperor rank general.

Ouyang Shuo was not careless and immediately appointed him as the 3rd division major general of the 2nd legion of the Tiger Legion Corps.

With his character, he could maintain fairness. As such, the most suitable position for him was Military Law Secretary, which was commonly known as the Judge Advocate General.

As there were no suitable choices for that position, Du Ruhui had been temporarily taking charge of the role.

However, Zhao Kuo was already the deputy director of the Military Affairs Bureau. If the father and son pair both worked in the same unit, it might cause rumors to spread.

Ouyang Shuo could only choose the second best option and send him to the Tiger Legion Corps.

Making use of this chance, Ouyang Shuo also named a Military Law Secretary. The person he chose was far from what Du Ruhui had expected, he actually chose the Taiping Country fallen general, Feng Yunshan.

Similar to Zhao She, Feng Yunshan had a righteous personality. With the learning opportunity at the Army Military Academy, it was within his ability to become the Judge Advocate General.

Apart from this, Ouyang Shuo had a deeper layer of meaning for appointing him.

During this military reorganization, more than half of the soldiers in the three legion corps were surrendered soldiers, so their discipline was lax and they fought against control. This matter had already became a huge issue for Du Ruhui.

Feng Yunshan being from the Taiping Army had both its pro and cons.

Making him the Judge Advocate General was both a consolation and also a warning to the surrendered soldiers that military discipline was not a child's game.

Solving the military discipline problem was a massive test for Feng Yunshan. The first test was if Feng Yunshan could be sufficiently vicious and merciless.

Ouyang Shuo believed that Feng Yunshan could understand the deeper meaning within this appointment.

Of course, Feng Yunshan’s promotion was partially due to Sun Wu's recommendation.

As the principal of the Army Military Academy, although he did not participate in territory strategies, he had accepted Ouyang Shuo's request to evaluate the generals in the academy.

Only Ouyang Shuo could see these evaluations.

It was through his evaluation that Sun Wu pointed out that Feng Yunshan had an exceptional talent in military law. With that, after all considerations, Ouyang Shuo decided to choose Feng Yunshan.

Successively obtaining the loyalty of both Huo Guang and Zhao She delighted Ouyang Shuo.

Talents arriving without invitation was a sign of the prosperity of the territory.

Ouyang Shuo had reason to believe that with the pinnacle existences of West Han in Xiao He, Han Xin, Huo Qubing, Huo Guang, and Xia Houying, he would hold an immense attraction to the historical people of that era.

Regretfully, during the West Han period, Xiao He's children were all normal and were not moldable into capable talents. During the Northern and Southern Dynasty, Xiao He's 25th generation Sun Xiaoyan formed the Lianzhou Dynasty.

Meanwhile, Han Xin's family was destroyed, and he had no descendants left.

After Huo Guang’s death, his family was also destroyed.

With this, one could see how difficult it was for an aristocratic family to last over several hundred years.

As an official, if one was not careful, the emperor could order for their entire family to be wiped out.

West Han had many talents that were largely gathered during the Hanwu Emperor’s time, while the various dynasties after that had many lesser talents. The end of the Hanwu Emperor was also the turning point from good to bad.

The true talent explosion happened during the East Han.

……

After dealing with the matters at hand, on the 1st month, 24th day, Ouyang Shuo set off toward the location of the alliance gathering - Tianya Villa.

Song Jia and Bing'er also followed.

After being busy for an entire year, it was time for Ouyang Shuo to spend time with his family and take a good rest.

The meeting was one aspect of the alliance meeting, while the other was to have a holiday. Not only Ouyang Shuo, he had already invited the other members to bring along their family.

This could also be considered an attempt at establishing relationships.

Apart from Song Jia, the parents of the others were all invited.

Before which, Song Jia had described Ouyang Shuo's time travel theory. Hence, that activated the rise of the Song Chamber of Commerce in Shanhai City.

Perfume, soap, and Qipao; the Song Chamber of Commerce developed all of these items, becoming worthy of being called a money-sucking machine.

Needless to say, just the emergence of perfume and soap attracted the attention of all the females in the city.

Dudou, Qipao, and similar items were popular due to the specialty of Shanhai City - the colored silk. The vibrant colors made these two items extremely popular, and they instantly became hot selling products.

Apart from that, as the wife of the Lord, Song Jia personally chaired the sales of these products. She gathered the rich missus of the city to display these new items.

With that, the sales routes truly opened up.

All of a sudden, the name of the Song Chamber of Commerce rose in prominence.

Since the chamber of commerce had a chance to rise up, Song Tianxiong was naturally filled with ambition. During the exchange, Song Tianxiong had convinced his family members to exchange for four hundred thousand gold.

Apart from a portion used to return loans, the rest of this sum of money was invested into the chamber of commerce.

Song Tianxiong’s goal was to sell these items to the imperial city. Especially perfume, these items were small but the profits were high. Moreover, it was easily transported by the storage bags of players.

Of course, there were still some worrying factors.

These items were new and amazing to the natives, but the players with diverse knowledge immediately saw through the theory behind it.

News spread that in the various regions, similar items were appearing.

The current China region lacked monopolies. Furthermore, strictly speaking, the Song Chamber of Commerce was stealing modern ideas, so they had no right to say that other people were copying them.

Hence, Song Tianxiong had no choice. He could only hope to use funds to build up his brand and take up a huge portion of the market.

As for swallowing up the entire thing, that was nearly impossible.

Even without considering other reasons, they already had competition in the territory.

Their biggest competitor was naturally Thread in Yashan City.

Since the start, Thread was a player guild made of purely work occupation players, and they had a batch of advanced ranked players. Their researching ability regarding items such as perfume and Qipao was far superior to the Song Chamber of Commerce.

The reason why they had not adopted such an approach was because they were locked into habitual thinking. The moment they were awoken from that state, their research would not stop.

In less than a month, the products that Thread had pushed out were far better than the Song Chamber of Commerce in terms of both variety or quality, which gave Song Tianxiong a complete headache.

As for the funds advantage, that totally did not need to be mentioned.

No matter how rich the Song Family was, it was not enough to compete with a guild.

Thread in Yashan City was progressing at a tremendous speed, and its member count had once again climbed to one hundred thousand. They already had the ability to be listed as one of the top 10 guilds.

Qing Sikou had millions of usable funds in gold.

All of a sudden, Threat actually had a sign of coming from behind, its reputation blooming.

Luckily, at the crucial moment, Song Jia stepped up, making the other player work occupation guild Fallen Moon Guild work together with them.

Only then did the Song Chamber of Commerce gain a foothold in their battle with Thread.

Luckily, the current market was not oversaturated. Between the two, it was a friendly competition. If not, it would really put Ouyang Shuo in a tough situation.

From Ouyang Shuo's point of view, both sides were huge tax payers in the territory. He would not be biased just because of Song Jia.

On this point, Ouyang Shuo had a clear understanding.

Chapter 597-Man at the Top of the Food Chain

Gaia 3rd year, 1st month, 25th day, Tianya Villa.

Back when Shanhai Alliance had its first alliance gathering, nineteen people had joined. As a result, Ouyang Shuo had jokingly termed it as the Meeting of Nineteen.

In just a year, although there was still nineteen of them, but many things have changed.

Last year, Moon Shines Over the River was still chasing Hong Ying. Now, the two of them were already officially a pair, making all the single dogs jealous.

Last year, Lin Jing had relied on the god weapon Qixing Longyuan to become the biggest power amongst the adventure gamemode players. Today, Jianqi Leiyin, who had the Taia Sword, was able to stand on her level.

Most importantly, during the auction where he spent a million gold to purchase the War Blood God Set, Blood Romance was undoubtedly the strongest person.

Last year, Mulan Yue had accompanied Ouyang Shuo, today, it had changed to Song Jia. The news of their marriage had raised waves in the alliance.

Be it Bai Hua or Feng Qiuhuang, they all looked at Song Jia with weird expressions.

Last year, Black Mamba was specially invited. Now, he had transformed after the disbandment of the Rattlesnake Mercenary Group. The more mysterious Black Snake and the Black Snake Guards that terrified the enemy had replaced him.

Similarly, the Song Wen and Song Wu brother pair was not present.

One became the mayor of Zhenhai City, while the other became the deputy major general of the Leizhou Garrison Division. After the year, Ouyang Shuo was prepared to promote Song Wu to major general of the Xunzhou Garrison Division.

Since some people had left, there were naturally new additions.

As an important member of the guild alliance, The appearance of Thread's guild leader Qing Sikou was not surprising at all. What surprised them was the appearance of Ji Yinghu and Mengyun Tunding.

It was obvious that Ouyang Shuo wanted to use this chance to completely bring Shadow Alliance and Yimeng Pavillion into the Shanhai Alliance.

After all of this, with four in and four out, they ended up with nineteen people again.

Apart from that, there was also a special presence, Bai Xiaosheng.

Gaia 2nd year, 5th month, Bai Xiaosheng established the Wilderness Publications. From the name alone, one would know that this was a very special guild, and it was mainly composed of reporters and editors.

The main job of this guild was to work with the officials to post on the forums in a special news column known as the Quick Daily News. They were in charge of reporting all the important matters in the wilderness.

Although Quick Daily News was a paid service, with the talent of Bai Xiaosheng's team in digging out news, they had insane sales. Every day, he could obtain some interesting news.

Players even said that just by reading the Quick Daily News, they could easily understand everything that was happening without even leaving their homes.

The reporter station of the Quick Daily News not only spread out across the nine imperial cities, but they even existed in more than 90% of the layer territories. Shanhai City was naturally not an exception.

Developing to this stage, the number of subscriptions to Quick Daily News had already broken one million. This also meant that one out of every ten in China had subscribed.

If one excluded the children, this ratio was truly astounding.

Reading the Quick Daily News every day had also become one of the habits of a large portion of the players.

The subscription fee of Quick Daily News was extremely affordable at two copper daily. With that, one could read all the available news content.

Even if one read it for ten years, they would not need to even spend one gold.

However, due to the massive subscriber base, they made humongous profits. Each day, they would be able to take in two thousand gold.

Apart from subscription fees, ad revenue was also another source of income.

Be it guilds or territories, if they wanted to post recruitment advertisements, the Quick Daily News was the best choice. If they posted it on the forums, unless they were a huge shark like Shanhai City, their posts would definitely be drowned out.

Apart from recruitment, the promotion of products, trading news of top grade items, chain quest news, and other similar matters were popular posts on the Quick Daily News.

The items pushed out by the Song Chamber of Commerce had also appeared in the Quick Daily News.

Now, similar news media had appeared. Amongst which, there were territory based ones like the Jingdou Publications, and there was also specific media like Swordsmen Island.

Various news media filled the reading news of the variety of players.

Even so, the Quick Daily News continued to hold almost a monopoly of the industry.

Because of that, Bai Xiaosheng's reputation had bloomed, and he even climbed onto the famous people rankings. Some people said that if Qiyue Wuyi was a giant amongst the Lords, then Bai Xiaosheng was undoubtedly a media shark.

Just one year ago, he was just a relatively known commenter on the forums. His sudden rise was due to the unique business model of the Quick Daily News.

The sneaky rise of the media industry made many people saw the profits within. Or to put it another way, this rise had once again affected the player's understanding of the game.

To say that the business model was unique was just in the case of the game. In reality, such subscription-based services had appeared two hundred years ago.

Bai Xiaosheng's breakthrough was to put this model and implant it into the game. Just like the items pushed out by the Song Chamber of Commerce, which were a mental and ideological blow to the players.

Between them, there was a similarity; they treated the game world like the real world.

Simply put, it all went back to the time theory that Ouyang Shuo had mentioned.

From how Gaia was setting up columns for the Quick Daily News, it was not hard to see that Gaia was supporting it.

To make the game world real had always been one of Gaia's goals.

In the future, when they reached planet Hope, Earth Online could still continue to run and become a part of the player's lives.

After all, the moulding and selection of talent was a process that never stopped.

People with a business mind had already smelled some opportunities from the rise of the media industry.

On the forums, there were many products being developed that lacked a platform for complete integration.

For example, a network.

Actually, a year ago, players had used the game as a base to create similar web novels like fantasy, history, and military.

These were just random fictions that the authors wrote up.

But if they were able to obtain the support from the officials like Quick Daily News and have a reading platform to promote and run their stories, this would entirely change.

After all, in reality, subscription based reading was already a trend.

Furthermore, dramas and movies.

The shooting equipment that Gaia provided, along with the adventures, battles, and war elements, would allow for someone to create a great movie or drama provided they had professional directors and scriptwriters

Now, the forums were filled with people filming for self-enjoyment.

Undoubtedly, only a more elite and professional production process would push this area forward.

And all of this was only the entertainment related matters.

If one jumped out of this box, one’s imagination would be even larger.

Like online sales and purchases.

Ever since the removal of the Super Auction Platform, cross-territory sales had turned into a dream.

However, in reality, it was a commonality.

Making use of the forums, they could build an online shopping platform. Afterward, they could use the relay to build a parcel service. Using such methods, one could easily replicate Taobao.

There were many more examples and a variety of business opportunities.

As a person who had been through this already, Ouyang Shuo naturally knew that all of this had happened in the last life. Not just this, the future industries would all jump out of the control of the forums.

As the game progressed, the entertainment needs of the players would grow limitlessly.

In future days, the singers and stars in reality would appear in the game.

Ouyang Shuo remembered that in the 4th year of Gaia, superstar Lin Luo held an olden style concert in the square of Jingdou, attracting two hundred thousand people.

With that concert alone, she had earned five hundred thousand gold, and she was known as the money making queen.

Not only stars in reality, as the game progressed, a new batch of stars appeared. They were either highly skilled experts or the pinnacle of work occupations.

All in all, the future game world become more and more similar to the real world.

The reason why Ouyang Shuo did not use his advantage to attack this area was because, ‘Jack of all trades, master of none.’

Bai Xiaosheng did not rely on luck to build the wilderness publications. In reality, he was an experienced media person, and he had vast media experience.

If not, the Quick Daily News would not have gotten popular so quickly.

Similarly, for the other professions to thrive, they needed similar professionals.

To Ouyang Shuo, rather than worrying about other factors, he might as well focus on just running his territory well. Like now, even Bai Xiaosheng, who others had termed as the media giant, was shocked and honoured by Ouyang Shuo’s invitation.

In the end, in the game, Lords still stood at the top of the food chain.

Apart from that, there was another problem.

Be it online dramas, online shopping, or even superstar concerts, the game had to be stable for such events to thrive.

In a chaotic world, all of this was just a pipe dream.

In his last life, only during the 4th year of Gaia did similar businesses start to show themselves.

Chapter 598-Four Seas Bank Sneak Attack

Ouyang Shuo had invited Bai Xiaosheng over for the Quick Daily News to promote his plan. To Bai Xiaosheng, the chance to interview the mysterious Shanhai Alliance was also a breakthrough.

Both sides had their needs.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo was also ready to establish a newspaper. It would have the simple name of the Shanhai Times.

In contrast to the Quick Daily News, the Shanhai Times would aim at the natives. This was because the natives could not log onto the forums, and they could only read paper newspapers.

On this aspect, Bai Xiaosheng had a vast experience.

Ouyang Shuo's plan was to use Bai Xiaosheng as a bridge to dig up a group of newspaper industry talents.

……

Sun Xiaoyue had personally designed the Tianya Villa, and it replicated a real life holiday villa. She had created a truly exquisite piece of work. Additionally, pure white beaches stood a short distance before the villa.

The clear sea water was a light blue, ten times clearer than the sea in real life.

A line of deck chairs and umbrellas had been placed across the beach.

The first day of the alliance gathering was not the meeting. Instead, it was a day for the members and their families to enjoy the holiday spirit on the beach.

Ouyang Shuo followed his promise and did not look for any member to discuss alone.

……

2nd month, 26th day, morning, main hall of the villa.

The meeting place was escarole, the same as the meeting hall in real life.

As the alliance leader and the host, he sat at the head of the table. The five Lords sat to his left, while the guild readers sat to his right.

All the other members were not invited.

However, there was a special part to this meeting; the treasurer of the Four Seas Bank, Meng Zhida, sat in attendance next to Ouyang Shuo.

"What are your views on the one time achievement value exchange Gaia pushed out?" Right from the start, Ouyang Shuo asked an extremely odd question.

The members on both sides looked at one another.

"What a scam; it's not fair."

Talking about this matter, Gong Chengshi felt incredibly annoyed.

"It was practically designed for Di Chen, Chun Shenjun, and the others. There's definitely something fishy going on.” Xunlong Dianxue was always a person who believed in conspiracies.

"The pressure is huge!" Bai Hua had a helpless expression.

Weirdly, only the Lords spoke up.

As for the guild leaders, they had benefited from the matter, so they did not say anything.

Ouyang Shuo smiled; the reactions was as he had expected, "As they say, extremely dangerous moments are also a chance for a lucky break. Did any of you think about using this chance to do something?"

"What can we do? Watch on as they overtake us?"

Gong Chengshi was filled with anger and hatred. In real life, he was a person who hated the rich and the powerful.

"Wuyi, what thoughts do you have?" Bai Hua asked.

"As for the specific situation, I'll let Treasurer Meng Zhida explain it to you all!" Ouyang Shuo turned around, signalling to Meng Zhida that it was his turn.

The Four Seas Bank had branches everywhere. As a result, Bai Hua and the others were naturally familiar with him.

Meng Zhida got up and passed a set of documents to everyone.

"In your hands is the plan of how the Four Seas Bank will react to the achievement value exchange. The name of the plan is known as the Financial Nuclear Bomb."

Meng Zhida described the matter fluently, explaining the plan in a detailed manner.

The core of the plan was to use the Four Seas Bank as a platform to suck in the excess gold in the players' hands to be used in the building of territories of the Shanhai Alliance.

With that, a disadvantage had become an advantage.

When Gong Chengshi and the others heard these words, their eyes brightened up, and they were immediately energized.

"How can we ensure that players will be willing to save their money?" Bai Hua asked.

"What players are worried about is the gold they exchanged for depreciating. Hence, the high interest returns will create a huge temptation. This is also a massive precedence to the Financial Nuclear Bomb plan," Meng Zhida replied.

The various imperial cities all had banks.

However, the ancient bank system lacked interests, and they also needed to pay fees. Hence, players would rather store their funds in their storage bags than the system bank.

"Just this point is far from enough." Meng Zhida continued, “Any financial organization, if they want to attract loans, needs to have reputation and reserves. Shanhai City's unshakable position in the China region is the biggest reparation. Its monthly financial income is the best reserve."

Normal territory banks, even if they had high interests, would calm the hearts of players.

This was because of the environment of the wilderness and the war between territories.

After all, under normal circumstances, most territories might get occupied by others. In that case, wouldn’t they lose all their hard earned money?

Shanhai City was completely different.

With their current strength and status, no one would think that others could occupy Shanhai City.

This was the greatest trust.

Even Di Chen and the others did not have such a reputation.

Those seated did not have any objections toward this point.

"Shanhai City's monthly income should be far from this reserve fund, right?" Feng Qiuhuang doubted.

Being born in a prominent family, Feng Qiuhuang understood the banking industry and saw through the core of the problem.

In modern day banks, the reserves were normally at 10% but no lower than 6%. With the reputation of the Four Seas Bank, they would need around 10% before players would feel at ease. Which meant that every for one hundred thousand loans, the Four Seas Bank needed to have ten thousand in reserves.

Shanhai City's monthly income, after deducting military expenses, stood at one hundred thousand. As a result, Shanhai City could absorb one million in loans at most.

One million gold was not enough to allow the Shanhai Alliance to fly up.

To the large number of players, one million gold was far from enough. The main point would be that territory finances were calculated monthly, while players loved to save at the first few months of the year.

Conservatively speaking, the Four Seas Bank needed to prepare three million and above to obtain the trust of the players. Obviously, Ouyang Shuo did not possess such an amount.

"That's right." Meng Zhida did not avoid the problem and turned to his right and smiled at the guild leaders, “The problem of funds; I think that you guild leaders will be able to solve this problem for us. The gold in your hands is similarly depreciating, right?"

"If we do that, what benefits will we obtain?" Jianqi Leiyin was rather direct.

"Naturally." Meng Zhida was extremely confident, “The best cooperation is a win-win. Hence, the Four Seas Bank is willing to take out a portion of our shares to invite you all to invest and share the profits."

In truth, from the start, Ouyang Shuo had never expected to swallow all the funds on his own.

The funds in the players' hands reached a conservative estimate of more than one hundred million. With the appetite of the current Four Seas Bank, they could only take a portion of it at most.

As such, inviting allies to invest and tying their interests together was the best choice. Moreover, such a course of action would make the cake bigger.

Of course, the share power of the Four Seas Bank would still be firmly in his hands.

"Can you be a little more specific?"

As expected, Jianqi Leiyin and the others were exceedingly interested.

"1% of the shares of the Four Seas Bank will be sold for two hundred thousand gold. Each guild will have an upper limit of 5%. Of course, if in the future the number of shareholders increase, the shares will naturally shrink."

Siii!

Ouyang Shuo’s appetitie astonished Jianqi Leiyin and the others. Based on this, the value of the Four Seas Bank stood at a shocking twenty million.

Thinking about it, it did make sense.

If the Financial Nuclear Bomb plan truly worked, this valuation was a conservative one.

"Snow-War Rose is willing to invest one million." Before Jianqi Leiyin could even say anything, Xie Siyun did not hesitate to announce her position, as expected from one of Shanhai City's strongest allies.

"Qingfeng Pavillion, one million!" Moon Shines Over the River was alert and smart too.

"Thread, six hundred thousand!" If it was not for the perfume business expanding too quickly, Qing Sikou would have invested a million.

To Qing Sikou, Ouyang Shuo was her biggest benefactor.

It was Ouyang Shuo who single handedly gave Thread a way back.

"Shadow Alliance, six hundred thousand!"

"Yimeng Pavilion, six hundred thousand!"

Ji Yinghu and Mengyun Tunding basically shouted out at the same time. To them, obtaining shares of the Four Seas Bank was a chance to completely merge into the Shanhai Alliance, so how could they miss out on such an opportunity?

More importantly, no matter how one looked at it, it was a sure win deal.

The guilds would place their depreciating funds into the best bank in China.

The future was a bright patch.

When Jianqi Leiyin saw the situation, she could only laugh out awkwardly, as she was the last one. "Tingyu Floor, one million!"

Meng Zhida smiled.

With that, the Four Seas Bank had took out 24% of their shares and gathered 4.8 million gold.

"Thank you everyone for your generosity. This sum of money, Shanhai City will not touch a single cent, and it will all be the funds of Four Seas Bank." Ouyang Shuo stepped out at the appropriate time to clear the air.

When Jianqi Leiyin and the others heard these words, they felt more at ease. They were also in awe at his magnanimity. Even if Ouyang Shuo used one to two million, no one would say anything.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to toss aside small gains to make everyone trust him. Only with that could the alliance stay strong and not fall.

In truth, through the Four Seas Bank shares allocation, he had tied Shanhai City and the six guilds altogether.

And this was the greatest gain for Ouyang Shuo.

Chapter 599-Ouyang Shuo's Ambition

When Bai Hua and the other Lords saw the Four Seas Bank sweep in close to five million in such a short while, it would be a lie if they said they were not envious. Them Lords looked glamorous, but in truth, their coffers were exceedingly pitiful.

Even asking them to directly take out two hundred thousand gold would be pushing it.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo would not treat them badly. After all, using the Four Seas Bank to tie the interests of the entire alliance together had been his goal. He smiled and said, “Lords, why don’t all of you invest two hundred thousand in exchange for 1%? If you have financial difficulties, the two hundred thousand can be changed to low-interest loans, how about that?"

"Good idea!" Bai Hua said.

In the alliance, all members were equal, so Ouyang Shuo definitely could not just give shares to the Lords.

Following which, they needed to discuss how to adjust the organizational structure of the Four Seas Bank.

New shareholders joining in meant that the governing system of the Four Seas Bank had to change.

First, on a management level, they needed to set up an administrative council. This council would act as the highest level decision making organization, taking charge of all important decisions.

Ouyang Shuo personally took charge and took up the role of the director.

The eleven Lords in this meeting all became members of the board. Feng Qiuhuang and Xie Siyun, who were the representatives of the Lords and the guilds, were pushed up to deputy directors.

For the beginning structure of the bank, Ouyang Shuo did not follow the modern day bank structure and set up a Board of Directors. Instead, below the council was immediately the management level.

Meng Zhida would act as the head of the management level, and he would be in charge of the daily runnings of the Four Seas Bank.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also announced that Shanhai City would build an elite force to take charge of the safety of the various branches of the bank.

This force would be known as the Jinwu Guard.

Shanhai City would shoulder the military expenses for the Jinwu Guards.

"To develop the Four Seas Bank into the most influential bank in China and even the world, our setup must be big and our foresight must be far. Be it Lords or guild leaders, anyone who is willing to be friends with the Shanhai Alliance is welcome to join," Ouyang Shuo stated.

Since he decided to make the Four Seas Bank massive, Ouyang Shuo did not wish for the matter to be a joke.

After the meeting ended, the Four Seas Bank started up branches in the nine imperial cities to attract the spare cash of the adventure gamemode players.

As they say, a strong dragon cannot suppress a local snake.

For the Four Seas Bank to gain a stable footing in the various imperial cities, it needed to gain the support of the local guilds.

If not, they would be faced with many problems.

Till date, the influence of guilds, especially in the imperial cities, could not be overlooked anymore.

Ouyang Shuo had never looked down on others.

Within the alliance, Jingdou, Jianye, Luoyang, and Dali were temporarily alright. However, they lacked reliable allies in the other five.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to expand the friend circle of Shanhai City.

For the following people to invest into the Four Seas Bank, they did not need to be allies of the alliance. As long as they recognized the progress of the bank and agreed with the obligations, they could become partners.

Ouyang Shuo was eager to gain allies. Moreover, apart from the above considerations, he had to take into account the factor of Di Chen and the others. He believed that the moment the Four Seas Bank started running, Di Chen and the others would not sit still and watch on.

At the very least, Chun Shenjun’s Huitong Bank would be a competitor.

In terms of ability, Chun Shenjun had many professionals. In terms of reserves, the Yanhuang Alliance were not any worse than them.

In terms of reputation, they were only a little weaker than Shanhai City.

If the Four Seas Bank could not jump out of the fence which was the Shanhai Alliance, they would definitely lose in this competition.

"Quanzhou's Streamer, I can take a shot." Bai Hua said.

Before entering Earth Online, Bai Hua was a representative figure in the esports circle, and she had a vast circle of friends. The guild leader of Streamer Jun Yilao could be considered her old friend.

Bai Hua did not complete her words, as she was just trying to be careful and safe.

"Great!" Ouyang Shuo was delighted.

"I can try Chengdou's Laojun Temple," said Xie Siyun.

Similar to Bai Hua, Xie Siyun was also one of the pinnacle existences in the esports circle. In terms of influence, how could she be lower than Bai Hua?

"Nice!" Ouyang Shuo was on cloud nine.

If everything went well, there would be six out of the top 10 guilds investing in the Four Seas Bank. Guild players were the biggest weakness of Di Chen and the others.

The remaining Jianqi Zongheng, Eighteen Horsemen of Yanyun, and Jin Yi Wei were all loyal to the Yanhuang Alliance. Even if they wanted to invest, Ouyang Shuo would not allow it.

All that remained was the neutral Blood Evil Mercenary Guild.

As the top guild, it definitely had the ability to exclude itself. Be it Ouyang Shuo's good intentions or Di Chen's temptations, he had rejected it all.

However, Ouyang Shuo was not prepared to let him go this time.

"On the side of Blood Evil Mercenary Guild, I have confidence." Ouyang Shuo smiled and announced this shocking news.

"Really?"

Xie Siyun and the others were astonished. Everyone knew that Blood Romance was famous for being stubborn. The moment he decided on something, there was no way to change his mind.

"I've never spoken false words," Ouyang Shuo replied.

Hearing this, the others did not ask any more.

Bai Hua and some of the others had been in contact with Ouyang Shuo for a long while. As a result, they could roughly feel that he still had many trump cards in his hands.

For example, Xie Siyun still could not understand how Ouyang Shuo knew of the Rattlesnake Mercenary Group, and how he had quietly digested them.

"Wuyi's body is covered with a mysterious veil."

Bai Hua had spoken such words during the first gathering.

"Apart from the guilds, should we consider recruiting some Lords?" Feng Qiuhuang asked. She first thought about the members of her branch alliance.

One had to mention that the strategic eyesight of Feng Qiuhuang was a little stronger.

"Naturally we can." Ouyang Shuo replied without any hesitation.

In truth, the moment the Four Seas Bank started running, it could absorb almost tens of millions of reserves. With the six territories of Shanhai Alliance, they could not completely finish it.

One must know that these reserves all needed interest payment. If they just placed the money in the vaults of the bank, it would be a massive waste. To Shanhai City, it would be a burden instead.

Hence, a successful bank could obtain savings, while loaning money out at high interest rates.

Only with that could the bank use the price difference to profit.

"Before which, the territories that are close to us are all the ones we need to target. Apart from the territorial alliances you have all created, you can choose a few good ones to attract." Ouyang Shuo explained.

Normally, the people who wanted to borrow money were commoner Lords.

In this round of exchange, they were the biggest victims. One must know that the moment the Four Seas Bank reached out, they would definitely receive the recognition of these Lords.

Ouyang Shuo's plan was slowly becoming clear. Bai Hua could not help but remark in awe, “Wuyi, you're playing a big round of chess!"

"It's not me, it's us." Ouyang Shuo corrected.

"Haha!"

Laughter broke out through the entire meeting room.

At that moment, everyone felt more and more confident about the future of Shanhai Alliance.

The dark clouds that had gathered in the 2nd year were all swept clear.

One could foresee that once the Four Seas Bank truly started running, they would attract a massive amount of funds. At that time, the territories would not need to worry about low-interest loans.

With the help of such a large sum of funds, the various territories would definitely improve a level.

This was also one of Ouyang Shuo's goals.

However, Ouyang Shuo's current goal was not limited to that.

Just like Bai Hua had remarked, Ouyang Shuo was using the Four Seas Bank as a chessboard to play a round of chess. However, this game of chess far exceeded the knowledge of Bai Hua and the others.

As the world's best Lord, Ouyang Shuo's foresight had planned till ten years later.

To the federation, Ouyang Shuo's rise in the game was a total anomaly. Meanwhile, Gaia was naturally delighted.

However, among the higher ups of the federation, not everyone liked this dark horse. For example, Di Chen and the others, and the families behind them. None of them had a good feeling toward Ouyang Shuo.

In the end, Gaia's wishes were like the decrees from god. However, when they reached planet Hope, the real speaking rights were still in the hands of the federation.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo could not foresee whether they would pull some tricks if his achievements far exceeded what the federation could accept. He did not know if they would try to directly kick him out.

On this point, the current Ouyang Shuo was powerless.

As a person who had reincarnated, he needed to plan ahead.

The Four Seas Bank was undoubtedly a great chance. In other words, Gaia's achievement value exchange had given Ouyang Shuo a good chance to grab.

Bai Hua and the others definitely had not thought about this point.

Ouyang Shuo’s end goal was to use the Four Seas Bank to obtain funds and tie in as many adventure gamemode players to Shanhai City.

Both would prosper together or fall together.

The moment Shanhai City was damaged, a large portion of the China players would be hurt; this was something the federation could not afford to allow.

In that case, the federation would have to be wary against Ouyang Shuo, and they would not dare to use some behind the back schemes. As for outright competition, Ouyang Shuo was never afraid of that.

Chapter 600-Crazy Money

After dealing with the matters regarding the Four Seas Bank, this Shanhai Alliance gathering could be called half-completed.

Following which, they needed to discuss the cooperations between the various guilds and territories.

The main person Ouyang Shuo wanted to discuss matters with was Bai Hua. Since their territories were connected, they needed to honestly share their plans for the Gaia 3rd year.

Ouyang Shuo’s end goal was to pull Consonance City into the Shanhai City system in a logical and rational way.

On Bai Hua’s part, there was actually not much of a decision to make.

Mulan Yue becoming the Zhen An Prefecture Governor was already the strongest signal Ouyang Shuo had sent out. If she merged into Shanhai City, she would only be put to bigger use; there was no chance of getting buried.

In terms of power and status, the current Mulan Yue was comparable to Gong Chengshi and the others, and not a bit weaker.

Of course, all of this would have to wait till the latter half of the year before they could settle it.

During the alliance gathering, Ouyang Shuo had already announced the resting plan of Shanhai City and the voyaging expedition.

This also meant that during the 1st half of the 3rd year, Ouyang Shuo might not have the time to deal with alliance matters. On this point, Feng Qiuhuang and the others had to correctly evaluate their situations.

Ouyang Shuo meant that if they wanted to do anything, they had to prepare themselves for Shanhai City not having their backs. They must be confident of handling the issues themselves. If not, there might not be anyone there to save them.

The next day, good news arrived successively.

Both Streamer and Laojun Temple gave eager replies toward the invitations from Bai Hua and Xie Siyun.

Both of them were invited over to Tianya Villa as guests.

That afternoon, they completed the shareholder matter regarding the Four Seas Bank.

Streamer and Laogun Temple each invested six hundred thousand gold for 3% of the Four Seas Bank. Both guilds would also take up the role of protectors of the banks in Quanzhou and Chengdou.

Ouyang Shuo decided to strike when the iron was hot. Since there was a bit of time, he purposely made a visit to Xianyang.

The headquarters of the Blood Evil Mercenary Group was in Xianyang.

Since Ouyang Shuo was personally visiting, even if they were the best guild in China, they would not dare to treat him lightly. Strangely, Ouyang Shuo only spent less than two hours there before taking his leave.

When he left, he had already obtained one million gold in investments.

Blood Romance was expectedly generous when he took action and also incredibly decisive. The moment he decided on a matter, he would not drag things on.

The secret that Ouyang Shuo used to persuade Blood Romance was actually really simple.

During the system auction, the War Blood Set that Blood Romance had purchased only included the armor and the boots. As such, to gather the full set would be an extremely difficult matter.

Coincidentally, the person who obtained the most core equipment of the set - the weapon Red Blood Sword, had posted his quest on the forums.

The return that Ouyang Shuo gave Blood Romance was the quest clues regarding the Red Blood Sword.

This clue was invaluable to Blood Romance, and it was the same as Ouyang Shuo doing him a massive favour. Although he was a person with a weird personality, he was still a righteous warrior.

He agreed to the demands of Ouyang Shuo without any hesitation.

However, the Blood Evil Mercenary guild would remain neutral.

Ouyang Shuo was not one to force him.

He believed that with this as a starting point, both sides could have more chances of working together.

Once again, he returned to the Tianya Villa. At this time, Ouyang Shuo allowed Bai Xiaosheng to use the Quick Daily News platform to release a portion of the plan regarding the Four Seas Bank.

After obtaining such breaking news, Bai Xiaosheng was naturally delighted, and he felt that this trip was completely worth it.

The following part of the alliance gathering was a completel holiday.

People who had something on could leave early.

Those who did not could stay until the eve of the chinese new year.

Xie Siyun even had the intention to just spend the chinese new year in the villa. After all, guild leaders like her did not need to hold any worship ceremonies.

Bai Xiaosheng knew his place, so he left after obtaining the news.

The next day, 1st month, 29th day, a piece of news was posted on the front page, front line of the Quick Daily News.

Snow-War Rose, Qingfeng Pavillion, Blood Evil Mercenary Guild, and other guilds, for a total of nine guilds; Consonance City, Fallen Phoenix City, and five other territories; all of these parties had invested into the Four Seas Bank. The bank was now officially open to the public.

The reserves at the starting stage had reached a total of six million gold.

The moment this news spread out, it shook the world.

Three points together allowed the players to relax and trust this bank: the Shanhai Alliance, especially the reputation of Shanhai City, and nine elite guilds coming together to raise such a massive sum.

All of a sudden, people started to relentlessly search for and ask about news regarding the opening hours of the Four Seas Bank.

Ouyang Shuo did not make them wait for long.

In truth, the branches of the Four Seas Bank in the nine imperial cities had already been prepared under the management of Meng Zhida. Once the reserves reached the required amount, they could start business.

Xie Siyun and the other guild leaders knew what to do.

On the 28th day, the six million gold was all in position, stored in the headquarters of the Four Seas Bank.

Ouyang Shuo had also purposely taken a photo of the vault and sent it to Bai Xiaosheng. On the news article, a mountain of gold blinded the eyes of the players.

Ouyang Shuo had also specifically instructed the city protection division to increase the surveillance of the vault. He had no way to ensure that people would not grow greedy because of the massiv sum of gold.

29th day, afternoon, the branches in the nine imperial cities opened up one by one. Jianqi Leiyin, Blood Romance, and the others all appeared in their local imperial cities to help cut the ribbons.

Players in a rush to store their money in the bank lined up all over the streets.

As the Jinwu Guards were still in the process of construction, Ouyang Shuo could only send the Guards Legion. He arranged for one thousand guards to each imperial city to maintain order.

The local scene formed a people mountain, people sea, a truly joyous atmosphere.

Meanwhile, the Divine Martial Guards directly defended the vaults of the banks.

What about Ouyang Shuo?

He stayed in Tianya Villa, but he still paid attention to the proceedings from far away.

That night, the first batch of savings was tabulated.

Upon looking at the simple summary, Ouyang Shuo’s mouth gaped open.

In just one afternoon, the nine branches had sucked in six million gold.

When Bai Hua and the others received the news, they were delighted and cheered out.

This start opened up for the rise of the Four Seas Bank.

The successive good news made Bai Hua and the others feel restless, and they all left. They had two missions. Firstly, they needed to check how much their territory had loaned and could loan.

The low-interest loans of the Four Seas Bank was not more the merrier.

If the territory could not use the loans to create profits and instead just paid interest, it would result in a massive financial burden to the territory.

Hence, even directors of the committee like Bai Hua and the others needed to go through a strict vetting process before they could obtain a large loan.

Firstly, they needed to submit a report of the territory finances.

The managing team with Meng Zhida at the helm would audit. After an evaluation, they would confirm which territory had the ability to take more loans.

As for the use of the loans, the bank also set strict restrictions.

Only then could it prevent the various territories from messing up.

Ouyang Shuo truly did not want to see a territory go bankrupt because they were unable to pay for loans.

With the position of the Shanhai Alliance in the China region, they would not need to worry of people who ate the heart of bears and had the courage of leopards to not pay up.

However, every loan needed collateral.

Moreover, the contracts were Gaia verified and had legal implications.

Hence, even if Di Chen and the others tried to use a third party to obtain loans, they could not use any underhanded methods.

Of course, at the current stage, they also did not have such a chance.

Their second mission was to evaluate all their branch alliance allies. Only the trustable ones could obtain loans.

Normal allies temporarily could not take loans.

With these precautions, it would be impossible for Di Chen and the others to mess things up.

……

Gaia 3rd year, 1st month, 30th day, 28th day of the lunar calendar.

There were two more days left till the most important new years eve.

Weirdly, a large number of adventure gamemode players did not think about buying new year goodies on this day. Instead, they surged to the Four Seas Bank.

They quickly stored their funds that they had bore the pain to exchange for. This was the most important matter at hand. If not, if they just placed the gold in their storage bags, it would only depreciate every day.

The smart chinese naturally could understand this.

Compared to last afternoon, thanks to the power of word of mouth, the number of players that went to the banks doubled.

When he received the news, Ouyang Shuo felt both delighted and worried.

Helplessly, he could only instruct the recently appointed Huo Qubing to increase the number of men in the various imperial cities.

This Guards Legion major general definitely did not expect his first mission would be to maintain order.

If one said that out loud, no one would believe it.

However, it was an order from the Lord, so Huo Qubing did not dare to not follow it.

After a day, the Four Seas Bank had once again swept up a large sum of gold, this time fifteen million.

Such a result made Chun Shenjun and the others look on in envy. They had never expected the Shanhai City to actually pull such a stunt a day before the new years eve.

The other Lords in the wilderness had a completely different attitude, especially the commoner Lords. Now, these Lords had started to try and get closer to the members of the Shanhai Alliance.

Their motive was naturally to obtain a loan.

Ouyang Shuo had an ambiguous reaction to this.

He did not agree, but he did not reject them either. He gave the same reply to all who asked - wait till after the chinese new year to discuss.

Ouyang Shuo did this to whet their appetites.

As they said, one would only cherish the things that were difficult to obtain.

People would not cherish things that were easily obtainable.

If he did not let these Lords see the preciousness of the loans, how could he make them willingly agree to the terms of the Four Seas Bank?

Ouyang Shuo had let out the word that for one to apply for a loan, they needed to open their territories to the Four Seas Bank, allowing them to open up branches and invest in the local specialties.

These terms were far more stringent than those for the allied territories.

The Four Seas Bank had become an important tool for Ouyang Shuo to expand his influence in the wilderness.

Chapter 601-The Late Reward Ceremony

Jingchu Province, Pill Sun City.

The sudden rise of the Four Seas Bank had once again made Di Chen and the others group together.

"Really, they do not even let people go past the new year at ease," someone could not help but grumble.

It was not often that the six members of the Yanhuang Alliance would gather together.

"Guys, what views do you have regarding the Four Seas Bank operation?" As the host, Chun Shenjun had decided to chair the proceedings.

When Di Chen saw the situation, he could not help but frown. In the end, he did not say anything. The current situation needed the alliance to work together, so Di Chen did not want to burn the bridge with Chun Shenjun.

One had to say that Di Chen’s growth was truly astounding.

"What to do? In my view, why don’t we hire someone to destroy those banks." Sha Pojun gritted his teeth. After the Battle of Mobei, Sha Pojun was stuck in such a tough situation because of Ouyang Shuo. As a result, he hated Ouyang Shuo to the core.

"Do not be foolish!" Di Chen frowned, “The Four Seas Bank branches are set up in the imperial cities. As such, they have the protection of the imperial court. Moreover, soldiers also guard the banks. We might end up getting ourselves into trouble without achieving anything."

"Hen!"

There was no need to verbalize such facts. After all, even Sha Pojun knew that he had only spoken such words in the heat of the moment.

After the Battle of Mobei ended, Sha Pojun's position in the alliance was not even comparable to Wandering Magic. Even people within his own family were displeased with him being the representative.

As a result, Sha Pojun did not dare to rebut Di Chen's scolding. If his family wanted to regain a footing in the game, he needed to rely on Di Chen's family.

"The rise of the Four Seas Bank is already something we cannot stop. The meeting today is to come up with a plan to attract the gold from players and not allow the Shanhai Alliance to take it all." Di Chen set the tone of the meeting.

"Well said!" Zhan Lang was the first to voice his support.

"On this aspect, the Huitong Bank is willing to help." Chun Shenjun had finally found a chance, so he laughed as he spoke.

In truth, after learning that the Four Seas Bank had started to act, Chun Shenjun was first astonished but then delighted. He had realized that a chance for him to increase his influence in the alliance had arrived.

Amongst the Lords in the Yanhuang Alliance, the Huitong Bank of the Pill Sun City was the biggest and had the most professionals. Hence, it had the best chance of facing off against the Four Seas Bank.

Although Di Chen was not willing, he could not think of a retort.

"I agree!"

Unexpectedly, the first person to show support was Xiong Ba.

Astonishment appeared in Di Chen’s eyes when he heard Xiong Ba voice his support. Even Zhan Lang looked toward Xiong Ba in surprise.

On the contrary, after Xiong Ba spoke up, his expression remained exceedingly normal and natural. It was like he was completely unaware of the kind of wave his words had caused in the alliance.

"Since when did Xiong Ba actually start to walk with Chun Shenjun again?"

This was the doubt in the hearts of Di Chen and the others.

They could not help but think back to the Six Tyrants of Handan in the beginning. At that time, Chun Shenjun had decided to break away under the urgings of Xiong Ba.

Things had changed in unexpected manners.

Due to personal interests, the people who had worked together to rebuild the Yanhuang Alliance had slowly broken away. In order to protect Wandering Magic, Xiong Ba had even made enemies with Chun Shenjun.

Who would have expected Xiong Ba to be such a formidable person.

Everything was based on self-interest. As long as he thought that working with Chun Shenjun would benefit him, he did not mind putting aside their grievances.

After a series of ups and downs, the current Chun Shenjun had become an experienced person, as he slowly matured.

Naturally, a renewed cooperation between the two fell into place.

With Xiong Ba expressing his agreement, Di Chen knew that he could not do anything, so he just admitted defeat, “I also agree."

Chun Shenjun gave out a slight smile.

"Since that's the case, let's take about the shareholder distribution!" Zhan Lang said.

"Based on the news that I received, 1% of shares of the Four Seas Bank is worth two hundred thousand gold. Since we need to face off against them, we cannot reduce the price. Let's just use that as the base," Chun Shenjun stated.

"No!"

Di Chen, Zhan Lang, and the others refused this proposition with no hesitation.

"Why not?" Chun Shenjun did not want to back down.

"For the Four Seas Bank to receive such a valuation, there were unique reasons." Di Chen was amused by Chun Shenjun's massive appetite, “Firstly, in terms of scale, it has branches in many territories, and it is straight up the biggest bank in China. Shanhai City has, from the start till now, invested close to a million gold into the bank. Their monthly financial income was all invested into the Four Seas Bank. Just that point alone, can the Huitong Bank do the same?"

"Based on what I know, doesn’t the Huitong Bank only service Pill Sun City? The savings it has attracted has all been squeezed dry by Pill Sun City. The current Huitong Bank is just an empty shell." Di Chen continued.

"You!" Chun Shenjun's embarrassment turned into anger as he was the target of these words.

However, doubt also filled his heart.

Chun Shenjun had not expected Di Chen to actually possess such a clear gauge of the Four Seas Bank.

The legendary intel organization Emperor Wind truly had a vast influence.

"Secondly," Di Chen did not care and directly added, “The Four Seas Bank being able to gain the recognition of players is due to the reputation of Shanhai City. Hence, the guild leaders would willingly take out their money. For the Huitong Bank to fight them, we must make use of the resources and reputation of our Yanhuang Alliance."

"Brother Di Chen is right."

This time, Zhan Lang resolutely stood on Di Chen’s side. Chun Shenjun appetite was truly too huge.

"Then what would you say the value is?" Chun Shenjun was a merchant and bargaining was basically an ingrained part of his being. Originally, he did not have much hopes of his proposal succeeding.

He had made such a proposition to raise the valuation of the bank.

"Fifty thousand gold and Pill Sun City cannot hold the majority." Di Chen tossed out his idea.

"Are you kidding?"

Chun Shenjun was like a cat who had its tail stepped on, as he suddenly jumped up.

"I'm serious!" Di Chen was exceedingly calm.

"Since that's the case, why not just leave. Fifty thousand? Are you stupid!" Chun Shenjun's attitude did not show even a hint of weakness.

"Going against the Four Seas Bank, we do not have to depend on the Huitong Bank."

This was the biggest chip in his hand.

As matters developed to this point, it basically turned into a battle between Di Chen and Chun Shenjun.

Zhan Lang and the others obviously treated Di Chen as their leader.

Even Xiong Ba did not want to see Chun Shenjun rip them off, so he rationally kept silent.

"Then how? The Huitong Bank is the hard work of my family. I cannot let you all take it for nothing." Chun Shenjun was resolutely denying Di Chen’s idea moments ago, but now he wanted to play the emotion card.

"Pill Sun City has to give up control. As for shares, we can add another ten thousand; that's my limit. Whether or not it works, say the word." Di Chen pushed Chun Shenjun to a corner.

Zhan Lang and the others did not say anything. At this moment, it was a silent agreement.

When Chun Shenjun saw their lack of reaction, he could only helplessly accept the matter. In the end, he unwilling said, “But Pill Sun City has to be the biggest shareholder. Otherwise, I cannot answer to my family."

"Okay!"

"Raise the valuation by twenty thousand." Chun Shenjun still did not want to give up.

"Do not go too far." Di Chen's patience was approaching its limit.

As a representative of the Di Family, Di Chen did not like this kind of market bargaining antics.

"Then add ten thousand more, that is my bottom line." Chun Shenjun was extremely shameless. Different from Di Chen, merchants were willing to lose face for their interests.

When Di Chen heard these words, he exchanged glances with Zhan Lang and the others. Then he helplessly said, “Okay, then 1% for seventy thousand. However, our funds must become the reserves of the bank."

"That's natural."

After the two sides went head to head in a war of words, they finally came to an agreement.

"Should we learn from the Four Seas Bank to attract guilds to invest?" Zhan Lang asked.

"But their valuation must be two hundred thousand for 1%." Chun Shenjun knew exactly what was going on.

This time, Di Chen and the others were shockingly in unison; no one disagreed.

If these aristocratic family sons did not plan some schemes or underhanded methods, how could they display their abilities? As for how to keep it a secret such that the guild heads would not notice, each one of them had their own ways.

Next, they needed to decide the exact shareholder distribution.

The six Lords naturally could not have equal portions. Amongst the alliance, there was also a difference in status.

Chun Shenjun would hold 18% as the boss of the bank, Di Chen 15%, Zhan Lang and Xiong Ba 12% each, while Sha Pojun and Wandering Magic would have 10% each.

The remaining 23% was left for the guilds to cooperate with Yanhuang Alliance.

With that, the Huitong Bank was able to gather 8.73 million gold right away, close to three million more than what the Four Seas Bank had gathered.

The reason they could gather so much was because Chun Shenjun had taken out more than 80% of the shares. One must know that Shanhai City still controlled 60% of the shares.

The next day, the Huitong Bank announced through the Quick Daily News that it was opened to the public. The reserves of the bank had reached an exaggerated ten million.

With that, they could attract the interests of players.

The overall reputation of the Yanhuang Alliance placed the players at ease.

However, for Huitong Bank to start running in the nine imperial cities, they would still need to wait till after the Chinese New Year. Chun Shenjun and the others had not planned for the future like Ouyang Shuo.

These two banks would definitely compete in a fierce battle after the New Year.

On the day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, Ouyang Shuo ended his break and returned to Shanhai City.

Toward the Huitong Bank, Ouyang Shuo was unexpectedly candid.

"Let them come!"

These were the exact words Ouyang Shuo had said to Xie Siyun and the others.

It was time for these two alliances to have a head on fight.

Ouyang Shuo's current might had undoubtedly reached a level that calmed down the hearts of others.

As for the specific matters of the Four Seas Bank, Meng Zhida would naturally deal with it. After the new year, Meng Zhida was still planning to invite elite talents of the financial circle to work at the Four Seas Bank.

Modernizing operations and recruiting talents formed the current ideology of the Four Seas Bank.

Feng Qiuhuang and the others also had the authority to recommend economists to the Four Seas Bank.

Ouyang Shuo had no intentions of keeping total control over the Four Seas Bank. He wanted to make the cake big, but before that, he needed to have the ability to eat the big cake.

The Ouyang Shuo that had just reincarnated definitely could not compare to the current him. Around him, with himself as the core, he had formed a strong alliance with common interests.

Be in historical talents like Xiao He or Lords like Xunlong Dianxue, they were all chess pieces in his hands.

Now, Ouyang Shuo already had a slight recognition of his position.

Only by tying the people he needed onto his war chariot and forming a common goal and benefit could he and his allies hold up in the battle against the Yanhuang Alliance.

Each person and power was a chess pieces on the chess board. By uniting them, one could plan the chess game, either sacrificing pieces or killing the enemy in the chess game.

Only then would Di Chen be filled with doubt when he wanted to deal with the Four Seas Bank.

……

Moments after he returned, Ouyang Shuo gave an imperial edict to reward the various generals.

Since they had established the military reward system, Ouyang Shuo should have given the generals rewards after the Battle of Taiping Country had ended. However, the military reorganization had gotten in the way back then.

Right when it almost reached completion, the Battle of Mobei happened. Hence, the matter had dragged on till today.

Making use of time before the Chinese New Year, Ouyang Shuo fulfilled his promise.

Amongst the generals, Baiqi held the title of number one general in the army. Following closely behind him were Han Xin, Sun Bin, and Huo Qubing, the Great Generals.

Apart from the four grade 1 generals, next would be the three grade 3 generals.

There were currently no grade 2 generals.

The imperial decree promoted Shi Wanshui to Anxi General, Zhang Han to Anbei General, and Di Qing to An Dong General.

Out of the four An Generals, only the position of Annan General remained empty.

Next would be the grade 4 generals.

The imperial decree promoted Er'Lai, Fan Lihua, Luo Shixin, and Wei Zhang to the east, south, west, and north Zhonglang Generals, while Mu Guiying, Cao Gui, and Bai Li Shi all became grade 4 generals.

A level lower were the grade 5 generals.

Expectedly, any general who became a major general became a grade 5 general. Even the recently joined Zhao Ponu and Zhao She were promoted.

Apart from general titles, military affairs also granted the soldiers their titles and ranks based on their contributions.

A large batch of old generals were able to obtain the highest military title for their role.

Apart from titles, Ouyang Shuo also announced that everyone would receive a month’s worth of salary as a reward.

Even the surrendered Taiping Country soldiers obtained the same treatment.

All of a sudden, the military sentiments reached a high level.

At the same time, Ouyang Shuo's prestige in the military reached an all-time high.

Chapter 602-The Wedding

Yet another Chinese New Year’s Eve; it was familiar, yet not so.

The Nian Beast Event occured again, but it failed to catch Ouyang Shuo’s interested.

On the other hand, the red packet snatching event welcomed a peak. As expected, Bing'er once again obtained massive gains. This time, she had earned a rare accessory to the envy of everyone around her.

Moon Pendant (Dark Gold): 25% increase in cultivation speed, 5% increase in primordial energy forming speed.

Even Ouyang Shuo felt envious when he saw the description.

Amongst the bustle, there was a slight difference.

The talent pool in Shanhai City had grown larger and larger.

As the Chinese New Year approached, the civil servants and generals had all rushed back to Shanhai City. Firstly, they needed to continue the tradition of spending the Spring Festival with Ouyang Shuo. Secondly, the wedding of the Lord.

Since that was the case, they naturally could not come empty-handed.

Apart from Pei Mo, who needed to defend Withered Flower Stronghold, the other seven governors all managed to arrive. They brought the local specialties of their prefectures, such as the strange rock of Zhaoqing Prefecture and the sandalwood from Leizhou.

Ouyang Shuo had made his stance for the wedding clear. The officials should not fight with one another to specially pick up precious jewels and treasures from the people to show their respect and worship of the Lord.

Running their territories well was the best gift that they could give him.

After the feast at the Lord's Manor, the officials and generals went back to their residences to accompany their families.

Since the Aristocratic Families Rising information piece, the wilderness had started to change. Firstly, the families of the historical people had started to appear by their sides.

The current Xiao He, Du Ruhui, Luo Shixin, and others were no longer alone, and their families had arrived at their residences.

It was unavoidable. Whether they acted proactively or not, Xiao He and the others would be swept into more fights for interests. Similarly, as their families had entered the picture, these officials and generals had more of a sense of humanity.

The wilderness had started to become more and more real.

Numerous people and interests were intertwined in Shanhai City. Even Ouyang Shuo as the Lord could feel that his territory was becoming more unfamiliar as it grew in prosperity.

Some people said that if one stood too high and looked down, the crown of the tree would cover everything else.

Ouyang Shuo now was standing at such a height over the imperial city. As he looked out at the entire territory, he only saw the prosperous aspects.

But if one looked carefully, he could only see blurry and unfamiliar faces.

Based on olden rules, on the day before the wedding, Song Jia would stay at the Song Family manor, and they could only meet during the wedding. Meanwhile, Bing'er and Qing'er accompanied Ouyang Shuo.

Even Cui Yingyu went home to spend the new year after the Cui Family moved over to Shanhai City. The entire Nanjiang Governor-General Manor seemed to bustle with excitement, but in his eyes, it looked exceedingly cold.

"In the end, I am still left with my sisters?"

On this night, Ouyang Shuo looked up into the sky; his eyes contained an indescribable loneliness. At this moment, he suddenly felt a fear. A fear of time slipping away.

Time passed year after year. Ouyang Shuo would grow older and more worn out, and Bing'er would also grow older. He feared a certain matter; he feared that when she grew up into a teen, she might not rely on him as much.

Maybe at that time, he would only have the ice cold throne and the similarly cold Chixiao Sword by his side.

Seemingly sensing his thoughts, something spread into his mind.

Ouyang Shuo felt delighted. With a shining black light, the Tianmo Spear that had slept for close to three months suddenly appeared in his hands. Now, it appeared darker and more mysterious.

Upon closer inspection, it actually possessed a magical power that attracted one's attention to it.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he immediately checked out its stats.

Name: Tianmo Spear (High Grade God Weapon)

Hardness: 90

Sharpness:88

Toughness: 75

Specialty: Bloodthirst (Chance to absorb the blood of enemy to evolve)

Killing Move: Blood Domination (Inject the aura of the devil to give an all out blow. With the might of an overlord, the enemy will definitely die. Cooldown Time: one month.)

Evaluation: After receiving the nourishment of the blood essence of the devil, this weapon has mutated into a high grade god weapon. Drop your blood onto the Tianmo Spear to claim it, untradeable, cannot be dropped, can be evolved.)

After completely digesting the devil blood essence, the Tianmo Spear had evolved as expected. Its stats had risen greatly and a killing move was also born.

The description of ‘the enemy will definitely die’ was not actually a 100% matter. If the enemy was strong enough or used some methods, they could escape death.

If not, just with that, wouldn’t Ouyang Shuo be invincible? Apart from that, the one month cooldown period was headache inducing.

However, one point attracted his attention. This was the first time he saw the grade description of high grade god weapon.

Even the Chixiao Sword with the red dragon spirit did not have such a description.

With that, one could see that the Tianmo Spear was truly a pinnacle existence amongst god weapons.

"Long time no see buddy!"

Ouyang Shuo grasped the Tianmo Spear and muttered.

Hearing his words, the Tianmo Spear emitted a black light.

"Haha, good!"

Ouyang Shuo seemed to understand what it was saying. He was in a great mood, so he walked into the patio and started training in the Yang Family Spear Technique.

The moon hung high overhead, while the night sky was like water. Across the pitch black sky, fireworks rose up. Shanhai City was still bustling with the sounds of fireworks.

Meanwhile, the patio was completely silent.

Ouyang Shuo wielded the Tianmo Spear. Occasionally, rustling sounds would appear. In his hand, the spear was like a sentient being; the spear and the man were one.

Unknowingly, the Yang Family Spear Technique, Bajiquan, and the Halberd Technique he learned in his last life had merged into one, never to separate again.

Ouyang Shuo had unknowingly lost control of himself, as he continued to flourish his spear. As time went on, the sounds of the spear became even more hurried.

A full hour later, he finally stopped, and a smile appeared on his face.

In his ears, a system notification sounded out.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for entering a comprehension state and achieving the level of one with the spear. Player has mastered the spear technique through comprehension, forming a unique spear technique. Please name it!"

"Tianmo Spear Code!" Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate.

Only the Tiamo Spear could use this spear technique.

Undeniably, this Tianmo Spear Code was the highest level god grade technique. After the upgrade, Ouyang Shuo's mastery level did not rise. Instead, it fell back to the perform with ease level.

At this very moment, another system notification sounded out.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, spear technique mastered, officially promoted to spear grandmaster. Player awarded two thousand merit points and fifty thousand reputation points.”

Unknowingly, Ouyang Shuo's spear technique had reached such a high level.

Regretfully, he was not the first spear grandmaster. If not, he would have obtained the title of Home of Spearmanship.

After a night of fun and music, the bustling New Year's Eve was close to its end.

The 1st day of the new year was the heaven worshiping ceremony as usual.

Shanhai City's ceremony this year was even grander, larger, and more complicated.

It continued all the way till noon.

From the afternoon onward, it truly entered the time of the wedding.

The entire Shanhai City was decorated anew.

Large red patterns signifying happiness were hung across the streets and alleys. Drum or clock towers stood at each corner of the intersecting streets. Moreover, each tower had a stage.

All the troupes in the city were booked by the Nanjiang Governor-General House.

The incessant rehearsal notices spread out from all the stages, bustling with excitement.

All the people in the city were paying attention to this unparalleled wedding.

From the Song Manor to the imperial city, the entire street was covered in a red carpet, and the Guards Legion soldiers lined up at its side.

Not only that, the entire Shanhai City was closely guarded by both the city protection division and the Guards Legion. The Shanhai Guards and the Black Snake Guards were also on high alert in the shadows.

They aimed to ensure that the wedding tomorrow would have no disturbances.

As happiness arrived, the skies were naturally clear and beautiful.

Since yesterday, it was bright and sunny. The snow in the city had started to dissolve into small streams that flowed into the drains. When it reached the afternoon of the new year, there was no longer any sign of white.

The white city was drowned in a festive red.

In the afternoon, many people who came to watch the wedding arrived.

The first to arrive were the allies of Shanhai City.

Bai Hua, Feng Qiuhuang, Xunlong Dianxue, Sie Xiyun, Jianqi Leiyin, and the others had once again gathered in Shanhai City.

Each one of them brought rich gifts.

"Consonance City Bai Hua brings high grade agate beads."

……

"Xunlong City Xunlong Dianxue brings a string of East China Sea Pearls."

……

"Yingyu Floor Jianqi Leiyin brings a catty of premium incense."

……

The sounds of people reporting their gifts filled the ears.

Zisu had especially chosen a side hall to store these gifts.

The people who came on the first day were all the close friends of Ouyang Shuo.

On the second day, the true auspicious day, many people came over to send their congratulations.

The most important one was the imperial courts.

Xianyang, Luoyang, Dali, and Quanzhou; these four imperial cities all sent envoys to congratulate the Lianzhou Lord.

Only Ouyang Shuo could receive such a special honor; there would be no second person.

Dali and Quanzhou already had a close relationship with Shanhai City. The role of Nanjiang Governor-General was granted to him by these two imperial courts.

As for Xianyang and Luoyang, it was another mystery.

In truth, the part that other people envied were the envoys of these two imperial courts. Not because of other reasons, just that the owners of these imperial cities were Qin Shihuang and the Hanwu Emperor.

To be able to gain their recognition was highly difficult.

The reason behind all of this was Shanhai City’s possession of a large number of Qin and Han famous generals and officials.

Related to Qin Country, they had the likes of Wei Yang, Bai Qi, Wei Ran, Zhang Han, Wei Zhang, Jing Jian, and Bai Li Shi; related to the Han Dyansty they had the likes of Xiao He, Han Xin, Huo Qubing, Xia Houying, Huo Guang, and Zhao Ponu. Adding the people of these two periods together, it took up more than a third of the historical people in Shanhai City.

These two groups formed the core pillars of Shanhai City.

Shen Buhai had reported to Ouyang Shuo to be wary against them in case they truly form an alliance. If that happened, it would become a cancerous problem.

Regarding this matter, Ouyang Shuo could only quietly monitor the situation.

Four imperial courts sent imperial decrees to grant Song Jia the title of 1st grade lady.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, the wives of the Lord were titled Lady. Her position was the same as an empress of the future dynasties.

Song Jia receiving this title was similar to Ouyang Shuo getting the title of Lianzhou Lord.

Just that line was invaluable.

Regarding the late wedding with Song Jia, apart from the private reasons he had explained to her, there were also political considerations. He needed to establish her position in the territory and obtain the protection of the people.

For her to obtain this title far exceeded his expectations.

Amongst the congratulating people, apart from imperial court envoys, there were also players groups.

Amongst which, there were guild leaders and Lords who were invited and commoner Lords who arrived uninvited. Their arrival was said to come to congratulate him, but the real reason was to see whether they could form relationships with him.

The explosion of the Four Seas Bank instantly made Shanhai City the most popular existence.

Especially to commoner players, who had actively drawn themselves toward the camp of the Shanhai Alliance.

Ouyang Shuo's wedding was the best chance to get close.

These people naturally brought along extremely valuable gifts.

Ouyang Shuo welcomed everyone.

For the Four Seas Bank to attract so much savings, it had something to do with him being a representative figure of commoner players.

In the game, commoner players were the majority. Although they were not able to exchange for huge sums like aristocratic families, their total accumulations still reached an incredibly sizeable figure.

In terms of overall value, the commoners held the bulk of the money.

Ouyang Shuo aimed to use the Four Seas Bank to expand the influence of Shanhai City on the entire commoner player level.

Apart from these players, there were also some special presences.

Amongst these people were Zhan Lang and Xiong Ba. Although they did not personally come to congratulate him, they had still arranged for someone to bring rich gifts.

Everyone knew that the two alliances were sworn enemies. Under such circumstances, the two of them would still send gifts, filling people with many thoughts.

On the other hand, Ouyang Shuo did not think too deeply into the matter.

Chapter 603-Infanta

Xiong Ba's congratulations did not surprise Ouyang Shuo.

This person always did what he wanted, so why would he bother about what others would thought? The two of them could not be considered friends, and there was even a little animosity between them. However, they were the same type of person, so they valued one another.

On the other hand, Ouyang Shuo had not expected Zhan Lang’s congratulations at all.

It seems like his words during the Battle of Mobei had some effect on Zhan Lang.

……

Amongst all the bustle, the number of people who came to watch the event swarmed the streets of Shanhai City. Various media reporters had gathered in the city to fight to report on this huge wedding.

On this day, the teleportation formations of Shanhai City had completely opened to the public.

Of course, identity checks were still highly necessary. Even if some people with ill intentions wanted to use this chance to infiltrate Shanhai City, they could not escape the tracking of the Shanhai Guards and the Black Snake Guards.

Thanks to the massive financial support, the two intelligence organization had reached a terrifying scale. The number of undercover spies and officers had now reached the thousands. It was incredibly difficult for anyone to escape their eyes.

On this day, Shanhai City was revealed to the entire China region.

On the forums, rumors had circulated that Shanhai City’s prosperity would soon catch up with the imperial cities. In the player's eyes, they thought that Ouyang Shuo was just bragging.

How could an entire player territory catch up to an imperial city in just a short two years?

No one would believe that.

However, when they saw Shanhai City, they finally realized that the rumors were true.

No words could describe the shock in the hearts of the players.

One could imagine the kind of uproar Shanhai City’s appearance would cause when the news spread to the entire region through the media. The image of Shanhai City in the player's hearts would rise once again.

This was absolutely great news for the recently opened Four Seas Bank.

Moreover, this was one of the Ouyang Shuo’s intentions.

The current Shanhai City did not need to hide, and it could brightly display itself to the rest of the world. This was the decisive change that power caused.

Ouyang Shuo did not personally mind the noise and bustle of the people. However, the ritualists made him feel tortured. He was like a wooden puppet, as he was led through dazzling procedure after procedure.

At night, this unparalleled wedding reached its peak.

All the lanterns in the city were lit up, turning Shanhai City into a nightless city. The stages of the drum towers all officially played various shows and songs.

The commoners of the city surrounded the buildings to enjoy these musical and entertainment feasts.

The fireworks flew up in the various cities and exploded in the sky. Numerous children walked out of their homes and onto the streets to watch the fireworks.

The imperial city was the liveliest. In terms of just invited guests, there were two hundred odd tables for the feast. In the manor, there were eighteen tables where the most important guests sat.

As the groom, Ouyang Shuo naturally needed to drink with them.

Since there were so many tables, Ouyang Shuo naturally felt his head start to split. After a previous system update, to chase for a higher degree of realism, lighter would actually become drunk.

When night arrived, Ouyang Shuo was supported back to the resting palace.

Song Jia wore a Phoenix crown, while a red veil covered her face. She sat on the bed, waiting for Ouyang Shuo.

Reaching the resting palace, it was another whole host of customs. This lasted for a full half an hour before the other random people left one by one, leaving the two alone.

As for the Chinese custom where the guests banter with and play pranks on the newlyweds?

With Ouyang Shuo's current status, who would dare to do that?

As the sunset faded, night truly arrived.

The sun had risen high into the sky, and even if Ouyang Shuo had a strong body, after drinking for a few rounds, he felt totally drained.

Song Jia had already woken up and was brushing up.

"You awake?" Song Jia turned around.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, ready to get out of bed.

However, Song Jia asked Zisu to enter and help Ouyang Shuo change and wash up.

The just awake Ouyang Shuo was topless, and his firm muscles emitted a thick aura of manliness. In the end, Zisu was a girl, so she could not help but feel embarrassed to see such a scene. Luckily, she knew that after the Lord’s marriage, she needed to serve him, so she tried her best to calm down.

When Ouyang Shuo saw her reaction, he was completely indifferent. In the early days, he was not used to being served. After two years, he had started to grow accustomed to it. Without Zisu, he probably could not even wear his own clothes.

As a Lord, Ouyang Shuo had numerous attire. Zisu would plan out when and what he would wear. If Ouyang Shuo had to handle these matters himself, he would not even know where the shirt was placed.

The guests yesterday had all left. The gifts placed in the side hall had filled the room to the brim. Meanwhile, the entire Shanhai City had regained its normality.

A massive wedding was like a wave in a river; it arrived abruptly and ended quickly too. The only change was that the people's sentiments had risen by 3 points.

After the wedding, Ouyang Shuo could not get any rest.

It was relatively rare for all the officials to gather at Shanhai City. Hence, they could not just hurry back after the wedding. Using this chance, they naturally wanted to report to Ouyang Shuo about the work they had accomplished.

Apart from that, they needed to keep a close relationship with the four bureaus.

Without mentioning other matters, the Four Seas Bank had obtained thirty million gold in just a few short days. Naturally, Shanhai City would use a portion of this sum.

With the current healthy finances of Shanhai City, they could take a five million loan without a problem.

With the addition of such a sum of money, the Financial Bureau would need to make some adjustments to the budget. It was a challenge to allocate the new budget.

Hence, how would the various governors dare to treat the officials of the four bureaus without seriousness and respect? The current Governor-General House already had the aura of an ancient imperial court. The officials were all famous and high ranking individuals that the people worshipped.

As the territory map adjusted, the concept of territories and imperial courts grew clearer and clearer.

Financial Director Fan Li had become an extremely popular existence.

The various governors were not fools, and they were extremely clear that the Lord was the one who truly controlled the finances. Hence, during their reports, they confidently described their plans.

Ouyang Shuo's attitude was mainly supportive.

During the rest period of the first half of the year, it was the best time to relax on internal administration and allow them to perform as they wished. Ouyang Shuo’s only worry was that the governors would lack the drive and creativity to do more.

For the week after, Ouyang Shuo was swamped with a load of administrative matters.

Since Song Jia received the title of Lady, she was officially pushed onto the administrative stage of the territory. Normally speaking, Song Jia would handle matters such as invitations to feasts and opening ceremonies.

As a daughter of an aristocratic family, Song Jia was well-equipped to deal with such work.

In just one short week, she had established her image as the Governor-General Lady in the city.

This matter naturally delighted Ouyang Shuo.

Making use of this chance, Ouyang Shuo adjusted the status of his three sisters. He officially named them Infanta and gave them a unique position in the territory.

The imperial decree named Cui Yingyu as the Ying Yuechang Infanta, Qing'er as the Qing Yangchang Infanta, and Bing'er as the Xue Yuechang Infanta. The rank of the Infanta was similar to the 2nd rank.

Apart from the title of Infanta, they were also gifted land.

Needless to say, the entire Qiongzhou Prefecture was Bing’er’s enfeoffment land.

The Qiongzhou Prefecture Governor Tian Wenjing returned at this time for two reasons. Apart from visiting the Lord, he especially went to visit the little princess.

Bing'er was still young. Naturally, she did not have to bother about administrative matters. Tian Wenjing had specifically come over with a large number of toys and also some young spirit beasts as gifts to Bing'er.

When the little brat saw these presents, she was naturally delighted.

The enfeoffment land of Cui Yingyu was chosen to be the Yanluo House in Leizhou Prefecture. As for Qing'er, it was the Shuitai House in Zhaoqing Prefecture. Of the taxes of these two houses, they would obtain 20% for their daily expenses.

The title of Infanta undoubtedly acted as a dominant protection talisman in the field of officials. In the future, be it officials or the people, the rumors regarding Cui Yingyu would completely die down.

One must know that insulting a noble was a wrongdoing of the highest degree.

Under Wei Yang’s leadership, the Internal Affairs Department had started to let the people realize the existence of law. The territory laws had entered its adjustment period. After the lantern festival, they would officially push out the law system.

Toward the stingy Qing'er, with a piece of land, she would have no monetary problems and could focus on tailoring. She even sold her factories to the Cui Chamber of Commerce for 150 thousand gold.

As for their original shares in the Sangu Restaurant, the two sisters had backed out long time ago and left it to Gu Sanniang to handle. Their actions left Gu Sanniang extremely touched.

As Shanhai City prospered, as the first restaurant in the city, the current Sangu Restaurant was a money-making machine. It has been a long time since had she needed to personally cook, and she could just focus on being the boss.

Rumors had it that Gu Sanniang intended to find a good guy and rebuild a family.

Such situations were actually quite common in territories. After settling down and gaining prosperous lives, the wilderness refugees would want to rebuild their families and have a good life.

As a result, these people were filled with worship and thanks toward Ouyang Shuo. To them, he was undoubtedly the parent of their new lives.

……

Apart from enfeoffment, the Construction Division also built Infanta Manors in Shanhai City. Cui Yingyu and Qing'er had both come of age, so after the lantern festival, they would leave the Governor-General Manor to live in their own manors.

With that, they could rid the worries of the people.

Before this, Cui Yingyu and Qing'er staying in the manor might have caused people to think that the Lord was keeping girls in the house in the name of making them his god sisters. Such rumors had stained the reputations of both Cui Yingyu and Qing'er.

The establishment of the Infanta Manor would stamp out all these rumors.

As for Bing'er, she was still underaged, so she would stay in the Governor-General Manor.

Chapter 604-Zheng He Returns

The moment the imperial decree regarding the Infanta title spread out, waves erupted through the city.

Some felt envious, while others cheered.

Undoubtedly, the people of the Cui Family felt the happiest. They had already gained a massive boon from purchasing Qing'er's garment factory. On the other hand, Cui Yingyu's title totally shook them up and made them relatives to the Lord.

Now, they were truly worthy of the title of imperial chamber of commerce.

To the civil servants and the officials of the territory, the Lord granting titles to three infanta at once represented the territory’s prosperity. Naturally, the matter delighted them.

However, some commoners did not think that way.

As Ouyang Shuo's real sister, Ouyang Bing was undoubtedly the little princess of the territory. Hence, no would dare to say anything when the Lord granted her the title of Xue Yuechang Infanta. However, the god sisters Cui Yingyu and Qing'er were a different case.

All the long-time people of the territory knew that Cui Yingyu and Qing'er were like the other residents and were once refugees. However, the righteous Lord had accepted them as his sisters and allowed them to enter the manner.

With that, some jealous people started to spread unhappiness. Now, the two of them were granted the title of Infanta, which was like ascending to the heavens in one step, turning them from sparrows to phoenixes.

Jealousy was unavoidable.

However, now that those two had become nobles, these people could not casually comment on the topic.

Even Qing'er felt a little uneasy when she was granted the title. Only after Ouyang Shuo personally explained the matter did the two sisters place down their worries and accept it.

From Ouyang Shuo’s perspective, the territory needed him to grant titles; he had not acted out of personal selfishness.

However, in the eyes of others, it was Qing'er and Yingyu climbing up the high branches; they would not know how much help they had brought him. However, what would a few rumors amount to anyways?

……

Excitement truly filled Shanhai City's spring festival.

2nd month, 12th day, the 10th day of the Chinese New Year, a massive stone steele was erected in the square of the imperial city. It was nine meters high, five meters wide, and one meter thick; it stood at the center of the square and appeared incredibly magnificent.

The words ‘territory law system’ was the most eye-catching part.

Internal Affairs Director Wei Yang had taken lead of the project. The Internal Affairs Bureau, the Law College, and the modern legal professionals had worked together for numerous months to created more than ten drafts. Finally, the territory law system was approved and officially set in stone.

This steele was the Law Codex Steele.

Its unveil signified the territory officially entering a lawful time.

Tens of thousands of copies of the territory law system had been printed. Any government office, prefecture, house, county, town, and even village needed to have two or more of copies.

The various internal affairs secretaries would hold one each.

The prefecture grade schools needed to teach about the territory law system.

Based on the original words of Wei Yang, they needed to let the people in the territory get familiar with the territory law system within three months. They needed the people to fear and respect it.

According to the plans, they aimed to pass the ideals and concepts of the law deep into their hearts of the people within half a year.

Apart from that, to accurately and precisely understand the law system, the Law College in Xinan University also opened up a lecture on the research and study of the law system.

Students of the first term were the secretaries of the Internal Affairs Department.

All in all, to ensure that the people of the territory followed the law system, Wei Yang had created a full set of measures after an extended period of contemplation and discussion.

As for how to push out the law system and make it work, he already possessed a vast experience. After all, he was the most successful person in Chinese history regarding this matter.

Outside of the territory, it was similarly not calm.

First, the reveal of Shanhai City to the outside world raised titanic waves on the forums.

The popularity of Ouyang Shuo boomed.

Only now did players truly feel and understand the depth of his foundation.

The world's best Lord was not just a random title.

On the 5th day of the Chinese New Year, the Huitong Bank opened up in the nine imperial cities.

The Huitong Bank set the exact same saving interests as the Four Seas Bank. Even so, it was a raise of 1% compared to their usual amount.

The Huitong Bank definitely could not shake the foundations of the Four Seas Bank.

In regard to raising the savings interest, Chun Shenjun wanted to do so but he lacked the ability.

No one was a fool; the goal of a bank was to generate profit. If he raised the savings interest once more, he would start losing money.

Even so, the Huitong Bank could not be underestimated.

The various families had many talents to run the bank, and they were definitely enough to crush Shanhai City. Under the influence of Chun Shenjun and the others, the Four Sea Bank’s large-scale recruitment was unsuccessful.

At the very least, it was not as successful as Meng Zhida had expected.

Apart from that, to snatch customers, the Huitong Bank also used real life tactics and replicated them it into the game.

For example, giving gifts for opening accounts.

After a few days, the Huitong Bank had gained a footing to compete against the Four Seas Bank. If it was not for the sudden reveal of Shanhai City, the schemes of Huitong Bank might have actually succeeded.

Apart from attracting scattered customers, the Huitong Bank also copied the Four Seas Bank and targeted guilds.

As expected, the three guilds of Jianqi Zongheng, Eighteen Horsemen of Yanyun, and Jin Yi Wei all invested into the Huitong Bank.

Apart from that, twenty large guilds in the nine imperial cities also invested into the bank. The number of guilds who applied to invest numbered 34.

News spread that this time, the six families had appeared together, and even the grandfathers acted. They used their connections to achieve this dominating stance.

This time, one could say that the Huitong Bank was bearing down menacingly.

However, this did not rattle Ouyang Shuo. He instructed Meng Zhida to proceed as planned. Hence, the development strategy did not change, the high standard investor requirements did not change, and the strict loan conditions remained.

A drawn-out war was destined between the two banks.

If they were forced to act and let the Huitong Bank bait them, they would easily fall prey to the opposition’s plan.

In terms of innate conditions, the Four Seas Bank stood superior to the Huitong Bank. As such, if they just acted carefully, they would not lose. What they feared was panic and people rushing for short term goals.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to play it safe, but some people still did not want to give up.

After the Chinese New Year, a scheme targeting the Four Seas Bank started to act out in the shadows. If it succeeded, it would be enough to push the Four Seas Bank down a deep ravine.

2nd month, 14th day, 12th day of the Chinese New Year.

Nanyang Navy Admiral Zheng He had finally returned after leaving Shanhai City for half a month. During his expedition, Zheng He looked at the bases of the three squadrons and conducted a deep evaluation of the Nanyang Navy.

Moments after his return, Zheng He handed Ouyang Shuo an expansion plan for the navy.

Based on his proposed plan, they would need to fill the three squadrons under the Nanyang Navy by the end of the 3rd year.

"If that does not happen, we won’t be able to rule the oceans," Zheng He said.

Apart from that, Zheng He also drafted a logical and detailed plan to change the commanding system. He also wrote of matters such as forming up squadrons, and the allocations of warships in a squadron.

Zheng He was basically a master of such matters. After all, he had sailed down the pacific seven times.

Furthermore, the shipbuilding and firearms techniques of Shanhai City came from the Ming Dynasty. From Zheng He’s perspective, the three squadrons were like the squadrons from his past, filled with a sense of familiarity.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo accepted most of Zheng He's suggestions. He also granted the general the power to revolutionize and change the Nanyang Navy, allowing it to be reborn.

At the same time, Ouyang Shuo instructed the Military Affairs Department to cooperate and aid Zheng He in his reorganization plan.

As for the squadron expansion, Ouyang Shuo was filled with doubt. The proposed expansion speed was not the problem. After all, Zheng He had given a time frame of the entire Gaia 3rd year.

His doubts laid in how to find so many advanced sailors, captains, and seafarers. They could not develop such talents in such a short time.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also had a qualm.

Till date, the three squadrons still lacked a single fleet admiral. To reach a full organization status, they needed to recruit strong navy generals. However, where could he find these people all of a sudden?

Ouyang Shuo hoped that in the future sixth battle map, he could reap some related rewards.

Zheng He helped to solve this noticeable problem, "Lord, tomorrow morning, I’ll take a trip to Quanzhou to recruit many talents there."

"En?" Ouyang Shuo stared blankly.

"In Quanzhou, I have some connections." Zheng He explained.

"No wonder."

A light bulb lit up in Ouyang Shuo’s head. How could he forget that in history, Quanzhou was the most important transition point for Zheng He's expeditions? In Quanzhou, Zheng He had a massive influence.

Especially on sailors and naval professions, Zheng He was a godly presence.

The moment he shows himself there, Ouyang Shuo could imagine how emotional they would get. At that point, the advanced talents that the Military Affairs Department could not hire would want to fight their way here.

Ouyang Shuo felt frustrated; how could he forget this point?

"Then I’ll busy you. If you have any needs, just ask." Ouyang Shuo said.

"Not for now." Zheng He was also exceedingly confident.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and took out an item from his storage bag; it was the complete Beihai Bay Treasure Map. He passed it to Zheng He and said, "Take a look at this."

Zheng He took a look at the map and felt that it was extremely familiar.

As a commander that sailed down to the west seven times, he was not a stranger to the Beihai Bay area. Along with the tour this month, he had gained a clear recognition of the ocean in the game.

The first thing Zheng He thought about was Annan. A conflict was unavoidable if they wanted to obtain the treasure.

"What the Lord is saying is?" Zheng He asked with uncertainty.

"I hope that before we start the voyager plan, we can obtain this treasure. Treat this as a training opportunity for the voyaging squadron," Ouyang Shuo explained.

"I won’t let you down!" Zheng He replied solemnly.

Chapter 605-Out to Sea to Look for Treasure

Gaia 3rd year, 2nd month, 25th day, Beihai Harbor.

After ten days of preparation, the planned squadron for the treasure expedition was finally ready to set off. For this expedition, Admiral Zheng He would take the role of commander, while the three squadrons would each send one division to form an alliance squadron.

This squadron included three hundred ships, and twenty large turreted boats, equipped with 150 cannons. They had a total of 36 thousand soldiers and 38 thousand sailors.

Yashan Squadron Chief General Cai Mao, Beihai Bay Squadron Chief General Pei Donglai, and Jiaozhou Squadron Chief General Yanhuo Yaonie; these three generals followed along.

For these three generals to follow along, they had to thank to Zheng He.

Zheng He’s recruitment operation went exceptionally smoothly, and it even exceeded expectations. In just three days, Zheng He brought over two hundred seafarers and two thousand advanced sailors.

Apart from that, Zheng He also recruited a batch of navy generals, including five advanced generals, eighteen intermediate generals, and forty-five basic generals.

From that moment, the quality of the Nanyang Navy rose by two grades.

The matter did not end there. After asking someone to send them back, Zheng He set out and made a trip to Jianye. Although he did not reap as great rewards, he still had a decent harvest.

Zheng He's two operations undoubtedly set a deep foundation for the Nanyang Navy expansion. Following which, as long as they managed to recruit normal sailors and soldiers and trained them up, the three squadrons could reach a full status.

Conservatively speaking, it would also take half a year.

The name of Zheng He was incredibly dominating, as he instantly established his prestige in the Nanyang Navy.

……

Beihai Bay Pier, the Dragon Head was like a lord, standing out amongst all the warships.

After considering the practical needs, Ouyang Shuo passed the command of the Dragon Head to Zheng He as the flagship of the Nanyang sailor. As for Ouyang Shuo, he did not need to own his own special flag ship.

The cannon modified Dragon Head could be called the strongest warship in China. In terms of cannons alone, the warship had twenty equipped. They were also well-equipped with weapons such as guns and fire arrows.

One could say that apart from the future iron warships, Dragon Head would be the strongest warship on the seas. Just the modification costs reached fifty thousand. If he took it out for an auction, he could probably sell it for a sky high price.

Since this expedition might cause conflicts between countries, Ouyang Shuo set out together with them to aid the decision-making.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo would not interfere in the detailed war decisions, as Zheng He would take the role of commander.

9 AM, after worshipping Mazu, the squadron left the harbor.

Using the winter season wind, the squadron rode the waves toward the unmarked island on the treasure map. The Beihai Bay Squadron had wiped the entire Beihai Bay clean, so no pirate organization dared to enter the area now. Otherwise, they would be mercilessly attacked.

Under this influence, the north coast of Annan had also turned extremely peaceful recently without the disturbances of any pirates.

The position of the island marked on the Blood Slaughterer’s map was located in the middle of Annan Haiphong Prefecture and Rongping Prefecture. It was less than one hundred nautical miles away from the coast of Annan.

To the north of the two prefectures was the only imperial city in Annan Region, Henei.

When the squadron approached the Annan shore, the first group they met were fishermen. The fishermen had not seen pirates for numerous days, so they were naturally defenceless.

Seeing such a huge squadron, they felt terrified and quickly hid aside.

The squadron did not bother about the fishing boats and continued to proceed forward.

Finally, at around 150 nautical miles from the shore, they finally met the enemy navy squadron.

Sea bodies formed close to half of the Annan Region border. Hence, there was an exceptional number of players near Haijian City, and they were distributed along the shoreline.

The sea region was also a part of their territory of the Lords. Hence, they would more or less have some sailors and navy soldiers patrol the region and protect the fishermen.

Before this, these soldiers had met the Beihai Bay Squadron before. However, Pei Donglai had strictly followed Ouyang Shuo's instructions, and he did not start any conflicts.

The two of them co-existed peacefully.

This current situation was completely different.

To find the treasure, the alliance squadron needed to approach these territories near the sea region.

Undoubtedly, the Lords would take this act as a form of provocation.

The golden dragon flag of Shanhai City, and the sea dragon flag of the Shanhai City sailors, were not completely foreign to the Annan sailors.

The moment the alliance squadron approached, the enemies started to swing their flags to communicate. Their main message was that this was their region, so the Shanhai navy could not enter without permission.

"Lord?"

On Dragon Head, Zheng He sought Ouyang Shuo’s instructions.

"Tell them we do not mean it. We are just using this route to complete a quest. After the quest, we will immediately leave." Ouyang Shuo's main goal was just to find the treasure.

As for country wars, it would be for the best if he did not need to start them.

"Yes, my Lord!"

When Zheng He received the reply, he immediately waved the flag to communicate.

Unfortunately, they did not trust Ouyang Shuo's kind intentions. Even someone like Ouyang Shuo, who was not well-versed in flag language, could see their resoluteness.

"What did they say?" Ouyang Shuo's tone was stern.

"Lord, they insist that we cannot enter, and their attitude is extremely resolute." Zheng He replied.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and smiled, “Since they do not want to take the nice route, I have no choice. In that case, launch a strong attack. Sink any ship in our path as punishment."

"Lord, this…." Zheng He was a little hesitant.

In history, Zheng He took seven trips down the pacific. For these trips, his goal was not to trade or colonize. Instead, he sought to ask those small countries to head to Jingdou and worship the king.

This created a magnificent scene, where tens of thousands of small countries visited China to worship the king.

Every trip down the pacific placed a massive burden on the coffers. They sent out large amounts of jewels and silk, in return, they only received the worship of those small countries.

After the Yongle Emperor died, the Hongxi Emperor immediately stopped this practice.

Hence, Zheng He was a little unused to the direct methods that Ouyang Shuo employed.

The Yongle Emperor wanted to enrich the world; Ouyang Shuo could not comment on his ambitions. However, Ouyang Shuo was different, as he was a totally practical person.

He did not mind washing the world with blood to obtain his goals.

Furthermore, this was a game, and the wilderness was destined for war. There existed a large disparity between the wilderness and history.

War was the main focus of the wilderness.

The country war feature was just a type of war setting in the game that aimed to raise the playability. The current federal government was one that had united the world, so regions or countries had already ceased to exist per say.

"General!" Ouyang Shuo stared right at Zheng He and said solemnly, “General, please remember one thing: this is the wilderness, war is never about right or wrong. It's only the strong devouring the weak; the theory of the survival of the fittest."

Zheng He felt stunned and grudgingly replied, “Thank you, Lord, for your reminder!"

When Ouyang Shuo saw the general’s reactions, he did not add anything more.

Changing a person's views and ideals of the world was a time consuming process. This expedition to search for the treasure was also a test Ouyang Shuo had set for Zheng He.

The future voyaging missions would definitely be more brutal and bloody than the war today.

Zheng He needed to change.

If not, how could a good man, who chased for peace, lead the strongest navy to fulfil Ouyang Shuo's wish of ruling the seas?

"Fire!" Zheng He turned around and ordered.

"Yes, admiral!"

As the military order was given, all of a sudden, the cannons fired.

Hong!

……

Hong!

……

The first round of cannon fire made Ouyang Shuo frown.

This was the first time that the Nanyang Navy had used the cannons in war, and the effects were exceedingly shameful.

Firstly, the command system was messy. The hundreds of cannons did not aim logically and lacked careful arrangement. Some fired before they even got into range, so they naturally just shot into the sea.

Some cannons were not well-aimed, so the projectiles fell into the waters beside the warships.

The first round of cannons seemed menacing and scared the enemy navy soulless. However, in truth, they only struck less than ten of the enemies.

When Zheng He saw this scene, shame and embarrassment filled his face.

"General, it's not your fault. You do not have to be react that."

Zheng He had just joined them. Moreover, he had run here and there to understand the navy. He did not have any time to truly train them. In truth, the three chief generals were the ones that trained the current alliance squadron.

"Lord, do not worry. Within half a month, all of this will change." Although he did not personally train them, Zheng He still made a promise to Ouyang Shuo.

As the admiral of the Nanyang Navy, the shoddy performance of the squadron had made him lose face.

"Then I'll look forward to it!" Ouyang Shuo smiled.

Amidst their conversation, the second round of cannon fire began. With the calibration after the first round, the effects of this round were far better, and they struck a total of twenty warships.

After two rounds, the enemy navy was basically paralyzed.

Facing such sudden cannon fire, the enemy was not prepared; they were simply blinded. They had even forgotten how to retaliate.

At this very moment, a system notification sounded out in Ouyang Shuo’s ear.

"System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi has led troops to destroy a navy squadron of Annan Region, activating Country War. Annan Region has entered Country War mode. Players, please prepare!"

Chapter 606-Country War Style

Suddenly, all the Annan region players received a notification.

"System Notification: China region Lord Qiyue Wuyi has initiated a Country War, Annan region has entered the Country War mode. Imperial City Henei has ended level 2 state of alert. As for the specific situation, players, please take a look!"

The moment the notification sounded out, the country was thrown into a state of uproar.

To the players of Annan region, this Country War had happened too suddenly.

Based on the news that Gaia had revealed on the website, the Country War had two main points.

Firstly, merit points setting.

The two countries would fight one another just like the battle map, and player could earn merit points. In contrast to the battle map, you could not earn battle contribution points from the wilderness war.

Killing one normal soldier would give a person one merit point. These generous merit points were one of the motivations behind starting a country war.

Secondly, the rules for determining the victor.

Country Wars were split into all out wars and partial wars. The difference laid in whether or not an imperial city was attacked. Simply put, when two countries fought, even if a partial war was triggered, the moment the flames of war spread to the imperial city, or if the imperial city automatically participated, it would turn into an all out war.

The victor of the two types of wars were determined through different manners.

For partial wars, the overall victory or loss did not matter; the situation of the actual battle acted as the deciding factor. As for an all out war, victory was determined when one side completely destroyed the other.

Hence, an all out war was basically a battle to exterminate the other country.

The Annan region system notification mentioned that the Imperial City Henei had entered a level 2 state of alert. As such, this country war was just a partial war.

If it was an all out war, the imperial city would be at the highest level 1 state of alert.

Apart from that, during a partial war, players could chose if they wanted to participate.

If it was an all out war, both the Lords and the adventure gamemode players of the country under attack would be forced to fight.

Hence, destroying a country was an extremely difficult matter. The worst part was that all the players in the country must die at least once before the battle could end.

On this point, the China region possessed an absolute advantage.

Thanks to their number of players, the chance of a complete wipe out was rather low.

……

When Gaia announced the Country War news, it caused an explosion in Annan region.

On the forums, there were a large number of people raring to fight. To them, the enemy was already at their door. No matter what, they could not allow it.

Furthermore, the one who started this country war was actually just a single Lord. Even though Qiyue Wuyi was the best Lord in the world, his prestige alone could not stop the passion of the Annan region players.

Although the region was not big, its population density was terrifying, close to twice of China. The entire Annan region had more than five million players.

Even excluding the old, the young, and the weak, they possessed a hugely terrifying number. Just the mature adventure gamemode players exceeded two million; it was a country that could not be underestimated.

Excluding the work occupation players, they still had close to a million combat occupation players.

Hence, how would they allow Shanhai City to provoke them?

Quickly, the intel from the front lines spread.

From the seas, Shanhai City had sent a massive squadron over; they appeared exceedingly dominating.

Suddenly, all of the Lords near the sea announced level 1 states of alert in their cities, and they activated a large number of warships to head out to battle.

The hot-blooded adventure gamemode players proactively asked to board the Lord warships. They wanted to fight a decisive battle against the Shanhai City Army.

Some rash ones even rented merchant ships and hurriedly set out to sea.

All of a sudden, thousands of ships appeared along the sea region of Annan.

However, their technology tree lacked both the modern technology of the west and the shipbuilding foundation of the Chinese. Their strongest ship could only compare to the weaker Meng Chong warship.

Hence, their only way of winning would be to rely on sheer numbers. If the players of Annan region were just a clump of scattered sand, they definitely would not pose a threat.

Luckily, at the crucial moment, someone stepped up.

He was the Lord of Haiphong City, Ruan Tianque. He gathered all the players, uniting them and placing them under the commanded of one person. They would destroy the enemy and gain honor for their country.

As the top Lord in Annan region, Ruan Tianque was undoubtedly a truly successful person. His influence amongst the players also could not be overlooked.

Quickly, hundreds of Lords united under Ruan Tianque’s banner.

After some debate, a massive alliance squadron quickly formed up. However, because the north of Annan was extremely long, gathering the entire squadron in one place was going to take some time.

Helplessly, to placate the strong pleas for battle from the adventure gamemode players, Ruan Tianque could only instruct the twenty odd Lords in Haiphong and Rongping prefectures to act as the vanguard and lead the expedition.

As for those players who could not wait, they were already out at sea.

Beihai Bay, on board the Dragon Head.

The moment he received the notification, Ouyang Shuo was ready to fight a tough battle.

"Quickly clean up the battlefield and move forward." Ouyang Shuo ordered.

"Understood!"

Zheng He also noticed that a seemingly huge shift had occurred on the battlefield.

After hurriedly cleaning up the battlefield, Zheng He ordered the squadron to send out a large number of Sima Boats; they were like a net, and they would locate the enemy and gain intel.

Quickly, Zheng He's intuition was proven correct.

Shortly after they moved, they met up with wave after wave of enemies. Weirdly, these enemies were extremely weak and scattered; they lacked organization and leadership.

Amongst which, there were even some merchant ships and fishing boats.

"This can also be called a navy?" Zheng He was speechless, "Directly sink them!"

"Yes, admiral!"

Against these random fishes, Zheng He did not want to make use of their precious cannons. The modified turreted ships and the Meng Chong warships all had sharp rhinoceros like horns, and an even more terrifying iron battering head.

Normal, mid, to small-sized warships would immediately fall apart under their impact.

Do not look at Annan Region and their lousy boats, the players were actually extremely passionate and eager. Each warship was filled with adventure gamemode players, numbering from the hundreds to the thousands.

They wanted to fight a bloody battle with Shanhai City.

A close combat battle was the real way men should fight.

The sight of the numerous story high turreted ship, the Mengchong Warship, greeted them. It looked like a handsome steed, while the Sima Boats moved like ghosts. Finally, they realize that the world was a big place.

In front of the enemy, their warships were just babies.

They could already roughly feel the tragedy that was going to occur.

As expected, under the impact, numerous people fell into the sea like dumplings. Suddenly, many black heads appeared on the calm water surface; truly a sight to behold.

Zheng He was too lazy to waste arrows on these players. The moment a player fell, they would only have a very low chance of survival, so why would he want to waste precious arrows on these people?

One must know that due to the weight limit, a warship could only carry a limited number of arrows.

They only shot the people who tried to climb up the warships. After all, there were still some skilled individuals amongst the adventure gamemode players.

Martial arts were not unique to China.

Ouyang Shuo stood on the Dragon Head and did not speak. He simply allowed Zheng He to command the troops. Meanwhile, his merit points surged at a visible rate.

In just two small battles, he had obtained truly terrifying twenty thousand merit points.

Such rewards were partially due to the uniqueness of sea battle. After all, the moment a ship was sunk, the people on board would basically all die. The casualty rate was unusually high.

……

These two battles were just the curtain opener.

In Haiphong Harbor, a huge squadron had gathered up, and they were heading toward the Shanhai City Squadron. Moreover, on the shoreline further away, tens of thousands of warships were gathering toward the harbor.

The alliance command center was set in Haiphong City, the camp of Ruan Tianque.

After dealing with those two squadrons, the journey of the Shanhai Squadron grew tougher and tougher.

The further they traveled, the more enemies they would encounter.

The passion and blood thirstiness of the Annan region players made Ouyang Shuo feel a shiver run down his spine.

The adventure gamemode players were not fools. After the terrible first wave, they calmed down. They realized that if they just charged in rashly, they would only be feeding the enemy.

Hence, the remaining player squadrons split into two camps. A portion returned to the harbor to gather with the alliance squadron, while the other portion gathered together and proceeded forward.

When Shanhai City met the enemy squadron once again, the scene left Zheng He’s mouth agape.

On the boundless sea, thousands of warships had gathered. A variety of them covered the sea, and when one gazed across the horizon, various colors and types of warships would fill their eyes.

Zheng He was not crazy enough to charge at so many warships with just three hundred of their own.

As they say, many ants could bite an elephant to death.

If they used the same plan, the most likely scenario was not sinking the enemy ships. Rather, they would be drowned in the endless sea of warships.

"Send my order, fire all the cannons!" Zheng He ordered.

"Yes, admiral!"

The familiar Hong long long! noises exploded out once more.

Under the strikes of the cannons, the squadron was immediately thrown into chaos. The orderly battle formations instantly scattered and turned into a massive mess.

Just like when one dropped a stone onto the calm surface of a lake.

Even so, the squadron stood strong.

They braved the cannon fire and launched a fearless charge.

Along with the horn charging signal, arrows mercilessly rained forth onto the Shanhai City squadron. As there were too many of them, the arrows formed a black net.

The Shanhai City Squadron was going to face a life or death test.

Chapter 607-Disguising Their way In

"Focus all your fire to blow a path in the middle of their squadron!" Facing their relentless assault, Zheng He remained calm; he acted like nothing was up and quickly found a solution.

The moment his order sounded, the cannons fired.

What kind of scene would 150 cannons firing together create? Zheng He gave an answer.

Like a monumental sword from the heavens, the warship cannons cleaved the closely packed enemy squadron into half. Suddenly, a ninety odd meter wide path opened up in the middle of the squadron.

The debris of many warships floated on the surface of the water. The cannonball shrapnel struck tens of thousands of adventure gamemode players. It left them badly injured, and they struggled to survive in the ocean.

If one had not witnessed such a scene, they could not feel the current shock and awe.

The enemy arrow rain stopped.

Zheng He was not shocked in the slightest, and he continued to instruct, “Form up into a battle formation and swiftly pass through the middle. Shoot fire arrows from the sides toward the ships on both sides."

When the squadrons quickly moved on the water, it was extremely difficult to shoot the cannons. Especially such cumbersome and backward cannons, the great momentum might cause the warship to overturn. Hence, Zheng He could only use the next best option and fire arrows to disturb the enemy formation.

"Yes, admiral!"

"Navy soldiers, prepare to board and fight." Zheng He continued to order.

"Yes, admiral!"

The Shanhai Squadron shifted its formation and increased their speed.

Since it was a combination attack composed of three squadrons, there was a slight lapse in communication. Luckily, after a few hiccups, they finally managed to form up.

Even after the Annan region warships took such massive hits, their combat strength did not completely falter. After all, their huge numbers were not easily crushed.

The warships on both sides swiftly closed in on the center and tried to pincer the Shanhai City Squadron. The eyes of the adventure gamemode players were red with rage, as they screamed out; they wanted to avenge their fallen brothers.

Of course, they had to avoid the fire arrows first.

The current fire arrows were a utterly different concept compared to the alchemical oil fire arrows. The most representative aspect was naturally the Water Dragon, which was a new missile-like weapon.

A 1.5 kilometer range was enough to cover both wings of the enemy squadron.

The fire arrows instantly set the enemy ships ablaze, sending the people on board into a state of panic. This panic spread to the ships around them.

Hence, the attack of the enemy troops could be called ineptly planned and executed.

Even so, the huge number of small warships were like ants that bit onto the warships of Shanhai City. At this point, it was time for the navy soldiers.

This was the first time the two sides had gone head to head. This finally allowed the Annan players to vent their frustration. All of their eyes were red, as they engaged the Nanyang Navy soldiers.

"Handgun squad, get ready!" Zheng He gave another order.

Going head to head was not his style.

He was best at employing the Ming Dynasty firearms. As such, the Combat Logistics Department had followed his demands and prepared various firearms for the squadron.

Originally, Ouyang Shuo had eliminated these firearms.

However, since Zheng He personally requested it, Ouyang Shuo had no reason to reject. With the current steelmaking standard of Shanhai City, crafting a batch of firearms was not a difficult matter.

Who knew that this batch of firearms would actually be so mighty.

Under the support of the handgun unit, the soldiers managed to gain a foothold on the battle. The number of enemy casualties grew and grew. When the Shanhai City Squadron passed the middle passage, the left behind a blood ocean.

After breaking through, Zheng He still did not want to let the matter go, "Stop advancing, form up once more!"

"Yes, admiral!"

The alliance squadron had started to slow down, as they turned back their cannons.

"Fire!"

Even without Zheng He’s orders, the three squadrons were ready.

Before the left behind enemy ships could even recover their senses, another round of the death god welcomed them.

Ouyang Shuo did not expect that a battle that seemed so difficult would actually be so easy to Zheng He. The enemy ships were completely on a back foot, and they could only endure hits.

A God Rank navy general was truly different.

It seems like Gaia had strengthen Zheng He's commanding ability. China only had a small number of famous navy generals. If Gaia did not strengthen them, they definitely could not be used.

On this note, the generals of other regions should also have been strengthened. Only then could Gaia maintain the usual standard of fairness.

The following battle was just a lop-sided affair.

After a few rounds of cannon fire, the seemingly menacing enemy ships finally woke up. Under the punishment of death itself, they had to admit defeat and flee.

From this battle, Ouyang Shuo had obtained twenty thousand points.

…

Making use of the buffer time from cleaning up the battlefield, the sima boats finally returned with new intel. After learning that the proper Annnan squadron had set sail, Ouyang Shuo could not help but frown.

During these few battles, it looked like Shanhai City had obtained victory easily, but they had still incurred some losses. In terms of war resources alone, they had already used up a third.

If this carried on, Ouyang Shuo was not sure if they could smoothly reach the unnamed island. In the end, this country war was just a secondary matter; the main goal was still the treasure.

"General, we need to change our strategy." Ouyang Shuo said.

"Lord, what you're saying is?" Zheng He was also a little worried.

Ouyang Shuo gave his answer, “Pretend to proceed, while secretly going through another path."

"Split the troops into two?" Zheng He understood immediately.

"That's right." Ouyang Shuo smiled, "General will lead the main force to attract the enemy attention. I'll lead a small elite group to secretly proceed to the unnamed island."

"Lord is wise."

"However, there is one problematic point. It is truly a difficult matter for you to restrict the ships of an entire country alone." Ouyang Shuo voiced his worries.

"Do not worry Lord, I can handle it." Zheng He was exceedingly confident.

"Then I’ll depend on you, general!"

Ouyang Shuo cupped his fists and set the meeting place. Then he prepared himself to lead his personal guards off the boat.

Since he was sneaking out, he naturally could not sail Dragon Head, and even the other turreted ships would pose a problem. They were too eye-catching and would be instantly noticed.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo was ready to sail on the Mengchong Warship.

At this very moment, Ouyang Shuo turned around and looked at the sea region. Suddenly, he had an idea.

On the water surface, the enemy warships had already escaped, and only some wreckage remained. Apart from that, there were still some relatively good warships that were abandoned.

"Men!" Ouyang Shuo said.

"Present!"

"Send someone to gather ten enemy ships, load them up, and use them as our warships."

"Yes, my Lord."

Wasn’t sailing on an Annan warship the best disguise? The Annan region players would never expect that one of their allies had snuck into their land.

Ah hour later, they had prepared everything.

Without any extra words, Ouyang Shuo ordered them to set off. Apart from the personal guards, Zheng He had arranged the lost elite sailors, captains, and navy generals.

This small squadron crept toward the unknown sea region.

On the other hand, Zheng He led the alliance squadron to proactively sail toward the Annan Alliance Army. Their mission was to attract all the enemy attention.

The busy seas slowly regained its calm.

Just as Ouyang Shuo went out to sea, a huge scheme was slowly forming.

After the lantern festival, thousands of players would store their money at the Four Seas Bank every day. These people were not random customers; they were working together.

They were in the middle of a large number of people there to store money, so they did not attract any attention.

It was just like that for three consecutive days.

Following which, the Chang An Night News and other media outlets started to reveal information. Every article released had to do with something negative regarding the Shanhai Alliance.

"Shanhai Alliance, ever since the Four Seas Bank obtained low-interest savings, more than 90% was used to build territories. Totally no profits were made; this is a huge risk…."

"Shanhai City used up the reserves of the Four Seas Bank, the treasury is just an empty shell…."

"The Blood Evil Mercenary Group was forced to invest. Blood Romance already has the intentions of withdrawing his investment...."

Every article seemed real. It seemed like rumors, but it also seemed like insider news. If a lot of news like this appeared at once, the players would naturally notice.

Three people can become a tiger; these were not just some random words.

Ouyang Shuo was not in Shanhai City. Naturally, he was unaware of these events. Furthermore, such news mainly came from local media outlets such as Chang An Night News, so Ouyang Shuo did not pay attention to them.

Not to mention Ouyang Shuo, even Bai Hua and the others knew nothing.

Only the Black Snake Guards intel station in Chang An reported the matter to headquarters.

Helplessly, in the Gaia 3rd year, the Black Snake Guards had expanded once more, and its reach had grown extremely wide. Each day, thousands of intel would reach the headquarters. They naturally ignored such baseless allegation. It even did not make it to the desk of Black Snake, and it was removed as a normal case.

Chang An was temporarily a blank spot in the Shanhai Alliance, as there were no guilds that worked with them from Chang An. As a result, such negative news would fester and grow worse.

If not, their allies would have known long ago.

Just as the players in Chang An felt a little distrust, the group of players who had stored money appeared once more.

This time, they were not here to store but to withdraw. The Four Seas Bank had just opened for a few days, so such a large scale withdrawer was rarely seen.

Since it was unusual, it naturally attracted attention.

Just hearing about the matter caused an uproar.

Those players spread the negative news from the Chang An Night News and exaggerated the matter, as they said it, “This bank is too risky, it’s better to remove the money. It’s all my hard earned money."

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" some people agreed.

Chapter 608-Bank Run

"That can’t be true, right? The reputation of the Four Seas Bank can be trusted." Some people did not believe these rumors.

"Who knows? Aren’t there many people who look righteous but are actually cheaters?"

"It's better to believe than regret later."

"I do not care, just take it out before talking."

Under the coercion of those people with bad intentions, some people finally started to waver and follow the crowd.

The power of rumors was exceedingly effective in swaying the Chinese people. In history, stupid rumours had caused numerous shopping waves.

All of a sudden, the number of people who went to withdraw their money actually exceeded the number of people who went to save. Even those people who were doubtful toward the rumors decided to wait and see; they did not store their money.

Such an anomaly naturally caught the attention of all the workers, and they immediately reported the matter to the treasurer.

The treasurer of the Chang An branch was someone Meng Zhida had expended a lot of effort to recruit, he was advanced banking talent, Li Wei. In reality, he had some dealings with Meng Zhida.

"Do not panic, just deal with them normally." Li Wei instructed.

"Yes!" the workers returned to their tasks.

In the bank, the prestige of the treasurer was not to be doubted. Just like that, under Li Wei’s suppression, the Four Seas Bank learned nothing about this little storm.

In just a short two hours, the Chang An bank withdrawing storm grew more and more intense, and it slowly turned into a tornado. Slowly, the entire Chang An City crazily spread the news.

The rumors grew more and more exaggerated.

At this stage, it did not need people to fan the flames, as the players who loved to join in the fun had naturally started to make up rumor after rumor.

"Did you hear? The Four Seas Bank is about to close down."

"Really?"

"Why not? Take a look at the number of people that went to withdraw their money. They are filling the streets."

"Then I'll go too."

Rumors were like a virus, crazily spreading. Originally, those who had just wanted to catch the fun could not help but want to withdraw their money too when they saw the swarm of people.

At this stage, the truth was not important anymore. Everyone seemed to have lost their rationality, and they packed the door of the banks like sardines. It seemed like the situation was spiralling out of control.

At this time, Li Wei slowly walked out and read aloud an official statement.

As expected, it had no effect at all.

It seemed like the bank vault would get emptied.

Based on the rules, the bank vault only possessed a sum of emergency funds. At set periods of time, they would shift the large quantity of gold back to the main vault in Shanhai City.

Such an arrangement was made to ensure the safety of the bank funds.

The moment the vault was exhausted, the outcome would be catastrophic.

"Treasurer, should we inform the headquarters? If not, it would be hard to solve this situation," the manager asked.

"What are you panicking for! If we cannot handle such a small matter, what will the headquarters think about our branch?" Li Wei's attitude remained highly adamant, “Instruct the people at the front desk to slow down."

"Yes!" The manager was placed on a spot.

The manager knew that slowing the speed was like drinking poison to quench thirst. The best solution was to ask for money from the headquarters to relive the panic.

As expected, someone started to stir up problems once again.

"Why are you taking such a long time? Are you all out of money?" A teen who was withdrawing his money suddenly raised his voice to show his displeasure.

"Sorry sir, there are too many people. Please wait patiently," the worker replied.

"What too many people, it's obvious that you are out of money. In just a short time, you are out? At the start, I did not believe the rumors but now I do. You guys must be making use of the reserves," the teen continued to cause a racket.

This naturally attracted the attention of everyone in the main hall.

When the others heard these complaints, their mob mentality grew.

"People, please calm down, the funds in the bank vault are sufficient. Anyone who wants to withdraw their money will be allowed to do so. However, we only have a limited number of workers, so please wait patiently," the treasurer came out to facilitate.

"Hen, empty words."

The entire place was close to exploding out of control.

If the Jinwu Guards were not already in place, the situation would have probably gotten out of hand.

Even so, they would not be able to hold on for long.

Under the meticulous planning of others, the Chang An branch of the Four Seas Bank had turned into an unrecoverable mess.

Shanhai City, Nanjiang Governor-General Manor.

"I want to see the Lady!"

Black Snake, the leader of the Black Snake Guards, arrived at the back hall with a solemn expression.

"Commander Black Snake, what's the matter?"

After a short while, Song Jia walked out; her words showed the utmost respect to him.

After Song Jia married Ouyang Shuo, he had handed the Black Snake Guards over to her to handle. After all, he was often outside, and he could not handle certain matters in time.

Song Jia's identity was the most suited for this role.

"Reporting to the Lady, something has cropped up at the Chang An branch of the Four Seas Bank," Black Snake replied.

The bank run in Chang An City quickly grew in intensity. The commander of the intel station had finally noticed that something was wrong, so he reported the matter as an emergency situation to headquarters.

When Black Snake received the news, he finally realize that something was amiss, and he immediately looked for Song Jia.

When she heard the news, she did not panic. She asked Black Snake to pay attention to the situation first.

"Make use of the power of the Chang An station to understand the situation," Song Jia instructed.

When Black Snake heard her command, awe and praise appeared in his eyes.

"As expected from the woman the Lord chose. She truly was brought up in a huge family."

……

"Men!" Song Jia said.

"Present!"

"Please invite Treasurer Meng over," Song Jia gently said.

"Yes, my Lady!"

While she waited, Song Jia also picked up the brush and wrote over ten emergency letters. The recipients were all members of the Four Seas Bank administrative committee.

After a short while, Meng Zhida hurried over.

Although Song Jia was his daughter's classmate, Meng Zhida did not dare to treat her lightly.

"My Lady!" Meng Zhida bowed.

"Treasurer Meng, take a look at this." Song Jia passed over the intel that the Black Snake Guards had gathered.

When Meng Zhida saw the news, his hand could not help but shiver.

"I've appointed the wrong person to the job, my Lady, please punish me!" Meng Zhida felt ashamed.

As the treasurer of the Four Seas Bank, he had actually received this important news from the Nanjiang Governor-General House. One could imagine that something had truly gone wrong in the branch.

At the very least, it was a personnel error.

"As for whose fault it is, we can temporarily put that matter aside and discuss when the Lord is back. Treasurer Meng, please take some funds and head toward Chang An to stabilize the situation. If you can, please investigate the situation."

"Understood!" Meng Zhida had a face of determination and resilience.

As an experienced banker, he knew that if this matter spread, a terrifying bank run would occur. At that time, even if they cleared the rumors, they would not be able to prevent the matter.

After Meng Zhida left, Song Jia started to ask people to prepare the side hall to welcome the members of the committee.

After receiving the emergency letter, Bai Hua and the others rushed over. However, there were too many of them, and everyone was busy, so it was not that easy to gather everyone.

At 3 PM, they all finally arrived.

The intel from the Black Snake Guards were distributed to each one of them.

Song Jia knew her place; she knew that she could not completely replace Ouyang Shuo. After introducing the matter, she allowed deputy director Feng Qiuhuang to chair the meeting.

Feng Qiuhuang accepted it. Between Song Jia and her, there was the smell of competition.

"This is a scheme."

The fellow who forever believed in conspiracies, Xunlong Dianxue, was the first to speak.

"Such an obvious matter, you do not have to specifically say it." Feng Qiuhuang rolled her eyes toward him and looked around, "Let's discuss how to solve this crisis."

"Regarding the rumours about the Blood Evil Mercenary Guild, I'll deal with Chang An Night News." Blood Romance had never expected for someone to actually dare to trifle with him.

"I think that Chang An Night News is a big problem." Bai Hua continued.

"Then let's investigate who gave them the courage to disturb the Shanhai Alliance. They really do not know their ability." Feng Qiuhuang was still so dominating.

"An investigation is naturally necessary, but it is not the most important issue at hand. It is best is to end the rumors one by one. If not, if this spreads, I'm worried it might affect the other imperial city branches." Xie Siyun reminded.

"Let's investigate!" Feng Qiuhuang agreed.

There was nothing more effective at explaining than a detailed report.. As expected from the two people who were familiar with this area.

"As for the rumors that we are making use of the reserves, we can invite some players and media to the Shanhai City vault to personally act as witnesses." Song Jia suggested.

"Great idea!"

"Apart from that, toward the doubts of the profits of the territories, we need to provide real proof. Why don’t all of us reveal some of our development plans?" Feng Qiuhuang added.

"No problem."

The allegations of Chang An Night News left Gong Chengshi and the others furious. What not having enough money to repay the loans? Wasn’t this a slap to their faces?

"Apart from resolving the rumors, we must be wary of what other tricks they can pull." Bai Hua said.

All those seated basically had a rough idea of the situation. The people who spread these rumors were definitely people from the Yanhuang Alliance. Their goal was to help the Huitong Bank rise up through affecting the Four Seas Bank.

However, these methods were a little despicable.

"If there are fund problems, Snow-War Rose can move one million over," Xie Siyun stated.

"Blood Evil Mercenary Group can send more than a million if needed." This scheme had deepened the recognition of the Shanhai Alliance in Blood Romance's mind.

When Bai Hua and the others saw them express their support, they nodded happily.

The other guild leaders all declared theirs stances one by one.

This massive boat, the Four Seas Bank, had a bright future. They definitely would not give up this bright path just because of one scheme.

The toughness and unity of the Shanhai Alliance would probably scare the enemy.

Chapter 609-Deep Ocean Beast

The committee meeting lasted for a full afternoon before everyone left for their own matters.

The enemy's ambition came wave after wave.

That very afternoon, the bank run that started in Chang An city started to spread through various avenues to the other eight imperial cities. All of a sudden, the Four Seas Bank faced a state of a state of emergency.

Meng Zhida was like a firefighter, running to the various imperial cities. Bai Hua and the others all helped out to clear the rumors regarding the branches.

Only then did this chaos slowly lessen.

However, it would not be simple to totally calm down this situation. The psychology of the masses was simply too terrifying, and they would rather believe the rumors were true just in case.

A massive sum of funds shifted from the gold vault to deal with this storm.

The next day, the Quick Daily News placed out an article targeting the rumors that the Chang An Night News had spread.

The mountains of gold in the Shanhai City vault was undoubtedly the best reply.

Despite this, some people still remained skeptical. Even if they did not go to retrieve their money, the number of players who went to save had drastically decreased.

People had once swarmed in through the bank doors, but now it seemed exceedingly empty. This was the biggest blow to the Four Seas Bank since its establishment.

If they had not handled the situation in time, the losses would be even greater.

The motive of the enemy was slowly becoming clearer and clearer. They knew that through these underhanded means alone, they could not completely crush the Four Seas Bank.

Their real goal was to deal hits to the Four Seas Bank, while simultaneously sweeping up large quantities of the market share.

While the Four Seas Bank faced a crisis, the Huitong Bank pushed out activities to attract those uncertain players.

All of a sudden, the business of the Huitong Bank boomed.

Bai Hua and the others naturally did not want to let matters rest. However, they had to wait for the investigations to be completed before they retailliated.

The smell of gunpowder grew stronger and stronger between the two banks.

3rd month, 3rd day, Beihai Bay.

After many days of travel, Ouyang Shuo and the disguised squadron smoothly entered the core area of the Annan region. Although they had bumped into many warships along the way, they managed to bluff their way through.

Ouyang Shuo’s flag language naturally failed miserably, and he had no choice but to back down and rest. Otherwise, the sailors might mock him.

"Lord, not far from here is the marked location of the island." The one who spoke was a middle-aged navigation officer. His name was Zhang Chenghai, and he was one of the advanced navigation officers that Zheng He had recruited from Quanzhou.

Looking out into the distance, one could see the vast sky spanning miles and miles. Occasionally, some clouds would pop up here and there.

The only thing he did not see was an island.

Ever since his Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique broke through to the tenth layer, Ouyang Shuo's senses had all greatly improved. He could hear things clearly even though they were miles away.

Furthermore, this was the vast ocean. If an island was nearby, it would be impossible for them to miss it.

"Did we sail in the wrong direction?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"Definitely not." Zhang Chenghai was extremely confident.

Ouyang Shuo frowned, "Don’t tell me this treasure map is fake?"

If that was truly the case, he would have lost a lot of face this time.

"Continue forward; let's reach the spot on the map before deciding." Ouyang Shuo remained determined.

"Yes, Lord!"

In less than twenty minutes, the squadron arrived at the market location.

As they progressed, the fog grew thicker and thicker. A person’s vision was limited to a hundred meters. The fog covered a large range, and one could not see the end of it; it was like the fog enveloped the entire sky.

In front of such a fog, they were just like ants.

"There's actually such a magical place?" Ouyang Shuo muttered.

"Although it's normal for seas and oceans to have mists, such a large-scale one is really rare. In my view, this fog did not just randomly appear, and it must have been here for a long time." Zhang Chenghai replied.

As an advanced navigation officer, Zhang Chenghai had travelled from north to south, and he had seen many mystical places. Despite that, the fog in front of him was still extremely weird and was unique.

"It has been a lasting presence?" Ouyang Shuo's eyes lit up, "If that's the case, there might really be a treasure island here."

Ouyang Shuo had also wondered about something. Three years had already past, and the unnamed island was near the Annan Shore. Won’t the Annan region players have found it already?

The fog in front of them solved Ouyang Shuo's doubt. Only such a tough environment could hamper the advance of ships.

"Send two small boats into the fog to scout." Ouyang Shuo ordered.

"Yes, my Lord!"

Quickly, two small boats entered the fog and disappeared. After an hour passed, far beyond the agreed upon time, there were still no signs of them.

The fog in front of them suddenly turned exceedingly evil and weird, causing a look of fear to appear in the eyes of the sailors.

"Don’t tell me we have met a ghost fog?" someone carefully said.

In the voyaging circle, there would often be legends regarding ghost fogs. Once a person met such a phenomenon, their ship would be unable to return.

As such, it was given the name of ghost fog.

Ouyang Shuo was not much of a believer of such matters.

In truth, with his shocking senses, he had already noticed something the others had not.

About twenty minutes ago, he had vaguely heard cries coming from deeper into the fog. The people sent to scout on the two small boats were most probably dead.

There were definitely ocean beasts in the fog.

Ouyang Shuo felt a little regretful that he did not bring Little Green along. With its identity as the ocean beast slayer, which ocean beast would dare to fool around before it?

"All of you, be alert. Firearm group, get ready. Enter the mist in battle formation." Ouyang Shuo ordered.

Even if this was truly a death zone, Ouyang Shuo still wanted to give it a shot.

"Yes, my Lord!"

Ouyang Shuo had an undeniable prestige.

The moment he sent down his orders, the soldiers all tossed their doubts aside.

The ten warships slowly sailed into the thick fog.

"Lord, look!"

The moment they entered the fog, Zhang Chenghai nervously approached Ouyang Shuo with a compass. His expression was unusually serious. The needle of the compass was shaking; it was completely unable to identify the correct direction.

"The compass is not working?" Ouyang Shuo muttered. With what he knew, he naturally did not believe in ghosts. In all likelihood, some electromagnetic interference caused the compass to malfunction.

This made Ouyang Shuo even more sure that the island was within the fog.

"Don’t bother about our location and just proceed forwards." Ouyang Shuo said.

"Understood!"

The squadron sailed forth and completely entered the fog. The fog completely enveloped them. Moreover, as the compass had failed, they did not know which direction was which.

And the deeper they went, the lower the visibility.

If looking at the exact same warship, one could not tell the front from the back.

"Light the voyaging lights and use them as a guide." Ouyang Shuo ordered.

Soon after, a bright yellow flame was lit and shone through the fog. The voyaging light was researched and designed by the No.7 Research Institute, and it was modified from the technology of the nautical lighthouses.

In the fog, the lights had a miraculous effect.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo's shocking senses came into play once more. He held the Chixiao Sword in his hand, and he pointed out to the front. The ships would sail in the direction he pointed.

Thanks to these two factors, the squadron actually managed to not lose their way in the fog.

Another half an hour passed.

"Lord, there's a situation!" Personal Guards Captain Chen Dameng hurried over, "In the waters ahead, there are the wreckages of the two ships."

"Stay on alert and get ready to fight."

"Yes, my Lord!"

Peng!

At that very moment, something struck the bottom of the ship.

The massive impact caused the ship to sway left to right. However, Ouyang Shuo did not move an inch.

Hualaa!"

Along with the tremendous splashes of water, five to six waist thick appendages appeared on the water surface. They looked like snakes, and each appendage had two rows of suction cups.

"Octopus monster?"

Ouyang Shuo's eyes turned cold, and he chopped down with his Chixiao Sword.

Puchi!

His blow bisected one of the appendages into two; the limb landed onto the ship, where it continued to writhe and move.

After suffering an injury, the octopus grew crazie, as it waved its hands to smash down. Occasionally, it would wrap up sailors and drag them into the water, causing them to disappear.

"Open fire!"

The handgun group finally regained their senses.

Unfortunately, the accuracy gods did not shine on them at this moment. In the face of the flexible and quick moving tentacles, they only managed to land two hits.

The captain of the handgun squadron felt ashamed.

However, their actions had angered the octopus.

Its two longest tentacles struck down and messed up the handgun squadron. Under this impact, the members with slightly weaker bodies directly vomited blood, and their internal organs shifted.

"Kill!"

Chen Dameng led the Personal Guards and rushed up. Although he was not as strong as Ouyang Shuo, he was still a powerful general. Under the help of the Personal Guards, they chopped down and cut off one tentacle after another.

On the other side, Ouyang Shuo chased victory, as he sidestepped one tentacle before cutting it off.

The Chixiao Sword sliced through iron like it was mud, much less flesh.

Peng!

Another tentacle was cut down.

After it lost three tentacles in succession, the octopus monster finally realized the situation; the ships in front of him were not ones it could easily bully.

As for the tentacles that were chopped off, they could still be grown back.

The entire battle lasted less for than ten minutes. However, it was a real heart stopper.

Ouyang Shuo's strength had once again astonished everyone. Among the military, rumors had already spread that the Lord was like a war god. However, before now, the navy soldiers had never witnessed his might.

Today, they finally got what they wished for.

"The Lord is valiant!"

During the battle, Zhang Chenghai was so terrified that he hid inside the ship. At this time, he finally came out.

Ouyang Shuo did not mind it, as everyone had their pros and cons. As a sailor, sailing was his specialty. Even if he appeared weak on the battlefield, one could not blame him.

"Clear up this mess and continue forward." Ouyang Shuo ordered.

"Yes, my Lord!"

Chapter 610-Special Soldier Type

After they chased away the octopus monster, it was like they had crossed a breakthrough point. The fog in front of them grew thinner and thinner. At the very end, only an extremely fine layer remained.

However, they had not crossed the fog region.

Looking out into the distance, a massive fog still lingered. An unassuming island laid in the middle of the fog, lonely but mysterious.

"We have reached it!" A look of anticipation appeared in Ouyang Shuo's eyes.

……

The entire island was less than twenty square kilometers long.

Likely due to the fog barrier, but the entire island seemed cut off from the rest of the world. When the animals on the island saw the Ouyang Shuo approach, they curiously came over without a sense of fear.

At the center of the island, a stark mountain peak stood out. It was like a piercing sword in the middle of nowhere.

Looking at this peak, Ouyang Shuo confirmed that they had arrived at the right place. As for the exact treasure spot, the map had detailed markings.

The treasure of the Blood Slaughterer was hidden in one of the mountain caves under the God Sword Mountain.

A giant stone blocked off the cover hole.

The Blood Slaughterer had not set up any traps. Rather, the stone was put in place to prevent animals from running in.

"Move the stone!" Ouyang Shuo instructed the Personal Guards.

"Yes!"

Chen Dameng jumped up. He grabbed the stone with both hands; his legs plunged into the ground, as he used all the strength in his body.

"Hei!"

The giant stone did not even move an inch….

"HAHHAA!"

The Personal Guards all laughed raucously; they did not bother about the face of their captain at all.

Chen Dameng was close friends with all of them, so his captain’s prestige was not overwhelming. He loved to brag about his skills and abilities to them, so this embarrassment situation would naturally cause the members to laugh.

Chen Dameng's face was completely red, “Aren’t you all coming to help?"

"Coming! Coming!" When they saw that their captain was about to blow up, the members did not dare to act out of hand. If not, the captain could use his martial arts skills to teach them a lesson.

Thanks to the hard work of the Personal Guards, the giant stone was finally moved.

The insides of the cave were pitch black and exceedingly humid. A person needed to light up a torch to catch sight of anything. The deeper one proceeded into the cave, the wider it grew.

After walking for twenty meters, they discovered a golden hollow ahead. The further one walked, the deeper the golden hue became. It was like there was a mysterious light attracting their attention.

Following the golden light, the path suddenly widened considerably. At last, an extremely spacious hall appeared in front of them; it had a size of over two hundred meters.

The golden light was emitted from his massive hall.

A mountain of gold filled the hall. Gold coins that numbered in the millions were strewn all around like litter, and they formed mountains that were tens of meters high.

The captivating golden light was enough to blind a person.

Siii!

At this impressive sight, Ouyang Shuo could not help but draw a deep breath. He had only seen such a quantity of gold in the vault of Shanhai City.

Conservatively speaking, there was no less than three million.

Apart from gold, there were numerous gems, jades, and precious stones. Other items were also embedded in the gold mountain, including precious swords decorated with rubies, china made of gold, and pearls the size of longans.

All these jewels seemed unassuming, but their value was definitely not lower than the gold mountain.

The pirate king had definitely built up a sizeable treasure collection throughout his life.

Ouyang Shuo's first reaction was to take a panoramic photo to remember the occasion.

When the others who came along saw this sight, they felt a little light headed. Greed appeared in their eyes.

"Everyone that came along will be rewarded one hundred gold." As they saying goes, ‘Finders keepers.’ If they were not rewarded, they might feel unhappy.

"Thank you, Lord, for the reward!"

The soldiers all woke up from their trance. They wiped away the drool on their faces and bowed to thank the Lord. One hundred gold was more than a few months of their pay.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and took out his storage bag, stowing away the entire gold mountain. The mountain transformed into a golden river, as it flowed into the storage bag and slowly disappeared from sight.

Such a scene was truly stunning and amazing.

During the last auction, he had purchased a larger interspatial stone. As a result, his current storage bag had a capacity of close to ten thousand cubic meters. Even if they somehow found another gold mountain, he would have enough space.

Furthermore, when gold entered a storage bag, it would just become a bunch of data. Only the gems and jewels were truly took up space.

The golden mountain disappeared, and the hall dimmed.

The entire gold mountain contained over 3.85 million gold. As for the valuation of the gems, he needed to look for professionals. Based on conservative estimations, their value should exceed three million.

This meant that from this trip, Ouyang Shuo had swept up seven million gold. This exceeded the sum of gold that the Four Seas Bank had obtained through the investment round.

If he spread this news out, other people would definitely feel jealous.

It was not over yet.

After he removed the gold mountain, a broken old iron box remained. Although it looked unassuming, it attracted all of his attention.

Normally speaking, the item inside this box would be the true treasure.

When he opened it, he only found three items inside.

A set of armor, a book, and a talisman.

Ouyang Shuo picked up the armor first; it was dark red in colour and a half body armor. The middle of the armor was a breastplate, while two golden dragons entwined the sides; the dragons looked extremely lifelike.

Name: Twin Dragon Swallows the Heaven Armor (God Rank)

Type: Heavy Armor

Weight: 25 kilograms

Defense: 95

Toughness: 85

Specialty: Unloading Force (50% reduction of the impact of hits to the body)

Killing Move: Twin Dragon Protection (inject primordial energy to form a thin protective layer around the body. Full proof protection for half an hour. Cooldown Time: one month)

Restricted Occupations: General, Chivalrous Expert, Bailiff

Evaluation: Crafted from dragon blood and gold essence, nourished by dragon blood, and forged with the fires of the heaven. Unless one is an overlord, they cannot use it. Drip blood on armor to claim. Cannot be traded, cannot be dropped, can evolve.

Add: This armor is part of the god equipment set, Dragon War. If one obtains the full set, they can activate the set specialty.

Compared to his current platinum armor, this armor was far better. Be it terms of defense or toughness, it was a massive upgrade.

More importantly, its specialty and killing move.

The specialty helped to reduce 50% of the impact, while the protection of the killing move was a life saving skill.

The only weakness was that it was a half body armor. Ouyang Shuo's current Mingguang Armor was a full set.

Thinking about the matter, Ouyang Shuo still decided to take off his current armor and replace it with the Twin Dragon Swallows the Heavens Armor.

Now, the current platinum rank Mingguang Armor was a little lacking for Ouyang Shuo. Furthermore, Baiqi and the other generals were wearing similar armor, so he did not stand out.

Ouyang Shuo only took off the main armor, while he kept the helmet and the other parts equipped. Before he obtained higher rank equipment, he would still wear them.

Who knows whether he has destiny to gather up the full set.

Following which, Ouyang Shuo picked up the small book.

Raging Ocean Warrior Training Manual: After use, user grasps the training technique of the Raging Ocean Warriors.

Raging Ocean Warriors: the guards of Poseidon, great at ocean battle, can fight on ships, and also in water.

After looking at the description, Ouyang Shuo was delighted.

After the few battles with the Annan navy, Ouyang Shuo could feel the weakness of the navy soldiers in terms of combat strength. Compared to the army, they were nothing.

Furthermore, due to the lack of navy generals, their combat strength was comparatively terrible.

With this manual, the rise of the Nanyang Navy would be something to look forward to.

The last talisman was a rare emperor rank talisman. Ouyang Shuo planned to use this item when he returned; he wanted to prevent anything unexpected from happening.

After obtaining these three items, Ouyang Shuo was filled with no regrets. Not only about this trip but also about not getting anything from the previous auction.

Of these three items, every single piece could compete with the ten auctioned items.

Blood Slaughterer, as expected from the king of pirates.

Of the treasures he kept, none of them were lousy items.

After cleaning up, Ouyang Shuo was ready to leave when he found a key in the corner of the box. Picking it up, he found that the key was carved from an unknown stone; it looked old and rusty.

Ouyang Shuo did not know what it was, so he just threw it into his storage bag before leaving the island.

On the other side, Zheng He had become the nightmare of the Annan players.

After splitting off, Zheng He led his troops to attack the Annan Navy alliance army's vanguard forces. The two squadrons had a head to head battle on the ocean.

The result of this engagement was naturally a huge victory for the Shanhai City Navy. Facing the canons of Shanhai City, the navy alliance army had no way to retaliate.

Following which, Zheng He made an unexpected move. He did not chase for the killing blow and just retreated.

Was that it?

Originally, the alliance squadron hesitated when they heard the news, but they still ended up chasing the Shanhai City Navy with all their might.

Helplessly, not only were the Shanhai squadron's ships better, but under all the buffs, their movement speed was also much faster, so how could the enemy catch up?

Zheng He used his speed advantage to perform a huge wrap around maneuver. The three squadrons split up and formed a three-way encirclement of the alliance navy.

Facing the crossfire net, the alliance navy did not know what hit them.

The crafty Zheng He was like an assassin, and he never struggled too long with the enemy. He struck once and retreated. After gaining an advantage, he swiftly left, not giving the enemy a chance to fight a close combat battle.

Chapter 611-Demoted

After heavily injuring the main force of the alliance army navy, the Shanhai City Navy disappeared once more. When they reappeared, they were at the two sides of Haiphong Bay.

The current Zheng He was like someone possessed by Shuo Qubing, and he purposely struck the enemy where they could not react. At the most impossible scenario, he dealt the most lethal of blows.

The squadrons on the two sides of Haiphong Bay were still rushing to gather; they did not expect for the enemy ships to appear behind them.

This strike was just too lethal.

The two troops of Zheng He moved like ghosts, as they swallowed up the enemy ships one by one.

The morale of the Annan region had fallen to its lowest point.

Of the navy near Haiphong Bay, more than 40% were lost. By the time Ouyang Shuo's disguised troops returned, Shanhai City had controlled the entire area.

The players of Annan region had already given up hope on winning. Under the leadership of Ruan Tianque, they started to set up defenses at the harbour to ready themselves for the enemy’s disembarkment.

Unfortunately, they were destined for disappointment.

Ouyang Shuo was not in the mood to continue playing with them, so he simply left.

This country war had started and ended so suddenly. The players of Annan region waited on high alert for the enemies, but they only saw the boundless ocean.

"Alliance leader, it seems like they are gone?" After waiting for a long while, someone asked with uncertainty.

"Jerk!"

Even with the upbringing and well-raised nature of Ruan Tianque, he could not help but scold out.

"...."

The other Lords looked at one another; this time, the Annan region had made a fool of themselves. The enemy had treated the ocean region around them like his back garden, coming and leaving as he pleased.

3rd month, 10th day.

"For the arrangements of establishing the voyaging squadron and training the Raging Ocean Warriors, I’ll leave it to General!" Before Ouyang Shuo left, he instructed Zheng He.

"Lord, do not worry. Within a month, everything will be well-prepared." After traveling down the pacific seven times, no one knew better than Zheng He regarding how to prepare for this trip.

As for the training Raging Ocean Warriors, Cai Mao would take charge of it.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, turning around to leave.

During this unintended country wall, Ouyang Shuo had obtained eighty thousand merit points, more than the points from one battle map. This was enough to explain that Country Wars would be the best place to gain merit points.

At this point, his total merit point value had crossed the five hundred thousand threshold, hitting just over half.

Apart from that, through this huge battle, Ouyang Shuo had obtained one hundred thousand reputation points. His harvests would make other players envious.

……

He only learned of the events regarding the Four Seas Bank after he returned to Shanhai City.

"Get Black Snake and Meng Zhida over." Ouyang Shuo's face looked exceedingly gloomy.

"Yes, my Lord!"

Bai Nanpu carefully backed down; he could feel the anger and rage of the Lord.

"Greetings, Lord!"

After a short while, Black Snake and Meng Zhida entered the reading room. Black Snake looked as expressionless as usual. On the contrary, Meng Zhida had a look of embarrassment and shame on his face; his expression even showed a tinge of nervousness.

"So guys, what happened?" Ouyang Shuo questioned in a low tone; his aura did not show a hint of his anger.

"Lord." Black Snake was the first to step out, "Based on the investigations of the Black Snake Guards, this bank run started out in Chang An City. Thousands of adventure gamemode players, Chang An Night News, and the Four Seas Bank Chang An Branch Treasurer Li Wei participated in this matter."

"You're saying there is a mole; what proof have you found?" Ouyang Shuo's expression immediately turned serious.

Ouyang Shuo was extremely sensitive about betrayals.

"Based on our investigations, when the bank run first started, Li Wei took matters into his own hands. He did not care about the words of the manager, and he did not report the matter in time. As a result, the situation escalated. The Black Snake Guards have found that he has some connections to the Yanhuang Alliance."

Meng Zhida's expression paled further and further.

"Where is Li Wei now?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"He has already left the Four Seas Bank. However, we are still tracking his whereabouts," Black Snake replied.

In all likelihood, Li Wei would not suspect that Shanhai City had such an intel organization with their eyes on him. As for the other members of the territory that were sent out, the Black Snake Guards would pay close attention to them.

Regardless of whether they were guilty or not.

They had to ensure that the Black Snake Guards monitored these people.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said coldly, "Immediately capture him and place him in jail; let the Procuratorate Division deal with him. Since he's a resident of Shanhai City, he cannot escape the law system. If not, where will our prestige and might lie?"

"Understood!" Black Snake nodded.

Although Li Wei was an adventure gamemode player, he had registered in Shanhai City, and his resurrection point was in Shanhai City. Even if he killed himself, he would appear in Shanhai City.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo was not worried at all that he might escape.

When players joined the territory, while they were able to enjoy benefits, they would naturally face restrictions as well. Otherwise, how could the Lords keep an eye on them?

With this case as an example, we will start our lawful age! Ouyang Shuo thought to himself.

Seeing the Lord act like he would completely investigate this matter, Meng Zhida could not help but plead guilty, and he knelt down, "I picked the wrong person, please punish me, Lord!"

No matter what, he had recruited Li Wei. Since things had happened, he was to blame too.

A glow appeared in Ouyang Shuo’s eyes.

"Punishments are definitely necessary." It was hard for Ouyang Shuo to hide his disappointment, as he said, "Not only did you fail to investigate the person you hired, but the Four Seas Bank structure itself has a problem. A treasurer of a branch could actually suppress an emergency without anyone being able to skip past him and report to the headquarters; such a preposterous matter."

When Meng Zhida heard these words, his currently pale face turned even whiter.

"Men, receive my orders!"

"Present!"

"I decree, Four Seas Bank Treasurer Meng Zhida has failed his duty. Fine a year of pay and remove him from duty, demotion to deputy treasurer," Ouyang Shuo stated.

"Yes, my Lord." Pai Nanpu left to announce the decree.

"Thank you, Lord, for your benevolence!"

Meng Zhida had thought that he would definitely lose his job; he did not expect that he would not be sacked.

Ouyang Shuo said expressionlessly, "The position of treasurer will temporarily be in the hands of Director Fan Li. As for the daily duties, you will remain in charge. I hope you do not let me down."

"I definitely won’t!" Meng Zhida teared up with emotion.

"Go down. Next, I need to have a committee meeting to deal with this." Ouyang Shuo appeared extremely confident about dealing with this matter.

"Yes, my Lord!"

Looking back at the desperate back view of Meng Zhida, Ouyang Shuo let out a long sigh. His heavy punishment was to set an example, and it was also to give an answer to his allies.

After Bai Hua and the others invested in the Four Seas Bank, they had not interfered in the daily runnings of the bank. They had let the management team of Shanhai City deal with it. Since there was a mistake, they naturally had to take the blame.

If not, how could they answer the heavy trust of their allies.

As for the committee meeting, Ouyang Shuo was not in a rush to start it. Ouyang Shuo's trump card was naturally the treasure he had obtained.

In the afternoon, Bai Xiaosheng accepted his invitation.

After hanging out a few times, the two could be considered half friends.

"Once the Lord disappeared, waves started in the wilderness." Bai Xiaosheng smiled as he spoke.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, "When has the wilderness ever been peaceful? With or without me, it's still the same."

"Lord is too humble. Regarding the Chang An Night News, I have heard about them before. But with the strength of the Shanhai Alliance, I thought that it was just a small matter, and I did not deal with them. I did not expect the matter to blow over, so Lord, please do not blame me."

As expected from a media giant.

The acts of the Chang An Night News obviously could not escape his eyes. Naturally, he did not tell Shanhai City because he wanted to maintain his neutrality; he did not want to be wrapped up in the battle of the two sides.

Now that he saw Ouyang Shuo, who remained incredibly stable and not panicky at all, he felt a need to explain himself to avoid misunderstandings.

In regards to the current Ouyang Shuo, whatever he did, others would read into it.

Ouyang Shuo understood Bai Xiaosheng’s actions.

As the media, one needed to remain neutral. If he was biased, he would be unable to get himself out of the situation. The main matter was that the cooperation between Wilderness Publications and Shanhai Alliance had just started.

Their relationship was not close to the point where they needed to tell Shanhai Alliance information beforehand.

"This was something that the Four Seas Bank needed to go through." Ouyang Shuo laughed, "I have something I need your cooperation for."

"Lord, please speak."

Ouyang Shuo's attitude was incredibly casual.

"I went out to sea to complete a huge task, so I hope the media can report on it." Ouyang Shuo told him all about the treasure and the country war.

The more he listened, the more astonished he grew.

"The Lord is really magnificent." Only after a long while did he react and said, "The Lord showing off his might outside has strengthened the name of our country. In comparison, within our country, there are people who are so despicable."

He finally made his stance clear.

Ouyang Shuo could not help but smile when he heard these words. As expected from a media giant, he instantly understood what Ouyang Shuo was planning.

As for how to use this material to form an article to promote Shanhai City and turn the situation of the Four Seas Bank around, he was naturally the professional for this matter.

Chapter 612-Taking Revenge

The next day, on the front page, first line of the Quick Daily News, there was a commentary article with the title of ‘Hero fights for country in Country War, but gets shot by hidden arrows.’

Bai Xiaosheng used his descriptive writing skills to illustrate how Qiyue Wuyi had started a Country War and destroyed the Annan Navy to obtain rich treasures, describing him as the hero of the country.

Following which, he turned the tone around to describe the bank run matter of the Four Seas Bank. Based on the Black Snake Guards investigations, this matter was a carefully planned scheme.

The goal was to utilize improper competition to achieve unspeakable goal.

Connecting the two matters together would trigger the patriotic spirit of the players. At the same time, it would wash away the negativity around the Four Seas Bank, helping to strike at the evil doers.

The moment the article went live, it naturally caused an uproar.

To the players in the China region, a Country War was simply a massive matter. Although Ouyang Shuo had went out for personal reasons, he was a hero in their eyes.

This point was enough to push the reputation and prestige of Shanhai City to the top. Any negative news and information would be repelled.

With that, the players naturally hated those despicable schemers.

They had ironclad evidence, so the perpetrators could not deny the matter.

Anyone with a brain would know the people behind this.

All of a sudden, the comments all favored Shanhai City.

The popularity of the Fours Seas Bank exploded once more. Meanwhile, the Huitong Bank lost a lot of credit. Even if they tried to pull further stunts, it would be useless.

Ouyang Shuo's action caught many people off guard, a true masterstroke.

Jingchu Province, Pill Sun City.

"Asshole!"

After Chun Shenjun read the report, he was furious regarding Bai Xiaosheng's stance. It was incredibly obvious that the Wilderness Publications had started to side with Shanhai Alliance.

Shanhai City’s influence had started to seep into other territories and regions.

A well-thought out planned was easily thwarted by Qiyue Wuyi, making Chun Shenjun feel extremely annoyed.

It was like saving up so much to use your special move and wanting to one shot your opponent. However, your opponent just uses a finger to break your move; such a feeling of defeat was just incredibly awful.

"Wait and see!" Chun Shenjun remained determined.

He would not give up easily.

Shanhai City, Dongli Sword Sect.

Above the hanging cliff, two senior disciples served two female disciples, who were having a casual conversation.

"Feifei, I heard that your father was demoted," said the slightly plumb female disciple.

"En." The other female disciple was the crestfallen Meng Feifei.

During this bank run, her father had worked so hard, but it did not work out. In the end, he was demoted. When she returned home and saw the depressed back view of her father, her heart felt pained.

His health worried her.

"In my opinion, Ouyang was too vicious; he did not care about relationships." The slightly plump female disciple was naturally her good friend, Tan Xiaoli.

The two of them were able to join the Dongli Sword Sword thanks to Ouyang Shuo’s help.

When they entered Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo only had the shine of the best Lord in the world. The two of them could use their relationship as friends to go and visit.

Now, even entering the Lord's Manor required great courage.

A massive divide separated them.

Even during Ouyang Shuo's wedding, the two were just two out of thousands of guests. They were the most basic of visitors, and they did not even have the right to drink with him.

"Ouyang Shuo was also put on the spot. Since my dad could keep his job, it means Ouyang Shuo has tried to take care of him." Meng Feifei understood the entire matter; she saw the situation clearly.

Sigh! Tan Xiaoli exhaled; she obviously understood.

However, since things had changed till such a state, she could not help but feel emotional.

Since when did that normal kid suddenly become a presence that everyone worshipped. Even when they talked privately, they could not help but respect him.

"I heard that Yuan Ping is thinking of attacking." Tan Xiaoli changed the topic.

"Him?" Meng Feifei's eyebrows could not help but rise, as a look of disdain appeared on her face, "Does he still not understand the gap between them?"

"Little brat, when did your words become so vicious?" Tan Xiaoli was a little shocked.

According to her impressions, Meng Feifei was a typical well-behaved, introverted girl. Even if she was unhappy with someone, she would not show it.

Her words really shocked Tan Xiaoli.

"I'm just saying the truth."

"At least people are still fighting!" Tan Xiaoli shook her head and sighed, "What about us? We do not even know where our futures will head. Who knows when the wilderness will really open the sect system. The Underworld is just a false name."

"It will come." Meng Zhida's eyes looked resolute.

The current sword wielders, including the sect disciples, were all at the training stage. They cultivated and improved their skills in wait of the Underworld’s released. At that time, they could show off their skills.

A breeze blew across and brought with it their words.

That afternoon, Ouyang Shuo held the committee meeting.

Naturally, his goal was to get even after autumn.

Li Wei had already been thrown into prison by the Black Snake Guards. If nothing went wrong, he would spend the next year in the cold prison.

A single year was the longest time Gaia allowed one to lock up players.

One could say that Li Wei's game adventures had arrived at a sad and lonely end. Even after he exited prison, it would be difficult for him to gain positive fame. After all, he had made enemies with Shanhai City,

When the other players heard the news, they felt awe-inspired.

As for those players who went to save and withdraw their money for the scheme, although they were targeted, they could not get prosecuted. After all, they had not committed a crime. Hence, Ouyang Shuo could not do anything that would result in the outside world getting a bad impression.

However, for those who led them, they were naturally prosecuted.

As for dealing with the few normal players, people handled them without even the need for Ouyang Shuo to open his mouth. One must not forget that Shanhai Alliance had five to six super alliances.

The guilds were best for dealing with adventure gamemode players.

This meeting was mainly to discuss how to deal with the Chang An Night News and the other media companies.

"Gaia has a rule that the moment a media outlet reports false news that causes negative effects, it will remove their license and ban them from media-related work." Ouyang Shuo was extremely familiar with the rules, so he introduced, "I have already applied to Gaia, and we will get results soon."

The producer of the Chang An Night News likely did not know about this setting. He probably thought that it was just a random blog, and they could say anything they wanted.

How would they know that Gaia had placed relevant federal laws into the game? Since they wanted to make the game real, how could laws be missing?

These people were truly too gullible.

Ouyang Shuo guessed that Gaia was likely waiting for such a chance to deal with the various media publications who had suddenly popped up.

After all, for an industry to develop, a healthy ecosystem was important. As such, Ouyang Shuo had faith that Gaia would punish the Chang An Night News.

Ouyang Shuo was probably the first person ever to account for Gaia in his plans.

"Good, we need to give those bastards a lesson." Gong Chengshi cheered. In this defamation incident, Black Lion City was defamed the most.

"Even if they disband, they would probably be able to live wealthily with the funds that they were paid." Feng Qiuhuang was extremely clear about these matters.

"Then what can we do?" Gong Chengshi was really unhappy.

"Just leave those things to us." Moon Shines Over the River said, "If we do not kill them a few times, how will we vent our anger."

Killing intent filled his words.

Ouyang Shuo did not bother about this, as somethings were best left for the guilds to handle.

With a tacit understanding, they did not mention how to take revenge on the Yanhuang Alliance. In truth, to deal with such a huge entity was not something they could do in such a short time.

No one seated here was a fool.

Ouyang Shuo was already extremely annoyed by the despicable acts of the Yanhuang Alliance. From now on, the strategy of the Shanhai Alliance would turn from defence to attack.

After returning to Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo had started planning some ideas. However, some aspects could not be discussed without a clear plan.

In truth, Ouyang Shuo had held this meeting to maintain the military sentiments.

It was obvious that this goal was reached.

Apart from this, the situation had also exposed the weakness of the Four Seas Bank. That was that in Chang An and Xiangyang Imperial City, they did not have a partner.

The enemy choosing Chang An meant that they had seen through this weakness.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo took out a namelist of guilds and territories that had a good reputation in the five years of the game.

Ouyang Shuo suggested to use them as the breakthrough point.

After this matter, since Ouyang Shuo had solved the problem almost single handedly, his prestige rose once more. Although they still had some doubts regarding his confidence, they chose to trust him.

Soon, Ouyang Shuo would travel far away. Naturally, these matters would be led by Feng Qiuhuang. As such, Ouyang Shuo had to make things clear to avoid missed opportunities.

The blueprint of the Four Seas Bank also needed to be expanded once more.

Chapter 613-Navy General Shi Lang

Beihai Bay Harbor, Ouyang Shuo was sending off a person.

This man was middle-aged and looked exceedingly ordinary. If he did not wear his military uniform, others would think that he was a normal farmer.

This general was the one that Ouyang Shuo had summoned through the emperor rank summoning talisman - General Shi Lang.

Shi Lang came from Fujian, a famous General at the end of Ming Dynasty and the start of the Qing Dynasty. He was the deputy general of the likes of the Qing Army and the Fujian Navy Admiral; Emperor Kangxi trusted him greatly.

Shi Lang was good at leading troops, especially during naval battles. His troops were swift, fierce and were given the title of Ocean Lightning.

His most famous adventure was when he led the Qing Army in the conquest of Taiwan.

His stats were really eye-catching; Ouyang Shuo's luck seemed to have come at a right time, as he managed to recruit such a general.

Name: Shi Lang (Emperor Rank)

Title: Marquis Jinghai

Dynasty: Ming Dynasty End, Qing Dynasty Start

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: special rank general

Loyalty: 75

Command: 88

Force: 85

Intelligence: 75

Politics: 70

Specialty: Naval Battle (10% increase in cannon range and power, 30% increase in warship speed, 25% increase in warship defences, 35% increase in navy soldiers morale).

Cultivation method: Jinghai True Manual

Evaluation: General Shi Lang possesses rare knowledge and unprecedented brawn. He is accomplished in formations and naval warfare. Proficient at reading the weather while at sea; he is used to naval quests. He dares to speak up when others do not, and he dares to act when others do not.

On the topic of Shi Lang, some people might be a little unfamiliar with him.

On the contrary, the other famous general who occupied Yizhou-Zheng, Cheng Gong was praised by many.

For what reason?

Shi Lang had changed his allegiance continuously. He worked for the Ming Dynasty army twice and surrendered to the Qing Army twice. It was not surprising that descendants had mixed opinions about him. His position in history always remained a debate.

Was he the hero that occupied Taiwan, or was he the villain that kept changing sides?

Ming Dynasty General Zheng Cheng Gong took Yizhou from the Dutch before making it the base to go against the Qing. The Qing Army sent troops to attack Yizhou, but they returned in defeat many times.

During the 22nd year of Kangxi's reign, Shi Lang led twenty thousand elite troops and three hundred warships out to sea to take over Yizhou. With this success, Shi Lang was given the title of Marquis Jinghai, which could be inherited indiscriminately. At this stage, he reached the peak of his career.

From his ability to his achievements, Shi Lang was worth of everyone’s praise. He only angered people because he switched sides between the Ming and Qing armies multiple times.

Shi Lang was born in the ending years of the Ming Dynasty. In his early years, he was one of the subordinates of Zheng Zhilong, who was the father of Zheng Cheng Gong. When the Qing Army went down south, Zhen Zhilong's troops were defeated, and Shi Ling surrendered to the Qing Army.

The Qing Army ordered Zheng Zhilong to make his son surrender, but Zheng Cheng Gong was ashamed of his father and disowned him, continuing to fight the Qing. Zheng Cheng Gong admired Shi Ling's commanding ability, and he tried to persuade the latter to fight against the Qing. After many considerations, he decided to leave the Qing Army, and he returned to Zheng Cheng Gong's anti Qing Army once again.

Shi Lang was an open and straightforward person, daring to say anything; Zheng Cheng Gong had a straight temperament, and he had an explosive personality. Hence, the two of them would have conflicts and even fights. At that time, Shi Lang felt unhappy because Zheng Cheng Gong did not reward him for his efforts, while Zheng Cheng Gong distanced himself due to the arrogance of Shi Lang.

Zheng Cheng Gong linked this conflict and the conjecture that Shi Lang wanted to revolt together. In a fit of anger, he ordered men to surround the residence of Shi Lang and captured his father Shi Da Xuan and his brother Shi Xian.

After Shi Lang was captured, he was locked onto a boat. His subordinates and trusted allies empathised with him, so they released him secretly.

After he escaped, Shi Lang returned to the mainland and started to work for Zheng Cheng Gong's uncle, Zheng Zhibao, and he requested for the latter to help him solve the situation between them. However, Zheng Cheng Gong did not accept the reconciliation attempts, and he sent assassins to kill Shi Lang, determined to send him to hell.

Shi Lang managed to survive due to someone tipping him off, but this failure infuriated Zheng Cheng Gong. He ordered someone to kill Shi Lang’s father and brother. As a result, a blood animosity formed between them. Shi Lang had nowhere to go. However, he wanted revenge. With no other choice, he felt compelled to surrender to the Qing Dynasty.

Hence, circumstances had actually forced his so called changing sides.

Not Long after Shi Lang took over Yizhou, he wrote an article about the pros and cons of Yizhou to describe its importance to Emperor Kangxi. He also suggested for the emperor to push for the economic development of Yizhou, which would allow the emperor to obtain a prosperous island.

At the same time, he also persuaded Emperor Kangxi to get rid of the relocation and ocean ban order. In the end, Kangxi followed his suggestions and put tens of millions of residents out of their misery.

One could say that Shi Ling did not just occupu Taiwan, he also helped protect it.

……

After Shi Ling was summoned, Ouyang Shuo immediately appointed him as the fleet admiral of the Jiaozhou Squadron. At the same time, he gave him the title of 3rd grade general, Sea Crossing General.

Such treatment was extremely special and honorable.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo took into account the general’s familiarity toward Jiaozhou and Quanzhou when appointing him as the Jiaozhou Squadron fleet admiral. He would be a massive help to Ouyang Shuo's future plans.

His mission was to train the Jiaozhou Squadron into shape within half a year.

After obtaining the Beihai Bay Treasure, Ouyang Shuo's ambition also grew. He was not satisfied with the three squadrons being filled in a year; he wanted the matter accomplished in six months.

As for the 1st squadron chief general Yanhuo Yaonie, he would follow Ouyang Shuo in his expedition. The 1st division that he led would temporarily be housed in Beihai Bay.

For Ouyang Shuo to decide to bring him along as the general, he naturally had his considerations. The territory's few navy generals were basically all river and close sea generals; they had basically no ocean generals.

Not to mention Shanhai City, it would probably be difficult to find a navy general proficient in long distance ocean battle in the entirety of China.

As such, the territory needed to train up such generals themselves.

Compared to Cai Mao and Pei Donglai, Yanhuo Yaonie was a player. Not only did he possess terrifying talent, he also had foresight and knowledge that the ancient Chinese did not have. His potential was shocking, and he was a moldable talent. Naturally, he was the best choice for the future general of the long distance travelling ships.

……

After sending Shi Lang away, Ouyang Shuo started to prepare for the impending voyaging expedition.

Gaia had already disbanded Chang An Night News and the other two publications, causing an uproar in the wilderness. Ouyang Shuo did not bother about the fates of those players. Naturally, someone would deal with them.

The Four Seas Bank had once again set on the right path; they did not need Ouyang Shuo to worry. After this set back, Meng Zhida would definitely start a revolution in the bank.

The territory had the four directors and the various governors, so everything was well ran.

First, Ouyang Shuo needed to distribute the millions from the treasure. After the jewels and gems were evaluated, they were deemed to have a value of above 3.3 million.

Along with the 3.85 million gold, the treasure amounted to more than seven million.

Such a vast sum made all the directors and governors drool. Unfortunately, Ouyang Shuo's one sentence destroyed all their dreams and hopes.

"The financial budget that has been adjusted once will not be adjusted a second time. The seven million will be used for the specially planned specific purposes." Ouyang Shuo made it clear.

Firstly, Ouyang Shuo took out two million to support the Black Snake Guards, the Shanhai Guards, and Military Intelligence Division.

The use of intel had grown more and more apparent.

Ouyang Shuo did not mind spending a vast amount. Once again, he placed his hopes on the three intel organizations to reap huge rewards. During this round of investment, the roles of the three organizations were tweaked.

Firstly, the scope of activity of the Shanhai Guards was not limited to the territory anymore.

Both the Shanhai Guards and the Black Snake Guards would cover the entire region. The difference would be that the Shanhai Guards would focus on natives, while the Black Snake Guards on players.

Neither interfered with the other; they worked hand in hand.

Apart from that, the two intel organizations would continue to extend into the territories of the Yanhuang Alliance.

Being on the back foot and being hit was not his style.

Secondly, they would expand the overseas version of the intel organizations.

The Black Snake Guards, apart from the local intel work, would also start to acquire international intel to prepare for future country battles.

The first target would be Annan, which Ouyang Shuo had played for a fool.

Just this aim emphasized the ambition of Ouyang Shuo. When Black Snake heard the command, he could feel his blood boil. As an international mercenary, his foresight was truly wide.

Black Snake was going to show off his might once more.

To fulfil the two goals, two million gold was just a start.

The next day, Ouyang Shuo sent five hundred thousand to the Honglu Temple. The first half of the year would be when the Honglu Temple led by Zhang Yi showed their skills. Naturally, Ouyang Shuo needed to support him.

Travelling, canvassing support, and alienating one person from another; such tasks needed actual funds.

Following which, Ouyang Shuo turned his eyes to Xinan University and the Army Military Academy.

In the end, these two education organizations were going to propel the future of the territory. After all, more than half of the officials and generals in the territory had benefited from them.

The schools were holy places of culture, so talk of money seemed a bit too vulgar.

However, in reality...

Hiring hundreds and thousands of lecturers, perfect facilities, and paying for tens of thousands of scholars; each aspect was a huge expenditure.

The education organizations in history were all backed by the entire country's finances.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo did not mind spending one million gold in hope that the territory would have its next talent explosion. He hoped that these two schools would become the best school in Xinan or even the entirety of China.

"Accepting talents and scholars from everywhere, accepting everyone regardless of background, with a dominating strength to swallow up tens of thousands of miles."

This was Ouyang Shuo's ambition.

Chapter 614-Military Martial Arts Competition

Intel, diplomacy, and education; these three areas alone easily used up 3.5 million gold.

Apart from this, Ouyang Shuo would keep 2.5 million gold for his own use. As for the remaining one million, he would throw the sum into the military expansion.

Firstly, they would build the 5th division of the Guards Legion to complete the Guards Legion.

The Guards Legion 5th division would be elite cavalry from the three legion corps. It would also be the 3rd Cavalry Division in the Guards Legion.

Originally, Ouyang Shuo had other ideas regarding this division. However, since Huo Qubing was proficient in cavalry warfare, Ouyang Shuo could only increase the cavalry set up in the legion.

Secondly, they would expand the city protection division to a city protection legion.

The city protection division already had two divisions under it, so they would just merge the Lianzhou, Xunzhou and Zhen An Garrison Divisions into this city protection legion.

With that, the city protection division directly reached full capacity.

As for the Garrison Divisions, the reserve squad members would temporality replace it.

The General of this legion would be Er'Lai.

Er'Lai’s promotion meant that this city protection division would completely break away from the brand of a local force people. Ouyang Shuo's goal was to turn this city protection legion into the 2nd Guards Legion.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to send them out for training.

Based on the military agreement he had with Wufu, this completed city protection legion would teleport over to Stone City to aid in the expansion of Stone City for half a year.

During that period, the Guards Legion would handle Shanhai City’s defences.

The agreement clearly stated the roles and responsibilities of each party.

Shanhai City would take charge of their salary, while Stone City would bear the teleportation fees and logistics. As such, the city protection legion would receive the needed training, while Stone City would gain a helping hand; it was a win-win situation.

Ouyang Shuo’s move was naturally to impede the expansion of Handan City in the north region of Jingdou. Stone City was an extremely important chess piece in his entire strategy, so he could not allow Di Chen to remove it.

This deployment of the city protection legion could be called the opening of a new form of cooperation within the Shanhai Alliance. Consequently, Shanhai City slowly changed from an alliance leader in name to the alliance leader of a common military alliance.

Shanhai City providing military cover for its allies would become something extremely common in the future.

Now, aside from the economic field, Shanhai City had also started to play the role of an actual alliance leader in military terms; a true big brother.

Thirdly, they needed to build the 3rd legion of the Tiger Legion.

With the Zhenhai City Garrison Division acting as the foundation, along with the Qiongzhou, Leizhou, Zhaoqing, and Wuzhou Garrison Divisions, they would build up a complete war fighting legion.

With that, the eight Garrison Divisions in the territory were all removed from their duties and would need reconstruction. As a result, Ouyang Shuo had also removed some of the problems of the Garrison Divisions like local interests.

Furthermore, elite Garrison Division major generals such as Zhao Yan, Hu Yibiao, Su Wang, and Song Wu could use this chance to return to battle.

Zhenhai City, Qiongzhou Prefecture, Leizhou Prefecture, and Zhaoqing Prefecture all belonged to the Lingnan Warzone, which was under the command of the Tiger Legion. Hence, this new legion was placed under their control.

The base of the legion was chosen to be Zhenhai City.

Ouyang Shuo's goal was naturally to strengthen this area and defend the bridge. If not, what if the Lingnan City-State started something while he was away? He would not be able to help.

After this expansion, Zhenhai City would possess a war fighting legion and a complete Jiaozhou Squadron. Even if the Lingnan City-State went all out against them, they could hold on until reinforcements arrived.

Fan Lihua would take the role of general of the 3rd legion of the Tiger Legion Corps.

After this promotion, Fan Lihua had once again broken a record, becoming the first woman in the territory, and probably even China, to become a legion general.

Of course, just expanding two legions would not cost a million. More than half was spent on the expansion of the three squadrons.

The families of the thousands of talents that Zheng He had recruited also needed to survive, so just the settling down fees was an enormous sum.

Amongst this sum, it did not account for resources such as weapons and warships. If not, based on the current Shanhai City military standards, a million was definitely far from enough.

……

The Lord continued to blatantly expand his army, while resting his forces in his territory and taking no military action.

It seemed contradictory, but it was actually in the same vein.

After a few combo punches, the logic his commands contained gave the many officials in the city much to ponder about.

Of the 2.5 million that Ouyang Shuo kept, he took out five hundred thousand once more to purchase item for trading on their voyage such as porcelain and tea leaves.

If this went well, the profits of this batch would double, helping to make up for the costs of this voyage. Needless to say, at the same time, they could bring back a massive batch of the other country's products and earn plenty.

It was similar to when Zheng He headed down the pacific in history. However, they were more practical this time and did not empty their coffers.

If Ouyang Shuo had not ordered that no merchant ships could follow them, the Chambers of Commerce in the territory would probably risk everything to stalk them on this mystical journey.

The self-produced porcelain from Shanhai City was far from standard. The best porcelain in China’s history came from Jingde Town, Jiangchuan Province. In the wilderness, there was no such town, as it was just drafted into the Quanzhou Imperial City.

Making use of this chance, they opened up the sea route to Quanzhou.

Gong Chengshi had mentioned that due to his regional specialty, porcelain masters would occasionally show up in his territory, to the envy of all the other Lords.

Within Black Lion City, there was high grade earth and materials for making porcelain.

The porcelain industry had already developed into one of their core pillars. In the future, his ambition would be to defeat Quanzhou and become the capital of porcelain.

As for tea leaves, although the self-produced white tea was a territory specialty, it was not a premium product in China. The real famous teas were teas such as Biluochun (green tea) and Tie Guanyin.

Luckily, tea leaves were small in size, so they could use storage bags to hold the purchased tea from the various imperial cities.

Similarly, Lords had occupied the production regions of these famous teas, creating a monopoly.

The advantage of geography was undeniable.

Since the wilderness had developed to such a stage, apart from the outer regions that had not been opened up, there were exceedingly few regions that players had not claimed. Territory specialialites were not a fresh thing.

Various industries prospered.

The vast China had various items, which made numerous Lords rich just like Gong Chengshi.

Winter slowly left.

After the snow melted, the wilderness became as its name suggested. As the Lords farmed, the wilderness brimmed with life. The current wilderness had the prosperous scenes of ancient dynasties.

A new era was slowly arriving.

……

In the following period of time, Ouyang Shuo was making preparations for his voyage.

The plans of the four bureaus had already been approved, and they did not need any adjustments.

The Internal Affairs Bureau's most core job was naturally to handle the territory law system to model the way the territory was run.

Apart from the expansion work, the Military Affairs Bureau would prepare the combat logistics.

Director Du Ruhui could already smell the scent of war after the Lord expanded the army once more. Hence, after the territory stabilized, war would definitely start.

There was also a chance that it would be a large-scale battle of successive wars.

In contrast to previous occasions, the future wars would move hundred thousands of men, and the logistics required would take more than a more or a half to settle.

In ancient times, to prepare for a massive war, one needed a year or numerous years.

The Combat Logistics Department had planned to build a logistics supply base near the three legion corps' base, including a huge granary, a combined military factory, and a horse breeding farm.

Their duty in this half a year was to fill up these three logistic bases.

Apart from that, as there were no war matters in the first half of the year, they would hold a martial arts competition involving the whole military to maintain morale and to ensure that their combat strength did not decrease.

The competition was based on soldier type, cavalry, bowmen, spearmen, heavy-sword soldier, sword-shield soldier, and navy soldier, six types in total. The final champion would obtain honor and prizes.

For example, the champion bowmen would be called the Marksmen. Apart from titles, the winner would rise up one military rank and receive a platinum weapon.

Such rich rewards were enough to drive one crazy.

The most crazy part was that the top three of each soldier type will fight one another to see who is the strongest soldier in the entire army.

The overall champion would receive the title of Martial Scholar, and their rank would increase by 5 grades. Additionally, they would be granted the role of major general.

Only colonel and below could participate in this competition.

Ouyang Shuo was extremely supportive of Du Ruhui’s idea, and he even promised to personally hand out the prizes and prepare a special gift.

The moment the news went out, waves rose in the military.

Even those colonels and major generals were grumbling and wanted to join in.

Helplessly, Du Ruhui could only go with the masses and make it a team competition, where each regiment would send out a hundred elites to fight.

For the final champion team, all of them would receive a grade 1 prize. At the same time, the colonel would receive a promotion to major general and reach the rank of grade 5 general.

With that, he had managed to calm down the requests of the colonels. As for the major generals, Du Ruhui could not bother with them, as their participation would only be bullying the others.

Chapter 615-Set Off, into the Starry Ocean

Bright skies and a cool breeze.

A month later, the preparations for the voyage had been completed. 4th month, 5th day, many ships were in the Beihai Harbor waters, while numerous delivery workers moved items about.

The main force of the voyage squadron came from Pei Donglai and Yanhuo Yaonie, who each led one squadron.

The only difference was that Cai Mao would stay behind to train the Yashan Squadron. The Yashan Squadron's current three divisions were all moved under the Beihai Bay Squadron.

With that, the Beihai Squadron became the first squadron under the Nanyang Navy to reach the full member count. Weirdly, even though it was fully formed, it still lacked a fleet admiral.

The navy generals that Zheng He had recruited were basically all chief generals and majors. As for fleet generals, they lacked the skill to take up the role. Even Cai Mao, such a general who had so many contributions, was still not good enough.

This expedition was different from the alliance squadron. Apart from having different types of warships, there were also other ships. Some to carry grain, some to carry freshwater, some to carry livestock, horse boats, and vegetable boats.

There was also items like tea leaves and porcelain on the boats, while they also had specific boats for entertainment like troupes and simple entertainment shows.

All in all, everything needed for the long voyage was prepared. The squadron could last a month without needing to restock.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo kept some emergency supplies in his storage bag.

For this voyage, Zheng He also prepared two special items that could be considered secret weapons.

Firstly, the military doctors from the Medical Department.

Based on Zheng He's requirements, every one hundred people needed one doctor. The squadron, sailors, and soldiers totalled at more than ten thousand.

Hence, the military doctors number five hundred, a glamorous formation.

The greatest threat during a voyage was not storms or pirates but illnesses. It seemed unassuming, but it could destroy them.

Amongst which, there was one that was the most terrifying - Septicemia.

During the 14th century,numerous shipmen fell to septicemia onboard the adventure ships that Columbus led. However, the Chinese at that time did not face the same problems.

The root of septicemia was a lack of greens and vitamins. Beans allowed the Chinese to avoid this issue.

Chinese food culture possessed an extremely well researched history. Just beans alone could make tofu, drinks, beancurd, and many other products. Especially beansprouts, which was magical, as it could replace vegetables to a certain degree. Moreover, it had a certain amount of vitamins.

Apart from beans, tea also had vitamins.

This was Zheng He's seafaring secret.

……

This voyage of Shanhai City held a history setting meaning.

All secretary rank and above from the Nanjiang Governor-General House had gathered. The families of the soldiers and sailors sent them off on the dock.

For this trip, who knows how many of them would be buried in the ocean.

Worshipping Mazu had already become a custom every time they left for sea. This ceremony reached a new peak. The harbor held the biggest and grandest worship ceremony, and they prayed for the blessing of Mazu.

Mazu Culture had already taken root in the territory.

After the worship finished, the auspicious time arrived.

Ouyang Shuo bowed to Xiao He and the other officials, cupping his hands, "For territorial matters, I’ll depend on all of you once more!" During this voyage, Ouyang Shuo had no way to contact them, so he would not be able to care about the territory.

After a short while, Xiao He led them and bowed, "We await your return!"

Numerous officials and thousands of residents knelt on the ground, forming a stunning black swathe. Such a scene would astonish anyone who saw it.

The Lianzhou Lord already started to have the aura and actings of a king, and these aspects were becoming more and more apparent.

Above the Beihai Bay, this change influenced the fate and prosperity dragon in the skies, and it opened one of its eyes.

Ouyang Shuo vaguely felt it and looked up into the sky. However, he naturally he could not see anything. He nodded his head and once again looked toward Song Jia and Bing'er before boarding Dragon Head.

"Brother, come back soon!" Bing'er shouted.

Ouyang Shuo waved at the little brat before smiling and leaving.

This goodbye would be for several months, or even close to half a year. It was tough on Song Jia; the two of them had just married, but he had to leave her so soon.

After Ouyang Shuo left, internal administrative work would be left to her. With that, Song Jia would slowly become a new heroine in the wilderness.

Song Jia and the others stood at the pier and looked out as the squadron sailed away.

In the end, they became a black spot that disappeared into the distance, only leaving behind small ripples.

Beihai Harbor became calm once more. The next time it became this busy would be four to five months later.

...

Riding the seasonal winds of the winter season, the voyaging squadron slowly left Beihai Bay and entered the vast ocean.

Based on the battle plan that Zheng He had set, each warship had ten quartermasters, ten inspectors, twenty lookouts, ten deckhands, ten grenadiers, ten skirmishes, and fifty commanders.

Each commander was in charge of ten soldiers.

As for the horse ships, grain ships, and non-combat ships, their member allocations would be different from the combat ships.

Hence, a warship had around six hundred men. Ever five warships would be called a post, and two posts would make a unit. Hence, each navy unit had around 5500 soldiers and seven hundred shipmen.

One division would have four units, and its soldier numbers would far surpass an army division.

The entire squadron used a formation of a swallow spreading its wings.

The flagship was at the core of the squadron, safe and convenient to command. Meanwhile, the warships would be at the outside, forming an iron wall, and the non-combat ships would remain inside to ensure their safety.

The entire squadron was like an eagle spreading its wings, soaring through the ocean. When it was under attack, the formation was like a bird's wings and a swallow’s tail; it could swiftly join in the battle, possessing great battle manoeuvrability and flexibility.

As for communications between ships, apart from the usual lights and flags, when fog or waves posed issues, they could use drums to ensure that the squadron smoothly sails forward.

Hence, it could be said that Zheng He's arrival revolutized the Nanyang Navy.

Compared to the boundless ocean, this ocean swallow seemed exceedingly miniscule.

……

On the calm ocean surface, Little Green would occasionally pop up, appearing extremely carefree and happy.

During this voyage, Ouyang Shuo finally remembered to bring this ocean overlord. The current Little Green was bigger than his father, and he was a truly terrifying sight.

With the accompaniment of spirit beasts, many interesting things would probably happen.

For this long voyage, apart from the Personal Guards, Ouyang Shuo also brought along one thousand divine martial guards. On their journey, it was obvious that not everyone they met would be friendly, so there might be several battles. Navy soldiers were strong on sea but for land battles, Ouyang Shuo naturally trusted the divine martial guards more.

The first few days of the voyage was in the Beihai Bay region, so it was naturally smooth sailing.

The only difference was that when they went past the Annan region, Ouyang Shuo specially ordered them to take a different route. He was worried that if the Annan region players saw him, they would try to skin them alive.

4th month, 10th day, the squadron finally left the Beihai Bay region and entered Southeast Asia into the Spratly Islands ocean region. This place had many islands of differing sizes that were scattered everywhere. Moreover, with the times expansion compared to Earth, it was even more so.

News said that adventure gamemode players had already started to explore this region. Gaia had set numerous islands into various weird adventure scenarios, making it an adventure player paradise.

Not long after entering this region, the ocean showed its might to them.

On this afternoon, dark clouds suddenly covered the sunny and clear skies. The black suppressive clouds formed layer after layer, and one could not see the end of it.

Especially on the ocean. When one gazed out, these layers of clouds left them feeling terrified and suppressed.

Between the heavens and the earth, the entire squadron was like a being squashed between the ocean and the clouds. This small squadron was at risk of being crushed to pieces at any moment.

This crisis sent from the heavens would change one's expression change.

"A storm is coming!" Zheng He muttered.

As expected, when the clouds covered, the sounds of thunder broke out from the cloud layer. The violent lightning struck the sea, causing numerous waves to break out.

The deafening roars of thunder sounded out one after another, making one feel a chill run down their spines.

Such closely gathered lighting made it seem like the lighting god and empress were traveling together and showing their strength.

"This lightning is different." Zheng He's face became serious, "Send my orders, prepare to brace for the storm. Treat this seriously."

"Yes, admiral!"

Zheng He knew that with the territory specialties of Shanhai City, it was easier for them to brace themselves for storms of the seas. Even so, facing such freak weather, it would be difficult for them to come out unscathed.

Along with the peals of thunder, tumultuous winds started to sweep up the ocean surface.

The calm sea surface suddenly turned violent.

The massive waves smashed down on them, causing the ships to potentially capsize. Every wave that struck them sent a large quantity of seawater into the ships.

"Quick, scoop out the water!"

The entire squadron was thrown into a state of panic.

Chapter 616-Deep Ocean Overlord

A huge storm; the boom of thunder.

The lonely voyage squadron that lacked help seemed like a weak chicken, shivering under the might of the heavens. Even the courageous Little Green was so scared that he returned to the deck, as the torrential rain pelted down like a waterfall.

Tens of thousands of men had to withstand the rain to scoop water out. The moment the water seeped into the cabin, their food and grain would turn moldy and cause diseases if eaten or kept.

As for sinking, that was temporarily not a problem. Their ships all used advanced water ight technology, so the current rainwater was not enough to capsize them.

There was a common phrase, ‘Misfortune never comes alone.’

The true test for the voyage squadron was still to come.

In the rain, amidst the choppy waters, hundreds of tentacles suddenly rose up. Each limb was as thick as a waist.

Their massive suction cups were clearly visible and seemed like giant meat plates.

"Octopus monster!" Ouyang Shuo's eyes froze.

Last time, only one octopus monster attacked them; it was not so many of them.

Based on rough estimations, there were no less than ten.

"These octopus monsters really came at the wrong time!" Ouyang Shuo muttered. It only hit him when he saw that one of them had a clear wound.

This monster was the one that they had met in the fog. It seemed like it came for revenge, and it had brought its friends.

"So petty!"

Ouyang Shuo really did not know how this octopus beast had tracked down Dragon Head. How did it manage to calmly wait until a storm arrived before attacking?

Such sentience was truly remarkable.

Under such circumstances, Ouyang Shuo did not have much time to think.

Just one of these beasts was able to make the Dragon Head fall into a terrible shape, much less ten. Under such a weather, the entire squadron was going to face a strict test.

In a short moment, hundreds of men were swept into the ocean; thunder drowned out their cries.

Death was just so quick.

"Little Green!"

Ouyang Shuo unsheathed his Chixiao Sword and called for Little Green at the same time.

Ao!!

When Little Green heard his beckon, it roared and advanced, instantly displaying the skills of a spirit beast. It ignored the thunder and directly charged into the ocean, disappearing from sight.

It seemed like he had gone down to fight with the octopus monsters.

Ouyang Shuo raised his sword, as he stood on the deck and started another round of merciless killing. He bisected tentacles one after another, and the chopped off limbs bounced on the deck.

However, there were really too many of them.

Ouyang Shuo alone was not enough.

Moreover, the storm grew worse and worse as time went on, exacerbating the situation. Even a massive turreted boat like Dragon Head started to rock.

Under such circumstances, not to mention the basic soldiers, even the Divine Martial Guards found it difficult to gain a stable footing. Furthermore, they had to dodge the large tentacles that were everywhere.

"Chen Dameng!" Ouyang Shuo hollered, "Bring the sailers back to the cabin!" Ouyang Shuo knew that without them, the warships were just useless wood.

Hence, no matter what, he needed to preserve their lives.

"Yes, my Lord!"

The Divine Martial Guards rushed over, chasing after the sailors who were scared to the point where their knees were shaking. Along the way, numerous tentacles swept down. Some of the Divine Martial Guards were not careful and were knocked into the ocean.

All of a sudden, chaos ensued.

Despite such a crazy storm, they were still able to continue fighting, proving that they were true elites. Not only were their skills astonishing, their mental strength was astounding too, and they all remained extremely calm. Only Chen Dameng and the others could analyze the surroundings and listen through all this noise.

Along with the strikes, the first few octopuses acted like they had found the killer, and they all shrieked and directed their friends to attack Ouyang Shuo.

Instantly, more than ten tentacles smacked down toward him at the same time. The massive tentacles covered everything like a giant fleshy cage; there was nowhere to go.

Even if Ouyang Shuo was valiant, there was nothing he could do.

Peng!

Thanks to a lapse in concentration, Ouyang Shuo was finally swept by a tentacle. He could feel a powerful force spreading from his back, through his organs, and into his chest.

"Cough!"

If Ouyang Shuo did not possess a strong body, that single strike would have been enough to inflict heavy damage. Ouyang Shuo shook it off and stood up once more.

At the same time, more tentacles smacked down toward him. It was like they were determined to squash him into meat paste.

"Lord!"

When Chen Dameng and the others saw the situation, their faces turned ashen white, and they risked their lives to help.

"Damn beast."

Ouyang Shuo rolled and avoided the attack; his eyes turned cold, and he stowed away his Chixiao Sword, taking out the Tianmo Spear.

In moments of chaos, the Chixiao Sword was actually more useful. However, it did not have an ultimate skill. Hence, Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to make use of the recently upgraded Tianmo Spear.

With the spear in hand, Ouyang Shuo's entire aura changed; it was like the devil had appeared.

An aura of might and arrogance burst forth.

Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate; he directly used the killing technique of the Tianmo Spear.

"Blood Domination!"

As Ouyang Shuo shouted, the golden primordial energy in his body clipped onto the devil bloodline, injecting his aura into the spear. Due to this influx of power, the spear emitted an eye catching black glow.

Primordial energy continued to flow in.

The Tianmo Spear was like an abyss, unable to be filled up.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this situation, his expression turned unprecedentedly solemn.

Ever since the Tianmo Spear had upgraded and the Blood Domination Skill was born, this was the first time that he had used it. He did not expect the requirements to be so strict.

A minute had passed, but it was like a century to Ouyang Shuo. 60% of his primordial energy was sucked up before the spear was ‘full’.

During this time, he could not move, so Ouyang Shuo was smacked thrice by the tentacles. Under these hits, Ouyang Shuo could not help but bellow and spit out a mouthful of blood.

The blood was like an assist from the heavens, as it splattered onto the spear and got absorbed.

At this point, the black glow grew more abundant and eye catching.

Even in the storm, this black light was the most eye catching presence. Even those massive tentacles, which had innate senses, felt a shiver; they did not dare to approach him.

However, it was already too late to retreat.

The black glow and Ouyang Shuo were determined to go forward. He stabbed his spear forward and the light exploded forth, forming a black circle. That circle quickly expanded and anything that touched it was melted and broken into two.

That's right, melted.

The black light was like a corrosive acid, melting everything in its path.

Ge gua~

When the octopus monster was hit, it let out ear piercing screeches; it was in deep pain.

With just this strike, Ouyang Shuo had cleared out all the nearby tentacles. On the wet deck, there were many cleaven tentacles, creating a truly stunning sight.

The entire earth fell totally quiet.

In the huge storm, Ouyang Shuo was like a devil, standing still on the deck. Tentacles around him still squirmed, becoming the sacrifices to the devil.

At this very moment, Little Green jumped out of the water, the brain of one of the octopus in its mouth.

In the rain, one man and one beast laughed at one another.

Just when Ouyang Shuo thought that this battle was about to end, an immensely deafening screech sounded out in the distance. Among the sadness, there was an endless amount of rage.

Those injured octopus monsters were planning to retreat, but they became excited upon hearing that shout. They cried back; their voices filled with reliance. They seemed like a bunch of kids going to bully others but got hit instead. Now, their family members had finally arrived.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this situation, he was scared speechless.

Suddenly, he saw two huge tentacles rise up into the sky, reaching fifty odd meters high, exceeding the height of Dragon Head.

A shadow hung overhead, as the huge tentacles covered the sky.

"This is bad!" Ouyang Shuo gave out a bitter smile.

During the five years of his last life, Ouyang Shuo had never seen such a huge octopus monster.

Ouyang Shuo had only heard that in the deep oceans, there were mysterious prehistoric beasts. Each one of them were overlords of the ocean, and they could cause chaos if they desired.

Some rumours even said that the god dragon from China lived in the deep oceans and some of the deep ocean beasts could contend with it.

Ouyang Shuo did not know whether those tales were true or false, but it was enough to prove how terrifying the deep ocean beasts were.

Although the octopus before him was unable to compare with those existences, it was still close to invincible at this stage.

"What!" When he successfully found the treasure, Ouyang Shuo had thought that his luck stat was finally shining on him. Who knew misfortune would always hang around.

An unassuming octopus monster had actually caused such a change.

The killing move of the Tianmo Spear had been used, and it was now on its cooldown period. What could he use to fight this terrifying presence?

But Ouyang Shuo had to fight. He could not allow the voyage squadron to fall here.

"Then let's fight!" Ouyang Shuo was determined, "Little Green!"

Ao!

Little Green replied with an unspeakable arrogance.

"Good boy." Ouyang Shuo suddenly smiled and jumped onto Little Green, "Let us teach it a lesson!"

Chapter 617-Washed up on a Desolate Island

"Pass my orders to General Zheng He, immediately lead the troops to a desolate island to rest up. Little Green will bring me to find you." Before leaving, Ouyang Shuo shouted out orders at Chen Dameng.

With the might of the octopus boss, if it charged into the squadron, it would definitely cause heavy casualties; Ouyang Shuo could not bear to see such a scenario.

Hence, he could only step up to deal with the situation and buy time for the squadron to escape.

On the vast ocean, amidst the chaotic storm, Ouyang Shuo stood on the back of Little Green like a war god. They swiftly departed, leaving all the soldiers with a chic back view.

When Zheng He received the news, an emotional light appeared in his eyes.

"Such a Lord, I am willing to die for him!" Zheng He's expression turned serious as he started to use the war drums to order the troops to leave the battlefield.

The target of the octopus monsters was Ouyang Shuo. Hence, when Ouyang Shuo left, they all followed him. They did not bother about the squadron that was slowly retreating.

However, how fast was Little Green?

The lucky survivors could only stare at their back view from a distance. Not far away, the octopus boss had already stopped shrieking; its tentacles swung about on the ocean surface, causing massive waves.

This was really the case of there being an obstacle ahead and chasing soldiers behind.

Ouyang Shuo had to take this matter seriously, so he immediately activated the devil bloodline. He transformed into a devil, and his size increased by a factor of three. Even so, in front of the octopus boss, he was still incredibly minuscule.

After killing Chiyou, Ouyang Shuo had obtained the devil blood essence, granting his bloodline its first awakening. Hence, even if he transformed, he would not experience too much of a side effect; his situation was unlike the mountain barbarians’ berserk state.

At most, he would temporarily lose his fighting strength and revert to the level of normal people.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo dared to use it. Otherwise, if the effects wore off, and he had no strength at all, he was basically dead.

Ge~gua!

The octopus boss let loose an enraged roar, and a tentacle swiftly smacked down toward Ouyang Shuo’s head, which gave him only moments to dodge.

The tentacles looked rather clumsy and cumbersome, but it was actually swift and agile. It was ten meters away a while ago, but it arrived above his head in an instant, brimming with killing intent.

Ouyang Shuo did not dare take it head on, so he sidestepped. Helplessly, the tentacle was truly too thick and Ouyang Shuo had barely dodged it, so the force from the tentacle brushed him, causing him to lose his footing and nearly fall into the ocean.

At the crucial moment, Ouyang Shuo used his swift reactions to thrust the Tianmo Spear deep into the tentacle, using this as support to hang onto the tentacle.

This hit was just like a scratch to the octopus boss.

The colossal tentacle swung ferociously, while Ouyang Shuo tried his best to hang on.

He was flung up and down, his insides churning.

Although this was the ocean, if one was really smacked down, it was no different from falling onto solid ground.

The current storm grew more and more intense. The torrential rain was like a waterfall with no end in sight. In this rain, Ouyang Shuo basically could not open his eyes, and his only thought was to grab the spear and not let go.

Continuing to hold on required superhuman determination. The Tianmo Spear seemed to have noticed that its owner was in trouble, as the pole shone with a dark light once more.

"Bloodthirst!"

The specialty of the Tianmo Spear was activated.

Blood Essence was sucked out of the tentacle like water. A massive quantity of blood was sucked out and absorbed by the Tianmo Spear, disappearing in a short moment.

Octopuses possessed an incredibly healing ability. After a tentacle was chopped off, the blood vessels would shrink and the wound would subsequently heal. A a result, the wounds of octopuses would not bleed.

It would not bleed, but that did not mean there was no blood there.

The dominance of the Tianmo Spear was truly unreasonable. Under the absorption of the spear, the blood essence of the entire octopus boss actually gathered toward this tentacle.

It seemed like the Tianmo Spear was going to directly suck it dry.

This had finally made this deep ocean monster feel a tinge of fear. The tentacle that was swinging up and down started to swing more ferociously, as it tried to toss Ouyang Shuo away.

How would Ouyang Shuo give up on such an opportunity? He gritted his teeth, and he bore the pain in his chest. He grasped onto his spear, not wanting to let go.

The sight of this caused the octopus boss to explode, and it used another tentacle to smack him. The two tentacles crashed; Ouyang Shuo, who was stuck in the middle, felt his organs shift.

Pu!

Finally, Ouyang Shuo could not hold it in anymore, and he spat out a mouthful of blood. Under the rainwater, the blood disappeared in an instance. After that hit, his grip grew weaker, and it looked like he was about to lose hold.

Obviously, the octopus boss would not stop, and the second hit arrived right after.

Feeling the wind from the strike, Ouyang Shuo gritted his teeth, as he summoned his last ounce of strength to pull out the spear. Then he fell into the ocean, his status unknown.

The bitter ocean water flowed into his mouth, making him instantly awake.

With his current cultivation, holding his breath for half an hour was not a difficult matter. Making use of this chance, Ouyang Shuo raised his head and looked into the depth of the oceans, only to see the massive and ugly head of the octopus boss floating in the water. In the quiet ocean, a pair of cold and numb eyes stared in his direction.

At this very moment, Nian Beast Little Green swam over and caught Ouyang Shuo.

If Ouyang Shuo used this chance to escape, the boss would definitely fail to notice. However, all things considered, he did not want to give up, so he patted Little Green and instructed him to swim toward the boss.

If he did not kill this monster, it would always pose a problem.

Relying on the ocean currents, Ouyang Shuo swiftly approached the boss.

The eyesight of that big octopus was incredible bad, and it only noticed Ouyang Shuo when he drew close. Suddenly, panic and surprise appeared in its cold eyes.

Ouyang Shuo laughed iciliy, as the Tianmo Spear directly stabbed toward the area right above its eyes, where its brain was located.

The octopus boss wanted to stop him, but it was too late. Its tentacles were incredibly strong, but they were too long, so they could not retract in time to help.

At the crucial moment, the boss spat out a black and pungent ink, instantly dyeing the surrounding water black.

Ouyang Shuo did not retreat. Instead, he proceeded forward, closing his eyes and using his senses to decisively stab forward. It was like sharp Tianmo Spear was cutting chopped tofu, as it easily pierced the octopus boss.

Ge~Gua!

The octopus boss let out a painful scream, as its cries became weaker and weaker.

Its head was its weakness.

However, Ouyang Shuo was similarly in a bad shape. The ink that the octopus boss had spat out did not simply stain the ocean, as it also had a numbing.

After the ink struck him, Ouyang Shuo could feel his hands stiffen up.

"Not good!"

Ouyang Shuo's heart tightened, as he used the last bit of his will to shake the Tianmo Spear, directly tearing apart the octopus boss’s brain.

Regardless of the octopus boss's vitality, it probably could not survive.

It was like it knew it would not live for long, as its viciousness was no less than Ouyang Shuo. The massive tentacles swept over; the current Ouyang Shuo was stiff and tight, so he could only watch on as the tentacles smacked his chest. He fainted.

The storm above the ocean did not show any signs of stopping.

The crazy weather continued. When those small octopus monsters heard the cries of their mother, the hate in their bodies was ignited, and they swam over to tear Ouyang Shuo into shreds.

It seemed like Ouyang Shuo would lose his life here.

At the crucial moment, Little Green pulled a miracle, as it laid Ouyang Shuo on its back and swiftly swam away. The ink of the octopus boss had basically no effect on a Nian Beast like Little Green.

From the vast ocean, many cries of pain and hatred rose, and they did not disappear for a long time.

Desolate island, sunny, beach.

On a beach a short distance away laid a teen laid; he was equipped with body armor and had a spear in his hand. His breathing was exceedingly calm, and if nothing went wrong, he would wake up soon.

The magical part was a golden seal that shone brightly at his waist. It was like there was something on this island that was attracting it.

Beside the teen crouched a beast with green scales and sharp teeth. At this moment, the beast was extremely well behaved, and it carefully paid attention to the teen like a loyal guard.

The eye piercing sun finally woke the teen up.

"Where am I?"

Ouyang Shuo opened his eyes and got up; his head felt a little groggy and heavy. The attack of the octopus boss had left him with many internal injuries that had not healed up yet.

Even just getting up was exceedingly tiring.

Combined with the aftereffects of awakening the bloodline, his body physique had dropped tremendously. Moreover, he had soaked in the ocean for a really long time, so all his injuries had layered upon one another.

After doing a quick check, Ouyang Shuo could not help but smile bitterly.

It would probably take ten days to half a month to heal up.

Nian~

A happy roar suddenly sounded out beside him, it was the Nian Beast Little Green.

Ouyang Shuo turned and touched its head, smiling, “This time, it's all thanks to you!"

Wu~

The little fellow raised his head in glee and arrogance, it was basically a carbon copy of its little owner, Bing'er.

"Is that octopus dead?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

Wu!

Little Green nodded, and it suddenly clawed at the sand at its feet, revealing a circular, pristine pearl.

"This is?" Ouyang Shuo picked it up in shock and asked, “This is the inner pellet of the octopus?"

Wu! the little fellow nodded once more.

Ouyang Shuo gave out another bitter smile. Anyone would know that the inner pellet of the octopus boss was an extremely rare item, but Little Green treated it like a toy, burying it in the sand.

Just the thought of swallowing the inner pellet made Ouyang Shuo's smile grow wider and wider.

Chapter 618-Dragon Tomb

They were not on the same desolate island as the squadron. Ouyang Shuo knew that he must have been swept by the waves to here. Little Green saw that he was unconscious, so it did not have time to find the squadron.

With Ouyang Shuo's current injuries, he could not undergo another long trip. Luckily, he had the inner pellet.

Without any hesitation, he directly swallowed the inner pellet. The moment it entered his mouth, it turned into a cooling liquid, which smoothly flowed down his throat, into his stomach, and finally entered his dantian.

This was the second time that Ouyang Shuo had swallowed an inner pellet. The first time, he had swallowed the iron armoured beast pellet and activated his second talent.

Compared to that inner pellet, this one from the octopus boss was more than a level higher. If they had to grade it, the iron armoured beast pellet would be gold rank, while this pellet would be at least platinum rank.

Two whole ranks separated the two.

The octopus boss was the type of monster that would appear in the later stages of the game.

This was why Ouyang Shuo experienced such difficulty in killing it.

Similarly, compared to last time, when he was at a paltry 6th layer of the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique, he was now at the 10th layer.

Hence, one inner pellet could not cause a massive change.

The liquid soaked the dantian like it was watering a thirsty plant, and the dry dantian started to revitalise at a visible rate. Ouyang Shuo used the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique to guide the primordial energy through his meridians and wash the injuries.

After an hour, Ouyang Shuo was done.

He had basically recovered from his injuries. Not only that, even the slow progressing Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique had improved a notch; he was just less than a year away from the 11th layer.

After completing this process, Ouyang Shuo got up and was ready to leave.

The storm above the ocean had stopped long ago, and it was sunny and bright.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to quickly meet up with the squadron; he did not want to worry them.

At this very moment, Ouyang Shuo noticed that the Gold Qilin Seal was acting weirdly. When he gazed upon it, it was like the golden light had noticed, and it shone even brighter.

"This is?" Ouyang Shuo did not understand.

After he uncovered the seal and held it in his hands, the golden glow reached its brightest level yet.

A magical moment suddenly happened right in front of his eyes.

The golden light turned into an arrow and pointed toward the northeast side of the desolate island.

"Don’t tell me there's an adventure quest here?" Ouyang Shuo muttered. After encountering the octopus monster’s revenge, Ouyang Shuo had given up hope on his luck stat.

There were people who had come into contact with adventure quests in this island region.

However, such a fortunate matter would definitely not land in Ouyang Shuo’s hands. When had Ouyang Shuo obtained anything good without being badly hurt or losing a lot?

Hence, Ouyang Shuo did not hold high hopes for whatever was on this island. Instead, he was worried that if something bad happened, it would affect the voyaging squadron.

Just as he was about to leave, the golden light grew even brighter, and it started to burn.

This sight caused Ouyang Shuo to frown. Treasures had sentience, much less something as precious as the Golden Qilin Seal. One could only say that the item on the island was truly important to it.

After a moment of pondering, Ouyang Shuo gritted his teeth and ventured deeper into the island. Whether it was a lucky break or a tragedy, he could not avoid it. It was a destined encounter, so why not just let it come?

Who knows, maybe his appearance on this desolate island was preordained.

Following the directions of the golden light, Ouyang Shuo walked three to four miles. Suddenly, a valley appeared in front of him. Not only were the mountains on the sides not straight, they looked like something had knocked them apart and smashed them a couple of times.

A massive fog covered the back of the valley, sending off an extremely gloomy feel.

The moment Ouyang Shuo approached the valley, a cold breeze swept him from within, making him sneeze.

At this point, Ouyang Shuo grabbed the Tianmo Spear and stood on high alert.

With his current cultivation, how could a simple cold breeze make him sneeze? The only explanation was that there was something within the valley.

When he arrived at the mouth of the valley, the golden glow from the Golden Qilin Seal grew brighter and brighter.

Since he had already walked to this step, there was no reason for Ouyang Shuo to back down.

Ouyang Shuo asked Little Green to guard outside the valley, while he raised his spear and entered it alone.

Weirdly, the fog at the mouth of the valley was not that thick. However, when he ventured inside, he could not see his fingers when he raised them.

The even weirder aspect was that the fog at the mouth of the valley was a normal white. On the other hand, the fog on the inside had turned black.

If Ouyang Shuo had a third eye, he would be able to see many spirits floating around in this fog. However, with the golden light protecting him, these evil spirits did not dare to approach.

The further he walked in, the lower the terrain sloped.

Bada!

Suddenly, Ouyang Shuo stepped onto something.

He lowered his head to see the bone structure of an animal. It was even bigger than Little Green.

Following which, Ouyang Shuo saw skeleton after skeleton. They were probably at least at the desolate beast level, as their structures still remained so tough after so many years.

Only the bones of desolate beasts and stronger could stand the test of time.

The deeper he went, the larger the skeletons he found.

Ouyang Shuo could recognize some of them, but he could not distinguish a large portion.

The deeper he went, the more shocked he felt.

What had happened on this unnamed island to actually attract so many desolate beasts? One must know that around the oceans, desolate beasts were exceedingly rare.

Ouyang Shuo even suspected that all the beasts for thousands of miles around this island were attracted to here at some point in the past. When he ventured even deeper, he no longer found the remains of desolate beasts. Instead, he discovered the skeletons of the higher ranked spirit beasts.

Even though Ouyang Shuo had seen a lot, he could not help but feel his hair stand.

At this very moment, a powerful gust of wind blew through the valley.

The wind wrapped up the black fog and slowly formed a black spiral on top of Ouyang Shuo's head.

Jie Jie!

In the spiral, an evil teeth grinding sound of laughter broke out.

"Who?"

Ouyang Shuo raised his head, and his face froze.

"Little boy, you could choose to go on the path of heavens, but instead you chose to come to hell." The moment the words sounded, the spiral turned into a dragon head.

Dragons in Chinese culture represented nobility and prosperity, but the black dragon had nothing to do with either; it represented evil.

The dragon head charged right at Ouyang Shuo, catching him off guard.

Ouyang Shuo had fought numerous battles and many enemies, but who would have known that one day he would fight a spirit.

He had a plethora of skills but no way to utilize them.

Just at this moment, the Golden Qilin Seal suddenly floated into the air and circled his head, emitting a golden radiance. When the black dragon saw the seal, it froze up and did not dare to charge any closer.

Ci~~

The black dragon smashed into the gold light and a burning sound broke out.

The golden light was like the nemesis of the black fog, and it digested the fog.

"Jiejie, the kid has such a treasure, no wonder he can get here." The black dragon was not discouraged at all. Instead, it showed an expression like victory was already decided.

Ouyang Shuo kept silent and did not say anything.

During the Battle of Julu, the red dragon spirit in Liu Bang's body could not escape the Golden Qilin Seal. The black dragon in front of him had not even showed its real form, and it was already unafraid of the seal.

Comparing the two, the strength difference was immediately determined.

The spirits in the valley were swept up by the black fog and sent above the golden light. When they touched the light, they let loose painful cries.

At the same time, the energy of the golden light was quickly expended.

Ouyang Shuo could only watch on helplessly.

As more and more spirits gathered, the golden light reached the verge of shattering and started to shake.

It seemed like the barrier the golden light had formed was going to shatter.

Jiejie!

The black dragon let out a gleeful laugh.

"Who are you and what is this place?"

Ouyang Shuo decided to put down his worries and use the chance to gain some information.

"Hehe." The black dragon stopped laughing,"Since you're about to die, I don’t mind telling you. I'm the dragon king of the oceans. As for this place, naturally, it is where I was buried."

"A dead dragon?" Ouyang Shuo smiled coldly.

Although they did not fight, Ouyang Shuo could tell something. Despite this dragon’s incredible strength, it was just a dragon spirit like the red dragon.

If not, what appeared here would not just be an apparition.

"Little boy, you're looking to die!"

Like his weakness had been stabbed, the black dragon’s expression changed.

All of a sudden, all of the spirits in the valley were swept up and thrown at the golden barrier.

A thick burning smell permeated the area.

Numerous cries broke out by his ear. In less than ten minutes, the golden light shattered with a pa! and the Golden Qilin Seal fell back into his hands.

"Die boy!" The black dragon roared and charged straight at Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo knew that normal weapons were useless against spirits. He focused and waited. Why not let it attack and try to use the golden primordial energy to fight it?

He did not believe that the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique could not tame an evil dragon.

Just at this moment, a dragon roar emanated from the clouds.

Ang!

The roar was mighty and shocked the wilderness.

The black dragon was right in front of Ouyang Shuo, but it it stopped in shock when it heard the roar. A complicated expression appeared in its eyes.

It looked up.

The clouds above the valley had spread apart to reveal a colossal dragon hundreds of miles long. It was snow white in color; this was the fate and luck dragon that Ouyang Shuo had been forming since he had entered the game.

At the crucial moment, it had finally awakened.

Chapter 619-Dragon Battle

Two dragons, one black and one white, stared at each other in the air.

"How many years has it been? I finally get to see someone from my race again." The black dragon was filled with emotion.

"...."

The fate dragon's sentience had not opened up, so it could not speak.

"Even so, you cannot do whatever you want here; this is my territory." As expected from an evil dragon, its emotions changed so quickly. It immediately changed its target from Ouyang Shuo to the fate dragon.

All of a sudden, the strong winds in the valley acted once again, and the black dragon sucked up the massive number of spirits and tossed them into the black fog. Instantly, the black dragon looked realer and eviler.

Ang!

The black dragon roared and brought with it the black fog, as it rushed into the sky. The fate dragon was not to be beaten, as it charged down; its eyes did not show a trace of emotion.

The two giant dragons engaged in mid air.

Between god dragons, it was either close combat or a battle of magic and skills. But these two dragons did not possess a physical body, so their fighting method was enough to burst open one's eyeballs.

The two wrapped together and bit at one another.

Yes, that's right, they bit each other.

You bite me once, and I bite you once.

The black dragon bit off fate; it was spirit, swallowing the enemy to strengthen itself.

Although the battle between the two seemed extremely simple, the level of danger was no lower than any other calamitous battle.

The winner lives and the loser dies.

The fate dragon stretched for hundreds of miles, and it had a strong foundation, while the black dragon relied on the spirits in the valley. Neither were not weak; in fact, the two were equal in strength.

It was difficult to decide the victor.

Ouyang Shuo stood in the valley, as he watched on in a focused manner. If this carried on, both sides would be heavily injured. The fate dragon was the key to the prosperity of the territory, and it could not be lost.

He needed to act.

His trump card was the Golden Qilin Seal.

It was the nemesis of all things evil, and its specialty chased away all evil. Before this, it was trying to protect him. As such, it had used up its energy.

Thinking about this point, Ouyang Shuo immediately sat on the ground and placed the Golden Qilin Seal in his hands. He closed his eyes and injected his golden primordial energy into the seal.

Instantly, the golden seal shone brightly once more.

As more and more golden primordial energy entered the seal, its glow became brighter and brighter. The Golden Qilin Seal even emitted a weak sense of joy.

This sight caused Ouyang Shuo to grow even more serious.

Just at this moment, the area around the seal formed a golden whirlpool, emanating a strong suction power. All the spirits in the valley were sucked in and shortly disappeared.

Weirdly, this power only affected the spirits but not the bones.

Ouyang Shuo jolted to his senses; he had found the way to beat the black dragon.

Primordial energy like flowed water, as it endlessly entered the golden seal. The octopus boss’s inner pellet had nourished the primordial energy in Ouyang Shuo's dantian, so it was at its most full state. Hence, he could keep up with this expenditure.

The bigger the whirlpool grew, the stronger the suction power.

Suddenly, a black whirlpool formed around Ouyang Shuo, as numerous spirits were dragged into the golden whirlpool and were purified.

When the spirits were purified, they let out pained cries. However, once the process ended, they showed an expression of freedom and release before they disappeared.

The Golden Qilin Seal was the seal of an emperor, hence, it had the ability to purify spirits. It purified more and more spirits, and an empty space even appeared around Ouyang Shuo.

Following which, the spirits actually started to proactively gather toward the golden whirlpool.

In the pitch dark valley, Ouyang Shuo sat on the spot, as a golden light shone in his hands. Numerous spirits gathered over, forming a truly magnificent scene. If one did not know better, they would think that it was a great monk.

Ouyang Shuo's move had destroyed the foundation of the black dragon. These spirits were what it relied on, and every time the fate dragon swallowed a part of it, it could use these spirits to replenish its strength.

As the spirits were purified, the black dragon started to lose out.

"Stupid kid!" The black dragon wanted to charge down to attack Ouyang Shuo.

Ang!

Although the fate dragon lacked sentience, its battle sense had awakened. How could it allow the black dragon to leave? It wrapped the black dragon up and continued to bite and tear at it.

Each bite ripped off a large part of the black fog, which subsequently entered the fate dragon’s stomach.

Helplessly, the black dragon could only return to the battle.

In the valley, Ouyang Shuo's purification journey had not ended. Apart from having a rich dantian, a portion of the energy from the inner pellet had remained in his body; he had not digested all of it yet.

This time, Ouyang Shuo activated it all and sent the energy into the golden seal.

With both energies combined, the golden seal showed off its might.

In less than an hour, the black fog in the valley had actually become thin. The further it went on, the thinner it got; the shade turned from black to grey and finally to white.

In the valley, a saintly noise broke out.

Ouyang Shuo had performed a majorly meritorious act.

In the end, the golden seal purified all the spirits in the valley.

A system notification sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, using a treasure to purify spirits, freeing them. Specially rewarded forty thousand merit points, congratulations!"

Ouyang Shuo laughed; he truly did not expect to receive such a reward. Forty thousand merit points was huge. Normal lords would only earn such an amount in half a year, even a year.

"Virtuous acts will naturally be rewarded." Ouyang Shuo thought of something.

……

After the spirits were purified, the black dragon in the air could not gain any further support.

Ang!

The black dragon let loose a dissatisfied roar. It wanted to break free, but it could not.

It could only watch on as the fate dragon ripped its body apart piece by piece. As the battle went on, the difference in strength grew more and more obvious, and the resistance of the black dragon faltered.

Finally, amidst the unwilling cries and hollers of the black dragon, even its head was eaten.

Ge!

The fate dragon actually burped.

"..."

Ouyang Shuo smiled.

Through this battle, not only was the fate dragon unharmed, its body had even grown. Its entire body had also corporealized to a greater extent.

Its white body was also starting to turn red, half red and half white. This signified prosperity, above red was purple, and in the end, it was the most noble gold.

However, one aspect stood out; its eyes actually contained a hint of black.

As they say, if you kill one thousand enemies, you lose eight hundred of your own. The fate dragon had swallowed up the black dragon whole. It was unavoidable that it would take up some of the black dragon’s evil energy.

And this was something Ouyang Shuo could not take no matter what.

Purity was of the utmost importance to a fate dragon. If it was possessed by an evil spirit, the consequences would be dire. It might cause catastrophes in the territory or even shake the base of the territory.

Thinking about this point, Ouyang Shuo used his last bit of primordial energy to utilize the golden seal. It was like the seal knew what Ouyang Shuo was thinking, as it once again rose up into the air and turned into a golden light, shooting into the body of the fate dragon.

After a short while, a golden light shone through its body.

Ah!

Within the body of the fate dragon, a painful shout broke out. It was the remnants of the black dragon; the golden seal had completely purified it.

"Little parasite." When Ouyang Shuo saw this result, he coldly smiled.

The black dragon was thinking about using the fate dragon as a nest to regain its true power.

Ouyang Shuo would not let it fulfill its wish.

After a short while, a black smoke came out of the fate dragon's body, before disappearing into the air. The evil energy hidden in the fate dragon was finally cleared out.

With a Shua! the golden seal flew of the fate dragon and returned to his hands.

During the entire process, the fate dragon did not move, and it allowed Ouyang Shuo to do whatever he wanted. When the matter ended, it finally looked at Ouyang Shuo; it nodded, before disappearing into the clouds.

Ouyang Shuo and the fate dragon were bound by destiny. Although the two did not exchange a single word, they knew what the other was thinking.

As for this titanic battle, it had finally ended.

However, Ouyang Shuo's adventure was far from over. He did not forget that the Golden Qilin Seal was what directed him here, but everything so far was of no help to it.

He had not discovered the real goal of the golden seal.

As expected, it turned into an arrow once more and led the way.

After the battle, the fog in the valley had completely disappeared. At this point, Ouyang Shuo looked around, and the first thing he saw were scattered bones.

Numerous bones filled up this valley like a quiet battlefield.

Ouyang Shuo guessed that these bones were the remains of that black dragon. Who knows what treasure was hidden here to make these desolate beasts and spirit beasts risk their lives.

Heading past the bone battlefield, they arrived at a vast graveyard inside the valley. It was made of large rocks and spanned thousands of meters, surrounding the entire back half of the valley.

In the center of the graveyard was a stone door over ten meters high.

Ouyang Shuo approached the door and pushed it with all his strength, but it did not budge.

"This…."

Based on his conjectures, the wall was four to five meters thick, and there might be a mechanism inside. As a result, brute force could not be used to open it.

There was an old lock at the bottom of the door with a carved dragon pattern. In the middle of the lock was a keyhole, the place to insert the key to opening the door.

The problem was where to find the key.

Like it had heard Ouyang Shuo's thoughts, the golden arrow pointed to his storage bag.

"In here?" Ouyang Shuo was confused.

The golden arrow actually nodded hurriedly.

Ouyang Shuo turned his attention to his storage bag, and everything within it appeared in his mind.

He saw an uncountable valley of items.

At a corner was a box that stored all the special items Ouyang Shuo had gathered.

Amongst which was a stone key.

Chapter 620-Dragon Vein

The stone key in his storage was the one that he had found in the bottom of the box during the search for the Beihai Bay treasure. Who knew that this key was actually the key to the dragon tomb.

Fate was truly a mysterious matter.

If Ouyang Shuo had not searched for the treasure prior to the voyage, he would not experience such a fortuitous encounter.

Ouyang Shuo took it out and plunged it into the lock and twisted. With a kacha! the sound of moving mechanisms could be heard, and the huge stone door started to rise.

A rotting smell emanated from within.

The mysterious dragon tomb was displayed right in front of his eyes.

Ouyang Shuo took out a torch and walked into the dragon tomb. The golden light from the seal became more and more excited.

Hula!

Just as he entered the graveyard passageway, two rows of oil lamps lit up at the same time. The automatic lighting up of the oil lamps was due to the spontaneous combustion of phosphorus; it was not anything magical.

This mechanism made Ouyang Shuo sure that this graveyard was definitely manufactured. After all, if this was really a dragon tomb, there was no way it would be so intricately designed.

After walking through the passageway, he reached the main hall.

The entire hall was over seven hundred meters wide and basically took up over 90% of the graveyard.

The most eye-catching aspect was the six hundred meters wide skeletal structure. If Ouyang Shuo was right, these bones belonged to the black dragon.

Although time had passed, the dragon bones still looked new and strong.

Opposite the huge skeleton was another skeletal structure. However, it was much smaller, just a little bigger than a Nian Beast. In comparison, it was eye-catching.

Just from its body shape alone, it would be something similar to the Nian Beast when it was alive; completely different from the dragon. No matter how he tried to guess, he could not figure out is background.

It was weird for such a bone structure to appear in a dragon tomb.

"Little friend, you are finally here!"

From within the hall, an exceedingly weak voice sounded.

"Who?" Ouyang Shuo was astonished.

Wasn’t there only one dragon spirit in the tomb? If there was more, he was so dead. The current Ouyang Shuo had used up nearly all of his primordial energy.

"Little friend don't panic, I have no ill intentions." The same voice rang out once again.

"Who are you?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

At this very moment, the Golden Qilin Seal's glow expanded and pointed toward the smaller skeleton.

"You're it?"

"That's right." The old hoarse voice broke out, “I’m a jade qilin. I chased the evil dragon till here. After we battled, both of us were heavily hurt and perished."

"Qilin?" Ouyang Shuo's eyes lit up.

He immediately deduced that this Qilin attracted the Golden Qilin Seal.

Currently, the Golden Qilin Seal was in a half-sealed state. The unsealing requirements were to inject a Qilin’s spirit. Wasn't this a Qilin in front of them?

One could say that everything was determined by the heavens.

Ouyang Shuo was worrying about where to find a legendary Qilin to unlock the golden seal. After all, setting up a country would be a joke without it.

"Who built this graveyard? It doesn't look like a dragon's grave."

Ouyang Shuo calmed himself down and carefully asked.

He needed the spirit to willingly unseal the Golden Qilin Seal.

As such, Ouyang Shuo wanted to understand the situation.

"Little friend, are you willing to listen to a story?" The old Qilin asked.

"I'm all ears."

Talking to a pile of bones was actually extremely freaky.

"In olden times, the dragon race lived in the deep oceans of the South China Sea. One day, a black dragon was born in the race; it was deemed as an unlucky dragon, so it was chased out. It bore the pain and humiliation and grew up to be a well mannered and nice dragon. The black dragon moved into this desolate island when its days were numbered and found a spiritual vein."

"Spiritual vein?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

During the cold weapons era, did spiritual veins really exist?

"To god dragons, spiritual veins are the best cultivation item. The god dragon merged with it and slowly transformed it into the dragon vein. However, such a treasure was naturally targeted by others. Those skeletons that you saw when you entered were desolate beasts and spirit beast who the black dragon killed.”

Ouyang Shuo was enlightened.

"However, killing makes one lose their personality. The originally kind and well behaved black dragon became more extreme and killing became its hobby. It purposely attracted beasts here and killed them. Not only that, it didn't follow the rules of the dragon race and broke into the human world, capturing humans to build his palace."

"So this isn't a dragon tomb but a palace?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"That's right, it is a dragon palace. Not only that, the dragon carved the entire valley into a formation. As the black dragon continued its rule, everything within thousands of miles was thrown into chaos." After he talked to this point, the Qilin sighed,"I was nearby, but when I heard about this matter, I naturally could not ignore it."

"...."

Ouyang Shuo did not expect that this old Qilin was actually a righteous warrior.

"I came to this island to reason with the black dragon, but it didn't listen. Hence, I had no choice but to try and bring him back for his race to deal with him. Who knew that this black dragon's formation was so strange. We fought for three days and nights before both sides were greviously hurt."

Ouyang Shuo thought back to the two broken peaks of the valleys, “God beasts fighting is really too terrifying, destroying the earth itself."

"You should know what happened. We both died; our bodies were destroyed, and only our spirits remained. My spirit cannot leave my body for too long; otherwise, it would dissipate. Meanwhile, that black dragon made use of the formation to continue to create problems in the valley." The Qilin's voice contained an unmistakable sense of self-blame.

"In the end, at least justice was served, and the black dragon perished. As for me, it’s time for me to return.”

"Return?" Ouyang Shuo asked with a nervous expression.

This old thing wasn't going to escape, was it?

"I didn't reincarnate because I wanted to guard against this black dragon. Now that it has perished, I can revive in peace. However…."

Ouyang Shuo noticed that this Qilin was not only righteous; it was also a depressed poet.

"However what?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"However, I have to repay your kindness. When I saw your golden seal, I realised that everything was planned, and that I did not come here by chance," the Qilin explained.

"...."

This old fellow could even bring in the heavens.

"You mean that you're willing to move into the seal?" Ouyang Shuo asked. He still did not know what would happen if the qilin spirit moved into the golden seal.

"That's right."

"Phew!" Ouyang Shuo heaved a sigh of relief.

Ambition was something that was never quenched.

Seeing that the matter was settled, Ouyang Shuo had other thoughts, “Can that dragon vein be used?"

"Naturally, it can."

Ouyang Shuo was delighted and bowed,"Thank you, senior, for your help.."

"You want to use that dragon vein to link you and your fate dragon together?" the Qilin asked.

"Yes." Ouyang Shuo did not avoid the question. Since the black dragon could cultivate with the help of the spirit vein, the fate dragon naturally could too. Furthermore, the term dragon vein and dynasty were closely linked.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo could not help but think about the possibilities.

"Why not, let me help you once." The old Qilin was a brotherly and righteous person.

"Thank you, senior!" Ouyang Shuo bowed once more.

"Amongst the dragon bones, there is a formation. Sit inside it and focus; visualize the fate dragon in your head. As for the remaining matters, leave it to me!" the Qilin said.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and followed his instructions.

The formation was extremely eye-catching, and Ouyang Shuo found it right away. He sat down and concentrated on his breathing. The scene of the battle between the fate dragon and the black dragon entered his mind.

The fate dragon, many meters long, mighty.

At this very moment, the fate dragon hidden in the clouds opened its eyes once again and responded to Ouyang Shuo's summon. This was the first time the two of them had established a connection.

A familiar feeling spread forth from the fate dragon.

The current fate dragon looked massive, but it was actually a young baby. Its feelings toward Ouyang Shuo was that of a father, a close relative.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, as a warm feeling filled his heart.

Just at this moment, a strong spiritual energy burst forth from the formation beneath him and entered his body, attacking his meridians.

Ouyang Shuo did not dare to take the situation lightly, and he rotated the primordial energy.

Weirdly, when the spiritual energy passed through his meridians and entered his dantian, it all disappeared. At the same time, it appeared in the sky and entered the body of the fate dragon.

This continued on.

Ouyang Shuo's meridians were cleaned and revitalized by the spiritual energy and grew stronger and stronger. The already wide meridians were pried open a little more. Some of the smaller branches were also appearing. The Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique was improving at a visible speed; it seemed like he was about to reach a breakthrough.

In just a short moment, Ouyang Shuo had benefited a lot.

Such a fortuitous encounter was exceedingly hard to come by.

Of course, the one that benefited the most was still the fate dragon. Its entire body was becoming more real.

Scarily, the originally half red, half white body rapidly became a pure red.

In less than an hour, two-thirds of the dragon had turned red.

Ouyang Shuo sat crossed legged; the spiritual energy showed no signs of drying up. After an hour, it was still flowing like a river, pouring into his body.

At this moment, a swelling and painful feeling appeared in his meridians.

Chapter 621-Emperor Seal

High above in the clouds, the fate dragon strengthened again and again under the nourishment of the spiritual energy. Strand after strand of white transformed into a pure red.

It seemed like its body was going to turn completely red.

On the other hand, Ouyang Shuo was experiencing pain in the dragon tomb. All his meridians were like rivers and the spiritual energy was the tiger water.

As the river water swept down, it expanded the channel at the same time, placing a massive burden on the river.

He looked like he could not hold on much longer.

However, Ouyang Shuo remained determined; he bore the pain that normal people could not understand, maintaining the link with the fate dragon. At the same time, he cycled the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique to try and alleviate the pain.

In front of the spiritual energy river, the golden primordial energy was like a small stream, slowly flowing along the river. Along the way, it repaired the swelling pain of the meridians and made them stronger and stronger.

Throughout this process, the primordial energy would unavoidably swallow up some spiritual energy to strengthen itself. Hence, Ouyang Shuo's cultivation surged.

This was a case of a person in pain being happy too.

Half an hour later, the body of the fate dragon had turned into a pure red. However, it did not grow bigger but shrunk instead; its size decreased by 50%, becoming more solid and real.

A system notification sounded out by his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, fate dragon has evolved to the 2nd stage red dragon, territory prosperity and luck has boomed; the weather will favor you and things will go your way. Rewarding player 10 luck points!"

Ouyang Shuo teared up; finally, his luck stat would not hold him back. With that, it seemed like the matter of fate affecting one's luck would only happen when the fate dragon evolves.

When the fate dragon upgraded to the 3rd stage purple dragon and the 4th stage golden dragon, there would probably be luck rewards again. At that time, Ouyang Shuo would be a person that luck and destiny favoured.

However, the road to upgrading the fate dragon was a long one that needed many fortuitous encounters

In the wilderness, player countries could be split into king dynasties, emperor dynasties, and imperial dynasties. The requirement for a king dynasty was a red dragon, emperor dynasty a purple dragon, and imperial dynasty a gold dragon.

Hence, in terms of its fate dragon, Shanhai City had already met the requirements to establish a country.

Such an achievement was truly shocking.

One must know that even first tier lords like Di Chen and the others only had white manifestation of their fate. Moreover, the white layer had not been filled yet.

At the same time, the thousands of miles away Shanhai City welcomed an auspicious sign.

In the skies of the territory, a vast red dragon hundreds of miles long appeared. Regardless of their prefecture, the residents of Shanhai Territory could see it clearly. When they saw this god dragon, they could not help but bow their heads.

"It's a god dragon, a god dragon!" Some of them teared up in joy.

It might be somewhat hard for someone who was not Chinese to understand their feelings as a result of this sign from the heavens of legends.

The sky changed, and a spirit rain immediately poured down.

That's right a spirit rain.

As the spirit rain fell, the entire landscape grew in elegance and grace.

The soil of the territory grew in fertility, the crops and animals strengthened, while the beasts became healthy and energetic. The rain was like medicine to the residents, curing them of all illnesses and health problems.

"The dragon god is protecting us, it is protecting us!" The people were thankful, kneeling to pray.

When the rain drenched the soldiers, it did not simply heal their injuries; their strength also increased. Some of them even directly upgraded thanks to the help of the spirit rain.

Baiqi, Han Xin, and the other god generals looked up into the skies with expressions of awe.

The spirit rain nourished all the people in the city, and they could feel their bodies strengthening; they felt more energised, and their thoughts became sharper. All of a sudden, the overall strength of the territory increased by a grade.

In the Xinan University, Jiangshang looked up at the god dragon with a hard to read expression.

Only the heavens could grant such an auspicious sign; words could not describe it.

The people’s sentiment of the territory instantly increased by 2, reaching a terrifying 99. Based on Gaia’s settings, if a territory’s people sentiment reached 100, it would grant the Lord of the territory a massive reward.

Shanhai City had once again shocked the wilderness.

……

Ouyang Shuo also received numerous benefits.

Right after the fate dragon evolved, his Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique finally broke through to the 11th layer. In less than an hour, he had saved a year’s worth of hard work.

The Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique had twelve layers, so he was just one step away from the max. Of course, the last layer was the hardest. However, if he succeeded, it would be like changing his bones and tendons.

By Ouyang Shuo's estimations, it would be hard to reach the twelfth layer without two years of hard work.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo had to start paying attention to his next cultivation technique.

The Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique was the first part of the most pinnacle cultivation technique in the China region. The second part was similarly hidden as a reward during a battle map.

Ouyang Shuo had to plan ahead; otherwise, his cultivation journey would be cut short.

The second part of the cultivation technique was known as the Huangting Scripture, also a Taoist scripture. Gaia had set this technique to appear during the seventh battle map.

During this breakthrough of his Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique, Ouyang Shuo's strength increased from six oxen to nine. His strength increased by 50%, reaching the pinnacle of brute force.

Moreover, the moment he broke through to the 12th layer, he would obtain the power of nine oxen cows and two tigers, truly terrifying.

……

The spiritual energy under Ouyang Shuo continued to pour in.

Luckily, after his breakthrough in the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique, Ouyang Shuo's meridians had strengthened, and they could withstand the spiritual energy.

Above the clouds, the fate dragon changed once more.

The red within the dragon started to morph into a majestic and grand purple.

Another hour later.

Ouyang Shuo's meridians had already reached their maximum, and he had to withstand a piercing pain. Meanwhile, a third of the fate dragon’s body had turned purple.

At this moment, the spiritual energy river started to slow down and dry up.

"Friend, leave some foundation for this spiritual vein!" The voice of the Qilin rang out in his ear.

It was hard for such heaven and earth entities to form. If this spiritual river dried up, it would hurt the balance of the earth. Leaving a foundation would allow it to slowly recover, truly a moral and righteous act.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and cut off his connection with the fate dragon.

The fate dragon emitted a pleased reaction before it disappeared into the clouds once more.

"Thank you, senior!" Ouyang Shuo stood up and bowed.

"This is your lucky encounter, I only helped out…." Before the old Qilin could continue, Ouyang Shuo stood up and started to search around the head of the dragon.

"Little friend, what are you doing?" The old Qilin asked.

"Um…" When Ouyang Shuo heard this question, he felt a little awkward, "I heard that there’s a dragon ball with dragons. However, I don't know where it is."

"...."

Ouyang Shuo's greed left the old Qilin speechless.

"Um, I was thinking that rather than leaving it here to gather dust, why not use it?" Ouyang Shuo tried his best to explain.

"The stomach." The old Qilin spat out these two words.

Ouyang Shuo was delighted, he approached the stomach area of the dragon skeleton. Sure enough, he found a small, unassuming pearl lying within.

He did not hesitate; he pried open the bones and took out the dragon ball.

Looking at it closely, it was a little bigger than a dove egg; it was transparent like a crystal or a pearl.

"This is a dragon ball?" Ouyang Shuo expressed his doubt.

Based on his expectations, shouldn't the dragon ball be massive? This was just too small.

"Yes."

"Okay, if it is, then it is!" Ouyang Shuo did not ask anymore and simply kept it in his storage bag.

As for how to use it, Ouyang Shuo did not have any thoughts yet. After being exposed to the outside for so long, the ball had turned rock solid. Who knows whether one could digest it if swallowed.

"Can we go now?" The old Qilin asked.

"Hmm." Ouyang Shuo was extremely thick skinned, and he muttered, "if we could use these dragon bones to craft a warship, what kind of invincible warship could we create?"

As he spoke, he stared at the dragon bones and did not leave.

With the size of this dragon skeleton, even with the large capacity of Ouyang Shuo's storage bag, he still could not store it.

"...."

The old Qilin was left extremely speechless; it sighed and said, "Sigh, let me help you one last time!"

"Thank you, senior!"

The old Qilin did not speak anymore. A jade light shot out from the Qilin skeleton and landed onto dragon skeleton. Instantly, it shrunk to around the size of the Qilin.

The mysteries of magic had truly opened up Ouyang Shuo's eyes. He did not hesitate and kept the shrunken dragon bones in his storage bag.

When he needed to use it, he would ask the old Qilin to remove the spell to bring the bones back to their original size.

Looking out, the huge dragon tomb had nothing other than the two massive skeletons. The god dragons of the east were not like the western ones that liked to hoard treasures.

The taste of the god dragons was exceedingly high.

"Let’s go!" After the old Qilin said these final words, it turned into a green light and shot into the seal.

Instantly, the golden seal glowed. The Qilin on the seal came alive; it looked extremely sentient and active. Meanwhile, carvings of the Qilin appeared around the seal.

A system notification sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, mysterious treasure Golden Qilin Seal has obtained the willing injection of a Qilin spirit, the seal has been removed. Officially becoming the Emperor Seal, congratulations player!"

Chapter 622-Godlike Man

The moment the notification sounded, Ouyang Shuo eagerly took a look at the stats of the emperor seal

Name: Emperor Seal (God Rank)

Type: Secret Treasure

Specialty: Ward Off Devils and Spirits (incorruptible and helps to chase away evil). Watch over Nanjiang (the territory under the Lord's jurisdiction isn't limited to the land area of the territory. The entire Nanjiang will be under the authority of the wielder of the seal, protected and recognized by the imperial court). Conferred Lord (10% increase in people’s sentiment). Protection of Fate (using the might of the emperor to lead the fate and prosperity of the territory and protect the people.)

Evaluation: this is an unlocked Emperor Seal, injected with the spirit of a Qilin. It can affect the fate of an entire country; it is a pinnacle treasure, a necessity for establishing a country.

After checking the stats, Ouyang Shuo was actually a little disappointed. The rank of the seal had gone up to god rank but its stats did not change much.

Ouyang Shuo guessed that it would only show its might when the time came to establish a country.

After stowing away the bones of the old Qilin in his storage bag, Ouyang Shuo turned and left the dragon tomb. Walking out of the valley, he found Little Green, who still stood guard loyally.

"Go, let’s go!" Ouyang Shuo smiled.

As the sun set, one man and one beast disappeared from the desolate island.

Spratly Islands region, a certain unnamed island.

Zheng He’s squadron had rested for three days. For three days, there were no sounds or signals from the soul of the squadron. The entire squadron had fallen into a weird and suppressive state.

The storm and the sneak attack from the octopus monsters had caused the squadron to lose five hundred men. Additionally, seawater had soaked some of the items that the squadron had brought, rendering the items unusable.

The most serious matter was that some of the members had suddenly fallen ill to ocean diseases. The entire medical team was incredibly busy, turning around and around before being able to slightly control the illnesses. After all, many of the sailors were travelling long distance for the first time, so it was unsurprising that they were not used to it.

Successive blows meant that the squadron could not function normally. They relied on Admiral Zheng He and their strong mental strength to hold on.

Now, even Zheng He was barely holding on.

From the temporarily built commander tent, intense quarrelling noises spread out.

"We can't wait any longer, we have to find the Lord!" A man's rough voice exclaimed. His tone was exceedingly uncourteous, anxious, and impatient.

"I have already arranged for cima boats to search around." The other voice was extremely gentle and special. Putting it bluntly, it sounded rather girlish.

Obviously, this voice belonged to an eunuch.

In the entire squadron, apart from Zheng He, there was no second person it could be.

"Cima boats? That's far from enough, we need to arrange the main squadron to look." The brutish man did not agree, "If you don't go, I'll bring my own men out to look for the Lord."

"No!" Zheng He's attitude remained resolute.

"A**h*le, you actually don't care about the safety of the Lord!" The one standing in front of Zheng He was Personal Guards Captain Chen Dameng. Seeing Zheng He shake his head, Chen Dameng stared at the other man with eyes as big as a cow’s.

As the Personal Guards Captain and the commander of one thousand Divine Martial Guards, he held a truly special position in the voyage squadron. Even the admiral lacked power over him.

During the storm, they could not help, and the Lord had to face the enemy alone, leaving Chen Dameng extremely ashamed.

If it was not for the Lord's orders, Chen Dameng would have simply gone over to try and help. After the storm had passed, the squadron followed the Lord's instructions and found a desolate island. However, Chen Dameng's heart did not feel at ease for even a moment.

Every day, he would bug Zheng He to let him lead troops to look for the Lord.

Zheng He had headed down to the west seven times, and he had seen nearly everything. At this moment, remaining calm was the most important, waiting patiently was the best choice.

However, this barbaric horse did not want to back off.

They had not only quarreled for one or two times. As time went on, the conflicts grew in intensity, to the point where the situation was unsalvageable.

"My conscience is fine. The Lord let me lead this squadron, so I have the responsibility to ensure their safety." Facing Chen Dameng’s accusations, Zheng He remained unfazed.

"A**h*le!"

Chen Dameng could not hold it in anymore, and he pulled out the massive blade by his waist.

"Protect the admiral!"

Seeing his actions, the soldiers around the tent all pulled out their blades and stared at Chen Dameng with severity. These were the Personal Guards that Ouyang Shuo had assigned to Zheng He.

The atmosphere in the tent instantly turned extremely tense.

"Back down!" Zheng He frowned and solemnly commanded.

"Admiral!"

When Zheng He's Personal Guards heard his words, their expressions turned a little anxious.

"Back down!" Zheng He raised his tone.

"Yes!"

The Personal Guards could only helplessly back out of the tent.

During the entire process, Chen Dameng stood fearless, and he just stared coldly at this scene, "One day, at most, I’ll wait for one more day. Regardless of whether you agree or not, I'll head out to sea once this one day passes."

After leaving this final sentence, Chen Dameng turned around and left.

When Zheng He saw Chen Dameng leave, he let out a long sigh. For the first time, a hint of worry appeared in his eyes.

……

Morning of the next day, it was still bright and sunny. The ocean surface was like a mirror, without any waves.

Suddenly, the sun rose up.

The orange red sun slowly climbed up from the ocean horizon and shone downward. The ocean was a clear blue, while the light of the sun was a warm orange red like the milky way in the sky.

With his back facing the rising sun, a man slowly walked toward the shore.

That's right, he was walking.

The man did not have a boat under his feet, but he was approaching the desolate island at a rapid rate. Under the cover of the sun, he cast a long shadow on the surface of the water; he was like an immortal from the heavens.

Only if someone was close would they notice a beast beneath the man’s feet. The beast had a vicious head, and a sharp horn popped out on the ocean surface, looking exceedingly domineering.

Weirdly, in front of the man, the beast was extremely gentle.

One man, one beast, so harmonious and close.

"Lord, the Lord is back!"

The patrolling cima boats had finally found traces of the man, and they could not help but holler.

Instantly, the entire island grew excited.

Cheers broke out incessantly.

"Lord, where is the Lord?"

Chen Dameng was like a wild horse, and he charged out of his tent and looked around frantically. Following the noise, he noticed a man that was gradually approaching shore.

"It really is the Lord!" This valiant man was actually tearing up.

When Zheng He received the news and walked out of his tent, a flash of joy appeared in his eyes. Seeing Chen Dameng and looking at his eyes, Zheng He laughed.

"What are you looking at? Sand entered my eyes." Chen Dameng shouted, as he walked away self-confidently.

The distance between the two had suddenly shortened.

……

The return of Ouyang Shuo was a massive blessing to the voyage squadron.

After the battle during the storm, Ouyang Shuo was not just their Lord but their king, their hero.

They could not imagine how the Lord had managed to escape from that terrifying beast.

As they said, if one doesn't face storms, how would there be a rainbow?

The voyage squadron had become united after all the trouble, and their morale was now sky high. Their loyalty to their Lord had also reached a whole new level.

Of course, the road had to go on.

The voyaging mission had just begun.

That afternoon, after the squadron packed up, they once again set off and sailed away.

Chapter 623-Malacca Straits

The voyage squadron continued on their journey.

Going past the Spratly Islands region, they soon entered the Johor Straits.

On the topic of the Johor Straits, one had to mention the Johor State. The South China Sea split Johor into two parts. The west Johor State was located in the Malay Peninsula; the north of it was connected to Siam, the south connected to Singapore, the east Johor State was located north of Borneo, and its south was connected to Java State.

The states of Johor, Siam, Singapore, and Java, including the neighboring Annan, Luzon, Brunei, Nanzhang, Zhenla, and Laos, were all members of the Southeast Asian Alliance.

Based on the federal regional planning, the ten states of the ASEAN were considered the South East Asia Region. Hence, these ten states competed and worked with one another in the game.

As a member of the east alliance, Johor State was famous for its tin mines, as its tin deposits were the greatest the world. The Johor in history slowly became famous due to the discovery of tin.

Who knows how much blood and disputes the tin mines caused within Johor state.

On the topic of tin, China historically desired the Johor's tin mines, especially the high-quality tin. Tin could be used for the inner layer of tea boxes and helped to defend against humidity.

Apart from that, the peppers of Johor also had a famous reputation in the west.

Apart from these two specialties, Johor did not have anything else of interest to Ouyang Shuo. For this voyage, the final destination of the squadron was to reach England after traveling past the english straights; it was an unprecedented task.

If the squadron could purchase peppers and ship them to the west to sell, they could earn a massive amount. However, Ouyang Shuo was not planning to do that.

In truth, when the squadron sailed into the Johor straits, Ouyang Shuo had already started to have intentions about a certain bullet-sized country.

It was Singapore.

Singapore neighbored Johor; they were separated by the Johor straits, on the east Xinzhou Straits with Java. It was located at the southern tip of the Malacca Straits, an important strategic choke point.

The Malacca Straits was a sea route that connected the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. If someone from Europe or Africa wanted to travel to South East Asia or East Asia, they would need to past this route.

Singapore was smaller than even a County in China, and they had less than four hundred thousand players.

Such a country occupied this important chokepoint, so how could it not be eye-catching?

Even if the game map expanded by ten times, the entire Singapore only covered seven thousand square miles, not even the size of a grade 3 County, which reached ten thousand square miles.

After excluding the only imperial city in Singapore, Lion City, and the small islands around it, Singapore spanned an even smaller amount of land.

Hence, the entire Singapore only had a single County, and they had five to six villages on the islands. Apart from that, there were no other player territories.

The biggest port in Singapore had the name of the best port in Asia. Lion City was located near the Xinzhou Port; this was the strategic attack point.

To avoid the imperial city, the Grade 2 Fengshan County was located on the east shore of Singapore.

As for the player guilds, there was only one large guild known as the Temasek Mercenary Guild, which was housed in Lion City. Apart from that, there were only some scattered adventure groups and some causal adventure gamemode players.

Even so, it would be difficult for Ouyang Shuo to occupy Singapore.

Even without mentioning other reasons, just the one hundred thousand combat occupation players would be enough to handle the voyage squadron, much less the guards inside the imperial city.

Based on Gaia’s settings, the number of troops housed in the city would be 10% of the population. If a country had more than one imperial city, this number would be split evenly.

Hence, since China had one hundred million players, each imperial city had around one million soldiers.

As a result, it was incredibly difficult for a Lord to take down an imperial city. One must know that these troops were all elite with good equipment.

After the emperor moved into the imperial city, the soldiers inside would change to the special troops of that dynasty. For example, Xianyang City had the famous and terrifying Qin Iron Army.

Moreover, the one leading these armies would be the likes of Wang Jian and Meng Tian, such famous generals.

Similarly, those in Luoyang were basically of the Han Iron Cavalry.

Based on the four hundred thousand players in Singapore, there should be around forty thousand troops in Lion City.

If they were fighting at home, Shanhai City definitely would not fear forty thousand troops. They could simply take out any one of the legion corps and easily destroy them.

The problem was that the troops that Ouyang Shuo currently led was an alliance squadron formed from two divisions.

Additionally, Fengshan County was also a Grade 2 County, so they should have no less than five thousand troops.

One hundred thousand combat occupation players, forty thousand Lion City troops, and five thousand Fengshan County troops; these groups formed the main force of Singapore. If Ouyang Shuo wanted to occupy Lion City, he would need to destroy these three forces one by one.

That's right, destroy.

After all, during a country war, neither side could surrender.

The only matter that Ouyang Shuo felt was fortunate was that Singapore belonged to the Chinese circle and followed the same technology tree. Hence, Singapore lacked the strong boats and cannons of the west.

If not, they would have stood no chance.

4th month, 20th day, on board the voyage squadron ship, Dragon Head.

The Cima boats that were sent out to investigate the geography of Singapore had returned with detailed intel.

In the battle room on the 3rd floor of Dragon Head, the four generals, Zheng He, Chen Dameng, Pei Donglai and Yanhuo Yaonie stared at the map drawn by the intelligence officer, as they discussed strategy.

Ouyang Shuo sat at the helm without saying a word.

He did not just come up with attacking Singapore recently. When he had set the voyaging plan, he had created a mock-up strategy. Zheng He was also briefed on this matter.

However, the other three generals were surprised. As they needed to keep the matter a secret, these three were only told when they left the Spratly islands.

Out of the three, Yanhuo Yaonie felt the most astonished.

Chen Dameng as the Personal Guards Captain did not think have many thoughts on the matter, as his job was to protect the Lord’s safety. Pei Donglai was a proper army person, so he only cared about following orders.

Yanhuo Yaonie was different, as he was a player with great foresight. He knew that occupying Singapore would be of incredible value to the rise of Shanhai City, especially in terms of ruling the seas.

Once again, the Lord’s ambitions left him amazed.

One had to mention that Yanhuo Yaonie's heart was burning. He felt truly fortunate that he chose to join Shanhai City. Otherwise, he would not have the chance to participate in this tantamount mission.

One could imagine how crazy the players in China would grow once they received the news. In reality, the Chinese players had experienced countless conflicts with Singapore.

Although the two could be said to be allies, they were also many altercations.

Once Shanhai City occupied Singapore, the Chinese players would feel delighted.

"I feel that the key to this battle is to quickly take down Lion City." Yanhuo Yaonie stared at the map and continued, "If this battle drags on, the neighbouring countries would join in. At that time, we would be under attack from multiple sides and can only regretfully retreat."

Yanhuo Yaonie was truly direct, pointing right out the possibility of defeat.

When Chen Dameng heard these words, he stared at Yanhuo Yaonie.

Naturally, Yanhuo Yaonie would not bother with Chen Dameng, and he turned around to look at Ouyang Shuo.

"Three days, we only have three days." Ouyang Shuo said.

As for how to attack Singapore, before the voyage, Ouyang Shuo had asked the Military Affairs Bureau to run some simulations. Their conclusion was that they could not take more than three days, as if they did, the situation might get out of hand.

However, they lacked detailed first-hand intel at the time, so they could not form a specific battle plan.

Ouyang Shuo agreed with their conjecture. In his last life, a few famous wars had warned them that the ASEAN was a beehive. If one did not pay attention, they might be dealt a heavy blow.

Hence, they needed to fight fast and end the war quickly.

"The enemy players alone number one hundred thousand. Even if they line up for us to kill them, it'll still take a long time. Three days is too rushed." Pei Donglai frowned.

"So, we can only use tactics." Yanhuo Yaonie suggested once more, suddenly stepping forward and pointing to Fengshan County, "Lion City and Fengshan County, one in the middle, the other to the east. The key is misdirection; we should split the squadron into two."

"One will attack Fengshan County. The moment it is attacked, the country war will start, and the players will rush to help Fengshan. We can use it as a bait to destroy the Singapore players."

Yanhuo Yaonie's plan made their eyes light up.

"Continue." Ouyang Shuo did not show any emotions.

"The other group will disguise themselves and hide on the ocean. When the situation in Fengshan County enters a stalemate, this group will kill out into Xingzhou Harbour and attack Lion City. At that time, there will only be forty thousand troops inside, so it'll be much easier." Yanhuo Yaonie explained.

"Forty thousand with a city to defend. The players within will also fight to the death. After splitting the troops, can we still take it down easily?" Pei Donglai did not believe it would be that simple, "If we enter a stalemate, the enemy might make use of the chance to counter attack. It's a bad idea."

Chapter 624-Country Destruction War

Pei Donglai's words caused the room to fall into a momentary silence. The generals instantly felt the difficulty of the upcoming battle.

When Yanhuo Yaonie saw the situation, he directly asked to lead, “Lord, I'm willing to lead the troops to attack Lion City."

"Say what you need!"

Pei Donglai's words were logical; Ouyang Shuo would never believe that they could take down Lion City with only a single navy squadron and two thousand soldiers. If he believed they had such ability, he would not be confident but arrogant.

However, no matter how Ouyang Shuo looked at him, Yanhuo Yaonie was not an arrogant person. To Yanhuo Yaonie, this battle could allow him to shoot to fame, so he definitely would not act rashly.

"I have two tough asks." Yanhuo Yaonie said, “Firstly, I hope that the cannons of the squadron can be assigned to me. Secondly, I hope to have the help of five hundred Divine Martial Guards."

"Wishful thinking." Before Ouyang Shuo could reply, Chen Dameng was already unhappy, and he stared at Yan Yaonie with bull-like eyes, “The Divine Martial Guards will only listen to the Lord."

Ouyang Shuo did not bother with Chen Dameng for the moment; he looked at Yanhuo Yaonie and calmly said, “The cannons and Divine Martial Guards, I can give to you. However, what if the mission fails?"

"If I fail, I'll give you my head." Yanhuo Yaonie made his military declaration.

"How much is your head even worth?"

Chen Dameng muttered, growing more and more annoyed with Yanhuo Yaonie.

Ouyang Shuo saw the determination in his eyes. Only with determination could one create miracles. As such, he chose to trust this general and said, “Listen to my orders!"

"Yes, my Lord!"

Military orders were like the will of god, so Zheng He and the other generals stood in position in the middle of the hall.

"I order Zheng He to take up the position of commander of the east troops and Pei Donglai to take up the role of deputy; you will lead the 1st division to attack Fengshan County. You have to grab the attention of all the enemy troops." Ouyang Shuo ordered.

"Yes, my Lord!"

"I order Yanhuo Yaonie to take up the role of commander of the mid troops, Chen Dameng will take up the role of deputy; you will lead the 2nd division and one thousand Divine Martial Guards to attack Lion City. You must win in one go!"

Ouyang Shuo had assigned double the number of Divine Martial Guards compared to the number Yanhuo Yaonie had requested. Apart from the Personal Guards, he had assigned all of the Divine Martial Guards to the middle troops.

"Yes, my lord!" In Yaohuo Yaonie's eyes, there was a glimmer of fire.

The trust of the Lord was incredibly important.

Even Chen Dameng, who had disagreed with Yaohuo Yaonie, could only accept the matter at this point.

Everyone knew that this was going to be an all-out brawl.

"I'll lead the Personal Guards to clear out the island villages." Ouyang Shuo actually planned to distract some of the players to reduce the burden on the army.

Although it seemed simple, it was extremely dangerous.

"Lord!"

Zheng He and the other generals were shocked; they wanted to express their disagreement.

"Generals, there's no need to discuss anymore. This battle is incredibly important for Shanhai City. We need to go all out." Ouyang Shuo waved them off, stopping them from trying to persuade him.

"We will fight to the death!"

Instantly, a wave determination permeated the battle room.

"Go make preparations!" Ouyang Shuo ended the meeting.

4th month, 21st day, Zheng He led the east troops to launch the first attack.

The forty odd main warship force and the sixty support ships formed a squadron. In the morning, they suddenly appeared in the surrounding sea region of Fengshan County, attacking the fishing boats and navy warships.

Fengshan County had its back toward the ocean, so the navy formed half of the territory's troops.

Under the relentless assault of the east troops, the three enemy thousand troop had no way to return fire.

In less than an hour, without even needing to fire the cannons, the east troops completely annihilated the Fengshan County navy. Apart from a few that managed to escape to shore, the rest were buried in the ocean.

Apart from that, numerous fishing boats were collateral damage.

After destroying the navy, the east troops did not rush to disembark. Instead, they taunted the enemy at the port.

When the Fengshan County lord received the news, his face turned ashen white. He immediately announced the lockdown of the city gates, and that the County had entered level 1 state of alert. As for the villages outside of the city, they were lost in his eyes.

At the same time, a system notification sounded out in the ears of all the Singapore players.

"System Notification: China’s Lord Qiyue Wuyi has initiated a country war; Singapore has entered war mode. Lion City has entered a level 2 state of alert. For the specific details, players please check it out for yourselves."

The moment the notification sounded, the Lion City players panicked. They had never expected to encounter the China region Lords at this point in time.

This country war had arrived too soon.

"Qiyue Wuyi? Isn’t he the best Lord in China?" someone asked.

"Not only China, he's the best in the world. The World's First Town, the World's First County, and the World's First Prefecture." someone added.

Gasp! The players who learned of these facts for the first time could not help but take in a deep breath. The world's first was something truly amazing; furthermore, he had a triple crown.

"Why did he come here and even start a country war?" someone asked.

"Who knows!"

"No matter what, we cannot just sit and do nothing."

"The problem is, where did the enemy come from? Is it Xinzhou Bay?" Most of the players were clueless.

At this very moment, the envoy from Fengshan County had arrived at Lion City with frontline intel, "Brothers of Singapore, an enemy has attacked; please lend a hand to protect the honour of our country!"

"Count me in!"

"Me too!"

"Let’s go, screw him!"

Suddenly, many players gathered.

This was a game, so quite a number of people only played for fun. Why would they think deeply into the matter? This was especially true for normal players. How would players who had never experienced war know about its cruelty?

Once the honor of the country was mentioned, many players felt their blood boil, and they just rushed up. In less than an hour, they gathered seven thousand players, who teleported to Fengshan County.

Following which, more and more players threw themselves into this battle.

The Fengshan County envoy decided to simply create a recruitment point besides the teleportation formation. Every five hundred people would form a team to teleport to Fengshan County to assist.

Amongst the bustle, the Temasek Mercenary Group - the core pillar of Singapore players - did not move out. 90% of the high leveled players in Singapore were part of this guild. Without them taking action, the player forces would not be strong.

It was not that the Temasek Mercenary Group did not like the country, however, as a large sized guild, they were more careful and calmer than normal players. They would not rashly throw themselves into battle.

An enemy attacked, a country war started.

The place that most needed protection was not Fengshan County but Lion City.

The moment Lion City fell, the country war would end.

Hence, the moment they received the news, the Temasek Mercenary Group sent a large number of men to the borders of the country to obtain intel and see if the enemy had hidden any troops elsewhere.

Naturally, they mainly searched around the Xinzhou Bay region.

Unfortunately, they were destined to be disappointed. How would Yanhuo Yaonie’s middle troops still hang around that part of the ocean? When they spotted no enemies by the afternoon, the Temasek Mercenary Group finally decided to help Fengshan County.

The current Fengshan County was facing great peril.

After obtaining the help of these adventure gamemode players, the Lord of Fengshan County grew bold. Along with the players incessant requests to fight, they decided to open the city gates to form up at the harbour to stop the enemy from disembarking.

Based on their words, they wanted to destroy the enemy on the ocean.

Of course, some people were doubtful about such a decision, “Why not play it safe and just defend the city? Why choose such a risky tactic?"

"Defending on the back foot is a cowardly act; we are not cowards!"

"Even if we want to fight outside the city, we should wait till more people come. Why are we rushing?"

"Wait? What are we waiting for? If we wait and the enemy disembarks, it will all be too late."

"This is war; this is not a game!" someone disagreed.

Before the war had even truly started, many players were quarrelling, their views unable to be unified.

The first batch of players were all lawless people, so how could they listen to other people? Even the Lord of Fengshan County lacked the power to control them.

"We cannot let the enemy step foot on our land!" players shouted.

It was these words that fanned the flames. Suddenly, many players felt their blood boil, and they collectively hollered. They screamed that they wanted to take the head of the enemy and protect the honor of their country.

Helplessly, he could only compromise and order the city gates to be opened. He did not dare to antagonise these players, as the fate of Fengshan County depended on them.

The moment the city gates opened, tens of thousands of players swarmed out and headed straight for the harbour.

Their dreams were big, but reality was completely different. If they defended the walls, they could hold on for some time. The moment they went out, it was like they were courting death.

What awaited these formed up players were the attacks of the cannons. Hundreds of cannon shells exploded in the enemy formation, causing numerous casualties. Broken limbs flew all over the place and blood splattered.

Some of the cowardly ones turned around and ran. Some did not dare to stay at the harbour; they panicked and ran back into Fengshan County.

The army formation that looked so menacing collapsed immediately. The scattered soldiers escaping created a truly embarrassing sight. During this battle, the players of Singapore had really thrown away their face.

Hahaha!

The embarrassment of the enemy made the east troops amused, and they mocked the Singapore players.

This scene caused Pei Donglai to describe the enemy in this manner, “What an awkward bunch."

When Zheng He heard these words, he shook his head, “Let's not underestimate the enemy; the battle has just begun. The enemy did not know about the power of cannons, resulting in this scene. If they manage to gain a foothold, it would be a tough battle."

"Thank you, admiral, for your teachings!" Pei Donglai was a little ashamed.

Chapter 625-Cannon Formation

After crushing the first wave of players, Zheng He ordered the troops to disembark. He decided to use this time to build up defences between Fengshan County and the harbour.

The navy soldiers were mainly archers. The remaining 30% were light armoured sword-shield soldiers in leather armor. There were no heavy armoured infantry or cavalry.

Apart from these soldiers, there was also the specially built Handgun Unit.

These three soldier types were all relatively fragile. As a result, they were more suited for close combat.

Zheng He knew these facts. When facing the enemy’s city defence, they would be fighting the enemy’s strength with their weakness. Even if they blew open the city gates with their cannons, the sailors who charged into the city would still face a tough situation.

Ideally, they would be able to lead the enemies out of the city once again and fight outside. Consequently, they needed to build up defences. If not, just one cavalry assault could destroy them.

Fortunately, Singapore was too small and did not have any war horses. Cavalry were also the rarest soldier type in Singapore. Even the adventure gamemode players were basically all infantry.

Hei! Hu! Hei! Hu!

The moment the warship approached, hundreds of sailors used their chariots to load up the cannons from the ships. They moved the cannons onto the harbour and pushed them to the designated cannon spots.

It took an hour to move twenty cannons into position.

The entire voyage squadron had a total of three hundred cannons. Apart from leaving some for the middle troops, the east troops had one hundred left. Zheng He's plan was to at least move half of these cannons onto land and create a cannon formation.

Amusingly, the Ming Dynasty Cannons could only shoot in a straight line. Hence, even if they aimed at the city walls, they could only hit it directly and not shoot over it.

As a result, during a siege battle, the only use of these cannons would be to blow open the city walls or gates. Furthermore, these cannons were extremely cumbersome and burdensome.

Luckily, the sailors had Zheng He, who was great with firearms. He knew how to use them to their fullest extent. In straight up battles, the strength of the cannons was undeniable, and they were potent defensive killing machines.

Hence, Zheng He grasped this chance where the enemy was caught off guard and rushing back to the city to use the harbour as their back garden and build a perfect defence.

The soldiers grabbed materials from nearby to build walls formed from bag after bag of sand and planks of wood. At the highest point, they lined up fifty cannons; the east troops would rely on this.

The overall firepower of the formation was split into four levels based on their ranges.

At the first level, they had archers. Their arrows shot the furthest, and they had the greatest killing range. Their weakness would be that the moment the enemy broke through, their killing strength would be drastically reduced.

The second level was a net of cannons. After charging past the arrow rain, the enemy would face the strikes of these cannons. Be it in terms of killing power or impact, the cannons were the strongest.

The third level was the support from the handgun troops. Based on the navy personnel arrangements, each lost would have one handgun platoon; each division would have eight platoons.

During an active battle, handguns were considered a burden due to their complicated mechanisms and bad accuracy. However, in terms of pure defense work, the handgun troops hidden behind the sandbags had an exceedingly high killing strength.

The fourth and final level of strength were the sword-shield soldiers. Their mission was to protect the safety of everyone else.

Any enemy who managed to charge past the first three levels of defense would have to face the cleanup crew of the sword-shield soldiers.

Along with a logical intersecting net of fire and strong defensive work, this formation was basically the nightmare of all enemies.

Zheng He's use of firearms was truly the best out of all the generals; no one could compare to him in this aspect.

Of course, his plan had a big ‘if’, which was whether or not the enemies would attack their base. If not, and the enemies decided to go around it, the firepower net would be rendered useless.

Alternatively, if the enemy decided to hide in the city and not come out, Zheng He would also consider the mission a failure. Zheng He did not forget that his mission was to attract all the attention of the enemy players. If they reached a stalemate, the enemies could teleport back to Lion City at any moment.

Fengshan County, city wall.

One could say that Zheng He's plan was exceedingly smart.

The army did not disembark at first. Instead, they sent a round of cannon fire to scare off the enemy. Following which, they chased the win and successfully disembarked.

One could see that without this first wave, the enemy could cause them numerous problems.

What about now?

The terrified players could only stare at the city walls and look on as the enemy busied themselves. With shocking speed, the construction of the defences were built up without obstruction.

However, amongst the Singaporean players, there were still many fearless ones.

While the east troops were moving the cannons, some players suggested they head out to prevent the enemy.

However, after the first loss, the Fengshan Lord did not dare to open the city gates. In his eyes, as long as they defended the city, the territory would be fine with the support of the players.

The moment they attacked, if something went wrong, the enemy could strike back.

After balancing the pros and cons, the Fengshan Lord naturally chose the safer strategy. The so-called country's honour was a pure concept to the common players; it had no personal interest within.

However, the Lords and guild leaders needed to make a choice.

The Fengshan Lord’s choice was not surprising at all.

……

With that, a morning had slowly crept away under this standoff. The next morning, more and more players teleported over from Lion City to assist the frontline. The number of player troops approached thirty thousand.

Apart from combat occupation players, some work occupation players had also arrived at Fengshan County. They provided medicine, equipment, and items for free to the frontline fighters.

Countless players filled Fengshan County. Each one of them were extremely solemn, and they brimmed with the desire to fight for their country.

These two opposite feelings mixed together, stimulating the players desire to fight and not ask for anything in return. Even those who died had no complaints, and they even felt a little proud of themselves.

In the face of war, the Singaporean players did not cower and stood united. The goal of the entire country had become one when facing danger.

At noon, the number of players gathered in Fengshan County had passed fifty thousand. Apart from the Temasek Mercenary Group, more than half of the other adventure gamemode players had gathered here.

Such a scale once again instilled the players with confidence.

When they saw the enemy troops start to construct a wall outside the city, how could the Singaporean players swallow the anger and frustration they felt? More and more people wanted to fight, each wave of people bigger than the last.

"This is our territory; we can't let the enemy contaminate it. We have to fight!" someone hollered.

"Fight! Fight! Fight!"

The sounds of the people pushing for war pierced through the clouds, and even the east troops could hear their voices.

When Pei Donglai saw this scene, his face turned extremely solemn. An enemy with such high morale could not be underestimated. Thinking back to the admiral’s words, Pei Donglai felt even more ashamed.

Zheng He remained incredibly calm and ordered his troops to enter a level 1 state of alert. As time went on, their defence work grew stronger and stronger.

However, this battle was not just one battle; it was one part of a bigger war, so he had to end it quickly. Hence, Zheng He hoped that the enemy would come out to fight them soon.

Thinking up this point, Zheng He ordered the troops to shout at the city to provoke the enemy. He wanted to make the already sensitive and angry enemy to start to battle early.

"All you tortoises up there listen up; do you dare to fight with me, your grandfather?"

"They were scared till they started peeing, how would they dare to come out?" someone purposely replied.

Hahahaha!

The uncontrolled laughter filled the air.

"It's no use you weaklings, stop looking and run back to your parents."

"These bunch of cowards are just afraid of our cannons and don't dare to attack."

Hahahaha!

The soldiers were all massive brutes; these words of scolding could be considered relatively civilized.

When the Singaporean players on the city walls heard these words, they were infuriated. They finally could not take it anymore, and their anger erupted like a volcano.

At this moment, even if the Fengshan County Lord wanted to stop them, he could not. If he wanted to forcefully do so, the first one to get hurt would probably be him.

The explosion of a volcano was a sign from the heavens; humans could stop not it.

For the Fengshan County Lord to hold the crown of the best territory in Singapore, he naturally possessed some skill. Seeing that he had no way to stop them, he had to go with the flow.

After the first lesson, he broke up his troops and sent them into the player squads to take charge of battle commands.

The players accepted these arrangements. They knew that as adventure gamemode players, they were used to killing beasts and had no experience in warfare.

Singapore was small, so the killings between Lords in the wilderness basically did not occur at this place. As a result, this place seemed extremely tranquil, and things like mercenary guilds did not exist.

Comparing the two, Singapore seemed like a paradise cut off from the world. The problem was that this was a game, this was the wilderness, and such a thing did not exist.

When war comes, any fairytale would cease to exist.

The chaos lasted for an hour before the players finally managed to reorganize themselves. Forty thousand players waltzed out of the city gates and head directly for the enemy formation.

In front of the army were five thousand rare cavalries.

They were cavalry, but their mounts came in a wide variety. Apart from horses, there were animals such as boars, leopards, tigers, and wolves.

Such a sight could be called extremely rare.

Chapter 626-Battle of Emptiness

The player troops were menacing, unfortunately, this was destined to be a tragedy.

Under the net of firepower formed from the arrow rain, cannons, and handguns, no one was able to smoothly charge near the east troops formation. Even if a small number of experts managed to survive and arrive before the formation, the sword-shield soldiers showed them the terrifying strength of a numerical advantage.

However, the Singaporean players stood strong, and they were not scared off like the first time. As they previously declared, even if they would die, they would die still c ge forward.

Such valiant warriors!

On a short two-thousand-meter path, many sad and touching stories were left behind.

The cavalry who charged at the front suffered the heaviest damage; basically, all of them fell. However, they still launched wave after wave of attacks on the formation.

Honour, glory, and responsibility could allow people to overcome their fear of death. Even if their friends fell, the other soldiers still proceeded forward.

When the work occupation players behind the city walls saw their comrades fall one by one, they teared up. Most of them were girls, who were generally more emotional, so how could they withstand such a sight?

The entire Fengshan County was enveloped in an infuriated and devastated atmosphere. The current Singaporeans had no way to differentiate between game and reality.

Everything was just too real.

The glory of your country, such an obscure term had become so tangible and close to their hearts, accumulating into an unassailable sense of will.

The fate of their country and the fate of each and every one of them were suddenly linked closely together.

This was a country war.

Heroic but mournful, fates tied together

……

Lion City, imperial palace.

When the minds and goals of the players united and slowly gathered toward the skies of Fengshan County, a massive snow-white tiger deep in the palace slowly opened its eyes.

The county war had welcomed its turning point.

……

The battle outside of Fengshan County continued; it would not simply stop because of the emotions of the people. Death was unavoidable, and there was no place for mercy during war.

This was the strangest battle Zheng He had ever experienced in his life.

On the battlefield, cannons spewed, and arrows rained; however, no blood river formed. This was because the moment the players were killed, they were revived back in Lion City.

When they died, all their equipment dropped.

Hence, weapons, armor, and even mounts were scattered across the battlefield. On the brutal frontlines, the armor of the soldiers formed a thick layer on the ground, shining brightly.

This scene clearly depicted the intensity of the battle.

As too many players were trying to revive, the Reincarnation Hall in Lion City had become extremely crowded. Countless spirits floated around the hall, forming a terrifying sight.

When batch after batch of ‘newbies’ walked out, the entire Lion City was shocked.

The strength and cruelty of the enemy let the Lion City players realise the danger their country was facing. Suddenly, even more players walked valiantly toward the teleportation formation and headed onto the battlefield.

The players who joined the battle were mostly teens, and they were the most passionate group. However, when the players received the news that the frontline efforts had failed once again, many middle-aged men threw themselves onto the battlefield.

The goals and determination of the entire country was coalescing.

The forums of Singapore exploded. Posts about the war appeared everywhere. Frontline intel continued to be spread and announced.

There were some players who were not in Lion City when the war broke out. They were either undergoing missions in the wilderness or training in the mountains. When they received the news, they all swiftly returned without hesitation. Those close to Lion City returned to Lion City, while those near Fengshan County returned to Fengshan County.

The strength of the entire country had started to act.

This battle was swiftly becoming a full-scale war.

Undoubtedly, the Temasek Mercenary Guild was facing a lot of pressure since they did not act. A great number of work occupation players blocked the mercenary guild’s gates in protest.

Plenty of insults and words of scolding targeted them on the forums. The Har of ‘country traitors’ were already being placed on their heads.

Despite these protests, the Temasek Mercenary Guild still did not act.

Even without mentioning the players outside of the guild, even the guild players were unhappy with the decision. The number of people asking to fight grew. Some of the rash ones even acted on their own.

Helplessly, the guild leader, Chen Guang, had no choice but to step out to explain.

"Brothers, we have to be calm at this time. Just like you, I am anxious and angry about the enemy’s invasion and killing. But what's the use? Can being anxious solve the problem? If they attack Lion City and we aren't here, what will happen?"

"...."

Total silence ensued.

"If Lion City falls, we will be the sinners of our country." Chen Guang hailed from an aristocratic family in Singapore, so he had a sense of responsibility and duty to his country.

This kind of responsibility was something that only true aristocrats would possess. One could say that he was more passionate about Singapore than any other player.

In Lion City, the Temasek Mercenary Guild was the emperor, gathering all the elites of the country. In comparison, the Fengshan Lord was just a normal aristocrat, and he was not even close to being on the same level as Chen Guang.

In Singapore, the guilds were strong, and the Lords were weak.

Such a situation was different from China and the other major regions.

The small land size related to this situation, as Singapore did not have a lot of land for the Lords to control.

For example, in the case of Fengshan County, rising to Grade 2 County was already its maximum.

On the other hand, guilds did not need that much land to develop. The game situation in Singapore was like traditional adventure games, where guilds reigned supreme.

Chen Guang's words definitely had a massive impact on the normal players.

The atmosphere was incredibly solemn. The higher ups of the mercenary group were highly supportive of his decisiveness. The only ones who did not understand were the basic members, but they were also a pillar of the organization.

"But we can't just sit and not do anything, right?" one person asked.

"If the enemy only has one line of troops, wouldn't we be falling for their plans if we stay to defend Lion City? At that time, we would have already suffered massive casualties, so how would we salvage the situation?" someone tossed out this thought.

The moment his words landed, many players expressed their agreement.

"We aren't doing nothing." Chen Guang was resolute, "Brothers, I promise you that if the intel from our scouts show no other enemy, I'll personally lead you all to assist Fengshan County."

"Great!"

The atmosphere heated up.

"But I'll say the unpleasant words first. Before the guild acts, if any member dares to act on their own accord, I will kick you out of the mercenary squad." Chen Guang followed up with these words.

"Understood!"

After they received the promise of the guild leader, the normal players knew what to expect.

……

The basic level members left, while the higher ups of the mercenary group gathered.

"Guild leader, should we ask for help from the ASEAN?" someone asked.

Asking for help was a taboo topic.

However, Chen Guang's expression remained extremely calm, as he thought about it, "No, not yet. If the enemy is just a twenty thousand men squadron and we ask for help, won't the other states laugh at us?"

"That's right. If we can't fight off twenty thousand enemies with the strength of our entire state, we would be a joke. How would Singapore be able to survive in the ASEAN circle?"

This topic was shelved, and no one mentioned it anymore.

While the winds surged in Lion City, the battle in Fengshan County was far from over. The forty thousand Singaporean players were determined to fight to the death. The players who rushed over tossed themselves into the battle without any hesitation.

With that, the pressure on the east troops mounted.

The first to fall off were the archers. Since they were on a voyage, they only had a limited number of arrows, and the unceasing arrow rain used up a shocking amount.

With no other choice, Zheng He ordered his men to transport all the arrows and bolts from the warships. One must know that these items were all prepared for ocean battles.

Apart from that, the cannons were also facing a situation.

The continuous cannon fire was a huge ask on the cannon barrels.

Luckily, the cannons Shanhai City crafted used barrels made of the newly designed steel from the No.7 Research Institute. If it was made using the Ming Dynasty Steelmaking Technology, the barrel would have blown apart already.

Even so, the barrels were burning and could not last for too long. When Zheng He received the news, he ordered for the fifty cannons to shoot on rotation; they would take turns to shoot, allowing the cannons to rest.

Suddenly, the cannon firepower was cut in half.

Luckily, the back portion of the harbour was still under the control of the east troops. Zheng He quickly ordered the sailors to ship all the cannons onto the front lines.

Zheng He was going to go all out, completely destroying the way out for the east troops. One could foresee that if the east troops retreated, they could not bring the cannons and the used-up arrows; only an empty rack would remain.

The east troops were prepared to fight to the death on land.

The only certain factor was the handgun troops and the sword-shield soldiers. As time went on, as the firepower at the front was weakened, more and more players would unavoidably manage to charge to the front of the formation.

The pressure on the sword-shield soldiers mounted.

One could say that the entire east troops was at a critical point. If the pressure continued to increase, the east troops could collapse at any moment.

If the Temasek Mercenary Group attacked, this battle would end in a jiffy.

The worse part was that the east troops could not cower in fear. If the enemy players realized that they were exhausted, it would increase their fighting spirit.

In such a scenario, the players would become crazier and bolder.

Chapter 627-Cruel Methods

War; it was slowly becoming a battle of wills.

Whoever wavered first, whichever side showed fear, they would lose.

Fortunately, the east troops had an experienced god general in charge, who made suitable adjustments based on the situation. After the slight adjustments to the cannons, Zheng He ordered, "Deputy Pei!"

"Yes, admiral!"

"Bring your Personal Guards, the reserve forces, and two thousand sword-shield soldiers to cut in from the two wings. You have to one shot them and destroy their mental state. Understood?" Zheng He pushed up all the troops he could use to fight proactively.

"Yes, admiral!"

Pei Donglai fully trusted Admiral Zheng He.

"Remember, you only have half an hour." Zheng He's expression was still extremely tense. All the east troops were like a tightly pulled bow; they might break at any moment.

"Understood!" Pei Donglai turned around and left.

Five minutes later, the various troops had gathered up. Like two sharp arrows, they charged out of the camp from left and right to stab into the player forces.

As time was limited, Pei Donglai's troops went out with an extremely determined and brutal mindset. Meanwhile, Zheng he commanded the archer, cannon, and handgun units to provide cover fire.

Facing the sudden attack, the players panicked. In the end, they were simply a bunch of adventure gamemode players, and this was their first time going to war. They had completely depended on their passion and fighting spirit to hold on until now.

In terms of tactical knowledge, these player troops were not even comparable to a group of newbies.

Their two wings were under attack, while their middle troops were stopped in their tracks. The enemy formation was like a devil, clawing away at the lives of their comrades in a seemingly infallible manner.

Sadness and despair started to permeate the army, as the number of casualties soared.

With that, the morale of the troops reached a freezing point.

"Let's retreat!" some people suggested.

Anymore fighting would just increase the number of unneeded sacrifices.

"Retreat!"

The players left the battlefield slowly, tearing at the corners of their eyes.

This time, they had not left the battlefield out of fear. They were not deserters, but just people who had chosen to make a strategic retreat due to the unwinnable situation in front of them. They could only back off to Fengshan County to think of new plans.

No one could scold or blame such an army.

"You have already done well enough!"

"Welcome back, our heroes!"

Many Singaporean players cheered out and clapped for the soldiers who returned.

The willpower of Singapore was far from being destroyed.

However, the two successive failures had a massive impact on the confidence of the Singaporean players. After the clash came to a pause, more than half of the combat occupation players in Singapore were buried on the battlefield.

Of the forty thousand players, less than ten thousand were alive.

A solemn and tragic feeling circled Fengshan County, unable to fade away.

Thanks to the current situation, the players naturally grew angrier about the lack of action from the Temasek Mercenary Guild. The voices scolding the mercenary guild were even stronger than those scolding Shanhai City.

Within Fengshan County, emotions such as anxiousness, anger, and sadness lingered. In such an emotional environment, Chen Guang finally led the Temasek Mercenary Guild over to Fengshan County.

When the news arrived, the county was thrown into an uproar.

This time, the Temasek Mercenary Group basically sent out all their elites. A total of fifty thousand combat occupation players had arrived, while ten thousand work occupation players lined up. This count exceeded the number of players from the first two wave of attacks.

Now, there were less than three thousand reserve forces left to defend Lion City.

With that. the rumors naturally died down.

No one could blame the Temasek Mercenary Group anymore.

As the core in the hearts of the Singaporean players, the Temasek Mercenary Guild was an invincible presence. Even the Fengshan County Lord had to submit when he saw Chen Guang.

Without any obstacles, Chen Guang took control over the player army.

From the mouth of the Fengshan County Lord, Chen Guang obtained comprehensive frontline intel. After hearing the description of events, he sank down into silence. The strength and stubbornness of the enemy had far exceeded his expectations.

Chen Guang climbed up the city wall and looked out at the dark, suppressive enemy formation, and his face clenched up. In just an hour, the east troop camp seemed totally renewed.

The entire formation was now a massive arc.

Along the arc, hundreds of cannons were spread out, the cold barrels terrifying. Most crucially, the formation had many people going around working, continuing to strengthen this castle.

Chen Guang was not a normal player, and he definitely would not be rash. Charging out to attack such a base was just sending men to die. The massive arc was like a gaping mouth that could swallow any enemy thrown at it.

It was like the enemy had dug a hole and was waiting for them to jump into it.

Hence, Chen Guang decided to defend the city and not strike out. With that, Singapore would be in an unbeatable situation. The moment the enemy ran out of resources, the formation would be broken without them even needing to attack it.

One had to say that it seemed like Chen Guang had considered everything.

Noon, the east troops camp.

"Phew!"

When he saw the enemy retreat, Zheng He's white face flashed with a sense of relief. In this battle of wills, the east troops had claimed victory thanks to his decisive actions.

With that, the east troops had managed to obtain some hard to come rest time.

The burning hot cannons were able to rest, while the newly transported cannons could be moved to higher ground.

When the battle came to a pause, it was already 2 PM.

As the winning side, Zheng He ordered the sailors to rush out to the battlefield and collect all the equipment and items that the players had dropped. Most importantly, they had to try and collect the arrows and bolts.

As for the soldiers, they took the time to rest up and recover their energy.

The formation that the players had worn down was repairing at a shocking rate. The Singaporean players on the city walls could only look on as the enemy troops recovered their strength.

By the time Chen Guang led his troops over, everything was over.

"Damn it!" Some people were filled with hate, but there was nothing that they could do.

In truth, the east troops did not simply repair the formation.

Making use of this chance, Zheng He's east troops not only successfully built up a stronger defense, he even sent out men to scour for food and resources from the nearby villages.

Some of the native villagers were also moved to the battlefield to help the army improve the defenses; these people would help to dig moats and build barricades.

The entire project was growing more and more perfect.

Zheng He even ordered some of the especially strong men to take up arms and form a servant army.

From the perspective of the farmers, a country war and a fight between Lords was the same. Their goal was just to survive, and they would do anything to do so.

After all, they were not soldiers.

Hence, the establishment of the servant army went extremely smooth. However, their combat strength was truly minimal; they were probably even worse than the player's army.

Naturally, Zheng He did not hope for them to kill the enemy and contribute; he had other plans.

Apart from that, amongst the strong men, there were a few Singaporean adventure gamemode players. Prior to their capture, these players were either killing mobs in the wilderness or doing quests in the villages; the east troops had brought them back to the camp.

They were facing a crisis.

These players included both combat and work occupation players.

During the afternoon, the east troops were busy in the surrounding villages. They brought over three thousand laborers, forming a servant army of two thousand men and two hundred captured players.

Truly a bountiful harvest.

Apart from Fengshan County, the entire territory had become the home of the east troops, and they did what they want.

Their audacious acts left all the players within Fengshan County furious, their eyes bulging out of their sockets. If Chen Guang did not come out to stop them, they would have charged out and fought to the death with the east troops.

Chen Guang was also being pushed to his limit. Rationally, he knew that the enemy’s actions were aimed at baiting them out to fight. However, emotionally, he was still extremely furious.

He could not take it when he saw his comrades, especially the players, being captured and tortured.

The hatred between both sides grew deeper and deeper.

……

The Singaporean players were furious, while Zheng He was also facing a tough situation.

He did not expect the players to remain so calm. No matter how the east troops provoked them, the enemy did not act; they seemed determined to defend all the way. He was not confident in their ability to break through the strong Fengshan County. If this continued, his mission to hold up their attention would end in failure.

Zheng He felt worried just thinking about how the Lord was waiting for them. Seeing the sun slowly setting in the west, and that the first day was about to end, Zheng He could not remain calm any longer.

"Admiral, I have a plan." Pei Donglai suddenly said, “However, this plan would anger the heavens."

"Quickly, speak!" Zheng He rushed.

"Didn’t we capture a bunch of players? Why don’t we bring them to the front of the formation and kill them one by one. We will threaten them that every ten minutes, we will execute one person if they don’t come out." Pei Donglai said coldly, "I don't believe that the enemy would be able to hold back."

"...."

When Zheng He heard this suggestion, his face froze up, and he did not give a reply. At the very core, Zheng He could not be considered a passable general, as he was not vicious enough.

In history, Zheng He was a well known pacifist.

If the commander was Baiqi or even Han Xin, they would not have hesitated. They would have directly accepted Pei Donglai’s suggestion.

But Zheng He could not.

If Ouyang Shuo did not give Zheng He a firsthand war lesson during the Battle of Annan, he would face a mind block simply attacking Singapore.

However, he now needed to order his men to kill hostages, which truly placed him in a difficult situation.

"Let me think about it." Zheng He barely got these words out.

"Admiral, we can't drag on any longer!" Pei Donglai was a little anxious,"If this continues, it'll affect the entire battle proceedings. How are we going to answer to the Lord!"

Pei Donglai's words jolted Zheng He awake.

After a short while, he opened his mouth, "Since that's the case, I’ll leave this matter to you."

"Yes, Admiral!" Pei Donglai did not hesitate at all.

Chapter 628-Sad and Tragic

Hundreds of wooden poles formed a massive line before the arc formation.

On the Fengshan County city wall, the Singaporean players found the current scene weird; they did not know what the enemy was up to. Then they saw their captured comrades roughly hauled out of the prisoner camp and tied to the poles.

"People, listen up, if you're a man, come out and fight us. If not, we will kill all these hostages. When the time comes, don't blame us for being vicious." Under Pei Donglai's instructions, the soldiers shouted.

These words enraged the Singaporean players.

"Animals!" some people scolded.

……

"Cowards!"

……

Various hard to listen phrases were thrown at the east troops. However, scolding was only scolding; they could not exit the city. None of them dare to go against Chen Guang’s prestige.

Furthermore, more than 70% of the players inside the city were members of the Temasek Mercenary Guild, so they definitely would not go against the orders of their guild leader. They could only scold back at the east troops to vent their anger.

When Pei Donglai saw their lack of action, his eyes turned cold, and he waved his hands at the Handgun Unit that was already awaiting instructions.

"Ready!" The handgun captain immediately ordered, “Fire!"

Pa! Pa! Pa! A round of gunfire broke out, shooting to death the ten prisoners at the left.

"...."

On the Fengshan City wall, there was utter silence. The Singaporean players did not expect the enemy to truly follow through on their threat.

"Listen up, we don't want to waste words. Every ten minutes, we will kill one person. If you are willing to just watch on, then just stay inside your city!"

The east troop soldiers shouted.

Hahaha!

The soldiers cooperated and laughed uncontrollably.

This was the last straw; the addition of the execution had an extremely strong effect. The Singaporean players on the city wall were shocked, and they did not know what to do.

"Report to the guild leader!" someone suggested.

"Okay!"

A short while later, Chen Guang, who had returned to the Lord's Manor, received the news. At his side was the Fengshan County Lord and four higher-ups of the mercenary guild.

When the others heard the news, they were left speechless.

"These bunch of animals; they actually thought of such a despicable move," someone cursed out.

Chen Guang frowned and coldly said, “I heard that Qiyue Wuyi's reputation in China was good. Why are his subordinates like this?"

"That was within the country. Now, it is a country war. Naturally, he wouldn't care so much," replied the Fengshan County Lord.

"Guild leader, what should we do?"

Chen Guang gritted his teeth and said, "Bear it."

"But I'm afraid that the normal players might not be able to take it." Some of them felt worried.

"Try your best to give them something to do. This is a scheme by the enemy, so we just can't fall for it," Chen Guang said.

"Understood!"

They nodded, but they lacked confidence deep down.

How was such a matter easy to suppress?

In less than an hour, people started to riot on the Fengshan County city wall. Every ten minutes, one comrade would be shot. The pain and helplessness they felt were tough to bear, and it was a massive test on their mental strength.

Even if the higher ups of the mercenary group stepped out to try and persuade them, the situation grew more and more out of control. Especially those non-mercenary guild members, they were furious. As their voices were being suppressed, their ill feelings toward the Temasek Mercenary Guild grew.

The Temasek Mercenary Group came late, and now, they were tortoises that were not willing to head out to fight. Obviously, this would raise questions about them. The gazes toward them were filled with doubt and question.

This made the mercenary guild members feel exceedingly uneasy. They were loyal to their country and filled with a passion to fight for it. Not only were they not recognized by their countrymen, they were even doubted and questioned.

This resulted in these members starting to doubt the decision of their own higher-ups.

"One hour has passed, give them some more to think about!" Pei Donglai ordered. The moment he gave his order, the guns sounded out once more, killing ten people.

To make matters worse, the enemy had executed ten girls this time. Ten golden flowers withering in front of them, how tragic and cruel.

Such a scene brought their anger to a breaking point.

"I can't take it anymore." A young teen stepped up. He pulled out the long sword by his waist and loudly proclaimed,"If you're a man, charge out with me. Even if I die, it's better than living like a coward."

"We can't even protect our women, what kind of men are we?"

"We won't live our lives without a purpose!"

"Guys, calm down. Don't be rash!" The mercenary guild higher-ups once again came out to try and persuade them.

Unfortunately, calmness did not welcome him; instead, he was greeted by an even intenser storm.

The teen who had jumped out first pointed his long sword at the noses of the mercenary guild higher-up, his face filled with a mocking intent, as he angrily declared, "You want to be cowards, I don't care, but what right do you have to lead us? To make us do what you say?"

"That's right!" A scar-faced middle-aged man stepped out and looked around,"A bunch of cowards who have never fought before, I am ashamed to be on the same side as you!"

The unhappiness of the players toward the Temasek Mercenary Guild exploded out.

"We are not cowards!" the members tried to argue back.

Both sides nearly got into a fight in the city.

They only stopped because the work occupation players interfered to calm the chaos. Even so, there was a divide between the two sides, and they would not be able to walk together anymore.

"Brothers, let’s kill our way to save our comrades!" The lucky survivors from the previous battle were ready to throw themselves back onto the battlefield.

Ten thousand players stepped out once more, ignoring the people trying to persuade them. They knew that more or less they would die, but they would still try. The soldiers walked out and sang their thousand year war song that had been passed down.

"Over the mountains, through the rivers, we came here."

"The sharp swords out of their sheaths and our blood boils!"

"Soldiers, we are destined to create miracles!"

"Don't fear, don't hesitate, follow me to kill the enemy!"

"...."

"Ladies afar, who is missing you?"

"Who will shield you from the rain!"

"If I die, please don't cry for me!"

"If I die, bury me in this land that I love!"

"...."

"Loyal to death!"

"Fearless warriors, let our country rise up once more!"

"Our country is strong; we will never collapse!"

"Infallible mental strength is our secret to immortality!"

……

On the city walls, numerous female players were already tearing up till they could not speak, as they sent their heroes off to their deaths.

Cries broke out across the entire city.

Members of the Temasek Mercenary Guild remained emotionless, as complicated expressions appeared on their faces. In their eyes, there was guilt, shame, and anger.

Ever the higher-ups were silent.

A sort of tragic atmosphere enveloped the entire country; such a matter would only happen during a country war.

In the end, war was a battle between men.

They would only understand the cruelty and merciless of war when they realized that every person in war was a fresh life.

A country war was not different from a real-life war.

Respecting the lives of natives would be respecting life itself and also respecting yourself.

……

Ten thousand players charging out undoubtedly created a tragic sight.

The opposing Shanhai City Army definitely would not show any mercy because of this. However, the expression of the admiral was extremely complicated, as he had not completely adapted to the cruelty of war.

When the Singaporean players hung on the wooden poles heard the familiar war song, they cried out. They shouted out, “Comrades, don't come over; it's not worth it!"

"Comrades, you have all done well; we will die without regrets!"

Similar words continued to ring out.

"Over the mountains, through the rivers, we came here!"

"The sharp swords out of their sheath and our blood boils!"

"..."

Countless war songs sounded. The player army looked at death as a respite, as they charged toward the formation with a steel-like determination.

"Shoot the arrows!"

The archers launched the first wave of the assault.

"Shoot the cannons!"

The cannons followed.

Instantly, the player army suffered heavy casualties. Even so, they did not back off and charged forward, hellbent on saving their brothers.

The sight was truly stunning.

"Are you all just going to watch them go to their deaths? Aren't you afraid of your conscience?" On the city wall, many female players could not help but scold the members of the Temasek Mercenary Guild.

"...."

Many of the guild members felt ashamed.

"If you don't go, we will!" When a nation faces a crisis, heroines would appear. Female players, even work occupation players with no combat strength, were ready to throw themselves onto the battlefield.

"You girls can't go!" Members of the mercenary squad stepped out to prevent them from leaving. How could they let a bunch of female players, and even work occupation players, head onto the battlefield? It would be a massive humiliation to them.

"Move aside!" The women were completely annoyed with the mercenary group members.

"**!" One man could not help but yell vulgarities, “I can't take it anymore. Even if I get kicked out, I can't just stand here and watch our comrades die!"

One stone caused many ripples.

Finally, the players' minds, which were pulled tight like a rubber band, snapped.

Seeing someone lead the way, it was like pushing down dominos, causing a seismic wave. Numerous mercenary group members could not care less anymore, and they threw themselves into the battle.

Chen Guang and the others had already lost control over the members.

This battle had finally reached its most crucial moment. Be it win or lose, Zheng He had completed his mission. The first part of this country destruction battle had succeeded.

Within the Lord’s Manor, Chen Guang's face turned ashen white.

"Singapore is finished!"

A sharp pain appeared in his eyes; what would other people know of his current pain, where the people on his side did not listen to him?

Chapter 629-Follow Even to Death

Another red sun, the boisterous battlefield regained its silence.

Courage, tragedy, and hot-bloodedness, these factors could not truly decide the result of a battle. Strength, technology, and equipment determined the outcome.

In any field, the player army was losing out.

The east troop’s arc formation was a gargantuan trap. It was like the player army was diving into a pocket, as they got struck by firepower from all sides.

Under such a perfect formation, thermal weapons like the cannons and hanguns were at their most powerful. Meanwhile, the players were using cold weapons, so how could they not lose?

In less than two hours, the victor was decided.

The results of the east troops had exceeded everyone’s expectations. Through this battle, the player army of Singapore was utterly annihilated. In the end, less than ten thousand men were able to escape through the teleportation formation and return to Lion City.

As for the hostages strapped to the wooden poles, they naturally were not so fortunate. During this battle, the players were simply too rash. They wanted to save their comrades, but they failed and sacrificed themselves in the process.

No wonder Chen Guang would feel so heart pained.

After the battle, the bustling Fengshan County had totally become an empty town. When Zheng He saw that, he ordered his troops to Attack it. Without expending much energy, they took down Fengshan County.

In just a day, Fengshan County fell.

Its fall meant that the country wall had entered a full scale war.

The east troops as they were hiding behind the defences, only lost some gunpowder and ammo, the amount of casualties were less than a thousand, what a miracle.

With that, it was also a good news for attacking Lion City.

……

Lion City, imperial palace.

The moment Fengshan County fell, the Guards housed in the palace finally appeared. They moved into the city gates and walls to take over Defence.

Their armor, shields and weapons were all top grade products.

At the same time, the Snow White tiger in the palace had totally awaken.

The entire Lion City was wide awake.

……

The bad loss in the 3rd battle had caused an uproar in Singapore.

Fear, unease all festered in their hearts as everyone was asking,"What about us? What will happen to Singapore?"

No one could give an answer to this.

The appearance of the guards gave Singapore players a little hope. 3 defeats in 3 battles was a huge sense of failure and the strength of the enemy was solidified in their hearts.

Could just 40 thousand guards defend Lion City? The players were doubtful!

The negative emotions couldn't help but spread in the city.

At this moment, Chen Guang who had escaped back to Lion City once again stepped out and took responsibility. He said resolutely,"Singapore brothers and sisters, we still have hope."

"Guild leader, what should we do?"

A few players couldn't help but crowd around him, their faces filled with fear and their hoped to get answers.

Chen Guang found a high platform and continued his speech,"Fengshan County's failure wasn't because we weren't strong enough or because we won't courageous enough. We have lost because the enemy is too cunning, they used despicable methods to bait us out."

As they listened to this, the players couldn't help but feel ashamed. At this point, they realised Chen Guang's efforts as well as the detriments of their rash behaviour.

Even so, Chen Guang didn't blame them and instead blamed it on the despicable enemy. Such a merciful leader was really worth them following.

"As Long as we are united and just defend the city, Lion City will never fall." Chen Guang was motivating the crowd,"Brothers and sisters, please follow me and allow me to lead you to victory."

"Guild leader, please give the order, we will follow you to death!" Soldiers were so touched they teared up."

"Follow to death!"

Be it teens, middle aged men, even old men, women and kids all shouted in unison, pledging their loyalty to the leader. Their eyes were filled with determination and one could see the light of victory.

All of a sudden, the atmosphere of Lion City started to heat up.

Their morale bloomed.

One had to say that Chen Guang was truly a born leader. In the last life, Simeone commented that he was a calm head with exceptional speech abilities and with his crafty ideas, making himself shine.

Singapore in the last life used their geographical position to rise up in the game. In the global environment, Chen Guang could be considered to be one of the famous figures.

Unfortunately the times were different and he had to meet Ouyang Shuo so early on, it was destined to be a tragedy.

……

After calming down the normal players, Chen Guang gathered the core members to discuss.

At the moment, his expression suddenly became really solemn,"We can't place the fate of our country all on the hands of the Guards." It showed that he wasn't as confident as he showed just now.

"What should we do?"

"Ask for help from the ASEAN." Chen Guang said.

"..."

Total silence.

"It's not the time to bother about face. If we lose the country war, we lose everything." Chen Guang was the same as Ouyang Shuo, a utilitarian, to protect Singapore he would do anything.

"It seems like the only thing we can do!"

Everyone sighed, filled with a tragic emotion, in the end they had walked on this path of no return.

Singapore was an island surrounded by water. The one closest to them was Johor in the north. Between the 2 was the narrow Johor Straits.

To be able to assist them, only Johor could do so.

Even Johor when they receive the request for help, they needed to verify it. After all, a cross country war was still a very unfamiliar phrase.

After verifying, they must discuss how many soldiers and how to sent the soldiers. Along with time spent on the road, it will take at least 2 days for them to arrive in Lion City.

Chen Guang concluded,"Hence we need to defend for 2 days."

"Defend Lion City to the death!"

Everyone swore in unison, Lion City had no other route.

Johor Straits, dragon head.

The moment Fengshan County fell, Ouyang Shuo received the system notification. He smirked. As expected, Zheng He didn't let him down and did far better than he had expected.

In just one battle, Ouyang Shuo had obtained close to 100 thousand merit points. How crazy was that? It was through the merit points that Ouyang Shuo was able to deduce what happened there.

The combat players of Singapore had pretty much all fallen.

To prevent war slayers from being born from country wars, Gaia made the rule that only combat occupation players have merit points.

The work occupation players wouldn't be tabulated into the merit points.

This rule was similarly targeting the old and weak.

Hence, lords couldn't earn large amounts of merit points through slaughtering normal civilians.

Even combat occupation players, only the 1st kill was tabulated. The newbies after reviving, even if they were killed again wouldn't be calculated again.

Such a setting was to prevent players from blocking up the reincarnation hall and slaughtering them over and over. Gaia promoted war but not meaningless killing, as that was totally immoral.

……

In the reading room, Ouyang Shuo was pumped up and started to give out military orders.

As the east troops had obtained a huge victory, the entire plan needed to change.

Based on the plan, Ouyang Shuo originally needed to sweep the nearby islands. Under such circumstances, sweeping the surrounding islands would have no meaning.

If his estimations were correct, the players on the nearby islands had gathered in Lion City.

Hence the next morning, Ouyang Shuo would personally lead his troops to Lion City. Of course, the middle troops would still be led by Yanhuo Yaonie and Ouyang Shuo wasn't prepared to butt in.

Next morning, the mid troops would assault Lion City, first to clear out the surrounding Lion City Region. The east troops will rest for a night before rushing to Xinzhou bay to meet up with the mid troops.

The final battle would happen tomorrow!

4th month 22nd day, the 2nd day of the country war.

The sky just turned bright, Yanhuo Yaonie's middle troops had already reached Xinzhou Bay.

The flames of war were ignited once more!

As compared to the east troops, the mid troops Mission was much more arduous. This was because they needed to Attack Lion City and had only 2 days to do so. To rely on just 20 thousand navy soldiers to take down an imperial city? Just thinking about it would be hard for one to believe.

Who knows what miracle move did Yanhuo Yaonie prepare?

As compared to Fengshan County, apart from Lion City being more majestic, the city walls were much bigger. It also had one specialty which was the water paths in the city were linked to Xinzhou Bay.

The imperial city had a total of 3 river passages which was linked to Xinzhou Bay. As the game had expanded 10 times, each path was over 50 meters Long. The widest one always even 200 meters wide.

In the last life, who knows how many merchant ships directly entered Lion City through the river passage to help increase the prosperity of Lion City.

These river passages were the chances that Yanhuo Yaonie had grasped.

Similar to the Fengshan County battle, the key to winning was how to use their firearms to their most efficient. Especially the use of cannons. If they were just used to blow open the city gates, it would be a waste of a treasure.

Zheng He chose to build a Cannon formation outside of the city. The mid troops let by Yanhuo Yaonie was unable to replicate it.

No matter how rash they were, the a Singaporean players wouldn't fall at the same spot 4 times. Furthermore this time the main defending force was the imperial palace Guards. Their duty was to protect the safety of the imperial city and wouldn't go out to fight.

The moment the middle troops reached Xinzhou Bay, it caused stunned Chen Guang and the others.

anyone would know that no matter how strong the squadron at Fengshan County was, they couldn't reach here in just 1 night. The only explanation was that these were the hidden troops of the enemy.

Thinking about this, Chen Guang's heart became heavy.

Chapter 630-God Weapon Starlight Sword

The middle troops easily occupied Xinzhou Bay without much effort, as there were no opposing naval troops in the bay. Moreover, the fishing boats and the other boats had stopped work when the war started.

The usually busy bay was exceedingly cold today.

After taking a short rest, the middle troops officially launched their attack on Lion City. Yanhuo Yaonie chose to use the river passages to approach the city walls.

The Ming Dynasty cannons could only shoot directly forward, but with the warship as a base, it was enough to damage the guards on top of the city wall. On the contrary, the arrows from the guards did minimal damage.

After less than an hour of fighting, the guards were already on the losing end. Seeing that the enemy was relying on their cannons once more, the Singaporean players watching from the city walls were so furious that they gritted their teeth.

Luckily, the strategy of the guards was rather quick and flexible, they would not gather on the walls as living targets. Seeing that they stood no chance and had no effective way to hurt the enemy, the guards on the south wall immediately retreated.

Obviously, the guards were prepared to fight in the middle of the city.

One had to say that this strategy was truly smart. The middle troops, who had smoothly entered Lion City through the river passages, felt stunned when they looked at the spot where the streets and river intersected.

"General, where do we fire at?" A soldier ran over.

"Aim directly at the palace!" Yanhuo Yaonie ordered.

Similar to attacking territories, as long as one destroyed the stone steele in the imperial palace, one would be considered the victor of the country war. Of course, for a country like China with nine imperial cities, you would have to destroy them all.

If not, why would some call China an undefeatable presence.

Yanhuo Yaonie's idea was great. Unfortunately, the river passages turned away outside of the palace. Hence, it was impossible for him to directly carry the cannons to the gates of the palace.

With that, the middle troops had to head deep into enemy territory, a spot where going forward and retreating were both difficult.

Yanhuo Yaonie's face flashed with a hard to detect awkwardness.

Similarly, be it the guards or the players in the city, they did not dare to approach the enemy warships in the river, as they were afraid of being blown up.

Both sides ended up in a weird standoff just like that.

Such a standoff was extremely good for Singapore. A lack of enough time worried Chen Guang the most. He would rather the situation stay like this all the way till reinforcements arrived.

At noon, Ouyang Shuo met up with the east troops and arrived at Xinzhou Bay.

"Lord, the middle troops seem like they are facing a situation, how should we act?" Zheng He asked.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and emotionlessly ordered, "Attack!" At the stage, the country war should come to an end, and any plan or scheme was to help it reach such a point.

"Understood!" Zheng He nodded.

Immediately, the east troops sailed along the river and similarly entered Lion City. Half an hour later, the two squadrons regrouped in the river, blocking it up.

"Lord!"

A short while later, Yanhuo Yaonie rushed to Dragon Head to greet Ouyang Shuo with an ashamed expression.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he gave a slight smile,"General there's no need to, just fight the war well." He could understand Yanhuo Yaonie's anxiousness and guilt, but he did not think too much about it.

"Thank you, Lord!" Yanhuo Yaonie nodded his head solemnly.

After a simple greeting, the three of them started to discuss specific battle plans.

Pei Donglai would take charge of the river passage and command the entire squadron to maintain their threat against the territory. At the same time, a portion of archers would be left to cover the cannoneers.

The remaining forty thousand troops would disembark and form up. At this point, the only thing that they could do was fight.

Apart from a proper army, there was also the five thousand men servant army that Zheng He had brought along.

At this stage, it was time for them to show their use. They would place the servant army right at the front to act as a barrier for the archers behind. In the middle stood the sword-shield soldiers, the main force of this battle, while the handgun forces and archers would stand further behind.

As for the cannons, they had no place in this battle.

After the army formed up, they directly charged toward the imperial palace gates.

The guards were already alert, and ten thousand players had also gathered with them. As for the work occupation players and the civilians, they had headed home to avoid being wrapped up in the flames of war.

Forty thousand men with archers as their core to fight against fifty thousand elites, this was going to be a tough fight. If he did not have the one thousand divine martial Guards, Ouyang Shuo definitely would not dare take up this challenge.

Of course, the five thousand servant army that Zheng He recruited was also a brilliant move, a god stroke. The players did not have any thoughts or worries about the servant army; however, they cared about their comrades.

But the guards were different. In their eyes, players and natives were the same. Hence, looking at the servant army in front of them, they were caught off guard.

This lapse granted some valuable time for the archers and handgun forces on the back lines. Each minute, each second, they could inflict huge damage.

When the players saw the situation, under Chen Guang's instructions, they actually started to aim and kill the servant army, hence releasing the guards from their moral dilemma. One had to say that this was truly a vicious move.

In less than an hour, the five thousand men servant army fell.

The true war had just begun.

Both sides fought until the sun started to set, the flowing blood forming a river.

The most eye-catching ones on the battlefield were naturally the Divine Martial Guards led by Ouyang Shuo. Even the guards seemed much weaker than them.

Such an iron army could do whatever they wished against the enemy; they were an invincible presence.

During this battle, Ouyang Shuo met a strong opponent, Chen Guang.

As the guild leader of the Temasek Mercenary Guild and also the best adventure gamemode expert in Singapore, his strength could not be underestimated.

Right at the start of the battle, Chen Guang took the initiative to find Ouyang Shuo for a decisive battle.

"Qiyue Wuyi, if you're a man, fight with me." Chen Guang asked to fight.

Ouyang Shuo laughed, he knew that Chen Guang wanted to distract him to prevent him from commanding the Divine Martial Guards. However, he did not mind; he waved his Tianmo Spear, accepting the challenge.

If it was before this voyage, Ouyang Shuo would have hesitated. But after his fortuitous encounter on the desolate island, the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique had climbed to the 11th layer. In this short period of time, his combat strength had rocketed.

Till date, his combat strength rating had already reached the middle gold grade, and he was just two grades away from the low dark gold grade. The top-ranking expert in his last life had only reached such a level.

Chen Guang's rating definitely would not exceed high-silver grade.

As the two fought on, Ouyang Shuo was confident of taking him down within thirty rounds. Chen Guang wanted to hold him up, while Ouyang Shuo wanted to slay him and totally crush the morale of the players.

The weapon that Chen Guang wielded was the most orthodox sword, and it was also a god weapon. The name of the sword was ‘Starlight’; the only god weapon in Singapore.

God Weapon.

Chen Guang had obtained this Starlight Sword through the system auction.

In terms of game balance, Gaia had done extremely well. The system auction was something that every country had. At the same time, the ranks of the items were different.

As the biggest region in the game, a god weapon had appeared in China during the 2nd system auction. What appeared during the 3rd system auction was an overpowered set like the god weapon set.

However, if a player in a small country like Singapore had a weapon rank similar to the China region, it would be exceedingly unfair to them. This was because their player numbers were not on the same level.

Hence, the Starlight Sword only appeared during their 3rd system auction, and it was also the most pinnacle item, which Chen Guang obtained.

The reason Gaia had such settings, apart from fairness, was to ensure that players did not gain too many god weapons through the small countries, which would cause a depreciation of the value of god weapons.

"Starlight!" After less than ten rounds, Chen Guang was already barely holding on. Finally, he could not take it and used the killing move of the Starlight Sword.

A light shot out from the sword directly toward Ouyang Shuo's heart. The killing move of god weapons basically all had the sure kill effect; this move was just like the bigger dipper of the Qixing Longxuan Sword, formless and unavoidable.

When Chen Guang used this move, his enemy basically stood no chance. When he saw the light successfully pierce Ouyang Shuo, Chen Guang's face lit up, as he thought that victory was in his hands.

Ouyang Shuo laughed coldly; he did not care about the light. He even used the chance when Chen Guang was stunned to stab the Tianmo Spear into Chen Guang's heart.

"Eh!"

Looking at the hole in his chest, Chen Guang gasped in disbelief. He did not understand, even in death, how the enemy remained totally fine under the sure kill attack of the Starlight Sword.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo would not explain anything to a dead person. He simply picked up the items that Chen Guang had dropped, especially the Starlight Sword, which he quickly kept in his storage.

As the best player in Singapore, Chen Guang was extremely rich, and all of his equipment was higher than platinum rank. However, because they were still in the midst of a chaotic battle, Ouyang Shuo did not have the heart to check the items one by one.

Ouyang Shuo was able to ignore the light from the Starlight Sword because of the Twin Dragons Swallow the Heavens Armor. Its ultimate move provided 100% defense.

One could only say that Chen Guang was too overconfident.

He did not know how big the game was, and how many special treasures there were. Ouyang Shuo also knew that apart from armor, there were many other items that could dodge the killing moves of god weapons.

If not, the god weapons would be extremely overpowered.

The equipment in the game each had their own flaws; naturally, there was not anything invincible.

……

Chen Guang's death meant that the players had lost their leader, so they were thrown into chaos. In such a war, the weakness of the player army lacking training was once again exposed.

When Ouyang Shuo saw the situation, he led the Divine Martial Guards to once again start a slaughtering spree.

The player army was decreasing at a visible rate. Their dropped equipment covered the ground. Along with their destruction, Ouyang Shuo was like a war god, emitting an invincible aura after he slew Chen Guang. He rushed into the enemy guards and focused on killing the advanced general.

With that, the guards panicked.

The scales of victory were finally tipping toward Shanhai City.

Chapter 631-Country Protector Beast

At the gate of the imperial palace, blood flowed and bodies were strewn all over.

This was the toughest battle in Shanhai City’s history, and it also caused the most casualties. It was because this battle was not to defeat the enemy but to destroy them. During a country war, especially against the palace guards, yielding was impossible.

After this battle, the ten thousand players were killed. On the other hand, out of the forty thousand guards, five thousand were forcefully captured, while the rest died in battle.

Such glorious battle results obviously meant that the voyage squadron had to pay a similarly heavy price.

Without mentioning the five thousand servant army, out of the one thousand Divine Martial Guards, only two hundred remained. Ouyang Shuo's personal guards were basically completely wiped out. Out of the forty thousand sailors, only around ten thousand remained. Under the relentless assault of the guards, basically all the archers and handgun troops perished.

The voyage squadron was unable to maintain their organization. If they did not have the warships to rely on, even the civilians could drown out these invaders.

This battle could be said to have heavy casualties on both sides, the casualty count was similar, and there was no true winner.

……

The moment the guards fell, the players that watched on were dead silent. Despair started to spread in their hearts; there was nothing that could save them any longer.

"Singapore is over!" someone cried.

The cry started a domino effect; more and more cries spread out amongst the crowd.

"Who will save Singapore?" Someone asked helplessly.

After Chen Guang revived, he had no face to meet those comrades who supported him. He hid alone behind the walls of the mercenary group camp to reflect. As for the result of the country war, Chen Guang already had a premonition.

Singapore would not have even a single hero that could step out.

To ask the work occupation players to fight the enemy? That was just adding to the slaughter.

The game still was not real life, and the winner or loser was determined by numbers. The combat strength of the work occupation players was deemed to be 0, even lower than that of natives.

Even if Shanhai City was left with ten thousand soldiers, it was enough to suppress these players.

……

While some people were in despair, there naturally would be others who were happy.

"We finally did it!" Ouyang Shuo looked at the corpses on the crowd, and a chill ran down his spine.

There were a few times where the guards broke through the Divine Martial Guards and sword shield-soldiers and entered the archer formation. Shanhai City was on the verge of losing, and they only barely held on because of Ouyang Shuo and the Divine Martial Guards.

In the end, Ouyang Shuo even had to activate the devil bloodline.

Zheng He and the other generals, as well as the lucky survivors, had ugly expressions on their faces, as they looked at the current scene. Some even started vomiting on the spot.

One could not blame them for that, as the battlefield was no different from hell.

It was disgusting, but they still had to clean it up.

Especially the equipment the players dropped, they could not be missed.

Based on the game’s settings, if the equipment dropped was not picked up within two hours, they would be removed.

This cruel battle had lasted for over an hour.

Hence, some of the equipment was already removed; they needed to pick up the remaining ones.

"Lord, take a look!" Chen Dameng passed Ouyang Shuo a seal.

When Ouyang Shuo took it, he saw that it was a territory item, no wonder Chen Dameng was so solemn about it.

Mountain Opening Seal: After use, can open up a path through any mountain in the territory.

After the game expanded by ten times, normal hills and forests had become enormous, which made transport extremely inconvenient.

With ancient technological standards, opening up a path in the mountains was nearly impossible. Even if one was determined to do so, the manpower and time required was something that normal territories could not take.

Hence, to increase the playability of the game, Gaia had designed some lord items to help out the Lords.

The Mountain Opening Seal was undoubtedly a great item.

Its previous owner was the Fengshan County Lord. Unfortunately, Fengshan County was too small, and it did not have any mountains that needed him to use this item on.

After he died, this seal benefited Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo stored the seal, as his eyes flashed with a weird glow. He already knew what to use this item on.

……

In less than twenty minutes, the battlefield was cleaned up. Time was of the essence, and Ouyang Shuo could not wait any longer. He ordered the troops to enter the palace to complete the final step of the country war.

Suddenly, a loud roar broke out from the depths of the imperial palace.

Kong!

The roars spread out from the palace, deafening to the ears. When the soldiers heard the roar, they were shocked and stopped in their tracks.

A short while later, a snow-white lion walked out.

Charming, majestic.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this creature, his face grew solemn. During the five years of his last life, multiple country wars had happened. Hence, he was quite clear about the country war settings.

Based on the rules, apart from the imperial palace guards, each country would also have a special existence, the country protector beast, which would act as the last barrier for a country.

The beast was a true god beast, exceeding even a spirit beast.

China had a total of nine god beasts, including the Qilin, the azure dragon, the white tiger, the vermillion bird, the Xuanwu turtle, the Xiezhi (mythical Chinese unicorn), the Hou, the white marsh, and the Kui (one-legged mountain demon).

If a Lord from the same region attacked the imperial city, the country protector beast would not appear. It would only appear during country wars when the country was at its brink.

Singapore’s imperial city was known as Lion City. Naturally, the country protector beast was a lion, and it was a extremely rare white lion.

The lion in front of them was exceedingly unusual. Just the aura and might it exuded caused the faces of the soldiers to turn ashen white.

"Retreat!" Ouyang Shuo ordered.

Facing such a god beast, normal soldiers were of no use. Luckily, Ouyang Shuo also had a spirit beast beside him. When the white lion appeared, Little Green, who was meandering in the river, could sense it.

Nian!

Little Green roared out, instantly appearing on the battlefield.

The two beasts were similar in all aspects, and they fought on the same level.

Although Little Green was only a spirit beast, its time in the Spirit Beast Hall granted him an immeasurable rise in cultivation. Its current strength exceeded its father, and its potential was shocking; it had a chance to become a god beast at any moment.

Hence, facing the white lion, Little Green had no fear.

Every county protector beast possessed great strength. Based on the strength of the country, the beast could be graded into three grades, top, middle, and low. For a small country like Singapore, the white lion was naturally a low-grade god beast.

The two beasts could be said to be fighting neck in neck.

The battle between beasts did not include anything special. They simply charged at one another and fought, claws and teeth going for flesh, their massive claws slamming their opponents.

It was either biting or charging; a truly brutal and wild fighting style. It looked simple, but each move was exceedingly risky and dangerous. If a basic soldier was struck, they would die instantly.

The fur of the white lion was quickly dyed red; it was in a sorry state. On the other hand, Little Green’s scales were also clawed off by the white lion, dripping fresh blood.

The battle between the two beasts grew more and more intense, and their eyes were covered in blood, while their bestial natures were brought out.

Ouyang Shuo stood on the side, watching on with complete focus. During the battle, he had activated his devil bloodline. Now, he was just a normal person, and he could not help Little Green.

Even if he was at his full strength, he would not necessarily help. To Little Green, this was a battle between beasts; it would not let others butt in.

However, Little Green not using its horn left Ouyang Shuo confused. Logically speaking, in such a battle, its horn was far better than its teeth and claws.

Kong!

The white lion's fighting spirit was ignited, and it roared, suddenly standing up on its hind legs. Its front limbs were like two massive hands, suddenly slapping down, bringing along a whirring of the wind.

It all happened in an instant, and the huge paw smacked Little Green. With a Peng!, Little Green was caught defenseless and sent flying. With a Hong!, it crashed into the ground and could not get up.

"Little Green!" Ouyang Shuo exclaimed, “Stand up!"

When Little Green heard his words, he gazed at Ouyang Shuo, trying to get up once more. Unfortunately, it was halfway there before it crashed down once more.

It was apparent that the white lion’s strike was not a normal attack, and it was some mysterious technique. If not, with Little Green’s abnormal body, it would not have been hurt so badly.

"Good!"

Cheers broke out amongst the crowd at this inopportune moment. It came from the Singaporean players. When they saw the white lion appear, they had felt a little hope, so they stayed to watch.

Seeing the white lion display its might, the Singaporean players naturally could not help but cheer out and express their joy.

Amongst them were also some mocking toward Little Green.

When Ouyang Shuo heard them, his eyes turned cold, as he said, "Men!"

"Here!" Chen Dameng stepped up.

"Make them shut up!" Ouyang Shuo said coldly.

"Understood!"

When Chen Dameng received the order, he brought one hundred men and walked out. Instantly, a commotion started amongst the crowd.

Ouyang Shuo was not in the mood to bother about the Singaporean players. Instead, he nervously looked at Little Green. At this moment, the white lion pounced right at Little Green.

Looking at its stance, it wanted to take this chance to kill Little Green.

A battle between beasts was completely merciless.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to help, but he thought back to Little Green’s gaze before holding himself back. If the army helped at this moment, it would be an insult to Little Green.

Now, they could only look on and hope that Little Green could fight back.

Chapter 632-Country War Rewards

Kong!

The white lion jumped and stepped onto Little Green. Little Green was a spirit beast, so it naturally possessed intelligence. Suffering such humiliation, rage appeared in its eyes; it could not take it anymore.

The white lion suddenly opened its bloody maw and viciously chomped toward Little Green’s neck. With its jaw strength, if this blow connected, it would kill Little Green on the spot despite its tough skin and thick scale armor.

"Little Green!" Ouyang Shuo hollered.

Helplessly, Little Green did not even move; it was like it had no power to resist. Just before the white lion bit him, Little Green suddenly moved. Its ugly horn suddenly shone with a bright light and shot a white glow into the white lion’s body.

Aooo!

The white lion let loose a painful growl, as it instantly crashed to the ground and started tossing and turning.

"Brilliantly done!" Ouyang Shuo was delighted.

Ouyang Shuo was curious about why Little Green had not used its horn. After all, its mysterious technique laid with its horn, and it had awakened the move in the Spirit Beast Hall.

Looking at the strength of the light, if it simply struck the white lion, it would only cause a superficial wound. Hence, Little Green decided to take the risk and fight back from the brink of death.

The light shot into the white lion’s stomach; its destructive ability was simply too strong. The light burned its organs, and if it was not for the strong regenerative ability of the god beast, it would have perished on the spot.

However, Little Green was not done yet. It stumbled its way up and walked before the white lion. With a Peng! it stepped onto the white lion’s head. A desire for revenge flashed in its eyes, as it chomped down.

There were no miracles this time.

The white lion's neck was bit and instantly broke with a Kacha! sound. Singapore’s last barrier was finally broken.

Little Green did not stop there; it bit open the white lion’s belly, retrieving the inner pellet and swallowing it.

Gulp!

Ouyang Shuo could not help but swallow a mouthful of saliva. One must know that the god beast inner pellet was an incredible nourishing item. If Ouyang Shuo used it, the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique would have gone up a grade.

However, Ouyang Shuo did not try to interfere.

The white lion’s body was Little Green’s spoils of war. Naturally, it could do whatever it wanted with it. Apart from the inner pellet, the fur and flesh were also nourishing items.

After swallowing the inner pellet, Little Green stumbled its way in front of Ouyang Shuo and gave him a look of arrogance.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and bent down, touching Little Green’s head, as he smiled, “Little fellow well done! Rest well on the warship; I look forward to when you upgrade to a god beast."

Nian!

The arrogant little fellow nudged Ouyang Shuo before turning and leaving. When the soldiers saw that, they automatically made way, their eyes filled with respect.

Under Ouyang Shuo’s instructions, Pei Donglai protected Little Green and escorted it back to Dragon Head.

"Let's go!"

Ouyang Shuo led the way into the palace.

The current palace only had people like the emperor, his concubines, palace maids, and eunuchs. Facing the Shanhai City army, they had no way to fight back, and they were either killed or captured.

Ouyang Shuo walked into the main hall of the palace, where he saw a golden steele rise up; this was the country steele of Singapore. Without hesitation, he stabbed down on it with the Tianmo Spear.

The moment the stone steele broke, a system notification sounded out around the world.

"Global Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for leading his troops to destroy Singapore. Rewarded one hundred thousand merit points and two hundred thousand reputation points. Congratulations!"

In truth, after destroying the guards, Ouyang Shuo's had already earned a total of 150 thousand merit points from this battle. Along with the one hundred thousand merit point reward, he had earned 250 thousand merit points from this battle alone.

With that, his merit point total had reached 790 thousand, just 210 thousand points away from the duke rank. If he went through one more similar country war, he could reach his goal.

……

"World Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for becoming the first person to destroy a country, specially awarded one hidden building. Congratulations!"

At the same time, a system notification sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for becoming the first person to destroy a country, specially awarded one hidden building as a reward. Congratulations!"

After the Mazu Temple, the Recruitment Hall, the Yellow Emperor Temple, and the Silver Prayer Hall, Shanhai City was going to welcome its fifth hidden building, truly insane.

In his last life, the number of hidden buildings in China definitely did not exceed five.

Name: General Appointment Stage

Type: Hidden Building

Function: ever two years, one can choose a god rank and below general

Specialty: 20% increase in attraction of historical people, 5% increase in reputation of territory

Description: This is a platform used to specifically recruit generals, cost of ten thousand gold. Recruitment chances cannot be stacked and will be removed if expired.

It was another extremely potent hidden building similar to the Recruitment Hall. However, this building could only recruit generals, and it had a cooldown of two years.

Based on the game progression, apart from the first free chance, the next recruitment chance would be during the 1st month of the 5th year of Gaia. Hence, during the entire course of the game, Ouyang Shuo could only use this building’s effect four times.

Although there were many restrictions, pros were also aplenty. The most valuable factor was the ability to choose the general you want, which was much better than the randomness of the Recruitment Hall.

With that, Ouyang Shuo could follow the territory general structure to choose generals. Unfortunately, Ouyang Shuo was not currently in Shanhai City, so he did not have a chance to use the recruitment opportunity.

Ouyang Shuo needed to ponder about what general he should recruit. After all, it was an exceedingly rare chance.

……

"World Notification: Singapore was destroyed. All the players, abilities, cultivation methods, and levels all return to 0. At the same time, the Singaporean players are all teleported to the sealed land as punishment!"

Along with the notification, all the Singaporean players, regardless of whether they were combat occupation players, male, female, or still in the Reincarnation Hall, their stats were wiped, and they were teleported away.

As for the location of the sealed land, even during the 5th year of Gaia, the players could not find the answer. However, one thing was for sure, the Singaporean players would continue to play the game.

Hence, the sealed land should be a special game map.

Gaia’s principle was balance. To the players whose country was wiped, sending them to the sealed land was both a punishment and a chance; it all depended on how the players chose and adapted.

There would probably be chances for Ouyang Shuo to meet the Singaporean players again. Naturally, he did not know that in the future, they would once again bump heads. Moreover, at that time, Singapore would have risen and would pose a massive problem to Shanhai City.

Of course, this was later, and it would not be mentioned for now.

……

"World Notification: China Lord Qiyue Wuyi won the country war, China region obtains 10 points of country honor, and all player's innate stats +1. Congratulations, China!"

Achieving victory in the country war did not only benefit one person but the entire country. Without mentioning other matters, just the 10 honor points far exceeded the value of a hidden building.

Others did not understand these country honor points, but Ouyang Shuo obviously knew as a person experiencing a second life!

As the name suggested, honor points would be used during country wars. During the country war, be it the attacking side or the defending side, they could choose buffs.

One country honor point represented a 1% buff. For example, 10 country honor points represented a 10% increase in the attacking power of all troops; they could also choose to flexibly increase attack by 5% and defense by 5%.

The buffs were like the buffs in the battle map.

It was not hard to imagine the large-scale effect of such a buff to all the troops in the country. Even if it was a 1% buff, it would result in a major increase.

The preciousness of honor points was evident.

Especially to such a huge country like China with so many players, as this also meant that the buffs were more valuable.

Moreover, the person who had the right to select the buffs was the representatives of the country. Hence, Ouyang Shuo had been fighting with Di Chen and the others to be the leader of China.

Apart from that, the country honor points also affected the country weapon setting.

The so-called country weapon setting referred to the country protecting god weapons, similar to the country protector beast. However, the number of country weapons were not fixed, and a country might not even have a single weapon.

Based on the settings, for every 30 points, a country weapon would be born. As for ownership over the weapon, the players would have to fight for it.

If the country honor points were obtained collectively, rewarding everyone with stat increases was the best choice.

Who did not know the precious of innate stats? Even a top-grade internal cultivation technique could only raise innate stats by one at every layer.

To the China region players, this was the best reward.

With that, the players were extremely grateful to Ouyang Shuo, this war hero. It also helped to raise his position and prestige in the country.

From the rewards of the country war, one could see that Gaia really supported it. The victors of the war were heroes, while the defeated were destined to be humiliated.

Chapter 633-Ripples from the Country War

Notification after notification sounded, causing an uproar around the world. Ouyang Shuo and his Shanhai City had once again used a simple and violent method to shock the world. The world's best Lord was truly worthy of his name.

……

China region.

The moment the world notification sounded, the China players were first filled with shock and astonishment, followed by a sense of pride.

The forums were sent into overdrive, like it was the lunar new year, as media groups fought to report this good news. Writing on the forums was not enough, and some even paraded and celebrated on the streets.

All of a sudden, hotels, restaurants, and tea houses, became filled, and everyone talked about the glory of the country war.

It was truly a massive occasion for the country.

Ouyang Shuo's popularity in China instantly boomed, which also increased the good feeling the players felt toward Shanhai City. Hence, this truly opened the path to glory for the Four Seas Bank.

As they say, if you love someone, you would love everything about and related to them.

The Four Seas Bank was something that connected Shanhai City to the players. Naturally, there was a new wave of people that decided to store their money in the bank, starting a sort of a trend.

That day, the Four Seas Bank attracted ten million in savings, drawing the envious eyes of everyone around.

The position of the Four Seas Bank as the biggest bank in China was completely solidified. No matter what the Huitong Bank tried to do, whatever schemes they tried, they would face defeat in the face of such overwhelming power.

It was the case of the flower not blooming when you paid attention to it, but blooming when you did not care.

The old people within the country all had various expressions. Bai Hua and the other members of the Shanhai Alliance were naturally delighted, and they enjoyed the celebrations of this country war.

On the same day, the guild leader of the Blood Evil Mercenary Guild, Blood Romance, sent an ally request. Although Blood Romance wanted to maintain neutral within the country, he was extremely passionate toward the country wars.

From the name of his mercenary guild, one could see his passion.

Naturally, the Shanhai Alliance had no reason to reject the addition of the Blood Evil Mercenary Guild. With that, the Shanhai Alliance-Guild Alliance had completely transformed into a powerhouse amongst the guild alliances in the China region, reaching an unassailable position.

Along with the few guilds that Ouyang Shuo had recommended before he left, Shanhai Alliance's influence had spread throughout the nine imperial cities, and there were no more dead corners.

Some people were happy, while others felt worried.

To Di Chen, Shanhai City spreading its reach overseas could not be considered a good matter. This aristocrat, who was maturing by the day, felt extremely depressed, This guy, he really can cause problems everywhere he goes!

One had to say, Di Chen's determination truly deserved admiration, as he still had not given up.

As for Chun Shenjun's jealousy, Sha Pojun's gritting his teeth, and Zhan Lang feeling charmed, these were all normal reactions. However, when Xiong Ba received the news, he laughed and said, "As expected from a guy in the same field!"

……

Annan Region.

In the entire world, the ones currently with the most complicated emotions were naturally the Annan Region players. They had never expected Shanhai City to play around them. In the end, Shanhai City even destroyed Singapore, which also belonged to the ASEAN.

Fortune, fear, anxiousness, and even a sense of humiliation from being looked down on.

No matter what, Annan had grown more fearful and warier of Shanhai City. The Lord of Haiphong City, Ruan Tianque, proactively pulled strings to drag the other members of the ASEAN for a meeting.

The main point of the meeting was naturally how to deal with Shanhai City.

"The ASEAN region definitely cannot allow Shanhai City to exist. We must just chase them out."

The other members of the ASEAN also supported Ruan Tianque’s suggestion. After all, everyone was clear that the moment Shanhai City took control of the Malacca Straits, it would be bad news for all of them.

Building an alliance army, with attacking Shanhai City as their goal.

Of course, the one who held the most power in ASEAN was not Annan but Johor. That was because when Shanhai City took down Lion City, the Johor reinforcements had just passed the Johor Straits and entered Singapore territory.

They did not expect Singapore to fall so fast.

Now, the fifty thousand Johor troops waited north of Singapore, as they awaited further orders.

Amongst the ASEAN, only Johor and Java had the ability to attack Singapore. The other countries were too far away.

Like Annan, they could only open their mouths. With their warships, they would take more than twenty days to reach Singapore. This was also under the condition that the sea was smooth, and they did not meet any storms.

As for Brunei, it was near, but its position could not be compared to Singapore, so it did not need to be mentioned.

In the end, the alliance decided for Johor and Java to send troops to attack Singapore. At the same time, Zhenla would act as reserve forces and get ready to set off.

The other countries would provide military funds to show that they were taking responsibility for this matter too.

To the various members, even if Shanhai City had managed to take down Singapore, they would have suffered heavy casualties. With an alliance army formed from Johor and Java troops, this was naturally going to be an easy matter to handle.

At the same time, Ruan Tianque represented Annan to take up the mission of stopping reinforcements from Beihai Bay. Along with the Annan Region was also Luzon, which was near the Spratly Islands.

To stop the rise of Shanhai City in the Malacca Straits, the ASEAN had to take them seriously. Unfortunately, they had little knowledge of country wars, and they had even strategically underestimated Shanhai City. Consequently, they were destined to fail.

……

The ones who truly paid attention to this country war was just China and ASEAN. As for the other Asian countries, they were only shocked.

At most, some of the players in Japan started to feel worried about the strength of Shanhai City. After all, it was only the 3rd year of Gaia, and there were very little people who could start a country war.

A country war was far from being normal in the wilderness.

As for America, Europe, and Africa, it was more so. Those who knew about Shanhai City were astonished, while those who did not just looked on for fun.

Many players could not even place Singapore on the map.

"Where is Singapore?" This question lingered in the minds of players.

Even if large-scale country wars explode in the future, cross continent wars would still be extremely rare. Hence, the Lords who manage to cross continents would not only achieve fame, they could also cooperate and work with others.

Of course, no matter what, Shanhai City had showed their strength to the world. Who knows whether this would be a good or bad thing for the voyage squadron.

After all, no country would be willing to work and cooperate with an invasive squadron.

……

Singapore, imperial palace.

Ouyang Shuo did not bother about the noise outside. Instead, he took the time to settle post war matters. A flurry of notifications sounded in his ears to guide him in completing the matters.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for occupying Singapore, please choose the method of handling. Do you wish to destroy, occupy, or let go of control?"

"What is the meaning of destroy?"

Ouyang Shuo only knew that raider camps could be destroyed to take back some building resources and blueprints. However, this was a country, could it truly be destroyed?

"System Notification: When destroyed, a fallen country will become a lordless wilderness. The cities would disappear while raiders will roam, and residents will become refugees."

"...."

How much must one hate a country to choose the destroy option? It was a typical case of harming others without benefiting.

"I choose to occupy!"

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for occupying Singapore, Singapore is officially under Shanhai City’s rule. Player can rename Singapore, will you chose to do so?"

"Name it Xingzhou Prefecture."

Ouyang Shuo had planned to make Singapore a prefecture under his rule. The newly set up Xingzhou Prefecture would be the smallest in the territory, smaller than even a House. Even so, because of its special strategic location, the future Xingzhou Prefecture would play a crucial role.

"System Notification: Xingzhou Prefecture successfully renamed, will you rename Lion City and Fengshan County?"

"No!"

Changing the prefecture name was to draw a clear line with Singapore. As for the name of the city, to change it would be a needless act.

"System Notification: Xingzhou Prefecture planning completed, officially opening Lion City cross-country teleportation formation. Friendly Reminder: Lion City cross-country teleportation formation can only connect to teleportation formations within the territory and not to the imperial cities in China or other territories."

The restrictions on the cross-country teleportation formation was only to collect more teleportation fee. Of course, Shanhai City did not need to worry about this aspect.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this notification, he laughed. He was confident in stabilizing his rule of Xingzhou Prefecture because of this cross-country teleportation formation.

With this, be in the troops in Shanhai City or the adventure gamemode players of China, they could all teleport over from Shanhai City, Yashan City, or even Zhenhai City.

With that, Xingzhou Prefecture was completely safe. If not, how could the heavily injured voyage squad keep up against the ASEAN?

Singapore was the first country to be destroyed, so the other players would not be sure of the settings. They still thought that a country being occupied was the same as a territory being occupied; they thought that the teleportation formations would fail.

After opening this cross-country teleportation formation, Ouyang Shuo finally completed his occupation of Singapore. Right away, he spent seventy thousand gold to bring in the full-scaled Guards Legion Corps over.

The newly formed city protection legion was moved over to Stone City. The only power within Shanhai City was the Guards Legion Corps. As such, moving them to Lion City meant that Shanhai City would become a defenseless territory.

Even so, no one would dare to try anything funny on Shanhai City.

Chapter 634-Governor and Fleet Admiral

Huo Qubing led the Guards Legion Corps into Lion City and took over its defenses. As for the specifics, Ouyang Shuo did not interfere. After all, with Huo Qubing’s abilities, he could easily handle this matter.

Along with the Guards Legion Corps was also one thousand divine martial guards.

Under the leadership of Zheng He, the voyage squadron had returned to Xingzhou Bay and started to patrol the nearby ocean region. At the same time, the two divisions of the Beihai Bay Squadron had started to travel to Shanhai City; they would teleport to Lion City shortly after.

He replenished both the Divine Martial Guards and the sailors.

Ouyang Shuo took these measures because he did not plan to stay for long. When Xingzhou Prefecture got back on track, the voyage squadron would set off once more. This voyaging journey was immensely important to Shanhai City, and it would not be stopped.

The first and second divisions of the Beihai Bay Squadron that formed the voyage squadron had suffered heavy casualties and only ten thousand remained.

As such, the 3rd and 4th divisions were shifted over.

With that, only the 5th division remained in Beihai Bay. Ouyang Shuo ordered Pei Donglai to return to Shanhai City and recruit new troops to replenish the Beihai Bay Squadron.

Pei Donglai had become the first navy general to break away from the voyage squadron.

Of course, he would not be the last one. That night, Ouyang Shuo summoned Yanhuo Yaonie.

"Lord!"

Yanhuo Yaonie hurried overed; he thought he would be chided, he felt extremely anxious.

During this country war, his strategy of hitting east and attacking west was mostly brilliant. However, in terms of execution, there were some mistakes. The person to blame was naturally Yanhuo Yaonie, who came up with the plan.

Zheng He had led the east troops, and their results were far better than expected; they nearly wiped out the player army in a single day. On the contrary, the middle troops were in chaos, not only did they fail to take down Lion City, he also dragged the entire squadron into a land battle, causing them to suffer heavy casualties.

Yanhuo Yaonie's first performance was an utter failure. Luckily, in the end, they had won. If not, Yanhuo Yaonie would really have to commit suicide.

As a result, he was under a lot of pressure now.

In truth, Yanhuo Yaonie had thought too much. Be it Ouyang Shuo or Admiral Zheng He, they did not blame him. Based on Zheng He’s words, it was already a miracle for a navy general to achieve such results on their first mission.

These were not fake words.

Think about it, which general in history, apart from the freakish Huo Qubing, had not experienced numerous battles and failures before growing?

Even Huo Qubing was taught for many years by the Hanwu Emperor before he led troops. Hence, there truly was not an accomplished general in history who was able to be a talent without learning or without having a teacher.

Without mentioning the historical generals, even the native Pei Donglai possessed a vast amount of experience. On the contrary, Yanhuo Yaonie had used his own talent to climb up in the navy. Considering everything, it had been less than a year since he had entered the navy.

To possess such skill in just a year, what more could one ask for?

Didn’t Ouyang Shuo favor Yanhuo Yaonie because of the latter’s potential and room for growth?

Hence, this war was undoubtedly the best training opportunity for him. Ouyang Shuo wanted to see this general to grow; he wanted Yanhou Yaonie to transform from all this and not sink down.

"The surrounding oceans of Xingzhou Prefecture need to be defended. I think there's a need to build a strong navy here." Ouyang Shuo looked gently at Yanhuo Yaonie, smiling as he asked, "What do you think?"

Yaohuo Yaonie was obviously shocked. TheLlord’s current words ran completely contrary to his expectations. Luckily, his mental strength was good; he would not have dared to directly target the home of the enemy on his first mission if it wasn’t.

Thinking about it, Yanhuo Yaonie replied, "I think so too. The strategic position of Singapore is really important. Without a strong navy protecting it, sea trade would never be able to start."

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, he smiled widely.

Yanhuo Yaonie's advantage as a player was instantly revealed. He obviously saw through the strategic goal of Ouyang Shuo in taking down Singapore. Hence, he used that to analyse the question.

Such a strategic mindset was something that even Zheng He did not currently possess.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo had a firm belief in him and said, "Well said. I've discussed with Admiral Zheng He about preparing four squadrons under the Nanyang Navy. This 4th squadron will be housed in Xingzhou Prefecture, and it will be called the Xingzhou Squadron."

"Lord is wise!" Yanhuo Yaonie's heart jumped. His intuition told him that the Lord wanted him to build the Xingzhou Sqaudron.

As expected, Ouyang Shuo continued, "The Beihai Bay Squadron 3rd and 4th divisions have teleported over to Lion City. The new squadron will include the 10 thousand surviving troops as their core, forming 1 division. The remaining 30 thousand will form the skeleton of the squadron."

To reduce the size of the voyage squadron was part of the voyage plan that Zheng He had set up. These measures were necessary because after the squadron left the Malacca Straits, it would be more difficult to obtain supplies.

A squadron with too great numbers would be unable to last till the Straits of England.

"Apart from this, tomorrow, there will be a large number of technical talents who will teleport over to Lion City to build a large-scale shipyard and a steelmaking factory. With that, the troops and warships are all available. The Xingzhou Squadron is lacking a fleet commander, and Zheng He recommended you to me. Are you confident?" Ouyang Shuo gazed at Yanhuo Yaonie.

When Yanhuo Yaonie heard these words, he felt rather complicated. He did not expect that he would not be scolded, and he would even be promoted to fleet general.

It was Zheng He's recommendation and the recognition of the Lord.

Such a fortuitous event could not be described with words. As he thought these things, he knelt on one knee and solemnly proclaimed, "The Lord treats me so well, I'll serve the country well!"

"I'll look forward to it." Ouyang Shuo nodded.

The most legendary figure in Shanhai City’s navy history had taken his most crucial step. Hence, the curtains to his legend had opened up.

This story of the trust between Lord and general was spread down to future generations.

With an army taking charge, Ouyang Shuo could swing his knives and deal with Xingzhou Prefecture.

4th month, 23rd day, the 2nd day after the country battle ended, the officials sent from the Nanjiang Governor-General House teleported over and made changes to the Xingzhou Prefecture based on the Shanhai City structure.

Thanks to the game settings, the natives would not have too strong attachment to their country. As a result, when they were occupied, these people were basically model citizens, and they would follow the rule of the new ruler.

As for the biggest uncertainty - players - they had already disappeared.

Hence, there would not be too much of an obstacle internally for their rule over Xingzhou Prefecture. On the contrary, the obstacle was on the outside - ASEAN.

Ouyang Shuo's choice for governor had to be all rounded. The choice must be able to run the territory and be able to do as they wanted in the stranglehold of the ASEAN.

Out of all the governors and directors, Ouyang Shuo settled on Pei Ju.

Firstly, since he had settled Lingnan, his results with the Turks had shown his all rounded skills. Especially the way he came up with the economic strategy for the western region, which was a similar situation to what Xingzhou was currently facing.

Secondly, out of all the governors, he was the only one that was not at work. Guilin Prefecture was still under the rule of Chuanbei and the Wannan City State. This Guilin Prefecture Governor could only hide in the stronghold and spend time with the Leopard Legion Corps.

They had finished the construction of the Withered Flower Stronghold, but who knows when they would take down Guilin Prefecture.

Ouyang Shuo naturally could bear to let such an able minister remain in such a temporary job. As for in the future when he occupied Guilin Prefecture, he would just choose another governor.

Pei Ju had already received the imperial decree. For him to come over from the Withered Flower Stronghold, it would take three to four days even when using the formation. For this period of time, all administrative matters would be handled by Ouyang Shuo.

This time, apart from the military, officials, and the technical talents, there were also four secret groups. They were the Shanhai Guards, the Black Snake Guards, the Military Intelligence Division, and the Honglu Temple forces.

These four sneakily took root in Lion City, and they built their own intel stations and started work. Amongst which, the most special group was the Black Snake Guards, who had Black Snake personally taking charge.

When he reorganized the three intel organizations awhile ago, Ouyang Shuo had decreed that the Black Snake Guards would take up the bulk of overseas intel. With Xingzhou Prefecture as the diving board, they would spread to the various ASEAN countries.

Hence, Black Snake personally came over to lead the work.

With that, in less than two days, the number of people who teleported over was more than 120 thousand people, which cost 120 thousand gold in teleportation fees alone.

Of course, all of this was worth it.

……

Lion City, imperial palace.

Ouyang Shuo could not bear to tear down the beautiful palace. He immediately ordered people to modify it into the Governor House. Ouyang Shuo would temporarily stay within one of the palaces within the house.

"Lord, the treasury tabulation work has been done, please take a look." Secretary Bai Nanpu, who had been specially moved over, handed Ouyang Shuo a list.

When Ouyang Shuo saw the list, his smile grew wider and wider.

After occupying a country, not only did he obtain land and population, he also obtained a massive fortune. The core of this was naturally within the treasury of the country.

Estimates put the gold at 1.7 million, and there were 20 boxes of jewellery, 10 thousand sets of guard armor, spears, arrows, and other normal military resources.

The overall value was no less than four million.

With that, all their losses had been recuperated, and they had earned a huge sum. The teleportation costs were not even worth mentioning.

Chapter 635-Alienating the ASEAN

Apart from the gains from the treasury, the player equipment was also a great boon. Although the equipment did not fit their army, they could be sold to the Chinese players.

Even if a portion of the dropped equipment from the 100 thousand players despawned, the remaining value was no less than one million gold.

Thinking about this point, Ouyang Shuo raised his head and said, "Write it down."

"Yes, my Lord!" Pai Nanpu took out his recording book.

Ever since the official ruling department director Zhang Tingyu pushed out the letter memorial system, Ouyang Shuo's imperial decrees had needed the secretary office to handle before they were signed off.

After all, the literary standards of Ouyang Shuo was something that the officials did not dare to compliment.

"Firstly, the jewelry and gems will be moved back to Shanhai City for the Lady to deal with."

Ever since the Governor-General House backed out from the industries, they had needed a massive sum to maintain the daily expenses of the House. During the wedding, Song Jia had used the presents as funds for the House. Hence, every time they experienced great monetary gains, Ouyang Shuo would off split a portion to put into the treasury for Song Jia to maintain.

"Secondly, the equipment in the arsenal, apart from refilling the resources of the voyage squadron, the remaining would be left to build the Xingzhou Garrison Division." The Garrison Division would use the five thousand guards as its backbone, and they would recruit a bunch of new troops in Lion City. Furthermore, a portion of the troops would be moved from Shanhai City to build it up.

"Thirdly, the player equipment will be sold by the Financial Bureau. All the funds would be passed to the Industry Division, and they will purchase various teas to engage in tea trading."

It was too early to talk about opening the merchant routes between Shanhai City and the west. However, along with the fall of Singapore, opening a merchant route between Shanhai City and the east was only a matter of time.

"Fourthly, of the 1.7 million gold, I will keep one million. Take another 500 thousand to pay for the compensation fees to the dead as well as the military expenditure of the two squadrons. As for the remaining 200 thousand, draft it into the financial budget of the Xingzhou Prefecture." Ouyang Shuo distributed all the funds in just a few sentences.

At his level, millions of gold was exceedingly easy to spend.

4th month, 24th day, Xingzhou Prefecture.

"Lord, frontline intel!"

Chen Dameng held two letters in his hands and hurried over.

Ouyang Shuo took a look; it was a letter from General Huo Qubing. The Guards Legion Corps had found traces of the Johor Army hidden in the north.

Currently, Huo Qubing had quietly activated the Guards Legion Corps to surround the 50 thousand reinforcements, and they were just waiting to reel in the net. Huo Qubing had written the letter to ask the Lord about how to deal with these reinforcements.

It was obvious that to Huo Qubing, they were already in the bag.

The other letter came from the Military Intelligence Division Headquarters in Shanhai City. Based on the intel, the Annan Navy had started to patrol the Beihai Bay region, looking extremely menacing.

"ASEAN is ready to act?" Ouyang Shuo muttered.

The moment Singapore fell, Ouyang Shuo had foreeen that this day would come. To fight an all-out war with ASEAN was impossible. Ouyang Shuo's strategy was to alienate.

As long as the ASEAN states did not act together, they would not be enough to pose a threat.

Ouyang Shuo immediately replied to both letters, sending them completely different military orders.

In the letter to Huo Qubing, Ouyang Shuo requested the Guards Legion Corps to take down the reinforcements with the smallest number of casualties. At the same time, they would release a small squadron to bring a letter from Ouyang Shuo to the Johor players.

In the letter that Ouyang Shuo wrote for Johor, he stated that Shanhai City was willing to trade with Johor. As for the specifics, he would need Johor to send representatives to Lion City for discussion.

At the end of the letter, Ouyang Shuo concluded, ‘The moment the flames of war burn, let's not mention whether Shanhai City could defend Xingzhou Prefecture. All the countries neighboring Xingzhou Prefecture will fall into war and will become the main battlefield, sucked into this conflict. Between war and trade, which one is better for your country? Please think twice.’

If one said that he was attempting to pull Johor to his side, then he was striking out at Annan.

Ouyang Shuo wrote an imperial decree and appointed Navy Fleet Admiral Shi Lang as the commander. They would gather the Jiaozhou Squadron, the Beihai Bay Squadron, and the Yashan Squadron to charge toward Annan to crush their navy.

‘This battle affects the ocean strategy of the territory, so general must give them a painful lesson to make their ships unable to leave their port. Let the members of the ASEAN see that no one can be impudent in front of Shanhai City.’ Ouyang Shuo decreed as such.

Annan was one of the countries that Shanhai City needed to attack. Ouyang Shuo would not allow such an uncertain element to exist at his front door. This time, Annan had jumped right into his waiting arms.

With that, the relationship between the two sides was completely ruined. At the right time, Shanhai City would have a reason to challenge the ASEAN and slowly take them down one by one.

The first step was to take down Singapore, the second was to suppress Annan.

Johor, Putrajaya.

Putrajaya was the imperial city of Johor, located on the west shore of Johor, with the Malacca Straits to the west. The entire city was located where the Klang river and Gombak river met; it was termed as the Muddy River Mouth.

Johor's most powerful players were named as one group, two prefectures.

The group was the biggest group in the country, the Fierce Tiger Mercenary Squad. The inspiration of the mercenary guild came from the Malaya tiger of Johor. Their base was chosen to be Putrajaya.

The two prefectures referred to the two half island grade 1 prefectures in Johor. These were the only two territories in Johor, Perak City and Sabah City.

These three powers basically took control of the talking rights of the Johor players. The 50 thousand reinforcement troops were mainly made up of Perak City troops.

The three leaders all looked at the letter and exchanged gazes with one another.

"The opposition suggestion is something I feel we can consider." The one who spoke was the Lord of Perak City, Datuk Shantha Bin Techa, Shantha for short.

The names of the Johor people were rather special. They did not have a family name, only their own name, while they took their father's name as their surname. Their father's surname was the name of his father and so on.

In their name, at the front was their name, and their surnames were at the back. The males had a Bin word separating their name and surnames while the females used Binte.

This meant that Shantha was his name, and Techa was his surname. Bin represented that he was male.

As for Datuk, it was a title for nobles.

Hearing that the 50 thousand reinforcements were captured by Shanhai City, the one that was the most worried was Shantha. Furthermore, if the flames of war spread, the first to be hit would be Perak City.

Hence, Shantha was the most supportive and resolute of the three about this matter.

Shantha, who was of noble birth, was the representative of a Johor aristocratic family, similar to Di Chen. Perak City had also started to climb ahead of Sabah City, and it was seen as the biggest territory in Johor.

Which was why out of the three of them, he had the biggest power.

"Wouldn't we just be falling for their plans?" Fierce Tiger Mercenary Guild guild leader Han Duya was unhappy about Shantha’s proposition to compromise. He had a head full head of red hair, which was really eye catching. He said, "In my opinion, we have to fight!" As he spoke, he swung his fists and showed his muscles.

Han Duya, the strongest expert out of the Johor adventure gamemode players. Since he was extremely valiant and had a head full of red hair, he given the title of Red Tiger by the players.

However, his enemies called him crazy tiger, showing this person's desire to fight and hot bloodedness.

As for starting a country war, Han Duya was the most supportive of the idea, and he was on totally different sides from Shantha. This person was also born in an aristocratic family. Furthermore, the two were born in different regions. Naturally, he did not fear Shantha.

When Shantha heard these words, a cold gleam appeared in his eyes.

This coward, one day I'll teach you a lesson. Shantha thought to himself.

After all, there were not many cases like Singapore where the guilds were stronger than the Lords. Although Han Duya was the guild leader of the strongest guild in Johor, Shantha had never looked at him as an opponent.

What made Shantha worry was Guo Yannan, who had remained silent.

Guo Yannan, the Lord of Sabah City. He was the only Chinese person out of the three, and he was the representative figure of the Johor Chinese. As a result, he was extremely low profile and basically did not proactively express his views.

Based on what he intended, he naturally wanted a peaceful resolution. The moment the flames of war started, Sabah City would definitely be dragged into the matter. Secondly as a Chinese, fighting China would make Guo Yannan feel a little conflicted.

The most crucial point was that they were right next to the Spratly Islands ocean region, so ocean traffic was exceedingly convenient. The moment they opened trade with Shanhai City, Sabah City would be the first to benefit.

Guo Yannan was confident in making use of this ocean trading to push up the territorial finances to a whole new level.

Even so, Guo Yannan maintained his neutral stance. Not for other reasons, just that he did not want to make enemies with Han Duya.

In Johor, Malays were the natives. As for the Chinese and the Indians, they were looked down on and treated as second class citizens. The relationship between these two groups had always been filled with conflicts and unhappiness.

However, the Chinese were exceptional, making the Malays rather unhappy. Han Duya was a traditional Malay, and he was not comfortable with Guo Yannan.

What about Guo Yannan? The man maintained the family legacy and followed their teachings of the golden mean. He seemed to back off on the surface, but he was competing in the shadows. No matter how unhappy Han Duya was, he could not do anything about the rise of Sabah City, and he knew he could not underestimate it.

Which was why Guo Yannan made Shantha feel worried.

It seemed like sometimes following the golden mean was a great way to survive.

Chapter 636-Clamor of the Java Players

"City lord Guo, what do you think?" Guo Yannan wanted to maintain his neutrality and not annoy either side. However, Shantha was not ready to let him do that; he wanted Guo Yannan to make his stance clear.

When he heard these words, Han Duya fiercely stared at Guo Yannan.

Guo Yannan was placed in a truly difficult spot and did not know how to answer. After pondering, he replied, "Whether you decide to fight or not, I'll give my fullest support. The decision will be up to you two." His words were like saying nothing at all.

Shantha's face showed a hunt of disappointment while Han Duya could not help but scold out, "Soft!"

A look of shame appeared on Guo Yannan’s face, and his facial muscles twitched. Sometimes, it was the scariest when an honest person kept quiet. The moment they exploded, it would be enough to shock everyone.

A weird look flashed across Shantha’s eyes.

Old fox let’s see how long you can hold this in, Shantha thought to himself.

One proposed fighting, one proposed peace, and one remained neutral.

The three Johor heads entered a stalemate, and no one was able to persuade anyone.

"Since no one is willing to budge, why don’t we draw lots to decide!" Han Duya did not want to give up.

Shantha's eyes jolted, as he said calmly, "This concerns our country. How can you play such a game?" His upbringing was extremely good. Even though he hated this rough and brutish character, he did not show any outward unhappiness.

However, Han Duya could not take Shantha’s tone. Although he looked tough on the outside, he was an exceedingly sensitive person. He could clearly feel the disdain that Shantha had for him.

As a result, Han Duya would oppose him in all decisions. If not, and the two of them simply worked together, Johor would not even have a place for Guo Yannan, so why would there be a case of three powers?

However, Shantha was deep in it and had no idea.

Guo Yannan looked like a rookie that could be bullied, but in truth, he had perfected the art of balancing things.

The three of them were all exceptional people.

"Since that's the case, let’s not move our troops and just watch for changes!" Shantha said.

"That's a good choice!" Guo Yannan nodded.

Although he was not willing, Han Duya was helpless. In the end, the main force for country wars belonged to the territories. It was impossible to win a country war by relying on adventure gamemode players alone.

Since Shantha and Guo Yannan had both chosen to shelve action, there was nothing Han Duya could say.

Ouyang Shuo had something on Johor. Furthermore, he had already expressed his good intentions, so they decided not to attack. As for Java, which was south of Xingzhou Prefecture, they did not even hesitate, forming up a 50 thousand troops alliance army and striking at Xingzhou Prefecture.

Java State was formed from 17,508 Islands, and it was the biggest island country in the world, stretching from Asia to Oceania. It was termed by many as the thousand island country, and it was the largest out of the ASEAN countries.

The Imperial City was known as Jakarta, located north west of Johor, it was the biggest imperial city in ASEAN.

The port in Jakarta was the biggest port, second to only Xingzhou. It was an important bridge between the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean.

Java had a high population density with over 20 million people, only smaller than China, India and America, ranking 4th in the world.

Hence, there would be around two million guards inside Jakarta, exceeding any imperial city in China. Hence, one could foresee that it would be highly difficult to attack Java.

Apart from land and population, Java was exceedingly rich in natural resources. It had peppers, spices, oil, and ores.

Hence, Java was one of the most influential countries in ASEAN.

With such a foundation, why wouldn't they actively throw themselves into the fight against Shanhai City? Apart from that, there was also one more reason that motivated them to attack Xingzhou Prefecture.

In history, Java used to be one of the countries that hated the Chinese the most. They had killed many Chinese people in a manner that totally lacked humanity, shocking the entire world.

After entering the new world and forming the federal government, these killings were finally stopped.

Even so, the players of Java did not have a good impression of the China region. Hence, when Ruan Tianque from Annan suggested attacking Shanhai City, Java was the most eager.

The alliance army came from Jinzhou Island's few Lords.

Jinzhou Island was famous for producing gold, which was how it received its name. It was the second biggest island in Java. Its north-east side faced the Malacca Straits, facing Johor. It was only one to two days away from the Xingzhou Prefecture.

Regretfully, the powerful waves of the Indian Ocean meant that Jinzhou Island lacked natural ports. Hence, Jinzhou Island was famous for its strong army but not its navy.

Even so, in the eyes of the Java players, they had more than enough to deal with the remnants of some army.

……

4th month, 24th day, the Java Alliance Navy bumped into Zheng He's squadron near Xingzhou Bay.

"Who are you? This is the land of Shanhai City, please do not enter!" When Zheng He received the news, he asked his soldiers to signal the flag messages.

"We are from Java, stupid Zhina, get out of Singapore." The flag language reply from them lacked any courtesy, and it was even insulting them.

As they sent this message, they led their troops and charged over.

In their eyes, the voyage squadron in front of them was only an empty rack. They did not need to hesitate and could just crush them.

What they did not know was that thanks to the cross-country teleportation formation, the strength of the squadron did not drop and had risen instead.

Yanhuo Yaonie, who had been promoted to fleet admiral, had led the Xingzhou Squadron to aid the voyage squadron in patrolling. When he heard the insults and provocations of the enemy, he was furious and his eyes blazed with fire.

"Damn monkeys!" Yanhuo Yaonie scolded.

As a Chinese, how would he have any good impressions of Java? Needless to say, they had provoked them right away and obviously were not going to stop.

Before the squadrons left, Ouyang Shuo had told them that he predicted that other countries would send their navies. His attitude was to chase them away. Otherwise, use force to do so.

How would Ouyang Shuo have any good intentions toward Java? However, as someone who was living a second life and also as a Lord, Ouyang Shuo knew that attacking Java was not something that could be done so quickly.

His trading plan would not work if they attacked, and it would also affect Shanhai City's strategy in the ASEAN. Hence, Ouyang Shuo's attitude was to not provoke them, but he would not allow them to get away with anything.

They had to wait till Shanhai City had stabilized its position in ASEAN before thinking about how to attack Java.

This would be a long-term plan.

"Admiral?" Yanhuo Yaonie looked at Zheng He, his eyes burning with passion.

Zheng He's expression was also exceedingly ugly. He understood how insulting Zhina was to the Chinese people. Even such a gentle and calm character like him was furious.

All the Shanhai City civil servants and generals would show similar qualities at crucial moments, regardless of how hidden they usually were. Their bones contained an arrogance and pride.

These qualities came from Ouyang Shuo, and they were influenced by him; this was the charm of his personality.

Hence, at this crucial moment, Zheng He’s decisiveness meant that he had the fire within him.

"Attack!" Zheng He ordered.

When Yanhuo Yaonie heard this order, he was delighted and nodded, "Yes, admiral!"

All of a sudden, cannons fired, and arrows rained down.

The enemy alliance army was heavily damaged; they were stunned and did not know what to do.

"Their mothers, this situation isn't right!"

……

"Who the f*** said that the enemy was left with remnants of an army?"

……

"We have fallen for a trap, escape!"

……

Curses broke out.

Similarly, this was also an army without a backbone. The moment they found out that the enemy was not weak, the first thing they thought was to quickly run. They did not even think of fighting to the death.

Those strong words at the start all seemed like a joke at this point.

"You want to live now? No chance!"

Yanhuo Yaonie was determined to teach the enemy a lesson, so he personally led his troops to chase. Across the vast ocean, there temporarily was not any warship faster than the Shanhai City warships.

The Java navy was chased and attacked, crying out in pain. In the end, the entire alliance army had no choice but to scatter in all directions to try and escape with their own lives.

Only then did this episode end.

Out of the 50 thousand alliance troops, only around 10 thousand had managed to escape. In just their first navy battle with Java, Shanhai City had achieved victory in such a brutal manner.

Java, Jakarta City.

The news of the navy's defeat had spread back to Java, instantly causing an uproar. What the players considered was not how strong the enemy was. Instead, they scolded the useless army.

"A bunch of losers, losing the face of our country!"

"Those losers deserve to die!"

……

After the scolding, fury erupted, and an incessant amount of people wished to fight.

"Java has lost our dignity; we need to get it back on the battlefield!"

……

"Chase him away, protect the honor of the ASEAN!"

……

Of course, the ones who truly clamored like that were the adventure gamemode players. The Lord players in Java first confirmed the battle report and fell into silence. One did not need a brain to know that Xingzhou Prefecture must have opened a teleportation formation to Shanhai City. If not, the enemy warships could not be so strong.

With that, what they faced was not the remnants of an army but the entire China region, just thinking about this point would make one astonished. The troops in the territory were not free and every loss was a massive blow.

No matter how the adventure gamemode players clamored, the Lord gamemode players remained exceedingly careful.

Along with the ceasefires from both Johor and Java, the first sweeping operation of ASEAN toward Shanhai City had ended in failure. The only thing that lingered was the huge battle in the oceans.

Ouyang Shuo believed that General Shi Lang would not let him down.

Chapter 637-Country War PK

As expected, Shi Lang did not disappoint Ouyang Shuo.

4th month, 27th day, Shi Lang led the 1st, 2nd and 3rd divisions of the Jiaozhou Squadron, the 5th division of the Beihai Bay Squadron, and the 1st division of the Yashan Bay Squadron, a total of 100 thousand people, and set off toward Annan.

For this trip, the Shanhai City navy went all out. Under the precise and flexible leadership of Shi Lang, they launched relentless assaults on the Annnan Navy.

The Annan Alliance Navy, who had come over for revenge, spent less than four days parading and showing off their strength in Beihai Bay before they were crushed.

Be it warships, equipment, or general standards, they were at two different levels. The number of Annan sailors were not at a huge advantage in front of the 100 thousand Shanhai City ones.

Defeat was as expected, and the Annan navy retreated.

Following Ouyang Shuo's instructions, Shi Lang led the troops to chase the enemy.

In just two days, 50 thousand of them had died and 70 thousand were captured. The remaining 20 thousand were in a bad state, as they pulled themselves back to shore. 400 warships had sunken into the ocean, never to reappear again.

After this battle, the Annan Navy would not be able to form up a decent-sized squadron again.

Capturing 70 thousand odd sailors provided precious troops for the expansion of the Nanyang Navy. NPCs were not extreme patriots, so when they were captured, it was easy for them to switch sides.

If not, it would not be worth it for a Lord to spend so much effort in starting a country war, losing men and resources. If they only got a bunch of prisoners that needed a long time to change their mindset, wouldn't it be not worth?

The game only lasted for 10 years, and it did not allow for such time to brainwash them.

Hence, Gaia had such a simple setting. Similarly, the mindsets of the five thousand guards in Lion City, and the previous natives of Singapore changed, and they were going to lead a new life.

……

4th month, 29th day, Shi Lang led the navy, going along the Annan coastline and patrolling it from north to south. When they saw ports, they would immediately stop and blow apart the ports and shipyards.

The hundreds of thousands of Annan players were furious at the brutality of the enemy, but there was nothing that they could do. They could only watch on as their ports were destroyed, as they looked in fear at the departing enemy.

The entire country was in silence.

This day was termed by Annan as the humiliation day.

5th month, 3rd day, Shi Lang led his troops through the west and middle Spratly Islands to warn the nearby Luzon.

When the Luzon navy heard the news about the Annan Navy's defeat, they ran without fighting.

Strong Navy!

This battle basically cemented the position of Shanhai City as the king of the seas. In a short time, no one could challenge their crown. The entire Nanyang was their back ocean, and if other squadrons wanted to appear, they would have to think twice.

When this news spread back to China, everyone felt their blood boil.

His acts not only showed the strength of Shanhai City, it also brought honor to the Chinese.

Even Di Chen and the other Lords were shocked. Only now did they realize that the mysterious navy hidden by Shanhai City was actually so powerful and on such a large scale.

It was obvious that their previous evaluations of Shanhai City were far from enough. After all, behind their strong army was an equally strong navy.

On the other side, Xiong Ba, Zhan Lang, and the other Lords near the ocean realized the importance of navy warfare. Without hesitating, they decided to model after Shanhai City and develop their navy.

All of a sudden, the bookings and orders for ships in Shanhai city's shipyards were filled up. The shipbuilding industry welcomed a golden age.

The entire country seafaring time that Ouyang Shuo had looked forward to and was planning had slowly arrived.

……

The charm of the country war hooked all the players. The number of requests for Shanhai City to open up Xingzhou Prefecture grew larger by the day. Numerous players rushed to Shanhai City to say that they were willing to fight for their country.

"Kill those Java monkeys!" Amongst these cries, the shouts at Java were the loudest, showing their disdain for these enemies.

Under Ouyang Shuo's instructions, Song Jia came out to explain.

"The situation there is still not settled, and it is still really nervous times. The Lianzhou Lord is already going all out. When the time is right, Lion City will be opened to players." Song Jia promised.

"When will the time be right? Can you give us an answer?" someone asked.

"Within a month." Song Jia replied.

"Good, we will wait!"

Only after getting a satisfactory reply did the players leave.

Any country would have many warriors with a strong desire to fight.

Even though Earth Online had a cruel death penalty, it still did not stop players from being passionate in PKing. Be it in the wilderness or the arenas, they could not compare to country wars.

In a country war, the Lord and his men would obtain merit points when they killed the enemy. For example, Ouyang Shuo’s actions toward Java, Johor, and Annan had brought him another 90 thousand merit points.

He was just 120 thousand merit points away from becoming a duke.

Adventure gamemode players were different. They were split into two scenarios. If they were under a Lord, then they would not obtain any rewards. They would be just earning points for their Lord.

However, if they acted alone, when they killed enemy players, they would obtain killing points. These points could be used in the imperial city to exchange for stronger PK equipment.

The lowest rank of the PK equipment was dark gold. In the later parts, even god weapons would appear more often. The battle between adventure gamemode players of different countries would be one of the attractive parts late game.

In the future, at the borders of the countries, there would be blood red regions for players to kill one another.

In Ouyang Shuo’s last life, China gave birth to many PK maniacs. One of them was Blood Romance, who was termed as the best PK player.

At the current moment, the border line had not been opened. Shanhai City occupied Singapore and formed the Xingzhou Prefecture, so naturally the connection points between Xingzhou Prefecture and the other members of the ASEAN were PK regions.

Hence, when the players received the news, their blood boiled, and some PK players were grinding their weapons. Even Blood Romance could not help but write to Ouyang Shuo to ask.

Ouyang Shuo's reply was to wait.

He aimed to alienate the ASEAN and separate them into allies and enemies. Ouyang Shuo's goal was to lead the players of China to fight the enemies while leaving the allies alone.

This would result in a win-win situation.

….

The successive military actions of Shanhai City had blown the ASEAN apart.

Defeat after defeat made them clearly recognize that, although in land battle they might not fear them, they were not the opponents of the Shanhai City Navy in sea warfare.

The entire Nanyang Region was the territory of the Nanyang Navy, they went anywhere they wanted and were invincible.

This cruel fact made them extremely uncomfortable.

ASEAN was in a tough spot: if they fought, they couldn't win on the seas, and the enemy did not come onto land to fight, making the ASEAN players grit their teeth in anger. However, if they retreated, they would lose face.

The various representatives of the countries quarreled, and they were not able to come to a consensus. Shanhai City gaining a stable footing in Xingzhou Prefecture had become a fact and no one had the strength to change that.

……

Just as the ASEAN entered a stalemate, Shanhai City gave them a way out.

To fight was not his goal.

5th month, 4th day, Shanhai City officially signed a trade agreement with Johor.

Based on the agreement, Johor would pay 100 thousand gold to buy back the captured soldiers, and both sides would discuss and confirm the trade taxes and engage in sea trade.

At the same time, Johor would open two trading ports to Shanhai City. At the same time, the Nanshan Port in Yashan City and Xingzhou Port would be open to Johor.

It was obvious that the loses of both Java and Annan had helped both Shantha and Guo Yannan make up their minds. The two of them went around Han Duya, deciding to agree on the trade deal with Shanhai City.

Sabah City and Perak City both had one huge port.

The moment the news went out, each country in ASEAN had different thoughts. Some were tempted, but others scolded Johor for betraying the ASEAN. Even within Johor, there were people who were against it.

The most intense voice naturally belonged to Han Duya.

However, since both Shantha and Guo Yannan had come to a consensus privately, no matter how much Han Duya opposed, it was no use. After all, sea trading in the game was basically between territories.

That was not all that Shanhai City did.

5th month, 5th day, Shanhai City, with the help of Shantha, reached out to all the countries in ASEAN, including Annan and Java, which had conflicts with them to open sea trade.

"Shanhai City coming to the Malacca Straits definitely isn't for war. We have no intention to fight you and start more battles. We are here to open up trading channels, so that goods can flow, and everyone can get rich together." Ouyang Shuo gave a standard lie.

At the same time, the branch of Honglu Temple in Lion City had brought gifts to the various ASEAN states to show their good intentions.

As they say: Give them a beating and then grant them something sweet.

The next two days, the reactions of the various countries were different.

Brunei, Siam, Zhenla, and Laos all accepted the good intentions of Shanhai City and agreed to open up to trade. Nanzhang, which was located inland, did not have a port, so they did not agree nor reject.

The three countries that had conflicts with Shanhai City, Annan, Luzon, and Java, rejected cooperation as expected; they even chased out the ambassadors sent by Shanhai City.

The animosity of the three toward Shanhai City could not be any more obvious.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he grinned.

Chapter 638-Sword of State

The rejection of Annan and those other countries was something that Ouyang Shuo had expected. He had sent the ambassadors over to Annan for the same reason he retaliated against the Annan Navy, which was to snatch the moral high ground.

In the future country wars, Ouyang Shuo could go against them with a reason.

There were five countries in the nine country ASEAN that were willing to trade with Shanhai City, exceeding his expectations. With that, the third step in his plan had succeeded.

The ocean trading of Shanhai City had welcomed a whole new age.

….

5th month, 8th day, Lion City.

Along with the five countries signing trade agreements, the matter with the ASEAN had come to an end. The enemies and allies within it became clear, which removed the last obstacle to opening Xingzhou Prefecture to Chinese players.

It had been over ten days since Singapore fell and players in China had calmed down from their surprise and shock. With that, the shouts for Shanhai City to open up Xingzhou Prefecture had grown.

It was under such circumstances that Ouyang Shuo invited the leaders of the Shanhai Alliance-Guild Alliance to Lion City as guests to discuss matters.

Blood Romance and the other guild leaders were naturally delighted. With Yashan City as a precedent, they were clear that if Xingzhou Prefecture was opened up, they would enjoy privileges as allies of Shanhai City.

Their guesses were right; this time, Ouyang Shuo was going to play a huge hand.

"Guys, take a look!" In the middle of the hall hung a map of the ASEAN region. Ouyang Shuo held the Chixiao Sword in his hand and pointed at the few neighboring islands around Xingzhou Bay and said, "Although these islands are small, they are near Jinzhou island of Java and are the best spots for PKing."

When Blood Romance heard these words, his eyes lit up, "Can the Blood Evil Mercenary Guild rent an island?"

Xie Siyun and the others exchanged gazes with one another and laughed. As expected from the PK maniac. One must know that with such a guild leader, the members of the Blood Evil Mercenary Guild all loved to fight.

Blood Romance wanted to rent a small island right away; it seemed like he was in this for the long term.

Ouyang Shuo took a look at Blood Romance and shook his head. Before Blood Romance could speak, Ouyang Shuo continued, "These islands are only sold and not rented."

"Sold?" Blood Romance nearly jumped up, and he asked eagerly, "Quick, say how much you are selling them for?"

"Each island would be sold for 100 thousand gold. After the guild buys it, it is similar to renting land within a territory, and you will have absolute control. Shanhai City won't interfere." Ouyang Shuo said.

"Are your words serious?" Blood Romance did not dare to believe these words, as the terms were simply too lucrative.

100 thousand gold to buy an island that could only build a small village seemed expensive, but it was completely worth it. One must know that till now, no guild in China could own a base in the region.

Just that was enough to drive the guilds crazy. Furthermore, these islands were special and could be used as the frontlines to PKing. They could also use these places as springboards for ocean adventures.

To adventure gamemode players, such an island was simply paradise.

Any guild with a slight business mind would open their islands to adventure gamemode players and build some shops such as equipment repair shops and medicine shops; they would definitely earn a lot.

"Naturally, if all of you need it, Shanhai City will provide full services ranging from designing to building to running; how about that?" Ouyang Shuo's smile was filled with greed.

This Lord that loved money like his life was back!

"Brother Wuyi is so candid, I'll purchase it!" Blood Romance did not hesitate anymore and felt that Ouyang Shuo's way of handling things was totally his style. He moved toward the map and was ready to pick his island.

"I want this one!" Blood Romance looked at the island on the most outer area and paid the 100 thousand on the spot. He followed by asking, "What about the construction costs?"

"As for the specific costs, we will talk in detail later. Even if you all want to build the island into an iron fortress, Shanhai City can do that for you. If all of you need cannons, Shanhai City is willing to sell it them to you for a thousand a piece, a friendly price," Ouyang Shuo said.

"You are even selling cannons?" Blood Romance was speechless.

"As long as the price is right, no equipment in Shanhai City is not for sale." Ouyang Shuo did not look like a Lord now. Instead, he seemed like a shrewd merchant.

Si~

Even Blood Romance could not help but be shocked by Ouyang Shuo's generosity.

Obviously, Ouyang Shuo had not gone crazy.

If Shanhai City managed all these small sized islands, they would naturally be able to earn a lot, definitely more than 100 thousand gold. However, they would need to pay a lot of attention and effort to maintain order on these islands.

It was obvious what types of players would come to such Islands. They either liked killing or living life on the edge; they enjoyed the thrill of being on the brink of death.

No matter what type of person they were, they would be hard to control.

To control them, the garrison forces of Shanhai City were lacking, and things might go wrong. Moreover, if they forcefully suppressed them, it might affect the reputation of Shanhai City.

On the other hand, if he sold the islands to the guilds, the situation would far different. Since the islands belonged to them, they would naturally run them well.

The guilds were masters at keeping adventure gamemode players under control. No matter what, under the rule of a guild, the players could only behave well.

That would be a true win-win situation.

As for selling cannons and weapons, apart from earning money, he wanted to strengthen the defenses of the islands. Building an iron fortress was not merely words.

Only if the islands were safe and stable could Xingzhou Bay remain undisturbed by the Java players.

It was the same as saying that the players housed on these islands were the loyal guards of Lion City. Moreover, these guards were free and extremely passionate.

Such things were nearly impossible to find.

It wasn't that Ouyang Shuo was scheming and despicable to even use such patriots. He was only rationally using resources to ensure that all sides win.

The calculations within were on point.

Without mentioning how Ouyang Shuo had thought this through, the guild leaders would not let go of such an opportunity. Xingzhou Prefecture had less than twenty islands and only 15 to 16 could be used.

Those with great geographical locations were much rarer.

Shanhai Alliance-Guild Alliance had already expanded to 12 guilds. Apart from Thread, the remaining all bought an island each.

This left only five islands for the rest of the guilds in China, and they were not as optimal. The remaining islands were openly auctioned off to the highest bidder.

"Even if it was Jianqi Zongheng, if they are willing to pay a high price, we will sell it!" Ouyang Shuo sent out such words, and he was truly planning to act upon them.

Before a country war, one could not bother about personal grievances.

It would be too narrow minded to exclude top guilds such as camp Jianqi Zongheng, Jin Yi Wei, and th Eighteen Horsemen of Yanyun just because they were not in the same.

From the start till now, Ouyang Shuo had wanted to create a united front toward the outside atmosphere in China. With that, it would strengthen his position as the leader of China.

Of course, within the country, he would fight as he was supposed to do.

Internally and externally he was clear! This was his style.

Based on his estimations, from selling the islands, construction fees, and equipment sales, it could earn them at least two million gold.

From one country war, Shanhai City had earned over seven million in profit, as much as the gold from the Beihai Bay Treasure. If not, why would one say that war was the fastest way to amass treasures?

Of course, this was only the case for Shanhai City.

If it was any other territory, without such a navy, they would not be able to play such a game. In seconds, they would be drowned by the ASEAN.

After sending away the various guild leaders, the administrative matters relating to Xingzhou Prefecture basically came to an end. A few days ago, Pei Ju had rushed over to Lion City, so Ouyang Shuo did not need to worry about those matters any more.

The day that Pei Ju arrived, Ouyang Shuo prepared a massive gift for him.

After Secretary Bai Nanpu read the appointment decree, Ouyang Shuo took out the God Weapon Starlight Sword and solemnly declared, "The name of this sword is Starlight. The holder of this sword represents the one taking charge of Xingzhou Prefecture to show off the might of Shanhai City to the ASEAN. Today, I'll give this sword to you; I hope you will cherish it."

Although Xingzhou was small, it was the first overseas territory. Be it meaning or strategic value, it was different, and it was a huge test for the governor.

As such, Ouyang Shuo decided upon this act of handing over a sword.

The ancient times had the sword of state. Today, they had the starlight sword.

In olden times, the sword of state represented the highest power. The emperor used weapons to signify granting ministers the power to act on their own accord overseas.

"Like seeing the emperor himself!" This was the greatest description of the sword of state.

In some ways, the starlight sword played this role. Xingzhou Prefecture was located alone overseas and some matters were hard to ask help for in time. As such, the governor would need to make decisive choices.

The starlight sword represented such power.

One could foresee that this act of handing over the sword would become a tale of legends in the future.

When Pei Ju heard this decree, he solemnly knelt down and emotionally said, "Thank you, Lord, I won't let you down." He went up and accepted the starlight sword with both hands before solemnly sliding it into his sheath.

As an experienced minister, Pei Ju obviously know the deep meaning within these actions. Such an act was already the greatest honor for a minister.

Even the usually calm Pei Ju could not help but feel his heart surge.

Xingzhou Prefecture had Pei Ju taking care of administrative matters and Yanhuo Yaonie taking care of the military side, so there would be nothing to worry about.

Chapter 639-Somalia Pirates

Since all the administrative matters regarding Xingzhou Prefecture were finished, it was time for the voyage squadron to set off once more.

Before leaving, Ouyang Shuo especially returned to Shanhai City. Not for any other reason, but to use the recruiting opportunity of the General Appointment Stage.

The General Appointment Stage allowed him to choose a historical general below god rank. It was a good item, but one need to think long and hard about which general to recruit.

Thinking about these matters, Ouyang Shuo still decided to recruit a navy general.

In ancient china, naval warfare was never the priority, and famous navy generals were relatively lacking compared to other areas. He was interested in Zhou Yu, Yu Da You, and Zheng Cheng Gong.

Since Zhou Yu was the main character of the next battle map, the Battle of Red Cliff, Ouyang Shuo could not recruit him and could only regretfully give up. Zheng Cheng Gong also had deep animosity with Jiaozhou Squadron fleet admiral Shi Lang, so he was not suitable either.

Hence, only Yu Da You remained.

On the General Appointment Stage, a white light flashed and a middle-aged general with a moustache appeared. He had a worried expression on his face; he was the famous Ming Dynasty general, Yu Da You.

"Yu Da You greets the Lord!" He bowed.

"General, please rise!"

Ouyang Shuo smiled and looked at his stats.

Name: Yu Da You (Emperor Rank)

Title: Ancient China top 10 navy generals

Dynasty: Ming Dynasty

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Special General

Loyalty: 75

Command: 86

Force: 85

Intelligence: 70

Politics: 60

Specialty: Eradicate Invaders (30% increase in cannon range and power when facing pirates or Japanese navy forces, 35% increase in ship speed, 30% increase in warship defense, 35% increase in navy soldier’s morale).

Art of War: might of the art of war

Cultivation Method: Sword Classic

Weapon: Jingchu Long Sword

Evaluation: Yu Da You was known for being an honest and upright official. Yu Da You's way of using troops was to plan for war and using it for short term gain. He was loyal to his country and extremely firm.

Yu Da You was all rounded. Not only did he possess a military art like the ‘might of the art of war’, he also martial arts like the Sword Classic.

On the topic of the Sword Classic, one might think that it was a sword art. However, it was a stick technique that Yu Da You had developed.

Talking about his stick technique, it had a lot to do with the Shaolin Temple that had not appeared in the wilderness yet.

40th year of the Jiajing Emperor’s rule, Yu Da You, who was good at the Jingchu Long Sword, was ordered to go conquer the south. He specially went to Shaolin to watch the stick techniques of the monks. In the end, he was disappointed and felt that Shaolin Kungfu was lost in the past.

Under the request of the Shaolin Temple host, Yu Da You brought the young but courageous Zong Qing and Pu Cong along with him down south. Over the next three years, he taught them the ‘Yu Family Staff’, a set of staff movement techniques he created based on the ‘Jingchu Long Sword’ and the ‘Yang Family Spear technique’.

Three years later, the two monks returned to Shaolin and taught his teachings to them.

13 years later, Zong Qing met Yu Da You again and told him that Pu Cong had modified his teachings and spread it to the closest monks.

With that, one could see that the Shaolin Stick techniques had benefited from Yu Da You's teachings.

Of course, martial arts were only a branch; his main strength was in naval warfare, especially in fights against pirates. When one mentioned Yu Da You's war achievements, one would have to mention the Ming Dynasty pirate problem.

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, some Japanese warriors arrived at the ocean region along China. The Ming Dyansty pirates’ invasion started during the early stages of the Ming Dynasty. When it reached the Jiajing Emperor's rule, the Ming Dynasty’s strength had waned, and despicable ministers ruled. War and conflict also filled Japan, giving rise to the pirate issue.

Due to the economic progress in trading, the goods trading was extremely advanced and lucrative. All trading deals along the ocean were lucrative but due to the Ming Dynasty Ocean prohibition order, trading with other countries was banned.

The tea, porcelain, and silk could all be sold for high prices. If one shipped silk to Nanyang, its price increase by 10 times. With that, some Chinese merchants or pirates like Wang Zhi and Xu Hai started to collude with Japanese pirates to gain riche, forming smuggling organizations.

These merchants thus became a part of the Japanese pirates, being mentioned in the Ming History Japan Diary, ‘Out of 10 there were three real Japanese, while the other seven were Chinese people.’

With that, it gave birth to a bunch of generals that fought against the Japanese.

The most famous of all was naturally Qi Jiguang, who was termed as the hero of the people.

Yu Da You, who was born in the same generation, basically spent his whole life fighting Japanese pirates. The Yu Army he headed always scared the enemy, and the two were called the Yu Dragon and the Qi Tiger respectively. They helped to sweep and wipe out the Japanese pirates who were causing problems for so many years.

Amazingly, although he accomplished so much, his contributions were taken by others, and he was not given an official position. However, he was not concerned with such matters and continued to focus on killing the Japanese pirates.

Such a general was a true gem.

……

That day, Ouyang Shuo gave Yu Da You his appointment.

He appointed the general as the fleet admiral of the Yashan Squadron and gave him the 3rd grade general title of Ocean Protector General. With that, out of the four squadrons, only the earliest formed Beihai Bay Squadron lacked a fleet admiral.

Logically speaking, Yu Da You's specialty was going against Japanese pirates. His specialty aimed at the Japanese navy. However, Japan's nearby waters were too far away from Shanhai City for his skills to be put to use.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo could only appoint him as the Yashan Squadron fleet admiral first before making changes in the future. Ouyang Shuo believed that the day the navy attacked Japan was not too far away.

5th month, 10th day, Xingzhou Bay.

The voyage squadron had finished stocking up, and they once again set sail.

From Beihai Bay, they went past the Malacca Straits and entered the Indian Ocean. The vast and boundless ocean followed.

In the huge ocean, without the star guiding technique, one probably would not even know the direction they were heading.

As they had taken a delay in South East Asia for close to a month, the voyage squadron needed to enter the Red Sea before summer ended. Hence, Ouyang Shuo did not plan to form relationships with India at this time.

The voyage squadron spent a short two days in Sri Lanka, south of India, to restock. Then, they set off once more. Their next stop was Somalia, which was located in the Gulf of Aden.

Ouyang Shuo planned to directly cross the Mandeb Straits and enter the Red Sea after stopping in Somalia.

The journey from the Malacca Straits to the Mandeb Straits was the longest part of this voyage. Even in real life, it would by six to seven thousand kilometers.

The game map had expanded by ten times, making this distance unimaginable.

With the speed of ancient ships, they would need at least three months to complete this leg of the journey.

If one considered the entire journey, traveling from England to China and back would take at least a year. Since the game lasted ten years, this meant that cross-continental trade was basically impractical.

In reality, one trip would take two months.

Obviously, Gaia did not want to make things too difficult for the players. In truth, after the squadron entered the open seas, they had entered a quick sailing mode. Going across the Indian Ocean only took twenty days, extremely magical.

……

6th month, 11th day, the voyage squadron successfully reached Somalia and stopped at Berbera Port.

Berbera Port was located on the north west shore of Somalia, and it was on the south west side of the Gulf of Aden. The neighboring Djibouti Port located south of the gulf was the biggest port in the north of Somalia.

On the topic of Somalia, one had to mention the Somali pirates.

The Somali pirates were common in the Gulf of Aden, robbing and kidnapping people. They were a bunch of criminals who were professionals at robbing ships for their riches.

The Gulf of Aden was located in the middle of the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. It was an important choke point when one went from the Red Sea or the Suez Canal into the Atlantic, so it was an important strategic location.

Countless ships that passed through the Gulf of Aden.

At the same time, the Somalia seas were narrow, so it was the ideal spot for pirate activity.

Such circumstances naturally gave birth to many pirate organizations. In reality, the effect of Somali pirates on the various countries were extremely minimal. However, in the game, Gaia had once again revived this part of history.

Hence, the moment the voyage squadron entered the Gulf of Aden, Ouyang Shuo warned Zheng He to maintain alertness at every moment. Weirdly, even when they approached the shore, they still were not attacked by any pirates.

"Maybe the pirates saw that we were warships and didn't dare to come close?" Zheng He deduced.

Ouyang Shuo was not sure, "I'm not excluding that possibility. Even so, we can't let down our guards. After restocking, we will immediately set off. Let's try to get past the Red Sea in one go."

"Yes, my lord!"

Zheng He received the order and started to arrange for supplies.

As for how to resupply, Zheng He was naturally an expert in this aspect, and Ouyang Shuo did not need to worry.

After spending so much time onboard ship, Ouyang Shuo felt a little cooped up. After the warship docked, he brought a small group of personal guards to take a walk around the port.

Berbera Port was the industry center of the husbandry industry of Somalia. Every year, many herders would gather here to sell their animals.

The moment one entered the port, they would be able to see many herders herding their animals; they would also see merchants.

The dirty port, paths with many holes, with animal waste littered everywhere. The Berbera Port in front of them definitely was not a place suitable for rest and relaxation.

Ouyang Shuo had walked for less than ten minutes, and he already felt like returning to the ship. The smell in the air was simply too hard to take it.

"Lord, there's an inn there!" Chen Dameng's eyes were exceedingly sharp.

Ouyang Shuo raised his head, only to see a three-story wooden building with a beer sign on the door. Before they even got close, they could hear the bustle inside; it was an inn without a doubt.

"Go, let's go get a drink!"

Ouyang Shuo felt a jolt in his heart. Apart from drinking, they could also gather intel at the inn.

Chapter 640-Foreign Country Atmosphere

Berbera Inn.

Like other port inns, the Berbera Inn was filled with sexily-dressed bar ladies, drunk brutes, and many random people.

Along with the dark lights, and the thick smell of beer in the air, this was the very picture of an inn.

Even so, when Ouyang Shuo and his men walked inside, it suddenly fell silent. Loud and soft discussions followed at every corner of the inn.

This was the first time the Berbera Inn had welcomed an asian face. Along with the equipment of the personal guards, with their red divine martial capes, they looked like tough people.

Such a squad was naturally eye-catching.

The moment they entered, Personal Guards Captain Chen Dameng immediately took up a huge table and invited Ouyang Shuo to sit.

"Welcome! Mister, what would you like to drink?" Immediately, a seductive woman approached them; her massive breasts jiggled as she walked forward, bouncing up and down when she talked, what a tempting sight.

Ouyang Shuo took out a gold coin and placed it into her cleavage, as he smiled, "Give me a flask of banana wine and two large plates of beef."

"Wow!"

Whistle noises instantly spread out through the inn. In just a moment, Ouyang Shuo had wiped out the apprehension of the locals. They had accepted his presence.

The things that Ouyang Shuo had ordered held a certain meaning.

Bananas were the main agricultural product of Somalia, and it was massive with thick flesh and a sweet taste. In the global market, it had the reputation of being the sweetest banana in the world.

Hence, when Somalians welcomed guests, their tables would be covered with bananas. There were raw bananas, banana rice, banana cakes, banana wine, and more.

Islam was the main religion of Somalia, and 99% of the population were believers. Hence, in a Muslim area, people could not eat meats such as pork, horse, and camel.

Ouyang Shuo ordering beef was to respect their customs.

This was in an inn; otherwise, they could not even drink. The girls in the inn were all gypsies; if not, they would not act so open and bold.

To someone who was worth tens of millions, one gold coin was not much.

But to the girl, one gold coin was half a month of her pay. In such a small inn, that was already considered a massive tip.

Along with Ouyang Shuo looking so handsome and chivalrous, it made this gypsy girl fall for him, and she gave him her sweetest smile. She did not forget to wink, "Please wait for a short while, it'll be up soon."

"Wow, Karina's heart is moved!" someone joked.

"Drunkard Dylan, be careful of your ass!"

Karina might seem like a gentle girl in front of Ouyang Shuo, but she was a bold person on the inside. She was a rose with thorns.

Haha!

When they saw Dylan geting scolded, the other people in the inn mocked him.

As the inn regained its bustle, everyone became engrossed in their own conversations. Ouyang Shuo seemed like he was not paying attention, but in truth, nothing in the inn was able to escape from his eyes and ears.

"Did you hear? Reed bumped into some trouble."

"The pirates again?"

"If it wasn't those bunch, who else?"

"Sigh, for this period of time I don't dare to go out fishing; the pirates are too rampant."

……

“I heard that the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Squad is going to gather a batch of players to hunt the pirates."

"Let's hope they succeed!"

……

It seems like even the local Somalian players are facing the threats of the pirates, Ouyang Shuo pondered, feeling even more wary about the calm that the squadron had faced.

After a short while, Karina carried over the banana wine and beef, asking softly, "Mister are you free tonight? I'll drink with you." As she spoke, she looked seductively at Ouyang Shuo.

Gypsy women were just so passionate; they did not hide their emotions. Once they liked someone, they would show it.

"My apologies, I'll be sailing off in the afternoon." Ouyang Shuo smiled and rejected her proposition.

"That's such a shame!" Karina was well mannered and did not bug him.

"Well wishes, beautiful miss!"

Ouyang Shuo toasted a cup of banana wine to express his thanks.

……

In this foreign land, he slowly ate beef and drank a unique tasting banana wine. Ouyang Shuo was enjoying this hard to come by atmosphere of a foreign country. A while later, Ouyang Shuo finally got up to leave.

Just as they passed a corner, Chen Dameng walked up and whispered, "Lord, we are being followed."

"Don't worry."

When they were in the inn, Ouyang Shuo had noticed that there were two people in the corner that were staring at them.

Ouyang Shuo turned into a small alley, walking halfway into it. Then he turned around and said toward the seemingly empty alley, "Friends, show yourself. If you have anything, just say it."

After around two minutes, two teen males walked out from the corner.

"Are you the Lianzhou Lord of the China region?"

One of them asked.

"That's right.”

Delighted, one of them said, "Hello, we are from the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group."

"Oh?" Ouyang Shuo was instantly interested, "Why did you follow me?"

"Can we invite you to our base?" They sent out an invitation, "Our guild leader would like to meet you."

Ouyang Shuo thought about it and smiled, "Sure, lead the way."

"Lord!" Chen Dameng felt a little worried and tried to stop him. They were in an unfamiliar area and accepting such requests was simply too dangerous.

Ouyang Shuo glanced at him and followed the two players. When Chen Dameng saw the situation, he could only follow helplessly. A short while after, a personal guard left the group.

In his last life, Ouyang Shuo had a rough recollection of the Somalia players starting a large-scale pirate hunting operation. Regretfully, that operation had ended in failure.

Spies had revealed the plan to the pirates, resulting in an ambush.

During that battle, the Somalia Navy was crushed. Without this restraint, more pirates appeared in the Gulf of Aden, and they grew bolder.

If Shanhai City wanted to open trade to the west, they would need a safe and reliable route. Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group going after the Somali pirates was exactly what Shanhai City wanted.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo had no reason to reject the invitation.

Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group was the biggest guild in Somalia, based in the imperial city Mogadishu. Its guild leader was Farrah and to attack the pirates, Farrah had personally come over at Berbera Port.

For this pirate hunting operation, the Somalia people had sent out all their elites. The Lords near the oceans provided warships, and the adventure gamemode players acted as the vanguards.

These Lord and guild players formed up a 150 thousand force alliance army.

The base that they had mentioned was the command center of the alliance army.

"Lianzhou Lord, I have heard of your name for so long!"

When he received the news, Farrah personally came out to welcome Ouyang Shuo.

"Coming to your land, I didn't mean to cause worry." Ouyang Shuo replied.

"Please!"

Farrah was extremely warm, grabbing Ouyang Shuo's hand and leading him into the command center.

The fall of Singapore had sent the voyage squadron of Shanhai City into everyone’s line of sight.

Ouyang Shuo had even spread the news that he wanted to be the first Lord in the world to complete a cross ocean adventure on the forums. Moreover, he stated that his ultimate goal for this trip was England. With that, the countries along the oceans started to pay more attention to them.

Hence, when the voyage squadron reached Berbera Port, the eye-catching golden dragon flag had attracted the attention of the players.

The golden dragon flag, the flag of Shanhai Territory, was famous all around the world.

Farrah, as a local snake, naturally received the news right away. Just as he was thinking about how to contact them, Ouyang Shuo entered an inn and was recognized by members of his guild.

Farrah's reason for acting so warm was rather obvious. Obviously, he wanted the voyage squadron to join their pirate hunting operation.

……

Toward Ouyang Shuo's arrival, the expressions of the people varied greatly. Some were curious, some were wary, and some were even unhappy.

The fall of Singapore was a bloody fact that Shanhai City’s voyage squadron was an invasive force; they were not peaceful people.

Luckily, Farrah held prestige in Somalia, so no one dared to come out and make noise.

They were judging him, so why wouldn't Ouyang Shuo be judging them too? In his last life, the reveal of the plan definitely came from one of them. If not, the pirates could not have received such complete information. Regretfully, Ouyang Shuo could not tell who was acting weird.

Both sides had just met, and they did not trust each other. They were just making use of each other for personal gain. Hence, Ouyang Shuo did not have any hopes of getting deep into their operation.

Ouyang Shuo only promised that if the alliance army gave Shanhai City a decent position, the voyage squadron would be willing to help out.

Of course, this was only limited to helping out, and the alliance army would not command them.

Farrah was already satisfied with this. Of course, when a forest was big, there were all kinds of birds. Some were unhappy with the way Ouyang Shuo acted, "You are too arrogant! Since it's an alliance army, how can you not follow commands?"

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, his eyes turned cold, and he looked at Farrah. He did not say a word, obviously unhappy with such a childish question.

"Di Da, quickly apologize to the Lianzhou Lord." Farrah chided.

Di Da was still unhappy, "I'm not wrong, why should I apologize?"

"You!" Farrah was furious and felt that he had lost face in front of his guest, "Di Da, I’ll speak the ugly words upfront. Quickly apologize, or I'll immediately kick you out of the alliance army."

"What?" Di Da jumped up; Farrah's words had shocked him. He totally did not expect that Farrah would want to banish him for an outsider.

Just thinking about it, if he was kicked out of the alliance army, he would not be able to raise his head in this circle every again.

Chapter 641-Blood Colored Night

"I don't want to repeat myself a third time." Farrah resolutely stated.

The muscles on Di Da's face cramped up, as he sent Ouyang Shuo a deathly stare, "I’m sorry!" Although he apologized, he hated Ouyang Shuo so much in his heart that he wanted to swallow the latter up.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, having a rough new understanding of Di Da. He had purposely angered Di Da to see how much influence Farrah possessed.

After the short delay, the atmosphere in the meeting hall turned extremey solemn and serious.

Farrah was truly amazing, chairing the meeting like nothing had happened. After it ended, he even invited Ouyang Shuo to a welcoming feast.

The feast once again allowed Ouyang Shuo to enjoy the atmosphere of a foreign country. The unique dishes, exquisite cutlery, different dances, and music opened up his eyes.

Maybe because of the alcohol, but the atmosphere at the feast was rather warm and relaxed.

"Let's cheers for our friend, cheers!" Farrah suggested.

"Cheers!"

Apart from Di Da, the others all gave Farrah face.

The feat only came to an end at the dead of night.

Farrah wanted to invite Ouyang Shuo to stay in the camp, but he rejected the proposition. No matter how bold he was, he definitely could not say here. One must not forget that a person in the camp had animosity with him.

Although Farrah had scolded Di Dai, he was also a top guild leader in Somalia. His guild was housed near the Berbera Port, a complete local snake.

Seeing that, Farrah said, "Since that's the case, I'll let people send you back."

"Sorry for the trouble!" Ouyang Shuo nodded and thanked him.

Outside the camp, the personal guards stood in wait. It was not only ten of them; instead, 100 had formed up. At the crucial moment, it was still the personal guards that were the most reliable.

"Let's go!"

It was late into the night, and Berbera Port was pitch back. The night life of reality had no place in the game. The large squad walked past dark alley after dark alley. Suddenly, a massive arrow rain pelted from the rooftops beside them.

"Ambush!"

"Protect the Lord!" Chen Dameng hollered.

Shua, Shua, Shua!

Numerous shields were propped up around Ouyang Shuo, fully covering him.

"Who are you? We are from the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group; stop your attacks!" The person in charge of sending Ouyang Shuo off shouted from the side.

However, only another rain of arrows came as a reply.

Argh!

The guy was shot and collapsed on the ground.

In less than ten minutes, the entire force was heavily injured. Only a few of the members that Farrah had arranged to send them off were left. The retaliation of the personal guards had little to no effect due to the darkness.

"Retreat!"

The enemy had the high ground on them who were standing on the streets, so they could only get smacked and could not retaliate. If Ouyang Shuo was not wrong, Di Da must have sent them.

"So vicious!" Ouyang Shuo muttered.

The personal guards covered Ouyang Shuo, avoiding the streets and turning into another alley. Before they had time to rest, they saw a group of men dressed in black charging right at them, "Kill!"

"Damn it, charge over them!"

Viciousness and seriousness appeared on Ouyang Shuo’s face, as he killed his way out with the Tianmo Spear in hand.

In a narrow route, the brave would win.

Killing shouts spread out from the pitch-black alleys. Both sides engaged under the weak moonlight.

When the nearby residents heard the shouts, they were terrified, closing their doors and windows, afraid to do anything.

However, the endless number of enemies left Ouyang Shuo astonished. Moreover, they came from all directions. No matter how valiant the personal guards were, they were slowly dying out and were not a match for the enemy.

Obviously, this was a well-planned assassination.

"Split up and break out!"

Ouyang Shuo did not have any other thoughts than trying to simply break out of this. He led around ten guards to charge toward the west of the alley. Chen Dameng and the others attracted the fire and tried to disrupt the deduction skills of the enemy.

……

Not far from the alley was a building, looking down from the top, one could see this entire massacre clearly.

"Sir, what should we do?"

The one who spoke was similarly dressed in black; one could not see his appearance. In front of him was a teen. Although his face was not covered with a mask, it was still difficult to recognize him in the night.

"Split up and chase. Remember, we definitely cannot allow him to run." The teen's voice was coarse.

"Understood!"

The man immediately sent out a signal bullet. Suddenly, batch after batch of black dressed men swarmed out of the various alleys of the port, disappearing into the night sky.

The killings on this night was growing more and more intense.

In the voyage squadron camp, the Lord had not returned on time, making Zheng He feel uneasy.

"Men!"

"Present!"

"Bring a squad of men into the city to receive the Lord. An issue might have cropped up."

"Yes, admiral!"

At this very moment, the black dressed man shot the signal bullet into the sky.

This sight caused Zheng He’s eyes to freeze up, as the uneasiness he felt increased. "Send my orders, the squadron will enter a level 2 state of alert, and the Divine Martial Guards will move out."

"Yes, admiral!"

After a short while, the news that the Lord and his men had faced an assassination attempt spread back to the warship. This news sent the Divine Martial Guards into a frenzied state, and they started a killing storm in the city. Whenever they saw a person clothed in black, they would kill without mercy.

The navy soldiers also joined this killing feast.

Zheng He took charge of the squadron to prevent other situations from happening.

Along with the addition of the Shanhai City Army, the port grew more chaotic. When Farrah received the news, he was furious and ordered the alliance army to strike and wipe out the men in black.

Farrah sent people out to Di Da to make him stop his crazy behavior. Obviously, Farrah's deduction was the same as Ouyang Shuo’s, thinking that Di Da was the one behind all of this.

Weirdly, the men who were sent out did not find Di Da. Based on the Fly Mercenary Group’s words, their guild leader had gone to drink after the feast had ended, and he did not return to the courtyard.

This made Di Da look all the more more suspicious.

In a fit of anger, Farrah sent men to surround the courtyard of the Fly Mercenary Group. No one was to leave, otherwise, they would be killed.

……

The night sky grew darker and darker.

Berbera Port was a massive port with rows of low buildings gathered around it without planning. The curved paths and alleys spread out like a spider web, intersecting with one another.

Even a local would find it hard to find their way out.

Furthermore, it was the dead of night, so this assassination game grew in intensity.

The Divine Martial Guards chased and killed the men, but these enemies would not just give up and wait to die. They would find an alley to hide in and disappear into the night sky like rats.

On the side of the alliance army, it was also not going smoothly. After all, they could not be considered local snakes.

The large-scale killings only slowly stopped after the two armies entered the fray. Occasionally, cries of pain would sound out.

Zheng He's expression was extremely solemn.

Based on the news from the frontlines, they had found many of the Lord's personal guards but not the Lord himself

The killing intent of the Divine Martial Guards quickly reached its peak.

Zheng He could only pray now that the Lord could survive this blood colored night.

Nameless alley.

In the pitch-black night, a young man hobbled as he ran. He turned his head around, moving while on full alert. Blood stained the spear in his hand.

"He's there!"

"Quick!"

"Don't let him run!"

Behind him, low voices sounded. Following which, a cluster of black clothed men charged at the young man; their eyes were unusually cold.

"Damn it!"

The young man cursed out and used all his strength to support himself.

He definitely could not run. His only path to survival was to kill everyone in front of him.

Depressing slaughter broke out once again. In the light of the knives and the afterimages of the swords, no one spoke a word.

Everyone was hovering between life and death.

The young man constantly had people fall around him. However, his footsteps grew heavier and heavier. His wounds gaped open, and fresh blood spurted out. One would wonder if he would collapse at any moment.

Argh!

Along with the last black clothed man falling, the young man could not hold on any longer and collapsed too.

Pain and exhaustion corrupted his senses.

"That's it!" The young man sighed as he laid on the ground. He raised his head as he looked at the moon, his eyes exceedingly calm.

This young man was obviously Ouyang Shuo.

The strength of the black clothed men had exceeded his expectations. All of them were elite adventure gamemode player, and they possessed high combat strength. Even when facing the personal guards, they could fight neck and neck.

Even Ouyang Shuo was injured under their relentless assault.

The personal guards around him fell one by one, but he could nothing about it. At the most crucial moment, he faced the attacks of a hundred men.

Facing such danger, he had no choice but to activate the devil bloodline and kill his way out.

From start to now, Ouyang Shuo did not know where he was. The black clothed men were like spirits; they always managed to find him, tiring him out.

As time went on, the devil bloodline reached its limit.

After killing off this last fellow, Ouyang Shuo was utterly exhausted. At this moment, if one more of them appeared, they could easily kill him.

Thinking about this point, Ouyang Shuo let out a bitter smile.

"Things are just so unpredictable." How would he have guessed that Di Da would be so extreme and would want revenge to such an extent. For just a little bit of face, he would act so vicious.

As a result, both sides suffered heavy casualties.

Ouyang Shuo did not believe that Zheng He or Farrah would let Di Da off once they received the news.

"The world is huge, everything is possible!"

Ouyang Shuo could only sigh.

At this moment, footsteps sounded out on the streets.

When he heard these sounds, his heart turned cold. On this night, the civilians had closed their doors and would not go out. Apart from the black clothed men, who else would dare walk the streets?

Exhaustion hit him like a flood.

Ouyang Shuo bit his tongue so that he would not fall unconscious; his right hand grabbed the Tianmo Spear. As long as the enemy drew close, he was confident in dealing a finishing blow.

"Yi, it’s you?”

At this very moment, a gentle girl's voice sounded out, filled with worry and surprise.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this voice, he totally relaxed and fainted.

"Ah, wake up!"

The girl totally did not know that she had just walked out from the gates of hell.

Chapter 642-Death of Di Da

In the morning, Ouyang Shuo opened his eyes.

His wounds were carefully bandaged; even the Tianmo Spear was cleaned and placed by his side. As a result of the night's rest, his injuries had mostly healed.

Ouyang Shuo raised his head and looked around.

The wooden room was rather narrow, and the floor was covered with items. Despite this, the items were placed in an orderly matter. A bed and a table were the two most prominent items in the room; evidently, the owner was not that well off.

The linen blanket emitted a nice scent.

Ouyang Shuo thought back to yesterday and was started to recall the series of events. As he thought back to the assassination attempt, he could not help but frown. Thinking clearly, this matter was extremely serious.

Firstly, the route that he took should have been secret. Weirdly, the black clothed men were waiting in ambush, and they even considered the alleys.

The only explanation was that his path was exposed.

Apart from his Personal Guards, only the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group would know. However, just thinking about that, things became weirder and weirder.

Secondly, the strength of the black clothed men had far exceeded his expectations. Although they were all elites, they were also good at assassination. Under the cover of such a dark sky and a geographical knowledge advantage, they caused more damage than elite troops.

Apart from normal bows, they even carried hidden weapons. Obviously, the enemy had researched his strength and knew that he possessed strong martial arts skills.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo fell to a disadvantage.

This assassination scheme did not seem like something that was just thought off; it was more like a carefully planned scheme. With Di Da's skill, did he truly have the ability to set this up in such a short time?

Ouyang Shuo doubted it.

Most importantly, Di Da lacked the motive to take such extreme action.

As the head of a guild, Ouyang Shuo did not believe that Di Da was truly stupid. Di Da definitely knew that regardless of whether the assassination attempt succeeded, the Fly Mercenary Group could not handle the aftermath.

Furthermore, Farrah had already made things clear. Would he drag his entire mercenary group down into the abyss for just face? Anyone with a brain would not do such a crazy thing.

Last night, Ouyang Shuo felt certain that Di Da was behind this but now it did not seem like the case. On the contrary, Ouyang Shuo believed that the spy in the alliance army started this.

Only that spy who had not showed themselves would have the motive to get rid of Ouyang Shuo.

Furthermore, Di Da had angered Ouyang Shuo, and his rash personality made him the best person to push the blame onto. If the person was Ouyang Shuo, he would also grab this chance.

However, Ouyang Shuo did not understand the reveal of his route. Was the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group involved in this matter? Thinking about it, it did not seem likely.

The entire matter became more and more muffled and confusing.

This was the worst situation that Ouyang Shuo had gotten in. Luckily, his luck stat did not cheat him once more, and he met a lucky star. If not, the following journey would not involve him any longer.

Creak!

The door was opened from the outside and a young lady with a great body entered. She held a bowl of porridge in her hands; she was Karina, the bar lady that had served him at the inn.

"You're awake!" Karina was delighted.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, standing up and bowing, "Thank you, miss, for saving me!"

"Drink the porridge first!" Karina laughed and avoided the topic

It was a complete coincidence. The place where Ouyang Shuo collapsed from his injuries was only 200 meters away from where Karina lived. The inn had naturally closed late, which was why Karina had met him.

The moment she saw him, she was shocked but happy.

This mysterious man possessed an indescribable charm that attracted her. That night, she guarded by his side and slowly fell asleep.

Ouyang Shuo's manly scent attracted this gypsy lady. However, their statuses were significantly different. Just thinking about his, Karina could not help but feel a pain in her heart.

It's just a dream in the end! Karina warned herself, The story of Cinderella and her prince is only a fairytale.

Although the porridge was the most common banana porridge in Somalia, Ouyang Shuo felt that it was exceedingly tasty. He was also rather ravenous, so he finished it up in a jiffy.

"Slow down; there's still some more in the kitchen." Karina was amused.

However, Ouyang Shuo grabbed the Tianmo Spear by the bed, and he once again cupped his fist and said, "I have to go. Your saving grace is something that I'll never be able to repay. As he spoke, he took out a wooden box and placed it on the bed, "This is just a small thank you gift, please do not reject it."

"You!" Karina wanted to say something but stopped.

Ouyang Shuo sighed and left. He obviously saw through her love for him, but it was impossible, so why would he leave any false hopes for her?

"Can you tell me your name?" Karina chased after him.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this request, he turned around and said, "Qiyue Wuyi!"

Karina looked at the slowly disappearing figure in shock. When she returned and opened the wooden box, she could not help but covered her mouth to dampen her screams. In the box, she found one thousand gold and a book.

This book was a secret manual that Ouyang Shuo had especially chosen for her.

As they say, the man is not at fault, but him having a treasure is.

Ouyang Shuo naturally did not hope for her to get into trouble because of a sum of money. With a secret manual, she would have the ability to protect herself and a chance to completely change her destiny.

As they say, rather than giving someone a fish, why not teach them how to fish?

"Qiyue Wuyi!" Karina carved this name into her heart.

Alliance base.

The chaos at night had terrified everyone.

The Lord had not returned, and his life or death remained unknown. The furious Divine Martial Guards brought 10 thousand navy soldiers and surrounded the entire camp. The thousands of members of the Fly Mercenary Group were all taken down by the Divine Martial Guards.

Even the calm and gentle Zheng He was enraged at this time, questioning Farrah, "Guild Leader Farrah, you have to answer to us. If not, we will act ourselves."

"I've already said it was not me, what else can I say?"

Di Da, who had returned drunk when he heard the news, was also furious.

"You still trying to deny it? In Somalia, apart from you, who else hates my Lord?" Zheng He understood the entire situation from start to end.

"Do you have proof?" Di Da retorted.

"When Shanhai City does things, we do not need proof." Zheng He's attitude was resolute.

"You!" Di Da was furious; he could not control his rage any longer, "I already said it was not me. So, what if it was! You're so arrogant and deserve it."

"...."

Di Da's words had completely ignited the rage of the Shanhai City Army.

"Kill him, take revenge for the Lord!"

The furious soldiers could not hide their killing intent.

"Sorry, Guild Leader Farrah." Zheng He's expressions turned cold as he turned around, "Execute him!"

"Yes, admiral!"

Four Divine Martial Guards walked up and took Di Da down, holding a Tang Blade to his neck.

"What are you all doing?" Di Da had been drunk for the entire night; he was still was not clear-headed, so how would he be a match for them? Struggling was just useless.

Weirdly, during the entire process, none of the members of the alliance army helped out; they just looked on.

When Di Da saw the situation, he felt that things were unusual, so he looked at Farrah with unease, "I’m innocent, Farrah. As a commander, are you allowing them to do as they wish in our base? Do you not have any spirit?"

His words caused a commotion in the alliance army.

Farrah knew that, and he had no choice but to make things clear, "Di Da it is not that I'm not helping you, but you went too far. You actually sent men to kill our allies. If I help you, how would others look at us? How would they look at Somalia?"

"I'm innocent!" Di Da cried out.

Farrah shook his head, unwilling to waste his breath; he turned to Zheng He, "General, go ahead. I only hope that this matter would not affect our cooperation."

"Since the Lord wanted this cooperation, we will follow through with it." Farrah had given Shanhai City enough face, so Zheng He obviously had no need to cause problems.

"Execute!" Zheng He ordered.

"Kill!"

All of a sudden, a thousand heads fell to the ground. Including Guild Leader Di Da, the rest of the members of the Fly Mercenary Guild had died; no one survived.

Looking at this bloody scene, the base fell into total silence.

Farrah's facial muscles could not help but twitch.

The alliance army soldiers all had weird expressions. Some respected them, some were unhappy, and some were angry. Shanhai City's actions were like a slap to their face. However, they did not dare to take any action.

Without mentioning the fact that they needed help for the pirate clearing operation, just the cannons that the squadron had placed at the port were enough to raise fear in their hearts.

They did not doubt the fact that the Shanhai City forces had the strength to destroy the port. Even starting a full-scale country war was possible. The fate of Singapore was a clear sign of the things that could happen.

A strong army was the best ticket and protection anywhere. As a result, Ouyang Shuo had not expected that someone would try to assassinate him.

"Goodbye!"

After killing the perpetrators, Zheng He led his troops and left, ready to continue their search for the Lord. At the same time, they left some space to allow for Farrah to deal with matters.

……

The dust only settled when Ouyang Shuo appeared at the port.

Things were just so weird.

The Lord was fine, so the Shanhai City Army naturally cheered. When the alliance army heard the news, they were filled with various emotions. No matter how they saw it, they felt that the members of the Fly Mercenary Guild were wronged.

As expected of Farrah, he brought a bunch of gifts over to apologize. He did not even mention the execution of the Fly Mercenary Guild members.

The two sides once again walked onto the path of close cooperation.

Chapter 643-Who Is the Mole?

6th month, 14th day, Berbera Port.

The alliance army squadron and the Shanhai City voyage squadron had gathered up at the port and were ready to launch their pirate hunting operation.

The alliance army had 200 warships, the Lords had sent 20 thousand NPC sailors, and the remaining 40 thousand troops were adventure gamemode players, with 10 thousand coming from the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group.

The two squadrons had lined up side by side by the port, which perfectly described the statement of, ‘One would not be hurt if they did not compare themselves to others.’ The Somalian Lords had thought that their warships were not shabby, but this comparison left them ashamed.

"What a loss of face!" Some of the Lords sighed.

Based on the original plan, the 40 Somalian adventure gamemode players would split up into the 200 warships. When he saw the voyage squadron warships, Farrah wanted the voyage squadron to ferry some players too.

"Lord, what do you think?" Farrah asked.

"Sure."

Ouyang Shuo replied emotionally.

Due to the matter with Di Da, the Somalian players were extremely wary of the voyage squadron. Even though they envied them, they were not willing to fight with them on the same boat.

Helplessly, Farrah could only send the 10 thousand Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group members onto the Shanhai ships.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this situation, a weird glow shone in his eyes.

……

11 AM, the alliance squadron set off as planned.

There was a total of three large-scale pirate organizations in the Gulf of Aden.

The Sky Wolf Pirate Group was the biggest group, and its leader was known as Evsey. It was a extremely strict organization that focused on robbing merchant ships. The animals exported from Somalia were often taken by this pirate group.

The Telan Pirate Organization was the earliest pirate group in the Gulf of Eden. Its leader was Buntland; their equipment was rather backward, and their strength was weakest out of the three. They survived on attacking small fishing boats.

The Plum Pirate Organization was the most brutal one. Their leader was called Mercado; their equipment was good, and they robbed any boat they saw, even Lord warships.

The three pirate organizations exceeded 60 thousand in strength, so it was impossible to crush them all at once. Furthermore, the 3 had come to an understanding, splitting up the territory and not interfering with each other.

Hence, the alliance army was ready to strike them down part by part, starting with the Sky Wolf Pirate Organization.

Based on the intel from their investigations, the Sky Wolf Mercenary Organization had a total of 25 thousand members and 150 ships. Its base was built on a mysterious island known as Sky Wolf Island.

The protection of the Sky Wolf Pirate Organization was extremely tight, and even the two other pirate organizations did not know the exact location of the Sky Wolf island.

Since the alliance army had planned this pirate hunting operation, they naturally had confidence. They had already found the exact location and went right for it.

"Attack Sky Wolf island!" This was the goal of the Somalia players.

After the squadron set off, Ouyang Shuo called Zheng He and Chen Dameng into the battle room.

Last night, not only was Ouyang Shuo heavily injured, Chen Dameng was also pushed out from under the bodies of the Divine Martial Guards. If he was not lucky, he would have died right there.

Hence, Chen Dameng did not trust these Somalian players. Even though Di Da and the Fly Mercenary Group were executed, he was not able to release that feeling from his heart.

"What do you think of Farrah?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"Him?" Chen Dameng's eyes widened; he gritted his teeth and said, "I think that he's a fraud. If he could treat his own men so viciously, how could he be a good person? Looking at him smile, I feel that something is off. Your movement that day was definitely revealed by him."

"The Lord also suspects him?"

"Yeah!"

"Since that's the case, then why did the Lord allow them to board the ship?" Zheng He did not understand.

Ouyang Shuo took a deep breath and said slowly, "This voyage used up a lot of gold of the territory, and it is not only to reach our destination. It is to build a safe route. Attacking Singapore was so, helping the Somalia people clear out pirates is also so."

"Somalia is located in the Gulf of Aden, and it is an extremely important strategic location. If we could build a permanent base here to open up ocean routes, it would be huge."

"In that case, why don’t we move a large number of troops and occupy Somalia?" Chen Dameng butted in.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, "Based on our navy strength, if we do well, we would be able to. But sometimes, starting a country war is not the best idea."

"The fall of Singapore has attracted the attention of everyone around the world. If Somalia falls, the image of Shanhai City would become exceedingly bad. If that happens, whether we could enter England would be an unknown factor, much less trade."

"This…." with his brain, how could Chen Dameng understand?

On the other hand, Zheng He had some understanding, "As such, your goal is to gain their trust to allow us to build a base here?"

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head. Obviously, he spoke so much to allow Zheng He to learn. As a navy general, without a globalized way of thinking, he would not be able to keep up with the times.

Apart from their original abilities, the terrifying growth talent of the historical generals was also a massive asset. They similarly had rapid growth rates; if not, why would they be so sought after?

Gaia had created so many historical generals and granted them high level AI; its goal was not to create a bunch of dead thinking androids. Gaia’s true goal was to allow them to interact with humans and evolve.

If not, what use would they be when they arrived on planet Hope.

……

"Then how do we deal with the players on board?" Zheng He asked.

Ouyang Shuo already had a rough idea, "Maintain awareness. If the enemy does not act, we will not act either."

"Understood!"

Zheng He and Chen Dameng nodded their heads in unison.

As for the mole, Ouyang Shuo naturally could not talk about it in detail. Since matters had developed to this stage, he naturally could not pull out.

Since they wanted to act, they needed to go all out.

Early next morning, Sky Wolf Island appeared in their sights.

Looking down from the sky, the island looked like a humongous wolf head. The island had a single mountain peak with a massive wolf head flag; this was their pirate flag.

Since this was their base, the Sky Wolf Pirate Organization would naturally arrange sentries. The moment the alliance squadron approached, the sentries would fire signal bullets.

The moment the black signal bullets rose into the sky, the naval battle started.

If one had good eyesight, they would notice that the pirate flag on the peak was being swung by someone. Instantly, the entire island grew busy.

It was like they had been awaiting this battle.

At the same time, red signal bullets were shot up from the peak and exploded in the air.

……

Facing the small ships, the voyage squadron did not need to act; they handed these people over to the alliance squadron. The Somalia adventure gamemode players were extremely excited about killing these sentries.

It was like they saw the light to victory.

When the alliance squadron approached Sky Wolf Island, a huge black squadron suddenly appeared. Pirate flags hung from the ship, and the pitch-black warships were painted with all kinds of patterns.

Skulls, knives, ghosts, and beasts; various forms of graffiti decorated the ships; it was a whole different form of art.

The Sky Wolf Pirate Organization had acted.

Undoubtedly, this was a weird battle with both sides waiting for one another.

The alliance army players looked at each other.

Logically speaking, even if the sentry spotted them, they could not have come out to sea so quickly. No matter how skilled they were, it would take at least half an hour.

No matter how they thought about it, it seemed like they were just waiting in port. The sneak attack had become a head on battle.

However, at this juncture, they could not think too much, "Let's fight!"

Compared to the ASEAN Navy, the alliance navy and pirates were different as they all had firearms. Their main warships were all equipped with small-sized handguns or heavy cannons.

The moment the war started, it was a battle of cannons.

"Fire!"

The cannonballs exploded on the ocean surface, giving rise to massive splashes. Struck warships were basically destined to sink.

The ones with the most eye-catching performance were naturally the voyage squadron. They had the most cannons and the most well-trained navy. Along with reasonable warship allocation and smart commanding, the pirates were at a total disadvantage.

The Somalia players had a good impression of this squadron for the first time.

Both sides fired at one another and swiftly approached each other simultaneous.

After all, cannons were rare and were only the appetizers of war. The true cruel battle was cross warship fighting.

Weirdly, both sides had a desire to fight in such a manner. The pirates were proficient at cross warship fighting, so they naturally wanted to fight in this way.

What about the alliance squadron?

One must not forget that they still had 40 thousand adventure gamemode players. If they did not jump onto the pirate ships to fight, then they would be useless.

The players cried out, eager to just jump onto the pirate ships.

Throughout the entire process, only the voyage squadron was returning cannon fire. Pirate ship after pirate ship were sunk and many pirates fell into the ocean like dumplings.

The warships of both sides drew closer and closer.

A person with good eyesight would be able to see the vicious looks of the enemy.

Revenge and killing intent gathered.

Just at this moment, two squadrons appeared like ghosts right behind the alliance squadron.

Chapter 644-Reveal of the Scheme

As the battle between the alliance squadron and the Sky Wolf Pirate Organization got underway, the Telan Pirate Organization and the Plum Pirate Organization suddenly appeared behind the alliance forces, surrounding them.

The scheme from the last life reappeared

However slow the Somalia players were, they would have figured out that they were played. How was this hunting the pirates? It was clearly the three pirate organizations hunting them.

The roles of hunter and hunted instantly switched.

"Guys, don't panic. Shrink the formation and sail toward the voyage squadron." Zheng He tried to take over command of the alliance squadron by sending flag signals over to the alliance army warships.

Some of the warships came over; some were in chaos and disorder, and some of them acted like they did not see the signals.

The ocean surface was in utter chaos.

Hundreds of warships going left and right among cannon fire. If one did not pay attention, it was easy to knock into one another. The scolding, the cannons sounds, the killing shouts, and the cries for help all mixed together, making one's head nearly blow up.

At the crucial moment, the difference between a proper army and a player army showed.

The warships that were mainly formed of NPCs basically all chose to crowd toward the voyage squadron. On the other hand, those with players charged toward the pirate ships to try to fight their way out.

In less than twenty minutes, the three pirate organizations had succeeded in surrounding them.

All of a sudden, many chains and planks were placed onto the warships of the alliance squadron. The most cruel and gory cross-warship battle was about to begin.

As the warships were too close to one another, even if the voyage squadron wanted to fire, they would only hit allies.

Helplessly, they could only accept the cross-warship battle.

Tens of thousands of weirdly dressed pirates waved their crescent blades as they crossed onto the warships, shouting out weird chants and squeals.

The adventure gamemode players on the warships were not to be beaten so easily, and they charged up. At this point, they did not have time to care about the entire situation or the fates of the sailors.

The only thing they thought about was cutting down those damn pirates.

Killing shouts spread out across the entire ocean region, forming a majestic spectacle.

The strong voyage squadron naturally became the biggest target of the pirates.

Unfortunately, they had miscalculated as the sword-shield soldiers and archers of Shanhai City were not rookies.

Especially the navy soldiers of the voyage squadron, after the flames of the country war, they had quickly matured.

How could normal pirates be their opponents?

The voyage squadron became the toughest bone for the pirates. Corpses were piling up on the decks, and the pile was growing higher and wider.

This raised the morale of the entire squadron.

"Brothers, we can't lose to our friends, kill them!" the commander of the alliance warship shouted.

"Kill!"

All of a sudden, the alliance squadron slowly regained their footing.

Originally, the overall numbers of the alliance squadron were higher than that of the three pirate organisations. However, they were caught off guard, which affected their mental state.

The moment they adjusted, the winner and loser of this battle became uncertain.

Under Zheng He's leadership, the strength of the alliance squadron was shown; they knew when to advance and when to retreat.

Through their show of strength, the voyage squadron earned the recognition of the Somalia players. Even though the voyage squadron was suffering some losses, Ouyang Shuo felt that it was worth it.

However, the battlefield changes quickly and things often happened when you least expect it. Just as the alliance squadron's morale reached its highest point, the mole started to act.

To the mole, it would be best if they did not need to revealing their identity. However, the situation left the mole with no other choice; if they did not act, the pirates would definitely lose. If that happened, the pirates would expose them.

Furthermore, if they did not act, the mole would face the crazy revenge of the pirates.

The pirates of the Gulf of Aden were impossible to remove in one shot. They were like weeds, you remove one, after winter, they would grow back.

Hence, this mole already had no way out and could only be the bad guy all the way. The situation at hand only happened because he had underestimated the voyage squadron.

The voyage squadron had used bloody facts to inform the pirates what a true navy was.

……

On the battlefield, a weird conch sound broke out.

Even among all the noise and chaos, one could still hear this sound clearly. Like they had received a signal, the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group suddenly turned around and attacked the Shanhai City Navy.

The mole was the leader of the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group, Farrah.

To prevent the mole from learning that they had discovered his plot, Ouyang Shuo had not told the Shanhai City Navy that they were surrounded by a bunch of moles. Hence, as they were unprepared, they were caught totally off guard.

Under the attacks of both the moles and the pirates, the Shanhai City Navy suffered heavy injuries.

Especially because the moles were extremely crafty, targeting the weak archers. As for the cannoneers, they were all the more the targets for assassination.

This was extremely vicious.

Besides Ouyang Shuo, Farrah pulled out his long sword and chopped at Ouyang Shuo. However, it was like Ouyang Shuo had eyes on his back, and he moved the Tianmo Spear, blocking the sword.

Farrah was shocked and instantly backed off.

"You finally couldn't hold it in." Ouyang Shuo turned around, extremely calm.

Farrah was astonished and could not help but say, "You knew?"

"The black clothed men were also planned by you, right?" Ouyang Shuo said.

"Seems like you knew." Farrah's eyes focused; he had already calmed down.

Such a strong mental state was not something that many people possessed.

"I'm really curious, how did you find out?" Farrah did not understand, "I thought everything was perfect; it shouldn't have been so obvious."

"Perfect? You're too arrogant. Someone told me that there was a mole in the alliance army. As for who it was, my informant couldn't confirm. I thought it was Di Da, but it later proved it wasn't him."

Naturally, no one told him about the mole, he just used these words to scare Farrah.

"Why wasn't it Di Da; didn't all the evidence point to him?" Farrah asked.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, "Too perfect an evidence is itself a flaw. That night, only you knew my path, so only you could have revealed it. Originally, I only suspected it, thinking that it was just someone from within the mercenary group and not you."

"Then?" Farrah asked.

"You hurried to kill Di Da to push the blame onto him. It seemed smart, but it revealed that you were guilty. As an alliance commander, allowing outsiders to kill such an important member isn't something a normal person would do. The only explanation was that you were planning something."

Ouyang Shuo shook his head in amusement, "Hence, I basically knew that you were the mole. What made me 100% sure was that you arranged the members of the mercenary group to board the voyage squadron; this smelled too much like a scheme. From far away, one could already smell it."

"...."

Farrah was totally speechless, and his face turned black. The performance he thought was perfect made him look like a clown to the enemy. Nobody could accept such a matter.

This was especially so for someone as arrogant as Farrah.

"Since that was the case, why didn’t you try to expose me?" Farrah tried to make a last struggle.

"If I exposed you, would people believe me?"

The world was just so magical, people were only willing to believe the facts they saw for themselves. One could imagine what others would think if Ouyang Shuo tried to expose Farrah.

Before the war, the Somalia players had close to zero trust toward the voyage squadron.

One had to say that in dealing with Di Da, Zheng He had acted too rash. Killing him helped take revenge, but it also broke the relationship between Shanhai City and the Somalia players.

Of course, under those circumstances, he could not have made a rational decision. Even if he let Di Da go, Chen Dameng would not.

"So you purposely didn't do anything to wait for me to expose myself so that the others could see? You are acting as the fishermen to collect the spoils?" Farrah asked, his face ugly to the extreme.

"Since you put it like this, I won't disagree." Ouyang Shuo said calmly.

A light flashed across Farrah's eyes as he said, "You're too confident!"

"You aren't as confident as I thought you were!"

"Hen." Farrah did not want to talk anymore, "Your archers and cannoneers are basically all dead. Even if you hold on, you can't fight the pirates."

In truth, this was not all that Farrah had.

Apart from killing the archers and the cannoneers, he had tried to kill Ouyang Shuo and Zheng He. They were the core figures of the voyage squadron, if they died, the alliance army would be thrown into chaos.

Unfortunately, Ouyang Shuo was prepared. His 200 Divine Martial Guards were disguised as normal soldiers and protecting them. With that, the assassination attempt naturally failed.

As for Ouyang Shuo, do not even joke about it!

What could Farrah alone do to Ouyang Shuo?

Ouyang Shuo waved his Tianmo spear, smiling, "Care about your own fate first!"

He charged forward as he spoke these words.

Ouyang Shuo was the core of the alliance army, and Farrah was the core of the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group. If he took Farrah down, things would be halfway to success.

As for the archers and the cannoneers, Ouyang Shuo had naturally prepared some defensive measures when he learned that the mercenary group were moles. Long before they set off, more than half of the archers and cannoneers were hidden in the cabin, not to leave.

This also meant that even if they were sneak attacked, the firepower of the voyage squadron could still be used.

Chapter 645-Letting You Live

As the top expert of Somalia, Farrah naturally possessed some skills. Both sides fought neck and neck, exuding killing intent.

Both of them charged forward and backward; outsiders could only hear the sounds of the weapons clashing and did not know who was at an advantage.

Even if someone wanted to help out, they could not interfere. A fight between experts would bring with it a zone of aura. If one touched this, they might end up suffering injuries.

No one could approach within three meters of them.

With that, the members of the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group could only give up and focus on attacking the Shanhai City sailors.

A massacre occurred onboard the ships.

With the Divine Martial Guards in charge of Dragon Head, the enemies could not gain the upper hand. On the other warships, it was the navy soldiers up against the heavy attacks of many, so they could only try their best to hold on.

When the soldiers hidden in the cabins heard the shouts, they wanted to help out. However, without receiving the orders, they could only grit their teeth and hold on.

On the alliance army warships, the Somalia players similarly killed till their eyes turned red.

The betrayal of the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group had infuriated the players, and they wanted to chew them up and drink their blood. Their hate for them slowly became a regret and a feeling of sorriness toward the Shanhai City Squadron.

How righteous were they?

The Somalia players could only hope that they could kill off the enemies in front of them soon and help the Shanhai City warriors. The battlefield was just so magical. After fighting together, although they were unable to communicate, their fates were tied together.

The killing on the seas had reached its climax.

The blue ocean was slowly dyed red and corpses floated on the surface. The wreckage of ships were everywhere. Some of the lucky survivors that fell into the ocean were on top of these wreckages.

The cruelty of this naval battle was evident.

……

On the deck of Dragon Head.

After exchanging only forty moves, Farrah was already facing defeat and wanted to leave. Under the relentless assault of the Tianmo Spear, if he was not careful, he would definitely die.

There was already some regret growing in his heart.

On the forums, some people had spread the rumors that Shanhai City Lord Qiyue Wuyi was not only proficient at strategy, he was also great at martial arts. The best expert in Singapore, Chen Guang, was defeated by him in less than forty moves.

This was something that Farrah did not believe, and he even looked at the people who spread such news with disdain.

The assassination attempt of the black clothed men verified his deductions.

"The Lianzhou Lord only has average skill, and he was only able to escape our attacks through luck." The leader of the black clothed men had reported as such.

How would Farrah know that even in an unfamiliar place, among the messy alleys, facing the sneak attack of archers and many secret weapons, Ouyang Shuo had still managed to display his strength.

300 of their most elite assassins were buried on that night.

If it was a head on battle, those assassins would not have even been able to make Ouyang Shuo activate the devil bloodline. How could they possibly heavily injure him and nearly kill him under normal circumstances?

The leader had reported as such to avoid the blame. He did not tell Farrah that when Ouyang Shuo activated the devil bloodline, he would not even dare to fight him.

Farrah did not know how true the report was, but the key was that his opinion had clouded his judgment. He bought into his own idea that since a person only had a limited amount of time, a Lord who needed to be busy with the territory would not have the time to cultivate.

If Farrah knew that Ouyang Shuo would take out two hours a day to train, be it in the hot summer or the cold winter, be it in the Lord's Manor or while traveling, he would not have made that conclusion.

Experts were obviously not trained in a day!

Even though Ouyang Shuo was talented and possessed vast resources, without hard work, he would not have reached his current level of attainment.

Numerous nights of lonely cultivation would hide behind the flashy skills of any expert.

The moment Farrah was distracted, Ouyang Shuo noticed it. How would he let go of such an opportunity?

After Ouyang Shuo's spear technique took shape, the Tianmo Spear became much easier and more comfortable to use. The Tianmo Spear Code and the Tianmo Spear were like brothers, unable to be separated from one another.

The spear technique lacked any fixed strokes; whatever came out depended on Ouyang Shuo, and it was extremely flexible.

The Tianmo Spear thrust upward, pushing away Farrah’s longsword. At a lightning quick speed, it changed into a stab and directly pierced Farrah’s heart.

As the strongest player in Somalia, Farrah had inhuman reactions. At the last moment, he tilted to the side, just barely dodging by a few inches.

The Tianmo Spear's assault did not stop as it stabbed through Farrah's shoulder and pierced his bones.

"Ah!"

Farrah could not help but cry out; his left shoulder had fractured, basically making him a handicapped person.

Ouyang Shuo did not stop there; he made use of the chance that Farrah was injured to continue his attacks. He suppressed Farrah and pushed him on the back foot. There were numerous times that Farrah was close to dying on the sport.

However, he was resilient and had a strong will to live, dissolving Ouyang Shuo's killing moves time after time. Although every time his body would be left with some scars and marks, he still survived miraculously.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this situation, his eyes turned cold; he did not want to drag this on for any longer. The longer this went out, the worse it was for Shanhai City. Ouyang Shuo went on an all out offence, totally giving up on defending.

Such a method definitely resulted in weaknesses being revealed.

Farrah’s eyes focused when he noticed this change, and he retaliated. He recognized a breakthrough point, and his longsword pierced out like lighting, the sword tip actually glowing white. Obviously, this was also a killing move.

When Farrah struck out, the Tianmo Spear also similarly stabbed out at him.

Both players fighting like this meant that they were destined to be unable to dodge the attacks of each other. Now, it was just a battle to see who had the courage to get closest to dying.

In Farrah's eyes, A Lord like Ouyang Shuo would definitely cherish his life, so he would definitely hesitate at the last moment. On the contrary, he was giving it his all to retaliate. After all, if he failed, he would die anyways.

Furthermore, he also had a trump card in his hands.

Victory was in his grasps.

How would Farrah know that Ouyang Shuo was wearing a god armor. Close to a month had passed since Ouyang Shuo had killed Chen Guang. The ultimate move of the Twin Dragons Swallow the Heavens Armor could be used once more.

The so-called dying together was not going to happen.

Ding!

The Tianmo Spear and the longsword basically stabbed out at the same time.

Weirdly, both of them remained okay.

Ouyang Shuo had his armor, and Farrah also had a treasure armor. Although it could not grant a body protection light like Ouyang Shuo’s god armor, it was also impenetrable. It could even block the god weapon Tianmo Spear.

The only difference was that the Twin Dragons Swallow the Heavens Armor had used its energy to protect Ouyang Shuo’s body. Consequently, the longsword did not even touch his skin.

On the contrary, Farrah's armor relied on absolute hardness and toughness. Under the massiveimpact of the Tianmo Spear, along with the fact that it was a definite hit, Farrah fell to the ground.

No matter how slow Ouyang Shuo was, he would not give up such a chance. He did not even keep his Tianmo Spear, simply gliding forward. With a light raise of his spear, he placed the tip by Farrah's neck.

"If you move, you die!" Ouyang Shuo said coldly.

Farrah could feel the chill from the spear tip, so he placed down the longsword in his hands, "Why not directly kill me?" As expected from a capable person, even in such a situation, he could find a way to survive.

"Ask your men to stop, and I’ll let you live."

Ouyang Shuo knew that if a pinnacle adventure gamemode player like Farrah was forced to revive, the losses would be immeasurable. Unless they had some great fortuitous encounter, rising up again was impossible.

Hence, these players feared for their lives a lot.

That in itself was a weakness.

As expected, when Farrah heard these words, a light lit up in his eyes, and he asked hopefully, "Are your words true?"

"I never say false words."

To Ouyang Shuo, what he cared about was the outcome of the entire battlefield. As for whether or not he liked Farrah, it did not matter. Personal grievances meant nothing in front of a war.

"Lianzhou Lord, you win!"

Farrah had admitted defeat, taking out the conch shell once more.

The unique conch sounded out once more, causing the noisy battlefield to freeze. When the members of the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group heard the signal, they quietly broke away from the battlefield and gathered together.

Zheng He also received the news and ordered the Shanhai City soldiers to focus on the pirates.

With the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group backing off, the voyage squadron soldiers finally obtained some breathing room.

The scales of victory once again tilted toward the alliance army. When the Somalia players saw that, they could not help but cheer out. After those cheers, an even intenser slaughter started.

"Lianzhou Lord, it’s time for you to fulfil your promise." Farrah reminded.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, "Stop struggling and trying. When the pirates back off, you will live."

"...."

Facing such an opponent, Farrah felt helpless.

……

Zheng He, who was commanding the army, observed the battlefield and decisively ordered, "Attack!"

The moment the military order was given, a special drum beat sounded.

All of a sudden, the tens of thousands of archers hidden in the cabins charged out with vengeance and killing intent, sneak attacking the pirates.

They used the cabins as covers to accurately shoot at the pirates on deck. Every time, they would be able to kill one pirate.

Efficient and merciless.

With that, the pirates were thrown into chaos. They wanted to charge into the cabins, but they were stopped by the sword-shield soldiers.

The balance of the battle was now totally skewed.

Pirates were never iron warriors who would fight till their deaths. When the battle went smoothly, they were as fierce as wolves and leopards; when things were not going smoothly, they would be like dogs, backing off decisively.

‘Knowing the situation, knowing when to advance and when to retreat’ was their motto.

"Retreat!"

Tens of thousands of pirates came like a flood and left like a flood.

"You want to leave? It will not be that easy." Ouyang Shuo muttered.

Chapter 646-Plundering Sky Wolf Island

The pirates retreated like a flood, what a majestic view.

Ouyang Shuo put away the Tianmo Spear held by Farrah's neck and emotionlessly said, "Scram!"

Farrah was evidently shocked. When he regained his senses, he escaped, battered and beaten. When they saw their leader leave, the members of the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Squad followed.

Ouyang Shuo kept his promise to Farrah.

As for the other members of the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group, they did not receive the same treatment. As they retreated, they were relentlessly slaughtered by the navy soldiers.

The soldiers had not forgotten that these traitors had caused them to suffer heavy causalities.

The sword-shield soldiers were in charge of intercepting them while the archers shot. They even used the cannons to shoot at the players that boarded the small boats, showing the level of hatred the soldiers felt toward them.

The exhausted pirates that were running for their lives definitely would not help. With someone taking the hits for them, they were delighted. Why would they seek out trouble for themselves?

In the end, less than two thousand members of the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group succeeded in escaping.

……

Looking at the escaping figure of Farrah, Ouyang Shuo was silent.

Obviously, he could have sent Farrah to his death. He could have even done it more beautifully and let the Somalia players deal with him and just say, "I promised not to kill you; I didn't mean the other players wouldn't."

Unfortunately, no matter how he tried to cover it, he would have broken his promise.

A person without credibility was nothing.

Even against enemies, one could not lose their credibility. To Lords, even future kings, today, you might lose the faith and trust of someone; tomorrow, you might lose the world.

There were thousands of methods to deal with Farrah, so why would he rush matters?

It was the same as losing massive gains for short term rewards.

Letting Farrah go was like releasing a tiger back into the mountains. However, his survival was not gifted by Ouyang Shuo. Instead, it was exchanged for with the lives of the members of the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group.

Since it was an exchange, Ouyang Shuo needed to keep his promise.

As for how Farrah was going to come back, that was the problem of the Somalia players. Having a common enemy was certainly a good thing for the cooperation between Shanhai City and Somalia.

……

"Chase!"

Zheng He ordered the squadron to return fire at the pirates.

"Fire!" The cannoneers were back in position; their eyes filled with the fires of hatred.

Hong! Long! Long! The cannonballs exploded on the ocean surface, causing great splashes. The pirates onboard the small boats were instantly killed, blown into shreds.

In terms of cannon warfare on the oceans, the voyage squadron was the absolute king; just their name would terrify their enemies.

After suffering heavy casualties, the pirate ships did not wait for everyone to board, immediately leaving and scattering. Black pirate ships were scattered everywhere across the ocean, what a beautiful sight.

The pirates who were abandoned could only shout out helplessly; desperation filled their eyes.

Helping the Somalia players hunt the pirates could not be considered a country war. Hence, although Ouyang Shuo could earn some merit points from killing them, it was nothing compared to a country war.

Even so, how would Ouyang Shuo purely chase and kill the enemy? He instructed Zheng He to capture some pirates and turn them sailors to make up for the losses they took in this battle.

Zheng He understood the Lord's intentions, so he ordered the cannoneers to fire at the large pirate ships. After sinking them, they would not bother with the enemy anymore and continue aiming at the next one.

At the same time, they sent out many cima boats to capture pirates. As long as they could keep their lives, why wouldn't they surrender?

It was even to the point where the moment the Cima boats approached, there were pirates screaming their surrender.

The scene was truly amusing.

Such a chase meant that the number of prisoners increased exponentially. Even members of the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group were locked up on the warships.

This battle finally ended at 3 PM.

In the ocean region near Sky Wolf Island, numerous wreckages of warships floated about. The pirate ships that were destroyed had sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

To w would be really difficult.

During this battle, 20 thousand members of the three pirate organizations died, 20 thousand were captured, and only 10 thousand managed to escape.

The Gulf of Aden was going to be peaceful for quite some time.

Of course, just as Ouyang Shuo had expected, it would be extremely difficult to completely root them out. Soon, they would rise again.

As for whether the leaders would still be those three organizations, only time couldl tell.

After taking care of affairs such as treating the wounded, dealing with casualties, and handling the war prisoners, it was already 4 PM.

Ouyang Shuo passed all the captured members of the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group to the Somalia players. To kill, to release, Ouyang Shuo did not care.

It was obvious what kind of misfortune awaited them.

News spread about the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Guild colliding with the pirates and betraying their country on the forums, creating an uproar.

Their headquarters in the imperial city was surrounded by other guilds.

One could foresee that the biggest guild in Somalia was going to become a part of history, never to stand up tall again.

The innocent members of the guild, even if they quit, no one would accept them. Only the life of a lonely ghost awaited them, chased and killed by others.

……

Ouyang Shuo had no intentions of bothering about the fates of the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group. He only cared about the loses to the voyage squadron.

During this battle, out of the 20 thousand, 7,500 sailors and soldiers were lost. The archers suffered the heaviest casualties, with close to 6,700 being buried in the ocean.

Their death had a huge relation to Ouyang Shuo's strategy. To put it bluntly, Ouyang Shuo had sent these valiant warriors to their deaths.

To matter how stone cold his heart was, seeing the rows and rows of corpses, his heart still could not take it. However, the wilderness was just so cruel. If he had to make the same choice again, he would do the exact same thing.

He wanted to obtain the trust and gratitude of the Somalia players for the smallest price. This was relatively simple decision to make if he wanted to open a key point for the Shanhai City sea route.

Blood needed to flow.

Ouyang Shuo could only raise the compensation amount to take care of their families.

"Send my orders, the Military Affairs Bureau will add an extra 10 gold in compensation." Ouyang Shuo said to Zheng He.

"Yes, my Lord!"

In his voice, there was an unpreventable shiver. He had known of the entire matter from start to finish, and the deep meaning within was something he did not dare to probe.

"Out of the 20 thousand prisoners, choose 10 thousand of the best fighters. Then choose a bunch of sailors. As for the remaining ones, let the alliance army execute them."

His words contained the tone of a bloody massacre.

If they did not kill a portion of the prisoners, he would not be able to gain the trust of the Somalia players.

"Understood!" Zheng He acknowledged.

After a short while, cheers broke out on the warships. Evidently, his stance had delighted the Somalia players.

On the other hand, despair appeared in the eyes of the prisoners.

The difference between the fates of the winner and the losers was incredibly obvious. It was the line between life and death.

Ouyang Shuo raised his head and looked at Sky Wolf Island, his eyes filled with sadness, "It’s time we harvest. Order the troops to attack the island and plunder it of its riches."

"Yes!"

After a short while, the alliance army quickly entered Sky Wolf Island, possessing the mentality and spirit of a victor.

……

As the base of the Sky Wolf Pirate Organization, apart from the mature pirates, there were many thousand elderly and children. The island was like a small town, filled with facilities.

When the Sky Wolf Pirate Organization fell, the island was thrown into chaos. The family members on the island panicked. The pirate flag on the peak that represented the pirate organization was removed and replaced with a white flag.

Surrounded by water, there was nowhere for them to go, so surrendering was their only choice.

4.30 PM, the alliance army slowly entered the port and prepared to disembark.

"Lord, the alliance army hopes that you will allow them to do as they wish with the island." Zheng He's expression was exceedingly ugly as he walked over and bowed to Ouyang Shuo.

After destroying the three pirate organizations, the prestige of the voyage squadron soared. Ouyang Shuo was recognized by the players as their new leading figure.

Hence, before acting, they automatically sought his permission.

The so-called doing as they wished was actually just pillaging and killing.

The Somalia Players hated the pirates to the core. In this battle, apart from the traitors, the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Guild, nearly half of them had died.

"Blood can only be repaid with blood." The players explained.

However, to Zheng He, this was only a war. Since it was a war, they should not drag in innocent people, especially not a bunch of old, sick, and young people.

Their two opposing views undeniably caused conflict.

Zheng He had quarreled with the players about this matter, but he was still unable to convince them. No matter what, the players were determined to take revenge on the island.

"General Zheng, the treasures on the island, we can split or not take. We can even give it to you. Our only wish is to wash the island with blood and take revenge for our comrades." The player representative stated.

"These are two different things." Zheng He tried to retort, "As for the treasures, we definitely won't swallow it. Our Lord will handle the matter fairly."

"It's the same matter."

They were unable to convince each other. In the end, they left the matter to Ouyang Shuo.

Chapter 647-Group Revival Scroll

Ouyang Shuo remained silent for a while, "Tell them that we will split the treasures on the island rationally. I'll allow them to destroy the port and the houses; they can even take the old, young, and wounded as slaves. But no killing, that is our bottom line."

Ouyang Shuo would not cross his own bottom line just to gain the trust of someone. If that was the case, even if he won, people would look down on him in the future.

On the contrary, taking such a hard approach would make others respect him more.

"Understood!"

Zheng He relaxed; he nodded his head solemnly and went down to arrange matters.

Ten minutes later, Zheng He and the player representatives finished their discussion. The Somalia players did not dare to go against his orders. Both sides backed off and arrived at a consensus.

Players numbering in the tens of thousands along with the Divine Martial Guards landed onto Sky Wolf Island.

……

Ouyang Shuo did not rush to get off. He simply stood there on the deck and looked at the island quietly. In less than half an hour, smoke rose.

The victors roared and cheered while the losers cried.

Flames consumed house after house, engulfing the entire island in a sea of fire. The old, weak, young, and women were chased into an empty section of the port. All of them were shivering in fear, their eyes totally lost.

In a chaotic world, people were defenseless, there to be stepped on by others.

Anguish and pain appeared in their eyes when they saw their homes being destroyed just like that. Some of the children looked at the Somalia players with a tinge of hatred.

In their eyes, they were the true pirates.

The players ransacked every house, taking anything of value before burning it up, turning the buildings into ash.

Box after box of gold, silver, and gems were carried to the port and stacked up.

Unavoidably, the players would keep some of the treasures for themselves. As long as they did not take too much, Zheng He would overlook it.

Joining in was a blessing itself to the players.

The normal houses did not have anything much; the truly valuable items laid in the headquarters. They swept the treasury, the secret room, and the armory clean.

The Divine Martial Guards personally took care of these places, and no players were allowed. If not, and they were tempted by the riches, who knows what they would do.

After cleaning out these players, a massive fire followed.

These flames provoked the killing intent of the players. Some of the bold ones ignored Ouyang Shuo's orders and started killing people.

Suddenly, two elderly laid prone on the ground with blood flowing around them.

As the light from the flames shone onto this scene, it seemed extremely cruel.

When the Divine Martial Guards saw this situation, they acted to stop it. This nearly caused a conflict between both sides. Luckily, Zheng He stepped out in time to prevent escalation.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news, his face turned gloomy, and he ordered his men to drown those players in the ocean to wake them up.

……

As they say, ‘Things are easy to destroy but hard to build.’

In just less than two hours, the entire island was reduced to rubble.

Even the humid environment of the island could not extinguish these massive flames. Eventually, the fire continued to spread, burning all the agriculture on the island.

The entire pirate island was left utterly barren.

The pirate prisoners that Shanhai City allowed the Somalia players to execute were all killed on the island. Their heads were chopped off and pierced with bamboo, forming a circle around the island.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this scene, he did not say a word.

Facing such a dead island, Ouyang Shuo had no intentions of leaving just yet. He ordered the troops to just spend the night on the boat before leaving tomorrow.

On the other hand, excitement filled the Somalia players.

When night time arrived, they set up campfires on the island and held boisterous parties to celebrate their great victory, not caring about the sticks of pirate heads around them.

They also invited Ouyang Shuo to join their festive, but he rejected the offer. Thinking about the families of the pirates who were barbarically locked on the warships, Ouyang Shuo was unable to immerse himself in the atmosphere.

It was too cruel!

For the entire night, Zheng He collated the riches that they had plundered. As the base of the largest pirate organization in the Gulf of Aden, a sizeable amount of riches had been amassed after many years of robbery.

The final tabulation numbered the riches at around 520 thousand gold, six boxes of jewelry, and four thousand pieces equipment. As for basic resources, they were burned by the fire.

Apart from these riches, there would be three items that they had found in the secret room.

Ouyang Suuo took a look; it was a scroll, a pair of boots, and a telescope.

Name: Group Revival Scroll

Type: Special Item

Restriction: one-time use, restricted to Lord gamemode players

Function: can use up a certain amount of gold to revive dead soldiers, no upper limit. For 10 thousand soldiers and below, each soldier costs 10 gold; for every 10 thousand added, each one would cost 10 more gold.

Note: Cannot be used to revive advanced generals and above, including historical generals.

Undoubtedly, this was a scroll that was going to burn a lot of money. Normal people could not afford to use it. Based on the settings of the scroll, 40 thousand troops would cost 100 thousand gold. The more you revived, the less worth you received.

For a 50 thousand troop army, reviving 10 thousand would cost 500 thousand gold.

Even Shanhai City could not maintain such costs. Based on his estimations, reviving 50 thousand soldiers was basically the maximum for a Lord.

More importantly, it was a one-time use item. If it was not a crucial moment of life or death, one would not use it.

With this scroll in hand, he had obtained another trump card.

Putting it down, Ouyang Shuo picked up the boots and looked at their stats. The boots were exceedingly exquisite; they had dragon patterns and even emitted a golden shine.

Name: Cloud Dragon Nine Pattern War Boots (God Rank)

Type: Heavy Armor

Weight: 10 kilograms

Defence: 90

Toughness: 90

Specialty: Lightness (50% decrease in body weight).

Ultimate Move: Travelling Dragon Body (inject primordial energy to raise movement speed by 150% and swiftness by 100%. Lasts for half an hour. Cooldown Time: 1 month.)

Restricted Occupations: Generals, Chivalrious Experts, Bailiffs

Evaluation: Crafted from the skin of a true dragon, nourished by dragon blood, forged by the flames of heaven. Only overlords can use this item. Drop blood onto item to claim. Cannot be traded, cannot be dropped, can evolve.

Note: These war boots are part of the Dragon War set. If you gather up the set, you would activate the set specialty.

"What a surprise!" Ouyang Shuo smiled.

He totally did not expect to obtain a second piece of equipment in the Dragon War set so quickly. One could only say that his luck stat was turning for the better.

Lastly, the telescope.

It seemed rather old and looked like it was made of copper.

Name: Voyaging Telescope (Dark Gold)

Type: Support Item

Restriction: Restricted to voyagers

Stats: 50% increase in voyaging field of vision, 40% increase in visibility

Evaluation: A special telescope. If it is used well, it can cause wonders.

"Such an interesting thing." Ouyang Shuo said before passing it to Zheng He, "Here's your reward!"

"Thank you, Lord!"

Zheng He loved this telescope, directly accepting it.

Based on the words of the Somalia players, in their defeat of the pirates, the voyage squadron did the most and sacrificed the most. Hence, to repay them, they could give up on the rewards.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo would not go all out. He was ready to just take the scroll and the boots, leaving the rest for the players.

A few hundred thousand gold was nothing to him.

One must know that he currently had four million gold in his storage bag. Apart from the two million from the Beihai Bay Rreasure, he still had the two million from selling the Xingzhou Prefecture Islands on him.

With the Four Seas Bank helping out, the territory finances would not need this sum of money.

Ouyang Shuo brought this money for two reasons. Firstly, he wanted to prepare for the 4th year auction. He wanted to prevent himself from coming up empty handed like the last time.

If history did not change, the 4th year auction would be vastly different from the 3rd. From the 4th year on, auctions would be combined instead of each country having their own. So, players from around the world would now compete against one another.

Without massive funds, it was impossible to win.

Gaia chose this method to prevent the depreciation of precious items.

With that, the weak would become weaker, and the strong would become stronger. Gaia had used the theory of survival of the fittest to the best of its meaning.

Secondly, if he successfully reached England, he would need to spend a great amount.

……

The moment the plan for splitting the treasures came out, the Somalia Players were delighted.

Although the Group Revival Scroll and Cloud Dragon Nine Pattern War Boots were valuable, they were impractical. With their massive numbers, it would be difficult to split these items.

Those two items could not be compared to the 520 thousand gold, six boxes of jewelry, and four thousand pieces of equipment in their eyes. The 10 thousand remaining players all received huge rewards.

On the other hand, the Lord players split the pirate ships.

With that, everyone was naturally delighted.

Chapter 648-Rise of the Pirate King

Gulf of Aden, nameless ocean region.

While the alliance army was pillaging the island, the Sky Wolf Mercenary Organization underwent a huge change.

Before the battle, they had 25 thousand men and 150 ships. After the battle, they not only lost their base, but their squadron was basically destroyed.

What was worse was that their guild leader had unfortunately fallen in battle.

The entire pirate organization was leaderless.

At five in the afternoon, the remnant forces of the pirate organization finally gathered together. All in all, less than six thousand men survived and around 20 warships remained.

Along with them were the 600 members of the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group led by Farrah.

After they learned that their guild leader had died, five people within the alliance stepped out to fight for the spot of leader. They were not willing to give in and fights even broke out. It seemed like this matter was going to end up in a bloody dispute.

This was basically the icing on the cake for the pirate organization, which was on the verge of collapse.

As they say, a thin camel was still bigger than a horse.

Even though the Sky Wolf Pirate Organization had taken heavy loses, they were still a large force in the Gulf of Aden that could not be underestimated. One must not forget that the other two pirate organization had also suffered heavy losses in this battle.

The balance between the three organizations in the Gulf of Aden had not been broken.

Hence, the throne was extremely tempting.

At this moment, Farrah, who was seemingly destined to be someone who could never shine again in the Gulf of Aden, stood up. He would start his journey to becoming the most brightly shining pirate king.

The pirate organization had many complaints toward Farrah. The Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group had not taken action at the crucial moment, which resulted in the changes to the tide of the battle.

Before this, the five heads were busy fighting for the throne, so they did not bother about Farrah and his men. Now, he actually stood out, wasn’t he courting death?

Actually no.

Farrah was a formidable character, and he especially loved to use schemes. Since he could work together with the three pirate organizations, especially the Sky Wolf Pirate Organization, he obviously had some trump cards of his own.

If not, the Sky Wolf Pirate Organization would have thrown him to feed the fishes when they were escaping.

Ouyang Shuo and the Somalia players did not understand the reason for Farrah’s betrayal.

As the guild leader of the biggest guild in Somalia, and the strongest expert in the country, Farrah was already destined for greatness. Why would he take the risk to collude with the pirates to harm the players of his country?

He took this risk because the pirate organizations could bring him immense profits.

During the 2nd year of Gaia, Farrah had colluded with the Sky Wolf Pirate Organization, one in the light, one in the dark, working together.

Farrah used the widespread influence of Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group to gather relevant merchant ships routes. Then, he passed this information to the pirate organization to allow them to rob the ships.

The riches were split 30/70, which was naturally a win-win situation.

In just a year, Farrah had obtained 150 thousand gold from these collusions.

At the same time, he was an extremely ambitious person with a massive appetite.

A year had passed, and only earning 30% of profits from working with the pirates was far too little to sate Farrah. He wanted to fully control them and make them a branch of the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group, which would allow him to fully swallow all the riches.

Farrah personally decided on this unexpected decision in the end. With that, Farrah's power in the pirate organization grew so deep that it threatened the rule of Evsey.

Evsey realized this point and wanted to act against him. However, Farrah dangled a huge cake in front of them. He suggested that they worked together with the other two organizations to set a trap for the Somalia Navy.

The Somalia Navy was the biggest obstacle to the pirates robbing the merchant ships.

The three pirate organizations definitely could not reject the temptation of removing this eyesore all at once. Both sides naturally hit it up, which led to the events that happened in Ouyang Shuo’s last life.

The only change was the untimely arrival of the voyage squadron. If not, the tragedy of Somalia would have repeated itself.

Hence, Farrah had set up his string of schemes at the port to remove this threat and return things to their proper path.

At the same time, the appearance of the voyage squadron made Farrah develop some other thoughts. One had to say, ambitious people were all unable to control themselves.

After Evsey grew suspicious of Farrah and started to plan against him, Farrah had been thinking about how to remove him and plant a puppet as the head of the organization.

The appearance of the voyage squadron was a fortuitous encounter for these plans.

He was planning to use the voyage squadron to harm the pirate organization. He would use this chance to take complete control, killing two birds with one stone.

Unfortunately, he had not heard of an old lesson, ‘Do not play with fire unless you want to get burned.’

Farrah overestimated his ability to play with fire, underestimating the fire of the voyage squadron. Not only was he unable to make use of the fire but, he was burned instead.

The lesson was a truly grave one.

Fortunately for him, the heavens did not forsake him and granted him a chance. The death of Evsey sent the Sky Wolf Pirate Organization into chaos, which gave him a chance to rise once more.

His sharp senses told him that the chance to take control had arrived.

Although the various heads had qualms about him, he was the deputy leader and the second in command after all. After the death of the leader, his position was exceedingly important.

From the perspective of the pirates, he was a player, so he would definitely need to head ashore. He definitely could not complete with them for the position of leader.

However, they did not know that Farrah completely lacked a path to return.

The Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group had been uprooted from Somalia and even its headquarters were taken over by other players. If Farrah dared to step ashore, he would be beaten alive.

‘Country Traitor Farrah’ would be a nail that was forever implanted onto the pillar of Somalia’s history.

It truly described the statement of, ‘One moment of carelessness might cause one to lose the plot.’

……

After Farrah stood out, the five heads stopped in their tracks, solving this internal conflict. That night, Farrah passionately invited the five to the boat to discuss the future of the pirate organization.

With different intentions and thoughts, at 7 PM, the five of them accepted the invitation.

As the second mysterious leader of the pirate organization, Farrah had his own pirate ship. Apart from sailors, there were the 600 remaining Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group members.

They had understood the tough situation and tragic treatment of their friends still in the country. Unavoidably, they still felt bitter toward their guild leader Farrah.

It was Farrah's plan that pushed them into the depths.

However, Farrah was their only hope now. Only by following him would they have a chance to live. Going back was just heading for a dead end.

With that, one could see how smart and well-planned his decision was.

‘The weak have a reliance on others. As long as we do not push them too far and give them hope, they will listen.’ This was Farrah's life motto.

On the battlefield, for the members of the Hunting Leopard Mercenary Group to all decisively follow him and betray their country, it was enough to show his incredibly high prestige.

Without mentioning other reasons, at least in the case of bribing and convincing others, he deserved praise.

Before dinner, the guild leader once again gave them some instructions and sent them some hope. After listening to his plan, the other small group leaders all had fires in their eyes; their determinations were ignited.

"Let's do this!"

……

Within the cabin, Farrah was still discussing with the five heads. As they continued to drink, the cloud of the defeat seemed to disappear as the alcohol reached their heads.

It was the case of, ‘We have wine today so let’s get drunk, the problems of tomorrow, we will leave till tomorrow.’

However, they did not know that this was a total Hongmen Feast.

Farrah obviously did not know of the original Hongmen Feast, but as a born schemer, he understood the concept and came up with a similar plan.

After three rounds had passed, Farrah suddenly smashed a glass, creating an ear-piercing Huang Dang! sound.

"Eh?"

The five of them were already drunk; suddenly, they saw 20 assassins entering the cabin, charging right at them.

The cold blades shone, their killing intent obvious.

At this time, their drunkenness had completely disappeared, and they broke out in cold sweat. They wanted to pick up their weapons to retaliate, but it was already too late.

It took less than five minutes; in such a short time, all of them fell. They were chopped down by the players and died right on the spot.

With that, the pirate organization truly had no leader.

Since their heads were murdered, the pirates naturally caused a ruckus, grumbling about wanting to take revenge.

It seemed like chaos would ensue.

Just at this moment, the spies that Farrah had planted in the pirate organization showed themselves. They acted, subduing the few who were making the most noise while cheering for Farrah to take over.

"In crisis, only he can lead us out of this."

When the pirates saw this situation, they looked around, unable to find a glimmer of hope. Finally, they accepted reality. In truth, the pirates were a bunch that could not be trusted, and they did not pay much attention to righteousness.

With that, Farrah smoothly became the guild leader, giving way to his rise as a pirate king.

Chapter 649-Honorary Knight

The next morning, the alliance squadron set out to return to Somalia.

At Berbera Port, the returning warriors were warmly welcomed.

"Welcome back our heroes!"

The warriors walked on the wide streets as crazy cheers broke out from the sides of the streets.

Occasionally, there would be innocent children that rushed up with fresh flowers, beautiful girls that warmly hugged them, and brutish men giving them a thumbs up; the entire port was in a celebratory atmosphere.

"When our country is betrayed, valiant people will step out, they are the true heroes!" Facing betrayal, putting up heroes could quickly remove this pain from their hearts.

Under the light of the campfires, this night at Berbera Port was just as boisterous as during the day.

To welcome the heroes, the various inns and restaurants announced that the returning soldiers would all be given free meals. Once again, the mood was pushed to a whole new peak.

Of course, the ones who truly received the attention were the Somalia players. The voyage squadron led by Ouyang Shuo did not even disembark, leaving the honor to them.

6th month, 17th day, the alliance army base.

After getting drunk for the night, all the players started dealing with matters when they woke up. The pirate hunting mission had ended, so they all left, either returning to the imperial city or their territory.

Before this, they still had to do one thing, which was to seek rewards for the voyage squadron. "Lianzhou Lord, you are the true heroes. When we go back to the imperial city, we will seek reward from the regime."

"Thank you!" Ouyang Shuo cupped his fists in thanks.

This was the reward that Shanhai City deserved; naturally, Ouyang Shuo did not need to act courteous. Furthermore, the courtesy of the Chinese was something that the foreign players would not be used to; they preferred a straightforward interaction.

"Lianzhou Lord, you are our friend!"

Before leaving, they all gave Ouyang Shuo an embrace.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, accepting them one by one. If everything went smoothly, there would be many chances for Shanhai City to work with Somalia. Gaining their friendship was naturally the best thing.

A strong dragon would not be able to suppress a local snake.

As they left, Ouyang Shuo remained in the port, waiting for good news.

In ancient times, to receive rewards, apart from contributions, one needed to do their part and take some actions from their end. Ouyang Shuo naturally did not think that just waiting here would get him rewards.

Earlier, before the alliance army had set out to sea, the officers of the Honglu Temple had carried boxes of jewelry to the imperial city of Mogadishu. Their goal was to befriend the nobles in the imperial city to build relationships for Shanhai City.

In this aspect, the Honglu Temple were true experts.

In just a few days, along with a large amount of money opening a path, it was enough to let the heavyweights in the imperial city learn of a Lord known as Qiyue Wuyi.

As the say, take someone's money, help solve their problem.

The officials who had gained some benefits naturally would put in some good words during the meeting with the king about rewarding Ouyang Shuo.

Those who accepted the biggest rewards would even name what Shanhai City needed.

With that, Ouyang Shuo would be able to truly reach his goal.

……

6th month, 18th day, the reward from the imperial city was announced.

"Imperial decree, Shanhai City Lord, the commander of the voyage squadron, forever friend of Somalia, player Lianzhou Lord Qiyue Wuyi, helped the navy of the country to crush the three pirate organizations in the Gulf of Aden. He foiled the schemes of Farrah and saved the navy from the brink of defeat.

Helping out righteously means that he has brotherhood. Seeing and breaking the scheme displays his intelligence. Fighting a strong opponent shows his courage. Pitying the old and weak reveals his humanity. Be it in all qualities, the Lianzhou Lord stands out.

Such a talent is a role model for the entire nation.

“I award the Lianzhou Lord with the title of Honorary Knight, awarding him the rank of 1st class baron. He will receive the same treatment as other barons of the land. He will be called the Courageous Baron. He will be granted a one hundred square kilometer piece of land north of Berbera Port."

The moment the rewards were given out, even the players of Somalia felt that it was weird.

Awarding him the title of Honorary Knight and giving him land, these rewards were simply too huge a reward.

"Thank you, your majesty!"

Ouyang Shuo smiled and bowed.

"Congratulations baron!" The secretary smiled; his eyes could not be seen.

Ouyang Shuo felt a little conflicted; the rest was good, only the title was a little weird. It seemed like the secretary had put in a lot of effort; they had found a copy of the Confucian Analects, finding the description regarding brotherhood and righteousness.

The title of Courageous Baron originated from there.

"Thank you for your work!"

Ouyang Shuo smiled, casually handing over a large agate stone.

When the secretary saw his actions, he took it and the smile on his face grew even wider; even his eyebrows smiled.

….

After sending away the secretary, Ouyang Shuo immediately sent out a recruitment notice at Berbera Port.

"From today onwards, for three days, Shanhai City will be recruiting all kinds of artisans and city building personnel. The construction site will provide food and housing with a minimum of two gold per month. The rank of the artisan will decide the level of treatment."

The moment the news went out, the port was thrown into an uproar.

In Somalia, an intermediate artisan could only earn one gold at most in a month, and they would need to deal with their own meals and housing. In comparison, the treatment that Shanhai City gave was more than double.

In just one morning, 500 people signed up.

Apart from artisans, Ouyang Shuo also hired a bunch of coolies; similarly, they were given food and housing and a salary of one gold. The harbor had an abundance of coolies, so the notice naturally attracted a lot of people.

In just a day, Shanhai City had attracted two thousand coolies.

Apart from that would be the crazy acquisition. Grain, vegetables, meat, linen, and other items to do with living and housing, including building materials, were bought.

As the orders were simply too huge, Ouyang Shuo had pretty much wiped out all the resources in Berbera Port. Such a crazy act could not be described as simply rich.

When the merchants saw his actions, they directly agreed to ship the resources for free to the land.

With that, both sides were naturally delighted.

The next day, the recruitment notice had spread like a virus to the nearby territories. Ouyang Shuo accepted all the newcomers, giving the impression that he owned an abundance of gold.

Thousands of artisans, carriages filled with resources were like a stream, gathering in Berbera Port.

The image of the Lianzhou Lord in the country was one that the people trusted, and they were not worried that he would go back on his words. Many merchants did not even ask and just brought the resources on the list.

Such a huge act even astounded the imperial city.

When they received the news, the imperial city was naturally in an uproar. Advanced and even master artisans spent one gold and just teleported over to Berbera Port, willingly spending the money.

Even the leaders amongst the players could not help but visit and seek cooperation opportunities.

Ouyang Shuo naturally welcomed all of them. Be it work occupation players in the guilds or resources from the territories, they were all things that Shanhai City desperately needed.

Both sides instantly clicked and started the first close cooperation.

Buy! Buy! Buy!

No matter how huge the amount, the Lianzhou Lord did not hesitate and just ate it up.

The entire Somalia was shocked by the seemingly infinite richness of the Lianzhou Lord. Those who did not know might even have thought that he was trying to buy the entire Somalia.

Three days, just three days.

Ouyang Shuo splashed out a full 200 thousand, buying various building materials. At the same time, 10 thousand craftsmen and artisans, 15 work occupation players, including 4 thousand coolies, were recruited.

Such a huge team would cost 100 thousand in salary for just one month.

After being recruited, they sat on boats and were sent by batches to the land. At the same time, the resources were also sent over by merchant ships.

The ships coming to and fro from Berbera Port and the land were unceasing, continuing even at night.

The small land immediately became the hotspot of the entire country.

Funnily, the owner had not even stepped onto his land.

6th month, 21st day, the voyage squadron finally started their journey to the land.

Along with them were the three thousand old, weak, women, and children from Sky Wolf Island. The other players did not want to take these people in.

Apart from a few with unique tastes, who chose the pretty girls as slaves, the remaining were left to Shanhai City. Ouyang Shuo thought about it and decided to just bring them along.

With that, they could be considered the first batch of residents.

A few days of working together had let them realize that the mercy and humanity of the Lianzhou Lord had allowed them to climb out from the jaws of death.

As a result, they were extremely grateful to him.

This was also why Ouyang Shuo was willing to accept them. Furthermore, with both the black Snake Guards and the Shanhai Guards, even if people tried something funny, they would not be able to do anything.

……

On the side of Berbera Port, Ouyang Shuo left a few officials and a navy unit to monitor the transportation of resources and materials; this also included the purchasing and recruitment matters.

Somalia had the longest shoreline in Africa. After the game map extended by 10 times, the north of Somalia, apart from Berbera Port, had other bays that were suitable for the construction of ports.

Ouyang Shuo's land was one of them.

Taking up 100 square kilometers, his territory was the size of a grade 3 village. It fit the land restriction given to a 1st class baron.

At the very least, in terms of land area, the country was not stingy at all.

The location was similarly great.

It was a plains valley surrounded by three mountains sides. North of the valley was a natural bay.

The specialty of the land was similar to Lianzhou Basin, only smaller by a few thousand times. That was because Lianzhou Basin took up 240 thousand square kilometers.

Such a basin was actually rather common in the game. Any small mountain valley, after being expanded 10 times, could become a narrow basin.

Based on normal territory building planning, such a land could at most become a grade 3 village and would not have any further development prospects.

The country rewarding him with this was both meaningful and practical.

The problem was that Ouyang Shuo's foresight and strategic planning were different from normal people. The voyage squadron had given up so much, so how would he just take such a small village?

To build an important point in his voyaging journey was an unshakable goal to him.

Hence, he could only break usual rules.

Normal territories, the city would only take up less than 1% or an even smaller amount. Most of the land would be used to farm crops, develop husbandry, and foster the five industries.

Such an arrangement was quite normal.

Firstly, the city could not be expanded limitlessly. Not to mention it would use up a lot of resources, city management would pose a huge problem. Even a titan like Shanhai City took up a small rice grain sized piece of land in Lianzhou Basin.

Secondly, the four basic necessities: clothing, food, housing, and transport; the first two needed the support of industries like farming, husbandry, and fishing. If not, if the people in the territory could only starve to death, what territory building would exist?

Ouyang Shuo's method was special. He designed the land into a huge city covering 100 square kilometers. Hence, a wall would be erected on the border of the territory.

Outside the city, there was not a single piece of land left for industries like fishing and farming.

Such a plan seemed crazy, but it seemed rather logical at the same time.

Firstly, the land was not big, so the first problem did not exist. As for the problem about food and clothing, Ouyang Shuo planned to purchase these items from the outside.

The entire land was a capital of trading.

Commerce and long-distance trading would be the soul of the territory. As long as they had money, other resources would be bought from Somalia. This meant that after long term trading started, they could purchase items from neighboring countries.

The prerequisite would be enough money, enough trading capital, or enough tax. If not, relying on Ouyang Shuo's funds was not a long-term solution.

Towards this matter, Ouyang Shuo was extremely confident.

The profits from long distance trading was enough to drive everyone crazy.

After reaching the land, the first thing that Ouyang Shuo did was to name the city under construction. In the end, Ouyang Shuo chose the name Friendship City.

Friendship City represented the friendship between Shanhai City and Somalia, pushing peace between European States and Shanhai City.

The port outside of the city would be named the Brave Port.

Chapter 650-Capital of Trading

Somalia, Courage Port.

The newly claimed and built Courage Port was just a natural bay at this moment.

The bay did not have any port facilities, and it only had rows of wooden platforms built for the convenience of the merchant ship. Overall, it looked rather lackluster.

Even so, an endless number of ships were entering and leaving the port.

Seeing the voyage squadron slowly close in, the various merchant ships automatically made way. They were not fearful; rather, they had a deep respect for the voyage squadron.

Under Zheng He's instructions, the voyage squadron slowly stopped at the west side of the port.

Ouyang Shuo planned to split Courage Port into two; the west side would be used as a military port, and it would house the navy. On the other hand, the east side would be a trading port for voyaging merchant ships to disembark and resupply.

Both sides had their own purposes and did not interfere with one another.

As for the middle region, Ouyang Shuo was prepared to build a large shipyard to produce merchant ship and warships locally. Shipyards would be built wherever his navy was based, these were Ouyang Shuo's requirements.

Not to mention other things, just through the sales of merchant ships, the profits earned would be enough to maintain the daily expenses of Friendship City. As the newly raised pillar industry of Shanhai City, the shipbuilding industry had matured. Based on the calculations of the Household Registration Division, no less than 30 to 40 people in the territory had jobs related to shipbuilding.

After one month at most, Shanhai City would be able to build up a large shipyard.

After Ouyang Shuo docked, when he saw the various resources piled up like mountains on the shore, he nodded his head in satisfaction.

The coolies coming and going were like ants, queuing up and carrying bag after bag down the ships. When they saw Ouyang Shuo and his men, they all stopped and only left after bowing.

Ouyang Shuo was the Lord of this land.

Based on the plan, the first mission of the land was not to build the city wall or the port but to build the relay and the city’s Lord Manor.

The manor had an important meaning. Only after it was built would it signify that Ouyang Shuo had officially become the ruler of this land; it would indicate that he had started his rule.

As for the relay, it was for communications. Only after building the relays could he communicate with China.

Just relying on the voyage squadron and the locally hired artisans and smiths, he would not be able to build Friendship City well. Without mentioning other reasons, what he really needed now was an architectural design team.

The overall planning and design of the city needed to be practical and logical, so he must hire professionals to design it.

The number of things involved in city construction were numerous, involving many elements.

Even after the city was constructed, there would be problems with management; they would need various officials, following the structure of Shanhai City to quickly start work. Of course, they needed a city magistrate to control the overall picture.

After all, there were only a few officials who came along with the voyage squadron; their duties were to help Ouyang Shuo deal with some daily administrative matters. The ones who could truly helm the ship were left in the territory.

All of the above needed the support of the territory.

Everything was fine, the key was just time.

From Xingzhou Port to Courage Port, it would take at least 25 days. Along with the movement of men and the gathering time, it would take a month.

Making use of this time, Ouyang Shuo was ready to personally lead the project to build the port and the city wall.

Five military tents formed a circle at the center of the valley, becoming the temporary command center of the land. Ouyang Shuo personally took charge, moving the artisans and coolies to start construction.

The entire land instantly became a massive construction site, and everyone was extremely busy.

It was like Ouyang Shuo had returned to the 1st year of Gaia where he personally led people to construct Shanhai Village. Thinking back, it seemed like it had happened yesterday.

In truth, in just a short two years, the territory had undergone a huge change, a total upgrade in quality. Furthermore, the current Ouyang Shuo was not the Ouyang Shuo from before.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo was still as passionate as before, throwing himself into the works. In just two days, the Lord's Manor was completed, and the inn was similarly built at the same time.

The moment the inn was built, Ouyang Shuo immediately sent a letter to Xiao He, giving a simple description of the current situation and asking him to quickly prepare a bunch of officials to teleport to Lion City then travel to Friendship City.

"The construction of Friendship City affects the success or failure of the long distance trading of the territory, so the officials must be the elite and good at completing their tasks. Please remember." Ouyang Shuo instructed.

At the same time, he ordered Xiao He to move Beihai City City Magistrate Gu Xiuwen over to take the role of Friendship City City Magistrate.

When Shanhai City upgraded to Grade 2 Prefecture, and the canyon river passage was expanded, merchant ships going toward Shanhai City could just directly enter the dock and did not need to go toward Beihai City.

With that, Beihai City, which had always been the door to the seas of Shanhai City, saw its strategic position dropping.

As one of the earliest personnel in the territory, Gu Xiuwen was deeply trusted by Ouyang Shuo. He also had vast experience in running an ocean city, so he was extremely suitable for the role of City Magistrate.

Although it was a city, but the importance of this City Magistrate position was the same as a governor.

Apart from officials, Ouyang Shuo also asked for a bunch of talented individuals that Somalia lacked like architects, ship builders, and steel makers.

These were normally needed to build a new city. However, Ouyang Shuo broke normality by requesting at least 20 thousand migrants from the Household Registration Division to be shipped to Friendship City

For Friendship City, Ouyang Shuo was going all out.

in 2nd letter, Ouyang Shuo wrote to the three intel organizations and the Honglu Temple. He requested for the three organizations to send a bunch of elites to Friendship City to build intel stations.

"The intel station in the city would be the base to affect the entire Africa, even a key point for Europe. We must spend all our efforts in building it, and we can't take it lightly." Ouyang Shuo mentioned in the letter.

Intel was forever going to be one of the things that Ouyang Shuo expended the most.

The construction of Friendship City was undoubtedly the best chance to stretch territory intel influence toward Africa and Europe. For this, Ouyang Shu was ready to take out 400 thousand gold more to use for their expansion.

The Black Snake Guards were the priority, so they took up 200 thousand.

Although Ouyang Shuo did not hope to rule the whole world, knowing the movements of the others was crucial.

As for the Honglu Temple, its mission would be to continue attacking the Somalia Country. One must not look at it like Shanhai City and Somalia were in a honeymoon state; this only occurred because the ripples from the war had not ended.

When it totally cooled down, how the two sides would coexiste would pose a huge question mark.

Ouyang Shuo did not hope to have his prestige and influence rise sky high with just one victory; he did not think he could do as he wanted in Somalia. To tie the various powers of Somalia to Shanhai City was the best way.

After he sent the letter out, Ouyang Shuo finally had the time to visit the Lord’s Manor. He went directly for the meeting hall.

Since Friendship city was a given land, it naturally had a territory stone steele. The moment the Lord's Manor was built, a snow-white stone steele appeared in the meeting hall.

However, it could not be upgraded and did not have any territory specialties. Even worse was that it could not spawn refugees.

Ouyang Shuo had an idea, before he came to the stone steele, he took out a black token from his storage bag; it was a black iron rank village creation token that had merged with a merger token.

"System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi has a fusible village creation token that can fuse with the territory stone steele, will you fuse it?"

"Fuse!"

With a Shua! the village creation token transformed into a black light and entered the white stone steele. The black light faded and the snow-white stone steele instantly became a cold black.

"System Notification: Village creation token fusion success, Friendship City has the ability to attract migrants and refugees. Please choose their race, Han Race or Somalia Natives?"

"Han Race!" Ouyang Shuo did not even hesitate.

"System Notification: Selection completed, spawning new migrants and refugees from today onward."

Although Ouyang Shuo had planned to build Friendship City into a mega city, its base was still only a grade 3 village; every day, there were only 12 new people.

"Better than nothing!" Ouyang Shuo sighed.

Using the merger token did not mean that he had an extra territory.

The Friendship City that had fused with the village creation token did not have any territory specialties. As for teleportation, it could not be opened, and it was basically a lone city.

For this, Ouyang Shuo took out a scroll.

Territory Title Scroll- Capital of Trading: After use, the territory will obtain the title of Capital of Trading and related territory specialties will be born.

This scroll was obtained from the Singapore treasury, and it could finally be used today.

"System Notification: Territory Title Scroll discovered on player Qiyue Wuyi, will you use it?"

"Use!"

Another white light shone.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, Friendship City has obtained the title of Capital of Trading. For the specific stats, please take a look, congratulations player!"

Capital of Trading: raise 25% increase in trading reputation, 30% increase in trading prosperity.

It was a very simple specialty, but it was also rather practical, perfectly fitting the position of Friendship City.

……

Just relying on the refugees that spawned to increase the population of the land was simply too inefficient. It was unable to let them swiftly develop. Apart from migration, Ouyang Shuo would attract people.

Apart from the three thousand families of the pirates, Courage Port would have a navy unit and a few sick sailors. With that, there would be around 10 thousand people.

Along with the future 20 thousand migrants from Shanhai City, that would bring their total to 30 thousand.

To a large sized city, 30 thousand people was still an exceedingly small amount. Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to turn his attention to the Somalia people.

The next day, the Lord's Manor sent out a notice, "Anyone that is willing to move into Friendship City will receive a 1 gold settling down fee. The first batch of migrants can obtain a 20% discount for house and shop purchases."

Next, they just had to see who would take the bait.

Chapter 651-Hanwu Emperor vs. West Chu Overlord

Ouyang Shuo's letter to Shanhai City caused some massive waves.

Just by reading the letter, Xiao He and the other officials felt rather emotional. Without a doubt, after leading the troops to crush Singapore, the voyage squadron had once again taken a key victory and obtained great rewards.

"When did our territory’s influence start to radiate to the entire world?"

No one could give a correct answer to this question, but they could all feel that Shanhai City was slowly moving towards a state where they had a powerful influence on the world.

Before the voyage squadron had set out to sea, Xiao He and the others had viewed the world as just a small land with China as its core. But the moment the reports from the voyage squadron arrived, they were astonished that the world was truly so huge.

Their ambition once again burned.

"We can't be burdens any longer." Xiao He was filled with emotion.

Sitting opposite to Xiao He was Official Ruling Department Director Zhang Tingyu. For Xiao He to be able to talk to him so comfortably meant that this director had already completely merged into the Nanjiang Governor-General House circle.

After spending numerous months together, Xiao He genuinely respected Zhang Tingyu. This fellow who did not say much did not only have a vast ruling experience, he also possessed unique foresight. In regards to tough situations, he would often hit the spot with one statement.

What was rare was that Zhang Tingyu was a humble person and would not compete with others to see who was better. When he did not agree with your view, he would not step out to retort; instead, he would just smile.

It was this smile that often gave others a heavy pressure. Many times, he did not even need to retort and people would just give up.

‘Director Zhang's smile’ had become one of the major killing weapons of the Governor-General House.

After all, he had worked in the special age of the Qing Dynasty, where the imperial courts were a battle for power between officials. Zhang Tingyu was extremely calm when he took care of matters, and he was able to give in to the interests of many parties.

This point was one that Xiao He praised.

In contrast to Zhang Tingyu, Xiao He in history was a prime minister.

During the starting periods of Han, he was the most powerful official, and the power he held made the prime ministers after him all feel envious.

This also gave rise to a weakness; he liked to make decisions by himself. If it was the Han Dynasty, this would not be a problem, as no one then could compete with him.

However, now they were in Shanhai City. Not to mention how many talents they had, their own Lord was intelligent and possessed amazing foresight. He would not allow a minister to take matters completely into his own hands.

All the officials in the territory, especially the other three directors, which one was not a famous minister? The lineup of the Nanjiang Governor-General House was far brighter and star studded than that of the Han Dynasty.

Furthermore, the ministers in Shanhai City had basically all started on the same running line. No one had extra contributions, and all had merits of starting the country. So how could his reputation and prestige here compare to his during Han Dynasty?

It was unavoidable that Xiao He would have conflicts with Fan Li, Wei Yang, and the others because of mixed opinions. Especially when the lord was not in Shanhai City, these matters were more common.

At this moment, Zhang Tingyu was the best lubricant to solve the problems between the four bureaus.

The cooperation between the two of them were exceedingly close.

……

After hearing his thoughts, Zhang Tingyu smiled, not replying. He took out a name list of officials and started to discuss with Xiao He about the officials that should go to Friendship City.

Since the Lord had instructed them, they naturally needed to treat the matter seriously.

The overall process of choosing officials to send started with the Ruling Official Department setting up a rough plan. Then the Four Bureaus would recommend some and the Ruling Official Department would make the selections.

The officials from County Office down were directly chosen by Xiao He. County Office and above needed Xiao He and the other three directors to discuss.

One could see that in terms of usage of officials, Xiao He and Zhang Tingyu had the most speaking rights. In normal circumstances, even Ouyang Shuo would respect the decisions of the Official Ruling Department. He would not interfere because he wanted to protect the prestige of the department.

Apart from the administration bureau, the three intel organizations, including the Honglu Temple, all had similar conversations.

The day they received the secret letter, Shanhai City swiftly moved to take action. In less than three days, the officials were completely moved, and the second voyage squadron set off.

Along with them were 200 merchant ships.

Without a doubt, they would be the first batch of rich people in the China region voyage trading. If everything went well, they would create legends of becoming rich overnight.

In the period of time that Ouyang Shuo went out to sea, the China region did not remain peaceful.

After the snow melted, Chun Shenjun, Wandering Magic, and Di Chen tried to expand to the Zhongyuan Province to take over the remaining land of the Zhangchu Regime.

They even wanted to attack Chen County to totally destroy the uprising army.

But at this moment, things changed.

Chensheng, who haf struggled for an entire winter, suddenly died. Xiang Yan, who was housed in Chen County, took control and combined it under the West Chu Regime rule.

West Chu, which had gone underground for half a year, finally bared its fangs.

The death of Chensheng, the decisiveness of Xiang Yan, everything was unusual.

At the same time, Xiang Yu personally led the troops north to destroy the Ludong City-State and take over Ludong Province to build an infallible base for West Chu.

With that, the Zhongyuan region once again ended up in smoke.

The most chaotic area was still Zhongyuan Province. After the addition of West Chu, Di Chen and the others were worried about what Xiang Yu thought about the other territories in the province.

At this very moment, the Hanwu Emperor suddenly acted.

He suddenly announced the prefecture around Luoyang City would belong to the imperial city and no player Lord was allowed to touch it. At the same time, Hanwu Emperor was unhappy with Xiang Yan taking over Chen County.

The battle between Chu and Han once again played out in the wilderness.

The Zhongyuan Province had become a battle between the two giants.

This made Di Chen and the others terrified; they did not know whether they should proceed forward or retreat. Feng Qiuhuang, on the other hand, was exceptionally decisive and just decided to back off.

Her strategic goal was to try to take over Taiyuan Province by the 3rd year of Gaia.

In truth, it was not Feng Qiuhuang alone that had such ambitions.

Di Chen and the others were all striking out, trying to expand their territory by attacking others. The smokes from war rose up again, and the peaceful situation had once again been broken.

The others were still okay, but the weirdest was the Guanxi Province.

That was because this province had both Sha Pojun and Wandering Magic. As they say, a mountain could not allow for two tigers, and their battle would reach a climax in the 3rd year of Gaia.

The end result would definitely be one of them getting eliminated.

……

Apart from the middle and northern regions, the south was similarly chaotic.

After the Huangchao Uprising Army was destroyed by both Zhan Lang and Xiong Ba, Wannan Province had once again found itself in a state of chaos. Even with Zhan Lang and Xiong Ba, there were aristocratic families that were rising.

That's right, aristocratic families. Aristocratic families continued to appear in the wilderness and started to participate in the wilderness fights. Wannan Province, which was in an unclaimed state, was naturally the best choice.

All in all, it was a total mess.

Of course, the most eye catching one was the battle for Yizhou Island.

After Shanhai City took down Singapore, the Lords near the oceans realized the strategic use of navies. With that, Yazhou island, which was located alone in the ocean, entered their field of vision.

Such an important strategic location actually remained desolate.

The lords immediately realized this point, and their eyes blazed with fire. Amongst them, the strongest were Xiong Ba and Xunlong Dianxue.

One was in Jiangnan Provincec, the other in the Minnan Province.

Since there was a competition, war was unavoidable.

After all, they were not pacifists and would not just give up this piece of land.

Just a month ago, King City and Xunlong City had a naval battle. In the end, relying on the support of Shanhai City, Xunlong City won by a slight margin.

Just as everyone thought that the dust had finally settled, the skies changed.

After Xiong Ba lost, he did not give up, leading a navy and slowly changing course, disembarking on the east of Yizhiu island. Moroever, Xunlong Dianxue chose to disembark on the west shore that was closer to him.

With that, the two armies changed from naval warfare to army warfare. Till now, the situation was still in a stalemate.

For this battle, as they had not received any instructions from Ouyang Shuo, Shanhai City chose to remain silent.

The China Region, where the flames of war broke out all around. At this time, Shanhai City was unusually peaceful. The three legion corps were quietly training their troops. The only activity was the military martial arts competition.

The current goal of Shanhai City was to develop and build up.

Millions of funds were invested into pushing forth the territory construction of basic facilities with lightning speed. Basic education and basic medical care were slowly progressing under Su Zhe's organization.

The territory trade continued to make new records.

Shanhai City was resting up, training up internally, and forming a strong base and foundation; all of this was in order to create enough energy for the next outburst.

One had to say, Shanhai City was truly an independent party, a unique existence in China.

Of course, all of this did not take into account the voyage squadron.

The voyage squadron that set out a few months ago had caused huge news after news, reminding Di Chen and the others that their opponent was not truly silent.

If Ouyang Shuo knew that even when he went out on a voyage, he would affect the plans of the people within the country, who knows what he would think?

Chapter 652-Empire Glory

Ouyang Shuo had no time to pay attention to the events within the country.

After they completed the relay, the Black Snake Guards arranged reports about the occurrences in China, handing it over for Ouyang Shuo to read. After he read it, he did not make any instructions.

Even the Yizhou Island dispute was something that he did not intend to participate in. Since Shanhai City had decided to consolidate their power, they would remain quiet all the way

"The matters of our allies, it’s a battle they have to deal with themselves!" Ouyang Shuo sighed.

On the contrary, Zhang Yi's letter had perked Ouyang Shuo's interest.

On the matter of alienating the four city states, apart from using monetary bribes, planting false evidence, and destroying relationships, they also made use of the Four Seas Bank.

The Four Seas Bank was already on the right path and the savings had broken the 50 million mark. Such a huge amount of funds naturally needed to be loaned out. Apart from internal usage by the alliance, the bank was officially opened to other Lords.

Even if guilds, Chambers of Commerce, or the like needed money, they could borrow from the Four Seas Bank if their reputation was good.

With input and output, the Four Seas Bank had obtained huge interests.

The main people borrowing were still Lords.

To any Lord with ambition, the territory funds were never enough. How would the lords of the four city-states be any different? They obviously needed to loan money too.

Zhang Yi made use of this point to display his skills.

As expected from the head of the school of diplomacy. His eyes and senses were sharp.

7th month 10th day, Somalia, Friendship City.

After half a month of construction, the desolate valley was now totally different. The stones bases of the city wall circled around the foot of the mountain.

The north side of Courage Port was brand new, with the east and west harbors both constructed. The merchant ships did not need to stop on the bay ocean surface and everything became really orderly.

Tent after tent stood in the valley.

Somalia in the 7th month was sweltering, and the coolies and artisans did not need houses. Using a few pieces of cloth to build a simple tent was enough for them.

At the center region of the tents were temporarily erected canteens. To ensure the quick progress of the construction, Ouyang Shuo specially instructed the officials in charge to give them the best food.

They did not just ensure that they were full but also that they were getting enough nutrition.

"Every meal has meat!" This was the greatest joy to the artisans.

With such great treatment, they would obvious out their hearts to it. The construction progress was a full five days faster than he had expected.

The construction on land was on the right path.

The officials sent to help from the territory as well as the talented individuals and migrants would arrive in around 10 days.

Ouyang Shuo was not prepared to wait for their arrival.

Seeing that more than half of the 3rd year of Gaia was over, Ouyang Shuo needed to complete his voyage as soon as possible.

Before leaving, Ouyang Shuo did three things.

First, he built a Friendship City city protection regiment. After the barracks were built, Ouyang Shuo chose some strong warriors from the coolies to change occupations to sword-shield soldiers.

Ouyang Shuo chose a bunch of officers from the navy sword-shield soldiers to act as majors of the regiment. As for the colonel, a lieutenant from the Divine Martial Guards would take the role.

With that, the defense of Friendship City could be said to be settled.

Even when including the recruited artisans and coolies, the merchants, and talented individuals who had rushed over, the population had not crossed 100 thousand.

At this point, a regiment was enough to instill law and order.

The second matter was to nail down on the exact planning of the city. Ouyang Shuo wrote down his thoughts toward Friendship City in a document and left it for the architectural team that was rushing over.

The position of Friendship City was rather obvious, it would be a pure Capital of Trading.

Courage Port was not the best port in Africa, not even in the Gulf of Aden. But it was the most open and best equipped in the region.

The Friendship City that Ouyang Shuo had planned only had east and west regions. In the middle, it would be separated by a massive street. The east would be the business district, where the docks, resource distribution center, coolie market, settlement center, and banks were located.

All in all, the business district was designed around ocean trading, and its goal was to make trading here efficient, fast, and safe.

The west was termed as the service district. Apart from a portion to be used to build houses, the rest were for buildings such as inns, hotels, brothels, gambling dens, restaurants, and auction houses.

The various entertainment places would be split into different tiers to fit the different needs of different groups of people. Without a doubt, this would be a paradise for merchants and sailors.

As long as you had money and were willing to spend, you would be a king in the west district.

Apart from that, the west district would also have many shops and warehouses, mainly selling resources like freshwater, meat, and grain.

Ouyang Shuo's words were for everything a squadron needed, the Friendship City could solve.

"Only things you never thought you could buy, never something you couldn't manage to buy!"

One could say that the entire city was designed around long-distance trading. If it was fully constructed, it would be a Capital of Trading.

With this, Ouyang Shuo left a total of 500 thousand gold to help the finances of Friendship City.

Rough estimations placed his investment into this place at around a million. Now, they just had to look forward to whether it could create a business miracle.

The third thing he did was to ask the voyage squadron to take out 100 cannons and leave them in the city. These 100 would be placed on the north city wall and aimed at the bay.

Friendship City was surrounded on three sides by mountains and the only way in was Courage Port. With a navy unit and the threat of 100 cannons, it was enough to scare away most enemies.

With that, he could finally leave at ease.

7th month, 11th day, the voyage squadron set off once more.

Before leaving, Ouyang Shuo did not inform anyone, just sneakily leaving. Who knows what challenges awaited this squadron that was destined to be recorded in history.

The squadron went past the Mendeb Straits and entered the Red Sea.

The Red Sea was located on the east of Africa, in the middle of Arab. The west and north sides were connected with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea, and the east was linked with the Gulf of Aden through the Mendeb Straits.

At the same time, the Red Sea was also the saltiest sea in the world, the most important crude oil transportation pathway.

The Persian Gulf was known as the world oil warehouse in reality, making up for two-thirds of the world’s oil reserves. Similarly, in the game, this region had a plentiful amount of crude oil.

This oil was known as alchemical fire oil in China and was only a support war resource.

Even England, where the industrial revolution started, was only at the sprouting phase of the first revolution. The steam engine, such a significant invention, was just born.

The first industrial revolution gave birth to the steelwork industry and the textile industry.

Crude oil really came into play during the second industry revolution. With the invention of the internal combustion engine, industrial mechanizing, cars, airplanes, and the like.

At that time, every country would have a massive need for resources.

Ouyang Shuo even doubted whether the game would even reach the second industrial revolution by the 10th year. In his last life, at the 5th year, the steam engine was not even common across the world.

Hence, the need for oil was minimal. To the Arab States, this was not a good thing.

Of course, they did not only have oil. They similarly had a long history, out of the four ancient civilizations, Babylon and Egypt were located around there.

Furthermore, Rome, Macedonia, the Persian Empire, and the Arabian Empire all had relations with the Arab States.

Egypt's Cairo City, Greece's Athens City, and Italy's Rome City were all imperial cities with long history; an ancient king lived in each of these places.

Alexander the Great, Augustus, all of them had massive empires comparable to Qin Shihuang and Emperor Hanwu.

In Earth Online, a long history meant a deep foundation. Making use of this, the Lords of the country would all try to replicate the glory of the empires.

They were all active people in the world stage.

Hence, towards these Arab States, Ouyang Shuo did not intend to go against them. He just wanted to engage in trade.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo had chosen to set down his roots in Somalia so early on.

……

The Red Sea was not red, but it was sky blue.

The squadron went past the Red Sea and passed the Gulf of Suez before they reached the Suez Canal.

The Suez Canal river was already present in ancient times. Of course, the true construction was only done in 1869. It was a water passage that linked the Mediterranean Ocean to the Red Sea and provided the nearest route to get from Europe to the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. This was one of the busiest routes in real life.

At the same time, the Suez Canal was also the intersection between Africa and Asia, and it was an important passage that linked Asia to Europe. In the north was Port Said, and in the south was Suez City. The entire length of the canal was 190 thousand meters, from the north side of the port connecting to the Mediterranean to the south side of Suez City.

The construction of the Suez Canal made the Africa peninsula become the Africa Continent. It increased the trading between Asia and Africa, Southwest Asia, Northeast Africa, and South Europe.

Chapter 653-Lost City of Atlantis

7th month, 15th day, the voyage squadron crossed the Suez Canal and stopped at the Alexander Port in Egypt. After restocking, they set off once again to cross the Mediterranean Ocean.

The Mediterranean Ocean was the oldest ocean in the world, possessing a longer history than even the Atlantic Ocean. It was where Egypt, Babylon, and even European civilizations started.

When crossing the Mediterranean, the squadron had to stop for one or two days when they reached each important port.

First was to trade, trading the tea and porcelain that they had brought from China and selling off the spices and peppers from South East Asia.

Be it in ancient times or in the game, these items were loved by the west. The main group of people who bought them were not the players but the nobles of the natives.

The goods were highly rare, and even if the prices were 10 times their cost, they were still welcomed.

Along the way, the squadron would purchase some western specialties like clocks, watches, glass products, diamonds, and agate stones.

Once they transported these items back to the country, they would be able to sell them off for a high price.

Secondly, they needed to set up eyes and networks along the way.

The Black Snake Guards intelligence officers would set up intel stations in the various areas. Their strategy was to work with the local people, spending large amounts of gold to buy intel.

If not, yellow skinned people in a foreign country would be simply too obvious.

Of course, the end goal was to subdue the locals to make them serve Shanhai City loyally. The intel gathered would be sent to Friendship City then reported back to the headquarters.

For the specific trading, Ouyang Shuo naturally did not need to worry about that. This trip was a trading trip and also an excursion. Every place they went to, Ouyang Shuo would bring some Personal Guards to walk around and enjoy the sights and sounds of the Mediterranean.

In Athens, Ouyang Shuo took a look at the Parthenon that Gaia had restored, meeting Athena. In Rome, Ouyang Shuo visited the Pantheon, even watching beast battles in the colosseum, witnessing the strength of the Spartan soldiers.

The Mediterranean countries were mostly warm to the voyage squadron.

In truth, when the voyage squadron had attacked Singapore, their image had turned into that of an invasive force.

But in Somalia, the voyage squadron had redeemed themselves. They helped the players destroy the pirates, even obtaining land from the Somalia King, which changed their image for the better.

When they went to Spain, the voyage squadron bumped into the Spanish Squadron.

The current Spanish Squadron had started to show glimpses of their might. The entire Mediterranean was seen as the inner lake of Spain; it was a place where they could do as they wished.

In history, under the support of the Spanish royal family, Columbus found America. After that, the famous Spanish Squadron even ruled an entire era.

When the two squadrons met, the atmosphere was a little awkward.

Like the voyage squadron, the current Spanish Squadron was equipped with cannons. Moreover, these cannons were naturally far more advanced than the heavy cannons of the voyage squadron.

If they really were to fight, both sides would suffer heavy casualties.

Luckily, the worse-case scenario did not appear. After acknowledging one another, they went their separate ways. The Spanish Squadron had not completely controlled the Mediterranean, so they did not want to create extra problems.

One must not forget that their neighbor Portugal also possessed a strong naval country. Their battles in the Mediterranean were going to be interesting.

After going past the Spanish ocean region, they entered the Gibraltar Straits.

The Gibraltar Straits were located at the south side of Spain and the north west of Africa, an important door connecting the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, 90 thousand meters in length.

The narrowest point of the straits were 13 thousand meters, and the west side was the widest at 43 thousand meters. The shallowest was 301 meters deep, and the deepest was 1181 meters, with an average depth of 375 meters.

From the Atlantic to here, the currents flowing into the Mediterranean ran at four thousand meters per hour. In early years, it was used by Atlantic sailors to swiftly enter the Mediterranean.

When the squadron arrived at the Gibraltar Straits, Ouyang Shuo suddenly remembered the large-scale scenario quest-The Lost City of Atlantis.

Atlantis was a huge and rich empire; it was the first advanced civilization in the world. The earliest descriptions of it appeared in the works of Greek philosopher Plato.

Plato used a conversation method to describe Atlantis for the first time, “Around nine thousand years of Solon, opposite the Heracles Stone Pillar, was an island wrapped by the ocean. This was the island of Atlantis. Atlantis was about to start a war with Athens, but who knew that it would face an earthquake and a flood. In less than a day, it sunk to the bottom of the ocean, becoming an obstacle of the Greeks to ocean travel."

The Heracles Stone Pillar was in the Gibraltar Straits.

Legends had it that the descendants of the ocean God stayed in Atlantis and had great worship for the ocean. It and the Lemuria Civilizations existed on earth. Lemuria was located on an ancient continent northeast of Australia. These two civilizations had been sunk around 10 thousand years ago.

The indigenous Indians of America had described in their works, "The earth had four generations of humans. The first were giants; they didn't come from here but from the skies, dying from hunger. The second were killed by fire. The third were ape men, and they killed one another. The fourth was located between the sun and the waters, being destroyed by a huge flood."

Atlantis and Lemuria belonged to the fourth generation.

Modern day scientist found that before the huge flood, the earth was just one giant continent, and it had highly advanced civilizations. In one global catastrophe, they sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

The thing that caused the huge apocalypse was a large-scale earthquake that led to tsunamis and volcanic eruptions. The ash clouds affected even plants all the way in England.

The power of the earthquake was four thousand times that of the Hiroshima nuclear bombs.

In the recent century, archaeologists found traces of civilizations at the bottom of the ocean, seemingly proving the existence of Atlantis.

In the game, Gaia made this legend real.

Ouyang Shuo clearly remembered at the end of the 4th year, a Spanish traveler went out to sea alone and met a huge storm, capsizing and sinking into the ocean.

Luckily for him, this player known as Gerald Pick had a special item known as the underwater breathing device, similar to the water avoidance bead in Chinese legend. This item allowed players to spend an extended period of time underwater.

Completely due to luck, he found Atlantis, which was submerged at the bottom of the ocean. Hence, he activated a large-scale storyline quest, shocking the entirety of Europe.

Gerald Pick was only a spark. In the end, close to 100 thousand people joined in, and the countries around the Mediterranean basically all threw themselves in.

The end result was that Atlantis rose once more, laying it roots in the Mediterranean Ocean. The civilizations that had disappeared once again showed itself to the world.

The lucky Gerald Pick also became the best player amongst the Spanish players, and his fame grew greater than many Lords.

Thinking about this, a little hope shone in Ouyang Shuo's eyes.

He did not have the water avoidance bead, but he did have a mysterious buddy, the Nian Beast Little Green. In Friendship City, the Little Green, who had swallowed the inner pellet of the White Lion, had suddenly woken up, evolving into a God Beast subspecies.

This evolution totally changed it.

Name: Little Green (God Beast subspecies)

Home: Yashan City Protector Beast

Race: Ink Jade Qilin Beast (subspecies of Qilin)

Combat strength: High Gold Grade

Talent: Water Control (increases combat strength in water by 80%, no currents will stop it)

Skill: Slayer (raises fury stat by 85%), Charge (raises combat power by 85%)

Specialty: Deterrence (Raises territory safety by 35%, natural threat to all ocean beasts, raises safety of territory ocean regions by 40%), Protector (raise territory defense by 25%)

Cultivation Method: Black Qilin Seven Purgatory Technique

Cultivation Skill: Heaven Strike (Shoots out a bolt of lightning, bringing with it a numbing effect)

Evaluation: Fierce beast of olden legends, the descendant of the fierce dragon and the black Qilin. After swallowing the inner pellet of the God Beast White Lion, it successfully evolved once, and its bloodline upgraded to a subspecies of Qilin. As a protector beast, it can continue to bring out its Qilin bloodlinem and it can evolve again.

In truth, Little Green not upgrading to a god beast surprised Ouyang Shuo. One could only say that the Qilin god beast was far superior when compared to the White Lion. Moreover, the White Lion could only be considered a god beast subspecies.

After all, on that nameless island, the dead old Qilin was just a spirit, and it still had such powers. In comparison, the White Lion did not seem like a god beast.

Between god beasts, there could be differences like the gap between the heavens and earth.

Hence, although Little Green had swallowed its inner pellet, it had only evolved into a subspecies. Luckily, it was just one step away from becoming a god beast.

Apart from the identity of territory protector beast, the Black Qilin Seven Purgatory Method that it cultivated was the key to Little Green's growth.

The White Lion inner pellet just helped to speed up the process.

This evolution had caused a huge change to its stats. Not only did it awaken a talent, but it also strengthened the original specialties and skills.

The evolved Little Green was getting more and more worthy of its name of Overlord of the Oceans.

Hence, to the current Little Green, going deep into the ocean was an easy matter. The only difficulty was for Ouyang Shuo to pinpoint the exact location of Atlantis.

To find a sunken city at the bottom of the vast ocean, how easy could that be?

Chapter 654-Spanish Invincible Squadron

7th month, 24th day, Gibraltar Port.

Gibraltar Port was located on the north shore of the Straits of Gibraltar, and it was only a small sized port. The voyage squadron stopped for here for three days; however, there was still no progress in the search for Atlantis.

The voyage squadron's long stay had raised the suspicion of the Spanish squadron. Ouyang Shuo could clearly feel the number of Spanish warships patrolling the bay increasing by the day.

"Let's search for one more day; if we don’t find it by then, we will just leave!" Ouyang Shuo sighed. Although he had given Little Green a specific region based on the information revealed on the forums in his last life, they would still need a lot of luck to find it.

The night before they left, Little Green finally returned with an item that resembled a gas mark in its mouth. Ouyang Shuo was delighted, he knew that they had finally found Atlantis.

This ‘gas mask’, along with the special item that Gerald Pick had obtained in the last life were all special items from Atlantis, and its real name was ‘underwater breathing device’.

Players could freely move underwater with this item.

"Good job!"

Ouyang Shuo took the underwater breathing device from Little Green’s mouth. At the same time, he gave it a thumbs up. Four days and four nights of continuous searching was extremely exhausting even for a god beast subspecies like Little Green.

This little fellow had really gone all out in their search for Atlantis.

Nian!

This arrogant little fellow raised its head by 45 degrees and looked toward the heavens with an undeniable satisfaction in its eyes. Amusingly, although it had evolved into a subspecies of the Qilin, it still roared out ‘nian’.

One man and one beast, a perfect relationship.

Suddenly, Ouyang Shuo's eyes froze. He had finally noticed that Little Green’s back was bleeding, and a large section of flesh had fallen off, revealing even the bones.

Despite such serious injuries, the little fellow did not even make a sound.

Ouyang Shuo's senses were extremely sharp, and he immediately recognized that this definitely wound was not from fighting beasts but from cannon fire.

"Who did this?" Ouyang Shuo's voice had an obvious tinge of rage.

Wu!!

Little Green turned its head and looked outside the port.

Ouyang Shuo raised his head and looked, only to see a Spanish boat swiftly sail over.

"Them?"

Ouyang Shuo had basically confirmed that the Spanish Squadron were at fault.

Nian!

Little Green nodded with hate filled eyes.

Ouyang Shuo's emotional state suddenly calmed down, and a gentle smile appeared on his face as he rubbed Little Green's head, "Little buddy don't worry; I'll take revenge for you. Go tend to your wounds."

Wuwu!!

Little Green followed the medical doctor and left.

After sending Little Green away, Ouyang Shuo's eyes suddenly turned cold. He did not even turn his head as he said, "Send my orders down; the squadron shall enter a level 1 state of alert."

"Yes, my Lord!"

Chen Dameng, who had followed Ouyang Shuo all the way, was similarly furious when he saw Little Green’s injuries. During the Battle of Singapore, Little Green had slain the White Lion; these brutish warriors rarely saw such strength.

Now, some had actually shot their ‘baby’ with cannon fire, so how could they not be furious?

Chen Dameng bowed and swiftly left.

In less than 10 minutes, the entire voyage squadron had woken up.

After the squadron entered the Mediterranean, Ouyang Shuo had instructed them to maintain a low-profile. When they disembarked, they had used the identity of merchants.

However, now was the time to reveal their sword!

Archers, sword-shield soldiers, cannoneers, and the others swiftly got into position. The golden dragon flag flapped in the wind, and the war drums sounded out. Ouyang Shuo's motto was, ‘I won't harm people if they don't harm me; if they harm me, I'll leave them with nothing!’

Just as the voyage squadron was preparing to set out, the Spanish Squadron hurried into the port and charged toward Dragon Head.

On the warship, there was a middle-aged man with a white cap and a long mustache; he arrogantly asked, "Oi, did any of you see a green beast?"

Good fellow, he totally did not put the voyage squadron in his eyes.

However, who could blame him for being so arrogant? After all, the Spanish treated the Mediterranean as their back garden. Gibraltar Port was in the Spanish territory, which made them even more arrogant.

Recovering their past glory as an ocean superpower was always a dream of the Spanish players. In their eyes, how could the backward China compare to their invincible squadron?

"You all shot Little Green?" Ouyang Shuo asked calmly.

"Little Green?" The middle-aged man's eyes lit up and excitedly said, "Yes, that green beast. Damn it, it managed to escape after we hit it. It seems rare; we can definitely sell it for a good price if we catch it. Where's that beast now?"

"...."

When they heard these words, the 20 cannons on Dragon Head had already pointed toward the Spanish Warship. Ouyang Shuo looked toward the middle-aged man like he was looking at a dead person, "It is my contract beast."

"Oh!" The middle-aged man was astonished, but at least his head was not completely clouded, "Since that's the case, take care of it and don't let it run about."

"Turn back!" The middle-aged men turned back and ordered.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, "Why? You hurt my contract beast and want to leave just like that?"

"What do you want? Don't forget that this is the Mediterranean; this is our territory!"

The middle-aged man still acted arrogant, but his tone had started to become stiff. It was not easy for them to meet such a beast, but in the end, they had to return with nothing. That itself had made the middle-aged man depressed.

In their eyes, not killing the green beast was giving the other person face. Who knew that the other person would want to find trouble with them.

"Leave your life!" Ouyang Shuo calmly proclaimed.

Haha! The middle-aged man broke out laughing like he had heard a huge joke, "Is your brain fried?"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, not willing to waste any more words.

"Fire!"

Zheng He understood and immediately fired.

The cannon sounds masked the mocking laugh, shock, and curses of the middle-aged man. The sudden strike from Dragon Head had caught the Spanish Warship off guard. Before they could react, they had already sunk.

The ‘invincible squadron’ slowly sunk to the bottom of the ocean, along with the so called ‘Honor of the Spanish’.

When the other Spanish warships heard the cannon shots, they immediately reacted, gathering and sailing for the port.

"Form up!" Zheng He ordered.

With a wave of the flag, the squadron that had originally lined up together suddenly changed into a battle formation. The ‘swallow spread its wings’ formation that shocked the world during the Ming Dynasty had once again appeared on the seas.

"Strike!"

The squadron swiftly left the port and charged toward the Spanish warships.

There were only around 20 warships patrolling outside of the port, in front of the voyage squadron, they were not enough. Since they dared to charge over, it seemed like they had the support of the Spanish Invincible Squadron.

In their eyes, Shanhai City would not dare to start and all-out war. They rushed over to seek some answers for the warship that was sunk.

But they were wrong!

Ouyang Shuo knew that after he sank the first Spanish warship, their conflict would become unresolvable. The peaceful trading wishes of the voyage squadron did not mean that they had to give in all the way.

True peace often needed to be obtained through the blood of war. Giving in would not allow for true peace.

If Shanhai City wanted to open the trade route, they had to go through the Spanish Squadron that took charge of the Mediterranean.

Originally, Ouyang Shuo was not ready to go all out against them so quickly. However, the development of the situation did not give Ouyang Shuo much time to think, and he had to strike back.

"Since we have already done it, let's go all out." Ouyang Shuo muttered, "It's time to let the arrogant Spanish realize that their glory days are long over!"

The Mediterranean did not belong to the Spanish.

To maintain a smooth long-distance trading route, the Shanhai City Navy had to have warships in the Mediterranean to show their strength and make their presence felt.

Before this, Ouyang Shuo had not been able to find a chance. This little incident was the best opportunity, so how could Ouyang Shuo let it slip by? From the start till now, taking revenge for Little Green had become a secondary element.

……

One hour, just one hour.

The 20 odd Spanish warships that had charged over were all crushed, their warships floating on the surface of the water.

When they received the news, Gibraltar was thrown into an uproar. The Spanish Invincible Squadron main force would have gotten the news and were just rushing over.

"Lord, what should we do?" Zheng He asked.

During this encounter, although the voyage squadron had achieved victory, Zheng He's expression had not relaxed.

Strictly speaking, this was the first time they had faced an opponent of the same caliber. Moreover, the enemy cannons and handguns were a level higher in terms of both quantity and quality.

Although the voyage squadron had outnumbered them, they had paid the price of three Mengchong Warships and 10 cima boats.

This result was enough to wake Zheng He up. The road ahead of the voyage squadron was incredibly lengthy and to truly rule the seas was not a simple matter.

One must know that the strongest squadron in Europe was not the Spanish but the English.

"Take down Gibraltar Port and make preparations for a head on battle!" Ouyang Shuo ordered.

"Understood!" Zheng He nodded.

Gibraltar Port was only a small sized port. Although it was in a strategic location, it could not withstand the cannon barrage of the voyage squadron. That afternoon, the port had fallen under Shanhai City’s rule.

At the same time, a system notification sounded out in the ears of all the Spanish players.

"System Notification: China Region Lord Qiyue Wuyi has attacked Gibraltar Port, starting a country war, Spain has entered country war mode. Imperial City Madrid has entered a level 2 state of alert!"

Chapter 655-Ocean Ruins

Spain, a country located on the southwest portion of Europe, a constitutional monarchy.

In recent history, Spain was an important cultural ground. During the Renaissance, it was the strongest country in Europe. During the 15th century mid to the end of the 16th century, Spain affected the globe and Spanish became the second most used language, only behind English.

Spain had over four million players, it also had land aplenty, being considered a strong country even in Europe. In comparison, the Singapore that Shanhai City destroyed seemed insignificant.

No matter how confident Ouyang Shuo felt, he was not crazy enough to think that he could take down Spain in one swoop.

He started the country war because he had no other choice.

Ouyang Shuo's goal was not to let the country war turn into a full-scale war but also to wake up and hurt the Spanish Invincible Squadron, making them respect Shanhai City.

In truth, this matter would be incredibly difficult.

The voyage squadron only had one division, and whether they could even defeat the Spanish Invincible Squadron was a question. Not to mention after the country war started, there would be the addition of a large number of players.

For the voyage squadron to survive would be considered highly fortunate.

Ouyang Shuo was not a rash person. When he destroyed the first ship, he actually did it on the fly and did not think too much. But when he decided to sink the other 20, Ouyang Shuo already had a plan.

His trump card was Atlantis.

The large-scale storyline quest Lost City of Atlantis had wrapped in more than 100 thousand players. However, Ouyang Shuo was confident about completing it all by himself.

Not to mention the quest rewards, just the reappearance of Atlantis would totally change the situation.

That night, Ouyang Shuo sat on a normal looking turreted boat, bringing little Green and the Divine Martial Guards to leave the Gibraltar Straits and head toward the ocean region where Atlantis was located.

Ouyang Shuo kept his calm, but the Spanish players exploded.

The Spanish players could not even imagine that the Shanhai City Squadron would have the courage to start a country war. When they heard that 20 warships were sunk, and Gibraltar Port was occupied, they were furious and demanded revenge.

At the end of the 16th century, the Spanish Invincible Squadron was crushed by the English Navy led by a pirate born Drake. From then on, Spain lost its position as the strongest naval country.

During the middle of the 17th century, in the battle for the king's succession, Spain gave Gibraltar to England. Even until the 21st century, Gibraltar was still under England's control.

Spain had tried to get back Gibraltar from England along but their efforts bore no fruit. So, one could say that Gibraltar was always a scar to the Spanish hearts.

Gaia had used geography to place Gibraltar under Spanish control, but now, Shanhai City had occupied it. All of a sudden, it triggered their sensitive emotions.

"Make the arrogant easterners pay!"

"Chase Shanhai City out of the Mediterranean!" The Spanish players hollered.

Spain had a long shoreline; more than half of the country border was a shoreline. Along with their naval history, the strong Spanish Lords all had territories next to the ocean.

The Spanish Invincible Squadron was just a title and did not point to a specific squadron. That was because there were no less than 30 squadrons under the Spanish Lords. Apart from that, even adventure gamemode players would build squadrons to go out to sea. The lucky Gerald Pick was the guild leader of a small mercenary guild.

The next morning, the various squadrons all gathered toward the Gibraltar Straits.

Shanhai City had occupied Gibraltar Port. The voyage squadron led by Zheng He naturally were not prepared to go start a head on battle with the Spanish Navy. Such action would be too stupid, and they would definitely stand no chance.

Zheng He's strategy was to make use of the superior mobility and flexibility of their ships to launch sneak attacks.

In a short time, both squadrons would be neck and neck.

Gibraltar Straits, nameless region.

Under the guidance of Little Green, the turreted boat finally reached its destination. Little Green was truly a god beast subspecies, after applying medicine, its wounds had stabilized overnight, and it could head into the water once more.

As he was not sure of the situation at the bottom of the ocean, Ouyang Shuo did not dare go alone. Hence, he needed to let Little Green dive down once more and search for more underwater breathing devices.

One must not simply look at its amazing function, as it was an incredibly common in Atlantis. Atlantis worshipped the sea god Poseidon. Hence, a lot of their technology pertained to the ocean.

The underwater breathing device was just one small item.

When Atlantis sank into the ocean, such devices were scattered in the rubble everywhere.

If players wanted to join the large-scale storyline quest, they needed to obtain one underwater breathing device, personally diving down and entering the ruins.

In his last life, some people got rich just by selling these underwater breathing devices.

Ouyang Shuo gave Little Green a huge net and tied it to its neck. In less than half an hour, Little Green returned with the net filled with underwater breathing devices.

Rough estimates put the number of devices at 300. As expected from the strong Little Green, it could pull such heavy things in the water even though it was not an easy matter.

After making four trips, every Divine Martial Guard had one device.

"Let’s go!"

Ouyang Shuo put on the underwater breathing device and took the lead to dive in, causing a splash. The one thousand Divine Martial Guards and the Personal Guards followed, plopping into the water like dumplings and diving down toward the depth of the ocean.

The turreted boat that had brought them here immediately left to avoid attracting the attention of the Spanish forces.

……

The waters of Gibraltar Straits were originally clear. Along with the changes by Gaia, no industrial waste remained, and it seemed like a paradise.

In the sky-blue waters, there were many colorful fish swimming around. When they saw them, they were not afraid and swam over.

On the other hand, the ocean beasts could feel Little Green's aura and fled.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this scene, he laughed.

This was the first time Ouyang Shuo had experienced diving. In reality, he had never gotten such good treatment. Not to mention that in real life they had to make use of heavy and cumbersome equipment.

After putting on the underwater breathing device, Ouyang Shuo could feel that he had transformed into a fish. He rode on Little Green, and they slowly proceeded toward the bottom. As they headed deeper, the water pressure increased.

The power of the device was shown. Not only could it provide oxygen, it could also reduce the pressure. Even as they dived to the deepest parts, Ouyang Shuo could only feel a negligible pressure.

At a depth of a thousand meters, they finally saw the underwater city. The bottom of the straits was still as clear as the sky, and the mysterious Atlantis City slowly appeared in their field of vision.

The legendary Atlantis City was designed in a concentric shape. As one headed deeper and closer toward the center, the restrictions grew stricter. The inner circle was for the important temple.

Toward Atlantis, three was an important number. Lines were repeated three times, three pyramids made up a group, three buildings made up a building group. The streets of the city were split into corners, connecting one corner to another. There were also many complicated underground paths.

The Capital of Atlantis represented the essence of the Atlantic continent; it displayed its culture, art, and the like; this was a memorial type city, the model of other countries.

However, only ruins appeared in front of him.

In the sky-blue water stood broken temples, toppled circular pillars, and statues in the mud. The statues still standing were flawed, with the spears in their hands all broken.

All of this basically described the fall of a civilization.

Desolate, tragic. Ouyang Shuo could even smell the scent of the passage of time.

Rotting, defeat, merciless.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo could still make out the glorious and bright civilization of Atlantis in the old days. A logically planned city system, exquisite statues, and majestic structures. Even the most basic rocks were carved with beautiful patterns.

Undoubtedly, this was once a great civilization.

Unfortunately, moss and vegetation had crept onto the walls, pillars, and structures and laid root. The aquatic animals lived in the cracked walls, including many ocean overlords like sharks. The entire city was totally different now.

The main people of the city - the Atlantis people - were nowhere to be seen.

The killing aura emitted by the Divine Martial Guards was something that even the sharks had to avoid. After they reached the bottom, Ouyang Shuo casually picked up an underwater breathing device and kept it in his storage bag.

Seeing the broken civilization, Ouyang Shuo was emotional and fell into deep thought, Don't tell me that even the greatest and most glorious empires cannot stand the corruption of time?

"Then what can my lofty goal even be compared to?" In Ouyang Shuo's eyes, a hint of confusion had appeared.

Ouyang Shuo stood alone in a trance amongst the city rubble. Meanwhile, the Divine Martial Guards all spread out around the Lord, ensuring that no one could hurt him.

At this very moment, voices spread out from the vast ruins.

"Welcome, destined person!"

The voice was coarse but contained some intellect.

"Who?"

Ouyang Shuo was astonished, and his eyes sharpened once more.

Chapter 656-Mysterious Crystal

A man in a long robe walked out from among the fallen stone pillars; he had a long spear in hand and wore a weird mask.

Upon closer inspection, the long spear was similar to the one that the temple guardian statue held in his hand. The patterns on the mask were the same as the ones carved into the rocks of the city.

According to Ouyang Shuo's knowledge, the style of the patterns seemed similar to the Mayan civilization of legends. The person in front of him was obviously a person from Atlantis.

Uniquely, a thumb-sized purple crystal was hung around his neck. The crystal was an octagonal in shape. Under the shine of the sea water, it looked extremely mysterious.

The only regret laid in the fact that the crystal itself was dull and not shining.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this man, his eyes narrowed, "Who are you? Why aren't you willing to show your real face?"

"Fated man, please follow me."

The fellow in the mask did not reply; he simply turned around and walked deep into the ruins.

"Follow!" Ouyang Shuo decisively ordered.

Atlantis had become the only hope of the voyage squadron, so Ouyang Shuo had no choice.

As he followed the man into the ruins, he felt an extreme shock. He had only seen the tip of the iceberg previously.

A grander temple, more exquisite statues, and bigger stone pillars were everywhere. Even just the head of the statue in the mud was five meters high.

Ouyang Shuo could not help but think back to the circular shape of the city. Obviously, they were walking deeper into the center of the circle. Even though only ruins remained, one could still see how strict and restricted the inner layers were.

They walked for a full hour before reaching a majestic temple. The temple was located in the center of the entire city, showing that this place held the highest position in their hearts.

"Fated person, please ask your guards to wait outside. Only you can enter," said the masked fellow.

Ouyang Shuo slightly hesitated. In the end, he stopped Chen Dameng and the others from trying to persuade him and said, "Wait outside. If you have time, search for some underwater breathing devices and other items in the ruins."

The underwater breathing device was a great item. When they were rushing here, Ouyang Shuo was too embarrassed to pick them up. Now that they had the chance, he naturally did not want to miss it. Apart from that, there might be other treasures too.

"Yes, my Lord!" Chen Dameng nodded.

After following by the Lord's side for so long, Chen Dameng roughly understood Ouyang Shuo’s way of doing things. Although his actions seemed casual, he was in truth exceedingly careful. Since he asked them to stay outside, there should not be any danger.

Ouyang Shuo brought Little Green and followed the masked man into the temple.

In the main hall stood an incredible statue of a handsome man. He had a full beard; his left hand grasped a trident, and his right hand held a massive conch.

"Sea God Poseidon?" Ouyang Shuo exclaimed.

Wuu!

When Little Green saw the god statue, it let out an unhappy roar.

"It is the sea god!" The fellow in the mask could not help but look at Little Green as he walked toward the left of the hall. There was a wooden staircase that led downward.

Both sides of the stairs were gloomy and there was ocean seaweed aplenty. If one was not careful, they would definitely slip. Weirdly, the deeper they headed, the brighter and brighter it grew; it was like the light source was coming from below.

Ouyang Shuo was still contemplating when a pale blue glow appeared after they walked five meters; it was a truly mysterious light.

The mysterious barrier blocked the sea water on the outside from entering. Through the light, Ouyang Shuo could roughly see a city.

"This is?" Ouyang Shuo was astounded.

"This is our land of fortune," the masked man said, unable to hide his sadness.

"...."

Being buried deep in the ocean, unable to see the light of day, and spending numerous years underwater. Such a life definitely was not lucky for any civilization.

He passed through the light barrier without any resistance, and the sight before his eyes left his mouth agape. They were standing on a cliff; when he looked down, he saw waterfalls and streams, birds and plants; a picturesque scene.

Many blue lakes were spread all around. Many small boats floated across these lakes; some people were fishing on the boats, looking happy and carefree.

By the lake, there were beauties washing their clothes, children playing around, forming a truly merry sight.

Many exquisite buildings were hidden in the lush greenery like a paradise cut off from the world. Such a scene was completely different from the desolate and sad environment that Ouyang Shuo had imagined.

With that, one could see the greatness of Atlantis’s ruler.

He bore all the pain and loneliness alone. To normal people, such a life was a great thing.

Thinking about this point, Ouyang Shuo glanced at the man beside him.

Ouyang Shuo recognized the purple crystal on his neck. The owner of this crystal was definitely a core member of the Atlantis race and amongst the most core ones.

Maybe he noticed Ouyang Shuo looking at him, or maybe it was because he had reached home, but the person took off the mask.

Under the mask was actually a young woman. Fiery red long hair, deep blue eyes, long eye lashes, exquisite features, and thick lips; overall, she looked beautiful to the extreme.

When Ouyang Shuo saw her appearance, his mouth gaped open.

"Hello, my name is Kalia, welcome to Atlantis City." Her voice was crisp; her previous hoarse voice was just a disguise.

Ouyang Shuo slightly shook her tender white hand before quickly releasing his hold, "Hello, I am player Qiyue Wuyi."

Kalia was undoubtedly a beauty. Although her robe covered her body, she obviously had a tempting figure. Moreover, she had an aura unique to the Atlantis people, truly stunning.

Ouyang Shuo was not a normal person. He knew that beauty was just an outer layer; he would admire it but would not dive into. His heart was already as solid as stone.

When Kalia saw that Ouyang Shuo's eyes remained sharp and clear, she felt weird. After all, she was the most beautiful of her race and many had fallen for her before.

Since a young age, she had grown up under the praises of everyone. This was the first time she saw someone unaffected by her beauty. Hence, she naturally felt curious.

"The fishes in the lake are decreasing, and the lives of the people is growing harder. If this continues, in less than 10 years, this place will be finished." Kalia looked at the city below the cliff despondently.

"Don't worry, you don't need to wait for 10 years, you can live on land right now." Ouyang Shuo console herd.

When she heard his words, her eyes lit up, and she clapped her hands together as she said, "That's right, the heavens have let us meet a fated person."

Cough. Under her hot gaze, Ouyang Shuo felt a little uncomfortable, "What should we do now?"

"Let’s go’ I'll bring you down!"

"How do we go down?"

Ouyang Shuo was shocked. After all, they stood on a thousand-foot cliff.

Kalia smiled, passing through a small door and arriving at the right side of the cliff. The whole place was empty and was built into a massive hall. In the middle was a skeletal structure of a creature resembling a shark.

However, it was not a shark. Ouyang Shuo could clearly see that it was emitting a golden shine. Obviously, this was a man-made golden skeletal structure.

Witnessing such an exquisite item, Ouyang Shuo's impression of their technology changed. With the current standards of Shanhai City, they could not even make pictured paper.

Upon closer inspection, he found that it was actually a flying device with wings on the side. There was a cabin in the middle for people to sit on. However, there was not an electronic system.

The skeletal structure was carved with complicated engravings that were similar to those on the buildings.

It seems like this engraving technique was one of their core techniques; it was used on buildings, decorations, machines and more.

Kalia sat in the pilot seat and stabbed the purple crystal into one of the holes, turning left. With a Kacha! the shark actually came alive and started to let out rumbling sounds.

The patterns on the shark shone with a blue glow. The sharp Ouyang Shuo noticed that when Kalia took out the purple crystal, it had dimmed further.

"So magical!"

Ouyang Shuo was filled with many thoughts. It seemed like the crystal provided the energy used to move the shark.

"Come in!" Kalia waved at the dazed Ouyang Shuo.

"Oh!" Ouyang Shuo got up and sat in the left side of the cabin.

The shark flying device was not big, similar to a World War II fighter jet. It only had enough space for two. Sitting beside Kalia, Ouyang Shuo could roughly smell the special scent from her body, the scent of a young woman.

This was probably the first time Kalia had been so close to a guy as her face had flushed red. She controlled the device to fly away from the cliff and head toward the city below.

Looking down on Atlantis, although it was exquisite, it was much smaller compared to the ruins, probably the size of a town.

They were like birds trapped in a cage!

Ouyang Shuo understood her worries; freedom was something that everyone wished for. After all, no one wanted to be trapped in such an isolated place and grow old.

In less than 10 minutes, the flying device stopped in the castle square in the middle of the city.

"This is our imperial palace." Kalia introduced.

Seeing Kalia enter the imperial palace, Ouyang Shuo's eyes lit up.

Her identity was truly not simple. After all, no matter how bad Atlantis's situation was, it was still a massive empire. It was also under heavy security, so how could anyone just walk in and out of the palace?

The only explanation was that she was a member of the imperial family, probably a princess.

Princess? Ouyang Shuo thought to himself.

Chapter 657-Not Princess but Queen

The imperial palace seemed extremely cold. Apart from a few guards at crucial locations, there was no one else.

When they passed one of the palaces, Ouyang Shuo could not help but ask, "Kalia, are you the princess?"

Kalia stopped; she turned around and said,"I was."

"Was?" Ouyang Shuo did not understand.

"Half a year ago, my sick father passed away, so I took over the position." Kalia answered emotionlessly.

"...."

So Kalia was not a princess but the queen of Atlantis.

"My condolences!" Ouyang Shuo was apologetic.

Kalia smiled, "My father went really peacefully; it could be said to be a form of release!"

Ouyang Shuo finally understood everything; she had the burden of the entire race on her shoulders. No wonder would possess such a demeanor despite her young age.

The two proceeded on in silence; soon, they entered a massive hall in the deep parts of the imperial palace. Who knows what button she pressed as the hall suddenly descended, and they entered a cave.

The cave was humongous; one could not see the ends of it, and the roof was around 20 meters high. The entire cave was extremely dark and humid; only the middle portion had a bright golden glow.

A golden lake sat at the center of the cave; its golden liquid seemed like it was about to run out. Above the lake floated a dust sized golden crystal, its shape the same as the purple crystal hung on her neck.

Like the purple crystal, the golden crystal was dim with no light; it seemed like it was about to fall into the water at any moment. The residual light shone on the water, golden and shiny.

Around the golden crystal were wooden shields, and each shield had a different face. They were like guards, loyally guarding this golden crystal.

Ouyang Shuo roughly estimated that the shields numbered at around 12.

"That is the magnetic ohlite; it is also the source of Atlantis’ energy. Ten thousand years ago, when the calamity stuck us, this magnetic ohlite’s energy barrier protected this small piece of land and buried us alone with the ruins." Kalia explained, "This is the lifeline of Atlantis."

"Then what about the one around your neck?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"It is too." Kalia nodded, "The magnetic ohlite can absorb light and turn it into energy. From low to high, it can be split into white, green, blue, purple, and gold; there are five levels. The lower grade magnetic ohlites are born from the higher-grade ones."

"From the looks of it, the golden magnetic ohlite seems to be facing a situation?" Ouyang Shuo moved the conversational topic to the quest.

At the current moment, the voyage squadron was fighting for their lives. Every moment he wasted, they would face a bit more danger.

"That's right. The barrier it formed used up a lot of energy. After sustaining the barrier for so long, no matter how strong the golden ohlite is, it can't hold on anymore."

"Is there anything I can do?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"Yes." Kalia nodded.

At this moment, a system notification sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for officially activating S Grade storyline quest, Lost City of Atlantis. Background: 10 thousand years ago, a titanic tsunami and earthquake destroyed Atlantis and sent it to the bottom of the ocean. However, a group of people actually survived under the protection of the golden magnetic ohlite.

“Quest requirements: fill up the golden liquid of the pool and charge up the golden magnetic ohlite, allowing Atlantis to rise back to the ocean surface and reappear.

Mission Reward: Unknown. Friendly Reminder: Choosing different branch quests will grant different rewards. If the quest fails, there may be punishments, so please carefully select your branch quest."

"Branch quest 1: Solo complete the storyline quest. After completion, awarded 1 top class Atlantis technology, 1 purple crystal, 50 thousand merit points, 150 thousand reputation, points and other rewards."

"Branch quest 2: Share the quest, invite other players to complete it tomorrow. After completion, awarded 1 intermediate class Atlantis technology, 1 blue crystal, 10 thousand merit points, and 30 thousand reputation points."

"Friendly Reminder: If player choses branch quest 1 and fails, 200 thousand gold, 100 thousand merit points, and 300 thousand reputation points will be deducted. If not enough, achievement value will be deducted; if still not enough, turn to negative points until it is paid up."

"If player chose branch quest 2, no punishment if fail to complete quest."

The two branch quests were basically the difference between heaven and earth in terms of both rewards and punishment.

High risk high rewards; low risks, still sizable rewards.

If one was not a crazy gambler, they definitely would not choose the first choice. Just thinking about the difficulty of completing an S rank storyline quest, soloing it was pretty much impossible.

In the last life, Pick had struggled and gave up on the temptation in the end.

If Ouyang Shuo did not have the advantage of his past life, he definitely would not have chosen such the 1st option. However, now was different, and he had the ability to complete this branch quest.

"Choose branch quest 1."

"System Notification: Branch quest chosen, cannot be changed."

The moment the system notification sounded it was like Gaia had received certain instructions as she continued, "The golden pool liquid is actually composed of gold, and one gold coin can form five drops of this liquid."

"Wow…"

Even though Ouyang Shuo had mentally prepared himself, he still sucked in a deep breath.

Based on his calculations, a liter of gold liquid had around 10 thousand drops, which would require two thousand gold. The pool was one meter deep and could fit one thousand liters of the golden liquid.

This also meant that around two million gold was needed to fill up this pool. At this stage of the game, it was likely that only Ouyang Shuo could directly take out two million.

One had to say that in the last life, Pick had made the right decision. No wonder this quest had wrapped in 100 thousand plus players. Depending on one person to fill this up pool was nearly impossible.

However, Ouyang Shuo was going to turn the impossible into a possibility. He believed that Gaia would not push out a quest where players would lose money from. With such strict settings, the rewards after completion would similarly be great.

"Understood!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded; he took his storage bag and aimed it at the pool. Suddenly, gold coins flowed out like a flood, gathering into a gold stream.

The golden stream of coins transformed into the gold liquid when they entered the pool under a mysterious power. Then, the gold liquid started to flow at the bottom of the pool. The golden light was alluring and incredibly tempting.

When Kaila saw this scene, her eyes lit up.

In truth, Atlantis was extremely rich, so its treasury definitely contained more than two million gold. Even if they did not currently possess such an amount, with the passage of 10 thousand years, they definitely could gather such a sum.

Who knows how many shipwrecks there were, and how many riches were buried along with these sunken ships.

With the underwater breathing device, as long as the Atlantis people were patient, 10 thousand years were enough for them to comb the entire Mediterranean and even the entire Red Sea.

Unfortunately, coins from natives were useless.

Gaia created such a setting to create problems for players.

If they chose the 2nd branch quest, they must do more than just obtain an underwater breathing device, and they must go through many tests to enter this land of fortune.

When they arrived here, they had to complete daily quests to increase the good impression the Atlantis people had toward them before obtaining the rights to enter the imperial palace. With that, they would finally have the right to throw gold coins into the pool.

Gaia created such settings to increase the player participation rate in the storyline quest. Secondly, it wanted to use this chance to advertise the lost Atlantis and warn them.

After all, human civilization on earth was totally lost.

Perhaps their generation could be considered the 5th generation of humans. After a few thousand years or even tens of thousands of years, the magma flow would have stopped and cooled down, allowing life to appear once more.

At that time, maybe humans would reappear and become the rulers of Earth once more.

At that time, what they left on Earth would become ancient texts for the new generation of humans and seen as acts of gods.

……

The golden stream continued and did not stop.

Ouyang Shuo looked at his gold amount in his stat page; it was jumping at an indiscernible rate. Despite this, his heart remained tranquil.

No matter what, he needed to spend this two million gold.

In Friendship City, Ouyang Shuo had spent one million. In Atlantis, he would spend two million. With that, he would only be left with one million in his storage bag.

It fit the saying, ‘Money comes fast and goes fast.’

Under the massive injection of gold, the golden liquid was filling up the pool at an observable rate, and it continued to rise and create a golden steam.

The golden magnetic ohlite started to activate its vacuum mode, and it sucked up all the golden streams.

The dim stone started to slowly emit an eye-catching glow, becoming more and more bright.

It was like the shields around it had felt some sort of mysterious power leading them, and the patterns started to light up and spin around the magnetic ohlite.

The longer this went on, the faster they spun.

At the later stages, Ouyang Shuo could only see afterimages and the middle of the shields emanating an eye-catching golden light, charging straight for the skies.

Chapter 658-Unbreakable King's Mentality

Just as Ouyang Shuo was spending money like water, the voyage squadron led by Zheng He was facing some problems.

7th month, 26th day, Gibraltar Straits.

Malaga City, the Spanish territory closest to the port, had rushed over in just a night. However, the huge squadron did not find anything at the port.

When they found the empty port, the soldiers looked at one another.

"Cowards!"

The speaker was a fellow with a black beard known as Juan. He was one of the strongest Lords in the south of Spain. Juan had led his troops over because he wanted to snatch the glory of being the first to start the fight.

However, he had not expected for such a situation to occur.

"Are they toying with us? They started a country war then ran away? Shameless!"

"Sire, what should we do now?" His subordinate Dafu carefully asked.

Juan looked at the empty port and a cunning look shone in his eyes, "The enemy ran away, so this glory is ours for sure. Rush into the port; let’s occupy Gibraltar Port."

"Understood!" Dafu laughed.

Just like that, Juan ‘went through so much trouble’, ‘courageously fought’, and finally destroyed the Shanhai City Squadron, recovering Gibraltar Port. When the news spread to the forums, the country was naturally delighted.

"The world's best Lord? Haha, what a joke!"

"The Invincible Squadron is invincible!"

On the forums, some people were mocking Shanhai City, and some were blindly worshipping the Spanish Invincible Squadron. Some people even spread the news to China, raising the attention of the other country's players.

"Shanhai City occupied Gibraltar Port? Surely not!" Greece, Italy, and other countries that had traded with the voyage squadron did not believe this news.

"Haha, those stupid easterners have lost so much face!"

"Arrogant Spanish!" However, some were displeased by the Spanish.

The Spanish Squadron regarded itself as the owner of the Mediterranean, so how would the other countries feel happy about this matter?

"Looking at all the battle records of Shanhai City, there is none where they surrendered easily. They have surely set a trap and are waiting for the Spanish people to fall in. Then they will give the Spanish a slap to their faces." There were still people who believed in Shanhai City.

"I agree!’

……

The celebrations of the Spanish people were too early and too short lived.

At 9 AM, the voyage squadron struck.

Zheng He made use of guerrilla tactics to strike all around; they would either perform sneak attacks or ambushes, causing a lot of problems for the Spanish Squadron. Ship after ship were sunk by the voyage squadron, infuriating the Spanish.

The Spanish people felt that they had lost face, and their embarrassment turned into anger. Amongst which, the most furious one was naturally Juan, who swore he would crush the voyage squadron.

The Spanish people were not fools. After tasting defeat, they immediately changed tactics and stopped traveling alone. The unified Spanish Squadron patrolled the Gibraltar Straits, continuing to shrink their search area.

With that, the voyage squadron were forced into a tough situation.

Helplessly, Zheng He could only gather the four split up units to avoid the Spanish Squadron from hitting them one by one. In the end, they could only rely on their speed to avoid the enemy.

Atlantis, land of survivors.

The golden light in the cave grew more and more vibrant, and the golden liquid in the pool was about to be filled up.

Just as the pool filled up, the 12 shields protecting the golden magnetic ohlite suddenly spread out, revealing the stone itself. The stone looked like a gigantic golden sun, extremely eye-catching.

When Kalia saw this scene, she stepped up, and the purple crystal around her neck floated up. Then, she clapped her hands together and shut her eyes tightly as she communicated with the golden stone.

"Don't tell me that this stone is actually sentient?" Ouyang Shuo was astonished.

After a short while, the light burst apart, filling the entire cave with warmth and a blinding golden light, seemingly possessing a sort of mysterious energy that one could not help but worship.

Even Kalia knelt to the ground.

Ouyang Shuo's eyes focused as he rotated the Yellow Emperor Cultivation Technique to resist this pressure. He was a Lord, a king, so how would he yield to a rock?

The golden light probably felt the resistance from Ouyang Shuo as it covered him with a stronger pressure, wanting to make him yield.

Ouyang Shuo could only feel a massive strength bearing down on him from all sides. The pressure on his head was especially strong, becoming stronger like a mountain pressing down on him.

Beads of sweat seeped out from his forehead.

Ouyang Shuo gritted his teeth, trying his best to use his mental strength to resist. However, he felt helpless; the harder he tried, the stronger the golden light grew, increasing the pressure and causing his bones to crackle.

"Ah!"

Ouyang Shuo gritted his teeth, unable to hold on any longer as he sat on the ground. The primordial energy in his body rotated crazily, breaking the limit of his daily cultivation.

The insides of his meridians were similarly shining golden.

Before this, on the unknown island, the washing of the spirit energy from the dragon vein had strengthened his meridians. Under such pressure, they gave out an incredible toughness and vitality.

Limitless potential was transforming into actual strength.

Under such pressure, the golden primordial energy in his body grew denser and denser, thicker and thicker. The cultivation speed of the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique was increasing at a discernible rate.

However, in Ouyang Shuo's heart, there wasn't any joy.

The pressure from the golden light continued to increase. All his bones emitted cracking sounds like the sound of frying beans, a scary sight.

If this continued, Ouyang Shuo was definitely going to be crushed into a pile of meat paste.

"Yield! Yield to me!"

Maybe it was an illusion, but such words floated into his ear.

"Never!"

Ouyang Shuo's eyes were blood red and his face looked savage, "The dignity of a king won't be stepped on!"

After activating the golden primordial energy, the devil bloodline in his body was also activated. A black aura rose up from Ouyang Shuo's body to fight against the other aura.

The black bloodline and the golden primordial energy mixed together in his body, shining brightly.

This was the first time Ouyang Shuo had used these two totally different powers at the same time. This was also the first time they had fought together against a common enemy.

Black and gold, incredibly harmonious.

One could even say that these two were growing closer and closer, merging with one another.

If he could merge these two powers together, it would be an amazing fortuitous encounter. Helplessly, this process was unusually difficult; the two powers sometimes merged but sometimes split up.

If this went on, it would probably require more than a day.

The golden gold was obviously not going to give Ouyang Shuo that time. Seeing that it was unable to make him yield, the golden magnetic ohlite was a little ‘furious.’ Hence, it increased the pressure by three times.

The sky and the oceans were boundless with no end. The skies were filled with golden clouds, but the earth was dark and gloomy like it was made all out of steel and iron.

On this earth, there was only Ouyang Shuo alone.

The golden cloud layer continued to press down on him.

Ouyang Shuo planted his feet into the ground, his hands pushing against the heavens as he let out a furious holler.

The golden sky continued to press down, causing Ouyang Shuo's spine to curb under the pressure. The earth under his feet did not move, making him bear the pressure of the heavens alone.

Ouyang Shuo raised his head and looked around, but he only saw golden clouds around him. The short but thick and heavy cloud layer made it hard for one to breathe, making one feel despair; it was like there was no hopes of escaping.

Cough!

Instantly, Ouyang Shuo suffered internal injuries and coughed out a mouthful of blood; his face turned ashen white.

"Damn it!"

Ouyang Shuo wiped the blood off the side of his mouth; his facial expression looked extremely gloomy.

He totally did not expect such a change to occur when everything was right about to succeed. "Is Gaia unhappy that I completed it so easily, so it wanted to increase the test difficulty for me?"

Ouyang Shuo's brows were locked tight, making him yield in defeat was impossible. Even if he went all out and failed and had to accept the punishment for failure, he definitely would not allow himself to yield to a rock.

Similarly, as the queen, Kalia could bow to it as it was a symbol of the Atlantis people. However, to Ouyang Shuo, it was just a rock that provided energy.

"I have no choice; I only have one last shot!"

Ouyang Shuo calmed himself down and focused, sinking into his subconscious state, trying to connect with the fate dragon. The only thing that could help him go against this pressure was the mysterious fate dragon.

In the skies above the oceans, hiding in the clouds, was a half-red, half-purple dragon that stretched for 10 miles. It slowly opened its sleepy eyes, looking down at the depths of the ocean.

Aang! The roar of a dragon broke out.

Instantly, a strong dragon’s might past through tens of thousands of miles and descended onto Ouyang Shuo. Under the dragon's might, the golden light around Ouyang Shuo exploded.

"Hu!" Ouyang Shuo let out a deep breath, sweat dropping like rain.

The golden light lost but tried to gather itself once more.

At this very moment, Kalia was woken up by the dragon’s roar. When she regained her bearings, she saw the ashen, white-faced Ouyang Shuo, and she instantly understood the situation. Kalia was astonished, clapping her hands together and once again starting to communicate with the golden magnetic ohlite.

Who knows what she said, but the golden light covered Ouyang Shuo once more. Weirdly, Ouyang Shuo could not feel any suppression. Instead, the golden light slowly seeped into Ouyang Shuo's body.

All of a sudden, his internal injuries healed.

One could even say that his used up primordial energy was replenished.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this situation, he stopped using his Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique and the devil bloodline, waking up from his trancelike state. He looked at the floating golden ohlite with a complicated expression.

This time, he had gained a fortuitous encounter because of a calamity.

However, Ouyang Shuo would never want to face such a test a second time.

……

After the short interruption, the changes continued.

The golden light passed through the dome and headed for the ‘clouds’. Instantly, the entire survivor land was covered in a golden light. Under this cover, it seemed like a heavenly place.

At the same time, the magnetic ohlite on the neck of every Atlantis person emitted a glow. Some green, some blue, and even some purple, truly eye catching and colorful.

"A sign from the gods!"

Similar to Kalia, all the Atlantis people knelt on the ground, their faces filled with sincerity and joy. They could feel that the opportunity for them to rise once more had arrived.

The golden light did not stop and actually broke through the sky, passing the energy barrier of the survivor land and spreading out. In less than 10 minutes, the entire Atlantis ruins were covered in the golden light.

Under the nourishment of the golden light, the mysterious carvings on the buildings suddenly came ‘alive’, and the blue glow formed many mysterious patterns.

Instantly, the corals and seaweed on the structures turned to dust. Even dust, mud, and such things were all removed from the ruins and no longer existed.

The ruins of the city were suddenly renewed. The sea god temple in the middle of the city gave out an eye-catching blue light, dark blue with a lot of depth. Now, the sea god statue became lifelike.

Only the broken pillars and statues with missing arms and legs told the tragic tale of the city.

The Divine Martial Guards outside of the sea god temple were astonished when they saw this. Luckily, Kalia had told them that the golden light was not nefarious.

Deep under the ocean, the eye-catching golden light turned the deep blue ocean into a golden ocean.

Suddenly, rumbling noises broke out from the depths of the oceans like that of mountains shaking and the earth moving. The entire ruins shook, the shaking increasing in intensity.

All the golden light around the ruins suddenly charged toward the center of the city. It gathered together and burst forth, forming a massive golden ball that encapsulated the entire ruins.

At the same time, every Atlantis person, and even the Divine Martial Guards, were hidden in this golden bubble that protected them.

The tremors from deep down became more and more intense. The surrounding regions of the ruins started to crack and form terrifying trenches.

The trenches were becoming wider and deeper.

Cracks more than 10 meters in size formed, a shocking sight.

Honglong!

A titanic explosion sounded out from the depths of the ocean like the rumbling of thunder.

Kachi!

A weird noise like a twig being broken followed; this was the sound of the land region cracking.

With that, Atlantis finally separated itself from the ocean floor. 10 thousand years of change had made the ruins and the bottom of the ocean closely linked together, so these cracks instantly generated a massive tsunami.

If ships passed by, they would face a terrible fate.

The bigger the tsunami at the depths of the ocean, the wider the range of effect. For this tsunami, the entire Gibraltar Straits was affected. Within the ocean, be it the Spanish Squadron or the voyage squadron, they were like babies in front of the tsunami.

Honglong!

Another deafening sound.

Atlantis, which had sunk 10 thousand years ago, was finally going to appear in front of the world again.

Chapter 659-Combat Puppet

Under the cover of the golden light, the ruins slowly started to rise from the bottom of the ocean. The first to connect Atlantis to the bottom of the ocean was a thirty odd meter thick pillar; it seemed impossible.

The huge pillar was similarly covered in the golden glow; it utilized a mysterious strength to raise Atlantis City. If Ouyang Shuo saw this situation, he would have suspected that this pillar was the ocean calming god needle that Sun Wukong wielded in the legends.

When Atlantis completely appeared on the surface, it once again caused a titanic tsunami. The entire Mediterranean ocean region could feel the strength of the wave.

Huge waves crashed into the cities near the ocean. Many merchant ships and fishing boats, who were late to return, struggled under this tough weather.

The nearby Gibraltar ocean region suffered the most; each wave was higher than the last, the highest reaching several meters. Even with the buffs of both the Mazu Temple and the Silver Prayer House, the voyage squadron still had two Mengchong warships that toppled.

As for the cima boats, they were already stored within the turreted ships during the first wave of tsunami.

On Dragon Head, Zheng He looked out at the huge waves outside of the boat and laughed in amusement. He knew what the Lord went to do, so it seems the Lord had caused this.

Truly a case of team kill! Zheng He thought as he organized the rescue mission.

Even with the blessing of the Mazu Temple, the voyage squadron suffered, much less the Spanish Squadron. Based on incomplete intel, at least fifty Spanish Invincible Squadron warships capsized in the Atlantic.

Those smaller ships even directly snapped into two.

Atlantis used such a brutal and overbearing method to announce its return.

……

The ruins covered in the golden light did not simply rise from the ocean floor. A mysterious power started to reassemble and fix it, forming a complete Atlantis-style island.

The new island still followed the orthodox three-layer concentric circle dragon. In the center was the Sea God Temple, which shone once more. It glistened with a blue light, the only building in the area.

The Sea God was a key element of Atlantis civilization, and his position was even higher than that of the imperial family. Even the Atlantis technology crystal like warships and flying devices were modeled after beasts of the ocean.

The inner circle island was the survivor land, the core circle of Atlantis civilization. The imperial palace, temples, technology centers, art centers, altars, and other core buildings were all built here.

Based on the rules, only those with blue and above magnetic ohlite stones could step into the inner circle. For others, the inner circle was a prohibited zone.

The Atlantis people that were able to survive till now were undoubtedly fortunate.

The middle circle was formed up from the city ruins on the deeper parts of the ocean. This was also the core area of Atlantis civilization. Flying devices and other technology factories, normal temples, houses, parks and such facilities were all built in the middle circle.

All the unique technology of Atlantis was basically designed in the middle circle. One could say that the middle circle was a super factory.

Although the ruins were broken and a total mess, their building materials were still precious. Each stone was carved by the Atlantis people with much effort, and it could be restored.

One could foresee that repairing the buildings in the middle circle would be a long-term mission for the Atlantis people.

However, 10 thousand years of loneliness had shrunk their population and talent pool. To fix and repair the middle circle alone would be an unusually long process.

On the other hand. this would be a great chance for the players.

Ouyang Shuo remembered that in the last life, Atlantis crazily gave out missions to attract players to help them fix the buildings.

A massive wave of players swarmed over. In less than half a year, the restoration was completed, a minor miracle.

The outer circle island was a brand-new ocean island, taking up the greatest surface area. This was also a gift from the golden magnetic ohlite that awaited the Atlantis people to explore.

10 thousand years ago, Atlantis was a mega empire. They had more than 10 of these concentric islands, even crossing 100 at their peak.

Today, they were only left with one, so even if they could rise up, their glory would never be the same. What had risen was just a piece of the past.

Twenty-four 100-meter-tall giants stood along the outer island. The giants stood straight with their arms opened, forming a circle and guarding Atlantis.

They were a unique item of Atlantis Civilization; they were termed as the magnetic ohlite machine puppet or the magic puppet for short. They could also be separated into combat puppets and construction puppets.

They had carved patterns on both their surface and on the inside; they had complete machine circuits that relied on magnetic ohlites to move.

The giants guarding outside the island were all combat puppets. They were the core force that defended Atlantis. Unless it was life or death situation, the Atlantis people would not mobilize them.

Every combat puppet had exceptional combat strength, with the power to split oceans. If one wanted to compare, the octopus boss that Ouyang Shuo fought was nothing compared to these behemoths.

Even if cannons struck them, the combat puppets would not budge.

Their only weakness was the level of energy expenditure. One blue magnetic ohlite could only sustain a combat puppet for an hour. After which, they would enter hibernation.

Only after the magnetic ohlite was recharged could the puppet fight once more.

As such, these puppets were a killing hand, similar to the modern day strategic nuclear device.

The combat puppets were strong, but the construction puppet was not simple either. Each one was four to five meters high, some even 10 meters high. Although they looked like a little brother before the combat puppet, they were still giants compared to the average construction worker.

When building walls, if 10 construction puppets worked together, they could easily accomplish the task. Stone pieces that were problematic for numerous workers were nothing to them, and they could carry it as if they were carrying toys.

Apart from repairing city walls, temples, memorials, and other big buildings, they could also carry and transport goods on the dock, carrying ores in the mines and carrying stone pieces at the quarry.

They could even bring their own drills and open up roads.

In Atlantis, the construction puppets were basically used in every construction area. At least half of the credit had to go to them in the construction of the buildings of Atlantis.

Most importantly, the construction puppets had a long lifespan.

One day of energy recharging could last it for three days.

Be it combat puppets or construction puppets, they were both extraordinary existences. Their puppet making technology was also one of their pinnacle technologies, far ahead of any technology tree in the game.

……

In between the three circular islands were three rivers of different breadths. The river water was all freshwater, with many fish, which was the reason why Atlantis could survive in the Mediterranean.

In the rivers, numerous ships designed like ocean beasts traveled along. At first glance, they were sharks, whales, and other eye-catching creatures. They were known as mimicry ships; some were basic fishing and merchant ships, and some were warships. Amongst which, the warships relied on the magnetic ohlite.

One could say that Atlantis technology basically revolved around the magnetic ohlite and their carving technique; they were truly a unique civilization.

Even if other countries learned the relevant techniques, it was useless without the magnetic ohlite.

Between the circular islands, apart from water wards, there were great bridges that connected the islands. From east to west and north to south there were bridges, joining the three islands together, forming a cross shape.

At the ends of the bridges were the four ports of Atlantis. For the Atlantis civilization to form four elite ports in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea was insane luck.

Looking down from the sky, the entire Atlantis Island looked majestic, and their technological field was exceptional.

At this very moment, a regional notification sounded out to all the Mediterranean countries.

"Mediterranean Regional Notification: Congratulations China Region Lord Qiyue Wuyi for soloing the large-scale storyline quest, Lost City of Atlantis. Atlantis has reappeared in the Mediterranean region. Please note that relevant exploration quests and missions are not officially open to players yet."

……

The moment the notification sounded, the Mediterranean region fell into silence.

At this moment, the titanic tsunami in the Mediterranean region finally received a logical explanation.

"Ha? Atlantis?"

To the Mediterranean countries, Atlantis was not an unfamiliar word. However, they had not expected for the civilization of legends to actually appear.

Their first reaction was, "Where is Atlantis?"

In the vast oceans, finding a single island was incredibly difficult. However, some smart players though back to the Gibraltar Port conflict that Ouyang Shuo had started, and they immediately turned their sights to the Gibraltar Straits.

All the squadrons in the Mediterranean were astonished, and they directly charged toward the Gibraltar Straits.

The most awkward group was the Spanish Squadron. They were still hot-blooded about the country war, and even spoke big words about wanting to teach Shanhai City a lesson. Now, such a matter suddenly popped out.

Thinking back to the numerous warships that capsized in the tsunami, none of them felt good.

What a jerk! Juan's thoughts basically represented what most of the Spanish players thought.

On the global forums, this matter totally exploded.

After all, the number of people who could set out to try and find Atlantis were in the minority, and those who could not could only go online and spread rumors.

All of a sudden, all kinds of rumors regarding Atlantis in real life were dragged out by players.

Those who understood the most were naturally the most impatient ones. Some even chose to rent boats and charge toward the Gibraltar Straits.

Chapter 660-Aerial Scouting Squad

On the forums, the Spanish people were rent completely mute.

Juan, who was greedy for fame and fortune, had become a total joke.

What a disappointment! the Spanish players all had this same thought.

Who knows how this random country war would end.

Atlantis Island, inner circle, imperial palace.

Ouyang Shuo had already left the cave and returned with Kalia to the surface of the palace.

As for the Divine Martial Guards, they were still at the middle circle island.

Shortly after the regional notification ended, a system notification sounded out by Ouyang Shuo's ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for completing S-rank large-scale storyline quest, Lost City of Atlantis. Player rewarded 1 piece of top grade Atlantis technology, 1 purple crystal, 50 thousand merit points, and 150 thousand reputation points."

Merit points and reputation points were given directly, with these points, his two stats had reached the brink of upgrading.

Considering the merit points that he had obtained from fighting the Spanish Squadron, he now had 945,000 merit points, just 55,000 away from reaching the duke rank.

Even his reputation had reached 820 thousand, lacking only180 thousand from the highest level of Well Known in the World.

After the system notification ended, Kalia started to speak, "Qiyue Wuyi, you are the savior of the Atlantis people." As she spoke, she took off the purple crystal that hung around her neck and passed it to Ouyang Shuo, “This is for you."

"This..."

Ouyang Shuo was a little hesitant. Although the rewards stated that he would receive one purple crystal, he did not expect it to come directly from Kalia's neck

It was obvious that to Kalia or to the Atlantis Race, this purple crystal must have a deep meaning, and it was not something a normal purple crystal could compare to.

"Please accept this; it's our kind intentions." Kalia insisted.

Ouyang Shuo sighed in his heart, reaching out and accepting the crystal.

The freedom level of Earth Online was extremely high and even quest rewards could change. Based on the NPC interaction and progression, they would flexibly give out rewards.

Kalia's current actions were exactly that. She had good feelings toward Ouyang Shuo, so she gave her own purple crystal to him as the quest reward.

Although they had not met for long, Ouyang Shuo had left a deep impression on her.

To Ouyang Shuo, Kalia was mysterious. But to her, Ouyang Shuo was even more so. This fated person that suddenly appeared possessed a high status. Moreover, he was exceedingly calm and rich.

All of this was not much to Kalia as a queen. However, the infallible will he displayed under the pressure of the golden magnetic ohlite shocked her.

Kalia knew that Ouyang Shuo was the first person who had not knelt to the golden magnetic ohlite. Just this was enough for him to enter their history books.

His determined eyes and his resilient expression had totally touched her heart. As the 1st queen of Atlantis, what she worshipped and admired was such a spirit.

Kalia hoped that by obtaining his personal friendship, the two of them could have some other types of interactions.

Ouyang Shuo took over the purple crystal and looked at its stats.

Name: Magnetic Ohlite (Imperial Family Special)

Rank: Purple

Production Place: Atlantis Civilization

Basic Function: Energy Stone (provides energy for special items, can be recharged)

High Grade Function: Birth (purple magnetic ohlite can give birth to a blue magnetic ohlite every month, 2 green and 4 white) (Note: only purple and golden magnetic ohlite have this skill.)

High Grade Function: Aid in Cultivation (purple magnetic ohlite possesses a mysterious power that helps the wearer to focus, raising their cultivation speed and increasing the formation speed of primordial energy.)

Unique Function: Luck (Imperial family special purple magnetic ohlite, increases basic luck by 4. At the same time, it increases the chance of having fortuitous encounters.)

Evaluation: the golden magnetic ohlite arrived from the heavens, giving birth to the glorious Atlantis Civilization. If used logically, it has many functions, a rare treasure.

Just looking at the stats, Ouyang Shuo could not help but feel shocked.

The strength of the purple magnetic ohlite left him utterly dumbfounded. Without mentioning the basic function, it seemed unassuming, but it could power things like the puppets and the flying devices.

The high-grade function was overpowered.

"Don't tell me this is the legendary stone giving birth to stone?"

Calculating everything, in a year, a purple magnetic ohlite could give birth to 12 blue, 24 green and 48 white crystals.

Based on Kalia's introduction, although the white magnetic ohlite was not that useful, it was basically a single use item for cultivation, like the spirit stones in Chinese cultivation.

Of course, they were not as strong as spirit stones. A white magnetic ohlite would probably be equivalent to one hour of cultivation.

The green magnetic ohlite were the mainstream, and they were used on the high-end technology products. Apart from the combat puppet, the green magnetic ohlite could power everything else.

The blue crystals were rare items, and only the higher ups would own these. As for purple crystal, apart from the imperial family, only the elders had the qualifications.

The purple magnetic ohlite was born from the golden one and only one formed every 10 years.

"If that's the case, wouldn't you all have amassed countless magnetic ohlite in 10 thousand years?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

When she heard this question, she replied, "The survivor land didn't have light, so our purple magnetic ohlite couldn't be recharged. Even of the various levels of magnetic ohlite we had, more than 99% were destroyed due to long periods of lack of energy. The golden magnetic ohlite had to power the barrier and was unable to give birth to more purple ohlite."

"...."

No wonder Kalia was so despondent. Without the players helping to complete the storyline quest, the base of the Atlantic Civilization would basically collapse.

"Fortunately, we managed to survive, right?" Kalia was rather optimistic, "So Wuyi, you are our great savior, no matter what we repay you with, it'll be not too much."

Ouyang Shuo felt a little ashamed.

Apart from the birth skill, the aid in cultivation skill was also amazing. It helped to raise the cultivation speed and raised the rate of forming primordial energy, a rare cultivation treasure.

It meant an increase in both quantity and quality. Ouyang Shuo had tried to search for this kind of treasure, but he had no luck finding one. Who knew he would find it as a skill of the purple magnetic ohlite?

The last unique function was a massive surprise. Ouyang Shuo felt that he was getting closer and closer to breaking away from his unlucky destiny.

Without saying anything more, Ouyang Shuo wore the magnetic ohlite around his neck.

When Kalia saw that, she broke out into a smile, "Come with me!"

"Where to?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"To repay your saving grace, we have decided to pass to you one of our top-grade techniques. Apart from that, there are also some small gifts." Kalia explained.

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, his heartbeat quickened. When he spent two million gold, wasn't it just for this?

The two walked and finally reached one of the buildings in the research center. The building had a list of the various technological advancements of the Atlantis people.

Apart from the puppets, warships, and flying devices, they had also designed the perfect lighting system, transportation system, and city system.

Everything had to do with the carvings and the magnetic ohlite.

Since there were limited stones, without the golden magnetic ohlite as the energy core, any lighting system was just a dream to Ouyang Shuo.

However, Ouyang Shuo could choose one out of the puppets, flying devices, and warships.

He excluded the mimicry warships first. In his eyes, apart from moving using energy, in terms of structure and design, they were not anything special.

To rule the oceans, the Shanhai City Navy had to rely on iron warships and stronger cannon systems, only then could they be invincible.

Such a small number of mimicry warships was useless.

Between the puppets and flying devices, Ouyang Shuo chose the flying devices in the end.

Naturally, he desired the combat puppets and construction puppets. However, he excluded them because they were not irreplaceable to Shanhai City.

Although they were strong, they could not beat thousands of soldiers and cannons. Although they would be extremely shocking if thrown into battle, they were not enough to change the direction of a war.

Their cumbersome bodies and weak cabins were easy targets for enemies.

Although the construction puppets were strong, manpower could be used to counter that. Shanhai City was huge, so a small number of them would not change much.

What was truly irreplaceable were the flying devices.

In ancient times, having an air force, even just for scouting, was a dream.

In his last life, some Lords tried to train large flying beasts to form scouting forces and succeeded.

However, such beasts were hard to find, and they were not in large quantities. Whether or not one would succeed was based on luck.

The mimicry flying devices of Atlantis were different. As long as one had magnetic ohlites, they could form a small scouting force without any technological barrier.

The purple magnetic ohlite could make all this possible.

Chapter 661-Frogmen Squadron

After he made his selection, Kalia passed Ouyang Shuo an incredibly thick book.

He accepted the book; it was the Atlantis Mimicry Flying Device Making Technical Manual. After use, one would automatically learn the related crafting technique.

The minimum requirement of magnetic ohlite was green, and one green crystal could sustain six hours of flight; one blue could last for 12 hours.

As a flying device, its speed could not be compared to modern day airplanes. Based on the introduction from the manual, its speed was 200 kilometers per hour at maximum.

One green magnetic ohlite could only sustain one flying device to go past one prefecture. If one needed to perform long distance scouting, they needed airports at each prefecture to allow for landing and re-supplying.

Apart from creating scouting squads, the presence of the technical manual could help to raise the industrial ability of Shanhai.

One must not look at these devices as simple flying devices that relied heavily on the magnetic ohlite and patterns. Its technical standards and exquisite parts were all worth the No.7 Research Institute looking into.

In modern day society, the crafting standards of airplanes represented the industrial level of a country. The design, the materials, and similar factors concerned nearly all departments and could cause a raise in skill level for a series of related industries.

This manual could definitely help Shanhai City break past the constraints of their technology tree. This manual was an all-round boost for their just developing industries.

When she saw that Ouyang Shuo had browsed through the book, Kalia passed another small book, "This is also for you."

Atlantis Seafaring Technical Manual: After use, automatically obtain the accumulated seafaring techniques gathered by the Atlantis people.

10 thousand years ago, before they sunk, Atlantis was an ocean superpower. Its seafaring techniques could be compared to 18th century Europe.

Hence, this manual was a massive boon for the seafaring industry of Shanhai City. In the future, when they competed with the westerners, they would not lose out in terms of techniques at the very least.

Another extra reward, it seems that Kalia was truly interested in Ouyang Shuo.

……

After leaving the research center, it was time for Ouyang Shuo to leave Atlantis.

Under Kalia's accompaniment, Ouyang Shuo passed the bridge and met up with the Divine Martial Guards in the center circle. Looking at them from far, one could see the mountains of underwater breathing devices at their feet.

Apart from that, there were also a great assortment of random items. Needless to say, these were the items that they had gathered from the ruins.

There was such a saying, ‘With such a master, there would be such a servant.’ Although it was not truly apt to describe the Divine Martial Guards, in terms of scouring, they took the same approach as him.

If it was other times, Ouyang Shuo would have praised them. Now, however, he glanced at Kalia's face in embarrassment.

Atlantis rose up to the surface, so these items could not be considered ownerless objects. Strictly speaking, they were not picking items but were stealing.

After his men committed an act, how could Ouyang Shuo face the warm and passionate Kalia?

When Kalia saw his expression, she smiled in a manner that did not really look like a smile and said, "Brother Wuyi, I had wanted to give you some local specialties. Now, I don't need to search for them."

In a short time, the way that Kalia addressed Ouyang Shuo had changed several times.

The greed of Ouyang Shuo's men had given her a new understanding of him, making her excited. It was like this mysterious man was actually human.

Such an interesting find, how would she not be delighted?

He smiled; his skin was still as thick as ever, and he causally placed all those items into his storage bag.

Without mentioning the other items, just the underwater breathing devices were treasures.

He would not use them to search for treasures; such luck-based ventures were not his style. However, using these devices to form a frogmen unit was totally possible.

In reality, frogmen were in charge of scouting, infiltrating, and other special missions. Since their equipment included flippers that made them look like frogs, they were named as frogmen.

Their missions were top secret and extremely dangerous, often in enemy region.

Their equipment included masks, flippers, oxygen tanks, and rubber suits.

In comparison, this underwater breathing device was a bug level existence. No matter how advanced modern-day society was, they could not build such strong frogmen equipment.

With that, Shanhai City possessed one more trump card.

……

Atlantis outer circle island, North Port.

It was finally time to say goodbye. To make it convenient for them to meet up with the voyage squadron, Kalia especially gifted him two shark mimicry warships. Apart from that, she also gave him a dolphin mimicry flying device.

As expected from the Queen of Atlantis, so generous.

Ouyang Shuo made the Divine Martial Guards board the warships while he drove the flying device. Under the instructions of Little Green, they rushed toward the voyage squadron’s location.

It was time to deal with the Spanish.

……

7th month, 27th day morning, Gibraltar Ocean region.

When Ouyang Shuo landed on Dragon Head with the mimicry flying device, it was obvious how much shock Zheng He and the other sailors felt.

Without Little Green leading the way, Zheng He would have probably ordered them to fire.

When Ouyang Shuo walked out of the cabin, the soldiers cheered passionately. If it was not for military discipline and laws, they would have probably rushed up to look at the flying device.

Even in their wildest dreams, the soldiers would not think that there would be something that could fly like a bird.

"Are we dreaming?" A blur looking soldier pinched his own thigh.

"Guys, is this iron thing from the heavens?"

"The Lord is really valiant; he has enough courage to ride a beast like this."

The appearance of the mimicry flying divine had sunk their knowledge of this world. Even Zheng He was in a state of shock and disbelief.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, not bothering the excited soldiers and directly calling Zheng He to the war room. The moment he sat down, he asked Zheng He for a report, "So what's the current situation?"

Zheng He did not dare be slow and described everything in detail.

"So, we lack the strength to face the Spanish squadron?" Ouyang Shuo frowned.

Zheng He felt ashamed, "I'm sorry; I haven't thought of a method to crush them."

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand. After all, he knew that the voyage squadron lacked manpower; he could not blame Zheng He. However, if he did not teach them a lesson, Ouyang Shuo could not accept it.

Seeing that the atmosphere was a little depressed, Zheng He tried to avoid the topic; he cupped his fists and said, "The Lord's might has shocked everyone in the Mediterranean. I'm in awe."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, describing the whole Atlantis journey simply to him. Zheng He listened like he was in a trance; the mysterious Atlantic Civilization was even more amazing than he had imagined.

"I hope you don’t mind me asking, but how many underwater breathing devices did the Lord o

Ouyang Shuo had not counted them, so he just looked into his storage bag and took a sweeping glance, "No less than 10 thousand." He paused for a while, "Why? Do you have a new plan?"

Zheng He was always a careful person. Without a certain amount of confidence, he would not have even asked.

"I was thinking about whether we could use it to send sailors to infiltrate their ships to sink them. At that time, won't they be at our mercy?" Zheng He spoke out his plan.

Ouyang Shuo's eyes lit up, "That's possible, but we need to plan the specifics. Such a sneak attack can only happen once. Once they are prepared for it, it will be difficult for it to succeed."

"Understood!"

The two of them spent more than two hours in the war room. During which, he also called one the navy strategist and other generals to discuss matters to ensure that there were no gaps in the plan.

That afternoon, the battle plan was put into play.

The voyage squadron sent out a large number of cima boats to scout and locate the specific position of the Spanish Squadron ships. At the key moment, Ouyang Shuo personally flew out on the mimicry flying device to scout.

Even Little Green was sent out by Ouyang Shuo.

When they were totally clear on the position of the Spanish Squadron, it was time for the ‘frogmen’ to display their worth. They sailed out on the cima boats, reaching the ocean regions near the Spanish Squadron and diving deep down before sneaking under the ships.

Only when night fell did they start to chisel the boats.

The frogmen force that Ouyang Shuo had planned appeared in the early stages of history. The current frogmen were just a bunch of sailors carrying simple tools; they were a far cry from what he had imagined.

The true frogmen army did not simply chisel boats. Instead, they could infiltrate the ships to kill the enemy leader. They could even enter the enemy port to sabotage it.

Such a frogmen force was enough to handle the current Spanish Squadron. After all, no one would expect that people could travel around underwater so easily at this a stage.

Such ghosts could definitely deal a fatal blow to the Spanish Squadron.

At sunset, the voyage squadron once again split into four and sailed toward the four biggest Spanish Squadrons, ready to reap the fruits of their labour and send the Spanish Squadron to hell.

Chapter 662-Marquis of Santa Cruz

Under the night sky, the Gibraltar Straits seemed unusually quiet.

Only the ripples on the ocean surface created some noise. The whales or the sharks that jumped out of the water occasionally spat out massive water flowers.

On the ocean surface, the Spanish Galleons floated up and down along with the waves, a majestic sight.

The Spanish Galleons were the most legendary galleons in history. As the symbol of Spanish ocean dominance from the 16th to the 17th century, people would often think of them as treasures, conquerors, and an invincible squadron.

The galleons were typical high skip boards, high tail, the front deck was slightly lower, the tail portion was flat, and the front of the ship had a sudden protrusion like a battering horn. In the protrusion was a cannon positioned.

The body of the ship was isosceles slope that continued until the tail.

The Spanish Galleon was beautiful, its trail truly exquisite. Its length and breadth were in the ratio 4:1, making it faster than the Carrack.

The galleon was around 300 tonnes; its weight gave the cannons a stable firing platform and provided the soldiers with a castle like cover, letting them gain advantages in close combat. Below the cannon deck was the storage room, and the soldiers and passengers lived in the boat houses.

At the current stage, only the large turreted ships built by Shanhai City could compare.

After the tsunami, they different parties that made up the Spanish Squadron had some disagreements about whether they needed to continue searching for the Shanhai City squadron. Some people felt that since Gibraltar Port was recovered, they should just stop. The most important thing was to find Atlantis first before the other countries.

Some felt that whether or not they could destroy the voyage squadron affected the face of the entire Spanish country. If they allowed the voyage squadron to go past Gibraltar Straits so easily, it would be a huge challenge to the rule of the Spanish Invincible Squadron in the Mediterranean Seas.

"The glory we lost can only be regained through fresh blood!" The ones who supported fighting voiced such thoughts.

"The ruling rights of the ocean must be something we defend with our lives; we can't back down!" they clamored.

One had to say that such clamoring gave a truly Spanish feel.

In the entirety Europe, there probably was not another race that loved liveliness, extravagance, and face more than the Spanish people. It was like their entire personality was made up of intense red and black.

One could say that a large half of the extravagant and overexaggerated items in European culture was because of the Spanish. This included the rapier, the hard collar, the short trousers, and laces.

All these items had something to do with the Spanish Matadors.

The greatest author in Spanish culture, Cervantes, once mocked this kind of matador in his novel Don Quixote through the titular main character.

This kind of spirit continued to the modern day. The famous Spanish bullfighting was the best display of this kind of spirit.

In Spain and even the entire western world, bullfighting matadors were seen as fearless men; they were respected and worshipped by the people and society.

The extravagant dresses, the adrenaline rush; they were basically the modern-day version of the middle century knights.

Hence, the Spanish who loved face could not accept players from the other countries humiliating Spain on the forums. Without much debate, the voices that supported fighting gained the upper hand.

The Spanish decided to go all in and crush the voyage squadron in one blow.

The Spanish Squadron that set out this time pretty much covered the main forces of all the Lords near the sea. Just the Spanish Galleons alone numbered more than 600.

Apart from that, there were many Carrack ships that acted as protector vessels. There were even adventure gamemode players sailing their random ships to join the alliance squadron.

The Spanish people had truly gone all out.

The alliance squadron was split into five main fighting groups: front, back, left, and right under the command of the main commander in the middle, slowly approaching the voyage squadron.

If Ouyang Shuo had not rushed back in time, the voyage squadron would have been in deep trouble.

All this changed during a seemingly peaceful night.

Using the night sky and the sound of the waves striking the warships, four thousand ‘frogmen’ wearing the underwater breathing devices split into four groups, going to the bottom of the various warships and starting to chisel.

Since they were afraid of alerting the people on the ship, they chiseled extremely slowly. They needed to accurately follow the beat and tempo of the waves to hammer down one after another.

The current Spanish warships made use of the advanced watertight bulkhead technology. Hence, the frogmen needed to at least chisel through two cabins to ensure that the warships would sink.

This factor greatly increased their workload.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo had thought about sending out 10 thousand of them, but such a matter was difficult. First, the transportation capacity of the Cima boats was limited. Moreover, if they all got close, it would be easy for the enemy to spot them.

Secondly, although more people would make the work faster, it would increase the chances of them making mistakes and exposing themselves. The moment the Spanish Squadron noticed their actions, the effectiveness would be reduced.

Hence, after discussing with Zheng He, Ouyang Shuo decided to send four thousand elite.

When the sun rose up from the horizon once again, the soul-stirring night had finally passed.

The four thousand frogmen had completed their mission and sneakily left through the bottom of the ocean. Twenty miles from the Spanish Squadron, the Shanhai City voyage squadron slowly approached like a messenger of death.

The rising sun looked especially red.

The devilish red made one's heart feel uneasy.

The first light of the sun dyed the entire ocean a blood red.

A night had passed, and a large volume of water had entered the bottom cabins of the Spanish Warships. The ships had started to slowly sink. When the sailors entered the cabin to perform checks, the large quantity of water left them with their mouths agape.

"Oh my god!" The sailors were at a loss .

At basically the same time, every squadron sounded the alarm.

On the first combat ship of the Spanish Alliance Squadron, on the middle Spanish Galleon, a bald, small-headed, white-bearded general walked out of a cabin.

He was dressed in clothing typical of the Spanish noble style; he wore a hard collar, a saber, and short trousers; none of these factors were lacking. Even the few remaining hair strands on his head or his thick beard, a lot of attention was paid to their grooming.

Obviously, this was a typical Spanish noble.

This old general was known as Alvaro De Bazan, the first Marquis of Santa Cruz. He was termed by the Spanish military as the father of soldiers, the strongest navy general in Spanish history.

When one mentioned the Marquis of Santa Cruz, one had to mention a glorious time in Spanish history and their strongest King, Phillip the Second.

Philip the Second was the fifth son of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlie. After Emperor Charlie left the throne, he took over the Holy Roman Empire. Apart from Austria and Germany, all other nearby countries fell under their rule.

Charlie the Fifth's Brother, Ferdinand the First, took over the title of emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and the highest position in Germany. As for the military might of the Holy Roman Empire and the economic sources of Spain and Holland, they belonged to Phillip the Second.

This also created a solid foundation for the rise of Phillip the Second. During his rule, the Spanish welcomed their most prosperous era.

During this era, they forcefully merged with the neighboring Portugal.

At this time, Spain's position as a naval superpower was set.

Under Phillip the Second's rule, the power of Spain reached its peak. Historians terms this period as the Holy Roman Empire, where the Spanish ruled over Europe.

Phillip the Second had many navy generals under him, including the Spanish military god, the one known as the Blood Slayer, Duke Fernando Alvarez, the Brother of Phillip's step mother, Don Juan, Marquis of Santa Cruz, and Alexander Farnese, the Duke of Parma.

The one that appeared on the deck was the old General Alvaro, the Marquis of Santa Cruz under Phillip the Second. In history, he had led his troops to occupy Portugal.

1583, during the St. Michael naval war, Alvaro led his troops to defeat the French Squadron, executing all prisoners.

After the war, Alvaro became the Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish Squadron.

1585, the Marquis of Santa Cruz suggested that they send an expedition squadron to invade England. Regretfully, when they were finally well prepared, the Marquis of Santa Cruz passed away on February the 9th, 1588.

His death became the turning point in the prosperity and success of the Spanish Invincible Squadron.

……

The Marquis of Santa Cruz was the only historical general that appeared in the Spanish wilderness.

Either the other navy generals were not born yet, or they followed Phillip the Second to stay in Madrid.

Hence, without any questions, Alvaro was named as the Commander-in-Chief of the alliance squadron.

"What happened?" His eyes were sharp, emitting an aura even without him being angry.

"Our warship is leaking and is slowly sinking," the chief officer replied in a panic.

"Why? Can we block it up? How many warships are leaking? What's the situation with the other squadrons?"

Alvaro felt astonished, and he asked a series of question. Looking out at the red sun in the horizon, his eyes locked tight, as his heart grew more and more uneasy.

"After our investigations, the leak was because someone chiseled the bottom. Too much water has entered, and the hole is too big. Hence, it's difficult to block it up. We haven’t received reports on the situation of the other squadrons." The chief officer's face was ashen white.

Chapter 663-Fall of the Invincible Squadron

Even the heart of the calm and collected Alvaro could not help but jump after he listened to this report. He could not imagine how the enemy managed to chisel all the warships in just one night without them noticing.

"There's no time to wait. Send down my orders, abandon the warships and board the small boats to leave." As expected from an old general, decisive and quick to make decisions.

"Yes!" The chief officer bowed and turned around.

Alvaro stood on the deck; he stood straight, and his tightened brows had not relaxed yet.

"Since the enemy designed such a scheme, they definitely have further plans." He ordered the troops to escape on the small boats solely because he was depending on luck.

Alvaro, who had fought wars for his whole life, knew that the battlefield was often as such; what you hoped would not happen would often happen. Considering the worst circumstances was a skill of great generals.

However, there was no second way out in this vast ocean. Alvaro could pretty much see the war scene of floating bodies and blood.

10 minutes later, thousands of small boats were lowered from the Galleons. The sailors busily transported some essentials onto the small boats.

The NPC army was restricted by military law and discipline, so they were able to maintain their calm. Under the orders of their officer, they lined up to orderly board the small ships.

The adventure gamemode players were far different. Since there were too many of them, it was unavoidable that some people would try to squeeze past others and cut the queue. Anyone with common sense would know that the emergency boats prepared could not fit them all.

Furthermore, the boats also needed to carry some resources.

Hence, even though they squeezed, some still would not make it in the end. Boarding the small ships meant a glimmer hope while not boarding meant certain death.

In the front of the threat of death, very few could maintain their calm. Compared to the NPC army, the adventure gamemode players cherished their own lives far more.

The longer this dragged on, the more chaotic the situation grew.

Seeing small boat after small boat being filled up, those on the decks could not maintain their calm any longer. They pushed, squeezed, scolded, and even fought.

Apart from adventure gamemode players, even the sailors on board panicked. They did not have the mind to work anymore and threw themselves into the fight.

It was total chaos.

"Scram you scum!"

Amidst it all, this shout was truly ear piercing.

On the left, on one of the Galleons, stood a cold looking teen with a saber in hand. He stabbed though the body of a middle-aged sailor, killing him on the spot.

Fresh blood dripped onto the deck, extremely glaring.

The teen pulled out his saber, casually cleaning it on the corpse of the sailor before sheathing it. When the nearby sailors saw this scene, fury filled their eyes, but their eyes also contained a hint of fear.

The crowd was in an uproar.

When he saw the other sailors looking over, the teen did not feel that he did anything wrong. He even scolded out, "What are you looking at? What rights do you scum have to be in front of us?"

One had to say, since the start of the game till now, there were still many players that did not treat NPCs as people. In their eyes, these NPCs were just a cluster of data. Even if they died, it was nothing major.

In front of the NPC sailors, many of the players naturally felt superior.

Hence, not only did the other players not intervene, some even followed him. Some pushed away the sailors in front of them while some even used weapons.

Even if some players did not agree with them, they would keep to themselves and not stand out to stop their actions.

How could these sailors be the opponents of the adventure gamemode players? Without mentioning them, even the combat strength of the NPC soldiers could not be compared to the players.

In just a short 10 minutes, 20 sailors collapsed into pools of blood. With numerous people injured, the squeezy place suddenly seemed roomier.

Their actions finally caused people to explode.

The sailors were humans too. At a moment of life or death, an unusual power broke out.

"Brothers let’s go all out!" a male raised the polearm in his hand.

"Fight them! Since they don’t want to let us live, we won’t let them live either. At most, we die together!" They would die if they could not board the boats, so why should the sailors fear fighting the players?

The chaos on the deck increased just like that.

The players and sailors fought one another. Although the sailors suffered heavy causalities, it was unavoidable that some players were killed. These deaths in turn infuriated the players.

Earlier in the morning, the huge sense of failure made it hard for them to breathe. Now, even these scums dared to rebel, so how could the players not be angry?

Some players who were hesitating started to join in.

With that, both sides suffered heavy casualties. A small region of mess slowly spread into an all-out brawl. Even players and sailors who had boarded the ships started to fight one another.

Both groups started to split apart.

Even the NPC soldiers felt furious when they saw their brothers slain. If the officer did not suppress them, the mess would escalate even further.

When Alvaro heard the news, he was so enraged that his beard trembled. At this time, it was just unbelievable for the players to be so uncontrolled.

"Ask those scums to stop. If not, do not blame me." Alvaro's face sunk.

"Understood!"

The Commander-in-Chief had practically zero power over the adventure gamemode players as these players had volunteered to come out. The only thing that could control them were Lords and guild leaders.

The Lord players were similarly unhappy about the current chaos. After all, these sailors were their people and not some cabbages. How would they not feel unhappy when they saw the players harvest them like that?

At this very moment, a player with a huge beard stepped out and hollered, "Stop now, do not go too far!"

The loud voice spread across the entire ocean region.

Weirdly, after hearing that shout, a large portion of the players stopped and backed out from the battle. The sailors did not have the courage to continue, so they also backed down quietly to tend to their wounds.

This man was the guild leader of the Madrid Mercenary Guild, and the strongest player in Spain - Pepe.

Amongst the Spanish adventure gamemode players, he held an immensely high prestige. Most of the players gave Pepe face and stopped.

Because he stood out, the entire situation mostly settled just like that.

As time went on, the amount of water that entered the cabin increased, and the water flowed in faster and faster. Galleon after Galleon continued to sink down an increasing rate, forming whirlpools in the water.

"Quick, immediately retreat; let’s not care about the resources!"

Alvaro jumped onto a small boat and ordered.

"Retreat, a whirlpool is about to form!”

"Quick, row quickly, quickly!"

Without needing Alvaro to remind them, the 1500 small boats of the 1st combat group had escaped in a panic. Even a normal sailor would know that the moment a whirlpool formed, it was a catastrophe for small boats.

On the vast ocean surface, such a magnificent scene occurred.

Galleon after Galleon were like giant beasts diving into the marsh as they quickly sank to the bottom. First was the body and then the deck; lastly, even the poles and sails disappeared.

Along with them was the glory and honor of the Spanish Invincible Squadron.

Whirlpools started to form on the ocean surface, combining together. Like how rainwater fell into a pool, a huge whirlpool soon formed. This unusually large whirlpool was extremely dangerous.

The little boats squeezed at the surroundings of the whirlpool, fearful and helpless. The players on the boats were filled with despair. Last night, they were still thinking about defeating the voyage squadron and winning glory for their country.

After waking up, they lost everything.

The massive difference resulted in a huge blow that made the Spanish numb. Even a famous general like Alvaro could not raise their morale.

Half an hour later, the news from the other battle groups were passed to the Commander-in-Chief.

The Spanish used white seagulls for ocean communications. Hence, even though such a change had occurred, communication could still occur without problem.

Just looking at the report, his heart sank.

It was not only them; the other three were also affected. Only the 5th battle group, the reserves, remained safe.

The 5th were only a reserve force, so they had less than 20 Spanish Galleons. As for their other ships, they only had Carracks and random sailing ships.

Before the battle, Alvaro did not even think about throwing in the 5th battle group. Now, however, they had become their only fighting chance.

The four battle groups on the 1500 small boats gathered toward the 5th battle group under Alvaro’s command.

Such small boats, a slighty greater wave would capsize them.

Let's hope that we can send this group safely back, Alvaro hoped.

Although he knew that it was weird that the 5th battle group had escaped unscathed, he had no other route to choose.

It was like the enemy had laid a trap, you knew it was a trap, but you had no choice. After all, in this trap, there was a bait that gave one hope.

This was the brilliant strategy of the voyage squadron. According to the words of Zheng He, "The 5th battle group is bait. When they all gather together, we will sweep them all up."

Chapter 664-Using Money to Redeem Life

10 AM, the navy units in charge of monitoring the four battle groups each sent back the news that no small boats had broken away.

Most of the small boats followed the ‘script’ and gathered toward the 5th battle group.

When Zheng He received the news, he let out a long sigh of relief. Obviously, he could not hope that the enemy would 100% rush to gather with the 5th battle group. To prevent accidents, he arranged the navy unit to monitor the enemy.

If some smart soldiers tried to escape, the navy unit would stopped them. The entire plan was watertight.

"Send down my orders; prepare to reel in the net."

"Yes!"

In terms of ocean communication, the Feng Birds from the Military Intelligence Division were not safe. One storm would blow these little fellows away. Hence, the voyage squadron similarly used tamed seagulls.

After rturning from Atlantis, Ouyang Shuo also brought back a new mysterious communication tool; it was a communication conch. The Atlantis people carved mystical patterns on the inside of the conch, placing a green magnetic ohlite inside, and turning it into a short distance communication tool.

Within one thousand nautical miles, they could clearly send and receive information.

Regretfully, it could only be used at sea. If useable on land, it could reach a radius of 10 kilometers.

If not, in a wilderness where all communication channels were blocked, the communication conch would be a killer weapon.

Amongst the treasures that the Divine Martial Guards had gathered, there were hundreds of these. Ouyang Shuo kept two and was ready to give them to Bing'er. She would definitely like this item.

As for the remaining ones, Ouyang Shuo handed them all over to Zheng He.

……

After the order was given, the four navy units swiftly pushed forward.

Meanwhile, the current Spanish Squadron was nervously sailing toward land under the protection of the 5th battle group. 20 odd Spanish galleons gathered six thousand boats around them.

Just at this moment, a roar sounded from above the squadron.

Looking up, they could only see a dolphin looking flying device.

"What's that, is that a dolphin or a plane?" The mouths of the players gaped open.

"Oh my god!"

"Is that the enemy's scouting drone?" someone asked uncertainly.

"Scouting drone? What a joke, with how backward they are?" Some people did not believe it, "The backward easterners are still using such cumbersome cannons, how could they build planes?"

Cough. Someone reminded them, "Do not forget, Qiyue Wuyi completed the Lost City of Atlantis Storyline Quest. Just because easterners cannot make it does not mean that the Atlantis people could not."

"...."

The players instantly fell mute.

"Who cares? He definitely has nefarious intentions; shoot it down!" Pepe said.

"That's right blow his mother; let’s see if he still dares to be so arrogant." someone agreed.

The Lord players at the side looked at these two players like they were looking at idiots.

"Why?" Pepe felt annoyed and rushed, "Quickly order them to fire!"

An older Lord simply could not watch on, face palming, "Brother, do you think this is real life? Which cannon has the ability to shoot a plane hundreds of meters up int the air?"

One must know that the modern-day world only developed the first anti-aircraft in the 20th century. Trying to use a 16th century cannon to attack something in the air? It would not even hit a balloon.

"How would we know if we do not try?" Pepe was a stubborn and inflexible person.

"Then I'll try and let you give up."

"Fire!"

As he ordered, the cannons fired in unison.

The results were obvious; it was useless. After all, the 16th century cannons used solid cannonballs. They flew out of the barrel, flying less than 200 meters, forming an arc, before starting to fall.

From its direction, it was about to fall onto the surrounding boats.

"Dodge!" someone exclaimed.

"**!" some people scolded out.

It was too late; the cannonball fell toward the boats at a shocking speed. Then, it blew open a gaping hole. Instantly, three boats were destroyed, and hundreds of people died.

The Spanish people wanted to cry but no tears would come out. Meanwhile, Pepe felt a little embarrassed.

"Whose mother ordered to fire? I'll kill you!" The players who survived scolded, their hearts had nearly jumped out from fear.

"Forget it!" The Spanish players gave up hope.

……

Above the squadron, Ouyang Shuo was sitting within the cabin of the mimicry flying device. When he saw the enemy cannonballs fall into their own formation, he could not help but laugh.

"The Spanish truly are innovative!" As he spoke, he took out the communication conch and ordered, "Go to your respective stations. The target is in place."

……

11 AM, under Ouyang Shuo's commands, the voyage squadron finally caught up and formed an airtight encirclement.

On the vast horizon appeared the golden dragon flag, eye-catching under the sun.

"It's the voyage squadron!" The Spanish players were in an uproar.

Everything was revealed, and the soldiers were filled with despair.

The sun hung high overhead, its rays shining down.

The hearts of the Spanish turned cold.

"The Invincible Squadron is finished!"

Alvaro closed his eyes, unable to watch the calamity that was going to strike them.

"What are you afraid of? We still have 20 galleons; we can fight." Pepe was a true warmonger; he did not know what fear was.

"How do we fight? Just one round of cannon fire can flip all the boats around us."

"But we cannot wait and do nothing! Killing one of them is killing one!"

"That's right. We are not cowards; we will fight to the end!" During this desperate time, the Spanish did not humiliate the glory of their ancestors, and they still had some spine.

Just as they decided to go all out, Ouyang Shuo's voice sounded out from above them.

"Players below listen up, you have all been surrounded. There's no need for useless struggles. Otherwise, do not blame me for killing all of you. We have no intentions of fighting with your country to the end. As for how this country war started, you all know. We had no intentions of starting a conflict, but we cannot allow others to step on our dignity. From this moment onward, as long as you all surrender, we will allow you to use gold to redeem your lives."

"This...."

The Spanish players all looked at one another.

Humans were just like that; if they had no way out, they would risk their lives and go all out. But if they heard that there was a chance available, this determination would immediately fade.

Even Pepe fell silent. He had a substitute doll on him. Naturally, he was not afraid of death. However, as a guild leader, he had to consider the lives of his men.

Pepe decided to try his luck and loudly spoke, "You are the Lianzhou Lord, right? How do we redeem ourselves?"

"Each player, regardless of level, identity, or status, 200 gold." Ouyang Shuo did not want to put in the effort to distinguish the normal players from Lords or guild leaders.

If this was before the achievement value exchange event, players would not be able to afford such a sum. However, now was different, they just needed to grit their teeth and pay the gold.

In comparison, 200 gold was far better than facing death and being forced to revive.

"What are your thoughts?" Pepe asked the other elders.

"I think it's okay. China has an olden phrase, ‘If we leave the forest, we do not need to be afraid of lacking enough timber to burn.’ Shanhai City burned us today, but one day, we will give them twice back."

"Well said!"

"What about the natives? Can we redeem them with money?" some of the Lords asked.

Pepe nodded, raising his head and asking, "How much gold for one native person?"

"In my eyes, you are all the same, 200 gold per person." Ouyang Shuo proclaimed slowly and confidently.

"You're pretty much ripping us off!"

Many of the Lords were unhappy. Players reviving had huge penalties, so 200 gold for one was still okay. But NPCs? Training one soldier would cost no more than 50 gold.

When Ouyang Shuo saw their reactions, he smiled. In truth, he did not plan on letting the Spanish NPCs go back intact. If he allowed that, they would be releasing the tiger back into the mountains.

He loved money, but he obviously knew what was more important.

Moreover, him letting the Spanish go was not purely because of greed for money. If Shanhai City wanted to open long-distance trade, they could not completely destroy this relationship.

If he truly killed this entire batch of players, both sides would end up in an irreparable state.

This was without mentioning whether Shanhai City could take down Spain or not. Even if they could, they could not take action. The moment they tried, not only the countries in the Mediterranean, even the entirety of Europe would act.

On this point, Europe was incredibly united; they would not allow outsiders to invade them.

Hence, in dealing with the Spanish problem, Ouyang Shuo needed to think carefully. Everything they did had to be logical so that the other countries could not find fault with them.

"Lianzhou Lord, there's no room for discussion?"

"No room." Ouyang Shuo's attitude remained resolute, "Those willing to pay, sail your small boats to the north to deal. If not, stay here. If you're willing to join Shanhai City, I'll welcome you!"

"...."

Black lines appeared on the foreheads of the Spanish players. They had never seen such despicable people, poaching people in front of them. When the native soldiers and sailors heard these words, their eyes gleamed and their expressions turned weird.

Pepe laughed awkwardly, "Brothers, since the situation is like this, let's decide for ourselves!"

Chapter 665-Richest Man in the World

Ouyang Shuo's words made the atmosphere among the Spanish Squadron rather weird.

The Spanish Lords had also noticed that their troops were looking at them with weird expressions. If they made them charge to fight the enemy now, it would instantly cause an uproar.

Even the adventure gamemode players were feeling uneasy.

After all, in the prior galleon retreating operation, the players and sailors had an intense conflict. Their relationship was like a rubber band pulled tight; a little more exertion, and it would break.

Now, with Shanhai City supporting them, who knows what these natives would do.

"Cough, guys let’s quickly pay the money and leave. I do not want to stay at this stupid place for any longer." Pepe looked at the Lord players; his glance contained a hint of warning.

"Forget it; let's end it like this!"

Observing the situation, the Lord players had no choice but to compromise; however, bitterness filled their eyes.

At this moment, a majestic scene occurred.

The voyage squadron set up a payment station to the north. Any boat that wanted to pass, regardless of their identity as player or NPC, would have to pay 200 gold per person.

However, when the turn of navy general Alvaro arrived, he was stopped.

"What is it? Do you all want to go back on your words?"

The following Lord's face sunk as he spoke in an unhappy tone.

During this country war, the ones that had lost the most were these Lord gamemode players. Not only did they lose the cannons and warships they had spent so much on; they even had to leave behind troops based on their monetary situation; they could only bring away their elites.

This pent-up anger was too hard to swallow. However, in this situation, they had no choice but to bow their heads. If they truly fought, the first to disagree would be the adventure gamemode players.

The Lord who had spoken was Casillas, the second-best Lord in Spain and also the strongest Lord along the coast. Alvaro was a general under him.

"Other people can pass but this old general cannot," said the guard as he pointed at Alvaro.

"Why?"

"The Lord said to invite the old general to the voyage squadron as a guest."

"Do not go too far!"

Casillas felt furious when he heard these words. Even a fool would not believe such a stupid reason like ‘inviting him as a guest’. Shanhai City obviously wanted to keep Alvaro.

"These are the instructions from the Lord; we are just following them." The soldiers did not budge.

"You!" Casillas's rage turned into laughter, "Good! Ask the Lianzhou Lord to speak to me."

"The Lord is temporarily not seeing guests." The guard stuck to his instructions.

The situation dragged on like this.

The guards did not let them go, but he did not forcefully snatch the man either. Facing the shouts of Casillas, they acted like they heard none of it. They were like iron guards, not budging no matter what.

With that, the people queuing behind could only wait.

As the matter dragged on, they were naturally unhappy too.

Since they could not see Ouyang Shuo, the other players could only try to persuade him to take a step back, "Forget it, since it has already reached this stage, why are you still doing this? He will just be a guest and will return in a few days."

"That's right. People are inviting you so nicely; do not reject it."

In truth, these words were incredibly fake. The Spanish actions were just like the phrase, ‘You dying is better than I dying.’

The players only cared about escaping from this place. As for the loses of others, how would they bother? They would only grumble about Casillas being incorrigible and wasting their time.

Casilla's face flushed red, and he gritted his teeth. Even with his upbringing, he was on the verge of exploding. Alvaro was the best general in Spain, the trump card of trump cards, so how would he give this general up so easily?

The longer this dragged on, the more annoyed and triggered the other players grew. At the later stages, it was not only the normal players; even the guild leaders stepped out to try and convince him.

"Forget it. We have lost this time; we are under their mercy."

"That's right. China has an old phrase, ‘If we do not bear the small things, it'll mess up the big plans. Since they want to keep him, your actions will not make a difference."

"What if their patience runs dry, and they decide to forcefully keep us here? We would be in trouble then."

Each attempt at persuading him was like knives stabbing into his chest, making him spit blood, "Shameless, really shameless!"

Casillas's hatred toward his brothers even exceeded his hatred toward Ouyang Shuo.

What kind of people in the world were hated the most? They do not know what you have been through and how much stick you have eaten, just trying to convince you to, ‘Be more magnanimous.’

"Magnanimity your sister!"

In real life, lightning would strike these people.

Casillas was facing such people. He wanted to fight till the end and drag these people down to hell with him.

Regretfully, he was still a rational person.

As a Lord, he had to warn himself not to be rash; he could not let his emotions dictate him. If he made enemies with them, he would not be able to survive in Spain.

He was bound to lose here.

"Lianzhou Lord, I'm not finished with you!"

Casillas threw down these words and left without turning his head.

The person involved in the issue, Alvaro, did not even speak a single word from start to finish. It was like no one had bothered to ask him for his opinion.

When he saw his Lord turn around and rush off furiously, Alvaro sighed. Under the guidance of the guards, he walked toward Dragon Head.

Peace and order resumed.

At 2 PM, everything finally cleared up.

Final calculations put the numbers at 30 thousand players and four thousand NPCs paying the gold. Ouyang Shuo's redemption gold amounted to a terrifying seven million.

Undoubtedly, this was the biggest fortune that Shanhai City had ever obtained. The two million gold he spent in Atlantis did not seem like much now.

Ouyang Shuo calculated the funds in his storage bag and found that he was the world's richest person. He had a full eight million gold in his storage bag.

Apart from that, there was another set of gold from the trading profits.

Before setting off, they had acquired 500 thousand gold worth of various resources. In Xingzhou Port, they had also bought a batch of peppers and spices. After passing through the Mediterranean they had sold basically all of the items.

After a six times profit, their total trading income reached 3.5 million gold. Of this sum, they spent 500 thousand on purchasing local products.

After the final calculations, Ouyang Shuo had a total of 11 million gold in his storage bag.

If he announced his gold count, it was unlikely that anybody would believe him.

The more terrifying part was that his money-making journey was not over yet.

Who knows how much wealth he would have amassed when this journey ends. No wonder people said that a voyage was a crazy money-making journey.

When Spain was at its most prosperous period, thousands of Galleons traveled across the globe and shipped countless gold back to Spain.

When England controlled the seas, it swept up a large portion of the world's wealth.

It seems like Shanhai City was following their path.

Apart from the redemption money, there were also 23 Spanish Galleons. Moreover, each one had 20 Spanish cannons. Apart from that, there were 36 Carracks, each equipped with 10 cannons.

In terms of Spanish cannons alone, they had acquired 800 of them.

Apart from the current cannons, when this matter ended, Ouyang Shuo was going to send the frogmen to scour for cannons at the bottom of the ocean.

This was the big part. After all, there would be no less than five thousand. These cannons were all built with the power of the Spanish nation but now it was theirs.

"War brings wealth, war really brings wealth!" Ouyang Shuo muttered.

Apart from the warships and cannons, there were the soldiers that the Lords had abandoned; Shanhai City accepted them all. Even pirates could change sides, so Ouyang Shuo obviously would not mind the Spanish joining him.

The final tabulations put the numbers at around 56 thousand soldiers and around 20 thousand sailors.

It was the same as saying that with suitable warships, Shanhai City could build another half a squadron.

This batch of sailors and soldiers were the real reason behind Ouyang Shuo putting in so much effort for this plan. To him, money would always be there to earn. On the other hand, a true navy was an insurance.

Crushing the Spanish Invincible Squadron was the best chance for the Shanhai City Navy to gain a footing in the Mediterranean. Wasn’t this batch of people the most precious treasure?

Ouyang Shuo did not think that the Spanish would back down after eating such a loss.

He would plan a series of operations to control their revenge and restore order in the Mediterranean, allowing the Shanhai City military to gain the recognition of the other countries.

This was difficult, but Ouyang Shuo was confident.

Currently, he did not simply have one good card but several in his hands. As for how to use them all, Ouyang Shuo still needed to carefully plan to avoid mess ups.

Before this, Ouyang Shuo still needed to meet one person.

Whether or not his plan could smoothly succeed relied on whether this stubborn old man cooperated or not. If he managed to make Alvaro surrender, he would have mostly succeeded.

Obviously, this was not going to be an easy matter.

Chapter 666-France

3 PM, Dragon Head, guest room.

After handling everything nicely, the voyage squadron proceeded toward the location where the Spanish Invincible squadron had sunk to scoop up the cannons. Finally, Ouyang Shuo had time to meet Alvaro.

"Sorry for making you wait!" Ouyang Shuo slightly smiled.

After learning about Alvaro’s history, Ouyang Shuo's interest greatly increased. Ancient China lacked navy generals, and Shanhai City had already basically taken the limited pool. On the other hand, the west had many famous navy generals.

Shanhai City aimed to have territories everywhere and wanted to spread its influence. Naturally, it should turn its vision to the whole entire world and accept all talents. Hence, Ouyang Shuo did not mind having a Spanish navy general under him.

However, Alvaro did not fall for it; he was unwilling to surrender.

"Old general, reality has proven that the times of the Spanish Invincible Squadron are over. Their glory is no more. However, Shanhai City is different. We went past the Pacific, the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic, crossing from Asia to Europe. We are the only ones that can be called a global squadron," Ouyang Shuo said.

Alvaro's eyes shook, "So what?"

"So what? Commanding a global squadron is the dream of every navy general. Don’t tell me you have grown old and lost your ambitions?" Ouyang Shuo joked.

Humph!

"Old general, as long as you agree to join Shanhai City, I promise you that the voyage squadron will only take Gibraltar Port and will not attack the Spanish. How's that?" Ouyang Shuo was ready to take a step back.

From the start, he did not expect to destroy Spain.

He had accomplished his goal of crushing their arrogant squadron. One could foresee that in the future year, they would struggle even in the Mediterranean.

If Ouyang Shuo only had to take a step back in exchange for the allegiance of a great general, he felt that it was worth it.

"Are your words true?" Alvaro was in disbelief.

The Spanish Invincible Squadron was completely swept up in this battle. The long coastlines were basically defenseless; they were right there for the taking.

"At this time, you actually do not want to push for the win?" Alvaro looked toward Ouyang Shuo with probing eyes, "You are so young. Can you actually resist such temptation?"

When Ouyang Shuo heard these questions, he smiled, "I've never gone back on my words. Old general should know that in Shanhai City, players and natives are equal existences."

Ouyang Shuo's words directly struck a scar in his heart. During this battle, the Spanish's actions toward their sailors had made Alvaro feel truly disappointed.

"Okay, I promise you!" Alvaro raised his head with a determined expression, "However, I hope that you do not forget your promise. If not, I'll go all out, even if I have to die."

"Of course." Ouyang Shuo nodded.

"General Alvaro greets the Lord!" Alvaro officially greeted Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and looked at his stats.

Name: Alvaro de Bazan (Emperor Rank)

Title: Father of the Spanish Soldiers

Dynasty: 16th Century Spain

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Special General

Loyalty: 65

Command: 87

Force: 75

Intelligence: 75

Politics: 65

Specialty: Naval Warfare (34% increase in cannon range and power, 25% increase in warship sailing speed, 25% increase in defenses of warships, 30% increase in navy warrior morale, 15% increase in navy tactics.)

Weapon: Spanish Rapier

Evaluation: Alvaro de Bazan, the 1st Marquis of Santa Cruz, proficient at tactics and a genius in terms of planning and commanding. The General of Phillip the Second.

Gaia granted the skill ratings and stats of generals based on a standardized rubric. At the same time, it would use the power of the country, the scale of the country, its historical foundation, and the like to perform a second round of correction.

Hence, the historical generals of some countries were at most emperor rank or even just king rank. If they could not even reach the king rank standard, Gaia would just change one to king rank.

As a result, no matter how small a country was, they would have a king ranked general at the very least.

As an ocean overlord and a European superpower in real life, Spain also had an incredibly strong history. Although it could not be compared to China, Gaia's evaluation for it was still rather high.

Across the entirety of Spain, there was only one god ranked general, the Spanish military god, the one known as the blood slayer - Fernando Alvarez. Apart from that, there were also many emperor ranked generals, including Alvaro.

Without a doubt, his addition was of great meaning to Shanhai City. Just as Ouyang Shuo was about to discuss with Alvaro regarding his appointment arrangements, a system notification sounded out.

"Global Notification: Congratulations China region Lord Qiyue Wuyi for successfully recruiting Spanish General Alvaro, becoming the first person to recruit a historical general from another country. Rewarded 10 thousand merit points, 50 thousand reputation points, and one king rank summoning talisman, congratulations player!"

……

The moment the notification sounded out, the world was stunned.

They were stunned not only because Qiyue Wuyi had recruited a general from another country, but because the notification had an underlying meaning. It meant that in this country war, Spain had lost.

Along with the news of the country war being spread online, the conflict between Spain and Shanhai City was known across the world. Before this, no one thought that Shanhai City could defeat the strong Spanish like they had taken down Singapore.

Especially to the other Mediterranean countries, the Spanish Invincible Squadron was basically a nightmare.

Hence, the various European states did not even think about joining in and sat quietly at the side.

In the end? Ouyang Shuo actually recruited Spain’s strongest general. This development had many peaks, causing various reactions.

……

When the notification sounded out, the ones that were the most shocked were the Mediterranean states.

Italy, Greece, France, Egypt, Turkey, and the like were filled with various thought. Their first course of action was to confirm what had happened to the Spanish Invincible Squadron.

"Can the Spanish Invincible Squadron still continue to rule the Mediterranean?" They needed to confirm this point and adjust their strategies regarding the seas. If possible, they would use this chance to rise up.

Amongst which, the most delighted party was France.

During the later parts of the 17th century, France was also extremely prosperous.

In that 50 years of glory, the French navy defeated the strong Spanish, Holland, and even the English to hold power over both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, becoming the strongest country of that time.

However, in the Battles of Barfleur and La Hougue in 1692, the newly risen French Navy was defeated by Holland and lost their control over the ocean. Afterward, they swiftly withered into dust in history.

As a result, the French had a greater desire than any other Mediterranean country to rise up.

……

French Region, Vic City.

As the strongest Lord in France, Henry had shown his face on the world stage and was even among the top 10 Lords of the world. However, in the Mediterranean, he actually acted low profile.

Although he desired to make himself known, the Spanish Invincible Squadron had suppressed him.

The moment the notification sounded out, Henry finally saw a chance for France to enter the Mediterranean. In truth, when the war between Shanhai City and Spain had started, he had already started paying attention to it.

When Lianzhou Lord Qiyue Wuyi completed the storyline quest, Henry saw a little hope. Despite this, he still did not make any moves.

However, when this notification sounded, he finally decided to strike.

"Men!"

"Present!" The secretary walked over.

"Three things!" Henry raised three fingers, "First, send all our scouts out to find out exactly what happened in the Spain battle." Henry placed down one finger.

"Understood!"

"Secondly, order the Gaule Squadron to enter a level 1 state of alert. Get ready to enter the Mediterranean at any moment." The Gaule Squadron was the secret weapon of Vic City; Harry had hidden it all along. Now, it was time for him to use it.

"Thirdly, send someone to contact the voyage squadron to let them know our kind intentions."

The secretary did not ask anything; he just turned around and left.

In the gloomy reading room, Henry muttered,"Lianzhou Lord, do not disappoint me."

……

Apart from the Mediterranean countries, the various European countries were also stunned.

England Region, Avic Fort.

"He recruited a Spanish navy general? Interesting." William sat in the reading room on the highest floor of the castle, "The next destination of the voyage squadron should be us, right?"

"Yes!" The secretary's face was extremely serious.

Without a doubt, although Shanhai City was not deemed as a war maniac, its reputation for stirring up problems had been recognized by the various countries.

Wherever they went, problems would follow.

As the final destination, how could England avoid all these problems?

"Sire, we should make some preparations in advance," the secretary tried to persuade him.

William raised his brows; he picked up the cup of red wine on the table and slowly sipped, "What preparations? Who knows, there might be a huge deal."

"Huge deal?" The secretary did not understand.

William was not planning to explain the matter to him, so he changed the topic and asked, "Where did Annie go to?"

"Sire please forgive me. She snatched five warships and brought along her Iron Lady forces to attack pirates."

"She's really fooling around." Although he chided her, he did not look angry. Obviously, he really loved and pampered this sister, "Remember to arrange a squadron to protect them."

"It has already been done." The secretary had not forgotten to take such precaution.

Chapter 667-Glory of the Empire

In terms of shock, the most shocked party was still the Spanish themselves.

When the Spanish Invincible Squadron heard the notification on their way back, they naturally felt ashamed. However, since they had suffered such humiliation already, they quickly adapted.

A broken can breaking apart was bound to happen.

Casillas felt all the more furious. Both of his eyes were totally red like fire was about spurt out. Who knows whether he was angry at Ouyang Shuo for being shameless or Alvaro for being a traitor, or even his countrymen for being selfish.

Maybe it was a combination of all these aspects.

The ones who truly could not accept this matter were the players in the country. Such a system notification was a massive slap to the proud and face-loving Spanish people.

"What happened?" The Spanish people were stunned, "Didn’t the Invincible Squadron swear to crush the voyage squadron? Why did our own general become theirs in the blink of an eye?"

"Was the squadron from Tortola City ambushed, or was the Invincible Squadron defeated?" The Spanish players had a greater desire than all other players to know the truth.

Tortosa City was the territory of Casillas.

The Spanish forums exploded. The panicky players desired the truth; they wanted someone to step out to explain to them what had happened.

Finally, the player group that was still floating on the oceans could not bear the pressure from the forums and just revealed the entire battle proceedings.

The moment the news escaped, Spain was stunned.

"Is it April Fools? Our invincible squadron actually fell in just one day?"

"Oh my god, please do not make such a joke!"

"Please tell me this is not true."

……

The prideful Spanish people totally could not accept such a reality.

Additionally, the players posted photos of the Spanish Galleon sinking into the ocean.

The vast ocean surface had countless Galleons and Carracks sinking into the sea at the same time. Only their sails represented their identity and past glory.

Such a stunning picture directly dragged the Spanish into the depths of the unknown.

"Oh my god, I cannot believe it."

"Is the enemy the devil? How could our invincible squadron fall just like that?"

"Can anyone tell me what magic the enemy used?"

The Spanish could not wake up from such a great blow. To put it another way, they would rather not wake up; they did not want to face this cruel reality.

The invincible squadron, the ruler of the Mediterranean, the crown jewel of Spain, had actually sunk in just one night, becoming a matter of the past.

The prideful empire was walking toward destruction.

The only party that remained clearheaded was the Spanish Media. They gathered all the news that was revealed and wrote out article after article.

The pictures on the articles made use of the sunken ships that sent one into despair.

"Darkest day in Spain!"

"Glory crushed, invincible destroyed!"

"Losing the invincible squadron, how will the empire continue its hold on the seas?"

"Who will save Spain?"

The answer was evident. The only one that could save Spain was the Madrid imperial city emperor squadron. It was still country war time. In theory, they could be sent out.

The problem was that Shanhai City did not attack Madrid. Hence, based on the country war rules, both sides were still at a regional war stage, so the imperial city army would not throw themselves into the battle.

However, the despair-filled Spanish people did not care much anymore. Especially the Madrid players, who gathered together, and arrived before the imperial palace to request and beg for Phillip the Second to send out the Spanish royal squadron.

"Fight for the honor of the empire!"

"We are willing to be the vanguard; we wish that the king can pity us!"

"Pay back blood with blood. Us Spanish players will not back down!"

The shouts that the players hollered were getting more and more motivating. To increase their persuasiveness, some even slit their own wrists and used the fresh blood to write banners.

The prideful Spanish decided to follow the spirit of the matadors; they would never back down.

Phillip the Second did not know what to do about the player’s requests. With his war loving character, he naturally wanted to help the players out. However, due to the system restrictions, he could not act.

The rules the Gaia set were something that the NPCs had to follow.

"If you want to blame someone, blame the player squadron for failing," Phillip said helplessly.

The imperial palace could only reply to them with silence.

When the Spanish players that shouted outside saw the king not reply, an unconcealable despair appeared in their eyes.

"Spain really is finished?"

Some people were so sad that they even wanted to kill themselves in front of the palace.

The fresh blood on the stone steps became the last signs of the Spanish glory.

Eye-catching, eye-piercing, tragic.

……

At this very moment, the defeated troops seated on the small boats arrived at the Spanish Port without any danger.

When the players received the news, they were naturally furious.

Some people took pictures of the scene of the six to seven thousand boats entering the port and posted it onto the forums. This totally ignited the rage in the hearts of the Spanish people.

"Scum of the empire, how do you all have the face to return?"

"All of you will forever be sinners of our country, go kill yourselves!"

More and more players gathered toward the port and scolded the defeated soldiers. If it was not for the army maintaining law and order, a bloody conflict would have started.

The defeated ones were naturally ashamed.

Confusion clouded their hearts; till now, a large portion of them still did not understand how they had lost. They only found after waking up that their ships had sunk one by one.

Following which, they were surrounded by the voyage squadron.

"We are innocent!" The players shouted in their hearts but did not dare to say such words out loud.

Their blood was boiling, and they wanted to claim glory for their country. Who knew that they would not even fight a war. They would even pay 200 gold per a person to the enemy and become sinners and disgraces.

How could outsiders understand such a feeling?

Helplessly, the furious players had already lost their rationality, so how would they listen to the defeated players’ words? Curses, numerous smelly eggs, cabbages, and tomatoes were the only reply they received.

The soldiers swiftly fled using teleportation formations, either going back to their territory or their bases. Some even went back home to lick their wounds.

Even if they went back, they had to bear the weird looks of their friends, family, and more. This was the most unbearable part for the invincible squadron.

……

The boisterous port was emptied out by half in less than half an hour.

The player group who had lost their target of abuse loitered around the port, their eyes filled with helplessness. The small boats docked at the port were eye-piercing to them.

"Burn them!" someone suggested.

"That's right; burn them all. Just looking at it makes me angry!"

The players needed to use such extreme ways to vent the anger in their hearts.

Naturally, most people were like that.

All of a sudden, thousands of small boats were burned in less than half an hour. The massive flames charged toward the heavens, dyeing the port red. Within the flames were numerous ugly, despaired faces.

The great fire spread, but there was no one to extinguish them, so even some of the port facilities were burned. The burned black port became the most apt description of the empire.

Night fell, and the players slowly left.

A more intense event was slowly brewing in the night sky.

That night, no one fell asleep.

When the Lords returned to their territories, the first thing they did was to send out an emergency recruitment order. At the same time, they ordered the shipyards to work around the clock to build warships.

They were crystal clear that after losing the protection of the navy, the territories close to the shores would be the first targets. If they did not increase their preparations, they might even lose their territories.

Thousands of workers were put to work and started to build war forts along the ports.

The current Spain could not afford a second failure.

They lost the navy battle, so they definitely needed to defend the land; if not, their country would be over!

For the country and for themselves, the Lords gambled it all. They spent everything in their treasuries, occupation changing each soldier, building warships, and building forts.

……

Working through the night were also the various reporters from the big media groups.

This weird naval battle still had many specifics that were waiting for them to dig out. The reporters started to break through the defenses of those who participated, saying they wanted to uncover the truth for the people.

The next morning, the various media headlines posted some shocking news. The redemption money matter was dug out by the reporters.

With that, it was like pouring oil onto fire.

The players who had just calmed down once again protested on the streets. The players who participated in the war were like rats on a street, abandoned and hated.

Of course, there was still the rational media people. They were anxious to gossip, but they had a bottom line; they would not touch the sensitive nerves of the players.

Their eyes turned to the battlefield.

The most asked question was, ‘How did the ships sink?’

Through interviewing the normal players, guild leaders and Lords, what they described helped clarify matters and uncover the fog.

When the Spanish players saw the report, their doubts were cleared.

Without a doubt, their enemy had some kind of technique or equipment that was truly the nemesis of warships.

Chapter 668-Mediterranean Squadron

The Spanish people asked and asked, finally arriving at the conclusion of Atlantis.

"Apart from this, there is no other way."

After the truth was revealed, their moods became even more complicated. If they had truly lost to the Shanhai City voyage squadron, they would not be able to accept it. After all, in their eyes, Shanhai City represented the east, which was synonymous with backward.

However, if it was the Atlantis Civilization, it would be a whole different story. In their eyes, Atlantis represented a whole new and advanced system.

"If we think about it this way, we did not lose too much face." The Spanish consoled themselves.

However, they felt complicated about the Atlantis island that had just reappeared. Facing this cause of their destruction, they felt a love-hate relationship.

The battle with the voyage squadron had made them fall far behind in the search for Atlantis compared to the other countries.

If they did not act, it would all be over.

However, the destruction of the invincible squadron posed a huge problem. This was without mentioning the fact that the Shanhai City squadron was still roaming the Gibraltar Straits and staring at them.

"Don’t tell me that Shanhai City is going to extort us once more?"

Thinking about the chance of this occurring, the Spanish wanted to vomit blood.

The Lords along the seas even said, "Now, it is not about going out to sea; we must prevent the voyage squadron from attacking our territory. A country war is imminent, so the matter of Atlantis should be left for another time!"

"Well said!"

Finally, the Spanish realized that the country war was far from over.

The entirety of Spain instantly entered a crazy battle preparation state; they were determined to stop the enemy on land, "If they dare to attack us, they will not return!"

One had to say that even though this proud race had faced some setbacks, their personality was hard to change.

This news from Spain made it easier for all the spies from the various countries. They did not need to do much and could learn about everything that had happened in the Mediterranean, passing the intel to their Lords.

This time, the Mediterranean region was in an uproar.

"The Spanish Invincible Squadron has fallen; their glory is no more!" This news was just too massive.

Not only France, even Italy, Greece, and Egypt saw the chance to attack the Mediterranean. They wanted to make use of this chance to break the control of Spain and swiftly become a strong country in the region.

Of course, there were some Lords who were worried about the voyage squadron. Even the Invincible Spanish Squadron had fallen to Shanhai, so would there be room for them in the Mediterranean in the future?

"We are afraid of blocking a tiger from the front but a wolf creeps up from behind!" This was their worry.

The Lords had complicated feelings. They were afraid of the strength of the Shanhai City squadron, but they were unwilling to give up the chance to rise up in the Mediterranean.

With that, all sides held many meetings to try to strike a balance.

The entire Mediterranean became chaotic to the extreme.

On the contrary, France’s Lord Henry had a certain attitude. When he received the news, he immediately contacted his officer in hopes of forming a strategic alliance with Shanhai City. He was willing to add much more to the terms that he had set before.

The Mediterranean looked like it was going to flip upside down, but Ouyang Shuo acted like everything was normal and continued on as usual.

In the guest room of Dragon Head, Ouyang Shuo was discussing appointment matters with Alvaro.

Alvaro was born in Spain and was extremely familiar with the Mediterranean and the Atlantis. The Spanish Invincible Squadron in history walked out of the Mediterranean and entered the Atlantic under his guidance.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo had no reason to move him back to China. If he did, it would be like destroying a treasure. The best choice would be to form a new squadron here in the Mediterranean.

Ouyang Shuo planned to build a fifth squadron under the Nanyang Navy, which Alvaro would become the fleet admiral of.

The backbone of this squadron would be the 56 thousand Spanish soldiers and the 20 thousand sailors.

Under normal circumstances, the Mediterranean Squadron would need to be mixed up.

As such, Ouyang Shuo let Zheng He choose some capable generals from the voyage squadron and added them to the Mediterranean Squadron. At the same time, he set a rule that more than half of the core generals in the Mediterranean Squadron must be local Shanhai City soldiers.

With that, the Mediterranean Squadron would be formed up from the Spanish Navy, the Shanhai city local soldiers, and the pirates from the Gulf of Aden. The three of them merged together, providing good internal competition.

The Mediterranean Squadron was alone out at sea, not to mention that Ouyang Shuo was just getting to know Alvaro. Even if they were his own generals, he would still defend against them.

The shortfall in the voyage squadron was naturally filled up by the Spanish Navy.

Based on the Shanhai City navy allocation, a full squadron would have 110 thousand soldiers, a crew of 14 thousand. There would be five divisions, each having 22 thousand soldiers and a crew of 2800.

Based on the current numbers, they only had enough to build two and a half divisions. Ouyang Shuo gave Alvaro the power to build three divisions. As for the 10 thousand they lacked, they would be filled up in the future.

The Mediterranean Squadron would not only patrol the Mediterranean but also the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Even the navy unit in Somalia City was under the control of the Mediterranean Squadron.

Undeniably, this was going to be the squadron under the Nanyang Navy that was in charge of the biggest sea region.

……

The moment he received his appointment, Alvaro's loyalty stat rose by 10 points. He did not expect the Lord to treat him with such importance and grant him such a crucial post.

The current scale of the Mediterranean Squadron was enough to compete with the Spanish Invincible Squadron in history. Furthermore, the Lord had already promised he would fill up the remaining two divisions when the time was right.

Of course, Alvaro was an experienced general after all, so he instantly got into his role.

"Lord, what about the uniforms of the Mediterranean Squadron, the weapons, and the warships? Also, the base and logistics, what are the plans for those?" Alvaro was truly straightforward.

Zheng He, who was sitting at the side, frowned when he heard these questions.

In his eyes, Alvaro was a little disrespectful.

"General Alvaro, please pay attention to your words. Do not be rude to the Lord!" Zheng He reminded him.

"What?" Alvaro's brows tightened; he did not understand what he had said wrong.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this scene, he waved both of them off in amusement.

In truth, this was the difference between eastern and western culture. Easterners were more reserved, humble, and polite when they spoke. On the other hand, Westerners were more direct and efficient.

It was only a cultural difference.

"Well asked. The military uniform of the Spanish Squadron definitely has to be changed. As for equipment, general can discuss with Admiral Zheng He and base it on the strengths of the soldiers to flexibly adjust," Ouyang Shuo said.

Alvaro and Zheng He exchanged glances and nodded, "Understood!"

Zheng He was Alvaro’s superior. As someone who was in the military, he would naturally follow the rank system and respect his superior.

Alvaro also knew that Zheng He's reminder was a genuine one. It seemed like he still needed to get closer to Zheng He to learn how to merge into the Shanhai City system.

"The needed warships will be built in Somalia's Friendship City. They will probably be handed over in two months." Ouyang Shuo was not planning to use the large number of Galleons they had acquired.

Ouyang Shuo paused for a moment before he continued, "As for the housing and logistics problems, they will be solved together. I've decided to immediately set off for Gibraltar Port after fishing out the cannons; we will reclaim it."

The meeting room fell silent; instantly, the smell of gunpowder rose up.

7th month, 29th day, the voyage squadron, which had returned with their bags full, once again occupied Gibraltar Port.

Spanish Lord Juan had left a portion of his army at the port. When the news of the Invincible Squadron’s failure spread back, they immediately left. However, before they left, they nabbed all the residents and even burned the port.

It seemed like they did not have any hopes of reclaiming the port once more.

The current Gibraltar Port was basically a ghost town.

Looking at the charred port, Ouyang Shuo had a rather complicated expression. However, amongst the squadron, Alvaro had the most conflicted expression. He did not expect the Spanish players to be so decisive.

"Let’s build an invincible fort right here upon these ruins."

In the game, Gibraltar formed a large concave, and the mountain ranges that surrounded it made it a natural harbor. Three sides had mountains, and one side faced the sea. It was perfectly separated from the Spanish mainland; not even small paths between them existed.

The foot of the mountain was narrow; it covered less than 50 square kilometers, even smaller than Friendship City. As it was near the sea, the soil had a high salt content and normal crops were unable to grow here.

Most of the old residents lived off fishing while some imported soil to plant crops in their homes.

In the 3rd year of Gaia, before long distance trading was prosperous, the strategic position of Gibraltar Port was not evident. Only a few merchant ships ever passed, which made it hard for the people to purchase necessities.

Even so, there were still people who lived here.

Although Gibraltar was a place with nothing much, it could still be considered a paradise separated from the world. Who knew that it would change hands so many times in such a short period.

Ouyang Shuo did not care about the fates of the people Juan had taken away. Currently, he was thinking about how to turn this place a war fortress; he wanted to prevent the Spanish from reclaiming it again.

Chapter 669-Jidian City

Ouyang Shuo decided to keep the name of Gibraltar Port.

He was planning to build a mid-sized city on the limited and narrow land. It would be used for trading and would act as the supply center for the Mediterranean Squadron.

The name of this territory would be Jidian City.

Jidian meant center and base. Ouyang Shuo chose such a name because he hoped to build Jidian City into the base and root of their long-distance trading in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Oceans.

As the country war had not ended, Shanhai City’s occupation of the port was unofficial; the situation could change at any time. Based on the rules of country wars, the war could only end in a few ways: either one country gets destroyed, both sides come to a truce, or land or money is paid.

The only way the development of Jidian City could head on the fast track was if the Spanish royal family agreed that Shanhai City’s occupation of Gibraltar was legal. Only if they received such permission could they open up a relay in the country.

Ouyang Shuo needed to personally come out to settle matters if he wanted to achieve this goal.

Day, Gibraltar Port.

The charred black Gibraltar Port turn into a huge construction site. Many navy warriors took off their equipment, becoming construction workers. They cleaned up the facilities of the port as well as the houses in the area.

Ouyang Shuo’s order was to clear up Jidian City within three days.

After leaving most of his forces at Jidian City, Ouyang Shuo led two navy camps and once again proceeded toward Atlantis Island. For this visit, Ouyang Shuo was using the name of Shanhai City Lord.

Hence, this was an official visit.

For the Mediterranean Squadron to truly set up roots here, they needed friends. Gibraltar Port alone would face massive issues in supplying them.

Atlantis was undoubtedly the best ally they could obtain.

From Ouyang Shuo's point of view, they could complement one another.

For this visit, Ouyang Shuo did not come empty-handed. He brought high grade tea leaves, porcelain, great spices, and an especially huge gift.

During the ocean floor operation, the voyage squadron had obtained a total of 5300 Spanish cannons.

The voyage squadron kept 10. They would bring these 10 cannons back to Shanhai City for the No.7 Research Institute to research it and aid Shanhai City in cannon making.

The newly formed Mediterranean Squadron would keep three thousand for themselves. Based on the plans, they would fix 300 cannons onto the walls of Jidian City.

Of the remaining two thousand, Ouyang Shuo was ready to gift Atlantis one thousand. If they were set up around the outer circle islands, it would greatly increase their defense.

After all, the combat puppets were strategic weapons and could not be easily used.

Atlantis had just risen. Naturally, no one would have other thoughts about it yet. But as the game progressed, and the country wars grew more intense, overlords would rise.

At that time, they would surely target Atlantis, this juicy piece of meat.

Ouyang Shuo roughly recalled that in the 5th year, the Spanish threatened Atlantis. In this life, because of Ouyang Shuo, Atlantis had appeared a year and a half early, and the Spanish Invincible Squadron was crushed. Hence, everything would change.

Even so, that did not mean that Atlantis would have nothing to worry about.

Planning for the worst was always the best strategy.

……

Kalia seemed extremely delighted about Ouyang Shuo’s Visit, and she arranged a massive welcoming ceremony. Fresh red carpets lined the floor from the north port into the palace in the inner circle island.

Kalia led all the ministers of the country to personally welcome them at the port.

"Lianzhou Lord Qiyue Wuyi greets the queen."

After Ouyang Shuo got off the boat, he bowed toward Kalia to show his respect.

"Lord Wuyi, welcome back to Atlantis!" Kalia tried her best to control her emotions and introduced him to the various ministers.

During the rushed goodbye last time, they had not had the chance to meet.

Of course, most of them were appointed in these few past days. They were previously struggling to survive, so why would they bother to build a perfect structure?

Everything was just to survive.

When they reached the surface, everything was different. Atlantis needed to show the outside world their strength and unity, so they must complete the structure in a short time.

Kalia herself was officially coronated and wore the crown.

The research organizations, factories, and other important facilities on the island had started to be used again. Atlantis was recovering at a shocking pace, and it was filled with a boundless vitality.

During the greetings, the Divine Martial Guards and the sailors dragged out box after box of gifts from the boats, forming a small mountain on the port. One thousand Spanish cannons were lined up, forming a truly majestic scene.

When they saw this pile, the ministers felt shocked.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, "Shanhai City being able to defeat the Spanish Squadron was due to your majesty's help. Based on our eastern traditions, we often give gifts as forms of thanks. It's a small gift, just accept it."

The moment his words sounded, it caused a slight commotion.

The ministers started looking at Ouyang Shuo differently, their wariness turning into thankfulness.

10 thousand years ago, Atlantis had built an amazing civilization, so how could they be fools? The problem on Ouyang Shuo’s mind were things that the ministers and Kalia had noticed.

It would not be easy for the Atlantis people to gain a stable footing in the Mediterranean. Hence, they had rushed day and night to recover all the old facilities to obtain some self-defense power.

However, all of this needed time.

Ouyang Shuo's one thousand cannons were undoubtedly sending charcoal when it was snowing, immediately equipping Atlantis so that others would not have any weird thoughts.

With that, Atlantis would gain some much-needed breathing space.

Before this, Kalia was too close to Ouyang Shuo, which worried the ministers; they thought she had grown smitten with him.

It seemed like they had thought too much.

Despite his youth, the man in front of them was truly magnanimous, and he did not have any thoughts of taking advantage of them. The two working together became a really good choice.

"Since it's a gift from Lord Wuyi, we will accept it." Kalia smiled widely, leading the way, "Lord Wuyi, follow me inside!"

The large group walked into the inner circle imperial palace.

In the past few days, many players had located Atlantis and started to do missions. Especially in the middle circle island, many players could be seen there.

Such a majestic scene shocked those players who were doing quests.

When the players saw the Lianzhou Lord and his men receive such respectful treatment, they felt jealous, but they also felt warier and more respectful toward Shanhai City.

"Looking at the current situation, the Lianzhou Lord and the Atlantis Queen seem really close." The various country spies amongst the players noted down this detail.

As for the one thousand Spanish cannons, these weapons dazzled the players.

They could only worship the magnanimity of the Lianzhou Lord. Everyone knew that the Spanish Cannons were the most advanced currently, and each cannon was worth 500 gold.

Even in such a situation, there was no market.

One thousand Spanish cannons. Even with the most conservative estimates, they would have a value of more than 500 thousand. To normal players, this was a sky-high amount that they would not earn even in 10 years.

The actions of the Lianzhou Lord were truly something that they could not understand.

……

Ouyang Shuo, who was walking on the red carpet, could see the players at the sides talking about him from the corner of his eyes. On the inside, he felt gleeful. After all, he had made such a grand entrance so that the other countries would notice him.

He wanted to send the message that Shanhai City and Atlantis Island were extremely close and to tell them to not have any thoughts.

The current Ouyang Shuo had gone past the stage of using military might to threaten others. Suitable diplomatic means would sometimes be more effective than weapons.

……

Inner circle island, imperial palace guest room.

"Brother Wuyi, Kalia is really happy that you came to see me." Without any outsiders around, she immediately put down the mask of a queen and became closer to Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo was truly frank, smiling, "Apart from seeing you, I also have something I would like to ask."

"Speak." Kalia was more anxious than Ouyang Shuo, "As long as I can do it, I will."

Along with Kalia was Minister Arras, a white-haired old man. His identity was special, and he was the assistant appointed by Kalia's father.

When he heard the queen make such a promise, Arras frowned. But thinking about it, he did not stop her. Although the queen was young, she was actually keenly intelligent.

At this time, it would be best to give her some face.

Ouyang Shuo could not help but glance at the minister as a look of praise appeared in his eyes, "I hope that we can form a strategic alliance in the Mediterranean and advance and retreat together.

Cough. Arras gave a short cough, stopping Kalia before she spoke. At this time, he had to be the bad guy, "May I ask, what responsibilities do both sides have in this alliance?"

When Kalia heard this question, she did not speak. She also knew that an alliance was an important matter, and she could not let her personal feelings get involved. If not, she would be irresponsible to her country.

Ouyang Shuo did not mind. After all, he liked such an honest conversation.

"I've set a few basic rules to discuss with all of you. As for the specific details, let's let the officials handle it. What do you think?"

"That's great." Kalia smiled. She did not want to quarrel with Ouyang Shuo just for the interests of their various parties.

Such fighting and debating should be left to the underlings.

Chapter 670-Mediterranean Alliance

After a morning of closed door discussions, Shanhai City and Atlantis officially formed a strategic alliance and signed an alliance contract. As for the core terms of the contract, it was the four matters that Ouyang Shuo had raised.

First, peaceful coexistence. The alliance did not aim to create conflict in the Mediterranean Ocean. On the contrary, they would work toward ensuring peace and stability in the region.

Hence, the two sides were willing to work with any third party willing to protect the peace in the Mediterranean Ocean and were eager to develop long-distance trading.

Secondly, protecting allies. If any side was attacked militarily, the other side must provide resource and troops unconditionally.

Note: This was limited to Jidian City and the Mediterranean Squadron.

Thirdly, open trade. Both sides would freely open their ports to one another. They would allow merchant ships to travel freely, encouraging native merchants to trade with one another and to promote technical and technological exchange.

Fourthly, Atlantis Island would allow Shanhai City to build ports and house troops there when needed.

These four terms showed Ouyang Shuo’s ambitions in the Mediterranean.

Obviously, his end goal was not just to have one strong ally in Atlantis but to develop a circle of allies to proactively develop a friendship circle.

The core four terms were basically suitable for countries or even territories.

……

After signing the contract, Ouyang Shuo had no intentions of acting low profile and just announced a press conference in front of the Mediterranean players in Atlantis.

He not only announced the success of the alliance, but he also announced the exact terms. Within a day or two, this news would be spread by the word of mouth to the rest of the Mediterranean.

……

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo set off to return to Jidan City.

As the return gift for the thousand Spanish cannons, Kalia also imparted Jidan City with a rich reward. This included two combat puppets, four construction puppets, two mimicry flying devices and 10 shark type mimicry warships.

Without mentioning the other things, just the two humongous war puppets were worth the thousand cannons.

These combat puppets were strategic level weapons; Atlantis City used 200 mimicry flying devices to air freight these two puppets to Jidian City.

If it was not for the transport difficulty, Ouyang Shuo would have rather just brought them back to Shanhai City. Even if they were not used, these 100-meter tall giants would not look half bad before the front gate.

As for the construction puppets, Ouyang Shuo needed them greatly. Jidian City had basically no resources and without a single NPC smith or artisan, the city could not even be constructed.

Ouyang Shuo had worried about this matter, who knew that Kalia would easily solve his problem.

As expected from the Queen of Atlantis, such magnanimity. Ouyang Shuo was thinking about compensating them when he had the chance.

8th month, 5th day, Jidian City.

After a month of running, they had demolished all the basic buildings into flat land. Not only that, a 12-meter high stone wall was built near the ocean.

On the city wall, many Spanish cannons were lined up, emitting a dangerous aura.

One had to say, the construction puppets the Atlantis people gave were extremely strong, especially in terms of city wall construction, they went to chisel stone from the mountain and built the wall like they were stacking wood.

These giants were not only huge but also great smiths.

Normal masonry was nothing too difficult for them. The Atlantis people had equipped them with many different types of mechanical arms to ensure that they could flexibly perform different kinds of work.

Of course, for inner city buildings, these huge puppets were not that useful. If they were not careful and accidentally stepped onto a wrong spot, they could easily crush a house.

Hence, it was still empty within the city walls; only the city Lord Manor had been built up.

At the side of the manor was an airport to park the mimicry flying devices. The two flying devices given by Kalia would act as a reserve power in the skies to act as their eyes.

Apart from Jidian City, Gibraltar Port was also cleaned up and port facilities were being reconstructed. The main use of the port in the future was for military matters, so it needed facilities like shipyards and ship repair facilities.

The 12 mimicry warships were quietly docked at a corner of the port. As for the mimicry warships given by Kalia, Ouyang Shuo was not planning to give them to the navy. Instead, he planned to make them into entertainment facilities on the water.

For travelers and tourists to sit on the mimicry warships and go around the port, it would cost one gold coin.

At the entrance to the sea, at the foot of the mountains, one left one right, the 200-meter giant combat puppets were like the iron giants of legends, quietly looking over the safety of the port.

One could foresee that the future Jidian City would remain safe, having defenses in all aspects: land, sea, and air.

In the surrounding ocean region, the Mediterranean Squadron and vayage squadron were training together. The Spanish war tactics and the ancient navy tactics from China were vastly different.

In the past few days, Zheng He and Alvaro, these two generals, had been spending all their time together to train their troops to try to use their strengths to cover their weaknesses. This was a great chance for the navy to improve themselves.

……

Jidian City changed by the day while the Mediterranean region was similarly not quiet.

The arrival of the Shanhai City had flipped the area upside down, there being new news about them every day. The alliance between Shanhai City and Atlantis had messed up the already settled situation.

Anyone with even a slightly strategic eye would realize that the era of the Spanish invincible squadron had ended and would never return. The Mediterranean was going to have a new ruler.

Who would be the victor of this contest?

Each and every country all felt that they stood a chance.

And today, Jidian City welcomed a special guest, the Lord of Vic City- Henry.

Four days ago, Henry’s messenger had arrived in Jidan City and expressed the greetings and kind intentions of Henry. Ouyang Shuo personally took time to meet the messenger and hoped that both sides could have a more well-organized discussion.

Hence, there was this visit from Henry.

Ouyang Shuo knew about Henry in both the last life and in this one.

Henry was a short man who looked rather dull; he was a man of a few words. The entire European continent did not think highly of him.

Only Ouyang Shuo knew that in the last life, Henry had smoothly become one of the three heads of Europe and his position was unassailable. On the other hand, the one that people thought highly about, Manstein, had fallen off.

At the same time, another Lord in the Mediterranean had risen up unexpectedly in the mid game and became one of the three heads along with Henry and William of England.

With that, one could see how intelligent and capable this little fellow was.

When he learned that the Spanish invincible squadron had fallen, Henry was the first Lord to find Shanhai City to cooperate. Just this point alone showed his foresight.

……

Jidian City, Lord’s Manor.

In the simple guest room, Ouyang Shuo sat facing Henry, “This room is simple, sorry for making a fool of myself!”

“Your country has an ancient phrase, ‘What’s important about the mountain is not how high it is but which saint lived in it.’” Who would have expected that Henry would know something about Chinese culture? However, even this phrase, he only said half of it, truly a man of few words.

He really is not simple! Ouyang Shuo thought to himself.

The current Henry’s heart was not calm either. When he arranged for the messenger to contact Shanhai City, he did not expect to form any cooperation yet; he just hoped to make a friendly relationship.

If France wanted to rise, it had to face its enemy, Spain.

As they say, ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend.’

When Shanhai City signed an alliance contract with Atlantis, Henry finally felt truly tempted. Without a doubt, the cooperation between the two had signs of leading the situation in the Mediterranean.

What they lacked was the addition of a native power.

Vic City nicely filled this void. It wasn’t just because Vic City was a native power. In terms of geography, Vic City and Jidian City were positioned north and south of Spain; they perfectly pincered it.

After balancing everything, Henry decided to grab this rare opportunity to form an alliance. With that, they would unavoidably be seen as a traitor by the Europeans.

Normal people would not possess such boldness.

The exact discussion between the two was not revealed to the outside world.

The next morning, a piece of news was once again spread throughout the Mediterranean.

Shanhai City’s Jidian City, Atlantis City, and Vic City had formed a strategic alliance, becoming partners in the Mediterranean. Together, they formed the Mediterranean Alliance.

The core terms of the contract were still the four Ouyang Shuo previousl raised. Sete port in Vic City was officially open to Shanhai City and Atlantis.

Apart from forming an alliance, Ouyang Shuo and Henry also made a huge deal.

Jidian City used 300 Spanish cannons to exchange for 30 thousand artisans and 50 thousand coolies to work for a month in the city to build the city and port facilities.

At the same time, Ouyang Shuo spent 200 thousand gold to purchase large amounts of resources from Vic City.

Obviously, Ouyang Shuo was replicating his experiences from building Friendship Port to use gold in exchange for time to try and build Jidian City in the shortest amount of time.

The establishment of the Mediterranean Alliance had a massive influence on the Mediterranean Ocean.

The result of the strong working together meant that the alliance had swiftly filled up the gap that the Spanish invincible squadron had left. With that, before Greece and the other countries could develop in the region, they realized that they had no more chance.

The only difference was that when compared to the Spanish invincible squadron, the Mediterranean Alliance was relatively peaceful and welcomed the addition of new members.

Things always remained unexpected and could change easily.

At this point, the situation was settling, so Greece and the other countries should reflect on themselves.

The Mediterranean was going to welcome a new order.

Chapter 671-Ocean Auction

Shanhai City's series of actions made the Spanish people feel rather complicated.

First, they formed an alliance with Atlantis. Next, they grabbed Henry and formed the Mediterranean Alliance. All of a sudden, they had replaced their position as the overlord of the Mediterranean.

The problem was that they were still in the middle of a country war.

The Spanish felt conflicted, and the Lords near the oceans were still waiting and making preparations for war. They had raised their morale to the highest point, but when they were right ready to fight, they realized that the enemy was totally ignoring them?

This made the Spanish extremely depressed; it felt like they had punched air.

"A**holes, focusing won't kill you, right? It won't kill you, right?" The Spanish could not help but curse.

When the matter of the Mediterranean Alliance came to an end, and the Spanish thought that they could finally have an all-out battle with Shanhai City, the messenger from Shanhai City arrived in Madrid with a proposition for peace.

Ouyang Shuo announced that he was willing to stop right now; the two sides could shake hands and settle for peace. The Mediterranean Alliance was also willing to coexist with Spain to maintain order in the Mediterranean.

On the exact same day, Henry and Kalia both expressed similar views.

Of course, if Spain was not happy about it, the Mediterranean Alliance did not mind fighting. His words were soft but had a tinge of toughness, truly showing his style.

This god-like change in situation totally caught the Spanish off guard.

The Spanish formed two differing views. The main faction felt that the Spanish needed time to rebuild their invincible squadron and backing off now was the right move.

The other faction wanted war, and they felt that the direction of war could not be totally directed by Shanhai City, ‘Why? We fight because they want to fight and go for peace when they peace?’

The Spanish people felt that this was hard to swallow.

Even though they felt aggrieved, the enemy’s strength was apparent and easy to see. Shanhai City alone was enough to give the Spanish a headache, and now there was even the revived Atlantis City and the Spanish mortal enemy, Vic City.

If they truly started a war, things would not bode well for them.

Amongst all the clamoring, there was one more view that many of the Spanish agreed on, ‘Shanhai City is just here for long distance trading, they didn’t hold any ambitions toward Spain. But our neighbor France is different, they are the true wolves.’

‘In my opinion, that kid Henry is hoping we reject peace so that they will have a chance to use both Shanhai City and Atlantis to fight us.’

This time, the Spanish were totally jolted to their senses and broke out in cold sweat.

Even the ones who wanted war were totally silent, saying in unison, ‘That’s right, we need to stop the rise of France.”

With that, the opinions of the players in Spain slowly came to a consensus.

Under such a context, Phillip the Second meet the Shanhai City messenger squad in the imperial palace.

After a period of negotiation, Phillip the Second decided to give Ouyang Shuo the title of Honorary Knight and also hand Gibraltar over to him.

With that, they just barely saved the face of the Spanish.

Of course, scars remained.

However, the Spanish people needed to focus time and effort into stopping the rise of France. As for Shanhai City, they could only take a step back.

….

8th month, 8th day, Jidian City.

The title from Phillip the Second allowed Jidian City to be like Friendship City; they could open a relay.

At the same time, the meeting hall gave birth to a stone steele, which Ouyang Shuo used a black iron village creation token merged with a merger token to activate; this allowed him to increase the population count of the city at a quicker rate.

The manpower and resources from Vic City had started to be transported over to Jidian City.

Jidian City was slowly going onto the right track.

After opening the relay, Ouyang Shuo wrote his first letter to the city magistrate of Friendship City, Gu Xiuwen.

Half a month ago, Gu Xiuwen had already led his forces and reached Friendship City in Somalia, officially taking office. The large shipyard had also been completed.

Ouyang Shuo ordered Gu Xiuwen to get the shipyard to rush production of a batch of warships to send over to Jidian City for the Mediterranean Squadron’s use. At the same time, he would also send a batch of civil servants over for the time being.

For the second letter. Ouyang Shuo wrote it to Military Affairs Bureau Director Du Ruhui; he asked the director to prepare navy logistic supplies and military officers to send over to Jidian City.

Similarly, Administration Bureau Director Xiao He and the Financial Bureau Director also received the news. The Administration Nureau would send civil servants while the Financial Bureau would lead merchants and Chambers of Commerce over to trade.

Along with the establishment of Jidian City, Ouyang Shuo’s great trade route passed through Jidian City, Friendship City, Lion City, Yashan City, and Beihai City, forming one line.

Under the massive motivation of large profits, not only the chambers of commerce in the territory but even the ones in the various imperial cities rushed over to use this newly formed trade route opened by the voyage squadron.

The age of seafaring had truly arrived.

With that, just by collecting taxes, Shanhai City would be able to earn plenty.

More importantly, Shanhai City had raised its power and strength to speak up on world matters.

Of course, the various countries in Europe could also use the trade route to enter the eastern regions. The game was still different from the ancient times. With China as an example, they could not obtain too much of an advantage because of this trade route.

The difference in technology levels even meant that China would be at a loss. Hence, the Lords in China needed to focus their attention on developing technology in their various territories.

If not, and they lagged too far behind, they would definitely be attacked.

In conclusion, Shanhai City opening the trade route was like opening pandora’s box. It caused the territories and Lords to face many uncertain challenges.

The opening of long distance trading would bring changes, challenges, and chances for new industries; it could alter the prosperity of the territories.

At the same time, it would also be a huge challenge for Shanhai City and the Nanyang Navy to maintain this trade route. Under the temptation of huge profits, people might come over to challenge their power.

The road to conquering the seas had just started.

8th month, 10th day, Jidian City.

Jidian City heading on the right path meant that it was once again time for the voyage squadron to leave.

Before setting off, Ouyang Shuo held a grand ocean auction at Jidian City. The items auctioned off included 20 Spanish galleons, 30 Carracks, 700 Spanish cannons, and two thousand underwater breathing devices.

The moment the news was sent out, the entire Mediterranean was shocked.

The current countries were fighting to increase their ocean strength. Be it warships or cannons, they were all items that they desperately needed. Moreover, the Spanish galleons and cannons were all the top of the line items.

As for the underwater breathing devices, they were even more eye-catching.

Under the investigation of the spies of the various nations, the underwater breathing devices that had caused the destruction of the Spanish invincible squadron entered their field of sight, astonishing all the countries.

Before it had happened, nobody would have expected that the invincible squadron would actually fall to something like that. However, the Atlantis Civilization was too mysterious, and the underwater breathing device was too magical.

The current underwater breathing devices were all sold at sky high prices.

Meanwhile, Jidian City was selling off two thousand of them at once, so how could that not make their blood boil? When they heard the news, the Lords were worried that they would be too late.

In the few days, many warships had parked at Gibraltar Port.

The port, which turned cold due to the actions of Juan, had once again become bustling.

At the same time, the insane defenses of Jidian City were clearly displayed to everyone.

The huge combat puppets, the strong Mediterranean Squadron, the high city walls, the cold cannons, and the mimicry flying devices soaring overhead made everyone fearful.

The auction was mainly to clear resources that were not needed; it was also to form relationships with the Lords of other countries. At the same time, it also had a hidden intention - to warn everyone that Jidian City was not weak

He could not be too sure that the other countries would not have any strange thoughts after the voyage squadron left. Hence, he could only create a positive situation for Jidian City before he left.

Ouyang Shuo also took this chance to share the hot potato that was the underwater breathing device.

One could foresee that if Shanhai City were the only ones to possess such a secret weapon, the Mediterranean Countries would not truly trust them.

After the war, if people like the Spanish fanned the flames, it would be easy to cause people to be wary and start to hate Jidian City.

To Jidian City, it would be a huge loss.

As such, he might as well throw out a bait to allow the other countries to fight; this would buy him some space and time to retreat.

……

At 10 AM, the auction officially began.

The ones who joined the auction were all Lords from the various countries, and they all had enormous wealth. Naturally, Ouyang Shuo would not be petty and sell it item by item. Instead, he sold items batch by batch.

Moreover, to the various Lords, buying one or two warships had little to no meaning.

10 Spanish galleons, 15 carracks, 350 cannons, and 500 underwater breathing devices were sold in one batch.

The entire auction would be split into three batches. The last batch would be left with one thousand underwater breathing devices and the starting bid of each batch was 400 thousand gold. Each addition in bid had to be no less than 20 thousand gold.

At the same time, Ouyang Shuo also made a rule that the player who had already won could not join again. Hence, there would be three winners.

Such intense competition far exceeded their expectations.

The Lianzhou Lord really is a huge schemer, the players could not help but think.

Chapter 672-Viking Pirates

After the ocean auction ended, Ouyang Shuo obtained a total of two million gold. One of the three winners was a person he paid a lot of intention to, the Mediterranean Lord that would rise up in the future.

This person was known as Caesar, and he was rumored to be the direct descendant of the ancient Roman Empire.

In the 4th year of Ouyang Shuo’s last life, Caesar had risen up in Europe, becoming one of the three giants of the European continent. At that time, his legendary past was slowly revealed on the forums.

He was a Lord gamemode player, but his game life had started from the mysterious Roman Imperial Palace. He was born in the roman imperial palace at the start and was nurtured as a member of the royal family.

Regarding the specifics of his experiences and past, even the people closest to him lacked knowledge.

In the first half of the Gaia third year, Caesar left the imperial palace and officially started his journey as a Lord. His followers included 50 thousand Ancient Rome Guards, 20 thousand top grade artisans, thousands of experienced officials, a few million gold worth of riches, and thousands of special items, building blueprints, technical manuals, and the like.

All in all, the Roman Imperial Palace prepared anything that a Lord would need for him. Even the rank that restricted Lords was given to him directly – the rank of 2nd class Marquis rank.

Based on the news revealed on the forums, even the village creation token he used was gold rank.

Gaius Octavius Augustus, who was in the Roman Imperial Palace, even sent his great general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa to Caesar.

One must know that Agrippa had helped Augustus defeat Anthony, the general who had contributed the most to them winning the internal conflict of Rome. Even in roman history, he would be considered one of the top 10 generals.

In the Battle of Actium, Agrippa commanded the troops and defeated Anthony and Cleopatra's alliance army. After this battle, Anthony killed himself and Egypt became a province for Rome.

One could see that Emperor Augustus treated Caesar as his successor.

Although Caesar had stayed in the imperial palace for two years, his starting point was enough to put every other Lord to shame. Without a doubt, this was a typical type of Lord that overtook at a corner.

‘Born in the imperial palace,’ was the adventure quest that Caesar had been given, making every outsider extremely jealous. One could imagine that his luck stat was incredibly high. As for his claim that his bloodline belonged to that of the royal family, very little people believed it.

Ouyang Shuo did not trust his statement either.

He announced such a claim to raise his prestige in Italy and to raise his legality.

In truth, Caesar was not the only one who had obtained such an adventure quest. At least, Ouyang Shuo knew that the Jingdou Palace had a young man who was quietly gathering strength to shoot for the skies.

……

After ocean auction ended, Jidian City officially obtained the recognition of the various Lords in the Mediterranean.

Ouyang Shuo's mission here had similarly to an end.

The next morning, the voyage squadron left Gibraltar Straits and set off once again. Going past the straits, the squadron officially entered the Pacific, heading north toward the English Channel.

If the squadron continued to travel west and went past the pacific, they would be able to reach New York in America. If time permitted, Ouyang Shuo really did not mind taking a trip to North America.

However, it was already the 8th month; based on his predictions, the 6th battle map was about to be triggered. He needed to end the voyage before the battle started.

Compared to exploring America, England was the main agenda of this trip.

….

North Pacific, Celtic Sea.

The Celtic Sea was located at the intersection between the Gibraltar Straits and the West Europe voyage line, where North America and Western Europe intersected. This was an important chokepoint between the North Pacific and the east, and it was deep with less obstacles, which made it easy for various ship types to pass through.

Since it was a chokepoint, pirates would definitely be present. The pirate organization here was the famous Viking Pirates.

From the 8th century to the 11th century B.C., the Viking Pirates have disturbed Europe and the English Islands, and their traces could be found all over the European Continent. 500 years before Columbus found the new land, the Vikings had already reached Newfoundland and explored the north region.

At that time, the Vikings were synonymous with pillaging and killing. One could even say that they gave birth to the word pirate; they were the ancestors of the western pirate.

At that time, they were all elite artisans, sailors, adventurers, and merchants. Most importantly, the Vikings were valiant soldiers, equipped with long spears, war axes, and circular shields; they also believed in the God of Thunder, Thor.

The Vikings originated from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. They once controlled a large portion of the Baltic Coastline, Russia, France Normandy, England, Sicily, South of Italy, and Pakistan.

Their dragon boats were also famous.

The Viking ships were light because the main raw material was rubber trees. The ships were narrow and extremely flexible and mobile. At the same time, it could take waves and weather. The head of the boat was curved and carved from an entire section of rubber tree.

It was carved in the image of a western dragon.

Hence, it was called the dragon boat.

According to the legends, the Vikings did not only worship Thor; they were also good at taming dragons. They were born dragon tamers and could tame various kinds of dragons.

Movies and dramas in real life all had such depictions.

In the game, Gaia merged historical and film works together to strengthen the presence of the Vikings, turning them into a massive pirate organization in the North Pacific.

The Vikings were sitting on bigger and even more terrifying dragon boats than in history. The headache inducing part was that they could actually tame dragons, a flying beast that was gold rank and above.

The strong Vikings became a huge obstacle to England, Holland, and other west European countries from expanding outward.

……

The Celtic sea region was where the Viking pirates and the English Navy were fighting. On the vast ocean, 15 English Warships had lined up, firing at the Viking dragon boats at both sides.

The flag ship in the center had three floors of cannon decks, where no less than 100 cannons were mounted; it was pretty much an ocean castle.

The flagship was carved with the words ‘The Annie" in English, truly eye catching.

If one was familiar with English navy history, they would know that the one in front of them was a typical Man o' War. The Man o’ War was an elite amongst wooden warships, even stronger than the Ming Dynasty turreted warships.

They appeared in the 17th century, right at the end of the Ming Dynasty; these ships used sails to harness the wind to move. Its displacement was around one thousand tonnes; the ships were equipped with smoothbore cannons that could fire solid cannonballs.

After the English-Holland War, the Man O' War slowly were built larger, and its water displacement went up to three to five thousand tonnes, and the cannon count went from the tens to the hundreds.

In naval warfare, these types of warships had been the main warship of navies.

Regretfully, their cannon range and firepower were limited, and they could only use a straight-line sailing technique. The warships had to line up into a single file and travel, and they could only fire the cannons when the enemy entered their range. Hence, they were unable to form an intersecting cannon fire net.

Apart from that, these battleships also had a weakness: in a storm, the third floor of cannons could not be opened.

The Man O' War relied heavily on wind, so it had limited mechanical movement. In situations when both sides were around the same level, gathering together was really difficult. The naval battle became a long crossfire between two sides lined up in a straight line, which was often unable to bring about decisive results.

These types of warships were known as battleships.

It seemed like the squadron in front of them were in such a situation.

Hundreds of Viking dragon ships braced the cannon fire, dodging left and right while surrounding the navy from all sides. Those that got sunk were in the minority.

At the same time, the Viking Pirates launched long spears toward the battleships. On the dragon boat, thousands of Vikings roared out, looking savage to the extreme.

The Viking Pirates had massive ambitions regarding pillaging and robbing, but they had limited numbers. Hence, they had to rely on unexpected ambushes and careful planning. Their ambushes were often split into two parts: throwing spears from a distance, then ending the fight with swords and axes at close range.

The Viking Pirates also had dragon pets in the game to help them, so they were overpowered existences.

This English Navy had been ambushed by the Viking Pirates. Since they were caught off guard, they had lost five to six grade 3 battleships under the attacks.

In the skies above the battlefield, two vicious looking fire dragons with huge wings circled, shooting flames at the English Navy.

Anyone could tell that the English Navy were on the back foot.

……

On the Annie, a conversation was taking place.

"Missus, we can't drag this on anymore; let's retreat!"

The one who spoke held a large sword; it was a girl with red hair in a guard’s uniform.

Her body was well-proportioned, and her huge twin peaks seemed exceedingly luscious. However, they were closely covered by her golden metal armor.

The guard's skirt totally failed to cover up her long legs. Due to long hours of training, her long legs s looked toned and healthy, truly alluring.

"No, Caroline, we cannot retreat."

The red-haired girl was facing another girl who held a silver sword and wore silver armor. She wasn't old; she looked around 23 and had an exquisite appearance.

Along with her golden hair, she seemed like the angel warriors of legends.

"Missus!" Caroline was anxious.

The missus was known for being stubborn; she did not like losing to others.

However, situation at hand would only result in a wipeout if they continued. If the pirate ships got close, they would be able to enter the close combat battle that they excelled at.

At that time, retreating would be impossible.

Chapter 673-Iron Lady Army

Annie shook her head, rejecting Caroline's suggestion. He raised her head and looked at the skies, "Those two dragons are a problem. Ask the musketeers to give up on shooting the pirates and focus on the fire dragons."

"Understood!" Caroline's face froze; she turned around and left.

Thousands of musketeers changed their targets to the fire dragon circling above; this terrified the dragons and stopped them from making any sudden moves. In the end, if they were hit, they would lose a layer of skin even if they did not die.

If a critical spot or their wings were hit, they would face the danger of falling into the ocean.

Dragon taming in the game was not like in the films where everyone had one as a pet. Each dragon was like their children and a strategic weapon.

Under the command of the dragon tamer, the two fire dragons stopped circling and shooting flames down, which allowed the navy squadron some breathing room.

"Quickly, extinguish the flames!" Annie's expression was resolute.

Although the ‘Man O' War’ was an advanced warship, it was still made of wood in the end. The moment the fire on the ship spread, even without the Vikings acting, they would be buried in a sea of flames.

"Quickly! Pour water!"

"Faster!"

Under the hard work of the sailors, the massive fires were slowly put out. As the overlords of the oceans, not to mention some flames, these battleships wouldn't easily sink even if they were struck by cannonballs.

Their huge weight made them unusually stubborn.

Those who followed Annie out to sea, be it the soldiers or the sailors, were all extremely experienced.

After their desperate attempts at saving the situation, the navy squadron finally regained their footing.

However, without the musket fire suppressing them, the Viking dragon boats became fearless. They swiftly sailed toward the navy battleships.

Each battleship was surrounded by five to six dragon boats.

The soldiers on the battleships could already see the curled-up beards of the Vikings. Each pirate revealed a mouthful of yellow teeth as they opened their mouths wide; there was even meat stuck in the gaps.

On one side were the giant dragons spitting fire from the sky, while the terrifying pirates approached from the other.

The musketeers were suddenly placed in a tough spot.

The ocean surface was in total chaos. The navy squadron formation was spread apart by the dragon boats. The 15 battleships suddenly started to fight for themselves. As the formation had scattered, they now had to be afraid of firing cannons in case they hit their allies.

Close combat was unavoidable.

Pa, pa, pa! Huge planks were slammed down from the dragon boats, connecting them to the battleships.

If they followed the old Viking tradition, they should go up one by one to face off the enemies now.

The fate of the person who went on the board was as such: they either killed everyone or died themselves; the people after them would help them take revenge.

If one felt afraid, they could jump into the sea. No one would chase a deserter, but anyone who gave up would be seen as dead, and their family would neglect their presence.

Hence, the first ones to head up were usually the most elite. During the battles, they would act like possessed beings, roaring out and enjoying the atmosphere and the adrenaline. They knew that the boards were all soaked with the blood of their ancestors, and their descendants would similarly lay foot on the same spot.

In the battles, the Viking Pirates were exceptionally crazy and fearless. Their fury made the Viking pirates seem even more terrifying. Such soldiers could even be called berserkers.

Unfortunately, what they faced were not pirates but the English Navy. The navy focused on efficiency. If they truly tried to fight one on one, a musketeer could kill a whole boatful of Viking Pirates.

The olden traditions were left in the times.

"Shoot freely!"

Numerous bullets rained down on the pirates directly.

The pirates charging at the front all fell, their corpses falling into the water. The pirates behind them did not even feel the slightest amount of fear as they braced the bullet rain, waving their war axes and charging forward.

All of a sudden, the board was dyed red; to the Viking Pirates, this was a type of honor.

The Viking Soldiers on the dragon boats continued to throw spears over to cover their attacking brothers. Their spear throwing technique was truly accurate.

With the weak defenses of the musketeers, the moment a spear struck them, they would instantly die.

In the Gaia 3rd year, firearms were just developing. Along with the unique cultivation type support of the game, in a battle between thermal and cold weapons, firearms might not have the upper hand.

Be it the eastern primordial energy or the western battle magic, neither could be underestimated. When one cultivated to a high level, normal firearms could not even hit the; the current Ouyang Shuo was such an example .

After paying huge sacrifices, the pirates finally crossed the less than four-meter-long board.

The ones at the front jumped onto the decks; it was like a ferocious tiger had jumped into the musketeer formation. The huge and sharp double-headed war axes had insane killing power.

All of a sudden, the musketeer formation was in chaos.

The moment a hole was breached, it would be impossible to block it up.

"Charge!" Thousands of Viking Pirates stepped onto the decks and onto the battleships.

The chaos had begun.

Such a battle method was what the Viking pirates excelled at. The glory times that belonged to them had finally arrived.

At the same time, without the suppression of the musketeers, the two huge dragons charged down; the dragon tamers had ordered them to spit out flames.

The sails of the battleships were once again set ablaze.

To the battleships that used wind to move, destroying their sails was like removing the legs of a giant or the wings of a bird. Their huge bodies suddenly became cumbersome and useless.

The situation was more and more against the navy.

Wanting to retreat at this moment was nearly impossible.

Annie was still really determined, pulling out the long sword by her waist, "Iron ladies, follow me to kill the enemy!" Their morale shot toward the heavens.

As the sunlight shone onto her, she looked like a war angel, eye-catching and dazzling. The boisterous noise of the battlefield could not dull her luster; her soldiers would all willingly die for her.

"Yes!"

A group of united and tender voices replied to her.

On the deck of the Annie, three thousand Iron Lady Guards were well-equipped and ready. They were all female and elite combat players.

Their equipment was great, and they were well trained.

They were the Iron Ladies, the most unique squad in England.

Although they were females, they were basically heroines.

"Kill!"

Annie waved her sword, the silver light shining as they fought with the pirates.

"Kill!"

The Iron Ladies charged into the crowd, even more brutal and violent than the Vikings. Facing these attacks, the Viking Pirates were forced back despite their high on morale.

With the help of the Iron Ladies, Annie was like a God, killing everyone.

All of a sudden, the navy soldier's morale skyrocketed.

"A bunch of female devils!"

On a dragon boat far away, the pirate head Tuffnutt muttered.

"Boss, what should we do?" A big fatty beside him asked.

"Don't bother about The Annie, focus on the other battleships before taking care of those female devils." Tuffnutt was small and different from normal Viking leaders.

His huge cow horn helmet stood in stark contrast to his body.

His yellow teeth made it difficult for one to look at him.

"Understood!" The fatty laughed; he was as cunning as his boss.

Hence, without Annie knowing anything, the strategy of the Viking Pirates changed.

The flames of war burned, and blood boiled.

Fresh blood and honor intersected on the battlefield.

……

"Missus, not good, the other battleships cannot hold on!"

Caroline, who was soaked in blood, suddenly ran over. Several streaks of dried up blood ran down her face, making her look like a rose that bloomed in battle.

Even the Vikings drooled at her body.

"Scoff!"

Annie swung her long sword, chopping off the head of a Viking Pirate.

She looked around; since the Annie had the Iron ladies Defending it, they were safe and had the advantage. However, on the other battleships, the cheers of the Viking Pirates grew louder and louder.

For this trip out to sea, Annie only brought five battleships. Three of them had already sunk, and the remaining 13 were the territory navy arranged by William.

Orthodox naval battles were the strong point of the navy and not chaotic fights. Under the strategic pincer movements of the Vikings, the navy soldiers were suppressed, and numerous bodies were strewn all over the deck.

In her stubborn eyes, regret appeared for the first time.

She was too rash for rushing out to sea. In the end, she was ambushed by the Viking Pirates.

In truth, this was not the first time she encountered pirates. However, for the last two times, she had only met small-scaled Viking Pirates that were easily taken care of.

Hence, her passion of killing off the Viking Pirates was ignited.

She did not even know that the Viking Pirates had their eyes on her. The third time she went out to sea, she fell into their trap and was ambushed.

Not only that, she also dragged down the guard squadron that her brother had arranged for her.

"Missus, while the other battleships are fighting, let's leave!" Caroline was exasperated.

"No!" Annie stubbornly shook her head, "I’m not a deserter!"

"Missus!" Caroline was helpless; her tone could not help but turn more serious, "If this drags on and you are captured, won't their lives be lost in vain?"

"That can't do either. At most, we will die in battle." Annie suppressed Caroline’s attempts at convincing her, “There's no need to speak anymore."

Each fighter had a way of life that they persisted on.

Her mojo was never to compromise. At most, she would just die.

On The Annie, a determined aura instantly appeared; an aura to fight to the death.

The Iron Ladies did not get unhappy because of her stubbornness. After her, this spirit was one of the reasons they followed her.

"Fight to the death! Fight to the death!"

Their killing aura rushed to the skies.

Just at this moment, on the ocean surface far away, a huge swallow formation squadron slowly proceeded over.

The golden dragon flag floating above the ships was exceptionally eye-catching.

Chapter 674-Dragon Slayer

Celtic Sea region, Dragon Head.

"Lord, there seems to be a naval battle in front; seems like they have met some pirates!" Zheng He reported.

"Oh?"

Ouyang Shuo took the telescope and looked out at the battlefield.

"English Man O' War?"

Ouyang Shuo immediately recognized the battleships and the ongoing battle.

"Giant dragons?"

When he saw the huge dragons circling around in the air, he thought back to the information from the last life. He was basically certain that these pirates were the infamous Vikings.

"Send down my orders. We will immediately fight, save the English squadron." Ouyang Shuo put down the telescope and ordered without hesitation. No matter who the enemy was, such a favor would help him in England.

"Yes, my Lord!" Zheng He did as told.

In contrast to the English battleships, the Shanhai City voyage squadron was made up of many different warships. They were also equipped with trebuchets, arcuballistas, arrows, rockets, and more.

The voyage squadron was better equipped to deal with the Vikings.

Under the orders of Zheng He, the voyage squadron formed into a battle formation and charged over. At the same time, frogmen dived down toward the dragon boats.

Although the Europeans already knew about the frogmen tactic, the Vikings were still unfamiliar with it.

Before the voyage squadron even approached, the drums of war rang out.

Cannon fire, arrow rain.

The Viking Pirates who were in the middle of an intense battle were pushed back; instantly, they panicked.

"Cover up!" Zheng He ordered.

Crossing boats and fighting were things that the voyage squadron did not fear.

Chen Dameng and the Divine Martial Guards were all raring to go, their killing intents boiling.

"Kill!"

The strong Divine Martial Guards and the sword-shield soldiers charged into the chaos; another round of massacre ensued.

On the dragon boat in the distance, the head of the pirates, Tuffnutt, stared at them like a bull; he opened his mouth, revealing his disgusting teeth, "Can anyone tell me who that damned fellow is?"

"...."

No one could answer his question.

"Send the dragons to kill them." Tuffnutt was not ready to give up.

"Yes!"

The fatty took up the cow horn by his neck and blew a special melody. When the dragon tamers in the air heard this sound, they immediately controlled the fire dragons to charge toward the voyage squadron.

On board Dragon Head, Ouyang Shuo stared at the two dragons flying over, unfazed. He had even fought the mysterious eastern dragon. In comparison, these two ‘dragons’ were just lizards that could fly.

"Shoot down the two lizards!" Ouyang Shuo ordered.

"Don't worry!" Zheng He was also completely confident.

Handguns or muskets were not the true killing weapon to deal with these flying beasts. The true ones were the three-bow arcuballistas prepared by the voyage squadron.

The arrows shot by the arcuballisatas were like harpoons, flying over 1500 meters. Even giant dragons would definitely be heavily injured if struck.

On the various turreted ships, hundreds of arcuballistas had zeroed in, aiming at the flying dragons.

On the backs of the flying dragons, the Viking dragon tamers looked rather bored; they did not feel that any weapon could threaten their giant dragons. Just thinking about the enemy warships going up in flames, they could not help but break out into smiles.

"Dumb humans, prepare to be burned!" The dragon tamers clamored.

Aang!!

One of the dragons roared, sucking in air; its stomach instantly bloated and shone with a bright fiery red as if magma was boiling in its stomach.

"Fire!"

Just as the giant dragon was getting ready to shoot out its flames, the order to fire was given.

Xiu! Xiu! Xiu!

Huge spear like arrows shot through the air.

Aang!

The dragon in the air let loose a painful cry; the gigantic ‘one spear three sword arrow’ either pierced its stomach or its wings, putting it in immense pain.

The flames that it was about to fire out were swallowed; its face turned red and smoke bellowed from its nose.

Aaaaang!!

The roars continued; the dragon tamer stumble and was tossed off its back.

Ahh!

The dragon tamer screamed helplessly in the air, crashing into the ocean. Their dragon could not last for long, stumbling and struggling to fly for less than a few meters before falling into the ocean and causing huge waves.

The pirate leader Tuffnutt looked on with his mouth agape; he pinched the fatty beside him in disbelief.

Ahh!

The fatty let out a pig like squeal.

"It's real!" Tuffnutt muttered.

"Boss, what should we do?" The fat pirate looked at Tuffnutt, annoyed.

"Pa!" Tuffnutt kicked him, "Are you dumb? Run!"

"Yes, yes, yes!"

The fat pirate immediately ordered the ships to start to retreat.

As for the pirates who were still fighting, they could not care for them any longer. Pirates were not soldiers, loyalty or brotherhood did not exist. Deserting their brothers was common to them.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

Making use of the time when both sides were fighting, the frogmen had already arrived beneath the dragon boats. The flagship that the Viking leader was on became their focus.

Just as the flagship was about to escape, it slowly started to sink.

"What's happening?" Tuffnutt kicked the fat pirate once more.

The fat pirate had done nothing wrong; he was on the verge of crying!

Following a boss with such a bad temperament was truly unlucky. Luckily, his skin was thick; if it was another pirate assistant, he would be handicapped.

Even so, the fat pirate did not dare to retaliate.

He knew that the moment the boss was furious, he would become exceedingly crazy.

"I'll go take a look!"

The fat pirate ran away; for a fat person, his movements were quite swift.

In less than 10 minutes, the fatty came back panting, his face ashen white as he stammered, "Boss, boss, not good, the cabin has been chiseled; it's going to sink-"

"Sh*t!" Tuffnutt could not help but spit out a vulgarity, pointing a middle finger toward the heavens. He swiftly placed down a small dragon boat and jumped onto it.

When the fat private saw his actions, a strong power burst out from within him as he jumped down as well.

"Boss, wait for me!"

Peng!

The fat pirate fell into the dragon boat, causing the boat to sink slightly; luckily, it did not capsize.

"Jerk!"

Tuffnutt gave the fat pirate a kick in anger.

The fatty who was saved did not mind it, giving out a relieved smile instead.

Tuffnutt face palmed, having nothing to say to this subordinate.

These two pirates left the battlefield, quietly disappearing into the ocean.

"Boss what should we do?" In the distance, the voice of the fatty spread out.

"Look for our boss Xikapoor!"

"Ah, we are finding the boss? That's great!"

"A**hole, stop jumping; if not, the boat will sink."

"...."

These two best partners disappeared across the vast ocean. Who knows what waves they would cause in the future.

On The Annie, the Iron Ladies similarly had their mouths agape.

"What in the world!" some people exclaimed.

A while ago, these Viking Pirates were crushing them. However, under the attacks of an unfamiliar squadron, they were like weak chicken, finished off in a few blows.

The strong giant dragons were even killed in the first wave.

The final boss in their eyes became monsters in a newbie village in the blink of an eye.

"Are we in the wrong version?" Someone started to question their life.

"We might have just killed a fake boss."

"Missus, that seems like the Shanhai City voyage squadron that has been making waves." Compared to her group of little sisters, Caroline was much calmer. Who claimed that people with big breasts would be brainless?

"Scoff, not long ago, they, Vic City, and Atlantis created some Mediterranean Alliance. Looking at the time, it is just about right." Annie had been paying attention to the news regarding the Mediterranean.

"The strongest Squadron in the world, as expected from there!"

When Annie heard these words, she frowned. Although she was willing to admit defeat, she did not say anything.

"Missus, let’s go over to thank them." Caroline reminded.

"Let's wait for a while more." Annie did not act.

"...."

Caroline had a ‘I knew this would happen’ expression on her face.

……

The voyage squadron did not have time to bother with the ladies as they collected war prisoners, gathered the spoils of war, fished up the dragon corpses, and completed other matters; everything was done in an orderly manner.

It was like this was their main battlefield.

After an hour had passed, even a gold coin that was dropped on the deck was cleaned up. The bodies of the two giant dragons were hung on Dragon Head and taken apart.

The dragon's body was something of legends, so why would Ouyang Shuo waste it?

As for leaving some for the English Squadron? Sorry, this was their spoils of war.

Shanhai City was experienced in war. In terms of sweeping the battlefield for rewards, they were right there at the top.

Their actions caused the Iron Ladies and the English navy soldiers to exchange glances with one another. The prestigious and highly regarded image that the voyage squadron had establish instantly crumbled.

"Idol is destroyed!"

"Cough, keke, even a strong person would have a small weakness, right?" Caroline's expression was as hard as a zombie as she tried to speak for them. After all, they had just saved their lives.

The only reply she received were quiet stares.

"Greedy!"

Annie did not give them face and coldly spat out these words.

"...."

Caroline could not laugh anymore.

Just at this moment, a tall and fierce looking general walked over, "Is this the commander of the squadron? I'm the captain of the Personal Guards. The Lianzhou Lord has instructed me to use his name to invite you to Dragon Head."

Every word that he said seemed to be forcefully memorized. A brute like him obviously lacked the talent to speak such words.

When Caroline heard his words, she smiled and introduced, "This is infanta Annie, the commander of our squadron."

"Please!"

Chapter 675-Avic Fort

Dragon Head, war room.

Zheng He reported the results, "During this battle, we obtained 12 thousand Viking pirates, 20 thousand gold, and many equipment."

Ouyang Shuo nodded expressionlessly, “Send a navy unit to escort them back to Jidian City and put them into the Mediterranean Squadron. As for the gold, gift it to the soldiers as a reward for being a part of the voyage."

Zheng He laughed, cupping his fists, “I thank the Lord for his gifts on behalf of the soldiers."

The Viking Pirates were all top-quality naval soldiers in terms of body qualities and naval battle skills. Compared to the Gulf of Aden pirates and the Spanish navy, they were a little stronger.

Their only weakness would be their lax discipline.

However, with Alvaro in charge, there should not be too much of a problem. That experienced general was known for not giving others face, and he was described as a cold person.

No matter how disruptive and ill-disciplined they were, Alvaro would train them up nicely.

12 thousand Viking prisoners were enough to fully fill up the 3rd squadron. In that aspect, destroying the Viking Pirates was a good way to increase their troops.

Relying on the snail-like pace of Jidian City to expand population of the squadrons was not practical. The new people were mainly to increase the basic population of Jidian City.

It seemed like he needed to send a letter to Alvaro to ask him to lead the Mediterranean squadron through the Gibraltar Straits into the Pacific to attack some Viking Pirates when the time was right.

With that, he would be able to train troops and expand the military.

"As for the equipment, take half with the prisoners and send it to Jidian City. As for the other half, give it to the English Squadron. They put in so much effort, so we should not make it too ugly for them." Ouyang Shuo instructed.

"Understood!" Zheng He was a polite person.

At this moment, the guard outside said, “Lord, Infanta Annie visits."

"Invite her in." Ouyang Shuo stood up to welcome the guests.

When he learned that the squadron they had saved was actually the Iron ladies Army under Annie, Ouyang Shuo was surprised.

In the last life, this cold-faced angel was famous across the world. On the forums, there were rumors that she had the beauty of an angel but a heart as cold as a devil’s.

If history had not changed, Annie would rise up after her first failure; she would totally become the nightmare of the Viking Pirates.

In their words, she was a female devil that killed without blinking.

Annie became the humiliation of the Viking Pirates.

By the 5th year of Gaia, no less than 200 thousand Viking pirates were killed by her; this was more than half of their total number.

With that, her fame spread across the globe.

Numerous Lords and guild leaders chased after her, but nobody succeeded.

Someone even spread the rumor that she was a lesbian and that Caroline was her lover, which was why she rejected everyone.

In the last life, people treated it as side news and did not pay much attention to it.

When she walked into the room, the room lit up. Amongst all the beauties Ouyang Shuo knew, probably only Feng Qiuhuang could compare to her.

Beside her stood a red-haired beauty with a tantalizing body. Needless to say, it was Caroline.

Thinking back to the rumors in the last life, Ouyang Shuo could not help but glance at the two. This was the first time he had seen them. In terms of looks, the forums had not exaggerated in the slightest.

They were truly more beautiful than the pictures online.

Only her cold expression caused men to not dare to have any crooked thoughts. It was like even just thinking about it would be blasphemy to this goddess.

However, Annie misinterpreted the meaning behind his gaze and thought that he was like other men; she thought he was shallow and only went for looks, so a look of disdain flashed across her eyes.

"Infanta Annie, I've heard about you, please sit!"

Ouyang Shuo was truly sharp; he had noticed the despise in her eyes. However, in his heart, he did not feel bothered about it much and sat at the main seat. With his current position and mental strength, why would he bother to explain anything?

When Annie heard his words, she sat down coldly, “Speak, what would you like in return?"

Cough!

Even though Ouyang Shuo was calm, these words managed to catch him off guard. What kind of attitude was this? This was the first time he met someone who was saved and still so stubborn.

"Forget it!" Ouyang Shuo waved his hand to prevent Zheng He from speaking, smiling, “Since that's the case, I won’t beat around the bush. As long as Infanta Annie leads me to see your brother, that will be enough. How about that?"

"Just that simple?"

Annie unknowingly frowned; she had seen so many so-called gentlemen who loved to take a step back, only to take a step forward later to get close to her and gain a good impression. Ouyang Shuo's action had deepened her misunderstanding.

"Yes, it's just that simple." Ouyang Shuo nodded.

"Okay, I'll promise you."

Annie bore the annoyance in her heart. Although she was cold and arrogant, she knew how to differentiate between hate and gratitude.

I really want to see what tricks you, the so-called 1st in the world, are trying to play, Annie thought to herself, Do not blame me for being upright you disgusting fellow!

The atmosphere in the room suddenly became extremely cold.

Ouyang Shuo had reached his goal, and he was not interested in talking to this ice-cold beauty. At his level, how would he be tempted by a person's looks? Furthermore, this was such a cold person.

In comparison, Ouyang Shuo felt that Caroline, who had a fiery body, was better to look at. Caroline, who stood behind Annie, had a rather awkward expression when she heard her missus's words, and she gave an apologetic smile.

Annie sat quietly, waiting for Ouyang Shuo's following 'act'. She had seen a lot of these tricks. They had all tried to use a similar excuse to invite her for a meal to get close to her.

Next, they would give her gifts to show their power and wealth.

Just thinking about it, Annie felt disgusted.

However, contrary to her expectations, Ouyang Shuo actually stood up and sent her away, “Well, I hope Miss Annie will not forget your promise. I still have matters to attend to, so I will not waste your precious time."

"...."

When Annie heard his words, she froze.

This is not right! Annie could not help but roll her eyes, consoling herself, Scoff, is he trying to ‘Loosen the reigns so as to grasp them better latter?’ Just wait and see!

"Let's leave!"

Annie got up and coldly said goodbye.

……

"How can she act like that? If we knew beforehand, we would not have saved her." When Annie left, Zheng He could not help but express his dissatisfaction. Evidently, her actions were contrary to the eastern education Zheng He was used to.

"Forget it, do not care about her!" Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, “Send some medical officers to heal their injured. Pack up all the stuff; let's leave for England as soon as possible."

"Understood!"

"The navy unit that was taking care of the prisoners, let them set off now!" Ouyang Shuo said, “Return to Jidian City and immediately rush back to England to meet the squadron."

"Yes!"

Zheng He made the arrangements while Ouyang Shuo walked toward the deck. He had not had time to check on their spoils of war, especially the two dragons that they had killed.

"Lord!"

On the deck, the dissection work of the corpses was nearly completed.

When the smiths and artisans saw Ouyang Shuo, they all bowed.

In Earth Online, dragons were just spirit beasts that could fly, they were not as mystical and as magical as described in western folklore. As long as one found the right spot, it was easy to rip off their skin.

Amongst leather, dragon leather could be considered top grade. Amongst which, the arm and the spine portion were the best, as these parts had strong fibrous tissues and stensile strength.

Perfect Dragon Skin: Quality 28, top grade leather from a western giant dragon, can be used to craft top grade defensive equipment.

Ouyang Shuo kept the spine and waist portion of the huge dragon. It was not that he wanted to use it to make something in particular. Rather, he wanted to give it to Qing'er as a present.

She would definitely love such top-grade leather.

Apart from the leather, another valuable part would be the dragon crystal in its head. It was similar to the inner pellets in desolate beasts, which could help in cultivation.

Both of the killed dragons were fire element dragons, and the dragon crystals were of the fire element, a mismatch with Ouyang Shuo's cultivation method and talent. If he forcefully used it, it would not be that effective.

However, to the western hidden occupation, Magician, they were top grade items.

Ouyang Shuo kept the two dragon crystals into his storage bag, turning around and leaving. As for using the dragon blood to train one’s body, such a method did not exist in Earth Online. At most, the dragon meat contained a huge amount of energy.

The two giant dragons gave them many tonnes of meat, which would be enough for the voyage squadron to use for a long time.

….

8th month, 15th day, the voyage squadron set off once more, along with them Annie’s remaining troops.

The road was smooth, and they did not bump into any other Viking Pirates.

The most active region of the Vienna Pirates was not the Celtic Sea but the North Sea, Norwegian Sea, and the Greenland Sea; their main base was located in that area.

Annie had bumped into the biggest bunch of Viking Pirates in the Celtic Sea.

8th month, 18th day, the squadron smoothly arrived at the Plymouth Port in England.

In reality, Plymouth was a city with a vast naval seafaring history, and it was once the shipyard of the English Royal Navy. It was also an important port of the English from the 16th to the 19th century.

At around one thousand B.C., there was a small commercial port here.

The Plymouth Port in the game was a port that belonged solely to Avic Fort.

When he received the news, the Lord of Avic Fort, William, waited at the port to welcome Ouyang Shuo and his men.

Similar to Ouyang Shuo, William was rather controlling of his sister. However, because Annie was around his age, it was really difficult for him, and she gave him a huge headache.

Knowing that Annie was attacked, and her troops were nearly crushed, he was so furious that he nearly summoned the entire navy to hunt the Vikings. He only stopped when his subordinates managed to persuade him.

William felt really grateful toward Ouyang Shuo.

Chapter 676-Upgrading to Duke

Just as Ouyang Shuo entered Plymouth Port, a system notification sounded out across the entire world.

"System Notification: Congratulations China Region Lord Qiyue Wuyi for leading the Shanhai City voyage squadron to crossing three big continents and oceans, unparalleled in history. Rewarded 50 thousand merit points, 100 thousand reputation points, and 1 special item, congratulations player!"

……

The moment the notification went out, players around the world were astonished.

Till date, after a little over four months, the journey of the Shanhai City voyage squadron was known by the world. Their adventures in Southeast Asia, the Gulf of Aden, and the Mediterranean had all caused huge waves.

Not only Shanhai City, the whole world was paying attention to this unprecedented voyage squadron; they felt envy, jealousy, or even simply awed.

This also opened a huge page in cross ocean travel in the game.

Ouyang Shuo clearly remembered that the one who had gotten this achievement in the last life was the Spanish Invincible Squadron.

History was already slowly changing.

The moment he reached England, Shanhai City officially jumped to the position of the world's most influential territory. Be it in terms of reputation or speaking rights, they had broken away from the control of the Chinese.

……

Ouyang Shuo stood at the bow, a complicated expression on his face.

At this moment, he thought about a lot; everything that happened on this journey flashed across his mind.

The waves he caused at the Spratly Islands, the mysterious dragon island, the life and death battle at Singapore, the bloody night at Somalia, the underwater adventure at Atlantis….

All these events seemed like they had just happened yesterday.

Through this whole journey, Shanhai City had gained so much but also lost too much. The voyage squadron was pretty much brand new, changing a few waves. Tens of thousands of soldiers and sailors were buried in the oceans for the territory's chase for ocean supremacy.

Only by sailing though the oceans of blood and corpses did the voyage squadron finally achieve such a feat.

The opening of such a great trade route, Xingzhou Prefecture, Friendship City, and Jidian City, the establishment of the Mediterranean Alliance, these were all massive matters.

Whilst Shanhai City had started the flames of war, they had continued to make friends.

The training and development from the blood and flames made this voyage squadron the elites of the elite.

"In the end, we succeeded, didn’t we?" Ouyang Shuo's expression was one of loneliness, but there was an unusual steel about it. His journey to the position of overlord was far from over, and his heart could not waver even in the slightest.

Zheng He, who was not far away, had a complicated expression when he looked at the straight back of Ouyang Shuo. He sighed, “The journey to being an overlord is always a lonely one."

At this moment, Zheng He suddenly felt like he understood the Lord.

He understood the loneliness hidden below that determination.

In the end, the Lord was just a 20 odd year-old young man. However, he bore the hopes of millions of people on his shoulders; they hoped he would build a future for them in the wilderness.

……

A white light shone in his hand and a scroll appeared; this was the special item awarded to him. It was actually the World Ocean Region Geomancy Map; it had all the geographic information of the various oceans marked.

This map was crucial to Shanhai City's journey to ruling the seas. With it, they could save a lot of manpower and resources, saving them a lot of precious time.

More importantly, from the 50 thousand merit points, Ouyang Shuo's total merit points broke the million bottleneck and he had become a duke.

This matter caused a second system notification.

"World Notification: Congratulations China Region Player Qiyue Wuyi for becoming the world's 1st duke, awarded the title of Shanhai Duke, rewarded 50 thousand reputation points. Additionally, there will be rewards from the imperial city."

……

Such glorious achievements could not be described by words.

If Ouyang Shuo did not recall incorrectly, in his last life, the first duke was only born at the end of the 4th year of Gaia. Which meant that in this life, Ouyang Shuo had achieved that a full year earlier.

Ouyang Shuo's position as the World's Best Lord was becoming more and more stable.

With this, he had cleaned out the last obstacle to Shanhai City starting a country. He only needed to quickly upgrade Shanhai City into a capital city.

The current Shanhai City was just a Grade 2 Prefecture. Ouyang Shuo estimated that when he returned, he should be able to smoothly upgrade it to Grade 3 Prefecture.

As for upgrading to capital city, that would probably require some more time.

Without mentioning other aspects, just feeling up the one million population required was a huge problem.

Needless to mention, Gaia would definitely set some upgrade quests.

The difficulty of the quest would surely be much higher than that of upgrading to prefecture as a capital city was a huge jump. The capital city of a player could compete with the system imperial cities.

Of course, all of this would need to wait till he returned to Shanhai City.

As for the title that Gaia gave, after the territory sets up a country, the Lord could set their title. For now, he would be restricted to Shanhai Duke.

When truly building a country, the title would best be a single word; if not, one would know that it was a random lousy country without any skill or power. A country's fate would even be affected because of a single title.

The title of a country, a Lord in China could choose from the Spring Autumn Warring States Period, or he could set one themselves. As for how to do all this, Ouyang Shuo would have to seek advice from Jiangshang and Xiao He.

That was because simply using the title of other countries was something that would cause an uproar.

When upgrading to duke, the 50 thousand reputation point reward had also caused his total reputation points to break the million mark and successfully upgraded to Well Known Around the World.

A system notification sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, reputation points broke past 1 million, upgrading to Well Known Around the World, awarded the title Overlord, congratulations player!"

Overlord: raises the good impression of historical people by 55%, raises success rate of recruiting historical people, raises success rate of recruiting historical people from other countries by 20%.

Compared to the Mighty Lord title, these stats were not only a huge raise, but it also increased the chances of recruiting overseas historical people, befitting of the description of being well-known around the world.

If the current Ouyang Shuo went to persuade Alvaro, it would probably be much easier.

His reputation reaching the 6th stage meant that he had already reached the limit. Gaia had not set any settings further up, so he would need to wait till the system update.

It seemed like Gaia had not expected an abnormal player like Ouyang Shuo, who would break past the one million reputation point mark in just the 3rd year.

Even until the 5th year of the last life, no one had accomplished this.

Ouyang Shuo's actions could be called unprecedented.

In all likelihood, no one would be able to come close.

Luckily, breaking the reputation upper limit did not have a notification. If not, three consecutive notifications would be truly too eye catching.

Being too high-profile would make one hated.

Making use of this chance, Ouyang Shuo took a look at his stats.

【Name】: Qiyue Wuyi

【Territory】: Nanjiang Governor-General House

【Occupation】General (sub-occupation)

【Title】: Overlord (-), Barbarian King (-)

【combat strength】:Dark Gold

【Merit】: 1.01million/2million

【Rank】: Duke (Shanhai Duke)

【Reputation】: 1.03 million/??? Well Known around the World

Primordial Energy: -

【Body Structure】: 45

【Comprehension】: 38

【Luck】: 22

【Charm】: 15

【Command】: 85

【Force】: 80

【Intelligence】: 45

【Political】: 70

【Talent】: Wargod (Permanently increase combat power by 20%)

Talent: Ice (attacks have an icy effect)

【Speciality】: Magic God Possession (Raise combat power by 200% for 30 minutes, followed by a period of added weakness)

Specialty: Way of the King (raise sensory abilities and gives birth to the aura of a king)

【internal Art】: Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique (layer 11/12)

【Technique】: Tianmo Spear Code (Mastery through comprehension), Killing Sword Sword Manual (Mastery through comprehension)

Movement Skill: Floating Ghost Shadow (Mastery through comprehension)

【Art of War】: “Liu Tao” (Wu Tao Volume)

【Skills】: -

【Mount】: Little Green (God beast subspecies)

Special Mount: Dolphin mimicry flying device

【Equipment】: Tianmo Spear (High grade god weapon), Chixiao Sword (god weapon)

Armor: Dragon War set: Twin Dragons Swallow the Heavens Armor, Cloud Dragon Nine Pattern War Boots

Cape: -

Accessories: Emperor Seal (God rank), purple magnetic ohlite (royal family specific)

【Unique Items】: Yin Yang Copper Coin, group revival scroll, black dragon skeleton, fire element dragon crystal.

Apart from the rank and title, Ouyang Shuo's other stats had experience a huge change. Be it basic data, equipment, cultivation technique, and more, all were all changed.

Even his weakness, the luck stat, had started to catch up.

The dragon and phoenix pendant Ouyang Shuo had given to Song Jia before going out to sea. The purple magnetic ohlite that he had gotten at Atlantis filled up the void left by the pendant.

After going out to sea, Little Green finally recognized Ouyang Shuo as its master and became his personal mount, replacing Qingdian.

Ouyang Shuo's mimicry flying device was also listed. With that, one could see that Gaia did not only treat living organisms as mounts.

After this voyage, Ouyang Shuo's storage bag had a new collection of special and weird items.

Plymouth Port, Harbor.

The successive system notifications had disrupted the welcoming ceremony that William had planned.

Of course, his smile became even brighter. Even the cold Annie could not help but take a look at Ouyang Shuo. At such a stage, such achievements were simply too eye-catching.

"Lianzhou Lord, no, now it's the Shanhai Duke, welcome!"

Chapter 677-Steam Engine

Avic territory, William Castle.

After a simple but warm welcoming ceremony, William held a grand reception for Ouyang Shuo in his manor, which was the current William Castle.

William Castle followed the olden English castle style. Although it was newly built, one could feel the strong historical past. The castle brimmed with life, and the sights inside were beautiful and filled with substance.

At 3 PM, the two Lords finally had time to talk alone.

In reality, William was a member of the royal family; pure and legit royal family bloodline flowed in his veins. As a result, he had an unusual amount of prestige in the England region.

Although he was a lazy person, but he was definitely intelligent. After he heard what his sister described, William confirmed his suspicions: Ouyang Shuo came over for a reason.

Between the two territories, there was definitely going to be a huge deal.

Shanhai City had definitely paid attention to Avic Fort because of the steam engine they had researched. At the current age, England was right when the industrial revolution was sprouting.

The strength and energy of the industrial revolution was about to spurt out.

And the root of all of this came from the small steam engine. To research and develop it, Avic Fort had thrown in endless amounts of resources.

Conservatively speaking, it would not be any less than two million gold.

One must know that they had started developing the steam engine during the 1st year of Gaia. At that time, before they had developed it, the entire Avic Fort was living on a really tight purse string.

They finally saw results during the 1st half of this year.

Hence, William was not ready to hide this technique because of how rare it was. Instead, he wanted to sell the technique to earn back a large sum of funds, which would allow him to speed up the construction of his territory to catch up with the others.

After all, the game was different from reality. England was not the only region that could develop the steam engine. The entire Europe did not lack technological tree bottlenecks with regards to the steam engine.

A second, third country could soon succeed. For the England region to take sole possession of the steam engine technology was a pipe dream.

Since that was the case, William might as well take this chance to sell the technique for a good price.

In his eyes, Shanhai City was undoubtedly a good buyer.

Without mentioning the gratitude for saving Annie, first, Shanhai City was rich; secondly, Shanhai City was really far away from Avic Fort and would not pose a direct threat in a long period of time.

He did not even consider pulling up the technological levels of the eastern countries as a result of this. Since the global federation was established, the animosity between the east and the west was not as serious as before.

In the game, players chased for personal interests.

The so-called country's interest was just a lie.

And even if England did not sell the technology to China, William believed that America would sell similar technologies over to their allies in Asia, Tokyo and Korea.

With that, William did not have any psychological burden.

Now, he just had to see what kind of good price Shanhai City could give.

……

In the meeting room, Ouyang Shuo did not beat around the bush and asked directly, "May I ask boldly, you have invented the steam engine, right?"

"Not bad." William nodded. In truth, the steam engine was being pushed out throughout the English region. With the strong intel ability of Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo finding out this news was not something surprising to William.

"Are you selling it?" Ouyang Shuo was simple and directly breached the topic.

"The price isn't cheap though."

William's face gave out a ‘treasure in his hand’ expression. Obviously, he would not be easily convinced.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this reaction, he was delighted. As long as he was willing to sell, it would be possible; after all, Ouyang Shuo did not lack money.

One could say that purchasing the steam engine crafting technique was the true goal of this voyage. Opening the trade routes was just something that he did along the way.

However, Ouyang Shuo had to make this deal succeed.

Shanhai City's industrial system needed to break out of the bottleneck of the Chinese technology tree if they wanted to develop. If not, even with the strong research organization at the No.7 Research Institute, they would be restricted by the technology tree.

Ouyang Shuo believed that Handan City's group of scientists also faced similar problems.

This was the weakness of the entire China region.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to lead the China region in future country wars, so he had to solve this disadvantage. As ap erson in his second life, in the last life, Japan and Korea had obtained the steam engine from America which helped them rise up, suppressing China.

In this life, Ouyang Shuo definitely would not allow such a humiliation to take place once more.

Hence, no matter what price he needed to pay, Ouyang Shuo needed to acquire the steam engine. Before leaving for the ocean, Ouyang Shuo even planned to forcefully snatch the technique through a country war if necessary.

Of course, that was the worst scenario.

Hence, one could imagine how emotional he felt when he knew the squadron he had saved belonged to Annie.

Needless to mention, without such a spark, William would not be so willing to sell it. Dragging matters for another half a year was a pretty normal thing.

At that time, Japan and Korea would have probably gotten the rights to the technique. The changes in the game were so swift; half a year was enough time to open up a huge gap.

One could say that Ouyang Shuo's luck stat was slowly starting to work.

……

"Three million gold!" Ouyang Shuo made his first offer.

Ouyang Shuo was not petty and did not raise little by a little. Three million gold was the result of his calculations and balancing; it was basically the limit to the worth of such a technique.

In the last life, the forums revealed that Japan region Lord Honda Keisuke had obtained the steam engine crafting technique from the Americans for three million.

Of course, that was already the 1st half of the 4th year.

In comparison, Ouyang Shuo's bid was already sincere.

"Brother Wuyi is truly quick!" William was surprised; this bid was really close to what he had hoped for.

In the end, William was a lazy and relaxed person and did not like bargaining.

Three million gold could be said to have reached his lowest valuation, but there was still room to rise.

After all, to a Lord like William, although gold was important, it was not the most important. Although three million was a sky-high amount, it was not enough.

"Not enough!" William resolutely shook his head.

"Add in one thousand underwater breathing devices." Ouyang Shuo was not flustered.

Ouyang Shuo understood and did not increase the gold as three million was basically the limit. William said it was not enough because he wanted him to use other items.

Sales was just a demand and supply relationship.

As long as one had something the other needed, one had all the talking rights.

The underwater breathing device was undoubtedly such a god weapon. Any navy would desire such an item. Especially after Shanhai City successfully used the frogmen, it pushed the demand for underwater breathing devices to the peak.

Whether or not one had a frogmen force would become one of the markers to whether one was a strong navy.

Speaking of whichh, England was a true navy superpower.

Without a doubt, Avic Fort was also known for its navy, so it had a huge need for the underwater breathing device.

Ouyang Shuo offering one thousand right away was truly a magnanimous act.

One had to say, William was tempted.

However, the steam engine was not a joke, and it was the core of the 1st industrial revolution. Selling the technology at such a time was a huge risk to Avic Fort.

"Not enough." William hesitated once more.

Ouyang Shuo's eyes froze; William's greed had exceeded his expectations. Seems like when discussing business, William had tossed aside the matter of him saving Annie.

When he became rational, he was truly a scary person.

"Then what about adding this?"

Ouyang Shuo took out another card, a dragon crystal.

When William saw the crystal, his breathing sped up as William was a magician.

"This is my limit." Ouyang Shuo had to remind him.

William nodded; he was not too greedy. However, there was a tinge of disatisfaction in his eyes, and he asked, "You should have another one in your hands right, say your terms."

"Throw in the sewing machine technology," Ouyang Shuo smiled and said.

"No." William did not even think about it and directly rejected him.

One must know that the sewing machine was one of the symbols of the 1st industrial revolution, and it was enough to bring huge changes to the entire sewing industry.

Although it could not compare to the steam machine, it was still a treasure.

How would William be willing to sell such an item at such a low price?

Ouyang Shuo did not expect William to directly agree, and he continued, "If I add in one million and 20 three-bow arcuballistas?"

One million was to make up for the price difference while the three-bow arcuballistas was a special need.

When William heard Ouyang Shuo’s words, his eyes lit up, "The one you mentioned, is it the secret weapon you used to kill the giant dragon?" He had obtained news about the entire process through Annie's mouth.

"That's right!" Ouyang Shuo did not hide anything.

"Deal!"

This time, William answered without any hesitation.

"Deal!"

Ouyang Shuo took the initiative to reach out and shake hands with William; the joy in his heart was tough to hide.

Shanhai City, even the entire China region's foundation, was basically set for the next three to four years. They would not fall behind and be humiliated due to their technology.

Of course, a gap still existed.

Buying the steam engine and sewing machine technology only helped to make up for a portion of the technological system. In terms of firearms, the western countries still held a huge advantage.

Such technology, America was the most advanced.

Who knows, at a certain time in the future, Ouyang Shuo might need to make a trip to America.

Chapter 678-Returning to Shanhai City

After settling the deal, Ouyang Shuo relaxed and smiled, "William, let's do another trade. Shanhai City will use three turreted ships to exchange for 1 class 1 Man O' War and two class 3 Man O' War."

In the Gaia 3rd year, before the rise of iron warships, both ships had their strengths and weaknesses. Ouyang Shuo hoped to combine the strengths to raise their warship building standards.

More importantly, the design of the Man O' war was closer to that of the future iron warships. If Shanhai City used it as a model, they could naturally speed up their iron warship research.

William was a smart person and understood immediately, "Sure."

He hoped to use this chance to build some personal friendship with Ouyang Shuo. Western and eastern giants working together, what a sight to look forward to.

Next, they needed to discuss the dealing details.

At 6 PM, these two finally came to an agreement.

This deal was enormous; Shanhai City paid four million, one thousand underwater breathing devices, 20 three-bow arcuballistas, two dragon crystals, and three turreted ships in exchange for the Avic Fort steam engine crafting technique, the sewing machine crafting technique, and three Man o' Wars.

At the same time, William agreed to provide Shanhai City with 12 mechanics and 15 sewing talents to help Shanhai City technologically.

Naturally, they were delighted after reaching a deal.

William had obtained enough construction funds while Ouyang Shuo got the techniques he dreamt off.

With that, the gold in his storage bag had decreased by a small half.

When he defeated the Spanish Invincible Squadron, he had close to 11 million; the construction of Jidian City and the Mediterranean Squadron had used up a million.

The ocean auction allowed him to earn him two million.

His personal wealth amassed to 12 million. After this deal, he lost a third and now had 8 million.

Of course, everything was worth it.

That night, William held a huge feast in the castle's largest banquet hall to welcome Ouyang Shuo and celebrate their deal.

The next day, both sides settled the deal.

William passed Ouyang Shuo the two books; when he took them, they felt rather heavy.

Other than that, William gave Ouyang Shuo five prototypes as an extra gift.

Only after the massive trade started did the other people in Avic Fort learn of this astonishing deal.

"Shanhai City is truly rich; as expected from the richest man in the world!" Some people exclaimed.

"Selling the steam engine and the sewing machine to easterners, that isn't a good thing, right?" Some people doubted this matter. However, the deal was set in stone, and no one could stop it.

"No matter what, at least we have money now." The finance officer was the happiest.

Amongst all the debate, the deal continued.

Only at 5 PM did the batches of goods finally exchange hands. The hardest was naturally the warship trading. The Man O' War was still okay, they directly handed them over from the shipyard.

As for the turreted ships, they had to shift the resources over to the Man o' War and vacate it on the spot.

In an afternoon, this mega deal spread across England and even some countries in Europe learned about it. Naturally it caused an uproar.

Some said that England had betrayed Europe, some were envious, and some were angry.

Even in the mid 3rd year of Gaia, four million gold was still a huge amount to Lords. Furthermore, Europe was a place with a smaller land area, so these funds were even more important.

The rise of Avic Fort could not be stopped.

At the same time, the various Lords in Europe started to speed up their steam engine research. The 1st industrial revolution was going to totally explode in Europe.

8th month, 20th day, Dragon Head.

After the deal was completed, the voyage squadron did not spend too much time at Plymouth Port and got ready to return.

The squadron had three turreted ships less but three more Man O' Wars. Using this chance, the Shanhai City soldiers, including the sailors, got familiar with the functions of the Man O' War under the teachings of the engineers at Avic Fort.

If based on normal traveling speeds, even if they were not held up by matters, the voyage squadron would need two months to smoothly return.

At that time, the 6th battle map would have already started.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed a way to swiftly return to Shanhai City.

As for the specific method, before coming out to sea, Ouyang Shuo had it all planned. Even the entire voyage squadron, if everything went smoothly, did not need to return to the country.

Some of the rules in the game could work miraculously if used well.

In the war room, Ouyang Shuo instructed Zheng He," Lead the voyage squadron back to Jidian City and wait for further instructions."

"What about you Lord?" Zheng He did not understand.

"Tonight, I'll return to Shanhai City using a secret method; don't worry."

"Understood!" Zheng He nodded.

The mysteriousness of players was something that NPCs understood.

……

His mysterious method was the Yin Yang Copper Coin he had obtained during the Chinese New Year's Eve of the Gaia 2nd year.

Yin Yang Copper Coin: After use, can revive without any penalty.

With this, Ouyang Shuo could commit suicide and revive in Shanhai City.

Without hesitating, Ouyang Shuo took off all his equipment and placed the items into his storage bag.

The so-called revive without penalty was just not losing level, internal technique, skills, merit points, and the like; your equipment would still be dropped.

Hence, to prevent problems, he needed to keep all his equipment.

Following which, Ouyang Shuo killed himself without hesitation. A short while later, his corpse disappeared from the Dragon Head war room.

At the same time, tens of thousands of miles away in the Shanhai City Reincarnation Hall, Ouyang Shuo slowly walked out. The equipment he had taken down were all re-equipped.

"Lord, Lord?"

The guards in charge of the Reincarnation Hall were so astonished when they saw him that they could not speak. The soldiers all knew that the Reincarnation Hall was not anything good for players.

Anyone who walked out had died.

"No need to panic; I'm fine."

"Yes!" The soldiers accepted his words.

In the Guards Legion, Ouyang Shuo was the pinnacle existence.

Towards their Lord, the guard soldiers would not have any doubts or distrust.

Ouyang Shuo's sudden return caused massive waves in Shanhai City.

The entire city became busy because of the Lord's return. For this half a year, the achievements of the voyage squadron had been spread around the entire territory by Xiao He.

In the eyes of the people, the Lord was an overlord; his prestige was at its pinnacle.

In less than two hours, the news of his return had spread through the entire China region.

Those who should know, knew.

……

Handan City, Lord's Manor.

"Has the old fox returned?" Di Chen's eyes were deep in thought.

Who knows starting from when, the Yanhuang Alliance had all started to calling Ouyang Shuo old fox.

Juedai Fenghua smiled, "The China region will be thrown into chaos once more."

"Yea, that guy really causes a lot of problems."

Juedai Fenghua suddenly remembered something and smiled, "Who knows what the old fox will think when he learns of our recent war results?"

"Thoughts?" Di Chen's eyebrows perked, "Compared to what he did on a global scale, our little achievements mean nothing. He wouldn't even bother about us!"

"You don't need to be so pessimistic." Juedai Fenghua tried to persuade him.

Di Chen shook his head, looking really lonely and sad, "It isn't being pessimistic. You know that Difeng had spread the latest intel that the old fox purchased the English steam engine technique."

"You say, would he share this to the entire Shanhai Alliance?" Juedai Fenghua thought deeper into the matter.

"Probably!"

Di Chen was not certain; if it was him, he definitely would not share it with his allies. But Ouyang Shuo was different, he did not follow logic and often took unexpected action.

One had to see, in terms of magnanimity, Di Chen really could not match up with him.

"If that's the case, the rewards of our work this half year would be greatly reduced."

Di Chen was not triggered by it, "Well, we are the ones without the ability to go out to sea."

"I heard that Xiong Ba has been developing his navy." Juedai Fenghua paid attention to Di Chen's expression and continued, "I also heard that he has been getting close with the old fox. Who knows what he'll do this time when the old fox returns."

Hearing that name, Di Chen could not help but frown.

"Let him do as he wishes!"

In the end, Di Chen did not say anything.

……

If one said that Yanhuang Alliance was worried because of Ouyang Shuo's return, then the Yunnan City-State felt utter fear.

In this half year, the Dragon Legion Corps housed by the Yunnan Province border, under Baiqi's leadership, did exercises regularly.

At the same time, the Consonance City Army and the Dragon Legion Corp kept having interactions. Their spies went in and out of the Yunnan Province, pretty much investigating the entire province.

The reason for these actions were obvious.

There were rumors that the Dragon Legion Corps was making preparations to attack Yunnan City-State. The reason why the battle had not happened yet was due to Shanhai City's seclusion policy.

Ouyang Shuo's sudden return meant that this seclusion had ended. This fierce tiger would once again show its fangs.

The first to be hit would undoubtedly be the Yunnan City-State.

With that, they were obviously terrified.

Starting a four City-State emergency meeting was something that definitely would occur.

Chapter 679-Clouds over the Alliance

The moment he returned, Ouyang Shuo caught the attention of the entire China region.

The Nanjiang Governor-General House was similarly bus. Half a year had passed, and Ouyang Shuo had finally returned! There was the sister he doted on and his newly wed wife.

Only with loved ones could a place be called home.

"Brother!"

Bing'er ran over, hugging Ouyang Shuo. The glow in her eyes was filled with the vitality of youth. In just half a year, this young girl had started to look more mature and demurer.

Ouyang Shuo sighed. The past of her jumping like a monkey into his arms had passed.

He wanted to pat her head, but his right hand suddenly stopped in the air, landing on her shoulders instead, "After not seeing you for half a year, you are around my shoulder height already."

"Really?" She walked closer; her voice crisp. She raised her right hand over her head and measured it with Ouyang Shuo's shoulder. She was just a few centimeters off.

"Missing by just a little."

Her voice lacked any regret; she wrapped her hands around him and tightly hugged him.

"Brother, Bing'er misses you," she muttered.

Ouyang Shuo was stunned; his eyes trembled, and his right hand naturally rubbed her head.

Time seemed to have stopped at this moment.

The relationship between the two was pure and precious, like wine, becoming better with age.

"Brother, did you bring me any gifts?"

The young girl raised her head, the corner of her eye showing a hint of cunningness.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, taking out an exquisite European style box; this was what he had specially prepared for her. Apart from a pair of communication conches, there was also an underwater breathing device, a blue magnetic ohlite, and a red gem the size of a pigeon egg.

"So beautiful!" Bing'er opened the box and was instantly attracted by the magnetic ohlite. The pure blue was mysterious and grand. She looked extremely excited, "Brother, help me wear it."

She was a smart one, noticing that the blue magnetic ohlite was the same type of gem as the one around Ouyang Shuo’s neck.

"Okay!"

This magnetic ohlite was one that Ouyang Shuo had specially asked from Kalia; it was an elite blue magnetic ohlite that helped cultivation.

Even the chain tied to the stone was made by a special grass in Atlantis, soaked in a mysterious blend for 49 days; it helped to calm one down.

It seemed like Bing'er would use it for the Wugou Heart Sutra. Even for someone who did not cultivate, wearing this item would help nourish their looks.

To women, this was undoubtedly a treasure.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo prepared one for Song Jia, Sun Xiaoyue, Mulan Yue, Cui Yingyu, and Qing'er. As a result, he owned Kalia a huge favor.

After all, the blue magnetic ohlites were rare items.

In his last life, the magnetic ohlite produced by Atlantis were sold at sky high prices. A top grade blue magnetic ohlite was sold for 500 thousand gold.

"Brother, what is the conch for?"

"This one is a fun item, it's like a telephone." Ouyang Shuo explained.

"Wow, so magical!"

Each item was astonishing to this little girl.

She was really pleased with the gifts that Ouyang Shuo had prepared for her.

While the two of them spoke, Song Jia stood at a side, watching quietly as a smile broke out on her face.

Bing'er was a smart girl, closing the box and laughing, "Brother I'll leave now, spend time with Sister-in-law!" As she spoke, she even specially took a look at Song Jia.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, such a mischievous child.

"Madam, this is for you!"

Ouyang Shuo took out a similarly designed wooden box; however, it was a little bigger.

"I won't accept normal gifts."

Song Jia purposely said as she opened the box.

Instantly, the light from a gem shone brightly.

The most eye-catching item was not the blue magnetic ohlite but a 150-carat pear-shaped white diamond.

The entire diamond was perfect without flaws, totally eye-catching.

If one understood diamonds, they would know that this was exactly the same as the De Beers Millennium Star only 50 carats smaller.

"Ah!"

No matter how many items Song Jia had been exposed to, she could not help but cover her mouth with her hand when she saw such a rare diamond. Her eyes were filled with delight and awe.

Such a look was rarely seen from her.

As expected, women generally lacked resistance to diamonds.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, personally helping her wear the diamond necklace, "As expected, only you are worthy of this diamond."

For this diamond alone, Ouyang Shuo had spent 100 thousand gold. One must know that in game, diamonds were just decorative sand and had no use.

Of course, the meanings of diamonds went past merely stats.

Song Jia could not take it anymore, hugging Ouyang Shuo and kissing him right away.

Just at this moment, someone reported, "Ying Yuchang Infanta and Qing Yangchang Infanta have arrived."

"Greetings brother!"

"Sit down; let’s talk." Ouyang Shuo smiled and took out his gifts for them.

Each gift was one that Ouyang Shuo had spent a lot of effort on, and they were all different. For Yingyu it was a huge blue gem; for Qing'er, it was an emerald.

Apart from that, there were other small things.

Of course, Qing'er’ gift was the most unique; it was a huge wooden box filled with dragon leather.

Brother and sister speaking; naturally, it was joyous.

During the night meal, Ouyang Shuo rejected the suggestion to have a giant feast and just had a small family dinner at the back courtyard.

As for administrative matters, he would naturally address them afterward.

8th month, 21st day, Wuji Palace.

The morning sunlight shone into the sleeping palace through the thin windows.

Ouyang Shuo kissed his wife, whose face turned instantly red. He donned his clothes and got up. From the start of the game till now, he had never slept in and was already used to it.

As for Song Jia, she was disturbed by Ouyang Shuo a lot last night, so she was still in deep slumber.

Ever since the dragon island, after being washed by the dragon vein, Ouyang Shuo found that he had become rather intense.

The rumors of dragons being crazy about sex was not just random words.

During the voyage, he had no choice and could only bear with it.

When he returned, Ouyang Shuo could not control it and went on and on. At the later parts of the night, Song Jia could not take it anymore and begged for him to stop.

Only then did it end.

……

Leaving the sleeping palace, Ouyang Shuo arrived at the reading room.

On his desk was a huge stack of memorials. Needless to say, they were all placed there by Bai Nanpu. Before he returned, these matters were all dealt with by the four directors.

Ouyang Shuo was not in the mood to read them and directly summoned Black Snake.

"Speak, what changes happened in the China region in this half a year?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

Black Snake nodded; he clearly and concisely explained the matters one by one; he had prepared for this.

In truth, not only Black Snake was prepared. All the officials in the Nanjiang Governor-General house basically did not sleep and were rushing to collate information and data.

The return of the Lord meant that they would definitely be summoned.

The Black Snake Guards were in charge of intel within the country, especially in regards to players. Naturally, they were the first that Ouyang Shuo called upon. The territory construction should not have much changes. If there were changes, it would be with the other Lords in China.

As expected, his thoughts were on the spot.

The first news that the Black Snake Guards reported related to Yizhou Island. When Ouyang Shuo was building Friendship City in Somalia, Xunlong Dianxue and Xiong Ba fought over the island and Xunlong Dianxue was at an advantage.

However, the end result would make one drop their spectacles.

After destroying the King City Navy, Xunlong Dianxue grew too careless and did not set up any defenses. In the end, they were ambushed by the King City Army that sneaked onto the island, and nearly the whole navy fell.

Only 10 thousand of them were left out of 40 thousand.

After this one battle, Xunlong City was left in a shaky state. They not only lost Yizhou island, losing something that was right there in their hands, even in Minnan Province, Xunlong City was struggling to hold on.

The current Minnan Province was in a chaotic state.

During which, Xunlong Dianxue had personally rushed over to Shanhai City to seek help but Song Jia had rejected it. At that time, his face was truly ugly.

Black Snake took a look at the Lord and said carefully, "Based on the intel from our spies, Xunlong Dianxue has been grumbling about the Lord."

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, a sharp light flashed across his eyes, sharpness incredibly suppressing.

"Continue!" Ouyang Shuo was speechless.

Ouyang Shuo believed that since Black Snake reported it, he definitely had some actual intel. This also meant that within the Shanhai Alliance, cracks had finally started to appear.

People would change.

In the last life, Xunlong Dianxue could be considered a semi-successful lord, how was he as famous as now?

Some people would grow arrogant if they stood at the peak for too long. Xunlong Dianxue forgot who had pushed him step by step up that peak.

Maybe he felt in his heart that his position was all from his own hard work.

"Not long ago, the Black Snake Guards received intel that Xunlong Dianxue was contacting a mysterious power. As for the specifics, it was top secret, so we can't confirm it." Black Snake threw out another bomb.

Ouyang Shuo's eyes focused, "Is it the Yanhuang Alliance?"

"We won't exclude that possibility, but we can't be sure either." Black Snake was really careful with his words, "There is the possibility that it's a 3rd party."

"Hu!"

Ouyang Shuo took in a deep breath, uttering expressionlessly, "Investigate, investigate it."

"Yes, my Lord!"

"Remember, when investigating, you must not alert him." Ouyang Shuo instructed, "As for those grumbling, we can bear it. We mustn't be biased because of this."

"Understood!"

Chapter 680-Mongol Empire

The matter with Xunlong Dianxue had spoiled Ouyang Shuo's mood.

The matters of the world were just like that.

When Shanhai Alliance first started out, they were all small Lords, with dreams, drive, and goals.

At this date, they were all famous.

Their greed and pride swelled, internal conflict and splitting up was unavoidable.

The lessons of history showed up time and time again; of the startups in real life, very few ended nicely. In the end, it was unavoidable that animosity would start, and even good friends would turn into enemies.

It seems like even Shanhai Alliance could not avoid this cruel part of history.

Ouyang Shuo pressed down his emotions and asked, "What about the other members?"

"Consonance City has totally solidified their rule of Kunming Prefecture and are getting ready. If we don't move, they would act alone on Dongchuan Prefecture on the north side." As he spoket, Black Snake smiled, "Lord, Yunnan Province doesn't have any big problem."

"Okay."

"Fallen Phoenix City is progressing at god speed in Taoyuan Province; they have already taken the center and north portion of it. The 20 odd Lords in the north have gathered together to resist their attacks. From an optimistic viewpoint, at most, they can succeed in defending. As for Fallen Phoenix's position as a superpower in the province, it is unshakeable."

Ouyang Shuo nodded; Feng Qiuhuang was really amazing. As expected, she did not let him down.

"There is only one thing I need you to look over." Black Snake stopped.

"Speak!"

"Based on the reports from the Black Snake Guards, the alliance leader of the Taiyuan Province north region Lords is Feng Qiuhuang's brother, Feng Tianlie. Under the support of the Yanhuang Alliance, Fengxiang City has been developing well and is of a great scale now. Di Chen even suggested to raise the speaking rights of Fengxiang City in the alliance.”

"That isn't surprising." Ouyang Shuo was rather calm.

Ouyang Shuo was pretty familiar with all of Di Chen’s schemes.

Two years ago, with Ouyang Shuo's support, Feng Qiuhuang had broken free from the Feng family and kept Fallen Phoenix City. The remaining members, under the support of the Yanhuang Alliance, rebuilt a new territory in the north known as Fengxiang Village.

Their consideration then was to just place down a chess piece since they could do so.

Hence, in the following one to two years, although Fengxiang City was a member of Yanhuang Alliance, they did not have a presence. Even Wandering Magic's Fallen Leaf City was more eye-catching than them.

Currently, Fengxiang City had suddenly become the castle to sniping down Fallen Phoenix City. Hence, attention was paid to them by Di Chen and the others, giving them speaking rights was just an act.

These aristocratic sons and daughters were truly cold to the extreme.

It seemed like the Feng family had been really hard done over the past year or two. Who knows whether they had started to regret the decision they had made two years ago.

"One more matter." Black Snake reported, "A month ago, Feng Tianlie stepped on some dogsh*t luck and managed to form relationships with a noble in a Mongol tribe to the north. He obtained a batch of elite Mongol Warhorses. They even sent men over to train their cavalry."

"What?" Ouyang Shuo leaped to his feet in shock

When Black Snake saw his reaction, he was a little confused, asking carefully, “Lord?"

Ouyang Shuo's eyes were unsettled, and he only sat back down after a while.

The scenes from the last life once again appeared in his mind.

The strong Mongol Empire has already started to act? Ouyang Shuo muttered in his heart.

In this life, probably only Ouyang Shuo was aware of the terrifying strength of the Mongol Empire. This giant was laid in wait since the start of the game and remained truly low profile.

The only time the Mongol Empire dealt with players was trading goods, especially the Mongol warhorses that the players loved.

All the while, the Mongol tribe seemed exceedingly calm and friendly. They did all deals that came their ways and did not disturb the neighboring territories.

It was like this was a genuinely gentle nomadic tribe.

Hence, the China region Lords had totally no defenses against the Mongol tribes.

Only Ouyang Shuo knew the catastrophe this nomadic emperor would cause for the entire north side, and it even affected the country war.

Black Snake's words jolted him to his senses.

In the last life, Ouyang Shuo was just an adventure gamemode player; he had limited contact with information. He only remembered that in the 5th year, when the iron Mongol cavalry went down south, the neighboring territories all fell within a night.

Only a month later did news spread that the Lords at the borders had led them in.

Digging deeper into the matter, all these territories had a similarity; before the war, they had made friends with the Mongol tribes and had gained their help.

More than half were helped by the so-called nobles of the Mongol tribe.

It was obvious that the Mongols had been preparing for this war since the start. However, Ouyang Shuo had not expected for them to start acting already in the 3rd year.

The peculiar Fengxiang City caused Ouyang Shuo to link it to that.

Ouyang Shuo tried to calm himself down and said in a low tone, “Let the Black Snake Guards follow this lead and investigate all the way. Also investigate the neighboring territories to see if there are similar situations."

"Understood!" Black Snake nodded.

The Lord's reaction showed that there was something hidden behind all of this.

However, Black Snake was a smart person and naturally knew when to act dumb. Especially as an intel organization person, he couldn't have too many thoughts and opinions of his own.

"This intel, pass Fallen Phoenix City a copy." Ouyang Shuo instructed.

"This...." Black Snake suddenly hesitated.

"What, is there a problem?" Ouyang Shuo frowned.

Black Snake gritted his teeth, “Lord, I want to report something. Our sources show that the people from the Feng family are trying to persuade Lord Feng Qiuhuang; they hope that she can return. For this, they were willing to give her huge power in the family and remove the gender discrimination."

"Eh, the rough method can't work so they are trying the soft one?" Ouyang Shuo felt amused, “How did Feng Qiuhuang react?"

"She rejected the offer." Black Snake nodded, “Even so, I feel that we have to defend against them."

"Understood." Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Remember, do not to cross the line. No matter what, they are our allies and our friends. Without proof, don't let cracks form in the alliance because of your investigations. Understood?"

Ouyang Shuo spoke seriously because he did not want the whole alliance to have internal distrust. He did not want to the alliance to suspect each other just because of Xunlong Dianxue.

If that happened, that would be dangerous.

"Don't worry, I know what to do." Black Snake nodded.

"Focus your investigation on the Feng Family, don't touch Feng Qiuhuang. Remember, you are an intel organization, not the special ops, and definitely not white terror." Ouyang Shuo reminded.

Under the support of Ouyang Shuo, Black Snake had already become an important person and his influence covered the entire world. His current achievements far exceeded those he had as a mercenary group leader.

Sometimes, he felt fortunate, fortunate about the choice that he had made. At that time, he had hesitated to disband the mercenary group and merge into the Shanhai City system; how would he know that he would have the position and achievements of today?

Such power was truly unbelievable.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo had to remind Black Snake. It wasn't that he suspected his loyalty, but it was to prevent the Black Snake Guards from using their power for personal use.

"Understood, Lord's lesson, I will remember; I will follow all rules." When Black Snake heard these words, he decisively replied, his face tense.

In truth, Black Snake was not the only one that had changed.

He was not the mercenary guild leader from back then, and Ouyang Shuo was not that sharp and rash Lord.

The current Ouyang Shuo, no matter where he went, would place an immense pressure on his subordinates. Before which, Black Snake could still guess what the Lord was thinking about, but now, his heart was only filled with respect.

There were many times that Black Snake forgot that both of them were players.

It was like they were truly in an ancient country, facing a Lord with absolute power. He had full respect and worship toward him.

To outsiders, it was weird, and even could not be understood.

To the players in Shanhai City, especially to the players that held roles, they felt that it was to be expected.

No one was certain of when this eye-catching Lord slowly transform into a true overlord. Especially after his return, this feeling became even thicker.

Who else in the whole world could cause such a storm just by returning?

No one.

……

Ouyang Shuo did not know what kind of waves had been started in the heart of this subordinate, and he asked, “What about Stone City?"

In the end, what concerned Ouyang Shuo the most was the north. If not, he would not have sent the city protection legion over.

Black Snake suppressed the emotions in his heart and replied, “Temporarily nothing. In this half a year, the busiest in China has to be Handan City. Under Di Chen's leadership, they struck out, either attacking, using schemes, or using baits. Under the support of his family, Di Chen claimed territory after territory."

"Jingdou Province, apart from Stone City in the north, is all under the rule of Handan City. If it wasn't for the city protection legion helping in the defense, Stone City probably couldn't have defended themselves."

Chapter 681-One Man Show

Ouyang Shuo did not support Black Snake’s deductions.

Di Chen did not attack Stone City because he feared the Shanhai Alliance, not the city protection legion. He had seen through the determination of Shanhai Alliance to protect Stone City, which was why he did not dare to act.

The current Handan City was similar to the Shanhai City from before; they had swallowed up too much and needed to digest it. Jingdou's territory scale would be among the top three provinces.

If Handan City started another conflict, rushing into a fight with Stone City, and Shanhai Alliance got involved the flames of war would spread, and it would not be good news to them.

The current Di Chen had learned how to measure pros and cons.

"The other members of Yanhuang Alliance have taken similar actions?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

Black Snake nodded, “That's right. In half a year, Chun Shenjun had spent a lot of gold and hired 100 thousand player mercenaries to sweep the Jingchu Province. The current Jingchu province, apart from Xiangyang Prefecture where the imperial city is located, the rest is the territory of Pill Sun City."

"The current Chun Shenjun has a massive appetite and is ready to enter the Zhongyuan Province."

When Ouyang Shuo heard this report, he shook his head.

Chun Shenjun had tasted the sweetness of using a mercenary army, even to an irrecoverable state; he was walking further and further onto that path.

On the surface, a mercenary army was far cheaper than maintaining a proper territory army. However, in truth, they could only support but not take over. If not, it would be truly detrimental to training a local army.

In the last life, Pill Sun City's army was extremely weak in country wars.

Who knew that in this life, it would be exactly the same.

One had to say, Chun Shenjun was too much of a merchant and liked to balance finances. In the grand scheme of things, there were no improvements, truly disappointing.

It was the case of, ‘The person involved in the situation is too caught up in the whole matter, while people looking on can see the whole situation clearly.’

The deeply involved Chun Shenjun would not think about this point; instead, he would feel pleased by his own actions.

"Donghai Province's Blood Red City as well as King City in Jiangnan Province have had similarly taken over their provinces. The difference is that Donghai Province still has an imperial city in Jianye Prefecture while King City did not only take over the entire province, but it has also started to work on Yizhou Prefecfure." Black Snake reported.

"What's the scale of King City's navy, and how's their strength?"

Black Snake froze; luckily, he had prepared beforehand, “Our intel shows that they have already built up a Zhoushan Squadron. Not only that, he also plans to build the Penghu Squadron in Yizhou Island. Weirdly, their squadron numbers are exactly the same as ours. I suspect that our info has been leaked."

"That fellow really has his ways." Xiong Ba's methods were something Ouyang Shuo had witnessed, “Did you investigate how it was leaked?"

"Pretty much." The Black Snake Guards was truly efficient, “It should be the officers from King City in charge of buying warships; they must have tricked the manager of our shipyard. We have captured him; he still thinks that it was not a big issue, and he could just randomly reveal it."

Ouyang Shuo grew more serious and said, “It seems like all you intel organizations aside from intel collecting also needs to train the officials to strengthen their anti-investigative abilities."

"Yes, my Lord. I'll work with Shen Buhai on this."

"En." Ouyang Shuo nodded, asking, “What about Guanxi Province?"

On the topic of Guanxi Province, Black Snake laughed, “The Guanxi Province is so boisterous now. The mid region is taken over by Xiangyang Prefecture and Chang An Prefecture, the north and south by Asura City and Fallen Leaf City respectively. If the imperial city did not stand in the way, Asura City and Fallen Leaf City would have fought already."

"They have not thought about expanding outside?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"There are such signs." Black Snake nodded, “Fallen Leaf City is trying to enter the Zhongyuan Province from the east. Helplessly, the strategy of Pill Sun and Fallen Leaf City conflicted. Along with Hanwu Emperor making things clear, all of a sudden, the Zhongyuan Province became a mess."

"As for Asura City in the north, the other regions are all high plains with bad geography. The soil is not fertile and has limited potential, which is why Sha Pojun wanted to expand. Helplessly, it's north, west, and south are all NPC powers, so there's nothing he can do. The east is covered by Fengxiang City, so the current Asura City is like a trapped bird, unable to break away."

Ouyang Shuo frowned, thinking about the Mongol Empire once more, “When a dog is eager, it can even jump over a wall. Pay more attention to them, especially whether they have come into contact with the Mongol tribe."

"Understood!" Black Snake nodded his head once more, “Looking at the Yanhuang Alliance, the one without ambition would be Swordsman City. Till date, they have only taken down one prefecture. After which, they have shown no desire to expand. Although the Shu Land is mountainous, this is too weird."

"On the side of Swordsman City, let the Shadow Guards of the Shanhai Guards pay attention to them!"

In the Gaia 3rd year, the underworld was not out yet, so it was not time for Swordsman City to take the center stage.

"Yes, my Lord!"

Black Snake also knew that Cui Tianqi, who led the Shadow Guards, was trusted by the Lord. In this half a year, the Shadow Guards had captured many of the corrupted officials n Shanhai City.

……

After such an introduction by Black Snake, the situation in the China region became crystal clear.

In this half a year, the giants rose and the weak had been defeated, this had become the melody of the wilderness.

Out of the 17 provinces in China, five had been taken down by the Yanhuang Alliance. On the contrary, only Taiyuan Province in the north and Chuanbei Province in the south were truly taken by the Shanhai Alliance.

As for Yunnan Province and Lingnan Province, only a third were taken.

Be it Consonance City, Black Lion City, or Xunlong City, none of them had obtained the power over their provinces. Stone City was being beaten into a corner by Handan City, and it only wished for survival.

Amongst which, there was still the problem with Xunlong City.

In comparison, Shanhai Alliance was at a total disadvantage.

"The situation is not good!" Ouyang Shuo sighed.

In the current situation, members of the Yanhuang Alliance were spreading out in a flower and becoming true Lords of a region. Meanwhile, Shanhai Alliance only had Shanhai City as a lone flower while the other allies dimmed.

Such a situation occurred because his allies lacked the ability and also because of Ouyang Shuo forcing their hand. In the first three years of the last life, when did Di Chen and the others have such skill?

In this life, Shanhai City forced them to take out all their trump cards, which caused them to obtain such battle results.

With that, the achievements of Bai Hua and the others seemed lackluster.

If Ouyang Shuo did not recall incorrectly, Bai Hua had completed the takeover of the Yunnan Province in the 5th year. Her current achievements could not be called bad.

One could only say that the times have changed.

In this half a year, the seclusion of Shanhai City had truly caused a lot of trouble.

Rumours had spread around China. Some said that Ouyang Shuo was scolded by the federation higher ups, and they had asked him to slow down; some said that Shanhai City knew that they could not beat the Yanhuang Alliance, so they were surrendering.

Although it sounded funny, it also showed what the players thought of Shanhai Alliance. If it was not for the huge news caused by the voyage squadron, the rumors might have gotten even worse.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo did not bother about these rumors. However, this huge flag of the Shanhai Alliance was one that Ouyang Shuo needed to wave. After all, this was the key to him leading the future country wars.

"Since you all have shown your cards, it's time for a battle!" At this date, there was nothing for Ouyang Shuo to fear; on the other hand, his morale was high.

After half a year of seclusion, the tiger that was Shanhai City was going to come down the mountain!

……

Ouyang Shuo rubbed his head, temporarily tossing out his thoughts, “You can leave now!"

"Yes, my Lord!"

Black Snake bowed, leaving the reading room. At the door, he bumped into Zhang Yi.

The two of them exchanged glances, their hearts resonating with one another.

It seems like this ‘reporting meeting’ was going to last for an exceedingly long time.

……

"Greetings, Lord!" Zhang Yi entered the reading room and bowed.

"Sit!" Ouyang Shuo was causal; his mood was unaffected by the matter just now. He directly entered the topic, “Speak, what kind of progress has the Honglu Temple had in this past half a year?"

"Yes, my Lord!"

Zhang Yi was prepared and started to report.

In this half a year, although it seemed like the Honglu Temple had done nothing, they had actually worked a lot behind the scenes. The results they got was a huge energizer to Ouyang Shuo.

As expected from Zhang Yi, he truly did not disappoint Ouyang Shuo.

Based on what Zhang Yi’s report, Yunnan, Chuanbei, Wannan, and Lingnan, these four city-states, were all broken through by the Honglu Temple, and they had inserted some of Shanhai City’s chess pieces into these parties.

Amongst which, the Black Snake Guards and Shanhai Guards had worked together.

Last night, the Yunnan City-state had called for an emergency four city state meeting. This morning, the news had already spread to the Honglu Temple.

Apart from placing chess pieces, their greatest achievement came from the Chuanbei City-State. In that city-state, a fourth of the Lords had started to turn to their side.

Amongst which, a few of them were the Lords who held massive sway in the city-state.

This also meant that Shanhai City also had the ability to lead the strategic direction of the Chuanbei City-State at the appropriate moment.

On this point, he had to give it to Zhang Yi's guile.

The rise of the Four Seas Bank had helped the Honglu Temple to a certain extent. Using the chips of future loans, Zhang Yi managed to persuade some of the Lords.

It was the same as saying that the moment that Shanhai City could remove one corner of the four city-states without moving any troops.

Chapter 682-Grade 3 Prefecture

The success of the Honglu Temple was without a doubt good news for the war plans of Shanhai City.

Shanhai City coming out of seclusion, who to attack, how to attack.

Long before Ouyang Shuo headed out to sea, he had handed this problem over to the Military Affairs Bureau, Baiqi, Han Xin, and the others; he asked them to come up with a detailed military plan.

Military Affairs Bureau had finished the military preparations Now, they only lacked military orders from Ouyang Shuo. As long as he shot the gun, the entire Nanjiang would enter war once more.

After Zhang Yi left, Ouyang Shuo met many officials. This reporting meeting only came to a halt when the guard reported that the Dali envoy had arrived.

When Ouyang Shuo upgraded to Lianzhou Lord, the imperial court envoy had come.

Now, when he became the Shanhai Duke, as expected, the imperial court would reward him once more.

Only, for this second time, Ouyang Shuo did not feel as excited or emotional. After all, the current Shanhai City was not too different to Dali Imperial City.

It was to the point where if Ouyang Shuo was determined to take them down, it was not impossible.

Since both sides were on an equal level, why would Ouyang Shuo feel excited?

This was without mentioning that once Shanhai City established a country, the seals, coronation uniform, and other items given by the imperial court would be useless; Shanhai City would have to make such items themselves.

Hence, although the second ceremony was grand; it was not really anything exciting.

……

After sending away the envoy, Ouyang Shuo decided to not see any more officials and prepare to upgrade Shanhai City to a Grade 3 Prefecture first. As for the remaining administrative matters, he would solve them during the morning court assembly.

Ouyang Shuo arrived at the main hall and muttered ‘territory upgrade’ in his heart. Then, a white light shone, and the golden stone steele in the middle of the hall rose slowly once again.

Placing his right hand onto it, the system sounded out.

"System Notification: Checking Shanhai City upgrade requirements."

"Requirement 1: population one million upper limit, requirement met!"

For the 500 thousand new people, Shanhai City spent close to a year, and this was under the help of three village creation tokens working together.

This time, to increase the population, Ouyang Shuo had to think of other ideas.

There was no way he would wait for two more years before upgrading to capital city as that was impractical.

"Requirement 2: all basic buildings constructed, requirement met!"

The two buildings required for a Grade 2 Prefecture was long built during the Gaia 2nd year.

Near the wholesale center, which was located in the middle city region, was the distribution center built when the territory was still a Grade 1 Prefecture.

These two centers were the heart of Shanhai City trade.

The current Shanhai City was not only the political core of the territory but also its trading capital.

"Requirement 3: Lord is at least 1st class Marquis, requirement met!"

Ouyang Shuo had already upgraded to duke. However, in the entire China region, there was not a second 1st class Duke. Even Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang had not reached the rank yet.

His rank advantage was unassailable at this stage.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, your territory Shanhai City has met all upgrade requirements, will you upgrade?"

"Upgrade!"

A golden light shot up into the sky from the stone steele, bursting open mid-air. The golden luster spread in all directions till the new corners of the territory before disappearing.

Not only in the China Region, Xingzhou Prefecture, Friendship City, and Jidian City were all covered by the golden light. Only now were the fates of the new territories truly tied together.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for upgrading to Grade 3 Prefecture. Prefecture Grade Lord's Manor has automatically upgraded, player please take a look!"

……

"System Notification, Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for upgrading to Grade 3 Prefecture. After upgrading, the territory can have one more teleportation formation, please choose its location! Friendly Reminder: It is not restricted to Shanhai City but any city in the territory."

When Ouyang Shuo heard this news, he was delighted.

The rewards for upgrading to a Grade 3 Prefecture simply came at the right time.

If the territory were to have two or three more teleportation formations, maybe Ouyang Shuo would need to consider matters further. But now it was only adding one, so apart from Jidian City in the Mediterranean, Ouyang Shuo did not even need to think about anything else.

This was because Jidian City really needed a teleportation formation.

With this formation, he would be connected to the entire European Continent, even the African Continent.

"I choose Jidian City!" Ouyang Shuo was excited.

"System Notification: Location selected, teleportation formation is being formed."

"System Notification: Found that Jidian City is located overseas; hence, this will be a cross-country teleportation formation. For the rules related to cross country teleportation, player please familiarize yourself."

Ouyang Shuo was not surprised about this.

In Lion City, the teleportation formation was also a cross-country one and could only be connected to teleportation formations within the territory.

In truth, at this stage, Ouyang Shuo was not ready to open the Jidian City teleportation formation to China players, not even to his Shanhai Alliance allies.

The Mediterranean was more complicated than Southeast Asia, and it was not wise to start conflict now.

……

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for upgrading to Grade 3 Prefecture. After the upgrade, the Lord can adjust one of the geographic features in the territory. The degree of change will be decided by the system. Friendly Reminder: the change can only be done on the base and not totally change the area. For example, widening rivers, making mountains higher, and the like."

"It's finally here!" Ouyang Shuo was elated.

When he upgraded to Grade 2 Prefecture, Ouyang Shuo had used the chance to expand Friendship River and Qiushui River, so that Shanhai City did not need to depend on Beihai City.

As for this second chance, Ouyang Shuo would naturally cherish it.

During the Battle of Singapore, Ouyang Shuo had obtained a Mountain Opening Seal. After use, this item could open a path through any mountain.

If he did not have this item, Ouyang Shuo would have definitely chosen to open a path between Lianzhou Basin and Annan Region to sneakily open up his route to there.

With the seal, there was no need to waste such a precious chance.

Ouyang Shuo noticed that this time the system said adjust, not the slight adjustment like last time. This meant that the degree of change he could make was far greater than the previous time.

Thinking about it, Ouyang Shuo finally said, “Extend Friendship River and Qiushui River and connect them to Chuanbei Province and Lingnan Province."

Ouyang Shuo's goal was to increase the connections of Shanhai City with the other provinces to make it not as enclosed as before.

A true capital city should be a transport hub in both land and sea transport.

The current Shanhai City was only connected to the ocean; the north through Zhennan Pass to Chuannan Province; the east through the mountains to Lingnan Province.

The mountains on the west were slowly being opened up.

The problem was that roads were difficult, and some were even mountain paths that were hard to scale.

Opening the water paths was the right way. The two life rivers of Shanhai City naturally became the key to all this.

"System Notification: Land change being verified, extending river, calculating."

……

"Calculations completed, geography changed. Friendship River can stretch north west 1200 kilometers, Qiushui River can stretch south east 1300 meters; these two are now connected to the pearl river water system. For the specific situation, player please take a look!"

Ouyang Shuo was delighted.

The pearl river system was the second largest river in China and the thirrd longest. In reality, it contained close to 349.2 billion cubic meters of water, taking second out of all water systems in China, only second to Changjiang.

The pearl river included Xijiang, Beijiang, and Dongjiang, flowing past Yunnan Province, Chuanbei Province, Chuannan Province, Lingnan Province, Wannan Province, and Jiangchuan Province.

Basically, pearl river covered the entire Nanjiang.

It was even connected to the north east portion of Annan.

Hence, it was understandable that Ouyang Shuo was so excited. Friendship River and Qiushui River connecting to that system basically settled the waterway of the territory.

Especially in the game, with the maps 10 times larger, the rivers were wider, making the waterways more developed and convenient.

At this point, the strategic geographical position of Shanhai City had basically been established.

……

Along with the extension of the river, the territory upgrade had been completed and the system notification sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for becoming the 1st Lord in the China region to upgrade to Grade 3 Prefecture, awarded 10 thousand merit points!"

……

The moment the notification sounded out, the entire China region was shocked once more.

Ouyang Shuo used this unique method to announce his strong return.

……

Handan City, Lord's Manor.

The moment Di Chen heard the system report, his face instantly turned green, and he gritted his teeth, “Damn it, that fellow has snatched it again."

Handan City only lacked Di Chen's rank; once he ranked up, he could upgrade the territory to Grade 3 Prefecture.

He was now a 2nd class Marquis; he only was only 20 thousand merit points away from 1st class Marquis. Originally, he was planning to use the next battle map to upgrade.

With that, Handan City would have a chance to overtake Shanhai City.

If that was truly the case, the reputation of Handan City would definitely soar. Along with the glorious results that the Yanhuang Alliance had obtained, they would be able to step down on the Shanhai Alliance.

However, no matter how he calculated, he did not expect Ouyang Shuo to succeed at this time.

With that, his hopes went up in smoke.

After Grade 3 Prefecture, he was left with one more chance - capital city. Thinking about Ouyang Shuo's current rank, Di Chen did not hold any hopes.

Hence, this was his only opportunity. Who knew that even so, Ouyang Shuo would still beat him.

Obviously, Di Chen would be furious about this defeat.

"He truly is my nemesis. I really cannot get rid of this nightmare."

Chapter 683-Iron Faced Wei Yang

Ouyang Shuo obviously did not know or care about Di Chen's rage; he was busy checking out his territory stats.

【Territory】: Nanjiang Governor-General House

【Lord】: Nanjiang Governor-General, Lianzhou Duke Qiyue Wuyi (Duke)

【Main Title】: The World’s First Prefecture (Increases territory’s fame by 50%)

【Sub Title】: Home of Martial Arts, Land of Philosophers, Blessed Land of Artisans

【Governed Area 】: Shanhai City (Grade 3 Prefecture)

【Population】: 1 million/ 2 million

【Refugee Spawn Rate】: 500 * (1 + 50%) = 750 / day

【True Refugee Spawn Rate】: 750+700+700= 2150/day

【Territory area】: 8 prefectures, approximately 2 million square kilometers

【Territory Specialty】: -

【Territory Fate】: Red Dragon (1/3 purple)

【Political】: 87/100 (Affects the administrative efficiency and morale)

【Economic】: 88/100 (Affects trade prosperity and taxation)

【Cultural】: 91/100 (Affects the education development and quality of residents)

【Technology】: 60/100 (Affects technology levels and technology tree)

【Military】: 90/100 (Affects military strength and stability)

【Affliate Counties】: Lianzhou Prefecture, Leizhou Prefecture, Qiongzhou Prefecture, Zhaoqing Prefecture, Wuzhou Prefecture, Zhen An Prefecture , Zhenhai City, Xingzhou Prefecture, Jidian City, Friendship City

【Financial Institutions】: Four Sea Bank

【Education Institutions】: Xinan University (Principal Jiangshang), Army Military Academy (Principal Sun Wu)

【Philosophies】: Military Advisors, Legalism, School of Agriculture, School of Diplomacy, Mohism, Business School of Thought

【Territory Chamber of Commerce 】: -

【Special Building】: -

【Hidden Building】: Mazu Temple, Recruitment Hall, Yellow Emperor Temple, Silver Prayer House, General Appointment Stage

Basic buildings list:

Calligraphy Institution: Department in charge of calligraphy, apart from research, it takes up the development of calligraphy disciples. Construction Requirements: Calligraphy expert, calligraphy institution blueprints, 40 thousand units of wood, 40 thousand units of green brick, 20 thousand units of stone. Construction Time: 20 days.

Observatory: astronomy building that takes charge of the calendar, observing the stats and shadows. Construction Requirements: Yin and Yang school of thought core member, observatory blueprints, 20 thousand units of wood, 100 thousand units of green brick, 50 thousand units of stone. Construction Time: 30 days.

In contrast to a Grade 2 Prefecture, the Grade 3 Prefecture listed the territory fate. Not for other reasons, only because to establish a country, the territory fate was a much-needed requirement.

The population upper limit had directly doubled. Based on Shanhai City’s refugee spawn rate, he would need another year and a half to fill it up.

Apart from that, the current Shanhai City was following the capital city planning, making it into a political, economic, cultural, technological, and trading hub.

Although Shanhai City was huge, each plot of land was gold.

Hence, normal refugees were unable to settle in Shanhai City and were sent to Lianzhou Prefecture. With that, it would take a longer time to fill up that one million population shortfall.

However, Ouyang Shuo could not wait anymore.

Gaia 4th year at the latest, Shanhai City needed to set up a country.

In a year, Shanhai City's four indices had risen by a point. Its increase totally could not be compared to before and only moved at a snail-like pace. Only the newly added technology index had risen quickly.

Based on Ouyang Shuo’s knowledge, out of the five indexes, apart from technology, the other four all had to cross 90. Even their technology stat needed to pass 75.

What a tough mission.

The newly added two basic buildings, the calligraphy institution, was slightly better. After a little hard work, it could be built. The observatory was a little more problematic as the representative figures of the Yin Yang School of Thought has not showed themselves, making it seem like it a hidden school of thought.

It would not be an easy matter to invite the Yin and Yang disciples out.

All in all, the moment Shanhai City upgraded to a Grade 3 Prefecture, they needed to put in more effort and could not slack at any moment; they had to reach the final goal of becoming a capital city.

After checking the territory stats, it was noon.

Ouyang Shuo returned to the back palace to have lunch with Song Jia and Bing'er. When Song Jia saw Ouyang Shuo, she shot him a vicious look that was filled with emotion.

The redness of her face still had not totally faded and was obviously covered by blusher powder. The clothes she wore today were rather conservative and high collar; obviously, she wanted to hide the signs of last night.

Thinking back to the crazy evening, Ouyang Shuo laughed.

Picking up the bowl and drinking it, Ouyang Shuo froze. Based on his sense of taste, he noticed all the immensely nourishing herbs within.

Rough estimations placed it at no less than six nourishing items, and they were all rare herbs. If it was not for Ouyang Shuo having a strong cultivation base, he would have a nosebleed.

"This is too nourishing!"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head in amusement and took a look at his wife.

Song Jia noticed his gaze and lowered her head, acting like she had not seen anything.

The atmosphere around the table instantly became weird.

Bing'er sat quietly at the side, becoming more and more like Song Jia; her actions were elegant and gave off the vibe of a little gentlewomen.

Obviously, she had started to awaken her femininity and was learning from Song Jia.

Seeing the situation between her brother and her sister-in-law, she asked curiously, "Brother what's with you, why do you look so weird? Did you bully her, she does not look so good today?”

Cough! Ouyang Shuo's face reddened, and he stared at the little brat, "Eat your food!"

"Scoff!"

Seeing that her brother was unwilling to explain, Bing'er pouted, stabbing the rice with her chopsticks unhappily.

Ouyang Shuo did not bother about it, hurriedly eating his lunch and returning to his room. After his return to Shanhai City, there were still so many things he needed to deal with; he could not rest even after lunch.

When he returned to the reading room, he finally had time to read the memorials that Bai Nanpu had placed on his desk.

In this half a year, so much had changed in China. Naturally, Shanhai City was no different. Before Ouyang Shuo left for sea, the missions he laid out for the four bureaus were all completed.

Under Wei Yang's leadership, the territory law system was pushed out smoothly, and the concept of the law had started to develop in the hearts of the people.

His way of doing things was to promote and execute it at the same time. To those who broke the law, no matter how high or low their position, he would deal with them strictly.

When the law system was just announced, be it the normal people or the officials, they could not adapt right away. Every day, there were thousands who broke the law.

There were thieves and molesters, rapists; scammers, and bribers. The Internal Affairs Bureau would not let them off no matter the severity of the issue; they captured all of them.

With that, the jails of each prefecture were full. The officials in the Internal Affairs Bureau were all so busy and had to deal with numerous cases.

Hence, Wei Yang decided to form two patrolling courts to go to the various areas to help deal with all the tough cases.

All of a sudden, the territory was jittery.

The law system not only targeted natives but also players living in the territory. For this, Wei Yang instructed the Household Registration Division to increase the management of the players.

Anyone who registered in the territory had to follow the law system. Those players who were not registered were treated as illegal immigrants and needed to leave within three days.

Not Long ago, a son from the Song Family, Song Jian, used Song Jia's name to cause trouble and start conflicts with merchants. In anger, he stabbed one of them to death.

This had pierced a hornet's nest.

Based on ancient sayings, Shanhai City was the foot of the Son of God, and Song Jian dared to do such things.

Immediately, he was captured by the bailiffs for interrogation.

Throughout the process, Song Jian even resisted captured; he was truly arrogant, "I'm the nephew of your Lord, how do you dare to capture me?"

When the bailiffs heard his words, they hesitated and seemed to seek help from the officer, "Sir what should we do?" They obviously hesitated. In ancient times, he would be considered a relative of the emperor.

The one in charge of this operation would be one of the three god constables, Security Division Secretary Zhao Kui. He frowned and ordered, "Capture him, if anything happens, it's on me!"

With his understandings of the Lord, Zhao Kui knew that the Lord would not protect such a person.

"Yes sir!"

With the orders of their superior, the bailiffs boldly captured Song Jian.

In just a short while, Song Jian was captured. The Shanhai City bailiffs were all occupation changed from the army, so they were rather strong; they were not something that Song Jian could match.

Shanhai City's internal affairs efficiency was extremely high. The next day, the Procuratorate Division made an announcement, ‘If you kill you have to die, execute him!’

The moment the news went out, it immediately shocked the entire Shanhai City.

That night, Song Jia's Grandfather walked into Nanjiang Governor-General House to plead with Song Jia.

As for what they talked about, the outside world would not know. However, less than an hour later, he walked out with a completely black face.

The next morning, Song Jian was executed in public in front of everyone.

This time, it totally shocked everyone in the city. The theory could not be simpler, even someone like the relative of the emperor could not avoid death, how could they?

All of a sudden, the prestige of the law system boomed.

In half a year, there were three to four similar incidents that were dealt with impartially.

Through the fair dealings, Wei Yang led the Internal Affairs Bureau and smoothly pushed the law system through. During this period of time, Song Jia's actions had earned Wei Yang's praise.

Chapter 684-Industrialization Sprouting

Apart from the Internal Affairs Bureau, the Military Affairs Bureau was also effective.

The territory military expansion goal was already reached, and the Garrison Divisions were all being completed. The construction of the logistic centers of the three legion corps had finished.

A huge number of resources were being transported over to the frontlines.

At the same time, the team competition and the overall champions of each soldier type had been decided for the military martial arts competition that had lasted for three months.

Apart from the overall champion, only the martial genius of the entire army needed Ouyang Shuo to personally grant the prize. The other winners had already obtained their titles and rank upgrade.

After the competition ended, martial arts became commonplace in the military.

Those who were defeated in the arena were naturally unhappy and wanted to win it back.

Military Affairs Bureau Director Du Ruhui had spread the word that this competitor would be a yearly event. Each year, one martial genius would be born.

Apart from the army, the navy construction was even more eye-catching.

The Beihai Bay Squadron, Yashan Bay Squadron, Jiaozhou Squadron, and Xingzhou Squadron under the Nanyang Navy were all built up. Along with the current Mediterranean Squadron which was lacking, Nanyang Navy's overall numbers hit 470 thousand.

Their overall combat strength could be compared to the army.

The navy strategy of Shanhai City had slowly taken shape; they only lacked warships and firearms. With the steam engine technology, this goal was right there in front of them.

……

The basic education and medical facilities under the support of large amounts of funds had proceeded smoothly. This autumn, the second term students followed the new education system and entered the schools.

With that, during the 4th year, the talents developed by the territory would truly explode. Even if they did not hold an imperial exam, from the graduated students, the territory could recruit group after group of basic level officials.

The talent system that they were constructing had started to break away from the ancient system; it was turning into a more vibrant and alive system like the modern day one.

The five thousand odd students in the spring semester of the Xinan University and the Army Military Academy had graduated and were sent off the various Houses and the military.

Under the funding of Ouyang Shuo, the two education institutes had reached a new level in terms of teaching levels, teaching material, and student standards.

People who came over to these two educational institutes were not limited to Shanhai Alliance members. People from the imperial cities also rushed over.

The learning environment here far exceeded the imperial cities. Even Luoyang, with Hanwu Emperor there, focusing on Confucianism did not attract as much people as the Xinan University.

Not only was it free, but it even gave extra help to poor students. With that, the poorer students decided to move their families over to live in Shanhai City.

The officials here would give these students a suitable amount of help.

More importantly was the open learning environment here. Philosophers would speak here, and differences in teaching techniques could be debated here every day. The philosophers debate era in history was slowly developing in Shanhai City.

Apart from the graduated students, the officials and generals who were studying had already returned to their positions. Those who performed well and were recommended even received promotions.

Some County Magistrates were promoted to prefect, some majors to colonels.

The official system in the territory was becoming more perfect by the day.

In this half a year, the quality of civil servants and generals had experienced a large increase.

The talent pool of the territory had also risen by a large step. Based on Director Xiao He’s words, even if they expanded to four or five more prefectures, they still had enough talents.

The problem of last year did not exist anymore.

With that, Ouyang Shuo could focus his energy on external conflict. The China region situation became clearer and clearer, and it was far from a battle between Shanhai Alliance and Yanhuang Alliance.

Apart from within the country, there was also the international situation. Let's not mention the further away ones, the ASEAN right in front of them already posed a large challenge.

Ouyang Shuo needed to have a plan about how to settle them in one to two years.

……

The Financial Bureau also performed well.

The trade route between Shanhai City and Quanzhou Imperial City had been opened. After the Battle of Singapore ended, Shi Lang led the Jiaozhou Squadron and started to clear out the pirates in the area.

He was an expert at exterminating pirates and the south sea was also a region he was familiar with. Hence, he acted with great efficiency. More than half of the members of the Yashan Squadron were obtained from pirates.

At this date, the entire trading route was protected by Shanhai City sailors and merchant ships could travel in peace.

Opening this route not only held great meaning to the territory, it also meant that another important trading point was added.

The merchant ships would use Quanzhou as a layover point to head into Shanhai City and proceed toward Southeast Asia.

The trade agreement that Shanhai City signed with Johor, Brunei, and the others also played an important part.

Because of the addition of Shanhai City, ASEAN was in a mess.

On one side, Johor, Brunei, and the other earned massive profits through the trade. On the other side, the PK between China players and Java players had reached a boiling point.

Each day, there would be hundreds of people dying.

The Java players were extremely strong. After fighting for so many months, they still did not back off.

Last month, even the Johor Adventure gamemode players, under the instructions of the leader of the Fierce Tiger Mercenary Group, started to disturb the Xingzhou Prefecture border.

Naturally, the China players would not take this lying down.

The long coastline between Xingzhou Prefecture and Johor became a grey region for PK.

With that, cracks within Johor formed too.

With Shantha and Guo Yannan at the lead, they wanted peaceful trade. On the other hand, Sha Duya wanted PK.

The situation in Southeast Asia became more and more complicated.

Any wind blowing, or small movement could lead to a huge war.

After reading the memorials, it was already 4 PM.

Ouyang Shuo rubbed his swelling head and laid on his couch, closing his eyes and resting.

The voyage had ended, but the burden on his shoulders had increased. Such a huge problem of Shanhai City laid completely on his shoulders.

In truth, it truly was not simple.

Especially the matter with the Shanhai Alliance, it really worried him.

It had been two days since his return, and he still had not contacted his allies. It was not that he did not want to, but before he understood the situation, he did not know where to start.

His current allies were all like elders of a region, they would not like being bossed around by him.

Without mentioning Xunlong Dianxue, Ouyang Shuo could not see through Feng Qiuhuang’s thoughts. Since the start, there had been a gap between her and the other allies.

Her heritage was something that Gong Chengshi and the other commoner Lords hated.

To make matters worse, Fallen Phoenix City was the second strongest territory in the alliance. While they did not do much, Feng Qiuhuang had obtained glorious achievements and saved the reputation of the alliance.

With that, Gong Chengshi and the others would naturally feel unhappy about it. A deeper and wider tear would be stabbed into their hearts.

The alliance was not like the alliance from before.

Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo could not help but feel emotional. At the start of the 2nd year, they had held the 1st alliance meeting at the back garden. At that time, they were just a group of young people singing campfire songs and dancing.

They were so well-matched.

It was like it had just happened yesterday, but the truth was so far from his ideal.

I really need to have a good talk with them! Ouyang Shuo thought to himself.

……

Half an hour later, Ouyang Shuo opened his eyes.

After looking through all the memorials, Ouyang Shuo was not ready to continue staying in the reading room, “Men, prepare my horse!"

"Yes, my Lord!"

Chen Dameng acknowledged his order, turning around and leaving.

Jumping onto Qingdian, Ouyang Shuo led the Personal Guards and headed to the South City region.

Although Little Green had become his mount, when he was in the city, Ouyang Shuo still decided to sit on Qingdian. After all, Llittle Green was too eye-catching and too much.

Furthermore, the little fellow did not like Ouyang Shuo riding him. If it was not war time, it was difficult to see it, as it would either be in the Spirit Beast Hall or swimming in the ocean.

Compared to Ouyang Shuo, this fellow was a free spirit.

……

The South City region was directly connected to the imperial city, and the city gates were guarded by the Guards Legion.

When they saw the Lord, they immediately opened the gates.

Just half a year had passed, and the South City region, the military work region of the territory, had undergone a total change. The four military workshops used to be the main attractions but now this was a place for industrialization.

The four military workshops had turned into high range equipment crafting.

The Bow and Crossbow Division Workshop was only in charge of the three-bow arcuballistas and the Zhuge Crossbow, the Armory Division Workshop in charge of the Mingguang Armor, Buren Armor, and Iron Armored Beast equipment.

The weapons workshop only made orders from the military.

Normal equipment was all completed by the regional workshops in the various prefectures.

Of the emptied land, half was used to build steelmaking factories, handgun workshops, and cannon workshops. Half or more was still empty and used to prepare for the steam engine and industrialization machines.

……

Arriving at the South City region, Ouyang Shuo wanted to go to the No. 7 Research Institute, to personally pass the techniques over to Liu Mo. At the same time, he could take the time to understand the industrial developments.

Seeing the current state of the region, Ouyang Shuo was dazzled. If no one led the way, he would not even be able to find the research institute.

Chapter 685-Monarch Enters the Court

Luckily, Liu Mo's timely appearance helped Ouyang Shuo out of that pickle.

"Lord!" Liu Mo bowed, greeting Ouyang Shuo enthusiastically.

When Ouyang Shuo saw Liu Mo, he smiled. Naturally, he knew the reason behind Liu Mo’s excitement. The matter about the steam engine had spread throughout the China region, even someone like Liu Mo who locked himself up for research had heard the news.

However, till now, the relevant technical manual had not been sent over to the No. 7 Research Institute.

"Let's go over to your headquarters."

Ouyang Shuo dismounted and proceeded side by side with Liu Mo.

As they had to stick to the territory industrialization proposition, the No. 7 Research Institute had relentlessly expanded during this half a year. Now, they had become a machine with over thousands of researchers.

The headquarters where research took place had also been expanded.

Around the headquarters, five to six large research labs stood; these labs included material research labs, experimental labs, and machine research labs.

The ones leading the research labs were all top experts in their fields in real life.

The reason the No. 7 Research Institute could become a technological center and research brain was because everyone here was easily professor or doctor grade. In fact, no less than 20 were academicians in real life.

Just as they walked into the research center, Liu Mo started to mutter, "Steam engine! Steam engine!"

Toward such a technology crazy fellow, Ouyang Shuo was helpless and directly passed both technical manuals to him, “Take a look!"

Liu Mo acted like he had obtained a treasure, and he started flipping through the manuals on the spot, totally not caring about Ouyang Shuo. Luckily, his assistant was alert and quickly gave the Lord a cup of hot tea.

"Why is there a sewing machine?" Liu Mo suddenly opened his mouth; his tone showed a hint of despise.

As a thermal weapons expert, he was interested in the steam engine because it could push the development of the steelmaking industry. It could quicken the design of machinery to hasten thermal weapons research.

"Why a sewing machine? An old antique with no use at all."

Ouyang Shuo had a ‘I knew this was going to happen expression.’ He solemnly said, “I'm telling you now, you must put in as much effort into this as the steam engine."

The sewing machine did not attract Liu Mo at all.

But from Ouyang Shuo's perspective, it was an item that could generate endless profits.

"Okay!" Liu Mo gave an extremely forced reply.

His time was exceedingly precious. Asking him to split up his time was harder than ascending the heavens.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this situation, he gritted his teeth, “How about this, when you all push the sewing machine to large scale production, I'll give you all 500 thousand gold?"

"Really?" When Liu Mo heard these words, he jumped.

"I do not tell lies!"

"Great. Two months. In at most two months, there will be results." Liu Mo promised.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, standing up and entering the courtyard outside the hall. Peng! Peng! Peng! He quickly took out a few massive items, including one steam engine, one sewing machine, and two Spanish cannons.

Luckily, his storage bag had huge capacity. Otherwise, he could not bring back all these items.

"This is the steam engine prototype." Liu Mo followed Ouyang Shuo, his eyes lighting up.

"That's right. There's also that." Ouyang Shuo pointed at one of the cannons, “That's a Spanish Cannon; it might give you some inspiration for the new cannons you are designing."

Liu Mo walked up and performed a close inspection of the Spanish cannon.

Following which, Liu Mo took out stationary, ruler, microscope, hammer, pencil, notebook, and other items that Ouyang Shuo did not recognize.

It truly felt like his storage bag held everything in it.

Following which, Liu Mo asked people to take out cutting tools; it seemed like he wanted to directly break apart the Spanish Cannon.

"Wait, wait."

Ouyang Shuo called him, taking out a thick book once more, “Take a look at this."

Liu Mo took a look, “What's this? Atlantis Mimicry Flying Device Crafting Technical Manual? The legendary Atlantis technology?"

"Research it and see if you can craft it." Ouyang Shuo nodded.

Looking at the book, Liu Mo fell into a trance.

In comparison, the cannons were unable to attract his attention. One had to say, Ouyang Shuo had brought him surprise after surprise.

"This is really difficult!"

After a short while, Liu Mo said, his eyes burning with fire.

The more difficult the challenge, the more exciting it was for him.

"Take your time." Seeing that it was already late, Ouyang Shuo took out one last item; it was an exquisite wooden box. He passed it to Liu Mo and prepared to leave.

"What technique is this?" Liu Mo was curious.

Ouyang Shuo sighed, “This is not a technique. It's a gift I brought for your parents."

Ouyang Shuo had heard that Liu Mo had put too much effort into research. The situation was like the one previously in real life; he did not bother about his parents.

From Song Jia’s words, this god brother had not returned home in two months.

Liu Mo held the wooden box, his whole body freezing up.

Ouyang Shuo did not say anything, patting his shoulder, “Although research is important, if you have time, you still need to accompany your parents. They miss you a lot."

After he said that, Ouyang Shuo left.

Leaving Liu Mo alone with the wooden box, standing dazed in the courtyard.

8th mont,h 23rd day, Shanhai City Wuji Palace.

Ouyang Shuo woke up early and finished his morning training. Song Jia had also woken up and prepared the warm water for his bath. After bathing, Song Jia brought over the coronation uniform for him to change.

"No, bring the armor over." Ouyang Shuo shook his head.

"Today is your first court assembly, but you're wearing the martial attire?" Song Jia could not understand.

"That's right!"

Ouyang Shuo needed to send a signal to the outside world that Shanhai City was ruling the country with martial and using martial to set up their country.

Three days after he returned, Ouyang Shuo upgrade to Duke seemed to only have a one-time reward from the imperial city. Even the way his subordinates called him did not change.

However, the truth was not so simple.

Compared to Marquis, Duke was a level higher and was a qualitative change.

During the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period, even a Lord of a country might not have been a Duke. Especially during the Spring and Autumn Period where people like Qiheng Duke, Songrang Duke, and Puwen Duke were all called Duke.

Of course, the middle words were only added in after their death.

Their true identities should be Song Duke, Queen Duke, Pu Duke, and the like.

Only after the end of the Spring and Autumn Period were the strong Lords started to be called kings, for example Chu Zhuang King who was the Chu King. At the end of the Warring States, the Qin and Qi states even had emperors.

In China, the knowledge behind how to call their ruler had passed.

Hence, they needed to be changed at such an important occasion.

Based on ancient traditions, after Ouyang Shuo became a Duke, the people would start calling him Monarch. When he established a country, he would be called King.

As for emperor, and imperial Lord, that would have to wait till they reached the emperor dynasty and the imperial dynasty.

Everything had its rules.

At the same time, all military and administrative meetings would be called court assemblies.

As such, today was the 1st court assembly in Shanhai City’s history and held deep meaning.

On such a day, everything he did would be read into by the officials. Ouyang Shuo wearing the martial attire was obviously to send out a signal.

……

At 8 AM, the high-ranking civil servants all gathered in the main hall.

During the previous meetings, the directors had seats in the main hall, where they could cross their legs and sit. In front of them were a few tables with fruits and drinks on it.

The current main hall, apart from the Lord's throne that was high above, the rest was empty. The Culture Division officials made use of these two days to properly arrange the new main hall.

During the meeting, apart from Ouyang Shuo, the others had to stand.

This was the prestige of the Lord, even Ouyang Shuo himself could not change it and had to follow the rules. Luckily, such court meetings did not need to be held every day.

Normally, they would be held twice every month.

Usually, Ouyang Shuo would deal with administrative matters in the reading room so the officials did not need to always stand.

Just at this moment, Secretary Bai Nanpu announced, “The monarch has arrived!"

Ouyang Shuo wore martial attire with the Chixiao Sword by his waist; he held the emperor seal as he slowly walked into the main hall. He stood in front of the table, his expression exceedingly solemn.

"Greetings, Monarch!"

All of a sudden, within the hall, hundreds of officials bowed in unison. They followed the most traditional form of respect, folding their hands in and bowing.

With Ouyang Shuo's way of thinking, he naturally could not get used to the Ming Dynasty kneeling and bowing rituals.

Old people felt that kneeling was only for the gods and the emperor did not have that right; ancient emperors loved the people; naturally, they could not accept the people kneeling to them.

Especially in the Qing Dynasty, where if one treated the ministers as slaves, it was a huge insult to their own character.

To a modern person like Ouyang Shuo, he could not accept it all the more. Asking Xiao He, Fan Li, and the other ministers to kneel was a humiliation to them.

Qin Shihuang and Hanwu Emperor did not believe in this either.

"Officials, please rise!"

Ouyang Shuo calmly proclaimed. As he had not established a country yet, he could not call them ministers yet.

"Thank you, my Lord!"

They all got up. Upon seeing the Lord in martial attire, their eyes narrowed.

Du Ruhui, Huo Qubing, and the other military officials were all excited. On the other hand, Xiao He and the other civil servants were shocked.

His action contained deep meaning.

Luckily Xiao He, Fan Li, and Wei Yang, these three heads, were not pure civil servants strictly speaking. They were all rounded and were not what the Confucians from the latter ages could compare to.

Furthermore, this was the wilderness, a time that could not be compared to the Warring States Period.

Ruling the country peacefully was not practical.

Ouyang Shuo walked toward his seat, looking around and saying, “Today's court assembly, we will first discuss a matter."

Chapter 686-Popular Science Lecture

"Announcing the martial genius."

First, Ouyang Shuo granted the title to show auspiciousness.

"Martial genius Niu Da, please enter!"

After a moment, a burly general strolled into the hall; he did not even dare to raise his head. With a Shua! he knelt on one foot, cupping his fists and greeting, “I am Niu Da, greetings Monarch."

His voice trembled.

Niu Da was just a normal major in the Dragon Legion Corps. Before this, he had never expected to have the chance to appear here. Not to mention to be the first person the Lord summoned in the 1st court assembly.

Just that point alone was enough for him to brag about for the rest of his life.

"Please rise!" Ouyang Shuo signaled to Bai Nanpu.

Bai Nanpu understood; he took out the prepared decree and read, “The Monarch decrees, martial genius Niu Da, champion of the three armies, awarded grade 5 title Zhaowu General, promoted to major general of the 5th division of the Guards Legion, effective immediately."

Elation flashed across his face as he kowtowed, “Thank you Monarch for your good grace!"

This honest military man did not even try to hide his excitement. His open emotions caused the old foxes present to shake their heads; some admired him, and some looked down on him.

The martial genius receiving a promotion to major general was Du Ruhui’s promise before the competition. As for the specifics of the division they would go to, the Monarch would make the choice.

Du Ruhui had suggested to send him to the 2nd legion of the Dragon Legion Corps. After all, he was from the Dragon Legion, so he would face less obstacles there.

From major to major general, it was a massive leap.

Majors led men, and they needed to use their strength as a deterrence. At the major general level, one had to use their brains. Niu Da skipping the ranks meant that he had jumped over the colonel training.

Du Ruhui's plan was to play safe.

However, Ouyang Shuo had another idea. Coincidentally, the 5th division of the Guards Legion lacked a major general. As such, why not send him there as an example for the whole army?

The Guards Legion was the trump card legion of the entire territory.

The ability of the major generals there was not something that other major generals could compare to.

Hence, it was no wonder that Niu Da would feel so delighted. Upgrading to major general was already a promotion of two levels and entering the Guards Legion was all the more an honor; it was like taking a step up to the heavens.

As for whether or not he could live up to expectations, it temporarily was not on his mind. In his eyes, the military was about whose fist was the biggest; the person with the bigger fist would be the boss. If you did not like someone, beat them up until they submit.

This was also his military logic, simple, violent, and sometimes rather effective.

In the following period, the 5th division would experience many interesting matters. Luckily, they had God General Huo Qubing in charge, so nothing big would happen.

Ouyang Shuo stood, taking a tray over from Bai Nanpu.

On the tray was a golden shiny armor; this was Ouyang Shuo’s previous Mingguang Armor.

"This armor was the armor that I wore before. Now, it is awarded to you. Do not disappoint me."

Thinking about it, there was nothing that held as much meaning as this armor.

As expected, Niu Da was emotional beyond words; he shook as he accepted the tray, putting it on the floor beside him. He thanked respectfully, “I will not forget the Monarch's good grace. I will repay you with all I have."

"Great!" Ouyang Shuo exclaimed and said in a low tone, “Niu Da, listen to my orders!"

"Yes, my Monarch!"

Niu Da was extremely alert. As the martial genius of the entire army, he did not lack courage. Under such an atmosphere, even if the Lord asked him to attack an imperial city, he would not even frown.

"Yunnan City-State has disturbed our border and cannot be forgiven. I order you to lead the 5th division to act as a vanguard to meet up with the Dragon Legion Corps." Ouyang Shuo's words shocked everyone.

Disturbing the border was just a random reason he had found.

Of course, it could not be considered a lie.

After all, at his position, he could not say any lies.

Speaking of which, this was a special incident Baiqi, the Military Intelligence Division, and the Honglu Temple had planned ago.

A month ago, the Lord of Qiubei City in Mengding Prefecture had led his troops to invade Zhen An Prefecture, killing 300 residents, destroying two villages before escaping back to his territory.

When Baiqi, who was in charge of the west border, heard the news, he was furious and ordered the person to be dealt with.

As Qiubei City was a member of the Yunnan City-State, the city-state naturally took responsibility for his actions.

Baiqi wrote a letter to request them to hand over the problem maker but nothing had been done.

With that, matters had dragged on. Apart from the people involved, everyone quickly forgot about the incident.

Who would have expected Ouyang Shuo to raise this past topic upon returning, even starting war against Yunnan City-State before any of them could react?

The meaning within gave them many thoughts.

"Yes, my Monarch!"

Niu Da did not think about anything else; he only wished to contribute on the battlefield and not let the Monarch down. After receiving his reward, he backed off to the last row of the generals.

Ouyang Shuo returned to his seat and ordered once more, “General Huo!"

"General!"

A light shone in Huo Qubing's eyes as he walked forward confidently.

After coming to the territory, Huo Qubing had only managed to lead the troops in the Xingzhou Prefecture; he had not had the chance to enter the battlefield.

The great war he had hoped for had finally arrived.

"During this battle against Yunnan City-State, Baiqi will act as the main general while you will be the front general. You will lead the Guards Legion to bring resources to the Dragon Legion Corps base to meet." Ouyang Shuo's expression was a little weird.

The desire for battle in his eyes was too sharp and strong. Hence, after ordering him to lead the Guards Legion, Ouyang Shuo decided to store this god general in ice.

With that, the famous, genius general that millions of girls loved had disappeared from the view of players, hidden in the deep palaces of the imperial city away from everyone.

There was a period of time where people even protested against Ouyang Shuo's actions toward him.

"Huo Huo is mine!"

"Give me back my Huo Huo!"

Similar grumbles and complaints did not stop at all.

‘Huo Huo support team’ had become one of the strongest supporters of him online on the forums. The Black Snake Guards even found out that Bai Hua was a core member.

When Ouyang Shuo heard the news, he did not know whether to laugh or cry. It seemed like Huo Qubing had truly dazzled her. Who knows what waves Huo Qubing would cause when he headed to the Yunnan Battlefield this time.

"Yes, my Monarch!"

Huo Qubing did not hesitate and accepted the order.

In any battle, the front general was the vanguard, and this matched like his personality. The genius general in history finally had a chance to show his skills.

……

The court assembly had ended up as a pre-war battle mobilization. Without a doubt, the moment this ended, the news of Shanhai City declaring war on Yunnan City-State would spread across the entire China region.

At that time, the entire Nanjiang would be shaken and everyone would be alerted.

This was Ouyang Shuo's purpose.

The Guards Legion rushing to the Dragon Legion Corps base needed them to pass through three prefectures of land, so it would take close to half a month.

Hence, the true war would not start so quickly.

Hence, the Monarch making such a big deal about the mobilization surprised everyone. Normally speaking, wouldn’t quietly mobilizing the troops and launching a sneak attack be better?

On the contrary, Du Ruhui and the others were expressionless.

This plan was not something Ouyang Shuo had come up with on the spot but was raised after careful consideration by the Military Affairs Bureau.

After settling the troops issue, Ouyang Shuo changed the topic, “Summon Liu Mo!"

"Summoning, No.7 Research Institute Deputy Manager Liu Mo. Enter the hall!"

Liu Mo walked in and bowed, “Greetings, Monarch!"

"You can begin!"

Yesterday, Ouyang Shuo had already told Liu Mo what he needed to say.

"Yes, my Monarch!"

Liu Mo nodded, clapping his hands toward the outer door.

Instantly, the Divine Martial Guard in charge of guarding the Governor-General Manor carried a steam engine, a sewing machine, and a blackboard into the hall.

"What's that?"

Looking at such this ‘monster’, the civil servants all looked at it curiously, not knowing what in the world it was.

When Ouyang Shuo heard their questions, he sighed in his heart.

Shanhai City's civil servant and general formation was so dazzling; however, it was still lacking.

No matter if it was civil servants like Xiao He or generals like Huo Qubing, they were all unfamiliar with technology. Apart from Zhang Tingyu, who had seen western technology, probably only the Taiping Army generals had.

Ouyang Shuo's voyage was a whole new world to them.

Even so, they still did not have a clear idea about industrialization. Their thinking still stopped at the age of following the thinking and ideals of the king.

They had no knowledge about the uses of technology and the effects it could cause and have.

As a result, the industrialization of the territory had been proceeding slowly, making Ouyang Shuo displeased. One problem was the officials not understanding industrialization.

Now with the steam engine, sewing machine, and even the flying device crafting technique, it was the best time to industrialize. In the future period of time, territory finances, territory funds, and more would all pour toward it.

With that, Ouyang Shuo needed all the officials to realize the importance. After all, the ones taking action were them. If their thinking was not open, industrialization could not even start.

Ouyang Shuo could not actually replace all of them with players, right?

That was not practical.

……

Liu Mo was a technology nerd. Even in the imperial court, he did not dare to speak any false words. With a blackboard, he started to give all the ministers an eye-opening popular science lecture.

In terms of theory, Liu Mo had extremely deep skill. Furthermore, he was not a dull person and knew that he was teaching novices, so he started from the basics before going deeper in.

Along with practical aspect and diagrams, his lecture was extremely easy to understand.

Such a scene could be said to have opened up the ancient generation to the new world.

Chapter 687-Country Establishment Meeting

Liu Mo's popular science lecture lasted a full hour.

Ouyang Shuo sat on his seat, quietly paying attention to the reactions of the ministers standing below him. Some were interested, some listened with focus on his words, and some acted like they were listening but were not actually.

The road to industrialization for the territory would not be a smooth sailing path.

During this round of promotions for the industrialization, Ouyang Shuo did not add new organizations as usual; instead, he allowed the Industry and Development Planning Department to take charge of it.

The only change would be that he moved one of the old professionals from the No.7 Research Institute to the position of deputy director of the department to be in charge of coordinating work between the Nanjiang Governor-General House and the No.7 Research Institute.

Ouyang Shuo did not choose Liu Mo as his god brother was basically a technological nerd; he was not cut out for this kind of thing.

Liu Mo took his leave and the court assembly continued.

The popular science lecture was just a start, used to show the will and ideals of the Monarch. The people within the hall were all sharp and intelligent; naturally, they understood the deep meaning within.

“Following this, the No.7 Research Institute will introduce this to the entire territory. Only when everyone has a clear understanding can the territory undergo industrialization.”

……

"Shanhai City has just upgraded to Grade 3 Prefecture. We have a population shortfall of one million. I want to fill this gap in half a year, do any of you have any suggestions?" Ouyang Shuo tossed out a difficult question.

The moment they heard his words, the officials all exchanged glances with one another.

"If I may ask, Monarch, what's the rush?" Xiao He stepped out and asked.

Shanhai City took a year to upgrade from Grade 2 Prefecture to Grade 3 Prefecture. From their perspective, they could proceed slowly and there was no need to rush the process.

"The time that Shanhai City upgrades to capital city is also the time for us to establish our country." Ouyang Shuo did not hide his ambitions and revealed it to them for the first time.

The ministers were excited, and some of the old ones even had signs of shedding tears.

Establishing a country had great meaning in Ancient China; it was one of the signs of unifying the country. If a country was not established, the ministers would always feel that something was lacking, that they could form a country ideal.

To the territory, establishing a country was an enormous matter.

Ouyang Shuo announcing this matter to them caused a huge tremor. To these ministers, this was the best description of this court assembly and the best reward anyone could receive.

Any doubts from before had been swept aside.

The ministers were now even more passionate than Ouyang Shuo, coming together to solve this population shortfall problem.

"Monarch, I think we could move some people from the other prefectures over to Shanhai City," suggested Household Registration Secretary Du Quan.

The Household Registration Division controlled the population; naturally, they had the most right to speak. At such an important court assembly, as a young official, Du Quan wanted to impress.

"Definitely not!" Xiao He immediately spoke against it, "Such an act is like drying the lake to fish. The population of the various prefectures have all along been slow, and it was not easy for them to settle down, how can we causally move them?"

In the wilderness, apart from people spawning, the naturally population increase was 0. In the 10 years of the game, even if the natives naturally grew, it was at most enough time for a child to grow into an adult.

Xiao He's words made sense.

In the territory, only Shanhai City, Yashan City, and Zhenhai City used the village creation token and could have new people.

The only special case was Beihai City, this subsidiary city.

Other than that, it was the territories that used the merger token, including Tianfeng City, Yishui City, Broken Blade City, and the overseas cities of Lion City, Friendship City, and Jidian City.

Compared to the hundreds of cities in the seven prefectures, this was just too little.

Du Quan's suggestion was truly not feasible.

"This...."

Du Quan's face flushed red, and he did not know how to react.

When Wei Yang saw this, he could not help but frown. Du Quan's performance had totally lost the face of this Internal Affairs Director.

Even so, Wei Yang still needed to get Du Quan out of the situation, "Director Xiao He's suggestion makes sense but it's not absolute. I suggest we move a batch of suitable people from Beihai City, Tianfeng City, Yishun City, and Broken Blade City. Apart from that, we can also move some over from Zhenhai City."

As the Internal Affairs Director, Wei Yang had a good grasp of the population layout of the territory. He did not mention Yashan City as its population would need to radiate to the entire Qiongzhou Prefecture; it was not easily moved.

"That could work." Ouyang Shuo nodded; he did not put the silent competition between Wei Yang and Xiao He to heart, "This matter, I'll let the Internal Affairs Bureau lead; the Lianzhou Prefecture and Zhenhai City will work with them."

"Yes, Monarch!"

Lianzhou Prefecture Governor Wei Ran and Zhenhai City City Magistrate Song Wen both stepped out to accept the orders.

Compared to the calm Song Wen, Wei Ran's face was a little tensed up. Taking out a large amount of population would cause Lianzhou Prefecture to be much worse than Shanhai City in terms of stature.

To be an official under the feet of the son of god, this was why it was a bad thing.

"Moving population is like destroying the east wall to fix the west wall; it cannot solve the root of the problem. Do any of you have other suggestions?" The one million population shortfall was not something that just moving the population could solve.

To move 200 thousand people from the five cities was already the maximum.

"I suggest we recruit population from the imperial city." Wei Yang took over from Du Quan and answered.

"How so?"

Shanhai City had already gone so many times to the imperial cities to recruit talents. The people they recruited were all technical talents or civil servants and generals; hence, the numbers were not high.

They had not gone to the imperial city to recruit any basic population.

"Use the industrial revolution as the key." Wei Yang said; he was one of the few that saw through the sewing machine and the steam engine, understanding it thoroughly.

In such a short while, Wei Yang was able to put what he learned to use.

The revolution the sewing machine would cause to the garment industry was groundbreaking. With it, sewing cotton and cloth did not need professionals. Normal people could be hired as long as they were diligent and willing to learn.

With that, it reduced the requirements to work.

This was a massive attraction to the normal people in the imperial cities.

“We can try that." Ouyang Shuo did not reject the proposal, "Let the Household Registration Division take charge of this. Apart from migration, they are also in charge of settling them."

"Why not take this chance to promote the Household Registration Division?" Wei Yang suggested.

"How so?" Ouyang Shuo was expressionless.

This was the first time that a minister had taken the initiative to suggest changes to the territory structure.

What huge meaning!

Ouyang Shuo could not tell whether Wei Yang came prepared or was it something he thought of on the spot.

"The role of the current Household Registration Division is too narrow; they only take charge of the welfare with regards to the population, population registration, dealing with prisoners, life of the people, and the like, things that are out of the system." Wei Yang was exceedingly thorough in his analysis.

"Hence, I suggest we upgrade it to the Civil Affairs Department to be in charge of household registration, civilians, customs, conflicts in towns, running the wilderness, treatment of the old, respecting the old, dealing with widows, and lonely folks, giving people titles, burial procedures and many matters."

Civil affairs existed in olden times and was comparable to the modern times. Although their jobs were a little different, the basics were not changed in thousands of years.

Wei Yang's suggestion hit the sweet spot, and it caused Ouyang Shuo's eyes to light up.

"What does Minister Xiao think?"

Ouyang Shuo did not make the decision himself. In terms of reorganization of the territory structure, Xiao He had power as the Administration Director.

In the court assembly, if Ouyang Shuo skipped him and made decisions, it would be an inappropriate act.

His long time of training had made Ouyang Shuo have a clear and deep understanding of the culture and rules of the court.

"Director Wei's words make sense, I agree!"

Xiao He directly nodded and agreed; he did not add his own thoughts. Although with this the power of the Internal Affairs Bureau would increase, when it was time for him to lower his head, Xiao He did not hesitate.

"Good, this matter is settled! As for the specifics, you two ministers discuss and settle it. Today, we will only discuss who will be the director. Do any of you have any suggestions?"

Du Quan's performance was not good enough. For him to keep his role as secretary of the Household Registration Division under the Civil Affairs Department would already be good enough.

Hence, no one felt that he should be promoted.

The Monarch's words once again proved this point.

Ouyang Shuo had left the territory for half a year, but the territory was not a dead swamp. During this half a year, there were a few historical talents who came over. Some had been given jobs, while some were given temporary roles for Ouyang Shuo to decide when he returned.

Those that were not given permanent jobs were naturally the prominent talents.

Although Ouyang Shuo asked all of them, the ones who truly had the rights to speak were only Xiao He and Wei Yang. One was in charge of the evaluation of officials, while the other was in charge of the Internal Affairs Bureau.

Even Financial Bureau Director Fan Li had no say in this.

This time, Wei Yang was truly prepared, not avoiding the question and giving his recommendation, "Monarch, I recommend one person, he's the Brother of Pei Ju, Pei Yun."

"Pei Yun?" Ouyang Shuo tried hard to recall any historical information regarding Pei Yun.

Like the governor of Xingzhou Prefecture Pei Ju, Pei yun was born in the Pei Family and was an official in the Chen Dynasty. He was the direct court general and the Xinning Magistrate.

After the Chen Dynasty was destroyed by Sui, Shiwen Emperor insisted on breaking tradition and making use of him. He became the Yang, Zhi, Di state governors.

After the Suiyang Emperor took the throne, Pei Yun became the assistant minister of the Civil Department.

In the 14th year of Daye, Pei Yun and the emperor were killed in a coup by Sima Dekan in Jiangdou.

Compared to his brother, Pei Ju, Pei Yun's achievements were a little duller.

The only achievement he could take out would probably be revolutionizing the household registration system.

While he was the assistant minister, there were a lot of missing registrations of people, affecting the financial income of the court, becoming a huge societal problem.

As Pei Yun had been a provincial governor before, he understood the problems, so he suggested a plan, which was the Maoyue Profiling Method. After this method was pushed out, it had significant effects, recording 1,641,500 new people.

Although this was the case, Pei Yun could not be considered a good official.

He worked for the Suiyang Emperor and did many things that harmed the common people.

For him, Pei Yun had expanded the entertainment manor, expanding it to over 30 thousand men for the emperor to enjoy it alone.

After becoming the royal doctor, he used the secrets he held to break laws, using his power to convict people, murdering people and robbing them on his own will, promoting and deepening the Suiyang Emperor's dictatorship-like rule.

With that, Ouyang Shuo naturally needed to be extremely careful about giving Pei Yun power.

Chapter 688-Look of the Monarch

Compared to his brother, Pei Yun could be said to have received both praise and blame.

Wei Yang recommended Pei Yun because he saw the latter’s experience in civil administration. Pei Yun definitely had the ability to take control of the department, but in turn, he might cause other problems.

The only difference with history was that Pei Yun still lacked a position in the core of the territory.

"Let the Official Ruling Department evaluate him. If everything is okay, appoint him!" Ouyang Shuo decided to trust Wei Yang's suggestion.

"Yes, my Monarch!"

Official Ruling Director Zhang Tingyu nodded and accepted the orders.

This was not a good task to him. From the Monarch's expression, Zhang Tingyu had no way to deduce the Monarch's attitude toward Pei Yun.

If they truly decided to use him, it would be due to the face of Wei Yang. However, if the evaluation results were different from what the Monarch wanted, he would be in for a tough time as the director of the Official Ruling Department.

Ouyang Shuo did not bother about his little thoughts and continued the court assembly, "Minister Wei has raised up the suggestion of recruiting people from the imperial city, and it is a good plan. But even so, there's still a huge shortfall. Do any of you have any other ideas?"

The officials all exchanged glances with one another.

Small random suggestions would not be raised at such a court assembly.

The Monarch desired a well-thought out plan.

But such a plan would not be something that anyone could think up on the spot.

What had happened to Du Quan reminded all of them that in the court assembly, one could not speak simple. If not, losing face would be the least of their worries.

"Why, is there really no one that can split the worries with me?" Ouyang Shuo's tone turned serious.

This scared and terrified everyone as they bowed, “We are useless, Monarch please do not be angry!"

"It's okay!" Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, looking a little disappointed, “Since you cannot think of any other ideas, let's just bring in players. Shanhai City will be open to players; lead them to move in."

"Monarch, this...." Shanhai Magistrate Zang Wenzhong started to speak but stopped.

"If you have something to say just speak."

"I'm worried that the large influx of players could pose a huge challenge to the law and order of Shanhai City." Zang Wenzhong said carefully, “Furthermore, the city protection legion is not here so...."

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, he was furious; his voice was not loud, but it was suppressive, “Why, is the law and order so bad that you cannot even control players?"

Instantly, a mountain-like pressure descended onto the court assembly; it was like thunder and lightning during a sunny day.

All the officials felt uneasy.

Zang Wenzhong's face turned ashen white as he trembled, “This official did not do his job, please punish me!"

Ouyang Shuo did not bother with Zang Wenzhong, turning around to look at Wei Yang, “The territory law system pushed out by the Internal Affairs Bureau will treat both natives and players the same. Even like this, do you still have no confidence about keeping the players in check?"

"Of course, there will be no problems." Wei Yang did not dare to give the military order.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, his expression relaxing, “Ministers, you must remember that the army is used for war and not to act as bodyguards for the city. Today, even if the City Protection Legion returned, they would not guard the city; instead, they would move outside the city. The law and order would remain under the hands of the Internal Affairs Bureau, the power of the bailiffs."

"Yes, my Monarch!"

The ministers all bowed in unison.

In the court assembly, any word and action of Ouyang Shuo was read into by them.

When the Monarch was angry, it was like lightning striking down.

They could truly feel that after this half a year, the prestige and might of the son of god had been formed.

The aura of the Monarch.

This came from Ouyang Shuo's calmness and training, related to the dragon vein, the imperial seal, the Yellow Emperor Cultivation Technique, the fate dragon, and more; all these factors added together.

All of these factors had caused a qualitative change.

The prestige of the Monarch was as high as the mountains and as deep as the sea.

Only such a Monarch could talk about establishing a country.

If not, even if Shanhai City managed to upgrade to capital city, it would just be a dream in the end.

At this moment, Xiao He and the other officials could truly see that a new empire was rising in the wilderness; a bustling and vibrant empire, shocking all four corners of the land.

"A new era has arrived!"

At this moment, apart from emotional, there was no other way to describe it.

Some officials teared up.

If Ouyang Shuo went to check their loyalty stat, he would be shocked to find that the stat would have risen by 5 to 15 points.

This was all due to the prestige of the Lord.

……

Ouyang Shuo turning his attention from the army to putting more focus on the bailiffs was not something random without basis.

In modern day society, the police maintained the law and order of the city. Apart from special times or during war, the army would not enter the city.

If not, it would not be considered a prosperous time but a time of chaos.

In truth, the ancient times similarly had a police force. However, they were termed as bailiffs instead. Specifically speaking, the ancient bailiffs had three different types.

Each type had their own specific role.

One was called constable. Their jobs ranged from bringing in the accused, witnesses, tracking down and arresting suspects, and searching for evidence. They had similar work to the modern-day frontline cops.

Constables belonged to the Procuratorate Division under the Internal Affairs Bureau.

Another was the Yamen Runner, similar to the marshals in modern day.

Their main role was to follow their officials around and guarding their paths. During the court session, they would stand at two sides to maintain order, protecting the accused and executing the punishments.

The Ming Dynasty set that these Yamen Runners would wear square hats and had a peacock feather stuck at their ear.

Based on the records of the Ming Dynasty’s ‘Three Talents Meeting’, the dressing was based on how the Semu people from the Yuan Dynasty dressed. Zhu Yuanzhuang used this as the dressing as a sort of a way to lookk down on the Semu people.

After which, the color changed to green, but the name remained the same.

Yamen Runner was under the Security Division under the Internal Affairs Bureau.

Third was Minzhuang, which were in charge of guarding the city gates, Yamen, important storages, jails, patrolling the streets, and the like; they were similar to the modern day armed police.

Before this, the role of the Minzhuang was taken by the city protection forces. After Ouyang Shuo’s suggested change, this role was under the jurisdiction of the Internal Affairs Bureau.

With that, it was not hard to conclude that if the olden bailiff structure was in place, they would be able to maintain the law and order of the entire territory.

The problem was that in olden times, bailiffs were listed as shameless jobs like that of prostitutes and dancers. Normally speaking, people were not willing to marry them.

The ancient bailiffs did not receive a salary and only had small amounts of expenses.

Even so, there were still many people who wanted to be bailiffs. Helplessly, this job was hereditary and passed down from one generation to next.

Why did such a job hold such attraction?

The only reason was that while they were doing their duties, they had too many methods to rip off the people to earn money. Hence, they did not bother about whether or not they had salary.

Such a con about the job; naturally, Ouyang Shuo had a clear understanding of it.

Hence, since building the Security Division, bailiffs were mainly chosen from the army. They were people with quality and received salaries like basic people from other jobs.

With that, it restricted the bailiffs from doing as they wished and fooling around.

……

Before this, Ouyang Shuo had already given the order to expand the bailiff forces. Now, it seemed like the various city magistrates were still worried about players and wary toward them.

The source of this problem was related Ouyang Shuo's attitude toward the players.

Speaking of which, he truly could not blame others.

"Upgrading Shanhai City, the population booming, the bailiff forces must also be expanded." Ouyang Shuo changed his tone to a gentler one and said to Du Ruhui, “Get the Military Affairs Bureau to calculate if they can disband the Lianzhou Garrison Division and hand over all defenses, including the Mulan Stronghold in the basin, over to the city protection legion."

"There should not be a problem." Du Ruhui nodded.

The current city protection legion was a full strength five division legion. Along with the training at Stone City, they possessed exceptional combat strength. As for defending Lianzhou Basin, Du Ruhui was still confident in doing so.

"That's good." Ouyang Shuo nodded; he loved the quickness of Du Ruhui’s response, “The Lianzhou Garrison Division had a total of 13 thousand soldiers; they would be changed to bailiffs and merged into the Internal Affairs Department."

"Do you have confidence now?" Ouyang Shuo looked at Zang Wenzhong, who had been looking unsettled.

"Thank you, Monarch, for your good grace!"

Zang Wenzhong did not know what else to say, simply nodding his head.

The matter was settled just like that.

In truth, opening up Shanhai City was something that Ouyang Shuo had planned early on.

He only lacked the opportunity.

Shanhai City upgrading once more was that opportunity.

Conservatively speaking, the number of players he would recruit this time would be no less than 400 thousand.

Him taking such action would unavoidably attract and ‘recruit’ the spies from various territories, causing many more problems and uncertainties in the territory.

However, the ones willing to move in would mostly be commoner players. Ouyang Shuo was the representative figure of the commoner players in China; numerous people dreamed of moving into Shanhai City.

But Shanhai City's checks were too strict, and it was basically closed off from the outside world.

Currently, those who moved into Shanhai City could be split into two types. First, the members of the Fallen Moon Guild; they were all recruited work occupation players.

Secondly, the scientist groups, and the highly intellectual people and their families.

The next step would be for Shanhai City to open up to commoner players.

During the prosperous Tang Period, Chang An City accepted everyone from everywhere. Shanhai City should not lack the confidence and courage to accept other players.

With that, a more open and inclusive Shanhai City would slowly rise.

Chapter 689-Everyone Wins from Cooperation

After discussing the matter of filling up the population, it was already noon.

"Today's court assembly will end here." Ouyang Shuo said without hesitation.

After the court assembly ended, Ouyang Shuo returned to the back palace.

At the back palace, Song Jia was talking to a middle-aged woman; they were both smiling, looking like they were having a happy conversation.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he smiled.

After the marriage, Song Jia had changed from her previous swordsman character; she had started to act more like the lady of the Marquis. She would interact with the wives of the officials in the territory, becoming Ouyang Shuo's right hand.

Along with her ability to separate work from personal matters, she was well loved by the people.

Having a wife like this, what more can I wish for?

Of course, Song Jia did not completely put down her cultivation. Every morning and evening, she would continue cultivating. Along with the vast resources of the Governor-General Manor, her martial arts improved at god speed.

The current Song Jia was like the legendary Kuihua Empress. Although she lived in the back palace, her martial arts were extremely strong, and the underworld had rumors spread about her.

These two mystical girls were similar.

When she saw Ouyang Shuo, the middle-aged woman immediately got up and bowed, “I am Lady Xian, greetings Monarch!"

Ouyang Shuo vaguely remembered that she was the wife of Huo Guang, Huo Xian. Looking at her, she seemed gentle and polite; one could not see any signs of her being the vicious wife in history.

At the side, Bing'er was playing with a young lady. When she heard the voice, she raised her head and looked at Ouyang Shuo. She crisply said, “Brother!" Before continuing to play.

Ouyang Shuo had no way to keep this little sister who was at her rebellious phase in check.

The little girl playing with her looked rather intelligent; she had large eyes and long eyelashes. Despite her young age, her cuteness showed a hint of beauty.

No wonder in the future she would grow up to become the root of troubles for her country.

"Chengjun greets Brother Monarch!"

She walked over in front of Ouyang Shuo and bowed.

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, he laughed. Such a greeting was truly interesting. After thinking for a moment, he took out a green magnetic ohlite bracelet from his storage bag and personally put it on Huo Chengjun, “Come and play often!"

"Thank you, Brother Monarch!"

Huo Chengjun looked extremely happy, her cute cheeks filled with emotion.

When Huo Xian saw this exchange, a similar joy appeared in her eyes. The Monarch personally granting you a gift was an immense honor. Furthermore, it was a mystical gift like the magnetic ohlite, so who knows how many other people would feel envious about it.

First, Ouyang Shuo gave her this gift because he truly liked her; she was so cute and smart at such a young age. The saying that she was the root of evil was just nonsense created by writers about a weak and helpless girl.

Secondly, he wanted to use this chance to get closer to the Huo Family.

Huo Qubing and Huo Guang, these two brothers were the civil servant and general of the territory.

Especially Huo Qubing, who was alone, probably only his brother's family could bring him some warmth. Ouyang Shuo also heard that Huo Qubing really doted on this little niece.

The current Ouyang Shuo was not so pure when he did many things.

The moment the court assembly ended, the news spread across the China region and caused plenty of debate.

Some were excited while some were terrified.

The most excited ones were naturally the adventure gamemode players in China, especially the commoner players that had long wished to move to Shanhai City.

In their hearts, Shanhai City was the safest city in China. Even imperial cities could be occupied, only Shanhai City would remain infallible.

Just this point was enough for players to grow crazy over.

Not to mention that along with the opening of the massive sea route, Shanhai City had slowly opened its windows to the outside world.

Business opportunities within the city were everywhere.

All of a sudden, numerous player groups, guilds, and chambers of commerce swarmed over.

The first to be approached was the office of Shanhai City in the nine imperial cities. The players were eager to learn the requirements of Shanhai City.

400 thousand seemed like a large number but it was a small number relative to 10s of millions of players. Hence, even if Shanhai City had lowered the requirements to enter, not everyone could move in.

The next day, Nanjiang Governor-General House, Administration Bureau, and Civil Affairs Department announced three migration terms. Adventure gamemode players, chambers of commerce, organizations, and people with good reputation would have priority.

Players with the intention to migrate needed to send in an application to the imperial city office. After the Civil Affairs Department passed them, they would give them their household registration documents.

This also meant that pure combat occupation players, especially those with PK records, would be rejected.

On the contrary, the chambers of commerce with good reputations would be welcomed with open arms. Some small guilds and mercenary groups were similarly sought after.

On the other hand, towards solo players, Shanhai City held a careful attitude.

Solo players were either exceptional technical people, extremely arrogant people, or just weird people. All in all, they were not easy to manage.

As for the top 10 guilds in the nine imperial cities, they were all rejected. Even the branch guilds of the Shanhai City Alliance were rejected, including Snow-War Rose.

This migration used a descriptive phrase that was not that suitable, the terms being ‘middle class’ or ‘middle or small enterprises with an ability to survive.’

Since these people had some technical ability and financial stability, they would be able to develop here. With that, they would be able to make it a win-win situation.

Four Seas Bank Treasurer Meng Zhida has already said that as long as the time was right, and the conditions were met, they were willing to grant loans to the player chambers of commerce and adventure groups to support them.

This message was undoubtedly important news to the numerous medium and small chambers of commerce.

Developing voyage trade required a vast quantity of funds, not to mention buying merchant ships, hiring sailors, and purchasing resources.

With the support of the Four Seas Bank, everything would be solved.

In truth, when Ouyang Shuo returned, Meng Zhida had used the memorial to describe this aspect. The Four Seas Bank's ability to attract loans was too astonishing, just relying on Lords borrowing could not keep up.

Furthermore, Lords borrowing had the risk of contract breach.

Meanwhile, player chambers of commerce, and small adventurer squads had been overlooked. However, they were actually a market with huge potential. Just one chamber of commerce might not need a lot of gold but hundreds and thousands, even tens of thousands of them would need a terrifying amount of gold.

Before this, be it the Four Seas Bank or the Huitong Bank, they would not loan to these chambers of commerce. They were worried that these parties would not be able to return the loans.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo did not immediately accept Meng Zhida's suggestion.

However, now was a good time. Anyone that was taken in by Shanhai City had been through many layers of selection and investigation, so their backgrounds were clean, and they had good reputations.

After moving into Shanhai City, they would be bounded by the territory law system, and the fixed assets they bought in the city would also be under the supervision of the city.

With that, the risk would be minimalized.

Using long-distance trading returns as collateral, giving loans grew smoother.

With that, it both solved the loan problems of the Four Seas Bank and brought life to the small and mid-sized chambers of commerce, allowing them to grow quickly. This would in turn truly make voyage trading prosperous.

Everything was linked together and formed a god-like interest chain.

One could foresee that if this plan succeeded, the trading in Shanhai City would take another huge step up.

Shanhai City would be destined to be a city filled with energy and drive. It was the star for young people who were willing to give it their all; it was not an old folks home for players.

This was the migration catchphrase that the Civil Affairs Department had come up with.

The moment this catchphrase came out, it reverberated amongst numerous players. At this moment, they truly felt that they were truly close to the tall and mighty best player in China.

During this migration, Shanhai City did not think about giving benefits to the commoner players.

Such a thing could be understood but could not be verbalized.

Furthermore, elite did not mean they were bad, and commoner did not mean that they were good.

After experiencing so much, Ouyang Shuo obviously had such basic knowledge. He had already learned not to generalize people and make such deductions of good and bad.

As long as it was good for the prosperity of Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo welcomed it all.

Yunnan Province, Tengyue Prefecture, Tengchong City.

An emergency meeting between the four city-states was being held in the Lord's Manor of Tengchong City.

The host of this meeting was the Lord of Tengchong City, Qin Feng. At the same time, he was the chair of the Yunnan City-State. He suddenly received emergency news and his face sunk.

"Guys,” Qin Feng solemnly said, “I've just received news that Qiyue Wuyi has openly announced in the court assembly that he wants revenge against Yunnan City-State. The reason given was the matter of Qiubei City attacking the border of Zhen An Prefecture."

As he spoke, Qin Feng looked at the Lord of Qiubei City, his face growing darker and darker.

"As expected, have they already declared war?"

The one who spoke was the representative of the Xiangnan City-State, Caiyun Zinan.

When Ouyang Shuo returned, they knew that such a day would arrive. Who knew that it would come so fast and swift.

"Was there any specific news?" Caiyun Zinan asked.

"Qiyue Wuyi has sent his strongest legion - the Guards Legion - to rush to the border to gather with their Dragon Legion Corps. At the same time, Bai Hua has also openly announced that they will advance together with Shanhai City. The only war fighting legion in Consonance City has proceeded toward the border."

The large meeting room instantly fell totally silent.

Chapter 690-Battle of Red Cliff

A large war was only a touch away.

Shanhai City's actions had greatly exceeded the expectations of the four city-states.

"You will help us, right?" Qin Feng looked at the representatives of the other city-states; he looked exceedingly nervous.

"Do not worry Brother Qin, Lingnan City-state will help you. When we go back, I'll convince the members of the committee. We will move our 150 thousand alliance army to the Zhaoqing Prefecture border to face off against the Tiger Legion. If there's a need, we will fight our way in in accordance to the battlefield on the west." Yuan Ping was the first to express his opinion.

His stance was not surprising at all.

After Ouyang Shuo married Song Jia, Yuan Ping had become extremely stubborn, to the point where he was obsessed with getting rid of Shanhai City.

"Xiangnan City-State will also move the 100 thousand alliance army into battle status to take charge of the Leopard Legion." Caiyun Zinan expressed his stance.

Caiyun Zinan only said that he would keep the Leopard Legion busy. Hence, if the Leopard Legion did not strike, the Xiangnan City-State would not either.

Lastly, the representative of the Chuanbei City-State, West Gate Big Official, was a little jittery, “Oh, um, okay, we will support you. The Chuanbei City-State alliance army will maintain alert."

Half a year had passed, and many unknown changes had occurred within the Chuanbei City-State. There was a level of internal conflict regarding the matter of facing off against Shanhai City.

Even West Gate Big Official was unwilling to directly conflict with them.

When Qin Feng heard their words, he frowned.

Obviously, the stances of the three City-States did not please him, "You need to hold them, but is there any chance you could send troops to help us?"

The enemy troops they faced included the two legions of the Dragon Legion Corps, the Guards Legion, and the war fighting legion of Consonance City for a total of 280 thousand elites.

Four legions were already a huge challenge to the Yunnan City-State. The alliance army there only had 100 thousand, and they could only gather 300 thousand if they tried.

Qin Feng knew that his 300 thousand troops were not even in the same league as the enemy; there was a big gap in both strength and equipment.

Not to mention that Shanhai City had sent the two god generals Baiqi and Huo Qubing to lead together.

The cold-blooded Asura Baiqi and the genius cavalry general Huo Qubing.

Just thinking about it terrified them.

If Yunnan City-State faced them alone, it would be a little too much.

"This...."

This time, even Caiyun Zinan became jittery.

"Brother Caiyun, if the lips die, the teeth will grow cold!" Qin Feng looked anxious.

Caiyun Zinan sighed, “Cough, Brother Qin, it is not that we are not helping you. You also know that the committee must discuss such issues, and it is not up to me. If it was just to go up against their threat, the committee would not have much resistance, but sending assistance is rather difficult."

"That's right, Brother Qin, you have to understand our situation." West Gate Big Official replied.

Even the most eager Yuan Ping did not speak out.

The Lingnan City-State was not an alliance where he could make all the decisions, and it had extremely complicated internal circumstances. Especially in this half a year, Yuan Ping could feel that there was a group waiting for them to make a mistake and give them a chance to strike.

Hence, although he really wanted to dive into the battlefield, he could not.

When Qin Feng saw this situation, his face turned extremely ugly. On one side, he understood the worries of Yuan Ping and the others. Taking their place, if the Yunnan City-State wanted to help their allies, it would be a problem too.

On the other hand, Qin Feng felt a chill; his allies were leaving them in the lurch.

The emergency meeting of the four City-States ended in unhappiness. The three other City-States only promised to be in charge of dealing with the Tiger and Leopard Legion. As for the main battlefield, there was nothing they could do about it.

"I have no choice, we can only fight to the death!"

After sending away his allies, a look of determination appeared on his face.

Shanhai City, Nanjiang Governor-General House.

8th month, 24th day morning, Ouyang Shuo personally sent off the Guards Legion.

Huo Qubing led the Guards Legion to leave from the north city gate toward Mulan Stronghold. Such a scene was captured in the eyes of all the spies from the various territories.

Rain was coming.

That afternoon, Ouyang Shuo personally met Zhang Tingyu and Wei Yang and received their assurances. Finally, he agreed to let Pei Yun take up the role of Civil Affairs Director.

Zhang Tingyu agreed to the appointment in the end because he had made considerations. If he rejected the offer, he would be offending both Wei Yang and Pei Mo; it would not be a smart decision.

Furthermore, during the Qing Dynasty, such actions were simply too common. Even Zhang Tingyu sometimes had to go along with the Yongzheng Emperor’s wants.

Under such circumstances, all the more Zhang Tingyu had no reason to reject his appointment. However, the Monarch's smile during the court assembly caused his heart to tremble.

With that, the Wenxi Pei family had two people taking important roles in Shanhai City.

Name: Pei Yun (King Rank)

Dynasty: Sui Dynasty

Identity: Shanhai City Civil Servant

Occupation: Civil Servant

Loyalty: 70

Command: 45

Force: 30

Intelligence: 70

Politics: 80

Specialty: Civil Rule (15% increase in territory administrative efficiency, 10% increase in territory prestige, 20% increase in civil affairs efficiency)

Evaluation: Pei Yun, an official during the Sui Dynasty. At the start, he worked for the Chen Dynasty, with his Father in the north, he requested to be a spy for the Sui Dynasty. Entering the Sui Dynasty, he became the provincial governor of three states and became an assistant minister.

The history books truly did not have a high evaluation of Pei Yun.

Pei Yun had also become the first official in Shanhai City who truly had a dark history. Ruling over such a scheming minister would be Ouyang Shuo's challenge.

After all, when they reached Planet Hope in the future, something like a loyalty stat would not exist. Judgment of the loyalty of the subordinate would solely depend on Ouyang Shuo's eyes.

8th month, 25th day, morning.

Just as he was drawing his sword in Nanjiang, a system notification sounded out.

"System notification, China Region has reached 50 prefecture cities, starting the battle map system, the 6th battle map - Battle of Red Cliff, will be activated in three days. Friendly Reminder: Battle of Red Cliff is not a forced battle map scenario, only territories that have upgraded to prefecture city can sign up to join."

……

Battle of Red Cliff, the most famous battle during the Three Kingdoms Era.

If the battle between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, including the famous Battle of Guandu, was the turning point in the Cao Cao regime, then the Battle of Red Cliff was the turning point in the Sun Liu regime.

After this battle, Liu Bei truly started to rule, and the Jiangdong Sun Family started to get truly famous.

However, due to the literature work of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the outer world had many misunderstandings regarding this event.

First, Zhuge Liang's straw boat borrowing arrow tactic was purely fictional.

However, the story did not come out from nowhere.

Based on the records of the Three Kingdoms, Pei Song recorded that in the 18th year of Jian An, five years after the Battle of Red Cliff, Cao Cao had led the army south to attack Sun Wu.

One day, Sun Quan made use of the fog in the river to ride the warship to approach the Cao army and observe their troops. Cao Cao was a worrywart; when he saw the fog and the Sun army waiting solemnly, he was afraid there was a scheme and did not dare to fight. He ordered the archers to shoot at the Wu Ships.

Sun Quan's boat were shot by arrows and one side suffered heavy damage, causing the boat to slowly tilt. Sun Quan ordered them to switch the direction of the ships to let the other side get hit by the arrows to stabilize the ships. Then, Sun Quan ordered the warships to leave.

This was just a story that happened to Sun Quan, it was just a reactionary plan. Sun Quan did not plan to borrow the arrows and the history books did not mention any straw boat.

The straw boats borrowing arrows was exaggerated while the borrowing the east wind by Zhuge Liang was total bullsh*t.

In truth, the commander of the Battle of Red Cliff was Zhou Yu, and Zhuge Liang basically did not even participate in this battle.

However, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms author loved Zhuge Liang and attributed some matters to him to glorify him.

Not just the Battle of Red Cliff, even the empty city plan was not Zhuge Liang’s.

Similarly, Zhou Yu beating Huang Gai was also a fake story.

The Three Kingdoms history did not have the story of Huang Gai using a self-torture ruse, but he did in fact fake his surrender. To ensure that the fireships that did not have any weapons were not intercepted and to smoothly approach the water stronghold of the Cao army, Huang Gai did a fake surrender.

Cao Cao easily believed his surrender as he felt that since Huang Gai had been under Sun Quan, he had more experience than Zhou Yu and was unhappy to be under Zhou Yu.

Apart from that, Jiang Ziyi being sent by Cao Cao to persuade Zhou Yu was true, but this event did not occur during the Battle of Red Cliff.

In the records of the Three Kingdoms written by Pei Song, he recorded that after the Battle of Red Cliff, there was only Jiang Ziyi persuading him to surrender but no Zhou Yu counter tactic.

And Cai Mao, Zhang Yun was not wrapped up in this, they were not even the admirals of Cao Cao's navy.

Similarly, during the true Battle of Red Cliff, the number difference was not as exaggerated as described in the stories. Beating the many with lesser numbers was not really true.

If Lords used the storyline in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms to guess and prepare, they would definitely fail this time.

In the last life, there were Lords that actually committed such a mistake.

Chapter 691-Choosing Camp

The Battle of Red Cliff could be called a fight for heritage and inheritance in Jingzhou by the Cao, Sun, and Liu families.

Before the battle, Liu Biao basically occupied the entire Jingzhou; Liu Bei occupied the north of Jingzhou and during the end of the 12th year of Jian An, he recruited Zhuge Liang and started to want Liu Biao's land as well.

Cao Cao had calmed down the situation in the north, and its navy was ready to conquer the south. Sun Quan attacked Huang Zu at the start of the 13th year of Jian An; he killed Huang Zu and opened up the east door of Jingzhou.

All three sides wanted Liu Biao's land while Liu Biao was sick due to old age and lacked the charisma and flair he possessed during his youth. His heirs ended up splitting up, with Liu Zong being chosen to inherit Jingzhou and Liu Qi requesting to move out to Jiangxia. Under such circumstances, Jingzhou was basically able to defend itself.

In the 7th month of Jian An 13th year, Cao Cao led his troops down south. As Liu Biao had passed away because of his illness, Liu ong intended to surrender to Cao Cao; Liu Bei housed in Fan City did not know about this.

After Cao Cao passed Wan City, Liu Bei received the news and immediately fled. At the same time, Guan Yu led the navy and headed toward Jiangling; Cao Cao smoothly entered Xiangyang and accepted the surrender of Liu Zong before sending troops to attack Liu Bei.

Along the road, Liu Bei accepted many of the tribesmen of Liu Zong; this group quickly rolled and snowballed into hundreds of thousands in number. At this point, they moved extremely slowly and could only cover 10 miles a day.

Cao Cao knew that Jiangling had vast quantities of resources and was afraid that Liu Bei would reach them first. Hence, he made the army leave all the heavy items while he led five thousand elite cavalries to hurry 300 odd miles in just one night. At Changban, he caught up with Liu Bei's forces, the captured soldiers and the refugees.

In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the Battle of Changban was greatly exaggerated. It described how Zhang Fei hollered three times and scared away 100 thousand Cao troops, and Zhao Yun charging solo into the Cao camp and killing as he wished.

During the battle described in the story, Zhang Fei exceeded a god and Zhao Yun was god-like.

However, in history, it naturally was not as exaggerated as that. Only five thousand elite Cao cavalry chased Liu Bei.

In history, Zhao Yun could not be considered a war god; he was more like a high-level body guard.

After the Battle of Changban ended, Liu Bei led tens of people over to the Hanshui crossing and coincidentally met Guan Yu's navy. He did not have time to take up the resources at Jiangling and directly proceeded to Jiangxia to meet up with Liu Qi.

Cao Cao chased him all the way and smoothly occupied Jiangling.

The most crucial turning point of the war appeared at Jiangling. Cao Cao listened to the advice of Advisor Jia Xu, moving into Jiangling. He started to calm the people down and stabilize his rule over Jingzhou.

This stop lasted a full two months.

And in these short two months, Liu Bei successfully formed an alliance with Sun Quan to face off against Cao. This changed the situation at the ending years of the East Han, resulting in there being the Battle of Red Cliff and the formation of the Three Kingdoms.

If Cao Cao had decided to continue chasing, the three kingdoms would not exist. Even if Liu Bei managed to fortunately escape, he would not be able to amass power.

Similarly, if he did not rush it and waited till winter passed, the Cao army would be more prepared; they would not suffer from illnesses, and the east win. They would not have lost at the Battle of Red Cliff either.

Hence, Pei Song wrote as such in the records of the Three Kingdoms: During the Battle of Red Cliff, the loss of the Cao army was fated; it was not something man could change.

10th month of the 13th year of Jian An, the Sun Liu alliance army went up from the Jiangxia River and were ready to fight the Cao Cao army. Both sides engaged near Red Cliff and fought a huge naval battle on the Changjiang.

During the first encounter, the Cao army was defeated.

First, there was an illness spreading in the camp, which affected their fighting strength. Secondly, their troops were mainly northern warriors who were not proficient at naval warfare.

Thirdly, Changjiang had limited space and was unsuited for large scale battle. Cao Cao had a massive army but was unable to use it, resulting in his defeat.

After the defeat, the Cao army just decided to camp at the northern shore of Wulin. At the same time, Zhou Yu's army camped at the south shore of Red Cliff, both sides in a stand-off.

Hence, the true fire engulfing the Red Cliff story happened in Wulin and not Red Cliff.

However, due to the fame of Red Cliff, it continued to spread that way.

The Cao army ships were connected to one another, so the moment one caught fire, it was difficult to stop. The Zhou Yu counter attack followed, with Huang Gai leading his ships to make a fake surrender, getting close to start more fires.

Using the east wind that really should not have appeared during winter, a huge fire burned away at Cao Cao's ambition to rule the world. After the battle, Cao Cao knew that he did not have the strength to occupy the Changjiang region and decided to just destroy his remaining warships to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.

From this battle, Cao Cao lost a portion of the forces that went to Jiangling and the navy he took from Liu Biao was basically finished.

After the battle, Cao Cao escaped from the land and headed back to Jiangling, where he left Cao Ren to defend. He himself backed off to the north.

A year after Zhou Yu and Cao Ren fought, Cao Ren was chased away, and they took control of the south prefecture. Hence, Cao Cao lost this portion of the Changjiang waterway.

After which, Cao Cao and his forces stabilized at Xiangyang Fan City and controlled that portion of the Han waterway. Although they lost a battle and lost Jingnan and a portion of the Jianghan plains, he still managed to keep the south of Jingzhou.

During this period of time, Guan Yu led troops to disturb the reinforcements of Cao Cao, causing Cao Cao's army to be unable to contact Cao Ren. As Jingnan was cut off from Cao Cao, Liu Bei took the chance to occupy it.

At this point, the fight for inheritance between Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan had come to an end. As for the conflict between Liu Bei and Sun Quan, it was another matter. All three sides had gained something while the unluckiest one was Liu Biao.

With that, from the 7th month of the 13th year till the 14th year of Jian An, the series of battles caused by the Cao Army heading down south culminated into the Battle of Red Cliff.

Fire engulfing Red Cliff, and this could be called the turning point of the battle. This turning point could split the entire battle into start, middle, and end.

Who knows what Gaia was going to do with this battle map. No matter what, no matter which camp the player chose, it was going to be a fair battle.

This was Gaia's strength.

After the system notification finished, players with the ability to join immediately started to prepare.

Some of them had been looking forward to this battle map for a long time. For example, Di Chen and Chun Shenjun wanted to use this battle to rise to 1st class Marquis and upgrade to Grade 3 Prefecture.

Apart from that, the Battle of the Three Kingdoms had a different feeling to some Lords. Being influenced by the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the generals, advisors, and others of this period had many fans.

For example, Zhao Yun and Zhuge Ling were really popular.

Although Ouyang Shuo was not influenced by the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and already had the advisors and generals he needed, he still wanted to recruit them. One could foresee that in the following battle, the main battlefield was only one aspect. In the fight to recruit the historical talents, the Lords would have to do all they could to stand out.

The first choice in front of them was the choice of camp, either Cao Cao or Sun Liu camp.

Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate and directly chose Cao Cao's camp.

First, Animal Husbandry Director Xiahou Ying was the ancestor of Xiahou Dun and Xiahou Yuan, strictly speaking, he was even the ancestor of Cao Cao.

Why so?

The Cao and Xiahou families were both huge families in the Pei State Qiao County. Ever since Cao Teng, the Cao family had been exceedingly prosperous, and many became officials in the imperial court and the county.

In history, Cao Cao was supposed to be surnamed Xiahou, but since his father became the adopted son of Cao Teng, he followed the surname Cao.

Although the Xiahou Family was powerful, none of them became officials. Their power could not compare to the Cao family.

To develop and progress at a faster rate, the Xiahou Family got close to the Cao Family. Although the Cao family had many officials and grew more and more powerful, they were an arrogant group.

Xiahou Dun and Xiahou Yuan, these two brothers, paid attention to Cao Cao, who had some reputation. At that time, he had resigned and was at home, so Xiahou Yuan and Xiahou Dun went to befriend him.

Cao Cao had once broken the law and Xiahou Yuan helped him take the blame and went to jail for it. Cao Cao saved him and broke him out of jail. With that, the two families grew closer, and Xiahou Yuan even married Cao Cao's small wife.

Hence, when Cao Cao gathered troops in Chenliu, Xiahou Dun and Xiahou Yuan were the first to come over.

For them to be able to gain a high position in Cao Cao's camp was not just due to their blood relations. They were also extremely talented.

Xiahou Dun was not only good at war but also ruling. He helped Cao Cao settle the backlines, leading the army to block rivers, build irrigation channels, and help the people. He was also a humble person, and he would reward the soldiers.

To say that he was the most important person in Cao Cao's camp was not an exaggeration. For his whole life, Cao Cao relied on and trusted him.

Xiahou Yuan was an exceptional general; Cao Cao called him a mystical talent.

Xiahou Yuan had joined Cao Cao in many battles and was sent to help settle various rebellions.

The most exceptional battle was when he attacked Han Zuo in the Battle of Xingu. He performed a long-distance assault, attacking the enemy backlines. When Han Zuo came over to defend, Xiahou Yuan made the decision to use the tired and non-advantageous troops to defeat them in one swoop.

Han Zuo lost everything from that battle.

Apart from that, compared to Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan was more violent, and he once wiped out a city.

The two could be considered the pillars of Cao Cao's camp. With that layer of relationship, anyone would know what kind of speaking rights he would have in front of them.

Ouyang Shuo also had another reason - Cao Cao's navy was weaker. If Shanhai City's navy was placed then, they would be basically invincible.

Both of them could assist one another, and they would basically be at an undefeatable position.

Chapter 692-The Summoning

In this battle map, Ouyang Shuo still reported his choice of camp to his allies. As for how Bai Hua and the others would choose, he did not interfere.

At such a stage, everyone had their own ideas.

Based on the battle map rules, a 1st class Marquis could bring 50 thousand troops. As for the Duke rank, there was no specified limit. However, the maximum number of troops that a Lord could bring into the battle map was 100 thousand.

This was like Gaia drawing a red line.

Even so, compared to the 20 thousand of a 2nd class Marquis, 100 thousand was an absolute advantage. This also meant that after becoming a Duke, Ouyang Shuo did not need any help from his allies.

Since he could bring over 100 thousand troops, the three thousand Divine Martial Guards would definitely be brought over.

Apart from them, there would be the voyage squadron that was still in Jidian City. Based on the battle map teleportation rules, the troops did not need to go through the territory teleportation formation and could just teleport from anywhere.

With that, it was like Ouyang Shuo had made use of the system rules to perform an invincible summon, directly teleporting the voyage squadron that was tens of thousands of miles away.

After the battle map ended, he would send them to Beihai Bay.

The voyage squadron chosen in the end was the 1st division of the Beihai Bay Squadron.

However, based on the battle rules, the troops that the Lord brought was counted by head. This meant that the three thousand sailors of the voyage squadron were listed into the 100 thousand.

With that, the voyage squadron used up 25 thousand spots.

Ouyang Shuo did not think about using only naval troops. After all, who knows which stage the Battle of Red Cliff would start at. The use of an army could not be underestimated.

Ouyang Shuo left the remaining spots for the city protection legion that was still in Stone City.

After blocking off the expansion of Handan City, the situation in Stone City had already stabilized and did not require the city protection legion’s interference anymore. Furthermore, the Lianzhou Basin still needed them, and they could not leave for too long.

Till date, although the city protection legion had suffered casualties, they had used war to replenish their troops. For the excess in prisoners, they directly gave them to Stone City.

The current Stone City had already built up a war fighting legion. Apart from that, there was another one being built, and they had half the number of members gathered already.

The current soldier strength of Stone City was even stronger than Consonance City.

In Wufu's words, “They forced my hand!"

Being suppressed by Handan City, Wufu could only focus on his army. The city protection legion acted as a guide and helped them out of their toughest time.

When Ouyang Shuo chose to move the city protection legion, it was because their overall combat strength was good; secondly, he did so to save the teleportation costs.

Based on normal circumstances, to teleport them back to Shanhai City would use up 70 thousand gold.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also had another plan. In this half a year, through Wufu, Shanhai City had bought 70 thousand elite Mongol Warhorses from the Mongol Tribe.

Just that had used up 700 thousand gold.

Through this battle map, they could easily transport all the horses back to Shanhai City, saving a lot of effort.

After selecting the 70 thousand city protection legion forces, Ouyang Shuo directly gave up the remaining two thousand. There was no point in moving two thousand troops from elsewhere.

After selecting the camp and the troops to join the battle map, there was not much that Ouyang Shuo needed to prepare for. He only needed to inform Xiahou Ying to follow the troops out.

Amidst all this, something interesting was happening.

Consonance City's Zhang Liao and Black Lion City's Jushou both belonged to the Three Kingdoms Era, so they could not enter the map based on the battle map rules.

This situation gave both Bai Hua and Gong Chengshi a headache.

These two were the pillars of their armies, so being unable to bring them into the battle map was a huge loss.

Hua Xiong from Asura City was also the same case.

Shanhai City's Cai Mao could not join either, but he was in the Yashan Squadron and was not in Ouyang Shuo's plans in the first place.

These generals and advisors would not truly appear in the battle map and would just get random jobs. Of course, Xu Huang who Ouyang Shuo killed in the Battle of Julu would all the more not appear.

In conclusion, the Three Kingdom characters that appeared in the wilderness would have no part to play in this battle map.

Gaia 3rd year, 8th month, 28th day, 9 AM, a system notification sounded out.

"System notification: 208 A.D., 13th year of Jian An, Sun Quan, Liu Bei alliance army broke the Cao Cao army in the Battle of Red Cliff, forming the basis of the formation of the Three Kingdoms. Sun Liu alliance army used fire to destroy their troops, Cao Cao went back north, Sun and Liu each took a portion of Jingzhou - Battle of Red Cliff, officially begins!"

The Three thousand Divine Martial Guards had formed up in the square and were waiting to go.

Checking battle requirements, number of forces, choosing camp...

Ouyang Shuo was familiar with these processes; he only faced some problems when selecting the participating forces.

Since this was the first time Gaia had teleported naval forces into a battle map, they needed to scan the data of the voyage squadron before teleporting them in.

With that, there was a huge amount of work to be done.

Luckily, before the battle, Ouyang Shuo had already sent letters to Zheng He and Er'Lai and informed them about the battle, asking them to get ready in advance.

If not, it would be a total mess.

"System Notification: Teleportation begin!"

After a short while of the sky turning and flipping around them, Ouyang Shuo arrived on the Red Cliff battlefield.

"System Notification: Welcome Player Qiyue Wuyi, landing in Cao Cao's camp - Jiangling City."

"Jiangling?" Ouyang Shuo's face was covered in doubt, “Did we appear at the early stages of the battle?"

Before the battle began, there was a need to introduce the soldier numbers and main generals and strategists.

Cao Cao's overall numbers were at 150 to 160 thousand, Jingzhou Army 70 to 80 thousand, but the Jingzhou Army could not be completely thrown into the frontlines. The Cao Army also needed to be split to defend Xiangyang, and Cao Ren had at least 30 thousand troops in Jiangling. Hence, the frontlines numbered around 170 to 180 thousand.

The Cao Army's main forces were split into two, Cao Cao himself and the Zhao Yan and Cheng Yu army.

Cao Cao split his troops in Wulin, Red Cliff, the navy and army going in together; his troops were mainly navy and had an overall strength of 100 thousand.

Under his charge, the generals included high-level bodyguard Xu Chu, Cao Zhen, Cao Xiu and Cao Hong, the three leopard cavalry, and the guards army commanders, Le Jing, Man Chong, Cao Cun, and Wen Pin.

The strategists included Jia Xu, Xun You, Chen Qun, Dong Zhao, Cui Yan, and more.

As for Guo Jia, he had died long ago.

In the other group, Zhao Yan was the Commander in Chief of the protector army, Yu Jin, Zhang He, Zhu Ling, Li Dian, Lu Zhao, Feng Kai, an overall of 70 to 80 thousand troops.

Zhao Yan did not move with the main force and instead proceeded toward where Liu Bei and Guan Yu escaped. Hence, he moved along the Han River, north of Cao Cao's main forces.

In Cao Cao's army, their famous generals were like clouds while they were a little lacking in strategists.

As for the Sun Liu alliance army, they had less troops.

Due to Liu Be’s loss in Dangyang, and the addition of Guan Yu's forces, they had around 10 thousand. After Liu Bei and Liu Qi's 10 thousand troops met at Xiakou, they formed the alliance with Sun Quan, Zhou Yu, and Chen Pu; they led the 30 thousand main force to meet up with Liu Bei.

In Liu Bei's army, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, and Zhu Geliang were all present. A special aspect to point out was that the current Guan Yu was the navy commander of Liu Bei's army.

The Wu Army had Zhou Yu and Chen Pu as their left and right Commander in Chiefs, their generals included Lu Su, Huang Gai, Han Dang, Lu Meng, Gan Ning, Ling Tong, and Zhou Tai.

……

If it was the starting period of the battle, then it would be simply too advantageous to the Cao Cao camp.

With the reminder from the players, the fire engulfing Red Cliff plan would not work. Along with the Shanhai City Navy, Ouyang Shuo was confident in ending the battle and destroying the Sun Liu alliance army in a week.

The more it was like this, the more he did not believe it.

He did not believe that Gaia would break the balance of the battle map.

"Greetings, Monarch!"

Just as Ouyang Shuo was in doubt, a lightning like shout broke out at his ear. Turning around, he saw the Legion General of the city protection legion, the East Zhonglang General, Er'Lai.

After half a year of not meeting, both of them were filled with emotions.

Behind him, the 70 thousand city protection legion soldiers were lined up neatly.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo come over, they all immediately bowed in unison.

"Greetings, Monarch!"

Their voices were strong and majestic, their auras shocking.

The other player armies that teleported over could not help but feel stunned. Some looked on in fear, others in envy, some were jealous, while some felt happy that they chose the same camp as Shanhai City.

As for the voyage squadron led by Zheng He, they appeared in the Han River. After all, Ouyang Shuo was currently in the camp outside of Jiangling City, so it was not feasible to house a navy here.

After gathering with the city protection legion, Ouyang Shuo suppressed the doubt in his heart and went to register. Along the way, he gathered with the allies that had chosen the Cao Cao camp.

In the end, only Bai Hua, Feng Qiuhuang, and Wufu chose Cao Cao's camp. Xunlong Dianxue and Gong Chengshi both chose Sun Liu's camp.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this, he sighed in heart. However, his expression remained unchanged.

On the other hand, Bai Hua and the others had ugly expressions.

After registering, what Ouyang Shuo cared about most was which part of the battle they were at. If he did not get this point, he would totally be unable to form a battle plan.

The camp general's reply caused his feelings to fall to the depths, “Our army has lost in Red Cliff and are currently resting in Jiangling."

The moment the general’s words finished, the entire camp shook.

"Is this a joke? The Battle of Red Cliff has ended, so why drag us here?"

"That's right; are we here to feed the enemy?"

Unhappiness spread.

The player Lords in Cao Cao's camp felt despair even before the battle started. Even with Shanhai City here, they could not see any bit of hope.

Gaia's arrangement had exceeded all expectation.

Chapter 693-Vicious Strategist Jia Xu

The longest road in the game was the traps Gaia set for the players.

No one could have expected that right at the start of the battle, the most exciting moment of the Battle of Red Cliff - the fires engulfing Red Cliff – would have already ended.

This matter caught all the Lords in Cao Cao's camp off guard.

After the fires engulfed Red Cliff, what kind of battle situation was there? Let’s have a quick recollection.

During the defeat at Red Cliff, Cao Cao ordered the use of fire to burn the resources and warships at Wulin Camp. Following which, they rushed toward Yunmeng Lake in the west and they got lost on the way.

Cao Cao led them back toward Huarong. The road was muddy and there was a strong wind. Cao Cao's tired troops used grass to pave the way so that the cavalry could pass. The weak troops were stepped on by the passing cavalry and were killed in the mud.

One had to say that Cao Cao was truly vicious.

In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang with genius foresight placed Guan Yu on Huarong Path. However, due to his righteousness, he let Cao Cao and his men pass. Naturally, all of that was fake. Even then, this path was truly difficult for Cao Cao and his army to pass.

At the same time, Zhou Yu and Liu Bei's navy attacked together in a chase for the win.

Zhou Yu's army chased closely after Cao Cao's retreating troops, his navy going against the current to Jiangling.

Liu Bei, Huang Gai's navy entered Dongting Lake, Huang Gai turned into the Yuanjiang to obtain Lin Yuan, which was the governing area of Wuling Prefecture. He was appointed as the Governor of Wuling by Sun Quan.

Liu Bei went against the current on the Xiangjiang to attack Linxiang, the governing area of Changsha. Han Xuan surrendered to Liu Bei without resisting. At the same time, Sun Quan and Zhang Zhao sent troops to the east, one to attack Hefei and the other Dangtu.

After Cao Cao escaped back to Jiangling, he left Cao Ren, Man Cong, and Wen Pin to various areas to order the troops back to return north.

Apart from the troops lost in Red Cliff and Wulin, Cao Cao also decisively abandoned the weak soldiers. They had also rushed to escape, so they did not bring any resources. As a result, a large number of soldiers starved to death. The result was that half of Cao Cao's army was lost.

Of the original 100 thousand, less than 40 thousand made it back to Jiangling.

Xu Jia, Cao Xiu, and Cao Dun led elites who were adaptive and faster at running than everyone else, so they suffered very little loses. The navy lost the most, with nearly everyone falling. Hence, they lost control over Han River and Changjiang.

The other legion of the Cao Army, Zhao Yan's 70 thousand, did not suffer heavy losses as they were not present at Red Cliff. Consequently, they retreated smoothly to Jiangling.

Strictly speaking, the main force of Cao Cao's army did not suffer heavy losses.

However, because they no longer had a navy, the morale was really low; Cao Cao was not in the mood to fight and wanted to retreat north. He allowed Sun Liu to expand, which resulted in the formation of the Three Kingdoms.

Hence, the first mission of the Lords in the camp was to persuade him to not go back and use Jiangling as a base to have a battle with the Sun Liu Army instead.

If not, everything would be useless.

……

Just as the Lords were making noise at the door, the battle report sounded out.

"Battle Report: Battle of Red Cliff, 40 Lords participating, 620 thousand troops. Cao Cao Camp has 15 Lords, 270 thousand troops; Sun Liu Camp 25 Lords, 350 thousand troops."

Out of the 50 Lords that met the requirements, only 40 joined.

The further the game progressed, the more the battle maps became the world of the giants. Normal Lords did not have the strength and ability to fight. If their luck was not good, the battle contribution points they obtained would not even be enough to revive their dead troops.

The entire Yanhuang Alliance had joined the Sun Liu Camp.

First, their intel showed that Ouyang Shuo would join the Cao Cao Camp. Secondly, the temptation of Zhuge Liang, Zhao Yun, and the like was stronger than those in Cao Cao's Camp.

Without the change of Gong Chengshi and Xunlong Dianxue, the numbers on both sides would have been extremely close.

Now, there was a tipping of the scales.

Just thinking about it, the expressions of Bai Hua and the rest grew uglier.

"Battle Report: As Cao Cao camp has less troops, based on battle rules, they will obtain a 25% defense buff."

……

"Battle Report: Based on rank and merit points, Cao Cao camp player representative is Qiyue Wuyi, Duke. Sun Liu Camp representative is Di Chen, 2nd Class Marquis."

……

Be it the Cao Cao Camp or the Sun Liu Camp, the soldier numbers crossed that of the camp troops. Hence, during this battle, the player forces would play a crucial role.

The strength of the player representative was even more evident.

On the side of Cao Cao's Camp, Shanhai City, Consonance City, Fallen Phoenix City, and Stone City had 150 thousand, more than half of the total.

Along with the prestige of Shanhai City, there would not be any problems for him to lead the players.

However, Ouyang Shuo was not so optimistic.

Because in the camp, Ouyang Shuo saw Qin Feng from the Yunnan City-State, Yuan Ping from the Lingnan City-State, and Caiyun Zinan from the Xiangnan City-State.

With the three of them, there would definitely be no peace in Cao Cao’s Camp.

Ouyang Shuo could not guess whether it was coincidence they chose this camp or if they did it on purpose. Thinking back to the Nanjiang War that was about to start, this battle map became more and more interesting.

Along with Di Chen and the others each having one province, the number of Lords in China had decreased. The four City-States had become the pillars of the Lord player groups.

During this battle, there were eight Lords from the four City-States. In the player army, they had a certain amount of talking power; they were not people Ouyang Shuo could move and command.

No matter what, the first thing that Ouyang Shuo needed to do was to go meet Cao Cao.

At 10 AM, Ouyang Shuo brought the three thousand Divine Martial Guards and Xiahou Ying into Jiangling City.

It was not that Ouyang Shuo was making a statement, it was just that there were too many people with nefarious intentions in Cao Cao’s Camp, so he had to play it safe.

If Ouyang Shuo was assassinated, everything would be over.

In the camp, Er'Lai's city protection legion was one group, while Bai Hua, Feng Qiuhuang, and Wufu's 50 thousand army was the other, led by Fallen Phoenix City’s General Zhou Bo.

The two groups started to mesh and coordinate with one another in the barracks. At the same time, they paid attention to Yuan Ping and the others.

Before the battle even began, the players in the Cao Cao camp had seeds of doubt sowed in their minds as they were wary about one another.

……

Jian An 13th year, when Red Cliff was engulfed in flames, Zhuge Kongming was 27, Zhou Yu 33, Liu Xuande was 47, Cao Mengde was 53.

Cao Cao was the oldest, crossing the 50 mark.

With that, it was not hard to imagine how rushed he felt. After crushing Liu Bei, despite unprepared circumstances, he wanted to attack Sun Quan to complete his goal of ruling the world.

"Time does not wait for anyone!"

No wonder Cao Cao would sing such a sad song like Short Song Style at Red Cliff.

I lift my drink and sing a song, for who knows if life is long or short!

Man's life is but the morning dew, past days many, future ones few.

The melancholy my heart begets,

Comes from the care I cannot forget.

What can unravel my woes, I only now one drink Dukang Wine.

……

Bright is the moon's spark, when can I pick it apart?

Thoughts of you from inside, cannot settle, cannot subside.

Friends drop by from the country road, the respects they pay really show.

……

No mountain too steep, no ocean too deep.

Sage pauses when guests call, so the empire at his feet will not fall.

……

At that moment, Cao Cao had a really complicated feeling. He had the ambition to sweep the north; he felt his goal of becoming an overlord was not being fulfilled.

The Cao Cao that Ouyang Shuo saw in the Lord's Manor was exactly that one.

The defeat at Red Cliff, his goal failing, retreating badly, and the morale of his troops had hit rock bottom. After these series of blows, even though he was optimistic, he could not help but feel ashamed and sad.

In the guest room, Cao Cao sat. Below him was an old man dressed like a scholar. Out of his generals, even his bodyguard Xu Chu did not appear here.

After the defeat, the generals were busy organizing the troops.

Seeing the old man, Ouyang Shuo's eyes froze. The images of the historical people in the game were not made up but replicated using photos and modelled after paintings; if they did not have pictures or images, films were used as a reference.

Hence, as long as the Lords tried, they would be able to recognize the prominent historical people.

Ouyang Shuo had spent so much effort on studying history, along with the data from Red Cliff, he was able to ascertain that this was the important general under Cao Cao's camp - Jia Xu.

Jia Xu was a famous strategist from the Wei Country during the Three Kingdoms Era. A famous strategist, people often called him venomous. He came up with many brilliant strategies and calculated and planned many victories. He was intelligent and good at self-preservation.

When he died, he was 77 years old, and he was one of the rare few who died happily or well during the Three Kingdoms Period.

In truth, during that period, Jia Xu could have definitely been considered one of the top three strategists. As for Zhuge Liang, Zhou Yu, Sima Yi, and the like, they could not be considered pure strategists.

In the Wei Country camp, probably only Xun Yi, Xun You, and Guo Jia could be mentioned in the same sentence as him.

Before the Battle of Red Cliff, he had suggested to calm down the people and not chase to Jiangdong. Helplessly, Cao Cao listened for two months but could not hold it in in the end, he sent his troops to Jiangling, resulting in defeat.

With that, Cao Cao trusted Jia Xu all the more.

One had to say that the way that Cao Cao used talents was something that many Lords could learn from.

"Player Qiyue Wuyi greets the prime minister!" Ouyang Shuo bowed.

Xiahou Ying, who followed behind Ouyang Shuo, looked at Cao Cao with a weird expression and did not bow.

"Who are you, how can you be so rude to the prime minister?" Jia Xu chided when he saw that.

When Xiahou Ying heard these words, he smiled and looked at Cao Cao, “Do you recognize me?"

In truth, the moment he walked in, Cao Cao's eyes had frozen, and he was filled with questions. When Xiahou Ying opened his mouth, Cao Cao’s guesses were basically ascertained.

"Dare I ask, are you the old ancestor?"

In the Xiahou family temple, Xiahou Ying's painting and portrait was hung.

"That's right." Xiahou Ying nodded.

"Ah!" Jia Xu was astonished.

Cao Cao did not care, directly leaving his seat and hurrying over.

Chapter 694-Asking Cao Cao to Fight

A meeting that spanned generations was unusually touching.

Luckily, Cao Cao was not a normal person and quickly calmed down. The way he looked at Ouyang Shuo became gentler and closer, not as cold as before.

That was enough to Ouyang Shuo.

"Why are you looking for me?" Cao Cao asked.

Ouyang Shuo bowed, “We would like to request the prime minister to not retreat the troops."

When Cao Cao heard this request, his eyes turned cold and the atmosphere froze. He spat out word by word, “Do you know what you're talking about?"

Red Cliff’s engulfment in flames was a sudden defeat at the most arrogant point of his life. The retreat was not glorious, so Cao Cao was naturally not happy when Ouyang Shuo mentioned it.

On the other hand, Jia Xu's eyes lit up.

"Prime minister, please hear me out!" Ouyang Shuo was not fazed. In terms of aura, specifically the aura of an overlord, Ouyang Shuo did not lose to Cao Cao. However, he purposely restrained it.

"Speak!"

"Your worry is undoubtedly because of the navy being crushed and losing control over the Changjiang and Han River. I brought a navy of 20 thousand that can help."

"Just 20 thousand?" Cao Cao mocked.

"Although 20 thousand is not much, their combat strength is special. I dare to say that no matter how strong the Sun Liu Alliance Army is, they cannot break through our defenses; we are not even on the same level."

"Absurd." Cao Cao was furious, he was growing a little impatient.

"I would not dare to lie in front of you, would you go take a look? After you see our navy, I'm pretty sure you'll believe me."

What you hear might be false, what you see would definitely be true.

The voyage squadron was the strongest squadron in the world today. Be it warships or equipment, compared to the Han Dynasty Navy, they were not even on the same level.

Without mentioning other aspects, just the cannons alone were enough to destroy Zhou Yu's navy.

Cao Cao's gloomy expression did not fade, but he decided to give Xiahou Ying some face and chose to compromise in the end, “Sure, if I'm not happy in the end, you will know the consequences."

"Please!"

Ouyang Shuo smiled and led the way.

Cao Cao was a great leader; naturally, he was not happy about such a defeat. Hence, although Ouyang Shuo's words seemed too good to be true, Cao Cao did not reject it.

Hence, a group of men walked out of the city.

When the Lord players saw this scene, many were envious.

"How amazing; he is even able to lead out a boss like Cao Cao!"

"That's right!"

"Stop sucking up to him. Even though he is strong, what can he do in such a situation? He still has to back off."

"That's right, if I knew this would happen, I would have chosen the Sun Liu Camp."

"Sigh, let's stop talking and try to find another historical person recruitment quest. If we can recruit a general, this trip would not be a waste."

The Lords in the Cao Cao Camp had lost all hope, so they turned their attention to the generals and strategists instead.

When Ouyang Shuo heard their words, he did not say anything and just passed by them.

……

After walking out of the city Lord's Manor, Cao Cao's eyes froze when he saw the three thousand Divine Martial Guards. He had spent his life on the battlefield, and his eyes were exceedingly vicious and clear, so he instantly noticed the difference of the Divine Martial Guards.

In comparison, even Xu Wei’s guards were not on the same level.

The person who developed such elite troops was definitely not simple.

When he saw Ouyang Shuo’s mount, Little Green, Cao Cao and the others were shocked once more. The ferocious and huge Little Green was simply unique and eye-catching.

In just a short while, Cao Cao had stopped underestimating him. He even started to look forward to the navy that he was going to see.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this, his heart settled.

Jiangling Crossing.

Zheng He and the voyage squadron had teleported onto the waters of the Han River. Such a weird matter unavoidably caused panic.

The river appeared extremely narrow to the turreted ships, and it only allowed three to four warships to line up side by side. In the squadron, the three special Man O' War type warships stood out.

On board these ships, more than ten English engineers stood on deck, talking about the Jiangling City not far away; this was a new and interesting experience to them.

The squadron spotted the arrival of the Divine Martial Guards on the horizon.

"It's the Monarch!" The soldiers were delighted.

The Divine Martial Capes of the guards were simply too eye-catching.

When Zheng He received the news, he immediately led all the generals to welcome them.

"Greetings, Monarch!"

With a Shua! everyone bowed in unison.

"Greetings, Monarch!"

Following which, every sailor and soldier on the warship bowed.

Hong! Hong! Hong!

Along with their voices, the cannons rang out.

Such a scene was too shocking.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head, pleased, “Please rise!"

"Thank you, my Monarch!"

Such a scene truly shocked Cao Cao and the others.

Ouyang Shuo acted like he did not see Cao Cao’s expression. In terms of rank, he was actually higher than Cao Cao; after all, he was an actual duke.

To be called Monarch was something even Cao Cao could not dream of.

How could he have expected that such a normal-looking player would have such a high rank? Now, in front of the army, he was as stable as a mountain and had an indescribable aura.

Cao Cao needed to treat Ouyang Shuo seriously, but Cao Cao could not see through him. It was like he was covered in a layer of fog, mysterious but making people close to him.

"A young hero!" Cao Cao exclaimed.

Ouyang Shuo smiled but did not say anything. During the battle map, there were naturally battle map rules. Obviously, he did not think about usurping Cao Cao's position, “Prime minister, let's go take a look!"

When Cao Cao and the others saw the five-story high turreted ships and the giant Man O' War battleships, their mouths gaped open. Even the strongest navy troops in Sun Quan's army could not compare to the Mengchong Warship.

They were not even on the same level.

In their eyes, the bigger the warship, the stronger it was.

Hence, Cao Cao had now partially believed Ouyang Shuo’s words. However, Cao Cao was Cao Cao after all; he was a person filled with many doubts. If he did not personally witness the strength of the voyage squadron, he would not come to conclusions.

……

When onboard Dragon Head, one would be filled with many different emotions.

Although Cao Cao was an army user, before the Battle of Red Cliff, he had especially learned about the navy. No warship could shock him as much as Dragon Head did.

When he was on deck, Ouyang Shuo smiled and said, “Admiral Zheng He, demonstrate to the prime minister!"

"Yes, Monarch!"

Zheng He nodded and took care of the introduction work.

Cao Cao was a person who loved to learn, dragging Zheng He and asking a lot of questions. He was also someone familiar with the field, so every question he asked hit the spot and made Zheng He and the others look on in awe.

No matter what, the two were many dynasties apart.

Ouyang Shuo stood at the side, smiling but not saying anything. Suddenly, Ouyang Shuo gazed at Jia Xu, walking across and bowing, “Greetings mister!"

Jia Xu looked over. After witnessing Ouyang Shuo’s strength, how would someone as smart as Jia Xu use their status and position in front of him?

Ouyang Shuo smiled. Obviously, Jia Xu was wary toward him. His carefulness was not at a normal level. "I've long heard of mister's name. Seeing you is my fortune!"

"You're joking sir!"

Jia Xu's expression became gentler. No one could reject such words. Words of praise from someone like Ouyang Shuo were all the more different and tempting.

"Mister, do you know the difference between this place and the main map?" Ouyang Shuo continued to probe.

"I roughly know a little."

"I'm not being arrogant, but on the main map, I'm the best in the world. I have over a million troops, and I have many generals and officials under me. Baiqi, Han Xin, Huo Qubing, Xiao He, Fan Li, Wei Yang, and more; they are all in my territory." Ouyang Shuo introduced the situation of Shanhai City.

The more Jia Xu heard, the more shocked he felt.

His intuition told him that the player in front of him was not lying.

"Duke is a talent!" Jia Xu still did not budge.

However, this only made Ouyang Shuo more and more interested in him, so he continued to try and tempt, “My territory has many generals, but we lack a super strategist to help us."

"With your name, you would be able to recruit the strategist you want."

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “So many thousand years, how many strategists could be considered top class?" As he spoke, he could not help but let out an aura like the world was under his feet, shocking Jia Xu.

Changing the topic, Ouyang Shuo said, “Mister, you are a talent. Out of all strategists, you are one of the best."

"Duke, thank you for the complement!"

"Mister really does not want to consider it?" Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to make it clearer.

"Duke, you're joking." Jia Xu avoided the topic.

Ouyang Shuo sighed, wanting to recruit historical people was truly difficult. Even with Ouyang Shuo's current high-grade terms, he still did not manage to convince Jia Xu.

The aura of the king in legends truly could not be trusted.

Ouyang Shuo did not give up, “After the battle map ends, mister can still decide. The doors of Shanhai City will forever be open to you. Even in the main map, this offer still stands."

After he said these words, Ouyang Shuo turned and left.

Looking at his back, Jia Xu felt unsettled.

……

In the simulation room, Zheng He started to display to Cao Cao the strength of the cannons.

Hong Long Long! A round of fire caused the imaginary warships on the river to sink. When Cao Cao witnessed this scene, his eyes widened; he had never seen such godly weapons.

"Good, good, very good!" Cao Cao laughed out.

Chapter 695-Navy and Army Moving as One

Jiangling, City Lord's Manor.

After returning from the port, Cao Cao was in an excited state.

They would definitely fight this war, but the problem was how.

Cao Cao summoned Chen Hao and Jia Xu, these two strategists, for a discussion. As the player representative, Ouyang Shuo was also invited. The special use of the voyage squadron meant that Ouyang Shuo would have a lot of speaking rights.

Seeing Cao Cao so excited, Ouyang Shuo had to calm his spirits, “Prime minister, allow me to introduce to you the player situation of both camps."

"Speak!" Cao Cao did not dare to underestimate the players again.

"During this battle, our player army has 270 thousand. Without the navy, we only have 250 thousand troops. The enemy player camp has 350 thousand troops, and they might have a navy too."

"The difference is so great?" Cao Cao frowned.

Ouyang Shuo nodded.

After the loss of Red Cliff, the remaining Cao troops that escaped numbered around 100 thousand. Along with the 30 thousand troops Cao Ren left at Jiangling City, they had around 130 thousand troops.

At the same time, the Sun Liu Alliance Army had split into three routes.

Liu Bei led 20 thousand troops to go against the current of Xiangjiang to attack Linxiang. Huang Gai's navy was less than 10 thousand. After entering Dongting Lake, they would turn into Yuanjiang.

Hence, only around 20 thousand Zhou Yu forces chased Cao Cao.

According to such a comparison, although Cao Cao had a lack of players, it was not that important as the numbers on both sides were similar.

However, the important problem apart from numbers was morale.

After the Cao army suffered that grievous defeat, their morale had already hit rock bottom. They lacked the mood and the will to fight. Hence, in history, their huge army was chased all the way by Zhou Yu.

In the end, Cao Cao did not spend too long here, leading his troops back north. A year later, the Jiangling that Cao Ren defended was taken down.

With that, it was easy to see that the 130 thousand Cao army was not going to be of use in a short time. On the contrary, the Zhou Yu army possessed high morale and were at their sharpest.

The morale of the native army would also affect the morale of the player army.

The Lords in the Cao Cao Camp had lost all hope in this battle and were deflated. On the contrary, the players in the Sun Liu Camp would want to end this battle in one swoop.

Even with the presence of the voyage squadron, it was not looking good for the Cao army.

Apart from that, there was one more factor that should be considered. After Sun Quan received the new about the victory at Red Cliff, would he lead the army to assist the frontlines?

Even if he would not, Ouyang Shuo believed that Di Chen and the others would find a way to persuade him.

With that, the situation would greatly worsen.

The Battle of Red Cliff was far from a naval battle; the battle of armies was the main component.

……

"How does their navy compare to yours?" Cao Cao asked.

Ouyang Shuo thought about this matter; among the enemy, probably only Xiong Ba, Zhan Lang, and Xunlong Dianxue had decent navies. Their warships were bought from Shanhai City.

As for cannons, only Xunlong Dianxue had obtained 30 from Shanhai City.

Whether or not Xiong Ba or Zhan Lang had their hands on any cannon technology, Ouyang Shuo did not know. Although such technical manuals were not common, they were not unique either.

Strictly speaking, Xiong Ba and the rest had chances to obtain such technology from other avenues.

Gaia also had a rule that when a certain technology was grasped by more than five in a country, it would be opened to all players.

Based on that example, if Ouyang Shuo taught the steam engine technique to Consonance City, Fallen Phoenix City, Stone City, and Black Lion City, the entire region would receive it.

Hence, shortly after Avic Fort developed the steam engine, the entire country entered the industrial revolution.

"Warships are similar, firearms weaker." Ouyang Shuo replied.

When Cao Cao heard this reply, his brows jumped, “Wen He, say your thoughts."

Throughout this entire process, Jia Xu did not make a sound till Cao Cao called him. Only then did he stand up and say, “Lord, I feel that we should attack using the navy and defend using the army."

"Please elaborate."

"The navy can face Zhou Yu's forces and try to crush them at once. It is best if we can regain Red Cliff." As expected from Jia Xu, such a clear path of thinking, “With that, we can use the win to raise the morale and sweep away the problem at hand. Secondly, we can use Red Cliff to crush the Sun Liu Alliance Army."

"Occupying Red Cliff can help to stop any reinforcements and cut off their resources. Only then can our army have a fight to the death with the main force of Zhou Yu."

Jia Xu paused to allow them to digest his words before continuing, “After describing the navy, the army would be easier to understand. Before the navy takes over Red Cliff, our main force should rest in the city to defend it. First, we need to rest and heal up. Secondly, we can bring over the other troops around Jingzhou to assist. Most importantly, we must use this time to stock up on resources."

During the Battle of Red Cliff, the Cao army used Red Cliff as their main camp and had transported all their resources to there. In the end, one massive fire burned it all up.

The end of the East Han could not be compared to the wilderness of the main map.

It was chaos, lives were horrible, and many strong youths joined the army, so there were like no men in the villages. Hence, there were huge plots of empty land with no one to farm.

Consequently, grain became all the more precious to the army.

If they wanted to gather up grain for a war, it would take close to half a year. As a result, the generals such as Xiahou Dun and Zhong Yao on the backlines were extremely important.

Moreover, it was the winter period, so the families were only left with some grain to pass the season, which made it all the more difficult to collect grain.

In history, Cao Cao did have his reasons for choosing to retreat.

Jia Xu's analysis hit the spot and each word made sense. When Ouyang Shuo heard his words, the light in his eyes shone even brighter. Without a doubt, a strategist like Jia Xu was something he lacked the most.

If he really does not want to, I will have to kidnap him.

Cao Cao did not decide right away, turning to Cheng Yu and asking, “Zhong De, what do you think?"

Cheng Yu was one of the five strategists under Cao Cao's Camp. After Guo Jia died, he became the most important one. At the same time, he was the only one out of the five who had the ability to lead the troops to battle.

On this topic, there was also a classic story, ‘After the defeat at Red Cliff, if I had Guo Jia, I would not have lost!’

Some people read this as Cao Cao being unhappy with Cheng Yu, Jia Xu, and the rest.

In truth, it was not.

If one carefully read the history books, they would notice that the strategists in his camp did not fail. Jia Xu had advised him to not advance and to calm down the situation in Jingzhou.

In the end, Cao Cao did not listen and rushed to unite the land.

Cheng Yu also predicted the Sun Liu Alliance saying, ‘Sun Quan is newly appointed and has never been worried about anything. Cai Cao is invincible, taking down Jingzhou and shocking the land. Although Sun Quan has strategies, he cannot face you alone. Liu Bei has many famous generals, so Sun Quan will definitely seek his help to defend against us."

In hindsight, if Cao Cao had listened to Cheng Yu and prepared early, he would not have been caught off guard by Zhou Yu at Red Cliff.

With that, it was not hard to understand what Cao Cao was doing. At this moment that decided his fate, he sought both their opinions.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this, he felt truly ashamed. His actions in Shanhai City were more arrogant than even Cao Cao.

Cheng Yu instantly stood up, “Lord, I agree. Only one point, the enemy has Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang. Along with them knowing about our situation, they might plan against the voyage squadron."

"That makes sense, so what should we do?" Cao Cao was not afraid. Since he had decided, he would not change and back off easily.

"We should fight quickly." Cheng Yu explained, “Since they are prepared, they would not expect us to strike out without hesitating and resting. With that, we can totally catch them off guard."

"Great idea!"

Cao Cao rubbed his beard. He smiled, but no one could catch his real thoughts.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he could only envy Cao Cao.

When could he gather such a group of strategists under his charge?

"Prime minister!" Envy was envy, but Ouyang Shuo was always a spontaneous person, so he asked to fight, “I am willing to lead the voyage squadron to strike and take down Red Cliff!"

Considering that the enemy had some people he could meet with, Ouyang Shuo needed to personally lead. If not, facing the players was not something Zheng He could handle alone.

Ouyang Shuo also wanted to teach the Sun Liu Navy a lesson.

It was time for the voyage squadron to use this battle to grow famous in China.

"Great! Cao Cao laughed, “I hope your squadron can achieve victory for us!"

"Yes!"

Ouyang Shuo solemnly replied.

A discussion of the specific battle plans followed. Apart from that would be to plan for the players. After all, since Ouyang Shuo would not be in Jiangling, he needed to make early arrangements.

The Battle of Red Cliff was going to start once again between naval forces.

The true battle was about to begin.

Chapter 696-Dark Clouds Hung Over

Before leaving the City Lord's Manor, Ouyang Shuo was ready to ask for a person from Cao Cao, so he sincerely said, “Prime minister, for this navy mission, we only lack a general. Please fulfil my request."

As he spoke, Ouyang Shuo gave a deep, sincere bow.

Cao Cao rubbed his beard and smiled widely, “Navy general? Who do you want?"

The meaning in his eyes could not be grasped.

This was Cao Cao; his thoughts were hard to grasp, and no one could guess what he was thinking.

"Mister Jia Xu is a talent. If you can fulfil my request, it would be for the best." Ouyang Shuo would not be courteous.

Before Cao Cao even said anything, Jia Xu who stood at the side tensed up; his heart was close to falling apart. He did not expect that Ouyang Shuo would be such a shameless person.

He did not succeed in inviting me, so this time, he actually used his power for his own gain, Jia Xu cursed in his heart.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this reaction, he did not budge. To recruit someone, you had to act shameless and do everything you could.

"Ehhh." when Cao Cao heard this request, he did not say anything and slowly brushed his beard. He looked at Ouyang Shuo and Jia Xu with his eagle-like eyes as if he wanted to deduce whether the two had anything private going on.

Jia Xu smiled awkwardly. He also knew that his Lord was a person filled with doubts. When he boarded the boat, the Lord had probably seen him talking to Ouyang Shuo.

Now that this had happened, it was truly a case of jumping into the yellow river; he could not wash it off.

At this very moment, Cheng Yu stood up to calm the situation; he smiled and said, “Lord, I do feel that player Qiyue Wuyi's request is reasonable. The voyage squadron is the key to victory, so it needs a smart strategist to ensure the win."

As he spoke, Cheng Yu gave Cao Cao a look.

When Cao Cao saw it, he obviously understood.

The meaning behind Cheng Yu's words were obvious; he was asking Cao Cao to use this chance to add a few men into the voyage squadron. As for whether there were other considerations within all this, it was hard to guess.

If there were too many strategists involved, conflicts would unavoidably arise.

It was similar to how Cheng Yu and Jia Xu were both beside Cao Cao, and the number one strategist was still undecided.

Hence, if there was a chance, Cheng Yu did not mind sending Jia Xu away.

This was not a despicable act but an act to gain power.

"If Qiyue Wuyi did not choose him, I would have wanted to follow along.” Cheng Yu joked.

"That would not work." Cao Cao laughed too, who knows what balancing act he had done in his heart. In the end he agreed, nodding, “Ok, let Wen He follow you out."

"Thank you, prime minister!" Ouyang Shuo was delighted.

"Wen He, you need to do your best to assist Qiyue Wuyi." Cao Cao personally instructed, his eyes exceedingly sharp.

Jia Xu's face was black, but he had no choice but to accept the situation, “Yes, Lord!"

As the dust settled, Ouyang Shuo faced Jia Xu and sincerely said, “Thank you, sir!"

Jia Xu's was expressionless and nodded his head tensely.

"I hope you all come back with a huge victory!" Cao Cao laughed once more.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this, he could not help but feel some panic rise in his heart. This fellow was extremely special, regardless if he was happy or angry, he would just smile. If one saw this often, they could not help but feel anxious.

"Yes!"

In the end, Ouyang Shuo bowed together with Jia Xu and left.

……

In the main hall, only Cao Cao and Cheng Yu remained.

"Zhong De, what do you think Wen He and Qiyue Wuyi spoke about on the ship?" This sentence sounded like he was talking to himself but also seemed like a question. The smile on his face had long disappeared.

When Cheng Yu heard this question, his heart jolted, and he chose to remain silent.

"Oh?" Cao Cao was not going to let him off, turning around and asking again.

Cheng Yu's expression was rock solid as he stammered, “Should be some casual conversation!"

In the end, Cheng Yu was a more righteous person and did not use this chance to shoot Jia Xu down.

"Probably!"

Cao Cao's tone contained uncertainty. He got up and left the hall, leaving Cheng Yu alone inside.

The huge main hall instantly fell silent.

After leaving the Lord's Manor, Ouyang Shuo returned to the barracks to meet with Bai Hua and the others to discuss some matters.

"This time, it seems like Caiyun Zinan, Qin Feng, and the others chose this camp for other reasons. After I leave, do not put down your guard against them."

Ouyang Shuo always felt that something was weird about them choosing the Cao Cao Camp.

"Do not worry, we will ensure that they cannot jump up." Feng Qiuhuang was still so confident.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “That's great, Jiangling will depend on you all."

"You must be careful also!" Feng Qiuhuang demanded.

When Wufu, who was standing at the side, saw this exchange, a weird expression appeared on his face.

"I will."

Ouyang Shuo was really quick. After speaking some details, he left.

Next, he started to move and organize the troops.

During this strike, apart from the voyage squadron, the three thousand Divine Martial Guards would also follow. Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also brought the 1st division of the city protection legion.

He had the feeling that this would not be a smooth journey.

The major general of the 1st division was Zhao Si Hu, a young general that Ouyang Shuo rather liked. He was an old member of the army, going through many battles and growing in maturity.

That afternoon, the army sneakily left Jiangling and headed down the river.

At the same time, other powers acted.

Jiangling City, player’s camp.

3 PM, Caiyun Zinan, Qin Feng, and Yuan Ping had gathered together.

"That person has already left Jiangling, is that news reliable?" Caiyun Zinan asked.

Qin Feng nodded, “Absolutely, my men saw it themselves."

"Good, he's courting death." Yuan Ping had a gloomy expression, gritting his teeth.

"Let's not talk about him. We need to quickly settle Jiangling City."

"Do not worry, everything is going smoothly." Yuan Ping could not hide his excitement.

"Do not be happy too early. Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang are not easy to deal with."

"Those two women, can they flip the heavens?" Yuan Ping said with arrogance.

Caiyun Zinan did not say anything more and simply said, “Just follow the plan and be careful."

"Well said!" Qin Feng nodded.

The three of them talked for an hour before leaving.

After Ouyang Shuo left, Jiangling City was destined to not be peaceful.

……

Red Cliff, sea fortress camp.

A week ago, the fire was extinguished, and the Wulin Camp was turned into ruins.

After the battle, Zhou Yu's Army turned this place into their camp.

With that, these two strongholds of Red Cliff and Wulin were taken over by the Sun Liu Alliance Army. One east and one west, locking down on this portion of the Changjiang.

Currently, the Sun Liu Army did not guard these two places, the navies of Xiong Ba, Zhan Lang, and the other players did.

During this battle, Xiong Ba and Zhan Lang both rolled the dice and decided to each bring 20 thousand navy troops, and they were the greatest elites of their territory.

Even after deducting the sailors, their overall numbers exceeded the voyage squadron. Apart from that, there were some random navies for them to lead. Xiong Ba took the role of main commander, and Zhan Lang took the role of deputy.

The alliance army numbered around 50 to 60 thousand, approaching the numbers of the Sun Liu Alliance.

As a result, Zhou Yu allowed them to defend Red Cliff.

In the water fortress tent, a conversation was taking place.

"You say, will the old fox really come?" Zhan Lang asked.

Xiong Ba smiled, “He definitely will."

"You're so confident?"

"We are the same type of person, I understand him." Xiong Ba explained.

Who knows what Zhan Lang was thinking, but he did not ask any further, “After being the prey for so long, it's time for us to be the hunter for once. This time, we cannot let the old fox escape."

"However cunning a fox, it cannot escape a hunter's trap!"

Haha!

The two looked at each other and laughed, filled with confidence.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo did not know that so many people were plotting against him.

Onboard Dragon Head, he was discussing the specific battle plans with Zheng He and Jia Xu the.

Jia Xu was introducing the navy situation of Zhou Yu, “The enemy navy has Lu Su as the admiral, under him there's Lu Meng, Ling Tong, Zhou Tai, and Gan Ning. They have around 15 thousand men."

"All elites, ah!"

Ouyang Shuo was awed, Shanhai City had lacked navy generals all along. Acquiring Zheng He, Shi Lang, Yu Dayou, and Alvaro had basically settled the fleet admiral level.

Now, they only lacked chief general level generals. Without a doubt, Lu Meng, Ling Tong, Zhou Tai, and the like were good enough.

Just thinking about this made Ouyang Shuo look forward to it.

"Mister, do you think under such circumstances the Lu Su Army will still go against the current to attack Jiangling City along with Zhou Yu's Army? Or will they retreat to Red Cliff?"

"That might be possible." Jia Xu nodded, “However, after the Battle of Red Cliff, the Lu Su Army has already left. Based on the time, they have crossed half the path. Hence, even if they started to return when they got the news, it'll still take a period of time. If we are fast enough, we can chase up to them before they reach Red Cliff."

Naturally, Jia Xu did not say these words randomly.

It was currently winter, and it was the northwest wind, which was great for the voyage squadron. Jia Xu was perceptive; he noticed that the speed of the voyage squadron was faster than that of Lu Su's Navy.

Especially with the help of the wind, their speed would be even more shocking.

"That's great. Send down the orders, do not rest and chase. We must destroy them before they rush back to Red Cliff."

"Yes, my Monarch!" Zheng He accepted the order.

With that, making use of the night and going along with the northwest wind, the voyage squadron was like a ghost, flowing along the river.

The golden dragon flag fluttered in the night sky.

Chapter 697-Chaos

Across the vast Zhan River, the current flowed ferociously like a dragon covering the south land. The fast currents splashed at ever sharp turn.

On the two sides of the river, the trees and grass were a withered yellow; the rare few farmers seemed to be struggling.

On the Yunmeng Lake toward the east, a vast and fertile wilderness spread out for thousands of miles. During this winter season, it was also dead silent. Among the tall yellow bushes, wolves lurked while eagles circled the skies.

During the winter season, even the strongest and healthiest leopards and wolves would have times where they were hungry.

Hunger was the best description of the final years of the East Han period.

Even humans were getting hungry, much less leopards and wolves.

The voyage squadron spread out over hundreds of meters travelled along with the cold winter wind. The white sails were struck by the cold wind and sounded out, pushing the enormous warships forward.

On Dragon Head, Ouyang Shuo frowned.

Four days!

The voyage squadron had rushed day and night for four days, but the water surface revealed nothing but the occasional one or two fishing boats.

It was like the Lu Su Army had disappeared into thin air.

"That's not possible!" Ouyang Shuo muttered.

Thanks to the traveling speed of the voyage squadron, they had traveled a thousand miles from the Han River into the opening of Changjiang. Even like this, they still had not caught up to Lu Su's Army.

"Let's just wait more patiently, there's no way they are that fast." Jia Xu consoled.

After a few days of interacting with one another, Jia Xu's opinion of Ouyang Shuo had changed. This young man was truly different, be it terms of knowledge, magnanimity, or skills, he was exceptional.

Jia Xu could not help but compare him to Cao Cao many times.

Such thinking was truly dangerous, and Jia Xu knew it.

"Mister is right, this is a battle of determination, we cannot give up."

Ouyang Shuo looked forward, his eyes resolute.

……

On the 5th day of the battle map, the scouts at the front finally sent news back.

"Monarch, there are traces of the enemy 100 miles ahead," the scout reported.

"100 miles, which means they are about to enter Changjiang?"

"Yes."

Ouyang Shuo immediately made a decision and ordered, “Order the squadron to increase the speed forward, do not let them get away." The moment they entered Changjiang, there was a chance that the voyage squadron would lose them.

Who knows whether the Lu Su Army would travel up Changjiang or go downward. If they split up and moved in formations, that would be far worse.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to settle them all.

"Yes, my Monarch!"

Zheng He also noticed the severity of the situation and started to command the squadron.

At the same time, the battle orders were given.

The soldiers entered a level 1 state of alert, and the cannoneers started to adjust their cannons and prepare for the battle. As they swiftly proceeded forward, the entire formation of the squadron changed.

Such technique, such execution, only the voyage squadron could do this. Through the entire voyage, their biggest gain was the development of experienced sailors and navy.

The voyage squadron was like an arrow that surged forward through the river.

At 3 PM, they finally saw the enemy squadron on the river.

"Strike the drums!" Zheng He ordered.

Hong! Hong! Honghong!

The war drum sounded, booming out with a unique tempo.

Along with the war drums, the morale of the soldiers started to gather up.

The current voyage squadron had completed their change in formation. The 20 giant turreted ships at the front were lined up in twos; their mission was to use their sharp and sturdy horns to break through the enemy formation.

The three Man O' Wars followed in single file. They were the river killers, the moment they started firing, no one could block them.

After them were 20 more turreted warships; they would cover the battleships and two provided cover fire. Finally, there were the numerous Mengchong Warships and Cima Boats.

Their mission was to clean up the battlefield and remove the remaining forces.

The river surface was narrow. They only thought of such a formation after a few days of discussions.

……

On the river surface not far away, Lu Su stood on deck, his expression solemn.

As the second most important person in the Jiangdong Army, the true Lu Su in history was ambitious, and he possessed both incredible foresight and intelligence. He was not the dumb and honest fellow as described in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

200 A.D., Lu Su analyzed the world situation and came up with suggestions that pointed the direction for the Jiangdong Regime.

During the Battle of Red Cliff, he was a crucial person who did even more than Zhuge Liang.

At that moment, he was the first to stand out to suggest that Sun Quran work with Liu Bei to go against Cao Cao. He was also the first to suggest that they called Zhou Yu back to discuss matters.

The situation was that Jiangdong was strong and Liu Bei was weak. Jiangdong was the main and Liu Bei followed them. Not to mention that Zhuge Liang was a young man without fame or position.

Hence, Zhuge Liang only helped to rush the forming of the alliance and similar diplomatic matters during the Battle of Red Cliff.

As for battling, it was the contributions of Zhou Yu and Huang Gai, nothing to do with Zhuge Liang.

210 A.D., Zhou Yu recommended Lu Su before he died, “Lu Su is loyal and does things carefully, he can replace me. If general can gain his trust, you can rest easy."

With that, Sun Quan ordered Lu Su to replace Zhou Yu to lead.

One could see that Lu Su was truly a talent and was not like the man described in Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

……

"They still chased up in the end!"

The moment he received Zhou Yu’s emergency report, Lu Su ordered the squadron to turn and rush back to Red Cliff to work with the player forces at Red Cliff to defend against the enemy.

They did not expect that even after rushing so much, they would still be a step slower in the end.

"Admiral, what should we do?" Lu Meng asked.

Lu Meng was also one of the core members in this Jiangdong organization. After the Battle of Red Cliff ended, Zhou Yu recommended Lu Meng to chase the Cao Cao Navy.

However, Lu Meng rejected the proposal and said that he did not dare snatch credit from Lu Su.

With that, a situation where the two led together appeared.

On the topic of Lu Meng, the most familiar story to everyone should be the story about Lu Meng studying – ‘Wuxia Ahmeng.’

This classic story truly happened to Lu Meng. From his legend, future generations could see his growth from a rash warrior to a famous general.

After Lu Su died, Lu Meng replaced him.

One of the most classical achievements of Lu Meng was going past the river and taking over Jingzhou, killing Guan Yu in the process.

Apart from that, Lu Meng also had an eye for talent.

Gan Ning, Lu Xun, Zhu Ran, and more were recommended by him.

Especially Lu Xun, who became the backbone of East Wu, his position comparable to Zhou Yu.

One could say that East Wu had many talents.

If one really made a comparison, only the Shu Han Regime during the Three Kingdoms Period had as many talents. Amongst which, there was Zhuge Liang’s influence.

……

"What else can we do?" Lu Su frowned, “The enemy caught up to us from such a long distance away, so we cannot escape even if we want to. The river is so narrow, so we have nowhere to go. We can only fight."

"Understood!" Lu Meng nodded solemnly.

After a short while, the Lu Su Army similarly banged their war drums.

To make matters worse for them, as they were being chased, they had their backs toward the enemy. The river was so narrow, so turning back was impossible.

If they hurried to try and turn, only chaos would ensue.

Hence, under the leadership of Lu Meng, Lin Tong, and the others, the navy just stayed still and waited for the attack.

From their point of view, naval battle was simply shooting at one another. If shooting failed to solve the problem, they could just go over and stab the enemy.

Hence, the direction the boats were facing did not matter.

As the strongest navy during the Three Kingdoms Period, they had never feared anyone. Along with the might they established during the Battle of Red Cliff, even though Zhou Yu mentioned that the enemy was extremely strong, they still did not believe it.

"No matter how strong they are, do you think that they can flip the heavens?" Gan Ning's words were basically what they all thought.

They were just frogs in a well.

Out of all the generals, only Lu Su and Lu Meng were solemn. First, they trusted Admiral Zhou Yu and knew that he would not randomly spout words.

If he said that they were strong, they were definitely strong.

However, the extent of their strength was something that even Zhou Yu did not know.

Only by facing off would they truly feel the enemy’s strength.

Without mentioning other factors, at the very least, the enemy’s traveling speed was much faster. It was not by just a bit but double theirs.

Hence, how could the two of them be relaxed?

Furthermore, they did not have a numerical advantage, so if they truly fought, they did not have a high chance of winning.

However, they were forced into such a situation, and they had no other choice.

……

20 minutes later, the vanguard forces of the voyage squadron finally entered the eyes of the Lu Su Army.

The five-story high turreted ships spread out across the river, shocking the Lu Su Army soldiers.

Without even the enemy approaching, a massive suppressive feeling engulfed them.

"Heavens, there’s actually such a giant warship in this world!" The soldiers watched on with their mouths agape.

Their morale was unavoidably affected.

"Shoot the arrows!"

Gan Ning and the others were not afraid and led the attack.

The rumbling cannons replied to their actions.

Hong!

Cannons exploded on the river surface, splitting the Lu Su warships apart.

"What is the situation?"

Gan Ning’s eyes widened, not knowing what weapon the enemy was using. The only replied he received was the rushed sounds of the cannons.

"We are finished!"

Lu Su painfully closed his eyes, unable to bear watching the situation in front of him.

Chapter 698-Capturing Lu Su Alive

The result of the naval battle on the Han River surface was not too surprising.

Against the strong voyage squadron, the Lu Su Army had no way to fight back and could only take a beating.

The 20 giant turreted ships used their size, sharp horns, and cannon fire to blast open a gaping hole in their formation.

The infallible Lu Su Army looked like a gentle girl. The arrows that they shot out were like tickles to the turreted ships.

Gan Ning, Zhou Tai, and the other generals had strong martial arts but nowhere to use them.

A round of cannon fire shot accurately at their flagship, causing it to shake left and right. Gan Ning had no choice but to jump off the warship and enter the river to try to survive.

Staying on the warship was just asking to die.

"Your grandmother!" The ice cold Han River made Gan Ning and the others feel uncomfortable.

The three Man O' Wars that trailed closely behind were like three fire-breathing deep ocean beasts, shooting out cannonballs and destroying the enemy warships, blowing them into pieces.

The three levels of cannon openings, with hundreds of cannons firing out at full force.

None of the enemy warships along the way could take a round of fire. Under the hundreds and thousands of cannon balls, the warships were blown into bits, fires raging.

There were some fearless warships that tried to guide the warships that were already in flames toward the Man O' War for a double suicide.

Unfortunately, due to the cannon fire, none of them could smoothly approach. Before they even got close, they became targets and were sunk to the bottom of the river.

Along with them were thousands of soldiers and sailors.

The morale and mental strength of the Lu Su Army started to crack and fall apart. The giant turreted ships, the Mengchong warships, and the Cima boats smoothly claimed the rest.

On the chilly river, warships in flames were everywhere. Thanks to the wind, the fires burned even brighter, and the soldiers could not extinguish the flames even if they tried.

They could only jump into the water to have a shot at surviving.

Layers of wooden planks from the warships formed up layer after layer on the river, a majestic sight. Many human heads floated up and down the river, they laid on the wooden boards, fighting for their lives.

In the bone chilling waters, it was basically hell for any soldier that fell into it. The cold was like an ice needle sticking into their skin, muscles, and even bones.

If they spent too long in the water, even if they were saved, they would probably end up with some illness.

……

Jia Xu stood aboard Dragon Head, and gaped at the destruction before his eyes.

As they say, what goes around comes around.

More than 10 days ago, the Cao Navy was totally buried by the Jiangdong Navy, destroying Cao Cao's ambition. This time, it was their turn to be crushed.

The entire squadron was pretty much destroyed.

On the vast river surface, there was not a single enemy warship that was traveling normally. In front of the blistering speed of the voyage squadron, they could not escape.

The smart ones wanted to dive into the water and sneak onto shore.

However, how could Zheng He allow them do as they wished? There were already frogmen lying in wait, engaging in endless slaughter beneath the ocean. After this battle, only a few lucky ones could survive.

On the surface, numerous corpses floated, the fresh blood dyed the water red, a truly gruesome color.

If he did not personally witness it, Jia Xu would not have believed there was such a strong navy in the world. Ouyang Shuo's previous promise to Cao Cao was definitely true.

This added a lot more confidence to Jia Xu for the following Battle of Red Cliff.

Although Ouyang Shuo was not as stunned as Jia Xu, the battle results had still exceeded his expectations. However, what he cared the most about now was the lives of Lu Su, Lu Meng, and the others.

The cannon fire had no eyes during battle.

Ouyang Shuo had no way to request the squadron to choose their enemy. He only wished that these Jiangdong Generals had a strong will to live and that the frogmen could capture them.

As the battlefield was swept, good news and bad news flowed endlessly.

Of the generals he wanted, Lu Su and Lu Meng were captured by the frogmen and locked up in the jail onboard Dragon Head.

With that, half his of goals were achieved.

The bodies of the lesser generals like Lin Tong and the others were found one by one. War was merciless and not everyone could survive. If one did not dodge in time, they would be smashed by the cannonballs.

Lastly, there were the two fierce generals Gan Ning and Zhou Tai; they were not found, and their traces were unknown.

"Search everywhere, they must be in the water." Ouyang Shuo was resolute.

If both of them escaped, this would be a total failure to Ouyang Shuo.

These two generals were both familiar with the water and had great bodily qualities. Ouyang Shuo had reason to believe that they were hiding in some corner of the battlefield, ready to make their escape.

He would even say that they had probably disguised themselves.

On the river surface, corpses laid everywhere; there were warship debris, and broken wooden planks. If someone was good in the water, hiding was just too simple.

"Yes Monarch!"

When Zheng He received the orders, he immediately ordered the frogmen and Cima Boats to form a massive search net, one on the surface and one in the water.

"If they're alive, I want to see the; if they're dead, I want to see their bodies."

Following the orders of the Admiral, the frogmen and the elite navy all opened their eyes wide, not letting anything or any corner go.

Many corpses were pushed aside and planks were removed, and even the debris was checked out.

According to the words of the officer, “Open up your eyes; do not let even a shrimp past."

This was truly an inescapable net.

……

On the northwest side of the battlefield, in an unassuming corner, a body floated up and down. A pair of cold eyes focused on the searching squad; he held the knife in his hand tight.

The cold river water did not corrupt his mental strength. His body, which was hardening, still had shocking strength; he was getting ready to strike at any moment to kill the enemy.

He knew he would definitely be unable to escape.

Just as the searching squad approached the body, the knife flashed and four lives fell.

Such knife technique was simply exceptional.

In the water, despite being stopped by the current, he actually still possessed such killing strength.

Ahh!

The struck soldiers let out cries before falling.

This caused an uproar.

"There's a situation!"

"He's there, surround him!"

"Capture him alive!"

Orders were sent to the frontline in an orderly manner.

The battle there was still continuing.

Every moment, every second, there were soldiers falling.

The river surface that had calmed down once again welcomed the waves of death.

Every time the knife shone, a life was taken.

In less than 10 minutes, hundreds of soldiers had already totally surrounded this ‘assassin’.

Hence, the situation was finally under control.

Taking down this person was just a matter of time. No matter how strong a tiger was, if it was surrounded by wolves, it could only struggle but not escape.

If it was not for the instructions of the Lord, this fellow would have been killed already.

Just at this moment, another cry sounded from the other side of the battlefield.

"It's the other one!"

"Quick, do not let him run!"

These two men, one east and one west, started their assault.

This was their final glory. They were like lions protecting their last shred of dignity. The moment they appeared, they were ready to die.

Unfortunately for them, even dying was not so easy.

After an hour of battle, the two of them were exhausted and were finally captured.

"We've got them!"

"Quick, send them to the flagship!"

Although a hundred men had perished, the soldiers were still delighted and proud like they had won a war.

Massive rewards awaited them all. Needless to say, this was someone the Monarch wanted and to make the Monarch happy was the greatest honor.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he brought Jia Xu up to the deck.

"Is it them?" Ouyang Shuo asked Jia Xu.

"That's right, that's Gan Ning and Zhou Tai."

Although they were both covered in blood, Jia Xu recognized them instantly.

"Great. Bandage them and ask the physician to treat them. Do not let any accidents happen."

"Yes my Monarch!"

The soldiers brought them down and left.

At this point, the battle had ended in a complete victory for the voyage squadron.

Lu Su, Lu Meng, Gan Ning, and Zhou Tai were captured. In the future days, recruiting them was not an impossible matter.

After the end of the battle, the squadron set off once more, their next stop was Red Cliff.

There, some people waited patiently for them to arrive.

The road ahead was still filled with thorns.

After this battle was over, Ouyang Shuo's battle contribution points had increased by over hundred thousand, allowing him to take the top spot on the rankings.

The change in the rankings instantly attracted the attention of the players.

Bai Hua and the rest finally relaxed. The rankings did not change during these two days, so they were worried that something had happened to the voyage squadron.

After a short while, Cao Cao received the news and was elated.

Qin Feng, Caiyun Zinan, and the others looked at the 1st placed person on the rankings, and their eyes froze.

An unavoidable pressure surged toward them.

The Sun Liu Camp players were the most shocked.

Xiong Ba, Zhan Lang, and the others looked at the leaderboard and sighed, “They were caught up to in the end."

Chapter 699-Liu Bei's Selfishness

Yunmeng River, Zhou Yu Army Camp.

In contrast to the Cao Cao Camp, the players from the Sun Liu Camp could choose three places to spawn - Yunmeng River, Red Cliff, and Dongting Lake.

Choosing Yunmeng River was the same as entering the Jiangdong Camp and going under Zhou Yu. Apart from Zhou Yu, generals like Cheng Pu could be recruited.

This route of players had Di Chen as their leader, and their total strength was around 220 thousand. Apart from that, Sha Pojun, Wandering Magic, and associated Lords were in this camp.

The Lords who chose Red Cliff were basically Lords that were near the ocean, with navy as their main force. This group had Xiong Ba and Zhan Lang as their leader, and they had around 50 thousand troops.

As for those who chose Dongting Lake, there were two split choices. One was to follow Huang Gai and move into Yuanjiang, or they could follow Liu Bei to go through Xiangjiang to attack Linxiang.

In the Liu Bei Camp, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, and Zhuge Liang were present.

Those who chose Dongting Lake were basically there for the Liu Bei Camp. Their goal was to recruit Zhao Yun and Zhuge Liang, these two famous fellows.

This group of players had Chun Shenjun as their leader, including those who chose Huang Gai, there were 80 thousand.

Ouyang Shuo lacked information regarding the player allocation of the Sun Liu Camp. If not, he would not fear the Zhou Yu troops in Yunmeng River.

220 thousand players were not enough to cause too much of a threat to Jiangling City.

In the middle camp tent, Di Chen acted as the player representative to meet Zhou Yu and report the changes in the contribution point ranking. At the same time, he described his conjecture: Lu Su's Army had already faced defeat.

When Zhou Yu heard this news, he remained silent, his face filled with pain.

"On the side of Red Cliff, do we have confidence?" Zhou Yu suddenly asked. Lu Su's Army was cleanly destroyed, which caused his confidence in Xiong Ba's plan to waver.

Di Chen replied, “Of course not." Di Chen also had a feeling that they were a little too confident about the plan. However, the arrow was already on the bowstring, so they had no choice but to fire.

When Zhou Yu heard these words, he did not know whether to believe them or not.

"On the side of Jiangling City?" Zhou Yu asked.

Di Chen understood what Zhou Yu was getting at, so he confidently replied, “Of course, no problem!"

"Great!" Zhou Yu hollered, “The army will charge forward and take down Jiangling to take revenge for them."

"Yes!" Di Chen cupped his fists.

"You can leave!" Zhou Yu waved his hands; it was hard to hide his exhaustion.

It seemed like the fall of Lu Su's Army was a huge blow to Zhou Yu. In that army there was Lu Su, and his favored generals such as Lu Meng and Gan Ning.

Thinking about how these generals would face misfortune, Zhou Yu was heartbroken.

"I'm useless!"

In the empty camp, a low sigh was heard. The cold wind outside the tent seemed colder and colder.

Outside Linxiang City, Liu Bei Camp.

Liu Bei naturally received the same news that Zhou Yu did. The one that reported it to him was Chun Shenjun.

Liu Bei's first reaction was to summon Zhuge Liang.

After Zhuge Liang heard Chun Shenjun's report, he did not even hesitate and said, “Lord, the fall of Lu Su's Army means that Red Cliff is in danger. The only plan is to retreat and gather with Huang Gai's troops to crush their player army."

The strategic location of Red Cliff was something that Zhuge Liang was clear about.

"Retreat?" When Liu Bei heard this suggestion, he hesitated.

Just last night, the Changsha Governor Han Xuan had sent someone over to express their intentions to surrender.

Only the specifics remained.

This also meant that Changsha was there for the taking. Retreating now was not something he could bear to do. Liu Bei often roamed around, so he desired to have a territory of his own.

"That's right, immediately retreat!" Zhuge Liang was insistent.

"How can we do that? Changsha is right there. If we retreat, we will be wasting all our efforts! Retreat? Definitely not." The one who spoke was Zhang Fei; his eyes were as wide as that of a bull’s.

Guan Yu agreed, “That's right, Red Cliff has Zhou Yu taking care of it. The most important thing is to take down Changsha."

These two brothers were the sworn brothers of Liu Bei, and they saw through Liu Bei’s thoughts.

Only Zhao Yun kept silent and did not speak.

The current Zhuge Liang had just come out and had not shown too much of his ability. Naturally, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei did not trust him.

Hence, the two spoke without any worries.

When Liu Bei heard the replies, he was unhappy and chided, “Second brother, third brother, do not be rude, apologize to the advisor!"

"Big brother!"

Zhang Fei did not want to.

"If you do not, do not call me big brother." Liu Bei went all out.

As expected, Zhang Fei bowed toward Zhuge Liang and said, “Advisor please forgive me!"

When Zhuge Liang heard these words, he smiled, “What did you do wrong? Haha!"

These words slowly solved the awkward atmosphere in the camp.

"Zhuge Liang, can we consider the retreating? Why not wait a few days till we take it down before moving out?" In the end, Liu Bei returned to the original suggestion.

During the Three Kingdoms, if one talked about thick skin, Liu Bei had the thickest.

When Zhuge Liang heard this, he sighed, and he knew that he could not change Liu Bei’s mind, “I'll immediately arrange to talk to Han Xuan to try and settle the deal."

"Good, thank you advisor!" Liu Bei was delighted.

Chun Shenjun did not speak from the start till the end. Liu Bei wanting to drag the matter on naturally delighted him. He wanted to use this chance to teach Xiong Ba and Zhan Lang a lesson.

With that, the matter was settled.

Outside Linxiang City, Huang Gai Camp.

In contrast to Liu Bei's hesitation, the moment Huang Gai received the news, he ordered a retreat, giving up on attacking Wuling Prefecture.

The Lord that reported tried to stop him, “General, we have around 30 thousand troops. If we go to Red Cliff, we might face the enemy squadron. At that time, we would not be able to assist and would instead be in deep trouble ourselves. General, please reconsider."

When Huang Gai heard these words, he frowned.

During the Battle of Red Cliff, Huang Gai was the main contributor. The plan to fake surrender and use fire to attack was one that Huang Gai proposed to Zhou Yu. As an experienced general, Huang Gai was one of the elders in the Jiangdong Organization. He had vast experience and was extremely intelligent, making many important decisions.

Long ago, when Sun Jian became a Lord and started his crusade against Dong Zhuo, Huang Gai had been following beside him.

Hence, his loyalty toward the Jiangdong Organization was undoubtable. However, he was not a rash person. Although he worried about Red Cliff, he could still accept other people's opinion.

"So what should we do?" Huang Gai asked.

"I think we should meet up with Liu Bei's troops and move in together. With that, we would not need to worry about the enemy and can also help the Red Cliff troops to pincer the enemy," the Lord suggested.

All the Lords that joined the battle map were among the top in the China region.

"You're right." Huang Gai agreed, “Only, can we get there in time?"

Huang Gai was experienced. From the information the players revealed, it was not hard to deduce that the enemy squadron was already at the opening of the Han River and were not far from Red Cliff.

On the contrary, they were still at Dongting Lake and even further away from Red Cliff than the enemy. As for Liu Bei's Army, they were even further. Adding in the time to meet up, it did not look optimistic.

The Lord was confident, “General does not need to worry. The players there are elites and are prepared. Hence, I feel that even if the enemy reaches there before us, they would not be able to take down Red Cliff before we reach there. They might even fall there."

Xiong Ba and Zhan Lang being the ones guarding Red Cliff was not a secret since long ago.

"Hence, we cannot rush and need to prepare. We should use our absolute advantage to crush the enemy." The Lord made such a conclusion.

His words finally convinced Huang Gai.

"Good, let's follow what you said and send a letter to Liu Bei." Huang Gai did not hesitate when he did things.

"Then I'll take my leave!"

As he spoke, the player Lord left the tent.

"Brother, I can only do this much for you." Looking at the sky, the Lord muttered, his voice solemn and sad, like he was facing a really tough situation.

If other players were here, they would recognize that this person was Gong Chengshi.

Xunlong Dianxue's unhappiness with Shanhai City had already spread internally through the Shanhai Alliance. Without any exceptions, everyone stood on Shanhai Alliance's side, not understanding the unreasonable acts of Xunlong Dianxue.

After all, before Ouyang Shuo headed out to sea, he had especially gathered all of them. He also said that during that period of time he would not join the activities of the other allies.

Hence, Song Jia's refusal was within Ouyang Shuo's plan.

Who knew that the attitude of the members would deepen the anger in Xunlong Dianxue's heart.

As a good friend of Xunlong Dianxue, Gong Chengshi knew everything that happened from start to finish. Although he sympathized with Xunlong Dianxue’s defeat regarding Yizhou Island, he did not blame Shanhai City.

Xunlong Dianxue complained to him and chose the Sun Liu Camp to show his displeasure.

Helplessly, Gong Chengshi could only follow along. First, he wanted to take the chance to console and calm Xunlong Dianxue down. Secondly, he wanted to prevent Xunlong Dianxue from making any irrational decisions.

They did not expect that branch quests would occur in Sun Liu camp, and the two of them were unable to go to the same place.

With Gong Chengshi's understanding of Xunlong Dianxue, he knew that Xunlong Dianxue was a quest maniac and loved to take the unusual route. Hence, he thought that Xunlong Dianxue would choose the Huang Gai questline.

He did not expect to not find Xunlong Dianxue in the Huang Gai Camp; this had increased his worries.

"Xunlong ah, please do not do anything stupid. If not, we will not be able to salvage this." Gong Chengshi sighed; his heart felt truly conflicted.

On one side was the big brother he respected. Without Ouyang Shuo, there would not be Black Lion City. However, on the other was his good friend and brother.

With that, Gong Chengshi was faced with a tough decision either way.

Chapter 700-War on Red Cliff

The clear Han River flowed like a fierce tiger into the Changjiang. The river water and the freshwater did not mix together, forming a very obvious divide.

The voyage squadron that had obtained a huge victory went down the river and entered the Changjiang.

The splashing river continued to flow.

Ouyang Shuo stood at the front of the ship, looking out and thinking of a thousand year poem.

……

East flows the mighty Yangtze River,

Its rolling waves have washed away all the heroes.

In the blink of an eye,

Our rights, wrongs, gains, and losses are all in vain.

However, green hills still remain here as ever.

How often have we enjoyed the rosy setting sun?

A gray-haired man stands on this fishing bank alone,

He is so used to the spring wind and autumn moon.

It’s a real joy of reunion over a pot of nice wine,

All the things past and present,

Are retold with nothing but peals of laughter!

……

All of a sudden, he was filled with emotion.

His current state was like that of the Changjiang, splashing like the waves, but sometimes really calm. The Changjiang had given birth to many Chinese civilizations.

Jia Xu stood behind Ouyang Shuo with a deep and unreadable expression. Jia Xu’s eyes showed that he was deep in thought.

The shock that the voyage squadron had given him slowly faded. However, Jia Xu did not understand the actions of Ouyang Shuo in these few days.

After capturing Lu Su, Lu Meng, Gan Ning, and Zhou Tai, Ouyang Shuo did not even meet them even once, which was weird to Jia Xu. Instead, Ouyang Shuo asked the soldiers to take good care of them.

Such a course of action was just too weird.

Jia Xu saw through how much Ouyang Shuo wanted talents and how much he needed these generals. If not, he would not have ordered the troops to sweep the battlefield.

Since that was the case, why not meet them and make them surrender?

Jia Xu did not get it.

Ouyang Shuo noticed Jia Xu’s doubts, but he was not going to explain. It was easy to capture them but hard to recruit them. Earning their loyalty was difficult.

At this juncture, the battle had just started, so how could Ouyang Shuo hope that Lu Su and the rest would surrender. If that was the case, Ouyang Shuo would not dare to accept it.

Rather than wasting his breath, why not just wait for the right time?

Ouyang Shuo was considering how to attack Red Cliff.

Crushing the Lu Su Army was not to really kill them all, and they had captured two thousand prisoners. In these past few days, the intel officer had obtained some intel through the interrogation.

Notably, Lu Su had received an emergency order to immediately return to Red Cliff.

Ouyang Shuo could not predict if Huang Gai and Liu Bei had received similar orders. However, they could be sure that Red Cliff was prepared for them.

Especially after the Lu Su Army fell, the enemy would have been alerted.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to be even more careful.

When he first entered the Changjiang, he thought about going up and destroying the Huang Gai army first.

However, Jia Xu disagreed.

"There's a high chance that Huang Gai has gathered with Liu Bei to strike. If we fail to crush them and instead get ourselves into trouble, that would affect the Red Cliff plan. On the contrary, if we take down Red Cliff and cut off all their communications, Huang Gai will have no choice but to come. At that time, we can just lay in wait at Red Cliff."

When Ouyang Shuo heard this analysis, he could not help but exclaim.

……

Battle map 7th day, Dragon Head.

Two days away from Red Cliff, Ouyang Shuo ordered them to slow down. At the same time, hundreds of Cima Boats broke away and brought hundreds of frogmen to scout.

The squadron slowly proceeded forward as they awaited intel.

On the night of the 8th day, the first batch of frogmen brought the newest intel.

Based on what they described, the enemy had built a large fortress at Red Cliff and Wulin that contained hundreds of warships lying in wait. The exterior of the fortress was purposely camouflaged and hidden.

Especially the fortress on the Wulin side; it was surrounded by charge wood. One could not see clearly into it, so they naturally would not be able to see the warships.

Some of the bigger warships were purposely disguised.

If the navy went in without preparation, it was not hard to imagine what trap laid in wait for them.

The motive of the enemy was obvious.

Apart from that, the frogmen also brought back another piece of important intel.

Based on what the special force frogmen that dived into the fortress at night had seen, the enemy similarly had turreted ships and Mengchong Warships. Their turreted ships were also equipped with cannons.

Upon initial estimation, they had no less than 300 cannons.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this news, a light shone in his eyes. Without a doubt, Xiong Ba and the others had grasped cannon making technology; otherwise, there was no way they could obtain so many cannons.

"They truly did a good job of keeping it a secret!"

……

Battle room.

"Wen He, do you have any good plan?" Ouyang Shuo asked Jia Xu.

Even Zheng He turned around and looked toward Jia Xu, his eyes filled with eagerness. After a few days of dealing with one another, Zheng He had started to respect and worship Jia Xu more and more.

Jia Xu did not decline out of humbleness. After all, the role of a strategist was exactly that, so he asked, “Admiral, if we force the attack, no matter what ambush the enemy has to attack both shores, what are our chances of winning?"

When Zheng He heard this question, his expression froze. He stood up and moved to the middle of the sand board.

Five meters long and three meters wide; based on the intel from the frogmen, the enemy formations and arrangements in Red Cliff were all perfectly replicated on the sand board through many warship models.

Zheng He placed the models that represented the voyage squadron onto the river surface between the two strongholds. After he placed the models there, he slowly contemplated.

Obviously, Zheng He was modeling and visualizing the battle in his mind to deduce the formation and firepower arrangement he should use.

Half an hour had passed and the models were all placed down. Hundreds of warships were placed into the narrow river, filling it to the brim.

Even Ouyang Shuo could not see what was special about this formation.

After placing everything down, Zheng He did not stop and started to move the warships on both sides. One by one, he shifted them to pincer the voyage squadron from left and right.

Seeing his serious expression, Ouyang Shuo's intuition told him that the battle on the sand board was underway, cannons blazing and a massacre was happening.

Ouyang Shuo and Jia Xu held their breaths; they did not dare to disturb Zheng He.

As time went on, the warships were lit up in flames by Zheng He, representing the fall of the warship. Small fires encapsulated an indescribable killing.

More and more warships were set on fire as time went on.

At the same time, Zheng He continued to change the formation of both his troops and the enemy.

Trying to deduce the fighting methods of both sides at once was a huge test of brain power and strategic ability.

Ouyang Shuo could clearly see beads of sweat appearing on Zheng He's forehead.

Zheng He himself did not notice that as he was still simulating the battlefield. More warships caught on fire. Even the voyage squadron could not avoid it as one after another caught fire.

A full half an hour later, the simulation was finally completed.

The huge sand board became exceedingly empty. The lit model ships had turned to ash. Only tens of warships floated on the river, and some of them were still smoking.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Jia Xu, his eyes extremely serious.

The results could not be more obvious. Even if they went all in, they could only achieve a tough victory.

Such an outcome was not something Ouyang Shuo wanted.

The goal of the voyage squadron was not only to crush the troops defending Red Cliff; they needed to defend this strategic choke point. If they squeezed out a victory, the remaining troops would not be able to block the attacks of Huang Gai and Liu Bei. If that was the case, it would undoubtedly be a failure.

Hence, the voyage squadron needed to win beautifully.

At this juncture, Zhang He had already regained his senses and bowed, “Monarch, mister, as you can see, we only have a 60% chance of winning. I still have not considered what would happen if Huang Gai and Liu Bei rushed back."

"In a battle, if just one arrives, it would be catastrophic." Zheng He's expression was solemn.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this analysis, he was totally silent.

Red Cliff was a strategic chokepoint; now, it was in the hands of the enemy.

In a case where numbers and equipment were not too different, without having an advantage in geography, cleanly destroying the enemy was truly difficult.

Only a genius could come up with a plan for this.

Ouyang Shuo raised his head and looked at Jia Xu with eyes filled with expectancy

Jia Xu stared at the sand board with his brows locked tight; obviously, he had not thought of a way.

"Monarch, should we use the frogmen method?" Zheng He interrupted.

"You mean to send them to chisel the boats?"

"That's right." Zheng He nodded, “Sneakily destroy their warships. Without their ships, what else can they do?"

The first time this strategy was used, the whole Spanish Invincible Squadron was wiped out, bringing Ouyang Shuo massive riches. That shocking scene truly had a massive impact on Zheng He, and he remembered that moment clearly till date.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it and rejected the proposal, “That's not feasible. We are on a river, not the ocean. It's narrow and our warships cannot get close to Red Cliff. Currently, their warships are docked in the stronghold. Even if they are chiseled, they will just return to shore."

"With that, we would have only destroyed their ships, but they would be fine. Even if we take over Red Cliff, we will be attacked by a huge army."

There was one more point that Ouyang Shuo did not voice.

Not totally destroying the troops defending Red Cliff was detrimental to his following plan.

"So, this can only be the worst-case scenario. If possible, I want an even better plan.”

Chapter 701-Killing the Leader Operation

"A fire attack? What about using fire?" Zheng He suggested.

When he was simulating the battle, Zheng He kept on thinking about potential strategies. Although the Monarch had rejected the frogmen plan, Zheng He did not give up and suggested another plan.

"How so?" Ouyang Shuo did not pour cold water onto Zheng He's eagerness.

"Take alchemical oil and straws onto the Cima Boats and arrange for frogmen to pull the boats underwater. When they get close to the enemy, light up the boats; the enemy would not be able to survive, “ Zheng He explained.

Ouyang Shuo thought about this suggestion and shook his head, “First, the enemy has cannons. The Cima Boats are such obvious targets. Even before they get close, they would be shot. At that point, even the frogmen would get hit."

"Secondly, the river is narrow and the enemy troops are pincering us from left and right. Even if the Cima Boats gets close and ignites a fire, if the fire spreads, we might burn ourselves."

"How about we use the night sky to splash the alchemical fire oil onto the enemy warships?"

"The frogmen are amazing, but they are not superheroes. How can they bring large amounts of alchemical fire oil into the enemy fortress and not be noticed in the process?" Ouyang Shuo laughed as he shook his head.

When Zheng He heard this response, his expression turned to one of shame, “Monarch has thought about it thoroughly."

Ouyang Shuo looked at Jia Xu once more. He saw that Jia Xu had already looked away from the sand board and was smiling, “Mister, do you have a method?"

"I do actually have one." Jia Xu nodded.

"Mister, please speak!" Ouyang Shuo was delighted.

"The two strategies raised by the admiral are good but have some limitations. Both strategies use the frogmen as the core. During this period of time, I've also come to understand how unique the frogmen are."

Jia Xu paused before continuing, “Your frogmen are really mysterious, coming and going without a trace, like dragons crossing a river, you can see the front but not the tail. With that, only sending them to scout, chisel boats, or support matters is underusing their ability."

"What?" Zheng He obviously did not agree.

The nattle in the Mediterranean had already proved the value of the frogmen.

"Since they are dragons, they cannot act like snakes and must show their true powers. Dragons can hide in the dust and also change the weather as they please. To cleanly end this battle the best way is to slay their leader, “ Jia Xu responded to Zheng He's doubts.

"Slay their leader?" A light appeared in Ouyang Shuo's eyes.

In reality, the responsibility and role of the frogmen, apart from scouting the enemy, was to target the enemy leader. Ouyang Shuo did not think about this move because he felt that the frogmen had not truly formed up.

Ouyang Shuo truly did not have the confidence to send them on such a high difficulty mission.

"Based on intel, the enemy has a commanding officer and Wulin and Red Cliff each have a symbolic flagship. As long as the frogmen go in and kill them, even just one is enough, it would be of large help to our plan." Jia Xu elaborated.

"Mister, let me interrupt. The enemy flagship is comparable to our Dragon Head, and there are no less than two thousand soldiers. If we count in the sailors, there are even more. The difficulty is really high; if we are not careful, we might alert the entire fortress."

"At that time, the plan would have failed, and the enemy would be alerted to our presence." Ouyang Shuo expressed his worries.

If they could really kill the leader, Ouyang Shuo would naturally be willing.

Jia Xu probably did not know about the settings of the battle map toward players. If Xiong Ba and Zhan Lang were assassinated, their forces would disappear.

Then, they truly could take down Red Cliff without breaking a sweat.

Now, the crux of the problem laid in how to ensure that they succeeded in killing the leader.

Ouyang Shuo's knew that Xiong B was really cunning and scheming. His protection of his warship was at an exaggerated level.

If they really failed, they would have problems at hand.

Jia Xu was really relaxed, smiling, “As long as we plan it out, our success rate is above 70; it's worth a shot."

"Please speak!" Ouyang Shuo bowed.

"First, the Monarch said that the enemy warship, especially the flagship, is the same as ours. Hence, we have an advantage as the frogmen know the entire layout. We can also create detailed action plans and emergency actions, such things also can be practiced."

"That can be done." Ouyang Shuo nodded.

"Secondly, we can use alchemical fire oil. Based on my understandings, small amounts of it can be placed in barrels. When they enter, they can place them at crucial locations before igniting it. This can stop the officers onboard from helping and also stop other ships from assisting." Jia Xu said.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this plan, he frowned, “Then wouldn’t the frogmen onboard have a high chance of dying?"

"For the plan to succeed, some sacrifices are needed."

This response sent a shiver down his spine, as expected from the venomous strategist. To enact this plan, no less than three thousand frogmen were needed. As for the number that could escape, it would be a minority.

Zheng He was silently standing at the side.

"Mister is right, this plan, I approve it." Ouyang Shuo did not bother about Zheng He, “To ensure our success, I'll arrange 500 Divine Martial Guards to go in. Their mission will be to kill the enemy commanding officer."

"Monarch is wise!" A flash of light appeared in Jia Xu's eyes.

Jia Xu knew the kind of presence the Divine Martial Guards were; they were even stronger than their guards. With their participation, the success rate would greatly increase.

One-sixth of the three thousand Divine Martial Guards were sacrificed just like that.

Jia Xu gained a new understanding about Ouyang Shuo's ability to put down and sacrifice.

As a leader, one has to be stone cold and could not be merciful. On this point, be it Cao Cao or Liu Bei, they were all the same.

Jia Xu's impression of Ouyang Shuo was getting better and better, and even the way he called him had slowly changed to Monarch. Although that was just being polite at the current moment.

If they spent more time together, Jia Xu was truly worried he would be awed by this young man in front of him and pledge his allegiance.

He truly is special! Jia Xu thought.

Only Zheng He had a sad expression. Till now, this general still had not fully adapted to the killing.

"Monarch!" Zheng He wanted to speak.

"Speak!" Ouyang Shuo said expressionlessly.

If Zheng He at the current moment still said some depressing words regarding sacrifices, Ouyang Shuo would probably have to reconsider if he was suitable for the role of Nanyang Navy Admiral.

As the five squadrons were all built up, the position of Nanyang Navy Admiral was higher than that of marshals like Baiqi, leading 500 thousand troops.

Not to mention that the presence of the Nanyang Navy affected their control of the seas.

Hence, the leader had to be a person who showed no emotion and mercy.

During the voyage, Ouyang Shuo had purposely tried to change Zheng He's ideals and thinking. He wanted to let Zheng He accept the cruelness of war and toss aside his pacifist thinking.

Now, it was time to test the fruits of his labor.

Without a doubt, Zheng He's tactical mind and seafaring experience was something others could not compare to. However, if he did not have the heart to kill, he would not be a suitable leader.

Ouyang Shuo was silently deciding the fate of the voyage squadron and Zheng He in his heart. However, no one could tell what he was thinking from the surface.

Zheng He's face was similarly hard to read, but he looked a little unsettled. One could tell that he was facing a deep battle in his heart.

Old and new ideals clashed in his mind.

Every scene from his last life and the voyage journey clashed.

To Zheng He, it was like living in two separate spaces, being torn apart, quietly bearing the pain.

One side was mercy, the other was killing.

Before this, Zheng He had been wavering between the two. In truth, he was bearing great pain.

Ouyang Shuo's words undoubtedly pushed him to the edge of the cliff.

Zheng He was not a fool; he could feel that although this conversation was sudden, it was inevitable.

The Monarch had limited patience and Zheng He needed to make a choice.

The atmosphere in the battle room suddenly froze up, making it hard for one to breathe.

An anxious atmosphere lingered in the air.

There was no wind in the room, like the entire space had frozen. Even Jia Xu kept his smile and quietly looked at this duo.

After a long while, Zheng He raised his head, his voice was hoarse, and his body was wet like he had just exited a sauna, “Monarch, I want to say that the underwater breathing devices are hard to obtain. If we lose all of them, the losses would be too great. Should we consider sending experts to gather up the underwater breathing devices after they go onto the boat and send it back to the squadron?"

"Sure!"

Ouyang Shuo looked seriously at Zheng He; his eyes flashed with a look of admiration.

The air in the room calmed down once more.

Phew!

Who knows who it was that had heaved a sigh of relief.

Chapter 702-Close Relationship Between King and Subordinate

Ouyang Shuo left the battle room and came to the top deck of Dragon Head, letting Jia Xu and Zheng He settle the specifics of the operation.

The Divine Martial Guard soldiers were training onboard, the rain and wind did not stop them.

Despite the fact that the deck was slightly shaking, they acted like it was flat ground thanks to their strong martial arts ability.

As Dragon Head could only carry a limited amount of people, only one thousand of the three thousand Divine Martial Guards defended Dragon Head. The remaining two thousand were split into the four guard warships surrounding Dragon Head.

"Monarch!"

Seeing Ouyang Shuo, the Divine Martial Guards Commander Wang Feng walked over.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, getting straight to the topic, “There's a secret killing operation that needs the Divine Martial Guards to act. Pull out 500 elites to join this operation."

"Monarch do not worry, the name list will be prepared shortly!" Wang Feng did not hesitate.

The Divine Martial Guards were born to kill the enemy and none of them were cowards. If such a chance was left to other groups, they would have tried to push it around. On the other hand, the Divine Martial Guards would definitely snatch this opportunity.

"This operation is highly dangerous and has a high chance of death. You need to tell the boys that are only sons or have kids and wives at home cannot join this operation." Ouyang Shuo specially instructed.

Although Ouyang Shuo was cold, he was cold due to circumstances. The three thousand Divine Martial Guards were like his children; if he had another choice, he would not choose to sacrifice them.

"Is that so? General understands!" Seriousness flashed across Wang Feng's face.

The sharp Wang Feng instantly knew that this mission was unusual. If not, the Monarch would not be so hesitant. Many times, the Monarch would just send an order down through the Personal Guards.

This time, he had even personally come down to instruct, such a rare sight.

Ouyang Shuo sighed and said, “There's one more point. The target for assassination has strong martial arts. Choose two strong men to lead, do not affect the prestige of the Divine Martial Guards."

Zhan Lang and Xiong Ba's both had the general sub-occupations, and they had a strong combat strength. Moreover, apart from their personal strength, they definitely had guards protecting them.

They were now Lords of a region that have taken over an entire province. Although their guards could not compare to the Divine Martial Guards, they should be comparable to the Guards Legion.

Hence, fierce generals were required to kill both of them.

Luckily, each and every member of the Divine Martial Guards were elite; all of them had great skill, some were marksmen, some spear kings.

Great soldiers with great abilities were also exceedingly common here.

"How strong?" Wang Feng was unsure.

The Monarch only said he wanted someone strong, but in a place where the strong gathered, it was not easy to decide who he should send.

"The strongest."

When Wang Feng heard these words, a light shone in his eyes, and he suddenly knelt on one knee, “Monarch, I request to fight!"

"No!" Ouyang Shuo did not even think about it, rejecting him right away, “You're the commander of the Divine Martial Guards, how can you take that risk?"

Wang Feng was stubborn, “Monarch, it is because I'm the commander that I have a duty on this operation. If I send anyone else, I cannot help but worry."

"Think carefully. Even you who are so strong might die in this operation!" Ouyang Shuo's expression was truly solemn, but as Wang Feng had requested to battle, he could not reject it.

If not, it would be a blow to Wang Feng’s prestige in the army.

"I've thought it through." Wang Feng's eyes shone with determination.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Wang Feng with a complicated expression, “If that's the case, then go!" In his eyes, there was another feeling that only Wang Feng understood.

In truth, when Ouyang Shuo returned with the voyage squadron, Song Jia had told him the news that Qing'er had fallen for Wang Feng.

The two of them were a good match: one the commander of the Divine Martial Guards, the other an infanta.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo did not oppose them and told Song Jia to tell Qing'er that if she truly liked him, ask Song Jia to build a bridge to help her out.

Qing'er was a lonely person, so finding a husband like Wang Feng was great.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo also had his own intentions. If Wang Feng married Qing'er, the relationship between Wang Feng and Nanjiang Governor-General House would go to another level.

With this relationship, Wang Feng's loyalty would increase.

He was not trying to use his god sister to rope in generals around him. He only went with the flow; if Qing'er did not like him, he definitely would not force it.

It was like Cui Yingyu, who had so many suitors. Some people even begged Ouyang Shuo and Song Jia but were one by one rejected.

Ouyang Shuo's stance was crystal clear; he would not butt into the marriage matters of his god siblings.

Who they married was up to them.

Cui Yingyu, this lady, was still focusing on work. Ouyang Shuo had once talked to her about it, and she said that she currently had no intentions.

After all, in the olden environment, the moment she married, it would be hard for her to continue working in the Nanjiang Governor General House. Even if Ouyang Shuo wanted her to, there would be many people who would oppose.

The Cui family would not want to either.

Ouyang Shuo could see that this god sister was a typical independent woman and did not want to be bounded by marriage.

Since she had already described her intentions, Ouyang Shuo naturally would not force her.

After all, the game was only a game, so Cui Yingyu not marrying would not harm anyone or anything. To discuss this when she appeared on Planet Hope would be another matter.

Toward Ouyang Shuo's support, Cui Yingyu was surprised and happy.

The way Ouyang Shuo pampered his two god siblings made Song Jia a little jealous.

Returning to the topic at hand, Ouyang Shuo’s complicated emotions regarding Wang Feng requesting to do such a dangerous mission was understandable.

If something really happened to him, Ouyang Shuo really did not know how to explain it to Qing'er.

……

"Thank you Monarch!"

Wang Feng looked at Ouyang Shuo, solemnly nodding his head and bowing in thanks.

With such a loyal general, what more could Ouyang Shuo want? Just as he was filled with emotion, another shout sounded over, “Monarch I want to fight!"

Turning around, it was the Guards Captain Chen Dameng.

Ouyang Shuo instantly raged, “What are you doing?"

"Monarch, I'm also a member of the Divine Martial Guards." Chen Dameng’s words did make sense, “At this moment, even Commander Wang has stepped out, so I have to too."

"Preposterous!"

Chen Dameng was gleeful, “Monarch, in terms of ability, apart from Commander Wang, if I'm second, no one is first. To choose two strong men to lead, I have to be one of them!"

He really was not humble!

"Are you serious?" Ouyang Shuo's brows were locked.

He knew that although this Personal Guards Captain was always fooling around, he was an intelligent person.

"Obviously, I'm serious."

Ouyang Shuo's heart just died, “Go, go, you all might regret it!"

"Thank you Monarch!"

Chen Dameng was delighted and bowed, smiling toward Wang Feng.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, giving his final instructions, “Choose the members and report to Admiral Zheng He. Remember, being the god arm crossbow, come back alive!"

"Yes Monarch!"

Wang Feng and Chen Dameng both bowed in unison.

After Ouyang Shuo left, the deck instantly became busy. The conversation between Ouyang Shuo and Wang Feng were heard by the members of the Divine Martial Guards in the vicinity.

"Boss, I register!"

"Me too!"

"Count me in!"

Hearing the noise behind him, Ouyang Shuo sighed in his heart, “Truly a bunch of fearless warriors."

The whole day revolved around the assassination plan.

Choosing members, giving equipment, preparing resources, familiarizing with the layout, and fortress intel, mock training, and more.

The entire squadron had totally stopped.

……

Battle map, 10th day, morning.

The preparation for the operation had been completed and the two thousand frogmen and 500 Divine Martial Guards were ready.

Mist covered the river surface on this humid day.

In the mist, 200 Cima Boats carrying the soldiers and resources orderly lined up on the river surface.

The chilly wind pierced the bone like a sharp knife. Each soldier stood straight like a pencil, rising up and down along with the movement of the boats.

Ouyang Shuo boarded one boat to send the soldiers off.

Ouyang Shuo raised the bowl in his hand, “Boys, one bowl of wine to send you off. When you return, there will be a feast!"

"Finish it!" After these words, Ouyang Shuo downed the entire bowl. A fiery sensation filled his throat and flowed into his stomach.

The soldiers drank the wine in their bowls too.

Pa!

The bowls were thrown into the river, showing their determination.

After the simple farewell, the frogmen squad immediately set out and disappeared into the mist.

Ouyang Shuo stood still for a long time, looking into the distance.

Although Zheng He and Jia Xu had made a detailed and well-thought out plan, it still could not calm his heart down.

The operation was too dangerous and the enemies were Xiong Ba and Zhan Lang. If things went wrong, their whole group would crash and burn.

This was the first battle till date that Ouyang Shuo did not have confidence in.

"Monarch!"

Zheng He reminded him that it was time to return.

"Let's go back!"

Ouyang Shuo kept his emotions and got ready to return to Dragon Head.

The entire process was viewed by Jia Xu, who now had a brand new opinion of this young king.

Chapter 703-Terrifying Night

The night sky was as dark as ink, the black clouds hung overhead.

One could not see many stars, and even the half moon was hidden in the clouds. The entire night sky was like a pitch black drawing, making it hard for one to breathe.

The cold wind blew by, wrapping up the clouds and causing them to turn up and down.

The Red Cliff at night was quiet, like a beast that had kept its fangs, slowly storing energy as it waited to tear the enemy into shreds.

Within the Wulin Fortress on the west shoreline of Red Cliff, hundreds of warships appeared in the night sky, like ghosts lying in wait. Around the warships, numerous torches were lit up.

Under the cover of the fire, the river surface within the water fortress shone.

On the deck, one could occasionally hear the sounds of footsteps. In the unassuming cabins, voices sounded out, like soldiers gathering to gamble to pass the boring night.

Even the patrolling soldiers were talking.

"Who would appear during such lousy weather?"

"Yeah. We have spent so long in this god forsaken place and have not even seen a shadow. What are we even hiding here for?"

"The Lord has planned it out, why are you guys speculating?"

"That's right, why you talking about such useless stuff!"

"Let's just get past this duty and go back to our rooms!"

"Be quiet! Maintain vigilance!" The captain leading them finally could not take it anymore and chided.

The night calmed down once more and in the cold wind, there were occasionally some grumbles.

In the middle of the fortress, a five story high giant turreted ship stood out like a peacock, surrounded by the other warships. It was like a Lord, standing above reproach from the rest.

That turreted ship was the flagship of Xiong Ba - King.

During this battle, Xiong Ba would be in charge of Wulin while Zhan Lang would take charge of Red Cliff.

On the highest floor of the King, in a well decorated reading room, there was Xiong Ba. He was dressed in martial attire and sat in front of a table. On the table was an oil lamp that flickered as the wind blew, like it was about to be extinguished.

The window of the reading room started to creak under the cold wind, giving out an ear piercing sound.

"The wind has started?"

Xiong Ba got up and moved to close the window. He looked up at the pitch black sky, his eyes locked, “Dark cloud, hidden stars, the weather is unusual!"

As people put it, unusual whether always forebodes catastrophe.

Who knows why, since the day started, Xiong Ba had felt unsettled. He felt that there was something bad that was going to happen. The ink like night sky made him feel suppressed and hard to breathe.

"There's no reason, ah!" Xiong Ba shook his head and denied it, trying to toss aside the random thoughts in his head. After calming down his emotions, he just closed the window and stopped looking at the sky.

Half a month before the battle map started, Yanhuang Alliance had started preparing for it. In Di Chen's words, no matter what, they needed to crush Shanhai Alliance and take back supremacy in China.

The explosion in the first half of the year was a process for them to gather strength and power.

Shanhai City upgrading to Grade 3 Prefecture had pressed down on their momentum, but it did not affect much as the true battle was in this battle map.

After getting the cannon crafting technology, Xiong Ba became even more confident.

"Qiyue Wuyi, it's time for you to fail!" Although Xiong Ba admired Qiyue Wuyi for his achievements, it did not mean that he did not want to defeat Qiyue Wuyi.

On the contrary, this desire to win was more intense in him than anyone else.

The Battle of Yizhou Island was seen by the outside world as a battle between Yanhuang Alliance and Shanhai Alliance.

In the end, the Yanhuang Alliance victory was a very good description of their rise in the first half of the year. It was also a continuation of the battle between the two alliances.

Xiong Ba naturally did not think so shallowly.

He was proud of the victory and had used it to raise the prestige and might of King City.

But to say that this was a battle between the two alliances was a little far from the truth.

Xiong Ba knew that from the start, Shanhai City did not even join in. If not, just the Jiaozhou Squadron joining in would be enough to crush them.

After winning against Xunlong City, Xiong Ba followed the successful model of Qiongzhou Island like shipbuilding industry, salt, and adventure gamemode players.

Toward Yizhou Island, Xiong Ba invested a lot into it. His ambition was to split the ocean with Shanhai City, one in the north, one in the south.

Yizhou Island was the dividing line.

To fulfil such ambition, the Battle of Red Cliff was the key. He needed to prove that even in naval battle his navy could crush the legendary Shanhai City Navy.

Hence, it was not hard to understand why he placed so much emphasis on this battle.

Even to say that to destroy the Shanhai City Squadron, Xiong Ba had given up on the historical generals in this map.

Outside of the battlefield, Xiong Ba also did a lot of work.

For example, the third party that contacted Xunlong Dianxue was actually a hidden power from the Xiong Ba family. The goal was to cause internal conflict in Shanhai Alliance.

Xunlong Dianxue and Gong Chengshi choosing the Sun Liu Camp undoubtedly proved that his scheme had succeeded.

Toward Xunlong Dianxue, to say the truth, Xiong Ba found him an eyesore. In his eyes, he felt that he was just lucky to be friends with Shanhai City.

How could true commoner Lords compete with them?

The only change was Qiyue Wuyi.

Hence, the determination of the aristocratic families to remove this anomaly had never changed.

"It was just too difficult."

Thinking about the achievements of the voyage squadron, Xiong Ba felt defeated.

Even in the battle map, things were not going smoothly. The clean defeat of the Lu Su Army had given Xiong Ba and Zhan Lang problems.

The first part of the plan had ended in failure.

Based on the time, the Shanhai City Squadron should have reached Red Cliff two days earlier. In the end? They had waited patiently, fully focused, excited and nervous, but it was all for nothing.

It was like the Shanhai City Squadron had disappeared.

Xiong Ba had also guessed that maybe they had turned around to attack Liu Bei. After all, the bait of Liu Bei, Zhao Yun, and Zhuge Liang gave them a lot of reason to do so.

However, the intel he received last night dismissed this conjecture.

To ensure long distance communication in the battle map, the Yanhuang Alliance spent large amounts of money to buy four golden eagle spirit beasts from adventure groups.

This spirit beast was special and could travel thousands of miles in a day to spread intel.

With that, the three groups split in Red Cliff, Dongting Lake, and Mengyu River could keep communication.

The intel was from Chun Shenjun. Although the two hated one another, they were rational and could work together in the battle map.

Based on what he said, their situation there was bad.

When Lu Su's army was destroyed, Huang Gai had sent a letter to Liu Bei to proceed to Red Cliff together. The problem was that Liu Bei was waiting to take Changsha Prefecture, so how could he move out?

His rejection infuriated Huang Gai.

Huang Gai directly scolded Liu Bei in the letter for betraying his brothers: when you were chased by Cao Cao like a dog without a home, Jiangdong took you in and gave you a place to live.

It was the Jiangdong Army that crushed the Cao Cao Army and broke their legend of being invincible. Only then did you gain breathing room.

Now, Red Cliff has problems, but you only want to occupy land and not help, shameless.

Such a letter had totally humiliated Liu Bei. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei raged and fumed that they wanted to kill Huang Gai.

Luckily, Liu Bei was rational and stopped them to prevent internal conflict.

Even so, both sides were on bad terms and could not work together. Huang Gai personally led his troops toward Red Cliff.

Based on the time, they would need three days to reach Red Cliff.

As for Liu Bei's side, it was not that they truly did not help. After he settled the people of Changsha and stabilized the rule, he started to prepare to move out.

At the same time, to appease the Jiangdong Organization, Liu Bei had asked Guan Yu to lead the vanguard.

As such, it was obvious that the Shanhai City squadron totally did not attack Liu Bei.

This made Xiong Ba and Zhan Lang confused.

Logically speaking, wouldn’t it be better the earlier they attacked Red Cliff? The longer it dragged on, after the various troops gathered at Red Cliff, wouldn’t it be near impossible?

Xiong Ba would not believe that Qiyue Wuyi was so arrogant.

"There's definitely a scheme. But where will the problem come out from?"

Toward this point, Xiong Ba could not get it.

"Do we have a spy? So Shanhai City did not dare to come?" One could not blame him for holding suspicions. After all, he could not afford to lose this battle.

Xiong Ba focused his targets to the few Lords.

All of a sudden, the atmosphere grew tense.

However, after checking and checking, he did not find anyone suspicious.

With that, Xiong Ba locked himself in his reading room to contemplate.

Now, it seemed like their plan did not work out.

"Forget it, time to sleep!" Xiong Ba sighed, getting up to leave the reading room.

As the oil lamp was extinguished, the room became pitch black once more.

The night sky became thicker and darker.

As the late night arrived, even the soldiers gathered to gamble had went back to rest. The stronghold became really quiet, only leaving the sound of the wind.

Just at this moment, a bunch of ghosts sneakily crept toward the King.

An unexpected massacre was about to occur.

This night was destined to end in chaos.

Chapter 704-Can Only Forcefully Attack

Under the pitch black sky, Wang Feng led 250 Divine Martial Guards and 1 thousand frogmen into the Wulin Fortress. They went straight toward the King.

The arrangement of the fortress had earlier been investigated by the frogmen.

The entire assassination army was like a bunch of fish, drifting at the bottom of the river, no one noticing and without a sound.

The moment they got close, they immediately followed what they practiced and spread out, surrounding the King. 100 of them went around the King to collect the underwater breathing devices and get ready to leave.

"Go!"

Wang Feng made an attacking signal like that of a chain to spread to the entire army.

The hand signal was taught in the special operations base. Hence, the Divine Martial Guards and the Guards Legion soldiers all understood it.

The frogmen who joined in all had similar hand signal training.

Shua! Shua! Shua!

The Divine Martial Guards threw out the flying claws and grabbed onto the sides of the deck. They were like monkeys, climbing up the warship using the ropes.

The entire process flowed like water.

After they went up, they once again placed down a rope ladder to help the frogmen climb up.

"Go!"

Wang Feng did another hand signal.

The Divine Martial Guards pulled out the god arm crossbows on their backs, arming it and disappearing on the deck in a fighting formation.

After a short while, the patrolling soldiers appeared in the view of the Divine Martial Guards.

"Attack!"

Pu! Pu! Pu!

The crossbows fired, the sharp arrows splitting the air.

Each one of them was marksmen, and their control of the weapons had reached at an unmissable level. Even in the night, with only the torch lighting, they were still accurate.

In just a short two minutes, the patrolling soldiers on the first floor fell without any resistance, without even making a sound.

Just like that, they proceeded up floor by floor like ghosts, reaping the lives of the enemy.

The way they fought was like special operations forces in real life. The first step of their mission was to remove the nails of these patrolling squads.

On the other side, 50 men were left to chisel the boats while the frogmen had all gotten up. Along with them were hundreds of barrels of alchemical fire oil.

"Quick, faster!"

The officer said softly and started to command the troops.

The frogmen immediately became an ant army and transported the barrels to various corners of the warship. Flipping the barrels over, letting the oil flow onto the deck.

The placement of the oil was all precisely calculated. The moment it ignited, the entire warship would turn into an ocean of fire. At that time, even the frogmen would not be able to survive.

Hence, this was a failsafe, the last resort.

After placing the oil, the frogmen did not stop and immediately spread out. They followed the plan and entered each cabin to kill the soldiers.

Huge amounts of soldiers were killed in their sleep, sad to the maximum. Some woke up but were swiftly killed, giving out muffled cries.

Blood red started to corrode the pitch black night.

Some of the frogmen went to assist the Divine Martial Guards. After all, they were limited in numbers and clearing the top deck was not going to be easy.

There were some hidden at the dark corners to get ready to light the oil. Those in charge were basically kamikaze warriors.

The last were in charge of being sentries to prevent any enemy reinforcements.

……

The night was deeper and deeper.

The pitch black darkness was like an invisible smoke, choking and hard to breathe.

Even the wind had stopped, everywhere was totally silent.

On the top deck of King, the Divine Martial Guards had already gathered up.

Just at this moment, the moon that was hiding in the clouds suddenly revealed itself. The gentle moonlight shone down and lit up the bodies of the Divine Martial Guards.

Their armor was covered in blood.

Not every assassination attempt was smooth. If they hid in the wrong place or the person had survived the first round of attacks, the Divine Martial Guard would need to go all out.

They needed to quickly kill the enemies without making too much noise. The best way was naturally close combat. With that, it was unavoidable to be splattered with blood and even have deaths.

The killing intent on their bodies had gathered and formed, making one terrified if they looked at them.

At the current moment, everything went smoothly and there were no accidents.

However, Wang Feng's face did not show a single hint of happiness. He knew that what would happen next was the greatest test to them. What they had faced was just the appetizer.

Intel showed that the reading room and sleeping quarters of Xiong Ba was at the top level. Hence, the defense here was the strictest and they had three layers of defenses.

The outermost layer was still the navy patrolling squad with close to a hundred of them; the middle was Xiong Ba's guards, around 200 who were well-equipped and good at fighting.

The deepest layer was his Personal Guards with a hundred of them.

For the Divine Martial Guards to break through, it was as tough as ascending the heavens.

Luckily, they did not fight alone. 10 minutes later, 300 elite frogmen rushed over.

"General!"

The frogmen captain came over to report.

"Let’s go!"

Wang Feng was just so decisive; the moment they arrived, he ordered the start of the fight.

500 people sneakily surrounded the patrolling squad; the god arm crossbows fired once more.

Pu! Pu! Pu!

The outermost layer of troops became like porcupines in an instance.

When Wang Feng saw this scene, he let out a sigh of relief. One must know that they were less than 100 meters away from the guards, if they were a little louder, the guards would hear it.

At that time, the situation would get out of hand.

Suddenly, an accident happened!

A patrolling member walked out from behind the cabin. Looking at the situation, this person should have temporarily left the squad to attend nature's call.

"I'm back!"

The moment he walked out, he saw his brothers lying in blood.

"Murder!"

The moment he shouted, a sharp arrow pierced his throat as he fell right away.

The Divine Martial Guards thought they had finished their battle and were resting when he appeared. Who knew that there was a fish that missed the net?

The cry broke the silence of the night.

Wang Feng's face instantly became ugly.

Such a loud shout stunned the guards in the middle.

"Who?"

"Go take a look; what's the situation?"

"Keep your guard up!"

……

"Prepare for battle!"

The guards in charge of defending were elites and did not panic. They arranged people to take a look while forming a battle formation and reporting the matter.

With that, they did not give the Divine Martial Guards any chance.

On the deck, corpses laid in blood, appearing really white under the shine of the moonlight. At the same time, the Divine Martial Guards who were lying in wait appeared in the field of vision of the guards.

"Who are you?" The guards had grabbed onto the weapons in their hands.

"Charge!"

Seeing the situation, Wang Feng knew that could only forcefully attack.

Wang Feng immediately recognized that the enemy totally did not think about getting answers and just asked to drag time.

"Kill!"

An assassination attempt became a head on sword-on-sword blade-on-blade battle.

……

"There are assassins!"

At the current moment, the Personal Guards had gotten the news and woken up the entire top deck.

"What happened?"

Xiong Ba walked out of the door, like Ouyang Shuo, even as he slept, he would remain alert. The chaos outside had stunned him.

The worry before he slept became a nightmare while he slept. In his dreams, Xiong Ba saw the entire stronghold become an ocean of fire.

"Lord, there are assassins!" The Personal Guards Captain reported.

"Assassins, what assassins?" Xiong Ba did not react right away, “Were they sent by other Lords?"

Xiong Ba could not understand; this fortress was like a barracks, so why would there be an assassin? Was there still a spy amongst them?

The current Xiong Ba panicked.

If it truly was the spy jumping out, Xiong Ba would instead be happy. He did not believe that there would be anyone who could assassinate him in this fortress.

"Lord, the enemy is a proper force." The captain's face was solemn, “I just got news that the entire flagship had fallen."

"What, the situation has reached such a stage?" Xiong Ba was astonished.

"Lord, let's retreat!" The captain was anxious.

"Retreat? No, let me think about it." Xiong Ba was still Xiong Ba; he was not an easily scared fellow. "Damn it, could it be Qiyue Wuyi! How did they sneak in?"

The players in China did not know about underwater breathing devices.

"Sound the alarm, they truly are bold!" Xiong Ba was an arrogant person. Since the enemy dared to enter his land, he was going to make sure they did not return.

"Qiyue Wuyi, I did not think you would use such a despicable method." Xiong Ba calmed down; like he had won a battle, he grinned.

As expected from an ambitious person, he thought differently from others.

……

The rumbling war drums exploded in the water fortress, breaking the silent night.

The sleeping fortress immediately woke up. The sleeping beast slowly opened its eyes and revealed its fangs, a terrifying sight.

Chapter 705-Unnamed Hero

The alarm was sounded and thousands of torches were lit; these lights were like the stars in the night sky, illuminating the water fortress like it was day time.

"What happened?"

Awoken by the ear piercing alarm, the soldiers who had climbed out of their beds questioned one another.

"It's the alarm from the flagship!"

"I heard there are assassins!"

"Assassins? Who is so bold, do they want to die?"

"Damn, disturbing my dream, I'll kill them!"

"That's right, waking me up at midnight, I just want to rest!"

The soldiers who were woken up were furious.

"Stop making noise and gather on deck!" The leading officer started to organize the troops.

The warships around King had started to move toward it to assist. Being provoked in their own territory was not something that they could take.

After holding it in for so many days, it was time for them to let it all out.

"Let's vent it all out on these assassins!" The soldiers were filled with killing intent.

A killing aura gathered in the sky.

At the same time, in an unassuming corner, gazes were focused in their direction. Not only was the King City Navy housed here, there were two other Lords.

"Interesting!" The Lord exclaimed.

Naturally, they would not go join in the fun and quietly watched on. Till date, no one thought that the enemy would be able to succeed.

It was simply too impossible.

……

On the top level of King, swords and bows clashed, and the atmosphere had reached its most nerve wrecking state.

"General, the enemy fortress has been awakened, what should we do?" The officer asked Wang Feng.

"Wang Feng did not panic; determination flashed across his eyes, “Gather all the frogmen. After we gather, immediately start the fire!"

"Understood!" A similar determination flashed across the face of the soldier.

The result of setting the fire was something they were all clear about, but they viewed death as a return home.

"Let the frogmen chiseling the boats immediately act, do not let the target run!" Wang Feng added.

"Do not worry general! The instructions have been passed down!"

"Then let's fight!"

Wang Feng threw down the god arm crossbow and pulled out his spear.

"Kill!"

Immediately, the Divine Martial Guards tangled with the enemy guards.

The two elite forces went neck and neck. In comparison, the 300 frogmen were weak; after all, they were sailors and not good at close combat.

Along with the alarm sounding, the King was similarly awakened. The soldiers on board who were not killed yet donned their armor and charged out of their cabins.

Even the sailors took up weapons to join the fray.

Each deck, each corridor, each room had fights going on. The shine of the blades cast fluttering shadows on the walls; like the river of fate, no one was sure what would happen.

The counterattack of the King caused the frogmen in charge of clearing the cabins to suffer heavy losses.

The order to gather toward the top deck was given and the frogmen had to go all out. On the contrary, some navy soldiers had broken through the defenses.

The frogmen forces naturally did not want that to happen.

They had sworn to the Monarch before they left to not return unless they complete the mission.

Both sides fought to the death to try to gain control of the passage to the top deck. The small corridor changed hands multiple times in just twenty minutes and was stacked with corpses.

The fresh blood seeped into the deck, dripping into the level below, making it like a living hell.

Just at that moment, the frogmen in charge of being sentries rushed over, managing to stabilize the situation, they did some simple constructions at the mouth of the passage to block the attacks.

Anyways, they had the numbers advantage on the top deck, so the longer they dragged it on the better it was for them.

The King City Navy obviously knew that and they attacked more crazily.

The good news for them was that the reinforcements had already swiftly jumped onboard. The moment the reinforcements swarmed over, this entire mission would end in failure for the assassins.

The battle on the top deck was crucial.

As expected from the strongest army in China, even the strong King City Guards were not their opponents. Along with the help of the frogmen, they were forced back.

Seeing that they were weaker than the enemy, the guards decided to give up the deck and return to the cabin. They used the passageways and cabins to fight a special alley war.

One had to say that their decision was wise.

The narrow passageways made it hard for the numerical advantage to be used. The 300 frogmen were all the more useless and could only help save the wounded.

It entered a stalemate just like that.

Just at this moment, Xiong Ba brought the Personal Guards from the end of the alley over. Just as he arrived at the front lines, he recognized the red cape of the Divine Martial Guards; after all, they were simply too eye catching.

"Qiyue Wuyi, it really is you!"

Xiong Ba's expression was really weird; he was shocked, relaxed, and solemn.

Originally, he thought that the enemy forces would not pass hundred. Who knew that the intel would cause his mouth to gape.

Xiong Ba totally could not imagine how the enemy sent two thousand men into the fortress without any sounds.

At this moment, Xiong Ba broke out in cold sweat.

If it was not for the patrolling soldier's accident, he probably would have been killed in his sleep.

If that was the case, his face would be totally lost.

The difficulty of the situation gave Xiong Ba no choice but to personally fight. If this dragged on the guards might fall. If the reinforcements did not arrive in time, it was over.

Xiong Ba was fearless, raising his machete and killing into the crowd. The close to two meter ;ong machete shone a cold light as it cut down, and the head of a Divine Martial Guard fell to the ground.

"Great!"

This move by Xiong Ba raised the morale of his troops.

The head tumbled onto the ground and rolled, stopping under Wang Feng's feet.

When Wang Feng saw that, his eyes turned blood red as he raised his spear and engaged Xiong Ba. Before leaving, everyone had seen the portraits of Xiong Ba and Zhan Lang.

Hence, Wang Feng immediately recognized that the person in front of him was his target.

"You came at the right time."

Wang Feng's will to fight was triggered as his blood boiled.

The two experts engaged in the narrow corridor, going at each other.

The soldiers on both sides did not remain still; they each chose an opponent and fought. The only exception was a lieutenant from the Divine Martial Guards who sneaked away.

The deck that was originally so bustling was now really cold.

The lieutenant went to the passage to go to the deck below and check out the battle situation. The frogmen forces and the King City navy were fighting. Further away, more and more reinforcements were rushing over.

The situation was urgent, and it looked like the frogmen were not going to be able to hold on.

A look of determination flashed in his eyes as he took out a signal bullet and fired it without hesitation.

Peng!

It was like fireworks as it streaked across the night sky.

At the same time, 20 frogmen who were hiding at various corner of King looked up at the fireworks. It made a perfect arc in the air before disappearing.

The frogmen looked back down, carefully taking out a match; their expressions were really solemn and sincere, like they were doing a holy matter.

The match was struck and thrown into the alchemical fire oil. All of a sudden, the flames burst apart like a fire dragon that had suddenly come alive on the deck.

In the light from the flames, the frogmen took out the Tang Blades from their waists as they muttered, “Brothers, I am making a move first."

As they spoke, their blades cut across their necks and blood spurted out. 20 unnamed heroes fell like that in an unassuming little corner.

"Not good, the flagship is on fire!"

"Extinguish t!"

"Ah, save me!"

"Damn it, where did this fire come from?"

"Extinguish it first!"

The King was in a total mess and the soldiers who came to assist were charging into a sea of flames.

Further away, seeing the flagship on fire, the entire water fortress was thrown into chaos. Even the Lords who were watching the show from the corner felt astonished.

"What happened? Why is it on fire?"

"Looking at the fire, it probably will not be extinguished in time!" a general said.

"What are you standing here for, help to extinguish it!" The Lord was a little angry.

If Xiong Ba truly died like this, it would be terrible. What else could they do? Who could deal with Shanhai City?

"Yes!"

The general hurried away!

……

On the top deck, the merciless killing was still underway.

At the current moment, Xiong Ba still had not realized that his flagship was in flames. Only until smoke bellowed through the cracks on the deck did it spread to the top layer.

"What's happening?" The guards panicked.

Before they finished their words, the fire started to spread upward.

"Not good, it's a fire!" The first to react were the Personal Guards; they charged to the front to protect Xiong Ba and help him escape.

The direction of the escape was the deep parts of the passageway.

"Where are you going?!"

Wang Feng hollered as he immediately chased.

Looking at the situation, there definitely was a secret exit.

Hence, no matter what, Wang Feng could not allow the enemy to escape from under his nose.

"Protect the Lord!"

At the crucial moment, the guards and Personal Guards acted fearlessly and blocked the way to earn some precious time for the escape.

Chapter 706-One-Armed General

Nu!

Seeing that Xiong Ba was about to escape, Wang Feng decisively fired back.

The Divine Martial Guards got the order, tossing aside their weapons and taking out the god arm crossbow, arming it and firing. The entire process flowed like water and used less than half a minute.

In such a situation without disturbance and in such a narrow passageway, the bolts unavoidably had a freakishly high killing power. The guards in charge of being the frontline fell down row by row.

Following which, Xiong Ba's Personal Guards too could not escape their fate.

The god arm crossbow shot at too fast a rate. Moreover, the Divine Martial Guards were well trained, and they were already used to firing it. The bolts did not stop coming.

The less than hundred meter passage became the nightmare of the enemy. When Xiong Ba managed to rushed to the end, he was left with only around ten Personal Guards who were all injured.

Luckily, he made it.

Who knows which guard pressed it, but the wooden wall suddenly opened and revealed a narrow, square lift-like space.

"Quickly!"

The Personal Guards protected Xiong Ba and entered the ‘lift.’ In truth, this was a modified tool to raise and lower them.

After they entered, the wooden wall slowly closed once more.

"Not good!"

When Wang Feng saw this scene, his heart shook. He did not even think, using all his strength to throw the spear in his hand.

Pew! The spear was like an arrow as it broke through the air and stuck into the lift before it closed.

The lift stopped.

This shocking strike caused even the Divine Martial Guards to feel stunned.

"Quick, stop them!"

Wang Feng did not stop as he pulled out his Tang Blade; he was the first person to chase over.

The short hundred meters was covered quickly.

Wang Feng was going all out.

The Divine Martial Guards followed closely behind him.

……

Within the lift, the faces of everyone were ashen white. The spear that Wang Feng tossed out had pierced into the head of one of the Personal Guards; brain fluids flowed out and fresh blood spurted.

Such a close encounter caused even the Personal Guards who had been through hundreds of battles to be shocked.

Most crucially, because of that spear, the lift could not close and naturally could not work.

The lift was one that Xiong Ba had purposely found top grade smiths to modify, and it was linked to the exit at the bottom layer of the ships. There were also little boats and emergency supplies ready at the exit.

The goal of the creation of this lift was to act as an escape route at the crucial moment.

His planning ability was far from ordinary.

Who knew that at the last moment, his plan would be destroyed by Wang Feng’s sky shocking strike.

Wang Feng's spear was made from elite iron, so it could not be easily cut apart. If they forcefully moved the lift, the spear that was stuck onto the door would lock it in place.

With that, Xiong Ba and the others had no way out.

Xiong Ba's expression was complicated; in the end, he sighed, “Since we cannot retreat, then let's fight to the death!"

"Fight! Fight! Fight!"

In the small space, the more than 10 Personal Guards were ready.

These were people with their backs against the wall; they were prepared to go all out.

"If I cannot escape, neither will you!"

Xiong Ba's eyes turned cold as he grasped the machete in his hand.

……

"Destroy the door!"

Wang Feng had already rushed to the end along with the Divine Martial Guards.

"Yes sir!"

The Divine Martial Guards found some hard iron items to try and force their way in.

They did not expect that just at that moment, the wooden wall would open from both sides. The Personal Guards under the leadership of Xiong Ba charged out and caught them off guard.

Instantly, the Divine Martial Guards suffered heavy casualties.

Xiong Ba grasped his machete and went right for Wang Feng, chopping down. This heavy strike gathered all his killing intent and willingness to die.

He struck out without leaving any way to defend himself.

As expected from an ambitious and smart person; at the crucial moment, he still went out with style.

Wang Feng did not dare take to take him lightly, raising his blade to block it.

Dang! The thin blade was smashed aside by the machete. The momentum did not fade as it flashed a white glow, charging straight for Wang Feng's shoulder.

If the machete hit, it would split Wang Feng into two.

"General!"

The surrounding Divine Martial Guards panicked; they wanted to assist him, but it was already too late.

Wang Feng did not panic; he gritted his teeth and tried his best to side step it.

Puchi!

Regretfully, his reaction was too slow, and the machete cut down along his shoulder, splitting his left hand into two parts, his forearm falling to the ground.

Where the arm broke, fresh blood flowed out like a fountain.

No matter how resilient and steely he was, his face instantly turned white and cold sweat broke out from his forehead.

"General!"

The Divine Martial Guards leaped forward.

Xiong Ba still wanted to chase for the win and end Wang Feng. Just at this moment, a sharp arrow broke the air and pierced his forehead.

"Eh!"

Xiong Ba's actions slowed, looking regretfully at Wang Feng before slowly falling.

The entire battlefield was silent.

After a short while, his body turned into a white light and disappeared from the battle map. Disappearing with him were the navy soldiers from King City, including the ones fighting with the frogmen on the King.

Even the lucky few Personal Guards who survived were sent away.

The empty warships were proof that the King City Navy had been here.

In a situation where the Lord was assassinated, the navy generals would be teleported back to the main map; only the warships remained.

Just this fact meant that King City had suffered catastrophic loses.

"General!"

The Divine Martial Guards did not care about so much, taking bandages to help bandage Wang Feng.

Wang Feng's expression was a little dark, bearing the pain and not looking at his left arm that was lost, “Gather everyone and leave before the warship sinks!"

"Yes general!"

……

Wulin Fortress corner, observing the navy of King City disappearing.

The Lord instantly understood what had happened.

"Damn it, Xiong Ba really died!" The Lord's face was exceedingly ugly, “We cannot stay here!"

Without the King City Navy, it was impossible to defend this place. Rather than that, why not go toward Zhan Lang to gather and discuss a plan.

Just as he decided to lead the squadron to Red Cliff, emergency news caused his face to turn ashen white.

"Lord, Lord Zhan Lang has been assassinated!"

"...."

It was like the Lord's soul had left his body; only after a long while did he say, “The Sun Liu Camp is finished!"

"Lord what should we do?"

"Retreat, immediately leave Red Cliff." This Lord was smart, thinking about the menacing Shanhai City Navy he did not dare to stay here for even a second more.

"Retreat to where?"

"To Sun Quan, it’s safer there." The Lord had foresight.

"Understood!"

Just like that, under the cover of the night, the remaining navy squadrons of Red Cliff gathered and escaped toward Chaisang.

As time was of the essence, they did not even have time to take over the warships.

The Lords were worried that the Shanhai City navy would arrive if they stayed for too long.

They were a bunch of devils!

Thinking about that, the Lords ran even faster than rabbits.

The busy Red Cliff suddenly became really empty and quiet.

The sun rose up, shining down on the river surface.

Less than 10 miles away from Red Cliff, hundreds of Cima Boats had gathered together. In the middle, Wang Feng laid down, his face ashen white, listening to the report.

The more he listened, the darker his face got.

For this sneak attack, Shanhai City had suffered heavy casualties. The fire and killing had taken away 900 lives.

In the end, less than 300 of them had survived.

As for the ones attacking Red Cliff, it was worse. Zhan Lang's forces were exceptional, like a bunch of wild wolves fighting to the death.

Out of the 1200 soldiers, less than 100 returned. Even the commander, Personal Guards Captain Chen Dameng, had fallen in battle.

Based on the descriptions of the soldiers that returned, their fight was as close as the Wulin one. At the most intense moment, Chen Dameng had no choice but to order for them to die with the enemy.

It was during that fight where Chen Dameng bore the pain of the enemy stabs and slashes to slay Zhan Lang.

This battle could be said to be a harsh victory.

Two generals, one dying in battle, one handicapped.

Before they left, the hundred Cima Boats were filled and bustling with excitement about the upcoming battle.

Now, many empty boats floated. Even as the sun shone on them, it seemed so cold and tragic.

The atmosphere felt really depressing.

The soldiers were all silent, mourning for their fallen comrades.

Only the golden dragon flag fluttered in the air, standing tall and never falling.

……

"General, the scout reports state that the remaining enemies have retreated. What should we do?" The lieutenant sought Wang Feng's opinion.

Wang Feng's face was ashen white, and he was really weak. Even so, he said with energy, “Send the frogmen to chase them."

"Understood!"

"Send another group to report our situation to the flagship." Wang Feng instructed.

"General, do not worry, the messenger has been sent. If nothing goes wrong, they would reach the flagship before night fall." The lieutenant was a capable character.

"That's great." Wang Feng wanted to nod but even that took too much energy. He continued, “Since the enemy are gone, let's just move into the fortress and get it ready for the Monarch."

"Yes!" The soldiers nodded; he hesitated but still asked in the end, “General, your injury?"

To a general, losing an arm was like lightning on a sunny day. From this day on, he would have to leave the battlefield and live as a ‘useless person’.

To a young general like Wang Feng, such a blow was simply deadly.

He would rather die than live!

Chapter 707-Guan Yu

"Nothing much; at most, I’ll just retire!"

Facing the concern of the Lieutenant, Wang Feng smiled and acted relaxed. Anyone could tell the intense pain behind his smile.

The man in front of them was barely holding on.

When the Lieutenant saw that, he quietly turned around, not letting the general see the sympathy in his eyes. Toward someone like Wang Feng, what he least needed at this time was sympathy.

After Wang Feng calmed down, his right hand could not help but shake, his fingernails piercing into his flesh.

In the evening, the Shanhai City Squadron reached Red Cliff.

The warships were docked in the Wulin Fortress, and Ouyang Shuo immediately went to see Wang Feng. Seeing his general’s injuries, his expression was really solemn and his eyes revealed an unconcealable sadness.

Wang Feng was one of the native generals that Ouyang Shuo had high hopes for. This general had spent these few years charging into the battlefield with him, contributing a lot.

Who would have expected that in the end he would become handicapped?

Ouyang Shuo was really sharp and instantly saw the will to die in his eyes. To a general like Wang Feng, he would rather die on the battlefield than live like this.

Wang Feng could only hold on until now because of his role and responsibility.

Seeing the Monarch, he totally relaxed; his eyes no longer contained the will to live left.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, his heart pained.

When he received the frogmen report in the morning, Ouyang Shuo lost control of his legs and fell to the floor. In this battle, he had lost his most loyal Guards Captain and the commander of the Divine Martial Guards.

Such a loss of blood was one that Ouyang Shuo could not recover from.

In the battle map, basic soldiers could be revived with contribution points but advanced generals could not. The moment they died, they would truly die and could not be revived.

To make matters worse, they were not historical generals, so they could not be revived through the martial temple.

Generals like Chen Dameng had not upgraded to King Rank, so he did not even have this route to revival.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo would never hear the loud voice of his Personal Guards Captain ever again.

For this reason, Ouyang Shuo had opposed the two of them going on this mission. During these two days, Ouyang Shuo had been feeling extremely uneasy, who knew that the tragedy would still strile in the end.

Seeing Wang Feng's expression, it was like a knife cutting his heart.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Wang Feng with a solemn expression, “Look, I will not allow you to commit suicide. You are the most elite general that Shanhai City has produced till date. Even without a hand, you must live like a warrior. I look forward to the day I see you set off onto the battlefield once more. Remember, do not let me look down on you."

"Monarch!"

When Wang Feng heard these words, he could not hold his emotions in check anymore; he pulled onto the collar of Ouyang Shuo and cried out. The iron general was bawling his eyes out like a child.

When the surrounding soldiers saw this scene, they were all shocked.

At the current moment, no one would mock Wang Feng; instead, they would be touched by this interaction between Monarch and subordinate. Even Jia Xu could not help but tear up.

Jia Xu totally did not expect that this young Monarch actually had such charm.

Tears swelled up at the corners of his eyes as Ouyang Shuo patted Wang Feng's head, “Rest well!"

After these words, Ouyang Shuo had no more to add, giving out a long sigh before walking away.

When the soldiers saw this scene, they followed Ouyang Shuo, giving Wang Feng ample room to rest up and calm down his emotions.

This night was destined to be a sleepless one.

The squadron had just reached Red Cliff. Originally, there were many matters that needed Ouyang Shuo to decide. Helplessly, he had already locked himself in his reading room, and no one dared to disturb him.

Luckily, with Zheng He and Jia Xu taking charge, nothing much happened.

The next morning, the sun rose from the east.

Ouyang Shuo had woken up; he had already tossed aside the weakness and softness, returning to being the Monarch that ruled the world.

"Men!"

Ouyang Shuo was ready to summon Zheng He and Jia Xu to discuss their next course of action.

"Monarch!" A lanky soldier walked in.

Seeing the one that walked in was not that familiar burly figure, a flash of loss appeared in his eyes. The one temporarily replacing Chen Dameng was the assistant captain.

Ouyang Shuo put away his emotions and said, “Invite Zheng He and Jia Xu over."

"Yes Monarch!"

……

Dragon Head, battle room.

"What are your views on what we should do next?"

Ouyang Shuo sat at the helm, looking down at his two helpers who were below him.

At this point, Jia Xu had totally merged into this team. Ouyang Shuo stopped being courteous to Jia Xu, asking him when he had any questions, treating him like his own advisor.

Jia Xu could only laugh.

"Based on the reports from the Cima Boat, the enemy Huang Gai Army has already met up with the Guan Yu Army; they are coming down the river. They will reach here in less than a day." Zheng He first reported the new intel.

"They truly are looking to die." Ouyang Shuo smiled as he shook his head. The Huang Gai Army lacked cannons; they were not something that Ouyang Shuo would put into his eyes. "Do they know that Red Cliff has already fallen?"

During this assassination mission, the people who were truly killed numbered extremely little, so his battle contribution points did not balloon. Hence, Ouyang Shuo dared to say that the other Lords would not be able to notice that something was wrong.

That was assuming they had no other communication methods.

"Based on what the spy noticed, they should not know. This army did not stop, rushing day and night over to Red Cliff." Zheng He explained.

"That's great." Ouyang Shuo nodded, “As for how to deal with them, you two simulate a battle plan. I only have one wish, try to capture Huang Gai and Guan Yu alive."

"Understood!" To Zheng He and Jia Xu, this was not a tough task.

Jia Xu raised another matter, “Monarch, the enemy that left Red Cliff, I think they are going to Sun Quan. Hence, I advise you to send an army to chase and remove them before Sun Quan is alerted."

"Your reminder is correct." Ouyang Shuo agreed with his analysis, turning to Zheng He, “Arrange a navy unit to chase, they have to die."

"Yes!"

Ouyang Shuo wanted to know why Liu Bei had led troops over.

When Jia Xu heard this, he could guess the reasonn, “Liu Bei seems righteous, but he's really selfish. At this moment, he should be busy with Changsha."

One had to say that Jia Xu's eyes were truly vicious and sharp; he could easily see through Liu Bei.

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, he agreed and said seriously, “That cannot do. Mister, think of a way to draw this old fox out. We cannot let him stay cooped up in his home."

Amongst the China region players, only Ouyang Shuo knew what role Liu Bei would play in the future wilderness. Moreover, there was a high chance he would start a conflict with them.

Hence, using this chance, Ouyang Shuo needed to skin the Liu Bei Organization. When they reached the main map, dealing with him would not be so easy anymore.

After Guan Yu died, he was given a new title, ‘Emperor Guan’. In the Qing Dynasty, he replaced Yue Fei as a Martial Saint.

This matter amused Ouyang Shuo. In five thousand years of history, to be truly listed as Martial Saints along with Kong Zi, probably only Jiang Shang'er could.

The Qing Dynasty people titled Guan Yu as Martial Saint for their own reasons. This was because Yue Fei was the general that helped to resist foreign invasion.

With that, naturally it stabbed their sensitive nerves; how would they allow Yue Fei to be immortalized? Through the Romance of The Three Kingdoms, the Guan Yu that was described like a god was naturally chosen.

In history, Guan Yu was just a courageous martial artist. In the Three Kingdoms records, less than a thousand words mentioned him.

In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, warm wine killing Hua Xiong belonged to Zhang Guan Dai. In history, Hua Xiong was killed by Sun Quan and not Guan Yu.

Apart from that, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms also described the matters of him crossing five passes, killing six generals, and accomplishing other feats.

In this story, they said that Guan Yu had killed Wen Xiu; in trut,h he died in the famous Battle of Guandu.

To make him stand out, Luo Guan Zhong had given him a lot of war contributions done by other people to make him seem strong and intelligent.

The Guan Yu in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms was what the Confucians described as righteous, intelligent, loyal, and polite.

But after reading the ‘Guan Yu Biography’, one could notice that Guan Yu in history lacked a political mind. Just from one matter, one could see that.

Guan Yu did not know the importance of working with Wu to go against Cao. When he took charge of Jingzhou, he rejected Sun Quan's marriage alliance, and his attitude was also really unfriendly. He had scolded the messenger, “How can a dog be good enough for a tiger woman?"

Hence, his words insulted East Wu.

The resulting story was one that everyone was familiar with. After Sun Quan obtained Jingzhou, he killed Guan Yu and broke apart the Sun Liu Alliance.

One could say that it was Guan Yu's arrogance that buried the future of Shu and Han.

Apart from that, Guan Yu also looked down on Ma and Huang Zhong who were listed as the five tiger generals along with him.

Liu Bei granted Guan Yu the title of frontline general. When he heard that Huang Zhong was given the title of backline general, he was furious, “I will never be regarded as the same level as him!"

His arrogance was unprecedented.

Hence, toward such a Guan Yu, Ouyang Shuo totally had no interest in him.

In comparison, Ouyang Shuo desired Zhang Fei. Some described him to be as intense as fire, courageous and clumsy, hating evil like an enemy.

However, the true Zhang Fei in history was not a clumsy person; in fact, he was an all rounded person.

Chapter 708-Send up His Head

In the battle room, the discussion was still underway.

Jia Xu smiled, “Monarch, if you want Liu Bei to strike, Guan Yu is a really good point of attack."

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, his eyes lit up.

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were the god brothers of Liu Bei. He had a close bond with these two. The moment that something happened to Guan Yu, Ouyang Shuo did not believe that Liu Bei could restraint himself.

"Then for the battle tomorrow, you two need to plan it out well." Ouyang Shuo ordered.

"Do not worry Monarch!"

Zheng He used this chance to introduce the battle plan he had discussed with Jia Xu. After a short while, both of them bid goodbye to prepare for the battle tomorrow.

Yunmeng River.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was ready to destroy Huang Gai, the Zhou Yu Army was only a day away from Jiangling City. The battle that had been festering for such a long time was going to explode, and it would even change the entire Red Cliff situation.

In the end, Jiangling was the true main battlefield of this battle and gathered close to 90 percent of both sides. The results of this battle would determine the end result of this battle map.

When they received the intel, the atmosphere in Jiangling City instantly tensed up.

Cao Cao personally took charge of Jiangling, Cao Ren, Yu Jin, Cao Dun, Wen Pin, and other important generals were all there. The 200 thousand player forces had received the order and had moved into the city.

The entire Jiangling City instantly transformed into a giant barracks, and grain gathered from all around Jingzhou was transported over for the army to consume.

When he received the news of the Lu Su Army falling, Cao Cao's confidence rose, and he was determined to fight with the Sun Liu Alliance Army here.

After a few days of rest and the motivation from the navy victory, the Cao Army morale had risen.

Hence, Cao Cao was really confident about this battle.

……

Within Jiangling City, the player camp.

Within the tent, Caiyun Zinan was delighted, “Zi Fang is truly a god in predicting things. We followed your plan and Cao Ren really agreed."

When Zhang Liang heard these words, he smiled and did not speak.

Seeing the Lord being so excited, a look of helplessness appeared in Zhang Liang's eyes.

Too focused on the small things, he looks nothing like a true ruler, Zhang Liang sighed in his heart.

Caiyun Zinan, who was caught up in his elation, did not notice the expression of his advisor, “This time, I'll make Shanhai Alliance trip and fall."

13th day of the battle map, Changjiang Red Cliff.

A huge squadron was traveling on the river surface, stretching miles. On the warship, there were massive flags; the first half of the flags was ‘Huang’ and the other half was ‘Guan’.

This was the Alliance Army of Huang Gai and Guan Yu.

Guan Yu followed Liu Bei instructions and led four thousand naval forces as the vanguard. The army had finally caught up to the Huang Gai Army before they reached Red Cliff.

Unfortunately, because of the conflict from before, Huang Gai was not delighted with Guan Yu's arrival.

Guan Yu was also an arrogant person and had not wanted to come. If it was not for Liu Bei forcing him, he would not have come out. Seeing Huang Gai's attitude, Guan Yu was all the more furious.

The army did not even merge together with the Huang Gai Army and just traveled behind.

Between the two armies, there were a few kilometers of space.

Like what the Cima Boats had investigated, Huang Gai did not know what had happened to Red Cliff. After reaching the water path in front of Red Cliff, the army did not stop and continued forward.

Along the way, they did not see a single warship.

This did not surprise Huang Gai.

The ambush tactic designed by the Yanhuang Alliance was obviously one that Huang Gai and Lu Su knew about. Hence, seeing that Wulin Fortress was still fine, he did not suspect anything.

He did not even face a single warship along the way.

With that, this was a small part of the plan; the goal was to not raise the suspicion of the Cao Cao Army.

After entering Red Cliff, Huang Gai stood on deck and smiled, “I've finally reached Red Cliff! Sound the drums and tell the players that we are here to help. Ask them to open the gates of the fortress."

"Yes general!"

During the entire process, only Gong Chengshi, who stood beside Huang Gai, had a weird expression.

Sometimes, too normal was not normal.

After spending so much time with Ouyang Shuo, Gong Chengshi understood his big brother's personality. Ouyang Shuo liked to plan out the battles and never fought battles he had no confidence in.

Not seeing the Shanhai City Squadron already shocked Gong Chengshi. When he saw Red Cliff, the uneasiness in his heart intensified.

Only through various considerations did Gong Chengshi not tell his worries to Huang Gai.

When the fortress gates opened and a large number of warships charged out of Wulin and Red Cliff, they finally realized that they had fallen into a trap.

Although all the high level warships in China came from the Shanhai City shipyard and looked the same, Gong Chengshi had a huge feeling that it was the Shanhai City Squadron in front of them.

The squadrons on both sides gathered into their formations. Quickly, they left the Alliance Army without the room to move.

"Is there a need to have such a grand welcome ceremony?" Huang Gai had some doubts. However, thanks to his intuition as a general, he also smelled that something was up.

Unfortunately, it was already too late.

The warships raised an eye-catching golden dragon flag that fluttered in the wind. At the same time, they hollered, “You have been surrounded, surrender now!"

"Not good!"

Huang Gai's face instantly became ugly.

"Attack, quickly attack!" Huang Gai was extremely ferocious and did not even think about giving up.

The archers quickly reacted, taking out their bow and arrows and attacking the warships on both sides. Unfortunately, their actions were useless.

The moment the arrow rain rose, cannons fired.

With such proximity, in addition to the Huang Gai and Guan Yu's armies being pincered, there were no strategic maneuvers they could perform. After just the first round of cannons, they suffered heavy losses.

Under the command of Zheng He, only the two flagships were perfectly fine.

This round of cannon fire had stunned Huang Gai and caused his heart to turn cold. He finally knew how the strong Lu Su Army fell.

"Listen up, quickly surrender, or do not blame the cannons for being merciless."

After a round of cannon fire, the words carried more weight.

An uproar rose in the Alliance Army. The soldiers were not fools, and they could see that they had no chance of them winning. If they tried, only death awaited them.

At this moment, whether to surrender or not was not up to Huang Gai and Guan Yu. Even if they did not agree, the soldiers would just surrender. They might even tie up the two of them to claim credit.

Huang Gai's face was ashen white; his heart was as dead as ash.

Guan Yu's face became redder and redder like that of an iron branding.

The following story was not an exception.

After that short conflict, both armies surrendered and were easily taken down.

The entire process lasted for less than an hour.

Without a doubt, this was the easiest battle for Shanhai City. If they wanted to blame someone, they could only blame Huang Gai for being too careless.

Dragon Head, top deck.

Huang Gai, Guan Yu, and other important people were brought up and handed over to the Monarch.

Amongst them, there was also Gong Chengshi.

The two of them were allies but the current situation did not allow for much. Ouyang Shuo was nice and did not say much, just sending him down with the rest.

Following which, Ouyang Shuo looked at Guan Yu.

When taking down Guan Yu, they had lost 50 Divine Martial Guards.

After all, he was a top-class general with great combat strength.

To prevent more deaths, the Divine Martial Guards had to use the god arm crossbows to take him down. Hence, his body was covered with the signs of battle, and there were no less than five arrowheads embedded in his body.

Even so, Guan Yu did not even frown.

Although this person was arrogant, he had the ability to do so. Just this point showed there he was a great warrior. However, that did not equate to being a good general.

"Guan Yu, will you surrender?" Ouyang Shuo looked at Guan Yu.

Guan Yu raised his head; his eyes were filled with killing intent. Along with the killing aura around him, it was alluring. If a scholar stood in front of him, he would not even be able to stand still.

Unfortunately, Ouyang Shuo had been through so much and seen so much. Hence, his killing aura had no effect on Ouyang Shuo, and his expression remained calm.

Guan Yu was a little surprised, but he did not think too much about it. He took a look at Ouyang Shuo and turned around to spit, showing his disdain; his expression was truly arrogant.

"Preposterous!"

The Divine Martial Guards immediately raised their blades to his neck.

Hen! Guan Yu scoffed, not bothering about the blank, “Just kill me if you want. In your dreams I'll surrender!"

"Good, what an upright man!" Ouyang Shuo clapped; instantly, his expression turned cold, “Since that's the case, drag him down and behead him."

This change happened so quickly.

"Yes Monarch!"

The Divine Martial Guards hated him; after all, they had lost so many brothers to capture him.

Hen! Guan Yu scoffed once more.

However, the sharp Ouyang Shuo noticed that his right hand shook.

Ouyang Shuo laughed; it seemed like he was not totally unafraid of dying. If Guan Yu thought he would be as polite to him as Cao Cao, he would be wrong.

After a short while, Guan Yu's head was put into a wooden box and sent back to the deck.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he told Zheng He, “Send someone to send this head to Liu Bei."

"Understood!"

Looking at this, Liu Bei would be furious.

When Jia Xu saw this Lord’s actions, he could not help but be shocked at Ouyang Shuo's decisiveness. This was Guan Yu, a presence that shocked the Three Kingdoms, and Ouyang Shuo just killed him like that without blinking.

Chapter 709-Inner Demons

Guan Yu’s murder shocked Huang Gai the most.

Seeing Guan Yu’s head, the expression of the similarly tied up Huang Gai became uglier and uglier. The player Lord in front of him truly gave them no face.

He killed without even blinking an eye.

Huang Gai was truly worried that the next words he said would be, “Are you willing to surrender?"

If he rejected the offer, his head would be the next to roll.

Under such intense pressure, even someone like Huang Gai was prepared to surrender.

If he was alive, he would have a chance to make a comeback.

Huang Gai did not want to be like Guan Yu and have his head chopped off so cleanly.

However, Ouyang Shuo did not ask him about surrendering; instead, he smiled and said apologetically, “Lu Su and the others are locked up, so general, I'm sorry to have to ask you to stay with them for a while!"

As he said these words, he cupped his hand.

When Huang Gai saw his actions, a chill covered his heart. This guy truly changed faces so quickly. He had just killed someone and now acted like a polite gentleman.

Although that was the case, Huang Gai still felt relived. Guan Yu and him were both prisoners but faced different treatment, which meant that he was respected more.

One had to say, the olden people would always fall for such polite antics.

Huang Gai heaved a sigh of relief; his heart that was raised up was slightly calmed down. It seemed like he had temporarily avoided catastrophe. Moreover, the fact that Lu Su and the others were still alive gave life to his already dead heart.

20 minutes later, Huang Gai met Lu Su, Lu Meng, Zhou Tai, and Gan Ning in the jail. The five of them looked at one another; in the end, they could only give out bitter smiles.

This time, the Jiangdong Navy was swept by the enemy.

The five of them could be considered brothers in crisis.

The appearance of cannons gave Lu Meng and the other navy generals a lesson. Such killing weapons left them powerless and defeat was unavoidable.

"Who knows what the situation with the commander is," Lu Su sighed.

During these few days, they ate well and drank well, being treated like esteemed guests. Unfortunately, they were fallen soldiers, so how would they be in the mood to enjoy themselves? They were worried about the situation.

Seeing Huang Gai, they became even more worried.

"Do not worry, our commander is a god and definitely can break through that Cao thief!" Gan Ning was a fan of Zhou Yu.

"Let's hope so!"

Lu Su was not as optimistic as Gan Ning; his senses told him that this battle was the stage of the players. The direction of the battle was not something that them as natives could change and direct.

In truth, this was also the norm as the game entered the later stages. In the second half of the Gaia 3rd year, the Lords of the wilderness who rose up started to have bigger power.

The Battle of Red Cliff was a separation point.

The players had more troops than the natives; naturally, they would not let the natives control them.

The Red Cliff ambush battle was planned by Xiong Ba. After which, they just informed Zhou Yu, Lu Su, and Huang Gai; he did not even seek their opinion.

As the battle situation changed, Lu Su and Huang Gai even had to proactively aid the players and assist Red Cliff.

The result was that even before their carefully planned ambush, they were stopped in their tracks by the sudden assassination mission. As a result, even Lu Su, Huang Gai, and the others were captured.

Logically, if this proceeded, Liu Bei was going to drop in this hole too.

During the entire process, the natives were on the back foot and could not control the situation. They could not direct the entire battle like previous battle maps with the players assisting.

Even the Battle of Jiangling that was about to begin was so.

In truth, this would be a battle of player armies. Be it Zhou Yu or Cao Cao, they were only commanders.

At this moment, Zhou Yu had no choice but to attack Jiangling.

Di Chen himself could just command the players to attack Jiangling. To say the truth, the hundred thousand troops Zhou Yu brought was not much to Di Chen.

This was why the natives were helpless.

One could say that Zhou Yu and the others were taken hostage.

In a way, Cao Cao agreeing to fight the Zhou Yu Army was similarly because of Ouyang Shuo. Even without using his relationship with Xiahou Ying, Ouyang Shuo had other ways to reach his goal.

The player representative of the battle map was becoming more and more like a leader.

And this would shape the future leadership in country wars.

Of course, the prerequisite would be that the representative had enough prestige amongst the Lords. Be it Ouyang Shuo or Di Chen, they both had achieved that requirement.

The only hidden problem was that the player camp in Cao Cao camp was like a group of dragons without a leader. With Caiyun Zinan and the rest causing problems, the situation became exceedingly complicated.

Be it Bai Hua or Feng Qiuhuang, they could not control the situation.

This was what Ouyang Shuo had neglected.

Even if he thought about it, he had no other way. In the battle of the river, his presence was crucial. After all, Zheng He and Jia Xu were not familiar with one another, so who could predict what kind of situations would occur.

Dragon Head, battle room.

The post battle matters were handled by Zheng He and Jia Xu, so Ouyang Shuo did not need to worry about it. After sending Huang Gai away, Ouyang Shuo met Gong Chengshi alone. When they met, the atmosphere was a little awkward.

"Big brother!" Gong Chengshi said.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Gong Chengshi and did not mince his words, “You chose Sun Liu Camp. To say the truth, I really did not expect that at the start."

"Big brother, this…." Gong Chengshi tried to explain.

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, “You do not need to explain. I've said that it's your choice on which camp to choose, and I would not interfere. The only thing I'm unhappy about is why did you not inform me?"

That's right; Ouyang Shuo was the leader of Shanhai Alliance. Even if Gong Chengshi planned to choose a different camp, he should have given him the heads up so that he could prepare.

If not, Ouyang Shuo would not have been caught off guard.

In Jiangdong, Ouyang Shuo could clearly feel that Feng Qiuhuang, Bai Hua, and Wufu had started to feel disdain toward Gong Chengshi and Xunlong Dianxue, causing cracks to form in the alliance.

This was what Ouyang Shuo least wanted to see.

Gong Chengshi froze; guilt and regret appeared on his face as he sincerely apologized, “Brother, I am wrong!"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head; he sounded like he was replying to him but it also like he was muttering, “You are not the only one wrong. As we became more powerful, we lost ourselves. Lost in power, letting our ambitions grow. All of these are sins. Since we did wrong, we must deal with it."

These words came from deep within his heart.

He was not as unaffected by Xunlong Dianxue’s betrayal as he seemed. These thoughts had been hidden in his heart and were not voiced.

Seeing Gong Chengshi, Ouyang Shuo finally said it.

"Big brother!" Gong Chengshi's eyes were red, filled with regret.

"Don’t you remember when we were so young and crazy? Our fighting words?" Thinking about that, Ging Chengshi could not hold in his emotions; his eyes teared up, and all the pent up emotion was released.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he kept silent and did not say anything.

A sad and tragic atmosphere engulfed the room.

Both of them had touched that forbidden area in their hearts that they did not want to enter.

Within it was a bloody field of sadness.

This was a rare experience to Ouyang Shuo. Till now, he could not say that when he recruited Xunlong Dianxue, how much of it was because of friendship and how much of it was for interests.

In the last life, after he was betrayed by his big brother Song Pu, that person who believed in friendship had died. All that remained was a soul that could not trust others.

This soul was like a lonely ghost wandering in the depths of his heart.

Everything in this life, brotherhood, closeness, and love; in the end, he could not avoid the endless chase of power and ambition.

Probably only a higher amount of power could let Ouyang Shuo feel secure.

That Ouyang Shuo was the true Ouyang Shuo.

Underneath all the extravagant clothes was a lonely soul, a soul that had had gone all in and was not intact from the start.

The only thing that was unchanged was his love for Bing'er.

The familial love was the only thing that held him up as he walked to this stage. As it was pure, did not need any decorations, making it seem strong.

Some people said that every ruler had a foundation in his heart that was the source of his power. His foundation was this love and protection of family.

However, even this was not complete.

The betrayal from the last life was not truly wiped away by time. In his heart, there was still this knot.

Only today did Ouyang Shuo find that this knot had slowly transformed into his inner demon.

If he did not remove it, it would be hard to become a true ruler.

It seems like after the battle map ends, I need to find time to end the inner demon from my last life, Ouyang Shuo thought.

In the 3rd year of the game, Ouyang Shuo had purposely avoided making contact with Liangshan Mercenary Group.

This was his inner demon.

Quiet and no signs of existing.

Ouyang Shuo took a look at Gong Chengshi; he had grown up, quickly collecting his emotions and did not cry in front of him.

In truth, Ouyang Shuo needed to thank this little brother today.

If not, the deeper the inner demons, the scarier it would become when it exploded out one day.

Chapter 710-Jia Xu vs Zhuge Liang

Just when Ouyang Shuo and Gong Chengshi were talking, Zheng He suddenly walked in.

"Monarch, Lord Gong Chengshi!"

After Zheng He bowed, he came to Ouyang Shuo's side, bending down and saying softly, “Monarch, we have interrogated the prisoners and learned that the Huang Gai Army should have reached here three days ago. Lord Gong Chengshi suggested they meet with Liu Bei, which wasted a few days of time."

Zheng He did not continue to say the following words.

Obviously, the few days that Gong Chengshi had dragged were extremely crucial.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Gong Chengshi who stood opposite him and nodded.

Zheng He understood the situation and backed down.

Gong Chengshi probably also noticed that what he did was exposed.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “You have done me a good favor, so I'll help you too. The Huang Gai and Guan Yu forces, you can take them all back. You can bring these navies back to Dongting Lake and continue to take down Wuling Prefecture."

"Oh? Thank you, Big Brother!" Gong Chengshi was a little emotional.

In the battle map, Lords could capture the native army of the enemy. However, to rule over them was truly difficult. After all, time was limited, and it was hard to settle hearts.

Even if these surrendered soldiers could be used, Ouyang Shuo would not dare to try. What if they suddenly changed sides? That would be catastrophic.

On the contrary, Lords belonging to the same camp would be able to control them easily. Hence, giving this army to Gong Chengshi was like giving him a ready-made strong army.

Apart from that, there was one more point - side quests.

In the Sun Liu Camp, Zhou Yu, Huang Gai, and Liu Bei all had side quests. Huang Gai's side quest was to take down Wuling Prefecture.

Hence, if he could complete the quest, not only could he gain large amounts of battle contribution points but also massive quest rewards.

Obviously, Gong Chengshi would be emotional. Through this battle, Gong Chengshi had benefited because of a calamity. He felt lucky, lucky that he made the right choice.

"Apart from the army, I’ll give you a portion of the warships that Xiong Ba and Zhan Lang left. Including the cannons, you can use them." Ouyang Shuo smiled as he added.

"Thank you Big Brother!"

Gong Chengshi did not know what else he could say.

Ouyang Shuo smiled as he got up, patting Gong Chengshi's shoulder, “Why are you thanking me? We are allies!"

"En!" Gong Chengshi nodded; he was filled with thoughts and emotions.

"Go, immediately prepare to set off. Remember, you must enter Wuling Prefecture before they reach Dongting Lake; if not, and we you meet there, it would be really awkward."

"Do not worry Big Brother, I know!"

"That's great!" Ouyang Shuo also believed that Gong Chengshi could complete this matter smoothly.

Before he left, he stopped in his steps, “Brother, Xunlong is just silly, he does not have any other intentions."

Ouyang Shuo froze; it seemed like the friendship between the two was exceedingly deep.

"Do not worry; I’ll deal with it properly." Ouyang Shuo smiled.

"Great!"

Gong Chengshi's smile was a little forced; he sighed in his heart before turning around and leaving.

Looking at the back view of Gong Chengshi, his eyes were very complicated. Through his methods, Ouyang Shuo had finally settled down Gong Chengshi.

"Xunlong? Please do not disappoint me!" Ouyang Shuo's eyes flashed.

In the spacious meeting room, a killing intent floated around.

That afternoon, Gong Chengshi led his troops and left.

Along with him was also a Mengchong Warship that carried Guan Yu's head.

Apart from Gong Chengshi, the other two Lord players in Huang Gai Camp were killed and sent out of this battle map. Hence, regarding the details of Gong Chengshi in Red Cliff, no one had any idea.

After sending off Gong Chengshi, Ouyang Shuo gathered Zheng He and Jia Xu to the battle room. After destroying the Huang Ga iArmy, they needed to consider how to face the Liu Bei Army.

Liu Bei had around 20 thousand troops and 50 thousand players for a total of 70 thousand. They also had Zhuge Liang coming up with strategies, so Ouyang Shuo would not take them lightly.

Apart from that, the strategic meaning of occupying Red Cliff also needed to be assigned. The 1st division major general Zhao Si Hu of the City Protection Legion was invited to the meeting.

Battle room.

As usual, Zheng He reported the intelligence, “Monarch, we have investigated that of the resources sent to Yunmeng Lake, the middle point is Wulin, and it has been controlled by us."

"Great!" Ouyang Shuo was more and more pleased with the efficiency of Zheng He.

"In the Wulin Granary, there was a large amount of grain. At the same time, the grain officer showed that three days ago, there was a batch of grain that was rushed to Yunmeng Lake." Zheng He continued, “What was unusual was that five days ago, they had already sent a batch."

"Usually, the grain would be sent once every five days. This new batch was requested by the frontline." Zheng He added.

"Mister, what do you think?" Ouyang Shuo asked Jia Xu.

Jia Xu was quite certain, “If I am not wrong, there should be a huge war in Jiangling. As a result, the frontline needed a large amount of resources just in case."

"Mister, do you think Zhou Yu can take down Jiangling City?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"It's hard to say!" Jia Xu frowned.

As mentioned, the entire battle was controlled by the players. Jia Xu could not know what tricks Di Chen would pull out.

After all, however strong a strategist, if they did not understand the enemy, it was useless.

"However, based on the situation, it seems like they have a trump card. If not, they would not have requested the grain and so confidently went to attack." Jia Xu continued his analysis.

Jia Xu understood Zhou Yu; he knew that he was not a clumsy or rash person.

Sometimes, the perception of a strategist was extremely important. From some small traces, Jia Xu could deduce what was happening in Jiangling.

In truth, Ouyang Shuo was feeling uneasy. Through the clouds, Ouyang Shuo could feel that a massive blood cloud was coagulating above the city.

The cloud was filled with killing intent.

This definitely was not a good sign. It seemed like Jiangling City was going to end up scattered with bones.

"The Battle of Jiangling is one we cannot help." Ouyang Shuo put aside his emotions, “What we can do is to follow the plan and cut off their grain supply."

"Monarch, do not worry, I have already planned it."

Zheng He continued, “I also want to report that the navy that escaped has already been killed. I've already sent orders to ask them to patrol the river to try and destroy the warship sending the first batch."

"Well done." Ouyang Shuo nodded; Zheng He was becoming more and more decisive. Normal military matters did not need Ouyang Shuo to involved himself.

"Zhao Si Hu!" Ouyang Shuo called out.

"Present!"

Zhao Si Hu bowed with an excited expression.

For this whole journey, the ones with the most pent up frustration were the soldiers of the City Protection Legion after seeing their side fight war after war without them having a part.

The soldiers were making noises and grumbling about joining the battle.

It seemed like their chance had arrived.

"Arrange a cavalry regiment to chase the enemy grain transport track to block the first batch squad. The enemy lacks grain, so we must cut off all their grain such that they cannot get even a single bit." Ouyang Shuo ordered.

"Monarch, do not worry, it will be done!" Zhao Si Hu patted his chest.

The current City Protection Legion was totally new and their combat strength was not ordinary. Even their mounts were all Mongol Warhorses. Chasing the slow grain transport squad was a piece of cake.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, showing that he believed in their ability. This was all he could do for the Jiangling Battlefield at this moment.

……

"To deal with Liu Bei's army, mister, do you have any ideas?" After dealing with the grain situation, Ouyang Shuo focused the discussion on the battlefield.

Out of all of them, Jia Xu knew the most about Liu Bei's squad.

Jia Xu nodded, “Their army numbers over 70 thousand. After taking over Changsha, it would have increased; this time, they'll have more than 80 thousand."

After a short pause, he continued, “With my understanding of him, seeing Guan Yu's head, it can be predicted that he would want to seek revenge."

Thinking back to how the voyage squadron only had 40 thousand, half of the enemy numbers, the expressions of the generals turned solemn.

"The Liu Bei forces have both army and navy forces, but their army is their main. They also have many top generals and a top strategist. Hence, they would not act rashly. They definitely would not enter Red Cliff and fall for our trap." Jia Xu analyzed, “The highest chance would be for them to attack from both land and sea with their main forces coming from land."

"You mean they will sneak attack Red Cliff?" Zheng He asked.

"Red Cliff, Wulin both are possible. Zhuge Liang loves to use plans, and it's hard to guess. The only thing we can be sure about is that before arriving, they would find a suitable point to disembark before charging here." Jia Xu's analysis was really thorough.

This battle would be between Jia Xu and Zhuge Liang. These two top strategists would determine the side that owned the advantage.

No wonder Jia Xu would look so excited.

Chapter 711-Liu Bei's Fury

"Mister, do you mean that we should choose the spot they will disembark to strike?" Ouyang Shuo was a little hesitant.

"Yes, that's right." Jia Xu nodded, “However, there are numerous spots where they could disembark, so getting the right spot is really difficult."

"What is your view mister?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

Jia Xu laughed confidently and finally described his plan.

When Ouyang Shuo and the others heard his words, their eyes lit up; they were amazed by some of the details. One had to say that Jia Xu was truly a talent. After spending some time with the voyage squadron, he was able to use their advantages to the maximum.

This military meeting finally ended at nightfall.

"Go prepare, follow the plan!" Ouyang Shuo instructed.

"Yes Monarch!"

Zheng He and the others bid goodbye and left.

The voyage squadron that had rested for a day once again entered battle status. That night, the second unit left Red Cliff and disappeared under the night sky.

Even Ouyang Shuo himself disappeared.

In the next week, the army would prepare for the upcoming battle.

Linxiang City, Lord's Manor.

After occupying Changsha Prefecture, Liu Bei chose Linxiang as the governing point.

Liu Bei had spent a large part of his life wandering around, so he could not hide his happiness now that he finally owned his own land. Unfortunately, the good days would last for less than a week before he welcomed the darkest day.

On that day, of his second brother who had left for Red Cliff, only a bloody head returned.

"Qiyue Wuyi, we are not finished!" Liu Bei's eyes were blood red, boiling with killing intent.

Liu Bei's holler shocked the entire manor.

In less than an hour, Guan Yu's death had stunned the entire city.

There and then, Liu Bei gathered everyone to discuss attacking Red Cliff.

In the main hall, Zhuge Liang, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, as well as player representative Chun Shenjun gathered, their expressions weird.

The moment Zhuge Liang walked in, his brows were furrowed. Seeing the Lord filled with killing intent, Zhuge Liang forced himself to mention not sending troops out.

Before the Huang Gai Army left, Zhuge Liang had suggested immediately moving out, but his suggestion was rejected.

Now that Red Cliff had fallen, logically speaking, Zhuge Liang should not support sending troops. First, they had just taken Changsha, and it was not stable; secondly, Red Cliff had become a war whirlpool.

The most rational course of action was to not do anything.

Zhuge Liang also guessed that the one in charge of Red Cliff had seen through this point. Hence, they handed over Guan Yu's head to try and provoke him into sending troops.

Just that point alone made Zhuge Liang wary.

However, when he saw his Lord's expression, he knew that he definitely would not be able to stop him. As an advisor and a strategist, he must consider how to win this war.

If not, and they failed, it would all be but a dream for the Liu Bei Organization to rule this land.

Zhang Fei's expression was the same as Liu Bei; there was nothing good to say. Zhao Yun was similarly furious; however, he was not as emotional as Zhang Fei.

Chun Shenjun also had a weird expression on his face.

Guan Yu being killed, Red Cliff falling, just thinking about these points, one would know what had happened to Xiong Ba and Zhan Lang.

His current feelings were undoubtedly complicated. On one hand, he wanted both of them out and was gloating; on the other hand, he was worried for Yanhuang the Alliance.

Especially since he had made a breakthrough in his attempt to recruit Zhao Yun and this suddenly occurred.

"What luck!" Chun Shenjun gritted his teeth.

Just at this moment, Liu Bei said, “Player Qiyue Wuyi is truly bold; he's not a human, killing our general! I'll move 80 thousand soldiers to fight back, advisor, tell us your plan!"

Right at the start, Liu Bei asked Zhuge Liang.

When Zhuge Liang heard these words, he frowned once more, “Lord, Changsha had just been occupied. Should we consider leaving 20 thousand men here to play it safe?"

"No." Liu Bei shook his head without any hesitation, “We can take it once, so we can take it a second time. Now, killing those Red Cliff bandits is the priority; we definitely cannot split up."

Liu Bei was not foolish and did not think that the enemy who killed Lu Su, Huang Gai, and Guan Yu's armies was a weak fellow.

Hence, since they wanted to strike, they needed to go all out.

The purpose of this trip was twofold: to take revenge for Guan Yu and to fulfil his own ambitions. In his view, the fall of the Huang Gai Army meant that Wuling Prefecture was a piece of juicy meat.

When they crushed the enemy at Red Cliff, the entire Jingzhou would be his.

Probably only he knew his current thoughts.

All rulers were like that; their thoughts were hard to guess, and they were not always pure.

When Zhuge Liang heard these words, he sighed, “The enemy is strong and has an absolute advantage in terms of their navy; they have also taken up a strategic location like Red Cliff. The only way would be to attack by land."

"The advisor is right." Chun Shenjun interrupted, “Currently, only the player forces that were housed in Red Cliff could have fought against their navy. Unfortunately, they have already been destroyed, so we definitely cannot attack from the sea."

Chun Shenjun interrupted because he was afraid the furious Liu Bei would drag the player army to their deaths.

"Since that's the case, does general have any specific plans?" Liu Bei asked.

One really had to admire him. Even when he was extremely anger, he could still maintain his rationality.

Such ability to bear pain and suffering combined with his discipline was exceedingly scary.

No wonder Cao Cao, Liu Biao, and Sun Quan all feared Liu Bei so much.

"In my view!" Zhuge Liang moved before the map and pointed at a water passage hundreds of miles away from Red Cliff and introduced, “This place is known as Ruxi Town and is a perfect spot to land. We can come here and make the navy proceed forward to attract the enemy’s attention."

"The true main force will disembark and rush day and night to reach Red Cliff before the navy to catch them off guard. Only then can we win this battle."

"Advisor, you truly are magnificent. Please give the orders!" Liu Bei smiled in delight. Seeing Zhuge Liang acting so supportive, he relaxed and gave him the power to reorganize the army.

Zhuge Liang immediately started to make the battle plan.

The next day, Liu Bei's army left Linxiang and went straight for Red Cliff. Two days before this, the army led by Gong Chengshi had once again arrived at Linyuan City.

The Battle of Red Cliff was going to enter its second stage.

Chapter 712-Fire Attack Strategy

The surging Changjiang River continued and did not stop.

Liu Bei's army went down the river and when they went past the Han River mouth, Zhuge Liang suggested they send warships and scout to prevent the enemy from setting an ambush in the Han River.

Liu Bei nodded and allowed it, but he only gave them half a day. In the end, they obtained no rewards. With that, the army continued to move down the river and headed toward Ruxi Town.

Just as they passed the Changjiang mouth, at an inconspicuous corner, a beast with a green head popped out and did a roll before disappearing in the water.

The green beast traveled up the river for half a day before coming to the upstream portion of the river. At this place, the 2nd unit was quietly waiting.

Splash!

The beast jumped out of the river and landed on top of the flagship.

A young man was standing on the deck. When he saw the giant beast, he smiled and touched its head, asking, “They just went over?"

The giant beast could actually understand his words and nodded.

"Good, go play!" The young man once again patted its head.

Nian!

The giant beast leaped and once again disappeared into the vast river.

The young man turned around and looked at the navy major, “You heard that?"

"Monarch, do not worry. With our speed, we can move to the next ambush point in time if we move out now." The major was solemn but rather excited.

The young man nodded, “Follow the plan!"

"Yes Monarch!"

After giving his instructions, the young man moved to the side of the deck where a flying device was parked.

This young man was naturally Ouyang Shuo.

With a little stalking, the location and movements of the Liu Bei Navy had completely fallen under their control.

The ambush plan that Jia Xu had made needed extreme precise. They needed to know the exact time they passed the river mouth and also needed to inform the Red Cliff Navy in time so that they could work together.

If one side performed badly, all their efforts would be ruined.

The secret weapon that Jia Xu mentioned was the flying device that had teleported over with the voyage squadron.

Ouyang Shuo pushed the purple magnetic ohlite around his neck into the caved in portion of the flying device. The mysterious patterns suddenly lit up like an awakened beast.

The flying device suddenly rose and disappeared into the sky.

Ouyang Shuo was driving the device down the river through the river mouth and down toward Red Cliff. In less than an hour, he saw Liu Bei's army traveling on the river surface.

"Caught you!"

Ouyang Shuo smiled and drove the flying device away from Changjiang and toward the Yunmeng River on the west side; he especially made a big circle before entering Red Cliff.

Two hours later, the flying device landed on Dragon Head.

"Monarch!"

When he received the news, Zheng He came out to welcome his Lord.

"The target has appeared, get ready!" Ouyang Shuo was extremely direct.

"Understood!"

Zheng He immediately ordered the army to leave Red Cliff.

With that, the Shanhai City Army had locked them in Changjiang from both the front and the back.

Morning, 19th day of the battle map.

On the Liu Bei flagship deck, Zhuge Liang stood in the wind, pointing at the river and smiling, “Lord, not far from here is Ruxi Lake."

"Great!" Since they did not face any resistance on the way here, Liu Bei's mood was extremely good. As long as the army was able to disembark smoothly, they would have largely succeeded.

At this very moment, the alarm sounded.

When Liu Bei heard the sound, his heart shook, “What happened?"

"Lord, the enemy ships behind us have caught up!" The Personal Guard stammered as he spoke.

"What?"

When he heard this news, Liu Bei immediately turned around, only to see a massive squadron charging over. An eye-catching golden dragon flag hung from the warship.

"It's the Shanhai City Squadron!"

From the side, Chun Shenjun solemnly exclaimed.

"Why did this happen!"

Liu Bei's face was ashen white; he regretted not listening to the suggestion of patrolling the area more carefully.

"Advisor, what should we do now?" Liu Bei asked Zhuge Liang.

Zhuge Liang was calm, “Lord, please calm down. Their forces are not many and should be their branch squad. The best method is to send some sailors to drag them down and to rush to Ruxi Town to disembark. We have no chance at all if we fight on the river."

"Advisor is correct!" Liu Bei calmed himself down.

Liu Bei had totally no hopes of his navy winning. As such, when he heard Zhuge Liang's words, he immediately ordered the navy to break away from the main force and take charge of dragging down the enemy.

The main force would charge to Ruxi Town.

As long as they reach there, they would definitely win with their massive army.

"Qiyue Wuyi, just you wait!" Liu Bei's hatred for this player increased.

At this moment of life and death moment, Liu Bei's army was like an arrow leaving the bowstring, charging forward.

At the same time, the navy squadron got ready to intercept the Shanhai City Squadron.

"Fire the cannons!"

The Shanhai City Squadron did not hesitate and used their special move straight away.

Hong! Hong! Hong!

On the river surface, cannon explosions rang out once more.

The navy squadron that Cao Cao had abandoned was a live target. In front of the strong Shanhai City Navy, they had no way to return fire.

In less than half an hour, all of them fell. Unfortunately, a large amount of broken wreckage blocked the Changjiang River, so the Shanhai City Squadron had no choice but to stop to clear it.

"Damn it!"

The major's face was a little ugly.

If he spoiled the Monarch's plan because of this matter, he would probably be beheaded.

"Quick, open up a path!"

As the wreckages spanned a large area, removing it was not an easy matter.

The anxious major could only watch on as the enemy disappeared from his field of sight.

……

Liu Bei army, onboard the flagship.

Listening to the cannon sounds from behind made both Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang exceedingly solemn. They were shocked to see that their navy did not even stand a chance.

Thinking of which, it seemed like Chun Shenjun was right.

Liu Bei instantly started to regret his decision to rashly move the army.

"Luckily we escaped that!"

Not far from them, Ruxi Town was in sight.

Just when they thought they had survived, an army slowly proceeded toward them from the water region in front.

The hanging golden dragon flag was truly eye-piercing.

"Damn it, how did this happen!" Despair flashed across Liu Bei’s eyes. No matter how he thought about it, he did not understand how they fell into the enemy’s trap.

Ruxi Town, which was less than a thousand meters away, seemed so distant.

"Lord, the only way now is to fight to the death," Zhuge Liang said slowly. Trying to disembark now was tantamount to suicide. Under the enemy cannon fire, they stood no chance.

Zhuge Liang totally had no idea how the enemy had pinpointed their location and how the squadrons from both the front and the back had cooperated so flawlessly.

Of course, no matter how amazing he was, he would not have expected the flying device and Little Green to exist.

As they say, if your starting foot was wrong, any route you take would be wrong.

The presence of such a high tech bug was something that Zhuge Liang had no knowledge of.

"Let’s fight!"

Liu Bei's eyes focused; his voice a little hoarse.

On the river surface, they already had nowhere to go. Liu Bei's eyes turned ice cold, “I want to let them know how strong desperate people are!"

The order to fight to the death spread across the entire army.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

All of a sudden, a killing intent that shocked the heavens appeared.

Just at this moment, the Shanhai City Squadron at the back had finally caught up.

They had totally locked up the Liu Bei Army from front and back, and the Liu Bei Army totally could not move.

However, the first to attack was the Liu Bei Army. Zhuge Liang knew that the enemy had cannons, so they totally stood no chance of winning in a ranged war.

The only method was to disregard the sacrifices and charge forward to have a head on close combat fight.

Only then could they have a fighting chance and break out of this situation.

"Kill!"

Numerous warships charged at the Shanhai City Squadron.

On Dragon Head, Ouyang Shuo understood what they were trying to do and laughed. Jia Xu was similarly filled with confidence. As a top strategist, how could he have not considered the enemy going all in?

200 Cima Boats suddenly charged in from behind.

Onboard the Cima Boats were a few soldiers. If one looked carefully, they would see that these people were all prisoners. To prevent them from speaking, their tongues were all cut off.

Such a method naturally came from Jia Xu.

Weirdly, the Cima Boats were not driven by anyone, but they charged at the Liu Bei Navy like an arow. The secret lied in the frogmen that were in the water.

This time, the frogmen became the shepherds of all the Cima Boats.

Closely packed Cima Boats came from front and back and charged forward. They filled up the entire river surface till there were no more gaps.

"What's that?"

"Are they crazy? Using such small boats as the vanguard?"

"Kill them; do not let them block the way."

The formation of the Liu Bei Army was in chaos.

Numerous arrows shot at the Cima Boats. The prisoners who were tied up died just like that.

"Haha!"

"Are they here to die?"

After winning this exchange, their morale rose.

Only Zhuge Liang had a serious expression. He did not think that the enemy who had cannons would use such small tactics.

The only logical explanation was that there was something wrong with these boats.

"Use trebuchets and sink the boats. Do not let them get close!" Zhuge Liang ordered.

Liu Bei was shocked and asked, “Do you think that there's something wrong with these boats?"

"Might be!" Zhuge Liang was unsure.

Upon closer inspection, those boats were empty. It did not look like a fire attack.

Just as Zhuge Liang was in doubt, many fire arrows shot out from the Shanhai City Squadron toward the Cima Boats.

Hu!

Instantly, hundreds of Cima Boats burst into flames.

Chapter 713-Elite White Soldier

Hundreds of Cima Boats that were drenched in alchemical fire oil joined together on the river surface, forming a row. They were like two fire dragons that charged right at the Liu Bei Army, unable to be stopped.

Liu Bei and the others were sweating.

“The people on the boats were obviously shot to death, so how are they proceeding forward?” Zhuge Liang was filled with doubt.

One must know that this time, there was no wind on the river surface.

The enemy had used a weird method to make the clever Zhuge Liang lost; he had no method to counter it. He could only watch on as the boats in flames swiftly closed in and knocked into their warships.

As the ships knocked into one another, the fire spread and stretched for miles.

The Cima Boats were like a giant fire dragon, wrapping up into a bundle and swallowing up the Liu Bei Army. The entire river became a huge oil pot and the tens of thousands of Liu Bei troops were the main dish.

The situation had reached its crucial point.

“We cannot hesitate any longer, Zi Long, cover him as the Lord goes up to shore!”

“Understood!”

The white-robbed Zhao Zi Long was a courageous person but even he could not survive a sea of fire.

“Advisor, leave with us!”

With Zhuge Liang, Liu Bei would have a chance to rise once more. Without him, everything would be lost.

“That’s right. Advisor, let’s go together!”

Out of all the generals in the Liu Bei Organization, Zhao Yun respected him the most.

Sigh!

Zhuge Liang sighed and agreed bitterly. Zhuge Liang was not a person that was afraid of death, but he did not want to die on this river, nameless.

On the other hand, Zhang Fei volunteered to stay behind to be in charge of protecting them as they left.

“Third brother…” Tears welled up in Liu Bei’s eyes, “Take care!”

“Go first Big Brother, I’ll be there soon!” Zhang Fei smiled in a casual manner.

Taking the chance that the fire had not spread to the middle troops, the flagship placed down numerous small boats to bring Liu Bei and the others to swiftly retreat toward the west coast of Changjiang.

In just a short while, the fire grew stronger and thousands of soldiers were buried in the sea of fire, crying out in pain.

When Liu Bei saw this scene, tears streamed down his face.

“I’ve failed them!” Liu Bei cried out in pain.

On Dragon Head, Jia Xu looked out at the burning Han River with a complicated expression.

This was revenge.

If the Lord knew about this, he would probably laugh out loud! Jia Xu thought.

Jia Xu pointed toward the center region of the enemy and said, “Admiral, Liu Bei is escaping!”

“Do not worry mister!”

Zheng He laughed and waved a flag.

At the same time, on the many Mengchong Warships docked on the shore, hundreds of specially made boards were placed down onto the shore. The 1st division of the City Protection Legion that had been waiting for such a long time under the leadership of Zhao Si Hu stepped onto the boards and quickly disembarked, getting ready to chase the enemy.

At the same time, the cannons on both sides sounded out. The attacks of the cannons dealt even more damage to the enemy.

Looking at the situation, they were going all out to kill them, not giving them a single chance to survive.

Before the battle began, the Lord had said that the main goal was to eradicate the enemy. Capturing their generals would be a bonus; if they could catch them, they definitely must not let them escape.

Zheng He’s actions precisely followed Ouyang Shuo’s instructions.

……

Among the Liu Bei Army, seeing the enemy wanting to go ashore to kill their Lord, Zhang Fei, who was in charge of covering for them, was furious, “Kill them!”

Zhang Fei ordered his troops to charge at the warships that were firing at them.

“Even if we die, we must drag them down with us!” Zhang Fei was filled with killing intent. Most importantly, he just needed to cover his brother’s escape.

Many warships that were already on fire charged at the Shanhai City Squadron. However, they were already on fire and their sails were already burned.

They could only use paddles, but the paddles had also suffered heavy damage under the cannon. Less than 30% of the paddles could be used. Even the soldiers in charge of them had suffered heavy casualties.

Hence, Zhang Fei was panicking, but his warships crawled forward like a turtle. Some of the warships could not even move and just stayed stunned on the river surface; it was like they were waiting to be destroyed.

Seeing that the enemy wanted to give their all to try and fight them, Zheng He naturally would not stay still.

The warships at the front became the main focus of the Shanhai City Squadron.

Hundreds and thousands of cannon balls flew over. Along with an arrow rain, they caused the warships at the front to fall even before they reached the middle of the water path.

The warships that followed behind faced a similar fate.

Even if there were one or two warships that managed to charge in front of the Shanhai City Squadron, they were unable to proceed any further. The frogmen hiding below were obviously alert and chiseled the boats.

Unavoidably, some of them would be smacked by cannonballs and die.

War was just so cruel. Even when they had full control over the battlefield, they still needed to make some sacrifices to increase their rewards.

The ‘fire ships’ that could truly do damage to them were incredibly rare.

At this moment, a cannon ball accurately flew toward the flagship that Zhang Fei was on.

Looking at the trajectory, it was actually flying right for Zhang Fei.

“General!”

When Zhang Fei heard this shout, he only had time to look up and see a black cannonball fly right at him. He could not avoid it even if he wanted to as it was too late.

The cannonball hit Zhang Fei who was commanding on deck.

All of a sudden, blood and flesh flew all around.

The Three Kingdoms fierce general Zhang Yi De was blown apart just like that, his body in pieces.

“General!”

When the surrounding soldiers witnessed his death, their faces turned ashen white.

Especially his guards; based on military rules, if the main general died, these guards needed to be buried with him on the battlefield.

Listening to the shock from behind him, Liu Bei who had already boarded the little boat turned his head around to look. Coincidentally, he witnessed the moment when Zhang Fei was hit; his eyes turned blood red, “Third brother!”

His voice was filled with sadness.

The hatred Liu Bei felt toward Shanhai City had reached its maximum. To call it a blood ocean deep hatred was not an exaggeration, and it had already reached a state where he would not stop till he took revenge.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo had all the more need to kill him.

“Lord, let’s leave.”

Zhao Yun’s eyes were similarly blood red, but he still responsibly guarded Liu Bei as he left. When they reached the shore, there was still a battle that awaited them.

“Third brother!” Liu Bei cried out hoarsely.

When the surrounding soldiers saw this scene, they all felt emotional.

On Dragon Head, Ouyang Shuo similarly saw this sight.

Ouyang Shuo could only sigh about the matter of Zhang Fei's death. A general like Zhang Fei was similar to Guan Yu. Even if he was captured, he definitely would not pledge loyalty to Shanhai City.

In terms of convincing the people that he captured, Liu Bei was the absolute talent. Without mentioning Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, the people who Ouyang Shuo 100% could not recruit included Zhuge Liang and Zhao Yun.

Just this fact made Ouyang Shuo respect Liu Bei.

Zhang Fei was killed by a cannonball; such a way of going out was a little too brutal.

During this Battle of Red Cliff, Ouyang Shuo's hands had been stained with blood, and he became the nemesis of historical generals.

……

Along with the death of Zhang Fei, the river battle slowly lost its meaning.

The intense battle changed from sea to land.

After receiving the order to head ashore, the City Protection Legion led by Zhao Si Hu took 40 minutes to completely get off their ships. After all, the shore was not a port, so it was really inconvenient for large warships to disembark.

And just 10 minutes ago, Zhao Yun had led three thousand odd soldiers to protect Liu Bei as they headed up shore; they were retreating toward the depths of the wilderness.

"Chase!"

Zhao Si Hu let out a vicious laugh and led his troops to chase.

As they had just come off their boats, be it the Liu Bei Army or the City Protection Legion, both did not have any horses.

Now, it all depended on who ran faster.

Zhao Si Hu was confident, as he had a secret weapon that the Lord had given him.

What about Liu Bei? He could not be underestimated either.

Protecting him was the most elite troops under his charge; they were also his Guards Army, the White Soldiers.

Even in history, the White Soldiers were a famous elite force.

In the Three Kingdoms history, their names spread far and wide; they were an existence equal to the Tiger Leopard Cavalry under Cao Cao.

The commander of the White Soldiers was not Zhao Yun but Chen Dao who no one knew about.

Chen Dao was from Runan. He became Liu Bei's subordinate at Yuzhou and could be considered an old general. He had followed Liu Bei all around, and his position was only lower than Zhao Yun.

In the Three Kingdoms records, conquering south was strong, and conquering west was loyal. When choosing soldiers, fierce generals and fearless warriors were taken.

The last sentence referred to the White Soldiers. Everyone chosen was fearless and strong. Conquering south referred to the South Conquering General Zhao Yun and Conquering West referred to Chen Dao.

Both of these generals were on par with each other.

In history, during the true Battle of Yiling, the Shu Army had retreated in defeat, and Chen Dao and Fu Tong were in charge of holding back the enemy. Fu Tong died in battle and Chen Dao swore that he would take revenge for him. Hundreds of miles outside White Emperor City, at a place known as Yuanbi Corner, he led 700 White Soldiers to defend the place. Each only had a spear and a blade.

The Wu Country general line up had Zhu Zhi's eldest Son Zhu Cai, and the middle troops were Quan Zong, Li Qi, Zhu Heng, Zhu Ran, and other generals leading ten thousand Wu soldiers. The vanguard and middle troops were all cavalry, and they swore to capture Liu Bei.

Chen Dao used just 700 of them to block the ten thousand men attack of the Wu Country.

The strength of White Soldiers and the strength of Chen Dao was evident from this feat.

Weirdly, this general was not even mentioned in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Chen Dao was a strong general only below Zhao Yun. When Luo Guan Zhong wrote about how strong the generals of Shu Country were, it had exceeded reality. Hence, he had to exclude Chen Dao.

With one Zhao Yun, it was already a classic. When he was thinking about it, he might have combined the two, so the strength of Chen Dao could only be seen in Zhao Yun's shadow.

Hence, a general was buried in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

As a result, even though Zhao Si Hu had the numerical advantage, it was not going to be easy.

Chapter 714-Fall of Jiangling

Among the Liu Bei Army, the ones who had it hardest was still the player Lords like Chun Shenjun.

General Zhao Yun and General Chen Dao only protected Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei and did not have any time to bother about the players. Furthermore, the player army was huge and was too big a target, so it was impossible for them to smoothly retreat.

In the battle map, to Lords like Chun Shenjun, their army was everything. To ask them to abandon their army to escape alone held no purpose.

Even if he could obtain some benefits from Liu Bei, it could not make up for the losses incurred by the entire army falling.

Rather than that, why not stop the bleeding?

Seeing the intensity of the fire quickly increase, Chun Shenjun could not help but grit his teeth. In the end, he could only commit suicide once again and back out of the battle map.

If this continued to drag on, his army would suffer even heavier losses.

One thing was for sure, he had lived for nothing in the Battle of Red Cliff. The battle contribution points that Pill Sun City had obtained in Changsha were not even enough to revive their fallen forces.

"If I knew this would happen, I would not have even have followed them." Chun Shenjun sighed.

He could only blame Zhuge Liang and Zhao Yun for being too tempting.

Luckily, Chun Shenjun was a god-level rich man, so he had many substitute dolls on him. If not, killing himself over and over would cause his combat strength to be too weak.

As the Lords in the Liu Bei Camp had all killed themselves, the player armies all turned into white lights and disappeared from the battle map. The Liu Bei Army became spacious and empty; they were left with less than ten thousand people, but the fire still did not stop.

Warships sank to the bottom of the river due to the flames; the whole scene was tragic to the extreme.

It was only a matter of time till the whole Liu Bei Army fell.

The focus of the battle turned to the chase on the wilderness by the shore.

Regardless of the result of the chase, the Liu Bei Army had lost the ability to fight against the Shanhai City Squadron.

Changjiang was officially in their hands. After a month, the Cao Cao Camp had once again obtained control over the river and could attack Jiangdong at any time.

The strategic goal of the voyage squadron had already been accomplished. Their next step would depend on the Jiangling situation.

If Jiangling wins, the battle map would end.

If Jiangling loses, this battle would be dragged on.

Ouyang Shuo had already turned his eyes to Zhou Yu in Jiangdong. During this battle, Ouyang Shuo did not come here for battle contribution points; he came here to recruit Zhou Yu and Jia Xu.

After this period of hard work, it seemed like Jia Xu would not be a problem.

Zhou Yu, who Ouyang Shuo cared the most about, was not even seen. Apart from his own ability, he was the key to whether Ouyang Shuo could recruit Lu Meng, Gan Ning, and the other generals.

With that, Ouyang Shuo would obviously pay attention to the situation in Jiangling.

Before leaving Jiangling, Ouyang Shuo left a Mengchong Warship. The purpose of this action was to pass the intel of the battle directly to Ouyang Shuo.

Considering the time, the Battle of Jiangling should have ended.

However, till now, Ouyang Shuo still had not seen the warship.

On the battle contribution points ranking, the ranks of Di Chen, Bai Hua, and the others had all changed. Obviously, the situation there was extremely intense. However, based on the rankings, Ouyang Shuo could not deduce the end result.

However, for these past two days, the rankings had been peaceful.

Evidently, either the battle had ended in a stalemate or the result had been decided.

"Let's hope that nothing went wrong!"

Ouyang Shuo looked toward Jiangling; his heart felt uneasy.

Wilderness on the Changjiang West Coast.

After the forces gathered, Zhao Si Hu took out a talisman and grinned.

Troop Movement Talisman: After use, movement speed of troops increase by 50%; lasts for two hours.

With this talisman that the Monarch had handed over to him, Zhao Si Hu felt confident about chasing up to the enemy. He did not hesitate and immediately tore the talisman, which turned into a white light and covered the bodies of every City Protection Legion soldier.

Immediately, the soldiers proceeded forward like they were on steroids.

Even so, to chase up to the White Soldiers was not an easy matter. Their basic speed was greater than them; additionally, they had the buffs of Zhao Yun, Chen Dao, and Zhuge Liang.

In comparison, Zhao Si Hu's buff seemed useless.

Hence, even with the effect of the talisman, the City Protection Legion had to chase for a few hours before they managed to see the Liu Bei Army.

Chen Dao and Zhao Yun were both exceedingly experienced. When escaping, they continued to change their positions. Along the way, they even left misleading signs that put Zhao Si Hu off their trail.

Luckily, they had finally caught up.

Zhao Si Hu looked toward the enemy in front of him and mocked, “Where do you think you're going!"

……

On the other side, Chen Dao and the rest had all noticed that the enemy had caught up.

"Lord, let me deal with them." At the crucial moment, Chen Dao stepped out and requested to be the backline.

"Be careful!"

Liu Bei had already collected his emotions at this point and immediately gave Chen Dao one thousand White Soldiers.

In history, Chen Dao led just 700 White Soldiers to stop ten thousand Wu soldiers. Who knows whether this one thousand could stop the City Protection Legion.

After a short while, the City Protection Legion had caught up.

When he saw that the enemy had only left one thousand soldiers to block their advance, he was unhappy, “Preposterous!"

Immediately, he wanted to split up the troops to chase the Liu Bei Army. He was exceedingly clear that Liu Bei in the front was the true big fish.

During this battle, Zhao Si Hu really wanted to make a big contribution to the Lord.

"You want to leave? Get past me first." Chen Dao held a spear in his hand and pointed it directly at Zhao Si Hu.

"Kill!"

A thousand White Soldiers immediately gathered into a formation to block the City Protection Legion.

"Since you want to die, I'll let you!"

When Zhao Si Hu saw this scene, his eyes stared, “Kill them; end this!"

"Kill!"

The City Protection Legion under Zhao Si Hu's leadership was also an ambush of tigers.

Zhao Si Hu was always the type to let his actions speak; he raised his blade and charge forward. The cultivation method he trained in was the one he had obtained from Er'Shi ridge.

After two years of cultivation, his blade technique had already reached the mastery through comprehension level. His combat strength was extremely close to breaking through to King Rank.

He only lacked comprehension and the proper opportunity.

The machete he used was a platinum weapon crafted by Ou Zhizi.

Hence, he charged right at Chen Dao. The two generals fought; it was hard to separate them, and sand and stone flew in the air.

The blade swung and the spear pierced, making it hard for normal people to get close.

At this point, the other soldiers had all engaged in slaughter. The White Soldiers were truly elite. Even though they were fighting one against ten, they were only at a slight disadvantage.

Of course, the City Protection Legion was not like the East Wu Army. Without mentioning other aspects, just their weapons alone meant that they were not on the same level.

Hence, although the White Soldiers were strong, they would definitely lose if they met the Divine Martial Guards.

As the battle continued, the City Protection Legion slowly took supremacy. The White Soldiers were strong but the City Protection Legion soldiers broke through their defense lines to continue chasing Liu Bei.

Each time, the White Soldiers would give it their all.

Such morale and determination was difficult for the current City Protection Legion to break through.

The battle slowly entered a stalemate.

The White Soldiers seemed shaky; it was like they were about to fall, but they stubbornly stood. As time dragged on, the more detrimental the battle was to the City Protection Legion. At this point, the talisman’s effect had already worn off.

Zhao Si Hu was dealing with Chen Dao while taking looks at the battlefield; the more he looked, the worst his expression got.

Just as the battle was becoming stale, the sounds of horse hooves sounded from behind.

Turning back, it was the Divine Martial Guards led by the Lord.

This time, the White Soldiers were no match. When the Divine Martial Guards and the City Protection Legion worked hand in hand, the White Soldiers were pushed back.

In less than an hour, the one thousand White Soldiers all fell.

In this nameless wilderness, one thousand ferocious soldiers were laid to rest. In the end, only Chen Dao was left, and he was still fighting against Zhao Si Hu.

"General Chen Dao, are you willing to surrender?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"You wish!"

His reply was similarly clean as he stabbed out with his spear at Zhao Si Hu.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this reply, he sighed in his heart, “Send him on his way!"

"Yes, my Monarch!"

When Zhao Si Hu heard this command, he chopped down with his machete to push aside the enemy’s spear; he used this chance to leave.

At the same time, the surrounding Divine Martial Guards held up their god arm crossbows and fired, instantly shooting him and making him look like a porcupine.

After Chen Dao died, he left a book; Ouyang Shuo picked up and smiled when he saw what the item was.

White Soldier Training Manual: After use, grasp the training technique of the White Soldiers.

"That was worth it!" Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Let's return!"

After so long, Liu Bei had already fled far away, finding him was impossible.

"As expected from a cockroach, his life truly cannot be taken easily!" Ouyang Shuo was filled with thoughts. Luckily, in this battle, he had taken several limbs from Liu Bei.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was leading the troops, a Mengchong Warship was sailing toward the Shanhai City Squadron.

"Who are you, stop!"

The warship was stopped by the voyage squadron that was still cleaning up the battlefield.

"Ally!" The Mengchong Warship raised a golden dragon flag, and a soldier on the deck hollered, “Jiangling City emergency intel, I need to send it to the Monarch!"

"Wait up!"

After investigating his background, the messenger was sent to Dragon Head.

"What happened to Jiangling City?" Zheng He asked.

"Admiral, Jiangling City has already fallen, and Lord Feng Qiuhuang ordered me to inform the Monarch." The messenger took out a letter as he spoke.

"What? Jiangling City fell?"

At the side, Jia Xu jumped in shock, “What exactly happened?"

"This...." The messenger was a little hesitant.

"Mister, let's just wait for the Monarch to return."

Jia Xu was stunned and quickly regained his calm, “I was rash!"

Chapter 715-Actions of a Traitor

The moment Ouyang Shuo returned, he was rushed by Zheng He into the battle room.

"Monarch, something has happened in Jiangling." Zheng He's expression was solemn as he handed over the letter.

When Ouyang Shuo read the letter that Feng Qiuhuang had sent to him, his brows furrowed. He did not expect that Jiangling City would fall, and it would be a total defeat.

……

To explain this matter, one had to start from before the week.

By the time Ouyang Shuo killed Guan Yu, the Zhou Yu Army had already led troops down to Jiangling. Close to 300 thousand troops had surrounded Jiangling City.

Outside the city, flags waved; spears and blades were prepared.

The next morning, the army launched a ferocious assault on Jiangling, attacking from all directions. The most large-scale battlefield in the Battle of Red Cliff had exploded and it would decide the fates of both sides.

On the first day of battle, nothing went wrong. After close to 10 thousand casualties, Zhou Yu's army backed down like a flood. Jiangling City stood tall.

The second day was exactly the same.

The situation changed on the third day. Just as the Cao Cao Army started to put down their guards, the west gate of Jiangling suddenly opened from the inside. The player army that was in charge of the west gate had betrayed them.

The Zhou Yu Army that was prepared rushed into Jiangling City like a flood.

Zhou Yu was truly smart; the battle during the first two days was just a ruse. On the third day, Zhou Yu gathered his main force at the west gate while the ones attacking the other three were all false.

The army gathered all their main forces and also had someone on the inside; naturally, it was an easy victory.

Catastrophe had struck.

General Cao Ren, who was in charge of guarding the west gate, died in battle. At the same time, the Cao Cao Army that was caught off guard suffered heavy casualties.

Luckily, he was decisive and Feng Qiuhuang and the others were alert, and they led troops to leave from the north.

Their destination was Yiling.

Who knows how this happened, but they suffered another scheme as they headed up north.

Zhou Yu had predicted that the Cao Cao Army would escape to Yizhou and planned an ambush. During this battle, naturally the Cao Cao Army lost both soldiers and generals.

Facing so many obstacles and paying such a heavy price, the remaining forces finally reached Yizhou. Of the 300 thousand Cao Cao Army, only 150 thousand remained.

Di Chen and the others naturally earned contribution points like crazy, and his points had caught up to Ouyang Shuo; Di Chen was second place now.

Of course, their army suffered loses too.

Be it the City Protection Legion led by Er'Lai or Feng Qiuhuang and Bai Hua's forces, they all led their elite forces. The Zhou Yu Army also lost 50 to 60 thousand troops from their retaliation.

Currently, Zhou Yu was leading the army to surround Yizhou to get ready to annihilate the enemy.

If Yizhou fell, the battle map would immediately end. The Invincible status that Ouyang Shuo had kept would be broken. If that happened, the defeat of Xiong Ba and the others would not mean much anymore.

Of course, this was not easy.

The Zhou Yu Army was able to easily defeat Jiangling only because they had spies within.

The one who opened the gates were the forces of Caiyun Zinan, Qin Feng, and Yuan Ping. Who knows what scheme he had used to obtain Cao Ren's trust, but the general had allowed their armies to guard the west gate.

With that, it created a hidden cancer for the battle.

After learning the defense layout, Feng Qiuhuang and the others objected to Cao Cao and hoped that their forces could be spread around.

Ouyang Shuo had instructed them to be wary of Caiyun Zinan and the rest beforehand. Their current actions were simply too unusual. With how smart Feng Qiuhuang and the rest were, they would obviously be wary.

Helplessly, their power was feeble in front of Cao Cao, and he did not listen to them. More importantly, she did not have proof that Caiyun Zinan and the others would betray them.

Furthermore, Caiyun Zinan had insurance - the trust from Cao Ren.

With Cao Ren's support, the matter ended just like that. Although Feng Qiuhuang and the others were anxious, they could not do anything.

With that, only then could the catastrophe occur.

Cao Ren, who was the cause of all this, received his lesson with his death in the battle.

After the Battle of Jiangling ended, Caiyun Zinan and the others knew their place and knew that they could not do anything else in the battle map. Based on the rules, even if Zhou Yu trusted them, they could not attack their own camp.

They used a loophole in the system to open the city gate.

Furthermore, they were afraid that Cao Cai would try to take revenge. Hence, they decided that after they opened the city gate and completed their mission, they would directly kill themselves and back out of the battle map.

Their actions were the typical harming others but not benefiting themselves. They would rather choose to earn nothing from the battle if they could harm the Shanhai Alliance.

After this battle, Gaia would probably make a system hotfix regarding such actions. After all, if everyone acted like that, the uncertainty factor in the battle map would rise, which was a matter Gaia would not want to see.

Before the hotfix, Shanhai City became the greatest loser.

The player armies in the Cao Cao Camp were mostly made up of Shanhai Alliance Lords. In this battle, including the City Protection Legion, they had all suffered heavy losses.

The City Protection Legion even lost two major generals, so one could see how intense the situation was.

As the Battle of Jiangling came to an end, the direction of the battle became cloudy and uncertain.

Even after taking down Jiangling, the victory of the Sun Liu Alliance Army was still not certain yet. On the other side, Cao Cao still had over a hundred thousand troops, and the city still had sufficient resources.

This was because Yizhou was the grain transfer point of the Cao Cao Army. From the north to various places in Jingzhou, all grain must come through here.

Although the grain storage here could not be compared to Jiangling, it would not be a problem to support them for half a month.

On the contrary, the Zhou Yu Army had a lack of grain. The grain sent from Wulin was intercepted by the City Protection Legion. Even the grain in Jiangling was burned down under Cao Cao’s orders.

Things were just so awkward. As the victor, they still had to live on an empty stomach.

Helplessly, Zhou Yu could only arrange the army to the various lands and villages to scour for grain. With the hungry army facing the defenseless people, everyone could guess what would happen.

The hundreds and thousands of villages in Yizhou fell under the horse hooves of the army.

Anyway, Jingzhou was under Liu Biao. Be it Cao Cao or Zhou Yu, they did not empathize them. As a general, feeding their troops was the priority.

If not, who would fight for them?

In such a chaotic world, who would truly pity the common people?

When Liu Bei was not that successful, he actually cared for the people. It was his unusual acts that made Liu Bei famous.

The pitiful Jingzhou people had already given grain to Liu Biao during the autumn sowing season. Cao Cao's arrival meant that they had even given him their food.

Now, the arrival of the Zhou Yu Army meant that even all their emergency rations would be swept clean.

This winter would be a lot colder than usual for the people. What awaited them was either freezing to death or starving to death.

Those that did not want to die could only dig for roots and chew on bark.

During this winter season, even bark was rare. As the army past, all they left behind were refugees that ran for their lives. On the way, who knows how many people suffered due to this tragedy?

Selling kids and women was now a reality.

……

If they did not have enough grain, it would not be an easy matter for them to take down Yizhou. Apart from that, to the Sun Liu Camp, the Shanhai City Squadron was still a problem.

Along with Liu Bei's escape, only the Jiangdong side was left. Moreover, their navy had nearly completely fallen apart under the successive strikes of the Shanhai City Squadron.

If they did not remove this problem, it would be hard to win this war.

Hence, the key to victory and defeat laid in the Shanhai City Squadron. If Ouyang Shuo was at Jiangling City, it would be nearly impossible for Caiyun Zinan to enact his betrayal.

One could only say that Ouyang Shuo had hurried a landmine for Jiangling because of his selfishness. Now, it was time for him to make it up.

Dragon Head, battle room.

"So, what should we do?"

After understanding the situation, Ouyang Shuo passed the problem to Zheng He and Jia Xu.

Of course, the main person he asked was still Jia Xu.

Zheng He was only a navy admiral. In strategies that affected the entire battle, he needed the help of a top strategist like Jia Xu.

No matter what, this was his backyard.

Ouyang Shuo deciding to bring along Jia Xu was the best decision.

"Mister, please!"

Zheng He directly kicked the ball into Jia Xu's court.

When Jia Xu heard their words, he smiled awkwardly, but he did not push it aside and said slowly, “The Yizhou problem is hard to solve. There's another thing we can do."

Jia Xu immediately rejected helping Yizhou.

Ouyang Shuo agreed on this matter. The navy was obviously good at naval warfare, but in terms of guarding a city, they were pretty much useless.

Assisting Yizhou would be attempting to use their weakness to attack the enemy's strength.

During this period of time, Ouyang Shuo understood Jia Xu's way of making strategy. His way seemed exceedingly unconstrained, but in truth, it was meticulously planned out.

His most obvious specialty was his ability to use generals and troops. Be it assassinating the leader or using fire to burn the Liu Bei Army, these events showed the way he used troops.

His excellent analysis of the battlefield, his vast strategic vision, and his vicious eyes totally saw through the enemy; these were all skills that a strategist needed to have.

Be it Jia Xu or Guo Jia, they were all like that.

Apart from that, another specialty of Jia Xu was his rationality. His goal was to win. As for the process and the price they needed tp pay, it was not within his considerations.

As a result, his intentions were misread, and he was called a vicious strategist.

Chapter 716-Attacking Chaisang

"What's the other path mister is referring to?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"Attack Chaisang." Jia Xu went straight to the point, "Chaisang current has no troops. If we plan it well, we can definitely break in. The moment Chaisang falls, the danger at Yizhou will be resolved."

Ouyang Shuo smiled and nodded, "Mister that was exactly what I was thinking. Send the order, swiftly clear the battlefield. Rest for a day in Red Cliff; then, we will strike Chaisang!"

"Yes Monarch!" Zheng He went to execute the orders.

Ouyang Shuo summoned the messenger, asking him to send a letter to Feng Qiuhuang, "Defend for ten days and the situation will change."

Xunyang Prefecture, Chaisang.

Changjiang River flowed to the foot of Lushan and was connected to Poyang Lake before reaching Chaisang.

Chaisang was called Jiu Jiang now, guarding the throat of Changjiang and was a place that militants would always fight for.

Before Red Cliff, Chaisang was the governing area of the Jiangdong Organization. It looked over Jiangxia; the goal was to take down Huang Zu. Zhou Yu trained the Jiangdong Navy in Poyang Lake to keep up with the times.

After the death of Huang Zu, Chaisang was still a place where attention was focused on.

After five days of travel, the voyage squadron finally reached outside Chaisang City. The squadron suddenly appeared from the mist. Ouyang Shuo held his sword and had his cape on; overall, he looked decidedly majestic.

"Send someone to tell Sun Quan to come out and surrender. As long as he uses Zhou Yu to exchange, I will not massacre them. If he does not, let the Chaisang people die with him!" Ouyang Shuo proclaimed emotionlessly.

"Understood!" Jia Xu received the order.

Jia Xu believed that the Monarch would follow his words, but he hoped that Sun Quan would be more defiant.

Chaisang City was built up in the water and was surrounded by water on all four sides. To an army, Chaisang was definitely something that was hard to attack. But to the voyage squadron, it was the easiest to take down.

The squadron just needed to get close and the cannons would be able to destroy the city wall. As they had cannon platforms on the warships, the cannons could shoot over the city wall and shoot inside the city.

That killing strength was something that Chaisang could not block no matter what.

Hence, when the golden dragon flag fluttered outside Chaisang City, the people in the city were shocked.

"They have nefarious intentions!"

"What warship is that? I have never seen it before!"

"I'm guessing they are the ones who destroyed the Lu Su and Huang Gai Armies."

"Then aren't we dead?!"

The people panicked.

After a short while, the Shanhai City envoy sent over the letter telling Sun Quan to surrender.

When Sun Quan saw the letter, he immediately tore it into half, "They dare bully us Jiangdong despite having no one?"

...

City Lord's Manor, meeting hall.

The young Sun Quan sat with a solemn expression, "An enemy has arrived. Do any of you have any good ideas?" Sun Quan was angry, but he truly did not dare to underestimate the enemy.

However, wanting him to walk out and surrender was impossible. A king naturally had the dignity of a king.

Facing the question, the civil servants and generals all looked at one another. The true great generals in Jiangdong had already left, and only the lesser ones were left. Hence, how could they come up with any good tactics?

The only important minister, Zhang Zhao, even supported surrender.

Sun Quan truly was at an unlucky time.

The central pillar of the Wu Country was Lu Xun; however, he was not currently valued by Sun Quan. He was thousands of miles away, slowly gaining experience and had not shown himself.

Jiangdong was obviously not unfamiliar with the Shanhai Squadron. The Lu Su Army and Huang Gai Army had both fallen at their hands. Most recently, some news even reported that the Liu Bei Army had also fallen to them.

No matter how they saw it, they had no chance of winning.

"Why, did the enemy terrify all of you?" Sun Quan was furious, his aura overbearing.

The young ruler still could not control his aura.

They panicked and muttered, not daring to speak up, "Lord, do not be angry!"

"Hen!" Sun Quan was extremely unhappy.

Just at this moment, a young man stepped out, "I can give it a try!"

The young man became the focus of everyone all of a sudden.

It was actually the only player Lord in Chaisang - Xunlong Dianxue.

"Oh, you have a plan?" Sun Quan's expression became gentler.

"I have a past with Qiyue Wuyi, so I can try to convince him to retreat." Xunlong Dianxue smacked his chest and said. However, he turned to look at Zhang Zhao.

During this battle, Xunlong Dianxue truly did not go all out and mix with Xiong Ba and the others. He led his troops to Chaisang to try to recruit Zhang Zhao.

Although Zhang Zhao supported surrendering during the Battle of Red Cliff, his reason did make sense. When Sun Quan had started out, he was already an official under his camp and was truly all rounded.

Zhang Zhao was truly a talented person. Such a talented person was all the more suitable to raising the administrative and military level of Xunlong City.

On this point, Xunlong Dianxue had planned it all out.

During this period of time, Xunlong Dianxue had used his talents at quests to get close to Zhang Zhao; he had obtained good progress. Helplessly, Zhang Zhao had not given him a definite answer, making him feel anxious.

The Jiangdong problem in front of him was a chance for Xunlong Dianxue.

Xunlong Dianxue believed that to help him recruit Zhang Zhao, Ouyang Shuo would give him face. The two of them could use this chance to get rid of their personal problems, killing two birds with one stone.

As expected, Zhang Zhao turned around to look at Xunlong Dianxue and nodded.

When he saw this reaction, his heart calmed down.

"Then go give it a try!"

After Sun Quan heard Xunlong Dianxue's idea, he still remained unfazed. Sun Quan did not have any high hopes to his plan. The enemy had traveled thousands of miles to reach here, so why would they retreat? If it was Sun Quan in the enemy's place, he would not agree. Secondly, Sun Quan felt annoyed by such a plan.

Sun Quan was a ferocious tiger.

"Yes!"

Xunlong Dianxue did not care about Sun Quan; he only wanted Zhang Zhao.

...

Outside Chaisang City, Dragon Head.

"Monarch, Chaisang said that there's someone who's coming to visit," the Personal Guard reported.

"Someone?" Ouyang Shuo did not understand, what was Sun Quan doing? "Let him in."

"Yes!"

After a short while, a mysterious person dressed in a black robe and Ouyang Shuo's Personal Guard walked into the reading room.

Cough!

Ouyang Shuo could not be bothered with such acts.

The Personal Guard backed down, and the mysterious man removed his hood; naturally, it was Xunlong Dianxue.

"Xunlong it's you!"

This had exceeded Ouyang Shuo's expectations.

"It's me." Xunlong smiled.

He did not want to be recognized by the Shanhai City soldiers, which was why he entered wearing a black robe.

No matter what, such a matter was not a glorious and dignified one.

Seeing him, Ouyang Shuo's heart relaxed. He was extremely worried that Xunlong Dianxue had dealings with Di Chen and the others. If that was the case, it would be hard to resolve the matter.

"Why did Sun Quan ask you to come?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

Xunlong Dianxue immediately cupped his fists and bowed and sincerely said, "Brother, please help me!"

"How?"

Ouyang Shuo's expression was exceedingly calm; however, his heart grew wary.

"It's like this...."

Xunlong Dianxue started to explain in detail everything that had happened.

After Ouyang Shuo heard this explanation, the smile on his face totally disappeared.

People, would always change in the end.

Ouyang Shuo kept his emotions and patiently said, "Jiangling has fallen and Yiling is in trouble. Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang might collapse at any moment, so I have to make Sun Quan recall Zhou Yu. Do you understand, Xunlong?"

"That's easy, ask Sun Quan to make an order," Xunlong Dianxue replied.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, "With Zhou Yu's intelligence, how would he not understand the rule that a general outside does not listen to the Lord's summon? He would take down Yiling before returning."

"Only if I capture Sun Quan will he rush back."

Xunlong Dianxue was speechless.

After a short while, Xunlong Dianxue was a little dejected and unhappily said, "Brother, can't you just help me for once? I've already promised Zhang Zhao. If I lose his trust, it's all over."

"It is not that I'm not helping you, but I really cannot. When Sun Quan surrenders, I can capture Zhang Zhao and let you deal with him, how about that?"

"If that happens, how would he be loyal?" Xunlong Dianxue was unhappy.

"What do you want me to do? Retreat? And watch as Bai Hua and the others are defeated by Di Chen?" Ouyang Shuo was a little angry.

"You're just biased! You protect them so much; have you thought about my feelings?"

"I've followed you for so long and you won't even help me. You said that Shanhai City would not interfere in alliance matters when you were away, yet you left a legion in Stone City but did not care about my life or death."

"Is my position in your heart not even comparable to Wufu?" As he continued, Xunlong Dianxue started shouting, letting out all the unhappiness in his heart.

Ouyang Shuo's expression remained unchanged, but his face shook a little. "Good, it's good that you said it out. In the end, you just cannot understand it, right?"

"That's right!" Xunlong Dianxue was going all out.

"Let me ask, is Shanhai City obliged to help you?"

Hen! Xunlong Dianxue was not even listening at this point.

"To take other's help for granted. If one does not help, it's them being bad to you, even making you angry. Xunlong, you truly are a good brother!" Ouyang Shuo's tone turned cold.

"Do not say it like you're so noble." Xunlong Dianxue's eyes were filled with the fires of fury, "You helping us is just so that we can act as your shield against the Yanhuang Alliance. We're just using one another."

Ouyang Shuo shook his head; he did not want to say anything else.

Since he put it like that, they could not be brothers anymore.

"Since that's what you think, I have nothing more to say." Ouyang Shuo paused before saying, "All the best!"

"I do not need your worry, bye!"

A trace of regret flashed across Xunlong Dianxue's heart, but his face remained defiant. He did not even put his hood back on and left in a fury.

"Monarch!" Jia Xu walked over.

"Tell them to destroy Chaisang!" Ouyang Shuo ordered coldly.

"Yes!"

Jia Xu nodded before turning and leaving.

Chapter 717-Sun Quan Admits Defeat

The moment Xunlong Dianxue walked into the city, cannon fire started behind his back.

"Damn it, he really chose to not give me any face!" Xunlong Dianxue did not have the face to return to the manor, so he just chose a corner to lick his wounds.

Sun Quan's face was similarly ugly.

The cannons blasted a gaping hole in the city wall. The Jiangdong soldiers guarding atop the walls were like grain waiting to be harvested.

Especially the trebuchets on the walls, which were the targets of the enemy attack.

Chaisang City could only threaten the warships through the trebuchets. As for the navy housed there, they were totally destroyed after the first round and retreated into the city.

Along with trebuchet after trebuchet being taken down, the city wall guards fell into despair. The Chaisang surrounded by water was like a tiger without claws; it was there for the taking.

The army had no choice but to retreat from the city walls. Standing there would just be taking free hits and giving free kills.

The cannon fire lasted for an entire day and only ended at nightfall.

Just from the cannon balls alone, Shanhai City had spent 20 to 30 thousand gold, which was enough for Ouyang Shuo to feel heart pained.

The Chaisang City wall was like a raped lady after the cannon fire, torn and tattered. Standing outside, one could even see what was going on within the city.

If they continued to strike, the civilians inside would be the ones to get hit.

Although Chaisang was the governing area of Jiangdong, Sun Quan was not a stubborn person and also thought about escaping. As long as Zhou Yu managed to destroy Yiling, the army in front of them would not pose a threat.

The problem was that Chaisang was surrounded by water.

The Shanhai City Squadron was arranged all around the river, surrounding it all the way. Even a fly could not escape. The current Chaisang was like a lone island; it could not go forward or move backward.

As the night sky fell, white smoke rose from the city.

The smoke was from the various families that were cooking. No matter how worried they were, they still had to feed themselves.

However, when they thought about the possibility of being trapped for a long time, the cooking housewives ended up scooping a lot less rice.

During the day, the various rice stores were emptied out.

The prices of the various resources in the city had skyrocketed and the signs of a riot started to show.

Eating dishes that had no taste, the civilians all felt terrified and panicky. This was the first time that the people of the Three Kingdoms felt the killing strength and power of firearms.

Such weapons were the killing machines of such a chaotic time.

The people of Chaisang spent that night in trepidation.

...

The next day, the sun slowly rose up.

The sunlight shone into Chaisang City through the holes of various sizes in the city walls. There was no one near the city wall. Be it the streets or the communal areas, they were all empty and devoid of signs of life.

Occasionally, stray dogs would cross the streets and jump into the rubbish heaps to search for food.

The civilians did not sleep during the night, and everyone woke up early to welcome the new round of cannon fire. The people who lived near the city walls even moved inward during the night.

Those with relatives spent the night with their relatives. Those without could only sleep on the streets or find a hole in the bridges to stay in.

The various temples in the city became popular areas.

It was winter, and the cold wind was freezing.

Sleeping on the streets, even with a blanket, one still could not manage to take it.

Interestingly, seeing those civilians living near the city walls moving inward, those who were a distance away panicked and followed in fear of losing their shields.

The group mentality of the people was extremely serious.

With someone leading them, the people quickly started a second round of house moving.

With that, it made the people panic even more.

Through the night, the entire Chaisang City truly lacked even a moment of peace.

Till night, there were even sleeping children who were woken up by their parents and were moved further into the city despite the cold rain. Dogs barked, children cried.

"What a punishment!" The civilians lamented.

The various temples in the city were now filled to the brim, and even the bridges became popular places. Many fights occurred over good spots.

"It's all to survive!"

The most packed place was the streets.

The central street near the Lord's Manor was filled with people, and even chariots could not pass. In their eyes, it was the safest near the Lord's Manor.

Sun Quan was not merciless, and he could not bear to chase away the civilians.

During this night, no less than a thousand civilians froze to death on the streets.

The Chaisang under the sunlight was a picture of tragedy.

Even such rare weather in the winter could not chase away this dark cloud in their hearts.

...

Weirdly, it was 9 AM, but there still was not any cannon fire.

On the contrary, this was the second time the Shanhai City envoy entered the city and sent Ouyang Shuo's request for them to surrender. If Sun Quan did not come out to surrender before noon, he would massacre them.

Such a letter was truly bloody.

This time, the letter was addressed to Sun Quan but shouted out by soldiers and also shot in by the cannons.

With that, the people in the city were in an uproar.

The civilian during the Three Kingdoms Era were not strangers to city-level massacres. Naturally, they believed the message. Thinking about their futures, they felt a chill run down their spines.

Facing the danger of being slain, the civilians looked at the city Lord's Manor with weird expressions. In truth, even the soldiers' eyes started to shine.

After all, everyone lived in Chaisang; if Chaisang fell, they were all going to die.

The mental state and determination of the entire city wavered under the letter.

To live or to die was just a simple question.

...

"Jerk!"

Sun Quan's face turned green; he wanted to lock up the news, but he could not.

"Lord, let's accept their terms; we have no other choice." Zhang Zhao once again supported surrendering and said, "If we forcefully fight, we will just increase our casualties. Surrendering is a small matter, losing the hearts of the Jiangdong people is the problem!"

Speaking from conscience, Zhang Zhao was an intelligent person. However, compared to Zhou Yu, he lacked the ability to see the big picture and lacked sharp perception.

"We have no other choice."

Sun Quan's sighed; in his heart, he did not want to give up.

Apart from being worried that he would lose the heart of the people, he was worried about the soldiers staging a coup. It was much more terrifying, and they could send them to hell in just a matter of minutes.

Before the battle, Sun Quan would have never imagined that Red Cliff would fall. Inside, they had 50 to 60 thousand troops; outside, they had the Lu Su and Huang Gai Army. However, in the end, they still lost.

If one was not careful, one truly would lose.

"Xiong Ba and the other players are truly trash! Before the battle, they swore to crush Shanhai City. However, they were beaten instead, what a humiliation!" Sun Quan became exceedingly bitter.

However, no matter how he grumbled, he still had to surrender.

At noon, Sun Quan wore a white shirt; he carried his seal and led all his civil servants and generals out to surrender.

Ouyang Shuo did not pick on him and did not humiliate him. He just respectfully invited him onto Dragon Head politely.

One must not forget that Ouyang Shuo still wanted to recruit Zhou Yu and the other Jiangdong generals.

Wasn't humiliating Sun Quan just making things difficult for himself?

"Please write a letter to General Zhou Yu and let Zhang Zhao personally deliver it to Yiling." In the guest room, Ouyang Shuo made his request.

Between the two there was some paper and ink.

No matter what, Sun Quan was a prideful person. Since he had surrendered, he was not going to try anything funny. He cleanly raised the brush and wrote a letter.

Then he stamped it.

Ouyang Shuo laughed in delight and took a look at the letter. Seeing that nothing was wrong with it, he ordered his men to put it into a wooden box. Apart from Zhang Zhao, a general from the City Protection Legion would follow him to send the letter.

With Zhang Zhao there, Ouyang Shuo would not be worried that Zhou Yu would not return. Zhang Zhao was a smart person, and he would not dare to play with Sun Quan's life.

Apart from Sun Quan's letter, Ouyang Shuo also personally wrote a letter to Zhou Yu. In the letter, he expressed his admiration and described the reason for the Battle of Chaisang.

At the end, he added a sentence, "The life of General Sun lies in your hands!"

Zhou Yu would probably not know whether to laugh or cry when he saw this letter. Who would recruit someone like this? Capturing their old Lord was unheard of.

He was basically a bandit!

...

Sending away the messenger, the Shanhai City Squadron did not spend too long here and returned to Red Cliff the next day. When the people of Chaisang saw them leave, they heaved out sighs of relief; they had just walked out from hell.

Ouyang Shuo decided to return to Red Cliff as the place had sufficient grain. There was also the water fortress there, which was a convenient place to dock the ships.

Secondly, it was near Yiling, so he could return to Yiling if needed.

Ouyang Shuo was thinking that even if the Zhou Yu Army retreated, Di Chen would definitely try something. Hence, the Shanhai City Squadron needed to be ready for another war.

This Battle of Red Cliff saw many different rounds of fighting.

Ouyang Shuo was not worried that Di Chen would hold Zhou Yu back or even kill him. After all, based on the battle map rules, same camp players could not kill the natives.

Especially the historical people, Gaia had all the more protective measures for them.

With that, it prevented Lords from killing them so other Lords could not recruit them. If not, so many people in the battle map would needlessly die.

Following the same logic, Ouyang Shuo could not order Gong Chengshi to go kill Liu Bei.

On this point, it was fair to both sides.

Chapter 718-Zhou Yu Retreats

Close to a month had already passed since the battle began and the Battle of Red Cliff was close to its end.

Outside Yiling City, Zhou Yu Army camp.

Hundreds of thousands of troops were squeezed together. Looking out, the uneven land outside of the city was covered with black tents; it was extremely boisterous and dirty streams flowed out.

As the cold wind blew, the general flags made a tearing sound.

In the woods further away from the camp, several logging sites were set up. Using the wood that they cut down, they took a few thousand smiths over from Jiangling City to build siege weapons.

On the muddy paths, there similarly were thousands of laborers wearing tattered clothing, braving the winter wind to obtain stone from the deep mountains; they used small carts to push the stone to the battlefield.

The area outside of the camp became the military factory base of the army. Before building up sufficient amounts of siege weapons, Zhou Yu would not dare to attack as he would not have a high chance of winning.

Occasionally, one would be able to spot troops who had returned from hunting.

The villages surrounding Yiling had already been swept by the troops and very little grain remained. If the army wanted to obtain anymore grain, they had to proceed to the villages that were further away.

Most of the laborers were actually volunteers from neighboring villages. If they did manual labor, at least they would be able to feed themselves; otherwise, they would only be waiting to die at home.

The stormy cloud of the food crisis had slowly appeared over the heads of the Zhou Yu Army. Starting from yesterday, the army had already begun rationing, and the first groups to receive a smaller amount of food were the smiths and the laborers.

They were forced to come over; now, they did not even have food to eat.

The lives of the people in such a chaotic time were just that bad.

Similarly, the Cao Cao Army in Yiling City was not in a good situation. More than 100 thousand people were housed in such a small city. Even if they had grain storages, it was not enough for such large-scale usage.

Breaking of grain supply had become the crisis for both sides.

Now, it would be decided on who could not hold on first. On this matter, Zhou Yu was extremely confident. After all, they had the initiative, and they could at least gather some grain every day.

The Yiling Army was just eating up their reserves.

Zhou Yu was like a patient hunter; he was gathering up the hunting tools, laying down the trap, and waiting for the prey to get weaker before giving it the killing blow.

He hoped that nothing surprising would pop up.

The fall of Chaisang would become the biggest change in this war.

...

After ten odd days, the warship carrying Zhang Zhao finally stopped at the port outside of Yiling City. With the medallion from Sun Quan, Zhang Zhao was able to smoothly meet Zhou Yu.

"Commander-in-Chief, something happened in Chaisang!"

Zhang Zhao did not try to cover up the matter, directly taking out the letter that both Sun Quan and Ouyang Shuo had written and passed it all to Zhou Yu.

When Zhou Yu opened the letter and read the contents, his expression became uglier and uglier. After which, he let out a long sigh. He had a guilty expression, "It's all my fault; I underestimated the Shanhai City Squadron and overestimated Xiong Ba's plan."

"Commander-in-Chief, the enemy was just too crafty; it was not your fault." Zhang Zhao consoled.

"Let's not mention it." Zhou Yu waved his hand; his relationship with Zhang Zhao could not be considered good, so he did not want to show too much emotion in front of the latter, "I'll give the order to immediately retreat."

Since Sun Quan was captured, Zhou Yu had no choice but to return.

The moment the military order was given, the entire camp started to get busy. The first to react were naturally the 20 thousand Jiangdong elites that were Zhou Yu's direct subordinates.

When attacking Jiangling City, this group was set as the reserve force; hence, they did not suffer much loses.

Zhou Yu was not a stupid person, and he knew that if he did not have this strong unit at hand, he would not be able to control the player army that was ten times their number.

Di Chen and the others were delighted, and they used that chance to stock up on battle contribution points.

...

The news of Zhou Yu retreating had spread to Di Chen's ears in less than half an hour.

He was shocked; he personally rushed into the tent and asked, "commander in chief, what is going on?"

Zhou Yu sighed. He was a little afraid to face this question; his face was ugly as he said, "Chaisang had fallen and the Lord has been captured. I need to rush back."

"What, Chaisang has fallen?" Di Chen was so shocked that he could not say anything.

"Take a look for yourself!"

Zhou Yu passed Di Chen the letter.

"Can this be a scheme by Qiyue Wuyi?" Di Chen still did not dare to believe it.

"With General Zhang Zhao personally here, what scheme can there be?" Zhou Yu shook his head and introduced Zhang Zhao to Di Chen.

Di Chen's eyes turned cold.

Qiyue Wuyi, I truly cannot beat you even a single time?

Di Chen was still contemplating in his heart, but he did not want to just leave like this, "Commander in chief, the preparation work for destroying the city is almost complete. Yiling is in our hands, isn't it a waste for us to leave now?"

"We have no choice; the Lord is in the hands of the enemy." In truth, Zhou Yu also felt that it was a waste.

"Commander in chief, I dare promise that Qiyue Wuyi definitely will not dare to do anything to General Sun. One must not forget that his troops are still in Yilin." Di Chen said, "Furthermore, Yilling is so far away from Chaisang so going there will take half a month. If we use the time difference, we can definitely take down Yiling."

For a second, Zhou Yu was tempted.

However, after thinking some more, Zhou Yu still bore the pain and reject the suggestion; he shook his head, "No, I cannot use the safety of the Lord as a betting chip. It's too risky, and it's not what I should do."

If the hostage was someone else, Zhou Yu would have taken the risk. However, since it was Sun Quan, Zhou Yu did not dare to take the gamble.

"Commander in chief, the person sending the letter also sent a Shanhai City General. He probably entered Yiling already." Zhang Zhao added.

"We are too clumsy!" Di Chen was furious.

Just thinking about it, one would know how delighted Yiling would feel when they learned that Chaisang had fallen. Even if they had originally intended to escape and retreat, they would defend to the death now.

If they acted truly vicious, the army could definitely find food in the city. To last for half a month was not a problem.

In history, there were cities that defended for over a year and still did not fall.

Hence, Di Chen knew that it was impossible to keep Zhou Yu, so his expression turned gloomy.

Zhou Yu sighed, "Retreat!"

Di Chen raised his head; he was filled with determination, "No, no I will not."

"You want to disobey my orders?"

"Commander, I won't follow you anymore. You have your choice, and I have mine. This time, I will take down Yiling." Di Chen was determined.

"Preposterous!" Zhang Zhao chided.

"Do what you want!" Zhou Yu looked exhausted; he waved his hand to ask Di Chen to leave.

Di Chen left. In the end, both sides broke off unhappily.

"Commander, how can you allow the players to do as they wish?" Zhang Zhao was emotional; he had never seen anyone so bold to openly go against orders.

"So what if I disagree? The players outnumber us, and we cannot force them."

The talking rights in the military depended on the strength of one's troops.

When Zhang Zhao heard these words, he was speechless. He had also led troops before and obviously understood that.

The tent instantly fell silent.

...

The next day, Zhou Yu brought the Dongjiang soldiers back.

On the other hand, Di Chen led 200 thousand troops to attack Yiling City.

The two armies went their separate ways just like that.

When the army set off, there was a small problem.

The Shanhai City General that followed Zhang Zhao over raised a request for Zhou Yu to board the turreted boat and leave. The Jiangdong Army would be taken back to Chaisang by the other generals.

"Do not be too much!" Zhou Yu did not say anything; instead, it was Zhang Zhao who could not hold it in anymore.

How was this an invitation? They were obviously locking him up.

"I'm only following orders; please do not make it difficult for me. My Monarch said that for the safety of General Sun, Zhou Yu would understand it."

"You!" Zhang Zhao was so infuriated by the threat that he nearly went crazy.

"Since it's a request by Lord Qiyue Wuyi, then I will respectfully follow it. I also wanted to take a look at your giant warship." Zhou Yu accepted nonchalantly.

He turned around and said to Zhang Zhao, "Please bring the troops back!"

"Yes!"

Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to take such action. He did not dare to underestimate Zhou Yu and allow him to lead a large army. If he let that happen, who know what would occur.

Hence, the best method was to invite Zhou Yu to the warship.

His actions were also aimed toward protecting Zhou Yu. Ouyang Shuo was not certain whether or not there were any of Di Chen's people in the Cao Cao Army; he did not want anything to occur.

To obtain Zhou Yu, Ouyang Shuo was going all out.

Yiling City, a certain residence.

When Bai Hua and the others received the letter, their hearts finally calmed down.

"Wuyi really did not disappoint us!"

Feng Qiuhuang smiled. During this period of time, being trapped in Yiling had placed a lot of pressure on them.

"However, in this battle, we have become side characters once more."

When Ouyang Shuo decided to set out to sea, Feng Qiuhuang had a spirit in her heart to use this chance to prove herself.

Who would have guessed that they would lose to a mole?

Although their betrayal had nothing to do with her, thinking about it still made her feel exceedingly aggrieved.

Bai Hua looked at Feng Qiuhuang and expressionlessly said, "I guess Di Chen will not just back out like that."

"That fellow is determined to defeat Wuyi in the battle map. It was not easy to push us to such a state, so how could he easily give up?" Feng Qiuhuang saw through Di Chen and killing intent filled her voice, "If we cannot even deal with him, we do not deserve to be allies with Wuyi."

"That's true!" Bai Hua nodded. Although she had a calm expression, the killing intent in her heart was not any less than Feng Qiuhuang's, "It's time to have a good battle with Di Chen. We have to settle what Caiyun Zinan did."

These two heroines or female devil leaders came to a consensus.

"Then we need to have a good plan!" Feng Qiuhuang smiled.

Although their personalities were vastly different, their desire to win was the same.

Chapter 719-Battle of Yiling

Another week had passed.

In the Red Cliff water fortress, Ouyang Shuo finally met Zhou Yu and his men. Even though the entire meeting process was filled with unhappiness, Ouyang Shuo was still exceedingly delighted and immediately sent Sun Quan back to Chaisang.

Zhou Yu was similarly an honest person. Even though he was loyal to Sun Quan, he still followed the agreement and joined Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo smiled in glee as he checked out Zhou Yu's stats.

Name: Zhou Yu (Emperor Rank)

Dynasty: East Han End

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Special Rank General

Loyalty: 60

Command: 91

Force: 68

Intelligence: 85

Politics: 85

Specialty: Navy and Army Trained (Raises navy combat strength by 20%, raises troops morale by 30%, raises strategy success rate by 30%, reduces enemy morale by 15%)

Evaluation: Zhou Yu, also known as Gongjin, was a military general and strategist under Sun Quan. Courageous, he has proficient leadership skills, and he is good at both martial and administrative matters. He is able to take up important tasks, a top class person.

Since he was forced to submit, Zhou Yu's loyalty was only 60 points, the lowest for recruiting a general. If it was lower than 60, it would mean that the person in question was planning something.

However, Ouyang Shuo was not worried.

After returning to the main map, Zhou Yu's loyalty stat would naturally rise. Ouyang Shuo was clear that out of the Three Kingdoms Lords, only Liu Bei would appear in the wilderness.

Be it Sun Quan or Cao Cao, they would just hide in the wilderness and not come out.

Without Sun Quan roaming in the main map, Ouyang Shuo had reason to believe that Zhou Yu would be amazed by the foundation of Shanhai City and his charm.

Ouyang Shuo was not on the same level as Xunlong Dianxue and the others.

Out of Zhou Yu's four stats, apart from the force stat being a little low, the other three were absolute top stats out of Emperor Rank generals; especially his command stat that even broke through 90.

His politics stat could even contend with civil servants. Hence, he could be considered an all rounded general. Looking at all his stats, he was only a step away from God General.

Although the Three Kingdoms Era was star studded, Gaia did not evaluate any of them as God Generals. It could not be compared to the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period.

Despite the presence of many fierce generals, their military thinking was lacking.

A lot of the generals during this time were born from the wilderness, so they totally lacked the chance to study and only learned from practical experience. Hence, they were like those in the warring states who not only could fight but were the founders and explorer thinkers.

Even Baiqi's military upbringing was better than Zhou Yu.

During the Three Kingdoms era, the one with an achievement in such matters was Cao Cao.

He was intelligent in the art war and was familiar with the works of Sun Wu and Wu Qi. On the foundation of the Art of War, he wrote his own book.

Unfortunately, Cao Cao was considered a Lord and was not part of the general evaluation system. If not, Cao Cao was the one during this period who had the highest possibility of being rated a God General.

Below him would be Zhou Yu.

In the Romance of The Three Kingdoms, while they immortalized Zhuge Liang, Zhou Yu became a stepping stone. The Zhou Yu in the story was far from the truth.

The Zhou Yu in history was handsome and magnanimous; he was also highly talented, not the jealous and useless person that Fei Luo Guan wrote him out to be.

His talents won the hearts of countless girls and women, similar to Pan Yue. However, Pan Yue was just looks; on the other hand, Zhou Yu was the entire package.

The true Zhou Yu was exceedingly magnanimous.

Old General Cheng Pu often bullied and humiliated Zhou Yu, but he did not care and mind, causing Cheng Pu to admire him, "Dealing with Zhou Yu, if one drank, one would unknowingly get drunk."

Even Liu Bei could not help but say, "Zhou Yu is good at both martial and administrative matters, and the most handsome out of ten thousand men, so he is exceedingly important. It will not take long for him to become the right hand man."

One could see that to call him selfish and self-centered was only to immortalize Zhuge Liang. Without such bias, how could it show Zhuge Liang's majestic nature?

The most eye-catching Zhuge Liang angers Zhou Yu was just a blatant lie.

Obviously, Zhou Yu was not angered to death by Zhuge Liang, and there were no traces of the story being true. After the Battle of Red Cliff, Zhou Yu was struck by a poisoned arrow while attacking Nan Prefecture and died at a young age.

Strictly speaking, Zhou Yu at that time was not even on the same level as Zhuge Liang and could not even be mentioned on the same page. When Zhou Yu was helping General Sun build Jiangdong, Kong Ming was still in seclusion. When Zhou Yu's name shocked Jiangdong, when he became a contributor to the Sun Regime establishing a country, Zhuge Liang was far from coming out.

We were not looking down on Zhuge Liang here. Obviously, he was talented, but his true rise was after Zhou Yu's death.

Even when Zhou Yu was sick and healing up, he still advised Sun Quan to house arrest Liu Bei while making plans to attack Yizhou. The plan gained Sun Quan's approval but before it could be enacted, Zhou Yu had passed away.

One could foresee that if Zhou Yu did not die, there probably would not be any Shu and Han.

...

Ouyang Shuo was familiar with history, so he was occasionally awed by Zhou Yu. With that, it was not hard to understand why he spent so much effort to recruit him.

For him, Ouyang Shuo even gave up on the chance to kill Sun Quan to directly end the battle map.

The position of fleet admiral of the Beihai Bay Squadron was the position Ouyang Shuo had especially left for Zhou Yu.

...

After recruiting Zhou Yu, Ouyang Shuo removed the imprisonment of Lu Su, Huang Gai, Lu Meng, Zhou Tai, and Gan Ning, allowing them to meet Zhou Yu.

Seeing these generals once again, Zhou Yu did not know where he should feel happy or worried.

During this battle, the most elite navy generals of Jiangdong were all captured by Ouyang Shuo. When they returned to the main map, they probably would not be lonely anymore.

The Jiangdong system would become an unmistakable power in the Shanhai City Navy.

As for the arrangements for Lu Su and the others, a decision would be made when they returned.

After the handover was completed, the Shanhai City Squadron did not remain in Red Cliff and immediately left for Yiling.

This trip to Yiling was not to help the battle but to obtain battle rewards. In truth, four days ago, the entire Battle of Red Cliff was already over.

Be it Bai Hua, Feng Qiuhuang, or Di Chen, they were all back in the main map.

Shanhai City was the last and final one remaining.

This whole matter had to be started from the Battle of Yiling.

After Zhou Yu led his troops and left, problems rose up from within the player group. Zhou Yu's departure did not only reduce the strength of the army; it also affected their morale.

The Lords were not that determined and wavered. Especially the Lords that were not close to Di Chen, they did not have any hopes for success in this battle map.

Hence, Di Chen had no choice but to quicken the siege preparations.

That day, Di Chen ordered the army to move and perform one last sweep of grain. At the same time, he moved large amounts of laborers and smiths to quicken the production of the siege weapons.

Time was of the essence, and this was really important.

Huge sections of the army were sent out, and the army camp became exceedingly empty.

Just that afternoon, Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang who had been holding it in finally struck out. And this strike was a no holds barred one; they gave the enemy the deadliest strike at the most impossible time.

They succeeded.

At 3 PM, the tightly shut north city gate suddenly opened. Shanhai City, Consonance City, Fallen Leaf City, and Stone City, a total of 70 thousand troops charged out.

Apart from that, there were no other Lord troops.

Obviously, they had learned from the Caiyun Zinan betrayal incident and only used Shanhai Alliance Army troops.

What was smart was that their choice of target was not the Sun Liu player army but Di Chen's army.

The 20 thousand troops were in charge of sentry and control while the other 50 thousand were like a pack of hungry wolves as they charged into Di Chen's camp.

The defenseless Di Chen forces were caught totally off guard and instantly suffered heavy casualties.

His forces quickly fell apart. Seeing that, the other troops that had rushed over to help had other thoughts when they received the news.

Since the biggest supporter of fighting the war was out, why should they continue to fight?

Just like that, his allies watched on as Di Chen's forces were massacred.

Feng Qiuhuang and the others were not greedy. After striking out, they immediately retreated, leaving a broken camp and a dead faced Di Chen.

Di Chen screamed in the ruins.

After this battle, he had less than two thousand troops left, so he lost his right to speak in the Alliance Army.

The matter of attacking Yiling was pushed aside.

Hence, the encirclement of Yiling was broken. This also announced the end of the Battle of Red Cliff that had lasted for close to two months.

Chapter 720-Way of the Strategist

On the way to Yiling, Ouyang Shuo took a look at his battle contribution points and the rankings.

"Battle Report: The Battle of Red Cliff has ended, congratulations Cao Cao Camp for changing history, awarding every Cao Cao Camp Lord 2000 merit points and an additional 50% contribution points. Friendly reminder: extra points are not added into the rankings calculation."

...

"Battle Report: The Battle of Red Cliff has officially ended, now starting to add in additional battle contribution points based on how much the player affected the battle."

...

"System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi, Cao Cao camp representative, broke the Lu Su, Huang Gai and Liu Bei Armies, occupied Red Cliff, and destroyed Chaisang. All things considered, contributed greatly, awarded 50 thousand battle contribution points."

...

Ouyang Shuo took a look at the final battle contribution points ranking.

1st: Qiyue Wuyi - 250000 points

2nd: Di Chen - 200000 points

3rd: Gong Chengshi - 180000 points

4th: Feng Qiuhuang - 175000 points

5th: Bai Hua - 170000 points

6th: Wandering Magic - 150000 points

7th: Chun Shenjun- 150000 points

8th: Sha Pojun - 135000 points

9th: Spark- 85000 points

10th: I'm Called Big Bad Wolf- 15000 points

In the rankings, as Xiong Ba and Zhan Lang were both assassinated, they could not enter the top 10. On the other hand, Gong Chengshi used the surrendered army to attack Wulong Prefecture, so he jumped into the top 3.

It was Spark and I'm Called Big Bad Wolf who once again jumped into the top 10.

As for Caiyun Zinan, Qin Feng, and Yuan Ping, they asked for it, so they could not blame anyone. Who knows what they would feel when they learn of the battle results.

Ouyang Shuo would settle this matter with them when he returned to the main map.

Compared to the previous battle maps, the battle contribution points earned in the Battle of Red Cliff had been greatly reduced. Even Ouyang Shuo had only obtained 250 thousand, 50 thousand of which was the bonus.

The reason was that even though this battle had many changes and took up a lot of time, they were no true massacres. Even the battle to attack Jiangling happened because of the spy.

A true war did not occur.

With that, this battle naturally could not give birth to an ocean's worth of battle contribution points.

Most of the points Ouyang Shuo obtained came from killing Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Chen Dao; if not, he would be lower than even Di Chen.

In the end, including the 50% bonus and the costs of reviving the troops, Ouyang Shuo had obtained 200 thousand points.

That was 20 thousand merit points.

Such a small amount was not paid attention to by Ouyang Shuo. On the other hand, Di Chen, Feng Qiuhuang, Bai Hua, and Chin Shenjun the others all used this chance to rank up.

The biggest gain for Ouyang Shuo from all of this was still recruiting Zhou Yu, Jia Xu, and the other historical figures. Including Lu Su and the others, this was his biggest haul till date.

After looking at the battle contribution points, Ouyang Shuo took a look at their stats.

Lu Su, Huang Gai, Lu Meng, Gan Ning, and Zhou Tai were all listed as King Rank. Amongst them, Lu Su and Lu Meng were more outstanding while Gan Ning and Zhou Tai were the two worse ones.

Even to say that a general like Zhao Si Hu would quickly catch up to Zhou Tai.

Name: Lu Su (King Rank)

Dynasty: East Han

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 60

Command: 70

Force: 60

Intelligence: 80

Politics: 75

Specialty: Blade to Battle (Raises combat strength of troops by 20%, raises morale by 25%)

Cultivation Method: nil

Equipment: Six-faced Han Sword

Evaluation: A wary person who did not care much about extravagant things, a really humble person inside and out. He is able to organize troops and follow orders. Although he is in the military, his hand always has books. He is also good at discussion and could take up civil servant roles.

...

Name: Huang Gai (King Rank)

Dynasty: East Han

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 60

Command: 75

Force: 80

Intelligence: 65

Politics: 55

Specialty: Fire Engulfing Red Cliff (raises combat strength of troops by 18%, raises movement speed by 18%)

Cultivation Method: nil

Equipment: iron whip

Evaluation: Born in a harsh environment, although he was poor growing up, he did not care much about riches, giving his salary to his subordinates. He often studied and discussed the art of war. He was a tiger general, leading troops to siege and kill the enemy.

...

Name: Lu Meng (King Rank)

Dynasty: East Han

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 60

Command: 78

Force: 70

Intelligence: 75

Politics: 65

Specialty: Crossing the River (Raises troops combat strength by 20%, raises troops morale by 15%)

Cultivation method: nil

Equipment: Long Halberd

Evaluation: Lu Meng was courageous and had an eye for tactics, helping to capture Guan Yu. Although he was crazy about killing, he was able to curb it, making him seem more worthy of being a soldier of the country!

...

Name: Gan Ning (King Rank)

Dynasty: East Han

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 60

Command: 72

Force: 84

Intelligence: 50

Politics: 25

Specialty: Quick Attack (Raises combat strength of troops by 15%, raises troops movement speed by 20%)

Cultivation Method: nil

Equipment: Machete, twin halberd, iron chain

Evaluation: Although Gan Ning was brutish and loved to kill, he used tactics and was a respectable soldier that was not a money grubber, a tiger general.

...

Name: Zhou Tai (King Rank)

Dynasty: East Han

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 60

Command: 68

Force: 82

Intelligence: 45

Politics: 30

Speciality: Save the Lord (raises troops combat strength by 15% raises troops movement speed by 15%)

Cultivation Method: nil

Equipment: Long Knife

Evaluation: Zhou Tai of East Wu could be compared to Xu Chu of Wei and Zhao Yu of Shu. He saved Quan then saved Xu Sheng!

...

Including Zhou Yu, these six Jiangdong generals were all arranged into the Nanyang Navy.

The navy had already chased up to the army in terms of both scale and equipment.

Now, it only lacked generals, and it was a huge difference. The addition of Lu Meng and the rest would result in an obvious raise to the navy's combat ability.

...

Along with the battle map ending, on the way back to Yiling, Jia Xu finally expressed his intentions to follow Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo was delighted.

At this point, all his goals for this battle had been achieved.

Name: Jia Xu (Emperor Rank)

Dynasty: East Han

Identity: Shanhai City Strategist

Occupation: special rank strategist

Loyalty: 75

Command: 80

Force: 45

Intelligence: 90

Politics: 85

Specialty: Planning the Battle(raises success rate of strategies by 35%, raises soldier morale by 30%, raises confidence in battle by 30%, reduces enemy morale by 15%)

Evaluation: Jia Xu seemed ordinary but he was amazing, a cut above the rest. His intelligence was one he kept silent about; you cannot be locked up and controlled by others.

...

The way of a strategist stemmed from Zhang Liang and Chen Ping. Zhang Liang was the Strategy Saint while Chen Ping was at least a God Rank strategist. During the Three Kingdoms Era, the strategist occupation experienced a massive explosion.

The pinnacle strategists during that time included, Guo Jia, Jia Xu, Sima Yi, Cheng Xu, Zhou Yu, Lu Su, Lu Xun, Zhuge Liang, Fa Zheng, and more.

Others like Jushou, Tian Feng, Xu Chu, and Chen Gong could be considered elites amongst strategists.

Sima Yi, Zhou Yu, Lu Su, Lu Xun, Zhuge Liang, and other similar generals all had strategist as their sub-occupations. Like Zhou Yu and Lu Su, they were considered generals.

Gaia's evaluation of historical people did not only consider their personal ability and contribution to the dynasty; it also listed them amongst the people of the occupation in history.

With strategists as an example:

Zhang Liang was the highest existence; hence, he was listed as Saint Rank.

Similarly, as the strategist occupation was rare, most others were listed as Emperor Rank.

As for Guo Jia and Fa Zheng, they were God Rank.

Based on ability alone, Zhou Yu was above them; however, he was considered a general, so he was listed as Emperor Rank.

Out of the five thousand years of history, every dynasty had many generals and ministers.

Generals and civil servants had the most intense competition. Hence, it was not hard to understand why so many were listed as Emperor or King Rank.

Civil servants were similar, so Fan Zhongyan could only be listed as King Rank.

Chapter 721-Xu Chu + Diao Chan

After twisting and turning, the Shanhai City Squadron finally stopped outside Yiling City. After obtaining the news, Cao Cao personally led the generals to welcome him.

"Qiyue Wuyi, exceptional!" Cao Cao gave him the thumbs up.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and bowed, "Prime minister is being too kind!"

"I heard that your Personal Guards Captain died on the battlefield." Cao Cao's expression changed; then he said, "How about I give Hu Chi to you?"

Hu Chi was Xu Chu, Cao Cao's bodyguard, and his Personal Guards Captain.

Ouyang Shuo was astonished; it seemed like Cao Cao knew that he was going to be in seclusion in the wilderness. Thinking about this point, he bowed deeply, "Thank you!"

Cao Cao giving Xu Chu, apart from Ouyang Shuo's position in the wilderness, had something to do with Xiahou Ying. No matter what, he was Cao Cao's relative, so he could be trusted.

Xu Chu, who was standing behind Cao Cao, was a little reluctant. He only slowly stepped out and bowed after Cao Cao's repeated instructions, "Greetings Monarch!"

"General please rise!"

Ouyang Shuo helped him up, thinking about Chen Dameng who had fallen, his heart was still broken.

Name: Xu Chu (King Rank)

Dynasty: East Han

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 65

Command: 70

Force: 86

Intelligence: 45

Politics: 25

Specialty: Ferocity (Raises combat strength of troops by 25%, raises troops movement speed by 15%)

Cultivation Technique: -

Equipment: Long Knife

Evaluation: Xu Chu carefully does his duty; he is a man of few words, exceedingly loyal.

The Xu Chu who stood before Ouyang Shuo was really tall and broad; he looked like a person with absolute strength. His presence while simply standing there would leave one feeling suppressed.

However, Xu Chu definitely was not a person whose body was developed but mind was not.

Let us talk about a story.

Cao Ren rushed over from Jingzhou. At that time, Cao Cao was still in his sleeping palace and had not come out. Cao Ren met Xu Chu outside and invited him to the side room to talk.

Xu Chu just said, "The king is coming out." Then he turned around to the hall. As a result, Cao Ren hated him.

Someone asked Xu Chu, "Cao Ren is an important minister and looked for you to talk, so why did you reject him?"

Xu Chu replied, "Although he is a relative of the king, he is a general that rules outside. I am in charge of defending the inside, so if he wants to speak, we can just talk openly. There's no need to speak privately."

When Cao Cao heard of this, he favored Xu Chu even more, promoting him to middle general.

This general was both courageous and had a sense of responsibility, so he was the best choice to be the guard. It was no wonder that Cao Pi favored Xu Chun after Cao Cao passed away.

Cao Cao's current actions actually showed his affection for Xu Chu.

After which, Cao Cao finally raised the question regarding the battle rewards; he smiled, "Speak, what reward do you want? As long as I have it, I can give it to you."

Hearing Cao Cao say such words, Ouyang Shuo truly had the desire to say that he wanted the strategist Cheng Yu. However, thinking about how Jia Xu had already followed him and obtaining Cheng Yu as well would cause them to compete; he realized that it was not a good idea.

In the end, Ouyang Shuo raised the request that he had thought of from the start.

"I would like someone!"

"Who?"

Cao Cao's eyes swept across Cheng Yu, Cao Zhen, Yu Jin, and the others with shining eyes. From his point of view, Ouyang Shuo wanted these generals and strategists.

"It's a singer known as Diao Chan."

"What?" Cao Cao was caught off guard. Then, he laughed and rubbed his beard, "I really could not tell that you liked beauties more than generals, ah!"

Ouyang Shuo laughed too, not retorting Cao Cao's statement.

12 years after Lu Bu lost, 15th year of Jian An, which was two years after the Battle of Red Cliff ended, Cao Cao built the Tongque Stage in Ye City.

Ouyang Shuo wanted Diao Chan to complete the B rank storyline quest The Four Beauties. Additionally, he was interested in Lu Bu and wanted to recruit him in the main map.

Calling Lu Bu the strongest person during Three Kingdoms was not an exaggeration.

However, despite his courage, he lacked a strategic mind. He only looked at the short term and lusted for money and beauties. He was enough to be a general but could not be a Lord.

Lu Bu had a clear understanding of this point.

During the Three Kingdoms Era, Lu Bu was originally a Lord and had faced Cao Cao before.

No matter what, Lu Bu was not a foolish person.

There was naturally a place for Lu Bu in Shanhai City.

In comparison, Ouyang Shuo leaving the generals could be understood. After all, Shanhai City was currently filled with star generals but lacked pure strength generals like Lu Bu.

Apart from that, Lu Bu had a few other generals under him. If Lu Bu came over to Shanhai City, it might give Ouyang Shuo an unexpected surprise.

...

Who knows how Gaia worked, but it was probably annoyed at Ouyang Shuo for remaining inside the battle map. Just two days later, Diao Chan arrived at Yiling and was handed over to Ouyang Shuo.

Although the current Diao Chan was over 30, she still looked beautiful.

Ouyang Shuo could not help but admire Gaia's ability to recreate people. It was actually able to recreate the looks of the Four Beauties of history.

He also had some doubts about whether Gaia's image was a merger of these Four Beauties.

"Greetings Monarch!"

It was too common for females during the Three Kingdoms to be sent away like gifts, especially someone as lowly as a singer.

Diao Chan was already numb to such matters.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that Diao Chan was anxious, he smiled, "Do not worry, I am not going to taint you."

Although she was pretty, she was already a married woman. Obviously, Ouyang Shuo would not be interested. Furthermore, he was not that type of person; if not, he would not still have only one wife.

When Diao Chan heard his words, she did not believe it.

Cao Cao had once said that but what happened in the end?

"When we return to the main map, you might have the chance to reunite with General Lu Bu. I'm willing to allow that to happen." Ouyang Shuo hinted, hoping that she would contact him.

"Really?" Hope flashed across her eyes.

"I never lie."

Ouyang Shuo did not explain anything and took the time to check Diao Chan's stats.

Name: Diao Chan (God Rank)

Title: Four Beauties of Ancient China

Dynasty: East Han

Identity: Shanhai City Resident

Occupation: Dancer

Loyalty: 70

Bone structure: 18

Comprehension: 14

Charm: 27

Luck: 7

Specialty: Praying to the Moon (Raises territory historical person attraction rate by 15%, raises territory charm by 15%, raises territory fame by 10%)

Evaluation: Originally a person of the Zhaoyang Palace, her body was so alluring that people would suspect that she was like a swallow flying past.

Her charm was even higher than that of Xi Shi. However, similar to Xi Shi, her luck stat was extremely low. Her specialty showed the effects of her high charm.

Ouyang Shuo was starting to look forward to the strong stats he would receive after he completed the quest.

After obtaining Diao Chan, Ouyang Shuo's time in the battle map came to an end.

He did not waste any more time, directly returning to the main map. However, when choosing the teleportation location, he sent the voyage squadron to Beihai Bay.

….

When they returned to the battle map, it was already the 9th month, 2nd day, morning.

When Ouyang Shuo returned, a system notification sounded out.

"System Notification: the Battle of Red Cliff has officially ended, the historical people from East Han have officially entered the game."

...

The Lords who missed out on the Battle of Red Cliff could start their crazy search for the generals and strategists of the Three Kingdoms.

No matter what, Ouyang Shuo who had obtained Zhou Yu, Jia Xu, Xu Chu, Lu Su, Lu Meng, Gan Ning, Zhou Tai, and Diao Chan was the biggest winner.

Following which, there was another system report.

"System Notification: Shu Emperor Liu Bei officially moves in, Chengdu Imperial Court changed to Shu Han Emperor. Zhuge Liang, Fa Zheng, Huang Zhong, Zhao Yun, Ma, Jiang Wei, and other related personnel will automatically enter the Shu Han Empire."

...

The moment the notification sounded out, it broke the hearts of many Lords.

Just like that, it meant that they would not be able to recruit 75% of the historical people of the Three Kingdoms Era.

Apart from those named by the system, there was Ma Liang, Ma Dai, Wei Yan, Xiong Cong, Hu Ji, Wang Ping, Guan Ping, Guan Suo, Guan Xin, Yan Yan, and more; they were all added to the Shu Han Empire.

The Chengdu in the wilderness would be even stronger than in history. After all, Gaia had placed all the historical people of the Shu Country into his rule.

Such a lineup shocked even Ouyang Shuo.

It was no wonder that Ouyang Shuo would want to kill Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Chen Dao. If he had the chance, he would have even wanted to kill Zhuge Liang and Zhao Yun.

The escape of Zhuge Liang left many variables.

The Zhuge Liang in history was not as strong a strategist as shown. However, he was truly a god in terms of administrative matters.

In internal affairs, he could be compared to Xiao He.

With him present, the internal affairs of Chengdu would naturally be fine. Along with the fact that in the wilderness, the emperor did not need to bother about a large territory, their energy would be more focused. Hence, it would be harder to deal with them.

Chengdu was located in the Shu Land, connected to Yunnan Province, Chuanbei Province, and Xiangnan Province. If Shanhai City wanted to take down Shu in the future, it would have to fight them.

These two huge giants would have to fight sooner or later.

Chapter 722-Ban

Out of the regimes in history that had Chengdu as its imperial city, the most influential would be Shu Han.

Liu Bei was also a relative of the Han imperial family and was in the proper line of succession. He represented the East Han Emperor and appeared in the wilderness. He had more speaking power than both Cao Cao and Sun Quan.

The number of strong generals under him was enough to defend it.

All factors considered, Gaia chose to put him there. Cao Cao and Sun Quan could just back out from the stage of history and seclude themselves in god knows what corner of the wilderness.

Probably one day they would be found by players and trigger some hidden quest.

After the system notification, Gaia immediately sent out a hotfix regarding the actions of Caiyun Xinan and the others.

Gaia ruled that if the Lords did anything detrimental to their own camp, their battle contribution points would become negative.

As for what constituted detrimental, Gaia would decide and did not give a specific description. With Gaia's intelligence, it would not make an incorrect judgement.

After this, not only would the Lords be sent out of the battle map if they acted up, the teleportation costs would also be paid out of the Lord's own pocket.

Moreover, the soldiers that the Lord lost in the battle could not be revived.

To make matters worse, if Gaia judged a Lord's actions as a negative act, it would ban the player from the next battle map based on the severity.

This ban could last from one to three battle maps.

During the entire game period, China would have a little more than 10 battle maps. The Battle of Red Cliff was already the sixth one.

To be banned because of such reasons was exceedingly cruel to the players.

As for the actions of Caiyun Zinan and the others during the Battle of Red Cliff, Gaia did not take any action. Gaia's principle was that before any hotfix came out any loophole could be made us of.

Be it Ouyang Shuo or other players, they had all made use of system loopholes before.

Caiyun Zinan and the rest were not exceptions.

...

At this point, the Battle of Red Cliff had finally come to an end.

Returning to Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo passed Zhou Yu and Jia Xu over to Du Ruhui to let him bring them to familiarize themselves with the military structure and system of Shanhai City.

Since he had just arrived at the main map, even Zhou Yu needed time to adapt.

Ouyang Shuo believed that Shanhai City's strength would shock Zhou Yu and the others, and their loyalty would also greatly increase.

As for his arrangements for them, Ouyang Shuo would hold a military meeting tomorrow to settle it all at the same time.

As for Diao Chan, Song Jia would welcome her.

...

That afternoon, after Liu Bei acted after he had just entered the main map for half a day.

The Shu Han imperial court announced that Shanhai City was their enemy. Anything that related to Shanhai City would need to be removed in three days.

If not, they would be forcefully seized and closed down.

If he was not restricted by the system rules, Liu Bei would have sent troops to flatten the Shanhai City office in the imperial city to vent his hatred.

With that, Shanhai City became the first territory to be listed as an enemy of an imperial city.

It could be considered a legend.

The moment the news went out, the players were in an uproar.

Di Chen and the others were gloating while the Shanhai Alliance members were feeling depressed.

Anyone could guess that apart from the Shanhai City office, the Four Seas Bank branch would also be affected and needed to be removed.

With that, Huitong Bank received a huge favor as it could swallow up the Chengdu market.

It seemed like Ouyang Shuo needed to think of a way to console and make peace with the guild allies in Chengdu.

Although this would not hurt the four seas bank badly, it would suffer some losses. No matter what, it had just lost 1/9th of its market.

Luckily, China had nine imperial cities; if not, Ouyang Shuo would really cry.

...

The other players were just there for the fun.

What the players truly cared about was the meaning behind all of this. Liu Bei directly acting against Shanhai City meant that the interference of imperial cities on players was growing stronger and stronger.

The presence of the imperial city was not a cloudy question mark but a real dynasty. They had their own feelings, their own stand, and their own camp.

If their stands were different, they would point their blades at the players.

To Lords, especially those near the imperial cities, they needed to act warier. Such Lords were not small in number.

Di Chen, Zhan Lang, Chun Shenjun, Wandering Magic, and Sha Pojun all had such problems. If Shanhai City took down Yunnan Province, it would also have to face Dali.

This matter made Di Chen and the others feel uncomfortable.

All in all, the future of the wilderness would be that the Lord players would dwindle in quantity but the leaders would grow stronger.

The enemies of the Lords were not just other Lords but also the natives and even the imperial cities.

Apart from that, Mongol, Ruzhen, West Region, Western Xia, and Tibet; these were all uncertain factors.

The future wilderness would be a chaotic scene.

...

Shanhai City, Nanjiang Governor-General House.

Since Liu Bei had made matters clear, Shanhai City naturally needed to take preventive measures.

The four seas bank needed to return the money to the players within three days.

Meng Zhida took 15 million from the main treasury to handle this matter.

Although the Chengdu players trusted the four seas bank, without an actual bank, they would need to go to other imperial cities, which would be rather inconvenient.

Hence, most players would choose to invest their gold into the Huitong Bank instead.

Only the guilds that owned a large sum of funds and did not need constant use would choose to work with the four seas bank.

But that might not be the case either.

Who knows whether Liu Bei would try to suppress such guilds or not? After all, angering the imperial court was a huge no-no for a guild that wanted to rise in an imperial city.

In just a short while, the four seas bank nearly faced a financial crisis. Meng Zhida had no choice but to inform the various branches to chase the loans.

It would probably take a few months to recover from the side effects.

Apart from returning the savings, the four seas bank also had problems of the loans that they had loaned to the guilds and player chambers of commerce.

Compared to returning savings, this was much more complicated.

One must know that the ones who took loans were all people with financial difficulties.

It was not practical and would affect their reputation if they tried to take all the loans back. The only way was to get back as much as possible.

As for the amount that remained, they could only rush them in the future.

This alone used up a lot of manpower and resources. If people declined to return and tried to use Liu Bei to protect them, this whole matter would get much worse.

All in all, when Meng Zhida heard the news, his head felt like it was going to explode.

They needed Ouyang Shuo to personally write letters to all the guilds that cooperated with them to apologize. At the same time, he needed to strengthen the relationship between the two parties to lower the effects of this matter to the minimum.

The removal of the office worried Ouyang Shuo.

An imperial city office was never a simple office; it was the intel station of the Black Snake Guards. The Shanhai Guards and the Honglu Temple had all entered the imperial city through this office.

Removing it would cause problems aplenty.

The Black Snake Guards Commander Black Snake, Shen Bu Hai, and Zhang Yi had all acted to remove a portion of the intel personnel who were exposed.

More importantly, they needed to send the intel personnel underground and disguise themselves better to get in deeper before Liu Bei gained a stable footing.

In Ouyang Shuo's words, the more this happened, the more we cannot give up on the intel collecting work there. Even to say out of all nine imperial cities, the work at Chengdu was the most important.

Ouyang Shuo had never fought a war he was not confident in.

To place deep undercover agents and continue intel reporting would be a massive test to these organizations.

Black Snake himself had sneaked over to Chengdu to command

As for Shen Bu Hai and Zhang Yi, their goal was too obvious, and they did not move toward Chengdu; they could only command from here.

One move by Liu Bei had totally sent Shanhai City into a mess.

The only lucky matter was that the trade between the two was not close at all. On the contrary, many chambers of commerce relied on Shanhai City for ocean trade.

Hence, the animosity of Chengdu would not cause any effect on Shanhai City's trade in the short term.

In the long term, it would be hard to evaluate. The moment they could not use Shanhai City, they would turn to other territories like Xiong Ba's.

The prerequisite would be that Xiong Ba had opened up his ocean trading.

It was like giving a portion of your resources for free to the enemy.

At the same time, the animosity of Chengdu also broke the recruitment channel of talents and artisans from there.

All in all, the animosity of an imperial city was not a simple matter to deal with for a territory; the losses and negative effects were all round and deep.

If Shanhai City was not massive, it would not be able to take such a blow.

After arranging everything, it was already 5 PM. To calm down this entire mess, the entire Governor-General House had been incredibly busy.

After things calmed down, Ouyang shuo immediately sent someone to find Zhao Kuo.

To be on the back foot was not his style. Since Liu Bei had declared war, he naturally needed to show his sword and counter attack.

If not, they would think that Shanhai City was easy to bully.

Chapter 723-Xiliang Ma Chao

Gaia 3rd year, 9th month, 3rd day.

After Liu Bei entered Chengdu, he was filled with ambition, casually suppressing Shanhai City felt exceedingly good. However, that very afternoon, the counter attack arrived.

The Ma family that appeared along with Liu Bei - the famous Xiliang 5 Ma - quietly left Chengdu under the leadership of Zhao Kuo and headed toward Shanhai City.

The Xiliang 5 Ma referred to descendant of Fupo: General Ma Yuan, Ma Teng, his three sons Ma Chao, Ma Xiu, Ma Tie, and Nephew Ma Dai.

The Ma family ancestor was the famous General Zhao She. Zhao She was given the title of Mafu Lord, and his sons and grandsons followed the surname Mafu, which was changed to Ma.

Zhao Kuo was ordered to rush to Chengdu to move the entire Ma family out of Chengdu. The entire process was silent and soundless; Liu Bei only received the news when the Ma Family arrived in Shanhai city.

Hearing the news from an infomat, Liu Bei smashed a cup on the spot, his face swelling from fury.

"Damn you!"

If Zhuge Liang did not stop him, Liu Bei would have sent men to destroy Shanhai City's office. If he really did that, Liu Bei could only hide in the imperial palace for the rest of his life.

Gaia's punishment for NPCs breaking the rules was never soft.

Along with the betrayal of Ma, the five tiger generals of Shu Han were only left with Zhao Yun and Huang Zhong. Ma Teng and Ma Dai were both great generals, and their departure was like cutting off Liu Bei's arms.

One must not simply look at the impressive number of generals appearing in Chengdu. In truth, after Shu Han was formed, the number of talents dropped and was all held in place by the old guard.

Along with Ma leaving, the number of troops they could take out greatly dwindled.

More importantly, the departure of the Ma family shook the people's hearts. Just entering the wilderness, Shu Han had lost so much; it definitely was not a good sign.

This beautiful retaliation of Shanhai City warned Liu Bei that the wilderness still belonged to the players. Even if Liu Bei moved into Chengdu, he could not totally control it.

Only Liu Bei himself knew that this slap to the face was that painful.

The quiet desertion of the Ma family showed that the intel network that Shanhai City had placed in Chengdu was incredibly successful.

They managed to complete a huge shift of people right under the enemy's noses.

"Prime minister, immediately send someone to investigate and remove all the rats." Liu Bei was truly an ambitious person. After calming down, he immediately thought of a way to solve the problem, "Remember, this is my city."

"Understood!" Zhuge Liang nodded; his expression exceedingly solemn.

After returning from the battle map, Liu Bei had become the Shu Emperor and Zhuge Liang naturally became his prime minister.

As they say, the stars change and planets shift, nothing was certain.

If Gaia did not help, they would not have such a switch of roles.

The intelligent Zhuge Liang could feel that the wilderness was much more complicated than the Three Kingdoms. The changes in these two days undoubtedly proved this point.

...

The Ma family leaving also showed the deep foundations of Shanhai City.

Absolutely shocking!

For Ma and the rest to be willing to move to Shanhai City, it obviously had to do with the influence of their ancestor Zhao She and Zhao Kuo. Similarly, the vast prospects of Shanhai City and their position as overlord of the wilderness was similarly an important matter.

Especially to Ma Chao, who was still at the stage of his life where he wanted to continue fighting. His hot bloodedness was like his youth, and he was unwilling to be a turtle holed up in the imperial city. In comparison, Shanhai City could provide him with a stage to display his skills.

Chengdu and Shanhai City, if he had to choose one, he would choose Shanhai City without hesitation.

In history, only Ma Chao and Ma Dai chose to work for Liu Bei. The families of Ma Teng, Ma Xiu, and Ma Tie were wiped out by Cao Cao, so they had nothing to do with Liu Bei.

Even Ma Chao was the last out of the five tiger generals to join Liu Bei.

Hence, the Ma family was far from close to Liu Bei.

Naturally, they did not feel any psychological barriers from leaving.

...

When the news of the Ma Family betraying and joining Shanhai City spread, the China region was once again sent into an uproar; everyone's eyes opened wide. No one would have expected the counter attack to be so smooth and swift.

"Well done!" Some people cheered.

Many playes gave Shanhai City a thumbs-up for daring to go head-to-head with the imperial city.

One must not forget that based on China's population, each imperial city had close to a million elite troops. Even when adding the army and navy of Shanhai City together, they had just reached a million.

At the current stage, who else other than Shanhai City would dare to challenge an imperial city?

Even Di Chen had to back off against Jingdu and look on in fear.

The players who cheered were not only the ones from the other imperial cities.

There were many players in Chengdu who did not have good opinions of Liu Bei.

Chasing out the four seas bank had caused a lot of inconvenience and negative effects on the players. Liu Bei's actions lacked the magnanimity of an emperor and were seen as a little petty.

Not to mention the effect of the loans of the four seas bank on the chambers of commerce.

Hence, this was a lose-lose situation for both Shanhai City and Chengdu.

More importantly, in most players' eyes, they could not place NPCs on the same level as players. The actions of Liu Bei toward Shanhai City had triggered the sensitive nerves of the players on some level.

Only then did the players have such an intense reaction.

However, Ouyang Shuo was pretty nonchalant about this. When he killed Guan Yu, he had expected such a situation to occur.

However, as he was still in the battle map at that time, he could not make changes.

Ouyang Shuo truly treated NPCs and players equally.

He treated Liu Bei as an opponent, which was why he did not just grumble and struck back. This battle between the two giants did not have anything to do with justice and brotherhood, much less good and evil.

Shanhai City, Nanjiang Governor-General House.

That afternoon, Ouyang Shuo personally met Ma Chao and his group.

Liu Bei's announcement had messed up Ouyang Shuo's original plan. He had wanted to hold a military meeting to settle the appointment of Lu Su and the others.

Such a matter cropped up, and the meeting could only be pushed aside.

The matter of the military meeting could only be postponed to a later date.

Along with the arrival of Ma Teng and the others, some plans had to be changed.

In the main hall, the five of them officially greeted Ouyang Shuo and acknowledged him as their Monarch. Ma Teng was the first to step out, standing in front of them and bowing, "I am Ma Teng!"

"Ma Chao!"

"Ma Dai!"

"Ma Xiu!"

"Ma Tie!"

"Greetings, Monarch!"

The three sons and the nephew stood in one line, exceedingly eye-catching.

"Generals, please rise!"

Ouyang Shuo left his seat and walked before Ma Teng to personally help him up.

"Thank you Monarch!"

Ma Teng stood up; this was the first time he really judged his new Lord. Ma Teng was extremely sharp and was good at guessing other people's character. With just a short moment of judgement, his heart was shocked, and he did not dare to underestimate Ouyang Shuo.

When one was old, one would start to reminisce.

Ma Teng moved to Shanhai City because he respected Zhao Kuo. Ma Teng felt a little against this Lord that he had never met before. Moreover, he even heard that the Lord was a young kid.

Who knew that the first meeting would change his opinion?

Although his new Lord seemed young, his smile was devilish. No one would dare to be preposterous in front of him and do anything out of hand.

His body emitted the aura of an emperor; even if he was not angry, he would instill fear in others.

"General, can you still fight?" Ouyang Shuo smiled as he asked.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to know whether Ma Teng still had the ambition to conquer the battlefield. If he did not want to, then he could only find another position for him in the Military Affairs Bureau.

When Ma Teng heard these words, his eyes widened, "Monarch, do not mention it! I can still eat three bows of rice, don armor, and grab knives, my skills are not rusty!"

"Great!"

Ouyang Shuo praised, "Old General on a horse (pun since Ma=horse), one versus two!"

Haha!

When Ma Teng heard that, he laughed. In his heart, he had a new recognition of this Lord.

Ma Xiu and the others were worried when they saw their father like this. Ma Chao and the others did not wish for their father to go on the battlefield again. The few of them were enough!

However, this was their father's wish, and they could not shake it.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this scene, he found it funny.

Using this chance, Ouyang Shuo took a look at their stats.

Name: Ma Chao (Emperor Rank)

Dynasty: East Han

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Special Rank General

Loyalty: 70

Command: 70

Force: 98

Intelligence: 65

Politics: 40

Specialty: Fierce Rider (Raises troops morale by 30%, raises troops movement speed by 40%, raises troops combat strength by 20%)

Cultivation Method: Fupo Spear Technique (36 styles)

Weapon: Goulian Spear

Evaluation: All-rounded, an outstanding person. Exceedingly intelligent and can hold his own in ruling a land.

In the Three Kingdoms, in terms of martial arts, only Ma Chao could compare to Lu Bu. With his 98 force stat, he could easily kill his way out of a group of generals and was evaluated as an Emperor Rank general.

Ma Chao was like Lu Bu; they were generals that focused on one stat.

Name: Ma Teng (King Rank)

Dynasty: East Han

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 75

Command: 72

Force: 80

Intelligence: 60

Politics: 45

Specialty: Xiliang Iron Cavalry (Raises troops combat strength by 15%, raises movement speed by 25%)

Cultivation method: nil

Weapon: Machete

Evaluation: Ma Teng was a person with a tall and strong body. He has a humble and polite personality, respected by many.

As for Ma Dai and the rest, they are all King Rank generals and their stats were similar to Zhou Tai's.

Chapter 724-Headquarters

Gaia 3rd year, 9th month, 6th day.

Three days had passed, and the work of the various organizations regarding Chengdu had come to an end. Although the matter was rushed and sudden, it did not cause too much chaos.

As the problems faded, the problematic noises disappeared too.

...

Nanjiang Governor-General House, Wuying Palace.

Wuying Palace was the side palace of the west side of the main palace, which was usually used for military meetings. This was because the main hall was too official and Ouyang Shuo was not used to discussing matters with the generals while being so high above.

The layout of the Wuying Palace was similar to that of the barracks tent so it fit Ouyang Shuo's tastes.

Zhou Yu, Lu Su, the Jiangdong Generals, Ma Teng, Strategist Jia Xu, Military Affairs Director Du Ruhui and Deputy Director Zhao Kuo, Nanyang Navy Admiral Zheng He, and the City Protection Legion Legion General had all arrived.

The fierce general Xu Chu stood beside Ouyang Shuo like an iron tower.

Long before the meeting, their appointments had already been approved by Ouyang Shuo.

Zhou Yu was appointed as the fleet general of the Beihai Bay Squadron and would take the job tomorrow. At the same time, Gan Ning was appointed as the chief general of the second squadron.

The first squadron chief general was Pei Donglai.

Zhou Tai was moved into the Jiaozhou Squadron, which was led by Shi Lang and became the chief general of the first squadron. Old General Huang Gai was moved to the Xingzhou squadron, which was led by Yanhuo Yaonie, acting as the deputy fleet admiral and chief general.

Huang Gai and Yanhuo Yaonie, one young and one old; it was truly suitable.

Lu Meng was moved into the Mediterranean Squadron, which was led by Alvaro and would become the deputy fleet admiral and chief general. With the help of a smart and courageous general like Lu Meng, Ouyang Shuo could totally be at ease with Alvaro.

Out of all the navy generals, probably only Lu Meng would be a good fit with this old fox. Lu Meng had the strength of non-stop learning and improvement, so learning navy tactics from Alvaro would help him a lot.

Hence, arranging him there was both to keep Alvaro in check and for Lu Meng to learn.

Adding in the Yashan Squadron chief general, the five squadrons all had at least a King Rank general in charge for the chief general role, finally breaking away from the awkward situation of lacking navy generals.

Of course, when compared to the stellar line up of the army, this was not much.

Out of the seven Jiangdong Navy generals, only Lu Su temporarily had not received an appointment.

Lu Su could be considered a strategist-type general. If one put him into the squadron that would be a waste of a treasure, so Ouyang Shuo really could not dare to do that. After discussing with Zheng He, he decided to move Lu Su to Zheng He's side.

It could be said to be truly exceedingly weird that the Nanyang Navy had not set up a headquarters to date.

Making use of this chance, Zheng He took the lead and Lu Su helped. At the same time, he moved a group of officials from the five squadrons, the Military Affairs Bureau, and the army military academy to build the headquarters.

The headquarters would not be built in Shanhai City but in Lion City in Xingzhou Prefecture.

The Nanyang Navy would cover the entire trade route and Lion City was in the middle of this trade route; it was an important chokepoint in the ocean. Building the headquarters there would make it easy to command the five squadrons.

At the same time, it was to make a strong indication to the world that the target of the Nanyang Navy was not within the country.

The construction of the headquarters would mean that the Nanyang Navy would break away from the control of the Military Affairs Bureau and officially separate, directly led by Ouyang Shuo.

The greater meaning was to reduce the number of battle commanding levels, giving Zheng He more authority to make battle commands more flexible and quicker.

The organizational structure of the Nanyang Navy would follow the structure of the Military Affairs Department, having a Combat Logistics Department, a Military Intelligence Division, a Military Law Division, a War Division, etc.

At the same time, the various military ports and the military used shipyards would be under the control of the headquarters. The Nanyang Navy would also slowly build up logistical supply systems and resource bases along the way.

After all of this was built up, they could finally be considered a complete navy.

...

After hearing the news about building the headquarters, Zhou Yu and the other navy generals were stunned.

During these past few days, they had been welcomed by surprise after surprise, causing them to exclaim in awe. Even Zhou Yu could not help but say that he was like a frog looking at the sky from a well.

Their loyalty stat had risen to the safe value of 70.

Zhou Yu did not expect that the first time he joined a military meeting he would be able to witness the charm and far-sightedness of the Monarch. Only insiders could understand the strategic meaning behind a navy building a navy headquarters.

To say that it was a groundbreaking matter was not an understatement.

Ouyang Shuo had totally broken the structure of the Nanyang Navy, giving them a wider platform to perform and allowing them to roam the vast oceans.

Such ambition was truly a sign of an emperor.

The ambition in Zhou Yu's heart rose once more.

Orginally, based on the Monarch's request, Lu Meng, Huang Gai, Gan Ning, and Zhou Tai needed to enter the army military academy to study for two months.

Zhou Yu and Lu Su could immediately take up their roles.

Now Zhou Yu had changed his mind and was prepared to study at the academy and would take up his role after he graduated.

This was the charm of Shanhai CIty.

Ouyang Shuo did not want a bunch of rule followers who could not proceed forward but rather a people who could truly help the territory grow.

Zheng He's growth had proven this point.

Ouyang Shuo was also looking forward to the day when Zhou Yu could upgrade to become a God Rank general. Ancient China lacked many elite navy generals but that did not mean that it lacked many good students.

"Since we lacked generals that could make long voyages, we have to develop our own." Ouyang Shuo said it like that.

Academy Principal Sun Wu was exceedingly supportive of this point.

Be it Sun Wu or Jiang Shang, after learning about how wide the world was, they all hoped that Shanhai City could become the leader that helped China rule the world.

Their way of thinking was totally different from the current state of thinking.

It seemed like all Saint Ranked people were like that.

Ouyang Shuo had heard that Kong Zi had ended his journey of learning through the wilderness and was looking for a place to consolidate his learning and make a series of changes to the Confucianism Books.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he immediately invited Kong Zi to the university to complete that magnificent mission. After all, the Xinan University had unique resources and the strong support of Ouyang Shuo.

When he received the letter, he directly accepted it and was on his way over.

Based on what he said, the changes he planned to make were going to be relevant for an extremely long time. When it was finished, Ouyang Shuo believed that it was going to cover the entire China in its glory and reign for thousands of years.

...

Apart from Zhou Yu and the other navy generals that needed to improve, the five Ma also need to learn for two months.

Their appointment was not confirmed yet.

Based on Ouyang Shuo's plans, when they attacked Yunnan City-State, the territory would definitely welcome a new round of expansion. At that time, he would naturally have a place to appoint Ma Teng and the others.

Not mentioning them, even if 10 more generals came over, he would have roles for all of them.

Their situations were similar to Zhou Yu. Originally, Ouyang Shuo cared about their face and did not put Ma Teng into the list to study.

Who knew that he would actually choose to do so himself? Hence, Ma Teng had become the oldest student since the army military academy was established.

Such spirit was truly commendable.

It was no wonder. After all, the learning spirit in Shanhai City was simply too thick.

In such an environment, as long as one was not the kind who stubbornly stuck to their own thoughts, they definitely would not give up such an opportunity.

The competition in Shanhai City was in truth far stronger than the competition in history that they had faced.

"If one wanted to stand out from so many excellent generals, one obviously needed to learn." This was the warning that Ma Teng had given to his three sons and nephew.

Out of all of them, the only one that did not go to study was Xu Chu.

Xu Chu had already replaced the dead Chen Dameng and was appointed as the Personal Guards Captain. Ouyang Shuo did not treat him badly, granting him the title of a Grade 5 General.

Similarly, while Wang Feng was recovering, Xu Chu would replace him as the commander of the Divine Martial Guards.

In truth, in the battle map, Wang Feng had requested to quit his job. Ouyang Shuo rejected it as he did not want to see Wang Feng give up.

After returning to Shanhai City, Wang Feng had once again requested to quit.

"Monarch, do not worry. I will definitely rest up well and learn a one arm technique before helping Monarch fight once more. However, the Divine Martial Guards cannot remain leaderless, so can Monarch agree to my request?" Wang Feng was really sincere.

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, he could only agree.

Ouyang Shuo had not decided on the new commander of the Divine Martial Guards.

...

Wang Feng being injured, the saddest one was Qing'er.

Listening to her maid's words, after the maid went to visit her, Qing'er had cried for an entire night till her eyes swelled up.

The next day, Qing'er came to visit her big brother.

Ouyang Shuo was already prepared to be scolded by Qing'er, who knew that she would make a special request – she wanted him to choose a date for her marry Wang Feng.

After listening to her request, Ouyang Shuo was silent for a long while.

"Qing'er, have you thought it through?"

From an objective viewpoint, Wang Feng had lost an arm and was not a good fit. Although this was really cruel to him, standing from the viewpoint of a brother, Ouyang Shuo still needed to be clear.

"Big brother, I have thought it through, please bless our marriage." Qing'er was determined.

Ouyang Shuo looked at the sister in front of him, feeling more and more unfamiliar. When did she grow to such a stage and have such comprehension?

He would never get the answer.

"Since that's the case, I will let your sister in law organize this wedding," Ouyang Shuo said.

"Thank you big brother." Qing'er was delighted.

"But would Wang Feng agree?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

Ouyang Shuo understood Wang Feng, and he definitely would not accept the wedding under such circumstances.

Needless to say, the dignity and pride of a man would prevent him from doing so.

Qing'er's eyes froze; she had obviously thought about this point. When she met Wang Feng yesterday, she had probably knocked into a wall.

"I will make him agree." Qing'er was determined.

Ouyang Shuo was silent and did not say anything.

Chapter 725-Chief Secretary

The military meeting in the Wuying Palace was still taking place.

Apart from the arrangements of the generals, Jia Xu was appointed to the official role of chief secretary of the Nanjiang Governor-General House.

This role originated from the Qin Dynasty. During that time, the prime minister and generals did not have chief secretaries, similar to the current secretary. The chief secretaries under the generals could lead troops to battle.

The chief secretary in history took up many roles and was mostly a behind the scenes official. Jia Xu would be more like his chief of staff and would help Ouyang Shuo manage the domestic affairs of the Nanjiang Governor-General House.

The domestic affairs in this case referred to matters of the outer palace, including chariots, guards, auxiliary officials, guards of honor, and the like. These matters were different to the domestic affairs that Song Jia took charge of.

The secretary office that was under Bai Nanpu would similarly be under the jurisdiction of Jia Xu.

Speaking of which, this was a role that Ouyang Shuo had custom-made for Jia Xu. As the territory matters increased, the bureaus would have various requests and demands, so Ouyang Shuo needed to have more and more staff around him.

First, the presence of the chief of staff would help Ouyang Shuo coordinate with the various organizations; secondly, it would help him come up with plans and ideas, coming up with answers to administrative questions.

Of course, Jia Xu would mainly still be a military-type aide.

...

Apart from the new members, toward the City Protection Legion that had teleported back from the battle map, Ouyang Shuo had moved them back to Shanhai City and housed them outside of the city.

Considering the geographical location of the Lianzhou Basin, Du Ruhui suggested and finally decided to house the City Protection Legion in the earliest built city west camp, expanding and perfecting it.

As the city west camp had a small mountain beside it, it was named as the West Mountain Camp. In the future when they referred to the West mountain camp, it would refer to this garrison force in charge of the protection of Shanhai City.

At the same time, the Lianzhou Prefecture Garrison Division was disbanded like this and added into the bailiff forces of Shanhai City.

Of the elite Mongol Warhorses brought back by them, apart from some that were for them to use, the remaining 40 thousand were transported to the Xunzhou army horse breeding ground.

As the territory cavalry forces increased on a large scale, war horses, especially elite war horses, would become a huge bottleneck.

Although Ouyang Shuo had established the Animal Husbandry Department and established army horse breeding grounds, the war horse supply still could not keep up with the demand.

In the future, the territory would have to purchase war horses from the outside for an extended period of time.

The problem was that between Shanhai CIty and Mongol, one was in the north and the other in the south, making transportation very inconvenient. This process would use up a lot of resources, giving one a massive headache.

This purchase of 70 thousand Mongol Warhorses was completed using the battle map.

In the next battle map, Ouyang Shuo probably would have to use such a method to purchase Mongol Warhorses on a large scale. He planned to seek help from Wufu, Feng Qiuhuang, and other allies to purchase war horses. They would use the infantry to bring them into the battle map and pass them to the Shanhai City infantry forces to bring back to Shanhai City.

Although the process was rather complicated, it was the fastest method that Ouyang Shuo had thought of.

After solving the problem with the City Protection Legion, the military meeting finally came to an end. The effects of the battle map had slowly faded away like that and Shanhai City had stepped onto a new path.

Ouyang Shuo did not forget that before the battle map began, the biggest military operation was the plan to strike out; this was only delayed because of the battle map.

As for what he had gotten from the battle map, Ouyang Shuo was not interested in raising a group of White Soldiers; he just passed the manual to the army military academy.

At the same time, he wanted to use the army military academy to pick out the essence of the White Soldier training to teach to the entire army. With that, it would have the most efficient effect on the army.

9th month, 6th day afternoon, Ouyang Shuo's reading room.

The afternoon sun shone through the exquisite curtains and into the reading room, leaving spots on the carpet. Only after going through the chill of a battle map would one realize the warmth of the sun.

In the shade of the sunlight, Black Snake, Shen Bu Hai, and Zhang Yi had gathered. Apart from them, the newly appointed chief secretary Jia Xu was present too.

Since he was the military Chief of Staff, Ouyang Shuo naturally gave him the power to touch the intel of the territory. He was also one of the few in the territory that came into contact with the three organizations.

Despite his recent appointment, he needed to join a matter of top importance.

Ouyang Shuo naturally needed to take some measures toward the unhappiness with Xunlong Dianxue now that they had returned to the main map. He was not the person from his last life that blindly trusted his brothers.

"Have you found out who came into contact with Xunlong Dianxue?" Ouyang Shuo asked Black Snake.

Black Snake nodded, "Yes. Although we do not know their exact identity, we are sure that they have something to do with King City."

"King City?" Ouyang Shuo was surprised.

Black Snake understood the surprise of the Lord; he nodded as he said, "Yes, it is King City without a doubt. As for whether it was to truly cooperate or to purely sow discord, we are unable to deduce."

"Their motive is not important anymore." A cold light shone in his eyes, and he described what had happened in the battle map, "Even if previously it was to sow discord, from this matter, it would have achieved both goals."

"Monarch, what you're saying is?" excitement flashed in Black Snake's eyes.

"From today onward, officially start isolating Xunlong City. This plan will be known as Operation L, and the three of you will work together to bring members of the Shanhai Alliance-Xunlong Alliance under the direct control of Shanhai City."

The establishment of the Xunlong Alliance made use of the influence of Shanhai Alliance. The members of the alliance all reported to Shanhai City; Ouyang Shuo had even met them some of them personally.

Be it the Black Snake Guards or Honglu Temple, both continued to infiltrate Xunlong Alliance. Probably even Xunlong Dianxue himself would not expect that the alliance he was so proud of was already in Shanhai City's hands.

The Lords that were willing to join Xunlong Alliance did so not because of Xunlong City but because of the immense influence of Shanhai City in China.

Who knows whether Xunlong Dianxue had a clear understanding of this. However, he probably did not based on his words and showings during the battle map.

He still thought that their influence in his province was based solely on his hard work.

Operation L was something that Ouyang Shuo had considered during the battle map. Now his thinking path was even clearer as he continued, "Our infiltration of Xunlong City must be even more discreet. He would definitely be wary, so we must not be found out."

"Monarch, do not worry!" Black Snake smiled, "With his intel organization, to put it bluntly, they are totally out of the game. They can investigate surface matters but to fight with us, they are far too lacking much."

"Then pay attention to the Yanhuang Alliance members; they are all professionals. At the very least, Di Feng is strong." Ouyang Shuo warned.

"Understood!"

Black Snake's face shook. Obviously, they had suffered some losses from the hands of Di Feng.

"Remember, all of this can only be done in the dark. Before Xunlong Dianxue does anything that betrays the alliance, we must not act."

Ouyang Shuo did not want to fall into a trap that would affect the reputation of the alliance.

"If he does not act, I won't either. If he acts, I'll make it so that he never recovers." This was Ouyang Shuo's policy.

"Do not worry Monarch!"

Shen Bu Hai and Zhang Yi both promised.

Both of them were top talents, so they knew how to handle such matters.

"Operation L will be led by Wen He so you can just report to him about anything." Lastly, Ouyang Shuo decided the commander of the operation as he did not have time to personally handle this.

A few days later, Ouyang Shuo would proceed toward Yunnan City-State for the war. With the intelligence and viciousness of Jia Xu, he definitely would not let Ouyang Shuo down.

Before leaving, Ouyang Shuo called Black Snake.

"Send someone to investigate if there's a guild known as Liangshan Mercenary Guild in Quanzhou. The higher ups of the guild should be Song Pu, Yi Zhangqing, and Zhang Ziyue. If you find them, arrange some spies."

Liangshan Mercenary Guild was the guild that Ouyang Shuo was part of in his last life. This time, he was prepared to finish the matter and not drag it on anymore.

"No problem!"

Observing the Monarch's weird expression, Black Snake did not dare to make any wild guesses and just left.

The reading room became empty once more.

After a short while, Meng Zhida hurried over; he had finished all the administrative matters.

The matter that Ouyang Shuo told Meng Zhida to handle related to Xunlong City. Ouyang Shuo told him to get the four seas bank to reduce their loans and investment in Xunlong City.

"Do not make it too obvious, but do not not do anything at all. As for the specifics, do as you see fit."

Ouyang Shuo instructed him like that.

When Meng Zhida heard this command, he was shocked. He knew that between these two allies, some cracks had already formed. The young Monarch in front of him was also becoming more vicious.

Although that was the case, Meng Zhida did not ask anything and just nodded his head.

With that, the four organizations formed a massive net that covered Xunlong City. The moment he betrayed them, he would fall right into that net.

Ouyang Shuo did not wish for Xulong Dianxue to be used by Di Chen to harm Shanhai City.

In the battle map, Ouyang Shuo asked Xunlong Dianxue to take care of himself was just words. He just wanted him to understand his warning and not do anything stupid.

If not, he should not blame this big brother for being heartless.

On this matter, Gong Chengshi, who was usually fooling around saw through it. He could feel that something was up.

On the other hand, the always intelligent for Xulong Dianxue kept doing muddy things.

One truly could not judge a book by its cover!

Chapter 726-Xiahou Yuan

Gaia 3rd year, 9th month, 10th day, Shanhai City.

Yesterday, he had received the letter from Huo Qubing's residence that the Guards Legion had reached the frontlines and gathered with the Dragon Legion Corps. In just a few days, they would move camp to the border of Mengding Prefecture.

The three legions had a total of 200 thousand troops, covering the land as they bore down on Mengding Prefecture. At the same time, the legion from Consonance City went down south and gathered at the border.

These two groups bit tightly onto Mengding Prefecture.

The Yunnan Province was mainly hills and only a tenth of the land area was relatively flat. A large portion of the land went up and down and was rather uneven.

In the game, after the map expanded ten times, these hills became huge mountains and dangerous cliffs.

The territories within the Yunnan Province were basically lone cities connected to lone cities. There were only narrow mountain paths between them and transportation was highly inconvenient.

Moving troops or transporting grain were both difficult tasks.

Hence, although the Yunnan Province area was huge, there were not many Lords that chose to start here and they mainly gathered in Kunming Prefecture and Dali Prefecture; especially Kunming Prefecture, where more than half of the province gathered.

If not, why would one say that since Consonance City occupying Kunming meant that it was the overlord of Yunnan? Apart from Kunming Prefecture, only Dali was slightly better.

But the Dali Imperial City was located there and the Lords were not fools. Looking at the actions of Qin Shihuang, Hanwu Emperor, and others, constructing on the land near the imperial city was practically impossible.

The remaining Mengding Prefecture, Tengyue Prefecture, and Dongchuan Prefecture were all places where land was vast but people were little.

Hence, the Yunnan City-State was the weakest out of the four City-States. If not, why would they be so terrified of the actions of Shanhai City to the point where they could not fall asleep at night?

Long before the Battle of Red Cliff, Shanhai City had announced that they wanted to attack Yunnan City-State. At that time, they had started to prepare to defend.

Qin Feng used the chance to try and hurt Shanhai Alliance.

Their relationship had reached an irreparable state.

In a short time, the Yunnan City-State had gathered 200 thousand troops in Mengding Prefecture. This was the maximum that they could gather, and it took up more than 80% of their forces.

If they did not succeed, it was over for them.

If they managed to defend Mengding Prefecture, Yunnan City-State would be fine for the moment; if it falls, and they main force collapses there, Tengyue Prefecture, Dongchuan Prefecture, and even Dali Prefecture would end up in flames.

Mengding Prefecture became the main battlefield of both sides.

Along with the end of the Battle of Red Cliff, the smell of gunpowder grew thicker and thicker.

Based on the intel compiled by the Military Affairs Bureau, it was not only Yunnan Province but the entire Nanjiang that was moving their troops.

The 150 thousand troops from the Lingnan City-State were gathered at the Jiaozhou Prefecture border, facing off against the Tiger Legion Corps.

Based on the attitude of Yuan Ping, these two sides could fight at any moment.

Gong Chengshi even asked Ouyang Shuo if he needed to move the troops in Jiangchuan Province to contain either Xiangnan Province or Lingnan Province, but Ouyang Shuo declined.

Ouyang Shuo was extremely clear that if Jiangchuan Province moved, the nearby Jingchu Province, and Jiangnan Province would move too, causing a chain reaction.

This would in turn make things more complicated, and it would end in chaos.

Ouyang Shuo preferred to do things that were within his control.

The armies of Xiangnan City-State gathered at the south border, and some of them had even moved into Guilin Prefecture and threatened the north gate of Shanhai City - Withered Flower Stronghold.

The Leopard Legion Corps 1st and 2nd legions were present.

Commander Han Xin had given the military order; he would use this chance to take back Xuanwu Pass.

With that, he had already formed a detailed battle plan.

As for whether or not they could successfully take down Guilin Prefecture, it would depend on how the battle proceeded.

Although Chuanbei City-State's attitude toward Shanhai City was changing, Xiangnan City-State's determination to deny Shanhai City was still exceedingly strong.

To take back Guilin Prefecture from the mouths of these two City-States was not going to be an easy task.

Based on Du Ruhui's words, whether or not they could take down Guilin Prefecture did not depend on the battle situation of the north. Instead, it hinged on the results of Shanhai City against Yunnan City-State.

This analysis enlightened Ouyang Shuo.

"If the battle goes well, they might automatically give it up," Ouyang Shuo said.

This battle during the 3rd year of Gaia, Shanhai City against the 4 City-States, would decide the future of Nanjiang. The entire China region was focusing on this insane battle.

Over a million soldiers were wrapped up within all this.

The players were looking forward to seeing whether or not Nanjiang would give birth to a true overlord or if Shanhai City would be hurt from all this and its shining light would be dimmed.

How would Shanhai City shock the world who after half a year of seclusion?

This battle was of utmost importance.

Hence, after dealing with the administrative matters, Ouyang Shuo wanted to rush to the front lines to personally lead the battle.

Who knew that just as he was packing, Shanhai City would welcome two guests? They were none other than Xiahou Dun and Xiahou Yuan, who had just entered the wilderness.

These two were descendants of Xiahou Ying.

Hence, their arrival did not surprise Ouyang Shuo. Regretfully, Cao Hong and Cao Chun did not choose to follow along.

Since the two of them came, Ouyang Shuo could only push back the matters at hand to welcome them.

...

Shanhai City, Nanjiang Governor-General Manor.

To show his intentions to get close to them, Ouyang Shuo did not welcome them in the main hall but in the reading room. At the same time, Ouyang Shuo invited Xiahou Ying over.

In the battle map, the two brothers did not have a chance to meet Xiahou Ying.

Now to truly see him, they had to greet him solemnly.

Xiahou Ying knew his place. He did not take the bulk of the attention as he passed the two brothers off to the Monarch, smiling, "Monarch, please accept these two kids and give them food."

The pitiful Xiahou Yuan and Xiahou Dun could only act as babies at the moment. From the words of their ancestor, these two generals sounded like beggars instead.

Xiahou Yuan's red face reddened even further.

Even so, the two brothers did not dare to be even a little unhappy.

In ancient times, the position of an ancestor was truly too high. Not mentioning these two, even their father was just a little kid in front of this ancestor.

The two of them could only exchange glances and laugh. They knew they place. They did not wait for Ouyang Shuo to open his mouth, bowing and greeting solemnly, "Xiahou Dun (Xiahou Yuan), greets the Monarch!"

"Generals, please rise!" Ouyang Shuo smiled as he got up and personally helped both of them up, "Generals, you are both great warriors of your time. For you to come over to Shanhai City, I am delighted!"

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo knew that Xiahou Ying was playing down the two of them.

As expected, when they heard those words, their expressions became more comfortable. The two of them came over because of their ancestor Xiahou Ying and Cao Cao's recommendation.

During the battle map, Cao Cao had come into contact with Ouyang Shuo many times and saw that he was special.

Hence, he recommended them to move into Shanhai City. After all Cao Cao was already in seclusion, and he did not want these two to follow him as that was not fair to them.

It was not just them; even Cao Chun and Cao Hong were chased away. The only ones left by Cao Cao's side were Cao Zhen, Cao Xiu, and Cao Chong.

In truth, the two of them had decided to go to Consonance City. After all, Cao Can there was their ancestor.

Making use of this chance, Ouyang Shuo took a look at their stats.

Name: Xiahou Dun (King Rank)

Dynasty: East Han

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 75

Command: 70

Force: 70

Intelligence: 75

Politics: 80

Specialty: Rushing Grain (Raises troops grain using efficiency by 15%, raises grain transporting efficiency by 25%)

Cultivation method: nil

Equipment: Long Knife

Evaluation: A general who helped Cao Cao conquer the lands. He lost his eye after he was shot with an arrow, which he ripped out and ate.

Xiahou Dun could not be considered a general that could fight, but he was definitely the most important person in the Cao Cao Camp. Strictly speaking, he was a logistical-based general.

Based on historical records, he loved to learn and was loyal to his teacher. Although he was traveling, he would personally invite his teacher. He was also an extremely intense person. If someone insulted his teacher, he would kill him.

Although he had power and a high position, he lived a frugal and humble life, spreading his wealth with his subordinates.

Name: Xiahou Yuan (King Rank)

Dynasty: East Han

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 75

Command: 72

Force: 82

Intelligence: 60

Politics: 45

Specialty: Rapid Movement (Raises troops combat strength by 10%, raises troops movement speed by 35%)

Cultivation method: nil

Equipment: Spear

Evaluation: As a general, he often caught the enemy off guard with how quickly he moved his troops. Good at adapting, bad at mixing with the public.

Xiahou Yuan was truly exceptional at general military affairs. He was good at fighting long distance battles, so the military had a sentence, 'General Xiahou Yuan, three day 500, six day one thousand.'

It was said that his troops could travel 500 miles in just three days.

His most exceptional battle was his attack against Han Zuo in the Battle of Xinggu.

Hence, it was said that the two of them were exceptional talents that brought a lot to the table.

Chapter 727-News Conference

That afternoon, Ouyang Shuo had given both of them their appointments.

The Nanjiang Governor-General House released their appointments. Xiahou Dun would take the role of Combat Logistics Department Director, moving Ge Hongliang to the Nanyang Navy Headquarters to be in charge of their logistics system.

It was best to put such a logistic-style general like Xiahou Dun in the Combat Logistics Department.

Similarly, the Nanyang Navy Headquarters was just starting up, so the help of the experienced Ge Hongliang would allow their logistic system would quickly get on the right path.

As for Xiahou Yuan, he would follow Ma Chao and the rest into the Army Military Academy.

9th month, 11th day, Consonance City.

Early in the morning, Consonance City announced a city wide alert. Especially the inner city, no random people could enter.

Consonance City was a Grade 2 Prefecture and similarly had two teleportation formations. Suddenly, the inner city formation shone with a white light, Ouyang Shuo and the Divine Martial Guards walked out.

"Wuyi, welcome!"

Bai Hua smiled, bringing Zi Luolan and the others along.

Speaking of which, this was the first time Ouyang Shuo had officially visited Consonance City.

Hence, Bai Hua had arranged an exceedingly strict and grand welcome. Not only did the four sisters all arrive, Cao Can, Cao Hong, Cao Dun, all the civil servants, and all the generals were present.

She truly gave Ouyang Shuo a lot of face.

Even though the city was put on alert, such a lineup was still spotted by some 'concerned' people. Shortly, the news of his appearance would spread across the entire China region.

Ouyang Shuo's sudden visit had an unusual meaning to it. Someone had mentioned earlier that when the Battle of Mengding started would depend on Ouyang Shuo.

With that, the spies of the various territories moved like they were on drugs, jumping up and down, going all out.

When the Lords behind them received the news, they all gave pretty much the same answer, "You must find out what the goal of Qiyue Wuyi going to Consonance City is, and if he is already ready to start the war."

The battle that would involve close to a million troops was not something that Shanhai City could start and end as they wished.

This was a huge matter for the entire territory.

To prepare for this battle, Shanhai City had already prepared for a total of half a year.

If the grain and weapons that they used in that period were calculated in terms of gold, it would break through two million. Even Shanhai City could not sustain successive battles of such a scale.

Hence, since they were going to fight, they needed to win in one swoop.

No matter which side lost, it would be enough to shake their core and even cause them to collapse.

No one dared to be cocky.

Even a power as strong as Shanhai City did not start the war right after sending their troops to the border.

...

After a simple welcoming ceremony, Ouyang Shuo and Bai Hua had a two hour long secret conversation in the reading room. Not only did Jia Xu who followed along not join, even Zi Luolan and the others were excluded from the conversation.

Only the two of them were involved in this meeting.

If Ouyang Shuo had not kept a pure and loyal image all along, people might wonder whether the two of them were having a secret meeting or a date.

In truth, his conversation with Bai Hua did not involve this battle.

The battle plan had been set long time ago and the various generals would change it flexibly, so there was no need for the two Lords to worry.

Rather, the two of them discussed the post-battle situation and the arrangements of Consonance City.

"In the future, when the time is right, Shanhai City will establish a role of Provincial Governor on the provincial grade and above. The provincial governor will be in charge of the military affairs, rations, and salary. Additionally, they will take charge of ensuring law and order. The role of provincial governor of Yunnan Province, I will leave it for you, how about that?" Ouyang Shuo raised his biggest chip regarding merging with Consonance City.

The game had expanded the map ten times. If Shanhai City occupied Yunnan Province, Chuanbei Province, and Lingnan Province, the area of the three provinces would be similar to the size of the Ancient China.

Needless to say, the territory would continue to expand in the future.

To manage such a vast territory with ancient communication standards, if Nanjiang Governor-General House was the one to communicate with the prefectures, they might get too busy and the efficiency would be reduced.

Hence, at a suitable time, he would set up the provincial governor role to help in all provincial administrative and military levels.

In the game, a provincial governor was like the Qing Dynasty governor; especially in the China region, where one province was like a country in Europe.

Becoming a provincial governor in the China region was basically Bai Hua's limit. She would also be considered a giant amongst China region Lords.

Even Di Chen, Chun Shenjun, and the others did not rush to expand outwards but started a long digestion period after occupying one province.

Even with the strength and ability of their families, it was impossible for them to swallow an entire province right away.

Much less Bai Hua

Hence, the conditions that Ouyang Shuo raised truly tempted Bai Hua.

"You really are generous." Bai Hua smiled. In her heart, she did find it really weird, so she followed by asking, "What about Zi Luolan and the others, what plan do you have for them?"

Consonance City was owned by the Consonance Studio; it was not solely owned by Bai Hua.

"If they are willing, they can receive a suitable position in the provincial governor house. If they do not mind, I would rather they find suitable positions based on their specialties." Each one of the three had their individually strengths. Naturally, Ouyang Shuo did not want to see their talents buried.

Bai Hua nodded, Ouyang Shuo could be said to be extremely sincere.

"Can Zhang Liao's position be kept?" Bai Hua asked.

Zhang Liao was currently the Consonance City War Fighting Legion general. If Consonance City merged with Shanhai City, a place where fierce generals gathered, he might not be able to continue to be a legion general.

No matter what, Zhang Liao was an old general that had followed Bai Hua for a long time.

Bai Hua seemed exceedingly cold, but she was actually a very humane and compassionate person. Otherwise, she would not have asked the question about Zhang Liao.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it. In the end, he nodded, "Yes."

After Shanhai City expanded, the role of Legion General did not belong to just Emperor Rank generals. Furthermore, Zhang Liao could be considered the pinnacle of the King Rank, and it was not much to appoint him as a Legion General.

"Let's have a great cooperation!"

Bai Hua stretched out her tender white hand.

"Happy cooperation!"

Ouyang Shuo gently grabbed her hand with a wide smile on his face.

If an outsider saw this, they would think that these two were crazy. The war had not even started, yet they had already started planning based on the end result, truly arrogant to the max.

However, be it Ouyang Shuo or Bai Hua, they both felt that it was already in the bag.

They were the same type; arrogance was ingrained in their bones.

After preparing for so long, Ouyang Shuo had never entertained the thought of failure!

At 11 AM, Ouyang Shuo left the reading room to attend the planned new conference. In the hall, with the Quick Daily News as the head, the various media outlets were already waiting.

During the news conference, Bai Hua announced some huge news.

"From today onward, Consonance City will represent Kunming Prefecture and merge into the Nanjiang Governor-General House and be under their direct jurisdiction." Bai Hua did a simple description.

Hua!

Even though the reporters were mentally prepared, they had not expected such news.

The notice they received was that Consonance City had an important announcement to make. Seeing Ouyang Shuo come over, the reporters naturally thought of the Battle of Mengding.

Who knew that they would hear such news?

"Consonance City merging into the Nanjiang Governor-General House? Today is not April Fools!" The reporters' hearts collapsed, "Consonance City itself is a giant in the wilderness. How can this happen?"

The first reporter asked, "Lord Bai Hua, why did you suddenly make such a decision?"

"It is not sudden." Bai Hua was not going to take the bait, "The cooperation between us started a long time ago, and this visit by Lord Wuyi was just to make the final confirmations."

"Can you reveal some of the specifics? Is Consonance City forced by the pressure of Shanhai City?"

"The specifics are a secret and cannot be revealed." Bai Hua's expression did not change, "However, it's a win-win situation, and there were no threats involved."

"You should all know that this is not the first time that the Shanhai Alliance had an internal merger. Two years ago, Mulan County merged into Shanhai City. Lord Mulan Yue is currently the Governor of Zhen An Prefecture." Ouyang Shuo did not care about the thoughts of the reporter that asked this question had and patiently explained, "Our cooperation with Consonance City is based on mutual development."

The interruption from Ouyang Shuo and the words he said made the reporter speechless.

Mulan Yue from an unassuming Lord had become a governor. No one could say that Ouyang Shuo was conning his allies.

Thinking about the other Lords in Lianzhou Basin, they were now nowhere to be seen.

Only Mulan Yue was still active in the wilderness and was becoming more and more eye-catching.

Ouyang Shuo's win-win statement was not an empty check.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo was able to gain the trust of Bai Hua.

A good reputation was sometimes better than a strong army.

"A question for Lord Wuyi, is this merger because of the Battle of Mengding?" A smart reporter changed the topic to the upcoming battle.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and confidently answered, "The cooperation between Consonance City and Shanhai City was set three months earlier, so there's no direct relationship with the battle."

"Of course," Ouyang Shuo changed his words, "After the merger, the troops of both would be commanded as one. With that, it would be good for the battle, so I would not deny that point."

"So Lord Wuyi is really confident about this battle?"

The last to ask a question was a reporter from the Quick Daily News; he could be considered an old friend.

Ouyang Shuo stood up, facing all the media outlets, he looked ahead with determined eyes, "I believe Shanhai City will definitely win!" Since the Yunnan City-State provoked us, they need to pay the price in blood!"

The press conference ended with that strong statement.

Chapter 728-Review

On the eve of the big battle, the news of Consonance City and Shanhai City merging caused a massive wave in the wilderness.

Along with this merger, the two biggest alliances in China were walking two totally different paths. Shanhai Alliance was swallowing internally and slowly becoming one entity.

Yanhuang Alliance was individually blooming like a flower, becoming brighter and brighter.

The underground casinos of the nine imperial cities all opened up bets for the Battle of Mengding. Before this, those who bought Shanhai City winning was 1 paying 3, Yunnan City-State was 1 paying 5.

The moment the news came out, the various casinos all changed the odds to favor Shanhai City. The odds were now 1 to 2 for Shanhai City and 1 to 6 for Yunnnan City-State.

Obviously, the players did not think that things would go well for the Yunnan City-State.

At that very moment, Yunnan City-State also made a large move. That afternoon, Di Chen appeared in Qin Feng's Tengchong City and announced that Handan Alliance had formed an alliance with Tengchong City.

"When needed, Handan City will provide help to Tengchong City." At the alliance conference, Di Chen threw down such a sentence, similar to Ouyang Shuo's actions.

As a result, everyone was riled up.

The players were wondering whether this battle would become a chaotic one that wrapped up the entire China.

People who were just watching would never mind things being too big.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he just smiled.

The Yanhuang Alliance had been making such small actions all along, so how could Ouyang Shuo not have taken measures against them? If they truly sent troops to help Yunnan City-State, it would not end well for them.

9th month. 12th day, Consonance City.

Since Consonance City had merged into Shanhai City, Cao Chun and Cao Hong still ended up under Ouyang Shuo in the end; they did not know whether they should laugh or cry.

After the greetings, they were sent to Shanhai City to learn along with Xiahou Yuan and the others.

The five generals under Cao Cao were General Zhang Liao, General Le Jing, General Yujin, General Xu Huang, and General Zhang He.

Apart from them, the Xiahou Family and the Cao Family's statuses were higher than them, including Xiahou Dun, Cao Den, Cao Chun, Xiahou Yuan, Cao Zhen, Cao Xiu, and Xiahou Shang; they were known as the Eight Tiger Cavalry.

Out of the eight, Xiahou Dun was the most favored and Cao Ren was second.

After the Battle of Red Cliff, Cao Ren died in battle.

Cao Chun and Cao Hong were appointed as the commanders of the most elite Tiger Leopard Cavalry under Cao Cao, and they could be considered the generals that he trusted the most.

Especially Cao Chun; he was the first commander of the Tiger Leopard Cavalry.

Hence, in the Cao Cao Organization, Cao Chun and his brother's positions were far higher than Zhang Liao. However, the Consonance City Generals had Zhang Liao as their leader, making them feel rather awkward.

Their cultivation in the army academy was to get them out of that situation.

Along with the two joining the academy, the Army Military Academy's special class had expanded to 15 people; the lineup was unprecedented.

After dealing with the two brothers, Ouyang Shuo immediately led the Divine Martial Guards to the frontlines to review the Consonance City Legion. Of course, they were now the 3rd legion of the Dragon Legion Corps.

As for Consonance City, apart from Bai Hua, who was officially appointed as the Governor of Kunming Prefecture, everything remained as per normal. The structure of Consonance City followed Shanhai City, so there was no need to change.

At the same time, to calm down the hearts of the people, Ouyang Shuo naturally would not make changes to the roles and positions. If he wanted to make changes, he would just wait till the battle ended.

They needed to hand over the list of officials in Kunming Prefecture to the Administration Bureau so that they could record it.

Apart from that, the salary system of Kunming Prefecture would be connected to Shanhai City, and the law system would be connected as well. Such detailed work would naturally be left to the Nanjiang Govenror-General house's four directors to deal with.

The Kunming Prefecture structure needed to remove the Consonance City Military Affairs Department and move some of the officials into the Military Affairs Bureau. A portion would be moved to the Nanyang Navy Headquarters.

Before leaving, Ouyang Shuo had already told the Financial Bureau to, in the name of the Nanjiang Governor-General House, give two months of salary to the thousands of officials in the Kunming Prefecture.

Such bribery acts were much needed.

To the Kunming people, changing a Lord in a night was something that was not easy to adapt to.

As they say, they would rather be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix.

There were many people in Kunming Prefecture who were unhappy or did not understand it. These people needed some time to adjust and needed the Governor-General House to perform some groundwork.

Wei Yang had already suggested they utilize the law system in Kunming Prefecture to wash out the place.

During the news conference, the merger that they both announced had started long ago. When Ouyang Shuo was on his voyage, the officials of both sides had undergone numerous negotiations.

Just the records of the negotiations could be stacked up to a person's height.

With this work done, could Ouyang Shuo finally make that suggestion to Bai Hua. If not, such a matter was not something that they could settle with a few words.

Now, there was nothing more they needed to do.

Bai Hua would personally take charge of Consonance City to cooperate with the Nanjiang Governor-General House for the handover.

...

Three days later, Ouyang Shuo and his group reached the 3rd legion camp.

"General Zhang Liao greets the Monarch!"

Within the tent, Zhang Liao led the 3rd legion Major Generals to greet this Monarch.

This minimalistic military welcome made Ouyang Shuo realize that a simple paper was not enough to make these soldiers truly become loyal to him.

However, Ouyang Shuo did not mind, telling Jia Xu to read the appointment decrees of Zhang Liao and the others.

Zhang Liao was officially appointed as the 3rd Legion General. At the same time, he was given the title of Grade 5 Pingxi General. The remaining major generals were all given the titles of Grade 5 Generals.

In the tent, Ouyang Shuo personally pinned the badge regarding the Grade 4 General for Zhang Liao. The badge was exquisite and golden, untainted by dust; it represented an unbeatable honor in the military.

Ouyang Shuo also passed the military flag representing the 3rd legion to Zhang Liao and said solemnly, "General Zhang Liao, I hope that you will lead the Dragon Legion 3rd legion to continue winning on the battlefield. I hope for you to kill the enemies and spread the glory of the golden dragon flag!"

Zhang Liao received the flag, and excitement flashed across his eyes, "I will not disappoint the Monarch."

The golden dragon badges of the five major generals were pinned on by Jia Xu.

All of a sudden, a golden light shone in the tent.

After wearing the same golden dragon badge, these generals felt closeness to Shanhai City for the first time. Such an honor was something that an appointment decree could not be compared to.

"Bow!"

Zhang Liao led them to bow to the Monarch.

With a Shua! the generals all gave the standard military bow. At this very moment, the 3rd legion finally recognized the existence of Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. At least his efforts were not wasted.

"Generals, I now have a secret order to read." Ouyang Shuo sat back on the Lord seat.

"Yes my Lord!"

Zhang Liao could feel that something was unusual from the Lord's expression, making him focus.

The atmosphere of the entire tent instantly became solemn.

Ouyang Shuo told them the true motive behind this military operation.

When Zhang Liao heard the truth, his eyes widened. This plan was exceedingly different to what he had originally expected. Which meant that all they had been doing was throwing a smoke bomb?

That was preposterous!

After further thought, it was also deeply terrifying.

The Shanhai City Military Affairs Bureau had a bunch of monsters; they actually dared to make such a plan. If it really went as planned, the four City-States would be played as fools.

When Ouyang Shuo finished, he looked around at the generals, "The entire plan is as such, do you all understand?"

"Yes Monarch!"

"Since you understand, act based on the plan from tomorrow onward! Remember, without military orders, do not take matters into your own hand. If any of you do not follow the plan, do not blame me for being merciless." Ouyang Shuo instructed solemnly.

All of a sudden, a suppressive feeling like that of a sea of blood pressed down on them. In the sea of blood was a massive bubble where tens of thousands of bones floated.

There were not only human bones but beast bones too.

Many wandering spirits floated on the ocean surface, there were generals, soldiers, and many innocent lives. All of them had died under the hands of Shanhai City and gave out tragic screams.

When Zhang Liao and the others saw this scene, they felt a shiver run down their spines.

Even if they had been through hundreds of battles, such a scene still made them shiver.

How many people must one kill to have such a bloody aura?

In the game, one talked not only about fate but also about karma.

As long as they died to the Shanhai City Army, no matter if Ouyang Shuo personally acted, he would be responsible. After all these years, he had accumulated such a blood ocean.

One could foresee that this would continue to expand.

This was the first time that Ouyang Shuo had displayed the aura of the blood ocean to them.

It was then that Zhang Liao and the other generals realized that this Monarch was not like their previous Lord Bai Hua. He was not a soft-hearted person but a steel blooded commander, a true emperor.

With all of this, some excitement crossed their hearts.

They could clearly feel that after merging with Shanhai City, there would be a myriad of changes.

...

The next day, the 3rd legion acted.

Weirdly, the army acted and gave a ready for battle stance in the next few days but did not genuinely attack.

No matter what, the 3rd legion did not cross the border.

This made the Yunnan City-State Alliance Army feel extremely weird. Before they were clear about the enemy's goal, they were not going to attack.

The 3rd legion to the outside said that the Monarch had just arrived and needed to review them.

In truth, was just that; in a short 3 days, the 3rd legion did a large-scale review and drill.

The problem was that to do a drill now did not make any sense.

Chapter 729-Misdirection

"What exactly does Shanhai City want?"

In the command center of the Yunnan City-State, the main Lords had gathered. Everyone was discussing the weird actions of the enemy. Shanhai City not attacking left them feeling rather awkward.

"Is the enemy trying to make us numb? When we put down our guard, they will attack us then?"

"That is a possibility, our enemy is really cunning." Qin Feng nodded in agreement, "I have already ordered the frontlines to maintain their alertness and get ready for war at any moment.

When they heard this, one of the local Mengding Prefecture Lords explained, "I do not think it's that simple. Mengding Prefecture is mainly mountains and hills, so it is not suited for the large-scale strikes of cavalry forces. Even if they try to sneak attack, it would not be of great effect. To make such a weird formation just for a little gain, it does not seem like the style of Shanhai City. I'm guessing that there are other reasons within."

"Then what would be the reason?" Their brains were about to explode, "They cannot be just playing with us, right?"

"Who cares what their goal is, why don't we just attack!" someone suggested.

"No!"

At basically the same time, five to six Lords stepped out to reject this suggestion.

Qin Feng was one of them, "If we defend against Shanhai City's attack, not only can we gain the help of the other City-States, Handan City will also send us troops per the agreement. However, if we initiate the attack, everything changes."

At the very least, the other City-States would not help us contain the Shanhai City Army.

"This cannot work that cannot work, so what should we do?"

"Wait in silence."

"That's right, what we need to do now is to keep calm and not be rash."

"I think Shanhai City will not continue to drag matters on like this. In a few days, they will definitely make big moves." Qin Feng concluded.

The entire meeting hall was silent.

This silence was the last calm before the storm.

9th month, 17th day, Consonance City.

The stars in the sky were covered by clouds, dull with no light.

As it was already passed the curfew time, the city was absolutely silent. Apart from a few bailiffs patrolling the night, there were no other living people.

Occasionally, there were stray cats that jumped across the roofs, stepping on the tiles and making Da Da! sounds, causing dogs to bark. All of a sudden, the wild cat would jump into some house and disappear from sight.

The silence resumed.

On the roads outside the city, an iron armored army appeared at some point. Looking out, the army stretched out for 10 odd miles, their armor shone, and they had knives and spears in hand.

The army sneakily lined up to enter the city, going along the streets that were specially 'cleaned out.' Quietly but swiftly, they moved to the teleportation formation outside of the city.

To prevent spies, based on the agreement, the outer city teleportation formation would stop operation after the curfew time.

Hence, when it reached the curfew time, the most busy teleportation formation in the day would be empty. No one would brave the wind at night to come here to look at the scenery.

Tonight was different. The teleportation formation that was previously stopped now gave out a mysterious blue light. The army did not stop, directly entering the teleportation formation and disappearing.

As there were too many of them, this entire process lasted two hours before coming to an end.

Following which, the city east gate was once again closed, and the bridge was raised up. As darkness covered Consonance City, it was like nothing had actually happened, and things returned to normal as they quietly waited for the arrival of the next day.

As all the planning was top secret, all of this happened sneakily. No one knew how this mysterious operation would affect the situation in the Battle of Nanjiang.

The night sky became darker and darker.

Even the last star was buried in the clouds, disappearing from view. The entire Nanjiang was covered by the clouds of war, destined to not be peaceful.

Under the clouds, who was the chess master and who was the chess piece?

Night, Lingnan Province, Zhenhai City.

Zhenhai City was a lone city outside the territory and was a chess piece that Ouyang Shuo had nailed into the hearts of the Lingnan City-State. Yuan Ping wanted to remove this nail several times but had returned without success.

After all the training, City Magistrate Song Wen had swiftly grown up, becoming really stable and calm when dealing with matters. The Administration Bureau Director Xiao He had a rather high opinion of him and even recommended him to become a governor.

Ouyang Shuo supported Xiao He's opinion. As long as the time was right, his promotion was around the corner.

Obviously, the acts of the Song Family children previously did not affect Ouyang Shuo's trust in Song Wen and Song Wu.

On the other hand, it was Song Jia's father that was uneasy and strengthened his control of the descendants of the family. When Ouyang Shuo returned to Shanhai City, he even personally went to apologize.

Toward him knowing his place, Ouyang Shuo was very happy. He did not wish that before Shanhai City even established a country to have people messing around in the name of being the Lord's relative.

Such things needed to be killed off before they sprouted.

However, all of this was a little too troublesome for Song Jia. Ahe was stuck in the middle in an awkward situation.

...

On this night, the Zhenhai City that was thousands of miles away from Consonance City was similarly not peaceful.

The Consonance City Army that disappeared into the night walked out one by one from the teleportation formation. Under the leadership of the officer, they quietly entered the barracks that had already been prepared.

The entire process was similarly quiet without noise.

They too were waiting for the sun to rise once more.

If one looked closely, one would find out that the army that appeared here was larger than the one that left Consonance City. This meant that there were other troops that teleported from other cities.

Evidently, this was a large-scale deployment and was not something that was sudden.

Even the barracks that housed the troops had been built in advance, and the granary in Zhenhai City had amassed tens of millions of units of grain, pretty much waiting for their arrival.

Housed in Zhenhai City was the 3rd legion of the Tiger Legion Corps. All of the members were taken from the Garrison Divisions of the various prefectures and its Legion General was Fan Lihua.

In the tent, an oil lamp was lit bright.

Fan Lihua did not sit at the main seat but at the first seat on the left. Below her sat City Protection Legion General Er'Lai, opposite was the General of the 2nd legion of the Dragon Legion Corps Shi Wanshui.

At the Lord seat sat a young general, the genius general Huo Qubing.

Hence, this time, the Guards Legion, the 2nd legion of the Dragon Legion Corps, and the City Protection Legion had all discreetly teleported over.

Every one of them were littered with war contributions.

Speaking of which, the City Protection Legion and the 3rd legion of the Tiger Legion Corps were built before Ouyang Shuo went out to sea. When he was building them, the goal was to expand the military and also to prepare for this battle.

There was a reason why the Tiger Legion Corps 3rd legion chose Zhenhai City.

A small city along the ocean housed a full legion; if this news was spread, probably no one would believe it.

Shanhai City gave the reason of defending against a sudden attack from Lingnan City-State. In truth, without the legion, they really would not be able to take the few attacks.

When Yuan Ping and the others found out that a full legion was housed inside Zhenhai City, only then did they put aside the thought of taking it down.

"He's such a maniac!" Yuan Ping said.

Even so, Yuan Ping and the others did not make any moves. After all, Shanhai City had always shown the outside that it was going to attack west and the east line was mainly defense.

As for the City Protection Legion being sent to Stone City for training, the meaning within became more obvious.

Hence, for this battle, Shanhai City had prepared for more than half a year. Troops, resources, Intel, and more; every aspect was considered and planned out.

If not, Ouyang Shuo would not be so confident.

After the Guards Legion and the 2nd legion of the Dragon Legion Corps reached the border and set up camp, they left in the dead of night, going into Kunming Prefecture and quietly entering Consonance City.

Ouyang Shuo's high profile visit to Consonance City followed by the high profile review of the 3rd legion of the Dragon Legion Corps was all to attract attention, to allow the Guards Legion and the 2nd legion of the Dragon Legion Corps to break away.

The merger and the news conference were also for that purpose.

Of course, another reason was to confuse the Lingnan City-State.

With that, all the attention was gathered onto Ouyang Shuo, and no one would have noticed that two-thirds of the Baiqi Army had disappeared.

Even till now, Qin Feng probably still thought that the Baiqi Army housed at the border of Mengding Prefecture was three legions and not just the 1st legion of the Dragon Legion Corps.

Ouyang Shuo's strategy or performance for a better word was really successful and baited the enemy. Apart from Qin Feng who fell for it, the most pitiful one should be the Lingnan City-State.

Since the start of the Battle of Red Cliff, Ouyang Shuo had pointed his troops at Yunnan City-State. His most elite Guards Legion did not even join in the Battle of Red Cliff and made a high profile advance to the Mengding Prefecture border.

After the Battle of Red Cliff ended, the clouds of war kept hanging over Yunnan City-State. Anyone in China would know that Shanhai City was determined to take it down.

Who knew that since the start, the plan of the Military Affairs Bureau was to destroy Lingnan City-State before going back for Yunnan City-State?

The reason was simple.

Looking at the map of the China region, it was easy to see that Yunnan City-State was just a lone land without any strategic advantages. To take it down was something he could do any time he wanted.

In comparison, the situation in Lingnan City-State was more complicated.

Chapter 730-Troops Split Four Fronts

In contrast to Yunnan City-State, Lingnan City-State was connected to Xiangnan City-State and was also the starter and core member of the alliance of the four City-States.

Furthermore, Yuan Ping was one of those that wanted to destroy Shanhai City.

Hence, the moment they wiped out Lingnan City-State, it would be like half of the alliance was wiped out. If they took the chance to wipe out Yunnan City-State as well, the enemy would just fall apart without them even attacking.

However, Lingnan City-State was the first City-State in China and the most mature and developed one; their bond was exceedingly solid, and they had a relationship with the Yanhuang Alliance.

To take it down through conventional means was extremely difficult.

One could foresee that if Shanhai City chose to attack Yunnan City-State and destroyed it, the three other City-States would reach a new level of cooperation.

If the three of them combined into one entity, they could lock down Shanhai City's road up north.

All things considered, to break this situation, they needed to take down Lingnan City-State.

Another good matter was that east of Lingnan was Gong Chengshi's Chuanbei Province and Xunlong Dianxue's Minnan Province.

Getting pass Lingnan City-State, the pressure on the east would be greatly reduced. Then they could redeploy forces to face Chuanbei City-State and Xiangnan City-State.

Even to say that Ouyang Shuo could directly go and handle ASEAN.

The only accident would be the matter with Xunlong Dianxue. Even so, it would not change the strategy set by Shanhai City.

Zhenhai City, general tent.

The oil lamp light flickered; Huo Qubing was dressed in martial attire. Standing up, his expression was solemn, "Monarch's secret orders!" As he spoke, he took out an imperial decree.

"Receive the orders!"

With a Shua! Fan Lihua, Shi Wanshui, and Er'Lai all bowed toward the imperial decree.

Seeing the decree was like seeing the Monarch himself.

Huo Qubing slowly opened it and read, "Imperial decree, Guards Legion, Dragon Legion Corps 2nd legion, Tiger Legion Corps 3rd legion, and City Protection Legion will become the East Conquering Army. Appointing General Huo Qubing as the East Conquering Army Commander, any matter will be decided by the commander like it's an order from me."

As he spoke, Huo Qubing took out the talisman and showed the three generals.

"We will follow the orders!"

Out of the four generals, not only was Huo Qubing the only God General; his military rank was the highest and he was a legendary general. With him leading, the other three naturally did not have anything to say.

"Greetings, commander!"

Shi Wanshui and the other two bowed, forming a commander-subordinate relationship.

Huo Qubing nodded, his eyes shining with excitement. This was the first time he had truly led troops to battle since joining Shanhai City. Moreover, he could lead close to 300 thousand troops.

Even during the Hanwu Emperor time, Huo Qubing had not ruled over such a huge army.

The troops under him were also exceedingly star studded, the vicious Er'Lai, the ferocious and courageous Shi Wanshui, and the heroic Fan Lihua; they were all famous generals. The 20 Major Generals under the four legions were all great generals.

Huo Qubing knew that he had to prove that he was worthy of being a God General through this battle. After calming himself down, Huo Qubing started to assign the roles of the generals, "Shi Wanshui!"

"General is present!"

"I order you act as the front general to enter through Jiaozhou Prefecture and annihilate all enemies and take down all the cities." Huo Qubing handed out the first soldier talisman.

"Yes general!"

Shi Wanshui looked rather excited, receiving the soldier talisman with both hands.

The front general was the undoubted vanguard. The commander gave such an important task to the 2nd legion of the Tiger Legion Corps was enough to prove his trust in them, and it was the utmost praise to them.

Er'Lai and Fan Lihua had envious expressions.

"Fan Lihua!" Huo Qubing continued.

"Present!"

Fan Lihua was similarly dressed in martial attire; her voice was crisp but filled with killing intent.

"I appoint you as the right general, leading troops through the east of Jiaozhou Prefecture to destroy the cities. At the same time, get ready to help the front troops; do not act on your own." Huo Qubing solemnly ordered.

"Yes commander!"

Fan Lihua nodded solemnly. She had led the troops housed in Zhenhai City, so she could be considered familiar with half of Lingnan Province. Hence, she was exceedingly suited to lead them.

As for helping out the front troops, there was meaning within.

During the ancient cold weapons era, when the troops exceeded the hundred thousand scale, they could not all gather and needed to split up.

There were three main reasons.

First, the grain problem.

The biggest problem in ancient warfare was the grain problem. If the army exceeded a hundred thousand, the grain needed would reach a sky high amount. The grain support troops in charge of sending the grain would need to be increased by several times.

The burden on a country was enough to drag a rich country down into the depths; they could fall to an irrecoverable state.

There were many related situations in history, the most famous one being Suiyang Emperor taking down Goguryeo, sending a large quantity of grain from the south to the far north.

Before a cart of grain reached the destination, a large portion was eaten by the person transporting it. Finally, when they handed it over, all that remained were broken chariots.

Luckily, in this battle, the grain supply was not too big a problem.

In the 3rd year of Gaia, the territories that were able to survive basically did not have a grain shortage problem. Hence, the granaries of the cities en route were all filled with grain.

Not to mention it was already the 9th month and the first rice harvesting season was over, so the grain supplies were plentiful. The army could use war to build up their grain supply along the way.

Secondly, the war commanding problem.

In olden times, they did not have such advanced communication systems, so one person commanding so many troops was impossible.

During the start of a war, the commander could only move the troops on a large scale. If he was not careful, there might be communication breakdown and that would result in the army fighting for themselves or escaping in all four directions.

Even a God General could not control over a hundred thousand troops by themselves.

A professional army like Shanhai City was still okay. After all, they were well trained, and the military conscription followed modern day armies so it was reasonable.

In olden times, it was different and many armies were formed all of a sudden.

If they were not careful, it would result in all of the soldiers escaping.

In history, there was a famous Battle of Fei River where before the army led by Fu Jian fought the Dong Pu Army, they fell by themselves.

The Battle of Fei River was going to be the next battle map.

Thirdly, the traveling problem.

After all, an official path had limited space. If over one hundred thousand troops moved at once, they would form a terrifying long dragon.

Not mentioning that one would not be able to see the end of it, for a cavalry unit to run from the back to the front would take a few hours. Many times, the front would have already engaged while the back was still casually strolling to the front.

...

In the tent, the assignments continued.

"Er'Lai!" Huo Qubing called out the last name.

"Present!"

Er'Lai was like an iron tower, walking out confidently.

"I appoint you as the left general to lead the troops through the west of Jiaozhou to crush and siege cities. Get ready to assist the front troops and do not act on your own." Huo Qubing gave similar orders.

"Understood!" Er'Lai received the soldier talisman.

With that, the troops became a trident that would stab into the heart of the Lingnan City-State.

Jiaozhou Prefecture was not only the biggest prefecture in Lingnan but also the most developed one. Taking it down would mean removing more than half of the soldiers of the Lingnan City-State.

More importantly, the 150 thousand Alliance Army of Lingnan City-State was gathered at the border of Zhaoqing Prefecture. At the moment, they were facing off with the 1st and 2nd legions of the Tiger Legion Corps.

Huo Qubing's goal was to work with the Tiger Legion Corps to destroy the 150 thousand Alliance Army.

"After taking down the Alliance Army, this battle will already be half won." Huo Qubing said confidently and excitedly.

"But," Ouyang Shuo's words changed, his expression solemn, "The enemy has the home court advantage and can teleport. If things go wrong, they could break through our army."

Since Shanhai City could do the teleportation trick, they enemy naturally could to.

Teleporting the three legions had cost 210 thousand of Shanhai City's gold. At the crucial moment, Yuan Ping and the others definitely would not mind spending gold to pay for the teleportation costs.

With that, the Alliance Army could form a teleportation network. Teleporting two to three times was something that they could definitely afford.

"With that, it also means that the enemy could appear in every territory that we did not destroy. Hence, the various troops must ensure that no one is left out." Huo Qubing continued, "More importantly, you all must keep in contact."

"The moment the enemy sets an ambush in a city and tries to trap us, the other two groups must rush over to help."

"Understood!" Shi Wanshui and the rest nodded.

Such things had happened when Shanhai City fought in Leizhou Prefecture and Zhaoqing Prefecture.

Huo Qubing knew that those present were all famous generals and did not need further instructions from him. He smiled, "The enemy setting ambushes is a crisis but also an opportunity. The Black Snake Guards and the Shanhai Guards have set up an intel network around Lingnan. No matter which city they teleport to, we can find out right away."

The current Shanhai City intel network was not something that could be compared to when they attacked Zhaoqing and Leizhou Prefecture. Ouyang Shuo had spent millions of gold on them, so how could they be useless?

If Lingnan City-State wanted to use this chance to set a trap, they would be making a grave mistake.

"The moment we confirm the enemy teleportation location, we will lock them down. Along with the Tiger Legion Corps on the west, we will surround them and trap them in the city." Huo Qubing said.

"Understood!"

Chapter 731-Dragon Stunning the World

The sun rose, shining down on the earth.

In the morning sun, the three legions were like three dragons coming out from the sea, going out from the west, north, and east city gates of Zhenhai City and onto their own paths.

After sending them away, Huo Qubing did not remain in Zhenhai City.

According to his plan, they would not leave any troops to protect the city, not even a reserve force.

Huo Qubing would personally lead the Guards Legion from the northeast direction to stab into the Chaozhou Prefecture at the most east of Lingnan Province. Then he would go up north and attack Shaozhou Prefecture, which was the north part of Lingnan Province.

Further north of Shaozhou was Xiangnan Province.

Huo Qubing excelled at long distance consecutive battles.

At the same time, the Jiaozhou Squadron housed in the Jiaozhou Port had moved off, going through the Zhujiang water system to enter Lingnan Province.

Their mission was to provide cover for the army from the seas and transport grain and resources to the army if needed.

In the Lingnan province waters, the Jiaozhou Squadron was an invincible presence. If any territory had its main city around the coast, they could only blame their luck.

The Fleet Admiral of the Jiaozhou Squadron, Shi Lang, could be said to be an extremely experienced navy general. Under his leadership, one could definitely look forward to how they would perform in the Battle of Lingnan.

At 9 AM, Shi Wanshui's legion that left the earliest crossed the Zhenhai City border and officially entered enemy territory. The neighboring defending army was destroyed before they could even react.

The flames of war were officially lit.

In just one morning, the various fronts all found their own targets and started to siege and destroy cities.

The entire Jiaozhou Prefecture was engulfed in flames and peace was broken.

At this moment, the news of Shanhai City changing their targets had spread around and shocked the land.

Yunnan Province, Alliance Army command center.

"Is your news true?" Qin Feng asked the intel officer for the third time.

"Definitely, based on the reports, we can confirm that the Guards Legion, 2nd legion of the Dragon Legion Corps, City Protection Legion, and the 3rd legion of the Tiger Legion Corps is in Lingnan Province."

Phew!

Qin Feng let out a sigh of relief, not knowing whether to feel fortunate or furious.

From start to finish, the enemy's target was Lingnan City-State and Yunnan City-State was just a smoke bomb, a fake out that drew all their attention.

"Damn it!"

As the massive pressure had passed, Qin Feng started to feel fury from being overlooked, "So Shanhai City does not think we are the same level of opponents?"

"Now, what should we do, counterattack?" someone suggested.

Qin Feng suppressed the emotions that swelled up within him and shook his head, "Counterattack what? Do not forget the enemy still has two War Fighting Legions at our border. Which one of you has the confidence to destroy those two with just 200 thousand troops?"

Being asked this question, the various Lords all looked at one another; the atmosphere was truly awkward.

Not mentioning the 3rd legion of the Dragon Legion Corps, the 1st legion of the Dragon Legion Corps led by Baiqi was one of the oldest legions in Shanhai City, and its combat strength could even be compared to the Guards Legion.

No one felt confident about defeating that Asura.

Observing the expressions of the other Lords, a look of despise flashed across Qin Feng's eyes. He solemnly said, "So let's just wait and see; let's not go provoke that asura."

The Lords all nodded, truly believing in that statement.

As for the life and death of Lingnan City-State, there was nothing they could do about it. After all, during their discussion in the four City-State meeting, Yuan Ping's promise was just to contain the Tiger Legion Corps.

Now, they were the ones who were in charge of containing the Dragon Legion and could be considered doing their duty.

"Friends, ah, good luck!"

Xiangnan Province, Caiyun City.

In the Lord's Manor, when Caiyun Zinan received the news, he quickly summoned Zhang Liang to discuss strategy, asking anxiously, "Zi Fang, Shanhai City has attacked the Lingnan City-State; what should we do?"

"What are the others thinking?"

"Them? They are a bunch of tortoises!" Speaking of which, Caiyun Zinan's expression was exceedingly ugly, "They intend to stick to the plan and not change. We are in charge of containing the Leopard Legion Corps, so we cannot move as we wish."

Zhang Liang nodded; he did not feel surprised by it.

"Mister also thinks we should not do anything?" Caiyun Zinan's bows frowned.

"No!"

Zhang Liang shook his head, "Lord, the situation might be much worse than you expect." Following which, Zhang Liang started to analyze the situation at hand and how it was going to affect the Liangheng Plan that he had started.

"It is foreseeable that the moment Lingnan City-State falls the Lianheng situation will immediately collapse. When that happens, we would have to face a Shanhai City that is more than one times stronger. When that time comes, does the Lord still have confidence in stopping the invasion of Shanhai City?" Zhang Liang said in the end.

Zhang Liang's analysis was basically what Shanhai City had planned out.

The title of strategy saint was something he truly deserved.

Without even walking out of his house, Zhang Liang was able to see the strategic goal of Shanhai City so clearly, making one truly respect him.

When Caiyun Zinan heard this analysis, he felt a shiver run down his spine.

"I'll go discuss this matter with them." Caiyun Zinan stood up and left, anxious beyond belief.

When Zhang Liang saw Caiyun Zinan leave, he silently shook his head.

As expected, in less than an hour, Caiyun Zinan returned once more with a depressed expression.

"Damn it, they are a bunch of short-sighted people!" Caiyun Zinan scolded. Evidently, the meeting with the Lords of Xiangnan City-State did not go as he had wished.

Not everyone had the courage to go all out.

To defend their own land, the Lords naturally would do that as they had a responsibility to do so.

But to ask them to take the initiative to send troops to Lingnan and directly face off against the Shanhai City Army, they were not willing to do so.

"The current situation is not clear, and the war has just started. Let's just wait for a while. When the Lingnan City-State requests for help, it would not be too late to make a decision then." The Lords tried to avoid the situation like that.

Caiyun Zinan was not a confrontational person, so he was left speechless to their words.

Anyone was clear that saving someone was like saving a fire.

Based on the rules of Gaia, City-States was just an alliance in name; internally, they could not form a second alliance. This meant that for Xiangnan City-State to assist Lingnan City-State, they could not directly teleport troops over.

At most, they could only teleport to the border and move in from there.

Hence, the earlier the better if they wanted to assist the Lingnan City-State.

'When the situation becomes clear, the dish is already cold!' Caiyun Zinan thought with hatred.

Zhang Liang saw that his Lord's expression was unstable; he knew that his conjecture was correct. After being around Caiyun Zinan for so long, he knew the attitude of his Lord like the back of his hand.

"Too careful, and not enough charm and confidence!"

Such an attitude could not be said to be bad, but it would be difficult for one to become a true ruler and hard for one to rule in a cruel environment like the wilderness.

In comparison, their opponent, Shanhai City, was on the right path.

They were more careful than anyone when needed and bolder than anyone when it was time to take a risk.

Just like the current Battle of Lingnan. Such large-scale misdirection was a bold plan and even Zhang Liang did not expect that.

"Zi Fang, what should we do now?"

The Lord's question broke Zhang Liang's train of thought.

Zhang Liang had already thought it through and said, "Lord, we cannot wait any longer. Ally with a group of your close allies and build a huge army to go down south toward Shaozhou Prefecture."

"Directly send troops?" When Caiyun Zinan heard this recommendation, he was a little unsure.

"That's right."

"Do we truly have to do that?"

"We have to."

"Okay." Caiyun Zinan gritted his teeth, "Let's go all in. I'll go gather the army now."

...

Compared to Xiangnan City-State, the neighboring Chuanbei City-State was totally quiet.

Regardless of if Shanhai City was attacking Lingnan or Yunnam, the Chuanbei City-State was a mess internally, and they could only contain the Leopard Legion Corps.

Everything else was not within their scope of consideration.

Lingnan Province, Alliance command center.

Three days ago, Yuan Ping had already built up the command center to prepare for the Battle of Nanjiang.

The earliest goal was like what Yuan Ping had promised Qin Feng: Be in charge of containing the Tiger Legion Corps. When needed, they would consider sending troops to attack Zhaoqing Prefecture.

Hence, during these few days, Yuan Ping was located in the command center.

Who knew that his local land that was so peaceful yesterday would end up in chaos all of a sudden?

Undoubtedly, Shanhai City entering Jiaozhou Prefecture had the biggest effect on Yuan Ping and the others.

"Oh my god, what is happening?"

After the Lords who were killed revived in the imperial city, they were filled with shock and confusion.

The other Lords in the command center panicked and did not know what to do.

"We're finished; it's over!"

"Damn it, the script did not go like this!"

The Lords all felt helpless. All of a sudden, they did not know what to say, some sat there in panic, and some paced all around the room, their faces ashen white.

Some of them chose to return to their territories; some knew that they could not defend against the Shanhai City Army and chose to stay in the command center to hope that they could come up with a solution.

Even the relatively calm and stable Yuan Ping felt like his legs were made of jelly when he got the news and nearly collapsed onto the ground. This news, to the Lingnan City-State, was like lightning on a sunny day.

Think about it, apart from the four legions led by Huo Qubing, even adding in the Jiaozhou Squadron, as well as the two legions led by Sun Bin, Shanhai City was attacking the Lingnan City-State with over 500 thousand troops.

This was a full two times the number they were going to use on Yunnan City-State, just thinking about it made one feel chills run down their spines.

"Shanhai City really shows respect to us!" Yuan Ping mocked himself.

None of the other Lords could laugh; this was totally not a laughing matter.

Chapter 732-Abandoning a Chess Piece

"Guys, do not panic!"

Yuan Ping was the first to calm down; he looked at his allies and coolly said, "Guys, the City-State is far from collapsing. Not only do we have 150 thousand troops, we still have armies in each territory. If we all gather up, we can at least gather another 150 thousand troops."

"But that's also not enough; the enemy has 500 thousand elites," someone said dejectedly.

Yuan Ping was not angry either, "Do not forget that we are not fighting alone, we still have allies!"

Like he was replying to Yuan Ping's words, a guard hurried over and passed Yuan Ping a letter.

Yuan Ping opened it; a smile appeared on his face, and he said, "Look at what I said, this was a letter from Caiyun City; they have gathered 50 thousand troops and would like to immediately come down south to assist us."

Some of the Lord laughed, "Caiyun City truly has conscience."

"It's Caiyun City not Xiangnan City-State?" There were some sensitive Lords that identified the problem.

"Strictly speaking, Caiyun City and a few allies are sending troops together." Yuan Ping tried his best to explain, "No matter what it's a good start, right? Who knows, maybe after a while the other City-States will also come to help us."

Yuan Ping was destined to be disappointed.

For the entire morning, apart from the letter from Caiyun Zinan, no sounds were heard from the other City-States.

The atmosphere in the command center that had become excited instantly dropped to the freezing point.

"Those people have no sense of camaraderie!"

The Lords were furious toward Yunnan City-State for leaving them to die. Why did they support Yunnan City-State so much? These people were truly a group of snakes.

When Yuan Ping heard these words, his expression was also extremely awkward. He had already sent a letter to Qin Feng to seek answers.

Unfortunately, Qin Feng did not even reply to him.

What shocked Yuan Ping and the others was that Yanhuang Alliance did not move either.

This was the first step to totally crushing Yuan Ping.

Based on what he had discussed with Di Chen and the others, the Yanhuang Alliance had promised that once Lingnan City-State was invaded, they would definitely send troops to assist.

For this, they had specially left a territory within the province that did not enter the City-State to ally with Handan City for them to teleport troops over.

How could Yuan Ping have known that the moment the war started, this would be the outcome?

"This should not be happening!"

Yuan Ping felt bitter. No matter how he thought about it, he could not understand.

Jingdu Province, Handan City.

Di Chen could not be considered a person who betrayed his friends. However, he had his own difficulties.

The moment Shanhai City invaded Lingnan City-State, Di Chen found Fenghua Juedai to discuss sending out help, who knew that things would change.

"Difeng has sent news that during this week, Wufu has been connecting with the big mercenary guilds in the imperial city. Based on reliable info, he is willing to hire 100 thousand mercenaries." Juedai Fenghua said.

The reason behind Stone City hiring mercenary troops was pretty obvious. They only had one opponent - Handan City.

"When did that kid get so much money?" Di Chen could not understand.

Speaking of which, Wufu used to be in the same camp as Di Chen and the others. When Di Chen was at his lowest point, Wufu was invited to his camp and helped get Di Chen out of that scenario.

However, the two of them had only worked together for a short time. As their ideals did not match and their statuses were different, they had left on separate paths.

Hence, Di Chen knew some things about Wufu.

"It might be the loans from the Four Seas Bank." Juedai Fenghua made a conjecture, "The biggest possibility would still be Qiyue Wufu lending money to him. All signs show that Qiyue Wuyi earned a huge sum during the voyage trip."

"Dog sh*t luck!" Di Chen scolded.

"Do you think Wufu is doing that because the old fox instructed him to? Their goal is to contain us, but in truth, they did not even hire mercenaries?" Di Chen guessed.

Juedai Fenghua nodded, "I won't exclude that possibility. But I'm leaning toward this being a scheme. If we do not send troops, both sides would remain at peace; if we do send troops to help Lingnan City-State, they could use this chance to bite off a large chunk of meat."

"Many signs show that Qiyue Wuyi does not only want to nail down a piece in the north but to develop someone that could go up against us. Hence, Stone City definitely has the objective and reasoning to attack us." Juedai Fenghua used this chance to remind Di Chen not to underestimate his neighbor in the north.

"So the old fox is using money to suppress us and is warning us not to act without thinking?"

Di Chen's expression became a little ugly. Weren't such methods the specialty of aristocratic family descendants like him? Why was it the old fox using such moves on them in the blink of an eye?

"What irony!"

"It can be understood in that way." Juedai Fenghua saw through the entire situation.

The game still had game rules and wealth distributions were obviously different from real life. If the aristocratic families still thought they had the advantage in funds, they were going to be in for a rude awakening.

"If we do not send troops, how will we answer Yuan Ping?" Di Chen was placed in a tough spot.

Juedai Fenghua's expression was stale but her words were chilling, "Why do we need to answer to a dead person?" Regarding the Battle of Lingnan, she did not have any high hopes for Lingnan City-State.

A chess piece that had no practical use was destined to be thrown away.

Di Chen kept silent.

It was not that he could not bear to abandon Yuan Ping. On this point, he held the same view as Juedai Fenghua. However, he was reluctant to once again give up on the chance to stop Shanhai City from rising up.

In the first half of the year, the work done by Handan City had closed the gap between the two by a large degree. However, in the blink of an eye, it was going to become an even bigger deficit.

Such a hit was an exceedingly deep one, straight to the bones.

"Do not overthink." Juedai Fenghua's expression became gentler, calming the anxious heart of Di Chen, "Calm down, laying down the roots is the most important. Difeng reported that there are many resistant forces hidden in the territory that can start chaos."

When Di Chen heard these words, his face showed signs of struggle before he sighed. This kind of feeling of being plotted against by your enemy made someone as arrogant as Di Chen feel extremely uncomfortable.

If it was not for his training, Di Chen would have exploded.

As for now, Di Chen could already easily control his emotions. He could rein it even with the defeat during the Battle of Red Cliff; he did not say much. His mentality was getting better and better.

"I'll just listen to you; we will watch from the side!" Di Chen nodded.

Fenghua Juedai smiled gently.

"Oh right." Di Chen suddenly thought about something and asked, "Two days ago, Xiong Ba suggested during the meeting that we activate the hidden power to plot against Xunlong Dianxue, what do you think about that?"

Juedai Fenghua thought about it and said, "We can do it, but do not hold too high hopes."

"Why so?"

"Toward him as a person, I specially asked Difeng to investigate his info. He is a quest maniac and likes to walk a path to its end. He pays attention to all the small details."

"That's right. If not, he would not have fought with Ouyang Shuo because of a small matter, truly stupid." Di Chen nodded, supporting that statement.

"I do not think he's stupid. For him to be selected by Qiyue Wuyi shows that he has skill. At the very least, he is not truly dumb." Jurado Fenghua shook her head, "If we try to plot to make Xunlong Dianxue betray them, it might end up with both sides using one another. He definitely would not genuinely trust us."

"That's true." Di Chen nodded.

In his eyes, an alliance was just a mutual interest relationship.

"There's one more point. Xunlong Dianxue hates the rich; he has the mentality of a small city boy who does not have a good impression of rich people." Juedai Fenghua reminded.

"I've heard about that."

Speaking of which, his expression changed. Suddenly, he remembered the 1st system auction. Wasn't he humiliated by the two of them?

If it was before, Di Chen would not even be interested in coming into contact with Xunlong Dianxue.

However, now was different; for interests, Di Chen could choose to forget the past.

Juedai Fenghua continued to speak, "Xiong Ha is trying so hard because he wants to build a barrier between King City and Shanhai City. Especially the start of the Battle of Lingnan, if Xunlong Dianxue stays on their side, Xiong Ba would be faced with a headache."

"Scoff, that fellow was so gleeful when he took down Yizhou Island. Now he knows to be afraid? Assassinated during the Battle of Red Cliff, so embarrassing." Di Chen did not have a good relationship with Xiong Ba.

"On the topic of Yizhou Island, I do not believe that Qiyue Wuyi will let it go."

"You're right. Let him fight with the old fox; let's just watch." Di Chen also understood, and he suddenly felt delighted.

At this time, Di Chen felt fortunate that his territory was so far away from Shanhai City.

"Regarding the matter with Xunlong Dianxue, let's just spectate from the side and let Xiong Ba worry about it. Even if it fails, we have nothing to be sad about, so why not?"

"Let's do that!" Di Chen nodded.

In the reading room, it slowly became quiet once more.

Taiyuan Province, Fallen Phoenix City.

For the matter of Shanhai City changing targets, even Feng Qiuhuang did not know anything about it.

"Even hiding it away from me; I'm going to deal with you later!" Feng Qiuhuang was just that dominant.

"Lord, should we do something?"

The one who asked was a middle-aged strategist; he was Cheng Yu from Cao Cao's Camp.

Feng Qiuhuang truy had skill. Although she did not recruit him during the battle map, she managed to recruit him when she returned to the main map.

Who knows how she managed to do that.

"Naturally, we should. No matter what, we need to create some problems for Di Chen."

Feng Qiuhuang smiled; however, her eyes were filled with killing intent.

Chapter 733-Scheming Against One Another

To the Lingnan City-State, the 9th month, 10th day was an exceedingly hard day to pass.

On this day, the Shanhai City Army split up into four fronts and moved with the navy squadron; they roamed around Jiaozhou Prefecture and took down four main cities in a short day.

One must know that the entire Lingnan City-State had less than 40 such cities.

Shi Wanshui, Er'Lai, and Fan Li Hua's three legions formed a trident that swept from south to north; they did not leave any stone unturned and did not let any fish escape their net.

The three legions played it out extremely safely. They did not want a quick win. Instead, they aimed to just ensure that they could push forward in a stable manner.

Naturally, they formed an untouchable aura, causing any enemy standing in their way to feel a chill down their spine; it felt like they were being suppressed and could not breathe.

The Guards Legion led by Huo Qubing followed a completely different style.

They did not stop in Jiaozhou Prefecture, rushing over toward Chaozhou Prefecture without stopping for the night. In just a few days, they reached the border and were ready to sneak attack.

Before the war began, the Military Affairs Bureau had circled a few key targets for the Guards Legion. As long as they took down that main city, no one could stop the Guards Legion.

Huo Qubing's troops were fighting with extreme precision.

Even if there were territories behind the Guards Legion that were not cleared out, Huo Qubing was confident that he would not be surrounded by the enemy as they could not even catch the trail of his troops.

Only Huo Qubing could use such a unique fighting method to such an effect.

...

Lingnan Province, Alliance Army command center.

Their territory was being stepped on by the enemy, and they lacked reinforcements, making Yuan Ping and the others worried till their hair turned white. The next morning, the Lords who did not even sleep during the last night all had black eye circles. They once again gathered in the meeting hall.

"We cannot keep waiting and do nothing!" Yuan Ping exclaimed, "We need to act!"

"That's right; we cannot hope to get lucky. Their target is really apparent, which is to wipe out the Lingnan City-State without giving us any way out."

"At this moment, we can only fight!"

...

"We can only fight!"

...

These people forced into a corner gave out their loudest roar.

"Our greatest advantage now is the ability to enter the teleportation formation at any time." Yuan Ping was the first to speak, "We need to make use of that to give the enemy a deadly blow."

"I suggest apart from the territories that are still fighting the Shanhai City Army, gather the troops of the other territories and gather with the Alliance Army. Gather them up and remove a legion of theirs."

"I agree!"

"I agree!"

The City-State had no way out, so they could only go all out with their backs against the wall.

"Which legion should we attack?"

Yuan Ping arrived before the battle map and said, "Based on the intel from the frontlines, the Guards Legion is alone deep in. Originally, they would be the best target. But their commander is Huo Qubing, so the risk is too big. Hence, I suggest we choose their right front, which is led by Fan Li Hua."

All the Lords agreed; they did not feel confident about fighting Huo Qubing.

First, the Fan Lihua's legion was a side flank and it had much more room to control; secondly, she was a female general; hence, the Lords all said that she was the weakest general.

There was also one more point. Fan Lihua was located on the right wing, so there were many ambush points that could be chosen.

One had to say that Yuan Ping had some skill; he managed to precisely decipher the problem right away.

Yuan Ping pointed at one of the cities on the map and said, "I suggest we set the ambush here!"

The Lords all moved forward to have a look, understanding the reason immediately.

The city that Yuan Ping chose was surrounded on three sides by mountains and only the south side was a plain; it was like a huge pocket. With that, the Fan Lihua army would have to come in from the south and shove its head into the pocket, struggling without any way to get out.

The brilliant part was that the city did not have a river, which basically meant that the enemy navy could not come over.

"Genius!"

"Brilliant!"

"Smart!"

The Lords all exclaimed, making Yuan Ping smile.

Obviously, this was not something that he had thought of on the spot; it was the idea he came up with after pondering about the matter all of last night. Now it seemed like doing sufficient prep work had its pros.

"Since everyone agrees, let's start going to work!" Yuan Ping knew that every moment they wasted, cities would fall and the strength of the City-State would dwindle.

Hence, they were in a race against time.

Xinjiang City was located at the border of Jiaozhou Prefecture and was a castle for the Alliance Army. It was the main grain base of the Alliance Army.

Hence, moving the army to Xinjiang City was also considering that point.

"Will the Tiger Legion Corps let us retreat so easily?" Someone was worried.

However, Yuan Ping was not worried and smiled, "Do not worry, no matter what, we have 150 thousand men, and they are elites. They only have two legions. As long as we plan our retreat well and take preventive measures, they would not dare to act. At most, they chase us, but they definitely would not dare to attack."

"That makes sense!"

"Okay, quickly go arrange everything!"

"And also, immediately inform the troops housed in your territories to be prepared. When we reach Xinjiang City, we will teleport there simultaneously." Yuan Ping instructed.

"Why not let them teleport over first?"

"Are you dumb!" Yuan Ping did not even need to raise the matter himself and another Lord asked, "The Shanhai City intel officer is staring at us. If we all teleport over, even if he is blind, he would know what is going on. Would he still fall for it?"

"Oh!" The Lord who asked this question was instantly embarrassed as his face turned red.

"Go make the preparations quickly!"

Yuan Ping changed the topic to help get that Lord out of the awkward situation.

The entire Alliance Army command center instantly became busy.

With a specific target and plan, at least they were not like ants on a hot pot, in chaos. The Lords and soldiers were all united, and the will to fight burned in their hearts.

In a chaotic world, no one was willing to sit and wait for their death.

At the same time, Alliance Army Tiger Legion Corps camp.

A brutish-looking soldier opened the tent and walked in, kneeling with one foot on the ground and respectfully said, "Commander, the troops are moving. Looking at the situation, they are making preparations to retreat!"

The tent was extremely simple. Apart from military books scattered around, the most eye-catching aspect would be the map of Lingnan Province in the middle. This was the hard work of many military intelligence spies.

Sun Bin sat on the wheelchair that the Mohism school of thought and the No.7 Research Institute had designed for him, staring at the battle map. Speaking of which, the wheelchair he sat on was not simple.

The bearings and wheels were all made from elite steel, and the outer layer of the wheels was sewed with two layers of rubber. Although it was not pumped with air, it could travel across complicated terrains.

The bearings, the iron wheels, and the moving parts could be considered a result of industrialization in Shanhai City.

Apart from that, the wheelchair was designed by geniuses from the Mohist school of thought and included many mechanisms. It had poisonous sharp arrows and an ejection escape mechanism.

Even the moving system of the wheelchair was something that the Mohists had played a part in.

Such intricate designs made even some of the mechanic experts in the research institute feel stunned. The complex skills of the ancient Chinese were something that the descendants could not understand and replicate.

When Sun Bin heard the report, he was not surprised. He did not even turn his head and smiled, "The fish have finally started to move. Inform General Di Qing to come over for a meeting."

"Yes commander!" The soldiers quietly left.

After a short while, the copper-masked Di Qing walked in.

"Commander!"

Di Qing bowed from afar.

Speaking of which, both of them had words on their faces. Sun Bins's words came from torture while Di Qing had words on his face because he used to be a slave. The difference was that Sun Bin never hid it while Di Qing chose to wear a copper mask.

Through this aspect, one could see the personalities of the two.

Sun Bin had placed down everything in his past. After all, no matter how much he tried to cover up, the truth was that his legs were paralyzed and could not be covered.

With that, why not show it to the world.

"A Legion Corps marshal sitting on a wheelchair can be considered a different kind of sight!"

Di Qing was different. Born as a slave, he was still a little inferior and was used to hiding his face. With that, it also added another kind of charm.

On the battlefield, when one saw the copper mask, one would know that General Di Qing was present.

The two were the same type and were coincidentally gathered together; this could be considered fate.

As a result, Di Qing greatly respected Sun Bin. After entering Tiger Legion Corps, Di Qing always listened to Sun Bin's words.

Sun Bin turned around and smiled, "You already know, right?"

"I know; the enemy troops have already started to move!"

"Yes; let's just follow the plan." Sun Bin nodded, "I'll lead the 1st legion to chase the enemy to help the East Conquering Army pincer them. You lead the 2nd legion up north to sweep into Shaozhou Prefecture and meet up with General Huo Qubing."

"Understood!" Di Qing nodded.

The plan was set long ago and Sun Bin was just confirming things.

"General, remember. You can be slow, but you cannot be quick." Sun Bin instructed, "The cities along the way, you must take them all down. Do not let the enemy see through your intentions before the Guards Legion enter Shaozhou."

No matter how quick the Guards Legion was, they needed to pass through the entire Chaozhou Prefecture. Hence, they needed to give them enough time. Sun Bin's instructions were naturally to avoid alerting the enemy.

"Commander do not worry, I know what to do!"

Di Qing was a stable and intelligent general.

"Then let's get to work!"

Chapter 734-Private Flying Device

9th month, 19th day, White Stone City.

Under the pitch black night sky, the teleportation formation flashed with white light after white light. The 150 thousand Alliance Army troops as well as the 100 thousand gathered soldiers all teleported here

There were also 50 thousand reserve forces lying in wait and ready to teleport over to help.

The massive army filled the unassuming city to the brim. Moreover, since an hour ago, the entire city was placed on full alert, and no one was allowed to enter or leave.

At the teleportation formation, Yuan Ping gathered the generals and solemnly instructed, "General, immediately arrange soldiers to guard the various relays and teleportation formations to prevent anyone from walking into the relay or approaching the teleportation formation. The moment you see someone unusual, kill him."

"Understood!"

During the Battle of Zhaoqing, Yuan Ping used a scheme to crush Tianshuang County. Now, it was his turn to defend. Naturally, he needed to prevent the enemy from using the same trick.

Defending the relay was an attempt to reduce information leakage.

Of course, Yuan Ping's actions naturally could not stop the Shanhai Guards and the Black Snake Guards. That night, many Feng Birds flew up from various corners, disappearing into the night sky.

The next morning, the various legions received relevant news.

City Lord's Manor.

Yuan Ping and the other Lords had all gathered together.

"Where has Fan Lihua's legion proceeded to?" This was the problem most of them were concerned about.

The intel officer stepped out to report, "Based on the enemy's speed, her troops will reach outside the city at tomorrow afternoon at the latest. This afternoon, the patrol troops have already noticed their vanguard forces."

"Did they notice you?" Yuan Ping asked.

"Definitely not!" The intel officer was extremely confident.

No matter what, the area around White Stone City was their land. If even such bit of covertness was not achieved, the intel officer would not have the face to stand here.

"Since that's the case, let's just stick to the plan!" Yuan Ping said.

"Yes my Lord!"

The generals all bowed orderly.

That night, White Stone City was destined to be sleepless. They would wait within the city and even outside of the city, forming a spider web to trap Fan Lihua's legion.

Next, they discussed the specific tactics. Only till late into the night did they part ways.

In a small courtyard in the west of the Lord's Manor, Yuan Ping was looking up at the sky, deep in thought. Thinking about happy things, a flash of excitement appeared in his eyes.

If this battle went smoothly and they managed to exterminate Fan Lihua's legion, it would prove that their strategy was correct. With that, they could replicate the strategy once or even twice more.

The invincible Shanhai City Army would be invincible no more.

"Ouyang Shuo, I will not let you get what you wish!" Madness appeared on his face.

19th day afternoon, Kunming Prefecture, Dragon Legion Corps, 3rd legion camp.

The sky was covered in tens of thousands of clouds; the weather was gentle and peaceful.

At this very moment, a mechanical noise sounded from the skies; then, a giant dolphin flew past.

"A dolphin flying through the air?"

Looking up at this magical sight, one could not help but have their mouths gape open.

The 3rd legion soldiers who were doing their drills were no exception. They all looked up at the sky and pointed out. If it was not for military discipline holding them back, chaos would have ensued.

"What is that, a giant bird?"

Not everyone recognized the dolphin. Especially the normal civilians, they had only heard of it through word of mouth.

To them who did not live near the sea, they did not know any ocean organism like the dolphin. Some soldiers who came from fishing villages hesitated, "Looking at the shape, it looks like the dolphin that the elders in the village mentioned."

"What is it?"

"Haha, dolphin; are you joking? Although we do not know what it looks like, at the very least it would have something to do with the ocean, right? Have you ever seen any ocean organism fly in the air?"

The young man from the fishing village instantly lost confidence.

"Look, it is flying toward us!"

"Oh no, is it a spirit beast? Do not allow it to attack our camp!"

"Quick, inform the archers!"

"Stupid, go inform the general!"

Seeing the giant bird flying closer and closer, the soldiers who had never seen such a thing panicked.

"What are you all going on about, form up, form up!"

Just at this moment, the officer stepped out and started to enforce order.

...

In the tent, Zhang Liao received the news and walked out of the tent, looking up toward the sky. Looking at the big bird, his mouth was agape too.

"Is that the Mohist machine bird?" Zhang Liao guessed.

Just when Zhang Liao was unsure about what to do, Ouyang Shuo walked over with a smile, "Do not worry general; that is our flying device. Immediately clean out an area and wave the red flag."

"Yes, Monarch!"

Zhang Liao did not think about anything else and just followed the military orders.

After which, he asked, "Monarch, what is the flying device that you spoke of?"

Ouyang Shuo smiled; this was not anything surprising. Consonance City had just merged into Shanhai City and the No.7 research Institute had not introduced the civil servants and generals there to the industrial revolution.

"Simply put, it's something that we can control and drive. It's a special item that I got from my voyage." Ouyang Shuo gave a simple explanation.

"Oh!"

Zhang Liao was astonished. Although he was only a general, he was the right hand man of Bai Hua. He knew some things about the Shanhai City voyage.

Furthermore, Bai Hua purposely developed him, so Zhang Liao knew some things about the modern world.

"Since the flying device has been sent here, I'll be returning to Shanhai City."

The Battle of Nanjiang had already started; the east, north, and west borders had started moving. At this time, Ouyang Shuo needed to return to Shanhai City to calm down the hearts of the troops.

The Military Affairs Bureau had already built a command center back in the city; they were waiting for Ouyang Shuo to return.

The fastest way would naturally be to fly via the mimicry flying device. In only a day, Ouyang Shuo could fly past Zhen An Prefecture and return to Shanhai City.

"Monarch, you are going back?" Zhang Liao was a little surprised.

"That's right." Ouyang Shuo nodded, "General, I'll leave the defense of the western front to you."

Although it looked rather calm now, that did not mean that no war would break out.

Without mentioning whether or not Yunnan City-State might take some small actions, even Di Chen and the others would want to motivate Qin Feng to attack Shanhai City.

The 3rd legion had the responsibility of defending Kunming Prefecture, so they could not be careless.

When Zhang Liao heard this, he said, "Do not worry, Monarch. With us here, the enemy would not be able to take a step past the border."

"Great!"

Ouyang Shuo nodded; he admired such spirit from Zhang Liao.

Zhang Liao in history was also a defensive master, and his ability to hold up against pressure was extremely strong.

After giving some simple instructions, Ouyang Shuo left.

With a simple handing over, Ouyang Shuo took the device from the pilot and used the purple ohlite crystal on his chest to activate the flying device, flying into the air and disappearing into the sky.

The soldiers who witnessed the scene instantly thought of their Monarch as a true god. Their loyalty rose and the barrier between them and Shanhai City was smashed into bits.

With such a Monarch, what other request would soldiers like them want?

If Ouyang Shuo knew that this had helped to solve the side effects of the merger, he probably would cry from laughter.

The pilot who sent over the flying device used a blue magnetic ohlite. Mid way, he needed to stop to recharge. Ouyang Shuo's purple magnetic ohlite was different and could last the entire journey.

Riding the mimicry flying device and flying in the clouds, looking down at the mountains and small villages, Ouyang Shuo was filled with emotion. His feelings opened up; he wanted to occupy all the land beneath him.

Such grand ambitions, such experiences made for a truly unusual journey.

The next day noon, Ouyang Shuo returned to Shanhai City.

Chapter 735-Number 32

Shanhai City, Military Affairs Bureau.

The command center was set at the yamen of the Military Affairs Bureau. Du Ruhui, Zhao Kuo, and the newly appointed Xiahou Dun were all present. Apart from them, the Military Intelligence Division, the War Division, and Combat Logistics Department all sent their elite members to join in.

When Ouyang Shuo walked into the command center, he saw a busy sight.

On the north wall of the hall was a nine meter long, five meter wide giant map of Nanjiang. From east to west the map included Yunnan Province, Chuanbei Province, Chuannan Province, Xiangnan Province, Lingnan Province, Jiangchuan Province, and Minnan Province.

Amongst these locations, Yunnan, Chuanbei, and Lingnan Province were the most detailed and located at the middle of the map.

In the middle of the hall was similarly a nine meter by five meter giant sand boar. They most crucial Battle of Lingnan wsa being played out on the board; the three prefectures of land of the Lingnan City-State could be seen clearly on it.

Especially White Stone City in Jiaozhou Prefecture; it was marked with a red flag.

Intel was sent periodically to the command center. The War Division strategist would refresh the details on the board based on the intel for Du Ruhui and Zhao Kuo to make decisions.

"Monarch!" Du Ruhui rushed over.

Ouyang Shuo's arrival caused the command center to instantly quieten down.

"Keming, what's the situation?"

Du Ruhui pointed to White Stone City in the center of the sand board and reported, "Monarch, as expected, the enemy chose the teleport ambush tactic and the first location they chose was White Stone City."

Ouyang Shuo took a look at the land around the city and smiled, "They chose a great place."

"That's right. This time, they are going all out, gathering 250 thousand troops. I just got news that Fan Lihua's legion has already reached outside White Stone City and are setting up camp."

Fan Lihua knew that White Stone City was a trap but still acted like nothing was wrong and arrived outside the city. They made their final preparations before sieging like usual; their goal was to not alert the enemy.

Without mentioning Fan Lihua's legion, even Shi Wanshui and Er'Lai's legions did not show any signs of moving toward Fan Lihua's legion.

Only the Tiger Legion Corps 1st legion led by Sun Bin was proceeding toward White Stone City.

All of this was to confuse the enemy.

In truth, this was a risky move that required Fan Lihua's legion to hold off the attacks of 250 thousand soldiers before any reinforcements arrived.

Going one against three, one really had to sweat for her.

Such a scenario was only because the chess pieces that the Shanhai Guards placed down in the Alliance Army had not succeeded.

The Black Snake Guards and Shanhai Guards had different roles. The Black Snake Guards spies were mainly players while Shanhai Guards were mainly NPCs. Hence, it was easier for the Shanhai Guards to infiltrate the enemy.

Around three months prior, the Shanhai Guards had buried more than 10 chess pieces in the Alliance Army. The three legions were waiting for the key piece to do his work.

"Has Number 32 sent any news?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

Number 32, the most outstanding spy of the Shanhai Guards, occupied the position of colonel in the Alliance Army. Ouyang Shuo even participated in the workings for Number 32. He had a formation breaking talisman that was the key to this battle.

During the Battle of Zhaoqing, Yuan Ping used a formation breaking talisman to take down Tianshuang County. Ouyang Shuo wanted to use Yuan Ping's own poison against him to break the teleportation formation of White Stone City and lock the Alliance Army in.

With that, the Battle of Lingnan would become an encirclement.

If they win this battle, Lingnan Province would be in the bag.

The China region was complicated and had too many uncertain factors. Ouyang Shuo did not want to play any cat and mouse games with the Alliance Army. The moment he locked onto his target, he was going to kill them all.

Their weakness this time was naturally the teleportation formation.

However, breaking the teleportation formation when they enemy was prepared against it was highly difficult.

Now, they could only hope that Number 32 could work his magic.

"Number 32 has sent news that with the workings of the other spies, it's his regiment turn to defend the formation tonight. The chance to break the formation is tonight." Du Ruhui smiled as he reported.

"Great, then let's wait for it." Ouyang Shuo was prepared to just camp in the command center. Without a confirmation, he was not even going to sleep.

The huge command center went into overdrive once more.

Lingnan Province, Jiaozhou Prefecture, White Stone City.

The enemy troops coming as expected made Yuan Ping and the others delighted. Now they just needed to wait for Fan Lihua's legion to siege, and the 250 thousand troops lying in wait would give them a huge surprise.

Everything went smoothly; the only exception was that they were taking too long to get prepared.

Fan Lihua's legion reached the surroundings at noon. An entire afternoon has passed, but they still had not taken action. Based on what the spies reported, the enemy was building a camp.

As the sun set, a huge camp started to rise up from the plains.

"They are being too careful, right?" Some of the Lords did not understand.

Based on the fighting-style of the Shanhai City Army, not mentioning noon, even in the afternoon after they reached the city they would siege.

"White Stone City has a different geography so playing it safe is also pretty normal."

"That's right, no matter, what she's an Emperor Rank general. It's in her nature to think that there's a scheme going on, so she did not want to siege."

The Lords all tried to give various logical explanations.

In the afternoon, they were starting to hesitate, thinking about whether they should sneak attack before their legion settled down.

In the end, they gave up on that tempting idea.

If they attacked, they would be exposing their target. In the end, they would not be able to kill all of them.

If they only crushed them and did not annihilate them, it would be a failure for the Alliance Army. That was because Shanhai City would not give them so many chances to set up an ambush.

Secondly, the enemy was the Shanhai City Army.

Their soldiers were extremely strong, and their abilities were recognized by the world. Even when they were setting up camp, Yuan Ping and the others did not think that they would not be wary.

Thinking about that, the chances of succeeding became even slimmer.

Hence, the most stable way would be to wait for the enemy to siege before surrounding them.

In the City-States, there were some conservative Lords and some excited ones. Everyone gathered to discuss strategies. In the end, they chose the safer option.

This was the pros of discussing ideas but it was also a con.

There would never be a case where they settled on a bold and risky decision.

With that, they had wasted a golden opportunity for the Alliance Army to fight back. If they chose to strike out, Fan Lihua's legion could only try their best to hold on.

With or without the fortress, moat, and other defenses, whether or not they could hold on or not was a mystery.

...

As night fell, it was total silence.

Fan Lihua's legion camp was still busy; the high camp walls blocked the eyes of the Alliance Army spies. Within it, various defense works were being built up.

Along the wooden walls of the camp fortress, a large number of soldiers were digging out moats. Within the moats, numerous arrow turrets and barricades were being placed up.

Weirdly, at the center of the fortress, the army was repairing the area, similar to an inner city. If the Alliance Army spies saw this scene, they would immediately see through the intentions of Fan Lihua's legion.

How was this fortress preparing for a siege? They were obviously getting ready to defend.

...

6 PM, White Stone City.

The soldiers guarding the teleportation formation had a change of guard. After checking their identity tokens, they passed by one another.

The officer was a young general called Song Gui. He came from Huadong County in Jiaozhou Prefecture and joined the County three months ago. He used his skills to be promoted to colonel.

His family background was clean.

How would Yuan Ping and the others, including the Lord of Huadong County, know that Song Gui was a spy nurtured by the Shanhai Guards? He mixed into the refugees and entered Huadong County like nothing had happened.

More than half of the Shanhai Guard spies used such a method to enter their target areas.

Three hours had passed and everything went about as usual.

The night sky got darker and darker. At this point, there was only moonlight left. Under the light, the faces of the soldiers became blur and hard to see.

The sentry that stood for a full three hours without moving and on full focus felt their attention start to wane, and their body started to reject it.

Just at this moment, on the streets that were listed as a prohibited area, the sound of pushcarts could suddenly be heard. 'Gulu gulu!' During the quiet night, this sound pierced the ear.

"Who is it? This is a prohibited area, you cannot enter!"

As expected, the small pushcart was quickly intercepted.

"Sir, I'm here to bring supper." The person pushing the cart was an old man with a hunched back. He had a wide smile on his face.

He opened one of the wooden barrels and instantly a wonderful scent spread out.

"Sir, take a look; it is barbecued chicken!"

'Gulp!'

The soldier could not help but swallow his saliva.

"Who asked you to send supper, don't you know this is a prohibited area?" The soldier's attitude became gentler.

"I'm the one!"

Just at this moment, noises sounded out from behind their backs.

The soldier was stunned; he turned around and bowed, "Colonel!"

The one who came was Song Gui; he exchanged glances with the old man before turning to the soldier that was still standing at his sentry post. He smiled, "Boys, you have all worked hard. Today, I'll treat all of you to supper, so fill your stomachs up."

"Yay!"

Since it was the words of the colonel, the soldiers who were famished were naturally delighted.

"Come, come, come, fresh from the oven!"

The old man pushed the cart and walked through the middle of the military formation.Like he was performing magic, he took out chicken after chicken.

"Sir, there's also some wine here; would you like some?"

"Sure!"

The soldiers smiled in delight, giving the old man the thumbs up.

Great wine with chicken, what in the world could be compared to that? Under the temptation of good food, the soldier formation instantly slackened and the place became chaotic.

Chapter 736-Sun Rises as Usual

During the chaos, Song Gui acted like he was drunk and quietly approached the teleportation formation.

Using this chance where no one was looking, he swiftly took out the formation breaking talisman and pasted it onto the teleportation formation. A white light flashed and disappeared; the formation instantly stopped working.

As the teleportation formation was a prohibited area, no one noticed this anomaly.

Right after Song Gui sneaked away from the teleportation formation, a furious roar sounded out; the fury within the voice could burn one into ashes, "A**holes, what do you think you are doing?"

Raising their heads, it was actually Yuan Ping and his Personal Guards.

Who knows why, but Yuan Ping felt uneasy during this entire night. He felt that something was off, so he brought the Personal Guards into the city to patrol.

Who would have thought that when he came to the most important teleportation formation, he would see the soldiers eating chicken and drinking wine, playing as if they were having the time of their lives. Obviously, he would be furious.

"Who's your officer? Tell him to see me."

Yuan Ping's face was dark; his eyes were cold like that of a venomous snake.

When the soldiers heard his words, they felt a shiver run down their spines, and they did not dare to speak.

"It's me!"

Song Gui had smoothly completed the mission, so his mood was extremely good. However, he acted like he was terrified on the surface, stumbling to the front of Yuan Ping and bowing.

"Bastard!"

Seeing Song Gui's flushed red face, Yuan Ping was filled with anger and kicked out.

'Wu!'

This kick was not soft; Song Wu grabbed his stomach, shriveling up in pain.

When the surrounding soldiers saw this scene, they were furious.

No matter what, Song Gui was their officer, so how could he be humiliated like that?

Within alliances there was never a master-servant relationship. Strictly speaking, Yuan Ping had no power over them.

Seeing that, with a 'Shua!' the Personal Guards behind Yuan Ping orderly pulled out their weapons. When the soldiers saw that, they were all the more furious and some bold ones even took out their weapons.

The atmosphere on the streets instantly froze, and it looked like a conflict was about to occur.

Despite that, Yuan Ping was expressionless.

"No one move!"

Song Gui tried to get up, preventing his men from doing anything foolish.

"Colonel!" The soldiers were aggrieved.

Song Gui waved his hand, once again bowing to Yuan Ping, "I've failed my job; I'm willing to be punished!"

When Yuan Ping saw his actions, he paid attention to this person for the first time.

This person was not simple!

"What's your name and which territory do you belong to?" Yuan Ping asked.

"I'm Song Gui from Huadong County."

"Are you interested in joining my camp?" Yuan Ping asked unexpectedly. Due to his desire for talents, he was actually poaching in public.

When the surrounding soldiers heard his words, they all exchanged glances.

"Thank you mister, but the Huadong County Lord has treated me well. I'm indebted to him, so I will not leave him."

Yuan Ping liked him more and more, "Loyal, not bad."

"But!"

Yuan Ping's face changed quickly, his expression becoming exceedingly solemn, "You did not do your duty, so you have to be punished."

"Men!"

"Present!"

"30 strokes of the whip immediately!" Yuan Ping did not give him any face.

"Yes, my Lord!"

"Execute the one who sent the chicken. I've already said that this place is a prohibited area and anyone who gets close will be killed." Yuan Ping said.

Song Gui was being brought down. When he heard those words, his body froze, and his fist was clenched tight.

Gritting his teeth, he loosened his fist in the end.

'That was a brother that had fought alongside him!'

In olden times, whip punishment was extremely cruel. After 30 whips, Song Gui could not even stand, and he had to be helped to the infirmary to treat his wounds. At the same time, his regiment was also swapped with another one.

After that slight hiccup, the night regained its calmness once more.

Just as Yuan Ping was ready to leave, the regiment followed the procedure to check the teleportation formation.

This check scared them silly.

"Lord not good!"

"What happened?" Yuan Ping's heart shook.

"The teleportation formation is broken."

"What?"

Yuan Ping charged toward the teleportation formation like he was crazy. Looking at the teleportation formation that was totally quiet, his face turned ashen white, "It's the formation breaking talisman."

"Damn it, it was Song Gui!" Yuan Ping's eyes were red with fury.

"Men!"

"Present!"

"Capture Song Gui and torture him for answers."

"Yes my Lord!"

"Don't tell me this is all part of an elaborate scheme?"

Yuan Ping suddenly felt a shiver run down his spine. The news of the teleportation formation being broken swept through the entire Alliance Army like a hurricane.

All of the Lords of the City-State instantly felt a chill.

White Stone City, City Lord's Manor.

The various Lords and their generals had all gathered up for the meeting.

Before this, the Huadong County Lord had already been locked up and interrogated. Yuan Ping and the others suspected that he was the mastermind and a chess piece planted by Shanhai City.

The atmosphere in the meeting hall was close to a freezing point, and no one wanted to speak. The broken teleportation formation was like a dark spirit lingering in the air of the meeting hall, unable to fade away.

The Lords were not fools and very easily understood that all their actions were under the control of Shanhai City and was planned by the enemy.

What was amusing was that they had thought they were smart and had thought that they could deal a deadly blow to the enemy.

"Aren't we all clowns?" The Lords were mocking themselves.

All the excitement, and all the hope had pretty much all disappeared. All that remained was an empty shell without a soul.

All of a sudden, their world was flipped upside down, and they became a group of people without a tomorrow. A moment ago, they were among the top players of China, respected by many.

"Guys, say something!" Yuan Ping's voice was hoarse and filled with sadness.

"What more can we say?"

"That's right; it's useless. We cannot win this."

"But we cannot give up either!" Yuan Ping was not willing to just give in.

The other Lords did not react to Yuan Ping's statement; their faces were expressionless.

"I'll say something."

The Lord of White Stone City suddenly stepped out, "White Stone City has a small path that leads outside. However, it is mountainous and really desolate. An army definitely cannot pass, but if we bring our little groups out, it can still be done."

"Really?" Yuan Ping's face did not show any delight.

At this time, their only path was to escape.

The other Lords felt the same. Without an army, what was the point even if they made it out?

"Guys, do not be dejected. At least we can return to our territories, take away the money, and be rich men in the imperial city!" The Lord of White Stone City consoled; his attitude was truly optimistic.

"That's the only way I guess."

The other Lords smiled bitterly; they were all people with money in real life.

Becoming rich men? Truly ironic.

"Since we have no way out, we cannot just let them win like this. Do not forget that we still have 250 thousand troops. If we really rush out, can that woman even block us?" Yuan Ping did not want to lose, trying his best to rile up their spirits, "Even if we fail, we can bite off some flesh from Shanhai City. Furthermore, we still have options."

"That's right, if we just back off like this, it would be too easy for Shanhai City."

"Let's bury Fan Lihua's legion with us!"

"We must bury her!"

In the meeting hall, a determined atmosphere rose up.

Under these circumstances where they had no way out, the Lords started their journey to revenge.

"Tomorrow morning, let's not make an ambush. The enemy will not fall for it. I suggest we directly go out and charge at them. Let's fight head on and crush them. I do not believe these 250 thousand cannot take care of that sissy army."

"I agree!"

"I agree!"

"Great, this will be the final glory of our Lingnan City-State; we cannot mess it up!"

"Fight for honor!"

"Fight for honor!"

In the meeting hall, all the Lords felt a desire for vengeance, and their blood boiled once more. However, this blood boiling was not fueled with passion but with their lives. This was like wood without roots; it was not endless and would dry up.

As there were no tactics to speak of, the meeting ended quickly.

White Stone City became quiet once more.

The only difference was that after the Lords returned, they summoned their trusted right-hand men to plan the retreat. Those that were cowardly decided to retreat from the back mountains. On the other hand, the courageous ones chose to retreat from the main battlefield.

One must not look at how passionate they were during the meeting. If they managed to return to their territory and smoothly take all the gold, being a stable rich person was something they all wanted.

It was better than nothing, right?

A person's heart was just that complicated.

Especially to Lords, there were no pure ones among them anymore. A truly pure Lord would be wiped out in the battle between territories.

That night, there was some more action.

Song Gui and the Huadong County Lord were both tortured to death.

The guarding County Lord was innocent, but at this time, no one bothered to investigate. Hence, he could only blame his misfortune.

His sacrifice definitely pained one's heart.

That very night, another nameless hero sacrificed themselves for Shanhai City.

As long as the war continued, as long as Ouyang Shuo's ambitions were present, as long as Shanhai City continued to expand, there would be many more of such nameless heroes.

The truth was just so cruel.

Luckily, the night was going to pass, and the sun was about to rise.

When the sun rose up, a new day beckoned.

Chapter 737-Fighting for a Tomorrow

9th month 21st day, White Stone City.

The orange red sun rose up from the east, slowly climbing up the mountains and over the mountain peak, shining rays of light over White Stone City, making the green olden city look golden.

Yuan Ping and the others stood on the south city wall and solemnly looked on at the Alliance Army walking out of the east, west, and south gates. Their expressions were exceedingly serious.

"Shanhai City does not want us to see a tomorrow, so we will fight for one!" Yuan Ping said.

The three armies were like three giant dragons gathering on the plains outside of the south city wall. The color of black covered all the grass – there was no other color in sight.

Even so, there were still troops gathering within the city. The vast plains were not large enough to hold the entire Alliance Army.

The ones at the front were the six thousand Huadong County soldiers.

The Lord was tortured to death last night, but his army still remained. As they had not obtained any intel, Yuan Ping and the others did not dare to put the Huadong County Army by their side.

The best method was to push them up to the front lines.

Weren't these six thousand the best death squad? Additionally, Yuan Ping and the others arranged a full 10 thousand troops to keep their actions in check.

The moment they made any weird movements, the six thousand of them would be shot with arrows till they looked like porcupines.

...

Fan Lihua's legion camp.

The abnormally in White Stone City had alerted Fan Lihua's legion.

Last night, Fan Lihua had already received the spy message from within White Stone City and knew that Number 32 had succeeded and broken the enemy teleportation formation.

Whilst she heaved a sigh of relief, her heart also felt a chill.

She was extremely clear that tomorrow would be the toughest day for her legion.

Shi Wanshui, Er'Lai and Sun Bin's legions had already obtained the orders and were rushing over to White Stone City. Shi Wanshui's legion was the closest, but they could only arrive in the afternoon.

The furthest Sun Bin legion would need to wait till the afternoon of the 22nd.

Whether or not they could defend against the all out attacks of the Alliance Army and last till that crucial day would be the toughest test since this legion was built.

It was also a key battle for Fan Lihua.

She needed to prove to the armies of Shanhai City that she was worthy of the Monarch's trust.

"Send my orders, the divisions must defend their formations and stick to the defense plan, pushing each line of defense to its max. Whoever loses their formation will be punished by military law."

"Yes general!"

After a full night of constructing this fortress, it was like a ferocious beast waiting for the enemy to take the bait.

During the military meeting last night, Fan Lihua had said, "If the enemy crosses the defensive line of the 3rd legion and manages to break out, I'll tell the Monarch that I'll resign. But before I do that, I'll sack all of you Major Generals and colonels."

Her eyes lacked any killing intent, but it made everyone shiver in fear.

One of the Major General's recollection of the event described the scene extremely accurately, "Being swept like that, the blood in my body that was boiling instantly became cold. My heart felt cold like an invincible sword aura was held at my necks. If we make a mistake, our heads would roll."

"We are thinking that we would rather die on the battlefield than lose the defensive line."

Her prestige in the 3rd legion was truly exceptional.

...

The war horns sounded.

The 250 thousand Alliance Army moved into their battle formation and headed toward the enemy along with the beat of the drum. Before they even got close, they already emitted a suppressive and invincible aura.

The camp opposite them was extremely quiet without any noise; the silence was terrifying. Within the fortress, all the soldiers were focused and ready to claim the lives of the enemy at any moment.

The moment the Alliance Army got into range, a rain of arrows pelted down at them.

Many black arrows formed layer upon layer; these closely packed arrows formed an iron flood and rained down from above, massacring the Alliance Army.

The arrow rain left not a single living body in its wake.

Insta kill!

As the arrow rain was too closely packed, the soldiers had no way to avoid it. The sword-shield soldiers were better off and had shields to block. If they were lucky, they could survive. On the other hand, the archers just died under the arrow rain before they could retaliate.

Of the six thousand Huadong County troops, only a few remained after this initial blow.

"Charge!"

The commander was not afraid of death and ordered the troops to speed up.

Since they were attacking a fortress, the calvary forces of the Alliance Army were not useful and were hence assigned to the wings. The main attacking force was more than 100 thousand sword-shield soldiers.

They braved the arrow rain and launched their strongest assault.

The army was like a black flood, drowning the camp instantly.

After paying a heavy price, many sword-shield soldiers stepped onto simple scaling ladders and climbed onto the wooden walls, engaging in battle with the Fan Lihua legion troops defending the walls.

Right at the start, the two sides entered an intense and cruel close combat battle.

A camp fortress was just a camp fortress after all.

Even though they were well prepared, they did not have stone, wood, alchemical fire oil, cannons, etc. They only had arcuballistas at most.

Under the wooden walls, there were hundreds of trebuchets.

Be it the arcuballistas or the trebuchets, they were originally prepared to let the 3rd legion siege White Stone City. However, they were now used to defend, so one could imagine how much damage they caused the enemy.

In the battlefield covered with killing cries and shouts, wave after wave of Alliance Army soldiers charged fearlessly at the wooden walls. The corpses were like rain, falling to the bottom of the wall.

In the blink of an eye, a huge pile of corpses piled up.

And just as they were sieging, the trebuchets and arrow rain killed their backline. As the Alliance Army was too close together, the fireballs the trebuchets threw could cause a massive wave of damage.

A single fireball would often cause an area of death.

A full hour had passed and the camp fortress was still as stable as a mountain. Moreover, a total of 20 thousand Alliance Army troops had died; the brutality of the situation exceeded all expectations.

The 1st division guarding the wooden walls was originally the Leizhou Garrison Division; they were the strongest division out of all Garrison Divisions.

During the Battle of Zhaoqing, they showed their strength and impressed even Baiqi.

After moving into the 3rd legion, the division had undergone a change, becoming even stronger; they could be considered a flag of this legion.

Hence, Fan Lihua gave the toughest mission to the 1st division. The performance of the 1st division was truly worthy of all the praise.

...

The first battle not going well for them caused the Alliance Army to feel some pent up frustration.

Thinking about the various Lords watching the battle from the city walls, the commander did not dare to take this matter lightly

"Send down my order, let the assault regiment attack!"

The alliance commander was ready to throw in their most elite assault regiment to force the attack.

"Yes commander!"

A total of three assault regiments received the orders and immediately charged up; they were like a trident as they stabbed into the crucial areas of the wooden walls.

The strength of the assault regiment was quickly revealed.

These opponents stood on the same level as the 1st division. Under the help of numerous Alliance Army soldiers, they suppressed the 1st division that had already suffered many loses.

Now, they had a chance to break through the first line of defense.

"Great, follow up!"

The commander grew more and more excited, and soldiers were sent to the front lines like they were free.

This made the fight even more arduous for the 1st division.

At this moment, the number of casualties of the 1st division started to increase exponentially.

...

Inner circle tent, within one of the towers.

"General, let the 1st division back off; they cannot hold on any longer!" The deputy officer reminded Fan Lihua.

Fan Lihua looked at the situation at hand with a determined expression, "Wait a little longer!" The time the first defense line managed to hold on was half an hour away from her expectations.

"General, the 1st division is being crushed, let some of them live!"

"Even if all of them die in the end, they have to hold on."

Fan Lihua's expression did not change. She was not stone-hearted, but the fate of the entire legion and even the entire Battle of Lingnan was on her shoulders, and she could not afford to be soft hearted.

The 1st division had to hold on!

...

Wooden walls.

The massacre continued. Every moment, every second people fell down.

The 1st division made use of their incredible mental strength and discipline to stay strong under the attacks of the Alliance Army.

However, such perseverance could not last for long.

The key to this battle was still the numbers of both sides, and it was not something that morale and strength could change.

From the start of the battle till now, each soldier of the 1st division was pretty much covered in blood.

"Boss, the general asks us to last for half an hour more." A messenger ran over.

Major General Zhao Yan was similarly covered in blood; he looked at his comrades around him, "Fellows, you heard that? The General does not seem too pleased with us. F*** their mother, even if we die, we cannot drag down the prestige of the 1st division!"

"Boss, it's your prestige you're worried about, right? Are you afraid that the general will teach you a lesson if you do not complete your mission? Haha." The colonels around him did not bother with his words and did not give this boss any face.

Zhao Yan also knew how his men acted, so he said seriously, "Let's cut the crap, it is not just fighting with our lives, we are not afraid of that. We cannot let the other division kids laugh at us, much less the enemy. If we cannot last this half an hour, I'll die together with you guys."

"Boss, you are not a beauty, who wants to die with you!"

"...."

Zhao Yan stepped on their feet. He raised his blade and headed forward; this time, they were truly going all in with their lives!

Chapter 738-Chain Formation

Zhao Yan fulfilled his promise.

The 1st division lasted for the most arduous half an hour. They paid a heavy price; in the end, less than two thousand members were left out of the entire division. Ten thousand of the most elite soldiers died on the battlefield.

Major General Zhao Yan suffered heavy injuries and fell unconscious, and the Personal Guards carried him out of the battlefield.

Along with the 1st division retreating, the enemy officially broke the first defense line of the camp fortress. The Alliance Army paid the price of 40 thousand soldiers in total.

Corpses piled up against the wooden wall, making it hard to pass, and blood dyed the wooden walls with a fresh crimson color.

After taking down the wooden wall, the Alliance Army commander let out a sigh of relief.

Logically speaking, after the walls of the camp fell, the enemy would basically lose their defensive ability. Close quarters combat would follow, and they would win for sure with their numerical advantage.

The Alliance Army commander felt confident about taking the enemy down within a day.

Who knew that after heading past the walls, he would see this scene:

A second layer stood hundreds of meters away from the first wooden walls.

Between the two walls there was a five meter deep moat every five meters. There were paths connecting one moat to another, connecting all the moats into a complete defensive system.

Barricades, arrow towers, etc. were scattered everywhere. There was a three-bow arcubalista or a trebuchet at every crucial point.

The more terrifying part was the tens of thousands of archers hidden in the moats.

This was the second defense line of the camp fortress; it was defended by both the 2nd and 3rd divisions.

As there was a limited time to build the camp fortress, Fan Lihua did not design a squarish fortress but one that went from east to west, forming a narrow and long channel.

The entire fortress basically stopped the Alliance Army from heading down south.

The Alliance Army could not break this enclosure by going around it. They needed to break through all the defenses before they could pass.

To prevent this, Fan Lihua planned many soldiers on the frontlines while arranging the 5th division to protect the wings. The 4th division would defend the 2nd wooden walls, which were the last line of defense.

The north side of the camp fortress did not even have any walls as they did not have enough time to construct more.

Such an arrangement could be called the most efficient use of resources and the best way to arrange troops.

The three defensive lines complemented one another and formed a massive chain formation.

This was one of the reasons why a famed general was famous. No matter if it was logistic calculations, troop traveling arrangements, or camp arrangements, they were proficient at them all.

Of course, this had something to do with the logical army troop allocation of the Shanhai City Army. That was because its division had construction units, so they could miraculously build a camp fortress.

To the Alliance Army, this posed a huge problem.

"General, what should we do?" The deputy officer asked.

The commander's face was black as he solemnly declared, "What else can we do? Attack!"

After a short rest, the Alliance Army launched their second wave of attacks.

From the start till now, their attacks had not been smooth.

The vast army crossed the wooden walls and entered the empty land, engaging in close quarters combat battle with the sword-shield soldiers. At the same time, they were also shot by the archers in the moat.

Under the cover of the moat, the archers were basically merciless grim reapers. They all became marksmen and accurately claimed life after life.

They also had arrow towers and arcuballsitas covering them.

Hence, the Alliance Army found it extremely hard to push forward.

Pretty much every moat layer was pushed through using human life. Even so, sometimes a moat that they spent a lot of effort in taking would be taken back by the enemy in the blink of an eye.

At the highest count so far, the two armies exchanged control of a moat four times.

Fan Lihua looked down from the second wooden wall and moved troops based on the situation of the battle. She ordered the archers in the moat to change their focus of fire to the toughest locations.

The secret of her commanding lied in the five-sided flag.

Each moat was separated into east, middle, and west.

Hence, each region had their specific code.

Through different flag combinations, Fan Lihua could send different orders, even some relatively complicated orders like ordering the second moat in the middle to assist the west side.

In the moats there were messengers who passed on the orders based on the flag colors.

With that, the commands were like a beautiful concert. Each note was like a killing machine; each melody was like a tune to take a life.

Although the music was beautiful, the scene was truly gruesome.

The countless Alliance Army soldiers could not do anything against such a formation, so they could not use their numerical advantage. The hundreds of thousands of cavalry soldiers were like decorations and manage to accomplish absolutely nothing.

Even by noon, the second defensive line still stood as stable as a rock.

The terrifying part was that another 20 thousand Alliance Army soldiers had fallen. In just a single noon, a fifth of the Alliance Army had died.

More than 70 percent had died from the archers.

Based on incomplete data, the 3rd legion had used up 150 thousand arrows during this morning. If it was not for the perfect combat logistics system of the Combat Logistics Department, this would be a difficult consumption to stomach.

If one was not personally fighting, one would not be able to imagine the cruelty of war.

On the backs of the 50 thousand fallen soldiers were 50 thousand families, a total of 200 thousand people. The population was similar to a Grade 3 County.

In the wilderness, this was extremely terrifying.

In just one morning, the dreams and hopes of 50 thousand families were crushed.

...

White Stone City, above the south city gate.

"What happened; why did we not gain any progress after a full morning?" Yuan Ping and the other Lords summoned back the commander and scolded him.

In their eyes, taking down the wooden wall was to be expected.

"I'm sorry!" The Alliance Army commander could not voice his problems as he did not dare to do so.

"Just push on; do not bother about the lives of the soldiers. We must break the enemy camp fortress by this afternoon." Yuan Ping ordered.

He could not be too frank with some words. Obviously, he could not say that they just wanted to destroy them to take revenge on Shanhai City.

If they really said that, the frontline soldiers would be furious.

The NPC army was not just a cluster of data, and each soldier had a full past and their own thinking. If they knew what was going on, they would lose their will to fight.

How could an army without a will to fight win?

"Yes, my Lord!"

The Alliance Army commander replied bitterly like he could sense something weird from their expressions. His heart felt chilly, and he did not dare to think anymore.

Looking at the back view of the commander, Yuan Ping fell into deep thought.

It was not that they were eager to fight, but in truth, they did not understand their opponent; especially with the teleportation formation being broken.

The Shanhai City Army had traversed the land so quickly, and they were everywhere. However, they were hard to track too.

The moment they acted, they would not give the enemy a chance to fight back and would use their strength to claim certain victory. Hence, there was not much time left for the Alliance Army.

Yuan Ping was worried that if this really dragged on, the other legions would bear down on the city. Facing such an opponent, Yuan Ping did not dare to leave anything up to luck.

"If we can go all out, let's just go all out!"

...

In the afternoon, the war continued.

With Yuan Ping's scolding, the Alliance Army commander decided to be vicious and use the soldiers to buy time. To accomplish this, he arranged a supervising army to force soldiers to charge forward.

"Anyone who dares to retreat will be killed!"

Apart from that, he also set rewards, "Whoever reaches the second wooden wall first will receive five thousand gold and become a colonel."

Under the promise of a heavy reward, there would definitely be brave people.

The dumb Alliance Army soldiers stepped onto the corpses of their comrades and charged forward. No matter how strong the arrow rain was, it could not stop their desire for fame and riches.

The 3rd division soldiers could feel that the enemy attacks grow more ferocious.

"What a bunch of sick freaks!"

The 2nd division Major General was Song Jia's younger brother, Song Wu.

Although he was shocked, he was a true warrior. During this entire morning, Song Wu was charging at the front. In the midst of battle, he was stabbed in the leg by the enemy. However, he charged forward again after some bandaging.

Others would not leave the battlefield if they suffered light injuries while Song Wu would not leave unless he suffered heavy injuries. If he did not posse the physique of a player and a strong cultivation, he would not have been able to hold on.

In the afternoon, it was still the case.

When he saw the Alliance Army pay such a high price but still continue to charge forward, Song Wu really could not understand it.

This was the difference between an army from the wilderness and an ancient army.

The Shanhai City Army was composed entirely of professional soldiers like the elites from other territories.

The Lords were not fools and knew that if they did not build a professional army, they would not be on the same level as the other Lords.

Hence, a battle in the wilderness was far more brutal than one during ancient times.

Like the Alliance Army, one fifth of them had died but their morale was still incredibly high.

"Damn it, they are really going all out!" Song Wu spat a mouthful of saliva.

The last person who said those words was the Major General of the 1st division, Major General Zhao Yan, who still had not woken up.

Who knows what kind of fate awaited the 2nd and 3rd divisions.

The cruel massacre continued.

A thick scent of blood lingered in the air. If one was a normal civilian, this smell would make them vomit instantly. Even the soldiers fighting could not stand the smell.

Of course, there were a few exceptions.

Some soldiers with special bodies were motivated by this bloody aura and grew stronger; the blood in their bodies boiled, and they slowly lost their rationality.

All that was left was to kill.

The battle had entered its crucial stage.

This was the Alliance Army's highest morale attack.

Now, it was all up to whether or not the 3rd division could block this wave.

Victory and defeat all depended on this.

Chapter 739-Snapping the Wings off the Alliance Army

Another setting sun.

Under the dusk sky, birds flew, leaving a slight shadow.

The battlefield beneath the skies was a total mess. Smoke bellowed, and a bloody aura slowly gathered into blood red clouds in the air. The clouds were a perfect match for the orange red color of the setting sun, looking more and more eye-catching.

The moats in the camp fortress were already filled with corpses and blood; one could not see a single familiar sight. Across the narrow and long battlefield, only corpses and scattered weapons remained.

Barricades were crushed into pieces, the exquisite arcubalistas and trebuchets were taken apart, their parts left right there on the battlefield, no one bothering to salvage them.

The arrow towers were either chopped down or were still bellowing with smoke. Many arrows were stuck all over the ground, and one could not find a single section of empty land.

Occasionally, there would be one or two survivors, moaning out as they soaked in blood, waiting for the arrival of death.

The massacre in the afternoon exhausted both sides.

Another 40 to 50 thousand soldiers fell forever; their sacrifice was a goodbye to their youth and passion.

The entire battlefield was like a giant gladiator arena, the gladiators were none other than the soldiers of both sides. Whist they went all out to kill their enemies, they too were targeted by their enemy.

"Luckily, we finally took it down!"

The alliance commander looked at the messy battlefield and heaved a sigh of relief. After paying great sacrifices, the Alliance Army had finally crushed the enemy troops, taking down the second line of defense.

The strength of the 3rd legion had exceeded the expectations of the commander.

"What kind of enemy are they? Fearless and strong; they are an iron army!"

During the battle, 30% of the 2nd and 3rd divisions fell; close to eight thousand soldiers lost. If they did not rely on the moats for cover, the number of casualties would have at least increased by 20%.

At the finally moment, Fan Lihua had no choice but to order them to give up the formation and retreat to the second layer of wooden walls.

The 3rd legion had no way out.

They could only defend this wall, tiding through this horrid time.

As long as they manage to defend, it would be the greatest victory.

No matter how big the sacrifices were, it was worth it to achieve this strategic goal.

...

"Send my orders, continue the attack!"

The commander raised his head and looked at the sky; it was already scattered with the night clouds, but it was not fully dark yet.

The mission that the Lords gave him was not to take down the second line of defense but the entire camp fortress. Hence, they needed to make use of this last bit of time to break through the second wooden wall.

"Victory is right in front of our eyes!"

The commander muttered to himself like he was trying to build up confidence.

The war horn blew once more.

The exhausted soldiers all climbed up from the ground like zombies.

When the battle had come to a stop, the exhausted soldiers did not have any more worries and just laid on a pile of corpses to rest.

To the experienced old soldiers, using this time to regain some strength would mean a little more insurance to survive. Compared to their survival, what would a mountain of corpses mean?

They had no time and could not bother to debate about that.

Even the weakest soldiers were already used to the bloody and gory smell of the battlefield.

The soldiers were like zombies rising up from their graves, picking up their weapons. As the horn sounded out, they once again entered a battle-crazy state.

"Kill!"

The vast Alliance Army once again charged toward the frontlines.

The Alliance Army commander truly spent a lot of effort to take down this second city wall.

Outside the battlefield, there was a 30 thousand reserve force that had not been thrown in from the start and was well rested.

At the crucial moment, the commander threw this reserve force into the battlefield without hesitation to give the enemy camp stronghold a fatal blow.

From the reignition of the battle, the 30 thousand energized troops charged at the front, using their vigor to charge at the defenses of the third defense line.

Unfortunately, the Alliance Army was facing the famous General Fan Lihua, a commander many times better than the Alliance Army commander.

"In any battle, one must have a reserve force, be it a thousand or many squads. One must grasp the situation to use it and go on the offensive to obtain true victory in battle."

Even the Alliance Army commander knew this simple theory, so how could Fan Lihua not?

In China, the first to raise the reserve army thinking was the commander of the Tiger Legion Corps, Sun Bin.

Sun Tzu stated, "Ones formation must have three parts; each formation must have a front and each front must have a back; one to attack, two to defend. If the enemy is weak and chaotic, choose soldiers to counterattack. If they are strong, use the front soldiers as bait."

This meant to logically split up the army and not charge into battle like a swarm of bees.

Even when the massacre in the afternoon had reached its most intense moment, Fan Lihua still did not send the 4th division located in the second wooden walls to help. The goal was to defend against this sudden attack.

Reality proved that her choice was truly wise.

The soldiers of the 4th division watched on as their brothers in the 1st division died in the morning, watched as their brothers in the 2nd and 3rd division bathed in blood during the afternoon.

They had a lot of pent up energy in their bodies. Now, it was finally their turn. They said to the soldiers of the other three divisions that backed down, "Brothers, leave it to us!"

"It's up to you!"

A simple exchange of words brought out the invincible army spirit of the Shanhai City Army.

...

The final battle before night fell slowly started.

This battle would not only decide the fate of both sides but also the entire Battle of Nanjiang.

On the White Stone City wall, a row of torches were lit, causing the area around the city to shine bright.

Yuan Ping and the other Lords had not left for the entire day, looking nervously at the battle proceedings.

"Can we still win?" Some Lords started to waver.

The Fan Lihua legion in front of them was like a monster with an infallible body.

Before the battle, no one could imagine that the enemy could block a 250 thousand soldier army with a camp fortress they built in such a short time.

If this spread, probably no one would believe it.

But the bloody truth was placed before their eyes; they had to believe it.

Hence, the Lords did not have much confidence that the Alliance Army could break through this last line of defense, at least not today. Since night was about to arrive, they had less than two hours left.

"Difficult!"

The Lord's eyes started to flicker.

Some Lords who were originally determined had started to plan their way out.

Yuan Ping noticed that five to six Lords had unknowingly left them. Some of them were unwilling to stay any longer upon seeing their troops wiped out, so they left though the little mountain path from the back.

Other Lords were genuinely scared and did not hold any hopes for this war at all, so they took their Personal Guards and left. After all, the mountain path was just a small path. If they all swarmed out, who knows what kind of chaos would ensue. Rather than that, why not just leave early? At least they would not need to queue.

The earlier they left, the earlier they could settle matters back at their base.

The Lords in the city wall who stayed, apart from those who were bold, were people whose territories had already fallen to the Shanhai City Army.

These Lords were the most tragic bunch as they could not even claim their gold to live a life as a rich person in an imperial city. The only chip left in their hands was this army.

As for those who did not even have an army left, they had already committed suicide.

...

Just as the Lords were unsettled, on the horizon in the distance, they heard the rumbling sounds of horse hooves.

Looking out, one could see a giant army that seemed vast and endless. Under the shine of the setting sun, with a strict military formation and an unbeatable aura, they rapidly and resolutely charged at White Stone City.

The huge golden dragon flag was eye-catching to say the least.

"It's the Shanhai City Army!" A Lord immediately recognized it.

The one who reached the vicinity first was the vanguard forces of Shi Wanshui; they arrived at their expected timing.

"We are finished!"

Some Lords closed their eyes; they were unwilling to witness the brutality that was about to occur.

Most of them did not say anything, directly leaving the city wall and disappearing.

One Fan Lihua legion already posed enough problems for the Alliance Army. With one more Shi Wanshui legion, the Alliance Army totally stood no chance.

One could foresee that following this there would be more legions coming toward White Stone City to gather.

There was no more meaning in waiting, and the Lords did not want to stay and be humiliated.

Leaving was the best choice.

If they did not leave now, they would not have the chance to.

All of a sudden, before Shi Wanshui's troops even reached the frontlines, the city wall became empty. Not only did the Lords leave, even their Personal Guards left too.

In the end, only Yuan Ping remained. He stood there alone; his face ashen white.

He did not want to leave. During the Battle of Zhaoqing, he was already a deserter. He did not want to be a deserter once more in front of Shanhai City; this was his last shred of dignity.

Maybe a miracle would occur?

...

The arrival of Shi Wanshui's legion shocked not only the Lords on the city wall.

To the Alliance Army, it was similarly a huge blow. They were facing a hard time attacking the second wooden walls, who knew that now the enemy even had reinforcements?

The Alliance Army commander's face was pained; he looked up at the empty city wall and sighed. In the end, he could not bear to let his soldiers die in vain.

This was the first time the commander told the troops to retreat before he even received any orders.

When the low morale Alliance Army soldiers heard the war drums signaling retreat, they ran without hesitation.

As for the 4th division soldiers, they similarly stopped firing.

Fan Lihua knew that the Alliance Army had lost their ability to resist. Since that was the case, they should not kill the helpless and just leave some more people for the military reorganization.

No famous general was a person who killed people for fun.

Killing was only a method but not the goal.

Chapter 740-Fall of White Stone City

Along with Shi Wanshui reaching the battlefield, the Battle of White Stone City finally came to an end.

Who knows whether it was to make up for his sins or to keep that last shred of dignity but that night, knowing that all hope was lost, Yuan Ping committed suicide on the south city wall and completed his final act as a Lord.

His suicide made one sigh.

One could not say that Yuan Ping did not work hard; he was not an ignorant rich boy. He even obtained many glorious achievements and stood at the peak of China for a time. His fall only once again described the cruelty of the wilderness.

The wilderness was like eating poisonous bugs. Only the strongest could survive till the end and stand unchallenged in the world.

This was a winner takes all; loser lost everything kind of world.

In the end, there would only be a handful of winners but many losers would become stepping stones.

...

Along with Yuan Ping's suicide, the Yuan family officially stepped out of the race to rule the wilderness.

At this point, the four families of Lingnan were chased out of the wilderness. The ones doing the best was the Song Family; they were now a large-sized chamber of commerce. The remaining three were not faring so well.

The experience of the four families pretty much described the situation with all middle-sized powers in China. They had used their resources in real life to obtain a head start.

Following which, because of the cruel competition in the wilderness, 90% or more of them were eliminated.

The ambition of most of these families, along with their territories being occupied, turned to dust. Those crazy ones who exchanged their achievement values for gold lost more than they could ever imagine.

Earth Online provided everyone on earth with a clean slate but not everyone would become a winner from this.

90% of the players would just have a go; only the lucky few could use their luck, talent (or plot armor) to come back and walk to the peak of life.

As for Ouyang Shuo's experience, it could not be replicated and had no reference value.

...

After Yuan Ping suicided, White Stone City did not even have a single Lord left. Even the Lord of White Stone City had killed himself.

The news caused the Alliance Army to explode; they had fought to the death for an entire day and sacrificed close to 100 thousand of their troops but were abandoned in return. This was something that was hard for them to accept.

Filled with emotion, the camp quickly lost control.

That night, many soldiers left the camp for the opposite camp stronghold to surrender. Fan Lihua welcomed all of them.

First, it was one by one. Next, squadron by squadron; then it became unit by unit. During the entire night, the situation outside of White Stone City did not even stop; what a boisterous sight.

The next morning.

When the Alliance Army commander who still wanted to defend saw the half-empty camp, he spat furiously. He gritted his teeth and decided to just bring all the soldiers to surrender.

The cowardice of the Lords of the City-State had turned the hearts of all the generals cold.

To be loyal to such Lords was just stupid to the max. With that, why not switch sides to the more vibrant and glorious Shanhai City and start a brand new journey?

So one could say that the Alliance Army was not the true group of failures.

As long as one lived, it was sort of a victory. The true losers were those Lords who lost everything and those soldiers who died on the battlefield.

...

Knowing that the entire Alliance Army wanted to surrender, Fan Lihua contacted the Shi Wanshui legion while moving into the camp stronghold to accept the surrender of the Alliance Army.

That night, Shi Wanshui's forces had arrived.

Fan Lihua did not want the settled situation to be messed up once more. Regarding military matters, playing it safe was always the best option.

Reality proved that Fan Lihua was worrying too much.

The Alliance Army's surrender was genuine. To prevent the Shanhai City Army from misunderstanding, they even removed their equipment and weapons and let Shanhai City organize them.

In the camp fortress, the Alliance Army commander passed Fan Lihua the commander seal and the Alliance Army name list. This move alone helped saved a lot of work for the Military Affairs Bureau.

Hence, Fan Lihua had a truly good impression of this commander.

During the battle yesterday, his commanding was also decent, and he was not a total nobody. If not, he would not have been able to become the commander of the Alliance Army.

If Ouyang Shuo was here, he would immediately recognize this general.

He was also a historical general, the East Han general Feng Yi.

Name: Feng Yi (Emperor Rank)

Dynasty: East Han

Identity: temporary nil

Occupation: Special Rank General

Loyalty: 65

Command: 84

Force: 68

Intelligence: 75

Politics: 72

Specialty: Intelligent General (Raises troops morale by 30%, raises combat strength 20%, increase supply ability by 30%)

Cultivation Method: nil

Equipment: nil

Evaluation: Feng Yi is both talented in civil servant duties and military duties. Not only did he have many war contributions, but the land he ruled also had results. He is an exceedingly humble person and did not grow arrogant because of his results.

Such a general was rare even in Shanhai City.

Feng Yi was originally an official from the Xin Dynasty Yingchuan Prefecture. Later on, he worked for Liu Xiu, following him to battle, helping him build East Han.

After Liu Xiu became emperor, Feng Yi was given the title of West Conquering General and Yang Xia Lord.

In the 10th year of Jianye, he died in the army due to an illness.

During the 3rd year of Yong Ping's rule, Hanming Emperor drew the portraits of 28 generals in the Luoyang Yuntai Pavillion, calling them the 28 generals of Yuntai.

The 28 generals referred to the 28 members under Liu Xiu who helped him rule the world.

Amongst which, the ones who did the most were Feng Yi and Cen Peng.

In the wilderness, Feng Yi was originally from Chaozhou Prefecture Dayong County. Since he was talented, he was appointed as the Alliance Army commander.

He was an extremely straightforward person. During the battle yesterday, he sent the troops from his territory first to prevent people from saying he was abusing his power.

After the battle, the six thousand troops basically all fell.

Just yesterday, Dayong County was felled by Huo Qubing's legion. When the Dayong Lord saw that, he lacked the mood to stay and just left White Stone City.

If it was not for Yuan Ping and the others stopping him, he would have brought Feng Yi away too.

...

With Feng Yi's help, it instantly became much easier to deal with the surrendered soldiers.

In the end, a total of 150 thousand Alliance Army troops surrendered; there was a hundred thousand cavalry alone. The Fan Lihua legion had paid a heavy price, losing 20 thousand.

After a short while, Fan Lihua, Shi Wanshui, and Er'Lai arrived at noon and moved into White Stone City.

At this point, the battle was completely over.

Next, hey would take a short rest here before moving off one more.

Shanhai City, Military Affairs Bureau command center.

The illustrious battle results of the Fan Lihua legion exceeded their expectations. The goal they set was just to stop the 250 thousand Alliance Army. Who knew that when they woke up, the Alliance Army would have already ceased to exist?

Du Ruhui was already creating a military organization squad to teleport over to Zhenhai City and move toward White Stone City to take charge of this 150 thousand.

At the same time, the tired Fan Lihua legion would rest up in White Stone City. They would use this chance to fill up the shortfall from the casualties and take charge of the surrendered soldiers until they were organized.

This organization was just a preliminary one.

The true military organization would have to wait till the entire Battle of Lingnan ended.

"Keming, I'll leave it to you!"

After a grueling and sleepless night, Ouyang Shuo finally put down the worries in his heart and was going to go catch up on some sleep.

"Monarch, do not worry. In this half a month, we can definitely take down the entire Lingnan." Du Ruhui did not even look tired; he was filled with energy and vigor.

Surprisingly, the victory was a true mental boost.

Ouyang Shuo smiled as he nodded, "Do not rush it. We should still defend against what's defendable, especially Xiangnan City-State in the north. I heard they have sent out troops?"

"That's right." Du Ruhui smiled and nodded; he knew what the Monarch was worried about.

When attacking Taiping Country, Shanhai City Army lost focus after their huge victory and Guilin Prefecture was snatched from their hands.

This was also one of the few stains in their war history.

Now that Xiangnan City-State was sending troops into Shaozhou, the Monarch naturally did not want history to repeat itself.

In truth, Du Ruhui felt that that was not possible. Any rational opponent after learning that White Stone City fell would retreat and not take this risk.

After all, this was not like before.

When attacking Taiping Country, the Shanhai City Army was held up and could not run back to assist in time.

However, it was different this time. Only Fan Lihua's legion was trapped. The other three did not even have a chance to fight during this battle.

Not to mention Huo Qubing and Di Qing's legions, which were pushing toward Shaozhou.

If the Xiangnan City-State did not know their place and wanted to taint Shaozhou Prefecture, Shanhai City would start a war with them without hesitating.

The enemy would definitely not gain anything from the hands of both Di Qing and Huo Qubing.

Ouyang Shuo only instructed as usual; he wished that Caiyun Zinan would act bolder. If that happened, Shanhai City would have a chance to infiltrate their matters.

Considering the presence of Zhang Liang, there was pretty much no chance that it would happen.

Chapter 741-Zhili Prefecture

Ouyang Shuo returned to the manor, where Qing'er had been waiting for him.

"Big brother!"

Qing'er's eyes were flushed red; it looked like she had just cried.

Ouyang Shuo frowned and expressionlessly said, "Wang Feng rejected it?"

"He's just a stubborn bull!"

During these past few days, Qing'er had bumped into many walls with Wang Feng, and the outcome was unideal. Wang Feng's pride was extremely strong. No matter what Qing'er said, he would not agree to the wedding because of his arm.

"What can I do?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

Ouyang Shuo definitely could not use his identity as the Monarch to force Wang Feng into agreeing with this marriage. Not to mention it would leave a sour taste, but it would be a blow to the prestige of the Governor-General House.

As a Monarch, Ouyang Shuo had to consider the effects.

Qing'er raised a surprising proposal, "Big brother, can you temporarily remove him from his duties and send him to Dongli Sword Sect to cultivate?"

"You gave up?"

"No." Qing'er shook her head, her eyes determined, "I also found that with his temper, if he is not treated, no matter what I try will be useless. I will wait; wait for the day that he finally stands up."

"Good, that's great!"

Ouyang Shuo looked at the girl in front of him; he was filled with thoughts.

The magic of love could cloud one's mind but could also make one grow quickly.

"I'll arrange this matter." Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate.

"Thank you, big brother!"

Qing'er bowed. She noticed that Ouyang Shuo was a little tired, so she did not disturb him and left.

In the next half a month, the Battle of Lingnan proceeded smoothly.

The Battle of White Stone City shocked the entire China region. Shanhai City's lightning quick moves ended the Battle of Lingnan before other people with intentions could act.

Amongst which included King City.

Xiong Ba had already made plans to send reinforcements. However, when he learned that White Stone City had fallen, he immediately canceled that thought. Instead, he planned to turn all his attention to Xunlong Dianxue.

Caiyun City was the next one to back down. As Du Ruhui had expected, the moment they knew about what happened to White Stone City, the Alliance Army that Caiyun Zinan had gathered immediately retreated from Shaozhou Prefecture.

Following which, they strengthened the border troops.

The entire China region was respectfully looking at Shanhai City rise up once again. In less than a month, they had taken down half a province.

Along with the various powers retreating, the Guards Legion, City Protection Legion, Dragon Legion Corps 2nd legion and the two legions from the Tiger Legion, a total of 350 thousand troops started to spread out and sweep the three prefectures.

No place was left out in the three prefectures.

As the battle came to an end, the Nanjiang Governor-General was prepared to move a large number of officials to take over the city, calming down the people and reinstating order.

For this expansion, the Nanjiang Governor-General House prepared for half a year, gathering many officials to wait for this battle to end.

Shanhai City, Nanjiang Governor-General House.

Within the reading room, Ouyang Shuo gathered the four directors to discuss the arrangements of governor for the three prefectures.

The Zhenhai City City Magistrate Song Wen would become the Governor of Jiaozhou Prefecture.

No one had any objections about this personnel arrangement. First, Song Wen's achievements at Zhenhai City were there for everyone to see. Secondly, Zhenhai City was still under his name. To maintain the teleportation formation, he could not leave Zhenhai City and Jiaozhou Prefecture.

This time, Song Wen was truly lucky.

Jiaozhou Prefecture was not only the biggest prefecture in Lingnan Province. Even in the entire Shanhai Territory, it was one of the biggest prefectures, even exceeding Kunming Prefecture.

Furthermore, the geographical location of Jiaozhou Prefecture was great, connected with rivers and possessing a natural port. It had many natural resources and a dense population, truly the heart of Lingnan.

If it was not because of Zhenhai City, no matter how capable Song Wen was, he would not be promoted to such a position.

Apart from Jiaozhou Prefecture, there was also Chaozhou and Shaozhou prefectures. Based on the intel, they did not find any exceptional officials when occupying the various prefectures.

At most, they possessed a little skill and could become a prefect.

Hence, the three governors must all be provided by the Nanjiang Governor-General House.

Xiao He suffered for Taxation Director Huo Guang to become the Shaozhou Prefecture.

Huo Guang was an incredible talent so being the Taxation Director was a waste of his talents.

Ouyang Shuo had wanted to put him outside but just could not find a chance to do so. Since Xiao He had raised the suggestion, Ouyang Shuo did not stop it.

Huo Guang was all rounded and truly incredible. Since he was taking charge of Shaozhou Prefecture, he could pay attention to the neighbor in the north. Shaozhou Prefecture was a live volcano that could explode at any moment.

Only with someone like Huo Guang present could Ouyang Shuo relax.

Although Xiao He's request was suitable, there might be some selfishness motives. Huo Guang was born in West Han, so he had something to do with Xiao He, this first prime minister of West Han.

Their relationship was quite close.

To Xiao He, promoting him was a win-win situation.

Ouyang Shuo saw through all this but chose to remain silent. He opposed his men abusing their power but he would not go as far as to ban any connections.

In the ancient official field, it was hard to remove relationships.

Ouyang Shuo's attitude was that officials could use their relationships but they could not abuse it.

Out of all the officials in the Governor-General House, there were many that could be appointed like Zhang Tingyu, Su Zhe, Xiahou Dun, etc.

However, these ministers were in important positions and could not leave.

Just as the meeting entered a stalemate, Financial Bureau Director Fan Li suddenly said, "Lord, I have a suggestion."

"Please speak!" Ouyang Shuo was surprised.

Apart from financial matters, Business Saint Fan Li had been keeping a low profile and had remained silent on other matters since he joined Shanhai City.

One must know that his ability was not limited to just business.

He was also an all rounded person, and his strategic thinking was better than normal strategists.

Ouyang Shuo guessed that he was playing it safe, using the university to increase his knowledge. After all, he was born in the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period. At this time, the ruling systems were the most perfected.

Regarding how to rule a territory, Fan Li had many things he needed to learn and absorb.

Secondly, he was judging both Shanhai City and the Monarch.

He was truly a careful person.

Now that he suddenly spoke during the meeting, maybe it meant that he had truly recognized Ouyang Shuo as his Lord and was ready to show his abilities here?

With that, Ouyang Shuo was excited.

Weird lights flashed in the eyes of the other three directors.

Everyone seated here was sharp and intelligent and could catch the hidden message. What kind of blow would his sudden high profile words give to the official scene in Shanhai City?

Toward this problem, they needed to think deeply about it.

Fan Li was extremely calm, "Based on what the Lord says, the territory needs to establish the country by next year and Shanhai City will become the capital city. Since that's the case, some matters need to be prepared in advance. For example, the matter of direct rule. I feel that it's time that Lianzhou Prefecture becomes directly governed by Shanhai City."

Zhili refers to a region that was directly governed by the capital city.

This term started off in the Ming Dynasty and followed to the Qing Dynasty. Even in modern day society, there were similar concepts. In the Qing Dynasty, the Zhili Viceroy was the head of all the officials governing land and was a truly important role.

Fan Li's suggestion was building on this foundation to move the entire Lianzhou Basin under the direct rule of Shanhai City and there would not be a Lianzhou Prefecture.

"I agree to list Lianzhou Prefecture as Zhili; it also makes it convenient to move the resources of Lianzhou Basin and speed up the construction of Shanhai City to reach the population upper limit quicker."

The one who spoke was Internal Affairs Director Wei Yang, who took charge of anything population related. The population migrating work regarding Shanhai City was all his responsibility.

"That's right, as the Shanhai City population increases, the agricultural needs will increase. The provisions of nearby counties are not enough. We now need to ship resources from Lianzhou Prefecture, so moving it as a Zhili would break that dividing line between the two." Xiao He agreed.

With that, only Military Affairs Director Du Ruhui did not speak.

If one said that Fan Li's low profile was to quietly look on, then Du Ruhui was the true low profile. This director with exceptional judgment pretty much would not speak up unless it affected the military. Most of the time, he took the role of listener.

Militants do not walk into the field of civil servants was the line he drew for himself.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, "Since all of you have come to a consensus, this is set. Immediately disperse Lianzhou Prefecture and any land in Lianzhou Basin will be a Zhili of Shanhai City with Zang Wenchong in charge."

Ouyang Shuo was not ready to move Shanhai Magistrate Zang Wenchong. What pleased Ouyang Shuo the most about him was his lack of involvement in any faction; he was completely unbiased.

"Monarch is wise!"

Seeing the Monarch acting so decisive, the various directors were not surprised at all.

After settling the matter of Zhili, Ouyang Shuo returned to the main question and smiled, "Fan Li is saying to let Lianzhou Governor Wei Ran become the Chaozhou Governor?"

Chapter 742-Forming the Leopard Tiger Cavalry

"I only suggest we establish the directly governed prefectures. As for specific personnel arrangements, it's up to the Monarch to decide." Fan Li tried to avoid the question.

'Old fox!'

Ouyang Shuo exclaimed in his heart. Fan Li was as careful as usual. Even though he had started to comment about territory administrative matters, he did not dare to tread into the sensitive personnel questions.

Although Fan Li did not talk, Wei Ran's appointment was quickly passed. He was removed from his role of Lianzhou Governor and was now the Chaozhou Governor.

Moving Wei Ran away from the core area would definitely make some heave a sigh of relief.

Although Wei Ran was good and had strong abilities, he was greedy. While he was the Lianzhou Prefecture Governor, the sprouts of greed had already started to show. Shen Buhai had reported it many times to Ouyang Shuo.

The people's evaluation of Wei Ran had changed. Even Xiao He did not hold such high opinions of him anymore. To keep such an official in the core area, Ouyang a Shuo could be considered magnanimous.

Moving Wei Ran away could be considered a wake-up call for him.

...

10th month, 8th day, the appointment of the three governors was announced to the public.

Apart from the three governors, the name of the Taxation Director replacing Huo Guang was also released to the public. This person was recommended by Fan Li and was one of the best disciples of the business school of thought.

As the news spread, waves rose up in the territory.

When the Song Family received the news, they naturally danced in happiness and the gloomy clouds from before were swept away.

Of course, Song Tianxiong did not forget to warn his family members to not be arrogant because of this. He reminded them not to use the name of Song Wen to commit crime or else they would be looking for death.

Song Tianxiong could feel from the words of Song Jia that Ouyang Shuo held a secret organization that monitored all officials.

With that, Song Tianxiong could not help but think back to the famous Jinyi Guards.

Thinking about this, Song Tianxiong felt a chill run down his spine.

One could foresee that the moment a Song Family member commited a mistake, the fair Ouyang Shuo would not save them. Song Wen and Song Wu, these two brothers, had become the core pillars of the Song Family.

The Song Family grandfather had even praised and shown his partialness to these two grandchildren on different occasions.

Although Song Tianxiong and the others were delighted because of the fall of the Yuan Family, they felt a chill just by thinking about it. In reality, that small kid had grown into a person that they worshipped and respected.

Even in the Song Family, when the Song Family grandfather talked about Ouyang Shuo, he did not dare to voice his name.

Some people were happy while some were not.

Little loli Huo Chengjun was unhappy as she needed to move with her dad to Shaozhou. With that, she could not go to the Nanjiang Governor-General House and play with sister Bing'er.

More importantly, she could not meet her brother Monarch anymore.

Before leaving, Ouyang Shuo personally sent the Huo Guang Family off. Huo Chengjun was in tears, making one unable to help but dote on her.

When Huo Guang saw this scene, he could only smile awkwardly with an apologetic expression.

Compared to the unhappy Huo Chengjun, Wei Ran was dejected. He could be considered one of the most experience governors in the territory but now the younger generation like Song Wen was riding on his head.

Wei Ran was not a fool, and he knew that the Lianzhou Prefecture would be a Zhili. He truly wanted to be the Zhili viceroy.

Who knew that he would actually lose in the battle with Zang Wenchong?

Dejection was dejection, but he did not dare complain. Wei Ran also noticed that his actions in Lianzhou Prefecture were seen by the Monarch.

Along with his son in law Baiqi not being the only God General in the territory, his speaking rights had been reduced tremendously. Furthermore, with Baiqi's personality, he would not help speak up for his father in law.

With that, Wei Ran could only proceed toward the Chaozhou Prefecture.

Ouyang Shuo did not truly give up on Wei Ran.

Before leaving, Ouyang Shuo told him to run Chaozhou well. As long as he performed well, he would return to the core in the future. He might even go higher.

"Thank you Monarch!" When Wei Ran heard the Lord's words, he was touched.

10th day, 10th month, White Stone City.

The Battle of Lingnan had completely ended, so Ouyang Shuo brought Du Ruhui and the Military Affairs Bureau elders to rush over to chair the new round of military organization.

They chose White Stone City because the 150 thousand Alliance Army troops were housed here and this place held great meaning.

Sun Bin, Huo Qubing, Shi Wanshui, Er'lai, Di Qing, and Fan Lihua; these six generals left their forces and rushed back to White Stone City to report their battle results.

Fan Lihua's legion was the greatest contributor to this battle, capturing 150 thousand Alliance Army troops while losing 20 thousand. The other five legions lost around four to five thousand each and captured 90 thousand in total.

Basically, they had swept up all the war fighting troops in the three prefectures.

Apart from that there were also the various city protection squads, which numbered around 50 thousand. However, compared to the war fighting soldiers, their qualities were lacking, and it would not be good to put them in a legion.

To the city protection forces, there was nothing much to say. Apart from forming three Garrison Divisions, the rest either entered reserve forces or retired.

The crux of this military organization was the 240 thousand war fighting troops. Deducting the losses from the various legions, they could still form three more legions.

Ouyang Shuo had already thought of the plans for these three legions before he came to White Stone City.

First, creating the 2nd Guards Legion.

From the 100 thousand cavalry troops in the Alliance Army, they would choose the most elite 70 thousand to form the 2nd Guards Legion.

The Alliance Army was basically the most elite troops in Lingnan City-State, so they were well trained and their qualities were good. Choosing from them and directly placing the chosen ones into the Guards Legion was fine.

To choose 70 thousand from the 100 thousand cavalry was to choose the best from the best.

This legion would follow the standards of the Tiger Leopard Cavalry in history for organization and training. The Tiger Leopard Cavalry were originally a guard army system, so they were one and the same.

The Guards Legion commander Huo Qubing was the best at cavalry battle. However, due to previous restrictions, the original Guards Legion only had two cavalry divisions, one of which was still the special iron armored beast cavalry division.

This time, building the 2nd Guards Legion was undoubtedly to fill up this void. At the same time, it gave the genius general Huo Qubing more room to show his abilities.

For the role of Legion General of the Tiger Leopard Cavalry, Ouyang Shuo selected Ma Chao, who was still studying. At true same time, Cao Chun, the Tiger Leopard Cavalry commander in history, became the deputy Legion General and the Major General of the 1st division.

Ma Chao and Cao Chun would work together while keeping each other in check.

Apart from the two, Ma Chao's brother Ma Xiu would be appointed as the Major General of the 3rd division. The original Guards Legion 1st division Major General Lin Yi would move to the 2nd legion and become the Major General of the 1st division.

The place that was left would be filled up by Ma Teng. The Xiliang Five Ma were all experts at cavalry. Naturally, Ouyang Shuo would use them to their full potential.

As for the remaining two Major General slots, they were decided directly from the fallen generals. The Alliance Army had many great generals. After all, they were the best ones from their own territories.

Shanhai City never bothered about previous statuses when using people.

Speaking of which, wasn't their current army formed through using prisoners step by step?

From the very beginning, Shanhai City had stopped recruiting soldiers in the territory.

This was also because of the nature of the wilderness; the frequent wars allowed Shanhai City to do that. After every battle, not only would they not have a drop in members, they would capture large amounts of prisoners.

Such a model was something other territories could not copy.

Secondly, creating the 3rd legion of the Leopard Legion Corps.

Out of the three legion corps, only the Leopard Legion Corps had two legions. Hence, to expand the army, Ouyang Shuo naturally would not forget the Leopard Legion Corps.

The Legion General Ouyang Shuo chose was the Alliance Army commander Feng Yi. He definitely had enough ability to lead a legion.

He also made use of the promotion of Feng Yi to calm down the surrendered Alliance Army soldiers.

At the same time, Cao Hong and Ma Tie would become the 1st and 2nd division Major Generals.

The last Ma of the Xilang Five Ma would be sent to the 3rd legion of the Dragon Legion Corps and be the deputy Legion General and the Major General of the 1st division.

For Zhang Liao's legion, Ouyang Shuo naturally needed to send some generals over to balance it out.

Thirdly, creating the 4th legion of the Dragon Legion Corps.

Logically speaking, this was the Tiger Legion main battlefield, so the last legion should have been given to the Tiger Legion Corps.

Ouyang Shuo arranged it this way because of strategic considerations.

As Lingnan Province entered Shanhai City's rule, the east would connect with Minnan Province, and the northeast with Jiangchuan Province, so the overall situation would become much better.

The only threat would come from Xiangnan in the north.

In comparison, Yunnan Province where the Dragon Legion was located became the next main battlefield and just with three legions seemed lacking.

Considering all factors, Ouyang Shuo decided to build the 4th Dragon Legion first.

For the position of Major General, Ouyang Shuo chose the young general Luo Shixin.

Luo Shixin was extremely talented but because he died early, his name in history was not that resounding. Under the teachings of Baiqi, he had become a great cavalry general.

Furthermore, he was also one of the longest serving generals here. He had contributed in many battles, so would be no resistance against him taking charge of the 4th legion.

At the same time, Ouyang Shuo also arranged Xiahou Yuan as the deputy Legion General and the Major General of the 1st division to help Luo Shixin.

With these two there along with Baiqi commanding, there would be no big problems.

At this point, the three legions had been assigned properly.

The Xiliang Five Ma, the Cao brothers, Xiahou Yuan, and other Three Kingdom generals were all given their appointments.

Chapter 743-Four Marshals

This round of military organization involved three War Fighting Legions and a total of 200 odd thousand troops, a huge expenditure for the territory.

Based on calculations, if one considered the pension money as well, it would result in a one-time cost of 1.5 million.

The more terrifying part was the daily military expenses.

When the three legions were fully formed, Shanhai City would have 13 legions and just the salary alone would reach 500 thousand gold.

Along with the five squadrons of the Nanyang Navy, considering the monthly grain usage, equipment, war compensation money, and more, Shanhai City's monthly costs would be over a million.

Around 60% of Shanhai City's financial profits would be passed to the military. Deducting all the other expenses, although each month Shanhai City earned over a million in tax, it had truly limited profits.

Even to say that some of the large projects needed loans from the Four Seas Bank to be completed.

The cost for this military expansion was paid right out of Ouyang Shuo's pocket. If not, the Financial Bureau would have to borrow from the Four Seas Bank again.

With that, Ouyang Shuo's personal wealth had shrunk to 6.5 million. If he deducted the 500 thousand in expenses he promised to the No.7 Research Institute, then he would be left with just six million.

During the 4th year global auction, Ouyang Shuo needed at least 5 million. Hence, the amount of funds he could currently take out was not much.

This was also something only Shanhai City, with the help of a prosperous commerce, shipbuilding, military industry, garment industry, steel industry, and others supporting them could handle.

If it was any other territory, it would have been crushed by such large military expenses.

Hence, it was not hard to understand why Ouyang Shuo was pushing for voyage trading so badly. Without the profits from the voyage squadron, Shanhai City would not be able to maintain such a large scale army.

To truly expand like that, the construction all around the territory would have to be stopped.

For Shanhai City to be able to lead the territory industrialization, build basic facilities, perfect education and medical facilities, it could be considered a huge miracle.

So if a territory just focused on conquering the outside and did not bother about internal affairs, building a solid base, and promoting various industrial developments it would be dragged down by the army.

It would be exhausting all the resources to build up the military.

As the military organization plan was settled, the various legions also started to move.

This was without mentioning the City Protection Legion that left after the battle. They would rush to Zhenhai City and board the warships back to Shanhai City.

During the Battle of Lingnan, Ouyang Shuo did not keep a reserve force in his hand, so it was a really risky choice. If an emergency had happened in the west or the north border, he would not have been able to send help in time.

The City Protection Legion housed outside Shanhai City would be a reserve army that could use the teleportation formation to go anywhere to assist the frontlines.

When they established the country, to protect the capital city, they could not move the City Protection Legion. Unless it was an emergency, they would be permanently housed outside the city.

Similarly, it would not be easy for the Guards Legion to go out often.

If not, and a large capital city lacked a strong army defending it, it would be easy to cause unrest. The people would feel uneasy and hidden powers would rise.

If they were not careful, an empire might fall.

In history, every dynasty was like that. Even when they were nearing death, the emperors would not easily move out the city protection army or guards out of the capital.

The reason was just that.

Apart from the City Protection Legion, the 1st legion of the Guards Corps as well as the 2nd legion of the Dragon Legion Corps would rest up before leaving. They would use the mountain path, going past Zhaoqing Prefecture, Wuzhou Prefecture, Xunzhou Prefecture, and Zhen An Prefecture all the way back to the Yunnan Battlefield.

The entire journey would take close to a month.

A con of long distance deployment of troops was that half the time was wasted on the road.

As a consequence, they needed to set up war zones.

In the future, normal battles would be taken charge of by that warzone and there would rarely be cross warzone movement of troops.

As for the Guards Corps 2nd legion that was still forming and the 4th legion of the Dragon Legion, they would follow the same path back to Yunnan Battlefield.

The time to organize them would be around a month.

Hence, by the time the legions were officially formed up, the Three Kingdom generals who were appointed would have basically finished their learning in the Army Military Academy and could meet up with their forces right on time.

The four legions of the Dragon Legion Corps and the two of the Guards Legion Corps, for a total of 420 thousand troops; this would be all they had to conquer the enemy.

The 3rd legion of the Leopard Legion Corps would move towards the Withered Flower Stronghold.

In the end, the various legions left and the defenses of Lingnan were left to the Tiger Legion Corps. the Lingnan War Zone that was formed was now truly that.

Based on the idea of Tiger Legion Corps Marshal Sun Bin, the war zone command center would be set in Shaozhou. The 1st and 2nd legions would be housed in Shaozhou.

The 3rd legion led by Fan Lihua would be housed in Chaozhou. The uncertain factor that was Xunlong Dianxue made Ouyang Shuo feel that there was a need to house a War Fighting Legion at the Minnan Province border.

As for what Xunlong Dianxue would think when he found out, it was not within Ouyang Shuo's consideration. Regarding the defensive measures that he had to take, Ouyang Shuo would take it and would not let his heart go soft.

The various prefectures in Lingnan Province all had their own Garrison Divisions so no War Fighting Legions were needed.

The main defensive region for the Tiger Legion Corps was the north. As for the Xiangnan City-State neighbor, the Leopard Legion Corps would be in charge of that.

Along with the Dragon Legion shifting away, the Leopard Legion was in charge of the defenses of the entire Chuannan Province. In truth, they only needed to defend the north. The east of Chuannan Province was Lingnan Province, west was Yunnan Province, so there was no need to worry.

The south side's Zhili Prefecture had the City Protection Legion and Guards Legion Corps defending so there was no need to worry about that either.

At the same time, the Chuannan War Zone was set up as expected.

To the Leopard Legion Corps, the most important mission now was to take back Guilin Prefecture. At that time, the legion did not need to be cooped up in the Withered Flower Stronghold and could move into Guilin.

Guilin Prefecture's vast border was connected to both Chuanbei and Xiangnan Prefecture. Hence, even if they only needed to defend one side, it was not going to be easy for the Leopard Legion.

As for how to take down Guilin Prefecture, the Military Affairs Bureau had already done due diligence. Based on the time, Han Xin had probably started work.

Along with the Battle of Lingnan ending, the Dragon Legion Corp led by Baiqi would move their command center to Consonance City.

At the same time, the Yunnan War Zone would be set up. The command center and the Dragon Legion Corp headquarters would be one in the same.

Baiqi was appointed as the Yunnan Warzone Commander, short form was Yunnan Commander. Similarly, Sun Bin was called the Lingnan Commander, and Han Xin the Chuannan Commander. Each of them was in charge of one warzone, leading one legion corp and in charge of all the Garrison Divisions in their war zones.

At the same time, Huo Qubing was appointed as the marshal of the Guards Legion Corps.

Using this time, Ouyang Shuo fixed the term of the commander of the legion corps as Marshal, and they would be the highest position in the army.

The four marshals were only second to Ouyang Shuo, the true four giants.

At a more appropriate time in the future, Ouyang Shuo planned to build a comparable Military Affairs Bureau, a better military matters organization, something similar to the Central Military Commission and the Office of Military Affairs.

This organization would cross the line between army and navy, cross the war zones, and become the highest-level military organization in Shanhai City; they would be in charge of deciding the highest level decisions.

Without a doubt, the marshals would be a fixed member in this organization.

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

After the military meeting ended, Ouyang Shuo truly started to get busy.

As a Lord, he was the highest presence in Shanhai City, so there were some matters that Ouyang Shuo had to do. For example, he needed to meet the fallen generals and accept their loyalty.

The fallen generals did not refer to just Feng Yi, who was just appointed as legion general, there were also five others who were chosen as Major Generals.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo visited all the generals that Huo Qubing and the others recommended to evaluate and question them.

Ouyang Shuo at least had to meet them to let them recognize this Monarch and have an impression of him.

Apart from that, he had to review all the surrendered troops, go to every prisoner camp to send his regards and solve their problems, raise their morale, and more.

If not, how could he complete the military organization and make them fully loyal to him?

Objectively speaking, the various generals did not think about making the troops under them into their own personal army, but if Ouyang Shuo did not remind them of his presence, problems would slowly arise.

After three years of commanding troops, Ouyang Shuo firmly believed in that idea.

Apart from the control of the army, Ouyang Shuo needed to go through the three prefectures, going to each territory and at the very least every main city.

Only then could he calm down the hearts of the people and the local powers.

Although the wilderness was not as complicated as real life, Ouyang Shuo needed to be right at the front if Shanhai City wanted get the three prefectures under their rule in a short time.

The appearance of the Monarch had huge meaning and significance.

Ouyang Shuo's presence was not something any governor or official could replace.

All things considered, Ouyang Shuo would at least spend a month in Lingnan Province. This month would be his busiest month, he needed to meet people, attend feasts, and more.

At the same time, it gave the territory some breathing room.

Chapter 744 - Qin Feng's Reaction

Yunnan Province, alliance army command center.

The lightning quick fall of the Lingnan City-State filled Qin Feng and the others with regret.

Especially after they found out that the two legion corps Shanhai City pulled out of the Yunnan battlefield were already on their way back.

"If we knew that was going to happen, we would go all out to assist them."

Many dark clouds gathered above the skies of Yunnan.

Qin Feng and the others hoped that Lingnan City-State could cause heavy casualties to Shanhai City and eat up two to three legions at the very least.

With that, Shanhai City would not have the strength to attack Yunnan City-State. That would also help buy them some precious time to expand the army once more.

One had to say that their calculations were quite good.

"Who knew that the Lingnan City-State was actually so weak?" Some Lords mocked when they saw that their plans had failed, "So, so weak!"

In the end, not only did Lingnan City-State not cause any problems for Shanhai City, it also gave them a wave of people, increasing their army by three legions.

The situation was simply too awkward.

"In my opinion, Caiyun Zinan and the others are just too scared. They moved their army to the border. Before war even broke out, they shriveled up, such spineless garbage!" Some Lords started to ridicule their allies.

To say that was actually unreasonable.

At the very least, Caiyun Zinan had sent troops to assist. Meanwhile, they were the ones that were just watching on from a side. Now that things happened, they point at their allies and scolded them.

It really felt like a thief shouting out to ask for help to catch another thief.

The Lords spoke such words just to use the chance to vent out the uneasiness in their hearts.

The impact of the fall of Lingnan City-State was simply too huge and had caught them off guard. It was like they had lost all sense of direction, and all of them felt terrified.

They were afraid that the moment they woke up, they would be the next batch of prisoners.

"What should we do?"

A huge problem had appeared in front of the various Lords.

Fan Lihua used one legion to block 250 thousand alliance army troops and even killed 100 thousand of them.

The results of that bloody war let the Lords of Yunnan City-State realize the vast gap between their armies.

"We are totally not on the same line!" Some Lords sighed.

"Gap, huge gap!"

The weakness of the alliance army was not only based on the combat strength of individual soldiers but also the commanding ability of the Lords.

During the Battle of White Stone City, Fan Lihua's commanding had a crucial effect and really showed why she was an Emperor Rank general.

Thinking back to it, the Lords trembled.

This was because they were going to have to face a God Rank general, the Asura Baiqi.

Even amongst God Generals, Baiqi stood at the pinnacle. In the wilderness, Baiqi had continued his legend of being invincible, and he was the war god of Shanhai City.

The Dragon Legion Corps under his charge was the strongest legion corps in Shanhai City, even stronger than the Tiger Legion Corps.

Thinking about that, the future of Yunnan City-State seemed even bleaker.

The situation was obvious. Based on just themselves, they would not be able to block this wave of attack.

To expand the army now would not do much.

The newly recruited newbies had not undergone any training, and they had never been to war or seen blood. Not only would they not aid in anything, they would drag down the overall standard of the military.

To make matters worse, if the battle entered a crucial moment, and they could not take it anymore and started escaping, the situation would be awkward.

At that time, they would drag the entire army down with them.

This was also why Shanhai City loved to make use of war prisoners. No matter how weak the prisoners were, at the very least they had seen blood and were not true newbies. Just that alone made them several times better than newbies.

The cons of a City-State were displayed through this point.

To face off against the giants in the wilderness, gathering up the power of the province to build the City-State, it was obviously done to prevent internal conflicts and to consolidate their strength against the outside. At the same time, it also meant that there were no wars between the territories.

Without war, the soldiers would not receive true training and would not grow.

During the Battle of White Stone City, the alliance army's defeat definitely had something to do with that. Feng Yi's commanding did not have many problems, but the alliance armies were not trained killers and were not resilient enough.

Only then was Fan Lihua's legion able to last for an entire day.

If the one attacking was the Dragon Legion Corps, the ending would have been changed really quickly.

Such a theory could be applied to the Yunnan City-State, and it was even crueler. As Yunnan Province was filled with mountain paths and had many mountains between the territories, their combat experience was close to zero.

On the contrary, every soldier in the Shanhai City Army had bathed in the fires of war. Especially Dragon Legion Corps - the oldest and most experienced force in Shanhai City.

There was basically no way to compare the two.

"Our future is bleak, we have no way forward!" The Lords felt despair and could not help but sigh.

"Who can help the City-State?"

Qin Feng gave out the answer, "Now, the only one in China that can help us is Yanhuang Alliance. No one else has the courage to face off against Shanhai City."

The retreat of Caiyun Zinan let Qin Feng automatically exclude asking Xiangnan City-State for help.

As for Chuanbei City-State, it was all the more impossible.

It seemed like only Yanhuang Alliance had enough motivation to butt in.

"Di Chen and the others did not join the Battle of Lingnan, so would they help us?" Some Lords doubted Qin Feng's analysis.

That was not surprising.

Yanhuang Alliance not appearing in the Lingnan Battlefield really surprised everyone. News had spread that Yanhuang Alliance wanted to snipe Shanhai City in Lingnan but the news turned out to be wrong in the end.

Qin Feng seemed to have understood a lot more as he laughed awkwardly, "It was not that they did not want to interfere but the battle started even before they got ready."

"So if that's the case, would Di Chen and the others be willing to assist us?"

When the other Lords heard this question, hope flashed in their eyes. They were like shipwreck survivors, grabbing onto any plank to survive.

"That's right; there is no free lunch in the world." The Lords were not fools.

"Think about it, if we fall, Shanhai City would have three provinces of land, three times that of Di Chen and the others. At that time, would they even be able to shake Shanhai City?"

"You're saying that the Battle of Yunnan is the last chance for the Yanhuang Alliance to take him down?" The faces of some of the Lords lit up.

"That's the theory. On this matter, we both have something to gain." Qin Feng nodded, "The Shanhai City Army is still a distance away from Yunnan. The time lapse is our last chance. We have to come to an agreement with Yanhuang Alliance within the shortest amount of time possible and make our preparations."

Qin Feng's words made sense.

The fall of Lingnan City-State had something to do with the strength difference but another factor played a key part.

That was the attack being a sneak attack.

Shanhai City used the Yunnan City-State as a smoke bomb and diverted attention to catch Lingnan City-State off guard, tricking everyone.

Before the battle, Lingnan City-State did not make any preparations for such a battle.

Not only Lingnan City-State, even the other allies and people like Xiong Ba and Di Chen did not expect Shanhai City's move.

When war truly broke out, they tried to make preparations, but it was already too late.

Hence, Xiong Ba and the others felt regret.

In comparison, Shanhai City had considered all areas, and their plans had already been designed half a year ago.

With that, how could they not win?

The various machinery and weapons the Fan Lihua Legion brought was proof. Without strategic planning, how could Fan Lihua build such an unusual camp stronghold?

The following Battle of Yunnan would be different.

Shanhai City would not be so dumb to use the same tactic. After all, it would not work again.

Not to mention that be it Yunnan City-State, even Xiangnan City-State and Chuanbei City-State would be wary and not give them a chance.

News spread that Caiyun Zinan had already suggested in the City-State committee meeting to expand the army to 250 thousand and place them at the south of the province.

Chuanbei City-State would probably do something similar.

The ferocious expansion of Shanhai City had given his neighbors no choice.

According to a small piece of news, the Battle of Lingnan had even startled the person in Chengdu. Feng Qingyang from Swordsman City had been appearing in Chengdu, apparently with intentions.

Some people guessed that these two giants in the Shu land were probably going to work together.

In contrast to Qin Shihuang and Hanwu Emperor, Liu Bei was more ambitious.

Liu Bei had huge animosity with Shanhai City. Hence, he was unwilling to stay in the palace and did not want his influence to expand to just the Chengdu Prefecture.

Some people guessed that Liu Bei wanted to take over the entire Shu land.

What a coincidence that the biggest Lord in Shu, Qing Fengyang, did not have any interest in fighting and only wanted to be an alliance leader. With that, the two of them did not have any reason for conflict.

The two of them working together would be enhancing their strengths, a great choice.

However, this matter was truly complicated and outsiders could not understand. Despite this, one thing was for certain. In the future period of time, there would be a huge change in Shu.

Regardless of how it would change, it would be a bad thing to Shanhai City.

It was because those two were enemies of Shanhai City.

Hence, the following Battle of Yunnan was going to be a battle of the century.

"If Yanhuang Alliance sends troops, what terms would they have?"

The Lords of the City-State definitely did not believe that Di Chen would not want some benefits in return as that was how aristocratic families operated.

Chapter 745-Sezairan

The terms the Yanhuang Alliance raised were not simple, there were three core terms.

Firstly, the Yunnan City-State would pay all the military expenses.

The military expenses included but were not limited to teleportation fees, grain supply consumption, equipment losses, and war reparations.

Apart from that, after the war ended, Yanhuang Alliance had priority in choosing soldiers from the prisoners to add to their armies to avoid losses in their numbers.

Di Chen and the others had truly considered everything and wanted to take a bite at Shanhai City without suffering any loses.

Of course, this was the simplest term out of the three.

Secondly, the Yunnan City-State needed to pay a mercenary fee.

Based on Chun Shenjun's words, "Nowadays, even mercenary guilds earn money, much less proper armies like ours."

This time, Di Chen and the rest surprisingly agreed with Chun Shenjun.

As for the specifics, the Yunnan City-State needed to pay 300 thousand. After the war, they would need to pay a sizeable sum each year, no less than 200 thousand.

No matter what, this price was not too expensive, and it was also paid in parts.

Yanhuang Alliance's actions were also aimed at calming the Yunnan City-State. They wanted to tell them that this was not a one-off deal and that they were willing to provide them with long term protection.

Thirdly, Yunnan City-state recognizes Yanhuang Alliance as their suzerain.

Simply put, Yanhuang Alliance wanted to have some say in their politics.

Suzerainty was a western colony country concept, referring to how the suzerain had power in the internal affairs and diplomacy of the servant state. The suzerain had powers but the servant state had independence in rule for the most part.

Strictly speaking, be it Yanhuang Alliance or Yunnan City-State, both were scattered alliances and did not have the ability to be a true representative.

To talk about suzerainty seemed a little odd.

But the goal of Di Chen and the others was truly obvious; they wanted tie the Yunnan City-State under them to control their rival, Shanhai City.

This point was what the Lords of the Yunnan City-State found the hardest to accept.

No matter how one looked at it, suzerainty made them a colony, making it a master-servant relationship. Both sides would be on different levels, and it was like an insult to the servant 'state'.

Qin Feng was not pleased with it but remained rational, "But we have no choice. To be their vassal state is much better than being uprooted by Shanhai City, right?"

When the Lords heard his words, they all kept silent. Their eyes were filled with loneliness and sadness.

In the wilderness, the weak submitting to the strong was normal. Just like what Qin Feng had said, they had no choice; it was either submit or they die.

"Talk to them, try to get some better terms."

In the end, the Lords gave Qin Feng the power to represent Yunnan City-State to discuss with Yanhuang Alliance for more specific terms. The three terms were just the general structure, and there were still many specifics that needed discussion.

"Do not worry; the interests of the City-State are the most important. If I harm the interests of the City-State, you can keep me out of it."

From the day the City-State was established to now, each one of them had a sense of belonging and relationship with one another.

No matter what, they were allies in the same boat and were different from people like Di Chen.

Xiangnan Province, Caiyun City.

The defeat in Lingnan made Caiyun Zinan feel extremely depressed. As the battle came to an end, Shanhai City was like a huge mountain pressing down on him, making it difficult for him to breathe.

During the City-State committee meeting that had just ended, the expansion of Alliance Army policy that Caiyun Zinan proposed was unanimously accepted.

Even so, he did not feel relaxed in the slightest. Expanding the scale to 250 thousand would still not be enough to defend against one Tiger Legion Corps.

"Zifang, what should we do next?" After returning, Caiyun Zinan asked Zhang Liang, his eyes filled with hope. At such a time, only Zhang Liang could give him hope.

The tactical level that Zhang Liang showed was truly shocking. During these few days, Zhang Liang had been studying relevant info to try to find a way to break the situation.

Now, Zhang Liang already had a rough idea.

"Lord, the only plan now is to ally with the outside while increasing internal affairs infrastructure." Zhang Liang did not hide anything and voiced his thoughts.

Furthermore, in terms of construction speed, Caiyun City was definitely not a match for Shanhai City. One must know that Shanhai City was the construction textbook and model of the entire world.

Hence, the gap between the two would only widen.

The internal affairs that Zhang Liang referred to were learning from the lessons of Lingnan City-State and avoid the cons of a City-State. The most core point was to get rid of the group discussion and decision making mechanism.

"Lord, you need to obtain more speaking rights in the City-State. At the crucial moment, you need to be able to make decisions yourself." Zhang Liang said.

"How?" Caiyun Zinan's eyes glimmered.

Making decisions himself, wasn't that his goal from the start?

Zhang Liang said, "I suggest we take a look at the merging model between Shanhai City and Consonance City. First, we act in the neighbouring territories and slowly consolidate the resources within the City-State."

"This, won't this break the unity of the City-State and make them revolt?" Although Caiyun Zinan wanted to make it big, he still had to consider the reaction of his allies.

Zhang Liang shook his head, "Lord, desperate times call for desperate measures. The Xiangnan City-State is already on the verge of dying, at such a time, a crisis is also an opportunity. As long as we can survive, some territories would not put up a resistance."

"Furthermore, merger is also a win-win. Even a giant like Consonance City could accept it, much less these small territories?"

When Caiyun Zinan heard that, his heart calmed down; he gritted his teeth and steadied himself, "Good, I'll follow what mister said. As for the specific merger plan, I'll have to busy mister."

"No worries." Zhang Liang nodded.

From his viewpoint, be it for Caiyun City or the entire Xiangnan City-State, a merger was a win-win situation. Caiyun City could use this chance to expand, and this would in turn raise overall strength of the City-State.

The only thing they needed to be careful about was to not annoy their allies. Merger was not swallowing up, so they could not make the allies angry and cause any internal problems.

At the same time, they also needed to know when to stop.

One could foresee that the moment Caiyun City started doing taking such ation, the other big Lords in the City-State would follow.

The end result would be that the 50 to 60 Lords in the City-State would end up being ruled by a few powerful people.

However, this was an improvement to their situation.

The entire process concerned too many interests and was really complicated. It could cause a crisis at any moment and tested the ability of the Lord to control the situation.

If this succeeded, Xiangnan City-State would be totally reborn, its strength taking a huge step forward. They would have the chips and foundation to go up against Shanhai City.

However, if they failed, the City-State would completely collapse and fall to an irrecoverable state.

Zhang Liang believed that he could control the situation. After all, he was a confident person.

...

To go up against Shanhai City, purely focusing on internal affairs would not cut it; they also needed to proactively participate in diplomatic activities.

Yunnan Alliance cooperated with the entire Yanhuang Alliance while Zhang Liang targeted Pill Sun City in the north as well as the Shu lands northwest.

The Shu lands that had animosity with Shanhai City were a really good target. However, the Shu lands were mountainous and hard to travel in and out of, so the amount support they could provide was really limited.

As for Pill Sun City, it was because of strategic considerations.

Like how Xiongba did not wish for Shanhai City to pierce past Minnan Province and was hence trying to make Xunlong Dianxue betray the Shanhai Alliance, Chun Shenjuan did not want Shanhai City to take down Xiangnan City-State.

One must not look at how Yanhuang Alliance was shouting so ferociously. In truth, none of them wanted a head-on confrontation with Shanhai City.

They especially did not want to have their territory connected to Shanhai City.

If that really happened, Chun Shenjuan and Xiong Ba would not be able to sleep at night.

No matter whether they were willing to admit it or not, Shanhai City was the overlord of the China region, its position was unshakeable, a mighty lion.

No one wanted to be neighbors with a lion.

Hence, Pill Sun City had enough reason to support Xiangnan Province to go up against Shanhai City together.

"I heard the Pill Sun City Lord is really rich and also has the Huitong Bank. Lord, why not contact him and see if we can get a sizeable loan." Zhang Liang smiled as he said.

As expected from the Strategy Saint. Not long after appearing in the wilderness, he had understood many things about modern society.

When Caiyun Zinan heard that, his eyes lit up, smiling, "Zifang is a genius, why didn't I think about this point. The territory is still worrying about funds, now that's settled."

It seemed like Caiyun Zinan was going to seek a push from Pill Sun City.

Caiyun Zinan was not really a fool and knew all the weaknesses of the Lords in Yanhuang Alliance. Chun Shenjun was a pure merchant who had money but not a strong army.

With just that weakness, Caiyun Zinan was confident in biting off a huge chunk of meat from Pill Sun City.

Chapter 746-Lu Bu's Arrival

Lingnan Province, Chaozhou Prefecture.

Hidden powers moved outside of the territory while Ouyang Shuo remained still, continuing his journey as planned.

In his review of the cities, he also had to deal with the memorials from the Nanjiang Governor-General House.

Currently, Ouyang Shuo was spending the day at Xingning County.

In a certain courtyard within Xingning County that was tightly sealed by three thousand Divine Martial Guards, not even a fly could enter. Within it, the Personal Guards took charge and every corner was under supervision.

After the Battle of Red Cliff ended, Xu Chu became the Personal Guards Captain. Ouyang Shuo took the chance to expand the Personal Guards to 200 people, splitting into two shifts to protect him around the clock.

Each Personal Guard was highly skilled and could fight one against 10.

While traveling outside, Ouyang Shuo naturally would not be arrogant and took all safety and protective measures. Apart from the Divine Martial Guards and Personal Guards, the Shadow Guards were also following him in the darkness.

Before Ouyang Shuo had arrived in Chaozhou, he had already sent the 3rd legion of the Tiger Legion Corps to comb the entire prefecture to remove any enemies that had escaped.

Each layer of protection work combined together, ensuring that no stones were left unturned.

Within the reading room, Ouyang Shuo was burning the midnight oil and reading the memorials. During the day, many people had wanted to meet him. He went to two feasts in the noon and at night, but that did not burn away at his mental strength.

He was still filled with energy and would read batch after batch of memorials every night.

The current memorial he had picked up came from the Agriculture Division.

After the voyage journey ended, Ouyang Shuo had smoothly exchanged for the sewing machine crafting technology from William. The No.7 Research Institute had begun to work on it and there would be results by the end of the year.

The prosperity of the garment industry was something to look forward to.

Hence, while Ouyang Shuo placed focus on the sewing machine and garment-related technologies, he also ordered the Agriculture Division to make a specific silkworm breeding plan.

Ouyang Shuo's goal was to push out silkworm breeding, especially coloured silkworm breeding, to the entire territory. He wanted to allow the scale to break a million hectares and to let the units of silk produced reach the tens of millions.

Only then could they sustain the garment industry.

Ouyang Shuo was really clear that under the circumstance that they were using sewing machines on a large scale, the demands for silk and raw materials would be terrifying. He did not wish for raw materials to not keep up with the available sewing machines, which would then affect production.

Each industry needed to form its own industrial chain, only then would it have a future.

The memorial submitted by Agricultural Secretary Sun Yannong expressed that there had been breakthrough developments. After intense discussions, the Agricultural Division had agreed on a plan that all sides could agree to.

The Textile Association would invest 100 thousand gold, Financial Bureau 300 thousand gold, borrowing another 200 thousand from the Four Seas Bank, a total of 600 thousand gold to form a silkworm breeding fund to support the farmers in the various prefectures to breed silkworms.

At the same time, the various prefectures would also reserve a certain amount from their own finances to support silkworm breeding. With that, the most core funds problem had been solved.

Toward this, Ouyang Shuo did not interfere nor did he need to take funds out of his own pocket.

To the entire territory, the six million in his pocket really could not be considered much. If everything required this Monarch to pay from his own pocket, what were the ministers and officials doing?

Territories had their own running rules.

Setting up the joint fund was a groundbreaking solution. The tertiary finances, associations, local houses and main organizations all worked together.

In olden times, this was pretty much perfect.

After Ouyang Shuo read through it, he noted at the bottom of the memorial, "Follow this plan. The setting up of the fund can be pushed out to other industries and regions."

Closing the memorial, Ouyang Shuo took up the next book.

The memorial came from Du Ruhui, it only reported one piece of news. The Three Kingdoms General that Ouyang Shuo had been waiting for - Lu Bu - had finally arrived at Shanhai City to reunite with Diao Chan.

Along with him were two more people, the strategist Chen Gong and General Gao Shun.

Chen Gong was a strategist under Lu Bu during the ending years of East Han. He had a really direct personality and was extremely intelligent, coming up with many plans and strategies. When he was young, he had dealt with many famous ministers in the country.

192 A.D., the provincial governor of Yanzhou died in crusade against Huangjin. Chen Gong and the others supported Cao Cao in taking over Yanzhou and were hence trusted by him.

But after this, as Cao Cao killed famous Han scholars, Chen Gong lobbied Zhang Miao to betray Cao Cao, leading Lu Bu into Yanzhou. He helped Lu Bu beat Cao Cao, obtaining Yanzhou and Xuzhou.

In Xiapi City, Lu Bu did not listen to Chen Gong and failed in the end. After Lu Bu lost in battle, they were all captured and killed.

Even during the Three Kingdoms Period where strategists were as common as clouds, Chen Gong could be considered a top class strategist.

However, as he was too direct and unable to take the brutality of Cao Cao, he directly went up against Cao Cao. In the end, he chose an unwise master like Lu Bu, causing him to die.

In history, being executed along with Lu Bu was his general, Gao Shun. General Zhang Liao under Lu Bu's charge had chosen to follow Cao Cao.

Gao Shun's ability was no less than Zhang Liao.

If one read into the Three Kingdoms, Gao Shun was a general that was buried in history.

Gao Shun was pretty much a perfect soldier. Not only could he fight, he was also great at training troops. The army he brought out had the name of 'Formation Crushing Unit', a true elite unit in the Three Kingdoms history.

Apart from that, Gao Shun was also exceedingly all rounded; he had the brains and could give suggestions to Lu Bu at the Xue Xiao moment. He was also really smart and flexible when dealing with sudden matters.

In terms of virtues, in the Han end heroes memorial, it recorded him as someone who did not drink and did not gamble.

Gao Shun was also extremely loyal. He did not claim credit, he was not arrogant, and even if Lu Bu did not give him good roles, he would not grumble.

In the face of life and death, he chose brotherhood and did not care about whether his choice was worth it or not. From a moral standpoint, he was undoubtedly a model soldier.

Shanhai City did not lack generals, and they only lacked generals that knew how to train troops like Gao Shun. Without mentioning how to deal with Lu Bu, Gao Shun would be able to get a high position to train troops.

Lu Bu, Chen Gong, and Gao Shun coming over was undoubtedly good news. Ouyang Shuo noted in the memorial to ask Du Ruhui to care for the three of them. Ouyang Shuo would arrange their appointments after he returned to Shanhai City.

Putting down the memorial, Ouyang Shuo raised his head and looked outside the window.

The moon hung high in the sky, the moon was bright and stars were rare. It was a special day with good weather.

Looking at the night sky, Ouyang Shuo could feel that there was a huge dragon breathing amongst the clouds above.

During the Battle of Lingnan, Shanhai City territory expanding by three prefectures had undoubtedly benefitted the fate dragon the most. As a result, its body grew much larger.

Now, the fate dragon was using the strength of the moonlight to temper its body.

Ouyang Shuo could feel the purple inside the body of the fate dragon becoming brighter, which was a good sign for the prosperity of the territory.

Looking back down, Ouyang Shuo continued to look at memorials.

The territory matters were really complicated. Even with many officials helping him out, he could not wash his hands off them completely. In the wilderness, the chaotic times made ruling by not doing anything a stupid idea.

Of course, this was also training for Ouyang Shuo.

From village to town, from county to prefecture, and now to the verge of establishing a country, Ouyang Shuo's personal ability had soared.

In reality, Ouyang Shuo could be considered a young genius.

The last memorial was from Cui Yingyu and had something to do with the industries. As the various industries in the territory prospered, they also faced many problems and bottlenecks.

First, the money sucking shipbuilding industry.

During the Gaia 3rd year, the brightest light would have to be the shipbuilding industry.

The shipbuilding industry had set the basis for Shanhai City's sea travel and allowed the Nanyang Navy to expand to such a crazy scale.

One could say that without the rise of shipbuilding, there would not be the five squadrons. Naturally, they would not be able to create the legend of them sailing through the oceans and showing off to the world.

Everything was supported by numerous shipbuilders behind the scenes.

The shipbuilding industry not only brought a lot of honor but crazy profits as well. Based on reports from the Financial Bureau, in just the first six months of the 3rd year, the territory had earned four million from selling merchant ships.

Apart from that, there were also the crazy profits from warships.

Shipbuilding had already become a key pillar of territory finances and helped support half of the territory. Even the military industry could not be compared to it.

One had to say that the profits truly could make one crazy.

Beneath all these matters, there were worries too.

As they opened the voyaging path, the request for merchant ships only grew, and the orders for the big shipyards were filled till the next year.

An increase in orders was supposed to be a happy matter.

The situation reported by Cui Yingyu made Ouyang Shuo frown instead. The game only added a construction completion bar, but the resources it needed were real and could not be skimped on.

Each boat was built with large amounts of wood.

However, the requirements for wood meant that only the high quality wood could be used. Moreover, different units needed different types of wood.

A complete ship often used up fir, pine, cedar, teak, eucalyptus, nanmu, and many different types of wood.

With this, there had been large-scale deforestation. The 100 thousand mountains between Lingnan Province and Lianzhou Basin had become a barren land.

Now, the territory had started to have a wood shortage crisis.

Chapter 747-Disrupting Alliances Through Diplomatic Means

On the topic of wood, Southeast Asian countries Annan, Siam, Johor, and Java were all big producers of wood. Amongst which, both Siam and Johor traded with Shanhai City.

Shanhai City also constructed a large-sized shipyard in Lion City and had the convenience of geography.

Cui Yingyu mentioned on the memorial that the Business Division had already arranged some trading negotiation groups to contact the two countries to try to strike up a trade partnership.

Of course, this was not a long term solution.

Not mentioning the high transport costs, neither the Lords in Siam or Johor could give Shanhai City much price discounts as the purchase costs were not low either.

Both sides were just simple trade partners and were not even friends, much less allies.

With money to earn, the Lords on both sides would not act soft-hearted.

In history, the Southeast Asian countries were all colonies of the west and became bases for raw materials. The western suzairans used the price difference between industrial products and raw materials to rip off the labour of the local civilians, hence obtaining large amounts of materials.

The current Shanhai City did not have enough power to do that.

ASEAN in the game was like a powder keg; it could explode at any time. The moment a large war started, trade could be affected and the territory shipbuilding industry could suffer as a result.

Hence, the most stable method would be to take down one of them through a country war. The target that Shanhai City chose was naturally Annan, which they have had some conflicts with.

Between the two of them, war was unavoidable.

However, before the Battle of Yunnan ended, Shanhai City did not have the energy to start a country war. The ASEAN countries were all linked to one another; they might act together, so one must make ample planning.

When Shanhai City started a country war against Annan, they needed to be ready to face the entire ASEAN.

Attacking Annan would be a difficult systematic war mission, and it was something that was totally impossible to complete in the 3rd year of Gaia. At most, they could act in the 4th year at the earliest.

Not talking about the matters that were far away, the Battle of Yunnan right in front of them was not simple.

Be it the cooperation between Yunnan City-State and Yanhuang Alliance, or the Xiangnan City-State expanding their army, all of this information was passed back to Ouyang Shuo through informants.

Ouyang Shuo was not surprised at all by the interference of the Yanhuang Alliance.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to use this chance to teach Yanhuang Alliance a lesson and let them suffer losses when they were trying to take advantage of others.

No matter what, the Battle of Yunnan was going to be much more complicated than the Battle of Lingnan.

...

Cui Yingyu also mentioned another key pillar of the territory in her memorial – steelmaking.

Similar to the shipbuilding industry, the steelmaking industry was restricted by raw materials, more accurately energy. The need for coal had not been solved till date.

Fallen Phoenix City was located inland, so itransportation posed a serious issue.

In recent times, Ouyang Shuo started to turn his eyes to Jingdu and Ludong Province, these two top-level coal regions.

Compared to Taiyuan Province, although these two did not produce as much coal, they had a natural advantage; they were close to the sea and had naturally ports.

The China region coastline was extremely long. From north to south, the region had over 10 large natural harbors, including northern Jingdu Province Binhai Bay, Haijin Bay in the south, Jiaodong Bay in Ludong, Haizhou Bay in Donghai Province, Zhoushan Bay in Jiangnan Province, Quanzhou Bay in Minnan Province, Jiaozhou Bay in Lingnan Province, and more.

In comparison, Shanhai City's Beihai Bay was not much.

The Binhai Bay in Jingdu was coincidentally located within Stone City territory.

Shanhai City's Business Division had already discussed with Stone City to use the sea routes to build a stable coal transport channel. The prerequisite would be that Stone City increased their digging of coal.

Coal digging and mining not only needed large amounts of labor but also gold investment.

For this, the Four Seas Bank provided a massive amount of 500 thousand gold to help Stone City increase their production of coal. The guarantor of the loan was Shanhai City's Financial Bureau.

Before even receiving any coal, the Financial Bureau paid a 100 thousand gold deposit.

Cui Yingyu, who was managing territory industries, had already given the word. No matter how much coal they dig out, Shanhai City would purchase it all.

Hence, this made it a win-win situation for both sides. Shanhai City obtained the coal that they needed while Stone City obtained the funds that they needed to develop.

There was a phrase, 'Do not put all your eggs in one basket.'

Apart from Stone City, Shanhai City also looked at Ludong Province. Compared to Stone City, not only was Ludong Province bigger, it was also closer to Shanhai City.

Currently, the entire Ludong Province was occupied by the West Chu regime.

Speaking of which, the relationship between Xiang Yu and Ouyang Shuo was rather complicated. During the Battle of Julu, it was him who pushed Xiang Yu to the depths. Hence, they could be called enemies.

But an overlord was still an overlord.

Before Xiang Yu left, he had promised Ouyang Shuo that he owed the latter a favor.

Ouyang Shuo suddenly realized that it was time for him to make use of that favor.

Thinking about that, Ouyang Shuo immediately wrote a letter to Zhang Yi to ask him to arrange an envoy to travel in secret to West Chu. It was both to form relationships and to activate the coal trade deal.

Obviously, his goal was not limited to coal, which was why he took it this seriously. He also wished to use this chance to remove the barrier between the two and form closer relationships.

For example, forming an alliance.

Yanhuang Alliance doing such despicable actions every day truly annoyed Ouyang Shuo. It was time to give them some problems so that they could join in the Nanjiang Battle when they wished.

Ouyang Shuo had heard that the West Chu Army was huge, sweeping across the Ludong Province, merging with the Zhangchu Regime and becoming one of the giants.

However, West Chu had their weaknesses.

The greatest weakness of the West Chu Regime was that the civilians were all scattered, and their economy was weak. Xiang Yu wanted to expand once more but was restricted by finances, so he had no choice but to stop.

With that, naturally Ouyang Shuo would not mind helping him.

Ouyang Shuo believed that Xiang Yu would be interested in Shanhai City's kind intentions.

West Chu maintained their strength in the mid regions. If they went north, they could threaten Di Chen's Jingdu Region, and if they went south, they could subdue Zhan Lang's Donghai Province.

With such a regime existing, Di Chen and Zhan Lang would both face immense problems.

Apart from the West Chu Regime, Ouyang Shuo also instructed the Honglu Temple to work with the Shanhai Guards to come into contact with the aristocrat territories in Wannan Province.

Maintaining a chaotic Wannan Province was best for Shanhai City's interests. The same theory could be used in the complicated Zhongyuan Province.

Without a doubt, as the Honglu Temple rose up, Shanhai City would use more diplomatic means to fulfil its interests; they wold form allies to subdue enemies.

Sun Tzu once said, 'The best form of using troops is to counter your enemy's plan, followed by breaking up his alliance using diplomacy, then by sending troops in a head on battle, the worst would be to siege.'

One could predict that Shanhai City's diplomatic route would play a greater and greater important role in the future.

...

By the time Ouyang Shuo finished writing the secret letter to Zhang Yi, the sky was already dark, and there was total silence all around.

On the table were many stacked memorials; they were all annotated and read through, and each and every one were approved at the end by Ouyang Shuo. The next morning, these memorials would be transported back to the relays through the Nanjiang Governor-General House.

Ouyang Shuo placed down his pen, stretching his hands backward. He rotated his neck and took a long stretch. Instantly, his body gave out the sound of bones cracking; one could see that he had sat for too long.

Although it was tiring, Ouyang Shuo felt that it was truly meaningful. Seeing the territory prosper under his leadership, such a sense of achievement was unparalleled.

After leaving the reading room, Ouyang Shuo returned to his sleeping quarters and started his habitual cultivation.

Along with the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique breaking through to the 11th layer, Ouyang Shuo's golden primordial energy was like that of a river, gushing about and splashing around.

The position of his dantian already became a golden eye fountain, and primordial energy flowed down the eye of the fountain, forming a truly majestic sight.

After the fortuitous encounter on the dragon island, his meridians had grown much stronger. With the constant brushing of the golden primordial energy, it even had a golden luster.

Even his bones started to emit a golden color.

Based on what the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique recorded, once all the meridians turn gold, it was a sign of completing the 11th layer. If one's bones turned gold, the person in question would have finished the 12th layer.

Helplessly, although it had been five months since he broke through to the 11th layer, his progress was still extremely slow even with daily effort.

Based on his current speed, to break through to the 12th layer would take a really long time.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo was not anxious and just trained as usual. He believed that the daily accumulation would pay off in the end.

Cultivation was the training of the heart.

One must be able to bear the loneliness and toughness.

Till date, the first 10 levels were all so smooth. He either found treasures or had the help of fortuitous encounters.

At the current stage, it was time for him to face some problems.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo was not worried at all.

The daily cultivation was a form of enjoyment for Ouyang Shuo.

The next morning, Ouyang Shuo started packing up to rush to the next county.

Just at this moment, the guard reported.

"Monarch, there's a player lady outside who wants to meet you."

"Player lady?" Ouyang Shuo frowned.

Based on the rules of the wilderness, after a territory fell, the players living in it would be teleported back to the imperial city. Hence, Ouyang Shuo rarely saw any players on his journey.

Not to mention there would be players who wanted to find him themselves.

At his current position, the players who were able to speak directly with him were not many.

Ouyang Shuo asked, "What's her name?"

Chapter 748-Wu Ping Cheng

"Replying to the Monarch, she calls herself Wu Qing Cheng." The guard replied.

"Wu Qing Cheng?"

Ouyang Shuo's eyes narrowed.

China region players were not unfamiliar with Wu Qing Cheng. She was ranked 5th out of the 10 beauties in China.

In reality, she was a celebrity, a top actress that was famous across the world. The rare part was that not only she could act, but she could also direct and had her own studio.

In the game, this celebrity lost the field to show her skills almost instantly, slowly leaving the line of sight of players. The only thing that players remembered about her was her appearance.

Her ranking was not high because her position in the game was apparent. Based solely on looks, she was definitely top three and could not be compared with Feng Qiuhuang and Juedai Fenghua.

Ouyang Shuo had a different impression of her.

Ouyang Shuo clearly remembered that in the last life, she shot her first movie Jiangshan Beauty and instantly got famous around the country. Close to 20 million people in the country paid to watch it.

All the scenes in the movie were shot in the game and totally did not need modifications or editing; the actors and actresses were all professional players, so they did not need substitutes or special effects.

Even the equipment and dresses were real equipment in the game or items personally designed by top work occupation players. They were exceedingly exquisite and beautiful, making a huge impression.

The camera tools were requested by Wu Qing Cheng from Gaia, and the high-level AI cameras were much better than the ones in real life.

Along with a great script and perfect editing, it would have become popular even if it did not want to.

Of course, the most crucial matter was still with Gaia's support. Apart from the camera spirits they provided, Gaia also opened up a new sub forum for watching movies.

Thanks to this sub forum, paying players would be sent to a virtual space and could enjoy a 5D viewing experience.

Gaia's actions were not solely for Wu Qing Cheng. Its real goal was to use this chance to increase the entertainment in the lives of players.

After all, players were going to spend 10 years in the game. Without more forms of entertainment, one could imagine how tough it would be.

The appearance of Wu Qing Cheng was just a case of right place at the right time. Before shooting, she was already extremely nervous and did not think that it would actually become that popular.

Shooting in the game was not truly zero cost. Hiring over ten main actors, thousands of side actors, costumes, and more would cost 600 to 700 thousand gold.

The cost of the entire film would be around a million gold.

However, the risk she took had finally been repaid.

With just one movie, she had earned a million in profit, pushing herself up to the famous people rankings of China Region, becoming a shining star in the country.

The popularity of Jiangshan Beauty unveiled the rise of the entertainment industry in the game. In the later stages of the Gaia 4th year, the movie industry would break the ten million gold barrier.

One could say that this was an unexplored ocean.

Looking at the time, Jiangshan Beauty should be in the midst of shooting. Thinking about that, Ouyang Shuo smirked and guessed the reason why she had appeared here to look for him.

"Invite her to the side hall." Ouyang Shuo instructed.

"Yes Monarch."

...

Side Hall.

Wu Qing Cheng picked up a cup of tea, her brows locked tight.

She was an extremely prideful person. The arrival of the apocalypse, the migration, and other such factors had all disrupted the flow of her life.

When she entered the game, she noticed that she actually had no talents.

In the game, she was not the celebrity that was the focus of everyone; the celebrities in the game were all the top occupation players or the Lords.

As for a celebrity in real life, no one would care no matter how pretty she was.

Before entering Earth Online, Wu Qing Cheng had not played any games before. In her memory, it was either work or work.

Everything she did was under the lights of the silver screen.

After lying in silence for two years, Wu Qing Cheng finally could not take it anymore; she wanted to do something.

And the only thing she was good at was filmmaking.

When Gaia released the achievement value exchange event, Feng Qing Cheng gritted her teeth and exchanged for a total of 500 thousand gold.

As a mega film star, her achievement value was not low, but it definitely could not be considered high.

This exchange meant that she had no way out anymore.

Following which, Wu Ping Cheng gathered members of her studio in real life, building the Ping Cheng Studio in the game. She started to write scripts to plan movie-making in the game.

However, things did not go smoothly at the start. Most members of the studio did not believe that they could make money from shooting movies in game so they rejected Wu Qing Cheng's request.

Even so, she gritted her teeth and persevered.

The rise of the electronic newspaper in game truly let her see some hope.

Finally, thanks to the introduction of a friend in real life, Wu Ping Cheng came to an agreement with the Xingning County Lord to co-invest and shoot Jiangshan Beauty.

Xingning County invested 100 thousand and provided the land to shoot in. Apart from that, he also provided equipment and skilled talents.

Without these factors, the movie could not even be shot.

After a few stumbles here and there, everything was prepared, and the movie finally started shooting.

Who knew that tragedy would strike?

Less than a month from the start, Xingning County was occupied by Shanhai City. The Xingning County Lord was teleported to the imperial city and could not keep the contract. Hence, the entire movie was delayed.

Wu Ping Cheng felt despair once again.

Especially during war time, where the entire film group was nearly destroyed by the Shanhai City Army. After the war ended, they were checked and investigated repeatedly.

To restart shooting basically became an impossible matter. Her investment was going to crash and burn, and the actors she had spent so much effort to invite all broke their contracts.

It seemed like the entire group was going to disband.

Just at this moment, she heard the news that Qiyue Wuyi was touring Chaozhou Prefecture. Wu Ping Cheng was like a drowning person who saw the light at the end of the tunnel.

Hence, today's visit occurred. Who knows what kind of effect their conversation would have?

...

Half an hour later, Ouyang Shuo came to the side hall.

"Lord Wuyi, I've heard of your name for so long!"

Who knows why, but when she saw the young man slowly walk in, Wu Ping Cheng felt nervous.

The man in front of him was similar in age to her. His features were distinct, and he was quite handsome. He remained expressionless and acted neither warm nor coldly like the type who would chase people out.

His body emitted an overbearing aura.

Wu Ping Cheng could not help but feel panicky.

In reality, Wu Ping Cheng was a global star and had seen all kinds of occasions and situations.

The man in front of her was like an ocean that she could not see through.

Even the elders she saw in real life did not give her such a suppressive feeling.

She felt less and less confident.

"Miss Ping Cheng, I've heard of you too. I'm your loyal fan." Ouyang Shuo smiled and sat down.

"Really?" Wu Ping Cheng's eyes lit up, but her expression slowly turned into a sad one, "Unfortunately, that was last time." As a top actress, she was good at grasping any kind of expression. One frown or smile was able to touch one's heart.

Ouyang Shuo was not affected and simply smiled, "How so? In my opinion, the movie industry would be just as good in the game."

Time was precious, so Ouyang Shuo did not beat around the bush and went straight to the point.

"You really think so?" Wu Ping Cheng was astonished.

This was the first time that someone she spoke to expressed the same views as her. Even the Xingning County Lord just accepted her suggestion because of her beauty.

During the shooting, Wu Ping Cheng was constantly harassed.

Even so, she did not give up, smartly dissolving the approaches while speeding up the shooting.

"Naturally." Ouyang Shuo nodded.

Wu Ping Cheng looked at him. When she saw that he meant his words, she finally had some confidence in her heart. She also knew that with Ouyang Shuo's position, he would not tell lies.

With such confidence, she talked about the problems that she was facing.

"You want Shanhai City to take over?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

Wu Ping Cheng nodded, "If filming can resume, I'm willing to let out 10% more of the profits." Then she introduced the previous contract with the Xingning County Lord.

In the previous agreement, they settled on a 6:4 split. Letting out 10% meant that they would end up sharing the profits evenly.

For this movie, Wu Ping Cheng had invested 500 thousand. If profits did not reach the expected amount, she would end up going bankrupt.

Ouyang Shuo took the agreement and briefly scanned through it.

"How is it?" Wu Ping Cheng was really nervous.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head.

"This is the most I can go." Wu Ping Cheng frowned as her face slowly turned ashen white. She did not think that he would be so greedy and push her to the edge.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, seemingly seeing through her thoughts, "I think you misunderstood."

"How so?"

"Since Shanhai City occupied Xingning County, as the Lord, I hold the responsibility. Naturally, I would take over all the previous agreements; this agreement can proceed as planned."

"Really?" Wu Ping Cheng was delighted.

"Thank you! Really thank you!"

She emotionally stood up and wanted to shake his hand. When she saw that Ouyang Shuo did not have such intention, she awkwardly sat back down.

Her excitement could not be hidden.

It was not Ouyang Shuo being arrogant. Rather, he was already used to such customs.

Shaking hands? No one would dare to do that.

Ouyang Shuo laughed to dissolve the awkwardness, "I have a suggestion, would you be interested in it?"

Chapter 749-P1 Type Cannon

"What's your suggestion? I'm all ears."

After solving her greatest problem, Wu Ping Cheng instantly relaxed and became rather cheerful.

Ouyang Shuo asked, "I personally really support the movie industry and want to have long term cooperation with experts. Are you interested in this matter?"

Since he saw this clear and unexplored ocean in the game, Ouyang Shuo had no reason to let it go. How could simply investing in one movie fill his appetite? His goal was to control the entertainment industry and be a magnate.

The Ping Cheng Studio was the first prey that Ouyang Shuo was interested in.

Wu Ping Cheng's eyes looked like she was on guard, and she hesitated as she said, "You want to acquire my studio?" Wu Ping Cheng was not unfamiliar with such acquisition matters done by sharks in real life. Now that Ouyang Shuo held the life of Jiangshan Beauty in his hands, it was difficult to reject him.

Ping Cheng Studio was Wu Ping Cheng's life and definitely could not be tainted by others, not even Shanhai City. Wu Ping Cheng was already prepared to totally lose everything.

"Not acquisition." Ouyang Shuo shook his head, "It is an investment. I would like to use my personal name to invest 200 thousand gold into the Ping Cheng Studio, taking 40% of the shares. Moreover, I will not interfere in your how you run things. In terms of movie shooting, Shanhai City can give you all areas of support. Without mentioning other things, the Four Seas Bank is willing to provide loans for the next movie. How about that, are you interested?"

Ouyang Shuo's terms were not strict. He just wanted a win-win situation and a bigger cake. He was not trying to rake in short term profits.

When Wu Ping Cheng heard his words, her heart started thumping. She noticed that a huge chance was placed in front of them.

Even in the game, the movie industry was truly a money burning industry. Wu Ping Cheng used up all she had, yet she still could not manage to support one movie and needed to find partners.

If Jiangshan Beauty could not help her get her money back, Ping Cheng Studio would have to announce their bankruptcy. The best way out was to find a huge rich shark to work with.

Shanhai City was undoubtedly the biggest shark in China. Not only did they have sufficient funds, they were the biggest shareholders of the Four Seas Bank, and they were extremely strong. More importantly, they could provide all items and resources for shooting a movie.

The key was that they were not greedy and did not want to have the bulk of the shares. Furthermore, they would not interfere in how she ran things.

It was obviously a pure investment act.

In the wilderness, there was no one more suitable for her to work with than Shanhai City. Before which, Wu Ping Cheng had fantazised about working with Shanhai City. Unfortunately, she could not even walk into the gates of the imperial city.

If it was not for his image of being a pure and loyal man who rejected the love of Feng Qiuhuang, Bai Hua, and more, Hua Ping Cheng would have thought that Ouyang Shuo was interested in her.

"I agree."

Wu Peng Cheng did not hesitate, and she directly nodded her head. Even if it was a big hole in front of her, she was still going to jump right in.

Chances come and go quickly. Wu Ping Cheng was a really decisive person.

"Great!" Ouyang Shuo nodded, "Let the discussions end today. Someone will contact you shortly."

Ouyang Shuo did not intend to control the entertainment industry himself and wanted to let Song Jia control it. Apart from investing in Ping Cheng Studio, Ouyang Shuo would take out 800 thousand more gold to invest and hire more industry big shots.

This one time investment would reach a million gold.

With that, Ouyang Shuo only had five million gold left in his pockets.

And to truly get the entertainment industry up and running, a million gold was too little.

In order to not use up too much of his liquidated funds, the best way would be to proceed slowly, investing in two to three films at first and using the profits to increase the scale.

The matters within were rather complicated.

Ouyang Shuo believed that with Song Jia's ability, she could handle this matter well.

After Wu Ping Cheng Left, Ouyang Shuo penned a letter to Song Jia to describe in detail what happened and also sent her a million gold.

From now on, Song Jia would take charge of following the filming of Jiangshan Beauty as well as investing in the Ping Cheng Studio.

Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to a totally unexpected entertainment industry breaking out in the future two years; this would help bring huge amounts of cash into Shanhai City.

After the short interruption, Ouyang Shuo and his group set off once more.

And just as Ouyang Shuo was calming down the three prefectures in Lingnan, the Leopard Legion Corps finally acted.

10th month, 20th day, Chuannan Province Guilin Prefecture, Xuanwu Pass.

A year ago, Chuanbei City-State and Xiangnan City-State had worked together and made use of the chance where the Shanhai City Army was busy with Taiping Country to snatch food out of the tiger's mouth, taking Guilin Prefecture.

Guilin Prefecture was the north shield for Chuannan Province and had an extremely good strategic location. Only two passes connected them.

During the battle at the passes, Guiping Pass was kept by the Shanhai City and the Withered Flower Stronghold was constructed; this place became the headquarters of the Leopard Legion Corps. Xuanwu Pass, on the other hand, was occupied by the Alliance Army till date.

At this date, Xuanwu Pass was defended by the Alliance Army like their lives depended on it. And today, Zhang Han led the 2nd legion of the Leopard Legion Corps out, bearing down on the pass.

The Leopard Legion Corps was in charge of the north border, and Han Xin led the 1st legion to guard the Withered Flower Stronghold. Zhang Han's 2nd legion built a long-term camp in charge of monitoring the Alliance Army.

In this year of standing off, the 2nd legion had many conflicts with the Alliance Army in Xuanwu Pass. Helplessly, Xuanwu Pass was a stronghold, so even with only 50 thousand Alliance Army troops defending the place it was still extremely difficult to take down.

Hence, when they saw the 2nd legion coming at them once more, the Alliance Army in the pass was not shocked. The enemy pretty much came once a month, so it was not much of a surprise.

"Look, they are back again!"

"Haha, a bunch of fools that are just looking to be humiliated."

On the city walls of the pass, the Alliance Army soldiers mocked their enemy.

Amongst the 2nd legion troops, Zhang Han was riding on his horse. His eyes narrowed as he gazed at the pass with an exceedingly complicated expression.

One year!

The 2nd legion held it in for an entire year.

"It is finally time to end it." Zhang Han muttered.

Zhang Han waved his flag, and the middle troops slowly broke away. They revealed 32 elite Qingfu Horses pulling eight cold cannons, appearing at the front of the troops.

These cannons were not the Ming Dynasty Cannons but the new type of cannons designed by the No.7 Research Institute - codename P1 Type.

Compared to the cumbersome cannons of the Ming Dynasty, the P1 Type cannons were a big improvement. First, the barrels, frame, and other parts were built with steel.

With that, not only did it greatly reduce the chances of the cannon imploding, it reduced the weight greatly while the size was decreased by 50%.

The problem with industrialization was that the production speed of the P1 Type was extremely low. At their current rate, they could only produce 10 a month.

The main problem was that the industrialization process was just starting out, and their technology level was low. Most parts did not have machines, so they could only be manually handled.

The second change would be the cannon system.

The Ming Dynasty cannons were two-wheeled, which made them hard to transport. Hence, the newest results of the No.7 Research Institute were to create a new steel four-wheeled cart for the P1 Type Cannon.

The wheels were specially designed, being two times wider than normal. At the same time, a gear system was added. Four warhorses could easily pull one cannon, greatly increasing their mobility.

Of course, as rubber tires were not invented yet, the new four-wheeled chariots still had weaknesses. Not only were their speeds slower than warhorses, it was easy for the wheels to get stuck when it was rainy or if the ground was muddy.

This was also just on paths. If it was in the wilderness, it was much worse. Any hill or drain would stop them in their tracks.

To ship these eight cannons to the 2nd legion base, the Combat Logistics Department had spent a full month, facing many difficulties.

The moment this toy fell into mud, getting it out was more difficult than ascending the heavens.

12 cannons were moved out from the city but only eight reached the front lines. The remaining four were spoilt during the transportation process.

Hence, the P1 Type Cannon did not have a chance of appearing in the Battle of Lingnan.

The third change was the essence of the P1 Type Cannon.

With the changes done by Liu Mo and the others, along with combining the strengths of the Spanish and English cannons, the P1 Type Cannon could finally shoot at a trajectory.

With that, not only was the range greatly increased, it could directly shoot at the city wall and even into the city. The cannons were no longer a weak weapon that could only shoot at the city gate.

The P1 Type Cannon became a siege weapon, and its first target was Xuanwu Pass.

At the same time, to coordinate with the trajectory shooting, the cannon also had aiming tools to increase the accuracy. It did not rely solely on the cannoneer's experience anymore.

The No.7 Research Institutes did thousands of experiments to make an aiming tool suited for the P1 Type Cannon, obtaining plenty of data before it finally took shape.

The above three aspects were the big changes when compared to the Ming Dynasty Cannons. There were also many other smaller changes, each one the hard work of the researchers.

Along with the Atlantis Mimicry Flying Device Crafting Technology being digested by the research institute and the steam engine and sewing machine, the territory industrialization standard had a chance of stepping to a new level by the year end.

At that time, they could start their research on a P2 Type Cannon.

One could foresee that the P2 Type Cannon would be the true killer weapon and could even change the way of war. This weapon could truly lead the thermal weapons era into the cold weapons era and play a crucial and defining role.

The current P1 Type Cannons was just using a butcher knife to kill a chicken.

Even so, it was enough for Xuanwu Pass. With the assistance of the cannons, Zhang Han was confident in taking down the pass in just a single day.

Chapter 750-Yan Liang

"What is that?"

When they saw the P1 Type Cannon, the Alliance Army was stunned. The smooth lines on the body of the cannon, the cold metal sheen, and the exquisite cannon frame; it was totally different from the cannons that they had heard of.

The rumbling of cannon explosions arrived as a reply.

Zhang Han did not hesitate; he immediately ordered his troops to fire once the cannons were in position; it was a swift and deadly move.

The cannons formed a brilliant arc in the air, accurately striking the defending soldiers on the city wall before bursting apart. All of a sudden, the Alliance Army soldiers that had been mocking them were blown into pieces, creating a truly gory scene.

The embattlements on the city wall were also blown apart.

Unceasing cannon fire followed, sweeping through the entire city wall of the pass.

Blood and flesh flew around, and smoke bellowed.

The Alliance Army archers wanted to retaliate. Unfortunately for them, Zhang Han was prepared. Each cannon was protected by an entire unit of sword-shield soldiers, who used their shields to protect the cannoneer.

As for the cannon itself, it was totally unaffected by arrows.

Only arcuballistas and trebuchets could destroy the cannons. Unfortunately, their range could not be compared with the cannons.

Hence, the alliance army in the pass could only passively take the hits and could not do anything in return.

"General, we cannot go on like this!"

The Alliance Army did not even dare show their heads on the city wall. After suffering heavy causalities, their morale plummeted.

"Damn it, what devilish weapon is the enemy using?"

"Who cares what weapon it is? The enemy is obviously prepared to take down the pass."

"Let them dream!"

"Why don't we charge out?" someone suggested.

"General, let me, I'll definitely kill those clowns." A general requested to fight.

Witnessing the heavy casualties, the Alliance Army defending general could not sit still.

Speaking of which, this defending general could also be considered half a famous person. He was under Yuan Shao's camp during the Three Kingdoms Period - General Yan Liang. Yan Liang in history was truly killed by Guan Yu. However, in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he was more of a tragic character.

As the top general under Yuan Shao's camp, Yan Liang was famous for his courage and could not be underestimated.

A year ago, after taking down Guilin Prefecture, Chuanbei City-State and Xiangnan City-State had split the work.

Chuanbei City-State would be in charge of defending the west side Xuanwu Pass, and Xiangnan City-State was in charge of defending the newly built pass on the east that was opposite to the Withered Flower Pass.

Yan Liang was a general under West Gate Big Official. A month ago, he was sent here to be the pass defending general.

The current situation was obvious. If they did not destroy the cannons, they had no chance of victory at all.

Yan Liang was also a fierce general. He did not have any plans, so he listened to the words of his men. He gritted his teeth and decided to use the method he was best at, "Fang Jin!"

"Present!"

A young general received the order and stepped out, filled with anticipation about the fight.

No matter if it was due to face or other considerations, the troops that the various territories sent to the Alliance Army were their best. Even if the generals they sent were not historical generals, they would be generals from the wilderness like Zhao Si Hu.

To fear before even fighting was not their style.

In their eyes, no matter how strong the enemy cannons were, the enemy only had eight of them. There was no reason a 50 thousand strong alliance army would be scared of just eight cannons, where would their face go if this news spread out.

Yan Liang ordered, "Lead five thousand elite cavalry out of the city to break their cannons."

Since it was a sneak attack, they could not send too many troops.

If five thousand cavalry were utilized well, it would be good enough to complete the mission.

From this order alone, one could see how experienced Yan Liang was.

"Yes!" Fang Jin cupped his fists, "If I do not destroy the cannons, I'll give you my head."

"Go!" Yan Liang waved him off.

Fang Jin nodded, turning his head and leaving.

...

Amongst the cannon noises, Fang Jin led five thousand elite cavalry and charged over.

When Zhang Han saw this move, a cold smile flashed across the corner of his mouth, "I've been waiting for you!"

"Crossbowmen, get ready!"

With a 'Shua!' tens of thousands of crossbowmen suddenly appeared behind the sword-shield soldiers.

"Shoot!"

The moment the cavalry got into range, an arrow rain that covered the skies rained down.

All of a sudden, numerous bolts and arrows fired out, causing the cavalry and the enemy troops at the front to topple.

"Shoot again!"

After the first round, the cavalry had covered 50 to 60 meters.

The second row of crossbowmen received the order; this time, they shot straight instead.

Another round of insane firepower.

During this period of time, the eight cannons aimed at the cavalry formation, and the cannonballs were exploding in the midst of it. Many of the horses were startled when they heard such a loud sound for the first time. Instantly, the entire formation was thrown into chaos.

After two rounds, half of the cavalry were lost.

"Charge!"

Fang Jin charged at the front; he was truly passionate and crazy.

Cavalry were still cavalry. Using this short time, after just two rounds of attacks, they managed to close in on the cannon. Although the P1 Type Cannons had been modified, they still could not be taken down from the battlefield, and it looked like they were going to be destroyed.

Fang Jin looked at the cannons that were getting closer and closer with a look of excitement.

As long as he was able to destroy the enemy cannons, any sacrifice was worth it.

Without the cannons, the enemies would not be able to take down Xuanwu Pass.

Just at this moment, the cannons stopped firing and the archers moved aside.

The eight sword-shield soldier units that were originally guarding beside the cannons swiftly formed up in front of them, making the first line of defense. Following which, the spearmen followed up, forming the second line.

At the same time, light armored cavalry troops flanked from the left and right wings, stabbing directly into the enemy cavalry formation.

When Fang Jin saw this situation, his eyes narrowed.

The strength and ability of the Shanhai City Army had far exceeded his expectations. In such a short amount of time, they actually efficiently and perfectly changed their formation. The entire process was like flowing water, without a single pause.

What Fang Jin did not know was how many times the 2nd legion had practiced this in the camp. They had done no less than ten practical battle situations.

With Zhang Han's ability, pretty much any enemy reaction was predicted and was matched with a formation. When they reached the battlefield, it was just using what they had practiced.

With such planning, how could they not win?

The reason why a famous general was famous was because of such ability, much less a top class famous general like Zhang Han. The pre-battle plans were so precise, considering every possibility.

Along with the battle commanding, how could someone of Yan Liang's caliber compare with him?

Sword-shield soldiers, spearmen, and light armored cavalry formed a killing formation, wrapping up the Alliance Army cavalry. In less than an hour, they all fell.

Under the three-sided combination attack, the five thousand elite cavalry could not advance and tried to escape, resulting in their deaths.

On the city wall, Yan Liang and the other generals looked on as their cavalry were cornered to death; their eyes were filled with fury. While they felt angry, a thread of fear rose up.

"Don't tell me that this is the true ability of the Shanhai City Army?" Some of the general's faces were ashen white.

It was like they had fallen into a perfectly crafted trap. No matter how they tried to struggle, the end result proved that it was all useless. A sense of helplessness rose in their hearts.

"Damn it!"

Yan Liang's face was really ugly; he appeared extremely anxious and defeated. Yan Liang, who was born in the Three Kingdoms Era, had not been exposed to modern technology, so he knew nothing about cannons.

Even though he was strong, he did not dare to raise his head in front of such a monster.

The 50 thousand Alliance Army troops that were housed in the pass were mainly infantry with less than 10 thousand cavalry. After losing five thousand, the remaining cavalry would not be able to do much.

As for arranging the infantry to launch a sneak attack, Yan Liang totally had no confidence that it would work.

Yan Liang was not stupid. Looking at the enemy formation, he could see that they came prepared. No matter what the alliance army did, they were prepared.

In truth, as long as the Aliance Army fought outside of the city, their strategy was a losing one.

The 50 thousand Alliance Army's key to winning was the Xuanwu Pass. The moment they came out, no matter how they struggled, they would not be able to win.

The only difference would be how many casualties the enemy had to pay.

Hence, with the cannons, the enemy could not lose. On the contrary, the alliance army had no way of winning.

After thinking about the outcome, Yan Liang felt more pent up frustration.

During the Three Kingdoms Era, Yan Liang had fought many city defense battles. For the sieges during the Three Kingdoms, each and every one was stacked up with losses in human life.

Using such a weapon to ensure victory was a method that totally did not exist at that time. Facing the situation at hand, Yan Liang was helpless and had no idea about how to handle it.

Yan Liang looked around and asked, "Do any of you have any ideas?"

When the others heard his words, they all looked at one another; their faces were not as excited and as willing to fight as before. They were not fools, since Yan Liang could understand the situation, they could too.

The situation at hand was that destroying the enemy cannons was impossible.

Defending was not an option either.

The only option was to retreat; if not, they would only be buried in the Xuanwu Pass.

The problem was that every general present was clear about the importance of Xuanwu Pass. The moment they lost it, not to mention how the City-State would deal with them, their own Lords would not let them leave.

Hence, no one wanted to call the retreat.

Everyone present was smart, and no one wanted to bear the blame.

When Yan Liang saw this situation, his temper flared, and he wanted to kick all of them. However, they were not his subordinates, so there was nothing he could do.

Taking a step back, as the defending general, he had to take the blame.

Gritting his teeth, Yan Liang ordered the retreat, "Since you all have no good ideas, let's back off to Weiwu Pass and wait for the decision from the command center!"

The Weiwu Pass he referred to was a pass that the City-State built at the side of Guilinn. It was a last form of defense if Xuanwu Pass was lost.

Now, it seemed like constructing it was the right decision, and it would help win some breathing space for the alliance army.

When the generals heard that they were going to retreat, they heaved a sigh of relief.

When Yan Liang saw their reactions, a cold smile appeared on his face. Under the situation that the enemy attacked Xuanwu Pass, in addition to the narrow retreat route, it was easy to be chased up.

If they wanted to retreat, they needed to arrange for a backline to cover for them.

"Who will stay back?"

Yan Liang looked at all of them with a mysterious look in his eyes.

Chapter 751 - Famous in One Battle

Yan Liang chose two scapegoats to continue defending Xuanwu Pass while the army quietly retreated towards Weiwu Pass. Under the heavy cannon fire, Xuanwu Pass was devoid of all forms of life and was filled with death.

The unusual situation with the Alliance Army was quickly noticed by the 2nd legion.

"General, the situation is not right, is the enemy falling back?"

Zhang Han also had such doubts, thinking about it, he ordered decisively, "Shoot the city gates and get ready to enter!"

"Yes commander!"

Amongst the rumbling of the cannons, the city gates broke apart.

The army was like a black flood as they swarmed into Xuanwu Pass, but only five thousand defending soldiers met them.

These two scapegoats lacked courage and righteousness. When they saw the enemy fight into the pass, they cleanly chose to surrender. They answered all the questions of Zhang Han willingly.

After learning that the main force of the Alliance Army had already retreated, Zhang Han immediately ordered, "Chen Yucheng!"

"Present!"

A young general answered and stepped out; this was one of the two great cavalry generals of the Taiping Country - Chen Yucheng.

Chen Yucheng was fearless in battle; and his comprehension ability was extremely high, obtaining the trust and recognition of Zhang Han. This general had grown into a pillar of the 2nd legion.

Ouyang Shuo had instructed long ago that be it Chen Yucheng or Li Xiucheng who was under the charge of Di Qing, the various legion generals needed to focus on developing these kids with potential and help grow them into true talents.

Especially generals such as Li Xiucheng, who was born in the Qing Dynasty, and Chen Yucheng from the Taiping Country. They were familiar with firearms and were the best choices for leading the future firearm forces.

"I order you to lead five thousand cavalry and chase them. Remember this: do not be greedy for credit. Before you reach Weiwu Pass, immediately stop." Zhang Han ordered.

"Yes commander!"

Chen Yucheng cupped his fists and went to follow the order.

After a short while, five thousand elite cavalry charged out of Xuanwu Pass and chased after the enemy.

Zhang Han led his troops to take over Xuanwu Pass and take charge of the fallen soldiers and clean up the battlefield. At the same time, he needed to write the battle map to the Leopard Legion Corps Marshal Han Xin and wait for orders regarding the next course of action to take.

...

Chen Yucheng led the troops to chase. Just as he entered the middle portion, he found the retreating Alliance Army.

"Kill!"

Chen Yucheng did not hesitate at all and directly charged toward them.

Between the two passes, there was only a narrow connecting mountain pass. This narrow path and was only three to four meters wide, so the 40 thousand Alliance Army troops formed a long dragon. The front troops had entered the Wuwei Pass while the back troops were still halfway there.

Facing the attacks of Zhang Han's forces from behind, Yan Liang was prepared.

Apart from the five thousand soldiers that were left back at the Xuanwu Pass, Yan Liang arranged forces to be in charge of defending the backlines. However, he had made one mistake; he had underestimated the decisiveness of Zhang Han.

The moment he noticed that the situation was not right, Zhang Han immediately ordered troops to enter the pass. Furthermore, when he received the intel that the enemy had backed off, he arranged an elite cavalry force to chase them.

With that, he had caught the back troops totally off guard.

On the narrow mountain path, the sword-shield soldiers in charge of covering their retreat were stabbed into by the cavalry Chen Yucheng that led before they could even form up.

If someone looked down from the skies, they would see the five thousand elite cavalry act like a sharp arrow stabbing right into the enemy lineup. Then, they were like a skewer stabbing through meat, penetrating all the way through.

The cavalry passed anything they charged through, be it sword-shield soldiers or spearmen. They were either crushed to death or pierced through by the spears of the cavalry. Even more of them were pushed off the mountain path and down the valley.

The situation was complete chaos.

Chen Yucheng was extremely smart, and he did not intend to kill all the enemies. His mind was only filled with one thought – to charge, charge and charge; he aimed to split the enemy troops apart and crush their mental strength.

On the narrow mountain path, the field of sight seemed really small.

The troops at the back felt terrified when they faced such a charge by the cavalry. They totally did not know how many enemy troops there were, and they were only occupied with running to the front.

"Run, the enemy is here!"

The soldiers threw down the heavy resources and items that they were carrying and squeezed forwards like rabbits.

"How many are there?" The sergeant asked.

Another soldier replied, "At least five thousand!"

"What, five thousand? At least ten thousand!" Another one retorted.

The sergeant's face turned ashen white from fear as he threw down the stuff that he was carrying and tried to escape as well.

The soldiers were like a group of terrified rabbits as they hobbled forward.

Their emotions were like dominos as the fear spread toward the front.

During this entire process, the enemy numbers they reported seemingly snowballed. First, it was five thousand, then ten thousand, and then 20 thousand. At the very end, the numbers had reached 100 thousand.

"100 thousand? The enemy legion only has 70 thousand men, where did 100 thousand come from?" The sergeant felt doubtful.

Another soldier once again said confidently, "You do not know this, but the enemy sent more than one legion."

"Brother your words make sense."

When the sergeant heard these words, he did not care whether or not the words made sense. In fact, he just wanted to quickly escape into Weiwu Pass.

The troops that had not entered the Weiwu Pass were in chaos. During this period of time, stepping on comrades, brother betraying brother, and similar incidents were numerous. Solely soldiers being stepped on by their own men numbered no less than 500.

At this point, Yan Liang who had entered the pass realized that the situation was not right, "What's happening?"

"General, the enemy has chased over." the deputy general replied.

"How many people came? Why have you all panicked?"

"100 thousand!"

The deputy general stammered; it was obvious that he was uncertain, and he did not know whether he should trust this intel. The problem was that all the soldiers who escaped into the pass all claimed that the enemy numbered 100 thousand.

Each of them swore on their lives, and they looked really honest about it.

Such sincerity; if their officer said they did not trust them, the soldiers would reply that they would rather just jump down the city wall to prove their innocence.

'Pa!'

A crisp sound rang as the furious Yan Liang could not take it anymore, whipping out and giving the deputy general a blue black.

"Scumbag! 100 thousand troops? Are you joking, you can even believe that?"

The foolishness of the deputy general had totally enraged Yan Liang.

"I'm sorry!"

The general did not dare to retort; he just kneeled down onto the ground.

"You fool!"

Yan Liang could not stand seeing such an idiot; it was killing him, "Scram!"

After dealing with the deputy general, Yan Liang went up to the city wall and looked toward the mountain path, and his expression became solemn all of a sudden.

On the long mountain path, the Alliance Army was in total chaos.

The enemy cavalry roamed fearlessly amongst them; it was like they were harvesting wheat as they collected the lives of the Alliance Army. The chaotic Alliance Army did not have any intentions to fight as they just ran; they were just trying to keep their lives.

On the two sides of the mountain foot, numerous Alliance Army soldiers were trying their best to escape.

"General, should we send an army down to assist?" Another deputy general suggested carefully.

Yan Liang shook his head, "It's no use. The mountain path is too narrow, so sending troops now will only block their way of retreating and will only add to their fear."

'It might even chaos greater panic and chaos!' As for this sentence, Yan Liang did not say out loud.

"Then, then what should we do?"

Yan Liang expression was extremely cold, "Wait for another half an hour. After which, immediately close the city gates."

"Yes general!"

The deputy general felt his heart tremble; he did not dare to say anything.

Yan Liang could not be blamed for being cruel. Although he did not believe that the enemy troops would number 100 thousand, he still did not know how many enemies there were. What if the enemy took this chance to charge into Weiwu Pass? That would be fantastic.

A merciful person would not be placed in charge of troops; this was the reason behind it.

...

'Honglong!'

Half an hour later, the Weiwu Pass city gates slowly closed, determined and resolute.

One city gate helped separated two worlds.

Those who entered were safe while those who did not were like fish on the chopping board; they were there for the slaughter.

Some of the soldiers who escaped to the city gate with much difficulty were mercilessly blocked outside of the city gate. Each one of them was desperate. The despair they felt contained rage and craziness.

The despair from being abandoned spread amongst the soldiers.

"Open up, open the gates!"

"Open the gates; let us in."

"General, save us!"

In contrast to Xuanwu Pass, Weiwu Pass only had 20 thousand troops present. Hence, as a general under West Gate Big Official, the moment Yan Liang moved in, he immediately took charge of command.

The Weiwu Pass did not even dare make a fart.

Not to mention other matters, West Gate Big Official was the top Lord in Chuanbei City-State, the true giant.

Yan Liang did not loosen his stance and no one dared to open the city gates.

In such a short while, Chen Yucheng led his troops and rushed near Weiwu Pass. When he saw the shut city gates, he smiled coldly. The reaction of the enemy was as expected.

"Stop your advance."

Chen Yucheng was not blinded by all the killings and remembered the instructions of Zhang Han.

With a 'Shua', the 5 thousand cavalry that had suffered basically no loses even in such a chaotic environment all stopped in unison.

Such strong discipline was not something the Alliance Army could compare to.

"Send the orders, anyone who surrenders will not be killed."

Chen Yucheng followed up the orders as he saw that the Alliance Army troops outside were already on a different page with the troops inside the city.

"Yes general!"

All of a sudden, hundreds of light armored cavalry went out and scattered to spread the order for the enemy to surrender.

The moment the Alliance Army soldiers heard this news, since the city gate in front of them was closed, what loyalty was there to speak of? They rather not do anything and chose to directly surrender.

With someone taking the lead, more and more people decided to surrender.

All of a sudden, there were countless people who surrendered. At the later stages, those soldiers who were still hesitating trembled and surrendered as well when they saw that all their allies had surrendered.

They were really worried that if they dragged on, they would be tied up by their allies and dragged to claim war merits.

Rather than that, why not just surrender now?

They had heard that the strength of the Shanhai City Army far exceeded them, so why would they hesitate?

On the city wall, when Yan Liang saw this situation, his face became even uglier.

This day was really hard to pass for Yan Liang.

...

Chen Yucheng did not dare to waste any more time. Moreover, he did not want to provoke the Alliance Army troops on the wall at this moment. After cleaning up, he led the tens of thousands of surrendered soldiers back on the route to Xuanwu Pass.

During this battle, Chen Yucheng used five thousand cavalry to kill six thousand enemies and capture 10 thousand, a great win.

Even Zhang Han who ordered this chase would not have expected such great results.

General Chen Yucheng had gotten famous in one battle!

Chapter 752 - Last Chance

When Chen Yucheng moved the prisoners back to Xuanwu Pass, news about the fall of Xuanwu Pass had already been spread. Ouyang Shuo, who was still touring Shaozhou Prefecture, had decided to give Chen Yucheng a special reward.

After taking down Xuanwu Pass, the Leopard Legion Corps was still not satisfied. The two legions gave the impression that they could enter Guilin Prefecture through both the Weiwu Pass and the new Guiping Pass.

With the P1 Type Cannons helping them, the fall of these two passes was just a matter of time.

...

Both Chuanbei City-State and Xiangnan City-State had received the news, and they were not as calm.

Shanhai City had just taken down Lingnan City-State with lightning speed, and their troops were at their sharpest. As their neighbors, the two City-States felt extremely terrified and were worried that someday the flames of war would burn into their territory.

However, Shanhai City had made it very clear that they wanted to first get rid of Yunnan City-State, which gave them some breathing room. Who knew that at such a sensitive time, Shanhai City would suddenly take down Xuanwu Pass?

The Lords from the two City-States gathered together once more to discuss their plans.

"What is the goal of Shanhai City? Are they trying to divert our attention once more when their true goal is to attack both of us?" The Lords were terrified.

"No way, with their current soldier numbers, there is no way they can deal with us both at the same time."

'Then, what if their goal is actually just one of us?"

"...."

The situation instantly quietened down, and the Lords all exchanged glances with one another.

The atmosphere of the entire hall instantly became rather queer.

If Shanhai City was truly going to choose from one of them, they would naturally wish that Shanhai City would choose the other party.

The Lords of Chuanbei City-State were even more terrified.

After all, the one that the 2nd legion attacked was their Alliance Army.

Just at this moment, someone stepped out and said, "It's impossible, Shanhai City definitely would not start a war with us at this moment."

"What makes you think so?"

Seeing that the one that spoke was Zhang Liang, they did not dare to take his words lightly. The strength and intelligence of Zhang Liang was something they had all witnessed before.

At the current moment, the two City-States desperately needed some news to lift their spirits.

"The time is not right, the location is not right, and the tactics are not right." Zhang Liang said three reasons that were not right.

"Let's mention the time. Currently, the Shanhai City Army is organizing itself, and the three new legions have not been formed yet. At such a time, it is really stupid to fight, and it does not fit the style of Shanhai City.

"Let's talk about the location. After taking down Lingnan City-State, the Shanhai City Army could have used Shaozhou Prefecture to directly attack Xiangnan Province, but they did not do that. They could also use Kunming Prefecture to attack Chuanbei Province. Why would they choose a central location like Guilin Prefecture and alert both of us?

"The last one would be the tactics. Looking at how they fought, each battle they would use many legion corps. This time, only the 2nd legion was sent out, and not even the 1st legion was sent out to attack Guiping Pass. If they really wanted to attack us, they definitely would not do this."

"Furthermore, the 2nd legion did not chase the win to attack Weiwu Pass. If they were really going to take us down, why didn't they continue to use their cannons?"

Zhang Liang looked around at the various Lords and said confidently, "So Shanhai City definitely would not fight here."

The moment they heard his words, the Lords could not help but clap. All of them were fully energized, like they had placed down all the weight on their shoulder. The gloominess from before was swept away.

"Well said, it could not be more correct!"

"That's right; this must be the case!"

The various Lords did not hold back their praises.

The emotions they were feeling was something only someone they could understand.

When Xuanwu Pass had fallen, everyone present had panicked; they felt that their world had become much darker.

Only after going through a real war did they truly feel so much fear toward Shanhai City. Unknowingly, Shanhai City had become a giant mountain that was making it hard for them to breathe.

The Lords who had now regained their senses once again asked Zhang Liang respectfully, "Mister, since Shanhai City has no intentions to fight, what is their goal in taking down Xuanwu Pass?"

Zhang Liang's expression was rather complicated, "According to my expectations, they want to take back Guilin Prefecture."

"...."

The Lords all realized that they had no way to fight back.

A year ago, when they had taken down Guilin Prefecture, they were all gleeful. How would they have expected that in just a year, Shanhai City would have already become so strong?

The originally beautiful Guilin Prefecture had instantly become a hot potato.

"Then, should we just return it to them?" Some Lords asked carefully.

"What return? They are our sworn enemy. If we give it back to them, what face do would we have left? Before Zhang Liang even said anything, some of the Lords had already opposed the suggestion.

"If you do not return it, they would just take it. At that time, when the Shanhai City Army charges into Guilin Prefecture, what troops do we use to block them?" A Chuanbei City-State Lord retorted.

"If they want war, let's have war. What can they do to our two City-States?"

"It's easy for you to say that. Did you forget how Lingnan City-State was destroyed?"

...

The Lords debated, and the whole situation was an unhappy one.

Furthermore, Caiyun Zinan, West Gate Big Offical, and the other top Lords of the City States did not make a clear stance. Zhang Liang as a strategist did not have the right to speak, so the entire situation was chaotic to the extreme.

In the end, everyone left unhappily.

Just as the two City-States were unsettled and had conflicting views, on the 24th day, the Nanjiang Governor-General House Honglu Temple sent out their envoy to the two City-States to send out the last warning by their Monarch.

Ouyang Shuo announced:

'A year ago, you two took the opportunity to use unscrupulous means to take down Guilin Prefecture. A year later, Shanhai City is ready to take back Guilin, so I hope you two will not make any useless resistance.

If you two City-States are willing to return Guilin Prefecture peacefully, not only will we not take any action, we are also willing to open up trade channels with you to and allow the two City-States to use our naval trade routes.

If you two reject to return Guilin Prefecture, the Shanhai City Army will protect the honor of our territory and use force to take back Guilin. Even if we have to pay a heavy price, we will still take action.

You two do not need to doubt our determination and honor we hold to defend our territory.

As for what choice you make, we give you three days to give a reply.'

...

This warning used both hard and soft methods, hanging a carrot on a stick for them.

In the words of Caiyun Zinan, "This is shameless to the max. Them attacking Lingnan City-State was logical and fair, but us taking down Guilin Prefecture is unscrupulous?"

When Zhang Liang heard Caiyun Zinan's words, he frowned. Does his Lord still not understand till now that as a Lord, especially in the wilderness, being shameless was a virtue?

Shanhai City knowing when to use the moral high ground was in itself a smart act.

If a normal citizen said such words it could be understood, but Caiyun Zinan was a famous Lord in the wilderness. It was really childish to say such words.

Shanhai City's act was truly ingenious.

Just as Zhang Liang had guessed, Shanhai City had no intentions of fighting with the two City-States. Occupying Xuanwu Pass was just to make a cushion for this diplomatic act.

The real goal was to take back Guilin Prefecture without spilling a single drop of blood.

With that, not only would they wash the shame of losing Guilin Prefecture, they could also stabilize the north and help clear a ticking time bomb for the upcoming Battle of Yunnan.

More importantly, it would bury seeds of doubts in the two City-States that Shanhai City could not be stopped and give them the psychological advantage.

This was killing three birds with one stone.

The current Shanhai City could be considered to truly have the power of an overlord. It did not just use force to settle matters and instead used various methods.

Meanwhile, the two City-States were still having internal conflicts.

Zhang Liang had less and less hope for the future of Xiangnan City-State. However, since he had already gotten on this boat, he would not get off it.

Even if it sinks, he was going to sink with it.

As for the opening of trade channels, and the reconciliation mentioned, it was obvious that Shanhai City had set some traps inside; it would not be that simple.

However, such bait was something that the Lords would find extremely hard to reject.

Any person could have the mentality of an ostrich, and the Lords were no exception. Since they could reconcile with Shanhai City, they could survive without trepidation and even engage in ocean trading. Such bait was one that they would find truly hard to reject.

The truth was just that.

The first to break was Chuanbei City-State.

During the Battle of Xuanwu, Chuanbei City-State lost at total of 26 thousand troops.

Heart pained!

But terrifying!

Facing the troops of Shanhai City, they had no confidence at all to defend Guilin Prefecture.

Thanks to the attacks of the Honglu Temple, the internal circle of Chuanbei City-State had many Lords that were friends with Shanhai City and had limited animosity for them.

The current Shanhai City had reached out with an olive branch, so why wouldn't they accept it? Not just them, even top Lords like West Gate Big Official was hesitating.

The huge profits from ocean trading were something that very few Lords could reject.

Under the support of people with intentions, along with the persuasion from the envoy, Chuanbei City-State agreed internally to back away from Guilin Prefecture.

The situation was proceeding just as Ouyang Shuo wished.

Chapter 753 - Han Xin vs. Li Mu

Jingchu Province, Pill Sun City.

When he received the news, Chun Shenjun was furious, breaking out, "Useless!"

The two City-States' flirtatious attitude was something that Chun Shenjun could not stand. The reconciliation message that Shanhai City sent out to the two City-States was what he felt uneasy about.

One must know that Xiangnan City-State was the last barrier between Pill Sun City and Shanhai City. The moment Xiangnan City-State reconciled with Shanhai City and engaged in trade, it would be a pretty awkward situation for Pill Sun City.

This chess move by Shanhai City was totally unexpected.

Chun Shenjun did not believe that Qiyue Wuyi truly desired reconciliation. It was just his plan to slow down the situation.

However, the Lords in the two City-States seemed to not notice this point and willingly jumped into the trap. Obviously, Chun Shenjun would be furious about it.

"No, we definitely cannot let Shanhai City get away with this!" Chun Shenjun's expression was really dark, "Men!"

"Lord!"

The one who came was the head of the Pill Sun City intel organization, Chun Xiao, his codename was Xiao.

"Activate all our hidden pieces in Xiangnan City-State, and try your best to prevent Xiangnan City-State from handing over Guilin Prefecture." Chun Shenjun ordered.

When Xiao heard this request, he hesitated, "Lord, the intel organizations of Shanhai City have been active in Xiangnan City-State. The moment we activate our hidden chess pieces, our entire plan there would be exposed."

Xiangnan City-State was an important guest of Pill Sun City, so it had been one of the focuses of Xiao. To bury and hide these hidden chess pieces, Xiao had spent a lot of manpower and money.

Occasionally, they would have some blood conflict with the Shanhai City intel organizations. The battle in the darkness was always incredibly cold and merciless. As everyone was nameless, it was even crueler.

Now, the Lord wanted to activate all of these hidden chess pieces, so Xiao was naturally worried about it.

Chun Shenjun sighed, "We are only doing this as we have no choice. If we do not do it, we cannot succeed."

In truth, even if he activated all of them, Chun Shenjun still was not confident about winning.

"Since we are going to try, let's go all out." Chun Shenjun was not a person who did not dare to take a gamble.

Xiao nodded his head with a serious expression.

"I understand; I will prepare everything well." Intel was a strategic goal of the territory. Since the Lord had already made his decision, Xiao would naturally follow it resolutely.

During the next three days, with the workings of Chun Xiao, the two City-States, especially the number of voices in Xiangnan City-State that opposed giving up Guilin Prefecture, suddenly became more louder and much more common.

The situation became blurrier and blurrier.

With that, Caiyun Zinan was all the more unwilling to take a stand, and even West Gate Big Official and the others became uncertain.

Because of Xiao, the situation that was slowly becoming clear was becoming more uncertain. A layer of fog hovered over these two City-States, making it hard for one to see what was going on within.

The huge show in Nanjiang slowly attracted the attention of everyone in China.

Players that understood what was going on in the inside knew that this was a battle between Shanhai City and Pill Sun City. However, the two City-States that were a part of the situation did not know that they were the chess pieces.

Only the outcome would reveal the superior party.

It seemed like Pill Sun City had the advantage but everyone knew that Shanhai City was yet to strike out.

The truth was exactly that.

10th month, 28th day, Guiping Pass.

Shanhai City was prepared to give them some medicine to cure the uncertainty of the Xiangnan City-State.

The following were the words of Leopard Legion Corps Marshal Han Xin, "The enemies are a group of worthless creatures. If we do not hit them where it hurts, they would not know the situation that they are facing."

On this day, the 1st legion of the Leopard Legion Corps officially moved toward Guiping Pass.

The P1 Type Cannons that were used to attack Xuanwu Pass had already been transported over. The huge army did not even bother to hide their tracks, traveling casually on the mountain path.

The ones defending Guiping Pass was the Alliance Army of the Xiangnan City-State; they had a total of 50 thousand troops. The defending general was the overall commander of the Guiping Prefecture Alliance Army; it was the warring states General Li Mu.

And within Guiping Prefecture, behind the Guiping Pass, Li Mu also planned 30 thousand reserve troops to help out at any moment. The number of troops in the three passes and the 30 thousand reserve forces added up to 150 thousand.

When Li Mu received the news, he sent out big words that he was going to bury the Leopard Legion Corps in the valley.

Speaking of which, Li Mu was one of the heaviest contributors to them taking down Guilin Prefecture. To the Shanhai City Army, especially to the Leopard Legion Corps, he was definitely a sworn enemy.

The pinnacle battle between Han Xin and Li Mu attracted the eyes of everyone.

It would be much harder for Shanhai City to take down Guiping Pass compared to Xuanwu Pass.

It was not because of how dangerous the pass was, or how majestic or how well built it was. It was only because Guiping Pass had a mountain path that could not be considered large and a large army could not fit on it.

This was the epitome of a land that was easy to defend and hard to attack.

To the attacking side, this was a land of death. Even if one sent many troops over, if the defenders took a rational and smart defense route, all of the attacking side's attempts would fall.

Hence, Li Mu's big words were not without reason.

In truth, if he did not have P1 Type Cannons, Han Xin pretty much would not have any confidence in taking down Guiping Pass. The Leopard Legion Corps had been housed in Withered Flower Stronghold for close to a year, yet they did not even think about attacking Guiping Pass. Their lack of action was not without reason.

Han Xin's title of War Immortal meant that he was good at grasping the situation and definitely was not a reckless person.

Apart from the P1 Type Cannon, Han Xin had made other preparations.

Taking down Guilin Prefecture was part of the military strategy for the second half of the 3rd year. It was a strategic goal that Shanhai City definitely must accomplish.

Regarding this matter, the various departments of the Military Affairs Bureau all wrote various plans to solve the scenarios that could crop up.

In the words of the Monarch, "It's best if Guilin Prefecture could be taken back peacefully. If it cannot, we can just start war. Hence, the Leopard Legion Corps has to make preparations to start a war."

To take down Guiping Pass, Han Xin had spent a lot of effort and time thinking of ideas.

...

At 10 AM, the 1st legion of the Leopard Legion Corps proceeded on the mountain path.

Walking at the front of the Leopard Legion Corps 1st legion was their 1st division, which was the Heavy Armored Mountain Barbarian Infantry Division.

In terms of hatred toward Li Mu, nobody could compare to the mountain barbarian soldiers.

During the battle at the pass a year ago, the ones defending Xuanwu Pass and Guiping Pass was the 1st independent Mountain Barbarian Division led by the young mountain barbarian general, Shihu.

In that battle, the entire independent division was nearly wiped out, and they did not even get a call sign for their division.

Hence, the mountain barbarian soldiers held a deep hatred toward Li Mu and the Alliance Army that he led. Not being able to join in the Battle of Xuanwu Pass already made the mountain barbarian soldiers feel extremely unhappy.

Now that they finally had a chance to face off against Li Mu's Alliance Army, the blood of all the mountain barbarian soldiers boiled.

Just at this moment, the sounds of horse hooves rang in front of them.

Turning a corner, a cavalry appeared. Upon closer inspection, it was the vanguard sent to scout ahead.

"Emergency report, the enemy is sneak attacking!"

The cavalry was panicking; he swung the flag that represented danger in his hand.

When the 1st division Major General Liao Kai saw this signal, he immediately ordered, "Stop the advance!"

Before Liao Kai could step up to ask him what exactly was happening, a sharp arrow shot through the air and pierced the chest of the vanguard. He fell off his horse, seemingly devoid of life.

Along with the sharp arrow were even louder horse hooves sounds.

The rumbling caused the ground to shake, dust flew up, and the stones on the ground jumped up.

"Enemy sneak attack, form up!"

Instinctively, Liao Kai gave emergency orders.

The well trained mountain barbarian warriors immediately formed up on the mountain path, pointing their shields forward.

Before they could stabilize their footing, the enemy cavalry swept toward them like a hurricane.

"What a Li Mu!"

He truly was special, sending troops to attack when the Leopard Legion Corps was still travelling. Such a strategy where the defending troops started the attack was totally unheard of.

Li Mu's plan was rather simple; he wanted to destroy the enemy cannons while they were still transporting them.

His actions were also to send a warning to the enemy.

Regarding the fall of Xuanwu Pass, Li Mu had conducted some rather detailed research. He had been thinking of ways to break the cannons in the enemy's hand.

Such a sneak attack was just one of his bold ideas.

As for the outcome, only time would tell.

For Li Mu to destroy the cannon whilst they were travelling was pretty much an impossible task. With Han Xin's ability, he naturally would place the cannons in the safest center of the troops. How would he give the Alliance Army a chance?

But the warning did succeed.

Even Han Xin did not expect that the Alliance Army would attack at such a time.

When the 1st division stopped, the troops behind them were shocked and confused.

Just at this moment, killing shouts spread out from the front.

"What's happening?"

In the middle of the troops, Han Xin called over the messenger.

"Commander, the front troops have suffered a sneak attacked by the enemy cavalry, and they are defending with their lives."

"Sneak attack?" Han Xin was astonished, but he could roughly guess the enemy's intentions, "What a guy, he probably is here to show his superiority."

"Send orders to the 1st division, take down the enemy." Han Xin ordered decisively.

Han Xin naturally had a lot of confidence in the Mountain Barbarian Division.

Luckily, the 1st division was at the forefront. If it was a normal Infantry Division, they would definitely be in chaos.

Han Xin knew some things about Li Mu.

Speaking of which, Li Mu could be considered Han Xin's senior. This Warring States general had gotten famous during the war against Xiongnu. In the end, he conquered the land and became one of the top generals of the Zhao State.

Li Mu's cavalry army was one of the top 10 armies in history.

Hence, Li Mu was extremely familiar and proficient with cavalry tactics. Based on the intel from the Military Intelligence Division, the cavalry forces under him now had the style of the Zhao Country cavalry and were exceedingly strong.

Even their weapons were the crescent knives from that time.

Within the territory, probably only Huo Qubing, that god of cavalry, could compete against Li Mu.

Chapter 754 - Spiral-style Cavalry Tactic

The battle between Li Mu's cavalry and the Heavy Armored Mountain Barbarian Infantry Division was like a clash between the sharpest spear and the strongest shield. Especially on the narrow mountain path, it was a massive test of the technical ability of both sides.

The cavalry forces stabbed into the mountain barbarian formation like a sharp knife. With their exquisite riding skills, they made the mountainous terrain look like flat ground.

"Block!" The mountain barbarian major on the front row ordered.

With a 'Shua!' many exquisitely crafted steel shields were raised up, forming shield walls at the front. They stacked up three layers, resulting in a wall that was even half a meter taller than a horse's head.

There was a black leopard carved into the outer portion of the shield, looking cold as ice under the rays of the sun. Behind the shield, there would be a mountain barbarian who held onto a war axe in his other hand, using all his energy to hold up the shield.

As they were hurried into the battle, the entire formation process was not that smooth. If one looked closer, they would be able to see the sweat on the palms on the mountain barbarians and the popping out veins on their foreheads.

They were both nervous and excited.

'Hong!'

The high speed charging cavalry was like tanks, crashing into the mountain barbarians on the frontlines with an unstoppable aura.

The shield wall was immediately crushed. Group after group of elite war horses leaped into the air under the instructions of their riders, jumping over the collapsed shield wall.

In mid-air, the white light from the crescent knives shone as fresh blood splattered.

The mountain barbarian soldiers who could not dodge in time were either slain or crushed into a paste.

The first line of defense was broken just like that.

The attack from the cavalry was just too sudden, and the mountain barbarians did not have any time to prepare. No matter how well trained they were, they could not instantly go from a resting mode to a battle mode.

Whilst traveling, the weapons and equipment of the soldiers were all kept.

Hence, to hurriedly prepare for battle was a difficult task.

More crucially, since they were traveling on a mountain path, the frontline was not equipped with archers. One could imagine how scary it was when the enemy cavalry charged forward without the distraction and interference of archers.

Moreover, Li Mu's cavalry was truly strong.

However, the mountain barbarian warriors were still mountain barbarians.

After that early setback, the forces at the back immediately reacted.

In such a short while, an even bigger shield formation was formed. Li Mu's cavalry could feel that the resistance from the front was evidently growing stronger and stronger.

Occasionally, they would be struck from the sides by war axes.

What was even worse was that the leading cavalry general could only see closely packed mountain barbarians and could not even see any cannons.

Wanting to break through the entire mountain barbarian defense line was pretty much an impossible task.

"Retreat!"

The leading cavalry general was extremely decisive, giving up immediately.

With his order, the well trained cavalry forces immediately changed their formations, and the frontlines became the back as they returned from the path they came from.

On such a narrow mountain path, the cavalry forces could actually totally turn around. If one did not witness it personally, they would find it hard to believe.

Li Mu's cavalry was truly worthy of its fame.

In such a short while, the enemy cavalry was like a whirlwind, coming quickly and leaving quickly. All they left in their wake was a pile of corpses.

The mountain barbarians looked on at the state of the messy battlefield then gazed toward the enemy. They could only watch on as they left; there was nothing they could do about it.

Li Mu's actions were very successful if one looked at the dejected expressions of the mountain barbarian soldiers. It sent out a clear signal: the Alliance Army does not fear the attacks of the Leopard Legion Corps!

When Han Xin received the frontline report, he muttered, "We got off on the wrong foot!" This was the first time Han Xin had witnessed Li Mu's style of fighting first hand.

In this round one of their faceoff, Li Mu had taken the lead.

After the short interruption, the troops continued forward.

A small loss would not be able to decide the outcome of the entire battle.

The true battle between the two would still be decided during the battle at Guiping Pass.

At 3 PM, the vanguard forces of the 1st legion, the Heavy Armored Mountain Barbarian Infantry Division, finally arrived outside Guiping Pass, and they set up camp.

Compared to the mountain path, the land in front of the pass was far more spacious. It was a total of 30 meters wide. Even so, it was still too narrow for the huge army.

The mountain barbarians panted; they sent deadly stares toward the stronghold in front of them as they started to form up.

In an hour, the various divisions arrived at the frontlines. The entire army stretched for 10 miles, but the ones that could truly threaten the fortress was only the 1st division.

The remaining four divisions were there to just look on.

After they moved into their formations, the P1 Type Cannons were finally pushed to the front and unveiled. The moment they were shown, they were instantly guarded by the mountain barbarian soldiers.

On the city wall, Li Mu looked at the cannons in the enemy formation with a rather complicated expression.

The cavalry sneak attack had not obtained the desired results. When he got the news, Li Mu knew that he was about to face a tough task.

Now, it was time to see if the second strategy he had planned would work.

...

As the cannons fired, the following battle scene was an exact carbon copy of what happened when the 2nd legion attacked Xuanwu Pass. Under the cannon fire, the Alliance Army in the pass had no way to fight back.

The only difference was that Han Xin ordered them to directly blow apart the Guiping Pass city gates. Under the heavy cannon fire, the giant city gates were left with many holes in them.

Han Xin was extremely sure that Li Mu would not easily give up on attacking the cannons. Hence, he would rather destroy the city gates right away than give the enemy a chance to sneak attack from it.

As expected, less than half an hour later, the Li Mu cavalry charged out once more. Compared to the last sneak attack, the scale this time was much greater, and it seemed like they had sent all they had.

The large cavalry army charged out of the wreckage of the city gates.

"Get ready!"

The moment the Li Mu cavalry showed themselves, the cannon fire immediately stopped.

If eight cannons fired at the same time, they would definitely cause damage to the cavalry. But it definitely would not stop them from charging to the front.

Although the P1 Type Cannon was modified by the No.7 Research Institute, its firing speed was still inferior to crossbows and even bows.

With such a short distance, the cannons could only fire once. How much damage could one round of cannon fire from eight cannons even cause?

At the current stage, only the infantry or more accurately put, the heavy armored infantry, could face the cavalry. Moreover, the Heavy Armored Mountain Barbarian Infantry were the best of the best.

The mountain barbarians had been lying in wait, ready for this battle; they quickly formed up in front of the cannons.

This time, they were prepared, and they were determined to make the enemy pay a blood price. After a few losses against them, the mountain barbarians hated the Li Mu cavalry.

"Come jerks, your grandfather will show you his strength!" The mountain barbarians were pumped.

Moreover, the bowmen planned by Han Xin were behind them.

This strategy was exactly the same as the one Zhang Han took. There was only one difference - Han Xin could not arrange cavalry on the sides due to space constraints.

Would a similar scene replay itself?

Han Xin looked at the Li Mu cavalry charging over, his brows locked tight. He definitely did not think that Li Mu would be so dumb to follow the strategy Yan Liang tried to use to destroy the cannons.

He definitely had a scheme.

Compared to Yan Liang, Li Mu was a strategic master.

What happened next proved that Han Xin's conjecture was correct.

After they charged out, they did not spread out following conventional tactics. Instead, they maintained their formation and moved in a narrow formation like an arrowhead.

Weirdly, after they broke through the 1st line of defense, they did not proceed. Instead, they split into two and turned toward the two wings.

The cavalry following them followed the hole that was formed and launched their second round of assault. After breaking the second line of defense, they too turned toward the two wings.

This process was repeated.

The entire cavalry force was like a drill. With lightning quick speed, they bore a hole into the mountain barbarian formation.

At the same time, the cavalry that went to the sides blocked the mountain barbarians from filling up the void and maintained this hole.

Needless to say, this strategy was designed by Li Mu specifically to destroy the cannons.

"How bold!"

The mountain barbarians in the formation hollered. Such humiliation made it feel like their dignity was being trampled on.

The mountain barbarian soldiers that reacted quickly moved toward the middle, cornering the cavalry that broke to the sides and killing them.

To cause more efficient damage, the mountain barbarians chose to give up the shields in their hands, chopping down at the legs of the horses. The moment a soldier was flung off their horse, they would be chopped into pieces.

In just a short amount of time, the Li Mu cavalry suffered heavy losses.

On the other side, the spiral-type attack tactic of Li Mu was working miraculously.

In less than 10 minutes, they had totally broken through the defensive formation. Two P1 Type Cannons were revealed in front of the cavalry.

The fate of the cannons went as expected.

Under the strikes of the cavalry, the two cannons were destroyed on the spot.

However, they still were not satisfied. The cavalry behind still wanted to follow the breach to attack the cannons on the two sides to destroy all eight of them.

Unfortunately, the strong mountain barbarians would not give them the chance.

The further they went in, the longer their formation was stretched. This meant that more and more of them were exposed. With that, the cavalry at the back was unable to spread to the sides.

Before they could even spread out, they were hacked down.

After the cavalry soldiers destroyed the two cannons, the mountain barbarians were furious to the max as they blocked up the breach from both sides.

The entire battlefield was like a pocket, and the mountain barbarian soldiers stitched up the pocket that had opened. Unknowingly, the entire cavalry army was mixed up with the mountain barbarians and tangled together.

Chapter 755 – First Air Strike in the Wilderness

The chaotic battle in front of Guiping Pass ended with the Li Mu cavalry retreating.

After the battle, the battlefield was in tatters.

Using the spiral cavalry sneak attack tactic, Li Mu had successfully destroyed two P1 Type Cannons; this was the maximum he could do. As for the remaining six cannons, there was nothing he could do about them.

In this battle alone, he had lost four thousand cavalry.

Similarly, a full 2500 mountain barbarians would be forever buried in this land.

The spiral cavalry tactic was undoubtedly a suicidal tactic. For every 800 enemies you kill, you would lose one thousand of your own. Even so, Li Mu would be famous across the wilderness because of this battle.

Not for other reasons but simply because he had provided an idea for the wilderness armies to destroy cannons. There was finally a way to counter the Shanhai City cannons.

The prerequisite would be that one was willing to make sacrifices.

When the P1 Type Cannons showed their strength during the Battle of Xuanwu Pass, the Lords of the wilderness all felt a chill run down their spine.

Some people even said that with the existence of the P1 Type Cannon, any fortress in front of them was useless and could not block their advances.

The only way to win was to directly fight outside of the city. Conventional tactics like defending the city walls would be totally useless before the P1 Type Cannons.

Yanhuang Alliance, on the other hand, invested a lot of money into quickening their cannon technology research and development.

Now, Li Mu had given them all a different solution.

"Well played!" Han Xin could not help but clap toward Li Mu's ingenuity. His expression changed, and a light shone in his eyes, "But it will end here."

"Send the orders, continue firing!"

"Yes commander!"

'Hong! Hong! Hong!'

The cannon fire sounded once again, breaking out as they pelted Guiping Pass.

Weirdly, no matter how the cannons shot at them, there was no reaction from atop the city wall. Despite an entire half an hour of cannon fire, Guiping Pass remained totally silent.

"Commander, did the enemy forces retreat?" The deputy general asked.

He was obviously worried that the enemy had chosen the same tactic as the one at Xuanwu Pass.

Han Xin shook his head and said confidently, "That's impossible. Guiping Pass is the last barrier, and the moment they retreat, they would be giving up Guilin Prefecture."

"Then what should we do?"

"The enemy has obviously given up on city defense; they are ready to fight us inside the city. Send the orders for the cannons to aim into the pass and clear out everything. Use the 1st division as the vanguard with the 2nd division helping to attack. Remind them to be careful in case there's a trap."

Han Xin had a whole new understanding of Li Mu's craftiness. He only gave up the city wall defense because he had no choice, and it was a truly smart decision.

As they put it, one would only make gains if they were willing to give up something.

Furthermore, even if they fought inside the city, the Alliance Army still held the advantage.

Li Mu's plan was smart, but it was also relatively risky. The moment they did not defend well in the pass, the entire Guiping Pass might just fall just like that.

Leading the wolf into the room will expose one to the risk of getting eaten.

Reality proved that Li Mu had prepared heavily for this battle, no wonder he dared to spread those big words before the battle.

The moment the 1st division entered the stronghold, a shocking scene greeted them. Apart from the region near the city walls that were in ruins, every other area was modified into a concentration of traps.

The Alliance Army used the streets, houses, and other buildings as a foundation for modification, setting up numerous traps. Barricades and arrow towers were small matters. On the streets, there were massive holes and many hidden crossbows on the roofs.

Silently, many bowmen lay on the two sides of the streets.

If they really attacked like this, they would suffer heavy casualties.

"Men, report the situation to the commander." Liao Kai was not going to take such rash action.

"Yes general!"

When Han Xin received the news, he did not know whether to laugh or cry.

"Is there really a need to do that?"

Han Xin was speechless. How stubborn must one be to go so far?

The trap that Li Mu set up could only slow down their attacks, and it was only temporary. It could not change the outcome of the battle and obtain any decisive advantages.

The diplomatic attacks launched by Shanhai City had already caused the mental strength of both City-States to wane. Taking down Guiping Pass was just to send a signal and to increase the chips in their hands.

Who knew that Li Mu would be stubborn to such a level?

"Does he truly want to drag both armies into a total war?" Han Xin had nothing to say.

As a God General, Han Xin knew more than fighting wars. He knew how to think from a larger perspective. Hence, he knew the strategic goal for attacking the pass, so he was not going to make too heavy sacrifices for nothing.

"It seems like we can only use our ultimate card! Send down the order for the Flying Squad from Withered Flower Stronghold to lay waste to Guiping Pass early tomorrow."

"Yes commander!"

The purple magnetic ohlite that Ouyang Shuo wore could give birth to one blue and two green magnetic ohlite every month. The green magnetic ohlite could already lower the flying devices.

Since he had left Atlantis, Ouyang Shuo already had three blue and six magnetic ohlite. These were all used to create a Flying Squad.

When Zheng He led the voyage squadron back to Gilbratar Port, Ouyang Shuo had instructed him to purchase 12 flying devices from Gaia.

After the Battle of Red Cliff ended, these 12 were transported to a secret base in Lianzhou Basin. The Military Affairs Bureau had recruited the first batch of pilots to be trained in the air force base.

Two months had passed, and this Flying Squad could finally show themselves in the wilderness. Their first showing was chosen to be at the north border battlefield.

During the Battle of Xuanwu Pass, Han Xin had requested to borrow the Flying Squad. The Military Affairs Bureau considered the needs of the battle and agreed.

However, the battle had proceeded rather smoothly, so the Flying Squad did not need to show themselves.

At this moment, their time had finally arrived.

Before they reached the frontlines, Han Xin ordered the 1st and 2nd division to back out of the pass, officially signaling the end of the first day of battle.

That night, the 1st legion camped in the wilderness.

...

10th month, 19th day, morning.

Welcoming the morning sun, the defending soldiers who were still deep in sleep were woken up. Before they could even react, specially modified burning bombs were dropped from the skies and split apart.

These were a type of 'bomb' specially researched and developed by the No.7 Research Institute for the flying devices. Naturally, it could not be compared to the bombs in real life, but they were easy to carry.

A flying device could carry 10 of these and each one was enough to light up an entire building.

The Flying Squad formed from nine flying devices had thrown all their burning bombs into the pass in a short 10 minutes before returning.

After they returned to Withered Flower Stronghold to resupply, they launched their next round of attacks.

Although these bombs were not as powerful as the ones in real life, it was enough to burn barricades, arrow towers, wooden buildings, and more.

As they did not have any aiming tools, and the newly trained flying squad was not that good at this yet, this was all experience-based. Naturally, it was a total mess, and their bombs fell everywhere.

If a modern officer saw their display, all of them would be removed from their posts.

Even so, it was enough to terrify an ancient army like the Alliance Army. The psychological blow was unprecedented.

There were some lucky shots that caused the soldiers laying in ambush in some of the hay stacks to be burned.

Since such an attack method had never been used before, the entire alliance panicked. The flames were like stars, shining bright all over, a truly majestic sight.

"Extinguish the fire, quickly!"

A proper army instantly became a firefighting squad.

Li Mu patrolled the cities, and his face was scarily gloomy. He did not expect that apart from cannons, the enemy would have such an unheard of weapon.

This time, Li Mu had totally lost confidence in the battle.

Before the troops regained their composure, the second round of attacks arrived. This time, the Flying Squad was much more accurate.

The fire that had not been put out blazed once more.

When the Alliance Army soldiers saw this situation, they really wanted to cry.

These assaults happened three times. Soon, it was already noon.

The Flying Squad used this mission as a training exercise, with Guiping Pass as a live target. They threw down the flaming bombs and gave their enemies a nightmare.

The endless bombing crushed their mental strength.

To make matters worse, the fires grew stronger and stronger; it looked like it could not be extinguished. If they continued to stay here, they truly would perish.

"General, let's retreat!" The deputy general said carefully, "Our entire army might revolt if don't give the order."

In truth, the reason why the Alliance Army could hold on till now was because of Li Mu. It was his prestige that saved them from collapsing on the spot.

Even so, there was a limit to how long they could hold on.

Li Mu said bitterly, "I know. Let's retreat!"

Their loss was not a loss in battle.

As a result, he felt even more annoyed. Now, he truly felt how strong Shanhai City was, and it was not just a military gap.

A sense of helplessness rose up in his heart. He had spent so much effort to think of new tactics but all of that could not compare to one round of bombing.

Li Mu felt that after he went back, he needed to catch up on his knowledge.

Chapter 756 – Taking Back Guilin Prefecture

Along with Li Mu ordering his troops to retreat, the Battle of Guiping officially ended.

The first appearance of the Shanhai City Flying Squad had stunned the wilderness, making everyone feel a chill run down their spine.

When Han Xin led the 1st legion into the Guiping Pass, he only found a deserted city. All the buildings inside were buried in an ocean of fire and were in ruins.

Broken walls and leftover buildings were there for everyone to see.

One could occasionally see charred corpses of Alliance Army soldiers who failed to retreat in time. Luckily, there were no commoners living in the pass, or else it would be a total tragedy.

After taking down Guiping Pass, all that stood in front of them was a vast plain.

Military experts and advisors once again concluded that under the cooperation of both the P1 Type Cannon and the Flying Squad, there was no city in the wilderness that could defend against the Shanhai City Army.

The wilderness was totally silent.

Unknowingly, Shanhai City's technology level had reached a step higher than other territories.

"If we do not catch up, we will never be able to lift our heads!" Di Chen tried his best to convince the members of the Yanhuang Alliance to set up a common research fund to share all their technology and data they had.

At the same time, this was the first time Di Chen and the others had turned their eyes to the world outside of China. If they wanted to break the technological bottleneck, without a base of western technology, it was useless no matter how many top scientists they had.

The restriction of the technological tree was like a curse.

During the silence, a technological battle was slowly taking place. In this battle, the people who fell behind would lose their chance to be an overlord of the wilderness.

The butterfly effect caused by Ouyang Shuo was slowly turning into a storm.

...

As the battle came to an end, the ripples continued.

Li Mu led his troops and retreated into Guilin Prefecture. After joining up with the 30 thousand defending forces, he reported the specific details of the battle and awaited further instructions.

The two City-States that had hidden powers lurking, upon learning that Guiping Pass had fallen, ended up in total chaos. Combined with the effects of the two envoys sent out by the Honglu Temple, it caused even more waves.

Persuasion, assassination, betrayal, schemes, and more occurred in the two City-States. Under the night sky, solely the rounds of battle between the Shanhai Guards and Xiao numbered no less than seven.

The Lords of the two City-States were all wrapped up in this chaotic whirlpool, unable to pull themselves out. Between war and peace, between Shanhai City and Pill Sun City, they had to make a choice.

The first to give up was still Chuanbei City-State.

The fall of Guiping Pass meant that they had lost their barrier. Guilin Prefecture was like a defenseless lady that was right there for the taking. It could be invaded at any moment.

What was worse was that the Alliance Army housed in Weiwu Pass could be attacked by the Shanhai City army at any moment. They had already lost 26 thousand troops in the Battle of Xuanwu Pass, and they could not take any more such losses.

11th month, 1st day, without consulting Xiangnan City-State, Chuanbei City-State pulled out their troops housed in Weiwu Pass back into Chuanbei Province.

The army did not even stop in Guilin Prefecture, directly returning to the Chuanbei Province border.

The Guilin Prefecture situation was becoming clearer and clearer.

The retreat of the Alliance Army meant that Chuanbei City-State had totally given up on Guilin Prefecture. The truth was just that. As the army left, the officials in the prefecture belonging to Chuanbei City-State also left.

The relevant personnel and resources were all moved out of Guilin Prefecture in a short time.

Chuanbei City-State did not go too far; they only took the important items and people. They did not burn the land or take all the people.

With that, they did Shanhai City a huge favor in the future running of Guilin Prefecture.

The message sent out by the actions of Chuanbei City-State could not be any clearer. They were not willing to have such a bad relationship with Shanhai City and hoped that they could come to a good trade agreement.

When the news spread, everyone was shocked.

The sudden allegiance of Chuanbei City-State caused the originally unsettled Xiangnan City-State to crack apart.

The Lords who supported Shanhai City had already sent out word that if the City-State did not agree to move out of Guilin Prefecture, they would leave themselves.

The disbandment of the City-State was imminent.

At such a time, Caiyun Zinan, who had been keeping silent, had no choice but to stand out and personally meet the envoy of Shanhai City. He agreed to leave Guilin Prefecture and come to an agreement with Shanhai City.

To protect and maintain a complete City-State was Caiyun Zinan's bottom line.

The moment the City-State fell apart, Xiangnan Province would not have any ability in future wars. They would either be occupied by Shanhai City or become the puppets of Yanhuang Alliance.

With Caiyun Zinan's agreement, combined with the fact that Chuanbei City-State had already retreated, the chess pieces that Chun Shenjun had buried were all rendered useless.

The City-States backing out of Guilin Prefecture was going to happen.

If they tried to hold on or even declare war, it would be like throwing an egg at a stone. Without the support of other allies, they would not be able to stand a chance.

The Honglu Temple, Black Snake Guards, and the Shanhai Guards worked together to utilize all sorts of methods to remove and eradicate the chess pieces buried by Chun Xiao.

In the end, there were only three or four stubborn fellows left who were unable to cause any problems.

The only thing they could do was kill people and sow chaos when they left Guilin Prefecture.

Chun Shenjun's actions were a display of his pettiness. He had already lost and still did such things, becoming a huge joke in the wilderness.

With that, Chun Shenjun grew even more furious.

Pill Sun City, Lord's Manor.

Chun Shenjun pointed at Xiao's nose and asked, "Damn it, who revealed the news?" The prideful Chun Shenjun was furious when he became the joke in the wilderness for no reason.

"I'm checking." Xiao was really calm. This was not the first time that Chun Shenjun had vented his anger.

It was okay once one got used to it.

"Have you found anything?" Chun shenjun's anger still had not passed.

Xiao said, "There are clues to suggest that the intel organizations from Shanhai City have fabricated rumors to spoil our reputation."

"...."

Chun Shenjun was stunned, and his face turned totally red.

What was this called? Carrying a rock and smashing one's own foot.

Chun Shenjun wanted to cry out; he had brought this onto himself. If he knew that this would happen, he would not have tried so hard.

"Ok, ok, go down!"

Looking at Xiao, Chun Shenjun felt annoyed. The thing he found out was totally useless.

"Yes my Lord!"

Like a gust of wind, Xiao disappeared into the shadows.

In the huge trading room, only Chun Shenjun remained. After a short while, he muttered, "Scoff, even if you reconcile with them, Qiyue Wuyi, I will not let you off."

"Didn't you so magnanimously allow Xiangnan City-State to use your ocean trade channel? Then I'll use that shell to sneakily trade. Let's see who wins and who loses."

In terms of business, Chun Shenjun was the true expert. He had been worrying about his products not being sold. With the ocean trading route, he could naturally earn big bucks.

Just thinking about it, Chun Shenjun felt delighted, and the depressed atmosphere was swept aside.

11th month, 5th day, Guilin Prefecture.

On this day, the two City-States had totally left Guilin Prefecture. They returned this strategic zone that they spent so much to build up back to Shanhai City, accepting the olive branch that Shanhai City had handed to them.

Matters regarding the Guilin Prefecture had been totally settled.

A year ago, probably no one would have expected this to happen. The way Shanhai City solved this would become a classic case study in wilderness ruling and became something all experts studied.

Shanhai City had combined military strength, diplomacy, and their technology to take back the prefecture without taking much loses, a truly genius act.

There was so much in it for other Lords to learn from.

Anyone in the inside could understand that the military acts and envoys were all for show.

The true reason was Shanhai City's immense strength. It was because they had enough military strength to settle Guilin Prefecture that gave Honglu Temple a lot of space to work with.

If other Lords tried it, who would care about them?

If not, why would people say that weak countries had no diplomacy?

...

Ouyang Shuo instructed the Leopard Legion Corps to take charge before the officials from Nanjiang Governor-General House arrived.

The deeper layer of meaning was for them to clean out Guilin Prefecture. After all, the two City-States had run it for a year, so who knows how many spies they had hidden.

No one would truly believe that they had pulled everyone out.

Apart from the remnants of the two City-States, Ouyang Shuo did not forget that Guilin Prefecture was the planned escape route of Taiping Country. Hence, there was the hidden evil of that religion to deal with.

How would one be at ease before removing them?

Apart from military operation, the ones in the dark were also really important. The Military Intelligence Division, Shanhai Guards, and the Black Snake Guards worked together once more, targeting different groups to investigate all of them.

In this year, the three intel organizations had not stopped their infiltration of Guilin Prefecture. All the people or groups who were on their blacklist became the target of this operation.

These people were naturally removed before Ouyang Shuo arrived in Guilin Prefecture. When Ouyang Shuo arrived, it would be to bribe and persuade people.

Chapter 757 - Guilin Governor

11th month, 6th day, Ouyang Shuo finished his tour of the three prefectures in Lingnan and set off toward Guilin Prefecture. As the roads they used were all official paths, their speed was really quick.

In three days, Ouyang Shuo and his group reached Chiyou City.

In the 10th month of last year, the Shanhai City army had crushed the Chiyou Army at the border of Wuzhou Prefecture, slaying Chiyou. Ouyang Shuo had awakened the bloodline and was also crowned as the Barbarian King.

Wuzhou during that period of time was not peaceful, and there was a strong animosity around. The mountain barbarian nobles had enjoyed too many privileges, and there were too few humans in the prefecture. The economy was totally backward, truly a mess of a place.

Fan Zhongyan was appointed under those circumstances, and he moved from his role of Administration Director to help Ouyang Shuo run Wuzhou Prefecture.

A year had passed and Wuzhou Prefecture was now totally different.

During his entire journey here, Ouyang Shuo saw Han people and mountain barbarians coexisting peacefully. When he went past some counties, he even saw mountain barbarian men marrying Han ladies.

Wuzhou Prefecture was one of the first places that the mulberry and silkworm breeding strategy was pushed out to. On both sides of the roads, one could see mulberry trees.

Even the mountain barbarians accepted the farming culture of the Han Race and learned how to grow mulberry trees and breed silkworms.

Wuzhou Prefecture made use of the 100 thousand mountains to promote the medicinal herb industry. Based on the report from the Industry and Development Planning Department, Wuzhou Prefecture had become the biggest provider of herbs to the Medical Department.

For the territory to push out basic healthcare, Wuzhou Prefecture played a huge role in the matter.

The people were well off, and the place was really orderly and peaceful.

All things considered, Fan Zhongyan had done really well. He was like a magician, using just a year to bring about such amazing change.

The importance of civil servants to a territory could be seen from Fan Zhongyan.

For Shanhai City to successfully consolidate their power in just half a year, a lot of it had to do with the various governors.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo naturally wanted to stay a day when he passed Wuzhou Prefecture. Apart from seeing Fan Zhongyan, Ouyang Shuo also needed to deal with some mountain barbarian matters.

Ouyang Shuo had not been doing his duty as a Barbarian King, only coming to Chiyou City for a second time after so long.

...

Chiyou City, Lord's Manor.

Ouyang Shuo inspected the life of the people under the accompaniment of Fan Zhongyan. No matter where he walked, it caused a huge frenzy as many swarmed the streets.

In Chiyou City, this Barbarian King had an unusually high prestige. To the mountain barbarians, the return of their king was a hugely important day.

Making use of the free time, Ouyang Shuo also met all the officials in the prefecture house to motivate and thank them. Based on the words of Administration Director Xiao He, the officials sent out from Wuzhou Prefecture could be ranked in the top three in the territory.

Out of the hundreds of officials chosen to go to Lingnan Prefecture, fifty came from Wuzhou Prefecture.

Just by thinking for a while, one would know that this was because of Fan Zhongyan, the Ex-Administration Director. In terms of developing talent, Fan Zhongyan was truly exceptional.

At noon, Ouyang Shuo accepted the feast invitation by a few of the medical herb groups. These herb groups were extremely rich and were giants amongst the territory herb organizations.

They could single handedly decide the prices of herbs in the market.

Ouyang Shuo naturally needed to give some face to these gods of fortunes.

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo listened to the prefecture reports. A total of two hours of this was a huge torture. After which, Ouyang Shuo took time to personally talk to Fan Zhongyan.

In the reading room, Fan Zhongyan was really emotional.

This was no surprise as Ouyang Shuo had praised Fan Zhongyan and the territory so much during the prefecture report. It was a huge honor for civil servants like Fan Zhongyan to gain the recognition of the Monarch.

"Xiwen, do you have any thoughts of changing your environment?" Ouyang Shuo's words were astonishing.

On the way here, Ouyang Shuo had been contemplating about the choice of Guilin Prefecture Governor. Xiao He had also sent a letter to ask him to make a decision soon so that Guilin Prefecture would be able to get up and running.

The first person Ouyang Shuo had decided on was now at Xingzhou Prefecture. He was at such a crucial place now. Naturally, Ouyang Shuo could not ask Pei Mo to return.

Thinking about it, he could only choose from other sources.

Guilin had a truly important strategic location that even exceeded that of Lingnan Province's Shaozhou Prefecture. It was also under the rule of the two City-States for a year, which made the entire situation extremely complicated.

Hence, Xiao He recommended that it was best to choose from the current governors.

Ouyang Shuo supported his suggestion. Although the two City-States had come to an agreement with Shanhai City, the friendliness on the surface could not hide the hidden workings beneath.

Ouyang Shuo's trip was also to sign agreements with the City-States.

Even Chuanbei City-State, which was first to accept the olive branch, did not return to their territories but remained at the border in the south.

The meaning within did not need to be voiced.

The two City-States were naturally wary toward Shanhai City. Everyone was clear that the so-called reconciliation was just a power play forced by circumstances.

In the future, any movement would cause Guilin Prefecture to become a battlefield. To say that Guilin was the pillar of the north of the territory was not an exaggeration.

Such a strategic land naturally needed a strong governor to work with the Leopard Legion Corps to make relevant battle preparations and defenses.

Fan Zhongyan, Tian Wenjing, and Bao Shuya; these three experienced governors naturally entered Ouyang Shuo's field of sight. Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to make a decision and choose one out of the three.

Without a doubt, Fan Zhongyan was a good choice.

The model governor of the Qing Dynasty Tian Wenjing was similarly a suitable choice. Speaking of which, he was the first governor of the territory, the one with the most experience and ability.

The huge Qiongzhou Prefecture was ran really well by Tian Wenjing.

Relying on shipbuilding, salt, wood, and spice industries, Qiongzhou Prefecture became one of the most prosperous prefectures. Its income was even higher than Lianzhou Prefecture, which was just disbanded and second to only Shanhai City.

The rise of ocean trade would push Qiongzhou Prefecture to a whole new level.

Under Tian Wenjing's coordination, the Li Race people walked out from the mountains and entered the plains. As the negotiator with the mountain barbarians, Tian Wenjing's ability to deal with natives was even stronger than Fan Zhongyan.

Apart from those two, Xunzhou Prefecture Governor Bao Shuya was also a suitable choice. The person that Xiao He recommended was Bao Shuya.

Before becoming the Xunzhou Prefecture governor, Bao Shuya was the Leizhou Prefecture Governor. The Xunzhou he took over was similarly a tough task, and he was in charge of a place worst hit by Taiping Country.

In less than half a year, he had basically cleaned out the mess left by Taiping Country. Furthermore, Xunzhou Prefecture was the neighbor of Guilin Prefecture, so Bao Shuya understood the local situation and had a great understanding with the Leopard Legion Corps too.

These two points were the reason why Xiao He recommended Bao Shuya.

The three of them were all suitable choices, so choosing one out of them was really difficult.

Only when he reviewed Wuzhou Prefecture did Ouyang Shuo come to a decision and pick Fan Zhongyan. Not because of other reasons, just that out of the three prefectures, only Wuzhou did not need Fan Zhongyan present anymore.

Wuzhou Prefecture was already on the right path without any huge problems. Any governor would be able to run it well.

On the contrary, be it Qiongzhou Prefecture or Xunzhou Prefecture, they both needed their governors. The rise of ocean trading in Qiongzhou had just started, and it was at a crucial stage.

Xunzhou Prefecture held the role of connecting Shanhai City to Chuannan Province and was also the support of the Leopard Legion Corps.

Just based on these few points, Fan Zhongyan was the victor in this small race.

...

When Fan Zhongyan heard Ouyang Shuo's question, his heart could not help but shake. If it was not thanks to his calm temperament, he would have immediately showed his excitement.

It was not that Fan Zhongyan had any problems with his current position, but the role of Guilin Prefecture Governor involved too many things.

Fan Zhongyan had heard of the difficult task of running Guilin Prefecture.

He was the first Administration Director of the territory and used to lead all the civil servants. He heard that when merging with Kunming Prefecture, the Lord had raised up the idea of a Provincial Governor.

Out of the three provinces, the Yunnan Provincial Governor position definitely belonged to Bai Hua. The remaining two were tempting options.

Especially the Provincial Governor of Chuannan Province, it made one a Zhili Viceroy, one of the most important Provincial Governors.

More recently officials had spread rumors that the future Chuannan Province Governor would be chosen from the various Prefecture Governors.

Hence, the appointment of Guilin Prefecture Governor was really important.

The situation was really obvious, Guilin Prefecture played a key role in Chuannan Province; if one could rule it well, it would be a huge testament to their ability.

Hence, one would hold a huge advantage in the battle for the position of viceroy.

Some people even spread rumors that the person the Lord chose for Guilin Prefecture Governor would become the best choice for Chuannan Province Governor.

No matter how calm Fan Zhongyan was, his heart definitely shook when he heard those rumors. It was not that he was greedy for power, but it was sort of an innate part of being born in the Song Dynasty.

"Monarch, please arrange for me!" Fan Zhongyan said.

Ouyang Shuo looked into Fan Zhongyan's eyes, deep in thought. He had obviously heard of the rumors in the territory. Shen Buhai had suggested investigating those who spread the rumors but was stopped by Ouyang Shuo.

The role of Zhili Viceroy affected the entire core of the territory, so Ouyang Shuo naturally treated it with the utmost care. Those rumors were simply too childish.

But Ouyang Shuo was happy to make use of this to cause some friendly competition between the various governors.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo did not interfere nor did he make his thoughts known.

Chapter 758 - West Conquering Army

"Since that's the case, Xiwen, make preparations for the handover and travel toward Guilin Prefecture!"

At the same time as he chose the Guilin Governor, Ouyang Shuo also chose the replacement of Fan Zhongyan. He was the current Deputy Zhen An Prefecture Governor -Cui Shousi.

Cui Shousi was a member of the Cui Family and was the second member of the Cui Family that became a civil servant of Shanhai City after Cui Yingyu. He had previously taken the roles of Country Magistrate and Prefect and also helped Mulan Yue run Zhen An Prefecture for so long.

Now, it was time for his promotion. Officially becoming a governor meant that he was also the first native governor developed by the territory.

If nothing surprising happened, this would be the maximum that Cui Shousi could go. After all, compared to historical civil servants like Fan Zhongyan, there was still a gap in their ability.

At the same time, Cui Shousi's promotion helped to balance the negative effects brought about by Song Wen's promotion. The battle between the Cui and Song Families had now reached equilibrium.

"Yes Monarch!"

Fan Zhongyan got up and bowed respectfully. Inside, he could not help but feel excited. For him to be able to become the governor of Guilin Prefecture was undoubtedly a significant win in his journey.

How sharp was Ouyang Shuo? Especially after training the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique, Ouyang shuo's perception of human emotions had reached a whole new level.

To be more specific, he could touch a person's heart.

Naturally, he would not be able to know what you were thinking but any small emotion would he caught by him.

Hence, ever since Ouyang Shuo returned from the voyage, the officials of Shanhai City all became more careful when they reported to him.

The reason within was that their actions and thoughts could not escape the eyes of the Lord. How could one not feel terrified about that?

Without a doubt, this was also a special talent of a Monarch.

Following which, the two of them talked until dinner time before their conversation came to an end.

7 PM, Ouyang Shuo went to the small courtyard.

The cool breeze blew across, and the air was filled with the scent of osmanthus, making one drunk from the scent. Chiyou City at night was not as hot as during the day, and the breeze shook one's brain.

Such a night was perfect for talking to other tribe members.

His schedule in the day was just too busy, and Ouyang Shuo did not have any time to meet the mountain barbarian tribe leaders. Only at night did he invite the four most influential ones to his little courtyard.

As this was not an official meeting, Ouyang Shuo instructed them to bring wine and dishes. The specially made osmanthus cake was soft and delicious while the territory specialty Three Flowers Wine was mellow.

Talking about the Three Flowers Wine, it was truly amazing.

As it had gotten famous early on in the imperial cities, the current Three Flowers Wine was one of the most popular wines in the wilderness. Especially after wine masters modified it, the taste became more mellow and purer, becoming a representative item of Shanhai City.

After taking down Guilin Prefecture, they would heavily promote the wine industry. After all, the water there was a lot better than the water of Lianzhou Basin.

Wine produced locally in Guilin would definitely get one drunk and addicted.

The pavilion only had a round table. Ouyang Shuo sat with the four old men beside him. The mountain barbarian tribe was originally one that was really brutish, but they had learned all about Han Race customs by now.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he was stunned.

Out of the four, two of them were brothers of Chiyou who appeared with him in the wilderness, and of the remaining two, one came from 100 thousand mountains while the other came from Yunnan Province.

After becoming the Barbarian King, only then did Ouyang Shuo learn that the layout of the mountain barbarians in Nanjiang far exceeded his expectations. Apart from the traditional Chuannan Province, Lingnan Province, there was also Yunnan Province, Chuanbei Province, and the Shu lands.

Apart from the 100 thousand mountains, the Shu lands were the place with the second largest mountain barbarian population.

The mountain barbarian gathered by Chiyou mainly came from the 100 thousand mountains while a portion came from Chuanbei and Yunnan Province. However, as there was a huge distance and there was Taiping Country in the middle, there were still many mountain barbarians living in those two provinces.

"Tribe leader Mu, do you still contact the people in Yunnan?" Ouyang Shuo raised his cup and asked the tribe leader who came from Yunnan Province - Mu Yao.

"Yes, they really admire our life here."

Speaking of which, Mu Yao was filled with emotion, "Not long ago, I went to Yunnan to catch up with some of my brothers. When they heard of our life here, they all wanted to immediately move over."

"However, because the Battle of Yunnan is about to start, it is not appropriate for them to leave."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, "The Battle of Yunnan is about to begin. Can you tell your tribesmen there to prepare to help the army? When Yunnan is taken down, a good life awaits them."

"I'll definitely spread the words of the king."

"That's great."

Ouyang Shuo did not specially mention this; it was just something that had cropped up. He did not have any hopes of the mountain barbarians in Yunnan being of much help. At most, they would just be the guides of the attack.

Yesterday, Ouyang Shuo had received reports that the Guards Legion Corps 1st legion and the 2nd legion of the Dragon Legion Corp led by Shi Wanshui had reached the frontlines.

At the same time, the 2nd legion of the Guards Legion Corps and the 4th legion of the Dragon Legion Corps had been formed up. Ma, Cao Cun, Xiahou Yuan, and the other Three Kingdoms generals had already completed their studies and were on their way to meet up with their forces.

The two legions would immediately move toward the Yunnan battlefield.

If everything went well, the battle would begin at the start of the 12th month.

Based on the reports from the Black Snake' Guards, the deal between Yunnan City-State and Yanhuang Alliance had been completed. Yanhuang Alliance was truly putting in a lot, gathering 200 thousand troops to support Yunnan City-State.

Just Handan City alone had sent 60 thousand.

Chun Shenjun, whose embarrassment turned to rage due to the Guilin Prefecture incident, sent out 50 thousand.

If one considered the 200 thousand Alliance Army troops from Yunnan City-State, it was enough to go up against the Shanhai City Army. After all, out of the six legions they were sending out, two were just formed.

In terms of overall combat strength, both sides were basically on the same level.

Ouyang Shuo was guessing that the change in Guilin Prefecture was enough to make Yanhuang Alliance decide to snipe Shanhai City.

Since they acted, Fallen Phoenix City and Stone City who both did not need to act during the Battle of Lingnan would appear once more. The gift that Ouyang Shuo prepared for Yanhuang Alliance could also be given earlier than planned.

Ouyang Shuo believed that his gift would give the Yanhuang Alliance a really huge
surprise.

Gong Chengshi had also taken the initiative to contact Ouyang Shuo to say that he would move the army in Jiangchuan Province to monitor Xiangnan City-State and Pill Sun City.

As for Xunlong City, Ouyang Shuo did not have any instructions for him and left him to decide on his own.

At this point, the Yunnan battle that was about to start was not just a simple battle.

One could foresee that this battle that wrapped in millions of troops would be the pinnacle act of the 3rd year of the Gaia.

The results of this battle would directly affect the fates of the two alliances in the following year.

Guilin Prefecture had been reclaimed, Kunming Prefecture was merged into Shanhai City, and Baiqi had started to reorganize the troops. The six legions were all moved into Kunming Prefecture to await orders.

Based on the plan from the Military Affairs Bureau, the six legions would be called the West Conquering Army with Baiqi as the West Conquering Commander. Huo Qubing would be the deputy and Bai Hua would be the senior advisor.

Even the Nanjiang Governor-General House Chief Secretary was sent to the West Conquering Army as a strategist.

The command center of the Chief Secretary was located in Consonance City.

The current West Conquering Army would most likely use Kunming Prefecture as the core to spread out on all sides.

At the same time, due to Guilin Prefecture being reclaimed and Shanhai City coming to an agreement with the two City-States, the strategic need at the Withered Flower Stronghold had been reduced. The Military Affairs Bureau had ordered the 3rd legion of the Leopard Legion Corps led by Feng Yi to move west to Zhen An Prefecture.

Without a doubt, they would be the reserve force for the Battle of Yunnan.

As for Chuanbei City-State in the north, the two strong legions of the Leopard Legion Corps would be in charge. Similarly, the Leopard Legion Corps would be in charge of monitoring Xiangnan City-State.

This battle pretty much involved the entire Shanhai City Army. If they won this battle, Shanhai City would be the undoubted overlord of Nanjiang, creating a stable foundation for the establishment of the country in the 4th year of Gaia. If not, everything was just talk.

As a result, neither side would strike out easily.

Like now, the 200 thousand Yanhuang Alliance troops had already teleported to Yunnan Province. However, as for which city or which cities, no one knew.

Due to the terrifying intel ability that Shanhai City had displayed in the Battle of Lingnan, Di Chen and the others had made careful plans so that their tracks would not be found.

Even if they knew that Shanhai City had two legions that had not reached the battlefield, they still did not choose to strike.

Di Chen and the others were not fools. Kunming Prefecture had a total of four legions in it. If they struck, they would lose the geographical advantage. It would be like using your weakness to attack the enemy.

What they needed to do was to set up numerous traps in the various prefectures and wait for the Shanhai City Army to take the bait.

Hence, the initiative for this battle still lay in the hands of Shanhai City. The order to start the war would be given by Ouyang Shuo.

And where was Ouyang Shuo? He was thousands of miles away in Chiyou City, drinking Three Flowers Wine and eating osmanthus cake while talking to four old men.

Chapter 759 - Trade Protectionism

The next morning, Ouyang Shuo and his group set off once again.

On the 11th month, 13th day, they reached Withered Flower Stronghold.

A large part of why Ouyang Shuo rushed back to Guilin Prefecture was because of Withered Flower Stronghold. A year ago, the defeat here became a humiliation that could not be wiped away in his journey as a Lord.

After the battle, Pei Mo recommended they build a stone plaque here to remind them of the disgrace.

Now that Guilin Prefecture had been taken back, it was time to reopen this page.

When they learned of the Monarch's itinerary, the soldiers from the 1st division of the 1st legion of the Leopard Legion Corps made the trip back from Guiping Pass to welcome the Lord.

Along with them was also the marshal of the Leopard Legion Corps, Han Xin. Even Zhang Han had specially returned.

On this day, the usually sunny day became really gloomy and dark. The dark clouds covered the skies, filling the land with a solemn killing intent.

The blistering heat suddenly became unusually chill.

In front of the stone plaque, Ouyang Shuo stood upright. Behind him were Han Xin, Zhang Han, and the other soldiers. Each one of the mountain barbarians stood straight like a pencil, their expressions extremely solemn.

It was totally silent as if the focus of the entire land was on Ouyang Shuo. At this moment, Ouyang Shuo's body gathered a power that could shock the heavens.

Even the winds miraculously blew around Ouyang Shuo.

When Han Xin and the others saw this, their eyes were filled with worship and respect as they could not help but bow. From Han Xin's memory, even Liu Bang did not have such a power.

If Di Chen and the others were there, their hair would probably stand on their ends. Till now, they still did not understand what kind of power supported a normal young man like Ouyang Shuo, allowing him to carry Shanhai City forward and create a huge miracle.

Letting the name of Shanhai City shock the world.

And this innate power was what Di Chen and the others lacked. If they did not understand this, they would never be able to keep up with Shanhai City or even chase up to them.

Han Xin looked up at the sky. Seeing that the time was right, he ordered, "Fire!"

In front of the stone plaque was one P1 Type Cannon. When the order to fire was given, a black cannon ball shot out, smashing the stone plaque into pieces.

As the wind blew across, the dust from the shattered stone plaque was picked up and flew into the air.

"Let's go!"

Ouyang Shuo turned around, taking the lead to move to the other side of the mountain.

On the greenish mountain slope, there were rows and rows of tombstones. These were the tombs of the mountain barbarian warriors who died during that battle; they were the most loyal soldiers that had continued to guard the Withered Flower Stronghold.

On the left of the hill there were new tombs; this time, they were those who died in the battle against Li Mu. It was another huge cluster, truly eye-catching and tragic.

With Ouyang Shuo as the witness, a memorial stone was erected here to remember the brave warriors.

Their sacrifice was not in vain!

Ouyang Shuo held onto an osmanthus flower before placing them solemnly in front of the memorial stone. This osmanthus flower was not ordinary, and it was one he had especially picked when he passed devil's slope.

The devil Chiyou was buried on devil's slope. Till this day, it was still a holy land for the mountain barbarian race. Last year, under the solemn atmosphere and killing of the wilderness, the osmanthus flowers on devil's peak had all withered.

This year was different. They all bloomed brightly.

"Brothers, Rest in peace!"

Ouyang Shuo said as he gave a deep bow.

"Bow!"

The soldiers behind Ouyang Shuo all bowed in unison.

These soldiers had tears in their eyes due to all the emotion.

The sight of the Lord bowing would forever be etched in their hearts. In the olden times, it was unimaginable for a Monarch to bow to fallen soldiers.

The shocking part of all of this was not something a person not from that time could understand.

That afternoon, Ouyang Shuo set off and left Withered Flower Stronghold. But everything he did today would be firmly remembered by the mountain barbarian race, by every soldier in the army.

11th month, 16th day, Guilin Prefecture, Bushan City.

Before Ouyang Shuo arrived in the governing area of Guilin Prefecture, the officials sent there had already arrived, and they were led by Official Ruling Department Director Zhang Tingyu.

Naturally, the administrative matters of Guilin Prefecture would temporarily be chaired by Zhang Tingyu.

With him present, the chaos from the handover of the Houses was basically calmed down. The various Yamens, including Bushan City, had already been restructured based on the Shanhai City structure.

The transitional period would follow.

Even the Garrison Division was formed by Han Xin. Half the members were from the Xunzhou Garrison Division while the other half was recruited locally.

Han Xin was not only the marshal of the Leopard Corp but the commander of the Chuannan War Zone. The four prefectures of Chuannan Province were all under his jurisdiction. Hence, regarding building the Guilin Prefecture Garrison Division, apart from the Military Affairs Bureau interfering, Ouyang Shuo did not do anything from the start.

Han Xin was even the one who recommended the person to be Major General.

Since he had confirmed the positions of the four marshals in the territory, this power was something Ouyang Shuo had to put down. He could not give them such a bright name but no power with it, right?

That would be preposterous!

What Ouyang Shuo needed to do was just perfect the system and increase surveillance. In history, many Lords tasted defeat because they were not willing to give up power, like Chu Overlord Xiang Yu.

Even during the Three Kingdoms Period that had just ended, Lu Bu could be considered a similar Lord.

Apart from the Garrison Division, the Leopard Legion Corps was also adjusted and reorganized.

During the Battle of Xuanwu Pass, the 2nd legion had captured a total of five thousand people. As Yan Liang did not want to fight, the 2nd legion basically had little to no casualties.

During the Battle of Guiping, due to Li Mu's decision to retreat and the traps blocking their way, there were basically no prisoners. The 1st legion, on the other hand, had six thousand soldiers that died, and they were all mountain barbarians.

Although there were already a lot of mountain barbarians in the army, recruiting them in such a short time was an extremely tough task. Helplessly, the Military Affairs Bureau sought Ouyang Shuo's advice and decided to use five thousand prisoners to form an independent division.

The remaining prisoners were simply sent to the Garrison Division.

As for the casualties to the mountain barbarians, they would try to fill in as many as they could. As for the numbers that could not be filled, they would just be left empty and arranged after the Battle of Yunnan ended.

Ouyang Shuo would rather lack members than lower the quality when dealing with such an elite division.

...

The military and administrative matters of Guilin Prefecture were handled really smoothly and there was nothing for Ouyang Shuo to worry about. At most, he just needed to calm down the people along the way to Bushan City.

If he really needed to interfere, it would look bad for Zhang Tingyu and Han Xin.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo just spent a day in Bushan City before setting off. He met up with Financial Director Fan Li and moved toward the Guilin Prefecture border.

The reason he rushed here was to sign the trade deal with the two City-States. As it involved too many interests, he needed to personally take charge of it.

On the sides of the City-States, West Gate Big Official and Caiyun Zinan were similarly the representatives.

With that, this was the first time the three giants met.

It was weird talking about it. Just two month ago, during the Battle of Red Cliff, both of them had tried to sabotage Shanhai City. Just two months later, they needed to shake hands and cooperate.

Life was just so weird.

If not, why would one say that in the wilderness, there were no people who were forever enemies or forever friends?

The signing location was chosen to be an area where the three provinces connected in a small town known as Sanjiang Town.

When the agreement was signed, this place was going to be famous all around.

On the way to Sanjing Town, Fan Li reported the main terms of the trade to gain Ouyang Shuo's approval.

Shanhai City had many trade partners. Nearer to home, there was Consonance City that already merged with them, Stone City, Xunlong City, and also the West Chu Regime.

Furthermore away, there was Johor, Siam, and other ASEAN countries. Even further there was Somalia, France, Atlantis, and finally England.

These trading partners helped form Shanhai City's voyage trading network and helped make sea trading prosperous.

Hence, in terms of signing trade agreements, Shanhai City was the expert.

However, the two City-States were different, and they had special terms. The Financial Bureau had summarized the matter into three main clauses.

First, tax.

Compared to the other allies, in terms of border tax, they had to pay more. The tax was an important source of revenue for Shanhai City. Naturally, the Financial Bureau would not be soft-hearted.

In the end, based on what the Industry Division said, it was raised to 20%.

Secondly, records of trading products.

Shanhai City had different restrictions on import and export goods based on different partners. Hence, toward the two City-States, the restrictions were stricter.

The Financial Bureau basically only allowed them to sell their own territory specialties through the trade channel. As for products that were in conflict with Shanhai City, their exportation would be banned.

As for imports, it was not too strict.

This was only to protect Shanhai City's own industries such that it would not be impacted by the two City-States, so this could not be considered a really primitive 'protectionism' strategy.

Chapter 760 - Assassinating Fan Li

11th month, 17th day, Sanjiang Town.

10 miles north of the town was a little hill. On its three faces were three different territory stone plaques, forming a triangle. This was where the three provinces met.

Three days ago, this place had been locked up.

The Leopard Legion Corps, Chuanbei City-State Alliance Army, and Xiangnan City-State Alliance Army each guarded one side, lying in wait. How was this agreement signing? One would actually think that this was a sect battle.

On the top of the hill there was a table and three wooden chairs, one in the south and two in the north. Be it the table or the chairs, they had the simplest structures so that no one could hide anything there.

At 9 AM, three groups of people came up the hill from three different directions.

From the south, there was Ouyang Shuo, who was riding Little Green. Xu Chu rode on a Qingfu Horse and followed behind, looking rather menacing and scaring everyone away.

Further behind were the Personal Guards and the Divine Martial Guards.

When they reached the foot of the mountain, Ouyang Shuo dismounted and brought Fan Li up the hill.

At the same time, West Gate Big Official and Caiyun Zinan came from each side. Behind them each followed a Lord and an official. The Lord was arranged by the City-State in charge of internal monitoring; the official was like Fan Li, the financial official who was in charge of looking through the terms of the agreement.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and took the initiative to greet them, "Lord West Gate, Lord Caiyun, please sit!" Following which, Ouyang Shuo sat on the chair in the south with Fan Li standing behind him.

West Gate Big Official and Caiyun Zinan both exchanged glances.

This was not the first time they saw the fellow before them, but it was the first time they had interacted with him. As expected, he was rather mighty, making it seem like they were guests here.

At this time, the two of them could not say much and greeted him rather stiffly before sitting down. The Lord and official that followed similarly stood behind them.

Ouyang Shuo's frowned as he felt that the Lord standing behind Caiyun Zinan was extremely nervous.

'Is it because of the occasion?' Ouyang Shuo asked himself.

He could not predict why this person was nervous and only quietly put on his guard. Regarding this agreement signing ceremony, there were many people who held bad intentions. Ouyang Shuo naturally would not let anyone break it.

"Let's begin!"

Ouyang Shuo turned to signal for Fan Li to begin; his face did not reveal that he found anything wrong.

Fan Li understood, picking up the agreements that were already prepared, he placed them on the table.

The exchange of views on the trade agreement had already begun several days ago, and the details were already set. Fan Li emphasized on the few terms that Ouyang Shuo did not have any objections to; hence, it was set.

The two City-States did not have much bargaining power. Even with the terms set, they would still be able to gain huge profits from this deal.

Who knew how many territories in the wilderness desired to work together with Shanhai City?

Apart from the safety concerns of the north border, the other reason Ouyang Shuo decided to work with them was because of his other ambitions. Since he entered the wilderness, his poisonous bug breeding strategy had not stopped.

However, the stages were different, and there were many different types.

Be it Taiping Country or Lingnan City-State, they were allowed to grow fat by Ouyang Shuo before they were harvested.

Although the process was risky, the rewards were huge. The foundations of each prefecture were decent. After a period of time, they could all provide huge profits.

At such a stage, the poisonous insect strategy was still underway. The only change was that the target had switched to the two City-States. If their territory trade was prosperous, Shanhai City would benefit when they took them down in the future.

Growing together with the neighboring territories and eventually harvesting them when they were mature was the essence of the plan.

If not, the gap between them and Shanhai City would be too huge. Even if they took the enemy down, it would take a lot of effort to run.

This was a scheme that no plan could break.

"Do any of you have any problems with the details?" Ouyang Shuo smiled and asked.

"No."

West Gate Big Official and Caiyun Zinan did not know what kind of trade agreements Shanhai City had with the other territories, so they could not tell what was different with theirs.

Even if they felt that it was unfair, they had no way to fight.

"That's great; let's sign the agreement then!

Ouyang Shuo took up the pen and was the first to sign his name.

This document was legally binding and was not a joke. If any side went against it, they would have to bear huge risks.

Such an agreement was also one that let the two City-States rest easy.

'With this, it seems like Shanhai City will not attack us.' That was what the Lords thought.

In truth, how could it be so simple?

Ouyang Shuo was not sure how the two City-States ran, but Shanhai City had several hidden pieces in both of the City-States. To create the false impression that the other party broke the contract was just too easy.

So, even if there was a legally binding trade agreement, in the eyes of smart people, it would not be a permanent protective talisman.

This was the wilderness, so where could there be true long-term peace?

Just as Ouyang Shuo was about to sign the third agreement, an accident happened.

Ouyang Shuo suddenly felt a killing aura charge toward him. What shocked him was that it was not aimed at him. Instead, it was aimed toward Fan Li who was standing behind him.

"Not good!"

Ouyang Shuo did not even think about it; he directly stood up to block the assailant.

'Peng!'

Along with the sound of a gunshot, a bullet pierced through the air and drilled into Ouyang Shuo's left shoulder. The current Ouyang Shuo had not totally stood up.

The bullet was incredibly close to entering his brain.

Ouyang Shuo immediately felt a piercing pain, and his entire left arm could not move immediately. He could clearly feel that the bullet had shot through his skin and ripped apart his flesh, nearly smashing the bones.

If it was not for the Yellow Emperor Cultivation Technique strengthening the toughness of his skin and the strength of his veins and bones, the gun would have immediately blasted his bones into powder.

With a 'Shua!', Ouyang Shuo pulled out the Chixiao Sword by his waist, the cold light glistening.

"How bold!"

Looking out, he activated the Traveling Dragon Body skill from the Cloud Dragon Nine Pattern War Boots. He turned into an afterimage and appeared right in front of the attacker and held the Chixiao Sword held by his neck.

"If you move, I'll send you to hell!" Ouyang Shuo uttered coldly.

The Lord was also a young man; he looked at the sword by his neck and did not know how to react.

Based on the plan, he was supposed to one shot Fan Li. The weapon in his hand was a specially made western gun and was a highly accurate weapon that the mastermind had spent loads of money on.

Fan Li was the Business Saint and was one of the heads of the civil servants of Shanhai City. If he was killed in such a place, Qiyue Wuyi would be furious and the agreement would definitely be called off.

An angry Qiyue Wuyi would definitely declare war on the two City-States.

Hence, the goal of the mastermind would be achieved.

This person never thought that Qiyue Wuyi's senses would be so sharp. He was able to notice such little killing intent, saving Fan Li in the nick of time.

As for destroying one of Qiyue Wuyi's arms, it would not achieve much.

To players, every kind of illness and injury could be cured. In their eyes, a Lord like Qiyue Wuyi definitely had substitute dolls with him.

Hence, they targeted Fan Li from the start. Who knew that it would be for nothing in the end?

"Since I have failed, there's nothing to say." The young Lord regained calm. Since he had accepted the mission, he was clear that no matter if he succeeded or not, there would be no place for him left in the alliance.

His way out was already planned for him by the mastermind.

...

Only after Ouyang Shuo subdued the assassin did everyone finally come to their senses.

"What are you doing, Lin Fen?!"

Caiyun Zinan was really furious, and his eyes were blazing. The reason why he was angry was not only because of the assassination but because he felt betrayed. For a person from his City-State to take such action basically caused him to lose all face.

Seeing West Gate Big Official's gloomy expression, one would know how furious Caiyun Zinan's ally felt.

"I know what I'm doing." Lin Fen, the assassin, remained extremely calm.

"You!" Caiyun Zinan was furious and viciously said, "I'll deal with you later."

Caiyun Zinan turned toward Ouyang Shuo and sincerely said, "Lord Wuyi, I swear that this was his own actions and has nothing to do with Xiangnan City-State. As for how you want to deal with him, I will not interfere."

Caiyun Zinan only wanted to clear the misunderstanding to try and save the cooperation.

Before Ouyang Shuo even spoke, the guards and Divine Martial Guards at the foot of the mountain were furious. Xu Chu did not even think and wanted to lead the men up.

Seeing that, the Alliance Army members in the other two directions prepared to move. The huge army further away slowly moved when they received the news.

If this went wrong, it would cause a huge war.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this situation, he did not bother about Caiyun Zinan and shouted down the mountain, "Stop!"

"Monarch!" Xu Chu panicked.

Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to emphasize, "Do not come up!"

Xu Chu gritted his teeth and nodded. He looked around in high alert; he was getting ready for a huge battle.

Caiyun Zinan and West Gate Big Official also reacted and stopped their men from rushing up, hence dissolving a potential crisis.

Just thinking about it made them feel a chill in their hearts.

If things went wrong, the outcome would be catastrophic. The one behind all of this had such ill intentions.

Ouyang Shuo's shoulder was still bleeding, but he did not mind it. A smile appeared on his face. He said to Caiyun Zinan, "Lord Caiyun, do not mention it. I can see through such small tricks. I hope it does not affect our cooperation."

Chapter 761 – Scheme within a Scheme

"Many thanks! Are your injuries okay; do you need to treat them first?"

Caiyun Zinan cupped his fists; this was the first time he felt some friendliness toward Qiyue Wuyi.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and smiled, "It's just a small injury. Lord Caiyun, this person tried to assassinate the Financial Director of Shanhai City. Based on our territory law system, I'll need to bring him back to the territory and hand him over to the Procuratorate Division. You won't oppose that, right?" As he spoke, Ouyang Shuo looked toward Caiyun Zinan with deep meaning.

Caiyun Zinan was stunned; his brain worked quickly, and he managed to understand what Ouyang Shuo was referring to.

If Lin Fen was moved to Shanhai City, he would not be able to suicide and return to his territory. With that, Fire City would be like a piece of juicy meat, there for the taking.

Previously, Zhang Liang had suggested to Caiyun Zinan that they merge internally in the City-State to reduce internal problems.

However, the matter was easier said than done.

When it was time to execute it, Caiyun Zinan was unable to find a suitable target. Any target he tried to merge with would cause a storm in the City-State.

Wasn't Lin Fen City the best choice?

"Lin Fen has done such a matter. Naturally, he should be handed over to Shanhai City." Although these were Caiyun Zinan's words, he felt a shiver run down his spine.

Caiyun Zinan was not sure how much consideration or how much Qiyue Wuyi was plotting with that suggestion. Not mentioning other matters, Shanhai City had dug up their merger plan at the very least.

"Terrifying!"

At that moment, Caiyun Zinan felt an unprecedented darkness for the future of the City-State. He could feel that a giant shadow covered the skies of the City-State, ready to swallow them at any moment.

Along with Lin Fen's betrayal, the City-State was simply a battlefield.

"The skies are going to change!" Caiyun Zinan sighed.

Ouyang Shuo smiled; he roughly knew the exact emotions that Caiyun Zinan was currently feeling. He did not say anything; he just waved to Xu Chu at the bottom and told him to come up.

When he saw Xu Chu, Lin Fen truly felt that he would not be able to escape. In fact, there was a chance that he would be locked up for the rest of the game. If that really happened, what was the use of the escape route planned for him?

"Caiyun Zinan, you're a coward! I'm a member of the City-State, how can you let an outsider do this? Traitor! Coward!" Lin Fen scolded; he had already lost his rationality.

"You're a traitor of the City-State. What rights do you have to say such words?" Who knows whether Lin Fen's words had hit the right spot or if Caiyun Zinan's embarrassment had turned into anger? His words were not as calm as before.

"Coward, the City-State is going to be destroyed in your hands."

Caiyun Zinan turned around, not bothering to speak to Lin Fen anymore.

Ouyang Shuo looked on coldly and finally spoke, "Bring him down!"

"Yes Monarch!"

Xu Chu was like an iron tower, locking up Lin Fen to the point where the latter could not even move, much less kill himself. This person dared to harm the Monarch, so Xu Chu was definitely going to teach him a lesson.

Lin Fen's face was ashen white; he scolded as he was walked away.

Since he had fallen into the hands of Shanhai City, with the personality of his backer, he definitely would not try to save him. To that person, a useless chess piece would be abandoned.

The more he thought about it, the more he regretted.

Ouyang Shuo looked on at Lin Fen's fading figure in silence, unknowingly smirking.

"Lin Fen really helped us there."

Ouyang Shuo wanted to punish Lin Fen mainly to shake the foundations of Xiangnan City-State rather than for revenge.

"A leader of the City-State chose to abandon an ally and merge with his territory for a piece of juicy meat." If such a rumor spread out in Xiangnan City-State, who knows what interesting thing would happen.

Caiyun Zinan truly lacked composure; Ouyang Shuo and easily baited him. He lost his judgment and committed a grave mistake in the end.

If Zhang Liang was present, he would have stopped Caiyun Zinan.

When Lin Fen scolded him, maybe Caiyun Zinan felt that something was not right, which caused him to be furious. Unfortunately, it was too late for him to turn back at that point.

"This assassination was the best assist!"

There was a certain phrase, 'Gaining fortune from a calamitous encounter.'

Thinking about that, Ouyang Shuo instantly felt that the gun wound was not as painful anymore. The western gun that Lin Fen had used was kept in Ouyang Shuo's storage bag.

...

No one would care about a failure.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, "Let's continue to sign the agreement!"

"Great."

West Gate Big Official, who had remained silent throughout all this, smiled.

Caiyun Zinan also smiled; however, his smile contained a trace of bitterness.

Only when the trade agreement was signed did West Gate Big Official give out a long sigh of relief. He was really afraid that the entire agreement would go up in flames.

West Gate Big Official was located in the north of Chuanbei Province, which was near Zunyi in real life. The most famous item in the territory would be Maotai Wine.

Maotai Wine had a long history and was one of the top three white wines in China. In reality, Maotai could be compared to Scottish Whiskey French Cognac as the world's top three famous alcohols.

In comparison, Shanhai City's Three Flowers Wine was far too lacking.

The tragedy was that although he had the Maotai Wine Brewing Technique, he was located inland and could not find a way to sell it.

Hence, this was a big worry to West Gate Big Official.

The trade deal with Shanhai City was undoubtedly a saving grace for him.

Although there were restrictions on exports of similar products in the agreement, West Gate Big Official was actually aiming to borrow Shanhai City's trading paths to link to imperial cities like Quanzhou and Jianye.

If one thought of it in a certain way, this problem could definitely be solved.

"Happy cooperation!"

After the agreement was signed, West Gate Big Official took the initiative to shake hands with Ouyang Shuo.

"Happy cooperation!"

Ouyang Shuo smiled.

Ouyang Shuo had hopes of recruiting West Gate Big Official.

Along with Bai Hua merging into the Shanhai City System and the matter with Xunlong Dianxue, Shanhai Alliance was going to face a cruel test.

Ouyang Shuo had considered injecting some fresh blood into Shanhai Alliance.

West Gate Big Official was one of the people he was considering. If he could, Ouyang Shuo did not mind using such a method to peacefully merge with Chuanbei Province.

However, this matter involved so many things, and Chuanbei Province was not West Gate Big Official's alone. In the province, the various powers had all buried some hidden chess pieces within the City-State.

Not talking about the things far away, news had it that Liu Bei and Feng Qingyang, these two allies, had already turned their eyes to Chuanbei Province.

Internally, it was also really chaotic.

Hence, for this matter to truly come to fruition was extremely difficult.

"Everything will fall into place!" Ouyang Shuo laughed to himself. At least the meeting today was a good start.

At this point, the agreement signing had come to an end. The ripples this caused would last for a really long time.

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

As the whole show had come to an end, Ouyang Shuo hurried back to Sanjiang Town for a doctor to help tend to his wounds. Only now did Ouyang Shuo realize that his entire hand had lost feeling.

The western gun was truly special, and the killing strength was shocking. If it was Fan Li who was hit, he definitely would not survive. That night, Ouyang Shuo took a look at the stats of the gun.

Name: Western Flintlock Pistol (Dark Gold Rank)

Maker: unknown

Shooting Type: fixed fire

Power: low average

Range: low average

Accuracy: average

Reloading Speed: slow

Shooting Speed: average

Evaluation: the pistol first appeared in the mid to end parts of the 15th century. Its recoil is huge, but the power is relatively low. The barrel of the pistol is bigger than a rifle, slow to shoot and has poor accuracy.

Compared to a rifle, a pistol was more convenient to carry and could be hidden for assassinations. Lin Fen's assassination attempt made use of the strength of the Western Flintlock Pistol.

If he did not possess super strong sensory abilities, the assassination would have succeeded.

After the matter, Fan Li was exceedingly touched by Ouyang Shuo, and his loyalty increased by 15 and broke through 90.

This also meant that after returning to Shanhai City, in terms of territory matters, Fan Li would be more focused and passionate.

Thinking about this point, it was another case of good fortune from a calamitous encounter.

Actually, thinking about it afterward, Ouyang Shuo felt that taking that bullet was for nothing. As the Business Saint, Fan Li was in the Confucius Temple, so he could be revived there even without a similar 'General Soul'.

However, since the situation was an emergency, Ouyang Shuo had no time to think and just stood up.

He truly regretted it now.

Since Ouyang Shuo did not bring a substitute doll, if he had died on the spot, he would have returned to Shanhai City.

With that, he would have to start his cultivation from scratch.

The reason why he did not bring a substitute doll was not out of arrogance or forgetfulness. It was because he did not want to leave a way out for himself as that would impede his cultivation.

If not, with the substitute doll, it was like having a protection talisman, making him fight recklessly.

If one did not fear death, they would not be able to truly understand the meaning of death.

Be it the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique or the Tianmo Spear Code, they were both top class skills that could affect real life. Ouyang Shuo did not want it to affect his true cultivation because of substitute dolls.

Hence, he did not want to bring them along.

If he really died then, his cultivation would not be only matter affected. Based on how tense the situation was, if Ouyang Shuo was killed, no one would be able to calm down Xu Chu and the others.

A chaotic battle would be unavoidable.

If that was the case, the enemy would have achieved their goal.

Chapter 762 – Coal for Equipment Exchange

Ouyang Shuo did not stop after leaving Sanjiang Town. He brought the Personal Guards and three thousand Divine Martial Guards to rush day and night, and they finally reached Shanhai City at the 11th month, 22nd day.

The moment he returned, there were a bunch of matters that needed him to handle. The Nanjiang Governor-General House that had just calmed down once again bustled with excitement. People came and went, mostly the various managers of the divisions.

Ouyang Shuo had reached Shanhai City at seven. After brushing up, he ate some breakfast before going to the reading room to handle administrative matters.

It was hard to find such a diligent Monarch.

In the guest room, a group of officials had gathered to wait for the Monarch to meet them.

The first one that Ouyang Shuo saw was Zhang Yi and Combat Logistics Director Xiahou Dun. They wanted to discuss the matter regarding the corporation with West Chu.

A day ago, the envoy group sent by tHonglu Temple had smoothly returned from Peng City. They brought back the kind intentions of West Chu Overlord Xiang Yu, who was extremely interested in the cooperation plan.

"So what you're saying is that West Chu does not want gold for the coal but equipment instead?" Ouyang Shuo asked Zhang Yi.

"Yes."

Ouyang Shuo smiled, "Xiang Yu seems to have considered all aspects."

West Chu was located east of Zhongyuan, so it was pincered in the north and south by Di Chen and Zhan Lang. Meanwhile, on the east, Hanwu Emperor was not friendly toward West Chu because of history.

To say that they were facing enemies from all four sides was completely true.

Hence, even if West Chu obtained gold from the trade, they would not be able to buy anything, so goods for goods trade would be the best choice.

"Then, should we reject West Chu?" Zhang Yi asked.

"No." Ouyang Shuo shook his head and smiled, "Why should we? Accept their offer."

Ouyang Shuo had ordered Honglu Temple to contact West Chu for two reasons. First, to solve the coal shortage problem. Secondly, he wanted to support them and let them fight against Di Chen and Zhan Lang.

The equipment and weapons trade was a win-win.

Ouyang Shuo instructed Xiahou Dun, "In terms of prices of the weapons and equipment, as long as we take 30% profits, it's fine. When needed, we can give them a batch in advance as a deposit for the coal."

Xiang Yu was a person who coveted small advantageous. If one did not let him see gains, he might not be motivated. Ouyang Shuo was worried that West Chu would not be motivated to dig the coal and the coal production would be affected as a result.

"Understood!"

Only after Xiahou Dun became the Combat Logistics Director did he understand how deep the foundations of Shanhai City were. In comparison, the equipment and weapons from the Three Kingdoms were not even on the same level and were just broken copper armors.

"Monarch, do we need to push for an alliance with West Chu?"

During this visit, Xiang Yu's attitude was a little conservative. He only agreed to the coal trading plan. He did not express any clear view on an alliance.

It seemed like the Shanhai City Army defeating him in the Battle Map was still a humiliation for him. He could not accept it so quickly. Hence, he was not willing.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, "Let's let nature take its place; we do not need to force the matter."

Since the Xiang Family completely controlled West Chu, there was not much that the Honglu Temple could do. As opposed to doing those small acts that might irritate Xiang Yu, it was better to not do anything.

Ouyang Shuo believed that as long as Xiang Yu tasted the benefits of the weapons, he would take the hook. To West Chu, using useless black earth to exchange for elite equipment was totally worth it.

"Understood."

Ouyang Shuo suddenly remembered something and said to Xiahou Dun, "Oh right, Yuan Rang, Consonance City has the siege weapons industry that the Combat Logistics Department needs to take care of. Build relevant factories in each prefecture, especially near the borders to ensure that we have enough siege weapons."

As Consonance City was once the giant of Yunnan Province, they had an extremely strong foundation. The moment it merged with Shanhai City, Kunming Prefecture immediately became one of the best prefectures in the territory.

The harder to come by part was that Consonance City had a few special industries. Especially the military industry, which was going really well and could be considered one of the best in Shanhai Alliance.

This merger was undoubtedly an upgrade to the military industry of Shanhai City.

Xiahou Dun replied, "During this period of time, Consonance City has sent people over to discuss the military industry merger. Currently, there has been progress and things are moving smoothly."

"Really?" Ouyang Shuo smiled. It seemed like Bai Hua was really good at her job.

Speaking of Bai Hua, Ouyang Shuo had thought of another matter. The other three girls of the four flowers had already reached Shanhai City and were waiting for Ouyang Shuo to appoint them.

A short while ago, while Ouyang Shuo was touring the three prefectures of Lingnan Province, Bai Hua had especially written him a letter to say that the three sisters did not want to stay by her side and wanted to develop in Shanhai City.

After the territory merged, Kunming Prefecture had a new system. In addition to the law system, the three sisters could not do as they wished like before.

Hence, why not just let go?

When Ouyang Shuo received the letter, he was naturally delighted. The three sisters were all talents, and they definitely would be able to find a stage in Shanhai City to shine.

...

After he sent away Zhang Yi and Xiahou Dun, Ouyang Shuo told Bai Nanpu to invite the three sisters.

Looking at the back view of this secretary, Ouyang Shuo suddenly thought about something. Looking at the time, Bai Nanpu had been around him for two and a half years; he had the role of secretary since the start of the first year.

Even till now, he was doing things diligently.

'I should find a time to send him out to train.' Ouyang Shuo was thinking.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was deep in thought, a girl's voice sounded from outside the door, "Wow Lord, you are such a busy man."

The person had not even arrived but her voice already did.

While saying that, Luo Zilan, Hong Yong, and Tsing Yi all walked in.

"Please sit!"

Ouyang Shuo smiled; he did not reply to Zi Luolan's teasing.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo himself, the three of them instantly quietened down.

"Bai Hua has already told me about your situation. Just tell me your thoughts, we can talk freely today." Ouyang Shuo personally poured tea for the three of them.

The three of them had a part in Consonance City, so Ouyang Shuo needed to compensate them as well for the merger, not just Bai Hua. In the future, the three of them would have similar titles and land.

"You'll agree to any request?" Zi Luolan looked at Ouyang Shuo sheepishly.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, "As long as it is logical, I will."

'Tsk!' Zi Luolan scoffed. For some reason, she had really wanted to meet Ouyang Shuo. Who knows why, but when she really saw him, a random anger sparked in her heart.

Probably because the guy in front of her was just too calm and composed.

"Second sister!" Tsing Yi lightly tugged Zi Luolan's shirt and reminded her. They no longer had the identity of allies. Now, he was their Monarch.

They were familiar with one another, but one could not take it too far.

Seeing the situation get a little awkward, Hong Ying was the first to speak, "I want to take up a role in the military."

"That's fine." Ouyang Shuo nodded, "How about you go to the 3rd division of the Fan Lihua legion?"

During the Battle of White Stone City, the Fan Lihua legion had suffered heavy losses, and even the 3rd division Major General had died.

Hong Ying was the Major General of the Consonance City Guards Division. Along with the merger of Consonance City, the Guards Division was temporarily a Guards Independent Division under the charge of Huo Qubing.

To prevent people from gossiping, Hong Ying had already resigned from her old job. To take up the role of Major General in the 3rd division was no problem at all.

"That's great!" Hong Ying's eyes lit up. It was not because of other reasons but because of Fan Lihua. "I've heard about this heroine. I'm more than willing to work under her."

As expected from a soldier, she was straight with her words.

When Ouyang Shuo saw her reaction, he smiled.

"What about you two?" Ouyang Shuo asked Zi Luolan and Tsing Yi.

Zi Luolan calmed herself down before saying, "You know me, I'm best at diplomacy. If possible, I would like to work at Honglu Temple."

"That's great." Ouyang Shuo nodded and smiled, "I'll set up an Outreach Division under the Honglu Temple to be in charge of outreach and diplomacy with other player groups. You would be the secretary, how about that?"

"I can understand diplomacy with player powers, but what do you mean by outreach?" Zi Luolan did not understand.

In modern days, promotion and outreach were really important, but this game was set in ancient society. How would one promote and advertise?

Ouyang Shuo smiled, "Shanhai City had created the Shanhai Times long ago just that we have not been running it well. I want to put it under the charge of the Outreach Division to strengthen the influence of the newspaper in the territory. How's that, do you have confidence?"

Zi Luolan's eyes lit up, "No problem."

"Then that's settled." Ouyang Shuo nodded, turning to Tsing Yi, "What about you?"

Not only was she the smartest out of the four of them, but she was also one of the top three female advisors in the wilderness. In the last life, she was on the same level as Juedai Fenghua.

"I have not thought about it."

When in Consonance City, Tsing Yi existed as the idea maker and the thinker of the group, so she did not have any exact role; this made it really awkward when she came over to Shanhai City.

In contrast to Consonance City, Ouyang Shuo had too many capable people beside him. Apart from his officials and generals, he also had the Chief Secretary and Chen Gong who came recently.

In comparison, Tsing Yi did not have much of an advantage.

When Ouyang Shuo heard her words, he frowned. When Bai Hua had written the letter to him, he had started to plan for the three of them. The arrangements for Zi Luolan and Hong Yi were thought up long ago.

If not, the position of 3rd division Major General would not have been empty for such a long time.

The only one Ouyang Shuo could not settle on was Tsing Yi.

Chapter 763 – Cabinet Structure

Just as Ouyang Shuo was contemplating her position, Bai Nanpu walked in and bowed, "Monarch, Lu Bu, Gao Shun, and Chen Gong have all requested to see you."

Ouyang Shuo was stunned. He did not expect Lu Bu to be so anxious. Ouyang Shuo raised his head and said, "Let the three of them wait for a while."

"Yes Monarch!"

Bai Nanpu turned around and left.

When Tsing Yi heard this, she got up and said, "Why don't we talk next time? I'm doing well now too."

What a thoughtful woman.

Suddenly, a lightbulb lit up in Ouyang Shuo's mind after he saw Bai Nanpu, and he said, "Are you willing to do a desk job?"

"Oh?" Tsing Yi was surprised.

Ouyang Shuo's line of thought was extremely, "There are currently too many memorials that I need to handle. If there was someone to help me with them and write opinions on the memorials, it can make my job more efficient. Are you willing to do such a job?"

When he saw Bai Nanpu, Ouyang Shuo suddenly remembered that Bai Nanpu was the manager of a department, and he should not be at his side at every moment.

Based on modern day terms, Jia Xu as the Chief Secretary was like his personal secretary, and Bai Nanpu as the secretary was like the manager of the office. Hence, what Ouyang Shuo needed was a personal assistant.

Tsing Yi in front of him was a great choice. Although she was young, she was really calm. As she had been around Bai Hua for so long, she was extremely proficient at administrative matters.

The rarer part was Tsing Yi's incredible intelligence.

Tsing Yi also understood.

This was a job that combined the modern day personal assistant and ancient grand secretariat. It did not seem like an important job, but it touched on all the secrets of the territory. Moreover, she could make use of her intelligence to give advice on the memorials to lessen Ouyang Shuo's workload.

In olden times, all documents to the king would be read through first by the grand secretariat. Speaking of which, one had to talk about the ancient cabinet system.

The system was formed during the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yuan Zhang removed the central secretariat and prime minister, giving the power to six departments. The emperor would take charge of the administrative duties of six departments and hundreds of divisions. In truth, the emperor was taking the job of the prime ministers; this pushed the power of the Monarch to the peak.

Although this helped to consolidate the emperor's power, it was a lot of work for the emperor. When there were too many memorials, the emperor would even have to go through many sleepless nights.

Even an incredibly diligent emperor like Zhu Yuan Zhang could not take it. In the end, he found a few experienced elders to help him.

These people were either grand scholars or scholars.

And each one of them could only advise but could not make any decisions. Each one of them had the title of grand secretariat, but their position was extremely low, having no power to speak of.

During Zhu Di's time, the cabinet was formed. After which, the power that originally the prime minister had was in the emperor's hand. The rights to discuss was passed to the cabinet and the administrative rights to the six departments.

The current cabinet was just the emperor's personal secretaries and was not an organization with power.

During Yong Le's reign, the duties of the cabinet grew heavier, helping to run the six departments and becoming an advisory and decision making organization for the emperor. During Zhu Zhan Ji's time, their power rose even more and became a more perfect administrative process.

All memorials in the country, be it big or small, even suggestions by the people, would go through the people and be sent to the emperor to browse. Then the matter would be handed over to the cabinet. They would then write their thoughts and send them to the emperor for approval.

With that, the power of the cabinet was similar to the power of some of the eunuchs, forming a power chain. The cabinet and the imperial service bureau where the eunuchs worked at worked together to handle the administrative matters and six departments.

Amongst which, the most famous people were Zhang Ju Zhen and the eunuch Feng Bao.

At the latter stages of the Ming Dynasty, although members of the cabinet were not ministers, they had the power of ministers.

...

When Shanhai City established their country, they would definitely need to set up the cabinet. However, how to run it to raise administrative efficiency and reduce power plays was a difficult question.

With such a transition period, Tsing Yi's position was similar to that of a scout.

She was also a smart person and knew the importance of this role. She hesitated, "I do not think I can do it?"

Ouyang Shuo smiled, "You cannot do it? Yes, you can."

"Okay, I'll try." Tsing Yi nodded.

"That's great!"

Ouyang Shuo had extremely high hopes for Tsing Yi.

Zi Luolan looked at Ouyang Shuo warily, "Oi, are you trying to make her your female secretary?"

"...."

Ouyang Shuo was speechless.

When Tsing Yi heard her friend's words, her face turned red.

"Let's end our conversation here today. I still need to meet Lu Bu." Ouyang Shuo said, "Tsing Yi you stay."

"Ok."

Tsing Yi nodded, officially taking the role.

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

Regarding the appointments of Lu Bu and the other two, Ouyang Shuo had a rough idea. Amongst which, it involved the adjustment of the Military Affairs Bureau structure. Since Lu Bu asked to see him, Ouyang Shuo decided to call Du Ruhui and Zhao Kuo over to hold a last minute meeting.

A short while later, all of them entered the reading room.

Amongst them, one of them was really tall and big. He had boiling blood and emitted an extremely strong aura - Lu Bu.

Just by looking at him, one could tell that he was an exceedingly strong general.

The strength of Lu Bu was something few in China's entire history could compete with. Even Er'Lai, Xu Chu, and Ma Chao were a distance away from him.

Behind Lu Bu was a man with a full mustache. He had an extremely sincere and honest look. Needless to say, this loyal person was the troop training master, Gao Shun.

Beside Gao Shun was a scholar with a broad face - Strategist Chen Gong.

"Greetings Monarch!"

Lu Bu, Gao Shun, and Chen Gong all bowed, officially setting the master-servant relationship. After spending a period of time here, even the highly arrogant Lu Bu had nothing to say.

It was best to be able to work in such a territory.

"Please rise."

Ouyang Shuo said whilst he checked out their stats.

Name: Lu Bu (Emperor Rank)

Dynasty: East Han

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Special Rank General

Loyalty: 70

Command: 72

Force: 100

Intelligence: 65

Politics: 50

Specialty: Fierce General (raises troops morale by 30%, raises troops movement speed by 25%, raises troops attack strength by 35%)

Cultivation Method: Heavens Breaking Halberd Technique (24 strokes)

Equipment: Red Hare Horse, Fangtian Halberd, Beast Face Head Swallowing Armor

Evaluation: Lu Bu has the ferocity of a tiger, creator of miracles, only brings victory.

As expected from Lu Bu, the one with unparalleled strength; his force stat had reached 100. If Ouyang Shuo fought Lu Bu now, he probably could not win.

Name: Gao Shun (King Rank)

Dynasty: East Han

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 70

Command: 88

Force: 72

Intelligence: 60

Politics: 45

Specialty: Training Troops (raises leveling speed of soldiers by 40%, raises morale of soldiers by 15%)

Special Soldier Type: Formation Crushing Unit

Cultivation Method: nil

Equipment: Six-side Han Sword

Evaluation: Gao Shun is a pure and honorable man; he does not drink and does not take bribes. He led 700 troops, and each attack broke through any trap or formation. His troops were known as the Formation Crushing Unit.

Gao Shun had truly surprised Ouyang Shuo, not only did he have a special soldier type, his specialty was also extremely overpowered, and it helped to save almost half the time of training troops.

Ouyang Shuo planned to grant Gao Shun a high position.

Name: Chen Gong (King Rank)

Dynasty: East Han

Identity: Shanhai City Strategist

Occupation: Special Rank Strategist

Loyalty: 75

Command: 70

Force: 52

Intelligence: 85

Politics: 72

Specialty: Winning by Strategy (raises success rates of strategies by 25%, raise combat confidence by 20%, reduces enemy morale by 10%)

Evaluation: Chen Gong used his intelligence to win against the enemy, but he cannot be overused in case he gets too immersed in it.

Compared to Jia Xu, Chen Gong was less famous but could also be considered a top class strategist.

Tsing Yi, who was asked to join such a huge occasion at the get go, was obviously nervous.

When she saw how Ouyang Shuo easily recruited an Emperor Rank general, a King Rank general, and a King Rank strategist just like that, she could not help but feel sad for other Lords.

Apart from the prominent Lords, the other Lords in the wilderness could only dream about gathering these three. However, they had chosen to come over to Shanhai City.

The gap was simply too huge.

If another territory gained their allegiance, one would immediately treat them as an honored guest. They would even fear that they had not treated these three well enough.

What about Ouyang Shuo? Lu Bu had to ask to meet him, and Ouyang Shuo did not even meet them one by one. He just tossed them into a meeting right away.

He had treated them a little too lightly.

However, Lu Bu and the two did not show any displeasure. They bowed after they entered; one could not see any unwillingness in their actions, and they were not unhappy.

Even an arrogant general like Lu Bu acted extremely respectfully the moment he saw Ouyang Shuo.

This was the gap.

The current Ouyang Shuo brought with him the aura of an emperor. This was not something other Lords could compete with.

In their eyes, the Monarch was their master, and they would not look down on him or be biased against him just because he was a player.

Chapter 764 – Training Division

In the reading room, the military meeting officially began.

Ouyang Shuo had invited Du Ruhui and Zhao Kuo over because this matter involved the appointment of Zhao Shun.

"The Military Affairs Bureau lacks a position to train soldiers. I want to set up the Training Division to be in charge of the daily training of the soldiers. What do you all think?"

Du Ruhui was the first to speak, "I agree with what the Monarch's words. As the military continues to expand, war would not be common and would instead become a rarity. Hence, the daily training of the soldiers would become more and more important, even to say that it affects the combat strength of the entire army. Hence, we need to have a proper organization handling the matter."

"That's right. I also suggest that we can put the Training Division in charge of the recruitment and management of reserve forces and start training soldiers from the source."

Since the two elders of the Military Affairs Bureau had made their stand, naturally no one else would oppose.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, "Your suggestion is great; let's do that. As for the position of secretary, I want to put General Gao Shun in charge. However, I do not know if General is willing to take up such a lowly post?"

As he spoke, Ouyang Shuo looked toward Gao Shun.

Gao Shun's specialty was pretty much born for training troops. Ouyang Shuo could not think of anyone that was a better choice than him for the role.

Everyone present focused their attention onto Gao Shun.

Gao Shun already had a feeling when he walked in, so he was really calm right now. To be able to take up such an important task right away, such treatment was something he had never received when he was under Lu Bu.

The amazing part was, who knows if it was planned or not, but his appointment was given to him before Lu Bu.

Gao Shun noticed Lu Bu's face twitch. This was a person that did not know how to hide his thoughts. After entering the wilderness and joining Shanhai City, the Lord and official relationship between the two had officially come to an end.

Who knows why, but Gao Shun felt sad because of it.

The Monarch in front of him was truly magnanimous and was not someone normal Lords could compare to.

Gao Shun got up and walked to the center of the hall and bowed, "Thank you Monarch, I will try my best!" His tone was sincere and solemn.

"Good, then that's settled." Ouyang Shuo smiled.

In truth, the main star of this military meeting was Gao Shun. As for Lu Bu and Chen Gong, Ouyang Shuo also had some plans for them. Lu Bu would continue to learn in the Army Military Academy. Once the Battle of Yunnan ended, he should get at least a Legion General position.

Chen Gong would be appointed in the Nanjiang Governor-General House and would be a strategist and advisor below Jia Xu.

When Shanhai City establish their country, the Imperial Court Structure would not have any pure advisors or strategists. They would be appointed by the role and not making roles to appoint people.

Ouyang Shuo had thought about making Chen Gong a military advisor in one of the legion corps. However, the four marshals were all intelligent people, and their mind for strategy was not worse than Chen Gong.

To put Chen Gong there would not achieve much.

The Three Kingdoms was special as Lords fought one another, and it was a really chaotic time. The true establishment of countries and empires only came at the end of the Three Kingdoms Era. Only then did the stage for strategists arrive.

Such a weird occupational ecosystem was rarely seen in other dynasties.

After arranging everything, it was already close to noon.

At 2 PM, Ouyang Shuo once again appeared in the reading room.

The moment he sat down, Black Snake walked in. It seemed like he had been waiting outside the door. In the morning, some officials, including heads of chambers of commerce, had waited in the guest room for three to four hours but did not manage to see the Monarch.

Black Snake went all in, not even leaving during noon. He waited right outside the courtyard.

When he saw Black Snake, Ouyang Shuo laughed helplessly, "Are you all really trying to keep me here?"

"Lord, please do not be angered!"

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, "Speak. What matter do you have?"

"It's like this. Didn't the Monarch instruct us to find a guild known as Liangshan Mercenary Group? We have found them and have already arranged for people to infiltrate." Black Snake replied.

Ouyang Shuo was stunned. His thoughts floated away as he said in an indiscernible manner, "Really?"

"It was also a huge coincidence. That Mercenary Group is also in the list that applied to move here. Their guild is not too bad, and the Civil Affairs Department had already investigated them. If nothing goes wrong, they should be able to move here." Black Snake reported another piece of intel.

It seemed like this was the reason why Black Snake wanted to find Ouyang Shuo so hurriedly.

He could not deduce what kind of conflict the Monarch had with this unassuming Mercenary Guild. Logically speaking, one was a Monarch so high up and the other was just a small character.

There should not be anything going on between the two.

As the head of intelligence, Black Snake could feel that there was some secret within, but he did not dare to step in to investigate what it was.

To do so would be courting death.

Not mentioning other matters, solely the commander of the Shanhai Guards, Shen Buhai, was not a simple character. During this period of time, Black Snake felt that there was a pair of eyes quietly staring at their ash courtyard.

They investigated the matter, but they could not find any clues.

Black Snake was sure that the Shanhai Guards were monitoring them. As one of the elites in real life China Mercenary groups, Black Snake was the best at intel gathering and anti-investigating techniques.

He thought that going against the ancient people was just too easy.

Who knew that Shen Buhai would give him such a good lesson?

Modern day intel gathering was more systematic and more logical, but it was not omnipotent. Furthermore, the wilderness did not have the advanced tools of real life, making it far more difficult.

The ancient people's knowledge was endless, and their experience from investigations was passed down from generation to generation. Such skills would not appear in any document, but they truly existed.

Not mentioning other matters, in terms of developing and controlling spies alone, there was already a whole lot to do.

Generation after generation of accumulation, simply terrifying.

If one underestimated them, one would definitely fall hard.

It was obvious that Black Snake had taken such a loss. From that day on, he became more careful. In the dark, he had also strengthened and modified the Black Snake Guards. He did not want to be suppressed like that by the Shanhai Guards.

It was not a fight for power, more of a fight for some breathing room.

The battle between the two intel organizations was just beginning.

Ouyang Shuo naturally knew all of this as Shen Buhai had reported it to him. The current Shanhai Guards had completed a massive net over the whole territory, covering it completely.

Ouyang Shuo was also extremely glad that the two intel organizations were having such a competition.

...

The report from the Black Snake Guards helped Ouyang Shuo realize that the time to deal with the Liangshan Mercenary Group had already arrived, and it should not be dragged on any longer.

"To what degree has the Black Snake Guards infiltrated the Liangshan Mercenary Group?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

Black Snake replied, "Liangshan Mercenary Group is only a large-sized guild, and their member count has not even reached the 10 thousand full number. The guild uses a team leader system, and their main profits come from missions or being hired."

"Apart from guild leader Song Pu, they have two more deputy guild leaders; they are the Yi Zhangqing and Zhang Zi Yue that you have mentioned. Till date, one of the most elite Black Snake Guards, Snake Guard Number 55, has obtained a position of deputy team leader. Apart from that, there are many Snake Guards and Black Guards hiding amongst their elite squads."

The efficiency of the Black Snake Guards was extremely high; they had reached the core of the Liangshan Mercenary Guild in such a short time.

"What's the Number 55's evaluation of the core members?"

Ouyang Shuo wanted to know whether his three brothers and sisters had undergone a huge change in the game. If that happened, he would not know how he should handle it.

"Guild leader Song Pu is a general who is really fair and passionate; he's really loved and respected in the guild. In the Quanzhou Mercenary Circle, he can be considered to have a little fame." Black Snake introduced Song Pu's situation first.

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, he laughed coldly to himself.

That's right. In the last life, before that matter, wasn't Song Pu a good brother? He was exceedingly righteous and took care of members of the guild really well, treating everyone warmly.

Song Pu also treated their families extremely well, taking out a portion of the guild expenses to fund the families. Especially the elderly, he helped them pay their rents.

Hence, in the circle, people often said that although the Liangshan Mercenary Guild was not super strong, it was the most humane mercenary guild.

Using their good name, the mercenary guild was able to accept jobs and barely continue running.

Song Pu was warm, but he did not have any business mind. Moreover, he did not know how to be diplomatic. Consequently, the financial situation of the mercenary guild was not good.

If not, in the last life, Ouyang Shuo would not have had such a tough life even though he was one of three leaders of the guild.

The further the game went on, the more the price of normal goods would be inflated, and house prices would increase. Overall, this would make it difficult for players to live in the imperial cities. Some of the elderly did not have any skill and were just pure casual players.

The imperial city Imperial Courts did not have any welfare for players, so it all depended on the players to solve their problems themselves.

Not mentioning casual players, even combat occupation players were having it tough. Along with the outer regions of the imperial city being explored, the players lost their place to kill monsters and their source of quests.

Now, the most popular quests were the ones given out by the imperial cities. Players would fight tooth and nail for it on every occasion.

In comparison, the lives of work occupation players were much safer.

Under such circumstances, the growth of mercenary guilds was promoted and helping Lords to fight wars was a good idea.

Breaking away from the imperial cities and searching for a new way to survive became the challenge for large guilds.

Ouyang Shuo knew that the Gaia year 4 system update would have something especially targeted at this.

Chapter 765 – Equipment Development Hub

Black Snake continued to report, "Deputy team leader Yi Zhangqing is a strategist; he is a really low profile person and is the genius behind the mercenary group. Deputy team leader Zhang Ziyue is a chivalrous expert and basically does not participate in guild activities normally".

Ouyang Shuo nodded; the three of them were not too different from the last life. Even in the last life, Ouyang Shuo did not have much understanding of second brother Yi Zhangqing as he was simply too low profile.

Apart from talking about guild matters, he was like an invisible man. Ouyang Shuo also spent a lot of time doing quests outside, so they spent very little time together.

In the last life, Zhang Ziyue treated Bing'er really nicely and basically treated her like a little sister. The two of them often did quests together outside, and their relationship could be considered close.

However, they became total strangers in this life.

"I understand their situation; let Number 55 continue to lay in wait." Ouyang Shuo was down-hearted.

"Understood."

"If there's nothing more, you can leave."

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand as there were still many matters that were waiting for him to handle.

Black Snake did not leave right away and said, "Monarch, there's still one more matter. Last time, you ordered us to check if there were any other Lords in the north who have come into contact with the Mongol Tribe. From the current situation, apart from Fengxiang City, no other territory has come into contact with the Mongols. It just seems like a total coincidence."

Ouyang Shuo remained silent.

Ouyang Shuo was extremely vigilant towards the Mongol Tribes.

"Even so, let's not put down our guards and tell the Jingdu Intel Station to keep watch. The moment something occurs, immediately report." Ouyang Shuo instructed.

"Understood!"

Following which, Black Snake left; he also knew that the Monarch's time was extremely precious.

...

After Black Snake left, Ouyang Shuo sent an imperial decree to the Civil Affairs Department to ask Director Pei Mo to allow Liangshan Mercenary Group to enter Shanhai City through the normal process.

As long as Liangshan Mercenary Group came over to Shanhai City, they would not be able to escape from his clutches.

After a short while, Combat Logistics Director Xiahou Dun, who had come in the morning, brought Armory Division Secretary Wang Gao, Bow and Crossbow Division Secretary Wu Peng, and Grandmaster Ou Zhizi into the reading room.

This meeting had been planned in advance.

Along with the merger with Consonance City, Shanhai City now had many equipment making technologies. Not mentioning warships, in terms of armor, they had the Ming Dynasty Mingguang Armor and the Song Dynasty Buren Armor, and for weapons, they had the Tang Blade, the Horse Lance, and the Song Dynasty bow and crossbows as well as shields. Apart from that, they also have a full range of siege weapons.

All of these technologies were basically purchased by Ouyang Shuo through the system auctions. In the recent year and a half, the territory equipment and weapons had started to become stale.

The only big breakthrough was the Ming Dynasty Cannon.

In terms of cold weapons, due to the advancement in steelmaking technology, the crafting process had been renewed, raising the toughness and sharpness of the weapons.

Logically speaking, the huge technological accumulation of Shanhai City could help them get away from the restrictions of technical manuals, and they should be able to have one or two breakthroughs on the original base to come up with items more advanced than the era the weapons had come from.

However, that did not happen.

The reason had both objective elements and problems of cooperation between departments. The four military workshops each had their own responsibilities, so they did not think about improving a stage and reaching another level.

They really could not keep going on like this.

After witnessing the strength and power of the P1 Type Cannons, Ouyang Shuo realized that he needed to have an overall upgrade of the territory military industry, especially in terms of the cold weapons region.

Before returning to Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo had already revealed his thoughts to Xiahou Dun.

Now, it was time to see what kind of answer this Combat Logistics Director could give him.

"Speak. What are the thoughts of the Combat Logistics Department?" Ouyang Shuo went right to the topic.

Xiahou Dun said, "The criticism of the Monarch regarding the Combat Logistics Department truly makes me ashamed."

The letter from the Monarch was extremely direct. If Xiahou Dun was not just appointed and did not have much to do with the mess, he would have probably been scolded pretty badly.

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, "You do not need to apologize; talk about your specific plans."

"Yes." Xiahou Dun nodded. "The Combat Logistics Department is considering taking five to six master level craftsmen from the Armory Division and the Bow and Crossbow Division to put them all together to research and develop new crafting technology. Apart from that, we would like grandmaster Ou Zhizi to lead this team."

When Ouyang Shuo heard this suggestion, he said, "Ou Zhizi is a God Rank swordsmith, and he is very experienced. Having him lead the team is a really good experience. But this is far from enough. Moving so few people might cause conflict and not bear many results. We must do much more to revolutionize this."

"How about we set up an Equipment Development Hub under the Combat Logistics Department with Ou Zhizi in charge? This place will gather all the grandmasters in the territory. In weaker areas like heavy swords, war horse equipment, and similar equipment, we will spend money to hire grandmasters from the imperial cities. Hence, we will form a stellar lineup to be in charge of equipment research and development."

"On the other side, we will also borrow people from the No.7 Research Institute, asking them to send one or two steel experts to the Equipment Development Hub. Magnus's experimental lab can also be merged into the hub. All in all, in the future, the Equipment Development Hub would become the brains of the cold weapons of the territory."

"One more point, the hub should not lock itself up and must not do things alone. They must regularly communicate with the shipbuilding departments, No.7 Research Institute, and Xinan University to increase the hub's knowledge and broaden their horizons. Only then can they improve further."

After saying so much so quickly, Ouyang Shuo was really thirsty, so he took up the teacup and drank a large mouthful of tea.

Xiahou Dun and the others were sitting there like students. Each of them was holding a book and recording diligently, afraid of missing out on any information.

After checking and checking and confirming that he did not miss out on anything, Xiahou Dun raised his head and said solemnly, "Monarch's words have opened my eyes; we have been too conservative. I will make a specific plan regarding the Equipment Development Hub for the Lord to read over."

"That could not be better." Ouyang Shuo nodded. Then he turned around to look at Ou Zhizi and said, "Regarding the hub, I'll depend on you, grandmaster."

Ou Zhizi was incredibly engrossed in the Monarch's words. Ouyang Shuo's foresight was truly deep and vast. If his plan was followed, their prospects would truly be endless.

"Do not worry Monarch, I will do all I can." Ou Zhizi said.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and nodded, "If there's anything you need, grandmaster can directly report to me in the manor." Ouyang Shuo was really determined to make this plan of raising the standards of the cold weapon in the territory work.

"Yes Monarch!"

With that, the matter of establishing the Equipment Development Hub was set.

Chapter 766 – Industrialization Department

After he sent Xiahou Dun and his group away, Ouyang Shuo welcomed the last batch of officials for the day. This batch included Administration Director Xiao He, Financial Director Fan Li, Industry and Development Planning Director Cui Yingyu, and the person in charge of the No.7 Research Institute, Liu Mo.

Amongst them, there was also an old man.

This was the most important meeting for Ouyang Shuo today, and he had purposely left it for the end.

Ouyang Shuo drank a mouthful of tea, calming his tired senses. In just a day, he had approved the West Chu coal for equipment exchange, settled Zi Luolan and the other two sisters, set up the Outreach Division, Training Division, and the Equipment Development Hub.

Using the gaps in between, he also dealt with important intel as well as matters regarding Liangshan Mercenary Group.

Such a closely packed schedule was something that Ouyang Shuo had not met with before. First, he had been away for too long, and there were many matters that he needed to personally solve; secondly, the Battle of Yunnan was imminent, so Ouyang Shuo needed to make use of the moment of peace to quickly deal with administrative matters before rushing over to Consonance City.

This meeting involves the territory industrialization.

A month ago, the No.7 Research Institute had met expectations, creating the steam engine and the sewing machine. They had completed the process of turning technical manual to real items.

What was next was to build factories and a seamless production chain to turn the item into a product.

Apart from that, No.7 Research Institute had garnered huge progress in their research on the Atlantis flying device. If everything went well, they would be able to craft the first local mimicry flying device by the 3rd month.

Along with the P1 Type Cannon, the research of the No.7 Research Institute had been really stellar. Hence, Ouyang Shuo kept his promise and transferred 500 thousand gold over to Liu Mo.

The territory industrialization had reached a crucial point, and it looked like a huge explosion was imminent.

While Ouyang Shuo was still touring Lingnan, he ordered the Administration Bureau and Financial Bureau to see how they could remove divisions related to industrialization to make a management organization that purely focused on that.

This organization would be called the Industrialization Department.

The newly established Industrialization Department would be directly managed by the Nanjiang Governor-General House and not by the four bureaus.

...

At the start of the meeting, Xiao He made a detailed report on the structure of the Industrialization Department.

At the current moment, the department in charge of industrialization was the Industry and Development Planning Department under the Financial Bureau. Apart from which, the Technology Division under the Science, Education, Culture, and Health Department was related to industrialization, so it would be moved to the Industrialization Department.

Hence, the core officials of the Industrialization Department would be from these two places.

The No.7 Research Institute would also arrange a batch of relevant experts to enter the department as technical advisors. Some of them would take on administrative roles to help the Industrialization Department run.

The research experts were not just people who focused solely on knowledge and research. Some of them were technology officials for the federation or people in charge of relevant organizations, thus their administrative experience was not lacking either.

These people were the true backbone and brains of the Industrialization Department.

The director of the department was chosen from the No.7 Research Institute; the director would be the old man - old Chen. In reality, he was in the federation scientific committee.

There would be three organizations under the Industrialization Department, including the Technology Division in charge of dealing with relevant technology, Industrialization Division in charge of planning and factory construction as well as Firearms Division in charge of firearm research and development.

The relevant warship research would also be moved under the Industrialization Department under the charge of the Industrialization Division.

One could foresee that the newly built Industrialization Department would be one of the core departments of the territory, controlling the industrialization lifeline of the territory; it would play the role of the captain of the ship.

Ouyang Shuo gave his seal of approval on the document that Xiao He passed to him, officially signaling the formation of the Industrialization Department. Ouyang Shuo directly asked, "What plans does the department have for the sewing machine and steam engine factory construction? Have you chosen the place?"

Old Chen was naturally extremely excited as he did not expect that he could still participate in core administrative matters after entering the game. As a high-level federation officer, Old Chen saw through how the game ran.

It was already obvious that the young man in front of him would plan an important role when they arrived on planet Hope. Thinking about it now, his role had a truly deep meaning.

Hence, although the industrialization in the territory now was like that of a primitive society when compared to modern times, Old Chen did not dare to treat it lightly.

Before coming, Old Chen had deeply contemplated this question and replied, "The Industrialization Department recommends to move all relevant factories to Zhenhai City."

"Oh? What's the reason?"

Ouyang Shuo was truly surprised. He thought that they would have chosen Shanhai City instead. After all, Lianzhou Prefecture had been changed to a Zhili Prefecture, which meant that there was a lot of land in the basin that could be used.

Old Chen laughed and explained, "First, Zhenhai City has a natural bay like Jiaozhou Bay. This is something that Shanhai City cannot compare to. Without mentioning how Shanhai City is located inland, even Beihai Bay acts as a military harbor, which makes it really congested. Along with the voyage trading, there are too many merchant ships jamming the area up. The future Beihai Port is going to face this problem."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, agreeing with Old Chen's analysis.

Unknowingly, the increased prosperity of Shanhai City created a challenge to Beihai Port. In the past, Ouyang Shuo had tried to build all the best facilities and things at Shanhai City.

Thinking about it now, it was a bad decision.

As the territory developed, it was time to nurture new areas; they could not add too many functions to Shanhai City. As the future Capital City, Shanhai City should be the political, cultural, and military center.

As for industrial, economic, and trading centers, they could choose other cities to play such roles.

Lingnan Province's Zhenhai City was a fantastic choice. In reality, the Zhenhai City region was part of the famous Pearl River Delta economic zone.

'It seems like the time has arrived to push forward the development of Zhenhai City.' Ouyang Shuo thought to himself.

Old Chen continued, "Compared to Beihai Bay, Jiaozhou Bay is closer to Jiodong Bay in Ludong Province and Beihai Port in the north of Jingdu, reducing the time to transport coal, which is highly beneficial to developing industrialization."

"One more point, Zhenhai City is located at the end of the Zhujiang river system, and it can radiate the results of industrialization to Lingnan, Chuanbei and Yunnan Province."

Ouyang Shuo nodded and smiled, "Old Chen, you have convinced me; let's follow your plan."

"Ok." When Old Chen heard that, he was delighted.

At that moment, Fan Li suddenly spoke, "Monarch, there's one thing we have to pay attention to. The route from Jiaozhou Bay to Jiaodong Bay needs to cross the Yizhou Straits. King City's Penghu Squadron should be patrolling the area. I'm worried that a large-scale transportation of coal would be intercepted by them."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, "This is actually a problem. But you do not have to be overly worried about it. Based on the plan set by the Military Affairs Bureau, if the Battle of Yunnan goes well, this problem will be solved."

The problem Fan Li spoke of made Ouyang Shuo even more determined to take care of Yizhou Island.

"Since the Monarch has considered everything, I do not need to worry." Fan Li said.

Even though he said that Fan Li still had doubts in his heart. Not only was he a Business Saint, but he was also extremely smart about military affairs. Fan Li could not imagine how the results of the Battle of Yunnan would affect Yizhou Straits.

However, since this involved military secrets, Fan Li could not ask more. After all, he was just the Financial Director.

Seeing that Fan Li had finished speaking, Old Chen said, "Monarch, the Industrialization Department still has something that needs to Monarch to decide. It is regarding the steam engine technology. Should we share it with our allies? When to share? How do we draw the line?"

Old Chen asked a series of questions.

Luckily, Ouyang Shuo was prepared for that, "Since the steam engines and sewing machines are already made, Shanhai City already has a head start. Let's just give them the rights. However, we cannot blindly spread it. What I mean is to give it to Stone City and Fallen Phoenix City. They are both coal producing regions, so the help of the steam engine will quicken the coal digging rate."

"As for West Chu, we will not give them the technology but sell them the finished product instead. As for Gong Chengshi and Xunlong Dianxue, we will give them the sewing machine technology. The South Lords mainly focus on silkworm breeding so the sewing machine can help them improve their industries."

Ouyang Shuo's strategy was to split up the power. With that, it would not pass the five territory limit whilst also helping to raise the strength of his allies.

"As for the specifics, the Industrialization Department will look into it."

Old Chen nodded.

Just at this moment, someone objected. It was Cui Yingyu, "Monarch, I do not oppose passing the technology to Black Lion City but Xunlong City?"

Her words caused the atmosphere of the reading room to turn a little awkward.

The unhappiness between Shanhai City and Xunlong City was something all the officials knew about. Fan Li and the others could not understand what the Monarch was planning. However, they did not want to express their doubts.

Cui Yingyu boldly opened up this wound.

When Ouyang Shuo heard her question, he was not angry but simply smiled. He had obviously thought about Cui Yingyu's question and had his reasons behind it.

Xunlong City had a possibility of betraying the alliance, but Ouyang Shuo did not want to show any biasness before Xulong City actually did anything.

Especially when Lingnan had just stablished and war would start on the west. Maintaining a stable east would be much more suitable for their current strategy.

If they were biased against Xunlong City, with his petty character, who knows what chaos he would cause?

Chapter 767 – Z1 Type Warship

How could the rights to certain technology compare to the overall strategy of the territory? As such, Ouyang Shuo decided to hand the sewing machine technology to Xunlong City.

The one given the rights would not be able to pass on the technology to another person. Hence, Xunlong City would not be able to teach anyone else the sewing machine technology.

Even if Xiong Ba wanted to use the sewing machine in schemes or plots, it would not be much. After all, Ouyang Shuo intended to release both technologies to the entire China region at a suitable time.

No matter how they fought with one another, it could only be called an internal conflict. During the future country wars, the two alliances would have no choice but to work together.

Ouyang Shuo was more than willing to raise the technology tree of the China region.

"Since I have already thought about this, there's no need to dwell much further on this topic." Ouyang Shuo shelved her opposition.

Cui Yingyu glanced at Ouyang Shuo, nodding and not saying anything else.

Noticing that the atmosphere was getting awkward, Fan Li cut in, "The Financial Bureau also has something to report. The wood trading deal with the ASEAN states have gone through the first round of discussion. They raised an additional term; they wish to have the rights to purchase Shanhai City warships."

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, "Their appetite is really huge."

The ASEAN Lords were not fools or friendly people. In the Nanyang region, all the ASEAN state squadrons were suppressed by Shanhai City.

To build a strong navy to face off against Shanhai City was the priority of all the ASEAN states.

Xingzhou Squadron Fleet Admiral Yanhuo Yaonie had written a letter to Ouyang Shuo, saying that the navies of Java, Johor, Luzon, and the other states were all showing signs of rising up once more.

If it was not for the Xingzhou Squadron suppressing them, the situation would have gone sour. Hence, Ouyang Shuo built the Nanyang Navy Headquarters after the Battle of Red Cliff ended.

One of the uses was to pressure the navies of the various ASEAN states.

Apart from Nanzhang, the rest of the ASEAN states were either near the sea or island states. Hence, they did not lack sailors, and their seafaring skills were decent. Their only weakness would be that in terms of warship building technology, they were behind China.

This was the only reason they would turn their attention to the Shanhai City warships.

"Inform the Business Division negotiation team to tell them that we can sell the warships to them, but there's a strict limit to the number of turreted warships that they can buy. Also, in terms of price, raise it by at least two times." Ouyang Shuo gave an unexpected answer.

Naturally, they should rip off the ASEAN countries when they could do so.

In the game, before the federation was established, countries would rake in over ten times of profits from export prices underpinned by technological breakthroughs.

Ouyang Shuo did not even feel the slightest of psychological barrier in setting this price.

"In terms of negotiation, they also need to pay attention to the technique and try to exaggerate the quantity of wood needed for each warship as well as the time to produce one. Also inform the Lords of the ASEAN states that whoever wants to buy needs to first sell at least twice the wood to us. First come, first serve. Whoever sells us the wood would get the warships first."

The ASEAN was not a united group, so Ouyang Shuo believed the Lords would fight to be the first to sell wood to Shanhai City if they could get the warships earlier than the others.

This was an unexpected surprise.

Since they had a need for Shanhai City warships, it was like Shanhai City having a stranglehold over them. As such, they had no choice but to take a step back in terms of wood trade negotiations.

At the very least, they could not raise the price during the negotiations.

Ouyang Shuo did not choose to sell the warships to the ASEAN states because he was greedy for gold. Rather, the shipbuilding group was already building a new type of warship known as the Z1 Type Warship. It would mesh the strengths of both the Ming Dynasty Warships and the English Man O' War, creating a revolutionary upgrade.

The dragon bones in the experimental warship made use of the black dragon bones that Ouyang Shuo found on the dragon island. After it was completed, it would become Ouyang Shuo's new warship.

Ouyang Shuo knew that the English Man O' War type warships would be the future of warship development because modern day iron warships were built on the basis of these and developed.

The iron warships that Shanhai City would make in the future would require them to first understand the Man O' War battleship technology completely. At the same time, the Ming Dynasty Turreted ships had many useable points that could be incorporated into the new type of battleship.

Combining the two, using the strengths to cover up the weaknesses, they would create an even stronger warship.

As long as the development of the Z1 Type Warship succeeded, along with equipping them with the P1 to P2 type cannons, Shanhai City would be able to give the Nanyang Navy a makeover.

At that time, the turreted warships that the ASEAN navy had would be of no challenge to them.

If was the same as saying that the ASEAN states were just emptying their pockets and using plenty of elite wood to buy eliminated warships. In the end, they were still controlled by Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo wanted the Business Division to negotiate and buy some more time for them to develop the new warship. The amount of wood resources needed to build the Z1 Type Warship was an ocean like amount and needed to be amassed beforehand.

If they could earn a large amount in the process, why not make this trade?

When Fan Li heard that, his eyes lit up as he said, "I will send your words to the negotiators."

"That's good." Ouyang Shuo naturally believed that Fan Li would be able to handle it well.

...

After sending away Fan Li, it was already 5 PM.

Seeing that there was some time before dinner, Ouyang Shuo did not meet anyone and started to deal with the memorials. In the reading room, there was one more person; naturally, it was the newly appointed Tsing Yi.

After joining three meetings in a row, Tsing Yi's eyes were truly opened up.

Each management staff in Shanhai City was a giant, and they all had their own views and thoughts. It was amazing how Ouyang Shuo could control all of them and push all the right administrative decisions to make all these old foxes yield.

Tsing Yi's eyes shone bright upon seeing that.

A focused Ouyang Shuo had an unusual charm.

Hence, Tsing Yi felt an even larger pressure. Although she looked soft and weak, she was a extremely determined person. Since she accepted the job, she wanted to do it well.

Ouyang Shuo did not bother about her thoughts, swiftly dealing with the memorials. There were four types of memorials that had the rights to be passed to him.

First, memorials from intel organizations like the Black Snake Guards and the Shanhai Guards.

Basically, these were passed on from Black Snake and Shen Buhai. When Ouyang Shuo was in Shanhai City, most of them would be reported face to face.

Secondly, the war fighting generals.

Based on the rule, Legion Generals and above, including navy fleet admirals, could directly report intel to Ouyang Shuo. Lower ranks like Major Generals did not have this right.

Thirdly, the various Governors.

The Governors, including the City Magistrates of Friendship City and Jidian City, all had the rights to deliver the memorials to him. In fact, they had to at least report once every month.

When the Prefects faced an emergency, they could break the rule to report. As for what was defined as an emergency, the Administration Bureau had specific rules. If it exceeded this range, one would be bypassing their superior.

Fourthly, the people in charge of the major organizations of the Nanjiang Governor-General House.

Apart from the four Bureau Directors, directors and secretaries could report to Ouyang Shuo. Of course, unless it was a huge problem, normally such things would just be reported to the four Bureau Directors.

Considering everything, there were 50 to 60 people who had the ability to report to Ouyang Shuo directly. Considering sudden and unexpected situations, this number would be even larger.

It was still okay when Ouyang Shuo was here as some matters could be handled face to face. When numerous departments were involved, he could also pull all the in charge personnel in for a meeting.

The moment he was not in Shanhai City was when the problems starts.

Problems faced could only be communicated through memorials so many correspondents would be done for just one matter. For those matters involving many departments, it was even worse.

When Ouyang Shuo was outside, he did not have any time in the day, so he could only read and work on them at night. Hence, it was no wonder that he needed to burn the midnight oil in Lingnan.

Luckily, Gaia had such an efficient relay system. Both letters and memorials could be transported quickly like emails.

If not, a Lord on the outside would not be able to care for territory matters.

The reason why Gaia did that was to be more humane. While caring for the Lords, it also trained their ability to deal with administrative matters.

The memorial Ouyang Shuo was reading was from Xingzhou Governor Pei Mo. it was regarding guilds being set up. Hence, Pei Mo sought Ouyang Shuo's opinion.

For anything that involved players, the Governors would often be more careful.

Qing Sikou had a sharp eye and knew that the ASEAN states around Xingzhou Prefecture were a massive raw material base. For a purely work occupation guild like them, it was naturally a huge opportunity.

Now, she applied; naturally, it was because she saw that Shanhai City had stabilized their position in the region.

"That girl is really smart." Ouyang Shuo smiled and shook his head, writing in red: Agreed, handle with discretion.

After handling memorial after memorial, 6 PM had unknowingly past.

Just at this moment, a head popped in. It was Bing'er, who ran in and shouted, "Brother let's eat! You have been busy since returning and did not even eat."

This little lady had become a real busybody.

Ouyang Shuo stretched, "Ok, I'm coming." He turned around and looked at Tsing Yi, "Tsing Yi, it's time for you to end work."

"Yes."

Tsing Yi naturally would not have her meal together with Ouyang Shuo.

When they merged with Consonance City, the Construction Division had built a residence for Bai Hua. The three sisters all stayed there now.

A busy day had finally come to an end.

Chapter 768 – Mountain and Sea Entertainment Holdings

While they were eating dinner, Song Jia took the chance to raise a matter, "Wuyi, I've already taken care of the investment matter."

Ouyang Shuo smiled and nodded, "That's great, so swift. You invested in your own name?"

"Of course not," Song Jia shook her head and proudly said, "You already said you wanted to rule the entertainment industry, so I dragged Bai Hua, Yue Yue, Bai Xue, and Little Aunt to form a holdings known as the Mountain and Sea Entertainment Holdings.

"Wow!"

Ouyang Shuo took in a deep breathe; these four partners she roped in were truly four rich females.

As the ex-Lord of Consonance City, Bai Hua was extremely rich. After the merger, the salary from Kunming Prefecture was also a sizeable amount; naturally, her assets would only rise.

Mulan Yue was in a similar situation to Bai Hua.

Bai Xue was the female leader of the Bai Trading Company, so she was rich. On the other hand, Little Aunt Lin Jing was one of the two heads of War-Snow Rose.

Ouyang Shuo started to look forward to the future.

Out of the four of them, Bai Xue's investment was one that surprised Ouyang Shuo. Bai Hua, Mulan Yue, and Lin Jing were all players and were familiar with the entertainment industry, so their investment was pretty normal.

After all, Ouyang Shuo's foresight had been proven correct time and time again, and he was an undoubted genius.

As an NPC, the entertainment industry was a total foreign thing to Bai Xue. Who knows whether her investment was to please this future queen or if she saw a business opportunity within?

Maybe both?

"How much gold have you all gathered?" Ouyang Shuo was really curious.

Song Jia laughed, "I've invested the one million you passed to me, so we hold 50% of the shares. Bai Hua invested 400 thousand while the rest each invested 200 thousand."

"Well done." Ouyang Shuo gave her the thumbs up.

Such generosity; for an entertainment holdings to get 2 million gold in investment was probably unprecedented in the entire China region!

Ouyang Shuo asked, "What specific plans do you have?"

Song Jia nodded; she wanted to hear Ouyang Shuo's view, "Apart from the current capital, our only assets would be 40% shares of Pingcheng Studio. Hence, the only job of our holdings is to assist them in getting a good movie done."

"You have not recruited others?" Ouyang Shuo was really curious.

The five partners were all busy people, and even Song Jia represented Ouyang Shuo to go to the imperial cities for events.

Hence, it was necessary to recruit people to help them.

Most importantly, the five of them were total outsiders to the entertainment industry. Without experts helping them to manage it, no matter how much funds they amassed, they would not be able to cause any huge waves.

Speaking of which, Song Jia was having a headache about this matter, "Yes, but it is not going smoothly. Actors, singers, directors, and other such people in real life have all changed their names in the game. We do not dare to do start some high-profile recruitment online."

Since the entertainment group had the name of Mountain and Sea, anyone could guess the background of the group.

Players in the wilderness all had a common consensus that any industry Shanhai City had its eyes on would prosper. The story of Shanhai City using the salt industry to prosper had already spread through the wilderness, becoming a legend.

If players noticed the recruitment news, it would cause a new round of competition.

Song Jia was unwilling to see this happen; hence, they could only proceed quietly.

But in such a huge place, it was truly difficult to find any of them. In real life, these people were so extravagant and high profile, but they basically blended in in the game.

People like Wu Ping Cheng that had not given up were the rare exceptions.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, "Since I came up with the idea, I naturally have to do something too. Tomorrow, I'll tell Black Snake to use the Black Snake Guards to search for movie-making talents."

The information network of the Black Snake Guards had already spread all over the wilderness into every corner of the imperial cities. However, the celebrities in real life were now normal people so finding them would not be easy.

However, as long as they could find a few, they could use them to find more.

"It's best if we can buy over the top talents and give them good treatment. It does not matter if we feed them for nothing. The bond breaking terms must be really high to prevent them from jumping ship." Ouyang Shuo said.

Song Jia's eyes lit up, "Then I do not have to worry so much anymore."

Ouyang Shuo continued, "Once we dig up the talents, we really cannot just pay them for sitting around. With the amount of gold we have, we absolutely can film another movie. As long as we split up the release dates with Jiangshan Beauty, it would not be too much of a problem."

"We also have such an intention. We originally wanted to film a Wuxia movie. However, since the underworld is not apparent, the wilderness does not really have a Wuxia craze." Song Jia was without a doubt a Wuxia fanatic.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, "do not worry; there's so much time in the future. But your thoughts are right; it is not the right time yet. For now, the topic of war is the best choice."

Song Jia glanced at Ouyang Shuo as her eyes revealed a weird expression, "Bai Hua also said the same thing and recommended to shoot a war movie."

"Then let's shoot one."

Song Jia shook her head, "We have not even thought about what to shoot. This is the 1st movie of the organization, so it must be an astounding success."

A lightbulb lit up in his head as he suddenly thought of someone, "I have an idea."

"Quick speak!" Song Jia was excited.

"Why not shoot Huo Qubing? He has so many fangirls and even many strong men like him. He's undoubtedly a celebrity in the wilderness." Ouyang Shuo smiled.

"Uncle Huo Qubing is so handsome!"

Suddenly, such a sentence popped out from beside them; it came from Bing'er that little brat.

Bing'er was good friends with Huo Qubing's niece, Huo Chengjun, and she was a loyal fan of Huo Qubing.

On the other hand, Huo Chengjun was a fan of Ouyang Shuo.

The two of them often quarreled about who was more handsome.

"Sigh, little girls!"

Ouyang Shuo did not bother about Bing'er and looked toward Song Jia.

Song Jia looked at the cute Bing'er and laughed, "This idea is not bad. The problem is that Huo Qubing is leading troops, you can't exactly ask him to join in, right?"

"Isn't it easy? You can find a substitute actor that looks like Huo Qubing, or find a mask that can change the looks of the actor. We can first shoot the main structure and wait for the Yunnan Battle to follow Huo Qubing and shoot the actual scene. Won't that be more intense than a planned scene?"

Ouyang Shuo was someone who had been through all of this, so he had some knowledge of how movies in the last life were shot.

This was the biggest charm of the game. The historical people that Gaia birthed were all living stars of the wilderness, true celebrities.

For them to personally join in the movie shooting process, even if one did not want the movie to be big, it would.

Thinking about it, it would be like sitting in a time machine in real life and going back in time to shoot a movie with those historical figures in it.

To shoot a movie like that, along with some special effects and editing, it would definitely cause an explosive craze.

The game world made all these impossibilities possible.

Want to shoot a movie with the Qin Shihuang and Hanwu Emperor? Okay, go to Xianyang and Luoyang Imperial Palace.

Want to shoot Shaolin and Wudang? No problem, when the two sects appear, their doors will be opened.

Want to shoot pirate movies, historical biographies, and the like? As long as one had enough resources and imaginations, there was nothing that could not be done.

It was this different world that would help the entertainment industry blow up in the game. During the five years of Gaia that he had been through, only a small part of this curtain had been opened.

There was still so much room for imagination.

Apart from the above few, one could push out innovative ideas and creations. The top players in the game might even have a chance to become mega superstars.

The future prospects were unimaginable.

Ouyang Shuo's words stunned Song Jia, opening up a huge door for her toward an unimaginable world.

At this moment, the future entertainment industry shark had awakened.

"Wuyi I know what to do." Song Jia was filled with confidence.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, "I'll be looking forward to it."

Who knows what changes and impact these words would bring for the wilderness? Even they themselves did not what explosive changes they would cause to the wilderness.

The next morning, under the blazing sun, Shanhai City was exceedingly bustling.

The newly appointed Training Division Gao Shun brought along a few members of the Military Affairs Bureau and left Shanhai City. He would proceed to all the Garrison Division and reserve forces to do an all-round review.

Gao Shun was extremely smart; he knew that as the newly appointed training secretary, he did not have any might. Hence, he turned his eyes to the Garrison Division and reserve forces.

His idea was to go from the bottom up to solely rebuild the training system of the entire army.

Chapter 769 – War Starts

On the same day, Financial Director Fan Li left Shanhai City and rushed to Lion City. After he arrived, he would discuss with the negotiation teams of the Business Division and help hold the discussions with the ASEAN countries.

Thread guild leader Qing Sikou also headed to Lion City. She had already obtained the relay of Xingzhou Prefecture Governor Pei Mo and was invited over to discuss establishing a branch guild.

In contrast to other branch guilds, Thread's branch guild would have workshops and shops as well as farming land outside of the city.

There were many things that Pei Mo needed to discuss with Qing Sikou as Thread was a huge investment in Lion City.

...

At the border of Guilin Prefecture thousands of miles away, the first guild from Chuanbei Province had already crossed the border. They would follow the official path to Shanhai City, renting a merchant boat at Shanhai Port and sailing out to sea.

Guilin Prefecture Governor, who had already taken up the role, set up the first custom at Sanjiang Town; this place would be in charge of checking the goods entering and collecting tax.

Taxation officers from the Taxation Department had already moved into the customs checkpoint.

Anything that entered the territory would be taxed by the Taxation Department. The local officers only had the role of assisting and did not have the power to collect tax.

...

Zhen An Prefecture south of Guilin Prefecture was busy too.

Since a month ago, hundreds of thousands of people had gathered to move all the grain amassed in the Dragon Legion Corps camp toward Consonance City.

The grain supplies of Consonance City alone were not enough for 400 thousand troops.

When they finished transporting the grain, it would be around the time that the 2nd Guards Legion and the 4th Dragon Legion arrived in Kunming Prefecture. The Battle of Yunnan was imminent.

The clouds signifying war had gathered over the skies of Yunnan, growing thicker and thicker.

Along with the Dragon Legion Corps moving to Kunming Prefecture, their original camp had become the base of the 3rd legion of the Leopard Legion Corps. The three legion corps were on their way to completing their internal reorganizations.

...

This was a pretty normal day for Shanhai City, busy but orderly.

Facing the rising sun, Ouyang Shuo was filled with energy and appeared once more in the reading room.

Following which, there would be the endless meetings once more.

Between the meetings, Ouyang Shuo also needed to appear at specific places to show his face. During war time, Ouyang Shuo needed to stabilize and calm down the hearts of the people all the more.

Especially as migration reached its peak, Shanhai City's population had boomed and become rather messy place.

The Shanhai City bailiff forces formed from the Lianzhou Prefecture Garrison Division had to patrol the streets to solve all kinds of disputes and maintain law and order.

The current Shanhai City started to look more and more like a Capital City.

Apart from the officials and heads of the chambers of commerce, Ouyang Shuo also met those in charge of various associations, guilds, and mercenary groups.

11th month, 25th day, Lin Jing came to Shanhai City.

She journeyed here because she had a special mission.

As what was mentioned before, at the end of the 3rd year of Gaia, the lives of the major guilds would be exceedingly tough. Due to the effects of the achievement value exchange, they did not lack money but did not know what to spend it on.

To make matters worse, their levels rose slower and slower. They were pretty much at a bottleneck. Higher-level players could only gain levels through exploring mysterious regions.

The problem was that mysterious regions were incredibly valuable.

The super guilds lost sense of their direction and needed someone to give them a new way.

Under normal circumstances, such guild matters were not something Lin Jing should ask Ouyang Shuo.

But many things proved that Ouyang Shuo has a special understanding of the game, so Lin Jing arrived in Shanhai City under the persuasion of Xie Siyun.

In the reading room, Ouyang Shuo smiled when he heard the description of his little aunt.

To adventure gamemode players, the 4th year of Gaia was an exceedingly crucial year; it was a milestone year. Anything that happened in that year would be able to flip the scales and fix positions.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to remind his little aunt long ago, but he did not get a chance.

"There will be a chance for you all in the 4th year of Gaia." Ouyang Shuo said expressionlessly. Suddenly, he lowered his tone, "The problem is, are you all ready?"

"What do you mean?" Lin Jing frowned.

Ouyang Shuo asked a weird question, "In Jianye, do you have the ability to destroy all the other guilds if they team up?"

"Are you joking? Of course not." Lin Jing did not know what he was going on about.

She was arrogant, but she was not that arrogant.

As the number two guild in the China region, she had over 300 thousand members including branch guilds; her guild was one of the absolute giants.

However, in the imperial cities where there were over ten million, what was she even?

Even as the various territories continue to attract players and many imperial city players flowed outward, the number of players in Jianye was still above eight million.

Deducting casual players and the elderly, there should still be three million professional players.

Of this three million, after deducting work occupation players, solo players, and small groups, around two million were guild players.

It might not be the exact amount, but there are no less than 600 guilds registered in Jianye.

With that, how would they be able to go against all of the other guilds? There was no guild in China with that ability.

Too many ants would be able to bite an elephant to death.

Ouyang Shuo was not surprised and said, "Since that's the case, start working. No matter what you do, ensure that you can turn this impossible scenario possible."

In the 4th year of Gaia, each imperial city would throw out a juicy piece of meat. This juicy meat was a way for guilds to break through the bottleneck and there was only one per a city.

An intense chase and battle was bound to occur.

Even a tiger of the mountains could not guarantee it could enjoy its prey alone, much less super guilds.

When Lin Jing heard his words, her eyes reflected a solemn light, "Little Shuo, did you hear any insider news?"

"I cannot say anymore. You must know that the 4th year of Gaia will be both a chance and a challenge to the guilds. If you want to win, you must be prepared to be ganged up on."

Ouyang Shuo did not want Gaia to focus on him, so there were some things that he could not be too specific on.

"I got it."

Lin Jing nodded, choosing to trust Ouyang Shuo's words.

Although her expression was serious, she felt rather relaxed in her heart.

The feeling of despair did not arise from the road ahead being tough; rather, it came from being unable to see the road at all. With his advice, she knew what to do.

With the development of super guilds till date, a large-scale improvement was impractical. Even merging with smaller groups would cause problems in management.

Think about it, how many enterprises in real life had over 300 thousand people? Even if there were, they were global enterprises, and their members were spread across major cities.

There were basically none that had 300 thousand members gathered in just one city.

Furthermore, the modern enterprises had mature management systems and societal laws to restrict and control players; it was a lot more advanced than management in the game.

Hence, 300 thousand members was basically the ceiling for super guilds. To expand more might actually cause them to collapse instead.

Since they could not expand, they could only use other methods such as alliances, cooperation, and destruction. As one of the top guilds, these act were really common.

To develop to date, they had been through all kinds of waves and used all kinds of methods.

Hence, Lin Jing was extremely confident.

With such confidence, Lin Jing happily left Shanhai City.

"This trip was totally worth it."

...

After sending Lin Jing away, Ouyang Shuo was also filled with many thoughts.

To adventure gamemode players, the 4th year was going to be an extremely bloody year. There would be many giants who would fall and new stars would rise.

But that did not have much to do with Shanhai City.

After all, both sides belonged to totally different systems and were not directly connected to one another. To truly affect the other party, Shanhai City would need to upgrade to Capital City.

12th month, 1st day, after spending a week in Shanhai City and dealing with administrative matters, Ouyang Shuo once again set off. He brought the Divine Martial Guards and teleported over to Consonance City.

Along with his arrival, the Battle of Yunnan would slowly start.

The various media outlets once again gathered in Consonance City.

After he arrived, Ouyang Shuo lacked the mood to bother about the outside world; he simply gathered the relevant people to do a last battle meeting.

After which, the four legions in Consonance City moved out. As for the two legions on the way, they would not pass Consonance City and would directly proceed to the battlefield instead.

The meeting location was not within Consonance City but in the camp outside the city.

In the tent, Baiqi, Huo Qubing, Shi Wanshui, Zhang Liao, Jia Xu, and Bai Hua had all gathered. Apart from that, the people in charge of the three intel organizations present.

To let these three gather together was actually a supremely difficult task.

Ouyang Shuo sat at the top seat and Xu Chu stood behind him like an iron tower.

"General Baiqi, you may speak."

Ouyang Shuo called for West Conquering Commander Baiqi right away.

"Monarch, the battle preparations have been completed according to the plans of the Military Affairs Bureau, nothing has been missed out. The only thing to think about is that till date, we still do not know where the 200 thousand Alliance Army is housed."

As he spoke, Baiqi's gaze swept past the three head of intel.

Chapter 770 – Blanket-style Search

The three intel heads felt ashamed when Baiqi looked at them like that.

The 200 thousand Alliance Army troops of the Yanhuang Alliance were like ghosts, disappearing in the Yunnan Mountains. No matter how they searched, they could not find a single clue.

If they had not confirmed that the Alliance Army had teleported to Yunnan, they would have suspected it was fake news.

Yanhuang Alliance had done an extremely good job of keeping their movements secret. Difeng, Chun Xiao, War Song, and their other intel organizations all showed Black Snake Guards level counter-intelligence.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he could not understand it, "200 thousand troops should definitely have some grain consumption, right? You did not manage to find any relevant intel from this?"

Shen Buhai shook his head, "With all the intel organizations staring at them, the Lords of Yunnan City-State would not dare to make any large-scale movements of grain. I suspect that the City-State prepared the grain before the Alliance Army had arrived."

They truly were careful.

From the lesson of Lingnan City-State, Yanhuang Alliance had become even more careful this time, and they had considered all possibilities. Even within Yunnan City-State, there were few who knew where the Alliance Army went.

Ouyang Shuo nodded before looking at Baiqi, "Then we will send the Flying Squad to engage in a blanket-style search in the mountains." Ouyang Shuo was ready to use his killing strike.

Only Ouyang Shuo could command the Flying Squad. After the Battle of Guiping Pass, they had returned to the Shanhai City air force base to resupply.

Ouyang Shuo did not believe that the enemy would be able to avoid the scouting of the 'air force'.

"That's great." Baiqi also had no other choice. After all, the war was about to start, yet he did not even know where the enemy was located. This was the first time that Baiqi had met such a tough task.

Ouyang Shuo jumped across this topic and asked, "Commander Bai, how are you going to arrange the six legions? If you need anything from the territory, speak."

The Military Affairs Bureau was only in charge of the overall strategy but not the specific tactics. As for the West Conquering Army, it was all up to Baiqi as a matter of course.

Even Ouyang Shuo would not interfere with the arrangements of the West Conquering Army. He asked to understand the situation and to show his support to Baiqi.

A seismic war not only involved the front lines but also the back.

Ouyang Shuo came to Consonance City this time to take charge of the backlines. Consonance City had just merged into their system, so Ouyang Shuo was worried that there might be some lacking points between the cooperation of Bai Hua and the West Conquering Army.

With him present, the situation would naturally be different.

When Baiqi heard that, he naturally understood what the Lord meant and introduced his plans in detail.

As of the current moment, Yunnan City-State has control over three-and-a-half prefectures. Apart from Mengding Prefecture in the south, Tengyue Prefecture in the west, and Dongchuan in the east, the remaining half would be Dali, where the imperial city was located.

The four prefectures were all connected to Kunming Prefecture, meaning that Kunming Prefecture was the middle, facing enemies from all four sides.

The West Conquering Army would split into three forces, entering Mengding, Tengyue, and Dongchuan Prefectures.

Based on the strategy, Dali would not be a part of their plans for the Battle of Yunnan. Ouyang Shuo temporarily did not want to provoke the imperial city. If he did, it might turn back to bite him instead.

The million guards in the imperial cities were not just there for show.

Apart from the army, when one attacked the imperial city, one had to consider the player element. The moment a native player attacked an imperial city, it would send out war missions to recruit imperial city players to fight against the enemy.

Even if only half of the eight million players accepted the quest, it was terrifying enough. Even in the 4th year of Gaia, imperial cities were absolute prohibited zones for Lord gamemode players.

No matter how arrogant he was, Ouyang Shuo did not think about stepping on such a land mine.

The 200 thousand Alliance Army of Yunnan City-State was still housed in Mengding Prefecture. Hence, it was destined to be the main battlefield. If nothing too surprising happened, it would be an extremely tough battle.

As for the 200 thousand Yanhuang Alliance troops, although they were not sure about their exact location, from how they were covering and hiding their tracks, they obviously wanted to launch a sneak attack.

If one used teleportation well, it was a truly exceptional sneak attack tactic.

From how they successfully hid their army, Yanhuang Alliance was obviously exceedingly confident about this matter; they would not repeat the same mistakes as Lingnan City-State.

Compared to Lingnan, the Yunnan landscape was far more complicated. Each prefecture could not allow too many troops. The West Conquering Army was forced to split into three.

The paths of the three prefectures were hard to tread, and the moment one of them was ambushed, the other two would not be able to rush over to help.

Hence, this gave an advantage to the Alliance Army. For the West Conquering Army to repeat what they did at Lingnan and perform a counter encirclement was impossible.

Hence, Baiqi had arranged for a legion to stay back in Consonance City. The one chosen was the newly built 2nd legion of the Guards Legion Corps, the famous Tiger Leopard Cavalry.

The Tiger Leopard Cavalry was the first pure cavalry legion of Shanhai City, and they had the highest mobility.

Based on the newest intel, they had already passed Zhen An Prefecture and would reach Consonance City soon. On the other hand, the 4th legion of the Dragon Legion Corps would take four to five days to reach the Zhen An Prefecture border.

"Based on the commander's opinion, where would the Alliance Army choose to ambush us?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

Baiqi shook his head, "Everywhere is possible, but I think they might choose three ambush spots in particular. Based on how the battle proceeds and how we arrange things, they would then settle in one."

"So it means we can misdirect them?" A light lit up in Ouyang Shuo's eyes.

"That's right. As the uncertainty regarding the exact ambush point is too great, the only way would be to bait them out. Only then we can take back the initiative of the battle."

Uncertainty was a fatal threat in battle, but any famous general would try to wipe out all these uncertain factors. Even if one paid some sacrifices, if would be worth it.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Since Baiqi had a plan, that was great.

Shanhai City was not weak, and Yunnan City-State also had many of their moles. However, they were unlucky; those who knew the insider news were not friends of Shanhai City.

"I predict that at the start of the war, the enemy would take a defensive approach and even give up some cities to lead us deep in and challenge our grain supply."

The roads in Yunnan were mountainous and narrow. Maintaining the long grain transport line was a tough task. Such a line could be easily attacked by enemy troops at every moment.

Any elite troops charging out from the mountains could easily deal fatal damage.

This weakness was one that the enemy would definitely not let go of. In contrast to the Battle of Lingnan, the West Conquering Army was not sneak attacking, and the various cities had enough time to move their grain.

If things went sour, the enemy could easily burn all the grain.

Hence, the biggest test in the Battle of Yunnan would be grain, so Ouyang Shuo had rushed over to Consonance City.

More recently, Kunming had moved 200 thousand laborers to help the army transport grain. The Kunming Prefecture Garrison Division and the Independent Guards Division would be in charge of guarding the grain.

The 200 thousand laborers were basically all the available labor in Kunming, causing all economic activity to stop. The effects of war to the territory were not limited to the frontlines.

Luckily, it was still the winter season and various agriculture industry activities had come to an end. If it was at the start of the farming season, the effect on the economy would be fatal and unimaginable.

Apart from that, Zhen An Prefecture also sent laborers, around 120 thousand of them. The next day, the Zhen An Prefecture Garrison Division protected them all the way to Consonance City as the 2nd grain transport squad.

Not mentioning Shanhai City, Yunnan City-State was probably suffering huge problems due to this war.

...

Baiqi continued, "As the war pushes in, and we get too deep into enemy land, the enemy might use their elite forces to sneak attack our tired army. If they also use teleportation tactics, the results would be highly detrimental to us."

Ouyang Shuo's expression was extremely solemn, "General, you're saying that we have to play it safe?"

Baiqi said, "I predict this battle will last for a long time, so I need Monarch to give me permission for that."

Every day the war dragged on, a massive quantity of resources would be consumed. To fight a battle of attrition would test the foundations of both sides.

Such a matter was not something Baiqi had the power to decide on. As such, he could only seek permission.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he did not hesitate and said resolutely, "Do as you have planned. I'll support you all the way. I'll personally take charge of Consonance City to monitor the backline resources."

"Thank you Monarch."

When Baiqi heard that, he gave a deep bow as his thoughts drifted away.

He recalled the Battle of Changping when the Qin King personally monitored the grain for him.

Hence, Baiqi knew the deep meaning behind Ouyang Shuo's words. Behind all of this, they were betting the foundations and reserves that the territory had spent so much to amass.

The atmosphere in the tent instantly became solemn and stirring.

Ouyang Shuo looked around with eagles eyes, saying slowly but resolutely, "To the territory, this battle is one we cannot afford to lose. We must go all out. No matter the price we have to pay, we need to take down Yunnan to create an unshakeable base for establishing our country."

As he said these words, he stood up and cupped his fists, "Generals, thank you all!"

When they heard him, they instantly felt hot blood rushing to their heads, and their blood boiled up inside of them. All of them knelt on the ground and solemnly said, "We will protect the honor of the territory!"

Along with the resounding proclamations, the war machine was up and running.

Chapter 771 – One More Won't Make a Difference

12th month, 2nd day, Consonance City.

Huo Qubing led the Guards Legion Corps 1st legion up north into Dongchuan Prefecture.

This would be the right troops and the only force that consisted of only one legion.

Dongchuan was the smallest prefecture in Yunnan Province and only a few player territories managed to survive there. Furthermore, there was Dali Prefecture between them and Tengyue and Mengding Prefectures, so they were pretty much on their own.

Logically speaking, Dongchuan had the least strategic value. It would be best if they crushed the main forces of the Alliance Army and took care of it later.

In truth, Baiqi treated Dongchuan Prefecture extremely seriously and sent out the strongest legion of the West Conquering Army to take care of it.

He wanted to use the invincibility of the Guards Legion as well as their strength at fighting sudden battles to take down Dongchuan Prefecture quickly; this would help to stabilize the hearts on the main battlefield.

Apart from that, it could also act as a warning to Dali Prefecture.

Secondly, the situation in Dongchuan Prefecture was extremely chaotic.

Not because of other reasons but simply because north of Dongchuan Prefecture was the Shu Lands. Due to the animosity between the Shu Imperial Court and Shanhai City, the Military Affairs Bureau was not sure if they would enter the battle.

The best method would be to occupy it first and block the way down south for the Shu Lands.

Hence, Dongchuan also became the ideal spot to ambush for the Alliance Army. Out of the three ambush spots of the Alliance Army that Baiqi had thought of, Dongchuan Prefecture was the most probable.

As such, Baiqi sent Huo Qubing to complete this mission.

...

On the same day, the 2nd legion of the Dragon Legion Corps led by Shi Wanshui and the 3rd legion led by Zhang Liao headed west to attack Tengyue Prefecture.

This group was in charge of the middle; Shi Wanshui took the role of main general and Zhang Liao was the deputy.

These two legions were both battle-hardened legions. With Shi Wanshui in charge, in addition to Zhang Liao who was familiar with Yunnan, their cooperation would be great.

Baiqi had tremendously high hopes for this group.

The symbol of Yunnan City-State, Lord Qin Feng's Tengchong City, was located in Tengyue Prefecture.

It was easy to know that Tengyue Prefecture was going to be a tough nut to crack. Qin Feng was not a good person. At the crucial moment, he would definitely choose to protect his own territory.

Hence, the second ambush point the Alliance Army could choose was most likely to be Tengyue Prefecture.

Qin Feng was the person connecting Yunnan City-State and Yanhuang Alliance. Di Chen and the others definitely would not want Qin Feng to be eliminated too early, and they would definitely act at the crucial moment.

Based on Baiqi's plan, if the attacks of the middle troops went smoothly, they could turn from Tengyue Prefecture into Mengding to meet up with the left troops.

The left troops would be personally led by Baiqi. This group included the 1st legion of the Dragon Legion Corps and the 4th legion that was on the way. They would immediately go down south and head into Mengding Prefecture.

Although that was the case, Mengding would be the prefecture where war broke out the latest.

Baiqi's plan was to move the troops to contain the 200 thousand men Alliance Army but not attack. Once the middle and right forces had results, they would go all in.

Three routes of troops, each were using a different strategy.

Luckily, the ones leading the legions were famous generals and could all execute his strategy. They could also change and adapt based on the situation on the battlefield.

If not, he really would not have dared to do this.

This was the strength of Shanhai City.

Each general was an all-round upgrade to an army.

...

The three armies waltzed toward the battlefield from three different directions. Following behind them was the closely packed grain transport forces.

As long as the battle had not ended, the grain transport carriages on the paths would not stop.

Ouyang Shuo stood on the city wall, quietly looking on as the army left. His upright body and red cape became a beautiful scene on the city wall.

Each soldier would unconsciously turn around to look at him. Although they could not see him clearly, he gave them power, a power that supported them whilst they proceeded to kill the enemies.

Ouyang Shuo stood there for the entire day without even eating his lunch.

During that period of time, Bai Hua came over many times to try and persuade him to go and eat, but she was rejected. When Bai Hua saw that, her expression was complicated, and she sighed.

To Ouyang Shuo, this was his duty.

The soldiers were fighting for the glory of the territory. As their Lord, as the highest commander in the army, if he did not do anything, Ouyang Shuo would feel guilty.

The sun set from the west and dusk beckoned.

The orange sunset was like an elegant dress for the city. That upright body still stood without moving. Under the cover of dusk, it was like he was dressed in golden armor.

He only moved and left after the last unnamed soldier disappeared into the horizon. Even with his cultivation, his body felt numb from standing there for the entire day.

"No matter what, it's worth it."

Ouyang Shuo looked up into the skies. He could feel the killing intent and war intent of the army; it was slowly forming up in the skies, gathering into an invincible aura.

The Personal Guards and the three thousand Divine Martial Guards were by his side for the entire day. Seeing him turn around, they bowed in unison, and the worship in their eyes became even more evident.

"Let's leave!"

Ouyang Shuo waved his hands, and they disappeared from the city wall.

As night covered Consonance City, Kunming Prefecture, and the entire Yunnan, it was extremely quiet. Under this facade, the flames of war were well and truly lit, lighting up the night sky.

Consonance City, Governor Manor.

Bai Hua had specially waited for Ouyang Shuo to eat together.

Bai Hua was helpless seeing how stubborn Ouyang Shuo was. She could only instruct the chefs to make a huge table of delicious dishes to personally welcome Ouyang Shuo.

On the table, Bai Hua passed some fish over to Ouyang Shuo, "Thank you for the appointments of Zi Luolan and the others."

Ouyang Shuo smiled, "There's no need to thank me. Just don't blame me for snatching them over. They are all great help."

"It's time for them to spread their wings and fly. What can they achieve by staying at my side?" As the leader of the four, Bai Hua had actually worried about them for a long time; she even sounded more like a mother.

Being one's sister for long would make one like their mother.

Bai Hua glanced at Ouyang Shuo and asked, "Why did you make Tsing Yi your personal secretary?"

'Puchi!'

Ouyang Shuo nearly spat out the fish.

"What personal secretary? She is my helper. Don't tell me you think the same as Zi Luolan? That I have something toward Tsing Yi? I'm innocent." Ouyang Shuo was speechless.

"Even if you have any thoughts, it's okay."

"What?"

Ouyang Shuo's eyes were wide open; he did not believe that these words actually came from Bai Hua.

Bai Hua was extremely calm, "She has feelings for you so it wouldn't be anything surprising."

"But I'm already married." Ouyang Shuo's brain was swelling.

"You're a man destined to become an emperor, so what's one more?" When she said those words, Bai Hua's hands were sweating, and her heart could not help but jump.

Who knows how much courage it took for her to speak those words?

Ouyang Shuo noticed her unusual expression, "Let's not talk about that, it sounds so weird. I promise you I only picked her for her talent and not for anything else."

Bai Hua's face was a little ashen white as she forced a smile, "I'm just testing you. Hearing you say that, I feel relaxed."

"That's great."

Ouyang Shuo smiled. He acted like he had not noticed that something was up with Bai Hua.

The atmosphere at the table instantly became extremely awkward.

"Let's talk about grain." Ouyang Shuo changed the topic, "It seems like Baiqi says this battle will last for a really long time. The Combat Logistics Department has insufficient grain prepared. Can Kunming Prefecture assist them in buying local grain?"

"If not, we will have to ask the Combat Logistics Department to purchase from Zhen An and Xunzhou. Apart from grain, the food for the horses is also a problem."

Bai Hua relaxed herself, "Do not worry. I've already coordinated with the Combat Logistics Department. If grain is broken, I'll resign."

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, "You do not need to say that. I have faith in you."

The next morning, Ouyang Shuo once again called the heads of the three intel organizations as he wanted to see them.

Apart from asking them to closely work with the West Conquering Army and collect the required intel, he also needed to confirm the safety of their chess pieces in Yunnan City-State.

Ouyang Shuo said, "The prowess of Difeng, Chun Xiao, and War Song is something all of you have witnessed. They are not much worse off than us. Hence, we must ensure our chess pieces have not been revealed, especially that most crucial piece. It directly affects the outcome of this war."

"This...."

Shen Buhai, Black Snake, and Cobra's expressions were solemn; they did not dare to make any promises. If they took a wrong step, it would be a 10 thousand feet drop.

"Why don't I personally go to confirm it?" Black Snake suggested.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, "That would be the best."

"Great, I'll go immediately!" Black Snake nodded.

Chapter 772 – Sharp Turn Down

12th month, 5th day, Yunnan Province.

The 1st Guards Legion led by Huo Qubing had reached the frontlines and crossed the border, starting the first battle in the Battle of Yunnan.

In the next week, their progress through Dongchuan went unusually smoothly.

With the help of the cavalry forces, the Heavy Armored Mountain Barbarian Infantry Division acted as the main force. The 1st legion attacked strategic lands all the way, not facing any problems. City after city easily fell into the hands of Shanhai City.

The siege weapon making technology of Consonance City was produced on a large-scale by smiths and artisans in the city to rush out countless siege weapons.

The three forces all brought along large amounts of siege weapons to assist them in the battle.

Even so, the smoothness of the process exceeded their expectations. As it was too smooth, it made Huo Qubing wary; the enemy might be planning an ambush.

The only normal thing was probably the grain problem.

All the granaries in the cities that they had taken down were completely burnt and emptied out. What was worse was that even the grain in the houses of the civilians had been taken.

Such a situation was not limited to the main cities but also the affiliated cities.

Apart from food to survive, the houses of the people in Dongchuan Prefecture did not have any excess grain. Before the war, the Military Affairs Bureau had sent an order prohibiting them from taking food from the people.

Du Ruhui warned the generals, "Even if we are hungry, we cannot snatch the food of the people. Whoever goes against this order will be severely punished."

The goal of the Battle of Yunnan was to destroy the Yunnan City-State, not to destroy the local economy, people, and their sentiments. If their army really fooled around, it would be hard to make the people trust them again.

Anywhere the army passed, they were unable to find much grain and could only take it from the grain transporting forces.

During this week, with the help of the Flying Squad, the three intel organizations conducted a blanket-style search. Weirdly, they still could not find any traces of the enemy.

It was like the 200 thousand troops had not even appeared in Yunnan Province.

Without a doubt, the armies of Yanhuang Alliance had already moved away.

This time, the Alliance Army was like a layer of mist hanging over the skies of Yunnan, making this battle even more uncertain.

Under such circumstances, Huo Qubing did not dare to take the risk. The 1st legion did not dare to split up to increase their speed and just took down city by city.

Apart from that, Huo Qubing also focused on the protection of the grain supply, sending the two cavalry regiments from the 1st division to help monitor and protect them.

With their ability, even if they met the 200 thousand alliance troops, it would not be too bad if they were prepared.

Hence, his strategy was to be prepared for a sneak attack but not lose out on a good opportunity.

The 1st legion continued as planned and pretty much swept through the entire Dongchuan at a rate of two cities every three days.

As for the weird situation the right troops were facing, Baiqi ordered for the middle and left troops to slow down and maintain their strength.

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

12th month, 15th day, Dongchuan Prefecture.

In just 10 days, the entire Dongchuan Prefecture basically fell under the hooves of the 1st Guards Legion, only left the city at the north was left - Yongren City.

This city was located at the intersection of Yunnan Province and the Shu Lands. If one walked 200 miles in, they would reach the famous city of iron in real life - Panzhihua.

Panzhihua's iron resources were 70% of that of the Shu Lands, one of the four largest iron regions in China. Its titanium source was also the largest in the world. It also had the third most vanadium in the world.

The Panzhihua region in the game was located within Swordsman City's territory.

The iron ore industry naturally became one of their pillar industries. However, due to the difficulties of transporting iron making it rather inconvenient and hard to sell, it was difficult to make profits.

There were no trains in the game, so one could not transport large batches of iron ore; especially across land, where transporting such resources posed even more of a problem.

Hence, Feng Qingyang could only sit on this treasure mountain but could not change it into actual gold. At most, he could rely on the shocking iron ore reserves to develop his military industry.

However, due to the lack of technologies and technical manuals, their military industry was barely surviving.

Hence, Feng Qingyang had one of the worst situations amongst all the members of Yanhuang Alliance. In the various huge battles, including wilderness matters, Swordsman City did not have a huge say.

As one of the heads of Yanhuang Alliance, Feng Qingyang was not as famous as Di Chen and Chun Shenjun. Even Xiong Ba and Zhan Lang were more famous than him.

Even Wandering Magic had been in the spotlight more often than him.

Hence, only then did he totally give up on running the territory and focus on martial arts; he wanted to work with the Shu Imperial Court to form a win-win situation.

...

This morning, Huo Qubing led his troops and arrived ten miles outside of Yongren City.

"General, it seems like the enemy has not set an ambush in Dongchuan. We have worried for nothing." The one who spoke was the newly appointed 1st division Major General Ma Teng.

As an East Han General, Ma Teng greatly respected the West Han general Huo Qubing. He did not look down on him despite his age and treated him really seriously.

If one used generations to consider, Huo Qubing was from the same generation as Ma Teng's ancestors.

If it was anyone else commanding them, Ma Teng might not be happy about it, but their commander was Huo Qubing, someone they all trusted and respected.

Not only that, Ma Teng also warned Ma Chao and Ma Xiu to treat him more respectfully.

Ma Teng only respected Huo Qubing while Ma Chao totally worshipped him. He knew that he was strong but lacked a strategic mind.

On the other hand, Huo Qubing was a god of strategy. Which young general during the Han Empire did not worship Huo Qubing?

Chasing one's idols was not something that only modern day people did.

...

Huo Qubing rode on his warhorse, looking out at Yongren City; a look of uncertainty filled his eyes. During the whole way here, the Alliance Army they had predicted did not appear.

Looking at the situation, Yunnan City-State had treated Dongchuan City-State as a chess piece to be given up. Or in the eyes of the Lords, Dongchuan did not have any strategic value, so why not just give it up?

But based on his intuition, Huo Qubing felt that things were not that simple. His uneasiness continued till today, and he still could not find the source.

"Would Yongren City be a trap?"

The intel from the Military Intelligence Division showed that there were no signs of troops inside. Even the neighboring regions were checked out; there was no one.

If the Alliance Army wanted to sneak attack, the only possibility would be to teleport over while they sieged. However, if that really happened, they would not cause much of a threat to the first legion.

Huo Qubing calmed himself down; he looked at Ma Teng and said, "Do not let down your guard. Order the troops to attack!"

As a soldier, before he received proper intel, Huo Qubing would not stop attacking because he felt uneasy.

As long as they took down the city in front of them, the entire Dongchuan Prefecture would fall into their hands. If that happened, their actions would have a direct influence on the entire battle.

The first blood of the war belonged to the Guards Legion.

...

As the order was given, the war drums sounded out and the siege began.

The main force was the two Mountain Barbarian Divisions with the two Cavalry Divisions protecting the wings. The one in charge of the backlines was the Iron Armored Beast Division.

At 10 AM, using the siege weapons, the Mountain Barbarian Division successfully pushed in under the city walls. Next was the arduous siege, which the mountain barbarians were proficient at.

If everything went well, the city in front of them that looked exceedingly normal would fall before nightfall.

Just at this moment, the situation changed.

The teleportation formation at the center of the city suddenly shone with a blue light. An unceasing number of soldiers walked out and gathered on the field.

Each force gathered up, led by their officers to the various city gates.

In less than ten minutes, the intelligence division spies hiding there received the news. However, it was too late to use the Feng Birds to spread the news.

The spies took the risk of exposing their identities and pulled the signal bullets.

With a 'Pew!' a red signal bullet representing the presence of enemies exploded out in the air.

When Huo Qubing saw the signal bullet, not only was not he not nervous, he even heaved a sigh of relief.

The unknown always made one nervous.

The moment the Alliance Army showed themselves, taking off their veil, Huo Qubing had nothing to fear.

"Send down the orders, ask the frontline to retreat."

Since the Alliance Army had shown themselves, Huo qubing would not be so arrogant to think that he could take them down so easily. Even if they got in, it would be a chaotic battle.

To a mixed legion like them, a chaotic battle within the city would be disadvantageous.

Hence, Huo Qubing was ready to fight the 200 thousand strong Yanhuang Alliance Army outside the city. Even if he could not win, he was confident about containing them until reinforcements arrived.

One must not forget that the 2nd Guards Legion was lying in wait in Consonance City.

...

What Huo Qubing did not know was that a calamity was approaching. The entire battlefield would turn on its head because of this battle.

Chapter 773 – Darkest Day of the Guards Legion

The army that appeared in the city was not 200 thousand but just 150 thousand.

Yunnan City-State had also played such a trick; the camp that the Military Intelligence Division thought had 200 thousand troops only had 50 thousand.

The remaining 150 thousand had quietly moved away and hid themselves.

Although the City-State Alliance Army was formed from the troops of the various territories, the Lords could not control the movement of the Alliance Army.

The commander handled the daily workings of the Alliance Army, and a committee meeting would decide the battle instructions. More accurately, it was decided by the leader of the committee.

The current commander of the Yunnan City-State's Alliance Army was Sui Dynasty General Zhang Xutuo.

Zhang Xutuo was recognized as the cornerstone of the Sui Dynasty and had led troops to calm down Yang Qiong, Wang Bo, and other rebellion armies. Qin Qiong, Luo Shixin, and other young generals were all under him before.

66 A.D., Zhang Xutuo fought against the Wagang Army. However, he wsa surrounded by Li Mi, Xu Shiji, Wang Bo, and more, dying in battle. When he died, he was only 52 years old.

When his soldiers received the news, they cried for days on end.

Along with Zhang Xutuo dying, it was like the Sui Dynasty had lost their last hope, unable to calm down the rebellions.

Apart from being brave and strong, Zhang Xutuo gave the impression of being extremely loyal. During the ending years of the Sui Dynasty, powers pose and ruled various lands.

Only he remained truly loyal to the Sui Dynasty; he would rather die in battle than surrender. No wonder he was so loved by the soldiers.

Such a loyal soldier was truly a rare sight.

...

Due to the uniqueness of the Battle of Yunnan and after learning from the Battle of Lingnan, the committee voted that Qin Feng would be in charge of the committee.

This also meant that the moles Shanhai City had planted would not know where the Alliance Army was hidden. If they asked, they would risk exposing themselves.

When the moles received the intel and passed it to the Black Snake Guards, who then passed it to the Guards Legion, the Alliance Army had already teleported to Yongren City.

As for the 200 thousand Alliance Army of legend, they had disappeared.

The military intelligence spy in the city could not tell if the troops coming out were from the Yanhuang Alliance or the Alliance Army. Naturally, they felt that it was the Yanhuang Alliance Army.

With that, it gave a wrong signal to Huo Qubing.

The reason the Yanhuang Alliance Army teleported over was to destroy the Guards Legion and not help defend Yongren City. Hence, after they gathered up within the city, they did not stay for long.

As Huo Qubing had expected, they came out of the city and formed up, facing off against the Guards Legion Corps 1st legion.

Killing intent filled the air.

70 thousand vs 150 thousand.

To Huo Qubing, this was not much of a problem.

If they truly wanted to fight, Huo Qubing would not even need reinforcements, and he would be confident about winning. Weirdly, after forming up, the enemy did not attack; it was like they were waiting for something.

The atmosphere became more and more serious, making it hard for one to breathe.

Just as Huo Qubing was confused and wanted to take the initiative to attack, the rumbling of horse hooves sounded from the north; even the ground shook.

Looking out, a long black line appeared. It was moving south at a visible rate, slowly forming into an endless black flood.

This black flood was the 200 thousand Yanhuang Alliance troops.

The Alliance Army did not even hide in Yunnan Province but in Shu Lands north of Yongren City, within Swordsman City. No wonder the three intel organizations could not find anything.

Who would have expected that the Alliance Army was not within the province?

As Yongren City was located at the north border, it was an ambush point that the Yanhuang Alliance Army had selected long ago. No matter who they chose to attack Dongchuan Prefecture, it would be ambushed.

200 thousand Yanhuang Alliance troops and the 150 thousand Alliance Army for a total of 350 thousand troops; they were going to give a shocking blow to the Guards Legion.

70 thousand vs 350 thousand.

A difference of five times. No matter how strong the Guards Legion was, they could not handle it. Looking at the black flood approaching, Huo Qubing's face turned green.

The Yanhuang Alliance Army lineup was truly stellar, with General Wuqi as the main general, Lianpo, Tian Dan, and more. Yanhuang Alliance was really going all out, sending the strongest generals of their territories.

Appearing on the horizon was only the 100 thousand cavalry. The remaining 100 thousand infantry had snuck behind the Guards Legion.

With that, it formed a huge trap.

350 thousand troops had locked the Guards Legion down in the wilderness outside of Yongren City.

This was destined to be the humiliation of the Guards Legion.

...

"General, let's lead the troops and break out!"

Ma Teng looked around at the enemy troops closing in, his expression really solemn.

Huo Qubing was expressionless, "How to break out? The cavalry can, but what about the mountain barbarians?"

"We cannot care about so much. For some of us to escape is better than all of us going down right!" Ma Teng was not afraid of death, but he did not want Huo Qubing to do anything foolish.

Even if the Guards Legion went all out, they would be unable to win. The only chance would be to breakout before the encirclement was completed.

"General, we cannot hesitate anymore."

Seeing the enemy get closer and closer, "Ma Teng's expression got anxious.

Just at this moment, Shihu, Lei Jingtian, and Shan Zhu rushed over. The three young generals knelt on the ground and cupped their fists, "General, please leave. We will hold them off."

When Huo Qubing saw that, his expression was really complicated, "You all know what that means, right?"

"To die on the battlefield is our honor." As the representative, Shihu said, "I believe you will not let us sacrifices be in vain and will take revenge for us."

When Huo Qubing heard that, he could not even bear to look at them, looking forward, "I swear if I do not take revenge I'm not human."

Although his voice was not loud, it contained an unbreakable will.

Fate was just so cruel.

When the Guards Legion was so close to eternal glory, it gave them such a fatal blow.

Huo Qubing kept his emotions and started to plan how to break out. The Iron Armored Division ended up as the vanguard and was in charge of tearing through the enemy defenses.

The two Mountain Barbarian Divisions would form up on the spot to hold down the enemy to buy time. One Cavalry Division would help protect the wings of the infantry.

If not, the mountain barbarians who were attacked from three directions would not be able to hold on and would be crushed quickly.

Hence, only one Cavalry Division could escape.

Ma Teng requested to fight and chose to stay. He would lead the 1st division to help the three Mountain Barbarian Divisions delay the enemy.

The 1st division was one of the oldest Cavalry Divisions in Shanhai City. From the start, it was taken from the Luo Shixin division and was also the first army group to pass the army group trials.

When Huo Qubing saw that, he had basically nothing left to say.

Ma Teng was the one who suggested leaving, but he chose to stay at the crucial moment.

Huo Qubing was touched.

"General, let me show my strength once again."

Huo Qubing did not say anything, nodding quietly.

A tragic feeling spread across the entire army. No one knew how many Guards Legion soldiers could see the sun tomorrow.

...

As a God General, Huo Qubing's mental strength was exceedingly strong.

Since the plan was set, he automatically tossed aside the unneeded emotions and feelings, starting to work like a cold machine. His mission was to bring as many soldiers as he possibly could.

When the invincible Iron Armored Beast Division changed toward the infantry troops from the back, it revealed the bloody road to breaking out.

The strong iron armored beasts, each equipped with specially made armor, were like tanks charging at the Alliance Army.

This was the strongest Cavalry Division in the wilderness. In the Battle of Lingnan, they had terrified the enemy. On the battlefield of Yunnan, they were similarly strong, fighting for the honor of the Guards Legion.

Can you imagine the effect of rows of iron tanks charging into a group of people?

Outside Yongren City, it was such a scene.

Under the leadership of Shanzhu, the Iron Armored Division went all out, giving up on defense. The only thing they thought about was to, 'Charge, charge, and charge!'

The Alliance Army soldiers in the front were like paper, instantly crushed to pieces and stepped on. They were really flattened, and a huge amount of infantry troops disappeared.

Such an aura was simply alluring.

If the Alliance Army was not similarly filled with elites and their commander was a famous general that alone would have crushed their will to fight.

"Stop them!"

It was not easy for the Alliance Army to set up such a stunning trap, so how could they allow the Guards Legion to leave like that?

The huge army was like a flood, charging at the Iron Armored Beast Division. The scene was like a bunch of ants fighting a group of elephants.

Although the elephants were strong, they were still outnumbered.

After paying a heavy price, the Alliance Army finally contained the charge of the Iron Armored Beast Division. The huge iron armored beasts were surrounded, unable to get out.

Destruction was just a matter of time.

To Shanhai City, each iron armored beast was extremely precious. Who would have expected nearly all of them to fall here?

Huo Qubing's eyes were blood red as he led the 5th division along the bloody path that the iron armored beasts had opened up for them and charged. He was getting ready to break out.

No matter whether or not they managed to escape, this day would definitely be the darkest day of the Guards Legion.

Chapter 774 – Ma Teng Dies in Battle

The route that the Guards Legion was trying to break out through was a tragic route covered in fresh blood.

There were continuously people who fell and people who successfully broke out.

On the battlefield where blades swung, no individual could decide their own fate. The soldiers could only form into a line and use teamwork to decide their survival.

The huge battlefield was a fight between people trying to break out and those trying to stop them.

Killing shouts filled the skies, and blood flowed like rivers.

The cries of the iron armored beasts could also be heard.

On the battlefield, dust flew and blood boiled; the place was like a furnace that contained the fates of hundreds of thousands of people.

Huo Qubing led the 5th division and charged fearlessly forwards. With the iron armored beasts opening the way and the infantry and cavalry covering them under the lead of Ma Teng, they finally charged out.

"Do not let Huo Qubing escape!"

The Alliance Army did not give up just yet as they sent their most elite Cavalry Force to chase after the Shanhai City troops.

The cavalry all set out on elite Mongol Warhorses, which were on the same level as the Qingfu Horses that the Guards Legion rode on. Helplessly, Huo Qubing could only activate his specialty.

Cavalry Battle: raises troops morale by 30%, raises cavalry movement speed by 50%, raises cavalry killing strength by 35%, raises cavalry forces stamina by 40%.

The specialty of a God General was just so overpowered, widening the gap in an instance.

However, the Alliance Army was like a pack of hunting dogs, chasing behind them and not giving up before they had successfully caught up.

The Guards Legion fled till nightfall. Apart for quietly resting up for three hours, they did not stop any other time. Only then were they able to successfully escape from the enemy.

The process was extremely brutal and intense; words could not describe it.

...

Dongchuan Prefecture, unnamed wilderness.

"Stop, rest up!"

Huo Qubing asked the troops to rest up for the second time as he noticed that the Qingfu Horses were already foaming, and it seemed like they were not able to hold on.

With a 'Shua!, the high speed moving army instantly stopped. Their actions were still exceedingly orderly.

The soldiers did not bother about their wounds that were still bleeding; they took out their water canteens, first feeding their war horses and also giving them military grain pills. To them, their horses were their lives, even more important than their spouses.

Seeing their horses in such a state, the cavalry soldiers felt pain in their hearts.

As the strongest legion in the territory, they received the best treatment. For example, only the Guards Legion was given military grain pills.

Thanks to this, they were able to hold on till now. When escaping, the soldiers did not even have time to get off their horses to eat, much less cook food.

As for the cities that they had already taken down, they did not dare to enter as they did not know if there were any enemy ambushes.

When they were attacking Dongchuan Province, to end the battle quickly, the Guards Legion had hurried from city to city. They did not even have the time to lay down effective control of any of the cities.

The news the Guards Legion had lost had probably already spread to all the cities in the prefecture, so who knows what the people inside were thinking.

As the situation was an emergency, to successfully break out, the Guards Legion even abandoned the grain, heavy equipment, and two P1 Type Cannons on the battlefield.

During their escape, the grain transport group also fell prey to the enemy. Not only was large amounts of grain intercepted by the enemy, even the men transporting the grain were killed.

The Alliance Army was a pack of hungry wolves, not even hesitating to attack civilians.

When the leader of the Garrison Division soldiers in charge of protecting the civilians saw that, he gritted their teeth and told them to go hide in the forests to try and escape.

This ambush was a catastrophe for Shanhai City.

...

Huo Qubing looked at the remaining generals and soldiers beside him, looking really exhausted. The continual activation of his specialty had a huge toll even for a God General like Huo Qubing.

"Go calculate how many men we have left." Huo Qubing instructed the deputy officer.

"Yes general!"

The situation of the various troops was reported extremely quickly.

Although the Iron Armored Beast Division was strong, their stamina could not be compared to war horses. Even if they managed to breakout, they were still killed in the chase.

Ma Teng's division, which was in charge of holding off the enemy, was encircled and none of them escaped. In the end, only around 10 thousand of them managed to get out, less than a division.

When Huo Qubing heard the report, he was totally silent; he did not know how he would explain this to the Monarch.

Although the intel departments had messed up, he had not conducted a detailed scouting before attacking Yongren City despite his role as the main general.

If not, even if the enemy laid in wait in the Shu Lands, they would not have been able to cross the border and surround them without them finding out.

For the sentries of the Guards Legion to be removed by the enemy so easily was truly an embarrassment.

"Return to Consonance City!"

After resting up for two hours, Huo Qubing ordered once more. Dongchuan Prefecture was not a place where they could stay behind in anymore. Now they could only take it step by step, returning to the headquarters before discussing further action.

After a short while, the cavalry disappeared in the wilderness.

Dongchuan Prefecture, Yongren City.

As night fell, the battle finally ended.

Corpses were strewn across the battlefield, blood flowing like rivers.

During this battle, to crush the 1st legion of the Guards Legion Corps, the Yanhuang Alliance Army had paid a heavy price. They lost 30 thousand men and the Alliance Army lost 40 thousand men.

The Yanhuang Alliance Army mainly lost troops when they tried to surround the Iron Armored Beast Division. On the other hand, the Alliance Army had suffered losses under the hands of the mountain barbarians and Ma Teng's division.

Of course, their battle rewards were extremely great too.

During this battle, they had killed 45 thousand people and captured 15 thousand. Even general Ma Teng had fallen on the battlefield.

The Guards Legion was an extremely strong army. Even under such circumstances, they did not want to surrender. The prisoners obtained were basically forced into surrendering.

Hence, they were mostly cavalry.

At the later stages of the battle, the mountain barbarian warriors basically all activated their berserk state. In the end, only two thousand mountain barbarians were captured because the side effects of the berserk state made them weak, and they could not resist capture.

If not, it would be difficult for any of them to survive.

The mountain barbarian tribe was just so fervent and passionate. They would rather die than be prisoners just like their ancestor Chiyou. Although they were brutish, they were true men.

The Yanhuang Alliance commander Wuqi looked at the battlefield and exclaimed, "As expected of the Guards Legion of Shanhai City!" Under such a situation, they still managed to kill so many.

Although they won this battle, it was the case killing a hundred enemies but losing a thousand of your own. After this battle, there was not much change in the numbers of both sides.

Such an outcome had totally exceeded Wuqi's expectations.

Before the battle had started, who would have thought it would end like this?

Of course, after all, they won!

The greatest meaning to this battle was not the remaining numbers on both sides but their morale.

Think about it. Even the strongest Guards Legion of Shanhai City was crushed. To the Alliance Army and Yanhuang Alliance Army, who else would they fear?

Hence, they held the strategic initiative.

On the contrary, the rumored Invincible Shanhai City Army suffered such a loss, and it would be hard for them to adjust in a short time.

The battle in the main battlefield slowly started to favor Yunnan City-State.

"Let's return!" Wuqi ordered.

After hurriedly cleaning up the battlefield, the Yanhuang Alliance Army and the Alliance Army did not spend too much time in Yongren City and teleported away to Qin Feng's Tengchong City.

This arrangement showed that Yunnan City-State was not following Shanhai City's tempo.

Who knows what they were planning?

After the army left, the defenses of Dongchuan Prefecture were temporarily left to Swordsman City. Based on the agreement, they would send 40 thousand troops over.

'Letting go of Dongchuan Prefecture' was one of the agreements, and this entire battle planning was started a few months ago.

Apart from that, they had another mission, which was take charge of the prisoners.

Similarly, based on the agreement, all the prisoners from the battle would be split amongst Yanhuang Alliance. Yunnan City-State would get none of them.

The way the Yanhuang Alliance did things was just so overbearing.

...

As the army left, Yongren City became peaceful once more. Apart from the stack of bones outside the city, it was like nothing had happened.

Anyone would know that this place would become famous for this battle.

Shanhai City Guards Legion Corps 1st legion had been ambushed here and nearly all fell. This news quickly spread throughout the wilderness.

This was the biggest defeat for them since they appeared in the wilderness. The ones who lost was also the most famous Guards Legion.

The entire forums exploded.

Even players from other regions were focusing on this battle.

All of a sudden, voices from many media outlets expressing their condolences and dissing Shanhai City became extremely common. Many experts predicted that the arrogant Shanhai City was going to trip and fall this time.

Not mentioning whether they could take down Yunnan City-State, if they could retreat in tact was already a problem.

The dark clouds above Yunnan welcomed the bright light of the sun. The light of victory started to wave at Yunnan City-State.

In the eyes of the experts, the result of this war was starting to becoming clearer and clearer.

Chapter 775 – Boys, Welcome Home!

12th month, 19th day, Consonance City.

The remainder of the Guards Legion Corps 1st legion had rushed day and night back; they were ready to meet the Monarch.

Three days earlier, the intelligence that the Guards Legion had faced an ambush was already passed to Ouyang Shuo. The news had infuriated him, making him smash the table into pieces.

The fury of the Monarch, the weather changes.

Dark clouds hung over Consonance City. Everyone acted extremely careful in order to not further anger the Monarch. Black Snake had hurried back, and he had nearly committed suicide as an apology to the Monarch.

As it was intel error that had caused the Guards Legion to be ambushed and even the entire Yunnan battlefield situation to change, Black Snake and the other intel heads were responsible for this failure.

Black Snake had spent days and nights in the Monarch's courtyard and still did not manage to see the Monarch.

When he finally met the Monarch, the only words he received were, "Use results to make up for your mistakes."

When Black Snake heard that, he gave a really deep bow and left, disappearing into the darkness.

Similarly, Shanhai Guards Commander Shen Buhai and Military Intelligence Division Secretary Cobra silently left.

The intel network that the territory had spent so much on building had actually dropped the ball at such a crucial moment, what irony.

To calm down the repercussions of the Dongchuan battle, Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to gather Du Ruhui, Zhao Kuo, and Chen Gong over to Consonance City whilst also sending letters to Baiqi, Jia Xu, Shi Wanshui, and the others to keep in contact.

All of them were busy for a full two days before they finally managed to make adjustments to their battle plan.

The Black Snake Guards had also finally found out the news of the Yanhuang Alliance Army and the Alliance Army teleporting over to Tengchong City.

In view of this trend, Baiqi suggested they change the strategy of both the middle and left troops and Ouyang Shuo approved it.

The middle troops led by Shi Wanshui and Zhang Liao would slowly push on forward to maintain the pressure on Tengchong City. At the same time, the west troops led by Baiqi would quicken their occupation of Mengding Prefecture.

More importantly, in case the Yanhuang Alliance Army used the teleportation tactic once more, Baiqi had planned a black chess piece to counter it.

At the current moment, their entire strategy moved along with the black chess piece plan. As such, Ouyang Shuo needed the Black Snake Guards to atone for their sins to ensure that this plan came to fruition.

...

When he learned that the Guards Legion had returned, Ouyang Shuo, who had remained expressionless these few past days, surprisingly walked out of the courtyard to welcome them personally.

"Monarch!"

Seeing Ouyang Shuo, Huo Qubing immediately dismounted and kneeled on the ground. He cupped his fist and tragically said, "I've disappointed the Monarch, please punish me."

Ouyang Shuo went up to console him, "The defeat in this battle is not your fault."

"Monarch, it is!"

Huo Qubing still felt extremely guilty, and self-blame covered his face. He totally did not expect that his first defeat would come so quickly; this was undoubtedly a huge blow to the prideful Huo Qubing.

Ouyang Shuo insisted on helping him up, "Come up!" As he spoke, Ouyang Shuo raised his head and looked at the remaining Guards Legion soldiers behind him.

During their attempt to break out, the soldiers were basically assailed by the defending soldiers from all sides. Their bodies and faces were covered in scars, and their hunger and exhaustion were evident, making them look terrible.

Even so, it was not enough to crush them.

The Monarch's scolding worried them the most. The Guards Legion was the sharpest sword in his hand and represented the inextinguishable honor of the territory.

However, at that moment, they had fallen.

Even a hint of disappointment on the Monarch's face would be enough to make all these soldiers feel ashamed to death.

If they did not need to rush back to Consonance City to receive further orders, these soldiers would have rather just killed themselves along the way. Seeing the Monarch gaze over, the soldiers all avoided his gaze, lowering their heads.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he had a pained expression. He noticed the anxiousness and sense of disgrace in their eyes. Looking at those eyes that had lost their luster and confidence, he felt heart pained.

Just at this moment, the influential and unique voice of the Lord sounded.

"Boys, raise your heads and lift your chests up. Look ahead of you, the only place we can regain our lost glory is the battlefield. Hold tightly onto your weapons and continue to fight for the honor of the Guards Legion."

More and more soldiers raised their heads and looked at the Monarch.

At this moment, they were like abandoned children that had finally found their way home, and they all had extremely complicated expressions.

"Boys, welcome home!"

Ouyang Shuo's smile was like the glow of the sun, its warmth shining down on their broken souls, washing away their exhaustion and calming down their anxious hearts.

Muffled cries spread out from the army; it was low and suppressed but also sounded a little like cries of relief.

They secretly used their dirty sleeves to wipe away their tears, leaving some filth at the corners of their eyes. However, their expressions were extremely happy and relaxed.

The panicked and worried soldiers all found their direction.

"Monarch!"

All of them kneeled on the ground emotionally, "We will forever follow you, Monarch!" His words made the soldiers feel that no matter how big the crisis or toughness ahead was, it would always be worth it.

The Guards Legion would never fall.

When the following Bai Hua and the others saw this scene, they were in awe. How would Di Chen and the others even know what kind of spirit was behind the rise of Shanhai City?

As long as such a spirit was not extinguished, Shanhai City would never fall.

...

That night, Ouyang Shuo did not prepare any sort of feast for the returning soldiers.

He knew that they were a prideful bunch. Since they had lost a battle, they would not accept such ceremonies. These would only make them feel even more ashamed and awkward.

Ouyang Shuo only instructed the army to give them food as usual and not provide any extra care. Of course, during the day, Ouyang Shuo had especially made a visit back to Shanhai City.

In the martial temple, Ouyang Shuo used the King Rank General Soul to revive Ma Teng. The moment he walked out, his first request was to return to his forces.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this, even he felt weird.

It seemed like Huo Qubing this Guards Legion Corps Marshal, had totally convinced this old general.

Although that was the case, Ouyang Shuo did not accept his request.

After all, he was quite old and had just experienced death, so it would not be appropriate to throw him back onto the battlefield right away. After learning the news of his father's death, Ma Chao, who had already led his troops to Consonance City, panicked.

If it were not for Ouyang Shuo stopping him, he would have led the troops to Dongchuan Prefecture.

Secondly, he planned to let Ma Teng cooperate with the strategic plans of Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo instructed him to show his face a lot in the city and to show depressed emotions to trick the spies in the city.

Originally, Ma Teng did not understand why the Monarch would issue such commands until Ouyang Shuo showed him a scroll.

"Do not worry Monarch, I will do my best!"

In truth, after dying once, he still had some lingering fear in his heart. If he rushed back onto the battlefield, he might experience some psychological barrier.

Furthermore, Ma Teng did not want to worry Ma Chao and the others.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he nodded his head in delight. It seems like his general was still quite a rational person.

Whilst leaving Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo brought away a certain person. He was Lu Bu, who was studying at the Army Military Academy. Lu Bu would temporarily replace Ma Teng and help take charge of the 1st division.

12th month, 20th day, Consonance City outer city barracks.

Under Huo Qubing's leadership, the Guards Legion had gathered up in the camp. Yesterday, the Monarch had announced that he was going to give them all a surprise.

In the morning, Ouyang Shuo brought Lu Bu and came to the drill grounds.

"Monarch!"

Huo Qubing rushed over. Since he knew what the surprise was, he felt extremely emotional.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and took out a scroll from his bag; this was the Group Revival Scroll he had obtained when they raided Sky Wolf Island in Somalia.

Name: Group Revival Scroll

Type: Special Item

Restriction: one time use, restricted to Lord gamemode players

Function: Can pay a certain amount of gold to revive dead soldiers, no upper limit. For 10 thousand troops and below, each soldier costs 10 gold. For every 10 thousand added thereafter, each soldier would cost 10 more gold.

Note: Advanced Generals and above, including historical generals, cannot be revived.

Ouyang Shuo had not thought that he would have to use this scroll so early on. The Guards Legion was the strongest legion in the territory and the Iron Armored Beast Division and the Heavy Armored infantry Mountain Barbarian Divisions could not be replaced.

Hence, using the scroll at this time could be said to be worth it.

Ouyang Shuo opened the scroll and heard a constant stream of System Notifications.

"System Notification: Player is using the Group Revival Scroll, please select resurrection target!"

"Shanhai City Guards Legion Corps 1st legion."

"System Notification: Locking onto the target, checking."

"System Notification: The Guards Legion Corps 1st legion fell outside Yongren City five days ago, 45,728 people fell, please choose how many to revive."

"All of them." Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate.

"System Notification: Reviving 45,728 people will use up 1,286,400 gold, will you proceed?"

"Revive!"

Without mentioning a million gold, Ouyang Shuo would still make the same choice even if it was much more.

"System Notification: Confirming revival requirements, reviving instantly."

With a 'Shua!', a white light shone across the drill grounds. As the white light passed, the soldiers who had fallen in the battle at Yongren City, apart from the Advanced Generals, had all appeared.

Ouyang Shuo looked at these soldiers and happily said, "Boys, welcome home!"

Chapter 776 – Setting a Camp at Every Step

The Guards Legion soldiers would never be able to forget the scene in front of them for the rest of their lives.

Right in front of them, their brothers that had died in battle were all well and alive on the drill grounds. Outsiders could not possibly understand their current feelings.

The fallen Guards Legion had been miraculously revived.

"You're home, brothers!"

The soldiers on the drill grounds were unable to control their emotions, hugging one another.

Most of these brothers who rose from the dead were those that covered for their retreat. To see them once more had lessened the guilt the 5th division soldiers felt.

It also made them even more emotional and touched by the Monarch.

Regretfully, Shihu, Lei Jingtian, Shan Zhu, and Shi Bao, these four Advanced Generals, were not in the list to be revived. Ouyang Shuo did not know whether they had died or if they were captured.

Ouyang Shuo hoped that they were indeed captured.

If that was the case, at least there was still hope of them returning. If they died, then there was truly nothing Ouyang Shuo could do. Ma Teng was a historical general so Ouyang Shuo had received a System Notification when he died.

As for the other four of them, he had no information.

The spies hidden in Yongren City were going around trying to confirm the status of these four generals.

...

Whilst the Guards Legion soldiers calmed down their emotions, Ouyang Shuo announced some appointments. Lu Bu would temporarily replace Ma Teng as the Major General of the 1st division.

At the same time, the Deputy Major Generals of the 2nd and 3rd divisions would replace their Major Generals. As the 4th division deputy Major General was Shi Bao, Ouyang Shuo could only appoint a colonel.

The army did not lack generals, and this was just a makeshift.

As for the 15 thousand captured soldier shortfall, Ouyang Shuo did not fill it up with members from the Independent Division.

This position was still left for them.

Ouyang Shuo believed that even if they lacked 15 thousand troops, the Guards Legion Corps 1st legion would still be the strongest legion.

Especially after experiencing this setback, their fighting spirits had been ignited.

After adjusting the personnel arrangements, Ouyang Shuo was ready to leave the barracks but Huo Qubing stopped him.

Seeing that the Guards Legion Corps 1st legion had been revived, Huo Qubing requested to fight, "Monarch, I am confident about taking back Dongchuan Prefecture within five days. Monarch, please allow us to take action."

"No." Ouyang Shuo shook his head.

"Monarch?"

Huo Qubing could not understand. From his perspective, he felt somewhat wronged like the Monarch did not trust the Guards Legion, like he did not trust this marshal.

"Let's speak here." Ouyang Shuo turned around and left the drill grounds and move to a corner of the barracks. The following Personal Guards spread out to defend the area and prevent anyone from getting close.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and explained, "It is not that I do not trust you. Think about it, in their eyes, the Guards Legion Corps 1st legion is unable to fight anymore. You are a wildcard that can send them to hell at a crucial moment. As for Dongchuan Prefecture, what is that? If Swordsmen City wants it, let them have it. As long as we win in the main battlefield, we can take it back easily."

The ten day of battle involving the Guards Legion had achieved some use. They had wiped out the troops in Dongchuan and destroyed all the teleportation formations.

With that, the enemy would not be able to do anything or make any plans in Dongchuan Prefecture.

They did not move on Dongchuan Prefecture now so as to not alert the enemy. Swordsman City would not set troops and threaten the safety of Kunming Prefecture if they did not take action; it was also to numb the Yanhuang Alliance Army and Yunnan City-State to make them put down their guard.

Consequently, Ouyang Shuo had turned his sights onto Mengding and Tengyue Prefecture. As long as Baiqi's black chess piece plan succeeded, Shanhai City would have a high chance of victory.

The just revived Guards Legion Corps would play a huge part in this plan. Ouyang Shuo gave a brief introduction of the plan, making Huo Qubing's eyes light up.

In the end, his eyes were shining brightly.

Huo Qubing took in a deep breath and calmed his thoughts, "I understand Monarch. I'll follow your arrangements." Killing intent brewed in his eyes; its target was the Yanhuang Alliance and the alliance armies.

The next time they met, he was going to take revenge.

Ouyang Shuo felt relaxed when he saw that Huo Qubing understood. He gave a final instruction, "The soldiers of the 1st legion have been through such a huge change after all, so I doubt they can adapt all of a sudden. As the marshal, just rest easy and stay in the camp to help them adjust. Remember, we must be at our best battle condition to welcome the toughest battle. The toughest steel must be used at the most crucial moment."

"Yes Monarch!"

Huo Qubing bowed solemnly.

Through this incident, Huo Qubing suddenly felt that he had become closer to the Monarch. In his heart, he had the feeling that the Hanwu Emperor was in front of him.

Ouyang Shuo smiled before leaving.

Tengyue Prefecture, Tengchong City.

Di Chen, Chun Shenjun, the other Yanhuang Alliance members, the Lords from the Yunnan City-State with Qin Feng as the representative, as well as Wuqi, Tian Dan, Lianpo, and other generals had gathered in the hall.

Their goal was to discuss the next step they would take.

"Lords, we cannot be happy too early. The main force of the Shanhai City Army is still alive and the balance of our two sides has not been broken. Since Shanhai City fell prey last time, they would definitely be careful this time. A lion is hard to fight and a careful lion is even more difficult to handle."

"Hence, whether or not the next step in our plan can succeed would be the key to this battle. Yongren City only opened up the proceedings to the true battle. To win the entire war, we must be ready to pay a heavy price. If not, the enemy can turn the tables at any moment."

When Wuqi talked about 'paying a price', there were a few people in the hall with weird expressions. They were all Lords of the Dongchuan Prefecture who were now left with nothing.

Although both the City-State and Yanhuang Alliance had made promises before the war to give them appropriate compensation, the previously agreed upon compensation was battle rewards.

One must not look at how badly the various media outlets were describing Shanhai City. They themselves knew how strong Shanhai City was. Just as Wuqi had said, the loss of the Guards Legion was not enough to decide the entire battle.

In his words, they needed to make more sacrifices.

As for who to sacrifice?

The Lords of Dongchuan Prefecture turned their eyes to the Lords of Mengding Prefecture.

When the Yunnan City-State negotiated with Yanhuang Alliance, they were already mentally prepared. Even with the help of Yanhuang Alliance, it was impossible for the City-State to escape unharmed from Shanhai City.

The only problem was how high a price they would need to pay and whose interests they would end up sacrificing.

As the top Lord in the City-State, Qin Feng was not speaking and had obviously come to a consensus with Di Chen and the others. If not, the Yanhuang Alliance Army and the Alliance Army would not have teleported over to Tengchong City.

After all, Mengding Prefecture was the main battlefield they had planned beforehand.

It was obvious that Qin Feng's thoughts had changed regarding this matter.

When the few Lords from Mengding Prefecture thought about the current situation, their expressions became exceedingly ugly. They understood what the greater sacrifices Wuqi spoke of referred to.

After Dongchuan Prefecture, Mengding Prefecture was going to become the next sacrifice.

Yanhuang Alliance had calculated everything. Dongchuan Prefecture was messed up by Shanhai City, but it still ended up in the hands of Swordsman City.

Who knows what kind of tricks they were going to pull off in Mengding Prefecture?

Whatever it was, it was not good news to the Lords of Mengding Prefecture.

As expected, when Wuqi voiced his plan, the faces of all the Mending Lords collectively turned ashen white like a bunch of insects being abandoned and thrown into the wilderness.

A freezing wind swept inside the closed meeting hall, sending a chilling sensation down their spines.

In the following week, the Yunnan battlefield seemed extremely stale.

The left troops led by Baiqi did not proceed smoothly. One must not look at how they had gathered their forces in Tengyue Prefecture as they had not totally given up on Mengding.

Each city, apart from the troops based there, also had Alliance Army soldiers to assist.

To make matters worse, based on the battle plan set by Wuqi, each city would gather all the manpower from their affiliate territories for reorganization.

This did not only include the city protection forces but also included the bailiffs, protection forces of aristocratic families, students from dojos, and wandering experts.

According to Wuqi's words, anyone who could fight was not to be let go of.

Not only that, the territory also pushed out recruitment orders to recruit all the strong young men to equip them with weapons and form a civilian force.

Other labor forces were moved to help the troops defend.

Wuqi's plan was to use every person available to defend to the death.

This was simply too terrifying.

Each territory that the left troops took down required a lot of effort to defeat. The enemy troops would make use of their advantage to try to efficiently kill the enemy.

Apart from a frontal assault, many of them harassed the grain transport units.

This caused the left troops to suffer heavy casualties.

Helplessly, Baiqi could only use the reserve force, the 3rd legion of the Leopard Legion Corps to assist them. Only then did they manage to quicken their pace.

Even so, their progress was far from expected, and they even suffered heavy losses. In a week, they had lost 30 thousand troops. Only then did they take down half of Mengding.

And the time was already pointing toward the 4th year of Gaia.

Chapter 777 – 4th System Update

Wuqi's plan had made it extremely difficult for the left troops led by Baiqi. This plan was truly vicious. No matter which side won, Mengding was destined to be left as a wasteland.

Baiqi also felt a headache because of that. Since the enemy was making use of all the civilians, Shanhai City was killing the locals. Even if Shanhai City took control of Mengding Prefecture, it would be difficult to raise their sentiments and gain their support because of the deep hatred.

But they had to fight.

Such a vicious plan was not used in Dongchuan because the Yanhuang Alliance had seen it as their territory and was unwilling to take such measures.

In contrast, Mengding Prefecture was surrounded by Shanhai City and could not be used by them, so why not?

The only pitiful ones were the Lords of Mengding Prefecture, who were buried along with them. Only now did the Lords of Yunnan City-State see that Yanhuang Alliance was just a pack of wolves.

Unfortunately, they had boarded the train and could not get off.

...

Even though the advance was difficult, Baiqi was still doing other things.

Whilst attacking Mengding, the black chess piece plan was underway.

The grain and weapons transport squads of the left troops had already occupied a large portion of Mengding. A portion of the resources would disappear sneakily to who knows where.

And this was a part of the plan.

The Battle of Yunnan was slowly proceeding towards its peak. As for how it would end, it would test the chess skills of both sides.

As the 4th year of Gaia drew closer, the attention of the wilderness was temporarily taken away from the Yunnan Battlefield.

The players started to look forward to the impending system update as well as the information piece. High-leveled players also looked forward to the 1st global auction.

Even Ouyang Shuo had to make a trip back to Shanhai City.

Of course, the Battle of Yunnan would not stop because of this. However, Baiqi predicted that this stalemate-like situation would last for 10 days to half a month.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo suppressed his worries and rushed back to Shanhai City to deal with some emergency matters.

...

Gaia 3rd year 12th month, 30th day, a System Notification sounded out around the world.

"World Notification: This is the 3rd anniversary since the start of Earth Online, and the game will be welcoming its 4th system update. Effective immediately, please head online to check the specific contents."

Be it adventure gamemode players or Lord gamemode players, they all paid a lot of attention to the yearly system updates. A slight change would affect their future plans.

In the 3rd system auction, Gaia removed the Super Auction Platform, country channels, guild channel, alliance channel, and player levels.

The goal was to make the game more real.

A year had passed and after suffering from all the pain, the players had started to get used to the new rules.

At the same time, new media, film, mercenary guilds, and other groups appeared to add life to the game.

Who knows what new changes the system update would bring? The moment the notification was out, Ouyang Shuo immediately went onto the forums to take a look.

1: Relationships with imperial cities.

Imperial cities and player territories can officially have four relationships: enemy, neutral, friendly, and close.

The relationship between the two would be decided by the more negative one.

For example, if the Dali Imeprial City said it was neutral to Shanhai City but Shanhai City listed them as an enemy, both sides would be enemies.

Such a setting was to prevent one-sided relationships.

The relationship level would affect the interaction between the imperial cities and player territories. As for the specific effects, the players would need to find out on their own.

One thing could be confirmed that if both sides were enemies, it would be difficult for the Lord to recruit people from the imperial city in question. Even normal trading would be affected.

Before this, when Chengdu announced their animosity toward Shanhai City, it was just Liu Bei making a statement. This system update would allow them to confirm the relationship.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate; he listed Chengdu as an enemy and the rest as friendly.

Now, all that was left was to see what kind of relationship they had with Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo saw right through the point of this update. It gave much more room for the imperial cities to act and let them have more influence in the wilderness.

This was Gaia slowly loosening their reigns on the imperial cities.

Each imperial city was not just an imperial city. They had millions of troops and numerous civil servants and generals. Its population was also in the tens of millions.

And all these people were trapped in an imperial city that had one prefecture of land at the most.

Each imperial city was like an atomic bomb. The moment it exploded, it could form an empire and stun the wilderness.

In the special environment of the China Region, the future imperial cities would become the enemies of player territories.

2: Opening up the arena.

Earth Online had some settings that pained adventure gamemode players; specifically, the cruel death penalty and the lack of ways to spar.

In the game, PK between players was with real blades and spears. Even if it was friendly, one could kill the other party if one was not careful.

At the end of the 3rd year of Gaia, as the outer regions of the imperial cities were being cleared out, the playability of adventure gamemode players was reduced, causing resentment to build up.

Now, Gaia had finally answered their requests and opened up the arena. Players had a place to PK now and would not incur any penalties from losing.

Not only that, the arena would also have a point system where players could exchange points for equipment.

To some PK maniacs, this was great news.

Even if one was not a PK maniac, they could still use the arena to raise their skills and battle strength.

3: Opening up guild cities and underground world.

This update was the biggest one this time.

In the Gaia 4th year, the nine imperial cities would establish a Satellite City outside for adventure gamemode players.

At the same time, this Satellite City could be occupied. As long as a guild takes down the Satellite City and defended it successfully for 24 hours, it would belong to them.

Hence, the Satellite City was known as the guild city.

Having a city as a guild base was the dream of every guild.

At the same time, to increase the vibrancy and attractiveness of the guild city, to raise its manageability, Gaia had linked the underground world to the guild city.

Based on Gaia's words, there would be a vast and endless world underground with stronger beasts and bandits, and many more resources and quests.

Just that simple description meant that the underground world was a heaven for adventure gamemode players. In the future few years, the underground world would be the main active location of these players.

With how vast the game map was, how big was the underground world? Even when the game ended, there would probably still be places that adventure gamemode players had not touched.

Of course, the underground world would only be opened to give an advantage to gamemode players and not Lord gamemode players.

The entrance of the underground world was in the satellite cities.

With that, the guild that owned the Satellite City could use it as a base to explore and attract more players to help build the Satellite City.

To the guild, this was simply a whole new milestone.

And this was the secret that Ouyang Shuo had revealed to Lin Jing.

One would know even without thinking that the fight for these nine satellite cities would be extremely cruel. The moment one occupied the city, their position as an overlord would be unshakeable.

The moment this update was out, the blood of all adventure gamemode players boiled.

The elders and guild leaders were all rubbing their hands in excitement; their eyes were red as they wished to go on the battlefield right away.

4: Constructing Imperial City sect dojos.

At the same time as opening up the satellite cities, the nine imperial cities would open up sect dojos that were different from normal dojos. The sect would teach all the basic martial arts of the specific Wulin sect.

When players joined a specific dojo, they would be joining that sect.

To adventure gamemode players, this was a huge revolution. Players noticed that the underworld that everyone was looking forward to was slowly revealing itself.

If the satellite cities were for the large guilds, then the sect dojos were for all the adventure gamemode players. These two updates solved the current issue that adventure gamemode players were facing.

The future of adventure gamemode players instantly became filled with endless imagination.

A bigger, more interesting game world was slowly revealing itself to the players.

...

Gaia did not show any favoritism this time. The sect dojos were not only opened in all nine imperial cities but also the prefecture grade territories. Lord players could choose what sect dojo to open based on their personal preferences.

The sects they could choose included the five clans, 13 factions, and 81 sects in Wulin.

The five clans included Shaolin, Kunlun, Wudang, Emei, and Lotus.

The 13 factions included Xiaoyao Faction, Asian Mountain Faction, Devil Mountain Faction, Hengshan Faction, Shushan Faction, Black Mountain Faction, Secret Faction, Shendu Faction, Emei Faction, Green City Faction, Haiwai Faction, and Kongdong Faction.

The last 81 sects were numerous and included Baji Sect, Taishan Sect, Mantis Sect, Black Tiger Sect, Long Spear Sect, Kaoshan Sect, Eagle Claw Sect, Medicine King Sect, and Five Tiger Sect.

Ouyang Shuo was truly dazzled by the choices that he had.

Chapter 778 – Information Piece: Wulin Arrives

Based on the setting by Gaia, a Grade 1 Prefecture could have five sect dojos, a Grade 2 Prefecture 10 sect dojos, and a Grade 3 Prefecture 15.

At for Capital City grade, one could have 25 sect dojos.

What needed to be mentioned was that a sect dojo was different from a sect. Although a sect dojo could appear in imperial cities or player territories, the various sects or factions needed to appear in the wilderness first based on the dynasty.

A sect dojo was only the warmup version of a sect and only taught basic stuff.

Shanhai City was now a Grade 3 Prefecture so Ouyang Shuo could choose 15 sect dojos. He would choose the five clans for sure. As for the remaining 10 slots, he would need to ponder about it.

Long Spear Sect, Baji Sect, and Five Tiger Sect had relationships with Shanhai City, so he naturally needed to choose them. Next would be Xingyi Sect, Five Phoenix Blade Sect, Medicine King Sect, Zihui Sword Sect, and Sichuan Tang Sect; these five huge sects.

As for the remaining two slots, Ouyang Shuo chose Xiaoyao Sect and Haiwai Sect.

Ouyang Shuo did not choose randomly. All these sects were ones that could possibly cooperate with Shanhai City. If he had chosen incompatible ones, it would be a waste.

Other territories were probably choosing sects in the same manner.

...

Apart from the four huge update points, there were five more relatively smaller updates.

5: Raise of troop movement speed.

Due to the player territories expanding, too much time was spent on moving troops. Gaia had decided to increase the basic movement speed of troops by five times.

This meant that be it infantry, cavalry, navy, or even grain transport troops, all their movement speeds were raised by five times. A month long trip would only require a few days now.

Not only that, if one had territory buffs and general buffs, it would work off this base that had been increased by five times.

Hence, this could result in a six to seven times increase in traveling speed. Hence, the ten times increase in game map area had been solved.

At a future suitable time, Gaia would probably increase this once more, totally nerfing the teleportation tactic of players.

As for how this new update would affect the Battle of Yunnan, Ouyang Shuo was not too sure about it.

At the very least, it could quicken the pace at which Baiqi's left troops took down Mengding Prefecture, and it would not be anything good for Yunnan City-State. After all, Yunnan City-State relied heavily on the teleportation tactic.

6: Removal of territory land area stat.

The stat in the territory stat bar did not match the true size of a territory. This situation was not limited to Shanhai City and most territories were like that.

Hence, Gaia decided to remove this stat.

7: Slow down the construction speed of buildings.

The construction speed in game had special speed buffs, making it faster than in real life. A house in real life that needed half a year to build could be completed in just a few days in the game.

This update slowed down this building speed; this would increase the construction time of each building by at least three times and even five times for some.

What it slowed down was not only construction of buildings but also the construction speed of ships, cannons, and the like. Previously, the turreted ships built by Shanhai City shipyards needed at most half a month to reach completion.

Now it probably needed more than that, even close to two months.

This would definitely be a huge blow to the shipbuilding industry and cause a huge impact, largely reducing production.

This move was also to make the game closer to reality. Moreover, it increased the costs of production of territories. It would be a huge challenge, especially to the basic infrastructure of the territory.

Lords needed to continuously climb up the technology tree and raise the construction efficiency.

This act by Gaia was truly thought out well.

8: Modifying the alliance settings.

Territories that have already joined alliances or formed City-States could not form alliances with anyone outside. For example, the cooperation between Yanhuang Alliance and Yunnan City-State would not be allowed.

Similarly, Shanhai City would not be able to ally with members outside of Shanhai Alliance unless the member in question joined the Shanhai Alliance. Otherwise, they would be breaking the rules.

For example, the Mediterranean Alliance that Shanhai City had built as well as the Shanhai City-Phoenix Alliance all broke the rules.

As for the alliances that were already formed, Gaia did not take any action as these were formed prior to the time it pushed out the new rules.

9: Unlocking more building and crafting technology.

In the wilderness, each technical manual was extremely precious and were treasures to their Lords. Due to the rarity of technical manuals, the differences in technology standards between territories were too huge.

With Shanhai City as an example, their equipment was a massive level above the other territories, and they had sole possession of many things like shipbuilding and cannons.

In Gaia's eyes, such a situation had to be stopped.

Hence, in the following period of time, Gaia would throw a lot of technical manuals into the wilderness. As long as the Lords tried, they could obtain any normal technical manual.

The meaning behind this was to break the technology barrier and raise the overall technology level of the wilderness. The time of Shanhai City using their technology advantage to reap huge profits had passed.

Gaia's act could not be said to be unfair.

After all, compared to the low price that Shanhai City had obtained the manuals for, the profits they got were already rather sizeable, and they should not be so greedy to hog it any longer.

Gaia wanted to stimulate creativity to make the territories make innovations regarding the old technology to improve and form new technological advantages.

This entire process was pushing forward the technology of an entire territory.

In the future planet hope, Lords would face many unknown challenges and sticking to the past and following the rules was a method that held no future. Along with the environment in the new planet, performing a second research and development was the right way to go.

The reason why Ouyang Shuo established the Equipment Development Hub and the Industrialization Department was because of this. With weapons and equipment as an example, when the Tang Blade technology was released to the wilderness, Shanhai City would have already created an upgraded version.

Hence, he could still keep his technological advantage; this was not something that could not be taken back and levelled out.

This was his advantage from the last life. Without his ability to see ahead, how could Shanhai City keep their lead?

Of course, to the other Lords, this update was undoubtedly a good one. If one did well, they could close their gap from giants like Shanhai City in a short time.

Shanhai City could also make use of this chance to make up for their shortfalls like glass making technology and rubber making technology.

This was a miracle for the industrialization of the territory.

...

Looking at the system update, Ouyang Shuo was filled with thoughts. The ones who had profited the most were still the adventure gamemode players. As for Lord gamemode players, it was still uncertain.

Different from other games, Gaia's update was not to hot fix bugs but to push out new content.

Similarly, there was a bigger principle at play, which was to develop and train stronger Lords. If one did not understand this higher principle, one would not understand the updates.

As the main tool of the federation, Gaia had been perfecting Earth Online. The basis of perfection would be the quests and activities going on in the game.

Hence, apart from the yearly update, many small details had been refreshed and updated unknowingly. Such adjustments included changes to the forums, the weather, and even the ecosystem.

Just as Ouyang Shuo closed the forums, a System Notification sounded out in his ear

"System Notification: Imperial City Chengdu/Dali has set Shanhai City as their enemy."

"...."

It seems like the Dali Imperial Court did not approve of Shanhai City attacking Yunnan City-State. Thinking about how Shanhai City needed to obtain the recognition of Dali when it upgrades to Capital City, he realized he had a huge problem at hand.

"System Notification: Imperial City Jingdu/Jianye/Xiangyang/Chang An has set their relationship with Shanhai City to neutral."

These four imperial cities were ones without emperors in charge, so such a matter was expected.

"System Notification: Imperial City Quanzhou/Xianyang/Luoyang have set relationship with Shanhai City to friendly."

Quanzhou had many trading deals with Shanhai City and along with Mazu linking the two, it was normal that they were friendly. However, Ouyang Shuo did not expect that Qin Shihuang and Hanwu Emperor would both be friendly toward Shanhai City. It seems like this matter had something to do with Baiqi, Xiao He, Huo Qubing, and the others.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was ready to proceed toward the Silver Prayer House, another System Notification sounded out.

"System Notification: As this is the 3rd year since Earth Online has started, we will be releasing the 3rd information piece: Wulin Arrives. Please log onto the forums for specific details."

...

The moment the notification sounded, many adventure gamemode players, especially the chivalrous experts, knew that the underworld had arrived.

Some players even linked the new system update to the information piece. Wasn't the opening of the sect dojos related to this information piece?

Gaia also had a reason for releasing this information piece now.

The Battle Map had already passed the Three Kingdoms Era so the Wei and Jin Dynasties were up next, followed by the Sui Tang and Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. At this time, the roots of the various Wulin sects were being slowly spread around.

As the Battle Maps were pushed out, many sects would appear in the wilderness and enter the spotlight.

Chapter 779 – State Your Wish

The last two information pieces were for Lord gamemode players while this third one was aimed at adventure gamemode players.

Along with the information piece being released, apart from more sects entering the wilderness, wandering experts, dejected martial artists, hidden wulin families, lost martial art legacies, martial art adventure quests, and more would enter the wilderness. It would form up a huge and prosperous underworld for players and an exciting Wulin.

What made their blood boil was that the adventure mode for adventure gamemode players had arrived.

In contrast to Battle Maps, Gaia would combine information from books, movies, and novels to make underworld sub maps.

Each sub map would have special trigger conditions and different ones would have different participation requirements. Some were solo, some were group, and some were competitions.

Not only could players have the chance to learn various secret manuals in the sub map, but they would also be able to obtain various God Weapons and cultivation pills, even disguising masks, pear flower torrential needle rain, and other special items.

Like the Battle Map, the Wuxia sub maps had time limits and would close once it reaches a certain requirement. The time flow in the sub map would also be the same as the Battle Maps.

The Wuxia sub map would add to the adventuring lives of the players.

Of course, this was Gaia's way to improve the overall body standards of all the people.

The release of the information piece showed that Gaia's research on martial arts had reached an all new stage and had obtained a critical breakthrough. Gaia had unearthed all the legendary ancient techniques Gaia and placed them into the game.

Players would challenge the growth of their bodies through cultivation to prepare themselves for the future in planet Hope.

Consequently, no player would take this matter lightly.

The greatest possibility would be that with the information piece being released, a large number of work occupation players or casual players would kill themselves to change their class to chivalrous expert.

In the future period of time, as more and more secret manuals appeared, the entire wilderness would enter a cultivation craze. Moreover, this affected Lord gamemode players to an extent as well.

In history, the relationship between the Wulin sects and the Imperial Court was always uncertain and in the dark.

The sects were all established in the wilderness, so it was unavoidable for them to deal with the territories. It was either cooperation or going against them.

As the player skill levels increased, it would become a hidden problem to the safety of the territory.

Without a doubt, along with this information piece being published, the wilderness would become much more exciting and bustling. Ouyang Shuo was already considering forming an organization that focused on managing Wulin people.

His final goal was to use martial arts to manage martial arts and develop martial artists for the territory. No one would be able to ride above the territory.

The future Wulin was destined to be a bloody affair.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo was also considering another problem. Along with the information piece being published, what kind of changes would occur to Swordsman City and its Lord Feng Qingyang, who had always aimed to become a sect leader?

And what effects would those changes have on Yanhuang Alliance and Shanhai City? Who would Dongchuan Prefecture, which they were currently managing, go to?

It was obvious that the information piece was like a mist over the wilderness. When the mist dissipated, who would be the winner and who would lose everything?

Ouyang Shuo did not know either, and the list of things he needed to think about grew more and more.

Just at this moment, another System Notification sounded out.

"World Notification: To celebrate the successful running of the game for three years, Gaia will hold the first world auction at 10 AM on the 4th year, 1st day. 10 rarely seen items will be auctioned off. Friendly Reminder: players joining the auction have to have more than a million gold."

...

The moment the notification sounded out, the world was thrown into an uproar.

There had been rumors regarding the global auction long ago. Gaia let the information leak to control the flow of top items so that rare items would not depreciate.

Secondly, it wanted to promote competition between people from different countries as a start to country wars.

However, the players had not expected Gaia to go all out. It only allowed players with at least one million to enter, blocking out 99% of the players.

One must know that the China region, the area with the highest number of rich people, its most expensive God Weapon set was only sold for 1.35 million.

This was also after the achievement value exchange event.

Normally speaking, it would not have crossed the one million mark.

Who knew that in just a year, a million gold would become merely the baseline? Consequently, players without a million liquid gold would not be able to enter the auction.

Among the Shanhai Alliance, only Ouyang Shuo had the qualifications to enter the auction. After reviving the Guards Legion Corps 1st legion, Ouyang Shuo retrieved 300 thousand from the Financial Bureau to make up four million.

With this four million gold on hand, Ouyang Shuo was uncertain how many items he could obtain. Amongst which, there were a few items he absolutely needed. As for the rest, it was all up to fate.

After all, guild leaders like Blood Romance would take out the funds they stored in the Four Seas Bank to join the global auction. Ouyang Shuo did not allow the Four Seas Bank to loan money to Feng Qiuhuang and the others for this matter.

Furthermore, it did not feel right to use the bank money to join the auction. If this was revealed, it would be a huge blow to the reputation of the Four Seas Bank.

Ten items that everyone in the world would fight for.

Yanhuang Alliance had two to three people who had the ability to join this event. At the very least, Chun Shenjun and Di Chen would not miss it. This also once again proved that the further behind it fell, the stronger the Yanhuang Alliance would grow.

Along with the system report, many players were feeling dejected. Before it even began, the historical moment that they had previously been looking forward to had already ended.

At this point, the year end show of the Gaia 3rd year had come to an end.

Shanhai City, Imperial City.

Once again closing the forums, Ouyang Shuo said to Bing'er, who was sitting beside him, "Let's go!"

As the end of the year had arrived, the two hidden buildings Silver Prayer House and Recruitment Hall could be used once more. As for the General Appointment Stage, it could be used once in two years, so he had to wait for the next year.

Last year, Ouyang Shuo had Bing'er help him summon God General Zheng He, so he wanted to use her luck to obtain the greatest benefits from the two buildings this time around.

Ouyang Shuo truly looked forward to the shocking talents she would summon.

Before going to the Recruitment Hall, Ouyang Shuo brought Bing'er to the Silver Prayer House. The Silver Prayer House opened twice a year, and the last chance was wasted because Ouyang Shuo was out at sea.

There was another reason behind this visit.

A day ago, the spies from Yongren City told them that Shihu, Lei Jingtian, Shanzhu, and Shi Bao had all died in battle.

When he heard the news, Ouyang Shuo was stunned. He did not believe that the four generals nurtured by him would die just like that.

At that moment, he truly felt despaired and lost.

Thinking about this matter, the only way to revive them was the Silver Prayer House. The highest type of prayer in the Silver Prayer House was a miscellaneous type prayer.

Ouyang Shuo was only praying that he could use such a method to revive the four of them.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo brought Bing'er along.

The moment he walked into the Silver Prayer House, Gaia stunned Ouyang Shuo.

"System Notification: Hidden building activated, other people cannot interfere, and the Lord needs to personally act. Otherwise, the prayer will not work."

"...."

This was obviously targeting Ouyang Shuo's cheating act last year.

"No choice, I'll have to do it myself."

Ouyang Shuo gritted his teeth and arrived before the spinning wheel. Luckily, the breakthrough of the fate dragon meant that his luck stat had reached 22. Although it was not as overpowered as Bing'er, it was not that bad.

Thinking of which, Ouyang Shuo focused and connected with the fate dragon. He wanted to use the power of the fate dragon to momentarily raise his luck stat.

After the Battle of Lingnan ended, the fate dragon became more and more sentient and immediately formed a spiritual connection with Ouyang Shuo. At the same time, Ouyang Shuo felt a mysterious power transmit itself to his spiritual world.

At the same time, a System Notification sounded.

"System Notification: Congratulations Player Qiyue Wuyi for obtaining the buff of the fate dragon; an addition of 15 points in luck for five minutes."

This was a rare opportunity. Ouyang Shuo took it extremely seriously and immediately took action.

"System Notification: Please choose prayer type!"

Ouyang Shuo immediately chose the golden ingot.

"System Notification: Prayer type confirmed. Please choose the prayer mode."

"Self-decided Prayer."

"System Notification: Prayer mode confirmed, please state your prayer!"

Ouyang Shuo calmed himself and said, "Pray to revive Guards Legion Generals Shihu, Lei Jingtian, Shanzhu, and Shi Bao."

"System Notification: Wish confirmed, calculating...."

Chapter 780 – Hai Rui Hai Qingtian

During the time when the system was calculating, Ouyang Shuo felt that each second was a torture. In reality, only 10 seconds had passed before a System Notification sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations Player Qiyue Wuyi, thanks to the buff of your luck stat, this wish has not crossed the upper limit of 100 thousand and can be fulfilled. Will you make this wish?"

"Yes." Ouyang Shuo's voice started to tremble.

Along with the deduction of 100 thousand gold Ouyang Shuo, there was a 'Shua!', and four white lights appeared in the hall. When the white lights faded, four generals appeared.

"Where is this place, the netherworld?"

Shihu and the others obviously did not understand what was going on. They turned around, only to see Ouyang Shuo smiling brightly.

"Monarch?"

They could not believe it.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, "This is Shanhai City; you have all been revived." He gave a brief explanation of the prayer matter to the four generals.

Although they could not really understand, at least there was one thing that they knew - they were alive!

"Greetings Monarch!"

The four of them all kneeled on one foot. Soon afterward, their expressions became rather down.

Ouyang Shuo understood their thoughts and laughed, "Get up. The boys have all been revived a week ago. They are all at Consonance City and are waiting for you to return."

"Really?" A bright light shone from their eyes.

They really did not expect that they could escape death and be revived once more.

Using this chance, Ouyang Shuo decided to sense the condition of the fate dragon. To his shock, it was seemingly wilting after the short connection. He was so shocked that he immediately broke the connection with the fate dragon.

It seemed like this prayer succeeding had all to do with the fate dragon.

However, when he saw that the usage of the buff consumed a huge amount of the fate dragon's energy, and its body had started to fade once more, Ouyang Shuo did not dare to use it for the Recruitment Hall.

After all, Ouyang Shuo was someone who could weigh the pros and cons of something.

As he walked out of the Silver Prayer House, Ouyang Shuo said to the four of them, "Now, sneakily rush back to Consonance City to report to Marshal Huo Qubing. Remember, do not let anyone see you before you enter the barracks."

"Yes Monarch!"

Shihu and the others all solemnly bowed before they turned and left.

Along with the four of them returning, the Guards Legion Corps 1st legion had truly risen from the ashes.

Looking at those four well-built figures, Ouyang Shuo let out a pleased smile. Although he had paid a heavy price, at least he did not let down the mountain barbarian tribes and the Guards Legion soldiers.

Shanhai City, Recruitment Hall.

When Ouyang Shuo walked out of the Recruitment Hall, there was a middle-aged scholar besides him. Although this man looked exceedingly cold and handsome, he had eye bags below his eyes, and his cheeks were caved in. At first glance, one would know he was not someone easy to get close to.

This person was the talent that Ouyang Shuo had summoned, one of the 24 ministers of the Ming Dynasty, Hai Rui.

Name: Hai Rui (King Rank)

Title: Hai Qingtian

Dynasty: Ming Dynasty

Identity: Shanhai City Civil Servant

Occupation: Civil Servant

Loyalty: 75

Command: 35

Force: 30

Intelligence: 70

Politics: 80

Specialty: Upright and Honorable (Raises territory honesty level by 40%, raises tax collection by 5%, raises people sentiment by 10%.)

Evaluation: He was born a commoner and worked his way up. He gained a reputation for his uncompromising adherence to upright morality, scrupulous honesty, working against poverty, and fairness.

The famous name of Hai Rui was like lightning to the ears; he was a truly famous official of the Ming Dynasty. While he was alive, although he was a part of the four rules, the time he was actually in office was not much.

In the 20th year of Jiajing, he participated in the official examinations and was appointed as a clerk of education. He looked down on corruption and sought to deal with corrupt officials, earning him the love of the people. He dealt punishments to the rich and corrupt, stopping them from taking bribes and forcing them to return the money to the people.

However, since Hai Rui was too stubborn and strict, he was seen as someone who did not know the rules of the official field. Even Zhang Juzheng, who was a famous minister at that time, did not like him.

Hai Rui's specialty mainly buffed the honesty of the territory and the people sentiment. It also helped increase the taxes and tax revenue of the territory.

On the topic of Hai Rui, he actually had a little bit of relationship with Shanhai City.

Hai Rui was born in Qiongzhou Prefecture and wrote the Ruling Li Strategy and also the Making Peace with Li Strategy.

The Li here referred to the Li race natives of Qiongzhou Prefecture.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo was planning to push him to Qiongzhou Prefecture. His clean and honest image would be of great help to the rising voyage trade of Yashan City.

As for the current Qiongzhou Governor Tian Wenjing, he could be sent to Yunnan Province.

Hence, Hai Rui's appointment would have to wait till after the Battle of Yunnan had ended.

Ouyang Shuo was going to temporarily place him in the Internal Affairs Bureau to let him familiarize himself with the territory structure and the territory law system.

After personally sending Hai Rui over to the Internal Affairs Bureau, Ouyang Shuo returned to the Governor-General Manor.

...

During dinner, Song Jia talked to Ouyang Shuo about the progress of the Mountain and Sea Entertainment Holdings. With the help of the Black Snake Guards, their poaching job was going extremely smoothly.

Thanks to the great recruitment sign of Shanhai City, basically everyone accepted Song Jia's invitation unless they were truly determined not to come out. Their current members already had the ability to start filming Huo Qubing.

Speaking of which, Song Jia laughed, "Luckily, the team in charge of filming Huo Qubing has not been formed. If not, and we filmed it outside Yongren City, it would look really bad."

"Regarding the matter of Huo Qubing, let's shelve it for now. It's the crucial moment of the Battle of Yunnan, so let's not make him any busier."

Song Jia could sense Ouyang Shuo's unhappiness, so she changed the topic, "Wuyi, what are your thoughts on the information piece?"

After their marriage, Song Jia basically stopped interfering in underworld matters. Recently, she had not spent much time with Dongli Sword Sect because she was worried about the entertainment holdings.

The current sect was led by Lin Yue and had over two thousand disciples.

Even so, her wuxia heart had not faded. Along with the information piece being published, her cold heart suddenly ignited once more.

Song Jia was really looking forward to the wuxia map.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, "I wanted to talk to you about this. During these two days, there will be people coming over to set up sect dojos, a total of 15. I think you should inform Lin Yue to contact them and form relationships."

"What sects are there?" Song Jia was curious.

Ouyang Shuo stated the 15 sects that he had chosen; Song Jia felt confused when she heard these names. Some of their names appeared in dramas and novels.

Out of all the sects that Gaia had brought into the game, most of them were not as magical and godly as mentioned in novels. Naturally, they were not as famous.

Normally, those basic kungfu arts in novels like Tan Leg could become their own sect. Hence, even Ouyang Shuo did not have much knowledge regarding most of these sects.

"It seems like I have to do my homework on this." Song Jia was a really smart girl and immediately understood where Ouyang Shuo was going with this.

Asking Lin Yue to come into contact with the sects was naturally to try and send the Dongli Sword Sect into the underworld.

With the way Ouyang Shuo did things, he would aim to make the Dongli Sword Sect into an unparalleled existence since he wanted to enter.

It would be impossible in real life.

But this was the game. With Shanhai City as its shield, along with its relatively lengthy existence, such a goal was not impossible.

Thinking about this, Song Jia got really excited.

However, considering her current status, she could only act behind the scenes and let Lin Yue take charge. Even though she was behind the scenes, she still needed to have an understanding of the situation.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that Song Jia understood what he meant, he smiled, "Wuxia novels have a legendary sunflower queen, so why can't you be one."

"Of course." Song Jia smiled.

Ouyang Shuo said, "I have to remind you, Feng Qingyang's Qingyang Sword Sect is the top sect in the wilderness. It also has their aristocratic family supporting them. For Dongli Sword Sect to rise up, they would have to face this strong enemy."

"Do not worry. Even if you did not say it, I would have reminded Lin Yue. Since our two sects have the word sword in our name, and we are both sword sects, let's battle it out with sword techniques." Song Jia said.

"So confident?" Ouyang Shuo felt that it was weird, "Both you and Lin Yue are not known for swords. Do you have a secret weapon?"

"Temporarily not."

Song Jia gave him a mysterious smile but did not reveal anything.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and did not ask anymore. As long as Song Jia knew what she was doing, it was fine.

Chapter 781 – Global Auction (Part 1)

Gaia 4th year, 1st month, 1st day, 10 AM, a System Notification sounded out.

"World Notification: The 1st global auction officially begins. All players in the world that meets the requirements will automatically receive an invitation. Once the invitation is accepted, the player will be teleported to the auction venue."

...

At basically the same time, Ouyang Shuo heard a System Notification in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, found that your assets have reached four million, fulfilling requirements, will you join the global auction?"

"Join!"

"System Notification: Confirmed, teleportation begin!"

With a 'shua' a blinding white light shone and Ouyang Shuo was teleported to an unknown map, the legendary city in the skies.

Legends had it that the city in the skies was where Gaia lived, and it was hidden in the clouds, floating around the entire planet. Every day and night, it monitored every continent and ensured that the game runs properly.

In the city, there were God Generals, fairies, and various beasts. There were even rumors that the leaders of the federation lived in the city and enjoyed their life there.

It was not an understatement to say that the city in the skies was the most mysterious presence.

Who would have guessed that Gaia would actually choose to hold the first global auction at the city in the skies? It boosted all their excitement and made the trip alone worthwhile.

The sky auction venue was located at the west side of the city. The players were teleported here and could not walk out of the area. The mysterious city in the skies was indeed still a mystery to everyone.

Ouyang Shuo knew that not only the global auction but even the future martial arts competitions would also be held here. In truth, the city in the skies was just a place Gaia used to hold global scale events.

It was not as mysterious as the rumors said.

As they all teleported at the same time, Ouyang Shuo appeared together with everyone else who met the requirements. Looking out, there were no more than a hundred people in the auction venue.

Some of them were people Ouyang Shuo had met before like William and Henry, and there were also people who he did not have a chance to meet like Jack Dawson.

There were even more players that even Ouyang Shuo as a person that reincarnated did not recognize. In the last life, how would he have the chance to join such a high-class event?

Now, even on a global scale, Ouyang Shuo was the most eye-catching sight. When players sitting around him saw him, they all greeted him extremely warmly and introduced themselves.

All the China region Lords sat in one line. Apart from Ouyang Shuo, Di Chen, and Chun Shenjun, there were only two others from China, the guild leaders Blood Romance and Xie Siyun.

The appearance of the satellite cities had captured the attention of the guilds. Even the top 10 guilds would not dare to use their precious funds on the auction without a certain foundation.

What was truly coincidental was that Henry sat a row in front of Ouyang Shuo.

"Old friend, long time no see!" Henry warmly greeted and smiled, "Shanhai City has been making so many big waves after returning from the Mediterranean, I'm truly envious."

Ouyang Shuo smiled, "We can meet soon."

"Oh, you are going on another voyage?"

Hearing his words, not only Henry, even Di Chen and the others sitting beside him focused.

Di Chen and the others were not all that envious with how many people Ouyang Shuo knew. Speaking of contacts, Di Chen knew nearly everyone here. Ouyang Shuo's appearance did not change much, and the top players of each country were still the representatives of the huge powers.

As one of the top people in the Chinese circle, Di Chen had many interactions with these people in real life.

However, their territories were still currently limited to their own countries and did not have much cooperation in the game. Naturally, they did not have much to talk about. When country wars started, that would be a whole different matter.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and shook his head, not directly answering the question. Instead, he started to talk about the situation in the Mediterranean. As Jidian City was a lone city outside, Ouyang Shuo hoped to obtain some relevant information about it from Henry.

After talking for a while, Henry suddenly pointed to a place near the left to the front, "That young man called Caesar has been really active."

Ouyang Shuo looked at where Henry pointed. This was the first time Ouyang Shuo saw the legendary Caesar, one of the future heads of Europe. He truly looked handsome and strong.

Caesar seemed to have noticed Ouyang Shuo's gaze, and he suddenly turned around and gave him a provocative eye.

When Henry saw that, he said with displeasure, "That kid truly is arrogant."

Ouyang Shuo smiled, thinking to himself, 'Interesting!'

In the last life, Caesar was one of the top Lords in Europe and looked down on the other players in the world. He was probably unhappy about Shanhai City entering the Mediterranean.

Henry wanted to control the Mediterranean, so he definitely had many conflicts with this Caesar. This French friend was not really that simple. In fact, he wanted to make Shanhai City fight with Caesar.

Ouyang Shuo only wanted to maintain the normal running of the trade route and not get involved in their disputes. As long as Caesar did not actively challenge the Mediterranean Squadron, Ouyang Shuo would not want to act.

Let's just leave Henry to deal with him.

At this juncture, the auction officially began.

"Let's talk next time." Ouyang Shuo patted Henry's shoulder, telling him to calm down.

...

After the simple opening speech, the auction immediately began.

The auction model was the same as the regional auctions.

The auctioneer smiled as he walked up to the front and said, "Now to start the first item."

The first beauty walked in front and removed the red cloth on the tray, revealing a token.

"Village Creation Upgrade Token; this item can upgrade village creation tokens below that of Gold Rank by one rank. Base price 500 thousand, no buyout, please make your bids." The auctioneer introduced.

As expected from Gaia, the first item was so amazing already.

Most of the Lords present, excluding Ouyang Shuo and a few others, used the specially obtained Silver Rank creation token. Their starting point was a level worse than that of the Gold Rank village creation token.

Now, Gaia had given them a chance to make up for their regrets. However, the price was truly not cheap. The starting bid was already 500 thousand, so who knows how high it would go for in the end?

Ouyang Shuo let out a calm smile.

He was only going to watch this show unfold.

After 20 minutes of intense battle, the token landed in the hands of Jack Dawson for a million gold.

As the son of the richest man in the world, who knows how much gold he had exchanged for during the achievement value exchange event? To Jack Dawson, this item was worth the one million gold.

In his eyes, only Shanhai City could be seen as his competitor. After he learned that Shanhai City had used a Gold Rank village creation token, he had always wanted to upgrade the token of Free City.

He searched far and wide but could not find a way to upgrade the token.

Who knew that he would be able to see such a token in the auction? Hence, he decided to obtain it matter what.

Ouyang Shuo noticed that Chun Shenjun had also bid. Only when the price passed 800 thousand gold did he give up; he probably had other intentions.

...

Very quickly, the second auction item was revealed; it was a scroll.

The auctioneer pointed at the scroll and introduced, "This scroll is The Map of the Underground World (Incomplete). No matter which player obtains this item, they'll gain access to 1/5th of the information of the underworld in their country. Base price 500 thousand, no buyout, please make your bids."

After the 4th system update, the mysterious underground world had become the focus and hot topic of all players. Some players wildly wondered if the various underground worlds were linked together.

This incomplete map had become the item of contention for all the guild leaders.

This round of the auction was more intense than the first. After half an hour, the item was obtained by Blood Romance for 1.5 million gold.

Due to the size of the China Region, it was truly worth it for him to use such a sum to obtain the map. Even if he only had 1/5th of it, it could be compared to any country in any other continent and even a few of them added together.

Hence, the final competitors for this item were from China, Russia, and America. Blood Romance obtaining this item with so much gold meant that he was probably confident about taking down the Satellite City in Xianyang.

"Congratulations!"

Ouyang Shuo was just sitting to the left of him, so he congratulated Blood Romance right away.

Blood Romance smiled and sincerely said, "Thank you."

Sitting in such a hall, the five players in the China Region naturally grouped up. Even Di Chen and Chun Shenjun sent their congratulations.

Xie Siyun, who was similarly a competitor, did not lose her demeanor.

China region taking down something was worth celebrating about.

...

Just as Ouyang Shuo and the others were congratulating him, the third item was revealed; it was another token.

The auctioneer said, "This is a teleportation token. After use, the player can add a teleportation formation to any place in the territory. Base price 500 thousand, no buyout, please make your bids."

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, his eyes lit up.

This teleportation token was exactly what Ouyang Shuo wanted.

Shanhai City had six teleportation formation cities, Shanhai City, Yashan City, Zhenhai City, Consonance City, Lion City, and Jidian City.

It seemed like a lot, but it was not enough when compared to their land size.

With this token, Ouyang Shuo could change his strategies; especially their overseas strategy, which needed this token badly.

Not that long ago, when Shanhai City became a Grade 3 Prefecture and added a teleportation formation in Jidian City, the situation had totally changed.

Chapter 782 – Global Auction (Part 2)

Ouyang Shuo was not the only one who had the ambitions of obtaining this token.

Any Lord that wanted to expand, especially expand overseas, wanted the token. For example William, Caesar, and Jack all wanted this item.

The 4th system update had greatly increased the movement speeds of troops. Lords who were held up in their own country's fights would not be interested in this item at the moment.

Hence, when the price reached 900 thousand, there was only Ouyang Shuo and the other three left.

"1 million!"

Ouyang Shuo bid a critical point price.

No matter how good this token was the Lords could not waste their resources. After all, this was just the third item.

"1.1 million gold!"

The one that bid was Caesar; he turned around and gave Ouyang Shuo yet another provocative look. Looking at this, William and Jack decided to give up and let them fight it out.

Ouyang Shuo did not bother and expressionlessly said, "1.3 million gold!"

"...."

Caesar's eyes froze. He wanted to con Qiyue Wuyi but looking at this fellow's expression, he was unsure if Qiyue Wuyi wanted the token or was trying to set a trap for him.

If he followed and Qiyue Wuyi did not follow, that would be a catastrophe.

Caesar hesitated and decided not to bid. He was not rash and would not waste his gold just because of his emotions.

With that, Ouyang Shuo obtained the teleportation token with 1.3 million gold. From start to finish, his expression did not change at all.

When Caesar saw this lack of expression change, his brows rose.

'Did I con him?' Caesar was confused.

...

The following three items were all precious items for adventure gamemode players. There were God Weapons, hidden occupation scrolls, and a strong cultivation method.

Ouyang Shuo did not want any of these items, so he just sat and watched quietly.

On the contrary, the adventure gamemode players were going all out. Especially the western players, who wanted to obtain the god staff. In the end, the item went for 1.8 million gold.

After these three items were auctioned off, another hour had passed.

The tempo of the auction was extremely quick. There was no pause in between items; it was simply one item after the other.

The seventh item was one that was especially made for the China region - Kunlun sub map key. With this item, players could activate the Kunlun sub map.

Kunlun had the end of the Song and start of the Yuan Dynasties as its historical background. It described the story of how Liang Su went from a wanderer to an expert of a generation. It was deemed as one of the Wuxia classics of the 21st century.

This novel was millions of words long due to the descriptive passages about the underworld. There were many up and downs and great character descriptions. The contents within included underworld heroics love and hate, geography, mechanisms, formations, and many other aspects.

Like how China had the information piece released, other countries had similar ones with different backgrounds.

Of course, China had the most related sub maps as their culture was the deepest and most rooted.

Hence, the fight for the seventh item was limited to only Blood Romance and Xie Siyun.

"800 thousand!"

Blood Romance bid once more; he turned around and looked at Xie Siyun with a smile, "This is my final bid." The two of them could be considered half an ally and business partners, so Blood Romance did not want to go all out.

Furthermore, he had already obtained the underground map and had only limited funds on hand.

When Xie Siyun heard that, she hesitated. However, in the end, she bid 850 thousand, obtaining the key.

During such a global occasion, the two truly could not fight too intensely with one another. Furthermore, it was just a key, so one would not know exactly what they would get.

Xie Siyun hesitated because she had received Ouyang Shuo's message.

Considering her wish, Ouyang Shuo suggested that he was willing to use 200 thousand to exchange for her rights to enter the sub map.

Kunlun was a five-man sub map, so for Ouyang Shuo to invest 200 thousand was already a lot.

This was a win-win situation. Obviously, she would not decline his offer.

Even if Ouyang Shuo did not talk about money, with their relationship, Xie Siyun would agree if Song Jia wanted to join. However, it would be hard to explain to her guild members in such a scenario.

On this point, Ouyang Shuo was truly thoughtful.

...

As the dust settled, the auctioneer started to introduce the 8th time, "Devil Prohibition Scroll. After use, the player can prohibit use of teleportation scrolls in an area of a thousand miles, lasting for one day. Starting bid 500 thousand, no buyout."

When Di Chen and Chun Shenjun saw this item, their expressions tightened, and they pretended to casually glance at Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo laughed to himself as he knew what Di Chen and the others were worried about. If this was before the Battle of Yunnan, Ouyang Shuo would have bought it but now it was not something he would use.

If he really bought it, it would adversely affect Baiqi's black chess piece plan instead.

Noticing their expressions, Ouyang Shuo confirmed that the Yanhuang Alliance was using a teleportation tactic again and were afraid the scroll would spoil their plans.

Not buying was not buying, but he should put up a show at the right time.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and bid, "600 thousand gold!"

Ouyang Shuo was not the only one interested in this item. A one thousand mile radius was huge, even in the game.

If one used this item well, it would be enough to decide the outcome of an entire war.

"700 thousand gold!"

"800 thousand gold!"

...

"1 million!"

The bidding price rose quickly. In the midst of all of this, Ouyang Shuo bid once more.

"1.2 million!"

The one who bid was Russian Region Lord Pushkin; this was also the first time he had bid.

Anyone who roughly understood him would know that his family was an absolute shark, big in both politics and business.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he purposely pretended to feel regretful and gave up.

When Di Chen and Chun Shenjun saw that, they secretly heaved sighs of relief.

Similar to the China region, Russia was also huge. Within the country, Pushkin was facing many competitors, so he was interested in this scroll.

As for the other Lords in Europe, including William, Henry, and Caesar, they did not bid since the start of this item because their position in their countries was already solidified and no one could shake their place.

In the end, the scroll fell into Pushkin's hands.

...

The auction was nearing its end with only two items left.

Ouyang Shuo was a little disappointed. He brought four million and could only spend 1.5 as he had not seen much that he liked. He was hoping that the last two items could surprise him.

The ninth item was a red-white circular ball the size of a fist.

"Territory Prosperity Beast; after use, the player can summon a territory prosperity beast. Starting bid 500 thousand, no buyout, please make your bids."

"Prosperity beast, what's that?"

The Lords were all stunned. They knew of protector beasts but knew nothing about prosperity beasts.

"Is it a lucky item?"

The Lords looked at one another. Who would spend hundreds of thousands on a lucky item?

But with the way Gaia acted, how could it put a useless item up for the auction? The only possibility was that the prosperity beast had some special skill.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he was tempted and excited. He knew a little about this matter; the prosperity beast had a skill that could bring luck to the territory.

Just that alone made it special.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo did not act and allowed the other Lords to bid.

"550 thousand gold!"

"600 thousand gold!"

...

"700 thousand gold!"

"750 thousand gold!"

...

This was the slowest item in the auction.

"800 thousand gold!"

Ouyang Shuo bid for the first time.

Instantly, the other Lords were tempted.

"Do you know what the specialty of the beast is?" Henry turned around and asked.

How could Ouyang Shuo speak the truth? He smiled, "This is the first time I've heard of it. Gaia is auctioning this item, so it must be something good. I would rather buy wrongly than give up a potentially good item."

"Rich!" Henry gave him the thumbs up and dropped out of the race.

A few rounds continued and the price rose to a million. Di Chen and Chun Shenjun both bid.

One must not look at how Di Chen did not have any good impressions of Ouyang Shuo; he still praised the latter's foresight.

"1.3 million!"

Ouyang Shuo bid once more, scaring away many competitors.

All of them could be considered rich, but no one dared to be like Ouyang Shuo and spend over a million for a chance.

This was the difference.

"1.4 million!"

Di Chen gave up but Chun Shenjun gritted his teeth and bid again.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he remained expressionless, "1.5 million. This is my final bid. If you want it, bid again and it's yours."

"I'm not a fool!"

"Then thank you." Ouyang Shuo smiled.

Chun Shenjun felt a little regretful and wanted to bid once more. At the crucial moment, Di Chen stopped him and said softly, "Do not fall for his trick."

Di Chen wanted to see Chun Shenjun make a fool out of himself but not today and not in such a place.

Chun Shenjun was astonished and looked at Di Chen with gratitude. In the end, Ouyang Shuo obtained the Territory Prosperity Beast with 1.5 million.

At this point, only the last item of the auction was left.

Chapter 783 – Problems of the Voyage Route

Every single item in Gaia's auction was a masterpiece, and this was no exception. The final item was finally revealed, and it was a token.

At first glance, it looked similar to the village creation token.

The auctioneer smiled and introduced the item, "This item is the Satellite City token. After it is used, the player immediately obtains the rights to the Satellite City. Starting bid 800 thousand gold, no buyout, please make your bids."

"Woah!"

The moment his words finished, everyone sucked in a deep and cold breath.

Gaia's magnanimity knew no bounds.

This time, all the guild leaders in the world could not hide their greed toward this token, and their eyes turned red. The bidding price soared and reached 1.5 million in just 10 minutes.

The various guild leaders now became extremely careful.

When the price rose to 1.8 million, Blood Romance dropped out. Although he the ability to potentially obtain this token, he still had to decide whether this item was worth it or not.

Blood Evil Mercenary Guild was the best guild in China and had an absolute rule over Xianyang. Even if they fought for the Satellite City using normal means, there was still a high chance they could take down the Satellite City.

Hence, Blood Romance chose to back out.

When the price rose to two million gold, guilds like them who had enough power to fight for the city would all choose to drop out. Those who still bid were those guilds that were not confident about obtaining victory.

Naturally, it was not difficult to understand their mentality.

If it were not for Ouyang Shuo reminding Lin Jing to make the War-Snow Rose Mercenary Guild sign alliance contracts before the system update came out, Xie Siyun would probably fight for this item.

After an intense chase, the token was finally taken by an American guild leader for two million gold.

During this auction, the China and America regions had done exceptionally well.

As everything came to an end, Gaia really did not care and just kicked everyone out of the place. When Ouyang Shuo returned to Shanhai City, it was already 3 PM.

He had only spent around three million gold during this auction, which was much lower than what he had expected. He spent less than he expected because most of the items were targeted at adventure gamemode players.

Out of the ten items, six of the items were prepared for adventure gamemode players. Out of the remaining four, Ouyang Shuo managed to obtain two of them, which was truly a remarkable achievement.

In the 4th year of Gaia, Gaia had started to pay attention to the adventure gamemode players who accounted for 99% of the player base. Gaia had injected some new blood into the adventure gamemode.

As for Lord gamemode players, they were left on their own.

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

After returning to the Governor-General Manor, Ouyang Shuo took out the Teleportation Token.

"System Notification: Found that player Qiyue Wuyi has special item, Teleportation Token. Will you use this item?"

"Yes!"

"System Notification: Please choose the city to build the teleportation formation in!"

"Friendship City."

"System Notification: City choice completed; the teleportation formation is being created."

"System Notification: Discovered that Friendship City is located overseas. Hence, this teleportation formation will be listed as a cross country formation."

At this point, the territory had one more city with a teleportation formation.

Friendship City, which was built in Somalia, was located between Jidian City and Lion City, so it was at a crucial point on the voyage route.

However, Friendship City was recently facing some problems.

A day ago in a memorial sent by City Magistrate Gu Xiuwen, it was mentioned that the friendly attitude of the Somali people were changing for the worse.

The entire situation was changing.

Due to the passage of time, the contributions of the voyage squadron to Somalia were gradually being forgotten. Both sides had conflicts of interest due to voyage trading.

This was especially the case between Friendship City's Courage Port and Somalia's Berbera Port. In terms of fighting for ships to come and gain resources, there was a direct conflict of interest.

As most of the merchant ships on the voyage trading route came from China, they were mostly willing to stop at Courage Port. Even western merchant ships chose to stop at Courage Port due to the presence of the Mediterranean Squadron.

Over 500 ships would stop there every day, and they were working toward a thousand. With Gu Xiuwen taking charge, the second round of construction works on the port was coming to an end.

After the construction was finished, the port could have three thousand odd ships docking at once.

In comparison, Berbera Port was left in the cold.

Merchant ships stopping by the port brought with them huge profits. Apart from border taxes, the spending of tens of thousands of merchants could totally sustain the economy of an entire city.

Facing such a massive cake, it was understandable that the Somali players would feel tempted. When the Somalia royal family gave the land to Ouyang Shuo, they were thinking that he was going to build some sort of holiday resort.

Who knew that Ouyang Shuo would actually build a mega city on the land that they gave him? Currently, the construction of Friendship City had already reached its end.

Thanks to the massive financial support of Shanhai City, the construction of Friendship City was much bigger than any other city in Somalia. Hence, it made the nearby Berbera Port seem out of sorts.

Gu Xiuwen mentioned in the memorial that Somalia was reducing the resource provisions to Friendship City. The prices of grain and vegetable were continuously being raised.

Friendship City itself did not produce such resources as the city was mainly service based. If Somalia removed these provisions, the people in Friendship City would have to starve.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he had already instructed the Honglu Temple and the Industry Division to send out envoys to Somalia to engage in diplomacy and try to calm down the situation.

At the same time, he also told the intel office of the Black Snake Guards to try to break the unity of the Somalia players to gain some allies for Friendship City.

To provide agricultural products for Friendship City was a great deal for the Somalia Lords.

There must be someone behind the combined acts of the Somali Lords. The mission of the Black Snake Guards was to find out the identity of this person and strike them down if possible.

Du Ruhui had raised the idea of attacking Somalia to Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo thought about the matter but rejected the suggestion in the end. Although he was not soft hearted, he knew that the time was not right. The voyage route had been opened for a few months, so Ouyang Shuo did not wish to start the flames of war during this period and affect trade.

Shanhai City also could not let other countries think that they were warmongers, at least not now. If they truly wanted to take down Somalia, they would need to wait for the right time.

Under such circumstances, opening the teleportation formation there became an effective method, giving the port support from Shanhai City.

There was also another reason why Ouyang Shuo had hurried to open the teleportation formation.

That was because the navy unit housed in the city had reported that the Somali pirates had shown signs of revival.

Farrah, now the head of the pirates, had slowly entered the field of sight of the navy unit.

Farrah hated Ouyang Shuo to the bone.

When Ouyang Shuo received the report, he was extremely wary and immediately ordered Fleet Admiral of the Mediterranean Squadron Alvaro to send a division over to patrol the Gulf of Aden.

Protecting the safety of the Gulf of Aden was in Shanhai City's best interests.

...

On the topic of the Mediterranean Squadron, their base in Jidian City was also worrying.

Friendship City had Somalia as a supply base but Jidian City that was located in Spain was hated by the Spaniards, so there was no way they could trade with them.

All the resources in Friendship City relied on the French.

Based on the reports from Alvaro, the Spanish had walked away from the crisis, and a new Spanish Invincible Squadron had been built, and they were ready to enter the Mediterranean once more.

The entire route from Jidian City to France was by the shoreline of the Spain.

If they had ill intentions, they could totally cut off all the resources of Jidian City and make the Mediterranean Squadron hungry.

Luckily, when Shanhai City had upgraded to Grade 3 Prefecture a while ago, he had opened up a teleportation formation there. Furthermore, since the city had the help of Atlantis, the Spanish would not dare to try anything.

As for the future, it was an unknown.

How would it be easy to protect a trade route? In history, which country that protected such a voyage trade route was not an overlord in the world?

And Shanhai City was still a distance away from reaching such a position. Since they had opened up the trade route so easily, they naturally needed to pay a heavier price and take unorthodox precautions.

Luckily, this was the game and anything was possible.

Alvaro suggested that they find a more stable supply base before the Spanish grew strong enough.

Alvaro did not consider the territories north of the Mediterranean; his suggestion was to attack one of the African states.

His suggested target was Morocco, which was currently facing Spain.

Morocco was located to the northwest of Africa, connected to Algeria in the east and the Sahara Desert was to the south. West of it was the Atlantic and north of it was the Gibraltar Straits.

The mid and north portions of the country consisted of the Atlas Mountains, east and south was high plains and the ex-Saharan plains. Only the northwest region was relatively narrow and low plains.

In history, Morocco was occupied by France, Spain, and other countries.

Ouyang Shuo supported Alvaro's suggestion. Gibraltar Straits was like the lifeline of Shanhai City's ocean life and it being broken would be catastrophic.

A day ago, Ouyang Shuo had instructed the Military Affairs Bureau to meet up with the Nanyang Navy Headquarters to discuss this problem.

Chapter 784 – Prosperity Beast Qiyi

Their attack on Morocco was still at the planning stage. The actual implementation would have to wait till the Battle of Yunnan ended or even later.

Morocco had over three million players.

The only thing advantageous to Shanhai City was that although Morocco was located in the Africa continent, only the south and east parts were connected to it. Moreover, very few people passed these two high plains.

As such, Ouyang Shuo had decided to approve Alvaro's suggestion.

......

After setting up the Friendship City teleportation formation, Ouyang Shuo took out another item – the Territory Prosperity Beast.

No matter how one looked at it, it just looked like a summoning ball.

"System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi has a Territory Prosperity Beast; do you wish to summon it?"

"Yes!"

Ouyang Shuo wanted to see what type of beast it was. Based on Gaia's settings, the prosperity beast obtained by different countries would have their own local element to it.

"Would it be a Qilin?"

Talking about beasts, the Qilin was the boss of all of them.

With a 'Shua!' the summoning ball shone with a white light and transformed into a little beast the size of a dog. It lied on the ground; the creature had a squarish body.

It was actually squarish in shape!

The beast only had two colors - black and white. Its two black eyebags were the most eye-catching part about it. Another special part about it was that its head had a rather long piece of fur, similar to that of a Wi-Fi signal.

"Little panda?"

Ouyang Shuo was a little dazzled and approached it to observe the creature more closely.

This little fellow was still in its infancy stage. Moreover, it was still sleeping. It only struggled to open its eyes when it heard the sound of footsteps.

When it saw Ouyang Shuo, that little fellow grew extremely energetic; it jumped up and hugged onto Ouyang Shuo's thigh. Looking at the situation, it seemed like it was not planning to get down.

"...."

Was this a panda or a rabbit; how did it jump so high?

Ouyang Shuo lightly raised his leg but that little fellow did not let go; it simply continued to hold on for dear life. No matter where Ouyang Shuo walked to, the little fellow would follow.

"Is this really a prosperity beast? It does not even have any morals."

Just as Ouyang Shuo was getting confused, a System Notification sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for obtaining the territory prosperity beast - Country Treasure Panda; please name it."

Ouyang Shuo lowered his head and looked at it and helplessly said, "Let's call it Qiyi!"

"System Notification: Naming success! Friendly Reminder: Prosperity beast is still at its infancy stage, so please feed it well. For the specific details, please take a look at the panda rearing technical manual."

The moment the words finished, the summoning ball shone with a white light once more and turned into a book.

"That's it?"

Ouyang Shuo was a little speechless. He used 1.5 million gold to buy this little fellow?

"No matter how I look at it, I've been conned by Gaia."

At that moment, a System Notification sounded out through China.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for obtaining the territory prosperity beast- Country Treasure Panda. As the first territory to obtain a prosperity beast, Shanhai City is awarded the title of Home of Spirit Beast."

...

The moment the notification sounded out, many players were in an uproar.

The wilderness in the game did not have any pandas. However, such a matter was understandable as Gaia definitely could not design it into some weird beast or the creature would be hunted down by the fans of pandas.

Qiyi was a unique presence in the entire China region.

In less than 10 minutes, the rolling fan club was established, and there were already players who were ready to teleport over to look at the panda.

......

Ouyang Shuo took a look at the stats of Home of Spirit Beast.

Home of Spirit Beast: Raises territory spirit beast evolution rate by 25%, raises territory attraction to spirit beasts by 35%, raises the territory spirit beast taming rate by 30%.

Overall, the buffs were pretty decent.

In comparison, the stats of little fellow Qiyi were giving Ouyang Shuo a headache.

Name: Qiyi (Prosperity Beast)

Race: Panda

Nickname: Roll Roll, Fatty

Stage: Infancy

Skill: Climb trees, roll, pee the bed, rabbit jump...

Talent: Prosperity (Randomly gives the territory prosperity).

Evaluation: The most famous animal in the animal kingdom; it is the most loved creature by all humans.

Looking at the stats, Ouyang Shuo collapsed internally.

Skills as bad as pee the bed and rabbit jump. Are they really skills? The talent prosperity looked good, but it was just a random chance.

Looking at the little fellow hugging onto his leg, Ouyang Shuo felt rather helpless. He bent down and carried it up with a smile, "No matter what, I need to build a house for you first."

'Awuu!'

Qiyi was rather smart and understood human words.

Pandas were extremely pampered creatures, and it was also in its infancy. If it were not in the game, and he did not have any professionals helping him out, Ouyang Shuo would lack the confidence of taking good care of it.

Taking the manual, Ouyang Shuo carried the little fellow and walked toward the back garden. Ouyang Shuo remembered that at the southwest corner of the garden there was a bamboo forest, which was suitable for Qiyi.

Before he went there, Ouyang Shuo headed to the reading room first.

Ouyang Shuo was away from Shanhai City rather often and for extended periods of time, so he could not personally take care of Qiyi. Moreover, its house needed to be specifically designed and the matter needed to be arranged.

No matter what, it was a prosperity beast. Maybe one day it would bring unexpected prosperity to the territory. In the worst case scenario, Ouyang Shuo could just keep it as a pet.

With the fiery discussions online, Ouyang Shuo was even tempted to use ticket fees to slowly earn back the 1.5 million.

In the quiet reading room, a young lady was engrossed in her work. The afternoon sun shone through the curtains and landed onto her black hair.

This lady was Tsing Yi.

Since accepting Ouyang Shuo's appointment, Tsing Yi treated the reading room as her office to help Ouyang Shuo manage the memorials. When Ouyang Shuo arrived, Tsing Yi would follow him.

"Monarch?" Hearing the footsteps, Tsing Yi raised her head. Looking at Qiyi in his arms, she smiled, "Such a cute little fellow. Is it the territory prosperity beast?"

"That's right."

In such a short while, Qiyi had already fallen asleep in his arms.

Ouyang Shuo passed the Panda rearing technical manual to Tsing Yi and smiled, "Go look for the Construction Division and tell them to follow the manual and build a house for Qiyi in the back garden. We should also develop a few breeders to take care of it. It is now the baby of our territory."

"I got it."

Tsing Yi wanted to pat Qiyi. However, seeing that it had fallen asleep, she did not want to disturb it.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he smiled, "Next time; there will be many more chances."

......

After leaving the reading room, Ouyang Shuo bumped into Bing'er while passing through the back palace.

"Brother, what are you carrying?"

When Bing'er saw Qiyi, even before Ouyang Shuo could reply, she was already walking quickly over. "Is that a panda? So cute!"

"It's called Qiyi; it's the territory Prosperity beast." Ouyang Shuo smiled and introduced the panda.

Qiyi was originally sleeping but when it smelt Bing'er, it opened its eyes and struggled. It wanted to hug Bing'er.

"Haha!"

Bing'er badly wanted that as well so she hugged the little panda.

This was not surprising. Bing'er was still the master of all spirit beasts, so even the panda could not resist her charm.

It seemed like Bing'er would be the most suitable breeder.

Ouyang Shuo interrupted her, "Let's go and bring it to the bamboo forest."

Bing'er nodded; she took the lead and headed toward the back garden. As she walked, she introduced Qiyi to Xue'er. At the moment, Xue'er was flying in the air. She also mentioned the names of other spirit beasts which were all her 'good friends'.

To Bing'er, she now had one more playmate.

After settling in Qiyi, it was already 5 PM.

The next morning, Ouyang Shuo would once again proceed toward Consonance City to watch the battle. Today, using the aid of the new system update, Baiqi led his left troops to quicken their pace of taking down Mengding.

With the current rate, in less than five days, the entire Mengding could fall. Moreover, the enemy could strike during these five days.

Especially after going through the shock in the auction, Di Chen and the others would be warier.

Now, it was up to which side was more skilled.

At such a crucial moment, how would Ouyang Shuo dare to step away?

Gaia 4th year, 1st month, 4th day, Consonance City.

Just as Baiqi said, their speed these few days was extremely swift, and they took down three enemy cities. All that was left in front of them were two more main ones.

One was called Wenshan City while the other one was called Yuanyang City.

These two cities were the last castles the Yunnan City-State had that were shielding Tengyue Prefecture.

As the troops in Mengding all defended valiantly, before they reached Wenshan City, the left troops were all exceedingly tired. Not to mention the casualties, even the troop morale was already low.

It was not to say that Baiqi's commanding was not good, but it was just that the soldiers were not used to the weather.

Mengding Prefecture was a typical mountainous region. The paths were one thing, but the worst parts were the mountain bugs, the wild beasts, miasma, swamps, and the like.

Apart from that, water posed a huge problem.

If one was not careful, spring water that looked clear would cause the person who drunk it to have a stomachache, causing a string of illnesses that would threaten their lives.

Many people fell sick along the way and even died of weird illnesses.

Furthermore, the enemy kept trying to sow chaos, so they were unable to sleep peacefully. The grain transport forces were attacked and the grain for the frontlines was sometimes broken.

The most dangerous moment was when they went a day without grain.

The successive blows and the huge casualties due to sieges meant that they were not in good condition. Even with Baiqi taking charge, their morale was getting lower and lower.

Luckily, they were about to succeed.

Looking at Wenshan City ahead of them, some soldiers were so happy that they teared up.

Chapter 785 – Giving You a Push

As Baiqi's army pushed forward toward Wenshan City, the atmosphere in Yunnan Province reached its most nervous state.

The various media outlets invited military experts to predict the direction of the battle, attracting a global audience and raising sales.

Some experts insisted on their view points; these experts felt that the defeat of Shanhai City at Dongchuan meant that they would definitely face a fatal blow from Yunnan City-State.

However, there were experts that did not agree with this point of view.

After all, no matter what, Mengding Prefecture was already taken down by Shanhai City, meaning that they had not been thrown into chaos because of that small defeat. Rather, they had calmed themselves down and taken control of the situation.

Who would win and who would lose? It all remained unknown.

The various experts each had their own thoughts as they debated fervently with one another.

The reporters from the various outlets and publications used all their power to dig up the troop numbers, types, battle situations, and casualty situations to perform a specific numbers comparison.

Hence, it made the masses extremely excited.

Without a doubt, not only was the Battle of Yunnan important to Shanhai City, it was also a historical matter to the entire wilderness. It could be considered the first war in the entire wilderness that all the media outlets followed and reported on.

This would probably become a common matter in the future.

Tengyue Prefecture, Tengchong City.

A month ago, Tengchong City had been in total lockdown. In order to house the entire 170 thousand Yanhuang Alliance Army and the 110 thousand Alliance Army in the city and allow them to make use the teleportation tactic, they had emptied the entire city.

The originally bustling inner city instantly became a giant army barracks. However, since a solemn killing intent spread out in the city, this city seemed exceedingly cold and solid.

Due to the need to keep secrets, apart from the grain forces that transported fresh vegetables and meat, no one would dare to approach the inner city. If they carelessly got close, they would all be killed.

Even the grain transport members were fixed, and each one had a portrait drawn up and recorded in a book. Every time they entered, they needed to be checked one by one. If they noticed that a person was changed or the numbers did not tally up, the entire group would face the consequences.

The grain transport squad would enter the city and follow a fixed path, and even the stopping time was calculated. If they missed the time, all of them would instantly die, no mercy would be granted.

Hence, they blocked out all eyes from within the city walls.

......

City Lord's Manor, meeting hall.

This day, in the huge meeting hall, the Lords and generals had all gathered together once more.

Di Chen and Chun Shenjun made a trip to the global auction and obtained nothing. After returning to their respective territories, they did not even stop and just rushed back here.

In just three to four days, the war had entered its most crucial moment.

They were discussing when to send out the 300 thousand plus troops to start an all-out fight with the enemy; this fight would decide the fate of the entire Yunnan City-State.

The one who was speaking was the Yanhuang Alliance commander, Wuqi. He stood up, looked at all the Lords present, and bowed, "Lords, due to the stubborn defenses and disturbances along the way in Mengding Prefecture, not only has the enemy suffered heavy casualties, their morale has fallen. Currently, they are at their weakest state."

Based on the reports from the frontline, to take down Mengding Prefecture, the three War Fighting Legions of the left troops had lost 50 thousand men.

Of course, the Yunnan City-State had also paid a heavy price.

The left troops were the most elite forces of Shanhai City. Moreover, with Baiqi as the commanding general in addition to the fierce generals under him, their killing strength was truly astonishing.

Additionally, their equipment and siege weapons were incredibly advanced. Even in a siege battle, they still taught the stubbornly defending Yunnan City-State a huge lesson.

After this battle, the entire Mengding Prefecture was rendered useless and 40% of the able-bodied young men were lost. The local armies were either captured or destroyed.

The even scarier part was that the 50 thousand Alliance Army housed in Mengding had fallen as well.

To lower the fighting spirit of the enemy, Asura Baiqi did not hold back, killing without even blinking.

During that time, there was a city that defended too stubbornly, taking away eight thousand of their men. After Baiqi broke through, he viciously killed them all; he did not even accept a single prisoner.

They executed every single person who joined the battle.

Tens of thousands of heads hung outside the city gate and formed a miniature mountain.

As a consequence of his actions, their next attacks were smoother. Along with the system update buff they had already reached the border of Mengding Prefecture in a short four days.

The Lords who knew about the matter, including Di Chen and the others, were left speechless.

As for the more than ten Lords from Mengding Prefecture, their hearts had already died. Even if the City-State won, they did not dare to return to the territories to continue their rule.

Those people who had lost their children and husbands would want to skin them alive.

......

Within the meeting hall, Wuqi's voice once again sounded out.

"Due to the fame of Baiqi, Wenshan City and Yuanyang City have lost their will to fight. If we do not interfere, these two cities will also fall in a day or two. If they fall, the enemy army can walk into Tengyue Prefecture and pincer us from two sides. At that time, we will lose the initiative of the battle. Hence, I suggest we send troops to Wenshan City and surround the enemy left troops."

Hearing Wuqi's words, the eyes of the Lords of the two cities lit up.

The Wenshan City Lord was called Summon Wind, and his eyes shone with hope as he wished everyone present would agree with the plan so that his territory could survive.

As long as he still had his territory, everything would remain possible.

The quick thinking Summon Wind also thought deeply about the matter. If the City-State crushed Baiqi's army and won the war, after the battle, the huge Mengding Prefecture would have no owner. As a Lord in the prefecture, he could take all of it.

Just thinking about this, the desire in his eyes grew greater and greater.

The other Lord was the Lord of Yuanyang City; he was called Little Six. The glow in his eyes was one that left much to think about.

No one bothered about the expressions of these two Lords.

What Di Chen, Qin Feng, and the others were pondering about was Wuqi's choice of words.

Wuqi had said 'surround' and not sneak attack. Obviously, the so-called teleportation sneak attack tactic had lost its purpose in his eyes.

The essence of a sneak attack was the element of surprise.

Since Mengding Prefecture only had two territories left, there was not much potential for surprise left there.

When Wuqi had mobilized all the civilians and residents in the prefecture, he had given up on using the traditional teleportation tactics. He wanted to use the entire prefecture to wear down Baiqi and gain the advantage this way.

In Sun Zi's Art of War, 'Anyone who fights a war either wins by being better or by being craftier.'

War was not limited to the utilization of schemes. All schemes were performed to affect the main battlefield. After weakening the opponent, their troops would have a higher chance of achieving victory.

The Battle of Yongren City was a masterstroke, weakening the enemy right troops. Although the plan in Mengding Prefecture was not as brilliant, it was still made with the same goal in mind.

After these two battles, the 300 thousand army would only need to face 160 thousand exhausted, low morale troops. In Wuqi's eyes, it would simply be a slaughter.

As for the middle troops of Shanhai City, with the geography of Yunnan slowing them down and the stubborn defenses of the local forces, Wuqi was confident about clearing out the left troops before the enemy reinforcements arrived.

Hence, Wuqi suggested that they send out troops before they entered Tengyue Prefecture.

Tengyue Prefecture was the last hope of the City-State. If the enemy entered this area, the members of the City-State would definitely panic. If the people were not calm, how could they block the middle troops of Shanhai City?

If that happened, the entire battle would be filled with uncertainty, which was something God Generals like him tried to prevent. One could say that his entire plan was systematic.

Even so, it was still difficult for Di Chen and the other Lords to make a quick decision.

First, they did not want to give up on their successful teleportation sneak attack strategy.

Rationally speaking, they accepted Wuqi's explanation. However, the huge victory they achieved at Yongren City made it hard for them to let this method go.

After that battle, they were so happy that they even held a massive feast to celebrate that major win.

Yanhuang Alliance had fought with Shanhai City for many years, and they had never tasted such a clean victory.

Secondly, this battle was simply too important.

This was the most crucial battle in the entire Battle of Yunnan. Whoever won this battle would win it all. As it was a group decision, a little hesitation was to be expected.

"General Wuqi, let us think about it. We will give you an answer tomorrow." Anyways, based on the frontline intel, Baiqi's army was still resting up, and they were not prepared to immediately attack the city.

When Wuqi heard this reply, he sighed to himself and said, "Please make an early decision."

"Do not worry; we will give you an answer tomorrow." Di Chen said.

At this point, the military meeting had come to an end.

In a short hour after the meeting ended, Ouyang Shuo received a specific intel report.

"They really have no guts." Ouyang Shuo laughed as he spoke to Du Ruhui, "Since they do not dare to fight, let's fan the flames and push them to fight."

"Understood!"

Chapter 786 – Home on Fire

Gaia 4th year, 1st month, 5th day.

Just as Di Chen and the others were hesitating, under Ouyang Shuo's instructions, Shanhai City gave Yanhuang Alliance a massive surprise.

Jingdu Region, Fengtian Prefecture, Stone City.

After the New Year, the cold air in the north was rather chilly. The skies were gloomy and exceedingly cloudy, and it was like the entire sky was about to crash down.

In the wilderness, the wind was like a blade slashing at one's face.

The wilderness in the early morning was utterly silent, and the already withered up trees and plants were covered by a layer of snow. Even birds would not come out to find food now.

Stone City was located at the west of Fengtian Prefecture and right out of it was Zhangwu Prefecture.

7 AM, on the silent border, the rumbling sounds of horse hooves could suddenly be heard. The horses stepped onto the frozen up grass, creating many cracking sounds.

"Handan City territory, who dares enter?"

The soldiers in charge of patrolling the border shouted, but the only reply they received was a rain of arrows.

The entire squad of soldiers ended up like porcupines; their fresh blood poured out and flowed onto the ground. The fresh crimson on the white ground was truly eye-catching.

On this day, 120 thousand Stone City war fighting troops along with 150 thousand mercenaries struck the territory of Handan City.

Wufu, who had always been defending on the back foot, had chosen to take the initiative at this moment. Wufu took this chance when Di Chen was in the Battle of Yunnan to bite off a massive chunk of his flesh.

Jingdu Region was one of the biggest provinces in China and had a total of six prefectures. Apart from the Zhili Prefecture where Jingdu Imperial City was located, Handan City occupied four prefectures while Stone City occupied the other.

The difference between the two was like night and day.

As the land was vast, the overall land area of Handan City exceeded that of Chuannan Province or Lingnan Province. In the China region, Handan City was only smaller than Shanhai City.

Wufu was attacking Zhangwu Prefecture, which was the northwest part of Handan City's territory.

Zhangwu Prefecture was between Fengtian Prefecture and the Zhili Prefecture. It was only connected by a 500 mile narrow strip with Cangzhou Prefecture, where Handan City was located in.

If Stone City took this prefecture down, not only would their strength rise, it would be comparable to Handan City. Furthermore, Stone City could use the Zhili Prefecture as a barrier to separate the two territories.

To Stone City, this was a truly worth it trade.

Di Chen was not a fool, so he had obviously prepared contingencies. In the Zhangwu border, he had housed two War Fighting Legions to defend against them.

However, who would have guessed that Wufu would actually spend so much; he spent two million and also used tens of thousands of armor as a reward to hire 150 thousand mercenaries.

They had spent all of the early payment from Shanhai City for coal.

270 thousand against 140 thousand.

The originally stable Zhangwu Prefecture instantly shook, and they had to ask for reinforcements from the headquarters. The key was that Di Chen and Lianpo was not in Handan City at the moment, so how could reinforcements arrive so quickly?

Handan City was destined to be thrown into chaos.

......

That was not all.

At basically the same time, in Taiyuan Province, the 200 thousand troops from Fallen Phoenix City went up north to attack Fengxiang City.

Fengxiang City only had a prefecture of land. If it was not for the Mongol cavalry, Feng Qiuhuang would not have mobilized 200 thousand troops, 150 thousand men would be sufficient.

The moment she took down the prefecture, Feng Qiuhuang would unify Taiyuan Province.

At that point, she would pose a massive threat to both Di Chen in the east and Sha Pojun and Wandering Magic in the west.

The more terrifying part was since Fallen Phoenix City had sent out troops, Handan City's headquarters did not dare to dispatch troops. If they went to assist Zhangwu Prefecture, if the Fallen Phoenix army turned and attacked Jingdu Region's Dingzhou or Henshui Prefecture, they would face a calamity.

Wufu and Feng Qiuhuang working together had caused the northern situation to become chaotic once more.

If both of them won, it would be massive news for them.

Apart from the strategic advantages, more importantly, the entire northern city would end up staggered in the order of Asura City, Fallen Leaf City, Fallen Phoenix City, Handan City, and Stone City.

With that, if Di Chen worked with Sha Pojun and Wandering Magic to attack Feng Qiuhuang, she could work with Wufu to attack Di Chen.

The situation of Fallen Phoenix City facing enemies from all four sides had been broken.

At the same time, Stone City had gained an ally to defend against Handan City.

The situation in the north for the Shanhai Alliance had undergone a huge change.

The actions of Wufu and Feng Qiuhuang helped get Shanhai City out of a pickle while also achieving their strategic goals.

Anyone who understood it would get that this was a masterstroke.

The various media outlets that were staring seriously at the Yunnan Battlefield were all astonished.

Without a doubt, this was payback from Shanhai Alliance for Yanhuang Alliance interfering in Yunnan.

Before this Shanhai City, was facing against them alone. With Wufu and Feng Qiuhuang acting, if one said that Ouyang Shuo did not orchestrate this matter, no one would believe it.

This coordinate strike meant that the Yanhuang Alliance had truly given Shanhai City a huge problem in Yunnan and forced Ouyang Shuo to ask his allies for help.

On the other side, it also showed the small changes within Shanhai Alliance.

After taking down two provinces and going for his third, Ouyang Shuo started to plan to make the entire China his chessboard and fight against the Yanhuang Alliance.

This news made all the players excited.

The two giants of China were going to butt heads. Who would die and who would win was still unknown.

Thinking about it, the military experts who were biased against Shanhai City could not help but be awed. They could tell that the actions of Stone City and Fallen Phoenix City had been planned long before the Battle of Yunnan.

If not, both sides could not have coordinated so smoothly and had such a good grasp of the timing.

Shanhai City did not even use this trump card when they lost at Yongren City, waiting till the most crucial moment before going all out.

All the experts could not help but feel a chill run down their spine from Ouyang Shuo's ability. Be it because of fear or respect, they all concluded, "Bold, foresight, magnanimity, and ability; the Shanhai City Lord already has the looks of a true ruler."

......

In truth, the media had still underestimated Shanhai Alliance.

Since the Shanhai Alliance was going to strike out, how would it end at just that?

Just as the flames of war rose up in the north, the south fought too. It was not Gong Chengshi or Xunlong Dianxue but the Shanhai City Navy.

On the same day, at the same time.

The Jiaozhou Squadron and Yashan Squadron coordinated with the Tiger Legion Corps 3rd legion's two Infantry Divisions housed in Chaozhou Prefecture and attacked Yizhou Island.

Their main target was the Penghu Squadron that King City had housed on the island.

Because of the presence of this squadron, Shanhai City's coal trade with Stone City and West Chu was affected. Although they had sign agreements, they could not ship large amounts of coal.

Ouyang Shuo had wanted to get rid of them earlier on. However, because of Admiral Zheng He's suggestion, he had held it in till now.

During the Battle of Red Cliff, Xiong Ba had wanted to use to Penghu Squadron to show to the world that the King City Navy could compete against Shanhai City.

Who knew that even before facing off, they had already lost?

Not mentioning the dead soldiers and generals, even a large number of warships were abandoned in the Battle Map.

To them, it was a huge loss. To recover from this loss, Xiong Ba had spent a plentiful amount of resources to recover the Penghu Squadron at the end of the Gaia 3rd year.

Even so, that loss was a massive blow to the Penghu Squadron.

They totally did not have any actual fighting experience. At most, they were just fighting pirates.

Due to the lack of navy generals and experienced sailors, they had a poor training system.

They were not even on the same level as the Nanyang Navy.

Helplessly, Xiong Ba had to use his family relations to hire some federal navy officials in real life to replace the native generals to take charge of the squadrons.

However, ancient squadrons and tactics were totally different from modern-day ones. The backward seafaring techniques had become an enormous bane to the officials.

Between the two, they needed more time to mesh.

But the problem was that Ouyang Shuo was not going to give him that time.

The meeting of the three squadrons in the Yizhou Straits ended with the Penghu Squadron suffering hefty casualties.

The Fleet General of the Jiaozhou Squadron Shu Lang and the Fleet General of the Yashan Squadron Yu Dayou were all elite presences amongst China navy generals.

Yashan Squadron had participated in several battles against Annan, so its soldiers and sailors had all gained plenty of experience.

Under the leadership of these two generals, the two squadrons were both well trained.

All things considered, they were leagues ahead of the Penghu Squadron.

These two were working together. Moreover, they had the help of the P1 Type Cannon, and they were launching a sneak attack, so how could the rookie Penghu Squadron defend against them?

Yizhou Island that Xiong Ba had spent so much to obtain was facing immense danger.

Chapter 787 – Wuqi's Plan

The three armies of the Shanhai Alliance were like three sharp blade, stabbing right into the Yanhuang Alliance. It made the complicated Battle of Yunnan evolve into an affair entangled the north and the south in chaotic warfare.

Who knew what intentions Shanhai City was hiding behind their backs?

After the war started, everyone focused on how the Yanhuang Alliance would react. They originally thought that it was just a regional war, but would it become an all-out war involving the two City-States?

Apart from the regions where war started, the atmosphere in Jingchu, Jiangchuan, and other related places became exceedingly nervous. Gong Chengshi openly declared that he was ready to go in at any moment.

All of a sudden, the China region was thrown into a state of uproar.

Tengyue Prefecture, Tengchong City.

Shanhai Alliance's actions locked up the solemn Tengchong City in an extremely uneasy atmosphere. The Lords of Yunnan City-State were worried that the Yanhuang Alliance Army would leave immediately.

"Did we obtain abandonment in return for our huge sacrifices?" Some of the City-State Lords looked terrible at this moment; they felt despair, lost.

Even Qin Feng, who was usually calm and settled, could not help but show a panicky expression. With the character of the Yanhuang Alliance, it was not impossible for them to just pull out right away.

That afternoon, all the Lords of the City-State looked toward the west of the Lord's Manor. They were all nervous and were waiting for the outcome.

In the Lord's Manor were the seven Lords of Yanhuang Alliance as well as Wuqi, Dan Tian, and Lianpo; they had all come together for an emergency meeting.

Naturally, the topic of their discussion was the actions of the Shanhai Alliance.

When he received the news, Xiong Ba wanted to immediately leave Tengchong City but Wuqi stopped him from doing so.

Yizhou Island was a place that Xiong Ba had spent so much to obtain, and it was his proudest work. It was also an important strategic position to launch them into the ocean.

Wuqi was the only one who could stop Xiong Ba at this moment.

Even so, Xiong Ba's expression was exceedingly solemn. He knew that with the strength of the Penghu Squadron, they would not be able to face off against two squadrons from Shanhai City.

When he took down Yizhou Island, Xiong Ba knew that Shanhai City would help Xunlong Dianxue take it back. However, he was still out at sea at that time, and the enemy troops he expected did not arrive.

When Xunlong Dianxue had the burst of conflict with Shanhai City, the matter had changed Xiong Ba's view on the situation all the more.

The all in gamble during the Battle of Red Cliff was him taking a massive risk. If the King City Navy could fight against the Shanhai City Navy, he might have gained the support of the alliance.

With that, he could use the strength of the alliance to defend Yizhou Island.

Who would have guessed that he would have such an ending? Not only did he not reach his goal, he also became the laughing stock of the alliance, and he was unable to lift his head for a long time.

Luckily, he was a formidable character. Face was a secondary problem, and the key was how to keep Yizhou Island. With this, Xiong Ba tried to sow discord with Xunlong City while raising the strength of the Penghu Squadron.

At the same time, during these two months, he had personally taken charge of the island to lead the construction and to win the hearts of the people. He strengthened the island defenses and started voyage trading.

Xiong Ba truly put his heart and soul into this matter.

In another three to four months, Xiong Ba was confident about defending the island and making it a golden goose. He had not expected for Shanhai City to give him such a fatal blow at this a moment.

If he knew that this would happen, he would not have listened to Di Chen and joined this battle. If he had not joined this battle, Shanhai City would not have attacked and taken revenge.

Regret built up in his heart.

Just as he was deep in thought, Wuqi spoke out in the hall, "Lords, their intentions are really apparent; they wish to use this crucial moment to force us to leave Tengchong City. If we leave, Yunnan City-State will lose all ability to fight back and will fall into the hands of the enemy. If that happens, all our efforts will become wasted."

"But we cannot just abandon our territories and not care, right?"

The moment Stone City took down Zhangwu Prefecture, not only would Di Chen lose face, but it would also be a huge backward step for the territory. It would be enough to shake Handan City's position in the alliance.

Obviously, Di Chen was anxious.

If Handan City did not have Juedai Fenghua there and also his family members helping, Di Chen would have wanted to rush back like Xiong Ba.

Right before the meeting started, Di Chen had received an emergency mail from Juedai Fenghua.

As the matter was too sudden, the two War Fighting Legions housed in Zhangwu Prefecture had underestimated the Stone City troops and had consequently suffered a loss of six thousand men.

The nearest house to Fengtian Prefecture was already taken down by Stone City.

The situation was an emergency.

If it were not for Di Chen's training, he would have failed to maintain such a calm demeanor.

Wuqi shook his head, "It is not ignoring the matter but how we go about addressing it. Will we follow the enemy's tempo or find a chance in this danger to claim victory?"

"How so?"

Di Chen and the others were suddenly rather interested. Hearing Wuqi's words, it seemed like he had an idea.

Wuqi continued, "The attack of the Shanhai Alliance armies only seems strong because it was sudden and caught us all off guard. No matter which army is it, for them to gain the results they want, it cannot be achieved in a short time. Hence, we have time to turn the situation around."

"As such, we need to rush back now. There is still time if we go back now. I believe we can manage to control the situation. If it's a little later, the situation will be hard to predict." Di Chen felt disappointed. He originally thought that Wuqi would speak of some grand plan. Who knew he would reach such a conclusion.

Wuqi's expression did not change as he calmly said, "Our territories have already formed a joint system on how to deal with foreign invasions. Even if all of you go back, you will not make much of a difference."

"…."

Although he did not want to admit it, Di Chen could not disagree with this statement.

The Battle of Lords in the wilderness relied on teamwork, which was a crucial factor in territorial rule. The Lords were only the master of the ship, but they were not people that were needed at every moment.

If the army could not function when the Lord was not in the territory, it would be a huge problem.

"General, please continue." Di Chen said sincerely.

Wuqi nodded, "Shanhai Alliance is attacking our homes to force us away; this means that they are not prepared to have a huge war with us. If we join up with the Alliance Army and immediately teleport to Wenshan City, we will be able to catch them off guard."

"Based on our reports, this morning, Baiqi's army was still resting outside the city, and they have not shown any signs of attacking yet. One can see that he is just prepared to be the fisherman keeping his net. Hence, if we surprise them and crush the Shanhai City Army, the morale of their allies will drop. At that time, we would still have enough time to rush back to clean up the battlefield."

When Di Chen and the others heard his words, their eyes shone brightly.

Based on Wuqi's words, they wanted to fight back from the dead.

Due to the actions of Shanhai Alliance, their original sneak attack plan that was rendered impossible immediately became a possible solution.

"Ok, let's follow your plan."

Di Chen, who originally supported retreating, was the first to step up and agree with Wuqi's plan. No one out of all of them desired to beat Shanhai City more than him.

This was a rare opportunity that Di Chen did not want to miss out on. Although it was risky, it was still worth it. As long as they successfully snipe Shanhai City in Yunnan, the Shanhai Alliance would not be their match without their core pillar.

"What Stone City takes away now, I'll take back in folds." Di Chen mumbled to himself.

Handan City did not attack Stone City because of Shanhai City. The moment Shanhai City loses on the Yunnan Battlefield, they would need to slowly heal up and would not be able to care about Stone City.

Di Chen could already see the day when Handan City claimed the entire Jingdu.

"Agreed!"

"Agreed!"

"Agreed!"

All the Lords of the Yanhuang Alliance agreed to the plan.

Chun Shenjun, Feng Qingyang, and Zhan Lang had no worries of being attacked. Naturally, they did not want to retreat. Sha Pojun and Wandering Magic were temporarily okay, so they had no reason to oppose this plan either.

Especially Sha Pojun, this fellow that hated Ouyang Shuo to the bone.

Sha Pojun would always be at the forefront if one wanted to take down Shanhai City.

What surprised them was that out of the seven, it was Xiong Ba who was a little hesitant and did not make his stance clear.

The atmosphere in the hall was a little weird.

After a long period of silence, it was still Di Chen who spoke, "Xiong Ba, what exactly are you thinking?" As he spoke, he stared at Xiong Ba.

Everyone present was intelligent, so they obviously could guess what he was thinking about.

Di Chen's Zhangwu Prefecture had two War Fighting Legions holding on. Moreover, reinforcements would probably arrive soon, so the Stone City troops would not be able to cause much damage.

One must not forget that more than half of the Stone City Army was composed of mercenaries.

They were really clear about the personalities of the mercenaries. When the war was going well, they would charge at the front to kill the enemy and claim the spoils of war.

However, if the situation turns sour, the first to run would be these mercenaries.

But Yizhou Island was different; it was facing the strongest navy in the world. Furthermore, Yizhou Island was alone in the ocean. Even if King City wanted to send reinforcements, they lacked the ability to do so.

The current Yizhou Island was in danger of being occupied at any moment.

Hence, Xiong Ba would obviously hesitate.

Chapter 788 – Fish Takes the Bait

The fact that Yizhou Island could fall at any moment was not bad news to Di Chen.

In the end, Di Chen and Xiong Ba were still enemies and rivals, and this animosity could not be wiped off. Di Chen's question to Xiong Ba was like he was forcing the latter's hand.

If Xiong Ba insisted on returning to King City, his prestige in Yanhuang Alliance would crash, and this was something that Di Chen would be glad to see.

Moreover, even without King City's 30 thousand troops, Wuqi's plan could succeed.

To Di Chen, he would win no matter what. Hence, why not just push Xiong Ba to the edge of the cliff?

Just at this moment, Wuqi said only a single word, "Lord."

It was just a simple word but the meaning it contained was exceedingly deep.

Before the meeting, the two of them had a deep discussion. As a result, Xiong Ba had already known about Wuqi's plan. Hence, Xiong Ba had not made a sound since the start of the meeting.

Wuqi honestly told Xiong Ba that since the Shanhai City Navy had acted, he would not be able to keep Yizhou Island regardless of if he returned or not.

This was the result of an absolute difference strength, and no one could turn such a situation around.

Hence, the only thing King City could do now was to totally give up on sending help to Yizhou Island and try to gain as many benefits as possible from the Yunnan Battlefield.

Wuqi was the Yanhuang Alliance Army Commander, and he had provided so many great strategies. If things went well, King City would have a huge say in the future Yunnan City-State.

However, Xiong Ba's heart still felt extremely uneasy for some reason, and he could not find the reason for it. In terms of understanding Ouyang Shuo, Xiong Ba was even above Di Chen.

He felt that there was a larger scheme hiding behind the actions of the Shanhai Alliance.

However, his conjecture lacked concrete proof, so there was no way he could convince the other people in the alliance.

After hearing Wuqi's words, Xiong Ba gritted his teeth; he threw aside the thoughts in his head, raised his head, and said, "I agree."

"Great!"

Everyone within the hall cheered.

Only Xiong Ba's expression seemed a little crestfallen. When Zhan Lang saw that he patted his shoulder and asked with concern, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine!" Xiong Ba smiled and suppressed all the emotions in his heart.

'Let's just place all our efforts into the upcoming battle.' Xiong Ba thought to himself. He had paid such a huge price, so he did not want to end up losing on both sides.

......

As time was of the essence, and the Yanhuang Alliance had already come to a consensus, they immediately informed the Yunnan City-State.

When Qin Feng and the others received the news, they immediately heaved a collective sigh of relief. After learning about Wuqi's plan, they felt even more confident. Tengchong City started to work, and the army started to pack up and prepare to teleport.

Such a huge 300 thousand strong army could not leave as and when they wanted.

After busying themselves all the way till the dead of night, the 170 thousand Yanhuang Alliance Army and 110 thousand Alliance Army quietly teleported to Wenshan City.

Based on the news from the frontlines, Shanhai City's left army had split into two. Baiqi led the Dragon Legion Corps 1st and 4th legion to camp outside Wenshan City; they had a total of 100 thousand troops there.

As for Feng Yi's 3rd Leopard Legion, he was camped 50 miles out of Yuanyang City; these people were in charge of monitoring Yuanyang City and cutting off all ways for it to assist Wenshan City.

Since it was a battle where they were surrounded, Wuqi immediately targeted Baiqi's Dragon Legion Corps. As long as these troops were wiped out, Feng Yi's legion would not pose a problem.

The moment he wiped out these three legions, Shanhai City's west conquering mission would come to a quick end.

Di Chen and the others wanted to catch Baiqi alive and wipe out the Dragon Legion Corps.

All of a sudden, their morale skyrocketed.

The Battle of Yunnan had welcomed its most crucial moment.

Consonance City, Governor Manor.

Under the cover of the night, Consonance City had returned to a peaceful and quiet state. Because of Ouyang Shuo, the security along the manor was extremely strict, and there were squads of iron-armored soldiers patrolling the streets.

On the west side of the manor, there was still a room that was brightly lit.

Not only Ouyang Shuo, Bai Hua, Du Ruhui, Chen Gong, and Huo Qubing were all there. Everyone present was reading the intel sent by the Shanhai Guards.

In a day, the three armies had all achieved some decent harvests.

In Taiyuan Province, Fallen Phoenix's 200 thousand troops entered. By nightfall, they were under Fengxiang City. If things went well, they could start sieging the next morning.

At 4 PM, 20 miles away from the city, 30 thousand elite cavalry from Fengxiang City had a fight with the 50 thousand vanguard forces of Fallen Phoenix City. In this exchange, both sides had suffered casualties.

In the end, the 30 thousand Mongol cavalry lost 10 thousand men and retreated back to the city. On the other hand, the Fallen Phoenix City vanguard lost 20 thousand men.

This meeting also became the most intense battle of the day.

At this point, Fallen Phoenix City had wounded the strongest force in Fengxiang City.

During the siege tomorrow, the only uncertain factor was not the military but a person's heart. Ouyang Shuo was unsure if Feng Qiuhuang could show no mercy when facing the base of her family.

Although she looked strong, she still had a thread of relationship with her family. If not, Fengxiang City would not have been able to last till now and would have been wiped out already.

This military operation was also recommended by Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo made this suggestion for two reasons. First, he did not want to allow the Feng Family to plot against her, so he wanted to wipe out this threat. Secondly, he did not want the Mongols to take root in Fengxiang City.

If such a matter happened, it truly would not be good news for Fallen Phoenix City.

It was only after Ouyang Shuo shared this important intel did Feng Qiuhuang decide to remove this family threat. As for how to deal with her family after she occupied the city, Ouyang Shuo naturally would not interfere.

Ouyang Shuo believed that even if the Feng Family entered Fallen Phoenix City again, Feng Qiuhuang would not be controlled by them.

The current Feng Qiuhuang was not that rash girl who disowned her family. Looking around, she was a truly high positioned wilderness Lord that sat above a whole province.

After Consonance City merged with Shanhai City, Feng Qiuhuang undoubtedly became the top female Lord in the wilderness. How could such a Lord be compared to the family puppet from before?

......

Compared to Fallen Phoenix City, Stone City's attack was not as smooth. In a day, they had only taken down two houses in Zhangwu Prefecture. As the huge war machine of Handan City started to work, both sides entered a stalemate situation.

This was definitely not good news to Stone City.

The key to breaking this situation was not in Zhangwu but outside of it. It would be decided by Shanhai City's military action and Baiqi's black chess piece plan.

......

The two squadrons attacking Yizhou Island were proceeding extremely smoothly. The encounter during the day saw the Jiaozhou Squadron crush the Penghu Squadron.

After their defeat, the Penghu Squadron encountered a sneak attack from the Yashan Squadron as they tried to retreat. With that, the Penghu Squadron did not even dare to return to Yizhou Island. Instead, they decided to return to King City.

The next morning, they would start their siege on Yizhou Island.

Along with the escape of the Penghu Squadron, King City had already lost their control over the seas. This was like thunder on a sunny day to Yizhou Island. Being taken down by Shanhai City was just a matter of time.

......

At this very moment, a guard came to report, bringing with him new intel.

His entrance immediately attracted the attention of everyone present, and they all stared at the intel report in his hands. Out of the corner of their eyes, they gazed at the Monarch nervously.

All of them were core members of the Shanhai City System, so they knew that the Monarch had not gathered them for the previous three intel reports but for other reports.

Those who knew what was going on were exceedingly nervous.

After all, tonight was the key to whether the black chess piece plan could succeed or not. The emergency intel report definitely had something to do with the plan.

The atmosphere in the reading room immediately became rather tense.

The intel report was sent from the Black Snake Guards. Ouyang Shuo actually took a few minutes to read the around a hundred words. When Du Ruhui and the others saw that, they all looked on with bated breath and their heartbeats quickened.

Black Snake had not let them down this time!

Ouyang Shuo placed the intel down and looked around with a smile, "The fish has finally taken the bait!"

"Great!"

Du Ruhui and the rest were energized. Huo Qubing's eyes emitted a sharp bright light. He had been waiting for this day for a rather long time.

"Guys, it's time to act!" Ouyang Shuo was extremely calm, "The various divisions coordinate with Baiqi and complete this killing."

"Yes Monarch!"

All of them agreed, and the reading room's atmosphere heated up once again.

After a short while, the reading room was emptied and only Ouyang Shuo was left inside. The black chess piece plan was simply too important, making Ouyang Shuo feel immensely uneasy and nervous.

Before they started the plan, even Baiqi was not confident about the Alliance Army taking the bait. The overall plan that the Military Affairs Bureau set up prepared for both scenarios.

It was naturally the best if the Alliance Army took the bait.

If they did not, Shanhai City could still take down Yunnan City-State. Yizhou Island and Fengxiang City would also fall. In the end, probably only Stone City would fail.

Just these factors alone placed Shanhai City at an undefeatable position.

Now that the Alliance Army had taken the bait, Shanhai City was not aiming for just that little. If they did not make the Yanhuang Alliance bleed, how could they make it up to the dead Guards Legion soldiers?

For this battle, Ouyang Shuo even used the precious Group Revival Scroll as well as the Silver Prayer House opportunity.

This price would be paid in full by the Yanhuang Alliance.

......

That night, the Guards Legion Corps 1st and 2nd legions, as well as the Shanhai City City Protection Legion, disappeared from their various camps.

The night became darker and darker.

Chapter 789 – Teacher and Student Battle

Gaia 4th year, 1st month, 6th day, Wenshan City.

Before the Battle of Yunnan exploded, Wenshan City was just an unassuming Grade 3 County in Mengding Prefecture. The Lord of the city, Summon Wind, could not upgrade to the prefecture grade as his title had not reached the requirements.

A seismic battle had made this city become the focus of the entire world.

Wenshan City was less than 40 square miles in size, and it sat in a small basin within the mountains. Different from Lianzhou Basin, this basin could be entered from all four directions.

There was a mountain path running from west to east and north to south, intersecting one another. In the middle was Wenshan City.

Most of the cities in Mengding Prefecture were like this. Instead of calling it a basin, it was more appropriate to call it a mountain path or a place where the ravines intersected.

At the two sides of the ravine were tall mountains.

Each city was like a strategic castle.

In the morning, a grand mist covered the mountains. As the mountain breeze blew, the mist floated up and down, changing like thousands of horses sweeping across the clouds; it was a truly beautiful sight.

The usually cold and quiet city had already awakened.

City Lord's Manor, command center.

Wuqi, who was appointed as the commander of the entire army, was in martial gear. Currently, he was sitting at the front of the entire hall. Di Chen and the other Lords sat on the left of the hall, both nervous and excited.

On the right were all the generals, with Dan Tian, Lianpo, and Zhang Xutuo as the heads.

The auspicious moment had arrived, and Wuqi stood up.

"Zhang Xutuo!"

"Present!"

As the commander of the Alliance Army, Zhang Xutuo stepped out.

"Lead the 100 thousand Alliance Army and act as the vanguard!"

"Yes!"

Zhang Xutuo cupped his fists; he did not have an excited expression. On the contrary, he looked extremely seriousness.

The faces of all the City-State Lords turned rather ugly. As expected from wolves, they would let the Alliance Army charge at the front every time.

Even in such an important battle.

However, at this stage, they had no way to struggle and could only accept their fates.

"Zhang He!"

"Present!"

Zhang He was the Alliance Army deputy commander and did not show his face during the Yongren City battle. As one of the fierce generals under Cao Cao during the Three Kingdoms Era, Zhang He could not be underestimated.

The City-State Alliance Army had two Zhangs that shocked the world. They were Zhang Xutuo and Zhang He.

"Lead the remaining 10 thousand Alliance Army troops to sneak past the mountains to attack the enemy backlines and break their grain line."

"Yes general!"

Zhang He accepted the order.

The order was one that all the generals supported; none of them had any objections to this command.

Although the Yunnan City-State Alliance Army could not to be said to be elites in the world, they had one point that should be praised. Since the troops were mostly mountain people, they were all proficient at mountain battle.

At this time, only the Alliance Army could cross the mountains and attack the Shanhai City Army.

"Tian Dan!"

After dealing with the 110 thousand Alliance Army, Wuqi started to deal with the Yanhuang Alliance troops.

"Present!"

Tian Dan stepped out; he a tranquil expression.

"Lead 100 thousand troops to act as the back troops to assist Zhang Xutuo."

"Yes general!" Tian Dan accepted the orders.

The expression of the Lords present changed once more.

'What assist? They are just there to monitor us.' The faces of the Lords of the City-State became uglier and uglier.

Even at Wenshan City, the path outside the city was not wider than 200 meters. With Wuqi's plan, if the 100 thousand Alliance Army was not cleared out, the Yanhuang Alliance Army probably would not need to fight.

Wuqi's expression did not change, and he continued, "Lianpo!"

"Present!"

"Lead the remaining 70 thousand Yanhuang Alliance Army to defend the east mountain path of Wenshan City to prepare for Feng Yi's legion coming up north."

Yuanyang City was hundreds of miles south of Wenshan City.

Hence, the Feng Yi legion that camped 50 miles outside of Yuanyang City was actually just in the middle of both. Wuqi did not wish for them to appear at the crucial moment, so he needed to arrange troops to protect their sides.

"Yes general!"

With the 70 thousand Alliance Army troops in his hand, Lianpo believed that Feng Yi's legion could not cause many waves.

At this point, the duties of all 280 thousand troops had been arranged. Wuqi did not arrange a single troop in Wenshan City. Apart from the original City Protection Division, only the Personal Guards of the Lords were left. Overall, their numbers did not cross 20 thousand.

To face off against Baiqi, Wuqi could not afford to be careless.

Wuqi stood up. With a 'Shua!' all the other generals followed him. Even Di Chen and the other Lords could not help but stand with solemn expressions.

"The military orders have been given; treat it seriously and immediately set out. I wish all of you good luck; come back with victory!"

"Yes commander!"

In the command center, the voices of the generals boomed like thunder.

Just like that, under the leadership of the various generals, the 300 thousand army that teleported over during the day did not even eat breakfast. They just stepped out of the gate and headed toward the Dragon Legion.

The huge heaven covering army broke the silence of the early morning and brought solemnness to the wilderness.

On the mountain path 10 miles to the east of Wenshan City, a huge camp was set up; this was the Dragon Legion camp.

Looking at its arrangement, it was exactly the same as the one that Fan Lihua had made outside of White Stone City. The entire camp fortress was like a castle, and it would be extremely difficult to take it down.

Baiqi stood on one of the towers and looked out.

"The enemy has exited the city!"

As the Asura of a generation, Baiqi was exceedingly sensitive to killing aura, so he could smell and sense it despite the distance. Even without seeing a single soldier or man, he could reach this conclusion.

For this battle, Shanhai City had already set up a massive net and each force was in place. However, they were facing 300 thousand elite troops after all; the enemy was a pack of wolves that could destroy the heavens.

If they were not careful, they would be bitten and torn apart.

Hence, Baiqi had to be extremely careful.

There was one old and one young man standing beside him. When they heard his words, their expression turned exceedingly solemn.

The old man was strategist Jia Xu. Ever since the start of the Battle of Yunnan, he was sent over as Baiqi's advisor. A large half of the credit for making the black chess piece plan belonged to him.

The young man was the 4th Legion General, Luo Shixin; he looked at Baiqi with awe and respect. After following by his side for a long time, any soldier would be amazed by Baiqi's skill.

Especially a young general like Luo Shixin.

Of course, after years of training, Luo Shixin had grown from a young general into a stable and confident general.

Oddly enough, Luo Shixin had a weird expression today like he was thinking something. His eyes seemed rather complicated as he looked out.

When Jia Xu saw that, he instantly guessed what Luo Shixin was thinking and laughed, "Shixin, the commander Zhang Xutuo has a past with you. Will you be able to strike?"

When Luo Shixin heard these words, he froze.

Even Baiqi stopped looking into the distance and turned to look at Luo Shixin.

Not only did they have a past, but they could even be called student and teacher. In history, Luo Shixin's military path started from Zhang Xutuo. The battles he had been through historically were all under Zhang Xutuo's leadership and teachings. To call Zhang Xutuo his teacher was not an understatement.

The ancient people treated teacher-student relationships with more importance than the heavens. There was even a statement that a person who was your teacher for one day would be like your father for your entire life. For Luo Shixin to face off against his teacher, it was truly putting him in a tough spot and was extremely cruel.

After a long while, Luo Shixin opened up, "We fight for our own Lords, so what can we do?"

Jia Xu smiled, "Shixin, you do not have to be dejected. I heard that he's a stubborn person, so you need to personally convince him to surrender and join us after the enemy loses. Only then can the master and student fight together on the battlefield."

"As for the situation at hand, it's just as you said. You are fighting for your own Lords, so you cannot mix in any other thoughts. As soldiers, we are loyal to our Lord. Not only will your teacher not blame you, but he might even feel happy instead."

When Luo Shixin heard that, his expression loosened as he bowed to Jia Xu. Thinking back to the way his teacher acted, Luo Shixin felt that Jia Xu was right.

The thought of being able to fight alongside his teacher in the future made Luo Shixin feel really emotional.

"Then I should perform well in this battle." Luo Shixin raised his head and looked into the distance while thinking to himself, 'Teacher, Shixin will try his best.'

Luo Shixin wanted to prove to Zhang Xutuo that he had grown into a great general.

When Jia Xu saw that, he smiled.

In the past, psychological and ideological work was also the duty of the advisor.

At this very moment, the mountain paths rumbled.

After a short while, black armored soldiers appeared outside the camp fortress; their flags were swinging and their weapons were held up high. First, it was the archers and the crossbowmen; they were followed by the sword-shield soldiers and the spearmen. The cavalry was on the wings.

Amongst the army were also siege ladders and trebuchet soldiers. Huge moving arrow turrets were also pushed by hundreds of soldiers, slowly moving forward.

The military formation was closely packed and well-organized. Apart from the sounds of footsteps and horse hooves, one could not hear any other sound. The large sound reverberating in the valley made one's blood boil.

When the formation moved closer, Zhang Xutuo became visible in the middle. He was riding on a really handsome horse; he was dressed in steel armor with guards by his side.

Baiqi's eyes lit up at this sight.

Without a doubt, the enemy army in front of them was composed of true elites. For the Dragon Legion to block the first wave, they would definitely have to pay a price.

"Stop!"

When they were 800 meters away, the order to stop was given.

With a 'Shua!' line after line of soldiers stopped in their paths and started to reorganize their formations, making their final preparations for the battle.

In any large battle, one's formation could not be messy. If not, they would give the enemy a chance to strike.

Chapter 790 – Drawing Attention

'Peng, peng peng, peng peng peng!'

At 8 AM, along with the beat of the drums, the enemy vanguard forces led their assault on the Dragon Legion camp fortress.

The flames of war were well and truly lit. Next, a bloody battle would surely follow.

Comparing their strengths, the result of this battle would not be decided in a short amount of time. If the Alliance Army wanted to break into the camp fortress, the only way would be to use their soldiers to fill up the moats and use their blood and bodies to flatten the defenses.

In any battle, especially in a battle between two huge forces, 60% was decided before the war even began. Commanding decided 30% while the remaining 10% depended on luck.

Hence, there was not much strategy to be said at this stage. Even if the one commanding this battle was the famous general Zhang Xutuo, all he could do was to move and rearrange his troops to support the frontline.

If he was good, he could raise the morale of his soldiers.

This applied to Baiqi too.

In such a decisive siege battle, the ones who played a bigger role were the majors and the colonels. Their ferocity and on the field leadership could decide the direction of the battle to a certain degree. At the very least, their ability could contribute to the ratio of casualties on both sides.

The battlefield in front of them was like a meat grinder.

No mercy, no hesitation, no time to think.

The archers could only follow simple military orders and shoot out arrow after arrow. While shooting, they would try to kill as many enemies as they could to get a promotion.

Normally, after a huge war, the arms of a surviving archer would be left basically useless. Apart from the talented few, it would take a long time for them to recover.

The only matter on the minds of the sword-shield soldiers and the spearmen were charging to the front and killing the enemy. They either killed or were killed; there was no third option.

Complicated human life resulted in a simple choice.

...

If one turned their eyes past the battlefield and looked past the soldiers lying in wait, they would arrive at the vast and empty land where Wuqi's command center was located.

Further behind them were the 100 thousand Yanhuang Alliance Army troops.

To not affect Wuqi's leadership and to make the matter look better, Di Chen and the other Lords stayed in Wenshan City. If the frontline achieved any progress, the news would be sent over by horse messengers.

On the east city wall, Di Chen and the others sat in a row.

Di Chen raised his head and looked toward the sky. It was already 11 AM, meaning that the army had been attacking for three hours. After three hours, close to 20 thousand soldiers were sacrificed but they still had not achieved anything.

The Lords started to waver, and they could not help but start to discuss with one another.

The first one to speak was Zhan Lang; he was the one with most military knowledge out of all of them. He frowned, "Something is not right. This fortress is not to attack Wenshan City. Rather, it seems like they predicted we were going to attack them. Don't you think this scene is really familiar?"

Zhan Lang was not the only one that thought so.

"Are you referring to when Shanhai City attacked Lingnan City-State?" Xiong Ba said.

"That's right. It's exactly the same."

After hearing those words, the others felt a chill run down their spines.

"That should not be it. Fan Lihua defended as they had reinforcements nearby. If these reinforcements rushed, they could make it in one to two days."

"Now, it is different. The closest Shanhai City middle troops need four to five days to arrive. Not to mention the fact that there are also troops blocking them. They will be lucky to even make it in a week."

"That's right; everything will be settled in a week."

The Lords all agreed. Instinctively, they were unwilling to believe Zhan Lang's analysis.

"Then how do we explain Baiqi's camp fortress?"

Chun Shenjun smiled, "Maybe Baiqi is too careful and no matter whether or not he attacks he builds a strong fortress? He's a God General so he's special."

"Let's hope so."

Zhan Lang shook his head and did not try to say anything more. After all, without any evidence, he could not be too sure.

Although the Lords did not believe in Zhan Lang's analysis, his words still raised some doubts in their hearts.

"Now it's time to see if we can end this siege early." Di Chen's exclamation represented pretty much what all the Lords present thought.

This battle would decide everything.

If one was not a part of it, one would not be able to understand the nerves and pressure that they felt.

As long as the battle did not end, every second and minute would remain a torture to them. Every frontline report from the messenger would trigger their sensitive emotions.

Making use of Di Chen's words, Qin Feng, who had not made a sound, used the time to say, "Since that's the case, why not ask General Wuqi to throw in the back troops to quicken the pace?"

"...."

The atmosphere instantly became rather awkward.

Yanhuang Alliance making use of Yunnan City-State was now dug up and placed into the light. Seeing how careful Qin Feng was when asking, Di Chen nearly agreed.

However, since this was a military matter, he could not show mercy and be soft-hearted.

Di Chen represented the Yanhuang Alliance and said, "The frontline has limited space. Even if we send more troops, it will not help. Let's just wait."

His smile was just incredibly fake.

Just as Qin Feng wanted to fight for more, a messenger soldier ran up from downstairs.

"Emergency, emergency!"

When the Lord heard these words, their hearts stopped.

When he saw that the messenger was alone, Qin Feng demanded, "Quick, what happened?"

"Lord, Tengyue Prefecture has been attacked...."

The messenger did not dare to be slow and reported everything.

When Di Chen and the others heard the news, their expressions turned extremely serious. Only after a while did he sigh, "Who would have guessed that Shanhai City actually contacted the mountain barbarian tribe?"

"Tengyue Prefecture is in deep trouble." As Qin Feng spoke, his expression became even more nervous. However, this was not a surprise as it was his old house. If it was broken, all matters would come to an end.

Di Chen remained extremely calm and said, "Do not worry, this is not totally bad. At the very least, the middle troops cannot come to save the Dragon Legion, which means that our previous worries were unwarranted. On this battlefield, we have too many advantages."

"Well said. We just need to quickly deal with the Dragon Legion. Then we can use the teleportation formation advantage to teleport back before Tengyue Prefecture falls." Zhan Lang analyzed.

Chun Shenjun also tried to persuade Qin Feng, "Shanhai City only took such action to attack us at our weakness to try and make us retreat from here. We must not panic and fall into their trap."

"You're right."

Hearing their words, the Lords of Yunnan City-State calmed down.

Even so, Qin Feng would not give up on such a chance, "Although that is true, it's still the last hope of our City-State. If we let Shanhai City step all over it, even if we win, we will be badly hurt. Can such a City-State prevent a second invasion?" As he spoke, Qin Feng's face was filled with sincerity and sadness.

"I do not think that is what all of you want to see? As such, I sincerely plead for the Yanhuang Alliance Army to push ahead to end this battle quickly."

As he spoke, Qin Feng gazed at all the Yanhuang Alliance members.

If they still wanted to reserve their strength and not bother about the City-State at such a time, Qin Feng would have to consider whether the cooperation was worth it or not.

Hearing his words, Di Chen and the others were also exceedingly solemn as they had seen through what Qin Feng was implying.

They all exchanged glances with one another. In the end, Di Chen nodded, "Since the situation has changed. Naturally, we need to change our tactics. I'll inform general Wuqi about the situation and ask him to quicken the siege."

When they really needed to make sacrifices, Di Chen was definitely willing to.

Just as Qin Feng said, to rip off benefits from Yunnan City-State was only secondary to the Yanhuang Alliance. After all, their main goal was to use them to stop the rise of Shanhai City.

Since they were a chess piece, they could not be too weak.

If not, even if they won this time, when Shanhai City returned, it could still take down Yunnan City-State.

Yanhuang Alliance was not a soldier-making machine that could form a 200 thousand men army at any time.

This battle already had a massively destructive impact on Yunnan City-State and was close to the limit of what they could take. The moment Tengyue Prefecture ended up in the flames of war, the situation would become unsalvageable.

"Many thanks!"

Qin Feng cupped his fists. He sighed to himself, 'When one is weaker than another, one can only follow.'

In less than an hour, Di Chen's decision had been passed over to Wuqi.

When Wuqi heard this news, he actually felt relaxed instead. His analysis was similar to Di Chen and the others, and he started to suspect the Dragon Legion camp fortress.

At that moment, the large stone in his heart finally landed on the ground.

Wuqi raised his head and looked at the fortress before him and muttered, "Diverting our attention to attack other parts? Baiqi ah, Baiqi, you're really too arrogant. Do you think that with just one camp fortress you can block our 300 thousand strong army force?"

"Send down my orders, let the back troops push up and stop at nothing to take down the enemy camp fortress." Wuqi did not hesitate any longer and directly ordered the troops to strike.

"Yes commander!"

As the message was passed to the frontlines, the siege on the camp grew more intense. The flames of war burned even brighter.

Chapter 791 – Time to Reel in the Net

Let us bring the time back to an hour ago.

At basically the same time as when the battle outside of Wenshan City started, Shi Wanshui's middle troops moved too.

Looking at the entire Yunnan Battlefield, the middle troops were the most low-profile. They had been camping at the east of Tengyue Prefecture since the start. They pushed in slowly with defense and monitoring as their goal; sieging was their second priority.

As the battle at Wenshan City exploded, it was time for the middle troops to show their strength.

That day, the two War Fighting Legions of the middle troops changed their careful style and started to charge around within Tengyue Prefecture, and their sword was directly aimed at Tengchong City in the middle.

The various cities in Tengyue Prefecture had prepared for this, and they had already received the order from the command center to defend in the city and try to drag the battle on. Their goal was just to coordinate with the battle in Wenshan City.

The problem laid in the fact that the middle troops were not the only ones attacking Tengyue Prefecture.

...

Tengyue Prefecture, Southwest Mountains.

Similarly the morning of the 1st month, 6th day, the mountains and canyons were misty and cold.

Similar to the 100 thousand mountains near Lianzhou Basin, there were many mountain barbarian tribes living in the Southwest Mountains; they were scattered around the peaks and canyons.

The mountain barbarians relied on hunting to live and occasionally went to the foot of the mountains. At such times, they would head to the villages and towns to trade medicine and animals for daily necessities.

Apart from that, they had truly little interaction with the people at the foot of the mountains.

It was not that the players near the mountains did not want to recruit these tribes. After all, during the 1st year of Gaia, news of Shanhai City's mountain barbarian Infantry Divisions had already spread across the world and gained the envy of many.

However, the appearance of Chiyou crushed all their dreams.

During the period of Chiyou's descent on the wilderness, the mountain barbarians either decided to take the slow journey to Chiyou City or willing waited and prepared for the journey.

Hence, the Lords' recruitment attempts naturally all failed. Occasionally, there would be Lords who managed to tempt one to two small tribes, but such a number was hardly enough to build a huge army.

Afterward, Ouyang Shuo led his army to crush Chiyou's army and also cut off his head. In the end, he ascended to the position of Barbarian King, and the situation changed once more.

Ouyang Shuo, who treated the mountain barbarians highly, definitely would not forget about the other mountain barbarian tribes in other mountains. After he calmed down the mountain barbarians in Chiyou City, the first thing he did was to send out representatives to the other mountains.

First, he wanted to tell them that the new mountain Barbarian King had been born; he wanted to ask for their loyalty. Secondly, he wanted to keep in contact with them and ask them to prepare for further Shanhai City invasions.

Before the Battle of Yunnan started, Ouyang Shuo had headed to Chiyou City for the purpose of finding the elder Mu Yao. He had asked the elder to visit the Yunnan Mountains to locate and contact the mountain barbarian tribes.

Reality proved that the effects were extremely great.

With the advertisement of the mountain barbarian contact officer and the huge change in Wuzhou, the various mountain barbarian tribes started to recognize this new Barbarian King.

When Baiqi led the left troops to attack Mengding Prefecture, they had started to secretly transport grain and weapons into the mountains to give it to the tribes for free.

Along with the resources was also a regiment of army teaching personnel.

There was grain, equipment, and officers. Along with the name of Barbarian King, every tribe was obviously tempted.

Just like that, while Baiqi attacked Mengding Prefecture, without the Yunnan City-State knowing anything, the mountain barbarian tribes started to gather together.

A day ago, many well-equipped mountain barbarian warriors had gathered in each of the mountain strongholds. They were like a little stream, slowly gathering and forming a massive river.

These warriors were not only equipped with the sharpest weapons and the toughest armor, but they had even undergone basic military training and were not the backward hunters from before.

There was a difference of night and day between the two.

At 10 AM, a total of 50 thousand mountain barbarian warriors had gathered up and attacked Mengyue Prefecture along with the middle troops.

With such an east-west pincer attack, Tengyue Prefecture was quickly thrown into a sea of flames.

Only then did Qin Feng and the others feel fear and panic, which ended up with Wuqi needing to add troops. However, there was one problem. Qin Feng and the others probably did not know till now what kind of mountain barbarian force was attacking Tengyue Prefecture.

In their eyes, it was just a group of assorted hunting troops.

But in any war, missing out the small details could cause you to lose the entire thing. The entire Battle of Yunnan was closely connected and linked with one another.

The moment Yunnan City-State decided not to assist and save Tengyue Prefecture, the City-State and the Yanhuang Alliance had lost their last fighting chance.

Wenshan City, Dragon Legion Corps camp fortress.

Another half an hour had passed since Wuqi increased the number of troops and the intensity of the attack. Reality proved that as long as they were vicious enough and were willing to make sacrifices, the siege would work.

Under the charge of Wuqi, the siege became extremely smooth, and they took down the middle circle of the camp fortress in just half an hour. Only the solitary inner fortress was left.

Victory was in their sights.

On the Wenshan City wall, Di Chen and the others who had received the news were all really excited.

"If we knew that the result would be so good, I would have ordered them to act a lot earlier." Di Chen causally told the other Lords.

Chun Shenjun smiled, "The Dragon Legion Corps is not all that impressive!"

"That's right, the wilderness made Baiqi out to be such an amazing general, but he is still being forced back by us." The one who agreed with Chun Shenjun was a Lord from Yunnan City-State; this fellow could be considered Chun Shenjun's ' right-hand man.'

Hearing someone agree with his words, Chun Shenjun grew more excited and started to mock Shanhai City.

With that, there were more people who agreed with him, mostly the Lords of the City-State. Amongst which, there were many who had lost their territories. These people were the saddest of the bunch as they had lost everything and were now at the mercy of others.

Chun Shenjun, this giant of the Yanhuang Alliance, was undoubtedly one of the people they could latch onto. When they saw that there was a chance to suck up to him, all of them were obviously willing to do so.

The more they spoke, the more preposterous their words sounded.

According to their words, the Dragon Legion led by Baiqi was totally useless. Even Shanhai City was turned into a paper tiger that was going to be taken down at any moment.

The more they spoke, the dumber it all sounded.

When Zhan Lang saw the situation, he frowned. As a military person, Zhan Lang could not stand such antics.

'We have not won the war yet, so what are all of you doing?'

Chun Shenjun might have made it sound extremely easy but the Alliance Army and the Yanhuang Alliance Army had paid 50 thousand men to break through the two defense lines.

Only Chun Shenjun would say that the Dragon Legion Corps was nothing special.

However, their morale was currently high, so Zhan Lang held himself back from saying anything discouraging. When Chun Shenjun saw that, he gave Zhan Lang an eye to say that he understood what was going on.

Naturally, Chun Shenjun was not such a superficial person, and he would not really believe the words these Lords were saying. Even his own words were just to liven up the atmosphere.

His real goal was to use this chance to test the loyalty of the Lords in the Yunnan City-State to make it easier for them to split it up in the future.

"You really are impatient." Xiong Ba shook his head.

Maybe Chun Shenjun felt he had a psychological advantage because Shanhai City did not strike Pill Sun City.

Although they were allies, who knows what Chun Shenjun thought about Shanhai Alliance's act on their homes. He definitely was not worried, and he was maybe even gloating.

The moment he thought back to Yizhou Island that was under attacked, Xiong Ba's mood turned sour once more.

Even so, as the war was progressing smoothly, the atmosphere was still extremely lively.

Amongst them, the only sad ones were the two to three Lords that were being attacked by the Shanhai City Army. Countless emergency letters were sent over, making them feel really depressed.

However, at the current moment, no one cared about their life or death.

They were chess pieces, and who would hesitate when one was supposed to abandon a chess piece? When a chess master played chess, would he bother to consider how the chess piece felt?

To win the entire game, abandoning pieces, trading, and similar actions were all expected.

Just as Di Chen and the others were looking forward to what was to come, Shanhai City started to reel in its net.

Noon, the sun hung high in the air.

On the west mountain path of Wenshan City, the sounds of horse hooves could suddenly be heard. Huo Qubing led the 1st and 2nd legions of the Guards Legion Corps, filled with the desire for revenge, and charged at Wenshan City.

In the north, Er'Lai led the City Protection Legion and drew close to Wenshan City.

On the south, the Feng Yi legion suddenly exited the camp fortress and started to move toward Wenshan City.

The three groups of troops advanced from three directions, working with the Dragon Legion Corps that was east of the city to surround Wenshan City.

Facing enemies on all four sides.

The City Protection Legion and the two War Fighting Legions could appear at this moment because of Yuanyang City. The Lord of Yuanyang City, Little Six, was the chess piece they had buried in Yunnan City-State; this was the black chess piece that Baiqi had mentioned.

The moment the black chess piece was used, the world would be shocked.

Just late last night, right after the Alliance Army and the Yanhuang Alliance Army teleported to Wenshan City, the Guards Legion Corps, and the City Protection Legion had teleported to Yuanyang City and disappeared into the darkness.

The three legions used a morning to go through small paths to surround Wenshan City.

Chapter 792 – Pardon me? Amusing!

The first one to notice that something was odd was Lianpo.

Lianpo led 70 thousand Yanhuang Alliance troops to monitor Feng Yi's legion. The moment Feng Yi's legion started to move toward Wenshan City, they were noticed by the scouts that Lianpo had arranged on the frontlines.

However, Lianpo thought at first that Feng Yi's legion was moving to reinforce the Dragon Legion Corps, so he did not treat the movement that seriously. Apart from reporting the intel to the command center, he only ordered the troops to enter battle status.

It was not that Lianpo was arrogant. However, based on their reports, Feng Yi only had a single legion filled with prisoners that Shanhai City had recently captured.

The standards of Feng Yi's troops were not bad, but the troops were not well meshed with one another. Hence, Lianpo naturally felt confident about using 70 thousand Yanhuang Alliance troops to stop them. Not to mention that they were on such a narrow mountain path.

Not only Lianpo, even Wuqi and Di Chen were not really surprised by this intel.

However, the following situation stunned them completely.

On the west, the Tiger Leopard Cavalry led by Ma Chao was the fastest. It was like a lightning bolt streaking through the wilderness and charging at Wenshan City menacingly.

When Di Chen and the others received the news, the Tiger Leopard Cavalry was already less than 20 miles away from Wenshan City. With their movement speed, that was just a brief distance.

Such a change immediately startled them, and it even caused them to panic a little.

"What happened, how did the Guards Legion Corps suddenly appear near Wenshan City?" Di Chen and the others were not fools and immediately suspected Little Six.

For the Guards Legion Corps to reach here naturally meant that they had teleported over and the nearest city was Yuanyang City. Di Chen and the others did not even need to think and could basically confirm that it was Little Six who had betrayed the Yunnan City-State.

The greatest possibility was that this person had been working with Shanhai City from the start.

"Traitor!"

Qin Feng lost control of his emotions; he unsheathed his blade and raised it toward Little Six's neck.

Little Six was extremely calm and said, "I'm a traitor? I just cooperated with Shanhai City. If I'm a traitor, what are you who sold the City-State to the Yanhuang Alliance?"

Since matters had developed to such a state, all the Lords could see that the Yanhuang Alliance were exceedingly greedy and ambitious. The Lords in the City-State had started to feel regret, some of them wished they had surrendered to Shanhai City.

Hence, the Lords started to feel unhappy and displeased with Qin Feng since he was the person who started this whole affair.

Hearing Little Six's words, many felt that it resonated with them.

On the other hand, Qin Feng felt that he was stabbed at a fatal point, and he scolded, "Since you admitted it yourself, then go to hell!"

As he spoke these words, the longsword was about to cut down.

When Little Six saw that, his eyes were filled with mocking, and he remained unmoved.

"Do not kill him!"

"Stop!"

At the crucial moment, Di Chen and Zhan Lang stopped Qin Feng from performing a reckless act.

"Oh?"

Qin Feng did not understand.

Di Chen facepalmed, "Idiot. This person worked with Shanhai City, so we should interrogate him. Killing him would just be returning the tiger to the mountains."

Since he was furious, Di Chen scolded Qin Feng without holding anything back.

A single 'idiot' left Qin Feng feeling even more ashamed and embarrassed. If there was a hole in the floor, he would rather just dive into it.

In the blink of an eye, he was not welcomed by either side.

Qin Feng did not understand what was going on.

Di Chen knew that he had spoken the wrong words but he had no intentions of taking them back. He turned toward Little Six, "Tell us Shanhai City's plan, and I will represent the Yanhuang Alliance to pardon you and will even reward you."

Little Six laughed mockingly, "How magnanimous! When did the matters of Yunnan City-State end up being controlled by the Yanhuang Alliance? Pardon me? How amusing!"

The moment he spoke those words, the expressions of all the City-State Lords changed.

"Stop asking for trouble." Di Chen's face turned extremely gloomy.

Little Six had a casual smile on his face, which showed that he had no intentions of replying to Di Chen's question.

When Sha Pojun at the side saw that, he was furious and jumped out, "You dog, how dare you be so stubborn when you are on the brink of death? Do you believe we cannot lock you up all the way?"

Little Six shook his head; he gave the seated Lords a look of pity, especially the members of the Yanhuang Alliance, "You're the ones on the brink of death. You all are so arrogant and think you're so smart but you fell into Shanhai City's trap from the start."

"What did you say?" Sha Pojun was exasperated.

"I'm talking about all of you, just wait and die. I will not accompany you anymore." As Little Six said those words, he bit the poison pill hidden in his mouth and killed himself.

Of course, he did not mind dying because Shanhai City had already prepared a substitute doll for him. Since he had completed the mission, he could basically enjoy riches for the rest of his life.

Before he died, the other Lords left in the City-State felt exceedingly tragic and despondent.

Why did we fight so hard? Didn't we just lose in the end? The biggest mistake of the Yunnan City-State was working together with the Yanhuang Alliance.

Along with Little Six turning into a white light and disappearing, the atmosphere became one of deathly silence.

Amidst such an awkward atmosphere, more and more intel was being sent over one by one. Every piece of intel they received made the atmosphere turn colder and colder.

Near the end, the entire place had reached a freezing point.

Di Chen and the others were like ice statues; their faces were ashen white and filled
with despair.

Zhan Lang and Xiong Ba gave out long sighs. In their hearts, there was an indescribable sense of failure.

"We still lost to Shanhai City in the end!"

Zhan Lang truly could not accept this ending. During this battle, the Yanhuang Alliance Army basically did not commit any errors and even had many plus points.

They had seen victory in their sights, but they did not expect that there would be a sudden 180-degree twist.

Was it truly like what Little Six had said and that their every step was calculated by Shanhai City? Zhan Lang instinctively did not want to believe it.

If that was truly the case, it meant a total destruction of their confidence.

Who knows from when but Shanhai City had transformed into a large shadow that loomed over the heads of Yanhuang Alliance; it had become something they were unable to be shaken off.

...

Just at this moment, Xiong Ba suddenly spoke up after his extended period of silence, "Guys calm down. Looking at the situation, the enemy will reach Wenshan City soon. Let's think about what we should do; do we fight or retreat?"

"Retreat? How?"

Di Chen felt a little bitter. They were not retreating one to two thousand people but 200 thousand troops. It would take one to two hours just to rush back to Wenshan City.

Moreover, there was still a massive battle on the frontlines, and Wuqi had dispatched both the front and back troops to the fray, so how could they easily remove themselves?

No one had the ability to do so, not even Wuqi.

Xiong Ba shook his head, "Of course, I do not hope to retreat all the troops. What I meant is that we should call back the main generals before they surround us. After that, we should immediately teleport away. If not, the moment Wenshan City is surrounded, they could all be captured."

"None of you want to see that happen, right?"

Xiong Ba's words sent a shiver down their spines.

That was right. Soldiers could be recruited and trained if lost. If Wuqi, Lianpo, Tian Dan, and hundreds of other generals were captured, it would be a total calamity.

Wasn't Zhao Kuo a huge lesson?

Chapter 793 – Dog Bites Dog, Mouth Filled with Fur

"Must we really do that? We have 200 over thousand troops, so why don't we fight?" Di Chen could not accept such a tough decision. To retreat now was like losing a family dog.

The Battle of Yunnan was the focus of the entire world. If they retreated now, Yanhuang Alliance would become a laughing stock. The hard-earned prestige and fame that they had obtained would come crashing and burning down, returning them to zero.

"How can we fight?" Xiong Ba shook his head, "The enemy troops are coming from four directions. The Tiger Leopard Cavalry is near our city walls. The moment they enter and break the teleportation formation, we will be like Zhao Kuo in history, being surrounded and locked up by Baiqi. At that time, we cannot escape even if we want to.

"...."

Although Xiong Ba's words were terrifying, no one could retort it.

"Then let's retreat!"

Chun Shenjun was the first to make his stance. He had already lost Zhao Kuo, and he did not want to lose Tian Dan.

Just as Di Chen and the others were ready to make their stance, a chilly voice sounded out from beside them, "None of you can leave."

Turning around, the one who spoke was Qin Feng, the City-State committee head that had lost all his face.

"What did you say?" Di Chen was astonished.

Craziness flashed across Qin Feng's face. As he savage spoke, his voice went up a few notches, "I said that none of you are to leave. We have signed an agreement for Yanhuang Alliance to help us push back the Shanhai City Army. For this, we have paid a heavy price and have no way out. The battle goes sour and you want to leave? You want to abandon all of us?"

After Qin Feng spoke, many soldiers suddenly rushed up the city wall and surrounded the members of the Yanhuang Alliance. Seeing this scene, Di Chen and the Personal Guards of the Yanhuang Alliance members all unsheathed their swords.

The atmosphere became extremely tense.

After all, Wenshan City was the home ground of the City-State, so Qin Feng had a high level of prestige here.

The Lords of the City-State all agreed with Qin Feng's words and actions. With that, Di Chen and the others were immediately in danger.

The two sides that were working together flawlessly suddenly turned on one another at the crucial moment.

Di Chen's expression changed, obviously alarmed by all of this.

Currently, the troops in Wenshan City were split into two; one group was the Personal Guards of the Lords at around seven thousand while the other group was the Wenshan City City Protection Division.

Out of the seven thousand, each member of the Yanhuang Alliance had 500, so they had a total of 3.5 thousand people. The remaining half belonged to the City-State Lords.

Hence, the party that affected the balance was still the City Protection Division. The side that controlled them would hold the upper hand.

Qin Feng did not even think about it, naturally treating them as part of the City-State camp.

This was why he was so confident.

One could only say that he was too young; he had underestimated Di Chen and the others.

Di Chen smiled and mocked him, "You really think you can take us down?"

As he said those words, Summon Wind suddenly stood up together with Di Chen and the others.

"Summon Wind, you dare!!"

The City-State Lords were astonished; they did not dare to believe Summon Wind's sudden actions.

He just smiled, "Haven't you seen the situation? The City-State is finished. Why would I still stay on this broken boat and sink together with you?"

"That's right, smart people can always understand the situation they are in." Di Chen smiled at the City-State Lords, "Follow us and retreat and maybe you can live a life of prosperity. Fight against us and you will have nothing."

As time was of the essence, Di Chen wanted to swiftly end this.

When the Lords saw this situation, their expressions turned extremely bitter, and they did not say anything. They just brought their Personal Guards away. Looking at the situation, they were prepared to simply leave.

They were tired!

There were some Lords who sent their Personal Guards to the frontlines to try and call back their generals.

Each one of these capable generals was worth tens of thousands of gold. Even if they had no more territory, they could still sell the generals to other Lords for a huge sum of money.

At worst, they could keep them by their sides as bodyguards.

Along with the system update and the release of the information piece, the imperial cities were no longer peaceful. Not only must one have money, they must also have strong guards.

'Huang dang!

The longsword fell to the ground.

Qin Feng looked on at his leaving allies. His face was ashen white; he looked like a pitiful fellow that was abandoned.

When Di Chen and the others saw that, they did not do anything more to Qin Feng; they just shook their heads and left the city wall. At the same time, they sent emergency orders to the frontlines.

They ordered Wuqi and Tian Dan to gather 100 thousand of Yanhuang Alliance Army troops and the core generals and retreat. They also ordered Lianpo's troops to return to the city to face the Tiger Leopard Cavalry.

They ordered the west gate to be closed, and the City Protection Division to guard on the city walls to face the cavalry.

Di Chen and the others were fighting a race against time.

Along with orders being given, chaos and panic unavoidably appeared.

Before the City-State Lords left, they tried to call back their generals. The Alliance Army generals who were still fighting on the frontlines were totally lost.

Even Zhang Xutuo's face became extremely ugly when he heard the news.

Unavoidably, the army panicked, some people left while some people stayed back to listen to the opinion of this Alliance Army commander.

The generals in the wilderness were not puppets, and they each had their own thoughts.

Looking at the situation, the City-State had utterly lost and was forced to surrender. If they returned to their Lords, they would either be sold or end up as bodyguards.

Such a matter would be a massive humiliation to the generals and commanders.

Military people should not leave their lives like that.

Zhang Xutuo looked at the generals gathered around him and sighed, "Since it's an order from the Lord, how can we disobey it?"

Even after entering the wilderness, Zhang Xutuo was still an extremely loyal person. Even though the Lord's order was irrational, Zhang Xutuo still needed to follow it.

When the other generals heard his words, their expressions seemed rather weird.

Just at this moment, a young general spoke, "General, the Lord is obviously betraying our soldiers on the frontlines. He is calling us back not because of righteousness and brotherhood but because we are worth money. If we leave, what would happen to our men? We cannot leave them here to die and not care about them! I'm afraid I cannot agree with you!"

"Well said. General, why don't we just lead the troops and surrender? In the wilderness, Shanhai City is famous for treating their soldiers well. Their Monarch is recognized and is one that all the people are willing to die for. Why not take a step back and plan for a better future since our Lords have abandoned us? That is better than just making worthless sacrifices."

Hearing those words, the various generals of the Alliance Army were tempted.

Zhang Xutuo's expression was rather complicated. On one side, he needed to be loyal to his Lord; on the other side, there were tens of thousands of soldiers. It was either one or the other, making it difficult for him to make a decision.

Just at this moment, there was movement from the frontlines.

Looking out, they saw a squadron of cavalry charge out of the Dragon Legion camp. They were waving the golden flag of a Lord, expressing that they were an envoy.

The news of Wenshan City being surrounded was only known amongst a portion of the soldiers. Some soldiers knew nothing and were still sieging.

This squadron of cavalry were simply too bold.

If they were not careful, they could be taken down by the Alliance Army.

Luckily, Zhang Xutuo immediately sent the news to the frontlines to allow them to pass.

With a 'Shua!' under the leadership of the leading general, hundreds of cavalry got off their horses.

"Who are you?" someone asked.

Only to see the leading general remove his helmet, revealing a handsome face. He was Luo Shixin.

When Zhang Xutuo saw this face, his eyes froze. That young general from before had already grown up.

In history, Luo Shixin was captured and committed suicide, making Zhang Xutuo feel both sad and furious.

Who knew that the two of them would meet again?

Luo Shixin was extremely emotional as he walked up, "Shixin greets the commander." He called Zhang Xutuo like he did in the past.

Of course, since they each had their own Lords, Luo Shixin did not dare to kneel.

Zhang Xutuo's expression was exceedingly cold, "You came to persuade me to surrender?" He was still the commander of the Alliance Army.

When Luo Shixin saw that, he was not surprised. As long as it involved work matters, his teacher would not care about relationships.

"Teacher, aren't you clear about the situation you are in?"

As Luo Shixin spoke, he told them the situation; he talked about how four armies were surrounding Wenshan City.

When the various Alliance Army generals heard this news, their expressions became uglier and uglier.

Even what had happened in the city wall was revealed by Luo Shixin.

What was happening?

Luo Shixin naturally was not here to put all of them in a tough spot; he cupped his fist, "Generals, my Monarch and General Baiqi said that the gates of Shanhai City are opened for all of you. As long as you are willing to surrender, the blood debt will be forgotten. After you enter Shanhai City, we will all be brothers."

When the Alliance Army generals heard these words, they were touched, and they strengthened their resolve to surrender.

Luo Shixin looked toward Zhang Xutuo, "Teacher, what about you? Shixin was really looking forward to fighting together with teacher once more and not fighting against one another."

Chapter 794 – Biggest Miracle in the Wilderness

Luo Shixin's words totally moved all the Alliance Army generals present. If Zhang Xutuo was still unwilling to surrender now, these generals would still surrender to Shanhai City.

Who knows, they might even tie up Zhang Xutuo and hand him over.

As the Alliance Army commander, Zhang Xutuo was not so important that the generals here would all be willing to die for him.

Zhang Xutuo only had two choices at hand; he could either surrender or kill himself like he did in history.

However, the wilderness was not like history, and Zhang Xutuo was not as loyal to his current Lord as he was to the Sui Emperor.

All things considered, Zhang Xutuo decided to surrender.

With that, both sides were naturally delighted.

...

Name: Zhang Xutuo (King Rank)

Dynasty: Sui Dynasty

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Special General

Loyalty: 68

Command: 82

Force: 87

Intelligence: 60

Politics: 45

Specialty: Loyalty (raises troops morale by 40%, raises troops combat strength 15%.)

Cultivation Method: nil

Equipment: Long spear

Evaluation: Famous general of the Sui Dynasty, intelligent and courageous. Accrued many war contributions and was the cornerstone of the Sui Dynasty.

Zhang Xutuo was a pinnacle existence amongst King Rank generals. If he did not unfortunately die in battle, he could have become an Emperor Ranked general.

...

Along with the various Alliance Army generals surrendering, the remaining 60 thousand Alliance Army troops all surrendered.

At basically the same time, news about Wuqi, Tian Dan, and the Yanhuang Alliance Army generals retreating spread out amongst the formation. The Yanhuang Alliance Army soldiers did not hesitate to surrender as well after seeing that the Alliance Army that they fought side by side with had surrendered too.

All of a sudden, 150 thousand men all surrendered, scattered across the battlefield, a majestic sight. The battlefield that was still in intense battle moments ago became deathly silent.

When Baiqi saw this scene, he led his troops out of the fortress to get ready to receive all the surrendered troops.

150 thousand surrendered soldiers were like a massive oil barrel. If one was not careful, conflicts would start and cause absolute chaos.

Baiqi had mingled amongst the barracks for his entire life and understood this point. Apart from arranging 30 thousand troops to take down the 10 thousand Alliance Army troops that were still disturbing the grain route, the remaining 60 thousand Dragon Legion Corps troops were sent to watch over the surrendered soldiers.

As for the Wenshan City situation, the Dragon Legion Corps did not need to play a part in it.

The truth was exactly that.

The Tiger Leopard Cavalry rushed under the Wenshan City gates. When Ma Chao saw that the gates were locked shut, he knew that he could not siege the city simply by relying on this purely cavalry force, so he went around the west gate and went south.

The current Lianpo led 70 thousand Yanhuang Alliance troops to rush back to Wenshan City. Behind them was Feng Yi's legion, which was chasing closely behind.

The arrival of the Tiger Leopard Cavalry gave the Lianpo army a fatal blow. They were like a sharp arrow cutting the Yanhuang Alliance Army that was entering the city into two, breaking their escape route.

When the Yanhuang Alliance Army soldiers saw this situation, they squeezed through the city gates and tried to enter and hide. However, the city gates were rather small, and there were so many soldiers. At the crucial moment, military rules and orders had been tossed aside.

Betrayals and scenes of people climbing over one another played out. There were countless people who were stepped on by their allies.

All of a sudden, the city gate was in chaos.

Luckily, Lianpo had entered the city earlier on, or he might have been buried in the chaos.

Di Chen made the Lianpo army return to Wenshan City because they were the closest to Wenshan City but also out of a little selfishness.

The military generals were obviously precious but the soldiers were too, especially high ranked elite soldiers. Di Chen and the others held the hopes that they could take back a portion of them.

Who knew that Ma Chao would be so decisive; he did not hesitate at all and immediately took a detour when he found out that the city gates were shut. He coordinated with the Feng Yi legion to try and take down Lianpo's army.

As the Tiger Leopard Cavalry moved swiftly, only 10 thousand of the enemy managed to retreat into the city in the end.

After suffering a pincer attack on both sides by the Tiger Leopard Cavalry and Feng Yi's legion, they had even lost their general. With no way out, the remaining 56 thousand odd troops could only surrender.

At basically the same time, the Guards Legion Corps 1st legion on the west and the City Protection Legion on the north had arrived, officially surrounding Wenshan City.

When Di Chen and the others saw this situation, how would they dare to stay? They brought their Yanhuang Alliance troops to escape, battered and beaten. The Wenshan City Lord, Summon Wind, was also with them.

As for the other Lords in the City-State, when they saw that their generals had not returned, they could only leave alone.

The huge Wenshan City instantly became empty.

With the Lords gone and the city being surrounded by enemies, the Wenshan City City Protection Division was terrified. How would they even dare defend? They just opened up the city gates and surrendered.

At 5 PM, the Shanhai City Army moved into Wenshan City.

At this point, the most crucial battle in the Battle of Yunnan had ended with the defeat of the Yanhuang Alliance and the Alliance Army.

At the end of the battle, basically 200 thousand troops were left on the battlefield, dealing a huge blow to the Yanhuang Alliance. Additionally, this matter would cause their prestige in the wilderness to drop to a freezing point.

The plan of Yanhuang Alliance to curb the rise of Shanhai City had ended in total failure.

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

Gaia 4th year, 1st month, 7th day, Consonance City.

A night had passed, and a detailed battle report regarding the Wenshan City battle had been placed on Ouyang Shuo's table.

Apart from the victory they achieved in the main battlefield, the Dragon Legion that was in charge of chasing after Zhang He's troops had big gains too. As the 10 thousand troops led by Zhang He were too far away, they did not know what was happening there.

Hence, no matter how much Mu Guiying tried to make him surrender, Zhang He thought that she was trying to trick him. Helplessly, Mu Guiying could only forcefully attack.

After a huge battle, the 10 thousand of them suffered heavy losses and around six thousand ended up captured. Alliance Army general Zhang He lost and was captured.

After the battle, Er'Lai led the City Protection Legion back to Yuanyang City and immediately teleported to Shanhai City.

The Huo Qubing led Guards Legion Corps went up north and was on their way to Consonance City. Ouyang Shuo was thinking about whether or not to throw them to recover Dongchuan Prefecture based on what Swordsman City was planning.

If nothing went wrong, the Swordsman City would plan something big tonight.

Whether to fight or to seek peace; it was all up to Feng Qingyang.

After Feng Yi's 3rd Leopard Legion replenished their members from the prisoners, they left Mengding Prefecture. Since the prefecture had already been taken down, Feng Yi's legion would give up their base in Zhen An Prefecture and move up north to gather with the 1st and 2nd legions.

At this point, the Dragon Legion would sweep out the Yunnan Battlefield.

Baiqi would lead the 1st legion to take charge of Wenshan City, they would be in charge of the surrendered troops and would work with the Military Affairs Bureau officers who were rushing here to do the organization work.

At the same time, the Luo Shixin led 4th legion would charge into Tengyue Prefecture and work with the middle troops and the mountain barbarians to take down Tengyue Prefecture.

Without the help of the Alliance Army and with all their Lords either escaping or dead, the prefecture would quickly fall under Shanhai City's rule.

At this point, Ouyang Shuo did not need to worry about the entire Yunnan Battlefield.

...

As the Battle of Yunnan came to an end, the other three battlefields basically concluded as well.

Feng Qiuhuang did not disappoint Ouyang Shuo; she decisively took down Fengxiang City and occupied the entire Taiyuan Province, becoming an important member of the wilderness.

The Jiaozhou Squadron and the Yashan Squadron, with the help of the two Infantry Divisions from the 3rd Tiger Legion, had already landed on Yizhou Island.

At the same time, the two squadrons totally locked up the Yizhou Straits.

The Military Affairs Bureau ordered the Lingnan War Zone to coordinate with the navy to help take down Yizhou Island.

The only problem was Stone City's battle. With Di Chen returning, Handan City's army did not want to be pushed back.

Wufu was not excessively greedy and was happy to split Zhangwu Prefecture with Handan City after taking down two houses.

Looking at the unstoppable rise of Shanhai City and the all-out failure of the Yanhuang Alliance, Di Chen would not dare to fight a full scale war with Stone City now.

No matter whether he was happy about it or not, Di Chen could only swallow this bitter defeat and plan for the future.

With that, not only did Shanhai City win in the Yunnan Battlefield, Shanhai Alliance had even reaped great gains outside of it, turning around the situation of the Gaia 3rd year.

The two alliances once again returned to the same starting line.

Of course, as an individual, along with Yunnan City-State being taken down, Shanhai City's position as the top of China had become unshakeable.

Any individual member of the Yanhuang Alliance was not enough to face Shanhai City.

To put it more bluntly, Shanhai City slowly had the power to go up against the entire Yanhuang Alliance alone.

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

As the show came to an end, the players of the China region were shocked and astonished.

People with foresight noticed a problem. Along with Yunnan City-State being wiped out, Shanhai City's last obstacle to establishing a country was removed.

It was a clear path ahead for Shanhai City.

Players had started to guess when it would happen. There were some that said one or
two months. Without a doubt, everyone felt that they would establish a country within three months.

This fact alone definitely shocked everyone.

A commoner Lord; he cleared the thorns step by step and crushed the Yanhuang Alliance to reach the peak of such a complicated and competitive environment.

Without a doubt, Shanhai City had created the biggest miracle in gaming history.

Chapter 795 – Resistance from the Administration Bureau

Gaia 4th year, 1st month, 11th day, Consonance City.

Many days had passed since the Battle of Wenshan City. Yesterday, the Dragon Legion Corps had reported that they had taken down the entire Tengyue Prefecture.

Frontline intel suggested that after the fall of the Alliance Army, the sieges were exceedingly simple and effortless. Before they even reached the enemy cities, the defending troops would just open the gates and surrender.

Pretty much nothing of note happened along the way.

This was caused by their strength; they were simply unstoppable. With that, Tengyue Prefecture was untouched by war and avoided a calamity, which was a win-win for both of them.

At the same time, the Battle of Yizhou island was coming to an end.

King City gave up the moment the two squadrons sealed up Yizhou Straits. Even if Xiong Ba went back, he could not do anything. Seeing that no reinforcements were arriving, the resistance naturally became weaker and weaker.

Coordinating with the 3rd legion of the Tiger Legion Corps, the army sieged the place and occupied the cities.

With that, the entire Nanjiang battle was settled.

At the end of the month, it would be New Year's Eve. The end of the war brought peace and prosperity to the Lunar New Year. Furthermore, during this time, soldiers would miss their families, so it was not a good time to fight.

Not only Nanjiang, but the entire China Region also started to slow down their fights to welcome yet another Lunar New Year.

......

On this day, Huo Qubing's Guards Legion Corps reached Consonance City and camped outside of the city.

Two days ago, the Swordsman City Army left Dongchuan Prefecture. However, before they left, they performed a truly despicable act, sweeping away Dongchuan Prefecture.

A portion of the rich chambers of commerce and aristocratic families were taken by them.

Postwar calculations found that the army had taken close to 400 thousand from Dongchuan Prefecture, which was a huge hit to the prefecture that was not really rich to begin with.

Some of the chambers of commerce were even in danger of closing down because they did not have any movable funds to buy resources.

Apart from that, the 15 thousand prisoners of the Guards Legion were taken back to his territory. Feng Qingyang's attitude was extremely clear; he was not willing to face off against them, but he was not willing to cooperate with them either.

Feng Qingyang probably thought that Shanhai City would not do anything to him if he retreated back to the Shu Lands.

Ouyang Shuo could only say that he was too naive.

That day, Ouyang Shuo used the Quick Daily News to call out Feng Qingyang; he told him to return the prisoners within a week and pay 800 thousand gold for the damages he had caused to Dongchuan Prefecture.

If not, they could only go to war.

Ouyang Shuo was not just saying such words for fun. After the Guards Legion Corps reached Consonance City, Huo Qubing had a conversation with Ouyang Shuo. The next day, they left the camp and waltzed into Dongchuan Prefecture.

Yongren City would forever be the humiliation of the Guards Legion Corps, so one would think that they were just there to stroll around now. From a distance away, everyone could smell the scent of revenge.

The clouds of battle that had stopped seemed like they were going to start once more.

Shu Lands, Swordsman City.

Different from the other main cities, Swordsman City had a thick underworld smell. All around the streets, one could see underworld people; there were hundreds of dojos, creating a truly majestic sight.

In such an atmosphere, the people's desire to learn martial arts was truly strong.

Battle arenas, sparring competitions, and the like were played out every moment. For this, Swordsman City had modeled after the special police force in olden times and formed their own constable organization to take care of the underworld warriors.

Even the central streets of the city were designed into a giant sword.

The sword handle area was the City Lord's Manor.

In the reading room, when Feng Qingyang saw the report, he was furious. He viciously said, "Bastard, I've never seen such an arrogant person. Let's fight, who's afraid of who?"

When Feng Qingyue sitting opposite him saw his reaction, she sighed.

Feng Qingyue did not expect him to be so rash; he actually used the army to rob the people for just 400 thousand gold.

The moment this news was released, it made Swordsman City the laughing stock of the world.

All the Lords of the territories that managed to survive till now all knew the importance of people sentiment. Apart from the sentiment of people in your territory, the Lord's prestige was extremely important too.

The Alliance Army was willing to surrender because of Ouyang Shuo's fame. Honglu Temple had even set up a division to be in charge of spreading the name of the Monarch.

In comparison, Feng Qingyang's actions would make one furious.

No wonder when the news spread out, some people said that the Feng Family was just a group of martial artists that did not know how to run a territory. Some said that they should just throw themselves into the arms of Liu Bei.

Anger swarmed at them.

Ouyang Shuo's words in the Quick Daily News had also broken all of Feng Qingyang's fantasies. Shanhai City definitely would not back down, and if Swordsman City did not agree, a war would be unavoidable.

Shanhai City that had just won the Battle of Yunnan was so strong that it made one shiver.

Even if the entire Yanhuang Alliance tried, they might not be able to do anything to Shanhai City. What more was a trivial Swordsman City?

Thinking about the faces of Di Chen and the others, Feng Qingyang did not think that they would fight with Shanhai City once more for him at such a time.

The only way out would be to yield.

Thinking about the humiliating terms, Feng Qingyue frowned. This time, Swordsman City had truly asked for it. However, looking at Feng Qingyang, it was not going to be easy to make him compromise.

A huge war was unavoidably going to start.

Feng Qingyue looked in the direction of Yongren City, deep in thought.

Consonance City.

Due to the actions of Swordsman City, Ouyang Shuo had to promptly arrange the appointments of the newly occupied three prefectures to allow the officials and civil servants to reach in time.

Just last night, the Nanjiang Governor-General House had announced a series of personnel appointments.

Tian Wenjing would be moved from Qiongzhou to Mengding. Hai Rui would be the new Qiongzhou Governor. These two appointments were settled long ago so they were not surprising.

The only exception would be that Mengding was worse than they thought.

Now, it was time to see how the cold-faced Governor Tian Wenjing was going to regain the people's sentiment and the economy in a short time.

After the global auction that had recently ended, Ouyang Shuo was unexpectedly left with a million gold. Ouyang Shuo did not keep a single gold and tossed in all into improving Yunnan Province.

Apart from the 300 thousand gold in teleportation costs, the remaining 700 thousand gold was used to support the construction of the three prefectures.

Mengding Prefecture alone was given 300 thousand gold. Dongchuan Prefecture's unexpected raid meant that they were given 200 thousand gold in financial support.

The remaining 200 thousand was naturally given to Tengyue Prefecture.

Cao Can would be moved from Kunming Prefecture Administration Director to Dongchuan Prefecture Governor.

His appointment was recommended by Kunming Governor Bai Hua. Ouyang Shuo had already promised the future position of Yunnan Provincial Governor as one of the terms of Consonance City merging with Shanhai City.

And as Bai Hua's right-hand administrative man, Cao Can, this Zhan Dynasty minister, was going to be hugely important in the provincial office.

As such, to allow Cao Can to convince everyone, Bai Hua suggested he let Cao Can work at Dongchuan Prefecture before she established the Yunnan Provincial Governor Office.

Cao Can was both highly skilled and familiar with the situation in Yunnan. Ouyang Shuo naturally had no reason to disagree with placing him as the governor.

Leizhou Prefecture Leishan House Prefect Zhou Haichen was promoted to Tengyue Prefecture Governor. Yizhou Island was renamed as Yizhou Prefecture and would be under military control until the governor was appointed.

Originally, Ouyang Shuo wanted to ask Broken Blade House Prefect Lei Fan to be the Governor. However, this appointment was not passed during the Administration Bureau Meeting, so it was postponed till the next meeting.

Ouyang Shuo decision to promote two native Prefects to the position of Governor was extremely surprising. Prefect to Governor was a substantial rise; it was akin to jumping from city to provincial level. If it were not the game world, such an appointment would be laughed at by people.

Even with native Governors like Cui Shousi from before, their appointments were still faced with resistance. Even with Ouyang Shuo's support, the Administration Bureau still blocked it.

Administration Bureau Director doubted these two Prefects, especially Lei Fan. Zhou Haichen was an actual juren in the wilderness and had been appointed many roles in Shanhai City and obtained a lot of credit, so Xiao He could give him a chance.

But Lei Fan? He was a mountain barbarian that had not read many books. The only education he had received was the two months in Xinan University. In their eyes, mountain barbarians were synonymous with ignorant. To be actually able to become an important official was insane.

Hence, Zhou Haichen's appointment barely made it past but Lei Fan's one was stopped.

Ouyang Shuo naturally could not ignore the opinions of Xiao He and the others. If he really did that, the entire system could not run, and it would even shake and affect the foundations of the territory.

If Ouyang Shuo forced through Lei Fan's appointed, Xiao He would only resign, which was something Ouyang Shuo did not wish to see.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo had to personally write a letter to Xiao He to ask the Official Ruling Department to send an evaluation group to evaluate and test Lei Fan.

After the results were out, they would discuss the matter further.

Since the Monarch had taken a step back, Xiao He obviously did the same. Just a day ago, an evaluation group led by Zhang Tingyu had entered Broken Blade House.

Without a doubt, this appointment would become a significant matter in the territory. The Monarch's power and the officials' power would have moments of conflicts and cooperation, becoming normal in the future official field of the territory.

To Ouyang Shuo, the tests and training had just begun.

Chapter 796 – Greed of the Unscrupulous Business Men

Along with the release of the appointments of the various governors, Zhou Haichen quickly entered the field of sight of the masses, becoming one of the hot topics. His background and past were dug up.

Cui Shousi, who was promoted before him, had the Cui Family supporting him and also an infanta like Cui Yingyu backing him up. Hence, his future was bright in the eyes of the people.

Zhou Haichen was different. He came over to the territory as a refugee and had no family and friends in the territory. He relied solely on his ability and the Monarch's support to walk step by step to his position today.

The only relationship he had was probably with Fan Zhongyan, who fostered and taught him when he was in the Administration Department.

Ouyang Shuo still remembered when he was establishing the affiliate village, Friendship County. At that time, he had compared Zhou Haichen and Qin Shijian.

In the end, he gave the role of Friendship County County Magistrate to Zhou Haichen while he gave Qin Shijan the role of Meritorious Service Secretary.

By now, Zhou Haichen had already become an extremely important official in the territory while Qin Shijian was still the Meritorious Service Secretary. However, the current Meritorious Service Division was under the Official Ruling Department under the Administration Bureau.

It seemed like going out and facing difficulties would allow one to obtain contributions to the territory and receive promotions.

As for the problem with Lei Fan's appointment, to protect Lei Fan, apart from Ouyang Shuo, Xiao He, and Zhang Tingyu, no one else knew about the matter.

Even Lei Fan himself had no idea.

Ouyang Shuo considered him for Yizhou Governor because Shanhai City had not found any great historical talents after they took down Yunnan City-State.

Lei Fan was also a member of the mountain barbarian tribe and had a great understanding of the territory multi-racial strategy. Hence, it would be good for him to be appointed in Yizhou, where mountain tribes were aplenty.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also considered the political matter of calming down the mountain barbarian tribe. As the Barbarian King, in addition to the mountain barbarian soldiers contributing so much to the territories in war, it was time to give them more speaking rights in the territory.

The promotion of Lei Fan would undoubtedly give the mountain barbarians a greater sense of belonging and closeness to the territory.

Hence, it would also build a very stable foundation for them to take over the mountain barbarians in the Shu Lands.

Of course, Xiao He's opinion made sense too. Before Lei Fan became the Gushan County County Magistrate, he was just a tribe leader and had not received any proper education and had a natural deficiency.

However, this alone was not enough to be a vote of no confidence.

In history, there were many generals who started out with humble beginnings but became major figures in the end. Even Xiao He himself was just an unassuming County Magistrate at one point.

In the end, talent mattered the most and not one's upbringing.

Ouyang Shuo was extremely confident that Zhang Tingyu's evaluation would bring a huge surprise to Xiao He.

Gaia 4th year, 1st month, 15th day, Dongchuan Prefecture.

During this period of time, Dongchuan Prefecture could be said to have faced many catastrophes. They were first swept by the Guards Legion, and then they were destroyed once more by the Yanhuang Alliance Army and Alliance Army. Afterward, the Swordsman City soldiers pillaged the prefecture.

The Swordsman City Army had not stayed here for too long before the Guards Legion Corps reclaimed Dongchuan Prefecture.

The lives of the Dongchuan Prefecture people were tough beyond belief. Due to the slow spread of information in ancient times, the people did not know about what had happened in the Battle of Yunnan. Every morning, they woke up not knowing who it was that ruled the land that they were living in.

On this day, the Guards Legion Corps led by Huo Qubing once again arrived outside of Yongren City.

The bodies outside of the city were all cleared out by the system, leaving a ground that was stained red by blood, proving that not long ago a seismic battle had taken place here.

Soldiers from the Guards Legion Corps 1st legion were looking rather absent-minded as many of them were buried in this land before being miraculously revived.

Yongren City would forever be a humiliation to all of them.

Long before the Guards Legion Corps had stepped foot in Dongchuan Prefecture, the Yongren City Lord had already abandoned the city and left. The disbandment of Yunnan City-State, Yanhuang Alliance being chased by Shanhai City, facing the menacing Guards Legion Corps that wanted revenge, the Yongren City did not think that there would be anyone who would be able to help him.

One must not look at how arrogant Feng Qingyang was, the Swordsman City Army did not even stay here and retreated swiftly to the Shu Lands, camping 50 miles away from the border. It was obvious that they did not want to fight with the Shanhai City Army.

If they still tried to stay, it would be the same as waiting for death.

The Yongren City Lord was extremely decisive; he took all the items he could and left just like that. As for the promises that the Yanhuang Alliance had given him, he was not prepared to go and collect them.

If he were to approach Di Chen and the Yanhuang Alliance now, they would probably eat him alive.

After the battle at Wenshan City ended, the China forums entered overdrive. There were comments about the battle, thoughts on how it would affect the China region, as well as discussions about the fate of the two alliances.

There was only one thing that everyone agreed on.

No matter what the players were discussing, they all had high hopes about the future of Shanhai City and felt that Yanhuang Alliance was on a decline.

The fans that the Yanhuang Alliance had hired wanted to fight for their Lords and employers and change the direction of the discussion, but they were instantly drowned out by the voices of the other players.

Di Chen and the others had never faced such a situation before.

Some people who were well-informed learned that the members of Yanhuang Alliance had been meeting a lot these few days; they were probably trying to think of a way to resolve the crisis at hand.

At such a time, if the Yongren City Lord went to find them, wouldn't he just be looking for his death?

Hence, when they saw that the Guards Legion Corps was outside the city, the last City Protection Regiment in the city came out to surrender. Along with them were the merchants in the city.

The first question that they asked made Huo Qubing not sure whether he should laugh or cry.

"General since you are here, you won't leave, right?" The person who asked this was extremely nervous.

Huo Qubing laughed in his heart. After all, he did not have a single good impression of Yongren City. However, as the commander, he needed to not only handle military matters but also consider the interests of the territory.

A commander did not solely represent military power.

"Do not worry. The entire Yunnan City-State has been taken down by us. So, do you think we will still leave?"

The moment this news broke out, the merchants and nobles present all felt their hearts jolt.

"Wow, Yunnan Province is about to turn on its head." Thinking about that, all of them heaved a sigh of relief and were not as nervous as before.

To them, it did not matter who ruled the city, stability was more important.

"General, please!"

The merchants immediately started to smile, with one wider than the next.

Huo Qubing did not fall for that. After all, he was born elite, and he was unwilling to hang around with people like merchants. Furthermore, 'Once bitten, twice shy' so Huo Qubing would not enter the city so rashly this time.

Although the Military Intelligence Division spies had already confirmed that the Yongren City Lord had left, the territory stone steele was still erected and the teleportation formation could still run effectively.

No one could be sure that the Yanhuang Alliance would not launch another sneak attack.

Huo Qubing arranged a unit to enter the city first to destroy the stone steele. Only then would he be able to lead his troops in without worry and officially take over Yongren City.

However, Huo Qubing was overthinking thing this time as Di Chen and the others did not have such plans.

...

Night, the merchants in the city invited the Guards Legion generals to a feast.

Huo Qubing could not decline it. Although these merchants were unscrupulous and despicable, this did not mean that they had no say here. If the officials that Shanhai City sent over wanted to rule Yongren City well, he needed the support of all of these people.

It was already the 4th year of Gaia and not the 1st year. There had been various power levels formed up in player territories and the power struggles within were exceedingly complicated.

Now, it was not like before where a new official would be able to calm down all waves.

If not, Ouyang Shuo would not have started dealing with emergency administrative matters right after the Battle of Lingnan had ended. He engaged in a month of touring activity to calm down the people sentiments and to deal with all the merchants and nobles.

In the midst of all the wine and food, the true faces of these merchants would be revealed.

Some merchants raised their wine cups and arrived before Huo Qubing. On their faces, there was the classic merchant smile. They bowed and said, "General, I am Zhu Jing, I run a small business in the town, let me toast to you."

As he said that, he drank the entire cup.

Huo Qubing was expressionless and raised his cup, "Zhu Jing, Zhu Ban Cheng, taking over 90% of the cloth, sesame oil, rice, and noodle businesses. Your personal wealth can buy up half of Yongren City, yet you say it is a small business?"

Huo Qubing had obviously studied everyone who was here for the feast. Huo Qubing did not like to deal with merchants, but this did not mean that he could not handle such situations.

On the contrary, Huo Qubing was extremely skilled at dealing with such people.

During the day, the Shanhai Guards had sent him specific intel. Zhu Jing was an important target, and the details regarding him were the most detailed.

This person was not a Yongren City resident. Instead, he was a person that the Yongren City Lord had spent a lot of gold to recruit from the Dali Imperial City. As a result, he was able to monopolize many businesses in the city.

Undoubtedly, this person was the representative of the merchants in the city.

How could Huo Qubing treat such a god of fortune lightly?

Hearing his identity being revealed, Zhu Jing was not surprised. On the contrary, he felt that this was to be expected.

Seeing Huo Qubing finish the wine in the cup, Zhu Jing's smile grew even wider, "General is too kind, I do not dare to say anything else, but no matter what the military needs, I can provide a little help."

As he spoke, Zhu Jing changed his tone, "I will not hide it from general. Before the damned Swordsman City Army left, they raided our treasury and warehouses. Now, we cannot even afford to pay the salaries and are on the verge of closing. Now that the Governor-General House is in charge, shouldn't you compensate us?"

"That's right!"

Everyone agreed.

It was obvious that the reason they had all invited Huo Qubing to the feast was not to speak some greetings.

When Huo Qubing heard these words, he cursed out in his heart, 'Unscrupulous businessmen!'

To think that they managed to think about asking Shanhai City to compensate them for their losses caused by Swordsman City looting them.

Chapter 797 – Guards Legion Corps Enters Shu Lands

Huo Qubing suppressed the annoyance he felt and looked around at all the merchants. Then he slowly said, "I'm only in charge of military matters and do not have the power to answer your question. As for compensation, you need to communicate with the Prefect that is about to be appointed."

When Zhu Jing heard this reply, he knew that the man in front of him was not easy to deal with. He immediately smiled and changed the topic. That night, although their goals were not achieved, they still held an extremely lively feast.

As the songs and show ended, Huo Qubing was still clear-headed and gathered the generals for a meeting that night.

Tonight was the deadline that the Monarch had given Swordsman City to return the prisoners and the 800 thousand gold. Obviously, Swordsman City was not planning to fulfill the conditions.

Since that was the case, Shanhai City could only resort to violence.

After returning to the camp, the various generals immediately felt more at home. They regained their senses, and their eyes all shone sharply.

Huo Qubing sat at the head of the room, "Tomorrow morning, we will lead our troops into the Shu Lands. Before this, I will need the military affairs officer to give us a description of the Shu Lands." As he said these words, he signaled toward a young man who was sitting below.

Based on how Shanhai City organized and formed its army, the Military Affairs Bureau's Military Intelligence Division had its headquarters in Shanhai City, and the four legion corps all had military intelligence personnel that was under the leadership of both the legion corps marshal and the Military Intelligence Division.

The young man nodded and unfurled a map; this was the map of the Shu Lands that the Military Intelligence Division had worked together with the Shanhai Guards to draw up.

"The entirety of the Shu Lands is mainly a mountain range region; it is split into the west highlands and the east flat plains. The west highlands have many mountains and hills, and between the hills are wide canyons. There are many swamps and the average land height is four thousand meters above sea level. Here, it is mainly the Qiang ethnic group that is located all around the mountains, known as Qiang Prefecture. West of the western highlands will be the mysterious Tibet."

"The eastern flat plains are part of a huge basin formed from the connecting mountain ranges and are the main region of the Shu Lands. The population here is dense and closely packed with cities; it is a place filled with natural resources. The Shu Lands have five prefectures. Apart from Qiang Prefecture, the rest are located in the eastern plains. The four Prefectures have the Chengdu Imperial City's Chengdu Prefecture as its center. To the north is Hanzhong Prefecture, east is Badong Prefecture, and south is Jiangyang Prefecture."

"Amongst the four Prefectures, Hanzhong Prefecture is occupied by three Lords; together, these parties form the Hanzhong Alliance. Chengdu is under the rule of the Shu Han regime and the remaining two Prefectures belong to Swordsman City."

"Chengdu Prefecture and Dadong Prefecture are both located in the central region of the basin; the land area there is flat with thousands of miles of fertile land. This is where the essence of the Shu Lands is located. Hanzhong and Jiangyang Prefectures are located at the north and south ends of the basin, where there are many hills, plains, and hills intersected. These geographical features make the area hard to attack but easy to defend. These two Prefectures can be seen as the north and south gates of Chengdu."

As they heard this report, a general asked, "Does this mean that as long as we take down Jiangyang, this south side gate, the entire Shu Lands will be revealed to us, and we will have no further obstacle?"

"That's right!"

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's quickly attack!"

The Military Intelligence Division chief shook his head and said, "It's not that simple. Knowing that Jiangyang is an important strategic area, Swordsman City has placed their main city at the north-most point of it, making itself the last barrier to the south. The pass where it is located at has been built to be comparable to the Sword Pass in the north connecting Hanzhong and Chengdu."

"Next, Swordsman City invested heavily last year to build 40 large and small passes. Between each territory, there are passes dividing them with many troops defending."

'Siii.'

All the generals took in deep breaths; such an arrangement was simply terrifying. The only thing that could probably threaten these passes was the P1 Type Cannon.

The only problem was that the Shu Lands was a mountainous region and some parts did not even have roads. One could only pass through the mountains and the ravines. Moving the cannons that weighed tons to their specific locations was extremely difficult.

For this reason, Feng Qingyang had little to fear.

Shu Lands were famous for being hard to attack exactly because of this.

Huo Qubing said, "Continue!"

"Yes!" The division chief nodded and continued his introduction, "The nearest city to Jiangyang Prefecture is known as Black Iron City. It got its name from producing large quantities of iron ore. Between us and them, there is a canyon path that we can use, and both sides are really high mountain peaks. Recently, a pass was built near Black Iron City; it is known as Protruding Dragon Pass. The 40 thousand Swordsman City troops that were housed in Dongchuan Prefecture have retreated to defend this pass."

"Apart from these 40 thousand troops, Black Iron City also has a City Protection Division. Apart from that, there is a 30 thousand men army on the way, and they will reach the city soon."

"What is the total strength of Swordsman City?" Huo Qubing suddenly asked.

"Apart from the Guards Division and the City Protection Division, they still have two War Fighting Legions. One is housed in Badong Prefecture, the other in Jiangyang Prefecture."

Normally, a Prefecture in the wilderness will only have one War Fighting Legion. Adding in the city protection troops and the guards, it would basically max out.

With Shanhai City as an example, before the Battle of Yunnan Started, Shanhai City had a total of 13 Prefectures. In the army, considering the City Protection Legions and the Guards Legion Corps, they had exactly 13 legions.

Of course, Shanhai City's situation was special and its foundation was more solid than the other territories. Its main city had also reached Grade 3 Prefecture level. As a result, apart from the army, they could build a large-scale navy.

Even so, it was still a massive burden on the finances of Shanhai City.

The five squadrons of the Nanyang Navy would not be expanded in the near future. If anything changes, it would be the remodeling of the five squadrons as well as the renewal of the warships and weapons.

Apart from Lords who prioritized military, there were very few Lords who had crossed this red line. On the contrary, a province in the wilderness could at most support a legion corps with five full legions.

The only special existence would be the imperial cities. The China region had nine imperial cities and with just one Prefecture, they could feed a million troops. If it were not for Gaia, this would be totally unimaginable.

The number of players living in the imperial cities was a similar situation.

It was unimaginable in ancient times for an imperial city to hold tens of millions of people and not fall. Without the special settings of Gaia, how would it be possible?

Out of all the players, the highest ranked Shanhai City was still working towards the two million people upper limit.

For Swordsman City to build two War Fighting Legions on the base of the Guards Division and the City Protection Division was already a remarkable achievement. After all, they were not famous for city management.

When Huo Qubing heard this news, his brows rose, "Which means that Swordsman City is ready to throw in all the soldiers in Jiangyang Prefecture to go all out against us?"

"That seems to be it."

"They are really too arrogant. Do they think they can stop us with just one legion?" Ma Chao said unhappily.

Huo Qubing shook his head, "The enemy has the geographical advantage and is also mainly defending, so we cannot be overconfident and look down on them."

The Guards Legion Corps was mainly composed of cavalry and were not good at mountainous and siege battles. The only group good at that were the two Heavy Armored infantry Mountain Barbarian Divisions.

It was not going to be easy to take down Black Iron City.

What was crucial was still time.

When in Consonance City, the Monarch had told them that if Swordsman City did not yield, they were to end the war before the Chinese New Year's Eve. They could not let this war drag on until the Chinese New Year.

Considering the time, they had less than half a month to complete the task.

As such, this battle had to be highly efficient, and they must hit Swordsman City at all the right spots.

The Monarch was giving the Guards Legion Corps a really tough task.

No matter how tough it was, Huo Qubing needed to complete it beautifully as this concerned the glory of the Guards Legion Corps.

"Apart from the mountain paths, are there other ways in?" Huo Qubing asked the Military Intelligence Division chief.

He nodded, "Yes. 80 miles east of Yongren City there is a river known as Jinsha River. If we go up the river, we could directly reach Black Iron City. Coincidentally, it is the low tide season so the water flows really slowly, which benefits us."

"Are there any difficulties?" Huo Qubing asked.

"Yes. When leaving Dongchuan Prefecture, Swordsman City destroyed all the large ships in the Prefecture. If we want to use the water routes to transport troops, it would be hard to do so in a short amount of time."

"...."

Huo Qubing stayed silent for a while. Now, he started to think about the territory navy. However, the five squadrons were located around the oceans and none of them were active within the land areas.

Even if they asked for help now, help would not be able to reach them in time.

"Can we gather small private boats?" someone suggested.

Huo Qubing shook his head. Not only did small boats have limited capacity, but it was really unsafe. If they were not careful, the boats would be destroyed and many lives would be lost. Furthermore, how many boats would be needed to send hundreds of thousands of men? They would basically need to clog up Jinsha River.

Apart from transporting troops, they still needed to send grain, which made matters even more difficult.

The only way would be the use the water routes to send thousands of troops. The Guards Legion Corps was equipped with military grain pills, so it was possible for the several thousand troops to last for many days.

"Do we have any spies and moles in Black Iron City?" Huo Qubing asked.

"Yes, we are confident about opening the city gates when our troops arrive."

During the Battle of Yongren, the failure of the three intel organizations caused the Monarch to scold them profusely. From them on, the shame pushed them even harder since they wanted to redeem themselves.

All three intel organizations increased their infiltration of the Shu Lands. Naturally, Black Iron City was within these plans. Furthermore, Black Iron City was mainly mining, so the population was rather messy and hard to manage, making it all the easier to infiltrate.

Huo Qubing's eyes lit up, and he turned to Shihu and said, "I will give you five thousand elites, are you confident about sneak attacking Black Iron City?" If they headed through the navy route, infantry troops were better as war horses were hard to transport.

Shihu did not even hesitate and stood up, "No problem."

To the mountain barbarians, this chance was an exceptional honor.

Huo Qubing nodded his head and started to craft a specific battle plan. If they wanted this sneak attack to succeed, they needed to create a series of coordinated plans.

Only at the dead of night did the various generals go their own way.

Chapter 798 – Tianmo Method (Fragment)

Gaia 4th year, 1st month, 17th day, Yongren City.

The sky had just turned bright, and hundreds of thousands of Guards Legion Corps troops crossed the Dongchuan border and entered the Swordsman City territory in the Shu Lands.

The huge army formed a long snake, slowly proceeding forward on the uneven mountain path as they headed toward Protruding Dragon Pass. At the same time, Shihu led five thousand mountain barbarian young men, avoiding all eyes and ears as they headed toward Jinsha River. Near Jinsha River, many ships were gathered secretly by the local officials and placed in the port.

The flames of war in the southwest that had just stopped were reignited once more.

At the same time, the second legion of the Dragon Legion Corps led by Shi Wanshui and the 4th legion led by Luo Shixin had already left Tengyue Prefecture up north to Dongchuan Prefecture. They were ready to be thrown into the Shu Lands battle at any moment.

The cleanup of Tengyue Prefecture would instead be left to the 3rd legion of the Dragon Legion Corps led by Zhang Liao.

The 2nd and 4th legions were the main force that the Dragon Legion had in defending the north of Yunnan Province. As the Shu Lands war had not begun, the new round of military organization had not been completed.

Ouyang Shuo was planning to wait till the Battle of Black Iron City had ended. At that time, he would take back the Guards Legion Corps prisoners then gather the four marshals and Admiral Zheng He to discuss the matter.

This kind of military meetings would form the future structure of the highest level of military discussions.

Based on the estimations by the Military Affairs Bureau, after deducting the casualties sustained and adding the mountain barbarian warriors recruited from Tengyu Prefecture, they could probably expand another three to four War Fighting Legions.

However, how to split up these troops posed a big problem. The four legion corps all hoped to get one or two of the numbers but exactly how to go about this would depend on their future plans.

Shu Lands, Swordsman City.

“The Guards Legion Corps as the vanguard and the Dragon Legion Corps as the backup. To fetch this batch of prisoners, Shanhai City actually went all out and mobilized four War Fighting Legions?” After listening to the intel reports, Feng Qingyang felt a little unsettled.

Feng Qingyue said, “Brother, there’s still time to negotiate with him.”

“Negotiate? No, let’s wait till they take down Protruding Dragon Pass. With just them cavalry, how will they even siege the pass?” Feng Qingyang was a person who cared a lot about his face. If not, he would not be trying so hard to cling on.

Feng Qingyue shook her head, “So what if the Guards Legion Corps cannot take down Protruding Dragon Pass quickly? What will happen when the two legions of the Dragon Legion Corps arrive? Even if the Protruding Dragon Pass is an iron fortress, it will still end up destroyed by the Shanhai City Army. One must not forget the enemy not only has a new type of cannon but also a flying force.”

“Shanhai City has a hundred ways to go about attacking the Protruding Dragon Pass. During the Battle of Guilin, weren’t all three passes taken easily? If we wait till the enemy takes it down, it would be too late. If their four War Fighting Legions enter the Shu Lands, it’s enough to take down the entire Jiangyang Prefecture. Big Brother, do you want to gamble with the fate of our territory?”

When Feng Qingyang heard her analysis, he fell silent for a long while.

Actually, he felt a little regretful in his heart. However, to save his face, he refused to yield. Yesterday, he tried to test out the attitude of Di Chen and the rest, and all of them were hesitant and did not talk about sending troops.

Swordsman City was relatively independent of its allies, and they were somewhat separate from the alliance. If it were not for their secret manual contributions, the Feng Family would not even be part of the six powers in China.

Swordsman City was a massive gap behind compared to the other territories in the Yanhuang Alliance.

Especially after rumors spread about the flirting between Swordsman City and the Shu Han Regime. Afterward, Di Chen and the others start to drift away from him. Hence, how would Di Chen and the others send help to save him from the Shanhai City Army’s attack?

Feng Qingyang had not had a close-up view of Shanhai City before all of this. This time, they had gathered four War Fighting Legions in one breath, double of the overall numbers of Swordsman City.

Only after that did he truly feel the wide gap between them. Without the name of Yanhuang Alliance, in front of Shanhai City, Swordsman City was nothing.

Such an understanding would undoubtedly make one depressed.

Feng Qingyang raised his head and looked at his sister, “If they have the guts to attack Black Iron City, I’ll kill all the 15 thousand prisoners.”

“Definitely not!” Feng Qingyue was astonished, “The Guards Legion Corps is the pride of Shanhai City. If we kill them, this matter will know no end. One battle is enough to give us a headache, but an entire war will be able to drag down the entire city.”

Feng Qingyang froze and awkwardly said, “I spoke thoughtlessly.”

Feng Qingyue reminded solemnly, “Let’s hope that is so. Big brother, stop, stop having such thoughts.”

As she said these words, Feng Qingyue asked worriedly, “Big brother, are you facing some cultivation problems? Why are you losing control of your emotions?”

The cultivation method that Feng Qingyang practiced was not the Feng Family hereditary technique but a secret manual that he had obtained in the game. Due to the mysterious and weird nature of the technique, Feng Qingyue was afraid that the cultivation of the technique had affected her brother.

In history, there were many who had personality changes due to cultivation. Thinking back to the unorthodox and weird nature of that technique made Feng Qingyue really worried.

Who knew that Feng Qingyang would get impatient when he heard this question? He waved his hand and said, “Ok ok. Let me think about it, you can leave!”

When Feng Qingyue heard that, she silently looked at her brother before getting up and leaving.

‘I should report this matter to father. I cannot let big brother do anything unsalvageable.’ Thinking about that, Feng Qingyue walked toward the Xiyuan.

The Xiyuan was the place where the Feng Family lived; it was a really quiet area that was suitable for cultivation.

The Feng Family was a group of martial arts maniacs. As a result, after they entered the game, they all focused on martial arts. Even the family territory was left to Feng Qingyang and Feng Qingyue.

This resulted in Feng Qingyang’s arrogant character.

Of course, they might seem like they did not care, but if something really happened, the words of the older generation would still be really important. … Xiyuan Sky Sword Courtyard.

The Feng Family Head was less than 50 years old. He was well built, and his face was filled with energy. Just by looking at him, one would know that he was a cultivator. Listening to his daughter’s report, Feng Xiaotian frowned, “I did not expect Qingyang to actually cause such trouble. He is so arrogant that he does not know how much danger the family is in. I am so disappointed.”

“Dad, I’m worried that his cultivation might be facing problems. Although he was arrogant before, he was not so stubborn.” Feng Qingyue did not strike him when he was down.

Feng Xiaotian nodded, “That might be a possibility. The Tianmo Method that he is training in is not the full technique. Furthermore, it’s a technique of the demonic path. If he was not careful, he might have walked onto the wrong path.”

“How about this? Tonight, I’ll go check on Qingyang.”

Not mentioning other things, Feng Qingyang was truly a cultivation genius. Not only was his bone structure great, but his comprehension was also exceptional. Regardless of the difficulty of the cultivation method, he could easily understand it.

With the Tianmo Method as an example, only Feng Qingyang in the entire Feng Family could understand the meaning within it.

Feng Tianxiao was naturally really proud of this son and saw him as the chance for the family to rise up. Learning that his cultivation might have faced some problems, he would obviously feel nervous.

Feng Qingyue nodded and left.

Looking at his daughter’s back view, Feng Xiaotian was filled with many thoughts.

1st month 19th day, Protruding Dragon Pass.

Without a care about what was going on in the Feng Family, the attack of the Guards Legion Corps started. In just two days, the vanguard forces had arrived at Protruding Dragon Pass.

The vanguard was the Heavy Armored Mountain Barbarian Infantry Division.

Considering the treacherous terrain that had many hills, the army would easily be attacked; especially cavalry forces. If they were disturbed, there would be no way to turn around.

This was also the reason why the Shu Lands were hard to take down.

The Guards Legion Corps being able to pass was due to the 10 times expansion of the game. If not, there would not even be this mountain path and the only way to enter would be through Jinsha River.

Standalone canyons and cliffs and some places that could only have bridges connecting the cliffs. Not mentioning fighting, just walking was difficult.

Hence, Huo Qubing could not send all the troops. Only the Mountain Barbarian Division was moving quickly. The 2nd division was still in the surroundings, maintaining the pressure and threatening the pass.

When the Mountain Barbarian Division arrived under the pass, they did not immediately attack. Due to the narrow and hard to travel nature of the paths, large siege weapons could not be transported over.

Without the siege weapons, it would be impossible to take down the pass.

The first thing they did after setting up camp was to work with the construction unit to get resources, cut trees, and build siege weapons on the spot.

When the Protruding Dragon Pass army saw that, they naturally mocked them for their actions.

Since they had such a pass, they had nothing to fear from their perspective. Of course, it was impossible for them to take the initiative to come out and attack.

The name and fame of the Heavy Armored Mountain Barbarian Infantry Division had spread far and wide in the wilderness.

Even after crushing them at Yongren City, the soldiers here did not dare to be too arrogant.

Anyone who knew the details would know that the Yanhuang Alliance and Alliance Army held the absolute numerical advantage. They had also surrounded them, but in the battle, they were still forced on the back foot, and they only won after paying heavy sacrifices.

The 40 thousand troops present would not dare to come out of the pass to fight.

The first exchange between Shanhai City and Swordsman City started in such an unusual manner. The mountain barbarians slowly built their siege weapons outside of the pass while the soldiers inside looked on. The atmosphere had none of the feelings of nervousness and trepidation that a war should have.

Chapter 799 – Fall of Black Iron City

This weird atmosphere outside of the Protruding Dragon Pass did not last for long.

1st month, 21st day; on the 3rd day after the Mountain Barbarian Division reached the pass, the battle finally began. With the help of the limited number of siege weapons, the mountain barbarians launched their first wave of assault.

The strong mountain barbarian warriors used simple siege weapons but managed to launch a ferocious assault, putting the soldiers in the pass in a tough situation.

After a huge battle, the number of casualties on both sides was actually comparable; what a terrifying situation.

At the same time, rumbling noises sounded out from the skies above Protruding Dragon Pass. On this day, the flying squad had finally arrived to help the Guards Legion Corps siege the pass.

The first appearance of the Shanhai City flying squad in Guiping had attracted a lot of attention. Finding a method to defend against the burning bombs thrown down from above became one of the top issues for cities and strongholds.

The most long-term goal was naturally to use stone or green brick to replace wood. The burning bombs that Shanhai City had created were obviously incomparable to the bombs of real life. Without something to burn, these bombs would be less effective.

However, to cities, using purely stone in their construction was not practical.

As for a stronghold, such a matter was more easily done.

However, the Dragon Protruding Pass did not take such measures. Only after war broke out did Feng Qingyue hurriedly order the troops to try their best to remove all flammable items.

As for all the wooden structures, they had already been removed.

From the cluster of flames breaking out within the pass, reality proved that they had not completely followed her instructions. After all, many people could not bear to demolish their own houses.

From 9 AM onward, the Flying Squad used Yongren City as a replenishing base and relentlessly bombed the pass. Along with the coordinated attacks of the mountain barbarians, the Protruding Dragon Pass was now in danger.

Apart from the buildings that were burning, the military tents that were set up were also on fire. To prevent the fire from spreading, more than half of the attention of the troops was placed on extinguishing the fires.

With that, the defending troops could not handle the vicious assault of the Mountain Barbarian Division. In just a morning, the city wall had three close calls and was nearly broken through.

This astonished all the troops within the stronghold. They did not dare to take this matter lightly anymore, and they started to defend the pass with their lives while seeking reinforcements from Black Iron City.

Hence, the 30 thousand reinforcement troops that had just reached Black Iron City did not even stop at the city. Instead, they directly rushed toward Protruding Dragon Pass. The moment the pass fell, Swordsman City’s 2nd legion chance of defending the city would become doubtful.

Just as the Swordsman City Army gathered in Protruding Dragon Pass, the Shihu led troops were going up the river.

With the help of the Flying Squad, Huo Qubing’s plan was smoothly carried out, drawing the 2nd legion of Swordsman City into Protruding Dragon Pass.

If nothing surprising happened, the fall of Black Iron City was only a matter of time. ….. Jiangyang Prefecture, Swordsman City.

As the war in Protruding Dragon Pass battle continued to fester, Swordsman City did not send any further instructions. The frontline decisions were left to the generals. However, it was not the Feng family acting slowly. It was not them being arrogant either; rather, their lack of action was because a massive change that had occurred in the family.

That night, Feng Xiaotian and two elders of the family checked Feng Qingyang and were shocked by their discovery. Feng Qingyang was on the edge of losing his senses. If they did not save him, it would be too late.

Feng Qingyang was the hope of the Feng Family rising up. This time, the entire family was shocked, and even the old grandfather who was cultivating behind doors was alerted.

The four elderly members worked together for two days and two nights before they finally managed to control the explosive Chi in his body. However, as for removing the devilish Chi from his body, Feng Qingyang would need to slowly deal with that himself. Feng Xiaotian did not dare to take the situation too lightly, and he ordered Feng Qingyang to cultivate behind closed doors and not deal with territory matters.

During this period of time, the entire Swordsman City was in a transitional state.

Now that Feng Qingyang was gone, the huge territory obviously needed someone to take over.

Helplessly, Feng Xiaotian could only come out of retirement and personally take charge. Although he was the head of the family, he did not excel at managing the territory and had previously left the matter for Feng Qingyang and Feng Qingyue to handle.

The moment he was appointed, he was bombarded with a whole load of administrative matters, making his head swell. Even when he cultivated, he could not calm down his mind and nearly lost himself.

Just three days after his appointment, Feng Xiaotian had already lost a load of weight.

At this time, Feng Xiaotian had to admit that in terms of territory management, he was not as good as his son.

This whole hold up meant that the battle at Protruding Dragon Pass had already reached the crucial stages.

Seeing that, Feng Xiaotian gritted his teeth and decided to let Feng Qingyue take over, allowing her to temporarily become the Lord.

As an ancient aristocratic family, the Feng Family unavoidably treated males more highly than females. Although Feng Qingyue’s territory management talent was better than Feng Qingyang, she was only given the role of advisor and did not have much power.

When Feng Qingyang had to close up, Feng Xiaotian instinctively took up the role. He did not even consider handing the role over to Feng Qingyue.

Only when he found out that he could not manage it did a lightbulb light up in his head. Just like that, the family elders would not have any room to oppose him.

One had to say, Feng Xiaotian’s decision was truly smart and helped them avoid a catastrophe.

By the time this whole mess slowly calmed down, it was already the 24th day.

Feng Qingyue felt really complicated when she took over the power. When she truly understood the situation on the frontlines and wanted to meet the Shanhai City envoy, the situation experienced a shocking change.

When Feng Qingyue heard the news, she was silent for a long while, and her face was ashen white, “We were still too late!”

To talk about this matter, we have to go back two days.

On the night of the 22nd day, the Jinsha River gushed. The river water was filled with large quantities of sand and dirt. Under the night sky, it showed a golden yellow color, which was how the name of the river came about.

On the river surface, thousands of small boats went against the waves, forming a truly majestic sight.

Shihu led five thousand elite mountain barbarians, going up the river and finally arriving near Black Iron City.

Black Iron City was built on the south shore of the Jinsha River, and the river flowed around the city. The five thousand mountain barbarians disembarked sneakily 20 miles away from Black Iron City. Thousands of small boats flowed down the river and quickly disappeared into the darkness.

“Rest up for half an hour; pay attention to the camouflage!” Shihu ordered.

The mountain barbarians were a group of landlubbers. This was also the first time some of them had boarded a boat. Shaking left and right on the river surface was definitely not a pleasant experience.

If it were not for their strong bodies, they would have already lost control of their legs.

Just as the troops were resting, an unassuming Feng Bird found Shihu and stopped on his shoulder. This Feng Bird was from the Xuanniao Tribe that Shihu hailed from, so the two had a natural closeness to one another.

If not, this Feng Bird would not have been able to pinpoint his location so accurately.

The intel attached left him stunned. The spies in Black Iron City planted by the Shanhai Guards had confirmed that they would open the east gate tonight at 8 PM.

They would at most be able to open the gates for 15 minutes, so the army needed to make good use of this time.

“15 minutes? That’s enough.”

Shihu looked at the color of the sky and ordered his troops to set off and sneakily proceed toward Black Iron City. …… At 7 PM, the army was already hiding in the woods four to five miles away. From the gaps in the trees, they could clearly see that the city gate was shut.

The mining outside of the city had ended, so the workers either slept in the mines or had already entered the city. From the few guards in the city, one could see that the defense of Black Iron City was not that strict.

When Shihu saw this situation, he grew more confident.

At 7:50 PM a torch appeared on the city wall and was swung back and forth three times.

When Shihu saw this, his eyes jolted awake.

This was the hidden signal coordinated by the spy and him to show that everything was normal and to follow the plan.

“Send down my orders, get ready to act!” Shihu quietly ordered.

“Yes!”

In a flash, the mountain barbarians who were resting against the trees all got up swiftly and used the shortest amount of time to inspect their weapons.

In less than five minutes, they had formed up.

The mountain barbarians who were famous for their lax attitude had become a strict and disciplined iron army thanks to the training of the Shanhai City System.

The next few minutes were so nerve-wracking that it could suffocate someone.

A small mistake at such a time could cause an all-out defeat. Shihu stared seriously at the city gate. He did not even blink for a few minutes.

7:56 PM.

‘Kachi!’ a drawbridge was slowly lowered.

“Charge!”

Shihu did not dare to waste any time, and he simply ordered them to charge in.

Five thousand mountain barbarians in the night silently charged toward the city gates. Throughout this entire process, the city gate was being slowly opened.

Seeing that, the mountain barbarians charged more ferociously.

Pretty much at the same time, Shihu activated his specialty to increase their movement speed. It took less than 15 minutes for them to arrive before the city gate.

Peering inside, it was pitch black.

“Charge!”

Shihu did not even hesitate; he lifted the God Weapon that the Monarch had given him and charged in.

The city protection soldiers were finally startled and muddily walked out. Instantly, their heads were chopped off.

A massacre took place during the night.

After killing the city wall defense troops quickly, Shihu did not dare waste any more time and led the troops into the city Lord’s Manor. Only by destroying the stone steele within would they have succeeded.

Black Iron City was not a trading capital, and it was already 8 PM. As a result, the streets were completely empty. The charging of the mountain barbarians had totally broken the silence.

The Black Iron City City Protection Division was still forming up in the barracks when they got the news that the mountain barbarian soldiers were already in the manor. Be it bailiffs or guards, they were all like normal people in front of the mountain barbarians, and they were killed in one blow.

Chapter 800 – Shu Mountain Iron Corporation

The unexpected fall of Black Iron City signaled that the Battle of Shu Lands had entered a whole new stage. Of the troops that Swordsman City had housed in Jiangyang Prefecture, apart from the 2nd legion that was gathered in Protruding Dragon Pass, only the City Protection Division and the Guards Division were left.

Apart from that would be the local defense troops.

With that, after Black Iron City fell, Swordsman City had basically no troops left that they could deploy.

This made Feng Qingyue, who had just taken over the territory, feel extremely awkward. She realized that along with the fall of Black Iron City, Shanhai City would not be pleased with the offer that they had made.

The intelligent Feng Qingyue had thought even further ahead.

The iron ore base of Black Iron City was of normal importance to Swordsman City, but it was a total treasure to Shanhai City that had the steelmaking technology.

Since Shanhai City had taken down Black Iron City, they definitely would not be willing to spit it out.

Just as she had guessed, even without this matter, Ouyang Shuo would have found a way in the future to take down Black Iron City.

To Shanhai City, one Black Iron City was as valuable as an entire prefecture.

1st month, 23rd day, Black Iron City.

Because of the massacre that happened last night, the people in the city could not fall asleep.

When the cold morning sun once again shone down on the territory, this city that no attention one paid attention to had a new leader.

During the massacre last night, Shihu led the five thousand elite troops to not only take over the city Lord’s Manor but to also crush the City Protection Division.

The entire city was now tightly under their control.

The massacre last night was not just limited to soldier versus soldier action.

After the mountain barbarians took control, the spies of the three intel organizations that were hidden there started to move, using the night to complete brilliant assassinations.

Anyone in the city that prevented Shanhai City from taking over was killed. Although not many people were assassinated by them, it caused the entire city to be paralyzed.

If one were to use a comparison, Shihu performed a massacre while the intel organizations performed precise surgery. Those who deserved to die were all killed, and those who did not deserve to die all survived.

Within a night, Black Iron City had changed completely.

After Shihu took control, his first order was to cut off the grain provisions to Protruding Dragon Pass. Hence, it instantly placed all the soldiers there in a tight spot. … On the noon of the 23rd, the news that Black Iron City had fallen spread to the Protruding Dragon Pass.

When the Legion General in charge of the 2nd legion heard this news, he was astonished. This Legion General could be considered famous; he was the Shu country general, Wei Yan.

After Liu Bei entered Chengdu, all the generals in Shu Han, apart from Guan Yu and Zhang Fei who died in the battle, all followed him and joined the imperial side. They all took up roles in the Chengdu Guards Army.

After Swordsman City came into contact with the Shu Han Regime, to show their closeness, Liu Bei allowed Feng Qingyang to select a general. The one he chose was Wei Yan.

Wei Yan was also known as Wenchang, and he was a famous Shu country general during the Three Kingdoms Era; this general was regarded highly by Liu Bei.

As he had accumulated many contributions, Liu Bei appointed him as Ya Men general. After taking down Hanzhong, he was promoted to Hanzhong Governor and became a general of an entire region.

He protected Hanzhong for close to 10 years before following Zhuge Liang to conquer the north. During that period, he had requested many times for Zhuge Liang to give him ten thousand troops to attack Guanzhong but was denied. Hence, he was unhappy because he felt that he was unable to show his talent.

This was also one of the reasons why he was willing to move to Swordsman City.

In his eyes, rather than working under Zhuge Liang, why not take a step back? Reality showed that his decision had merit. The moment he came to Swordsman City, he was appointed as the Legion General of the 2nd legion.

However, he did not expect his first battle to be such a mess.

With his way out being broken, Wei Yan did not dare take matters into his own hands and immediately sought for Feng Qingyang’s instructions. Should he defend, try to take back Black Iron City, or retreat?

However, at this time, Swordsman City was under Feng Xiaotian, and his memorial was buried under a mountain of books.

Helplessly, Wei Yan could only fight to the death.

He held on, bracing both the attacks from the skies and the relentless assault of the Mountain Barbarian Division.

If it were not for Wei Yan leading them, they might have already lost Protruding Dragon Pass.

Even so, the 2nd legion still suffered heavy casualties.

During the night, Wei Yan once again wrote another memorial to request for the Lord to make a decision. If not, he could only act based on the situation. Truthfully, he wanted to retreat.

Luckily, Feng Qingyue had taken over the next day and saw Wei Yan’s memorial.

That saved the Swordsman City 2nd legion.

1st month, 24th day, Swordsman City.

Feng Qingyue looked at the intel placed in front of her. She ordered Wei Yan to let the 2nd legion defend the pass while she requested to meet the Shanhai City envoy.

City Lord’s Manor.

“So Swordsman City is willing to return our Guards Legion Corps prisoners and also compensate us with 800 thousand gold for pillaging Dongchuan Prefecture?” The envoy sent out by the Honglu Temple said slowly; his face was not as anxious as before.

It was obvious that the news of Black Iron City falling had spread to his ears.

Feng Qingyue suppressed the anger in her heart and nodded, “That’s right. We accept the two terms listed by Shanhai Monarch and request that it is executed immediately. We would like your troops to retreat from Black Iron City.”

“I understand your request. I’ll immediately convey this to the Governor-General House for the Monarch to give further instructions.”

The leader of the envoy only agreed to pass on the word and did not reply to the retreating of troops matter.

‘At such a time, only an idiot would retreat.’

Feng Qingyue sighed; she knew that things were not so simple and said helplessly, “Then I hope for a quick reply. A day’s delay would mean more sacrifices for both sides.”

“Do not worry. I’ll take my leave first.”

Looking at the fading back view of the envoy leader, Feng Qingyue’s brows were locked, “I hope your appetite is not too huge.”

Just at this moment, a black-clothed man entered the hall.

Feng Qingyue asked him, “Did Chengdu give us a reply?”

“Shu Han Prime Minister Zhuge replied that the regime would not allow Shanhai City’s arrogant behavior. As long as we make the request, their reinforcements can arrive at any time.”

Based on system rules, the Imperial City Army could not proactively attack Lords in the wilderness. The only exception would be if a Lord requests for protection and was willing to become a vassal of the imperial city.

To the wilderness Lords, the moment they requested for imperial city protection, they would have no way out. The moment they became a vassal, they would be a vassal forever.

Hence, unless one had no other choice, no one would be willing to request for protection from the imperial city.

There was one more matter – the player could not apply for protection from all of the nine imperial cities. Only those with emperors and regimes present like Xianyang, Luoyang, and Chengdu would accept applications.

They would only accept territories that were within their province.

Feng Qingyue did not feel relieved, tiredly waving her hand, “I got it; you can leave!”

“Yes!”

Feng Qingyue was obviously clear about the ambitions of the Shu Han Emperor. They really wished that Swordsman City would request for help. If that happened, they could take the chance to occupy Shu Lands.

Hence, Feng Qingyue would only do so if she had no other choice.

The same day, Shanhai City.

During the afternoon, the memorial from the envoy had reached Ouyang Shuo’s table.

After meeting Huo Qubing in Consonance City, Ouyang Shuo did not stay there and immediately returned to Shanhai City instead. Since the Lunar New Year was about to arrive, even if there was a hugely important matter, he needed to be in Shanhai City at this moment as the Lord.

To the people, this time held an important meaning and could not be taken lightly.

Ouyang Shuo even pushed back the tour of Yunnan till after the Lunar New Year.

Ouyang Shuo did not have any doubts that the Guards Legion Corps could take down Black Iron City. With Huo Qubing’s ability, if he could not even accomplish such a simple task, how could he be worthy of being considered a God General?

Reality proved that he had done a beautiful job.

To tell the truth, Ouyang Shuo did not harbor much greed toward Swordsman City or even the entire Shu Lands at the moment.

From the start, he was clear that the biggest opponent to Shanhai City in the Shu Lands was the Shu Han Empire.

Shanhai City did not have the ability to challenge the imperial city, so it could not force Swordsman City into too desperate of a position.

If a dog was anxious, it would even jump over the wall.

As for when he would fight with the Shu Han Empire, he would consider it after establishing the country.

The most important thing right now would be to calm down the aftereffects of the Nanjiang war and integrate the Yunnan Province into their rule to prepare to establish the country.

Thinking of which, Ouyang Shuo raised his brush and noted on the memorial:

“The original two terms are unchanged, only adding one more. The land near Black Iron City will be given to Shanhai City, and both sides will not invade the territories of one another.”

Ouyang Shuo wanted to learn from how the steel giants in real life worked, to consolidate all the factories, coal factories, and other related facilities to form a giant steel corporation, forming a foundation for the territory industrialization.

Black Iron City, which produced iron ore and did not lack coal, was undoubtedly a good choice. Ouyang Shuo chose to name the corporation Shu Mountain Steel Corporation.

Even the Black Iron City City Magistrate died under Shihu’s axe.

Chapter 801 – War Brings in Fortune

Gaia 4th year, 1st month, 26th day, Shanhai City.

It was three days before Chinese New Year’s Eve and Shanhai City was already filled with the festive spirit. The victory in the Battle of Yunnan had added an extra bit of splendor and excitement to this giant city, brining pride and honor to the faces of the people.

Along with the Civil Affairs Department migration plan coming to an end, Shanhai City’s population was getting closer to the two million mark. Especially after Shanhai City claimed complete victory in the Yunnan Battlefield, more and more players applied to move in.

Any player with foresight would know that the imperial cities would not remain safe forever. Once the Lords in the wilderness reached a certain level of strength, the two would definitely have conflicts and war would be totally unavoidable.

Who would have higher chances of winning?

Different people had different thoughts.

However, one thing was for certain – territories in the wilderness had unlimited growth potential. With Shanhai City as an example, they started with nothing. Now, in a short 3 years, they had gathered a million troops.

And due to the system restrictions, the imperial cities were stuck at the same place since the start.

When the wilderness territories fought against the imperial cities, the players who were stuck in between them would need to make a choice. If they chose wrong, they might become a sacrifice.

They had to make this decision early on.

The only new factor was the opening of the underground world, which had locked up all their attention.

There were rumors spreading that after the Chinese New Year, the nine imperial cities would all push out storyline quests relating to the satellite cities.

Just as the Battle of Yunnan broke out, large-scaled PKs between guilds numbered no less than 100 while small-scaled ones were countless. The guild circle in the nine imperial cities were undergoing a refresher.

To the small and medium-sized guilds, they only had three choices ahead of them. They could move their members to a wilderness territory and give up on the underground world.

Otherwise, they could choose a camp and join a large guild, or totally disappear, the guild broken up, the members taken in.

Apart from that, they had no other choices.

Even if anyone tried to be smart and contact the other small and mid-sized guilds to copy the City-State model to build a guild alliance, the large-sized guilds would immediately crush their attempts.

On this point, the large guilds had a common consensus.

The times of the fishes grouping up in the guild circle had passed and would never return.

This whole matter was thorough and deep, and the number of people killed reached an unprecedented number.

Even the publishing of the information piece Wulin arrives could not draw the players’ attention away. The nine imperial cities all opened up sects and dojos but very few people went to learn.

Since they were on the verge of a war, players sought for a quick raise to their skills to prepare for the battle. To learn basic sect martial arts now was just too late and would not help much.

There might even be cases where their skills dropped due to conflicting martial arts.

During this period of time, equipment, medicine, substitute dolls, and similar items saw their prices on the market climb; this was especially so with high grade products. The prices of these products doubled, becoming a market where there was a lack of supply.

To survive in the huge war, players did not mind spending all their gold.

Meng Zhida reported that the savings amount of the 1st month was lower than the amount taken out, a historical negative growth for the bank.

To counter this, the Four Seas Bank had to reduce its loans.

When merging with Consonance City, the shares of Constance City and the relevant duties were transferred to Shanhai City. Ouyang Shuo even paid a one-time payment of 500 thousand to Bai Hua for this matter.

Gaia was undoubtedly an intelligent chess master. When they pushed out the achievement value event, they did not want players to save in banks to gain interests but to spend it all.

The release of the underground world and the Satellite City dispute was one of the moves Gaia had come up with.

The upcoming guild war was a massive money making opportunity for Lord gamemode players, who were not affected by these fights. Especially military giants like Shanhai City, just the sales to Snow-War Rose, Qingfeng Pavillion, Tingyu Floor, and other allies had broken four million.

Luckily, the recently ended Yunnan battle had provided them with 200 thousand odd sets of equipment.

Along with the scattered equipment that they obtained from the battlefield, the numbers were even greater.

Just this alone helped Shanhai City earn more than four million gold, changing the fates of the struggling territory finances.

Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate, spending 1.5 million on the new round of military organization as well as the extra rewards for the soldiers that joined in both the Battle of Lingnan and Yunnan.

The moment the news was released, the soldiers felt their blood boil.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo did not forget the civil servants and used 500 thousand gold to reward the local civil servants. Especially those who had performed exceptionally well, those individuals were given much higher rewards.

Without the contributions of the tens of thousands of civil servants throughout the year, how would the territory become so prosperous?

Two million gold could be said to be the year-end bonus that Ouyang Shuo had given out. Such generosity was something that other territories had no way of matching. … Afternoon, Ouyang Shuo’s reading room.

In the silent reading room, Ouyang Shuo gathering Industrialization Director Chen Bingguang, Industry and Development Planning Director Cui Yingyu, and Finance Division Secretary Gong Jian.

The Finance Division was a division under the Finance Bureau; they dealt with the territory Financial Budget and funds allocation, so it was a rather important division in the bureau.

Gong Jian was a financial officer of the federation in real life and was extremely experienced. Meng Zhida and the financial expert Old Xie had recommended him. After the Black Snake Guards evaluated him, he was appointed as the financial secretary.

Compared to the ancient people, Gong Jian had more than enough skill to run the Financial Division.

Ouyang Shuo gathered these three to discuss the matter regarding the Shu Mountain Steel Corporation.

The planned corporation would be under the Industrialization Department, financially supported and monitored by the Finance Division. The Industry and Development Planning Department would also give it some benefits in terms of industrialization policies.

Just yesterday, Shanhai City and Swordsman City had come to a ceasefire, ending the southwest battle.

Feng Qingyue agreed to Ouyang Shuo’s term of occupying Black Iron City but on its base she raised a proposal: Swordsman City would sign a trade agreement with Shanhai City.

As for the specifics, Feng Qingyue pointed out that she hoped that the iron corporation set up in Black Iron City could provide iron to Swordsman City at a discounted price.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he was really surprised.

Compared to her brother, Feng Qingyue’s skills were much higher, and she was able to make a win-win situation.

Ouyang Shuo had no reason to reject but also made a restriction. The Shu Mountain Steel Corporation had to first fulfil the territory needs before exporting to Swordsman City.

Feng Qingyue was worried that Ouyang Shuo would play some numbers game and purposely added a lowest amount.

On this matter, both sides went back and forth.

After four rounds of discussions, the two of them finally came to an agreement. The specific terms and details would be discussed by the officials on both sides.

That day, Feng Qingyue ordered the 2nd legion to move out of Protruding Dragon Pass and out of the vicinity of Black Iron City.

The Guards Legion Corps smoothly took over the defenses around Black Iron City. Only after Shu Wanshui’s legion arrived would the Guards Legion Corps return to Shanhai City.

Black Iron City was located at the southwest point of Jiangyang Prefecture and had a pass separating it from the prefecture. As long as Shi Wanshui’s legion guarded that pass, the northern defense would be solved.

On the west would be the Qiang Prefecture, where the Qing Tribe lived. There was a huge sea level difference between the two. Probably only locals could find paths to walk on the mountains, so it was impossible for a huge army.

The south was connected to Dongchuan Prefecture and Luo Shixin’s legion would camp there so that they could reinforce the north at any moment.

On the east of Black Iron City was Chuanbei Province. Similarly, there were many tall mountains and also a pass. As a result, they needed to arrange troops to defend there. If needed, they would also strengthen and solidify the pass.

All in all, the pressure on Black Iron City was not huge, with Shi Wanshui there, it was temporarily safe. Even if Swordsman City joined up with the Shu Han regime to attack, they would not be able to break through so quickly.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo would have no worries setting up the Shu Mountain Steel Corporation in Black Iron City. He also renamed the city to Steel City.

The Shu Mountain Iron Corporation would become one of the core pillars of the territory industrialization, so Ouyang Shuo naturally had to treat it really seriously.

“The starting funds of the steel corporation will be set at 500 thousand.” With the unexpected funds, Ouyang Shuo now had the ability to settle this matter before the Chinese New Year.

Without the extra funds, Gong Jian would probably be the first one to oppose.

This time, the Finance Division gave the green light to everything. Gong Jian even joked, “500 thousand is only the estimate. If we need more funds, the Finance Division will provide strong support. We can take out 350 thousand more.”

Ouyang Shuo looked at Chen Bingguang and said half-jokingly, half seriously, “Old Chen, the funds to build the factories the Finance Division has been given you enough, but you all cannot spend too recklessly. The good steel must be used on blades and sabers, the money must also be carefully spent.”

Every bit of money in the territory was earned through blood, sweat, and tears. As such, Ouyang Shuo, this ‘boss’, obviously needed to manage it well.

Chen Bingguang replied gently, “Do not worry Monarch. The Industrialization Department will set up an auditing group to monitor the steel corporation. We will not recklessly spend a single copper.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “The Industrialization Department must also pay attention to the No.7 Research Institute. The territory steelmaking technique is not mature yet, and we still need to make technological breakthroughs before we can make steel on a large scale.”

“Understood!”

With all these matters handled, Ouyang Shuo ended the meeting.

To let the Shu Mountain Steel Corporation rise up, the Industrialization Department and the other departments in the Governor-General House needed to do a lot of ground work.

Such matters would not be completed in a day or two.

Just the early monitoring, evaluation, drilling, research and overall designs, including organizational structure and personnel appointments would take one to two months.

It was better to be slow starting out then mess up.

The Industrialization Department had already established a small group to be put in charge of constructing the steel corporation.

Chapter 802 – Country Title Meeting

After dealing with the matters regarding Shu Mountain Steel Corporation, Ouyang Shuo officially started to rest.

A year had passed, and the various parts of the territory system were improved, and the leave system was one of them. Ouyang Shuo could not demand people to work 365 days a year as that was truly inhumane.

The territory followed the Tang Dynasty system and created specific holidays.

Chinese New Year and the winter solstice each had seven days of holiday. Apart from that, the Mid-Autumn Festival, Xiazhi, Laba Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and other traditional festivals were given three days holiday.

The holidays for Chinese New Year and Winter Solstice were given three days before and three days after.

Tomorrow would be the 27th, so it would be the first day of the Chinese New Year holiday.

During the holiday period, the government organizations would be sealed and work would stop, allowing the officials to return home to see their relatives. Only until the 5th day of the Chinese New Year would they return to start working again.

Hence, even the planned leadership meeting was pushed back by Ouyang Shuo till after the holidays. …… In the next few days, Ouyang Shuo would get a few hard to come by days of rest.

During these few days, he either dressed casually, accompanied Bing’er to play in the various parts of the city, toured the prosperous city and looked at the lives of the people, or had heart to heart talks with Song Jia under the moon.

He also visited the Xinan University to drink and play chess with Taigong, or visited the Confucius and listened to the Saint speak. Sometimes, he would go to the tea house to listen to songs and watch dances, spending two to three hours at a time.

During his free time, he also went to the back gardens to stroll and play with the territory prosperity beast Qiyi, who had made this place his home. Sometimes, he decided to stay alone in the pavilion, not thinking or doing anything.

He did not accept any invitations or visits from anyone.

During this time, Ouyang Shuo followed the tradition to hold a huge feast in the main hall. As for the event held by Gaia, Ouyang Shuo was not interested anymore.

On the contrary, Bing’er had once again obtained a large gift from Gaia and she was elated.

The first day of the Chinese New Year was still the worship ceremony, and it proceeded strongly and vigorously. The only change was that Song Jia, as the lady of the Nanjiang Governor-General, walked side by side with Ouyang Shuo.

There was also something else that happened.

During the worship of the Yellow Emperor, a System Notification sounded out by Ouyang Shuo’s ear.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, territory prosperity beast was affected by the worship ceremony and triggered prosperity – Golden dragon soars across the sky. Congratulations player!”

The moment the words sounded, a loud dragon roar broke out from the clouds. Looking up, a golden dragon had appeared, and it flew around the sky. Its dragon scales were really eye-catching.

That instantly stunned everyone.

Everyone who joined in the ceremony were top officials and generals in the territory. Seeing this phenomenon, all of them were delighted. Xiao He even said, “Monarch, the golden dragon appears, it’s the sign of the emperor, it’s the best time to establish the country.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and did not directly reply. It was not good to praise himself at such a moment, right?

Without a doubt, such a sign of prosperity had provided some proof to the people for his establishment of the country. It united their thoughts and raised their loyalty and their sentiments.

Since there was such a prosperous sign, all the people were obviously delighted.

On the 2nd day of the Chinese New Year, Shanhai City held many lantern festivals and temple fairs.

The prosperity sign was already written by people and made into shows by various people, saying that their Monarch had the aura of an emperor, further clearing the obstacle to establishing the country.

Even the various media outlets started to give detailed reports.

When Di Chen and the others saw that, they were stunned. They realized that Ouyang Shuo was showing his power to form an unstoppable stance when establishing his country.

Even so, they felt really bitter as they had no ability to stop him.

Being influenced by that, more and more talents and scholars were willing to move over to Shanhai City.

No one had the power to stop that.

From the second day onward, Ouyang Shuo brought Bing’er and Song Jia to the various temple fairs. Each time he appeared, the Divine Martial Guards would help open the way. The whole journey was really secure and serious, giving off a powerful aura.

Lin Jing also brought Xie Siyun over, and they had a reunion dinner together.

Amongst all the clamor, the Gaia 4th year Chinese New Year had come to an end. Now, they welcomed a brand New Year.

Gaia 4th year, 2nd month, 3rd day, the 5th day of the Chinese New Year.

The 1st day after the holidays ended, Ouyang Shuo held the first court assembly of the year.

During the assembly, Xiao He, Wei Yang, Fan Li, and Du Ruhui all worked together to hand over a memorial to suggest the process of establishing the country as the most important matter to start the year.

Ouyang Shuo did not refuse and agreed on the spot.

For Shanhai City to establish a country was definitely not an easy matter. Apart from upgrading to Capital City, there were other matters that needed to be completed.

The first would be to confirm the title of the reigning dynasty.

This title was hugely important as it affected the fate of the entire territory and was the foundation of the country.

Everything had a process. Starting up with nothing meant that the foundation was not stable so it was hard to obtain luck and prosperity. Just like Shanhai City, the name Shanhai was just a random name and did not hold any historical meaning. Even though he had overpowered territory specialties, it still remained difficult for him to attract huge talents who willingly pledged their loyalty.

This was the meaning of a foundation being not stable.

Qin Dynasty was known as Shuide, which was black in color, referring to the power of the ghost gods.

If a person had a dark aura, it meant that one was close to the underworld and the country would not last for long.

The Qin Dynasty moved away from the king system and started the emperor system. Since they started it, they did not have any foundation, so it ended in three generations.

The Han Dynasty continued in their path, learning from their mistakes and slowly got better.

Further dynasties, with the stability of Qin and Han, the way of the emperor was already formed and a strong foundation was already established. As such, everyone afterward was just inheriting it, so there was no need to start from scratch.

The regime was not the only important aspect as even the title of the ruler was really important.

Normally speaking, the crown prince and others children, or the emperor’s favorite people, would be given the title of prince of the country. Amongst which, the titles of Qin, Pu, Qi, and Chu were the most honorable as they represented the four most powerful countries during the Warring States Period.

The brothers of the emperor would also be given relatively high titles. As for his bastard sons, their titles would not be that good. Below the title of prince was also the dukes, which were a level lower.

A duke was usually two words awarded based on the name of the prefecture of county.

As such, in terms of titles, it represented the fate and destiny as well as foundation of the country.

Hence, when a Lord player established the country, it was best for them to inherit an ancient country title. It would be like inheriting the foundations of the past, and they would not need to start from scratch.

Rebellions in history did not understand this theory, often making some random title or even making up titles that had never appeared before.

It was not that these new titles would not work, but like branches stabbed into a ground, it would need to take root before it could grow. And this taking root needed time and luck. People battling one another meant that all the luck and prosperity were used in the wars and battles, so there was none left to be used on molding a foundation.

As a result, many of the revolutions in history failed.

Like how the Chensheng Wuguang Rebellion became the Han Regime; Huangjin Rebellion became the Wei Pu, and the quick ride and fall of the Sui Dynasty became the Tang Dynasty.

Many things prove that.

In the wilderness since the Qin Dynasty, every important regime would enter the game. If any Lord did not see that coming and used titles such as Qin, Han, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, or similar titles, they would be in for a good one.

To protect tradition, the country that inherited the title had the rights to launch war on other territories that stole its title. The end result would be that only one side would survive.

If any Lord had the confidence that they could destroy the imperial city, taking their title would become a possibility.

However, Ouyang Shuo temporary did not have such ambitions.

Hence, Shanhai City only had two choices. First, he could choose from the dynasty titles from the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period like Qi, Chu, Zhao, Zheng, and the like.

During the Three Kingdoms Era, the Wei and Wu countries all used this method. The 16 states of the southern alliance, the five dynasties, and the 10 kingdoms all followed this method.

Amongst the titles, the titles of Qin, Wei, Pu, these with historical regimes, were best left untouched. If not, conflicts might start one day because of it.

Even if they did not move into an imperial city, it could lay its roots in the aristocratic families; this was similar to how Xiang Yu had established West Chu.

Before West Chu was destroyed, it was best that Lords did not choose the title of Chu.

Secondly would be to choose from Xia, Shang, Zhou, these ancient titles. These three imperial cities would not appear and were the beginnings of all regimes and dynasties, so they were good choices.

Wu Zetian, who changed Tang to Zhou and formed the Wuzhou Regime, was using such a method.

In the wilderness, these titles were on a first come first serve basis. The moment a Lord used one of them, no one else could take the same title. The only way would be to destroy that country and take the title.

For someone to come from behind to achieve that was truly difficult.

Ouyang Shuo personally leaned toward the second choice as there were only three ancient titles, and they were the ones with the most weight. However, during the court assembly, Ouyang Shuo did not state his opinion.

He wanted to let all of them discuss the matter before coming to a decision.

Chapter 803 – Leadership Meeting

In order to establish the country, apart from considering the country title, they also needed to think about the ruling system.

The organizational structure of the Nanjiang Governor-General House began from the village times and had expanded based on the needs of the territory step by step along the way.

At the current date, the entire structure was growing more and more perfect.

After establishing a country, the organizational structure could not be easily moved or else it would shake the foundations of the country. Hence, when one established the country, one needed to make one last confirmation to decide on the structure itself.

The cabinet and military matters discussion organization needed to be settled now. Especially the cabinet, which was the most core administrative organization that needed talents to take charge of it.

Based on this system, members of the cabinet would not truly hold power.

As a result, Xiao He, Wei Yang, Fan Li, and other important officials could not enter the cabinet. If they wanted to, they would need to resign from their current jobs.

Choosing a cabinet elder was the most important matter for Ouyang Shuo now.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to invite Jiang Shang to take the position. When playing chess with him, Ouyang Shuo casually asked and observed Jiang Shang’s reaction, and he did not directly oppose the idea.

If he really wanted to succeed in this matter, Ouyang Shuo would need to put in a little more effort.

Apart from the title and the system, he needed to renovate the Governor-General Manor to turn it into an Imperial Palace. He also needed to choose palace ladies to help maintain the daily running of the Imperial Palace.

Additionally, they would need to upgrade the entire defense work of the Imperial Palace. Along with the release of the information piece, Wulin that had previously secluded itself in the wilderness was slowly showing itself.

The Wulin experts came and went as they pleased. Naturally, Ouyang Shuo needed to raise the level of security. The Imperial Palace must be an absolutely forbidden place for them, and they definitely were not allowed to do as they wished in the palace.

As for the crowning ceremony preparations, Ouyang Shuo did not need to worry about that as such matters would be settled by his subordinates.

During the court assembly, there were even people who suggested for him to take concubines to fill up the back palace.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this suggestion, he immediately declined. He was really clear that this was not them going back in time and was just Gaia testing the players.

The main characters in the game were still people of modern society after all; they were modern people.

No matter how Ouyang Shuo respected the ancient rules, he would not use this as an excuse to have three wives and concubines. That would be disrespectful toward love, toward Song Jia, and even toward women.

The bad habits of ancient regimes should be removed and abandoned without hesitation.

“From now on, such suggestions, be it the situation or timing, should not be raised again. If not, I would only think that you have bad intentions.” Ouyang Shuo said.

When the officials heard these words, their hearts were filled with respect.

From then on, discussions about concubines became a forbidden topic, and no one dared to raise the subject.

After this short interruption, the court assembly officially came to an end.

From then on, the territory entered an establishing country stage, where all matters revolved around establishing the country. … 2nd month, 4th day, Nanjiang Governor-General Manor, Wuying Palace.

Early in the morning, Ouyang Shuo gathered all the God Generals to hold the military meeting that was planned before the New Year. This meeting included Military Affairs Bureau Director Du Ruhui, Nanyang Navy Admiral Zheng He, Guards Legion Corps Marshal Huo Qubing, Dragon Legion Corp marshal Baiqi, Tiger Legion Corps Marshal Sun Bin, and Leopard Legion Corps Marshal Han Xin.

As they were the leaders of the army, this meeting was known as the leadership meeting.

The meeting started from 8 AM and lasted all the way till 6:30 PM before coming to an end. During which they only stopped for half an hour for lunch.

At the end of the meeting, all of the God Generals were fully energized.

The next day, the Military Affairs Bureau followed the meeting points and made a specific military organization plan. After Ouyang Shuo evaluated it, he started the biggest military reorganization in the territory.

The first to be reorganized was the Nanyang Navy.

The Jiaozhou Squadron led by Shi Lang officially became the Yizhou Squadron, and it would shift from the Jiaozhou Port to Xinglong Port in the south of Yizhou Prefecture.

In reality, Xinglong Port was similarly a huge global port, enough to house the Yizhou Squadron.

As one of the biggest islands in the China region, more than 70% of the island consisted of mountains and hills, and the plains were mainly gathered around the west.

It was this special geography that allowed Shanhai City to easily take it down. During the war period, the two squadrons patrolled along the ocean to help the land troops siege.

Anyone who resisted received cannon fire from the warships. … Similar to the Li Tribe in Qiongzhou Island, Yizhou Island had the Gaoshan Tribe, which was located all around the island.

After King City occupied the island, they built three cities on the west along the coast. The names were really simple, Yibei City, Yizhong City, and Yinan City.

With these three cities as a core, they formed three houses to manage the entire island. Xinglong Port was located in Yinan City and was what Ouyang Shuo settled on to be the governing area of Yizhou Prefecture.

The Yizhou Squadron would use Yizhou Prefecture as a base to cover the Dongsha Islands and take control of the Yizhou Straits. Further north, they could enter the East Sea; south, they could threaten Luzon, and further east they could enter the Luzon Ocean and head toward the pacific. … Zhou Yu’s Beihai Bay Squadron was also renamed.

The Battle of Black Iron City revealed one of the fatal weaknesses of the navy, which was that it focused too much on ocean warfare but not on coordinating with the army in more land-based fighting.

The three provinces all had great water systems, which allowed the squadron to go to and fro.

Hence, they decided to rename the Beihai Bay Squadron to the Nanjiang Squadron, and it would be housed in Jiaozhou Bay instead of Beihai Bay.

The ocean defenses of Beihai Bay would be left to the Yashan Squadron.

More importantly, the Nanjiang Squadron would help the other troops land battle. With five divisions as its core, it would extend its reach into the three provinces to ensure that they could work with the army at any moment.

Zhenhai City was just a camp for the Nanjiang Squadron. In the future, at an appropriate time, the entire squadron would be released and infiltrate the land, saying goodbye to ocean warfare.

Hence, they could also make better use of Zhou Yu’s commanding.

The base that Ouyang Shuo planned for the Nanjiang Squadron was Poyang Lake in Jiangchuan Prefecture.

As the biggest freshwater lake in China, after the game expanded by 10 times, it was huge and enough to support the entire Nanjiang Squadron.

However, Jiangchuan Prefecture did not belong to Shanhai City, so this matter could only be discussed in the future. … With the name changes of the two squadrons, the Nanyang Navy active zone was not limited to Nanyang. Hence, it was not right to call them the Nanyang Navy.

After discussing it with Zheng He, they decided to change the Nanyang Navy title, changing the Nanyang Navy Headquarters to just Navy Headquarters.

The five squadrons would all be under the command of the Navy Headquarters.

Apart from changing the names of the squadrons, adjusting defense zones and forming the Navy Headquarters, the meeting also discussed the remodeling of the navy personnel structure.

This was done in preparation for the navy industrialization.

First, they needed to form the navy army force.

With the frogmen as the base, they would build a strong amphibious force to coordinate with the squadron to disembark and fight.

During the Battle of Yizhou Island that recently ended, Yashan Squadron and Jiaozhou Squadron’s lack of land battling experience caused them to need the help of the Tiger Legion Corps.

The future navy would take part in long distance battles and they would often be unable to get the help of the army. Hence, the navy system needed to build a Marine Corps that could fight on both land and sea.

To the territory, Marine Corps was a new thing and was still in the exploration stage. Hence, Ouyang Shuo did not go too far and just set it at one division.

Members of the Marine Corps would be selected from navy soldiers of the five squadrons as well as from the prisoners of the Battle of Yunnan.

To train them up, Ouyang Shuo told Viper, who was in charge of the special force training base, to set up a Marine Corps training base in Beihai Bay.

The goal was naturally to train Marine Corps soldiers.

When this force that was under the Navy Headquarters was formed and battle trained, the five squadrons would use this as a base to make their own Marine Corps.

The entire process would need from six months to a year.

Secondly, they needed to change up the member structure of the squadrons.

Out of the soldiers in the five squadrons, apart from cannoneers and the small number of riflemen, they archers were mainly responsible for the long range battles.

In the ocean battles of the ancient cold weapons era, this was okay. However, in the future cannon on firearm battles, archers were just living targets.

Hence, they decided during the meeting to reduce the number of archers to try to get it to around 40% from the current 70% in a year.

For the extra numbers, a part would be used to make the Marine Corps and raise the land fighting ability. The remaining would change to cannoneers and riflemen.

Especially rifleman as they would become the staple of navies in the future.

Archers and riflemen were originally similar so changing classes was not too difficult.

Of course, reducing the ratio of archers did not mean giving up on such weapons, especially ones like the god arm crossbow that were the kings of the cold weapons era.

Not only would they not give up on it, they would strengthen it, making the god arm crossbow their symbol.

Similarly, they would be equipped with a new Tang Blade designed by the Equipment Development Hub known as T1.

This new Tang Blade was specifically designed for navy soldiers and mixed the strengths of the Tang Blade and western knives. Fast, light, and sharp, it was the best weapon for navy soldier close combat.

Thirdly, the bases of the five squadrons.

Apart from their own main base, in the Gaia 4th year, the squadrons would have three to four more sub bases in cities near the shores of their defensive regions.

For more than 100 thousand troops of a squadron to stop in one military port was not only a burden on that port, it was also not good for reacting to battles, making them slower to move when compared to others.

Chapter 804 – Before You Target Others, You Need to Calm down Your Own Land

For this leadership meeting, apart from addressing how to reorganize the navy, the main point was still the reorganization of the army.

The first to be reorganized was the Guards Legion Corps.

During the Battle of Yongren City, the Guards Legion Corps 1st legion was destroyed and later revived. When Swordsman City returned the 15 thousand prisoners, the losses of the Guards Legion Corps would be minimal.

The strengths of Huo Qubing were extremely obvious – he was good at cavalry warfare, he loved to strike from low distances, and he liked to take enemies by surprise.

As for siege battles, Huo Qubing was not a suitable choice for such fights.

The presence of the Heavy Armored Mountain Barbarian Infantry Divisions became more of a liability for him.

During the loss at Yongren City, one of the reasons behind their loss was the 1st legion being too mixed. As a result, they could not cooperate effectively with one another.

With that, it was not only a restraint for a God General like Huo Qubing, but it was also a restraint to a trump card like the Heavy Armored Mountain Barbarian Infantry Division.

After the discussion, they decided to change the Guards Legion Corps once more.

The 1st legion was still the one that underwent the biggest change.

First, the 1st legion Iron Armored Beast Division would be taken out and moved into the Guards Legion Corps as the direct subordinate of the Cavalry Division.

The iron armored beast cavalry was a pinnacle existence amongst heavy armored cavalry and should only be mobilized at crucial moments. Once it became the direct subordinate of the Guards Legion Corps, it would be convenient for Huo Qubing to move them.

Secondly, they would take out the two Cavalry Divisions and form three more from the prisoners to make the 3rd legion of the Guards Legion Corps.

With that, the Guards Legion Corps would have two pure cavalry legions.

The choice of Legion General was fierce General Lu Bu. Lu Bu’s courage and Huo Qubing’s flexibility would definitely procure great results.

Lu Bu and Ma Chao, these two strongest generals of the Three Kingdoms Era, were about to share the same stage.

Thirdly, the mountain barbarians gathered during the Battle of Yunnan would move into the 1st legion.

After the Battle of Yunnan, 46 thousand mountain barbarians were left from the 50 thousand. This reorganization would be to choose the best of the best to form three Heavy Armored Mountain Barbarian Armored Infantry Divisions.

With that, the 1st legion would be a pure mountain barbarian legion.

Since their establishment of the country was imminent, Shanhai City could not lack troops defending it. Hence, the 1st legion would be housed in the imperial city and become the only army housed within the city.

Ouyang Shuo gave them the name of Boulder Army as a sign of their importance.

To make it easier to manage, Shihu was appointed as the Deputy Legion General to be in charge of the daily duties of the legion. Huo Qubing would mainly focus on the battlefield and leading the other two legions. … After completing the above three points, the Guards Legion Corps would fight lighter. Internally, the Guards Legion Corps also had the sacred responsibility of defending the imperial city; externally, they were a sharp blade on the battlefield.

This trump card of the territory would deal with both internal and external matters as expected.

Making use of this chance, Ouyang Shuo also gave the three legion corps’ first legion a Deputy Legion General to be in charge of the daily matters.

This also helped to release the marshals of the legion corps to allow them to focus more on military matters. The three deputies were all chosen from within the Major Generals and was an internal promotion.

The Dragon Legion Corps 1st legion Deputy Legion General was Zhao Ponu, Huo Qubing’s most important general in history. The one for the Tiger Legion Corps was Cao Gui, and the Leopard Legion Corps one was Wei Zhang.

None of these three Deputy Legion Generals had the potential to become Legion Generals but were all exceptional. As a result, it was a good use of their talents putting them in the 1st legion. … Although the Guards Legion Corps had an additional legion, it only used up 40 thousand prisoners. Hence, the remaining prisoners could still form two full War Fighting Legions.

Of these remaining two, one was given to the City Protection Legion Corps to build the 2nd legion. Their Legion General would be Mu Guiying.

Not only was Mu Guiying a long time serving general, she was also from Mulan City and was familiar with the Lianzhou Basin. She was also a female general. With her and Er’Lai, one hard and one soft, they were a perfect fit.

Hence, on the outside, they had the two City Protection Legions on the defense. Internally, they had the Boulder Army. Even if Shanhai City became a Capital City and its population exploded, there would still be no worries that people could cause problems.

The City Protection Legion Corps temporarily did not have a marshal and would be led by both Er’Lai and Mu Guiying.

The remaining spot was given to the Leopard Legion Corps to form its 4th legion. As for the Legion General, Chen Yucheng who was the 1st division Major General of the 2nd legion was selected.

Chen Yucheng’s promotion signaled the rise of the ex-Taiping Army members through the ranks.

Out of the Shanhai City generals, the ex-Taiping Army generals were the most special as they had witnessed cannons, handguns, and other firearms.

To promote them would be to prepare the army for future changes.

Apart from Chen Yucheng, there was also Li Xiucheng and Xiao Chaogui. At an appropriate time, Ouyang Shuo would also promote them to Legion General.

Apart from that, Shi Dakai, who was left amongst the Tianjing Coup, had changed his mind and decided to move into Shanhai City. He was currently studying in the Army Military Academy.

As the strongest general in the Taiping Army, his arrival made Ouyang Shuo really delighted. He personally had a talk with Shi Dakai to totally resolve his doubts and problems and to obtain his loyalty.

Name: Shi Dakai (Emperor Rank) Dynasty: Qing Dynasty Identity: Shanhai City General Occupation: Special General Loyalty: 75 Command: 85 Force: 85 Intelligence: 70 Politics: 70 Specialty: Military Expertise(raises troops morale by 40%, raises troops closeness by 30%, raises troops combat strength by 20%) Cultivation Method: Stamp Foot Fist Equipment: – Evaluation: Military expert, courageous and fearless, righteous and loyal, pure and honest.

Shi Dakai could be said to be the most legendary General of Taiping Country. He started out at as a general at 16, leading tens of thousands of men at 19, and was given the title of duke at 20. When he fearlessly killed himself, he was only 32.

In history, Shi Dakai forced Zeng Guofan to jump into the river to commit suicide. If it were not for internal problems hitting the Taiping Country and Shi Dakai being forced back to Tianjing, Zeng Guofan might have really been killed.

Zeng Guofan was one of the four famous ministers in the Qing Dynasty, the Zhili Viceroy, scholar of the Wuying Hall.

To force such a remarkable person to the brink showed that Shi Dakai had real ability.

Not only was he able to lead troops, but his personal skills were also great too.

‘Beiping National Museum Lecture’ had listed him along with Xu Xuanping, Song Taizu, Zhang Sanfeng, Qing Jiguang, and similar masters as one of the most exceptional fist style artists in history.

Shi Dakai had invented the Stamp Foot Fist. He spread his technique to his soldiers to be used in battle, and he won every war.

What was rare was that he was not only good at military matters, but he was also good at administrative matters too.

1853 B.C., after Shi Dakai reached Anhui, he gathered the people to register and to choose basic level officials. He also held an exam to recruit talents and to form the prefecture, provincial, and county level ruling systems.

At the same time, he also strengthened military discipline to regain law and order. He helped the poor, took care of the sick, and arranged for people to return to their jobs. He set up a tax system to collect taxes and provided the foundation for the administrative and military activities of the Taiping Country.

If such a talent was not born in the Taiping Country, he would have definitely become a pinnacle existence.

As a result, it was wonder that Gaia would list him as an Emperor Rank general. Out of his four stats, none were a weakness. Even amongst Emperor Rank generals, he was above average.

To have the loyalty of such a general, obviously Ouyang Shuo would be delighted. … Apart from reorganizing the military, the meeting also arranged the border defense work of the three war zones.

After taking down Yunnan Province, Shanhai City now had three provinces and had the ability to establish the country.

At least in the next half a year or even longer, Shanhai City would not attack other areas in the China area. Instead, they would turn their eyes to the other ASEAN states and Morocco.

As they say: to fight externally, you must first solve your internal issues.

Before Ouyang Shuo could start a country war, he needed to ensure the safety of his home.

After the three provinces were connected into one, the south was either ocean or country borders. As a result, there was currently no need to worry. On the west it was similarly a country border.

The east was Minnan Province. Originally, there was no need to worry. However, he needed to slightly lift his guard because of Xunlong Dianxue. He mainly needed to defend against Xunlong Dianxue being conned by the Yanhuang Alliance.

Consequently, Ouyang Shuo arranged for the 3rd legion of the Tiger Legion Corps to stay there.

The biggest threat to the territory still came from the north. Although Chuanbei City-State, Xiangnan City-State, and Swordsman City were in a truce with Shanhai City and had also signed a trade agreement, everyone knew that there was a lot of uncertainty.

As a result of this, more than 70% of the manpower of the three war zones was arranged at the northern border.

This leadership meeting was to ensure that the three war zones were coordinated and cooperated with one another. They would not fight alone. Next would be to build many war castles at the border to form a complete northern defense line and not just all gather at one spot.

If he did not make such preparations, Ouyang Shuo could not go out to sea at ease.

Chapter 805: Way of Ruling

This round of military reorganization was estimated to last until the middle of the 3rd month.

After the leadership meeting ended, the God Generals returned to their various camps, coordinating with the Military Affairs Bureau whilst resting up and training in preparation of the next big battle.

The northern border construction of castles had been immediately ordered as this matter could not be delayed.

Baiqi was under an especially high amount of pressure.

The Dragon Legion Corps, apart from needing to clear out the poison in the three prefectures of Yunnan, also needed to monitor Dali Prefecture. Most importantly, their headquarters was moved over to Yunnan Province, so they still needed to construct a new headquarter barracks outside of Consonance City.

The Combat Logistics Department would work well with the Dragon Legion Corps to provide them with enough grain.

During the Battle of Yunnan, the Dragon Legion Corps had suffered heavy casualties and basically all the troops more or less suffered losses. The newly added troops needed to mesh well with each other in training to help them merge into the Shanhai City System.

All in all, they had many administrative matters that were really complicated. They could not relax even though a war was over. Luckily, Baiqi was exceptional at handling military matters and found himself right at home doing all of this.

Not only Baiqi, the three new Governors of the three Prefectures in Yunnan all had it tough. To try to bring law and order to their rule early, the three even gave up on their Spring Festival holiday.

They also worked overtime on the most important Lunar New Year’s Eve night.

There was no need to talk about Cao Can as the Dongchuan Prefecture he took over was a massive mess. Not only did he need to calm down the people and heal their wounds from the battle, he also needed to deal with the merchants demanding compensation.

In Yongren City, Zhu Jing seeking compensation from Huo Qubing was not an exception. Any merchant who was raided by Swordsman City in the prefecture all went to the Prefecture office to seek answers.

As a Governor, how could Cao Can have any peace?

These demands became even fiercer after Swordsman City paid Shanhai City 800 thousand gold. The noses of these merchants were really sharp; no movement or slight change could escape them.

Cao Can had no choice; he could only lower his head and ask the Financial Bureau for an answer.

Weirdly, Fan Li immediately approved it, taking out 200 thousand from the 800 thousand to compensate the merchants.

Not only that, but the Four Seas Bank would also open their branches in the various houses in Dongchuan Prefecture within a month. The Four Seas Bank would give those who were pillaged or robbed a discounted rate.

Although the Financial Bureau only compensated them half the amount that was taken from them, the merchants were pleased and some were even delighted about the loan support.

Although they made so much noise, in their hearts, they did not have feel like they had much hopes of getting any compensation.

The one who owed the debt was not Shanhai City after all.

No matter how they chased for their debts, they would not be able to get the new provincial government to pay them.

The reason merchants took such action was undoubtedly to just try and gain some sympathy from the newly appointed officials so that they would give them some leeway and not be so strict.

One could only say that these merchants totally did not understand Shanhai City.

In the entire wilderness, apart from Chun Shenjun’s Pill Sun City, Shanhai City’s business system was the most perfect. The merchants there had a really high status and would not experience any unfair treatment.

Officials ripping off merchants was all the more impossible.

On the contrary, since the start of the territory, Ouyang Shuo had given so much support to the prosperity of the territory to create a welcoming business atmosphere.

As long as the merchants paid taxes and followed the territory law system, they would not face any trouble.

The other territories in the wilderness did not follow Shanhai City’s model. They were influence by the officials who looked down on merchants, or they acted like that they had no knowledge to take advantage of these merchants.

The merchants did not dare to retaliate, so the Lords became more at ease taking advantages of them. Some Lords even went as far as to treat the merchants as their money bags.

If they had no money and needed to build an army, they would just take money from the merchants.

The territories in Dongchuan Prefecture were mostly like that.

As a result, the merchants in Yongren City, even Zhu Jing who had come from the Dali Imperial City, did not dare to pester Huo Qubing anymore after being rejected once.

In comparison, the Financial Bureau was simply too merciful to the point where the merchants did not dare to believe it. After confirming that it was true, they were naturally on cloud nine.

The respect they felt toward the new officials rose like a rocket.

Ouyang Shuo really approved of Fan Li’s decision. Compared to Governor Cao Can, Fan Li had more foresight and saw through the crux of the problem.

Should we compensate them? Yes!

When the Guards Legion Corps had attacked to Yongren City, Dongchuan Prefecture already belonged to Shanhai City. The whole series of events that occurred only proved one thing – Ouyang Shuo had failed to protect his people.

Your people are the pillars and robbed by the enemy. Now, you have sought justice and gotten back twice the amount. Could you swallow all this money and take it for yourself?

No!

Hence, Fan Li’s choice was correct.

The even more ingenious part was that Fan Li had only compensated them half of what they lost. As for the other half, it was loaned to them at a low interest rate. Fan Li used such a method to warn them, “Know your place, do not go too far.”

Merchants were always greedy and sought to gain profits and interests.

Since they were greedy, they never knew when they should feel contented.

The moment Shanhai City were too lax on them, these people would climb on their heads. Hence, Cao Can’s life would be really hard to pass if they let them move recklessly.

Fan Li looked really stingy, just compensating them half, but it was actually a really smart move. Along with the Four Seas Bank low interest loans, it was enough to help them rise back up in a short amount of time.

Just this small matter alone put the incredible intelligence of this Financial Director on display.

As expected from a Saint rank historical person.

They did not have any eye-catching performances only because they had not recognized you. The current Fan Li was undoubtedly truly merging into the Shanhai City System. … Apart from Cao Can, this Dongchuan Prefecture Governor, the other two were also facing difficulties.

Mengding Prefecture Tian Wenjing had it the worst as the prefecture he took over was totally destroyed by the Dragon Legion Corps. Around 10% of the young men in the prefecture had died to their hands.

This was a significant hatred.

Even till now, the officials on the way to their jobs would get assaulted by the locals. Hence, the Zhang Liao legion had no choice but to send a division to guard these officials.

The law and order in this prefecture was at critical point.

The people’s sentiment was unstable, the hatred was hard to wipe away, and even the Chinese New Year spirit was affected.

Tian Wenjing had a seismic problem before him.

However, this governor remained totally unfazed, and the first thing he did was to use the sum of money Ouyang Shuo gave him to compensate the families of the men that were sacrificed.

Apart from that, he also ordered for all the officials to move out and bring Chinese New Year goodies to console the families and to show their apologies and condolences.

The things they sent out were all extremely practical like rice, noodles, oil, and cloth.

After all their actions, they finally managed to calm down the anger of the people.

After the Chinese New Year, during the Qingming Festival, Tian Wenjing was ready to hold a large scale worship ceremony in the various houses and counties to once again reduce their anger and even try to make them accept Shanhai City.

The dead were the most important.

Tian Wenjing was clear that if the people did not have a sense of togetherness and were not unified, administrative matters would be hard to dish out.

The Chinese New Year holiday had just ended and Tian Wenjing started to get busy once more. He went to the various houses and prefectures to urge farmers to start reclaiming land and promoted the benefits of planting mulberry and rearing silkworms.

Tian Wenjing also encouraged the medicine farmers to use the mountainous environments of the prefecture to plant medicine and develop the medicine industry.

He raised extremely detailed suggestions everywhere he went based on the specialty of that area.

This totally revealed the skill of this cold faced governor. In history, Tian Wenjing was a man who did job thoroughly; he was familiar with the lives of the common people, and he understood various industries and trades.

Hence, his abilities and knowledge made it easy for him to give advice.

With the compensation for their losses to wipe away the pain of losing their loved ones, and the hope of getting rich, the people of Mengding started to recognize this governor.

Hence, Tian Wenjing managed to accomplish the first steps in stabilizing Mengding that was previously close to collapsing. Ouyang Shuo even sent out an imperial decree to reward him.

As expected from the model governor.

Tian Wenjing’s actions seemed orthodox and simple but needed a lot skill; it was the true path of ruling. … Compared to Tian Wenjing, Zhou Haichen who was sent similarly to the south side was much more relaxed.

First, most of the Tengyue Prefecture troops had surrendered and did not suffer much damage, so the prefecture’s law and order was quiet stable. Secondly, with Zhang Liao’s legion there, no one dared to try anything.

The only thing Zhou Haichen needed to worry about was the mountain barbarian tribes.

When Ouyang Shuo contacted the mountain barbarians to ask them to come down the mountains to help, he had made certain promises. Now that the war was over, the prefecture obviously needed to fulfill the promises.

Zhou Haichen would follow the Wuzhou Prefecture model and bring down all the tribes from the mountains to build hundreds of self-ruled small towns.

This was a sizeable expenditure.

Apart from that, he needed to form teams to train them and to help them change from a hunting community to a farming one.

When the mountain barbarians saw how rich those in Wuzhou were, they were not as hesitant as the first groups to move in the Lianzhou Basin, and they immediately headed down the mountains.

Although the administrative matters would not be difficult, it was still complicated.

This would be a good test and training to this newly appointed governor.

Chapter 806: Alienating Pang Tong

Chapter 806: Alienating Pang Tong

2nd month, 6th day, 8th day of the Chinese New Year, Shanhai City.

To the people of the city, one would only be considered to have crossed the New Year after the lantern festival. Hence, although the officials had started working, the city was still filled with the festive spirit and was bustling with excitement.

Apart from Baiqi and the other marshals who had come back to Shanhai City for Chinese New Year, some generals also used the holiday to come back to visit their families.

For example, Nanjiang Navy Fleet Admiral Zhou Yu.

After the Battle of Red Cliff ended, the famous beauty of the Three Kingdoms Era Xiao Qiao appeared together with Zhou Yu. They were given a mansion, and their close relationship was the envy of many.

Helplessly, Zhou Yu could only spend two months in Shanhai City before rushing back to Beihai Bay Squadron for his appointment.

Although the two lands were only separated by a canyon, the military had its rules after all. Zhou Yu was also newly appointed and needed to prove himself. As such, even though he missed his wife, he could not return.

This wait lasted all the way till the Chinese New Year holidays.

Zhou Yu had already ended his holiday on the 5th day and returned to Beihai City. Who knew that on the 7th, the Military Affairs Bureau would send the military reorganization plan to all Legion General level generals?

The Beihai Bay Squadron was renamed as the Nanjiang Squadron and would move over to Zhenhai City. Based on this plan, the squadron would be unable to return to Shanhai City in a long time.

Learning that, Zhou Yu immediately returned to Shanhai City. First, he took the chance to meet Admiral Zheng He, who had not left yet. Second, he took the chance to say goodbye to his wife.

In history, Zhou Yu pampered and cared for his wife a lot. Seeing that they were going to be separated, Xiao Qiao immediately cried, making one pity her.

At this very moment, a soldier came to report to Zhou Yu, “The Monarch summons you!”

Xiao Qiao was stunned as hope appeared in her eyes, “Husband, maybe the Monarch has other plans for you?” Maybe she was affected by the whole issue, and she was not the calm and smart Xiao Qiao she usually was.

Zhou Yu naturally understood his wife’s feelings and smiled gently, “Wife, I’ll go now.”

When he arrived at the Governor-General Manor, he saw Xu Chu standing outside and became speechless, his eyes staring widely. Both of them were enemies before this but now they served the same master; things were just so unpredictable.

Zhou Yu did not dare to treat Xu Chu lightly.

Not mentioning other things, he was one of the great men of the Three Kingdoms. Even as an opponent, Zhou Yu respected Xu Chu’s skills. Just his current position as the commander of the Divine Martial Guards and Personal Guards Captain was a high one.

Zhou Yu smiled, “General Xu is the Monarch here? He summoned me; please inform him.”

Xu Chu took a step to the side, “General please enter; the Monarch is waiting in the reading room.”

Zhou Yu once again cupped his fists and walked in; his actions were truly elegant. When Xu Chu, this brutish man saw Zhou Yu’ actions, he wanted to laugh because he was not used to it.

Once he entered the reading room, Zhou Yu noticed that the Monarch was going through some memorials, so he did not dare to disturb. He silently stood at a corner and looked over. He noticed that at a small table placed at his right hand seat, a young woman was dealing with the memorials.

Looking at her fresh looks, Zhou Yu could not help but be impressed. Seeing that this was the Monarch’s reading room, this lady must be someone close to the Monarch. Zhou Yu immediately kept his eyes to himself and just quietly stood there.

On the other hand, Ouyang Shuo had noticed Zhou Yu’s arrival long ago. However, he was going through a memorial and wanted to finish addressing it first. As such, he did not greet him and just continued to make a few brushes with his ink brush.

After entering the game for three years and going through countless memorials, not mentioning others aspects, just his calligraphy skills had grown better.

Ouyang Shuo raised his head and smiled, “Zhou Yu you’re here! Men, bring a seat!”

Zhou Yu cupped his fists and said solemnly, “I’ve been summoned by you.” As he spoke, he sat on the chair brought in by Xu Chu but did not dare to fully sit down. He only sat halfway on the seat to show his respect to the Monarch.

Tsing Yi also returned to her senses and started to curiously judge Zhou Yu.

In the eyes of the players, Zhou Yu was a super idol, loved by all.

Ouyang Shuo did not go right to the topic. Instead, he used the chance to talk about the Nanjiang Squadron as well as his plans and hopes for the Nanjiang Squadron.

Since receiving the military reorganization plan, Zhou Yu had started to think about how to fulfill the strategic goals of the leadership meeting to form the new position of the Nanjiang Squadron.

The more they talked, the more engrossed they got into the topic, and their ideas all matched perfectly.

As expected from Zhou Yu, toward the construction of the navy, especially the inland navy, he had a unique understanding. Some of his thoughts even impressed Ouyang Shuo.

“Great.” Ouyang Shuo’s smile grew even wider, “With you leading the Nanjiang Squadron, I’ll be at ease.”

Zhou Yu cupped his fists.

Ouyang Shuo changed the topic, and finally arrived at the main reason he summoned Zhou Yu for, “After coming to the territory, do you still come into contact with Pang Tong?”

Zhou Yu was stunned; he did not understand what the Monarch was going at and could only answer truthfully, “Yes, I actually contact him occasionally.”

When he said those words, Zhou Yu felt a little uneasy.

Pang Tong was an important advisor of the Shu Han Regime, and his position was similar to Zhu Geliang. Shanhai City and the Shu Han Regime were enemies, so was the Lord suspecting him?

The crime of treason was a heavy one.

Thinking back to the contents of their letters, they were all acceptable. After remembering this, Zhou Yu slightly relaxed.

Now, it was up to the magnanimity of the Monarch. If he was narrow minded, even without proof, he would start to ostracize him and not trust him.

Thinking back to what his wife said before he left, Zhou Yu felt a little bitter in his heart.

‘Was she right?’

In less than a minute, Zhou Yu’s head went through hundreds of scenarios.

However, he had overthought things.

No matter how suspicious Ouyang Shuo was of him, he would not think about betraying the Monarch and joining the Shu Han Regime.

The two of them were enemies.

However, this matter was right in front of him, and no one could possibly keep a calm heart in such a situation; especially to a newbie like Zhou Yu, who had not truly merged into the city’s system.

There was more or less a barrier between him and the Monarch.

That was no wonder. Ouyang Shuo was always busy with administrative matters. Moreover, after the Battle of Red Cliff, he was busy attacking Lingnan and Yunnan and did not have a chance to communicate with the Three Kingdoms generals.

Especially to the East Wu navy generals, their recruitment process was not glorious. In their hearts, they were still a little annoyed.

Their relationship was still pretty distant.

It was understandable that Zhou Yu would not able to read Ouyang Shuo’s mind.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and said, “Do not be worried. I’m just asking if you are able to invite Mister Pang Tong over to Shanhai City. If he comes over, he will definitely receive a high position.”

If a Lord wanted to destroy an imperial city, they could not expect to do so in one battle. Rather, they could only fight a slow and drawn out war.

Dali Imperial City temporarily did not have any regimes or dynasties in it, so Ouyang Shuo had no place to act. Hence, he could only target the Shu Han Regime. And the first step would be to dig at the cornerstones of the regime.

The Xiliang Five Horses leaving was the first example.

Now, Ouyang Shuo turned his attention to Pang Tong. Pang Tong was majorly trusted and recognized by Liu Bei, and he was one of the two most important advisors in his camp.

If he could drag him over, it would be like breaking Liu Bei’s arm.

In history, Pang Tong could be credited for helping Liu Bei take down Yizhou (different Yizhou).

Unfortunately, the heavens were jealous of geniuses, and when he led the troops to siege, he was killed amidst the arrows. He was only 36 at that itme and was post humorously awarded the rank title of Inner Pass Lord. The place he was buried at was also name as Fallen Phoenix Hill.

In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, they said that he was ambushed at the Fallen Phoenix hill and was buried there for that reason. This story was created to lower his status to further show Zhuge Liang’s importance.

Ouyang Shuo had invited Zhou Yu over to try and incite defection was not without reason.

First, according to the information that the Shanhai Guards had acquired, Pang Tong was not that happy in the regime. Although he was trusted by Liu Bei, he was getting suppressed by Zhuge Liang and could not show his skills.

It was not that he was worse off than Zhuge Liang. However, more than 80% of the officials fully supported Zhuge Liang. They could only blame Pang Tong for dying too early.

Most of the important officials that appeared in the wilderness in the Shu Han Regime were developed by Zhuge Liang after Liu Bei died. Hence, some of them only recognized the prime minister and not their majesty.

Other than Pang Tong, even Emperor Liu Bei was feeling uneasy. Zhuge Liang was used to controlling everything when he supported Liu Chan. Sometimes, he did not care about Liu Bei’s face.

There were rumors that Liu Bei wanted to support Pang Tong to wrestle power from Zhuge Liang. Helplessly, their efforts showed little result.

This was one of the reasons, but it was not the most important one – Zhou Yu had a close relationship with Pang Tong.

In real history, after the Battle of Red Cliff, Zhou Yu was the side general and was the south Prefecture Governor. Pang Tong, on the other hand, was given the title of South Prefecture Gongcao.

What was a Gongcao?

Based on the Han System, a Gongcao of a prefecture would play a part in all administrative matters. Hence, Pang Tong used to be the core assistant to Zhou Yu.

The two of them had a direct superior and subordinate relationship.

Pang Tong worked under Zhou Yu for two years until Zhou Yu died. There were no history books that said the two of them did not mesh well or that Pang Tong tried to work for others before Zhou Yu’s death.

The Three Kingdoms records Pang Tong memoirs even recorded: when Yu died, Tong participated in the funeral processions.

In ancient times, this was a massive ritual. Pang Tong attending the thousands of miles funeral made his attendance even more meaningful. Unless one was really close or really respected the late person, one would not have the right to participate.

Zhou Yu saying that the two still kept in contact undoubtedly proved this point.

Chapter 807 - Seediq Race

Since Pang Tong and Zhou Yu were close, why did he turn to Liu Bei after Zhou Yu’s death?

Liu Bei had occupied Jingzhou, and Pang Tong was appointed as the County Magistrate of Leiyang. Helplessly, when Pang Tong was appointed, he was sacked because he did not care about county matters.

At this very moment, East Wu Lu Su wrote a letter to Liu Bei to tell him that Pang Tong was not a hundred miles talent.

He was not someone whose skill was limited to ruling hundred miles of land. Lu Su’s meaning was simple – he meant that putting Pang Tong into the position of County Magistrate was belittling his ability, and was implying that Pang Tong was a real talent and needed to be well used.

During this period of time, Zhuge Liang also spoke to Liu Bei about Pang Tong. Hence, Liu Bei summoned Pang Tong. After getting to know him, Liu Bei treated him highly and appointed him as the advisor to the Provincial Governor.

In history, it was a mystery whether Zhou Yu or Lu Su had recommended Pang Tong to Sun Quan or not. Maybe they did but Sun Quan rejected it.

Maybe the Jiangdong Group at that time did not lack talents like Pang Tong.

As for the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it mentioned Sun Quan looking down on Pang Tong because the latter looked ugly.

Hence, this became the widely accepted viewpoint.

As for the truth, it became a mystery.

Regardless of the truth, with this added layer of relationship between Zhou Yu and Pang Tong, along with how unhappy Pang Tong was there, Ouyang Shuo had reason to believe that his plan would work.

Worst comes to worst, he needed to make Liu Bei distrust Pang Tong and not treat him highly.

Of course, that was the worst-case scenario, and Ouyang Shuo would not take such action unless he was forced.

When Zhou Yu heard that the Monarch was actually referring to such a matter, he heaved a sigh of relief and smiled, “Since it’s a mission given by the Monarch, I’ll try my best.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “No rush, just try to do it slowly.”

“Understood!” Zhou Yu nodded.

From Pang Tong’s letters, Zhou Yu could feel Pang Tong’s bitterness, which was why he had a little confidence.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “General is about to leave for a long trip, so I won’t keep you any longer.”

Zhou Yu was astonished; he had heard the rumors that the Monarch had a mysterious intel organization that was in charge of monitoring the officials. Who knew that his conversation with his wife was picked up?

Luckily, in his interactions with Pang Tong, there was nothing suspicious or Zhou Yu would have lost his head. Zhou Yu’s face was calm and expressionless as he got up and left quietly.

The seed had already been planted, whether it would bloom or not was to be seen. … After sending away Zhou Yu, Ouyang Shuo still needed to meet one more person, which was Lei Fan.

A day ago, the evaluation group led by Zhang Tingyu had returned to Shanhai City, submitting an extremely detailed report. The results not only made Xiao He ashamed, but it also shocked Ouyang Shuo.

Based on Zhang Tingyu’s evaluation, the Broken Blade House under Lei Fan was not simple.

Let us talk about Broken Blade House first.

Broken Blade House was apart from Shenjuan House, and it was the latest house to be set up in the Zhili Prefecture. However, its financial revenue was leading the prefecture, only behind Mulan House.

Especially after Qiushui River was expanded, more and more merchant ships entered Shanhai City through the Pearl River System. The Broken Blade House took the chance to build a port at Dongla Lake to allow merchant ships to rest along the way. As a result, it became a stop on the merchant trade routes.

With the benefits that Broken Blade House pushed out, some merchants even directly did their business there, greatly promoting the growth of Broken Blade House.

The tax advantage of Mulan House was being weakened, and it was slowly being overtaken by Broken Blade House.

Apart from that, the aquatic rearing industry, the medicine industry, and the silkworm industry were soaring. Making use of the power of gold mines, these industries had really strong economic ability.

The even more amazing part was that the officials were clean and honest.

Although Lei Fan was a mountain barbarian, he definitely was not a reckless person, being able to adapt to the rules of the official field. He kept the charm and toughness a mountain barbarian should possess and solved all the problems in his way.

Such charm and drive was extremely rare even among officials who were scholars.

This also slowly formed Lei Fan’s unique charm.

The act of creating a port in Dongla Lake was obviously snatching the business of Shanhai City. Tianfeng House similarly had the ability to do so, but they did not dare to take action.

Reality proved that not only did his actions not harm the core interests of Shanhai City, it even gave birth to a secondary market, splitting away the not core parts of the business, creating a win-win situation.

Seeing that, Tianfeng House started to copy them in Xila Lake, but it was already a step slower.

There were many similar matters.

Not only that, Lei Fan did not discriminate based on race, and he would not give the mountain barbarians benefits because he was a mountain barbarian. He ruled everything fairly.

When pushing out the territory law system, seeing that the mountain barbarians were breaking many laws, Lei Fan did not hesitate to enact heavy punishment.

Lei Fan did not even use the mountain barbarian tribe rules to replace the law system to punish the people, showing his deep understanding of the law system.

As he did things exceedingly fairly, Lei Fan was well loved by both the Han people and the mountain barbarians.

A mountain barbarian being loved and supported by Han people – that alone was an amazing achievement.

Even Zhang Tingyu said honestly, “Our biasness toward the mountain barbarian tribe can be ended from Lei Fan.” The racial harmony plan that Ouyang Shuo was pushing for had started to work.

Xiao He was also gracious in defeat, admitting his mistakes. Moreover, he was willing to be fined half a year of his salary.

With that, the last barrier to his promotion was removed. Just yesterday, the Nanjiang Governor-General House had officially announced his appointment, promoting him to Yizhou Prefecture Governor, effective immediately.

The moment the news became public, it caused huge waves in the territory.

Along with his appointment was also the evaluation report by the Official Ruling Department regarding Lei Fan. Apparently, Xiao He stopped all resistance and insisted on releasing it.

With that, they officially gained fame for the mountain barbarians.

Be it those in the Zhili Prefecture, those in Wuzhou, or even those in Tengyue Prefecture, this appointment had a completely deeper meaning.

It represented that their tribe had completed their transformation, saying goodbye to the clumsiness and foolishness from before. … Before taking up the role, Lei Fan especially made a trip to Shanhai City.

Lei Fan was not a fool, and he had already heard about the happenings regarding his appointment. Toward the Monarch that supported him, Lei Fan was touched to the point of tears. Hence, before taking up the role, he also wanted to listen to what the Monarch wanted to say.

Seeing Lei Fan, the first thing that Ouyang Shuo said was, “Mister Xiao postponed your appointment was due to his work, and it was not personal. You must understand that.”

“I do.”

Lei Fan’s expression was rather complicated as he obviously knew about the biasness and stereotypes the people felt about them.

Seeing how vast the heavens were, only then would one know how small and lowly one was.

The mountain barbarians who were slowly entering the agricultural system undoubtedly cherished this chance. Their soldiers were willing to accept the toughest training while its people focused all their hearts into learn various techniques.

Officials like Lei Fan were the rare breed.

All of their people were trying hard to adapt to this change, to develop their own strengths in their new domain.

All of this occurred completely because of change.

To not be looked down on, to now be shamed.

This definitely was not an individual matter. Rather, it was the entire race proceeding forward. Luckily, hard work always pays off, and they finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel for the mountain barbarian race.

Lei Fan’s promotion was a clear signal.

The biggest cause of this was Ouyang Shuo. It was him who contacted the mountain barbarian tribe to get the Xuanniao Tribe to move, which started their road to greatness.

It was the mountain barbarian strategy the Lord used, utilizing the mountain barbarian soldiers in various places, making them the most reliable guards. When Ouyang Shuo let the Boulder Army move into the city, there were obviously people who opposed his decision.

However, Ouyang Shuo insisted.

No one was clearer than Ouyang Shuo about the loyalty of the mountain barbarian race; it was loyalty that stemmed from blood. If any army would not betray him, it would be the Boulder Army.

This was because Ouyang Shuo was their king, and the blood that the ancient mountain barbarians worshiped ran in his veins. Hence, how could he not put them in the imperial city? … Ouyang Shuo said, “The Gaoshan Tribe of Yizhou Prefecture is a strong tribe that deserves respect. After going there, try to come into contact with them and calm their worries.”

The Gaoshan Tribe mainly gathered in the Central mountain regions of Yizhou Prefecture, the east as well as Lanyu Island. The Gaoshan Tribe in the game was similar to the Li Race and mountain barbarians, and they mainly fished and hunted.

Each forest in Yizhou Prefecture had a designated owner and that was their hunting ground. It was sacred and could not be invaded and entered.

The Gaoshan Tribe people were really fierce, and if someone from another tribe intruded on their territory, they would fight and slaughter the intruder. They even had the habit of hunting for heads, getting the enemy heads as a sign of coming of age.

To say that they were worthy of respect was because they were fearless of being invaded. They did not mind making sacrifices. Although they were clear it was throwing an egg at a rock, they also wanted to show the strength and valor of their tribe.

In the movie Warriors of the Rainbow, the Seediq tribe was the Gaoshan Tribe.

The movie described the famous Musha incident, where Gaoshan Tribe hero Mona Rudao led a thousand tribesmen to fight against the Japanese invaders.

Their population was just 2100 men. In this uprising, 900 were either killed in battle or killed themselves. The women all hung themselves to not be a burden and waste food.

The three thousand Japanese even used poison gas; despite that, half of them still died.

Hence, although the uprising had failed, the Seediq people had showed their strength nonetheless.

The film was blood boiling, showing the savage war between men.

They were true men.

Facing such a tribe, Ouyang Shuo hoped that they were like the mountain barbarians and could slowly move into the Shanhai City System.

In a day in the future, maybe Shanhai City could recruit from there and recruit the strongest Gaoshan Warriors to show the heroic spirit of men.

Chapter 808 - Brother, Don’t Be Afraid

Since Lei Fan had the experience of ruling Broken Blade House, he was a suitable choice for ruling Yizhou Prefecture.

The mountain barbarian race was really similar to the Gaoshan Race. Lei Fan’s appearance would also make it easier to gain the recognition of the Gaoshan Race. The Gaoshan Race was a really glorious race, and it would not work if one solely used strength to try and convince them.

Ouyang Shuo was not going to rush the matter as he had enough patience.

The two of them continued the conversation till noon when Lei Fan took his leave. Lei Fan would teleport to Zhenhai City, and then use the warships to sail to Yizhou Prefecture.

Along with him would be 50 elite officials the Administration Bureau selected. … 2nd month, 8th day, 10th day of the Chinese New Year, Nanjiang Governor-General Manor Back Garden.

On this day, Ouyang Shuo was accompanying Bing’er to disturb the prosperity beast Qiyi. Bing’er was holding some bamboo that they had spent a lot of effort to find and was feeding the panda.

Qiyi was just that blur and dumb; it totally lacked the look of a prosperity beast.

His two shorts paws tried to hook onto Bing’er’s legs, but no matter how it tried, it could not hook on. He hugged onto a sugar cane and ate happily.

While eating, it would charge at Bing’er’s legs, making her laugh incessantly.

On the first day of the New Year, the prosperity triggered by Qiyi had surprised Ouyang Shuo. He thought that the little fellow would need to mature before he could trigger any prosperity events.

Ouyang Shuo was prepared to send Qiyi to the Spirt Beast Hall after the Lantern Festival to train. Although it was a prosperity beast, it was still a god beast subspecies.

Maybe it would learn some new skills from cultivating.

Bing’er fed it bamboo and asked, “Brother, are you going to become an emperor?”

“Yes.” Ouyang Shuo did not try to hide anything as he smiled, “You’re going to be a princess.”

“But Bing’er is unhappy.”

The little lady frowned, putting the bamboo in her hand on the ground.

When Qiyi saw that, it finally let go of Bing’er’s leg like a little rabbit, bouncing and jumping. He hugged all the scattered bamboo like a baby in its arms.

After that, Qiyi wanted to hug the bamboo and run back to its little master.

Helplessly its legs and paws were short. Its little body obviously could not manage to hug onto so many bamboo sticks. As it ran, the bamboo sticks were dropped onto the ground. When it returned to Bing’er, it only had that one stick of bamboo it was chewing on.

Qiyi used its little paw to rub its own head, and its eyes that had a natural black eye circle showed its inability to understand.

“Where did the bamboo go?”

Looking back, it saw the bamboo dropped all over the floor.

Qiyi was really patient, actually running back and starting to gather the bamboo one by one. Looking at the situation, the little fellow treated this as a game.

Luckily, no one else was there to notice that Ouyang Shuo was caught off guard by Bing’er’s reaction.

“Can you tell me why you’re unhappy?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Bing’er explained like it was obvious, “Brother, think about it, the emperors in the shows are so fierce. Even the princess needs to bow to him and cannot laugh. Would you become so fierce when you become the emperor?”

Ouyang Shuo was stunned, ruffled her hair and smiling, “Even if I become the emperor, I am still your brother. How would I change?”

“You messed up my hair.” Bing’er really cared about her image now, dressing up beautifully every day. She still was not pleased with her brother’s reply, “Brother, you’re just answering for the sake of answering.”

This little lady was really intelligent and sharp.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, avoiding the question and not replying. However, he sighed in his heart.

‘Because even I do not know whether I’ll change or not.’

Before the emperor sat on the dragon throne, they all swore. But when they truly sat onto it, they would change, naturally become colder and becoming a person that even they themselves would feel unfamiliar with.

A Lord who was not heartless would not be able to sit stably on the dragon throne.

Anyone who sat on the dragon throne, be it a gentle and magnanimous prince or a crown prince who had spent his time amongst the poor and understood the pain of the people, they would all end up the same.

Bing’er seemingly felt it, and she raised her head to look at her brother; her eyes clear and sharp.

She suddenly smiled, using her small and tender hands to grab onto Ouyang Shuo’s large and rough palm, saying word by word, “Brother do not worry, Bing’er is by your side.”

Who knows from when, but Bing’er’s Wugou Heart Sutra had already reached the proficient level. Her heart had become even more pure, which brought about a certain charm amidst a sense of coldness.

Ouyang Shuo was surprised as he continued with a laugh; it was the laughter that came from the heart.

It was like a certain type of pressure being released; it was like being alone in the dark and suddenly realizing that someone was holding a lantern and walking with you, making one feel really warm.

“I’m not afraid.”

Ouyang Shuo said softly, like he was replying Bing’er but also like he was talking to himself.

“If it was a cold and dark abyss in the front, I would not regret it either.” Ouyang Shuo’s experiences were totally different from previous emperors and rulers. He cultivated the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique. In the future, he would cultivate even stronger techniques.

The end goal would be to be able to monitor his own body and understand his heart.

Ouyang Shuo believed that he would be able to step out of this, step onto the devil that was power right at his feet.

‘Ahwu~~’

At this very moment, Qiyi carried a couple of sticks of bamboo and hopped over. Whilst it ran, it continued to drop bamboo onto the ground. The little fellow was still delighted, engrossed in this whole process.

When the brother and sister pair saw that, they looked at one another and smiled.

“Our little lady is really growing up.” Ouyang Shuo was both happy and a little despondent.

Just at this moment, Xu Chu came to make a report.

“Monarch, Feng Qiuhuang is here to visit, and she’s in the reading room.”

Surprise flashed across his eyes. For Feng Wu to come over at such a time was really unusual.

At this time, Consonance City was merging into the Shanhai City System, Xunlong Dianxue was starting to fade away, and the guild leaders were all making the final preparations for the Satellite City battle after the Lantern Festival.

Hence, during the Gaia 4th year, Ouyang Shuo did not hold an alliance meeting.

If the members wanted to discuss matters, they could meet up on their own.

The New Year was not over yet Feng Wu came over to Shanhai City, so it probably was a really important matter.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Okay.”

When Xu Chu saw that, he instantly said goodbye.

“I’ll leave first, have funny with Qiyi.” Ouyang Shuo said.

Bing’er had already started to pick up the bamboo dropped onto the ground and was playing together with Qiyi, “Brother, go do your stuff.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and left the back garden. … Reading room.

Feng Qiuhuang picked up the tea cup, drinking a mouthful of tea; she felt a little bitter.

Ouyang Shuo’s statement on concubines and more wives had spread across the wilderness. Feng Qiuhuang had now extinguished that hope and buried it deep in her heart.

Along with Fallen Phoenix City taking down the entire Taiyuan Province, Feng Qiuhuang realized that her viewpoint had started to change and become similar to Ouyang Shuo.

Maybe every ruler was destined to be lonely and alone.

When taking down Fengxiang City and facing the Feng Family once more, Feng Qiuhuang was really relaxed and did not feel any hatred. Many times, hatred was a show of weakness.

True rulers had no hate.

What made them feel hatred had already disappeared from the world.

“If one cannot let it go, make it disappear!”

Accept the Feng Family, use their talents as her own, and be their ruler was her decision. Of course, Feng Qiuhuang did not show mercy to those who betrayed her and chased them out.

Some were chased out of the province; loneliness and hatred awaited them. This was the fate of betrayers, and no one would pity them.

Many times, the wilderness was much crueler than real life. After all, the wilderness did not have the laws of real life, so it was truly the survival of the fittest.

Similar to how it would be a battle between conquerors and the conquered on Planet Hope, and there would be no pity and no mercy.

If you were not my people, you would die.

Times change.

The elders in the family were grateful, and in the blink of an eye, they changed. What made them happy was that Feng Qiuhuang had the Feng Family blood in her veins and that was something that could not be removed.

“Maybe the family traditions should change.”

On the first day of the New Year, after the family discussed, they allowed Feng Qiuhuang to become the new family leader, giving her the family staff, breaking thousands of years of tradition.

That day, all the female members in the family teared up.

What about her?

She only calmly received the staff, reading the proclamation. No one knew whether or not waves had broken out in her heart.

Feng Qiuhuang was not that far away from becoming a real queen.

Sometimes, she suddenly envied Bai Hua, who was originally her greatest competitor.

Along with Consonance City merging with Shanhai City, the two of them were now on different paths and were not competitors anymore.

Bai Hua could finally place down her burden and be a huge Provincial Governor under Ouyang Shuo. With a giant like him protecting her, she would not be worried about her future.

What about Feng Qiuhuang?

It looked like she had obtained unlimited power, but she had walked onto a dark and cold path of no return.

This was the path of kings, the way of the ruler.

And this was the path that Ouyang Shuo had always been on.

On this path, Feng Qiuhuang could not see a single friend.

Hence, at such a time, she especially wanted to see Ouyang Shuo, this person who had left a huge impression on her life.

Only in front of him could she voice her worries and hope to get some consolation.

Deep in her soul, she would not feel so cold anymore.

Apart from that, she also wanted to remind Ouyang Shuo that a crisis was heading toward Shanhai City. If Ouyang Shuo did not deal with it well, Shanhai City would face the danger of collapsing.

Chapter 809 - Silver Hand

Chapter 809: Silver Hand

The moment Ouyang Shuo stepped into the reading room, he could feel the chill emanating from Feng Qiuhuang.

She had changed!

They had both changed.

A light shone in Ouyang Shuo’s eyes, and he smiled as he waved at her. Sitting on the seat and changing into a comfortable posture, he said, “The Chinese New Year is not even over and you have begun?”

Feng Qiuhuang rolled her eyes and said helplessly, “You are still in the mood to joke?”

“What happened?” Ouyang Shuo did not understand.

Feng Qiuhuang explained, “I heard from my family elders that Di Chen and the rest have started to move.” On the topic of her family elder, her tone did not even change, and it was just like she was talking about a normal official.

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo was even surer that Feng Qiuhuang had truly walked onto the path of a king.

So amazing!

Not mentioning the China region, this was rare even in the entire world.

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand and said, “Then let them. Anyways, they cannot do much.”

Ouyang Shuo liked to use a passive approach to deal with the Yanhuang Alliance. Basically, he would not take the initiative to mess with them, but the moment they tried to disturb Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo would give them a deadly blow.

The Battle of Yunnan was a good example.

Ouyang Shuo did not have the energy to play a cat and mouse game with them.

What’s the point?

Building up Shanhai City was the way of the king while schemes and plots were only secondary and not what a king would do. Just like against the Shu Han Regime, in the end, they would still fight on the battlefield.

Trying to pry away Pang Tong was only to assist the situation.

Why wasn’t Di Chen and the others tired from playing such games every day?

“This time is different; you need to be careful.” Feng Qiuhuang’s expression was really solemn.

Ouyang Shuo was stunned when he saw that Feng Qiuhuang was really anxious, so he immediately sat up straight and asked, “So are they going to try and assassinate, team up, or alienate?”

“None of those.”

Feng Qiuhuang’s following words caused Ouyang Shuo to frown.

Ouyang Shuo was just a normal person and did not know how vast the world was, and he also underestimated the power of an aristocratic family. The world had many things that were hidden in the clouds and were not something he could touch.

This matter started from the Earth era.

Before the federation was established, the large aristocratic families in the world did not have much interaction; especially between east and west, where a natural barrier existed.

Along with the federation being built, the entire Earth became one. These aristocratic families started to work with one another to go against the federation government.

In the dark, they formed an organization known as Silver Hand, which Di Chen and their families were a part of. Di Chen was also a core member of Silver Hand.

The reach of Silver Hand pretty much stretched to every corner of the federation, but only a few people knew of their existence. Amongst which included the academic faction that was led by the Federation President.

The members of the academic faction were mainly federation members, and their goal was to remove the power of the aristocratic families.

The presence of this faction curbed the power of Silver Hand and did not allow them to go too far. The battle between the two had continued for basically the entire federation process.

When Armageddon arrived, Silver Hand faced a massive test. The land and foundation they relied on were suddenly facing extinction.

The academic faction used this chance to counterattack.

The achievement value calculation and the game achievement value calculations were thought of by the academic faction to break the weapon of Silver Hand, making them lose their power.

Of course, the Silver Hand did not fall that easily.

What happened next was naturally a head on battle.

The special treatment of the game cabin, secrets about Earth Online, beta tester qualifications, keeping the game secret, and similar advantages were what Silver Hand had managed to obtain.

Facing such a giant, even the Federation President had to yield sometimes.

Apart from these advantages, Silver Hand also did not give up on their ambition to rule Earth Online. In their eyes, as long as they were able to maintain a high position in the game, they would win based on the 2nd achievement value calculation.

However, Silver Hand had not expected Gaia to be on the side of the academic faction. The perfect system of Earth Online basically did not give them any chances to pull tricks.

The fair game environment gave Silver Hand a headache.

With that, there would unavoidably be grassroots players who used Earth Online to start a counterattack to become the central power to fight against Silver Hand on Planet Hope.

Hence, before the planetary migration, members of Silver Hand had an agreement – the moment a country had an uncontrollable power that threatened the other members of Silver Hand, the other members had to work with them to remove this anomaly to maintain the order in game.

This agreement was known as term number 15.

Silver Hand even classified the anomalies as dangerous, really dangerous, and catastrophe. The higher the value, the more the Silver Hand would pay attention to it.

If they reached the dangerous classification, one could use the members of that country to fight but did not need to activate term number 15. Very dangerous meant that members of Silver Hand would help as much as they could.

As for catastrophe level, that was serious.

The moment it was classified as a catastrophe, all members of Silver Hand had to act and needed to remove this anomaly even if they had to risk everything.

Ouyang Shuo and his Shanhai City had undoubtedly become the biggest anomaly in the game.

After the loss at the Battle of Yunnan, Di Chen and the others had to admit that it was not enough to stop Shanhai City with just the power of Yanhuang Alliance. They already had no ability to remove this anomaly.

Di Chen felt that it was time to activate term number 15.

Chun Shenjun, Zhan Lang, Xiong Ba, Feng Qingyang, and the others agreed to this suggestion; the matter was already underway.

On the eve of Chinese New Year, Silver Hand activated the term number 15.

Originally, Di Chen classified Shanhai City as a catastrophe. However, after the round table of Silver Hand deliberated the situation, they lowered the classification to very dangerous.

However, what Ouyang Shuo was unaware of was that William from the English region and Henry from France was on this round table, and they had helped save him.

One must know that if Silver Hand went all out, Shanhai City would have to lose a hand even if it did not die. Even the current very dangerous classification was enough to cause problems for them.

In the eyes of Jack Dawson, Shanhai City’s presence was not a threat to all of them. If they were given a catastrophe classification, it would be hurting the prestige of Silver Hand.

“Are we going to be terrified of a territory that has not even established a country? If that happens, where is our face?” said Jack Dawson during the meeting.

Members of Silver Hand were extremely proud.

As a result, when Shanhai City slowly rose in the wilderness and suppressed Yanhuang Alliance, Di Chen and the others did not think about using members from other countries to help them.

Only after the Battle of Yunnan ended were they forced into a corner, and they had no choice but to admit defeat. Just like that, it made them into a laughing stock in the organization.

If it were possible, Di Chen and the others wished that they would never activate the term number 15.

Apart from that, Jack and the others did not want to list Shanhai City as catastrophic for strategic considerations.

Apart from their own strength, Silver Hand’s power came from their secrecy. Even the academic faction did not know all the members of Silver Hand.

If they listed Ouyang Shuo as a catastrophe, Silver Hand would be totally revealed to the people.

If the academic faction used this chance to help Shanhai City clear out members of Silver Hand, their lives would not be easy.

Not mentioning destroying Shanhai City, it would be difficult for them to even protect themselves.

Compared to the real world, the players in the game could have a decisive impact.

With the China Region as an example, they had tens of millions of grassroots players. If all of them stepped up to oppose Yanhuang Alliance, it was enough to pull their roots from the ground.

Even within Yanhuang Alliance, there were many grassroots players.

Speaking of which, as long as members of Silver Hand did not jump out, no matter how the academic faction fanned the flames, no one would believe it. Players were not fools and were not so easily invited and used.

If not, the Yanhuang Alliance would not have survived so safely till now.

To let all the grassroots players start a riot would require a great opportunity. Jack Dawson was not a fool and would not give up such a chance.

The above few reasons lowered Ouyang Shuo’s rating.

Di Chen and the rest felt exceedingly regretful about it. In their eyes, Ouyang Shuo was sick in the head and had an unparalleled understanding of the game.

Since the organization acted, they should go all out. If not, unknown and unexpected changes might occur.

Di Chen was afraid.

“Since that’s the case, the battle must go on.” Di Chen said/ … After term number 15 came into effect, members of Silver Hand around the world needed to help Yanhuang Alliance curb the rise of Shanhai City in the wilderness.

An invisible net was slowly covering Shanhai City.

As a result, when Feng Qiuhuang received the news, she immediately ran over.

If she did not return to the Feng Family, take over the family, and receive the news from the Feng Family elder, Ouyang Shuo would have been kept in the dark about the matter.

Chapter 810 - Gift from Jack

Chapter 810: Gift from Jack

After listening to Feng Qiuhuang’s description, Ouyang Shuo quickly regained his calm.

“Silver Hand? Things are getting more and more interesting!”

Ouyang Shuo actually laughed, and his eyes were filled with fighting spirit.

Before this, Ouyang Shuo was still worried that if Shanhai City made too many waves in game, the achievement value he obtained when he reached Planet Hope would be more than what some people could accept.

If that happened, some people might complain and try to remove the achievement value of Earth Online.

That was not impossible.

It was like if a person went to a casino and won more than the max that the casino could afford, they should be considering whether he could leave in one piece instead of thinking of earning more.

After all, no matter how much money one had, a life to spend the money with was more important.

“What are you prepared to do?” Feng Qiuhuang asked.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and raised his head, “What can I do? Naturally, I’ll throw myself into the academic faction and ask them to protect me.”

The moment Ouyang Shuo said that, he felt a white light shine in the sky. When Feng Qiuhuang saw that, a similar light shone in her eyes.

Since Gaia stood on the side of the academic faction, Ouyang Shuo believed that his words would be picked up by Gaia and relayed to the leader of the faction.

Any action in the game by anyone would not be able to escape the eyes of Gaia. However, Gaia needed to follow the three laws. Unless rights were given, it could not reveal personal information.

Ouyang Shuo’s actions were like giving Gaia the right. Since he could not contact the academic faction, making Gaia send the message was the best choice.

It seemed like Silver Hand could not cover the skies alone. They had a strong enemy. Ouyang Shuo did not mind joining the academic faction and being their war horse.

Before his own ability was strong enough, to try to make his own faction would be like striking a stone with an egg. Ouyang Shuo had gone through the trials of the wilderness and was not that silly idealist from before.

With the academic faction supporting him from behind, Ouyang Shuo could relax and have a good battle with Silver Hand.

The future Planet Hope would be Ouyang Shuo’s plan to break away from these two factions and grow on his own. Only on the planet could he truly set his own roots.

Only focusing on the game would be pointless.

At this moment, Ouyang Shuo’s eye for things had risen to a whole new level. Not only did he start to plan in game, but he also made preparations for the future Planet Hope.

The game would not be able to influence reality.

But the one playing the game was a living person. Since it was a person, he could influence reality.

“Feng Wu, I really need to thank you.” Ouyang Shuo thanked her from the bottom of his heart.

Feng Qiuhuang smiled, “We are friends.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, smiling back.

Following which, the two talked for more than an hour before Feng Qiuhuang took her leave.

Just when Feng Qiuhuang stepped into the teleportation formation, Ouyang Shuo suddenly said, “Feng Wu, do not be afraid. You are not walking this path alone.”

When he met her this time, Ouyang Shuo could obviously feel that she had something on her mind. However, when they were talking, Feng Qiuhuang found it hard to voice her concerns.

Ouyang Shuo deduced that she was facing the same problem as him.

This path was truly dark and cold.

Ouyang Shuo could not bear to let such a woman proceed alone.

Feng Qiuhuang’s body shook; she turned around and gave him a bright smile.

“I won’t be afraid!”

Ouyang Shuo smiled too, thinking in his heart, ‘Good luck my friend!’ *********** While Ouyang Shuo met with Feng Qiuhuang, a large net was thrown.

Pacific, Hawaii.

On the vast seas, a Grade 2 Man o’ War type battleship had ended its resupply on Hawaii and once again sailed toward Japan.

The 4th system update that had just happened not only raised the movement speed of army troops but also warship speeds, which made long distance ocean travel much simpler.

This battleship set off from the west coast of America and arrived in Hawaii in just five days. In another week, it would be able to reach Japan.

The Statue of Liberty on the warship represented the allegiance of this battleship – it belonged to America’s Free City.

On the deck there was one civil servant and one general. From their actions, they should be the core members of the battleship.

“Secretary, why do we need to travel so far to give the Japanese a precious technical manual?” The one who spoke was the general and also the captain of the ship. He wore a standard western officer uniform, and he had a long sword by his waist. On the other side was a western handgun.

“You should not ask what should not be asked.” The civil servant was the secretary of Free City, and he held a high position. Consequently, he was really calm. He wore a bicorn and held an exquisite staff.

His mustache that was shaped like the Chinese character eight was really special.

This time, they were ordered by their Lord to sell three of Free City’s most precious technical manuals to Tokyo and Chinese Lords for a low price of a million gold.

It included the transportation fee, the steam engine, the sewing machine, and the Man O’ War type warship technical manuals. The only thing Free City kept was their most core firearm making technical manual.

The secretary did not understand what was going on, so when the Lord told him to handle this, he was filled with doubts like the captain. However, in front of the general, he naturally had to act like he knew what was going on.

If not, how could he show that his relationship with the Lord was close?

Internally, the captain really thought that there was something going on and did not dare ask anymore. As such, he just smiled and changed to topic. Speaking of which, this was the first time the Free City Squadron had crossed the pacific. … Japan, Sanli City.

After Honda Keisuke read the letter Jack Dawson wrote to him, he had a wide smile and was extremely delighted.

As America’s traditional ally in Asia, even after the federation was established, Japan was still really close to the Americans in Silver Hand, helping them out and giving them what they wanted.

Of course, the Japanese had gained things in return.

Just like this time, on the surface, Sanli City was getting three technical manuals like Di Chen and the others. However, there was something more going on in the dark.

Jack Dawson not only sent him hundreds of relevant talents but also transported a thousand firearms to Sanli City.

With that, Sanli City would be a step ahead of Yanhuang Alliance.

Honda Keisuke was already thinking about leading his squadron to attack the China region coasts. … France, Vic City.

Henry was sitting in his office, reading a letter word by word, line by line.

The letter was from Silver Hand and was hinting for Vic City to not get too close with Shanhai City. If they could, it was best to cut off the resource provisions to Jidian City.

Looking at the letter, Henry’s face was extremely dark.

It was not easy for him to grab the chance to work with Shanhai City and chase the Spanish Squadron out of the Mediterranean to let the Vic City Squadron obtain the ruling rights to the ocean. He had also earned massive profits from the voyage trading.

Who knew that such a change would occur.

Without the help of Shanhai City in the Mediterranean, Henry did not feel confident about taking out the Spanish Squadron.

Not to mention Caesar who was rising up. Not only was he bearing down on the people in Europe, but he was also building a navy to try and enter the Mediterranean.

The entire Mediterranean Ocean situation was becoming a gargantuan mess. … Spain, Tortosa City.

Casillas had similarly received the letter from Silver Hand. However, compared to Henry, his expression was vastly different. He was delighted, and his eyes flashed with the glow of revenge.

“This is great; the chance for revenge has arrived.”

After half a year of lying in wait, the Spanish Squadron had finally been rebuilt. However, because of the presence of the Mediterranean Alliance, it was difficult for them to enter the ocean.

The sudden interference of Silver Hand gave the Spanish a great chance. … England, Avic Fort.

As a core member of Silver Hand, William naturally would not receive any warning.

In the end, Silver Hand was a scattered organization. To its members, especially its strong ones, it could not do much.

To follow the orders and how to do so was completely based on the Lords themselves.

Compared to Henry, William’s Avic Fort had deeper ties to Shanhai City. As the starting and ending points of the trade route, both cities earned the most.

It was impossible for William to give up on this piece of juicy meat.

William also used Silver Hand to send a message to the Mediterranean members. The Mediterranean Ocean can be chaotic but it cannot affect the merchant ships. ************ At the same time, city in the skies.

The city in the skies was where Gaia lived and also where the Federation President and other important people rested.

In a small courtyard was a two story White House. There were gardens on the front and back of the house with various flowers, numerous butterflies, and many bees.

The grass of the garden was well maintained. It was obvious that the owner of the house paid attention to detail.

And his taste was great.

On the grass patch, a humbly dressed old man was watering a pot of roses. Who knew that this person was the leader of the academic faction, and the president of the federation?

Behind him was a beauty with an extremely cold appearance. If players were present, they would be awed as this woman was the actual form of Gaia, and the most beautiful person in history.

After a while, the old man turned around, put down the watering can, and asked gently, “He really said that?”

“Yes.” Gaia was still expressionless.

The old man smiled, “What an interesting guy.”

“Do we need to reply to him?”

The old man waved his hand, “Temporarily, no. Let’s see how he gets pass this hurdle.”

“Understood.”

As she said that, Gaia turned into a white light and disappeared.

The old man picked up the watering can and continued to pay attention to his babies.

Chapter 811 - Cabinet Grand Secretary

Editor:Nora

2nd month, 10th day, Xinan University.

The previously desolate little island was now blooming with flowers after a period of care. The only thing that did not change was the little wooden hut and the bamboo forest in front of it.

Although it was winter, Shanhai City was not cold. Fallen Star Island was affected by the climate, so it was warm like summer, and the bamboos were jade-like. The fresh bamboo that Bing'er fed Qiyi came from this bamboo forest.

Under this forest was a game of go.

Ouyang Shuo was sitting opposite to Jiang Shang, playing go in the breeze.

Xinan University had long gotten on the right track, and the daily duties were well handled by the various deans. Consequently, Jiang Shang as the principal did not need to worry about much.

Ouyang Shuo placed down a black go stone and suddenly asked, "Taigong, are you willing to come out and help me?"

The matter of establishing the cabinet had spread out in the territory. Normally, there would be one Grand Secretary and zero to six assistants.

The choice for Grand Secretary was up to Ouyang Shuo.

The other ministers all felt that it was best to ask Jiang Shang to become the Grand Secretary. They felt this way for two reasons. One, Jiang Shang was righteous and morally upright; secondly, he was once an imperial tutor, so he was a natural fit for the role.

Possessing both morals and skills were requirements for the Grand Secretary.

Ouyang Shuo agreed, so he came to Fallen Star Island once more.

Jiang Shang was not surprised, putting down a white go stone casually. The result was much more effective than an amateur like Ouyang Shuo. However, the white pieces were surrounded by the black pieces.

"I'm old already, so I'm afraid I'll disappoint."

Ouyang Shuo laughed, "Taigong's body is brimming with energy; how are you old?" The game was different from history, and the biggest difference was the presence of secret manuals.

Although Jiang Shang's cultivation was not overpowered, he was still decent and his internal cultivation was rather deep, comparable to Ouyang Shuo.

It was not easy for Gaia to create these saints, so how could she bear to let them be defeated by time?

Jiang Shang saying that he was old was just referring to his body.

When the Saint Rank figures turned into androids in the future, their bodily qualities would be insanely strong.

Jiang Shang smiled, "Since the Monarch has asked, I cannot decline." After facing many setbacks, Ouyang Shuo had finally invited this Saint Rank master out.

...

Name: Jiangshang (Saint Rank)

Title: Martial Saint, Ancestor of Philosophers

Dynasty: West Zhou

Identity: Xinan University Principal

Occupation: Distinguished Citizen

Loyalty: 85

Command: 88

Force: 75

Intelligence: 98

Politics: 100

Specialty: Rule the Country (Raises administrative efficiency by 55%, raises politics index by 15%, raises military index by 15%, raises people sentiment by 45%)

Books: Liutao

Evaluation: Taigong ruled a country, establishing culture and rules. Through merchants and crafts, he made fishing and salt common, gathering people from different backgrounds to form a country.

The stats of a Saint Rank person were overpowered, and even his occupation was a unique: Distinguished Citizen. His four stats were similar to Sun Wu, and there was not a single weak point. His politics stat was even maxed out.

However, in contrast to Sun Wu who was not fully working in Shanhai City, Jiang Shang had officially pledged his loyalty, which revealed his specialty.

His specialty was overpowered, two out of the four effects could actually raise territory indexes, and it was a total all rounded upgrade.

...

Looking at his stats, Ouyang Shuo smiled happily, and the speed at which he placed the pieces also quickened.

Jiang Shang followed as he placed the pieces and smiled, "Monarch you lost."

People just could not be too gleeful. In the blink of an eye, the black pieces were cornered and could not move.

"I admit defeat." Ouyang Shuo surrendered. Looking at the corner of the board, a black piece was surrounded by more than 10 white pieces. He took this chance to ask, "Taigong, if Shanhai City was this black piece and the enemy is the white piece, what should I do?"

Ouyang Shuo thought back to the threat of the Silver Hand.

Jiang Shang obviously knew the Monarch was thinking about a problem. He could see that the Monarch was different from before. He had something on his mind; it was like he was facing a tough problem.

"Monarch, please elaborate!" Since Jiang Shang had agreed to work in Shanhai City, he would obviously utilize all his knowledge.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and introduced the situation of Silver Hand to Jiang Shang.

Jiang Shang sighed and said slowly, "Monarch choosing to join the academic action is correct. But it is not enough. Even as a chess piece, we need to be the piece that people will not easily give up on. It has to be so that the moment a chess master gives up on the piece, the chess master would definitely lose. Hence, this piece would be linked to the fate of the chess master."

"Taigong, what you're saying is?"

Jiang Shang asked, "Who is the Silver Hand up against?"

"The academic faction?"

"No." Jiang Shang shook his head, "No one can confirm that the academic faction would not become the next Silver Hand once it destroys Silver Hand. It is both a war of ideals and a war of interests."

"Silver Hand is against hundreds of millions of normal people. The Monarch needs to unify the masses and tie their interests to that of Shanhai City. At that time, even if the academic faction wants to abandon you, it would be impossible."

Ouyang Shuo's eyes lit up, "Just like the Four Seas Bank?"

Jiang Shang nodded, "That's right, the Four Seas Bank follows this theory. However, this is far from enough. Since the Monarch wants to make it big, you need to bring out the magnanimity of the emperor and learn how to accept and control players and not reject them."

"I understand." Ouyang Shuo's eyes were determined.

Jiang Shang smiled.

"That's right." Ouyang Shuo suddenly thought about a matter and asked, "Regarding the country title, what thoughts does Taigong have?"

After a few days of discussion, the main idea was to inherit one from Xia Shang and Zhou as the strong country titles from the Warring States Era were already taken and the remaining ones were not strong enough.

Only those three ancient titles held enough weight. As for which to choose, everyone was still split.

Xia Dynasty was the first regime recorded in China and was the start of the country concept. The meaning of Xia was the Chinese people. Huaxia, which was the old name of China, came from the Xia Dynasty.

Legends had it that the starter of the Xia Dynasty was the last descendent of the Zhuan Xu tribe, the last descendent of the Yellow Emperor.

The Shang Dynasty was the first regime that was recorded by the people of that time and was a period where slavery was very common. However, there was a Shangding within Shanhai City's sky altar, so they had a little relation to the Shang Dynasty.

The ancestor of the Shang people were called Qi, and they helped stopped the flood and was given the title of Shangyi. Hence, he called his tribe Shang, and the country title was known as Shang.

Qi was the grandson of the Yellow Emperor, so the Shang tribe was also a descendent of the Yellow Emperor. However, the Shang Dynasty was in the middle of the three ancient dynasties, so it had little support.

Zhou Dynasty, similar to the above two, was a hereditary style dynasty. Moreover, it was also the place where the philosophers came out from. Hence, many people supported this country title.

If Shanhai City chose to inherit this title, many people would immediately choose to return.

The Yellow Emperor lived in Jishui, with the Ji as his people and the Zhou people succeeding the surname.

The Zhou people were invaded and forced away from their homes. They went through a lot of hardship, going past the Ju, Qi, and Ling Mountains, going past rivers to get to the Zhou plains. As a result, the concept of Zhou was born.

However, the Zhou Regime was in truth West Zhou and East Zhou, and the birth of the philosophers was during the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period. Hence, the presence of the Zhou Dynasty was weak and that point alone made it not a definite choice.

The above three ancient empires were descendants of the Fire and Yellow Emperors and were all traditional.

Even Ouyang Shuo was hesitating between Xia and Zhou.

Jiang Shang's expression suddenly turned a little complicated, but he said after a long time, "I helped Zhou destroy Shang to avoid suspicion, so I should not participate in this. How to choose is up to you Monarch."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, understanding Jiang Shang's stance. Ouyang Shuo suddenly remembered that during the Battle of Muye, the Zhou King had died under his hands.

Thinking of which, he felt a chill run down his spine.

Ouyang Shuo tossed aside the thoughts in his mind and asked the last question he had on his mind at the moment, "Since Taigong is moving to the cabinet, who will replace you in the university?"

Xinan University was one of the pillars of the territory and was where the philosophers gathered. As long as Jiang Shang lived, Ouyang Shuo could not randomly find someone to replace him.

Jiang Shang had thought about this long ago and said, "Kong Qiu can do it."

Ouyang Shuo was stunned, "Confucius is willing to work for Shanhai City?" If Confucius replaced Jiang Shang as the principal no problem would arise.

However, he was currently engrossed in the remodeling of Confucianism, so it would not be so easy to invite him.

"Do not worry Monarch, I'll invite him personally."

Ouyang Shuo smiled, "That would be the best."

With Jiang Shang, who could be considered half Confucius's teacher, there would be no problems.

This helped solved one of Ouyang Shuo's big problems.

Seeing that the sky was dark, Ouyang Shuo took his leave, "Tomorrow, I'll wait at the Governor-General Manor for your arrival." He still needed to discuss with Jiang Shang, Xiao He, and the like about the organizational structure of the dynasty.

Jiang Shang nodded, standing up to see his guest out.

Chapter 812 - Five Million Recruitment Plan

Chapter 812: Five Million Recruitment Plan

2nd month, 12th day, eve of the Lantern Festival, a piece of news shocked the entire China region.

Nanjiang Governor-General Qiyue Wuyi made an announcement that Shanhai City would start a one off recruitment of five million players from the nine imperial cities, placing them across three provinces, 16 prefectures, 81 houses, and 400 counties.

This recruitment effort was mainly aimed at work occupation players.

However, there was a notable difference – Shanhai City had opened up to casual players. Based on the report, as long as one met the requirements, any elderly willing to move in would be granted territory welfare and protection.

The various government offices would provide free housing for the players. Moreover, every month, they would give the needed living resources to ensure that their basic needs were met.

The announcement clearly stated that there would be a million causal players allowed, which was 20% of the number.

The Nanjiang Governor-General House had taken out four million to execute this plan. Ouyang Shuo had basically taken out all the money they earned from the sales of weapons.

At the same time, the Nanjiang Govenor-General House would borrow three million from the Four Seas Bank to ensure that the matter proceeded smoothly. Along with the funds used by the various prefectures and counties, the overall costs would break the 10 million mark.

If one included the costs of the houses, as well as the future welfare costs, it would be a sky high price.

The moment the news went public, the first reaction was, ‘Shanhai City is crazy!’ … However, of course they were not.

This plan was thought of after a day of discussion with the Civil Affairs Department.

The details of the announcements only gave an overall framework while the Finance Division, Regulatory Department, Industry and Development Planning Department, Four Seas Bank, and related personnel would work together to help to make specific migration plans.

The various prefectures and counties also needed to make specific migration plans based on their territory and report to the Civil Affairs Department.

The entire migration plan was a huge systematic process, and they would need a full month or two to complete the first stage of personnel arrangement. It would take half a year for it to fully get on track.

Moreover, this was just the first step in Ouyang Shuo’s plan.

The China region had close to 100 million players, and Ouyang Shuo’s ambition was to have Shanhai City house at least 30% of that figure, which was around 30 million players. He wanted them to live under Shanhai City and get used to their rule.

Of course, the prerequisite would be that their territory had to expand once more.

Five million people were the migration limit the Civil Affairs Department had calculated. Any more and not only would it cause a massive hit to the industries, it would be a huge burden to the territory’s finances.

On the surface, this was a losing deal.

Of course, it was not.

First, casual players only took up 20% of the migration numbers.

This recruitment plan mainly focused on family units. In a family there would be old people and kids and normally a few work occupation players. Even the old people might be work occupation players.

In the 22nd century, people lived much longer and 50 to 60 years old people could be considered middle aged. When players truly became old, their grandchildren were already mature, and some who lived longer even saw their great grandchildren mature.

To use one causal player to obtain four work occupation players was worth it.

If not, Ouyang Shuo would not feel confident about recruiting four million work occupation players at once. After all, the release of the underground world meant that the resources deficit in the imperial cities would be solved soon.

Secondly, the increase in population would spur the growth of territory finances.

The various territories in the wilderness were not balance from the start. Shanhai City had taken down three provinces, and many places saw their people go hungry. Along with many wars, many ended up with plenty of land but little people.

Especially the prefecture grade land, which were mostly forcefully upgraded from Grade 3 County. The average population shortfall was 300 thousand per prefecture territory. In one prefecture of land that number would exceed four million.

Along with territory stone steeles being destroyed, the prefecture and county populations basically stopped. No matter how fast the natives could give birth, their contribution to the population was pretty much zero.

Based on the reports of the Civil Affairs Department, the territory overall number at the end of the 3rd year was 25 million.

Shanhai City covered three provinces and had close to the Ming Dynasty Era sized land. One must know that at their peak, the Ming Dynasty had 105 million people.

The Qing Dynasty was more terrifying with 436 million.

In comparison, Shanhai City was simply too poor.

But Ouyang Shuo did not dare recruit too many players at once as the balance would be broken, and it would have a destructive effect on the already weak county and prefecture ruling systems.

They could only bring in batch by batch, taking in the next batch after the first was digested.

The digestion process would also be the process where the various prefectures and counties progressed quickly. The Financial Bureau calculated that as long as Shanhai City digested these five million migrants, the financial income would increase by 30%.

Calculating it like that, the investment of 10 million gold was truly worth it.

Which was also why after taking down Yunnan City-State, Ouyang Shuo turned his strategy from internal to external. He did not want to attack Xiangnan and Chuanbei City-States in a short time.

Much less the Jiangchuan and Minnan Provinces.

Ouyang Shuo’s goal was simple, which was to make use of the territory stone steeles’s ability to spawn refugees to increase the number of natives. As a result, the next time he recruited players, he could ask for more of them.

Thirdly, he wanted to lower the ratio of civilians to military personnel.

After this round of military reorganization, the Shanhai City Army consisted of 16 War Fighting Legions with 1.12 million men, which did not sound too terrifying. If one included the navy and the Garrison Divisions, the number would reached 1.9 million.

Based on the 25 million population count, the ratio had reached 1:12, which was close to the danger value. These five million players would help to buy them some breathing room.

The above three points were the core reasons, and it was also the tips and ideas that Taigong gave him to try to drag as many grassroots players up his boat as possible.

Only by doing that would he not become an abandoned chess piece. … No matter what Ouyang Shuo was considering, the nine imperial cities were turned on their heads because of this announcement. Some agreed while others opposed.

The underground world was about to be opened and players with ambition naturally would not be willing to leave.

But there were also a portion of the players who were tired of fighting over the Satellite City and engaging in slaughter and battles. They would rather move over to Shanhai City to live a peaceful life.

If one had elderly or children at home, all the more they thought that way.

Before the true battle started, the various guilds had started killing one another. Obviously, once the Lantern Festival was over, the murders would grow even more intense.

To say that blood would flow like rivers was not an exaggeration.

At that time, who knows how many players would die, and their three years of cultivation and hard work would go down the drain.

No matter what, the Shanhai City recruitment announcement had a market. After Shanhai City took down Yunnan City-State, the China region players had already recognized them as the top power in China.

To live there was much safer than going to the imperial city. … Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo’s reading room.

Apart from recruiting five million players, Ouyang Shuo also thought of other ways to go up against the threat of Silver Hand.

In the reading room sat Shen Buhai and Black Snake.

Before this, Ouyang Shuo had split the roles of the Shanhai Guards and the Black Snake Guards but he did not do so completely. Since it was not a total split, and their jobs intersected, which resulted in a waste of manpower and resources.

To make matters worse, monitoring blind spots appeared as they competed. Like the intel error in Yunnan, which was the result of the two intel organizations being too eager to perform, losing their calm as a result.

After that incident, the three intel organizations had an extremely through reflection.

After Ouyang Shuo saw their incident report, he felt exceedingly guilty and blamed himself.

Using the threat of Silver Hand, Ouyang Shuo was going to thoroughly split the duties of the two organizations.

“All duties of the Black Snake Guards in the China region, including the development of spies and moles, will be taken over by the Shanhai Guards.” Ouyang Shuo’s first sentence stunned Black Snake.

“Monarch?”

Black Shake’s face was ashen white, and he thought that this was the punishment for his mistake.

‘Have the Black Snake Guards lost the trust of the Monarch?’ Black Snake thought bitterly to himself. The moment they lost Ouyang Shuo’s trust, the only path left was to disband.

Even Shen Buhai was shocked and did not know what was going on.

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand to tell the two of them to relax. “After the Shanhai Guards take over, do you feel confident about doing a better job of investigating players?”

Shen Buhai was a really by the book person, and he thought about the question seriously before replying, “There will be an adapting period. After which, there will not be many problems.”

The Shanhai Guards were no longer at their initial stages of development, and there were players in their ranks. Moreover, through their monitoring of the Black Snake Guards, they had also gathered some experience.

But to control the whole situation was not easy to achieve.

“How long do you need?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

“Two months.”

Ouyang Shuo raised three fingers and said calmly, “I will give you three months; if you mess it up, you’ll know the consequences.”

When Shen Buhai heard those words, he felt a cold feeling in his heart.

“Do not worry Monarch; if I cannot accomplish the task, I’m willing to give you my head.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Then he looked at Black Snake who had calmed down slightly, “The Black Snake Guards need to cooperate with them to make the relevant handovers. Is half a month enough?”

Black Snake’s voice was hoarse, but he did not lose his calm and calculated in his heart, “It’s enough.”

As for handing over, it was mainly contact methods of the informants, spies, and list of all of them. Finally, there would be the major intel stations.

Much of this information could be handed over right at the Shanhai City headquarters.

Chapter 813 - Fireworks Cool Easily

Chapter 813: Fireworks Cool Easily

Naturally, the matter that Black Snake was worried about would not happen. Although the incident at the Battle of Yunnan was his responsibility, he was already punished.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Black Snake once more, “After dealing with the handover, bring the nine other core members to Lion City, Friendship City, and Jidian City to set up a global intel network.”

The Shanhai Guards would take charge of intel in China while the Black Snake Guards would be in charge of international intel. After this, these two intel organizations would overlap no more.

As for the Shanhai Guards being unable to monitor and control the Black Snake Guards, Ouyang Shuo was not too worried.

First, since the establishment of the Black Snake Guards, Black Snake had already proven his loyalty. Secondly, the headquarters of the Black Snake Guards was still in the Ash Courtyard, so he would have to return after he gets everything settled.

Hence, the Shanhai Guards could still conduct some limited monitoring of the Black Snake Guards.

Ouyang Shuo continued, “With Lion City as the center to form the Asia Intel Division; with Friendship City as its center to form the Africa Intel Division; with Jidian City as its center to form the Europe Intel Division. In the future, we can still make the North America and South America Intel Divisions to cover the entire world. How’s that, are you confident?”

Black Snake’s worry turned to joy, his mood soaring and dropping quickly. He nodded, “No problem!”

The Black Snake Guards going out to sea did not mean that they were starting from scratch. Long ago, when the three cities were taken down, Ouyang Shuo had already told them to start their work there.

Now, Black Snake needed to build on this foundation.

“Similarly, Shanhai Guard’s overseas unit will be handed over. From now on, you two are different organizations, one focusing internally, one externally.” Ouyang Shuo said.

“Understood!”

Both Shen Buhai and Black Snake nodded.

Ouyang Shuo said, “Black Snake, you need to follow up at Somalia. Based on the reaction of City Magistrate Gu Xiuwen, those fellows are being more and more unfriendly. We need to find a time to teach them a lesson.”

“Do not worry Monarch. I’ll definitely do a good job.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, and his expression suddenly turned solemn, “What I am about to say next is only to the both of you; you cannot reveal it to anyone.”

Shen Buhai exchanged glances with Black Snake and the shock and surprise in the others’ eyes. The reason behind the Monarch’s sudden changes was probably due to what he was about to say next.

Ouyang Shuo revealed the relevant information regarding Silver Hand.

The more they heard, the more astonished they grew.

The Yanhuang Alliance was already so amazing, and they did not expect these people to have such a terrifying organization on a global scale.

Ouyang Shuo said, “It’s obvious that they are our greatest enemy and our biggest obstacle since we have started to expand overseas. Without knowing clearly who our enemy is and what they have, we have no chance of winning.”

“Monarch I understand.” A fire burned in his eyes, and they finally understood why the Lord was so anxious to form a global intel network.

Even if Black Snake was a famous Mercenary Group leader in real life, he knew nothing about Silver Hand. Thinking about the incoming collision with this massive monster, Black Snake could feel his blood boil.

“Your blood can boil, but you cannot lose your head. Toward this opponent, we pretty much know nothing about them. Even the strong academic faction cannot deal with them, so they are not something we can touch easily at our stage. If we are not careful, we might fall into their trap.”

Black Snake calmed himself down; he was not a reckless person after all. “Do not worry Monarch, we will focus on expanding our overseas intel network in these two to three months and will not disturb them.”

“That’s good.” Ouyang Shuo nodded, “I’ll give the Black Snake Guards 150 thousand more gold to expand the overseas intel network. In the next period of time, you’ll have to depend on yourselves.”

“Thank you Monarch.” Black Snake was touched as he was clear about how much gold would be used on the five million player recruitment. To take out 500 thousand at such a stage was really difficult.

Ouyang Shuo waved them off, “Go prepare!”

“We will take our leave!”

Shen Buhai and Black Snake left. In the following period of time, there were more than enough matters for them to be busy with.

Ouyang Shuo sat alone in the reading room, looking at the sky outside the window, only to see a dark cloud float above the blue portion like it was going to swallow the entire blue sky.

“The rain is about to arrive!”

The part that worried Ouyang Shuo the most worried was still the situation in the Mediterranean. He could not predict who were members of Silver Hand but William, Henry, and the like were definitely part of it.

What changes would occur in the Mediterranean because of this?

Ouyang Shuo had no way to find out.

He made up his mind to immediately attack Morocco after establishing the country. As for the plan to attack Annan, that could be postponed to a later date.

“Time does not wait for anyone!”

Jidian City was an important strategic location and was the only stop for the Mediterranean Squadron. However, it was not self-sufficient, so it was in a dangerous spot.

Only by taking down Morocco could they advance and retreat without worry.

Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo wrote a letter to Kalia to ask her to take care of Jidian City. If there were changes, he hoped that Atlantis could interfere and protect Jidian City.

Although such a course of action was rascal-like, Ouyang Shuo had no choice.

As for William and Henry, Ouyang Shuo was not in a hurry to write a letter to find out their attitudes on the matter. Before the situation became clear, both of them definitely would not choose sides.

Even if they did, they would not openly stand on Shanhai City’s side. The interest chain of both sides was not so secure, and Ouyang Shuo did not want to seek humiliation.

In the huge reading room, all that remained was Ouyang Shuo’s soft and slow breathing. ************ The bustling Lantern Festival arrived in the blink of an eye.

This also meant that the Chinese New Year period had come to an end. The prosperity and celebratory instinct slowly faded, slowly replaced by the killing intent and coldness of the wilderness.

Since establishing the country was imminent, Shanhai City held the biggest Lantern Festival in its history. The vast and endless city was filled with various kinds of lanterns.

On the hundreds of squares in the territory, there were massive, building-sized lanterns that attracted many people over.

Merchants and sellers saw the business opportunity and naturally would not let it go. There were people selling candied haws, selling sweets, selling cakes, some cutting paper, and various trades.

Troupes and various artists used the chance to walk onto the squares and start their performances, earning them a lot of cheers. Naturally, they earned great profits.

Since it was the Lantern Festival, regardless of adults or kids, they were all really generous.

It was also beneath the imperial city where the people lived a really rich life, so their spending power was naturally the strongest.

Mingling amidst the masses were not only merchants from Southeast Asia, but there were also western merchants or religious teachers who were here to admire and enjoy the eastern culture.

Some western merchants did not forget to take the chance to sell the western items that they had brought. There were some microscopes, various beautiful stones, and also many funny things of unknown purposes.

It was truly a bustling sight.

Some people said that many items that one could not buy in the system imperial city could be basically found in Shanhai City. Thanks to the prosperous ocean trading, merchants from tens of thousands of countries were gathering to make this city exquisitely charming and unique.

Apart from the squares, there were many other places that were similarly exciting.

On the expanded Friendship River, there were many flower ships. The trees on the two sides of the river shore were hung with countless lanterns and tens of thousands of civilians made their wishes.

Some wished for health, some for fame, and others for riches….

Mazu Temple, Drum Tower, and other significant buildings were the focus of redecorations; especially the newly built temples in the city. They all made use of this final day to hold many different kinds of temple fairs.

The current Shanhai City was a location where hundreds of flowers bloomed.

Various religions were able to lay their roots down on the ground, and even western religions were accepted.

The wilderness had not reached the Wei Pu Period where Buddhism was spread in the wilderness. The main religion was still Taoism, with no less than 15 to 16 Taoist temples in the city.

The Dragon King Temple, God of Fortune Temple, and the like were found everywhere.

Of course, the one that people paid the most attention to was the North City Tower in the imperial city, where the most exquisite and noblest crafted lanterns were gathered.

Even the fireworks were released throughout the night.

Amongst all the fireworks were many Kongming lanterns, bringing with them the wishes and the blessings of many people. They slowly disappeared into the night sky and floated into the distance.

Shanhai City had transformed into a city with no night, and the endless prosperity spread along the streets. Who would have imagined three years ago that an unassuming little village would end up becoming such a megacity?

Amongst all the bustle and hustle, the Shanhai City Law and Order Division’s 1st firefighting squad roamed the alleys to extinguish the flames and ensure the safety and happiness of the occasion.

The ruling system of Shanhai City was becoming more and more modern.

Imperial City, North City Tower.

Ouyang Shuo brought Song Jia, Bing’er, and the others to sit on the tower, eating delicious dishes while spending the holiday.

On the two sides of Ouyang Shuo sat Jiang Shang, Xiao He, and other prominent ministers. They were using the lanterns as topics to match poems and lines.

The lines in the poems were describing the prosperous scenes in front of his eyes.

Ouyang Shuo smiled as he listened; his heart was extremely calm.

Who knew how many hidden currents moved in such a prosperous place?

Chapter 814 - A White Token

Chapter 814: A White Token

The Lantern Festival was the day to celebrate family reunions, and it was the last day for the various schemers to prepare.

During the night, small white tokens totally shook up the guild circles of the nine imperial cities, creating a massive wave in the dark, trying to break apart the Shanhai Alliance-Guild Alliance.

The real goal was to use this chance to remove the outer barrier of Shanhai City.

Needless to say, the schemer was Silver Hand. In the China region, apart from the six members of the original Six Tyrants of Handan, Silver Hand had many other mysterious members.

These members were all hidden aristocratic families who did not come out of hiding easily.

Like the leader of Star Alliance from before, Xingzhe Zichen, as well as the hidden aristocratic family behind him, they were all members of Silver Hand.

However, due to Ouyang Shuo’s interference, his attempt to come out on the world stage was not smooth.

Within the global landscape, China’s foundation was the strongest, and they had the longest history on Earth. Hence, they had the highest number of hidden aristocratic families.

As for the specific number, apart from the founder of Silver Hand, no one was clear.

After Silver Hand listed Ouyang Shuo as very dangerous and activated term number 15, the ones who acted first were not the overseas members but the hidden members in China.

Today was the first stage of them pulling in the net.

The guild situation would totally change on this night. … Quanzhou, Streamer Headquarters.

In the leader’s room, two men sat facing one another. The first was the sect leader of Streamer, Jun Yilao, and opposite him was a middle aged man. The middle aged man looked rather humble and simple, and his face was similar to Lao Yijun.

“Little Jun, 10 years have passed since that matter, yet you still cannot get over it?” The middle aged man picked up the tea cup, taking a sip. He focused on Jun Yilao with a merciful gaze.

“Do not use such eyes to look at me, disgusting!”

Jun Yilao’s heart was obviously unsettled. Evidently, the person in front of him had a special relationship with him.

“You are my son.”

Jun Yilao said mockingly, “Illegitimate or bastard? After you all coldly chased me out of my family, I no longer had any relationship with you all. All of you acted noble, following some dog sh*t sect rules and not revealing yourself to the world. Now what? You guys cannot stand the loneliness and want to jump out?”

“Earth is already gone, so what are we holding onto?” Loneliness flashed in the eyes of the middle aged man.

To hidden aristocratic families, to ask them to leave Earth, to leave China, to leave the roots their ancestors had placed down for them was undoubtedly a difficult choice, and it nearly destroyed their beliefs.

Some of these old people would rather die than migrate.

“If we move to Planet Hope, when we die, where will we be buried?” That was their question.

The middle aged man in front of him was brought up imbued with such ideals and naturally felt this pain.

Jun Yilao kept silent.

“Little Jun, the times have changed. A new era will be born, and it will belong to you people. We are old and slowly being eliminated.”

The middle aged man continued sincerely, “The family has decided to come out and choose you as our heir, helping Streamer take down the Satellite City in Quanzhou.”

“I do not need it, I can settle it myself.”

Hearing these words, Jun Yilao’s heart had a slight waver, but he did not back off in his words.

The middle aged man shook his head, “You cannot.”

“Do not try to scare me.”

The middle aged man said, “You know how powerful our family is. Quanzhou is where we took root and have run it for hundreds of years. Even in the game, more than 30% of the guild heads can be controlled by us. Little Jun, do you really think you will succeed if you go against us?”

Jun Yilao’s expression froze up.

“Why?”

Jun Yilao naturally knew of the family’s power, but how would they easily use this power?

“Because of this.”

The middle aged man took out a small white token that looked simple; it was made of silver. There were no flowery pattern, but it looked really special, and the tip of the token had a small palm.

When Jun Yilao saw this token, he was shocked, “The silver order of the Silver House! Who are you going against?” After calming himself down, he asked uncertainly, “Is it Shanhai City?”

“That’s right.”

“Despicable! You all are actually acting against your own people.” Jun Yilao stood up in rage.

The middle aged man said, “Own people? After the federation was formed, are there still enemies and allies?”

“If there isn’t, what are you all holding onto? World unification?” Jun Yilao’s face had an unspeakable mocking, “In the end, it is still Shanhai City blocking your way.”

“Maybe you’re right.”

The middle aged man did not try to argue. His son had already grown up, and he was already a strong power of China. However, anyone who stood so tall and high up definitely would not believe in ideals.

“Scoff!”

Jun Yilao did not know what he should say and quietly sat back down.

The atmosphere of the room immediately became awkward.

The middle aged man spoke again; he did not want to beat around the bush, passing the white token to Jun Yilao, “This token, will you take it or not?”

“What if I take it? What if I do not?”

The middle aged man said, “Take it and you’ll be the heir of the family. If you do not, you are the enemy of the family. What will come of that, I’m sure you understand.”

“….”

Jun Yilao was silent for a long time.

Streamer was his hard work and his last bit of pride since he left the family. If he did not take the silver token, it would be like becoming enemies with Silver Hand.

Thinking about that beast, no matter how stubborn Jun Yilao was, he still felt a chill in his heart.

However, Jun Yilao did not want to submit to the family once more.

Thinking about that rainy day 10 years ago, the 14 year old him left the deep mountain residence under the cold eyes of the people; an insuppressible soared in his heart.

This fire had blazed for 10 years and still was not extinguished.

Who would have thought that 10 years later, the family would want him to return just because of a silver token?

What irony!

Jun Yilao’s fingernails could not help but stab into his flesh.

When the middle aged man saw that, he tried to persuade, “Qiyue Wuyi is just in a cooperative relationship with you, so why would you make sacrifices because of him? An abnormally is just an abnormally.”

Jun Yilao suddenly raised his head and stared into the middle aged man’s eyes, “I will take it.” As he said those words, he reached out to pick up the small token.

“That’s my son.” The middle aged man smiled happily.

However, Jun Yilao’s heart was bleeding. … Chengdu, Laojun Temple Headquarters.

Out of all the guild headquarters, Laojun Temple’s one was the most special. The entire headquarters consisted of a huge rites ground, and the temple’s building structure was similar to the way of Chengdu.

The Shu Lands had many experts and also the legend of the Shu Mountain Sword Saint, so the cultivation atmosphere was really strong.

Laojun Temple sitting in Chengdu was perfect.

Night, oil lamps glistening.

Someone arrived before Laojun Temple.

“Who is here?”

Laojun Temple was mainly made up of priests, and even the guard was dressed up as a priest.

“Please tell the sect leader that Xuan Jizi is here to visit.”

When the guards saw that the old man in front of him seemed like a strong cultivator, they did not dare to take him lightly and went to report to the sect leader.

Not long after, a middle aged man passed through the inner door. He was wearing a green robe, and his face was red and nourished. This person was a priest that had a deep cultivation.

Upon closer inspection, this person was really emotional and excited, walking extremely quickly.

This was the sect leader of Laojun Temple, Priest Qingniu.

Priest Qingniu was actually a legendary figure. He was a third generous rich boy, and he had a lot of money. It was rumored that when he entered the mountains to play, an expert gave him tips, letting him comprehend a lot, allowing him to directly step into the priest gates.

After this, Priest Qingniu cultivated for a long time in the mountains before leaving. After going down the mountains, he studied for a priest license and became a recognized priest.

He also used his own money to build a temple in the suburbs to get disciples.

Although he was a recognized alchemist, Priest Qingniu was not old and he advanced with the times. Apart from building the temple and accepting disciples, he was also one of the most famous Taoist forum posters. When he was free, he would post online on the forums to spread the knowledge of Taoism.

Some experience netizens could discuss together with Priest Qingniu. Overall, it was a really interesting experience.

Laojun Temple in the game was built from the foundations of real life temples, and the core members he invited in were mainly netizens from the forums.

Hence, Laojun Temple could be considered one of the top 10 guilds and was a legendary guild.

Priest Qingniu charged out of the gates. When he saw the old man waiting outside, he could not keep his emotions in, and he shook as he said, “Teacher, it’s you!”

As he said that, he teared up.

The person who taught Priest Qingniu in the mountains was this person.

Without that lucky encounter, Priest Qingniu would not have gotten all his achievements. In the next few years, Priest Qingniu entered the mountains over and over to try to meet his teacher but he did not manage to.

When the planetary migration occurred, Priest Qingniu thought that he would not be able to see his teacher ever again. Who knew that his teacher would actually visit him? Obviously, Priest Qingniu would feel emotional.

“Student!”

The old priest smiled, his face was also filled with emotion.

Chapter 815 - Brother, I Am Sorry

Laojun Temple, quiet room.

Priest Qingniu personally served tea, “Teacher, it has not been easy to meet you.”

Xuan Jizi said, “I’ve been used to living a carefree life.”

Priest Qingniu hesitated, “Then why did teacher come over now? If I can help, I will do so.” He did not believe that his mysterious master would show up for no reason.

“I’ve been asked by someone to do something, so I did not have a choice.” Xuan Jizi said, taking out a silver token.

Priest Qingniu did not understand, “What is that?” Although he was the third generation of a rich family, he could not enter Silver Hand. Naturally, he did not know anything.

Xuan Jizi roughly introduced the Silver Hand to him.

‘Siii!’ Priest Qingniu took in a cold breath and asked, “Is there really such a mysterious organization on this earth? I thought that it was just all made up.”

Online, there were always such guesses regarding various mysterious organizations. Normal people all felt that they were just made up weird stories and did not delve too much into them.

Even if they believed these rumors, there were no channels for them to discuss and provide evidence.

Xuan Jizi nodded, “I’m a member of Silver Hand, and I’ve been asked to invite you to represent Laojun Temple to accept this silver token.”

“If I accept it, do I need to follow their instructions?” Priest Qingniu hesitated as priests like him could not stand such a restriction.

Xuan Jizi smiled, “It is not that exaggerated.”

Xuan Jizi continued by describing the goal of Silver Hand to him, and it was just to let Laojun Temple draw the line with Shanhai City and join the Yanhuang Alliance camp.

Xuan Jizi continued, “After you accept, Silver Hand will use some of their strength in Chengdu to ensure that Laojun Temple takes down the Satellite City as a sort of repayment.”

Priest Qingniu was instantly tempted.

The priest occupation was not a common occupation in the game, and Laojun Temple had many challengers in Chengdu. Overall, its position was not stable.

Priest Qingniu was deep in thought about how to take down the Satellite City.

Who knew that there would actually be such a good opportunity?

‘Then it seems like teacher really is my lucky star.’ Priest Qingniu thought to himself.

Pretty much without hesitation, Priest Qingniu accepted the token and smiled, “Since it’s teacher who asked, I’ll of course accept.”

Xuan Jizi nodded, and his face did not show any happiness or sadness.

In the end, Xuan Jizi did not want to enter all these battles. However, as he was in the underworld, he had no choice. Even hidden aristocratic families could not totally break away from the constraints of this world.

“Teacher, may I ask why Silver Hand wants to go against Shanhai City?”

Xuan Jizi could not be too detailed. Even in his description of Silver Hand, he had kept many details away from Priest Qingniu. Who knows whether this person would be a big mouth?

“Maybe they are not used to the way Shanhai City does things.” Xuan Jizi randomly spouted.

Priest Qingniu looked like he understood, but it also looked like he did not want to understand it. A third party connected Laojun Temple and Shanhai City, so there was no real relationship between them. “I can only say I’m sorry.” However, Priest Qingniu did not have any regret or guilt in his heart. … Luoyang, Tingyu Floor Headquarters.

Jianqi Leiyin’s face was ice cold as she stared at the man opposite her, “What are you doing here?”

Currently standing facing her was the guild leader of Jianqi Zongheng, Yijian Xilai, who was her ex and now her enemy.

Yijian Xilai said, “Ah Yin, even till today, you are not willing to forgive me?”

“In your dreams!” Jianqi Leiyin started at him angrily.

Yijian Xilai sighed, “You are still so stubborn.”

Whatever happened that year had passed. As a man, Yijian Xilai would not breach the topic. However, his feelings toward Jianqi Leiyin were sincere.

As the guild leader of Jianqi Zongheng, he could get any girl he wanted.

However, he was still single.

This love and feeling was noticed by not only members of Jianqi Zongheng but also members of Tingyu Floor. The guild members of both sides tried to persuade and convince their own guild leaders.

Just as Yijian Xilai had said, Jianqi Leiyin was really stubborn. When the two broke up, her stubbornness had something to do with it. After breaking up, Jianqi Leiyin openly said that she would defeat him. Naturally, she would not easily give up on that.

Maybe that had already become her goal.

“Do you know how dangerous the environment in Planet Hope is?” Yijian Xilai suddenly changed the topic.

Jianqi Leiyin’s brows furrowed.

In the promotion by the federation, Planet Hope was pretty much a paradise. People like Jianqi Leiyin naturally would not believe it as the federation merely said so to persuade more people to move and also to give them hope.

Jianqi Leiyin was extremely curious about the environment of Planet Hope.

Yijian Xilai continued, “Long before the migration, the federation sent a squadron to explore the planet. Not long ago, the data was sent over to Gaia.”

“Truthfully, Planet Hope is not an ideal home. Large amounts of natives live there, and they walk a totally different path from Earth’s technology focused one. Their body capabilities are shockingly strong and some even have special abilities.”

“As a result, adventure gamemode players like us will be extremely important on Planet Hope. The federation wants us to take root in Planet Hope, and they need both the Lords to expand and make territory but also many soldiers to fight on the frontlines. Gaia has already used the details of the natives and made them into the various races in the game. After making them, they will be first thrown into the underground world for us to train against.”

Jianqi Leiyin was stunned by this news.

After a long while, she said, “I thank you for telling me all of this. But it’s impossible for me to forgive you, so you can leave!”

Yijian Xilai panicked, “Ah Yin, why don’t you get it?”

“Get what!”

A passionate expression appeared on his face, and ambition flashed across his eyes, “This Planet Hope isn’t a danger but a chance. It is a chance for us to change our fates. As long as we control our guilds, we will be the leader of men when we arrive, and we will not be chess pieces. If we keep on fighting amongst ourselves, we will just be playing with our own fates. So Ah Yin, I beg you, let’s work together. If we do, who will we be afraid of in the China region?”

Jianqi Leiyin scoffed, “A person who cannot even control the Jingdu Imperial City saying such big words, aren’t you afraid the wind will cut your tongue?”

Yijian Xilai was not surprised, “You’re talking about Shadow Alliance and Yimeng Pavillion? They will not last for long. The Satellite City in Jingdu Region will definitely belong to Jianqi Zongheng.”

Jianqi Leiyin froze. When she saw that Jianqi Xilai was extremely confident, she purposely said, “If you can take it down it’s because of the support of Yanhuang Alliance. Being their soldier yet you’re telling me you do not want to be a chess piece? Do you think that I am a kid?”

Yijian Xilai got unhappy, “What frontline soldier? We are working together, making use of one another. Without them, would I have gotten the intel from before to tell you? When we reach Planet Hope and do our own stuff, who can control who?”

Jianqi Leiyin said, “Since that’s the case, then why not work with Shanhai City? At the very least, Qiyue Wuyi is not as shameless and unscrupulous as Di Chen. Don’t you know what happened with Yunnan City-State? Also, Shadow Alliance and Yimeng Pavilion are supported by Shanhai City. Even with Yanhuang Alliance helping you, are you confident about taking it down? The current Yanhuang Alliance has been crushed by Shanhai City. Do not be fooled by others.”

Yijian Xilai smiled, “That’s the reason I came to look for you today.”

“I really want to see what great thoughts you have.”

Jianqi Leiyin’s interest was thoroughly captured. In her eyes, Yijian Xilai had come prepared.

Yijian Xilai smiled mysteriously, “You do not know, right? Shanhai City will not last for long.”

“Are you okay? The words you’re saying are getting more and more ridiculous.”

Yijian Xilai said in a low tone, “Ah Yin, I’ll tell you truthfully. Yanhuang Alliance really does not feel confident about facing Shanhai City. But behind them there’s a mysterious organization. That organization is so terrifying that you’ll be frightened to death. This time, Shanhai City has angered them, so they want to deal with Shanhai City. Won’t we be asking for death if we work together with Shanhai City now?”

“Mysterious organization? Is it something Di Chen made up to scare you?”

Yijian Xilai shook his head, “I am not foolish. As for the specific situation, I cannot tell you. Unless you swear that even if you do not agree with my proposal, you will not tell what I said today to Qiyue Wuyi. Ah Yin, I’m putting my life on the line, you won’t harm me, right?”

When Jianqi Leiyin heard that, her heart was touched, “Ok I swear.”

Following which, she swore an oath.

When Yijian Xilai saw that, he had a complicated expression, one of happiness and one of reminiscence.

Jianqi Leiyin’s swear was a special oath that only the two of them knew about; it was a shared memory.

‘At least she has not forgotten about the past.’ Yijian Xilai thought in his heart.

Yijian Xilai kept his emotions, slowly taking out a white token and telling Jianqi Leiyin about Silver Hand.

Jianqi Leiyin’s expression was exactly the same as Priest Qingniu.

Yijian Xilai could understand her expression as he felt the exact same way, “Ah Yin, now you believe my words? Stop following Shanhai City, there’s no tomorrow in doing so.”

Chapter 816 - There's Still Hot Blood in the End

Jianqi Leiyin’s heart felt rather complicated, and she was unable to come to a decision.

Different from Streamer and Laojun Temple, Tingyu Floor was an official member of the Shanhai Alliance-Guild Alliance, and Jianqi Leiyin was also extremely familiar with the other members of the alliance.

Between members of the alliance, it was not a pure interest relationship as there was also friendship involved.

To make her betray Shanhai Alliance was asking too much of her.

When Yijian Xilai saw that, he said, “Ah Yin, I know this is putting you in an awkward spot. However, if you do not accept the silver token, with the terrifying methods of Silver Hand, you will not be able to get the Luoyang Satellite City. Losing out on the Satellite City will mean losing the top position in the imperial city. As for the consequences, you understand them, right?”

“Is Silver Hand really so terrifying?” Jianqi Leiyin asked.

Yijian Xilai casually listed the names of the leaders of the top four to five guilds in Luoyang, “These fellows are all backed by hidden aristocratic families, which are all members of Silver Hand. Apart from those that Silver Hand has direct control over, there is even more who are indirectly controlled by the aristocratic families. Even Di Chen and the others are not sure. So, are they scary?”

“….”

Jianqi Leiyin’s voice was hoarse as the guild leaders of these guilds all wanted to work with Tingyu Floor. If they all backed off and changed their minds, the results would be catastrophic.

Thinking about it now, she truly had no confidence.

The key was that no one knew how many guilds Silver Hand could control if the organization went all out.

Such unknown factors were the scariest.

When Yijian Xilai saw her reaction, he decided to fan the flames, “Working together with Silver Hand is not forcing you to become enemies with Shanhai City. Tingyu Floor would just be choosing a new cooperation partner. If you feel uneasy, at most you can just avoid having conflicts with them. This point is what Silver Hand will not force. I think Qiyue Wuyi could understand the situation that you’re in.”

This was giving her a way out.

Jianqi Leiyin’s expression was extremely complicated, “Do I really have to?”

“You have no choice. Think about it, planning well now is for our future in Planet Hope. Ah Yin, do not destroy your own future.” Yijian Xilai said.

Jianqi Leiyin closed her eyes painfully, “I’ll take it.”

“That’s great!”

Yijian Xilai was rather emotional and wanted to hug Jianqi Leiyin. When he walked up to her, he finally realized his actions and awkwardly stopped his hands in mid-air.

When Jianqi Leiyin saw that, she sighed to herself.

The moment she accepted the offer, a sense of uneasiness rose up in her heart like she had made an incredibly terrible decision.

“Unfortunately, there is no way back.” Jianqi Leiyin’s mood was acutely complicated.

When Yijian Xilai left, Jianqi Leiyin sent a final letter to Ouyang Shuo. The contents were very short, and there was only one sentence, ‘I’m sorry, please be careful.’

Jianqi Leiyin thought about it and sent the names of the few guild leaders that Yijian Xilai had mentioned. She believed that Ouyang Shuo could understand what she meant.

“I can only do this.” Jianqi Leiyin’s heart throbbed with pain. … Dali, Ministry of Justice Office.

Within the courtyard, 200 constables had gathered. The atmosphere here was incompatible with the Lantern Festival.

On the stairs stood the assistant minister of the ministry, who was reading the orders to the constables, “Through our investigation, guild leader of Qingfeng Pavilion, Moon Shines over the River, is the Brother of Kunming Prefecture Governor Bai Hua. The two of them are close and are under suspicion of treason. Now we will capture him for questioning to reveal the truth.”

“Yes!”

The moment the order was given, under the leadership of the head constable, the constables charged out of the ministry. When people along the way saw them, they all dodged to the side.

Only when the constables were far away did they start to comment.

“It’s the festive season, who committed crimes to actually alert the constables of the Ministry of Justice?”

“Who knows?”

In less than half an hour, they arrived at the headquarters of Qingfeng Pavilion.

When the Qingfeng Pavilion Guards saw the group of constables, they could not understand what was going on.

The constables were not courteous, revealing their capture order and immediately entering the courtyard. The guards did not dare to stop them, and they only arranged for someone to rush to inform the guild leader.

A huge guild naturally was not afraid of the 200 constables. However, these constables were people of the Imperial Court and had a million guards backing them up, so they had to follow their orders.

At the current stage, even Lords like Ouyang Shuo did not dare to directly go against the imperial city, much less those player guilds who relied on the imperial cities to survive.

Of course, under normal circumstances, the Imperial Court would not find trouble with them.

Gaia had extremely strict restrictions regarding this, especially imperial cities like Dali that lacked a regime. The Imperial Court was like an invisible person that basically would not appear in front of players.

This time was obviously different as someone was manipulating matters behind the scenes. The Ministry of Justice had enough evidence, so they were able to send out the constables.

Moreover, the capture order clearly stated that they were temporarily locking him up. After the investigation, if Moon Shines over the River was found to be innocent, they would instantly release him.

The key was that tomorrow would be the start of the Battle of the Satellite City. Taking him at such a moment would leave Qingfeng Pavilion as basically a headless dragon. The motive behind this move was obvious.

Hence, Moon Shines over the River immediately linked it to the battle tomorrow the moment he received the news.

The matter was just too much of a coincidence!

‘Many times, when something is too coincidental, it is not a coincidence but a scheme.’ Moon Shines over the River understood this, but he did not dare to escape now.

If he resisted arrest, the Imperial Court would have reason to seal up Qingfeng Pavilion.

At that time, it would be an even bigger catastrophe.

The person behind all of this was truly vicious, keeping silent and only acting on the day of the Lantern Festival. It had caught Moon Shines over the River off guard and did not give him any time to prepare.

“Guild leader, what should we do?”

Using the chance that the constables were still at the door, the higher ups had an emergency meeting.

Moon Shines over the River had already calmed down, “No matter what, we cannot panic and definitely cannot have a conflict with the constables. Qingfeng, go calm down the members.”

As the second man of Qingfeng Pavillion, Qingfeng had plenty of might and prestige.

“Understood!” Qingfeng turned and left.

The other guild leader of Qingfeng Pavilion, Night Rain, asked, “What about the Satellite City battle tomorrow?”

Moon Shines over the River said, “Follow the plan. If I’m not here, you and Qingfeng will take the lead. I think the enemy has more than just that one move, so the battle tomorrow will not be smooth. You must be careful.”

Night Rain nodded with a solemn expression.

“Also, when I leave, immediately send a letter to Bai Hua and inform her of the events that transpired today. I suspect that this matter is not so simple, and the schemer’s plan is not so small.” Moons Shines over the River instructed.

When Night Rain heard that, he was shocked and hesitated, “Guild leader, you’re saying that their real goal is to go against Shanhai City?”

“It’s hard to say.” Moon Shines over the River did not dare to make a conclusion, “It is best to be safe than sorry.”

Although Moon Shines over the River did not finish his words, his intuition told him that there was a really high chance this move was targeting Shanhai City.

If this was just to stop Qingfeng Pavilion from taking down the Dali Imperial City Satellite City, their opponents did not have the power to influence the Imperial Court to make the Ministry of Justice to act.

Night Rain nodded solemnly.

Just at this moment, noise sounded from the door, and the constables had arrived.

“So that’s settled, tomorrow depends on all of you.” Moon Shines over the River was a carefree person and did not drag on like an old grandmother.

Night Rain had not even followed him out and a shout sounded out, “I’m Moon Shines over the River.”

Night Rain shook his head; his elder brother was still so direct and upright.

Seeing that their guild leader was captured by the constables, all of them were furious, and their eyes looked like they were about to kill someone. If it were not for Qingfeng maintaining order, none of these constables could walk out.

Seeing that, even the head constable felt a shiver run down his spine.

Before this, he did not expect that he would face such a situation.

“Bring him away!”

The head constable did not dare to stay for long, and he captured the person and immediately wanted to leave. If he stayed for longer, his men might pee their pants. These players were extremely brutal like a group of wolves and tigers.

A killing intent permeated the courtyard, making one’s heart freeze.

It was no wonder as those gathered in the courtyard were the elite members of the guild.

At this very moment, the clear sky suddenly rained.

Moon Shines over the River stood in the rain; he looked at his brothers and smiled, “Brothers I am only going to drink some tea. For the battle tomorrow, none of you can slack, kill all our enemies.”

After pausing, he suddenly exclaimed, “Brothers, can you do that?”

“Yes!”

Hundreds of people shouted together, emitting a menacing aura.

“Haha good!”

Moon Shines over the River smiled, turning around to the constable, “Sir, let’s leave.” This time, the guest became the one who held the initiative.

When the head constable saw that, how could he reply?

A group of men walked through the rain, quickly disappearing on the streets.

The Qingfeng Pavilion members all quietly looked at the fading back view of the guild leader, their eyes filled with a desire for vengeance.

In the rain, Qingfeng was the first to turn around, “Let’s go get some rest. We still have a big battle tomorrow; let’s not disappoint the guild leader.”

Everyone nodded in silence.

Only Qingfeng and Night Rain stood on the corridor, looking at one another, seeing the worry in the other’s eyes.

“This rain really came too suddenly!”

Chapter 817 – You Think I Won’t Know If You Don’t Say It?

Xianyang, Blood Evil Mercenary Guild Headquarters.

Blood Romance looked at the mysterious person in front of him and expressionlessly said, “So you’re saying that as long as I work with you, I can smoothly take down the Satellite City in Xianyang Imperial City?”

“100 percent.” The mysterious person said confidently.

Blood Romance laughed mockingly.

“What are you laughing at?”

Blood Romance gazed at him like he was looking at an idiot and said, “To take something that belongs to me to trade with me. Is your brain working?”

“You!” The mysterious person hailed from a noble family and had never been humiliated like this before. He wanted to actually fight Blood Romance on the spot. However, thinking back to the mission handed to him by the organization, he suppressed the anger in his heart.

The mysterious person said, “I do not understand what you’re saying.”

Blood Romance shook his head, “With or without yours help, the Satellite City already belongs to the Blood Evil Mercenary Guild. Do you understand?”

“Preposterous!” The mysterious man finally lost his temper, “So there is no room for negotiation?”

Blood Romance gestured for the mysterious person to leave, “I will not send you out.”

The mysterious man looked at Blood Romance and coldly said, “Do not think that you’re strong just because you rule Xianyang City. The strength of the organization is not something you can mess with. Wait and see!”

Since he had messed up the mission, the mysterious man was in a terrible mood.

Blood Romance’s expression did not change as he made the same gesture once more.

“Scoff, what an arrogant fellow!”

The mysterious person left those words behind before disappearing into the night sky.

After the mysterious person left, Blood Romance’s expression finally changed; he looked both emotional and excited, but his expression also contained a hint of hate. Such a complicated expression was truly rare.

“You think that just because you did not introduce yourself that I will not know who you are? Silver Hand!” Blood Romance’s expression suddenly turned cold; he actually knew of the existence of Silver Hand.

This huge show in the wilderness was getting more and more interesting.

Nanjiang, Shanhai City.

The night had arrived and the bustling night city finally became quiet and peaceful.

The masses could not block off the exhaustion and sleepiness as they slowly went their own ways. Only the lamps that stubbornly burned in the vast night sky remained.

The various types of rubbish strewn all over the square were a testament to the craziness of the night.

After accompanying Song Jia, Ouyang Shuo did not rest and instead came to the reading room. The huge reading room was silent; under the cover of the night sky, it even seemed a little evil and gloomy.

Ouyang Shuo did not think too much of it, only when he was here could he truly calm down and plan for the future of the territory.

Many of the plans of the territory were thought of by Ouyang Shuo on such nights. Here, under this silent night sky, Ouyang Shuo’s train of thought grew exceptionally clear.

When viewing the lanterns at night, Ouyang Shuo felt uneasy. For someone whose cultivation had reached such a level, any random movement in their hearts represented something unusual.

As such, he came to the reading room as he wanted to find the source of his uneasiness.

The moment he sat down, Ouyang Shuo saw two secret letters placed on his table. Obviously, they were sent tonight. It was the Lantern Festival, so to get letters so late was truly unusual.

Ouyang Shuo bore the uneasiness in his heart and took a look at both letters; one was from Jianqi Leiyin and the other was from Bai Hua.

“Why would Jianqi Leiyin write to me at such a time?”

Ouyang Shuo could not help but frown as this matter was getting weirder and weirder. He had not had much contact with Jianqi Leiyin, and it was the other female players who were closer to her.

The most recent exchange was still the time when they were discussing the equipment deal.

“Did some situation occur that made her need an emergency set of equipment?” Ouyang Shuo could only guess, and he did not dare take it lightly and immediately ripped open the letter. There was only one short line.

Ouyang Shuo read out, “Sorry, please be careful.” He did not understand, “What is she saying?” Only then did he notice the names of a few guild leaders written at the bottom.

“Aren’t these the guild leaders of the top few guilds in Luoyang?” Now Ouyang Shuo was extremely confused.

Since he did not understand the matter, Ouyang Shuo decided to leave it aside first and open Bai Hua’s letter first. He had a feeling that this letter would give him the answer.

As expected, Bai Hua’s letter was regarding Moon Shines over the River being captured in Dali. Her words revealed her anxiousness and uneasiness.

Looking at the letter, Ouyang Shuo could not help but frown.

He had the gut feeling that Silver Hand was in action.

Jianqi Leiyin was probably asking him to be careful of Silver Hand, which meant that Tingyu Floor had been taken down by Silver Hand.

“What terrible news.”

Ouyang Shuo muttered, “You want to act from the outer circle?” His mood was getting worse and worse. It seemed like the opponent this time was much more difficult than the Yanhuang Alliance as they were far calmer and craftier.

They did not target Shanhai City right away and instead wanted to use warm water to cook the frog, removing Shanhai City’s allies one by one before giving them a deadly blow.

“What a patient opponent.” Ouyang Shuo concluded.

Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo wrote a letter to Bai Hua so that she could rest easy. In the letter, he roughly described the matter of Silver Hand.

Ouyang Shuo was worried that Bai Hua might do something rash.

After sending out the letter, Ouyang Shuo was still feeling unsettled. On the eve of the Satellite City battle, both Qingfeng Pavillion and Tingyu Floor were hit, so what about the other guilds related to Shanhai City?

Like Blood Evil Mercenary Guild, Laojun Temple, Streamer, and even Shadow Alliance and other second rate guilds, would they face the same problems?

Or had they already faced problems but just did not tell him like Jianqi Leiyin did?

Ouyang Shuo had no idea and his mind was in a mess.

He needed to deal with all this.

In the silent reading room, Ouyang Shuo sat alone on his chair, thinking with his eyes closed. He wanted to break through the fog in front of him but did not know where to start.

With the way Silver Hand acted, since they struck, they were not doing it for fun. Amongst all the guilds, probably only War-Snow Rose would not be targeted by them.

Silver Hand probably knew about the relationship between the two.

Ouyang Shuo immediately realized that they will be in danger, so he wanted to write a letter to Lin Jing to tell her to be more cautious.

Right after he wrote a line of words, he placed down his brush.

“No, it’s too late.” Ouyang Shuo raised his head and looked at the night sky. Unknowingly, it was the middle of the night and the sky would be bright in just three to four hours.

Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate. He decided to make a trip to Jianye.

“Men!”

“Monarch!” Hearing the voice, Xu Chu who had been guarding outside walked into the reading room.

Ouyang Shuo said, “Gather the troops; I will make a trip.”

Xu Chu nodded, “Do you need the Divine Martial Guards?”

Ouyang Shuo pondered and said, “Bring them! The world was so unstable right now, and he had to stay on guard.

“Also call Xiahou Dun over.”

“Yes Monarch!”

Xu Chu turned around to prepare.

However, Ouyang Shuo still felt uneasy; this was the first time he had truly felt the pressure that Silver Hand could exert on him.

‘They truly treat me highly.’ Ouyang Shuo thought to himself. … After a short while, Xiahou Dun hurried over. Looking at his expression, he was obviously woken up by the Personal Guards in the middle of his sleep, and even the corner of his shirt was revealed and was not tidied up.

“Monarch!”

Before coming, Xiahou Dun splashed his face with water to freshen up. The Monarch had summoned him at night, so it was probably for an emergency. Naturally, he did not dare take it lightly.

Ouyang Shuo said, “Thank you for your hard work, Mister Xiahou.”

The Monarch was still working in the reading room, so how would Xiahou Dun dare say that he was working hard?

As time was of the essence, Ouyang Shuo directly asked, “In the Combat Logistics Department Armory, how many Three-bowed Arcuballistas and God-arm Crossbows do we have?”

Ouyang Shuo was still worried about War-Snow Rose and wanted to send them another set of equipment. To the guild, these two were the best weapons for defending the Satellite City.

Even the P1 Type Cannon did not have as much killing power as the Three-bowed Arcuballistas, not to mention how inconvenient it was and hard to transport it was at this moment.

Xiahou Dun immediately replied, “250 Three-bowed Arcuballistas, 15 thousand God-arm Crossbows.”

God-arm Crossbows were the long ranged weapons that the guilds loved, so they would more or less purchase all of them. Hence, there were not many left in the armory.

Luckily, Ouyang Shuo had a limited carrying capacity, so he could not carry much either.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Okay, lead me there. I will take 100 Three-bowed Arcuballistas and five thousand God-arm Crossbows. Record it down.”

Even though Ouyang Shuo was the Monarch, he could not casually take the items. There were rules for everything, and if he randomly used stuff, people would use his name to take items from the armory.

If that happened, the rules would all be messed up.

“Yes Monarch!”

Xiahou Dun nodded and led the way.

For such a large batch of equipment, even though Ouyang Shuo’s storage bag had been upgraded, he still could not fit them all.

Furthermore, the crossbows all required ammunition.

The bolts of the God-arm Crossbows could be left to War-snow Rose to prepare on their own, but the Three-bowed Arcubalistas were unique to Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo was only in charge of carrying the 100 Three-bowed Arcubalistas and their ammunition – that was his maximum.

The remaining would be brought by the three thousand Divine Martial Guards.

After loading up, Ouyang Shuo did not delay and brought all of them to teleport out of the teleportation formation in the imperial city, disappearing into the night sky.

Chapter 818 - Satellite City Battle

Chapter 818: Satellite City Battle

Jianye, Snow-War Rose Mercenary Group Headquarters.

Similar to Shanhai City, Jianye was in a holiday mood. During the Lantern Festival, Gaia also pushed out events to liven up the mood.

After all the festivities, not just the square, even the streets were littered with garbage.

Although there were no people on the streets, there were many lanterns leading the way. Ouyang Shuo and his men walked out of the teleportation formation and smoothly arrived at the base of Snow-War Rose Mercenary Group.

Three thousand odd men walked the streets, bringing with them large amounts of equipment. Despite their load, they travelled in total silence.

As tomorrow was the Satellite City battle, the Snow-War Rose Mercenary Group was in a tense mood. The moment Ouyang Shuo and his men arrived, they were seen by the guards who immediately reported their arrival.

When she saw Ouyang Shuo, Lin Jing was astonished, “Little Shuo, it’s so late, why are you here?”

Ouyang Shuo looked out at the streets and said quietly, “Let’s talk inside!” On the way here, he could feel that there were people monitoring the headquarters.

This served to further prove Ouyang Shuo’s conjecture.

Noticing Ouyang Shuo’s unusual expression, Lin Jing immediately knew the severity of the situation.

Entering the base, Lin Jing arranged for people to welcome the Divine Martial Guards and Personal Guards while she led Ouyang Shuo to the office. Xie Siyun also came after getting the news.

“Little Shuo what happened?” Lin Jing asked.

Ouyang Shuo did not know where to start. After all, Silver Hand going up against them was his personal conjecture, and he did not have any proof.

“You are all going to war tomorrow, so I brought a batch of equipment over.”

Lin Jing felt that something was up, “Are you okay? Sending equipment so late at night?”

Xie Siyun smiled to dissolve the awkwardness, “Where can we find such good stuff?”

“What equipment is there?” Lin Jing asked.

Ouyang Shuo said, “100 Three-bowed arcuballistas, five thousand God-arm Crossbows.”

Lin Jing smiled too, “Rich!”

It was not convenient for him to stay for too long, so he said directly, “I received intel that in the battle tomorrow, people will target you. You must all be well prepared. The opponent is difficult, and they might be targeting me.”

Lin Jing and Xie Siyun exchanged glances, seeing the solemnness in the other’s eyes.

Jokes were jokes but they were extremely clear that Ouyang Shuo was not a person who would randomly spout things. This late night visit definitely meant that things had reached a truly dangerous level.

To make the current Ouyang Shuo worry, how strong was the enemy?

Lin Jing nodded seriously, “Ok, since it is not convenient for you to say it, I will not ask. With this batch of items, we have another layer of reserves. No matter what schemes they try, we will win.”

Ouyang Shuo got up, “Then I’ll take my leave.”

He had reminded them of what he could. What happened in the battle tomorrow would depend on the two of them.

The Battle of the Satellite Cities was one that Lords could not directly interfere in.

Leaving the equipment, Ouyang Shuo brought his men and hurried out of the camp.

…

In one of the small alleys, right next to the headquarters, stood two men dressed in black.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo walk out of the gates, one of them sad, “That’s right, it’s Qiyue Wuyi. What is he doing here so late at night?”

“How would I know?” the other person said.

“Then did he find out about us?”

“That’s not possible. Maybe what happened at Dali made him suspicious, so he wanted to remind them. Based on Di Chen’s words, he is an old fox.”

“Then should we take the chance to take him out?”

“How? Can’t you see that there are so many guards beside him? Even if we ambush them, we cannot keep them here. This person is really careful, coming out so late and still bringing so many guards.”

“What careful, he just does not have guts.”

“No matter what, let’s just not alert him. Let’s go!”

After a short while, the two of them disappeared into the darkness.

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

Gaia 4th year, 2nd month, 14th day.

9 AM, the nine imperial cities made an announcement at the same time.

“Imperial City Notification: to split up the players for the exploration of the mysterious underground world, a Satellite City will be released. Anyone who obtains the token and stabs it into the Lord’s Manor meeting room will obtain the defending rights of the city. 24 hours later, the other guilds can attack the Satellite City. If one can defend the city for the 24 hours, they will obtain the permanent rights; if the guild destroys the stone steele, similarly, they will obtain permanent rights.”

…

Along with the notification, a golden light shone outside the nine imperial cities. Like the mushroom cloud of a nuclear bomb explosion, the golden light rushed into the sky. Even if you were thousands of miles away, you would be able to see the light clearly.

When the golden light passed, nine new cities stood in the wilderness.

Each city was tens of miles wide. Be it the city walls or the buildings inside, they were simplified versions of the imperial cities. Even so, they were brilliant and majestic cities.

Many Lords could not help but drool when they saw these cities.

Many prefecture grade cities in the wilderness could not even reach the standards of the Satellite City.

Just one city was worth tens of millions, so it was no wonder that guilds would go crazy over them.

Of course, based on the details revealed by Gaia, the guild defending the Satellite City would only have the rights to use and lease the city and not all the rights.

The guardian guild of the city was like the manager, and they would be in charge of running it and could earn profits through rent, tax, and the like.

Furthermore, half of the profits must be handed over to the imperial city. Of course, the imperial city would not just take the profits for free, and they had the duty to protect the safety of the Satellite City.

If wilderness Lords chose to attack a Satellite City, it would be like attacking the related imperial city.

Hence, it first increased the security of the Satellite City. If not, it would be a dangerous piece of meat and the Lords would risk everything for it.

If that was the case, no guardian guild would be able to defend it.

Speaking of which, as the winner of the Satellite City Guardian position was permanent, and since it was already the 4th year, whether or not the Guardian had all the rights did not make too much of a difference.

There were two reasons behind Gaia setting those rules.

First, as guilds did not have all the rights to the Satellite City, Gaia would not include it in their assets when the game ends.

That was normal. After all, if a guild was able to obtain a city like that from one battle, not only would other players be unhappy, it would also be unfair to the Lords.

Which Lord territory was not slowly built up from nothing to something?

Secondly, the guilds would not have the rights to use the city as collateral. Hence, the guild would not be able to pass the city on to others or use it as collateral to earn loans.

Hence, it prevented players from playing tricks.

As the battle for the Satellite City had not begun, Gaia had not revealed anything regarding the underground world. Who knows whether it was a teleportation formation or an actual tunnel?

If it were an actual tunnel, would situations where the monsters inside attacked occur?

Who could enter the underground world was not revealed either. Would one need the permission from the guardian or could all imperial city players enter? Would there be entrance fees or the like?

All of these matters would be slowly revealed once the dust settled.

…

Based on what was revealed, the battle would be split into two stages.

The first stage would be to find the token and break through all resistance to stick it into the meeting hall of the Lord’s Manor to become its temporary owner.

After which, all players who were not from the guardian guild would be teleported out.

The defending guild had a day to prepare and form up their defenses. At the same time, the city would spawn NPCs to help them defend the city.

Of course, there would not be too many of these NPCs as the main force would still be the guild players.

The second stage would be the intense war.

One guild defending, while the others attacked.

The guilds that lost in the first stage would have lost the initiative. Hence, in the second stage, they would go all out to attack to try and grasp that last chance.

What matters now was strategy.

The defending guild would want to gather allies and ask them not to attack. As for asking them to help defend, Gaia did not allow that.

To the seining guilds, it was even more complicated. Not only did they have to cooperate with other guilds to siege, but they also need to be wary of one another or come to agreements, even signing contracts.

After all, even if they took down the Satellite City, only one guild could destroy the stone steele. Facing such a huge temptation, one would not know what would happen till the end.

At the same time, due to the uncertainty of the first stage, the siege of the nine cities would not start at the same time. Hence, Gaia would confirm the guilds participating in each city and seal all the teleportation formations.

During this battle, wanderers that were not a part of the involved guilds could not join in the first stage or the second.

Hence, they would be able to restrict the number of variables. Gaia did not wish for the overall standard of the wilderness to drop because of too great an intense of killing.

At that very moment, another notification sounded out.

“Imperial City Notification: Satellite City Token will spawn into a random player’s hand. Player cannot put the token into their storage bag. If the player holding the token dies, the token will definitely drop. Every 10 minutes, the system will automatically reveal its coordinates.”

…

At this point, the most brutal battle of the New Year had begun.

Chapter 819 - New Superstars

Chapter 819: New Superstars

An item that drops upon death, coordinates that would be announced regularly.

The dropping mechanism of the Satellite City Token meant that this would definitely be a cruel battle.

Along with the second Imperial City Notification, the nine lucky stars would appear in the city, stunned as they looked at the tokens in their hand.

But these lucky stars were not truly lucky as slaughter awaited them.

The moment the killing started, it would not stop.

Some people died to swords the moment they obtained the token, some tried their best to hide, and some were extremely confident; they thought that this was their destiny.

The moment the token appeared, it changed hands several times. How was this token a treasure? It was an unlucky item, something that got whoever held it in deep trouble.

To make matters worse, the token could not be passed to others or dropped. It must either be stabbed into the meeting hall or dropped upon death.

Gaia created this setting to prevent players from passing the token around. The coordinates would refresh every 10 minutes, so if one acted smoothly, they could in fact pass the token all the way to the Satellite City.

Another reason would be to prevent idiots from throwing the token into rivers, drains, or even off the cliff.

There were even some special landscapes that would make such a situation a disaster.

At the start, the token changed hands between small groups and the killing was limited to around ten people. When the token entered the hands of the mid and large-sized guilds, it led to a wild and chaotic fight between guilds. The killing was like a snowball, rolling bigger and bigger.

More and more players were dragged into this battle.

Some players could not help but throw themselves in, starting fights. The Satellite City was just too tempting, causing players to lose their rationality.

Even some mid-sized guilds who knew that they did not have the strength to keep the token still tried to grab it.

‘If we do not take a gamble, how would we know we cannot do it? What if it works?’ The players had such a mentality.

The killing spread and the killing intent gathered and slowly affected the minds of the players.

As time went on, the battlefield slowly shifted from the imperial city out toward the Satellite City.

As the massacre continued, some of the players had killed till their eyes turned red.

At first, the goal of players was to obtain the token. However, as it went on, it became killing for the sake of killing. The goal of killing had enveloped their minds.

Seeing your comrades get killed, you had to take revenge, right?

Loved being killed, can you take that?

Guild members being killed, aren’t you supposed to fight for your face?

Various reasons and conflicts gave birth to more killing.

The desire for killing between players had never been as strong as today. It was like pouring oil onto a fire, getting stronger and stronger, burning away at their minds.

The only thing they saw was killing.

The desire to kill hidden deep within them was like a hidden beast released, allowing them to do whatever it wanted.

Maybe this was a charm of the game.

Killing in the game did not have any legal implications, especially in the midst of a mission where there no red name markers. Hence, the constables of the imperial cities would not find problems with you and you would not need to go to jail.

Hence, when the players fought, they grew even more fearless.

To some PK maniacs, this was a killing feast.

Only one thing remained certain – no matter how the token changed hands, it would still return to the large guilds in the end as only they had the power to keep it.

…

On this day, the wilderness was not the main character. The nine imperial cities were the focus of the whole world.

After the Imperial City Notification, Ouyang Shuo did not go anywhere, just sitting in the reading room and focusing on the battle situation. The nine imperial cities all had posts on the forums to follow the situation.

This wait lasted for an entire morning, and there still was not a result.

After 3 PM, the nine tokens basically ended up in the hands of the large guilds. Next, the guilds needed to use all their strength to protect the token to the Satellite City.

The other guilds naturally would not let them do that easily.

The players calculated it perfectly. Even if they could not stop them, they would harm them now so as to reduce their defensive strength later on.

The target guild would pretty much leave a trail of blood and bodies in its wake.

The top guilds naturally were not fools, and they would not reveal their strength on the first day. At such a time, the usefulness of allies was revealed. The allies blocked on the outside while the guild members remained inside.

As the sky turned darker, the intensity of the killing grew.

The players were certain that at night, when it was pitch black, it would be really difficult. The guild could arrange people to secretly cross the walls and enter the Satellite City.

Hence, at night, the first stage of the Satellite City battle would pretty much come to an end.

Based on the current situation, no dark horses had appeared.

Amongst them, some were strangely calm and peaceful. Amongst which included Xianyang and Chang An, where 18 Horseman of Yanyun and Jin Yi Wei pretty much did not face any resistance.

The number of allies that supported them was truly unexpected.

No one expected these two guilds to possess such influence. Based on the current situation, these two guilds would basically take down their respective satellite cities in the end.

Apart from that, Streamer in Quanzhou, Chengdu’s Laojun Temple, and Tingyu Floor in Luoyang, these three ‘ally’ guilds did not face much resistance.

Ouyang Shuo instantly knew that there was something going on.

On the contrary, it was the two strongest guilds in China, Blood Evil Mercenary Group and Snow-War Rose Mercenary Group, who faced an exceptional amount of resistance.

Some allies suddenly betrayed them and started attacking them.

Luckily, the two guilds were strong, and they were prepared. As such, the situation was still under their control.

The worse one was Qingfeng Pavilion in Dali.

Last night, their guild leader was captured, so it obviously affected their morale. To make matters worse, more than 70% of the guilds participated in the assault against them.

Although they managed to defend the token, they had still suffered heavy losses.

Based on such calculations, it would be extremely difficult for them to defend the city.

Jingdu was not peaceful either.

It was not surprising that Jianqi Zongheng would ally with Star Alliance against Shadow Alliance and Yimeng Pavillion. However, the weird part was that they had a lot of other supporters.

The two sides that were originally neck and neck suddenly had the scales turned against them. The Jingdu Satellite City Token was currently in the hands of Jianqi Zongheng.

As night fell, the first stage of the Satellite City battle was pretty much over. The nine large guilds all activated the city.

The gathering crowd slowly dispersed.

The forums were still really busy, discussing the huge battle in the day. Even if one was not the main character of the event, the players still felt their blood boil.

This kind of large-scale player PK was different from army battles as both sides were composed of players. Naturally, it was crueler and more exciting.

The adrenaline of the players shot up high. In real life, everyone was in an era of peace, so how could one taste such blood boiling battles?

Amidst these battles, many superstars were born. Their fearless Pking and their endless killing allowed them to win all their battles and lead their troops to fight.

These superstars were valued highly by the guilds, and they were promoted and given rewards. They instantly became the star of adventure gamemode players and the idol of numerous players.

Based on some information, some guilds had been attracted by these superstars and wanted to recruit them. The moment this news went public, the fame of these people skyrocketed to another level.

Ouyang Shuo felt that there was an invisible hand pushing and packaging these superstars. He even found out that all of them basically came from the Yanhuang Alliance camp.

Using this chance to build up a bunch of superstars was to increase the fame of Yanhuang Alliance. Were there the children from hidden aristocratic families amongst them?

They used this chance to reveal themselves to the world, becoming famous instantly and providing themselves with a springboard.

“What an ingenious idea.”

Ouyang Shuo felt more and more impressed by his opponents.

Heroes were worshiped and chased while the numerous players who died and revived were ignored. They were like a bunch of failures, slowly watching the superstars rise and becoming the stepping stone of others.

The wilderness was just so cruel, cruel without a single bit of humanity.

Some people gave up and decided to change to work occupation, but some did not want to give up and wanted to take another gamble.

For the latter, the various dojos and sects released in the imperial cities were a good choice. They were starting from scratch and walking onto a different path.

Hence, this battle would surprisingly make sects more popular.

…

In less than an hour, the data from the forums were released.

When the players saw the news, they could not help but take in a cold breath.

In just a day, the nine imperial cities had over a million dead.

One must know that the ones that died were all combat occupation players. Considering this, the ratio was really shocking, like 1 in 20 were dead.

Chapter 820 - Terms of Breaking the Contract

Chapter 820: Terms of Breaking the Contract

Apart from the numbers summary, the forums also discussed the battles that occurred during the day. More and more outsiders were confused and did not understand these satellite city battles.

The smoothness of 18 Horsemen of Yanyun and Jin Yi Wei from Yanhuang Alliance, and the difficulty of Shanhai Alliance’s Blood Evil Mercenary Group, Qingfeng Pavilion, and Snow-War Rose became clear and contrasting figures.

Some people even said that Yanhuang Alliance held the advantage.

However, if one wanted to say that Yanhuang Alliance was sniping Shanhai Alliance, the situations of Streamer, Laojun Temple, and Tingyu Floor disproved that notion.

The situation got cloudier and cloudier and one could not see through it.

How would players know that these three guilds had changed sides? Hence, in truth, the Yanhuang Alliance camp had an all-around advantage in this Satellite City battle.

The Shanhai City camp was in grave danger.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this situation, he naturally understood.

Tingyu Floor’s Jianqi Leiyin at least had some conscience to inform him early and say goodbye. As for Priest Qingniu and Jun Yilao, they had silently changed sides without even making a sound.

“I’ll take revenge regarding this matter.” Ouyang Shuo’s eyes shone with a cold glimmer.

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

2nd month, 25th day, one day of rest.

The guilds who obtained the guardian position of the satellite cities were the busiest on this day. They needed to prepare their defenses whilst also gathering allies.

Especially Blood Evil Mercenary Guild, Snow-War Rose, and Qingfeng Pavilion; they badly needed this last day of preparation.

Silver Hand was strong, but they were not strong to that level.

During the Satellite City battle yesterday, the reason why the guilds of Yanhuang Alliance had it so easy was because the ten guilds that Silver Hand controlled had changed sides.

Their last minute change created an absolute numerical advantage.

Now, it was time to see who had the greater ability. Qingfeng Pavilion was undoubtedly in a worse shape as their guild leader was locked up, making their allies filled with doubts.

The strategy of Silver Hand was undoubtedly incredibly ingenious.

At the first stage, they did not rashly attempt to snatch the Satellite City Token. That was because the 10 odd guilds they controlled did not have the confidence to block the attacks of Qingfeng Pavilion and their allies.

Hence, they played a trick. They let Qingfeng Pavilion become a living target while they use their skills in the second stage to take them down.

Even though Qingfeng Pavilion knew what the enemy was planning, they could only follow the script. As one of China’s top 10 guilds, they had their own pride.

Some things had to be fought.

At 5 to 6 PM, the 24 hour cooldown period ended. The nine imperial cities had many guilds that launched probing attacks.

Of course, this was just the appetizer and only lasted for an hour.

When night fell, torch lights illuminated the outskirts of the Satellite City. Some guilds had started camping outside earlier to occupy the best attack positions.

…

The next morning, when the sun just rose up, the ocean like quantity of guilds did not give the guardians any time to rest, immediately launching their siege.

They were not an army, so they did not have any tactics. All of them charged at once and used their numbers to drown the Satellite City.

Hence, they were in a race against time.

Ouyang Shuo sat in Shanhai City, and he had a rough idea of what was going to happen in this battle. The fall of the Shanhai City Guild Alliance was imminent.

Apart from the few who had switched sides, Yimeng Pavilion and Shadow Alliance probably could not take down Jianqi Zongheng.

To make matter matters worse, their core ally Qingfeng Pavilion would probably be unable to keep their Satellite City.

Now, Ouyang Shuo paid the most attention to whether or not Snow-War Rose could survive. If even they fell, then the Guild Alliance would be gone.

Let us hope that the equipment he sent over last night could save them.

During these two days, Ouyang Shuo actually took some action. He had ordered the Black Snake Guards who had not left China to use all their clues in Jingdu, Jianye, Dali, and Xianyang to cause chaos in the guilds controlled by Silver Hand while drawing in friends for their allies.

The resistance Blood Evil Mercenary Guild faced in the first stage allowed Ouyang Shuo to realize that the top guild in China had not been taken down by Silver Hand.

If he could help, Ouyang Shuo naturally would.

Since all his allies were falling or leaving, Ouyang Shuo could not give up on any chance to make new allies.

All in all, Ouyang Shuo did everything he could. He even wanted to send a batch of equipment to Qingfeng Pavilion but the teleportation formation was locked up.

At this stage, they could only depend on themselves.

What Ouyang Shuo needed to consider now was how to face the post battle situation. With the way Di Chen and the others acted, Silver Hand was going to swallow him whole.

Since they made Streamer and the other guilds betray him, they definitely would not stop at the satellite cities and would have plans for after the battle.

What Ouyang Shuo thought about was the Four Seas Bank.

Tingyu Floor took up 5% of Four Seas Bank shares while Streamer and Laojun Temple took 3%. The three added together to hold 11%, which was a huge number.

To liquidate their shares and invest into Huitong Bank was basically expected. What was more vicious was that they could use this to snipe the businesses of the Four Seas Bank in the nine imperial cities.

The Four Seas Bank was an important tool that Ouyang Shuo was using to influence grassroots players and also one of the key financial pillars of the territory. Ouyang Shuo definitely would not let Silver Hand destroy it.

Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo immediately summoned Meng Zhida. He also readjusted the Four Seas Bank in the planned regime structure.

These two matters could be discussed together.

As for the specific situation of the Satellite City battle, Ouyang Shuo had no mood to pay attention to it.

…

Half an hour later, Meng Zhida hurried over.

The Four Seas Bank worked closely with the guilds. Meng Zhida was extremely sharp and naturally paid attention to the progress of the Satellite City battles. Since the Monarch had summoned him, he knew that something was up.

Meng Zhida had a feeling that the Monarch was going to talk to him regarding this chaotic battle. After sitting down, he did not expect the Lord to talk about something else.

Ouyang Shuo said, “Zhida, did you hear that we are going to form a cabinet when we establish the country?”

“I heard.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “After establishing the country, the Financial Bureau will become the Financial Board. On this point, the Four Seas Bank will split away and be under the cabinet. It shall work on the same level as the Financial Board.”

“This….” Meng Zhida did not know how to react.

The promotion of the Four Seas Bank so that they were not under the restrictions of the Financial Board naturally made him happy. However, the current Four Seas Bank was still led by director Fan Li, who was his boss.

Hence, it was not good for him to comment on this, keeping silent was better.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Since I told you in advance, there is nothing to be worried about. Promoting the Four Seas Bank is just expanding its duties for the needs of the regime. It needs to take up the role of a central bank. As a banker in the federation, you are definitely clearer than me in terms of understanding of the central bank.”

In reality, the central bank was an organization created by the government to control the country currency, loans, and monitor financial organizations, especially commercial banks and other savings institutions.

Their role included pushing out currency, keeping the reserves safe, managing the country coffers, pushing out government bonds, and the like.

Also one more thing, the central bank was not for profits but aimed to improve the economy of the country. Hence, Ouyang Shuo said that the Four Seas Bank would take up a portion of the responsibility of the central bank. In the future, when the Four Seas Bank wanted to expand over the world, it could not be a pure central bank.

Meng Zhida naturally got it right away, “I understand.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Finally, he started to talk about the matter with Tingyu Floor and the others.

“If they liquidate their investments, what measures do we have?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

When Meng Zhida heard that, he did not panic and smiled, “Do not worry Lord. When they invested, we signed a legally binding document. Based on the contract, if one side wants to break the contract, Four Seas Bank has the rights to deduct half their entitled gold as compensation.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “That is a great punishment for them.”

What they invested, each share was worth 200 thousand. If they deducted half, their overall worth would be 1.1 million gold.

This was a sizeable sum to a guild.

Meng Zhida continued, “Apart from the share funds, if they want to take away the funds they stored in the bank, based on the agreement, as a shareholder, the funds are stored for three years. If they take it right away, they would not receive any interest.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded as he was familiar with that clause. During the auction, the money that Blood Romance and Xie Siyun took out did not give them any interest.

As a result, the money that Tingyu Floor and the other guilds invested in Four Seas Bank was loaned to them to use for a year for nothing in return.

If one considered inflation, they had even lost money.

Chapter 821 - Calming Down Allies

Chapter 821: Calming Down Allies

Ouyang Shuo was still a little worried, so he asked, “If they all take out their reserves at the same time, will it affect us?”

Meng Zhida said, “It definitely will have some impact but not much. After a year of development, we have a lot of reserves and do not rely on them anymore.”

“What if hundreds of mid and large-sized guilds remove their reserves at the same time?”

Ouyang Shuo had learned about the influence of Silver Hand. Since they could influence the guilds to stand on their side, they could naturally make them take out their investments.

When Meng Zhida heard that, his face also became solemn, “If that’s the case, we will enter a shaky period. However, if we prepare for it in advance, it will not affect our foundation.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, finally relaxing, “In the future, the Four Seas Bank will focus on scattered customers. Only by setting our roots deep in the masses can we sit in an unbeatable position.”

“Yes Monarch.”

It was time for the Four Seas Bank to change.

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, “Go prepare for it and take the necessary precautionary measures. I estimate that once the dust settles, they will start to act.”

“Understood, I’ll take my leave.” Meng Zhida turned around and left.

Ouyang Shuo continued to stay in the reading room and waited for the final results of the Satellite City battle. ************ 2nd month, 26th day, 3 PM.

Since the siege started till now, the situation slowly became clearer.

The numerous sacrifices finally awakened the mid and small-sized guilds from their dreams. Looking around, they were left with very few brothers and sisters, sending a chill down their spine.

After the players died, their dropped equipment laid all over the ground.

Many of these items were despawned by Gaia before players could even pick them up.

The only ones still fighting were the guilds in Dali, Jianye, and Xianyang. Even Yimeng Pavilion and Shadow Alliance gave up after paying a heavy price.

At 4 PM, Silver Hand finally faced a setback.

Even under heavy assaults, the Snow-War Rose Mercenary Group in Jianye and Blood Evil Mercenary Group in Xianyang stood tall and did not fall, letting Silver Hand learn of the strength of giants.

Helplessly, Silver Hand could only give up. They had no choice. Even if the guild leaders they controlled were willing to attack, their members did not want to die for nothing.

The guild leaders in the game could not decide the fate of their guild members, especially in Earth Online where the game had an effect on reality.

No one was a fool.

The only one that was barely holding on was Qingfeng Pavilion.

During the first stage, Qingfeng Pavilion had suffered heavy losses and was also betrayed by their allies. The sieging guilds all saw hope, so they grit their teeth and continued to fight.

It seemed like Qingfeng Pavilion was unable to hold on.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he had a depressed look. There were many things that were not under his control.

At 6 PM, an Imperial City Notification sounded out.

“Imperial City Notification: Congratulations Xiao Nianying for leading the Xiao Alliance to break through the Satellite City guarded by Qingfeng Pavilion, obtaining the rights to be the guardian. Congratulations.” … The moment the notification sounded out, the world was in an uproar.

The unassuming Xiao Alliance had jumped up and become the greatest dark horse.

At this point, Silver Hand’s goal of breaking apart the Shanhai Alliance-Guild Alliance had basically succeeded.

Only two guilds of the guild alliance had absolute control in the China region.

What about Silver Hand?

They had seven out of nine.

When night fell, the Guardian Guilds were basically set and there were no more accidents. Gaia was extremely efficient, immediately announcing the ruling details and underground world opening rules.

Based on the rules, although the Guardian Guild had the right to own the Satellite City, they could not reject players from entering. As a result, players could freely move in and out of the Satellite City.

However, Gaia would not bother about whether or not they could rent houses or shops. The guardian groups could use this to solidify its relationships with their allies to make themselves undoubted ruler in the imperial city.

The underground tunnel was an actual tunnel set in the central square. As long as one went down the steps, they could enter the mysterious underground world.

The entrance was open to all players and the guardian group had no power to stop players from entering.

This rule by Gaia was to stop the Guardian Guild from forming a monopoly and breaking the balance of the game.

The tunnel was two-sided, so the role of the Guardian Guild was to defend the entrance to prevent monsters from charging into the Satellite City. ************ 2nd month, 27th day, Shanhai City.

After receiving an invite from Ouyang Shuo, Ji Yinghu, Mengyun Tunding, as well as Moon Shines over the River who had been released all gathered in Shanhai City.

After losing the Satellite City, the three were all extremely depressed.

Ouyang Shuo invited the three of them so that he could console them, “If my guess is correct, once the Lord territory becomes a Capital City, it would release something similar to the Satellite City.”

“Really?” Their eyes lit up.

Ouyang Shuo said, “A Capital City is the same grade as the system imperial city, so Gaia cannot be unfair. Shanhai City will reach the two million upper limit and can apply to upgrade soon. If you trust me then relax and bear with it. When Shanhai City becomes a Capital City, you’ll get something. Even if the Capital City does not release a Satellite City, Shanhai City will have the power to directly take down one imperial city.”

When Moon Shines over the River heard that, his eyes shone brighter and brighter.

“That’s right, those despicable people can succeed once, but the wilderness depends on strength. If Shanhai City sends troops to take down Dali Prefecture, we can naturally get the Satellite City back.”

Thinking about that, Moon Shines over the River calmed down. He had never doubted Shanhai City’s ability to take down Dali, and it was just a matter of how much they were willing to sacrifice.

Hope rose up once more in Ji Yinghu and Mengyun Tunding’s heart. They were defeated by Jianqi Zongheng because they were not strong enough, and it had nothing to do with Shanhai City.

On the contrary, without the equipment and support given to them, they would have lost even more badly. They could not ask for anything more from this alliance leader. For him to actually make such promises under such circumstances was truly touching.

Ji Yinghu said, “Rest assured, we can wait. Although the guild is unstable, we can use this chance to clear out inferior members and deadweight.”

His words contained the respect he felt toward Ouyang Shuo.

Mengyun Tunding nodded, and they finally understood what it meant by: true self is revealed in times of crisis. ‘Following such an alliance leader, even if we lose, it is worth it.’

The four of them talked for a while before leaving.

At this point, the relationship between Shanhai City and the three guilds had gotten closer instead. If Ouyang Shuo could fulfil his promise, they would be tied to him. … Since the nine Guardian Guilds had just taken down the Satellite City, they should be extremely busy. The passion and intensity of players faded, and they thought that the wilderness would be calm for a period of time.

Who knew that after just one morning, there would be more waves?

At 2 PM, Tingyu Floor, Streamer, and Laojun Temple all announced together that they had left Shanhai Alliance-Guild Alliance and had joined the Yanhuang Alliance camp.

At the same time, the three guilds would divest their shares in the Four Seas Bank and invest in Huitong Bank instead. Naturally, they would take out the money they stored in the Four Seas Bank as well.

Following which, hundreds of mid and large-sized guilds all took out their funds from the Four Seas Bank.

The moment the news was out, it shocked the entire wilderness.

Players realized that a huge storm was coming.

At this point, the players understood that the Satellite City battles were won by the Yanhuang Alliance.

And this was something that exceeded all their expectations.

Everyone thought that after their loss at Yunnan, with their homes on fire, they would have to keep quiet and lay in silence for a while.

Who knew that their counterattack would be so quick and effective?

“If they had such strength in the guild circle, why did they just act now? Are they stupid?” Smart players saw the unusualness of the current events.

Just as everyone was confused, the Four Seas Bank published an announcement.

The statement declared that the Four Seas Bank was a mature bank and allowed divestments while welcoming new investors. Their actions would not shake the bank as the bank was rooted in the player base. As long as players trusted Shanhai City, the bank would be stable.

Shanhai City, which was about to establish the country, was the strongest shield of the Four Seas Bank.

At the end, the announcement also wished the parties who divested their shares the best of luck, and they hoped that these parties could have great returns and experience great customer service in their new bank.

Even a fool could tell what was hidden behind those words.

A year had passed and the level difference between the two banks was too obvious. Huitong Bank was already confirmed as a bad wolf, and with the help of Black Snake Guards, they would not be able to get rid of that ‘fame’.

A while ago, news broke out that in terms of investment gold, they had double standards for Yanhuang Alliance and non-Yanhuang Alliance members.

That situation nearly landed the Huitong Bank into a crisis.

Now that these guilds had suddenly transferred their money to the Huitong Bank, even a fool could tell that something funny was going on. There were definitely other factors in play, and this was not a normal investment choice.

Chapter 822 - Upgrading to Capital City

Chapter 822: Upgrading to Capital City

The notification from the Four Seas Bank instantly placed Tingyu Floor and the other betraying guilds into an awkward situation.

Apart from the players watching the bustle, the members of their guilds raised doubts about their guild leaders and sought a logical explanation.

Due to the past wrongdoings of Huitong Bank, there were many players who doubted this change of investment, as they questioned whether this move was done for personal interests.

All of a sudden, the members inside Tingyu Floor and the other guilds were unsettled, dampening the joyous atmosphere of taking down the Satellite City. Once the guild had confirmed their position as the overlord, the members started to feel more concern about their personal interests.

Some things done in the dark were unable to be shown in the light.

Priest Qingniu and the other two were furious; they were already raging about the compensation fee and did not expect that this extra trouble to happen.

They had no choice but to accept the consequence due to the white and black words on the agreement.

They were already annoyed enough. Internally, they were shaken and had no choice but to try and calm their members; this made them even busier, which spoiled their happy mood.

Jianqi Leiyin already started to feel some faint regret in her heart.

The fact that Snow-War Rose protected the Satellite City showed that Silver Hand was not that scary. Maybe if they did it well, Tingyu Floor would have managed to use their own strength to seize the Satellite City.

If that was the case, she would not have been threatened by Silver Hand.

At this very moment, Blood Romance suddenly ran out to add to the fun. Ouyang Shuo and Blood Romance announced that Shanhai City and Blood Evil Mercenary Guild had become iron allies and would back off and advance together in the wilderness.

Before this, the two of them simply had a normal cooperation relationship, but now they were totally working hand in hand. With the support of Blood Evil Mercenary Group, Shanhai Alliance’s guild advantage in the west did not completely collapse.

One must not forget that Blood Romance had a map of the underground world. Blood Evil Mercenary Guild that sat in Xianyang Satellite City was destined to be a step quicker than the others in exploring the underground world.

Blood Evil Mercenary Group’s position as the number one guild in the China region was still unshakeable.

Apart from Ouyang Shuo, no one else knew the reason behind Blood Romance’s sudden change in attitude. In the afternoon, he suddenly visited Shanhai City. The two of them talked for less than an hour before making the alliance announcement.

From his mouth, Ouyang Shuo understood more mysteries about Silver Hand. Ouyang Shuo grew more and more serious about this mysterious organization.

…

On this day, the show that was played dazzled everyone.

Shanhai City’s counterattack stopped here. Ouyang Shuo had considered whether or not to let the Black Snake Guards reveal information about Silver Hand to rile up the grassroots players’ indignation.

Thinking about it, he decided against such action as the time was not right.

If he revealed Silver Hand to the world, players might not be angry but instead worship them and not want to be enemies with them. This would instead put Shanhai City in an extremely awkward situation.

The game interests were connected to real life interests, so there definitely were not so many hot-blooded people who took revenge without thinking.

In the future, the ones that were trustable would be those who moved to stay in Shanhai City as they would both earn glory together and fall together.

That was why Ouyang Shuo said that the time was not right.

It was only the 4th year of Gaia. Ouyang Shuo had the patience to have a long and drawn out battle against Silver Hand. To let Shanhai City upgrade to Capital City was the main focus now.

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

Gaia 4th year, 3rd month, 1st day, Shanhai City.

In five months, Shanhai City would reach the two million population upper limit. This was also under the premise that the Civil Affairs Department had strictly chosen migrants.

If not, they would have been able to gather one million within four months.

Within the main hall of the Nanjiang Governor-General Manor, Ouyang Shuo opened the interface and selected territory upgrade. A System Notification sounded out in his ear, and a series of basic requirement checking followed.

“System Notification: Checking if Shanhai City meets upgrade requirements…”

“Requirement 1: Population reached the two million upper limit. Requirement met!”

“Requirement 2: All basic buildings have been constructed. Requirements met!”

Speaking of basic buildings, one had to mention the Grade 3 Prefecture observatory. Due to the Ying and Yang school of thought not appearing, this condition was extremely annoying for Ouyang Shuo to fulfill.

The construction of the observatory only happened a few days ago.

After Jiang Shang agreed to become the Grand Secretary of the cabinet, he personally contacted Zhou Yan. Although Zhou Yan was not willing to move in, he still sent two disciples to give Jiang Shang face.

Hence, the observatory was constructed.

“Requirement 3: Lord is at least a duke. Requirement met!”

Ouyang Shuo had already become a duke back during the voyage long ago. Half a year had passed, and he had earned a lot of merit points since then. However, he was still a long distance away from the next duke rank.

Luckily, the lowest requirement for establishing the country was also duke, so he was not in a rush to reach the next rank.

“Requirement 4: Politics, Economy, Culture, and Military indices are no less than 90, technology index no less than 80. Requirement met!”

Compared to the Grade 3 Prefecture upgrade, the requirements for the five territorial indices had reached another level.

“Requirement 5: At least own three prefectures of land. Requirements met!”

Based on normal development speeds, when one became a Grade 3 Prefecture, they would at least own a prefecture worth of land. Now, the requirement to upgrade to Capital City was three times that, similar to half a province.

Hence, even though the China region was huge, when the Capital City Era arrived, there would only be an extremely limited number of Lords remaining. At that time, it would truly be a battle of the best.

“Requirement 6: Territory fate is at least at the second stage red fate. Requirements met!”

Taking down both Lingnan and Yunnan City-States had caused the fate dragon to sharply rise. Not only that, after they merged with Consonance City, the fate of Consonance City was also swallowed by the fate dragon.

Hence, although the fate dragon was still at the second stage, the purple color was now three-quarters of the dragon.

A red fate was the lowest requirement for a country.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, territory meets all requirements, will you apply for the upgrade?”

“Yes!”

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, automatically allocating upgrade quests.”

…

“System Notification: Allocation complete!”

“Quest 1 – Imperial Court Examination: Accept the Dali Imperial Court official evaluation of politics, economy, culture, technology, and military; these must all reach good and above standards.”

The first mission already made Ouyang Shuo’s brows furrow.

Dali and Shanhai City were enemies now. Moon Shines over the River being captured showed how Silver Hand was trying to spoil their relationship in the dark.

Who knows what would happen when the Dali officials came to evaluate Shanhai City?

However, the five territory indices were a hard indicator and reflected the development and achievements of a territory. This time, Gaia was unwilling to use a bunch of numbers but instead wanted a real life actual evaluation.

That was great. After all, it was to upgrade to Capital City, so it was better to play it safe. However, Gaia had chosen officials from Dali, which gave Ouyang Shuo a headache.

If it was the Quanzhou Imperial Court, Ouyang Shuo would be extremely confident about passing.

On the other hand, Dali was a whole different story.

Due to Gaia’s focus on fairness, the officials sent out would not dare to show too much bias. However, they could use some underhanded methods within the boundaries.

Maybe in the eyes of Gaia, this was also a sort of training.

“Quest 2 – 36 industries: Within the territory, one must have all 36 industries.”

The 36 industries referred to the main industries during the Tang Dynasty, including the silk industry, pearl industry, paper industry, fresh fish industry, bamboo and wood industry, medicine industry, leather industry, spice industry, and the like.

The 36 industry quest was an overall evaluation of the society of the territory. If one could not even gather up all 36, it was naturally unworthy of being a Capital City.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this quest, he felt uncertain. As a Lord, he was not familiar with all 36 industries, and some of them had weird names, so he was unsure about the detail.

“Quest 3 – new soldier type: On the foundation of the current troops, develop a new soldier type.”

The third quest was extremely difficulty for Shanhai City. Shanhai City had all navy, army, and air force troops, including the Tiger Leopard Cavalry, the Iron Eagle Swordsman, the Iron Armored Beast Cavalry, and other special soldier types.

But the quest requirement was to develop a new soldier type on the base of what they currently had. If he knew that there would be such a quest, Ouyang Shuo would have let Gao Shun develop the Formation Crushing Unit later.

This quest would be left to Du Ruhui to worry about.

“System Notification: The three upgrade quests must all be completed before one can successfully upgrade.”

One did even have a choice.

Compared to the prefecture city upgrade, these upgrade quests were far more difficult.

Chapter 823 – Fortune Teller

Editor:Nora

3rd month, 1st day, afternoon, Shanhai City.

Within the Wenhua Palace of the Nanjiang Governor-General House, Ouyang Shuo had gathered Cabinet Grand Secretary Jiangshang, Xiao He, Wei Yang, Fan Li, and Du Ruhui to discuss matters.

The matter of their discussion was the Capital City upgrade quests.

After learning that Shanhai City was about to upgrade to Capital City, these five important officials all felt emotional. The moment Shanhai City upgraded to Capital City, it meant that the establishment of the country was imminent.

Hence, no matter how difficult the quests were, they needed to work wholeheartedly.

In the morning when he left the main hall, Ouyang Shuo's quest interface showed detailed information about the three quests.

The Imperial Court examination quest was set in the middle of the 3rd month but the exact date was not shown. There was a high chance the officials would sneak over or silently arrive in Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo had already instructed the Shanhai Guards to strengthen their monitoring during this half a month. The moment they noticed any suspicious people, they needed to immediately report it to prevent the secret visit from succeeding.

More importantly, Ouyang Shuo instructed, "From this moment on, Shanhai City will make preparations to be evaluated. Only then can we not give them a chance to find fault with us."

Xiao He and the others were all extremely experienced officials, so they obviously knew what would happen when the Dali Imperial Court officials came over to Shanhai City. All of them were solemn and treated the matter seriously.

"We still have a little time, so let's conduct a self-evaluation and improvement phase." Ouyang Shuo looked at Jiang Shang, "Five days later, Grand Secretary Jiang Shang will organize an independent evaluation group to conduct a mock evaluation of Shanhai City."

Ouyang Shuo took how modern day societies treated superior evaluations and brought it into the game.

"Yes Monarch!"

After Jiang Shang agreed to be the Cabinet Grand Secretary, he had taken up the role really quickly.

Apart from the Imperial Court examination, the 36 industries quest gave Ouyang Shuo a headache.

The quest interface clearly showed, "36 industries quest: 35/36 completed. Friendly Reminder: Shanhai City temporarily has no witchcraft industry."

What does the witchcraft industry do?

After asking people in the know, Ouyang Shuo found out that the so-called witchcraft industry referred to fortune tellers. The mountain barbarian tribes had witches that could perform divinations but they were not recognized by Gaia.

That made the matter truly difficult.

Based on the quest rules, the moment one accepted the quest, Shanhai City was not allowed to go to the system imperial cities to recruit talents. Hence, this fortune teller could only be found through the refugees or through a full territory search. Ouyang Shuo chose to target both, recruiting from all over the prefecture to see if there were any fortune tellers.

Worst comes to worst, Ouyang Shuo could only hope that he could recruit a fortune teller from the Recruitment Hall.

However, such a chance was too low, and he only had one chance a month. As a result, the hope was not too high.

Ouyang Shuo disliked uncertainty the most. The fortune teller's appearance was something he could not control, which made it tough for Shanhai City to upgrade to Capital City.

As for the last quest, Ouyang Shuo handed it over to Du Ruhui.

During the two hour meeting, Ouyang Shuo gave all five of them jobs to do and also made a detailed analysis of the upgrade quests.

Now, Ouyang Shuo needed to patiently wait.

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

During dinner, Song Jia raised a topic with Ouyang Shuo.

"Wuyi, the Jiangshan Beauty film has been completed and is now in post-production. Wu Pingcheng thinks that it can be published by the end of 4th month at the latest."

Ouyang Shuo drank a mouthful of soup, "That's great." This was two months faster than the last life, probably because of the support of the Mountain and Sea Entertainment Holdings.

"When the time to promote the movie comes, you need to help us out." Song Jia had a reason for telling Ouyang Shuo that.

Ouyang Shuo agreed without hesitation, "No problem. In a few days, I'll write an article in the Quick Daily News to evaluate the entertainment industry, and I'll bring up the movie in the article."

Song Jia smiled, "That's great, if you open your mouth, it's better than any promotion."

Ouyang Shuo was the strongest Lord in the wilderness, and he possessed excellent foresight. The article he wrote would obviously cause a lot of discussion in the wilderness.

Who knows, perhaps the entertainment industry explosion would be revealed right there. The Mountain and Sea Entertainment Holdings could use this to set sail.

Song Jia continued, "Also, one more thing, the movie Huo Qubing is being shot, and if we are quick, we can release it early in the 6th month."

Currently, the Guards Legion Corps had moved back to Shanhai City, making it rather convenient for the production crew.

Ouyang Shuo nodded; he was also looking forward to whether these two movies would achieve better results with his influence.

"Oh yeah." Song Jia said excitedly, "Little aunt sent a letter to me in the morning, and she said she was going to open up the Kunlun side map. She asked me to rush to Jianye in the morning."

The Kunlun side map was a Wuxia map and was obtained by Xie Siyun for 850 thousand during the world auction. Ouyang Shuo had invested 200 thousand to obtain a slot for Song Jia.

Seeing his lady's excited expression, Ouyang Shuo smiled, "Then go. I'll let Tianqi arrange people to protect you. No matter what, this is the first Wuxia side map, and it should be quite interesting."

"I also think so." Song Jia was looking forward to it. Since she learned about the start of the side map, she had looked through everything on the forums.

Not mentioning others, just the legendary secret manuals and God Weapons was enough to make one drool.

The two of them talked as they ate dinner.

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

3rd month. 2nd day, Jiangnan Province, Zhoushan Port.

At 4 PM, a flagship with the Statue of Liberty flag slowly docked at the port. This was the Free City battleship that had just left Japan.

On the dock, Di Chen, Chun Shenjun, Xiong Ba, Zhan Lang, Sha Pojun, and Wandering Magic had all gathered. The others all had excited expressions, and only Wandering Magic had a complicated expression.

Before the Satellite City battle, Wandering Magic had finally learned of the existence of a special organization known as Silver Hand behind his family, shocking him.

Under Xiong Ba's persuasion, Wandering Magic took the silver token. However, in his heart, he still felt rather uneasy. With the way Silver Hand did things, he saw that they aimed to protect the interests of aristocratic families.

If country interests goes against the interest of Silver Hand in future country wars, what choice would Di Chen and the others make? Thinking about that, Wandering Magic felt a chill run down his spine.

Working together with Di Chen and the others was like working with a tiger, making him rather apprehensive. However, he was already on the Yanhuang Alliance ship, and he could not get off it.

Wandering Magic had a new understanding of the power of Silver Hand during the Satellite City battle. The current top Lord of America sending a ship thousands of miles to pass technology to them left him surprised.

While he stood there stunned, the Man O' War battleship docked. From the battleship, a ladder was placed down and two men walked off. Beside them were soldiers carrying handguns.

When Di Chen and the others saw them, they all welcomed these people with smiles.

Next, a reception occurred and the planned trade was carried out. The moment the Free City secretary passed over the three technical manuals, Di Chen's hands shook.

With these three babies, Shanhai City's technology advantage was gone. Before this, Di Chen had already thought of using these three items to say something to threaten Shanhai City.

The next morning, the warship set off and left.

Di Chen and the others had not left. Although they spent the whole day drinking and entertaining the two Americans and did not have any sleep, they were all extremely energized and held an alliance meeting.

Apart from discussing how to trap Shanhai City, they also talked about Xunlong Dianxue. Xiong Ba said that he had already achieved decisive progress.

The gift from Jake Dawson was a lethal blow.

Xiong Ba looked around, "That little fox only gave him the sewing machine technology. As for the steam engine and the warship making techniques, he locked them up. It made Xunlong Dianxue really unhappy. Think about it, if we use these three techniques as chips, won't that kid just join us?"

Zhan Lang did not understand, "But if we all release the three technologies, it would break the maximum of five. Naturally, it would be common in the entire China region."

Xiong Ba smiled, and his smile was filled with craftiness, "Hence, our internal spread of the technology can slow down. After Xunlong Dianxue joins us, spreading the technology would not be too late. Once both sides sign a black and white contract, even if Xunlong Dianxue learns that he has been conned, it would be too late."

When Wandering Magic heard that, he felt a chill in his heart. These aristocratic family children were all good at schemes. If they really did that, it would be forcing Xunlong Dianxue onto the road of no return.

Thinking about this, Wandering Magic felt sad for Xunlong Dianxue.

'Why? For a small matter, you quarreled with Shanhai City., Now you end up working with Yanhuang Alliance, and they're pushing you to death.'

Wandering Magic warned himself that he could not become the next Xunlon Dianxue.

"This is a good idea!"

Chun Shenjun and the others were really supportive of the idea as they were not interested all along in trying to turn Xunlong Dianxue. Rather, only Xiong Ba had pushed for it. If they could con Xunlong Dianxue without doing anything, they naturally would not reject it.

At the very least, making their enemy feel bad was great.

Xiong Ba was delighted, "So that's settled. Do not worry; I'll get it done quickly."

Chapter 824 – Moral High Ground

3rd month, 5th day, King City.

In a secret room in the city Lord’s Manor, Xiong Ba and Xunlong Dianxue were discussing the final negotiations. They chose to hold the negotiations in King City to avoid the eyes of Shanhai City.

In the past few days, both sides had already gone through four rounds of discussions, and they had basically nailed all the basic cooperation matters. Now, the two of them were having a final meeting to make the final confirmation.

Xunlong Dianxue took the lead, “I will quit the Shanhai Alliance. After joining Yanhuang Alliance, I must obtain a similar treatment and position to Wandering Magic.”

As the only commoner Lord in the Yanhuang Alliance, Wandering Magic had become the standard of cooperation for other Lords in their dealings with Yanhuang Alliance.

Who knows what Wandering Magic would think if he knew about this?

“Sure.” Xiong Ba nodded in agreement.

Xunlong Dianxue continued, “If things are revealed, and Shanhai City attacks Xunlong City, you all have to assist me and cannot use excuses to avoid the matter; this must also be written into the agreement.”

Based on the secret agreement between the two, Xunlong City did not need to rush to betray Shanhai City. First, this could numb Shanhai City; secondly, they could also use the chance to spy on Shanhai City’s secrets.

If Xunlong Dianxue did this well, he could obtain advantages from both sides.

Yanhuang Alliance also did not need to rush. Since Silver Hand had agreed to help, they would assist them in clipping Shanhai City’s wings while also lessening the gap between the two.

When Xunlong Dianxue betrayed Shanhai City and all of them obtained the relevant technologies, not only would King City build a new navy squadron, but Zhan Lang would also build a navy in Donghai Province’s Haizhou Port. Meanwhile, Di Chen would train his navy in Haijin Port. Even Chun Shenjun, who was located inland, would build a navy in Changjiang.

Hence, Yanhuang Alliance would take control of the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, and East Sea, forming a north and south face off against Shanhai City’s navy.

Apart from that, Yanhuang Alliance would also start the industrialization process. Using the foundations of the aristocratic family and their massive talent repository, they would not be too far behind Shanhai City.

But all of this needed time.

Hence, before they were completely confident about the matter, Yanhuang Alliance did not want to have a head on confrontation with Shanhai City. To bury this hidden chess piece within Shanhai City was undoubtedly a good choice.

Xiong Ba smiled as he replied Xunlong Dianxue, “Naturally. We are allies, so we will not let you die. Furthermore, if they take down Minnan Province, they will be facing off against my Jiangnan Province. Do you think I will let Shanhai City get away with that?”

Xiong Ba’s reply left Xunlong Dianxue with nothing else to say.

One must not look at Xunlong Dianxue being so determined. Deep in his heart, he was filled with fear toward Shanhai City. Without Yanhuang Alliance, and even Silver Hand supporting them behind their backs, he would not have the thought of betraying Shanhai City.

Xunlong Dianxue continued, “In the future, when I back out of the Shanhai Alliance, the Four Seas Bank will stop its loans to Xunlong City. If that happens, Xunlong City will collapse, so the Huitong Bank needs to continue with these loans.”

“That is no problem either.” Xiong Ba quickly agreed, “Do you have any other requests?”

Xunlong Dianxue’s expression froze as he understood what Xiong Ba was trying to say, ‘Do not take things too far.’

Thinking about that, Xunlong Dianxue said, “Why don’t I try to ask my good brother Gong Chengshi to betray them?”

“How much confidence do you have?”

“At least 50%.”

Xiong Ba shook his head, “Without being fully confident, it is best you remove this thought from your mind. You’re more certain than me about what kind of opponent Qiyue Wuyi is. Do not alert him.”

When Xunlong Dianxue heard that, his expression looked somewhat depressed.

Xiong Ba suddenly smiled, patting Xunlong Dianxue’s shoulder, “Do not be too despondent. With Silver Hand as a shield, we will make Gong Chengshi betray them.”

Xunlong Dianxue nodded.

When Xiong Ba saw that, “Since we have come to a consensus, let’s just sign the contract so that you can get the technology earlier?”

Xunlong Dianxue took in a deep breath, tossing aside all the random thoughts in his mind, “Let’s sign it!”

From this moment on, Xunlong Dianxue had no way out.

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

3rd month, 6th day, the China region Lords were stunned by three successive notifications.

“System Notification: Steam Engine Making Technology has been given to more than five territories, officially released to the entire wilderness, congratulations Lords!”

…

“System Notification: Sewing Machine Making Technology has been given to more than five territories, officially released to the entire wilderness, congratulations Lords!”

…

“System Notification: Man O’ War Battleship Crafting Technology has been given to more than five territories, officially releasing to the entire wilderness, congratulations Lords!”

The Lords all subconsciously thought that it was Shanhai City that released these three key technologies.

However, at basically the same time, Yanhuang Alliance announced on the forums that they had bought these three core technologies from America for a high price and had given them for free to the China region Lords to break the technology tree barrier and raise the overall China region strength.

In their announcement, they emphasized that they did so to raise the strength of the China region to help them in future country wars.

They did not forget to mock Shanhai City and say that they were too selfish. Shanhai City had obtained the western technologies extremely early on but decided to keep it to themselves and not share it.

This time, Yanhuang Alliance had obtained the moral high ground.

To increase the believability, Yanhuang Alliance also released relevant photos.

The evidence was solid.

When the Lords saw that, they instantly fell silent.

Yanhuang Alliance actually played this matter beautifully, spreading the technologies that Gaia would forcefully provide to players and taking the credit for doing so.

The Lords of the wilderness were not fools and understood the reason behind it. However, understanding was one thing, and being able to obtain some benefits from it was another.

In their eyes, Yanhuang Alliance blaming Shanhai City was naturally logical.

“That’s right. Why can Yanhuang Alliance share it the moment they obtained it, but Shanhai City obtained it so early on and even treated their own allies differently? Wasn’t it to prevent the technology from becoming widespread?”

Shanhai City could not find a way out this time. If it were not because of the many battles that caused less than a hundred Lords to remain, Shanhai City would have become the public enemy.

Through the Satellite City battle and this technology spreading matter, Yanhuang Alliance had turned around the negative situation after the Battle of Yunnan.

All this happened because of Silver Hand.

…

Shanhai City chose to keep silent about this matter.

Being slapped in the face like that really hurt.

Ouyang Shuo did not expect that Yanhuang Alliance could get these core technologies so quickly. He did not want to release these three pieces of technology so early so as to guard against Yanhuang Alliance.

After all, Ouyang Shuo was extremely clear that the moment Yanhuang Alliance got the technologies, with the talents they possessed, Shanhai City would have no advantage in the industrialization battle.

The matter had already developed to such a stage, exceeding his control and putting him on the back foot.

If one had it rough, everything he did would not go smoothly.

Ouyang Shuo was wondering if Shanhai City was in such a pit.

“We still need to be calm.” Ouyang Shuo knew that he could not panic at such a time. Ouyang Shuo’s strength was placed right there. As long as Ouyang Shuo did not panic, the enemy could not do anything to Shanhai City.

…

Ouyang Shuo was surprised while someone else was furious.

This person was Xunlong Dianxue.

Xunlong City, City Lord’s Manor.

The moment he heard the notification, his entire brain stopped. After a short while, the humiliation and anger he felt from being played rose in his heart.

“A bunch of jerks!”

Xunlong Dianxue raged, smashing vases, scrolls, and other items onto the ground.

“Xiong Ba, I’ll get at you back for this!”

Xunlong Dianxue’s eyes were blood red, and he wanted to seek an explanation from Xiong Ba. However, the moment he stepped out, he calmed down, and his face turned ashen white.

The agreement had already been signed, so what could he do even if he found out?

That day, Xunlong Dianxue locked himself in his room and did not meet anyone. He even chased away the maidservant who brought him his lunch.

The entire Lord’s Manor was anxious and covered in a terrified atmosphere.

And all of this was seen by someone, taking it all in.

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

Shanhai City, Nanjiang Governor-General Manor.

In the reading room, Ouyang Shuo had a complicated expression, “Is the intel confirmed?”

The one sitting at the right hand seat was Shen Buhai, “It has been confirmed. Xunlong Dianxue has been frequently visiting King City, and the two have been talking a lot. Yesterday, he even left alone. When he returned, his expression was weird. Along with his performance today, I suspect the worst has occurred.”

When Xunlong Dianxue shouted for Xiong Ba, everyone outside had heard his words loud and clearly.

Ouyang Shuo nodded.

Long ago when Xunlong Dianxue was throwing a tantrum, Ouyang Shuo had already started defending against Xunlong City. When the Battle of Red Cliff ended, they had already created a full reactive plan.

He did not expect that this day would come so quickly.

“It’s the Silver Hand again?” Such a thought flashed across Ouyang Shuo’s mind. Maybe only this would make Xunlong Dianxue reach a decision.

Chapter 825 - Decisive Strike

Chapter 825: Decisive Strike

Ouyang Shuo said to Shen Buhai, “I know about that. Next, the Shanhai Guards need to strengthen their investigations and try to obtain actual information. At the same time, mobilize all our chess pieces in Minnan Province.”

“Yes Monarch.”

Shen Buhai nodded solemnly; he could feel that the Lord was about to strike out this time.

Ouyang Shuo was ready to strike.

Facing the step by step attacks of the Silver Hand, it was meaningless to back off.

Yanhuang Alliance definitely would not expect that the chess piece that they had just buried would be exposed so quickly. They would not expect Shanhai City to choose to strike at this moment either.

To the Yanhuang Alliance, this was their weakest moment. When they had completed digested the aftereffects of the Yunnan war, as well as the three core technologies, even if Shanhai City did not strike, the Yanhuang Alliance would still provoke them.

Since that was the case, how could Ouyang Shuo bear all that? It was best to give them a fatal blow at this time.

When it is the time to act, one should act decisively.

Shanhai City’s plan in Minnan Province was not just set a day or two ago. Even Xunlong Dianxue could not imagine the level of influence Shanhai City possessed in Minnan Province.

This time, Ouyang Shuo was going to give Yanhuang Alliance a warning.

Similarly, it was time to declare war against Silver Hand. Since the two were determined to be enemies then let us fight!

…

The moment Shen Buhai left Ouyang Shuo summoned Du Ruhui, Jia Xu, and Huo Qubing.

“The situation is like that, what thoughts do all of you have?” Ouyang Shuo said.

The three of them exchanged glances with one another. Who would have thought that on the verge of establishing the country, the Monarch would actually want to declare war? Du Ruhui frowned as the new round of military reorganization was not completed yet. Starting a war now was a little rushed.

However, the reason the Monarch gave them was one that they had no way to refute.

“Then let’s fight!” Du Ruhui made his stance, “To leave such a hidden tumor alone, even if we establish the country, it would not be stable. Why don’t we strike decisively and remove this?”

Since Du Ruhui had agreed, the matter was passed.

Jia Xu was the Chief Secretary and only had the right to make suggestions but could not make the final decision. As the commander, since the Monarch wanted to fight, Huo Qubing was delighted and had no reason to object.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Now, we are at the key moment to upgrading to a Capital City, so the war cannot last for too long and must end quickly. Think of a plan!”

As the best advisor in the territory, Jia Xu accepted the duty.

Thinking about it, Jia Xu said slowly, “The best way would be to take out their leader. To make it fast, we must do it before the Yanhuang Alliance reacts. Then even if they want to interfere, they will not be able to do so.”

Ouyang Shuo said, “Directly Attack Xunlong City?”

“That’s right.” Jia Xu nodded.

Ouyang Shuo did not say anything conclusive. Instead, he shouted toward the outside, “Bring the map!”

A short while later, two guards brought in the map of Minnan Province and hung it on the west wall of the reading room. This was a map that Ouyang Shuo had purposely found to hang up.

Ouyang Shuo and the others moved in front of the map.

Minnan Province was lying upon mountains and was besides the oceans. 90% of the land area was mountainous hills, known as 80% mountain, 10% water, and 10% soil. The coastline was long and twisted and mainly consisted of erosional coasts, and there were many islands too.

As Minnan Province was located at a key area between the east and south sea, the ocean routes could reach both East Africa and South Asia. It was the Silk Road in history, and the starting point of Zheng He’s journey.

Minnan Province was also where Mazu culture began. Inland was where the Hakka agriculture civilization and the Hakka culture prospered.

The Minnan Province in the game was split into five prefectures.

From south to north was the Longyan Prefecture that was closest to Lingnan Province, Quanzhou Prefecture where the imperial city was located, Tingzhou Prefecture that was connected to Jiangchuan Province, Shaowu Prefecture, and Fuyong Prefecture where Xunlong City was located in.

Fuyong Prefecture was located at the north end of Minnan Province, and its northern portion was connected to Chuannan Province and south to Quanzhou Prefecture.

Ouyang Shuo pointed at the map, “To attack Xunlong City, we must go past Longyan Prefecture and Tingzhou Prefecture. Through the work of the Shanhai Guards, it would not be hard to cover the troops as they pass these two prefectures.

After the 4th system update, territories were banned from forming alliances with other territories not in the alliance to use their teleportation formations.

Hence, the Shanhai City Army had to physically move through the province.

In the five prefectures of Minnan Province, apart from Quanzhou and Fuyong Prefecture, around 70% of the remaining ones were allies of Shanhai City.

The so-called Shanhai Alliance-Xunlong Alliance was made just so as to please Shanhai City. Along with the 4th system update, the alliance was also disbanded.

In the dark, through the work of Honglu Temple, Shanhai Guards and Black Snake Guards, these territories had secretly leaned toward Shanhai City and had signed secret agreements.

As long as the Shanhai City Army arrived, these territories would change flags and merge with Shanhai City. Ouyang Shuo would not treat them badly and had promised them great rewards.

The goal was to control the Minnan Province situation when Xunlong City betrayed them. However, Ouyang Shuo had not expected that he would decide to use such chess pieces so early on.

Ouyang Shuo originally thought he could use them to get more refugees. Now, it seemed like he could only use this chance to take down the entire Minnan Province.

What happened next would blow the minds of Yanhuang Alliance.

Ouyang Shuo pointed at the map and continued, “Once the army gets into Fuyong Prefecture, their tracks will be tough to hide. Xunlong City has been in this prefecture for such a long time, so they have definitely achieved certain things.”

Jia Xu smiled like he already had a plan, “We can use our spies there to spread some rumors to say that raiders attacked the border houses to sow chaos and confuse them.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “That’s a good idea.”

After the 4th system update, the traveling speed of troops had greatly increased. From the border to Xunlong City would only take two days.

There was still enough time to disguise and misdirect.

As a member of Shanhai Alliance, Xunlong City’s military organization was the same as Shanhai City, and even its military structure and personnel arrangement were the same.

Xunlong City had a City Protection Division and a Guards Division. Each of the five houses had a Garrison Regiment. What remained was a full War Fighting Legion – Xunlong Legion.

This legion was not housed near the border, but it was not far away from Xunlong City.

Although the Shanhai Guards were unable to ensure that the army would be able to move smoothly in Fuyong Prefecture, Shanhai City still had hundreds of chess pieces within Xunlong City. Amongst which, one was the right hand man of Xunlong Dianxue.

It was mentioned before that Xunlong Dianxue was betrayed in the last life and nearly lost his home. In this life, this person had appeared once more. However, the difference this time was that he became a spy for the Black Snake Guards.

After the Shanhai Guards took over the resources of the Black Snake Guards, they naturally took over dealing with this person too. Xunlong Dianxue saying out the name Xiong Ba was also news sent out by this informant.

Hence, the Shanhai City Army just needed to smoothly enter the outskirts of Xunlong City and destroy the legion housed outside of the city. Then the hidden chess pieces could open up the gates and lead the army back into the city to take it down.

In such a short time, Xunlong Dianxue would not be able to ask for help.

Since the meeting was settled, Ouyang Shuo turned to look at Huo Qubing, “With the current conditions, we need to take down Xunlong City before Yanhuang Alliance reacts. Does the Guards Legion Corps have confidence?”

When Huo Qubing heard that, he was shocked. Although the Monarch summoning him meant that the Guards Legion Corps was going to participate, being officially named by the Monarch still made him emotional.

Huo Qubing excelled at such long distance attacks the most.

Huo Qubing bowed confidently and said, “We only need to send out the two cavalry legions and we can complete the mission.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled gleefully; he truly admired Huo Qubing’s confidence. Ouyang Shuo turned around and told Du Ruhui, “Inform the 3rd legion of the Tiger Legion Corps, after the Guards Legion Corps succeeds, immediately enter Minnan Province and take over the four prefectures along with the Guards Legion Corps and wipe out all resistance.”

Within Minnan Province, there were naturally a few who were not happy with Shanhai City. However, these territories were scattered and were not organized, so they posed little threat to Shanhai City.

The Tiger Legion Corps 3rd legion would clean out these people and also take charge of the armies of the territories merging with Shanhai City, organizing them together.

Conservatively speaking, he could obtain half a War Fighting Legion.

“Yes Monarch!” Du Ruhui nodded.

Following that, the four of them surrounded the Minnan Province map to discuss the perfect strategy.

War was not a game. Since the direction was settled, the details had to be too. If not, the whole plan might backfire.

Apart from that, the plan also needed to take into account various emergency measures. The battlefield would change quickly and any situation might happen.

Some changes could be handled by the generals on the field while some needed to be considered before the battle even began.

For example, what if the Guards Legion Corps was exposed when they passed either Longyan or Tingzhou Prefecture, or what if the Yanhuang Alliance Army teleported to Xunlong City in time?

All in all, much thought had to be put into the matter, and all the intel departments had to participate in this as well.

However, time waited for no one, and before the Military Affairs Bureau settled on a specific plan, the army had already set off. That night, the 2nd and 3rd legions of the Guards Legion Corps would leave the city through the imperial city teleportation formation to Zhenhai City. Then they would be transported by the Yizhou Squadron to Longyan Prefecture.

A battle that no one could predict was about to explode.

At this time, Xunlong Dianxue was still writing letters and scolding Xiong Ba.

Chapter 826 - Sneak Attacking Xunlong City

Chapter 826: Sneak Attacking Xunlong City

3rd month, 7th day, night, the warships carrying the Guards Legion Corps soldiers docked at a port in Longyan Prefecture, smoothly carrying these two cavalry legions to the frontlines.

With the movement speed of the Guards Legion Corps, if things proceeded smoothly, they would only need five days to arrive at the border of Fuyong Prefecture.

Actually, Fuyong Prefecture had their own port, and if they could directly send the troops there, it would have saved a lot of time and trouble. However, Xunlong City might have their navy patrolling the ocean regions, so Ouyang Shuo did not dare to take that risk.

After betraying Shanhai Alliance, Xunlong Dianxue would definitely be especially sensitive to any actions Shanhai City took. As long as the Yizhou Squadron appeared in his ocean region, it would definitely cause misunderstandings.

This risk could not be taken.

…

The frontlines proceeded quickly while Shanhai City ran as per normal.

Although Ouyang Shuo paid a lot of attention to the Minnan Battlefield, he acted normal on the surface, doing what he was supposed to. He even took the time to publish his work on the Quick Daily News to hype up the release of Jiangshan Beauty.

The article caused a massive buzz the moment it was released.

Some people saw the business opportunities within and were tempted.

Of course, there were many who mocked Shanhai City too. They said that Shanhai City had taken two successive failures, yet Qiyue Wuyi was still in the mood to do such carefree things.

Ouyang Shuo naturally just laughed off people.

They could do whatever they want.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also placed a lot of effort into the upgrade quests.

During the day, Jiang Shang brought an evaluation group and started a three day mock evaluation. He either went into the various houses and organizations to check their scrolls or into the cities to investigate closely.

Based on Ouyang Shuo’s instructions, the Shanhai Guards increased their monitoring of the city, especially their control of the city gates and teleportation formations. They had not found any suspicious people for the time being.

The fortune teller required for the 36 industries quests still had not appeared, making Ouyang Shuo extremely anxious. On the other hand, it was the new soldier type quest that actually had a definite breakthrough.

Du Ruhui reported that in a valley in Mengding and Tengyue Prefecture, there were a herd of wild elephants. Animal Husbandry Director Xiahou Ying had personally headed there to handle this matter. If things went well, the Military Affairs Bureau would use this as the base to create an elephant force to complete the mission.

If one followed the real life map, the area should be the region of Xishuangbanna, so it was no wonder that there were elephants there. That region in China was the only place in China that had elephants.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this news, he was delighted.

Ouyang Shuo was not unfamiliar with war elephants. During the Battle of Muye, the Shang Dynasty Army had used war elephant forces, and they dealt a lot of damage on the battlefield when equipped with their heavy armor.

In ancient times, war elephants were seen as a special warfighting force, having the role of tanks in a cold weapons era. A trained war elephant force could break formations and act as the vanguard, and they could break city walls, destroy camps, break siege weapons, and more.

To truly train a war elephant force was not only to complete the mission but also to provide a new soldier type for the territory. If used well in the various War Fighting Legions, they would have a miraculous effect.

…

3rd month, 8th day, Shanhai City.

On this day, Song Jia who had been out for six days finally returned to Shanhai City. Based on the time dilation in the side map, Song Jia had spent two months in the Kunlun map.

As the first to complete a Wuxia sub map, they naturally reaped huge rewards.

According to Song Jia, the core rewards for passing the sub map were: Purple Palace Yuan Ancestor that Liang Xiao had gotten in the pure Yang iron box, which was a legendary martial arts secret manual that was left behind by Lu Dong Bin when he ascended.

Martial arts sect West Kunlun’s core teaching was this Purple Palace Yuan Ancestor, which was extremely compatible with the very famous secret manual Jiuyang True Manual.

The second one was the Guicang Sword Technique created by Gong Yangyu, and it was said to be the most inclusive sword technique that combined all techniques.

Third was the Qingchi Sword used by Gong Yangyu.

This sword was crafted by master swordsmith Ou Longzi and Gong Yangyu was the sword protector.

Apart from these three core items, there were also ten other weapons that were above Dark Gold Rank; there were also ten odd martial arts secret manuals, which were all above Gold Rank with most being King Rank.

The massive rewards had greatly exceeded the 850 thousand that Xie Siyun had spent on the sub map. Not mentioning the other item, just one of the three core items were already worth over 500 thousand gold.

Based on the agreement, Song Jia was allowed to choose one of the core items. She chose the Guicang Sword Technique. After leaving the sub map, it was listed as an Emperor Rank secret manual by Gaia.

Song Jia chose this sword technique because her cultivation method, Nine Ying True Manual, went against the Purple Palace Yuan Ancestor. No matter how sharp the sword was, it could not compare to the one in her hand.

Secondly, she did need a top rank sword technique as the Yuenu Sword Technique was a little backward. The Guicang Sword Technique contained many mysteries and layers and was enough for her to train her entire life in.

Even if she met any other sword techniques in the future, she could merge them into the Guicang Sword Technique.

Thirdly, as the sect leader of Dongli Sword Sect, Song Jia could make the Guicang Sword Technique the sect technique to increase the number of techniques they had to teach. This sword technique could give birth to 64 different sword techniques. When teaching disciples, one could choose different ones based on rank, skill, and the like.

Along with the release of the information piece, the underworld would rise. Dongli Sword Sect obtaining this sword technique would definitely help raise the strength of the sect.

Apart from that, Xie Siyun also gave Song Jia a small gift; it was a small book known as Heaven’s Ten Divinations.

This book seemed ordinary being placed next to the Purple Palace Yuan Ancestor but it was also a treasure.

These ten divinations were carved onto a stone pillar in the Tianji Palace, and included the ten divination problems that an ancestor had written down. It was left behind by a divination expert for descendants to solve.

When the problems were carved to the eighth divination, no one in a hundred years could solve it until the birth of Hua Yuanmao. Hua Yuanmao was a genius. After solving the eighth, he gave out two more problems. After giving the ninth one, he solved it himself. At this time, his skill could be considered the best in history, but he was not satisfied and wanted to search for improvements.

Little Liang Xiao wanted to save his mother that was taken away by Xiao Qian, so he made a bet with the owner of Tianji Palace to solve the ten problems.

Who knew that the last problem had no answer, and Liang Xiao used five years and only solved nine problems.

The last problem was known as the essence outside of all essences.

It was not until 400 years later when a genius appeared in France who used western mathematics and arithmetic as a foundation to finally solve the problem.

“We have no use for this booklet, so you can have it!” These were the words of Xie Siyun.

After returning to Shanhai City, Song Jia passed the booklet to Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo accepted it, placing it into his storage bag. Who knows when special items like this could be used? Naturally, he did not mind keeping it.

…

The few days after that, the wilderness was extremely calm and there was no big news.

In the meantime, Ouyang Shuo either focused on the Capital City upgrade quests or sent letters to the Minnan Province Lords to make the final confirmations in case of any accidents.

The result of Jiang Shang’s evaluation was exceptionally ideal. As long as the Imperial Court officials did not find fault with them, it would not be too hard to complete the quest.

This was also normal. After all, if Shanhai City with their immense foundations could not reach the standards, Ouyang Shuo could not imagine which Lord could.

Even if they were relying solely on Xinan University and the Army Military Academy, they would be a step in front of everyone else.

The Land of Philosophers, Land of Artisans, Home of Spirit Beasts, and other such titles were all useful.

Ouyang Shuo was not busy, but the Shanhai Guards and Honglu Temple had it far worse.

Not only did they need to work with the allies to arrange a safe travelling path, but they also needed to provide provisions without leaving a trace.

Apart from that, they also had to create rumors in Fuyong Prefecture of raiders and bandits sowing chaos.

Each matter concerned the success and failure of the battle.

Shen Buhai and Zhang Yi were afraid that something bad might occur and could not fall asleep at night.

Luckily, hard work pays off. On the 12th day, the Guards Legion Corps smoothly reached the border. At the same time, Jia Xu’s plan had started and rumors started to fly within the Fuyong Prefecture border.

Huo Qubing did not let his troops rest up and instead made them charge to Xunlong City. However, he was more careful this time. Many times, the army had to split into five to six groups to prevent them from being exposed.

Even if one group was found, they would be treated as bandits.

3rd month, 13th day, night, the Guards Legion Corps smoothly reached the outskirts of Xunlong City. The six groups of troops had gathered in a forest 20 miles from the city and camped there to hide their tracks.

After entering Fuyong Prefecture, their provisions were settled by military grain pills. In just a day, they used up 300 thousand pills that cost a large sum of money.

Once the sun rose, the army would charge right at the city.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he found it hard to fall asleep.

What kind of effects would Shanhai City’s shocking blow cause to China and even to the entire world?

Ouyang Shuo currently did not know.

Chapter 827 - Lu Bu Fights Qinqiong

Chapter 827: Lu Bu Fights Qinqiong

3rd month, 14th day, Xunlong City.

The sky had just turned bright. Under the leadership of the military intelligence spies, Huo Qubing led 140 thousand Guards Legion Corps to sneakily proceed toward the Xunlong Legion’s camp.

The sentries along the way were removed by Huo Qubing’s direct guards one by one, and no sounds were made. The patrolling soldiers only spotted them when they were less than five miles away from the camp, but it was already too late.

“Kill!”

Huo Qubing tightened his grip on the back of the horse and ordered the entire army to charge. At the same time, Huo Qubing activated his specialty to give the army a massive buff.

“Kill!”

The moment the order was given, the army immediately quickened their speed, and the war horses neighed.

At this time, Lu Bu and Ma Chao, these two legendary generals, each led a group and personally charged at the front. Like Huo Qubing, they also activated their specialties.

Based on the settings of Gaia on general specialties, the effects would only work on the troops the general was leading and not the entire army.

Hence, Huo Qubing could give the two forces a buff while Lu Bu and Ma Chao could only give their own legions the buff. Meanwhile, Cao Cun, Ma Teng, and the like could only use their buffs on their own divisions.

It stacked down like that.

The Guards Legion Corps with the two buffs were like arrows released from the bowstring, charging at the army camp at an unstoppable pace.

The guards wanted to close the gates. However, before they could act, a round of arrow rain covered them and no one survived.

The guards in the wooden walls wanted to shoot back but the Guards Legion Corps vanguard forces were already at the foot of the camp and were charging into it.

Any enemy who stood in their path was killed.

After entering the camp, Lu Bu had orders to charge right at the main tent. As long as he took down Qinqiong, this battle would end.

…

In the current main tent, it was total chaos.

Early in the morning, before the soldiers of the Xunlong Legion had even woken up, they were awakened by killing shouts and broke into a cold sweat.

Qinqiong was up and was washing up when the guards suddenly came to report.

“General, not good, we have been sneak attacked!”

“Sneak attack?” When Qinqiong received the report, he did not panic and asked, “Who are they, to actually be so bold?” Qinqiong still thought that it was the bandits or raiders who had been sowing chaos recently.

Within the Fuyong Prefecture, there was no one who could shake the Xunlong Legion.

The guard’s face was ashen white, “General, it’s the Guards Legion Corps of Shanhai City.” Just saying out this name caused the guard to feel an immense pressure.

As Qinqiong’s Personal Guard, they had frequently followed him out and witnessed the strength of Shanhai City’s Guards Legion Corps. How would they expect that there would be a day where they fought them?

Just thinking about it made one’s hands tremble.

“What?” Qinqiong did not believe it either, “How can it be? Did you make a mistake?”

Qinqiong did not know about Xunlong Dianxue betraying Shanhai Alliance. Like the poor guard, no matter how much imagination he had, he could not think that the Guards Legion Corps of Shanhai City would come here.

‘Did the Nanjiang Governor-General want to kill Xunlong City just because of a few words of complaints from the Lord?’ Qinqiong could only make such a guess. In his heart, he felt this was unfair toward his Lord.

The guard hesitated, “General, what should we do now?”

Qinqiong’s face sunk, and he asked, “Have you sent a pigeon letter to the Lord?”

The guard replied, “Yes, we alerted him right away.”

Qinqiong nodded, and his expression suddenly turned determined, “Since Shanhai City has forgotten about brotherhood, we can only fight them to the death.”

As he said that, he raised his halberd and walked out of the tent. Then he mounted his war horse and started to gather the troops. The guard quietly followed behind as they had no other choice now.

Whilst Qinqiong was gathering his troops, hurried horse steps sounded out from ahead.

Focusing on the source of the sound, one could see a tall and strong general leading his troops over. He was wearing a golden armor and had the Fangtian Halberd in his hand. Under him was a handsome white warhorse; the person was Lu Bu.

“Who are you?” Qinqiong did not recognize Lu Bu.

Lu Bu smiled as he rode on the red hare horse, “You are Qinqiong? Listen up, I am Lu Bu.”

When Qinqiong heard these words, his eyes froze.

Lu Bu’s name was famous even during the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

“Why did you attack us?” Qinqiong asked.

Lu Bu said, “Your Lord betrayed Shanhai City and secretly formed an alliance with Yanhuang Alliance. Such traitorous behavior, how can we tolerate it?”

“Stop spouting lies!” Qinqiong did not believe it.

Lu Bu smiled, “You know my Monarch’s personality. Without actual evidence, why would he send troops to attack you?”

“Then bring the evidence!”

Qinqiong was feeling somewhat restless, and he had noticed that the confidence of the nearby soldiers had started to waver after they heard Lu Bu’s words. The ancient people hated betrayals.

If their Lord truly committed such an act, the morale of the Xunlong Legion would collapse.

Lu Bu smiled, “What evidence do you want? Follow me to question your Lord. Won’t that be the best?”

The meaning behind his words was he wanted Qinqiong to surrender.

Qinqiong was famous for being well-mannered and hard to anger. However, upon hearing Lu Bu’s words, along with the uneasiness he felt in his heart, he lost his temper, “So there is no goodwill today?”

Lu Bu shook his head, “As long as all of you put down your weapons, all will be well.”

“Preposterous!” Qinqiong fumed, and he did not care about the truth anymore.

Both of them were generals, so it was best to use their fists to do the talking.

No matter if one had reason or not, if one won, that meant they were in the right; if one lost, no matter if their reason was right or not, they could not explain it.

Lu Bu laughed, “I had the same intentions!” He was a martial arts maniac. Helplessly, the Three Kingdoms Era did not have such opponents, so he had never enjoyed himself to the fullest.

In the wilderness, in Shanhai City, Lu Bu was like a fish in water.

In the Guards Legion Corps, he had Ma Chao, and the other legion corps also had many generals like Er’Lai, Xu Chu, and Shi Wanshui.

This made Lu Bu delighted. Usually, he would find Ma Chao to spar, and when he had nothing to do, he would run out to find Er’Lai to fight. Er’Lai was also a martial arts maniac, so the two of them often sparred.

Seeing Qinqiong today, Lu Bu felt his hands grow itchy.

Lu Bu was not disobeying military orders just to fight. He knew that if he did not suppress Qinqiong, Qinqiong would not surrender.

Against strong generals, one had to use such methods.

Huo Qubing passed this mission to Lu Bu with such considerations in mind.

As they spoke, both sides had already gotten into position and were going to charge at one another.

The Xunlong Legion soldiers were all unsettled. Seeing their General step out, they all stop fighting and did not want to become sacrifices. When this one-on-one battle ended, they would decide.

Just like that, the battle near the main camp had slowly quietened down.

The army moved aside to create an open area of space for the two to face off.

The two fierce generals used their long halberds and immediately engaged. During their first couple of engagements, the two did not go all out and just probed one another.

Just this probe made Qinqiong smile bitterly.

Lu Bu’s strength was as rumored. Not mentioning anything else, just his strength alone was enough to destroy 90% of generals. During the Three Kingdoms Era, Lu Bu did not even need to do anything special. In fact, with a few simple strokes, he could force the enemy into a difficult situation.

This was only because of the difference in strength.

A strike from him might look simple, but it actually hid terrifying amounts of strength.

Hence, even if one had any special moves or strokes, they naturally could not use it.

As a result, for one to force Lu Bu to use his skills, one had to have as much strength as him, like Ma Chao and Er’Lai.

Even if one was a little weaker, one could also use skills to make up for the gap.

Although Qinqiong looked refined and gentle, his strength was not weak. However, compared to Lu Bu, he was a grade weaker.

When competing, he was obviously on the back foot.

Luckily, Qinqiong was proficient with the halberd and did not lose too quickly.

When Lu Bu saw that, his battle intent raged.

Normal people often had a misconception of Lu Bu, saying that he only used his strength to suppress people. In truth, he was not just strong, and he also had great skills. If not, he would not have obtained his title.

Be it the halberd, the bow, the spear, or the machete, he was good at all of them.

Especially the halberd.

When Lu Bu saw the exquisite skills of Qinqiong, he was immediately interested. He did not rush to defeat Qinqiong but step by step forced out Qinqiong halberd techniques to enjoy himself.

Hence, the battle was obviously extremely exciting.

The soldiers who were not experts all felt their blood boil as they cheered. Who knows when he arrived, but Ma Chao could not help but cheer too when she saw the greatness of Qinqiong’s skills.

Their battle lasted for forty to fifty rounds.

Even though Lu Bu was giving Qinqiong a chance, Qinqiong did not have anything new to show anymore and used the same techniques over three times. When Lu Bu saw that, he did not want to drag the fight on, so he used a little bit of his strength.

This time, Qinqiong was forced on the back foot once more.

In less than 10 rounds, Qinqiong had no choice but to admit defeat, his face ashen white.

Lu Bu had no intentions to humiliate him. Lu Bu put away his Fangtian Halberd and said, “Your halberd technique is amazing; I’ve learnt a lot. Whether or not what I said is the truth, when I take down Xunlong City, you will find out. Before this, I can only ask for you and your troops to stay in the barracks.”

Qinqiong looked dejected. In his heart, he believed most of it.

Chapter 828 - Relinquish Position

Chapter 828: Relinquish Position

Qinqiong held his halberd. He sat on horseback as he looked around. At an unknown time, the entire barracks had fallen silent. The Xunlong Legion was surrounded by the Guards Legion Corps and had no chances of winning.

The crucial part was that the news of the Lord betraying Shanhai City had spread among the camp. The army was no longer mood in the fight. Moreover, after being sneak attacked by the Guards Legion Corps, they had no morale left.

Even if Qinqiong wanted them to fight, there would not be many of them who would want to risk their lives.

When Qinqiong saw this situation, he sighed. He could feel that no matter if the Lord betrayed them or not, Xunlong City was going to be wiped out from the wilderness.

As someone who had witnessed the rise of Xunlong City step by step, Qinqiong felt rather complicated at the moment.

At this very moment, Huo Qubing arrived in the tent. Along the way, be it the Guards Legion Corps soldiers or the Xunlong Legion soldiers, they all made way.

This was the respect toward a God General that came from deep within their hearts.

When Lu Bu and the others saw that, they all dismounted. Even Qinqiong unknowingly got off his horse and looked at Huo Qubing with a complicated expression.

The fame of the Biaoqi General was still shining bright today.

Huo Qubing was still incredibly handsome, flipping off his horse and walking to Qinqiong, “As general has contributed to Shanhai City before, the Monarch will not force you to make your decision right away. When we take down Xunlong City and the truth is revealed, you will have your answer.”

“….”

Qinqiong was surprised as he did not think that Shanhai Duke would remember that time a few years ago when he went over to teach the Shanhai City cavalry halberd skills.

Huo Qubing continued, “Before this, I need to ask all of you to rest in the barracks.” Huo Qubing said it in such a way to give them all face.

Qinqiong had nothing else to say, so he nodded as he cupped his fists, “I’m the defeated general, so I’ll do whatever you want.”

Huo Qubing smiled.

Along with Qinqiong admitting defeat, the entire Xunlong Legion was taken down.

Huo Qubing arranged Lu Bu’s legion to guard the barracks and remove their armor. As time was of the essence, Huo Qubing did not waste any more time, and he brought Ma Chao’s legion over to charge at Xunlong City.

If they did not take down Xunlong City, there would be many uncertain variables left.

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

Xunlong City, City Lord’s Manor.

10 minutes after the Guards Legion Corps killed their way into the Xunlong Legion camp, a pigeon flew over and brought with it emergency intel.

There was only one sentence: Shanhai City Guards Legion Corps launched a sneak attack against us, emergency!

Xunlong Dianxue read the letter, and his face turned ashen white. He muttered, “It was revealed so quickly? No, I have to inform Xiong Ba and the others.”

The sudden change caused Xunlong Dianxue’s heart to panic. The brush in his hand trembled, and he left drips of ink on the table.

After rewriting it twice, he finally managed to finish writing the letter.

Just as Xunlong Dianxue was about to ask someone to send the letter, the Personal Guard outside ran in, “Lord, the city is in chaos and many places are on fire.”

‘Bada!’

Xunlong Dianxue’s letter fell to the ground; it was obvious that the fire was planned by Shanhai City.

“This was a planned attack.”

Seeing that it was an emergency, Xunlong Dianxue did not think too much and simply said to the Personal Guard, “Send this letter out. Order the City Protection Division to work with the bailiffs to maintain order in the city. Kill whoever dares to sow chaos. Order the Guards Division to gather in the manor.”

After pausing, Xunlong Dianxue continued, “Order the Garrison Regiments of the other houses to gather in Xunlong City.”

“Yes my Lord!”

The Personal Guard turned around and left.

Hearing the intermittent noise sounding out from the city, Xunlong Dianxue was like am ant on a hot plate, pacing up and down the reading room. At this moment, he had no idea what to do.

If the Guards Legion Corps truly made their way in, they would not be able to defend.

His only saving grace now was Yanhuang Alliance.

‘Let’s hope these guys can be trusted for once.’ After being played by Xiong Ba once, Xunlong Dianxue’s tolerance toward the Yanhuang Alliance had dropped to the bottom.

Thinking about this, Xunlong Dianxue returned back to his seat and raised his brush. He wanted to contact his allies in Minnan Province to ask them to help him fight against the Shanhai City invasion.

The panicking Xunlong Dianxue had forgotten to wonder about how the Guards Legion Corps had suddenly appeared in Fuyong Prefecture.

…

Just as Xunlong Dianxue was doing everything he could think of to escape his current predicament, many terrifying assassinations occurred within the city.

First, the relay was attacked. Although the City Protection Division managed to rush over in time, the situation was extremely chaotic, and the spies of the powers in the wilderness could not pass the message out.

The Personal Guard in charge of passing the letter was sniped by a strong crossbow when he was at the gates of the manor. When the nearby guards saw that, they arranged other members to send the letter.

The new person was shot down once more the moment he walked out.

In less than ten minutes, four people had died on the way to sending the letter.

“….”

The Personal Guards did not dare to do anything and both sides stood at a standstill like that. Only when the Guards Division rushed over was this situation relieved.

This delay lasted for over half an hour.

When the messenger finally rushed to the relay and sent the letter after the chaos in front of the relay was suppressed, and an hour had passed.

During this time, Huo Qubing had already taken down the Xunlong Legion and was charging toward Xunlong City.

…

King City, City Lord’s Manor.

After getting the distress letter from Xunlong Dianxue, Xiong Ba immediately summoned Wuqi.

“General, what should we do? Should we send reinforcements or inform the other allies first, gathering the troops and then sending help?” Xiong Ba asked.

Wuqi said, “How long do you think Xunlong City can last for?”

“This….” Xiong Ba was speechless, and his expression contained unspeakable amounts of anger, “Xunlong Dianxue is such a failure; he got exposed in just a few days? He probably has Shanhai City spies beside him.”

It was not good for Wuqi to interrupt him now.

Xiong Ba said, “To think he even said he was defending against Shanhai City and no news would be leaked. What a fool!”

If he knew that this would happen, Xiong Ba would not have tried to make Xunlong Dianxue betray Shanhai City.

Now, they did not manage to achieve anything and were instead bitten by the tiger instead. If Xunlong City fell, King City would be exposed to Shanhai City.

Thinking about this, Xiong Ba was furious.

When Wuqi saw that, he reminded Xiong Ba, “Lord, we need to make a decision quickly.”

Xiong Ba said, “General, you think we should immediately send reinforcements and not wait for the allies?”

Wuqi nodded, “If Lord does not want to lose this barrier then we must immediately dispatch troops. With the skill of Shanhai City, I’m worried that if we go slightly late, we would fail to make it in time.”

Xiong Ba gritted his teeth, “General is right; we cannot dally. You lead two legions over while I’ll contact the allies and gather more troops.”

“That’s good.” Wuqi nodded.

Xiong Ba was a truly decisive person; he cupped his fists and said, “Thank you general!” He took out the soldier talisman and passed it to Wuqi, giving him the power to move troops.

Wuqi picked up the talisman and bowed before he left.

Xiong Ba still felt uneasy in his heart. Shanhai City was suppressed twice by them. He feared that for them to strike out now, it definitely was not so simple.

No matter what, they could not let King City take the hit alone.

Thinking about this, Xiong Ba immediately went back to his table to write a letter to Di Chen and the others to ask them to rush to King City to discuss matters.

…

The series of events that happened next verified his uneasiness.

3rd month, 14th day, noon, before the army led by Wuqi even reached the border, news that Xunlong City was taken down by Shanhai City had spread across the wilderness.

When Xiong Ba heard the news, he broke out in cold sweat and ordered the Wuqi army to remain there for the time being.

In King City, Xiong Ba and Di Chen and the others held an emergency meeting. But before their discussions reached a result, a series of battle reports left their mouths agape.

At basically the same time as Xunlong City was taken down, ten Lords from Longyan Prefecture, Tingzhou Prefecture, and Shaowu Prefecture voluntarily surrendered and allowed Shanhai City to organize them.

One stone causes a thousand waves.

Out of those three prefectures, there were less than 16 Lords, with more than half turning to Shanhai City. Longyan Prefecture was the best, where four out of five of the Lords submitted to Shanhai City.

The remaining Lord was terrified and immediately sent news that he would surrender voluntarily as well.

Hence, Shanhai City took down Longyan Prefecture without even using a single solider.

The Tiger Legion Corps 3rd legion received the orders to enter the prefecture, destroying the stone steeles while receiving the troops.

Huo Qubing, who had already calmed down Fuyong Prefecture, now took charge of Xunlong City. At the same time, he ordered Ma Chao’s legion to enter Shaowu Prefecture and sweep out the remaining territories.

All of a sudden, Minnan Province was turned on its head.

Di Chen and the others were scared speechless by the series of battle reports.

Xiong Ba broke the silence, “What should we do, send reinforcements?” Xiong Ba was hoping the alliance would agree to send troops. After all, he would be in a tough spot the moment Shanhai City took over the entire province.

Di Chen shook his head, “How? More than 70% of the province is in their hands. With their million troops, if we send 200 thousand, they’ll send 300 thousand; if we send 300 thousand, they will send 400 thousand.”

“Minnan Province is a pool of quicksand. If we step into it, it would drag down the entire alliance. If that happens, would the organization still come and assist us?”

Di Chen’s words made Xiong Ba’s face turn ashen white, and he realized, “The worse situation had occurred!”

Chapter 829 - Karma Coming Too Quick Like a Tornado

Di Chen and the others did not stay in King City for long before they returned to their own territories.

The changes in Minnan Province had caught Di Chen and the others off guard. The Yanhuang Alliance was originally having a turn for the good with the help of a Silver Hand, but now they were shaky once more.

Their future was dim.

After seizing Minnan Province, Shanhai City’s land area was the same as the entire Yanhuang Alliance, and they were terrifyingly strong.

Compared to the European states, Shanhai City was three to four of them.

No matter how Silver Hand continued to fund them, Di Chen and the others could not see a way for them to win against Shanhai City on their own. As for making foreign members attack Shanhai City, such a move was impossible at the moment.

Not to mention the long distance, a cross country war would have many the technological difficulties. The academic faction that had not struck out was also a worry for Silver Hand.

This was only the 4th year of Gaia and the academic faction would not allow Silver Hand to break the game ecosystem. If Silver Hand messed around like that, how would they be able to fight future country wars?

Apart from that, Silver Hand needed to consider the reactions of the grassroots Lords. If they helped the Yanhuang Alliance so openly, what would the domestic players think?

Moreover, they might not succeed in attacking Shanhai City while their bases might get attacked.

Hence, within a short time, Silver Hand would not face off against Shanhai City. If they were to fight, it would be against Shanhai City’s overseas bases and not their Chinese territory.

Taking a step back, even if they had overseas allies come over to aid them, what would happen to the Yanhuang Alliance? Not to mention how they would not be able to raise their heads in Silver Hand, but they would also be named as traitors.

Using the country war rules, Shanhai Alliance could use the powers within the country to fight against the invaders. They could force Yanhuang Alliance into a corner and down their own graves.

Even if Silver Hand was able to deal a blow to Shanhai City, both sides would suffer immense losses.

Putting it another way, Silver Hand was unable to threaten Shanhai City in China while Shanhai City was unable to threaten members of Silver Hand outside of China.

The two of them were still in a balance.

Hence, no matter what, be it Silver Hand or Di Chen, they would not want to take that step. The higher ups of Silver Hand were worried that the academic faction might blow this matter up.

If that happened, they would be in big trouble.

Silver Hand had always been on guard against the academic faction. A tiger that was able to hide was a scary tiger. In comparison, Shanhai City was just an anomaly.

At such a time, Di Chen and the others had to be calm and think about how to react to this sudden change.

As for the awkward situation that King City was facing, Di Chen and the others had no power to help.

‘You asked for it!’ Di Chen gloated in his heart. When he successfully made Xunlong Dianxue betray Shanhai City, Xiong Ba was so delighted, and the way he spoke in the alliance also grew more arrogant.

“Now that’s great, karma has arrived.”

…

Di Chen and the others just left casually while Xiong Ba was left raging.

Apart from cursing, he was terrified.

He alone managed to make Xunlong Dianxue betray them, digging away at a cornerstone of Shanhai City. Who knows whether or not Qiyue Wuyi, that mad man, would use this as an excuse to take revenge on King City?

Qiyue Wuyi was such a person.

If that happened, Jiangnan Province would never see peace.

All of a sudden, a tremendous pressure pressed down onto Xiong Ba, making it hard for him to breathe.

Thinking about this, Xiong Ba greatly regretted his decision.

“I was in over my head, why did I go provoke that old fox?”

To make matters worse, the cornerstone was not only dug up, but Qiyue Wuyi’s strength grew instead, taking down an entire province.

“What happened!”

Xiong Ba grew angrier the more he thought about it, and he also started to suspect whether or not Qiyue Wuyi noticed the displeasure of Xunlong Dianxue. He purposely used his hand to remove this hidden problem.

Pushing the blame onto others was the act of a through leader.

Xiong Ba’s face grew even darker. However, scolding was just scolding, and there were things that he had to do.

Helplessly, Xiong Ba ordered Wuqi to lead troops to form defenses at the border to get ready for an attack from Shanhai City. He also sent a letter to Zhan Lang to discuss a closer alliance between the two.

Only Zhan Lang that was similarly in the south could help King City get out of this mess. Luckily, their relationship was good all along, and they had the basis for a closer cooperation.

After writing the letter, Xiong Ba’s expression was not relaxed as depending on others did not solve the root of the problem.

He had to strengthen himself.

Thinking about that, Xiong Ba got up and went to the window, looking out at the northwest.

There was a chaotic Xiangnan Province.

As long as he took it down, King City could strengthen themselves while also obtaining a strategic way out. He would not be under the threat of Shanhai City at every moment.

However, Xiangnan Province was scattered with aristocratic families and taking it down was not an easy matter.

Xiong Ba had learned his lesson and thought even further. If Shanhai City attacked Jiangnan Province when they were attacking Xiangnan Province, what would happen?

Just thinking about it made him feel a chill in his heart.

“It’s difficult!” Xiong Ba let out a long sigh, and he muttered, “Why is there a Qiyue Wuyi in Nanjiang when there is already me?”

Xiong Ba’s ambitions could not come to fruition and he was facing problems. Currently, his heart was filled with many thoughts.

…

3rd month, 19th day, Minnan Province.

In just four days, the 3rd Tiger Legion led by Fan Lihua had cleared out the hidden threats in Longyan Prefecture and was heading toward Tingzhou Prefecture with more than one hundred thousand troops.

A day ago, the Tiger Leopard Cavalry led by Ma Chao had entered Shaowu Prefecture.

The Battle of Minnan had officially come to an end.

The unexpected silence of the Yanhuang Alliance made the few Lords that were still stubbornly resisting feel exceedingly dejected. If they fought on, they would only get wiped out.

The Lords were not fools, so all of them surrendered to reduce their losses to a minimal.

Hence, the Minnan battlefield situation was settled.

All that remained was to accept the territories, organize the troops, and plan for the entire province. At the same time, they needed to clear out all unstable elements to wait for the Nanjiang Governor-General House to take over.

The 16 Lords, under the protection of their Personal Guards, brought their families and their assets and headed for Shanhai City. With that, the last obstacle to Shanhai City taking over the four prefectures was cleared out.

The moment the news went public, the entire wilderness was shocked. No one expected Shanhai City to make such a move.

As time went on, more news was revealed to the public.

Xunlong Dianxue had betrayed Shanhai City and allied with Yanhuang Alliance. However, Shanhai City found out and dealt them a fatal blow.

No one would sympathize with Xunlong Dianxue.

Yanhuang Alliance failing in their acts caused many people to mock them.

On the other hand, the hidden chess pieces that Shanhai City had planted in Minnan Province shocked the people. The matter of 10 Lords surrendering at the same time definitely was not achieved in a day.

If it were not for this war, who would have known that Minnan Province had belonged to Shanhai City all along? If one thought to Jiangnan Province, one would feel a chill run down their spine.

There were rumors that the moment Xunlong City was destroyed, Black Lion City Lord Gong Chengshi went to Shanhai City to meet Qiyue Wuyi.

As for what the two discussed, no outsider knew.

What kind of role would the future Jiangnan Province play in the entire wilderness?

The day Gong Chengshi returned to his territory, he announced some stunning news: Poyang Lake in Jiangnan Province would be opened to the Nanjiang Squadron, and the troops would be allowed to train there.

Some people even linked all the things that happened since the Chinese New Year and came to a terrifying conclusion: Shanhai City and Yanhuang Alliance had three battles in recent times.

Yanhuang Alliance was leading two to one and seemed to hold an advantage.

However, it was obvious that Yanhuang Alliance attacked the outer ring but what they lost was their core.

They seemed like they held the advantage, but they were suffered greatly from this strike by Shanhai City.

Along with Xunlong Dianxue reincarnating in Quanzhou, he released the news about how Yanhuang Alliance had betrayed him, slapping them in the face.

The tragic outcome of Xunlong Dianxue made clear one fact: anyone who worked with Yanhuang Alliance would end up being abandoned.

It was that way from the start, from the Lords in Lianzhou Basin, Lingnan City-State, Yunnan City-State, and then Xunlong City.

This fact caused an uproar among the guilds that had just changed camps.

The guild leaders betrayed Shanhai City and went to join the notorious Yanhuang Alliance. Why did they do that? Was there some sort of unspeakable deal?

The normal members were emotional, and even the higher ups did not understand.

All of a sudden, the guilds shook.

At this very moment, a small piece of news was revealed; it said that these guild leaders were the lackeys of the aristocratic families. In reality, they worked for the aristocratic families and obtained their support. Naturally, they would not care about the normal members.

Jun Yilao’s identity as the illegitimate son of an aristocratic family was also revealed.

The moment the news went out, the players raged and scolded their own guild leaders.

“Traitor!”

Two of the mid-sized guilds removed their guild leaders on the spot.

Jianqi Leiyin and the rest were filled with regret, ‘Karma came a little too quickly.’

Chapter 830 - Guild Share Revolution

Chapter 830: Guild Share Revolution

This chapter is updated by NovelFull.Com

Conflicts would often give rise to change.

This whole trust issue, be it those who change guild leaders or leave the guild, it would stop soon. For the guild to develop till today, the system was already mature, and it was difficult for internal conflicts to cause that much damage.

Especially to the three huge guilds like Tingyu Floor; after all, they had the satellite cities in their hands, so all the more people would not leave.

However, people not leaving did not mean that they were happy.

How to monitor and keep in check the guild leader so as to ensure all the interests of the players were not affected or betrayed had become the popular topic.

Even the inner circles of the guilds that were not directly affected were discussing similar topics.

It was best to be safe rather than sorry.

China had never lacked smart people.

In less than two days, an effective guild structure was suggested by some people.

The one who used it was not the mid and large scale guilds but one of the giants – Tingyu Floor. Jianqi Leiyin was a strong woman, and this judgement error was one that she took the blame for.

Although there were few who would leave them due to their possession of the Satellite City, Jianqi Leiyin was sure that to keep their hearts and unite them by her side on Planet Hope, she needed to do something.

The moment Shanhai City attacked Xunlong City, Jianqi Leiyin felt something. The moment the uproar started, she and the guild higher ups discussed ways to win back the trust of the members.

Jianqi Leiyin had worked with Shanhai City for some time, and she had learned some of the ideals of Ouyang Shuo. After pondering for a full day, she finally thought of a guild structure that would affect the entire guild circle.

It sounded simple, but it was to start a guild share revolution.

Guilds in game were the same as enterprises in real life. The guild leader and the elders were the founders.

Similar to enterprises in real life, at the start of the guild development, the guild members would have high trust in the founders and their team and grant them a lot of power.

Maybe at this stage, the players had not realized how tight the relationship between the decisions the guild leaders made and their own interests were. They joined the guild to find someone to back them up, someone to rely on.

Since that was the case, they naturally had to follow them unconditionally. Being affected by normal game thinking and under the many rules and guild laws, normal members had no room to act.

It was even to the point where normal members would not have any relationship with the guild leaders. The ones that were around the guild leader were the higher powers and the guild elites.

Hence, guild decisions were basically decided by the core level, which resulted in the guild leader making all the decisions.

At such a stage, normal members did not feel that anything was wrong with this situation.

At that moment, guilds and their members relied on one another, so the two did not have many conflicts of interest as the guild did not have any profits yet.

At the 4th year, the guilds have tided past their tough times, especially with the Satellite City being released, and the huge guilds had started to profit.

The relationship started to slowly change, and the normal members were not so calm anymore. They started to stare at the profits and hope to earn more.

Since there was a demand for interests and benefits, normal members would not let the higher ups decide everything. Hence, the primitive decision system needed a modern enterprise management method.

If not, it would be hard to make the guild grow bigger.

In reality, the most common way would be to attract new investors or list your company on the market. And the basic requirement for listing would be to have a modern enterprise management and financial system.

In reality, there were experts that focused on evaluating such organizations.

People who failed would not even manage to list their company on the market.

Guilds obviously did not need to be listed, but this share revolution was needed to ensure that all interests were accounted for.

If it succeeded, members would all hold shares and feel a sense of identity in the guild, putting their own fates closely together with that of the guild.

If a person causes the guild to be affected, normal members would not let them off. Similarly, if an outside power could affect the guild’s interests, the normal members would go all out to fight.

With that, the guild unity and combat strength would reach a whole new level.

All in all, there were more pros than cons.

Hence, even without this whole trust issue, the guild share revolution would still have taken place. After all, Earth Online was too special, and it was not only entertainment; it affected real life.

The group holding shares only dealt with the guild interest problem but did not solve the part about monitoring of the guild leader.

Hence, Tingyu Floor also planned to establish a Board of Directors and have a Chairman to hold board meetings to monitor guild workings and ensure that everything runs smoothly.

The Board of Directors would be composed of both commoners and higher ups of the guilds.

The guild leader would be the Chairman Board of Director; the Board would restrict and monitor them, and important decisions would be made through a vote by major shareholders.

Hence, the role of the guild leader would change from simply the leader to a professional manager.

Jianqi Leiyin was extremely smart and had an enterprising spirit that even men did not have. Such a revolution would be a massive hit to her personal interests.

For her to give up a portion of her profits for the long term progress of the guild was truly noble.

Hence, the moment this plan was tossed out, the problems inside the guild quietened down and her prestige went up instead.

“A beautiful reversal!”

Bai Xiaosheng commented on Tingyu Floor’s plan in the Quick Daily News.

…

With Tingyu Floor at the lead, the other guilds that were a part of this trust crisis either volunteered or were forced to copy Tingyu Floor.

In this process, many higher ups that obtained their power through their relationships with the guild leader were mercilessly excluded from the Board of Directors.

On the contrary, some famous grassroots players were recommended and became directors, becoming higher ups in the guild and fighting for the interests of the common people.

Some guild leaders that had previously avoided catastrophe were even dragged down from their spot by the shareholders and kicked out of the door.

The other two guilds that betrayed Shanhai Alliance were not having it easy either.

Jun Yilao’s identity was revealed, and he was facing the worst crisis of all. He had to openly promise he had nothing to do with his family before being able to barely keep his position.

The Jun Family’s attempts bore no fruit in the end.

Jun Yilao’s past was revealed to the wilderness, and he faced the humiliation and mocking of many. The cracks between his family and him became irreparable.

“Scram! Without you, would this have happened to me?”

Jun Yilao was so furious that he chased his family out of Satellite City; he even chased out his father. The two of them broke off like how father and son quarreled in dramas.

After all that, Jun Yilao was unable to make all the decisions in Streamer, the guild he built from scratch. In the near future, he had to compromise.

Compared to Jun Yilao, Priest Qingniu was a little better off. After all, many of the core members of Laojun Temple were friends with him.

However, in the future period of time, it was unavoidable that he would have to keep his tail between his legs.

Similar situations were going to happen across the wilderness.

Without a doubt, this was the deepest shuffling within guilds since the start.

After this shuffle, it was going to be great news to the overall strength of guilds in China.

No one would have expected this to happen beforehand.

It was not just the guilds who were threatened by the trust crisis that faced shouts for a share revolution as even other guilds faced similar shouts.

The guild system change was much needed.

The first to respond to these shouts was the Snow-War Rose Mercenary Guild. Apart from following Tingyu Floor’s plan, they came up with something new.

The directors all agreed for Xie Siyun to take the role of Chairwoman to invite Ouyang Shuo to the Board as an Independent Director.

The cost of investment would be the crossbows and arcuballistas he sent over that night.

On the 2nd month, 26th day, without those weapons, they would have fallen to the schemes of Silver Hand.

Hence, the members of Snow-War Rose felt truly grateful toward Shanhai City. Furthermore, the two had been working closely with one another, so inviting Ouyang Shuo was natural.

With that, the two sides were connected and their ally relationships became much more secure.

Closely behind, Thread and Fallen Moon both completed their guild share revolution.

Similarly, Ouyang Shuo also became an Independent Director of Thread. In Fallen Moon Guild, Ouyang Shuo became an exceedingly important director, only second to Sun Xiaoyue.

What Ouyang Shuo did not expect was for the Blood Evil Mercenary Group to invite him as an Independent Director.

None of the members of the group opposed Blood Romance’s decision.

One had to say that this was an extremely special guild.

Chapter 831 - Small Tricks by the Evaluators

Chapter 831: Small Tricks by the Evaluators

Luoyang Imperial City, Satellite City.

The headquarters of Tingyu Floor was set in the city Lord’s Manor of the Satellite City and looked over the entire city. In the west courtyard of the manor, Jianqi Leiyin stood beside the window as she looked out at the distant skies absentmindedly.

Behind her was a young woman dressed in swordsman attire. She looked really well trained. She was the deputy guild leader of Tingyu Floor – Stranded Tears.

Looking at the expression of the guild leader, Stranded Tears said, “Leader, even Blood Evil Mercenary Guild invited Ouyang Shuo to be their Independent Director. Can we do the same to repair the relationship?”

Jianqi Leiyin did not turn back, “A broken mirror will have cracks no matter how you try to repair it. Since we already chose to betray them, let’s not return.”

“….” Stranded Tears remained silent.

World matters were like that; there was no medicine for regret, and there was no way to reverse decisions.

Once one took the step out, it would be too late.

Within the reading room, Jianqi Leiyin let out a long sigh. ************ Returning to a week ago, Shanhai City.

After the Guards Legion Corps attacked Xunlong City, Ouyang Shuo placed most of his attention on the Capital City upgrade quest. As for the matters of the Battle of Minnan, he left it all to the Military Affairs Bureau and Huo Qubing.

Ouyang Shuo did not rush the choice of governor and settled the military reorganization plan. Minnan Province would temporarily be under military rule until Shanhai City became a Capital City.

Ouyang Shuo did not pay attention to Minnan as there was another matter that needed his attention.

It was none other than the arrival of the evaluators from the Dali Imperial Court. … On the morning of the 14th day, a merchant ship entered Lianzhou Basin from Friendship River. Along the way, it did not stop at the port in Xila Lake but headed directly for the central port in Shanhai City.

After docking, the men carried down boxes of tea leaves, they were all high quality Pu’er Tea.

Shanhai City’s central port was bustling with people; there was always merchant ships docked and many coolies of second hand merchants would crowd around. People who were not familiar would be conned by these second hand sellers and directly sell off their products.

Once these sellers purchased the items, as long as they found the right buyer, they could earn a massive sum in the middle.

After learning that these merchants actually brought Pu’er Tea, the second hand merchants were on drugs, jumping up and down. However, since the tea leaves were really popular overseas and were easy to transport, western merchants loved them.

After a change of hands, the second hand sellers could earn 20% profit.

Weirdly, these merchants sold all their tea leaves at the port.

After selling the tea leaves, they started to stroll around the city empty handed. Strolling and buying any items that interested them, they truly looked like a new merchant team.

Unfortunately, their actions at the port had already attracted the attention of the Shanhai City agents.

Their superiors had given strict orders to not let off anyone who appeared suspicious.

The spies tailed these ‘merchants’ and as expected, they found that something was up. The one leading this group was a middle aged man who was a merchant. Weirdly, while they were strolling, four of the men broke away from the group and blended into the ocean of people.

This time, the Shanhai Guard spies who were in charge of monitoring were excited. They felt like they had captured a big fish, and they arranged men to start monitoring those who had left the group whilst reporting back to the headquarters.

After a short while, the news reached Ouyang Shuo’s ears.

When he received the news, he got the Shanhai Guards to continue monitoring and not alert them. At the same time, he instructed them to not relax on the supervision of others lest they were trying to misdirect them.

This supervision basically locked onto the merchant squad.

There was nothing up with the main force – the key was the four men that left. The four of them seemed to be working together, strolling around, examining the construction and placement of the city and jotting down notes.

Some entered shops and casually talked to the workers inside, some entered the houses of civilians, and the last fellow changed into a scholar and entered Xinan University.

They all felt that they were acting covertly but little did they know that all their actions were observed by the eyes of the Shanhai City spies.

The mock evaluation led by Jiang Shang had no issues and could even be called good. Some small problems were dealt with during these few days.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to see what kind of problems they could create.

An afternoon passed quickly.

When night arrived, the merchant group found an inn to rest. The travel permit they used was given by Dali. Based on the rules of Shanhai City, visitors and merchants must have a permit. Otherwise, they could not spend the night here.

The four men quietly rejoined the group at night. They all had rather depressed expressions as if they had not caught any mistakes of Shanhai City in the day.

Another day passed and everything went normally.

Ouyang Shuo sat in the reading room. As long as these people did not take the initiative to reveal themselves, Ouyang Shuo would not either. He wanted to see what tricks these people would play.

The chance arrived during the morning of the 16th.

That morning, the merchant group entered a clock shop opened by a westerner. They looked like they were about to purchase some clocks and watches, nothing seemed strange.

However, not long after, these people started to act unreasonable and told the workers to break apart the clock. They wanted to see the internal structure before they would buy it.

How would the workers comply with such a rude demand?

This time, they were furious. They started smashing items in the shop.

The workers tried to stop them but were beaten up.

One worker was pushed down, and his head was smashed onto a clock, causing him to immediately bleed.

The commotion at the front of the shop alerted the manager at the back.

The manager was an English merchant. The situation left him furious, and he instructed one of his workers to call the officials. In less than 10 minutes, the Shanhai City bailiffs arrived at the scene and locked all of them up for interrogation.

When the Shanhai Guard spy monitoring the situation saw these events, he was anxious and immediately reported it.

When Ouyang Shuo got the news, he frowned.

Based on the territory law system, sowing trouble and injuring someone meant that the person in question would at least be locked up for three months. However, if they locked up these people like that, what would happen to the evaluation?

However, this matter was already in the lands of the Procurator Division and Ouyang Shuo could not interfere. He only instructed Wei Yang to pay attention to the case.

On the morning of the 17th, after the investigation into the case was clear, Ouyang Shuo summoned Wei Yang to ask for his opinion.

Based on the results of the investigation, the merchants were sentenced to three months in jail while the ones that participated in breaking the clocks were sentenced to four months.

As for the man that injured the shop worker, he was sentenced to six months.

Apart from that, the merchant had to pay for all economic losses and medical fees of the clock shop.

The entire process was fair, just, and open.

Originally, it was nothing. After all, the evaluators were the four secretive men. Even if the merchants were sentenced to jail time, it would not affect the mission.

However, the difficult part was that, who knows whether it was a coincidence or on purpose, but when they entered the clock shop, the one in charge of evaluating shops also entered and even participated in the smashing of items.

“Preposterous!”

“Wei Yang, what should we do?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Wei Yang knew what was going on, but his attitude was resolute, “Monarch, no matter what, as long as they broke our laws they have to be punished.”

Ouyang Shuo was placed in a tough spot, “Then what about the quest, do we really have to wait for four months?”

“We have no choice.”

“….” Ouyang Shuo was speechless.

A lot could happen in four months.

“Can we give that person a chance?”

Ouyang Shu tried asking as he was desperate to upgrade Shanhai City to a Capital City. This did not only affect their establishment of a country but also pertained to Ouyang Shuo’s considerations regarding the Satellite City.

If he let things drag on for too long, Ouyang Shuo was worried that things might change with Yimeng Pavilion and Shadow Alliance. Even Qingfeng Pavilion might not be able to hold on if they lose the Satellite City.

Wei Yang said, “Monarch, if we let him off, what would happen to our law system? Where’s the fairness? Without it, the law system would fail the evaluation.”

Ouyang Shuo was stunned for a moment. He had let his emotions get to his head, “You’re saying that this could be a trap? They were trying to see if we let him off to pass the quest?”

Wei Yang nodded, “It is highly possible. I went to understand the details, and they were just fooling around for no reason. The timing was too coincidental.”

Hearing Wei Yang say such words, Ouyang Shuo decided to trust him. The evaluators thought that they were sneaky but everything they did was under the control of the Shanhai Guards.

Hence, they thought of such a preposterous idea.

Ouyang Shuo trusted Wei Yang’s analysis, “That’s good, let’s just handle it normally then. If the heavens want to delay us by four months, so be it.”

“Monarch is wise.”

Wei Yang bowed. … The progress of matters was just as Wei Yang had expected.

The three men who did not join in were locked up in the inn. When they saw that Shanhai City was really going to judge them fairly, they changed into their uniforms and revealed their identities.

Ouyang Shuo gave them face and personally received them at the inn.

Chapter 832 - Defined Summoning Card

Chapter 832: Defined Summoning Card

Gaia 4th year, 3rd month, 18th day, Nanjiang Governor-General House.

The three evaluators arrived at the main hall, and the first request they made was to release the merchant group. Ouyang Shuo naturally could not agree to that, “I am sorry, but they broke the Shanhai City territory law system. Even me as a Lord cannot interfere.”

The three of them were anxious, “One of them is an evaluator. At least release him?”

Ouyang Shuo shook his head once more.

“Without him, we cannot complete the evaluation.” The three of them started to use the evaluation to threaten him.

Ouyang Shuo smiled; he had discussed this matter with Wei Yang beforehand, “Due to special circumstances, based on the special terms of the law system, we can allow that mister to engage in monitored activities. When the evaluation ends, he will return to the jail.”

“…”

The three of them were stunned.

Ouyang Shuo continued, “Do not worry; he will not be treated unfairly in the jail. After he serves his time, I will personally return him to Dali.”

“Well then.”

Although the three of them were given power, they could not openly threaten Ouyang Shuo, this Lord.

After arriving at a consensus, the three of them introduced themselves. Including the man who was serving his sentence, the four of them came from the ministry of rites, ministry of appointments, ministry of revenue, and ministry of war.

The one leading them was from the ministry of rites Langzhong (official title) Mister He.

After a short while, Mister Li, who was the ministry of revenue Langzhong, was brought into the main hall. For the following evaluation, he would be followed by the bailiffs 24/7.

Mister Li seemed like he already knew the results of the discussion from both sides, so he had a dejected expression. How would he have known that he would be locked up just because of an evaluation? He would not have the face to return to Dali after this.

The leading Mister He said, “Governor-General, we have evaluated the culture, commerce, people sentiments, and construction of Shanhai City. Now, all that remains is the military and technology development departments.”

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes froze; they were going to take this chance to peek at the core secrets of Shanhai City.

“Sure.” Ouyang Shuo had no choice.

He wanted to see what these few civil servants could do.

As he spoke, Ouyang Shuo invited Du Ruhui and introduced him, “Sirs, this is the Director of Military Affairs and he will accompany you in your evaluation. Anything you want to ask or base you want to go to, Mister Du will arrange it for you.”

Mister He nodded his head in satisfaction, “That’s great.”

Du Ruhui led the four toward the Guards Legion Corps camp before bringing them to areas such as the military workshop, shipyard, steelmaking factories, as well as cannon making base.

This part of the evaluation took another day.

On the morning of the 19th day, the four of them did a final evaluation in a side palace that Ouyang Shuo arranged for them.

Based on the report by Du Ruhui, they were honest in their evaluation and did not purposely seek out any problems. Ouyang Shuo was still feeling really nervous, and he was afraid that he missed out something.

After all, these people did not come here with good intentions.

3 PM, it was time for the results to be announced.

Within the main hall, apart from the convicted mister Li, the rest of them look normal. Mister He did a final description of the evaluation, “Governor-General, the four of us were ordered to performed an all-round evaluation of Shanhai City. Through our discussion, we have all agreed that Shanhai City has passed. Congratulations.

At basically the same time, a System Notification sounded out by Ouyang Shuo’s ear.

“System Notification: Congratulations Qiyue Wuyi, Capital City upgrade quest 1, politics, culture, technology, military, and economy have all reached good levels, quest complete!”

These people were truly stringent.

The mock evaluation by Jiang Shang found that all five indexes were exceptional while they said it was only good. If it were not for Shanhai City not having any weaknesses, they might have actually failed him.

“Finally passed!”

Two days ago, the 3rd quest, new soldier type, had already been completed.

Out of the three Capital City upgrade quests, only the 2nd quest was left. During this period of time, the various Prefectures and counties all checked their people, and they even went to the villages.

Regretfully, even in Minnan, they failed to find any fortune tellers.

This mysterious lady had become the biggest obstacle for Shanhai City.

‘I have no choice. I have to use my last killing move.’ Ouyang Shuo thought to himself.

Ouyang Shuo raised his head and smiled gently, “Thank you all.”

“We were only following orders.” Mister He smiled too, “Governor-General, the evaluation is already over, so can you release Mister Li? Do not worry, we will tell his majesty to punish him when we return, how about that?”

When Mister Li heard these words, a hopeful expression appeared on his face.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and shook his head, “I said that I have no ability to interfere, and I really have no power to do so.”

“….”

Mister He’s face also turned black, “Then that’s goodbye!”

“Wait!”

“What does Governor-General want?” Mister He asked coldly.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Mister He, when you go back, please help me greet Duan Prince. Tell him that I’ll remember what happened to Qingfeng Pavilion.”

“You!”

Mister He’s voice started to tremble.

When Ouyang Shuo saw this reaction, he felt even more assured of his conjecture. The Prince Duan he mentioned was not an NPC but a player like Caesar who joined the royal family when he entered the game.

It was said that his family were the descendants of the Dali Duan family, so it was no wonder that he had access to such an opportunity.

In the last life, although he could not be compared to the one in Jingdu, he was really famous in the wilderness. The time, he would truly gain fame when the Dali Duan family moved into the imperial city.

The Dali royal family started from 937 A.D. and ended in 1254 A.D., spanning 24 emperors and 318 years. It was present during the five generation ten countries period as well as the Song and Yuan dynasties.

The Dali family in Demi-gods and Semi-devils referred to this imperial family. Of course, Duan Zhengcheng and Duan Heyu were not as exaggerated as written in the novel.

Both father and son had taken the throne, and Duan Heyu was also the longest serving emperor.

However, as a result of the fight for the throne between his few sons, he relinquished his position and became a monk out of annoyance.

It was because these two were too famous that Gaia choose Duan Zhengcheng to be the Dali emperor and for Duan Heyu to be the prince.

The little prince was known as Duan Hong; he was an extremely ambitious person. He had been planning on how to obtain the position of Emperor and take control of Dali imperial city since the start of the game.

After Duan Heyu appeared, the two of them fought a battle over the position of prince. Because their infighting was so serious, it let the name of Duan Hong spread across the wilderness, to the point where even all the normal peoples learned of it.

Hence, when Qingfeng Pavilion was targeted, Ouyang Shuo immediately thought about him. It was probably under his instructions that these four Langzhongs spied on Shanhai City’s secrets.

Ouyang Shuo was naturally going to take revenge for this.

Mister He stared at Ouyang Shuo, cupping his fists and taking his leave, leaving Mister Li standing there alone. … 3rd month, 20th day, Shanhai City.

In the quiet reading room, Ouyang Shuo held a really special card.

Defined Summoning Card (King Rank): After use, player can summon a chosen type of character. Friendly Reminder: can only summon character of King Rank and below.

This special card was given to him when Gong Chengshi visited last time.

Gong Chengshi had obtained this and wanted to summon a general. However, after he learned that Ouyang Shuo was facing problems, he especially passed this card to him.

Deep down, it also meant he wanted to pledge his loyalty.

With this card, Ouyang Shuo could use the Recruitment Hall’s monthly special talent recruitment to choose to summon a fortune teller and complete the last mission.

However, to use such a precious card to summon such a useless person was a waste of a treasure. Hence, if he was not forced to do so, Ouyang Shuo would not have chosen to use it in such a manner.

Along with the completion of the other two quests, Ouyang Shuo could not let matters drag on any longer.

“Forget it, let’s just waste it!”

Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo left the reading room and arrived at the Recruitment Hall.

“System Notification: Discovered that player has a chance to recruit a special talent, will you use it?”

Ouyang Shuo did not reply and just took out the defined summoning card.

“System Notification: Detected special item, can change chance to recruit special talent into choosing a specific occupation special talent, will you use it?”

“Yes!”

“System Notification: Item used, please define the occupation.”

“Fortune Teller!”

“System Notification: Occupation selected, would you like to summon?”

“Summon!”

A white light shone across and a fortune teller walked out.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he heaved a sigh of relief. Meanwhile, a System Notification sounded out by his ear.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, Capital City upgrade quest 2 36 industries have been completed!”

Chapter 833 - World's First Capital City

Chapter 833: World’s First Capital City

Ouyang Shuo arrived at the main hall of the Nanjiang Governor-General House, opening the
information panel, he clicked on upgrade and a System Notification sounded out in his ear.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, all three upgrade quest have been completed, will you upgrade?”

“Yes!”

The territory stone steele rose up once more and a golden light shot into the sky. This golden light was more eye-catching than ever before, and the light brought with it a noble aura.

It made one feel respectful and in awe as one gazed at it.

The pure light burst apart in the sky, becoming a majestic golden cover that spread out swiftly in all four directions, sweeping past Shanhai City, Lianzhou Basin, sweeping past Chuannan Province…

Yunnan Province, Lingnan Province, Minnan Province, Qiongzhou Prefecture, Xingzhou Prefecture, Friendship City, Jidian City… Every part of the territory was covered and protected by this golden light.

Along the way, any civilians who saw the golden light could not help but bow their heads in respect.

Just at this moment, a clear and crisp dragon roar resounded from the skies above Shanhai City. The massive and dense white clouds faded away and a huge dragon spanning hundreds of miles was coiled up in the sky.

Ancient, carefree.

Its purple scales appeared even nobler and more eye-catching under the golden shine.

After they took down Minnan Province, the fate dragon was nourished and was already on the verge of levelling up. This time, being nourished by the golden light, it had finally broken through the bottleneck and broke into the 3rd stage purple dragon.

Purple dragon, the foundation for an emperor dynasty.

The 3rd stage purple dragon already possessed a physical form and was not illusionary like before.

A System Notification sounded out in Ouyang Shuo’s ear.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, fate dragon has evolved to 3rd stage- purple dragon, territory fate and prosperity has swelled. Rewarding player with a 15 point increase in luck stat.”

Just like when the fate dragon had evolved to the red dragon stage, the purple dragon swept its tail and a spirit rain poured down from the sky.

The heavier this spirit rain, the stronger the effects.

It was the start of spring, being nourished by the spirit rain, herbs, mulberry trees, crops, and other plant life all grew crazily. All the wild grasses and small flowers filled up the desolate wilderness and no empty spots were left.

Such prosperity, the sign of a great rule.

Being influenced by this, the people’s sentiment that had been stuck at a bottleneck for a long time finally broke through to 100.

Back when the fate dragon evolved to the red dragon stage, the territory’s people sentiment had already reached 99. After half a year, there had been small increases before it finally stopped at 99.8.

This time, the stat had finally stepped up and broken through to the maximum of 100.

Another System Notification sounded out in Ouyang Shuo’s ear.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, territory people’s sentiment has reached 100, awarded hidden building People Pagoda, congratulations player!”

Name: People Pagoda

Type: Hidden Building

Function: Every year, randomly summon an honest and upright official that left a legacy

Specialty: Increases attraction of special talents by 20%, increases territory fame by 5%

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he smiled widely. Good things truly came in pairs, not only did he get an extra 15 luck points, but he also obtained a hidden building.

From Gaia’s usual way of doing things, probably when any territory hit 100 points for people sentiment they would receive a people sentiment type building. Shanhai City, as the first in the world, obviously obtained the highest grade building.

Speaking of honest and upright officials, Ouyang Shuo immediately thought of Hai Rui, Di Ren Jie, and the like. Hai Rui was already working in Shanhai City, so Ouyang Shuo was really looking forward to getting people like Di Ren Jie.

Di Ren Jie was a top grade case solver.

As the golden light faded, the Capital City upgrade was completed and more notifications sounded out in Ouyang Shuo’s ear.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, territory has upgraded to Capital City. Nanjiang Governor-General Manor has automatically upgraded, please take a look!”

Due to the needs of establishing the country, the manor was remodeled into a palace. The system upgrade only upgraded and enhanced the current available structures and did not conflict with the palace construction.

“System Notification: congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi. After upgrading, player can add another teleportation formation, please choose location! Friendly Reminder: The location is not restricted to Shanhai City, any city in the territory can be chosen.”

Yet another teleportation formation.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it and decided to choose the Xunlong City that he had just taken down.

Currently, he did not have a single teleportation formation within Minnan Province, and it was not good for the rule in the province. Opening up the teleportation formation there would also be a good weapon against Jiangnan Province.

Only then could he ensure the safety of the east border.

“I choose Xunlong City!”

“System Notification: Location chosen, constructing teleportation formation!”

The part that left Ouyang Shuo feeling disappointed was that he was not given a chance to change the landscape. Maybe in the eyes of Gaia, changing the landscape at the Capital City level would not amount to much.

Hence, Gaia gave a new benefit instead.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for upgrading territory to Capital City, rewarded 12 Golden Men. Protecting the Capital City, ensuring the stability of the waters and the mountains.”

Along with the sound of the notification, a golden light shone outside the north city gate of the city. Suddenly, at the two sides of the official path, 12 tall golden statues appeared, giving off a majestic aura.

Even if one looked north from the main hall of the manor, they would be able to see the 12 guards.

12 Golden Men: Special combat puppets. Normally act as statues and will not move. When the city is under attack, they will get activated and protect the city.

In the past, Qin Shihuang had crafted 12 giant statues to prevent his people from revolting.

Gaia was really interesting, turning them into combat puppets. Who knows how strong they were? However, they were probably enough to compete with the puppets of Atlantis.

Ouyang Shuo had yearned for the combat puppets of Atlantis for a long time. Now, he had obtained 12 of them.

Based on the settings from Gaia, the rewarded golden men number would drop by 2 for every subsequent territory. The second person in the China region would get 10, the 3rd eight, and so on.

At the 7th place, one would not get anything.

Apart from the 12 Golden Men that were unique to China, there was another reward that Ouyang Shuo had desired for a long time.

“System Notification: Congratulations Player Qiyue Wuyi for upgrading territory to Capital City, added a Satellite City, entrance to the underground world, please choose location! Friendly Reminder: the location of the Satellite City is not restricted to around Shanhai City but can be anywhere in the territory.”

Listening to the System Notification, the worry in his heart was finally placed down. This time, he could finally answer to Moon Shines over the River, Ji Yinghu, and Mengyun Tunding.

The future Satellite City would have more than three million people staying there. For so many players to gather in one place, it was really worrying.

Even if Qingfeng Pavillion, Shadow Alliance, and Yimeng Pavillion could defend it, Ouyang Shuo still did not feel at ease placing it in Lianzhou Basin.

It was too risky!

Ouyang Shuo thought about it and decided to place it in Xunzhou Prefecture in Chuannan Province, which was outside the governing center of Tianjing City.

First, Tianjing City was a mega city. With the strong foundations that Taiping Country had laid down, it could provide service and protection for the Satellite City.

Secondly, it was not too far away from Shanhai City, and it would take just two days from the relay.

Thirdly, the Satellite City would be separated from Lianzhou Basin by the Mulan Stronghold. Hence, even if something happened, they would be able to hold it off till the troops arrive.

After this, Ouyang Shuo would instruct the Military Affairs Bureau to order the city protection 2nd legion under Mu Guiying to shift over to Mulan Stronghold.

Mu Guiying had participated in the construction of the stronghold from the start. With her guarding it, Ouyang Shuo was totally at ease.

Of course, all of these were just preventive measures, and there was not a high chance that such a problem would occur.

In the future, only the players and guilds that Ouyang Shuo trusted could enter. At the same time, to ensure their loyalty, Ouyang Shuo would increase the control over them to ensure a win-win situation.

“I choose the outskirts of Tianjing City!” Ouyang Shuo replied.

“System Notification: Location chosen, Satellite City is being constructed!”

Along with the system notification, an eye-catching golden light appeared in Tianjing City. Like a giant mushroom cloud, a golden light shot into the sky. Even if one was thousands of miles away, one could see the light clearly.

When the golden light faded, a newly formed city stood in the wilderness. It was 10 miles wide and long. Be it the structure or the city walls, it was all a simplified version of Shanhai City.

At this point, the basic rewards for upgrading to Capital City had been given out.

Following which, there were more System Notifications.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for being the 1st Lord to upgrade to Capital City. Rewarded 100 thousand merit points, congratulations!” … To the wilderness territories, Capital City was a whole new level. Hence, Gaia was really generous and rewarded him with 100 thousand merit points.

Updated by NovelFull.Com

One must not look down on 100 thousand merit points as it was equivalent to the rewards from a single Battle Map.

The moment the notification sounded out, China was in an uproar once more.

All the players focused their eyes to witness another peak for the China region.

Chapter 834 – Getting Kou Zhun Is Better Than Getting Any Riches in the World

Editor:Nora

After the System Notification, the World Notification that the China region players were waiting for sounded out.

"World Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for being the 1st Lord in the world to upgrade to Capital City; rewarded 150 thousand merit points, 200 thousand reputation points, and the title of World's First Capital City!"

...

Another 150 thousand merit points, this reward would make the eyes of all the Lords around the world turn red with envy.

"World Notification: Congratulations China region Lord Qiyue Wuyi for being the 1st in the world to upgrade to Capital City; awarded one hidden building -True Dragon Pool and one God Rank summoning talisman!"

...

The moment the notification sounded, the entire world was in an uproar.

Ouyang Shuo believed that all the Lords around the world were currently envious. A hidden building and also a God Rank talisman, these were items that every Lord wanted.

Gaia truly gave out a meaningful gift this time.

At the current moment, all the members of Silver Hand spread across the world were feeling really complicated. Reality proved that the anomaly in their eyes was far stronger than they had anticipated.

Thinking about what Shanhai City did in Minnan, whether or not they raised the threat level of this anomaly had no meaning anymore.

Hence, the current Ouyang Shuo and his Shanhai City were already on a whole new level, a new height that needed them to worship and look up to. He could not be described with the word anomaly as he was a true opponent, a truly strong opponent.

The two parties would continue to fight and their battles would never rest.

At this current moment, the China region forums were in celebration. Be it normal players, guild leaders, or wilderness Lords, they all gave their congratulations.

This was because this was the glory of the entire China region.

The rise of Shanhai City was good for the entire China region, and it described them as the strongest region in the world.

Such glory and honor was worth writing into a book.

Along with the reveal of the Satellite City, the five million player recruitment plan of Shanhai City became really smooth.

One could say without exaggeration that with the Capital City protecting them, with Shanhai City and their vast land and huge army, it has far exceeded the nine imperial cities and became the top power in China.

Since that was the case, what reason would the players have to reject the invitation of Shanhai City?

When Moon Shines over the River and the other two guild leaders got the news, they were really emotional. They knew that the hardest time for their guilds had passed.

Ouyang Shuo had fulfilled his promise.

However, Shanhai City only had one Satellite City, so how were they going to settle three guilds? Who would be the main guardian guild? This was a tough choice.

Moon Shines over the River thought about it and felt that this problem should not be left to Ouyang Shuo. That afternoon, Moon Shines over the River went to Jingdu to discuss with Ji Yinghu and Mengyun Tunding.

They needed to come up with a plan that all three of them could accept before Ouyang Shuo officially made his decision.

...

Since the Grade 1 Town, to County, to Prefecture and now the Capital City level, Shanhai City had taken the title of world's first. It was a position no one could shake, and he had created a wilderness legend.

An unprecedented legend.

Gaia naturally would pay attention to this and with it, another global System Notification sounded out.

"World Notification: Congratulations China region Lord Qiyue Wuyi for being the person who has been first in the world all the way from the Town grade. Awarded 150 thousand merit points, 200 thousand reputation points, three million gold, and one special prize.

...

Another huge bomb!

Players around the world were already numb, some things they could only be envious of.

In the series of basic rewards, Ouyang Shuo had amassed 400 thousand in terms of merit points alone, which was enough for two newbies to reach 1st class Marquis.

In the global landscape, there were less than 200 of them.

It was truly the case of one person being better than another.

The name of Shanhai City was destined to be a legend in the world.

...

The moment the World Notification sounded, another System Notification sounded out in his ear.

"System Notification; player Qiyue Wuyi has obtained one special reward, will you take it now?"

Ouyang Shuo was stunned, "What special reward is it?"

"System Notification: the special reward is a random reward, it can be special item, equipment, or cultivation method; everything is possible."

"...."

Ouyang Shuo hated these things that were left to chance.

"Obtain!"

No matter what reward it was, he would just take it first.

"System Notification: Obtaining reward...."

"System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for obtaining a lucky reward, territory protector beast - Nian Beast Little Mo has evolved into God beast Qilin, becoming the country protector beast, congratulations player!"

During the 1st year, Ouyang Shuo had obtained one male and one female Nian beast during the defense event back then.

Not long after, these pair gave birth to one male and one female. The male one was Ouyang Shuo's mount Little Green, which was now a god beast subspecies; the female one was called a Little Mo and followed its mother.

The last generation male beast became Er'Lai's mount and was named Luosha while the female brought Little Mo along and lived in seclusion in the back mountains of the Nanjiang Governor-General Manor.

At the current date, the two of them had matured.

Ouyang Shuo did not expect Little Mo to actually be so lucky, evolving to God Beast Qilin faster than Little Green. As a female, Little Mo was gentler and was truthfully more suitable to be the country protector beast.

Name: Little Mo (God Beast)

Type: Country Protector Beast

Race: Ink Jade Qilin

Talent: Divine (can make divinations for the armies sent out)

Talent: Water Defense (raises combat strength in water by 150%, unstoppable in water)

Skill: Spitfire (shoots out an energy flame, causing huge damage and brings with it a burn effect)

Specialty: Deterrence (raises territory law and order by 45%, natural deterrence to ocean beasts, raises territory ocean region law and order by 45%), Protect (raises territory defenses by 40%)

Evaluation: The Qilin is a mixed creature with a lion head, deer horns, tiger eyes, dragon scales, and cow tail; the tail is shaped like a dragon tail, a legendary prosperity beast. It has a gentle personality, it does not harm living spirits, can live for two thousand years.

As expected from a God beast, Little Mo actually had much better stats than Little Green.

...

After drawing the special reward, Ouyang Shuo checked out the stats of the True Dragon Pool.

Name: True Dragon Pool

Type: Hidden Building

Function: Every month, one general can enter the True Dragon Pool to train and have a certain rate to breakthrough.

Specialty: Increases special talent attraction rate by 20%, increases territory fame by 5%.

What another practical hidden building.

With this True Dragon Pool, Zhao Sihu, Liao Kai, Shi Hu, and other local generals as well as Luo Shixin, Qinqiong and other talented historical generals would all have a huge chance.

Shanhai City's general lineup would definitely become stronger and stronger.

Following which, Ouyang Shuo took out the God Rank summoning talisman. He wanted to see which God General or God Official he could summon.

Ripping the talisman, a white light shone.

As the white light passed, an old man dressed in scholar attire appeared in the main hall. When the old man saw Ouyang Shuo, he bowed, "I am Kou Zhun, greetings Monarch!"

Ouyang Shuo was delighted and personally helped Kou Zhun up, "Great, Old Zhun is here. You're going to be of great help to me." Previously, he was worried about the future cabinet having only one Jiang Shang.

Now was great, with Kou Zhun, the cabinet could be formed.

Kou Zhun was a North Song politician and poet, and he was also a Jingshi. In 1004, during Emperor Zhenzong's reign, the Liao forces from the North initialized a major invasion and came surprisingly close to the Song capital. When other officials such as Wang Qinruo suggested that the emperor desert the city and find a new capital in Southern China, Kou Zhun suggested the emperor come to the frontline to boost the Song army's morale. Emperor Zhenzong listened to Kou Zhun's suggestion, and the Song forces successfully resisted the Liao invasion, ending in the Chanyuan Treaty.

Kou Zhun was a great speaker and had a reputation of offering criticism as he saw fit. Once, Emperor Taizong got offended and decided to leave, but Kou Zhun grabbed his robe and forced him to sit down and finish listening. Emperor Taizong remarked, "Having Kou Zhun is like Emperor Taizong of Tang having Wei Zheng."

A straight and direct official like Kou Zhun, who was very experienced and could judge cases and knew strategy, wasn't he a great choice for cabinet.

Ouyang Shuo was obviously delighted about this.

Name: Kou Zhun (God Rank)

Title: Top 10 ministers in history

Dynasty: North Song

Identity: Shanhai City Official

Occupation: Civil Servant

Loyalty: 70

Command: 85

Force: 45

Intelligence: 90

Politics: 95

Specialty: Famous Minister (Raises territory purity and honesty by 45%, raises territory efficiency by 25%, raises territory literacy and culture by 15%, raises territory ruling standard by 30%)

Famous work: Kou Zhongmin Poetry

Evaluation: Kou Zhun was a really generous and selfless person, giving himself up for the country; he was a rare right hand man of the empire.

Looking at the standard of Kou Zhun, Ouyang Shuo shouted toward the outside, "Men!"

"Monarch!"

Ouyang Shuo said, "Get Mister Xiao to take a trip!"

"Yes, my Monarch!"

The office of the Administration Bureau was right beside the Governor-General Manor. Ouyang Shuo introduced Kou Zhun to Xiao He, smiling, "Help me take care of old Kou."

Xiao He cupped his fists, "Congratulations Monarch for getting another famous minister!"

After the two of them met, Xiao He led Kou Zhun and left the main hall. The Shanhai City structure was huge. One or two days would not be enough for Kou Zhun to merge and assimilate into the system.

To become a member of the cabinet, Kou Zhun needed to familiarize with the Shanhai City system first.

Chapter 835 - God Detective Di Renjie

Chapter 835: God Detective Di Renjie

After sending away Kou Zhun, Ouyang Shuo finally had the time to take a look at the stats of Shanhai City.

Territory: Shanhai City (World’s First Capital City)

Lord: Qiyue Wuyi (Duke )

Titles: Blessed Land of Martial Arts, Land of Philosophers, Land of Artisans, Home of Spirit Beasts

Population: 2 million

Territory Land: Yunnan Province, Lingnan Province, Chuannan Province and Minnan Province.

Territory Specialty: –

Territory Fate: Purple Dragon

People Sentiment: 100/100

Security: 95/100

Political: 97/100 (Affecting the administrative efficiency and morale)

Economic: 95/100 (Affecting the trading prosperity and tax)

Cultural: 97/100 (Affecting the education development and quality of residents)

Technology: 88/100 (Affects technology levels and technology tree)

Military: 94/100 (Affecting the military strength and stability)

Hidden Building: Recruitment Hall, Silver Prayer House, General Appointment Stage, Wanming Pagoda, True Dragon Pool

Basic Buildings List:

Looking at the new stats, Ouyang Shuo’s first impression was that it was simplified.

The upgraded Capital City did not have a new population upper limit and there would be no more refugees. A basic building list did not exist anymore, and whatever one wanted to build was up to them.

The only aspect that remained unchanged was the five indexes, which quietly reflected the achievement of the territory.

The pros of upgrading to Capital City were not shown on the stat interface. With territory population as an example, Shanhai City would not receive new refugees but the entire territory would start to spawn new refugees.

Based on the setting by Gaia, after upgrading to Capital City, Prefectures, counties, towns, and even villages would spawn 1/5th of the refugee spawn rate for their grade, spawning a certain amount daily.

With Chuannan’s Tianjing City as an example, as a Prefecture city that was also within the territory buff, it could spawn 150 refugees every day.

Based on this calculation, each County would be 60, 15 for Town, and three for village.

Although the numbers were not large, if one slowly amassed it day by day, it was still a huge number.

With the vast territory of Shanhai City, this would mean an even more terrifying increase as each day they could get 50 thousand new refugees.

What kind of concept was that?

With the current land they had, each year they could gain 18 million in population. In four years, the population would break 100 million and chase up to the Ming Dynasty.

Without a doubt, this was the biggest benefit of upgrading to Capital City – the other rewards were nothing compared to this.

For one to upgrade to Capital City faster than others meant that their foundations would be stronger than them. No wonder the merit points needed for Duke was five times that of 1st class Marquis – Capital City and non-Capital City were not even on the same level.

One was up in the sky, one was down below.

Just this alone gave Ouyang Shuo the confidence to compete against Silver Hand.

No matter how many players Di Chen and the others recruited to their territories, it was not as fast as his spawning rate. Not to mention with this large amount of refugees as his base, Ouyang Shuo could also increase his recruitment of players.

In the future, even in the fight for players, Yanhuang Alliance could not compete with Shanhai City. Hence, it was like cutting off one of their core pillars.

No matter how many schemes Di Chen and the others played, they would not be able to deal a serious blow to Ouyang Shuo.

This was the way of the king.

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

After closing the territory stat page, Ouyang Shuo got up and left the main hall. He needed to take a trip to Wanming Pagoda to use the summoning chance to summon an official.

Since he was on the verge of establishing a country, he would not mind having too many civil servants.

The Wanming Pagoda was located at the north east corner of the imperial city, right beside the General Appointment Stage; further behind it was the True Dragon Pool.

The Recruitment Hall, Silver Prayer House, General Appointment Stage, Wanming Pagoda, True Dragon Pool, these five hidden buildings were all laid out, a really magnificent sight.

Getting used to all this, Ouyang Shuo had already become exceedingly calm.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for activating the Wanming Pagoda, you have one chance to recruit, will you do so?”

“Recruit!”

A white light shone across and an old man that was slightly plump spawned. He was roughly more than 50 years on and wore a bright smile on his face, making one feel close to him upon the first meeting.

“Di Renjie greets the Monarch!”

Ouyang Shuo was momentarily stunned before his face revealed a big wide smile.

He had actually obtained Di Renjie, who he had dreamed of, during the first recruitment. Ouyang Shuo really believed now that after the two evolutions of the fate dragon, he was finally a lucky guy.

His luck was just too good.

Ouyang Shuo regained his composure, helping Di Renjie up. Following Ouyang Shuo led him out of the pagoda and into the Governor-General Manor.

Di Renjie was born in the Taiyuan Di family, and he had worked many roles like Ningzhou Governor, Yuzhou Governor, and Fuzhou Governor.

As of 691, Di was serving as the military advisor to the Prefect of the capital Prefecture Luo Prefecture, when Wu Zetian promoted him to be the deputy minister of finance. In 692, Wu Zetian’s secret police official Lai Junchen falsely accused Di Renjie, causing him to be locked up. He was later exiled to be the magistrate of Pengze County.

In 696, during the middle of an attack by the Khitan Khan Sun Wanrong against Zhou Prefectures north of the Yellow River, Wu Zetian promoted Di Renjie to the position of Prefect of Wei Prefecture. Later in 697, Di was serving as the commandant at You Prefecture when Wu Zetian recalled him to Luoyang to serve as the deputy head of the examination bureau of government. She soon made Di Renjie the head of the examination bureau. In 700, Wu Zetian made Di Renjie the head of the legislative bureau. By this point, she was said to have respected him so greatly that she often just referred to him as the State Elder without referring to him by name.

Di Renjie was said to be legendary in judging cases and had never judged one wrongly.

When Di Renjie just went into Dali to work, there were many case files. He placed his heart to it and worked for an entire year before clearing it all out, using up 17 thousand men.

The name of God Detective started from then.

Along the way, Ouyang Shuo took a look at his stats.

Name: Di Renjie (God Rank)

Dynasty: Tang

Identity: Shanhai City Civil Servant

Occupation: Civil Servant

Loyalty: 70

Command: 75

Force: 48

Intelligence: 98

Politics: 95

Specialty: God Judge (raises territory honesty by 40%, raises territory efficiency by 25%, raises territory case solving skills by 55%, raises territory governing standard by 20%)

Yet another God Ranked official!

Not only was Di Renjie a God Detective, he was also a famous minister. Di Ren Jie used his actions to show his skill.

To invite him into the cabinet might be a waste of his talents.

Ouyang Shuo was thinking about placing him into the Internal Affairs Bureau to pair up with Wei Yang to manage the Procuratorate Division and be in charge of case handling.

As for the specifics, it still needed to be discussed.

As for the other hidden building, the True Dragon Pool, Ouyang Shuo was prepared to let Zhao Sihu enter, hoping that he could use this chance to breakthrough to King Rank.

Luo Shixin was also on the verge of breaking through and could become an Emperor Rank general at any moment. However, was he was far away in Dongchuan Prefecture, so he could only wait for the next month.

After welcoming Di Renjie, it was already noon. After having lunch with the new people, Ouyang Shuo went back to his reading room alone.

Although Shanhai City had upgraded to Capital City, Ouyang Shuo did not want to immediately apply to establish the country.

There were definitely missions to establish the country. The territory still had many things that had not been settled and decided. Ouyang Shuo did not want to rush it in case he overwhelmed himself.

Without thinking too far, Ouyang Shuo had not dealt with Minnan Province. He needed to stabilize the province before he established the country.

There was also the newly spawned Satellite City.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was about to summon Xiao He and Jiang Shang to discuss the choice of Governor of the four Prefectures, someone reported from outside that a person was requesting to see the Monarch.

“Who is it?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

The person who made the report was the Personal Guards Captain Xu Chu, and his face revealed a rarely seen emotion, “Monarch its Mister Wen Ruo.”

“Wen Ruo?”

Ouyang Shuo had no idea who he was.

Xu Chu smiled, hitting his own head, “It is Mister Xun Yu.”

“It’s him?” Ouyang Shuo was astonished, “Quickly invite him to the reading room.” After a short pause, Ouyang Shuo got up from his seat, “No. It is better I receive him myself.”

It seems like Xun Yu was planning to move into Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo did not expect that he would be able to attract such a talent right after upgrading to Capital City.

Along with the news of Shanhai City upgrading to Capital City being spread out, more and more people would come. The number would increase when Shanhai City established the country.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo would treat them all seriously, much less such a talent like Xun Yu.

Chapter 836 - Legion Corps Full Scale

Within the guest hall of the Nanjiang Governor General Manor, a man wearing a red Long robe was seated. This fellow had a large and plump forehead; he was middle aged and had an exceptional aura.

He was the top advisor under Cao Cao’s camp – Xun Yu.

Along with the end of the Battle of Red Cliff, the generals and strategists during the Three Kingdoms all appeared in the wilderness. Xun Yu belonged to the Han Regime, so he wanted to obtain a position in the Luoyang Imperial Court.

After all, Hanwu Emperor represented the Han Regime. Helplessly, they already had a working system there and Xun Yu was not given much power.

When Shanhai City upgraded to Capital City, Xun Yu thought back to Shanhai City having Xu Chu, Jia Xu, Xiahou Yuan, and other generals and strategists from Cao Cao’s camp. He gritted his teeth and decided to leave Luoyang to Shanhai City.

Hence, this scene occurred.

When Ouyang Shuo met Xun Yu, the scene was like two people sounding each other out.

Ouyang Shuo was not unfamiliar with Xun Yu, this Three Kingdoms genius.

Xun Yu was someone who had the capabilities of being a prime minister. When the warlord Dong Zhuo seized control of the capital Luoyang, Xun Yu feared for his safety and resigned, returning to Ji Province.

In the subsequent years, warlords quickly rose in each region. Xun Yu first served Yuan Shao, whose power base was in Ji Province. However, Xun Yu later left him and went to serve Cao Cao in 191. At the later stages, he opposed Cao Cao from getting the title of Duke Wei, and he was removed from the core and fell sick. He was only 50 when he died.

In terms of strategy, Xun Yu had helped Cao Cao set the blueprints for unifying the north.

In terms of fighting, Xun Yu also did well. In 194, when Cao Cao led a campaign against Tao Qian in Xu Province, his home base at Yan Province was suddenly attacked by Lü Bu, and two of Cao’s officials, Chen Gong and Zhang Miao, chose to defect to Lü Bu. At that time, Xun Yu was in charge of the defenses of Juancheng, and his firm actions saved the city from capture, allowing Cao Cao’s armies to return and drive away Lü Bu.

In terms of administrative rule, Xun Yu recommended many talents to Cao Cao and formed his core talent pool, building up the economic and administrative system of the Cao Cao camp.

Xun Yu had made many contributions to Cao Cao and was said to be Cao Cao’s Zi Fang. Unfortunately, Xun Yu missed the Han Regime and had a fall out with the ambitious Cao Cao in the end.

Name: Xun Yu (God Rank) Dynasty: East Han Identity: Shanhai City Strategist Occupation: Special Strategist Loyalty:70 Command: 75 Force: 40 Intelligence: 97 Politics: 85 Specialty: Capable of being Prime Minister (raises success rate of strategies by 55%, raises attraction of talents by 20%, raises efficiency by 25%, raises territory governing standards by 20%.)

Although Xun Yu was a strategist, he was also a fairly capable civil servant. Ouyang Shuo already had Jia Xu and Chen Gong beside him, so it was best to use Xun Yu as a civil servant.

… The arrival of Xun Yu made Ouyang Shuo’s planning of the four Governors of Minnan Province much easier. On the 3rd month, 22nd day, the Nanjiang Governor-General House announced a series of personnel appointments.

Di Renjie would become the deputy director of the Internal Affairs Bureau and take charge of the Procuratorate Division and the Regulatory Department. At the same time, Jing Jian would become the Shaowu Prefecture Governor.

Jing Jian being suddenly sent out was a huge surprise to Xiao He. In history, Jing Jian was a general before he became a civil servant and Wei Yang’s right hand man.

While he was the Regulatory Director, his performance was not eye-catching, and he was just following orders from Wei Yang. It had lost the point of Ouyang Shuo appointing him in the first place, disappointing Ouyang Shuo.

The arrival of Di Renjie helped balance the presence of Wei Yang in the Internal Affairs Bureau.

It also made it easier for Ouyang Shuo to move Jing Jian out of the bureau. Of course, Ouyang Shuo did not treat him badly and made him a governor, which could be considered half a grade promotion.

Shaowu Prefecture was right next to Jiangnan Province and was a hugely important land. Jing Jian who was once a general could help stabilize the defenses there.

Jun Yu was appointed to Fuyong Prefecture Governor, Hundred Mile South Wind as the Dingzhou Governor, and Fang Xiaoru as the Longyan Prefecture Governor.

Fuyong Prefecture was the most important Prefecture in Minnan, and it was also the frontline to going against King City. With Jun Yu, this top class strategist sitting there, Ouyang Shuo could rest easy.

When needed, Jun Yu could come up with strategies for the troops that would be stationed there.

Hence, there was one strategist and one general, these two special Governors. It was obvious that Ouyang Shuo was worried about King City.

In the future, when Shanhai City expanded outward, Ouyang Shuo did not want Xiong Ba and the others to try anything funny. If he was not worried about the Yanhuang Alliance and Silver Hand retaliating, Ouyang Shuo even felt confident about taking down Jiangnan Province.

Dingzhou Prefecture Governor Hundred Mile South Wind was a player and the chess piece that they had buried by Xunlong Dianxue’s side. Ouyang Shuo fulfilled his promise and allowed him to lead a prefecture.

Hundred Mile South Wind was a utilitarian and was not a loyal person. He had the black mark of betraying his old master, so he was not stable.

Luckily, Dingzhou Prefecture was located in the center of Minnan Province and was far away from Xunlong City and the ocean, so Ouyang Shuo was not worried. At the very least, there was still the Shanhai Guards monitoring him.

Ouyang Shuo believed that Hundred Mile South Wind knew where he stood.

Apart from Hundred Mile South Wind, the 10 Lords that worked with Shanhai City all got great rewards and all became Prefects. Of course, they were not appointed in Minnan Province.

As for the six Lords that surrendered later, some were made Prefects while some were County Magistrates. Whether or not they could be promoted depended on their ability.

To these Lords, if there was a day they could become a Governor, it would all be worth it.

This time, Ouyang Shuo made so many Lords Prefects and did not force them to become merchants as he was extremely confident that the Shanhai City System was growing more and more perfect.

Shanhai City could afford anomalies and could take those hits.

Fang Xiaoru was the only relatively more famous historical officials from the 16 territories in Minnan Province. Ouyang Shuo naturally used his talent and placed him as the Longyan Prefecture Governor.

Name: Fang Xiaoru (King Rank) Dynasty: Ming dynasty Identity: Longyan Prefecture Governor Occupation: Civil Servant Loyalty: 70 Command: 45 Force: 30 Intelligence: 75 Politics: 80 Specialty: Orthodox Confucian (raises territory education standards by 30%, raise territory honesty by 20%, raises territory literacy by 25%) Evaluation: Smart since birth, really sharp eyes and gathered knowledge through reading a lot.

After the Prince of Yan usurped the throne to become the Yongle Emperor in 1402, he summoned Fang Xiaoru, who was famed for his connection to Song Lian and the scholars of the Jinhua School as well as for his own talent and lucid composition. He demanded Fang Xiaoru write an inaugural address that would compare his usurpation of the throne with the regency of the Duke of Zhou during the reign of his nephew King Cheng of Zhou in ancient China. Fang refused, retorting “Then where is King Cheng?” Threatened with the execution of nine kinship, Fang Xiaoru was reported saying, “Never mind nine agnates; I am fine with ten!” He was granted his wish with perhaps the only officially designated case of an ‘extermination of ten degrees of kinship’ in the history of China. In addition to his own execution, his blood relations and their spouses were killed along with all of his students and peers as the 10th group. Altogether, 873 people were said to have been executed.

Some people even said that after he was killed, Ming Dynasty did not have a single political theorist in 200 years.

Along with the four Governors being appointed, Minnan Province was removed from military control and slowly got on the right track.

3rd month, 23rd day, Xunlong City.

After selecting the four Governors, Ouyang Shuo came to Xunlong City with Du Ruhui by his side. First, he planned to send Jing Jian, Jun Yu, and Hundred Mile South Wind over. Secondly, he wanted to settle the new round of military reorganization.

As the battle went smoothly, neither the Guards Legion Corps nor the Xunlong legion suffered many loses during the sneak attack.

Even the battle at Xunlong City was one where the Guards Division and City Protection Division did not put up any resistance as the gulf in strength was simply too vast.

There were no large and intense battles in the other three Prefectures either.

Hence, it caused a really blessed worry as he needed to organize close to 300 thousand troops, far exceeding what he had expected.

Ouyang Shuo thought that the four Prefectures could get him three legions. The current situation proved that he had more than enough for four legions.

Out of the three legion corps, the Dragon and Leopard Legions both had four War Fighting Legions while the Tiger Legion had three. Coincidentally, they were only four from all reaching a full five legions.

Ouyang Shuo gritted his teeth, going against the opposition from the Financial Bureau and decided to fill the three legions corps up.

It was not that Ouyang Shuo was rushing it. First, the soldiers were all proper ones, so Ouyang Shuo definitely should not waste them and make them retire.

Secondly, since the territory had become a Capital City, the population would increase quickly and be able to drag the soldier to civilian ratio to safe numbers.

Thirdly, the three million gold reward from Gaia. With this, this expansion would not cause too much of an impact to the territory finances.

Furthermore, they did not cause much damage when they took down Minnan Province. As long as they stabilized the people, they would be on the right path soon enough.

Hence, only then did Fan Li approve this round of military organization.

Before coming to Xunlong City, Ouyang Shuo had already selected the four Legion Generals.

The 5th legion of the Dragon Legion Corps would be led by Shi Dakai, the top general of Taiping Country.

The 5th legion of the Leopard Legion Corps would be led by Zhang Xutuo. During the last military reorganization, he did not make it in time. Ouyang Shuo naturally would not forget about this valiant general.

The 4th Legion General of the Tiger Legion Corps would be led by Qinqiong and the 5th would be under the young general from Taiping Country, Li Xiucheng.

Chapter 837 - Moving and Rebuilding

Each legion corps had one Taiping Country General taking up the role of Legion General. Additionally, there were Major Generals such as Military Law Secretary Feng Yunshan and Xiao Chaogui, Hu Yubiao, and Qin Rigang.

The Taiping Country generals had officially risen and became a huge power in the army.

The only party that could compete with them would be the Three Kingdom generals. However, they were not from the same faction and whether they could be listed together or not was unknown.

Zhang Xutuo, Luo Shixin, and Qinqiong; this teacher-student combination was also really eye-catching.

Of course, with Baiqi, Han Xin, Huo Qubing, and Sun Bin, these four God Generals in charge, along with a strict military law system, Ouyang Shuo was not worried that any of the generals would try anything funny.

Whilst arranging their appointments, Ouyang Shuo also purposely split up the generals from the same systems.

With the three legion corps all reaching full strength, Shanhai City had a total of 20 War Fighting Legions, with 1.4 million troops guarding its huge border.

The four borders were connected, forming a narrow strip, so they lacked sufficient strategic depth. If it was not that nearly half of it was oceans or territory borders, Shanhai City would face an even greater defensive pressure.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo decided to fill up the three legion corps all at once.

Morning of the 23rd day, Ouyang Shuo was in Xunlong City. He gathered Du Ruhui and the other generals to hold a military meeting to announce the expansion plan and relevant appointments.

The specific reorganization work would be left to the Military Affairs Bureau. Ouyang Shuo’s only request was to break up the armies of each territory and for them not to be biased against any generals.

Ouyang Shuo had once written to the 16 Lords of Minnan Province to ask them to evaluate all their generals.

After the military meeting was over, Ouyang Shuo met Qinqiong alone.

Name: Qinqiong (King Rank) Dynasty: Sui Tang Identity: Tiger Legion Corps 4th Legion Legion General Occupation: Advanced General Loyalty:75 Command: 70 Force: 85 Intelligence: 55 Politics: 40 Specialty: Valiant (raises troops attack strength by 20%, raises troops traveling speed by 20%) Cultivation Method: Family Legacy Halberd Technique Equipment: Tiger Head Golden Halberd Evaluation: Qinqiong is valiant and good at using the horse lance. Loyal to his Lord till death, he strived to serve the country well.

Once the truth was out, Qinqiong turned his hatred toward King City, “If it were not for them, my Lord would not betray Shanhai City.” At least, that was what Qinqiong felt.

Hence, Qinqiong strongly requested to guard the border of Fuyong Prefecture.

Ouyang Shuo agreed to his request and also had a discussion with Tiger Legion Marshal Sun Bin. Not long after, the Tiger Legion headquarters would move to Fuyong Prefecture.

Sun Bin would lead the 1st legion of the Tiger Legion Corps as well as the 3rd and 4th legions under Fan Lihua and Qinqiong and guard Minnan Province.

This climatic battle between Sun Bin and Wuqi was going to be one to look forward to.

As for the defenses of Shaozhou Prefecture, Di Qing’s 2nd legion and Li Xiucheng’s 5th legion would work together. At the same time, Di Qing would become the Deputy Marshal of the legion corps and be in charge of the defense of Lingnan Province.

With that, not only did they not weaken the overall defenses in Lingnan Province, but they also strengthened their defenses against Jiangnan. The Tiger Legion Corps also became the first to cross over two provinces.

The newly formed 5th legion of the Leopard Legion Corps would be sent to Tianjing City to be in charge of guarding the Satellite City. If needed, they could go up north to help out.

… 3rd month, 24th day, after arranging all the military affairs, Ouyang Shuo started his one week tour.

Since the establishment of the country was imminent and the Satellite City matter had not been settled, taking out a week was already Ouyang Shuo’s maximum. Luckily, the four Prefectures of Minnan Province were really stable, so Ouyang Shuo just needed to show himself to announce that he was the ruler.

If he had time in the future, Ouyang Shuo would come over once again. Using this chance, Ouyang Shuo also gained a rough understanding of these four Prefectures of land.

Let us start with Longyan Prefecture.

Along with Minnan Province’s four Prefectures entering the jurisdiction of Shanhai City, the relationship between Shanhai City and Quanzhou Imperial City became really weird. Whether the two could still maintain close trading relationships or not was an unknown factor.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo instructed Longyan Prefecture to quicken their construction of Xiamen Port to try to let it be on the level of Jiaozhou Port in one year.

In reality, Xiamen Port was a bigger port than Quanzhou Port, and its geographical location was superior. As such, there was no reason to say that without Quanzhou Port, Shanhai City would not be able to continue the ocean trading.

On the contrary, Quanzhou’s competitiveness would drop without the goods of Minnan Province. The Yizhou Straits was also controlled by Shanhai City, so they had little chance to compete against Xiamen Port.

The only regret was that the famous Anxi Land of tea was located within Quanzhou. Anxi was where the famous Wulong Tea and Tie Guanyin came from.

Apart from Xiamen Port, Longyan Province also had some coal resources that could help to somewhat alleviate their current situation.

Not mentioning Dingzhou Prefecture and Shaowu Prefecture, they did not have any weakness or specialties. They belonged to the average kind of prefectures, which could bring in decent profits if ran well.

And these two were connected to Jiangchuan Province and could lead the products and merchants from Jiangchuan province through Xiamen Port to overseas. Just the taxes alone were sizeable.

Out of the four Prefectures, the future of Fuyong Prefecture was the best.

Xunlong Dianxue had borrowed Shanhai City’s development experience and used loans from the Four Seas Bank, so the overall economic ability of the Prefecture was obviously stronger than the other three.

After taking down Fuyong Prefecture, the relevant loans were transferred under the Fuyong Prefecture office. Fuyong Prefecture system was also easily shifted into the Shanhai City System. … Just as Ouyang Shuo was touring Minnan Province, the discussion between Qingfeng Pavilion, Shadow Alliance, and Yimeng Pavilion came to an end.

During that period, Moon Shines over the River even informed Ouyang Shuo. Only after Ouyang Shuo agreed did they carry out the plan.

3rd month, 15th day, a certain piece of news shocked the entire guild circle.

Qingfeng Pavilion, Shadow Alliance, and Yimeng Pavilion announced that they would merge into one guild – Blood Shadow Alliance.

After this merger, the shares of the three guilds in the Four Seas Bank would all transfer to under the Blood Shadow Alliance.

11% of shares instantly made them the second biggest shareholder of the bank.

After attacking Xunlong City, Ouyang Shuo did not take things too far. Xunlong Dianxue’s 1% share in Four Seas Bank still belonged to him, and it was enough for him to live a life of riches.

Moon Shines over the River would be the guild leader while Ji Yinghu and Mengyun Tunding would be the assistants.

From today onward, the names of the three guilds would become a part of history. From the ashes, a super guild would be born.

The new Blood Shadow Alliance would be even larger in scale than the Blood Evil Mercenary Group, becoming the guild with the most players.

They had over a million members.

Their failure at obtaining a Satellite City meant that during this period of time there were members who left. Luckily, Ouyang Shuo’s promise made many of the core members remain.

To lose a portion of the deadweight would instead make the guild much stronger. Of course, the reason behind the merger’s success was Shanhai City’s Satellite City.

Ouyang Shuo gave them the power to become the guardian guild of the Satellite City, moving their guild headquarters to the city. As for Dali and Jingdu, only a branch guild would remain.

The moment the news went public, numerous guilds were envious.

After the Shanhai City Satellite City appeared, who knows how many guilds from the nine imperial cities would try to form relationships with Shanhai City to obtain the rights to defend the Satellite City.

Who knew that Ouyang Shuo would have already decided?

Of course, Blood Shadow Alliance paid a price. Ouyang Shuo was not a saint after all.

The guild shares revolution of the Blood Shadow Alliance proceeded as usual. Ouyang Shuo held 5% of the guild.

One must not look at how small 5% seemed. At the current stage, it was worth millions. Even Moon Shines over the River only possessed 4%.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo was the biggest shareholder in the guild. However, his shares and the shares of the others had different voting rights.

As long as the higher ups of the guilds did not have an internal struggle, they would still control the vote.

The Shanhai City Satellite City was incredibly huge, so it could obviously take more than one Blood Shadow Alliance. Thread and Fallen Moon Guild would similarly set up branches in the city. Of course, their headquarters would not shift.

In the eyes of Qing Sikou and Sun Xiaoyue, Yashan City was not any weaker than the Satellite City.

Both guilds were made of pure work occupation players, and as long as they started a resource collecting and purchasing guild as well as a sales group, all would be done.

As for exploring the underground world, it was best left to the combat occupation players.

At the same time, half of the small and mid-sized guilds that Shanhai City had recruited all moved toward the Satellite City. Even if they did not move their headquarters over, they would set up a branch guild there.

Even so, the Satellite City still seemed a little empty. However, Ouyang Shuo did not intend to invite too many guilds at once.

Chapter 838 - Making a Dynasty, Establishing a Country

Chapter 838: Making a Dynasty, Establishing a Country

Just as Ouyang Shuo was touring Minnan Province, Blood Shadow Alliance had already started to rebuild and move. Everything would probably be done in half a month.

The first batch of their players had already reached the Satellite City. They were all elites and would act as the vanguard to lead the exploration into the underground world.

Ouyang Shuo was also interested in this.

Based on the settings by Gaia, the Lord could lead armies to explore the underground world entrances located in their territory. Ouyang Shuo was really curious about what kind of surprises the mysterious underground world would hide. ************ 4th month, 1st day, Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo hurried and completed his tour of Minnan Province and returned to Shanhai City along with the Guards Legion Corps. The Guards Legion Corps had performed extremely well this time, charging a long way to win the battle. They had totally washed off the shame and humiliation of Yongren City.

Huo Qubing’s tactics would give many people headaches in the future.

After upgrading to Capital City, Ouyang Shuo felt that Shanhai City was becoming more prosperous, and there were more merchants and players around.

It really felt and looked like a Capital City.

Returning to Shanhai City, the first thing that Ouyang Shuo announced was to apply to establish the country.

The palace was basically completed and all that was left was to establish the country. Within the main hall, Ouyang Shuo opened the interface and applied for the country establishment, and a System Notification sounded out and started to check for basic requirements.

“System Notification: Checking that Shanhai City meets the requirements…”

“Requirement 1: Main city has become a Capital City, requirement met!”

“Requirement 2: Lord’s class is at least Duke, requirement met!”

When upgrading to Capital City, Ouyang Shuo had obtained 400 thousand merit points. His current points were at 1.46 million, so he was just 540 thousand away from the next Duke class.

“Requirement 3: Lord’s reputation is at least prestigious, requirement met!”

Not to mention prestigious, even the next level famous far and wide was already achieved by Ouyang Shuo. Ouyang Shuo currently had 1.48 million reputation points, which were more than enough.

Who knows whether or not Gaia would release an even higher reputation rank?

“Requirement 4: own at least four Prefectures of land, requirement met!”

Compared to upgrading to Capital City, establishing a country needed one additional Prefecture. If it were not for considering that some provinces had an Imperial City, Gaia might have even set it as having one province.

To some mid and small-sized countries, establishing a country was basically unifying their nation. If not, they would not even meet the requirements for land.

“Requirement 5: Territory population exceeds 10 million, requirement met!”

Gaia had thought it through. If a territory only focused on fighting but not on construction and management, the population would be really little.

Such a territory would not have the ability to establish a country.

Capital City, rank, reputation, land, and population; these were the five basic requirements. Without reaching such standards, one would not even have the rights to apply.

“Requirement 6: territory fate at least at the 2nd stage, requirement met!”

The territory fate dragon was already at the 3rd stage, and Ouyang Shuo had even met the requirements to establish an emperor dynasty.

“Requirement 7: People’s sentiment must at least reach 95 points, requirement met!”

Establishing a country was what all the people in the country strived toward. No matter how strong the country was, it would be useless if its people’s sentiment was not high.

“Requirement 8: Have a country protector god beast, requirement met!”

Little Mo coincidentally evolving into a country protector God beast truly came in the nick of time. If not, Ouyang Shuo could only wait till Little Green evolved once more.

As for prosperity beast Qiyi, he was a special spirit beast and could not become a country protector God beast.

It was quite amusing how Shanhai City used dragons as its symbols and the Lord’s flag and even the fate manifestation was a dragon. Who knew that their first country protector beast would be a Qilin?

However, the dragon race was scarce and Ouyang Shuo did not know if he would have a chance to meet a god dragon in the future. If he could get one to be the country protector god beast, that would be truly majestic.

“Requirement 9: At least own one country establishment treasure, requirement met!”

Long ago during the voyage, Ouyang Shuo’s seal had been unlocked on Dragon Island and became an emperor seal. Not only was the unlocked emperor seal authentic, but it was also the highest grade Country establishment treasure.

One could see that the nine basic requirements were all one harder than another. Even if a territory managed to upgrade to Capital City, if the Lord did not have lucky and fortuitous encounters like Ouyang Shuo, the Lord would not be able to apply to establish the country so soon.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, all requirements met, will you apply to start a dynasty and establish a country?”

“Apply!”

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for applying to establish the country, automatically assigning country establishment quests.” … “System Notification: Quests assigned!”

“Quest 1 – Tame Barbarians of the Four Corners: Territory at least has four system recognized foreign races.”

Gaia really knew how to pick on people.

The first quest was truly a test of a country. One could say that it looked easy but was truly difficult.

Even Shanhai City only had the mountain barbarians, the Li Race on Qiongzhou Island, and the Gaoshan Race on Yizhou Island.

They still lacked one.

As the nomad tribes in Lianzhou Basin were too small in number and were not an important part of history, they could not be considered.

This was a problem for Ouyang Shuo.

How would he be able to find a recognized race in such a short amount of time and also recruit them? Ouyang Shuo thought about the Qiang Race in the Shu Lands, but it was a long distance away.

“Let’s solve this one in the future!”

Ouyang Shuo shook his head as he knew that the quests for establishing the country would be much harder than any upgrade quest.

“Quest 2 – Breakthrough: Territory must obtain a technological breakthrough, develop a new weapon, and obtain a new technology to welcome the birth of the new dynasty.”

“….”

Ouyang Shuo’s face was covered with black lines. Why was this second quest a 3-in-1? Why did he feel that Gaia was being more of a cheat?

What technology breakthrough? Ouyang Shuo temporarily did not understand.

In terms of new weapons and equipment, the Z1 Type Warship being researched by the Shipbuilding Division was taking shape.

It seems like he needed to rush them.

The last one was a new technology, and this was the hardest. With Gaia’s requirements, the currently available technologies in the wilderness would not be counted. One must either reinvent one or find an uncommon one.

“Quest 3 – Congratulations from Everywhere: Have at least 50 Lords congratulating you when you establish the country. Friendly Tip: not restricted to players and can also be NPCs, also not restricted to just within the country.”

There were no less than a hundred Lords in China wilderness. Based on Gaia’s requirements, he needed more than half of the Lords in the region to congratulate Shanhai City.

If it were before Silver Hand had appeared, Ouyang Shuo would feel confident about this.

But after Silver Hand messed everything up, the wilderness was now in total chaos. Ouyang Shuo was not sure how many Lords would come in the end.

He probably would not have high hopes about Yanhuang Alliance, and it was good enough if they did not send any bombs.

Ouyang Shuo did a rough estimation, apart from his three allies in Feng Qiuhuang, Gong Chengshi, and Wufu, he could invite around 15 of the 20 Lords in Jiangchuan Province.

Next would be Chuanbei City-State and Xiangnan City-State. Ouyang Shuo was confident to get around 18 of them, whilst the rest were uncertain factors.

Amongst the NPC powers, West Chu would probably come. Out of the nine system imperial cities, Xianyang and Luoyang would probably send their envoys over if nothing went wrong.

Originally, Quanzhou looked certain, but they probably would not anymore.

That was probably it within China. Summing all of them up, it was 39. Ouyang Shuo was starting to regret taking down Minnan Province. If not, it would not be difficult to gather 50 Lords.

But with Gaia’s personality, Ouyang Shuo believed that the number 50 was calculated. If Minnan Province was still there, it would probably be raised to 60 to 70.

Gaia would not give Ouyang Shuo chances.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo could only turn overseas. If it were not for Silver Hand, using the huge influence of the voyage traveling trade route, Ouyang Shuo even had confidence to gather 50 foreign Lords.

Thinking about that, Ouyang Shuo was filled with feelings of vengeance toward Silver Hand.

‘Wait for it, there will be a day where I’ll break your hand.’ Ouyang Shuo thought.

As for overseas, William, Henry, and the like would probably not come. Kalia, on the other hand, would probably come over.

The other Lords in the Mediterranean Ocean were hard to predict. Ouyang Shuo did not know how many of them were members of Silver Hand and were controlled by them.

Those that were certain were only two to three.

Next would be ASEAN, especially those few states that traded with Shanhai City. Of them, there would be three to four who would come over.

If one considered that, he was still lacking four to five people.

Ouyang Shuo was not too worried. During this period of time, the Honglu Temple could still do some work. As long as they worked hard, they could dig away at some members of Silver Hand.

It was unavoidable to pay a little price.

“System Notification: Only by completing the three Country establishing quests can one establish a dynasty.”

Ouyang Shuo felt like it was expected and there was nothing unexpected. Strictly speaking, Gaia had a reason for designing the three quests, and they all were all to help ensure a country was prepared.

Chapter 839 - Underground World Exploration

Chapter 839: Underground World Exploration

4th month, 1st day, afternoon, Nanjiang Governor-General House reading room.

Ouyang Shuo called to see Industrialization Director Chen Bingguang and asked, “Old Chen, how long till the Z1 Type Warships can enter the waters?”

Although Old Chen was surprised, he answered in detail, “The main body of The Emperor has been constructed and can enter the water in a week. After that, we will do water tests which will take another month.”

The Emperor was the first Z1 Type Warship crafted from the bones of the black dragon and was Ouyang Shuo’s new flagship. In the next half a year, Ouyang Shuo planned to go for another voyage with The Emperor.

“One month?” Ouyang Shuo frowned slightly and asked, “Can you speed it up slightly?”

“Is the Monarch in a hurry to use it?” Old Chen did not understand.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and roughly introduced the country establishment quest to Old Chen.

Old Chen understood, and his face showed obvious excitement as he said, “That’s great. Do not worry Monarch, I’ll ask the Shipbuilding Division to quicken the pace and try to complete all the tests on The Emperor in half a month.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled and nodded, “Thank you for your hard work Old Chen.”

“My pleasure! My pleasure!”

Old Chen’s footsteps were floaty when he left. To a scientist, to be able to witness the rise of a huge empire and personally participate in its establishment was a truly meaningful matter.

After sending away Old Chen, Ouyang Shuo still was not relaxed. In an afternoon, all three quests were started and Ouyang Shuo had already given his instructions.

Out of the three quests, the quest regarding recruiting the foreign races was the most uncertain, the time was uncertain, the location was uncertain, and even the goal was uncertain.

Ouyang Shuo had already instructed Dongchuan Prefecture Governor Cao Can to work with the Honglu Temple envoy to come into contact with the Qiang Tribes to try to get a few big tribes to move into Shanhai City. With the way Gaia did things, if he attracted too little of them, Gaia would not recognize it.

The 2nd quest was the one that gave him a headache.

At the moment, the quest that seemed the most possible was the Z1 Type Warship.

Ouyang Shuo thought back to the Heaven’s 10 divinations that Song Jia gave him. He had already passed it over the Xinan University to ask all of them to work together to break through the 10th divination.

Xinan University was where all the top scientists in the Federation were gathered, and they definitely would be able to find a way to solve it.

If they could succeed, it could be considered an academic breakthrough.

As for the last technology, Ouyang Shuo had no idea. Ouyang Shuo looked for Liu Mo to see if the No.7 Research Institute could combine the western alchemical methods to come up with a new technique.

All this needed time.

The 3rd quest would take the least time and there was no rest.

Ouyang Shuo had already instructed the Honglu Temple to start making invitations. Once the 1st and 2nd quests were about to be completed, they would set a date to send out all the invitations.

The Culture Division had also started to prepare for the ceremony of that day.

Before the event, Honglu Temple was going to be really busy.

Seeing that the news of Shanhai City establishing a country was spreading through the wilderness, some people probably wanted to make a joke out of them. Ouyang Shuo naturally could not take it and needed to keep up his aura.

The crowning ceremony was the moment where Shanhai City would show its influence. … In the next few days, none of the quests had any progress, making Ouyang Shuo really worried.

On the 4th month, 5th day, Blood Shadow Alliance guild leader Moon Shines over the River came to find Ouyang Shuo.

A day ago, the headquarters of Blood Shadow Alliance had smoothly moved to the Satellite City. Shanhai City had also signed an official agreement with Blood Shadow Alliance.

Same with the imperial city satellite cities, all of the properties and shops would be ran by Blood Shadow Alliance. The only difference was that Shanhai City would take 60%, 10% more than the imperial city.

With the current player scale in the city, the Financial Bureau calculated that the 60% profits along with business tax would allow then to earn 300 thousand gold each month from the Satellite City.

It was not Ouyang Shuo being greedy. After all, if he wanted to, he could arrange his own officials to deal with it and reap even more profits. Ouyang Shuo wanted to stick to a win-win situation, so he did not interfere with Satellite City matters.

Sometimes, one could not stretch their hands too far in.

Furthermore, Shanhai City was not good at the management of adventure gamemode player.

Moon Shines over the River went to find Ouyang Shuo to ask for an army to be housed inside to help them in managing the city.

Each imperial city Satellite City would have 10 thousand troops guarding it that were spawned by Gaia. The player territory ones did not have such treatment and could only be arranged by the Lord himself.

Ouyang Shuo listened to his request and smiled, “Do not worry, the 5th legion of the Leopard Legion Corps is housed outside Tianjing City, so we will just arrange a division to move into the Satellite City.”

“That’s great!” Moon Shines over the River was delighted. Moon Shines over the River had the utmost confidence in the skills of Shanhai City Army, and it was probably stronger than the ones spawned by the NPC army.

After talking about official matters, they continued to talk casually. As they did, they mentioned the underground world that was already opened.

Ouyang Shuo asked curiously, “So what’s the situation with the underground world?”

Along with the nine satellite cities opening up, there were many pieces of relevant information released online. Gaia even opened up a forum column just for the underground world.

As what Gaia promoted, be it in terms of numbers, types, and even level, the monsters were all better than those in the wilderness.

However, the current underground world was a forbidden zone to normal players. Only after the huge guilds entered could they follow behind; if not, being wiped out would be common.

Even the exploring elite forces would suffer heavy losses. In the words of the elders of the guilds, the maps they drew so far were all exchange for the fresh blood of their elites.

Of course, the huge guilds were not making sacrifices for nothing. As the people at the front, be it attacking bosses or collecting ingredients, they had the first opportunity and earned bucket loads.

They were the first to have any fortuitous encounters, so they would not be shortchanged.

Ouyang Shuo asked Moon Shines over the River about the situation regarding the underground world. As the underground world was extremely huge, the monsters that appeared in different imperial cities varied.

Moon Shines over the River smiled and said, “They really are savage; if you get the chance, I recommend you take a look for yourself.” He continued by describing some of the interesting happenings of the elite squad.

Ouyang Shuo’s interest was perked; he was really curious about the mysterious underground world. He nodded, “Why not? Let’s take it as a relaxing trip.”

Since there had not been any progress in the country establishment quests, there was no need for Ouyang Shuo to keep remaining in Shanhai City. Who knows, he might have a fortuitous encounter in the underground world.

One must not forget that Ouyang Shuo was a really lucky person now.

“Great, when will you come? I’ll make arrangements.” Moon Shines over the River smiled and said.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “The day after tomorrow then!”

“No problem!”

The two of them chatted for a while before they went their separate ways. ************ 4th month, 7th day, Satellite City.

Ouyang Shuo sudden appearance in the Satellite City with three thousand Divine Martial Guards instantly caused a commotion. There was a high level of excitement and everyone squeezed to try and take a look and meet this legendary figure.

Luckily, Blood Shadow Alliance was prepared and had arranged for five thousand players to make a path. The Satellite City was pretty much a smaller version of Shanhai City, so there was not much for Ouyang Shuo to view and tour around.

After entering the Satellite City, they did not stop and went straight for the underground world entrance. Moon Shines over the River specially arranged an elite force a guide, and the leader was known as Heartbroken Pirate.

“Monarch, I am Heartbroken Pirate!”

Heartbroken Pirate smiled and ran over, like he was familiar with their group.

Along with the Blood Shadow Alliance moving into the Satellite City, the million members all treated themselves as members of Shanhai City. When they saw Ouyang Shuo, they all called him their Monarch.

Actually, to the current players, to be able to talk to Ouyang Shuo was a huge honor. Heartbroken Pirate was even chosen to be the guide, so who knows how many brothers were envious of him?

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Thanks for your help, I’ll just call you Pirate then!”

Heartbroken Pirate smiled too, not knowing how to reply as he turned around and led the way. It seemed like there was an interesting story behind this unique name.

The entrance steps were made from stone and the deeper one went the darker and damper it became. There were many vines brimming with vitality that were growing on the walls of both sides.

After walking for close to 10 minutes, a chilly air spread out, sending a chill down ones’ spine. The surrounding environment was extremely dim, like something was covering the sun.

Ouyang Shuo could not help but think back to the stories of hell, this was probably like that. When one headed even deeper, one could hear the sounds of the wind, bringing with it a cold breeze, creating a terrifying experience.

When the Divine Martial Guards saw this, they all picked up their focus.

“Monarch, we are about to arrive!” Heartbroken Pirate at the front said.

The moment his words landed, one could see small bundles of white light spreading out from the darkness, slightly lighting up the terrifying space. At least one could look around normally now.

As expected.

If the underground world was truly pitch black, how would players even explore it? One could not make them take torches all the way, that was impractical.

The party walked for less than 20 meters before they arrived at an empty ground.

Looking out, no one would be able to imagine that this was actually an underground world. Just the space here alone was bigger than 10 football fields, and outside of the empty space, there were many tunnels connecting to unknown places. A chilly breeze spread out from all these tunnels, and one could even hear the sound of water dripping from within.

Heartbroken Pirate ran over and smiled, “We set up a temporary base here. In the future, we would like to build a fixed resource base. The entire underground world is connected like a huge net through these tunnels, and the empty space is the node and is the main place where the monsters swarm.

Chapter 840 - Yellow Emperor Descendants

Chapter 840: Yellow Emperor Descendants

Looking at the tunnels in front of them, Ouyang Shuo asked, “Which one?”

“That one.”

Heartbroken Pirate pointed to a tunnel on the west side.

The players of Qingfeng Pavilion had not forgotten about their crushing defeat in Dali, so they naturally hated Xiao Alliance that guarded the Dali Satellite City. They still hoped to be able to have a faceoff against them in the underground world.

Ouyang Shuo did not try to stop them when he saw that.

The tunnels twisted and turned, having many ups and downs. The high spots were four to five meters high while the low points needed one to bend down to pass. Moreover, the tunnels were uneven in breadths and the lighting was not strong, making it easy for one to panic.

Although the empty ground was where the monsters appeared, this did not mean that there was no monster activity in the tunnels.

As they walked over, they were occasionally sieged by giant bats. There were even mice on the ground. These animals were not small to say the least as each one was as big as dogs and really ferocious; they had sharp teeth and menacing eyes.

These fellows were hidden in the darkness, so who knows when they would launch their sneak assaults? Naturally, it was not much for Ouyang Shuo, but the Divine Martial Guards were in for a problem.

They were used to killing on the battlefield, so they lacked experience in such fighting scenarios. Luckily, they all had high combat strength and were well equipped, so there were no casualties despite facing problems.

However, when Xu Chu saw that, he frowned.

As the Personal Guards of the Monarch, the Divine Martial Guards were supposed to be the cream of the crop. Not only should they be good at battlefield killing, but they should also be good at all types of fighting and all types of battlefields.

Not mentioning such small animals, but even against God beasts or supernatural things, they should be calm and face it easily.

‘After this, I’ll have to give them some special training.’ Xu Chu thought to himself.

After Wang Feng resigned from his position as Divine Martial Guards commander, Xu Chu had temporarily taken up the role. Looking at the situation, it seems like Ouyang Shuo was not planning to appoint a new commander.

After an hour, there were bright lights spreading out from the distance, revealing another empty ground. However, this place was already cleared out by Blood Shadow Alliance, so there no especially strong beasts.

Ouyang Shuo did not stop and ordered to continue their exploration.

The Divine Martial Guards had brought along large amounts of military grain pills, so they did not need to return to replenish. It was best if they could use this chance to train up. How could Ouyang Shuo not realize the problems that Xu Chu was noticing?

With such walking and stopping, it was quickly afternoon, and they had passed three empty lands. The surroundings of each were different; some were plains, some forests, some swamps, and some deserts.

As this was a game, all the rules were set by Gaia, so it designed it however it wanted to. In reality, there definitely would not be such places that went against the laws of physics.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was about to reach another empty land, intense fighting grunts sounded out from ahead.

“Are there other players?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

The last empty space was already explored by the Blood Shadow Alliance, so there should not be any fighting.

“Should not be.” Pirate also could not understand, “The guild leader had instructed us to clear out the west region to protect your safety. I want to see who is so bold; do they not want to live in the Satellite City anymore?”

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he could not help but frown. It was not that he was unhappy about Blood Shadow Alliance clearing out the region. After all, Moon Shines over the River did so for his safety.

What he was unhappy about was the arrogance and pride that the members of Blood Shadow Alliance exuded. It had just been a few days, and they already felt that they owned the place; such a sign was not good.

However, these people were not his subordinates, and he was not in a position to comment.

After a short while, Pirate returned with a slightly excited face as he said, “Monarch, they are not players but a bunch of grey wolves attacking a bunch of NPCs.”

Grey wolves were a really common Gold Rank beast in the underground world. As they hunted in packs, their combat strength was high. Even if an elite squad faced them, they needed to be careful.

The wolf king in the pack had reached the Dark Gold Rank and might even be an advanced spirit beast.

The underground world did not only have monsters, and there were also human tribes living in it. Based on the designs of Gaia, these tribes and races were here either to run from calamities or by coincidence managed to hide here and proliferate.

After meeting NPCs, one would often be able to get quests, which was why Pirate was so excited.

Ouyang Shuo was interested and said, “Go, let’s go take a look!”

Passing through the tunnel, the place appeared more open and vast.

This empty land was shaped like a hill. Further in front, there was a river running through it. Hence, it was not as barren as other empty lands, and it was a rare flourishing environment; no wonder there was wolf pack activity.

However, because there was a lack of light, the wild grass was not green and jade in color; instead, they displayed an ink green.

On a small mountain in the middle of the hills, natives stood, dressed in linen and holding simple weapons. There were around 12 of them.

These natives were different from those on the surface as their bodies were thinner and their skin was grey. However, the most eye-catching part was the bear head tattooed on their chests, making them look really majestic and powerful.

Looking out, they gave the feeling of barbarians.

The interest and excitement in Ouyang Shuo’s eyes grew as he instructed the Divine Martial Guards to kill their way over.

The Divine Martial Guards swiftly formed up, taking out their God arm crossbows and firing. The grey wolves were actually really strong and did not instantly die under such attacks.

Under the commands of the wolf king, the grey wolf pack abandoned the natives and charged at the Divine Martial Guards.

The Divine Martial Guards were not afraid, shooting once more before swapping the bows out for their Tang Blades to engage the grey wolves in close combat. When Ouyang Shuo saw that, his fighting spirit was ignited and he took out his Tianmo Spear and approached.

When Xu Chu saw that, he brought the Personal Guards and followed swiftly behind.

With the military expanding time after time, Ouyang Shuo rarely had the chance to personally lead troops. The devil bloodline in his body was starting to be annoyed and unhappy as it revealed a craving for fresh blood.

Ouyang Shuo followed along, raising his spear and charging into the wolf pack. Although he did not frequent the battlefields, his skills had not grown rusty.

Along with the protection of Xu Chu and the Personal Guards, they engaged in a slaughter. When Pirate and the other members of the Blood Shadow Alliance standing at the side saw this scene, they decided that they did not need to help out.

Pirate turned around and said, “I’ve heard that the Monarch’s personal strength could be said to be top 3 amongst adventure gamemode players. I thought it was an exaggeration, but it seems like it was really true.”

“The wolf pack in front of us will not be able to force out his true strength.”

“Crazy!”

The members were all amazed. Only what this man was doing could be considered playing the game.

In the time that it took for them to say those words, the wolf pack had already suffered heavy casualties. When the wolf king saw that, it decisively ordered them to retreat. The wolves were really crafty animals, and they would not fight to the death.

Ouyang Shuo put away his Tianmo Spear and looked out at the mountain.

The NPCs sent down two people; the one leading was a middle-aged Chinese man. Seeing the equipment of the Divine Martial Guards, a look of respect appeared in his eyes, “Thank you sir for your help.”

Ouyang Shuo waved him off, “Let’s go take a look at the wounded!” Seeing that there were people lying down on the mountain, there were probably some that were heavily injured.

When they arrived on the mountain, they saw a man lying down; his face was ashen white, and he was close to dying.

Although the natives were covered in blood and scars, they did not care and just gathered around that man, looking really anxious. It seemed like he was a really core member of their group.

Ouyang Shuo frowned; then he took out a pill from his bag and fed it to the man. The pill was made by Bianque and could save a life at a crucial moment.

As expected, after eating the medicine, the man’s face turned several times better, and his breathing also slowed.

Seeing that, the natives around were all awed.

Ouyang Shuo did not relax as he felt that the injured man was not weak. In fact, he had true Qi rotating in his body.

And that energy was something he felt familiar with.

“Help him up!” Ouyang Shuo instructed.

Seeing that, the natives carefully helped the injured man up.

Ouyang Shuo sat crossed leg and pressed his hand onto the back of the man, causing a golden primordial energy to flow into the man’s body and then his meridians.

The moment they came into contact, the primordial energy burst with excitement.

Ouyang Shuo was astonished; this reaction further proved his conjecture. This injured man was training in a technique that was similar to the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique.

He felt more and more curious about the history of these aboriginals.

If not, he would not have purposely wasted his primordial energy for an NPC.

With Ouyang Shuo’s help, the primordial energy in the man’s body slowly moved and started to recover, bringing him back from the brink of death.

For him to fully recover would require time.

After a short while, the injured man woke up. Seeing Ouyang Shuo, he held his hand gratefully, his eyes filled with shock as he muttered, “Emperor.”

“What?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

The man gritted his teeth and asked, “Savior, you are training in the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique?”

“That’s right!”

After receiving this reply, the man grew even more excited. Not only him, but even the other natives were more relaxed when they looked at Ouyang Shuo, and they even showed respect toward him.

Ouyang Shuo probed, “Are you descendants of the Yellow Emperor?”

“That’s right?”

“Why did you appear here?”

The man sighed; his expression was complicated, “It’s a long story, are you willing to listen?”

Ouyang Shuo could not ask for more, “Please!”

The man was delighted. He asked some men to collect the prey and prepared to set off.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he instructed the Divine Martial Guards to collect all the bodies of the grey wolves as a gift to the Chinese tribe.

Under their guidance, they crossed through tunnel after tunnel before arriving at a closely guarded empty land after three hours.

Of course, the nighttime in the underground world was not too different from its daytime.

However, the empty land here was even vaster, and one could not see the ends. If one placed this on the surface, it would be a basin with valleys, grass fields, streams, and even forests.

It was no wonder that the natives built their base here as it was truly a treasure ground.

Chapter 841 - Time to Plant Mushrooms

Chapter 841: Time to Plant Mushrooms

After the Yellow Emperor Tribe defeated Chiyou in the Battle of Zhuolu, they settled in Zhongyuan.

A portion of them were ordered by the Yellow Emperor to chase the remaining Chiyou tribe all the way to Nanjiang. Who would have expected the ground to suddenly collapse and a huge crater would appear?

In a single night, the entire tribe was buried underground.

Catastrophe struck as close to 70% of the tribesmen died. The fortunate ones survived in this mysterious underground world and stubbornly bred. Since then, thousands of years had passed.

To remember their past, this underground world tribe called themselves the Youxiong Tribe and used bears as their symbols (Xiong is Chinese for bear). They relied on the taming and hunting methods passed down by the Yellow Emperor to slowly gain a footing in the underground world.

After the ground collapsed, the underground world entrance was once again sealed shut. Only after the release of the Satellite City and the reappearance of the underground world to the world did they manage to meet today.

It was also thanks to Ouyang Shuo’s luck that he managed to have such a fortuitous encounter.

When Ouyang Shuo and his group arrived at the Youxiong Tribe, they were given a warm welcome. That injured middle-aged man was actually the captain of the hunting team, and his position was only lower than that of the tribe leader and elder.

After they learned that Ouyang Shuo cultivated the authentic Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique, even the tribe leader was stunned and said emotionally, “I did not expect that I’ll manage to see a person with the emperor’s legacy.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled as he briefly introduced Shanhai City and the underground world matter to him, saying sincerely, “Since we are fated, how about moving the tribe to Shanhai City?”

The tribe leader was tempted but shook his head, “We appreciate your kind intentions. Based on our records, our ancestors always wanted to return to land but had no way to do so. We have already gotten used to living underground and are afraid of not being used to it if we go back up.”

Ouyang Shuo thought about it, “Since that’s the case, I will not force you. However, the land that you’re on is still my land, and the underground world is still within Shanhai City’s territory. As long as you agree, I will take you under my rule and arrange for people to send down advanced equipment and tools as well as soldiers to train your warriors. I also suggest you to send a portion of the children and ladies up to land to let them live there and slowly adapt. You would not hope for the descendants of the Yellow Emperor to forever live under this dark sky, right?”

“This….”       ( Updated by NovelFull.Com)

The tribe leader, the elder, and the middle-aged man all exchanged glances with one another.

One had to say that Ouyang Shuo’s suggestion was truly tempting. Although the warriors of the Youxiong Tribe were not weak, the monsters of the underground world were stronger, and they would have casualties every time they hunted.

Furthermore, there was a lack of sunlight in the underground world, so sparse quantities of grain could grow. Ever winter was a huge test for the entire tribe and starvation became their greatest enemy.

Ouyang Shuo continued, “You all still do not know, right? The Yellow Emperor has already appeared in the wilderness and is only secluding himself. I think that if you go up, only then will you have a chance to meet him.”

The three of them were getting more and more emotional, and they all exchanged glances once more and nodded.

The tribe leader said, “The good grace of the emperor, how can I not accept it?”

As he said that, the three of them bowed in unison.

A bright smile appeared on Ouyang Shuo’s face as a System Notification sounded out in his ear.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for successfully recruiting underground lost race Youxiong Tribe, your name spreads across the underground world. Player awarded 10 thousand reputation points.”

…

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, territory has recruited the Mountain Barbarian tribe, Li Race, Gaoshan Race, and the underground world lost race, country establishment quest completed!”

Ouyang Shuo was delighted. He did not expect that during his first underground world exploration trip he would actually complete the 1st country establishment quest.

At night, the Youxiong Tribe held a huge feast to welcome Ouyang Shuo and his men.

A special food item on the table attracted Ouyang Shuo’s attention.

It was a thick soup, apart from the meat of some beast, there was also a type of mushroom that was really similar to the golden needle mushroom of real life. Ouyang Shuo picked up a bunch; it entered the mouth smoothly and was delicious.

Ouyang Shuo was astonished, this was the first time he had eaten such a mushroom in game. Even in Shanhai City where there were numerous delicacies, such a mushroom had never appeared.

“Is this wild?”

The underground world was damp and was in fact really suitable for wild mushroom growth.

Ouyang Shuo turned around and asked the tribe leader, “Tribe leader, are these mushrooms foraged from the wild?”

The tribe leader smiled, “Monarch does not know but these mushrooms do in fact grow in the wild. However, these ones are grown by us in caves.”

“You grow it yourselves?” Ouyang Shuo’s interest was piqued.

“That’s right.” The tribe leader brushed his moustache and smiled, “Speaking of these mushrooms, there’s a story behind it. Based on tribe records, around 300 years ago, the tribe faced a food crisis and could only survive on wild vegetables and mushrooms; especially mushrooms, which became our main source. However, although the mushrooms grew fast, they withered fast and were hard to store. A tribe man thought about growing it in caves, and he played around with it for a year before perfecting the technology. In our age, the technology has already been perfected and there are many types of mushrooms. The golden needle mushroom you speak of is just one of them.”

Ouyang Shuo thought to himself, ‘Was this one of the dark technologies hidden in the underground world?’

Thinking of this, Ouyang Shuo asked, “Tribe leader, can you teach this technology to the outside world? I want to let the people see that even the underground world have their unique skills.”

The tribe leader smiled, “The Monarch thinks too highly of us, please wait.” He turned around and left as he said that.

After a short while, the tribe leader returned with a sheep skin in his hand. The records of the Youxiong Tribe were written on such sheep skin papers.

The tribe leader passed it to Ouyang Shuo.

Underground Mushroom Growing Technical Manual: After use, user can learn various mushroom growing techniques.

At this very moment, another System Notification sounded out in his ear.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for obtaining a new technology, Underground Mushroom Growing Technical Manual, country establishment quest 2nd quest has been 1/3 completed.”

“Wow, it really works.”

Ouyang Shuo was elated; he had obtained two great rewards in one. He did not expect that this trip to the underground world would solve the two hardest parts of the country establishing quest.

It seems like the underground world was not solely designed for adventure gamemode players.

There were many different races and tribes living in the mysterious underground world, and they held many magical and mystical technologies.

Ouyang Shuo was thinking about increasing the focus of Shanhai City on exploring the underground world. Who knows what other surprises they could get?

The underground world was getting more and more interesting.

The next day, Ouyang Shuo and his group spent a day in the Youxiong Tribe. The tribe leader was going to choose 100 young men and women to bring their kids to follow Ouyang Shuo back.

4th month, 9th day, during this return trip, they did not face any unexpected situations.

Ouyang Shuo spent that night in the Satellite City. During this time, he had a talk with Moon Shines over the River, Ji Yingyu, and Mengyun Tunding about the exploration problem of the underground world.

Ouyang Shuo suggested setting up a 100 thousand gold fund. Be it members of Blood Shadow Alliance or other adventure players, as long as they found intel regarding lost tribes and races, they would be given 10 thousand gold.

He believed that with such a huge reward, people would definitely step up.

As long as he was able to find an underground world lost tribe, this 100 thousand gold would be worth it.

Apart from rewarding adventure gamemode players who got lucky, Ouyang Shuo also suggested a map making plan that all players could participate in.

As long as they added details to the map, they would be able to get rewards.

The rewards were not limited to gold. Be it secret manuals or equipment, as long as they provided valuable intel to the map, Ouyang Shuo would not be stingy with the rewards.

Ouyang Shuo wanted the Blood Shadow Alliance to run both plans.

Moon Shines over the River did not even think about it and just nodded. Shanhai City was paying the money, and they just needed to provide the manpower, so why not?

While talking, Ouyang Shuo secretly instructed Moon Shines over the River to keep his members in check to tone down their arrogance and not treat the Satellite City as theirs.

“If that really happens, I’ll be really disappointed.” Ouyang Shuo said.

When the three of them heard that, their faces were really solemn. During this period of time, they had focused on rebuilding and had not noticed the emotional changes of their members.

“Do not worry, we will settle it.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, not saying anything more.

…

4th month, 10th day, Ouyang Shuo and his group returned to Shanhai City.

Just as he walked out of the manor, Ouyang Shuo bumped into two people. They were the guild leader of Liangshan Mercenary Guild Song Pu as well as Blood Rose Zhang Ziyue.

Speaking of which, this was the first time Ouyang Shuo met these two in this life.

Times change.

Shen Buhai had told Ouyang Shuo that the Liangshan Mercenary Guild had moved over to the Satellite City. Currently, the two of them were like the other players, looking respectfully at Ouyang Shuo and his group.

Ouyang Shuo took out a Dark Gold long sword and passed it to Xu Chu, asking him to pass it to Zhang Ziyue.

Xu Chu quickly proceeded to the front of Zhang Ziyue and said, “My Monarch gifts this to you.”

“For me?” Zhang Ziyue was surprised.

“My Monarch says that this is a meeting due to fate, so he is giving you this sword. He has no other intentions.”

Xu Chu did not say much else, turning around and returning.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he nodded his head at Zhang Ziyue and brought his troops and disappeared from the streets. Only Zhang Ziyue stood stunned in the spot while Song Pu gave her a probing eye.

Chapter 842 - Great Xia Dynasty

4th month, 12th day, Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo was naturally feeling good since the country establishment quests had breakthrough developments. He gave Zhang Ziyue the sword when he passed them in the Satellite City because she had told him that she wanted a Dark Gold Rank long sword in his previous life.

To them in the past, a Dark Gold Rank weapon was a dream.

Hence, the moment he saw her, Ouyang Shuo did not know why but his desire for revenge toward the Liangshan Mercenary Group dimmed, and the demons in his heart also seemed to have disappeared right away.

“Let nature takes its course!”

Ouyang Shuo did not want to purposely take revenge against Liangshan Mercenary Group. Just like what Jianqi Leiyin said, since there was a barrier between the two parties, it was best if they remained separated.

The demons in his heart before establishing the country had been removed. The game world in the 4th year of Gaia was already totally different from the last life.

Ouyang Shuo’s second life benefits were coming to an end, but he had also managed to create a special and great Shanhai City.

With these two points, Ouyang Shuo felt confident about getting past all difficulties ahead. … There was more great news the moment Ouyang Shuo returned to Shanhai City. With the hard work of the mathematicians of the Federation, they had solved the 10th divination and completed an academic breakthrough.

The Industrialization Department was also doing well, The Emperor had already entered the waters and all the tests would be completed in a few days. With that, the second country establishment quest would be completed.

Ouyang Shuo was really excited. After discussing with Jiang Shang and the other officials, he decided that the 18th of the 4th month would be the day they established their country.

Before this, the decision for the title of the dynasty came to a close.

After all the officials discussed the matter thoroughly, they decided to use Xia as the title.

The great Xia Dynasty.

Xia was the start of dynasties, the beginning of Chinese civilization, and it was the most orthodox.

The day they settled on the title, the Honglu Temple sent out more than 100 envoys to send invitations to the various powers.

Ouyang Shuo did not care whether they would come or not, he would just send the invitations over. Even members of Yanhuang Alliance received invitations. Ouyang Shuo wanted to see how Di Chen and the others would deal with the situation.

Shanhai City establishing their country was a huge glory for China.

The moment the news went public, people felt their blood boil.

If it were not for Shanhai City announcing in advance that players would be restricted from entering the city to protect law and order, more than half of the players in the country would try to swarm in to witness this historical moment.

After learning that the Dynasty title would be Xia, they were even more emotional and could not help but give their support.

A new forum post was made to congratulate Shanhai City for establishing their country and to celebrate the birth of the Great Xia Dynasty. The moment the post went out, thousands of people replied instantly, and it broke ten thousand replies in just five minutes.

In just one day, five million people replied to the post.

Not only normal people, but even guild leaders, chambers of commerce leaders, and the like all replied. Unexpectedly, even overseas players sent their congratulations.

These Lords from overseas were all grassroots leaders who were not able to personally rush over due to the distance. Hence, they could only use such a method to show their support.

Along with the previous incident, Silver Hand had appeared in the view of all the players.

Amongst the well-wishers were a few Chinese Lords that Ouyang Shuo was interested in, including Avera from Australia and Jason Chang from New Zealand.

Ouyang Shuo’s goal for the next voyage was Oceania as there was an ancient civilization on the level of Atlantis there for him to explore.

Australia and New Zealand also had resources that Shanhai City needed.

The well wishes of Avera and Jason Chang undoubtedly made Ouyang Shuo feel good.

Unknowingly, Shanhai City had made a really good name for themselves all over the world.

In such a situation with such a special atmosphere, would Di Chen and the others dare try anything funny to stop Shanhai City from establishing their country?

Ouyang Shuo was excited to find out.

After receiving the invitation, Feng Qiuhuang, Gong Chengshi, Wufu, Xiang Yu, Kalia, and the Ouyang Shuo’s other friends all confirmed their attendance.

Kalia also specially sent a letter to say that she would give him a big surprise on the 17th.

Every confirmation of attendance was reflected on Ouyang Shuo’s panel.

On the 4th month, 14th day, the quest was now at 42/50. The difficulty was greater than he had anticipated.

Basically, all the neutral Lords did not give any eager replies, and even some of the Lords that Ouyang Shuo had confidence in surprisingly did not give an answer.

It seems like Silver Hand had stepped out to block it.

“What a troublemaker.”

Ouyang Shuo was not in a rush. The Honglu Temple was still doing their things, and no one would know what happens until the last minute.

…

On the 4th month, 15th day, a milestone event happened in the China Region.

At 7 PM, the first 5D movie, Jiangshan Beauty, was released by Mountain and Sea Entertainment Holdings; this movie produced by Qingcheng Studio was officially revealed to the public.

That afternoon, Gaia opened a movie panel that was different from real life. After all, actual cinemas did not exist in the game. However, Gaia could provide unlimited personal VIP suites, giving everyone the utmost enjoyment.

Those who liked to watch together could even apply to combine their suites to form a huge hall.

Compared to real life, this was so much cooler.

Without a physical cinema, there was no need to make physical films rows.

Of course, Gaia was not a saint. With all these benefits, Gaia would take 20% of the sales as fees. It was much better than that of real life cinemas.

The tickets were priced at 12 silver. In the 4th year where goods’ prices were inflated, it was a really affordable price.

Thanks to half a month of advertisements, Ouyang Shuo’s personally promotion, Wu Qingcheng’s superstar name, and the title of first 5D film, it was a hot topic before it was even released.

Jiangshan Beauty was the last roll of the dice for Wu Qingcheng. After the Mountain and Sea Entertainment Holdings was formed, they also helped provide the studio with outstanding talents.

From director, actors, cameramen, martial arts designers, costume designers, and more, they were all top class.

Compared to the last life where Qingcheng Studio fought alone, it was a lot stronger this time.

Amongst which, some of the main characters even killed themselves to change their class to generals and chivalrous experts to create more realistic effects. Song Jia asked the elite group of Snow-War Rose to power level them and gave them many secret manuals and equipment.

With that, the main characters did not need any substitutes and the effects were extremely realistic.

In terms of the specifics and the details, the film was really strict. Like Ouyang Shuo, Song Jia was invested in this project. If she wanted to do it, she wanted it done to the best.

During the shooting process, a lot of the material was taken from the Battle of Yunnan and Lingnan. The Battle of Wulin was one where the Dongli Sword Sect participated in, and the scenes were explosive.

There were many costumes in the film that were personally designed by Qing’er. Not only were they exquisite, but they also had an olden classic flavor.

One could say that this was a masterpiece.

That night, it blew up.

After players finished watching, they were so riled up that they could not sleep, running to look at the comments of the film.

“This is a true 5D film. Being part of it, I was so scared that I could not even fall asleep.”

“It’s too real, what a masterpiece!”

“Jiangshan Beauty is the best Chinese film I have ever seen. And this is a film that only Chinese can understand.”

“Two word, Cool! Two words, very cool! I did not expect the film made in the game to have such an effect!”

“It made my blood boil. I want to change class; I want to be a chivalrous expert!”

“Jiangshan Beauty is not only a film; it’s one with deep meaning.”

“Through Jiangshan Beauty, I can foresee the unstoppable rise of the film industry in the game. Qiyue Wuyi’s piece in the Quick Daily News is going to come through.”

That night, the game forums were pretty much taken over by Jiangshan Beauty.

The fame and ratings of the film rose, and more and more players started to log on to watch it.

At 12 in the evening, more than 15 million people had viewed the film. One must know that in the last life, Jiangshan Beauty only had 20 million views.

Even after midnight, the passion of the players did not stop.

This night was destined to be a sleepless one, especially to those who loved films.

… In the blink of an eye, it was already the 4th month, 16th day, and there was still no progress in their efforts regarding the 3rd quest. No matter how the Honglu Temple envoys tried to persuade them, those Lords all kept their silence.

They did not reject but did not agree either.

The matter was left just like that. If they could not have 50 Lords on the day, it would be awkward. Ouyang Shuo was feeling depressed, and even the release of Jiangshan Beauty was affected by his terrible emotions.

On this morning, Shanhai City welcomed three envoys, and the news that they brought made Ouyang Shuo ecstatic.

Chapter 843 - Country Establishment Quest Complete

Chapter 843: Country Establishment Quest Complete

The three envoys represented the Yellow Emperor Tribe, Fire Emperor Tribe, and the Shang King Palace; they were all people who had forged huge friendships or animosities with Shanhai City during the Battle Map.

No one expected that Shanhai City establishing their country could actually make these three ancient tribes act.

The three envoys all expressed that although the Yellow Emperor, Fire Emperor, and Shang King could not personally come, they would all arrange officials with gifts.

The moment they finished their words, Ouyang Shuo’s quest panel changed to 45/50. This proved that Gaia recognized the well wishes of these three ancient powers.

Ouyang Shuo suppressed the emotions in his heart and sent away the three envoys.

Before the Yellow Emperor Tribe envoy left, he said, “The Yellow Emperor wants me to pass on a message to you; he wishes to thank you for taking care of his descendants. Also, although the mountain barbarians are the descendants of Chiyou, they are Chinese. You becoming Barbarian King is also a massive achievement.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded; he understood.

This time, the three tribes came together was both because of what happened in the Battle Maps and also because Ouyang Shuo had welcomed the Youxiong Tribe.

Such an encounter was one that everyone envied.

As for the attitude of the Yellow Emperor toward the mountain barbarians, it showed his magnanimity. With his seal of approval, the biasness of the Chinese people toward the mountain barbarians in the territory would totally disappear.

After sending them away, Ouyang Shuo immediately called over Shen Buhai and Zhang Yi to ask the Shanhai Guards to work with the Honglu Temple to secretly spread the news that the envoys of the Yellow Emperor, the Fire Emperor, and the Shang King had expressed their well-wishes.

The moment the news went out, the world was thrown into an uproar.

Since the Battle of Zhuolu ended, three years has passed since the Yellow Emperor and the Fire Emperor had appeared in the wilderness. They had always remained secluded. No matter how players searched, they could not find them.

Who knew that they would reappear because of Shanhai City?

A hectic discussion took place on the forums, which even eclipsed the hot topic of Jiangshan Beauty.

Everyone was wishing for Shanhai City to successfully establish their country; it was like destiny now.

At this time, Yanhuang Alliance was placed in an awkward position. They used the name of Yanhuang, but they were going to go against the two emperors because of Shanhai City this time, what a joke.

There were many people mocking them on the forums.

“What Yanhuang Alliance? It was a title they gave themselves. The two emperors truly recognize Shanhai City.”

“They have been slapped. Slapped!”

“Yanhuang Alliance has lost all their face. Why not change their name to Vain Alliance; it’ll be a better fit!”

“I suddenly feel sad for Yanhuang Alliance; they cannot even keep their name.”

“In my opinion, they should just bring their gifts over. At the very least, they can be in the same camp as the two emperors.”

“Why does it feel like the sky is changing?”

…

No one knew what Di Chen and the others thought about the words of the others. However, after this news broke out, there were immediately neutral parties who accepted the invitation.

Ouyang Shuo’s quest panel continued to jump; in the afternoon of the 16th, it was 49/50. He was one person away from completing the quest.

At this very moment, shocking news spread through the wilderness.

Zhan Lang from Blood Red City had accepted the invitation and would represent Yanhuang Alliance to attend the coronation.

The moment the news was out, it caused a commotion.

Players mocking the Yanhuang Alliance on the forums were one thing, but no one had really expected them to really yield.

Although this was a small matter, it had major meaning. It meant that Yanhuang Alliance had admitted defeat in their battle against Shanhai City. They probably had already lost hope of stopping the rise of Shanhai City and wanted to keep themselves safe.

After this, the situation in China was going to change.

In the future, there would be no competition for the role of China Region commander. It belonged to Ouyang Shuo without a doubt.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he saw further than anyone else. The Yanhuang Alliance made such a choice because they wanted to protect themselves and had to make a huge strategic adjustment.

They yielded so as to advance in the future.

As expected from the strategists that they were, they knew when to give up. The current situation was that King City and Shanhai City were connected and war was at risk of breaking out at any moment.

If they were really forced to go head to head, Yanhuang Alliance did not feel confident about winning.

Since that was the case, why not back off and choose to yield? They admitted that the position of head of China was Shanhai City’s. In return, Shanhai City would not attack Yanhuang Alliance and both sides could be at peace.

If Shanhai City still wanted to attack Yanhuang Alliance under such circumstances, they could use the forums and other methods to spoil their reputation.

They would say how Shanhai City only knows how to fight amongst China and waste their overall strength.

Ouyang Shuo actually did not want to go head to head against them now. The following plans of the Great Xia Dyansty were geared toward the outside.

He did not forget about the ambitions of the Japanese.

These actions were probably guided by an expert; they were taking a step back to take two forward to solve the crisis and buy time.

It looked like they lost face, but they had won strength.

In the future, Shanhai City and Yanhuang Alliance would split north and south.

“A good way to solve a crisis!” Ouyang Shuo evaluated.

After thinking about the cause and effect, Ouyang Shuo heaved a sigh of relief.

Yanhuang Alliance’s temporary compromise meant that Ouyang Shuo could focus on the Mediterranean, Morocco, Annan, Australia, New Zealand, and other foreign places.

The world was huge, so how could he keep to one small place?

Along with Zhan Lang accepting the invitation, there was a wave of other Lords who accepted. On the 16th day deadline, the quest panel read 57/50.

The moment Zhan Lang accepted the invitation, a System Notification sounded out in Ouyang Shuo’s ear.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, the country establishment quest 3 has been completed.”

…

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for completing all three quests, you can apply to establish the country at any moment.”

With that, the coronation day after could proceed as planned. Ouyang Shuo heaved a sigh of relief.

For Shanhai City to be able to complete the three quests, it basically stemmed from meeting the Youxiong Tribe.

“Just this alone, I must try my best to help them.” Paying back gratitude was something Ouyang Shuo knew how to do.

…

Ouyang Shuo was relaxed, but there was someone who felt much regret.

City in the Skies, west city courtyard.

As night fell, the Federation President was relaxing at the back courtyard. The city in the skies was located above the clouds and one could see the stars if one looked up.

Being placed here was like being merged with the cosmos. However, the Federation President was not feeling really happy and comfortable. Instead, he was a little worried and depressed.

“I’ve totally misjudged!” He shook his head bitterly.

Gaia, who was looking on quietly, focused on the stars far away and did not turn back.

The president did not care and continued, “I did not expect this little friend to have so many connections and luck to be able to know both emperors. We made one wrong step and might even lose the entire plot.”

After learning that Silver Hand had acted to suppress Shanhai City, the president was ready to act to help. If he mobilized the power of the academic faction, he could immediately help Shanhai City complete the quest.

However, he felt conflicted and wanted to test Ouyang Shuo. In his words, ‘Use this chance to train his character.’

Based on the plans of the president, he was prepared to use the strength of the academic faction a day before the coronation and help Ouyang Shuo at the last minute.

It would be like sending charcoal in the winter.

Who knew that he had misjudged the situation? He did not consider the chance that both the emperors would appear.

Now, even without the help of the academic faction, Shanhai City had completed the country establishment quest and had done so beautifully.

This made it awkward for the president.

“Little friend probably has some views against us.”

The president shook his head. The truth proved once again that the game was not real life. Many things could change in the game, and it was not something him as president could take into control.

The problems in game could only be solved in the game.

This could be called learning from one’s mistakes.

Be it Yanhuang Alliance or Silver Hand who had just revealed themselves, in a battle against an unassuming grassroots Lord, they had faced successive losses and were forced on the back foot.

One of the core problems was that they used real life thinking to try and solve game problems.

The truth proved that they were too arrogant.

The game world Gaia gave birth to was far more complicated than they thought.

Shanhai City had turned danger into an opportunity, relying on their foundations to do so. This was something that even Silver Hand could not do anything about. / NovelFull.Com

The Federation President looked at the stars and said, “I think we should do something.”

Chapter 844 - Littered with Famous Friends

Just as the Federation President was thinking, there was a secret meeting on the other side of the city in the skies. The ones having a meeting were the core members of Silver Hand, known as the silver fingers.

The five of them were all elderly and the youngest among them was already over 65 years old. They were the people behind the top five aristocratic families in the world.

Before this, the actions of the Silver Hand toward Shanhai City did not alert these five. In their eyes, Ouyang Shuo was just a little kid fresh out of the pan, and they did not need to personally pay attention to him.

Their views were the same as that of the Federation President.

Only because Shanhai City was on the verge of establishing the country did the situation change. On this night, the five of them finally sat together and discussed their strategy to deal with Shanhai City.

The speaker was the leader of Silver Hand; his codename was Number 1. Only to hear him say, “It seems like even if other regions help, Yanhuang Alliance will not be able to suppress Shanhai City. I think we should adjust our strategy and hit their overseas power to keep them in China. Then no matter how strong they are, they would not be able to shake the roots of our organization.”

The others did not express any other views, and only Number 2’s face turned black; he was the grandfather of Di Chen.

When Number 1 saw that, he smiled and said, “Number 2, you do not need to be depressed. The organization will continue to support you. No matter what, we need Yanhuang Alliance to hold off Shanhai City. If you need technology, weapons, or talents, it’s all one word away.”

Number 2 nodded in silence, to face such a matter, he could not only blame his luck. Why was there such an anomaly in China?

Speaking of which, Number 2 had met Ouyang Shuo before.

That was still during the 1st year of Gaia when Feng Qiuhuang wanted to leave the Feng Family and Ouyang Shuo helped support her.

At that time, was really Ouyang Shuo too flashy and rash, so Number 2 did not have a high opinion of him.

Who would have guessed that in a short three years that crazy young man would become a crafty king, pressing down on Yanhuang Alliance to the point where they could not breathe?

Even Feng Qiuhuang had soared into the sky, turning things around and becoming the head of the Feng Family.

In comparison, his grandson’s growth was not much.

“This game truly trains people.” Number 2 exclaimed. Without Ouyang Shuo, that anomaly, he would probably feel delighted about his grandson’s growth.

The goal of the Federation when they first designed the game was pretty much achieved.

Luckily, the five of them were all used to the huge changes of the world. Although Ouyang Shuo was stellar, it was not worth them putting in effort to deal with him. After a short reminder, the matter was settled.

Number 1 concluded, “The Mediterranean must prepare themselves; we must not let Shanhai City truly rise up. If not, we might have some problems.”

When Number 4 heard that, he nodded. He was the true ruler of the Mediterranean.

After discussing about Shanhai City, the five of them turned to discuss other matters. They talked about interesting things such as their children and their family; they were really close and got along really well.

In comparison, they were more relaxed than the Federation President.

Gaia 4th year, 4th month, 17th day, Shanhai City.

Tomorrow was the coronation ceremony and Shanhai City had started to get nervous and busy. The preparation work for the various rituals had come to an end, and they were doing the last minute rehearsals.

The entire city was covered in a noble gold and a festive red, and all the middle streets were covered with thick carpets. The Guards Legion Corps members wore red armor and patrolled the streets; especially the central street, which had been cleared out a day earlier.

No random people were allowed to get close.

The various significant buildings were all decorated and were several times grander than during the Lantern Festival. Civilians, merchants, and schools all acted and decorated their own places.

As for the imperial city where the ceremony was going to be held, it was even grander. Every street was covered in red carpet embroidered with many auspicious diagrams.

On each street of the imperial city, there would be a Guards Legion Corps member guarding every hundred meters. Each gate of the office was protected by squads of guards. The three thousand Divine Martial Guards were in charge of defending the palace.

The entire imperial city was exceedingly solemn, and there was not a single room for games. The officials who passed by were all tense and did not dare to speak loudly.

The plaque of the Nanjiang Governor General House was taken down and replaced with a plaque with the words Xia Palace.

The square in front of the Xia Palace had a reviewing stand set up in preparation for the military parade. During the coronation, Shanhai City would hold an unprecedentedly huge military parade.

Guards Legion Corps, City Protection Legion Corps, Dragon Legion Corps, Tiger Legion Corps, and Leopard Legion Corps would all send their most elite regiment over. The various Garrison Divisions would all send one regiment too. Additionally, the navy would send a post of soldiers, including a Firearms Squad, and the Marine Corps that were still in training at the special forces base would also send a regiment over.

The Yashan Squadron would send a unit to patrol Friendship River.

During the military parade, there would be 12 P1 Type Cannons on display. Even the recently created War Elephant Force would send out nine war elephants. During the parade, the Flying Squad would have aerial performances.

The only ones not participating would be the Divine Martial Guards. During the coronation tomorrow, they would be beside Ouyang Shuo and would not be able to remove themselves to join in the parade, making them feel really regretful.

Apart from the Shanhai City Army, Fallen Phoenix City, Stone City, and Black Lion City would all send a regiment to participate as a form of an Alliance Army.

Over 30 thousand people participated in the military parade.

At this juncture, all the forces participating had gathered in Shanhai City and were camping at the imperial city Guards Legion Corps base, practicing day and night in preparation. … At 9 AM, Atlantis Queen Kalia and her group arrived in Shanhai City through the Jidian City teleportation formation.

Ouyang Shuo personally rushed over to welcome her.

Kalia and her group exceeded Ouyang Shuo’s expectation. Apart from her envoy, there were actually 10 Mediterranean Lords who had followed along.

Ouyang Shuo instantly understood; this was the surprise that Kalia had previously mentioned. She had really put in effort. Knowing that Shanhai City was in trouble, she had tried to help him.

“This is Shanhai City? It’s so majestic!”

Even though she was from the mysterious Atlantis City, Kalia did not try to hide her praise for Shanhai City. Both cities had their own styles and represented the different cultures and charms of each region.

Kalia smiled and started to introduce the 10 Lors to Ouyang Shuo. One could tell that the 10 of them really respected her. Who knows what method she used?

Ouyang Shuo shook hands with all of them.

“Please!”

After the greetings, Ouyang Shuo personally led the way.

To welcome the VIPs, the Construction Division specially turned the house used to welcome the philosophers into an inn to welcome the guests.

Naturally, it was luxurious.

In the inn, Ouyang Shuo had a half an hour conversation with Kalia alone, mainly talking about the latest developments. Speaking about this topic, Kalia put away her smile.

She reminded, “Ouyang, the Mediterranean is really unstable, you must be careful.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and mentioned Silver Hand to her.

When Kalia heard that, she was astonished.

“No wonder the members of the Mediterranean Alliance were all so unsettled and even Henry did not agree to come. If that’s the case, can you handle it?” Kalia was a little worried.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “It might be tough, but I’ll be fine.”

“That’s great.” Kalia smiled and suddenly teased, “Ouyang, I want to see your wife. I want to see what kind of woman managed to obtain your heart.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled as he shook his head; western women were just so bold.

“Ok, I’ll let someone send you to the palace. You two can have a chat.”

Kalia smiled and clapped, “That’s great!”

Ouyang Shuo’s schedule today was full. Kalia was a thoughtful person, so she did not keep him for long. She smiled and said, “Ouyang, go get busy!”

“Have fun.” Ouyang Shuo said goodbye and left.

… Kalia seemed to have been a great start as many VIPs continued to arrive. Without a doubt, everyone who came today was an ally.

The Yellow Emperor Tribe, the Fire Emperor Tribe, and the Shang King Tribe all arrived one by one. What surprised him was that in the delegation sent by Fire Emperor, there was Nuwa.

After not meeting for three years, that little girl had become a pretty teen.

“Brother Ouyang!” Nuwa greeted.

Ouyang Shuo smiled. Who knows why, but he had a favorable impression of Nuwa all along. Nuwa also knew that Ouyang Shuo had secretly sent someone to protect her in the Battle Map to save her life, which was why she felt really close to him. / NovelFull.Com

However, after entering the wilderness, the Fire Emperor did not allow her to go out. If not, she would have run over to Shanhai City to play with Ouyang Shuo.

Hearing that Ouyang Shuo was going to become a king, she begged the Fire Emperor to let her follow the delegation. The Fire Emperor had no choice and finally agreed to her request.

Chapter 845 - Coronation Ceremony (Part 1)

Chapter 845: Coronation Ceremony (Part 1)

Letting Bing’er take care of Nuwa, Ouyang Shuo was busy taking care of the other VIPs who had arrived. What surprised Ouyang Shuo was that Zhan Lang had actually arrived at Shanhai City a day early.

“Brother Ouyang, congratulations!”

Zhan Lang was always really crisp when he did things, and his facial expression did not reveal any thoughts.

Ouyang Shuo naturally treated him extremely warmly, smiling, “Brother Zhan Lang, please!”

The two of them arrived at the inn where Zhan Lang took the initiative to ask Ouyang Shuo for a one-on-one conversation. Ouyang Shuo knew that there was a reason why Zhan Lang had come early, so he naturally would not reject the request.

The two of them spent less than 20 minutes in the room. Zhan Lang’s words and the news that they revealed shocked Ouyang Shuo. Right after Ouyang Shuo walked out of the room, his face had an extremely weird expression.

“This truly is… Sigh….”

Ouyang Shuo stopped in his steps; he did not know what to say, and he only shook his head.

At 5 PM in the afternoon, all the invited guests had basically all arrived. At 7 PM, Ouyang Shuo brought Song Jia and Bing’er to the inn hall and held a banquet to welcome the guests.

The hall was bustling with excitement.

However, beneath all of this excitement, there were also many dark currents moving about. Out of these VIPs, there were some allies, some enemies, and some neutral. Many of them were also from overseas; there was a huge mix of people.

Apart from their relationship with Shanhai City, the guests also had some relationships with one another, For example, Zhan Lang and West Chu Xiang Yu had sparks between them. The two of them had fought for control of the east.

Those invited neutral powers could not help but look away when they saw Zhan Lang present. They had also previously hesitated and finally chose to come to Shanhai City in the end.

Now, it seems like even with Silver Hand standing behind them, the Yanhuang Alliance could not face up to Shanhai City.

Since that was the case, how would they follow in the footsteps of Xunlong Dianxue and be the chess piece of others?

With such a group of people gathered together, who knows what reaction would occur?

Atlantis Queen Kalia became the second most popular person present. Everyone knew that the Flying Squad of Shanhai City came from Atlantis.

If one could forge relationships with this queen, one would be stronger than everyone else. Wasn’t that why so many Mediterranean Lords followed her to congratulate Shanhai City?

Adding in her stunning looks, there was expectedly many male Lords gathered around her.

Apart from Kalia, the Yellow Emperor, the Fire Emperor, and the Shang King delegations were also really eye catching. The three of them had been really quiet and the outside world was really curious about them.

However, the three delegations did not bother about the other Lords. The three tribes did not have plans to come out of seclusion.

When the Lords saw that, they could only leave with disappointment.

The one that was left out was the famous West Chu Overlord Xiang Yu. First, amongst the Lords, apart from Zhan Lang, the other Lords did not have much connection to West Chu. Naturally, there was no reason for them to get close to him.

Secondly, West Chu’s strongest aspect was their military. In terms of construction, there was not anything really eye catching. To say it really straightforwardly, their technology had stopped at the Chu and Han dynasties and was not as good as the Lords. / update by NovelFull.Com

Along with Xiang Yu’s famous temper, naturally no one was willing to approach him.

Ouyang Shuo naturally treated everyone the same. No matter who it was, as long as they came, they were friends of Shanhai City. However, when he saw the awkward situation that Xiang Yu was in, he walked up and exchanged a few words.

At the very least, in terms of coal trading, Xiang Yu was really cooperative.

Around 8:30 PM, the feast ended.

Some Lords suggested a night tour of Shanhai City, and there were also others who had some unfinished discussions. The only thing they did not know was that the entire inn was monitored by the Shanhai Guards.

Gaia 4th year, 4th month, 18th day, Shanhai City.

The rebuilt Xia Palace occupied half of the imperial city. The middle of the palace was the renovated Nanjiang Govenor-General Manor; the scale was massive and the buildings were really majestic.

The back garden of the Nanjiang Governor-General House stretched on from the east to the west and was already expanded to become the imperial garden. The playground in the garden had been expanded several times and now took up 100 Mu, a spectacular sight.

Prosperity Beast Qiyi and its family as well as Country Protector Beast Little Mo and its family were all housed in the imperial garden.

The west side was the government offices with the four bureaus as the main ones. The east was an expanded Temple of Heaven. Additionally, a Temple of Earth was built, along with the Yellow Emperor Temple, the Martial Temple, Confucian Temple, and other hidden buildings.

The Yellow Emperor Temple was slightly different. There were two newly added statues of the Fire Emperor and Xia Yu next to the Yellow Emperor statue to show that the Great Xia Dynasty came from the Yellow and Fire Emperor while also inheriting the ambition of Xia Yu.

With that, the Yellow Emperor Temple was officially renamed the Great Xia Dynasty ancestral temple.

Yesterday, Ouyang Shuo had already sent Jiang Shang and Kou Zhun, these two cabinet ministers, to pray at the ancestral temple and to the Xia emperor to say that Shanhai City was about to inherit the Great Xia Dynasty.

Today, Ouyang Shuo also needed to officially pray at the ancestral temple.

The sky was clear; it started to show a purple glow, and the dim moon high in the air.

The heavens were looking down on them as it was going to be another sunny and clear day.

Outside the Wuji Hall door, Xu Chu led a group of Personal Guards while Zisu led the female court ladies to wait. From the incense burner in front of the hall, a scent wafted into the air and spread through the courtyard.

“King, the auspicious time has arrived!”

In the hall, with the help of female court ladies, Ouyang Shuo had already bathed. Hearing the shout, he immediately walked out of the hall.

The yellow coronation uniform that Ouyang Shuo wore had 12 coronation tassels; he straightened his collar as he walked down the steps

In history, the Xia dynasty focused on the wood element. Although Ouyang Shuo had inherited it, he did not want to continue focusing on these five elements. Ouyang Shuo used the legend of Yu the Great (It’s about a flood), choosing to focus on the earth element as earth counters water.

This also announced that the Great Xia Dynasty had plans to revolutionize the wilderness and expand.

Earth was also one of the five elements that the Yellow Emperor focused on, so Ouyang Shuo was wearing a yellow coronation uniform.

‘Dang!’ The loud bell sounded as the ritualist shouted, “Set off!”

The golden gong clanged, instrument played out, and many bells sounded. The music quickened the tempo of the entire ceremony, and the palace gates opened. The moment he exited the gates, he was flooded with many cheers and worship chants.

“Qianshui Qianshui! Qian Qian Shui!” (Basically wishing he lives a long life)

Under the guidance of the guard of honor, they left the imperial city. On the streets, everyone, be it civilians or officials, young or old, willing or unwilling, all came out to witness the arrival of the king. They all knelt down in worship.

Ouyang Shuo sat and did not move, only to see that be it elderly or little children, they all knelt on their knees and shouted three times. No wonder so many people fought for the throne from past to present for such a prestige.

This time, the palanquin had passed the bridge of the inner city river. Looking down, the water slowly streamed from below.

As Ouyang Shuo looked around, he was filled with many thoughts.

Ascending the throne, first worship the Temple of Heaven, and then worship the temple of earth. Amongst which, the Temple of Heaven was the most important.

The Temple of Heaven was 99 feet tall. Below it was yellow earth, and the top was built from white Dali stone; it looked smooth like a mirror. Officials and generals were lined up on both sides based on their positions and ranks, bowing as they awaited his arrival.

As the palanquin was placed onto the ground and Ouyang Shuo stepped out, all of them knelt onto the ground.

Ouyang Shuo slowly walked up, the breeze caused his coronation uniform to move, and the 12 tassels all struck one another and created crisp sounds.

Ouyang Shuo stood stably on the stage and personally read the worship oration.

“To say I was sent by the heavens, I do not dare. The rise of my rule, although without a firm foundation, I will not go against the heavens. The new Xia Dynasty is established, the reign title will be Shenwu; the heavens will know!” To make the reign title as Shenwu was to show Ouyang Shuo’s desire to expand and shock to world.

The moment he finished his words, they chanted, “Qianshui, Qianshui, Qian Qian Shui!”

Ouyang Shuo followed by taking out a specially crafted imperial decree and brush and brushed it on the prepared cinnabar. This cinnabar was mixed with Ouyang Shuo’s heart blood and was closely connected to him.

Next, he raised the brush and wrote five words on the imperial decree, “Great Xia Regime is established!”

All of a sudden, the imperial decree rose up into the sky.

In the sky and on the earth, numerous sparks flew up and formed into a river and flowed into the imperial decree. This was gathering the luck and prosperity of the people of the territory, infusing it in. The imperial decree swiftly expanded and charged straight for the heavens.

Gradually, the imperial decree transformed into a curtain that covered the sky.

At the same time, all the spiritual energy within thousands of miles gathered and infused into it. The imperial decree emitted a golden luster, the white colored luck and prosperity, as well as the greenish spiritual energy.

Gold, white, and green intersecting; one was unable to see the true appearance of the imperial decree.

Suddenly, there was a loud ‘Hong!’ and the sky exploded. The imperial decree that was as large as the sky suddenly compressed and changed. Once all the colors disappeared, a huge bronze vassal (Chinese symbol of dynasty) appeared.

This vassal looked old but mighty, and its contents were unfathomable and emanated with a powerful aura.

At this moment, the golden, green, and white light surged into the vassal. A red sun rose up from within, shining down millions of rays of red light, revealing the Xia word on it.

The moment the white clouds in the sky dispersed, a giant purple dragon that spanned thousands of miles could be seen.

The giant dragon gave out a long roar, raising its head as it charged towards the vassal. It opened its mouth and grabbed onto the sun with the Xia word, flying toward the heavens.

Only to hear a large ‘Hong!’ as the vassal was connected to the heavens and numerous stars shone down, creating an eye-catching sight.

After a short while, the purple dragon once again charged down, and its body slowly shrank as it dived into the vassal. In an instant, a purple giant dragon carving appeared on the body of the vassal as it wrapped around it, looking really lifelike.

Chapter 846 - Coronation Ceremony (Part 2)

Chapter 846: Coronation Ceremony (Part 2)

After the purple dragon entered the vassal, the country protecting God Weapon was formed.

The vassal glowed in the sky, and its aura spread through tens of thousands of miles, pressing down on the world around it. It shrank towards the inside and turned into a finger-sized green vassal as it flew down, infusing itself into the brows of Ouyang Shuo. Then it traveled down and stopped above Ouyang Shuo’s dantian and started to slowly rotate.

While it turned, it spat out spiritual energy to feed Ouyang Shuo, its master.

Influenced by this, Ouyang Shuo’s dantian expanded to double its previous size. Even with his deep cultivation base, his dantian still emitted a swelling pain. Luckily, the golden primordial energy in the dantian continued to swallow the spiritual energy and merge with it, quickly strengthening at a discernible rate.

Instantly, the golden primordial energy once again filled up the dantian.

Ouyang Shuo’s dantian had already transformed into a golden ocean with the green vassal stopped on the ocean surface, calming down the ocean waves. The giant purple dragon came out of the green vassal and roamed the ocean, really carefree.

At this very moment, a System Notification sounded out in Ouyang Shuo’s ear.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, country protecting God Weapon has been created, successfully established the Great Xia Dynasty, reign title is Shenwu, please check the stats of the country protecting God Weapon.”

Name: Great Xia Vassal (God)

Type: Country Protecting God Weapon.

Stat: Comprehension +5, Bone Structure +5, Luck +10, Charm +10

Specialty: Repress Fortunes (Any Great Xia Dynasty territory is protected by the country protecting God Weapon, directing the power of the dynasty to protect the people, raises border defense by 80%, raises troops combat strength by 50%, raises Capital City defense by 150%, raises overall body quality of civilians by 50%, raises dynasty unity by 50%.)

Specialty: True Dragon Protection (Son of God is protected by the true dragon, untainted by evil, devilish creatures avoid, automatically form a domain. Blades and swords find it hard to hit him and can automatically save its master)

Specialty: Bound item, can be brought out of the game world.

Skill: Dragon Fist of the Son of God (Gather the power of the imperial vassal, accumulating spiritual energy to punch out, splitting oceans, unstoppable. Cooldown Time: One year.)

Evaluation: Country Protecting God Weapon represses the fate and fortune of an entire country; it is an absolute treasure. Unique item, bound, cannot be dropped, cannot be traded, can be upgraded.

Without a doubt, this was the best country protecting God Weapon that Ouyang Shuo had ever seen.

With this vassal, not only did it greatly increase the overall strength of the Great Xia Dynasty, but Ouyang Shuo’s personal safety was also insured. Even if he faced any danger, the weapon would save him.

Most crucially, the vassal could be brought out of the game, which also meant that in the game cabin on the spaceship, Ouyang Shuo’s dantian also had such a small vassal, really mysterious.

This was the first big prize that Gaia had given to the winner of the wilderness. From now on, the Great Xia Dynasty would be connected to Ouyang Shuo’s physical body, and their luck and fate were connected. They would share joy together and mishap.

At this point, Ouyang Shuo had laid down his first stable roots in real life.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for cultivating Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique: Qi Cultivation to the 12th layer, please look for the next set of the method Huangting Scripture (also known as the Yellow Court Scripture).”

Based on what Ouyang Shuo knew, the Huangting Scripture should be in the Battle of Fei River.

The Huangting Scripture was also named the Lao Zi Huangting Scripture, and its contents included the Huangting External Jade Scripture and the Huangting Internal Jade Scripture. Between the two Jin dynasties, a Central Scripture was added.

The external scripture was older than the internal scripture, and its earliest date was at the Han Dynasty and no later than the Three Kingdoms. On the other hand, the internal scripture was mostly from the Wei Jin period.

As a result, Gaia would release the Huangting Scripture during the Wei Jin Northern and Southern Dynasties.

…

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for training the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique: Qi cultivation to the 12th layer, giving birth to a new cultivation method specialty – earth element.

Earth element: One of the five elements, yellow in color. It is one of the values of the heaven and earth and also that of the emperor, raises interaction between heaven and mankind.

Similar to the Way of the Emperor that he gained when he broke through to the 6th layer, it was another unclear specialty.

Luckily, although the description was very vague, Ouyang Shuo already knew how the Way of the Emperor had benefited him, so it seemed like the earth element would also slowly change him.

After completing his training in the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique, Ouyang Shuo’s combat strength evaluation rose to the middle of the platinum rank. Even if he faced generals like Er’Lai, he would not be at a disadvantage.

…

System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, nourished by the country establishment energy, country establishment treasure Emperor Seal has upgraded to Imperial Seal.”

Ouyang Shuo was not in a rush to look at its stat, and he took up the seal first. Only to see the words, ‘Receive the Mandate of Heaven, live and prosper forever’ around the four corners and the words Great Xia Dynasty on the face of the seal.

Name: Imperial Seal (God Rank)

Type: Dynasty Secret Treasure

Stat: Bone Structure +5, comprehension +5, luck +5, charm +5

Specialty: Ward Off Devils and Spirits (incorruptible and helps chase away evil)

Protection of Fate (using the might of the emperor to lead the fate and prosperity of the territory to protect the people.)

Country Established (raises people’s sentiment by 50%, raises dynasty fate and prosperity by 30%)

Evaluation: This is an emperor seal that has been unsealed, having the spirit of a Qilin beast injected into it. It can affect the fate of an entire country, a pinnacle treasure, a necessity for establishing a country.

Compared to the emperor seal, the imperial seal was more orthodox and could be used to give out imperial decrees.

Decrees with the seal of the imperial seal were like decrees being stamped with the prosperity and luck of the entire territory and could not be changed. It held the utmost authority and power, like a rule of the heavens.

…

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, nourished by the country establishment prosperity and energy, the Temple of Heaven’s Shang Ding transformed into the Xia Ding, stats have been improved.”

Name: Xia Ding (God Rank)

Stats: Divine Protection (raises defense of territory by 40%), Supremacy (raises the majesty of the Lord by 40%), Omnidirectional Suppression (raises the combat prowess of the army by 40%).

Description: This was a dynasty Fang Ding and was the symbol of nobility and power; item can be used for worship.

Specialty: Suppress (Enemy troops that attack into the Capital City will have their combat strength weakened by 40%)

Compared to the Shang Ding, the Xia Ding had upgraded to a God Weapon. Not only did its stats double, but it even had a new specialty – suppress.

With that, he had the country protector beast, country protecting God Weapon, imperial seal, and Xia Ding. From the start of the Great Xia Dynasty, he had gathered the four items.

At this stage, the heaven worshiping ceremony came to an end.

Just the infusion of prosperity and luck during the heaven worshiping ceremony had given Ouyang Shuo and his Great Xia Dynasty a lot of benefits. The various secret treasures were all upgraded.

…

After the heaven worshipping ceremony ended, he still needed to worship the earth as well as the ancestral temple. Once it all ended, Ouyang Shuo boarded the palanquin and entered the main hall. In the hall, the various officials all knelt, “Welcome the king!”

Ouyang Shuo walked forwards slowly. The seat he usually sat on was replaced with a throne that was much taller and wider and could fit three people. The moment he sat down, the hall became totally silent.

The ritualist shouted, “Officials bow!”

“Qianshui Qianshui, Qian Qianshui!” The officials kowtowed three times.

Ouyang Shuo sat on the throne and regained his senses; he was now the king, “Rise!”

“Thank you, my king!”

Ouyang Shuo said, “For me to ascend to the throne and sweep the wilderness, it’s all thanks to all of you. For your efforts, the Imperial Court and I will reward you greatly!”

The cabinet led the officials and once again chanted, “Qianshui Qianshui Qian Qian Shui!”

Ouyang Shuo was extremely calm and tossed out the Imperial Court official appointments that were already decided beforehand, “When the king ascends, the official positions cannot be left empty. Jiang Shang will take up the role of Grand Secretary of the Cabinet and Kou Zhun will take up the role of assistant.”

Jiang Shang and Kou Zhun were prepared already. Furthermore, they had already done this before in history. They were really too emotional as they went up and bowed, “Thank you king for your good grace, Qian Shui Qian Shui Qian Qianshui!”

Ouyang Shuo followed by giving appointments to the other officials, “Promote the Administration Bureau to the Administration Court, the Internal Affairs Bureau to the Internal Affairs Court, the Financial Bureau to the Financial Court, and the Military Affairs Bureau to the Privy Court. Xiao He will be the Administration Minister, Wei Yang will be the Internal Affairs Minister, Fan Li will be the Financial Minister, and Du Ruhui will be the Military Affairs Minister. These four ministers will be the heads of all the other officials.”

The four of them stepped out and bowed, “Thank you king for your good grace, Qian Shui Qian Shui Qian Qianshui!”

Only these six were able to get their positions here. The appointments of the other big organizations would be handed out through imperial decrees and not one by one.

Apart from appointments, there were also titles.

Ouyang Shuo said slowly, “For me to ascend to the throne and sweep the wilderness, it’s all thanks to all of you. For your efforts, the Imperial Court and I will reward you greatly!”

The cabinet led the officials and once again chanted, “Qianshui Qianshui Qian Qian Shui!”

At this moment, Ouyang Shuo was a little emotional, thinking back to how they started from a small village all the way to their current state. He had relied on the many generals and officials.

Based on the settings of Gaia, although Ouyang Shuo was a king, his class was still Duke. Hence, he could only give outside ministers titles that were three classes lower than his own and inner ministers two classes lower.

As a result, they could at most be given the title of 3rd class Marquis. Even a player like Bai Hua, who was already a 2nd class Marquis, had her class frozen by Gaia after Consonance City merged with Shanhai City.

After Ouyang Shuo ascended the throne, he could give her back her rank. As for the decrease in class, it could only wait till after Ouyang Shuo’s personal class increased for him to make up for it.

Chapter 847 - Coronation Ceremony (Part 3)

Chapter 847: Coronation Ceremony (Part 3)

In the main hall, Ouyang Shuo started to announce the titles given out.

“Awarding Shi Wanshui the title of Zongyong Marquis, 3rd class Marquis, Baiqi as Wu An Marquis, 3rd class Marquis, Fan Zhongyan as Chuxiang Marquis, 3rd class Marquis, and Du Ruhui as Caixiang Marquis, 3rd class Marquis!”

The four of them stepped out and bowed, “Thank you king, for your good grace, Qianshui Qianshui Qian Qianshui!” Amongst which, Shi Wanshui was the most emotional as he did not expect the king to actually pay so much attention to brotherhood.

Shi Wanshui was the earliest general to follow Ouyang Shuo, and he had followed the Great Xia Dynasty throughout its growth. He was the first big general in the territory; he worked incredibly hard for the territory, so he was the first to be given the title of marquis.

Baiqi was the person who truly changed the army and let it rise up. He was also the person who led Shanhai City’s expansion and was commander to their many key victories – he was the undefeated war god of the Great Xia Dynasty, so he was the second person to be given the title of marquis.

Fan Zhongyan was one of the earliest historical generals that appeared in the territory and participated in the early political structure and running of Shanhai City. He had many contributions, so he was the third to get a title.

Du Ruhui took charge of military affairs and was the core person who perfected the military system of the city. Although his performances were not eye catching, he was actually a true hero behind the scenes, so he was the fourth to be given a title.

Out of the NPCs, only these four were given the title of marquis. The remaining generals and officials were all given titles of earl, count, or baron based on their level of contributions.

After the ascension to the throne, Ouyang Shuo would use the imperial decrees to give out their ranks and titles and similarly did not read them out one by one.

Apart from giving title to the NPCs, there was also another group of people waiting to get their titles. They were the Lords who had willingly merged into the Great Xia Dynasty.

Giving the NPCs a title was just a sort of honor, and they were not given land or extra salary. However, it was different for the players as Ouyang Shuo had granted them relevant lands and also a sizeable sum.

He did this to help them out in the post-game achievement value calculations.

Ouyang Shuo said slowly, “Awarding Bai Hua the title of Consonance Marquis 3rd class marquis; awarding Mulan Yue the title of Mulan Marquis, 3rd class marquis; awarding Sun Xiaoyue the title of Yashan Marquis, 1st class Earl!”

Toward Sun Xiaoyue, this lady who he had some relationship with in real life, Ouyang Shuo really treated her well. Although she was not a Lord, she was also given the title of 1st class Earl, and her position was only lower than that of Mulan Yue and Bai Hua.

Of course, as the top architect pf the dynasty and for participating in the design of Yashan City, Shanhai City, and the palace design, she was also the guild leader of Fallen Moon Guild and deserved the reward.

The three of them stepped out, and the expressions on each of their faces were different as they bowed, “Thank you king for your good grace, Qianshui Qianshui Qian Qianshui!”

The remaining player titles would be given out through imperial decrees. The principle that Ouyang Shuo insisted on was to try his best to not lower the title that the Lord was given compared to their previous one.

At this point, the rank and title awarding ceremonies had ended.

“The dynasty has been established, and I have ascended to the throne. You have all worked hard.” Ouyang Shuo said as he looked towards the ritualist, “I will name the Nanjiang Governor-General Lady as Queen, giving her the rank of 2nd class marquis, Ying Yuechang Infanta as Ying Yuechang Princess, awarded the rank of 3rd class marquis, Qing Yangchang Infanta as Qing Yangchang Princess, awarded the rank of 1st class earl, and Xue Yuechang Infanta as Xue Yuechang Princess, awarded rank of 2nd class marquis. They will all be awarded with treasures based on their title.”

Cui Yingyu, Qing’er, and Bing’er; these three princesses were all treated differently based on closeness. Considering the worries of the officials, Ouyang Shuo did not treat them equally.

Out of the three of them, Bing’er received the highest rank.

At this point, the new dynasty was officially established and the ascension was officially completed.

“Now that we have completed the rituals, we will begin the military parade. I still need to meet the queen, meeting adjourned.”

He boarded the palanquin once more and entered the palace.

The heavens were shining down on him as the sun was bright. There were no clouds for tens of thousands of miles, the sky was azure, and the sun hung high up in the sky, bathing the palace light.

Within the Xiangyun Palace.

Song Jia had already changed into her queen attire.

By her side were Cui Yingyu, Qing’er. and Bing’er; these three sisters were all dressed up in their princess dresses.

There were two more little sisters in the hall; they were Nuwa and Huo Chengjun.

During this ascension ceremony, apart from Gu Xiuwen and a few other officials, many of the other Governors had all rushed over to witness this remarkable moment.

On the other hand, the military generals needed to guard the land, so only half of them came back.

Huo Chengjun and Nuwa were the same; they had begged their dads to bring them here. The three little ladies that were all around the same age stood together; they looked really adorable and cute.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo, Zisu the newly appointed head of the court ladies led the court ladies and maidservants to bow, “Greetings to the king, Qianshui Qianshui Qian Qianshui!”

When Nuwa and Huo Chengjun saw him, they shouted in unison, “Brother King!”

Their voices were crisp and pleasing to the ear.

Song Jia also led the three sisters to greet him, “King(Brother King)!”

Seeing Bing’er learning from her two sisters, Ouyang Shuo gave out a bright smile. The promise that he had given his sister was finally fulfilled today.

Looking at the young lady in front of him, Ouyang Shuo felt that everything was worth it.

“Let’s go, follow me to view the parade.”

Ouyang Shuo did not want the officials and generals to wait for too long, so he only spent a short while in the palace before leaving once more.

On the reviewing stand in front of the Great Xia Palace, the many civil servants and generals were already in place. Apart from that, there were the VIPs who were not able to attend the ascension ceremony and had been waiting on the reviewing stand instead.

When Ouyang Shuo got off the palanquin, a sea of cheers awaited him.

“Qianshui Qianshui Qian Qianshui!”

Feng Qiuhuang, Wufu, and Zhan Lang all had envious expressions on their faces. To the Lords in the wilderness, this was the greatest honor.

They were even thinking about the day when they could ascend to the throne.

Ouyang Shuo, Song Jia, and the others all sat in the central region of the stand. Du Ruhui, who was in charge of managing the military parade, stood up and said loudly, “Military parade begin!”

The moment he finished his words, the gongs sounded, playing out a military tune.

Along with the rhythmic military band, stepping with the tempo, group after group of soldiers swarmed in. The first was the Guards Legion Corps Iron Armored Beast Cavalry Regiment personally led by Huo Qubing.

Following which was the Er’Lai led Heavy Armored Mountain Barbarian Infantry Regiment, Baiqi’s Iron Eagle Swordsmen, Sun Bin’s Li Race mountain force, and Han Xin’s Mingguang Armor Heavy Armored Cavalry.

They were all the symbols of each legion corps, which fed the eyes of all the VIPs as they exclaimed in awe.

When the war elephants entered the reviewing stage, it caused much shock. Closely behind were the P1 Type Cannons that astonished everyone.

Further behind were the five navy squadrons that mainly consisted of riflemen, along with the specialties of each squadron. Especially when one saw the Mediterranean Squadron Fleet Admiral Alvaro, many Lords had a new understanding of the ability of Shanhai City.

The last to appear was the alliance formation of Feng Qiuhuang, Wufu, and Gong Chengshi’s forces; they had all brought their strongest troops.   Updated by novelfull.Com

Feng Qiuhuang brought the Iron Futu Cavalry Regiment, Wufu brought the Mongol Cavalry Regiment, and Gong Chengshi brought a weirdly dressed Light Armored Cavalry Regiment, which was a special type of troops from Jiangchuan.

When the strong troops were revealed one by one, the eyes of the VIPs were opened, and they were stunned by the strength of the Great Xia Dynasty army.

When the Flying Squad flew passed the skies and tossed down colored banners, the military parade that lasted for close to an hour and a half finally came to an end.

Facing such an army, filled with land, air, and sea troops, the other Lords did not have a single thread of confidence to face them.

It was noon when the parade ended.

Ouyang Shuo personally held a feast to thank the civil servants, generals, and VIPs. The moment the feast ended, the VIPs all left one by one.

This ascension ceremony probably left a huge impression on all their hearts.

Before Kalia left, she sent an invitation to Ouyang Shuo to ask him to make a trip to Atlantis to discuss how to deal with the Mediterranean problem.

Ouyang Shuo smiled in reply as he also had such intentions.

When Nuwa left, she was unwilling.

Only after Ouyang Shuo promised to take time to see her at her tribe did she break out in a smile. Ouyang Shuo also hoped that there would be a chance for him to build a layer of friendship with the Fire Emperor Tribe and the Yellow Emperor Tribe.

As the guests left one by one, Shanhai City finally regained its peace and quiet. Of course, the calm was only relative. During the night, there would be many more festivities in the city.

Many counties and prefectures would hold celebratory ceremonies to rejoice in the occasion.

…

As the festivities faded away, Ouyang Shuo was still waiting to receive his reward.

Gaia waited for the entire ceremony to end before sending out the notifications instead of disrupting the ceremony.

At 2 PM, the System Notification sounded.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for successfully establishing the Great Xia Dynasty, reign title Shenwu, becoming the first king in China. Awarded 100 thousand merit points, 200 thousand reputation points, five million gold, and one special reward!”

…

The China region players had expected to receive such a notification. Currently, they were curious about what kind of special reward Gaia would grant him.

After all, compared to upgrading to a capital city, establishing a country was a bigger achievement and was incomparable in terms of merit points, reputation points, or gold.

Even so, the five million gold was something that stunned everyone. To 99% of the players, this sum was one that they would never be able to obtain even if they tried.

Chapter 848 - Golden Stage

As expected, the moment the System Notification finished, a World Notification was announced.

“World Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for successfully establishing the Great Xia Dynasty, reign title Shenwu, becoming the first king in the world. Awarded 150 thousand merit points, 300 thousand reputation points, hidden building Golden Stage, and one mysterious gift!”

…

Even though they were prepared, when the players heard the world notification, they still took in a deep cold breath. Gaia not only gave him a hidden building, but there was also a mysteries gift.

This was the first time ‘mysterious gift’ appeared in the notification, making everyone interested.

Unfortunately, they were not fated to see it.

The moment the notification ended, a System Notification sounded out in Ouyang Shuo’s ear.

“System Notification: Congratulations Qiyue Wuyi for obtaining a special reward, will you take it now?”

“Yes!”

He had obtained a special reward when he reached the Capital City level, so Ouyang Shuo was not too shocked.

“System Notification: Starting to receive the special reward…”

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for receiving an equipment award; obtained God Rank Set Dragon Battle Cape – Purple Dragon Pattern Cape, congratulations player!”

Ouyang Shuo smiled; this reward was what he wanted. Having a deep luck stat was different. Since getting the Dragon Battle Set till now, he had only gathered two pieces of the set.

Now, he had finally obtained the third piece.

Name: Purple Dragon Pattern Cape (God Rank)

Type: Cape

Weight: 2 kilograms

Defense: 80

Toughness: 92

Specialty: Quick Movement (raises movement speed by 50%)

Killing Technique: Defensive Wind (inject primordial energy to activate the cape to form a layer of wind, instantly raising movement speed by 100%, lasts for half an hour. Cooldown Time: 1 month.)

Restricted Occupations: General, Chivalrous Expert, Bailiff

Evaluation: Crafted from dragon leather, nourished by dragon blood, and forged from the flames of heaven; this item can only be used by an Overlord. Drop blood to recognize its master, cannot be traded, cannot be dropped, and can be evolved once more.

Note: Purple Dragon Pattern Cape is a part of the Dragon Battle Set, if one collect the whole set, a set specialty can be activated. Current set total: 3/5

After checking the stats of the cape, Ouyang Shuo shook his head. The name of the cape was so powerful but it was just used to escape.

Luckily, the cape looked mighty and fit with Ouyang Shuo’s current status.

…

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for obtaining a mysterious gift, will you collect it?”

“Yes!”

Ouyang Shuo suppressed his emotions. Obviously, he was really curious about the gift.

“System Notification: Starting to obtain a mysterious gift…”

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for obtaining special item; obtained Planet Hope Basic Information Atlas, congratulations!”

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, his eyes lit up.

A white light shone across and a thick book appeared in Ouyang Shuo’s hand. It was like an encyclopedia in real life, and there was a mysterious planet on the cover. It seemed like an image of Planet Hope.

On the left top corner of the book were the words top secret. Below the words ‘top secret’ was a serial number 0015, which showed that even in the federation, only 14 people could come into contact with this information.

The use of the code was also to prevent information from being released.

Ouyang Shuo dared to be certain that his book was different from the others.

If he revealed the secrets contained inside, someone would definitely know.

Ouyang Shuo took in a deep breath and flipped open the book, only to see the book split into geography, biology, and confidential sections. Each one was filled with pictures and brimmed with life.

The most magical part was that some of the pictures were animated.

Ouyang Shuo browsed through before he hurriedly closed the book.

Such a confidential document had greater meaning to Ouyang Shuo than any God Weapon. Even if someone took two God Rank tokens to exchange for it, Ouyang Shuo would not do it.

Especially to Ouyang Shuo, this information was really precious. Compared to the academic faction and Silver Hand, being unable to get information about Planet Hope had been worrying Ouyang Shuo.

As expected, this was a mysterious gift.

Ouyang Shuo had reason to doubt that Gaia was just using this chance to pass the info to him.

The random draw was just a joke.

Thinking back to what he had spoken with Zhan Lang about, Ouyang Shuo’s eyes lit up. No one knew what he was thinking and what he was planning.

Putting the book into his storage bag, Ouyang Shuo took in a deep breath, and his heart burned with unprecedented ambition.

“The road in front is still a long one.” Ouyang Shuo muttered.

After collecting the two presents, Ouyang Shuo took a look at the stats of the Golden Stage.

As he often read historical records, Ouyang Shuo was not unfamiliar with the Golden Stage. The Golden Stage was also the recruitment stage built during the Warring States Period.

In history, King Yan Zhao ascended in 311 BC and his reign lasted 33 years till 279 BC. When he was appointed, he was in a fervent quest for talents. He used the Golden Stage to recruit scholars and talents, and the people he recruited included famous generals like Yue Yi and Zhou Yan.

The backwards Yan state instantly became filled with talent. It changed from a place that was chaotic internally into a rich and prosperous state.

The Golden Stage designed by Gaia came from such a backstory.

Name: Golden Stage

Type: Hidden Building

Function: Each year, player can use one million gold to recruit a historical talent

Specialty: raises attraction of talents by 20%, raises fame of territory by 5%

As expected from the Golden Stage, recruiting one historical talent would use up one million gold; this was the most expensive hidden building in Shanhai City.

Luckily, it was already the 4th year of Gaia and the great Xia Dynasty was extremely rich.

If it was during the 1st year of Gaia and Gaia rewarded Shanhai City with this instead of the Recruitment Hall, Ouyang Shuo would probably cry.

Coincidentally, Gaia had rewarded him with five million gold. Without any hesitation, Ouyang Shuo activated the Golden Stage.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for activating the Golden Stage, first time activation, automatically obtaining a chance to recruit a historical talent, would you use the chance?”

“Yes!”

“System Notification: Recruitment confirmed, automatically deducting one million gold!”

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, his face twitched a little. It really was spending money like water. Now, he wished to receive a decent talent. If not, this one million gold would have gone to waste.

A white light shone across and a thin and cold middle-aged man appeared. Before he even spoke, one could feel a righteous and sharp aura.

“I am Wei Zheng, greetings king!”

When Ouyang Shuo saw this person, his expression was a little complicated. He did not think that he would actually summon such an official.

Speaking of Wei Zheng, one would think of the Saint Lord and good minister duo of Wei Zheng and Li Shimin. The two of them molded one another, the Lord becoming a powerful one and the minister becoming a righteous one.

The two of them had a rare bond and tales of their friendship were spread for thousands of years and were the example for people to follow.

Wei Zheng was a really righteous person who did not care who he was speaking to as long as he was right. He was loyal to his moral code and would not give in.

He lost his parents when he was young and lived a harsh childhood. However, he really loved to read and understood many different types of books and different fields of studies. He once became a priest and had also joined the army under Li Mi before.

After surrendering to the Tang Dynasty, Wei Zheng convinced Xu Shiji to surrender to Tang.

After the Xuanwu Gate Coup, Li Shimin recognized Wei Zheng’s bold ability. Not only did he not blame Wei Zheng, but he even let Wei Zheng become an official and question administrative matters. Wei Zheng focused on his task.

Ironically, since ancient times, a frank minister would not receive a happy ending, and Wei Zheng was no exception. Not Long after Wei Zheng’s death, the Tang emperor ordered people to destroy Wei Zheng’s stele and the legacy that he had created.

Name: Wei Zheng (Emperor Rank)

Dynasty: Sui Tang Dynasty

Identity: Great Xia Dynasty Civil Servant

Occupation: Civil Servant

Loyalty: 75

Command: 55

Force: 35

Intelligence: 85

Politics: 88

Specialty: Frank Minister (raises the territory honesty by 50%, raises people’s sentiment by 15%, raises territory transparency by 25%)

Evaluation: Wei Zheng was ambitious. He did not like all the small details and loved books; he was a really direct and straightforward person. He diligently served by the king’s side and placed the king above himself. He is ranked 4th in the Lingyan Pavilion for contributing ministers.

Chapter 849 - Soaring Aspirations

Wei Zheng’s arrival meant that the Censorate that Ouyang Shuo was planning to set up had a person to lead it.

The Censorate was a monitoring organization set up during the Han dynasty. In terms of their role, it was similar to the Regulatory Department in the Internal Affairs Court. Hence, Ouyang Shuo, after discussing the matter with Jiang Shang and Kou Zhun, he decided for the Censorate to focus on monitoring the officials and ministers of the court while the Regulatory Department would focus on the local officials.

The Regulatory Department was under the Internal Affairs Court, and it had a low rank and could not have an effective power over the officials of the dynasty. Ouyang Shuo replacing Jingjian was a sign.

At the same time, to allow the Censorate to do its job, Ouyang Shuo also announced that the Regulatory Department would be under both the Censorate and the Internal Affairs Court. In monitoring duties, the Censorate could lead the Regulatory Department.

Ouyang Shuo was being extremely decisive in putting Wei Zheng to lead the Censorate. Even someone like Tang Taizhong was unhappy with Wei Zheng not knowing his place.

As they say, if a dragon has a reverse scale, one must die if they touch it.

Wasn’t Wei Zheng’s final outcome a sign?

Ouyang Shuo could not confirm whether or not there would be a day where he fired Wei Zheng or killed him because he could not tolerate his existence.

After all, a person’s heart changes easily.

It was already 5 PM when Ouyang Shuo returned to the Xia palace. Although nighttime had not officially arrived, the palace was lit up with torches as people celebrated the birth of a new dynasty.

At night, Ouyang Shuo did not welcome anyone and just accompanied Song Jia and Bing’er to eat. The entire family sitting together was normal but heartening, and it temporarily removed the barrier of their identities.

How would an outsider guess that the most famous family in China would spend their most unforgettable night in such a calm and normal way?

The way Ouyang Shuo did things was always so unexpected.

4th month, 19th day, Wuji Palace.

In the distant horizon, a fiery sun rose up once again, causing an orange red glow to shine down on the earth. The warm sunlight passed through the curtains and shone into the palace.

Ouyang Shuo opened his eyes and stretched.

Ouyang Shuo had successfully built the Great Xia Dynasty, creating an unassailable foundation in the wilderness. Of course, Ouyang Shuo was far from the stage where he could take it easy.

Within the country, although Yanhuang Alliance had lowered their head, they were not ready to admit defeat. On the other hand, the Turks, west Xia, west region, Mongols, and Nuzhen had not officially come out yet. They would definitely be huge enemies of the Great Xia Dynasty that Ouyang Shuo needed to conquer one by one.

At the current moment, the hidden currents flowed.

In the nine imperial cities, the emperors who had not shown themselves had already started preparing; they were filled with ambition. The underground world just revealing itself had also caused so many waves. The mysterious underworld had quietly taken stage and started to spread over the wilderness.

Currently, it was only the 4th year of Gaia, so who knows what tests Gaia would push out to train the Lords in the wilderness.

The future China region would be far from the battles between Great Xia and Yanhuang Alliance. More mysterious powers would take to the field, and it would definitely be a more complicated place.

Overseas, Silver Hand threatened to move, and their conflicts with the Great Xia Dynasty were everywhere. In the Mediterranean, storms brewed, and the ASEAN states were hard to read and smoke bellowed in the Americas.

Moreover, the country war shadow slowly drew close as eastern and western civilization slaughtered and fought due to hatreds left from history and conflicts of interests.

More importantly, Ouyang Shuo’s ambition had not stopped.

Attacking Morocco, ruling the Mediterranean, running the Africa Continent, opening the great voyage path, taking down Annan, playing around with ASEAN, ruling the south ocean, heading toward Australia and trade with them, searching for the unknown civilization….

There was also their mortal enemy Japan, the swaying Korea, and the aloof America; all of these countries were strong opponents of the Great Xia Dynasty. The Great Xia Dynasty was far from its peak. After the king dynasty came the emperor dynasty and the imperial dynasty.

Ouyang Shuo’s goal of sweeping the universe and ruling everything had just started.

Even within the Great Xia Dynasty, there were many things to do. Industrialization had just started, their population was lacking, the foundations of the prefectures and counties were weak, and the progression of each area was not equal.

The road to ruling was one where if one did not advance, one would slide back.

At this moment, how would Ouyang Shuo think about slacking off? How could he slack?

As they say, ‘Fighting with heaven, endless enjoyment; fighting with the earth, endless enjoyment; fighting with people, endless enjoyment. In Ouyang Shuo’s heart, a never seen before ambition grew.

Men were just like that! … At 6 AM, Ouyang Shuo appeared punctually at the drill field.

Although he had ascended to the position of king, Ouyang Shuo would not disrupt his cultivation, and he still trained diligently.

When he was training in the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique, the primordial energy in his body was already swelling like a tidal wave. However, no matter how he rotated it, it would not increase.

After reaching the level of full mastery, it was tough to go any further.

Ouyang Shuo did not mind, practicing as usual. Even if he could not increase the amount of primordial energy, he could still make it purer and build a more stable foundation.

The path of cultivation was like the path of ruling; if one did not advance, one would lose out.

After slightly washing up, Ouyang Shuo came to the drill field only to see Xu Chu leading the Personal Guards in training.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he suddenly got interested and said to Xu Chu, “Come, let’s have a fight.” Ouyang Shuo wanted to test how much his skills had improved after he mastered the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique.

Xu Chu hesitated.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Do not worry, I know my limits.”

Seeing that there was no way for him to reject, Xu Chu guided his machete forward, taking up a lowered stance and a defensive gesture. Ouyang Shuo did not think much of it, shaking his spear and striking first.

The Tianmo Spear was already connected to Ouyang Shuo, and the spear pierced out like a dragon. Its might hid many changes, and it could be either hard or soft.

When Xu Chu saw that, he did not dare to take the move lightly. He raised both his hands to block the attack and grasped the machete tightly. In an instance, the spear and the machete knocked into one another.

After mastering the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique, Ouyang Shuo’s strength was really terrifying. Along with the Tianmo Spear, even a general like Xu Chu could feel his hand turn numb after one strike.

Xu Chu focused, finally turning serious. His thick hands pushed forward, and the machete chopped along the body of the spear, magically reducing the power as he regained his footing.

Ouyang Shuo did not give Xu Chu a chance when he saw that he had the advantage. He changed the movement of his spear and used stroke after stroke, not giving Xu Chu any chance to breathe.

Xu Chu’s forehead was covered in sweat. He did not expect the king to actually be so skilled. Luckily, Xu Chu was a skilled general and was really experienced. Although he was at a disadvantage, he still managed to successfully defend against all the hits.

When the nearby Personal Guards saw that, they stopped their drills and circled around. They did not even dare to take in deep breaths.

Ouyang Shuo was also a person who did not like to lose, and he wanted to show his newfound ambition through primitive combat.

The Tianmo Spear was used so well by Ouyang Shuo that only a black glow could be seen. He was familiar with all the strokes and used them one by one without thinking.

Xu Chu was really experienced. Seeing that the king’s skill had reached the bottleneck of a breakthrough, he rotated the energy in his body to calm it down while also blocking the king’s attacks to become a good target.

In a short while, they had fought over 100 rounds.

The fully trained Yellow Emperor cultivation meant that even whilst using so much energy, Ouyang Shuo still had a lot of primordial energy.

That alone caused Xu Chu, whose face was slightly red, to fall to a disadvantage. He only managed to hold on because of his talents, not only was he born with god strength, but his body qualities were really good.

The two of them, one attacked and one defended, a very even fight.

This lasted for a full half an hour when Ouyang Shuo used a ‘squid breaks away from hook’ to back off. When Xu Chu saw that, he was panting like a cow but still guarded at a side, not letting anyone get close.

After a short while, Ouyang Shuo opened his eyes once more, and a smile appeared on his face. He did not expect that this battle would let his Tianmo Spear Technique touch the perfection level.

It would not take long for him to step into this mysterious 6th level.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Xu Chu, who was still guarding by his side, and he nodded in satisfaction, “That’s it for today, let’s continue tomorrow.”

When Xu Chu heard that, he gave an awkward nod. … At 7 AM, after a simple breakfast, Ouyang Shuo came to the reading room.

In the newly furnished Imperial Reading Room, Tsing Yi and Jia Xu were waiting for him. The two of them, one would be appointed as the Secret Document Pavilion Advisor, while the other as the Administrative Mentor Court Chief Secretary to participate in administrative and military discussions and come up with strategies.

The two of them were waiting here because of three imperial decrees. They were the ones that Ouyang Shuo needed to read at the first court assembly.

Amongst which, there were the lists regarding the Great Xia rank and title system, the Great Xia organization structure, and relevant appointments. The last had to do with the nine ranks of officials in the dynasty.

Each of these decrees had to do with the foundation of the dynasty.

When Shanhai City had upgraded to Capital City, the three documents were already in their draft stage. Many drafts were gone through during that period, and after discussions with the cabinet and many ministers, it was made by the Secret Document Court into an imperial decree.

Chapter 850 - Country Embarks

Within the Imperial Reading Room.

Ouyang Shuo solemnly took out the imperial seal, taking a last look at the three imperial decrees before personally stamping it. With that, the imperial decrees were set and could not be changed.

When Tsing Yi saw that, she took out a cotton box and carefully placed the imperial decrees inside.

At this very moment, a court lady reported, “My king, the auspicious time has arrived!”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, smiling as she said to Tsing Yi and Jia Xu, “Let’s go, to the court.” … 8 AM sharp, Xia Palace main hall.

The auspicious time had arrived, and Ouyang Shuo sat on the throne and started the first court assembly of the Great Xia Dynasty.

Ouyang Shuo looked down at the civil servants and generals and seriously said, “A new dynasty has been establishing and must be ruled properly. I’ve ascended to the throne, and I’ll remove all chaos, setting up a system to rule the wilderness.”

The officials all bowed, “The king is wise!”

Ouyang Shuo said, “Decree!”

Secretary Bai Nanpu who was standing not far from Ouyang Shuo respectfully took out the cotton box and started to read the imperial decree upon hearing the order.

Bai Nanpu had been around Ouyang Shuo for a long time; he was stable in his work. Although he was placed in the Secret Document Pavilion, his role was more like the manager of the eunuchs, and he was in charge of reading the imperial decrees.

To Bai Nanpu, it was the king showing him a lot of gratitude and thanks.

The first decree to be read was the Great Xia Dynasty title system.

Based on the system, any children of the Great Xia Dynasty, be it soldiers, students, artisans, or merchants, as long as they did well in their fields, they could be awarded a title.

To the dynasty, soldiers killing on the battlefield were contributing, merchants paying tax and opening up trade routes were contributing, teachers educating were contributing, artisans inventing were contributing….

Since one contributed, one needed to be rewarded.

The lowest title was the 1st class baron. The titles were further split down into nine grades, 1st class as the highest and 9th class as the lowest. Each occupation had their specific class standards.

The title given by the dynasty was only an honorary one; it did not come with any salary increase or monetary reward. However, anyone with a title would have a higher status than civilians and would be treated with more respect.

Hence, it gave people who contributed to the dynasty a lot of respect.

After reading the title system, Bai Nanpu followed by announcing the list of the first group of people granted titles. Apart from the few during the ascension ceremony, all the generals and civil servants present were given titles one by one.

Based on Ouyang Shuo’s request, the titles were not given based on appointment but by their contribution to the dynasty. Hence, the longer the official served in the territory, the higher their title.

Take Culture Division Secretary Xu Shuda as an example; he was given the title of 3rd class earl. Even if newcomers had high appointments, they might just become a viscount. For example, Kou Zhun and Di Renjie were given the titles of 3rd class viscount.

With that, it rewarded the old guard while also giving the new ones pressure to give their all for the dynasty.

… After announcing the list of people who were given titles, next would be to announce the organizational structure of the Great Xia Dynasty as well as the appointments.

During this reorganization, apart from adjusting the original organizations, 20 odd support organizations were made to perfect the system.

The new support organizations included the imperial medical court, imperial academy, and the like.

The Xia Palace used court ladies to replace eunuchs, setting up 12 offices.

Apart from that, in the inner palace, there were also four new divisions and eight bureaus, merging into the 24 Yamen of the inner palace. The court ladies also had six bureaus, paying attention to the palace, rituals, food, sleep, and the like. Each bureau had four divisions under them.

However, since only Ouyang Shuo, Song Jia, and the underage princes Bing’er lived in the palace, Ouyang Shuo did not like excessive extravagance and ordered the 24 Yamen to make it simple.

If not, it would be hard to maintain the running of the dynasty.

With the support organizations being set up one by one, the aura and appearance of a dynasty appeared.

Of course, the most core adjustments were in the original Nanjiang Governor-General House. These organizations were the true core to maintaining the running of the dynasty and had to be treated seriously.

Setting up the cabinet to take charge of administrative matters, there would be one Grand Secretary and one assistant. Jiang Shang was officially appointed as the Grand Secretary and Kou Zhun as the assistant to help Ouyang Shuo.

There was also the setting up of the Grand Council, where the War Division, Military Intelligence Division, and Navy Headquarters would be under.

With that, the Privy Court would mainly care about the daily matters of the army and their logistics, while the Grand Council would be in charge of commanding. These two organizations would work together whilst also working independently.

The Grand Council would have one head to lead them all.

Military Affairs Minister Du Ruhui would temporarily take the role of Grand Council Head, Navy Admiral Zheng He, Guards Legion Corps Marshal Huo Qubing, Dragon Legion Corps Marshal Baiqi, Tiger Legion Corps Marshal Sun Bin, and Leopard Legion Corps Marshal Han Xin would all be members of the council.

The Cabinet and the Grand Council were the highest military and administrative organizations in the dynasty. Apart from the organizations under Ouyang Shuo’s direct control, the others would be under these two.

The Clerk Room would be upgraded to the Secret Document Pavilion, and there would be one advisor and two secretaries. Tsing Yi would be the Secret Document Pavilion Advisor and Bai Nanpu would be the secretary.

They would also set up the Administrative Mentor Court to take charge of military and administrative questions; they would also be in charge of memorials. There would be one Chief Secretary, two advisors, and four secretaries. Jia Xu was appointed as the Chief Secretary and Chen Gong as the advisor.

The Censorate would be set up to be in charge of monitoring, and there would be one minister, and one assistant minister. Wei Zheng would be the minister while Feng Ting would be the assistant minister.

The newly established Secret Document Pavilion, Administrative Mentor Court, and Censorate, along with the Honglu Temple, Shanhai Guards, and Black Snake Guards were the six organizations under Ouyang Shuo’s direct control.

Below the cabinet would be the Administrative Court, Internal Affairs Court, Financial Court, and Privy Court as well as the Industrialization Department and the Four Seas Bank.

The secretaries under the four courts would all be upgraded to department, and their member appointments would be kept the same with no changes.

After the reshuffle, the local offices and Yamens around the territory needed to adjust too.

Based on the system, the local offices would all be set into six grades, province, prefecture, house, county, township, and village. Each grade would have a fixed number and one could not randomly add or deduct the number.

At the same time, the province used bureau as the highest grade, prefectures had department, house had division, county had office, and township and villages had branches.

Branch, office, division, department, bureau, and court; these were the six layers of the organizational system.

With that, the system was fluid and perfected. Only then could they ensure a smooth administrative system.

… The last imperial decree that Bai Nanpu read was regarding the nine grade rank. Since one had a perfect system, one needed strict and clear grades.

Based on the system, the Great Xia Dynasty would have nine grades of officials, one primary and one secondary, for a total of 18 grades.

Based on Ouyang Shuo’s request, the Great Xia Dynasty would not have a grand tutor, a senior grand tutor, and a grand protector. The Imperial Court civil servants were led by the Cabinet Grand Secretary and the generals were under the Grand Council.

The Cabinet Grand Secretary, Cabinet Assistant Grand Secretary, and the head of the Grand Council were all Primary Grade 1; Administration, Internal Affairs, Financial, and Military Affairs Ministers were all Secondary Grade 1.

Di Ruhui taking up two roles meant that he would have the higher rank. In the future, when the time was right, Ouyang Shuo was considering getting a minister for the Grand Council to do daily duties.

The Honglu Temple and Censorate leaders were Primary Grade 2, and the assistant ministers of the four courts and the Zhili viceroy were Secondary Grade 2.

Taking this chance, Ouyang Shuo officially announced the four assistant ministers of the four courts. He appointed Zhang Tingyu as Assistant Administration Minister, Di Renjie as Assistant Internal Affairs Minister, Cui Yingyu as Assistant Financial Minister, and Xiahou Dun as Assistant Military Affairs Minister.

Original Military Affairs Bureau Deputy Director Zhao Kuo would move along with the War Division to the Grand Council.

The Zhili viceroy was like the head of all governors.

The Provincial Governors, Administrative Mentor Court Minister, Shanhai Guards Commander and Black Snake Guards Commander were all Primary Grade 3. The directors beneath the courts, such as Industrialization Director, and Four Seas Bank Treasurer, were all Secondary Grade 3.

Secret Document Pavilion Advisor, Censorate Assistant Minister, and the like would be Primary Grade 4, while the secretary and deputy directors of the four courts would be Secondary Grade 4.

Out of the six organizations directly under him, Honglu Temple was in charge of diplomacy, and the Censorate handled channels for criticism and feedback; they were really important departments. Hence, their position was really high and only second to the four courts.

The Administrative Mentor Court, Shanhai Guards, and Black Snake Guards were on the same level as a Provincial Governor. Although the Secret Document Pavilion was really close to Ouyang Shuo, he only gave it a Primary Grade 4 rank.

The reason he arranged it like this was naturally to set up restrictions.

Further down, the secretaries of the four courts, the directors of the provincial Yamens were all Primary Grade 5. The Governor and deputy directors of the provincial Yamens were Secondary Grade 5.

Directors of the House level were Primary Grade 6, and Prefects were Secondary Grade 6. Country Magistrate and House Secretaries were Primary Grade 7. The four office managers at the county level would be Primary Grade 8 and the branch heads were Secondary Grade 8.

The town mayor was Primary Grade 9, while village heads and town grade branch heads were Secondary Grade 9.

After the grade system was released, all the officials in the dynasty would be given a rank with a certain amount of salary.

Hence, there was a way to settle the ruling foundations of the dynasty.

A new dynasty was about to arrive!

Chapter 851 - Mediterranean Ocean Problem

Chapter 851: Mediterranean Ocean Problem

The 4th month was the time when the spring sun was the brightest and the flowers bloomed.

Shanhai City was similarly filled with life, and flowers were present everywhere – in the garden, beside the patio, and on the bridges; there were many people there to enjoy the flowers.

A week had passed since the coronation ceremony and Shanhai City had slowly returned to normal. However, life still changed, and one would occasionally see people with titles passing by on the streets, enjoying the envious eyes of civilians around them.

Titles became a hot topic in the mouths of the civilians. In life, apart from health and riches, there was a higher and new pursuit.

Living beneath the prince of heaven added a new bunch of pride and prestige to the people; such ambition was the spirit needed to start up a new world.

The Great Xia Dynasty was still progressing forwards.

…

Xia Palace, Imperial Reading Room

After a period of adapting, the Imperial Court slowly walked onto the right path.

However, as the highest ruler of the Great Xia Dynasty, Ouyang Shuo could not help but frown. The reason was a letter in front of him. The letter was from Vic City Lord Henry, and it brought with it bad news.

A day ago, Vic City was forced by the higher ups of Silver Hand to finally back out of the Mediterranean Alliance and also stop the supply of Jidian City at the same time.

The cooperation between the two was coming to an end.

Yesterday, Vic City gave the last batch of resources to Jidian City, and it was only enough to last them for half a month. Without the resources, Jidian City would be in a shaky situation.

In the letter, Henry expressed his apologies and regrets over being unable to continue the cooperation. Despite that, he was really resolute in his decision to stop the contract.

It was obvious that the pressure caused by Silver Hand was one he could not break away from.

“What would come would come in the end!”

Luckily, Henry had a little conscience and told Ouyang Shuo early. If not, Jidian City would be in a horrendous situation.

Henry’s actions revealed the contradiction in his heart. First, Vic City had no way to go against the organization. Secondly, Henry did not want to totally make enemies with the Great Xia Dynasty.

Such a thought process was probably really common in Silver Hand. Group and personal conflict of interest was not a fresh topic

And along with Vic City backing out of the Mediterranean Alliance, the shaky and weak alliance was on the verge of collapse. Although there was Kalia holding it off, Ouyang Shuo could not just sit around and do nothing.

Who knows how big the storm in the Mediterranean would get this time.

Atlantis City was the most reliable ally of the Great Xia Dynasty in the Mediterranean Ocean. Protecting the interests of Atlantis City would in turn be protecting the interests of the Great Xia Dynasty.

There was nothing conflicting about the two.

Towards this point, Ouyang Shuo saw through it really clearly.

Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo came to the window. He looked out at the horizon and towards the ocean, thinking to himself, ‘It’s time to make a trip there!’

At this very moment, the court lady came to report, “King, Mr Jiang and Mr Kou are here!”

The cabinet office was not within the Xia Palace and was not far away from the Imperial Reading Room. After looking at Henry’s letter and making his decision, the first people Ouyang Shuo summoned were these two cabinet elders.

Before leaving, there were many things that Ouyang Shuo needed to arrange. After all, the Dynasty was just established; the foundations were not stable, and he could not let anything go wrong.

Ouyang Shuo turned around, “Let them enter!”

“Yes my king!”

After a short while, Jiang Shang and Kou Zhun walked into the Imperial Reading Room, bowing, “My King!”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, “Men, bring in seats!”

“Take a look at this!”

Ouyang Shuo said, passing the letter from Henry over. Jiang Shang took the letter and carefully read it. His expression did not change as he passed it over to Kou Zhun.

After Kou Zhun read the letter, Ouyang Shuo asked, “How should we deal with it?”

The two of them exchanged glances with one another; they did not know when to start. Nothing need to be said about Kou Zhun, who had just arrived and familiarized with the workings of the Imperial Court. He also did not have a clear understanding of the overseas operations of the Dynasty. Naturally, it was not good for him to speak.

Even Jiang Shang did not have a great understanding because he had been working in Xinan University. For them to give their views now was asking too much of them.

There was one thing that they were certain about.

Jidian City was an important point on the Xia Dynasty trade route. Ocean trade was also a really important source of financial income for the dynasty, so its strategic importance was invaluable.

Hence, it was not easy for them to come to a conclusion.

The two of them took a long at one another and Jiang Shang said, “My king, please make the decision!”

Ouyang Shuo smiled and said, “The Mediterranean has many waves; it concerns the dynasty and needs to be solved. In my eyes, we can start to attack Morocco.”

Jiang Shang was astonished, and he immediately thought about the reason why the king had summoned them. It was not to ask for their views but for another reason. Jiang Shang asked probingly, “The king is planning to go personally?”

Ouyang Shuo looked at Jiang Shang with an impressed eye. As expected, he found the root of the issue.

“That’s right.” Ouyang Shuo did not deny it and nodded, “The Mediterranean situation is complicated. If I do not go over, it will not be enough to settle the situation.”

Jiang Shang agreed in silence. Although he was not willing, he could not find a reason to retort.

Ouyang Shuo took the time to say, “While I’m away, the dynasty matters will be left to you two!”

Jiang Shang exchanged glances with Kou Zhun. He knew that the king had already made up his mind, and they had no way to stop it. They could only stand up in unison and bow, “Yes my king!”

Ouyang Shuo did not purposely want to walk away from the responsibility but seeing that the system was formed, even if Ouyang Shuo was away from awhile, all the administrative processes would run normally.

In comparison, the Mediterranean problem could not be delayed.

After sending them away, Ouyang Shuo started to prepare for his expedition. This was the first expedition since he ascended, and it had great meaning.

First was to choose who to bring along.

He naturally needed to bring Tsing Yi and Jia Xu along. Next would be the Divine Martial Guards led by Xu Chu.

The newly appointed head of the court lady Zisu would choose two high ranked court ladies and four of the most caring palace maids to be in charge of Ouyang Shuo’s dining.

There were others things like transport and the like.

Ouyang Shuo naturally did not need to worry about this. What he needed to consider was which troops to move for the battle at Morocco. He wanted it to be easy for him to give orders to the Privy Court to make preparations.

Ouyang Shuo had some knowledge about Morocco.

After turning their sights to overseas, the Black Snake Guards had placed a lot of effort in investigating Morocco, doing the preparatory work for their attack.

They had information that most of the Moroccan cities were on the northwest coast, including their capital Rabat, garden city Casa Blanca, port city Tangier, Agadier, and the like.

The key was still their player numbers, which was estimated at around 2.5 million.

This meant that the Great Xia Army would face at least 250 thousand imperial city guards, 300 thousand combat occupation players, and around 200 thousand Lord troops.

Hence, compared to the Singapore that he had destroyed, Morocco was not as easy to take down. To take it down, Great Xia needed to at least use 300 to 400 thousand of their elite troops.

Apart from that, they still needed to consider the help from Mediterranean countries like Spain, Portugal, France, and the like.

To make matters worse, the expedition force only had Jidian City, such a small sentry base. Not mentioning others, but could it fit such a huge army?

As for logistical provisions, that was an even bigger problem.

If they failed, hundreds of thousands of troops would die overseas.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to bring the Divine Martial Guards over to do some early preparations. They needed to wait for the right time to send out their army.

As for the troops to send, in terms of the army, Ouyang Shuo selected the 2nd and 3rd legions of the Guards Legion Corps, and the 1st and 5th legions of the Dragon Legion Corps.

Based on the principles that Ouyang Shuo had set down, after establishing the country, he could not randomly move the 1st Guards Legion that was housed in the imperial city as well as the City Protection Legion housed outside.

Hence, although the Boulder Army was good at sieging, Ouyang Shuo could not use them.

Out of the three War Fighting Legions, the five legions of the Tiger Legion had strong enemies around; the Leopard Legion Corps needed to defend the Satellite City and thus could not be moved.

At most, he could only move out the 4th legion of the Leopard Legion Corps.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it and only the Dragon Legion could be moved. At the current stage, only Yunnan Province was in a good state, and its borders were really stable and did not need many troops there.

The Guards Legion was easy as they could be directly teleported from Shanhai City.   U.p..dated by Novelfull.Com

The 1st legion of the Dragon Legion Corps was housed outside Consonance City and could teleport over to Jidian City using the Consonance City teleportation formation. As for the 5th legion, it needed to first reach Shanhai City before teleporting.

As for the navy, they could only rely on the Mediterranean Squadron. Even the Xingzhou Squadron that was nearby would take too long to assist.

Ouyang Shuo hoped that Alvaro’s Mediterranean Squadron would not disappoint him.

After settling on that, Ouyang Shuo left the remaining matters to the Privy Court to settle. 4th month, 27th day, Ouyang Shuo brought the Divine Martial Guards along with him and sneakily left Shanhai City.

Chapter 852 - Atlantis' Problem

4th month, 27th day, Jidian City.

Jidian City was built during the middle of the 8th month of the 3rd year of Gaia, and it has been half a year since then. The ruins that were engulfed in flames were now renewed to become a shining jewel of the Mediterranean.

After the first voyage ended, especially after opening up the teleportation formation in Jidian City, Shanhai City’s support for Jidian City had never ended. If they needed people, people were sent over, if they needed resources, resources were sent over.  U.p..dated by Novelfull.Com

At the current day, Jidian City was already a war castle, and the side of the castle facing the ocean was lined up with 200 P1 Type Cannons, which were enough to scare away everyone. Even if the Spanish Invincible Squadron attacked into the Gibraltar Straits, they could only back off and cower in the face of such firepower.

Towards the support of Shanhai City, Jidian City had repaid it. As the important chokepoint of the voyage trade route, Jidian City had earned over 200 thousand from trade tax.

Especially chambers of commerce like the Song Family, Bai Family Trading Corporation, and Cui Chamber of Commerce; they used the convenience of the teleportation formation to earn buckets of gold.

Due to the need to keep the matter a secret, Ouyang Shuo and his groups’ arrival did not shock many. Only Alvaro, the Jidian City Mayor, and Black Snake went over to receive him.

After a simple greeting, Ouyang Shuo entered the city manor and the Divine Martial Guards quietly took over the defensive duties. The City Protection Division of Jidian City was on alert on the outskirts.

After arriving in Jidian City, what Ouyang Shuo wanted to learn the most about was the Mediterranean Squadron.

In this attack on Morocco, the Mediterranean Squadron would play a hugely important role. Whether they would be able to fend off the Spanish Invincible Squadron or not, and to ensure their country destruction battle was not disrupted, would be the key to victory or defeat.

Luckily, Alvaro, this Spanish famous general, did not let Ouyang Shuo down.

Last year, when Ouyang Shuo left Jidian City, the Mediterranean Squadron was not unable to reach full scale due to the lack of manpower. Half a year had passed and the squadron had smoothly reached full scale.

The secret was in the pirates.

Alvaro followed and executed Ouyang Shuo’s pirate clearing strategy, leading the squadron into the Atlantic, killing various types of pirates, especially the Vikings who were boldly disturbing the Atlantic.

With that, not only did they protect the safety of the trade route, they also obtained a batch of fierce sailors and soldiers. The Mediterranean Squadron was made up of 1/4 of Vikings and half were originally pirates.

Luckily, Alvaro was a fierce and experience general, and only then did he manage to calm down and control the bunch.

Another change in the Mediterranean Squadron happened after Three Kingdoms General Lu Meng was appointed. The clash in eastern and western navy techniques and the merger of skills happened perfectly in the Mediterranean Squadron.

Alvaro’s attitude towards his assistant had changed from wary and defensive to one of admiration. Currently, the two had a close relationship.

Alvaro was really engrossed in how Lu Meng brought with him eastern tactics.

Similarly, Lu Meng was also a person who loved to learn. Seeing the more advanced western technologies and techniques, his eyes had been opened up.

The sparks formed through eastern and western knowledge merging made a great ideological platform for new ideas.

With the help of Admiral Zheng He, the two of them worked together to come up with a training manual that mixed eastern and western training methods to guide the entire navy.

After reviewing the Mediterranean Squadron, Ouyang Shuo felt more confident in the upcoming battle.

On the first day after reaching Jidian City, after reviewing the squadron, Ouyang Shuo spent the rest of his time talking to the officials. After the discussion, Ouyang Shuo had a clear understanding of the situation.

At night, Ouyang Shuo stayed alone in the reading room, closing his eyes and thinking.

Before coming, Ouyang Shuo was unsure about the Mediterranean strategy of the Great Xia Dynasty; he did not have a clear strategic plan.

The conversations during the day gave Ouyang Shuo a lot of inspiration and some ideas became clear. Combining it all together, he formed a certain strategic plan.

To use a sentence to describe it, it was, ‘High walls, father grain, slowly become king.’

4th month, 28th day, Ouyang Shuo who had made his mind up became more relaxed.

Under the protection of the Mediterranean Squadron, Ouyang Shuo quietly left Jidian City and went towards Atlantis City.

From the words of Black Snake, he learnt that Atlantis City was not having as good a time as it appeared.

As they were on the same side, the western Lords naturally wanted the technology of Atlantis and were willing to work with them.

The key was interests.

Kalia was a smart queen and knew that Atlantis having the technologies was the reason it was able to maintain its position in the Mediterranean. Hence, she would not release it on a large scale.

This caused conflicts with the western Lords.

No matter how wonderful a thing was, if one could not get it, one would not feel good about it. Not to mention that this was in a game where the law of the jungle reigned supreme.

Moreover, with how Atlantis City strongly supported Jidian City, it raised the unhappiness of the Lords. In their eyes, Atlantis City’s actions were a betrayal of civilization.

Being restricted by land, the city that did not really have a strong army had already become the target of ambitious players that wanted to swallow it.

However, Kalia did not mention this when she attended the coronation ceremony. Ouyang Shuo visiting Atlantis City was to help solve the problem for Kalia. … At 11 AM, the warship stopped at the port in Atlantis.

As this was a secret visit, furthermore there were many adventure gamemode players gathered from various Mediterranean countries, Ouyang Shuo disguised himself before sneaking into the palace.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo, Kalia was delighted.

However, the sharp Ouyang Shuo noticed that a few core members accompanying her showed unhappiness and wariness.

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo had more and more confidence in his judgement.

After the simple greeting, Ouyang Shuo tossed out his idea, “Kalia, along with Vic City dropping out, the Mediterranean Alliance is lacking an important part. I think it’s time to disband it.”

Kalia’s expression changed, and she shook, “Why? Even without Vic City, I can still find other territories to fill the gap, why disband?” During the coronation ceremony, Kalia had dragged 10 Mediterranean Lords over so her words were true.

Ouyang Shuo pressed down his hands to signal for her to calm down, “Disbanding the alliance does not mean stopping our cooperation. The terms of the alliance are still effective.” Thinking for a while, Ouyang Shuo added, “This would not affect our private friendship.”

“Then why disband?” Kalia asked.

Ouyang Shuo voiced his thoughts, “You should understand that a neutral Atlantis City is the best and would not be threatened and chided. Only then can you stay tall and above all. And such an Atlantis City fits the interests of Xia Dynasty in the Mediterranean.”

When Kalia heard that, she kept silent and did not reply.

Kalia obviously understood that theory. Although Atlantis City was faced with a crisis, it did not lack allies to work with.

At the very least, Greece had an absolutely good impression of Atlantis.

There were only a few Lords that dared to attack Atlantis City. A large portion of them still held a neutral attitude.

The only thing was that the close relationship between them and Jidian City as well as the needless provocation of Silver Hand was what these allies could not understand.

Hence, it placed Atlantis in a really awkward situation.

Ouyang Shuo had seen through this point, so he decided to cut Atlantis City loose and not allow them to fall into a crisis just for Jidian City.

“Then what about Jidian City?” Kalia asked uneasily.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and said confidently, “I came over to solve that problem so do not worry.”

“Do not lie to me. Can you tell me about the specifics?” Kalia did not believe it.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he smiled and said nothing. He swept his eyes across the Atlantis core members around, using his actions to send a message.

Who knows whether there was anyone present bought by Silver Hand.

Ouyang Shuo was not going to take that risk.

Kalia understood, turning around, “You can back off!”

When the ministers saw that, they all said goodbye one by one. In truth, many of them had met Ouyang Shuo and knew that he was the savior of Atlantis.

Their wariness was only because of their worry for the future of Atlantis.

They thought that Ouyang Shuo had come to create problems for them. Who knew that the situation would turn out as so, making it really awkward for them.

These old fellows had stayed too long at the bottom of the ocean and lacked some knowledge of the real world, making them look really adorable.

Only after they all left did Ouyang Shuo tell her about his plan. If Ouyang Shuo could take down Morocco, it would be great news for Atlantis too.

The two of them had a round of discussions.

Regarding the attack on Morocco, Ouyang Shuo still needed the coordination of Kalia.

Chapter 853 - Sentry Base

Chapter 853: Sentry Base

4th month, 29th day, a certain piece of news stunned the entire Mediterranean.

The queen of Atlantis City Kalia made an open statement that from today onwards that Atlantis had officially left the Mediterranean Alliance. Moreover, Atlantis was willing to work with the Mediterranean countries to expand on the lost technologies of Atlantis civilization and bring prosperity to the entire Mediterranean.

The moment the news went out, the Lords of the Mediterranean cheered out. The Greek Lord even hurried to meet Kalia the crown of queen of the Mediterranean to show respect.

The crisis that Atlantis seemed to be in had been solved almost instantly.

Along with both Atlantis and Vic City both leaving the alliance, the alliance had lost two of its sides and Jidian City alone was unable to sustain its survival.

With Ouyang Shuo’s instructions, Jidian City Mayor followed to announce that the Mediterranean Alliance had regretfully disbanded. With that, the super alliance that had been formed not a year ago came to rest.

The sudden disbandment of the Mediterranean Alliance made the Mediterranean really chaotic.

Whilst the alliance existed, it was the absolute head of the ocean, and it was the one to maintain law and order. Now that it disbanded, who should control the Mediterranean?

Should it be Vic City, the Spanish Invincible Squadron, or the Roman Squadron?

If the three of them went head to head, there would be a great scene to watch.

The only party that people forgot about was the Great Xia Mediterranean Squadron. The departure of Vic City and Atlantis meant that Jidian City was all alone in the Mediterranean.

“No matter how strong the Great Xia Dynasty is, the Mediterranean is still under us.” The Lords of the Mediterranean said.

Of course, with the high profits from the voyage trading, the Mediterranean countries would not do anything to the Great Xia Dynasty. After all, everyone wanted to earn money.

Even if someone wanted to act, they would have to wait till the new ruler of the Mediterranean was born.

…

France, Vic City.

Henry was alone in his reading room, his brows locked tight. Henry could not understand the sudden drop out of Atlantis City. With his understanding of Kalia and Ouyang Shuo, the two should not have hurried to break up.

“What kind of plot is the Great Xia Dynasty planning?” Thinking about how Ouyang Shuo saw through everything clearly, Henry could not help but feel a shiver run down his spine.

Half a year ago, Vic City had taken the opportunity of the fall of the Spanish Invincible Squadron, using the quick ships of the alliance to break through the lock of the Spanish and soar unhindered through the Mediterranean.

After the alliance disbanded, what should the Gual Squadron do?

Henry suddenly felt his head hurt, he had no idea whether he family’s strategy was right this time or not. Henry had a feeling that the Great Xia Dynasty was even more terrifying.

…

Spain, Tortosa City.

In contrast to Henry’s depression, Casillas was delighted, “Silver Hand has fulfilled their promise; it’s our turn to act!”

Sitting opposite Casillas was the Lord of Madrid City, Juan.

The two strongest Spanish Lords looked at one another, seeing the flames in each other’s eyes. The Spanish Invincible Squadron had stayed hidden for half a year, bearing all the humiliation. It was time for them to appear once more.

“Should we take down Jidian City first?” Juan asked.

Casillas did not let his excitement get to his head, shaking his head, “Jidian City has been fortified so well by them, so it is not easy to take down. The key is to take over the rule over the Mediterranean. As long as we control the ocean rights, wouldn’t Jidian City be there for the taking?”

Juan nodded, “You’re right!”

“We must let the Gual Squadron know that it is not easy to rule the oceans.” Casillas’s hatred of Henry was no lower than his hatred for Ouyang Shuo.

The two squadrons were destined to be enemies and a battle was unavoidable.

…

Italy, Caesar City.

Within the magnificent palace hall, Caesar was being served by a beautiful maid servant as he listened to the report from his minister. On his handsome face, a cold glow shone.

“So we lost the chance to attack Atlantis?” Caesar drank all the red wine in the cup, his voice turning really cold.

“That seems to be the case. The Lords who agreed to attack with us have all expressed their desire to stay silent and wait for changes.”

“A bunch of rats.” Caesar regretfully shook his head, “Kalia, that b*tch, tossed out a bone and they all ran over to lick it like a pack of dogs….”

“….”

The minister did not know how to reply.

“Tell Anthony that the Mediterranean is the territory of our Roman Squadron. Do not let the Spanish and French come over and snatch our things.” Caesar ordered.

“Yes!”

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

Jidian City.

Whilst the Mediterranean was in chaos, the Great Xia Dynasty started to work.

As Morocco’s main cities were located on the coasts and far away from Jidian City, even with the strong transport ability of the Mediterranean Squadron, they would not be able to send all four legions over at once.

Needless to say there were huge amounts of war resources that needed to be shipped.

Furthermore, if the Mediterranean Squadron kept moving out, it was easy to raise suspicion.

Because of that, they would build sentry bases on the islands surrounding Morocco to store resources and house troops.

Due to the game expanding 10 times, small rocks on the seas could expand into huge desolate islands. As the Mediterranean Squadron had been clearing out pirates in the Atlantis for the half year, they were really familiar with the region.

Under Alvaro’s planning, they chose two storage bases and three military bases.

In the half year since they opened up the trade route, thousands of Great Xia merchant ships had crossed it. Ouyang Shuo did not mind spending money, ordering them to buy large amounts of grain and sneakily ship to those bases. The Combat Logistics Department would prepare the weapons and equipment and directly teleport it over.

Just this expenditure alone cost him 200 thousand.

Since the resources took time to be transported, the four legions did not act and remained in their own defensive regions. Only thing was that Huo Qubing and Baiqi, these two marshals, had sneakily teleported to Jidian City.

As they say, ‘If you know yourself and the situation, you will not lose any battle.’

Even God Generals like Baiqi and Huo Qubing, if they were not familiar with their opponents and their own troops, they would lose.

Not to mention that this was a cross ocean battle, and the army might not be able to adapt to the new land.

The two God Generals stayed in Jidian City for three days. After gaining a basic understanding of the Mediterranean and Morocco, they initiated to Ouyang Shuo to go towards Morocco to scout.

Baiqi said, “My king, this attack on Morocco is a lightning quick battle. We need to observe the geography and plan. If not, there’s a chance that a misjudgment of the land could cause changes in the battle.”

Since Baiqi said that, Ouyang Shuo obviously agreed. He could only order the Black Snake Guards to ensure the safety of Baiqi and Huo Qubing.

When Black Snake heard this command, his face was covered in black lines, and he went over to plan it.

5th month, 5th day, Baiqi and Huo Qubing sat on different merchant ships and came over to Morocco. Following which, they were going to start a week of practical investigation.

And during this period of time, all the resources and weapons were getting prepared.

…

The Great Xia Dynasty was sharpening its blade on Morocco but the outside world had not noticed it.

Not to mention Morocco themselves; they totally did not know that a crisis had arrived. The Moroccan Lords had benefitted greatly from the opening up of the voyage route.

Morocco had three treasures, Argan, dates, and cactuses.

The Argan trees were unique to Morocco, and they were able to survive in high heat and humidity. They thrived in the southern parts of Morocco. Their lifespan was above 150 years, and the oil that was squeezed out of the fruit was really valuable.

The native Moroccans, the Berbers, made use of the oil to make makeup. The oil could be used to massage the face, finger nails, hair, and body.

In the game, Gaia strengthened this and made it into a technology.

One must know that such a magical makeup attracted everyone. As such, all the merchants around the world loved it.

Apart from Argan oil, they also had another product that was popular – phosphate.

In real life, phosphate was one of their important pillars, and they had a supply of 110 billion tonnes, which was 75% of the world’s supply.

Phosphate was an important food additive and was used in food production. Although the game did not have such advanced industrial techniques, people still needed phosphate.

Apart from that, due to it being close to the Atlantic, its fishing industry was strong, and the sardine fish it exported was first in the world; they were the biggest fish exporter in Africa.

Their canned sardines were not only a delicacy but also had a lot of nutrition and were easy to store.

Ironically, among the supplies that the Great Xia Dynasty merchant ships had purchased for the army, included sardine cans were included. If the Moroccans knew, they would definitely vomit blood.

It was by relying on such products that the Moroccans could rise up during the voyage trading.

On a usual day, many eastern merchant ships swarmed into the port. To see such merchant ships was not a rare thing, and the players had already gotten used to it.

Hence, the arrival of Baiqi and Huo Qubing did not cause any waves.

Chapter 854 - Disembarking is a Problem

As the Great Xia Dynasty prepared for the battle, waves rose up in the Mediterranean once more.

5th month, 10th day, Queen Kalia sent out an invitation to all the Lords in the Mediterranean to invite them over as guests to Atlantis and discuss Atlantic technology.

During ancient times, Atlantis was sunk by a flood and buried at the bottom of the ocean. A year ago, Atlantis had reappeared with Ouyang Shuo’s help.

However, compared to the huge and unimaginable Atlantis civilization, this city was just one small corner; it was not even 1:1000.

In the Atlantis Library, there were many recordings of their civilization and its past.

Kali proposed to gather the strength of the Mediterranean to once again dive back into the ocean to search for more of the treasures of Atlantis; this way, they could rediscover more technology.

The moment the news went out, many gathered as a matter of course.

Even Caesar, who had other intentions, could not look away from the temptation and was ready to accept the invitation.

All of a sudden, the Mediterranean was bustling, starting an unprecedented ocean exploration mission. As a result, they became the talking point of the entire world.

…

5th month, 12th day, Jidian City.

The Jidian City covered by night was like a giant ocean beast, quietly hiding in the ocean and using its cold and icy gaze to stare at the ships that entered the Mediterranean. It was like the Cerberus that guarded hell, making one shiver.

As the ocean breeze blew across, it brought with it a fishy smell.

Even at nightfall, Jidian City’s Gibraltar Port was still lit up. Thousands of ships with different sails were docked by the port.

Each ship in the port was a huge voyaging ship that brought with it the merchants’ dream of riches.

The dock was filled with people, bustling with excitement.

Over 10 different inns lined the docks, exuding the scent of wine, giving the sailors and merchants the best place for entertainment.

As this was a chokepoint of the voyage trading, this place had eastern exquisite inns and also the crazier western ones. Many were where eastern and western culture merged together.

In the inn, it was common to see easterners and westerners gathered together to talk about deals.

And such clamor would last till early morning of the next day.

Without an exception, all these inns were where the Black Snake Guards monitored.

To Black Snake who was an international mercenary, mixing with such crowds was like a fish in water.

He was simply too familiar with such an environment. Even if he closed his eyes, Black Snake knew who he could get intel from and who he could not.

In history, inns were places where information spread. Merchants travelled everywhere and learnt a lot of information and knowledge. They could all unknowingly leak some that could turn into important intel.

Just through such inns, Black Snake Guards could obtain large amounts of international intel.

…

9 PM, Star of the desert inn.

Amongst the inns, this one located all the way at the west of the dock; it was really unassuming. The only thing was that the owner was a black man and came from Africa. Of course, no one would look down on him as anyone who could open an inn here had some ability.

In a normal room on the second floor, Black Snake was meeting someone.

At the current moment, the inn looked normal. But in truth, everything was being monitored by the Black Snake Guards, and even the owner of the inn was a member of the Black Snake Guards.

“Did you bring the thing?” Black Snake asked.

The person sitting opposite Black Snake was a Berber; he came from Morocco. He was 30 odd years old and wore a black robe. Even his head was covered with a black scarf.

If one was in the military, one could tell from the way that he was sitting that he was a soldier.

The mysterious man said with a coarse voice, “I’ve brought the thing you wanted, what about what I wanted?”

Black Snake smiled, taking out a wooden box, “Take a look!”

The mysterious man hesitated before opening it. The moment he opened it, he saw a pigeon egg sized diamond. Even in the dark, it still shone bright.

That’s it!”

The mysterious man was emotional.

Black Snake grinned. Who knows how he did it, but the box closed. “You have seen it, so it is time to let me see what I wanted.”

The mysterious man looked at the wooden box in a daze, gritting his teeth, “It’s this.”

Black Snake took it and swept his eyes across, carefully keeping it in his storage bag, “You should know the consequences of lying to us.”

When the mysterious man heard these words, fear swept his eyes. Obviously, he knew that the man in front of him was a devil, and he stammered, “You can verify it, if there are any mistakes, you can kill me.”

“Great!” Black Snake smiled, passing the wooden box over, “it’s yours.”

The mysterious man hugged the box.

Black Snake said, “Remember, if you dare reveal anything, your kids and wife will be thrown to feed the sharks.”

“Yes, yes, yes!” The man wiped his cold sweat, not delaying and leaving immediately.

Seeing that, a man standing beside Black Snake said, “Sir, we are letting him go just like that?”

Black Snake was expressionless, “What do you want to do? Kill him and burn his body?

“That diamond is worth tens of thousands.”

Black Snake’s expression turned cold, “Even if it were worth millions, we cannot break the rules. The king does not want anyone to fool around. If I learn of anyone is planning anything, do not blame me for being heartless.”

“Yes!”

The nearby members of Black Snake Guards all broke out in sweat.

Black Snake shook his head, “You all have followed the king for so long; can you all grow up? Our king wants to rule the world, do not throw his face away.”

“Thank you sir for your teachings.”

“Let’s go. Monitor that kid; do not let anything go wrong.”

“Yes sir!”

…

After leaving the inn, Black Snake entered the city.

Compared to the noise outside on the docks, the city was really quiet. Long ago at 8 PM, the city was under night curfew, and there was not anyone wandering the streets.

Across the entire city, only the Lord’s Manor was still lit up.

After half a month of preparation, the work had been done and 80% of the resources had been transported over.

In the manor, after eating dinner, Ouyang Shuo gathered the generals for a meeting. The people included Baiqi, Shi Dakai, Huo Qubing, Ma Chao, Lu Bu, Alvaro, Lu Meng, and Jia Xu.

Hung in the middle was the Moroccan map.

Morocco was a place that stretched from north to south. Any important location was marked out; there were four places marked really clearly.

The imperial city Rabat was located northwest and was at the bottom of the circular arc. There were 250 thousand guards inside and two million players.

Purely combat occupation players numbered 200 thousand, gathering 80% of their total numbers.

South of it was the famous garden city, Casa Blanca.

Of course, in the game, Casa Blanca was just a Lord territory. Based on the intel, there would not be more than 50 thousand troops.

Further south was the famous port city Agadir; this was the biggest city in Morocco, and its army had reached closer to a full sized legion.

On the south, apart from these two territories, the other smaller ones had been merged and ceased to exist.

The last enemy that they should pay attention to was Tangier in the north. Similar to Jidian City, Tangier protected an important chokepoint on the Gibraltar Straits and were mainly navy.

At the current moment, their navy was not enough to threaten the Mediterranean Squadron.

All things considered, the most threatening one was the imperial city.

Although Rabat was located along the shore, the voyage army came from long away. How to smoothly dock and disembark without the enemy noticing was the difficult problem.

One must know that they had close to 300 thousand troops. To secretly reach the Moroccan border without being noticed was near impossible.

After the War Division planned and planned, four War Fighting Legions were the max that they could send. If they added anymore, they would be exposed. To use so little troops to attack a country was really crazy.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to personally lead; Jia Xu was the strategist, Baiqi was the deputy, Huo Qubing was the front general, and Alvaro took control of the backlines.

After half a month of investigation and discussion, their battle plan was clear. “Army and navy move in together and strike at many points.”

The evening discussion was to make the final arrangements of the frontline.

Chapter 855 - Jia Xu's Viciousness

Chapter 855: Jia Xu’s Viciousness

Based on the new country rules Gaia released, during the period of the country war, teleportation between territories and imperial cities were prohibited.

Gaia made this rule to reduce the country war difficulty. Without the restriction, countries with more players could just teleport around and defend with sheer numbers.

If that happened, the country war would lose its meaning.

…

In the battle planning room, Ouyang Shuo announced the final arrangements.

Baiqi would lead the Dragon Legion Corps 1st and 5th legion to take down imperial city Rabat. Lu Bu would lead the Guards Legion Corps 3rd legion as a reserve to be in charge of dealing the final hit.

Huo Qubing would lead the 2nd legion of the Guards Legion Corps; they would be in charge of intercepting enemies between Casa Blanca and Rabat. If nothing went wrong, the three territories would first teleport to Casa Blanca to assist Rabat.

The five divisions of the Mediterranean Squadron had all returned to Jidian City. The 5th division was in charge of defending against the Spanish.

The 1st and 2nd divisions were in charge of attacking Rabat. The 3rd division would intercept the navy from Tangier whilst forming a second layer of defense against the Gibraltar Straits.

The 4th division would be in charge of transporting the army and reinforcing the other divisions.

The entire squadron was being pushed to its limits, appearing to be lacking in numbers.

As they had a limited number of troops, for them to take down Morocco would require a good strategy. Jia Xu’s plan obtained Ouyang Shuo’s recognition.

In the battle preparation room, Ouyang Shuo did not rush for Jia Xu to describe his plan. He was waiting for an important piece of intel that would affect whether the plan could work or not.

At this very moment, Black Snake finally arrived.

“King, I’ve gotten the item.”

Black Snake took out the map that he obtained from the inn and passed it over.

Ouyang Shuo took a look and nodded at Jia Xu, signaling to him that he could describe his plan to them.

Jia Xu said, “Rabat has 250 thousand guard troops and 200 thousand players. If they all decide to just defend the walls and go all out, there will be nothing we can do. If we forcefully attack, we will have to pay a heavy price.”

Baiqi and Huo Qubing were really solemn, agreeing with Jia Xu’s analysis. These two God Generals had been really tense since their return, as this battle’s difficulty had far exceeded their expectations.

According to Baiqi’s estimation, the Dragon Legion Corps with the Guards Legion Corps might not even manage to take it down.

There was no imperial city in the game that was weak. The expedition army wanted to use half their strength to take it down. If it were not for the king’s confident appearance, Baiqi would suspect the matter to be a joke.

Jia Xu continued, “The most stable castles are often broken from the inside. A day ago, the Black Snake Guards received an important piece of intel – Rabat has three huge alchemical fire oil storages. As for the specifics, Black Snake can introduce it.”

Black Snake nodded, standing up, “The three storages are located in the north, south, and west. Only the east side where the palace is located does not have one. In the storage are huge amounts of alchemical fire oil, as it is one of their main exports. Just now, I obtained the specific map and patrolling arrangements of the three storages. The Black Snake Guards are confident about coordinating with the army to burn these three storages.”

When all the generals heard this news, they were shocked.

All of them were familiar with alchemical fire oil, as it had now become one of the standard items in the Great Xia Dynasty army.

Obviously, if all three places went up into flames at the same time, the entire Rabat would be on fire.

Jia Xu looked around at the generals and said expressionlessly, “When the storages explode, the Flying Squads will coordinate and throw down more burning bullets to help spread it and cause more chaos.”

When Baiqi heard that, a light flashed across his eyes. He did not expect the polite strategist to actually be so cold and ruthless; Jia Xu was even one level worse than him.

If this fire strategy went as planned, Rabat would be an empty shell even if they took down.

The crucial part was the people inside. Once the fire spread, how many of them would die?

“Vicious!” Baiqi evaluated.

Even so, Baiqi did not oppose the plan, “Enemies dying is better than our soldiers dying.”

Whist the generals digested this information, Jia Xu continued, “Rabat is still an imperial city, so just a fire is not enough. The fire can only cause chaos but whether or not we can take it down will be through real battle.”

The generals nodded. After all, none of them were rookies. Even Ma Chao, Lu Bu, and other generals that were born in the Three Kingdoms Period had been through multiple battles and were really experienced.

After Jia Xu finished, Ouyang Shuo made a conclusion, “The situation is as such. After this, whilst the troops gather, you must brief your own generals. The map that the Black Snake Guards have toiled to get must at least be given to the unit level. The Battle of Rabat is different from the others; it is not a normal siege, and the battlefield is a fiery one.”

“I do not hope for the troops to lose their way and die in the fire. The enemy can panic but we cannot. If needed, we can do some small drills and rehearsals. If we prepare well, less of us will die.”

“Yes my king!”

Not fighting wars that he was not confident in was Ouyang Shuo’s ideal. Since the start of his conquest, the battles that Ouyang Shuo had been through were no less than any general, and he too had gained a lot of experience.

If one pushed forward all the battle preparations and did it well, you would have won half of the fight before it even began.

Chapter 856 - One Sword Through the Heavens

Chapter 856: One Sword Through the Heavens

The seasonal wind on the Atlantic Ocean blew with strength and tempo.

Around 400 meters away from the west shoreline of Morocco, there was a small group of islands. However, many merchant ships had been passed through these few desolate islands as of late.

A week ago, the Great Xia Dynasty used the excuse of attacking pirates to lock down this entire region to prevent any spies.

Under the cover of the 4th division, the four legions were transported on merchant ships one by one onto the islands.

Without an exception, all these large-sized merchant ships came from the Song Chamber of Commerce, Bai Trading Corporation, and Cui Chamber of Commerce. Hence, they were absolutely reliable and no news would be leaked.

Even so, they faced many problems during that time.

First, the soldiers could not stand the ocean sickness, and all of them started vomiting before they even got to shore. With much difficulty, they set up tents in the desolate islands. However, as they were not used to the weather, they fell sick once more.

Along with there being so many mosquitoes and bugs around, the soldiers were in a terrible state.

After the successive hits, the overall combat strength of the army was less than 30%.

Luckily, the Great Xia voyage trading merchant ships followed the navy arrangement and had 10 doctors, along with the following physicians of the legions and those of the Mediterranean Squadron. With a batch of medicine from Shanhai City, they controlled the spread.

Recently, the army had been resting up on the islands and getting used to the weather. At the same time, they were familiarizing themselves with the Rabat arrangement. The soldiers who had ocean sickness even received special training to get used to it.

During their free time, the army went through attack drills.

Among the ocean breeze, the soldiers went through a routine lifestyle, and time quickly flowed by.

5th month, 18th day, morning, 100 large-sized merchant ships came to the desolate island once more. Before coming, they first made a trip to the resource storage base to load up on the items.

After the merchant ships docked, the forces were given orders to follow the arrangements. Soldiers and their horses boarded orderly, quietly disappearing from the islands as they headed towards the Moroccan shore.

The Mediterranean Squadron 4th division would protect them in the nearby ocean region.

That night, the merchant squad arrived near the Moroccan ocean. As they were all Great Xia merchant ships, it did not raise the suspicion of the players.

The sun set in the west; the orange red sun slowly dropped under the horizon.

At this time, one could not see any ships on the ocean. In the sky, the moon shone alone, and the cold moonlight and cold ocean water intersected and merged together.

As the ocean wind blew across, the ocean surface shimmered like an endless mirror, reflecting a new world.

When the soldiers who were coming out to sea for the first time saw that, they were in awe.

Under the leadership of the Marine Corps, the merchant ships used the moonlight to quickly travel across the ocean surface.

At 9 PM, the squadron docked 50 miles south of Rabat. Before this, the Black Snake Guards had already placed a lockdown that spanned a radius of 10 miles around her.

No one was allowed to enter this land.

On a cliff beside the shore, a tent was set up. Black Snake brought a group of elite spies and personally sat there. They were in charge of the shore defense.

On the outskirts, there were a large number of spies who were monitoring the activity around.

It was currently midsummer, and the bugs and mosquitoes were especially rampant in Africa. Many mosquitoes flew around in the air like a black cloud, a terrifying sight.

Some spies were squatting in the bushes, only revealing a pair of pitch black eyes. There was a mosquito cloud above their heads. Even though the spies had really high mental strength, their faces were still ashen white.

Including Black Snake, although the weather was hot, they were still dressed in tight fitting clothes. Even though it was hot, it was better than being sucked dry by the mosquitoes.

Occasionally, there was an ocean wind that brought them a cooling sensation.

“Sir, the ships are here!”

Black Snake nodded. He raised his head and looked out at the ocean surface, only to see lights light up on it. Weirdly, the lights were not kept on but shone every five seconds.

“It’s them.” Black Snake looked really excited, turning round to instruct, “Light it!”

“Yes sir!”

After a short while, a similar light was lit up on the shore. However, this light only shone every three seconds.

After getting the message that everything was safe, the squadron docked, putting down deck board after deck board. The soldiers all stepped onto the boards and disembarked.

The entire process was soundless apart from the noise of the ocean waves hitting the rocks.

Close to morning, the four War Fighting Legions had made it to shore. During the entire process, the sailors of the merchant ships had brought down all the combat resources.

Luckily, the battle tomorrow would not be a battle of attrition. If not, they would not be able to maintain their logistical supplies. Even if the merchant ships shipped more supplies, they had no way to transport them to the frontlines.

The difficulty of a cross ocean battle was as such.

After unloading, the merchants did not stay for long and left for the desolate islands to bring more soldiers or the second batch of battle resources.

The soldiers all took the spare time to tidy themselves and get some sleep. In the morning, they would rush out to ensure that they reached Rabat before the Moroccans could react.

Obviously, it was going to be a tough journey.

However, compared to their own lives, the mosquitoes were not much.

The night sky became darker and darker.

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

Just as the legions docked onto the Moroccan shore, the Mediterranean Squadron started to act.

Ouyang Shuo brought Jia Xu and the three thousand Divine Martial Guards to follow the 1st and 2nd divisions of the squadron to head straight for Rabat.

With the help of Kalia, most of the Mediterranean Lords were gathered in Atlantis. Hence, no one interfered with the activity of the Mediterranean Squadron.

The Mediterranean Squadron flagship -The Shiner.

Ouyang Shuo stood on the top deck, looking into the distance. The breeze blew onto his new Purple Dragon Pattern Cape.

On the black and vast ocean, the shine of the moon and stars often gave one endless amounts of hopes and dreams. Under such a vast and huge heaven and earth, Ouyang Shuo could not help but feel lonely and suppressed, “Compared to the size of the heavens, we are just too small.”

However, a small person could still have a big heart and make unbelievable achievements.

Under the sky, the weak would fall, and only the strong could control their fate. Like this attack on Morocco, Rabat was going to turn to ash, and those innocent civilians could not control their own fates.

Maybe, at this moment, they were having sweet dreams, dreaming of riches, dreaming of getting a pretty wife…

What they did not know was that a catastrophe was heading their way.

They could only shiver under the crisis and pray that for survival.

Although Ouyang Shuo pitied these people, he would not be soft on them. The road to ruling was an endless fight against fate; you either lived or died.

If Ouyang Shuo was merciful, he might be the one who died tomorrow.

Conquest was like that.

This path did not allow one to be merciful.

“Anyone who stands in my path will die. Naturally, there’s no reason to pity anyone.”

If this was before, Ouyang Shuo would have been worried about Jia Xu’s plan. But now, he was able to look at this all coldly.

Ouyang Shuo was feeling no worry only because the path he sought had not been reached yet.

Ouyang Shuo was asking himself, could he control his destiny? Ouyang Shuo raised his head and looked up; his eyes looked like they were going to pass through the sky and look at the city in the skies.

The city in the skies was like the highest ruler of mankind, looking down with cold and rational eyes onto the changes in the world.

The heavens were unpredictable, and the path there was hard to seek.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo would not be arrogant. He only held the dagger to change his destiny, but he was far from being able to slice through the heavens with a sword and do whatever he wished.

That current sword was far from being sharp enough.

If he were not careful, the blade would break, and he would be hurt instead.

To become a top treasure sword, he needed training, training, and more training.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was deep in thought, Tsing Yi’s voice spread out from behind him, “King, the night is late, please rest.”

As the Secret Document Pavilion Advisor, Tsing Yi would follow Ouyang Shuo wherever he went. Seeing that he was alone and staying still on the deck for an hour, Tsing Yi finally dared to call him.

Even Xu Chu could only stand afar.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, turning around to look at Tsing Yi, “I’ll go back soon; you should sleep early too.” The moment Ouyang Shuo turned around, it seemed like the entire sky had turned darker.

It was late and dawn would appear once again.

Chapter 857 - Cape Castle

Chapter 857: Cape Castle

5th month, 19th day, Morocco Imperial City Rabat.

The up and down river started from the Mid Atlas Mountains; it flowed south of Rabat and into the quiet Rabat port before finally entering the Atlantis.

South of the Rabat port was a narrow section of land that pointed straight into the Atlantic Ocean like a cape. At the cape, an important military base was built; it was the famous Kasbah of the Udayas.

The high city walls, the huge city gates, and the protruding watch towers formed the first layer of defense of the castle. Inside the castle, apart from the majestic main hall, there were various different palaces. In the middle was a garden with many different kinds of flowers. Kasbah near the castle was where the troops were housed.

The Kasbah of the Udayas formed the frontline defense for Rabat. Anyone who tried to launch an attack on Rabat through the oceans had to pass through this first.

The current Morocco king Muhammed the 6th housed 50 thousands guards troops inside the castle.

Looking over the castle, one could see the shoreline of the Bou Regreg River. This was the main part of Rabat imperial city. With that, the imperial city had a natural barrier toward the west.

On the east of Rabat was the newly formed Satellite City, and the biggest guild in Morocco guarded their only entrance into the underground world.

At the current moment, the Satellite City was even more bustling than the main city, attracting a large half of the players. Hence, only the work occupation players and casual players spent their times in the city.

In Arabic, Rabat actually meant ‘tie up’. It sounds shocking because why would an imperial city have such an inauspicious name?

Legends had it that long time ago, Rabat was just a small island, and the king tied up captured prisoners with ropes and ordered soldiers to send them here for tough labor. As more and more people were sent, the village became a city and got its weird name in this way.

In the game, Rabat was a typical Arabic city. The walls were red, and there were many ancient Arabic structures and temples in the city. The city looked really exciting and busy, and the sides of the roads had many trees and gardens everywhere.

Be it the solemn Rabat Imperial Palace or the important Hassan the 2nd Mosques, it was all typical Arabic infrastructure. Compared to western architecture or the more religiously colluded Indian buildings, the Arabic buildings had plenty of creativity, majesty, and elegance.

The streets and alleys of the city were littered with various artisan workshops. The way of life was like that of the middle ages.

In the morning, the red sun rose up from the ocean surface, signaling that a new day had arrived.

The sun shone onto the mosque, bathing the mosque in a golden glow, making it look really sacred and holy. Rabat city, which had slept for a night, had once again woken up.

In the workshops that stopped for the night, the familiar sounds of hard work broke out.

The residents who woke up early walked out of their Arabic-styled houses and gathered together to either eat, work, study, or just start a brand new day.

To the people in the city, this was just a normal day.

The city emanated a warm Arabic spirit, making one drunk in it.

The port outside the city was similarly really busy.

Fishing boats that had set out early in the morning had already returned with big catches. The midsummer season was the best time for catching tunas, and baskets of tunas were placed on both sides of the dock for people to choose.

Apart from tunas, there were many different kinds of seafood, dazzling to the eye.

Under the sunlight, the faces of the fishermen looked really warm from the joy of their catches.

The Kasbah of Udayas defending the port was similarly bathed in golden light. The soldiers that patrolled for the night changed their shifts, yawning as they dragged their exhausted bodies down the city wall.

The new soldiers who were filled with energy took over the posts, facing the sun as they started their patrol.

The soldiers were not really nervous. After all, Morocco was located at a corner of Africa, so war seemed to be very far away from them.

Especially to the civilians in the imperial city, they did not know what war was.

The three remaining Lords in Morocco were all really peaceful, with each person managing an area. No one was able to eat up the others, so they naturally lacked the strength to attack the imperial city.

Compared to the chaotic China region, this place was truly heaven.

At 7 AM, in the far horizon, a tall sail suddenly appeared. In a blink of an eye, the sails got higher and there were more and more of them.

“What’s that?”

The sentries on the Kasbah of Udayas were the first to notice that something was not right.

A soldier took out his telescope and finally saw the Mediterranean Squadron; he muttered, “Those are warships, not merchant ships.”

“Warship? Which country’s?”

“Great Xia Dynasty’s Mediterranean Squadron.”

In the Atlantic, the golden dragon flag of the Mediterranean Squadron was unique and easy to recognize. Half a year ago, when they came here to wipe out pirates, they had come to Rabat to restock.

Hence, the soldiers were not totally unfamiliar with them.

“No wonder. I heard the general say that they had been clearing out pirates. He said that recently, they have locked down the nearby ocean regions. They are probably here to resupply.”

At this point, the soldiers still did not realize that a crisis had arrived.

With their guards placed down, the soldiers started chatting; the topic of their conversation was the Mediterranean Squadron. A soldier smiled and said, “I heard that the Great Xia Dynasty was not having a good time here. The alliance has broken up, and their allies have gone their separate ways.”

“They can only show off their military in the Mediterranean now.”

“A thin camel is still bigger than a horse. Although they lost control of the Mediterranean, we still cannot provoke them. One must not forget that they have an entire dynasty backing them up.”

“That’s also true. I heard that the Great Xia Dynasty land area is bigger than our entire Morocco, and they also have millions of iron armored warriors. They are so rich.”

“Did not you see the eastern merchants that come and go from the dynasty? They are all so rich.”

…

Whilst the soldiers were chatting, the imperial city merchants who were doing business at the docks also noticed the Mediterranean Squadron. This time, their eyes lit up and shone brightly.

“A big fish has come!”

“Big deal, big deal!”

The merchants all rubbed their palms and could not hide the greed in their eyes.

When the 1st and 2nd divisions pulled into the port and looked like they were about to sell the resources in their hands, a change occurred.

The 1st division at the front did not even stop in the port, going up the Bou Regreg River instead. The 40 odd boats all spread out, a magnificent sight.

“What’s happening?”

When the merchants saw that, they were confused.

Normally, the Mediterranean Squadron would dock here for their supplies. As a result, the merchants treated them so warmly.

Weirdly, they did not stop here but went up the river instead.

“Did they realize that we raised the price?” The merchants were anxious.

In Rabat, apart from the main dock, there was still another inner river dock that one could go up to for resupply.

Although the two were less than ten miles away, the prices were different. Merchants often bullied others for not knowing prices and raised their prices to increase profit.

“We have miscalculated!”

Seeing the warships sailing up river resolutely, the merchants felt regret.

Of course, their regret was excessive.

That was because the outbreak of war often happened in an instance.

At 8 AM, the Mediterranean Squadron was in place, and they suddenly stopped. Before people even reacted, the cannons shot out huge cannonballs.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

Be it the Kasbah of Udayas that was protecting the cape or the north city walls of Rabat, they were all within the range of attack. The successive cannon fire shocked the entire Rabat City.

“What happened, who fired?”

Many people did not understand what was happening.

“It’s the Mediterranean Squadron, they fired.” Someone panicked.

“Oh my god, what is happening, do they want to start a war?”

The civilians who lived in a peaceful era could not adapt to the sudden change.

The first to react were the guards of the castle.

The general’s face was black as he gritted his teeth, “Those wolves actually shamelessly used our trust in them to openly start a war. Shameless!”

“Quick, fire back!”

On the castle there were cannons but due to a lack of funds, the entire castle only had 20 cannons.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

During the first round of battle, fierce cannon fire sounds broke out.

The Kasbah of the Udayas was built on the cape and was surrounded by water. Under the careful planning of the Mediterranean Squadron, the four sides of the walls were all under cannon fire.

The modified P1 Type cannons were freakishly strong. In the blink of an eye, the watchtowers, city gates, and other similar structures were hit and were on the verge of falling. Collapse was just a matter of time.

Chapter 858 - Three Heads of Morocco

The Mediterranean Squadron’s sudden cannon siege was like a bolt of lightning during the night, totally breaking the peace and quiet of Rabat.

Just as the Mediterranean Squadron fired the first cannon, a System Notification awakened Morocco.

“System Notification: China Region Lord Qiyue Wuyi has started a country war, Morocco enters country war mode. Imperial City Rabat has been attacked, entering level 1 state of alert.”

…

In contrast to their attack on Singapore, the expedition army of Great Xia Dynasty came right for the imperial city this time. Hence, Rabat was already at the highest state of emergency from the start.

Right at the start, this country war was destined to be a close quarter battle.

Victory could be decided in an instant.

“System Notification: Morocco enters country war mode, based on country war rules, imperial city and territory teleportation formations are cut off. Players are unable to revive when they die.”

…

When the notification sounded out, all the Moroccan players were astonished regardless of their current location, be it the imperial city, Satellite City, or far away.

“Country war, are you kidding?”

“It’s not April Fools’ Day!”

Some people asked, “What’s happening?”

Of course, no one was sure, and even those players in Rabat only heard the sounds of cannon fire on their city walls. They did not know that the famous Great Xia Dynasty Mediterranean Squadron had arrived.

This country war was just too sudden.

“Quick! Return to the imperial city!”

After a short while of being stunned, the smart players reacted and thought to immediately return to the imperial city.

Players were no longer as oblivious to country wars like Singapore. Based on the rules, the moment the imperial city fell, the country war would be over.

And the moment the country war was over, all the Moroccan players, whether they be it dead or alive, would start from zero on an unknown land.

Now, it was already the middle of the 4th year of Gaia and starting from scratch was just too high a price to pay.

Hence, to the Moroccan player, they had to keep the imperial city regardless of the price. All of a sudden, without anyone needing to give orders, the entire Morocco acted.

The guilds in Rabat were the first to react, and close to a hundred guilds gathered their members. With the help of the higher ups, all the combat occupation players were gathered and ready to head onto the battlefield.

The Satellite City players were not stunned for long, and they quickly teleported back to the imperial city. More of them were still in the underground world exploring and needed people to be sent to inform them.

The entire Satellite City got busy.

As for those outside the imperial city, they could not teleport back and could only rush to the other three player territories and teleport to Casa Blanca from there.

All this happened in a short two hours. At a moment of life and death, the Moroccans did so well, it was really commendable.

The lacking part was that the three Lords of Morocco were not in Morocco.

This was a catastrophe.

…

5th month, 19th day, Atlantis City.

Atlantis City was surrounded by water like an ocean castle. When the sun rose up, it first shone on the curved roof of the palace.

The roof was bathed in golden light. Along with the golden luster from the waters that flowed within the circles, it was like a paradise.

Atlantis City standing in the middle of the Mediterranean Ocean was like an eye-catching pearl. However, compared to before, the city was bustling with even more excitement.

During this period of time, after Kalia’s invitation, more and more players gathered here to discuss how to search for the lost Atlantis Civilization and find more of their technology.

The sky was just bright and the Lords who came here had already gotten up. In pairs or threes, they walked around the old buildings or were at the river enjoying the scenery.

The three Lords of Morocco were also in Atlantis. They were originally gathered in a garden and were discussing some problems since they had some time.

Since they reached Atlantis, the three of them obviously needed to unite.

Breathing the fresh morning air and enjoying the atmosphere, the three of them were engrossed in their conversation. The sudden System Notification stunned all of them.

“This… this…”

The three of them exchanged glances with one another, and their faces ashen white. The sudden strike was one that they could not recover from. On such a warm morning, the three of them all sneezed.

After calming down, the three of them asked, “What should we do now?”

“What can we do? Write letters to ask our troops to act.” The one who spoke was Agadier Lord Andre, the oldest member of the three and the first to calm down.

Since the country war was unavoidable, they could only fight.

Casa Blanca Lord Caroline nodded and agreed, “That’s right. Due to the rules of the country war, teleport to Casa Blanca first. I’ll open the teleportation permissions to you two.”

Before the country war, the three territories were not allies, so their teleportation formations were not linked to one another’s.

Andre and the other Lord, the Lord of Tangier, Ranier, did not know what to think when they heard that. They simply nodded.

At the brink of life and death, their small conflicts were pointless.

The three of them quickly formed an alliance and opened the teleportation formation.

Andre wrote his letter while saying, “This time, we must act together.”

Caroline and Rainer nodded.

Whilst the three of them were discussing matters, they were unaware of Kalia looking at them. Obviously, Kalia knew that this would happen today.

Since entering Atlantis, the three Lords of Morocco had never escaped her field of vision.

Seeing that, Kalia summoned her trusted servant and gave an instruction. When he heard that, his eyes tensed up. He did not dare ask anymore, turning around to go and complete the task.

The three Lords in the garden wrote their letters at their fastest speed. The first one was to give the rights to the army to their generals, and the second letter was to spread the results of their emergency meeting. After they were done, they asked someone to send the letters.

What they did not know was that an Atlantis guard would stop the messenger. The three letters were naturally not sent out, and it was like they never existed.

The entire matter was watertight; Andre and the others did not notice anything.

…

After sending out the letters, the three Lords became relatively calmer.

Caroline asked, “What should we do now? Immediately go back?”

During a country war, not personally rushing back was worrying for Caroline. As the only female Lord in Morocco, she did not have much ambition, and she just loved her territory.

Casa Blanca in the game was even more beautiful than in real life; it was a true garden city. Not only did the Moroccan players love it, but even the other players in the Mediterranean came over as well.

Over 200 thousand causal players lived in Casa Blanca. Tourism also became one of its biggest income sources.

Who knew that Andre would resolutely shake his head and say, “We can’t go back.”

“Why? Are you afraid of dying?”

Caroline did not say anything, and it was clear that the young Rainier was unhappy.

Andre did not care as he obviously would not bother about such a kid. He patiently explained, “Even if we go now, it will take four to five days to return.”

“No matter how long it takes, let’s go back first.” Rainier said.

Andre shook his head, “It is not as simple as you think. One must not forget who is attacking Morocco and who is defending the Gibraltar Straits.”

“…” Rainier did not know what to say.

That’s right, the Great Xia Dynasty was the one attacking them, and the Gibraltar Straits was locked down by them. To go back was to court death.

At this point, Rainier even thought about his navy that might have already fallen. Although Rainier was hot blooded, he was not really foolish.

Rainier was clear that in front of the Mediterranean Squadron, his navy was nothing.

Thinking of which, decisiveness appeared in Rainier’s eyes, “At most, we can commit suicide to return.”

“It’s useless.” Andre shook his head, “You forgot that during a country war, once you die, you cannot revive. If that happens, what’s the difference from staying here?”

“….”

Rainier was silent; his emotions had caused him to forget about that point.

When Caroline saw that, she asked, “Then what should we do? Just stay here and wait? Why not seek help from Kalia?”

“That’s right; the Mediterranean Squadron would not dare to stop them. If that happens, they would be the enemy of the entire Mediterranean.” Rainier agreed.

Andre did not directly oppose the suggestion. He only said, “Asking her for help is one way, but compared to rushing back right away, I think we can do better.”

“How so?”

Andre said, “Have you forgotten that the Mediterranean has so many famous Lords who are all here now? Rather than hurrying back, why don’t we persuade them to send troops to assist?”

“I think there are many here that do not want Morocco to fall into the hands of the Great Xia Dynasty.”

Chapter 859 - Each Have Their Own Plan

Chapter 859: Each Have Their Own Plan

Andre’s suggestion caused the eyes of Caroline and Rainier to light up.

The three of them quickly came to a consensus and were prepared to seek help from the Mediterranean Lords. Their first choice was naturally Spain, who hated the Great Xia Dynasty and was the shortest distance away.

Of course, Spain was not enough, and the three of them would rather they be able to move the entire Mediterranean.

In less than an hour, Casillas, Juan, Henry, Caesar, and the top Lord of Portugal, Pedro all got the news that war had started between Morocco and the Great Xia Dynasty.

Atlantis City, which was already really exciting and busy, became even more so because of that. With the coordination and contact of the three Moroccan Lords, the thoughts of the Mediterranean Lords were led away.

Seeing that, Kalia cancelled that day’s activities to allow the Lords to do their own things. Hence, everyone was naturally delighted, and Lords gathered in twos and threes to discuss with each other.

Toward this matter, the Lords had much to talk about.

Someone could not help but ask, “The Great Xia Dynasty attacking Morocco is not something out of the blue. Has it been festering?”

“It must have been planned a long time ago,” someone else said.

“How so?”

“A country war is not a game. How could it be out of the blue? Look at the expressions of the three Moroccan Lords; they must have been caught off guard.”

The Lord could not help but nod and said worriedly, “So Morocco might fall?”

“That’s hard to say. After all, we do not understand the frontline situation. However, from their expressions, the situation does not look good. It seems like the Great Xia Dynasty Army directly attacked the imperial city Rabat.”

One Lord said, “With the way they plan and how they usually do things, they will not act unless they are really confident. In my opinion, Morocco is highly likely to perish.”

“That’s right, be it military commanding or planning, who dares to compete with them? They are like an assassin who likes to one-shot others.”

The various achievements of the Great Xia Dynasty in the wilderness had caused all the Lords in the world to fear them.

Of course, there were many who agreed and naturally many who did not.

Some Lords said, “That might not be true, but we should not think too highly of them. No matter how strong they are, that is in the China region. They have travelled from so far to the Africa Continent. First, they do not have a logistics base, and secondly, they do not have any allies. On the contrary, Morocco has the home field advantage, so they might not lose.”

“You’re right.” There were some Lords who agreed, “The Great Xia Dynasty is too bold and arrogant. They really think that after they established their country they can look down on other countries? I think they have made a big mistake.”

“This….”

The Mediterranean Lords exchanged glances with one another, not knowing who to believe.

At this very moment, someone raised up another problem, “Have you guys thought about what would happen to the Mediterranean if they really take down Morocco?”

Hearing those words, the expressions on their faces varied. All of them were smart and just by thinking a little, they would understand the awkward situation they were in.

If the Great Xia Dynasty took down Morocco, it would be like obtaining another strategic ground. Hence, it would solve half of the problems that the Great Xia Dynasty faced after the disbandment of the Mediterranean Alliance.

The reason within was not hard to understand.

Along with the alliance disbanding, it was impossible for the Mediterranean Squadron to continue ruling. The Spanish Invincible Squadron, the Roman Squadron, and the Gual Squadron would not allow it.

However, the smart Lords would think deeper.

What if they did not have that ambition and just wanted to guard the door to the Mediterranean?

With Jidian City and Morocco, guarding the Gibraltar Straits was not a difficult thing to do.

If that happened, what was the point of the three countries’ attempts to seize power?

The Great Xia Dynasty at that time would be similar to the current Atlantis, being a supernatural existence in the Mediterranean. Any country that wanted to trade would need to listen to them.

This was the reason why they were in an awkward spot.

Some Lords said, “So we need to help Morocco?”

“If you do not want the Great Xia Dynasty to ride on our heads in the future, it’s best to act.”

“Morocco is so far away from us, so how can we help?” some of the Lords lamented.

Strictly speaking, Morocco did not belong to the Mediterranean. It had a unique geological position, which meant it did not have much contact with Africa and was pretty much a land of its own.

The only way to get there was through ocean routes.

“No matter what, every bit we can help is good.”

As this involved the interests of many sides, no one could force another. The final result of their discussion was really varied.

As expected, Casillas and Juan agreed to assist Morocco.

“The Great Xia Dynasty is ambitious like a wolf. We cannot let them get away with this.” Casillas said.

To Casillas, this was a god given chance to take down the Mediterranean Squadron. He did not want to miss the chance. More importantly, he was confident in the Spanish Invincible Squadron.

“The Invincible Squadron needs a clean victory to announce our return.” Casillas had planned everything out; he wanted to stand up where he fell down.

However, Henry used the reason of not interfering in Moroccan politics to remain neutral. After all, in this half a year of development, the current Gual Squadron was no weaker than the Spanish Invincible Squadron.

If the two of them could work together, it would be enough to take down the Mediterranean Squadron.

Henry did not step in because he understood the Great Xia Dynasty more than anyone. If the country war had not started, and he noticed the Great Xia Dynasty moving troops, Henry might have come out to stop him.

The current army was already at Rabat, so coming out at this time was already too late and useless.

Henry was a careful person and would not take unnecessary risks.

Taking a step back, even if the Great Xia Dynasty took down Morocco, it would not be totally bad for Vic City. It could even be a chance.

Hence, Henry decided not to step in.

He was happy to just sit out and watch the hot blooded acts of Casillas and the others.

What Andre and the others could not understand was the attitude of Portugal Lord, Pedro.

Originally, Pedro looked like he intended to help. However, after he learned that the Spanish were acting, he unexpectedly chose to stay out.

It seemed like the animosity between Portugal and Spain was not totally solved.

Pedro naturally had his own reasons and logic behind his actions. Portugal was originally a strong ocean country and split colonies with Spain in the world, having a great history.

As the top Lord in Portugal, Pedro also had a strong navy. However, since he kept a low profile, people did not know about it.

Even after the Mediterranean Alliance disbanded, Pedro had no intentions of stepping into the battle for power. The reason behind his lack of action was the existence of Spain.

This was something Portugal and Pedro could not get away from.

Pedro was really clear that Morocco being taken over by the Great Xia Dynasty was not a good thing for Portugal. After all, who wanted to be neighbors with a tiger?

But seeing the Spanish Squadron enter, Pedro held back himself.

Thinking back to the mysterious person he came into contact to before, Pedro thought about another possibility. Hence, Pedro was prepared to be like Henry and wait for changes.

‘Whoever wins, Portugal would work with them.’ That was Pedro’s idea.

Last would be Caesar.

Italy was located in the backland region of the Mediterranean, and it was impossible for him to send out troops. Even if he did, Henry and Casillas would probably not be happy.

The battle for ocean rights had just started, and the three squadrons had not found a victor. How would Henry and the others allow Caesar to stretch his hand out to Morocco?

Although Caesar did not send troops, he was really supportive. He brought the three Lords of Morocco around to link them up with other Lords to try to provoke them into sending help.

“Let’s all unite against the enemy!”

However, the Lords were not fools and each of them had their own considerations.

A large portion of them decided to just watch on. Even Kalia was neutral and decided not to interfere in this country war.

If there were no interests involved, who would want to fight?

The Moroccan Lords went around, and the only major power they managed to successful invite was the Spanish Invincible Squadron. Apart from that would be a few small countries that were willing to send a portion of their troops.

Without an exception, these Lords were all allies of Spain. The Mediterranean Lord circle was not as calm and peaceful as it seemed.

With the results out, the three of them were naturally really depressed. Thinking back to the country war, they were extremely anxious.

In the end, the three of them decided to let Andre remain in Atlantis to try and persuade more people. Meanwhile, Caroline and Rainier followed the Spanish Invincible Squadron back to Morocco.

Chapter 860 - Break An Arm First

Chapter 860: Break An Arm First

Rabat City, Kasbah of the Udayas.

War would not stop because of outside events, nor would it slow down because of personal ideals. Just as the Mediterranean Lords were deep in discussion, Rabat was on fire.

The first to fall was the Kasbah of the Udayas.

Facing a planned and carefully designed sneak attack, the Kasbah of the Udayas appeared powerless. The 20 odd cannons on the castle only fired twice before they were destroyed.

With that, they had lost their only way of fighting back.

Cannonball after cannonball crossed the city wall and exploded within the castle.

The vicious cannonballs seemed like they had eyes as they aimed at the Guards Soldiers in the city. Before they could even react, they suffered heavy casualties.

What happened next was mass chaos.

The narrow castle was sieged from all directions and surrounded by numerous cannonballs, and there was no safe place yet.

This was a totally one sided battle.

The Mediterranean Squadron had planned it out too well. Before the battle started, Alvaro used the intel, so he knew which ship was where and which cannon should shoot at where.

The castle defending troops were in terrible shape. Helplessly, they could only give up the castle and retreat to the imperial city. If they stayed, they would only be buried together with the castle.

In less than an hour, the Kasbah of the Udayas, which was viewed as the iron castle of Rabat, had fallen into a sea of flames and was burned to ruins.

War was merciless and so was fire.

Less than 40 thousand guards retreated out of the castle, and each one of them was smoked black. But to them, the catastrophe had just begun.

The Kasbah of the Udayas was built at the cape, and there was only one narrow path leading them to the mainland.

For them to retreat, they had to go past that path. How could the Mediterranean Squadron give up such a chance to strike them?

The moment they walked out of the castle gates, the cannons followed and changed their targets.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

Pretty much at the same time as they charged out, cannonballs exploded amongst their formation. The unlucky ones were hit head on, while the lucky ones fell down injured.

“Oh sh*t!”

How was this a path of retreat? It was more of a path to hell.

“Charge, let’s just try to survive!”

The defending general decided to test his luck when he saw that there was no way out. The bold ones would charge in front for that chance to survive, while the cowards could only die.

“Charge!”

A group of Guards Soldiers with no way out braved the cannon fire and stepped on a path that was destined to be bloody. On their path, cannonballs continued to fall and blood and flesh flew all around.

Occasionally, one could see soldiers blown into the air and blood splattering all around.

Even if one jumped into the ocean, it was hard for them to escape. The Mediterranean Squadron was not only equipped with cannons, but there were tens of thousands of soldiers in wait with their arrows.

The less than five kilometer cape was covered in blood and corpses were strewn everywhere. It seemed like hell on earth. Even the nearby ocean water was dyed a deep red.

Only one out of ten were lucky enough to survive.

When the Guards troops broke away from the shooting range, less than five thousand of them had survived. Even then, many of them were injured, and even their general had died.

The two sides had not even met in a head on confrontation yet, but the Moroccan Guards had already lost 20% of their numbers.

The strength of the cannons was as such.

The faces of the remaining soldiers were all ashen white, and some of them looked back at the path they came from. Seeing the corpses of their friends, they all vomited.

What they regretted the most about now was probably eating breakfast.

Even experienced generals had never seen such intense battle scenes. This was not even on the same level as a massacre; it was simply a merciless killing.

The Moroccan Guards had no way to fight back, so they could only take it and use their bodies to block it to try and get out.

Even so, the soldiers felt truly fortunate.

“At least we survived? This itself is a miracle.”

After resting up, the Guards troops moved out once more.

“Move, to the city gate!”

The remnant forces did not dare to get close to the north city gate as it was still covered in cannon fire. They decided to take a long path to the west gate. The Great Xia Dynasty War Fighting Legions had not arrived, so they had it lucky and managed to get into the city.

After learning that the Kasbah of the Udayas had fallen and the 50 thousand Guards had nearly all fell, Mohammed the 6th face was ashen white. He had a feeling that Morocco was going to be unable to escape this calamity.

The first round of the country war ended in a complete defeat for Morocco!

…

Taking down the Kasbah of the Udayas, the Mediterranean Squadron 2nd division sailed into the Bou Regreg River.

When the 1st division saw that, they stopped their assault on the north wall and continued upstream. In this short while, they had blown many holes in the north wall.

There were no less than 20 big holes, and the city gate was pretty much level land now. Tens of thousands of civilians were hit and died on the spot.

In front of the Great Xia Dynasty was a defenseless city.

When Mohammed the 6th saw that, apart from keeping 50 thousand guards to defend the palace and 50 thousand to defend the other three walls, he moved 100 thousand to defend the north region.

They used the houses in the city and the streets as their foundation to set up some defenses.

If not, this war could not be fought.

As for the defenses of the three other walls, he could only rely on the combat occupation players. In just an hour, 500 thousand players had teleported over from the Satellite City.

The guilds in Morocco all came to an agreement. With the five strongest guild leaders as their core, they created a guild alliance to lead all the players in the city to defend it.

To everyone, they had no way out.

The only thing they could do was fight to the death.

Hence, what was next for them was a defensive battle; this was the second stage of the country war.

…

As for why the Mediterranean Squadron 1st division headed upstream, it was to siege the satellite cities. Without removing them, the War Fighting Legions were not confident about going all out on Rabat.

If they did not remove this factor, what would happen if many Moroccan players suddenly teleported over when they were attacking?

The expedition army naturally would not make such a common-sense mistake.

Before attacking Rabat, they needed to destroy the teleportation formation in the Satellite City.

This time, the Satellite City followed suit in its destruction.

The players within the Satellite City were closely packed, so how would they dare to stay when the sudden cannon fire came? All of them squeezed into the teleportation formation. It became a total mess and nearly ended up in a stampede.

At such a time, players only wanted to save their lives, and they had no intentions of queuing up.

There was only one teleportation formation, so it was a case of people squeezing, pushing, and stepping on one another. Men roaring, women screaming, old people grumbling, kids crying, and the like; it was a huge racket.

The helpless children shivered as they were squeezed in the crowd. Apart from their parents, no one else bothered about them.

At such a conjuncture, no one could keep calm. The ugliness of humanity would often be revealed at such a moment.

Luckily, at the crucial moment, there were still calm people in the city.

After receiving the news, the Guardian Guild stepped out, forming an elite squad to maintain order. Anyone that cut the queue was thrown all the way to the back.

If one was not happy, they would be baptized in blood as a warning.

The two players who were making the most noise were killed on the spot. Their blood flowed and their corpse just laid there on the ground. At such a time, if they did not kill, they would not be able to send a warning and calm the crowd.

As expected, with the support of the Guardian Guild, the situation was slowly put under control. If the Moroccan players killed each other over the teleportation formation, they would not be able to open their eyes in the world.

In such a short while, there were hundreds of people who were injured from being stepped on.

When the players who had calmed down saw that, they were all ashamed. The young people even allowed the old and children to teleport away first.

Doctor occupation players decided to stay to treat the injured.

The glory and light of humanity shone once more.

The players had never expected that they would become so crazy and lose their senses.

It was the sudden war that made them tense up and become uncontrollable.

If not, the players would not have panicked so much from just one round of cannon fire. No matter how strong the Mediterranean Squadron cannons were, they had limited ability to strike within the city.

Although that was the case, the Satellite City players quickened their retreat pace and did not hesitate.

Looking at the situation, there was no meaning in remaining in the city. Rather than that, why not retreat to the imperial city?

The careful and crafty Great Xia Dynasty terrified the Moroccans.

At 10 AM, apart from a small number who were still in the underground world, the entire Satellite City became pretty much empty.

Chapter 861 - Shi Dakai Is a Coward

Chapter 861: Shi Dakai Is a Coward

With the Satellite City being wiped out, the second step of the expedition army’s strategy had been smoothly executed.

Close to noon, rumbling noises suddenly spread out from the outskirts of Rabat. The expedition army deputy general Baiqi had led the three legions and finally rushed to Rabat.

200 thousand troops covered the land and one could not see the end of them.

In sight were just soldiers in black armor, looking cold and shining.

In the vast army, flags waved, iron armor shone while spears and knives were lifted. Before the army even got close, one could feel a chilly aura spreading over.

On the city wall, all of them were shocked beyond words when they saw such a majestic formation, be it the Guards Soldiers or the Moroccan players.

As they say, ‘If one does not climb the mountain, one does not know how high it is; if one does not dive into the water, one would not know how deep it is.’

After personally seeing the Great Xia Army, only then did Moroccan players know what a strong army looked like. On the city walls, not all of them were adventure gamemode players, and some had been Lords. However, luck did not favor them, so they were eliminated by the wilderness.

And these people were filled with much emotion when they saw this army. In comparison, their old army was nothing and could not even be compared.

The strength of the Great Xia Dynasty was really something.

Thinking about that, the uneasiness in their hearts grew. Some of the players could not handle the strong suppressive atmosphere, and their legs shook while their faces turned ashen white.

If one did not see such a strong army for themselves, one would not understand what they felt.

The game that Gaia designed was just too real.

Be it the Dragon Legion Corps or the Guards Legion Corps, they had been through hundreds of battle, so each soldier emitted a killing aura that Gaia had designed. This aura provoked the weak mental state of these players.

Adventure gamemode players who had always been fighting monsters had never seen such a formation.

The reason Gaia created such a setting was to allow the players to get used to the atmosphere of the battlefield. With that, players would not be as afraid when they arrived on Planet Hope.

A player force that had not been through fires could not even take one hit from such an army.

…

Five miles outside of Rabat, Baiqi was guarded by the Iron Eagle Swordsmen, walking in the middle of the formation. As Baiqi looked at Rabat, a bright light shone in his eyes.

Baiqi was not unfamiliar with this city, as he had spent a night in it. Baiqi knew that every imperial city was strong, even the lowest grade ones.

To take it down, one needed to be patient and could not rush.

Thinking of which, Baiqi said, “Send my orders, camp here. Order Shi Dakai to lead the 5th legion to enter the Satellite City to remove any obstacles, there must be no mistakes.”

Baiqi’s orders seemed to be casual, but it contained a hidden meaning behind it.

First, Shi Dakai had just started to lead the army and had not gotten any contributions, so Baiqi was giving him a chance. Secondly, Baiqi wanted to use this chance to judge his ability.

The king recommended him but Baiqi wanted to see for himself.

Troops moving were not a small matter, so even attacking a defenseless city tested the ability of the general. God Generals like Baiqi could see much more things from such.

“Yes!” The messenger charged away.

After a short while, the army stopped. The ocean breeze blew across, but the army did not make a single noise. It was like a statue in the wilderness, not making a move.

When the Moroccans saw that, they felt a chill run down their spines.

At the same time, the 5th legion planned at the right wing moved away, turning east toward the Satellite City.

“What are they doing?” The Moroccan players did not understand.

Someone hesitated, “Look at the direction; they are going to attack the Satellite City.”

“To attack the Satellite City now, they are too careful, right?” The Moroccan players were speechless.

“Are we going to stop them?”

“No, this might be their plan to make us split up troops to reduce their resistance in attacking the city. We cannot fall for their tricks.”

“That’s right. The Satellite City is just an empty city. If they want to take it, they can go ahead.”

Hence, the Moroccans decided to stay still and wait for changes.

As for the imperial city guards, without military orders, they would not leave their positions. Their role was to defend the imperial city, so why would they care about a Satellite City?

Moreover, it was an empty city.

Of course, to ask the guards army to come out of the city to attack was not impossible.

…

At that juncture, Shi Dakai led the 5th legion and quickly acted.

Reality proved that Shi Dakai did not let Baiqi down.

They broke away from the army and reached the city in less than half an hour, but Shi Dakai did not order an attack. He solemnly formed up his troops like how one would perform a siege by getting into formations.

Then he arranged sword shield soldiers as the vanguard to break the city gates.

After entering the city, Shi Dakai arranged a cavalry scouting team to check the situation. After ensuring that the city did not have any ambushes, he destroyed the stone steele.

During the entire process, Shi Dakai was on high alert.

During the process, Shi Dakai did not care about the rushing of the 5th legion or the clamor of the middle troops. He just expressionlessly and calmly led them.

Hence, the 5th legion took 1.5 hours to take down an empty city. During the process, the players in Rabat did not dare to teleport over to fight them.

Only after the 5th legion had moved in and defended the important locations of the city did he send someone to report that the Satellite City had been taken down.

When Baiqi heard that, he nodded and thought to himself, ‘Truly has the making of a general.’

However, Shi Dakai unavoidably gained the name of coward. Such a nickname was not a good thing to have in the army.

The soldiers looked at Shi Dakai with a weird expression. However, he was really solemn, and no one could see if anything was off about him from his appearance.

…

After the 5th legion took down the Satellite City, the expedition army naturally had to reason to camp on the outskirts of the city. Baiqi immediately ordered them to move in.

With that, they had obtained a super camp and saved a lot of time and effort.

The army came from far away and the construction tools they brought were far from enough. If they built a camp in the wilderness, it would be really difficult. Not to mention that just the mosquitoes alone were a huge problem.

In just a night, whilst the army was camping by the ocean, 200 of them were bitten and suffered illnesses, and their bodies swelled up all around.

The mosquitoes in summer were simply horrifying. The diseases they brought with them were a huge problem. If the army spreads a huge disease, that would be a disaster.

When the army moved into the Satellite City, as long as they controlled the hygiene, the situation would naturally get better.

Baiqi was strict in his control over them. After the army entered, apart from the forces in charge of scouring for resources, the others were designated into defense zones.

The Satellite City players left in a hurry, so they left behind numerous resources. Apart from grain, there were cheaper medicine in the shops and also some arrows in the equipment shop.

More importantly, the artisans in the army could use the raw materials to make more arrows to replenish their equipment.

If not, why would ancient armies love to camp inside cities? This was the reason.

…

Rabat city wall, the Moroccan players were totally stunned.

Seeing the attack of the Great Xia Dynasty, on the city wall, be it the players or the guards, they all lied in wait; they were prepared for a decisive battle.

They did not expect the enemy to not bother about them and take down the Satellite City instead, casually walking in.

“What is happening? Do not they know this is a country war, why are they so casual?”

“They are really looking down on us!”

“Do they want to trap us in the city? What a joke.”

Based on their logic, since both sides had started war, they needed to fight. The Great Xia Dynasty had already taken down the Kasbah of the Udayas and broken through the north city gate, so they had no reason not to continue.

To move into the Satellite City at such a time was a joke.

“Why do I feel like we fell into a trap?”

The Moroccan players exchanged glances, and they had a bad premonition.

Although the Great Xia Army was strong, it seemed like they did not have absolute confidence in winning. Hence, they did not immediately siege and wanted to take a location to fight a drawn out battle.

“If we knew that was the case, we should have struck out and taught them a lesson.”

“That’s right, we are too conservative.”

In fact, it was not because they were conservative. Rather, the enemy’s aura had crushed the Moroccan players. Under such a situation, how would they dare to strike out?

“That might not be the case. If we move out, they might have another trap for us.”

Someone consoled.

“That’s right. The enemy is just too crafty!”

Although they said that, the players still felt regret. If they knew, they would not have retreated from the Satellite City so easily.

“We do not need to panic, If this drags on, it’s worse for them. Do not forget that we still have three territories within our country. Once they come over to help, the enemy would be in big trouble.”

Amongst the players, there were many talents.

“That’s right, we have enough grain here. If we drag this out, it’s better for us. On the contrary, they came from far away, and the things they brought cannot last a week. Since they want to drag it on, we will play with them.”

“Play with them!”

Chapter 862 - Great Xia IOU

Chapter 862: Great Xia IOU

The players of Morocco all felt immense hatred, and their morale rose.

However, the expedition army did not care about them. They simply focused on doing what they should do, and everything happened as planned.

Seeing that the War Fighting Legions had rushed to the battlefield, the 2nd division of the Mediterranean Squadron immediately ended their attack on Rabat and backed out of the port, disappearing into the ocean.

The 2nd division would move toward their overseas resource storage base to escort the merchant ships to send the resources on the desolate island to the army.

Even with Jia Xu’s plan, for them to siege the imperial city would take more than two to three days. Hence, the logistical resources were really important.

Taking down the Satellite City was part of their planned strategy.

The 1st division of the Mediterranean Squadron returned to the shore north of Rabat, adding pressure to the north city region whilst also acting as a psychological barrier to the civilians.

As the division had a limited number of cannonballs, their firepower was reduced to 1/5th of their peak.

Apart from the main warships terrorizing Rabat on the river, the Mengchong Warships, small, and mid-sized warships started to act. Their mission would be to bring all the accumulated resources of the coolies, fishermen, and the others through the warships to the Satellite City.

The sudden attack caused the civilians who relied on the docks for their meals to be unable to run back to the city. At the start of the battle, they were like pitiful bugs, staying in the docks with nowhere to go.

If they tried to move, the archers on the warships would shoot them.

Facing such devils, the civilians could only follow their instructions, placing bags of rice and baskets of fishes, and boxes of goods onto the warships.

When the merchants saw this scene, their hearts bled.

Rabat was a large port, and these goods were prepared by merchants for merchant ships. Not only were these goods in large numbers and variety, but it fulfilled all the needs of merchant ships.

This time, it was all taken by the expedition army.

Of course, the Great Xia Dynasty was not bandits. They were here to save the people from the flames of war and bring them to shared riches.

Hence, they were just borrowing the resources. The army also gave them IOUs.

The moment the war ended, the merchants could use the IOUs to redeem their resources or get back gold of equal value.

The merchants did not know whether to believe it or not, so they just carefully kept the IOUs.

In the future, once the Morocco Provincial Governor office was formed and recognized these IOUs, those who lost theirs would be really regretful.

As for those merchants who died during the war, that was another matter.

As for the Administration Court and the Privy Court, whether this expense should be under administrative or military expense or not that was another matter.

Only one thing was certain. As the person who caused the matter and signed off the IOUs, Ouyang Shuo would find ways to avoid the Provincial Governor every time he came over.

One smart merchant could not exchange the IOUs, so he thought of a brilliant idea, which was to keep it as a collection. Years later, an IOU with the Xia King’s personal signature would be auctioned for 200 thousand gold.

Even though the Moroccan players saw their people being bullied and their resources being taken away, they still did not dare to step out.

If they were to fight the Great Xia Dynasty War Fighting Legion, the players would have a little confidence. But to ask them to fight the Mediterranean Squadron was like throwing eggs at stone.

The fall of the Kasbah of the Udayas was a huge lesson.

Although Morocco had a long shoreline, as it was in Africa, it did not have a decent navy.

Apart from gritting their teeth, the Moroccan players could do nothing but look on.

…

At 2 PM, Ouyang Shuo brought the Divine Martial Guards and arrived in the Satellite City. In such a short while, Baiqi had already set a command center in the city Lord’s Manor to welcome the king.

The results of the expedition army in the morning pleased Ouyang Shuo and brought a smile to his face.

Just as he reached the Satellite City, Kalia’s letter arrived, telling him all about what had happened in Atlantis.

After Ouyang Shuo read this letter, his face became even more relaxed.

The enemy’s reaction was as they had expected. Since the Spanish Squadron dared to step out, the Mediterranean Squadron would give them a meeting gift.

Just this morning, the 4th division had rushed to the Gibraltar Straits. With that, in the nearby straits, the three full divisions were arranged.

It was all planned.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to see how strong the newly built Spanish Invincible Squadron was.

As for Caesar, Henry, and Pedro, even if Ouyang Shuo was not there, he could guess.

Through Kalia’s letters, it was like Ouyang Shuo was personally there, looking down on everything that was happening.

Not only did Ouyang Shuo have an opinion of these European Lords from news he heard in the last life, but he had even more detailed intel in this life through the Black Snake Guards.

As long as they did not truly ally, nothing much would change in his attack on Morocco.

Next was just a game of patience.

…

In the afternoon, after resting up, the expedition army went out of the city and launched a probing attack on Rabat.

The first to strike was still the 5th legion of the Dragon Legion Corps. Lu Bu led the 3rd legion of the Guards Legion Corps and formed up outside to prevent the Moroccan Guards from suddenly charging out to sneak attack.

Shi Dakai’s morning performance had earned him a little of Baiqi’s trust.

Baiqi asked the 5th legion to strike. Naturally, he wanted to probe and find their defensive weakness. He wanted to understand their defensive patterns to prepare for the big day.

Shi Dakai obviously understood Baiqi’s intentions.

In the afternoon, the 5th legion used various methods and tactics. They did not aim to succeed but to test the enemy out. Sometimes he just brushed across, and sometimes he threw in many troops like he wanted to breakthrough.

No matter how many people died, Shi Dakai did not even blink.

Shi Dakai’s goal was to test the limits of the defending forces. On this point, Shi Dakai was really experienced; his eyes were sharp, and he was really calm.

If not, he would not be able to perfectly complete the mission.

If it were a more normal general that was not as sharp and vicious, they would not be able to notice the enemy’s weakness on the changing battlefield. Hence, no matter how many troops they sent, no matter how many they sacrificed, it would ultimately be useless.

As they say, a famous general could do the job with half the resources, while a normal general would take twice the resources to do the job.

With Shi Dakai doing that, the soldiers in the 5th legion did not dare to look down on him anymore.

‘How is such a general a coward? We were blind.’ The soldiers were thinking in this way.

The breached north city region was the place where he heavily probed.

The 5th legion used regiments as groups to enter the city paths to test the enemy. Both sides fought small scale battles around the ruins. Without a doubt, although the Moroccan Guards had the geographical advantage, they could not gain anything.

Both sides suffered heavy losses; it was an equal loss.

The imperial city guards had one huge weakness, which was a lack of experience. When Gaia created them, they could all receive the best equipment, the best training, and the highest rank.

The only thing it could not give them was a killing aura and experience. After all, there were so many guards around the world.

A bunch of soldiers who had never killed anyone, how would they be scary?

Although the 5th legion came from the various Lords of Minnan Province, they had killed and grown all the way, so they were more than a level higher than the imperial city guards.

Baiqi’s orders were also to train up the 5th legion.

Along with the 5th legion, the Military Intelligence Division spies used them as cover to gain frontline intel.

Facing their provocation, the Moroccan Guards could bear it but not the players.

Since the start of the country war, the Moroccan players had felt pent up frustration. In the afternoon, they showed their rage toward the Military Intelligence Division spy.

Players grouped up in threes and fives to try to catch the spy.

One had to say that adventure gamemode players were really good at such small-ranged battle. They were not good in army battle, but in battles against bandits and wild beasts, they had gathered a lot of experience.

This time, the Military Intelligence Division spies suffered heavy losses.

When Baiqi saw this situation, his brows rose. But he was not going to ask them to retreat. Instead, he arranged for the Iron Eagle Swordsmen to help.

When the Moroccan players saw that, they cheered like they had won a war.

Unfortunately, they had met their match.

Each Iron Eagle Swordsman was highly skilled, and their battle experience was no less than players.

In the afternoon, the small quarter killing was really risky and intense despite not being large scale.

Chapter 863 - Calamity

Chapter 863: Calamity

In the blink of an eye, dusk had arrived.

In the far horizon, a bunch of flaming clouds hung high in the air, forming stacks upon stacks. A bunch of white seagulls flew across the clouds and disappeared over the horizon.

5 PM, Baiqi ordered the troops to return.

The 5th legion that had massacred for an entire afternoon retreated like a flood, leaving behind two thousand corpses. They had paid a heavy price in siege battle and their probing attacks, and they would definitely repay it.

Along with the army backing off into the Satellite City, the afternoon battle came to an end. The night sky slowly descended, the clamor ended, and both sides could finally calm down and prepare for the battle tomorrow.

Especially the Moroccans, as the sudden country war was one they were not prepared for. They did not have time to think in the day, so they naturally needed to use the night to rest.

This concerned the survival of the country, so one needed to be really careful.

Rabat was like an injured beast, licking its wounds in the dark. Smoke rose up from the chimneys of the frightened civilians’ homes as life had to continue to go on.

The only thing was that the city lacked the joy and happiness of usual days. Instead, it was full of anxiousness and fear.

In this battle, if the beast was released, blood would flow and there would be a lot of casualties. How would the people know that the injuries today were just an appetizer?

The true crisis was far from descending. … Rabat, Imperial Palace.

The Imperial Palace in the night was still lit up. The Guards Army maintained the law and order of the city while the palace itself was closely guarded. The usually solemn palace was covered in a tense atmosphere.

Within the main hall, Mohammed the 6th sat on the throne. One could see that his brows were tightly locked, and his expression really serious.

At this moment, a civil servant, a general, and a player stood out.

The civil servant was the kingdom secretary Hisham, the general was the commander of the guards Ismail, and the player was Amedee, the guild leader of the top guild in Morocco, the Golden Mercenary Group.

The report from the day had been handed over, and the situation was really bad.

Mohammed the 6th asked, “Ismail, do the guards have confidence about tomorrow?”

Ismail was the only historical general in Morocco. He was born in the imperial family, and Mohammed trusted him greatly. When he appeared in the wilderness, Ismail was no more than 30, the time when he was strong and young.

“Do not worry king.” Ismail’s voice was really resolute and confident, “The defeat today is because it was a sneak attack and also because they attacked from the water. The enemy attacked our weakness with their strength. Passing through today meant that the situation has calmed down and the following siege battle would be hard for our enemy.”

Amedee agreed, “The general is right. In the afternoon, the enemy did not gain any benefits from probing us. Instead, they lost a huge number.”

When Mohammed the 6th heard their words, he relaxed slightly.

“When can the armies of the various territories arrive?” Muhammad the 6th asked.

When Hisham heard this question, he replied, “As the three Lords are not within the country, the operation would have to be pushed back. Luckily, the three of them have already sent letters and said that they had gathered their troops and have teleported to Casa Blanca. They can arrive by tomorrow.”

Although their letters were stopped by Kalia, they had formed an alliance after all. At that moment, the higher ups in the territory would obviously understand.

Tomorrow, the three armies would gather together and head toward Rabat.

If Kalia did not intercept the letters, they would have reached the city tonight. Kalia’s help had bought precious time for Huo Qubing’s ambush.

Hisham said, “King there’s also another piece of good news. Based on a report from Casa Blanca Lord, they said they have persuaded the Spanish to help us.”

“Great!”

The two successive pieces of good news calmed Mohammed the 6th down. Following which, he said, “The Great Xia king is too ambitious. Since they are doing this, do not blame us for being heartless. Send my orders. Capture all the eastern merchants in the city. Kill those who dare resist.”

Mohammed the 6th was not a merciful king, and his hands were stained with blood. More importantly, he thought of such a way to unify the people and gather their hate.

“Yes my king! Let’s use their heads to worship the soldiers that died in the Kasbah of the Udayas.”

Losing 50 thousand elites so quickly really affected Ismail.

Before the country war started, the three chambers of commerce of the Great Xia had gotten the news. Hence, along with their ships being used by the army, they had fled earlier.

The other merchants, including those from other parts of China, were not so lucky.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to help but there was nothing he could do but discuss compensations. As for taking the risk and revealing the plans, Ouyang Shuo was not that noble.

The unknown element was part of the risk of voyage trading. … The moment Ismail left the palace, he ordered the guards to massacre hundreds and thousands of eastern merchants.

These merchants were terrified when war broke out but they could not leave. They thought they might be able to become tortoises and hide in the city.

Who knew that they would not be able to escape?

The Moroccan people were furious, so how could the merchants manage to hide?

Mohammed the 6th said kill all that dared to resist but Ismail understood it as kill all the eastern merchants.

Whether they resisted or not was up to the guards.

In less than an hour, thousands of bodies were dragged away, sending a chill down one’s spine.

First, it was just the eastern merchants. Later on, it became anyone who looked eastern. Even the Black Snake Guard spies hiding within fell.

Luckily, most of them were locals. Even if they were from China, they had a secret location, which ensured that they were not found.

If not, more than two of them would have fallen.

Those two were really unlucky.

On this night, blood flowed in Rabat; it was a really chaotic night. … Satellite City, City Lord’s Manor.

Compared to the silence and fear in Rabat, the moment night arrived, the Satellite City was totally silent like an empty city. The various units ate their meals and stayed in their own zones.

Ouyang Shuo went to the casualty section to look at the wounded before returning to the manor. Jia Xu walked over and reported, “King, Huo Qubing has sent a letter to tell us that everything is prepared.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Should we arrange Lu Bu’s legion over?”

Huo Qubing’s ambush was aimed at the three armies of the Moroccan territories, and their overall strength was at 130 thousand; this was twice the numbers of the Guards 2nd legion.

Jia Xu thought about it and said, “I think it is best if we do not. First, the Tiger Leopard Cavalry are elite troops and would not have much problem. If we arrange Lu Bu’s legion, it might alert them. Secondly, we need Lu Bu’s legion for the siege tomorrow.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded once more and acknowledged Jia Xu’s analysis.

Based on the plan, their main force would still launch a probing attack to slowly drain away at the enemy’s fighting spirit tomorrow. The main focus of tomorrow would be Huo Qubing’s ambush.

As long as they took out the enemy’s territory armies, Rabat would be left alone.

At that time, the expedition army would have so many choices. They could choose to back off to Casa Blanca or get their resources from there.

Hence, the ambush tomorrow was really crucial, so it was no wonder that Ouyang Shuo would personally ask about it.

“King, I have a matter.”

Jia Xu hesitated and told him about the massacre that happened in the streets of Rabat. The Black Snake Guards had passed the intel to the command center right away.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, a cold glow appeared in his eyes, “The Moroccans are digging their own grave. Does their killing affect our plan?”

Jia Xu said, “Do not worry my king, the Black Snake Guards spies have already hidden, and the Guards are unable to find them. Many of them are westerners and will not be implicated. As a result, the plan is still a go.”

“That’s great.” … 5th month, 20th day, Casa Blanca.

At 7 AM, the sun rose up as usual and bathed the garden city in white light; the scent of flowers and the sounds of birds chirping calmed down ones’ heart.

However, on this morning, Casa Blanca gave out a solemn aura.

The sky had just turned bright, and the 130 thousand troops had already gathered outside the city. They did not stop and headed toward Rabat.

Behind the army followed 10 thousand adventure gamemode players; they were the combat occupation players gathered yesterday.

Morocco did not produce war horses. Consequently, apart from less than 10 thousand cavalry, the rest were infantry. Amongst which, there were some that were more special, and they were all black men.

In Moroccan history, during the Allawite Dynasty, he had formed a well-trained black man army.

In the game, this black man army became a special soldier type. They were the best at fighting in the desert under hot weather.

Chapter 864 - Camping Against Water, Worry of Strategists

Chapter 864: Camping Against Water, Worry of Strategists

At 11 AM, the blistering sun was in the air, mercilessly scorching the earth.

Even the ocean breeze from the west side was hot and humid. To the soldiers that were wearing armor, such weather was undoubtedly a torture.

The sweat seeped into their inner shirts, and their boots even had water seeping out.

Out of the 130 thousand territory army, only that black man army remained calm.

Last night, the three territories were not attacked by the Great Xia Dynasty, so they thought that the Great Xia Dynasty wanted to win in one battle and throw all their troops into attacking Rabat.

Hence, to save time, the army quickly traveled, and their patrols were only limited to five miles out from the army.

To the commander, there would be no other enemies in Morocco, so why should they be on alert?

As they say, saving someone is like putting out a fire. Seeing Rabat being cornered, everyone was anxious. The player forces that were originally at the back of the army were now at the front.

The players also continued to rush and push the army to move faster.

This misjudgment was a huge mistake.

After walking for an hour, the commander raised his head and looked at the sky. He saw the sun hanging in the middle of the sky; the temperature had gotten a few degrees higher, and the heat waves were corroding the stamina of the soldiers.

The heat caused the air to be unstable and give rise to waves.

The soldiers were all restless; their lips were dry and their bodies were leaning on their spears. Those who were weaker looked like they were about to collapse at any moment.

Even the players started to lose their eagerness.

“Men, let’s find a place to rest!”

Although the commander was not a famous one, he was really experienced and knew that if they continued, they would not be of much use even if they rushed to the imperial city.

“Yes!”

Quickly, the vanguard forces reported that there was a huge river that was suitable for resting.

The commander did not think about it. He simply ordered the troops to rush there and replenish their water. If this general had read the Sun Zi art of war, he would not have made such a stupid mistake.

To camp with backs facing water was a horrendous decision for a traveling army.

After receiving the military order, the 130 thousand troops cheered out. The soldiers all ran to the river, gulping down the water.

“Wow!”

Some of the soldiers felt that it was not enough, taking off their armor and bathing in the water. The cool water cascaded down from their heads, bringing away the heat of the weather and soothing them.

The water that splashed up appeared really colorful and eye-catching as the sun shone onto it.

“Comfortable!”

Seeing someone take the lead, everyone else followed.

On the long and stretched out river, many soldiers were bathing inside. Those who could swim were already at the center of the river.

To the soldiers, there was nothing happier than that. The exhaustion from traveling was instantly removed from their bodies.

There was no military order better than that.

Originally, the commander did not care, but when he saw that the situation was getting out of control, he said sternly, “Men send my orders. Immediately return to shore after drinking. No playing with water. Those who disobey will be punished under military law.”

“Yes!” The messenger soldier turned around.

Unfortunately, the commander was too late.

At this very moment, a change occurred.

A short distance from the shore, rumbling horse hooves could be heard. The sound was rushed and powerful like that of lightning, and even the ground shook.

The shaking ground brought with it sand and dust, blocking their vision.

“Not good!”

The commander was the quickest to react, and his expression changed. Morocco lacked cavalry, so it definitely was not something good for such loud horse hooves sounds to spread out.

“Gather, quick gather!”

The commander ordered, but it did not help.

The current army was scattered along and could not form up. Many of them had tossed their weapons and armor to the side to play in the water.

Even those who had returned to shore had removed their armor and were sitting down drinking water.

The moment the order to gather was given, they scrambled to the shore, and the scene grew more and more chaotic.

In this short while, they could already see the cavalry in the horizon. The golden armor gave off an eye-catching golden light under the hot sun.

The Guards Soldiers were all Grade 10 war elite soldiers and had great stamina that was comparable to basic generals. Hence, although the Mingguang Armor was heavy, they could all wear it. Along with their horses being elite Qingfu Horses, they traveled as swiftly as light armored cavalry.

This charge was like that of a bolt of lightning.

“It’s the Great Xia Dynasty Army!”

The commander had noticed the Tiger Leopard Cavalry and could see the horse lances that were raised up. In the blink of an eye, he could even see the steam from the noses of the horse.

“It’s over!”

The commander stared with his mouth agape.

In such a short time, the army could not even gather, much less form up. The only ones in formation were the five thousand Personal Guards.

With the Black Snake Guards providing them intel, it was not hard for Huo Qubing to learn of their traveling route. Along with their scouting beforehand, Huo Qubing became more and more confident.

Taking into account the traveling speed of the enemy, Huo Qubing had set up the ambush a long time ago.

As expected, just after noon, the enemy arrived. After finding their tracks, the Tiger Leopard Cavalry spies followed and tailed them. Huo Qubing was like a patient hunter, looking for the right opportunity to strike.

Huo Qubing knew that not only did he have to win, he had to win beautifully.

He needed to win, and it had to be one-sided.

Huo Qubing was still looking forward to going to the final battle in Rabat.

As a result, he needed to be even more patient.

Although Huo Qubing was young and did not send out troops following normal logic, if one needed to be patient, Huo Qubing was more patient than anyone else.

If not, how would he be able to sweep the deserts in history.

All God Generals possessed some basic qualities no matter how they used troops. Not only him, but Baiqi, Han Xin, and Sun Bin were all the same.

If now, why were they God Generals?

At noon, Huo Qubing finally found the chance. Even he did not expect the enemy to be so foolish and choose to rest by a shoreline.

“They are looking to die, do not blame me.”

Huo Qubing relaxed; he had already foreseen a massive victory.

Seeing this chance, he did not hesitate and ordered the troops to attack. 70 thousand of the most elite cavalry struck out and cut the 130 thousand army into pieces.

When the main force came over, it became a total massacre.

Along the shoreline, the cavalry did whatever they wanted and did not give the Moroccan army a chance to gather up. Wherever it looked like they were about to form up, the cavalry would focus.

Hence, each time they tried, they were charged apart. As it went on, the commander could not even find his own Personal Guards and lost control of the army.

The fall of the army was imminent.

Some soldiers thought they were smart and jumped into the river to try to escape. What they did not know was that the Guards Legion Corps soldiers were equipped with God arm crossbows. Anyone who tried to escape were shot.

Once bodies pierced with arrows floated on the river surface, no one dared to jump in anymore.

If they wanted to survive, the only way was to surrender.

In less than two hours, apart from the players who would rather die, the 130 thousand Moroccan army either died in battle or surrendered.

Close to 100 thousand surrendered soldiers lined up on the shoreline, forming a majestic sight.

As for the small number that escaped, Huo Qubing had no intentions of chasing them.

As they say, ‘The monk can leave but the temple cannot.’ Once the Great Xia Dynasty occupied Morocco, they would naturally take care of the soldiers that escaped.

The crucial thing now was to handle all these prisoners and deal with the post-battle matters.

The king had ordered them to not return to Rabat after crushing the army. Instead, they were to occupy Casa Blanca and Agadier.

As for Tangier City, the Mediterranean Squadron would deal with it.

Taking down the city would not only give them a supply base but would also dig away at the fighting spirit of Rabat.

Without reinforcements, it was not known how long Rabat could survive.

As the battle went smoothly, Huo Qubing was delighted, and he had no intentions of hiding it. He was unlike Baiqi, who would keep the same face regardless of the results.

“General, the first contribution for this war is ours.”

At this very moment, Legion General of the Tiger Leopard Cavalry Ma Chao came over. Currently, his face was brimming. Since following Huo Qubing, they had obtained victory after victory.

“These kinds of battles are the best.” Ma Chao was delighted.

When Huo Qubing heard that, he shook his head, “I do not think we are the first contributor; that belongs to the Mediterranean Squadron. But we have done a good job, and I’ll seek rewards from the king.”

Ma Chao smiled, “It is not that I’m greedy for the rewards, but it’s just that my boys deserve it.”

Although the victory was beautiful, it was not easy for the Tiger Leopard Cavalry.

Chapter 865 - Beauty of the Garden City

Chapter 865: Beauty of the Garden City

At 3 PM, the hottest period had passed.

After clearing up the battlefield, the Tiger Leopard Cavalry escorted 100 thousand prisoners and headed right for Casa Blanca. They needed to reach the city before nightfall, or they would have to spend the night in the wilderness.

Thinking about the mosquitoes, Huo Qubing could not help but frown, “Ma Chao!”

“Present!”

“Lead the way with the 1st and 2nd division. You must take down Casa Blanca before the sky darkens.” The army was escorting the prisoners and could not move quickly. The only way was for a vanguard force to go first.

Ma Chao froze before giving a military bow. An excited glow appeared in his eyes. It revealed a craving for war contributions and fresh blood as he said loudly, “Yes!”

Huo Qubing reminded, “Go, be careful!”

After taking down the 130 thousand troops of the Moroccan territory armies, not only was Casa Blanca defenseless, but even the other two territories did not have any troops. Logically speaking, Ma Chao would not face any problems. Huo Qubing instructed him to be careful to prevent him from messing up.

What happened to the Moroccan army was still fresh in their minds.

“Do not worry general!”

Although Ma Chao was a fierce general, he was not a pure muscle head. In fact, he was a really thoughtful person.

After a short while, the 1st and 2nd divisions broke away from the main force, sweeping toward the south and slowly disappearing out of sight. When the captured soldiers from Casa Blanca saw this, their faces turned ashen white.

Obviously, they knew what these cavalry were going to do. They were even more certain that the remaining three thousand Casa Blanca troops would not be able to stop them.

Amidst that fear was also a certain respect for these troops.

As Ma Chao had said, this battle was not easy for the Tiger Leopard Legion. If one looked carefully, their armor was all soaked. In fact, it was like they were scooped out from the river.

Under such a hot weather, even the Moroccan’s themselves could not take it, much less the Tiger Leopard Cavalry who were wearing heavy armor. The soldiers were only hotter, and it was much more unbearable.

During this battle, apart from them having great stamina and combat strength, they also had higher levels of determination and perseverance.

After the battle, some soldiers directly fainted because of heatstroke. Even so, they could only sneakily remove their armor. After their breathing got smooth, they wore it back. As for the sweat, it was treated as a mark of the battle.

A beautiful victory was the best reward for the Tiger Leopard Cavalry.

Under such circumstances, the Tiger Leopard Legion did not dare take it easy, and their formation was really serious. Ma Chao did not bother about resting, once again stepping on their journey.

In comparison, the Moroccan territory army appeared too spoiled. Even without their river side antics, they would have still been defeated.

“To be defeated by the Great Xia Army, we were rightly beaten.”

…

Just as Huo Qubing led his troops toward Casa Blanca, all the Moroccan players who died in the ambush were revived in the Imperial City Reincarnation Hall.

Within the dark hall, numerous spirits were unable to revive, crying out in pain.

Quickly, the news that the territory army was ambushed and crushed had spread throughout the entire Rabat.

This time, the imperial city was in dead silence.

“Why did this happen?”

When Mohammed the 6th heard this news, he muttered, and the frown on his face grew deeper and deeper.

Unfortunately, no one would be able to reply to the king’s doubts.

The territory army’s fall was undoubtedly a huge blow to the people’s nerves. If they continue to be stressed out like that, they might collapse.

The hopes for victory seemed to get slimmer and slimmer. Meanwhile, the unrest in the city seemed to grow larger and larger, making it hard for one to breathe. Even the Guards Soldiers were not as confident as before.

The imperial city had suddenly become a lone city.

At this very moment, Golden Mercenary Group Guild Leader Amedee stepped out and said, “We are far from despair, as long as we hold on till the Spanish Invincible Squadron arrives, we can win.”

“That’s right, there’s still the Spanish Invincible Squadron. We can still win.” They said.

Seemingly going along with the words of Amedee, a batch of warships and merchant ships arrived outside the city. Unfortunately, they were not the Spanish Invincible Squadron that they were waiting for.

Based on the journey time, the Spanish Invincible Squadron should still be in the Mediterranean Ocean. After getting the news, Casillas would need time to return to his territory and gather his troops. Overall, it would still take a day.

The one that arrived was the 2nd division of the Mediterranean Squadron as well as the merchant ships of the Great Xia Dynasty. They were here to give the expedition army resources and send goods to the Satellite City.

Seeing that, the civilians living in the city were dispirited, “Wow the enemy does not lack grain. We do not even have the ability to fight a drawn out battle with them.”

The morale of Morocco was being dwindled down bit by bit.

At the same time, the 5th legion led by Shi Dakai was like an exquisite instrument, probing at the imperial city. Like an expert assassin, they patiently searched for the weakness of the enemy.

The current Great Xia Dynasty had the ability to run a large-scale country war efficiently. Each force ran independently but also kept in close contact, pushing out their battle plans flawlessly.

In contrast, Morocco was on the back foot.

…

At 7 PM, Casa Blanca was in their sights.

The summer days were really long. Even though it was 7 PM, it was only just night. The moon hung high in the sky, the stars shining bright. In the distance, the sunset covered the sun.

If the wilderness did not have groups of mosquitoes fooling around, such a night would be perfect.

Torches lit up the Casa Blanca covered by the night sky.

Ma Chao, who had rushed over early, did not let down Huo Qubing. Not only did he successfully take down Casa Blanca, but looking at the situation, although the city was covered in a feeling of uneasiness, it was still really orderly.

The Great Xia Dynasty Army had made it clear that they were not to disturb the people.

After Ma Chao entered the city, he broke the territory stone stele, taking the equipment of the remaining soldiers in the city. He sent men to defend the city gates, city walls, important streets, and other important areas.

At the same time, he arranged a cavalry regiment to patrol the city to calm down the people.

The remaining forces entered the barracks in the city. They cleaned out the rooms and prepared grain for the main force. The thoughtful Ma Chao even prepared the camp for the prisoners.

Of course, Ma Chao alone could not have managed it. The army system of the Great Xia Dynasty army was perfect. Long ago, when Baiqi had arrived, each army had advisors, grain officers, clerks, and other support staff.

Their presence was the key to the army running operations.

Similar to the people in the imperial city, Casa Blanca’s residents had heard the news of the territory army falling. As a garden city, it was calm and romantic, and the only thing it lacked was a killing aura.

Hence, when Ma Chao led his troops over, Casa Blanca chose to surrender. The elders in the city raised up a weird request; they could gather grain but not destroy the flowers and environment within the city.

When Ma Chao heard that, he kept silent.

Since they were so cooperative, Ma Chao naturally would not go all out.

When Huo Qubing and his forces arrived, the civilians had already returned home. Seeing the army enter, they could only look out through the holes in their window, gazing respectfully at the army.

When they say row after row of prisoners, all their thoughts was lost.

During this night, Casa Blanca was destined to be sleepless.

To the Tiger Leopard Cavalry, they were tired after an entire day and could finally rest up now.

…

The residents of Casa Blanca were not the only ones that could not fall asleep.

Night, Mediterranean Ocean region.

The huge Spanish Invincible Squadron was now traveling on the vast ocean. During the day, they had already crossed the ocean region where Jidian City was located smoothly.

The Mediterranean Squadron 5th division was patrolling the outskirts of Jidian City, sending out a signal that they were just defending the city to their death. Seeing that, Casillas did not provoke them and took another path.

Jidian City’s defense was just too terrifying. Casillas did not want any conflict with them at the moment.

“Once I deal with the expedition army, I’ll come back for you.”

Casillas glanced at Jidian City, and a look of viciousness flashed in his eyes. The presence of Jidian City to Casillas, to the Spanish players, was a humiliation.

The arrogant Spanish wanted to remove this cancer, but they had no way to do so.

This time, the Great Xia Dynasty attacking Morocco was undoubtedly the best chance for Casillas. The Great Xia Dynasty was destined to be enemies with the whole Mediterranean region, so Spain had no reason not to butt in.

The next morning, the Spanish Invincible Squadron would pass through the Gibraltar Straits. Casillas was feeling really confident about beating the Mediterranean Squadron.

Unfortunately, Casillas did not know that on that night, there was a person whose face was ashen white and unsettled. She was not anyone but the Lord of Casa Blanca, Caroline.

At 5 PM, she had received the notification that her territory was occupied.

That moment, Caroline nearly fell to the ground.

Due to not being in the country, Caroline had escaped and was not teleported over to Rabat. Hence, Casillas did not suspect anything.

Caroline could not imagine whether Casillas would still help them or not if he knew that the Moroccan territory army had fallen.

Hence, no matter what, Caroline would not let Casillas know the truth. Hence, during dinner, Caroline was smiling widely and nothing weird could be seen.

One had to say that women were great actresses, especially beautiful women. The pitiful Casillas was still being kept in the dark and still having dreams of being the white knight.

Chapter 866 - Underwater Dragon King Cannon

Chapter 866: Underwater Dragon King Cannon

Dead of night, Satellite City.

Within the City Lord’s Manor, Ouyang Shuo smiled, “The Tiger Leopard Cavalry has done a beautiful battle, so it’s time for the main battlefield to move tomorrow. Wen He, contact the spies in Rabat, act exactly at noon tomorrow.”

“Yes my king!”

Jia Xu turned around and left. The country war had finally welcomed its most crucial day.

…

Just as Ouyang Shuo was ready to give Rabat a fatal blow, something unusual was happening in the underground world under the Satellite City.

When the Moroccan players left the Satellite City, the players within did not have time to escape and were stuck in the underground world.

When the expedition army moved in, even if they wanted to get out, they could not.

And those who were able to enter were all the elites among the adventure gamemode players. Currently, a small group of Golden Mercenary Group players, who were in charge of exploring the underground world, were conversing.

The news of the Moroccan territory army falling was spread to them through the forums.

This time, they were furious.

“Captain, shouldn’t we do something?” The one who spoke was a young man holding a bow. At a glance, he was a quick thinking person.

His captain was a warrior; he looked British and said, “Dida, what are your thoughts?”

Dida turned his eyes and said coldly, “Captain, do you remember the devil duckbeak beast we met that day?”

“Of course, they are so terrifying. If we did not run in time, we would have died there.” The captain replied. Only then did he realize, and his eyes opened wide, “Are you planning to use them? Are you crazy?”

“Why not?” Dida was not fazed, “Captain, think about it. If we can lead them to the surface, it would be a huge problem for the enemy. There are 10 thousand spirit beasts.”

“With our ability, how can we lead them?”

Although the captain was tempted, he did not know what Dida was thinking.

When Dida heard this, he smiled, “Captain, did you notice that when we passed the devil duckbeak beasts, they were laying eggs? If we steal the eggs and throw them into the Satellite City, the beasts will riot.”

“Furthermore,” as he said that, greed appeared in his eyes, “Those beasts are hiding a treasure, so once they are all led away, wouldn’t that treasure be ours? If that was the case, wouldn’t we be able to take revenge and get a treasure?”

When the captain heard that, he nodded but soon frowned, “Your idea is correct but the beast king’s egg must be deep in the nest and heavily guarded. For us to steal it will not be easy.”

Dida smiled. Suddenly, he took out an item from his storage bag and smiled, “Look at what this is.”

“Invisibility talisman?” The captain exclaimed, “You actually have such a rare item?”

Dida smiled, “I got it by chance.”

The captain was delighted, patting Dida’s shoulder, “It’s doable with this treasure. You have done a good job. Of the treasures within, you can choose three of them.”

Dida smiled, “What are we waiting for? Let’s set out. We have no time to waste.”

“Let’s go.”

The elite force packed up and disappeared in the cave.

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

5th month, 21st day, sunny.

In the morning, the sky had just turned bright, and the red sun had not totally risen up from the Atlantic. Like they were stepping onto the red sun, the Spanish Invincible Squadron smoothly passed through the Gibraltar Straits.

The squadron did not notice that there were wooden crates floating in front of them.

The commander of the Invincible Squadron was not Casillas but his general. He was one of the famous Spanish generals, the duke of Parma, Alexander Farnese.

Alexander Farnese was the son of duke of Parma Ottavio, and his Mother was Margaret the Duchess of Parma, who was the illegitimate Daughter of the Roman Empire and Spanish king Carlos the 1st. When he was young, he was taken as a hostage and sent to her Uncle, Phillip the 2nd, growing up with another illegitimate child of Carlos, the 1st John of Austria.

In 1571, Alexander Farnese as the deputy of John of Austria helped to break the Ottoman Empire navy in the Battle of Lepanto. Then he went to the Netherlands to calm down the Netherlands revolution. In 1578, he joined in the Battle of Blou and crushed the Holland rebellion army.

In the 10th month, Netherlands Governor John of Austria died because of an illness and Alexander Farnese replaced him as Governor.

Different from how the previous two previous dukes acted, with Alvaro who suppressed them, and John who accepted them, Alexander Farnese suppressed the Utrecht alliance while making up with the Catholicism majority south.

In the eight years that he was Governor, he obtained many contributions, recovering 10/17 of the provinces that had rebelled, while the others formed the Belgium of today. In 1586, he was given the title of duke of Parma.

Alvaro joining the enemy undoubtedly made the Spanish imperial family furious. Under such a situation, Alexander Farnese decided to join Casillas to rebuild the Spanish Invincible Squadron.

Hence, the battle between the Invincible Squadron and the Mediterranean Squadron was like a battle of fate.

…

The Invincible Spanish Squadron, Principe de Asturias.

Casillas stood on the deck. He looked at the calm ocean surface and said to Alexander Farnese, “General, does the Mediterranean Squadron have an ambush set up nearby?”

The two sides of the Gibraltar Straits were really narrow. However, the moment the Spanish Invincible Squadron entered the Atlantic, not to mention ambushing, but even finding them would be a problem.

Hence, this was the best place for the Mediterranean Squadron to ambush them.

“There’s such a possibility, cough cough.”

The Alexander Farnese that appeared in the wilderness was not even 35 years old, but his body was not good. Historically, Alexander Farnese died in 1952 Achslach because of an illness and war not going his way.

Alexander Farnese turned around and said, “Men!”

“Present!”

“Order the troops to enter their battle stations and maintain wariness.”

“Yes general!”

Thinking about the impending encounter, Casillas was excited. At this very moment, warships sailed over from both sides of the straits, and a golden flag waved in the wind.

“It’s the Great Xia Dynasty Mediterranean Squadron!” Casillas recognized it right away.

When Alexander Farnese heard these words, he took out the telescope and focused. Only to see the 3rd and 4th divisions sail over, around a hundred odd warships.

“Aren’t they a little too confident?” Alexander Farnese frowned. Using two divisions against the Spanish Invincible Squadron was really crazy.

“General Alvaro, what are you thinking?”

Alexander Farnese was always careful when he used troops, but he did not know what the enemy was thinking.

“No matter what, since they dare to come, do not let them return.” Casillas was really excited, smiling, “The Mediterranean Squadron’s other two divisions are probably still in Morocco and cannot return. Alvaro was probably ordered to stop us, so he had no choice but to engage.” Casillas thought of an explanation.

When Alexander Farnese heard that, he did not bother if it were real or not, “Let’s hope so.”

At this very moment, a change occurred.

Suddenly, explosions sounded out from the bottom of the ocean, ‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

Weirdly, the explosions came from beneath their ships and were mostly at the front of the ships. Moreover, the explosion noises were more common at the front of the squadron.

In such a short while, there were 20 odd ships that were damaged and could not move. The more terrifying part was that the explosions continued and did not look like they were going to stop.

“What’s happening?”

Casillas’s expression changed. The explosions continued, and there were even explosions beneath the flagship.

“Quick, go check what’s happening!” Casillas hollered his orders, showing that he was already panicking.

The current Casillas did not notice that Alexander Farnese was really solemn. Alexander Farnese muttered, “Ocean mines, are these the legendary ocean mines?”

Alexander Farnese’s guess was quickly proven correct as placed in the surrounding ocean surface were ocean mines. It could be even called the ancestor of the ocean mines.

“Quick, order the squadron to stop proceeding!” Alexander Farnese ordered.

Ocean mines were an explosive weapon placed under water. It could use many exposure elements like hitting, magnetic, sound, and more to explode and destroy enemy ships or disrupt activity.

Hence, the ocean mines were cheap but really powerful. It was easy to place but hard to find and remove. It was a really flexible weapon and a commonly used one in battle.

Normally speaking, the cost to remove the ocean mines were 100 to 200 times that to place them.

Speaking of ocean mines, people would think that it was a modern weapon. In truth, it was actually the most ancient ocean weapon that originated from China.

Ocean mines were first invented by the Chinese. In 1549, the Ming Dynasty invented the underwater mine, which was the first ocean mine in the world. The mine used wooden crates as the shell, putty to seal it while chains connected to the anchor were used to change the depth and activate the mines manually. It was used 200 years earlier than the ones made by the westerners.

The Ming Dynasty then enhanced it and made one that was called the Underwater Dragon King Cannon.

Chapter 867 - Dead Before the Ship Even Sinks

Chapter 867: Dead Before the Ship Even Sinks

1558 AD, Ming Dynasty famous person Tang Shunzhi wrote a book known as Wubian. This book recorded the structure and way of arranging the underwater mines to be used to hit the pirates that affected China’s ocean regions.

These were the earliest made, man controlled, mechanism-fired mine anchors. The wooden boxes were used as the shell while putty was used to seal the black gunpowder inside. The firing mechanism was a long rope that one used to ignite.

There were three iron anchors below the wooden boxes that controlled the depth of the mine in water.

1590 AD, China invented the earliest floating mines – the Underwater Dragon King Cannons, which was ignited using incense. Nine years later, Wang Minghe invented touch mines using ropes as ignition known as the underwater lightning.

1621 AD, activable floating mines were created; these were exploded from contact and also self-ignited.

Only in the 18th century did the Europeans start to experiment with using ocean mines. In the North America battle for independence, the North Americans made use of beer crates as ocean mines to attack the Delaware River.

In the middle of the 19th century, Russians invented an electrolyte trigger anchor mine. In the 1854 to 1856 Battle of Crimea, the Tsarist Russia used it in their defense of the bay.

After which, various different types of ocean mines were modified, improved, and used widely. In the north and south Battle of the Americas in 1905 and the Japan-Russia war, ocean mines obtained great results.

Since then, the various countries started to pay attention to ocean mine warfare and threw in large amounts of resources to build and develop more of them. In World War I, both sides used 310 thousand mines, destroying 148 warships, 54 submarines, and 586 merchant ships.

In modern day ocean warfare, ocean mines are a much needed weapon. An old ocean mine that did not cost much could destroy a modern day warship that was worth hundreds of millions.

The Mediterranean Squadron had placed the Underwater Dragon King Cannon and the underwater lighting in the Gibraltar Straits. They had placed a total of thousands of them, emptying the armory of the Combat Logistics Department.

The ocean mine crafting technology belonged to the Ming Dynasty firearm making technique. After the No.7 Research Institute modified it, the explosiveness was much stronger, and it was much more flexible in its ignition.

Such a hidden weapon was one that Shanhai City kept a secret and did not use. First, they had not fought any large scale ocean battles. Secondly, they needed to keep it a secret as it was a strategic weapon.

During the country war against Morocco, due to the complicated situation in the Mediterranean, Ouyang Shuo decided to reveal the Underwater Dragon King Cannon to the world.

Although the western technology tree was more advanced than the eastern one, it was a level worse in terms of ocean mines. Hence, be it Casillas or Alexander Farnese, they did not expect to face ocean mines.

This misjudgment or arrogance had hurt them badly.

Although Alexander Farnese ordered the warships to stop, how could the Man O’ War warships stop so easily?

Exploding sounds filled the ears.

Large amounts of warships were hit by the ocean mines, and the ships that were badly damaged had already started sinking.

To make matters worse, in this short amount of time, the two divisions of the Mediterranean Squadron had quickly crowded over. They had formed up and started to fire at the Spanish Invincible Squadron.

The two divisions were going all out, one north and one south. They aimed at the sails, cannon openings, poles, and other key structures. Their first goal was to make the ships lose their traveling ability.

It was mentioned that when Man O’ War warships shot one another, it was hard to get a decisive result in a short time. The only way would be to strike and break the mast.

The warships without their masts and sails were like tigers without teeth.

Alexander Farnese was not an inexperienced person. He quickly calmed down and commanded the troops to strike back. On a narrow road, the brave wins. The Invincible Squadron held the numerical advantage, so they had a way to fight back.

However, the Mediterranean Squadron held the formation advantage, and they pincered the Spanish from both sides. It was like two versus one. Even if the Spanish Invincible Squadron were not wiped out, they would be badly damaged.

The change happened with Casillas. Looking out, around 30 main warships were sunk in the blink of an eye.

This lost caused Casillas’s face to turn ashen white.

The Invincible Squadron was the property of the entire Spain and must not be wiped out in a single fight.

“No, we cannot continue like this.”

Casillas immediately reacted. If they were badly hurt here, the Gaul Squadron and the Roman Squadron would not give them a second chance.

At that time, there would be the true despair. After all, face matters were small but interests were big.

“Retreat, retreat!”

Casillas found Alexander Farnese and gave the order to retreat.

“What did you say?” Alexander Farnese was speechless.

Who knew that Casillas would shake his head resolutely, “General, at this juncture, protecting the entire squadron is the mission. You do know about the situation in the Mediterranean, right?”

When Alexander Farnese heard that, he understood. Although he did not want to, Alexander Farnese had no choice but to admit that Casillas’s order made sense. He gritted his teeth and said, “Let’s retreat!”

“Retreat!”

Quickly the order was spread down.

Regretfully, the Spanish Invincible Squadron could not bring out all their warships. Be it those that were hit by ocean mines or those whose masts were struck, they all could not leave.

Such warships were 1/3rd of the entire squadron.

Furthermore, the Invincible Squadron had already entered the deep areas of the ocean mine region. To try to turn around was really difficult. In the process, it was unavoidable for them to touch the ocean mines in the ocean.

Bad things truly did not happen alone.

Luckily, the Spanish Squadron was a well-trained navy. All of them, from the commanders to the sailors, were experienced.

Even whilst facing all these problems, they did not panic. Each warship turned beautifully amongst the cannon fire, all of them completing the turn around. Throughout the process, they could still fire back.

The strength of the ancient ocean empire really was not simple.

When Alvaro saw that the enemy wanted to retreat, he naturally would not let them easily do that. He ordered the troops to sail around the mine zone and chase. With the territory specialty of the Great Xia Dynasty, the Mediterranean Squadron was a little faster than the Invincible Squadron.

Cannonballs arced over the sky and landed on the decks, launching people into the air.

This time, be it Casillas or Alexander Farnese, they all had a headache.

“No, we cannot retreat like this. If this continues, the squadron would be crushed.” At the key moment, Alexander Farnese was decisive and ordered 20 warships to turn around once more, their heads and tails connecting to block the chase of the Mediterranean Squadron.

The remaining warships tried their best to escape.

When Alvaro saw that, he sighed; his expression was complicated, “I’ll let you escape this time!” He was from Spain. Although he had a new master, to fight his old home still felt a little bad.

But no matter what, he still had to fight.

…

An hour later, the Spanish Invincible Squadron with a broken arm finally escaped and once again passed the Gibraltar Straits, heading back home.

What a tragic scene.

The entire squadron was covered in a depressed atmosphere. Casillas himself was ashamed. Thinking back to his arrogant words and the way the other Lords looked at him, Casillas could not raise his head to face these allies.

Seeing that the Spanish Squadron had actually lost against two divisions of the Mediterranean Squadron, losing half their ships, these allies were all shocked and their expressions varied.

It seems like the weird Mediterranean situation was about to change once more.

As for Caroline and Rainier, their faces were as dead as ash. They were clearer than anyone that the last hope for Morocco was gone.

Rainier was too emotional, killing himself on the spot and returning to the Reincarnation Hall.

Caroline did not have the courage to do so, and she locked herself in the cabin and did not see anyone. She was just waiting for the moment Morocco falls.

At this very moment, another squadron sailed over. They were the 5th division that was housed in Jidian City. Based on the plan, the 5th division was in charge of intercepting the Invincible Squadron.

Compared to Alexander Farnese, Alvaro was a skill level higher.

With the current Spanish Invincible Squadron, they did not fear the 5th division, and they even had a chance to win. However, Casillas was not willing to fight. He was worried that the other two divisions would chase up to them.

If that happened, they would be pincered from the front and the back. They would be dead.

Hence, when seeing them, Casillas did not even think. He once again used 20 ships to block them off while the remaining escaped.

The arrogant Casillas had been beaten totally soulless by the Mediterranean Squadron.

Chapter 868 - Burning the City

Chapter 868: Burning the City

Mediterranean Squadron’s big victory, 21st day morning, imperial city Rabat was similarly not calm.

The expedition army’s three legions had left the city early in the morning under Baiqi’s leadership, officially launching their assault on Rabat, focusing their attack on the north city region.

The only ones left in the Satellite City were Ouyang Shuo and his Divine Martial Guards.

In the morning, the army left, surrounding the imperial city. Whether it was on purpose or not, out of the four sides, the east had the least forces, and their attack strength was the weakest.

If one paid attention, one would notice that the overall soldier numbers did not reach 200 thousand. This meant that there was a group of them that were not on the battlefield, and who knows where Baiqi arranged them at.

When the Moroccan players defending on the city walls saw that, they were really solemn, and their hearts were also really emotional. The few days of passion and hot bloodedness that built up in them could finally be vented.

“Fight! Fight! Fight!”

The morale of the player forces was really high, and the Moroccan Guards waited solemnly.

A seismic battle was about to start; naturally, it would be a bloody and intense one.

This battle lasted for over two hours, and tens of thousands of soldiers were buried on the battlefield. Some were from the expedition army, some were Moroccan players, and some were the Moroccan Guards Soldiers.

Beneath the city wall, corpses were strewn all over, and blood flowed into a river.

North outskirts, Baiqi sat on a war horse, his expression solemn. Although he had predicted it and made a lot of preparations, the enemy’s defense had exceeded his expectation.

As this battle concerned the matter of the country’s survival, the enemy soldiers all used up 120% of their strength. Not only did the commanders not need to rush the soldiers or raise their morale, but the enemy troops’ morale soared high right from the start.

“What a respectable bunch!”

Baiqi had already started to feel thankful that Jia Xu had thought of the vicious plan.

If not, the Dragon Legion Corps would need to be prepared to be badly hurt. Baiqi raised his head and looked at the city ahead. His eyes were resolute, and his heart was as calm as stone.

The battle continued. At basically every moment, there would be people who entered the Reincarnation Hall, becoming spirits and roaming the dark hall.

As there were too many of them, many spirits floated within the huge hall, forming a terrifying sight like that of hell.

At this very moment, a person appeared in the hall.

Originally, this was not a surprise. However, his identity was not ordinary. He was the person who killed himself on the Spanish Squadron warship, Tangier Lord, Rainier.

Seeing Rainier, the surrounding players were all astonished, “Rainier, weren’t you with the Spanish Invincible Squadron? Why did you appear in the Reincarnation Hall?”

“….”

Rainier did not know how to reply to that.

“Did the Spanish Invincible Squadron engage the Mediterranean Squadron? Were you that careless to be bombed on the ship?” some of the players grumbled.

Rainier’s face was ashen white, “The Spanish Invincible Squadron was defeated by the Mediterranean Squadron and are on their way back to their country.”

“What did you say?”

That news was just too shocking. Some people could not react in time, and those who reacted had their faces turn ashen white.

Rainier said bitterly, “The Spanish Invincible Squadron will not be coming. We have no other reinforcements.”

“….”

The hall was totally silent.

A breeze blew across, sending a chill down their spines.

“How did this happen?”

The Moroccan players could not accept the cruel reality all of a sudden. The world was just so cruel to Morocco, their territory army fell, and now, they lost their reinforcements.

Rabat was now truly a lone city.

The news that Rainier brought with him quickly spread to the players through the forums.

This time, be it the work occupation players or the combat occupation players who were valiantly fighting, their morale dropped by a large chunk.

Their chance of winning this country war was getting slimmer and slimmer.

“Do the heavens really want Morocco to die?” The players were not resigned.

This unhappiness and anger turned into endless amounts of hatred and killing intent, slowly spreading out, “Since that’s the case, let’s go all out. If we can kill one of them, that’s good.”

The battle had entered its climax, and the players’ eyes turned red from the killing. They did not bother about their own defense. They directly killed into the enemy forces, becoming really vicious and catching the expedition army off guard.

The attacks of the expedition army slowed down.

When Baiqi got the intel, his expression did not change. He knew that this was the final blow of the enemy, like the last moments before a person was about to die. As long as one held on for this wave, the enemy would collapse.

Not to mention that the expedition army still had their killing blow.

Thinking of which, Baiqi looked up into the air. The sun was hanging high up, and it was about to be right over their heads.

“It’s about time.” Baiqi muttered.

Pretty much like it was replying to Baiqi, three heaven deafening blows suddenly spread out from within Rabat.

‘Hong!’

‘Hong!’

‘Hong!’

Along with the explosions, a mushroom cloud like flame rose up. The rumbling embers and blaze quickly spread out across all directions.

In a short while, there were numerous small houses that were on flames. As the ocean breeze blew across, the flames grew bigger; it was like a fire dragon sweeping around.

In a short while, hundreds of people were buried in a sea of flames.

“Not good, the alchemical fire oil storage has exploded!”

The civilians closest to the storage found out what had happened, and their faces filled with shock and fear.

“Quick, put out the fire!”

The city was in chaos; the civilians all grabbed water basins from their own houses, taking water from the well and throwing the water at the buildings on fire. Unfortunately, the flames were too vigorous.

“Quick, demolish the nearby houses! Do not let the flames spread.”

Someone came up with an idea but some people did not want to, crying, “That belongs to me, I cannot demolish it, I cannot.” He cried as he tried to stop the others.

People around him were anxious as they scolded, “At such a time, how can you still care about so much. Even if you do not demolish your house, it will be burnt by the flames.”

As the situation escalated, some people dragged the owner aside while others went to demolish the house.

It was total chaos. At this very moment, the Guards troops rushed over. They had gotten military orders to move the people and forcefully demolish the houses; they were to create a buffer zone and prevent the fire from spreading.

With the standards of the ancient times, there were no firefighters and could only use such a method.

The problem was that the fire spread too quickly. Before they even managed to demolish the buildings, the fire had already arrived. Those who were demolishing the buildings could not avoid the fire and were buried in the flames.

In a short amount of time, the buffer region was adjusted time and time again. The heavens made it worse. The ocean brought with it a huge breeze, and the flames borrowed the breeze and became stronger and stronger.

The civilians in the city all walked out of their houses. They squeezed onto the streets and looked at the blaze with helpless expressions.

“How did the storages explode all of a sudden?”

Some people asked.

“Who knows? Those who were guarding it all died instantly in the explosion. To try to get details and find out whose mistake it was is already meaningless.” Some people shook their heads.

“That’s right. The battle under the city wall is still proceeding and such a thing happened inside the city. Let’s hope the soldiers do not get distracted.”

“How would they not? Who knows how many houses were destroyed in the fire? Those were basically their houses.”

“The matter of the houses burning is small; the key is the people inside dying too.”

The more the people spoke, the more depressed they grew.

Along with the killing shouts near the city walls, there was nothing worse than this.

At this very moment, roars could be heard from the skies. The Flying Squads of the Great Xia had finally arrived and threw down burning bombs.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

At this very moment, all the Black Snake Guard spies in the city acted, spreading fire all around the city.

All of a sudden, the entire city was engulfed in flames, and those who did not know what was going on thought that were suddenly placed in a sea of flames. It was a truly desperate situation.

“How did this happen?”

All of their faces were totally ashen white as they tried to save themselves.

However, the flames were just too much and burning bombs were being tossed down continuously. Along with the huge fires, the flames grew bigger and bigger and even the Imperial Palace was in flames.

The city walls were unable to escape the fires, and it was also heavily targeted by the Flying Squad. Burning bombs blazed amongst the troops, truly affecting their morale.

Along with the flames was the rumbling thick smoke. It was easy to imagine how thick the smoke was from such a huge fire. The smoke not only affected the people from firefighting, but it spread even quicker than the fire itself.

The streets, the houses, in the blink of an eye, they were all engulfed in smoke.

Civilians who were engulfed in the smoke all escaped haggardly, losing all their desire to bother with trying to put out the fire. As for those who hesitated, they could not differentiate the directions and were immediately trapped.

Much less those who ran deeper into the smoke; only suffocation and death awaited them.

Fire was merciless, how was it a game?

At this moment, the difficulty of putting out the fire had grown exponentially. Those who were smart already knew that this fire could not be extinguished, and they muttered, “The imperial city is done for.”

“What should we do?” The people were powerless.

“What can we do? We will only die if we stay in the city, let’s escape!”

“But isn’t fighting still going on outside the city?”

“But we cannot just wait to die in the city, right? Even if they are fighting, I heard that the Great Xia Dynasty has rules and will not hurt us civilians. Maybe they will let us leave?”

“You’re right, let’s go before the smoke spreads here.”

As they spoke, they quickly packed up their stuff and went toward the nearest city gate. Not only the NPCs, but even the work occupation players and causal players were not willing to remain in the city.

Even if they died, it was better than suffocating in the fire.

Such a way of dying was really a torture.

In this world, not everyone was so brave in the face of death.

Chapter 869 - The King Escapes

Chapter 869: The King Escapes

In a short amount of time, many civilians swarmed toward the city gates.

During war time, the city gates were naturally shut tight. The civilians did not care and grumbled, asking the soldiers to open the city gates. The soldiers naturally did not agree as the enemy was still sieging and opening the gates now was just letting them in.

The civilians did not care. Before life and death, the fall of the country did not seem that important anymore. As more and more people gathered near the city gates, the situation looked like it was about to get out of control.

The people were ready to charge past the defensive line set up by the Guards troops.

Not far away from them, the fire had once again spread, and the thick smoke bellowed.

Seeing that, the civilians were all emotional. Some people were prepared to force their way through. Amongst the people, many of them were family of the Guards Soldiers, and some of them begged the soldiers while others scolded them.

“Report to the General!”

The city guard general was covered in cold sweat. He could only seek help from the commander, Ismail.

Ismail was currently at the north city region. When he got the report, his face was really dark. Ismail realized that something was not right when the fires suddenly started. When the air strike started, he finally realized what was going on.

Following which, various emergency reports spread to Ismail.

Someone has intentionally started a fire, and people were requesting for Ismail to order their capture; they were demolishing houses and needed Ismail to move the Guards Soldiers. Now, the city gate was facing an emergency and needed Ismail to make a decision.

Ismail could pretty much guess that the storage exploding was not a coincidence. If not, why would all three explode at the same time with such timing? They exploded right as the enemy was sieging.

The following arsons and bombings further proved his conjecture.

“This is a massacre; it’s a war crime!”

Ismail’s face was really ugly, as he did not expect the enemy to use such a vicious technique.

Just as Ismail was hesitating, Mohammed the 6th sent soldiers to find Ismail. The king requested him to cover the imperial family as they made their escape.

“Immediately!” Mohammed the 6th rushed him. He was really anxious.

Obviously, he did not hold much hope that the Guards army could defend the city. Retreating out of the imperial city and out of Morocco meant that he would still have a chance to go to a neighboring country and become a wandering king.

If he chose to stay in Rabat, he would either be buried in the sea of flames or be killed by the enemy.

What to choose between the two was just too easy a choice to make.

When Ismail saw that, he sighed as he could not oppose the king’s orders. However, escorting them away and even to a neighboring country was not an easy matter and needed to be planned.

Thinking about that, Ismail decided to bring his forces back to the palace.

Within the Imperial Palace, Mohammed the 6th and the higher ups of the country were all gathered together. When they saw Ismail, it was like they were looking at their savior.

“Ismail, tell us your views.” Although Mohammed the 6th was old, he was not dumb and knew that if they rushed out of the city in such a big group, it would be like throwing themselves into the hands of the enemy.

On the way to the Imperial Palace, Ismail had already thought carefully, “King, this is my view. There are large amounts of civilians at the city gate. Why don’t we open the gates and mix into the people and escape? Once we get out of the city, we gather again.”

“Good, let’s do it that way!” Mohammed the 6th was delighted.

The next part was easy to handle. They all found commoner clothes, and under the protection of similarly dressed guards, they sneaked into the crowd.

At the same time, Ismail gave two military orders. First, open the city gates and let the people out; second, tell the Guards Soldiers and players who were still valiantly fighting to continue fighting.

At the crucial moment, Ismail could continue to be stone hearted.

Without the army stopping the enemy, the moment they charged into the palace, they would immediately know that the king had escaped. If that happened, under the chase of cavalry, they might not be able to escape to a neighboring country.

At 11 AM, the various city gates were opened up.

Large amounts of civilians swarmed out of the gates and exited the city. As expected, the expedition army had already gotten the order not to harm the innocent.

The civilians left the imperial city smoothly and disappeared into the wilderness, escaping in all four directions. Some chose to go toward Casa Blanca, while some hid in the mountains. Some hid not far from the city, hoping for the day that they could return to the imperial city.

Mohammed the 6th and his men hid amongst the clamor and naturally managed to escape. To not raise attention, Ismail only brought 500 Guards, his Personal Guards.

As for the Moroccan players, they basically did not get too far.

On this earth, there was no place for them. The moment they lost the country war, no matter where they were, whether they were dead or alive, they would be forcefully teleported to the land of trials.

Since that was the case, why struggle?

The city siege still continued. The combat occupation players’ morale waned, and they were planning to lose their lives, not bothering about the fire in the city. The Guards morale was also waning, especially after they saw many civilians leave. They had lost their fighting spirit.

When Baiqi saw that, he ordered them to quicken the pace of their attacks to try to end it right away.

At the same time, Black Snake who was still housed in Rabat noticed that something was unusual. Not mentioning other areas, but just the palace was too quiet, and even the legendary country protector God beast did not appear.

Morocco’s country protector god beast was a golden lion. It had already awakened when Rabat was attacked. However, since the Imperial Palace was not attacked, it would not launch an attack.

Mohammed the 6th’s departure greatly disappointed the golden lion. Based on the rules of Gaia, once the king abandoned the city, the God beast could choose to continue sleeping.

Once the country changed hands, the country protector God beast would naturally change masters too.

Black Snake sneaked into the Imperial Palace. Seeing that the defense was lax and no one putting out the fire, he ordered, “Go, let’s go take a look.”

The following spies said, “Sir, wouldn’t this be too risky?”

Black Snake shook his head, “If we do not go in, we would not be able to find out what’s happening inside. That would mean we did not do our job. I do not want to be scolded by the king once more.”

When the spy heard that, there was nothing he could say.

Luckily, they were bold and highly skilled, so they entered the palace without much effort.

This raised Black Snake’s suspicion even more, “There’s no need to search. Let’s go see whether Mohammed the 6th is still here or not.”

“Sir, are you suspecting that Mohammed the 6th has escaped?” The spy was astonished.

Black Snake did not conclude and just said, “Let’s take a look.”

“Yes sir!”

Very quickly, they made a full round in the palace and naturally did not find anything.

“Damn, he really escaped.” Black Snake’s face turned black.

The spy said, “That should not happen, our men are monitoring every exit and did not see anyone go out.”

“Are you stupid? Will they be so bold when they leave the city? They must have disguised as commoners and left the city. The city gate was so chaotic, so we obviously could not see clearly.”

The spy was ashamed, carefully saying, “Then what should we do now?”

Black Snake was calm as he smiled deviously, “Its good they escaped, as it has done a huge service to our army. Send the news that he abandoned the city out, especially to the Morrocan Guards army. Also, send someone to inform the king and commander Baiqi.”

“Yes sir!” The spy understood, smiling along.

…

When the Moroccan Guards Army got the news, they were filled with disbelief and sent someone to the palace to confirm. Not only did Mohammed the 6th leave, but the soldiers did not even find Ismail.

Thinking about that, Ismail’s order sent a chill down their spines.

The Moroccan guards lost their will to fight, and they either stopped or tried to escape with the civilians. Some just surrendered right there.

Anyways, Mohammed the 6th had betrayed them, so they did not feel anything from surrendering.

Baiqi had gotten the news and immediately told the frontline forces to back off. He accepted anyone from Morocco that surrendered.

It seemed like this battle was unexpectedly smooth. Without needing to enter the city, they basically settled the fight.

As for the street battle training they did on the desolate island; naturally, it would not come into play.

Baiqi did not feel any regret about that.

Apart from ordering the frontlines to stop, Baiqi also did three things. First, he ordered the troops to do strict checks on the people who left to prevent soldiers and officials from leaving.

At the same time, it was to tell the people to not go so far and just camp in the wilderness for a while.

Secondly, Baiqi called Lu Bu and told him to bring a Cavalry Division to spread out and chase after Mohammed the 6th.

“If you find him, directly kill him. As for the others, escort them back to the city for the king to handle.” Baiqi instructed.

“Understood!”

Lu Bu accepted the orders and brought his troops right away. Along with him were also spies of the Black Snake Guards. Without the lead of the spies, Lu Bu would be left with no one familiar with the geography of the area and would not know what Mohammed the 6th looked like.

Thirdly, Baiqi ordered the troops to mobilize the civilian teens to extinguish the fire. During this battle, they had witnessed the strength of the Great Xia Dynasty, so they naturally knew their place and respected their new king.

Of course, there were guard soldiers who would rather die than surrender. These people had a commonality, their homes were either destroyed or their families were burned in the fire.

With these blemishes in their hearts, they naturally did not want to surrender to the enemy.

Of course, there were people who did not know what had happened. After all, the city was too chaotic, and they had no chance to meet their family. They could only surrender first. As for when they met their family later on, who knows what changes would occur.

The most awkward ones were the combat occupation players on the city wall. It was pointless for them to surrender. However, even if they fought, the expedition army did not bother about them, what a tragic sight.

Chapter 870 - King, the Egg is Broken

Chapter 870: King, the Egg is Broken

Naturally, Baiqi would not bother about the awkward situation that the Moroccan players were in. Seeing that most of the Guards Soldiers had surrendered, he ordered Shi Dakai to lead his troops into the palace and destroy the stone stele to deal the final blow.

When Shi Dakai received the order, a look of gratitude flashed through his eyes.

During this country war, Shi Dakai and his 5th legion had finally shown their worth, contributing greatly. All of this was a result of Baiqi’s planning.

Through this battle, Shi Dakai proved his commanding ability and had gained a stable footing in the Dragon Legion Corps.

Seeing the 5th legion enter the city, the Moroccan players naturally knew what the enemy wanted to do. Some players were unhappy and wanted to intercept them. However, without the help of the Guards army, they could not cause many problems.

In such a short while, thousands of players died.

This time, the Moroccan players came to their senses and lost all hope.

The country war had reached its final moments.

While Shi Dakai was leading his troops into the city, a change happened in the Satellite City.

Not too fast and not too slow, the elite group of the Golden Mercenary Guild finally stole the egg of the devil duckbeak beast and sneaked into the Satellite City.

Only the Divine Martial Guards were camped in the city, so the defenses were unavoidably a little weak. In a short while, the underground world was rioting.

‘CiCi~’

Along with a weird cry, all the devil duckbeak beasts rioted, swarming around and looking for the egg. Along the way, who knows how many innocent beasts died and lost their lives.

Even in the underground world, the devil duckbeak beast was one of the advanced beasts and was really strong.

When Dida and his elite group heard these sounds, they were delighted and felt the bliss of revenge in their hearts. They did not go far, hiding in a mysterious cave not far away from the entrance of the underground world.

As the Guardian Guild, the Golden Mercenary Guild had been running the Satellite City for a period of time, and this mysterious hiding spot was planned by them. Even the swarm of devil duckbeak beasts could not find it.

The even more amazing part was that they could clearly see the underground world entrance through a small hole in the cave and also using special tools. They wanted to personally witness the enemy troops being trampled by the beasts.

It took less than two hours before the beasts arrived close to the entrance; their speed was truly shocking. One must know that the small squad took a full night to steal the egg.

‘Ci~~Ci~’

Among the beast hoard, there was a giant beast that was over four meters long and weighed two tons. It let loose a massive roar. This beast was totally black and covered with tough scales, and its four limbs had sharp, hook-like claws. The weirdest part of it was its mouth, which was really wide and flattened. Its mouth looked like a mask placed on its body.

Without a doubt, this was the devil duckbeak beast boss. Although it looked like a platypus in real life, its body structure was largely different after evolving.

A real life one would shoot out a liquid when it attacked for self-defense. The liquid was not deadly to humans, but it would cause extreme pain that lasted for months and days.

In the game, Gaia strengthened this ability, making the liquid able to corrode armor.

The beast hoard did not stop at the entrance, directly chasing into the Satellite City through the stairs. In a short while, they appeared within the city.

It was currently noon, and the scorching sun torched the earth.

To the devil duckbeak beasts that lived in the underground world, the eye-piercing sunlight was really annoying, making them unable to open their eyes.

‘Ci~~Ci~’

The beasts roared out. At the same time, they used their duck beaks to search around. One must not look down on this beak. Although the beak was soft like leather, it was really sensitive like a radar scanner, and it was able to receive radio magnetic waves given out by other animals.

Even an egg could not escape the search of the devil duckbeak beast boss.

Very quickly, it had locked onto the egg’s position. The egg was less than two kilometers away from the entrance. Dida and the others stole the egg, but they did not dare to go too deep into the Satellite City as they were worried about being caught.

Hence, they randomly threw it into a courtyard before running back into the underground world.

‘Ci~~Ci~~’

The devil duckbeak beast boss gave out excited roars and ran toward the position. When the nearby beasts saw that, they followed.

At the same time, more and more devil duckbeak beasts swarmed out of the underground world.

In such a short while, the underground world entrance was filled with these black weird beasts. They were like a flood; they wrapped around the Satellite City, and it looked like they were about to drown the entire city.

Such a big commotion finally alerted the Divine Martial Guards.

“What’s happening?”

“Let’s go take a look!”

When the Divine Martial Guards saw the incoming rush of beasts, they could not help but take a deep breath. They were all experts and naturally noticed the strong auras spreading out from these ugly beasts.

In a one-on-one, a Divine Martial Guard might not even be able to deal with one of the beasts.

Looking out, the streets were filled with them, and there were probably no less than ten thousand. Their first reaction was not to wipe these beasts out but to retreat into the City Lord’s Manor.

Protecting the king was their most important mission.

In the City Lord’s Manor, Ouyang Shuo was shocked when he got the news. A while ago, he had just the received word that Mohammed the 6th had escaped.

In such a while, another change had actually occurred.

Ouyang Shuo got up and said to Xu Chu, “Let’s go see what’s happening.”

Xu Chu said, “King, shouldn’t we first inform Baiqi to ask him to send reinforcements?”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, “Let’s take a look first.” Ouyang Shuo knew that since Mohammed the 6th had run, Rabat was on the verge of being destroyed.

However, the expedition army needed to sweep the city, accept the surrenders, deal with the Moroccan players, and look after their people; they had many obligations.

To inform Baiqi now would probably send a bad signal to the Moroccan players and let them hold some hope in their hearts.

Hence, unless he had no other choice, Ouyang Shuo wished to handle this matter alone.

As for why the beast flood would appear here, it did not take a genius to know that they came from the underground world. From a long way out, Ouyang Shuo was able to smell a plot.

“I’ve been careless!”

Ouyang Shuo did not expect for a few random fishes in the underground world to cause such a huge problem.

Whilst he thought about that, Ouyang Shuo had already arrived outside of the manor, and he could hear the anxious noises of the beasts. Dida and the others were really vicious and had broken a hole in the egg.

Hence, the beast inside had no chance of surviving.

If not, how could they reach the goal of taking revenge against the Great Xia Dynasty? One could imagine that upon seeing the egg that it had spent so much effort to lay broken, the devil duckbeak beast boss would be incredibly furious.

The entire beast horde would go crazy and destroy the city.

The boss was a god beast subspecies and was already sentient. It knew that the egg was definitely stolen by a human. Since it came to the Satellite City, it was naturally going to take revenge for its dead child.

This time, the Divine Martial Guards were in deep trouble.

“Let’s go!”

Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate. He brought the Personal Guards to the area with the greatest intensity of battle. In less than a few minutes, he saw the giant boss and its numerous little subordinates.

“What a tough fellow!”

Ouyang Shuo frowned, as the number of beasts had exceeded his expectations.

“My king, let’s inform Commander Baiqi!” Xu Chu was a little worried.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and said, “Capture the king, did you see that giant beast? It’s definitely their king. As long as we tame or kill it, the others will not matter.”

“Understood, I’ll go give it a try.”

Xu Chu was a legendary general and really courageous. Since the king had given his orders, he was the first to rush up. The Divine Martial Guards followed suit; they were like a sharp knife stabbing into the hoard.

The Personal Guards remained to protect Ouyang Shuo.

In his recent sparring with the king, Xu Chu knew that the king’s combat strength was amazing, which was why he dared to leave the king’s side.

The devil duckbeak beast boss was still really furious about not finding a human to take revenge on. Who knew that Xu Chu would appear?

The four meter long boss clashed with Xu Chu, shaking the earth. If one looked out, one would think that it was a battle between two desolate beasts.

Although the Divine Martial Guards were not the opponents of the beasts in a one-on-one scenario, their combat strength would increase by a huge grade when they formed up.

Although the number of devil duckbeak beasts was many, the streets were narrow, and they could not put that numerical advantage to use. Large amounts of beasts were squeezing around doing nothing. There was a portion that was going around the city through the streets. Who knows where they were heading to?

Hence, both sides were at equal strength and victory was difficult to decide.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he took out his Tianmo Spear and said to the Personal Guards, “Let’s go help.” Ouyang Shuo had the thought of taming these beasts. Although they were not suitable for mounts, they would be good house protectors.

Ouyang Shuo had two reasons behind his confidence. First, he had great insight into the beast taming technique, and it would not be too hard to tame the boss.

Secondly, if there really was an emergency, Ouyang Shuo had the ability to save his life.

When he established the country, the Great Xia vassal that was located in Ouyang Shuo’s dantian gained its own incredibly strong skill, the Son of Heaven Dragon Fist.

With it, Ouyang Shuo could escape from any dangerous situation.

With one punch, even if the boss did not die, it would be badly hurt. The other devil duckbeak beasts would not be able to take the hit either.

Chapter 871 - Son of Heaven Dragon Fist

Chapter 871: Son of Heaven Dragon Fist

Ouyang Shuo brought the Personal Guards and killed their way into the group of devil duckbeak beasts, charging straight at the boss. Currently, the boss and Xu Chu were locked in an intense battle. After Ouyang Shuo arrived, the beast king was instantly forced into a difficult situation.

‘Ci~~~ci~~~~’

The beast king was really smart. Seeing that it was not the enemy’s match, it immediately summoned its brothers. In the blink of an eye, the Divine Martial Guards, Personal Guards, Xu Chu, and Ouyang Shuo were all surrounded by the devil duckbeak beasts.

Ouyang Shuo did not panic. As long as they took down the beast king, the others were easy to settle. However, he did not know that everything was seen by a squad of people.

It was the elite squad that did not give up hope. They had sneaked into the city to look at the battle.

Only to see Ouyang Shuo shake his Tianmo Spear. The spear moved like lightning, hitting the back of the beast king. Ouyang Shuo was not satisfied and used innate strength to pierce the spear even deeper.

‘Chi~~Chi~~~’

The beast king was heavily injured, and it gave out a furious growl. It stood on its hind legs and spat out a black poisonous liquid. Xu Chu was currently behind the beast king. Seeing this, he did not dare to take it lightly, sidestepping and avoiding it.

When the black liquid landed on the ground, it instantly emitted a black smoke, giving out a boiling sound. In such a short while, a hole appeared in the stone road.

When Xu Chu saw that, no matter how bold he was, he could not help but feel terrified. If this liquid struck his face, there was no way he would survive. Even if it got onto his armor, it would probably melt a hole in it.

After shooting out the poisonous liquid, the beast king’s body got obviously weaker.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he immediately pulled out his spear; there was fresh blood on it. The beast king was badly hurt, so it already felt really muddled. How would Ouyang Shuo miss such a good chance? He immediately used the wild beast taming technique.

“System Notification: Taming failed!”

Ouyang Shuo noticed that the beast king still put up a lot of resistance. He did not care and continued to use it. Each time he used it, the resistance of the Barbarian King was reduced by a little.

“Wild beast taming technique!”

Ouyang Shuo used it once more, and he could feel that the resistance of the beast king was already really weak. If nothing went wrong, he would succeed. At this very moment, an arrow was shot from afar. This arrow was unusual. Not only was it fast, but the arrowhead was covered in flames too.

“King, be careful!” Xu Chu was shocked and shouted out a reminder.

Ouyang Shuo felt it and did not dare take it head on, side stepping it. The beast taming technique that was underway was broken. The arrow brushed past Ouyang Shuo’s chest and stabbed into the head of the beast king with a ‘Puchi!’.

‘Ci~~~Ci~~~’

Who knows what effects the arrow had, but the weak beast king roared out and struggled before dying after the arrow struck it.

Ouyang Shuo pointed out, “Catch those rats!”

“Yes, my king!”

When the Divine Martial Guards received the order, they immediately split out a group to charge at the enemy.

That arrow was naturally shot out by Dida, and it was a special Dark Gold Rank item. Seeing that Ouyang Shuo was about to take the beast king, how would Dida allow that to happen? He did not hesitate to end the life of the beast king.

As Ouyang Shuo was too careful, he fell for Dida’s plot. If it were his last life, Ouyang Shuo probably would not have fallen for this.

In this life, Ouyang Shuo’s achievements were exceptional, and he had ascended to the throne. As such, he subconsciously valued his life more. However, the more you valued it, the easier it was to die.

This lesson was a huge one to Ouyang Shuo.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo grew even more furious. He did not expect these little rats to cause such a huge problem for him.

The moment the beast king died, the situation got bad.

The entire beast horde rioted. Their eyes turned blood red as they charged crazily at Ouyang Shuo and his group.

Not only those in the nearby streets, but also the devil duckbeak beasts in the entire Satellite City heard the last roar of the beast king and quickly gathered.

As the place was too small, some of them ran on top of the roofs.

This time, with the streets as the center, devil duckbeak beasts swarmed eveywhere. They let out weird roars; they wanted to take revenge for their king.

Immediately, the pressure on the Divine Martial Guards on the outside greatly increased and casualties started to appear.

In the blink of an eye, more and more devil duckbeak beasts gathered.

Even the Divine Martial Guards who were ordered to chase Dida were forced back, allowing them to fall back into the underground world. They used this chance to head for the base of the devil duckbeak beasts, as there were still a bunch of treasures for them to claim.

Thinking back to the dark face of Ouyang Shuo, Dida was so delighted that he laughed out.

The entire group was really elated, and the captain could not help but praise Dida. He smiled and said, “Dida you have contributed greatly. You are the hero of Morroco.”

When Dida heard that, he was all the more delighted. He did not know humility.

“Quick, let’s go get the treasure.”

The group laughed and chatted as they disappeared into the underground world.

……

No matter how strong the Divine Martial Guards were, they were still having a tough time against the beast horde.

Ouyang Shuo’s face was cold. He did not care about anything anymore, and he focused on his dantian. He linked to the Great Xia vassal that floated above the primordial energy ocean and instantly activated the Son of Heaven Dragon Fist.

Within the dantian, the golden primordial energy was led by a mysterious energy and charged straight at the vassal like a flood, disappearing.

In an instant, 1/3rd of the primordial energy inside the dantian disappeared, a truly shocking sight.

Ouyang Shuo was also feeling really astonished. Although the Son of Heaven Dragon Fist was really powerful, this use of primordial energy was not one that everyone could handle. In such a short while, 60% of his primordial energy was taken away.

At this very moment, a golden pattern appeared on the vassal, and even the purple dragon on it opened its eyes; the primordial energy was still being injected into the vassal.

For such an amount of primordial energy to be sucked away in such a short while, Ouyang Shuo looked like he was unable to stand stably.

“My king!”

When Xu Chu saw that, he ran over to support Ouyang Shuo.

“I’m fine!”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand. He sat cross-legged on the streets and rotated his primordial energy with complete focus.

Xu Chu knew that the king had a reason for his actions, so he did not dare take it slowly. He loyally guarded by the king’s side to try to not let any beast disturb the king.

Ouyang Shuo focused, concentrating all his efforts on connecting to the vassal. He felt a sudden mysterious knowledge pour into his mind, and he instantly understood how to use the Son of Heaven Dragon Fist.

When 80% of the primordial energy in his body was sucked away, the Great Xia vassal gave out a golden light; it had finally ‘eaten enough’. Ouyang Shuo followed the method and used the Dragon Fist.

The purple dragon on the vassal flipped in the air, waving its claw. With a ‘Hong!’ a golden fist broke out of the vassal, looking really powerful.

The small fist instantly appeared outside of Ouyang Shuo’s body. In an instance, it became huge. The eye-catching part was that the first fist split into two, then four, then eight, continuing to split up.

In the blink of an eye, thousands of golden fists appeared outside of Ouyang Shuo’s body. These fists could be controlled by Ouyang Shuo, and he could freely use them to strike out.

This also meant that the purer Ouyang Shuo’s mental state was and the stronger his mental strength, the more fists he could control. A thousand golden fists was the maximum he could currently control.

Maintaining these golden fists was a huge ask of his mental energy.

Ouyang Shuo quickly locked onto the nearby devil duckbeak beasts, sending out the golden fists. Each fist was like a bullet, automatically going around the Divine Martial Guards and hitting the beasts.

Immediately, a thousand beasts were hit.

Although the golden fists were formed from primordial energy, its killing strength was shocking. Any devil duckbeak beast that was hit by the fists saw its body cave in.

Being badly hurt like that, it seemed like they would not be able to survive.

Amongst which, those who were hit on the head saw their brain juices flow out, dying a terrible death.

In the blink of an eye, all the devil duckbeak beasts that surrounded the Divine Martial Guards all died.

The scene was a shocking one.

One must know that each devil duckbeast was a spirit beast subspecies, and some had already reached the spirit beast level. However, in front of the golden fists, they were like paper and could not put up any resistance.

Insta kill!

When the Divine Martial Guards saw that, they were so shocked that they could not close their mouths. They looked at their king like they were looking at god.

The devil duckbeaks were similarly stunned. Such high level beasts obviously had a certain level of sentience. The desire to take revenge for their beast king was rooted in their bones, but they were filled with fear upon seeing so many of their kind fall.

It was already noon, and the fiery sun mercilessly scorched the earth. This alone was a pain for the devil duckbeak beasts. Furthermore, after witnessing the Son of Heaven Dragon Fist, their confidence was wiped away.

‘Ci~~~~Ci~~~’

Who knows which beast roared as it turned around and ran. Looking at the direction it was moving in, it was headed straight for the underground world.

They were not willing to stay in such a horrendous place.

Seeing this, the entire beast horde fell into chaos. Beast after beast followed suit and escaped in all directions, losing the courage to take revenge for their king.

Looking at the suddenly empty streets, the Divine Martial Guards were speechless.

One move, the king had used just one move to crush the entire horde, such a matter was totally unthinkable.

Ouyang Shuo heaved a sigh of relif as he sat cross legged. His face was ashen white, and his forehead was covered in bead-sized droplets of sweat. Using Son of Heaven Dragon Fist consumed a lot of Ouyang Shuo’s energy.

His dantian quickly became empty.

Ouyang Shuo estimated that it would take a month at the very least to recover. Although the Son of Heaven Dragon Fist was strong, one could not rely on it because the move had many restrictions.

Luckily, the crisis was averted. Unfortunately, he could not tame the beast king.

Not to mention other matters, but seeing the strength of the poisonous liquid that the beast king shot out, it would be good just to raise the beasts for that.

Now, it seemed like such a matter would be hard to achieve.

Luckily, taking down Morocco meant that there would be a day where he could tame all these beasts.

Chapter 872 - African Continent, the Wolf Is Here

Chapter 872: African Continent, the Wolf Is Here

Just as Ouyang Shuo was deep in thought, a World Notification sounded out.

“World Notification: Congratulations China region player Qiyue Wuyi for leading his troops to attack Morocco. His name spreads far and wide, awarded 100 thousand merit points and 200 thousand reputation points, congratulations player!”

…

During the attack on Morocco, Ouyang Shuo had obtained 70 thousand merit points on the battlefield. Along with this 100 thousand, his overall merit points had hit 1.9 million.

He was only 100 thousand away from the next duke class, and he would probably achieve it in the next battle map. The following Battle of Fei River was Ouyang Shuo’s chance to promote.

…

“World Notification: Congratulations China region player Qiyue Wuyi for leading troops to attack Morocco, becoming the 2nd Lord to destroy a country, awarded one special reward, congratulations player!”

…

Compared to the hidden building he received when he wiped out Singapore, the reward for the second time was a grade lower. Ouyang Shuo was thinking whether or not he would receive a reward for the third time too.

“Hmm, that seems possible.”

The moment the notifications ended, a System Notification sounded out in his ear.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for obtaining a special reward, will you obtain it now?”

“Yes!”

“System Notification: Drawing random special reward.”

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for obtaining a special reward, you can pay one million to fully restore Rabat, will you do that?”

Ouyang Shuo was delighted. He was getting whatever he wished for.

The imperial city Rabat was totally engulfed in a sea of flames. Even if Ouyang Shuo wanted to extinguish it, he was powerless to do so. The only thing he could do was rebuild the entire city.

However, after the system update, Gaia slowed down the construction speed. Not to mention the enormous funds needed to rebuild the city, but it would take no less than a year to finish such a task.

Now, he was able to do so with one million gold, so why would Ouyang Shuo hesitate?

“Restore!”

“System Notification: Rabat city is being restored…”

Along with the System Notification, one could see the raging flames being extinguished one by one. In a short while, there was not a single ember.

With the fire extinguished, the smoke dissipated too, revealing a scorched city that was in ruins.

At this very moment, the entire city was covered in a white light, and it was like time was reverse as the destroyed palace, houses, gardens, and other places were restored.

The miraculous part was that even the civilians who died in the fire were revived and standing amongst the buildings.

When Gaia revived these people, they would naturally attribute it to the king’s good grace.

“Thank you my king!”

The civilians stood on the streets as they kowtowed toward the east. Although Ouyang Shuo was the culprit behind the fire, everyone was safe in the end. Naturally, he became the great savior; everyone was delighted and pleased with him.

Things changes with the situation and nothing was for certain.

When Ouyang Shuo got news that all the people were revived, he felt that the one million gold spent was worth it. In the wilderness, population was the cornerstone of the territory. He was originally worried that he would lose people’s sentiment. After all, that was one of the hardest stats to earn back.

Now was great, all the problems were solved for him.

Morocco would be able to get on the right track quickly and even become stronger under the support of the dynasty.

Of course, burning the city was the worse-case scenario plan and definitely could not be used often. This time, Rabat relied on the reward to escape, but they might not be so lucky next time. Even Jia Xu did not expect the fire to actually be so big.

If Rabat was burnt to ashes, it would be a huge problem for the dynasty.

…

“World Notification: Morocco has been wiped out. All player skills, level, techniques, etc. have been reset to zero, and they will be teleported to the land of trials as punishment!”

…

Along with the report, all the players of Morocco, be it the combat occupation ones, work occupation ones, male or female etc., were teleported away.

A sweeping white light shone outside of Rabat as the millions of players who had escaped outside the city were teleported away. The vast wilderness immediately became much emptier.

On the city wall, a similar white light shone across. The valiant combat occupation players had failed, so they could only watch on as the renewed Rabat fell into the hands of the enemy.

Such a pain was one that outsiders would not be able to understand.

On the contrary, the Moroccan guards were delighted. Since they saw that their families safe, the last thorn in their hearts were removed. The last batch of them that did not surrender immediately did so.

At this point, there was no more resistance in the imperial city.

At the same time, underground world.

Dida and his group charged into the underground world and were about to reach the nest of the devil duckbeak beasts and obtain their dream treasure. That was when the notification sounded out, and their faces instantly turned ashen white as they were teleported away.

In the end, it was all for nothing.

Dida and the others were smart, but they had forgotten something: without a country, one does not have a home. If the country does not survive, what was the use of some small tricks?

…

“World Notification: China region Lord Qiyue Wuyi has won the country war. China region players obtain 10 country honor points. At the same time, China region players awarded with +1 innate talent, congratulations China region!”

…

This was the second time that Ouyang Shuo had won country honor for the China region. In the 4th year before country wars became common, the China region was already far ahead of other countries.

It was no wonder that the China region players loved the Great Xia Dynasty so much.

Although they had expected it, the China region players were still delighted when they heard the notification.

“Great Xia Dynasty, amazing!”

Players all looked toward the south and raised their thumbs.

…

The moment the notification went out, the world was naturally in an uproar.

The global players did not expect the Great Xia Dynasty to cause such big waves right after they established their country. They destroyed a country so quickly.

The Mediterranean Lords all felt their faces being slapped. To think they even said arrogant words at Atlantis that the Great Xia Dynasty was not good enough to lay foot in the Mediterranean.

Now, Morocco was instantly taken down, and the chokepoint of the Mediterranean was in their hands.

The worse-case scenario that they had thought of had already arrived.

When the Lords of Atlantis heard the System Notification, they all exchanged glances with one another. Henry was shocked, Caesar was furious, and Pedro gave a weird smile. The future Mediterranean would have hidden currents moving and would not be peaceful.

The Lords could not help but lament, “Morocco is really useless, falling in just a few days.”

The last Moroccan Lord, Andre, had been teleported away from Atlantis. If he heard those words, he probably would have vomited blood from anger.

Those words were ones that they had to take as the losers had no right to speak.

“There’s also the Spanish Invincible Squadron. Before leaving, they bragged so much, and in the end, they were forced to retreat. They did not even have a look at Morocco.”

“That’s right, the Mediterranean Squadron only used two divisions, and the Spanish Invincible Squadron still lost despite their numerical advantage. In my eyes, they have lost their place as a strong naval country.”

Under Caesar’s instructions, many people dissed Spain.

Those who knew the truth really sympathized with the Spanish. Their defeat this time was really unexpected. After all, who would have expected the Great Xia Dynasty to be so messed up; they had even made ocean mines.

If it were the Roman Squadron or the Gaul Squadron, the outcome would still be the same.

As they say, beat the dog that fell into the water.

With the Spanish Invincible Squadron badly damaged, it seemed like they were going to have to back out of the race for control of the Mediterranean. At this time, naturally no one would step out to fight for them.

When Caesar saw that, he gave out a delighted smile, “I’ve actually gained something through all of this.” He felt fortunate that he was not as rash as Casillas. If not, the Gaul Squadron would have benefited.

Thinking of this, Caesar glanced at Henry, who was expressionless. This fellow was his biggest obstacle now.

‘It seems like I’ll have to do something.’ Caesar thought in his heart, giving out a weird smile.

…

The Mediterranean Lords exclaimed while the African Lords were astonished, “The wolves are here!”

Morocco was occupied by the Great Xia Dynasty, but the African states were unsure whether this country destroying battle was an example of their strategic invasion of Africa.

In history, Africa faced the pain of colonization, so they feared it.

“No, we must understand their true intentions.”

Some African Lords were ready to send out envoys to Morocco. If they did not make things clear, they would not be able to sleep easy.

As for increasing their military, that was expected.

Morocco was considered a strong country in Africa, but it was instantly wiped out. Even if the African countries increased their troops, they would still feel uneasy.

At least to the Africans, the Great Xia Dynasty was a huge monster.

“Let’s hope they are not a pack a greedy wolves.” Some prayed as such.

Chapter 873 - Morocco Province

Chapter 873: Morocco Province

Ouyang Shuo did not bother about the clamor outside as he took the time to deal with the post-war matters. The devil duckbeak beasts escaped back into the underground world, and Ouyang Shuo had no way currently to deal with them currently. As such, he brought the Divine Martial Guards back to Rabat.

“My king!”

At the city gate, Baiqi led a group of generals to welcome him.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Thank you for your hard work general; let’s enter the city together.”

“Yes my king!”

Under the protection of the army, Ouyang Shuo entered Rabat.

After learning that Rabat had already recovered to its original state, the civilians started to return; they either stood on the sides of the streets or hid in their houses. They looked at this army with either worshipping or hateful eyes.

On this day, Morocco had a new Lord.

…

Imperial Palace, main hall.

Ouyang Shuo touched the broken stone stele, and a System Notification sounded out in his ear.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for leading troops to attack Morocco. Will you destroy, occupy, or transfer?”

“Occupy!”

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for occupying Morocco. Morocco is officially under the Great Xia Dynasty rule, player can reorganize Morocco. Will you rename it?”

“Rename it to Morocco Province.”

Compared to Singapore, which was just so small, Morocco was even bigger than the biggest Yunnan Province under his rule.

However, Morocco had limited usable land area. Ouyang Shuo planned to form four prefectures with the four cities as their core.

Naturally, Rabat city would still be the governing area of the province.

Different from Yunnan and the other three provinces, Ouyang Shuo planned to set up a Provincial Governor and build a Provincial Governor office.

Morocco’s officials were also different from other provinces; they would become the strongest Provincial Governor office but the weakest Prefecture Governor office. In the future, the Provincial Governor office would be the key to ruling the entire Morocco province.

Ouyang Shuo had his reasons for such arrangements.

First, along with Morocco Province’s establishment, the Great Xia Dynasty had five provinces of land, gaining the ability to start establishing Provincial Governors.

In history, the Qing Dynasty had only established eight Provincial Governors, so the Great Xia Dynasty was not that far away from the goal.

Secondly, Morocco Province was located overseas, and it had non-Chinese under its governance. Hence, its situation was really special. Compared to the other provinces in China, it needed a strong and powerful office to control everything.

Furthermore, Morocco Province was located in Africa and was connected to the Mediterranean. It was located in the Atlantis and opposite it was the America, so its situation was really complicated. The place needed a strong and powerful person to take charge.

This situation was quite similar to the Tang Dynasty’s Provincial Governors at the border.

Thirdly, Morocco was just taken down and was not a core region. To set up a Provincial Governor here was a test to perfect the role and power of the job and to collect relevant data.

To establish the Provincial Governor here would be less sensitive and face less resistance.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also had one arrangement, which was to build a new city apart from the four prefecture cities – Ceuta City.

In reality, Ceuta City belonged to the Spanish in North Africa and was located north of Maghreb. It was near the coast not far from the Gibraltar Straits. It was connected to Morocco and was 18.5 square kilometers in size.

Simply put, its geographical position was exactly the same as Jidian City. The two cities, one north and one south, had a stranglehold over the Gibraltar Straits.

In history, Ceuta was an important place on the trade route and was also a military base.

Ceuta port was also like Gibraltar port; it was really prosperous and busy.

Hence, after taking down Morocco, how could Ouyang Shuo not strengthen his presence in the area? With Jidian City and Ceuta City, it was like announcing that the Great Xia Dynasty had full control over the Mediterranean and Atlantic.

Any ships that came from the two ocean regions would have to answer to them.

In the game, due to the hidden pressures from the Spanish and other Lords, the Moroccan players did not dare build a base here. However, Ouyang Shuo did not care.

Since he already had problems with them, Ouyang Shuo did not mind playing around.

…

“System Notification: Morocco has been successfully renamed. Will you rename the territories in the province?”

“No!”

Ouyang Shuo obviously was not so free. As such, he kept the names of the original city to give the people of Morocco something to remember.

“System Notification: Morocco Province has been organized, officially opening the Rabat city cross country teleportation formation. Friendly Reminder: it can only connect to the territory teleportation formations and not to imperial cities or other territories.”

Along with the System Notification, the cracked stone stele was fully restored. The difference was that on the stele was not Morocco – Rabat City but Great Xia Dynasty – Rabat City.

After the fall of Morocco, Rabat was no longer an imperial city, and it was just a province governing area. Luckily, the Satellite City was born before the country war and Gaia would not take it back.

As there were no more players in the border, Ouyang Shuo could consider leading China region players here to explore the underground world.

After dealing with everything, the country war finally came to an end.

Of course, this was just the first step to taking over Morocco. The true post-war matters were aplenty and included military organization, appointments, and planning of the province.

Each matter was major.

Luckily, due to the teleportation formation, Rabat and Shanhai City was connected and a lot of problems were solved.

Ouyang Shuo was ready to wash his hands off this, passing it to the Grand Council and the cabinet.

The two of them would discuss and talk out a detailed plan to report to Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to use this matter to test both of them. It had been a month since both pillar organizations were formed, and it was time for them to show their ability.

Many things could not be figured out without practical experience.

Since ancient times till now, the battle between the power of the official and the power of the emperor had been a recurring topic. As a king, Ouyang Shuo did not need to worry about being plotted against, but he wanted to explore a method that could act as the standard to ruling to ensure that the dynasty lasted for a long time.

As for the structure he designed for the Great Xia Dynasty, Ouyang Shuo was not certain to say it was perfect. In the last life, he was just an adventure gamemode player and did not know that much.

To really gain a good understanding of the system, Ouyang Shuo needed more experience and learning. This was also why Gaia was trying so hard; it wanted to train the Lords and improve them.

That afternoon, Grand Council Minister Du Ruhui rushed to Rabat to take charge of the military organization. Cabinet Deputy Kou Zhun also came along with a bunch of capable officials to observe the province to help them settle on appointments.

The two of them did not start work immediately but came to greet the king first. They knew that the king was giving them a lot of power this time, but they could not truly do whatever they wished.

Listening to the king before they started work was expected.

Ouyang Shuo was not surprised as the two of them were really experienced, and he did not need to give them any hidden signals. In his words, Ouyang Shuo told them about his thoughts regarding the military and provincial planning.

His thoughts became the framework for their work. If they did not understand what the king wanted, even if they tried their best, the plan they came up with would not be good.

The three of them talked and talked. Soon, it was noon.

After the chat, Du Ruhui and Kou Zhun understood the matter and could do their work with more confidence.

At night, Huo Qubing sent the news that Agadier had been taken down. As for why it dragged on to such a time, it was because more than 90% of the time was spent on traveling.

A day ago, after crushing the Spanish Invincible Squadron, Alvaro led his troops to smoothly take down Tangier. At this point, there were no more free territories in Morocco.

The only regret was that there was no news from Lu Bu, who was still chasing Mohammed the 6th. Ouyang Shuo was worried that they had already escaped to the east mountain region.

If that was the case, it would be difficult.

…

At night, Ouyang Shuo held a feast in the palace to reward the soldiers. The palace would not be modified into the Provincial Governor office. Instead, it would be renamed as Rabat Palace, and it would be the place where Ouyang Shuo stayed on his trip to Africa.

Rabat Palace was Ouyang Shuo’s first palace outside of the imperial city.

The next morning, Ouyang Shuo gave orders. Apart from the 5th legion of the Dragon Legion, which would stay in Morocco, the remaining troops would immediately return to their own bases.

23rd day, Lu Bu and his men returned to Rabat.

As expected, Mohammed the 6th had escaped into the mountains. Even with the Black Snake Guards as a guide, Lu Bu could not find a trace of the enemy.

Helplessly, he could only return and seek new orders.

The following Black Snake Guards stayed behind and continued to search for tracks.

When Ouyang Shuo got the news, he ordered Black Snake that the mission to search and find Mohammed the 6th would be handed to the Black Snake Guards.

“Do not worry king. Even if I have to search the entirety of Africa, I’ll find him.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded.

In truth, Ouyang Shuo was not bothered about whether he found Mohammed the 6th or not. Even if he did escape to the other countries, he would not cause much of a wave.

In fact, there might not be any country who dared to support him.

Chapter 874 - Target, Atlantic

Editor:Nora

In the few days after taking down Morocco, Ouyang Shuo received a number of special letters.

The first letter was from Kalia who congratulated the Great Xia Dynasty for totally gaining a stable footing in the Mediterranean Ocean. This was great news to Atlantis City too.

Kalia played a huge role in Ouyang Shuo taking down Morocco. When Morocco got on the right path, Ouyang Shuo would give them a massive gift.

Next would be a letter from Henry. The contents were really short, and it was just a line congratulating him.

Through the short letter, Ouyang Shuo could see through the conflicted heart of Henry. Ouyang Shuo wanted to see how Henry would choose between territory and organizational interests.

Everyone was selfish.

Right now, Ouyang Shuo needed to wait patiently.

Lastly, there was a letter from Pedro who showed intentions of getting into his good books. Long ago, when Ouyang Shuo arrived in the Mediterranean, Black Snake Guards were ordered to come into contact with this Portuguese Lord.

In Ouyang Shuo's eyes, Spain and Portugal were huge enemies. As they say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, so the Great Xia Dynasty had a reason to work with Faro City.

Who knew that Pedro would be so careful? He actually rejected the olive stretched out by them. Pedro only made a decision after the Morocco battle ended.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo could not confirm whether the current Pedro had totally leaned toward the Great Xia Dynasty or not. Who knows if he might actually change his mind?

Ouyang Shuo judged that Pedro was a selfish person. He was someone who would work with whoever gave him the greatest interests.

Ouyang Shuo could not do anything about this. He could not exactly scold a Lord for being careful.

However, there were many ways the current Great Xia Dynasty and Faro City could work together. Morocco and Portugal's locations were like a mirror.

In the future matters of the Atlantic, they might need to closely work together.

As for the lack of news from the other Lords in the Mediterranean, Ouyang Shuo believed that they would not wait and do nothing.

Kalia mentioned in her letter that some Lords had held secret meetings.

In management, there was a theory that the more people making a decision, the more the final decision would lean toward being stable. The discussions of the Mediterranean Lords were leaning toward such a situation.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo predicted that they would still have to yield to the Great Xia Dynasty in the end. The Great Xia Dynasty held control of the Gibraltar Straits, which did not only concern the trading between east and west.

To them, the most important use of the Gibraltar Straits was to allow them to travel to the other European and American countries.

Getting out of Gibraltar Straits, one could head north toward England or west toward America.

To the Mediterranean Lords, trading with America was much more important than the trade with the eastern countries.

Now, their lifeline was in the hands of the Great Xia Dynasty. Apart from yielding, they had no other choice.

Of course, the Mediterranean Lords also had chips in their hand. For example, the voyage trading route had to go past the Mediterranean.

Once both sides totally flipped on one another, the Mediterranean Lords would not be able to trade with the Americas while the Great Xia Dynasty voyage trading would also be affected.

Hence, if that really happened, both sides would be negatively affected.

In the end, the outcome they could have depended on whose chips was more important.

...

5th month, 25th day, the Guards Legion Corps and Ouyang Shuo returned to Shanhai City.

On the square not far from the teleportation formation, Jiang Shang had brought the officials. Upon seeing Ouyang Shuo walk out of the formation, he immediately bowed, "Congratulations king for your victorious return!"

A smooth victory was the best news for a country that had just been established. The king going himself also made it more exciting.

"Please rise officials!"

Ouyang Shuo handled them before heading back to the back palace.

Since he had returned to Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo probably could not rest. Whilst the officials had not approached him, Ouyang Shuo went back to the back palace to take a rest.

Furthermore, during this expedition, Ouyang Shuo had especially gotten gifts for Song Jia and Bing'er and needed to send the gifts to them.

Bing'er was still having classes at the moment, so she was not in the palace. On the other hand, Song Jia, this queen, was currently training in the Guicang Sword manual.

Ouyang Shuo had trained in the killing sword for so long, so he had a discerning eye for sword skills. Looking at her strokes, she had reached the 2nd level of the sword manual.

It seemed like during this period of time, she had been practicing diligently and had not dropped her cultivation.

"Wuyi, you are back!"

Probably feeling Ouyang Shuo's gaze, Song Jia finally noticed him, and her face revealed an uncontainable joy.

They had not met for a month.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, "Your sword technique is getting better and better."

Although he had become king, without outsiders present, Ouyang Shuo obviously did not call Song Jia his queen.

"Of course." In front of Ouyang Shuo, Song Jia did not need to be humble, "You do not know how much effort I have placed into the sword manual. It's really too complex and just catching a glimpse of it was hard."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. The two of them chatted as they walked to the nearby pavilion. A maidservant had prepared tea and cake and was awaiting them.

The court lady standing behind Song Jia was her personal one. Seeing the queen laugh and smile so happily, she smiled too. The queen was only so relaxed when she saw the king.

Usually, when the queen managed the back palace, she was really strict and hard for one to get close to.

What about the king?

At this moment, he dropped from a ruler to a normal man who doted on his wife.

Such a scene was one that only personal court ladies could witness.

Ouyang Shuo was used to treating Song Jia like that, causally talking like no one around. As they spoke, they talked about the Jiangshan Beauty that was released not long ago.

"Wuyi, try guess the box office sales of Jiangshan Beauty?" Song Jia could not hide her excitement.

Ouyang Shuo remembered that around 20 million people viewed it in the past life. Apart from Gaia's cut, they had earned two million in revenue and one million in profit.

It was much different in this life.

Ouyang Shuo calculated in his heart, "Three million?"

Out of 100 million China region players, 30 million viewers was already the max. After all, no matter how explosive the movie was, it would not be able to bring everyone to the cinema.

Song Jia shook her head.

"It did not reach three million? That's normal." Ouyang Shuo consoled.

Song Jia burst out laughing and raised four fingers. She smiled and said, "Four million."

"What? That's impossible!"

Ouyang Shuo was stunned. What kind of concept was 40 million viewers? Excluding the infants and the elderly, such a number meant that half of China region had gone to watch it.

That was practically impossible.

"How did you all do it?"

Ouyang Shuo was really curious. Even though the production of Jiangshan Beauty in this life was great, it should not be able achieve such results.

Song Jia smiled, "That article you wrote was of great help. Also, not long after the movie was released, the country was established. After learning that the Mountain and Sea Entertainment Holdings had invested in it, with so many recommendations, more and more people watched the movie. Based on the data by Gaia, at least two million players have watched it twice or more times."

Ouyang Shuo understood; it was no wonder.

Such a miracle was created with many factors in play; it could not be replicated.

Consequently, with just one Jiangshan Beauty, the Mountain and Sea Entertainment Holdings had obtained two million gold of profit. In this life, the production got better, so the costs would naturally be higher.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and exclaimed, "You all are snatching money."

Song Jia was in a good mood as she laughed, "Not only that. Gaia has agreed to release it to the world in the 6th month. Gaia has its own translation system, and we did not even need to translate it ourselves."

"...."

Ouyang Shuo was impressed. In the last life, there were no movies released worldwide. That was the case even in the 5th year. It seemed like the craze over Jiangshan Beauty had changed that.

That was the global market, a tempting prospect.

Although there were cultural differences, conservatively speaking, they could still get four million viewers. Not for other reasons, but simply that Chinese culture was still really welcomed in Asia.

Based on what Song Jia said, the success of Jiangshan Beauty had motivated the movie scene giants, so they signed a contract with the Mountain and Sea Entertainment Holdings.

Apart from Huo Qubing, which was already filmed, they were planning to film two more. The source of funds came from the profits of Jiangshan Beauty.

As long as Huo Qubing's sales were good, the holdings would be in a positive cycle.

The entire China region was already impressed by the success of Jiangshan Beauty. Now, more and more rich people moved; they wanted to invest in the movie industry.

Only then did they realize that more than 80% of the experienced people were under the Mountain and Sea Entertainment Holdings.

It was not that no one thought about poaching. However, everyone knew who stood behind the holdings.

With such a backer, who would even try?

Hence, the actors would rather stay in the holdings and be an extra than jump over. There was nothing the rich people could do, and they could only search for the remaining 20%.

Chapter 875 - Super Celebrity is Born

Chapter 875: Super Celebrity is Born

With Ouyang Shuo’s ability to know the future, he wanted to create a terrifying entertainment holdings that was worth tens of millions. As long as he did not make mistakes, Song Jia would not be far from the goal of entertainment empress.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Let’s not be too bad. We can open up some of our movies for investment. Toward the actors and directors, we can also consider splitting the box office sales with them.”

Even in the game, shooting movies used up a lot of money. It would be tough for them to swallow the entire cake if they solely relied on their current funds.

“I understand.” Song Jia nodded.

…

At noon, Bing’er returned from school, and they had a reunion dinner. Bing’er was now a princess, and her teacher had been changed. It was no longer an ordinary person anymore.

Ouyang Shuo suggested for Confucius to take her as a disciple, and she would be his only female disciple. This change also showed that within the Confucianism school of thought, an ideological change was slowly occurring.

The Confucians personally led by Confucius were shedding away their stubborn and decayed coats and were being revitalized. It seemed like it would be difficult for Neo-Confucianism to take a footing in the Confucianism school of thought.

There was still a matter that Ouyang Shuo found regretful. Even with Confucius agreeing to replace Jiang Shang as the principal, the system did not recognize the Confucianism school of thought as having moved into the Great Xia Dynasty. There probably was a hidden requirement.

Apart from Confucius, Bing’er also had professionals teaching her instruments, chess, books, and drawing. Each one was a giant within the Xinan University. With such a lineup, it was even better than what some ancient emperors received.

The king’s love for the princess was evident.

Furthermore, the princess was really smart and cute, so she was doted on by everyone. The five teachers often bickered about her schedule and tried to extend the time.

Under such a thick education environment, Bing’er was slowly growing up, making Ouyang Shuo feel really happy.

…

After a short rest at noon, at 2 PM, Ouyang Shuo appeared in the Imperial Reading Room. Within the bright room, Tsing Yi had arrived a little earlier. She had placed a thick stack of memorials on his desk.

Ouyang Shuo guessed that she had been hard at work right away after she got back.

After working together for a period of time, reality proved that Tsing Yi was really exceptional. Her title of a female Zhuge was really true. On many of the memorials, she could come up with ideas that would surprise Ouyang Shuo, saving him a lot of effort.

Tsing Yi was slowly becoming Ouyang Shuo’s biggest helper.

After Ouyang Shuo sat down, he did not rush to review the memorials. On this return to Shanhai City, there were three people who he had to meet. These three were all historical people that moved over after the country was established.

The first one was a lady. She was an absolute beauty and one of the four beauties of China, Wang Zhaojun.

During the first year of Han Emperor, Jian Zhao’s reign, she was chosen to enter the palace as a court lady. Five years later, the Xiongnu leader Hu Hanya came over to choose his concubine and Wang Zhaojun was chosen.

The two of them spent three years together, and she gave birth to a son for him.

During the second year of Jianshi, Hu Hanya died. Zhaojun requested for the Imperial Court to return and give his son the title of Xiongnu ruler.

After she passed away, she was buried in Inner Mongolia. Her tomb was close to the Daqing Mountains and Yellow River, and descendants called it Qing Home.

Speaking of Wang Zhaojun, one would think about her marriage. To the country, such an act brought about peace. However, to her, it was a totally tragedy.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo was really annoyed at marriages used to form relationships. Only the weak people and counties would sacrifice women to protect the so-called peace.

Wang Zhaojun did not come to Shanhai City first. Instead, she went to Zhen An Prefecture to look for Mulan Yue. Mulan Yue had the specialty of attracting female historical people. As such, even if she were not the Lord, people would still go to her.

Wang Zhaojun stayed in her manor for a period of time before coming to the imperial city. Mulan Yue knew that Ouyang Shuo had a B rank questline – Four Ancient Beauties, which was waiting to be completed.

“I am Zhaojun, greetings king!” After Wang Zhaojun entered, she bowed. Her eyes were glowing and eye-catching. In her eyes, there was curiosity, judging, but no fear.

In history, Wang Zhaojun had seen such situations many times, so she naturally would not be afraid.

The Wang Zhaojun that appeared in the wilderness was just a young lady. Her white skin was like that of jade. This was probably how she looked like before she got married, and she definitely had the ability to make cities and empires fall.

Legends had it that when she said goodbye to her land, the sounds of horse neighing and the golden sand all around her made her really emotional, and she played Pipayuan on the horse.

Her exceptional instrument playing and beautiful looks caused the birds in the air to forget how to fly as they all dropped onto the sand.

Hence, one could understand just how beautiful she was.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he could not help but be stunned. Such an absolute beauty was truly hard to meet.

“Please rise!”

Ouyang Shuo instantly regained his senses and took a look at her stats.

Name: Wang Zhaojun

Title: One of the Four Ancient China Beauties

Dynasty: West Han

Identity: Great Xia Dynasty Civilian

Occupation: Imperial Court pipa player

Loyalty: 70

Bone structure: 18

Comprehension: 15

Charm: 22

Luck: 12

Specialty: Melody (raises territory artistic cultivation by 15%, raises music standards by 10%, raises territory fame by 10%)

Evaluation: a court lady of the West Han emperor, elegant and beautiful.

The four beauties each had something they were proficient at, and they were all exceptional people.

At this very moment, a System Notification sounded out in his ear.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi. Within three years, player has obtained the ancient China beauties Xu Shi, Diaochan, and Wang Zhaojun, completing B rank quest. Specially awarding Shanhai City the title of Capital of Charm, awarding player with 8 charm points.”

Ouyang Shuo let out a huge sigh of relief; this was the longest scenario quest he had completed. Since it was triggered when Fan Li and Xi Shi moved over, one and a half years had passed.

As for whether the last of the four beauties, Yang Yuhuan, would come to Shanhai City or not, it was all up to fate.

Capital of Charm: raises charm of Capital City by 35%, attraction to talent increased by 10%, cultural aura in the Capital City increased by 15%, entertainment atmosphere of the Capital City increased by 20%.

Although the quest was difficult, the title given was pretty average. As for the 8 charm points, it was an added surprise.

With that, Ouyang Shuo’s four innate stats did not have a weak point anymore.

Looking at the beauty in front of him, Ouyang Shuo was thinking about where to place her. Different from Xi Shi and Diao Chan, Wang Zhaojun was still single.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo was not thinking about anything funny, and he had no intentions of having a relationship with an NPC.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo was not willing to allow such an exceptional person spend her life at home; that was just too boring. She needed to find something for her to do.

Thinking back to the movies Song Jia and him were talking about, a lightbulb lit up in his head. What if he made Wang Zhaojun into a super celebrity?

First, she was pretty. Even a global superstar like Wu Qingcheng was not as good looking as her.

That alone made her suitable to being a superstar.

Secondly, as one of the Four Ancient Beauties of China, she had her own fans and did not need the holdings to promote her.

One must know that if she stepped into the film circle, there would definitely be many crazy fanboys and fangirls.

This was something rookies could not replicate; it was her innate advantage.

Thirdly, although she was an NPC, in such an open world, virtual idols were not a new thing and players accepted that.

Many nerds were far more interested in virtual idols than real life ones. If not, how could Huo Qubing have such fame in China?

Hence, to model her into a super celebrity was a great idea.

Fourthly, she was really talented. Not mentioning others, but just the pipa songs that she sang were something that modern day people could not replicate.

As long as the Mountain and Sea Entertainment Holdings ran it well and let her debut as a singer and slowly expand toward film, she would definitely be able to get famous.

The entertainment holdings had many composers that could make ancient type songs for her. Moreover, there were performance teachers, dance teachers, and the like.

Apart from that, there was also an exceptional dancer like Diao Chan.

Hence, Wang Zhaojun working with them was like two giants joining arms, and they would definitely create a shocking effect.

Just thinking about it made one excited.

In such a short while, Ouyang Shuo had contemplated the idea several times and felt that it was truly feasible.

What about Wang Zhaojun?

As a young girl, no matter how many things she had been through, being stared at by the king like that made her face turn red. She lowered her head, and her heart was filled with unease. Wang Zhaojun was thinking about whether the king had fallen for her.

‘Should she reject it then or just accept it?’ She hesitated in her heart.

Chapter 876 - Medical Saint Zhang Zhongjing

Chapter 876: Medical Saint Zhang Zhongjing

Just as Wang Zhaojun was hesitating, Ouyang Shuo spoke once more.

“Zhaojun, did you think about what you want to do in the future?”

“Ah?” Wang Zhaojun was stunned, and her face turned red; the script was not right. Luckily, she had been through many situations in her last life, so she quickly calmed down and respectfully said, “I was a court lady. If the king does not mind, I’m willing to be a court lady in the palace.”

Wang Zhaojun had no relatives in Shanhai City. As such, apart from entering the palace, she did not know what she could do. In ancient times, a girl’s beauty would often invite big trouble, especially girls that were as pretty as her.

Apart from inviting tragedy, beauties often had short lives.

With the protection of Mulan Yue in Zhen An Prefecture, she avoided a lot of problems. This was also the reason why she accepted Mulan Yue’s suggestion and came over to Shanhai City.

According to Mulan Yue, only the king could protect her.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he shook his head. He did not dare accept her as a court lady. Even though Song Jia was magnanimous, she probably could not accept such a beauty by his side.

“Do you like playing the pipa and singing?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Wang Zhaojun was shocked. She did not know why the king was asking about that.

When Ouyang Shuo saw her reaction, he explained, “With your looks, it’s a waste of your talent. I have a good place, just that I do not know whether you are willing or not.”

He continued to describe the modern day singer job to her.

This time, not only Wang Zhaojun was stunned, but even Tsing Yi raised her head. Her eyes opened wide, and she looked at Ouyang Shuo like she was looking like at a monster.

The outside world always had rumors that one of the reasons why the Great Xia Dynasty could walk till today was because of Ouyang Shuo. His thinking was special and out of the box.

But this time, it was a little too far out of the box.

“Develop Wang Zhaojun into a star? To think he actually thought of that.” Tsing Yi tipped her hat to him for thinking of something like that.

Although she did not dare to believe it, Tsing Yi could not help but imagine the scene of Wang Zhaojun singing on stage. After having such a thought, she was actually looking forward to it.

“Then I’ll try?”

Wang Zhaojun did not know how to reject and could only give such an answer.

Ouyang Shuo knew that this matter could not be rushed, so he smiled as he said, “Great. As for the specifics, I’ll get the queen to explain them to you.”

“Yes my king!”

When Wang Zhaojun saw that, she took her leave. However, she did not know that from that moment on, her fate had taken an 180 degrees turn.

A superstar was slowly rising up.

Looking at Wang Zhaojun’s back view, Ouyang Shuo thought about Mulan Yue, who had recommended her. She had been a Governor for a year and a half, and she had done really well.

Along with her contribution of recommending Wang Zhaojun, Ouyang Shuo wanted to promote her to Provincial Governor of Morocco.

Morocco was alone outside, so the Provincial Governor he chose had to be someone he trusted. If one talked about trust, Mulan Yue was one of the people he trusted the most.

As for ability, they could follow the early Zhen An Prefecture and assign her some strong supporting staff. The truth proved that she was a really exceptional political talent.

In this year and a half, Zhen An Prefecture had been run really well, exceeding Ouyang Shuo’s expectations.

However, Morocco was located overseas, so he needed to seek her opinion. Thinking of which, he turned around and said to Tsing Yi, “Summon Zhen An Prefecture Governor Mulan Yue, ask her to set off and come back to the imperial city.” Zhen An Prefecture did not have a teleportation formation, so she could not reach Shanhai City immediately.

“Yes my king!”

A look of doubt appeared in Tsing Yi’s eyes, but she still nodded. Logically speaking, it was still the 5th month, so it should not be the time for Governor debriefs. It seemed like the king had other reasons for calling her back.

As the advisor of the Secret Documents Pavilion, Tsing Yi knew her place and knew what should be asked and what should not.

…

After sending away Wang Zhaojun, the second person Ouyang Shuo met was a general. The famous Fubo General Ma Yuan. He was the descendent of Zhao She and the ancestor of the Xiliang Five Ma.

Ma Yuan was a famous military person from the end of West Han to the starting years of East Han. He was one of the contributors to the establishment of East Han.

During the ending years of West Han, the world was in chaos, and Ma Yuan was the subordinate of Kui Xiao, gaining his trust. After which he, followed Liu Xiu and helped him unify the country.

After unifying the country, Ma Yuan was already really old but sought to continue, fighting the Qiang people in the west and stopping problems in the south. As a result of his merits, he was given the title of Xingxi Lord and was nicknamed by the people as Ma Fupo.

“I am General Ma Yuan, greetings to the king!”

The Ma Yuan that entered the wilderness was close to 50. Considering Zhao She, Zhao Kuo, and the Xiliang Five horses, a total of eight people of the Ma family had joined the Great Xia Dynasty.

The reason Ma Yuan came over was firstly because of Zhao She, Ma Chao, and others, who were working for the Great Xia Dynasty; they had kept in contact. Secondly, the Great Xia Dynasty had just established the country, so they naturally attracted many.

“General please rise!”

Ouyang Shuo was really respectful toward Ma Yuan, as he could be considered a crucial person in the Ma family. Moreover, Morocco was current reorganizing the military and needed such an experienced general.

In history, although Ma Yuan could not be considered a legendary general, he was still a great one.

Name: Ma Yuan (King Rank)

Dynasty: West Han End, East Han start

Identity: Great Xia Dynasty General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 75

Command: 75

Force: 75

Intelligence: 68

Politics: 50

Specialty: Good General (raises troops’ attack strength by 15%, raises troops’ movement speed by 25%)

Cultivation method: Fubo Blade Technique

Equipment: Machete

Evaluation: Worked for the Imperial Court for 22 years, north to the desert, and south to the Riggers and oceans. Died because of military matters; he was worshipped by many.

Before coming to meet the king, Ma Yuan had already stayed in Shanhai City for a period of time and had interacted with members of the family. As such, he knew a few things about the Great Xia Dynasty.

After learning that the king personally went on an expedition and achieved a great victory, Ma Yuan knew that his chance to step up had arrived.

As expected, after a short chat, Ouyang Shuo hinted that in the upcoming military reorganization, he would place Ma Yuan as a Legion General.

At the end, Ouyang Shuo smiled, “I just do not know if general is willing to lead troops overseas?” Morocco was located alone overseas and was at a crucial location. As such, they definitely needed to station troops there to protect the land.

Ma Yuan often fought at the borders, so he did not mind, “I am willing!”

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head, “That’s great, rest up in the imperial city. Ma Teng, Ma Chao, Ma Xiu, the others, and the Guards Legion Corps generals have already returned. Go have a reunion with them and wait for the official appointed from the Privy Court.”

“Yes my king!”

After getting the order, Ma Yuan left. He too wanted to see Ma Chao and the rest.

…

After sending away Ma Yuan, Ouyang Shuo received the last historical person, who was also an old man. He was the famous Medical Saint, Zhang Zhongjing.

Zhang Zhongjing; he was also known as Zhang Ji. He was born in the East Han south Prefecture.

Zhang Zhongjing lived in the end of the East Han, which was a really chaotic time in Chinese history. Historical records had it that the East Han Huan Emperor had three major epidemics, while Emperor Ling had five. During Emperor Xian’s time, the epidemic was worse, and tens of thousands of people died.

Zhang Zhongjing’s family was originally a big one with 200 odd people.

Since the start of Jian An, in less than 10 years, 2/3rd of them died because of illness with 70% of them dying from typhoid.

Facing the epidemics, Zhang Zhongjing was really sad and angry. Hence, he decided to research typhoid fever to try to cure it.

During the Jian An period, Zhang Zhongjing went over various lands and personally witnessed the damage and effects that the various epidemics had on the people. He also used this chance to research typhoid fever and raise his experience and understanding of it.

After 10 years of hard work, he finally wrote a book known as Treatise of Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases. This was another influential medical book since the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique.

The reason why Zhang Zhongjing was willing to come over had something to do with the game of the Great Xia Dynasty. More importantly, they were pushing out basic healthcare reforms, which attracted his attention.

Zhang Zhongjing was dedicated to medicine and did not care about being an official. Since he was from an aristocratic family, he inherited the family and was appointed as the Changsha Prefecture Governor during the Jian An period.

Even so, he did not forget about medicine. During ancient times, officials could not randomly enter houses and come close to the people. However, if he did not get close to them, how could he cure them, and how could his skills improve?

Hence, he thought of a way, which was to choose the 1st and 15th of each month to open the Yamen for sick people. He sat in the main hall and diagnosed all of them.

Name: Zhang Zhongjing (Saint Rank)

Title: Medical Saint

Dynasty: East Han

Identity: Great Xia Dynasty Doctor

Occupation: Special Physician

Loyalty: 70

Bone structure:20

Comprehension: 22

Charm: 12

Luck: 18

Specialty: Medical Saint (raises body qualities by 15%, reduces chance of people getting sick by 15%, raises medical studies breakthrough by 15%, raises familiarity of skills of physicians by 25%.)

Book: Treatise of Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases

Evaluation: Zhang Zhongjing, one of the most exceptional doctors in Chinese history. He wrote the famous book Treatise of Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases. He created the rules and principles of judging illnesses, which formed the foundations of Chinese medicine and the soul of Chinese medicine.

Chapter 877 - Hundred Herb Garden

Chapter 877: Hundred Herb Garden

After seeing Zhang Zhongjing, Ouyang Shuo had to consider his appointment.

Thinking about it, Ouyang Shuo said, “The position of head of the imperial medicine court is still empty. Would you be willing to take the positon?”

The head would manage the imperial medicine court. Under him would be the court judge, imperial physicians, and other related personnel. When they established the country, territory god physician Bianque was already appointed as the court judge of the imperial medicine court.

“Imperial medicine court?”

Zhang Zhongjing hesitated, as he wanted to work at the Medical Department.

Ouyang Shuo smiled as he knew why Zhang Zhongjing was hesitating, “I think you have a misunderstanding of the imperial medicine court. The organization does not belong to the royal family, and it’s the overall Yamen meant to control the entire dynasty Medical Department.”

The entire Xia Palace only had Ouyang Shuo, Song Jia, and Bing’er. Naturally, he did not need a private medical organization to treat him.

When he was setting up the organizational structure, Ouyang Shuo listed the imperial medicine court as the bureau of medicine.

However, he only called it as such.

The imperial medicine court originated from the Jin Dynasty, coming from the Song and Tang imperial medicine department, it was established into an organization. Its function was very different to the Tang Dynasty imperial medicine department and the Song Dynasty imperial medicine office.

The true imperial medicine court did not only serve the imperial family. In fact, it also was in charge of recruiting doctors, selecting them, sending them out, developing doctors, educating them, and the like.

After listening to the king’s explanation, Zhang Zhongjing understood; this matched what he wanted. He did not hesitate, “Thank you my king for your good grace.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. With medicine Saint Zhang Zhongjing in charge of the imperial medicine court, the medical standards of the territory would rise another step up. Along with Zhang Zhongjing being appointed as the head of the court, a System Notification spread across the entire China region.

“System Notification: Physician representative figure Zhang Zhongjing has been appointed as the head of the imperial medicine court. Working for the Great Xia Dynasty, he has started taking disciples, meeting the three requirements for the school to move in. School of Medicine has moved into Shanhai City.”

…

“System Notification: School of Medicine has moved into Shanhai City, awarding the title of Land of Medicine as a reward, congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi!”

…

System Notification: With the School of Medicine moving into Shanhai City, the title of Land of Philosophers automatically covers the title of Land of Medicine, awarding Shanhai City with special building Hundred Herb Garden as a reward. Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi!”

…

Before this, when the School of Business moved in, Gaia had awarded him the hidden building Silver Prayer House. This time, Gaia was not as generous and only gave him a special building.

Name: Hundred Herb Garden

Type: Special Building

Function: herbs in the garden grow at 400% rate

Specialty: raises attraction to physicians by 20%, raises dynasty reputation by 5%

Note: A herb garden to grow herbs. There’s a special formation underneath. With the spiritual energy nourishing the herbs, they are provided them with a perfect environment. Takes up 100 mu of land.

This garden was pretty much the dream of any doctor, and its value was comparable to hidden buildings. This Hundred Herb Garden was not comparable to the one that Mr. Luxun wrote about.

At this very moment, a System Notification sounded out by his ear.

“Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for obtaining a Hundred Herb Garden. Please choose where to build it. Friendly Reminder: must be no smaller than hundred mu.”

Ouyang Shuo thought about it. A hundred mu was not small, and there probably was not enough space within the inner city. Hence, he could only build it outside of the city. Ouyang Shuo chose a piece of land on the east outskirts to build the Hundred Herb Garden on.

“System Notification: Location chosen, spawning…”

Along with the System Notification, a white light shone on the east outskirts, and a hundred mu medicinal garden appeared.

Ouyang Shuo told Zhang Zhongjing about it; he was delighted and smiled, “Even the heavens are helping our dynasty. With this magical herb garden, we will have double the efficiency.”

“The garden will be managed by the imperial medicine court.” Ouyang Shuo smiled as he said.

Zhang Zhongjing replied, “I will not let you down!”

…

After sending Zhang Zhongjing away, it was already 4 PM. Finally, Ouyang Shuo had time to deal with the memorials. Along with the country being established, naturally more than just three historical people chose to move over. However, the others were not as famous, so the cabinet had already settled them.

Just as Ouyang Shuo completed his notes on the fifth memorial, someone looked for him; it was the Industrialization Director, Chen Bingguang.

“Greetings my king!”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, “Old Chen, please take a seat!”

When Tsing Yi saw that, she personally served tea.

Chen Bingguang came over because of the Shu Mountain Steel Corporation. With the lead of the industrialization, they had established the corporation and the headquarters were set at Steel City.

In Steel City, two large steel factories had been built. The branch of the No.7 Research Institute there would be in charge of researching and improving their steelmaking techniques.

Chen Bingguang suggested they move the mimicry flying device crafting base over. The future Steel City would not be a pure city of steel but a city of industrialization.

New cannons, new guns, steam engine, and other such technologies would slowly move to Steel City.

The Industrialization Department had already planned to build the first iron road to transport iron ore and coal to the steel factories.

At the same time, the ocean route from Steel City to Shanhai City was being opened up. The process would be completed in the 7th month. When that happened, the steel could be transported by sea over to Shanhai City.

The steel corporation that Ouyang Shuo had envisioned was slowly taking shape and becoming the engine of industrialization for the territory.

However, behind this prosperity, there were some problems.

Chen Bingguang came over because the Shu Mountain Steel Corporation was facing problems.

Although it was not fatal, it was not a small problem.

“My king, recently, our coal from West Chu has been attacked by an unknown squadron in the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea region, which has affected the coal transport. If this continues, this trading route will be totally cut off.”

The dynasty industrialization was at a crucial stage. The moment the coal supply could not keep up, it would be badly affected.

Currently, the dynasty not only had coal from Steel City, but there was also the coal from Minnan Province. From a long term standpoint, they needed to solve this problem.

Ouyang Shuo frowned, “Did you find out who it was?”

“According to the Navy Headquarters, there’s a high possibility that it’s the Yanhuang Alliance.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded; his guess was similar. After gaining Jack’s help, Di Chen, Zhan Lang, and the others had all started to build navies. Along with Xiong Ba, the three of them formed a line and controlled the ocean rights of the Yellow River and the Bohai Sea.

The Great Xia Dynasty ships transporting coal could not avoid their jurisdiction.

After Jack passed them the technique, Ouyang Shuo expected that a day like this would come. Not only did it affect the ship making industry profits of the Great Xia Dynasty, but it also gave them more opponents in the oceans.

Based on the Shipbuilding Division’s report, the effects were not limited to within the country, as even orders from ASEAN were affected.

Just like that, animosity between Jack and the Great Xia Dynasty was formed.

If he had a chance, Ouyang Shuo did not mind dealing with him. After taking down Morocco, as long as Ouyang Shuo wanted to, he had the chance to enter the American continent.

Of course, if Ouyang Shuo really wanted to go all out, he could seal the Gibraltar Straits and break the trade path between America and the Mediterranean.

The two of them were chess players playing against one another. Now, it was time to see who the better player was.

However, Ouyang Shuo did not expect that Di Chen and the others would be so anxious. Moreover, their methods were so despicable. Based on the intel from the Shanhai Guards, the navy squadrons of Handan City and Blood Red City had not been formed yet.

After the system update, Gaia slowed down the shipbuilding speed, which unavoidably impacted the local production. It was not easy to try and build a fully equipped navy.

The ones that were disturbing the Great Xia Dynasty coal ships were probably their squadron in the early stages. These squadrons were training in the region.

As for disturbing the ships, it was probably a secondary goal.

Be it Di Chen or Zhan Lang, with their family’s help, it was not hard for them to hire modern day navy generals, sailors, captains, and the like.

What they needed was a period of time to adapt.

Ouyang Shuo asked, “As for the specific damages, did the Industrialization Department tabulate it?”

Chen Bingguang nodded, “Yes. Weirdly, the ones most damaged were those from Stone City, and the attacks mostly happened in Bohai Sea. We basically did not face much resistance in Yellow Sea. Even King City’s Zhoushan Squadron did not care about our coal ships.”

A light shone in Ouyang Shuo’s eyes. This news proved the conjecture in his heart. He did not tell it to Chen Bingguang and simply said, “I understand, you can go now!”

“Yes my king!”

Chen Bingguang took his leave. Since the king now knew of the matter, he would have a way to solve it. This matter had exceeded the power of the Industrialization Department, which was why he would come over to report it.

After Chen Binggguang left, Ouyang Shuo looked at Tsing Yi and said, “Send a decree to Honglu Temple, ask them to send envoys to Handan City, Blood Red City, and Stone City. Tell them that if they continue, their merchant ships can forget about passing on the voyage trade route.”

Ouyang Shuo wanted to give them a warning. Some rules could not be broken and should not be broken. If not, it would not be good for anyone.

“Yes my king!”

Chapter 878 - Fighting and Unity

Chapter 878: Fighting and Unity

Apart from giving Di Chen and the others a clear warning, Ouyang Shuo was also considering other countermeasures.

A warning only solved the problem but not the root. When their navies were formed, the Great Xia Dynasty coal ships would still be threatened by them.

It seemed like he needed to increase the presence of the Shanhai Alliance in Bohai Sea.

Toward the Yellow River region, the Yizhou Squadron still has some influence, which was also why the Zhoushan Squadron did not try anything funny.

It seemed like Xiong Ba was not willing to have a head on conflict with the Great Xia Dynasty.

The key would be Bohai Sea. The Great Xia Dynasty’s navy was being spread thin, and the only way would be to help Stone City build a squadron.

Stone City’s territory had a Binhai Bay, which was a large-sized port that could store a huge squadron.

However, without the help of the Great Xia Dynasty, with the current situation of Stone City, they lacked the ability to build a decent squadron, much less face off against Handan Squadron.

Thinking of which, Ouyang Shuo raised his brush and wrote a letter to Wufu to ask for his opinion. If he did not have the resolve, Ouyang Shuo could not force him. If he was willing, the Great Xia Dynasty would start acting.

Stone City had coal. At most, they would just have to use coal as payment.

…

During dinner, Ouyang Shuo raised the matter of Wang Zhaojun. Song Jia’s reaction was the same as Tsing Yi’s. After a long while, she regained her senses, “You really dare to think.”

Ouyang Shuo asked, “Do you think it’s possible?”

Jokes were jokes, but when they were talking about serious matters, Song Jia would immediately focus, “We can try.”

“That’s great. I will not care about this matter anymore. I’ll leave it to you.”

Song Jia nodded.

…

The following few days were really calm.

5th month, 28th day, the Mediterranean Squadron finally acted.

Through a discussion, the Mediterranean Lords used Kalia as a middle woman to send a message to the Great Xia Dynasty – they were willing to discuss matters with regards to the Mediterranean Ocean.

When Ouyang Shuo got the news, he laughed but did not say anything.

The reactions of the Mediterranean Lords’ were as he had expected. Their relationship with America was not so strong, and they were just cooperating whilst being wary of one another.

Caesar and the others still defended against the Great Xia Dynasty like they would defend against a thief. However, no matter what, they did not want to give Jack a reason to step in.

As they say, it is easy to invite a god but hard to send him away.

Jack and the American Lords were not philanthropists. If they found a chance to enter the Mediterranean, it would not be good for the Mediterranean Lords.

In the Mediterranean, Caesar was the most active, pushing for the rights of the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, Henry was extremely low profile. However, that was what made people worry.

The Spanish Lords, with Casillas as their head, had once again fallen. As a result, they were busy tending to their wounds. Luckily, he was decisive, so the Invincible Squadron survived. On the other hand, the Greeks were busy trying to get close with Kalia. The other Lords had their own thoughts and the entire Mediterranean was a huge mess.

Outside the Mediterranean, there was also Portugal, England, Holland, and Germany; these parties were all looking on with interest.

Such a scenario was one that gave outsiders a good chance to enter. If they allowed a massive fish like Jack to enter at this moment, who knows how badly it would stir the situation.

Hence, during the Silver Hand internal meeting, the Europeans rejected the suggestion of Jack and the others to work together to suppress Morocco.

As a result, before the situation got totally out of hand, Caesar and the others chose to discuss and cooperate with the Great Xia Dynasty to try to reach a solution that both sides could accept.

Ouyang Shuo had seen through all of this. Naturally, he would not act arrogantly, so he accepted the request of the Mediterranean Lords.

To the Great Xia Dynasty, there were two reasons for taking down Morocco. First, they aimed to win a stable logistics base. Secondly, they wanted to ensure the smoothness of the voyage trade route.

The second goal was even more important than the first.

The ancestor had once said, “Unity is achieved by struggle and destroyed by compromise.”

Ouyang Shuo performed a series of work in the Mediterranean based on this theory. Disbanding the Mediterranean Alliance and ‘drawing the line’ with Atlantis was to advance through backing off.

Taking down Morocco was a struggle to earn the chips to ask for a compromise.

Think about it, if they did not take down Morocco, they would be unable to protect the interests of the Great Xia merchants on the voyage route with just one Jidian City.

At that time, the Great Xia Dynasty trading route would be under siege, and its position as an ocean overlord would be challenged.

Hence, if Ouyang Shuo continued to back off, he would lose all his chips.

However, the current situation was different. With Morocco Province as his shield, the Great Xia Dynasty had the ability to fight with any enemy. Of course, Ouyang Shuo was not a rash person. Unless he was forced to, he would not want both sides to be hurt.

The road to being an overlord was one of interests.

That morning, Ouyang Shuo announced a decree: Order Honglu Temple Deputy Zi Luolan as the ambassador, Business Department Xu Zhen Chang as the assistant, bring many officials from the Honglu Temple, Financial Court, and Privy Court to build a negotiation team to rush to Atlantis City to discuss with the Mediterranean Lords there.

The representative team, apart from officials, there were real life trading, negotiation, diplomacy, and European matters experts.

Before leaving, Zi Luolan looked for Ouyang Shuo.

As the ambassador, Zi Luolan naturally needed to know the king’s bottom line.

In the Imperial Reading Room, Ouyang Shuo took the time to meet Zi Luolan. She was still so alluring and beautiful.

He chose to send her as the ambassador because of two reasons. First, she was a player and had a natural advantage in discussions with Mediterranean Lords as compared to natives. Secondly, she was a diplomatic expert and was highly skilled.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Merchant ships of both sides can freely pass on the voyage path. Political and military elements will not interfere.”

Currently, Ouyang Shuo did not mind the ambitions of the various Mediterranean Lords. Instead, he simply hoped for the voyage trade route to run normally.

“As for what kind of trading terms you can get from them, it will depend on your hard work and ability. If you do well, I’ll give you great rewards.” Ouyang Shuo smiled and added.

Zi Luolan nodded. Although the king’s bottom line was not overbearing, and it also lessened the pressure on the shoulders of the negotiation squad, Zi Luolan was not relaxed.

The responsibility was simply too huge this time.

Furthermore, this was the first time Zi Luolan had taken up such a heavy task. Seeing Tsing Yi, Hong Yi, and the other sisters getting their places in the dynasty and shining bright, it would be a lie to say that she was not anxious.

This trip was a chance for Zi Luolan to prove herself.

Hence, before coming to see Ouyang Shuo, Zi Luolan had done a lot of preparation work, reading a lot of information and scrolls. Before leaving, she needed answers to some crucial questions so that she would be calmer during the negotiation.

Zi Luolan asked, “What if they require us to move our troops out of the Mediterranean?”

Undoubtedly, this was a sensitive topic.

Although the Mediterranean Lords agreed to discuss with the Great Xia Dynasty, they had expressed in their words that they were not willing to allow the Mediterranean Squadron to freely sail the Mediterranean Ocean.

To them, the strong Mediterranean Squadron posed a massive problem. If the Great Xia Dynasty did not retreat from the Mediterranean Ocean, the Lords would not be able to feel at ease.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Zi Luolan with praise. She had grabbed the crux of the problem. It seemed like appointing her as the ambassador was a correct choice.

“We can express solemnly in the final agreement that the Great Xia Dynasty will not interfere in the battles of the various Mediterranean countries. The Mediterranean Squadron would choose to retreat from the Mediterranean Ocean and sail in the Atlantic. At the same time, to show our good intentions, we are willing to rename it the Atlantic Squadron.” Ouyang Shuo said.

Zi Luolan stared at Ouyang Shuo. How was this showing kind intentions? It was obviously harboring even greater ambitions. The Atlantic Squadron sounded much mightier than the Mediterranean Squadron.

Of course, to the Mediterranean Lords, they could heave a sigh of relief after hearing this line.

“I understand.” Zi Luolan once again nodded her head and asked, “Do you have anything more for me?”

Ouyang Shuo said, “I predict that the Spanish will try to mess it up, so you must be prepared. Toward Spain, our attitude is neither to go against them nor work with them. Also, when you are in Atlantis, communicate more with Queen Kalia. She is an expert of the Mediterranean Ocean matters.”

Apart from Mediterranean Ocean matters, Kalia could also help to build bridges for the Great Xia Dynasty to try to recruit all the commoner Lords and neutral parties, which would help to reduce the level of resistance.

Hence, Kalia and her Atlantis City was a super contact. Regarding this matter, Ouyang Shuo had personally sent a letter to Kalia, asking for her help.

“Understood!”

Since most matters had already been said, Ouyang Shuo concluded, “That should be it. When the negotiation starts, we can keep in contact through letters. Remember, this negotiation must be smooth and swift. If they do not have sincerity, immediately stop the discussions without hesitation.”

Although the chances of the Mediterranean Ocean Lords turning on him were really low, Ouyang Shuo had made preparations for it. With Morocco Province and the teleportation formation, the Great Xia Dynasty would not be afraid of any challenge.

“Yes!”

Chapter 879 - Bidding

Chapter 879: Bidding

Last day of the 5th month, Zi Luolan led the Great Xia Dynasty negotiation squad and officially reached Atlantis, opening up a round of arduous negotiations.

Ouyang Shuo, who was in Shanhai City, was similarly really busy.

This morning, Tsing Yi handed him a document that listed the names of 20 guilds.

“This is?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Tsing Yi said, “My king, this is the list of guilds in China who want to take the rights of the Satellite City in Rabat.”

Ever since the news of the Great Xia Dynasty conquering Morocco, the Satellite City outside of Rabat had interested numerous China guild leaders. Although China had nine imperial cities, the number of satellite cities was still too little, and there were too many guilds who did not manage to become guardians.

After learning that the Rabat Satellite City was an empty city, people were naturally attracted. In the game, the players did not bother about which region they were in because exploring the underground world was the same anywhere.

Hence, the Rabat Satellite City was really attractive to the guilds.

Since Ouyang Shuo’s return to Shanhai City, numerous guild leaders came over to visit him. However, they were all blocked outside the palace. Tsing Yi was in charge of meeting them.

Ouyang Shuo did not receive them. However, this was not out of arrogance.

Instead, it was only because out of the visiting guilds, there were many who used relationships, like guilds who were friends with Snow-War Rose, Qingfeng Pavilion, other related guilds, or classmates that knew Ouyang Shuo and Song Jia.

Till date, Ouyang Shuo’s identity had already become an open secret. Students who were left in the dark were shocked and excited upon learning of the matter. Trying to obtain some benefits from him was just a part of human nature.

Ouyang Shuo even saw the Liangshan Mercenary Guild on the list. It seemed like Ouyang Shuo’s gift of a sword had given Song Pu and the others unneeded thoughts.

To avoid suspicion, Ouyang Shuo did not see any of them.

Who knew that his actions would actually ignite the interests of the guild leaders? In their eyes, the king not meeting anyone was naturally to be fair; he would not be biased.

In a week, almost 20 guilds had met the set requirements. Today, all the guilds that were interested had basically handed over their applications.

Ouyang Shuo swept the list, and a lightbulb lit up in his head as he smiled, “Wishful thinking.”

“Is the king not ready to let a China region guild be the Guardian?” Tsing Yi did not understand.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “That naturally has to be done. However, which one to arrange or which to feel? Use what standards to judge? The Satellite City is huge, so we cannot be too nice to them.”

After experiencing the betrayal of Tingyu Floor and the rest, Ouyang Shuo was extremely wary of guilds. Who knows which one of these guilds were chess pieces of Silver Hand?

If the guild was not one that he trusted, Ouyang Shuo would not be at ease.

However, only Snow-War Rose and Blood Evil Mercenary Group could be considered allies of the Great Xia Dynasty, but they were both Guardian Guilds of their own Satellite Cities.

As for those friends and classmates, Ouyang Shuo did not trust them. If Ouyang Shuo still had any siblings or relatives, the matter would be easy to solve.

Using bloodline relations was an important method to maintain a rule.

Unfortunately, he did not.

“The king is saying?”

Ouyang Shuo thought about it, “Let the Shanhai Guards investigate and remove those who Silver Hand might infiltrate away. After that, let the remaining ones bid.”

The Guardian Guild would not pose much of a threat to Morocco Province, but he had to be wary against it.

Tsing Yi was stunned, thinking about it and saying, “The king wants to make it a bid?” After staying by Ouyang Shuo’s side for so long, Tsing Yi understood Ouyang Shuo’s thoughts.

“That’s right.” Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Those who reach the requirements for Guardian city would bid with three million and above mercenary fee, 5% and above guild control rights and also above 50% of the tax returns. Who gives out the best conditions will win the bid.”

“Understood!”

Tsing Yi knew that the king wanted to use this chance to earn a big amount.

Ouyang Shuo’s conscience was clear. Since he could not figure out who was not an enemy, he would simply give it to the highest bidder. He could use this money to make up for the expenses of attacking Morocco.

Restoring Rabat alone had cost Ouyang Shuo a million gold. Along with the military expenditure, war resources purchase, reparations, compensations, and military reorganization, three million gold was not enough.

Luckily, apart from this amount, after taking down Rabat, the large amounts of treasures and equipment he took from the palace was worth no less than two million.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo found a substitute doll and a King Ranked summoning talisman.

After such a huge war, the Great Xia Dynasty did not suffer a losing business.

Under the request of Song Jia, Ouyang Shuo kept the substitute doll by his side. According to her words, “You are the Xia King, so you cannot be so bold. You need to have protecting your life as the most important mission.”

Ouyang Shuo was helpless and had no choice but to accede to the request. In the Satellite City, Dida’s sneak attack let Ouyang Shuo realize that he had started to cherish his life.

Now, with the substitute doll, who knows whether it was good or bad?

This psychological problem was one that Ouyang Shuo needed to personally understand and break through.

As for the King Rank summoning talisman, Ouyang Shuo did not use it. Instead, he gave it to Gong Chengshi as thanks for his gift the previous time.

Without it, the Great Xia Dynasty road to country establishment would have faced more problems.

Ouyang Shuo hated owing people favors.

Ouyang Shuo said to Tsing Yi, “The bidding matter will be handled by the Industrialization Department. Let them amass some bidding experience.”

“Yes my king!”

Ouyang Shuo said, “Since we have mentioned the Satellite City, let’s deal with the Province migration matters.”

“Please give your instructions my king!”

Tsing Yi had already prepared the brush and ink to record down his instructions. The dynasty had many policies that Ouyang Shuo had casually voiced, but whatever he said needed to be recorded into memorials by the Secret Document Pavilion.

Hence, Tsing Yi was already used to recording at any moment.

Ouyang Shuo said, “The scale of players migrating there, apart from the Satellite City, will be temporarily set to one million and will mostly be work occupation players and casual players. Casa Blanca is really attractive for casual players, so we can relax the numbers there to around 600 thousand.”

Casa Blanca was a garden city and a holiday resort, so it had an undeniable attraction toward causal players. It was the best place to retire.

It seemed like even if the Great Xia Dynasty did not provide welfare packages, there would be elderly who would be willing to move over. Amongst the old people, there were numerous rich people and not all of them were poor.

The tourism industry of Casa Blanca was huge.

Speaking of which, he really needed to thank the previous Lord Caroline for running it so well.

“Apart from players, move 200 thousand natives from the provinces to migrate over. Similarly, move 200 thousand Moroccan natives over here.” Ouyang Shuo continued.

Cross migration was naturally to reduce the Arabic atmosphere there and try to totally merge it into the Great Xia Dynasty system.

Along with the specialty of the dynasty, the territories in Morocco would spawn Chinese refugees. They could totally remodel the province in a year or two.

When that happened, Morocco Province would pretty much be like any other province.

Of course, this cross migration had a price to pay. Not to mention other matters, but just the settling fees was huge, and the entire thing would probably cost another million gold.

Along with the player migration settling fees, the expenditure was even larger.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it, “Once the bidding is over, leave a million from the fee to be used to settle the migrants. The remaining shortfall will be solved by the Financial Court.”

Settling down Morocco Province would be really good for the finances of the dynasty.

Tsing Yi noted down his words one by one.

“Should we copy Xingzhou Prefecture and auction off the surrounding islands?” Tsing Yi suggested.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “No. Morocco is different from Xingzhou Prefecture, and there are no countries around that will interest the China region PK maniacs. Furthermore, those outer islands are built into military resource bases and will not be easy to auction off.”

“It would cost another sum to build a base.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “That’s unavoidable. Morocco Province is surrounded by enemies, so if we do not do that, we will not be able to feel at ease. I have done a rough calculation, and five million gold should be roughly enough to settle everything and push Morocco on the right path. If we are lacking in funds, why not let the Industrialization Department do better and squeeze out some more funds from the bidding?”

“I’ll let the Industrialization Department know the king’s intentions.”

Tsing Yi had witnessed the king’s greed; he would truly squeeze the guilds dry.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Let’s do it like that.”

In such a short half an hour, Ouyang Shuo had settled the rough plan going forward for Morocco Province.

…

6th month, 1st day, the Great Xia Dynasty announced the news of the bidding for the Rabat City Satellite City. Naturally, this matter raised many heated debates.

Some scolded the king for being black-hearted, while others were tempted.

Some smart guild leaders had already thought about the way Blood Shadow Alliance was formed. They could use a merger to compete in the bidding. Then they would have a greater advantage and a higher chance of winning.

Chapter 880 - Gratitude and Love

Chapter 880: Gratitude and Love

The China region that had just calmed down not long ago was stirred by the Great Xia Dynasty bidding and recruitment notices. As the person who caused all this commotion, Ouyang Shuo was not bothered.

That was because on the 6th month, 1st day, Zhen An Prefecture Governor Mulan Yue finally reached Shanhai City. Until she met Ouyang Shuo, she was still unsure of why she was summoned to the city.

“King Brother!”

Within the Imperial Reading Room, Mulan Yue bowed.

Out of all the officials in the dynasty, only Mulan Yue could call Ouyang Shuo in such a manner.

“Sit.” Ouyang Shuo smiled; he felt a lot of emotions when he looked at the young girl in front of him. In a short few years, that cute little girl had grown up and was shining bright.

Although the two of them did not meet up regularly, they were like siblings. Counting the time, Mulan Yue’s parents should have already left Mars and were on their way to Planet Hope.

After talking causally, Ouyang Shuo got to the topic, “Do you want a change in environment?”

Mulan Yue was stunned. Then she rolled her eyes and said, “King Brother wants me to work in the city? That’s great.” If she came to work in the city, she could see Ouyang Shuo often, so she naturally liked that.

Ever since she became the Zhen An Prefecture Governor, the Imperial Court had ruled that the officials could not leave their land for no reason. Hence, Mulan Yue had really little chance to return to Shanhai City.

It was not for no reason that Mulan Yue asked that.

As an experienced Governor, Mulan Yue was familiar with the matters of the Imperial Court. The Imperial Court was spreading that the cabinet was interested in having a swap in roles between officials in the court and working in the various lands.

Such a cross appointment was really beneficial to the dynasty. As for whether the actions of the cabinet were under the instructions of the king or not, outsiders would not know.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Your news is really fresh.” He paused and continued, “I summoned you here not to ask you to work in the city but because I hope you can be the Provincial Governor of Morocco. Are you willing to bear this worry for your brother?”

“Ah?” Mulan Yue’s eyes widened. She was not prepared for this at all. Only after a while did she hesitate and say, “I’m willing to work at Morocco, but I do not think I can become the Provincial Governor. Sister Bai Hua had not become a Provincial Governor yet.”

After hearing those words, Tsing Yi could not help but take a look at Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Do not worry. Bai Hua has her own arrangements. Morocco Province is alone overseas, and I need someone I can trust there. I’ve thought about it, and you’re the most suitable person for the role.”

When Mulan Yue heard those words, a sweet smile appeared on her face. However, as she still lacked confidence, she said, “Let me think about it?”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hands resolutely, “What are you thinking about? Do not worry, I will not let you fight alone.”

“You should know Zhaoqing Prefecture Governor Du Sijing, right? I’m ready to make Du Sijing the Administration Director of Morocco Province. Apart from that, you can move over officials from Zhen An Prefecture that you want.”

To be able to bring people working with her over to a new appointment showed how much Ouyang Shuo doted on Mulan Yue.

Mulan Yue was filled with gratitude. She knew that Ouyang Shuo was purposely developing her. Thinking about that, she decided, “Since Brother trusts me, I’ll give it a shot.”

“Great, that’s the Yue Yue I know.”

“En.”

Mulan Yue nodded her head solemnly. She set her heart to running Morocco Province well and not letting down Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo continued, “Pack up, you head for Morocco Province. I’ll let Jiang Shang accompany you. Rabat City and Shanhai City are connected, so I will allow you to come back when you’re free.”

“Thank you King Brother for your good grace.”

Mulan Yue got up and respectfully bowed.

…

That afternoon, under the accompaniment of Jiang Shang, Mulan Yue proceeded toward Morocco Province. At the same time, Mulan Yue and Du Sijing’s appointment decrees were spread to all the provinces through the relay.

Based on the Imperial Court official system, a Provincial Governor was listed as a primary Grade 3 official whilst a Prefecture Governor was a secondary grade 5 official. Mulan Yue was just promoted 5 ranks, so to say that she was sitting on a rocket was not an exaggeration.

All of a sudden, there were people who felt envious, some felt jealous, and some started making conspiracy theories. Even Bai Hua could not help but be affected in her heart.

Mulan Yue became the first Provincial Governor, jumping to become a superstar in the Imperial Court.

Luckily, Morocco was located overseas, so news was not clear. As a result, although there was uproar, it was not enough to cause many waves. If Mulan Yue was the Chuannan Province Provincial Governor, her appointment would not have passed.

At the very least, the cabinet would not approve it.

After sending Mulan Yue away, Ouyang Shuo immediately contacted Cabinet Deputy Kou Zhun, who was still in Morocco. He wrote that regarding the appointments of officials in Morocco to listen to the views of Mulan Yue.

For the two of them to discuss would be disrespectful for Mulan Yue as Provincial Governor. With Kou Zhun’s intelligence, he would definitely understand what Ouyang Shuo was getting at.

After arranging everything, it was already 3 PM.

Although it was still quite early, Ouyang Shuo was ready to go home. Today was children’s day. Although Bing’er had grown into a young teen, she was still at the age to celebrate this day.

Early in the morning, she had been bugging Ouyang Shuo. She told him that the city had a new food street, and she wanted Ouyang Shuo to play with her.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he had no reason to reject her request. Since entering the game, apart from the starting stages, Ouyang Shuo had been really busy and had really little time to accompany Bing’er. Hence, he felt really guilty.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo told Tsing Yi to reject all meetings for him. Today, he ended work early.

Returning to the back palace, Bing’er had long been waiting. Seeing Ouyang Shuo come back early, her face was covered with a wide smile.

Ouyang Shuo said, “Wait a while, I will go change.”

Since he was accompanying Bing’er to stroll the streets, Ouyang Shuo did not want to be too eye catching. Hence, he wanted to change into ordinary clothes. When the Personal Guards heard that, they naturally changed their attire as well.

Even Bing’er put on some disguises. If not, with her fame in the territory, she would be noticed immediately.

In a short while, the group left the Xia Palace.

Walking on the busy streets, Ouyang Shuo and his group looked like a prince bringing his sister and servants out for a walk. On the bustling streets, such a sight was common.

The food street that Bing’er had mentioned was located in the west city region, and it was not far away from the imperial city. Apparently, it was built by a player merchant and gathered hundreds of specialties north and south of the Great River.

One could even taste overseas delicacies here.

He truly was an exceptional person.

Shanhai City was really a diverse place, philosophers would debate, and it was a place with an open heart that accepted everyone and everything. Hence, many new trends appeared, breaking the old and creating the new time and time again.

Although it was the afternoon, the food street was already really busy. Allowed by the Shanhai City Yamen, carriages and horses were prohibited on the food street.

Be it officials or civilians, they could only walk on the street.

If this was placed in the system imperial city, such a thing would be impossible. However, in Shanhai City, be it the Yamen officials or the natives, they were all used to it.

Ouyang Shuo looked around. Everywhere was advertising various delicacies, Tianjing pancake, Beijing fried liver, Henan pepper spicy soup, Lingnan rice noodle, and more.

Such a scene led Ouyang Shuo to think back to when they went to buy New Year goodies years back. Although three years had passed, it was still like yesterday.

Bing’er was probably reminiscing the past, so she had asked Ouyang Shuo to come.

‘Little girl, you have really grown up.’ Ouyang Shuo thought in his heart.

It was a total coincidence. Just as Ouyang Shuo was reminiscing, two women dressed in swordsmen attire walked over with skewers in their hands.

Upon closer inspection, they were Ouyang Shuo’s classmates Meng Feifei and Tan Xiaoli. Three years ago, in the Jiaozhou New Year market, Ouyang Shuo had bumped into them while purchasing New Year goodies too.

What Ouyang Shuo did not know was that Meng Feifei, who was usually really quiet, would have times like this where she did not bother about her image. It seemed like the temptation of food was one that even girls could not block.

The two of them saw Ouyang Shuo and his group, and they immediately recognized him. Tan Xiaoli wanted to greet him, but before she could speak, Meng Feifei pinched her. It was obvious what kind of uproar would result if Ouyang Shuo’s identity was revealed.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “What a coincidence, why don’t we sit together?” Whilst speaking, he pointed at a small noodle shop.

“Great!”

Meng Feifei replied. However, when she saw Ouyang Shuo looking at the skewer in her hand, she felt shy, hiding her hand behind her back.

‘What an easily shy girl.’

Whilst speaking, the group walked into the noodle shop.

“Welcome, would you like the main hall or the small room?” When the waiter of the shop saw the aura of Ouyang Shuo, he warmly welcomed them.

Ouyang Shuo said, “Give us the small room on the second floor.”

“Okay!”

The waiter’s face was covered with a wide smile as he led the way.

Ouyang Shuo was worried that if he sat in the main hall, he would be recognized.

Seeing Meng Feifei and Tan Xiaoli, Ouyang Shuo was really interested and wanted to talk to both of them. Since he obtained his high position, Ouyang Shuo had broken away from the masses for too long.

Chapter 881 - Di Chen Concedes

Chapter 881: Di Chen Concedes

On the 2nd floor room, Ouyang Shuo and his group sat.

The following Personal Guards sat outside the room and flawlessly guarded the room.

Unlike when they were on the bustling streets, Meng Feifei and Tan Xiaoli became careful when they entered the room. Although the man in front of them used to be their classmate, he was the king of the Great Xia Dynasty now.

Thinking back to the recent matter, where the other classmates were stopped outside the door when they wanted to ask him about guild matters, the two of them felt uneasy and did not know what to say. The atmosphere in the room instantly became a little awkward.

However, Bing’er was unafraid of the atmosphere and started to order her food.

Seeing which, Ouyang Shuo took the initiative to start a conversation, “Weren’t all of you training on the mountains? Why do you have the time to come down?” The two of them were core disciples of the sword sect and were one step away from becoming direct disciples.

Based on sect rules, core disciples could not leave the mountain without any reason.

Meng Feifei explained, “Elder Lin has ordered us to contact the sects and dojos in the city.”

As she said that, Meng Feifei felt a little embarrassed. After all, they were supposed to contact the sects and dojos, but they had come over to the food street instead. Originally, it was nothing wrong, but Song Jia was the sect leader. As such, saying this in front of Ouyang Shuo did not feel right.

Ouyang Shuo naturally would not mind all this, continuing, “How’s the Dongli Sword Sect like recently, it should be developing well, right?”

Ouyang Shuo rarely asked about sect matters.

Meng Feifei said proudly, “Yes, we have close to five thousand disciples. Especially after sect leader got the Guicang Sword Manual, the fame of the sect grew, and many people wanted to join.”

“You have so many disciples, do you have enough space?”

From what Ouyang Shuo remembered, the Dongli Sword Sect’s land was not that big.

Meng Feifei said, “We cannot fit on the mountain, so elder Lin suggested half a year ago to build a courtyard at the foot for junior disciples. Only senior disciples can move onto the mountains. Recently, the sect is preparing to open courtyards in other mountains for future needs.”

Ouyang Shuo was amazed. Lin Yue was running the sword sect really well.

Using this as a topic, the girls were not so scared anymore and raised up some interesting incidents.

Tan Xiaoli smiled, “Last month, our class gathered once in the game. Unfortunately, you were too busy and could not come.”

“Is that so?” Ouyang Shuo explained, “I was still overseas, so my men probably forgot to send the invitation over. Next time, if there’s a chance, I’ll invite everyone over to Shanhai City to play.”

Tan Xiaoli smiled, “That’s great. If you do, everyone will definitely come. During the last gathering, there were only half of the people.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. After all, who knows how long this student friendship could last for?

After chatting for a while, these two ladies knew that Ouyang Shuo had a reason for coming over, so they found a reason to leave. Ouyang Shuo did not waste any more time and continued to accompany Bing’er to eat on the food street.

That small girl had a huge stomach, and she wanted to try any delicacy she came across. Even the Personal Guards got lucky and were able to eat to their full.

Although Bing’er was young, she was really good to the palace guards, court ladies, and maidservants. No wonder everyone in the palace doted on her.

Close to nighttime, they quietly went back to the palace, with no one recognizing them. During dinner, Bing’er, who had been eating for the whole afternoon, did not have any appetite, so she just drank a bowl of soup before returning to the palace to rest.

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

6th month, 2nd day, the envoys that went to Handan City, Blood Red City, and King City all returned one by one.

Facing the warning of Shanhai City, Di Chen yielded, but he tried to argue that the Handan City Squadron did so by mistake and did not recognize the flag of the Great Xia Dynasty.

Di Chen was not going to take any responsibility for it.

Ouyang Shuo did not care, as aristocratic people like Di Chen were always focused on interests first. As long as they did not try anything funny, Ouyang Shuo would not bother with tem.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo would not be tricked by Di Chen. When the Handan City Squadron formed and had the power to control the Bohai Sea, his attitude would definitely change.

It was Wufu’s reply a day ago that Ouyang Shuo really cared about.

In the letter, he said that if the Great Xia Dynasty helped them build a navy squadron, Stone City was willing to become their vassal state.

Wufu’s suggestion was not what Ouyang Shuo had expected, and he especially asked the Shanhai Guards to check why his attitude changed so much. His reply made it seem like he was facing big trouble.

Being a vassal state was not an honorable thing. Unless one was forced to, Lords would not take this path. Even if he were an ally, there probably was a hidden reason.

The intel from the Shanhai Guards shocked Ouyang Shuo.

In the 5th month, during the time Ouyang Shuo was overseas, Handan City had pressed down on Stone City at Zhangwu Prefecture, and it seemed like they were going to start a war.

All of a sudden, the gunpowder smell at Zhangwu Prefecture was really strong.

At the same time, the Handan City Squadron patrolled the Binhai Bay region, locking up the Stone City trade route.

Stone City also had a lot of unrest, and it seemed like it was caused by Di Chen.

Hence, Stone City was not having a good time recently.

With Handan City as a neighbor, it was a huge headache for Wufu, and he could not get any peace.

Looking at the intel, Ouyang Shuo understood Wufu’s thoughts. He was a smart person. From his viewpoint, rather than asking for help time and time again, why not just join them?

It seemed like the pressure Di Chen gave Stone City had demoralized Wufu.

If that was the case, Ouyang Shuo really needed to thank Di Chen. Stone City was the north castle of the alliance. Ouyang Shuo had wanted to improve their relationship, but it was hard to do so without hurting Wufu’s pride.

The Xunlong Dianxue matter made Ouyang Shuo much more careful when he treated allies.

Now that Wufu had taken the initiative to discuss the matter, Ouyang Shuo naturally welcomed it. After all, they were allies. Although they had signed an agreement, Ouyang Shuo would still give him some face.

The contents of the agreement were still being written up and would be announced soon.

Before which, Ouyang Shuo needed to settle the matter of how to help Stone City build the Binhai Squadron.

…

6th month, 3rd day morning, Xia Imperial Palace Wuying palace.

Within the main hall, Grand Council members, Navy Admiral Zheng He, Navy Headquarters Advisor Lu Su, Yashan Squadron Fleet Admiral Yu Dayou, Chief General Cai Mao, Industrialization Director Chen Bingguang, the Shipbuilding Secretary, and other related personnel had all gathered for the meeting.

The topic of discussion was how to help Stone City build the Binhai Squadron.

Ouyang Shuo sat at the helm and said loudly, “Admiral Zheng, voice the Navy Headquarters’ proposal.”

“Yes my king!”

Zheng He stepped out to answer, “My king, the Navy Headquarters will send a group of elite navy generals, captains, advanced sailors, and other personnel from the Yashan Squadron to form a teaching squad. It will be led by Cai Mao to go to Stone City to help them.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Looking at Cai Mo, who was standing behind Yu Dayou, he said, “General Cai is good at teaching, it’s a good choice.”

Cai Mao was the first historical navy general of the territory. Of course, Zheng He chose Cai Mao so as to raise his position to control the Zhou Yu led Wu navy generals.

The East Wu navy generals were common over all five squadrons. As the admiral, even if Zhou Yu and the others did not have any other thoughts, he had to develop people that could go up against them.

When Cai Mao heard that, he stepped out and bowed, “I will try my best to do it well.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and looked toward Chen Bingguang, “Building the warships, cannons, handguns, and the like. How’s the preparation by the department?”

The coal transport ship matter had been settled, so Chen Bingguang was feeling really good, “Along with the Shu Mountain Steel Corporation getting on the right path, there will not be any problems with cannons and handguns. However, to gather a squadron amount of warships in a short amount of time is too hard.”

“Since the developmental success of the Z1 Type Warships, the shipyards have stopped building turreted warships and focused on building the Z1 Type Warships. Even the ASEAN orders have been rejected by the Shipbuilding Division. We only have 10 turreted warships left for the five squadrons to change.”

Ouyang Shuo said, “Since that’s the case, give them to Stone City as the training squadrons. During that time, if the five squadrons have a shortfall, use the chance to change into the Z1 Type Warship.”

“Yes my king.”

Chen Bingguang continued and said, “The Industrialization Department’s view is why not teach them how to fish instead of giving them the fish? Why not send them a group of advanced shipbuilders to build a large-sized shipyard there? Then it could meet the requirements of the Binhai Squadron and will not affect the building speed of the Z1 Type Warships. The only problem is that for just one shipyard to supply an entire squadron with warships, if would take half a year. Considering that the shipyard needs to be built, it would take even longer.”

“Half a year? That’s too long.”

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. If the entire squadron was formed up, the Binhai Squadron would need at least a year to get trained. Di Chen and the others would not give them such a long time.

Thinking of which, Ouyang Shuo looked at those seated, “Do you guys have any ideas?”

Seeing that, Lu Su stepped out and bowed, “My king, I think we can multitask. Apart from building a large=sized shipyard, our navy can quicken our elimination of turreted warships and pass them to the Binhai Squadron.”

Chapter 882 - Farrah's Revenge

Chapter 882: Farrah’s Revenge

Ouyang Shuo did not immediately approve Lu Su’s suggestion because he had other plans.

Ouyang Shuo planned to use the first batch of Z1 Type Warships as the structure to build a personal squadron. It would be temporarily called the Emperor Squadron and was similar to the Guards Legion Corps of the army.

Country wars would be very prevalent in the future, so Ouyang Shuo would need to go out to sea often. As such, he would need a squadron that was always on alert.

Hence, the Emperor Squadron would not need to reach the five squadron full organization. Currently, one squadron was enough. However, the Emperor Squadron needed a strong marine force to replace the Guards Legion. Ouyang Shuo could not bring the Guards Legion Corps every time he went out to sea as that was really inconvenient.

During the voyage last year, the voyage squadron would be the predecessor of the Emperor Squadron. Luckily, the Nanjiang Squadron had already left Beihai Bay, so the Emperor Squadron could camp there.

Listening to the king’s plan, Zheng He expressed his support, “The king is the ruler of the country. Amongst the navy, we do need such a squadron to protect the King’s safety.”

Building the Emperor Squadron could raise the navy’s position in the military. As the admiral, Zheng He was naturally glad, so he was first to express his opinion.

“I agree!”

The officials present all nodded their heads in agreement. After all, the Emperor Squadron would only have one division, so it was not a huge burden on the dynasty.

Since that was the case, why would the officials oppose? It was a fact that the king often went out to sea so having such a squadron was protecting the dynasty’s face.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Once again looking at Lu Su, “Of course, Zi Jing’s plan makes sense. In my opinion, let’s do it. The Emperor Squadron matter can be completed in the 10th month. The turreted warships can be passed over to the Binhai Squadron to form it up quickly.”

“Yes my king!”

Zheng He asked carefully, “Toward the choice of Fleet Admiral of the Emperor Squadron, does the king have any plans?”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, “Let the Navy Headquarters make a detailed organization plan, the squadron will be built by the headquarters. As for the choice of Fleet Admiral, let’s discuss that it in the future.”

Out of all the chief generals, there was none that Ouyang Shuo was especially delighted with.

“Yes my king!”

With the matter decided, the meeting was adjourned.

…

Not long after Ouyang Shuo returned to the Imperial Reading Room, the messenger from the Transmissions Division that was in charge of sending official documents hurried over.

“What’s with the panic?” Ouyang Shuo frowned.

The messenger held a letter in his hands, bowing, “My king, it’s an emergency letter from Friendship City mayor Gu Xiuwen; it’s an absolute emergency!”

“What?” Ouyang Shuo stood up.

Based on the system, unless it concerned a matter of life or death, officials could not send letters that were labeled as absolute emergency.

“Hand it over!”

“Yes my king!”

Ouyang Shuo took over the letter and opened it, and his face turned uglier and uglier. He did not expect for something to happen to Friendship City at such a time.

Chasing the root cause, one had to look back to the voyage last year.

In the 6th month, Ouyang Shuo had led the voyage squadron to Somalia and stopped in Berbera Port. That night, he had faced a carefully planned assassination.

Luckily, Ouyang Shuo managed to survive.

In Somalia, he led the voyage squadron and destroyed the three big pirate organizations there, exposing the identity of the guild leader, Farrah.

Using this contribution, Ouyang a Shuo obtained a reward from the Somalia King and was allowed to build Friendship City, giving the territory a foothold in the Gulf of Aden.

On the contrary, the loser of the battle, the traitor of Somalia, was forced to become the leader of the Sky Wolf Pirate Organization, hiding in the surrounding regions of the Gulf of Aden.

This hiding lasted for close to a year.

Who knew that under Farrah’s leadership, the Sky Wolf Pirate organization not only recovered, but they also swallowed the other two pirate organizations, becoming the biggest presence in the Gulf of Aden.

Moreover, Farrah was given the title of pirate king.

Ouyang Shuo did not expect that his mercy would actually come back to bite him.

Farrah naturally hated Ouyang Shuo to the core. Just this morning, the Sky Wolf Pirate Organisation had taken the chance that the 5th division of the Mediterranean Squadron was still in Jidian City to launch a sudden sneak attack on Friendship City.

With no defense, Courage Port instantly fell and many of the merchant ships were raided. Just as Gu Xiuwen sent the letter, 60 thousand pirates had killed their way into the city and were engaging in a massacre within it.

The capital of trade was in flames.

The Garrison Division of Friendship City was not enough and had already backed off into the inner city. They wanted to rely on the defenses to drag it out till reinforcements arrived.

Under such a situation, Gu xiuwen sent a letter of absolute emergency.

Weirdly, when the 5th division of the Mediterranean Squadron was in the Gulf of Aden, they never encountered the Sky Wolf Pirate Organization.

Pirates were the local snake. If they were determined to hide, no one could find them.

However, for them to not even leave a trace was just too unusual. Ouyang Shuo guessed that something was going on here, but this was not something he had time to consider now.

“Men!”

“Present!” Xu Chu walked over.

Ouyang Shuo’s face turned cold, but his heart was really calm. During these few years, what kind of situation had he not seen? He said, “Order the Boulder Legion 1st, 2nd, and 3rd divisions to gather at the teleportation formation, follow me to assist Friendship City.”

The Boulder Legion was the 1st legion of the Guards Legion Corps defending the Capital City, and it was a pure mountain barbarian heavy armored infantry legion.

“Yes my king!”

Fighting within the city was really suitable for the mountain barbarians.

Seeing that the Capital City had the 2nd and 3rd legion here, he could move the Boulder Legion. Furthermore, the Boulder Legion could not keep staying here and not fight wars as that would be a problem.

In less than half an hour, Ouyang Shuo, who was dressed in martial attire, rushed to the formation. Jia Xu, Tsing Yi, and the like did not follow as it was an emergency.

At the same time, the Divine Martial Guards and the three divisions of the Boulder Legion had arrived. They were led by deputy Legion General Shihu. His eyes were filled with killing intent. Not fighting for a long time had left a lot of pent up frustration in their hearts.

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo nodded his head in satisfaction. From how quickly they gathered, although the army was defending the city, the soldiers did not relax and were ready to fight at any moment.

“Let’s go!”

Ouyang Shuo did not say anything extra and led the way into the teleportation formation.

A white light shone across and Ouyang Shuo appeared in Friendship City. The moment he walked out, he heard the killing noises from not far away. There were also the sounds of people screaming for help. The pirates were not a proper army and did not mind harming civilians.

Ouyang Shuo raised his head and looked out, only to see smoke bellowing from the port. Needless to say, the pirates had set fires.

Killing, burning, raiding, and pillaging; they truly enacted every evil.

Farrah vented all his hatred toward Ouyang Shuo onto Friendship City.

Friendship City was in big trouble this time.

Near the teleportation formation, Gu Xiuwen had led the officials and were waiting. Seeing the king, he bowed, “Greetings my king. The city has been attacked, and the outer city has fallen. I am sorry, my king.”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, “Now is not the time to talk about this. Let’s chase back the pirates first.”

“Yes!” Seeing that, Gu Xiuwen stepped aside.

Another half an hour passed, and the 40 thousand boulder legion troops finally teleported over. In such a short while, the Garrison Division faced grave danger. Luckily, the pirates had not broken through.

Logically speaking, the Garrison Division was not weak. For them to be in such a state showed that Farrah did have some skill since he managed to train the pirates to such a level.

Ouyang Shuo did not panic, “Shihu, bring your men over and teach them a lesson. Show them what happens if you try to mess with the Great Xia Dynasty.”

Although the teleportation formation was opened in Friendship City, it was not open to the outside world. Farrah probably did not know that reinforcements had arrived.

If not, even with his courage, he would not dare to sneak attack Friendship City.

“Yes my king!”

Ouyang Shuo followed and instructed, “Remember, do not rush in brainlessly. Send men to block each city gate and kill them after that. I want them to all fall here.”

In front of the Boulder Legion, no matter how well trained the pirates were, they were still too lousy. Ouyang Shuo wanted to be vicious this time. He did not mind the outer city getting destroyed as long as he managed to kill all these pirates.

“Do not worry king. If one pirate manages to leave, I’ll answer for it.”

Shihu led his men and left.

Ouyang Shuo looked toward Xu Chu, “Bring the Divine Martial Guards and make your way to the port. See if you can take down Farrah, best alive.”

Based on what Gu Xiuqing said, Farrah was really crafty and had not entered the city till now.

“Understood!” Xu Chu grinned, leading the three thousand Divine Martial Guards away.

In front of the Boulder Legion, the pirates were simply lousy. However, in front of the Divine Martial Guards, they were nothing at all. Hence Xu Chu was confident about doing as he wished amongst the enemy.

Just like that, only 200 Personal Guards remained on the spot.

After giving the orders, Ouyang Shuo looked at Gu Xiuwen and suddenly smiled, “Let’s go, bring me to the city Lord’s Manor.”

Gu Xiuwen was feeling really guilty. Compared to the king, he was not calm at all, but he kept his feelings and said respectfully, “My king, please!”

Chapter 883 - Closing the Door and Hitting the Dog

Chapter 883: Closing the Door and Hitting the Dog

Just as Ouyang Shuo and his group reached Friendship City, within the Somalia Imperial City Mogadishu, a conversation was taking place between the king and his officials.

The Somalia King was playing with a bunch of agate in his hand, and his eyes expressed an unclear intent as he said, “The Sky Wolf Pirate Organization should be in Friendship City now, right?”

The military affairs officials laughed, “The news that just came in said that they have reached the outer city.”

“Is that so? Farrah actually has some ability.” After pausing for a while, the king suddenly asked, “Has the reinforcements of the Great Xia arrived?”

“There’s temporarily no news, but with their reaction speed, they would definitely arrive on time.”

The Somalia King nodded, and the smile on his face grew thicker and thicker.

When the military affairs official saw that, he let out a sinister smile, “The king is wise, not telling Farrah about the Friendship City teleportation formation. This time, no matter if Sky Wolf Pirate Organization manages to crush Friendship City or if it’s the other way around, it will be beneficial to us.”

‘Hahaha!’ the Somalia King laughed out loud.

…

Friendship City, City Lord’s Manor.

Ouyang Shuo causally strolled into the manor, taking charge of the backlines while the frontlines fought an intense battle.

Friendship City was located in a basin and surrounded by mountains on three sides, while the remaining side faced the ocean. Shi Bao led the 3rd division of the Boulder Legion out of the south gate, one east and one west up north.

Rushing all the way, the smoothly took down both gates in half an hour.

Shi Bao left half of his forces to defend both city gates while the rest of his forces continued up north toward the north gate. While they passed Courage Port, they were finally noticed by the pirates.

Farrah was really cunning and also cherished his life. Even though they had already attacked into the outer city, close to 10 thousand pirates were still at the port, and they were ready to retreat at any moment.

As for Farrah, he did not even get off the ship and was still waiting at the port.

Seeing Shi Bao’s forces, the pirates still thought it was the Garrison Division, and they mocked, “Look at these people. Are they so afraid that they are trying to board a ship and escape?”

“It must be. What a bunch of cowards.”

“Let’s go brothers. Do not let them escape. The boss said we will wash Friendship City with blood today.”

“Wash Friendship City with blood!”

The pirates cheered as they surrounded them; they truly knew no fear.

When Xu Chu who was traveling alongside Shi Bao saw that, he grinned, “General Shi, go lock down the north city gate. Leave these random fishes to us.”

“Okay!”

Shi Bao was really clear about the strength of the Divine Martial Guards, so he led his troops to leave.

Xu Chu waved his machete forward and shouted out, “Kill!”

“Kill!”

The three thousand Divine Martial Guards all whipped out their T1 Type Tang Blades and charged forward.

At this moment, the pirates finally noticed that something was not right, and they muttered, “That’s not right, are they here to commit suicide?”

“Who cares; let’s just kill them first!”

“That’s right; let’s kill them!”

“Kill!”

The successive victories had gotten to the heads of the pirates, and their heads had swelled so much that they did not even know their own names.

In a short while, both sides clashed.

Right as they came into contact, the pirates were filled with regret and knew that they were kicking a steel wall. Compared to the Garrison Division, the enemy in front of them was just too brutal. With a swing of their blades, a head would often roll.

In terms of killing, they were much more brutal than the pirates.

On the contrary, their counterattacks seem comical, and their attacks that looked fierce often could not even get close to the enemy.

What they did not know was that every Divine Martial Guards soldier had exceptional skills and nimble bodies.

In less than half an hour, the 10 thousand pirates were crushed by the three thousand Divine Martial Guards.

Some smart ones had sneaked back to the port and got ready to leave.

The pirates were feeling depressed. On the other hand, Xu Chu was hesitating. Ending the random fishes was not much for them. What Xu Chu wanted was the big fish, the pirate leader.

Looking out, the entire port was filled with pirates, but they just could not find someone who looked like their leader. Seeing that some pirates were about to leave, Xu Chu got anxious.

Xu Chu turned his machete. Knocking with the back of his blade, he subdued a pirate and nearly knocked him out. Using his huge left hand to grip his collar, he demanded, “Speak, where’s your leader?”

That pirate was pitiful. Facing a menace like Xu Chu, he felt giddy. Being terrified by his loud voice, he did not dare to hesitate and quickly said, “He’s still on the ship.”

“What!”

Xu Chu was furious. He pushed with his left hand, forcing the pirate to sit on the ground. How would he dare to stay? He rolled to his feet and ran away.

He did not dare to stay in such a place.

Xu Chu did not bother about the small fish. Looking out at the ocean surface, he only saw merchant ships in flames and smoke bellowing. It seemed like they could not be saved.

On the shore, there were many merchants. Looking at their blazing ships, they felt like crying but no tears rolled down.

The most eye-catching thing on the ocean was the pirate ships.

In the middle of the ships, there was a giant sailing boat that was the most eye-catching. It was probably the pirate flagship. Helplessly, the Divine Martial Guards did not know how to sail, and there was nothing he could do about it.

The depressed Xu Chu could only turn his anger to the pirates on the shore.

…

While Xu Chu was looking out at the ocean, Farrah also noticed what was happening on the shore.

Through the telescope, he saw what was happening, and it sent a chill down his spine. His uneasiness grew more and more intense. Looking at the dressing of the Divine Martial Guards, his heart totally turned cold.

A year ago in Somalia, Farrah had seen the Divine Martial Guards, so he recognized them right away. For the Great Xia Dynasty’s Divine Martial Guards to appear here, the meaning was really obvious.

“**, we’ve been played.” Farrah was furious.

The Sky Wolf Pirate Organization was naturally the local snake in the water. However, on shore, it was different. With the cover of Friendship City, Farrah had no way to find out about the teleportation formation.

One small slipup would result in total defeat.

Farrah was a decisive person. He knew that he could not stay here; he had to leave. But thinking back to the hardships of the past year and the things he accumulated that were lost in a day, his heart bled.

“Friendship City, I will be back.”

Both of Farrah’s eyes were red as he gritted his teeth and ordered the pirates to leave. As for the matter with the Somalia royal family, he would deal with it after he escaped.

Xu Chu, who was on the shore, was focusing on what was happening on the ocean. Seeing the pirate flagship start sailing, he knew that he probably could not complete the king’s mission.

The pirates on shore were not stupid. Seeing their boss want to escape, they all wished they had four legs as they all ran faster than rabbits.

Unfortunately, they were not as lucky as Farrah.

With their leader escaping, the biggest contribution was gone. Xu Chu naturally needed to make up for it. If he let these small ones leave, he would not be called Xu Chu.

“Where are you going!”

Xu Chu led his men and charged to the side of the docks, turning around, “Anyone who dares to take a step will be killed!”

“Kill!”

Along with Xu Chu, the Divine Martial Guards spread out. Their killing aura was evident.

When the pirates saw that, their faces turned ashen white, and they knew that they had no way out. In truth, they were already terrified by the Divine Martial Guards. They exchanged glances and all surrendered.

“Spare us! Spare us!”

Speaking of which, pirates had no morals. As long as they could live, they would do anything.

“Hen!”

Although Xu Chu was disgusted, he was not going to kill a group of surrendered people. He ordered the Divine Martial Guards to round up the remaining five thousand.

When the merchants on the port saw the fierce pirates leave, all of them came out of hiding to thank the Divine Martial Guards.

Xu Chu could not accept it, “Do not thank us. Go see if the ships can be saved.”

“Yes general!”

The hearts of the merchants were feeling pained. After thanking them, they summoned their sailors to try to save the ships.

As the capital of trade, Friendship City was also one of the important points on the voyage trade route, and there were hundreds of merchant ships that would come to Courage Port.

This time, the merchants had suffered heavy losses because of the pirates. Apart from accepting it, the merchants could not find anyone to compensate them and could only blame their own luck.

…

By the time Xu Chu dealt with the pirates, Shi Bao and his troops had already locked up the north city gate.

With that, the four gates were locked up, and the pirates inside had no way out.

Shi Bao ordered, “Send the signal!”

“Yes general!”

‘Xiu!’ A red signal bullet rose up into the air.

When Shihu in the city saw that, he waved his message flag, “Push forward!”

“Kill!”

The 1st and 2nd divisions of the Boulder Legion were like beasts released from a cage as they fearlessly killed their way to the frontlines. All of the sudden, the pirates were caught off guard.

Under the charge of the Heavy Armored Mountain Barbarian Infantry Division, the pirates were forced back.

“What’s the situation? Where did the reinforcements come from?” The second leader in charge of the Sky Wolf Pirate Organization frowned and ordered, “Quickly inform the leader, the frontline situation has changed!”

“Yes!”

In less than 20 minutes, the pirate in charge of sending the message returned.

The second leader was furious, “Why are you back so fast?”

The messenger pirate stammered, “Sec- Second leader, it’s no good, the city gate is blocked.”

“What?”

The second leader felt his heart sink.

Chapter 884 - Opening up a New Trade Route

Chapter 884: Opening up a New Trade Route

The 60 thousand pirates that had made their way into Friendship City could not even last past the afternoon before they all surrendered.

During this battle, close to 30 thousand pirates were buried within the city. After the battle, the entire outer city was in tatters, corpses were strewn all over, and a thick blood stench spread through the streets and alleys. Even with the ocean breeze blowing, the smell still lingered.

Friendship City Mayor Gu Xiuwen took responsibility of clearing the city and calming down the people. He organized the extinguishing of the fires and calculated personnel and financial loss. Everything was done in an orderly manner.

The uneasy peoples’ sentiment had slowly calmed down.

In the manor, Ouyang Shuo was not happy despite the victory. First, they had only crushed pirates in the battle, and it was not something to be proud of. Secondly, Farrah had escaped once more. Thirdly, there was a huge scheme behind all of this; it was like a hand was controlling everything.

It was not a coincidence that Friendship City was attacked.

Although they forced back the pirates, this was a huge hit to the reputation of the capital of trade and the voyage trade route.

Along with the news spreading out, such negativity would spread around, and it would be hard to remove in a short while.

Think about it. If a territory could be attacked by pirates at any moment, would anyone dare to get their resources here? Facing such a chaotic trade route, how many merchants would dare to use it?

The answer was obvious.

The target of this sneak attack was obviously the trading roots of the Great Xia Dynasty.

That afternoon, Black Snake teleported over from Rabat and arrived at Friendship City. The order from Ouyang Shuo was simple, “Investigate who else participated in this.”

Based on his intuition, Ouyang Shuo felt that Somalia had someone helping Farrah.

“Yes my king!”

Black Snake did not dare to take this matter lightly, and he immediately gathered all his resources. He started with interrogating the pirates to try to find out who was the person behind this attack.

The second leader naturally became the heavy focus.

Only Ouyang Shuo knew that Farrah was the key person in the pirate organization, their spirit.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo ordered the Atlantic Squadron to arrange their 4th and 5th divisions to rush back to the Gulf of Aden to capture Farrah.

Only by taking down Farrah and totally wiping out the Sky Wolf Pirate Organization could he save the lost reputation of Friendship City and protect the prosperity of the trade route.

This time, Ouyang Shuo would not let him go.

Within the City Lord’s Manor, just as Ouyang Shuo was thinking about the Gulf of Aden matters, Xu Chu reported, “My king, the Major General of the Garrison Division would like to meet you.”

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, his brows jumped, and he said angrily, “He still has the face to see me? Send my orders, there’s no need to. Capture him and let the Military Law Division deal with him.”

During this battle, the Garrison Division had the geographical advantage and a city to defend. However, facing the attacks of 60 thousand pirates, they lost the outer city in just three hours.

Although the pirates were strong, the Garrison Division was too relaxed daily and the commanding was poor. If it were another Garrison Division, this would not have happened.

Under such circumstances, how could Ouyang Shuo not be furious?

“Yes my king!”

Xu Chu had rarely seen the king so furious, so he did not dare say more. He only felt empathy for the Major General. It was good if he did not come to greet the king. In such a case, the king might have given him chance. However, he had sent himself over, so no one could help him.

Due to the poor performance of the Friendship City Garrison Division, Ouyang Shuo thought about the other Garrison Divisions.

‘It seems like the Privy Court needs to have a huge test for all the Garrison Divisions.’ Ouyang Shuo thought to himself. Poor military standards were the biggest worry of a dynasty.

…

That night, Ouyang Shuo personally held a feast in the manor to welcome the merchants in Friendship City.

Being invited by the Xia King was a great fortune for the merchants.

Ouyang Shuo naturally did this to calm down the merchants. He wanted to try and lower the impact of the attacks on Friendship City trade. Originally, Gu Xiuwen could have done it, but there was a difference between him and Ouyang Shuo coming out.

In the huge banquet hall, Ouyang Shuo raised his cup, and the entire hall instantly quietened down. Ouyang Shuo looked around at the merchants, “The Imperial Court will not let this matter rest. The Atlantic Squadron has already set off and will reach the Gulf of Aden soon to destroy the pirates.”

“Xia King is wise!”

The merchants rejoiced. They often traveled through the Mediterranean, so they had learned of the name of the Atlantic Squadron. With this squadron, the Sky Wolf Pirate Organization would definitely fall.

Their unsettled hearts slowly calmed down.

Ouyang Shuo continued, “The Imperial Court has a responsibility to protect our land. Only because you trust us do you come over to dock. The losses cause by the pirates, we will pay for it all. Tomorrow, you can go to the Lord’s Manor to record your losses.”

“This….”

The merchants all exchanged glances. They did not expect that there would be such a good matter. Normally, even if the dynasty did not compensate them, the merchants would have nothing to say. Such a full compensation was pretty much unheard of.

“Thank you Xia King for your kindness!” The merchants were touched to tears. Although the voyage trading had huge profits, for one trip to be stolen, they would have lost all their assets.

The Imperial Court’s actions had saved the futures of many of them.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. He would rather spend some money to buy back their faith in him.

With such good news, the banquet was naturally a happy affair.

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

Ouyang Shuo bought their hearts, but he did not expect for bad news to spread again the next day.

The 4th and 5th divisions passing through the Mediterranean were faced with protests from the Mediterranean Lords, and it even affected the ongoing negotiations.

In their words, ‘Since the king has promised not to step into the Mediterranean, he should keep his promise. The Atlantic Squadron’s actions are undoubtedly a breaking of the agreement.”

“We doubt the Great Xia Dynasty’s sincerity.”

Helplessly, Zi Luolan could only seek help from Ouyang Shuo on how to deal with this matter.

When Ouyang Shuo got the news, he kept silent for a long while; this time, it was really his bad luck.

‘Only, isn’t the timing too much of a coincidence?’ Ouyang Shuo doubted whether the negotiation and the attack were related. It was not easy for Ouyang Shuo to come to a conclusion now.

Last night, Ouyang Shuo even promised the merchants that he would send the Atlantic Squadron over to wipe out the pirates. If he failed to keep the promise, it would be a huge slap to his face.

Facing such a situation, Ouyang Shuo turned his eyes to the southern point of the African continent. There was a place there known as the Cape of Good Hope.

Before the Suez Canal was opened up, Ouyang Shuo’s Asian trade route could only go from West Europe to West Africa, and then go south to the Cape of Good Hope toward Asia. The Cape of Good Hope became the only ocean trade route for Europeans toward the east.

After the Suez Canal was opened, although it affected this route, it was still an important trade route between Asia and Europe. Some huge ships could not pass the Suez Canal and had to take this path.

Speaking of the Cape of Good Hope, one had to mention the famous crusader’s eastern expedition.

During 1000 AD, Europe had started to change, and the Roman Catholics chased the Protestants out of the Middle East. The crusade started in 1096 and lasted for a total of 200 years.

The appearance of the European Army in the Middle East started the development of ocean trading.

Venice and other Italian merchants used this path to transport war resources and got rich from the war. At the same time, the crusader army returned to Europe with many of the middle-eastern products, which became hot commodities in Europe.

The trading gave rise to many rich European merchants.

The European nations continued to grow stronger and stronger. They set up their military and government, relying on trade tax alone to maintain the running of the two.

In the 15th century, the European countries were ready to explore the outside world.

The Portuguese were the first to act. In 1400, they wanted to control the spice trade with the east. They wanted to go past Venice and Arab to trade directly with the east.

If they could directly go toward Asia to buy these products, they would be able to greatly increase their profits.

The Portuguese explorers went to the west coast of the Africa continent and found a way from India to Asia. They came to the southwest point of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope.

Compared to the Suez Canal, this was not an ideal trading route.

This was because the Cape of Good Hope was located where the Indian Ocean warm current and the Antarctica cold weather met. The strong winds made massive waves. Apart from storms, there were also killer waves.

The fronts of these waves were like cliffs, while the backs were like gradual hills. In the winter season, there were also rotating waves. These two added together made the ocean situation really bad. There were also really strong shoreline currents. As such, when the waves and the currents met, it gave rise to a chaotic situation.

Hence, the Cape of Good Hope became one of the most dangerous ocean trade routes.

Ouyang Shuo planned for the Atlantic Squadron to go to the Cape of Good Hope and open up this route to reach Somalia because he had no other choice.

Destroying the Sky Wolf Pirate Organization concerned the reputation of the Great Xia Dynasty.

As the king of the Xia Dynasty, since he made a promise, he needed to keep it. If not, he would lose credit and losing credit was like losing control over your people.

Chapter 885 - Land Sea Air Army Formation

Chapter 885: Land Sea Air Army Formation

Ouyang Shuo’s choice to open up the Cape of Good Hope trading route now also had strength and interest considerations.

First, the seafaring specialty given by Mazu meant that the effect of the storms there would be really weak on the Great Xia Merchant ships. Moreover, it was summer now, so the ocean waves were much weaker.

Secondly, Ouyang Shuo wanted to use the Atlantic Squadron to open up a new trade route for the dynasty; this would ensure that if the Mediterranean messed up, they would have other choices.

Thirdly, Africa was hiding numerous riches, so it was worth taking the risk.

In history, from 1415, the Spanish had occupied Ceuta, and the European countries started their strong colonization of the African counties. It reached its peak in the 19th to 20th century with over 95% of Africa being split up while their resources were pillaged.

Colonizing Africa was not done for fun. Naturally, there were interest matters existing.

First, the vast African Continent could provide many agricultural zones and was the best spot for raw materials. Secondly, Africa had huge amounts of ores and was like an invisible storage.

South Africa, Zimbabwe, and other countries had many gold mines, Congo had diamonds, the magical Maldives, and the like were all worth exploring.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo did not support the way the Europeans colonized Africa. He wanted to use a more friendly method to work with them to achieve a win-win situation.

It was mentioned that the history between Egypt and some of the Mediterranean nations was not that deep, and they did not have the advanced western technology tree. However, they had a large population, so it was hard for them to advance in the game.

Their only joy was to fight between countries and races.

As such, the Great Xia Dynasty could lend them advanced agriculture technologies to borrow their labor and natural resources, creating a win-win situation.

If that really happened, it would become a huge project and could not be completed in a short while. During that time, he would probably have to compete with the European and American Lords.

The European and American Lord’s in the game would definitely not let go of Africa.

If Somalia’s Friendship City was the dynasty’s first step to entering the African continent, Morocco was an important step to influencing it. How to expand the Cape of Good Hope trade route was the key step to working with Africa.

Thinking about that, Ouyang Shuo immediately ordered Fleet Admiral Alvaro to personally lead the 4th and 5th division to go toward the Cape of Good Hope.

This trip was dangerous, so Ouyang Shuo could only be at ease with an experience navy general like Alvaro at the lead.

Ouyang Shuo really wanted to know how the Mediterranean Lords would feel after they learned that the Great Xia Dynasty had opened up a new trade route.

At that time, the only chip in their hands would cease to exist.

…

6th month, 5th day, Friendship City.

On this day, Military Affairs Minister and Grand Council Member Du Ruhui rushed over to Friendship City to report his intentions about the 290 thousand surrendered soldiers in Morocco.

The surrendered troops included 120 thousand surrendered soldiers and 170 thousand surrendered Guards Soldiers.

The Privy Court said that 10 thousand were not suitable to serve. As such, 280 thousand of them could be organized, which was enough for a full four legions.

They would first create the four Morocco Province Garrison Divisions, using up 54 thousand troops. For this, they mainly used the top troops from the territories.

Next would be the war fighting army housed in the province.

The reorganization plan given by the Privy Court lit up Ouyang Shuo’s eyes.

In the Lord’s Manor reading room, Du Ruhui reported, “The Privy Court suggests we create an independent Moroccan Legion to be in charge of defensive duties.”

The dynasty legion corps titles were set and Ouyang Shuo had done the planning before.

Apart from the current ones, there would be the Bear Legion Corps, Eagle Legion Corps and Palace Guards Legion Corps in the future.

Based on the standards that Ouyang Shuo set, without a new God General, these three new legion corps titles would not be used. Hence, the Privy Court was thinking of building independent legions outside of the legion corps system.

Du Ruhui continued, “The Moroccan legion will have four Infantry Divisions, one Cavalry Division, one subordinate regiment, one subordinate firearm squadron, one Flying Squad, one marine force, and one navy division; land, sea, and air altogether, a total of 100 thousand troops.”

Di Ruhui had spent much effort on such an organization.

If Morocco Province followed the other provinces and housed a legion corps, the army would be too huge and would drag the province down. However, if they only housed a normal War Fighting Legion, they would lack combat strength.

Equipping a firearm squadron was to go up against the western musketeers. Secondly, it was also because the dynasty industrialization had progressed, and they had the ability to produce enough handguns.

As for the Flying Squad, it had benefited from the territory industrialization.

Since he obtained the Mimicry Flying Device Crafting Technology from Atlantis, it had been researched by the No.7 Research Institute. The building base for the devices had already been planned for Steel City.

Wth such a land, sea, and air legion taking charge, Morocco would be totally safe.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head with glee and said, “I largely agree with the Privy Court’s suggestion. There is only one point. As the organization is different, we can call it the Morocco Formation. In the military system, it will be between legion and a legion corps and will mainly be used for overseas forces.”

“The king is wise.” Du Ruhui was impressed.

“Toward the organization of the Morocco Formation, we do not need to rush it. With the Atlantic Squadron taking charge of the surrounding region, we can give the Morocco Formation navy division the Z1 Type Warships to prevent wastage of resources. The Privy Court and Navy Headquarters must discuss this matter well.”

“Do not worry my king!”

Du Ruhui being appointed in both the Privy Court and the Grand Council was like building a bridge, helping the coordination of various military organizations.

After handling the matter, Ouyang Shuo asked, “Do you have someone to recommend for the Lieutenant General?”

Du Ruhui bowed, “I think the king should make this decision.”

Ouyang Shuo thought about it, “Then let’s give the position to Shi Dakai!”

As the top general of the Taiping Army, Shi Dakai was familiar with firearms. Moreover, he had experience in both army and navy warfare.

To arrange such a person to take charge of the Morocco Formation was really suitable.

The formation position was higher than that of a legion. Shi Dakai being promoted not long after becoming a Legion General showed how much Ouyang Shuo liked him. Along with the uniqueness of an overseas formation, one would not be appointed unless Ouyang Shuo really trusted the person.

“The empty spot for 5th legion Legion General of the Tiger Legion will go to Xiao Chaogui. Announce Ma Yuan to be a Major General of the Morocco Formation.”

“Yes my king!”

Du Ruhui nodded solemnly; he was impressed and awed by the way the king used people.

Apart from the four Garrison Divisions and the Morocco Formation, there were still 126 thousand soldiers that needed to be organized. Based on the plan from the Privy Court, they would form a Guards Legion.

Of the three Guards Legions in the current Guards Legion Corps, the 1st legion sat in the Capital City, while the 2nd and 3rd legions were cavalry. They lacked an infantry legion to swap and take turns with the 1st legion.

The events of Friendship City made Ouyang Shuo change his mind.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Du Ruhui, “Follow the Morocco Formation standards to build the Somalia Formation to house in Friendship City.”

When Du Ruhui heard that, his heart shook. He felt that the king was building this formation not to defend the city but instead to teach a lesson to the crafty Somalia King.

As this was just a guess, he could not say it out loud.

Ouyang Shuo continued, “Move Di Qing from the Tiger Legion 2nd legion over to be the Lieutenant General. Fan Lihua from the 3rd legion will replace him. Hong Ying, who was the 3rd legion 3rd division Major General, will follow Fan Lihua over and become the Major General of the 1st division of the 2nd legion.”

Only Shi Wanshui, Di Qing, and Zhang Han, these three Emperor Rank generals, could become Lieutenant Generals. For the king to choose Di Qing and not Shi Wanshui, who he trusted the most, shocked Du Ruhui.

How would he know that Ouyang Shuo had other plans for this loyal general?

After Di Qing left, Fan Lihua would be the strongest general under Sun Bin.

Ouyang Shuo also used the chance to promote Hong Ying by half a rank.

Ouyang Shuo continued to reorganize, “Zhao She, who was the Major General of the 2nd legion 1st division, will be promoted to 3rd legion Legion General.”

Speaking of which, it was time for Zhao She to show his skills.

Du Ruhui nodded, recording down everything one by one.

The new round of military organization caused by the Battle of Morocco, although it did not affect the three legion corps, it affected the gates and appointments of the generals within.

Chapter 886 - Rogue Nation

Chapter 886: Rogue Nation

After creating the Somalia Formation, 26 thousand surrendered soldiers remained, which was just enough to build two divisions. To the Great Xia Dynasty, this did not matter.

Luckily, Ouyang Shuo had plans and said, “Hand over the remaining 26 thousand to Atlantis.”

During the Battle of Morocco, Kalia had helped him a lot. Along with the series of things before, Ouyang Shuo owed her a lot. He had said before that he had wanted to send Atlantis a big gift.

The 26 thousand surrendered soldiers were just a part of the gift. Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo was going to choose 50 thousand people from Rabat to migrate over.

In the future, Morocco would send grain, vegetables, meat, and the like to Atlantis, becoming their strong shield.

The Great Xia Dynasty’s support for Atlantis City was all rounded.

It was not much to the dynasty, but it was something that Atlantis, which was in the middle of the ocean, sorely needed.

Du Ruhui did not object. With such a righteous and brotherly king, what more could he ask for?

…

After settling on the reorganization plan, the new round of military reorganization ended.

At the same time, the cabinets’ work on Morocco Province was coming to an end. After Ouyang Shuo received the letter, he teleported to Rabat.

Before the Somalia Formation arrived in Friendship City, Shihu would personally lead the defenses.

In Rabat City, the provincial office had been built. Mulan Yue, the first Provincial Governor of the dynasty, was officially appointed.

With the help of the Cabinet, the Provincial Governor Office was settled and work had begun. The first matter to deal with the IOUs handed out by Ouyang Shuo.

The first thing Mulan Yue said to him was, “King Brother, you have sabotaged me!”

Ouyang Shuo avoided it and did not answer. Instead, he looked at Kou Zhun, “Old Kou, introduce the progress of Morocco.”

Kou Zhun bowed and started to report.

The cabinet took 200 officials from the Imperial Court and the four provinces to build the Provincial Governor office, the four Governor Offices, as well as the county office below.

Apart from that, the Cabinet also conducted investigations on the current officials in Morocco. Along with the help of the Black Snake Guards, they removed those who had an obvious hate toward the dynasty.

In terms of appointments, the Official Ruling Department would decide.

The actions above were really normal and were the same as when they took down the other provinces. However, Morocco was special due to the racial and cultural differences.

The Cabinet wanted to respect the Arab culture while also pushing for Chinese civilization to take root. They wanted the culture of Morocco to absorb the essence of the new culture and gain renewed vitality.

The specific plans included pushing out basic education, including both Chinese and Arabic languages teachings at the same time.

They aimed to allow the local officials to study at Xinan University and accept the system and culture of the dynasty within a year.

At the same time, regarding some cities and towns with strong Arabic culture, the Provincial Governor Yamen allowed the people to follow the mountain barbarian method to build self-ruling towns and villages.

Especially in the east and south mountainous regions, where there was little population and terrible conditions. Small tribes gathered across the vast mountains, so self-rule was the main ruling method of those regions.

There were also many other small plans. However, they would not be described deeply here.

The prerequisite for the above plans were that the people’s sentiment was good. If not, they would not be released.

For this, the Provincial Governor Office, in terms of pushing out the dynasty welfare system, would not charge agricultural tax for a year and would reduce business taxes by half.

As for the civilians and soldiers harmed in the war, their relatives would obtain compensation.

Apart from building the various levels of offices, the Cabinet had another important mission, which was to help the Morocco Provincial Governor Yamen with its overall development.

This development included administrative zoning, industry support plans, basic facilities building, ports, large=scale project planning, public livelihood planning, and cultural assimilation.

With the talent pool of the dynasty today, it had the ability to make such detailed development plans.

In the plan, the Ceuta City planning that Ouyang Shuo discussed was naturally written in it. Apart from that, Jidian City was also zoned into the jurisdiction of Morocco Province.

In the future half a year, Morocco Province would build three military harbors in Tangier, Rabat, and Agadier to act as the navy bases of the Atlantic Squadron.

Due to the promise to the Mediterranean, the headquarters of the Atlantic Squadron was moved to Agadier from Jidian City.

Based on the plan, there would be compensation and large-scale construction involved. Overall, it was a huge burden on the Provincial Governor Office. For this, the Provincial Governor Office was ready to apply for a one million gold loan from the Four Seas Bank.

After listening to Kou Zhun and Mulan Yue’s report, Ouyang Shuo was in awe.

After establishing the country, a full system was slowly built up. Hence, the arrangement for Morocco Province was one that Ouyang Shuo did not need to worry about.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Thank you for your hard work; let’s stick to your plan.”

“Thank you my king!”

Kou Zhun bowed, heaving a sigh of relief. Planning for Morocco Province was Kou Zhun’s first important task since becoming the Cabinet Deputy.

To handle the matter well, Kou Zhun had spent many days sleeping less than five hours. He worked from morning till night, running around the four prefectures of Morocco.

Luckily, his hard work paid off, and the king’s approval of the proposal was the biggest recognition.

…

In the next few days, Ouyang Shuo started his tour of Morocco Province under the accompaniment of Mulan Yue to calm down the people and meet the local officials.

He also took the time to go to the barracks to see the surrendered soldiers.

Now, Ouyang Shuo no longer needed to worry about a situation where the soldiers only knew their commander but not their king if he did not personally participate in the military organization.

That was because under the Privy Court system, every army needed to undergo loyalty and patriotism education to spread Ouyang Shuo’s prestige to the entire army.

At the same time, the Privy Court worked together with the Grand Council, coming up with a series of plans to prevent the abuse of military power.

The future dynasty army would only become more professional.

…

Just as Ouyang Shuo was touring Morocco, there was news regarding Mohammed the 6th. However, this news was not good for the dynasty.

6th month, 10th day, Mohammed the 6th, under the protection of Guards commander Ismail, suddenly appeared in the imperial city Algiers in the neighboring country of Algeria.

That afternoon, Algeria openly announced that from this moment onward, the Moroccan imperial family would be under their protection. Anyone who tried to assassinate Mohammed the 6th would be provoking the Algeria Dynasty.

There was a strong attitude within these words.

At the same time, Mohammed the 6th announced that Algeria would build a rogue nation. In the announcement, Mohammed the 6th told the Moroccan people to act and revolt.

Along with the country establishment announcement of Mohammed the 6th, the Algeria imperial family instantly gave a huge piece of land in the core region of the imperial city to Mohammed the 6th. He could use this land to build the central pillar of the rogue nation.

On this land, the Moroccan rogue nation would have autonomy and power. It was like an embassy in real life.

The moment the news went out, it caused a huge uproar in the Mediterranean and Africa.

The African Lords, who had prepared gifts to send to Morocco to test the attitude of the Great Xia King toward Africa, canceled their trips when they received the news.

Some of the envoys that were on their way were even recalled.

Mohammed the 6th country establishment proclamation had changed the playing field. Hence, many smart Lords decided to wait and see.

The discussions between the Great Xia Dynasty and the Mediterranean Lords were also affected because of this. Zi Luolan reported that discussions became difficult.

Speaking of which, one had to introduce Algeria.

Algeria was a country in the north of Africa. It had the biggest size in Africa, the Mediterranean, and Arab. It was 10th in the world with a 3.5 million population.

In terms of geography, its north was near the Mediterranean Ocean, its east neighbored Libya, its southeast and south regions were connected to Niger, Mali, and Mauritania, while its west was connected to Morocco.

In reality, Algeria’s economic scale was 4th in Africa, only behind South Africa, Egypt, and Nigeria. Oil and natural gases were its pillars, and in terms of natural gas storage, it was 5th in the world and 14th for oil.

Hence, be it in Africa or in the Mediterranean Ocean, Algeria was a hugely important country.

Hence, when the Algeria King came out to protect Mohammed the 6th, the Mediterranean Lords and the African Lords knew that the Xia King could not do anything about it.

Chapter 887 - Quiet Town

Chapter 887: Quiet Town

6th month, 12th day, Morocco Province Rabat City.

Mohammed the 6th’s appearance in Algeria and the news of him building a rogue nation made Ouyang Shuo hurriedly end his tour of Morocco and return to Rabat.

Provincial Governor Office.

Along with Ouyang Shuo, Provincial Governor Mulan Yue returned. She would hold the first meeting since she became Provincial Governor. The four Governors and the four directors of the Provincial Governor Office bureaus were all present.

Ouyang Shuo listened in, giving everyone present a lot of pressure.

On the way back, Ouyang Shuo already had a detailed discussion with Mulan Yue about how to reduce the influence of Mohammed the 6th’s rogue nation building to ensure the order of Morocco Province.

In this meeting, Mulan Yue handed out orders.

“Each office must increase their patrol, and the moment they find people spreading rumors, instantly catch them. We must also pay attention to their words. Try to lead their thoughts and let them realize that life under us is better.”

“The various migration projects must quicken their pace to try to complete the preparation work before the migrants arrive. This is one of our evaluation targets for the end of the year. If you do well, you will be rewarded; if you do not, then get ready to be replaced.”

When the officials heard that, they all replied in unison, “Yes Provincial Governor!”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Mulan Yue might look young, but she had the ability to be stable in important situations.

With a little more training, she would be a great helper for Ouyang Shuo.

…

After the meeting, Ouyang Shuo summoned Black Snake, who hurried over.

Seeing the king, Black Snake directly sought forgiveness, “The Black Snake Guards have not done our job. I’m sorry my king!”

Ouyang Shuo waved him off, “This matter is not your fault.”

The intel network that the Black Snake Guards had built up overseas was still really weak and did not have much foundation in the east mountain regions of Morocco and Algeria. Hence, it was normal that they were unable to find Mohammed the 6th.

Furthermore, for Mohammed the 6th to reach Algeria so quickly, they must have definitely gone through official relays.

This meant that right after Mohammed the 6th passed through the border, the Algeria King had been helping him out.

Algeria was also one of the important members of the Mediterranean countries, so Ouyang Shuo had his doubts. He wondered if this series of matters, including the attack on Friendship City, involved the Mediterranean Lords.

Even to say that Silver Hand might have something to do about it. Without the Silver Hand coordinating everything, they definitely would not have been able to formulate such a plan.

The goal was simple. First, mess up the Great Xia Dynasty’s strategy to affect their relationship with the Mediterranean Lords and the African Lords. Secondly, increase their chips in the negotiations with the dynasty.

Such a huge negotiation; naturally, it was one where whoever had more chips would win.

A further consideration would be the interest conflicts of both sides in terms of colonizing Africa. If the Great Xia Dynasty gained a foothold in Africa, it would be bad for the European and American members of Silver Hand.

Silver Hand had never given up their attempts to restrict and suppress the Great Xia Dynasty.

“Our enemy is hard to deal with!” Ouyang Shuo exclaimed.

When Black Snake heard that, he nodded his head solemnly. Only when he went overseas did Black Snake feel the difficulty of intel work.

Many times, the problems and obstacles they faced were not things that money could solve.

Especially out of Asia, the racial differences made it hard for the Black Snake Guards to operate. For them to develop to such a scale was already a result of Black Snake’s intelligence and capabilities as a leader.

Since he had a feeling that Silver Hand was behind all this, Ouyang Shuo was really careful toward Algeria. If he started war with Algeria now, he would be falling for Silver Hand’s trap.

In such a scenario, not only would the Mediterranean negotiations stop, the African Lords would be wary and hate the dynasty. Then they would not be able to have any cooperation.

Taking a step back, Algeria was not as weak was Morocco. The moment a country war started, if the African and Mediterranean Lords came over, it would drag the Great Xia Dynasty into the mud.

If not, why would the Algeria royal family dare to make such a proclamation?

Killing intent flashed in Black Snake’s eyes, “My king, I’ll send someone to kill Mohammed the 6th.”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, “He naturally has to die, but this matter does not need to be rushed. We have to be patient. He is being so high profile, so maybe he has set a trap and is waiting for us to take the bait.”

“…” Black Snake kept silent.

Ouyang Shuo said, “Didn’t he bring a group of guards with him when he left? Let’s work on their families living in Rabat. Patiently plan and cast the line for the big fish. Morocco Province is fine, and we still have a lot of time. The Black Snake Guards also need to work with the various offices to clean out the province. With Mohammed the 6th coming out, those hidden rats will be really happy.”

“I understand!”

Black Snake nodded. Currently, he was emitting a killing aura. It seemed like a bloody storm was going to sweep past Morocco Province.

Ouyang Shuo rubbed his forehead and rested on his chair, “Go and make plans. Inform the boys not to worry and that I have faith in them.”

“Thank you king for your trust!”

Black Snake cupped his fists; his eyes were filled with emotion.

Mohammed the 6th appearing in Algeria gave the Black Snake Guards spies in charge of following him a lot of pressure. With the king’s words, they would feel much more relaxed.

In the big reading room, Ouyang Shuo laid on the chair, closing his eyes and contemplating. He was really exhausted. Recently, there was incident after incident, stressing him out.

After a long while, Ouyang Shuo opened his eyes and muttered, “This is getting more and more interesting.”

Although he was tired, the fight still had to go on.

Ouyang Shuo regained his fighting spirit. He raised his brush and wrote a letter to Zi Luolan to tell her that the negotiation had to go on. If this negotiation ended halfway, it would be as Silver Hand wanted.

In the letter, he reminded her to calm the members of the negotiation squad and bear the pressure. At the same time, he asked Kalia for help to keep the negotiation going.

Amongst the Mediterranean Lords, a large portion of them were not willing to destroy the relationship. As long as one used their brains and made use of diplomacy, Ouyang Shuo believed that the situation could be solved.

The key was not to panic.

In dealing with such problems, Chinese wisdom often was a good solution.

“If the negotiation succeeds, the credit goes to all of you, and I will heavily reward you with titles.” At the end of the letter, Ouyang Shuo wrote that.

The biggest reward in the dynasty was a title.

With such a huge reward, the negotiation team members would definitely give it their all.

…

The next morning, Ouyang Shuo packed up and was ready to return to Shanhai City.

Morocco had Mulan Yue and Shi Dakai in charge, so Ouyang Shuo did not worry. If he continued to remain in Rabat, it would instead make others worry and give allies doubts.

If Ouyang Shuo left just like this, those people focusing on the situation would not dare move lightly.

Before leaving, Ouyang Shuo gave Mulan Yue the words, ‘calm and silence.’ From today onward, Ouyang Shuo’s calligraphy had some skill, and he could write the sharpness of a king into his words.

Ouyang Shuo gave her these words not only to remind her about how to deal with Mohammed the 6th but also to remind her about the path of an official.

As an official, one needed to be calm.

When Mulan Yue received the copybook, she smiled, “I’ll hang this up in my reading room.”

Ouyang Shuo pointed at his heart and smiled, “Hanging it up is useless, you need to remember it in your heart.”

“Thank you king brother for your teachings.”

Mulan Yue bowed. She would obviously remember her brother’s teachings and care in her heart.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and walked into the teleportation formation.

…

At 10 AM, Ouyang Shuo returned to the Xia Palace.

News of Mohammed the 6th building a rogue nation only caused waves in the Mediterranean and Africa. There was no reaction in China, and it was still really calm.

Just as he sat down in the reading room, Ouyang Shuo said to Tsing Yi, “Let Pei Mo and Meng Zhida come over.”

“Yes!”

After a short while, the two of them rushed into the Imperial Reading Room, “Greetings my king!”

“Sit!”

Ouyang Shuo called them over to handle the migration matter. With his instructions, the matter would be done faster, and it would reduce the burden on Mulan Yue, “Pei Mo, how’s the progress on the Morocco migration?”

Pei Mo’s heart tightened. Although the king’s words were calm, Pei Mo realized that the king must be unhappy with the progress and replied carefully, “The Civil Affairs Department has already written the book introducing the province and passed it in the various imperial cities. Using the name of the dynasty, many people registered. Currently, we are rushing the evaluation process.”

Ouyang Shuo replied, “The migration must be quick this time. You can either loosen the conditions or increase the number of evaluators. If you do not have enough men, take it from the Zhili Prefecture office or other offices. Try to complete it within this half a month.”

“Yes my king!”

Pei Mo bowed and silently wiped off his cold sweat. ‘The aura of the son of god is truly different; I must treat every matter carefully.’

Chapter 888 - Birth of the Insurance Industry

Chapter 888: Birth of the Insurance Industry

Within the Imperial Reading Room, Pei Mo left first, leaving Meng Zhida.

Ouyang Shuo started off with the one million gold loan to Morocco Province, “Special things must be handled specially. The processes can be made simpler to try and hand the cash over as that side badly needs it.”

Meng Zhida nodded, “Do not worry king. I’ll personally oversee the matter to try to get the loan approved within a week.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled in satisfaction; he loved the way Meng Zhida did things. Although Pei Mo and the other historical civil servants were good to use, they were still influenced by ancient official methods and were not so straightforward and quick in doing matters.

Unlike players like Meng Zhida, whose professions in real life focused on efficiency.

However, Ouyang Shuo did not ask to meet Meng Zhida for this. Rather, he had an idea he wanted to discuss with Meng Zhida.

This idea was one that he had thought of when he attacked Morocco, and it became clearer after the Friendship City incident.

Ouyang Shuo said, “You know of the Rabat City and Friendship City compensation to merchants?”

“Yes.”

“What are your thoughts about it?”

Meng Zhida froze; this matter was not within the scope of his job. However, since the king asked, he had to answer. He thought about it and said simply, “It’s a loss in the short term but a gain in the long term.”

Meng Zhida analyzed it through an investment point of view.

Ouyang Shuo unveiled his intentions, “I was thinking that if the dynasty pays every time the merchants’ interests are affected, they would rely too heavily on us and become more fearless in doing things.”

A persons’ heart was the most complicated, especially merchants.

In reality, there were so many cases of people cheating government subsidies, much less in the game.

That was the hard part about governing a country. The dynasty gave out some subsidies with good intentions. However, in the long term, the intentions might be misused.

Hence, when they were setting and making policies, they had to consider all areas and not randomly push out policies. Ouyang Shuo did not want such a compensation method to become a habit.

Ouyang Shyo was thinking about making a better solution.

Meng Zhida agreed, “The king’s worries make sense.”

“Since that’s the case, can the Four Seas Bank use this as a chance to develop the Insurance Industry? Start from ocean insurance.”

The concept of insurance was not something that only existed in modern society.

2500 BC, Babylon empire ordered the clergy, village chiefs, and the like to collect tax as funds in case of emergency. The Egyptians and masons started up a burial organization to use member fees to pay for burial fees. All these events were insurance taking shape in ancient times, slowly forming into the insurance system.

Along with trade developments, in 1792 BC, during the reign of the 6th king of Babylon, trade was prosperous. To help the merchants compensate their losses, there was a system where they shared losses.

This situation was really close to the Great Xia Dynasty voyage merchant compensation system.

In 916 BC, on the Mediterranean Rhode Island, to protect ocean trading, the king set up a merchant law that said that if a certain merchant had losses, including the owner of the ship, owners of all the merchant products on the ship will have to share the loss.

The Great Xia Dynasty had the advantage of controlling the trade route, the prosperity of voyage trading, and the huge funds of Four Seas Bank, setting the foundations for starting the Ocean Insurance Industry.

When Meng Zhida heard that, his eyes lit up, and he said excitedly, “The king’s idea is great. Along with the king establishing the country, the Four Seas Bank gold has increased, and the funds are getting more and more. On the contrary, the number of people borrowing has decreased with territories merging together and being occupied.”

“The Four Seas Bank is facing an awkward situation where the money cannot be spent. To start the Insurance Industry will help to resolve the current situation, and it will provide us with another money making avenue.”

Actually, Meng Zhida had missed out on one point. If the industry was successfully started, it meant that the Great Xia Dynasty was closer to modernization, and it was a good improvement to voyage trading.

The protection of insurance would increase the motivation and eagerness of merchants to participate in voyage trading.

On this point, Europe, which was where insurance started, did not have such great conditions. The European countries had limited players, and the banks could not absorb as much savings as the Four Seas Bank.

In terms of voyage trading, they had fallen far behind the Great Xia Dynasty.

Looking out at the entire world, apart from the American Continent Panama River, the Great Xia Dynasty had completed a worldwide crucial trade route. The Europeans and Americans could only follow behind.

Ouyang Shuo did not expect Meng Zhida to be so excited, smiling, “I only have a suggestion. As for the rationality and feasibility, it would depend on you professionals.”

Meng Zhida bowed and said emotionally, “Do not worry my king. We will assess it in the shortest amount of time and come up with a suitable plan.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “That’s great; I’ll wait for your good news.”

In this room, after the entertainment industry, another huge glow was being released with Ouyang Shuo’s lead, shocking the entire world. …… After Meng Zhida left, Ouyang Shuo asked Tsing Yi, “How’s the discussions with Stone City?” The matter of Ouyang Shuo going to Friendship City was too sudden, and 10 days had passed since the discussion started.

Before leaving, Ouyang Shuo had instructed Tsing Yi and the Secret Documents Pavilion to follow up on the matter.

Tsing Yi raised her head and passed over a document from her table, “It has basically been settled two days ago. Wufu has no objections and is just waiting for you.”

Ouyang Shuo took the document and smiled, “The efficiency is pretty high.”

Tsing Yi explained, “Wufu is anxious, so the negotiations went smoother than expected.” Ouyang Shuo flipped the document while asking, “We did not rip him off, right?” He did not want to make Wufu unhappy just for small benefits.

Tsing Yi smiled, “You instructed before you left, so how would we dare?”

“That’s great.”

Looking at the document, the terms were just as Ouyang Shuo had wanted.

For Wufu to become a vassal state of the Great Xia Dynasty, he needed to do a few things.

First, become an official.

Wufu accepted the appointment, becoming the Governor of Fengtian Prefecture. Within his region, under the framework of the Great Xia Dynasty law structure, he would enjoy a high degree of freedom.

Secondly, hand over diplomatic powers.

Stone City and the Great Xia Dynasty’s diplomatic policies and views were the same at all times. When needed, the Honglu Temple would step in.

Thirdly, hand over payments.

Stone City would hand over 300 thousand gold per month, and they could use coal to pay too.

The Great Xia Dynasty would also agree to the few points below.

First, the giving of titles.

The Great Xia Dynasty must give Wufu the title of 3rd class Marquis and give him Fengtian Prefecture as his land.

Secondly, military protection.

Apart from helping him build the Binhai Squadron, the Great Xia Dynasty needed to house a War Fighting Legion in Stone City. Of course, the daily expenses would be paid by Stone City.

Thirdly, tax free.

Any merchant items entering the border would be exempt from border tax. Of course, the Great Xia Dynasty items entering Stone City would be tax free too.

Fourthly, other help.

The Great Xia Dynasty needed to develop 100 officials, 50 general, 100 doctors, 50 shipbuilders, and 100 ironsmiths for Stone City a year.

Apart from that, the dynasty would invest to build steelmaking factories, military works factories, and cannon making factories to help the industrialization of Stone City.

The above were only the big terms, and the agreement contained many other small details.

Overall, this was a win-win situation. Stone City sacrificed some honor and autonomy in exchange for support and protection.

Looking at the document, Ouyang Shuo felt complicated. He thought back to how bustling it was when the Shanhai Alliance was formed. A few years had passed, and the allies disappeared one by one.

The one that truly remained was Fallen Phoenix City.

Times had changed. The Shanhai City that needed allies to go against Yanhuang Alliance had grown into a colossal giant in China. They had become something the Yanhuang Alliance needed to fear.

Ouyang Shuo had also turned his eyes to the rest of the world. His opponent was not Yanhuang Alliance but Silver Hand.

Ouyang Shuo’s personal thoughts were something that outsiders could no longer see through. From a passionate young man, he became a lonely king sitting on his ice cold throne. He did not have any close friends he could talk to anymore.

The winners survive and the losers were eliminated. The wilderness was just so cruel.

“My king?” Tsing Yi broke Ouyang Shuo out of his daze.

Ouyang Shuo jolted, instantly waking up. He placed down the document and said calmly, “I’ve seen it, let’s follow this. When the time comes, hold a signing ceremony and invite the media over.”

Since it was done, Ouyang Shuo was not going to hide it.

“Great!”

Tsing Yi nodded in agreement; this was not a tough task to complete.

Chapter 889 - Mysterious Plan Z

Chapter 889: Mysterious Plan Z

6th month, 15th day, Shanhai City, Xia Palace, West Hall.

At 10 AM, all the famous media outlets in China gathered to witness a glorious moment. The Great Xia Dynasty King and Stone City Lord Wufu were signing a vassal state agreement.

No one expected the recently returned Xia King to throw down such a huge bomb.

10 minutes later, Ouyang Shuo and Wufu appeared together. With many people as witnesses, they signed the agreement.

After which, Ouyang Shuo and Wufu did not leave right away. Instead, they stayed to answer a few of the media’s questions.

The moment their words ended, the reporters all raised their hands. They really wanted to know the inside news. Ouyang Shuo smiled and called for Quick Daily News.

“Xia King, if Stone City is your vassal state, are they still a member of the Shanhai Alliance?”

Ouyang Shuo replied, “Stone City working with the Great Xia Dynasty is still within the alliance structure. It’s just a closer knit cooperation.”

Following which, someone asked Wufu, “Lord Wufu, to suddenly make the Great Xia Dynasty your suzerain state, were you forced to? What happened behind the scenes?”

Wufu was really calm, “The Great Xia Dynasty is the top territory in the world, and the Xia King is my good friend; this cooperation is due to strategic considerations.”

Ouyang Shuo added, “If there was insider news, why would I invite all of you here?”

“Hahaha!”

Friendly laughter broke out within the hall. Whether the people truly believed those words or not, no one knew.

After which, someone asked, “Xia King, as the suzerain state of Stone City, what are your views on the recent conflict between Handan City and Stone City?”

After this person finished his words, the entire hall was silent as they all looked at Ouyang Shuo. The media was the most sensitive, and they could feel that this was the reason for Stone City’s actions.

Ouyang Shuo was prepared for this, and he said solemnly, “As the suzerain state, I have the obligation to protect the safety of Stone City. If Handan City provokes Stone City once more, I would not mind sending troops.”

This was a declaration of war.

‘Hua~~~~’

All of the reporters at the scene were really excited, recording down Ouyang Shuo’s words.

“Scoop, what a big scoop!”

Some reporters even thought of titles for tomorrow such as ‘Great Xia Dynasty declares war on Handan City!’

Ouyang Shuo accepted a few more questions before the ceremony ended. The moment it did, the news of Stone City becoming a vassal state spread across the entire China region.

More hidden currents moved in the China region.

As the top territory in the world, every action by the dynasty would attract attention, much less such huge news. This matter blew up the forums.

Some people even said, “The China region is about to explode.”

At the same time, the 4th legion of the Leopard Legion Corps housed at the border of Zhen An Prefecture were ordered to teleport to Stone City to fulfil the promise.

A few days ago, the Teaching Division led by Cai Mao boarded the 10 turreted ships and proceeded toward Binhai Bay.

Stone City had also started their soldier recruitment operation to prepare to build the Binhai Squadron.

All of this was bad news for Handan City.

…

Zhili Province, Handan City.

After learning that the Great Xia Dynasty and Stone City had signed a suzerainty agreement, Di Chen was in a bad mood. For Di Chen, who wanted to take down the entire province, this was the worst news he could have received.

Yanhuang Alliance had tried to enjoy suzerain treatment from the Yunnan City-State, but they did not get what they wished for. Who knew that the Great Xia Dynasty would be a step ahead of them?

“It seems like our actions against Stone City have backfired.” Di Chen was feeling regret. He did not expect Wufu to be so weak; he was unable to handle even a little pressure.

“What a coward!” Di Chen was furious.

Di Chen’s previous actions were because he wanted to take down Stone City, but he was worried his actions would be too much and would attract the attention of the Great Xia Dynasty.

Di Chen wanted to use the warm water cooking frog method to slowly eat up Stone City. Who knew that the frog would not follow the plan and jumped into the bowl of the Great Xia Dynasty?

“That old fox has benefited from all this.” Di Chen was filled with regret.

Juedai Fenghua was silent at the side. She had actually warned him at the start to not do anything toward Stone City. If he wanted to act, he needed to give them a lethal blow.

However, Di Chen did not listen.

Now was great. Stone City had gone to the Great Xia Dynasty, and the situation was much worse for them.

Di Chen gritted his teeth and suddenly said, “Since it has reached this stage, I need to talk to my grandfather. That matter must be sped up or that old fox is just going to ride on top of our heads.”

The secluded Yanhuang Alliance had not given up on making huge plots.

Seeing that Silver Hand did not bother about the internal affairs of China, the six family elders of the Yanhuang Alliance could not take it and met up to think of a plot.

Just as Di Chen said, if they did not come up with a big plan, they would be slowly ripped apart and swallowed. This concerned the survival of the family, and it was not something that a young man like Di Chen could handle.

The six family elders all knew that the Great Xia Dynasty was getting stronger and stronger each day, and their foundations were growing deeper by the day. Their reputation was soaring toward the heavens.

Such an opponent was just too hard to deal with.

The time left for them was just too little, and the chances for making mistakes were just too few.

If they were like Di Chen, each plan being easily broken, then Yanhuang Alliance would not be able to survive.

Yanhuang Alliance could not take any more big hits.

Hence, the elders used their intelligence and skills to try to craft a huge plan – Plan Z.

However, the plan was just too huge, and the interests were too complicated. Coupled with the fact that it was a six-sided discussion, they still doubted each other, and the plan could not be settled in a day or two.

Originally, Di Chen was patient. However, after this matter, he could not take it anymore.

Juedai Fenghua’s eyes lit up. She knew about this matter, so she asked curiously, “How to deal with the Feng Family is going to be a big problem.”

Di Chen was confident, “My grandfather will have his ways.” Di Chen had the utmost confidence in his grandfather’s ability.

When Fenghua Juedai heard that, she kept silent.

…

Afternoon, Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

Using the chance of signing the agreement, Wufu and Ouyang Shuo had a chat, and the outcome was pretty good. At least their direction was the same.

Wufu was not Xunlong Dianxue, and he would not pick at pieces. He was a utilitarian and aimed at the interests on Planet Hope. As long as he could achieve that, whether or not he had power did not matter.

Just last night, Ouyang Shuo sent letters to Feng Qiuhuang and Gong Chengshi to explain the matter of the agreement to resolve doubts.

Amongst the Shanhai Alliance members, Mulan Yue and Bai Hua had merged with the Great Xia Dynasty, Xunlong Dianxue was kicked out, and Wufu was now a vassal.

Gong Chengshi had once rushed over to visit Ouyang Shuo, and the two had a close relationship.

Toward this, there were rumors that Ouyang Shuo was invasive and built the Shanhai Alliance for bad reasons to try and swallow up his allies.

Ouyang Shuo had no way to defend himself, but he did not need to.

The current dynasty was not one that a rumor could shake. Those rumor makers feared the Great Xia Dynasty and did not even dare to say those things in the open.

Why would Ouyang Shuo bother with such people?

However, even though Ouyang Shuo did not care, it did not mean that other people did not.

Especially Feng Qiuhuang, who was a strong woman. As the remaining solo member of the alliance, some rumors would unavoidably affect her judgment.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to explain to her and describe each of their bottom lines.

In truth, Ouyang Shuo did not plan to mere Fallen Phoenix City into the dynasty. Bai Hua and her were different. Although they were famous in the wilderness, their personalities were different.

Bai Hua was strong, but she did not have the ability. As the big sister of the Consonance Studio and the former leader of a guild, Bai Hua had too many hopes on her shoulders.

Hence, she had no choice but to be strong, to act strong.

In her bones, she did not really care about power, and she would rather be under the lead of a strong person.

To make her face everything alone was not her style. As a result, she agreed with the merger.

Feng Qiuhuang was different.

Just like her name suggested, she was a proud phoenix; stubbornness and a desire for control was ingrained in her bones.

Speaking of which, Feng Qiuhuang was similar to Wu Zetian in history.

Facing such a person, merging Fallen Phoenix City into the system would be restricting her ability and covering her glow.

Ouyang Shuo had been looking forward to the day she became the first queen in the wilderness.

Chapter 890 - Battle of Fei River

Chapter 890: Battle of Fei River

(PS: This Chapter is about the background story of the Battle of Fei River. If you do not like it or you understand this part of history, you can just skip it.)

6th month, 16th day, China region’s various media all reported in detail the Stone City vassal state matter at eye-catching positions or at the front page.

At this very moment, a System Notification suddenly spread across the China region.

“System Notification: China Region has successfully upgraded 30 Grade 2 Prefectures, activating the Battle Map system, 7th Battle Map, the Battle of Fei River, will start in three days. Friendly Reminder: the Battle of Fei River is not a compulsory Battle Map quest, and only Grade 2 Prefectures Lords have the rights to register and join.”

…

Currently, only around 50 territories in China were left, and even the lowest one was Grade 1 Prefecture. Grade 2 Prefecture was the average. As for Di Chen and the others, who had upgraded to 1st class Marquis, their territories had upgraded to Grade 3 Prefecture.

However, it was important to note that a huge gap existed between 1st class Marquis and the Duke rank. Not to mention Di Chen, but even Feng Qiuhuang’s merit points were only at 400 thousand, which was less than half the requirement.

It seemed like China giving birth to its second Capital City was really far away.

Ouyang Shuo felt complicated about the Battle of Fei River. In the last life, the China region did not develop so quickly. As such, before Ouyang Shuo revived, the Battle of Fei River was the last one.

This meant that in the following battles, Ouyang Shuo would not have an advantage anymore.

…

The Battle of Fei River occurred during the 383 year AD, and the former Qin army sent out troops to Jin and engaged in the Battle of Fei River. In the end, the East Jin used 80 thousand troops to beat 1.12 million former Qin troops.

The former Qin army had the absolute advantage but lost to East Jin, so their country fell into chaos and the various tribes broke away from their rule, forming the Later Qin and Later Yan regimes. East Jin used the chance to go north and push the border into the Yellow River. In the following years, East Jin did not face any outside interference.

…

To talk about the Battle of Fei River, one needed to talk about the special historical background of the Wei Jin Northern and Southern Dynasty.

The Wei and Jin Southern and Northern dynasties were also termed the Three Kingdoms Two Jin 16 States Northern and Southern Dynasty. From Cao Pi to the Sui Dynasty destroying Chen and unifying China, a total of 369 years elapsed.

That time was the period where regimes changed the most often, and wars happened frequently. In just 300 years, there were 30 odd big and small regimes replacing one another.

The Wei and Jin Northern and Southern Dynasties replaced the Han Jin and was replaced with Sui Tang. During this period, it was really chaotic. During such a period, the Wei and Jin philosophy school arose, Taoism and Buddhism rose, and Greek and Persian culture entered China.

During this period, the king system changed. The Sui and Tang System was developed and formed during this point of time, and its influence continued all the way to North Song.

265 AD, Sima Yan replaced Cao Wei and built a new regime, country title Jin, based in Luoyang, ending the Three Kingdoms and unifying the nation.

Unfortunately, this unified regime only lasted for a short while.

After destroying Wu, West Jin’s nobles were really corrupt and politics got really dark. At this time, the aristocratic families took control.

During this time, there were also many nomadic tribes that moved in and were kept as slaves by aristocratic families. At that point, Guanzhong and Liangzhou’s tribes took up half of the local population.

As too many people had migrated in, West Jin perished and chaos began.

299 AD, West Jin started the war of the eight princes, lasting for seven years. The people who were brought in took the chance to become soldiers and take arm, resulting in the turmoil of the five northern minorities.

This turmoil started since the destruction of West Jin and lasted until Northern Wei unified the north.

This period was a huge catastrophe for the Han Chinese. During this period, the north and south was split and in a standoff.

The five non-Han races referred to the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Jie, Qiang and Di races. The former Qin king Fujian in the Battle of Fei River came from the Di race.

357 AD, East Sea Prince Fu Jian started a coup, removing former Qin emperor Fu Sheng and ascending to the throne. He changed the rule title to Yong Xing.

In the following 30 years, Fu Jian used Wang Meng and other people to build a strong nation with a strong army. They wiped out former Yan, former Liang and Dai, finally unifying the north and formed a north and south divide with the East Jin.

Fu Jian was a really remarkable ruler and no emperor in the Jin Dynasty could compare with him.

Whilst destroying former Yan, former Liang and Dai, Fu Jian did not kill the captured emperors and prime ministers. Instead, he treated them really well.

This was probably because of his magnanimous character but more due to strategic considerations.

As the Di race was just a small race tribe in the north, how to control the other races was a big problem. Facing such a scenario, he was not willing to cause problems by killing them. As such, he opted to control them and even gave them power to lead troops.

The involved people included Murong Chui, Yao Chang, and the like.

Ironically, after the former Qin lost in the Battle of Fei River, Murong Chui escaped back to the former Yan to reestablish his rule. Murong tribes’s children armed themselves and caused carnage all around while Yao Chang also rose up and finally killed Fu Jian.

…

375 AD, Wang Meng died. Before his death, he said to Fu Jian, “Although Jin is in the desolate and secluded Wuyue, it’s still a proper empire. It gets along with its neighbors and is a treasure ground. I do not wish for you to attack and capture the Qiang people when I’m gone. I have hatred for them, but it would cause problems for us, so let’s slow down to prepare for the future.”

Wang Meng’s words made sense.

After wiping out former Yan, former Liang and Dai, former Qin had amassed huge spoils of war. To digest all of this was not easy.

The difference in culture between races would require time to mesh.

The small Di race conquering the north was like a snake eating an elephant. Logically speaking, the snake should focus on producing acids to digest the elephant. To swallow a rhinoceros before it finished digesting the elephant was obviously a bad idea.

Wang Meng was worried about the digestive ability of the snake, so he said those words.

Helplessly, the rise of Fu Jian was a story of a continuous success; this made him really confident, and he believed that his good luck would not run out.

Fu Jian happily thought that there would be nothing wrong with swallowing a rhinoceros.

Unifying the world was a huge temptation, and it was one that Fu Jian could not resist. Hence, seven years after Wang Meng died, Fu Jian felt like the time was right, and he decided to attack East Jin.

378 AD, former Qin increased their attacks on East Jin.

That year, former Qin mobilized 170 thousand troops and split into four to attack East Jin. Xiangyang City defended for a year before falling, and East Jin Yong Provincial Governor Zhu Xu was captured.

Based on how Fu Jian treated captured prisoners, Zhu Xu became a former Qin official.

This Zhu Xu did not give up hope, turning into a high level spy and was hugely destructive in the Battle of Fei River.

383 AD, the former Qin emperor Fu Nian decided to go all out to conquer East Jin, ordering 1/10th of his men to join the army.

He also wanted all horses, be it public or private ones, to be provided to the army to use.

Hence, he gathered 870 thousand troops. Amongst which, there were 270 thousand cavalry. Apart from that, there were the 250 thousand vanguard forces led by General Fu Rong for a total of 1.12 million troops.

That time, East Jin only had three to four million people, so less than hundred thousand of them were soldiers. However, compared to the million soldiers of former Qin, the East Jin’s hundred thousand were many times stronger.

The main force of the army was the north house army, which mainly recruited refugees.

Why refugees?

After West Jin fell, the north refugees entered the south and a portion lived south of the Changjiang, becoming normal people. However, there were many who still lived north of the Changjiang, and they had their own organizations and equipment.

In ancient times, escape was not an easy matter and was really dangerous.

Whilst escaping, everyone would wear their best things and keep their most valuable items in their bags, making them the best targets to rob.

In the chaotic times, bandits were everywhere, and one would just rob you of all your things and throw you to a side. Armies also robbed refugees.

Apart from bandits and such armies, even the Jin officials had ideas about them.

For example, East Jin’s Xiyang Prince Sima Yang let his men disguise as bandits to rob refugees in Hubei. Not only one of two of these princes did that, but it basically became a pretty good business. Even the famous Zu Ti did this before.

When Zu Ti first reached Jiangnan, he did not have many riches. One day, he invited a lot of officials to his house and showed many treasures, “Do not be shocked, I got lucky in Nantang yesterday.”

Logically speaking, he was not a bad person, and he led the army up both and died in Henan. The locals built a temple for him and many people prayed to him.

The key was that doing that was simply too tempting. A bunch of fat sheep lying outside, why should one just let them go? Anyways, one had knives and spears in hand, so why not just rob them?

As for whether or not the lives of the sheep would be affected after they were robbed, it was not their concern.

Even refugees would rob one another, and refugees without weapons easily became the victims of other refugees.

Under such a situation, the refugees gathered together under the leadership of their leader. Regardless of who dared to rob them, they would go all out.

The leader was known as the refugee commander.

With that, the refugees became an independent military force.

All the refugees who went down south had been through chaos and learned really quickly, having really good fighting ability.

To not put them in battle was a huge waste.

377 AD, Xie Xuan amassed large amounts of refugees and built the north house army.

Under the leadership of Xie Xuan, the north house army trained hard for many years and quickly became the most elite force in East Jin, the strongest force in the entire China.

Six years after Xie Xuan built the north house army, the Battle of Fei River began.

Discussing about it in a neutral manor, Fu Jian sent 1/10th of his men. At the time, this ratio was not high. Ratios higher than that were not rare either.

However, Fu Jian used that ratio in the entire former Qin, from Hebei to Sichuan, Shandong to Gansu, which created a huge problem.

They did not have any iron roads or carts, and they did not have many carriages for these soldiers. As such, they could only rely on their legs. Under such a circumstance, if someone did not take anything and walked empty handed, they could walk 40 kilometers if they walked for eight hours a day.

But as soldiers, they would all bring items with them, and the paths would not be so straight.

Based on historical information, Alexander the Great’s army could walk 25 kilometers a day. The Roman army could also walk 25 kilometers a day, and if they were fast, they could even walk 30 kilometers a day.

But the former Qin army was not professionally trained, so it was rare for them to even be able to walk 20 kilometers a day. It was during a chaotic time, so the paths were not well kept.

If one bumped into a river, it was worse. Without bridges, they could only use ferries. Even if one did not consider all these, for one soldier to rush to the Zunhe region, it would take two months.

The problem was that Fu Jian rushed his war preparations. He ordered them in the 7th month, so logically speaking, an order would take a month to reach the various parts of the state, and then time would be needed for the local officials to execute it.

But Fu Jian felt that time waited for no one.

On the 2nd day of the 8th month, Fu Jian sent Yangping Duke Fu Rong to gather the infantry and cavalry of Zhang Hao, Murong Chui, and the others for a total of 250 thousand cavalry as the vanguard, and he ordered Yanzhou Provincial Governor Yao Chang to take up the role of dragon commander.

8th month, 8th day, Fu Jian left Chang An to go to the battlefield, and his main force left along with him.

9th month, he led the 250 thousand vanguard forces to Huai River region, and his middle troops reached Xiang City, Liangzhou Army reached Xianyang, Zitong Prefect Pei Yuanlue led 70 thousand navy East from Sichuan. The Youzhou and Jizhou armies all reached Peng City.

At this point, the war officially began.

At this time, did the various territory troops reach their battlefield? Considering the time, one would know that they could not make it. Based on historical records, when Fu Jian reached Xiang City, Gansu’s army had just reached Xianyang.

All the forces were still proceeding toward the assembly area, but the war had already started.

Ironically, before they even arrived, the Battle of Fei River had already ended. All they did was use up large amounts of grain and block up the various paths.

One could say that Fu Jian lost because he did not listen to Wang Meng and did not care about the objections of his officials. His confidence swelled. When he sent the country’s troops toward Jin, he had already lost.

The defeat of former Qin in the Battle of Fei River was not by luck.

Chapter 891 - Trees Look Like Soldiers

Chapter 891: Trees Look Like Soldiers

Regarding the Battle of Fei River, why was Fu Jian so anxious and did not wait for the whole army to gather before setting off together?

It was not that he did not want to; rather, there was no way he could.

With the ancient technological standards, what kind of concept was gathering a million people in one place?

Even if one walked on a big road that was relatively wide and could allow 20 people to walk at once, the entire army would take up 50 kilometers of land.

That was a terrifying and uncontrollable situation.

If the million troops proceeded together, the resources would not be able to meet the supply.

The only way was to split up. Fu Jian’s strategy was to split the million troops into a few groups. When the first one fell, the second one would replace it; he wanted to use a human ocean method to push the East Jin army to death.

Fu Jian once said that he had so many troops that he could cut the river flow just by throwing the horse whips into the river. Reality proved that before his second group even had a chance, the war was totally over.

…

Compared to the former Qin that was filled with problems, East Jin before the Battle of Fei River was another different story.

When news of Fu Jian coming down south spread to Jiankang, the East Jin Imperial Court was astonished.

Easy Jin at that time was split into two military powers, one was the Hengchong Army housed in Jingzhou and the other was the north house army defending Zunnan, which was led by Xie Shi and Xie Xuan.

From the direction that Fu Jian was attacking from, the north house army took up the main battle responsibilities.

Xie Xuan was really anxious, and sought help from the number one person in East Jin, Xie An. Xie An was just a polite minister, so he obviously did not have any good ideas. As such, he could only try to cover up by saying, “The Imperial Court has other plans.”

In truth, there was no other plans, and Xie Xuan could only rely on himself.

Heng Chong was also really anxious, and he sent three thousand elite guards to Jiankang. In the end, Xie An said to them, “It’s already settled here; go back to defend the west!”

When Heng Chong heard that, he sighed, “We are finished!”

Seeing that the imperial officials were all going to become prisoners of war, they could not take it and went to look for Xie An. Xie An had no way to handle all of them, so he left to tour. During the day, he did not show himself in Jiankang.

Some people lavished praise on Xie An and said that he played an instrumental and defeated Fu Jian. In truth, this was just people saying random stuff and was far from the truth.

Xie An was already leaving it to the heavens at this rate. Luckily, if he were a prisoner, he would not be at any life threatening risk. Fu Jian treating prisoners well was a tradition, and he had sent word that after he destroyed East Jin, he would give Xie An a good position.

In Chang An City, Fu Jian had built a mansion for him in advance.

Xie An only knew how to act and could not provide any help. Xie Shi and Xie Xuan could only gather all the troops they had and go for an all-out battle with Fu Jian’s army.

In the 10th month, Fu Jian’s vanguard forces crossed the Huai River and attacked Shouyang City. Fu Rong planned to destroy the surrounded Jin army and sent out another 50 thousand troops to Luojian in the east to prevent East Jin reinforcements.

At that point, Fu Jian’s main force was still being gathered and Fu Jian himself was with a portion of his troops in Xiang City.

The surrounded Jin army sent a letter to Xie Xuan for help but, Fu Rong intercepted the letter. Fu Rong happily felt that the end of the Jin army had arrived and immediately told Fu Jian the news.

Fu Jian was on cloud nine when he heard it and immediately led 80 thousand cavalry to Shouyang to gather with Fu Rong. The remaining main force slowly proceeded on the roads.

Xie Xuan and the north house army main force of 70 thousand entered Luo Jian to try to save the trapped Jin army.

However, there were 50 thousand Qin troops standing between them, so the north house army had no choice but to attack. Liu Laozhi under Xie Xuan led five thousand elite troops to sneak attack the Qin army. The Qin army was not prepared and collapsed.

Just like how all other battlefields collapsed, the soldiers were unable to deduce how many enemy troops there were and could not effectively resist. They were just trying to escape.

The general was unable to prevent such a collapse, and they were either killed or captured. In the end, 15 thousand of them died and their supplies and equipment fell into the hands of the Qin army. 50 thousand troops falling under the attacks of five thousand; this was pretty much a premonition of what was going to come.

This failure stunned Fu Jian. For the first time since he set out, he felt fear.

After taking down Luo Jian, the Jin army continued forward to gather with the troops that were surrounded. At this point, the navy and army, a total of 80 thousand, had gathered up and camped at the east of the Fei River.

At this very moment, a key person who decided the outcome of the battle appeared. He was Zhu Xu, who was captured. After he was captured, Fu Jian followed tradition and treated him well.

Zhu Xu was appointed as the ambassador to persuade them to surrender. However, not only did he not do that, but he said to Xie Shi, “Although they have a million troops, they are just gathering. The situation now is different; use the chance that all their men have not arrived to swiftly attack. As long as you can crush their vanguard forces, you can destroy their million men army.”

Xie Shu originally planned on defending but under Zhu Xu’s persuasions, he decided to strike out.

The Fei River was decided as the location where the two armies would go all out.

Fu Jian’s army gathered at the Fei River west shore, right opposite the Jin army. At that time, in the Fujian army, Fu Rong’s forces numbered 250 thousand and Fu Jian brought over 80 thousand troops.

However, Fu Rong sent another 30 thousand troops towards Jingzhou, and he also lost some men in Luo Jian. At the same time, he left some to defend Shouchun. Hence, at the moment, there were truly only 150 thousand former Qin troops.

The Qin army was all elite Di race soldiers and were all gathered in the middle troops commanded by Fu Rong. Apart from that, there were many Han Chinese, Xianbei people, Qiang, and Wuheng people. They did not feel much loyalty toward the former Qin made by the Di Race and came because of fear.

The racial differences added many more complications, and it made commanding much harder. Just language alone was a huge problem, and Fu Rong’s orders needed to be translated into different languages before they could be spread down.

150 thousand men coming from so many different races; without receiving proper training, they were squeezed together on the west coast of the Fei River. Even if a god was their commander, it would be difficult to command them.

Both sides waited solemnly by the river and neither side acted.

Fu Jian and Fu Rong came onto the Shouyang City wall, looking out at the orderly Jin troops opposite them; the enemy had elite soldiers. Then, they looked north at the trees on Bagong mountain, which all looked human shaped.

Fu Jian looked at Fu Rong and said with shock and fear, “The enemy looks strong; we should pay attention!”

This was where the idiom Caomu Jiebing came about. It was to show about that after the defeat at Luo Jian, Fu Jian had already turned from being overconfident to lacking in confidence.

At this very moment, Fu Jian received a letter from Xie Xuan, which suggested the Former Qin forces retreat slightly west to allow the Jin troops to cross the Fei River so that the two armies could engage.

Xie Xuan wanted to fight a quick battle. Based on the plan, he would lead eight thousand elite troops across the river. If the situation was smooth, the following forces could cross and launch a large scale attack. If the movement failed, the main force could handle the aftermath.

Most Former Qin generals opposed this plan because maneuvering such a large army like that was too complicated for the potential benefits, especially with so many poorly trained troops. However, Fu Jian and Fu Rong felt that they should wait till the enemy was halfway across before getting the cavalry to charge at them. After all, wouldn’t they win just like that?

Hence, Fu Jian ordered the troops to retreat.

Fu Jian’s idea seemed good. The Qin army was using cavalry to face the Jin army crossing the river, so they had a huge advantage in terms of strategy.

However, he had missed out on one point; he did not have the ability to make his army retreat orderly. He only considered the enemy and did not realize that there were even more dangerous enemies in the 150 thousand beside him.

The moment the retreat order was given, a huge chaotic scene ensued.

It was not hard to imagine how a normal soldier would feel during this retreat.

A person in the middle of 150 thousand people; looking out, he was surrounded by a human ocean. He had always lived in the north. Even in his dreams, he would not think that he would come to the Fei River.

He knew that a bloody battle was about to start, and he would most probably die at this place. He did not know the extent of the opposing Jin army’s strength.

However, in the Luo Jian battle not long ago, he heard that many of his people had died.

Thinking of this, one would obviously be really nervous. The crowd would not only help him. Instead, they would make him more nervous.

Fear could be spread amongst people, and it would grow.

He might not understand the words of some generals, even those that spoke in the same language. He could listen in, but he could not get the meaning of the words. The general said, “Back off 500 meters to let the Jin army cross the river; then charge back to fight them and chase them into the river.”

This idea was too complex for him. Furthermore, the general might not have given him such specific details. All he knew was to retreat, but he did not know why.

Okay, so everyone turned around and walked.

They knew that the Jin army was behind them and could charge at them at any moment. Such an idea made them feel endangered. One could imagine that some people quickened their footsteps.

Those who were further behind walked even faster.

They had wife and kids and really did not want to die here, so they obviously walked quicker. Seeing the people around you walk quicker, everyone started to feel even more afraid.

This was a negative cycle. If this continued, everyone would end up just running. Logically speaking, there should be something external to stop this, namely the generals and commanders.

However, facing such a complex and chaotic organization, the generals could not deal with it. There were no communication methods apart from flags and horns.

The basic level generals and Advanced Generals could not keep in contact. Along with the language barrier, the situation became even worse.

The basic generals did not understand what was going on. Did the Jin army attack? Have we already lost? Are we backing off, or are we retreating in defeat?

When this chaotic scene spread, even the commanders could not control it. The fear was endless, and 150 thousand people competed against one another as they started to run.

On this premise, the Xie Xuan forces had started to cross the river.

When Fu Rong saw that the situation had gotten out of control, he tried to maintain order. Unfortunately, he ran too quickly and was knocked off his horse, losing his mount and being killed by the Jin army.

The Jin army did not face any resistance after they crossed. Before them was the Qin army running in all directions.

Why would Xie Xuan hesitate? He immediately gave the order to chase.

The Qin army ran all the way. No one could stop them, and those who fell were stepped on.

These soldiers did not even rest during the night, continuing to run day and night. When they heard any random sounds, they would think that it was the Jin army troops chasing them.

At this point, the 150 thousand troops of former Qin broke apart.

Fu Jian was also shot. The scene was really chaotic, and no one cared about his life or death. Fu Jian rode his horse and went to Huaibei himself.

The Jin army obtained tens of thousands of horses and hundreds of thousands of cows, sheep, and mules.

Fu Jian’s army collapsed without engaging the enemy, and the reason was just them retreating. Such a scene baffled modern day commanders.

But in those times, the truth was as such.

When the sun went up, there were 150 thousand former Qin soldiers on the west shore. When the sun set, there were no more, and the sun only shone on the corpses that were trampled on.

The fate of the former Qin set along with the setting sun.

The soldiers who did not reach the Fei River dispersed upon hearing about the defeat. The 800 thousand army gathered was not even sent to the batt;efield.

Fu Jian’s trip called upon the entire empire, but he gained nothing from it. Instead, many of the fallen soldiers joined the rebellion against him.

The beast swallowed by the snake was not digested and had now torn the stomach apart. The Xianbei rebellion army established the later Yan Empire and the Qiang Race established the later Qin empire.

Fu Jian, who had never doubted others, was betrayed by those he trusted. He could only give up on Guanzhong and retreat to Gansu.

Not long later, he was murdered by Yao Chang. 20 years earlier, Yao Chang was going to be beheaded but East Sea Prince Fu Jian saved him.

It was like fate playing a joke on him.

At that time, it was a short two years since Fu Jian ambitiously wanted to conquer East Jin.

At the brink of death, did he think about what had happened at the Fei River? At his brightest moment, he had lost the protection of luck.

All this was like a dream.

Chapter 892 - Keep Pace With

Chapter 892: Keep Pace With

6th month, 19th day, Shanhai City.

Three days of battle preparation time. Ouyang Shuo, apart from preparing for the Battle of Fei, had also paid close attention to the Mediterranean negotiation process.

With Queen Kalia helping out as well as Zi Luolan making promises based on the Great Xia Dynasty Atlantic Squadron not passing through the Mediterranean Ocean, only then did negotiations restart.

However, in terms of conditions, the Mediterranean Lords became stricter, infuriating Zi Luolan.

Ouyang Shuo sent a letter to her, telling her to calm down and bear it. She did not need to immediately get an outcome, and it was best if it dragged on and this turned into a marathon negotiation.

Alvaro had already led the 4th and 5th divisions of the Atlantic Squadron toward Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.

The moment the Atlantic Squadron appeared in the Gulf of Aden would be the moment when the tables were turned.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo was not anxious at all.

Within the three days, another huge thing happened in Shanhai City.

Just yesterday, the Rabat Satellite City bidding led by the Industrialization Department came to an end. The winners were a guild alliance made up of five large guilds in Xianyang.

The five guilds formed the Jiangshan Alliance. With a 4.5 million gold bid, 7% alliance shares and 50% tax as conditions to become the guardian, they jumped up to become yet another super guild in China.

Based on custom, under the request of the Jiangshan Alliance, the Great Xia Dynasty sold them 2% of the Four Seas Bank shares for three million gold.

Compared to the first round of investment, the Four Seas Bank share prices had risen by 50%.

It seemed like the Blood Evil Mercenary Guild in Xianyang was too strong and forced out the other guilds there.

Of course, to the Jiangshan Alliance, this step back was a good decision.

In the latter half of the 4th year of Gaia, guild mergers intensified. Along with more people gathering in satellite cities, the strong guilds would grow stronger and stronger.

To the other guilds, to rebuild and reorganize was a great decision.

The prerequisite would be that one had a Satellite City.

In the current game environment, if one was not a guardian of a Satellite City, no matter how big the guild was, it would not rise.

There were only two ways to get new satellite cities, one was to upgrade to Capital City, and the other was to destroy a country. In the case of Capital City, no one had hopes of that for now, so one could only look forward to country destruction.

Hence, many guilds tried to get into the good books of the Great Xia Dynasty. These guilds who failed this time were aiming for the next bid.

Everyone in China knew that the Great Xia Dynasty was the best country war machine.

Ouyang Shuo did not express any views, as he was not interested in forming alliances with these guilds. You want to be the guardian? Simple; use money to exchange for it.

…

Months ago, Ouyang Shuo had done his homework on the Battle of Fei River. He had analyzed this battle really thoroughly and understood every aspect of this battle.

The Yellow Court Scripture that Ouyang Shuo wanted to get was the highest reward of the East Jin camp. Hence, Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to choose the East Jin camp.

If not, Ouyang Shuo would want to try the former Qin camp to try and turn history around.

In Ouyang Shuo’s eyes, with players, the former Qin camp could turn it around. As long as they stabilized the situation and did not allow it to collapse, they had the numerical advantage, and it was difficult for East Jin.

Luckily, Feng Qiuhuang and the others had a sense of camaraderie. Learning that Ouyang Shuo chose the East Jin camp, they did not say anything and swapped sides to fight together.

Ouyang Shuo had already released word on the forums about the camp he was choosing.

If the Yanhuang Alliance chose the East Jin camp too, this battle would be pointless. Since Ouyang Shuo made it public, Di Chen had no choice but to join the former Qin camp.

As for how the other Lords would choose, Ouyang Shuo did not really care.

Although on the forums there were people who read it as: along with the fight between the Great Dynasty and Yanhuang Alliance intensifying, the Chuanbei City-State and Xiangnan City-State would start to have internal cracks, and they would begin to align themselves with one side. The Battle of Fei River was a test.

Ouyang Shuo felt baffled at that.

The players were a little too simple. Without a doubt, both sides had chess pieces in the two City-States, but no one would be so dumb to expose them in the Battle Map.

If one tried to guess the other party’s chess pieces through their camp choices, they would be in for a huge loss.

The battle of the China region wilderness was where a few people were standing out. The complicated matters within were not something normal people could understand.

Unknowingly, a new batch of elites was born in the game, standing out from the rest.

…

9 AM, the System Notification sounded out on time.

“System Notification: 383 AD, the former Qin emperor Fu Jian insisted on conquering East Jin, resulting in huge defeat, the empire crushed. 7th Battle Map – Battle of Fei River – officially begins!”

“Checking requirements, selecting forces, choosing camp…”

For the 100 thousand troops sent this time, Ouyang Shuo chose the 2nd legion of the Guards Legion Corps, Yashan Squadron 1st division, Navy Headquarters marine force, along with the three thousand Divine Martial Guards and a Flying Squad. Basically, he used up all 100 thousand slots this time.

Some of the marines had already completed their training in the special force base and would undergo actual battle training.

Ouyang Shuo bringing them along this time was to give them real war experience.

The Flying Squad had already become the Great Xia Dynasty’s symbol. Even if it did not cause effective damage, it would still be a good scouting tool at the very least.

After all the checks, a System Notification spread out in Ouyang Shuo’s ear.

“System Notification: Teleportation begin!”

“System Notification: Welcome player Qiyue Wuyi to the main camp of East Jin – Fei River east shore.”

“Fei River east shore!”

Ouyang Shuo was stunned. Based on the war progression in history, if the East Jin was on the east shore, then Gaia had skipped all the front stuff and thrown them into the lost crucial moment.

This moment was when both sides had a standoff on the Fei River, and war could break out at any time.

The Fei River came out of Feixi and Shou County’s Jiangjunling, splitting into two streams, toward the northwest into the Huai River, and southeast into the Chaohu Lake.

The place where the battle broke out was the southeast stream that was not really wide. The water coming down from Jiangjunling flowed down calmly.

As a result, the East Jin army could cross the river so easily.

He did not have time to think too much, so he first completed the registration. After that, he met up with the others. During this teleportation, the Guards Legion Corps 2nd legion and the Divine Martial Guards appeared in the barracks, while the Yashan Squadron 1st division, marines, and Flying Squad all appeared in the Huai River along with the East Jin navy.

Ouyang Shuo believed that Xiong Ba, Zhan Lang, and Di Chen would bring along their own navies in case the Yashan Squadron controlled the ocean rights.

The Battle of Fei River in history was one that the navy did not have much of a part to play in. However, because of player squadrons, many more changes would occur.

Quickly, many player forces teleported one by one into the Battle Map.

Just as Ouyang Shuo and Feng Qiuhuang gathered, a System Notification sounded out.

“Battle Notification: Battle of Fei River, a total of 30 Lords. East Jin camp 13 Lords, 370 thousand men; former Qin camp 17 Lords, 400 thousand men.

…

For the Battle of Fei River, all the Lords made it.

Lords of the 2nd grade prefectures had all reached 2nd class Marquis and could bring 20 thousand troops into the Battle Map. They had the ability to change the outcome of the battle and were not just cannon fodder. Moreover, the wilderness battle had intensified, and the Lords that had survived did not want to give up on any chance to earn merit points.

Additionally, the overall strengths of the two sides were equal. The former Qin camp had a little more people because their alliance had a total of seven people.

In comparison, the Shanhai Alliance only had four members left.

Out of the 370 thousand troops in East Jin, Shanhai Alliance took up 190 thousand. Apart from Gong Chengshi, who brought purely infantry, the rest brought mostly cavalry.

Similarly, Yanhuang Alliance accounted for 200 thousand, half of the former Qin force.

This also showed that future Battle Maps would be dictated by the two alliances.

“Battle Notification: East Jin camp is weaker than the former Qin camp. Based on Battle Map rules, East Jin camp automatically obtains a 5% defense buff.”

…

Since the difference in numbers between the two sides was not that great, the buff effect was really weak. Adding 5% defense probably would not have much of an effect.

The only thing would be that the casualties on the East Jin side would be a little less.

“Battle Notification: based on title and merit points, East Jin player representative is Qiyue Wuyi. Former Qin representative is Di Chen, 1st class Marquis.”

…

Currently, Di Chen still had the highest amount of merit points among the Yanhuang Alliance. He had even widened the gap with Chun Shenjun, catching up with Feng Qiuhuang.

Who knows? Maybe Handan City could become the second Capital City in China.

Chapter 893 - Di Chen Removing Traitors

Chapter 893: Di Chen Removing Traitors

To settle down the 370 thousand army was not an easy matter. Even if the East Jin side had made preparations beforehand and built a huge camp, to really settle everyone down would need a long period of time.

Luckily, each Lord brought their own generals, so they could handle it.

After settling down, the Lords all went to Ouyang Shuo’s tent to greet him. Amongst these Lords, there were hidden chess pieces of the Great Xia Dynasty but also their enemies.

On the surface, everyone seemed united, and no one could tell if something was off.

Out of the 13 Lords in the East Jin camp, apart from the four of Shanhai Alliance, the biggest Lord was West Gate Big Official. As the head of the Chuanbei City-State, his appearance in the East Jin camp gave others much to talk about.

West Gate Big Official did not care about the looks of others.

The atmosphere in the tent was a little weird.

Before Ouyang Shuo made a statement, the other Lords interacted with one another, carefully trying to probe.

As the battle situation was not certain, Ouyang Shuo did not make any promises, only saying, “Everything will wait till after I meet Xie Shi and Xie Xuan.”

When the Lords heard that, they were all delighted. Didn’t they rush over here to hear these words from Ouyang Shuo?

The Battle Map had just begun. The important part now was not to kill their way across but to get intel. As the player representative, Ouyang Shuo naturally had a huge advantage.

“Since that’s the case, we will not disturb you.”

The Lords all got up and left one by one.

“What a bunch of snobs.”

Looking at the back views of the Lords, Feng Qiuhuang voiced her annoyance.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “We are just using one another. Why do you mind so much?”

“I just cannot get used to it.”

Ouyang Shuo did not argue. Seeing that it was close to noon, it was not a good time to visit the commanders. As such, he could only wait.

A morning passed just like that.

…

At 3 PM, Ouyang Shuo brought his Personal Guards toward the middle tent to meet Xie Shi and Xie Xuan.

This meeting was to get familiar with them and to report the player situation. Additionally, he aimed to probe which stage of the battle the war was at.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to know whether Xie Xuan had sent the letter to Fu Jian. That was a crucial moment in the battle, and it was their retreat that caused their collapse.

On the way there, Ouyang Shuo recalled the situation between Xie Shi and Xie Xuan.

Xie Shi, the brother of Xie An.

When Fu Jian led his troops down south, the Imperial Court appointed Xie Shi as the commander of Xie Yan, Xie Huan, and Huan Yi’s forces.

Apart from Xi Shi’s high rank and personal ability, part of why he obtained the role was because of his background. The East Jin Imperial Court was basically controlled by the Langya Wang family and the Chen Prefecture Xie family.

As the brother of Xie An, Xie Shi’s road to power was naturally no accident.

Hence, in terms of commanding ability, he could not compare to other famous generals and was even far from them.

Of course, he was not totally useless.

If not, how could he stand out from all the other men in his family?

During the Battle of Fei River, the main force of East Jin was the 70 thousand north house army. The current Xie Shi led 10 thousand sailors through the river to block the road down south of the former Qin army.

Xie Shi’s plan made sense. Fu Rong being stuck in Shouyang was because he had to cross the Fei River.

However, due to Xie Shi’s navy already being there, he was unable to obtain the navy advantage. Although the Xie Shi navy could not pose a threat, blocking up the river created an unsolvable problem for Fu Jian. Xie Xuan rushed his troops, and in less than 20 days, they reached Shouyang and completed the standoff between the two sides.

Hence, the obstruction of the Xie Shi navy was still really successful. However, his use in the battle was overlooked because Xie Xuan’s glow overshadowed everyone else.

Xie Xuan, nephew of Xie An, good at commanding.

In the early years, Xie Xuan helped block the assault and disturbance of the former Qin in the 2nd year of Taiyuan. As a result, he was awarded the position of Jianwu general and Yanzhou Governor, being in charge of military matters north of the river.

Xie Xuan recruited many strong and valiant warriors and formed an elite force known as the north house army. In the 4th year of Taiyuan, he led his troops and defeated the former Qin army and was given the title of champion general as well as Yuzhou Governor.

Xie Xuan also had one sister who was really famous. Her name was Xie Daoyun, and she was the wife of Wang Ningzhi.

During the Battle of Fei River, Xie Xuan was the commander of the vanguard forces. First, he ordered general Liu Laozhi to attack Luo Jian. He used the chance to force the Qin army back, and in turn, he obtained the victory.

One could foresee that as compared to his uncle, Xie Xuan was the real deal, a true genius. Hence, he was the only person Ouyang Shuo cared about.

Similarly, Xie Xuan’s rise was also related to his background.

In ancient times, those people without strong families were unable to get famous.

…

Within the tent, Ouyang Shuo saw Xie Shu and Xie Xuan.

The current Xie Shi was already 56, and he had a head full of white hair. Six years later, he would die because of an illness.

Xie Xuan was just 40. Ironically, he died a year earlier than Xie Shi. In olden days, a person who fought many wars was riddled with many diseases, so it was hard for one to live long.

“Player Qiyue Euyi greets the commander.” Ouyang Shuo bowed.

“There’s no need.” Xie Shi asked, “What’s the combat strength of the player troops?”

Ouyang Shuo briefly introduced the situation.

When Xie Shi and Xie Xuan heard that, they exchanged glances in shock. With those numbers, the player army could suppress the north house army.

After all, no matter how strong the north house army was, they were still not as good as the elite troops from the various territories.

A weak regiment leader and a strong army, what an awkward situation.

Luckily, Xie Shi was experienced, and he was also really shameless, “What are your thoughts on this battle?”

Ouyang Shuo analyzed the pros and cons of both sides before saying, “Without their 400 thousand players, if we attack now, we would win. But with the players, we cannot move randomly.”

“Also, the enemy has a navy helping them, so if we forcefully cross the river, it would be hard too. Whoever attacks first would be at a disadvantage.”

When Xie Shi and Xie Xuan heard his words, they exchanged glances, speechless.

Xie Xuan was even looking a little depressed. He was just feeling gleeful about his victory in Luo Jian, “So your suggestion for them to retreat would not be accepted?”

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “if I’m Fu Jian, I would.”

“Oh?” Xie Xuan did not understand.

Ouyang Shuo said, “Even if they agree, do we dare to cross?”

“….” Xie Xuan was speechless.

“Our advantage is that we are fighting on home ground and have logistical resources. On the other hand, they have 400 thousand more troops so resources are a problem to them.”

It was mentioned that in ancient times, for a large amount of troops to camp in an area, logistics was a huge challenge. 550 thousand troops on the west shore of the Fei River; this number had exceeded the ability of the Qin army.

Xie Shi asked, “So you mean we just continue like this.” To drag the Qin army down slowly was his original idea. He only chose to attack because of Zhu Xu’s persuasion.

Who knew that the player forces’ appearance would bring him back to his original plan?

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Currently, it’s the best way.”

Xie Shi took a glance at his nephew and said, “I’ll consider your suggestion.”

“Ok, I’ll take my leave.”

Ouyang Shuo did not hope that they would agree immediately. After all, military matters were not a joke.

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

At the same time, former Qin camp, middle tent.

Di Chen was visiting Fu Jian and Fu Rong to describe his views on the battle.

If one said that Xie Shi was speechless when he heard Ouyang Shuo’s analysis, then Fu Jian and Fu Rong were terrified.

Fu Jian even broke out into cold sweat.

Based on Di Chen’s analysis, without the help of the players, the former Qin army would collapse.

Thinking back to the sudden collapse of the 50 thousand Qin forces in Luo Jian, even if Fu Jian did not want to believe it, he rationally did.

A man’s confidence was often destroyed step by step like that.

Fu Jian was obviously not as confident as he was at the start. He also looked at Di Chen differently. Luckily, Fu Jian had control over a million troops and was not afraid of the 400 thousand player army.

Fu Jian said, “Since that’s the case, what suggestion do you have?”

Di Chen smiled; he was obviously prepared, “My first suggestion would be to kill the traitor Zhu Xu and send his head across the river to threaten them and reduce their morale.”

During the Battle of Fei River, Zhu Xu exposed the weakness of the former Qin to Xie Shi.

When the Qin army retreated, he suddenly shouted, “The Qin army has lost!” His words caused the Qin army to panic.

Hence, Zhu Xu was really a huge problem and a time bomb. Looking at the situation, Di Chen was going to kill this person who was crucial in the battle.

Chapter 894 - Wuqi Takes Control

Chapter 894: Wuqi Takes Control

Before Fu Jian even said anything, Fu Rong said, “Your highness, let’s behead Zhu Xu now.”

Fu Jian’s good treatment of prisoners had made Fu Rong unhappy. Hearing the words of Di Chen, Fu Rong would rather just kill all of them.

A similar blood color appeared in Fu Jian’s eyes. When he thought about the possible defeat and his dream of ruling the entire China disappearing, his mercy slowly disappeared.

“Your highness!” Fu Rong said once more.

Fu Jian raised his head and said coldly, “Men!”

“Present!”

“Zhu Xu eats our stuff and takes our salary but betrays our Imperial Court, becoming a spy for East Jin. Capture him and kill him as an example.”

“Yes!”

The current Zhu Xu was hoping that the Jin army would kill their way over. Who knew that catastrophe would strike? With Fu Jian’s Personal Guards acting, he had no way to resist.

After a short while, his bloody head was sent to the tent; his eyes were still wide opened. How would Zhu Xu know that there would be the sudden appearance of players?

At this point, the Battle of Fei River had changed, who knows where to.

Fu Jian looked at the head as his anger rose, “Pass this head across the army; then, send it over the shore.”

“Yes!”

‘The death of Zhu Xu will be able to stop the other schemers in the Qin army.’ Fu Jian thought to himself.

Human nature was just so complicated.

Before this, Fu Jian trusted all the people under him. However, with the words of Di Chen, the darkness in his heart was brought out.

Seeing that his first target was achieved, Di Chen continued, “Your highness, since Zhu Xu has been slain, we cannot let Murong Chui and Yao Chang walk away. If not, it will cause problems in the future.”

The Yanhuang Alliance had ambitions in this battle. Di Chen wanted to change history just like Ouyang Shuo did previously.

Even if it were not for the glory, Di Chen really needed the merit points.

However, to truly change history was really difficult. The Yanhuang Alliance felt that they needed to efficiently utilize the million troops of the former Qin army. If not, in a player army versus player army faceoff, they did not have any confidence.

Moreover, for them to make use of the million former Qin troops, they needed to remodel it. At the very least, it could not be like a ticking time bomb that would explode with a touch.

If that happened, not having the army would be better.

However, it was not easy to remodel a million troops in a short time. Di Chen’s goal was to remove a few key people in the former Qin army and not let them create trouble.

Zhu Xu was the first; Murong Chui and Yao Chang were the second and third ones.

“This…” Fu Jian hesitated.

Even Fu Rong said, “To kill our own generals before the battle even starts, it might cause the army to be unsettled.”

When Di Chen saw that, he knew that he would not be able to kill them. Hence, he had to take a step back, “Even if you do not kill them, you need to remove their powers and give them another role.”

“That can be done.” Fu Jian did not hesitate.

Hence, Di Chen easily removed two problems of the former Qin army.

Immediately, Fu Jian and Fu Rong decided to move them to the command center. In name, it was a promotion, but in truth, it was to remove them from the frontlines.

With 400 thousand players, Murong Chui and Yao Chang would not dare to try anything funny.

After the two of them were given new appointments, there were two empty spots. Fu Jian looked at Di Chen, “Do you have anyone to recommend?”

Di Chen was delighted, “I recommend two people, Thee Kingdoms general Wei Yan and Hua Xiong.”

Wei Yan was a general under Feng Qingyue, while Hua Xiong was under Sha Pojun.

Generals like Lianpo, Tiandan, and Wuqi obviously could not be used.

Fu Jian was glad when he heard it. It was not long after the Three Kingdoms, and the famous names of Wei Yan and Hua Xiong were much stronger than Murong Chui and Yao Chang.

“Good, I agree.”

Hence, Wei Yan and Hua Xiong were passed. The player forces started the first step of infiltration into the former Qin army. However, this was still a distance away from Di Chen’s goal.

When Di Chen saw that Fu Jian was pleased, he carefully suggested, “The Qin army is a mix of many races and the language communication is difficult. I have a bunch of generals good at various languages, would you use them?”

Players in the game had translation systems and were good at all kinds of languages. The generals mostly came from Zhan Lang’s forces and were all retired military personnel that were really experienced.

When Fu Jian heard that, his eyes lit up, “There’s actually something so magical, how many?”

“Five thousand!”

“Since that’s the case, appoint them as the contact officers of the army.” Fu Jian had been through many wars and understood military affairs really well.

“Thank you for your trust.” Di Chen was delighted too.

Five thousand contact officers were enough to build up a highly efficient commanding network to stop the biggest weakness of the Qin army.

This was a god stroke.

Fu Jian continued, “Do you have any other generals to recommend?”

Di Chen replied, “I recommend Wuqi.”

“What?” Fu Jian quickly got up and said urgently, “The Wuqi you mention, is it the warring states Wuqi?”

“That’s right.”

Wuqi was the top general in the Yanhuang Alliance, and he was the key person in their plot for them to control the Qin army.

Fu Jian’s face turned red as he walked around the tent, thinking of a huge decision. After a long while, he calmed down, “Immediately call general Wuqi here, I’m going to appoint him as chief commander. He will be in charge of the million Qin forces and take full control of this war.”

When Di Chen heard these words, he was so shocked that he could not utter a word. Their original plan was for him to be a commander. Who knew that Fu Jian would make such a decision?

With that, the Yanhuang Alliance’s remodeling of the former Qin army had reached a crucial step.

Di Chen bowed, “Thank you for your trust!”

With all his targets achieved, Di Chen took his leave. As for the specific war arrangements, he would wait until Wuqi was appointed.

Based on the plan, Zhao Zhuang and the other generals would be appointed together and help Wuqi change the Qin army. As for the players, they had Tiandan and Lianpo.

For this battle, the famous generals of Yanhuang Alliance had all come out.

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

At night, Zhu Xu’s head was brought over the shore by an envoy.

When Xie Shi and Xie Xuan saw the head, they kept silent for a while. They were thinking back to the words that Zhu Xu had said not long ago. Their hearts were filled with guilt.

“Let’s bury Governor Zhu!” Xie Shi ordered.

“Yes!”

Ouyang Shuo was expressionless. Since the start of the battle, he had predicted that Zhu Xu would die. If it was him, he would not let Zhu Xu live either.

Di Chen’s actions were just normal.

“This battle will be a hard one.”

Who knows when, but Feng Qiuhuang suddenly appeared behind Ouyang Shuo and spoke.

Looking at the setting sun, Ouyang Shuo kept silent and did not say anything.

…

That afternoon, Xie Shi called to see Ouyang Shuo, “I agree with your suggestion.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Actually, Xie Shi did not have a choice, and he asked, “Can you send an elite force to sneak attack their grain transport group?”

To break the Qin army grain path was the key to winning this battle.

However, Ouyang Shuo had just arrived here. Even if he studied history books, he did not understand the exact situation of the battle and needed Xie Shi to give him his answer.

Xie Shi’s answer really disappointed Ouyang Shuo, “It’s really difficult, the Qin army is swarming toward Shouyang. On the roads are all Qin troops, so to sneak attack it is as hard as climbing the heavens.”

Ouyang Shuo kept silent.

A huge army had the difficulties of a huge army, but they also had their benefits – they were not so easy to sneak attack.

Xie Shi continued, “Late last night, the spy in the Qin army said that they are making big moves. Not only did they kill Zhu Xu, but they also removed Murong Chui and Yan Chang. Most crucially, Fu Jian appointed Wuqi as chief commander. Other than that, there was Wei Yan, Hua Xiong, and Zhao Zhuang. It seems like the player forces are taking control of the army.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded; the actions of Di Chen and the others were just as he had expected. If they did not know how to use these advantages, Di Chen would not be fit to be his opponent.

The only thing that surprised Ouyang Shuo was that Fu Jian actually allowed Wuqi to be the chief commander.

Wasn’t Fu Jian afraid? Maybe because he was afraid, so he did not care. He acted without the restraint; he just wanted to win.

Hence, the pressure on the East Jin camp grew greater and greater.

If Ouyang Shuo knew that there were five thousand more officers that moved into the Qin army, his head would probably swell.

Compared to Di Chen, there was a limit to the things that Ouyang Shuo could do. Looking at the 80 thousand Jin army, he could not do much. Xie Xuan was also the creator of the north house army, so even if Ouyang Shuo wanted to stick a general in, the north house army generals would not be happy.

This was the natural deficit of the East Jin camp.

Leaving the tent, Ouyang Shuo was thinking of a way to solve the problem. “Forget it; let’s just go and ask Wen He.”

At the key moment, it was best to use Jia Xu.

In Ouyang Shuo’s tent, Jia Xu, Huo Qubing, Ma Chao, Wang He, his other men, as well as Feng Qiuhuang, Wufu, and Gong Chengshi had all gathered together.

Since Jia Xu was present, Gong Chengshi did not bring his strategist, Jushou. The summoning talisman that Ouyang Shuo gave Gong Chengshi was not effective, and he summoned a civil servant.

Compared to the Yanhuang Alliance, the Shanhai Alliance general formation was far weaker. Apart from the Great Xia Dynasty, the other three territories did not have any huge names.

This battle was becoming tougher and tougher.

Chapter 895 - Enemy's Attack the Backlines

Chapter 895: Enemy’s Attack the Backlines

In the tent, Ouyang Shuo described the intel that Xie Shi had provided.

When everyone heard it, they kept silent.

Ouyang Shuo was really calm; he smiled and said, “What ideas do any of you have? Just say it out.”

“Wuyi, can we use your Flying Squad to bomb their camp and destroy their grain path?” Feng Qiuhuang knew that the enemy grain was crucial.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “You think too highly of the flying devices; they have a distance restriction. The moment the magnetic ohlite is used up, it needs to stop to recharge. The Battle Map does not have any airport that they can stop at. As such, if I send them out, they probably wo not be able to return.”

“…”

The mimicry flying device was the secret weapon of the Great Xia Dynasty. As a result, very few players understood the theory behind it.

After listening to Ouyang Shuo’s explanation, she felt that the flying device was like a weak chicken.

Ouyang Shuo did not explain. In truth, the current flying devices were like the strategic bombers in real life. They needed to be placed on suitable carriers to have the highest value.

As a result, the Flying Squad was on the deck of the warships.

Gong Chengshi said, “Wuqi has just taken over and needs a period to adapt. Why don’t we attack tomorrow at their weakest period?”

When Feng Qiuhuang heard that, she stared at him, “You’re dumb but Di Chen and the others are not. The Qin camp has 400 thousand player troops waiting. To attack now is to fall into their trap.”

Gong Chengshi scratched his head awkwardly.

Feng Qiuhuang’s tenacity and fierceness was something that even Ouyang Shuo feared.

All of them spoke, but they could not come up with a good idea. Seeing that they could not think of a plan, he looked at Jia Xu, “Wen He, speak your thoughts.”

With a ‘Shua!’ all of them focused their eyes on Jia Xu. Since he joined the Great Xia Dynasty, Feng Qiuhuang and the others had heard of his vicious tactics.

Jia Xu said, “The key to the battle is still their backline. If they manage to gather up the million troops, we will pretty much lose. However, if we crush their million troops, the former Qin will be in chaos and lose automatically.”

“The million Qin army is split into three parts. First, there are 150 thousand on the west of Fei River. Secondly, the hundreds of thousands in Shouyang, and thirdly, the ones that are still rushing over. The vanguard force has player troops helping out. As such, the chances of them falling into chaos are not high; if they do not panic, the chances of the Shouyang army panicking are not high either. Hence, the easiest to strike is the third one.”

Ouyang Shuo said, “So we want to sneak attack the backlines of the former Qin?”

Jia Xu nodded, “Although Xie Shu says that it is problematic, we have no choice. To crush them, we need a spark. Originally, their vanguard force was the spark, but now, we can only look for the next best one.”

“My king, I suggest having five thousand cavalry as one fighting squad, sending out three to four to enter the front Qin territory. Be it grain or troops rushing over to gather, strike them.”

Gong Chengshi asked, “Why send three to four such cavalry forces and not gather them together?”

Jia Xu explained, “Since we are infiltrating their backlines, we cannot be too huge of a target. Five thousand elite cavalry is already the max. Numerous cavalry forces hitting different places can confuse them as to how many men we have.”

Feng Qiuhuang’s eyes lit up, “The cavalry we send can also spread the news that the frontline army has fallen to crush their mental defenses.”

“Good idea.” Jia Xu nodded.

Ouyang Shuo waited for everyone to finish before saying, “Since that’s the case, the Great Xia Dynasty and Fallen Phoenix City will each send out one elite cavalry force to disturb their backlines. As for guides, I’ll go ask Xie Shi for them.”

Although it was risky to attack their backlines, the reward was huge. The hundreds of thousands of Qin troops were like wheat waiting to be harvested, and they would give large amounts of merit points.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo wanted to share it with his allies and did not take everything for himself.

Apart from strategic considerations, Ouyang Shuo was not willing to move too many guards at once. The 2nd legion he brought this time was not only the stabilizing needle of the Shanhai Alliance, but it was also the one that threatened the 370 thousand player force. In a certain sense, it calmed down the entire East Jin.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Huo Qubing, “General Huo, for this mission, let Cao Chun execute it.”

“Yes my king!”

Originally, attacking an enemy’s backlines was Huo Qubing’s specialty. However, as the only God General here, he needed to take control of the entire army and could not leave.

Luckily, the original Tiger Leopard Cavalry commander Cao Chun had gained many insights from Huo Qubing in terms of sneak attacks.

As for the 2nd legion Legion General Ma Chao, he needed to lead the 2nd legion. Moreover, as a result of his personality, he was not suitable.

Seeing that the king had arranged the matter, Jia Xu continued, “What Lord Feng Qiuhuang mentioned just now, although cannot be used as a main method, it can be used to support. However, we will not bomb their backlines but their frontlines.”

“How so?” Feng Qiuhuang was not convinced.

Jia Xu explained, “First, the former Qin vanguard forces are housed right opposite us and are within range. Secondly, the target is obvious; the aim is not to cause damage but to poke at their psychological states.”

“We must keep them in a tensed up state and a highly stressful environment. Only then will they crack under pressure, and that’s something even Wuqi cannot prevent.”

When Feng Qiuhuang heard that, she was filled with envy. If only she had such a strategist by her side.

Ouyang Shuo was really calm but a look of worry appeared in his eyes. Although Jia Xu’s ideas were good, they were only support methods and were not killer blows.

They still lacked a strategy for the main battlefield.

Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo said, “Do you think we can do anything about Yao Chang and Murong Chui? They are both prideful people and will not be happy about this.”

“They definitely will not.” Jia Xu’s eyes lit up, and he said, “The two of them represent the Xianbei and Qiang Races and are the founders of later Qin and later Yan. They will not be happy about their power getting removed.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded; this was why Fu Jian did not dare to kill them. Thinking of this, Ouyang Shuo decided to find Xie Shi to use East Jin spies to contact the two of them.

No matter the outcome, a little probing could not be bad.

What needed to be said had mostly been said, so Ouyang Shuo asked, “Do you have anything to add?” All of them shook their heads, but Ouyang Shuo noticed that Jia Xu wanted to say something. However, in the end, he did not.

“Since that’s the case, I’ll gather the other Lords to report this situation.”

Unity was strength.

No matter what the other Lords were thinking, at least in this Battle Map, their interests were the same. Only by tying all 370 thousand player troops on the same cart could they have a chance of winning.

Feng Qiuhuang and the others naturally did not have any opinions.

After leaving, Ouyang Shuo asked Jia Xu, “Wen He, what did you want to say just now?”

Jia Xu nodded, “My king, this battle is going to be really hard.”

“What did you foresee?”

Jia Xu said, “If I’m them, I would not remain at the shore. East Jin has a lot of territory that they can conquer.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “This is what I’m the most worried about. If they strike out, this is not what East Jin can handle.”

“Wen He, we also need to prepare early.”

As he said that, the two of them started a secret conversation.

…

5 PM, close to dinner time.

At this very moment, rumbling noises sounded out in the air above the former Qin camp.

The Great Xia Dynasty Flying Squad had arrived, throwing down burning bombs. The sounds of the bombing and the flames mixed together, sending the camp into chaos.

The former Qin army had never seen such a scene before and were scared expressionless.

“No good; it’s on fire!”

Luckily, this did not happen while both sides were at a standstill. The soldiers were all resting in their own camps. If not, just this round of bombing would be enough to send the Qin army into total chaos.

Even so, the entire camp was in a mess.

War horses neighing, people shouting, soldiers dodging the bombings while taking water to extinguish the fire.

When Wuqi, Wei Yan, and Hua Xiong saw that, they coordinated with the player communication officers to maintain order and calm down the soldiers.

Just then, on the East Coast, three cavalry forces sneaked out of the camp and crossed the Huai River with the help of the Yashan squadron 1st division, disappearing into the night sky.

The Battle of Fei River had officially begun.

Chapter 896 - Battle at Jingzhou

Chapter 896: Battle at Jingzhou

Fei River west shore, Qin Army Camp.

Di Chen and the rest gathered together. Looking at the panicky camp, they felt a huge headache.

Sha Pojun grumbled, “I just do not get it. How could Gaia allow such a bug weapon to exist?” Although he said that, there was unconcealable envy in his tone.

“That guy has the ability.” Xiong Ba could not stand Sha Pojun the most.

Wuqi and Di Chen stood together, “This air siege is not a bad thing. At least, it reminded us to split the Qin Army Camp apart and mix it in with players.”

“General is right, we must do that.” Di Chen nodded.

A sudden air assault ended the second day of the Battle Map.

…

Night, Qin Army Camp.

Fu Jian gathered the various generals for a meeting. Di Chen was also in attendance.

Looking out, half of the generals came from the Yanhuang Alliance. Since Wuqi was the chief commander, he sat at the first seat of the generals; it was a really eye-catching sight.

Although Murong Chui and Yao Chang sat in the front row, their expressions were really despondent. They did not understand how they suddenly lost power overnight.

After taking charge for a day, Wuqi had a basic understanding of the situation of the million Qin troops. As for how they should fight this war, as the chief commander, Wuqi needed to take out a feasible plan.

The huge problem in front of them was how to solve the grain issue.

Although the Yanhuang Alliance brought a large quantity of military grain pills, it could not sustain such astonishing usage. Based on such a speed, they would run out in five days.

No matter how much Fu Jian rushed the grain transport troops, they could not provide for 550 thousand troops.

Wuqi said, “It’s actually really simple.”

“General, what plan do you have?” Fu Jian’s eyes lit up.

Wuqi said, “Our troops are lined up on the west shore. Facing 50 thousand troops, it is a huge problem to hit Jiankang, but no one is stopping us from attacking Jingzhou.”

“So the general wants to split our troops into two?”

Fu Jian was obviously hesitating. He was planning to directly take down Jiankang and unify China.

Wuqi said, “That’s right. I suggest we leave 300 thousand troops at Fei River to continue the standstill with the enemy. The remaining 250 thousand will turn toward Yuzhou to obtain Jingzhou.”

Seeing Fu Jian hesitating, Wuqi continued, “Splitting into two has two benefits. First, it can solve our grain problem. With our current logistics ability, 300 thousand is our max. The other group can walk through Yuzhou and take down Jingzhou to collect up all the grain and reduce our logistical burden.”

“Secondly, we can suppress East Jin. Although said to be hundred thousand, Jingzhou Governor’s troops are not elites like the north house army. If we crush them, we can go down the Changjiang and take Jiankang.”

When Wuqi talked about the second benefit, Fu Jian was moved, “Okay, let’s follow that plan.”

…

The next morning, 250 thousand Qin troops set off.

Adding in the 30 thousand that Fu Rong had sent before, the former Qin army had 280 thousand troops in the Jingzhou battle. If nothing went wrong, Huan Chong’s forces in Jingzhou would fall.

The Qin army sent this time had 50 thousand Handan army troops as the core, and they were led by General Lianpo. There were also five territory armies following, and the remaining 100 thousand were Qin natives.

Strangely, in the Yanhuang Alliance camp, only Di Chen and Wandering Magic sent a number of forces. Logically speaking, Jingzhou would be a great opportunity to farm merit points.

Chun Shenjun and the others could actually bear not competing with Di Chen for food.

On the Fei River west coast, Fu Jian took charge himself. Fu Rong accompanied Wuqi to Shouyang to accept the remaining Qin troops there and contact the other groups of soldiers that were gathering up.

At the moment, 300 thousand Qin troops had gathered up in Shouyang, and they could help assist the main battlefield at any moment.

Hence, Fu Jian dared to take charge of the Fei River west coast like nothing was happening.

…

The actions of the Qin army were quickly found out by East Jin.

When Xie Shi got the news, he was anxious and immediately held an emergency meeting. Ouyang Shuo brought Huo Qubing and Jia Xu and appeared in the meeting hall.

The atmosphere in the tent was really depressed and hard to breathe.

The 80 thousand Jin army would not be able to save Jingzhou, so the only saving grace was the player forces.

Looking at Xie Shi, who looked over, Ouyang Shuo said, “Commander, the player army can send 100 thousand elite cavalry to help Huan Chong’s forces.”

Moving 100 thousand was already the max that Ouyang Shuo and Jia Xu came up with after their discussion. With that, there would only be 300 thousand player troops and 80 thousand Jin troops.

The opposing former Qin camp had 250 thousand players and 350 thousand Qin troops.

As a God General, Wuqi was skilled in using troops. He arranged for an army to go down south. Apart from attacking Jingzhou, he also probably wanted to draw away some troops.

If the East Jin camp sent too many troops, the main camp would be empty. Ouyang Shuo believed that Wuqi would not let go of such a time, and he would decisively cross the river to have a final battle.

At that time, they would lose everything.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo’s strategy was to drag, drag until the troops that infiltrated the north achieved their magic, drag until Murong Chui and Yao Chang made their decisions.

At that time, it would be their chance to turn the tables.

Before that, the East Jin must be ready to face all the pressure or the battle would turn ugly.

To ensure the strength of the cavalry, Ouyang Shuo decided to let Ma Chao lead the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Tiger Leopard Cavalry Divisions to Jingzhou.

The remaining cavalry would be taken from the other territory armies.

The Lords who joined the Battle Map were not afraid of fighting. In fact, they were afraid that there was no war to fight and no chance to earn battle contribution points. Hence, when they heard that they were going to face off against Lianpo in Jingzhou, they quickly registered.

Upon getting Ouyang Shuo’s reply, Xie Shi let out a sigh of relief and smiled, “That’s great!” In his smile, there was a tinge of bitterness because he realized that the war would not be controlled by him.

The players were the stars of this war.

To lead a strong army with a weak regiment would never work. No matter how low profile Ouyang Shuo was, and no matter how much he respected Xie Shi, in crucial strategies, it would expose their relationship.

Ouyang Shuo was really calm. As the king of a dynasty, his position and power were even higher than East Jin Emperor Sima Yao, much less Xie Shi.

Ouyang Shuo respecting Xie Shi only because he respected the Battle Map rules of Gaia.

To achieve victory in the Battle of Fei River, Ouyang Shuo needed to control the strategies. On this point, Ouyang Shuo would not budge.

At the end of the meeting, Xie Shi kept Ouyang Shuo alone.

Xie Shi said, “I have already sent men to contact Murong Chui and Yao Chang.”

“What are their attitudes?” Ouyang Shuo asked in concern.

Xie Shi shook his head, “Those two old foxes, seeing how strong the Qin army is, even if they are unhappy, they do not dare to make noises.”

Ouyang Shuo understood, “Commander, please tell them that if they want to get out of Fu Jian’s control and go up north, we can help at anytime.”

Murong Chui and Yao Chang were under Fu Jian’s camp and were under his monitoring, so they naturally did not dare to act.

Apart from the Qin army getting the advantage, the hesitation stemmed from how they would also be unable to escape. Ouyang Shuo thought back to the marines he brought. As long as the two wanted to escape, Ouyang Shuo was confident in sending them away through the ocean route.

Xie Shi doubted this and asked, “How confident are you?”

“90%.”

Xie Shi nodded, “Great, I’ll think of a way to get the intel over. With a way out, their attitude will change. Let’s hope the change in the north will come quicker.”

After sending the three cavalry forces away, Ouyang Shuo had reported to Xie Shi.

“It will come soon.”

Ouyang Shuo firmly believed that the million Qin army would fall quickly. Even with Wuqi’s ability, he could not let this army be reborn in such a short time.

No one could do that.

…

In the following few days, the Battle Map seemed really peaceful.

It was like the calm before the storm. Both sides had already played their cards and were waiting to collect the rewards.

Surprisingly, the first to start war was not Cao Chun’s forces but Lianpo’s, who had entered Yuzhou.

Under Jia Xu’s suggestion, Ma Chao led 100 thousand elite cavalry around Lianpo’s forces to gather with Huan Chong’s forces. Hence, when Lianpo’s forces passed Yuzhou, they did not face any resistance.

Jiangnan was a rich place and was the home of fish and rice. Of course, the rich lives corroded away at their killing intent, and the city naturally had few who dared to fight the invaders.

Seeing one city after another easily taken down and the granaries stacked full of grain, Lianpo was tempted. He ordered his troops to slow down and gather up more grain.

Apart from saving some for their own use, the remaining was transported back to the main camp.

In his eyes, crushing Huan Chong’s troops was nothing difficult. Since he could amass more grain, why not?

That was a huge contribution.

Lianpo’s intentions were good, but he thought too highly of their character.

Although Di Chen arranged many communication officers, it only changed their command system but not their behavior and character.

The Qin soldiers were mainly minorities. Naturally, they did not recognize the Han Race in the south. Seeing Jiangshan and its riches, their greed and brutality was revealed.

Along the way, many rape and pillaging incidents happened, and it looked like it was getting more and more common.

Chapter 897 - Jingzhou Defeat

Chapter 897: Jingzhou Defeat

Lianpo’s wrong thought caused the situation in the Qin army to get slightly out of control.

The Qin army originally had a lot of racial disputes and factions being set up. As such, some of them were naturally unhappy about Wuqi’s appointment as chief commander. If not, Fu Jian would not arrange for Fu Rong to accompany Wuqi to Shouyang.

These soldiers did not care about Lianpo. Along with Murong Chui and Yao Chang suddenly being removed, the Qiang and Xianbei soldiers became unhappy. After leaving the main camp, they naturally became bolder and bolder.

When Lianpo realized that the situation was not right, it was too late.

As an old general and famous general, Lianpo knew that the more basic the soldier, the more they liked to create their small circles amongst soldiers. If one tried to suppress them, it would turn against them and the situation would become unsalvageable.

The only way was to allow them to continue and allow them to slowly yield to you.

In ancient times, they were many generals who allowed their soldiers to burn, pillage, rob, and rape. Even some famous generals had that habit as a form of reward for their soldiers.

Between morals and victory, Lianpo chose the latter.

Lianpo’s actions made the Qin soldiers really pleased, and their opinions toward this general changed slightly. However, as no one stopped them, they became bolder and bolder.

Everywhere the soldiers passed, lives would be taken and buildings would be burned. Civilians grumbled and moaned, forming a miserable sight.

Even if it were bandits who entered the city, they were not this brutal. To the civilians living in the south, how would they have faced such scenes? As they felt fear, the hatred and anger in their hearts built up.

As for the refugees who escaped down from the north, they could not help but remember their own paths. This time, however, they had nowhere to go.

Although Lianpo did not want to allow it, he had no ability to stop it. At the later stages, even the player soldiers joined in.

As the main general, the only thing that Lianpo could keep in control was the 50 thousand Handan City soldiers. With that, it caused the Handan City soldiers to complain against their general.

“So unfair.”

This time, Lianpo became public enemy number one.

Along with the army proceeding forward, their brutality spread too, all around Yizhou. When the civilians ahead got the news, they were so afraid that they left the cities and headed into the deep mountains.

Before leaving, they hid the grain. As for the things that they could not hide, they destroyed it with fire. When forced into a corner, even the weak would show signs of fighting back.

Apart from escaping into the mountains, they also acted viciously against the Qin army soldiers. Those Qin soldiers who went out alone, many of them did not return.

The further south they went, the tougher and tougher it was.

At the start, Lianpo sent large amounts of grain back. At this time, even their own grain needed to be scoured from all around to gather the sufficient amount.

The morale of the army was hit.

If this continued on, Lianpo would need to ask from grain from the main camp. This made Lianpo, who loved face, to feel really ashamed.

To gather up more grain, their traveling speed became slower and slower.

Just like that, they walked and stopped. On the 11th day of the Battle Map, Lianpo’s forces finally crossed Yuzhou and entered the Jingzhou region. East Jin’s Yuzhou was not that of the Three Kingdoms Era, and it was only the south portion.

In comparison, Jingzhou was like 10 Yuzhous.

Lianpo entering Jingzhou was like a fish entering the ocean. He heaved a sigh of relief. As long as he took down Huan Chong’s forces, the tough times would be over.

However, the moment the army reached Jingzhou, Lianpo got bad news, “The 30 thousand army sent by Fu Rong into Jingzhou has been crushed by Huan Chong’s forces.”

…

Why would the 30 thousand Qin troops suddenly fall? This matter began on the night that Ouyang Shuo learned that Wuqi was appointed as the chief commander.

That day, Ouyang Shuo and Jia Xu discussed to the dead of night. One of their arrangements was against the 30 thousand troops of the Qin army.

Ouyang Shuo knew that if this 30 thousand were remodeled by Wuqi, they would become a huge problem. On the contrary, before Wuqi came into contact with this force, they were a bunch of scattered sand.

The Battle of Fei River in history has proved the unreliability of this Qin army.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo visited Xie Shi at night to ask him to order Huan Chong to attack and destroy those forces.

Of the current East Jin, the Huan family that Huan Chong was from was a huge family. Huan Chong himself was also an experienced general, and the 100 thousand under him were all battle trained.

Although they could not be compared to the north house army, for him and Xie Xuan to split east and west proved that his army was strong too.

When Huan Chong got the order, he took the initiative to attack. The 30 thousand Qin army was naturally crushed in one battle.

…

When he got the news, Lianpo was speechless and a sense of uneasiness rose up in his heart for the first time. Before arriving, Lianpo had sent communications officers into Jingzhou to contact the forces to settle on a meeting point.

Those officers did not return, making Lianpo confused.

Now that the truth was out, Lianpo felt a bit of respect toward Huan Chong for the first time.

Of course, it was only a little.

Based on the intel provided by Fu Jian, Huan Chong had just 100 thousand troops. Not to mention the 250 thousand troops they had, but even with just the 150 thousand player army, Lianpo felt confident about crushing Huan Chong’s forces.

Their fighting strength was not even of the same standard.

Huan Chong crushing the 30 thousand Qin troops was not enough to cause Lianpo to worry. In the main camp, Lianpo had witnessed how ‘strong’ the million Qin army was.

“At least now it gets a little interesting?”

Gazing at the middle of Jingzhou, Lianpo was really confident. The only thing he worried about was that the Lord said that East Jin also had a force of player troops that came down south.

However, Lianpo did not know their numbers, composition, generals, and the like. On the way down south, the Qin army did not face any resistance, which confused Lianpo.

“Even if you all are fast, how fast can they be?” Lianpo muttered.

If Lianpo knew that East Jin had sent 100 thousand cavalry under Ma Chao’s lead to rush day and night to Jingzhou, he would not be so confident.

Due to the actions of Lianpo’s army, Ma Chao’s forces had arrived in Jingzhou six days in advance.

After Huan Chong’s forces destroyed the 30 thousand Qin troops, they went up north to gather with Ma Chao’s forces.

Four days ago, these two armies had successfully met up.

In such a crucial battle, four days were enough to change the battle progression. Just as Lianpo’s army stepped into Jingzhou, a huge net had already been placed down, and they were just waiting for the prey.

Lianpo’s actions in Yazhou had changed the outcome of the battle.

Originally, Ma Chao had followed the king’s orders to drag Lianpo’s army for as long as he could. Who knew that Lianpo’s army would ask to die, giving Ma Chao’s army a chance.

After meeting, Ma Chao and Huan Chong clicked instantly, and they were preparing to give Lianpo a huge gift.

…

12th day of the Battle Map, Jingzhou, Jiangxia Prefecture, Anlu City.

Jiangxia Prefecture was a place where one had to pass when one went from Yuzhou to Jingzhou. Moreover, Anlu was the governing city of the prefecture. Further south of Jiangxia would be Nanping Prefecture, which was where the famous Battle of Red Cliff happened.

Anlu City was built against water, a strategic location.

If Lianpo’s forces wanted to enter the middle of Jingzhou, they had to go past Anlu.

20 miles out of Anlu City was a luscious forest. Both sides had hills, and only the path in the middle could be traversed.

At 11 AM, Lianpo’s army was walking on the path. Following the mountain path, twisting and turning, a magnificent sight.

“General, it’s too narrow here; there might be an ambush,” the deputy general said.

Although Lianpo was old, his body and bones were still young and fresh. As he rode his horse, he had the aura of a great general. He rubbed his moustache and smiled, “The enemy is hundreds of miles away, what ambush?”

“I’m worrying too much.”

At this very moment, a change occurred.

Thousands of flags rose up from the hills on both sides. Looking out, in the bushes and the forest, who knows how many soldiers were hiding.

“No good, there’s an ambush!” Lianpo was astonished.

The moment he said that, an arrow rain shot down from both sides. The enemy had the height advantage, and they were also ambushing them, catching them off guard.

In an instant, they suffered heavy casualties.

“Form up, archers retaliate!”

Lianpo was an experienced general. He knew that the mountain path was long so charging out was impossible. The only way would be to fight back.

The 150 thousand player army could be said to be calm. After all, they were the elite forces of each Lord. However, the 100 thousand Qin army was bad. When faced with the sudden sneak attack, they were instantly in chaos.

Although they had player communication officers, they could only prevent them from collapsing. As for immediately counter attacking, they could not manage to do that.

To not run away and escape was already a big improvement.

The counter attack of Lianpo’s army was too weak. After all, one side had a height advantage, which could not be made up.

When Lianpo saw that, he looked at the hill of both sides. As it was too long, he could not deduce how many enemies there were.

There might be tens of thousands of even hundreds of thousands.

Lianpo deduced that this army definitely was not only Huan Chong’s forces. With their courage, the only possibility would be the East Jin player forces that went down south.

“In a narrow road, the brave survive.”

Lianpo gritted his teeth. He decided to order the troops to charge up the mountain and assault. To take hits on the path was just stupid. Only by charging up would they have a chance of victory.

Chapter 898 - Ma Chao Is Here, Old Lianpo Cannot Leave

Chapter 898: Ma Chao Is Here, Old Lianpo Cannot Leave

On the mountain path north of Anlu City, Lianpo ordered the troops to charge. In a short while, the huge army was like a colony of ants, clustering toward the two hills as they tried to regain their own destinies.

The truth proved that resistance was futile.

Just as the Qin army charged, Ma Chao’s forces had already kept their bows and got onto their horses. With the coordination of the commander, they all charged forward.

“Charge!”

Just imagine, infantry climbing up a hill and cavalry charging down a hill, what would happen?

What followed was a real tragedy.

If one said that the Qin army climbing up the hill was ants fighting against their destiny, then the Jin army charging down was like a flood, unstoppable and unavoidable. They instantly destroyed and flooded this colony of ants.

In front of this giant wave, the Qin army soldiers could not do anything as the current forced them back. They could not control their fates, and they were stepped on by numerous horses into mud.

On the hill, fresh blood flowed like a river.

The moment he saw the cavalry, Lianpo felt his heart sink, and he nearly could not breathe.

The first to collapse were the 100 thousand natives. Under the orders of their officers, they braved the arrow rain and charged at the hill.

When the cavalry launched their charge, the frontline forces were crushed easily. At the same time, their last bit of courage vanished. Each one of them ran with their tails tucked between their legs.

The 250 thousand army walked on the mountain path, stretching tens of miles. When the order to attack was given, the frontlines had already gotten up half the hill while the ones at the back had not even gotten the order.

The defeat of the front caused the back to lose courage, so they all dispersed. No matter how strong the commander was, he could not prevent this from happening.

“Kill!”

How would the East Jin player forces give up such a great opportunity? They immediately chased. At the same time, Huan Chong’s forces, who were lying in wait at one side, charged out and pincered the Qin army.

Everywhere along the hill, slaughter was taking place.

“Retreat!”

Lianpo frowned. He knew that it was over. The morale of the army was at freezing point, and they had no more ability to fight. All he could do was to try and salvage as many of them as he could.

Thinking back to when he said there was no chance of there being an ambush, Lianpo felt really regretful and ashamed.

100 thousand Qin natives were at the back lines, which blocked their way north. Helplessly, Lianpo could only lead his troops forward to get out of this path.

Luckily, the natives were at the back. If not, once they fell and tried to retreat, they would drag the entire army down with them.

“These fellows are totally useless.”

Luckily, the 150 thousand player troops in the Qin camp had some ability. Although they faced a sudden situation, they did not panic. After their front troops fell, they immediately got into formation on the mountain path.

The East Jin cavalry charging down from the hill was an invincible presence, but they definitely did not dare come onto the mountain path because they would be trapped if they did so.

As an old general, Lianpo was really sharp and experienced. He used the army to block the enemy cavalry attacks while covering their main force to retreat.

As for the 100 thousand natives, Lianpo did not care about them anymore.

…

At a high ground someplace on the hill, Ma Chao looked down at the entire situation. Beside him was his brother, the Major General of the 3rd division, Ma Xiu.

Ma Xiu pointed at Lianpo’s forces and said, “General, Lianpo is about to escape!”

In the Great Xia Dynasty, Ma Xiu and other Three Kingdom Generals had all changed their habits. Like in the army, Ma Xiu would not call Ma Chao brother, and their current relationship was that of superior and subordinate.

Ma Chao focused his eyes and said, “We cannot let that happen. Gather your forces, we will personally chase them!”

“Yes general!”

In a short while, the Tiger Leopard Cavalry that had not participated in the battle was thrown in.

Ma Chao decided to personally lead the charge, “Charge!”

The strong Tiger Leopard Cavalry were a level higher than that of the other territory’s cavalry. The others were not good on mountain paths, but the Tiger Leopard Legion was different.

“Kill!”

Ma Chao and Ma Xiu personally led them to charge into Lianpo’s army.

This time, victory was decided quickly.

The formation that seemed strong and indestructible was like paper. With a general like Ma Chao in charge, in addition to the elite Tiger Leopard Cavalry, who could stop them?

In a short while, the Tiger Leopard Cavalry opened up a bloody road on the mountain path.

The morale of the elite cavalry of the other territories rose when they saw this. They would not admit that they were weaker, and they charged too. All of a sudden, the flames of war spread from the hill to the mountain path, and the killing grew more and more intense.

Both sides had casualties, so it was time to see who was more vicious.

Ma Chao did not care about the situation and led his troops to chase Lianpo; he shouted, “Ma Chao is here, Lianpo old man, you’re not going to leave.”

When Lianpo heard that, he was so furious that he nearly vomited blood. Although he loved his face, he was really tolerant. He knew that now was not the time to argue back.

When Ma Chao saw that, he led his troops to chase.

With the speed of the Tiger Leopard Cavalry, there was no force that could outrun them. With that, the Tiger Leopard Cavalry were carrot harvesters, cutting off piece by piece.

However, the mountain path was narrow. Even if Lianpo wanted to form up a huge defensive formation, he could not.

He could only sacrifice some to save some.

Lianpo hated this mountain path for being so long; it was like there was no end to it. To the retreating Lianpo army, every second and minute was a huge torture.

The Tiger Leopard Cavalry were like a pack of hungry wolves that would not stop until they got what they wanted.

To chase Lianpo, Ma Chao even abandoned the main battlefield. It was not him losing his head. Rather, he had seen the key to this battle.

Lianpo was the key figure to this Qin army. If he took him down, the rest would not amount to much. As for the main battlefield, Huan Chong and the other territory generals could handle it.

The two armies, one chasing, one escaping; they ran for a full half an hour before they got out of the mountain path. Ma Chao shouted once more together with the cavalry soldiers, “Lianpo, old man, do not run!”

Seeing their main general being humiliated, the Handan City soldiers were really unhappy. They grumbled that they wanted to go all out against the Tiger Legion cavalry, but Lianpo stopped them.

Lianpo was an old fox and knew that the enemy was trying to anger him. They wanted to bait him into going all out in a fight. Obviously, he was not falling for that.

Regarding this trip to Jingzhou, Lianpo was given an important task by his Lord, and it concerned a huge plan.

Who knew that he would fail?

If the Handan City Army fell here, he would have no face to see his Lord ever again.

Walking out of the mountain path, the land suddenly became really open and vast.

Lianpo had no intentions of going all out in a fight. Instead, he split the forces into three and decided to meet up in Yuzhou.

When Ma Chao led his troops to chase out, he saw the three groups and was stunned.

“Big Brother, which one should we chase?” Ma Xiu asked.

Ma Chao gritted his teeth, “You and I chase one each.” Ma Chao did not believe they would let Lianpo escape in a three choose two scenario.

It was not that Ma Chao did not want to split his forces into three. However, they had limited strength. If they spread themselves too thin, they might lose instead.

Ma Chao might look like a fierce general, but he actually had a brain.

…

However, Ma Chao had underestimated the craftiness of Lianpo.

Lianpo was not in any of the three groups. He brought his Personal Guards and remained in a small forest at the side of the mountain path.

When the Tiger Leopard Cavalry left, only then did he walk out and disappear into the wilderness.

Following which, he came to a village, where he ‘borrowed’ clothes and changed before heading back toward Yuzhou.

…

Close to nighttime, Ma Chao led his troops back. Not long later, Ma Xiu also led his troops and returned. The two of them exchanged glances and saw the disappointment in the others’ eyes.

Ma Chao scolded out, “That old fox!”

“Ginger is hotter as it gets older.”

Although he did not capture Lianpo, the East Jin camp had obtained a victory today.

In this battle, less than 100 thousand of Lianpo’s army survived.

Only 50 thousand of the player troops had survived. After the Qin army natives fled, they disappeared into the Jingzhou wilderness.

Just one battle had made them afraid.

An easy, south-conquering mission became a huge defeat.

Of course, the East Jin camp had paid a price, and close to 50 thousand of them fell into eternal slumber. Huan Chong’s forces lost the most, and a total of 30 thousand of them had died.

Even so, Huan Chong could hide his excitement and joy.

Without a question, this victory was enough for Huan Chong to ask for rewards from the king. Along with the credit for destroying the 30 thousand Qin troops from before, Huan Chong had shone brightly in this battle.

He was not much worse in comparison to Xie Xuan.

At night, Ma Chao met with Huan Chong to discuss the next military action.

Before this, the king had given him instructions. Naturally, Ma Chao followed the instructions and said, “General Huan, I’ll lead my troops back to Yuzhou to crush the remaining enemy forces. As for those scattered in Jingzhou, I’ll leave it up to you.”

Huan Chong was delighted when he heard that, and the smile on his face grew wider. Huan Chong knew that those in Jingzhou were natives and did not have much combat strength, so it was easy to clear them out.

The player forces fleeing to Yuzhou were the real tough nuts to crack. Now that Ma Chao took the initiative to take the task, how could Huan Chong not be delighted?

Huan Chong cupped his fists, “We are all working for the Imperial Court; general is being too polite.”

Ma Chao nodded. After a short while, he said goodbye and left. He was not working for the East Jin Imperial Court but the Great Xia Dynasty.

The next morning, Ma Chao gathered up the 80 thousand player forces that survived and headed back.

Chapter 899 - Frontline Fails, Back Garden on Fire

Chapter 899: Frontline Fails, Back Garden on Fire

News regarding the Battle of Jingzhou quickly spread back to the main camp. Fu Jian was furious. Looking at Di Chen with wariness, he gritted his teeth, “This is the promise you gave to me?”

His words were shot out with rage. Fu Jian felt like he was played. Before the army left, Di Chen had promised that it would succeed. Who knew that such a glorious outcome would occur?

Di Chen was ashamed and did not know how to reply.

In truth, there was no one more depressed than him. He only brought 50 thousand troops and half of them fell in the Jingzhou battlefield. Although he had obtained some battle contribution points, it was far from what he wanted.

On this matter, Di Chen owed Chun Shenjun and the others a big favor. Now, on the surface, they did not say anything. However, deep down, they were probably laughing out loud.

Facing Fu Jian’s chiding, Di Chen did not know how to retort. A large part of why they were defeated was because of the hundred thousand Qin troops.

If it were not for them not listening to instructions, pillaging, raping, burning, and robbing on the way, they would not have slowed down the speed and wasted enough time for the Jin army to set up their ambush.

However, Lianpo gathering up grain along the way and using up time was also the truth, so Di Chen had no way to retort. Furthermore, Fu Jian was really angry now and fighting back would be asking for trouble.

Di Chen wanted to avoid the topic but someone was not willing and stepped out, “Your highness, Lianpo was ordered to conquer the south, but he went to gather grain instead. He should be held responsible for the defeat.”

The one who spoke was Yao Chang. When he and Murong Chui learned about the defeat in Jingzhou, their eyes lit up.

Fu Jian nodded his head, “Lianpo is truly getting clumsy as he grows older.”

Di Chen was furious, and he scolded out in his heart, ‘Shameless!’ When the large quantity of grain was transported back, Fu Jian even praised Lianpo. How did he change his tune so suddenly?

However, when facing Fu Jian, Di Chen really could not criticize him.

The meeting ended in unhappiness as everyone went their separate ways.

…

Fu Jian thought that the loss at Jingzhou was bad enough, but who knew that a bigger calamity was about to happen? The next day, intel reports spread forth from the north.

Chao Chun’s sneak attacks up north had finally caught their attention.

The combination of the three elite cavalry forces was causing huge damage to the traveling Qin army. It was not much in the first few days, but along with more and more troops being attacked, the entire north region was tense.

All of a sudden, rumors flew about.

As more and more rumors spread around, the rumors would become the truth.

Just yesterday, there were forces that could not take it anymore, dispersing. This caused a chain reaction as more and more deserters appeared. The situation seemed to be escalating.

At this very moment, news that Murong Chui and Yao Chang were in soft arrest spread out. Hearing the news, the Qiang and Xianbei people in the army were furious. Out of all the deserters, most of them came from these two races.

After escaping, under someone’s organization, they hid in the former Qin land.

Hidden currents flowed through the entire north.

When Fu Jian got the news, he felt more and more uneasy.

The frontlines were falling while his back garden was set ablaze. His confidence that was being built up was shaken once more.

For this, Wuqi and Fu Rong had no choice but to hurry back from Shouyang to calm him down. Wuqi said, “Your highness, the 300 thousand troops in Shouyang have been formed up and can be thrown onto the battlefield. Hence, we have 600 thousand troops on the frontlines. We have the absolute advantage, and the situation is still under control.”

“What about the chaos within the country?” Fu Jian asked.

Wuqi said, “You only need to arrange a general to lead a light cavalry unit up north to give orders and clear up the rumors. With that, the situation will stabilize.”

Obviously, the matter was not as simply as Wuqi described. However, as a general of the Yanhuang Alliance, Wuqi needed to ensure that Fu Jian had the confidence to fight.

The successive blows had unsettled Fu Jian. Listening to Wuqi’s analysis, it was like a drowning person grasping at straws. He just believed what he heard.

“Ok!” Fu Jian nodded.

Fu Jian was in a bad situation. If he fought, he did not have a high chance of winning; if he backed off, he would not feel good. If he ran back to his country like this, where would he place his face?

Hence, before the situation turned bad, Fu Jian could only continue forward. He had no other choice.

…

Night, Murong Chui’s tent.

In the tent, apart from Murong Chui the owner, Yao Chang was there too.

On the table was an opened letter.

“What do you think?” Murong Chui asked Yao Chang.

Yao Chang replied, “No matter what, we need to leave the camp first.”

“Can they be trusted?”

“Let’s try; it’s better than being trapped here.”

“Ok, let’s take a gamble.” Murong Chui knew that the chaos in the north was their best chance. If they missed it, they would have no hope of rebuilding their nation.

The two of them discussed. After disguising, they snuck out of the camp and arrived at a quiet location on the west shore. The marines of the Great Xia Dynasty were already waiting there.

After both sides met, they quietly dived into the Fei River and swam against the current into the Huai River.

…

The next morning, news of their disappearance spread out in the Qin camp. Some people said that they escaped, while some said they were executed by the king.

The soldiers all discussed amongst themselves, covering the camp with a dark shadow.

Within the central tent, Fu Jian’s face was really dark. Their disappearance made him feel more and more uneasy, as he was clear about their influence in the country.

“Damn jerks; I should have killed them.” Fu Jian scolded.

Within the tent, Di Chen, Wuqi, and Fu Rong all exchanged glances, keeping silent. Bad news had come one after another like a chain reaction.

If this continued, the Qin army was going to collapse like in history.

Wuqi knew that he needed to say something. He stepped out and bowed, “Your highness!”

“Speak!” Even Fu Jian’s voice was cold.

Wuqi did not mind, “You can announce that they were sent back to the country to deal with the north matter to calm down the soldiers.”

To the other race soldiers, Murong Chui and Yao Chang were promoted. As such, sending them back to the country was a normal choice.

When Fu Jian heard that, he barely nodded.

Toward Wuqi, Fu Jian could not say anything. After all, he had done everything that he could do as a chief commander.

‘I can only blame the army for being useless.’ Fu Jian sighed in his heart.

Wuqi continued, “Most likely, the two of them escaped back home. When they appear in the north, they will definitely cause uproar. The best way will be to attack East Jin before the situation gets out of hand. If we crush East Jin, no matter how much noise Murong Chui and Yao Chang make in the country, they would not amount to much.”

One had to say that Wuqi’s eyes were vicious to the max.

When Fu Rong heard that, he did not immediately come to a decision. That was because the moment he started the war, there would be no way back.

When Wuqi and the others saw that, they did not dare to rush him despite their anxiousness.

After a long while, he raised his head. He looked over at Wuqi and asked, “How confident are you?”

Wuqi said, “80%.”

“Really?” Fu Jian looked like he was going to see through Wuqi’s thoughts.

Wuqi said calmly, “Really!”

In truth, Wuqi did not even have 60% confidence. In the Battle of Jingzhou, the results proved that the million army could not even fight. If he gave Wuqi enough time, he had confidence to turn them around.

However, in a short 10 days, even if Wuqi was a god, he could not do anything.

If he used them well, the 300 thousand Qin troops in Shouyang would be of great help; if they were not used well, they would just be a ticking time bomb.

But Wuqi had no other choice.

Fu Jian did not know if he could really trust Wuqi, “Then let’s fight to the death.”

With that decision, the Qin country had no way back.

“Yes!”

Wuqi, Di Chen, and Fu Rong all nodded in unison.

The Battle of Fei River unexpectedly welcomed a final battle, and the battlefield was still Fei River. Who knows, after this battle, would history repeat itself or would it change?

After the meeting ended, Fu Rong returned back to Shouyang to lead the 300 thousand troops south to rush to the main camp.

At the same time, Xiong Ba brought the warships into the Fei River to control the waters.

Helplessly, their actions were monitored by the Yashan Squadron, and how would they allow the Zhoushan Squadron to do as they wished? The two squadrons had the first round of conflict at the intersection between the Huai River and the Fei River.

As the river was too narrow, no one had an advantage.

…

East shore Fei River, East Jin main camp.

Victory was always sweet, especially to the Lords who sent their troops down south to Jingzhou. The ocean amounts of battle contribution points made them feel that the trip was worth it.

The movement of the Zhoushan Squadron was quickly reported to the main camp.

Ouyang Shuo brought Huo Qubing and Jia Xu to the main camp.

Although they won in Jingzhou, Xie Shi and Xie Huan were not that happy. It was no surprise, as the Xie family and the Huan family were rivals.

Huan Chong’s memorial to seek rewards had already reached the Imperial Court, and the king was delighted.

With that, the pressure on Xie Shi and Xie Huan grew even greater.

After sending away Murong Chui and Yao Chang, Ouyang Shuo knew that the Qin country would act. Zhoushan Squadron’s actions proved Ouyang Shuo’s conjecture.

After discussing with Jia Xu, Ouyang Shuo had a clear analysis of the situation.

“So the Qin army is going to go all out with us?” Upon hearing Ouyang Shuo’s words, Xie Shi had a weird expression on his face.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “That is their only way to turn the scales.”

“Since they want to fight, let’s fight.” Xie Xuan was valiant.

Huan Chong’s victory had undoubtedly ignited Xie Xuan’s spirit. However, in private, Xie Xuan dissed him. He said that they won because of the player army.

However, contribution was contribution, and his majesty would not care. Hence, Xie Xuan wanted to fight more than anyone else.

Chapter 900 - Final Battle at Fei River

Chapter 900: Final Battle at Fei River

East Jin camp, middle tent.

Ouyang Shuo took a look at Jia Xu. Understanding what he meant, Jia Xu stepped out and said, “Counting in the 300 thousand troops in Shouyang, the enemy has a total of 600 thousand troops. On the other hand, we have 340 thousand if we considered the navy.”

“In terms of strength now, our army has the advantage. Since we are going all out, we must strike before the Shouyang army arrives. If we win this battle, the Shouyang army will not make much difference.”

Xie Xuan said doubtfully, “If we take the initiative to strike, we need to cross the river. The enemy will not be so foolish to back off, right?”

Jia Xu nodded, “Naturally, they will not.”

“Then what should we do?”

“If they do not retreat, we will just forcefully strike.”

If this person was not the famous Three Kingdoms strategist, Xie Xuan would have burst out laughing, “Forcefully strike? Did I hear you wrongly? Do you know how many men we will lose? Can this war even be fought?”

“General, calm down.” Jia Xu smiled, “Even if we do not forcefully strike, the Shouyang army will forcefully attack once they arrive. The key is still the control of the Fei River, which is why the Zhoushan Squadron wants to destroy the Yashan Squadron and enter the Fei River first.”

“No wonder.”

Xie Xuan understood. Before the final battle, the navy of both sides needed to have a good battle.

Xie Shi was a little worried, “Can the Yashan Squadron win?”

Toward the Yashan Squadron, Ouyang Shuo was really confident, so he smiled and said, “90%.”

“Good; then that’s decided.”

Xie Shi did not hesitate, and he immediately gave the order. The victory in Jingzhou made him really confident in the player army.

After settling on the battle plan and coming to a common consensus, the five of them discussed the specifics in detail before leaving.

The moment the meeting ended, the entire East Jin camp started acting.

Ouyang Shuo gathered the other Lords to report the matter. Regardless of whether they were willing or not, they had to follow the plan because it was the decision of Xie Shi and Ouyang Shuo.

Either they join or quit the Battle Map.

Of course, none of the Lords were so boring. After all, everyone led their troops here to earn merit points.

Hence, they had no reason not to join in the battle.

Huo Qubing officially replaced Xie Shin as the East Jin commander, leading the 340 thousand troops. Xie Xuan would be the deputy commander. The various Lords all met Ouyang Shuo to hand over control of their troops.

As for how to arrange the troops, it was up to Huo Qubing.

After Xie Shi stepped down, he used his identity as chief commander to gather tens of thousands of laborers to get wood and transport it to the East Coast of the Fei River.

The laborers were mostly woodworkers, and they could build bridges on the Fei River.

The entire camp instantly became really busy. The atmosphere before the war was bustling but also nerve-wracking. The north house army wanted to strike back at the Qin army, and the player army wanted to kill the enemy to gain points.

…

The noise of the East Jin camp alerted the former Qin.

When Fu Jian got the letter, he frowned. Di Chen and Wuqi were helpless and could only cheer on Fu Jian. They said that even if the East Jin army took the initiative to attack, they could not cross the Fei River.

Although that was the case, Fu Jian could not fall asleep.

Bad things happened one after another, and his confidence had almost reached a breaking point.

Di Chen and the others were all really depressed. Apart from when they just entered the Battle Map and things went smoothly, everything that happened after felt like they had fallen into the enemy’s trap. It was like they were being controlled.

They could only blame the fact that they lacked a strategist like Jia Xu.

…

Battle Map, 15th day, Huai River region.

Since the start of the battle, the navy that had not been doing much became the focus. Whichever side managed to take down control of Fei River would win the initiative of the battle.

The Huai River current flowed quickly.

Early in the morning, both squadrons were in a standstill at the intersection of the Huai River and the Fei River.

The leader of the Yashan Squadron was Fleet Admiral Yu Dayou. For the Zhoushan Squadron, it was a retired navy general.

Both sides had their good points.

Xiong Ba was only a 2nd class Marquis and could only bring a limited number of troops. Hence, to earn merit points, he brought a portion of land troops. Hence, the Yashan Squadron was only half a division.

Along with Xie Shi’s ten thousand navy, the soldier difference was much more apparent.

However, fighting in a river, the number of soldiers was not the key to victory. After all, no matter how many ships one had, only 10 could engage at one time.

War started at 8 AM.

They were old enemies, so there were no tricks. They just directly fired until the enemy fell. Once a ship sank, the one behind them would cover the gap, and the cycle would repeat.

Although the strategy was the same, the weapons and equipment were different.

Since both sides were turreted warships, the key was the cannons.

The Yashan Squadron was using the improved P1 Type Cannon. Along with the help of the Flying Squad, they slowly gained the upper hand and were forcing the Zhoushan Squadron back.

At 10 AM, the intersection had entered the control of the Yashan Squadron.

At this very moment, Xie Shi led 10 thousand sailors to cut in from the back. The Yashan Squadron took all the fire in front, using their light ships to enter the Fei River.

Although the Zhoushan Squadron was anxious, the Yashan Squadron was keeping them in check, so they could not move.

12 AM, the East Jin navy entered the Fei River.

When Yu Dayou saw that, he immediately changed the formation and locked up the entrance to Fei River. He had changed to a defensive formation. The Zhoushan Squadron general could only give up helplessly.

Each one of their warships was hard to come by. King City could not be compared to the Great Xia Dynasty, so they could not easily waste ships. They had tried their best, and there was no need to make unnecessary sacrifices.

Hence, in just one morning, victory was decided.

Seeing that, Yu Dayou arranged five turreted warships into the Fei River to help the East Jin navy control it.

…

While the navy was fighting, the other people were doing things too.

The laborers that Xie Shi had mobilized were building bridges on the Fei River for the army to cross. When the East Jin navy entered the river, the entire process was suddenly sped up.

The Qin army wanted to disrupt them. However, under the bombing of the Flying Squad, there was not much that they could do. At 5 PM, the Qin army knew that they could not destroy the bridge, so they focused on preparing for the war instead.

Close to nighttime, 50 bridges laid quietly on the river surface.

This night was destined to be a sleepless one.

…

16th day of the Battle Map, the sun rose up.

The war atmosphere was already reaching its peak. Some of the soldiers could not sleep well because of their nerves. When the sun rose up, soldiers on both sides of the Fei River all woke up.

The soldiers all woke up and wore their armor. After eating their breakfast, they rushed to the drill square to gather.

The navy squadron spread out on the Fei River. Between the warships, there were many bridges that lined up to the opposite shore.

On the west shore of the Fei River, 300 thousand Qin troops waited in their battle formations.

Based on Wuqi’s arrangement, the 50 thousand Qin troops were arranged at the back to protect the safety of the emperor. In truth, Wuqi had given up on using those 50 thousand Qin troops.

The true pillars were the 250 thousand player forces.

The army spread out along the shore; the formation was waiting solemnly. Although Wuqi accepted the commanding rights of the player forces for just half a month, each force was running really efficiently. As expected from a God General.

The Qin army was lying in wait; they had the geographical advantage.

On the opposite shore, there were 250 thousand player troops at the front. The 70 thousand north house army was used to protect the right wing.

8 AM, the war drums were blown once again.

‘Wu~~!’

Along with the war horn, the cannons fired, providing cover fire for the army troops. They instantly cleared out a hundred meters of space on the west shore to allow the East Jin army to disembark.

“Charge!”

The huge army charged into the Fei River, ready to go all out against the Qin army.

“Kill!”

The Qin army was not fazed, and all of them filled with killing intent.

In less than 20 minutes, both sides engaged in slaughter.

In such a special scenario, infantry was the most useful.

As for the temporarily built bridges, they naturally were not that good. Moreover, a large portion of the troops had not been through relevant training, so they could not help but fall into the river when they tried to cross.

Regularly, soldiers would drop into the water and get scooped up by the navy.

With that, the first wave of attacks by the Qin army was easily blocked, which raised the morale of the Qin army.

Huo Qubing was not disappointed. More and more soldiers tried to cross the river to fight the Qin army. They sacrificed themselves to buy some room. The entire west coast of the Fei River was in a sea of flames.

When it came to the final battle, there were no tactics to speak of. It was all based on the ability of the commander.

Wuqi against Huo Qubing; these two God Generals were on the same level.

At 10 AM, after paying a heavy price, the East Jin army finally made their way across the river. The battlefield had totally shifted to the west shore, and the war entered a crucial period.

Both sides were the elites of their territories, so their combat strength was comparable.

In this encounter, both sides suffered heavy losses.

The entire battlefield was like a huge meat grinder, and there were people dying at every moment.

Both sides close to 500 thousand troops. Under the commands of their two God Generals, they went blow for blow.

Unless one was personally present, they would not be able to imagine the kind of scene this was. Looking out, the entire earth was covered in armor, and everyone was closely packed together.

No matter who it was, the moment one entered such a battlefield, their blood could not help but boil.

Ouyang Shuo brought three thousand Divine Martial Guards and appeared on the battlefield. In the Battle Map, dead soldiers could be revived by using battle contribution points, so it was the best place to train troops.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to absorb killing aura for the Tianmo Spear.

Such a group of elite troops was pretty much unkillable on the battlefield. When Wuqi saw that, he arranged a large number of troops to cover and attack. However, he did not expect that Ouyang Shuo was just using himself as bait, and he was actually coordinating with Huo Qubing to counter attack.

Falling for it once, Wuqi lost all hope in attacking Ouyang Shuo, so he focused on the main battle.

After fighting for an entire day, it was like the sky was collapsing, and blood flowed like a river. The two sides were equal in strength. Victory could not be decided, and both sides were locked in a stalemate.

Chapter 901 - End of Battle Map

Chapter 901: End of Battle Map

Fei River, 550 thousand troops engaged in battle.

As both sides were locked in a stalemate, dusk arrived. The red sun was about to set, and it looked like night was about to fall. Victory had not been decided.

Since the start of battle, both sides had thrown in all their forces. The 500 thousand former Qin troops were all thrown into the battle under Fu Jian’s personally leadership. Xie Xuan, on the other hand, led his 70 thousand north house army.

Both sides killed till it was dark, totally exhausted.

Even Ouyang Shuo did not expect that his predicted victory would end up in such a scene. The stubbornness of the enemy had exceeded his expectations.

This was a true life and death battle.

Be it Wuqi or Huo Qubing, they all wished they had a reserve force. Anyone with 30 thousand troops could break the stalemate and obtain victory.

Unfortunately, they had no soldiers to use.

At this very moment, horse hooves could be heard from afar.

Huo Qubing and Wuqi were both shocked, thinking that they were the reinforcements of the enemy, they felt their hearts sink.

As the horse hooves got closer, both sides got more and more nervous.

In the end, when the vanguard cavalry appeared in sight, a golden flag waved in front of them – it was the flag of the Great Xia Dynasty, the golden dragon flag.

Huo Qubing was astonished; he guessed that it was Ma Chao’s forces. He did not expect for him to be so efficient; he managed to rush back from Jingzhou so quickly.

Wuqi’s face turned dark. Ma Chao’s arrival was enough to change the entire battlefield.

“Commander!”

Ma Chao came to Huo Qubing, giving a military bow.

Huo Qubing directly asked, “Can your forces still fight?”

Ma Chao said loudly, “General, 80 thousand elite cavalry, awaiting your orders.”

“Great!”

Huo Qubing nodded his head forcefully and immediately arranged the region for Ma Chao to attack. Under Huo Qubing’s arrangement, the 80 thousand cavalry gave the tired Qin army a fatal blow.

To the Qin army, it was pretty much a catastrophe.

The 80 thousand cavalry were like 80 thousand sharp knives stabbing into their stomachs.

Fu Jian could not take it, and he retreated toward Shouyang. If he did not leave now, he might lose his life.

Next were the Lords. Seeing that hope was lost, they did not want to make sacrifices for nothing, so they took their troops and left.

All that remained in the former Qin army was mostly Yanhuang Alliance troops. Ouyang Shuo naturally would not want to miss out on a chance to crush them, so he ordered Huo Qubing to show no mercy.

Di Chen and the others were helpless and could only retreat.

The back views of Di Chen and the others were really lonely and sad; they were so close to winning.

Fu Rong was leading the 300 thousand Shouyang troops over. If Ma Chao’s forces did not rush back in time, the war would have another outcome.

Unfortunately, there were no ifs in war, and they still lost in the end.

Who would have expected that one Battle of Jingzhou to decide the fates of both sides?

The remaining Qin troops were wiped out as the sun set.

Seeing that it was already night, there was no point in chasing. If they were not careful and met the Fu Rong led army, the situation would be bad.

A huge war ended just like that.

Looking at the battlefield, Ouyang Shuo heaved a sigh of relief.

What was Fu Jian, who was retreating toward Shouyang, thinking? The same scenes, he had been through it twice in his life; fate was just so cruel.

“We finally won!”

At some point in time, Feng Qiuhuang and the others appeared behind Ouyang Shuo.

This was the 7th Battle Map in China and was the most intense one between players. For contribution points and ranks, Lords had gambled everything.

In this battle, there was no absolute winner.

“Will we send troops to Shouyang tomorrow?” Feng Qiuhuang asked.

Ouyang Shuo did not turn around and said, “Naturally, we must chase the victory.”

…

The next morning, as the East Jin army was about to proceed toward Shouyang, a System Notification suddenly sounded out.

Just last night, Fu Jian’s remaining forces met Fu Rong’s troops mid-way and retreated to Shouyang. Before Fu Jian had a chance to regain his senses, news of a rebellion by Murong Chui and Yao Chang spread out.

Fu Jian did not want to stay in Shouyang for any longer, so he immediately led his troops back to the country to calm the rebellion. With them leaving, the Battle of Fei River had unexpectedly ended too.

At 9 AM, the battle notification sounded out.

“Battle Notification: Battle of Fei River has officially ended, the former Qin has failed to rewrite history.”

…

“Battle Notification: Battle of Fei River has officially ended; Gaia will tabulate extra points based on player contribution and influence on the battle.”

…

A System Notification spread out in Ouyang Shuo’s ear.

“System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi, East Jin camp player representative, leading the Great Xia Dynasty troops, directing the battle proceedings, awarded additional 150000 battle contribution points.”

…

This was the first time Gaia used ‘directing the battle’ in the description, which meant that Gaia had recognized that players could control and lead the battle.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo got so many extra points. It seemed like as the player representative of the former Qin camp, Di Chen would also earn a lot.

Ouyang Shuo took a look at the final battle contribution points rankings.

Position-Name- Battle Contribution Points

1st: Qiyue Wuyi- 1200000 points

2nd: Feng Qiuhuang- 550000 points

3rd: Di Chen – 500000 points

4th: Chun Shenjun- 450000 points

5th: Wufu- 400000 points

6th: Xiong Ba- 300000 points

7th: West Gate Big Official- 280000 points

8th: Gong Chengshi- 250000 points

9th: Zhan Lang – 200000 points

10th: Wandering Magic- 180000 points

Ouyang Shuo’s battle contribution points had exceeded a million for the first time. The source of which could be split into four types.

The first was obtained by the five thousand elite cavalry that entered the former Qin backlines.

The army in the former Qin land was there for the army to kill, letting these three forces earn a lot. Consequently, Feng Qiuhuang and Wufu also earned a lot.

The second type was obtained by the Guards Legion Corps that went down south to Jingzhou.

Thanks to the sneak attack, they killed many enemies. West Gate Big Official’s cavalry also obtained plentiful rewards. He entered the top 10 for the first time and was even in front of Gong Chengshi, Zhan Lang, and Wandering Magic.

The thirrd was from the Yashan Squadron.

As the battle at Huai River was not really intense, this portion of contribution points was limited.

The Zhoushan squadron’s lack of strength had affected the contribution points of Xiong Ba.

Fourth, the final battle.

During the final battle, the remaining two divisions of the Guards Legion Corps, under the lead of Ouyang Shuo and the Divine Martial Guards, obtained huge amounts of battle contribution points.

Along with the stacking of Huo Qubing as the commander, and the extra 150 thousand points, Ouyang Shuo was able to get 1.2 million points.

Deducting the points used to revive the army, Ouyang Shuo had 1.1 million battle contribution points left, giving him 110 thousand merit points. As a result, his merit point value exceeded two million.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo officially upgraded to prince.

However, as they were in the Battle Map, Gaia delayed the System Notification.

…

After the battle ended, Ouyang Shuo did not take the initiative to recruit Xie Xuan.

First, with Xie Xuan’s commanding ability, he would not be eye-catching in the Great Xia Dynasty. Secondly, he had a huge aristocratic family behind him, which Ouyang Shuo did not like.

The aristocratic families in East Jin were corrupted beyond measure, and they could not fit in with the righteous Great Xia Dynasty. Ouyang Shuo did not want to invite in such a family because of one Xie Xuan.

In comparison, Ouyang Shuo was more interested in Pei Fa.

…

After Feng Qiuhuang and the others left, Ouyang Shuo stayed in the camp to wait for the reward. This time, the reward was of little surprise to him.

At 3 PM, the reward was handed over by Xie Shi into Ouyang Shuo’s hands.

Ouyang Shuo took a look at it; it was an old scroll.

Name: Yellow Court Internal Scripture: Qi Cultivation (God Rank cultivation method)

Level: 1/9

Stats: For every layer raised, comprehension +4, bone structure +2, luck +2, all innate stats +2

Specialty: Unique, cannot be dropped, cannot be traded.

Requirement: Need to train Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique to the full level to cultivate this.

Evaluation: A portion of the Yellow Court Internal Scripture that focuses on Qi cultivation, a great internal cultivation technique. After training, one can open up the Zifu.

Note: This cultivation method is the second scroll in the combined technique, player please search for the remaining portion.

Compared to the Yellow Emperor Cultivation Technique, the Yellow Court Internal Scripture was a level further on the road of cultivation. It mainly raised comprehension and also raised bone structure and luck.

The Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique opened up the Dantian, which was also the lower Dantian out of the three, the low, middle, and high ones. The Yellow Court Internal Scripture opened up the middle Dantian, which was the Zifu.

The next scripture opened up the Niwan, which was the upper Dantian.

The three techniques all worked together to push Ouyang Shuo forward on the road of cultivation. The three scrolls covered numerous martial art manuals, combining many bodily secrets. It was the highest grade internal cultivation manual that one could cultivate.

For Ouyang Shuo to get this for himself showed that his luck was great.

After getting the reward, Ouyang Shuo did not stay and led his troops out of the Battle Map.

The moment he appeared in Shanhai City, the System Notification sounded out punctually.

“World Notification: Congratulations China region player Qiyue Wuyi for becoming the first Lord in China to become a prince. Awarded 150000 reputation points and a special reward, congratulations!”

Chapter 902 - War Exempt Card

Chapter 902: War Exempt Card

Prince already represented a huge power over a region, a ruler of a region. Hence, when Ouyang Shuo became a prince, he did not need the imperial city to give him his title. If that happened, it would instead be a humiliation to Ouyang Shuo.

The current Great Xia Dynasty was already on the same level as the nine imperial cities, and there were no differences between them.

The moment the notification sounded out, the world was stunned.

Everyone in the world knew that the Xia King had the highest rank in the world, but no one had thought that it was so high.

Just a month ago, American Region’s Jack had become the world’s second duke. Who knew that in such a short time, Qiyue Wuyi would actually become a prince?

It was a difference of heaven and earth between the two.

Ouyang Shuo was able to rise up so quickly. Apart from the few country wars, it was also because of the upgrade to Capital City and the establishment of the Dynasty; just the two had allowed him to gain him 500 thousand merit points.

Ouyang Shuo felt at ease and that it was justified, and he obtained his reward from the system.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuqi for obtaining a special reward, will you claim it now?”

“Yes!”

This was his third time obtaining a special reward. Each time, he received a different kind of surprise.

“System Notification: Starting to draw special reward…”

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for drawing special reward, obtaining a special tool – War Exempt Card, congratulations player!”

With a white light, a golden card appeared in Ouyang Shuo’s hand.

On the face of the card was a picture of a battle. On the back, a word written in traditional chinese – Exempt!

War Exempt Card: When the territory is fighting outside the territory, there is a chance to exempt war to prevent surrounding territories from attacking, Lasts for one month. Friendly Reminder: War exempt is only effective within the country and is effective immediately.

The War Exempt Card was similar to how territories were unable to conquer one another during a Battle Map except this item was locked on to one territory. Effective immediately meant that before Ouyang Shuo used the card, the territory was not protected.

Similarly, after using the card, if the territory was under attack, it would work immediately, teleporting the enemy troops out of the territory.

It was another rare tool with an interesting function. Who knows when he could use it?

‘Let’s hope that there would not be a time that I have to use it.’ Ouyang Shuo thought to himself as he kept the card in his storage bag. A System Notification sounded out in his ear.

“System Notification: The Battle of Fei River has officially ended, main characters from the Wei Jin northern and southern dynasties have entered the game progression.” … Although war was really frequent during those times, dynasties changed really frequently, and there were really few famous generals and civil servants. It was incomparable to the Three Kingdoms and Warring States eras.

Amongst which, one of the top 10 generals Ran Min, one of the four heroines Hua Mulan, Wang Meng, and one of the top 10 ancient strategists Du Yu were among the standouts.

During the Battle of Fei River, Wang Meng had already died to illness but what was undeniably one of the brightest lights in the northern and southern dynasties.

It was in the scientific and cultural domains that this period prospered, giving rise to a bunch of famous people.

Book saint Wang Xizhi, artist Gu Kaizhi, writer Zuo Si, poet Tao Yuanming, poet Xie Lingyun, writer of the records of the Three Kingdoms Chen Shou, and the like.

One could say that this was a time where the thinking domain prospered.

Although these cultural people were not like civil servants and generals, they could all influence the territory positively.

Slowly influencing was the effect of education.

With the influence of the Great Xia Dynasty, they would probably be able to attract a few of them over.

Following which, there was another System Notification. … “System Notification: Battle of Fei River has officially ended, Wudang, Shaolin, and Wulin have all entered the game.” … Along with the System Notification, in the mountains of the Zhongyuan Province, Jingchu Province Mountain, a huge white light shone and then faded. Wulin and Wudang had officially entered the game.

Huge courtyards were spawned by Gaia. Along with them were different leveled disciples.

In a quiet room in the Songsan Hinterland, a merciful looking old monk suddenly opened his eyes; he looked at the unknown wilderness and said, “Amitabha.”

At the top of Wudang, an old man looked afar and shouted, “Wuliang Tianzun.”

These two were the absolute giants of Wulin; these two leaders were legendary figures, leading tens of thousands of disciples. Their appearances in the wilderness would definitely stir up everything.

Apart from these two, the other sects and factions that were born during the northern and southern dynasties all appeared one by one for players to search for them. At the same time, the relevant dojos were renewed.

Any sect or faction that appeared in the wilderness, the dojo head would be instantly changed into an elite disciple or even an elder. The martial art techniques within the dojo were also renewed.

Apart from the basics, there was a new batch of intermediate and even advanced techniques.

The underworld was going to welcome a new era of conquest and fighting.

“System Notification: Battle of Fei River has offically ended, Emperor Wen Yangjian of Sui has moved into Quanzhou. Quanzhou automatically becomes the Sui Dynasty, Gao Jiong, Yang Lin, He Ruobi, Han Qinhu, Yu Ju Luo, Su Wei, Yang Su, Yuwen Shu, and the like all automatically follow him. … 581 AD, 2nd month, Emperor Jing of Northern Zhou gave up his throne to Wei Yangjian. He set his country title as Sui and announced his rule of the country.

One could say that Emperor Wen of Sui was the person who ended the northern and southern dynasty. On the other hand, the Sui Dynasty that came from North Zhou could be said to be the one that inherited the Wei Jin northern and southern dynasty.

Due to there being no famous emperors during that period, Gaia decided to combine Sui Dynasty with the northern and southern dynasty. Gaia chose Emperor Wen of Sui to move into Quanzhou, even though it should belong to the Northern Dynasty.

This meant that Sui Tang would not have its own Battle Map, and the next one would jump over it and directly go to Tang.

The generals and officials of the Sui Dynasty appeared together with the emperor, while those in the later stages of the Sui Dynasty would merge with the Tang Dynasty. The remaining would all appear in the wilderness.

Compared to the Wei Jin northern and southern dynasty, the generals and officials in Sui Dynasty were more eye-catching and enough to make one’s eyes turn red with desire.

The formation that appeared in the imperial city was no worse than that of Qin or Han. …… The successive System Notifications dazzled the China region players.

Especially the appearance of Shaolin and Wudang, which made the blood of the adventure gamemode players boil. The moment the System Notification ended, numerous people swarmed into the dojo.

Based on the rules set by Gaia, the sects and factions could not directly accept disciples. If players wanted to join them, they had to join the relevant dojos first.

If one passed and reached the standard required to join the sect, only then could they be officially accepted into the door.

Each sect and faction had different standards and test methods.

Ouyang Shuo’s expression was not relaxed; the generals and officials that the emperor had brought with him into Quanzhou would be a huge challenge to the Great Xia Dynasty that had taken down Minnan Province.

Yangjian was not an emperor who was happy with the status quo. After he got used to the imperial city, he would definitely do something about the awkward situation that Quanzhou was in, where they were surrounded by enemies on all four sides.

The relationship between the two dynasties would definitely sour. … 6th month, 21st day, Xia Palace, Imperial Reading Room.

Ouyang Shuo opened up the territory interface.

After becoming a prince, Ouyang Shuo could see the basic requirements to upgrade to an emperor dynasty and prepare in advance.

“System Notification: checking if the Great Xia Dynasty meets the requirements to apply to upgrade to emperor dynasty…”

“Requirement 1: Lord is at least a prince, requirement met!”

“Requirement 2: Lord’s reputation is at least well-known in the world, requirement met!”

“Requirement 3: Dynasty must at least occupy a third of the situated region, requirement not met!”

This requirement was a little high, especially to a huge region like China. The Great Xia Dynasty had four provinces, but they had not even reached 1/5th of the China region.

For it to become an emperor dynasty was a tough task.

“Requirement 4: Dynasty population must at least pass 5 million, requirement not met.”

With the growth speed of the dynasty, they would need two years to reach this requirement.

“Requirement 5: Dynasty must own at least one territory overseas, requirement met!”

An emperor dynasty must threaten overseas. Naturally, they must have land overseas. Luckily, the Great Xia Dynasty has done many overseas conquests and had long ago met this requirement!

“Requirement 6: territory fate at least reached the 3rd stage Purple fate, requirement met!”

“Requirement 7: At least take down one imperial city, requirement not met!”

This condition meant that for countries with only one imperial city, one emperor dynasty was their maximum. Only super regions like China and America could give birth to many emperor dynasties.

“Requirement 8: Destroy a country, requirement met!”

This requirement and the fifth one coexisted, except this was a little harder.

“Requirement 9: At least have one country advancing treasure, requirement not met.”

The item needed during country establishment was a country establishment treasure, and now it was a country advancing treasure. Although it was just one word, it was akin to the difference between heaven and earth.

Ouyang Shuo was not sure what a country advancing treasure was.

Out of the nine basic requirements, four were not met; the road to emperor dynasty was still a long one.

Chapter 903 - China Shipping Group

Chapter 903: China Shipping Group

6th month, 24th day, Shanhai City.

The aftermath of the Battle of Fei River slowly faded away and Ouyang Shuo started to get busy once more.

Currently, it was the afternoon, and the blazing sun had passed the middle of the sky. However, the temperature did not look like it was going down. The green trees in the courtyard in front of the reading room were really luscious and made it much cooler. Even the annoying cicadas of summer could not be found here.

At a corner of the Imperial Reading Room were basins of ice cubes used to lower the temperature.

At 3 PM, the lonely and quiet reading room welcomed a group of special guests. Financial deputy minister Cui Yingyu walked at the front. Behind her, there were the leaders of the three famous chambers of commerce – Bai Xue, Song Tianxiong, and Cui Shouren.

Without a doubt, this was a really special meeting.

Based on the system, although the three had relations with the imperial family, they could not enter the reading room.

Walking into the solemn reading room, a thick and powerful aura swept them. The three of them were hugely influential people on the outside, and any of their actions could easily sweep up massive waves in the merchant world.

However, as they walked into the Imperial Reading Room, the core of the Great Xia Dyansty’s power, not to mention the younger Bai Xue and Cui Shouren, but even Ouyang Shuo’s father-in-law, Song Tianxiong, felt nervous.

This meeting was not a sudden one; they had already been informed last night.

Before coming, Cui Shouren had asked her sister about it. However, his sister was tight-lipped and did not reveal a single thing. Instead, when his father found out, he was scolded.

Outside relatives interfering in politics was a huge crime in a dynasty.

“My king, Deputy Minister Cui and the others are here.” Tsing Yi reminded Ouyang Shuo, who was looking through some memorials.

Ouyang Shuo placed down the brush in his hand and raised his head, “Come in.”

The smile on his face made one feel inspired.

“Thank you my king!”

Song Tianxiong and the others did not dare be slow. They respectfully bowed before sitting down one by one.

Looking at the young ruler in front of them, Song Tianxiong was in awe. He really could not believe that the man in front of him and the young man in real life were so different.

Apart from looks, Song Tianxiong could not find a single shred of similarity. Obviously, his journey to the top had changed him.

If the Song Family children had a tenth of his ability, Song Tianxiong would be delighted.

Song Tianxiong was not the only one in awe; Cui Shouren was also filled with many thoughts. He thought back to his first interaction with the king, which was close to three years ago. A that time, the Cui Family had learned that Cui Yingyu was alive.

As the Cui Family representative, Cui Shouren used the super auction platform to complete the first trading deal with Shanhai City.

The cooperation with Shanhai City was sort of like a higher up working with a subordinate. They did not think about earning too much profit. They only did so because they wanted to repay Shanhai City for saving Cui Yingyu.

In a short three years, everything had changed.

In three years, Cui Shouren went from a normal child in the family that no one had high hopes for to a person who took over the family business. He had slowly walked into the central region.

For Cui Shouren to have such good fortune and stand out from the rest of the children, apart from his own ability, it was mostly because of the role he played between the family and Shanhai City.

That alone had greatly strengthened his position.

There was no other reason. After all, in the family, only Cui Shouren had met the king and interacted with him.

It was also due to that unassuming business deal that changed the fate of the Cui Chamber of Commerce, letting them roll like a snowball and become one of the giants of the business world.

Not long ago, a few chamber of commerce heads in Dali Imperial City who had suppressed the Cui Chamber of Commerce all specially rushed to Shanhai City to build relationships with Cui Shouren. They wanted to ask him to take care of them for voyage trading.

The tables had turned.

Out of the three of them, only Bai Xue was really calm.

As they say, one could be austere if one had no selfish desires.

Her husband, Wei Yang, was in a core position. On the other hand, her father, Bai Gui, was in charge of the business college. Bai Xue herself did not have much ambition to chase riches. All she liked was the battling in the business world.

Not long ago, Bai Xue donated 500 thousand gold to the Imperial Court to rebuild the various schools in the counties and prefectures; this became the biggest donation since the Great Xia established the country.

This matter even alerted Ouyang Shuo, who personally gave them the title of Benevolent Merchant.

The three of them were having different thoughts, and each was caught by Ouyang Shuo’s eyes. Since he started training in the Yellow Court Internal Scripture, his senses also became much sharper as he tried to open up the middle dantian.

Ouyang Shuo could roughly guess the thoughts of normal people.

Luckily, Ouyang Shuo did not have such a hobby; he turned around to say to Cui Yingyu, ” Deputy Minister Cui, detail the organization you are planning to establish.”

“Yes my king!” Cui Yingyu unveiled the secret behind this meeting.

Along with the Great Xia Dynasty voyage trading becoming more and more prosperous, the trading income slowly became one of the financial pillars of the territory. As such, Ouyang Shuo had been thinking about how to upgrade the system.

His order for the Four Seas Bank to start the Insurance Industry was just a small part to it.

The key to voyage trading was the channel, and this channel was made up of the ports and the trade route. The port was where the products came in and out from, while the trade route was the lifeline that connected the ports.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to change these two points.

In terms of the port, Ouyang Shuo had already ordered the Financial Court to build a Custom Division under the Tax Division to be in charge of import and export management.

Of course, the Customs Division’s role was far from this. Apart from that, it was also in charge of customs tax, smuggling matters, information tabulation, and the like.

To the Great Xia Dynasty, where voyage trading was really important, the Customs Division had a really important role. At a suitable time, the Customs Division would step out from under the Taxation Department.

As for the trade route, Ouyang Shuo wanted to organize it and do an unprecedented organization.

It was mentioned that voyage trading had risks, and the risks were not small. Apart from the rare wars, there were also storms, tsunamis, pirates, and other uncertain risks.

No matter how strong the Great Xia Dynasty navy was, it could not totally clear out the entire trading route and ensure that every merchant ship was safe. Even the federation navy in real life could not ensure that point, much less parties during the ancient times where technology was lacking.

To the three imperial chambers of commerce, their businesses were huge, and they could take losing one or two trips. As such, it was not much to worry about. However, to small-sized and mid-sized ones, one bad trip would cause them to lose everything.

Hence, that greatly restricted the eagerness of them to engage in voyage trading.

Their common method would be to pay a certain amount to one of the big chambers of commerce to get them to help them transport the goods.

Or 10 over of them could travel together to face the risks together.

As the way they ran was not regulated, it also greatly reduced their profit margin. To gather up a squadron of merchant ships also took up a lot of time, which was also money.

As a ruler, Ouyang Shuo wanted to change this, and the process would undeniably affect the profits of the three imperial chambers of commerce.

It was said that the three earned a lot just from the fees that the mid and small-sized chambers of commerce paid them.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to break that rice bowl; he was ready to gather the three of them and the Business Department to build a super shipping group.

The shipping group had three main jobs, dock, shipping, and ship building and maintenance.

First, dock.

The dynasty had 15 commerce ports alone, and there were numerous docks and piers used to transfer goods.

These docks were under the jurisdiction of the Business Department or the local offices.

During this organization, Ouyang Shuo would include the rights to use and manage the docks together to be managed by the shipping group.

As for the Business Department and the local offices, they would only keep the power to monitor.

Just this alone would allow them to solidify their spot at the top of the voyage trading.

Secondly, shipping.

It was not a simple matter of merging their squadrons but a modification and enhancement. The entire squadron would be given specific trade routes for them to stick to.

Even the travelling time was fixed.

For this, Ouyang Shuo let the Navy Headquarters work with them to provide navigators and captains. Additionally, they would build an ocean escort squadron with some strength; the squadron would have cannons and handguns.

This could greatly increase the safety of the ships and lower the risk.

The reorganized squadron would provide services to all chambers of commerce, and the prices would become more transparent to increase the eagerness of the others.

Thirdly, the building and maintenance of ships.

A long time ago, merchant ship and warship building had been separated. During this organization, Ouyang Shuo would split some of the shipbuilding factories and relevant maintenance factories that were under the Shipbuilding Division to the shipping group.

With that, the shipping group would have the ability to build its own merchant ships. Ouyang Shuo was even prepared to take a batch of shipbuilders from the division to increase the development strength of merchant ships.

This separation was to reduce the duties of the Shipbuilding Division and also to use the shipping guild to push shipbuilding and maintenance industry profits to a whole new level.

With these three points, it was enough to let the newly established trading group become a huge group that exceeded 5 million in scale.

After which, this China Shipping Group would play a hugely important role in voyage trading.

Even to say that the dynasty’s trading with West Chu and Stone City, Ouyang Shuo was going to list it in to let the shipping group manage it.

Chapter 904 - Collectivization Plan

Chapter 904: Collectivization Plan

Establishing the China Shipping Group had many obvious benefits, but it was not without resistance. The short term damages to the three imperial chambers of commerce were unavoidable.

Of course, this was only negligible. After all, when the shipping group was established, even if the three imperial chambers of commerce wanted to continue engaging in such services, they would not be able to compete with the shipping group.

Both sides, be it in terms of resources, branding, or ability could not be compared.

The biggest difficulty was talent.

Now, along with the dynasty education and the talent selection system getting more and more perfect, the basic level officials were not lacking. What they lacked were modern enterprise talents.

To run the huge China Shipping group well, they needed tens of thousands of professional talents. Just relying on NPCs was not enough.

If they wanted to do well, they needed elite managers and even top grade professional managers.

On this matter, Di Chen and the others had a natural advantage, as they could directly move their family members. Ouyang Shuo could only hire such talents with high salaries.

Luckily, the Great Xia Dynasty was very famous amongst players, and their influence was undeniable.

Along with Meng Zhida, Chen Bingguang, Liu Mo, and Gong Jian, these modern professional talents that had been given prominent positions in the dynasty, the attraction of the dynasty to top grade talents had greatly increased.

At the same time, the Great Xia Dynasty’s many large-scale player recruitment operations basically removed the locked country image that the territory had previously given to the outside world.

Hence, it was not that difficult for the dynasty to recruit a bunch of professionals. It only needed time and patience. Apart from that, the highest grade management personnel could not be hired.

This was their lack of foundation that could only be slowly made up.

Apart from public hiring, Ouyang Shuo was ready to use other channels to recruit talents like the Song Family.

As one of the four big Lingnan Families, although their influence was not as great as Di Chen’s, they could still help to invite talents in.

On this point, Song Tianxiong gladly obliged.

Apart from that, there was also the Feng family of Feng Qiuhuang. The Feng Family was one of the top families in China, and their hidden strength was huge.

Fallen Phoenix City was unable to digest so many talents, especially not in terms of port and shipping side talents. Hence, they did not mind recommending a bunch of people over to the Great Xia Dynasty.

Furthermore, there were the friends of the Great Xia Dynasty like the Snow-War Rose Mercenary Group, Blood Evil Mercenary Group, Blood Shadow Alliance, Jiangshan Alliance, and Thread.

Although the guild members were not professionals, they had huge families behind them. The connection network of China was really interconnected, so they would be able to get a bunch of people.

Even adventure gamemode players, if the China Shipping Group gave good enough treatment, they would not mind doing deal jobs.

Xie Siyun, Blood Romance, and the others had already told Ouyang Shuo that as long as these people wanted to leave, they would not stop them.

The same theory could be used on the millions of people who had already moved over to the Great Xia Dynasty.

The relationship between the dynasty and the China region players was becoming closer and closer. Tying the interests of normal players with the interests of the dynasty was the long term strategy of Ouyang Shuo.

…

After listening to Cui Yingyu’s introduction of the plan, the three of them were so shocked that their mouths were left agape.

As the leaders of top class chambers of commerce, Bai Xue and the others thought that their businesses were big enough. However, compared to how the dynasty was running, it was not much.

The valuation of the Shipping Group was as much as their entire chamber of commerce.

Seeing which, Song Tianshuang gave Ouyang Shuo a deep look.

Without a doubt, although this was announced by Cui Yingyu, the person who pushed this out had to be him. Although Cui Yingyu had learned many skills of the modern day, she did not have that much ability.

Only this young man was able to do what others did not dare to and think what others did not dare to think about.

‘Dare to lead the world!’ Song Tianxiang suddenly thought about that phrase that was a good fit.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he smiled, “After the organization, the Imperial Court will not take advantage of you. Based on the number of ships, workers, etc. we will give you shares in the group.”

Due to the Business Department having the most ships, the share percentages of the rest would be around 2% to 3% and would not exceed 3%.

Apart from that, the Four Seas Bank invested 1.5 million as the starting and recruitment fund, taking 5% of the shipping group.

Based on this, the shipping group would have a valuation of 30 million gold. Such a valuation was huge, and the Four Seas Bank used the profits of the group in the next year to calculate that.

“Thank you king for your good grace.”

Song Tianxiong and the other two were smart and knew that shares did not mean pay. It also meant that their chambers of commerce would have an advantage over other chambers of commerce. They would have more influence and power.

Such a thing was unable to be validated.

Hence, the plan was really nice and could be said to be his thanks to them for their help during the Battle of Morocco.

Between the two of them, they shared profits and benefits.

…

The China Shipping Group preparation officially started. As the group was under the Financial Court and the Business and Industry Development Department, Cui Yingyu would be in charge.

The recruitment notice had been sent to the various media boards and caused uproar.

In the nine imperial cities, there were definitely professionals that were unable to use their skills of their jobs. Upon seeing the recruitment notice, they smiled.

They finally had the chance they were waiting for, and a new door had opened up for them.

At the same time, the Imperial Court would spread out the news of the shipping guild to the chambers of commerce circle to invite them to throw themselves into voyage trading.

As for the other territories in China, they could only look on in awe.

The Great Xia Dynasty’s actions had left them all behind, and they were so far behind. Even if Di Chen and the others wanted to build a similar one, they could not walk out of the ocean.

Thinking of how the chambers of commerce under them would need to borrow the China Shipping Group to engage in voyage trading, Di Chen and the others felt really depressed.

They were worried about the talents who were now under their families moving over.

On one side, they were not doing anything; on the other, they were valued and could show their worth.

Such a temptation was hard to resist, so talents leaving was just a matter of time. After all, these top level talents only worked for their families but were not their servants.

One small recruitment notice had alerted the entire China region.

Only the Great Xia Dynasty had such ability.

…

Ouyang Shuo did not bother about what was happening on the outside world, as he had more important things to do.

Establishing the China Shipping Group was to reveal the collectivization plan of the dynasty. Following which, large amounts of such groups would be established to raise the efficiency.

The garment industry would use the sewing machines as well as the various silks to work with the Textile Association to form the China Textile Group to further organize the industry chain.

With that, it could make use of the textile industries of the various prefectures and counties while also getting rid of the rising giant.

The promotion of sewing machines could change the entire industry and greatly increase efficiency. However, it could also cause the local offices to throw too much money into it and overproduce.

With a textile group monitoring everything, they could prevent such a situation from arising.

Furthermore, they could prevent local rich people from forming up huge textile corporations to monopolize their area and hence challenge the rule of the local offices.

Setting up the textile group was to prevent such things.

Seeing that the dynasty had been established and the local powers had not risen, it was the best time to strike. If they formed, to remove them would be really difficult.

In the construction industry, Ouyang Shuo was ready to remove the construction ability of the Construction Division to build the China Construction Group to be in charge of dynasty design, construction, facility building, and the like.

To reduce the burden of local offices was Ouyang Shuo’s next target.

The Construction Division was the group monitoring the construction market and also a participant in projects. It was like a judge while also being an athlete, so corruption might occur.

Zhang Tingyu had already reported to Ouyang Shuo that the various Construction Divisions were where corruption was the most common.

Establishing the China Construction Group and removing a part of the role of the Construction Division could be a great move to prevent such corruption. Of course, to completely remove it was impossible.

Using this chance, they would make more people join the construction of the dynasty. The future dynasty construction industry would become more open and competitive.

There were many similar plans. Some were already planned, some were at the evaluation stage, and some were still in his head.

Every group being set up was a good thing, but it also resulted in many conflict of interests. If he moved too quickly, it would cause the dynasty to shake and unsettle the people.

Hence, they needed a calendar to go one by one, starting from the easiest and most urgent ones. The normal groups could be done by the cabinet and Ouyang Shuo did not need to personally appear.

Collectivization’s benefits were obvious for all to see. The dynasty pushing out organizations not in their structure would give birth to the basic capital market and the sprouting of industrialization.

The process had good and evil, fortunes, conflicts of interests, and might even result in bloodshed. But to the dynasty, it was a milestone-like revolution.

Chapter 905 - Ji Ji… Ji Ji

Chapter 905: Ji Ji… Ji Ji

Another benefit of the collectivization strategy would be a great increase in the dynasty’s financial income. Based on estimations from the Financial Court, when the strategy officially succeeded, the Imperial Court’s income would have a chance of doubling.

With enough financial income, the Imperial Court would be able to raise the welfare of the people, perfect basic facilities construction, improve education and medical domains, increase the speed of industrialization, pay for the army, and more.

Only by doing that could they increase the foundation and ability of the dynasty.

Similarly, collectivization would mean a huge need of talents. One China Shipping Group would need to recruit thousands of elites and the entire collectivization strategy would need hundreds of thousands.

Even if they used a certain number of NPCs, they would still need a huge amount of talents.

This would be a long term battle that involved the entire China region. Ouyang Shuo was patient, and he did not even mind recruiting people from other nations.

It was already the time of the federation, so one needed some international ambition.

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

Just as Ouyang Shuo was planning for the collectivization plan, Shanhai City welcomed three special guests.

The three of them came from the Wei Jin northern and southern dynasties and joined the Great Xia Dynasty for their own reasons. The first one to arrive was a heroine, Hua Mulan, who enlisted for her father.

Mulan weaving with a loom; the loom kept working and making noises.

However, I did not hear the loom’s noises; I just heard Mulan’s sigh.

…

Past through tens of thousands of miles to battle and crossed passes like flying.

The wind passed through her army, the cold light shining on her iron shirt.

…

When rabbits are chasing one another, how can one distinguish if I am the buck or the doe?

One Mulan poem had described Hua Mulan’s legendary life and made it a story known by all families.

Hua Mulan arrived at the Great Xia Dynasty because both Fan Lihua and Mu Guiying were here. Out of the four heroines of China, three were in the Great Xia Dynasty now, and the remaining one was Liang Hongyu from South Song.

Out of the four of them, only Hua Mulan came from a normal family. Before joining the battle, she was just a seamstress and did not learn any martial arts. However, she was able to survive for 10 years on the battlefield, a legendary feat.

Her basic upbringing made her story even more amazing.

Hua Mulan returned from the battle, but she rejected the title and rank from the Imperial Court to go home to her family; it was an ultimate show of filial piety.

Hence, she was the simplest one out of the four but also the most legendary and famous one.

Name: Hua Mulan (King Rank)

Title: One of the Four Heroines of China

Dynasty: Northern and Southern dynasty

Identity: Great Xia Dynasty General

Occupation: Special General

Loyalty: 70

Command: 70

Force: 70

Intelligence: 75

Politics: 45

Specialty: Filial (raises troops morale by 30%, raises combat strength of troops by 20%)

Cultivation Method: nil

Equipment: Mulan Bow

Evaluation: China ancient heroine, really filial. She helped her father enlist to join the war, and her story was one of legends, and the Tang Dynasty emperor gave her the title of Xiaolie General.

The game had strengthened her so that she could match up to her identity as a King Rank general.

When she reached Shanhai City, she rode on a black horse. With a bow in her hand, she formed a really handsome sight. Along with her were also her parents, sister, and little brother.

When Ouyang Shuo got the report, he personally met her.

“Civilian greets my king!”

In the Imperial Reading Room, Hua Mulan had changed, and she greeted with the civilian greeting and not the general greeting.

Ouyang Shuo focused. Hua Mulan was able to hide her identity as a female for 10 years, so she was definitely a thoughtful girl. It looked like a small greeting, but it had big meaning.

It seemed like even after coming over, she did not have any intentions of becoming a general.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “I’m happy that general came over. I have ordered someone to give you a house in the city, and you can settle your family there.”

When Hua Mulan heard that, her expression got serious, and she wavered.

As they say, ‘One won’t accept something unless they worked for it.’

If Hua Mulan accepted the residence, she would not be able to reject his request for her to be a general.

If she did not, considering the prosperity of Shanhai City, it would be really difficult for them to settle down in the city, as the house prices were high, and the goods were expensive.

Shanhai City was not how it was before, and one could not just rely on the welfare package given out by the Yamen.

Hua Mulan and her family survived by sewing. In Shanhai City, where the sewing machine was pushed out, they did not have any advantage, and even basic living conditions could not be achieved.

‘It’s so hard to live in a big city.’ she exclaimed to herself.

After the system update, the historical peoples’ lives became more interesting. Each one of them brought their families along as they entered the wilderness.

That also forced them to come out to feed their families.

Gaia used up many resources to design numerous advanced intelligence historical people, and it was not for them to do nothing in the wilderness.

The historical people who chose to seclude themselves would not be trained in the territories and would not gain modern day knowledge, so they would definitely be eliminated.

When they reach Planet Hope, no Lord would waste resources on them to make them real.

…

Seeing Hua Mulan hesitate, Ouyang Shuo continued, “I know that General has some worries, so why not listen to my plan before making a decision? How about that?”

Since he said that, Hua Mulan had no reason to speak otherwise, “King, please speak!”

Ouyang Shuo said, “The Xia palace is guarded by the Guards Legion Corps. However, most of them are male, so it is not convenient for them to go into the back palace. I hope for you to train a group of Imperial Palace female guards to guard the back palace. With that, you will not need to leave the barracks and can also be near your family. What do you think?”

Hua Mulan had joined the army for 10 years, so she had a relationship with the army and would not be able to leave just like that. Even when she went home, she still kept in contact with her military subordinates and friends.

However, as one’s military career and family could not be mixed, Hua Mulan had no choice.

Ouyang Shuo’s arrangement helped fulfill both, touching Hua Mulan. She cupped her fists and said, “Thank you my king for your good grace.” Her tone was confident and clear.

“I’m looking forward to General training the special female guards. As for the specific arrangements, you can discuss with the queen and the Privy Court.”

Song Jia was the master of the back palace and had power over the guards.

“Yes my king!”

Hua Mulan bowed once more and took her leave.

Ouyang Shuo looked indifferent. However, many thoughts had run through his heart. Ouyang Shuo thought of the female guards because he loved Hua Mulan’s talents and was not willing to see her waste her good years in front of a sewing machine. Moreover, he was considering the safety of Bing’er.

Song Jia was highly skilled, so she was definitely safe. However, Bing’er was different. Although she trained in the Wugou heart sutra, that was an internal technique and not a fighting one.

Ouyang Shuo was worried that someone would kidnap her.

Especially as sects and factions like Shaolin and Wudang came out. With more and more martial artists appearing, people might try something funny to threaten Ouyang Shuo.

Although there was no real death in the game, Ouyang Shuo was not willing to let Bing’er make a trip to the reincarnation hall.

…

The second to arrive in Shanhai City was an old man; he was the ancestor of mathematics, Zu Chongzhi.

Zu Chongzhi spent his life studying natural sciences; he focused on mainly mathematics, astronomy, and mecha-making. His best mathematical achievement was calculating Pi.

Pi concerned many different parts of life like the calendar, astronomy, and more. How to guess the exact value of Pi was an important question in the mathematical world.

Zu Chongzhi used the foundations of Liu Hui’s Pi finding method to calculate Pi to the seveth digit, which was between 3.1415926 and 3.1415927.

Only during the 16th century did Al Kashi break this record.

Xu Chongzhi’s accurate Pi value was a huge contribution to China and even to the world.

Apart from the Pi value, Zu Chongzhi’s Methods for Interpolation was listed into the famous 10 books of Suanjing.

The methods of interpolation were really deep, and the calculations were really precise. Many smart people could not understand its contents, and it was one of the hardest mathematical books.

Zu Chongzhi also had some work on astronomy. The Daming calendar written by him was the most advanced calendar at that time and provided the correct method for the future astronomy research.

The key to the calendar was the calculation of leap weeks.

His calculation was really precise. Based on it, a year was 365.2428141 days, which was only 46 seconds away from the amount today.

He also calculated the number of overlaps between sun and moon as 27.21223, which was very close to the 27.21222 as we know today. Using this number, he successfully predicted an eclipse four times during 23 years.

Apart from natural sciences, Zu Chongzhi was also good at music and researched melodies; he was a truly all rounded individual.

Zu Chongzhi came over because he was attracted by the famous Xinan University; it was a great learning environment.

Ouyang Shuo naturally would not force him to come out and take up an appointment. Instead, he personally sent him to the university.

Chapter 906 - Sui Dynasty Ambassador

Chapter 906: Sui Dynasty Ambassador

Ouyang Shuo arranged for Zu Chongzhi to enter the natural sciences college. He would take up the role of vice dean while the dean was science saint Mo Zi. The moment Zu Chongzhi was appointed, a System Notification sounded out through the China region.

“System Notification: Mathematics representative – Zu Chongzhi – has arrived in the Great Xia Dynasty, working at the Natural Sciences College, accepting disciples, fulfilling the three requirements for the school of thought to move in. The mathematics school officially moves into Shanhai City.”

…

“System Notification: Mathematics school of thought moved into Shanhai City, rewarding Shanhai City with the title Land of Mathematics. Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi!”

…

“System Notification: Shanhai City current title Land of Philosophers automatically covers the Land of Mathematics title, removing relevant title rewards, awarding Shanhai City with an

Astronomical Observatory. Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi!”

…

At this point, the China region players were already numb.

The attraction power of the Great Xia Dynasty was something that the other territories could not compare to. The arrival of historical talents also helped to boost their reputation in the circle, which in turn attracted more historical people over.

This cycle repeats.

At the current stage, Ouyang Shuo did not even need to recruit them, and there would be a large amount of people coming over. This was the snowball effect; the moment they started rolling, the snowball would only roll bigger and bigger, and the advantage would grow more and more obvious.

Ouyang Shuo did not bother about it and took a look at the stats of the Astronomical Observatory.

Name: Astronomical Observatory

Type: Special Building

Function: Raises astronomical prediction efficiency by 400%

Specialty: Increases attraction to astronomers by 20%; raises reputation of dynasty by 5%

Note: This is a building that is specially built to observe the stars and planets. One can predict the weather based on the stars.

In ancient times, predicting the weather was really important to agriculture and the army. If one was able to predict the weather changes, they could greatly increase the efficiency of the agriculture industry.

The third special person to join the Great Xia Dynasty this time was the North Wei agriculture expert, Jia Sixie.

Jia Sixie; his background was not specified. He was appointed as the Governor of Gaoyang, and the Qimin Yaoshu that he wrote gathered the agricultural knowledge since Qin and Han in the Yellow River region.

Qimin Yaoshu had many chapters like farming, vegetables, fruit trees, trees, brewing, foreign plants, and the like; it was the earliest agricultural encyclopedia in China.

Compared to Zu Chongzhi, Jia Sixie was a pure academic. He had taken control of a region and also personally participated in agriculture production, combining theory and practical experience.

After they met, Ouyang Shuo appointed Jia Sixie as the Administration Court Agriculture Department Director.

When establishing the country, the Agriculture Division was promoted to the Agriculture Department, under it there was the Irrigation Division, Land Reclamation Division, Fishing Division, Forestry Division, and Husbandry Division to take charge of the agricultural industry of the entire dynasty.

The original secretary, Sun Yannong, could be considered an old minister of the dynasty. However, he had limited ability, and he lacked the power to command the entire situation. After establishing the country, he was appointed as the land reclamation secretary, a primary grade 5 official.

The role of Agriculture Director had been empty till now. In order to maintain the running of the department, the cabinet temporarily ordered him to manage the Agriculture Department matters as a secretary.

Similar situations happened in the Construction Department, which had the Planning Division, the Construction Division, the Craftwork Division, and Road and the Bridge Division. The original secretary, Hao Jiancheng, became the planning division secretary but helped to manage the department matters.

After establishing the country, Ouyang Shuo was really careful about each key position.

Especially the director of agriculture and construction, where it was better to leave it empty than to hire someone bad.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo did not treat Sun Yannong badly, and he was ready to move him to Zhen An Prefecture Governor to take over Mulan Yue’s previous position.

At this date, a large batch of natives like Sun Yannong had already grown up and slowly became the core of the dynasty.

At the House and County level, a large half of them came out from this batch of talents. Especially those who had studied in Lianzhou College before it became Xinan University, they were doing the best.

This batch of people was termed as the college faction. Those who joined the first batch of students that Ouyang Shuo personally taught lived as the disciples of the son of god.

…

The Great Xia Dynasty obtained three historical talents, and the other Lords obtained some too.

Wang Meng joined Handan City because of the relationship between Di Chen and Fu Jian; Xie Xuan was rejected by Ouyang Shuo and brought a bunch of Xie family members to join Zhan Lang and the Blood Red City.

Wang Xizhi, Xie Lingyun, Xie Daoyun, and other members of the two families followed Xie Xuan to Blood Red City. Who knows what Zhan Lang did to recruit Xie Xuan, but he became the biggest winner of the Battle of Fei River.

General Ran Min was accepted by Feng Qiuhuang, while Huan Chong was recruited by Wufu. Similarly, the Huan family followed Huan Chong and moved into Stone City, adding to the talent pool he had.

The remaining historical talents had not shown themselves and were waiting for Lords to recruit them.

6th month, 25th day, Quanzhou.

Along with Emperor Wen of Sui moving into Quanzhou, this imperial city welcomed a silent upgrade. The city style changed, and it basically inherited the building style of the Sui Dynasty imperial city Daxing City.

Daxing City was the Chang An City of Tang.

Before the Sui Dynasty established the country, the Capital City was still at Chang An old city. Due to a long battle, it was torn and tattered. Furthermore, the palace was really small, and it was not suitable to build the imperial city of a dynasty.

Along with a hundred years of poor polluted water, water provision also became a problem. Hence, Yang Jian gave up Gu Chang An City that was north of Longshouyuan. He also gave up on the Han Chang An City south of Longshouyuan. He chose to build a new city.

In the second year since the dynasty’s establishment, he ordered Yuwen Kai to take charge of designing and building a new city – Daxing City.

Yuwen Kai referenced Luoyang City and North Qi Yedu North City. He used the six hills south of Longshouyuan as the core to set the basis of the overall planning of Chang An City.

The six hills were the structure of Daxing City. The palace, political organizations, and temples were all built high above; there was a clear difference between it and the normal civilian area. In between the ridges, apart from civilian residence, there were canals to bring water in and lakes that were dug to increase the water regions in the city.

Daxing City made use of the geographical advantage to appear more majestic. The flat areas of the city were all planned similarly and designed as a rectangle.

The city was made up of the palace, emperor city, and outer city, and it was separated into east and west.

Daxing City was the biggest city in the world, 2.4 times the size of Chang An City, 1.4 times the size of Beijing City, and 6.2 times bigger than Baghdad City built in 800 AD.

Before this, from Qin Han all the way to the northern and southern dynasty, the capital cities were planned. The palaces and streets all intersected and were really messy.

After Daxing City, capital cities started to be planned and the streets designed orderly.

The emperor palace, emperor city, and civilians were all separated. Lines were carefully drawn; it was safe and practical.

As the overall architect of Daxing City, Yuwen Kai had obtained a lot of credit. Yuwen Kai was also a rare expert in China’s history in city planning and building designing.

…

Sui Dynasty ruling Quanzhou totally renewed this imperial city.

Be it the nobles or the million guards troops, they all changed from standard numbers to actual live individuals.

Within the city, there were signs of prosperity.

Imperial Palace, side palace.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was busy meeting Jia Sixie, Yang Jian also welcomed an ambassador.

The ambassador was none other than Wang Meng.

Although the Yang Jian who appeared in the wilderness was already close to 50, he had an overbearing aura and sharp eyes. An overlord’s aura spread forth. Luckily, Wang Meng was a strong person and was already trained to be calm and unmovable under Fu Jian’s teachings.

“You say that you represent the Yanhuang Alliance?” Yang Jian said.

After appearing in the wilderness, emperors and kings like Yang Jian would gain wilderness knowledge through Gaia. Hence, although Yang Jian was not an official, he was able to clearly see the relationship between Shanhai Alliance and Yanhuang Alliance.

Wang Meng nodded, “That’s right; I bring my sincerity over.”

Yang Jian laughed, “I am a protector of a region. Why would I need your sincerity?”

In the few days of coming to Quanzhou, Yang Jian was really energized. He had gotten familiar with the imperial city while also arranging officials to swiftly take over the imperial city and the prefecture where the city was located.

The more he learned, the happier he was with the foundation and basics of Quanzhou. It was good enough to compare with the Sui Dynasty. As a result, Yang Jian was so confident and looked down on the Yanhuang Alliance.

During such a chaotic time, Yang Jian also wanted to be able to achieve something.

Wang Meng was not fazed and calmly said, “I think you know about the character of the Great Xia Dynasty; they are really invasive. The Great Sui neighbors the Great Xia. Are you not afraid at all?”

“So what?” Yang Jian’s eyes focused.

Wang Meng’s words touched at the painful parts of Yang Jian. If one had to say what he was unhappy about after appearing in the wilderness, it would be the existence of the Great Xia Dynasty.

How could Yang Jian have expected that the wilderness would actually have such a beast?

The more he understood about the Great Xia Dynasty, the heavier Yang Jian felt. Although he did not want to admit it, be it in terms of land, population, economy, military or politics, the Great Xia was better than the Great Sui.

If one said that Great Sui had the power of one dynasty, then the Great Xia had gathered the power of five thousand years of China.

In terms of geography, Quanzhou Prefecture where the Great Sui was located was surrounded by the Great Xia, and even its ocean surface was being locked down by the Great Xia navy.

Such a situation was really uncomfortable for an emperor.

Wang Meng smiled, “If your highness is willing, the Yanhuang Alliance can help the Great Sui.”

Chapter 907 - Harmony is Best

Chapter 907: Harmony is Best

Yang Jian looked at Wang Meng expressionlessly, “Yanhuang Alliance has always lost Great Xia. How preposterous, you actually claim that you can help me.”

Wang Meng jolted; he did not expect that Emperor Wen of Sui would be so hard to get.

A ruler naturally had the pride of a ruler.

Before having a confrontation with the Great Xia, how would Yang Jian admit that he was weaker? The million guards he had in his hands were the strongest trump card. Even if Great Sui did not have the geographical advantage, they could still hold on.

Wang Meng was helpless, and he could only say, “Your highness, please believe in our sincerity. The Yanhuang Alliance will work with Great Sui at any time, as we have a common enemy.”

Yang Jian waved his hand, “You can leave first!”

He did not reject the offer, but he did not agree to it either. As a ruler, apart from pride, he naturally was smart. He knew that he needed to leave himself a way out for everything.

Who knows, maybe the Great Sui would someday need the Yanhuang Alliance’s help.

Wang Meng sighed and took his leave. This time, his calculations had failed. Messing up his first mission given to him by the Lord made Wang Meng really depressed.

…

After Wang Meng left, Emperor Wen of Sui called for the minister of administrative affairs, Gao Ying.

Emperor Wen of Sui who started the rule of Kaihuang had huge contributions in terms of the dynasty system. He removed the nine rank system and changed it into the five departments and six ministry system, which was the blueprint for the Tang Dynasty’s three departments and six ministry system.

Within the five departments, there were the imperial orders, administrative affairs, verification of orders and policies, secretary, and eunuch departments. The secretary department was in charge of books and calendar, and the eunuch department was the organization of officials in the Imperial Court. In truth, there were only three departments.

Under the administrative affairs department there were six ministries for officials, customs, soldiers, punishment, projects, and population. One minister led hundreds of officials, and two assistants that were in charge of the heads of the six ministries.

The minister was often a puppet with the left assistant being the actual one in control.

In history, during Emperor Wen of Sui’s time, Gao Ying was the left assistant while Su Wei, Yang Su had also taken the role before. Entering Quanzhou and seeing this bunch of officials once more, Yang Jian was filled with emotions and changed his thoughts.

He promoted Gao Ying to minister of the department and Su Wei became the left assistant, while Yang Su would continue to be the right assistant. The three of them formed a triangle and were the core ministers of the Great Sui.

After a short while, Gao Ying appeared in the side palace.

Gao Ying was a minister of a generation. Not only was he really capable, but he was bold and was skilled in both military and administrative matters.

When Emperor Wen of Sui was still the North Zhou prime minister, Gao Ying had already secretly joined him. During which, Gao Ying helped him remove Yuchi Qiong, clearing obstacles for his ascension.

When he ascended and established the Sui dynasty, he appointed Gao Ying as the left assistant and as the prime minister. Before establishing the country, Gao Ying and Su Wei worked together, and the emperor would seek their advice on all administrative matters.

During which, Gao Ying changed the laws. He made the Turk in the north yield and settled Chen Dynasty in the south. As a result, he gained a lot of credit.

Gao Ying was also good at recommending talents. People like Su Wei, Yang Su, He Ruo, and the like were people that he strongly recommended.

However, at the ending years of Kaihuang, Gao Ying were like other ministers that had contributed a lot. He lost the faith of the ruler, and his rank and title were stripped from him.

During the rule of Emperor Yang of Sui, he was directly killed for slandering the Dynasty.

“Your highness!”

The Gao Ying that had appeared in the wilderness was close to 50. Although his eyes were cloudy, they seemed like it had seen through everything in the world. His eyes were filled with a lot of wisdom.

Who knows whether the current Gao Ying had any doubts in his heart.

Emperor Wen of Sui nodded. He told Gao Ying about the Wang Meng matter and asked, “What do you think about this matter?”

Gao Ying’s face was really calm. For people like him who had been through so many storms, nothing could excite him or make him feel fear, “In my eyes, we should wait and see.”

“Why?”

Gao Ying said, “The Great Sui has just laid our roots in the wilderness and needs an adaptation period. The situation in the wilderness is uncertain, Great Xia’s attitude is uncertain, and war rules are uncertain, so we cannot move randomly.”

Gao Ying said that three things were uncertain, causing the emperor to frown.

The so-called battle rules referred to the restraints that Gaia had placed on dynasties. The four dynasties that had appeared so far in the wilderness of China were restricted to one prefecture of land. It was not that they did not want to expand but that Gaia did not allow it.

The four dynasties were all hidden dragons circling in the depths. They could not rise up into the skies.

Since Gaia wanted to use the NPCs to train the Lords, it could not squeeze the Lords too hard and cause them to be wiped out by the NPC powers.

Gaia had a really accurate grasp on the specifics.

Only when the time was right would Gaia allow these dynasties to do whatever they wanted.

Gaia was playing a huge chess game.

Gao Ying continued, “Although the Yanhuang Alliance says that we have a common enemy, they have bad intentions, and their goal is for us two to fight. They want to be like fishermen, catching all the gains.”

The small acts of Di Chen and the others were unable to escape the eyes of an old fox like Gao Ying.

Of course, Di Chen’s actions had an effect. Although his plan had failed, it planted a thorn between Great Sui and Great Xia. Since that happened, and he did not use much strength, Di Chen was glad to do it.

“You’re right.” Emperor Wen nodded; he had such a thought previously.

“If I’m right, the Great Xia will take the initiative to contact us.” Gao Ying made a bold prediction, “Quanzhou and Great Xia have a close trading relationship so they have no reason not to.”

Speaking of which, a look of worry flashed across his face.

The biggest crisis of the Great Sui was not that they were surrounded geographically but that their resource provision was in the hands of Great Xia.

In the imperial city, the NPCs had a fixed population. It was based on a 1:10 ratio of troops to population. The overall population in the city was 10 times that of the Guards army.

In Quanzhou, they were able to have 11 million NPCs. Along with the 10 million players, the entire city had over 20 million people.

What kind of concept was a 20 million people city? Even in the 21st century, where the population boomed, China only had three cities that broke 20 million.

With the ancient city size as a limit, they could not handle such a scale of people. Just the grain consumption would mean millions of units of grain per day, and they needed a province of land to provide such a scale of grain.

For the people in the city to survive, they needed not only grain, but also vegetables, fish, meat, salt, leather, cloth, and more.

Without an entire province transfusing blood for the imperial city, they could not support such a scale.

Before the emperor moved into the imperial city, although Quanzhou City had over 20 million NPCs, a large portion of them were supported by Gaia. As such, it would not burden the imperial city.

When Emperor Wen of Sui moved into Quanzhou, all the support was removed.

As a result, if the four prefectures of Minnan Province that belonged to Great Xia Dynasty stopped the provisions of goods to Quanzhou, Quanzhou would be in chaos due to a lack of resources. It would take less than half a month.

Of course, that was only the extreme case. In such a scenario, both sides would be hurt, and no one would gain anything from it.

If Ouyang Shuo really gave such an order, Great Sui could only send troops to protect themselves to try to use force to take over Minnan Province.

That was something no one wanted to see.

No matter what, Great Xia Dynasty controlled the lifeline of the Great Sui. Hence, Gao Ying felt really anxious about it.

Emperor Wen was not a fool and naturally thought about that. He agreed with Gao Ying’s thoughts and was prepared to wait and observe the changes.

…

Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

Not long after Wang Meng arrived in Quanzhou, the Shanhai Guards found out.

During these two years, the Black Snake Guards before and the current Shanhai Guards had both worked really hard. They had formed an airtight information network in Quanzhou City.

Anything that happened there would be seen by them.

When Shen Buhai got the news, he knew that this was a crucial piece of intel. He immediately validated it himself before contacting the king.

When Ouyang Shuo heard the news, he was not surprised. In fact, it would be abnormal if Di Chen and the others did not touch the sensitive relationship between Great Sui and Great Xia.

“I know, continue to monitor.” Ouyang Shuo instructed.

“Yes my king!”

Shen Buhai took his leave. Then Ouyang Shuo turned to Tsing Yi and said, “Call the Honglu Temple.” Considering the time, Emperor Wen had already settled down, and it was time to contact him.

“Yes!”

The Xia Palace did not have eunuchs. Naturally, there was not a head eunuch. Tsing Yi played the equivalent role.

After a short while, Zhang Yi came over.

“Greetings my king!”

“Please sit!” Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, “I called you here for you to be an ambassador to a country.”

“Are you referring to Great Sui?” Probably only Great Sui was able to make Zhang Yi personally visit as an ambassador.

“Smart.” Ouyang Shuo nodded, “The dynasty has had a close relationship with Quanzhou. Be it in terms of trading or culture, we have been on good terms.”

“Seeing that they have a new master, we need to keep up this friendship and send our congratulations. Both sides signed an agreement before, which needs to be reconfirmed.”

“The king wants to continue the cooperation between the two?”

Ouyang Shuo gave a smile that did not look like a smile as he looked at Zhang Yi, “Why not?”

Zhang Yi was terrified. He bowed as he said, “I’ve said something wrong, please punish me my king.”

“I understand your kind intentions.” Ouyang Shuo looked relaxed, “It’s better to be harmonious.”

“Yes my king!”

Zhang Yi nodded. In his heart, he was digesting and thinking about what the king meant by those words.

Chapter 908 - Shocking Night at the Inn

Chapter 908: Shocking Night at the Inn

6th month, 28th day, Quanzhou.

Early in the morning, the prosperous Quanzhou City welcomed a special group of people.

The Great Xia Dynasty Honglu Temple Zhang Yi brought officials from the Science, Education, Culture, and Health Department and the Industrialization Department, forming a hundred men envoy group to visit Great Sui.

Two days ago, Great Xia Honglu Temple had already told the Great Sui Honglu Temple. Gao Ying reported the matter, and after asking the emperor, they agreed.

Gao Ying represented the emperor to visit the ambassador group and led them into the inn.

Within a meeting room there, the two officials met alone.

Gao Ying raised his tea cup; he took a sip and asked, “What instructions do the Xia King have for your trip?”

For Great Xia to send out an envoy group was as Emperor Wen and Gao Ying had expected. Only, what was their purpose? Were they going to continue the cooperation or become enemies?

No one was sure.

With that, Emperor Wen arranged for Gao Ying to probe before he officially met them in case anything awkward happened in court.

Zhang Yi smiled. He was a diplomacy expert and was used to all this, “My king said that since Great Xia and Quanzhou have been having such a good relationship, he wants to congratulate the ascension of Emperor Wen. At the same time, he hopes to continue the good relationship.”

When Gao Ying heard that, he let out a long and comfortable sigh of relief, “I’ll tell his highness about the kind intentions of the Xia King.”

Following which, the two old foxes conversed for over an hour, probing at one another. Only then did Gao Ying leave to report to Emperor Wen.

Seeing which, Zhang Yi was deep in thought. Now, it was all up to them to react.

…

Afternoon, Handan City.

News of the ambassador group sent by Great Xia had spread to Di Chen’s ears.

Difeng spies noticed that the expression of Gao Ying was really relaxed when he left the inn and was not as stressed out as before. Obviously, Great Xia was not there to look for trouble.

“Emperor Wen is going to take a light approach.” Di Chen stood in front of the window. Looking into the sky, his heart was really annoyed.

Juedai Fenghua looked at the man in front of her. He had continuously faced setbacks but did not fall. She sighed and said softly, “How are your preparations?”

Di Chen turned around; a cold glimpse appeared in his eyes, “If the Great Xia ambassador group is assassinated in Quanzhou, will they continue the cooperation?”

“Would it work?” Juedai Fenghua hesitated, “The inn is guarded by Great Sui Guards, and the Great Xia envoy is protected by advanced guards. To assassinate them is really difficult.”

Di Chen smiled, “We do not have to use a sword to kill someone; we can use poison.”

Juedai Fenghua frowned and said in shock, “You want to use number 15? That’s just not worth it.” Juedai Fenghua was in charge of Difeng and knew about the arrangements of Difeng in Quanzhou.

Similar to the Shanhai Guards, Difeng had spies in all nine imperial cities. Number 15 was one of the managers of the inn.

Juedai Fenghua had spent a lot of effort to develop him.

Di Chen shook his head and said coldly, “Great Sui is a key chess piece to restricting Great Xia, so we cannot let them cooperate. If it works, sacrificing numbed 15 is worth it.”

“That’s great, I’ll go do it.” Seeing Di Chen insist, Juedai Fenghua could not oppose.

In the end, Di Chen was still the master.

…

Night, inn.

Based on the system, Emperor Wen would officially meet them the next day.

Zhang Yi was not interested in Quanzhou, so he obviously would not tour it. Zhang Yi spent the day in the inn to prepare for the next day.

There were also safety considerations as to why he did not go out.

Before coming to Quanzhou, the king had told him that he was worried about someone having ideas.

When Ouyang Shuo signed the trade agreement with Chuanbei City-State and Xiangnan City-State, Chun Shenjun had planned an assassination; the event was still fresh in his head.

During this trip, apart from 50 elite guards, the Shadow Guards were led by Cui Tianqi to personally protect them. They were to ensure the safety of the envoy and Zhang Yi especially.

At 6 PM, Gao Ying once again came to the inn to represent Emperor Wen to treat the envoy to a feast.

They interacted during the feast. There were songs and dances; it was a really bustling event.

At this very moment, the servers carried bowls of nourishing soup as the final dish of the dinner.

“Please!”

Gao Ying sat at the head position and looked at Zhang Yi. He smiled as he said, “This is ginseng soup specially made from Gaoli ginseng; it’s really nourishing and can remove exhaustion.”

Zhang Yi said, “Emperor Wen is truly kind.” He took up a spoon and drank, “It really is delicious.”

When Gao Ying heard this, he was delighted.

Just as Zhang Yi drank the third mouthful, he felt an immense pain in his stomach. Along with the pain, his mouth and nose bled. The fresh blood dripped into the soup and spread apart, becoming a flower.

“Sir!”

Since they were having a feast and were within the inn, Zhang Yi only brought two guards along. They stood behind him responsibly to focus on the situation.

Both of them noticed Zhang Yi’s unusual circumstance right away.

Their shouts instantly pierced the atmosphere. Other members of the envoy turned around. Seeing their leader bleeding and obviously poisoned, they all crowded around.

“Sir!” An official from the Business Department exclaimed, rushing out of the door, “Men, quick!”

The following guards of the envoy were standing outside. They charged in upon hearing the shouts. However, how would the Great Sui guards allow them to enter before they understood the situation?

Both sides were locked in a standoff outside.

“Move!”

The following guard’s captain was really solemn, and he pulled out his Tang Blade without any hesitation.

With a ‘Shua!’ the other 50 guards pulled out their blades. Under the moonlight, the blades gave out chilly glows.

The Great Sui guards were unfazed and said in a low tone, “Without orders, no one is to enter.” Luckily, the commanding general knew the seriousness of the situation and did not pull out his sword. He just used his shield.

Instantly, the Great Sui Dynasty formed a shield wall in front of the door.

At the same time, he purposely said loudly, “Send some men to see what happened.” He said that to let the Great Xia guards feel at ease.

“Yes sir!”

A few guards entered the hall upon hearing the order; the current hall was in chaos.

Seeing that Zhang Yi was poisoned, Gao Ying could not keep calm anymore. The spoon slipped from his hand and into the bowl; the thick soup splashed everywhere.

Gao Ying was really clear that if Zhang Yi died here, it would be a calamity to Great Sui. Thinking of which, he forced himself to calm down and shouted, “Summon the imperial physician!”

Saving Zhang Yi was the important matter.

‘Please do not die.’ Gao Ying prayed in his heart.

After which, he said to the guards who came in, “Immediately lock down the inn, no one can enter. Capture everyone in the hall for questioning.”

“Yes!” The guards captain nodded. Next, he asked, “What about the Great Xia Guards?”

Gao Ying frowned as he thought for a moment before he said, “Let them in!”

50 Guards could not cause much. However, if they were to forcefully stop them, it might cause problems instead.

“Yes sir!”

In just a few minutes, Gao Ying had already gotten everything under control. As expected from an experienced official.

After arranging the important matters, only then did Gao Ying walk toward Zhang Yi. When the other members of the envoy saw Gao Ying, they looked at him with animosity.

Zhang Yi looked at him in disbelief, “You, you all actually poisoned…”

Gao Ying said sincerely, “We did not poison you. The imperial physician will come soon.” At this moment, Gao Ying could not give any explanation. However, he believed that Zhang Yi was a smart person.

The more he said, the easier it would be for the other party to misunderstand.

“He obviously drank your ginseng soup and was poisoned, yet you still dare to argue?” The envoy members were furious as they scolded Gao Ying.

Gao Ying was expressionless; he only looked at Zhang Yi. A few minutes had passed, and his face was turning dark. Obviously, it was a potent poison. When Gao Ying saw that, he felt a chill run down his spine.

Zhang Yi looked at Gao Ying. He was unsure whether the latter was lying or saying the truth.

No matter what, Zhang Yi knew that he could not panic. He bore the pain and said, “Go back to the room; do not act rashly.”

“Yes!”

Zhang Yi was the core of the group and everyone would listen to his orders.

After a short while, Zhang Yi was moved to his room. He lied on his bed as Gao Ying was blocked outside the door.

Within the room, Cui Tianqi stood; he looked ashamed.

Zhang Yi knew that the young man was the true right hand man of the king, “The enemy poisoned me and caught us off guard. It is not your fault.”

“Sir, what should we do?” Cui Tianqi asked.

“Send the news back to the imperial city.” Zhang Yi was preparing for the worse.

“Understood!” Cui Tianqi nodded; he knew what to do.

“All of you go down; let’s speak when the physician arrives. Remember; do not start conflict with Great Sui before the truth comes out.”

Zhang Yi came here as an ambassador. Seeing how Gao Ying acted, Zhang Yi would rather believe that he was poisoned by someone else. As such, they could not be rash and mess up the king’s matters.

His life was small, while the king’s ambitions were huge.

“Yes!”

When the other members of the envoy saw that, they could only leave.

In a short while, Zhang Yi was the only person left. He lied lonelily on the bed. No one noticed that he was holding a small porcelain bottle in his hand.

Chapter 909 - Di Renjie Investigates

Chapter 909: Di Renjie Investigates

In the bottle was an antidote pill made by Medical Saint Zhang Zhongjing.

This antidote pill was really strong. Although it could not ensure that all poisons were cured, it could at least stop the poison spread until one could cure it.

5th month, Zhang Zhongjing took charge of the imperial medicine court, and the antidote pill was one of his contributions. As the herbs needed to make it were rare and precious, there were less than a hundred of them.

Ouyang Shuo did not keep all of them. He gave these pills to generals and civil servants, especially generals of the Legion General level one.

As the head of the Honglu Temple, Zhang Yi naturally got one.

Zhang Yi was hesitating about whether to use it immediately or not. Zhang Zhongjing had told them that the earlier they used the pill, the more effective it would be.

If he used it immediately after he was poisoned, his life would be saved. However, if one wasted time, illness might take root. If one waited till the poison attacked the heart, even the heavens would not be able to save them.

Zhang Yi was hesitating because he was seeing further. If the poisoning was not done by Great Sui, it would be a huge opportunity for Great Xia.

‘Personal loss for the gains of the dynasty.’ Zhang Yi felt that it was worth it.

Thinking of which, he gritted his teeth and decided to take the gamble. He kept the bottle and waited for the imperial physician.

After a short while, the physician entered, and Gao Yong followed behind. Seeing Zhang Yi’s black face he got even more worried. Currently, even the blood that flowed out was black.

His majesty had gotten the news and told them to save him no matter the cost.

After the diagnosis, the physician frowned.

“How’s the situation?” Gao Ying asked.

“If he makes it past tonight, he will be okay. But if he does not…”

“….”

Gao Ying felt his heart tremble; he could foresee a storm coming.

When the physician left, Zhang Yi finally used the pill. However, he was still a little too slow, and the poison had entered some of his organs and taken root. Luckily, it was not a life threatening situation.

…

Late night, Great Sui Palace.

In the cold palace, Emperor Wen and Gao Ying were having a conversation.

“Your highness, we must prepare for the worst.” Gao Ying’s voice was hoarse. The shock tonight had exhausted him thoroughly.

A light flashed through the emperor’s eyes, “What are our chances if we engage?”

“No more than 30%.”

Gao Ying’s guess was logical. Although they had a million troops, they only had one city, and they only had one prefecture of land. If they really fought, the Great Xia Army could collapse down on them.

Moreover, Quanzhou was a lone city. Great Xia did not even need to attack; they just needed to surround them till their resources ran out.

Their only chance would be to take the initiate and gamble. If the million troops charged out of the city, it would also be tough for Great Xia.

Emperor Wen was shocked. If he only had a 30% chance, he would not dare to take the risk.

Emperor Wen’s face became blurry under the light of the candle, making it hard for one to see through. After a long while, he said, “Get ready to discuss terms.”

Gao Ying was not surprised, “If we do, we might have to give land, compensation, and the like. We have no land to give. As for compensation, we have a few million that we can take out.”

Pausing, Gao Ying was expressionless. He continued, “It’s also hard for us to marry someone to them. The Xia King is a loyal person and only has one queen. If we send a prince over as a hostage….”

As he said that, Gao Ying did not dare to continue.

There were a total of five princes who followed Emperor Wen into the wilderness. They were crown prince Yang Yong, Jin Prince Yang Guang, Qin Prince Yang Jun, Shu Prince Yang Xiu, and Han Prince Yang Qiong.

In terms of position, Yang Yong and Yang Guang were the highest.

In history, not long after Yang Guang ascended, he killed his brother. Hence, the two brothers had animosity between each other and looked at one another like enemies.

Funnily, Great Sui also fell in Yang Guang’s hands, so Emperor Wen also treated him really weirdly.

“If we need to, send Jin Prince.”

No matter what, for Great Sui to fall by his hands made the emperor really disappointed in his son. Thinking back to what happened when he was about to die, he really wanted to kill this son of his.

“To be able to contribute to Great Sui would be atoning for his sins.”

“Yes your highness.”

Gao Ying tried his best to not show an expression and not reveal his personal feelings and preference.

‘The emperor’s heart is hard to predict.’

The emperor breezed across that topic and asked, “Do you have any progress regarding the poison?”

Gao Ying said, “We have found out that a manger of the inn placed the poison. He has been locked up and is being interrogated.”

“We must get to the bottom of this and give an answer to Great Xia.”

Emperor Wen was feeling really annoyed. Since becoming an emperor, he had never lowered his head to anyone. Who knew that just after entering the wilderness, he would need to lower his head to Great Xia?

‘Maybe we should contact the Yanhuang Alliance.’ He thought to himself.

“Yes!”

After Gao Ying left, a young handsome man walked out from the back of the hall. He was Yang Yong.

“Father!”

Emperor Wen looked at Yang Yong, “Our Great Sui has just taken over Quanzhou, so there should be many spies like that inn manager. Wipe out all these rats.”

There was no emperor that was willing to have moles and spies of other powers in his home.

“Yes, father!”

The prince Yang Yong who appeared in the wilderness had less warmth and was colder. It seemed like the lesson in history had taught him a lot.

Emperor Wen looked at Gao Ying’s back view and said, “We cannot loosen our monitoring of officials. Great Sui is unlike before, and people might have impure intentions.”

Yang Yong felt his heart shake. He knew that his father’s doubtful personality was showing once more.

“Yes!”

Yang Yong respectfully nodded.

Within the hall, the shadows of the father and son wavered under the light of the candles.

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

The next day, news about the Great Xia envoy being poisoned spread around Quanzhou.

In just a morning, the entire China region learned of the matter.

Some gloated, while some were shocked. Any action of the Great Xia Dynasty was able to shake the entire China region and make huge news.

If these two giants fought because of this, it would be a huge matter to the China Region.

Players were worried that if Quanzhou fell, the China region would have one less imperial city. It was not a happy thing to the entire China region.

Hence, some players begged on the forums for the Great Xia Dynasty to think about the big picture and not start war.

Shanhai City, Xia palace.

Ouyang Shuo naturally had no time to bother about what the players on the forum wanted. If there was anything, the Outreach Division under Zi Luolan would handle it.

Early in the morning, Cui Tianqi went to look for Ouyang Shuo.

Hearing that Zhang Yi was poisoned, Ouyang Shuo was furious, “Was it done by Great Sui?”

“Zhang Yi said that it was hard to say; the chances of it not being them are greater.”

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes focused, “So it’s a third party?”

Cui Tianqi kept silent. He was a Shadow Guard and could not interfere in politics.

Ouyang Shuo did not expect him to reply. His heart knew that if it were an outsider, it would most likely be the Yanhuang Alliance.

“Preposterous!”

Ouyang Shuo’s face sank. Di Chen and their continuous small actions had finally angered him. “If I do not teach you a lesson, you will not know why the flower is so red.”

Luckily, he had a lot of time and could wait till they had investigated.

The key would be the safety of Zhang Yi and the envoy as well as the series of diplomatic problems this might cause.

…

At 10 AM, more news spread from Quanzhou.

Zhang Yi’s illness had been controlled, and his life was fine. He only needed to heal up. At the same time, Gao Ying passed a copy of the interrogation notes over to Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo was really unhappy with the results. They did not even find out who called for the attack.

It seemed like Gao Ying and the others felt ashamed. Along with the notes, there was a personal letter on the behalf of Emperor Wen that hinted at making peace.

“What kind of conditions does the Great Xia want? Just raise it.” Gao Ying said in his letter.

It seemed like Great Sui was not willing to start war.

Ouyang Shuo did not intend to start war with them either. If they were to fight, it was not a problem to win. However, the battlefield changed at every second, and if it goes bad, they might lose hundreds of thousands of troops.

If Yanhuang Alliance stepped in, the matter would get difficult.

Moreover, the Mediterranean had not calmed down, and his sweeping of Farrah and the pirates had not started. Ouyang Shuo did not want to create more problems for himself.

If not, Ouyang Shuo would not have taken the initiative to send an envoy over.

However, not fighting did not mean that Ouyang Shuo did not have any demands.

Just like Zhang Yi had predicted, Ouyang Shuo got a chance, so why would not he take it?

This time, the Great Xia had the initiative of the conversation. Ouyang Shuo needed to think about the conditions he needed to raise such that it could reach his goal while not touching their bottom line.

Of course, the prerequisite to the peace talks was that Zhang Yi returns safely.

Ouyang Shuo ordered for a squad of guards to bring him back to Shanhai City. He would be taken care by the imperial medicine court. At the same time, Di Renjie would replace him to handle the peace talks.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to use him to get to the bottom of the issue.

Chapter 910 - Thunderclap Method

Chapter 910: Thunderclap Method

6th month, 29th day, afternoon, Di Renjie and his group arrived at Quanzhou and stayed in the inn.

Seeing Gao Ying, Di Renjie raised his first request, which was personally participate in the investigation; this request put Gao Ying into a tough spot.

This request indicated an obvious distrust in their ability. However, who was the person in front of him? He was the number one detective in China’s history.

That night, Di Renjie interrogated the suspect.

In just one night, his identity as Difeng spy number 15 was unveiled.

The moment the result came out, Gao Ying was speechless.

When Emperor Wen heard the news, he was furious. He did not expect the Yanhuang Alliance to actually act like they wanted to cooperate but also try to drag Great Sui down.

Their actions disgusted him.

Ouyang Shuo took the chance to raise his first request, which was to list territories of the Yanhuang Alliance as enemies.

With that, not only did it stop them from recruiting talents from Quanzhou, but it also stopped the trading between the two. This would greatly prevent the Yanhuang Alliance from working with Great Sui.

Emperor Wen did not even hesitate and immediately agreed.

After being played, he had nothing but hate for the Yanhuang Alliance.

Di Chen would never be able to guess that a master stroke would actually cause so many problems. He would not have guessed how good Di Renjie was. He managed to find out so much in a single night.

As a top spy of Difeng, number 15 should not have admitted the truth so easily.

The name of the God Detective was real.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo was ready to act against Streamer.

Streamer was the Guardian Guild of Quanzhou Satellite City. Before the battle for the Satellite City, Jun Yilao was tempted by Silver Hand and betrayed Shanhai Alliance to join Yanhuang Alliance.

When Xunlong Dianxue revealed the ugly news regarding Streamer, it dragged the guild into the dirt. Moreover, Jun Yilao’s identity as a bastard son was exposed.

Even so, it did not cause much damage to Streamer and Jun Yilao. The traitor was still living a good life.

This time, Ouyang Shuo wanted to show him what a thunderclap method was; he wanted to make him know the wrath of a king.

The second request would be for Great Sui to remove Streamer from the position of Guardian Guild and choose someone else.

As the ruler of Quanzhou, Emperor Wen had the ability to do so; he only had to pay a small price. If he did well, it would basically cause no loss to Great Sui.

Since that was the case, he had no reason to reject.

The moment the news came out, Streamer was in chaos. Jun Yilao became the target of abuse, and the past matters were dug up once more.

Without a doubt, this only happened because Jun Yilao betrayed Shanhai Alliance.

To Streamer, the moment their Guardian Guild status was removed, it would be a catastrophe. Along with Great Sui becoming enemies with Yanhuang Alliance, it was like announcing the death of Streamer in Quanzhou.

Without mentioning the position of Guardian Guild, whether they could stand up in Quanzhou was a problem.

The survival of a guild concerned the interests of hundreds of thousands of members, so how could they not be anxious?

Streamer’s actions were really quick.

Just as the news spread, Jun Yilao was kicked out of the guild. Of course, his shares in Streamer were protected by law so he kept that.

Even so, it was a catastrophe for him. With no guild to support him, he would not be able to see the light of day.

Without a guild protecting him, he was in danger of being assassinated at any moment.

As the guild leader of Streamer, in the process of building the guild up, he had become enemies with many. Those enemies could not deal with the strong Streamer. However, dealing with a guild leader that was abandoned by his guild was just too easy.

Jun Yilao could only use his little shares in Streamer to spend the rest of his life.

As expected, the moment he walked out, he was assassinated and sent to the reincarnation hall.

The moment the matter went out, Jun Yilao became the first guild leader to be kicked.

Who knows whether he regretted betraying the Shanhai Alliance or not? Jun Yilao probably could not imagine that Ouyang Shuo would still take revenge so long after the matter passed.

The moment he got a chance, he used it.

The tragic end of Jun Yilao scared Priest Qingniu and Jianqi Leiyin. They were like Jun Yilao; they had betrayed the Shanhai Alliance.

None of them knew if they would face the same revenge as Jun Yilao in the future.

Thinking about this, Priest Qingniu could not fall asleep. He regretted his actions, and he regretted listening to his master. Although that was the case, he had no way back.

Similarly, the pain in Jianqi Leiyin’s eyes was getting thicker.

…

Just removing Jun Yilao would not be able to change the fate of Streamer. Obviously, they were not that foolish.

The moment the new guild leader – Horseman Haoran – was appointed, he rushed to contact Di Renjie. He said that as long as Great Xia was willing to remove their punishment, they were willing to do anything.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he laughed.

Since Streamer knew their place, Ouyang Shuo naturally showed mercy.

Destroying Streamer would not do any good for Great Xia. Instead, it would make people angry. It was not worth it.

If he really were to cut off the income of the hundreds of thousands of players in Streamer, it would be a problem when they tried to take revenge.

“I want to destroy individuals, not the whole group.”

Since Streamer submitted to their fate, Ouyang Shuo had no reason to go soft. Ouyang Shuo obviously wanted to control Streamer.

Ouyang Shuo had been through enough betrayals, and he would not easily trust anyone.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo gave them three conditions.

First, he would promote one Streamer member to deputy guild leader.

This person was a spy that the Shanhai Guards had placed inside Streamer. Now, it was just moving from behind the scenes to the front to represent the presence of Great Xia in Streamer.

Secondly, they were to give Ouyang Shuo 5% of the shares, and the title of honorary guild leader.

Although an honorary guild leader did not hold any power, the holder of the position held the same status and treatment. With that, he could control the guild at a crucial moment.

Thirdly, they were to merge with a Quanzhou guild known as Wuyi Alley, and they were to promote the guild leader Wild not Idle to the position of elder.

Without a doubt, Wuyi Alley was a guild that Ouyang Shuo had 100% control over.

The above three conditions, along with the spies that the Shanhai Guards had in Streamer, basically ensured Ouyang Shuo’s control.

Along with Streamer returning to the Shanhai Alliance, they had one more city in the guild circle, so they now had four out of nine.

With that, Silver Hand’s grand plan had failed.

……

To the Great Sui, not breaking the contract due to removing Streamer as a Guardian Guild was great; it was a delightful matter.

However, thinking back to how the Great Xia had used him as a knife, Emperor Wen was unhappy. However, he had no choice but to lower his head.

These two conditions were just the appetizers of the peace talks. The key condition was not raised yet. Thinking of which, he felt even more depressed.

Chapter 911 - I Want Yuwen Kai

Chapter 911: I Want Yuwen Kai

One word decided the life or death of someone.

The tragic outcome of Streamer showed how the Great Xia Dynasty had influence everywhere. Ouyang Shuo did not mobilize a single troop. He just opened his mouth, and he swallowed up one super guild.

Such actions were far more amazing than the Great Xia starting a war. Those who knew what went on were even more shocked, and they raised the danger level of the Great Xia Dynasty.

Just as Ouyang Shuo took control of Steamer, Gao Ying represented Great Sui to discuss terms. There were two core points; they were willing to pay two million gold and send Jin Prince Yang Guang over to Shanhai City.

Taking into consideration the face of Great Sui, the compensation fee was said to be the medical fee of Zhang Yi. Although this was an obvious lie, it was better than writing compensation money.

Gao Ying also expressed that if the Xia King was willing, the Great Sui would marry a princess over.

All the princesses of Great Sui that had appeared were married, but there were others who had not been revealed. If he could use a princess to buy stability for Great Sui, it would be really worth it to Emperor Wen.

Unfortunately, they were the only willing party. When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he laughed. Even Queen Kalia was rejected by him, much less a princess.

Due to the cooperation of Emperor Wen in crushing Streamer, Ouyang Shuo agreed to the two million gold compensation fee.

What they disagreed about was the hostage.

It was already the 4th year, 6th month of Gaia. No matter what consideration or what method he used, Great Xia had to take Quanzhou into their reign in the future year or two.

Hence, the hostage was useless. If Emperor Wen was present, a dead crown would not matter, much less a prince that he did not like.

Rather than let him be useless in Shanhai City, why not let him cause problems in Quanzhou? Emperor Wen had thought it through; he wanted to use Great Xia to remove Jin Prince.

Not only that, but Ouyang Shuo also asked Di Renjie to think of a way to reveal the matter to Yang Guang. In the future, it would be able to cause problems for Great Sui.

Ouyang Shuo told them that Great Xia did not need hostages. Instead, they wanted a civil servant. Ouyang Shuo wanted the architect of Daxing City, Yuwen Kai.

Daxing City, Guangtong Drainage, Renshou Palace, and such places were all designed by Yuwen Kai. Great Xia did not lack architectural geniuses, but they did lack ancient building architectural geniuses.

Great Sui only had one city, so there was not much room for him to show his skills. Great Xia did not even hesitate and agreed.

Ouyang Shuo wanted Gao Ying, Su Wei, and other such ministers, but Emperor Wen would not agree to it no matter what.

With that, both sides basically came to an agreement.

As for renewing the trade deal and Quanzhou Port opening up to the outside, they were all implied and no discussion was needed.

Di Renjie also had one more secret mission, which was to use number 15 to root out the other spies of Difeng in Quanzhou.

When the news spread, the Shanhai Guards would have a cat and mouse game in Quanzhou. Seeing that Great Sui was staring at Quanzhou, Ouyang Shuo did not dare to activate the Shanhai Guards in case they were exposed.

As for how to teach Yanhuang Alliance a lesson, Ouyang Shuo was still planning it. He wanted to give them a painful one. He had to let them know that he was not one that could be easily bullied.

…

7th month, 1st day, Quanzhou Palace.

The leader of the Great Xia ambassador team, Di Renjie, greeted Emperor Wen and handed over the Great Xia letter.

Before this, both sides had officially agreed to the terms. They would set up embassies in each imperial city as the contact point of the two dynasties.

The moment the news went out, the normal players were delighted that an internal conflict did not start in China.

Those on the forums even cheered that the Xia King had listened to their advice and that this was a victory of the people. In truth, it was just their wishful thinking.

Di Chen and the others were really disappointed as they had lost everything this time. As for Jun Yilao, who was the sacrifice of both sides, no one bothered about him.

That afternoon, they returned to Shanhai City.

Along with them was also Yuwen Kai, who Ouyang Shuo had selected.

“Yuwen Kai greets the king!”

Within the main hall, Yuwen Kai looked at his new king with a complicated expression.

Ouyang Shuo understood his feelings. Just after entering the wilderness, he was sold away by his master. No one would feel good about such a thing.

Luckily, the Great Xia Dynasty was really prosperous and would allow him to show his skills.

Name: Yuwen Kai (Emperor Rank)

Dynasty: Sui Dynasty

Identity: Great Xia Dynasty Civil Servant

Occupation: Civil Servant

Loyalty: 70

Command: 55

Force: 50

Intelligence: 85

Politics: 75

Specialty: Creation (raises artisan efficiency by 20%, raises construction speed of projects by 15%, raises architectural standards by 25%)

Evaluation: Yuwen Kai has rare ability. He comes from a family of generals and is really hard working. He read all types of books and understood many different things. He is a man of many talents.

Handling such an architectural talent, Ouyang Shuo immediately appointed him as the Construction Director, which was a secondary Grade 3 official.

The most important matter in front of him was to build the China Construction Group. He needed to separate the construction industry from the Construction Department.

Before this, Hao Jiancheng, who was holding the position, was like Sun Yannong. He was appointed as Zhaoqing Prefecture Governor.

At this point, the huge game between Great Xia and Great Sui had come to an end.

The only thing that Ouyang Shuo was worried about was Zhang Yi. Based on Zhang Zhongjing’s words, the poison was really vicious, and he had missed the best chance to cure it. As a result, the poison had already invaded Zhang Yi’s body.

Even if he was cured, Zhang Yi would probably feel pain every time it rained.

With that, Ouyang Shuo felt heartbroken for him.

The interests that Zhang Yi had earned for him with his health were something Ouyang Shuo would rather not have. However, since things had already happened, Ouyang Shuo could only accept it. His unhappiness toward Yanhuang Alliance grew.

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

Gulf of Aden, Somalia.

While Ouyang Shuo was meeting with Yuwen Kai, the Great Xia Navy Fleet Admiral Alvaro was leading the 4th and 5th divisions of the Atlantic Squadron. After spending close to a month, they had finally arrived in the Gulf of Aden through the Cape of Good Hope.

The moment the news went out, the entire Mediterranean was stunned.

A month ago, Friendship City was attacked by the Sky Wolf Pirate Organization. At that time, the leader of the pirates, Farrah, had successfully escaped. The Great Xia Dynasty had lost face as a result.

At this point, the Mediterranean Lords gloated. They used the trading negotiations as a chip to prevent the Atlantic Squadron from passing through the Mediterranean.

The negotiations had been postponed over and over; what an evil plan.

How would the Mediterranean Lords know that in just a month, things would change so much?

The appearance of the Atlantic Squadron in the Gulf of Aden not only meant the end of the Sky Wolf Pirate Organization, but it also meant that Great Xia had opened up another trade route.

With that, they lost a hugely important chip in their negotiations. When the negotiation team of Great Xia got the news, they were delighted. It was time for them to counter attack.

The most shocked party was the Somalia royal family.

One could see that the moment Farrah was caught, their relationship with him would be revealed. That time would be the end of Somalia.

To not cause problems for the whole world, the Great Xia Dynasty would not easily start wars without facts. However, if the Somalia Dynasty’s actions were revealed, he would have the evidence needed to take action.

The Great Xia Dynasty wiping out traitors was something outsiders best stay out of.

Obviously, the Great Xia Dynasty would not let such a good chance go.

A controlled Somalia province was better than one with bad intentions. The actions of some of their Lords had made Ouyang Shuo especially unhappy.

War was unavoidable.

Moreover, facing the strong Great Xia Dynasty, Somalia had no hopes of winning.

Although Somalia’s land size was greater than Morocco, half of it was desert, and they had a small population of no more than 800 thousand people.

Amongst which, only 100 thousand were combat occupation players.

Based on such a small number of men, the Great Xia Dynasty did not need to use too many troops. Just the Somalia Formation would be enough to settle the matter.

A day ago, Di Qing had already led the Somalia Formation to teleport to Friendship City.

At the beginning, to provide for the warships of the Mediterranean Squadron, Ouyang Shuo ordered them to build a shipyard in Friendship City. With that, the navy division in Somalia was settled.

With this division in place, the entire formation was functional.

Of course, for it to be totally formed, they still needed to be trained in battle. As Friendship City did not have any extra space, even if Di Qing wanted to conduct large scale training exercises, it was not possible.

The entire formation could only train drills in the barracks, making Di Qing really depressed. Di Qing was the one in the entire army that craved for war the most.

As a result, when they got the news, the Somalia King panicked. He immediately sent someone out to sea to try to find Farrah. The king wanted him killed before the Atlantic Squadron found him.

The two of them had kept close contact, so the Somalia King felt confident about finding him.

How would the Somalia King know that the entire palace was monitored by the Black Snake Guards? The moment their force entered the waters, the Atlantic Squadron was informed.

Chapter 912 - Somalia Crusade

Chapter 912: Somalia Crusade

Friendship City was the African continent headquarters of the Black Snake Guards. Their infiltration of Morocco had started long when Friendship City was being built.

The day that Friendship City was being attacked, Ouyang Shuo had ordered them to thoroughly investigate the matter. Through interrogating the prisoners, the tip of the spear pointed at the Somalia royal family.

Hence, they set up a day and night surveillance of the palace.

…

7th month, 3rd day, a desolate island in the Amirante Islands of the Indian Ocean.

The Farrah who appeared on the desolate island was in a terrible state. After escaping Courage port, he had been hiding left and right, defending against the revenge of Great Xia while also being afraid that the Somalia Royal Family would kill him to keep him quiet.

He decided to come into contact with the royal family representative, as he really could not spend his days like this anymore.

Although Farrah was on the oceans, he could use the forums to learn of the happenings in the country. News that the Atlantic Squadron had entered the Gulf of Aden reached his ears.

This made him feel despair.

The only people that could help him were the Somalia royal family.

Farrah had thought about the possibility of them killing him, so the cunning Farrah had prepared for it.

The moment they met, Farrah said, “I would like to make it clear before we begin that I sent evidence of our cooperation to my right hand man, so if something happens to me, the evidence will be revealed to the public.”

“….”

The Somalia representative was stunned. Whatever he was planning was rendered useless.

“Why would we?” The representative forced a smile, “His majesty wants to invite you to the palace to discuss.”

“That’s great.”

At this very moment, warships appeared outside the islands. It was the Atlantic Squadron.

When Farrah saw that, he pulled out his sword, “Are you playing with me?”

The representative was even more astonished than Farrah, “I did not lead them here. I’m not stupid, why would I work with them?”

Farrah instantly understood what had happened. He looked at the representative with despise, “Idiot, you got followed, and you did not even know.”

“What should we do now?” The representative was more anxious than Farrah.

Farrah suddenly calmed down, “What can we do? If we do not want to die, we need to surrender.”

In the vast ocean, on a few small islands, there was no way they could escape.

Pirates like Farrah were wanted openly by Somalia players. Even if he committed suicide, he would revive on the spot. He would not even be allowed to enter the reincarnation hall.

To be a pirate and have freedom, one naturally needed to pay a price.

Even if he could revive in the imperial city, it was useless to him. The moment he walked out, he would be caught by Great Xia or the Somalia royal family.

Rather than that, why not just surrender now?

Who knows, maybe he could rely on the information he had on hand to exchange for his life.

Hence, there were no more accidents, and the Atlantic Squadron successfully caught their fish.

Even the Somalia representative did not want to die and surrendered, becoming the unexpected catch. This catch one again solidified the fact that Somalia royal family was working with Farrah.

…

7th month, 5th day, Friendship City.

With Farrah’s lead, in a short two days, the Sky Wolf Pirate Organization was totally wiped out.

Sky Wolf Pirate Organization not only affected the interests of the Great Xia Dynasty, but it also affected those of the merchants coming to and fro through the Gulf of Aden.

The destruction of the pirates had allowed them to regain the trust of the merchants of Friendship City and of Great Xia.

After the battle, Farrah was locked up. Due to his list of crimes, the situation was really serious. The Internal Affairs Court sent a special procurator to Friendship City to judge the case.

Ouyang Shuo specially invited overseas media to report the case proceedings.

The goal was to reveal the dirty acts of the Somalia royal family and give them the moral high ground to start war.

Till date, Ouyang Shuo still had the position of honorary knight awarded by the Somalia King. For the king to collude with pirates and attack the knight’s territory was unacceptable.

Even the Somalia people would not stand on his side.

…

7th month, 8th day, Farrah’s case came to an end.

Due to Farrah helping out, he was only locked up for a year. Privately, Ouyang Shuo used his own name to give him 100 thousand gold to allow Farrah to relax for a year in jail.

To Farrah, this was the best outcome.

The truth was out, and the Somalia royal family was swept up by a storm. The Somalia players were filled with worry, as they could feel that a huge battle was on the horizon.

They were right.

7th month, 10th day, Great Xia Dynasty officially launched their crusade on the Somalia Royal family, “Somalia King colludes with pirate, hurting the people, losing people’s sentiment; he’s not a true king!”

Ouyang Shuo appointed Di Qing as the main general, and Fleet Admiral Alvaro and General Lu Bu as the left and right generals respectively. They would lead the Somalia Formation, Guards Legion Corps 3rd legion, and the 4th and 5th division of the Atlantic Division. A total of 200 thousand troops would head over to Somalia.

The moment they moved out of Friendship City, a System Notification sounded out in the ears of the Somalia players.

“System Notification: China Region Lord Qiyue Wuqi initiates a country war, Somalia enters country war mode, level 1 state of alert!”

…

In the eyes of Gaia, a country war was a country war, and there was nothing righteous or not righteous about it. Great Xia going on a crusade against Somalia was them starting a country war.

This point was one that everyone knew about.

Great Xia Dynasty had put in so much work, and it was only to give them the moral high ground. This was to stop other countries, especially those from Africa and the Mediterranean, from joining in.

If those Lords interfere, it would be stepping into the internal matters of Somalia. If they started the precedence, Ouyang Shuo would not mind interfering in African and Mediterranean politics.

Hence, this was also a warning to all of them.

…

Somalia was located at the east of Africa. Its north faced the Gulf of Aden, its east was to the Indian Ocean, and its west was connected to Kenya and northwest to Djibouti.

The East was flat plains, and the coast mostly consisted of sand dunes. The Gulf of Aden coast was low plains, the middle portion was high plains, the north was mostly mountains, and the southwest was grass plains, half desert and desert.

If one looked down from the sky of Somalia, it would look like a really huge Arabic seven. Friendship City was located at the corner of the seven, while the imperial city Mogadishu was located at the middle.

Similar to Morocco, the inhabitable areas were along the coastline.

Spices were one of the most important products of Somalia.

Although they had only 800 thousand people, there were six territories remaining within the country, which was three more than Morocco. They were all scattered along the coastline.

This was due to the complicated racial situation in Somalia. Each race did not want to yield to the others.

Hence, it gave birth to such a situation.

Out of the six territories, there were two that were directly controlled by Great Xia. Black Snake has been farming so hard in Somalia and had obtained some results.

With this to rely on, Ouyang Shuo had some confidence in this crusade.

Due to Somalia not having a deep history and no advanced technology, be it their territory armies or guards, their equipment were really backward, and they were not the opponents of the Great Xia Army.

Ouyang Shuo was really confident about taking down Somalia, so much so that he did not personally lead it. This country war would be training for the Somalia Formation as well as Di Qing’s commanding ability.

…

The moment the notification was out, Somalia players panicked.

The war horn had been sounded, and they had no choice but to fight. The Somalia players started to gather up.

At the current day, players were not as rushed as Singapore was when they faced country wars. They knew that they needed to gather up all the combat occupation players.

However, as for whether they could defend against the assault or not, they did not have any confidence.

The six territory armies all gathered up their troops toward Mogadishu. With their soldier numbers, they could only rely on the imperial city now.

Just territory armies alone could not stop the iron army of the Great Xia.

The truth was as such. Under Di Qing’s leadership, the Somalia Formation and the Guards Legion Corps 3rd legion entered together like two whirlwinds. One was east and one was east, and then going from north to south.

Everywhere the army went, they found no enemy that could defend against them. The enemy could only flee for their lives.

The Cabinet was prepared, and they had gathered a team of officials before the battle to take over the territories occupied.

Such an act showed the confidence of the Great Xia Dynasty.

From the Great Xia King to the officials and the generals in the dynasty to the normal people, everyone knew that they would take down Somalia. The only problem was if it would take a week or half a month.

Such confidence was the specialty of a new dynasty, overcoming the obstacles before them and becoming invincible.

Chapter 913 - Surrounding the City

Chapter 913: Surrounding the City

7th month, 16th day, Mogadishu.

One week, the Great Xia Army took just one week to arrive at the city walls.

At the same time, Alvaro led the Atlantic Squadron and completed their lockdown of the surrounding ocean region. The entire imperial city was surrounded by the Great Xia Army.

During this time, the Somalia territory army thought about sniping the Xia army mid-way to lessen the burden on the imperial city.

However, it was useless.

Be it the strong defense work, geographical traps, or poisoning the water, Di Qing solved all these obstacles really easily.

The detailed intel work of the Black Snake Guards made it really easy for the Great Xia Army. They had a firm grasp of where there were mountains, where there were rivers, where there were canyons, where there were deserts, the types of troops Somalia possessed, defenses, and more.

This battle was destined to be an unequal one.

The resistance of the territory army was all in vain.

The average schemes of the Somalia army were used against them by Di Qing. On a strategic level, Somalia did not have anyone that could rival Di Qing.

Even Lu Bu could destroy all their generals.

Such an advantage was so one-sided that mental strength alone could not overcome it.

Just last night, the Somalia Guards army tried their last snipe outside the city, which ended in bitter defeat. They could only back off into the imperial city to defend it.

The successive victories ensured that the logistical supplies of the Great Xia Army were taken care of.

The officials of the dynasty pretty much followed them around, taking over each city, village, and town. Their core mission was to gather grain for the troops.

At the same time, the grain Great Xia bought from merchants was shipped to Courage Port.

With these two huge resource sources, it forked up a grain line from Friendship City to Mogadishu.

This was also the reason why Di Qing did not directly attack the imperial city. In ancient battlefields, only the city had ability to provide grain for the army.

An army that was traveling through the wilderness was like a tree without roots; they were unable to last for long.

…

What about outside of the battlefield?

Just like Ouyang Shuo had expected, as they fought, the countries around Somalia were really quiet.

Kenya, Ethiopia….

Totally silent.

No African Lord dared to step out for Somalia; they could only look on with respectful eyes as the Great Xia Dynasty destroyed the traitor.

The African Continent was in a deathly silence.

Even the breeze from the oceans brought with it a deathly feeling instead of a chill.

The Mediterranean Lords were all feeling really conflicted, and they completely lost their mood to negotiate with Great Xia. Zi Luolan understood and agreed to postpone the negotiations.

Everything would wait until the Battle of Somalia ended.

The Great Xia Dynasty had never been so respected. Without even moving their own local troops, they easily wiped out cities and destroyed a country.

Apart from awe, there was respect.

…

Barracks outside the city.

Di Qing was in martial attire. He expressionlessly looked out at the city not far away. The mask on his face gave this general a layer of charm that the soldiers under him respected.

Mogadishu; this was the last nut to crack.

He had to attack the imperial city. Country war rules made it their fate to fight to the death.

Such a mentality was a huge problem for both the defending and the attacking party. If they did not do well, they would suffer heavy loses.

In the Battle of Somalia, Di Qing tried to break this tough problem.

His strategy was really simple; it was to surround the city. His plan was to trap them inside the city. As time went on, the enemy would fall by themselves.

Sun Zi’s Art of War once said, “10 times to surround, five times to siege, two times to fight, and only defend if you have less; if not, escape.”

Hence, to surround an army, you needed 10 times the number.

This number was not absolute; for example, Baiqi had used the geography to surround the Zhao army with equal amounts of troops during the Battle of Changping.

Mogadishu had 80 thousand Guards, 50 thousand player armies, and 100 thousand combat occupation players. In terms of numbers, they exceeded that of the Great Xia Army.

Although they were said to have 200 thousand troops, their actual number at Mogadishu was 150 thousand.

Apart from leaving 20 thousand to defend Friendship City, Di Qing also arranged for 10 thousand troops to defend the grain path.

A newly occupied territory would face disturbances and sneak attacks. Without an army, the grain squad would be destroyed in minutes.

To save manpower, the ones transporting the grain were local laborers, so they were really annoyed.

Luckily, in front of the proper army, the normal civilians did not dare do anything.

Di Qing had made it clear that if someone rioted, the person who started it would be executed along with the people that were related.

For those who came from the same village, the whole village would be wiped if someone rioted.

The grain route was their lifeline, and Di Qing had to be vicious to suppress the people.

After the army reached Mogadishu, Di Qing arranged 10 thousand elite cavalry around it to go down south to continue clearing the other cities.

Along with the forces taking care of the prisoners, only around 150 thousand men could be thrown into battle; this count included the 4th division led by Alvaro.

As for the 5th, they were in charge of defending Friendship City and were housed near Courage Port.

Friendship City connected the dynasty to Mogadishu. Moreover, due to the complicated surroundings, Di Qing had to be careful.

If someone launched a sneak attack against Friendship City, it would be a nightmare for the Great Xia Army.

…

Luckily, the Art of War did not write of simple numbers but strength.

Considering generals, equipment, morale, strategy, and the like the 150 thousand army was four times stronger than the Somalia troops.

However, this was still obviously far from the 10 times needed.

Luckily, this was a country war, and the Great Xia Dynasty had a natural advantage, which was that Somalia had no way out. Even if they tried to strike, they would still die.

When the cavalry that went down south completed their sweep, apart from Mogadishu, all the other territories fell into the hands of Great Xia.

Hence, Mogadishu was truly a lone city.

If the Somalia army wanted to break out, where do they go to?

They could only fight.

Hence, Di Qing was not anxious, and he and his troops camped outside the city. Using the time, the army even started to construct defenses.

There was another core reason why he was not anxious – this battle did not have any outside influence.

For the Battle of Morocco, the Great Xia had randomly started war and did not hold the moral high ground. Hence, they needed to finish the battle quickly.

As such, they had no choice but to use the fire strategy to buy time.

However, now was different. The Somalia King had betrayed them, and they had the moral high ground. The other countries had no reason to step in.

Hence, the element that decided the battle was not who was stronger. The Great Xia Dynasty had learned how to use diplomacy to win wars.

…

After surrounding the city, Di Qing was like an experienced hunter; he waited patiently for them to panic within the city, waited for the hidden chess pieces of the Great Xia inside the city to act.

For the meantime, Di Qing still did something.

Although the front work was smooth, it also revealed many problems with the Somalia Formation. To prevent chaos, apart from Morocco prisoners of war, there were other soldiers from the other War Fighting Legion Corps in the formation.

It was the same as saying that the entire formation was a mixed race army, which was similar to the Former Qin army in the Battle of Fei River.

Such an army needed time to coexist and adapt.

Although Gaia had done some rough work to let the prisoners of war adapt to their new environments more smoothly, many objective problems still existed.

During the first few battles, if there was not the Guards Legion Corps helping out, things might have gotten out of hand.

Along with the weapons and equipment of Morocco, the training system and military standards were also vastly different compared to the Great Xia Dynasty. As a result, they needed time to adapt.

Fortunately, Gaia removed the language barrier in the army. If not, they would not even be able to organize them into an army.

Using the time when they were surrounding the city, Di Qing focused on the battle proceedings. At the same time, he quickened the adaptation process within the formation to remove the hidden problems.

…

One day, two days, one week.

10 days passed so quickly, and the entire battlefield was dead silent. Both sides were in a silent standstill. This made the people and troops in the city panic as their grain was running out.

Earlier, it was mentioned that each imperial city had a huge population. Without external supplies, they could only last for half a month.

Three days ago, Mogadishu had started rationing their supplies. Even so, they could not last for another half a month. Hunger started to descend on the territory, and people started to get restless.

Chapter 914 - Using the People as Bait

Chapter 914: Using the People as Bait

During the early morning period, ships slowly moved from the Indian Ocean toward the Somalia coast. Light towers on the coast were extinguished one by one, and the vast ocean surface slowly woke up from the night.

On the ocean surface, there was a sunrise scene that one could only see on the ocean.

On the shore, the tall masjids, rows of ancient Arab castles, and a city that was predominantly white slowly revealed itself in the morning.

The ancient masjids were like told castles, forming the foundations of this city. Some of the masjids had already existed for thousands of years and still stood despite the test of time.

This was Mogadishu, a historical city.

The blue Indian Ocean covered this white city, making it appear really clean and beautiful.

Looking over the white beach, close to the port, there was a really prosperous trading center. This was the biggest trading center in Mogadishu, and it mainly traded in mastic, myrrh, ivory, and leather.

Somalia was termed the Myrrh, and mastic capital produced a lot of these products. The capital had a long history.

Over 1000 BC, an Egyptian noble was sent by the pharaoh to buy resources in Mogadishu. Following which, Greek, Persian, and Chinese sailors came over.

The current admiral of the Great Xia navy, Zheng He, had made two trips in history to Mogadishu.

During the war, the neighboring ocean region was locked down by Great Xia. The originally noisy and busy trading center appeared really cold. All the shops and business were closed.

Passing the trading center, there was a central path that went through the entire city. It was broad and straight, and the sides had many tropical trees and plants.

Although it was 200 miles away from the equator, Mogadishu’s weather was really cooling, and the trees were a copper green. This was the scenic place of Somalia, where many tropical plants could grow well.

However, war had encapsulated this city, and the people on the streets were anxious and worried. When acquaintances met on the streets, they only talked about war and the rising food prices.

Apart from people, one could occasionally see camels walking across the streets. Somalia had many camels, and Mogadishu was the only city in the world where there were more camels than people.

It seemed like only the camels did not feel threatened by the war. However, the war still affected them. The hungry people would turn to the camels.

At the end of the central path was a square, and at the two sides were a huge city hall and a masjid. The rice yellow colored masjid’s pyramidal tip pierced the skies, and the City Hall was like a lion standing out on the high hill.

On the square, two bronze statues stood over the 10 meter high Dali storm flooring. One of the statutes was in armor. He waved his sword while mounted on a horse; he was the people’s hero – Muhammed Abdullah Hassan.

He was a poet and also a warrior.

Further in front was the Somalia palace, the power center of Somalia.

The darks clouds of war hung over the palace, making the beautiful place seem really suppressed.

Palace, main hall.

The king of Somalia sat on his throne; his face was filled with angst. His eyes were stained red, and it was like he had instantly grown a lot older. There was a rotting smell inside the hall, making one feel really uncomfortable.

All the civil servants and generals stood solemnly to listen to the king’s instructions.

Apart from that, there were two odd one outs. One represented the adventure gamemode players; he was known as Abadi, while the other represented the Lords, he was called Aidid.

“So what should we do?” The king’s voice was hoarse; he sounded really exhausted.

The moment the Great Xia Navy captured Farrah, the king foresaw something. He could not sleep day and night; he was really anxious, and his temper flared day after day.

In just these two days, there were five servants that were killed for no reason.

This arrival of war was not due to bad luck.

One mistake by the king had dragged the entire Somalia Kingdom into the dirt, and they might be destroyed at any moment. This filled the king with regret; he should not have disturbed that lion.

Africa had a saying, ‘If you cannot tame the lion, do not disturb it, or it will kill you.’

The Great Xia Dynasty was not only a lion, but it was a majestic king of lions.

If one touched it, one would definitely die.

As the king of Somalia, he had forgotten that saying, which resulted in today’s state. Although he felt regret, he was also furious; he was furious at the people who persuaded him.

That mysterious person who suddenly visited the palace swore that, “As long as you take down Friendship City, the port and trade route will bring Somalia unlimited riches.”

The desire for wealth had already seeped into the bones of the Somali people, including this king. Friendship City earning gold day after day had made him greedy, and he lost his rationality.

Thinking of which, that person had other intentions.

Unfortunately, it was too late to regret now. The Somalia King did not even know the name of that person.

Greed was truly a sin.

…

Facing the king’s words, the officials all exchanged glances. Currently, their eyes were shining.

When the Somalia King saw that, he was furious. Obviously, he knew what they were thinking. Before the war started, the Xia King had proclaimed that he would treat the Somali officials well after the war ended.

Especially the ministers, if they were moral and upright, they would be given positions.

That was not a lie.

First, the words of a ruler were worth their weight in gold. Secondly, Morocco was the evidence.

Hence, even if Somalia was destroyed, the officials could protect their homes and wealth. The only one who would be judged would be the king.

Thinking of which, how could the king not feel furious? He stared at them and hollered, “Are you mute? Or are you thinking about working for a new master?”

As he spoke those words, the Somalia King was planning to kill people.

War could easily make one afraid. Moreover, it could easily ignite one’s killing intent. A king that was close to being crushed was so angry that he wanted to kill someone.

“We are loyal; please trust us, your majesty!”

Hearing those words, the officials all knelt on the ground. They lowered their heads, one lower than the other. They were afraid that the king would notice and execute them.

“Loyal?” The king laughed, “Since you all are loyal, what should we do?”

“We can only fight to the death!”

An official stammered.

“Fight to the death? Will you die, or will I die?” The king’s face was really dark.

The official in question was so scared that his legs turned to jelly, “I deserve to die; I deserve to die!” As he spoke, he kowtowed.

‘Scoff!’

The Somalia King did not want to look at these useless people. Instead, he turned around to the players, “What thoughts do you all have?”

The players were like the king; they had no way out.

On this point, both sides were on the same camp.

One had to say that although the Somalia King was greedy, he was not stupid.

Abadi and Aidid exchanged glances. Abadi stepped out, “I have an idea, but…”

“Speak!” The Somalia King was really emotional.

When Abadi saw that, he could not help but sweep his eyes across the officials around.

The Somalia King understood what he meant. Staring at them with disgust, he waved his hand like how one would chase away a fly, “You guys leave!”

“Yes!”

The officials were in a hurry to leave, one running faster than the next.

The king was not stupid. He was also worried that these people would tip off the Great Xia King.

One would obviously want to make contributions to the new king. The officials did not dare to try their luck. Although asking for credit was important, living was even more so.

After they all left, the king asked, “What’s the plan?”

Abadi did not reply and asked, “Your majesty, what are our chances of winning?”

“Zero.”

The Somalia King was really direct.

Their few strike attempts proved that their armies were not even on the same level. They were now trapped in the city, so how could they have any chance of winning?

“So what is your majesty prepared to do?” Abadi asked.

The Somalia King was getting a little angry, as this player was too rude. Listening to his tone, he did not have the king in his eyes; he was just questioning the king.

Recently, the king had been in a bad mood, and he was about to blow up. However, thinking back to their current situation, he bore with it because they needed the help of the players.

No king was simple.

“Even if we cannot win, we need to bite off a big chunk of meat. At most, we will charge out to fight them.” A look of craziness appeared in his eyes.

The king was also thinking of such an idea. When a person was desperate, anything could happen.

Since the country would not be under his rule, it could follow him to hell.

When Abadi saw that, he said, “Since that’s the case, my plan will work.”

“Speak!” The king’s patience was running thin.

“Since you are going all out, why not go a step further? We can use the civilians as the vanguard and our army will follow behind. When the civilians break the enemy formation, we will take the chance to attack.”

Abadi heard that the Great Xia Dynasty army would not randomly kill civilians.

“This…” When the Somalia King heard that, he was astonished. His eyes widened, “Using the people as bait?”

“That’s right.”

Chapter 915 - Where Would the People Go If There's No Country

Abadi’s suggestion had placed the Somalia King on the spot.

Chasing his people away as bait was really vicious. As a player, Abadi did not care about the lives of the people. However, as the ruler, he had to consider the influence of their sentiment.

If he agreed to this, he could not be king anymore.

Abadi said, “Your majesty, we have no other chance. Without a country, there will be no people. The country is more important than hundred thousand people.”

The Somalia King gave Abadi a deep look; he sighed, “That seems like the only way.”

A look of irony appeared on Abadi’s face. The king might look like he was in a pitiful state, but he did not even hesitate in his heart.

If a king really loved his people, he would not collude with pirates.

Abadi rose up rapidly when Farrah became a pirate, replacing him as the top adventure gamemode player.

Speaking of which, Abadi had to thank Ouyang Shuo. If it were not for that pirate operation that revealed Farrah’s true colors, Abadi would not be so famous now.

The Somalia people and even the players hated the Somalia King; this idiot pushed the entire Somalia into the abyss.

Originally, Abadi thought he could live a free life in Somalia. However, just like that, he could be sent to the land of trials at any moment.

Just the name itself told them it was not a good place.

No one would be happy to go there.

In truth, Abadi and Aidid did not think about letting the king continue to rule Somalia. When the war ended, he would step out to reveal the king’s actions and chase him down from the throne.

At that time, Somalia would be totally under the players.

“To make the civilians exit the city, we need to increase control of the food. Only when they are hungry will they take the risk to leave the city,” Abadi said.

The Somalia King nodded; he did not reply, as he understood such a theory.

…

8th month, 1st day, Mogadishu.

For these past few days, the Somalia royal family had continuously told the army to send a signal to the soldiers to keep their strength and reduce the food provisions to the city.

Each person’s rations were reduced by half, and the civilians could only feel a little full now. The more time passed, the fewer rations they had; they did not even get half.

The food even had sand mixed in with it.

Now, the royal family did not even give flour; they just gave bread to people by the head.

One person, one dry piece of bread every day.

If it were before, this bread could not even be fed to dogs. Now, it was really precious.

All of a sudden, the civilians grumbled, but the royal family did not care. They said that the soldiers were not full either, and they asked the people to bear with it.

Even the hundreds of thousands of camels were gathered by the royal family.

With that, hunger spread like a plague throughout the entire city. Hungry people walked the streets, robbing shops to find something to eat.

Riots and chaos was everywhere. As long as people were not killed, the royal family was okay with it.

This allowed things to escalate further and further.

Players who were hungry would naturally snatch the food of civilians. To the defenseless people, the combat strength of the combat occupation players was even greater than that of the guards, so how could they defend?

Civilians robbed one another; young men robbed the old, and men robbed women. The strong robbed the weak.

Hunger was slowly corroding their humanity and bringing them back to a primitive state.

As a result of the pillaging, their grain quantity grew more and more disproportionate. Some of the elderly could not even get a single piece of bread and could only go hungry.

As this continued, they would just die of hunger at home.

Death further escalated their fear, and more and more robberies happened.

As this concerned their life or death, more of these battles happened in the city.

To protect a piece of bread, people did not mind risking their lives.

They all split up into families as a unit to form small groups. Either they starved, or they robbed others to make them starve.

As more of these events happened, there were unavoidably casualties.

On this matter, the royal family was really adamant; the murderer would be executed.

They did that as a warning to prevent law and order from totally collapsing. Even the Guards could not control it, and the people’s fear increased as planned.

“The imperial city can be in chaos, but it cannot go over what we can control.”

This was their bottom line. The guard soldiers patrolled day and night, and if they noticed a killer, no matter who it was, they would execute them.

Fear and hunger spread around the city, making the air really heavy.

Everyone knew that Mogadishu would not be able to last for more than a few days.

…

Outside the city barracks, central tent.

Di Qing looked at the situation that the sky had sent to him, and his eyes shone bright. He knew that the war he was hoping for would start at any moment.

The good news was that the 10 thousand cavalry that went down south had already completed their mission, so they had returned.

Di Qing ordered the troops to remain alert and be prepared to fight at any moment.

However, he was also doubtful, “Since they cannot hold on, why not fight?”

Di Qing really could not understand what benefits dragging on the matter would give to the Somalia Alliance Army. On the contrary, the fear and panic would spread to the Alliance Army.

“What scheme are they planning?”

Without actual intel, Di Qing could not come to a conclusion.

…

The Somalia country war was a hot topic for everyone.

At the current moment, there were numerous eyes staring at Mogadishu, and there were even many war reporters bringing frontline news for the people.

The people of Mogadishu were going hungry and riots were occurring. Some people were unhappy and stepped out to scold Great Xia, saying they were inhumane war devils.

Ouyang Shuo scoffed at such comments.

War was not a game of words, and there was nothing humane or inhumane.

Not to mention that in the game, everything was set by Gaia. The wilderness was survival of the fittest, and since Gaia allowed it, it was not wrong.

Smart players naturally would not bother about such people, as no one would pity the NPCs in game.

If one really did, they would be fools.

Those so-called humanitarians either had brain problems or had other intentions.

If the African and Mediterranean Lords did not act, Ouyang Shuo would remain defending in Shanhai City. However, if they jumped out, Great Xia would react.

The two legions of the Guards Legion Corps were on alert to move. If needed, Ouyang Shuo could use the Dragon Legion Corps, the Morocco Formation, and the like as aid.

Great Xia was never afraid of fighting.

Of course, this was the worst-case scenario. Ouyang Shuo hoped that Somalia could just fall easily and not cause too many problems.

After all, each country war burned a lot of time and resources. It was a huge burden to the dynasty.

…

8th month, 3rd day, morning.

The sun rose from the horizon as usual, shining down on Mogadishu.

What was different was that the city felt dead, and there were corpses lying everywhere. Every day, there would be hundreds of bodies thrown down the city walls.

If they did not clear these bodies out, it could cause diseases.

Hungry people walked the streets like walking zombies.

Hunger was corroding their fighting spirit, and more and more people begged to open the gates to surrender.

Due to the Farrah matter, the people were really unhappy with the king. Seeing that they had no food, this unhappiness grew, and they just wanted to surrender right away.

This made the Somalia King more decisive, “These people deserve to be sacrificed.” At this point, he did not feel burdened anymore in his heart.

The palace was guarded by guards, and the civilians could not enter easily. They could only grumble as they crowded around the palace, asking for them to open up the gates to allow people to exit the city.

News spread out.

They said that when Great Xia attacked Morocco, the civilians that exited were unharmed, and they were even compensated for their dead family members.

Some even said that the army outside the city had mountains of grain. As long as they left the city, their stomachs would be filled.

Such rumors grew more and more rampant. If one paid attention, with how fast the rumors were spreading, they would notice that someone was purposely spreading it.

The Black Snake Guards spies had naturally noticed this anomaly, but they could not understand it. Logically speaking, the city being in a mess and the civilians wanting to escape was good for Great Xia.

Who was so nice to help them from the dark?

Since the Black Snake Guards could not understand the situation, neither could Di Qing. He guessed that the king had some other mysterious power in his control.

Thinking about this, Di Qing stopped himself.

This idea was too dangerous.

As a result, he did not think about approaching the king to seek confirmation. Regarding such matters, it was best if one acted like he did not know.

If not, and the king doubted him, it would not be worth it. Especially for Di Qing, who was posted overseas. For him, the king’s trust was even more important.

Chapter 916 - They Are Here!

Chapter 916: They Are Here!

After all the noise, night fell once more. The darkness from the skies slowly crept over, eating away at Mogadishu bit by bit. Eventually, it swallowed the entire city, merging it together with the wilderness.

As the night breeze blew across, a stench was wrapped up; it was the smell of rotting corpses.

Each day, there would be people who died at unassuming corners of the city. In the hot climate, these bodies would rot in a day or two, and they would give off a smelly stench that permeated the air.

There were bald eagles circling the skies, ready to dive down to enjoy a delicious meal. People looked at their empty tables as their eyes felt numb.

The white city was already rotting.

In the pitch black alleyways, there would be dogs barking to show that a brawl was happening there.

They might be fighting for a hard piece of bread.

After a short while, the dog stopped. It was killed because it was making too much noise.

“Another good meal.”

The rumors during the day escalated the uneasiness of the people. Even during the night, civilians still found it hard to fall asleep, so they would seek information from one another about a way out.

Civilians who had nowhere to go were ready to force their way out.

Suddenly, a rumor spread that astonished the people.

“Have you heard? The west city gate guard has been persuaded by his family and will open the gate in the morning to let his family out.”

“Really? Can we follow them out?” The people who got the news could not hide their excitement.

“Prepare early, there will be a huge crowd, and the guard will not dare to keep it open. Whether we are able to escape or not will depend on this one chance.”

“Understood, I’ll go pack up and wait near the gate overnight.”

“Ok, see you there!”

Similar words spread out through the city.

With that, a hidden current formed, and it was going to gather into a huge ocean to crush everything in its path.

…

When the Black Snake Guards spies inside the city learned of this news, they felt that something was really amiss, so they sent the intel to outside of city. With their occupational sense, they could smell a scheme.

When Di Qing got the news, he called for a meeting.

“Generals, how should we prepare for these changes?” Although Di Qing was the main general, he never acted alone and always asked his other generals for their opinions.

As the deputy, Lu Bu sat to the left of him, “if the intel is true, why don’t we use this chance to kill our way into the city?”

The standoff between the two groups had made Lu Bu a little unhappy. Such a way of warfighting was not fun for a general like Lu Bu.

“No.” The one who spoke was one of the Major Generals, “If the gates open, there will be many people nearby. If we charge in, we will end up in a sea of people. What if enemies are hiding nearby?”

Lu Bu rolled his eyes and said proudly, “Others cannot, but the Guards Legion Corps definitely can. Who cares if there’s an ambush? We will just kill them.”

His words were said with real arrogance.

The 3rd legion of the Guards Legion Corps led by Lu Bu was given the name dragon blood war cavalry by the king. They were elite cavalry that were no weaker than the Tiger Leopard Cavalry.

With their strength, they actually had the ability to charge into the city.

The moment they managed to enter the west city gate, Mogadishu would be broken, and the battle would be over.

That Major General was embarrassed, and he was unable to find a way to retort Lu Bu’s words.

Even Di Qing was a little tempted at that moment. The standoff was a terrifying use of grain, and they could not randomly scour Somalia for grain infinitely.

If they took too much grain from the people, they would probably riot.

“We cannot allow this war to drag any longer.”

However, Di Qing was really careful, and the Major General’s words made sense. Based on his gut feeling, he felt that something was brewing in Mogadishu, and there seemed to be a scheme.

To enter the city just like that was not a smart decision.

Di Qing definitely did not dare to make rash decisions with the 200 thousand troops the king had entrusted to him. However, to reject Lu Bu’s suggestion outright like that would be really awkward.

Luckily, there were many other strong generals in the Somalia Formation. Seeing the main general frowning and not speaking, they were able to guess that he did not agree with Lu Bu.

At such a time, they naturally needed to step up to ease the situation, “General’s words make sense, the dragon blood war cavalry is really strong, and they can charge into the city.”

Hearing this, Lu Bu was gleeful and a smile appeared on his face.

“However, we must keep one thing in mind. Doing this will cause a lot of civilian casualties and will cause a riot. The king ordered us to siege; he wants a perfect city, not one where the people’s sentiment was lost. I feel that we need to reconsider charging through the city gate.” This Major General was beating around the bush.

When Lu Bu heard that, he froze; Lu Bu, this general, was only afraid of the king. If he really messed up the king’s work, it would be bad.

“This…”

The Major General used the king as a reason to reject his suggestion, so Lu Bu had no way to argue. As a result, his face was filled with unhappiness.

Di Qing looked at that Major General with praise.

After all of them calmed down, Di Qing looked at Lu Bu and smiled, “General, still prepare three thousand elite cavalry. We will look at the situation tomorrow and make plans.”

Lu Bu understood the situation, and since Di Qing put it like that, he could only nod and agree. Furthermore, if he really were to charge at the city gates, Lu Bu could not say that he was totally confident.

At this point, none of them had a way to solve the issue before them.

Di Qing had already thought of an idea, “Why not clear a path from the west side to lead them to the back of the army? After that, we can set up a few porridge stands to provide them with porridge. Then they will not try anything funny.”

Mogadishu, apart from its east facing the ocean, the Great Xia Army had surrounded its other three sides. The middle army tent was set up on the west side, directly opposite the Atlantic Squadron in the ocean.

If the people wanted to get out of the city, they had to pass the Great Xia camp. If the civilians charged over here, who knows what would happen.

To the hungry people, a bowl of hot porridge was the best bait. To lead them to one gathering point would help prevent chaos.

One had to say that Di Qing’s idea was really good.

However, some things were often outside of one’s expectations, and it would catch a person off guard.

“This idea is good!”

The other generals nodded their heads.

Di Qing’s expression turned solemn, “Letting the people out is one thing, but we cannot let the king hide amongst them.”

During the Battle of Morocco, the Moroccan King hid amongst the people and escaped to Algeria, where he was building a rogue nation.

Till date, the matter was still causing a lot of ripples.

During this battle, Di Qing naturally could not make the same mistake. If he really let the Somalia King escape, the other generals would definitely laugh at him.

“Since we are letting them out, set up passes to check them one by one to prevent any suspicious people from blending in.” Di Qing instructed.

“Yes general!”

After the military meeting ended, the camp began to work.

To the army that brought with them large amounts of artisans, doing these matters did not use up more strength. They only needed to clear out some of the tents overnight.

For the army to pack up, it easily made soldiers nervous.

Usually a little breeze could unsettle them, much less moving overnight. If they not well-trained, Di Qing would not dare to do that.

Only until the dead of night did all of this end.

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

8th month, 4th day, Mogadishu West City gate.

The sky had just turned a little bright, and tens of thousands of civilians were gathered near the gate.

The people were not fools and would not all crowd around before the gates opened. Instead, they chose to hide in the houses nearby.

They were worried that if the general guarding the gate saw so many people, he would not dare to open it.

The quiet streets had no one on them, but in truth, numerous eyes were focused on it; especially that gate, which was the focal point of the entire city.

Mogadishu was near the ocean, and there would be a mist every morning. The thin mist moved up and down the streets, covering the people hidden in the houses well.

Each house was packed with people, and there were even many people seated on the roofs.

To get out of the city, many people spent the night there and did not even dare to sleep. Everyone was waiting for the family of the general to come.

At 7 AM, there was still no one on the streets.

“Why are they not here yet? Could the news be fake?” Some people were worried. After all, it was just a rumor.

Some people started to pray, “No, they will definitely come.”

That family had become the hope of everyone in the city.

Just as they were anxious, the silence was broken by the sound of wheels hitting the stone floor.

All of them raised their heads and looked through the cracks of the doors.

They saw a group of people pushing a cart, bringing their stuff and walking toward the west gate.

“It’s them!”

“They are here!”

“They are really here!”

The people spread the news quickly as they tried to suppress their excitement. Some people were so nervous that they could not even speak.

They looked at that family like they were looking at gods.

Everyone was ready to leave, and they were just waiting for the moment the city gate opened. At that time, they would rush out at their fastest speed and escape this suffocating hell.

The mist started to slowly disperse.

Chapter 917 - Mess, It's All a Mess

Chapter 917: Mess, It’s All a Mess

Mogadishu, west city gate.

‘Ji~~~ya~~~’

The huge city gates slowly creaked upon under the gazes of numerous eyes like the opening of a new world.

The general’s family walked out of the gates. At this very moment, shouts broke out from the nearby houses like that of a battle cry.

Tens of thousands of civilians charged out from the houses. It was hard for outsiders to imagine how such small houses could fit so many people.

The young men who had charged at the front reached the city gates in the blink of an eye. These young men had a strategy, which was to use their numbers to block the gate to prevent the soldiers from closing it.

Following which, an ocean number of people passed through one by one. Looking at the camp outside of the city, the civilians of the imperial city felt really warm and homely.

It was like a flood; the moment the floodgates were opened, it could not be shut.

Looking out, people closely packed around the city gates. Not to mention blocking, they did not even have a spot to stand. They could only stand on the city wall and look at the scene in front of them with their mouths agape.

Kill them?

That was impossible. The guards came from the imperial city, so who knows, their families might be in there. If they really started killing, it might incur the wrath of everyone.

The only way would be to act like they did not see anything and report the matter to the king.

The huge crowd was like a flood rushing out of the city gates, crossing the city protection river. In front of them, there were many white tents, one next to another. One could not see the end of it.

He had predicted this would happen, so Di Qing ordered the army to form up. The army formed into an iron formation and stood in front of the camp.

The thin white mist similarly danced up and down in the wilderness. The mist condensed into dew on their ice cold helmets and their armor, forming a white layer.

The entire army was totally silent and solemn.

The soldiers all focused as they waited. Naturally, they gave out a killing aura.

The killing aura was formless, but it could cause harm.

The might of an army was invisible, but it could threaten everyone.

In the morning, there should have been bugs and birds singing. However, due to the killing aura, they were scared silent. Animals were the most sensitive and could foresee danger, and they were afraid that they would alert these Asuras.

People were the same.

The solemnness of the Xia army and the clamor of the people formed polar opposites and clashed.

The imperial city civilians who ran at the front felt suppressed by this aura and slowed down, and a chill ran down their spines. Some of the cowardly ones felt their bodies become devoid of energy, and they could not move fast even if they wanted to.

This was not an exaggeration.

A normal person who had never been to war would not be able to even speak if someone asked them to talk in front of an army. If one was able to stare at soldiers and not feel their legs go wobbly, they could be considered a courageous warrior.

The civilians were astonished, while the Great Xia Army acted.

With a ‘Shua!’ the middle suddenly spread out and formed a 20 meter passage. In front of it, a barricade acted as a pass, and soldiers formed up beside it.

At the same time, a lieutenant arrived before the civilians and said loudly, “Listen up; the Xia army has always treated the people well. We have prepared hot porridge behind. Please follow the path and orderly proceed.”

“Great!”

Hearing that there was porridge to drink, the crowd cheered out.

They were able to survive, and now they would have food; there was nothing more joyous than this.

‘Going out of the city was the best decision I made.’ The civilians thought in their hearts.

“But, “his tone changed, “In a military camp, you must follow rules and orders, accept checks, and you can only gather at a specific spot.”

“If you walk out or try to enter restricted areas, you will be punished by military law!”

The civilians looked out at the military formation in front of them; the words of the lieutenant were not a joke.

“Do not worry general, we understand.”

Under the lead of the lieutenant, the people were checked. The Black Snake Guards spies had sent out images of the Somalia King, and the checks were for this person.

At the start, the scene was really orderly.

The civilians were fearful of the might of the army and accepted the checks. They passed through the tunnel and entered the square at the back to drink a bowl of hot porridge.

The change happened at 9 AM.

Along with large amounts of civilians exiting, the news spread out through the city. There were even rumors that the people outside were treated well and even got hot porridge.

This blew the pot.

When the 700 thousand civilians of Mogadishu heard that, this huge group swarmed toward the west city gate.

It started like water droplets in the alleys to streams on the streets to a flood at the west gate.

As the number of civilians rose, the guards at the gate either gave up or were given orders to be bystanders to maintain order.

With the army’s presence, the situation did not get out of control. If not, there would have been a stampede and many would have died.

Even so, as time went on, the crowd started to grow more restless. There had been news that the king was furious and was going to forcefully clear the city gate and close it.

This time, the civilians were anxious.

The hurried group rushed up and squeezed their way forward.

Out of the city, they crazily swarmed toward the pass.

The number of people had greatly exceeded Di Qing’s expectations, making the checks really difficult. The anxious civilians that were feeling uneasy were like a huge powder keg that could blow up at any moment.

The checking speed was slower than the speed at which they came out, causing many people to gather in the area between the city and the camp.

More and more people gathered as time passed, and the number of civilians were about to exceed the number of soldiers.

Those who managed to escape tried to stop those who had not. Even if these other people came out, they would not have a place to stand.

This time, those who had not exited the city were even more anxious, and it seemed like the situation was about to get out of control.

Di Qing stood above with his brows raised.

“If this goes on, things are going to get out of hand.” Di Qing saw through the situation. Worry was growing in his heart.

This was a group of hungry and terrified people. If the situation grew out of hand, they would be willing to do anything.

“Men!”

“Present!”

Di Qing ordered, “Set up five more checkpoints and quickly disperse them to the back.”

“Yes general!”

Scattering the crowd was impossible, and the best choice now was to get them to the back to not affect the army.

Di Qing did not forget that there were still 200 thousand Somalia Alliance Army troops in the city. Long before this happened, Di Qing had ordered the army to be ready to fight.

Even Lu Bu became really solemn, and he looked at the crowd with shocked.

“Terrifying!”

Very quickly, the five checkpoints were set up.

With that, they greatly increased the checking speed. Many people were being led, and this reduced the crowd.

However, Di Qing did not know that amongst these people, there were many hidden combat occupation players.

The players took off their equipment and looked exactly like the NPCs. As time was of the essence, the Great Xia Army could not investigate anything. These players gathered together at the back. Looking at the Great Xia Army, a cold glimmer appeared in their eyes.

…

Di Qing could only disperse the crowd, but this did not solve the root of the problem.

Mogadishu had 700 thousand civilians. Along with the players, the number was even larger.

Even the porridge prepared was not enough.

Hundreds of thousands of people were eating like bugs. Everywhere they passed, nothing remained.

The grain and meat quickly disappeared. Di Qing did not care, as he knew that if he did not feed the people, the situation would be worst.

Di Qing was regretting his decision.

If he knew this would happen, he would have struck back and not let anyone out.

Di Qing could feel that in the dark, there were pairs of eyes looking at all this.

“They are up to something!”

Di Qing could not understand why the Somalia King would allow the people to go out. Without them, what would an empty city do for the Somalia royal family?

…

At 11 AM, Di Qing’s worries came true.

The Somalia King finally bared his fangs and launched his lethal attack.

The first change happened at the city gate.

On the streets, sounds of troops advancing could be heard.

They were the Imperial City Guards.

The leading general said loudly, “Listen up, I am ordered by his majesty to lock up the city gates. Please disperse; otherwise, do not blame me for punishing you.”

‘Hua~~’

The group panicked.

Their first reaction was not to disperse but to swarm toward the city gate.

With that, the situation that was on the verge of collapse totally did when the Guards came out.

This collapse was unstoppable and was like a flame, burning everything.

The people charged out not caring about anything, charging into those who were being checked.

The fear and panic spread out like a plague.

The crowd was not willing to be checked and wanted to charge toward the back.

When Di Qing saw this scene, his face turned ashen white as he muttered, “Mess, it’s a mess.”

Chapter 918 - Human Ocean Tactic

Chapter 918: Human Ocean Tactic

Mogadishu, West outskirts.

If someone looked down on the battlefield from the sky, they would see a really shocking picture.

The Great Xia camp was set on the west. They had around 80 thousand, which included the two Infantry Divisions, the subordinate regiment, and the firearm squadron. Next, there would be the three dragon blood war Cavalry Divisions.

The troops were led by Di Qing with Ma Chao accompanying him.

The north and south sides could be seen as the wings of the army, and each side had 20 thousand, including half of an Infantry Division and one dragon blood war Cavalry Division.

On the south, Ma Teng led, while the north was led by one Infantry Division Major General of the Somalia Formation.

On the east, there was Alvaro’s navy, which had a total of 20 thousand men.

The remaining one Infantry Division and one Cavalry Division of the Somalia Formation were not present. The infantry was in charge of guarding Friendship City, while the cavalry were protecting the grain path and taking charge of prisoners.

The entire battlefield mostly consisted of cavalry from the Guards Legion Corps. Next would be infantry, while the navy numbered a little less. As a result, Di Qing chose to surround the city as cavalry were not good at sieging.

The four groups of troops surrounded Mogadishu.

The most shocking part was still the west.

As a famous general, even before the battle began, Di Qing’s arrangement of troops was spectacular.

80 thousand troops formed up into a line and spread across the west outskirts, forming an immovable steel barrier. There was the cavalry in front, and the infantry at the back.

At the wings, there were elite cavalry.

The six checkpoints set up, as well as the passage, had separated the formation into seven parts. The middle was guarded by the subordinate regiment and the firearm squadron.

After the barrier, there was a vast expanse of empty land with thousands of iron pots set up cooking porridge.

When the chaos started, there were already 70 thousand civilians gathered here.

In front of the barrier, there was also a huge section of land. Due to strategic concerns, no forests were allowed near the imperial city, so it was just an empty patch.

On this piece of land, more civilians than at the back had gathered; they totaled at 120 to 130 thousand. As there were too many of them, they were pretty much stuck to one another.

The people at the front could already smell the foul smell of the war horses.

Behind the people were the white city walls and the city protection river; only the drawbridge and the west city gate connected them. Before the chaos started, there were many people who swarmed out of the city gate and gathered in the wilderness.

Within the city gates, there were also many people on the streets, in the houses, and on the roofs. Further away, there were still large amounts of people gathering over.

The entire west side was filled with people.

Due to hunger, this small west city gate became the only way out for the 700 thousand civilians. The sudden arrival of the Somalian Guards and their announcement that they were going to lock the gates instantly caused the situation to explode.

Hundreds of thousands of people rioting, what kind of scene was that?

The civilians stuck between the city walls and the camp were like shocked birds, forcing their way outside of the city.

Hence, this pressure started to pass layer by layer, becoming a flood that wrapped up everything.

Like a stone thrown into a calm lake, from inside to outside, from close to far away.

The crowd used the six checkpoints as their places to breakthrough, forming six arrowheads as they charged out.

People squeezing people, people pushing people.

It was impossible to continue the checking at the checkpoints. Even trained soldiers broke into sweat when they saw this crazy crowd.

The situation was slowly getting out of control.

Di Qing look at the chaotic situation, “Order them to defend their positions and form up against the outside.”

“Yes general!”

Di Qing was not worried about the king escaping. Rather, he was worried about the Somalia Alliance Army in the city. If they attacked now, it would be horrendous.

Hence, the army could not panic.

As long as they stabilized themselves, no matter what the civilians did, it would not affect the battle.

At this very moment, a cry spread out from the back of the barrier line.

‘Ah~~~’

Even in such a noisy environment, such a cry was still really obvious.

Along with the cry, people saw a middle-aged man lying in a pool of blood. A sharp knife was stabbed into his chest, and blood spurted out.

“No good, murder! Murder!”

The sudden fresh blood and death made the group of people crazier as they charged forward even more.

To cause even more chaos amongst the people, the Somalia players did not mind killing NPCs.

The first shout was like a signal. Soon, more and more cries broke out as life after life was reaped.

An ambush of tigers had mixed into a flock of sheep. When the tigers bared their teeth, what would happen?

The group exploded, and they all rushed at the checkpoint. That checkpoint, that path, became the line between life and death, peace and war.

However, was the checkpoint really safe?

No!

‘Ah~~~’

At this very moment, a scream sounded out at the checkpoint.

This time, the place was in chaos, and there was nowhere that was safe.

The people that were about to become crazy charged toward the army camp. In their eyes, only the Great Xia Army, these invaders, could protect them.

What irony.

“Retreat, quickly retreat!”

Facing the charging crowd, the cavalry raised their spears, which shone with a cold glimmer.

These cavalry were all from the Guards Legion Corps, so they had strong mental strength and were not fazed by any of this.

Their bodies emitted killing intent that made one unable to move forward.

Without a doubt, if there were really people who wanted to rush at the formation, these cavalry would stab them.

The group of civilians stopped.

However, behind the cavalry, the infantry from the Somalia Formation panicked a little. Most of them were war prisoners from Morocco and did not have much combat experience.

Luckily, there were many strong generals from other War Fighting Legion corps.

All the army could do was form up into a square formation and not get charged apart. If they were broken apart and ended up in the sea of people, the outcome would be catastrophic.

No one knew how many assassins there were among the crowd.

The civilians were stunned and did not dare to proceed forward. In their hearts, behind them was the safest spot.

Unfortunately, they were going to be disappointed.

Not long after the assassination, the tens of thousands of combat occupation players that had gathered took out their weapons and bared their fangs at the Great Xia Army.

“Kill!”

“Kill the invaders!”

The players hollered as they charged at the Somalia Formation with everything they had.

The assault came too quickly, so the infantry soldiers were stunned. As a result, they suffered heavy casualties instantly.

“Despicable.”

The Great Xia Army was furious. They immediately turned around to fight these players. The formation was unavoidably affected. Luckily, they were well trained and could kill the players while stopping the civilians.

The sad ones were the civilians, as they were like rabbits, panicky and at a loss.

Along with the killing that rose at the back, the civilians that were there all ran toward the wilderness without hesitation.

Di Qing looked at all this with a black face. He could not care about whether the Somalia King had used this chance to escape or not.

The most important thing was how to control this situation.

The troops were split into seven, surrounded by people. The best way would be to gather the troops together.

But Di Qing did not dare.

If they cut off the checkpoint path, it would only worsen the situation. The people would just charge right at them.

This path had become their lifeline, and their only way into the deep wilderness.

Hence, not only could they not cut off this path, but they even needed to ensure the safety of the path and clear out the assassins within.

What irony!

…

Di Qing thought that the worst had already come.

Unfortunately, he had underestimated the viciousness of the enemy.

Just as the situation became more chaotic, the Guards army acted.

A cavalry force.

After giving out the orders to lock the gates, it was like this cavalry force had gotten a signal. They immediately charged at the city gates, not caring about the people around.

One could imagine how tragic it was for cavalry to charge into a closely packed area. In a short while, tens of people were trampled to their deaths on the spot.

‘Hua!’

Weirdly, at that moment, the people at the front actually made a path. They would rather be squeezed by others than be stepped on by these devils.

One had to say that the potential ignited from a person at a crucial moment was really shocking.

The cavalry quickly charged to the gates. Weirdly, they did not close the gates and instead charged out into the crowd.

“What’s happening?”

The civilians nearby could not believe their eyes. Their army did not care about their life or death; they were much worse than the Great Xia Army.

“What kind of heartless king did we choose?”

The civilians’ faces were ashen white, and their bodies could not help but shake. Their hearts were totally ice cold, and they felt despair.

How would the people know that to save his life and throne, the king would not mind sacrificing them?

Chapter 919 - Looking at the Joke

Chapter 919: Looking at the Joke

The guard soldiers charged around left and right in the crowd like a pack of wolves hunting amongst sheep. The human group exploded as they swarmed outward.

The Great Xia Army was facing a huge test.

Di Qing frowned; he did not wish to wait anymore, so he turned to Lu Bu and said, “I need general to remove the threat.” Di Qing looked at the guard soldiers; his eyes were filled with disgust.

Such an act of not caring about civilian life made them unworthy of being called military personnel.

“Watch me.”

Lu Bu could not stand it anymore. He moved to the front of the formation and armed his bow.

Be it in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms or the Three Kingdoms records, there was the story of Lu Bu shooting a halberd. As a result, one could see that his archery was among the top during the Three Kingdoms Period.

Mixing into the crowd, the Somalia Guards cavalry were like fireflies in the night – they were just so eye-catching. Lu Bu causally shot out an arrow, and it hit one of them, launching his target off their horse.

Following which, ‘Xiu! Xiu! Xiu!’ Multiple arrows were shot.

When the other archers who were good at archery saw this scene, they all armed their bows to shoot at the enemy. Every arrow shot would hit one, and they did not make any accidental kills.

The dragon blood war cavalry had many hidden tigers and dragons. At the crucial moment, one would not act unless one had skill.

There were no more than 100 Somalia Guards cavalry, and they all fell in less than 10 minutes. To prevent the war horses from charging around, they shot down all the horses.

One had to say that Lu Bu had truly performed beautifully.

Helplessly, the people were already like birds after a gunshot. Ever since they exited the city gates, the continuous changes had made them like flies, and they were all randomly running about.

When Di Qing saw this scene, he felt a headache.

“What are they thinking?” Di Qing scolded out.

No matter how the civilians rushed, they could not cause much of a threat to the Great Xia army. If it concerned life and death, Di Qing did not mind killing them.

Even those players who sneak attacked them were too weak to even be mentioned.

Why did the Somalia King try so hard and not even care about his own people?

Was it just to create problems for the Great Xia Army?

Quickly, the Somalia King gave his answer.

The Somalia Alliance Army that had not done anything finally acted.

Close to noon, the south and north city gates of Mogadishu opened up. The 80 thousand guard troops, 50 thousand territory troops, and 90 thousand players all charged out toward the two wings of the Great Xia Army.

The two wings of the Great Xia Army only had 20 thousand people. Facing five to six times their number, they were immediately at a disadvantage. Although the dragon blood war cavalry were elites, the Somalia Formation infantry were far too weak, and they fell after less than an hour.

The Somalia Formation was formed not too long ago, so if they were in a bad state, the soldiers would lack killing intent and toughness. Their formation was crushed and scattered by the enemy instantly.

The dragon blood war cavalry was trapped by the enemy almost instantly.

At this point, the true motive of the Somalia King was revealed. He wanted to swarm the Great Xia Army in a sea of people. The civilians breaking out of the city could ensure that they had nowhere to run.

With that, the Somalia Alliance Army could act and take care of the two wings.

The two wings of the Great Xia Army were attacked by the Somalia Alliance Army, and they were facing a dangerous situation. The middle troops were also trapped. Looking at the situation, this country war had actually welcomed an unprecedented turn around.

This made the reporters outside the city really excited. As soon as they could, they reported the news back to their countries.

The moment the news went out, the world was in uproar.

Somalia used such a method to become the hot topic of the entire world.

The strength of Great Xia had made many people unhappy. Seeing them face a setback, there were many people who laughed.

“Great Xia focusing on military, they are destined to not have a good end!”

“The arrogant will fall!”

Similar mocking words filled the forum.

Lords, adventure gamemode players, enemies of Great Xia, and jealous people all jumped out to humiliate Great Xia. Even in the China region, there were many people like that.

To witness Great Xia make a fool of themselves was a rare sight.

In an instance, Great Xia fell from their lofty position.

Caesar even announced that as a result of Great Xia fully focusing on their military, their harm on the order of the Mediterranean had resulted in karma.

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

Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

In the Imperial Reading Room, Military Affairs Minister Du Ruhui, Guards Commander Huo Qubing, Administrative Mentor Court Chief, Jia Xu, and the like were discussing the Somalia war.

Although the outer world was filled with mockery and was really boisterous, it was very silent and calm in the reading room.

All those who were mocking them lacked foresight.

With the ability of the Great Xia Dynasty, even if Di Qing’s forces were destroyed, Somalia would still be unable to turn things around. Since Great Xia had so many troops, they could launch multiple crusades.

“I suggest we move the Guards 2nd legion.” The one who spoke was Du Ruhui.

Ouyang Shuo rubbed his forehead, “Friendship City is so far away from Mogadishu. Even with their speed, it will still take four days.”

Du Ruhui and the others went silent; this was the con of an expedition.

“Do not care about the noise outside. We still need to trust Di Qing and the frontline soldiers.” Ouyang Shuo was resolute, “Their attack had caught us off guard.”

Ouyang Shuo did not believe that such a scheme by Somalia could defeat a famous general like Di Qing, nor did he believe that the Somalia Alliance Army could destroy the dragon blood war cavalry.

“The king is wise!” Jia Xu could not hide his praise and smiled, “They look like they have the advantage, but this is only on the surface and cannot decide the victor of the war.”

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes lit up, and he smiled, “Wen He, do you have a plan?”

Du Ruhui and Huo Qubing both looked toward Jia Xu. He was a top strategist, and since he came over, he had come up with many brilliant plans.

Jia Xu said, “No matter how they have calculated, they forgot that something exists.”

“Are you talking about the Atlantic Squadron?” Du Ruhui was the first to react.

Jia Xu nodded, “The Atlantic Squadron has sword-shield soldiers and firearm forces. They can come ashore to help out the left and right wings. More importantly, they have the Flying Squad and the marines.”

“As the Somalia Alliance Army has swarmed out, the imperial city is empty and the defenses are really weak. Mogadishu is close to the water. It will be fine as long as the king gives the order for Alvaro to send the marines to dive into the city. Along with the help of the Flying Squad, they can kill their way into the palace and destroy the stone stele.”

“If that happens, everything will be settled.”

When Du Ruhui and the others heard that, their eyes lit up, and they relaxed.

“This plan is ingenious.” Du Ruhui was filled with praise, “Take down Mogadishu, and the players will be teleported away. More importantly, we can use the teleportation formation to send troops over.”

Jia Xu’s foresight was just that sharp.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Since the day the marines were built, they have been waiting for a battle to prove their skills.”

“Yes my king!”

“Commander Huo, ask the Boulder Army to get ready.” Ouyang Shuo instructed.

There was too much cavalry there, so the Boulder Army was more suitable for stabilizing the situation.

“Understood!”

Huo Qubing nodded.

…

Not long after this meeting ended, Alvaro received the orders.

Alvaro was worried about the battle. After getting the order, he relaxed and said loudly, “Men!”

“Raise the tent!”

“Yes!”

Since this was an emergency, Alvaro quickly passed down the battle plans.

In less than half an hour, the Atlantic Squadron had quietly docked. A firearm squadron and the sword-shield soldiers gathered at the shore.

The battle outside the city was really intense, so no one noticed what was happening.

During the last navy reorganization, Ouyang Shuo had noticed their weak close combat skills. As a result, the navy had reduced the number of archers and turned to sword-shield soldiers equipped with God arm crossbows.

As a Spanish military god, not only was he good at naval warfare, but he was also good at land battles too. He knew that they were not able to adapt so quickly to land, so he gave up on the idea of assisting the two wings. Instead, he focused them at one point to first assist the south.

One had to say that this one specific detail showed his military prowess.

The south side commander was Ma Teng, who was really experienced, so the side was stronger than the north.

With the squadron helping them, they would definitely be able to beat the enemy.

As long as one side was broken, the Somalia Alliance Army would have lost half the battle.

Furthermore, Alvaro had also thought deeper. If the marines failed, saving Ma Teng’s forces could make up for it and complete the mission.

On the contrary, if he went to the north, he might lose his own men without being able to save anyone. At that point, it would be an all-out defeat, and there would be no way to turn the situation around.

To be able to make such a clear analysis during such a nervous battle tested the ability of a general.

…

The marines had already set out before the Atlantic Squadron had docked. They followed the Mogadishu inner city river to get in and head toward the palace.

To crush the two wings of Great Xia, the Somalia King had gone all out. Apart from the two thousand guards guarding the palace, there was no one left.

At the same time, the Flying Squad set off and targeted the palace.

Chapter 920 - God Beast Black Spotted Golden Leopard

Chapter 920: God Beast Black Spotted Golden Leopard

Mogadishu, Palace.

The Somalia King sat in the main hall. He was waiting for the victory battle report from the frontlines.

Player Abadi provided the thought of using the civilians as bait, and the Somalia King turned it into an airtight strategy. As a result, they successfully turned things around.

Just last night, that mysterious person had contacted the Somalia King once more to promise him that as long as Somalia managed to push back the first wave of troops, they would act to prevent Great Xia from launching more crusades.

Hence, the Somalia King did not even think about escaping.

His plan was flawless, and there was no chance that it could fail. Thinking about the glory he would get for crushing Great Xia, the Somalia King gloated to himself.

As for those civilian who died, in front of a huge victory, who would blame him? At most, he would give them the identities of valiant warriors to calm down the protests.

At that time, he, the Somalia King, would have the greatest glory and power.

Thinking about this, the Somalia King nearly burst out laughing.

“What a beautiful time!”

…

1 PM.

The battle on the north and south sides were already entering the white hot stage. The Infantry Divisions on both wings were pretty much wiped out. Only the dragon blood war cavalry was barely holding on.

Especially in the south, under Ma Teng’s leadership, the dragon blood war cavalry did not give the enemy a chance to surround them, and they managed to cause massive damage to the Alliance Army.

As expected from one of the trump cards of the Great Xia Army.

Fortunately, the Alliance Army had the numerical advantage. Although they could not crush the dragon blood war cavalry, the cavalry could not break away to assist the middle forces either.

The battle seemed to continue in this way.

At this very moment, Alvaro personally led the 20 thousand navy troops and quietly arrived at the outer circle of the battlefield. Right as he reached there, the firearm squad shot of three rounds, inflicting hefty damage to the Alliance Army.

The three section strike was a typical shooting technique of the matchlock, and it was similar to the crossbow techniques of the cold weapons era. As the guns could not shoot successively and needed time to reload, they needed a way to raise the shooting efficiency.

This type of killing, apart from damaging the enemy, had a more important psychological impact.

First, the Alliance Army could never imagine that the Great Xia would have reinforcements now. They thought that the middle troops of the Great Xia Army had broken out, scaring them out of their wits.

Calming down and looking, they realized that it was the navy.

Secondly, this was the first time Great Xia had mobilized the firearm squadron on land. Facing such brutal weapons, the Somalia natives panicked.

Without a doubt, the arrival of the navy totally broke their war tempo. On the other hand, the trapped Ma Teng seemed to gain a sudden influx of energy, coordinating with the navy to launch an even more intense assault.

“Brothers, let these wild brutes learn of the strength of the dragon blood war cavalry!”

“Kill! Kill! Kill!”

The dragon blood war cavalry themselves were a group of Asuras. There had been a lot of pent up frustration because of the situation they were facing, and they had wanted to engage in free killing for a while now. The moment they got the order, they launched an even fiercer charge toward the Alliance Army.

To be able to launch cavalry charges while in an enemy formation, probably only the Guards Legion Corps could do such a thing.

All of a sudden, the south side Somalia Alliance Army was pincered.

If they used their men to wipe out the Great Xia navy, the dragon blood war cavalry would bite them. If they focused on the cavalry, the navy would tear them to shreds.

It was a terrible situation.

The south side was progressing toward a beneficial situation for the Great Xia.

At the same time, the middle troops of the Great Xia Army acted.

As expected from a famous general, Di Qing had remained calm. He ordered the middle troops to split into two and move north and south, leaving an empty space in the middle for the civilians to pass through.

It was like combining the three checkpoints to form a huge floodgate.

With that, the huge crowd swarmed toward the back of the army like a flood, reducing the chaos on the battlefield.

At the same time, Di Qing ordered the troops to strike the players amongst the civilians and not give them a chance to cause anymore chaos.

Even if this resulted in unintended casualties, they had to do it.

Apart from solving the problem with the civilians, Di Qing was more focused on the two wings. The three divisions of the dragon blood war cavalry were ordered to quietly move toward the two sides.

Di Qing gave Lu Bu an order, which was to not immediately throw them on the north and south battlefield. Instead, he was to cut to the city gates and lock down their retreat path.

As long as the Alliance Army was trapped outside the city, the Great Xia Army would win without a doubt.

When Lu Bu got the order, he led the two wings around.

Di Qing was dissecting the Somalia King’s vicious plan piece by piece. However, the Somalia King was still unaware of it all, and he was still daydreaming in the palace.

…

In an alley not far away from the palace, the marines had secretly gathered up. They were waiting for the Flying Squad to complete the bombing of the palace to shift the attention of the guards.

The marines only had a regiment full of people, as more than half of them were left in Morocco. Less than a thousand of them followed the 4th and 5th divisions over.

To try to breakthrough into the palace defended by two thousand guards was not easy.

Luckily, they had the Flying Squad.

Just as Alvaro led the navy to assist Ma Teng’s forces, the Flying Squad was over the skies of the palace.

To them, this was an unusual mission, as this was the first time they had an actual target. Usually, it was just random bombings, and they did not need to be precise.

Their mission was to try and spread the guards, and it was best if they could cause a lot of casualties.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

To move out the guards, the first round of bombings was focused on the main hall of the palace.

“What is that?” The guards did not understand what was happening.

“No good, the palace is on fire!”

“Quick; his majesty is still in the main hall!”

The guards panicked and gathered toward the main hall.

The Somalia King was still daydreaming, and the sudden bombing caused him to drop to the floor in fear. His face was ashen white as he asked, “What’s happening!”

The guards defending outside rushed into the hall at this time, “Your majesty, there are monsters attacking from the skies.”

“Flying monsters?” The Somalia King did not understand, “Quick; let’s move!”

The Somalia King was looking forward to a huge victory and did not want to lose his life here. Under the protection of the guards, he moved to an underground room beneath the palace.

This was the first time the Somalia King felt a hint of uneasiness.

“Where did those monsters come from?”

The Somalia King did not dare to continue thinking about it; the battlefield was changing toward the unknown.

…

The guard troops who rushed over were busy extinguishing the fires. Meanwhile, the Flying Squad continued to bomb the main hall, throwing the bombs into the closely packed soldier groups.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

The Somalia guards had never seen such a thing before, and they suffered heavy casualties.

‘Howl~~’

At this very moment, a leopard roar broke out. It was the country protector beast of Somalia, an African black-spotted golden leopard.

With the palace under siege, the god beast had finally awoken.

This golden leopard was as tall as a person, and its body was close to four meters in length. It was three to four times the size of a normal leopard. There were black spots on its golden fur, making it look really noble.

The spots on its head were small and close together, while the spots on its back were bigger.

‘Howl~~’

The golden leopard opened its mouth and spat out a white light bullet, which smashed into one of the mimicry flying devices. The device exploded in mid-air, killing the person instantly.

Such power was truly shocking.

“Great!”

The guards could not help but cheer as their morale rose.

The captain of the squadron came from the flying training base outside of Shanhai City, and he was from the first batch of pilots of the Great Xia. Although they were facing problems, he did not panic, and he used the sea conch to give orders.

“Use three planes to lead that golden leopard away.”

“Yes!”

The captain did not need to give anymore instructions. Three flying devices broke away from the main group, forming a triangle formation as they flew toward the beast. They were ready to take revenge for their brothers.

The golden leopard was a god beast and that white light was its killing technique, so the move could not be used in consecutively times. The Flying Squad was already prepared, so they would not be hit so easily.

However, a god beast was still a god beast. As they tried to approach it, another flying device was hit.

“Blow this animal to bits!”

The remaining two pilots were furious, and they threw down bomb after bomb. One of them exploded on the body of the golden leopard, which resulted in blood and flesh flying.

The golden leopard was still a god beast; its skin was really thick. A bomb that could send one to hell would only cause superficial wounds to it.

One of the young pilots wanted to throw more bombs when he saw the golden leopard still standing strong. Luckily, his teammate was calmer, “Complete the mission!”

“Yes!” The young pilot came to his senses. The most important thing right now was to lead it away, not making it angry.

The two flying device moved like a spiral toward the depths of the palace. While they flew, they bombed to destroy the palace.

When the golden leopard saw this, it actually chased them; it fired two light bullets but both missed.

The golden leopard was smart and sentient. It was furious about being unable to handle these two ‘birds.’ It took in a deep breath and spat out a light bullet that was two times bigger than the previous ones.

Weirdly, this one was really quick, and it also homed in and followed the two flying device. It turned in the air like it was being controlled by the golden leopard.

This time, it was hard for the flying devices to escape.

“Hong!” The young pilot and his flying device exploded in mid-air while the ripples from the explosion knocked the other flying device, and it nearly crashed too.

The key was that the wing of the flying device was damaged, so it could not fly too far.

Two birds with one stone!

The golden leopard was really smart and also hateful. It was the young pilot that dropped the bomb on its back. The leopard remembered this, so it marked him as a target for revenge.

Chapter 921 - Settled in One Battle

Chapter 921: Settled in One Battle

The surviving flying device shook and wavered, and it flew for less than a thousand meters before the wings started to catch fire. He had no choice but to find a place in the palace to land. As such, he finally escaped but lost his fighting ability.

In such a short time, the golden leopard took down three flying devices. As expected from a god beast.

When the marines saw the leopard destroy flying device after flying device, they were astonished. The Atlantic Squadron had met many ocean beasts while traveling from Morocco to Somalia.

Those beasts were 10 times larger than this golden leopard, but they did not possess such skills.

“General, what should we do now?” The deputy asked.

The leading general gritted his teeth, “Do not care about it; just kill our way in.” The marines could be exposed if they stayed here, so they had to act.

Although the beast was strong, they had no choice but to give it a shot.

“Yes general!”

After receiving the orders, the marines showed no fear as they rushed toward the palace gates. In a short while, they destroyed those stationed outside and made their way into the palace. They headed straight for the main hall.

On the way, they met a few guard soldiers, which they took down one by one.

In front of the main hall, the nightmare battle began.

The Flying Squad had turned their target to the golden leopard, so the marines had to solve the problem in front of them alone.

“How bold, they actually dare to try to charge into the palace.”

Although the Somalia guards were bombed till their faces were covered in ash, they were all the elite of the elites since the king kept them in the palace.

“Fire!”

The marines did not bother. They simply shot a round of arrows before they came into contact. The strength of the God arm crossbows was amazing, and 200 people fell instantly.

“Kill!”

Putting away the god arm crossbow, the marines raised their blades and charged over.

The marines were all trained in the special force base, and they were good at all types of weapons and combat. Their strength was comparable to the Guards Legion Corps, and they were better than the other War Fighting Legion corps.

Hence, although they were fighting two against one, they could still gain the advantage.

The marines knew that the Flying Squad was using their lives to distract the golden leopard and buy time for them. They had no time to waste.

On the white square outside the main hall, fresh blood flowed. The red mixed with the white, a truly intense mismatch.

This battle lasted for close to an hour. Both sides tried their best to kill the enemy.

After half of the Somalia guards were sacrificed, their mental strength finally collapsed. They were not willing to fight with the marines and tried to flee.

The marines were not any better and only 300 of them were left.

If they had not faced the hell-like training of the special force base, they would not be so tough and bold, and they would have collapsed even faster.

“At least we won.”

However, the victors did not show much happiness. Instead, they were bitter, as not far away, a large roar spread over, ‘Growl!’

An hour, in just an hour, the Flying Squad was destroyed by the golden leopard, and they were forced to return.

Wounded and bloody, the golden leopard was like a war god. It slowly proceeded toward the main hall. It was going to protect the survival of its nation, performing its duty as a country protector god beast.

Could the wounded marines still face such a beast?

They did not have much confidence.

Even so, they still had to fight. After all, they had a duty; they had a responsibility.

“Brothers, prepare to give our lives!”

The marine’s main general wiped his face. He wiped the blood off his face as he smiled.

“Knew that it was not something good!” The marines all scoffed. All of them were covered in blood, and they held their blades firmly in their hands.

‘Growl!’

The golden leopard finally arrived at the front of the hall. Behind it, there was a blood trail. One could see that the bombing of the Flying Squad had hurt it badly. If it were not a god beast, it would have definitely died.

“Kill!”

The marines surrounded the god beast and wanted to use a human ocean method to kill it.

The golden leopard did not shoot out any light bullets. Instead, it used its body to fight. Within the four meter long, human-height beast, a shocking power and explosiveness dwelled.

One on one, none of them was its opponent.

During this time, the marines tried to send a small group into the hall to destroy the stone stele. Who knew that the golden leopard was really sharp, and no one could escape its eyes.

Seeing someone enter, it whipped with its tail to strike the enemy. With one jump, it leaped into the main hall to stop them from destroying the stone stele.

When the main general saw that, he shook his head and led his troops into the main hall.

The battlefield changed from outside the hall to inside the narrow hall. This made the marines more packed, and they suffered heavy losses.

Both sides fought for 20 minutes, and the golden leopard was still filled with energy.

However, the marines used up a lot of their stamina, and their attacks got weaker and weaker. The marine general was really anxious. If he failed, he really did not know how he would answer to the Fleet Admiral.

At this very moment, a loud shout spread out from outside the hall, “Bastard!”

Turning around, they saw a bunch of men walk into the hall; these men wore Mingguang Armor. They were the dragon blood war cavalry led by Ma Teng. When the marines saw these men, they were delighted; their victory was secured.

On the south outskirts, Ma Teng had finally crushed the Somalia Army Alliance with the help of the Atlantic Squadron.

Throughout the process, Alvaro could hear the roars in the city and also learned that the Flying Squad was badly damaged.

After gathering with Ma Teng, Alvaro told him all he knew.

When Ma Teng heard it, he decisively handed over control to Alvaro. Meanwhile, he led a thousand dragon blood war cavalry into the city.

Alvaro reinforcing him was following orders, but he was a huge lifesaver to Ma Teng. Ma Teng had to repay this help.

He rushed, and at the final moment, he managed to save the marines.

The following battle was really boring.

The dragon blood war cavalry took over the attacks, and the marines worked to destroy the stone stele.

The moment the stone stele was destroyed, the golden leopard stopped fighting. The more magical part was that its wounds healed up, and it became a brand new majestic god beast.

Ma Teng and the others were shocked; they thought that there would be a round two.

However, the leopard just looked at them and causally walked into the palace. It had already changed masters. Now, it belonged to the Great Xia.

When Ma Teng and the others saw this, they all heaved a sigh of relief. No one was willing to fight with it again.

“Lock down the palace and find the king.” Ma Teng ordered.

As the main reason for this war, Ma Teng definitely would not let the Somalia King go.

“Yes general!”

The dragon blood war cavalry spread apart, and the king who was hiding in the basement would not be able to escape.

At the same time, a System Notification sounded out.

“World Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for crushing Somalia. Specially awarded 100 thousand merit points, and 200 thousand reputation points. Congratulations player!”

…

The Battle of Somalia had allowed Ouyang Shuo to earn an extra 150 thousand merit points.

However, he already had the highest rank of prince. As such, until Gaia announced the next rank, he did not know how many merit points he would need to upgrade.

It seemed like Gaia had not expected anyone to be able to break the two million merit point mark in the 4th year.

In the previous five years of his last life, no one had managed to do so.

“What an abnormality.”

In the city in the skies, Gaia muttered.

…

“World Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for crushing Somalia. As the 3rd person to crush a country, awarded a million gold.”

…

As per usual, the reward was worse the lower one’s position. The second position had a special reward, while the third was only given a paltry million.

Luckily, with this money, rebuilding Somalia would not use up other sources of gold from the Imperial Court.

…

“World Report: Somalia has been destroyed. All player levels, skills, cultivation methods, and the like are reset to zero; they are teleported to the sealed lands as punishment!”

…

The moment the first notification sounded out, the Somalia players were ashen. Regardless of whether the king could escape or not, the players were dead.

With the notification, they all turned into a light and the battlefield became spacious.

Seeing the players disappear, the Somalia guards and territory army soldiers all stopped fighting.

This huge battle had ended.

Although there were some challenges in the process, Great Xia had taken down another country and won honor.

As for the people that mocked them, upon getting the news, they all shut their mouths, awkwardly silent.

“We have lost our face.”

…

“World Notification: China Region Qiyue Wuyi has won the country war. China region obtains 10 honor points, rewarding China players with +1 innate stats. Congratulations China region!”

…

The moment the notification went out, the China region was incredibly bustling.

Back when the Somalia Alliance Army turned the tides, although most of the players were cheering for the Great Xia Dynasty, many started mocking them.

When the Great Xia Dynasty gained glory for the country once again, winning country honor points, those mocking people hid in the darkness.

If someone saw them, they would ask, “Weren’t you mocking them? Why do you have the face to enjoy the rewards they bring? If it was me, I would kill myself.”

“That’s right, do not accept handouts!”

‘Haha!’

The players mocked them similar to how they mocked Great Xia.

Chapter 922 - The World is Changing

Chapter 922: The World is Changing

The moment Somalia was destroyed, the world was stunned.

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

“Soon!”

Jack muttered as his eyes emitted a certain glow.

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

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

…

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

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

The world stage had a place for them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ouyang Shuo had three reasons for this.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There were many benefits to this.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Du Ruhui and the others agreed to his suggestion.

The matter was settled like that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter 923 - Interrogating the King

Chapter 923: Interrogating the King

Since the Guards Legion Corps were the best of the best, the Legion General must fit that job. Ma Chao and Lu Bu, these two generals, were ones that the soldiers were all happy with.

Ma Chun, Ma Teng, Xiahou Ying, and Zhang He, only Cao Chun was slightly better.

Ouyang Shuo was not in a rush to make his decision. After all, it would take one and a half months at the very least. Who knows whether there would be surprises or not during this period?

…

Mogadishu, palace.

Ouyang Shuo did not plan to remodel it into a traveling palace. Based on the plan, he would build a Provincial Governor office here.

At the south corner, there was a jail, which was used by the previous king to lock up special prisoners.

Ouyang Shuo appeared in Mogadishu and settled down the people as usual. In the afternoon, he lost his patience and gave the job to the newly appointed Provincial Governor Pei Mo.

At 3 PM, Ouyang Shuo brought the Personal Guards to this special jail.

In the damp and humid jail cell, the ex-Somalia King was locked here. Ouyang Shuo was not willing to meet him originally. However, he said that he had a Secret Document to trade with Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo thought he was lying until he said the words ‘Silver Hand.’

This made him really interested, which resulted in this trip. When Friendship City was attacked, Ouyang Shuo had the feeling that the Somalia royal family was not the only party behind this.

Now, it seemed like it was true.

“Open the gate!”

The damp and dark jail cell only had a small window opened at the top. On the ground, there was a layer of straw with a bed on it.

Apart from that, there was nothing else.

Standing at the gate of the jail cell and looking at the old man curled up at the corner, Ouyang Shuo really could not believe that this person was the Somalia King.

It seemed like during the catching process, he had faced a lot of bad treatment.

Once he entered the jail cell, a foul smell pierced his nose, making Ouyang Shuo frown.

The jail was temporarily guarded by the Somalia Formation soldiers.

Seeing the king’s reaction, one of them asked carefully, “My king, this place is dirty. Should we interrogate him in the interrogation room?”

The jail should not be in such a bad state. It was like this because the formation soldiers hated the king, so they were purposely making it tough on him. They had given him the worst cell.

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, “There’s no need. I’ll be leaving after saying a few words.” As he said that, he looked expressionlessly at the Somalia King, “Speak, what do you want to trade?”

The Somalia King said tragically, “Everything I did was planned by a mysterious person. A few days ago, he even met me.”

“How do you know he came from Silver Hand?”

“He personally told me that if I was able to achieve victory in the first wave, they had the ability to prevent Great Xia from attacking Somalia again.”

The Somalia King wanted to say crusade, but he swallowed the word down.

“Say what you know, and I’ll let you live.”

“Then, can I leave Somalia?”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “What do you think? Even if I release you, you probably would not be able to walk out of Mogadishu.”

Putting this person in soft arrest was the greatest good grace he could give to this person. As for whether or not there would be any accidents during the soft arrest that would cause him to die, Ouyang Shuo had no guarantees.

Ouyang Shuo’s coldness was not something his previous self could compare to.

“…”

The Somalia King’s face was ashen white; he knew that the people of the city hated him to the core.

“Do not have any hopes. If what you say does not make me happy, just wait to be executed. It would also be good for the people’s sentiment.”

The Somalia King was so terrified that he shivered, “Write, I’ll write, I’ll write.”

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he lost interest in talking to this person. He just turned around and left the cell. The following interrogation would be handled by Black Snake Guards and Ouyang Shuo did not need to worry about it.

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

The next morning, Pei Ju came over to report on his investigation of the treasury.

Pei Ju could not hide his joy. Obviously, there were great rewards. “My king, within the treasury, there is 2.5 million gold, 56 cases of jewelry, 2.5 thousand kilograms of spices, and two treasures.”

There were hundreds and thousands of different items in the treasury and the armory, so Pei Ju did not go through them one by one. Their equipment was backward, so it did not fit what Great Xia needed.

Ouyang Shuo was shocked. He did not expect the Somalia royal family to be so rich; it was totally different from the poor state of its people. Thinking about the matter, he understood.

A large half of all this wealth came from working with the pirates. When the Atlantic Squadron wiped out the Sky Wolf Pirate Organization, they obtained large amounts of treasures too.

With this 2.5 million gold, the one million gold reward from Gaia, and the gold from auctioning off the Guardian Guild rights, he obtained around seven million gold.

If one considered the profits from hunting the pirates, this amount would reach eight million.

Based on the calculations by the Privy Court, the reparations and compensation of this war, along with the organizations costs, would amount to one million gold.

The Cabinet listed the rebuilding costs of Somalia Province, including basic facilities and port construction, at 1.5 million.

Apart from that, there were the costs of repairing Friendship City and compensation to the merchants, which amounted to 500 thousand gold.

All things considered, the Imperial Court did not need to spend extra money, and they even earned five million gold, delighting Ouyang Shuo.

As expected, war was the best way to get rich.

Considering that Ouyang Shuo needed a huge sum for the year end auction, he kept this five million gold.

As for the gold, silver, jewelry, and spices, Ouyang Shuo told Pei Ju to choose a few to put into the royal treasury. As for the rest, sell them off to the three royal chambers of commerce.

This was not a small sum, around 1.5 million, which would be added to the dynasty’s finances.

Since the first year of Gaia, Ouyang Shuo had stored jewelry into the treasury more than 10 times, so just Song Jia and Bing’er alone probably could not finish using it.

However, as the ruler, Ouyang Shuo had to reward his people. Song Jia needed to reward her court ladies, so jewelry was needed in the treasury.

This wealth was needed to make people happy. Only with a full treasury could one maintain the face of the royal family.

…

The part that caught Ouyang Shuo’s interest was the two treasures mentioned by Pei Mo.

One map and one talisman.

The map was a sheepskin map that looked a little old. It looked like it had been soaked in water for a long time. Ouyang Shuo looked at the name of the map and was delighted.

Lemuria Civilization Exploration Map: Using this map, players can trigger scenario quests near the Lemuria Civilization ocean region.

After coming into contact with Atlantis, Ouyang Shuo had specially looked into Super Civilization information. What interested him was Lemuria, which was also as famous as Atlantis.

Who knew that there was such a coincidence, and he really had an affinity with this mysterious civilization.

Ouyang Shuo’s hands started to shake with excitement when he looked at this old map.

Without a doubt, the Super Civilizations that Gaia had led into the game all brought with them technology that exceeded current technology trees.

The Great Xia Dynasty had benefited heavily from this.

Be it the underwater breathing devices or the mimicry flying device, they all helped a lot in war and became the trump cards of the dynasty.

Atlantis City had become the focus of the entire Mediterranean Ocean.

Legends had it that the four most famous civilizations in history were the Kendaya Civilization, Mu Civilization, Atlantis, and then Lemuria.

Kendaya was the first Super Civilization. Legends had it that its males had a third eye, which gave them super powers.

Legends had it that it was located between Africa and North America.

The Mu Civilization gave birth to the first huge dynasty, the Mu Empire. It was called Lamu and represented the sun. Mu represented mother, so the civilization was known as the Mother of the Sun.

It was said that the Mu continent was located in the Pacific Ocean, its location a little south. It was said that its size was similar to the Americas.

Next was the Lemuria Civilization.

The Lemurian people were small and weak. They could not fight against the beasts and others races on the land. Hence, they mostly hid underground and had really advanced technology.

The Lemurian people focused mainly on their senses, and those who trained hard could differentiate three thousand colors and 2500 different tastes.

Legends had it that it was located in the Indian Ocean close to Australia, and it stretched toward the Pacific Ocean.

Ouyang Shuo guessed that it should be near Australia.

Luckily, Ouyang Shuo planned to go on his second voyage in the 10th month. His goal was Australia. He wanted to open a new trade route and solve the iron ore and coal problem of the Great Xia Dynasty.

Hence, he would have the chance to come into contact with the mysterious Lemurian Civilization.

Chapter 924 - Heir

After putting away the map, Ouyang Shuo looked at the talisman.

War Stopping Talisman: After use, during non-country war time, player can select an imperial city and prevent imperial city guard troops from participating in territorial war, lasting for a week.

After the war exempt card, Ouyang Shuo obtained another weird tool.

It was mentioned that imperial city guard troops could not proactively exit the city to fight with Lords in the territory. The only exception would be if a wilderness Lord sought protection and was willing to be under an imperial city.

Only then could the imperial city guard army come out in the name of protection.

The function of the war stopping talisman was that even if a territory sought protection, the imperial city would not be able to interfere for a week.

Without a doubt, if used well, this talisman could play a huge role.

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

Shanhai City, Song Manor.

When Ouyang Shuo was out touring Somalia, the Great Xia Queen Song Jia went home to visit her relatives.

After the greetings, Song Family head Song Tianxiong had the following conversation with his daughter.

“Daughter, have the king and you thought about having a male offspring?”

Song Jia was stunned and said with surprise, “Offspring? Father, this is the game world….”

“Why not? You can still have a male offspring!”

Song Tianxiong’s words were actually true.

The intergalactic migration would take 10 years on the road. Gaia understood that and allowed people to apply to have children after they got married in the game.

The reason for an application was that this child would not be a virtual baby but a real life one.

In the game, after both sides applied and paid a fee, Gaia would use the game cabin to retrieve their sperms and eggs for artificial insemination.

With the current technology standards, the inseminated eggs would not need to be sent back into the womb and could be nurtured in pods.

The nutritional pods were specially made and could link the babies’ neural senses to the game and ensure that the baby was growing at the same rate in the game. Hence, for the nine months that the mother was pregnant in the game, the baby would be slowly forming in the nutrition cabin.

The moment the baby in the game was born, it would be a replica of the one in real life. The couple did not need to go offline and could take care of their kids in the game.

As a result, money needed to be paid, and the price was not little either.

There were two reasons behind this.

First, the nutritional fluid for the baby was not cheap. Secondly, they wanted to restrict the number of babies through the payments.

Everyone was travelling in the spaceships, but the ships had limited storage. If one did not add restrictions, the ships would not be able to fit all the new babies.

Hence, this was only available for the rich, and normal players were not fated for it.

As for why Gaia did not push out virtual babies, the reasoning would involve the problem of family theory. No one would be able to devote themselves to doting on a bunch of numbers.

Song Jia was a smart girl, “Father, why did you suddenly raise this up?”

“It’s not really sudden. You have married the king for a year and a half so getting a kid is normal. The king ascending means that he should have an offspring.” Song Tianxiong was adamant about the matter.

Song Jia took a deep look at her dad, “I’ll talk to the king about this, it is all up to him.”

Song Tianxiong shook his head, “Daughter, you should be the one to make this decision. Do not blame me for not reminding you, although the king does not have concubines, if you continue to not have children, the officials will demand for him to get concubines to ensure that the bloodline is passed on.”

“Although the king dotes on you, I’ve heard that he has connections to many girls.”

“He won’t.” Song Jia was really confident.

Song Tianxiong sighed, “Daughter, people change. His power grows daily, and the number of girls that wants him grows too. As time goes on, who knows? Don’t you know what’s happening with those brothers in the family?”

Song Jia did not believe that her husband was such a person. Thinking back to her brothers in the family, they were all just normal children, and many of them were fooling around outside.

Thinking about this, her confidence wavered.

When Song Tianxiong saw that, he said, “No matter what, only with a child can your position be solidified.”

Song Jia finally nodded, “Okay I’ll talk to him about it.” Speaking of which, she really did want a kid, as only then could her family be perfect.

“That’s great.” Song Tianxiong was delighted.

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

8th month, 8th day, after spending just three days in Somalia Province, Ouyang Shuo returned to Shanhai City.

Different from the case with Morocco, during the Battle of Somalia, the officials of the Cabinet collected the cities behind the army. Along with the Somalia King losing his people’s sentiment, it made the rebuilding of the province really smooth.

With Pei Ju in charge, Ouyang Shuo did not need to worry about much.

Before leaving Mogadishu, the Black Snake Guards handed over the report from the Somalia King. The specifics described two interactions with the Silver Hand representative.

At this point, Silver Hand interfering in Somalia matters to destroy Friendship City was revealed.

Ouyang Shuo looked at the confession; then he passed it to Tsing Yi, “Pass this to Zi Luolan, it will be of great use.”

“Yes!” Tsing Yi nodded.

…

Ouyang Shuo was busy and needed to return to Shanhai City because there were four officials ready to see him. They were former Kunming Prefecture Governor Bai Hua, former Guilin Prefecture Governor Fan Zhongyan, former Shaozhou Prefecture Governor Huo Guang, and former Fuyong Prefecture Governor Xun Yu.

Using the chance of promoting Pei Mo to Somalia Provincial Governor, Ouyang Shuo decided to choose the Provincial Governors of Yunnan, Chuannan, Lingnan, and Minnan Province.

The imperial decree promoted Bai Hua to Yunnan Provincial Governor, Fan Zhongyan to Chuannan Provincial Governor, Huo Guang to Lingnan Provincial Governor, and Xun Yu to Minnan Provincial Governor.

The powers of these four Provincial Governors were more than a level higher than that of the Morocco and Somalia Provincial Governors.

Although the Provincial Governor was limited to one province of land, due to the 10 times expansion, even if one removed the population density factor, it was enough to compare to the Qing Dynasty Provincial Governors.

Out of the four, Bai Hua’s promotion was as expected, and no one argued about it.

Fan Zhongyan was the most experienced historical minister, and he had been the Administration Director, Wuzhou Prefecture Governor, and Guilin Prefecture Governor. He had made many contributions.

Balancing all the pros and cons, Ouyang Shuo decided to promote him to Chuannan Provincial Governor.

Huo Guang was a famous minister of an era. Although his experience could not be compared to Fan Zhongyan, his ability was enough to take charge of a province. Hence, for this upgrade to Provincial Governor, he did not face much objection.

Only Song Wen’s sadness was unavoidable.

Seeing Mulan Yue and Bai Hua become Provincial Governors, as Song Jia’s older brother, Song Wen obviously craved the position of Lingnan Provincial Governor.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo would not let this happen.

Mulan Yue was promoted because she had merged into the Shanhai City System from the start and had learned a lot. Bai Hua used Kunming Prefecture as her chip to earn her rights for a promotion.

What about Song Wen?

Not to mention how his own family lost the Tianshuang County, he also needed Shanhai City to clean up after them. Although he had ability, it was not enough to rule a province.

Since that was the case, why would Ouyang Shuo be biased and promote him?

Even to say that because of his relationship with Song Jia, Ouyang Shuo would be more wary of his use of Song Wen.

If Song Wen understood that, he would not have any other thoughts.

It was Song Tianxiong who saw through this. Using the chance when Song Jia returned home, he asked her to get a child. Only with a child could she maintain the position of the Song Family in the dynasty.

As expected from that old fox.

…

Out of the four of them, the only one faced with objections was Xun Yu.

It was not that he did not have the ability. In history, he was under Cao Wei for a long time as a prime minister, dealing with country matters.

Such a talent naturally had the ability to deal with a province.

They opposed his promotion because he had only joined the dynasty for a short time and had little experience here. If he was promoted so quickly, it would not adhere to the rules.

Ouyang Shuo did not care much about these objections and still promoted him. After all, out of the four Governors in Minnan Province, only he was skilled enough.

Someone suggested they temporarily postpone the appointment. After he had been here for a longer time, they would promote him.

Many of the officials agreed to this suggestion.

Ouyang Shuo still did not agree. After all, along with Great Sui moving into Quanzhou, Minnan Province needed a Provincial Governor to take charge of the big picture.

Ouyang Shuo did not want to spoil his plans because of some red tape.

Hence, this matter was decided.

…

Along with the four Provincial Governors being promoted, the governing area was confirmed.

Yunnan Province had Consonance City as the governing area as expected. For anything to change, it would have to wait till after they took down Dali.

Dongchuan Prefecture Governor Cao Can would become Kunming Prefecture Governor and continue to assist Bai Hua.

Chuannan Province was set at Xunlong Prefecture’s Tianjing City. Xunzhou Prefecture Governor Bao Shuya would continue to take charge, and his position would be moved.

Lingnan Province’s governing area was Zhenhai City, and Song Wen would continue to be the Jiaozhou Prefecture Governor.

The last one was Minnan Province, and they chose Xunlong City for the governing area. Like Yunnan Province, only after they taking down Quanzhou would they change the governing area.

Longyan Prefecture Governor Xiao Ru would take over the position of Fuyong Prefecture Governor.

The four governor spots that were emptied would be promoted from local officials to fill up the gaps.

Chapter 925 - New Appointments

Chapter 925: New Appointments

Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

Within the Imperial Reading Room, the first person that Ouyang Shuo met was Yunnan Provincial Governor Bai Hua.

The two of them were old friends, and Bai Hua had finally gotten her wish to become a Provincial Governor. She would take charge of the administrative matters of an entire province. Although she did not have absolute military power, she had strength that was equal to Chun Shenjun and the others.

As a Provincial Governor, she would take charge of provincial matters, ruling the troops and the people. She would take charge of civil servants and generals, protecting the border. This meant that the local garrison forces and reserve troops were under her control.

As for the warfighting troops housed inside the provincial border, they were not within her jurisdiction.

Although that was the case, a Provincial Governor could be considered the highest grade of official. Under the background of administrative and military being clearly divided, only a rare few officials could take charge of both.

Bai Hua was really familiar with Yunnan, so Ouyang Shuo naturally would not micro-manage her. He only raised the matter of Steel City, which was temporarily placed under her jurisdiction. He hoped that she would increase her support for it.

It was Bai Hua who asked, “The Privy Court ordered for us to prepare grain. Does the Imperial Court want to attack Chuanbei City-State in the near future?”

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. Bai Hua had guessed wrongly this time.

Since Di Chen arranged for people to poison Zhang Yi, Ouyang Shuo had wanted to teach Yanhuang Alliance a lesson. However, as Handan City was so far away, Ouyang Shuo had no choice; he could only target Swordsman City.

This time, he wanted to cut off a hand.

Ouyang Shuo did not try to hide anything, smiling, “It’s not Chuanbei City-State but Swordsman City.”

Long before the Battle of Somalia began, the Grand Council had come up with a huge military plan. The movable resources were not only for the dynasty army but also for their allies.

Without a doubt, Shanhai Alliance fighting the Yanhuang Alliance would involve the entire alliance regardless of who was fighting who.

Attacking Swordsman City would make everyone move, so one must be prepared to go all out.

Bai Hua was shocked, “Is it time to go head to head against them?”

As a previous member of the Shanhai Alliance, she craved to fight head on against the Yanhuang Alliance. However, she was also worried, as if they truly started to fight, neither side would rest.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Feng Wu has mentioned to me that they are planning some huge plot. They have not given up hope, and since they have been provoking us, they should not blame me for being heartless.”

Before which, Ouyang Shuo wished that both sides could have peace, and he did not want to really fight Yanhuang Alliance in case the strength of the entire China region was affected.

However, the small actions of Di Chen and the others made Ouyang Shuo realize that as aristocratic families, they had placed personal interests over country interests.

Although there were not truly countries after the federation was established, the reappearance of country versions in the game would ignite their passion and loyalty to their nation.

And such patriotism was something aristocratic families did not have and did not want to have.

Silver Hand was a cross country organization and only bothered about family interests.

Hence, even if Ouyang Shuo stayed his hand, Di Chen and the others would not yield and would continue to plan to stop him.

Realizing that point, why would Ouyang Shuo go soft on them? He wanted to cripple them and make them feel pain. If not, they would still think that the game was controlled by them.

Bai Hua nodded, “Good, it’s time to end it.”

Ouyang Shuo was not as optimistic as Bai Hua. As they say, a thin camel was still bigger than a horse. Di Chen and the others were not so easily crushed.

It was only the 4th year of Gaia, and Ouyang Shuo had more than enough time.

Before leaving, Bai Hua said, “Do not worry, I’ll take care of Yunnan for you.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded.

…

After sending Bai Hua away, Chuanbei Provncial Governor Fan Zhongyan walked in.

“Greetings my king!”

Fan Zhongyan gave a deep bow; he was unable to hide his emotions.

Before which, when he was moved to Guilin Prefecture, Fan Zhongyan had a quiet competition with Bao Shuya. Although Fan Zhongyan won, he could feel that the king was distancing himself from him.

Who knew that the king would still choose him to become the Chuannan Provincial Governor? Hence, he was really touched.

The meaning within was really complicated.

In the three years, although Fan Zhongyan had changed, Ouyang Shuo had changed even more.

The current Ouyang Shuo was not that small village chief but a ruler of a huge dynasty, the king of Great Xia.

If Ouyang Shuo needed to seek advice from him to learn how to lead back when Fan Zhongyan came to the territory, the current Ouyang Shuo was the absolute master.

Fan Zhongyan knew that, and he treated himself as purely a subordinate. He did not dare to think about anything else.

The two of them had a full hour long discussion around the planning of Chuannan Province. Based on the Ming and Qing Dynasty systems, Chuannan Province was a Zhili Province and had a huge position.

The Zhili Governor during the Qing Dynasty was the head of all eight Provincial Governors.

However, in the Great Xia Dynasty, Ouyang Shuo was not going to place emphasize on the position of Chuannan Province, and the Provincial Governor would be the same as the rest.

He would still be a primary Grade 3 official.

If Ouyang Shuo wanted to raise the rank of one Provincial Governor, he could just give him the rank of deputy minister of one of the four courts and promote him to secondary Grade 2.

This method was just giving one a fake appointment to raise his rank and treatment to make it easier for the official in question to do their job.

The four of them were just appointed and had not done anything remarkable, so Ouyang Shuo naturally would not give them such treatment.

…

After debriefing Fan Zhongyan, it was already 11 AM. He arranged for Huo Guang’s and Xun Yu’s debriefing in the afternoon.

At noon, Ouyang Shuo held a feast for the four of them.

To them, this was an utmost honor, and it showed their position in the Imperial Court.

There were hundreds and thousands of officials, and their positions were one of the highest few.

One could even say their positions were only lower than that of the four ministers and the Grand Secretary.

…

After the noon feast, Ouyang Shuo took a short rest before meeting Huo Guang.

His promotion instantly made the Huo family brothers the focus of the Imperial Court. The two of them, one was the guards commander, and the other became a Provincial Governor.

Such honor was one that everyone would be jealous of.

There were many rumors spreading. Some people even insulted Huo Guang; they said that he was filled with ambition and should not be given a high position.

All these matters were pressed down by Ouyang Shuo.

In history, although Huo Guang was a minister who fought for power, the execution of his family after his death should be a huge lesson to him.

Furthermore, Ouyang Shuo was not like emperor Xuan of Han. As the ruler who established the country, which minister would dare go up against him?

Regardless of who it was, if they had such a thought, they would be wiped out.

Huo Guang was a smart person. Coming to the wilderness and to Great Xia, he would not dare to have such thoughts.

Ouyang Shuo meeting Huo Guang was mainly to calm him down and to tell him to not worry.

When Huo Guang heard that, he was touched to tears.

…

The last person was Xun Yu.

Xun Yu knew about all the problems that happened during his promotion, but he did not show a single emotion on his face.

Ouyang Shuo, apart from instructing him about trade with Great Sui, also hoped that Xun Yu could use his family to recruit more Three Kingdoms talents.

For example, Guo Jia and Xun You.

The Great Xia Dynasty already had the power to allow aristocratic families.

When Xun Yu heard that, he nodded. His promotion showed the king’s sincerity and magnanimity.

Hence, both of them were happy with what was happening.

…

Although the debriefing had ended, the four of them would not leave the imperial city immediately. Although their appointments were settled, the Provincial Governor offices were still empty.

Like Yunnan Province and Minnan Province, where the governing area was at the original location where they were previously appointed, so it was easy to work.

But for Huo Guang and Fan Zhongyan, they had to move to a place they were not familiar with.

The four of them needed to stay in the imperial city to work with the Cabinet to build up their Provincial Governor offices. Ouyang Shuo had instructed the Cabinet earlier that the officials for the offices could be recommended by the Provincial Governor himself.

To make the offices better and to run the territory better, the four of them naturally needed to move people they trusted.

Apart from working with the Cabinet to choose officials, since the four of them were going to be posted out, they would not get to return often. They needed to visit the various Imperial Court offices to form relationships and get close to other officials.

For the administrative matters of the Provincial Governor office, they obviously had to go through the Imperial Court offices.

Ouyang Shuo could only close one eye to this. As long as there was no corruption, he would not care.

The four of them were all smart and would not do anything out of hand. If they really did, there were the Shanhai Guards and the Censorate keeping them in check.

Chapter 926 - Wanting Two at Once

Chapter 926: Wanting Two at Once

After debriefing the four Provincial Governors, it was already 5 PM.

When the four provincial offices were made, it would reduce their workload by half, as a new layer of government would be added.

Before which, the Imperial Court had to take care of the two overseas provinces and 20 prefectures. After doing so, it would become six provinces, Zhili, Qiongzhou, Yizhou, and Xingzhou Prefectures.

Hence, it would greatly increase the Imperial Court efficiency.

…

Sending away Jun Yu, Ouyang Shuo handled three memorials before returning to his back palace.

During dinner, Song Jia looked a little weird. She wanted to say something but was hesitating. When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he smiled, “Just say it, what do you need to hide from me?”

“Wuyi, I want a baby.” Song Jia said softly.

Ouyang Shuo was stunned, “You mean you want a kid in the game?”

If there were any systems in the game that Ouyang Shuo was not familiar with, the children system was one of them. In the last life, he was a lonely dog and a poor man. Naturally, he did not understand anything about it.

This life he had so many matters to handle, and he did not have any time to understand all these different settings.

When Song Jia saw that, she smiled, “Wow, there are actually things you do not know about.” As she said that, she explained in detail about the children setting.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he turned around and looked at Bing’er, who was looking over curiously, “Let’s talk about this tonight.”

Song Jia nodded.

After eating dinner, they strolled in the back garden for half an hour before the two of them returned to their sleeping palace.

Having a kid was expected. After all, extending the Ouyang Family bloodline would help to stabilize his rule and calm down the hearts of the people. Since Song Jia raised the topic, Ouyang Shuo naturally had no reason to reject it.

Ouyang Shuo and Song Jia both opened up their personal stat pages and officially requested it.

“System Notification: Congratulations player for activating the children system, checking for requirements…”

“System Notification: Checking…”

“System Notification: checking that player Qiyue Wuyi, real name Ouyang Shuo, male, 27; player Jiaqi Rumeng, real name Song Jia, female, 27. Both are legal husband and wife, meeting requirements to give birth.”

When two people married in game, Gaia would handle the legally binding marriage procedures. Hence, be it in game or in real life, they were legally married.

“System Notification: please choose the sex of the child and whether you want twins or not.”

Since it was an artificial insemination, and thanks to the medical standards of today, they could choose the sex of their child. Luckily, in the 22nd century, male and female were equal, and children ideals were different from before.

Ouyang Shuo and Song Jia had discussed this before. Based on his idea, since they were going to give birth, why not get a dragon and phoenix twin? After all, good things came in pairs.

Nine months of pregnancy, Ouyang Shuo did not want Song Jia to be too exhausted.

“We will choose twins.”

“System Notification: Twins confirmed. Will you choose gene combinations?”

The so-called gene selection was to use gene techniques to take out the bad genes like diseases and the like to ensure the battle was the best it could be.

“Choose!”

There was nothing to hesitate about.

“System Notification: Gene selection confirmed. Will you choose gene remodeling?”

Compared to gene selection, gene modification was more advanced. For example, if the father and mother were not that good looking, one could remodel the genes to ensure that the baby looked perfect.

The looks were the most basic, and one could even change the baby’s body qualities.

Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate and said, “Change body quality, improve bone structure to help in cultivation.”

As the true manuals in the game were released, the time of everyone cultivating had arrived. If one was remodeled as a child, they would have undoubtedly won at the starting line.

As for looks and other unimportant factors, Ouyang Shuo was not going to do it. It was best to be natural. Song Jia was pretty, and he was handsome, so their kids should not look too bad.

“System Notification: Gene remodeling confirmed. Please choose whether you want to have the birth process along with the game or not. Friendly Reminder: if you do, the mother cannot cultivate during pregnancy.”

Gaia means that if they selected that option, Song Jia would have to experience the whole pregnancy stage. If not, after nine months, the baby would form and be placed into the virtual world.

Song Jia did not hesitate, “I choose the pregnancy process.”

Although the pregnancy process was tiring, it was the key moment for the mother and the baby to form a close relationship.

Without this, it was like life was not complete.

Especially to Song Jia, who was experiencing it for the first time; she could not miss such an opportunity. Although she would give up on nine months of cultivation, she was more than willing to do so.

Ouyang Shuo naturally respected her choice as it was her right as the mother.

“System Notification: Confirmed, choices complete, starting to calculate birth costs.”

Each selection would affect the overall costs, and it was not a simple step by step costs. The biggest one would definitely be the gene selection and the gene remodeling.

“System Notification: Calculating…”

“System Notification: Selection: Twins, gene selection, gene remodeling, and going through the birth process, basic package 300 thousand, intermediate package 500 thousand, advanced package one million, and top class package two million. Please choose the package. Friendly Reminder: costs will include artificial insemination and growth of baby until we reach Planet Hope.”

Ouyang Shuo asked, “What are the differences between the packages?” Although he did not mind spending two million for his children, he did not know what he was spending it on.

“System Notification: packages includes grade of nutritional fluids, nutritional cabins, gene technique levels, daily protect level, and the like; it is definitely worth the value. Friendly Reminder: if one chooses the top class package, the babies will obtain a unique mysterious gift.”

“….”

Ouyang Shuo was pretty speechless; it was like he did not get any explanation at all. However, the advertisement for all of this was really good.

Luckily, Ouyang Shuo was rich, and he did not mind, “I choose the top class one.”

“System Notification: Selection complete, deducting two million gold! Friendly Reminder: based on the time, the twins will be born on the 5th year, 5th month, 15th day.”

Gaia was really strong, and it was even able to calculate the precise day when the babies would be born. Although modern technology was good, it removed a lot of excitement from life.

Just like that, 2/5th of the gold he got from Somalia was spent.

No wonder one said that having kids in the game was something only rich people could afford.

After applying, the two of them smiled at one another; their love had finally bore fruit.

That night, both of them felt really blissful.

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

8th month, Atlantis.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was busy seeing the four new Provincial Governors, the Mediterranean negotiations had a breakthrough.

The key that affected the negotiations was not the Somalia King statement.

That statement was the icing on the cake. In truth, the moment Somalia was wiped out, the pride of the Mediterranean Lords was wiped away too.

With Somalia and Morocco, the Great Xia Dynasty held the only two doors to the Mediterranean Ocean. If the Great Xia Army got angry, no merchant ships from any of their countries could get out.

This was a huge danger to the Mediterranean Lords, and they had no choice.

Zi Luolan, who was previously bullied, naturally would not be nice to them. As such, she took cuts at them. After they got that crucial confession, it pushed all the Mediterranean Lords into a corner.

A negotiation being totally turned around was a normal affair. True negotiation was not limited to the table but influenced by outside battles and differences in power.

One could say that the Great Xia Dynasty attacking Somalia was a part of the negotiations.

On this point, the Mediterranean Lords could only bow in respect. They were forced into a corner by Zi Luolan and had to ask Kalia for help to make Great Xia give them chance.

Not long ago, Kalia had helped Great Xia persuade them to restart negotiations. Who knew that the tables would turn so quickly.

Chapter 927 - All Out Killing

Chapter 927: All Out Killing

Before leaving, Zi Luolan had obtained Ouyang Shuo’s instruction to act strong on the negotiating table.

Since the Mediterranean Lords sought out Kalia for help, Zi Luolan naturally kept her hand. Not only did she reach the negotiation goal, but she also returned Queen Kalia a favor.

It seemed like the Mediterranean Lords would show more respect to Queen Kalia in the future for just this alone.

Zi Luolan letting go made the negotiations progress really quick, and they were quickly about to settle on the specifics. Unexpectedly, just as the two sides were about to sign the contract, the Great Xia negotiation squad received an emergency letter.

The letter brought with it a decree from the king; the contents were simply, ‘Caesar is not within the negotiation parameters. All ports of the dynasty will not be opened to Caesar.’

When Zi Luolan saw that, she rubbed her head, “This condition… it’s so good!”

During the negotiation process, the one who stirred up the most problems and had the most hatred for Great Xia was the arrogant Caesar; it had made Zi Luolan really annoyed.

If one asked who the most annoying Lord in the Mediterranean was, it would definitely be Caesar.

During the Battle of Somalia, Great Xia had faced problem after problem, and Caesar even openly announced, “The Great Xia losing is karma.”

Now that the Great Xia had achieved a complete victory, the one who got karma was not Great Xia but Caesar.

“Let’s see how you lose face tomorrow.” Zi Luolan was gleeful and she felt really good.

…

Atlantis City, meeting room.

This morning, both sides had gathered in the hall. They were ready to sign the final trade agreement.

The Great Xia negotiation team was gathered while the Mediterranean Lords had sent out Henry, Casillas, and Caesar.

Henry was the representative of the Mediterranean Lords.

The difficult negotiations had finally come to an end, so both sides were feeling really good. Even Caesar had kept his ugly face, and he had started joking around with the other Lords.

Without a doubt, this trade agreement would affect all the territories in the Mediterranean, and Caesar was naturally no exception. Only with money could Caesar fulfil his ambitions.

Before this, he acted so forceful during the negotiations because he wanted to gain more than Henry and the others; he was just greedier.

In the end, Caesar was not a foolish person.

Caesar’s animosity toward the Great Xia Dynasty and biasness against Ouyang Shuo was just racism. Being a descendant of the ancient Roman Empire, he was not used to the yellow skinned people being powerful.

Kalia acted as the witness to hold the signing ceremony.

At the start, the atmosphere was still really friendly. After they introduced the representative of both sides, Zi Luolan smiled and say, “Before we sign, I am representing Great Xia in announcing a matter.”

“Please speak!”

Kalia felt weird because this was not in the original progression.

Henry and the others all felt their hearts jolt, ‘Does the Great Xia want to go back on their words?’ Along with Somalia being destroyed, Great Xia held total power over this negotiation.

Caesar jumped out and frowned, “One must stick to his words.”

Zi Luolan looked over to Caesar, “My king decrees that the negotiations with the Mediterranean states do not include Caesar City.”

“What did you say?” The moment Zi Luolan’s words landed, Caesar exploded. His eyes were sharp like they could kill. This matter had totally caught him off guard.

Zi Luolan was expressionless, “The Great Xia merchant ships will not stop at Caesar City port. Similarly, our ports will not be opened to Caesar City. Is that clear enough for you?”

“You are going too far!” Caesar raged.

Zi Luolan, “Due to the things Lord Caesar has been releasing, the Great Xia does not feel there’s a need to continue cooperating.”

“….”

Caesar was stunned. His face flushed red, and he had nothing to say.

The other Mediterranean Lords were stunned by the sudden actions of Great Xia. Only after listening to her explanation did they understand the reason.

Everyone knew about the statements that Caesar had published regarding Great Xia.

Caesar probably would not have dreamt that he would lose such immense interests because of those words he said at the top of his head. Basically, without the cooperation of Great Xia, the Caesar city merchants could not reach the east.

This was a catastrophic defeat for his voyage trading.

Some of the Lords present felt bad for Caesar while some gloated. For example, Henry was delighted to see Caesar face such a situation.

At the same time, they were shocked by the actions of Great Xia. It seemed like Great Xia was not a bunch that did not react when one bullied them.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to use this as a warning.

Caesar quickly calmed down, “Since the Great Xia does not want to work with Caesar City, is there a need to sign this? Are you provoking the Mediterranean and playing with us Lords like monkeys?” Caesar wanted to drag all the other Mediterranean Lords down with him.

Unfortunately, Zi Luolan did not fall for it.

“Caesar City is Caesar City and not the entire Mediterranean. The Great Xia is sincere in working with the Mediterranean, and I’m pretty sure all of you feel it. Although we have the advantage, we do not want to force all of you.”

Thinking back to how Great Xia took a step back, all the Lords nodded.

The only exception was Caesar; his face turned darker and darker.

Zi Luolan continued, “But the prerequisite for cooperation is trust. No one wants to cooperate with an enemy. Since Lord Caesar opposes us out in the open, there’s no need to cooperate with us, right?”

“….”

Caesar wished he could find a hole in the ground to jump it.

There was probably no one in the crowd that was as vicious and sharp in words as Zi Luolan.

Caesar said coldly, “Since that’s the case, the Great Xia merchant squad can forget about passing through the Mediterranean.”

Looking at the situation, Caesar was getting ready to be a dead fish that broke the net. Since Italy was located in the middle of the Mediterranean, if his Roman Squadron disturbed the Great Xia merchants, the effects would be quite huge.

Zi Luolan was really confident. She turned around and looked at Henry, “The terms in the contract state that you have to protect the safety of Great Xia merchant ships in the Mediterranean. I think none of you want to mess up the entire Mediterranean because of the actions of one territory, right?”

Henry kept silent.

Zi Luolan’s words linked to an even bigger topic – after Great Xia left the Mediterranean, who would hold the control?

Amongst them, the most competitive were Henry’s Gaul Squadron, Caesar’s Roman Squadron, and Casillas’s Spanish Invincible Squadron.

Out of the three, the Roman Squadron was built the latest. Moreover, compared to Spain and France, Italy could not be considered a strong ocean region.

The Gaul Squadron and Spanish Invincible Squadron were originally on the same level. However, after the Battle of Morocco, the Spanish were destroyed by the Great Xia navy.

The Spanish Invincible Squadron lost half their forces in the battle, becoming the weakest out of the three. They could not even compare with the Roman Squadron.

Henry’s squadron had sat at the side and became the strongest squadron in the Mediterranean. One had to say that he was the craftiest one; he was a sky fox.

Zi Luolan meant that if Henry allowed the Roman Squadron to disturb the Great Xia merchant ships, it would not only affect trade with Great Xia, but it would affect their ruling ability in the Mediterranean.

No matter what, Henry could not accept that.

No one would take a step back regarding control of the Mediterranean. More importantly, the smart Henry grasped a chance in Zi Luolan’s words.

One must not look at how they were all united against the enemy. In truth, they all had their own plans.

One point was certain.

No one would want to be enemies with Great Xia because of Caesar.

The battle between territories affected actual territory interests. If not, why would they spend so much effort to negotiate with Great Xia?

Zi Luolan’s words could be seen as sowing discord, but it also presented a chance to use this agreement to bring all the Mediterranean states against Caesar City.

If Caesar followed through on his words, he would be destroying the trading basis of Great Xia with the other countries, destroying the rice bowls of the others.

No one could accept that.

Everyone present was smart and understood, and the way they looked at Caesar grew more and more unfriendly.

When Caesar saw that, he felt a chill run down his spine.

Henry looked at one of the Lords; this person was his hidden ally.

That Lord got the signal and stood up, “Caesar, you cannot represent the Mediterranean. Much less spoil the interests of the entire Mediterranean because of your own anger. That’s too selfish.”

“What did you say? I’m selfish?” Caesar was furious.

“Harming others without benefiting. If that’s not selfish, what is?”

“Me… me.. me…” Caesar was so furious that he could not speak, “You bunch of traitors!”

Chapter 928 - Cross Mediterranean Trading Agreement

Chapter 928: Cross Mediterranean Trading Agreement

Seeing Caesar furious, Henry finally spoke up.

“Caesar, protecting the prosperity of trade in the Mediterranean is our common goal. We will not let your anger spoil it for all of us, so please calm down.”

Caesar stared at Henry, “Scoff, f**k the common goal.”

When Henry saw that, a cold glimmer flashed through his eyes, “Since you insist on going alone, we have no choice but to use our own squadrons to restrict the Roman Squadron.”

Caesar had undoubtedly fallen into Henry’s trap.

“You dare!”

Caesar was even more furious; it was to the point where he smacked the table and stood up.

Looking at the Mediterranean Lords that stood at the sides, Caesar’s heart was slowly sinking. Not to mention the medium and small-sized countries who listened to Henry, even Casillas did not oppose his words.

Seeing this, Caesar felt a chill run down his spine.

“Scheme, this is all a scheme!”

Henry and Casillas, these two enemies of his, were going to use this chance to crush the Roman Squadron.

Although this gave the Gaul Squadron a chance to become bigger, it also gave the Spanish Invincible Squadron a chance to overtake the Roman Squadron.

Win-win!

In this huge show, the only one that was going to lose was Caesar.

Caesar was furious. The humiliation he felt in front of everyone meant that he could not stay any longer.

“All of you wait!”

Before leaving, Caesar threw down those words.

Henry was really calm; he turned around, looked at Zi Luolan, and smiled, “The people that do not matter have left. Can we officially sign the agreement now?”

Zi Luolan was shocked and surprised when she saw these events unfold. These Lords were so vicious, crushing one without even blinking.

“Yes!” Zi Luolan kept her emotions, smiling charmingly.

‘Who cares how they fight, the Great Xia has reached our goals!’

Thinking back to the man who was controlling these negotiations from thousands of miles away, Zi Luolan thought to herself, ‘Did he predict all this?’

‘When did this fellow’s thoughts become so deep like an ocean?’

Nothing much happened in the following signing, apart from an additional term, “The Mediterranean Lords will protect the safety of the Great Xia merchants. If the merchants are affected, the Mediterranean Lords will take responsibility.”

To take responsibility, the Mediterranean Lords would store a mortgage sum based on the amount of trade.

The moment the Great Xia merchants were harmed, the Four Seas Bank would deduct from this mortgage sum.

With Ouyang Shuo’s suggestion, Meng Zhida had executed it, and the Insurance Industry had gotten on the right path.

Especially ocean dangers; not only did the Great Xia merchants get insured, but even the merchants of other territories had gotten insured.

Meng Zhida’s next goal was to use Xingzhou Prefecture, Somalia Province, and Morocco Province to push out the Insurance Industry to the rest of the world.

The water tight plan of the Great Xia left the Mediterranean Lords in awe. Luckily, the mortgages they stored in the Four Seas Bank would grow from interest. If not, it would be a huge loss of money.

At 11 AM, with Kalia as the witness, the Great Xia Dynasty and the Mediterranean Lords signed the Cross Mediterranean trading partner agreement.

The main terms of the agreement were as such.

First, ports.

The ports of the members of the agreement would be opened to all other members, and there would not be any obstacles to entry.

Secondly, tax.

They would lower the port tax of members going in and out to increase trade development.

Thirdly, investment.

Lower investment guidelines would be set to allow chambers of commerce of members to invest and not restrict them.

Without a doubt, the agreement was really close to a free trade agreement in real life. In regards to the game world, this was a milestone event.

Through signing the trade agreement, they would remove large amounts of taxes and other obstacles to open up investment, promote more trade, and other aspects for common development.

There were many benefits to free trade.

First, through lowering trade costs and transport costs, they would increase freedom and convenience, which would in turn promote voyage trading.

Since the costs were lowered and things were more convenient, more chambers of commerce would throw themselves into voyage trading, which would give rise to a new wave.

Secondly, increase investment would achieve more efficient allocation of resources and industries.

Between territories, especially between the east and the west, due to a difference in background and technology, their industries were different, so they complemented one another.

This had many benefits, so it was no wonder that Caesar would be so furious when he learned he was excluded. Losing this chance was a huge blow to Caesar City.

Moreover, to protect trade interests, Henry and the others would not allow him to cause waves in the Mediterranean.

…

In the afternoon, Zi Luolan, Henry, Casillas, and the other Lords all attended a news conference to announce the signing of the agreement.

The moment the news went out, the world was in shock!

Some people cheered, some were crestfallen, some were shocked, while were some uneasy.

No one expected the Mediterranean Lords and Great Xia, who had so many conflicts, to cooperate and give rise to a new era of voyage trading.

As this matter was just too shocking, no one bothered about the exclusion of Caesar City.

Some people even estimated that this was the most influential thing that happened in these four years of Gaia. They said that this even exceeded the establishment of the first dynasty.

Moreover, along with this agreement being signed, the Great Xia Dynasty would become a huge trading country and would slowly develop into a trading giant.

…

Ouyang Shuo, who was tens of thousands of miles away, smiled when he heard the news. He was probably the clearest in the world about what this meant.

After learning about the existence of Silver Hand and the Academic Faction, Ouyang Shuo had been thinking about which side to lean toward.

Normally, Ouyang Shuo could use the advantage of the Great Xia to start huge country wars around the world, washing the world with blood and shocking everyone.

However, what would Great Xia manage to gain if they did that?

As they expanded, Great Xia would accrue more and more enemies, and these enemies would band together and unite with one another.

The changes and the remodeling of the Yanhuang Alliance was proof of this.

When that happened, Great Xia would be enemies with the entire world, and they would slowly walk toward self-destruction.

There was certain statement that said a person who relied solely on strength to rule the world would make everyone his enemy and finally die under that strength.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo thought even further.

Be it Silver Hand or the Academic Faction, they would not allow a presence that exceeded them.

If the Great Xia Dynasty truly gave up everything to strengthen its military, they might not be able to do anything in the game. However, when they arrived on Planet Hope, there were many things that they could do.

Gathering many of Great Xia’s enemies to crush Ouyang Shuo was just too simple for them. Who knows, maybe Silver Hand would use the chance to gain a clean slate.

After all, they would be removing problems for the people, removing the cancer that was Great Xia.

Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo felt a shiver run down his spine.

The enemies that Ouyang Shuo needed to fight, the battles he was involved in, were not limited to the game world. He was going to walk on the true path of a ruler, so he needed to be trained and tempered.

Only then could he rise up.

…

Since he could not wash the world with blood, he needed to think of another way.

Through this period of observation and contemplation, Ouyang Shuo got a clear picture.

The Great Xia Dynasty needed to use the smallest price to spread their might around the world. They needed to use a cooperation method to increase their influence and drag more and more people onto their boat.

With that, Great Xia would not be shaken.

The benefits did not stop there, as these actions would help to slowly dig away at the internal alliances of Silver Hand, helping to split them up.

Forming groups based on common interests would make members abandon one another like how Caesar was abandoned by Henry.

It seemed like because of the interference of the Great Xia Dynasty, Caesar would not be able to rise up like the last life. He would not become one of the three heads of Europe.

The glow that this Roman descendant was giving out was becoming dimmer and dimmer.

Signing the agreement with the Mediterranean Lords was an attempt by Ouyang Shuo to tell the world that Great Xia did not only bring war but also profits.

The Great Xia Dynasty was not a warmongering state. Rather, it was a merchant that would push forward world trade.

The other Lords in the world did not need to have animosity and be so wary against the Great Xia Dynasty.

Of course, if they wanted to establish dominance, they needed to use force sometimes like in the cases of Somalia and Morocco and kicking Caesar out.

These actions were needed.

Without the fear of military retaliation and a strong army as a shield, nothing could take root.

Chapter 929 - Blacklist

Chapter 929: Blacklist

American Region, Free City.

After Jack learned that Great Xia and the Mediterranean had signed an agreement, he could not help but exclaimed, “How magnanimous, what a great act!”

Jack was feeling more and more interested about this opponent.

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

8th month, 12th day, Shanhai City.

With the trading agreement smoothly signed and the negotiation team returning, Shanhai City also welcomed another piece of huge news.

“The Great Xia Queen is pregnant!”

The moment the news was out, the Imperial Court was delighted, and the officials all sent their congratulations.

When Song Tianxiong got the news, he laughed out loud in glee.

Once the king had an heir, the dynasty would have someone to take over, and the people’s sentiment would stabilize. Ouyang Shuo gave a decree that since the queen was pregnant, the people would celebrate, and general amnesty was proclaimed to show the kindness of the ruler.

With that, the festivities started.

…

On this celebratory day, two Sui Tang Dynasty generals came over to Great Xia. They were Dan Xiong Xin and Wang Bodang.

Xia Palace, Wuying Palace.

After proving their identities and registering, Military Affairs Minister Du Ruhui led the two to officially meet the king.

Since Great Xia badly needed a batch of middle-level generals, Ouyang Shuo decided to personally meet them when he received the news. If not, letting the Privy Court handle them was also acceptable.

“I’m Shan Xiongxin, greetings my king!”

“I’m Wang Bodang, greetings my king!”

Within the hall, the two of them bowed at the same time.

Ouyang Shuo sat on the throne, looking down and judging the two.

The Shan Xiongxin that appeared in the wilderness was a middle-aged man. His eyes were slightly small, he had a short beard, and he looked like a righteous person. He did not look like a general. Instead, he looked more like an underworld practitioner.

Shan Xiongxin had really strong martial arts skills, and he was good at using the horse lance. He and Li Shiji were best friends that swore to live and die together.

At the end of the Sui Dynasty, Shan Xiongxin and Li Shiji joined the Di Rang led Wagang rebellion against the Sui. After Di Rang was killed, Shan Xiongxin surrendered to Wang Shichong while Li Shiji went to Li Tang.

In the third year of Wude, Li Shiming led troops to attack Luo Yang. Shan Xiongxin led troops out to attack Li Shiming. When Li Shiji appeared to stop Shan Xiongxin, he backed off.

In the fifth year, Wang Shichong was defeated by Li Shiming, and he surrendered. Li Yuan was ordered to kill Shan Xiongxin and all the other generals. Li Shiji begged him to spare Dan Xiong Xin, but he was rejected.

In jail, Shan Xiongxin consoled Li Shiji, “It is okay. I knew that I would die.”

Li Shiji said, “It is hard to fulfill both brotherhood and loyalty. After you die I’ll take care of your family.” As he said that, he cut off a piece of his own meat to show that he did not forget the oath they made.

In the book- History of the early Tang Dynasty, it mentioned Shan Xiongxin as a valiant general. During the Yuanming time, his image slowly turned ugly.

What was interesting was that after Shan Xiongxin was killed by Li Yuan, at the end of the Tang Dynasty, his 11th generation descendants Shan Xing, Shan Wang and Shan Sheng all joined in the Huangchao Rebellion.

Retribution is truly an interesting concept.

Name: Shan Xiongxin (King Rank)

Dynasty: Sui Dynasty

Identity: Great Xia Dynasty General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 65

Command: 68

Force: 82

Intelligence: 55

Politics: 45

Specialty: valiant (raise troops combat strength by 20%, raise troops movement speed by 20%)

Cultivation method: Nil

Equipment: golden tip Zaoyang spear

Evaluation: Shan Xiongxin was valiant and good at using the horse lance, his name was famous in the army.

…

Wang Bodang stood beside Shan Xiongxin, he had a head of long hair with two small braids. He gave off the aura of a person from a different race, his sparkling eyes looked as if he was hiding something.

He was also called Wang Yong, coming from Shanxi River Yitang Village. He was the student of Li Mi and followed him to join the Wagang rebellion.

During the battle between Li Mi and Wang Shichong, he ordered Wang Bodang to guard the logistics base Jinyong City.

Not long after Li Mi lost, Wang Bodang gave up the city and met up with Li Mi. When Li Mi decided to surrender to Tang, Wang Bodang expressed his willingness to follow him to death.

After surrendering, as he was not liked and was not given the platform to show his abilities, Li Mi decided to revolt.

Wang Bodang tried his best to persuade him but failed, so he could only follow him. After Li Mi obtained Taolin County, he was ambushed by Tang General Sheng Yanshi and both of them died.

Name: Wang Bodang (King Rank)

Dynasty: Sui Dynasty

Identity: Great Xia Dynasty general

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 60

Command: 70

Force: 75

Intelligence: 58

Politics: 45

Specialty: Cavalry Archer (raises combat strength of archers by 20%, raises troops movement speed by 20%)

Cultivation Method: nil

Equipment: nameless bow

Evaluation: loyal soldier, legendary archer.

Some people evaluated him as a loyal person, while some said he was stupid to choose Li Mi. These people said that he was not like Qinqiong, who had learned how to adapt and change.

Ouyang Shuo looked at the two of them; his heart was filled with doubts.

Wang Bodang came over, but his loyalty stat was just at the passing mark. Ouyang Shuo wanted to ask, ‘Where is Li Mi?’

Li Mi was born in a huge aristocratic family. At the end of Sui, when China was in
chaos, he became the leader of the Wugang army and defeated the Sui Army.

Internal instability ensued as a result of Li Mi killing the general of the army Di Rang, which caused the army to lose. Not long after, he was defeated by Wang Shichong and surrendered to Li Tang.

Not long later, he betrayed Tang and was killed by Sheng Yanshi.

One could say that Li Mi was a despicable person.

However, such a person had a loyal follower like Wang Bodang.

Although he had doubts in his heart, Ouyang Shuo kept silent.

After meeting the two of them, Ouyang Shuo and Du Ruhui discussed about where to place them.

Shan Xiongxin would become a Major General in the Somalia Formation. Wang Bodang would become a Major General under Mu Guiying in the 2nd legion of the City Protection Legion Corps.

Wang Bodang was suspicious, which was why Ouyang Shuo arranged him under his eye. He wanted to see what Li Mi was planning.

As for moving Shan Xiongxin to Somalia, Ouyang Shuo wanted him to get away from this mess and not get involved in it.

Ouyang Shuo liked generals like Shan Xiongxin more. Furthermore, he also had Li Shiji behind him, which tempted Ouyang Shuo even more.

Ouyang Shuo could even feel that when Shan Xiongxin found out he was arranged overseas, he had heaved an internal sigh of relief.

Shan Xiongxin was not working together with Wang Bodang. Even if he was, he was being forcefully dragged onto the same boat.

…

Returning to the Imperial Reading Room, Ouyang Shuo called Shen Buhai.

“My king!”

Ouyang Shuo said, “Send someone to pay attention to Shan Xiongxin and Wang Bodang, especially Wang Bodang. Find out who he is contacting in secret.”

“Yes my Lord!”

Shen Buhai nodded.

“If you find out that it’s Li Mi, Immediately capture him with the Shadow Guards.” Ouyang Shuo did not want to play a cat and mouse game with Li Mi.

Maybe Li Mi felt that he had the ability to stir up the world, but in Ouyang Shuo’s eyes, he was just an obstacle that could be removed at any moment.

“Do not worry my king!”

Shen Buhai was similarly really confident.

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

8th month, 13th day, Zi Luolan led the negotiation team back to Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo personally welcomed them back at the teleportation formation, giving them the highest honor. Secret Document Pavilion Secretary Bai Nanpu read out their rewards.

Apart from gold and jewelry, some of them were even given ranks.

“Thank you king for your kindness!”

Zi Luolan led them to bow; her eyes did not show even a hint of teasing anymore.

During this trip overseas, Zi Luolan had gained a deeper understanding of Ouyang Shuo, and she did not dare to act so daring anymore.

That afternoon, another huge bomb was released.

The Great Xia Dynasty industrialization department announced that Handan City, Blood Red City, King City, Pill Sun City, Swordsman City, Fallen Leaf City, and Asura City were not included in the Cross Mediterranean trading agreement, and they could not enjoy the relevant investment and tax benefits.

Of course, due to the previous promise, Yanhuang Alliance could still use the trade route.

However, compared to other merchants, their costs would be higher.

At the same time, the Great Xia Dynasty made it clear that other territories in China could enjoy the same treatment as the Great Xia merchants.

While crushing Yanhuang Alliance, they were pulling the other territories close. Ouyang Shuo’s move was totally brilliant, making one clap for him.

The moment the news went out, there were naturally two reactions.

The Yanhuang Alliance merchants groaned, while the other territories clapped their hands; they were ready to embark on voyage trading.

China region specialties would swarm toward the western countries through the voyage trade route.

Truthfully, the Great Xia Dynasty’s actions were really surprising.

Before this, Great Xia was used to staying silent and watching; this time, however, they proactively acted and did not give the Yanhuang Alliance any chance.

Some people said that Yanhuang Alliance was listed into a blacklist by Great Xia and were going to be in a terrible state.

This time, Great Xia was openly going against Yanhuang Alliance, which made the neutral parties really excited.

Some people even said that this was Great Xia’s revenge against Yanhuang Alliance for poisoning Zhang Yi.

Hence, normal players did not blame Great Xia. At most, they said, “Yanhuang Alliance deserves it. If you do not have the strength, do not provoke a lion!”

Chapter 930 - Yang Guang's Request

Chapter 930: Yang Guang’s Request

Along with the Yanhuang Alliance, Great Xia also listed the Dali and Chengdu Imperial Cities into the blacklist.

Dali and Chengdu were both enemies of Great Xia, so Ouyang Shuo did not show them any mercy. He directly prevented them from having thoughts of taking any small benefits from this whole matter.

The moment the news was out, merchants from both imperial cities panicked.

Along with the trade route being opened, voyage trading was becoming more and more important in China, taking up 30% of all trade.

If one missed out on this, it would undoubtedly be a huge loss for them.

While the Dali and Chengdu chambers of commerce were anxious, there was news from Shanhai City. They spread that the Great Xia invites chambers of commerce to move into Shanhai City. These chambers of commerce would enjoy special treatment.

Everyone knew who this was targeting.

News had it that when Shu Emperor Liu Bei heard the news, he was so furious that his face turned red. However, to keep his image, he had to act like he did not care.

Luckily, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu, who loved to fight, were not there anymore. If not, it would cause more troubles.

As for what kind of treatment the Quanzhou Merchants would face, Great Xia King Ouyang Shuo had already said, “Ask the Great Sui to send someone to talk!”

It seemed like Great Xia was about to raise the price.

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

Handan City, City Lord’s Manor.

Not long after Great Xia listed Yanhuang Alliance into the blacklist, Di Chen and the others gathered together.

“Preposterous! What a bully!”

The one who spoke was Chun Shenjun. Pill Sun City, which rose up through business, had already slowly started to begin voyage trading. Who knew that it would face such a huge hit right at the start?

No wonder Chun Shenjun would be so triggered.

Di Chen and the others acted like they did not hear anything. Chun Shenjun’s words were shameless, as Great Xia did not owe them anything. They were enemies, and there was no bullying that could be said.

“This time, the old fox is going all out against us.” Di Chen had an unprecedentedly solemn expression as he looked around, “We have no way out.”

“….”

Xiong Ba and the others kept silent; their hearts had a heavy feeling.

Before this, Great Xia was always on the back foot, so they did not feel much. Now, they had unexpectedly struck first, making it hard for them to breathe.

Di Chen and the others felt that the Great Xia was so strong that it was suffocating.

“Since there’s no way out, let’s go all out!”

The one who spoke was Xiong Ba. The ambition and fighting spirit in his eyes were still the same.

Out of the few of them, Sha Pojun, Wandering Magic, and Feng Qingyang did not say much. Their territories were located in the northwest region, so they did not much have affinity with voyage trading. Hence, this round of actions did not really affect them.

Not long ago, Feng Qingyang had finally completed his closed doors training.

After which, he once again took control of Swordsman City. He made his sister, who was actually doing a good job, back down.

The Feng family male over female tradition was not something that could be changed in a day or two.

Chun Shenjun looked at Xiong Ba, Di Chen, and Zhan Lang, “Don’t all of you have navy squadrons? Since the Great Xia can open a trade route with one voyage squadron, why can’t we?”

Last year, news of how Ouyang Shuo used a single squadron to make it around Europe had been spread about like stuff of legends. Everyone here knew about it.

Chun Shenjun was trying to rile them up into acting.

“So you’re saying we should open up the pacific trade route to trade with America?” Di Chen asked.

“Why not?” Chun Shenjun came from a business based aristocratic family. Talking about voyage trading, his eyes lit up, “The Americas is a market no worse than Europe.”

“If we open it up, we can also crush Great Xia.”

The anger in Chun Shenjun’s heart was hard to appease.

Xiong Ba was the first to nod, “We could try that. Since Free City ships can reach here, that means that this trade route is legit.”

“If we want things to go more smoothly, we can contact Jack and ask him to send a copy of a map over. He’s such an arrogant person, so how could he allow that old fox to take all the good stuff? He would definitely agree.”

Xiong Ba’s words finally attracted Di Chen, and he nodded, “That’s settled, I’ll contact him later. We also need to prepare and build an allied squadron.”

“No problem.”

Xiong Ba and Zhan Lang both nodded at the same time.

Ouyang Shuo’s actions had unexpectedly pushed Yanhuang Alliance on a path different from the last life. The trading route between China and America would be opened a year in advance.

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

8th month, 15th day, Shanhai City.

Replying to Ouyang Shuo’s demands, in just two days, Great Sui sent an envoy over to discuss about trade.

Yesterday, the Great Sui embassy in Great Xia contacted the Honglu Temple.

Ouyang Shuo arranged for Jiang Shang to take charge of meeting the envoy, giving Great Sui a lot of face.

On this point, Ouyang Shuo would not be rude.

Inspired by the inn in Great Sui, Ouyang Shuo ordered men to construct one of their own to welcome various envoys. However, its scale was much more majestic than the one in Great Sui.

One could imagine that the future Great Xia would be one that thousands of countries would come to visit.

Hence, this inn was not a simple one. Instead, it was a huge group of inns, split up into five regions.

The west was for Europe, south for Africa, east for Asia, and north for America. The middle area was a nine story high building where all the envoys could gather.

The Great Sui envoy was settled in the east; this was the first batch of ambassadors since this inn was built.

…

At 4 PM, Jiang Shang rushed to report the situation about the Great Xia envoy.

In the Imperial Reading Room, Jiang Shang smiled, “My king, you definitely will not be able to guess who the leader is.”

Since becoming the Grand Secretary, Jiang Shang had become much closer to Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Su Wei or Gao Ying?”

“Neither.” Jiang Shang shook his head, “Prince Jin Yang Guang.”

“What? Who did you say it was?” Ouyang Shuo nearly spat out the tea in his mouth.

No matter how Ouyang Shuo guessed, he would not have thought that the emperor would arrange for Yang Guang to lead the envoy.

For such an important diplomatic event, he sent a prince he did not trust?

Jiang Shang said, “Based on my observations, there’s an 80% chance he requested to. Who knows how many small acts and relationships he had to use.”

Out of all the princes, Prince Jin was the most special, as he was emperor before. He had a bunch of officials and generals that followed him after he appeared in the wilderness.

Even important ministers like Yuwen Shu, Su Wei, and the like had friendship with him.

Of course, many of the civil servants and generals under Yang Guang were under Great Xia, with civil servants like Pei Ju, and Internal Affairs Court civil affairs Director Pei Yun, and generals like Qinqiong and Luo Shixin.

As for General Shu Wanshui, he was a general during Emperor Wen of Sui’s time.

Speaking of which, Great Xia had a lot of affinity with Great Sui.

Going back to the topic, it was because Yang Guang had so many men under him that he was still able to speak in the Imperial Court after he appeared in Quanzhou, even though the king did not like him.

“He has connections.”

This was an aspect that crown prince Yang Yong could not compete in.

Yu Shiji and the other were not fools; they knew that even if they did not follow Yang Guang, Emperor Wen would still be wary of them. With his distrustful personality, he would not give them opportunities.

Why not unite and try to obtain power?

Hence, for Yang Guang to be able to lead the envoy, Ouyang Shuo was not surprised.

Ouyang Shuo was surprised at why Yang Guang would come.

No matter what, it definitely would have nothing to do with trading. Seeing that Great Sui still belonged to Emperor Wen, Yang Guang would not need to bother about that.

“Did he say anything?” Ouyang Shuo asked Jiang Shang.

Jiang Shang nodded, “Yes, he passed me a message that he hopes to speak with you alone.”

After a short while, Ouyang Shuo said, “Since that’s the case, make plans for tonight.”

“Yes my king!”

Ouyang Shuo wanted to see what Yang Guang was up to.

…

Night, east inn.

In an unassuming room in the southwest corner of the inn, Yang Guang finally met the Xia King.

When they built the inn, they considered that the king would sometimes need to privately meet some members of the envoy, so they designed a few secret locations.

This room was one of them.

At night, Jiang Shang represented Great Xia to hold a feast for the Great Sui envoy. During the feast, Yang Guang used the excuse of going out to take a breather to come to this place.

“Xia King, I’ve wanted to meet you for a long time.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “How are you, Prince Jin?”

As he left mid-way, Yang Guang could not spend too long here in case the other members of the envoy noticed. Emperor Wen was really doubtful. Even though he allowed Yang Guang to lead the envoy in the end, he would plant many moles.

After the greetings, Yang Guang went right to the topic, “Xia King, please help me remove Yang Yong.”

A light shone in Ouyang Shuo’s eyes; it was as he had expected.

Since learning that Yang Jian’s few sons had appeared in Quanzhou, Ouyang Shuo knew that there would be a fight for the throne.

Yang Yong and Yang Guang, these two brothers, would still have to fight in the end.

However, different from history, Emperor Wen stood on Yang Yong’s side. He even wanted to send Yang Guang over to Shanhai City during the negotiations.

No one knew how furious Yang Guang was when he got the news from the Shanhai Guard spies. All in all, Yang Guang had lost his trust in Emperor Wen.

Hence, he had no place to perform and could only borrow external help.

The only thing he could think of was the Great Xia. He knew that there was a reason why Great Xia tried to inform him last time, so he tried to obtain the right to lead the envoy over.

Chapter 931 - City Protection Legion Corps Marshal

Chapter 931: City Protection Legion Corps Marshal

Ouyang Shuo gave a smile that did not look like a smile as he looked at Yang Guang, “Why must I help you?”

“If Xia King helps me get rid of him, you’ll get a strong ally in Great Sui.” Yang Guang promised.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “Not enough!”

In the foreseeable future, Yang Guang probably would not become the ruler of Great Sui.

Yang Guang also knew that one empty promise could not tempt him. Even if he was the person, it would not work, “What conditions do you want? Please speak.”

“Nice!” Ouyang Shuo nodded, “I need a person.”

“Who?”

Ouyang Shuo said, “Lai Hu’er.”

The Lai Hu’er that Ouyang Shuo called out came from the Lai family. He joined the Sui army in the early years, helping to calm down the Chen Dynasty and the Jiangnan Rebellion, accumulating credit and being promoted.

During the Daye time period, he was in charge of three missions to Goguryeo to calm down the Yang Xuangan rebellion. Following which, he followed Emperor Yang of Sui into Jiangdu.

618 AD, there was a coup in Jiangdu, and when Emperor Yang of Sui was assassinated, Lai Hu’er fell too.

“This…”

Yang Guang hesitated. Lai Hu’er could be said to be one of the generals that were the closest to him. To gift him to Great Xia like that, Yang Guang could not bear to.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he did not rush him and just casually drank his tea.

Seeing this, Yang Guang gritted his teeth and nodded, “Okay, I’ll promise you. Only one thing though, how is the king going to help me?”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “I can designate you as the contact for trading to be in charge of Great Sui and Great Xia trade.”

When Yang Guang heard that, he smiled; he could not help but feel impressed. The person opposite was truly a smart person.

Based on power in the court, Yang Guang did not lose out to Yang Yong. All he lacked was a reason to interfere in politics. If not, he could only hide behind the scenes.

Using the identity of trading contact, he had a reason to walk to the front and even take charge of Great Sui diplomacy, which would increase his influence on the Imperial Court.

Although the matter seemed simple, only Great Xia could help him out in this matter.

Ouyang Shuo leisurely looked at Yang Guang, “In Quanzhou, Great Xia can be said to have some power. If you have any inconvenient matters, you can ask us for help.”

When Yang Guang heard that, his eyes lit up. He did not hesitate any longer, and he cupped his fists, “Do not worry my king, Lai Hu’er will come over to Shanhai City to report soon.”

It was not that Yang Guang was rash. However, Yang Yong knew many of Great Sui’s secrets, which placed Yang Guang in a really bad situation. If Great Xia helped him, the situation would naturally be different.

Ouyang Shuo smiled.

He revealed the arrangements of the Shanhai Guards in Quanzhou to help Yang Guang; this would also protect them. In the last few days, Shen Buhai had reported that Great Sui was investigating spies in Quanzhou.

It seemed like not long later, many of the Shanhai Guard spies would be dug up. Rather than that, why not help protect these spies and also give Yang Guang the ability to fight against Yang Yong?

A Great Sui that had internal conflicts was really beneficial to Great Xia.

With the meetings handled, Yang Guang took his leave.

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

8th month, 17th day, Yang Guang brought back the Great Xia promise of free trade to Quanzhou, completing his mission. The morning of the next day, Lai Hu’er and his family headed toward Great Xia.

Ouyang Shuo got the report and sent men to make arrangements for his family. He would receive Lai Hu’er in the Wuying Palace.

The Lai Hu’er in the game was 40 years old. He had a high nose and a broad face; he had a moustache and tanned skin, and he had a muscular body. He gave the impression of a second Zhang Fei.

Lai Hu’er might seem like a rough person, but he cared and loved the men under him, so he gained the trust and worship of the soldiers.

Name: Lai Hu’er (King Rank)

Dynasty: Sui Dynasty

Identity: Great Xia Dynasty General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 70

Command: 75

Force: 85

Intelligence: 55

Politics: 60

Specialty: Riding General (raises troops combat strength by 30%, raises troops movement speed by 25%)

Cultivation Method: nil

Equipment: Iron Spear

Evaluation: Hu’er loved the men under him, not caring about finances. As for his usage of troops, he has many plots and plans. He is good at calming down soldiers.

“General greets the king!”

Within the hall, Lai Hu’er solemnly bowed. However, his tone did not have any meaning of getting close.

It was not a surprise. Changing so quickly from Great Sui to Great Xia, Lai Hu’er was not able to gather his bearings. However, since Yang Guang personally asked him to move, he had to follow it.

Since he followed the orders, he naturally would go all the way.

As a result, his loyalty stat was so high, reaching 70 points.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “There’s no need for the formalities, general. To use such methods to bring general over seems really under the table.”

“….”

Although Lai Hu’er did not open his mouth, he thought to himself, ‘It’s good that you know.’

Ouyang Shuo said, “A fine fowl perches only on a fine tree, and a virtuous minister only serves a virtuous master. The current Great Sui is not the Great Sui of old; the current Great Xia is as good as the Great Sui of old.”

“There’s no need to hide it from you, in the future, Great Xia and Great Shuo would have to fight. If you do not think for yourself, think for your children, do you want them to fall again?”

“….”

Lai Hu’er kept silent; he was obviously filled with emotion.

Speaking of which, Lai Hu’er had 12 kids. During the Jiangdu coup, most of them were killed, and only the two youngest ones lived on.

Along with Lai Hu’er appearing in the wilderness was Lai Kai, Lai Hong, and Lai Zheng.

As they say, a tiger father would not beget a dog son. During the Jiangdu coup, Lai Kai, Lai Hong, and Lai Zheng were all great generals.

Ouyang Shuo continued, “In the Great Xia, your sons and you can all get great positions and sweep the battlefield. It’s better than staying in Quanzhou like a caged bird.”

What more could Lai Hu’er say? Lai Hu’er said, “Do not worry king, I’m loyal to you.”

At the same time, a System Notification sounded out in Ouyang Shuo’s ear.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for successfully persuading Lai Hu’er, raising his loyalty by 10 points, congratulations.”

Ouyang Shuo chose Lai Hu’er for his ability; this person could almost match up to Shi Wanshui.

Secondly, he had two really great sons in Lei Heng and Lai Ji. The two of them were officials during the Tang Gaozong era.

The two of them at that time were just eight to nine years old. After their family was in dire straits, they lived under tough circumstances. However, they loved to learn and were good at discussing and debating, becoming Jingshi during the Tang Dynasty.

Amongst the two of them, Lai Ji was more amazing.

During Emperor Taizong’s reign, he was serving as a low-level official at the legislative bureau of government. Lai Ji was also made a scholar at the imperial think tank, Chongxian Pavilion. He was soon made a mid-level official at the legislative bureau and commissioned to edit the Book of Jin—the official history of Jin Dynasty—with Linhu Defen.

In 651, Lai Ji was made the deputy head of the legislative bureau, and he became an official in charge of editing the imperial history. However, as he opposed the queen, he was hated by Wu Zetian and demoted to a prefect of Taizhou Prefecture. During this time, the Turks invaded, and he died in battle at the age of 53.

Although Lei Ji was a civil servant, he had an attitude like his father. He would not back down and bow to authority.

It seemed like after the next Battle Map, Lai Heng and Lai Ji would appear in the wilderness. With Lai Hu’er here, it seemed like Shanhai City would gain two more civil servants.

…

After sending Lai Hu’er away, Ouyang Shuo summoned Du Ruhui.

Ouyang Shuo did not only ask for Lai Hu’er because he was a talent. In fact, it was also because he was planning for the 4th legion of the Guards Legion Corps.

Lai Hu’er’s arrival helped fill that last missing link.

The next morning, the Imperial Court announced a series of appointments.

Zongyong Marquis Shi Wanshui would be removed from his role of Legion General of the 2nd legion and upgraded to marshal of the City Protection Legion Corps. The Grade 3 Anxi general title would be taken back, and he would be given the Grade 2 Zhenguo general title.

The City Protection Legion Corps marshal position was left empty till today. Finally, it had someone to take its place.

Toward an old general who had done so much like Shuo Wanshui, Ouyang Shuo would naturally treat him well. He broke the tradition that marshals needed to be God Generals and promoted Shi Wanshui.

This also sent a message to the other the old generals and civil servants in the territory – he would not forget all the people who contributed along the way.

City Protection Legion Corps protected the imperial city. As such, giving Shi Wanshui the title of country protector general was quite fitting.

Lai Hu’er was appointed as the Legion General of the 2nd legion of the Dragon Legion Corps, giving him the grade 4 rank of Zhenwei general. His three sons Lai Kai, Lai Hong, and Lai Zheng were all moved to the Dragon Legion to either be colonels or Major Generals.

A family of four generals announced their arrival on the grand stage in such a manner. Facing such kindness, Lai Hu’er’s doubts all disappeared, and he brought his three sons into the palace in the afternoon to express his thanks.

The Lai family was officially taking root in Great Xia.

Dong Zhonglang General Er’Lai was removed from his position as Legion General of the 1st legion of the City Protection Legion; he would become the 4th Legion General of the Guards Legion Corps. The title of Dong Zhonglang general would be taken back, and he would be awarded with the Grade 3 title Wuwei general.

Dong Zhonglang general and Wuwei general were both Grade 3 generals, and the only difference was that Wuwei General belonged to the Guards Legion Corps.

With Er’Lai’s strength and contributions, and his prestige in the army, there would be no one that would oppose him being a Guards Legion Corps Legion General.

Ma Chao, Lu Bu, and Er’lai were all legendary generals, and they were all gathered in the Guards Legion Corps, making it truly the trump card of the dynasty.

As for his position of Legion General of the 1st legion, Shi Wanshui, who got promoted to marshal, would naturally take over.

Zhao Sihu, this Deputy Legion General, was Shi Wanshui’s previous subordinate, so they would not have problems working together.

With that, the matter of the Guards Legion Corps Legion General that he was worried about was finally solved. The only ones that felt regretful were Cao Chun, Xiahou Yuan, and the other Three Kingdoms generals.

Luckily, they would have chances in the future.

Along with Er’Lai being appointed, the war against Swordsman City was not that far away.

Chapter 932 - Disarmament

Chapter 932: Disarmament

8th month, 20th day, Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

Military Affairs Minister Du Ruhui represented the Privy Court to report to Ouyang Shuo regarding the disarmament of Prefecture Grade Garrison Divisions (draft).

This round of military disarmament was in relation to the 16 prefectures of the four provinces. The Zhili Prefecture had long before been disarmed, and the other prefectures were all islands and were not included in the plan.

The 16 prefectures had a total of 16 full Garrison Divisions, which amounted to a total of 216 thousand people, which was equal to three legions. At the same time, there were three full legion corps housed in the four prefectures for a total number of 1.05 million people.

Such a huge military scale was not only unneeded, but it was also a huge pressure on the territory finances.

After Ouyang Shuo personally suggested it, the Privy Court came up with a disarmament plan.

Yunnan, Chuannan, Lingnan, and Minnan would each keep one Garrison Division. When they expanded in the future, each province would have one Garrison Division.

The remaining Garrison Divisions would be under the Provincial Governor Office and would be commanded by the Provincial Governor. With that, it took away the power of Prefecture Governors and made the Provincial Governor the only person in the province that could control troops.

Such a system was the most beneficial to protecting the prestige and power of the Provincial Governor.

Out of the four Provincial Governors, Bai Hua, Fan Zhongyan, Huo Guang, and Xun Yu, each one of them was good with military matters, and they all had more than enough skill to command one Garrison Division.

Of course, the Provincial Governor would only take over the command of the troops. The appointment of colonels and above, equipment, training, and the like would be under the war zone commander.

During war, the war zone commander had power over the Provincial Governor to directly move the Garrison Division. All that the commander needed to do was to report to the Privy Court before action was taken.

It was the same as saying that the Privy Court had let go of control of the Garrison Divisions and were focusing on the warfighting troops.

As they were keeping one fourth of the number, a total of 162 thousand people would be removed. The Garrison Division belonged to proper troops, and they were treated as well as the war fighting troops. After removing them, they needed to be cared for unlike war prisoners, who they could directly make change occupations.

Hence, the Financial Court took out one million gold for all these people.

A portion of them would become bailiffs and go to the Provincial Governor Office, Prefecture Governor Office, Prefect Office, County Office, and the like; this would perfect the local bailiff system.

Especially the Provincial Governor Office that was just built; it needed at least three to four thousand bailiffs.

Based on the estimations of the Internal Affairs Court, the bailiff system could digest 30 thousand men, which was less than 1/5th.

A portion, especially the officer grade ones, would become civil servants and enter the agriculture, construction, internal affairs, and customs system.

Especially the internal affairs and customs systems, which needed experienced officers to help out.

The customs division that was established by the Taxation Department badly needed a batch of generals to become the supervisors and inspectors of the system.

Next, a portion would enter the Shu Mountain Steel Corporation, China Shipping Group, China Construction Group, China Textile Group, and the like.

Especially the quickly expanding Shu Mountain Steel Corporation; they desperately needed a batch of resilient steel workers. That alone could take in 50 thousand basic soldiers.

As for the construction workers who worked in the Garrison Division, it was best for them to join the China Construction group.

The China Shipping Group needed a batch of soldiers to change class to become ocean protectors.

Through the above few methods, they managed to solve the problems of a large portion of soldiers. As for the remaining 30 thousand, they would be given a sizeable occupation change fee to let them find their own routes.

Luckily, the dynasty was really prosperous, and they did not need to worry about not being able to find a job.

The moment they got the news, the three imperial chambers of commerce smelled an opportunity and came over to recruit a bunch of soldiers into their ranks to act as guards. These soldiers were several times stronger than those they could hire from the public.

There were some soldiers who decided to change occupations to start their own businesses and forge their own paths.

All in all, this round of disarmament thinned out the army to a certain extent, reducing the defense burden. Moreover, it acted as massive nourishment to all areas of the dynasty, improving many systems.

If not, the Financial Court would not have taken out one million gold so happily.

These were the ones on the surface, and there were also a bunch that was absorbed by the Shanhai Guards to become spies.

To the Shanhai Guards, these soldiers who had been through the battlefield were the best spies; especially the scouts, which were basically mostly taken by the Shanhai Guards.

Some of the war elite soldiers were taken in by the Shadow Guards under the Shanhai Guards.

This round of disarmament was like a splitting of a cake for the dynasty, and everyone was happy with it.

As it involved numerous departments, the Cabinet formed a small disarmament group with Jiang Shang in charge and Du Ruhui as the deputy.

The group included administration deputy minister Zhang Tingyu, who was mainly in charge of the civil servant organization; internal affairs deputy Di Renjie, who focused on the bailiff and internal affairs system; financial department deputy Cui Yingyu, who focused on enterprise and taxation workers, and the occupation change costs.

Apart from that, the construction director, agriculture director, civil affairs director, security department, financial department, and Taxation Department, and the like gathered. Close to 10 high ranking officials were present.

The four Provincial Governors, who were still in Shanhai City, were naturally involved.

Although disarmament sounded easy, it was an extremely complicated matter. Based on the estimations of the Privy Court, if they could complete it within three months, they were already really efficient.

…

After the disarmament plan was vetted by Ouyang Shuo, it was effective immediately.

With that, at the end of the 8th month, the four provinces of the Great Xia Dynasty started a huge military disarmament operation. Through the borders and the roads, there were squads of soldiers that entered and left, catching the eye of the outside world.

As a superstar, any action of Great Xia would catch the attention of everyone else.

This was naturally no exception.

This time, Ouyang Shuo did not want to purposely hide it.

In less than three days, the news of disarming 200 thousand troops spread out onto the front page of all the various media. However, no one knew what happened to the extra 40 thousand.

To attract more intention, those scheming media exaggerated the matter.

People who supported the move felt that Great Xia reducing garrison forces showed their confidence in their defense. The truth also proved that in the recent two years, no one had dared to enter their territory.

Each military action of Great Xia was a crusade outside. Thinking about it, Great Xia had no reason to have so many garrison forces on the inside.

Some people felt that apart from confidence, Great Xia was deepening the dynasty rule system and doing an internal revolution.

This act showed that the Great Xia ruling standards had reached a new level.

In the five thousand years of Chinese history, each prosperous dynasty would have a large number of troops housed at the border and the Capital City. There would be little troops at other areas, where agriculture and businesses would be the priority.

Only then could the people forget about war and focus on their industries, raising their happiness.

The Great Xia Dynasty was progressing into a prosperous dynasty.

Naturally, there were many people who disagreed and felt that Great Xia was too arrogant. If war broke into the Great Xia border, they would be hurt by this round of disarmament.

…

Just as the outside world debated, Great Xia took further actions.

8th month, 22nd day, the 3rd and 5th legions of the Dragon Legion Corp housed in the mountain region south of Yunnan moved north.

Apart from that, the Leopard Legion Corps in Chuannan Province and the Tiger Legion Corps in Lingnan and Minnan Province all had signs of gathering at the borders.

This unusual military movement immediately attracted attention.

There were even people who linked it to their military disarmament. Some people guessed that it might be just a smoke bomb to hide their real tracks.

Some people were worried that Great Xia was ready to start war once more.

However, who was going to be destroyed this time? Chuanbei City-State, Xiangnan City-State, or Yanhuang Alliance? No matter who it was, they could not stop Great Xia.

All of a sudden, China was in uproar.

The gloomy clouds of war once again hung over the skies of the Chinese wilderness, making it hard for one to breathe.

Chuanbei City-State and Xiangnan City-State, who had the highest chance of being attacked, were like ants on a hot pot. They feared for their lives, and even their food prices rose.

The Lords of the two City-States had many meetings to discuss strategy.

The current Great Xia was not one they could fight against, and even if they worked together, they still could not.

Some people even predicted that there would be no more City-States left in China after this battle. It would officially be a place where the strong split up the land. Apart from the strong, the remaining Lords would slowly leave the battle of the wilderness.

Just as this piece of news was rising, another shocking piece of news spread out.

Pretty much at the same time, Stone City, Fallen Phoenix City, West Chu, and Jiangchuan Province, and the other Great Xia allies moved their troops to the border.

This time, the China region was in a total mess!

Chapter 933 - What Does the Old Fox Want

Chapter 933: What Does the Old Fox Want

End of the 8th month, unrest rose in China.

Stone City’s one warfighting, as well as the Leopard Legion Corps 4th legion, moved toward the border of Zhangwu Prefecture, pointing right at Handan City.

Fallen Phoenix City, apart from leaving one War Fighting Legion to defend the city, one was housed at the border shared with Handan City, and the other three moved to the west and pointed at Asura City and Fallen Leaf City.

West Chu’s army went down south toward Blood Red City.

Jiangchuan Province, with Black Lion City’s War Fighting Legion as the main force, went up north toward the Pill Sun City border.

The Tiger Legion housed at Minnan Province faced off against the King City Army.

The Leopard Legion Corps under the leadership of Han Xin was housed at the north border of Great Xia; they were monitoring the two city-states. Adding in the Dragon Legion Corps that was going up north, Ouyang Shuo had used all his ally troops for this battle; he was determined to cut an arm off the Yanhuang Alliance.

To invite West Chu to help, Ouyang Shuo had used up a lot of gold. In terms of equipment alone, there were 50 thousand sets, and there was a lot of grain too.

Along with the various armies being moved, the entire wilderness was on alert.

…

8th month, 25th day, Handan City.

Along with all the members of Shanhai Alliance moving their troops, the situation was getting clearer and clearer – a huge war was about to break out. Di Chen and the others could not sit easy, so they gathered for a meeting.

“What is that old fox trying to do?”

The most panicky one was Xiong Ba, and he paced up and down the meeting hall. For someone like him, being unsettled like this was rare.

However, it was no wonder.

The ones truly connected to Great Xia were King City and Swordsman City.

Swordsman City was located in the Shu Lands, where the mountain roads were narrow. It also had the Shu Han dynasty to rely on, so they had nothing to fear. Even if Great Xia went crazy, they would not try to attack Swordsman City.

If that really happened, Great Xia would not have stopped when it took down Steel City.

Thinking on that path, Great Xia’s target was obvious this time. Thinking of which, Xiong Ba could not keep his calm anymore.

When Zhan Lang saw that, he tried to say some calming words, “Brother Xiong Ba, you don’t need to be so worried. They might not be targeting King City. Shanhai Alliance is acting at the same time, so they might start a war at any place.”

“That’s right; the old fox is trying to confuse us.” Di Chen followed.

They saw the Shanhai Alliance moving their troops, but they did not even know who their target was. Hence, it was expected that they were anxious.

Chun Shenjun said, “Let him do what he wants; let’s just move troops to face off against his. No matter where war starts, it’s not like we are afraid, right?”

So shameless.

Pill Sun City was only facing the threat of Jiangchuan Province. The province had not totally merged into the Great Xia plan, so it was also hard to teleport the army in. Hence, they could not form much of a threat against Pill Sun City.

As a result, out of all of them, Chun Shenjun was the calmest.

Xiong Ba looked at Chun Shenjun. He was a little furious, but he still suppressed his emotions and solemnly said, “If it were a face off, we would not be afraid. Even in terms of numbers, we are at a slight advantage.”

Xiong Ba was naturally really clear about the number of troops the Yanhuang Alliance possessed.

Handan City, Pill Sun City, and King City had an average of four War Fighting Legions. As Blood Red City’s Donghai Province was small, and there was also an imperial city there, it only had three War Fighting Legions now.

The remaining Swordsman City, Asura City, and Fallen Leaf City all had two legions.

Be it in the Battle Map or the wilderness, Yanhuang Alliance had been losing generals and troops. Unlike the Great Xia, whose power was increasing after every victory.

Due to the deep foundations of the Yanhuang Alliance, they were able to maintain such a scale despite the numerous defeats they faced.

Their overall strength was equal to the five legion corps of Shanhai City, as they had a total of 21 legions.

However, Great Xia was facing the threat of Chuanbei City-State and Xiangnan City-State, and they also had to defend the Capital City. They also had Dali and Quanzhou in their borders, so they could not deploy too many of their troops.

A big business was hard to manage.

The other allies did not dare to move all their troops to the borders either. Like Fallen Phoenix City, who had left behind a War Fighting Legion in the city.

In terms of head to head, only Swordsman City was at a disadvantage.

Feng Qingyang was not anxious. Like Xiong Ba had guessed, the Feng family had a deal with the Shu Han Dynasty. If they were attacked, they would seek protection.

As a result, Feng Qingyang was as calm as Chun Shenjun. Before this, when Di Chen’s family tried to push out some Project Z to the Feng family, the discussions ended really unhappily.

This time, he was really happy to see Di Chen and the others face problems.

Currently, Shu Han was moving troops and getting ready.

Last time, after being humiliated by Great Xia, followed by rumors spreading in the city, Liu Bei was furious and wanted to fight Great Xia, “Vengeance and hatred will be settled altogether.”

The debt of Great Xia killing his brothers was something that Liu Bei had not forgotten for a single moment.

As for those chambers of commerce that were tempted by Great Xia and wanted to leave Shu Han, Liu Bei had killed several of their heads.

Due to historical restrictions, Liu Bei did not show mercy to the merchants. If they forced his hand, he did not mind wiping them all out.

Not to mention Liu Bei, but even Zhuge Liang and the others felt that it was expected, and they did not oppose it.

Being influenced by way the Lords’ thought, the wilderness position and environment for chambers of commerce had changed. In Great Xia, merchants shared the same status as others, and it was common for them to get titles.

Liu Bei’s killing had given rise to a huge problem for the Shu Han dynasty.

It looked like everything was calm with no signs of chaos. However, that was because the Shanhai Guards had secretly come out to calm things down.

In the not too distant future, a huge storm would wrap up the entire Shu Han Dynasty.

…

Xiong Ba changed his tone and continued, “The problem is that the Great Xia has a Guards Legion Corps and a City Protection Legion Corps. If they release this trump card unit, it would be enough to decide the battlefield, much less their navy.”

After engaging the Great Xia so many times, Xiong Ba had a clear idea of their combat strength. If not, why would they say that your enemy is the person who understands you the best?

Zhan Lang nodded, “Brother Xiong Ba makes sense. We must keep our eyes out for the Guards Legion Corps. Where this force attacks will be their true target.”

Di Chen shook his head; he was not as optimistic as Zhan Lang, “It’s difficult.”

The Great Xia Guards Legion Corps was housed in the imperial city, and the spies totally could not enter. If they were to leave, they would use the teleportation formation.

The moment they appeared on the battlefield, it would be too late.

“….”

Everyone kept silent; the atmosphere was really unbearable.

Last time, they used chess pieces to fight Great Xia on other people’s chess board. At most, they lost some troops, and it did not really affect them.

After a short rest, they healed up their wounds, and they recovered like nothing had happened.

As a result, Di Chen would still disturb and provoke Great Xia, even after suffering many loses to them.

The sudden strike by Great Xia let them feel the true pressure caused by this enemy of theirs.

The current Great Xia was a true giant. If this battle went slightly wrong, the land of the Yanhuang Alliance would be in flames, and they would face the risk of being occupied.

Hence, it was not hard to understand Xiong Ba’s anxiousness as well as Di Chen’s regret.

Seeing the atmosphere being so down, Xiong Ba took a glance at Di Chen, “If we want to blame someone, we should just blame a certain person for asking for trouble.” In his tone, there was an undeniable blaming voice.

Everyone was smart and knew who Xiong Ba was targeting with those words.

Seeing which, the eyes of Chun Shenjun, Feng Qingyang, and Sha Pojun all swept Di Chen and Xiong Ba. On the other hand, Wandering Magic and Zhan Lang could not help but frown.

Being scolded by Xiong Ba, Di Chen was furious, and the regret in his heart instantly disappeared. He said loudly, “I did it for our good; it did it to try to let Great Sui stop Great Xia. It’s better than you not doing anything.”

The two of them were rivals, and one spark made both sides furious.

“Good intentions?”

It was okay if Di Chen did not try to argue, but his attempt infuriated Xiong Ba. He stood up and pointed at Di Chen, “Even if it were out of good intentions, your actions have to be smarter. Now, look at what happened? Great Sui sent men and sent money; all they are not doing is sending their kids.”

Di Chen was furious, but he did not know what to say. He did not expect the Great Sui emperor to yield so easily.

“Everything is uncertain.” Di Chen was still feeling really depressed about that matter.

Seeing Di Chen and Xiong Ba blow over, Zhan Lang stood out to calm things down, “Let’s not blame one another; let’s just focus on how to settle our current problem.”

Di Chen waved his hands, “What can we do? Settle our own problems and move troops to face off against Shanhai Alliance? Let’s wait for the old fox’s next move.”

Chapter 934 - Dali

Chapter 934: Dali

Hearing Di Chen’s depressing words, Zhan Lang frowned, “Wouldn’t such an approach be a little too much on the back foot?”

“Then what suggestion do you have?”

Zhan Lang said, “Why not leave a portion of our forces in our cities? When the war starts, we can send reinforcements.”

“Let’s do that!” Di Chen nodded in agreement.

Xiong Ba continued, “Apart from our alliance, we could get help from the outside.”

“Are you referring to the two City-States?” The one who spoke was Chun Shenjun, who shook his head, “Those two are terrified of Great Xia. As long as Great Xia does not attack them, they would be thankful, much less take the initiative to attack back.”

Along with the various troops all moving into position, the tip of the blade was pointed right at the Yanhuang Alliance. The direction of this battle had made the two City-States feel really at ease.

Just yesterday, Great Xia sent out two envoys to the City-States. On the surface, it was to discuss trade, allowing them to enjoy the benefits of the Cross Mediterranean trading agreement.

Although they did not make it very obvious, their actions sent a clear signal. With that, the Lords of both City-States were totally at ease. As such, why would they join in the battle between the two giants?

If they really joined in, they would not even know how they died. Yunnan City-State and Xunlong City were clear examples.

Obviously, Great Xia was trying to pull a diplomacy card, and they were getting better and better at this.

Great Xia, which had suffered several loses due to this, was not a solo player like before. They have learned how to use economy and diplomacy to serve their war needs.

It would be difficult for the Yanhuang Alliance to find some scapegoats to take the bullets for them.

Xiong Ba was really optimistic as he smiled, “It’s time to use the hidden pieces that we buried there. Even if they do not strike out, to lock up a portion of their army is good enough.”

As expected from Xiong Ba. Although he was not calm, he did not lose his rationality and his sense of direction. He was trying his best to save the future of his territory.

Such shocking toughness was even greater than what Di Chen possessed.

Although Xiong Ba said that, Chun Shenjun was not much happier, and he said bitterly, “Chess pieces? After so many changes, how many have not been revealed? Great Xia probably has more say in the two City-States than us.”

The damage to their reputation caused by the Xunlong Dianxue incident was still affecting them till this date.

Chun Shenjun was not planning to leave even a little bit of face for Xiong Ba. The Xunlong Dianxue incident was Xiong Ba’s greatest humiliation.

“….”

Xiong Ba’s face turned ugly.

When Zhan Lang saw that, he said to Chun Shenjun, “No matter what, let’s just contact them.” Like that, he got Xiong Ba out of the awkward situation.

When Chun Shenjun heard these words, he nodded.

Zhan Lang was playing the role of mediator. He had calmed down Di Chen, Xiong Ba, and Chun Shenjun. His role in Yanhuang Alliance was becoming more and more important.

Hence, even Chun Shenjun did not dare to piss him off, and he gave Zhan Lang a lot of respect. One had to say that Zhan Lang’s way of handling matters was truly not like that of military personnel.

‘Hu!’

Xiong Ba took in a deep breath as he tried his best to calm down. He said calmly, “The outside help I mentioned, apart from the two City-States, there are others.”

“Who?”

“The owner of Dali Prefecture.”

“Oh?”

Di Chen and the others looked over.

Xiong Ba explained, “When we were fighting Great Xia in Yunnan Province, although Yunnan City-State fell, many Lords inside Dali Prefecture were protected by the Dali Imperial Court and survived.”

“You want to make use of them?”

Xiong Ba nodded, “After the system upgrade, although we cannot form any alliances, the territories near the imperial city can request for the imperial city to send troops to help. We should buy one of them out and get them to seek protection from Dali. Can we do that?”

“Most definitely.” Di Chen was really confident.

Zhan Lang asked a question, “Based on the rules, the imperial city will not send troops exceeding the number of troops the territory possesses. With the number of troops they have, what problem can they cause?”

Xiong Ba smiled deviously, “Then let’s make it a little bigger. Let’s buy over all of them and merge all of these territories. We will provide them with a way out too.”

Zhan Lang was shocked, but his face still remained expressionless, “That would cost a lot.”

The so-called way out was just using their family resources that were set aside to plan for their stay on Planet Hope.

However, to do so, their families had to pay a huge price.

“For the safety of our territories, no matter the cost, it is worth it.” Xiong Ba had set his mind to it. If King City fell, everything would be lost.

“What do you all think?”

Di Chen asked the others. If they were to act, the costs would naturally be split up.

Who knows what Chun Shenjun was thinking as he said, “Dali Prefecture only has a few Lords. Apart from Wandering Magic, Sha Pojun, and Feng Qingyang, each one of us take one.”

“Ok.”

The four of them were the top of the alliance. As such, to take such a responsibility was as expected.

The matter was settled like that.

“Since we are spending so much, why not make it bigger? Do you think Xiao Nianying would step into this?”

“Him?”

Xiong Ba and the others fell silent as they contemplated.

Xiao Nianying was the leader of the Xiao Alliance. During the Satellite City battle, he used Silver Hand to clean out Qingfeng Pavilion and became the Guardian of Dali Satellite City.

Xiao Alliance took this chance to rise up, and they became the biggest guild in Dali.

Xiong Ba took a glance at Di Chen. In his heart, he admired Di Chen’s foresight. He said, “I think he will. Dali is like Quanzhou, surrounded by Great Xia. The moment a dynasty moves in, Dali would lose its system protection, and their situation would be similar to Quanzhou. It seems like their days would be numbered. As such, they have enough reason to help us out, only…”

“Only what?”

“They can only act as a support, and the main part still has to be achieved by us. After all, he would not be so decisive seeing that Xiao Alliance is not under hit yet.”

Di Chen nodded, “You do not need to worry about that. Since we are doing it, we must do it beautifully. I’ll tell my family to contact the higher ups of the Xiao Family. One must not forget that the reason they are able to get to this level is because of Silver Hand. Now, it’s time they paid it back.”

“That’s right.” Xiong Ba rarely agreed with Di Chen, “This time, Great Xia taking the initiative to strike is not a good omen. We have to go all out to fend off this wave. If not, and we lose this, the future fights would get harder and harder.”

When Di Chen and the others heard these words, their hearts beat quickly.

Even Chun Shenjun, who was calm and settled, got solemn.

If Great Xia continues to rise from this, they would be unstoppable, and the strength of the two alliances would be tipped in his favor.

One could say that the Yanhuang Alliance had no way out.

Following which, the seven of them had a detailed meeting before going their separate ways.

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

Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

The newly appointed Guards Legion Corps 4th legion Legion General Er’Lai rushed over to meet Ouyang Shuo.

The 4th legion was formed from war elite soldiers gathered from the three other War Fighting Legion Corps. They used the cover of the disarmament to gather toward Yunnan Province.

Hence, the outside world knew nothing about this legion.

Being moved from the City Protection Legion Corps to the Guards Legion Corps and going back to the frontlines, Er’Lai was evidently really excited, “Greeting king!”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “You are going to Yunnan Province with a really heavy responsibility. You must listen to Yunnan War Zone commander Baiqi, understood?”

Er’Lai was originally from the Guards Legion, so Ouyang Shuo was afraid that he could not accept it.

“Do not worry my king.” Er’Lai beat his chest and asked, “My king, am I going to Yunnan to attack the Shu Lands?”

Before coming over, Er’Lai had only received orders from the Privy Court to rush to Consonance City. He did not get any specific battle plans. As such, it was no wonder that he had his doubts.

Ouyang Shuo said, “Commander Baiqi will naturally give you your mission when you arrive in Consonance City.”

This military operation involved too much, and it was not something that could be said in a few words. Luckily, there was Baiqi in the Yunnan Warzone, and he could help split the burden for Ouyang Shuo.

“Yes!”

Er’Lai scratched his head; he knew that he could not get any information out of this.

…

After sending Er’Lai away, Ouyang Shuo moved to the front of the window and looked at the sky in the west. His eyes seemingly passed through thousands of miles as he looked at one city; it was one of the cities that were the key to this battle.

“Let’s hope the things I prepared can be used.”

The Grand Council had simulated this battle hundreds of times and considered all factors. This battle was not only to take down Swordsman City but also to create a huge net.

How many big fish this net could catch would depend on how the battle went. Even Ouyang Shuo did not know, and it would rely on Baiqi to execute.

“No matter what, this will be the most exciting battle in the 4th year of Gaia.” As the person who planned this battle, Ouyang Shuo was really calm, and his eyes were clear like water.

Chapter 935 - Dragon Legion Corps' Stunning Strike

Chapter 935: Dragon Legion Corps’ Stunning Strike

Dali, Satellite City.

Within the City Lord’s Manor, Xiao Alliance guild leader Xiao Nianying paced around the room.

Xiao Nianying originally wanted to take the role of a bystander in the battle between Great Xia and the Yanhuang Alliance. Who knew that he would be wrapped up in it?

Facing the pressure from Di Chen and his family, the Xiao Family had no choice.

‘The things I owe have to be returned eventually.’ Xiao Nianying thought to himself.

Then he thought back to what Di Chen wrote in the letter. Not long after Emperor Wen of Sui moved into Quanzhou, Great Xia had made him remove the Guardian Guild Streamer.

One of the top 10 guilds was played by Ouyang Shuo just like that.

The terrible outcome of Jun Yilao terrified Xiao Nianying. Thinking about that, he finally set his mind to it, “I have no choice; let’s have a good battle.”

…

Chuanbei Province, Fenggang City.

West Gate Big Official looked at the letter that Chun Shenjun sent, and he burst out into laughter and tore the letter into shreds. “You want me to be your scapegoat? Nice try.”

West Gate Big Official was getting more and more annoyed by the Yanhuang Alliance. A bunch of fellows who only knew how to fight internally made him feel ashamed to associate with them.

Although he was from an aristocratic family, he was not definitely on their side, much less being bought over by them. He had his own interest considerations.

Earth Online was deeply changing the world situation, and a new group of nobles were growing. This was the best chance for medium and small-sized aristocratic families to rise.

Thinking about this, he could not help but look at the other letter on his table. On it, the words, ‘Qiyue Wuyi’ were written. His eyes lit up as he muttered, “It’s time to make a choice!”

…

Xiangnan Province, Caiyun City.

Caiyun Zinan also received Chun Shenjun’s letter, and his face was really gloomy.

During this period of time, many things had happened in the wilderness. Internally, Xiangnan City-State was in a mess, and Caiyun Zinan was not having a pleasant time.

Chasing the reason, it was still because of what happened in the 11th month.

That day, Ouyang Shuo signed a trade agreement with the two City-States. Who would have expected a member of Xiangnan City-State to try to kill Fan Li? However, the person was taken down by Ouyang Shuo.

When Caiyun Zinan saw that, not only did he not save him, but he even swallowed up Fen City, beginning the internal expansion of Caiyun City.

At this date, Caiyun City had taken over two prefectures of land.

His actions had a negative influence, and it caused his reputation within the City-State to fall. Along with the help of the Shanhai Guards, his reputation was now in a total mess.

It was because of this that distrust arose between him and Zhang Liang. This was because the merger idea was raised up by Zhang Liang, so all of these problems were caused by him.

In truth, the real reason was Caiyun Zinan’s own greed. No matter how good the strategy was, if the process was messed up in the middle, there was nothing the strategist could do about it.

Luckily, Caiyun City had taken over two prefectures of land, and they were still the strongest territory in Xiangnan City-State.

“I have no way out already, do I?”

A tinge of viciousness appeared in his eyes; who knows what he was planning.

…

Shu Lands, Qiang Prefecture.

As the place where the highest number of Qiang race people gathered, there were over 200 of their tribes, and their population reached the millions. However, they rarely came into contact with the outside world until the Great Xia representative entered the prefecture.

That was before Great Xia established the country. To complete the country establishment mission, Ouyang Shuo sent an envoy in to try and convince them to join Great Xia.

Although the appearance of the underground lost race broke his plan with the Qiang Race, Great Xia had never given up on helping and persuading them.

Using the successful ‘all people are equal plan,’ the Qiang Race gained a good impression of Great Xia.

In these past few months, Ouyang Shuo had ordered them to sneak in grain, food, salt, iron, weapons, and the like; this expenditure totaled at over a million gold.

Just like that, their hearts slowly leaned toward Shanhai City.

Speaking of which, Ouyang Shuo had to thank Swordsman City. They had the geographical advantage, but they did not want to waste resources to recruit the Qiang Race.

The Qiang Race was an old race in the west of China, and they had many branches in history.

Of the two famous ones, one was in West Xia, while the other was in Qiang Prefecture.

The West Xia was the Tangut Tribe, and the one who started it was Li Yuanhao. This branch would officially enter the game after the Song Dynasty Battle Map ended.

The Shu Lands branch was the Bashu ancient Qiang, and the leader was called Can Ling. In Li Bai’s poem, he mentioned the same region.

On this day, Can Ling gathered hundreds of tribe leaders.

One of them had a really muscular body, and his long hair reached his shoulders. His body gave out a strong aura; he was the leader of the Cancong tribe, Fu Yang.

On the square outside, 60 thousand elite Qiang warriors had gathered, and each of them had a Tang Blade and wore elite armor. Their hands were either holding a long spear or a shield, and they each had a long bow on their backs.

Their formation seemed to be really orderly, and it was unlike the scattered troops of old.

Within the meeting hall, Fu Yang raised his wooden cup and looked around. Then he said loudly, “Guys, the chance for our Qiang Race to gain credit is here!”

‘Hula!”

Hundreds of leaders raised their cups; the scene was truly majestic.

Fu Yang said, “We Qiang men are all true men, and we know how to repay kindness. Great Xia helped us, giving us precious salt, iron, and weapons; this kindness, should we repay it?”

“Yes!”

“Great!” Fu Yang waved his hand, “Bring the boys to war. The Xia King said that if we win, Qiang Prefecture would be officially under his rule. We will live lives that are hundreds of times better than now.”

“Hula!”

Another round of cheers.

Outside on the square, louder shouts could be heard.

“Hula! Hula! Hula!”

These shouts passed through the mountains and the rivers, and they reverberated through the entire wilderness!

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

Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it was the 9th month.

During these past few days, both the Shanhai Alliance and the Yanhuang Alliance had been moving troops toward the border. There were uncountable amounts of grain and resources, and there were carts and carriages aplenty.

On the 9th month, 1st day, most of the troops were in place.

The 3rd and 5th legion of the Dragon Legion Corps had moved into Dongchuan Prefecture, and the 2nd and 4th had reached Steel City. Only the 1st legion led by Baiqi was casually in Consonance City.

The bustling wilderness suddenly calmed down, but everyone knew that this was just the calm before the storm.

On this day, the outside world still was not sure who the Great Xia was going to hit. The entire wilderness was focusing on the Great Xia, and how and who they were about to strike.

The nerve-racking atmosphere lingered in the air of the entire wilderness, making it hard for one to breathe.

…

9th month, 2nd day, Steel City.

The twisting and turning Jinsha River flowed relentlessly, passing the city.

Along with the steelmaking factory, the mimicry flying device factory, the cannon making base, the steam engine making base, and a large batch of workshops and factories being set up here, this city was becoming more like its name suggested.

It was hard to differentiate the inside and outside of the city, as the sound of many types of machinery spread out.

In the deep mountains far away, many iron mines and coal mines were being dug with the help of the steam engines. They sent ore and coal toward the steelmaking factories and the coal factories on the outskirts of the city.

On the Jinsha River, the ships were endless, transporting all the things produced here to other parts of the dynasty.

In the ancient game background, to be able to see such an industrialized city was a miracle.

Based on the plans made by the Industrialization Department, they were going to build a railway between the biggest mine to the biggest steelmaking factory.

A railroad would use up a vast quantity of gold, and just the early expenses would cost 500 thousand. At the same time, steam train research was listed as one of the department’s core projects.

The birth of industrialization was taking place in Great Xia.

…

On the north outskirts of Steel City, a huge camp was set up.

The 2nd and 4th legions were here. Nearby, there was a giant storage with mountains full of grain and resources.

The grain and resources were prepared by the Combat Logistics Department, and they had used the water route to transport these over from Chuannan Province.

The goal was naturally to cover their tracks so that Swordsman City would not notice.

Not far away, there was an airport that was surrounded by five meter high walls. Inside these walls, there were hundreds of mimicry flying devices lying in wait.

If outsiders saw this, they would definitely be shocked. No one could imagine how much damage such a scale of flying devices being thrown into battle would cause. This scale was the highest product of the steel city industrialization, and it was also the trump card of Great Xia for this battle.

Two legions; the 2nd legion on the west was led by Lai Hu’er, while the 4th legion in the east was led by Shixin.

Speaking of which, these two Sui Dynasty generals have had some dealings before. This time, Lai Hu’er was appointed as the left vanguard, and Luo Shixin was the right vanguard, forming the Great Xia vanguard forces.

On this morning, these two huge armies set out together, splitting into two paths when they entered the Jiangyang Prefecture.

The moment the news went out, the world was in an uproar.

Chapter 936 - Sibling Conversation

Chapter 936: Sibling Conversation

The difficulty of the Shu Lands paths was greater than ascending the heavens.

No one thought that the Great Xia was actually going to attack Swordsman City. Hence, Di Chen and the others’ first reaction was, “Is there a scheme within?”

Di Chen was familiar with their misdirection tactic.

It was not them making random guesses but that the Guards Legion Corps, and even the 3rd and 5th legions of the Dragon Legion Corps were not moving.

Hence, the atmosphere in the wilderness was getting weirder and weirder.

When Great Xia had not sent out their troops, the Yanhuang Alliance greatly craved for Ouyang Shuo to reveal his puzzle. When Great Xia sent out their troops, Yanhuang Alliance was still in a tough spot, as they did not know how to react.

“Let’s just wait and see!”

Di Chen and the others had no idea, so they could only suppress the nervousness in their hearts.

……

Jiangyang Prefecture, Swordsman City.

No matter what the others were thinking, Feng Qingyang was truly anxious and could not keep calm anymore.

Upon learning that the Dragon Legion Corps had struck, his mood was like ten thousand horses running around in his heart.

With the two legion strong strength of Swordsman City, they definitely could not match up to Great Xia, so they could only ask for help. However, the reaction of Di Chen and the others was just, “Calm down, we will not move our troops yet.”

Feng Qingyang could not help but scold out, “Who cares about your dog sh*t plan Z; go to hell!”

Feng Qingyang decided to seek protection from the Shu Han Dynasty.

“Brother, no!”

The one who stopped him was Feng Qingyue.

“Oh?”

A hint of ruthlessness flashed across Feng Qingyang’s face. Ever since he started to train in the devil technique, his personality had changed. Although he had trained in seclusion for a while, he was still different from before.

Previously, Feng Qingyang really trusted his smart sister. Now, when she opposed his decision, Feng Qingyang showed impatience.

Apart from the cultivation technique, it was also because of some rumors within the territory.

During the time that Feng Qingyang was in seclusion, Feng Qingyue took control.

Although it was just half a year, she gained the trust of the officials and generals, and they felt her ability exceeded that of her brother’s.

When Feng Qingyang took back control, many of them grumbled.

Facing such words and rumors, Feng Qingyang, who loved face and reputation, was naturally furious. As a result, he felt annoyed with his sister and was not as close to her as before.

Feng Qingyue could only treat it quietly; no one could understand the pain in her heart.

Although that was the case, she still needed to speak up, “The battle has just started. Great Xia has only sent out two legions. If we choose to bow down to the imperial city like that without resisting, what would outsiders think of our Feng Family?”

“Continue.”

“The only way is to rely on our own troops to survive their first wave of attacks.

If it is as what Di Chen and the others said, and they are using misdirection, all will be good.”

At this point, she paused. It was like she was trying to guess what the true intentions of Great Xia were, “If they really want to go all the way with us, Di Chen and the others will have no choice but to help us. If they do not, they would have betrayed their promise.”

“At that time, we will have no choice but to seek help from Shu Han. At the brink of life and death, be it the territory generals, the officials, or outsiders, no one can say a thing.”

Feng Qingyue’s words were really rational and Feng Qingyang could not disagree.

Thinking about it, he asked, “Then what do you think their reason for moving their troops is? Are they acting, or do they truly want to kill us?”

Feng Qingyue’s expression suddenly became really solemn. After a long while, she said bitterly, “In my opinion, they are truly moving out.”

“Why!” Feng Qingyang was anxious, “We have no animosity with them. During the last altercation, we gave them a city, so what do they want?”

Feng Qingyue shook her head, “I cannot say a reason; it’s just my intuition.”

“Intuition?”

Feng Qingyang really thought his sister was going crazy.

“Big brother, think about this; their best target would be us or King City. On the surface, it is better for them to attack King City but that is not actually the case.”

“I cannot see the reason.”

Feng Qingyue explained, “They have one entire province and four legions. With the Tiger Legion Corps, even with all their strength, they might not be able to take down the entire province.”

“Then we have the Shu Han army as our shield, wouldn’t they consider this point?” Feng Qingyang was not a fool and retorted.

In fact, during their first conflict, Swordsman City had showed signs of working with the Shu Han Dynasty.

Feng Qingyue said, “That’s only one. There’s also another reason, which is the fact that Zhan Lang’s Blood Red City neighbors King City. If King City is attacked, Zhan Lang would definitely help out.”

Feng Qingyang nodded.

“Furthermore, Wandering Magic was brought up by Xiong Ba. Hence, even if Di Chen and the others choose not to help, would he?” Feng Qingyue asked.

Feng Qingyang’s face was a little gloomy, “That dog, if the master has problems, he would not mind dropping his city and helping out.”

As he said that, Feng Qingyang could not hide his bitterness. Compared to Xiong Ba, who had so many people to rely on, he was alone in the alliance.

On the surface, Chun Shenjun was his ally, but Feng Qingyang did not trust him.

As he thought about it, Feng Qingyang calmed down, “Since that’s the case, order the 2nd legion to defend the frontlines and the 1st legion to wait for orders.”

During this round of military movement, Swordsman City had moved the 2nd legion housed in Badong Prefecture to guard the south of Swordsman City.

As for the 1st legion, they naturally defended the city. They defended their home.

The Shu Lands had many mountain paths and passes. As such, although the Great Xia split their troops into two paths and sent out two legions, they could not make use of their numerical advantage due to the land shape.

Feng Qingyue nodded, agreeing with her brother’s plan.

Feng Qingyang still did not feel good, “Although we are saying that, we must still make some preparations. I’ll send someone to contact Shu Han so that they are ready to help at the crucial moment.”

“Okay!”

Feng Qingyue really did not want to walk that final step, but she could not stop him.

…

Along with Swordsman City temporarily not making any large movements, the seismic battle in China slowly started in a low-profile manner.

The violent battle of the Shu Lands had officially begun!

Chapter 937 - Not Burning Bullets But Grenade

Chapter 937: Not Burning Bullets But Grenade

The Shu Lands stretched for thousands of miles. Mountains rose and fell, and there was one mountain ridge after another. They were like giant beasts sitting on the mountains, forming basin after basin.

The Shu Lands in the game were much more majestic than that of real life. The clouds and mist of the mountains lined up one after another, and the peaks stood alone with the cliffs hung all around. Rivers flowed between and around the mountains. They were like a dragon spitting water, unceasing and never stopping.

Between the clouds on top of the mountains, there were huge passes like giant war castles. They were like deities protecting the mountain paths. The mountain ridges were used to defend the hundreds of large and small basins.

Each basin was a city.

With the mountain ridges as the city walls and the pass as the city gate, the Shu Lands city planning was unique in the world. In the entire world, there definitely would not be another city with such huge city walls and such indestructible city gates.

More than half of the cities in the basins did not have city walls, and the entire basin was a mega city.

Swordsman City was the southeast basin.

Since the Dragon Legion Corps wanted to attack Jiangyang Prefecture, they needed to climb many mountains and cross numerous valleys. They needed to take down each and every pass that looked impossible to take down.

Along with the mountain paths being hard to traverse, it caused logistical nightmares. Using normal battle tactics, it would be very difficult for them to complete their quest of crushing Swordsman City.

Hence, the Dragon Legion Corps prepared four secret battle weapons, the mimicry flying device, the P2 Type Cannon, siege weapons that could be dismantled and assembled, as well as various sliropes for battle.

The mimicry flying device could disregard the geography of the battle, so they were the weakness of the Shu Lands. The 100 flying devices in the airport outside Steel City were gathered using all of the dynasty’s ability. They would use these to try to take down all these passes.

The P2 Type Cannons were modified by the Industrialization Department. They were based on the P1 Cannon and designed for mountain battles. Its weight was only half of the previous model, which greatly reduced the transportation difficulties.

Of course, the P2 Type Cannon was really small, and its range and firepower were weakened by a bit. Although it was not enough to burst open the city walls of the pass, it was more than enough to blow open the gates.

The natural sciences college led by Mo Zi designed the siege chariots together with the Industrialization Department. The army could dismantle it into many parts, and then they could swiftly put them together at the battlefield.

Ouyang Shuo was impressed when he saw that.

The natural sciences college that was led by Mo Zi was undergoing a series of developments and changes on the siege weapons. Apart from the siege chariot, there was the arrow turret, the siege ram, and more.

Lastly, there were the special sliropes designed by the Industrialization Department themselves. With the help of the flying devices, the soldiers and items could easily fly over the mountains and cliffs.

These four secret weapons were what the Dragon Legion Corps were going to use to take down the Shu Lands.

…

9th month, 5th day, Hengshan Pass.

Hengshan Pass was located on the southeast corner of Jiangyang Prefecture, and it was the door to the southeast. The basin behind it was the governing area of Hengshan House-Hengshan City.

Inside the pass, there were five thousand elite troops that came from the 2nd legion of Swordsman City.

After three days of tough traveling, the right vanguard led by Luo Shixin finally reached the first important pass.

Along with them were four P2 Type Cannons, 10 siege chariots, 15 three bow arcuballistas, and 15 arrow turrets.

They took so long because they had to transport all these siege weapons.

Luo Shixin rode his horse to approach the pass, only to see the cliffs on both sides towering over him. In the middle, there was a narrow mountain path. A huge pass stood on the path and blocked his view of everything behind it.

On the pass, there were war flags set up and soldiers patrolling.

To make matters even more difficult, the mountain path was not straight. The higher one went, the steeper it got. The pass was like some place at the top of the hill, and it was around half the height of the mountain.

Due to the dangers of such geography, it made it easy to defend but hard to attack.

Hengshan Pass was not a lone pass. Hundreds of miles away, at the middle of mountain, there was a border sentry, forming a perfect defense system with the main pass.

Last night, the border sentry had noticed Luo Shixin and his men. Scouts from both sides had engaged, and each side had suffered casualties.

When Luo Shixin and his men came to Hengshan Pass, the border sentry troops along the way had already been wiped out.

Hence, Hengshan Pass was already lying in wait for them.

When Luo Shixin saw that, he did not rush. He simply ordered his troops to rest up. He ordered the construction troops that followed them to assemble the siege weapons.

As the vanguard force, to reduce the load and to quicken their speed, they used military grain pills to replace grain. As such, there was no need to cook, and it was really light and quick.

For this battle, the Combat Logistics Department had really put in a lot of gold. They took out all the military grain pills they had amassed for half a year to support the frontlines.

At 1 PM, the various siege weapons were already assembled well. However, he did not give the order to attack.

Luo Shixin was waiting.

Another half an hour passed, and a thunder-like rumbling spread out from the skies. 25 mimicry flying devices streaked across the blue skies above the Hengshan Pass.

The 100 flying devices were split 50-50 between the vanguard troops. To raise the efficiency, the 50 were split in half to take turns to attack.

On the city wall of Hengshan Pass, when the defending general saw the flying devices, his eyes turned serious, “They came as expected!”

Everyone was familiar with the Great Xia flying devices.

With the past mistake resulting in the fall of Steel City, SwordsmanCity had learned. They changed the materials from wood to stone to defend against the burning bombs thrown down.

Seeing the flying devices fly over, the defending general was not nervous. Smiling to his left and right, “Great Xia only has such ability, what a joke.”

‘Hahaha~~’

The surrounding soldiers all laughed along. With such a pass, why would they be worried? In the words of their general, “Troops that can take down Hengshan Pass are not even born yet.”

Unfortunately, they were too arrogant.

As they had it, virtue is one foot tall, while the devil is ten foot. It takes constant vigilance to stave off evil.

The 25 mimicry flying devices formed up into a battle formation. Arriving at the skies above Hengshan Pass, they threw down bomb after bomb.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

Bomb after bomb exploded on the city walls. Instantly, blood and flesh flew around. The bombs thrown down this time were not the burning bombs but grenades.

Grenades were not something unique to modern warfare. During the Ming Dynasty, there were already basic grenades. However, its explosive strength was limited, and it was mainly used in defending. Hence, it was not used on a large scale in the military.

However, when the grenade was used together with the mimicry flying, it would give rise to an even greater effect.

For every one of mimicry flying devices, apart from the pilot, there was one soldier in charge of throwing grenades at the back. In the narrow cabin, apart from the seat for the two of them, the remaining space was left for carrying grenades.

Although the mimicry flying device could not compete with planes in terms of speed, flexibility, and fighting ability, they had a bug, which was its energy source.

One small magnetic ohlite could replace fuel, and it did not even have a fuel tank. The body of the plane itself used carving techniques, so it did not have any electrical systems, which saved a lot of space.

Hence, one flying device was able to carry around 100 grenades.

The trained grenadiers accurately threw down grenade after grenade, causing massive damage. All of a sudden, there were heavy casualties on the city wall of Hengshan Pass.

The sudden change ensured that the defending forces could not laugh anymore.

“Attack!”

The time had come, and Luo Shixin ordered all his troops to attack.

“Kill!”

The soldiers who were eager to go pushed their siege chariots, arrow turrets, three bow arcubalistas, and P2 Type Cannons toward the pass.

The arrow turrets acted as a cover, and the three bow arcubalistas fired out rows of step arrows while the P2 Type Cannons focused on blowing open the city gates.

The siege chariots got close to the city wall and locked onto it like an octopus.

Hundreds and thousands of soldiers walked out of the siege chariots. They were not using shields or ladders. They just stepped onto the step arrows and climbed fearlessly onto the walls.

In less than half an hour, the Dragon Legion Corps warriors were locked in an intense battle with the defending troops on the city wall.

With the aid of advanced equipment, a siege that seemed nearly impossible became so easy.

The Dragon Legion Corps warriors did not care about anything and focused solely on killing.

A capable soldier was just a soldier. However, a capable commander would bring out a team of capable soldiers. Under the lead of Commander Baiqi, they were like a pack of wolves, pouncing at everyone they saw.

The Hengshan Pass defending troops were forced back in defeat.

‘Honglong!’

At this very moment, under the constant fire of the cannons, the gates were finally turned to ruins.

When Luo Shixin saw that, he ordered the final attack.

“All units attack!”

As he said that, he slapped his war horse and personally charged forward.

“Kill!”

Close to 10 thousand Dragon Legion Corps soldiers were like ferocious lions as they charged into the city and fought the enemy troops.

The following battle was simple. In less than two hours, two thousand of the defending troops died, while the rest surrendered.

After taking down Hengshan Pass, everything in front was theirs for the taking.

Luo Shixin did not stop, and he personally led the troops to enter Hengshan City.

Without a city wall, without a proper defense, Hengshan City stood no chance.

Before sunset, it totally fell, and it became a part of Great Xia’s territory.

The following mimicry flying devices did not return. They just parked in Hengshan City.

On this day, Luo Shixin started off this historical battle with a beautiful first blood.

Chapter 938 - Shu Han Sends Troops

Chapter 938: Shu Han Sends Troops

The fall of Hengshan Pass opened up the Dragon Legion Corps’ attack on Jiangyang Prefecture.

At basically the same time as when Luo Shixin took down the pass, the left vanguard led by Lai Hu’er also took down the south-east door of Jiangyang Prefecture – Jiulong Pass.

In a single day, two hugely important passes were lost at the same time.

When Feng Qingyang received the report, his face was ugly to the max. He questioned Wei Yan, who was in charge of military matters, “Losing two passes in a day, are the 2nd legion soldiers useless?”

“….”

Wei Yan did not know how to reply. When his Lord acted up, he would truly say anything.

“Investigate. Find out how exactly they were lost.” Feng Qingyang was slowly feeling more and more uneasy.

“Yes!”

Wei Yan did not wish to stay any longer. In truth, Wei Yan desired to know the reason more than Feng Qingyang. If he did not find out how the passes were lost, the following war could not be fought.

…

In just a day, various intelligence reports were gathered.

The bad feeling that Feng Qingyang got came through one by one.

Flying devices, grenades, siege chariots, and new cannon; each new piece of equipment stunned Feng Qingyang.

“How the f**k can we even fight?” Feng Qingyang hurled vulgarities. The invincible defense line he was proud of became tofu. There was no news that could be worse than this.

Even Feng Qingyue’s brows were locked. Her intuition actually came through; the reason Great Xia waved their flag around the wilderness was to take down Swordsman City.

If not, they would not have bothered to prepare so many types of equipment that targeted the Shu Lands.

The future of Swordsman City became really uncertain.

Her eyes looked more and more depressed, “That man is really heartless!”

“What did Di Chen and the others say?” Feng Qingyue asked her brother.

Thinking about this, Feng Qingyang grew even more furious, “That group of evil-hearted ghosts, they said that the Shu Lands have a complicated geography; even if they reinforce us now, they would not be of much help. As such, they said why not just wait until the Xia Army reaches Swordsmen City and have a final battle then.”

“….”

Feng Qingyue was speechless. Di Chen’s words made sense, but it was still really infuriating.

Although the geography of the Shu Lands could affect the enemy, it also reduced its own soldier placement. Like Di Chen said, even if they sent 100 thousand troops, there was nowhere to position them.

Place them in the various passes?

The pass was just so huge and having more troops would not make a difference. Furthermore, Great Xia was doing an air siege. If there were more people, the casualties would be even greater.

Place them in the cities?

To the cities that did not have city walls, no matter how many troops were stationed there, they would not be able to contain the Great Xia Army.

Hence, the Dragon Legion Corps’ two War Fighting Legions still stayed in Dongchuan Prefecture. No matter how many troops they sent, it would be useless. In fact, it would cause a lot of logistical nightmare instead.

Keeping the two legions in Dongchuan Prefecture was also a scare tactic, as it made them think that they might reinforce the frontlines at any moment.

Feng Qingyue was truly the female Zhuge. From one point alone, she understood the arrangements of the Dragon Legion Corps. However, so what if she did? This was a scheme.

Thinking about it, Swordsman City only had one way out, which was to put up as much resistance as possible along the way. Only by eating at the Great Xia Army would they stand a chance during the final battle at Swordsman City.

As the main city, Swordsman City had a huge city wall.

Swordsman City was located at the southernmost point of Jiangyang Prefecture. If they really did that, it would mean losing 90% of the prefecture, which would be a huge loss to Swordsman City, as they only had two prefectures of land.

Even if they managed to beat the Great Xia Army, both sides would suffer heavy loses.

No matter how they saw it, it was a terrible situation.

Feng Qingyang was depressed to the maximum. He was the one who had the least intentions of being an overlord, but he was the one who faced the most of Great Xia’s wrath.

…

So what did Di Chen think of it? There was another reason why Di Chen was not willing to immediately assist, apart from the Shu Lands’ geography.

A day ago, the four Lords in Dali Prefecture had already merged their territories, and they had 50 thousand troops. If they sought protection from Dali, they would have another 50 thousand guards.

Although Dali imperial city did not have a dynasty, during the Battle of Yunnan, it had already protected these four territories.

There was also the help of that player in the Dali palace. Moreover, moving 50 thousand guards was not going against the game rules, so Gaia would not prevent that.

Of course, it was impossible to exceed 50 thousand.

As the highest level artificial intelligence, Gaia had a really precise judgment system.

Xiao Alliance also gave their reply; they were willing to arrange 100 thousand combat occupation players to help. Xiao Nianying was truly going all out, taking out half of the combat occupation players of the guild as a bet.

As expected from someone who managed to grab the chance to rise out from the Guardian Guild race and become the biggest dark horse in the guild circle.

When he really put his heart to it, he was willing to take a gamble.

Of course, a portion of his confidence came from Di Chen’s huge plan. Since they had 100 thousand proper troops along with them, Xiao Nianying did not have much to be afraid of.

With that, the Dali Alliance Army was 200 thousand strong.

The Great Xia Army, apart from the two legions in Dongchuan Prefecture, there was only the 1st legion of the Dragon Legion Corps in Consonance City.

The Dali Alliance Army wanted to lead the two legions in Dongchuan Prefecture into the Shu Lands. Of course, it would be the best if they were able to lead the 1st legion in too.

It was with such considerations that Di Chen decided to not aid Swordsman City.

Feng Qingyang had just recovered, so Di Chen was not willing to share the plan with him because he was afraid that Feng Qingyang would oppose it.

How could Di Chen have expected that Feng Qingyang would choose a totally different path?

…

9th month, 8th day, Swordsman City.

In three days, another two passes fell, and along with them were the two cities.

Seeing Di Chen and the others show no signs of helping, Feng Qingyang could not wait any longer, “Since it’s already at such a state, let’s seek protection from the Shu Han Dynasty.”

The successive blows made Feng Qingyang want to give up.

In his eyes, if he sought protection from the Shu Han Dynasty, Swordsman City would be totally safe. No matter how strong Great Xia was, it would not be able to beat the Shu Han Dynasty.

With that, he could get the burden of territory management off his chest and focus on cultivation.

As expected from a martial idiot.

It was not that he did not care about his territory. Rather, it was because he loved cultivating.

Although Feng Qingyue was not willing, she had no reason to stop her brother. That morning, Feng Qingyang handed the protection request to the Shu Han Dynasty, and it was approved.

…

Chengdu, emperor palace.

Liu Bei had looked forward to unifying the Shu Lands.

Upon receiving Feng Qingyang’s protection application, he laughed and naturally agreed.

After Swordsman City and the Shu Han Dynasty confirmed their master-subordinate relationship, Liu Bei invited Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong over for a discussion regarding how to help Swordsman City.

A million guard troops. Even during their most prosperous period, the Shu Han Dynasty did not have so many troops. With such an army, Liu Bei was naturally not afraid of anyone. He wished that he could fight Great Xia to avenge his brothers.

After a short while, the two strategists came over.

Zhuge Liang was still so humble and gentle; it was like everything was under his control.

That was actually true. Although the deaths of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were heart wrenching, it was great for his position in the dynasty.

Without these two stopping him, Zhuge Liang could pretty much do as he wished.

In the military, the only remaining one of the five tigers, Zhao Yun, was his close friend. Huang Zhong was also really friendly with Zhuge Liang.

One did not even need to mention the civil servants, as half of them were his students.

Compared to Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong was expressionless. Obviously, he was not happy here, and he had been given the cold shoulder.

Although that was the case, he was still really loyal to Liu Bei. Long ago, Ouyang Shuo had tried to use Zhou Yu to tempt him over but failed.

Of course, Pang Tong did not decline the offer completely, leaving a way out for himself.

Based on the reports from Zhou Yu, as he had not been doing anything for so long, his determination was waning. When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he smiled. Patience always paid off.

It was only a matter of time before he obtained Pang Tong.

“Who do you think we should send out?” Liu Bei asked Zhuge Liang.

When Zhuge Liang heard this question, he was not surprised.

A few days ago, when Swordsman City sent their envoy, Zhuge Liang had been preparing for this, “You can send Zi Long and 150 thousand guard troops.”

For this trip, Zhuge Liang did not even think they had a chance of losing at all. Naturally, he wanted to let Zhao Yun earn credit.

“Do you want to follow along?” Liu Bei asked.

Unexpectedly, Zhuge Liang shook his head, “We are guests, so we should not take charge. If it is as I expected, the main battlefield will be at Swordsman City. Since it’s a strength-based battle, there’s no need for strategies.”

Liu Bei nodded. Just as he was about to agree with Zhuge Liang, he noticed the lonely looking Pang Tong. He suddenly changed his mind, “Since that’s the case, Zi Long will be the main general, and Du Yuan will be the strategist.”

Hearing those words, both Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong were shocked.

Pang Tong stepped out, “Yes my king!” Pang Tong had wanted to step out for some fresh air; he did not want to be cooped up in Chengdu.

Hence, the matter was decided like that.

9th month, 9th day, invited by Swordsman City, the Shu Han Dynasty with Zhao Yun as the main general and Pang Tong as the strategist led 150 thousand guard soldiers to assist Swordsman City.

The moment the news went out, the world was in a state of uproar.

Chapter 939 - Executing Plan B

Chapter 939: Executing Plan B

Everyone knew what it meant if Shu Han sent troops to assist Swordsman City.

No one expected one of the huge members of the Yanhuang Alliance to give up so easily and choose to rely on a NPC power, becoming its ‘slave’.

This time, Swordsman City was totally ‘famous throughout the land’.

However, this was not fame but notoriety, which made Di Chen and the others feel ashamed. All of a sudden, various mocking words flooded toward Swordsman City, and it looked like it would swallow them up.

“Swordsman City gives up without fighting, such heroes.”

“New playstyle in the wilderness, once you get smacked, you look for a new father!”

“Giving his body up to Liu Bei, Feng Qingyang has such a unique taste.”

Apart from mocking Swordsman City, the players did not forget to leave out the Yanhuang Alliance.

“Colluding with America’s Jack on the outside, working with the thief internally, the Yanhuang Alliance has no bottom line!”

Facing such words, Swordsman City was totally silent.

Since he had already gone through with it, these words would not have any actual physical impact on him. Likewise, the players in the Qingyang Sword Sect did not leave despite feeling humiliated.

Everything concerned personal interests, so a little face did not matter much.

…

Jingdu Province, Handan City.

“Preposterous!”

Di Chen was furious. Feng Qingyang’s unexpected action had caused the reputation of the Yanhuang Alliance to collapse.

“Once this battle ends, immediately chase Swordsman City out of the alliance.” Di Chen was very decisive. He definitely would not allow a puppet state to remain in the alliance.

Juedai Fenghua was more open than Di Chen, and she smiled, “This is great, Shu Han sending troops means that Great Xia will take revenge on them. That’s great for us.”

Di Chen shook his head and sighed, “That’s only a short term benefit. I’m afraid that this would affect Plan Z.”

“It would not have much of an effect.” Juedai Fenghua was really calm, “Swordsman City is so cut off from the world, and they only have two prefectures of land. It would not have much of an effect on our arrangement.”

“Let’s hope so.”

It was not that Di Chen worried too much. However, this plan affected too much, and they could not afford to make any mistakes.

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

Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

Weirdly, as the person who planned this whole war, Ouyang Shuo had remained deep inside the palace since the start. He had not gone to the frontlines to get a better view nor had he posted any words to the media.

Such silence made one feel even more fearful.

People like Xiong Ba were even feeling down and anxious because of it.

In his eyes, Ouyang Shuo was so low profile because he was standing at a new height; he was not on the same level as everyone else.

“He’s already looking down on us!”

Such a mental impact was fatal.

In the quiet Imperial Reading Room, the biggest change from before was the huge map of China that covered the entirety of the west wall.

On the map, there were many different markings.

Someone was in charge of marking every action on the map, which passes were taken down, which city was occupied, which army had reached where, and the like.

This masterpiece showed the communication efficiency of Great Xia.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo did not need to go out and could watch the whole war from here. Military Affairs Minister Du Ruhui, Jia Xu, Cheng Gong, and the like were all on standby as they awaited his questions.

Outsiders all thought that the Consonance City headquarters where Baiqi was located was the core of Great Xia. No one knew that this reading room was the true brain of the operation.

Since Ouyang Shuo ascended to the position of king, his chances of personally leading an expedition became less and less. Only by using such a method could he control the situation.

Within the reading room, Ouyang Shuo was not looking at the map but focusing on a memorial.

The Shu Han Dynasty sending troops to help Swordsman City did not surprise Ouyang Shuo. The Shu Lands had Baiqi commanding the troops, so it was okay. Ouyang Shuo was here to focus on the big picture.

The memorial was from the Shanhai Guards, and it talked about the unusual occurrences at Dali.

With a previous experience, Ouyang Shuo obviously would not allow the four remaining territories in Dali Prefecture to do as they wished. They had been investigated and monitored by the Shanhai Guards.

These four suddenly merging into one naturally raised the suspicions of Ouyang Shuo.

Thinking about the current war, this definitely was not a coincidence. At this time, if the aristocratic families did not try something funny, something would be up. It seemed like Di Chen was going to act on Dali Prefecture.

As such, he had fallen into Ouyang Shuo’s trap.

Speaking of which, these four territories were like bones in his throat. They made him worry that something might happen someday.

As a result of the protection of the Dali Imperial Court, the Great Xia Army could not easily enter Dali Prefecture.

Now that they had taken the initiative to jump out, Ouyang Shuo had a reason to be heartless. He also wanted to give the Dali Imperial Court a lesson to make them know their place.

Putting down the memorial, Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “As expected, it is that old method; he has no creativity.” As he said that, he shouted toward the outside, “Men!”

“Yes my king!”

…

9th month, 10th day, Yunnan Province.

The Shu Han Dynasty sending troops to Swordsman City undoubtedly made this entire battle really complicated. Although players mocked Swordsman City, they were breaking out in cold sweat for Great Xia.

The outside world was really curious about how the Great Xia Dynasty would react to the sudden entry of Zhao Yun’s forces.

The answer to this puzzle would be revealed shortly.

That morning, the 3rd and 5th legions of the Dragon Legion Corps were ordered to go up north to follow the vanguard and become the second batch to enter the Shu Lands.

Ordered by Baiqi, Zhang Liao would lead the 3rd legion as the left defending army and Xiao Chaogui would lead the 5th legion as the right defending army.

There was a reason for calling them that.

If one said that the vanguard forces were like two sharp arrows that pierced straight for the heart of Jiangyang Prefecture’s Swordsman City, the two defending armies would be the bodyguards with three main purposes.

First, they would help supervise the transportation of grain for the vanguard forces.

Since they were the vanguard, they were naturally in a fight against time, and they needed to charge forward with an invincible aura. However, the army was not a solo ranger, and to proceed forward sharply, they needed to have a perfect logistics system.

Grain resources were the most important of all.

Luckily, along with city after city in Jiangyang Prefecture falling, Great Xia could gather up a lot of grain, which reduced the logistical pressure. If not, who knows how long this war could last for?

Secondly, they swept up the remnant cities left behind by the two wings.

The vanguard forces went in a straight line, so there were naturally cities that were left out. These cities would be handled by the left and right defending troops. Even the cities that the vanguard had taken down would be handled by the left and right defending army.

The cities that were occupied used to belong to Swordsman City. Since Feng Qingyang was not a tyrant, he had a degree of people’s sentiment. As such, there had to be a layer of loyalty to him.

Hence, even if the city fell, it did not mean that the people would support Great Xia. While the Cabinet arranged officials to take over, they also needed troops to prevent any changes from occurring.

Thirdly, they would help out on the battlefield.

The left and right defending troops would protect the flanks of the two vanguard forces. When they arrived before Swordsman City to gather with the vanguard forces, they would have a final battle with the enemy troops.

Apart from the 3rd and 5th legions moving up, Baiqi personally led the 1st legion to Dongchuan Prefecture.

The frontline command center also shifted over to Dongchuan Prefecture.

Of course, moving the Dragon Legion to Dongchuan Prefecture also served to threaten the Chuanbei City-State. Although West Gate Big Official wrote and expressed that he would not interfere in the battle, Ouyang Shuo still had to be prepared against it. After all, West Gate Big Official would not be able to decide everything in the City-State.

Along with this round of military movement, Great Xia pretty much moved the entire Dragon Legion Corps into the Shu Lands.

At the current moment, it was obvious that Great Xia planned to wipe out Swordsman City. Even if they fought a head on battle against the Shu Han Dynasty, they would still win.

The moment the news went out, the forums bubbled with excitement.

People who were just watching on were looking forward to the battle between these giants.

…

That afternoon, pretty much at the same time that they learned of Great Xia’s movement, Swordsman City reacted. They directly led the 1st legion housed in the city out.

However, the fact was that before Shu Han’s troops arrived, Swordsman City was pretty much an empty city.

Although that was the case, no one thought that Feng Qingyang was crazy. Everyone knew that Yanhuang Alliance had spare forces left in their main cities, which could be sent out to assist at any moment.

Although Di Chen and the others were angry with Feng Qingyang, they would not totally give up on him. No matter what, Great Xia was their common enemy.

Feng Qingyang sent out the 1st legion, as he did not want to see Jiangyang Prefecture get swallowed by Great Xia. The 1st legion would set up defenses along the way to increase the defensive ability of the cities.

With that, Great Xia would need to pay a heavy price for every pass they took down.

Originally, Feng Qingyang wanted to wait until the Shu Han Dynasty troops arrived to ask the Shu Han army to go down south. However, Liu Bei was really crafty, and he sent word that the Shu Han army would only be in charge of the final battle at Swordsman City.

When Feng Qingyang learned of this, he could only scold Liu Bei for being shameless while sending the 1st legion out.

Feng Qingyang also had another reason for his orders.

He wanted to dampen Great Xia’s attack speed to warn Great Xia to back off. Additionally, he hoped that some new changes would occur to the battle in the wilderness to transfer the focal point of the war.

Chapter 940 - Risky Advance for Credit

Chapter 940: Risky Advance for Credit

In the following week, siege after siege occurred in the Shu Lands.

The four War Fighting Legions of the Great Xia Dragon Legion headed in two directions split into four groups. With the help of the mimicry flying devices and the cannons, they sieged and occupied cities and passes all the way.

However, the 1st and 2nd legions of Swordsman City were surprisingly tenacious. Although Jiangyang Prefecture was being taken over bit by bit, the morale of the Dragon Legion Corps was being shaken, and they suffered heavy casualties.

Riots happened even in the cities that were occupied.

As a result of that, Baiqi had no choice but to move two more divisions over to calm down all the problems. There were only three divisions left in Yunnan Province.

The battle of Shu Lands was much harder than Ouyang Shuo had expected.

…

9th month, 20th day, Shu Lands, Ganluo Pass.

Ganluo Pass was located west of the central portion of the prefecture. Taking it down would mean entering the core area of Jiangyang Prefecture.

At 10 AM, the left vanguard led by Lai Hu’er arrived under the pass.

If one looked back, the 2nd legion was one of the oldest forces in the dynasty, and they came from the earliest militia. Its position was even higher than the Guards Legion Corps.

This was a group with a legacy.

For Lai Hu’er to take charge of the 2nd legion right as he entered the army, some people were naturally unhappy. Lai Hu’er knew that, so he craved to establish merits and credits through the battlefield and gain prestige.

The battle of Shu Lands was a great opportunity.

With Luo Shixin stealing the first blood, Lai Hu’er wanted to do better to gain more credit.

Hence, he left the heavy resources behind and brought 10 thousand vanguards troops to sweep forward.

In his eyes, as long as he took down the pass, the 2nd legion would be the first to enter the core area of Jiangyang Prefecture. From this, he would get on the board in his competition with Luo Shixin.

The moment they arrived at the pass, with the cooperation of the flying devices, they immediately launched their assault.

Right away, he used all his strength.

Cannons, siege chariots, arrow turrets, and three bow arcublalistas; everything he could use, he used. He even formed a suicide squad to act as the front.

At the crucial moment, he even participated in the killing himself to raise the moral. As a fierce general, his combat strength was exceptional. As he climbed on the city wall and massacred the enemy, they all felt a chill run down their spine.

Such a relentless assault caught them off guard, and in just two hours, the Invincible Ganluo Pass was lost.

To this set of siege tactics, the left and right vanguard troops were already well trained in it. The geographical advantage of the Shu Lands meant nothing to the Great Xia Army.

“Victory! Victory!”

As their methods were intense, his forces paid a heavy price. Even then, this was still a big victory. They were also the first from the dynasty to enter the core area, which won them great honor and glory. The morale of all the troops rose, and the soldiers gave Lai Hu’er more and more recognition.

Seeing that, Lai Hu’er gave a satisfied smile.

He was not a rash person. However, to reach one’s goals, sometimes certain methods had to be used. He did this to establish military prestige. Apart from personal interests, it was also a preparation for the battle ahead.

In the final battle, Lai Hu’er had to ensure that the 2nd legion listened to his commands.

‘Such a sacrifice will be worth it in the end.’ Lai Hu’er thought to himself.

After taking down Ganluo Pass, Lai Hu’er gathered up the troops to take down Ganluo City in one swoop. There were less than two thousand troops there, and they were not a problem.

“Gather the men and enter the city!”

Lai Hu’er rode on his horse and led the way into the city.

Apart from leaving a thousand men in the pass to take care of the wounded, watch the prisoners, and takeover the defenses, the remaining seven thousand followed him into the city.

The soldiers were thinking about having a good meal in the city and taking a good nap before night fell. The fast movement all the way and the intense siege had left them greatly exhausted.

No one was made of iron.

Lai Hu’er had no idea that a huge trap laid ahead of his vanguard forces and him.

…

Ganluo City, some secluded place.

A week before Lai Hu’er’s forces arrived, the 1st legion of Swordsman City had crafted a plan to give Great Xia a lesson.

After being scolded by Feng Qingyang, Wei Yan was naturally furious, and he wanted to regain his face on the battlefield and prove that his troops had skill.

As a result, the defense of each pass was really determined and resilient, shocking Great Xia.

However, that was not enough to save their honor. Wei Yan was going to personally act, making use of Great Xia’s mentality that the enemy was focusing on the passes and not the city to give them a bloody lesson.

Thinking about that, Wei Yan targeted Lai Hu’er.

Being a general, Wei Yan understood Lai Hu’er’s thinking. A person with desire would have weakness. With weakness, one could be exploited.

Wei Yan wanted to make use of Lai Hu’er’s desire to prove himself.

Hence, he split the 1st legion into two, and he scattered them into the passes to fight against the left and right vanguard.

In the dark, the troops in the west gathered in Ganluo City.

The current Ganluo City seemed calm and peaceful, but in truth, Wei Yan was personally leading 30 thousand troops. They were disguised and hidden around the city.

To handle the attacks of the Great Xia Army, this was already the most he could move. If he mobilized anymore, there was a chance that his plan would be exposed.

Wei Yan had witnessed the standards of the Great Xia spies, and he did not dare to take them lightly.

When Lai Hu’er led his troops into the pass, these 30 thousand troops acted. With the Lord’s Manor as the core, they spread out and formed a huge net.

“General, the fish has taken the bait!”

After a short while, a soldier dressed as a civilian came to the spot where Wei Yan was hiding to report.

“How many are they, and are they acting strangely?” Wei Yan was still worried.

“There are six to seven thousand men. Looking at them, they are really excited and came over without even thinking. I do not think they suspect anything.”

“That’s good.”

Killing intent appeared in Wei Yan’s eyes as he said in a deep tone, “Their good days are over. Send my orders, get into battle positions.”

“Yes!” The messenger soldier was similarly really excited.

During this period of time, the Great Xia Army had been winning all the way, and they gave off an invincible aura. This made the Swordsman City Army really depressed, and it dampened their morale.

They were looking forward to making a huge turn around.

Seeing the messenger leave, Wei Yan was still a little worried, and he asked his deputy, “Have the two thousand garrison forces been planned well? Do not let them expose us.”

“Do not worry general. I’ve already told them to defend the manor to their deaths, so they would not dare to surrender without fighting.”

Wei Yan nodded, and he closed his eyes to regain some energy. When the deputy general saw that, he quietly left.

The two thousand garrison forces were bait thrown down by Wei Yan to lead the enemy into the City Lord’s Manor. There, they would enter the trap set by the 30 thousand troops.

To keep the matter a secret, even the garrison forces did not know the role they were playing.

All generals had vicious hearts.

“Whether a change that the Lord hopes for in the Shu Lands can happen or not will all depend on this battle.” For the big picture, Wei Yan did not mind sacrificing a garrison force.

…

Lai Hu’er led his troops and rushed all the way. In less than an hour, he reached Ganluo City.

After learning that the pass was lost, hundreds of thousands of civilians were terrified, and they hid in their houses.

The huge city was unusually cold.

When Lai Hu’er saw that, he did not think that something was up, as the few cities he had taken down before were like this as well.

“Kill our way in!”

Lai Hu’er led the way, and they easily proceeded toward the Lord’s Manor. Only after crushing the stone stele could it be said that he had completed the occupation of the city.

“Kill!”

Under the respectful eyes of the people, the seven thousand elite Dragon Legion soldiers waltzed into the city.

Approaching the front of the manor, they saw two thousand soldiers in the square. Naturally, they were the garrison forces of Ganluo City. Each one of them was nervous, but they had no intentions to surrender.

Since they were given the orders to die defending this place, they were not going to surrender.

If they surrendered, it would affect their families.

Just in case, their families were taken away and sent to the backlines. As such, if they dared to surrender, their families would be buried together with them.

The only thing they could do now was fight.

When Lai Hu’er saw that, he gave out a cold laugh, “Kill them.” Facing these garrison forces, Lai Hu’er was not interested in personally taking part.

“Yes general!”

With the order given, the seven thousand of them charged at the enemy like wolves and tigers.

All of a sudden, blood flowed like a river in front of the Lord’s Manor, and loud and intense shouts broke out. When the neighboring civilians heard these sounds, they were so afraid that they did not dare to show their faces.

Those that were timid not only hid in their basements but also stuffed their ears with cotton.

Lai Hu’er was like an iron turret standing in front of the square as he looked on at the massacre. He had been through numerous battles, so he was totally used to all this.

20 minutes passed, and the garrison forces were not their match. They were being forced back into the manor.

The soldiers did not need him to give orders as they followed the enemy into the manor to kill all these stubborn fellows one by one.

When Lai Hu’er saw that, he was prepared to follow them in.

At this very moment, huge charging shouts spread out from around the Lord’s Manor, causing his expression to greatly change.

Chapter 941 - Blood Battle Dragon Legion Corps

Chapter 941: Blood Battle Dragon Legion Corps

The time that Wei Yan chose to strike was very vicious. Currently, a large half of the Dragon Legion Corps soldiers had entered the manor to fight the remaining garrison forces.

Just like that, 30 thousand Swordsman City troops surrounded them from all directions, blocking the City Lord’s Manor. Wei Yan was confident about forcing them all into the manor. Then they could kill them slowly.

Unfortunately, he had underestimated the Dragon Legion and Lai Hu’er.

The moment he heard what was happening, Lai Hu’er reacted, “No good, there’s an ambush.” His heart shook, but he still had a calm expression. He gave off the aura of a great general.

“Men!”

“Present!”

A Personal Guard stepped out.

“Inform the forces inside to immediately back out.” His order was unexpected.

“Yes general!”

“General?” The deputy following beside him did not understand and asked, “Since the enemy has set up an ambush, shouldn’t we enter the manor and defend from within?”

Lai Hu’er shook his head, “There’s no time to explain, just give the order. Ask the troops outside to form up and guard the gate of the manor so that the forces can back out.”

“Yes general!” The deputy pressed down the qualms in his heart, and he turned around to make the arrangements.

Currently, they had less than two thousand men apart from Lai Hu’er’s 200 Personal Guards. The remaining troops were all inside the City Lord’s Manor.

Seeing the situation, Lai Hu’er grabbed his spear; he was ready to fight at any moment.

Lai Hu’er naturally had his reasons for not entering the manor.

First, since the enemy had set a trap, there definitely would not be any grain in the manor. Although the vanguard forces brought military grain pills, they had basically finished using them, and they could last only a few days.

How could they defend without grain?

Secondly, since he was eager to earn credit, the vanguard had rushed and broken away from the other troops. They would not be able to defend and wait for reinforcements.

The only way would be to charge out before the enemy encirclement formed. After that, they would back off into Ganluo Pass.

In the worst case scenario, he could back off all the way and gather with the main force.

To be able to think of all of this in a short amount of time, Lai Hu’er was truly a great general. Although he had made a mistake, he did not make subsequent ones.

During the short while that he gave his instructions, the Wei Yan army had already surrounded them.

“Fire the arrows!”

Wei Yan was really sharp. Seeing the enemy guard the gate, he guessed what they were planning to do. Seeing that they were not moving away, he naturally would not give up this opportunity to strike them.

All of a sudden, an arrow rain came down on the Dragon Legion Corps soldiers.

“Raise the shields!”

Lai Hu’er broke move after move.

‘Shua!’ with the 200 Personal Guards as the core, the Dragon Legion Corps soldiers used the shields in their hands to form a shield wall to block the arrow rain.

Even so, there were still people that were hit. To reduce the weight, be it the sword-shield soldiers or the spearmen, they all used wooden shields and could not block all the arrows.

“Hold on!”

Lai Hu’er was really calm. At this point, there were men who had received the order and were moving toward the gate.

Wei Yan was not demoralized when he saw that; he immediately ordered, “Cavalry, charge!”

“Charge!”

Two squadrons of heavy armored cavalry received their order, and they launched their charge front the streets. As they stepped onto the green stone floor, the crisp sound was exceptionally loud on the lonely and quiet streets.

“Spearmen get ready!”

Lai Hu’er had seen many things. Naturally, he was not afraid.

“Kill!”

The Dragon Legion Corps warriors stabbed out with their spears from between the shields.

‘Hong!’

The high speed charging cavalry was like a flood, crashing into the soldiers. As war horse and shield met, a spear stabbed out, machetes came out of their sheaths, and blood splattered everywhere.

All of a sudden, horse and man tumbled.

“Hold them off!”

In front of the cavalry, the strong Dragon Legion Corps’ formation was broken apart.

Luckily, although it was broken, it was not chaotic. They naturally formed into smaller formations to fight the cavalry.

When Lai Hu’er saw that, he smacked his war horse and engaged the enemy soldiers.

What a general!

Lai Hu’er rode on the war horse. He wielded a spear in his hand, and he stabbed, swept, and hacked. Anyone he pierced died. As his spear swept out, a large group of men fell.

Seeing the incredible strength of their Legion General, the blood of the Dragon Legion Corps warriors boiled, and their morale soared. The formation that was broken was showing signs of gathering together once more; it was truly terrifying.

When Wei Yan saw that, he felt a chill. He recognized that his general was definitely the left vanguard general, Lai Hu’er. Looking at his skill, although Wei Yan knew he was good, he was not good enough.

Thinking of which, Wei Yan turned to the archer beside him and asked, “Can you shoot him down?”

The archer gave him a bitter smile, “General, look. He’s wearing a full body Mingguang Armor. Even if I shoot him, it’s useless.”

Wei Yan looked at Lai Hu’er’s body with envy.

Although Gaia removed the restrictions on the various weapons and equipment, due to artisan levels, equipment grades like that of the Mingguang Armor were really rare.

As the two of them spoke, more and more soldiers backed out of the manor and entered the formation, fighting against the Swordsman City cavalry.

Seeing that, Wei Yan gave an order, “Order the remaining forces to gather toward the gates and annihilate the enemy.”

Since he could not corner them into the manor, he was prepared to have a faceoff. 30 thousand against seven thousand, Wei Yan did not think he would lose.

“Yes general!”

Receiving the order, the army was like a flood, and they charged right at the Lord’s Manor.

Even though the streets on both sides of the manor were wide, it also seemed cramp because of the army. If they were to escape, they would have to escape under the pincer from three sides.

At the same time, Wei Yan summoned the archer forces and instructed, “Bring your men onto the roofs and await my orders.”

The archer general got the order, and his eyes lit up as he said, “I understand!”

“Follow me!”

With one order, four thousand archers left and disappeared.

…

Seeing more and more enemy troops gather on the streets, Lai Hu’er’s face turned more solemn.

“This battle is going to be lost!”

Even if he broke out, his forces would suffer heavy casualties. Thinking about this, Lai Hu’er felt really guilt. This loss meant that he would not have the face to face the Dragon Legion Corps soldiers and the king’s trust.

Shaking his head, Lai Hu’er pressed aside his random thoughts. The most important matter was to try to bring his boys out of this situation.

‘This animosity, I’ll remember it!’ Lai Hu’er set his heart to it.

Looking at the streets linked to the city gate, he saw more and more enemy troops gather. The deputy was anxious, and he said to Lai Hu’er, “General, let’s break out, we cannot wait anymore.”

Lai Hu’er asked, “How many of them are not out yet?”

“Two thousand are still fighting the enemy garrison forces.” The deputy general was getting more and more anxious, “General let’s go before it’s too late.”

Lai Hu’er was expressionless. He shook his head, “I will not leave any brother behind. Send the message to the front troops, tell them to hold on. Once everyone arrives, we will breakout together.”

“General?”

Seeing the general act so stubborn, the deputy really could not understand.

Lai Hu’er said coldly, “It’s an order!”

When the deputy general saw that, he sighed helplessly, “Yes general!” A military order was like a mountain. In the Great Xia Army, no one would dare to go against one.

Military law was heartless.

This entire matter was a result of his error in judgement. As such, all the more he would not leave the soldiers behind and leave alone.

He could not cross this line.

Although it might cause even greater casualties if he chose to continue defending, some things could not be calculated using human life.

Hearing that the general was not willing to sacrifice the brothers that had not left, the Dragon Legion Corps warriors all felt warm in their hearts. Adrenaline filled them as they fought valiantly.

“Dragon!”

“Kill!”

“Kill!”

“Dragon!”

This was the army soul of the Dragon Legion Corps. They loved killing, but they were not heartless.

At this moment, he truly gained the trust of the soldiers and merged into this system. Seeing this, he smiled, “This is a blessing in disguise!”

When the remaining Dragon Legion Corps soldiers finally backed out of the manor, the streets on both sides of the manor were covered with Swordsman City soldiers.

Not even water could flow.

When Lai Hu’er saw that, he rode on his war horse and waved the spear in his hand as he hollered, “Boys, follow me and kill our way out. Stab through them!”

“Kill! Kill! Kill!”

The remaining six thousand odd soldiers gathered together, forming an unshakeable iron will. Killing intent leaked out, and it gathered into an invisible killing aura.

Blood red clouds gathered above the Lord’s Manor.

When Wei Yan saw that, his face was really solemn as he muttered, “There’s actually such a strong force on this earth!” Wei Yan had heard of the strength of the Great Xia Army long ago. Being able to see it today, those words were all true.

With such an army, Great Xia really deserved respect.

“It is no wonder that the moment the Lord talks about Great Xia and the Xia King, he cannot keep his emotions in check.”

Wei Yan’s thoughts wandered off.

In the blink of an eye, six thousand Dragon Legion Corps soldiers formed up into their battle formations. Like a sharp knife, they stabbed right into the Swordsman City Army formation and engaged in slaughter.

If a human blocked them, they would kill them. If a Buddha blocked them, they would kill him.

On the first engagement, the soldiers at the front were like tofu, collapsing right away.

“What pheasants. What dogs!”

Lai Hu’er was really relaxed. He charged at the front of the formation, the tip of the sharp knife.

Such an aura stunned the entire Swordsman City Army. The huge streets froze for a moment and suddenly became really silent. The only thing that remained was Lai Hu’er’s words.

When Wei Yan saw this, his face was really ugly.

His words were the greatest insult to the army and to Wei Yan.

“Archers, get ready!”

Wei Yan’s eyes were cold; there were no emotions left in them.

Chapter 942 - Saviors from the Sky

Chapter 942: Saviors from the Sky

The massacre on the streets of Ganluo City entered the most intense confrontation from the get go.

Six thousand Dragon Legion Corps warriors, under the lead of Lai Hu’er, tried to kill a bloody path out from the enemy formation with courage, iron-like discipline, great combat strength, and morale.

In front of such an iron army, the Swordsman City frontline forces were crushed instantly, which caused Wei Yan to lose face.

“What a bunch of garbage.”

Wei Yan decided that after this, he would focus on training these soldiers.

Talk of training was of course for post battle. Right now, he had no choice but to use his last card. He ordered the archers on the roofs to shoot at the enemy.

The archers looked down from above at the Dragon Legion Corps all clumped up together. They were just targets waiting to be hit.

This time, they were facing enemies from all sides. They were enemies on all four sides and above. Luckily, this was the Dragon Legion Corps. If it were normal soldiers, they would have lost their fighting spirit.

The arrow rain not only caused huge casualties, but it also affected their charging tempo. The charging soldiers could not focus on killing the enemies in front of them.

Maybe a soldier was hacking at the enemy and was about to kill him when a sharp arrow suddenly pierced his chest. Just like that, he died with all the unhappiness and unwillingness in his heart.

The arrow rain could tear apart the Dragon Legion Corps’ defenses at any moment.

The cunning Swordsman City soldiers used the chance to strike out during the gaps when no arrows were fired. Of course, if they were too arrogant and got too deep into the Dragon Legion Corps formation, they would be killed in seconds.

This was a battle of blood against fire; it was either you die or I live.

As this intense battle continued, the thick smell of fresh blood caused the civilians on both sides to be terrified. Their knees felt weak, and they did not even have the courage to peek. If arrows pierced through their windows, they might be killed by accident.

Seeing that, the civilians hid as far away as they could away.

Only the cats and dogs in the houses were excited by this, and they started barking and meowing.

“Stop shouting!”

The owners tried to stop the dogs, but they still continued barking non-stop. The dog’s nose was the most sensitive, and the bloody smell made it really excited. Its eyes even showed streaks of red.

The usually well behaved dogs actually started to reveal their brutal natural. Some owners had no choice but to put their pets to sleep in case something bad happened.

This was called, ‘If the city gate is on fire, the fishes in the pond will die.’

“Dogs!” Lai Hu’er cursed and ordered, “One thousand men hide in the formation and use the god arm crossbows to shoot down their archers.”

“Yes general!”

The moment the order was given, the formation changed.

The thousand soldiers located in the center of the formation put away their spears and Tang Blades and took out their God arm crossbows. They moved forward, back to back as they shot at the archers on both sides.

Although it was a small formation change, in ancient times, it was a really difficult maneuver. If they were not really well trained, they definitely would not have been able to do that.

The god arm crossbow was known for being quick and having a fast shooting speed. The enemy archers hiding above were shot down one by one and tumbled down the roofs. They probably would not survive.

The sudden counter attack caught the archers off guard. They thought that they were fine hiding on the roofs. Who knew that they could die at any moment?

With that, the archers’ had their tempos messed up, while the Dragon Legion Corps was in a better situation. However, with a thousand less elites helping the formation, their speed slowed down.

Under the leadership of Wei Yan, the Swordsman City Army were like ants biting onto the Dragon Legion Corps. They were trying to use their numerical advantage to exchange for a winning chance, and mouth after mouth bit at the formation.

Too many ants could kill an elephant.

Although the Dragon Legion Corps was strong, they were at a numerical and geographical disadvantage. Moreover, the soldiers were totally exhausted after rushing, attacking Ganluo Pass, and wiping out the Garrison Division.

Such a difficult battle was one that even robots could not handle.

Their stamina was quickly depleting, and once it reached a certain level, their combat strength would too. When that happened, the surrounding enemy troops would swarm up and swallow them whole.

Lai Hu’er’s quick advance to claim credit had backfired.

If he had allowed them to rest after taking down Ganluo Pass and did not rush to attack the city, their stamina would not have fallen to such a state.

Although Lai Hu’er was anxious and ashamed, there was nothing he could do. He wanted to slay Wei Yan, but Wei Yan did not give him a chance. He hid behind his army, not daring to show his face.

Such a big battle was one that a single person could not dictate.

The way out for the Dragon Legion Corps was becoming more and more difficult, and more and more soldiers fell. This short central street became the longest road in the world.

At this point, Lai Hu’er did not feel confident about making it out.

Even then, he did not regret waiting for the remaining soldiers to gather, even if they had missed out on the best time to breakout. He grinned, “At most, I’ll die in battle here!”

“The only thing would be disappointing that king.”

Thinking about that young, gentle, but strict king, Lai Hu’er felt guilty.

…

Wei Yan quietly focused on the battlefield. Seeing that the Dragon Legion Corps’ attacks were not as sharp, he smiled. He could already see victory.

“I win in the end.” Glee could not help but rise up in Wei Yan’s heart.

To be able to kill seven thousand elites of Great Xia was a huge achievement.

“Send my orders. Take turns to engage, do not go all in. Patiently waste their stamina.”

“Yes general!”

As expected from Wei Yan. Even with victory in sight, he did not let it get to his head.

The current Wei Yan was still a patient hunter. He was playing with his prey, making it bleed more and more. However, he did not dare to step up and stab the prey in case he got bitten.

What he needed was a hunter-like patience.

However, such a delay finally gave the Dragon Legion Corps the chance they needed to escape.

Just as they were in dire straits, mechanical sounds broke out from the skies of Ganluo City. Looking up, 25 mimicry flying devices flew toward them.

The sounds were not really obvious in the noisy battlefield, but Lai Hu’er had picked up on it right away.

Seeing the flying devices fly toward them, Lai Hu’er did not know what to think. He naturally felt a glimmer of hope, and he loudly said, “Boys, our reinforcements are here, kill our way out.”

“Kill! Kill! Kill!”

Not only him, but all the other soldiers of the Dragon Legion Corps were fully energized. They were really clear what the Flying Squad reaching Ganluo City meant.

With the cover of the Flying Squad, no one could stop them.

…

Compared to the joy of the Dragon Legion Corps, Wei Yan’s face turned really ugly. He muttered, “How did this happen?”

This matter started two hours ago.

Per usual, once Lai Hu’er took down Ganluo City, he should have fired a signal bullet to inform the defending troops at the pass. However, after so long, no signal bullet was fired.

This made the defending troops at the pass really uneasy, and they felt that something might have happened in the city.

Following which, they saw the red signal bullet, which represented emergency. The soldiers did not dare to take the matter lightly, so they fired the same signal bullet to inform the troops behind. At the same time, they consolidated their defenses of the pass.

South of Ganluo City was Zhaojue City, which was already taken down by Lai Hu’er.

After working with the vanguard forces to take down Ganluo Pass, the Flying Squad returned to Zhaojue City. When he received the emergency report, Hu Yihuang, who was in charge of the 2nd legion 1st division, realized the gravity of the problem. He immediately ordered the Flying Squad to proceed toward Ganluo City.

At the same time, the 30 thousand middle troops led by him set out toward Ganluo City.

One had to say that the highly efficient communication system and emergency response system had saved Lai Hu’er’s life.

The following battle situation once again entered their tempo.

“Stop our advance, form up on the spot!”

No instructions were needed, as Lai Hu’er knew how to coordinate with the Flying Squad.

“Yes general!”

With a ‘Shua!’ the remaining five thousand Dragon Legion Corps warriors stopped.

When the Swordsman City soldiers saw the actions of their enemy, they were baffled. It was then that they saw the enemy flying devices in the air, flying toward them in the skies above.

“????”

They had faces filled with shock as they saw grenade after grenade being tossed down from the skies. Of course, these soldiers had never seen such advanced equipment before, and in their eyes, these grenades looked like dumplings.

Then the dumplings exploded.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

The Flying Squad caused huge chaos amongst the Swordsman City troops with a move almost like a carpet bombing.

Humans throwing grenades while still in the air made it really inaccurate. Out of 10, there were seven to eight that missed.

As such, Lai Hu’er told them to stop in case they got caught in friendly fire.

To make matters worse, the surrounding buildings were also hit, and numerous innocent civilians died.

But no one would bother about that.

“Archers, fire, shoot them down!”

Wei Yan had really strong mental strength, and he recovered really quickly. He ordered the archers on the roofs to shoot the flying devices.

Some actually succeeded.

To raise the accuracy of the grenades, the flying devices had to slow down to make it easier to throw the grenades. However, the cabins were lacking in terms of defense.

There were actually grenadiers or pilots that were shot.

If the grenadier died, they would not be able to attack but that was not a big issue.

On the other hand, if the pilot was shot, the situation would be bad. The flying device that lost control would crash into the streets or buildings.

One had to say that the innocent civilians would be hit once more.

Chapter 943 - Demotion

Chapter 943: Demotion

Even with the industrialization standard of the Great Xia, building a mimicry flying device would take two months, and it would use up large amounts of precious metals.

100 of them were all that Great Xia could take out now.

If one considered the precious magnetic ohlite, each flying device was worth 100 thousand gold. Apart from the flying device, the pilot alone was a huge treasure.

It took three months to train a passable pilot and grenadier and training each one of them burned money.

During the training process, crashing was a normal occurrence.

Hence, the flying devices in the game were similar to modern strategic bonkers, and they were not prepared for normal war.

“One could not afford it!”

Despite how rich Great Xia was, it could not take out hundreds of thousands for fun.

To save Lai Hu’er and his group, the Flying Squad really went all out. After two mimicry flying devices were destroyed, the central street was flowing with blood.

When Lai Hu’er saw that, he had no time to feel emotional, and he immediately ordered them to charge.

“Kill!”

The five thousand Dragon Legion Corps warriors that were waiting once again gathered into a rope. Then they stabbed into the smoky and chaotic battlefield like a knife. They took the opportunity that the enemy was in a mess to finally break out.

Anywhere the army passed would end up in a total mess.

Flying device scraps, broken buildings, and ruins; enemy bodies all mixed together.

Smoke bellowed and blood flowed like a river.

If one did not know what was happening, they would think that there was an earthquake.

Charging out of the city in one breath gave them a feeling of rising from the dead. Right after, they felt exhaustion that hid like a flood, and it was all the more unbearable for those who were injured.

Consecutive battles, along with the intensity of being in a desperate situation, had squeezed out all their stamina.

Lai Hu’er rode on his horse; his shiny Mingguang Armor was stained with blood. He took a glance at the tired soldiers as guilt appeared in his eyes, “Boys, hold on, we will retreat to Ganluo Pass.”

The enemy troops were only in chaos because of the flying devices and would be able to catch up quickly. Hence, they had not completely escaped danger.

“Yes general!”

As expected from war elite soldiers like the Dragon Legion Corps. They looked like they would not be able to walk, but after getting the orders, they were fully energized.

Such fighting spirit that broke through the body boundaries was great training for them. After this battle, many of them would break their bottlenecks and improve further.

Lai Hu’er was rushing back because he did not want to pass that they had worked hard on occupying to be taken back.

The sneak attack at Ganluo City was enough embarrassment. If they lost the pass too, he would not have the dignity and pride to see the king again.

Their group did not waste any time as they headed back toward Ganluo Pass.

…

Not long after the Dragon Legion Corps left, Wei Yan personally chased over. Seeing the slowly fading back views of the enemy, he shook his head in disappointment. He knew that he had no hopes of recovering Ganluo Pass.

When the deputy saw that, he smiled, “General has dealt a blow to the enemy.”

Wei Yan could not help but feel prideful. To be able to give the Great Xia Army a setback was enough glory to last him a lifetime, “Let’s go.”

Ganluo City did not have city walls and could not be defended. Lai Hu’er had taken a huge loss here, and with the rest of the troops arriving, he would not let this matter rest.

Since that was the case, why would Wei Yan stay?

They only wiped out two thousand enemies with this trap while they lost four thousand men of their own. If they considered the two thousand garrison forces, the losses would be even greater.

Luckily, they had impacted the morale of the Great Xia Army, and the casualties were a secondary matter.

“Let’s go!”

Wei Yan patted his war horse and turned back into the city.

Before leaving, he ordered the soldiers to carry away the broken parts of the flying device. This should be the first time the Great Xia mimicry flying device was lost outside. Bringing it back to the main city, it should have some research value there.

The Battle of Ganluo City came to an end at this point.

The next day, Hu Yihuang led the Dragon Legion 2nd legion middle army into Ganluo Pass to meet with the vanguard forces. Seeing the Wei Yan army leave, Lai Hu’er naturally ‘took down’ Ganluo City.

Seeing the Great Xia Army return but no signs of their own army, the civilians of Ganluo City were filled with many thoughts.

Coming into the city and seeing the two mimicry flying devices missing, Lai Hu’er was really solemn. He did not dare to hide it, and he wrote a detailed battle report and sent it back to the war zone command center.

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

The news that Great Xia’s vanguard forces were ambushed in the Shu Lands quickly spread out in the wilderness, causing more uproar.

To the outside world, Great Xia had mobilized four legions, which was close to 300 thousand troops. Not to mention the final battle, but even taking down the passes should not be much of a problem.

Who knew they would face such problems?

Many people praised Wei Yan and Swordsman City when they heard the news. This wilderness battle was not a one-sided victory for Great Xia, and Swordsman City had won some breathing room.

This battle made the entire war of the wilderness cloudy and uncertain.

“Who will die in whose hands is still uncertain!”

…

Xiangnan Province, Caiyun City.

Hearing that the Great Xia Army had faced problems in the Shu Lands, Caiyun Zinan’s confidence grew, and he wanted to pull at the Great Xia’s moustache.

“Men!”

“Present!”

Caiyun Zinan instructed, “Order the 1st and 2nd legions to gather at the designated point and wait for orders.”

“Yes!”

At this junction, Caiyun Zinan was ready to take the risk and step in.

Caiyun Zinan smiled; he seemed really confident. Who knows what he was planning?

…

Dali Prefecture, Yun City.

Yun City was made up of the four territories merged together, and they had 50 thousand troops. Its territory, including Dali imperial City and the Satellite City, was only smaller than Kunming Prefecture.

Since the Lords sold their territories to Yanhuang Alliance, Yun City Lord Little Mutuo lost his right to make decisions. On this day, under the instruction of his boss, Di Chen, Little Mutuo officially handed in his protection application to the Dali Imperial Court.

After a short while, it was approved.

Using the night sky as a cover, 50 thousand guards troops moved out of the city and rushed toward Yun City. At the same time, Xiao Alliance moved their elite forces and headed out of the Satellite City.

The power play of Yanhuang Alliance in Dali Prefecture slowly opened up.

A huge storm was going to strike Great Xia.

…

9th month, 21st day, Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

When he received the battle report and the apology letter, Dragon Legion Corps commander Baiqi did not dare to make a decision. He passed it over to the Privy Court to seek instructions on what to do with Lai Hu’er.

When Military Affairs Minister Du Ruhui received the report, he frowned and also hesitated.

Lai Hu’er was a general that the king personally wanted from Great Sui, and he was given an important position right away. Who knew that his eagerness to impress would cost him so dearly?

The one who was the most disappointed now had to be the king.

Hence, Du Ruhui did not want to use this matter to nag the king. However, since Lai Hu’er was a Legion General and also a grade 4 general, the Privy Court did not have the authority to deal with him.

In the end, they still had to seek help from the king.

Hence, two memorials appeared on the Imperial Reading Room table.

Reading Du Ruhui’s memorial, Ouyang Shuo was expressionless. He said calmly, “Based on military law, being overconfident and losing, what’s the punishment?”

Du Ruhui was stunned as he thought in his heart, ‘Is the king going to do what Zhuge Liang did when he killed Ma Su?’

“My king, based on military law, he would be removed from his rank, removed from his position, and an investigation would be launched.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and was about to give the order.

When Du Ruhui saw that, he gritted his teeth and shouted, “My king!”

Ouyang Shuo frowned.

The king’s expression made Du Ruhui’s palms sweat, “The battle is still proceeding, so to remove a general now is a huge problem. Why not give him a chance to make up for his mistakes?”

Du Ruhui’s words seemed rash, but in truth, he was thinking for the king. If he were to treat Lai Hu’er so viciously, it would affect his reputation.

Ouyang Shuo took in a deep breathe, and then he turned around to Secret Document Pavilion Advisor Tsing Yi, “Write the decree!”

“Yes my king!” Tsing Yi nodded.

“Imperial Decree: Dragon Legion 2nd legion Legion General Lai Hu’er, anxious to gain credit, proceeding with overconfidence and losing as a result. Demote him to Deputy Legion General, and promote Hu Yihuang temporarily to Legion General. At the same time, take back his title of Zhenwei General and dock one year of pay.”

This was already a heavy punishment that was enough to let Lai Hu’er remember it for life.

When Du Ruhui heard that, he bowed, “My king is wise.” Although Lai Hu’er lost face from being demoted to deputy, he still had a chance to redeem himself.

Furthermore, the king did not choose a new Legion General, which meant he had given Lai Hu’er a chance to reclaim his spot.

Ouyang Shuo was not relaxed, “Help spread my message to him. If he cannot do well in this battle, he can go back to Great Sui after the battle!”

“Yes my king!”

Du Ruhui nodded. He knew that the king was furious this time. If Lai Hu’er was forced to return, he would not have the face to show himself in the wilderness, and he could only choose to kill himself.

…

The next morning, the imperial decree was sent to Ganluo City.

When Lai Hu’er received the decree, he felt really emotional. He knelt down on one knee and bowed, “Thank you king for your good grace; I’ll definitely repay it!”

This time, Lai Hu’er had no way out.

Chapter 944 - Capturing Baqi Alive

Chapter 944: Capturing Baqi Alive

Once the person that read out the decree left, Hu Yihuang, who was promoted to Deputy Legion General, smiled, “Do not worry general. Although the king made me take over military matters, I’ll still listen to your instructions.”

Hu Yihuang knew himself that he did not have the ability to lead a legion. With General Lai’s ability, as long as he did well in this battle, he would regain his appointment.

Lai Hu’er waved him off, “No, you cannot do that; it is an order from the king.”

“I’m too rash!”

When Hu Yihuang saw that, he knew that he could not make the matter so outright.

After the two of them spoke, they immediately held a meeting to announce the appointment changes.

During the meeting, Hu Yihuang insisted on not sitting at the lead position. Instead, he sat alongside Lai Hu’er. Hu Yihuang had a reason, “We are both deputy Legion Generals, so naturally we sit together.”

When the other generals heard that, they naturally did not have any opposition.

Lai Hu’er was at fault for being overconfident. However, based on what the soldiers said, he did not want to leave anyone behind at the crucial moment, so he obtained all their trust and respect. Although he was removed from his post, in all their eyes, he was still their Legion General.

Who knew that Lai Hu’er would actually stand out to oppose? He solemnly said, “There can only be one voice in the military; a military order is like a mountain. Since the imperial decree made Hu Yihuang the Legion General, General Hu is the one we must listen to. If all of you still respect me, do not put me on the spot.”

Lai Hu’er was a really experienced general, and he saw through what they were all doing.

When the others heard his words, they solemnly rose up and bowed, “Yes, general!” Hu Yihuang also turned serious, and he solemnly bowed to Lai Hu’er and sat at the head seat.

With all of them in position, they started to discuss the next step.

What they did not know was that all of this was noted in secret by the military law officer, and it was written into a secret report and handed to the king.

When Ouyang Shuo saw it, he nodded his head and smiled, “At least he did not let it get to his head.” Tsing Yi, who was right next to Ouyang Shuo, looked at him, confused. She continued to deal with documents.

The huge Imperial Reading Room turned silent once more.

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

In the next week, the Battle of the Shu Lands quickened.

No one expected that the Great Xia Army would not slow down their attacks. Instead, the left and right vanguard, and the left and right defending troops, all proceeded valiantly and launched even stronger assaults than before.

Baiqi had a clear plan; the left vanguard troops had encountered a loss in Ganluo City and that affected the morale. If the entire army became too careful, it would make the morale even worse.

Rather than that, why not sacrifice something in exchange for a sweeter victory to raise the morale?

As expected from the Asura. Not only was he vicious toward his enemies, but he also showed no heart while he led the Dragon Legion Corps. For victory, he did not mind sacrificing everything. He would not even blink.

This time, Swordsman City was caught totally off guard.

Since he had already used the plan, it was impossible for Wei Yan to set up any more traps. Pretty much every battle was a head to head one, especially the left vanguard led by Lai Hu’er, who went all out.

Such relentless assaults sent chills down the spines of the defending troops. As they got near the recent pass, the troops only defended for half an hour before surrendering.

When Wei Yan got the news, he was furious. Feng Qingyang even penned an emergency letter to scold Wei Yan. The victory before could not make any of them feel proud, only respect.

Not only was the Swordsman City Army afraid, but even the cities occupied by Great Xia became really quiet. No one dared to play with their lives.

With that, the grain transport paths were really smooth, and they easily supported the frontline battles.

Baiqi’s counterattack looked simple, but it struck right at their weakness.

“As expected from a God General!”

…

9th month, 30th day, Meishan Pass.

Meishan Pass was the only pass linking the south side of the Shu Lands to Swordsman City, and it was the second biggest Pass in Jiangyang Prefecture. The biggest pass was located north of Swordsman City, and it was linked to Chengdu Prefecture.

The Zhao Yun led 150 thousand guards had arrived in Swordsman City a few days back and were camping outside the city. At the same time, the remaining 1st and 2nd legion troops of Swordsman City had retreated back to the city.

Battling till today, only 50 thousand of the original 140 thousand men from the two legions managed to return with the rest either captured or killed.

Before the final battle, Swordsman City had already lost more than half of their troops.

That morning, after paying a price of 30 thousand men, the Great Xia right and left vanguards finally gathered before Meishan Pass. The left and right defending troops would arrive soon.

At this point, apart from Swordsman City, the entire Jiangyang Prefecture was taken down by Great Xia.

The true battle was about to start. Swordsman City was naturally going to become the focal point of the entire wilderness.

…

Dali Prefecture, Yun City.

Within the City Lord’s Manor, a few mysterious people had gathered together.

A day ago, an Alliance Army made of 50 thousand territory troops, 50 thousand Dali imperial city guards, and 100 thousand Xiao Alliance players had sneakily gathered in Yun City.

As for how to fight this battle, it was still to be decided.

Out of the few of them, there was Little Mutuo, Dali General leading the guards, and Xiao Nianying, the leader of Xiao Alliance. The last person was the most special; he was the Handan City General Wang Meng.

Wang Meng represented the Yanhuang Alliance to come over to Yun City, and he was in charge of commanding this battle.

As a local snake, Yun City Lord Little Mutuo introduced, “Setting out from here, if we go north, we can attack Dongchuan Prefecture; if we go east, we can strike Kunming Prefecture; if we go south, we can attack Tengyue Prefecture, which should we choose?”

Little Mutuo turned his eyes to face Wang Meng.

Wang Meng was as his name suggested; he was a top grade brute who was all rounded. No one here had any objections to him leading this battle.

“Dongchuan Prefecture.”

Wang Meng did not even hesitate, and he directly gave his answer.

Little Mutuo smiled, “Can you explain to us why?”

Wang Meng did not act arrogant, and he smiled as he explained, “Tengyue Prefecture is so secluded and attacking it is useless. Kunming Prefecture has Consonance City, which has a teleportation formation. So we can only attack Dongchuan Prefecture.”

When Little Mutuo and the others heard that, they nodded in agreement.

“Then what’s our purpose in attacking Dongchuan Prefecture?”

Little Mutuo did not believe that Wang Meng was attacking Dongchuan Prefecture just because of a process of elimination.

Wang Meng said, “Baiqi is in Dongchuan Prefecture. We want to capture him alive!”

“What a good idea!” Little Mutuo smiled.

Baiqi’s name had spread far and wide through the wilderness and capturing him alive would be a huge glory.

Wang Meng continued, “Of course, that’s just a secondary goal. Taking down Dongchuan Prefecture would mean cutting off the connection between Great Xia and the Shu Lands. Then the 300 thousand troops there would have no backup and would be pincered in by us.”

Little Mutuo was amazed, “So vicious!”

At this point, the true goal of the Yanhuang Alliance was finally revealed.

Just as Wang Meng had said, they wanted to wipe out the Tiger Legion Corps in this battle, removing one arm of the Great Xia Army. If the managed to do so, it would leave the huge Great Xia territory shorthanded.

Little Mutuo was sure that the Yanhuang Alliance would make the surrounding enemies attack Great Xia at that time.

When that time arrived, Great Xia would really be eaten by wolves.

Thinking about it, he could not help feel some excitement in his heart.

Little Mutuo, who was part of the Yunnan City-State, did not have any good impression toward Great Xia and Ouyang Shuo. He hated them to the core.

If they could really crush Great Xia, Little Mutuo would be the first to take the lead.

‘Paipai~~’

Little Mutuo could not help but clap, and he smiled, “General Wang is truly smart, I agree.”

“I agree!”

The few of them could not help but feel excited. After all, they were all enemies of the Great Xia.

When Wang Meng saw that, he smiled, “Okay then that’s settled!”

With the meeting ended, the 200 thousand troops travelled at night toward the border with Dongchuan Prefecture.

…

Dongchuan Prefecture, Yongren City.

To Great Xia, Yongren City was a special place. During the Battle of Yunnan, the Guards Legion Corps led by Huo Qubing had suffered their first defeat here.

As it was located at the border and further north was Steel City, Baiqi set the command center here for this invasion of the Shu Lands.

Apart from the command center, the logistical core was also here. Large amounts of grain and resources were transported from Yunnan Province to Yongren City and subsequently into the Shu Lands.

Night, a quiet mansion west of the city.

Just as Wang Meng and the others were having their secret meaning, Baiqi, who was being plotted against, was here meeting the newly appointed 4th Legion General of the Guards Legion Corps.

“Wuwei General, how are your troops?”

Baiqi sat on the lead chair; his face was really solemn.

This was Baiqi. When he was in the military, he showed no emotions.

During this period of time, the Great Xia’s four provinces were busy with the disarmament of the garrison legions, so there were often many such soldiers on the roads.

There was a stark contrast between the tense frontlines and the leisurely backlines.

Using this chaotic scene as a cover, the 70 thousand elites that were chosen from the three legion corps mixed with the garrison forces and gathered toward Dongchuan Prefecture.

Seeing Baiqi ask, Er’Lai cupped his fists, “Commander, my forces have gathered in Dongchuan Prefecture. To not raise suspicion, they are scattered around the cities. Please advise me on what I should do next.”

Baiqi nodded his head in satisfaction, “Good. Ask your troops to quietly gather in Yongren City. Hide in the woods outside of the city. Remember, they must be unnoticed.”

Er’Lai was stunned and wanted to ask for the reason. However, thinking back to the king’s words to listen to Baiqi, he gave a clean military bow, “Yes commander!”

Baiqi nodded in satisfaction once more.

Chapter 945 - Pillaging Dongchuan Prefecture

Chapter 945: Pillaging Dongchuan Prefecture

After Er’Lai left, the Deputy Legion General of the 1st legion of the Dragon Legion Corps, Zhao Po Nu, walked it. This general, who worked under Huo Qubing in history, had already become an important helper to Baiqi.

To be able to work under both God Generals, Zhao Po Nu was also a legend.

“Commander, isn’t that too risky?” Zhao Po Nu obviously heard of plan B, and his eyes could not hide his shock, “Commander, using yourself as bait is the worry of all strategists.”

This was not the first time Zhao Po Nu had said that, but Baiqi did not listen.

As expected, Baiqi waved him off once more and said resiliently, “You do not need to try to convince me anymore. Dongchuan Prefecture is too big. This is the only way to be able to lead the Dali Alliance Army to one point.”

The plan B created by the Grand Council was only a rough idea, and the specifics had to be done by Baiqi. The greatest difficulty of the plan was how to make the Dali Alliance Army follow the Great Xia’s plan and attack a specific target.

If not, the Guards Legion Corps 4th legion led by Er’Lai would not be able to set up an ambush.

Yunnan Province was huge and had hundreds of cities. As such, setting up an ambush was really difficult.

The first thing Baiqi did was flawlessly moving the command center to Yongren City.

If he was still in Consonance City, with the courage of the Dali Alliance Army, they would not dare to attack. Hence, the so-called strategic analysis was the enemy falling into Baiqi’s trap.

This was the reason why Ouyang Shuo trusted Baiqi.

Apart from his title of Asura, his other specialty was one that the outside world would often forget – his machine-like ability to predict and plan things. This commander would simulate battles of both sides in his mind to gather the possible outcomes.

The Battle of Changping in history was one of the examples.

Being vicious was only him on the surface.

This time, no matter how he thought, to brilliantly complete this plan, he could only use himself as bait.

As Zhao Po Nu said, this was really risky.

Yongren City only had the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd divisions in the Dragon Legion Corps. Along with the Zhuolu regiment of the 1st legion, they only had 43 thousand people. Apart from all the support type troops, there were around 35 thousand combat soldiers.

With that number, he needed to defend a city that was hard to defend against 200 thousand men.

If something went wrong and the city was overrun, Baiqi and the others would easily be captured.

Baiqi was not a coward. Behind his every decision, there was precise analysis. He looked at Zhao Po Nu, “Since there’s time, go and check on the defenses. The key is whether we can block their first wave of attacks or not. Those defenses are the key.”

“Yes commander!”

Seeing that, Zhao Po Nu could only back down helplessly.

In the dim candle light, Baiqi was drawing something on the table. Who knows what he was planning?

…

Time flowed like water and the 9th month was slowly coming to an end.

More than a month had passed since Great Xia initiated this huge war.

Shu Lands.

Danling Basin, where Swordsman City was in, took up close to 40 thousand square kilometers. Although it could not be compared to Lianzhou Basin, it was still very vast. One could not see the corners of it, greenery was everywhere, and grass and trees blossomed.

In the center of the basin stood Swordsman City, the shining pearl of the Shu Lands.

10th month, 1st day, after an intense battle, the right and left vanguard troops worked together to take over Meishan Pass, entering the Danling Basin. The army used Meishan Pass as a barrier to camp south of the basin.

50 miles away was Swordsman City, and 10 miles out of it was Zhao Yun’s camp. Hence, they were less than 40 miles away from one another.

The afternoon of the next day, the left and right defending troops of Great Xia arrived in Meishan Pass. After entering, they camped at the wings of the two vanguard forces.

With that, the four War Fighting Legions spread out in the basin, their tents spreading tens of miles. They pretty much took over the south outskirts.

The four of them had been through a month of tough battles. The left and right vanguard lost 30 thousand men, and although the left and right defending armies had an easier time, they still lost 10 thousand men.

Adding in the troops left in the passes and the cities, only 220 thousand troops were left here. This was also after Baiqi arranged the two divisions of the 1st legion to enter and take charge of supervising the grain transport. If not, less than 200 thousand of the troops could be thrown into the final battle.

Apart from the 150 thousand guards troops, Swordsman City had 50 thousand remaining territory troops; they also had a guards division in charge of defending the city, so they had a total of 210 thousand troops.

Comparing the two, both sides had similar numbers but Swordsman City was defending. It was really difficult for Great Xia to try to take it down.

As a result, the Dragon Legion Corps was not in a rush to start the battle after taking down Meishan Pass. They decided to set up camp to rest and prepare like they were going to fight a war of attrition.

At the same time, endless amounts of grain and resources were transported over by 20 thousand laborers over to the frontlines from Dongchuan Prefecture or Jiangyang Prefecture.

The Great Xia Army was not anxious and neither was Feng Qingyang.

Yesterday, Di Chen had already made a promise that once the final battle started, he would send over 100 thousand troops to Swordsman City to catch Great Xia off guard.

With 100 thousand troops, their overall strength would crush the enemy. They also had a city to defend, so why would Feng Qingyang be anxious? He only needed to patiently wait for Great Xia to attack.

The key was that Di Chen had revealed the Dali plan to Feng Qingyang. The moment the Dali forces took over Dongchuan Prefecture and cut the Great Xia Army off, Swordsman City would have nothing to worry about.

Not only that, but Feng Qingyang could even claim back one by one the cities Great Xia had taken down. Who knows, he might even be able to take over the Dragon Legion Corps soldiers and increase the strength of his army.

Thinking about it, Feng Qingyang felt really good.

“Old fox, I am going to rip off your tail this time.” Feng Qingyang looked into the distance; he could see the moment he took his revenge.

With that, both sides entered a standstill. Who knows who would be the one to break this?

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

The chance would happen in Dali, in Dongchuan Prefecture.

Just as the Dragon Legion Corps was in a standstill with Swordsman City, a certain piece of news broke out through the wilderness.

10th month, 3rd day, a day that seemed really normal would be recorded in the history books of the wilderness.

On this day, the Alliance Army crossed the border into Dongchuan Prefecture and initiated a war against Great Xia.

200 thousand troops crossed the border like a flood, crazily swarming into Dongchuan Prefecture. Their sights were set on Yongren City and the northernmost point of the prefecture.

The Alliance Army made a loud statement that they were going to capture Baiqi alive.

Facing such a huge army, the various houses and counties who had their garrison forces removed could only tremble under the horse hooves of the enemy. Of course, even if the Garrison Divisions were present, it would still be useless.

Receiving the news, the Prefects and County Magistrates all made preparations to die or surrender.

The Alliance Army would not show any heart against an enemy like Great Xia.

Anywhere they passed, smoke bellowed and blood flowed like a river.

To the Great Xia people who were used to a normal life, this was like a thunderstorm on a sunny day.

Luckily, the Dali Alliance Army was in a rush, so they did not want to waste any time along the way. If not, Dongchuan Prefecture would be badly trampled on.

In comparison, the Great Xia Army was a bunch of benevolent troops.

……

The moment the Dali Alliance Army struck out, the entire wilderness jolted, their eyes wide open.

“Is Dali crazy? They actually tried to provoke Great Xia?”

Seeing the Great Xia achieve victory after victory in the Shu Lands, players expected them to take down Swordsman City. Who knew that a Dali Alliance Army would pop up suddenly?

“What kind of place is Yun City?”

No one had heard of Yun City, so many people were confused.

“Haha. We have a nice show to watch this time. It’s the first time Great Xia has been invaded, right? Who knows how angry Qiyue Wuyi would be? Blood is going to flow…”

Everyone knew Ouyang Shuo’s character; he would definitely retaliate.

“Little Mutuo has balls to try to touch the butt of a tiger.” This time, Little Mutuo became famous from one battle, and his fame spread across the wilderness.

“Haha, time for the tiger to show its might.”

Although the Dali Alliance Army was huge, the outside world did not feel afraid for Great Xia because they still had three Guards Legions.

“The moment the Guards Legion strikes, no one can stop them.”

With the Guards Legion, Great Xia was invincible.

As a result, the outside world did not feel that the Dali Alliance Army had any high chance.

At this very moment, more and more news spread.

Pretty much at the same time, Jingdu, Donghai, Jiangnan, Jingchu, and Guanxi, the troops that the Yanhuang Alliance had camped there started to provoke at the border.

It seemed like the Yanhuang Alliance was getting prepared to go all out.

This placed Stone City, West Chu, and other allies under huge pressure.

Without a doubt, the Yanhuang Alliance was trying to put pressure on all fronts on all of the Shanhai Alliance members to restrict the Guards Legion Corps from assisting Dongchuan Prefecture.

Chapter 946 - Decisive Battle at Yongren City

Chapter 946: Decisive Battle at Yongren City

One could not say that the Yanhuang Alliance’s threat was of no use.

After learning that 200 thousand Dali Alliance Army troops were attacking Dongchuan Prefecture, Great Xia moved 30 thousand Tiger Leopard Cavalry led by Fenwei General Ma Chao to go up north to Dongchuan Prefecture to assist Baiqi.

80% of the Guards Legion Corps remained in Shanhai City, threatening the entire wilderness.

When they received the news, Di Chen, Wang Meng, and the like heaved a collective sigh of relief.

In Di Chen’s eyes, if Great Xia did not send anyone to assist Baiqi, there really would be something going on. Great Xia arranging the Guards Legion Corps to help Baiqi showed that they were really caught off guard.

“A huge show is going to be played!”

Within the Handan City reading room, Di Chen was really excited, his eyes glowing. He was already thinking about using the Battle of Yongren City as a catalyst to crush Great Xia.

When Juedai Fenghua saw that, she smiled.

This whole plan was crafted by her.

When a woman acted vicious, they were absolutely terrifying.

…

Wang Meng was not worried. In his eyes, 20 thousand Guards Legion Corps troops were not enough to turn this all around.

At night, the army that battled for an entire day was resting in the wilderness.

In just a day, 10 thousand innocent civilians died under the blades of the Alliance Army. Numerous shops were pillaged while treasuries and even mansions were not left alone.

With the satisfaction of the pillaging, the army celebrated in the camp. This was a great achievement, so it was worth the celebrations.

Within the central tent, Wang Meng and the others had gathered once more.

As a result of the victory during the day, Little Mutuo and the others had unconcealable delight on their faces.

Especially Little Mutuo, who was just a small Lord. He had never seen such a huge stage. During the pillaging in the morning, the soldiers that belonged to Yun City took the most.

It was also them that entered the mansions.

Even members of Xiao Alliance were not so bold, and they looked at the Yun City Army with disgust. They dissed them and said, “No wonder they can only remain in Dali like tortoises. People like them are not even good enough to carry shoes for the Xia army.”

These words might sound vicious, but it caused the surrounding players to laugh out loud.

“The kind of the Lord determines the kind of the troops.”

‘Haha~’

They laughed once more.

Adventure gamemode players were bold and said whatever they wanted to. Although they were members of Xiao Alliance, they really respected Lords like Qiyue Wuyi.

Of course, respect was respect, but they still had to do what they had to do.

Seeing all of them settle down, Wang Meng asked them all to keep quiet, “You all have heard? Great Xia has already sent 30 thousand Tiger Leopard Cavalry to teleport to Consonance City. They will catch up soon.”

Xiao Nianying and the others nodded; their expression turned from causal to solemn.

They knew that although the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps was in Consonance City, they were the famous Tiger Leopard Cavalry. They were really quick and could catch up to them in no time.

They had very little time left.

Seeing this, Wang Meng did not beat around the bush and said directly, “Since all of you understand what it means, I will not say much. To save time, we will not enter cities tomorrow and try to reach Yongren City in two days.”

Xiao Nianying and the others nodded and agreed with Wang Meng’s arrangements, “Do not worry general, we know what to do.” Although pillaging was fun, they all had foresight and knew that taking down Yongren City was the main mission.

If not, everything would be for nothing.

Only Little Mutuo was a little unhappy, but no one bothered about him.

Wang Meng looked at the commander of the Dali Imperial Court guards troops and said, “General, please lead your forces as the vanguard to surround Yongren City in advance. It is best if we can take it down before the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps arrives.”

“Yes!”

That guards commander was really cool. He cupped his fists and did not say anything after that. As someone who came from the imperial city, he hated military personnel killing civilians, so he naturally did not have a good impression of Wang Meng and the others.

If it were not because the king ordered him to follow them, he would have acted up.

As a result, Wang Meng selected him to be the vanguard.

With the matter settled, all of them went their separate ways.

The next morning, the army sped up. They galloped on the official path and went around the cities to head directly toward Yongren City. On the night of the 5th day, the vanguard forces had arrived before Yongren City.

The Battle of Yongren City was about to begin.

…

10th month, 6th day, Yongren City.

As a border city, Yongren City had faced its fair share of calamity. Till date, there were many scars from the previous battle.

On the city wall, the Dragon Legion Corps flags were waving in the wind. 30 thousand troops spread out over four sides. Their armor was ice cold as they laid in wait.

It was another spectacular scene outside the city wall.

Early in the morning, apart from the 50 thousand vanguard forces that arrived early, there were many more iron armored soldiers who arrived through the official paths.

As there were too many of them, the paths were filled with advancing troops; they looked like a black giant dragon.

Amongst the proper army, there were player forces in many different colors. The equipment of adventure gamemode players was selected by themselves, so they did not wear the standard uniform of the army.

Looking out, they were like a bunch of flowers.

In terms of military aura, the player forces naturally could not compare to the army.

As time went on, more and more troops gathered outside Yongren City. First, they gathered in the south outskirts, and they quickly filled up even the south.

Seeing that, they started to move toward the other three sides.

At 11 AM, soldiers stood on all four sides.

Looking out, all four directions were closely packed with troops. They had spears and blades in their hands. The waving flag and the shining armor gave one an invisible pressure.

The 200 thousand Alliance Army looked like the agents of the devil that wanted to swallow up Yongren City.

As they had just arrived, the camp outside of the city was bustling and extremely noisy like a market.

South outskirts, middle troop tent.

After settling down their forces, Wang Meng gathered up everyone once more to have a last meeting.

“Weird, why didn’t Baiqi leave?”

The moment he sat down, Little Mutuo voiced his doubts. If he was the one, he would have left long ago. Little Mutuo asked, “Is there something fishy going on, or maybe that Baiqi has sneaked away?”

When Xiao Nianying heard that, they were shocked, and they all looked toward Wang Meng.

Wang Meng was really calm and smiled, “Baiqi is definitely inside.”

“Why?” Little Mutuo continued to ask.

Wang Meng explained, “Yongren City is not only their frontline command center, but it is also their logistical base, so there is a large amount of grain there. If he abandons the city, the Dragon Legion Corps in the Shu Lands would have to starve.”

“With his arrogance, he definitely would not abandon the city.”

Little Mutuo and the others were enlightened, and the worry in their hearts disappeared once more. This battle concerned too much, and although these core people seemed really glamorous, they were also under a lot of pressure.

Seeing that, Wang Meng suddenly smiled and said, “Let’s not sit here; let’s go out and take a look!” As he said that, he stood up and led the way outside.

Wang Meng was doing that to reduce the pressure.

To make it easier for them to command the troops, the middle troop tent was set on a small hill. Looking down from the top, one could see the camp really clearly.

Tens of thousands of tents were placed on the land, and they went up and down based on the geography. They were lined up orderly. Looking at such a scene, all of them could not help but feel pride.

Wang Meng pointed at the troops and smiled, “With such an army, what are we worried about?”

“That’s right; the one that should be worried is Baiqi!”

Little Mutuo agreed, and a look of happiness flashed across his face.

When Xiao Nianying saw this, despise appeared in his eyes. As a person from an aristocratic family, he looked down on people like Little Mutuo.

Even toward Ouyang Shuo, Xiao Nianying did not have much respect, and he even often said to people, “He’s just lucky that he’s able to step over our heads.”

Just as he was deep in thought, the voice of the Dali Imperial Court guards commander entered his ears, “Guys, look. What’s that thing sticking out of the city wall?”

All of them looked toward where he was pointing to. Every two meters, there was a huge protruding object. However, this thing was covered, and none of them knew what it was.

Since it was covered, how would they know? Little Mutuo acted like it was nothing, “Scoff, who cares; it’s just useless!”

Although he said that, the unease and nervousness in his voice was evident.

Baiqi was a God General, so why would he make such a useless act? It was definitely a secret weapon.

Little Mutuo roughly guessed what it could be. However, due to the ostrich mentality, he did not think deeply into it.

Xiao Nianying probably had some guesses, but he simply did not say it out.

Only the guards commander did not know what it was. He looked at Wang Meng, hoping for an answer.

The atmosphere instantly became awkward.

“Cough.” Wang Meng’s face appeared a little embarrassed. He broke the depressed atmosphere and said, “Who cares what it is? Our troops have gathered; the arrow has been pulled, and it has to be fired. War is based on strength, and we outnumber them, so there’s nothing that they can do.”

“General is right.”

Little Mutuo and Xiao Nianying agreed, but their anxiousness was being released once more. Only the guards commander’s brows were still locked tight, as no one could answer his doubts.

Chapter 947 - Crushing Defeat

Chapter 947: Crushing Defeat

Entering the 10th month, the weather suddenly became cooling. Even in noon, the weather was not hot, and the only thing hot was the atmosphere outside Yongren City.

200 thousand Alliance Army troops surrounded the city, and one formation after another lined up outside the city. Amongst the formations, there were siege chariots, arrow turrets, and other siege weapons.

Under the legs of the warriors at the front, there were siege ladders.

200 thousand troops were waiting for one order before they launched their attack on Yongren City.

In the middle troop tent, Wang Meng stood at the highest point of the little hill, while Xiao Nianying and the others lined up behind him. All of them were focused on the battlefield, focused on Yongren City that was not far away.

This was the first time any of them had commanded 200 thousand troops to siege, so they were all really excited.

Even Xiao Nianyang, who was always really arrogant, could not hide his excitement. As an adventure gamemode player, he obviously did not have a chance to participate in such a huge battle before.

In comparison, adventure gamemode player battles were nothing.

As he looked out, Xiao Nianying finally noticed Baiqi on the city wall, “Who knows where Baiqi get his confidence from, he actually is unafraid of dying?”

Little Mutuo joked, “It is not that he is unafraid of dying. Maybe he plans to change sides.”

“Even if he changes sides, it will not be your turn. Your place is too small to fit such a god!” Xiao Nianying did not give Little Mutuo even a little bit of face. The latter’s face instantly turned ugly.

Xiao Nianying did not care, and he acted like nothing had happened.

Wang Meng looked up into the sky. Seeing that it was noon, he ordered, “Sound the drums!”

‘Dong! Dong! Dongdong…’

The order was received by the two largest war drums in the middle troop camp. Receiving this signal, the war drums on the frontlines all sounded out with the same tempo of drumming.

They were drumming the ‘prince qin breaking through the enemy array’.

The deafening drums brought with it an energizing power.

Listening to the drums that would make ones’ blood boil, the sword shield soldiers on the frontlines followed the tempo and used their war blades to hit their shields. They roared out like animals, ‘Ha! Ha! Haha…’

Tens of thousands of people shouted together. Along with the loud war drums, the sounds that they made reverberated through the wilderness, echoing back and forth through the mountains. Some birds were shocked, and just as they flew into the air, it was like they were shot by an arrow as they dropped into the bushes.

This sound formed an unbreakable aura, and it charged right at the Dragon Legion Corps soldiers. No matter how strong the Dragon Legion Corps was, in front of such an array, they were terrified.

The civilians in Yongren City were so afraid that they shivered.

Seeing the situation, Wang Meng gave a satisfied smile, “Attack!”

Receiving the order, the drums changed and became more hurried.

The messenger soldiers that were ready long ago waved their red flags, giving the order to attack. The military order was swiftly passed down all the way to the frontlines.

Receiving the order, the generals waved their machetes and hollered, “Attack!”

Even the frontlines were two kilometers away from the city walls. Getting the order, the sword shield soldiers continued to hit their shields or push siege weapons as they proceeded forth in a stable and calm manner.

The airtight encirclement was like a pocket, getting smaller and smaller, and it was about to swallow up Yongren City.

Every step that the army took could make the ground shake. The shaking encapsulated a destructive power that no one could block.

Seeing this, Wang Meng turned around to Little Mutuo and the others and smiled, “You guys have trained your troops well!”

Little Mutuo and the others revealed gleeful expressions as well as looks of pride.

Not to mention other aspects, but just the aura that they were giving off made the 200 thousand of them look like a well-trained elite army.

At the current moment, Wang Meng was becoming more and more confident about taking down Yongren City.

…

In the short while that they them were talking, the vanguard forces reached 500 meters away from the city walls. Any further and they would enter the attack range of the enemy.

Wang Meng sent down his orders without any hesitation, and the war drums changed once more, becoming even quicker. The frontline commanding officers, upon receiving the signal, waved the swords in their hands and shouted, “Charge!”

“Kill!”

The army suddenly quickened their pace. Before, they were walking but now were running as they charged at the city walls with all their strength. The faster they arrived under the walls, the safer it was.

The huge army was like a black flood, flowing right at the city.

…

On the Yongren City city wall, Baiqi was like a spear, standing straight in the middle of the wall.

Baiqi had been in even bigger battles, so the array outside could not even surprise him. Once the enemy was within a thousand meters, he calmly spat out two words, “Get ready!”

The order seemed really vague but all the troops understood.

With a ‘Shua!’ the huge items under the covers were revealed. Naturally, they were the Z1 type cannons. Based on rough estimations, there were no less than 500 of them.

These cannons were all the available ones from Steel City, and Baiqi had taken them all.

The black cannon openings of the cannons pointed outward, making one feel a chill run down their spines.

This was the natural threat of a firearm weapon.

Once the enemy troops got in range, without needing Baiqi to order them, they fired the 500 cannons. Their main targets were the siege chariots and the arrow turrets.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

The cannonballs formed a perfect arc in the air, and they accurately struck siege weapon after siege weapon.

The P1 Type Cannon from long ago had already tossed aside the backward solid core cannonballs and had used cannonballs filled with gunpowder. The moment the cannonball struck its target, it would explode and cause a lot of damage.

With a ‘Huala!’ the siege chariots that were hit broke into two. The broken parts fell straight down toward the people below, causing mass panic.

The explosion of the cannonball caused shrapnel to shoot out, killing off a huge group of people. The cannonballs were like fireworks all around, bursting apart in the crowd.

The morale that they had just gathered up was instantly crushed.

Based on rough estimations, in just this round of attack, there were 300 siege weapons that were hit and 200 became useless on the spot.

As the Alliance Army stood stunned, the cannon fire continued.

Without a doubt, this was the threat that Great Xia had prepared for the Alliance Army.

…

Seeing the cannons on the city wall revealed, Wang Meng and the others who were focused on the battlefield were stunned. Even so, Wang Meng did not give any further instructions, and the hurried drum beats continued to sound.

Wang Meng was ready to make sacrifices.

As long as he achieved his strategic goal, anything was worth it for the Yanhuang Alliance. Hence, when the frontline hesitated, he gave them the order to go all out.

The moment this order was given, anyone who dared to retreat or run would be executed.

…

“Kill!”

The Alliance Army was not a bunch of weaklings. Naturally, they would not be easily frightened. With the military order given, they rushed against the cannon fire and launched their ferocious assault on Yongren City. They quickly charged to the foot of the city wall.

In the process, half of the siege chariots were destroyed.

‘Da! Da! Da!’

Without the siege chariots, the scaling ladders were put to use.

Simple, direct.

The defending Dragon Legion Corps did not show any mercy. They shot arrows, threw stones, rolled wood, or poured down alchemical fire oil.

They pretty much used all that they could.

All of a sudden, the Alliance Army suffered heavy casualties. The first wave suffered heavy losses, and in just one hour, 20 thousand of them died on the battlefield

Even so, the Alliance Army remained fearless.

Wang Meng did not care and ordered, “Continue the attack!”

As the group continued to siege, everyone there was prepared to sacrifice a portion of their forces. The issue was whether the sacrificed portion crossed the limit that they could accept or not.

The current Yongren City was like a meat grinder, swallowing up the enemy lives.

Seeing that, Little Mutuo’s face turned ashen white, as he not used to the gory scenes. In the territory, he did not even experience personally leading his troops into battle.

Under the relentless assault, the Yongren City city wall had many close calls; especially the 100 thousand players, who were the biggest problem for the Dragon Legion Corps.

These players were really strong and easily charged to the city wall.

If the Dragon Legion Corps was not equally strong, who knows what would have happened.

When Wang Meng saw that, he grinned.

“As long as we are not afraid of making sacrifices, there’s no territory that cannot be taken down.”

Xiao Nianying’s expression was really unnatural, as the huge sacrifices had started to eat away at his bottom line.

Xiao Alliance had sent all their elites, and the guild had promised these elites heavy compensation and war rewards.

If not, these players obviously would not willingly do as Xiao Nianying said.

If there were really large scale casualties, with the foundations of the Xiao Alliance, they would not be able to afford it. The price to pay for player deaths was simply too huge, and the compensation amount naturally could not be compared to the army.

A player’s basic amount would reach 500 gold, and this did not include equipment, cultivation method compensation, and the like. One must also arrange professional training squads to help them level up.

Before this, he had calculated that if they lost 10 thousand men, Xiao Alliance would be in big trouble. Looking at the current situation, the prospects did not seem good.

As the battle went on, Xiao Nianying’s expression grew more and more serious.

When Little Mutuo saw that, he gloated.

Little Mutuo could be said to dislike Xiao Nianying.

Out of all of them, apart from Wang Meng, probably Little Mutuo was the most relaxed.

The moment he agreed with the terms of the Yanhuang Alliance, he knew that the survival of Yun City no longer had anything to do with him.

Regardless of winning or losing, he would have to give us the commanding rights to the city. With the character of the Yanhuang Alliance, since they paid such a high price, they would naturally want things in return.

Just as each of them was deep in their own thoughts, the battle slowly entered its crucial stage.

To try to take down Yongren City as quickly as possible, Wang Meng did not even blink, and he heartlessly sent soldier after soldier onto the frontlines.

200 thousand soldiers arranged on all four sides, so they had an average of 50 thousand per side.

The 50 thousand was split into five groups of ten thousand men that up lined up 2-2-1. They had a front army, a middle army, and a reserve army.

Once the front was depleted, Wang Meng ordered the middle army to attack. With that, tens of thousands of people were participating in this siege.

Looking out, each portion of the city wall had groups of people sieging. On the walls, there were many scaling ladders with many people climbing them.

The entire battlefield was a sea of people.

Amongst the sea of people, smoke bellowed, cannons fired, and arrows rained down.

Every moment, hundreds and thousands of people died.

Under such a situation, the defending Dragon Legion Corps troops revealed their exhaustion. The huge amounts of defending resources were getting depleted at a visible rate, and it looked like it was not going to last for long.

Without the help of the defending resources, they would not be able to hold on for long.

…

Seeing the enemy middle troops being thrown into the battle, Baiqi knew that the chance he had been waiting for had finally arrived. He turned around and ordered, “Fire the signal bullet!”

“Yes commander!”

The soldier who was already prepared ignited the signal bullet in his hand, and a red flare shot into the sky.

“What’s that?” Wang Meng and the others were shocked.

Little Mutuo said, “It’s a signal bullet.”

Wang Meng obviously knew what it was; the problem was who it was for.

Unease rose up in his heart as he turned around and asked his Personal Guard, “Where’s the Great Xia Tiger Leopard Cavalry?” Wang Meng suspected that the Tiger Leopard Cavalry had arrived.

The Personal Guards replied, “Our spy reported in the morning that they are still at Yao City and would need at least a day to arrive.”

“It’s not the Tiger Leopard Cavalry?” Wang Meng felt even more uneasy.

When Little Mutuo saw that, he consoled Wang Meng, “General, do not worry. Apart from
the Dragon Legion Corps, there is no other force in Dongchuan Prefecture. Even the Garrison Divisions were disarmed.”

Wang Meng forced a smile, “‘Maybe I was overthinking things.”

Although that was the case, he ordered the four reserve armies to be prepared.

Little Mutuo and the others respected his meticulous nature. Naturally, they would not stop him.

…

Wang Meng’s uneasiness was proven to be right in the end.

Half an hour after the signal bullet was fired, a deafening rumble could be heard from the north outskirts.

“This is?”

The faces of Wang Meng and the others changed.

“It’s the north side!”

Xiao Nianying was the sharpest out of them. Unfortunately, there was nothing that he could do.

…

Yongren City north outskirts, woods.

The moment the signal bullet was fired, the 4th legion of the Guards Legion Corps charge out under the leadership of Er’Lai.

Compared to the Dragon Legion Corps, the Guards Legion Corps was the true Asura. Each member had been through hundreds of battles, and they were the true war elite soldiers.

Furthermore, they had someone like Er’Lai leading them; they were a bunch of devils.

“Kill!”

The first part that was attacked was the north Alliance Army.

The 10 thousand reserve troops that had just gotten the order to be in alert and had not reacted before they were stabbed from the back. They turned into a mess right away.

All of a sudden, an intense massacre started amongst the formation, and a bloody aura rose toward the heavens.

Destruction.

The moment the two armies engaged, the difference in strength was obvious.

The Guards Legion Corps was like an invincible knife, cutting the Alliance Army reserve forces into half. They did not stop there, and they continued on toward the Alliance Army that was sieging.

This time, the Alliance Army was in chaos.

Chapter 948 - Dog Bites Dog

Chapter 948: Dog Bites Dog

The defeat of the Alliance Army troops in the northern outskirts was only the start.

The fleeing Alliance Army was like birds that heard the sound of a bullet. They subconsciously escaped toward the east and west, which messed up the Alliance Army formations on both sides.

A general grabbed onto a fleeing soldier and asked, “What happened in the north?” The Alliance Army soldiers on the east and west did not know what was happening.

“Enemy, enemy troops are here!”

The General asked, “Where from, how many? From the city or from where?”

The string of question stunned the little soldier, and he stammered, “I, I do not know. Behind me, people behind me ran, so I followed….”

The general shook his head and released his grip and allowed that soldier to escape.

On the chaotic battlefield, you definitely could not get accurate information from one lowly soldier.

“Send a few men to see what’s happening.” The general ordered.

“Yes!”

Very quickly, a few cavalry went against the crowd and headed toward the north.

Before the scouts could even get any news, the crowd swarmed toward them, and any force in front of them that were in their way was brushed aside.

Many people were stepped on and killed.

The entire battlefield was like a living hell, and everywhere was chaotic and filled with helpless people.

Er’Lai saw the chance to decisively split the legion into two and chase toward both directions. He did not expect the Alliance Army to look so good but actually be so useless. It broke apart so easily.

Speaking of which, it was not too much of a surprise.

The Alliance Army was made of three big pieces. Apart from the Dali guards troops, which were strong, the rest were randomly put together. Yun City’s 50 thousand were pieced together after the territories merged.

The 100 thousand players of Xiao Alliance were useless, as they did not have any war experience.

In truth, the ones that ran away the fastest were the players.

These players did not have strong military disciple, and staying alive was their priority. Although they were promised huge compensation fees if they died, no one was willing to start over.

The 100 thousand players instantly became the greatest uncertain factor of the Alliance Army.

These three troops were totally different and behaved differently too.

Such an Alliance Army faced resistance in their siege and a drop in morale. Suddenly, they found a trump card like the Guards Legion Corps charging at them. Obviously, they would be crushed.

Wang Meng was probably really blind when he praised this army for being well trained. Such an army looked good when things were going well. However, the moment the situation changed, their true selves were revealed.

In comparison, they were even weaker than the Swordsman City Army.

The Guards Legion Corps 4th legion led by Er’Lai was a pack of wolves chasing little sheep. They did whatever they wished amongst the Alliance Army troops. Using the chance, they engaged in slaughter. Death spread out amongst the army and deepened the fear of the Alliance Army.

Since the siege started, around 150 thousand troops of the Alliance Army remained, and they had twice the number of troops compared to the Guards Legion Corps. For the Guards Legion Corps to handle such an army, they needed to take the initiative to attack, break out of their formation, and set fear in their hearts to destroy their morale.

As they say, three days makes a huge difference to a soldier.

Three years has passed since Er’Lai appeared in the wilderness, and with the development of Ouyang Shuo, he did not purely reply on brute force like before.

Three years of training had taught him a lot about the art of war, and he was now a totally changed person.

Hence Er’Lai’s usage of troops was well panned. The 4th legion was an infantry and cavalry mix. The cavalry opened the way in the front to tear apart the enemy, while the infantry provided cover to expand their victory.

Both soldier types worked flawlessly with one another like an arm and its fingers.

From a logical point of view, this Guards Legion was made up from members from the three other legion corps, so why were they so efficient and well-coordinated?

This was due to the training system set by Training Division Secretary Gao Shun.

Be it the Guards Legion Corps, Dragon Legion Corps, Tiger Legion Corps, or Leopard Legion Corps, they all used the same Great Xia warfighting training manual, so this system was ingrained into their blood.

It was even more so for the war elite soldiers.

With this to rely on along with suitable commanders, how could it not be efficient?

A miraculous scene appeared in the wilderness.

70 thousand Guards Legion Corps troops chased 150 thousand Alliance Army soldiers.

…

On the south outskirts, Wang Meng looked out at the chaotic scene below, and his face slowly turned black.

If Wang Meng could have lasted for a few more years in history and lasted till the Battle of Fei River, maybe he would understand. The fall of the Alliance Army in front of him was really similar to the defeat of the former Qin army.

Soldiers that were not proper soldiers; generals that were not proper generals.

Soldiers could not find their generals, and generals could not gather up their soldiers

Once the entire battlefield was in chaos, they had no more ability to siege.

After the east and west alliance armies were sent into chaos, they fled toward the south. Thanks to this chain reaction, the entire Alliance Army was in a mess.

There was no peaceful place in any direction.

A sudden collapse was in front of their eyes.

“Let’s flee!” someone could not help but say.

Who knew that these words would totally infuriate Wang Meng? He turned around and shouted, “Who? Who wants to retreat? Step out!” Those eyes were enough to swallow someone.

“Me.”

Xiao Nianying did not show a single shred of fear nor did he feel any guilt. Since the Alliance Army was destined to lose, he did not want Wang Meng to drag Xiao Alliance down to hell with him.

“Fat hope!”

Wang Meng was feeling depressed as he realized that he could not control Xiao Nianying.

Before coming, he had sworn a military oath. If he did not take down Yongren City and capture Baiqi, he would kill himself. Hence, there was no way out of this battle for him.

It was either he captured Baiqi or he died.

Before this, when Wang Meng led the envoy to Great Sui and failed, his position in Handan City became really awkward. Now, he was given another huge task by his Lord, so how could he fail once more?

“Scoff, if you are not going to, we will!”

Seeing that a loss was ascertained, Xiao Nianying did not want everyone to die together.

In such a short while, tens of thousands of Xiao Alliance elites had died, reaching the maximum that the guild could take. Anymore and the entire guild would be destroyed.

Wang Meng hollered, “You dare! I am the commander. I can take down whoever decides to not follow ordered.” As he said it, some Personal Guards had already surrounded Xiao Nianying.

In Xiao Nianying’s eyes, Wang Meng was just an NPC, and the arrogance in his bones made him feel that he was better than Wang Meng. Obviously, he would not accept such humiliation.

This totally infuriated Xiao Nianying despite his good temper, and his expression became really cold. With a ‘Shua!’ he pulled out his sword. “I’ve given you face!”

“Wang Meng, you are just Di Chen’s dog. I gave him face to let you be the general, and you really think you are important? Do you believe I’ll kill you with one sword?”

“You!” Wang Meng was filled with fury and embarrassment.

At this current stage, Wang Meng no longer had the face to see his Lord anymore.

The only way out for him was death.

“Take him down!” Wang Meng said coldly.

The entire tent was guarded by many Personal Guards. Receiving the order, they wanted to proceed forward to take Xiao Nianying down.

Xiao Nianying laughed coldly, “Wang Meng, think carefully. I’m a player. I cannot die, and I have a special treasure. If you capture me, I’ll ensure that you will die a terrible death.”

With the substitute doll, there was nothing for Xiao Nianying to fear.

Facing Xiao Nianying’s death threat, Wang Meng was unfazed and said coldly, “I’ve left death aside. You cannot threaten me. Men, tie him up and lock him in the tent for questioning.”

“Yes!”

The Personal Guards did not hesitate and swarmed forward.

Xiao Nianying panicked, and he hesitated about whether he should fight back or not.

Although Xiao Nianying was not afraid of dying, he was unwilling to lose a substitute doll. That was a treasure that had no supply, and he had spent 300 thousand gold on it.

“Just you wait!”

Xiao Nianying chose to give in, leaving behind a vicious statement like an aristocratic family son would.

‘A wise man submits to their circumstances.’ That was their motto.

Wang Meng did not speak, but his eyes sweep across little Mutuo and the guards commander.

Compared to Xiao Nianying, Wang Meng, who was the most important official under Fu Jian, was a clever old fox with a lot of experience.

It was just too easy for him to take care of Xiao Nianying.

He took Xiao Nianying down so decisively to prevent the players of Xiao Alliance from leaving early. At the same time, this acted as a warning to Little Mutuo and the others.

If all of them changed their minds, and they all wanted to retreat, this war was definitely over. The Alliance Army was only temporarily in a mess, and they could still fight.

As expected, the moment he laid out his threat, the two of them held it in and did not say anything.

With that, the internal conflict was settled.

However, the battle still was not looking good. Wang Meng calmed down and started to reposition the troops. His first order was for them to stop attacking the city and concentrate on the mess.

The moment the order was given, the sieging troops that did not know what was happening fell back one after the other.

In a short while, the vast wilderness was filled up with people. Due to the siege being a rushed matter, a large half of them were not thrown onto the frontlines, so it was not that chaotic.

Even if they retreated from the city walls, their entire organization was still perfect.

This gave Wang Meng confidence.

Following which, he made the south outskirts Alliance Army form up to get ready to block the first wave of attacks from the enemy. At the same time, he sent men to calm down the soldiers who were defeated to gather them together.

The 10 thousand reserves in the south were used as enforcers. Anyone who dared to flee or spread rumors was punished.

This reorganization managed to finally calm down the panicky Alliance Army.

However, Wang Meng had underestimated Er’Lai, Baiqi, and all the more Great Xia.

Chapter 949 - Inevitable Trouble

Chapter 949: Inevitable Trouble

Yongren City city wall.

Wang Meng’s movements of the Alliance Army were all seen by Baiqi.

How would such small antics stop Baiqi? He immediately ordered, “Zhao Po Nu!”

“Present!”

“Immediately gather a group of soldiers and gather at the south city gate. Wait for my orders!”

“Yes!”

Zhao Po Nu followed the order.

After that huge battle, the Dragon Legion Corps lost six thousand men. Luckily, the enemy had stopped the siege. Apart from leaving a portion of them to defend the south city wall, the remaining was gathered by Zhao Po Nu for a total of 30 thousand men.

Baiqi followed up by ordering, “Sound the drums!”

“Yes commander!”

‘Dong! Dong Dong!’

This was the first time the war drums had sounded on the Yongren City city wall. This was not for the defending soldiers, and the rushed and powerful drum beat spread into the ears of the Guards Legion Corps soldiers fighting outside.

When they heard the drums, they were instantly energized; especially Er’Lai and the other Major Generals, who ordered their deputy general, “Focus on the flags on the city wall.”

“Yes.”

Baiqi had told Er’Lai that when the battle reached a standstill, he would personally command the Guards Legion Corps using flags from the city wall.

The Guards Legion Corps soldiers were engaging in slaughter, so their field of vision would naturally be obstructed. Even with the discipline of the Guards Legion Corps, there might be some troops who went the wrong way or were left behind.

If one was not careful, they would be ambushed by the Alliance Army.

With Baiqi’s move, there would be no problem.

Baiqi was looking down from above at the entire battlefield, and everything could be seen clearly in his eyes. Furthermore, he had extremely high commanding standards and could flexibly command the troops as to where to attack and where to avoid.

Baiqi was the eyes and brains of the Guards Legion Corps.

With Baiqi’s commanding them, the City Protection Legion Corps only needed to follow instructions. They did not need to care about the rest.

With the two working together, things were done really efficiently.

As expected, under Baiqi’s leadership, Wang Meng’s defenses were easily avoided, and they directly attacked the backlines of the Alliance Army. Once again, they sent the enemy into chaos.

If there were troops buying them time to recover, maybe they could fight. However, just as they managed to catch their breaths, those war gods descended once more, so how could they not be terrified?

Rumors started to spread out amongst the army.

At the start, it was ‘Great Xia sneak attacked us from the north with 100 thousand men’, slowly it became ‘Great Xia has set a trap for us with 300 thousand men.’

Who knew that the soldiers would actually believe that?

If not, how would the enemy troops be able to beat them so easily?

“There’s no news as true as that.” Swore the soldiers as they retreated. Only then could they flee in peace.

As for those ten thousand enforcers, they could not do much in the huge crowd, and they could not even protect themselves. That was because the Asura Baiqi had noticed them!

The expressionless Baiqi was like an expert surgeon, and the Guards Legion Corps was like the scalpel in his hand as he dissected and cut up the Alliance Army.

Which group to attack to destroy their defense line, which castle to break to breach, and which position to attack to deal the most damage.

Baiqi was really clear about all of this, and his god eyes moved like lightning.

In comparison, Wang Meng’s leadership appeared a lot weaker. Seeing that the Alliance Army was in a mess, Wang Meng was slowly losing control.

A full scale collapse was unavoidable.

The first to retreat were the players of Xiao Alliance. All of them subconsciously fled to save their lives at the start, but now they fled due to the gore of the situation.

Think about it. A person who basically only fought monsters and mountain bandits was now in such a noisy and gory environment, where it was a total mess. Moreover, everyone around them was people they did not recognize.

Thinking about how the killers behind them might catch up at any moment, how would they not feel terrified?

Now, why would they bother to care about the big picture? It was best if they escaped as soon as possible. With the experience today, these players would not dare to step on a battlefield.

It was better to fight with monsters and mountain bandits.

The collapse of the player forces became an accelerant to the full scale collapse of the Alliance Army. A collapse that no one could stop was on play outside of Yongren City.

Looking out, on the southern outskirts of Yongren City, there were soldiers stretching hundreds of miles who threw down their helmets and armor and fleeing.

Grain, resources, siege weapons, and even equipment were abandoned on the battlefield.

Smoke bellowed on the little hill that the Alliance Army command center was on. Before Wang Meng fled, he ordered all the army information and the tent to be set on fire.

Luckily, Wang Meng had some heart, and he let Xiao Nianying go before he left.

Baiqi knew that it was settled, but he still was not satisfied. He wanted to win even more, “Order Zhao Po Nu to immediately exit the city and chase.”

“Yes commander!”

After a short while, the south city gate that the Alliance Army did not take down opened from the inside.

The 30 thousand Dragon Legion Corps came out of the gates charging. Along with the Guards Legion Corps troops, they started to surround the Alliance Army.

Chasing out, there were countless of prisoners.

One party chasing and one party fleeing; nightfall quickly arrived and troop movement was impossible.

Be it the chasing side or the fleeing side, they all earned themselves precious breathing time to stop, rest, and eat up.

Tragically, the Alliance Army soldiers noticed that they had tossed away their grain and resources, so they had no food to eat. Helplessly, they could only fill themselves up with river water.

This night was destined to be one that no one could fall asleep.

Wang Meng could be considered a responsible general who was not in a rush to commit suicide to seek forgiveness. He knew that at such a time, he needed to be responsible as the overall commander.

Under the night sky, Wang Meng sent out personal troops to try to gather up the remnant men to get them together. That was because he knew that the Great Xia Army would not easily let them go.

As soon as the sky turned bright, that pack of wolves would chase up.

The Alliance Army soldiers who had calmed down slightly now still did not understand why they had fled so crazily in the morning. Their minds were not even working, and they only had one thought.

‘Run, run toward the south!’

When they calmed down, they were all embarrassed. How were they like a proper army?

Receiving the gathering order from the commander, most of them decided to come over. Not for other reasons, but because it was the best chance for survival.

One must not forget that they were still in Great Xia territory.

Scattered troops were unable to escape the chase of the enemy soldiers. Only by working together would they have a chance to survive.

Wang Meng had once again become the heart of the Alliance Army, and even the Xiao Alliance players did not leave alone. Without the protection of the army, they did not feel confident about escaping back to Dali.

The problem was that Er’Lai, Zhao Po Nu, and other Great Xia generals definitely would not let Wang Meng do as he wished.

Just as he sent out small groups, Er’Lai sent out elite cavalry to launch sneak attacks at night to disturb the Alliance Army so that they could not rest easy.

Every time the Great Xia cavalry attacked, no matter how many there were, it caused the Alliance Army soldiers to run. They did not even consider staying back to retaliate.

On this night, the remaining Alliance Army troops that were fighting for a whole day were tortured for an entire night and did not have a good night rest.

Early in the morning, their eyes were blood red.

And this was just the start of their nightmare.

The moment the sky turned bright, the Great Xia Army started chasing and engaged in slaughter again.

The main focus of their attack was the Alliance Army that Wang Meng had spent so much effort to gather up. Under the leadership of Er’Lai, they split the Alliance Army apart.

When Wang Meng saw this, his heart was filled with despair.

The two sides engaged in a life and death chase in the Dongchuan Prefecture wilderness.

The remaining Alliance Army troops were devoured one by one or chose to surrender. The number of war prisoners grew exponentially.

This lasted for a full two days and two nights.

In the morning of the third day, the remaining troops finally ran to the border. It looked like they were about to enter the Dali Prefecture. Only around 60 thousand Alliance Army troops managed to reach here.

“Phew, at least we escaped!”

The Alliance Army soldiers had a feeling of coming back from the dead, and their nerves finally relaxed.

In the army formation, Wang Meng, Little Mutuo, Xiao Nianying, and the like were tightly guarded by the Personal Guards. However, their faces did not show the confidence and aura from before, only exhaustion.

Xiao Nianying’s heart was as dead as ash.

After the huge battle, less than 30 thousand Xiao Alliance soldiers remained.

Just the compensation fee alone was a sky high amount.

If he needed to compensate them one by one, the Xiao Alliance would go to bankrupt. Not to mention that this battle had caused their overall strength to drop, so they would not be able to keep their position as the top guild in Dali.

A huge crisis was walking toward Xiao Nianying, and it covered the heads of the Xiao Family and the Xiao Alliance.

Him alone would not be able to escape this.

The reason why he was able to hold on till now was that hope. After all, this whole thing started because of Yanhuang Alliance, and they definitely would not leave them in the lurch.

Xiao Alliance was not a chess piece that could be casually tossed aside like Xunlong Dianxue. The Xiao Family was a part of Silver Hand and could not be easily provoked.

The only thing was that they were defeated in this battle.

When they reached the border, the Dali guards commander suddenly frowned and said, “General, isn’t it a little too quiet?”

Wang Meng was stunned and reacted, “It is.”

Something was definitely up.

Waking over, Wang Meng felt that he had forgotten something immensely important.

“Ask the army to be on guard!” Wang Meng ordered.

Seeing which, Little Mutuo said causally, “General Wang, you are making a mountain out of a mole hill. You really got frightened by the Great Xia Army?”

The moment his words landed, the sound of horse hooves broke out from the forests on both sides.

The moment Wang Meng heard that, his face instantly turned ashen white. He finally remembered what he forgot, “Damn it. The Great Xia Tiger Leopard Cavalry has not appeared in Dongchuan Prefecture.”

Chapter 950 - Removing the Roots of the Problem

Chapter 950: Removing the Roots of the Problem

Lying in wait at the border of Dongchuan Prefecture were the 30 thousand Tiger Leopard Cavalry led by Ma Chao.

The day that the Battle of Yongren City ended, Baiqi used the relay to send an emergency message to Ma Chao to ask him not to rush to Yongren City but to switch paths to the border.

Hence, there was this ambush.

The moment that the Tiger Leopard Cavalry charged out, Wang Meng was totally in despair. He looked toward the north, “Lord, I’ve failed you, and I have no face to return. I can only repay by dying!”

As he said that, before his Personal Guards could react, Wang Meng killed himself. The fresh red blood spurted out and dyed the blue sky red.

A hero of a generation fell just like that.

With a ‘Putong!’, Wang Meng’s corpse fell off his horse. However, his eyes were fully open, and it was obvious that he was not willing to die. It was regret of not achieving his ambitions and also the unhappiness of dying.

There was also the depressed feeling of being worse than someone else.

In front of the star studded Great Xia, any famous general was a level weaker. In the battle against Baiqi, Wang Meng was badly defeated. The effect on him was obvious, and it was also the reason he killed himself.

“General!” The Personal Guards exclaimed.

No one knew that Wang Meng was such an intense person.

The Personal Guard’s face was ashen white. According to military rules, if the main general died, they must die with him. Even if they managed to escape back to Handan City, they would still have to die. The only way they could survive was to surrender.

However, the Personal Guards were not normal soldiers. If they surrender, they would undoubtedly be called traitors.

Hearing the shouts, only then did Little Mutuo and the others react. All of them were stunned, and their hearts leapt out to them.

“When the rabbit dies, it’s a tragedy for the fox!”

Thinking about how confident they were before setting off and comparing it to their current crestfallen state, it was a difference between heaven and earth. Moreover, all of this just happened in the span of two to three days.

The world just changed so quickly, making it hard for one to adapt.

Wang Meng’s death was like a storm on a sunny day to the Alliance Army, which was already in a terrible state. Seeing their main commander dying, the soldiers no longer had the will to fight. Their fates were obvious with an ambush in front and soldiers chasing them from behind.

‘Huadang!’

Some people threw their weapons cleanly onto the ground, “There’s no hope!”

‘Huadang! Huadang!’

In the blink of an eye, half of the remaining 60 thousand Alliance Army troops surrendered. The remaining people were basically all players. Although the natives could surrender, the Xiao Alliance members could not.

Even if they wanted to surrender, the enemy would not want them.

Seeing this, with a ‘Shua!,’ Xiao Nianying pulled out his long sword and loudly said, “Brothers, the failure of this expedition is on me. When we return, I’ll take responsibility. But now, please trust in me one more time and unite together. Let’s kill our way out of this encirclement.”

When the members of Xiao Alliance heard that, they all had complicated expressions on their faces.

Before leaving, Xiao Nianying had used the tragic downfall of Streamer to persuade guild members to support this expedition. The members all recognized his judgement. If not, they would not willingly go out to battle.

However, the result of the expedition was one that the players could not accept.

Wang Meng and the others swore that their plan was spotless, but they were ambushed and lost troops and generals. As they fled to the border, all the members of the Xiao Alliance were filled with grievances toward their guild leader.

However, no matter how much they hated him, just as Xiao Nianying said, that was just an internal problem. Naturally, it should be left for after they returned. The first thing they should do now was to unite together and fight out of this encirclement.

If not, who knows how many more of their brothers would die.

As such, although Xiao Nianying’s actions were normal, it raised up the passion and the hot bloodedness of the members.

“Kill!”

The 30 thousand Xiao Alliance members gathered together and charged toward the Tiger Leopard Cavalry.

Fighting on a narrow road, the courageous would be victorious!

When Ma Chao saw that, he gave out a cold smile, “You think too highly of yourselves!” As he said that, he led the way to engage.

The two armies were like two huge floods crashing at one another, and fresh blood flew everywhere.

30 thousand against 30 thousand; although it seemed equal, in such a large scale, moreover in a scenario of infantry against cavalry, the Xiao Alliance had no chance of winning.

Before the numerous players were able to show off their skills, they were trampled into meat paste.

In less than an hour, victory and defeat was decided. Apart from a few of them that managed to get out and flee back to Dali, the remaining ones all died in battle.

At this point, the Battle of Dongchuan Prefecture basically came to an end. All that remained was to settle the loose ends.

With the battle just ended, Er’Lai and Zhao Po Nu who were chasing rushed over. The three armies of Great Xia met at the border.

Letting their deputies handle the matter, the three of them gathered together.

Zhao Po Nu took out two military orders and said solemnly, “The commander has orders!”

Ma Chao and Er’Lai bowed, “Receive the order!”

Zhao Po Nu first looked at Er’Lai, “Wuwei General will lead the 4th legion to take care of the prisoners and sweep Dongchuan Prefecture while defending Consonance City.”

“Yes general!”

Er’Lai cupped his fists and accepted the order.

During the Battle of Yongren City, the Alliance Army had escaped in all directions. Apart from the prisoners that were already rounded up, there were still many of them scattered around, which needed to be gathered up and reorganized.

During this battle, amongst the 200 thousand Alliance Army troops, apart from the 10 thousand that escaped, the remaining were either captured or killed.

Currently, there were around 60 thousand Alliance Army troops captured. As for how many they would be in the end, it would have to wait till they swept up Dongchuan Prefecture.

This work would take a long time, which was okay since the 4th legion was in Consonance City and could act as deterrence to others. Like that, Er’Lai was able to lead his troops to sweep up the prefecture while also working with the Privy Court to reorganize the troops.

Following which, Zhao Po Nu looked at Ma Chao, “Fenwei General will lead troops into Dali Prefecture to take down Yun City.” Taking down Yun City would help remove one hidden cancer.

“Yes!”

There were only a small number of troops left in Yun City, so it would not be too difficult.

Dali Imperial Court had no reason to interfere. Losing 50 thousand guards had a huge impact on that person in the palace, and he would not be able to affect Dali Imperial Court decisions.

There were restrictions to the power that Gaia gave.

Zhao Po Nu took out a letter and passed it to Ma Chao, “This is an order that the king told the commander to pass to you.”

When Ma Chao heard that, he was really solemn.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo could directly order Ma Chao but that would be obviously disregarding Baiqi’s position. Hence, even if Ouyang Shuo was the king, he had to follow some rules and procedures.

Ma Chao opened up the letter, and he understood immediately.

Ouyang Shuo ordered Ma Chao to not occupy Yun City after he took it down. Instead, he was to destroy it. Like that, the city that much hard work was spent to build up would instantly be turned to nothing.

The entire Dali Prefecture would return to the state of the wilderness.

Hence, before destroying the territory stone steele, Ma Chao would work with the Yunnan Provincial Governor office to move the civilians into Great Xia territory. Anyone who did not follow would be killed.

Ouyang Shuo was trying to empty Yun City.

Naturally, he had his reasons for doing so.

If Ouyang Shuo did not remember wrongly, Gaia would have an update relating to the prefecture which the imperial city was located in.

After the update, unless player territories chose to seek protection from the imperial city, they would be listed as an enemy and could be attacked.

In the end, Gaia was going to make the prefecture where the imperial city was a land for the city. Regardless of if a dynasty had moved in, it was the same.

Hence, there was no meaning in occupying Yun City. Why not move everything out and not leave anything for the Dali Imperial Court?

Considering everything, it could make up for the war expenditure.

The future Dali Imperial Court would have less help than Great Sui.

…

After announcing the military order, Zhao Po Nu also needed to lead to remaining troops back to Yongren City.

The matter of Dongchuan Prefecture was settled. With the Guards Legion Corps 4th legion in Consonance City, Baiqi could focus on going up north into the Shu Lands to command the final battle.

In the end, this battle with the Dali Alliance Army was just an appetizer.

The true battle was in the Shu Lands and in Swordsman City.

Who knows how the battle in Dongchuan Prefecture would affect the China region?

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

Handan City, City Lord’s Manor.

The moment that Wang Meng killed himself, Di Chen received a notification.

“How did this happen!”

His face was ashen white; it was ugly to the maximum.

When Fenghua Juedai saw his reaction, her heart shook. She had rarely seen Di Chen like this, and she asked with concern, “What happened?”

Di Chen said bitterly, “Wang Meng killed himself!”

“What?”

Juedai Fenghua was in disbelief. After a while, she looked at Di Chen with sympathy.

‘Why is fate so unfair to this guy.’

Two days ago, they had gotten news about the ambush. Di Chen’s mood at that time was really bad; he was really depressed.

Luckily, the failure of this plan did not have much of an actual effect on Handan City.

However, the sudden suicide of Wang Meng was undoubtedly a huge hit to Di Chen. It was not easy to get another famous General after Lianpo, but who knew it would be like a shooting star and fade quickly.

Losing Wang Meng was like losing an arm to Handan City.

Seeing Di Chen deep in thought, she consoled, “Wang Meng is a decisive and intense person. He was feeling guilty about the Great Xia defeat, and this was a huge hit to him. Even if he returns to the territory, he would not be able to lead army.”

“Sigh, winning and losing is normal, why did he do this!” Di Chen could not help but sigh, and he also regretted letting Wang Meng lead the troops, “I should have let Lianpo go instead.”

Juedai Fenghua shook her head, “We were too careless this time. We did not expect them to actually use the disarmament to sneakily gather troops. If Lianpo went, it would be a bigger loss for us.”

Lianpo was the symbolic figure of the Handan City Army, and its core person. If he died or was captured in this battle, it would be worst.

Di Chen said viciously, “I’ll definitely take revenge for this!”

Chapter 951 - Xiao Alliance Internal Strife

Chapter 951: Xiao Alliance Internal Strife

Seeing that Di Chen was unable to understand, Juedai Fenghua changed the topic, “How are you going to deal with Swordsman City?”

Along with the fall of the Dali Alliance Army, the Handan Alliance plan of trapping the Dragon Legion Corps in the Shu Lands had failed. The situation of Swordsman City instantly became really nervous.

At such a time, Di Chen needed to have a clear attitude. Otherwise, Feng Qingyang was going to spew vulgarities once more.

“What do you think?” Di Chen did not directly reply.

“In my eyes, we should still assist them.”

“Reason?”

“From how the Great Xia arranged an ambush in Yongren City, Great Xia started this war to not only target Swordsman City. They might have other reasons.” Speaking about this, Juedai Fenghua suddenly said, “I heard that the old fox is planning a second voyage in the 10th month.”

Di Chen’s eyes focused, and he asked, “So you’re saying that the old fox is cleaning obstacles for the voyage squadron to set a trap?”

“There’s an 80% chance it’s like that. Great Xia has been established for not long, and there are many problems around it. With how careful the old fox is, he would not be able to go out at ease if he did not remove all these problems.” Juedai Fenghua analyzed.

In terms of understanding Ouyang Shuo, Juedai Fenghua was a level higher than Di Chen.

Di Chen’s facial muscles tensed up.

The four player territories in Dali were one of those problems. Who knew that their plan meant that they had actually fallen into the old fox’s scheme? Their move allowed him to clean out Dali Prefecture.

“Since you’re sure Great Xia has other motives, we should not do anything. Why are we helping Swordsman City?” Di Chen did not understand.

“Great Xia’s other targets are flexible; Swordsman City is the one that is a fixed target. If we do not assist them, and Great Xia is able to easily take it down, Great Xia will have enough available firepower to achieve its other strategic goals.”

This was a really terrifying woman, and she had basically guessed Ouyang Shuo’s plan.

“I understand!”

Di Chen nodded and agreed with Fenghua Juedai’s analysis.

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

In the next few days, this shockwaves broke through the entire wilderness as news after news spread across the various media, stunning everyone.

First, the Dali Alliance Army was ambushed outside Yongren City, astonishing the outside world. The China region players could not help but be amazed by the trap set up by Great Xia.

Next, there was news that Great Xia had taken the initiative to attack Dali Prefecture and even destroyed Yun City. Their cruel actions caused the territories surrounding Great Xia to feel a chill run down their spines.

No one could understand why Great Xia made such a decision. They had went all in against the Dali Imperial Court and left them in a terrible situation.

There was even news that spread that Great Xia had published a recruitment notice, openly poaching Dali people. The recruitment was not limited to NPCs but it also aimed at the players that lived there.

Anyone with foresight would be able to predict what kind of future was waiting for Dali; it was probably going to be much worse than Great Sui. Hence, if one had the chance, it was better to leave such a bitter place.

All of a sudden, numerous people applied for migration.

Some people said that this was Great Xia using money to poach away at the cornerstone of the Dali Imperial Court.

However, the Dali Imperial Court was helpless against them. There was nothing the Imperial Court could do without an emperor or a king.

The war was not over, and Great Xia had already obtained their first bucket of gold.

Apart from the 500 thousand population of Yun City, Great Xia had poached away a million people from the imperial city. This was the biggest fortune to Great Xia.

After Yun City was destroyed by Great Xia, there was news that the Dragon Legion Corps Commander Baiqi had finally entered the Shu Lands and was about to start the final battle against Swordsman City.

At the same time, Di Chen and the others openly announced that they would not let Shanhai City take down Swordsman City.

All of a sudden, the focus of the wilderness changed to Swordsman City once more.

Everyone was looking forward to this seismic clash. At this very moment, two unassuming things happened, but in truth, these events would have actual effects on the wilderness.

One happened in Dali, while one happened in Caiyun City.

…

10th month, 11th day, Xiao Nianying led his people back to the Satellite City.

The moment he entered, his sharp senses noticed that the players in the city were looking at him with mocking eyes.

This made Xiao Nianying, who cared a lot about his face, feel all the more uneasy.

“What happened?”

Thinking about this, Xiao Nianying could not help but quicken his pace toward the City Lord’s Manor.

What he did not know was that when the Dali Alliance Army lost, a huge storm had swept toward Xiao Alliance, toward the Xiao Family and Xiao Nianying.

The moment Xiao Nianying returned, this storm had just arrived.

When the Alliance Army was crushed, many glows of light shone in the reincarnation hall as one after another Xiao Alliance members revived.

In the second half of the 4th year, due to players cherishing their lives, less and less people died. Hence, the reincarnation hall became a really cold place, and there was rarely such a sight.

Players asked for information. Naturally, they soon understood what had happened.

“The Dali Alliance Army was attacked in Yongren City; the entire army was crushed”

This time, the player circle in Dali was in an uproar only because of the Xiao Alliance. After all, the Xiao Alliance was the top guild here, so they affected everyone with their actions.

A few days later, the number of Xiao Alliance members reviving continued.

The final battle at the border on the 9th day shocked everyone. In that day alone, there were 20 thousand Xiao Alliance members that revived, creating an all-time high.

Some people even calculated that less than 10% of the members survived.

Even if Xiao Alliance was a super guild, it was only a dark horse that rose up during the Guardian Guild battle. Its foundations could not be compared to old guilds like Snow-War Rose and the like.

Considering the branch guild members, Xiao Alliance had close to 600 thousand members. Amongst which, a large portion came from merging with small and medium-sized guilds after the Satellite City battle.

Out of the 600 thousand members, combat occupation players took up 2/3rd, which was 400 thousand. These players were moved into hundred men squads, thousand men squads, and elite squads.

The 100 thousand elites sent out this time were equal to half of the combat strength of the Xiao Alliance.

Now that only 10 thousand remained, it was the same as the Xiao Alliance losing half of their strength. Its position as the top guild in Dali was extremely shaky.

A weak tiger was one that the other animals in the forest targeted.

Within the Dali Imperial City, there were five guilds with over 200 thousand members, and there were two with more than 300 thousand.

Seeing the Xiao Alliance lose close to hundred thousand elites, these guilds could not help but be tempted.

The position of Guardian Guild was one that everyone craved for.

Just yesterday, these two large guilds had announced that they were going to merge to form the Purple Moon Alliance. Their guild leader was Purple Emperor and the deputy was Moon Emperor. They had a total of 500 thousand members, which was the same as Xiao Alliance.

Of course, this was just strength on the surface.

If they really compared the two, Purple Moon Alliance was a level weaker than the Xiao Alliance from before.

However, with Xiao Alliance losing 100 thousand elites, their strength was weaker than Purple Moon Alliance. Dali City was just one good opportunity away from changing its top guild.

Based on the settings of Gaia regarding Guardian Guild rights, at the start of every year, they would accept a challenge. If they could not succeed, they would naturally lose their position.

Seeing that it was already the 10th month, there were only two months till the 5th year. Without a doubt, the formation of the Purple Moon Alliance was targeting the position of Dali City Guardian Guild.

At that time, would the heavily hurt Xiao Alliance be able to beat the Purple Moon Alliance? The Dali players could all feel that a new overlord was about to be born.

This was also why the players were looking at Xiao Nianying and his group differently because many of them were from the Purple Moon Alliance.

These people were getting more and more arrogant and confident in the Satellite City. They were acting like it was just a matter of time before they took over.

…

Xiao Nianying and his group returned to the City Lord’s Manor, this new headquarters of the Xiao Alliance.

The atmosphere here was really solemn, which made it hard for one to breathe.

The uneasiness in his heart deepened. Just as he sat down, his right hand man called him, “Young master, master called you back.”

In name, Xiao Nianying was the guild leader. However, in truth, the one leader of the Xiao Alliance was the entire Xiao Family, and he was just a figure head.

The head of the Xiao Family was the true leader of the Xiao Alliance.

City Lord’s Manor, Main hall.

“Dad!”

Xiao Nianying bowed to his father, Xiao Yunyi, his heart palpitating.

Xiao Yunyi looked at his son, and his heart felt really complicated. Seeing his son’s armor torn and tattered and his son looking so exhausted, it was obvious that he had suffered a big defeat. He could not bring himself to scold Xiao Nianying.

In the end, sending men out was the family decision, and Xiao Nianying had just executed the plan.

The war commander was Wang Meng, so it was not his problem. The defeat was not solely Xiao Nianying’s to take.

‘But the other people do not think that way!’ Xiao Yunyi sighed.

Although Xiao Nianying was a person that cared about his face, he had sharp senses, “Father, did something happen?”

Xiao Yunyi nodded, and he gave a simple introduction of the Purple Moon Alliance.

“Those damn fellows!”

Xiao Nianying’s face was really ugly; he did not expect there to be challengers the moment the Xiao Alliance faced some problems.

“This is not the worst problem.” Xiao Yunyi was also really tense. After pausing, he said with difficulty, “A castle is often broken from the inside. There will be traitors from within the guild.”

Chapter 952 - To Leave with Nothing

Chapter 952: To Leave with Nothing

“Who betrayed us?” Xiao Nianying asked.

Father Xiao waved his hand and said, “Let’s go to the meeting hall, everyone is waiting. You must be mentally prepared.” As he said that, he did not wait for Xiao Nianying to ask and just left right away.

The two of them came to the meeting hall, where the core members of the Xiao Alliance had all gathered.

Xiao Nianying frowned, “Are they forcing me to quit?”

The moment he sat down, someone created trouble.

“Guild leader, for this expedition, 90 thousand brothers have died this time. Based on the 500 gold compensation, the guild needs to take out 45 million gold as compensation.”

The one who spoke was the deputy guild leader, Fallen Dust. He represented the interests of the small and medium-sized guilds that merged after the Guardian Guild matter.

45 million gold was a sky high amount, and even the rich Great Xia could not take out so much. However, the death compensation was an agreement, and they could not go back against it.

On the way back, Xiao Nianying had been thinking about how to solve this problem. Till date, he still had no ideas.

Facing Fallen Dust’s questioning, Xiao Nianying did not know how to reply, “Take out five million gold from the guild treasury first. As for the remaining gold, we will slowly think of a way to settle it.”

Fallen Dust asked, “Five million gold is only enough to give each one of them 60 gold, and the dead brothers definitely would not agree to that. Furthermore, if we use up all these funds, how will the guild continue to run?”

“Then what idea do you have?”

Xiao Nianying’s face was really gloomy; he knew that Fallen Dust had bad intentions.

Fallen Dust said, “This matter happened because of Di Chen. Now that the guild has problems, we should ask him for compensation.”

“Well said.”

Fallen Dust’s words were supported by the other members.

When Xiao Nianying wanted to go, the Xiao Alliance had many people oppose the decision internally. Fallen Dust was the most resolute one. However, he did not have enough power to change Xiao Nianying’s decision.

During the previous guild incident, Xiao Alliance had similarly changed to a share system. Xiao Nianying and the Xiao Family members held 30% of the shares. Along with their allies, they held over 50%, so they held absolute power within the guild.

Now, these allies had also started to feel unhappy. If they were unable to take out the compensation fee, the Xiao Alliance would go bankrupt. Gaia could only auction off the Xiao Alliance assets to pay for this compensation fee.

If they still could not pay up, those dead players could only admit that they were unlucky.

Xiao Nianying was helpless and could only say, “Let me contact Yanhuang Alliance first.”

Only then did this matter ended. However, Xiao Nianying was not relaxed, as he was very clear that if he was unable to take out a solution, it would be difficult for the Xiao Family to regain their foothold.

The next day, Di Chen and the others gave their reply – they were willing to take out a million gold for compensation.

When Fallen Dust and the others heard that, they gave out a cold laugh, “So little?”

A day had passed, and the Xiao Family had thought of a few ideas to save this matter.

First, sell the resources in the guild storage.

Apart from the five million gold they earned from the Guardian Guild qualification, the Xiao Alliance had obtained numerous precious equipment and items.

If they sold it all, they could at least gather seven million gold.

Secondly, lower the compensation standards.

During this expedition, the 100 thousand elites were a disappointment. The first to flee were them, and they were even worse than the territory army.

Even if they died, such a performance would not be worth five million. Xiao Nianying wanted to reduce the compensation to 300 gold per person, which would lower the necessary amount by 18 million gold just like that.

Thirdly, draw in a large-sized guild.

With the Xiao Alliance’s identity as a Guardian Guild, there were many large-sized guilds that would be willing to merge into the Xiao Alliance. If they wanted to merge, they would naturally need to hand over an alliance joining fee, which would at least be five million.

Then they could raise the strength of the Xiao Alliance to face Purple Moon Alliance’s provocation.

Fourthly, internal donations.

At this point, where the Xiao Alliance was on the verge of life and death, guild members would try to save themselves and help to prevent the guild from going bankrupt. They would suggest for members to donate at least 10 gold, with no upper limit. With their 500 thousand members, deducting the 90 thousand that died, they could at least gather five million.

Calculating it, there was still a four million gold shortfall.

When Fallen Dust heard Xiao Nianying’s solution, his eyes tensed up, “Your idea is feasible/ Only, I have two doubts that need your help.”

“Speak!”

“First, based on your plan, not only would the guild not have any resources left, but our entire storage would also be wiped clean. When that happens, how can we provide the 90 thousand brothers with equipment? Are you going to ask them to settle it themselves?”

“This….”

Fallen Dust continued, “Secondly, the expedition happened because of the strong support of the guild leader. Now that this has happened, you want the entire guild to bear the blame; do you think all of us will agree?”

Not to mention that the forced donations, guild funds, storage items, and the like were all public assets. To use it all up would hurt the interests of all the members.

Drawing in a new guild would also dilute their shares, which would affect their interests in turn.

“Guild leader probably does not now, but along with the Purple Moon Alliance being formed, rumors have spread. It cannot be avoided that the guild members would feel unsettled. If we use up all our guild resources now, a huge chaos would be impending.” Fallen Dust added.

When Xiao Nianying heard that, his expression was really ugly.

The players were not fools. Seeing that the guild could not even keep its status as the Guardian Guild, why would they want to take the blame together? There were already members grumbling and spreading the flames.

Xiao Nianying said, “Since you think my idea won’t work, I would like to hear what grand plan you have.”

Fallen Dust was expressionless, “As they say, one seeks repayment from the person that owes the debt. For the guild to end up in such a state, the guild leader needs to take responsibility. To calm down the people’s sentiment, someone needs to take responsibility and not transfer the blame to the normal members.”

As he said that, Fallen Dust stood up and bowed to Xiao Nianying, “Guild leader, please resign and let the Xiao Family back out of Xiao Alliance.”

Seeing which, the other members stood up and bowed, “Guild leader, please resign!”

This was their true purpose.

“You, you guys!”

Xiao Nianying’s face was ashen white, and he pointed at all of them; he was infuriated.

At this point, groups of players appeared outside of the courtyard and shouted in unison, “Guild leader please resign!”

It was obvious that this had been planned for a long time.

The guild members had long been unhappy with the Xiao family.

Xiao Nianying shivered; he tried his best to calm himself down as he said coldly, “What if I do not agree?”

Fallen Dust said, “Then we will hold a shareholder meeting and choose a new guild leader. At the same time, we will apply to Gaia for the Xiao Family to compensate us. I think Gaia would be fair to us.”

When Xiao Nianying heard that, he looked at the allies of the Xiao Family. Seeing them all avoid his gaze, he felt his heart sink. He knew that if this continued, it would be bad for him and his family.

“It’s okay; I’ll resign!”

Maybe the moment he agreed to Di Chen’s request to send troops, his fate was determined. It was time for the Xiao Family to go back into seclusion to become a hidden aristocratic family!

This wilderness was destined to not be their stage.

Very quickly, the Xiao Family was kicked out of the Xiao Alliance, and even their shares were taken back as compensation. Fallen Dust became the new guild leader, unsurprisingly.

With the Xiao Family gone, the Xiao Alliance problem was still there. If they could not solve the compensation problem, Fallen Dust would not have a good time as the guild leader.

On the first day that he became the guild leader, he threw out a bomb shell.

Fallen Dust smiled, “Let me tell you guys some good news. Xia King Qiyue Wuyi is willing to take over the remaining shares of the Xiao Family and help us tide over these tough times.”

“Isn’t the Xia King our enemy?”

Fallen Dust shook his head, “The one that has problems with him is the Xiao Family and the Yanhuang Alliance. With them gone, the Great Xia would not bother with us.”

Upon hearing that, the members exchanged glances.

Those smart ones even felt a chill run down their spines, and even the way they looked at Fallen Dust changed. They could feel that from start to finish, this internal conflict was planned by Great Xia.

What kind of relationship did their new guild leader have with Great Xia?

They did not dare to think too much.

When Fallen Dust saw that, he continued, “Why did Xiao Nianying ask us to attack Great Xia, wasn’t he afraid that Great Xia would take revenge against us? The moment Great Xia takes over this, the problem will be gone too.”

Everyone nodded, that was true.

“Even if we agree to allow Great Xia to invest, how are we going to solve the current problem? Can they take out this sum of money right away?”

Now was the weakest period of the Xiao Alliance. As the Xiao Family had left, the remaining power vacuum was one that everyone craved for.

As a result, some people were not willing to let Ouyang Shuo step in.

When Fallen Dust saw that, he made a silent note of that person and smiled, “Who is the Great Xia King? Since he said he’s willing to take over, he naturally has a way to help us out.”

“Of course, he is not a philanthropist, and he cannot take out too much for the 30% of shares. Luckily, he said that he is willing to return to us all the equipment that our brothers dropped.”

As Great Xia cleaned up the battlefield, they pretty much collected all the equipment. The dead players were all elites, and all their equipment were all elite items. Each set was worth no less than one to two hundred gold.

Just this batch of equipment was worth more than 10 million.

When all of them heard that, they could not help but take in a deep cold breath. They were shocked by the generosity of Great Xia.

Chapter 953 - Fish in Troubled Waters

Chapter 953: Fish in Troubled Waters

Based on the guild promise, dead players could obtain 500 gold and also a set of equipment. However, that set was just basic equipment, and it could not even be compared to the ones they had dropped.

In the 4th year of Gaia, the equipment of the adventure gamemode players was mostly crafted based on their cultivation method, talents, and combat habits.

If one sold their equipment to others, it would go for for one to two hundred gold. However, it was worth thousands of gold to them. Hence, if they could get back the equipment they had dropped, reducing the compensation amount was not out of the question.

Once everyone digested that, Fallen Dust continued, “There’s also one more piece of good news. If we allow them to move in, the Purple Moon Alliance problem will be solved too.”

“How so?”

“Great Xia is willing to sell the Somalia Satellite City rights to them. With that, they would move over and will not form a threat against us.”

“Phew!”

Hearing that, everyone let out a collective sigh of relief.

In the end, the Purple Moon Alliance was the huge mountain that was weighing down on them.

With those two terms, they had no reason to decline, “We agree.”

“Agree!”

When Fallen Dust saw that, he smiled and nodded.

After the discussion, and after all the members agreed, the Xiao Alliance settled on a compensation plan.

First, Xiao Alliance was renamed to Fallen Leaf Alliance.

Secondly, the 90 thousand dead players would have their compensation fee lowered to 200 gold, and they would receive the items that they had dropped.

Thirdly, Great Xia used the dropped equipment to buy up 30% of the shares of the alliance.

Fourthly, they would invite a large-sized group known as Quicksand, earning five million in fees.

Quicksand was not the guild that Xiao Nianying had suggested but one that Fallen Dust recommended. Outsiders did not know that Quicksand was under Great Xia’s control.

Just like that, Fallen Leaf Alliance was basically under the control of Great Xia.

Controlling Fallen Leaf Alliance and drawing away Purple Moon Alliance basically announced that the Dali guild circle was under Great Xia’s control. Once again, they cut away an important arm of Dali.

At the same time, in the battle against Yanhuang Alliance, Great Xia had taken down another city. The battle of guild strength was slowly leaning toward Great Xia.

The advantage that the Yanhuang Alliance had built up through the help of Silver Hand was basically used up.

Fifth, each member would donate 10 gold in exchange for relevant guild points. Hence, they could earn seven million gold. At the same time, they would not hurt the normal interests of the players.

Sixth, they would sell a bunch of rare ingredients to Thread in exchange for three million gold.

As the largest purely work occupation player guild in the world, Thread relied on the underground world and was prospering. Its wealth could be comparable to countries, so it had an unlimited thirst for rare ingredients.

To be able to get so many rare ingredients at once could make Qing Sikou laugh in her sleep. For this batch of ingredients, Thread could earn two million and above in profits after they worked on them.

The later the game went on, the grandmaster and master level work occupation players of Thread would be able to earn more and more profits.

The quiet rise of Thread also caused the status of work occupation players to rise. At this date, players had started to realize the massive value of work occupation players.

If it were not for Great Xia protecting them, Thread would have been ripped into pieces.

When she got the news, Qing Sikou expressed that she was willing to give Ouyang Shuo 300 thousand gold as thanks. Ouyang Shuo smiled and rejected the offer, as he was not greedy for such a small amount.

Qing Sikou smiled, “I know that you do not lack money. How about this? I’ll prepare some things for Song Jia and Bing’er.”

Only then did Ouyang Shuo not reject.

With Qing Sikou’s current wealth, the things she prepared would definitely be expensive and could even exceed 300 thousand gold. Ouyang Shuo accepting it was admitting their private friendship.

When Qing Sikou heard that, she was naturally delighted.

…

Completing this round of deals, Fallen Leaf Alliance managed to pay up the 18 million gold compensation. The guild storage also had batches of equipment and items, and they would not all cleared out.

Out of the five million spendable gold, they still had two million gold left.

This was the best solution to the Fallen Leaf Alliance members. Not only did they not shake the roots of the guild, but they also protected their position as the top guild in Dali.

More importantly, with Great Xia as a backer, they did not need to worry about Great Xia finding problems with them.

Once the dust settled, the Fallen Leaf Alliance was delighted to find that their guild strength had actually risen instead. They had actually welcomed a new era.

The only sad ones were probably the Xiao Family and the Yanhuang Alliance who backed them.

The moment the news went out, the world was in an uproar.

Some people joked that Great Xia easily took control of a super guild without even doing anything. Such a method was one that everyone craved for, but only Great Xia had the ability to pull it off.

The night that the plan was announced, Fallen Dust sent a letter to the Shanhai Guards commander in Dali; there were only two words in the letter, ‘Mission completed!’

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

Just as Dali imperial city was in a mess, Xiangnan City was not peaceful either as the flames of war rose up. Caiyun Zinan had finally acted.

Xiangnan Province was located in the middle of China. It was rich with ores and was the famous home of non-ferrous metal and metalloid ore.

Apart from the Han race people, there were Miao Race and other minorities.

On the east, it intersected with Jiangchuan Province through the Mufu Mountains and Wugong Mountians. On the west, it was with Chuanbei Province through the Yungui plains. North-west, it was with the Shu Lands through the Wuling Mountains. South, it was with Chuannan Province and Lingnan Province. North, it was with Jingchu Province.

The entire province had five prefectures of land. From south to north, it was Guiyang Prefecture, Yongzhou Prefecture, Baoqing Prefecture, Changsha Prefecture, and Changde Prefecture. Caiyun City occupied Guiyang Prefecture and Yongzhou Prefecture. The main city was located at the north area of Yongzhou Prefecture.

When Lai Hu’er’s troops were ambushed, Caiyun Zinan had started to move his troops.

Weirdly, his two War Fighting Legions did not go down south against the Leopard Legion Corps. Instead, they went up north.

Caiyun Zinan was a really crafty person. Seeing that he did not have the ability to go head to head with Great Xia, he saw the chance to collect some spoils while Great Xia fought Swordsman City.

With the workings of the Shanhai Guards, Caiyun City’s reputation in the Xiangnan City-State was really bad. Since that was the case, he decided to go all out and continue to merge within the City-State.

He was aiming for Baoqing Prefecture in the north.

As long as he could take it down, Caiyun City would have three prefectures under their control. The remaining Changsha Prefecture and Changde Prefecture was connected to Pill Sun City, and they basically could be controlled.

One had to say that Caiyun Zinan had plotted this well.

However, would Great Xia allow Caiyun City to do what it wanted? Not to mention how Ouyang Shuo was unwilling to let a giant appear in the north, but even most of the Lords in Xiangnan City-State were allies of Great Xia.

Since they were allies, Ouyang Shuo naturally would not let them die.

The Leopard Legion Corps and the Shanhai Guards were given orders to pay attention to Caiyun City’s actions. However, Ouyang Shuo had not expected them to act so differently.

They used the time difference to try to attack Baoqing Prefecture before Great Xia was able to react.

As for whether Great Xia would send troops up north to take revenge for his allies or not, Caiyun Zinan had other plans.

10th month, 10th day, the day before Xiao Nianying returned to Dali, Baiqi had just entered Shu Lands and was still on the way to Swordsman City.

On this day, the two War Fighting Legions of Caiyun City had gathered at the border and suddenly invaded Baoqing Prefecture. They were initiating a Xiangnan City-State internal war.

Before, his mergers were all hush hush, and they had to find reasons before sending troops to ensure that they held the moral high ground.

This time was just total brutality.

Caiyun Zinan did not even say anything, and he just sent troops to attack Baoqing Prefecture, catching it off guard. On that day, one territory was taken down just like that.

Looking at the situation, the fall of Baoqing Prefecture was certain. It was not connected to Great Xia, and it was too late for them to help out.

Apart from that, who knows what Chun Shenjun and Caiyun Zinan had discussed?

Just as Caiyun City attacked Baoqing Prefecture, Pill Sun City’s two War Fighting Legions suddenly went down south into Changsha Prefecture and Changde Prefecture. It looked like they were going to split the cake and divide up Xiangnan City-State.

What outsiders did not know was that Caiyun Zinan had pledged his loyalty to the Yanhuang Alliance in exchange for Chun Shenjun’s support. After Pill Sun City took down the two prefectures, he would give them to Caiyun Zinan.

It was a smart move by the Yanhuang Alliance.

Only by being willing to give up could one earn something.

Yanhuang Alliance used two prefectures to exchange for a strong ally; it was worth it.

Like this, Xiangnan City-State would definitely be destroyed and be replaced by a strong Caiyun City.

When Ouyang Shuo got the news, he was both shocked and excited.

“Caiyun Zinan, since you want to die, I’ll let you.” Ouyang Shuo was about to give an order to the Leopard Legion Corps, telling them to invade and attack Xiangnan Province and take down Caiyun City since his army was not there.

Who knew that a certain piece of news would spread out?

The Yanhuang Alliance had officially accepted Caiyun City as one of its members, and both sides had signed an alliance agreement.

The moment the news went out, the wilderness was shocked.

This was an official member, and it was also the first time the Yanhuang Alliance had accepted new members since its establishment.

When Ouyang Shuo got the news, his face instantly became gloomy.

Chapter 954 - Act When You Should

Chapter 954: Act When You Should

It was carefully planned by the Yanhuang Alliance to accept Caiyun City at this moment. If they did it too early, their target would be revealed, and Great Xia would be on alert. If they acted too late, they would not be able to threaten Great Xia.

If Great Xia chose to attack Caiyun City, Yanhuang Alliance could teleport over to help at any moment.

What Ouyang Shuo did not know was that Di Chen and the others had made a decision in their hearts. They would rather sacrifice Swordsman City to protect Caiyun City. There were two reasons behind this.

First, the Feng Family of Swordsman City had been drifting outside of the Yanhuang Alliance system. This time, they sought protection from the Shu Han Dynasty, which totally threw away the face of the Yanhuang Alliance.

Di Chen had already planned to chase Swordsman City out of the alliance after the battle.

Compared to the Feng Family, Caiyun Zinan was a commoner and was much easier to control.

Secondly, compared to Swordsman City that took up only two prefectures, the Caiyun City that occupied an entire province was undoubtedly a better ally, and it had a greater ability to curb the expansion of Great Xia.

Hence, this move also ensured the safety of Pill Sun City, which was why Chun Shenjun would willingly send out troops to help Caiyun City attack Changsha Prefecture and Changde Prefecture.

With the above two points, it was enough to let Di Chen and the others support Caiyun City.

However, in the end, they had underestimated the determination of Ouyang Shuo and the resilience of Great Xia.

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

10th month, 11th day, Shanhai City.

The flames of war rose up in Xiangnan Province, but Shanhai City was as prosperous as usual. They were totally unaffected by everything. Even the players living in Shanhai City were not worried about the battle matters.

Within the Imperial Reading Room, Ouyang Shuo summoned Du Ruhui to discuss the matter of Caiyun City.

“Keming, should we attack Caiyun City?”

Du Ruhui’s attitude was really resolute, “My king, I think we should attack immediately!”

“Why?”

“First, Xiangnan Province is a core area to the south. If Caiyun City is able to unify the province and merge into the Yanhuang Alliance system, it would be difficult for us to unify the south region. It would even affect our ability to make plans for the southwest. Secondly, the presence of Xiangnan Province would be a huge burden on our border, and we would need to double the troops there.”

Du Ruhui concluded, “Rather than be afraid every day, why not just fight one battle to solve the Xiangnan City-State problem once and for all?”

As expected from Du Ruhui, he was just so clean and decisive.

Ouyang Shuo nodded; his idea was the same as Du Ruhui. He followed by asking, “The Leopard Legion Corps only has three legions at the north border. We need to defend against Chuanbei City-State while also entering Xiangnan Province. How do we do that?”

The 4th legion was in Stone City, while the 5th was in Tianjing City to keep a watch on the Satellite City. Hence, only the 1st three legions were arranged at the border.

Not to mention Yanhuang Alliance reinforcements, but there were two Caiyun City War Fighting Legions and two Pill Sun City ones.

To take down Xiangnan City-State with the Leopard Legion Corps alone was not going to be easy.

Du Ruhui said, “The Satellite City outside of Tianjing City is already on the right track, and it is under the control of Blood Shadow Alliance. We can move the 5th legion to the border to monitor Chuanbei City-State.”

“Ma Chao’s Tiger Leopard Cavalry have completed their mission, and he can leave the rest to the 4th legion of the Guards Legion Corps. I suggest the remaining 40 thousand cavalry teleport over to Consonance City and go up north together with Ma Chao’s forces.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. With the help of the two legions, the Battle of Xiangnan City-State would be much easier. Ouyang Shuo always liked to settle things quickly, and he did not want to drag out the Battle of Xiangnan.

It was already the middle of the 10th month, and they needed to end all the war matters by the 11th month. If not, Ouyang Shuo’s planned second voyage would be delayed.

A day ago, the Navy Headquarters had already followed Ouyang Shuo’s requirements and completed the construction of the Emperor Squadron.

Based on the organization, the squadron was one navy division with 40 Z1 Type Warships, 160 Mengchong warships, 500 Cima boats, and the rest were grain ships and the like.

Apart from that, there would be Ouyang Shuo’s new flagship, The Emperor, which was made from the black dragon bones taken from the dragon island. As a result, the ship had special specialties.

The entire squadron had a total of 22 thousand men, three thousand sailors, which was one-fifth of a proper squadron.

Although that was the case, the commander was still a Fleet Admiral, which was similar to the commander of the other five squadrons; this was done to show the special position of the Emperor Squadron.

Thinking about it, Ouyang Shuo decided to promote the Nanjiang Squadron chief general Gan Ning. Just yesterday, he was ordered to return to Beihai City to accept his squadron and get ready for the voyage.

Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo said, “It’s time to use West Gate Big Official.”

Before the war started, West Gate Big Official had sent a letter where he agreed to help Great Xia take over Chuanbei City-State.

At this stage, it was time for him to fulfil his promise.

Du Ruhui was astonished; his eyes were opened wide, “King, are you going to solve the problems with both City-States right away?”

This action was bigger than Du Ruhui what had expected.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Since they do not know what’s good for them, why not? Let’s give them a big one and take down the entire southwest.”

As a leading figure of the Xiangnan City-State, Caiyun Zinan had betrayed them and chose to work with Yanhuang Alliance, which undoubtedly shook the roots of the City-State.

Chuanbei City-State and Xiangnan City-State were closely related. Now that something had happened to Xiangnan City-State, Chuanbei City-State was unavoidably affected.

The Lords in both City-States were really anxious and did not know what they should do.

Along with the help of West Gate Big Official, destroying the two City-States was becoming a really likely outcome. One could say that Caiyun Zinan had really helped Ouyang Shuo out this time.

“The king is wise!”

Du Ruhui was really impressed.

Ouyang Shuo said, “Ask the Grand Council to make a perfect plan quickly and use everything we can use.” After such a long time, Great Xia had some foundation in both City-States. If Yanhuang Alliance underestimated the influence of Great Xia, they were definitely in for some big trouble.

“Yes my king!”

Du Ruhui nodded and left. He knew that this matter affected a lot, and he needed to do it well. It seemed like he needed to burn the midnight oil once more.

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

Caiyun City’s actions dragged in the two City-States that were originally not affected by this war.

That night, more than ten letters appeared on his desk. They were all allies of Great Xia, and they were seeking help from Ouyang Shuo about what to do.

Ouyang Shuo naturally replied to them with clear instructions one by one. At the same time, he repeated his promise to these Lords to calm them down.

After getting the reply, these Lords were a lot more confident, and they could see the descent of a new era. That night, they started to gather up their troops, working together with Great Xia in the City-State ending war.

This battle was one that neither side had a path of retreat from.

10th month, 12th day, pretty much at the same time, half of the territories in both City-States announced that they were quitting the City-State and were now under Great Xia’s rule.

With that, the only two remaining City-States in China had disbanded, announcing an end to a once prosperous time.

The moment the news went out, all of the players of China were stunned at the historical moment that they had just witnessed.

Along with the disbandment, a warring states period had arrived. The future wilderness was going to be a stage between the Shanhai Alliance and Yanhuang Alliance.

Without any other co-stars, these two alliances were destined to have a head on conflict. Each time they fought, a giant would fall. The current Swordsman City was an example.

The players could not hide their excitement because the signal was just so obvious. Facing the provocation from Caiyun City and Yanhuang Alliance, Great Xia had declared war!

These two giants in the China Region, under the circumstances where the Swordsman City battle had not been decided, had started another even bigger war. They were starting a life or death battle that no one had expected.

Who would prevail, no one knew.

This seismic war that affected the entire wilderness was entering its most exciting time. Every China player looked on with their eyes wide open, as they did not want to miss out on any of the action.

The various media outlets all sent out reporters to track the proceedings.

Even the outside world was focusing on this battle. Not for other reasons, but simply because one of the stars was that Great Xia Dynasty, the party that was ruling the seas and was closely related to them.

Pretty much at the same time as these territories sent out the announcements, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd legions of the Leopard Legion Corps were led by Han Xin and entered Caiyun City territory.

The 5th legion of the Leopard Legion Corps and the 2nd legion of the Guards Legion Corps were both ordered to proceed up north.

Getting the news, the territories within Xiangnan Province that were getting pincered by Pill Sun City and Caiyun City decided to swiftly gather up to stop the invasion. They were going to stubbornly defend until reinforcements arrived.

And at pretty much the same time as the Leopard Legion Corps was sent out, Di Chen and the others used the name of the Yanhuang Alliance to announce that they were not going to sit there and watch Caiyun City be invaded.

The poor Swordsman City became a wild child that no one bothered about.

The eyes of the China region were attracted to the two provinces in the southwest as they watched the battle of Great Xia against the Yanhuang Alliance.

An even more shocking piece of news spread out that morning.

Chapter 955 - Li Mu Talks Freely

Chapter 955: Li Mu Talks Freely

10th month, 12th day, noon, Chuanbei Province Tongren Prefecture.

Chuanbei Province was located on the highlands on the southwest region of China. During the Spring and Autumn Period, it was a part of the southern barbarians. Its geography was high in the west and low in the east, with most of its land being high mountains. As a result, it was said to have 80% mountain, 10% water, and 10% paddy.

The civilians living in Chuanbei Province, apart from the Han Race, were people of the Miao Race and the mountain barbarian race.

The province had rich resources, and it had massive coal storage with many different types of high quality of coal. Hence, it was called the southwest coal ocean.

There were five prefectures in Chuanbei Province. From north to south, they were Tongren Prefecture, Guiyang Prefecture, Xingyi Prefecture, Duyun Prefecture, and Guzhou Prefecture. The leader of Chuanbei City-State was West Gate Big Official, and his territory Fenggang City was located in Tongren Prefecture.

At noon, West Gate Big Official personally led his 70 thousand troops toward the east to the border of his territory. Any further and he would enter Changde Prefecture of Xiangnan Province.

Talking about Changde Prefecture, one had to mention one Lord – Gu Hengxiao. Although he was not really famous, he had a God General under him – Li Mu.

Using the strength of Li Mu, Gu Hengxiao occupied 3/5th of the houses in the prefecture. The land connected to Tongren Prefecture, which was Zhu Hengxiao’s territory – Laifeng City.

The arrival of the Fenggang City Army made the Laifeng City troops really nervous.

A day ago, the two War Fighting Legions of Pill Sun City went down south to attack Xiangnan Province. They chose to first attack Changsha Prefecture before attacking Changde Prefecture. As a result, the current Changde Prefecture had not been wrapped up in the flames of war.

Even then, it was really jittery within Changde Prefecture.

For the Fenggang City Army to suddenly arrive here at the border, it obviously raised doubts in their hearts.

Weirdly, West Gate Big Official did not directly a start war. Instead, he simply smiled at the Laifeng City General and said, “I am the Lord of Fenggang City, West Gate Big Official. I’m under Great Xia now and have something to discuss with your Lord. Please report it to him swiftly.”

When the general heard this, he did not dare to take matters into his own hands and sent someone to inform his Lord.

Very quickly, Gu Hengxiao received the news. He was astonished, and he immediately called Li Mu over to discuss. He asked, “General, what do you think they are up to?”

In the morning, out of the Lords that pledged their allegiance to Great Xia, Laifeng City was not one of them. Due to the Guilin battle from before, Li Mu had some problems with Great Xia.

With this thorn in his heart, Gu Hengxiao was naturally not going to stay too close to Great Xia.

However, the changes in these two days had messed up his mind. First, there was Caiyun City ditching them and revealing their plan to swallow up the City-State. Next, there was the pledging of loyalty in the morning, which buried the two City-States.

Furthermore, the Pill Sun City Army could attack at any moment. Being in such a spiral, with his ability, he had lost control of his own fate.

He was an ordinary Lord, and he had only summoned Li Mu because of his good luck. However, based on the current climate of the wilderness, even Li Mu would not be able to save Laifeng City.

When Li Mu saw that, he did not directly reply. Instead, he only asked, “In your eyes, without Great Xia interfering, can we stop Caiyun City and Pill Sun City?”

“No.”

Due to setting up the City-State really early, there was very little internal conflict, which was why there were 13 territories left in the province.

Out of them, there were some that were allies of Great Xia and some that were pawns of the Yanhuang Alliance. Aside from that, there were some neutral powers, and the three sides bit at one another.

With that, how would they be able to fend off the attacks of Pill Sun City and Caiyun City? If Great Xia did not come out to interfere, it was only a matter of time before Caiyun City unified the entire Xiangnan Province.

Li Mu said, “Since that’s the case, you only have two roads to choose. You either join Caiyun City or you join Great Xia. Which side are you ready to choose?”

Li Mu’s words were true. Along with the Yanhuang Alliance and Great Xia Dynasty showing off their strength, there was no more living space for small and medium-sized territories like themselves.

To them, it was either they joined a side or get totally thrown out of the game.

“This….”

Gu Hengxiao was put on the spot.

Logically speaking, he was naturally unwilling to join Great Xia. However, to ask him to join Caiyun City, he naturally could not do that either. Who was Caiyun Zinan? He was just a person who was a little stronger than him, so why would he be willing?

“If general chooses, who would you choose?” Gu Hengxiao asked.

Li Mu answered simply, “I would choose Great Xia.”

“Oh?”

This surprised Gu Hengxiao, as he knew that Li Mu had problems with Great Xia. It was not only because of the Battle of Guilin, but it was also because the person who destroyed Zhao was Baiqi, who was in Great Xia.

“Has general let go of it?” Gu Hengxiao asked.

Li Mu nodded, but then he shook his head, confusing Gu Hengxiao. He explained, “I have thought it through. The Battle of Changping was a fair fight. As a general, I should not treat Baiqi like that. But I just could not help but feel unhappy about losing to him. I wanted a chance to fight another battle against him.”

During the Battle of Changping, Li mu had not risen up in Zhao and was unable to join the battle.

Gu Hengxiao understood and asked, “Can general explain why you recommend me to go to Great Xia?”

“Today, the Great Xia Dynasty has pretty much claimed the southwest and is showing signs of unifying the entirety of China. Caiyun City is just a chess piece of Yanhuang Alliance and could be destroyed at any moment. Comparing the two, naturally you choose the stronger one.” Li Mu explained.

What Li Mu did not say was that only an empire like Great Xia would let him develop. Only then could he crush the battlefield and make a name for himself.

Moreover, only a mighty Lord like the Xia King would be able to accept so many talents.

God Generals like Baiqi, Han Xin, and Huo Qubing were all so famous in the wilderness. On the contrary, Li Mu and Wuqi were really low profile.

Wuqi had the chance to command a huge army, while Li Mu was cooped up in Changde Prefecture.

The depressed and bitter feelings in his heart were not something that Gu Hengxiao knew about.

A light flashed in Gu Hengxiao’s eyes, but he did not agree immediately. Instead, he said, “Apart from Caiyun City and Great Xia, we can join Pill Sun City. Why did general not mention that?”

Li Mu replied, “Lord, you have mentioned before that the Yanhuang Alliance is for nobles, and it is not suitable for commoners. Furthermore, it’s really bad internally in the alliance. To put it bluntly, if we join Pill Sun City, I might have a chance to show my ability, but you would be shelved.”

When Gu Hengxiao heard that, he felt a chill run down his spine. Thinking back to how Xunlong Dianxue was treated, Li Mu’s words were not totally false, and it might actually happen if he joined them.

The current problematic situation was only targeting him and not a God General like Li Mu. Thinking about this, Gu Hengxiao was touched, touched by Li Mu’s loyalty.

Li Mu continued, “Great Xia is totally different. Based on what you said, Great Xia is just rising up and needs talents. Furthermore, they care a lot about reputation, and they would definitely find a place for you. If I’m not wrong, West Gate Big Official is coming here to recruit you on Great Xia’s behalf.”

“A new dynasty rising would definitely give birth to new nobles, and it is the best chance to build a name and a career. As a result, people like West Gate Big Official are willing to join Great Xia and not the Yanhuang Alliance.”

As expected from a God General, Li Mu thoroughly analyzed the issue.

Ouyang Shuo had shown his ability to accept everyone, be it commoners or aristocratic families. Hence, they were all able to sense the opportunity within, so they willingly join Great Xia.

Even aristocratic family children and the entire family was something that Ouyang Shuo was confident in affecting with the ability of Great Xia now. He could merge them into the Great Xia system.

At the same time, to restrict the aristocratic families, Ouyang Shuo was also developing new aristocratic families. Apart from using historical people as the core of the dynasty, he was developing Mulan Yue, Black Snake, Meng Zhida, and the like.

Even including the Lords from when Great Xia merged with other territories, these people and their families were the new nobles of the dynasty.

To be able to see all this proved that Li Mu was not a simple person.

When Gu Hengxiao heard that, he felt his blood boil. He was finally persuaded and said, “Okay. Since that’s the case, general, you can follow me to meet West Gate Big Official.”

“Yes!”

Li Mu cupped his fists, heaving a sigh of relief in his heart.

…

At 3 PM, West Gate Big Official finally met Gu Hengxiao and his group. He smiled as he greeted, “Brother Gu, long time no see.”

Gu Hengxiao cupped his fists and said, “Long time no see. You sent so many men, so it’s easy to misunderstand.”

“I was reckless.” West Gate Big Official smiled and admitted it, “I did not come over here planning to start a war. Instead, I want to give you an opportunity.”

Gu Hengxiao had seen through West Gate Big Official’s purpose, but he acted like he did not know anything on the surface. Smiling, “Brother West Gate, I’m in such a bad spot. There’s a tiger behind me and a wolf in front. What opportunity do I have?”

When West Gate Big Official heard that, he was delighted.

Gu Hengxiao describing Caiyun City and Pill Sun City as a tiger and a wolf made his stance really clear.

At this point, West Gate Big Official did not beat around the bush. He took out a letter and passed it to Gu Hengxiao, “This is a letter the Xia King told me to pass to you. Please think about the contents of the letter.”

Gu Hengxiao’s eyes focused. He knew that this was the main matter, and he reached out and accepted it.

Since they were so frank, Gu Hengxiao did not have anything to hide. He opened it up, and the more he saw, the more complicated his expression grew. There were emotions; he felt touched but also some sadness.

Looking at it, Gu Hengxiao did not immediately reply to West Gate Big Official. Instead, he turned around to Li Mu and said, “General, take a look!”

“Yes!”

Li Mu respectfully accepted the letter.

Chapter 956 - Attack to Replace Defense

Chapter 956: Attack to Replace Defense

In the letter, Ouyang Shuo made promises to both Gu Hengxiao and Li Mu.

For Gu Hengxiao, Ouyang Shuo promised him a Governor appointment and the title of 1st class Earl. It was an improvement from his current position as the Laifeng City Lord, making Gu Hengxiao quite satisfied.

Compared to Gu Hengxiao, Li Mu’s treatment was one that would make everyone else’s eyes turn red with envy.

Ouyang Shuo directly promised him that he would become a marshal. He could lead a legion corps, and he would receive the same treatment as Han Xin, Sun Bin, and Huo Qubing.

When Li Mu saw the letter, his hands could not help but shake because the position of marshal was the greatest pursuit of all the generals in the world.

To be able to receive such a promise, there was nothing else in the world that Li Mu wanted.

Seeing this, Gu Hengxiao sighed to himself. He knew that if he did not agree, their relationship would sour. He acted like he did not see Li Mu’s reaction, and he turned around to face West Gate Big Official, “The Great Xia King treats me so well. I’ll obviously follow him. As for any specific arrangements, brother West Gate can just say it out. Laifeng City will follow.”

With Li Mu’s help in the Great Xia Army, Gu Hengxiao’s position as governor was really stable.

West Gate Big Official was delighted, and he smiled, “The king wants General Li Mu to be the main general to command Fenggang City, Laifeng City, and the remaining territory armies to attack the Pill Sun City Army. He wants them to help the Leopard Legion Corps in their encirclement of Xiangnan Province.”

“I’ll follow the king’s orders!”

With the meeting was over, Gu Hengxiao officially signed the agreement. West Gate Big Official heaved a sigh of relief, as his mission was basically complete. Everything else would be up to Li Mu.

West Gate Big Official was so eager because Ouyang Shuo had given him an even bigger promise of Provincial Governor. The prerequisite was that he needed to use his influence in the two City-States to help the dynasty take down both provinces.

Ouyang Shuo’s actions showed his eagerness to recruit talent.

After which, West Gate Big Official handed over the power of the 70 thousand troops of Fenggang City to Li Mu. After they gathered with the 40 thousand of Laifeng City, they immediately headed for the remaining two houses in Changde Prefecture.

Li Mu commanded 110 thousand troops, and there were also seven territories in Xiangnan Province that were on Great Xia’s side. If they still could not win against Pill Sun City’s two War Fighting Legion, Li Mu would not dare accept the position of marshal.

This battle was Li Mu’s battle to prove himself to the Great Xia Army.

Along with Fenggang City and Laifeng City changing flags, the battle in the north region of Xiangnan Province formed a standstill between two sides, stopping Pill Sun City’s advances.

Not only that, but even Baoqing Prefecture’s territories started to have a more intense resistance against the Caiyun City Army. Along with the Leopard Legion Corps going straight for Caiyun City, the Xiangnan Province battle was favoring Great Xia.

The Yanhuang Alliance’s goal of unifying Xiangnan Province was slowly going up in smoke.

At the same time, the 2nd legion of the Guards Legion Corps and the 5th legion of the Leopard Legion Corps split into two and entered Chuanbei Province, working with the Great Xia allies to occupy it.

Half of the province territories announced that they were under Great Xia. Although it stunned the other remaining territories, it ensured that they would not dare to randomly move their troops too. With no outside interference, no one knew what to do, and they could only maintain the current situation.

The sudden entry of the two legions immediately broke this standstill. Furthermore, with West Gate Big Official’s help, it would only be a matter of time before the Great Xia Army took down Chuanbei Province.

…

In a short few days, the southwest battle field underwent many changes, causing the players who were watching on to be utterly stunned.

West Gate Big Official and Gu Hengxiao changing flags, and half of the two City-State territories announcing that they belonged to Great Xia; this revealed Great Xia’s foundations in both provinces, which astonished everyone.

“The Yanhuang Alliance is just asking for trouble for choosing to fight Great Xia in Xiangnan Province.”

The players noticed that at this point, Great Xia was much better than Yanhuang Alliance even in terms of using plots, schemes, and manipulating chess pieces. A while ago, such methods were the specialty of the Yanhuang Alliance.

Without a doubt, Great Xia had surpassed the Yanhuang Alliance in all aspects. Thinking about the young ruler that was growing like a rocket, the players in the wilderness could not help but be full of praise for him.

Ouyang Shuo’s ‘support club’ and ‘fan clubs’ were growing at an exponential rate. Members were not limited to young girls, and there were numerous hot blooded young teens.

“That’s what a man should be!”

Ouyang Shuo had become the hero of the younger generation, an invincible idol to lead a new era.

Now, the players were curious about how the Yanhuang Alliance would react. Would they back out or try to fight?

After throwing in four War Fighting Legions into the Xiangnan City-State, the Yanhuang Alliance had no reason to just give up.

…

Handan City, City Lord’s Manor.

Di Chen, Chun Shenjun, Zhan Lang, and Xiong Ba had gathered together to discuss the Xiangnan war matter.

The first one to speak was Di Chen, “At this stage, let’s not hide anything anymore. Apart from the troops that we are placing at the border, let’s take out as many as we can to reinforce. Let’s give an actual number before we decide how the alliance should proceed.”

The decision that Di Chen was referring to was naturally whether they should reinforce Caiyun City and take the gamble or not.

Chun Shenjun was the first to answer, “Pill Sun City cannot move a single troop unless we call for the retreat of the two War Fighting Legions in Xiangnan.”

Di Chen and the others nodded and expressed that they understood.

In the end, they could at most bring out 150 thousand reinforcements in total. Anymore, and they might suffer a full collapse, and they would end up with a large scale defeat.

Seeing this, Di Chen did not try to force anyone, as he knew that this was already their limit. Luckily, it was 50 thousand more than the 100 thousand he had predicted. Even so, it was still really difficult.

“150 thousand reinforcements mean that we can only assist one side. Should we choose Swordsman City or Caiyun City?”

At this moment, Di Chen was actually leading the proceedings, but Chun Shenjun and Xiong Ba did not oppose it. What a surprise.

It seems like internally, the Yanhuang Alliance had also come to a consensus.

Di Chen’s power rising once more was probably because they all realized that a snake could not lack a head. Without an actual leader, the Yanhuang Alliance was like a cluster of scattered sand, and they would not be able to compete against Great Xia.

Who knows what kind of sacrifices and compromises the Di family had made to push Di Chen to the front.

“Swordsman City has already subordinated themselves to the Shu Han Dynasty and become their slave. Is there a need to save them?” The one who spoke was Xiong Ba. As a prideful person, he obviously was not happy with what Feng Qingyang did.

“Caiyun City.” Zhan Lang answered simply.

“Swordsman City.”

Sha Pojun’s choice was not a surprise. If Great Xia took down the Shu Lands, they could directly threaten the safety of Guanxi Province. For his own safety, it was best to protect Swordsman City.

Wandering Magic wanted to choose Swordsman City. However, seeing Xiong Ba support Caiyun City, he sighed. He decided to not say a word as a form of abstaining.

The only one that remained was Chun Shenjun, and he smiled, “I have already thrown in two legions, is my attitude not clear enough?” He had decided to give up on his traditional ally, Feng Qingyang, and try to get closer to Caiyun Zinan.

Weirdly, Caiyun Zinan did not participate in this meeting.

When Di Chen heard that, he concluded, “Accepting Caiyun City was my decision, and I will stand with it. Four votes for Caiyun City, one vote against, and one vote abstain.”

With that, without Swordsman City knowing, they were abandoned by the alliance.

With 150 thousand troops assisting Caiyun City, along with the 10 thousand guards they had left in the city, they had enough to defend against the Tiger Leopard Cavalry.

As long as they managed to hold on, the two War Fighting Legions of Caiyun City could take down Baoqing Prefecture and gather with the Pill Sun City Army. At that time, whoever wins or loses in Xiangnan Province would be a close call.

Just as Di Chen was ready to announce his decision, Juedai Fenghua suddenly spoke up, “There’s actually a way to help both sides. You guys can consider it.”

“Oh?”

Their eyes lit up.

To say the truth, many of them were unwilling to give up on Swordsman City like that.

They voted to abandon Swordsman City now. Who knows, maybe it would be them the next time. A better solution was naturally the best way out.

Juedai Fenghua said, “The Great Xia Dragon Legion Corps is camped outside of Swordsman City in a faceoff against the Shu Han Army. They are obviously waiting for Baiqi to arrive before attacking. There’s a time lapse here.”

“If we teleport the 150 thousand to Swordsman City, they will have 360 thousand troops against the 220 thousand Dragon Legion Corp. 360 against 220 thousand, and the Dragon Legion Corps do not have their key person in Baiqi. Do we not have the confidence to end it and try to crush them?”

“This….”

Di Chen and the others exchanged glances and took in a deep cold breath. They did not expect Juedai Fenghua to be so bold.

Logically speaking, Swordsman City had the geographical advantage, and it was better to defend than attack. Who would think about initiating the fight?

But thinking about it, her suggestion was really feasible.

360 thousand against 220 thousand, and they were fighting on their home ground. Moreover, all the troops were elites. They even had the Shu Lands guards helping, so there was no reason that they would lose.

Even if Di Chen and the others were not confident, they were tempted by the idea.

Seeing that, Juedai Fenghua continued, “The battle will last for two days at most. Once we crush the Dragon Legion Corps, our troops can still teleport over to Caiyun City. As for the defenses of Caiyun City, we can ask Caiyun Zinan to move one legion back first.”

This was her solution to the whole situation.

Attack was the best form of defense; she wanted them to use a time lapse to destroy the enemy troops.

Such strategic mindset was that of an outstanding person.

Chapter 957 - Night Before the Final Battle

Chapter 957: Night Before the Final Battle

Juedai Fenghua’s suggestion tempted Di Chen and the others.

The few of them discussed and also invited Lianpo and the other generals to simulate the battle. In the end, they all agreed to her plan and even gave it a really cool name – Dragonslayer.

Once Zhan Lang and the others left, Juedai Fenghua was a little worried, “Is it really okay for us to move 50 thousand troops?”

As Pill Sun City was unable to assist Swordsman City, Di Chen as the boss naturally needed to step up and do his part. As a result, he moved 50 thousand troops in one go.

“Is there any movement over at Stone City?” Di Chen asked.

“It’s calm.”

“Then there should not be a problem. Wufu has no courage.”

“Let’s hope so!”

For some reason, Juedai Fenghua was still feeling a little uneasy.

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

10th month, 14th day, Swordsman City.

At 9 AM, the 150 thousand troops from the various Yanhuang Alliance territories all teleported over to Swordsman City. Along with the army was general Lianpo.

They needed a good general to command such a large scale battle.

Chun Shenjun’s Tian Dan was still in Xiangnan Province, while Wuqi was still locked in a standstill against Sun Bin. As such, neither of them could come over.

The only general they could use was Lianpo.

The sudden appearance of 150 thousand troops would still cause a lot of noise no matter how hidden they tried to be. As such, they were noticed by the Shanhai Guard spies.

Lianpo also did not think about purposely hiding it.

From what Di Chen said, “This is a proper all out brawl; there’s nothing to hide.”

Baiqi was still thousands of miles away, and Great Xia could not move any reinforcements in such a short few days. No matter what, this battle was a destined one that no one could stop.

Feng Qingyang had gotten the news and happily welcomed Lianpo into the City Lord’s Manor.

The waves that rose up from the Xiangnan Province battle worried Feng Qingyang the most. He knew that he had the highest chance of being abandoned by the alliance, so he could not sleep well for a consecutive few days.

Within the City Lord’s Manor, Wei Yan, Zhao Yun, and Pang Tong were all waiting. As the Lord, Feng Qingyang introduced them one by one to Lianpo.

As one of the four famous generals of the Warring States Period, no one would oppose the decision if he became the main general. Zhao Yun and Wei Yan would rather be the deputies and participate in the discussions about the battle.

360 thousand against 220 thousand; in terms of numbers, the Alliance Army had the advantage. However, they were far from having an overwhelming majority. As such, it was still going to be difficult to win this battle.

Before coming, Di Chen and the others had come to the consensus that they did not wish to fully annihilate the Dragon Legion Corps. They only needed to force them back so that they could not threaten to destroy Swordsman City.

Basically, with such a strategic consideration, Lianpo said, “In the final battle, our army will put our main focus on their wings to force them to squeeze toward the middle and eventually retreat.”

When Zhao Yun heard Lianpo’s battle plan, he was unwilling.

Before coming, Liu Bei had instructed him to wipe out the enemy troops to the best of his ability.

Considering the situation, Zhao Yun did not oppose the plan. At most, he would viciously strike at the wings of the enemy tomorrow as a form of revenge.

Pang Tong, who followed Zhao Yun along, did not speak a single word either. His eyes showed that he was deep in thought.

…

With the meeting settled, the 150 thousand reinforcements did not stay in the city but moved outside. Even the 60 thousand troops led by Wei Yan followed them out and got into formation outside of the city.

The 360 thousand strong army lined up, and their tents covered the entire field so that one could not see the ends of it.

The 150 thousand Shu Han army formed the left wing, the 60 thousand Swordsman City troops were in the middle, while the 150 thousand reinforcements served as the right wing. To provide the army with grain, Feng Qingyang had basically emptied the granary.

Lianpo was not slacking off. He merged the 150 thousand reinforcements while he created a command system in preparation for the battle tomorrow.

Luckily, this was not the first time that the troops of the Yanhuang Alliance had gathered together to fight. They were used to it and were comfortable with working another, so Lianpo did not need to worry much.

At 3 PM, with the accompaniment of Feng Qingyang, Lianpo went to inspect the battlefield.

The battlefield of the final battle was on the southern outskirts of Swordsman City. The entire south was vast. Apart from a few small hills, it was basically an endless plain.

The Shu Lands only had one rice season a year, and it was now the 10th month. As such, most of the crops had been harvested. The paddies were filled with random grass, and it was really muddy.

Tang Dynasty famous poet Li Shangying had once stayed here for a period of time, and he wrote a poem called Sent North in Night Rain.

You ask for the time of my return, but there is not a time;

On Mt. Ba, the night rain swells autumnal pools.

When can we together cut the candle by the west window, and speak of the time of night rain on Mt. Ba?

There was a lot of mention of rain in the story, which was proof of the Shu Lands’ heavy rain frequency. Normally, the Shu Lands would rain at night and rarely during the day.

The rain last night soaked all the paddy fields and made them really muddy.

Such geography would undoubtedly affect the charging cavalry and the fighting of infantry. If the commander did not consider this factor, they would be at a huge disadvantage.

This was the importance of scouting the ground.

Amongst the paddies, there were some rapeseed flower fields that had just been planted. Apart from that, there were some fruit gardens.

After the big battle tomorrow, who knows what kind of state they would be left in?

As for the villages scattered around, most of them were already left empty.

The Great Xia Army was not as messed up in the head as the Dali army, and they would not massacre civilians. However, such a big war would often have many innocent casualties, so the people obviously decided to hide in the city.

Further away, there was the Dragon Legion Corps camp. Different from the Alliance Army one, the Dragon Legion Corps used green tents that camouflaged in the wilderness. If one did not look carefully, they would not be able to see a thing.

When Lianpo saw this, he was impressed, “What a great idea.” As a person who had been through many battles, he naturally saw the pros of such a green tent.

The green tent was invented by the Combat Logistics Department. They could swiftly change their gear, apart from the development of a dye, because of the large scale use of sewing machines in Great Xia.

For the next step, Xiahou Ying was really ambitious and wanted to change all their uniforms to a standard green.

However, this project would use up too many resources. Even with the ability of Great Xia, to change the uniforms of millions of troops could not be done in a short time.

Furthermore, during the cold weapons era, soldiers all wore armor. The green uniform would not have much of an effect compared to modern warfare.

The Military Affairs Minister postponed this project and Ouyang Shuo did not interfere.

Looking out at the Great Xia Army Camp, Lianpo was not as confident as he appeared in the manor. After fighting so many times with the Great Xia, he was really familiar with their strength.

Although they had the numerical advantage, he did not have absolute confidence. To choose to have the final battle now was a little rushed.

Although that was the case, Lianpo was still really fervent and eager.

He had lost many times to Great Xia, so he wanted to win over them. Regretfully, his old opponent Baiqi had not arrived on the battlefield.

“I must definitely win this battle!” Lianpo’s gaze was filled with firmness.

Lianpo only returned to the camp when night fell.

…

Just as Lianpo was scouting the battlefield, the Dragon Legion Corps had movement too.

4th legion camp, central tent.

Lai Hu’er, Zhang Liao, Luo Shixin, and Xiao Chaogui had all gathered together. There was one other person, the following strategist, Administrative Mentor Court Advisor Chen Gong.

Long ago, when the Dragon Legion Corps was sent into the Shu Lands, Chen Gong was appointed as the strategist. During the Battle of Jiangyang Prefecture, Baiqi was commanding from the back while Chen Gong took charge of the frontlines to add to the instructions.

The four generals were all equally skilled in battle. However, as Luo Shixin had been in Great Xia the longest and was also trained by Baiqi, he had a higher position than the other three.

As a result, before Baiqi arrived, he would serve as the main general.

The news of the 150 thousand reinforcements had spread to them long ago. Facing the enemy that seemed like they were going to go all out, the four generals were not nervous at all.

Luo Shixin said, “Strategist, it’s time to use the token that the king gave you.”

Chen Gong nodded, “Although we have it, we cannot be too overconfident. It’s best if we send someone to inform Fu Yang to ask the Qiang Race army to get ready.”

Luo Shixin said, “You are right. This is the crucial battle, and our commander is not here. How much we are able to get depends on the few of us. We cannot lose face for our king.”

“General, give the order!”

Zhang Liao and the others cupped their fists.

Luo Shixin started to plan the tactics. Of course, he did not decide everything on his own, and he discussed things with the three other generals. With Chen Gong there, they came up with a suitable battle plan.

It seemed like Di Chen and the others had miscalculated. Without Baiqi, the Dragon Legion Corps could still fight wars.

Chapter 958 - Cavalry That Doesn't Charge Is Useless

Chapter 958: Cavalry That Doesn’t Charge Is Useless

Gaia 4th year, 10th month, 15th day, Swordsman City.

The sun rose from the east, and the golden sunlight spread across the white mist of the southern outskirts, chasing away the darkness of the night. Along with the morning light, the camps that were silent for the night became noisy once more.

The cooks of each unit woke up the earliest. Before the sky even lit up, they had started to cook for the entire unit.

The war today was special, and to raise the morale of the entire army, Feng Qingyang was really generous. He specially gave each unit a fat pig, fat sheep, chicken, duck, salted fish, and the like. There were even delicacies like fish, prawn, and crab.

It was said that Swordsman City was already preparing for the celebratory feast, which was going to be held on a larger scale with better ingredients.

There were hundreds and thousands of horse keepers that were busy feeding the horses and brushing their fur. They needed to ensure that the war horses would be at their top level for the war.

Some experienced soldiers had already woken up. After washing up, some of them started to warm up to get their bodies to the optimum condition. Others wiped their armor and inspected their weapons.

The soldiers were clear that being careful before the war meant that they would have a little more hopes in surviving it.

Who knows how many of them were going to fall on this battlefield?

At 7 AM, the entire camp had already woken up.

After having their breakfast, the soldiers formed up into units. Under the lead of their majors, they left the camp and headed to the designated form up points in the wilderness.

The forces orderly arrived on the battlefield. Forming up, the 360 thousand troops laid out into hundreds of formations, spreading from east to west. The entire length of the army formation was even longer than the Swordsman City city wall, a majestic sight.

On the left wing, 150 thousand Shu Han guards troops waited solemnly. They looked really strong, but they were actually the weakest bunch.

After a dynasty moved into the imperial city, the guards troops would automatically change into the equipment of that dynasty. As a result, the current Shu Han guards were wearing cloth armors, and only the generals could wear pieces of armor.

Even the two piece armor could not be compared to the Mingguang Armor or the Buren Armor. On this day, when Gaia had already opened up armor making techniques, the Shu Han guards appeared really backward.

As a result, when Zhao Yun looked at the equipment of the Alliance Army, his eyes were filled with envy.

In the middle, Wei Yan led 60 thousand Swordsman City troops. If one looked carefully, one would notice that this was the most nervous group out of the entire Alliance Army. This was because the 50 thousand of them had come down from the frontlines. They had witnessed the strength of the Great Xia Army. Seeing that they were about to fight with them once more, they were obviously nervous.

The right wing was naturally the 150 thousand reinforcements led by Lianpo personally.

This batch of reinforcements was moved by Di Chen and the others from their main cities. They were all guards. They were comparable to the Dragon Legion Corps soldiers.

As a result, Lianpo was confident about being able to win this war.

The heavens were shining on them. In a rare turn of events, it did not rain last night, delighting Lianpo becayse this was the best possible sign.

Once the army had gathered up, Lianpo ordered the army to go down south toward the Great Xia Army at the foot of the mountain. Anywhere the army passed, no life remained.

Every five miles they moved forward, Lianpo would order them to stop and adjust their formation. He did this to ensure that they were facing the enemy with a flawless formation. He wanted to make sure that he did not give them any chances.

After two hours, they could finally see the Dragon Legion Corps.

Lianpo stood on the specially built moving command tower and analyzed the enemy formation.

The first to enter his eyes were those unassuming little hills. The hills that were empty last night now had some troops camping there.

What astonished Lianpo was that there were many P2 Type Cannons on the hills. The cannons formed a circle with no dead spots. It was heavily guarded by soldiers that were looking down from above.

Lianpo knew that these hills were all war castles. If they did not remove them, it would be tough for them to fight against the main force of the enemy.

The Dragon Legion Corps arrangement was also really weird.

Facing the Alliance Army left wing was the Dragon Legion Corps right wing, which basically consisted of only cavalry.

The middle troops and left wing of the Dragon Legion Corps mostly consisted of infantry. Only at the outermost side of the left wing were there 10 thousand cavalry. At the front of the formation were two rows of P2 Cannons and behind them were archers.

“This is a defensive formation.”

Lianpo frowned, as this formation really was not the style of the Great Xia Army.

Although that was the case, this war had to be launched. When they were 1.5 kilometers out from the enemy, Lianpo told his army to stop to make their final preparations.

In an instance, the noisy army slowly quietened down, making the entire wilderness totally silent. Only the breathing of men and horses could be heard.

The Alliance Army soldiers were all really nervous. In a short while, the atmosphere of the war caused all of their blood to boil.

“Sound the drums!” Lianpo ordered.

Since they had the numerical advantage, Lianpo naturally wanted to win against them in terms of aura too.

‘Dong! Dong! Dongdong!’

The sounds of the war drums broke the silence of the wilderness. It caused the hot blood in the bodies of the soldiers to boil once more, making all of them excited and ready to tear their enemies apart.

Weirdly, the Dragon Legion Corps was still silent.

No shouts, no drums; the 200 thousand odd soldiers were dead silent. They simply stood still on the plains. This silence gathered up into an aura that was enough to send a chill down one’s spine.

The entire Dragon Legion Corps was like a mountain, like a long iron wall.

The faces of the Swordsman City soldiers trembled as they thought of something horrifying. Their bad memories flowed into their brains, and they gave out looks of fear.

The Dragon Legion Corps was a bunch of human devouring devils.

When Wei Yan saw that, his brows were locked tight, but he did not have any solution to the problem. Anything he said now would have a negative effect, so it was best if he did not speak a word.

The war drums got more and more hurried, and it pushed their emotions to a new peak. Blades were unsheathed, their bows were in hand, and their spears were gripped tight as they stared at the enemy. They were getting ready to charge at any moment.

The final battle was ahead of them.

…

The current Dragon Legion Corps camp was unusually peaceful.

The arrangements that they needed to make were already completed, so all they needed to do now was gather up energy. They needed to wait for the enemy to charge toward them before dealing them the fatal blow.

Chen Gong stood on a section high ground. His hands were holding onto a talisman as he stared at the battlefield.

The talisman in his hand was the War Stopping Talisman. When used, it could prevent any imperial city guards troops from participating in a Lord battle, and this effect lasted for a week.

Ouyang Shuo was not personally on the frontlines, so he did not have a grasp on the best time to use it. As a result, he passed it to Chen Gong, who would use the talisman to change the battle.

This was the key to the outcome of this battle.

…

With a ‘Shua!’, Lianpo pulled out the sword by his waist and said in a low tone, “Attack!” Receiving the order, the messenger troops waved the flags above their head and ordered the army to attack.

“Kill!”

The Alliance Army that was raring to go was like wild horses released into the wilderness, and they charged out with a killing aura.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

On top of the hills, the cannons fired, opening the proceedings to this battle.

In a short while, the hills were surrounded by Alliance Army troops. A huge number of soldiers tried to charge up to destroy the cannons.

“Raise your shields!”

Each hill was defended by a regiment of Dragon Legion Corps soldiers. The sword-shield soldiers were as the front, while the archers behind. They had the high ground and the cannons helping them, so they had the advantage.

Although the Alliance Army had a menacing aura, they would not be able to take down such a hills so quickly.

The morale that they had gathered could not help but freeze up.

When the Alliance Army generals saw this, their faces became really ugly. Gritting their teeth, they threw wave after wave of soldiers up to try and take down the hills in the shortest amount of time possible.

Killing shouts broke out; cannons fired.

Under the stubborn defense of the Dragon Legion Corps, stacks of Alliance Army corpses were piled up at the foot of the hills. Soldiers had to climb over and step on the dead bodies of their allies to attack.

At the same time, the main force braved the cannon fire and continued to charge at the Dragon Legion Corps camp.

One thousand meters, 900 meters, 800 meters….

Very quickly, the Alliance Army soldiers at the front could clearly see the faces of the Dragon Legion Corps soldiers. However, that was when the cannons fired.

Two rows of cannons and archers formed up the first long range attacks.

The Alliance Army troops at the front were knocked up, and both their horses and them were sent flipping. As they were charging, the forces behind them were unable to dodge and could only continue forward.

Numerous casualties were created as a result of being stepped into meat paste. Amongst them, there were soldiers that fell down injured and were stepped on before they could be saved.

This was war; there was no mercy at all.

600 meters, 500 meters, 400 meters.

Both sides were getting closer and closer, and a close combat massacre was impending.

The Alliance Army soldiers were suddenly excited once more. They had withstood the fire of the enemy cannons. After paying a heavy price, they were finally in front of the enemy formation.

It was time for them to take revenge.

Thinking about this, the bloodthirsty soldiers could not help but lick at their dry lips. Their black pupils started to show a hint of red, what an evil sight.

Zhao Yun was really excited. The cavalry he personally led charged at the front. They wanted to teach the Great Xia Army a lesson; they wanted to show them the strength of the Shu Han Army.

Although they did not have good equipment, Zhao Yun was still really confident.

However, the further in front he got, the more confused he felt. If the Great Xia infantry forces were lying in wait to defend, it would make sense. However, in front of them were all cavalry forces.

Cavalry that did not charge at the enemy was no different from trash.

Facing the high speed charging Shu Army cavalry, the Great Xia cavalry that did not move were like living targets. Zhao Yun really did not believe that the enemy would commit such a basic mistake.

The Shu Han Army was charging right at them.

Chapter 959 - The Despair of Being Unable to Fight Back

Chapter 959: The Despair of Being Unable to Fight Back

“We are close!”

Zhao Yun tightly gripped the spear in his hand, getting ready to stab it into the body of the enemy.

On the platform not far away, Chen Gong stared at the Shu Han cavalry that were getting closer and closer; he slowly tore the War Stopping Talisman.

With a ‘Shua!’ the talisman turned into an eye-catching white light that flashed onto the battlefield. Instantly, the light covered the 150 thousand Shu Han soldiers. It was like they were all instantly possessed, and the high speed charging army all stopped.

Time stopped.

Zhao Yun’s eager and confused expression froze like a statue. Next, the white light expanded and shrank. The 150 thousand Shu Han Army disappeared from the battlefield and were sent back to the imperial city.

Within seven days, the Shu Han Dynasty could not send reinforcements to Swordsman City.

Seeing this magical scene, be it the Alliance Army or the Dragon Legion Corps, they were all so shocked that their jaws dropped.

“Oh my god, what’s this?”

“Punishment from the heavens! It’s punishment from the heavens!” Some soldiers muttered and knelt on the floor.

“It is magic; Great Xia has deities helping them.”

“What deity, it’s obviously devils from hell. The Dragon Legion Corps is a bunch of devils.”

The person who spoke was filled with fear.

Facing such an unexplainable scene, soldiers that had limited knowledge could only attribute it to gods and devils.

Along with the rumors, fear and unease spread, causing their morale to collapse. Even the soldiers charging at the front could not help but slow down.

The Great Xia Dragon Legion Corps in front of them were truly a bunch of devils. This invisible pressure was enough to crush the mental strength of normal soldiers.

It was like a time slowing spell was cast on the battlefield, instantly going from
fast to slow.

On the command tower, when Lianpo saw the sudden disappearance of the Shu Han Army, even with his calmness, his face turned ashen white. He muttered, “We fell for it; this was all a plot!”

The sudden disappearance of the Shu Han Army was just too weird. The Great Xia Army cavalry did not charge, as they had long predicted this. Far away, Lianpo could smell the thick scent of a plot.

As Di Chen’s right hand man, Lianpo had appeared in the wilderness for a period of time. Naturally, he did not believe in any ghosts. He guessed that this should be Great Xia using a special tool.

This was not the time for them investigate what the tool was. The key was what the Alliance Army should do now. Before Lianpo reacted, the Dragon Legion Corps that had been keeping silent was the first to move.

From the right wing, the silent 70 thousand elite cavalry launched their charge under Zhang Liao’s lead. The frontline of the enemy had ended up totally empty due to the sudden disappearance of the Shu Han Army.

There was only empty space in front of the cavalry, and there were no enemies left.

The Dragon Legion Corps that had been lying in wait stopped concealing their killing intent. The blue sky was covered by their blood aura that brimmed with killing intent. It sent a chill down their enemy’s spine.

Under Zhang Liao’s command, after breaking away from the cannon range, the cavalry took a long arc before making a left turn into the middle troops formation. The Swordsman City 60 thousand troops were located here.

The 60 thousand Swordsman City Army had started charging, and there were less than 20 thousand men left at the back.

The Swordsman City Army feared the Dragon Legion Corps. Now, as a result of the shocking turn of events, Zhang Liao was charging at them menacingly before they could even react.

“Kill!”

Horse lances were raised up, forming an unstoppable spear formation that stabbed at the Swordsman City Army.

It was easy to imagine what kind of gory scene would ensue.

Collapse!

The 20 thousand Swordsman City cavalry actually could not defend against the charge of Zhang Liao’s troops, and they totally collapsed.

There were numerous casualties, and they were decimated.

In a short half an hour, the middle troops were actually flattened by the Great Xia cavalry. Thousands of Swordsman City soldiers were turned into meat paste, blood, flesh, and dirt mixed together, unable to be separated.

It was like hell.

The middle troops had two armies protecting them at the wings. Logically speaking, they should be the safest, but now, they were the earliest to be crushed.

When Zhang Liao saw that, he stopped wasting time in the middle and continued to proceed west, cutting into the right wing of the enemy troops. The 150 thousand reinforcements led by Lianpo were located here.

As an experienced general, during the first charge, Lianpo only sent out 80 thousand troops, leaving close to half at the backlines as a flexible force in his hand to throw into battle.

The unfortunate thing was that the first wave of troops he sent out was mostly cavalry, while those he left behind were infantry. Facing Zhang Liao’s charging troops, the disadvantage they were at was evident.

As they formed up, Lianpo did not prepare for a cavalry sneak attack. He only followed normal thinking and placed the defenses on the west side and the back, a full 10 thousand cavalry.

How could Lianpo know that the enemy would be attacking them right from the middle troops?

One must know that the middle troops had the Shu Han Army at the other side. No matter how strong the enemy cavalry were, they could not reach his east side.

The sudden disappearance of the Shu Han Army immediately changed the battle situation, rendering Lianpo’s arrangements totally useless.

When Lianpo reacted and wanted to set up defenses on the east, but he did not expect the middle troops to be so weak. They totally did not buy him any time at all. Before the defense chain was set, Zhang Liao and his men had charged over in victorious spirits.

Zhang Liao’s forces engaged in an all-out slaughter at the back of the Alliance Army, throwing the entire Alliance Army unit chaos. Lianpo could only try his best to command the backlines to engage Zhang Liao’s troops.

…

Just as Zhang Liao’s troops were stirring waves at the back of the Alliance Army, the high speed charging Alliance Army frontlines finally engaged the Dragon Legion Corps.

Toward this, the Dragon Legion Corps was prepared.

Xiao Chaogui commanded the cannon formation, Luo Shixin took charge of the middle troops, and Lai Hu’er was at the left wing. Each one of them had a clear job to face the incoming Alliance Army that they bare their fangs at.

Especially Lai Hu’er, who had a lot of pent up frustration in him; he had been looking forward to this battle to wash off all his humiliation. He wanted to gain credit from this battle to win back trust from the king and win back his lost honor.

The sudden disappearance of 150 thousand Shu Han Army troops caused a reversal of the troop numbers. It went from 360 thousand against 220 thousand to 210 thousand against 220 thousand. They went from having the numerical advantage to being outnumbered.

Considering the morale and the combat strength of both sides, the Alliance Army was at a disadvantage.

The currently charging Alliance Army was not as good as the Dragon Legion Corps. Furthermore, their morale was low, and the sudden change at the back had caused the soldiers to lose their fighting spirits.

Under such terrible circumstances, how could the Alliance Army fight against the well prepared Dragon Legion Corps?

Even the left wing cavalry forces did not achieve their intended effect. The cavalry suffered heavy casualties under the cannon and arrow fire. After barely breaking through the first layer of sword shield soldiers, they had no more momentum and were surrounded by the Dragon Legion Corps.

After blocking the first wave of attacks from the Alliance Army, the Dragon Legion Corps initiated their attacks under the leadership of their three generals, forcing the Alliance Army back again and again.

Such a turn of events was truly awe inspiring.

…

Looking around at the battlefield, Lianpo’s expression was really painful and bitter.

If they fight, they could not win.

If they wanted to retreat, they could not.

The two armies were tangled up with one another.

There was only one path ahead for the Alliance Army; they needed to hold on.

Lianpo had not given up hope. As long as the Alliance Army could last past the day, once night fell and both sides stopped battling to rest, Lianpo could retreat and leave this sad place.

If they retreated, even if they did not manage to defend Swordsman City, they could still teleport over to Caiyun City and protect the fruits of their labor.

The problem was if the Alliance Army would be able to survive a day?

Lianpo was still really confident about this. The 150 thousand reinforcements were all elites of their territories. Even after facing so many successive setbacks, they were not affected.

Under Lianpo’s leadership, the entire army managed to barely hold on.

Under the circumstances where both sides had similar numbers, even though the Dragon Legion Corps was strong, they could not totally crush such an elite force within a day.

Luckily, Great Xia still had cards to play.

Right after noon passed, a rumbling sound could be heard from outside the battlefield. Looking at its position, the sound was coming from the west. Lianpo was delighted, and he thought to himself, ‘Did the alliance send reinforcements?’

That was because Feng Qingyang made it really clear that Great Xia only had the Dragon Legion Corps in the Shu Lands and did not have any other reinforcements. Even if they had more troops, they should come from the south and not the west.

When this army appeared, Lianpo’s eyes froze up.

Lianpo, who had seen and been through many things, could recognize right away that this was a Qiang Race army. Weirdly, they did not have any flags, and one could not tell which side these troops belonged to.

“Are they troops sent by Lord Feng?”

Lianpo was not really sure, but he was 70% confident in his heart. Lianpo knew that beside Swordsman City was the Qiang Prefecture, where many Qiang people lived.

If Feng Qingyang had quietly built up a Qiang Race army, it would be quite normal.

Thinking about this, Lianpo was really excited.

With this army, Lianpo would be confident about continuing to fight.

Although he was happy, Lianpo was annoyed with Feng Qingyang for not bringing out such an army earlier.

If he brought them out earlier, the Alliance Army would not be in such an awkward situation.

Thinking about the schemes and plots played between Lords, Lianpo did not bother thinking about it anymore. This had exceeded what he should bother about as a general, and he should not get involved in it.

Just as Lianpo was filled with expectations, Zhang Liao’s forces suddenly broke away and arrived in front of the Qiang Race army. They pointed at the battlefield. Who knows what they were saying?

After a short while, Zhang Liao led his forces back.

The Qiang Race army had received the order, and they suddenly turned toward the Alliance Army. Their sharp butcher knives appeared really eye-piercing under the sun.

When Lianpo saw this, he painfully closed his eyes and muttered, “The Alliance Army is finished.”

Even with Lianpo’s ability, there was nothing he could do about this.

Chapter 960 - A Cunning Rabbit Has Three Burrows

Chapter 960: A Cunning Rabbit Has Three Burrows

In every final battle, the soldiers would have a limit to their mental defense. If it remained above this line, they would use their lives to follow instructions. However, the moment it crosses this line, the soldiers would consider their own safety and defeat would be imminent.

The 60 thousand Qiang Race army became the final straw that crushed them.

The Alliance Army that was barely holding on at this point finally experience a full-scale collapse when they saw yet another Great Xia Army make their way here. They started to either run or throw their weapons down to surrender.

Wei Yan, who was still fervently fighting on the frontlines, immediately turned around. He fled toward the north side under the protection of his Personal Guards. Wei Yan was originally loaned over by the Shu Han Dynasty to Swordsman City. Even if Swordsman City was destroyed, he could still return to Shu Han.

As such, why would he fight to the death?

However, Wei Yan did not know that someone had been staring at him right from the start of the battle. This person was the one that lost to him – Lai Hu’er. Seeing that Wei Yan wanted to escape, Lai Huer did not hesitate and chased.

“Wei Yan, where do you think you’re going!”

Lai Hu’er hollered as he chased.

Seeing this, Wei Yan fled even faster.

Two groups; one side was chasing and one side was fleeing. They quickly broke away from the battlefield. Using the war horse advantage, Lai Hu’er finally caught up to Wei Yan. He grinned as he swept out at Wei Yan viciously with the spear in his hand.

Seeing that he was unable to flee, Wei Yan gritted his teeth. The Personal Guards following the two also engaged.

These two generals were born in different dynasties, and it was hard to determine the victor right away. However, Wei Yan’s heart was thinking about escaping while Lai Hu’er was chasing for the win. He was chasing for his revenge.

Their moods were totally different, which would naturally affect the battle.

In less than 40 odd rounds, Lai Hu’er slowly held the advantage. Seeing that, his fighting spirit grew, and he used his spear with outstanding control. Each stroke was fatal; he was determined to cut Wei Yan off his horse.

When Wei Yan saw that, he broke out in cold sweat.

After 60 rounds, there was finally a difference between the skills of the two generals. In the end, Lai Hu’er was still a little stronger and totally suppressed Wei Yan.

The two of them fought for another 10 odd rounds. Wei Yan was careless and was swept off his horse by Lai Hu’er. The moment he fell, Lai Hu’er’s spear swiftly followed and pointed at his head.

When Wei Yan saw this, he said resiliently, “My skills are weaker than yours. Kill me if you wish.”

What a man.

Who knew that Lai Hu’er would suddenly laugh? He did not even look at Wei Yan and said to his Personal Guard, “Bring this man back.”

“Yes general!”

The battle between Personal Guards had ended long ago, and Lai Hu’er’s men had achieved a total victory.

……

When Lai Hu’er and his men returned to the main battlefield, the battle had already come to an end. The Dragon Legion Corps was tending to the wounded, cleaning up the battlefield, and taking prisoners.

Everything was done in an orderly manner.

During this battle, the 220 thousand Dragon Legion Corps and the 60 thousand Qiang Race army lost 20 thousand men and killed 50 thousand. They took 150 thousand prisoners and less than 10 thousand enemies had escaped.

Xiao Chaogui was leading his forces to chase these men.

Without a doubt, this was an exceptional victory.

When Lai Hu’er returned to the tent, Luo Shixin was talking to Fu Yang, the commander of the Qiang Army. Seeing Lai Hu’er escort Wei Yan back, Luo Shixin smiled, “Thank god that general Lai is so valiant. If not, and their two generals both escaped, I would not know how to explain it to the king.”

Lai Hu’er was stunned and asked, “Lianpo escaped?”

Logically speaking, Lianpo was within the formation and surrounded by Zhang Liao’s forces. As such, he should not have been able to escape.

Zhang Liao was ashamed, “I was too careless. I thought that since he was on the command tower, he would not be able to escape, so I did not pay attention to it. Who knew that when our men climbed up, it was only a normal soldier in his gear?”

Lai Hu’er said, “That guy is so cunning.”

Even if they managed to capture Lianpo, he would not have submitted to Great Xia. Lianpo was branded with the Handan City brand. Before it was destroyed, he would not choose another master.

“What a stubborn old man.”

As a result, Luo Shixin and the others were not that worried.

Since they managed to capture Wei Yan, they could answer to their marshal and their king.

Luo Shixin looked toward Lai Hu’er and said, “General has come back at the right time. I have one more task for you.”

“Please speak.”

“General, please lead all your troops to attack Swordsman City and take it down.”

When Lai Hu’er heard that, he was emotional.

Logically speaking, attacking Swordsman City should have been done right after the battle ended. However, Luo Shixin had especially waited for Lai Hu’er to return before asking him to attack the city. He was giving all the credit to Lai Hu’er.

With such credit, reinstating him to his old position was possible.

Although the Dragon Legion Corps was bloodthirsty, they were really united and homely internally.

“Yes general!”

Lai Hu’er tried his best to calm down his emotions as he left. At that moment, he had truly merged into the Dragon Legion Corps and into the system that was Great Xia.

“Entering the Dragon Legion Corps, I do not have any regrets in my life!”

……

Swordsman City.

The news of the defeat of the army spread back to Swordsman City, causing Feng Qingyang’s face to turn ugly.

This was the day the Feng Family lost everything.

Not only did they lose their family foundations, but they had even infuriated the Yanhuang Alliance.

The only thing they could rely on was the Shu Han Dynasty. Although the Shu Han Army’s disappearance had caused all of this, the Feng Family had no other choice.

The Feng Family did not even hesitate. They packed up and immediately teleported to Chengdu.

Along with them were also members of the Qingyang Sword Sect. In the future, Feng Family could probably only survive in the wilderness as a Wulin sect.

They would have nothing to do with the battles of the wilderness.

The only thing was that when Feng Qingyue left, her eyes glistened like she had other plans.

…

At 5 PM, Lai Hu’er led his troops to Swordsman City.

With the City Lord already gone, the people naturally would not resist, and they just opened the gates and surrendered.

Along with the stone steele being personally destroyed by Lai Hu’er, Swordsman City became a part of history. A hand of the Yanhuang Alliance had been chopped off.

This was a historical moment.

…

Night, Chengdu.

The Feng Family that had hurriedly left temporarily settled in Chengdu.

As they say, a cunning rabbit has three burrows.

Since they intended to work with Shu Han, the Feng Family obviously left a way out for themselves.

A really long time ago, they bought a huge mansion in Chengdu, and it was built exactly like the Swordsman City Lord’s Manor. It took up hundreds of mu of land and had people to take care of it.

Hence, the Feng Family was able to settle down really quickly.

The only negative thing was that they were now living under someone else, and they were not as free as they were in Swordsman City.

When Liu Bei got the news, he sent men to greet them. He wanted to express that the Feng Family was one of the top aristocratic families here, and they were protected by the imperial city.

During this expedition, the Shu Han Army did not even touch a single hair of the Great Xia Army. Naturally, Liu Bei felt really awkward about it. Due to the guilt, he treated the Feng Family really well. Even from an interest point of view, having a player family like the Feng Family working for him was also great.

Liu Bei’s words basically solidified the Feng Family’s position in Chengdu.

…

Feng Family mansion.

Due to the defeat in the war, the atmosphere here was really chilly, and no one was willing to speak.

At this very moment, Feng Qingyue suddenly looked for her father, Feng Xiaotian.

Looking at the loneliness in her daughter’s eyes, Feng Xiaotian felt really guilty. If his daughter had taken charge of the territory since the start, maybe Swordsman City would not have fallen to such a stage.

However, things had already passed, so one should dwell on it.

“Qingyue, what plans do you have?” Feng Xiaotian asked.

The Feng Family was a martial arts aristocratic family. However, Feng Qingyue was not interested in martial arts. In Chengdu, the other family members could do whatever they wanted. However, it was no different from a jail to her.

Feng Qingyue said, “Father, I would like to take a walk outside.”

“That’s great. Where would you like to go?”

“Shanhai City.”

“What did you say?”

Feng Xiaotian suddenly stood up and stared at his daughter.

Great Xia destroying Swordsman City meant that the two were mortal enemies.

Feng Xiaotian even planned to assassinate Ouyang Shuo at an appropriate time to take revenge.

However, Feng Qingyue now said she wanted to go to Shanhai City. Obviously, he would feel furious.

Weirdly, Feng Qingyue was really certain. It was like she was not afraid of her father, “I have thought this through, please allow me.”

This time, Feng Qingyue wanted to live for herself and not for her family.

Feng Xiaotian’s expression changed. His expression went from one of anger, to surprise, to one of a person deep in thought. This was the first time he had seen his daughter so certain. Was she still the daughter that followed everything he told her to do?

‘Maybe I have never understood her!’ Feng Xiaotian felt bitter in his heart.

After a long time, he waved his hand, “Do what you want!”

When Feng Qingyue saw that, she bowed and left the room.

Feng Xiaotian left too to meet his father, the real master of the Feng Family.

He had to report to his father about this.

Hearing his words, Old Feng was really calm, “It’s good that you did not stop her. A family like ours should not put all our eggs in one basket.”

“You mean?”

“I’m saying that Ouyang Shuo is not simple. If I’m not wrong, Feng Qingyue might be able to make a career in Great Xia, and it might count as another way out for our family.”

Feng Xiaotian could not understand, “Father, you’re asking us to yield to that commoner brat? That’s such a disgrace.”

Disappointment flashed in old Feng’s eyes, “Xiaotian, times have changed. In such a chaotic world, heroes will fall. If we look at the world like we did, we are going to fall behind.”

“Yes father.” Feng Xiaotian was ashamed.

Old Feng shook his head, “We are already living in Chengdu, so yielding or not, what difference does it make?”

“Your son is useless, giving father a hard life.” Feng Xiaotian felt really guilty.

“You can back down!”

Within the room, Old Feng gave out a long sigh.

A new era was arriving, which was impacting the ideals of the old aristocratic families.

Chapter 961 - A Strategist Knows Their Enemy like Themselves

Chapter 961: A Strategist Knows Their Enemy like Themselves

Jingdu Province, Handan City.

Lianpo abandoned the troops and haggardly fled back to Handan, where he informed Di Chen about the specifics of the battle.

When Di Chen heard Lianpo’s report, his face was really gloomy. The matter he was most worried about was not Swordsman City. Rather, he was more worried about the extreme difficulty the alliance was going to face after the 150 thousand reinforcements were destroyed.

Let us not mention the long term scenario, but in the short term, Caiyun City was definitely lost.

The carefully orchestrated strike planned by Great Xia caused the Yanhuang Alliance’s face to turn ashen white.

Juedai Fenghua looked at Di Chen with eyes filled with pity. It was not that this man was not hardworking or untalented; he just faced an absolute genius of an opponent.

Ouyang Shuo’s shine was just too bright, and any opponent would look dim in front of him. It was not the tragedy of Di Chen alone but the tragedy of an entire era.

“I’m to blame. I should not have suggested such a plan.” Juedai Fenghua blamed herself.

Di Chen waved his hand, “It has nothing to do with you. We all agreed with this plan. No one knew that Great Xia had such an overpowered tool. Swordsman City deserves to be destroyed. They had the Qiang Race besides them and did not know how to use them. Instead, the Great Xia snatched the opportunity and dealt a fatal blow to them.”

“So, what should we do now?”

“If I’m not wrong, that old fox definitely still has things planned. Wait for it, there’s definitely more to watch.”

Juedai Fenghua nodded; the uneasiness in her heart grew.

…

Pill Sun City, City Lord’s Manor.

After he received the battle report, Chun Shenjun was equally anxious.

The 150 thousand reinforcements being destroyed meant that Caiyun City was on the verge of danger. With that, Pill Sun City’s two War Fighting Legions that were left in Xiangnan City-State were also in danger all of a sudden.

“This is difficult.”

Chun Shenjun paced up and down the reading room as he used his merchant skills to weigh the pros and cons. In the end, he decided, “Why not let the army retreat? It’s better than feeding that wolf.”

At the current moment, Chun Shenjun could only act accordingly to the situation.

…

The Battle of Swordsman City was quickly recorded by the various media outlets. Early the next morning, the front news was all about what happened there, attracting the eyes of everyone.

The moment the news was out, the players were in an uproar.

No one expected that the originally equal strength battle would end with such a lopsided victory.

The moment the battle report went out, many underground casino bosses wished they could kill themselves.

Before the battle, these underground casinos had secretly opened bets, and 90% of them favored Yanhuang Alliance. When the results came out, these bosses lost all their money.

Fans of the Great Xia like Lin Jing earned so much.

……

10th month, 16th day, Swordsman City.

At 10 AM, Luo Shixin and the others led the captured prisoners to leave Swordsman City. The four generals gathered together once more, and Luo Shixin read the decree that Ouyang Shuo had sent overnight.

“Dragon Legion Corps has done well, spreading the might of my army. However, the war is not over and the Shu Lands are not calm. Generals must press on forward, conquering the remaining bandits. You cannot sully the name of our dynasty. As for rewards, once the Battle of the Shu Lands ends, I will reward all of you handsomely.”

“Yes my king!”

Luo Shixin took out a military order that was from Baiqi.

“The commander has orders. We do not need to wait for him to arrive at Swordsman City. We can lead our troops to sweep Badong Prefecture, and then attack Hanzhong Prefecture to take down the entire Shu Lands.”

“Yes!”

After reading the decree, the four of them together with Chen Gong discussed the specific battle plan.

It was not too difficult to take down Badong Prefecture. The fall of Swordsman City and the escape of Feng Qingyang meant that Badong Prefecture was instantly an abandoned chess piece with no army defending it. Hence, taking it down was a piece of cake.

The only thing they had to consider was how to not let Pill Sun City and Fallen Leaf City kill steal like what happened back in Guilin Prefecture.

Chen Gong said, “Our attack on Badong Prefecture can be described as such, high-profile, swift, and resolute.”

“Strategist, we can understand swift and resolute, but what do you mean by high-profile?” Luo Shixin asked.

“To prevent them from trying anything funny, we must prove to them our determination to take down Badong Prefecture. Hence, we must dare to show our blade and not let the enemy see a chance to strike.” Chen Gong explained.

“Be it Fallen Leaf City or Pill Sun City, they are facing threats from our allies, and they would not dare to take the gamble. As long as we are resolute, they would not dare to tread these waters.”

Luo Shixin and the others nodded in unison, impressed by his words.

This was the good thing about having a strategist following along.

Seeing this, Luo Shixin looked at Zhang Liao, “Since that’s the case, General Zhang will lead the troops to attack Badong Prefecture.”

In the Dragon Legion Corps, the Zhang Liao led 3rd legion and the Luo Shixin led 4th legion were the largest. Since they wanted to end the matter quickly, Luo Shixin chose Zhang Liao.

With Zhang Liao’s ingenuity, he would be able to understand the meaning of a high-profile attack.

“Understood!”

Zhang Liao was jolted to his senses. He was more and more impressed by Luo Shixin, and his favorable impression of Luo Shixin was growing.

Obviously, Luo Shixin was giving him a chance to gain credit, passing this job to him. After all, Luo Shixin’s troops were mainly composed of cavalry and were similarly capable of attacking Badong Prefecture.

Since he was appointed as the temporary decision maker, Luo Shixin needed to be righteous and could not be biased. The good part was that no matter which army gained the credit, Luo Shixin would have a part to play.

This was the difference between a general and a commander.

Badong Prefecture was a breeze, while Hanzhong Prefecture was the real problem. Not only was it really mountainous and far away in the north of the Shu Lands, but the prefecture was also not owned by Swordsman City. Instead, three other territories had control over it.

The moment Great Xia revealed their intentions to attack Hanzhong Prefecture, those three Lords would learn from Swordsman City and seek protection from Shu Han.

If that happened, the matter would become really complicated.

Chen Gong did not have a second War Stopping Talisman in his hands.

“How about this?” Chen Gong suggested, “Leave a legion to defend Swordsman City and the remaining two along with the Qiang army will sneak up north through the west around Qiang Prefecture to Attack Hanzhong Prefecture and catch them off guard.”

For both Swordsman City and the Lords of Hanzhong Prefecture, Qiang Prefecture was a prohibited land, and they had very few eyes and ears inside it.

For the Dragon Legion Corps to go up north through the Qiang Prefecture was much more secretive than going through Badong Prefecture.

When Luo Shixin and the others heard this suggestion, they had no objections.

Just as Luo Shixin was about to arrange which troops to send, Lai Hu’er took the initiative to stay back. He would leave the chance to fight on the battlefield to the two other legions.

Although this battle would be hard, it was a good chance to perform meritorious service.

Lai Hu’er had already captured Wei Yan and took down Swordsman City. Naturally, he would not be greedy for more.

When Luo Shixin saw that, he decided that Xiao Chaogui and himself would lead the troops. With the Qiang army leading the way, they would use the west route to enter Hanzhong.

With the plan formulated, the two groups of troops went their separate ways that afternoon. With that, the Battle of Shu Lands welcomed their final battles. Who knows what new changes would occur?

……

Just as the Battle of the Shu Lands started once again, the Xiangnan situation changed.

A day ago, based on the instructions of the Yanhuang Alliance, Caiyun City moved their 1st legion from Baoqing Prefecture back to Caiyun City to defend.

This retreat earned the Lords of Baoqing Prefecture precious breathing space. They all sent messages to Great Xia and Li Mu to ask them to quickly occupy Baoqing Prefecture.

As for Changde Prefecture, it was already taken down by Li Mu’s force.

At the same time, Han Xin’s Leopard Legion Corps was outside of Caiyun City. Seeing the Caiyun City Army back to defend, Han Xin was really flexible and did not choose to directly attack.

On the contrary, he left the Zhang Han led 2nd legion to camp 20 miles outside of the city to monitor their every action.

The remaining two legions did not go to sweep the remaining territories in Yongren Prefecture or attack the Guiyang Prefecture that belonged to Caiyun City. Instead, they headed right for Baoqing Prefecture.

This placed Caiyun City in a desperate situation.

The 1st legion housed in Caiyun City could not advance or retreat. If they did not exit the city, the 2nd legion in Baoqing Prefecture would be eaten up. However, if they did, they might be sniped by Zhang Han’s troops.

As a famous general from the end of Qin, Zhang Han had exceptional ability.

Just the 1st legion of Caiyun City was not enough to break out of his trap.

Their only hope was placed on the 150 thousand reinforcements of the Yanhuang Alliance. Only if they arrived could they break out from Zhang Han’s army and go up north.

However, this hope was buried in the battle outside of Swordsman City.

In the afternoon of the 16th day, Di Chen sent a letter to Caiyun Zinan to express that the Yanhuang Alliance had moved all the troops they could use.

It meant that no reinforcements were coming.

This sent Caiyun Zinan into despair as he became yet another abandoned chess piece of the Yanhuang Alliance. The only difference was that he was not a piece that they had willingly abandoned.

Be it Caiyun Zinan or Di Chen, they were all feeling really bitter.

The world was just so cruel, pushing one to the brink countless times and forcing one to make painful decisions.

At this very moment, Zhang Liang, who was not favored by Caiyun Zinan recently, stepped up, “Lord, the best choice is to surrender before Great Xia acts to try to exchange for some promises.”

Caiyun Zinan muttered, “Cough, it has already reached this stage, would they accept my surrender?”

“They will. Our two legions are not crushed and Caiyun City still has not fallen. They need to pay a heavy price to take us down. If they are able to do so without sacrificing anything, with the magnanimity of the Xia King, he would. He would probably give you a governor position at the very least.”

As expected from the Strategy Saint, Zhang Liang had a good grasp of human nature.

A Saint Strategist knew others like he knew himself.

Zhang Liang raised such a plan to give Caiyun Zinan a way out, but it was also because he was unwilling to be buried together with him and be some nobody in the wilderness.

In the world today, only Great Xia could allow Zhang Liang to display his talents.

Caiyun Zinan was not a resolute person. He had a weakness, which was that when he was desperate, he would immediately agree with the bait that Zhang Liang tossed out.

The position of governor was enough to tempt Caiyun Zinan.

Chapter 962 - Unifying Southwest

Chapter 962: Unifying Southwest

After Zhang Liang left, Caiyun Zinan wrote two letters.

The first one was to Ouyang Shuo regarding surrender; the second one was to Chun Shenjun to inform him that he was about to surrender. Caiyun Zinan wanted to play both sides. He wanted to put bets on both sides; this fellow was simply too cunning.

…

Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

When he received Caiyun Zinan’s surrender letter, Ouyang Shuo smiled, “At least he knows when to give up.”

Just as Zhang Liang had predicted, since Caiyun Zinan was willing to take the initiative to surrender, Ouyang Shuo would not treat him badly. A lot of problems were saved.

Along with Caiyun City surrendering, the situation in Xiangnan Province was basically nailed. Under the attacks of the 2nd legion of the Guards Legion Corps and the 5th legion of the Leopard Legion Corps, it was only a matter of time before they took it all down.

Along with the Shu Lands that were now under Great Xia, the entire southwest belonged to Great Xia.

If he considered Jiangchuan Province, which would be his sooner or later, the Great Xia land area had doubled.

Of course, it would take a period of time to digest all these new provinces.

Since the regional situation in the southwest was settled, Ouyang Shuo’s other plans could be used.

“Men!”

“Present!”

“Send my orders; order the 3rd legion of the Guards Legion Corps to teleport to Stone City, work with the Stone City legion and 4th legion of the Leopard Legion Corps to take down the entire Zhangwu Prefecture.”

“Yes my king!”

Before going out to sea, the factor that worried Ouyang Shuo the most was still Stone City.

Since Stone City was now under him, he needed to ensure its safety all the more. Apart from establishing the Binhai Squadron, it was more important to deepen its strategic depth.

The current Zhangwu Prefecture was split between Stone City and Handan City. Hence, the Handan City Army could threaten the safety of Stone City at any moment, and this was something that Ouyang Shuo could not bear.

The moment they took down the entire prefecture, not only would Stone City have two prefectures of land, which would allow them to earn some precious development time, its border with Handan City would shrink to a fifth of its current size.

With such a narrow border, as long as they built proper defenses and housed one or two War Fighting Legions, they would have enough to ensure its safety.

During the Battle of Swordsman City, 50 thousand of Handan City’s elite troops were wiped out.

The current Handan City needed to defend against Fallen Phoenix City in the west and also West Chu in the south. No matter what, it would not be able to defend against Great Xia’s attack.

If Di Chen was smart enough, he would give up on Zhangwu Prefecture and separate himself from Stone City.

…

10th month, 17th day, Stone City.

At 10 AM, Lu Bu led his troops over to Stone City. He did not stop at all and headed right for Zhangwu Prefecture.

Every action from the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps was in the eyes of the Yanhuang Alliance. The moment Lu Bu’s legion appeared here, Difeng found out and swiftly reported the matter to Di Chen.

When Di Chen got the report, his face was extremely solemn, “The old fox wants to act on us in the end.”

The moment Lianpo fled back to Handan City, Di Chen had a bad premonition. The more he discussed with Juedai Fenghua, the deeper the uneasiness got.

However, at that point, Di Chen was unsure which side the Shanhai Alliance attack would start from. Would it be Stone City, Fallen Phoenix City, or West Chu? Each direction seemed possible.

Only when the Guards Legion Corps teleported over to Stone City did the situation become clear.

“Do you think the old fox just wants half of Zhangwu Prefecture, or does he want to destroy us?”

Thinking about this, Di Chen froze up as fear grew in his heart. The destruction of Swordsman City was like ripping a hole in the Yanhuang Alliance, exposing the others to this cold and bloody fact.

“In this battle of the wilderness, even a member of Yanhuang Alliance might be dragged in.”

Before this, the Yanhuang Alliance did not need to fight a head on battle against the Great Xia Dynasty. As the other remaining Lords in the wilderness were wiped out, the Yanhuang Alliance was not as protected.

As such, their shield of invincibility was broken.

This was the reason for Di Chen’s fear, and this sudden source of pressure made him panic.

Juedai Fenghua was uncertain, “From our sources, neither Fallen Phoenix City nor West Chu show signs of invading. Great Xia often comes up with surprises, so it’s better for us to make preparations.”

“In your opinion, what should we do?”

“The two legions there are the pillars of our territory. If they are lost in the battle against Great Xia, we would becoming really weak. If that happens, even if Fallen Phoenix City and West Chu do not intend to invade us, they would not want to miss the chance to strike us when we are down.”

Di Chen’s eyes trembled, “So you think we should give up Zhangwu Prefecture?”

Juedai Fenghua nodded, “We can only gain some if we give up some. Backing out can ensure that both legions survive, and we can stabilize the eastern situation so that the Stone City Army would not dare to proceed much further. With that, we can also threaten Fallen Phoenix City and West Chu so that they would not dare to have any thoughts about attacking us.”

Di Chen was obviously unwilling.

The moment he gave up the west portion of Zhangwu Prefecture, Handan City would be only left with three prefectures of land. On the contrary, the unassuming Stone City would own two prefectures.

This made Di Chen feel really annoyed. When did that useless Wufu gain the ability to sit on the same level as him? This was a humiliation that was hard for Di Chen to take.

Juedai Fenghua consoled him, “To retreat now is to advance in the future. We take a step back now to gather strength, and then we give them an even more powerful strike.”

“The most important thing right now is Plan Z. If it succeeds, we will be unable to lose. It’s best to not be stubborn now. Do not act on impulse.”

Di Chen sighed, “Let’s follow your plan!”

…

10th month, 18th day, morning, before Lu Bu’s legion reached the frontlines, news that Handan City had backed out of Zhangwu Prefecture spread, stunning everyone.

When the news spread out, many people in the outside world mocked Di Chen; they would say, “Great Xia just sent some light armored cavalry, and Di Chen was so afraid that he peed in his pants and fled.”

When such words spread to his ears, Di Chen was naturally furious.

“‘Men, kill those people.”

There was nothing Di Chen could do about Great Xia but that did not mean he could not deal with these few normal players. However, such actions were a little describable. Normally, he would not be willing to do that.

However, the current embarrassed and infuriated Di Chen did not care.

That day, those few people who mocked him the most were assassinated by Difeng. They died on the spot and caused uproar.

Who would have known that Di Chen would actually resort to such acts?

In the following period of time, normal players did not dare to openly insult Handan City. No one wanted to be targeted for just a few words.

Di Chen’s actions were truly terrifying.

When Ouyang Shuo got the news, he laughed coldly, “He’s digging his own grave.”

However, Di Chen’s retreat still surprised Ouyang Shuo. Just like that, the other things he had planned could not be used.

The battle in the north could only end just like that.

“Who knows who advised Di Chen? What a genius.” Ouyang Shuo felt regretful but impressed at the same time.

The current Ouyang Shuo could only meet the Cabinet and the Privy Court to discuss the arrangements of Stone City.

Cabinet Grand Secretary Jiang Shang said, “My king, after taking down Zhangwu Prefecture, Stone City will welcome a long period of stable development. Since they are now under us, their structure seems inappropriate. I suggest we use this chance to remodel their organization system to correct their ruling system and calm down the people.”

The so-called inappropriate part was that even though Wufu was under Great Xia, he still had the rights of a Lord to decide all the decisions in Stone City.

When Stone City first went under them, to prevent the people’s sentiment from being unstable, Ouyang Shuo did not interfere in their internal politics, and he only took charge of their diplomacy matters.

However, as Jiang Shang said, it was different now, and the situation in the wilderness had changed. Stone City had finally gained a foothold in the north, and it was time to actually merge them into the Great Xia system.

“How do you think we should do it? Wufu has helped us a lot, so we must treat him well.”

Wufu’s actions were mainly because Stone City was alone in the north and needed a backer. He was pretty much forced into it by the attitude of Handan City.

Although that was the case, Ouyang Shuo did not want to rip him off.

Jiang Shang smiled, “I understand the king’s stance. I suggest we set up a province in the north with Fengtian Prefecture and Zhangwu Prefecture and put him as the Provincial Governor.”

“That’s a new idea.”

To set up a province in a land with only two prefectures was unheard of.

Jiang Shang explained, “Although the north only had two prefectures, it has an outstanding strategic position. Not to mention internally, where it has Handan City, but the outside situation is really complicated too. There’s the Nuzhen tribe and the Mongol tribe, who will be strong enemies of the dynasty in the future. Outside, it also neighbors Korea.”

“With these few strategic considerations, it is not too far-fetched to make it a special province.”

Ouyang Shuo was enlightened.

The north would be a place where the dynasty focused on expanding and developing in the future. To plan ahead by giving Stone City more focus would be giving them a much higher starting point in the north in the future.

Thinking about that, Ouyang Shuo decided, “Let’s do exactly that. Establish the Beijiang Province and appoint Wufu as the Beijiang Provincial Governor.”

“The king is wise!”

Jiang Shang smiled and bowed; he was really satisfied with all that happened.

Chapter 963 - A Huge Group of War Prisoners Rush Over

Chapter 963: A Huge Group of War Prisoners Rush Over

Ouyang Shuo said to Jiang Shang, “Beijiang Province has a really important strategic value, so the Cabinet must choose the governors wisely.”

“Yes my king!”

Jiang Shang understood that although the king appointed Wufu as the Provincial Governor, he would not truly allow him to run Beijing Province alone. Naturally, the king needed governors that he trusted.

This was how rulers balanced power; Jiang Shang obviously understood this.

If Jiang Shang could not understand it, unable to get what the king was getting at and choosing the wrong people as a result, it would be better if he just resigned from the Cabinet.

Establishing the Beijiang Province, the troops in the province also needed to be reorganized. Ouyang Shuo looked toward Military Affairs Minister Du Ruhui and asked, “What’s the Privy Court’s opinion on the troop arrangement in Beijiang Province?”

Before the meeting, Jiang Shang as the Grand Secretary had already informed Du Ruhui about this matter in advance. He wanted him to be mentally prepared.

This was the role of the Cabinet. Even if Ouyang Shuo knew, he would not interfere.

Hence, Du Ruhui already had some ideas, “The Privy Court thinks that we should follow Morocco and Somalia Province and set up a Beijiang Formation.”

Ouyang Shuo frowned, “A normal formation only has 100 thousand troops. It is not enough to defend the entirety of Beijiang.”

“The organization of the formation is not set in stone. I suggest we move the Stone City legion, the Leopard Legion Corps 4th legion, and the Binhai Squadron into the Beijiang Formation to form a huge formation. Of course, the Binhai Squadron would only be listed under them during war time, and the daily training would still be led by the Navy Headquarters.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded in praise. Du Ruhui’s way of thinking was similar to modern day methods. It seemed like this Military Affairs Minister had been spending a lot of time studying up on military matters.

Great Xia needed people like Du Ruhui who knew they needed to continue learning and improve themselves to improve with the times. They did not need corrupt ministers who hung onto their old values.

As a result, Great Xia was different from any dynasty. Not only was this a really prosperous dynasty, but it was also one that changed with the times. It was a dynasty that was exceptionally confident.

Since establishing the territory to the current Great Xia, Ouyang Shuo’s goals had never changed.

“Accepting everyone and being tolerant of diversity.” This was inculcated into the minds of everyone through the Xinan University, becoming the spirit and motto of the entire dynasty.

Only with such a special quality could a monster like the Great Xia Dynasty be sustained.

To let such a special values seep into the dynasty and improve with it, mounding and improving oneself, was Ouyang Shuo’s secret to success.

Ouyang Shuo called it the way of the king, and it was a totally new description of something that was centuries old.

If one did not understand this point, they would not be able to see how the Great Xia Dynasty rose up so swiftly in the wilderness.

…

“The original Leopard Legion Corps 4th legion will become the 1st legion of the Beijiang Formation and the Stone City legion will become the 2nd legion.”

“The original Leopard Legion Corps 4th legion Legion General Chen Yucheng will be promoted to Beijiang Formation Lieutenant General; the original 1st division Major General Zhang He will be promoted to 1st legion Legion General; and the original Stone Legion Legion General will become the 2nd legion Legion General.”

Ouyang Shuo also had arrangements for the Binhai Squadron that was being formed, “Original Yashan Squadron chief general Cai Mao will be promoted to Binhai Squadron Deputy Fleet Admiral.”

The establishment of the Binhai Squadron was one that Cai Mao was in charge of, so Ouyang Shuo used the chance to promote him a grade. As for whether he could become a Fleet Admiral or not, more observations were needed.

Du Ruhui noted down the appointment changes one by one and asked, “My king, what about the Leopard Legion Corps?”

“Original Leopard Legion Corps 1st division Major General Cao Hong will be promoted to 4th legion Legion General. The troops of the 4th legion will be handled after the southwest battlefield ends.”

Zhang He and Cao Hong; these two Three Kingdoms generals were promoted.

There were not many top grade generals during the Three Kingdoms Period, especially those that were good at commanding. However, luckily, there were many of them, and that was what Great Xia needed now.

One could foresee that the Three Kingdoms generals would occupy an important position in the Great Xia Army, and this would become more evident as Great Xia continued to expand.

Listening to the king’s arrangements, Du Ruhui’s face was really tense. He made some rough calculation and found that after this battle, Great Xia would obtain hundreds of thousands of troops.

From the Battle of Dongchuan, they had captured around 70 thousand prisoners.

They had already gotten 150 thousand prisoners from the Shu Lands. After settling Hanzhong Prefecture, there would be a new batch of them.

In Chuanbei Province, there were the armies of the territories that pledge their allegiance to Great Xia. There were also war prisoners from the other territories, and the rough estimations put them at around 180 thousand.

Next would be Xiangnan Province. Apart from the two War Fighting Legions of Caiyun City, there were also the 110 thousand troops led by Li Mu. Counting in the war prisoners and the armies of the other territories, the overall number would be above 300 thousand.

After that would be the 60 thousand Qiang Race army; this army needed to be merged into the Great Xia system.

All in all, there were 700 thousand new troops, which was as much as two new legion corps. That was simply terrifying. Deducting the casualties and the injured, the number was still massive.

How to organize such a shocking number of troops had become the core job of the Privy Court.

Thinking about that, how could Du Ruhui be at ease?

Of course, the Cabinet led by Jiang Shang was also finding it tough. They had taken down three provinces at once. Not mentioning the officials, but just the three Provincial Governors and the 15 Governors, the amount of prefects, Country Magistrates, and the like was a huge amount.

This time, they would probably have to empty out the reserve officials that the Great Xia had amassed with so much difficulty.

Apart from that, the Cabinet needed to chair the official evaluation work and the administration organization of the three provinces. They needed to choose which city as the governing area, which prefecture, house, county governing area, and more. Along with the selection of the original officials, they would need to give them new appointments and the like. There was a lot of work to be done.

The current Cabinet along with the four courts was busy every day. Every day, they would work till late at night.

However, taking down these three provinces was not like a snake swallowing an elephant. Furthermore, considering Great Xia had a foundation of talents to keep up with the expansion, they have no choice but to stop to digest all of this.

Not to mention others aspects, but just to remove the spies of the Yanhuang Alliance hidden in the three provinces was going to be a big problem. Needless to mention the Shu Lands, which was run by the Feng Family, and they definitely had deep rooted relations in it.

Although the Feng Family had left, their influence still remained.

Yesterday, there were reports from the frontline that Zhang Liao’s forces had faced a lot of resistance in Badong Prefecture. They either acted outright or in the dark, employing many different methods.

As a result, dealing with the Shu Lands was not going to be an easy matter.

Chuanbei Province and Xiangnan Province were not easy either. Due to them establishing City-States, both of them had been infiltrated by both the Yanhuang Alliance and Great Xia on a large-scale.

The thorns on the surface were now removed, but those in the dark were not so easily cleaned out.

Along with the influence of the few Lords in the City-State, there were many hidden currents despite the calm appearance of the two provinces.

If they did not remove all these cancerous parts, Great Xia’s reign in the three provinces would not be stable.

Without a doubt, this would be a huge system, and it needed the Shanhai Guards to work well in the dark. The newly appointed Provincial Governor, Governor, Prefects, and the like must also cooperate to create a series of welfare packages and benefits to the people. They must treat the people well and win their hearts.

Only by stabilizing the people’s sentiment could the Imperial Court truly push out their plans.

During this period of time, Great Xia would focus on stabilizing its rule and would not fight anymore wars. It needed to rest up for a period of time to reorganize internally.

As a result of such considerations, Ouyang Shuo did not agree to Han Xin’s suggestion of attacking Pill Sun City.

10th month, 18th day, at basically the same time as the Handan City Army retreated from Zhangwu Prefecture, the two legions of Pill Sun City left Xiangnan Province and returned to their territory.

It was the same as saying Chun Shenjun had given up on Xiangnan Province and would not interfere.

The weird actions of Pill Sun City caught Ouyang Shuo’s attention. Such a decisive retreat was not Chun Shenjun’s style.

Ouyang Shuo was thinking about telling Han Xin to go past Baoqing Prefecture into Changsha Prefecture to attack the Pill Sun City Army together with Li Mu’s army.

Pill Sun City had a total of four legions, and if they lost two, Ouyang Shuo was confident about letting the Leopard Legion Corps continue north to wipe out Pill Sun City.

Who knew that before he could execute his plan, the Pill Sun City Army would have retreated?

This made Ouyang Shuo suspicious.

The first thing he suspected was that Caiyun Zinan had tipped him off. It was not surprising that he thought this way, as the surrender of Caiyun City was a secret. Regardless of how skilled Chun Shenjun was, he should not have been able to find it out.

However, since Ouyang Shuo did not have his hands on any evidence, he could not start anything. If not, West Gate Big Official and Gu Hengxiao might misunderstand.

However, he was definitely wary of Caiyun Zinan. He was already prepared to move him to an unimportant prefecture and arrange the Shanhai Guards to monitor him.

If he found out the truth was really like he suspected, Caiyun Zinan would be punished. Ouyang Shuo could not tolerate his dynasty having people betraying him.

Chapter 964 - Make an Inventory

Chapter 964: Make an Inventory

10th month, 20th day, Great Xia Dynasty announced their overall plan for Beijiang Province to the public.

The moment the news came out, it caused a lot of conjectures.

Great Xia established a province and built a formation, and their intentions of laying root in the north were revealed to the public. Thinking back to the Handan City Army leaving Zhangwu Prefecture, it left a lot of room for imagination.

“Has Great Xia started to plan to attack the foundation of the Yanhuang Alliance?” Just thinking about it made players really excited.

Some people even boldly predicted, “Maybe the China region will give birth to a unified empire.”

Whether Great Xia could be like Great Qin, wiping out six countries and unifying the nation, was still to be seen.

However, there was one thing that was for certain – the strength of Great Xia.

All of a sudden, more and more players applied to move to Great Xia, especially players from Dali, Qianzhou, and Chengdu.

The Great Xia population welcomed a new round of explosion. Preliminary estimations had it at around three to four million adventure gamemode players migrating over.

The three provinces that were just taken down desperately needed this new batch of players.

…

10th month, 22nd day, along with Caiyun City surrendering and Pill Sun City retreating, the Xiangnan Province situation was settled. Han Xin led the Leopard Legion Corps to meet up with Li Mu’s army in Changsha Prefecture.

These two God Generals had an encounter in Guiping Pass. Seeing one another, they naturally felt complicated.

Especially Li Mu; he felt delighted that he was going to get a big position in Great Xia. At the same time, he was worried about whether the army would accept him or not. At the very least, the mountain barbarian soldiers would feel a divide with him.

During the first Guiping Pass battle, the mountain barbarians had suffered heavy casualties. Who knows how many of them were sacrificed in that battle? However, as he was working for a different Lord, they could not blame Li Mu.

As the Leopard Legion Corps marshal, Han Xin’s magnanimity and experience was much different from normal mountain barbarians. Naturally, he knew that the king held Li Mu in high regards, so he would help to remove this barrier and help him merge into the Great Xia Army system.

During this meeting of the two God Generals, the atmosphere was really friendly.

…

10th month, 25th day, Chuanbei Province was settled.

Ma Chao and Zhang Xutuo’s legions split into two. With the directions of the West Gate family and the support of the other territories under Great Xia, they took down city after city.

With someone leading the way, anywhere the army went saw the defending troops lose hope.

Especially after Caiyun City surrendered and Pill Sun City’s army left; that was when the remaining few Lords that defended stubbornly felt despair. They knew that the Yanhuang Alliance had no ability to help anymore.

Hence, more and more of them decided to surrender.

In less than half a month, most of Chuanbei Province fell under Great Xia’s rule.

As the war went too smoothly, the Great Xia Army could not do a military cleansing of the province. There were many unwilling people amongst those who surrendered, leaving behind a huge problem for future rule.

Whether it was a boon or a bane, one could only know in time.

…

On the same day, Luo Shixin and Xiao Chaogui’s legions, along with the 60 thousand Qiang army, proceeded swiftly and suddenly appeared on the west of Hanzhong Prefecture, catching the enemy off guard.

On the west of the prefecture was Hongyuan City.

That afternoon, one-third of the territories in Hanzhong Prefecture had fallen.

On the 27th day, Min City in the middle fell too. Getting the news, the remaining Lord in the east – Qingqing Xiaofeng – did not try any useless resistance and chose to surrender.

At this time, even if he sought protection from the Shu Han Dynasty, they could not make it here in time, as it would take two to three days to get here from Chengdu.

Hence, in only three days, Hanzhong Prefecture fell. During the entire battle proceeding, the neighboring Fallen Leaf City did not show any signs of interfering.

That was because Great Xia was terrifyingly strong after taking down three new provinces. Wandering Magic obviously did not dare to think about doing anything. He was afraid Great Xia would use it as an excuse to attack Fallen Leaf City.

If that happened, he would lose it all for nothing in return.

Successive defeats in battle placed the Yanhuang Alliance in a really bleak situation.

…

Along with Hanzhong Prefecture being taken down, the entire southwest battlefield came to a stop. Getting the news, Fallen Phoenix City and West Chu stopped the standstill at the border.

Lu Bu’s legion that was sent over to Stone City had returned to Shanhai City a day ago.

At this point, a battle that lasted for two months and affected the history of the entire wilderness came to an end.

The moment the battle ended, the various media outlets did a summary of the entire battle.

Without a doubt, the end result was a huge loss for the Yanhuang Alliance. Not only did they fail to save Swordsman City, but they even lost 150 thousand elite troops in the process.

Not only did Handan City lose half a Zhangwu Prefecture, but a strong neighbor had even risen beside it.

As they say, ‘How would one be able to sleep soundly beside a wall that might collapse?’ With Great Xia’s arrangement in Beijiang Province, Handan City was unable to remove this chess piece. Although Di Chen felt really uncomfortable, he had no choice.

News spread that the day Great Xia announced their plan of Beijiang Province, Di Chen locked himself in his room and spent a whole day in there for self-reflection.

The next morning, he gathered his officials and generals to announce a military expansion plan. He did this to recruit troops to fill up the current shortfall.

Pill Sun City’s attack on Xiangnan Province saw them not only fail to gain anything, but it even exposed the internal weakness of Pill Sun City instead.

Nice to see but not nice to use.

At the same time that Handan City announced their plan to expand their military, Pill Sun City, King City, Blood Red City, Fallen Leaf City, and Asura City all announced that they also going to expand their military.

All the members of the Yanhuang Alliance realized that if they did not take the chance that Great Xia was digesting its food to expand their army, the Yanhuang Alliance would face problems once this beast got hungry once more.

Hence, the five families had to use all their strength and relationships to recruit players to their territories to make up for the population shortfall.

On this point, Wandering Magic was in an awkward spot.

Fallen Leaf City was about to face the direct threat of Great Xia, but it did not have the ability to recruit large amounts of players. Even if they did, Wandering Magic and his squad did not have the ability to manage them.

In the end, Wandering Magic could only enlist from his people, reducing the ratio of people to army to 1:9, causing a huge problem for the future development of the city.

Di Chen and the others had a clear idea. Since the territory could not be expanded, they needed to expand their army without affected the territory running. Even if they went all out on the military expansion, they would only be eating away at their current territory population.

The current wilderness had enough space, and each piece of land had a huge amount of potential waiting to be unleashed.

All the Yanhuang Alliance needed to do was dig out all this potential. Since they could not win against Great Xia in size, they needed to win in terms of quality.

This was one of the results of the battle. The seismic battle did not truly end with both sides stopping the war, and the aftereffects would deeply affect the situation in the China region.

…

In this battle, the Yanhuang Alliance was not the only unlucky ones.

Chuanbei City-State and Xiangnan City-State that flirted with the Yanhuang Alliance were now up in flames. Both of their leaders had surrendered to Great Xia.

The prosperous era of City-States had come to an end.

Caiyun Zinan, who had just joined the Yanhuang Alliance camp, surrendered to Great Xia. He was deemed as a Lord with no pride, becoming one of the humiliated people in history.

The four Lords of Dali Prefecture took the money of the Yanhuang Alliance but were unable to complete the job. Naturally, they all ended up dying, and their territories were destroyed.

Xiao Alliance had changed flags, and the biggest dark horse, the Xiao Family, had left the scene and once again secluded themselves. They were licking their wounds in silence.

The Shu Han Dynasty wanted to interfere in the battle, but they ended up having a free holiday. To make matters worse, along with the four prefectures of the Shu Lands being taken down, Chengdu was now surrounded.

The current Shu Han Dynasty had become a trapped bird. With Great Xia’s strength and the animosity between the two, everyone could foresee the destruction of the Shu Han Dynasty.

Be it players or natives, they all started to leave Chengdu. The ambitious Liu Bei not only could not unify the Shu Lands, but he was even in a terrible situation now.

The Dali Imperial Court was instigated to interfere in the Great Xia battle, and they were instantly on the receiving end of some revenge activity. The entire Dali Prefecture was now flat lands and empty wilderness. They foundations of Dali were destroyed.

There were those who lost and some others who won.

Not to mention the Great Xia that had achieved a great victory. Not only did they unify the southwest region of China, but they had also started to reach into the center.

With that, Great Xia was now totally connected to the Yanhuang Alliance.

Players could predict that in the future, these two giants would have an even more intense conflict. 80% of the players favored Great Xia, and they were losing confidence in the Yanhuang Alliance that was getting weaker by the day.

Apart from the Great Xia Dynasty, West Gate Big Official and his family became the greatest beneficiaries.

Him choosing sides at the key moment changed the southwest battle and quickened Great Xia’s take down of the two provinces.

Although the outside world envied them, they were also impressed by West Gate Big Official’s decisiveness.

Some people said that West Gate Big Official was a gambler, making a correct bet at the key moment and earning a key victory for his family as a result.

Chapter 965 - Eagle Legion Corps Is Born

Chapter 965: Eagle Legion Corps Is Born

10th month, 30th day, Shanhai City.

Along with the battle ending, the various casualties and war prisoners in the various regions were calculated. Then they were handed over to the Privy Court and then over to Ouyang Shuo.

The final numbers, after making up for the losses of each group, retiring the wounded, and building the three provincial Garrison Divisions, actually reached 680 thousand forces.

680 thousand men could form up nine full legions, and they would still have 50 thousand to spare.

After discussing with Du Ruhui, Ouyang Shuo decided that apart from filling up the Leopard Legion Corps’ 1 legion and the three missing legions from the City Protection Legion Corps, he would build one more legion corps – the Eagle Legion Corps.

As for the remaining 50 thousand, Ouyang Shuo did not form a new legion. Instead, he just sent them to Fallen Phoenix City.

The news that the members of the Yanhuang Alliance were expanding their armies had reached Ouyang Shuo’s ears. Fallen Phoenix City was surrounded by Handan City and Asura City, so it had no choice but to expand.

Luckily, the Feng Family was a family comparable to Di Chen’s family. After Feng Qiuhuang took over the helm, she also took over their resources and connections. Large-scale player recruitment was not a tough thing.

There was only one thing – Fallen Phoenix City rarely started wars recently. For them to expand, they needed to choose militia from their reserves to train, and the efficiency was lower than choosing straight from prisoners.

Of course, the Yanhuang Alliance also faced similar problems.

The 50 thousand troops sent out by Ouyang Shuo were really precious to Fallen Phoenix City, and it could let them easily build up a legion. It could be considered his gratitude for her help this time.

After all, Fallen Phoenix City had helped him for this battle but had gotten nothing in return.

Even though they were allies, and he was good friends with her, he would not take advantage of her like that. If he really did that, he would just be destroying their relationship.

…

Apart from war prisoners, the biggest catch from this war was a batch of civil servants and officials.

Not to mention Strategy Saint Zhang Liang and God General Li Mu, who were the biggest catches. Apart from that, there was Wei Yan, Caiyun Zinan’s Wang Li, and I am Called Big Bad Wolf’s Li Guang.

Apart from these famous ones, there were eight other historical generals and 10 historical civil servants. Although they were not as famous and were among the worst of the King Rank talents, it helped to solve the current problems that Great Xia was facing.

It would not be a problem for the eight generals to become Major Generals, and the 10 civil servants could become governors, while those worse ones could become prefects or work at the provincial office.

…

In the next few days, Ouyang Shuo met with the Cabinet, Privy Court, and Grand Council to discuss personnel appointments.

The first thing to announce was the arrangements for the generals. The newly formed nine War Fighting Legions were a huge burden on the dynasty’s finances, and it pretty much spent all their expendable gold.

Even if they did not need to complete their digestion of the three provinces, Great Xia had no ability to fight on. Hence, stopping they could only stop the wars.

Close to two months of war had used up close to three million gold worth of resources and finances.

When one fought a war, one was fighting wealth.

This was only the war expenditure. After the war, the new equipment for the legions, building camps, logistical bases, compensation amounts, all of that reached close to five million gold.

The Great Xia military system was already really perfect. Logically speaking, changing equipment was not a difficult matter. The difficult part was that to change equipment on such a large scale required ocean amounts of iron ore.

If they continued to use the ore at such a rate, the iron ore within their territory would not be able to last for three years.

After this round of military organization was completed, Great Xia would have six full legion corps, three independent formations, six full squadrons, an Emperor Squadron, and 14 Garrison Divisions.

Considering everything, they had close to 3.33 million troops. It looked terrifying, but such a number was necessary to defend a huge area like Great Xia.

And to maintain such a huge army, the salary alone would cost 1.5 million gold per a month. If one considered rations, equipment usage, and the like, the amount would cross three million.

If it were not for their prosperity in trading and huge tax returns, they would not be able to sustain such a giant army.

Hence, there was such a saying that without finances supporting, a strong army was just a dream.

…

11th month, 2nd day, Great Xia announced a series of general appointments.

God General Li Mu was expectedly appointed as the marshal of the Eagle Legion Corps and awarded the title of Great General. At the same time, he became a part of the Grand Council, entering the core of Great Xia.

Name: Li Mu (God Rank)

Title: Top 10 Generals of China

Dynasty: Warring States (Zhao)

Identity: Eagle Legion Corps Marshal

Occupation: Special General

Loyalty: 78

Command: 97

Force: 80

Intelligence: 85

Politics: 40

Specialty: Exceptional General (Raises troops’ morale by 30%, raises troops movement speed by 35%, raises troops killing strength by 30%, raises troops stamina by 30%.)

Cultivation Method: –

Equipment: –

Evaluation: Li Mu is an exceptional general who helped Zhao defend the borders. He was a really careful person and was skilled at archery and riding. He adopted an extremely defensive strategy, and he was accused of cowardice and replaced by a more aggressive general, who was defeated every time he attacked the Xiongnu. Li Mu was recalled and given a much larger army. He concealed his troops and played the coward. When a large force crossed the border, Li Mu surrounded it and smashed it.

During the end of the Warring States Period, Li Mu helped tide the Zhao State through its tough times, crushing the Xiongnu and stopping the Qin. There were words that, ‘If Li Mu died, Zhao State would be finished.’

Li Mu’s life could be split into two parts. First, when he fought the Xiongnu in the north, and then why he defended against Qin. During the Battle of Yi An, he heavily crushed the Qin army and was given the title of Wu An Lord.

The Zhao Breaks Xiongnu Battle and the Battle of Fei were his classic battles. The first was the classic example in China war history that one used infantry to destroy a cavalry army, and the second was an encirclement battle.

229 BC, Zhao King fell for the Qin country’s plot, removing Li Mu’s power. Not long after, Li Mu was assassinated. Li Mu’s unfortunate death caused Zhao to fall and made their descendants really annoyed.

Taking charge of the Eagle Legion Corps was giving Li Mu a chance to show his skills.

…

Apart from the Eagle Legion Corps Marshal, the five Legion Generals were all appointed.

Guards Legion Corps 2nd legion deputy Cao Chun was promoted to 1st Legion General. Dragon Legion Corps 4th legion deputy Legion General Xiahou Yuan was promoted to the 2nd Legion General.

Li Guang would become the Legion General of the 3rd legion.

Name: Li Guang (King Rank)

Dynasty: West Han

Identity: Eagle Legion Corps 3rd legion Legion General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 70

Command: 68

Force: 78

Intelligence: 50

Politics: 55

Specialty: Flying General (raises troops combat strength by 10%, raises troops movement speed by 25%)

Cultivation Method: –

Equipment: Nu Breaking Bow

Evaluation: In 70 battles against the Xiongnu, he had a terrible outcome in every one of them. Often losing his way in battle, he was also often outnumbered by the enemy in battles.

During the Battle of Mobei, a Lord called I am Called Big Bad Wolf was able to complete the branch quest and recruit Li Guang. That Lord’s territory was within Chuanbei Province, and he pledged his allegiance to Great Xia.

Sima Guang once said that Li Guang did not use rules when he led people, and he was not fierce toward others. Li Guang was really casual when he commanded troops, letting his men do what they want.

In terms of leading troops or fighting wars, Li Guang was just so-so and could not be compared to Huo Qubing.

He was so famous because of Sima Qian’s biasness.

Although that was the case, he was a really experienced general and also had the goal of making a name for himself. Thinking about it, Ouyang Shuo decided to give him the role of Legion General.

Talking about Li Guang, he had some animosity with Huo Qubing. Li Guang’s youngest son, Li Gan, was shot by Huo Qubing.

With his appearance in the wilderness, his son and grandson Li Ling had followed him.

Ouyang Shuo originally wanted to move him to the City Protection Legion Corps. However, thinking about their relationship, Ouyang Shuo decided to move him far away to the Eagle Legion Corps in case things happened.

Li Gan was also moved to the 2nd legion of the Eagle Legion Corps and was appointed as a Major General.

Li Ling was Li Guang’s oldest grandson, and he was good at shooting while riding. He was once appointed to attack Xiongnu, leading five thousand infantry to fight 80 thousand Xiongnu troops. In the end, he surrendered because he was outnumbered.

When Emperor Wu of Han misheard the rumors, he thought Li Ling was training troops for Xiongnu and vanquished his family. The Chanyu married the princess to Li Ling and gave him power over the Jiankun Tribe.

After Emperor Wu of Han died, Xiongnu and his relatives persuaded Li Ling to return to Han. However, as Li Ling was afraid of being humiliated once more, he rejected it and would rather die in Xiongnu.

When he appeared in the wilderness, this person who was topic of many debates in history was just a 12 year old young boy. Ouyang Shuo sent him into the Army Military Academy to learn.

Chapter 966 - Rise of Firearms Becoming More Evident

Chapter 966: Rise of Firearms Becoming More Evident

Surrendered General Wang Li was appointed as the Legion General of the 4th legion.

Name: Wang Li (King Rank)

Dynasty: Qin Dynasty

Identity: Great Xia Army Eagle Legion Corps 4th legion Legion General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 75

Command: 70

Force: 72

Intelligence: 55

Politics: 55

Specialty: Courageous (raises troops combat strength by 20%, increases troops movement speed by 15%.)

Cultivation method: –

Equipment: Qin Sword

Evaluation: Wang Li, a famous Qin general.

Wang Li was the grandson of Qin Dynasty famous General Wang Jian. After the Battle of Julu, he was recruited by Caiyun Zinan.

After Caiyun City surrendered, not only did they give up Zhang Liang, but they also gave up Wang Li. For just this point alone, as long as Caiyun Zinan did not go too far in the future, Ouyang Shuo could consider letting him off once.

…

Surrendered General Wei Yan was appointed as the Legion General of the 5th legion.

Name: Wei Yan (King Rank)

Dynasty: Three Kingdoms (Shu Han)

Identity: Great Xia Army Eagle Legion Corps 5th legion Legion General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 68

Command: 70

Force: 75

Intelligence: 45

Politics: 35

Specialty: Courageous (raises troops combat strength by 20%, increases troops movement speed by 15%.)

Cultivation method: –

Equipment: Long Knife

Evaluation: Wei Yan was good at developing soldiers and was more courageous than others. With his character, he was held in high regard, but he often asked for trouble.

In history, Wei Yan was too arrogant and hated people that were talented. As a result, he ended up being assassinated. He was still unhappy about being defeated by Lai Hu’er and becoming a war prisoner.

As a result, his loyalty stat was the lowest out of the few generals.

…

The Eagle Legion Corps used mainly fresh faces, while the City Protection Legion Corps promoted old generals.

Guards Legion Corps 3rd legion 1st division Major General Ma Teng was promoted to the 3rd legion Legion General. Tiger Legion Corps 5th legion 1st division Major General Bai Lishi was promoted to 4th legion Legion General.

The promotion of Ma Teng was a sign that the Three Kingdom generals were having a full scale rise. Just Legion Generals alone there were Ma Chao, Lu Bu, Ma Teng, Zhang Liao, Cao Hong, Cao Chun, Xiahou Yuan, Wei Yan, and Zhang He.

If one considered Zhou Yu and Gan Ning, these two navy Fleet Admirals, there were a total of 11 of them.

Along with this round of general adjustment, all the historical generals in the army were mostly promoted to Legion General. The general backup that they had was totally squeezed dry this time.

Consequently, the last Legion General of the City Protection Legion Corps was a little special.

City Protection Legion Corps 2nd legion 2nd division Major General Lin Yi was promoted to Legion General. He became the first native general to be promoted to Legion General.

Luckily, he had already advanced to King Rank general. If not, many people would disagree with the promotion.

Just like Lin Yi, Zhao Si Hu, Lei Jingtian, Shihu, Shanzhu, Guo Liang, Liao Kai, Daiqin, Sun Tengjiao, Sun Chuanlin, Jiang Kai, Heiqi, Shao Bu, and the other native generals had all became King Ranked generals.

These batch of generals that had grown together with the territory had become the most loyal and reliable backup generals for the Great Xia.

…

Due to the huge change at the borders of the dynasty, using this chance that he was reorganizing troops, Ouyang Shuo decided to adjust the defense zones of the various legion corps.

In the east, the dynasty mainly wanted to threaten King City, and the Tiger Legion Corps led by Sun Bin would remain in charge. The only difference was that after taking down Xiangnan Province, the threat in the north to Lingnan Province had been removed. The Tiger Legion Corps would move out of Lingnan Province and stay in Minnan Province.

With that, the pressure that King City faced mounted.

Apart from that, the Tiger Legion Corps had the responsibility of monitoring the Great Sui Dynasty. Although Great Sui currently looked like a sick cat, it was still a tiger that had a million troops and should not be underestimated.

In the north, the Han Xin led Leopard Legion Corps would move up from Chuannan Province into Xiangnan Province and monitor any action of Pill Sun City.

In the west, the Li Mu led Eagle Legion Corps would enter the Shu Lands to monitor the Shu Han Dynasty and Fallen Leaf City. As for the Dragon Legion Corps that was currently there, they would be moved back to Yunnan Province.

Similar to the Tiger Legion Corps, the Dragon Legion Corps had the responsibility of monitoring the Dali Imperial Court.

There reasons for making such an arrangement.

Shu Han Dynasty and Fallen Leaf City were only short term threats in the Shu Lands. The true problems came from West Xia in the north, Tibet in the west, and the Mongols even further up north.

Moving the Baiqi led Dragon Legion Corps to Yunnan Province looked like they were not doing anything. However, south of Yunnan across the country borders were the ASEAN States.

Ouyang Shuo was planning ahead. He wanted to let Baiqi focus on expeditions against the ASEAN states in the future to let the name of the Asura spread across the four seas.

Apart from the four legion corps, the City Protection Legion Corps had some changes of their own.

Since the entire City Protection Legion Corps had reached full strength, they could not be all housed in the Lianzhou Basin because that would be a waste. The five legions were all given their own defense regions.

The 1st legion would enter the city west camp, while the 2nd legion led by Mu Guiying would remain in Mulan Stronghold to defend the north pass of the Capital City.

The 3rd legion that was under Ma Teng would take over the defense duties of the 5th legion of the Leopard Legion Corps and move into Tianjing City to protect the Satellite City.

The 4th legion led by Bai Lishi would move to Beihai City to guard the south of the Capital City. The 5th legion led by Lin Yi would be in the city east camp outside of Shanhai City.

With that, the City Protection Legion Corps was truly worthy of their name, as they had an airtight protection of Shanhai City.

…

After the army adjusted their defense regions, they also needed to build new strongholds, castles, sentry posts, and the like.

Different from before, the defense technology was much higher this time. Apart from normal defense work, they needed to build cannon posts that used mainly P1 Type Cannons.

Such a type of defensive line was really expensive, so they were mainly designed at the narrow border between Beijiang Province and Handan City.

As for the north, east, and west borders, Great Xia held the initiative of the baffle. As such, they did not need to overkill and build such a line that they could not even employ.

The exception was that the Combat Logistics Department was going to build a special defense line to target Shu Han Dynasty.

Shu Han Dynasty was now alone with no one to depend on. Ouyang Shuo wanted to ensure it stayed this way. He planned to build castles around the mountains of Chengdu Prefecture with cannons to lock down Chengdu. As a result, the Shu Han Guards would not even be able to walk out of the basin that Chengdu Prefecture was located in.

Although this plan used up a lot of resources and took up a long time, Ouyang Shuo felt that it was worth it.

To take down an imperial city with a million troops, forcing the attack was obviously a bad idea. Trapping them to death and forcing them to surrender was the best solution.

The entire Chengdu Prefecture was a huge basin, and this provided the best geography to trap them. Quanzhou and Dali were all on vast and open land area, so this plan could not be used.

Since that was the case, Ouyang Shuo had instructed the Combat Logistics Department to work with the Dragon Legion Corps and the Tiger Legion Corps to set some hidden defenses and monitoring work around Dali and Quanzhou Prefecture.

It was not to block the dynasty guards. Rather, it was to send them a warning.

…

Appointing generals, adjusting the defense regions, and planning the defense lines were the focus of this round of military organization. Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo wanted to use this chance to remodel the army.

The main focus would be on firearms.

After the few huge wars, the use of firearms on the battlefield was becoming more and more evident. Firearms were becoming the star. Furthermore, the dynasty’s industrialization had gotten onto the right track, and firearm manufacturing was becoming more and more efficient.

With such conditions, Ouyang Shuo ordered the Privy Court to slowly allocate each War Fighting Legion with a subordinate firearm squad and a cannon squad.

At the same time, on the legion corps level, they planned to provide each of the four War Fighting Legions with a Flying Squad that could be used to patrol and strategic bombing.

There were two reasons behind him doing that.

First, he wanted to uncover the eyes of the Great Xia generals and make firearm usage really common. He wanted to let the generals, or at the very least the Legion Generals, realize the importance of firearms to the army.

Ouyang Shuo had even discussed with Sun Wu about using money to hire real life experts to start teaching them lessons regarding thermal weapon wars.

The point was to let the generals of the dynasty progress with the times and focus on the future.

In the future, be it in the game or on Planet Hope, cold weapons would not be the main weapons. The weapons deciding the wars would always be thermal weapons, and even the more advanced energy weapons.

Although the current firearms could not replace cold weapons, Ouyang Shuo needed to plan for the future.

Of course, the era of thermal weapons did not mean that generals would become useless. For example, when they reached Planet Hope in the future, generals could have mechanized suits.

No matter what era it was, a person’s fighting skills would not be totally replaced by weapons.

Secondly, it was to give the Great Xia Army a chance to train their troops.

To command a firearm squad, apart from learning in the Army Military Academy, one needed to have practical experience. Moreover, this experience often needed to be amassed and accumulated.

The Great Xia having firearm squads and cannon squads at a legion level would provide Legion Generals with a chance to learn and train.

At an appropriate time, they could move this down to the division and even the regiment and unit levels.

Chapter 967 - Three Heroes of Early Han

Chapter 967: Three Heroes of Early Han

11th month, 3rd day, Zhang Liang, West Gate Big Official, and the others gathered in Shanhai City, opening up the reshuffling of civil servant appointments.

Along with them were also Li Mu, Bai Lishi, Ma Teng, and the other newly appointed generals. Before the army completed its reorganization, the Legion General could not come into contact with their troops in advance. They needed to study in the Army Military Academy for a short period of time. Only after the Privy Court completed their work could they be appointed.

Using the chance, Ma Teng and the other generals could learn about thermal weapons warfare. Li Mu and the other surrendered generals learned about the Great Xia Army system while taking lessons about loyalty to the king.

The moment Zhang Liang arrived in Shanhai City, a System Notification sounded out.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for gathering the three heroes of early Han, Xiao He, Han Xin, and Zhang Liang. Player awarded an Emperor Rank summoning talisman, and 100 thousand reputation points!”

…

The moment the notification went out, everyone else could only feel envious toward him. Ouyang Shuo himself did not expect such a surprise.

As for the Emperor Rank talisman he was given, Ouyang Shuo was not in a rush to use it.

Zhang Liang, Li Mu, and the others arrived in Shanhai City one by one. As the ruler, Ouyang Shuo naturally welcomed them one by one to ascertain the ruler-minister relationship and to put them at ease.

Toward stubborn people like Wei Yan, Ouyang Shuo even had to calm him down to raise his loyalty stat.

In the morning of the next day, the Great Xia Dynasty announced a series of personnel appointments.

Zhang Liang was appointed as the head secretary of the Administrative Mentor Court. His position was even higher than that of Jia Xu.

Name: Zhang Liang (Saint Rank)

Title: Strategy Saint

Dynasty: End of Qin, Start of Han

Identity: Great Xia Administrative Mentor Court Head Secretary

Occupation: Special Strategist

Loyalty: 80

Command: 80

Force: 50

Intelligence: 100

Politics: 80

Specialty: Strategizing (raises military index of the dynasty by 5%, raises chances of strategies succeeding by 55%, raises ability to grasp chances in battle by 50%, raises success rate of dynasty strategists breaking bottleneck by 25%)

Evaluation: Zhang Liang contributed greatly to the establishment of the Han dynasty. After his death, he was honored with the posthumous title ‘Marquis Wencheng’ by Emperor Gaozu.

Zhang Liang was not a commander that was talented at leading troops nor did he fight any famous wars. He was not an administrative genius who had any such achievements either.

However, he was the dream of any emperor or king. That was because he was a smart strategist who had a really accurate grasp on anyone, and he was able to see through the layers of mist over things that were of utmost concern. As such, he could directly locate the crux of the problem and come up with a correct choice.

The Administrative Mentor Court that he would be leading was the brains beside Ouyang Shuo. And it would play an important role in deciding policies and the direction of the dynasty.

…

The original Mengding Prefecture Governor Tian Wenjing was promoted to Shu Lands Provincial Governor.

Tian Wenjing had been the Administration Director, Qiongzhou Prefecture Governor, and Mengding Prefecture Governor. Similar to Chuannan Province Provincial Governor Fan Zhongyan, he was one of the oldest servants of the territory.

Not only was he good at internal affairs, but he was even a rare expert at handling racial matters. He was also at the helm of the Qiongzhou voyage trading, and his horizons had been expanded. As a result, he was the best choice for the Shu Lands.

West Gate Big Official was appointed as the Xiangnan Provincial Governor and given the rank of 3rd class Marquis.

During his entry into the city, West Gate Big Official knew his place. He did not wait for Ouyang Shuo to ask and asked to move the West Gate Family to Shanhai City.

His performance as the Provincial Governor would affect the fate of his family and Ouyang Shuo’s treatment of the other talents in his family.

Out of the three prefectures, only Chuanbei Province did not have a Provincial Governor. That was because Ouyang Shuo could not find a suitable person to take up the role.

Luckily, it was about to reach the 5th year of Gaia. The Recruitment Hall, General Appointment Stage, Wanming Pagoda, and Golden Stage could all complete a round of recruitment.

Ouyang Shuo did not believe that he would be unable to recruit a suitable Provincial Governor.

Apart from the two Provincial Governors, the remaining 15 Governors were all appointed at once.

For example, Qiang Race leader Fu Jian would become the Qiang Prefecture Governor, Caiyun Zinan would become the Chuanbei Province Xingyi Prefecture Governor, and Gu Hengxiao would become the Xiangnan Province Yongzhou Prefecture Governor.

Fu Jian was over 40 years old, and he did not come from the military. As such, him commanding troops was just a matter of expediency. As the person with the most fame in the Qiang Race, he was the best choice to be the Prefecture Governor of Qiang Prefecture.

In Qiang Prefecture, Great Xia would similarly allow the race to self-rule.

The Qiang Race army would be moved into the Eagle Legion Corps 1st legion. To calm down the Qiang Race, Ouyang Shuo would move Fu Jian’s son, Fu Ze, into the 1st division.

As they say, a tiger would not beget a dog son.

Fu Ze was just 20, and he was the most famous young general among the Qiang Race. Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to him being like Shihu and Shanzhu. He hoped Fu Ze would become the core of the army’s spine.

The remaining governors were captured civil servants or promoted prefects.

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

Along with the civil servants and the generals all receiving their appointments, only the execution was left. The Grand Council and the Cabinet would handle these appointments.

After dealing with the matters at hand, it was time for Ouyang Shuo to start the second voyage. At this very moment, two special people arrived in Shanhai City.

One of them was Shu Han Dynasty Advisor Pang Tong.

After the battle outside of Swordsman City, although the Shu Han Army led by Zhao Yun became a passing crowd, the event let Pang Tong realize the strength of Great Xia.

Along with the four prefectures of the Shu Lands being taken down by Great Xia, the Shu Han Dynasty was in a precarious position. Anyone with brains could see that they were just a trapped beast, a bird in a cage.

Furthermore, as he was unhappy there, along with Zhou Yu persuading him, Pang Tong finally decided to leave Chengdu.

Learning that Pang Tong had left, Liu Bei was naturally furious, while Zhuge Liang was delighted. If Liu Bei knew that his advisor actually swapped sides to his enemy, who knows how mad he would be?

After Pang Tong came over, Ouyang Shuo naturally welcomed him. Ouyang Shuo did not consider much and appointed him as an advisor of the Adminstrative Mentor Court. His status was lower than Jia Xu but higher than Chen Gong’s.

Name: Pang Tong (Emperor Rank)

Dynasty: East Han end

Identity: Administrative Mentor Court Advisor

Occupation: Special Strategist

Loyalty: 75

Command: 75

Force: 45

Intelligence: 90

Politics: 75

Specialty: Strategic Battle (raises chances of strategies succeeding by 35%, raises troops morale by 25%, raises ability to grasp chances by 30%, reduces enemy morale by 15%.)

Evaluation: Originally a minor official in Nan Commandery in Jing Province, Pang Tong came to serve Liu Bei in 209 after the latter became the Provincial Governor. In the early 210s, he accompanied Liu Bei on a military campaign to seize control of Yi Province from the warlord Liu Zhang, but he was killed by a stray arrow during a battle at Luo County.

Along with Pang Tong joining them, the Administrative Mentor Court had four top strategists.

It might be too much of a waste. As such, Ouyang Shuo set a rule that apart from Zhang Liang, Jia Xu, Pang Tong, and Chen Gong could all head to the frontlines during wartime and follow along as an advisor.

With that, they could show their talents and ensure the use of the Administrative Mentor Court.

…

The other guest was even more special; she was the person who left her home – Feng Qingyue.

Even Ouyang Shuo, who was usually really calm, was shocked when he learned that Feng Qingyue had come over.

Xia Palace, Imperial Reading Room.

Speaking of which, this was the first time he had met her. The first impression she gave him was that she was really clear and pretty. In that purity flowed a little bit of pride, like that of a moon hanging high up in the night sky.

Just like her name.

Different from Feng Qiuhuang, who was grand, Feng Qingyue gave off the feel of a small family jade. The aura that she gave off was a perfect match with the ancient background of the game.

If one looked at her, it was easy to be attracted by her aura and not look at her appearance. If one looked closely, she was a top beauty. She had curved, long, and shapely eyebrows, and a pair of elegant eyes that everyone would fall for.

The only regret was that she was really short, and she was even shorter than Tsing Yi.

Ouyang Shuo said, “I did not expect that you would come here.”

When she heard that, she gave a faint look to Ouyang Shuo, “Great Xia claims to accept everyone, are you not going to take me in?”

“Great Xia welcomes everyone. The problem is your purpose of coming. Is it to be a spy or to assassinate someone? I heard news that your family is preparing people to come to assassinate me to take revenge.” Talking to smart people, Ouyang Shuo did not mind being direct.

When Feng Qingyue heard that, she was amazed. She did not expect the Great Xia intel organization to be so skilled. Not even a single blow of the wind could escape their eyes.

Licking her lips, she asked, “How should I prove to it you?”

Before coming, she had predicted that things were not going to go so smoothly. No matter how confident Ouyang Shuo was, he would not easily accept the daughter of an enemy.

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo suddenly thought of an idea, “We just took over the Shu Lands and there are many hidden currents. If you can help Provincial Governor Tian Wenjing calm them down, I’ll believe you.”

The Shu Lands were in chaos because of the Feng Family.

As a core member of the Feng Family, if she agreed to appear in the Shu Lands as an official of Great Xia, no matter what her intentions were, she could calm down the situation.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo was in a winning situation no matter what.

When Feng Qingyue heard this, she looked deeply at Ouyang Shuo, “Okay, I agree.”

Chapter 968 - Dawson Dynasty

Chapter 968: Dawson Dynasty

Feng Qingyue left and appeared in the Shu Lands as the assistant to the Provincial Governor.

Pang Tong naturally remained in Shanhai City. He would work together with Jia Xu, Chen Gong, and the like to help Zhang Liang make a plan for the 5th year of Gaia.

This was the big task Ouyang Shuo gave the Administrative Mentor Court after he met Zhang Liang.

Based on the time, when Ouyang Shuo returned from his second voyage, it would already be the 5th year of Gaia. How would the Great Xia sail the new waves in the New Year? Ouyang Shuo needed this group of intelligent people to give their thoughts.

Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to what shocking ideas Zhang Liang could come up with.

After sending Feng Qingyue away, Ouyang Shuo tore the Emperor Rank talisman that Gaia gave him. A white light shone across, and a red-faced man with a white moustache appeared in the reading room.

“Greetings my king!” He bowed.

“System Notifications: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for successfully recruiting Emperor Rank historical person Li Honggzhang.” Ouyang Shuo was stunned; he did not expect to recruit such a special talent.

Name: Li Hongzhang (Emperor Rank)

Dynasty: Qing Dynasty

Identity: Great Xia Civil Servant

Occupation: Civil Servant

Loyalty: 80

Command: 85

Force: 50

Intelligence: 75

Politics: 88

Specialty: All rounded (raises dynasty industrialization efficiency by 15%, raise dynasty administration efficiency by 25%, raises dynasty navy combat strength by 20%)

Evaluation: Famous minister at the end of the Qing Dynasty, founder of the Beiyang Navy. He was one of the main proponents for the self-strengthening movement. He was named as one of the four famous ministers of Zhongxin along with Ceng Guofan, Zhang Zhi Dong, and Zuo Zongtang.

Japanese prime minister Ito Hirobumi called him the only person in the Great Xing Dynasty that could compete with the best in the world. The west listed him as one of the top three people of the 19th century.

However, in recent Chinese history, he was deemed as an infamous country traitor. The few unfair trade agreements that China signed in recent history all came out from his hand. There were many people who wanted to beat Li Hongzhang up. They wished to send him down to hell and curse him to be unable to reincarnate.

Empress Cixi termed him as the person who brought back the fame and prosperity of China. Li Hongzhang himself felt that he was the stumping craftsman of the straw house that was Great Qing. When there was a big storm, even a craftsman could not save it from crashing.

One small story could let one see his personality.

It was said that during a sporting event, all the countries had their flags raised with their songs. When it was China’s turn, only a yellow dragon flag rose up in silence.

The Great Qing Empire did not even have a national anthem, causing them to be mocked by the westerners.

At that moment, Li Hongzhang, who was over 70, stepped out. Although his steps were not stable, he was filled with energy. He walked under the yellow dragon flag, straightened his back as best as he could, opened up his throat, and started singing the song he sang since he was young – Anhui folk song Jasmine Flower.

The clamor instantly went silent, and only Li Hongzhang’s voice could be heard. Once he finished, a thunderous applause broke out from all around at this fellow who went all out to protect the pride and honor of his nation.

If Li Hongzhang was born a hundred years earlier, he could not be a famous minister like Zhang Tingyu.

After recruiting Zhang Tingyu and Tian Wenjing, these two Qing Dynasty officials, Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to the four famous ministers of late Qing. If he could gather up the four of them, it would undoubtedly be a great legacy.

After greeting Li Hongzhang, Ouyang Shuo was thinking about how to settle his appointment. He was an all rounded talent, military, administrative, diplomacy, and more. Furthermore, his ideals were far sighted, and his thinking was really modern.

Along with the dynasty industrialization getting on the right path and voyage trading becoming more and more prosperous, amongst the officials and generals in the dynasty, a new way of thinking was hitting at their old ideals.

Li Hongzhang’s arrival could help lead this new wave of ideas. Even Ouyang Shuo could not force it upon them. He could not change their traditional thinking in one go.

The thinking and ideals of the late Qing self-strengthening movement was the best transition.

Thinking about it, Ouyang Shuo decided to appoint him as the navy minister. His main goal was to build a Great Xia Navy Academy in Beihai City.

Since the navy was formed, they did not have a proper academy to develop navy talents.

And to build a navy academy that was close to the modern ones, Li Hongzhang was undoubtedly a suitable choice. Ouyang Shuo directly used one million gold to build the academy.

Li Hongzhang happily accepted his appointment.

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

Just as Ouyang Shuo was meeting Li Hongzhang, a System Notification suddenly sounded out.

“World Notification: Congratulations America Region Lord Jack Dawson for establishing the Dawson Dynasty, becoming the second player in the world to become a king, awarded 120 thousand merit points, 250 thousand reputation points, hidden building Statue of Liberty, and one special reward!”

…

The moment the notification was announced, the world was in an uproar.

After the Great Xia Dynasty, the second dynasty in the world was born. The establishment of the Dawson Empire undoubtedly opened up the global fight for supremacy. In the following period of time, more and more dynasties would be born.

One overlord after another would bare theirs fangs in the world.

Even Ouyang Shuo felt a little pressure. It seemed like Great Xia needed to speed up their global plans.

…

Russia Region, Saint Petersburg.

While Great Xia Dynasty shone across the ocean and Free City shone in America, Russia, which was located at the north of Asia, was totally silent. It had not appeared in the field of vision of all the players in the world.

As the country in the world with the largest land area, Russia spanned across two continents. North of it was Antarctica, east was the Atlantic Ocean, west was the pacific, and its northwest was the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Finland.

Pretty much every day, huge changes were happening in this quiet country.

A Lord known as Pushkin was like the blistering sun, rising up from the east plains and sweeping across the lands, expanding the territory of St Petersburg.

On this day, the entire east Europe plains belonged to St Petersburg.

This was an amazing achievement, as Russia’s population was unequal, and the west had around 52 to 77 people per square kilometer, and this number even reached 261 at some places. On the other hand, the northeast portion had less than one person per square kilometer.

Taking down the east European plains basically meant having 90% of Russia.

St Petersburg was really close to establishing a dynasty, and Pushkin went all out to try to become the world’s first. He wanted to step onto the world stage and stun everyone.

Who knew that the China region would give birth to a freak like Ouyang Shuo?

If it was just Great Xia, Pushin could accept it. Pushkin had upgraded to duke, and St Petersburg had become a Capital City. However, who knew that while he was doing the country establishment mission, the Dawson Dynasty would be established?

This made Pushkin really depressed.

“Third place, I cannot possibly miss out on it.” Pushkin set his mind to it.

…

England Region, Avic Fort.

In reality, William and Jack Dawson were good friends. In the game, Avic Ford was the first territory to trade with Free City, and the two territories had a close relationship.

When Jack Dawson held his ascension ceremony, William was one of the VIPs.

It was not that the two of them had differences like their attitudes toward Great Xia. William and Ouyang Shuo had dealings, and they followed the law of the market.

In terms of strategy, Avic Fort followed Silver Hand’s arrangements, but this did not stop them from working together with Great Xia.

Jack was different. He was a firm believer and activist of the organization, and he would rather work with the Yanhuang Alliance that was slightly weaker than Great Xia.

Ouyang Shuo was the only person that Jack deemed as his opponent.

Since they were opponents, the main goal was naturally to defeat the other.

The moment the Dawson Dynasty was established, it had already taken down 80% of America.

In terms of land area, the Dawson Dynasty was not that far behind Great Xia. Jack was really ambitious and started to look over America at Canada in the north and Mexico in the south.

In his words, “Let’s first set a small target like unifying North America.”

This was obviously him being boastful. Not to mention other regions, but just one Canada was bigger than America. It was the second biggest region in the world, and it was only behind Russia in terms of size.

Luckily, its population was sparse, and it had less than half of the density of Russia. It had a total of three million players. If its population density was placed in China, it would have less than 1/30th of the Chinese population.

Hence, although his words were boastful, it was really viable.

Population in the game was a huge benefit. Not only did it decide the number of imperial city troops, but it also decided the NPC number. As such, to an extent, it decided the overall strength of a country.

This was really ironic, but it was the truth.

On this aspect, Asia had the absolute advantage. With over 600 million people, just the China region players alone exceeded the entirety of Europe, America, and Africa.

Of course, there were pros and cons to this, as Asia was also the biggest and most intense region.

The only one that could compete with Asia was probably Europe. Europe had small land space, but it was the region with the highest population density. There were many countries, and to unify Europe was just a dream.

On the contrary, as their population was lesser, it was easier for them to have regional overlords in America. As a result, Jack’s dream of unifying North America was not totally impossible.

Although Africa had similar conditions to America, it was destined to not become the main focus of the world.

On this point alone, William was really envious of Jack. The current Avic Fort was unable to unify the United Kingdom region, much less unify Europe.

Using all his effort, he was able to unify England. However, establishing a dynasty was still far away.

Chapter 969 - Second Voyage

Chapter 969: Second Voyage

The establishment of the Dawson Dynasty stirred up the pile of stale water.

Ouyang Shuo immediately decided to set the date of the second voyage to the 11th month, 6th day.

After reading through a day of memorials, he returned to the back palace at night. Ouyang Shuo had dinner together with Song Jia. Two months had passed, and Song Jia’s tummy had bulged slightly, showing that the two newborns were growing in her womb.

With Song Jia being pregnant, Ouyang Shuo’s mentality was slightly changing. He had a new role, a heavy mantle-father.

Probably at this moment, Ouyang Shuo truly grew up.

“How’s the holdings coming along?” Ouyang Shuo attentively picked dishes for his wife and asked.

Song Jia was a person that did not like to sit at home and do nothing. After being pregnant, she could not cultivate, so she focused her energy onto the Mountain and Sea Entertainment Holdings.

Seeing her husband so caring, her heart felt really sweet as she smiled, “We are currently filming Hua Mulan. Zhaojun’s training is also complete, and we are preparing to hold the first concert in the Capital City next month.”

Song Jia really knew how to made use of resources. Not long after Hua Mulan established the Imperial Court female guards, she had caught Song Jia’s eyes and was thrown into the movie industry, “Wasn’t this her not focusing on her job?”

Such a thought only slightly flashed across Ouyang Shuo’s mind, as did not dare say it out.

As for Wang Zhaojun’s concert, it was not much as Ouyang Shuo was the one to recommend her.

Song Jia continued, “Diaochan has already agreed to be the dancer in her concert.”

‘Cough!’ Ouyang Shuo coughed, “Wang Zhaojun and Diaochan? Who can resist such a godly combination?”

“Well done!”

Ouyang Shuo gave her the thumbs up.

Song Jia smiled in glee, “Oh yeah, there’s one more thing I wanted to talk to you about.”

“What thing?”

“Although Qingyang Sword Sect has moved over to Chengdu, their sect headquarters is still there. Lin Yue is asking if the Imperial Court can hand it over to the Dongli Sword Sect to allow him to build a branch in the Shu Lands.”

Ouyang Shuo was astonished, “Lin Yue has huge ambitions.”

The Shu Lands had many heroes. Be it the Wuxia culture or the Xianxia culture, they were both really evident there. Lin Yue wanted to use this chance to step into the Shu Lands underworld.

“As long as he follows the rules, it would naturally be okay. I will speak to Tian Wenjing about it.” Since the Dongli Sword Sect was interested in expanding, Ouyang Shuo naturally would not stop them.

Seeing this, Ouyang Shuo thought of a matter, “During the period that I’m gone, you need to monitor her studies. That little brat is becoming more and more playful. Where is she now?”

At the dinner table, Ouyang Shuo did not see Bing’er.

Song Jia pouted, “Do not worry, she’s really well behaved. Today, she was invited by Bai Xue to the Wei Manor.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded; he was actually surprised that Bai Xue was close to Bing’er.

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

11th month, 6th day, Beihai Port.

The bustling Beihai City was really solemn and serious. Many officials and generals came over to send off the king.

Compared to the first voyage, the second voyage was more planned. The squadron would first go toward Xingzhou Prefecture, where Ouyang Shuo would meet with the ASEAN Lords to discuss the Atlantic trading partner agreement.

Following which, the squadron would go past the Straits of Malacca and enter the Indian Ocean.

Different from the first voyage, the Emperor Squadron would not go west but down south toward Australia. Along the way, Ouyang Shuo also wanted to try if he could activate the scenario quest of the Lemuria Civilization.

If time permitted it, he was also planning to go to New Zealand before coming back to prepare for the second global auction.

The entire program was really tight. Luckily, be it ASEAN, Australia, or New Zealand, the Honglu Temple had sent envoys over to do the groundwork.

The significance of this voyage was far greater than the interests it involved.

Praying to Ma Zu as usual, Ouyang Shuo got up The Emperor and the entire squadron set sailed.

Z1 Type Warship after warship surrounded The Emperor and slowly sailed out of the port. Around them were closely packed Mengchong Warships and Cima boats; the scene was really majestic.

Compared to the turreted ships, the Z1 Type Warships had three changes.

First, they took the pros of a Man O’ War type warship to remodel the sails. Without a doubt, in the era where one used manual labor and power to move ships, the Man O’ War type warship was the most advanced.

Secondly, remodel the cannon designs.

The number of cannons on both sides of the warships was increased. Now, they had a total of 90 cannons, and Z1 and Z2 cannons were used together to increase the firepower net. At the same time, it would not cause any weight burden on the warship.

Apart from that, two super cannons were added to the front and tail of the warship. Be it range of firepower, these cannons exceeded the Z1 type Cannon.

Of course, the huge size meant that these cannons could only be used to scare off others and could not be placed all around the ships. Even then, with these two cannons, the Z1 Type Warships were not restricted to just left to right formations.

Even when charging and retreating, they could harm the enemy.

Thirdly, the accumulation of many new technologies and techniques.

Be it the bartering ram, the bars, or the watertight cabin technology, these series of warship changing technologies led by Old Sun were gathered onto the Z1 Type Warship.

One could say that be it in terms of speed, weight, or firepower, it was a huge upgrade from the turreted warship. Its level exceeded any wooden warship in China.

Old Sun had said that even the British Man O’ War type warships could not be compared to it.

The success of the Z1 Type Warship could be seen as a result of the Great Xia Shipbuilding industry development.

If the Z1 Type Warship was the most advanced warship of the day, then The Emperor was an overlord of the ocean.

Compared to the Z1 Type Warship, The Emperor was a size bigger, and its cannons were increased to 120. It weighed 3600 tonnes, which was more than a Grade 1 Man O’ War series warship.

There was a docking bay specially designed on the deck of The Emperor to allow mimicry flying devices to take off and land.

Most crucially, The Emperor used steam engine as a support power, unveiling the time for machines to replace human labor.

The currently developing Z2 Type Warship would totally use steam engine and welcome another round of revolution.

…

Beihai Bay, Spratly Islands, Zhongsha Islands, South Sea…

All the way around, Ouyang Shuo was filled with many emotions. None of these islands were desolate islands. Instead, they were listed as explored territories in Qiongzhou Prefecture, and each one had signs of China Region players in it.

On the ocean surface, one could often see groups of fishing boats. Along with the development of the Shipbuilding Industry, the dynasty fishing industry had developed from close sea to deep ocean.

On the tables of the Shanhai City people, seafood was not a new ingredient.

As he passed Beihai Bay, he could not see a single Annan ship. There were no fishing boats, merchant ships, or warships. Although the Annan Squadron was rebuilt, they felt threatened by Yashan City. As such, they did not dare go out to sea.

11th month, 9th day, the Emperor Squadron passes the Spratly Islands.

Ouyang Shuo remembered that last time he was at the Spratly Islands. At that time, the voyage squadron had faced a storm and fought with octopus beasts. As a result, Ouyang Shuo unintentionally arrived on the unnamed island and discovered the dragon vein.

The dragon bones of The Emperor were from that island.

Just as they passed the Spratly Islands, a loud dragon roar spread out from the skies above.

“What sound is that?”

“Be on alert. Cannons, get ready!”

The Emperor was alert, but they did not panic, making Ouyang Shuo really satisfied.

Raising his head, one could see a thousand meter long golden dragon in the clouds. Its golden scales, thick body, and shining claws made one look on awe.

“Dragon, a god dragon!”

The fate dragon had appeared several times, so the civilians of Great Xia were not unfamiliar with it. Their first reaction was that they thought it was the appearance of the god dragon.

Weirdly, the dragon they saw before was purple, while this one was gold. Not to mention it really looked like the one on the Great Xia country flag.

The golden dragon in the sky scratched its head with its claws as confusion appeared in its eyes, “Shouldn’t they be afraid? Why are they so calm?”

The moment he saw the golden dragon, Ouyang Shuo thought back to when he was on the unnamed island and the story the Qilin spoke to him about. Ouyang Shuo asked, “Did you come from the dragon island?”

The golden dragon was shocked and subconsciously asked, “How do you know that?”

The moment he said those words, he regretted it.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “I was fortunate enough to hear Senior Qilin speak about it.”

‘Scoff.’ The dragon did not believe it, “Human, tell me why I smell the scent of my race. If you do not give me a satisfying answer, do not blame me.”

Naturally, the dragon was referring to The Emperor. When Ouyang Shuo decided to use the bones of the black dragon to build it, he had foreseen this.

After building it, The Emperor did not disappoint him.

The Emperor gave out the aura of a dragon. While they sailed, no matter what ocean beast they came across, it would flee when they felt this aura.

The stronger the ocean beast, the further it ran to hide.

With that, the Emperor Squadron did not face a single ocean beast along the way.

Ouyang Shuo did not hide anything and told the golden dragon everything about the black dragon.

The Qilin told Ouyang Shuo that the black dragon was a bastard of the dragon race, and it was a famous criminal. Since the golden dragon came from the dragon island, there was no reason for him to be enemies with Ouyang Shuo.

As expected, after listening to Ouyang Shuo’s description, the golden dragon was a little emotional, clawing out. A claw that was an accumulation of energy passed through The Emperor and scratched some of the aura of the black dragon.

The golden dragon sniffed the aura and confirmed the story.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, his eyes focused; this golden dragon was really amazing.

Chapter 970 - ASEAN and Its Weird Atmosphere

Chapter 970: ASEAN and Its Weird Atmosphere

With the misunderstanding resolved, the golden dragon felt a little awkward, and a pained expression appeared on its face. With a ‘Shua!’ a white stone appeared in its claws.

“Human, you have removed a problem of our dragon race. We thank you for it; this is for you.” The white stone gently floated onto his hand, and then the dragon swept its tail and disappeared into the horizon.

Ouyang Shuo received the stone and took a look at its stats.

Contract Beast Wishing Stone: Use gold to make a wish and summon a beast egg of a contract beast. Friendly Reminder: Desolate beasts start from one thousand gold, spirit beasts from 10 thousand, god beast subspecies from 100 thousand, god beast from a million gold.

If a normal player got this wishing stone, it would not be of much use. Not to mention a million gold, but even those who were able to take out a hundred thousand gold was rare.

However, falling into Ouyang Shuo’s hands was naturally different.

With the fate dragon, Little Green, Little White, and other god beast subspecies, Ouyang Shuo did not lack any beasts. Subconsciously, he thought abouthis unborn pair of children.

If the two little fellows were able to have a god beast protect them as they soon as were born, it would be a really fortunate thing.

Ouyang Shuo only had two million gold on him, and he did not dare to use it right now. It was better to wait until the global auction ended before he used it.

Thinking about it, Ouyang Shuo placed the Wishing Stone into his storage bag.

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

11th month, 11th day, after that short interruption, the Emperor Squadron smoothly arrived in Xingzhou Prefecture. Under the accompaniment of Gu Xiuwen, Ouyang Shuo excitedly toured Lion City.

As the previous Singapore Imperial City, Lion City had a deep foundation. With the Great Xia running it well, it had become a core point of global trade.

Internally in the city, it was also really prosperous, and the shops made for voyage trading took up nearly half of the shops inside.

Apart from the prosperous trading, the killing at the surrounding islands had never stopped. The massacres between China players and Java players continued every day, giving birth to hundreds of PK maniacs.

The huge player base was why Java was so confident about going against Great Xia and China.

Not only Java, but even the player base of the 10 ASEAN countries was quite huge. Apart from Singapore, Annan had eight million, Nanzhang had 600 thousand, Zhenla had 1.2 million, Siam had five million, Piao Country had 4.5 million, Luzon had eight million, Johor had 2.5 million, and Brunei had the least at 40 thousand players.

The nine remaining countries of ASEAN had close to 50 million players, which was equal to half of China.

A year and a half had passed, and each of the ASEAN countries had been through huge changes. Ouyang Shuo was most uneasy about regional overlords that had stepped up from each one of the nine countries.

Each one of them had one Lord left.

Take Johor as an example. A year ago, it was still Perak City and Sabah City. Now, there was only Perak City left in Johor.

Guo Yannan, who was of Chinese descent, had fallen at the hands of Shantha, and his territory was merged into Perak City.

Behind the quick mergers of the various ASEAN states, there were signs of Silver Hand. Silver Hand had seen through Ouyang Shuo’s strategic intention of taking over ASEAN, so they tried to stir up the waters.

As there were only nine Lords left in the entire ASEAN, their internal decisions had a lot less resistance. It also caused Great Xia’s efforts in nurturing people they trusted in ASEAN to go to waste.

Out of the nine Lords, the three heads were Java Lord Uwais, Annan Lord Ruan Tianque, and Luzon Lord Mading. The next level was Siam country Ti Lade, Piao country Lord Mo Angyin, and Johor Lord Shantha.

Zhenla Country Lord Bi Wenlie, Nanzhang Lord Suo Langgong, and Brunei Lord Abdul; these three basically had no speaking rights in ASEAN and followed the three heads.

Who knows whether it was a coincidence or not, but the three heads were all enemies against Shanhai City.

Till this date, Java, Annan, and Luzon all had no trading relations with Great Xia.

Needless to say, Java and China had a deep animosity that could not be resolved. Annan was whacked twice by Great Xia, and they were naturally unhappy about it.

Luzon and Great Xia had both historical elements and game interest conflicts. The Great Xia Dynasty was expanding into the Spratly Islands and Nansha Islands, reducing the ocean space of Luzon country.

ASEAN was silently split into two factions. One side wanted war, while the other side wanted peace.

Needless to say, the three heads wanted to fight. Along with Nanzhang, which was connected to Great Xia, the remaining five all had trading relationships with Great Xia and wanted peace.

The two factions were in a balance and one group changing sides might disrupt this balance.

Under such a situation, to break the balance, Ouyang Shuo wanted to sign a trade agreement with the ASEAN Lords.

The goal was to strengthen their relationship with the other Lords and strengthen the presence of Great Xia in ASEAN.

Of course, one could look at the trade agreement as a smoke bomb or bait that Ouyang Shuo tossed out to numb ASEAN.

Regardless of the consideration, to break up ASEAN so that they could not pose any physical threat was Ouyang Shuo’s long term goal.

And to fulfil this goal, it was impossible to not see any blood.

However, before he truly waved his knife, Ouyang Shuo could not let the ASEAN Lords see through his intentions. If not, they would all hug tightly together.

If that happened, Ouyang Shuo really did not have any confidence to shake the ASEAN.

Not to mention other things, but the 50 million players alone were not something Great Xia could underestimate. The only way would be to break them down one by one.

Before Ouyang Shuo arrived in Xingzhou Prefecture, Honglu Temple and the Business Department had already went through three rounds of discussions regarding the agreement with the countries.

Unfortunately, the results were not ideal, so they needed Ouyang Shuo to come personally.

…

Afternoon 2 PM, Xingzhou Harbour.

To express his sincerity, Ouyang Shuo specially received the five Lords at the harbor.

At the designated time, Ti Lade, Mo Angyin, Shantha, and Abdul were invited into Lion City.

The part that made Ouyang Shuo frown was that Zhenla Lord Bi Wenlie did not come.

“This is not a good sign.”

Bi Wenlie not coming had sent a really obvious signal that Zhenla was determined to fight. Ouyang Shuo was not sure if there were signs of Silver Hand within all that.

No matter what, under such a scene, Bi Wenlie’s sudden disappearance made Ouyang Shuo feel really humiliated, and it was like a slap to his face.

Before the discussions even began, there was a dark cloud hanging over.

Although he was furious in his heart, he was still smiling on the surface as he shook hands with them one by one.

Out of the four, the only person Ouyang Shuo had contact with was Shantha.

Without a doubt, they were all young and handsome and were born from noble families or were members of the royal family.

No wonder they were able to unify their respective country so swiftly.

Their identities had a natural connection with Silver Hand. Maybe their families did not have the rights to join Silver Hand in reality. However, due to the complex nature of the game, Silver Hand would not stick purely to the rules, and they did not mind accepting new members.

This was why Silver Hand was really scary. Facing outside threats, they would still be willing to change their ideas.

As they greeted one another, Shantha and the others could not help but look at the west of the port. There, the Emperor Squadron was quietly docked, and The Emperor was especially eye catching.

Shantha and the others were expressionless, but their eyes froze and their moods became really serious.

The main Warships of ASEAN were either turreted warships from Great Xia or Man O’ War warships from the west. They had never seen the Z1 Type Warship before.

Without a doubt, this was a new type of warship designed by Great Xia.

What ASEAN worried the most about was the strong navy of Great Xia. Shantha and the others thought that after bringing in the turreted warships their navy standards could be closer to Great Xia.

Who knew that they actually designed a new type of warship?

Such an impact was really huge.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he laughed to his heart. He specially received them at the dock and also placed the Emperor Squadron at such an obvious place to warn them.

‘You all might want to fight, but if it really comes to that, Shanhai City has some trump cards.’

…

Ouyang Shuo led them to the governor manor of Lion city and began a new round of discussions.

The part that made Ouyang Shuo frown was that even with him taking part personally, they still made many unreasonable requests.

Ouyang Shuo laughed coldly, thinking to himself, ‘They really think they have the help of Silver Hand and do not need to fear anything?’

Seeing this, Ouyang Shuo looked around and smiled, “Using this chance, I want to announce a certain piece of news.”

Shantha’s heart trembled, and he forced a smile, “We are all ears!” This time, it showed that his confidence was not as strong as he displayed.

Ouyang Shuo said, “To keep pirates at bay, Great Xia Dynasty will set up an ocean checkpoint at the Gulf of Aden to check merchant ships. Ships that do not pass will not be able to enter the Mediterranean.”

“….”

Shantha and the others exchanged glances with one another.

Chapter 971 - Horse or Mule Depends on This Battle

Chapter 971: Horse or Mule Depends on This Battle

Facing the sudden killer move thrown out by Ouyang Shuo, Shantha and the rest were evidently caught off guard. Trading with the western countries was hugely important to their territories. The moment they were blocked, it would be a huge blow to their territory finances.

Ouyang Shuo’s words were really obvious; they could only pass the checkpoint if their cooperate with Great Xia. If not, the ASEAN merchant ships could forget about entering the Mediterranean.

Shantha and the others were really solemn and said, “Xia King, we need to discuss alone for a while.”

“Please!”

Ouyang Shuo was really confident. Since Shantha and the others had enjoyed the huge profits that voyage trading had brought them, they would not be willing to give up on it.

This trading route that the Great Xia had spent so much effort to maintain could be a chip on the negotiation table sometimes.

…

In a guest room next door, the four of them gathered together.

“What now?” Siam Lord Theeradej asked.

The four of them exchanged glances. Before coming, they did not expect Ouyang Shuo’s attitude to be so strong.

Piao country Lord Mo Angyin said, “Why don’t we sign it?”

Out of the nine countries, Piao was located at the northwest corner, and it was quite far away from the ASEAN system. Furthermore, it was right next to the Indian Ocean, so western trade was one of Mo Angyin’s main financial sources.

If trade was stopped, the outcome would be catastrophic.

“That’s right. We have no choice but to lower our head when we are under them.” Theeradej agreed.

Shantha was a little worried, “How are we going to explain things to Uwais?”

“We are only cooperating for trade. We cannot give up on gold because of our face.” Mo Angyin’s attitude was really certain.

Seeing that, Shantha gritted his teeth, “Okay, let’s decide it that way.”

From the start till finish, the three of them did not bother seeking the opinion of Abdul.

In reality, Brunei became one of the richest countries in the world due to Yeo and natural gas reserves. However, in the game, both of them had no place to be used.

Brunei was small, and it also had a small population, so it did not have much power.

…

With their discussions completed, the four of them returned to the negotiation table.

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo gave a smile that did not really look like a smile and said, “Have you all completed your discussions?” In truth, their conversation there had been spread to his ears.

Shantha and the others nodded, “The Great Xia is magnanimous and is willing to share with us the profits of voyage trading. As a friend, how could we reject? We were just discussing some minor matters.”

“Well said, we are friends.”

Following which, the negotiation proceeded smoothly as they went past point after point before signing the agreement.

As for the specific details, naturally professionals would handle it.

After the signing, Ouyang Shuo smiled, “This is a great matter, and we should share it with more people. Great Xia has invited various media outlets and is ready to hold a news conference.”

“What?”

Shantha and the others were caught off guard once more.

Ouyang Shuo’s face sank, “Why, are you all unwilling?”

“We will go!”

Shantha and the others’ smiles were even worse than crying. They could imagine what would happen if the news spread out.

But since it had come down to this, they had no way out.

During the news conference, seeing Shantha and the others smiled as they answered questions. Ouyang Shuo felt really delighted in his heart. When the news reports were released, they could not deny it even if they wanted to.

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

Settling the agreement, the next morning, the Emperor Squadron set sail once more.

Pretty much at the same time, news of the agreement that Shantha and the others had signed was swiftly spread by the Black Snake Guards to the various ASEAN states.

Java Country, Badong City.

In the City Lord’s Manor, Wuais’s face was really black as he gritted his teeth, “Those jerks really became Great Xia’s dog.”

“Scoff, they are afraid of Great Xia but I’m not.” A blood glow shone across his eyes as he shouted, “Men!”

“Present!”

“Inform the Badong Squadron that they have a mission.”

“Yes!”

…

Going across the straits of Malacca, the Emperor Squadron entered the Indian Ocean.

They passed the ocean region near Java and went down south. On The Emperor, Ouyang Shuo took out a map. Currently, his eyes filled with excitement.

Lemuria Civilization Ruins Exploration Map: using this map, players can trigger relevant scenario quests in the ocean region near the Lemuria Civilization ruins.

If nothing went wrong, Lemuria would be between Java and Australia.

For this, Ouyang Shuo specially instructed the Emperor Squadron Fleet Admiral Gan Ning to spread out the Cima Boats and Mengchong Warships to expand the search area and trigger the scenario quest.

They had travelled like this for four days, but they still had not seen anything.

Seeing that they were just about to reach Australia, Ouyang Shuo could not help but feel disappointed. “That should not be it. My luck stat is so high, so how can I miss it?” Ouyang Shuo was a little depressed.

At this very moment, an alert was sounded from the front.

The Emperor was located at the center of the squadron and was surrounded. As a result, Ouyang Shuo did not know what was going on. Luckily, the communication conches by Atlantis made communication more confident.

Quickly, Gan Ning came over to report.

“What happened?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

“My king, the Cima boats at the front sent out a signal before losing contact.”

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes froze and asked, “Did someone sneak attack us?”

“I’ve already sent out Mengchong warships.” Gan Ning did not give a definite answer.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Send out the mimicry flying devices.” Ouyang Shuo’s senses were really sharp. Since entering the Indian Ocean, he could feel that someone was staring at them.

“Yes my king!”

At this very moment, a series of cannon shots were fired, ‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

There was no need to check; someone had sneak attacked the Emperor Squadron without a doubt.

Ouyang Shuo was really calm and said to Gan Ning, “Go all out. I want to see the results of the training. Whether we are a horse or a mule depends on this battle.”

“Yes my king!”

Gan Ning bowed and turned around.

Ouyang Shuo looked at the ocean region in front, “Is it Java?” The only party with the courage to attack Great Xia’s Emperor Squadron was probably Java.

Ouyang Shuo’s guess was correct, as the ones attacking them were the Badong Squadron sent by Uwais. To remove the effects of the trade agreement, Uwais chose the most direct and effective retaliation.

As long as they crushed the Emperor Squadron, the entire situation would change.

Chapter 972 - Z1 Type Warship Shows Its Strength

Chapter 972: Z1 Type Warship Shows Its Strength

The Indian Ocean Region near Java was where storms happened frequently; a storm could occur at any time.

11th month, 16th day; this day would make this ocean region special due to a carefully planned ocean battle. The Java Badong Squadron had set a trap to surround the Emperor Squadron.

200 turreted warships, 500 Mengchong Warships, and thousands of Cima boats formed up into a huge ocean fleet. They covered the ocean surface, making one look out in awe.

Above the Badong Squadron.

Java Lord Uwais stood on top of the deck; he felt really free and smiled, “The Great Xia Squadron is not as scary as the rumors have it. They still got easily surrounded by us; let’s see how they are going to run.”

When the general beside him heard these words, he agreed, “Lord is wise and brave; the Great Xia Squadron is useless.” Those who did not know would think that the Badong Squadron had already won the war.

‘Haha~’

Uwais wanted to use this battle to suppress Shantha and the others who desired peace.

…

Seeing the Badong Squadron surround them, Gan Ning was really calm and did not panic as he moved the squadron formation. 40 Z1 Type Warships spread out once more into a row, forming the standard Man O’ War formation.

Each one of them opened up the cannon cabins and revealed their fangs.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

Along with the cannons firing, although the scene was really astonishing, the battle was not really exciting.

The two sides engaged one another. You shoot one, I shoot one; it was just like two boxers fighting one another. There were no moves or strokes, and it was just them hitting one another until one side totally fell.

This time, the might of the Z1 Type Warship was displayed. The 90 new cannons were like fire dragons that swallowed up one enemy ship after another.

Be it the might of the cannon or the cannon density, the Emperor Squadron was far superior to the Badong Squadron.

With that, in less than an hour, after the battle started, although the Java Squadron had the numerical advantage, they were slowly pushed onto the back foot.

What a miraculous sight.

At this very moment, the originally calm ocean surface was swept up by huge waves, and the sky blue sky turned gloomy and lightning instantly struck. It seemed like a huge ocean storm was about to arrive.

It was like the ocean surface was boiling. Bobbing up and down, numerous warships floated around from the huge waves; they were unable to control their own fates.

One huge wave swept across and a Cima boat was toppled, and there were even Mengchong Warships that were toppled. Only the turreted warships and Z1 Type Warships were able to avoid such a fate.

“Damn it, why are we so unlucky?”

Uwais grabbed onto the barrier for dear life as he cursed.

Getting hits by such waves, not to mention aiming at the enemy, the Badong Squadron could not even fire. Their accuracy rate greatly decreased, and they could not pose any threat toward the Emperor Squadron.

Even to say that one huge wave caused the warship to shift and the cannon that had aimed at the enemy shifted toward their own warship.

The entire Badong Squadron was in chaos.

At this very moment, the storm that was festering for long arrived, affecting the commanding of the Badong Squadron. Now, it was like the entire squadron was paralyzed.

The Emperor Squadron that was surrounded was a miraculous sight.

Being protected by Mazu, the Great Xia squadron’s ability to weather storms exceeded that of anyone else. Although this storm was intense, it could not be compared to the first storm they faced during the previous voyage.

As the huge waves tossed and turned, the Emperor Squadron was as stable as a mountain.

The Emperor Squadron’s command system was also more advanced than Java’s. Apart from flag language, there were drums. Despite the storm, the entire squadron was still running orderly, and they did not panic.

Gan Ning naturally would not miss such a chance, and he ordered the squadron to launch their assaults on the enemy.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

Even thunder could not cover the sounds of the cannons. The cannons and the thunder along with the shining lightning made it look like the end of the world had arrived.

This time, the Badong Squadron was in a terrible state. They were like living targets, and they could only get hit while being unable to strike back in return. In just half an hour, 10 warships were sunk, making Uwais feel really heart pained.

When he built the Badong Squadron, Uwais had spent all the money and resources he had. To keep it a secret, apart from attacking pirates in the Indian Ocean, the Badong Squadron was really low profile, and even the other Lords of ASEAN did not know about it.

Who knew that they were going to mess up during their first performance?

Uwais’s face was ashen white like the lightning as he gritted his teeth, “Flee!”

If this continued, he would be betting the entire foundation of his territory. Great Xia was huge, and even if the Emperor Squadron was crushed, it was not much of a problem to them. As such, Uwais naturally would not dare to take such a gamble.

This was the result of having a skill gap.

Even the retreat order was one that the Badong Squadron was confused about when they received it. Luckily, the soldiers were already afraid. Seeing that there were other squadrons retreating, they did not bother to verify the orders and just retreated right away.

The originally packed ocean surface instantly became open.

A sudden ocean war had ended just like that because of a sudden storm.

…

Seeing the Badong Squadron escape, only then did Gan Ning stop chasing. This kind of bad weather had an influence on the Emperor Squadron as well. If they were not careful, it might backfire instead.

In the end, they had a numerical disadvantage, and it was a hard fought victory. They lost eight Z1 Type Warships, 20 Mengchong warships, and hundreds of Cima boats.

Although the price was huge, the rewards were huge too.

During this battle, they had destroyed 35 Badong Squadron turreted warships, removing a division of their numbers. They had given the enemy a huge slap to their face.

After this battle, Java would probably need to lie low for a period of time, and this was really beneficial to the Great Xia’s plans in ASEAN.

…

Ouyang Shuo stood on deck; the storm rained down, but it was unable to shake him. He was standing up straight as he focused on the Badong Squadron that was slowly sailing away, “Try our best to rescue our boys who fell into the waters.”

“Yes my king!” The messenger soldier turned around and left.

It was a huge storm, so be it the Badong Squadron of Emperor Squadron, there were many soldiers who fell into the water.

During such a huge storm, if one did not save them in time, their chances of survival would be very low.

With one wave, who knows where they would be swept to?

No matter what, Ouyang Shuo could not abandon his brothers.

Once the storm passed, the Emperor Squadron tried their best, but they were only able to save less than half of them. Who knows where the remaining soldiers were swept to, but their chances of survival were really low.

After sweeping the battlefield, the Emperor Squadron set off once again.

Chapter 973 - Lemuria Continent

Chapter 973: Lemuria Continent

Not long after the Emperor Squadron set sail once more, the news of the Java Squadron ambushing the Emperor Squadron and failing was spread out to the ASEAN states.

The might and power of the Great Xia Dynasty was revealed to the public.

Uwais’s embarrassment turned into anger, and his prestige in ASEAN was affected. Shantha and the others were stunned and felt thankful, ‘Fortunately, we did not reject Great Xia’s suggestion.’

Amongst all of them, there was one more person who was filled with regret – he was the Zhenla Lord, Bi Wenlie. Due to the pressure placed on him by Ruan Tianque and Suo Langgong, Bi Wenlie gave up on trading with Great Xia.

Looking back on it, it looked like a really stupid decision.

Bi Wenlie tried to contact the Great Xia Xingzhou Prefecture to see if he could still sign the agreement. The response he received caused him to feel a chill run down his spine – Great Xia had officially cut off trading with Zhenla.

“I’m finished!” Bi Wenlie was in despair.

…

Ouyang Shuo did not pay much attention to the chaos in ASEAN. He was leading the Emperor Squadron, riding the waves in the vast Indian Ocean to try and find the legendary Lemuria Continent.

There were no signs in two days.

11th month, 18th day, a white fog suddenly appeared on the ocean surface.

At the start it was as thin as a veil, like smoke. After which, it got thicker and thicker like a cloud with many layers.

Along with the blue ocean surface, if one looked out, one could not tell which part was the sky and which part was the ocean.

When the morning arrived, the visibility was less than 20 meters. With such weather, the squadron did not dare to continue to advance. Many movable lighthouses were lit up, giving off a greenish glow.

Ouyang Shuo thought back to the white fog he faced during the first voyage around the unnamed island.

As they say, ‘If unusual things happen, something is definitely up.’

If such a large scale fog appeared on the ocean, there would always be unusual things happening. Ouyang Shuo suddenly thought back to the Lemuria Civilization.

“Are we close to our destination?” Ouyang Shuo’s brows furrowed as he decisively gave the order, “Men, try to go toward the center of the fog.”

“This…” Gan Ning was put on the spot, “My king, this fog is a little weird. I’m worried…”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, “How do you catch a tiger if you do not enter its den?”

“Understood!”

Gan Ning could only grit his teeth and do as he was told.

The moment he left, Gan Ning gave his order, “All troops on alert. We must protect the safety of the king!”

Ouyang Shuo took out the exploration map and stared at the fog in front of him. He was looking forward to an unexpected change.

They proceeded for another hour.

Suddenly, a System Notification spread out in his ear.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, you are close to the Lemuria civilization, triggering B rank scenario quest – The Lost Lemuria.”

Along with the System Notification, one could see a whirlwind suddenly appearing on the calm ocean surface. The white fog accumulated toward the whirlwind and formed a fog mountain.

As time went on, the mountain became larger and larger, higher and higher.

Once hundreds of square miles of fog disappeared, a huge mountain peak reaching 500 to 600 meters slowly rose up from the ocean surface and stabbed toward the sky.

“This….”

The soldiers were all speechless.

Suddenly, a wind blew across, gently over the fog mountain.

Weirdly, the moment the white fog faced the wind, it was like it had met its nemesis, and it suddenly disappeared.

Once all the fog disappeared, one could see a huge mountain. Looking out, one could see dense trees and many flowers in full bloom. Streams flowed down the mountains, and there were wild deer roaming the area.

This entire place was like a paradise cut off from society.

“A sign from the heavens!”

The soldiers could not help but bow down in worship. No matter how many things they had seen, they could not imagine how a mountain could appear out of nowhere.

However, Ouyang Shuo could roughly guess what was happening.

After all, since the god mountain to appear out of nowhere, there was definitely some way to cover it for camouflage purposes. Ouyang Shuo had a key tool to trigger the scenario quest, which was why he could make the mountain appear.

If not, even if a ship travelled beside the mountain, it would not be able to see it.

“My king?”

Gan Ning was also astonished. He ran over to seek Ouyang Shuo’s opinion.

Gaia only said that Ouyang Shuo had triggered the quest, but it did not tell him what the next step was.

Ouyang Shuo looked at the towering mountain peak in front of him. His mind was replaying the bits of historical info he read about Lemuria in hopes of finding a clue.

Legends had it that sometime long ago, a diamond shaped continent 3500 kilometers from east to west and 4700 meters from north to south suddenly appeared in the ocean.

This continent had many trees, fertile soil, and it was called Lemuria.

Lemuria people were small and thin and had little strength. Hence, they were unable to fight against the wild beasts and other races on the land. As a result, they lived underground. Even so, their technology levels were higher than that of the Atlantis people.

“Hiding underground….”

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes lit up, as he had understood the key within.

“Gan Ning!”

“Present!”

Ouyang Shuo ordered, “Lead the troops to defend here. Do not wander off.”

“Yes my king!”

“Xu Chu!”

“Present!”

As the Personal Guards Captain, apart from at night, Xu Chu would be within three meters of Ouyang Shuo at all times.

Ouyang Shuo instructed, “Bring the Divine Martial Guards and follow me up the mountain.” To complete this mission, they needed to climb up the god mountain.

“Yes my king!”

Xu Chu answered.

Seeing that, Gan Ning did not stop him. With three thousand Divine Martial Guards, Gan Ning could not think of anything that would endanger the king.

…

Very quickly, Ouyang Shuo and his group sat on Cima boats and climbed up the god mountain.

Being in such a situation was an experience.

As the breeze blew across, it brought not only fresh air but also the smell of flowers. It was already deep into autumn, so it was really unusual for the mountains here to be in full bloom.

Looking out, there were flashes of little animals in the forest; there were deer, rabbits, and even Australian kangaroos and koalas.

This made Ouyang Shuo even more certain that the traces of Lemuria Civilisation were within this mountain. He immediately ordered, “Spread out and search. Try to search the caves and other suspicious entrances.”

“Yes my king!”

The well trained Divine Martial Guards immediately spread out and swept the mountains.

Ouyang Shuo naturally did not stay put and do nothing. Under the protection of the Personal Guards, he walked deep into the mountains. Along the way, he met deer and other animals that were totally not afraid of strangers.

“It seems like it has been a long time since outsiders came here.”

Chapter 974 - Special Treasure

Chapter 974: Special Treasure

Not long after Ouyang Shuo entered the deep mountains, he heard shouts spreading out from behind. A Divine Martial Guard ran over, “My king, we found a cave.”

“Go, let’s go take a look.”

Very quickly, Ouyang Shuo and his group arrived outside a cave that was covered by shrubs. As it was totally covered by veins and leaves, and the stone had a lot of algae growing on it due to the passage of time, if one did not look carefully, they would definitely miss it.

Ouyang Shuo praised, “Thankfully, you are all attentive.”

When the young Divine Martial Guard heard that, he puffed his chest up more as he tried to hide his happiness. To them, getting praised by the king was the greatest honor and one that gave them bragging rights for an entire lifetime.

Clawing aside the shrub, a pitch black mountain cave appeared in front of them.

“Torch!”

Ouyang Shuo said as he walked into the cave.

The Divine Martial Guards lit up torches and followed Ouyang Shuo into the cave. Xu Chu was like an iron tower, quietly following behind the king. His eyes were brimming with energy and focus as he paid attention to the surroundings.

After walking forward for about 20 meters, he suddenly arrived at a vast and empty space. Stalactites hung down from above the ceiling, and one could hear the dripping sounds of water droplets.

Ouyang Shuo had an idea and followed the sound of water.

Using the light of the torch, Ouyang Shuo saw the most unusual stalactite. It was totally white like milk; it was luscious, shiny, and even gave out a nice scent.

Below it was a little pool the size of a face washing basin. The sound of the water droplets came from when the white liquid from the stalactite fell into the pool.

The pool was already half full with the white liquid; it looked like it was filled with milk.

If one came close to the pool, one could smell an even thicker scent. Not only that, but it was totally refreshing, opening up all your pours and making you feel really good.

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes contracted because he knew that he had come into contact with a treasure.

“Luck is truly a magical thing. Finally, I have a fortuitous encounter.” Ouyang Shuo was delighted as he used his scouting technique on the pool.

Ten Thousand Year Stalactite (Platinum Rank): rare spirit item; it can be directly used to increase cultivation and can also be made into pills.

“What a treasure!”

Ouyang Shuo was delighted. He took out four yellow-colored flasks from his storage bag.

This was not a normal flask. Rather, it was a really precious tool used to store medicine in liquid form. Not only could it ensure the effectiveness of the medicine, but it could also increase it.

The four flasks were gifts from Medical Saint Zhang Zhongjing.

Since he was entering a treasure mountain, how could Ouyang Shuo go home empty handed? The four flasks were filled up to the brim with the liquid. He did not even miss out on a single drop.

“Here!”

Ouyang Shuo passed one of the flasks to Xu Chu.

“My king?”

Even the usually calm Xu Chu had an expression filled with surprise. As a general, his cultivation was amazing. Naturally, he could feel that the liquid was extraordinary.

Never did he expect the king to give such a gift to him.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “This is the ten thousand year stalactite. After use, it can increase one’s cultivation. When you return to the ship, arrange the three thousand Divine Martial Guards and share it with them.”

“Thank you my king for your good grace.”

The iron-willed man seemed like he was about to be touched to tears.

“Thank you my king for your good grace!”

When the Divine Martial Guards around saw that, they all bowed to express their gratitude.

Being able to meet such a ruler, they would obviously be willing to give up their lives for him.

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, and he stored the remaining three flasks in his storage bag. The Divine Martial Guards were his most loyal soldiers. Since there were benefits, how could he forget them?

Furthermore, this raised their strength, which was the same as raising his safety. Since he could use this to make them happy too, why not?

The dynasty title of Great Xia was Shenwu, and Ouyang Shuo was not satisfied with the strength of the current Divine Martial Guards. He was looking forward to building a truly invincible guard to follow him as he conquered the world.

The ten thousand year stalactite was probably a good chance.

In the entire hall, there was just this small pool, and there were no other treasures. On the other hand, there was a staircase on the left. It looked really deep and one could not see clearly.

“Let’s go!”

Ouyang Shuo led the way as he walked toward the steps.

Staircases meant that there were intelligent life forms, which proved that they did not come to the wrong place.

As expected, this staircase went down. Additionally, it was not a straight staircase. Rather, it was a spiral one that went around the mountain. There was spiral after spiral as it went underground.

Ouyang Shuo guessed that if they were on the outside, they would have been underwater. This mountain was not just floating on the ocean surface after all. It still had to take root somewhere.

Thinking about it, one would feel absolutely terrified. The Lemuria people were able to hide the tracks of such a huge mountain. Moreover, they could ensure that they would not unknowingly crash into ships. Who knows what technology they used?

Ouyang Shuo’s guesses were correct.

The further they went down, the bigger the circumference of the spiral; this revealed that the body of the mountain peak got bigger as they went down. As they headed further down, it became no different from a small land.

“Increase our speed!” Ouyang Shuo ordered.

The further they went, the thinner the air, and even the well trained Divine Martial Guards felt that it was hard to breathe. Only by reaching their destination quickly could they be at ease.

Since the Lemuria people were living in caves, they definitely had other ways to ventilate.

Three hours passed like this before they finally saw some shining blue light coming up from the bottom. It was like they had arrived in some fantasy land.

The further they went, the brighter the blue light became.

Finally, Ouyang Shuo saw a huge blue hall standing at the end of the staircase. The originally thin air instantly went back to normal, letting Ouyang Shuo heave a sigh of relief.

Entering the hall, one could see that it was a perfect circle that stretched for over 800 meters. Its ceiling was oval shaped.

The entire hall was made up of a special blue stone that emitted the blue light.

The hall was beautifully built. Each corner had statues that were lifelike, showing off the eye-catching artistic ability of the craftsman.

The entire hall was a work of art.

It was not hard to guess that although the Lemuria people were living underground, their artistic skills had reached a freakishly high level.

This was a race that lived a really meticulous life.

Even the statues and buildings in Atlantis could not compare to the ones in front of him.

Who knows, maybe this was just the tip of the iceberg. Ouyang Shuo was getting more and more curious about this mysterious civilization.

At this very moment, someone spoke from who knows where.

“Fated person, welcome to the Lemuria Empire!”

Chapter 975 - Overpowered Technology

Chapter 975: Overpowered Technology

“Who is speaking?”

Xu Chu looked around on high alert.

At this very moment, a small door opened at the side of the hall. Out came a less than a meter tall, green-skinned, face full of freckles, long-eared, weird old man.

Although the old man was small, his eyes were filled with wisdom so that one could not underestimate him. Ouyang Shuo’s sharp sense even noticed that the blue light in the sky was close to the old man and wrapped around him.

The old man walk to the front of Ouyang Shuo and gave an ancient bow as he said, “Fated person, I’m the leader of the Lemuria tribe, Polisca. Welcome to the Lemuria continent.”

Ouyang Shuo followed and bowed, “Hello race leader, I come from the eastern nation, the Great Xia Dynasty.”

When Xu Chu saw that, he said, “This is our king!”

A light flashed in Polisca’s eyes, “A truly fated person. I’ve shown a lack of manners.”

“I do not dare to accept it!”

Ouyang Shuo definitely would not use his status at this moment, as he was looking forward to gaining some technologies from the Lemuria Race.

“Follow me!”

Polisca was a really decisive person. He turned around and walked through that door.

Ouyang Shuo followed.

Walking to the door, Polisca suddenly turned around, “Fated person, please ask your men to wait in the hall. My people are really timid, and they have never seen so many outsiders before.”

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he signaled for Xu Chu to follow him. He left the remaining Divine Martial Guards there.

It was not that Ouyang Shuo was arrogant. However, this was a scenario quest that Ouyang Shuo had triggered. Gaia had no reason to con him. Furthermore, Xu Chu was better than a thousand troops.

If something happened, the Divine Martial Guards he brought would not be of much use.

Crossing the door, they entered another exquisite hall. However, this one was much smaller. In the center, there was a transparent circular pillar that contained an iron cage inside.

“Follow me!”

Polisca said as he led the way toward that pillar.

A look of curiosity flashed in his eyes. The mechanism in the pillar looked really familiar to him.

Polisca pressed on the pillar, and the cage opened up. Polisca walked into the cage and used his eyes to signal to Ouyang Shuo and Xu Chu, telling them to walk in.

A lightbulb lit up in his mind, “Isn’t this a lift?” How would he have expected that the Lemuria Civilization was so advanced? No wonder they were better than the Atlantis Civilization.

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo felt more and more excited.

After closing the iron cage, it descended toward the depths of the underground. This was the first time Xu Chu saw such a magical thing, and his eyes were filled with surprise and shock. Thankfully, he was still able to remain calm.

After returning, his thought process was going to be totally flipped upside down.

After they traveled about 100 meters down, the ‘elevator’ slowly stopped.

Needless to say, it was another similar hall. One had to say that the Lemuria people were really rich, and even one elevator hall was built so extravagantly.

Following Polisca, Ouyang Shuo once again came to another door.

The moment he pushed it open, the sight before Ouyang Shuo’s eyes made him suck in a cold breath despite having seen many things in his life.

Xu Chu’s mouth was agape; he did not know how to react.

They stood on a platform. Outside, there was a really vast space. Buildings stood tall, and it was pretty much a midterm city.

However, this city was located beneath the Indian Ocean, at depths no one knew about.

Such a miracle was probably something one could only see in the game.

“Please!”

Polisca appeared really gleeful; this underwater city was the pride of the Lemuria people. It was a combination of the technology of Lemuria and their artistry.

Every garden, every building, and every statue was a display of their artistic talents. They had used a total of 800 years to complete this.

Along the way, one could see small people like Polisca.

In Ouyang Shuo’s eyes, these Lemuria people all looked the same; they all had green skin, a wrinkled head, and long ears.

Be it male or female, young or old, they all looked the same.

Even kids who were not even a meter tall had a head full of wrinkles. Obviously, this was not a sign of old age but something natural since birth.

Ouyang Shuo thought back to Yoda in Star Wars; they truly looked similar.

Speaking of which, Yoda was a top fighter in game, and the force he cultivated was somewhat similar to the spiritual cultivation of Lemuria.

Ouyang Shuo was wondering if the design of Yoda was leaked out by the Lemurians. If not, why was there such a coincidence?

Who knows which Lemuria person snuck out and left such a prank?

…

Seeing Ouyang Shuo and Xu Chu, these two giants, the Lemurians were terrified. Luckily, they saw Polisca, so they did not react too emotionally.

Under his accompaniment, Ouyang Shuo had a tour of this mystical city. Following which, Polisca brought them to a three story high dome building.

At the front was a huge sign that was written in Lemurian language. Ouyang Shuo could not read it, and Polisca introduced, “This is our technology hall; it gathers all the knowledge of our race.”

Ouyang Shuo felt delighted; the main thing had arrived.

Who knows what price he would need to pay to get the technologies this time?

Back when he completed the scenario quest for Atlantis, he had used two million gold.

Luckily, Ouyang Shuo was prepared.

Walking into the technology hall, a modern aura overwhelmed him. Numerous technologies that were similar to modern day technologies were listed in the hall.

Polisca seemed like he intended to brag as he introduced them one by one.

Magic elevator making technique; this was for the elevator that Ouyang Shuo had used just now. Magic cutting cutting machine technique; this was similar to modern large scale cutting equipment, which could even cut steel boards.

Magic submarine making technology; this was similar to modern day submarines. Biological Reina rearing technique, Ouyang Shuo asked Polisca about this and learned that this was something similar to bats. Sonar was used to achieve a radar-like scouting effect.

These technologies dazzled Ouyang Shuo and made him drool.

Chapter 976 - Black Shark

Chapter 976: Black Shark

The core of the Atlantis Civilization was the magnetic ohlite and the carving techniques; the two of them formed a unique system. The core of Lemurian Civilization was known as the magic crystal.

After touring the technology hall, Polisca said, “Fated person, as thanks from our race, you can take away one technology for free.”

“Directly choose?” Ouyang Shuo’s face was covered with doubt.

“Yes.”

“No extra terms?”

“No.”

Wow, that was really direct.

Although there were close to 100 technologies listed here, the one that tempted Ouyang Shuo the most was still the magic submarine making technology.

That was because to a navy, having a submarine and not having one were two entirely different concepts.

Submarines were really common in the military, and their main jobs included attacking enemy ships, protecting the shore, breaking through locks, scouting, camouflage, and the like.

Although the frogmen of Great Xia were amazing, they travelled too slowly under water and were not good at long distance sneak attacks.

The frogmen together with the submarines could form an additive effect.

Ouyang Shuo asked Polisca about the specifics and the stats of the submarines.

Submarine name: Magic powered submarine.

Submarine size: 95 meters long, 11 meters wide, beam 5 meters.

Displacement: three thousand tonnes on the surface, 4500 tones underwater.

Depth: 100 meters

Submarine capacity: 100

Powered: Magic powered.

Loudest sound: 90 decibel

Main weapon: underwater magic crystal cannon.

Note: Magic powered submarine is something unique to the Lemuria Civilization. Using magic crystals as the power source, it silently travels the depths of the ocean.

Ouyang Shuo made his choice, and Polisca immediately handed him a thick book. Ouyang Shuo received it and carefully kept it into his storage bag.

“Leader, can the magic crystal be recharged?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Polisca smiled, “The magic crystal is a consumable and cannot be recharged like that of the magnetic ohlite of Atlantis. Moreover, this magic crystal is only produced here in Lemuria.”

“….”

Black lines covered Ouyang Shuo’s head.

“So, are you going to give me a batch of magic crystals?” Ouyang Shuo acted like he was really relaxed.

Polisca smiled once more; this smile caused Ouyang Shuo to get goosebumps. He was too familiar with that smile; it was the smile of despicable merchants.

Polisca said, “It’s really difficult to harvest the magic crystal. Even as the race leader, I have no power to give it to anyone. You can use gold to purchase it.”

Ouyang Shuo gave a bitter smile; so that was what he was waiting for.

Based on Polisca’s introduction, maintaining a magic submarine for a year needed 100 units of crystals, and each one was sold for two thousand gold.

Hence, running a magic submarine for a year would cost 200 thousand gold.

Ouyang Shuo was helpless. He spent two million gold to buy one thousand units of the magic crystals, which were enough for 10 submarines to use for a year.

It seemed like it was impossible to provide the navy with large amounts of submarines.

Ouyang Shuo asked, “if I finish it, can I come back to purchase more?”

“Naturally you can.” The quick completion of such a huge deal made Polisca really delighted. He handed Ouyang Shuo a blue stone, “With this, you will be able to find us.”

Ouyang Shuo understood. Without this, one would be unable to see the mountain.

While touring Lemuria, Ouyang Shuo asked Polisca if he had any thoughts of resurfacing to the world.

Polisca was really frank and told him that they were already used to living underwater. They were unwilling to interfere with the outside world.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he knew that he could not force them.

Each civilization had their unique way of surviving; it was either in the light or in the dark.

For this, Ouyang Shuo and Polisca signed a long-term contract. From the 5th year onward, Great Xia would purchase no less than one thousand units of magic crystals a year.

After signing the contract, the originally frowny face of Polisca squeezed into a ball, “Since the Xia King is so generous, I cannot be stingy either. I will give Great Xia a magic powered submarine for free.”

With the deal signed, even the way Polisca called Ouyang Shuo became different.

“Thank you!”

Ouyang Shuo was delighted.

With the experience of developing the mimicry flying device, even with the current standards of Great Xia, building a magic powered submarine would take at least half a year.

To have one in advance was naturally great.

This submarine could be used to train troops as they researched how to build the submarines. They could use it to train a batch of skilled people.

Once the deal was completed, Ouyang Shuo did not stay any longer.

…

He took the magic powered elevator back to the hall at the start. The Divine Martial Guards were still guarding there loyally.

Before leaving, Polisca asked, “Xia King, do you want to experience the magic powered submarine?”

“Of course!”

Ouyang Shuo happily agreed, and he chose 50 Personal Guards to follow him.

The magic powered submarine could at most carry a hundred people. Moreover, due to the mechanisms being really complicated, Polisca arranged 20 Lemurian teachers to be in charge of maneuvering the Black Shark that they gave to Great Xia.

These 20 Lemurian teachers would not stay in Great Xia forever. Once Great Xia sent the second batch of people to buy magic crystals, they would follow along and return to Lemuria.

This showed their determination to stay in the shadows.

Polisca pressed a button on the west wall of the hall, revealing a tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, there was a parked magic powered submarine. The 20 Lemurians were waiting there.

Ouyang Shuo boarded the submarine and said goodbye to Polisca.

Different from modern day submarines, this submarine was split into three parts, the bow, the mid ship, and the stern.

The bow was the command center of the submarine, while the mid ship was where the kitchen and living quarters were located. The stern was where the diving equipment and various systems were located.

The only underwater magic crystal cannon was located at the bottom of the submarine.

With curiosity, Ouyang Shuo entered the command center of the Black Shark.

The entire command center was no more than a hundred square meters in size. The middle was where the captain sat. At the front of the command center, there were some command computers where 10 Lemurians sat. Above the computers was a huge arc window that one could use to see the view outside.

The mysterious underwater world was clearly displayed in front of Ouyang Shuo.

Chapter 977 - Country That Sits on the Mine Cart

Chapter 977: Country That Sits on the Mine Cart

When The Black Shark appeared like a giant ocean beast on the surface, the Emperor Squadron was instantly alerted, and they aimed their cannons at it.

If The Black Shark showed any sign of hostility, they would immediately fire at it.

The Lemurians in the command center were really calm. The Black Shark was covered with layers of steel. With just these backward cannons, they could not cause effective damage to the submarine.

The Black Shark used magic. It was similar to the nuclear powered submarines of real life, as it could stay underwater for long periods of time. It was unlike fuel powered submarines that needed to float to the surface to recharge.

Seeing General Xu Chu appear from the back of the beast, Gan Ning immediately removed the alarm.

The following matters were simple. Once the Divine Martial Guards returned to the surface and met with the squadron, the Emperor Squadron set sail once more.

The only difference was that they had one new member – The Black Shark.

Ouyang Shuo had already instructed Gan Ning to add The Black Shark into the Emperor Squadron. At the same time, they would arrange elite members into The Black Shark to learn from the Lemurians about how to pilot the submarine.

Once the Emperor Squadron left, a white light shone across, and the mountain disappeared from the ocean surface once more. Who knew that there was actually such a strong and powerful civilization hidden in the ocean?

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

11th month, 28th day, Melbourne.

After making a huge circle, the Emperor Squadron finally arrived in Australia’s Melbourne Port.

Australia was named as the continent in the south. When Europeans found this continent in the 17th century, they thought that this was a continent that was going straight toward the Artic. As a result, they named it Australia.

The imperial city of Canberra was located at the southeast.

Australia was surrounded by water on all four sides and was the only country that covered an entire continent. At the same time, it was termed as the country that sat on mine carts and rode on sheep back.

70% of Australia belonged to the desert or partial desert variety, and the middle region was not suitable for humans to live. As a result, there were only 260 thousand square kilometers that were suitable for farming and animal husbandry. People mainly settled along the southeast.

In reality, just Melbourne and Sydney alone accounted for more than half of the population of Australia.

As a result, the Australia in game was only left with only one in Lord Avera, and its main city was in Melbourne. It was the biggest city apart from the imperial city of Canberra.

Australia was filled with many mining resources, and they had a total of 70. Bauxite, gold, iron ore, coal, lithium, manganese, silver, and the like were all the top few storages in the world.

At the same time, Australia was the biggest exporter in the world of coal, bauxite, lead, diamond, and zinc. It was second biggest aluminum, iron ore, and uranium ore exporter, and the third largest gold exporter.

The rich resources of Australia were the part that attracted Ouyang Shuo.

The Emperor Squadron being able to dock at Melbourne so smoothly was due to the efforts of the envoy sent by Honglu Temple beforehand.

Apart from ore resources, Australia did not hold any strategic location on Earth, and it was just a secluded land. Since that was the case, Ouyang Shuo naturally did not intend to attack them and send them to the land of trials.

If he really did that, he would just make Great Xia the enemy of the entire world.

If that really happened, it would not be a good thing for Ouyang Shuo or for Great Xia when they arrived on Planet Hope.

‘To obtain the greatest benefits with the smallest sacrifice and use cooperation to create a win-win situation. Raise the influence of Great Xia in the world, expanding their friend circle.’ This had become the core of Great Xia.

Hence, two months ago, Honglu Temple had brought with them the peace promise from Ouyang Shuo. Not having a war and being able to trade was the best scenario for Avera.

The game was not like real life, the global trade network was not advanced yet.

Even if they had shocking resources they could not sell them to far regions in exchange for profits. They could only make them into useless copper and iron, a waste of a treasure.

To open up a trade route with Great Xia was naturally a win-win situation.

That night, in the Melbourne City Lord’s Manor, Avera held a welcome feast for them.

It was not just the core Melbourne players attending the feast, but even the adventure gamemode elites from Canberra were present. Most of the elites of the Australia player base had gathered.

The arrival of the Emperor Squadron was a historic matter to them.

“Welcome my friend, Great Xia!” Avera raised his wine glass, “Cheers!”

In the dark, Avera was not as excited as he appeared. Long before Great Xia arrived here, Silver Hand had warned him to not walk too close to Great Xia.

When the Emperor Squadron stopped in Xingzhou Prefecture, Avera was still uncertain.

However, when the Badong Squadron was crushed by the Emperor Squadron despite having an advantage, Avera finally put away all his worries.

“Silver Hand cannot save Melbourne. Only Great Xia can.”

Of course, to be able to stand out in Australia proved that Avera was not a simple person. Trading with Great Xia was not a solo deal. He had already spoken to William and expressed that he could start trade with Avic Fort with prices that were even better than the one he had with Great Xia.

The prerequisite would be to open up the trade route between the two.

After all, the historical pasts of the two were closely linked. England could be said to be Australia’s suzerain. Apart from the native Maori people, most of the Australians were 19th and 20th century English immigrants.

“Cheers!”

Ouyang Shuo raised his cup. His face was covered with a smile, but his heart was really calm. Who knows when it began, but the Great Xia Dynasty’s reputation in the world had exceeded any other Chinese Dynasty in history.

If one was not Chinese, it would be difficult to understand such racial pride.

‘Let me complete the unfinished work of our past dynasties!’ Ouyang Shuo thought to himself. The goal in his heart had reached another level.

…

At night, Ouyang Shuo sneakily met a weirdly dressed middle aged man at the man’s home.

This man was known as Kupe, and he was the representative of the Australian Maori people. Before which, he had come into contact with the Black Snake Guards hiding in Australia.

Although Ouyang Shuo had no intentions of starting a war in Australia, this did not mean he would trust Avera unconditionally. Ouyang Shuo obviously learned about the deep relationship between Australia and the west.

Along with Silver Hand, which infiltrated everything, Ouyang Shuo needed to have some defenses.

The best way would be under the circumstances of a win-win situation, they would plant some people who supported Great Xia to prevent them from crashing and burning.

The Maori who hated the westerners naturally became the best choice for Ouyang Shuo.

The two of them talked for an hour before Kupe left under the cover of the night sky.

Ouyang Shuo promised Kupe that Great Xia would use ore trading as a cover to send advanced equipment and even generals to help the Maori train in the future.

Australia had a vast amount of land, and Avera would not be able to monitor everything. Furthermore, the Maori were the true natives, and they were familiar with every mountain and river.

After sending Kupe away, Ouyang Shuo was deep in thought.

In truth, there were many Chinese born people in Australia. However, Ouyang Shuo did not have the time to meet them. After many generations, although they had Chinese blood, they did not have a Chinese heart. Furthermore, Chinese people were craftier, and they were not as carefree as the Maori.

…

In the next week, Ouyang Shuo personally visited the few large scale iron ore mines and coal mines. At the same time, he went sightseeing.

12th month, 6th day, apart from including Australia in the Atlantic trading partner agreement, Ouyang Shuo also represented Great Xia Dynasty to sign a separate iron trading deal with Melbourne.

The agreement specified the ore types, numbers, and prices.

When the agreement got settled, Great Xia’s ore shortage would be solved, and the dynasty industrialization could move on at full speed.

At the same time, Ouyang Shuo was also interested in Australian sheep wool.

The number of sheep here were 20 times the population, and they were the greatest wool exporter in the world.

Wool was a great thing, and it could become the third biggest material apart from silk and cotton to develop the garment industry.

Avera was naturally delighted to oblige.

Melbourne was also known as the new gold mountain, and it had huge gold mines. In history, it had undergone a gold rush before.

Due to the rush for gold, their population grew and the place instantly became a really rich city.

Avera built his main city in Melbourne, and he did not even change the name. As such, even in the world scale, Avera could be said to be a rich Lord.

Even so, no one would complain about having too much money.

Preliminary calculations had it that once these two agreements were settled, just exporting ores and wool to Great Xia would earn Melbourne four million gold a year.

Along with Great Xia’s industrialization increasing, this trading amount would continue to rise.

For this, Avera had no choice but to arrange more manpower into the mining and animal husbandry industries to fulfil the needs of Great Xia.

Whilst cooperation, Avera also expressed his desire to purchase weapons and Z1 Type Warships. However, Ouyang Shuo rejected him.

What a joke. Ouyang Shuo did not want to develop an Australia with a strong military.

…

The next morning, the Emperor Squadron set off once more to the final stop of the voyage – New Zealand. There, there was one person waiting for the Emperor Squadron.

Chapter 978 - Request from New Zealand

Chapter 978: Request from New Zealand

12th month, 8th day, the Emperor Squadron arrived in New Zealand’s Auckland port and was warmly welcomed by Jason.

New Zealand was located at the southwest portion of the Atlantic, and it was comprised of two big islands split by the Straits of Cook. The imperial city Wellington and the only Lord territory Auckland was located on the north island.

The entire New Zealand land area could be compared to one province in China, and they had a total of 400 thousand players.

Similar to Australia, the natives of New Zealand were the Maoris. In the end, they were also British colonies. The difference was that New Zealand did not have as rich of an ore supply and was mainly greenery with 75% of its land area being hills and mountains.

Dairy and meat were the main exported products of New Zealand.

The Lord of Auckland was known as Jason. When Great Xia established its dynasty, Jason had sent his congratulations, establishing a bit of relationship between the two.

It was this relationship that made Ouyang Shuo come to visit.

“Welcome Xia King!”

Jason was a young Lord. He was just 24, his body was muscular, and he was really handsome. Compared to Avera, his attitude was really sincere.

Considering that it was less than a month till the 5th year, Ouyang Shuo was not planning to spend too long here. He was planning to directly return to Lion City and teleport back to Shanhai City.

Considering the time, it would be just right.

Who knew that Jason would invite him several times and swear that he would not waste Ouyang Shuo’s time? Ouyang Shuo did not know what he was up to and could only accept the invitation.

Auckland, City Lord’s Manor.

After the welcome feast, Jason requested that the two of them have a conversation.

Ouyang Shuo raised a glass cup that was rare in the game and drank the New Zealand produced hot milk. Taking a look at Jason, he said, “Lord Jason, you can reveal the puzzle now, right?”

“I would like to lead Auckland and join the Great Xia Dynasty. I’m not sure if the Xia King is willing to accept?”

‘Cough!’ Ouyang Shuo choked and asked, “What did you say?”

When Jason saw that, he got up and solemnly bowed to Ouyang Shuo, “Auckland volunteers to join Great Xia. Please accept me.”

Ouyang Shuo placed down the glass, and his eyes instantly became sharp, “Reason?”

Before coming, Ouyang Shuo did not expect Jason to do this.

Jason smiled with some bitterness and self-mocking, “There’s no other reason. I just want someone to rely on.”

“The game world is not peaceful, and I can already feel that a global war is about to begin. Although New Zealand is in a corner, we will not be able to escape it. Not to mention Java or Australia, but any Lord in the world with ambition would eye us.”

Listening to this, Jason paused, “I do not want to hide it from you. Not long ago, Java’s Badong Squadron disturbed our territory.”

Ouyang Shuo was shocked.

Jason’s judgement was correct. Along with each country in the world being unified, the Lords would turn their eyes outside. Gaia’s 5th year would be the year of wars.

“Since that’s the case, New Zealand needs to find a Suzerain to rely on,” Jason said.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. However, he still could not understand it, “Why would you choose Great Xia and not Avic Fort or Dawson Dynasty, which are more suitable to your culture?”

New Zealand was a western country, so it was not a fit with an eastern country like Great Xia.

Jason smiled, “The current Great Xia is not a pure eastern country. Its land covers continents and its name passes through all the lands. I’ve heard that the Xia King accepts everyone and even plans to work with South Africa. Since that’s the case, New Zealand wants to be a member of Great Xia.”

Ouyang Shuo was moved but that reason was not enough, “That’s not enough!” Joining a dynasty was not a game. Since Jason managed to unify New Zealand, he was obviously not a simple person.

Facing Ouyang Shuo’s questions, Jason was really calm. Finally, he revealed everything, “I do not want to hide it from you, but the reason why I chose to join Great Xia is simple. I do not want to be controlled by Silver Hand.”

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes focused; this was the first time an overseas Lord had mentioned Silver Hand to him.

“I can only say you have great ideas.” Ouyang Shuo did not give a direct reply.

When Jason saw that, a memory flashed across his mind, “Xia King, would you like to listen to a story?”

“Sure.”

“It happened before the planetary migration.”

In the quiet room, Jason’s low and descriptive voice was the only thing to be heard.

This was actually a really old story. Long ago, when Silver Hand was just established, the family Jason was from was a member, and they were really powerful.

This time, facing the actions of the academic faction, Silver Hand decided to abandon the Jason Family, forcing them to bear the blame. They became the scapegoat of the organization.

From then on, the Jason Family was stuck in a bad state.

“Not long after that, my grandfather died from depression,” Jason said in pain.

After the storm, Silver Hand could be said to have a conscience and helped the Jason Family. They allowed this family that was close to collapsing to survive.

In the game, Jason saw his chance to change the fate of his family. Using his strong game talent and a little bit of luck, he defeated each opponent in his way and stood at the peak of New Zealand.

“However, my grandfather will not be able to return.”

Ouyang Shuo could not imagine how close their relationship was. It caused Jason to still bear so much pain in his heart.

Suddenly, Jason smiled, “Ironically, when I arrived at the peak of New Zealand, Silver Hand came here once more to invite our family to be one of their members.”

Ouyang Shuo could understand that.

In the eyes of Silver Hand, the family’s interests were more important than everything else. They were not guilty about abandoning anyone, and it was just a method they used.

Facing the organization’s temptations, the Jason Gamily had no reason to deny the invitation. “Compared to the tradition of the family, individual deaths did not mean much.”

“However, I do not think that way. I want those people to go down to hell, so why would I join them?”

“The moment I rejected Silver Hand, I knew that Auckland and I had no way out.” Speaking of which, he stared at Ouyang Shuo, “I know that you are an eyesore for Silver Hand. I also believe that you can destroy Silver Hand. I have no other wish, and I only want to help take revenge and appease my grandfather’s soul.”

“Did you think that maybe your grandfather would not agree to it?”

When Jason heard this, he mocked himself, “I know that the way I’m acting is totally different from other aristocratic family members. However, no matter what, I’ll focus down on this path.”

Ouyang Shuo was stunned, as this was the first time he saw a young man with such a drive. Although from an age point of view he was also a young man, his mentality was like that of an old man.

“I’ll agree.” Ouyang Shuo made his decision, and he shook hands with Jason as he smiled, “Welcome to the Great Xia Dynasty family.”

“Thank you, thank you.”

Jason was emotional, and he gripped Ouyang Shuo’s hand with a little too much strength before letting go. He awkwardly stood there.

Ouyang Shuo did not mind it, and he smiled, “It’s already night; let’s discuss this tomorrow.”

“Great!”

Jason agreed right away.

…

Returning to his resting quarters, Ouyang Shuo was not in a rush to fall asleep.

Although Jason was really sincere in what he said, Ouyang Shuo would not totally believe someone he just met. Furthermore, this mattered involves Silver Hand. Naturally, he had to be careful.

Ouyang Shuo took out a special snowflake letter and sent a letter to a special person to ask him to verify Jason’s words and to see whether Jason was a person Silver Hand planned to plant in Great Xia or not.

Although the global intel network of the Black Snake Guards was becoming more and more perfect, they were helpless toward such intel.

The moment he finished writing, the letter transformed into a white light and disappeared.

At the same time, city in the skies.

In the same small courtyard, the Federation President was looking at the clouds. A letter suddenly appeared in front of him.

After taking a look at the letter, the old man smiled, “That’s great; that little fox finally has something to ask from me. I was worried he would continue on like that.”

“Go, check it out,” the old man said to the air.

Weirdly, a mysterious black shirt man suddenly appeared from midair. He took the letter before disappearing once more.

The old man acted like everything was normal, and he continued to enjoy the scenery. The smile on his face still did not disappear, and his mood was really good.

…

In the following two days, Ouyang Shuo continued to tour New Zealand. He had arranged men to discuss matters with Jason. They basically followed the agreement that Stone City had signed with Great Xia.

Weirdly, Ouyang Shuo delayed the signing of it.

That was because Ouyang Shuo was waiting for the reply from the president. Before he confirmed the true goal of Jason, he would not ‘accept a wolf into his house.’

To Great Xia, Auckland joining them would not bring many gains.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo was not in a rush at all.

On the other hand, when Jason saw Ouyang Shuo delay and delay, he had to back off again and again on the agreement.

11th day, night, Ouyang Shuo finally received a snowflake letter. On the letter, there were two words, ‘You can.’

“This old head, he really does not say much.” Ouyang Shuo muttered.

Thousands of miles away, in the city in the skies, the old man that was watering plants suddenly sneezed.

“Who is bad mouthing me behind my back?”

Chapter 979 - Changes in Zhongyuan

Chapter 979: Changes in Zhongyuan

12th month, 12th day, Auckland.

After receiving the reply from the old man, Ouyang Shuo finally signed his name on the agreement.

Based on the agreement, Jason was appointed as the Great Xia Dynasty Auckland Governor. Apart from politics, military matters, and diplomacy that would be controlled by Great Xia, the other matters would be left to Jason.

New Zealand’s imperial city had not been taken down and was not under Jason’s control. As such, this appointment targeted only his territory – Auckland region.

Jason was the most special governor in Great Xia as he was a regional governor.

Relatively, Great Xia had a purpose to ensure the safety of New Zealand.

Ouyang Shuo renamed Yanhuo Yaonie’s Xingzhou Squadron to the Indian Ocean Squadron. He did this to raise the strategic vision of the squadron and show the ambition of Great Xia to enter the Indian Ocean.

To ensure the ocean safety of Auckland, especially so that it would not be disturbed by Java’s Badong Squadron, Ouyang Shuo decided to move the 5th division of the Indian Ocean Squadron to Auckland.

Along the way, it could monitor Australia, killing two birds with one stone.

Military-wise, Auckland’s current army would form the Auckland Formation at an appropriate time, and it would be under the leadership of the Privy Court and the Grand Council. Of course, the choice of Lieutenant General would be decided by Jason.

At 10 AM, Ouyang Shuo and Jason attended a joint conference to announce the matter to the world. Very quickly, this news spread like wildfire across the globe, creating great uproar.

“Great Xia is so amazing. They are able to recruit little brothers overseas, well done!”

The China region players naturally felt pride. To them, taking down Auckland that was on the western side was much better than taking down Somalia and Morocco.

The media outlets in the country even reported that this was a milestone event.

“The wind of Great Xia sweeps toward the west.”

The European and American players were bitter and sour, and their words showed unhappiness toward William and Jack. They felt that they had lost face.

Without an exception, the western media did not have big news coverage on it, and they only briefly mentioned it in a small corner.

When Australia Lord Avera got the news, he let out a bitter smile, “What is this? Am I going to become collateral damage?”

Along with Great Xia moving in troops to Auckland, the future Australia would become one of the main battlefields, and this was not a piece of good news to Avera.

“It’s difficult.”

Surviving between countries tested the political intelligence of Lords.

The ones who felt the most complicated were the New Zealand players. On one side, they had a feeling of resistance toward Auckland for joining Great Xia.

On the other hand, with Great Xia protecting them, they suddenly felt at ease.

Such conflicting thoughts were difficult to take in.

…

City in the skies, unnamed courtyard.

Silver Hand’s mysterious number 3 lived in this small courtyard. Upon learning that Auckland joined Great Xia, his eyes flashed, “The little monkey has jumped out of the cage.”

The matter of the Jason Family was planned by number 3.

Who knew what he was thinking, but number 3 looked at the east courtyard and muttered, “Old fox, what role did you play in this matter? Things are getting more and more interesting.”

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

12th month, 13th day, Ouyang Shuo brought the Divine Martial Guards and teleported to Shanhai City from Auckland. The Emperor Squadron would return alone and would probably get to Beihai Port in the middle of the 1st month.

Xia Palace, Imperial Reading Room.

Ouyang Shuo asked Tsing Yi, “In the month that I was not here, what big matters have occurred?” Voyage travel communication was inconvenient. Apart from emergency letters, Ouyang Shuo had basically lost contact with country matters.

Tsing Yi thought about it and decided to report the worrying matters before the happy matters.

“A week ago, Wannan Province was taken down by Yanhuang Alliance.”

Ouyang Shuo frowned, “What happened?”

Without Ouyang Shuo in charge, many things had happened in the China region in the past month.

As a huge battle had just ended, Great Xia was busy resting up. Yanhuang Alliance expanded their military to try to resist the Great Xia that was getting stronger and stronger.

Everyone felt that the war matters in the 4th year of Gaia had ended.

Not long after Ouyang Shuo went out to sea, the flames of war in the wilderness were ignited once more, and the ones who initiated it was the Yanhuang Alliance.

11th month, 13th day, not long after Ouyang Shuo left Xingzhou Prefecture, Yanhuang Alliance gathered 300 thousand Alliance Army troops. Led by Wuqi, Lianpo, and Tiandan, these troops split into three, Jingchu, Jiangnan, And Donghai Provinces to enter Wannan Province.

Speaking of which, one had to talk about Wannan Province.

This matter started during the second year information piece. At that time, the Huangchao Uprising Army was destroyed by Xiongba and Zhan Lang.

Following which, the Chensheng Uprising Army that was in the Zhongyuan Prefecture was wiped out by Chun Shenjun and Di Chen.

Originally, using the situation, Yanhuang Alliance could have copied Shanhai City and taken the chance to take over the two provinces to extend their land.

Unfortunately, after the two wars, winter arrived, which made it tough to travel. As a result, they lost their chance to claim the two provinces.

In the blink of an eye, the 3rd year of Gaia had arrived and another information piece was released.

This had totally messed up the plans of Yanhuang Alliance. The empty provinces were taken over by aristocratic families, so Yanhuang Alliance totally lost their chances to occupy the two provinces.

At that time, be it Zhan Lang, Xiong Ba, or Chun Shenjun, they were all filled with regret.

As time went on, these two provinces were slowly filled with chaos, becoming a battle of hundreds of aristocratic families.

However, aristocratic families were aristocratic families. Although they fought within themselves, the moment an outsider tried to corrupt the two provinces, they would band together against the rest.

Of course, Yanhuang Alliance had never given up on the hope on reclaiming the two provinces. Long ago, when they wiped out the two uprising armies, they had planted many chess pieces in the two provinces.

The Yanhuang Alliance was an aristocratic family. In terms of going against other aristocratic families, their ability was something that Ouyang Shuo could not compare to. In the latter half of the 4th year of Gaia, Yanhuang Alliance’s prep work was basically complete.

Occupying the two provinces was also listed as a portion of Plan Z and was moved up their agenda.

Just as Yanhuang Alliance was ready to act, Ouyang Shuo suddenly started a war in the China region. Not to mention taking down Swordsman City, but they also merged with the two City-States.

This hurt Yanhuang Alliance, and all their plans were delayed.

Luckily, the heavens did not turn its back on them, and Ouyang Shuo went on their voyage.

Seeing that winter was coming once more, if they missed the chance and Great Xia rested up, Yanhuang Alliance would have no way to reclaim the two provinces in the 5th year of Gaia.

At this stage, Di Chen and the others had no way out. They expanded their troops and quickened their occupation of the two provinces.

Helplessly, Swordsman City was destroyed, and Yanhuang Alliance lost one arm. Outside of Swordsman City, 150 thousand of their troops were given to Great Xia, hurting the Yanhuang Alliance.

Their plan to take down the two provinces was changed to taking down Wannan Province.

This time, their gamble paid off.

300 thousand soldiers fought together. Using their chess pieces, they swept Wannan Province.

With that, Yanhuang Alliance recovered from their loss of Swordsman City, and their overall strength increased instead of dropping. The presence of aristocratic families in Wannan Province also meant a whole group of talents.

Taking down Wannan Province, not only did they obtain 200 thousand prisoners, but their military also strengthened once more. They also obtained a huge bunch of talents that improved the foundations of their territories.

If it were not for Ouyang Shuo rushing back to Shanhai City, Di Chen and the others were planning to take down Zhongyuan Province too.

This time, even the heavens were standing on the Yanhuang Alliance’s side. Even in the 12th month, winter had not arrived. As such, the Yanhuang Alliance could fully absorb Wannan Province.

Ouyang Shuo could not do anything about this. The fall of Wannan Province was already settled and Great Xia was reorganizing their troops. At the moment, they could not start another war.

Furthermore, winter was about to arrive and starting a war now was courting death.

“When they sent troops, we did not react?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Although the Yanhuang Alliance’s main forces were not wrapped up in the battlefield of the previous war, their borders were definitely weak since they moved 300 thousand troops.

Logically speaking, Shanhai Alliance should have done something.

“This….”

Although Ouyang Shuo did not show his anger, his tone gave Tsing Yi a lot of pressure. However, since this concerned military matters, it was not something she could understand.

Ouyang Shuo laughed bitterly, “I was too anxious.”

Thinking about it, the reason was not hard to guess.

First, the Tiger Legion Corps was housed in Minnan Province, while the other legion corps were all being organized. They were either heading to new defense zones or swapping roles, which meant that everything was in chaos.

Furthermore, Ouyang Shuo was not within the country. At most, the Great Xia Army could be active at the borders and not enter Yanhuang Alliance territory to start another war.

Secondly, only Jiangchuan Province, which did not belong to Great Xia, was connected to Wannan Province. Gong Chengshi did not have the courage or ability to gather the troops there to enter the Battle of Wannan.

In the end, Ouyang Shuo being too strong in the alliance was sometimes a bad thing. Di Chen and the others probably saw through that and decided to take a gamble.

Ouyang Shuo took in a deep breath and asked, “Is there any good news?”

Chapter 980 - Pei Family Father and Son

Chapter 980: Pei Family Father and Son

“Yes.” Tsing Yi smiled, “Half a month ago, the Pei family’s Pei Renji and his son came over.”

“That is good news. Quick, invite them over.”

Ouyang Shuo delayed the matters of Wannan Province and was prepared to meet the father and son duo.

“Yes my king!”

Pei Renji came from the Hedong Pei family. They served Emperor Wen of Sui before they joined in to destroy the Chen Dynasty. They helped attack the Tuyuhun, gaining credit and reaping great rewards.

In the 13th year of Daye while being ordered to defend against the Wagang Army, he was tied up by Xiao Huai Jing and was forced to surrender to Li Mi. In the first year of Wude, he suggested to Li Mi to not fight Wang Shicong. However, Li Mi did not listen, which resulted in the Wagang Army being defeated. Pei Renji was also captured by Wang Shicong and was appointed as the minister of rites.

In the 2nd year of Wude after Wang Shicong became the emperor, Pei Renji and Yuwen Rutong planned to assassinate him. In the end, Pei Renji and his son Pei Xingyan were killed.

Compared to his father, Pei Xingyan was more famous.

Pei Xingyan was great in battle and was invincible in any battle he participated in, and he was given the nickname of thousand men enemy. He was termed as one of the three great men of Sui Tang and the silver hammer out of the eight hammers of Tang.

Pei Xingyan also had a younger brother known as Pei Xingjian, who was a Tang Dynasty famous general. However, he had not appeared in the wilderness.

After a short while, Tsing Yi led the two into the Imperial Reading Room. Although Pei Renji was close to 50, he was still really healthy. He had a long white moustache along with a purple cloud pattern robe. He was wearing a golden helmet.

Pei Xingyan followed behind his father. He wore a silver blue robe and looked really majestic.

“I am Pei Renji (Pei Xingyan), greetings my king!”

Both of them bowed respectfully.

Within the Pei Family, Pei Ju was appointed as the Somalia Provincial Governor and Pei Yun was the Administration Director. There were also many of their family members who worked in the Imperial Court or the local offices. They had already taken root in Great Xia.

Pei Renji and his son had also come over as expected.

Ouyang Shuo was not the only one happy, as Pei Ju and Pei Yun were both silently delighted. After all, the Pei family had only taken root amongst the civil servants, but did not have any power in the army.

Their arrival helped to fill up this spot. The Pei family would definitely shine in Great Xia; they become a noble family.

Ouyang Shuo said, “Generals please rise, both of you are amazing generals.”

“Thank you king for your compliment!”

Pei Renji was a smart person and had served the Sui Emperor before, so he knew how to act. Pei Xingyan stood behind his father. He curiously and respectfully judged the king that was around the same age as him.

As a general, his courage was huge. Before coming here, he did not have much of an opinion of the Xia King and did not bother about it.

The moment he walked into the reading room and saw the young king casually sitting on the seat, he felt an invisible pressure charging toward him. He did not dare to act out of hand and took back the sharp aura from his sword intent.

From the king, Pei Xingyan could feel a killing intent that made one terrified. Only then did Pei Xingyan believe that the king had really strong martial arts skills and those rumors were all true.

As they chatted casually, Ouyang Shuo took a look at both of their stats.

Name: Pei Renji (King Rank)

Dynasty: Sui Dynasty

Identity: Great Xia General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 75

Command: 70

Force: 78

Intelligence: 50

Politics: 50

Specialty: Brave Fighter (raises troops attack strength by 15%, raises troops movement speed by 20%)

Evaluation: Renji is a rarely seen brave general.

…

Name: Pei Xingyan (King Rank)

Dynasty: Sui Dynasty

Identity: Great Xia General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 80

Command: 68

Force: 87

Intelligence: 48

Politics: 45

Specialty: thousand men enemy (raises troops attack strength by 25%, raises troops movement speed by 10%)

Evaluation: Xingyan was a valiant general. Each time he fought a battle, he was invincible, and he was given the title of thousand men enemy.

As expected from a fierce general, Pei Xingyan’s force stat was really high. His loyalty stat was actually higher than his father, which was something that surprised Ouyang Shuo.

How would Ouyang Shuo know that the moment he sat down, Pei Xingyan’s loyalty stat had increased by 10 points? A general like Pei Xingyan would worship a ruler with great skills.

After speaking, Ouyang Shuo suddenly asked, “General Pei, do you know where Li Mi is?”

Before this, when Wang Bodang and Shan Xiongxin came over, Ouyang Shuo felt that something was off. As such, he tried to search for the whereabouts of Li Mi.

Who knew that he was actually so crafty and did not contact Wang Bodang even once? Seeing Pei Renji, Ouyang Shuo suddenly thought about the relationship between the father and son pair and Li Mi.

“This….”

Pei Renji was stunned, and his eyes showed a little hesitation.

Ouyang Shuo’s sharp senses caught that moment of uncertainty, and his expression became serious, “Why? Does general have something he cannot tell me about?”

“I do not dare!”

Pei Renji’s heart trembled; he knew that the king was angry.

A general being disloyal was a real crime.

Pei Renji gritted his teeth, “My king, Li Mi actually contacted me before.” When Pei Xingyan heard that, his eyes flashed with some weirdness. Obviously, he did not know about this.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, and he did not ask more. He directly said, “That’s great. Cooperate with the Shanhai Guards to find him, and I will not investigate the matter anymore. If not, you know the consequences.”

“Understood.”

Although Pei Renji was a little unwilling, he did not want to disobey the orders. If something happened to him, it would not affect just him but the entire Pei family.

“You can leave!”

The current Ouyang Shuo did not need to beat around the bush with people.

“Yes my king!”

…

After sending away them, it was close to noon, and Ouyang Shuo was planning to return to the back palace to have his meal. Before leaving, he instructed Tsing Yi, “Ask Mr Zhang Liang to come over in the afternoon.”

Ouyang Shuo wanted to hear Zhang Liang’s views on the changes in Zhongyuan.

“Understood!”

…

3 PM, Imperial Reading Room.

Tsing Yi personally poured Ouyang Shuo and Zhang Liang cups of top grade white tea before getting out of the room.

Along with the merchant routes opening, the palace did not lack any famous Chinese teas. However, Ouyang Shuo still loved the Lianzhou produced white tea.

There was no other reason apart from him being used to it.

As one of the first territory specialties, the tea had done a lot for the territory.

The tea cup also had its history, and it was given to him by Gong Chengshi. It was an authentic Qinghua porcelain cup. Ouyang Shuo took a sip and smiled, “Although it is not that famous, it still is a good cup of tea.”

Zhang Liang kept silent.

This was the first time the two of them met. Naturally, Zhang Liang did not understand the king, which was why he did not speak.

Ouyang Shuo did not mind. Putting down the cup, he said, “Yanhuang Alliance taking down Wannnan Province, do they have any other intentions behind it and will they have any other further actions? What are your views on the matter, Zifang?”

“In my eyes, based on all the signs, the Yanhuang Alliance is playing a big game of chess.”

The signs that came out from his mouth were not the news that everyone knew about but intel sent by the Shanhai Guards. The Administrative Mentor Court could use this information. Ouyang Shuo had informed Shen Buhai that apart from some sensitive intel, the Shanhai Guards were to send a copy of the intel to them.

If needed, they could also request the Shanhai Guards to investigate some specific intel.

Using the strong intel system of the Shanhai Guards, Zhang Liang, Jia Xu, and the other strategists were able to learn of all matters without even leaving their offices.

As such, although Zhang Liang had only spent a month here, he was able to truly come up with plans thanks to his intelligence as well as his familiarity with the surrounding area.

In comparison, Caiyun City was so weak.

Although Shanhai City could not investigate into the most mysterious Plan Z, they could still get some traces of intel about their internal merger.

A true merger.

Speaking of which, he suddenly took out a map, which was a simplified portion of the China map. On the map, the 18 provinces were included.

“My king, please take a look.” Zhang Liang pointed at Zhongyuan, “After taking down Wannnan Province, as long as they can take down Zhongyuan Province and Ludong Province where West Chu is in, their six cities would be connected together.”

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes tensed up. The Yanhuang Alliance formed an empty heart circle around Zhongyuan Province. Only the presence of Fallen Phoenix City and West Chu split this circle into two.

Ouyang Shuo suddenly thought back to the Six Tyrants of Handan.

Without Ouyang Shuo, the current Fallen Phoenix City would still be a member of Yanhuang Alliance, and they would easily unify the north with Zhongyuan, taking down the essence of China.

“So before they entered the game, they had already been planning all of this?”

Ouyang Shuo was getting more and more alarmed but also felt fortunate. If he had chosen a spot that was not Lianzhou Basin, Great Xia would not be able to reach such heights.

Pointing at Taiyuan Province, Ouyang Shuo said, “Zifang you missed out a point. As long as they take down Fallen Phoenix City, they could connect too.”

“That’s true.” Zhang Liang did not retort, “However, based on the difficulty, it’s a bad choice.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “So we should warn Xiang Yu. We should remind him to not let West Chu be swallowed by the Yanhuang Alliance.” Although West Chu and Great Xia were not iron buddies, Ouyang Shuo did not wish to see it fall.

“You can remind them, but with his stubbornness, it might not work.” In terms of understanding Xiang Yu, Zhang Liang who worked under Liu Bang knew him the best.

“In your eyes, what should Great Xia do?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Chapter 981 - With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

Chapter 981: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

Zhang Liang said, “Along with Wannan Province being taken down by the Yanhuang Alliance, the Yanhuang Alliance might wage war against us at any moment.”

“With that, the Jiangchuan Province that is stuck between the two of us is an eyesore. I suggest that we use this chance to merge with them.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Merging with Jiangchuan Province was not a tough matter.

At the end of the large war, Gong Chengshi expressed that he could merge into Great Xia. However, back then, Ouyang Shuo considered that taking four provinces at once was too much for them, so he delayed it.

A month had passed, and the three provinces were basically settled. As a result, they already had the ability to merge.

“Apart from merging with Jiangchuan Province, does Zifang have any other suggestions? Seeing that it is close to the 5th year, should our main strategic target be the Yanhuang Alliance or overseas?”

Ouyang Shuo did not ask this out of the blue. Before he left, he had already left the Administrative Mentor Court with this question, and it was time for an answer.

Zhang Liang answered solemnly, “The Administrative Mentor Court feels that our main goal is to deal with Annan.”

“Why so?”

Zhang Liang did not directly reply. He simply took out a map that was a simplified version of the global map.

“It mainly has to do with the Capital City.” Zhang Liang pointed at Lianzhou Basin, “The Capital City is located at the southernmost point of the territory. As such, the more we expand north, the weaker we are in the south.”

“On the contrary, Annan is the closest to our Capital City. Be it from the land or from the ocean, they can threaten our safety. Hence, taking down Annan and the nearby few countries is the utmost priority. It can protect the strategic position of our Capital City and it also stabilizes our country’s territory.”

Ouyang Shuo was enlightened.

The game was not real life, and transport and communication were not as advanced; especially after the game was expanded by 10 times. Without the teleportation formation, one would not be able to control a huge empire.

“The Administrative Mentor Court suggests that we first settle the three imperial cities before attacking the central region,” Zhang Liang said.

The nine imperial cities of China were naturally good if they were facing outside countries. However, to Ouyang Shuo, their presence was a problem like a fishbone in his throat.

If they did not resolve the imperial cities through a suitable method, it would become a cancer.

“It might allow them to grow though…” Ouyang Shuo was hesitating.

Zhang Liang said, “The strength of the Yanhuang Alliance is growing, same as ours. Will our speed of attacking overseas land be slower than their speed of development in China?”

“No.”

“Not attacking the middle does not mean we are letting it go. We can borrow the hands of Fallen Phoenix City and West Chu to fight with them to stop their rise.”

Ouyang Shuo suddenly smiled, as Zhang Liang’s idea was really interesting.

Before this, it was always the Yanhuang Alliance trying to stop the rise of Shanhai City. Now, the tables had turned.

In the blink of an eye, it was now Great Xia going on the offensive.

“Let me think about it.”

As this matter was of utmost importance, Ouyang Shuo did not decide right away.

“Yes my king!”

Zhang Liang got up and took his leave.

…

Night, imperial garden.

The cold breeze blew gently, causing the still pond water to move. The starlight was bright.

Ouyang Shuo sat alone in the pavilion. He looked at the pond, and then he looked at the stars in the sky. His heart was like them, totally not calm. Ouyang Shuo was still unsettled about the strategy suggested by Zhang Liang.

“Husband, do you have something on your mind?”

Song Jia walked over and gently helped put a golden silk cape on for Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, turning around and grabbing his wife’s warm hand. The two of them gazed into the distance. The night wind blew around their majestic capes, and they were just like a fairy couple.

The following court ladies guarded outside the pavilion and did not dare to disturb them.

Ouyang Shuo did not hide anything, telling her about the plans during the day. When she heard the plans, Song Jia kept silent for a while before she suddenly asked, “Husband, what are your ideals?”

“Ideals?”

Ouyang Shuo suddenly thought back to his last life when he was really down. The only thing he wished for was a stable life. When he revived, his ideal was to not lag behind others and be able to lift up the sky for Bing’er.

After which, his ambitions continued to grow, and it was fulfilled part by part.

Looking back, those were not ideals but simply desires that were growing and growing.

If a person was busy running around during the day just to survive, how would he dare to talk about ideals?

Song Jia said, “You already rule so much land and have so many riches; you hold power and resources that a normal person cannot imagine. There’s one sentence that is good, with great power comes great responsibility.”

Ouyang Shuo was enlightened.

“On your shoulders is not only me, but Bing’er, our 2 unborn children, millions of other families, and even that of an entire race.”

“A race?” Ouyang Shuo did not understand.

Song Jia said, “Husband, you do not know, right? You have already become the hero of our country. You are spreading the honor and nation of our country over the world; this influence is not limited to the game world. On Planet Hope, if the Chinese want to lay their roots on it, they would need a hero to lead the way.”

“Looking at the entire China region, apart from you, no one else can obtain the love of everyone. Could Di Chen and the other aristocratic families, who put their family interests first do it? No, only you can husband!”

Ouyang Shuo laughed bitterly, “My lady, you overestimate me.”

Song Jia shook her head, “You do not need to look down on yourself. Bai Hua, West Gate Big Official, Gong Chengshi, and Wufu all willingly joined Great Xia. Apart from interests, there has to be other reasons. They see a hope for the race to rise to the top in you.”

“So, what has this got to do with the situation we are facing?” Ouyang Shuo decided to avoid this topic that was making his unsettled heart boil.

A sprout was breaking out from the soil and growing out.

Song Jia smiled. She did not force him and said, “Great Xia does not have the ability to crush them, and Di Chen and the others have not lost their patriotism either.”

“If we start a war with them, no matter who wins, it would hurt the strength of China, and it would disappoint the adventure gamemode players.”

Ouyang Shuo said, “So you’re saying that the Yanhuang Alliance is digging their own grave?”

“With the way they act, when there are conflict of interests, their original selves will be revealed, and it would be hard to maintain any image.”

“That’s good.”

Ouyang Shuo held onto Song Jia’s Hand; at this moment, his heart was really clear.

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

12th month, 15th day, Shanhai City.

The moment Ouyang Shuo returned to Shanhai City, Xia Palace became the focus of the wilderness’ attention. Everyone wanted to know what Great Xia wanted to do after Yanhuang Alliance took down Wannan Province.

Unfortunately, Ouyang Shuo rejected all interviews and chose to keep silent.

Only this morning did the 12 Lords of Jiangchuan Province with Gong Chengshi as the head appear in Xia Palace.

The moment the news went out, the outside world grew even more curious.

At such a stage, if one said that Ouyang Shuo had no reason for meeting them, people definitely would not believe it. Helplessly, the Xia Palace was closely guarded, and they could not get any news.

Everyone could only wait anxiously.

This wait lasted for a full three days.

12th month, 19th day, morning, Zi Luolan announced a matter through the Outreach Division: from today onward, the 12 territories of Jiangchuan Province have merged into the Great Xia Dynasty.

The moment the news was out, the players were enlightened.

Some people analyzed, “Great Xia is fighting back, after the Yanhuang Alliance took down Wannan Province, Great Xia followed by taking down Jiangnan Province, which is close to it without using any strength.”

Most players agreed with that point.

Along with Jiangchuan Province merging into Great Xia, the China region players noticed a shocking fact. The entire China region wilderness was only left with eight Lords.

Apart from Ouyang Shuo and Feng Qiuhuang, the remaining Lords were members of the Yanhuang Alliance.

How cruel the wilderness was, how cruel the Lord gamemode was; all of it was displayed in front of them at this moment. Many adventure gamemode players felt fortunate that they did not choose the Lord gamemode at the start.

In a short four years, who knows how many Lords fell into the blood pool, falling down on the path to becoming an overlord.

Hefu, Qinfeng, Xunlong Dianxue, Feng Qingyang…

Many names that were famous for a time were slowly being forgotten as they became the failures in this huge game.

Along with each inch of land being ruled by territories, the wilderness was not the wilderness anymore. Instead, it was now a battle of who was the best.

Out of the 17 provinces in China, apart from Zhongyuan Province that was unclaimed and Ludong Province that was under West Chu, Great Xia had taken up eight of the remaining 15.

In other words, half of the China region land belonged to Great Xia.

More interestingly, who knows whether it was coincidence or a result of the heavens, but the Yanhuang Alliance and Great Xia had ended up in a north-south faceoff.

Maybe this was not a battle of rulers but a battle of two strong sides. Both powers were giants, and they were so strong that it made it hard for others to breathe. However, they were enemies.

Players could not help but ask, “Will they end up fighting?” Just thinking about it made one feel chills.

Although players were worried, they understood that the initiative did not lie in the hands of the Yanhuang Alliance and not in theirs either. It was in the hands of the king that people worshipped and respected.

Xia Palace had become the focus of everyone once more.

Even Di Chen and the others were so nervous that they could not breathe. Who knows what choice that king would make?

However, Xia Palace remained totally silent.

Chapter 982 - 5th System Update

Chapter 982: 5th System Update

Gaia 4th year 12th month, 20th day, the Great Xia Imperial Court gave out a series of official appointments.

Gong Chengshi was appointed as the Jiangchuan Provincial Governor; he would oversee the building of the Jiangchuan Provincial Governor office in Black Lion City. Of the remaining 11 Lords, four became Governors and seven became prefects. Of course, they were all shifted to other provinces.

Black Lion City’s Jushou was appointed as the Administrative Mentor Court advisor secretary. With five top strategists, Ouyang Shuo’s desire for the Guo Jia who had yet to appear lessened.

Jiangchuan Province’s army troops were organized. Due to their peaceful surroundings, the armies of the 12 territories did not have much training, and their standards were even worse than the garrison forces.

Ouyang Shuo ordered the Privy Court to follow the way they disarmed the garrison forces to remove half of the territory armies. For the remaining elite force, apart from 20 thousand that were moved into the Auckland Formation, the remaining were organized into two War Fighting Legions.

Apart from the Guards Legion Corps, the current legion corps were all filled up. Hence, Ouyang Shuo decided to make a new legion corps – the Bear Legion Corps.

He appointed Chen Tang as the Legion General of the 1st legion and Pei Xingyan as the Major General of the 1st division.

Name: Chen Tang (King Rank)

Dynasty: West Han

Identity: Great Xia Bear Legion Corps 1st legion Legion General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 80

Command: 78

Force: 70

Intelligence: 55

Politics: 55

Specialty: Unexpected Attack (raises troops attack strength by 10%, raises troops movement speed by 25%)

Evaluation: Chen Tang was a really courageous person who had the ability to think about the big picture. He was able to think up many strategies. He was famous in the Battle of Zhizi, shocking the barbarians. His fame spread everywhere.

Chen Tang’s old Lord was the Lord of Qingyun City, Sparks, who had worked together with the Shanhai Alliance in the first two Battle Maps.

Within Jiangchuan Province, Sparks could be considered the ally of Gong Chengshi. The two of them controlled the situation in the province, which meant that the province was controlled by Great Xia. During this merger, Sparks became a Prefecture Governor.

Pei Renji was appointed as the 2nd legion Legion General.

Pei Renji had already reported the tracks of Li Mi to the Shanhai Guards. Just last night, the Shadow Guards sent out a group to his hiding spot to capture him. The truth would be out soon.

With that, Pei Renji earned Ouyang Shuo’s trust, so he was given an important appointment.

Based on the plan, after this organization was completed, the Bear Legion Corps would be housed between Jiangchuan Province and Wannan Province to monitor Wannan Province.

The Yanhuang Alliance was currently busy with collecting Wannan Province. Weirdly, based on the intel provided by the Shanhai Guards, be it military action or the post war matters, it was all handled by Di Chen.

Maybe the Yanhuang Alliance was undergoing a huge change internally.

…

After announcing the appointments, Great Xia orderly took over Jiangchuan Province. Apart from that, there was no other news, which made the people looking on really disappointed. At the same time, they heaved a sigh of relief.

In a blink of an eye, the 5th year of Gaia arrived.

12th month, 30th day, a System Notification sounded out through the entire world.

“World Notification: At this point, Earth Online has run for four years, and the game will undergo its 5th update, effective immediately. Please go online to the official forums to take a look.”

The moment the notification came out, Ouyang Shuo immediately went online.

(1) Construction is 100% real time.

Along with the population of the wilderness increasing and the population density reaching average levels, Gaia removed the welfare of Lords. Be it building construction or weapons crafting, the speed buff was removed.

The construction time in the game would be the same as in real life. Take building one Z1 Type Warship as an example. Previously, it took just one month to build a Z1 Type Warship but now it would take four months.

With that, it not only was the crafting efficiency greatly reduced, but the costs were increased as well. At this point, Gaia demanded more from the ruling standards of the territory.

Those who could perfect their management would be able to stand out.

(2) Welcoming the natural disaster system.

In ancient agriculture societies, grain production was closely linked to the weather. Drought, floods, insects, and other natural disasters could cause production to be reduced or even result in getting nothing at all.

Basically, the Imperial Court would need to help out with these disasters each year, and the only difference would be the seriousness. There were even some disasters that would cause uprisings that could cause dynasties to fall.

Catastrophes were things that dynasties could not bear.

Although the game had a weather system, Gaia had really treated the people well.

Territories like Great Xia that had strong specialties would not even face any disasters.

From the 5th year onward, things would change. The local granaries had no choice but to store up enough grain to supply them for disaster years. The moment a disaster arrived, the Imperial Court would also have to take out huge sums of gold to compensate the people.

Maybe from this moment onward, the various Lords would need to pray to the gods for good weather.

(3) NPC intelligence increase.

This update mainly targeted the tens of millions of normal NPCs. Before this, the civilians were mainly just normal people that were like a flock of docile sheep.

From now onward, the situation would change.

There would be good ones and bad ones, hardworking ones and lazy ones, and those that follow the law and those that broke it.

Officials and soldiers would also become complicated and start to have selfish thoughts.

The entire official ecosystem would become several times more complicated.

All in all, like the previous two updates, each update demanded more from the ruling standards of the Lord.

Of course, with cons, there were also pros. With their increase in intelligence, the basic level officials and generals would also have a skill increase. As long as they were trained well, it could increase the military and administrative standards of the territory.

As for the effects, one had to look at the standard of the system.

Toward this, Ouyang Shuo was really confident. Since the village level, he had paid attention to the system. At the current date, the entire dynasty system was really healthy and orderly.

(4) Once again increasing the movement speed of troops.

After the update, the normal soldier movement speed would increase to that of the relay speed. As a result, the negative effect of the map expansion would be totally wiped out.

Under the buffs of the specialty, some troops movement speed would even exceed ancient levels. This update basically reduced the obstacles to dynasties in the game expanding.

(5) Opening up the merit point quest system.

Apart from the current quest system, Gaia opened up a new merit point quest system. Lords could take specific merit point quests to raise their merit points and their rank.

Looking at this, Ouyang Shuo’s eyes tensed up.

It was not that he was vain, but he felt that this update was targeting him because his merit points had far exceeded that of the other Lords.

Gaia could not go against the rules and reduce his merit points, but it could use the quests to help other Lords earn more points to close the gap.

“Am I hated that much?” Ouyang Shuo was speechless.

(6) Opening up higher ranks and reputation levels.

If one said the last update was roughly related to him, this update was totally caused by Ouyang Shuo. Be it in terms of rank or reputation, Ouyang Shuo had reached the max level during the 4th year.

If Gaia did not use this chance to update it, it would be awkward.

First was rank, above the prince rank was son of heaven, which had a five million merit point requirement; this was three million merit points higher than that of the prince rank.

Next was reputation. Above known far and wide, there was dazzling the world, which required five million points.

Gaia was really vicious this time; it was determined to not let anyone reach that level.

Ouyang Shuo took a look. His current merit points were at 2.26 million and his reputation points were at 2.65 million; there was a huge gap till he reached the next level.

(7) Opening up the global alliance system.

Alliances between Lords were no longer limited to within a country, and it could now be done on a global scale.

Gaia did this to promote the global scale wars and cooperation. It aimed to create a vaster platform for the next round of the battle of survival.

There was no the strongest but only the stronger.

(8) Giving imperial cities more autonomy.

First, regardless of if a dynasty was present, the prefecture where the imperial city was located in was an absolutely prohibited zone. If one moved an army in, it would be seen as a provocation, and it might lead to war.

Secondly, any imperial city with a dynasty would be given autonomy. For any land in the province that the imperial city was in, if there was no Lord there, the imperial city could send troops to occupy the place.

The first thing Ouyang Shuo thought about when he saw this update was the Zhongyuan Province.

In the entire China region, only Zhongyuan Province did not belong to anyone. Furthermore, Luoyang Imperial city had the Hanwu Emperor that had moved in. With his style, he would surely take advantage of this.

Di Chen and the others would be definitely filled with regret. If they chose to attack Zhongyuan and not Wannan, the Hanwu Emperor would not be able to do anything.

Speaking of which, if they had taken down Zhongyuan Province first, then after Great Xia merged with Jiangchuan Province, they would have no chance of taking down Wannan Province.

Looking at it further, if their route in Zhongyuan Province was broken, the Yanhuang Alliance would definitely turn their eyes to West Chu because they would have no other choice.

Xiang Yu was in trouble this time.

Ludong Province was not connected to Great Xia. Even if Ouyang Shuo wanted to help, he could not. Furthermore, with Xiang Yu’s arrogance, he might not be able to accept Great Xia’s help.

This pretty much became a forgone conclusion.

Chapter 983 - Country War System

The first eight updates mainly targeted the Lord gamemode, while the next four were related to the adventure gamemode players.

(9) Pushing out equipment binding system.

Due to the heavy price of adventure gamemode players reviving, especially after all their equipment was dropped and unable to be picked up, dying was a huge loss to players, and it had started to affect game balance.

Gaia decided to push out the equipment binding system at this time. As long as they spent a tenth of the evaluated value of the equipment, they would be able to soul bind the item so that they would not drop it even if they died.

The evaluation of the equipment was naturally done by the system.

To the higher end players, this update was definitely a blessing because it bought them some insurance.

(10) Pushing out special pill systems.

This update was similarly to compensate adventure gamemode players. Gaia would throw in some special quests in the underground world, and they would have chances to obtain experience pills, cultivation pills, and the like.

When reincarnated players used such pills, they could swiftly raise their levels and cultivation to reduce their cultivation time.

It was said that there was a way out for everything. Gaia obviously did not want to be too vicious. Even if adventure gamemode players unfortunately died, they would be able to rise up once more with the help of pills.

From these two updates, Ouyang Shuo could feel that Gaia was setting up a base for a large scale global war. Only be reducing the costs of reviving would it be able to ignite the passion of adventure gamemode players in fighting country wars.

(11) World martial arts competition.

In the last round of system update, to fulfil players’ desires to PK, Gaia had pushed out the arena. Now, it had pushed out a more intense world martial arts competition.

This was a world competition.

From the 5th year onward, there would be one competition every year. In the 1st half of the year, the imperial cities, including capital cities, would act as regions to decide the top 10 players.

These top 10 players would be given the title of top 10 experts of the imperial city as well as relevant rewards. The title had specialties, and the rewards were Dark Gold Rank items as the base, and there was a low chance of obtaining Platinum Rank items.

Those who got first place would definitely obtain a platinum item.

The autumn season would have the country as a region, and the top 10 of the imperial cities would all gather and fight a new round of PK to decide the top 10 of the country.

This round of rewards would have platinum items as the base, and there would be a small chance of obtaining a low rank God Weapon. The number one person would definitely obtain a low rank God Weapon.

If a country only had one imperial city and no Capital City, this round would automatically merge with the previous round.

In the winter season, the top 10 of each country would gather and have a final battle to decide the top 10 in the world.

Each one of the 10 would obtain a low rank God Weapon. First place would definitely obtain a mid-rank God Weapon. If they were lucky, they might even directly obtain a top-grade God Weapon.

More importantly, the world’s best does not only reward one person, but even the entire country with honor points. As a result, adventure gamemode players had a chance to bring honor to their country like the Lord gamemode players.

When this update was released, be it the guild overlord, those secluded in the mountains, or the wanderers, none of them would be unable to resist the temptation.

As they say, there’s no second place in martial arts.

The competition between adventure gamemode players was competitive. Now, Gaia even gave them a chance to earn fame, pushing the competition between cultivators to the peak.

Ouyang Shuo was more interested in why Gaia had pushed this update out.

Maybe Gaia was already preparing for Planet Hope. In that encyclopedia, Ouyang Shuo saw the strong beings on Planet Hope. As a result, they needed a batch of heroes to lead the way.

People would always worship the strong in times of chaos.

(12) Pushing out grandmaster recognition system.

Gaia focused on fairness. The previous three updates were for combat occupation players. Toward the work occupation players that were higher in number, Gaia would naturally pay attention to them.

The so-called grandmaster recognition was as such: once a work occupation player broke through the bottleneck, the player would obtain the relevant title and rewards.

The rewards were comparable to that of a country’s top 10. When one broke through, one would be able to get it.

As for the highest God Rank, the rewards would be at the world’s top 10 level. The first person would even receive a special prize.

Gaia was really clearheaded. Although the combat occupation players were glamourous, the ones truly supporting the foundation of the game were the silent work occupation players.

Even when they arrived at Planet Hope, with 10 years of training, they could display all that they had learned; especially those grandmaster rank talents. Even on Planet Hope, they would still be really famous.

After looking at the new round of system updates, Ouyang Shuo’s felt really complicated. He stood at a high place now, so he could understand the reasons of Gaia.

“Are they quickening the preparations for Planet Hope?” Ouyang Shuo muttered, “What dangers hide in that mysterious planet to make Gaia treat it so seriously?”

No one could reply to him.

At this very moment, another System Notification sounded out.

“World Notification: at this point, Earth Online has run for four years, and the game will release its 4th information piece, Empire Expedition. Please go online to the forums to take a look.”

…

Ouyang Shuo took in a deep breath, “The country war era has truly arrived!”

The previous attacks on Morocco and Somalia were just Great Xia alone. The release of this information piece meant that Gaia was going to direct the era of a full scale country war.

Ouyang Shuo excitedly took a look at the relevant settings.

First, Gaia started a country war month concept.

From the 5th year onward, the 6th month would be listed as a country war month.

First, only in this month could one enjoy the buffs from the country honor points.

Great Xia had taken down Singapore, Morocco, and Somalia, which earned China 30 honor points. As a result, they could choose 30% of a stat to buff, which was really amazing.

Secondly, only during this month would borders that were hard to cross become smooth.

With Great Xia and Annan as an example, the stone mountain ranges that stretched for miles were impossible to cross. In the 6th month, this would miraculously become smooth.

This alone made Ouyang Shuo determined to deal with Annan before the 5th year 6th month. He needed to do this in case Annan jumped out to seek chaos during the country war periods to sneak attack Great Xia.

Ouyang Shuo did not intend to make use of the convenience of the country war month to attack Annan.

As they say, ‘One must use your good steel on a sword.’ In the first country war month, with the minds of the Chinese, they would definitely aim at Japan.

Thirdly, only in the country war month could one enjoy the increased in merit points obtained.

Different from when Great Xia attacked Morocco, a true country war was one where everyone in the country participated. It was a huge battle, so there were battle contribution point settings.

Be it killing generals or providing support, Gaia would tabulate it and give each person a contribution point value after the end of the battle.

The global war contribution point and battle contribution point uses were similar. Lords could use these points to exchange for merit points or to revive dead soldiers. On the other hand, adventure gamemode players could use it to make up for reviving or exchange the points for items.

The country war commerce city would be filled with dazzling amounts of items.

One could say that after a country war, the winning country would have a huge feast and celebration.

During the country war month, players would enjoy a 50% contribution point boost. This alone meant that no country would dumb enough to choose to start war at any other time.

Gaia was trying to make the 6th month a time that was purely filled with country wars. It wanted people to prepare for the country war at other times instead of country wars taking up the entire year.

Secondly, the country war leader setting had floated to the surface.

Each country needed to choose a country war leader before the country war month to represent the country. The country war leader would decide the country war targets, the strategy, choose buff types, and command the entire war.

On the forums, Gaia specifically listed the power and duties of the leader.

The first thought that came to mind was that a good leader could lead them to victory easily, while a bad one would drag them to the depths of hell.

Then how would the leader be chosen? Easy.

Gaia would open up a voting system. Each person had one vote, and the voting period would end on the 5th month, 1st day. Whoever had the most votes would be the leader.

If this was two years ago, Ouyang Shuo might not win against Di Chen, but now Ouyang Shuo was really confident.

Of course, if Ouyang Shuo tried to start an internal conflict with the Yanhuang Alliance at this time, it would give them the moral high ground and the outcome might be different.

Lastly, there would be the country weapon.

The changes in history meant that the weapon was different in this life compared to the last. Based on the latest settings, each country would have a basic country weapon.

For every 100 country’s honor points, one more country weapon would be born.

Apart from special cases, this meant that one had to wipe out 10 countries to obtain two country weapons. In all likelihood, even when the game ended, there would not be many countries with two country weapons.

China’s basic country weapon was the top of the top 10 swords – the Xuanyuan Sword. This sword was not a secret and was held by the Yellow Emperor.

When the Fire Emperor and the Yellow Emperor came to congratulate Great Xia for establishing their country, the two tribes were not a secret anymore.

Even so, no one dared to target the sword.

Interestingly, Gaia said that if the leader was able to wield the country weapon out to battle, they would obtain a country war buff.

This was a huge test to the leaders of the country war, and it was something that Ouyang Shuo was not confident about.

Chapter 984 - Ming Dynasty Four Powers

Chapter 984: Ming Dynasty Four Powers

At that very moment, another System Notification rang out.

“World Notification: To celebrate four years of the game, Gaia will hold the 2nd world auction on the 5th year, 1st month, 5th day at 10 AM. Friendly Reminder: To participate in the auction, one must have no less than one million gold.”

…

Gaia was quite humane this time, as it gave everyone some time to prepare and digest the new update and information piece. It did not rush the auction.

In the blink of an eye, it was the 5th year, 1st month, 1st day.

To Ouyang Shuo, the important matter to handle would be the new round of hidden building summoning chances. Apart from the usual Recruitment Hall, there was the General Appointment Stage, the Wanming Pagoda, and the Golden Stage.

Maybe it was a result of his high luck stat, but after one round of summoning, he had huge gains. Who knows whether it was a coincidence or planned by Gaia, but the people he summoned were all from the Ming Dynasty.

From the Recruitment Hall he summoned a Ming Dynasty minister – Yan Song.

Name: Yan Song (Emperor Rank)

Dynasty: Ming Dynasty

Identity: Great Xia Civil Servant

Occupation: Civil Servant

Loyalty: 75

Command: 45

Force: 35

Intelligence: 80

Politics: 88

Specialty: Power (raises dynasty administrative efficiency by 20%, raises dynasty income by 5%, raises ruling standard of dynasty by 10%)

Evaluation: He was notorious for being corrupt and for dominating the Ming government for two decades as the Grand Secretary during the reign of the Jiajing Emperor.

The Ming records listed him as one of the six unscrupulous ministers. The Ming records said that he did not have talent and schemed his way to the top.

The Chinese people loved to split black from white; you were either good or you were bad. However, people forgot that a person could be neutral; this middle ground existed.

From a young age, Yan Song was a smart little star. He became a juren at 19 and a jingshi at 26.

His private life was a really normal and orthodox one. In regards to his private life, there was pretty much nothing one could talk about. He only married one wife – Ouyang Ming. Ouyang Ming was a year older than him, and their relationship was good. Yan Song did not want to have a group of wives just because of his high position.

Yan Song served the Jiajing Emperor who commited many evils and loved to live a life of luxury.

In the end, he was just the scapegoat of the Jiajing Emperor and took the blame for him for many things.

Yan Song was the Grand Secretary for 10 odd years, but his personal wealth was not as much as famous people like Xu Jie, Xu Jie, and Zhang Ju. Although Grand Secretaries had a good reputation, their wealth was something a corrupt official like Yan Song could not catch up to.

Of course, Yan Song could not be said to be a good official. He climbed his way to the top by stepping on his enemies, and he even let his son Yan Shifan get away with murder. However, if one was a neutral, one would view him as a skilled power minister.

It all depended on how the ruler would utilize such a person.

Ouyang Shuo was really bold, and he directly recruited him into the Cabinet as an elder. Toward such an old man, Ouyang Shuo only instructed him with one sentence, “Elder, I will make it clear, Yan Shifan will never be an official.”

A light flashed in his eyes as he bowed, “The king is wise.”

In history, Yan Shifan was a ticking time bomb that the Jiajing Emperor planned to harm Yan Song.

…

The honest and upright official summoned in the Wanming Pavilion was the school of mind great contributor – Wang Shouren.

Name: Wang Shouren (Emperor Rank)

Dynasty: Ming Dynasty

Identity: Great Xia Civil Servant

Occupation: Civil Servant

Loyalty: 75

Command: 75

Force: 40

Intelligence: 88

Politics: 75

Specialty: School of Mind (raises dynasty administrative efficiency by 20%, raises dynasty academic factions standards by 20%)

Book: Yangming Encyclopedia

Evaluation: Wang Shouren was one of the top grade people of the Ming Dynasty. He contributed a lot, earning credit, karma, and the like.

Wang Shouren was known as the person who started the school of mind and was proficient at Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.

He became a Jingshi in the 12th year of Hongzhi. Later, he served as an executive assistant in various government departments until he was banished for offending a eunuch in 1506 AD.

In 1519 AD, he was governor of Jiangxi Province and was on his way to suppress the revolts in Fujian. At that time, Wang Shouren was suddenly faced with the Prince of Ning rebellion that was led by Zhu Chenhaothe fourth Prince of Ning. He stopped it and was given the titles Marquis and Completion of Culture. In 1584 AD, he was offered sacrifice in the Confucian Temple, which was the highest honor for a scholar.

As the founder of the school of mind, King Zi, Meng Zi, Zhu Xi, and Wang Shouren were known as Kong, Meng, Zhu, and Wang.

Wang Shouren was said to be one of the greatest contributors to Chinese ideological development by later generations. There were not many people in the modern day that had the right to criticize him.

The Wang Shouren that appeared in front of Ouyang Shuo was thin. His face was sunken inward like a cultivator from the deep mountains instead of a civil servant.

Ouyang Shuo said, “Kong Zi is in the Xinan University, would you like to go to the same place?”

Due to personal and public reasons, Ouyang Shuo hoped that the school of mind could shine in Great Xia. Who knew that Wang Yangming would smile and say, “The school of mind needs to merge real life experience with study and cannot be perfected in a university. Please allow me to go down to the land to study the people.”

Ouyang Shuo was enlightened, and he smiled and said, “Great! Chuanbei Province is lacking a Provincial Governor, so you can proceed there.”

Wang Yangming bowed and accepted the role.

…

The Golden Stage summoned Yan Song’s greatest disciple, Hu Zongxian.

Name: Hu Zongxian (Emperor Rank)

Dynasty: Ming Dynasty

Identity: Great Xia Civil Servant

Occupation: Civil Servant

Loyalty: 75

Command: 72

Force: 40

Intelligence: 80

Politics: 85

Specialty: Loyalty to the Country (raises dynasty administrative efficiency by 20%, raises dynasty ruling standards by 10%)

Evaluation: Hu Zongxian is really talented, and he was termed as the southeast pillar of the Jiajing Emperor.

Hu Zongxian’s family was from the Jinyi Guards. In the 19th year of Jiajing, he was appointed as the County Magistrate of Yidu County.

During the southeast chaotic time, he became the Zhizhe Provincial Governor.

By the 41st year of Jiajing, he had obtained never before seen success in his battle against the Japanese, which once again calmed down the Japanese problem in Zhejiang.

Who would have known that the day he succeeded would be the day his bad luck arrived?

In the same year, Cabinet Grand Secretary Yan Song was removed, and his son was captured. Hu Zongxian, who was a member of the Yan Faction, lost his helper in the dynasty and was punished by the newly appointed Grand Secretary with accusations regarding the 10 big crimes.

In the 44th year of Jiajing, after Hu Bingxian was removed from his post for two years, he was brought to the capital where he killed himself in jail.

In the 6th year of Longqing, the Imperial Court helped to overturn his case and clear his name.

Ouyang Shuo naturally was delighted about gaining a talent like Hu Bingxian. However, he did not immediately arrange an appointment for Hu Bingxian.

With Hu Bingxian’s talents, the best position for him would be Provincial Governor. However, there were not any spare spaces at the moment, so Ouyang Shuo planned to take down Annan first before making further plans.

Ouyang Shuo said, “Do not be anxious, just stay in the Imperial Court for a while. I have plans for you.”

“Understood!”

Since his teacher Yan Song had already entered the Cabinet, Hu Bingxian naturally did not need to worry.

…

The general he recruited from the General Appointment Stage had some relationship with Hu Bingxian; he was the famous Ming Dynasty general – Qin Jiguang.

Name: Qin Jiguang (Emperor Rank)

Dynasty: Ming Dynasty

Identity: Great Xia General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 75

Command: 78

Force: 70

Intelligence: 50

Politics: 55

Specialty: Anti-Japanese General (raises troops combat strength by 25%, raises troops naval battle standards by 15%, raises troops movement speed by 20%)

Evaluation: Qin Jiguang was a strict general who used rewards and punishments on his soldiers to make them give their all. The battles against the Japanese made him famous.

Qin Jiguang was good at training troops, and the army that he trained was known as the Qin family army.

The Mandarin duck array he made stunned the world, and it became a great weapon against the Japanese.

Qin Jiguang was also an amazing weapons specialist and engineer. He modified and invented various weapons, and he improved the weapons of his time like the Qin Family military knife as well as the Langxian, which was used against the Japanese.

Building warships and chariots caused the Ming army navy passageways to be stronger than the enemy.

Apart from that, Qin Jiguang used his creativity to make an empty hard tower on top of the city walls that could be used to attack and defend; it was a really special military project.

Toward a general like Qin Jiguang, Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate and directly appointed him as the Binhai Squadron Fleet Admiral to be in charge of going against the three squadrons of the Yanhuang Alliance.

At this point, the Ming Dynasty generals took up half of the Great Xia Army, becoming the core of the navy.

…

Since the Jiajing Emperor, the Ming Dynasty was filled with internal and external problems; it was a dynasty filled with tragedy. Apart from Wang Yangming, Yan Song, Hu Zongxian, and Qin Jiguang all the others ended up in dire straits.

Not only them, but even the famous Xu Jie and Zhang Juzheng both had bad endings.

One could say it was an era of tragedy.

Maybe this was an arrangement by fate, but all these people were gathered in Great Xia to be utilized by Ouyang Shuo in a dynasty that was totally different from the Ming Dynasty.

Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to the new ideals that these people could bring. The current Great Xia definitely would not make the same mistakes as Great Ming.

And just as Ouyang Shuo was meeting Yan Song and the others, a change happened in Zhongyuan.

Chapter 985 - Great Han Dynasty

Chapter 985: Great Han Dynasty

Gaia 5th year, 1st month, 2nd day, the 3rd day after Gaia removed the restrictions on the imperial city, the Hanwu Emperor suddenly appointed General Wei Qing to lead 600 thousand troops out of Luoyang to attack Zhongyuan.

Under the leadership of God General Wei Qing, the Great Han guards army was invincible, downing cities and causing many territories to surrender. If nothing went wrong, the Zhongyuan Province would fall under Great Han.

Even the Yanhuang Alliance would not dare to compete against Great Han at this moment.

The moment the news came out, the players felt really conflicted. This was the first time an NPC empire had shown its strength to the wilderness. It was like crushing a branch, sending a chill down one’s spine.

Along with the Zhongyuan Province falling into the hands of Great Han, a true empire suddenly stood in the Zhongyuan Region.

……

Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

Ouyang Shuo had predicted that the Hanwu Emperor would strike out, but he did not expect the Hanwu Emperor to be so decisive. Who knows whether this change of hands in the mid plain was good news for Great Xia or not.

“What’s the reply from West Chu?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Zhang Liang replied, “Their attitude is really friendly, but their mentality is really determined.”

“….”

As expected from Xiang Yu. Even when he was facing enemies on all four sides, he was not going to seek help from others.

Ouyang Shuo originally wanted to borrow the hand of the Yanhuang Alliance to totally pull West Chu into the Shanhai Alliance or even merge them into the Great Xia system.

Now, it seemed like his thinking was too simple.

Zhang Liang said, “My king, it seems like we will not be able to keep Ludong Province.”

For some reason, the Yanhuang Alliance was determined to connect their territories together. If Great Xia did not want an all-out war, they could only watch on as West Chu got swallowed.

“Although that’s the case, we still have to do something.”

Ouyang Shuo did not want to see the Yanhuang Alliance expand so smoothly. No matter what, he had to think of a way to hamper their growth.

“Let the Administrative Mentor Court think of an idea.” Ouyang Shuo instructed.

“Yes my king!”

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

In the blink of an eye, it was the 1st month, 5th year. At 10 AM, the System Notification sounded out punctually.

“World Notification: The 2nd world auction officially begins. All players who fulfill the conditions will receive an invite that will teleport them to the auction house if they agree.”

…

When he was in Lemuria, Ouyang Shuo had spent all the money he had on hand. Using the Golden Stage also cost a million. By the end of the year, despite the dynasty being rich, Ouyang Shuo only had two million spendable gold.

Ouyang Shuo was prepared to be an onlooker in this auction.

City in the skies, auction hall.

A year had passed, and the number of players who were able to attend dropped instead of increasing. Not only the China region, but also the entire world had a huge reshuffling during the 4th year.

The huge waves would eliminate the sand. Those that were still standing now could be considered elites.

Ouyang Shuo’s appearance naturally attracted attention. Another famous person was the second person who established a dynasty – Jack, who had become a hero of the western camp.

Looking at the way he was acting, he was probably planning to use this auction to make the Dawson Dynasty more famous. Before the start of the auction, he even went to Ouyang Shuo to greet him.

Ouyang Shuo reached out and smiled, “Congratulations!”

“Thank you!” Jack felt a little weird.

This memorable moment was shot down by people and would quickly spread around the globe.

Maybe he felt that Ouyang Shuo had gotten one over him, as Jack said, “I am looking forward to having a face-to-face conversation with the Great Xia Navy in the Pacific.”

“Me too.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled; his face was still really casual.

Although the Pacific separated Great Xia and the Dawson Dynasty, they would still have conflicts of interests.

Along with the Yanhuang Alliance opening up the trade route with North America, the Hawaii islands located in the middle of the Pacific became a hotly contested point. Whoever took control of it could control the Pacific.

Although Ouyang Shuo did not have plans to trade with North America, he still needed to take down Hawaii. Before he left for the second voyage, he had ordered the Yizhou Squadron to send a scouting squadron over to patrol. If conditions permitted it, they were to directly take Hawaii down.

The problem was that he had not received a reply from Yizhou Squadron till date.

This meant that the trip was not smooth. Who knows, they might have already met Dawson Dynasty’s squadron. In the 5th year of Gaia, the two dynasties would have a battle over Hawaii.

At this very moment, the auction began.

The auctioneer smiled widely as he walked onto stage and said, “Now, let’s start the auction of the first item.”

A model walked to the front and pulled aside the red silk on the tray, revealing a talisman.

“Merit Talisman: After use, player directly obtains 300 thousand merit points. Base price 500 thousand gold, there’s no buyout,” the auctioneer introduced.

The moment they heard his words, everyone took in a deep breath.

Ouyang Shuo was speechless. Gaia really had something against him. Thinking back to the merit point quest system, Gaia obviously wanted a few more dynasties to be born in a short time.

Di Chen, who sat to the left of Ouyang Shuo, became nervous. On this earth, there was probably no one that desired this item more than the Yanhuang Alliance.

“600 thousand!”

“700 thousand!”

…

“1 million!”

“1.1 million!”

…

In less than 20 minutes, the price of the item had reached 1.5 million gold.

“Are these people crazy?”

Ouyang Shuo could not understand why they would go all out for just 300 thousand merit points.

If Di Chen and the others knew what he was thinking, they would definitely scold him.

300 thousand merit points!!

Such an amount was the same as three to four Battle Maps. Even during a country war, one might not obtain so much. From the start of the game till now, there were definitely no more than 200 people who accrued 300 thousand merit points.

Additionally, there were only two dynasties in the world. The position of third was still empty. Whoever obtained this item would lead the race for this spot.

Just the Gaia awarded rewards exceeded 1.5 million gold.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo could only look on with his mouth agape as the price soared. It only slowed down once it reached 2.5 million gold.

The Lords became more careful when they bid.

Ouyang Shuo noticed that when the price reached 2.5 million, William went in.

“3 million!”

At this very moment, William, who had previously remained silent, suddenly went in and raised the price by 500 thousand. This move of his scared away a majority of the competitors.

William wanted this item badly.

“3.2 million gold!”

The one who bid was Caesar, and he even provocatively looked at William.

“3.4 million!”

“3.6 million!”

These two European nations wanted to have a good battle over the merit talisman.

When the other Lords saw this situation, they all silently backed out. However, looking at Di Chen’s expression, he obviously still wanted it.

“3.8 million!”

After making this bid William’s eyes were red. Obviously, this bid was close to his limit.

“3.9 million!” Caesar continued.

William gritted his teeth and said, “4 million!” He had already decided that if Caesar continued to bid, he would give up.

The whole world was focusing on Caesar.

Who would have expected him to would give out a weird smile and causally say, “I give up!”

Total silence.

William’s face was really ugly, and he viciously said, “You were playing me?”

Caesar wore a mocking expression on his face and smiled, “I have no money, so I’ll obviously give up.”

“….”

There was nothing William could say, and he could only swallow this.

Just as everyone thought that the dust had settled, a bid sounded out, “4.1 million!”

The one that bid was Di Chen.

When William heard this, he unknowingly heaved a sigh of relief and said, “I give up.”

Just like that, the merit talisman was taken by the dark horse Di Chen with a record price. When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he was filled with thoughts.

The 5th year of Gaia was destined to not be a peaceful one in China.

Maybe the first item was simply too shocking, but the next few were really lackluster in comparison, and there was not much desire for them.

Ouyang Shuo did not even act a single time.

On the other hand, Jack took down two items, stealing the show.

The auctioneer smiled, “Now for the 6th item.” The model went to the front and unveiled the item, revealing an old book.

“War Soldier Code; this is a King Rank cultivation method for rank 12 war elite soldiers. It can be taught to a maximum of five thousand people. Base price 500 thousand, no buyout.” The auctioneer introduced, “Friendly Reminder, the War Soldier Code has a huge demand on the cultivator and needs precious herbs to train in it.”

“This….”

If the auctioneer did not remind them, all of them would be tempted. However, after the reminder, the value of the War Soldier Code had dropped.

Gaia was really fair when it did business.

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes tensed up; this was the first time he showed interest as he thought about the Divine Martial Guards.

As his Personal Guards, they were a special troop type, but they were not strong enough to be invincible.

During this period of time, ministers had been suggesting he expanded the Divine Martial Guards for his safety.

Ouyang Shuo did not agree, as he was planning to make the Divine Martial Guards into a reality on Planet Hope. If he expanded them, the costs might become too much.

If he did not increase the number, he could only increase quantity.

Ouyang Shuo thought about giving each of them a secret manual, but such items were too expensive. Ouyang Shuo did not care for the low rank ones, while collecting three thousand sets was impossible.

The appearance of this item helped to solve his dilemma.

As for the reminder the auctioneer gave, why would Ouyang Shuo care? In the entire world, which territory would have higher standards than Great Xia?

Chapter 986 - Invitation from the Federation President

Chapter 986: Invitation from the Federation President

Similar to the previous few items, the War Soldier Code did not have a great demand.

Ouyang Shuo did not dare let his guard down. Be it Lords or guild leaders, 70% of them came from Silver Hand, and many of them were not allies of Great Xia.

If Ouyang Shuo placed his bid too early, it would expose his interest in the item, and there would immediately be people stirring trouble. At least Caesar would definitely cause problems.

Ouyang Shuo did not want to waste money.

Luckily, he was not fighting alone. He gave Feng Qiuhuang, who was sitting by his side, a gaze.

The 2 of them had come to a tacit understanding. She nodded; when the price was pushed to 800 thousand, she bid decisively, “1 million!”

Caesar looked over and swept his gaze past Ouyang Shuo before deciding not to act. He was not a fool and would not take a million gold as a joke.

The other people did not have thoughts to compete.

Just like that, Ouyang Shuo obtained the War Soldier Code with just one million gold.

Di Chen saw through the little exchange going on between them, but he did not choose to step out at that moment to expose it because that would be really lacking in manners.

After getting the merit talisman, Di Chen was already delighted and did not want to cause any more problems.

Following which, the auction continued to disappoint until the final item arrived, and the auctioneer introduced, “Country War Buff Card, after use, one can choose a 50% increase buff that lasts for a week. Base price 500 thousand, there’s no buyout.”

‘Si~~’

The players all took in a deep breath.

Gaia really did not mind the matter being huge. Since the country wars were about to arrive, such an item was definitely one that people would fight for in this auction.

The moment the auctioneer said those words, a huge explosion of bidding broke out.

“1 million.”

The first one to act was Keisuke Honda from Japan, who doubled the starting price.

Regarding country wars in the 5th year of Gaia, if one chose an expected country war, it would be the battle between China and Japan. Both sides saw each other as enemies and wanted to remove the other country.

The China region had the 30 honor points Ouyang Shuo earned, and they had the buff advantage. To the Japanese players, getting this card was like rain during a drought.

Honda Keisuke was going to go all out to obtain this card. He was not a fool. As long as he got it, the money he spent would naturally be made up for by the adventure gamemode players.

The Japanese players were really united on a matter like this.

“1.2 million.”

“1.5 million.”

…

“2 million!”

“2.2 million!”

There were many Lords with the same idea as Honda Keisuke, and the bidding price shot up like a rocket.

The ones that truly did not act were Ouyang Shuo, Jack, and the other more powerful players.

Jack did not act because America did not have any strong enemies around them, and it was not worth him spending so much money on such an item. Furthermore, he had obtained some items and used up the gold in his hands.

Ouyang Shuo did not act either. First, he had limited amount of gold. Secondly, even if he got the item, the players might not pay for it and say that it was expected since Ouyang Shuo was such a rich Lord.

The Chinese were just like that. In reality, they forced famous people to donate their money, using their morals against them.

Ouyang Shuo did not want to fall prey to such a scenario.

Taking a step back, even if Honda Keisuke obtained the card, Ouyang Shuo was not afraid.

“3 million!”

“3.2 million!”

…

“3.8 million!”

“4 million!”

Very quickly, the bidding price was pushed to a sky high one, and it seemed like it was going to break the record set by Di Chen. This was a battle of who brought more money, and it was not about the value of the card.

“Are these people crazy?” Feng Qiuhuang did not understand.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “They are not crazy. If they get the card, not only do others pay for it, but they can also gain an advantage in the bid to be the country war leader.”

“I see.”

Feng Qiuhuang nodded. At the same time, she took a long look at Di Chen.

The China region country war channel had already been opened. Ouyang Shuo, Feng Qiuhuang, and the six members of Yanhuang Alliance were all listed.

The current voting situation was Ouyang Shuo leading with five million votes, while Di Chen was behind by 200 thousand. On the other hand, the rest had pitiful numbers.

The strategy the Yanhuang Alliance used was to gather the votes on Di Chen to fight Ouyang Shuo. With the influence of the six families, they were able to attract many people.

Of course, those who lived in Great Xia would vote for Ouyang Shuo, while those who lived in Yanhuang Alliance territory would vote for Di Chen.

The truly deciding votes would come from the nine imperial cities adventure gamemode players. They had not voted yet.

They were waiting to see.

If Great Xia really did something immoral and started an internal war at a crucial moment of the country war, the China region players would be disappointed and throw their votes to Di Chen.

The current Great Xia had not given out a signal to stop the war.

If it were not for Di Chen spending all his money on the merit talisman, he might have wanted to take a gamble at this item as a tool to gain votes to compete with Ouyang Shuo.

At this very moment, Honda Keisuke raised his hand once more, “5 million!”

This bid stunned everyone.

Not to mention at the auction, but for someone to even take out five million goal was a rarity.

One had to say that Japan was filled with rich people. During the achievement value exchange, they had definitely taken out huge amounts of gold.

Ouyang Shuo took a look at Di Chen. Both of their expressions were really serious.

‘Seems like the upcoming country war will not be as easy as we thought.’

Just like that, the card was obtained by Honda Keisuke.

After auctioning off the last item, the auctioneer suddenly announced a piece of news, “Due to the global system maturing, we have decided that this is the last official auction. Thank you for participating.”

“This….”

Everyone was astonished.

“When Gaia auctions items, there will definitely be elite items.”

No one expected such an auction tradition to end so suddenly.

Ouyang Shuo had some guesses about the auctions. Gaia definitely would not do anything without reason; this was especially so regarding the two recent global auctions.

Each one took back tens of millions of gold.

Before this, the huge amounts of funds that appeared due to the exchange event were slowly taken back by Gaia; this ensured the gold balance in game. Gaia would not let inflation occur.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also wondered if Gaia was planning to use the virtual items to reduce the elite level, especially regarding the Silver Hand members’ achievement value.

Did the academic faction play a part behind Gaia’s actions?

Ouyang Shuo did not know.

What was Gaia’s reason for suddenly removing the global auction? The more he thought about it, the more he felt as if there was a layer of mist in front of him.

As he was deep in thought, Ouyang Shuo did not notice that the auction had already ended. The others were teleported back, while he was teleported to a small courtyard in the city in the skies.

“Little friend, we finally meet.”

Ouyang Shuo was instantly jolted to his senses. He looked around, only to see himself standing in a garden. An old man stood before him.

“Mr. President?” Ouyang Shuo immediately recognized him.

The Federation President smiled, “Sit and talk. If you do not mind it, call me Old Chen.”

That’s right, the Federation President was a Chinese person. He used administrative and political intelligence to lead the Federation.

If it were in the last life or when Ouyang Shuo had just revived, he would feel really shocked if he faced such a person.

However, he was now able to regain his calmness in a short while.

When Old Chen saw that, admiration appeared in his eyes.

Along with Great Xia growing stronger, although Old Chen was happy, he was also a little uneasy. As such, he decided to use this chance to meet Ouyang Shuo for the first time.

“Come, taste the tea made from the tea tree I planted.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. He slowly tasted the tea; the tea was clean and refreshing, and the scent rejuvenated and energized him. He smiled and said, “Good tea!”

Old Chen laughed in delight.

Ouyang Shuo took the chance to say, “I have not had a chance to thank Old Chen for the matter last time.” Ouyang Shuo was referring to the time when he asked Old Chen to investigate whether Jason was trustable or not.

“It was just a simple act.”

Ouyang Shuo was really calm, holding a casual conversation with Old Chen. He was not in a rush to ask why Old Chen had brought him here.

Just like that, the two of them spoke for half an hour without getting to the main point.

This time, Old Chen could not take it anymore. The city in the skies was not totally a secret, and if Ouyang Shuo stayed for too long, the matter would easily be revealed. If Silver Hand found out, it would be troublesome.

The academic faction was unwilling to go all out against Silver Hand for now.

Old Chen said unwillingly, “Little friend, aren’t you a little curious about why I got you here?”

“If you’re willing to say it, you would, even if I did not ask. If you are not willing, you would not tell me even if I did.”

“You, ah!” Old Chen really could not handle Ouyang Shuo. He had never seen a young man who was so calm and unfazed like Ouyang Shuo; this young man was an old fox at his level.

‘This game really trains people.’ Old Chen was filled with emotions.

At this stage, Old Chen did not beat around the bush anymore and directly said, “I invited you over to meet you so that we can officially get acquainted.”

“Old Chen is a really respectable leader. To be able to be liked by you is my good fortune,” said Ouyang Shuo; these were not false words.

Old Chen had heard many of such words in his life but hearing it from Ouyang Shuo made him feel happy, “Apart from meeting, I mainly wanted to talk to you about the Yanhuang Alliance.”

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes tensed up; he knew that the main point had arrived.

Chapter 987 - Zhang Liang Discusses Game Theory

Chapter 987: Zhang Liang Discusses Game Theory

Old Chen said, “Little friend, you might not know it, but Silver Hand has five core members and Di Chen’s grandfather is the number 2.”

Ouyang Shuo said slowly, “What Old Chen is saying is?”

“Us Chinese have an old phrase. When you hit a snake, you must hit it where it hurts. Facing Silver Hand, without utmost confidence of destroying it, it is best not to touch their bottom line.”

Ouyang Shuo was enlightened. He understood the true reason why the president had called him over.

At this moment, not only China region players, but even members of the academic faction were unsure about whether Great Xia would start an internal war against the Yanhuang Alliance or not.

Old Chen was here to persuade him to choose peace.

Di Chen and the Handan City he represented was one of the bottom lines of Silver Hand.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “I understand what Old Chen is saying.”

Although Great Xia had already decided to not attack the Yanhuang Alliance, Ouyang Shuo did not make that clear. It also gave Old Chen the misunderstanding that Great Xia not attacking was because they were giving him face.

Unknowingly, Ouyang Shuo had returned the favor that he owed for the previous time.

As expected, Old Chen smiled; he had finally made his decision. He took out a piece of paper and passed it to Ouyang Shuo. Looking at the paper, it was a list of Lords from around the world, Zhan Lang’s name was really eye-catching on it.

“These are all the people supporting the federation who cannot stand the actions of Silver Hand. I think you can all be friends. We all have common enemies, and the Great Xia can relax and cooperate with them in strategy and trading,” Old Chen explained.

Old Chen was putting it nicely. In truth, this was a list of the members of the academic faction. Ouyang Shuo took a rough look and waves broke out in his heart.

This list actually contained 30 out of 100 of the top Lords in the world.

The academic faction did not look like much, but in truth, it was like Silver Hand. It had reached out across every corner of the world. Silver Hand even had the hidden chess pieces of them.

Ouyang Shuo was even sure that this list was just the tip of the iceberg. Since the academic faction could compete against Silver Hand for so long, they were evidently truly strong.

Ouyang Shuo had to admit that he had underestimated them.

In the list regarding the China region, apart from Zhan Lang, who was hiding really deep, there were Qinfeng and two other Lords that fell under Great Xia’s blade. One of them were even working as a governor.

Old Chen handed this name list over to show his friendliness toward Ouyang Shuo. At the same time, he did this to show his power to Ouyang Shuo to stop the latter from growing arrogant. He wanted to recruit Great Xia into the academic faction.

“Great Xia loves a win-win situation.”

Ouyang Shuo gave Old Chen such a reply; his intent was really obvious. Great Xia could cooperate with the academic faction, but he would not bow his head to them and work for them.

Old Chen nodded his head helplessly. Long ago, when Great Xia established its country, Old Chen had already predicted that this would happen. Great Xia was soaring, so how would the young man in front of him bow his head to others?

Old Chen even thought about pushing Ouyang Shuo to become the next leader of the faction to pull Great Xia in. However, before he could raise the matter to Ouyang Shuo, it was rejected internally.

The faction system was also really complicated. The various elders were naturally against Ouyang Shuo. They termed him as a wild boar charging into a garden.

They felt that Ouyang Shuo was a barbarian that was using his in game talent and luck to break the original game balance.

As such, how would they have a good impression of him?

Furthermore, the position of leader of the faction had deep responsibilities and concerned the interests of many. How would they allow an outsider to take the spot?

‘We can only take a step at a time.’ Old Chen sighed.

Following which, the two of them continued talking for another half an hour before Ouyang Shuo left.

Before leaving, Old Chen gave some advice, “Young friend, remember, a castle is also broken from within. You must be patient.”

Ouyang Shuo’s body trembled; he turned around and bowed, “Thank you for your advice.”

Ouyang Shuo really respected Old Chen. In a short hour of conversation, Ouyang Shuo could feel his immense intelligence and had learned a lot.

However, he was not an individual. Instead, he represented a group. Between the two, there was an undeniable conflict.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo was helpless.

A white light shine across, and Ouyang Shuo was teleported back to the Xia Palace.

Old Chen looked at that disappearing white light and muttered, “I cannot see through that kid.”

At a corner of the courtyard, Gaia suddenly appeared and focused on what had happened. It did not say a word. As it looked at the white light, Gaia’s eyes showed a glimpse of emotion for the first time.

The interplanetary migration was a catastrophe to the federation, but it was a chance to Gaia.

Using this opportunity, not only did Gaia take control of the entire fleet, but it also controlled the game world. One billion players and their actions were all under its supervision.

With such huge information, Gaia’s intelligence welcomed a new leap. However, no one controlled Gaia. As a result, no one knew what level this AI had evolved to.

Unknowingly, Gaia itself had become the biggest anomaly.

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

Xia Palace, Imperial Reading Room.

After returning, Ouyang Shuo first took out the War Soldier Code and took a look at its stats.

Name: War Soldier Code (King Rank Method)

Level: 1 of 9

Stats: For every level increase, bone structure+1, comprehension+1, force+2

Specialty: Fighting Intent (instantly raises killing intent, combat strength doubling, lasting for an hour)

Specialty: Can be taught to a group 0/5000

Cultivation Requirements: Rank 12 War elite soldier, B grade potential.

Evaluation: this is a rare group cultivation technique; it is designed specifically for battlefield soldiers. Using pills to cultivate can speed up the efficiency.

The two cultivation requirements of the War Soldier Code were met by the three thousand Divine Martial Guards. First, they were the cream of the crop of the Great Xia Army, and their potentials were all B and above.

A while ago, Ouyang Shuo had obtained the ten thousand year stalactite in the cave. After the Divine Martial Guards took it, many of them broke through their bottlenecks.

Even Ouyang Shuo himself had broken through to the second layer of the Yellow Court Scripture and successfully opened up his Zifu.

The current Ouyang Shuo was on the same level as Xu Chu.

At the back of the secret manual, there was a recipe for a blood pill. Just ginseng, linzhi, shouwu, and other top grade materials numbered no less than five, and the other support ingredients were all top grade too.

The problem was that based on the records of the code, to reach the best cultivation efficiency, each cultivator could only use one pill a month for three years.

If the three thousand Divine Martial Guards trained together, the amount of pills they needed would be enormous in number.

Although that was the case, Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate and summoned Xu Chu and Zhang Zhongjing.

Ouyang Shuo passed the War Soldier Code to Xu Chu. He would be in charge of teaching the code to the Divine Martial Guards, and he would also be responsible for monitoring their cultivation.

He passed the pill recipe to Zhang Zhongjing for the Imperial Physician Court to craft the pills. For this, Ouyang Shuo passed the remaining one million gold he had left to Zhang Zhongjing for the purpose of purchasing ingredients.

This meant that to improve the Divine Martial Guards, Ouyang Shuo had spent two million gold at once. As a result, he had no choice but to delay his use of the Contract Beast Wishing Stone.

Xu Chu was touched by this and solemnly said, “Do not worry, my king. I’ll train them well and take them to another level.”

Ouyang Shuo reminded Xu Chu, “You can train them, but do not push them too far.”

“Understood.”

…

After sending Xu Chu and Zhang Zhongjing away, Ouyang Shuo summoned Zhang Liang next.

Ouyang Shuo told him about the meeting with the Federation President and asked, “Zifang, how do you think we should deal with our relationship with the academic faction?”

Zhang Liang felt a little emotional; this was the first time he had come into contact with such high level secrets. Only in Great Xia where NPCs and players were equally treated could he receive such treatment.

Not to mention how small the Caiyun City pond was, even if he went to the Yanhuang Alliance, he would not be able to gain access to high level secrets.

“The way the king is handling this is okay.” Zhang Liang thought about it, “Cooperating with the academic faction is for convenience. However, it is important to remember that while we are cooperating with them to crush Silver Hand, we must balance the two sides.”

Ouyang Shuo’s brows perked up, “Zifang is saying we cannot let either side grow too strong and the other side too weak? Instead, we should balance them to gain from it?”

“That’s right. Our current strength cannot fight against either of them. If one side falls, the victor will immediately turn against us.”

“Anomaly?”

Be it righteousness or evilness, they would not allow an anomaly to last for too long. That was because an anomaly often represented change and a shaking of foundations.

Maybe in the eyes of the academic faction, Great Xia was just a chess piece.

“That’s good.” Ouyang Shuo suddenly smiled, “Since we are using one another, it’s time to see whose skills are better. Who is the chess piece and who is the chess master is still unknown.”

When Zhang Liang heard that, he could not hide the shock and excitement he felt in his heart.

Ouyang Shuo took a deep look at Zhang Liang and asked, “Zifang, apart from balancing things, what idea do you have to ensure that we will not be controlled by others?”

Chapter 988 - Remodeling the Great Xia Navy

Chapter 988: Remodeling the Great Xia Navy

Zhang Liang replied, “The solution is to find common minded people to form a third faction in the world to go against Silver Hand and the academic faction.”

In order to not be controlled by others, one needs to jump out of the rules that others set for you.

“Good.” Ouyang Shuo’s eyes lit up, and he passed the name list to Zhang Liang, “Ask the Administrative Mentor Court how to use this name list to play a huge chess game.”

“Understood!”

Zhang Liang solemnly nodded; it was time for the Administrative Mentor Court to shine.

…

In the next few days, the world was filled with many shocks.

Gaia 5th year, 1st month, 10th day, Gan Ning led the Emperor Squadron back to Beihai Port. Along with them was the first Great Xia submarine – Black Shark.

The next morning, Great Xia finally made some new moves.

On this day, Navy Admiral Zheng He, Navy Minister and Navy Academy Principal Li Hongzhang, Navy Headquarters Strategist Lu Su, Emperor Squadron Fleet Admiral Gan Ning, Nanjiang Squadron Fleet Admiral Zhou Yu, Yashan Squadron Fleet Admiral Yu Dayou, Yizhou Fleet Admiral Shi Lang, Indian Ocean Fleet Admiral Yanhuo Yaonie, Atlantic Squadron Fleet Admiral Alvaro, and Binhai Squadron Fleet Admiral Qin Jiguang had all gathered in Shanhai City.

After making the choice to focus externally and not internally, the first thing Ouyang Shuo needed to do was remodel the navy. He needed to discuss with them about the future development of the navy to mesh with their ocean strategy.

Out of the seven squadrons, the Emperor Squadron was the most special. On the other hand, the Binhai Squadron was built the latest and only had two divisions till date. The remaining five other squadrons were all full.

The first step of remodeling would be to adjust the structure.

The Great Xia Navy’s greatest weakness was that it focused on the seas and not the oceans. Nanjiang Squadron, Yashan Squadron, Yizhou Squadron, and Binhai Squadron; they all focused on the seas.

This was not much previously. However, as they started to shift their focus overseas, and with the Yanhuang Alliance not being able to do anything to them, arranging so many squadrons to focus on the seas was a waste.

It was not only a waste of resources but also a huge burden.

The first to be adjusted was the Nanjiang Squadron.

Nanjiang Squadron was the Beihai Bay Squadron; it was the first navy squadron in Great Xia. After the change, they were moved inland and housed in Jiangchuan Province’s Poyang Lake.

Ouyang Shuo’s original intent was for them to work together with the army for battles.

As the China situation settled, there was no need to arrange such a strong squadron inland, and it could be disbanded.

Coincidentally, the Binhai Squadron was not fully filled, so Ouyang Shuo decided to move the 3rd, 4th, and 5th divisions into the Binhai Squadron. The future Nanjiang Squadron would only have two divisions.

The Binhai Squadron was facing the Handan Squadron and the Haizhou Squadron in the north to protect the dynasty’s influence in the region. As a result, filling up the squadron was really important.

This was one reason.

The Binhai Squadron was close to Japan and would play a huge role in the upcoming country war. After Qin Jiguang, this anti-Japan general was appointed, all the more they needed to strengthen this squadron.

Apart from removing some troops, since the Nanjiang Squadron was a purely inland sea navy, it was awkward for them to be placed in the navy jurisdiction. During this reorganization, they would be moved under the Privy Court and the Grand Council. They would be treated as part of the army.

At the same time, the Fleet Admiral was also changed.

Gan Ning would become the new Nanjiang Squadron Fleet Admiral while Zhou Yu would take charge of the Emperor Squadron.

After the Nanjiang Squadron had been reorganized, its strategic importance and position had dropped. Ouyang Shuo naturally would not let a general like Zhou Yu be buried in it.

Furthermore, letting Gan Ning be the Fleet Admiral of the Emperor Squadron was for convenience.

…

Next was the Yizhou Squadron.

The Yizhou Squadron would be renamed the Pacific Squadron and become the third voyage squadron of the Great Xia Navy. With that, apart from the Arctic Ocean, each ocean had its own squadron.

Their plan for the world had been settled.

After the reorganization, apart from the Emperor Squadron, the jurisdictions of the remaining five squadrons were really clear.

The Yashan Squadron would focus on the south ocean, the Binhai Squadron would focus on the Yellow River and the east ocean; these two squadrons would protect the Great Xia ocean coasts.

Qin Jiguang and Yu Dayou, these two buddies against the Japanese, one north and one south, what a combination.

Spanish famous general Alvaro’s Atlantic Squadron would be based in Morocco, and its jurisdiction included the Mediterranean, Africa’s west coast, and America’s east coast.

Just one Mediterranean was enough to give Great Xia a headache. Along with Britain, Holland, and America, the Atlantic Squadron was in the roughest spot.

Luckily, with a God General like Alvaro in charge, Ouyang Shuo was not worried.

Yanhuo Yaonie’s Indian Ocean Squadron was based in Lion City, and its jurisdiction included a portion of ASEAN, the east coast of Africa, as well as Australia and New Zealand.

The Atlantic Squadron would move out from the Gulf of Aden and hand it over to the Indian Ocean Squadron.

Apart from defending the Malacca Straits, Somalia Province, and Auckland, the Indian Ocean would definitely clash with the Indian Ocean Squadron for control over the ocean.

Yanhuo Yaonie, this player turned legendary fleet commander, would obtain a bigger stage to perform.

Last was the Shi Lang led Pacific Ocean Squadron. The headquarters would still be at the Yizhou Prefecture. In the future, Ouyang Shuo hoped that they could take down Hawaii and use it as a stepping board.

It was best if they could set up a navy base on the American Continent and complete their Pacific Ocean plan.

Apart from Japan in the north, their main enemy was still the Dawson Empire. Apart from that, they also had the responsibility to open up trading routes with South America.

…

Clearly defining the five squadrons was just the first step. Most crucially, they needed to differentiate the sea squadrons from the ocean squadrons to set different weapon development plans.

Along with the use of the magic powered submarine making technique, the Great Xia navy’s arsenal included warships, support ships, cannons, firearms, submarines, carriers, ocean mines, and more.

However, in the new round of system update, Gaia greatly reduced the equipment making speed. Hence, even though Great Xia had an advanced shipbuilding and military industry, it still needed to make sacrifices.

Ouyang Shuo’s strategy was simple. He would prioritize the three voyage squadrons and change their equipment first. This round of change was not only for warships.

“Within three years, they must transform from cold weapons to thermal weapons. The squadron soldiers will mostly change class to gunners or cannoneers. They will not have a single sword shield soldier or archer.” Ouyang Shuo defined this seismic change.

Firearm making still posed a difficult problem and building them on a large scale was even tougher.

Based on the preliminary estimations, to complete this goal, they needed to craft 500 Z1 Type Warships, 300 thousand Z1 type cannons, 200 thousand Z2 type cannons, and 200 thousand handguns.

This was an unprecedented order for the Great Xia Dynasty, where industrialization was not that advanced yet.

Gaia ending the auctions sent a really clear signal – it would not use the auction to throw out any equipment making technologies that exceeded the current technology tree.

The technology trees in the game would not have any historical breakthroughs either.

In the navy, the Man o’ War type warships would still be the main type for a long period of time. Even if someone invented the iron armored warships powered by steam engines, it would remain on the experimental level and not reach a large scale.

Not to mention other problems, but just the crafting time did not allow for a large scale use.

Due to such strategic considerations, Ouyang Shuo made his decision. If not, and Gaia pushed out the iron armored warships after they changed into Z1 Type Warships, it would be catastrophic.

Even so, they left some flexibility in this change, and it was not a 100% change. The specifics would be handled by the Navy Headquarters, and Ouyang Shuo did not need to worry about it.

…

After adjusting the structure, splitting up zones, and deciding on the equipment, the navy development would head onto the right path and become more logical.

But this was not enough.

The important problem to the voyage squadrons was how to build three to five ocean bases in the oceans for control purposes.

If they had current ports, that would be great. If they did not, they could either rent or directly attack to occupy. How to choose was a big question.

This was a systematic project that needed the squadron, the Navy Headquarters, and the Grand Council to work together to set a detailed plan and timetable.

This also depended on the Black Snake Guard’s intel network, Administrative Mentor Court’s strategies, as well as the Cabinet’s help. The list provided by Old Chen could have some use.

This whole matter was really complicated.

Ouyang Shuo was not a strict boss, and he ordered the three Fleet Admirals to complete the plan by the Lantern Festival.

The squadron equipment changing plan involved changes in soldier types and also the reorganization of the entire squadron. They could not use the cold weapons structure for the thermal weapons era.

After remodeling and restructuring the navy, the combat system also needed to be adjusted.

The problem was that facing such a huge adjustment, could the navy soldiers adapt? Did they need to have proper training?

This involved another element of the navy restructuring – the construction of the Navy Academy. The Navy Minister and the Navy Academy Principal Li Hongzhang would take this chance to walk into the spotlight.

Chapter 989 - An Lushan Rebellion

Chapter 989: An Lushan Rebellion

Li Hongzhang was in charge of building the Navy Academy for two months. Beihai City specially drew out hundred mu of land for the purpose of building the academy. By now, a rough structure was built up.

Due to the system update, this construction would be slowed down.

This was only the hardware problem. Getting teachers posed a greater problem. In ancient times, there was a lack of navy generals so to find a number of suitable teachers was harder than ascending the heavens.

However, the Navy Academy was the core to remodeling the navy, and it concerned the battle standards of the entire navy. As such, Ouyang Shuo gathered all the generals to the meeting so that they could recommend some talents over to teach.

Since the Great Xia Navy was built till now, it had been through hundreds of battles and trained up a number of elites, and young navy generals became the best choice to be teachers.

“Don’t be unwilling to send men. Today, you send one teacher; tomorrow, the academy will send 1000 great students to the squadron,” Ouyang Shuo said that to the generals.

Since it was an instruction from the king, the generals could only bear the pain. If not, just Li Hongzhang who had just arrived, even with the appointment of Navy Minister, would not be able to handle them.

Apart from promoting internally in the squadron, Ouyang Shuo also asked the Black Snake Guards, Honglu Temple, the three imperial chambers of commerce, and others to dig people from the western nations.

Using huge sums of money and the name of Great Xia, they would definitely be able to hire some elites.

Great Xia was a place for everyone. Putting Alvaro at such a key position was enough to dispel the worries of the foreign generals.

To the stubborn but talented ones, Ouyang Shuo even secretly told the Black Snake Guards, “Even if you kidnap them, bring them back to Great Xia.”

As long as they come, they would yield.

For the construction of the Navy Academy, Ouyang Shuo was going all out.

He had no choice. After all, the ancient Chinese navy foundations were simply too weak. Since Great Xia was destined to compete with the strong ocean powerhouses, he could only use such a method to reduce the disparity.

In the next few days, the generals came together to discuss the problems regarding the base construction, academy construction, and navy organization.

Many times, Ouyang Shuo would personally attend and listen. All of these generals were really skilled and many of their suggestions and thoughts gave Ouyang Shuo new ideas.

As the discussions deepened, a map of the future of the Great Xia Navy was being drawn up. Every participating general felt their blood boil and their fighting spirit burn.

They could foresee a powerful empire cruising on the ocean, ruling the seas.

The ten of them walking in and out of the Xia Palace every day naturally attracted a lot of attention. Really quickly, the news that Great Xia had gathered the navy generals for a meeting had spread throughout the China region.

Even some unrelated topics were dug up.

Of course, this was result of Ouyang Shuo leaking the news. If he really wanted to keep it a secret, with the secrecy of the imperial city, no one would be able to notice.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to use this chance to spread a message to the world that the goal of Great Xia was outside and not internally in China.

As expected, the moment the news spread out, the China region players heaved a sigh of relief. After professional analysis, the players felt at ease. Before the country war began, the China region should not have any internal battles.

The words ‘All against the outside world!’ became their motto.

The most direct relation was that on the forums in the vote for country war leader, Ouyang Shuo’s votes soared and broke the ten million mark.

…

Jingdu Province, Handan City.

“Is the old fox trying to misdirect us, or is he really aiming to expand overseas?” Difeng’s Intel was more detailed than the ones on the forums, which was why Di Chen was worried.

Once bitten, twice shy.

Juedai Fenghua saw through the situation and said, “If Ouyang Shuo does not want to lose support from the adventure gamemode players, he would not choose to send out such false news at such a sensitive time.”

“That’s true.” The attitude of Great Xia toward the Yanhuang Alliance directly affected Plan Z. As such, it was no wonder that Di Chen was worried.

Luckily, the recent developments were better and better for the Yanhuang Alliance.

The moment the country war happened, the Yanhuang Alliance would have more time to execute Plan Z. The merit talisman Di Chen obtained during the auction had also reduced that preparation time.

Everything was going good for them.

“It will get better.”

Di Chen looked out toward the window; he was filled with confidence.

……

Annan Region, Haiphong City.

Although he had already unified Annan, Ruan Tianque was not comfortable. All of this stemmed from their neighbor – the Great Xia Dynasty.

During Ouyang Shuo’s second voyage, one trade agreement had tied up Johor, Siam, Piao country, and Brunei on the Great Xia ship.

In the Indian Ocean, they also taught a tough lesson to Java’s Badong Squadron.

After Great Xia’s successive moves, the ASEAN that had been showing signs of coming together was once again in danger of falling apart. Even Zhenla Lord Bi Wenlie had grievances with Ruan Tianque.

Disharmony loomed over the clouds of ASEAN .

However, Ruan Tianque was not willing. Without ASEAN as a shield, Annan was destined to fall to Great Xia and become the next Somalia.

China had this phrase, ‘How would one be able to sleep soundly beside a wall that might collapse?’

At this very moment, his spies in China sent news of Great Xia holding a navy general meeting, shocking Ruan Tianque.

Ruan Tianque’s brows were locked; he said to his general, the famous Annan general Le Toi, “The purpose of Great Xia gathering the navy is obvious. We are probably the first to get attacked, and this battle cannot be avoided.”

Le Toi was a middle-aged general and in history. He had once been the king of Annan, and he brought with him an aura of pride, “Since it’s unavoidable, let’s prepare. If we really fight, we might not actually be afraid of them.”

Haiphong City’s territory had expanded as they unified Annan. Now, they had 300 thousand proper troops. Along with the 800 thousand guards in the imperial city of Hanoi, they had a total of 1.1 million troops.

If they considered the players as well, their overall strength would double.

Le Toi was only looking at Annan, but Ruan Tianque wanted to use external help. Zhenla and Nanzhang that were nearby could not just stand and watch if Annan faced trouble.

Maybe the heavens did not forsake Annan, as during the update, the global alliance system was released. Haiphong City allied with Nanzhang, Zhenla, Luzon, and Java right away.

Annan had some chance in this battle.

“If this battle cannot be avoided, then let them come!” Ruan Tianque clenched his fist.

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

The outside world was changing, but Great Xia did not act. They just continued to hold the navy meetings.

It was not easy to gather the ten of them together. As such, apart from discussing the development strategy of the navy, they also discussed the goals of the 5th year.

The Emperor Squadron and the Yashan Squadron, needless to say, they would work with the dynasty army to attack Annan during the 5th year.

On the other hand, the Binhai Squadron would naturally place its energy on the 6th month, on the country war.

The Pacific Squadron, apart from attacking Hawaii, also needed to complete a trip to South America to open up the trade route.

The Indian Ocean Squadron would target Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka was famous for its gems, and it was named the pearl of the Indian Ocean. It was a famous transition point in the Indian Ocean trade route.

The key was that Sri Lanka was just one Palk Straits away from India. The first bunch of outsiders on Sri Lanka were from India.

The Lords of India had probably yearned for Sri Lanka for a long time.

Be it in terms of population or land, India was comparable to China, and it was one of the giants of Asia. One could foresee that there would be a huge battle for the Indian Ocean Squadron to take down Sri Lanka.

The goal of the Atlantic Squadron was to make South Africa under Great Xia. They would use Morocco, Somalia, and South Africa as a triangle to increase their influence and reach in Africa.

One could say that the mission of each squadron was not really specific and needed drawn out plans.

Just as the navy meetings were held, on the 1st month, 12th day, a System Notification sounded out.

“System Notification: All China territories have upgrade to the Prefecture grade, starting the Battle Map system. The 8th Battle Map, An Lushan Rebellion, will start in three days. Friendly Reminder: This Battle Map is not a forced scenario quest and only Lords who have upgraded to Grade 1 Prefecture can join in.”

…

The last city in China to upgrade to the Prefecture grade was Sha Pojun’s Asura City.

Originally, the conditions for this battle should have been ten territories, but China was only left with eight territories. As a result, Gaia could only flexibly change the conditions.

Who knows what Gaia would set the conditions of the next Battle Map to?

Gaia had set the rule that to start a Battle Map, the country must at least have two Lords. In cases like the ASEAN countries where one Lord rules over an entire country, the Battle Map system would stop.

The Battle Map was a place for Lords to face-off, so Gaia would not let it become a solo event for Lords to gain easy merit points.

…

Speaking of the An Lushan Rebellion, it was a historical event that everyone knew about.

Simply put, it happened during the end of Tang Xuanzong’s reign and the start of Tang Taizong. It was a rebellion by Provincial Governor An Lushan and Shi Siming against the Tang Dynasty. The event lasted for eight years.

This battle was the turning point of the Tang Dynasty that caused it to weaken.

“An Lushan Rebellion? This is interesting.” Ouyang Shuo smiled.

Chapter 990 - Guts That Were Castrated

Chapter 990: Guts That Were Castrated

The difference between the An Lushan Rebellion and the previous seven Battle Maps was that this was an internal rebellion raised by a border general. It was not a faceoff between two sides.

Talking about this battle, one had to briefly mention the Provincial Governor system of the Tang Dynasty.

Tang Taizong, Tang Gaozong first took down Liaodong, then the west Turks, Tuyuhun, and other nearby regions, causing the Tang Dynasty to be an empire with a vast border.

To strengthen their control of the border regions, the border defenses, and their control of the minority races, Tang Xuanzong set up 10 garrisons, appointing 9 Jiedushi and one military commander.

What was a Jiedushi?

Based on the history of the later Tang Dynasties, it was someone with power over land, over people, over finances, and over troops. As such, the Jiedushi ruled a region and became a problem for the Tang royal family.

Tang Xuanzong removed the conscription system, causing their military strength to be strong externally but weak internally. At that moment, there were 500 thousand soldiers at the border and less than 80 thousand soldiers in the Imperial Court. The Jiedushi’s could already threaten the safety of the Imperial Court. Just An Lushan alone, who was the Pinglu Jiedushi, Fanyang Jiedushi, and Hedong Jiedushi had 150 thousand troops.

To the emperor, to decide whether a person rebels or not was not related to the heart to rebel but rather if the person in question had the ability to. Without a doubt, An Lushan had the ability to.

There were many people who tried to tell Tang Xuanzong that An Lushan might rebe,l but Tang Xuanzong did not listen. The one whose attitude was most the adamant was the prime minister at that time, the brother of Yang Guifei – Yang Guozhong.

Yang Guozhong and An Lushan had a bad relationship, and they had a long history of bad blood. However, Fan Xuanzong did not interfere in this. An Lushan held onto his ambitions and had many troops in hand, which gave him a chance to betray Tang.

This gave rise to the rebellion that lasted for eight years. Until the war ended, there was no real winner.

Yang Guozhong was murdered by furious soldiers in the mutiny of Maweiyi, Yang Guifei was forced to kill herself, while Tang Xuanzong and his son Li Heng went their separate ways.

The rebels did not have a good ending either.

The ironic thing was that the two rebel leaders did not die on the battlefield but died from the hands of their own sons. An Lushan was killed by his son, An Qingxu, while Shi Siming was killed by his son, Shi Chaoyi.

Their personal fates were secondary. Most crucially, the An Lushan Rebellion affected the fate of the Tang Dynasty, which affected the fate of the entire Chinese race.

The An Lushan Rebellion destroyed the ruling foundations of the Tang Dynasty, weakening the centralization of power and creating the necessary conditions for feudalism.

When the Huangchao Rebellion at the end of Tang Dynasty occurred, Chinese history welcomed a hugely chaotic time – five dynasties and 10 kingdoms.

During the five dynasties and 10 kingdoms period, many mutinies occurred with the rulers changing frequently.

To prevent similar situations from occurring, Zhao Kuangyin executed his policy to focus on civil servants and not military, prohibiting generals from interfering in politics. He also used the cheerful opportunity while drinking to remove old generals from their positions.

Although his actions successfully weakened local powers and prolonged the Song Dynasty, it caused the dynasty to be weak and poor with a heavy outside problem.

At the end of the two Song Dynasties, the situation did not change.

Ever since the Tang Dynasty ended, generals becoming ministers was a dream and civil servants ruling generals became a tradition. Some people said that the guts of the Chinese people were castrated at this moment, and they were unable to be as majestic as the Han and Tang Dynasties.

…

Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

The moment the notification ended, Feng Qiuhuang came over to Shanhai City to discuss matters with Ouyang Shuo.

There were only the two of them left in the Shanhai Alliance.

There were many officials and generals from Great Xia that were born in the Tang Dynasty. Hence, no matter what choices Di Chen and the others make, Ouyang Shuo would still choose the Tang Dynasty camp.

If they also choose the same side, this battle would be pointless.

However, with Di Chen’s arrogance, he would want to fight with Ouyang Shuo. The reason being that in terms of soldier numbers, Yanhuang Alliance held the advantage.

Although Ouyang Shuo was a prince, he could only bring 100 thousand troops. Feng Qiuhuang was a 1st class Marquis and could bring 50 thousand troops, so they could bring a total of 150 thousand soldiers.

The members of the Yanhuang Alliance were all 1st class Marquis and could bring 300 thousand troops in total, double that of the Shanhai Alliance. The Battle Map also allowed them to use contribution points to revive dead soldiers, so Di Chen and the others had little to worry about.

Toward this matter, Ouyang Shuo was still a little optimistic.

“If we are united, wouldn’t it be too boring?” Ouyang Shuo said to Feng Qiuhuang.

Feng Qiuhuang nodded; she was a person that loved to compete.

Ouyang Shuo said, “This battle is a great chance for Fallen Phoenix City to recruit generals.” Ouyang Shuo saying this was him taking the initiative to give up on his chances of recruiting the Tang Dynasty camp generals.

Feng Qiuhuang had Ran Min, Wang He, and Zhou Bo. The only thing she lacked was a top commander to lead the troops.

Tang Dynasty Guo Ziyi was undoubtedly a suitable choice.

Feng Qiuhuang smiled, “Then I’ll go ahead.” Between the two of them, there was naturally no need to be too polite.

…

Jingdu Province, Handan City.

Di Chen and the others gathered together to discuss battle matters.

“The old fox has spread the word that he will choose the Tang Dynasty camp. What are your thoughts?” Di Chen asked.

Chun Shenjun gave a cold smile, “He really knows how to take advantage of the situation. Choosing the Tang Dynasty camp in advance, he clearly wants to beat us once more.”

“You cannot put it that way.” Zhan Lang did not agree, “With the way Tang Xuanzong acts, choosing the Tang Dynasty camp may not be advantageous. Furthermore, the rebellion lasts for eight years, so who knows which part of it Gaia would use?”

“That’s right.” Xiong Ba nodded, “With Gaia’s character, it would not be biased. No matter which camp is chosen, it would still be the same.”

Seeing that everyone had given their opinion, Di Chen smiled, “So you all want to fight once more?”

“Fight!”

“That’s right, we cannot yield. I will feel unhappy if we do not win even once,” Sha Pojun said.

Chun Shenjun did not oppose, and he smiled, “That’s right. We have fought seven times, much less once more. Based on the experts, the next few battles for the China region might be one camp against the outside world. As such, the chances we have to fight the old fox are getting lesser and lesser.”

Di Chen said, “That’s settled; let’s give it our best shot.”

The Yanhuang Alliance and the Shanhai Alliance were going to face off once more.

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

Gaia 5th year, 1st month, 15th day, 9 AM, the System Notification announcement sounded.

“System Notification: 755 AD, Jiedushi An Lushan and Shu Siming started a rebellion and was suppressed by the Tang Dynasty. 8th Battle Map – An Lushan Rebellion officially begins!”

“Checking battle requirements, selecting forces, choosing camp…”

The 100 thousand troops Great Xia chose were the two heavy mountain barbarian infantry divisions in the 1st legion of the Guards Legion Corps, the 2nd Guards Legion, and the three thousand Divine Martial Guards.

As the Tang Dynasty did not lack famous generals, to prevent themselves from overpowering their hosts, Ouyang Shuo did not bring Huo Qubing.

“System Notification: Teleportation begin!”

After a short while of twisting and turning, Ouyang Shuo and his men appeared on the battlefield.

“System Notification: Welcome player Qiyue Wuqi, descending on the Tang Dynasty camp -Chang An.”

“Chang An?”

Ouyang Shuo was shocked; this meant that Chang An city had not been taken down by the rebels yet.

Based on the historical progression, Tang Xuanzong had not taken his ministers and wives to escape to the Shu Lands. The famous mutiny of Maweiyi had not occurred yet.

“Then has Tong Pass fallen?”

What Ouyang Shuo cared about was that. As the last barrier to Chang An, if Tong Pass fell, then there was no meaning in remaining in Chang An.

Chapter 991 - Tong Pass Is Lost, Your Majesty Run!

Chapter 991: Tong Pass Is Lost, Your Majesty Run!

Tianbao 14th year, 11th month, 9th day, An Lushan, who was the Jiedushi of Fanyang, Pinglu and Hebei activated the Tang troops under him; he had a total of 150 thousand soldiers. In the name of protecting the country, he started an uprising in Fanyang.

The elite cavalry under him galloped thousands of miles, the rumbling shaking the earth.

They were peaceful for a long time, and the civilians had not seen war in a few generations. Hearing that there was an uprising in Fanyang, they were shocked. Hebei was under the jurisdiction of An Lushan, so the local counties either opened their gates or fled. The rebels quickly took control of Hebei.

11th month, 15th day, Tang Xuanzong appointed Anxi Jiedushi Feng Changping as the Fanyang and Pinglu Jiedushi to defend Louyang. He also appointed Rongwang Liwan as the commander and Gao Xianzhi as the deputy to go on an expedition in the east. At the same time, he sent Bi Sichen east toward Luoyang to recruit troops.

The elite border troops of the Tang Dynasty had not rushed back so the troops that Feng Changping and Gao Xianzhi recruited in Chang An and Luoyang were city kids that lacked combat experience and were untrained.

Although the An Lushan army faced obstruction along the way, it still managed to attack Luoyang on the 12th month, 12day.

Feng Changqing and Gao Xianzhi backed off into Tong Pass and were looking to defend it. Who knew that Tang Zongxian would listen to the words of the officials and execute them for losing discipline and causing troops to die?

Tianbao 15th year, 1st month, An Lushan announced the start of the Great Yan empire in Luoyang.

After Tang Xuanzong executed Feng Changqing and Gao Xianzhi, he appointed Longshi Jiedushi Ge Shuhan, who was sick, as the deputy commander to lead 200 thousand troops to defend Tong Pass. Tong Pass was located at a great geographical location, and it was easy to defend but hard to attack. After Ge Shuhan entered Tong Pass, he immediately strengthened the defenses, deepening the moats and making the walls higher.

Tianbao 15th year, An Lushan appointed his son An Qingxu to lead troops to attack Tong Pass but was forced back by Ge Shuhan. The An army was blocked outside Tong Pass for numerous days and could not proceed west.

An Lushan, seeing that forcefully attacking was not a feasible plan, ordered Cui Ganyou to lead the weak and old soldiers to camp in Xia Prefecture while he led the elite forces to hide to draw Ge Shuhan out to battle.

5th month, when Tang Xuanzong got the news that Cui Ganyou’s troops were less than four thousand in number, he ordered Ge Shuhan to send troops to reclaim Xia Prefecture.

Ge Shuhan immediately sent a letter to Tang Xuanzong, “An Lushan is really experienced and starting a rebellion, he would obviously be prepared. He is definitely using his old and weak troops to tempt us. If we advance, we would be falling for his tricks. Furthermore, the rebels are on an expedition and their advantage lies in their speed. Our troops can use the Tong Pass and our advantage is in defense. The rebels are heartless, and they will lose the people’s sentiment. Very quickly, they will have internal chaos. It would not be too late to strike then.”

At the same time, Guo Ziyi, Li Guangbi attacked Shi Siming in Hebei and won a few wars, proceeding really smoothly. Both of them similarly felt that they should defend Tong Pass and not strike out. They supported leading the troops north to take down Fanyang to cause the rebel army to collapse internally.

However, minister Yang Guozhong suspected that Ge Shuhan was plotting something, telling Tang Xuanzong, “Ge Shuhan not acting would make us lose the opportunity.”

Tang Xuanzong believed his words, and he did not bother about the plans of Guo and Li and sent letters to force Ge Shuhan to fight.

Ge Shuhan was helpless, and he was forced to do as said.

With what happened to Feng Changqing and Gao Xianzhi, Ge Shuhan was forced to send troops out on the 6th month, 4th day. On the 7th, he met the forces of Cui Ganyou on the Lingbao West plains.

The south of Lingbao was lying on a mountain, the north was the Yellow River, and in the middle was a 70 mile narrow mountain path. Cui Ganyou placed his elite troops on the south mountain and led his troops to fight with the Tang Army on the 8th day.

The Tang army had 50 thousand men led by Wang Sili at the front, and 100 thousand led by Pang Zong at the back. The Tang Army also had 30 thousand troops that were sent to the north shore of the Yellow River to help.

As the two armies engaged, the Tang army saw that the rebels were not organized and were fleeing, so they chased for the victory, which led them into a valley. The rebel troops lying in wait threw down rolling stones and wood onto the Tang Army that had all gathered on the small mountain path, so most of the troops suffered casualties.

Ge Shuhan ordered the chariots to charge at the front to try to open a path. However, the rebels used flames to burn the straw chariots, blocking up the path. The Tang army was blinded by the smoke and randomly shot arrows until they ran out. Only then did they realized that they had fallen for a trap.

At that moment, Cui Ganyou ordered the Tongluo elite cavalry to attack from a canyon on the south side. The Tang army being pincered in from the front and the back was in chaos. Some abandoned their armor and fell into the valley, while some were squeezed into the Yellow River and drowned.

When the back troops saw that the front troops had lost, their morale was crushed before they even began fighting. The Tang army on the north shore of Yellow River also retreated upon noticing the bad situation. Out of the 200 thousand Tang army, only eight thousand fled back to Tong Pass.

9th day, Cui Ganyou attacked Tong Pass.

Ge Shuhan was forced by his men to surrender to An Lushan.

This battle was a typical ambush battle in Chinese war history. Tang Xuanzong misread the situation, rejecting the idea of defending the pass in a battle of attrition and instead chose to counterattack. In the end it was a lose-lose scenario that caused the rebellion situation to get worse.

Cui Ganyou tempted the Tang army out to battle by hiding their elites, hereby obtaining the victory.

Learning that Tong Pass had fallen, Chang An was in chaos. Only one to two people attended the assembly out of hundreds of officials. When Tang Xuanzong said that he wanted to personally lead troops, no one believed him.

In the end, he brought Guifei, the prince, his grandchildren, Yang Guozhong, Wei Fang Jing, and Chen Xuanli to escape toward the Shu Lands under the protection of his guards.

What happened next was the mutiny of Maweiyi.

The Battle of Tong Pass was a crucial turning point of the An Lushan Rebellion. If they were still at Tong Pass, Ouyang Shuo would have a 90% confidence in winning this war. If not, he would be facing a huge problem.

…

Outside of Chang An city, Ouyang Shuo met up with Feng Qiuhuang, and a System Notification sounded out.

“Battle Notification: An Lushan Rebellion, a total of eight Lords participating, overall 450 thousand troops. Two Lords in the Tang Dynasty camp, 150 thousand men; An Lushan Camp six Lords, 300 thousand men.”

…

“Battle Notification: Due to numerical disadvantage, based on Battle Map rules, Tang Dynasty camp obtains a 50% defense buff.”

…

As the Tang Dynasty camp had only half the number of the An Lushan camp, the Tang Dynasty camp received a sizeable buff.

“Battle Notification: Based on rank and merit points, Tang Dynasty player representative is Qiyue Wuyi, prince. Ah Lushan camp representative is Di Chen, 1st class Marquis.”

…

Although he had gained the merit talisman, Di Chen should be still a little bit away from the Duke rank. Who knows whether he would be able to reach it after the Battle Map ended or not.

If that happened, the China region would soon welcome its second dynasty.

Ouyang Shuo quashed his thoughts and found the military officer to register. Following which, he asked, “General, where are the rebels, do we still have Tong Pass?”

“Tong Pass has been lost. You two came just in time to assist us.” The reply astonished Ouyang Shuo and Feng Qiuhuang.

Feng Qiuhuang said half-jokingly, “Damn, we are going to lose to them this time. Why don’t we lead our troops into the mountains to tide out till the end of the battle.”

Hearing her words, Ouyang Shuo did not react. Instead, it was the general’s face that changed.

Ouyang Shuo smiled at the general, “Do not worry. Since we are here, we will not leave. Help me tell the palace that I’ll enter the palace to meet his majesty soon.”

“Yes!”

Seeing Feng Qiuhuang’s confused look, Ouyang Shuo smiled and said, “Let’s go to the tent to discuss.”

The timing of the battle was really unexpected. After Chang An fell, they did stop the rebellion, but that was years after.

The difference between the Battle Map and history was the existence of players.

An Lushan had 300 thousand Yanhuang Alliance troops. Would they be swallowed by the various Tang Dynasty Juedushi like in history? They might not.

With Di Chen there, An Lushan’s son An Qingxu trying to kill his dad and in turn causing chaos in the An Lushan camp would not happen.

The entire situation was really bad for the Tang Dynasty camp.

Returning to the tent, Ouyang Shuo said to Feng Qiuhuang, “Gaia would not arrange us a dead end. It seems impossible because we have not found the key to breaking the situation.”

“But Tong Pass has already fallen, and the enemy would reach Chang An soon. We do not have much time left.” Feng Qiuhuang was still pessimistic.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Do not worry, I will go see the legendary Tang Xuanzong, and we will see when I come back.”

“Okay.”

After Feng Qiuhuang left, Ouyang Shuo said to Pang Tong, “How we break this situation depends on you.”

During this trip, Ouyang Shuo did not bring Jia Xu along. Instead, he brought the newbie Pang Tong. Naturally, he wanted to give Pang Tong a chance to shine so that he could stand up in the Administrative Mentor Court.

Ouyang Shuo had understood how to use people.

“Do not worry my king, I will not fail you.” Pang Tong was filled with pride. Since he changed sides from Shu Han to Great Xia and entered the Administrative Mentor Court that was filled with strategists, he had naturally wanted to perform.

Within the Administrative Mentor Court, apart from Zhang Liang, Jia Xu, Jushou, and Chen Gong were all from the same era as him.

Before leaving, Pang Tong suddenly said, “My king, after you meet Xuanzong, find time to see the prince Li Xiang.”

Ouyang Shuo was stunned, and a smiled appeared at the corner of his mouth.

For Pang Tong to say that proved that in the three days of preparation time, he had done a lot of work for this battle. His loyalty was commendable, so Ouyang Shuo was naturally touched by it.

“Who knows whether I’ll be able to meet the legendary Yang Guifei or not?” Looking at the tall city walls, Ouyang Shuo exclaimed.

Chapter 992 - The Old Emperor and the Minister that Hides Behind the Shadows

Chapter 992: The Old Emperor and the Minister that Hides Behind the Shadows

Battle Map, Luoyang.

Di Chen and the others led their men outside of Luoyang City. Learning that Tong Pass had already been taken down, Di Chen smiled as he said to them, “Even Gaia is standing on our side this time. Let’s see what that old fox can do.”

‘Haha.’

Chun Shenjun and the others laughed. Being able to win against Ouyang Shuo once in the Battle Map had great meaning to then, and it was able to raise their confidence.

Di Chen said, “After I meet An Lushan, we will lead our troops to take down Chang An and not give the old fox a chance.”

“That’s right!” Xiong Ba said.

With the 300 thousand army to rely on, Di Chen and the others did not even have An Lushan in their eyes. The moment the Yanhuang Alliance Army landed in Luoyang, the decisions that the An Lushan camp would make was up to them.

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

Chang An, east outskirts.

Since Ouyang Shuo was going into the city to meet Tang Xuanzong, he did not need to go through the entire Chang An city. In truth, if he entered through the east city gate, the first building cluster on the right side was the Xingqing Palace.

Xingqing Palace was Tang Xuanzong’s residence when he was the King Fan. After he ascended, it was expanded to become one of the three palaces of the city. The other two were the Taiji Palace and the Taiming Palace.

During the Kaiyuan and Tianbao years, the Xingqing Palace was the administrative center of the Tang Dynasty and was where Tang Xuanzong and Yang Guifei lived. After the An Lushan rebellion, Xingqing Palace lost its position as the administrative center and became where the empress occasionally lived.

In the Xingqing hall, Ouyang Shuo met Tang Xuanzong and the minister Yang Guozong.

As the longest serving emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Li Longji was 72 years old. His hair was white, and his skin was loose. His body far was from before, and he was not as majestic as when he was young.

Time was a grinding stone, soundless and invisible.

Li Longji was able to restructure his empire when he was young, expanding quickly and spreading his fame, fulfilling his ambitions in several decades.

As an emperor who stood at the top, Li Longji was able to run the difficult country well in the 20 years since he ascended, bringing peace to everyone. Administrative matters were efficient, and many countries came over to visit. What ruler in three generations could do that?

Despite the talents of Qin Shihuang, and the intelligence of Hanwu Emperor, neither was able to create such a prosperous scene. Hence, at the peak of his life, when he looked at the list of over 70 countries who came over from afar to visit, Li Longji felt really satisfied.

At the same time, he also felt really tired.

Normally speaking, it was rare for one to live till 70 during this time. It was all the more rare for an emperor to live till 70. After all, working so hard in the day, beauties using up your strength at night, it was a miracle if one did not die after a few decades.

Li Longji had created a miracle. Although he was busy before 50 years old, he took time to have 30 sons and 29 girls.

An Lushan’s rebellion made Li Longji really sad and tired.

Li Longji loved and treated An Lushan really well. He gave him the officials he wanted, money, troops, and fame.

Let us raise a few examples.

When An Lushan moved over to Chang An, Li Longji had previously invited a few ministers to play football together. However, to make An Lushan happy, he specially ordered to postpone the football game and ordered the ministers to attend An Lushan’s feast.

During the time that An Lushan was in Chang An, every time Li Longji ate a delicious food or hunted a rare delicacy, he would send someone to send it to An Lushan.

To put it simply, Li Longji was not as caring to his own son.

Surprisingly, due to him recognizing Yang Guifei as his god mother, An Lushan could enter the palace as he wished to talk to Yan Guifei and have meals with her.

The outside world spread the news that there was something going on between them but the god father did not care. Facing such treatment and kindness, even a beast would have some feelings, right?

However, An Lushan still revolted.

Losing Tong Pass had crushed Li Longji’s psychological defenses. He now wished to flee from Chang An to Shu Lands to avoid all of this and live in the accompaniment of beauties as he lived out the rest of his life.

Yang Guozhong was only 40 odd years old, and at this time he was still really energetic. His sister Yang Yuhuan had looks that could take down cities while his looks were not that far off. However, his face was filled with anxiousness and fear.

Based on history, this minister who stepped on Li Linfu to climb up would quickly reach the end of his life.

Objectively, no matter how scheming Li Linfu was and how much he abused his power, he should not be able to damage the country. However, due to his tricks, be it the officials or the generals, he was able to cover them and make them yield.

This was similar to Yan Song, who joined Great Xia not long ago.

An Lushan was loved by the emperor and did not even place the other officials and generals in his eyes. He was only respectful toward Li Linfu, and he was both respectful and afraid of him.

Meeting him, even in the cold seasons, An Lushan would break out in cold sweat that would soak his attire.

An Lushan had planted spies in the city. Each time he returned to Fanyang, he would care about the instructions of Li Linfu the most. If the spies brought back good words, he would be delighted. If Li Linfu showed signs of unhappiness, An Lushan would panic, “Oh no! I’m going die!”

If Li Linfu did not die, An Lushan definitely would not have the courage to rebel.

Furthermore, as a minister who focused on the system and on his job, although Li Linfu abused his power, he still did what he was supposed to do. He pushed out several beneficial policies and was not totally useless.

However, his replacement Yang Guozhong was not only a lot weaker in terms skill, but apart from focusing all his energy on sucking up to the emperor, deceiving him from matters on the ground, abusing his power, and the like, he basically did not do any work.

Although they were ministers with much power, in the history books, Li Linfu was listed as a despicable minister, while Yang Guozhong could only be remembered as a relative of the emperor.

Not mentioning things that were too far away, for the An Lushan Rebellion to reach this stage was due to Li Longji misreading the situation. Yang Guozhong could not push the blame for that.

It was not without reason that he was killed by furious soldiers during the mutiny of Maweiyi.

Now, Ouyang Shuo was facing such an old emperor and such a useless minister. To be able to meet Li Longji was also due to the 150 thousand troops he had outside.

The first words that Li Longji said were nearly enough to infuriate Ouyang Shuo, “What great timing. I have decided to leave for the Shu Lands. Lead your men and follow me.”

“….”

Ouyang Shuo was speechless.

“Your majesty, the 150 thousand troops that I brought are all elites and can fight.” Ouyang Shuo naturally did not want to just retreat out of Chang An because that was the same as surrendering.

“Preposterous!”

Within the hall, a huge shout broke out as Yang Guozhong pointed at Ouyang Shuo, “His majesty’s safety is of utmost importance. Are you planning to go against orders?”

Ouyang Shuo frowned, sweeping his gaze across Yang Guozhong.

As the king of Great Xia, it would be difficult for a historical person like Yang Guozhong to even meet Ouyang Shuo usually, much less act so arrogantly. Even in the Battle Map, Ouyang Shuo would not let that happen.

“You….”

Being looked at by Ouyang Shuo like that, although he did not want to admit it, he felt afraid. That invisible aura was something he did not feel before even in front of the emperor.

‘Cough cough!’ Li Longji saw that his loyal minister was in a tough spot, so he said, “There’s no need to argue. We will not be able to defend Chang An. It’s best to retreat into the Shu Lands first.”

If it were 10 or 20 years ago, with the 150 thousand player forces, maybe Li Longji would have the courage to fight against the rebels.

However, time waited for no one, and the current him only wanted to leave this place.

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo knew that Li Longji had already made his decision, and there was no meaning in going on. “Since that’s the case, I can only follow the orders. However, I have a small request, please fulfil it.”

“Speak!”

Receiving Ouyang Shuo’s promise, Li Longji was really happy. With the 150 thousand player troops following along, he did not need to worry about anything. Even if Ouyang Shuo wanted his concubines, apart from Yang Guifei, Li Longji would agree.

Ouyang Shuo said, “To prevent the people from being unsettled and causing chaos in the city, allow me to lead some troops to defend the city and ensure your safety.”

During the Battle of Tong Pass, the troops that Ge Shuhan had in Chang An and Longshi, as well as those recruited from Chang An and Luoyang were basically all used up.

The 200 thousand troops that the dynasty had gathered were lost.

Now, there were only three thousand guards in charge of defending the palace. As such, it was no wonder that Li Longji was hellbent on fleeing. If not, he would be captured alive by An Lushan.

Hearing that Ouyang Shuo wanted to lead troops to aid in the defense, Li Longji did not even think about it and agreed.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo so caring, Li Longji naturally repaid the favor, giving him a title and handing him a talisman. With it, he could bring troops in, and no one would stop him.

When Yang Guozhong saw that, he originally wanted to play some tricks. However, after being shocked by Ouyang Shuo previously, he still had not regained his senses. He could only watch on as this player became the focus of attention.

Naturally, he felt threatened, and his eyes were filled with jealousy.

As for Ouyang Shuo? He did not even take a look at Yang Guozhong. He simply accepted the talisman and took his leave.

“Your highness, aren’t you treating that player too well?” When Ouyang Shuo left, Yang Guozhong tried to sow discord.

“No worries, as long as we retreat into the Shu Lands, it will be easy to deal with that player.”

“Your majesty is wise!”

…

Walking out of Xingqing Palace, Ouyang Shuo did not go back to his camp. Instead, he turned and headed to the prince’s manor.

Chapter 993 - An Emperor Guards the Country, a Ruler Dies for It

Chapter 993: An Emperor Guards the Country, a Ruler Dies for It

Ouyang Shuo was not in a rush to go to the prince’s manor. He first passed the token from Li Jingji to a Personal Guard and ordered, “Pass this to the advisor and ask him to move the troops into the city.”

“Yes my king!” The guard turned around and left.

The meeting with Li Longji and Yang Guozhong made Ouyang Shuo really disappointed. The two of them were determined to flee, but Ouyang Shuo would not accede to their request.

With 150 thousand elite troops in his hands, Ouyang Shuo could do what others wanted but could not achieve. Ouyang Shuo also understood the reason why Pang Tong asked him to visit the prince, Li Xiang.

As the Tang Dynasty prince, Li Xiang had a really bad life.

From the moment he was set as the next ruler, Li Xiang was under pressure from both Li Linfu and Yang Guozhong, so his life was a really tough one.

Solely during Li Linfu’s time, to remove the prince’s faction, Li Linfu caused two incidents regarding Li Xiang’s marriage. As a result, he divorced twice, which made him feel really sour. He was psychologically hurt.

Yang Guozhong was next, and he had another fight for power against Li Xiang. On the surface, Chang An City was really prideful. However, internally, it was a dangerous place. Only when the An Lushan Rebellion happened did Li Xiang find a chance to strike back.

Without a doubt, the person who planned the mutiny of Maweiyi was Li Xiang.

Tang Xuanzong hurried to flee to the Shu Lands, bringing with him three thousand guards. Li Xiang had two thousand men with him, which included the elite guards forces – flying dragon guards.

6th month, 14th day, the fleeing forces reached Maweiyi. As the soldiers were hungry and tired, they started to grumble.

This gave Li Xiang, who was planning in the dark, a great chance.

Yang Guozhong was chased by the guards troops to Maweiyi’s west gate, where he was cut down. His son Yang Xuan and his wife were also killed during the chaos.

Li Xiang single-handedly planned the mutiny, killing the Yang family and pointing his spear at Tang Xuanzong. Tang Xuanzong entering the Shu Lands was irreversible, and the father and son duo going their separate ways was bound to happen.

Tianbao 15th year, 7th month, 9th day, Li Xiang arrived in Wuling. After a round of planning and preparation, on the 12th day, he had a simple ascension ceremony on the south gate city tower.

At this point, the An Lushan Rebellion welcomed another turning point.

When he heard that Ouyang Shuo was here to visit, Li Xiang did not dare to take it lightly and personally invited him into the manor.

The current Li Xiang was already 45, and he was not some majestic young man. He was a slightly plump and sad faced middle-aged man.

Ouyang Shuo could not imagine how such a person had the courage to start a mutiny. The mutiny of Maweiyi was definitely planned. Moreover, based on the timing, Li Xiang should have definitely started planning it.

“The prince wants to use methods to kill Yang Guozhong?” Ouyang Shuo was really direct.

‘Huadang!’

The exquisite jade porcelain cup was smashed to pieces on the ground and tea splashed. In the Tang Xuanzong era, the way of the tea was rising, and the era that Tea Saint Lu Yu appeared in was after the An Lushan Rebellion.

Li Xiang did not notice, and his face was ashen white, as he trembled, “You, what you are saying. I do not, I do not understand.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Prince, do not worry. What you want to do, just with my 150 thousand troops, I can help you complete in Chang An. Why don’t I tell you a piece of news? The emperor has allowed me to move troops to defend the city.”

Li Xiang sent away the servant who was about to clean up the tea glass, and he calmed himself down, “If that’s the case, what do I need to do?”

Ouyang Shuo nodded in approval, “Prince, have you heard of a sentence?”

“Please speak!” Li Xiang said really respectfully.

“An emperor guards the country, a ruler dies for it.”

Li Xiang was stunned; these words were after his time and were used to describe the Ming Dynasty. Naturally, he had not heard of these words before. “So, what you’re saying is you want me to stay in Chang An?”

“Why, you don’t dare?”

Li Xiang was at a lost. Although he was a prince, at such a stage, he was less of a person than the player before him. He gritted his teeth, “Tong Pass has been taken. Can we defend Chang An?”

Being worried about Chang An City was just one of the reasons. Li Xiang also had another thought; he wanted to contact Guo Ziyi. After all, the Great Tang army was loyal to Tang; it was not some player army.

Ouyang Shuo’s pitch black eyes saw through Li Xiang’s thoughts, “Whether we can defend or not is my problem. You do not have to worry.”

Li Xiang’s face tensed up, and he tightly gripped his robe.

“Insult; this was an utter insult to the royal family!”

Ouyang Shuo was unwilling to stay for any longer, so he stood up and said, “A huge change is about to occur; please prepare early.”

The current Ouyang Shuo was like the power ministers of China. He was like Huo Guang, like Dong Zhuo. In Li Xiang’s eyes, he was a devil.

Li Xiang stood stunned at the spot, not knowing how to react.

Before leaving, Ouyang Shuo said coldly, “Please remember these words, Chang An City lacks loyalty, lacks generals, and lacks merciful and smart people; the only thing it does not lack is emperors.”

Li Xiang’s fingernails slowly dug into his skin. However, he did not feel any pain in his heart.

…

Leaving the prince manor, Ouyang Shuo led his forces to the residence that Li Longji had arranged for him. Inside, Feng Qiuhuang, Pang Tong, and Shihu were already waiting.

Pang Tong received the token that Ouyang Shuo had sent him and immediately understood. He sent 30 thousand heavy armored mountain barbarians and three thousand Divine Martial Guards into the city to take charge of the city gates as the pass into the city.

“My king, Chang An City is already under our control,” Pang Tong reported.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “The advisor really knows me. Next, how to let Li Longji abdicate? I hope to let the prince Li Xiang ascend. I need you to plan for it.”

Since Li Xiang was destined to get the position through a mutiny, Ouyang Shuo decided to let that come through. However, the ascension would not be at Wuling City but at Chang An City.

With that, it was all the more proper.

Through this, Ouyang Shuo could also control the Tang Dynasty camp and use the entire power of the Tang Camp to fight the rebels and not fight alone.

“Do not worry, my king!” Pang Tong was really confident.

It was Feng Qiuhuang who was filled with confusion, so she asked, “Wuyi, what are you trying to do? Are we really going to defend Chang An?”

“Is that not okay?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

“That’s totally not okay.” Feng Qiuhuang was furious, “Apart from the mountain barbarians, the rest of our troops are cavalry. How can we defend?”

“If it were just defending, we would not be able to obtain a complete victory. I have an idea.” As he spoke, Ouyang Shuo laid out his plan.

After he voiced his plan, the room was totally silent.

“You are crazy!” Feng Qiuhuang exclaimed.

Ouyang Shuo smiled. Gaia had moved the Battle Map to such a special time; it was giving the Tang Dynasty camp a dead problem.

“We can only win by doing that. Feng Wu, trust me.” Ouyang Shuo tried to persuade her.

Feng Qiuhuang gave him a bitter smile, “I’m already on your ship, what can I do?”

With the plan discussed, both of them went to make their preparations. The rebel army could arrive at any moment, so they did not have much time left.

…

Luoyang.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was talking to Li Longji, Di Chen met An Lushan.

People like An Lushan found it hard to trust others, and he had a theory, ‘Whoever’s army is bigger, whoever’s fist is larger; whoever’s fist is larger, whoever is boss.’

Di Chen leading the 300 thousand troops and suddenly descending on Luoyang had given An Lushan a lot of pressure. An Lushan originally wanted to order Cui Ganyou to not wait for troops and take down Chang An right away, but he was stopped by Di Chen.

“Chang An has 150 thousand player troops there. If Cui Ganyou goes there now, it would be sending him to his death. If he’s not careful, the enemy might even take back Tong Pass.”

An Lushan did not believe it, “Are the enemy player troops that strong?”

“Although I do not want to admit it, they will only be stronger than you imagine.” Even with the advantage, Di Chen did not want to underestimate his opponent.

Their opponent was a person who kept on creating miracles.

An Lushan asked, “Then in your eyes, what should we do?”

“Let Cui Ganyou continue to defend Tong Pass and not step out. Once I lead the troops there, we will move together to take over Chang An.”

“What if they run?”

Di Chen smiled, “If they run, that would be the best.”

…

Night, Chang An.

30 thousand heavy armored infantry troops moved into Chang An city, making the Capital City that was already brimming with rumors even more boisterous.

Some people said that this army was here to protect the fleeing emperor, some said that they were here to protect Chang An, and some even spread rumors that they were here to occupy Chang An.

No matter what, once night fell, Chang An was under curfew. However, different from before, the soldiers patrolling became the mountain barbarians soldiers.

Xingqing Palace and the prince manor became heavily guarded areas.

This night was destined to not be peaceful.

Under the night sky, the first to take action was the three thousand Divine Martial Guards. Suddenly, they charged into the Xingqing camp and took down the thousand guards in it.

Next, Li Xiang arrived and had a conversation with his father.

Once Li Xiang left the palace, Tang Xuanzong fell to the floor. Accompanying by his side was Yang Guifei. Tears filled her eyes as she looked on in pity.

“Traitor son, what a traitor.”

Tang Xuanzong was totally unwilling. He cursed out, but no one cared about him.

The usually solemn Xingqing Palace became really cold like a palace of exiled people.

At the same time, the minister’s manor was swarmed by soldiers who killed him on the spot.

In one night, Chang An City was turned on its head.

Chapter 994 - Making Enemies with Everyone Possible

Chapter 994: Making Enemies with Everyone Possible

Tianbao 15th year, 6th month, 10th day, Chang An.

Early in the morning, Tang Xuanzong Li Lingji declared his final imperial decree as emperor:

“Rebels An Lushan and Si Siming have failed me, starting a rebellion and causing chaos. I intended to kill the rebels, but helplessly, I have no ability to gather the people.”

“To extend the dynasty and for the blessing of the people, the empire needs a more stable and powerful emperor. Prince Li Xiang is young and talented, so he can carry on the tradition. Today, I volunteer to hand over the throne to him!”

Along with the imperial decree being released, there was also a passage scolding the rebels. From this day onward, this decree along with the letter seeking to destroy the rebels would spread to all the counties. It would order everyone to send their troops to Chang An to fight together with the king.

Not only the people of Chang An, but even all the civilians saw the determination of the Imperial Court to clear out the rebels. With such passion and everyone sharing the same ideals, they would obviously be able to clear out the rebels.

That day, under the protection of the civil servants and generals, Li Xiang officially ascended to the throne. The year title was changed to Zhide, and Tang Xuanzong was named the retired emperor and locked up in Xingqing Palace.

After ascending, Li Xiang immediately wrote a decree to appoint Ouyang Shuo as the Xia King and the commander of all the troops to fight the rebels. Guo Ziyi would be named the deputy commander, minister of war, and the Jiedushi of Shuofang.

To clear up the subordinate relationship and to prevent the Jiedushi from competing against one another, the imperial decree also said that the soldiers in the north, including the Anxi, Beiting, Hexi, Longshi, and the Shuofang troops, a total of 150 thousand soldiers, would all be under the jurisdiction of Guo Ziyi.

Just that alone inspired the people.

…

Luoyang.

Just as Di Chen and the others were ready to lead their troops to Tong Pass, they all received the news that Chang An had changed and a new emperor had ascended.

“As expected from the old fox, he actually thought of using such a move.” Di Chen exclaimed.

Xiong Ba said, “It seems like the old fox is destined to have a final battle with us in Chang An. That’s good, one battle deciding everything, let’s not waste any time.”

“Although that is the case, we cannot rush to send troops anymore. Chang An is a mega city with 150 thousand troops defending it, so it will not be so easily taken down. At the very least, we have to prepare siege weapons.”

“Then let’s wait a few days!” Xiong Ba was helpless.

Chun Shenjun cut in, “Since the situation has changed, we should not foolishly fight alone. We need to drag in all of An Lushan’s forces to siege Chang An.”

“Well said.”

“Toward Chang An, we are totally blind, so we need An Lushan to guide us. I heard that he has spies in the city, so we must not waste them.”

Everyone discussed the matter and realized that the An Lushan camp still had the advantage, so they instantly felt a lot more confident.

…

Di Chen and the others were busy preparing for the battle. Naturally, Ouyang Shuo was doing the same.

Yang Guozhong’s death seemed really silent and quiet, but in truth, it caused an uproar among the upper echelons of officials in Chang An. The ministers who were close to him felt a chill run down their spines.

Naturally, everyone felt that although Yang Guozhong was killed by the player forces, the matter had to be orchestrated by the newly ascended emperor behind the scenes.

It was an open secret.

The officials and nobles who were close to Yang Guozhong were naturally worried about being implicated. How would they know that the one truly in power was not the person on the throne but Ouyang Shuo?

Ouyang Shuo was not a maniac. Killing was only an action and not a goal. After killing Yang Guozhong, Ouyang Shuo used his name as commander to start a recruitment of troops in Chang An.

Back when the An Lushan Rebellion just started, Feng Changqing had already recruited troops once. Most of them had already died in Tong Pass, so the second recruitment was really difficult.

Ouyang Shuo turned his recruitment targets to the guards of the nobles and the private troops of the generals.

Feng Changqing did not touch these people because he did not want to make enemies of them.

Ouyang Shuo did not care about that. Even if he blasted a huge hole in Chang An, it would not affect his position on the main map. After the Battle Map ended, he would just leave.

This time, Chang An was in an uproar.

Ouyang Shuo naturally was not a rash person, and he knew the theory of first being polite and then using military strength. First, he asked them to voluntarily send him their troops using his appointment as commander.

The time limit was one day.

After a day, the mountain barbarian soldiers would investigate the matter, and if they found any people who hid soldiers, they would wipe out their family.

When he needed to be ruthless, Ouyang Shuo would not show any mercy.

The huge Chang An City had many hidden dragons and crouching tigers. If they gathered all these troops, it would be no less than 50 to 60 thousand men.

Chang An City lacked many things, but weapons were not one of them. In the armory, there were mountains of bows, armor, spears, and tang blades, dazzling Ouyang Shuo.

As expected from a prosperous era, they were really rich.

How could they waste such resources?

Ouyang Shuo had another plan. He told all the young men that as long as they joined, they would be paid a salary that would be no less than the monthly pay of a grade 4 official.

If one killed enemies, he would be rewarded extra.

Anyways, they were spending the Great Tang’s money, so it did not affect Ouyang Shuo.

As they say, ‘With great rewards, there would naturally be courageous people.’

With such huge rewards, just one day was enough for 20 thousand young men to enlist.

Ouyang Shuo naturally did not expect these newbies to kill the enemy. He gathered them up to train and use them to move resources, save the wounded, and the like.

Apart from recruiting troops, Ouyang Shuo also strengthened the city defenses.

Great Tang had been peaceful for long. As such, although the city walls were perfect, the defense resources were really lacking, and they needed to be replenished.

By Ouyang Shuo’s calculations, there was going to be a bloodbath on the city walls.

Such work was naturally carried out by the civilians. Be it young or old, anyone who had strength needed to serve.

To not anger the people, Ouyang Shuo ensured that they would be fed and have meat for every meal.

He did not only replenish the defense resources. Ouyang Shuo even prepared to dig moats outside of the city. As time was of the essence, Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to use numbers.

Apart from the civilians, Ouyang Shuo also sent out the cavalry to recruit people from neighboring villages.

One could say that Ouyang Shuo was basically moving all the resources that he could. On the surface, it looked like he was truly going to fight a final battle against the rebels in Chang An City.

As all the business continued, something weird happened in Chang An City.

Chapter 995 - Bloody Battle Chang An

Chapter 995: Bloody Battle Chang An

Since the ascension, the player forces, especially the cavalry forces, continuously entered and exited the city gates. Who knows what they were doing. As time went on, everyone felt that it was normal, and they were not weirded out by it anymore.

This was only on the surface. Each time night fell, Chang An City was really solemn.

With the help of the officials and the generals, Ouyang Shuo used the Divine Martial Guards to cleanse the city, wiping out the An Lushan spies in Chang An City.

Helplessly, time was limited, and the Divine Martial Guards were not professionals at this. Furthermore, the ministers in the dynasty were all afraid, so the cleansing process did not go really smoothly.

There were definitely fishes that escaped the net.

Ouyang Shuo was helpless, and he could only order Shihu to increase the city gate defenses and cut off contact with the outside world.

…

4th day of the Battle Map, Baqiao.

Baqiao was located 10 miles away from Chang An City at the Ba River. It was the east gate of Chang An City, which connected the various cities in the east of Chang An.

Early in the morning, Ouyang Shuo sneaked to Baqiao and sent off Feng Qiuhuang and her group.

The cavalry going in and out was mainly just to cover to main force moving away from the camp. There were only 20 thousand Tiger Leopard Cavalry in the city east camp led by Ma Xiu.

As for the remaining 100 thousand elites, with Ran Min as the main general and Ma Chao as the deputy, they would go up north toward Lingwu City to gather with Guo Ziyi’s troops.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to use Chang An City as a bait to attract the rebels to buy time for Guo Ziyi to destroy Shi Siming’s troops, and then proceed to attack An Lushan’s base Fanyang.

To end this fast, Ouyang Shuo had to take the risk and move 100 thousand elite cavalry up north to help.

With such elite forces helping, coupled with the ability of Guo Ziyi, he would be able to destroy the rebel base if officials were not monitoring him and other Jiedushi’s were not butting heads.

The prerequisite would be that Chang An City must be able to survive the attacks of the rebels.

The new emperor sent out the signal to wipe out the rebels as soon as he ascended. He sought the people’s help and showed a sign of wanting to survive together with Chang An. If Chang An was lost, everything would be over.

To defend Chang An city, apart from recruiting new troops, Ouyang Shuo also ordered Jiannan Jiedushi to lead 30 thousand troops up north to assist Chang An City.

Based on rough estimations, including the 30 thousand heavy armored mountain barbarians, 20 thousand Tiger Leopard Cavalry, 30 thousand Jiannan elite soldiers, and 60 thousand new troops, they had a total of 140 thousand soldiers.

As for the young people they recruited, they numbered around 100 thousand.

With such an army, Ouyang Shuo was confident about fighting the rebel army.

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

In the blink of an eye, a week had passed.

Chang An City’s battle preparations were nearing their end, and the rebel vanguard forces had appeared on the outskirts of Chang An. A day ago, the Jiannan Jiedushi led his 30 thousand troops and finally arrived in Chang An.

A huge war was about to begin.

On the 10th day of the Battle Map, the rebel army finally arrived outside of Chang An City.

During this expedition, the An Lushan camp, apart from the 300 thousand players, there were 150 thousand rebels led by An Lushan’s son, An Qingxu.

450 thousand elite troops were enough to swallow everything.

Apart from that, there was a group of special guests. They were dressed shabbily and looked terrified. They were normal people that were herded forward.

The army set up camp 10 miles outside of Chang An City. If they headed forward any further, they would be at the Ba River.

Di Chen and the others crossed the Ba Bridge and looked on at the towering Chang An City. Looking at the moats outside, Di Chen smiled, “I knew that the old fox would use this trick.”

During the Battle of Muye, Ouyang Shuo had made use of moats to win the clashes. Now, he was repeating the same trick.

“He is lacking in tricks.” Chun Shenjun laughed confidently.

After a while, they rode their horses and returned.

“Let’s return. We will siege tomorrow; let’s see what skills that old fox has.”

…

The next morning, the huge army crossed the Ba River and arrived right under the nose of the city wall.

The north side and the east side of Chang An City had a wide city protection river and moats that made it hard to attack. Hence, the rebels chose to siege from the west and the south.

The huge army went around the east and got ready.

To prevent chaos during the commanding, Di Chen and An Qingxu agreed that the 300 thousand player forces would attack the south while the 150 thousand rebels would attack the west.

Just getting the army into position used up two hours.

On the city wall, fear rose up in the eyes of the newly organized army troops when they saw the gigantic enemy troops. They had just learned how to form up, and they were already tossed onto the cruel battlefield.

To train the new troops, Ouyang Shuo evenly distributed the 60 thousand on the west and south gates. The 30 thousand Jiannan elites and the 30 thousand heavy armored barbarian infantry were both arranged on these two sides.

Apart from that, the barbarians also acted as monitors of the troops.

The true battle started at 10 AM, and many normal civilians were forced by troops to push siege chariots, trebuchets, and arrow turrets toward the city walls.

Bumping into the moats, they built temporary bridges.

These civilians were taken from around Tong Pass to be cannon fodder to reduce the casualties of the army.

“These bunch of beasts; they are crazy!”

When Shihu and the other generals saw that, they were shocked. However, this was a life and death battle, and they could not show any mercy.

“Fire!”

Following the order, the trebuchets on the city walls started to work.

A loud and sharp whistle broke through the sky, and many black dots appeared from above the city walls like numerous sparrows. The stones swiftly expanded in one’s vision and thousands of huge rocks pelted down from the skies into the sea of people. Thousands of innocent civilians fell into pools of blood, dyeing the earth underneath.

The cries and screams of the people before they died filled one with emotions. When the defending soldiers saw that, they could not take it, as these people were their brothers. However, military orders must be strictly obeyed, so they could only tear up as they launched the attacks.

Di Chen and the others showed no mercy. When one group died, they sent another.

“Anyone who dares to retreat will be killed.”

To the civilians, only by going forward would they have a chance at survival. They had no other choice, and they could only charge forward with their heads tucked.

In a chaotic world, life was worthless.

As there were no side effects carried over from the Battle Map to the main map, it was easy for one to show their dark side. Ouyang Shuo randomly used up the country’s treasury for resources for that reason, while Di Chen sacrificed people for the same reason.

With an army at hand, they could easily change the rules of the battle.

To the civilians of the Battle Map, whichever side it was, they were devils from another world.

As they engaged, a long-ranged battle ensued. The goal of the rebels was simple; they wanted to use the arrow turrets and trebuchets to suppress the enemy’s long-range fire and clear the obstacles for the infantry.

In less than an hour, ten thousand civilians died during the battle. Their bodies filled up the moats, completing their final mission.

Di Chen smiled in satisfaction, and he gave the order for the troops to go all out. He had to see the moment of the army breaking the walls, charging into the city, and capturing Ouyang Shuo.

He could see that victory was in sight.

“Kill!”

Elite divisions stepped onto the bodies of the civilians, braving the arrow rain and launching an assault on the city walls.

The enemy was like a flood. With their iron armor, good weapons, and great attacking aura, they terrified the defending soldiers.

Once the army was 500 meters away, the defending troops retaliated.

“Freely fire!”

The trebuchets were suppressed by the rebels, but the defending troops still had arrows.

Under the closely packed arrow rain, numerous deaths occurred and fear spread.

Without orders, even if it were a sea of flames in front of them, the rebel soldiers would not dare to take a step back. They stepped onto the blood on the ground in front of them and launched round after round of attacks.

Getting closer and closer to the city walls, the retaliation grew stronger and stronger. The arrows were like a huge storm, and stones were dropping on them like birds. Those huge stones were so heavy, causing the ground to shake.

When a stone fell into the enemy formation, it would break a huge hole in the group. The rebels were hit by the shrapnel and cried out.

The rebel soldiers only charged forward, not caring about death and injury.

At that moment, the area within 200 meters of the west and south city walls were hell. The hundreds of arcuballistas fired at the same time as arrows covered the sun. Blood and flesh splattered everywhere.

In this terrifying metal storm, humans were as weak as paper. The soldiers at the front could not even shout ‘help’ before they were instantly ripped to shreds.

Screams, cries, fresh blood, death, and panicking people. The arrow rain was like locusts flying over, and the sharp noises from the arrows as they flew across made it hard for one to breathe.

Arrows were shot, and rolling stones crashed down. The rebel army did not dare to raise their heads, and they did not dare to proceed forward. Some of them laid on the ground and acted like they were dead, but they were instantly stepped into mush by the following soldiers.

The soldiers screamed and shouted, pushing one another and stepping on one another. Some people dropped down to hide, but they were stepped on by war horses; this was not a battlefield. In fact, it was like a butcher shop.

The faces of Di Chen and the others were really serious.

Before the start of the battle, they would not have expected that the Chang An troops would defend so stubbornly.

“Didn’t the old fox bring cavalry? Where did he recruit defending troops?” Di Chen did not understand, and a sense of unease started to rise up in his heart for the first time.

The cannon fodder strategy was a good start, but it did not garner them much of an advantage.

The ones doing well were the 100 thousand young men recruited by Ouyang Shuo. In close combat, it was true that they were useless.

However, they could use arcuballistas, throw rocks, throw wood, and move resources. When their country was in danger, these people showed the courage of Tang men, and they were all fearless.

To protect their wives in the city, they were going to fight to the death.

Great Tang was filled with heroes.

Chapter 996 - Fall of Fanyang

Chapter 996: Fall of Fanyang

The rebel army’s first day of attacks ended in failure, and the price was 30 thousand innocent civilians and 40 thousand elite troops.

Chang An City was a lot more stubborn than Di Chen and the others had predicted.

As night fell, the moonlight shone on the bloodstained walls, the old and broken city walls, the corpses stacked up like mountains, and the earth stained red by blood.

After the system update, corpses would not despawn. As such, to prevent illnesses from spreading, Ouyang Shuo ordered them to bury the bodies at night or burn them.

The rumbling black smoke spread out in the air, sending a chill down one’s spine. In the cold air, sobbing sounds could be heard; these sobs were of someone who lost their loved ones.

During this seismic battle, 20 thousand of the young men recruited had died, mostly from the arrow turrets and trebuchets. The 60 thousand newbies were even worse, as one-third of them were lost.

As expected from the men of Great Tang.

During the night, there were rumors that the rebels only wanted to wipe out the ruler and not rebel. After the army entered Chang An, they would not harm the civilians, so they hoped that the people would not make any needless sacrifices.

The spies that An Lushan had planted in Chang An had started to do their work.

The moment the rumors spread out, there were really people that believed it. Especially those people who saw their neighbors fighting to the death; these people were traumatized and were afraid that such a catastrophe would befall them as well.

The world had been peaceful for long, and the people hated wars. Naturally, it was for the best if they were able to stop the war.

Hence, the people started to feel unsettled.

Ouyang Shuo immediately sent people to send word, “The rebel army says they are rebelling because of Yang Guozhong, but he’s dead, yet they have not stopped. In the day, they used innocent civilians to siege the city, sacrificing innocent lives.”

“With the above two points, one can see that the rebel army is sprouting lies.”

The moment the notice was released, the civilians were woken up, “That’s right, the rebels would not let us off even if they enter.”

As a result, the rebel army making use of civilians during the day was them digging their own graves.

While solving the rumors, Ouyang Shuo once again used the Divine Martial Guards to capture all these mice that jumped out.

…

In the following two days, the rebel army launched relentless assault after relentless assault on Chang An City. Each time, it was useless, and they left with cold corpses.

Chang An City was like a greedy beast, swallowing up fresh life.

On the third day of the siege, the rebel army’s morale fell.

“This cannot go on. We are going to fall under those city walls.” Di Chen was still really calm, and he gritted his teeth and said, “We need to change our strategy and come up with a plan.”

The few of them gathered together to discuss strategy. The atmosphere was not as relaxed as before. All of them were really solemn, and their brows were locked tight.

Only when the dead of night arrived did they go their separate ways.

…

15th day of the Battle Map, Chang An City.

The morning attacks of the rebel army were no different from the first two days. The only difference was that it was much more vicious, and they did not bother about the sacrifices. Each of them was fearless, and there were signs that they were going all out.

“The enemy is giving it their all. Focus guys!”

On the city wall, the experienced generals all noticed what was up with the enemies, so they reminded their men to focus. The battlefield had no eyes, and any small moment of carelessness would be fatal, much less at such a crucial moment.

The consecutive three days of attacks of the rebel army was a huge test for the defending troops. It was eating away at the mental strength of the soldiers, putting them on the verge of collapsing.

If this goes on, the defending troops might not be able to hold on. After all, there was a difference in numbers. However, the rebel army had suffered heavy casualties, and their morale had reached a freezing point. They might not be able to hold on till they managed to break through.

This was a battle of mental strength, and it was a psychological battle of commanders between the two sides.

It was a battle to see who could not hold on.

Undoubtedly, Di Chen and the others were restless first, as they changed their strategy.

At noon, just as everyone was the most relaxed, the rebel army suddenly acted. The 70 thousand troops that Di Chen used as reserve forces were moving.

“Not good!” Shihu felt his heart sink.

The rebel army throwing in their reserve forces at this moment meant they were going for the win.

“Fight to the death!”

The mountain barbarians showed their courage and killing intent at this moment.

To protect the honor and the glory of the dynasty, the 30 thousand of them did not mind dying on the battlefield.

Just as Shihu and the others were ready to fight to the death, the 70 thousand army suddenly turned and moved toward the east gate. Their target was actually the east city gate that they had not touched.

“Misdirection!”

The 70 thousand army was like a pack of wolves charging at the east.

Di Chen’s goal was simple. He wanted to use the chance that the army was attracted to the west and south sides to breach the east city wall and turn the tides of the battle.

Then, what troops were guarding the east city wall of the Tang Dynasty camp?

It was the three thousand guards that Chang An City originally had.

Although the battle had just started, Li Longji had brought his concubines out of Xingqing Palace and hid in Taiji palace. The three thousand guards still guarded at the east city wall.

Facing the sudden attack of the 70 thousand rebels, even with a city protection river, the three thousand of them would definitely fail to defend the city wall.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he immediately called Ma Xiu, “It’s time for all of you!”

“Yes, my king!”

Ma Xiu cleanly bowed; then he turned around and left.

The 20 thousand Tiger Leopard Cavalry rode to the east city region. They dismounted from their war horses and climbed onto the city walls. Instantly, they became a group of elite infantry.

Ouyang Shuo had been through hundreds of battles. As such, he would obviously keep some reserve troops too.

He did this to defend against the rebel army’s tricks.

The war ignited. The rebel army’s sneak attack did not work, and it instantly became a tough battle.

However, the sneak attack had caught the defending troops off guard, and the east side was not equipped with archers. Moreover, they could not make use of the arcuballistas. They also lacked support troops to transport defense resources.

Very quickly, the 70 thousand rebels managed to climb up the city wall and engage with the Tiger Leopard Cavalry.

The scene was really brutal, and it looked like the Tiger Leopard Cavalry were about to lose it. Luckily, they were the elites of the elite, the cream of the crop. Under the leadership of Ma Xiu, they pushed back the army time after time and stubbornly defended.

The strength of the Great Xia Army was unparalleled.

Just as both sides were locked in a close battle, an army appeared on the outskirts of Chang An. They looked at the battlefield, but they did not come over.

If one looked carefully, they would notice that troops supporting the king had arrived.

The Battle of Chang An had welcomed its turning point.

When Di Chen received the news, before he learned their bottom line, he did not dare to take the risk. As such, he ordered the troops to retreat. Their entire day of sieging was ineffective, and the situation was becoming riskier and riskier for the An Lushan camp.

Today’s forces were just the start. In the next few days, more and more troops would gather in Chang An, which would cause the rebel army to not lose the courage to siege and flee toward their camp near the Ba River.

Di Chen felt depressed, while An Qingxu was in a total frenzy. After the few days, of the 150 thousand troops that An Qingxu had brought, 50 thousand of them had fallen.

However, Chang An City still stood.

Along with more troops arriving, their hopes of attacking Chang An City became slimmer and slimmer. Whether they would be able to flee themselves or not would become a problem.

An Qingxu was feeling more and more unhappy about Di Chen and the others, and he even had thoughts of backing off to Luoyang.

‘At most, we will return to Fanyang!’ An Qingxu was having such thoughts.

However, he did not know that his way out had disappeared.

Two days ago, 150 thousand Tang troops led by Guo Ziyi, along with the 100 thousand elite cavalry, had wiped out Shi Siming’s troops and directly attacked Fanyang.

This army was currently chasing the victory and chasing right for Luoyang.

Chapter 997 - Poet Saint Du Fu

Chapter 997: Poet Saint Du Fu

The next morning, An Qingxu received an emergency letter from Luoyang.

Fanyang had fallen, and Luoyang was asking for help. An Qingxu did not even think about it. After greeting Di Chen, he immediately led his troops to Luoyang. Di Chen was helpless and could only pull back the troops.

Staying any longer in Chang An would mean that all his troops would fall.

Along with the rebel army leaving, the Chang An defending troops heaved a sigh of relief. Some soldiers could not hold on anymore and fell to the ground, as this battle was simply too exhilarating.

To Chang An, the most dangerous moment had passed.

Pushing back the rebels meant that Ouyang Shuo’s prestige here had reached a new peak. The officials’ annoyance toward Ouyang Shuo for his actions had been relieved, and the civilians in the city were filled with gratitude toward Ouyang Shuo.

As for those nobles and officials whose private troops were taken away, their attitudes changed. Now, they sought credit from the emperor. They described how their soldiers were so courageous and protected the safety of Chang An.

The various generals of the troops also entered the palace to pledge their allegiance to the emperor.

In comparison, Ouyang Shuo seemed to be ignored. It seems like be it Li Longji or Li Xiang, they were both terrified of this player.

The Imperial Court had already spread the word that they hoped for the player forces to move out of the city.

The danger in Chang An City had just ended, and the previous emperor Li Longji did not like his current position. He did not want to leave Taiji Palace.

How could his current position compare to being an emperor?

In history, Li Longji had a long period of power struggle with Li Xiang when he returned from Shu Lands, much less in the current situation.

As the previous emperor, Li Longji had a massive foundation in the dynasty, and there were many people who wished to follow him. As such, he naturally still wanted to control the dynasty and not become someone with no power.

The love for power of ancient emperors was something that normal people could not understand.

Take the Qing Dynasty Ganlong Emperor as an example. He once said that even if he had a long life, he did not dare to break his grandfather’s record of ruling for 61 years. If he managed to reach 60 years of ruling, he would give up his position.

He also spent huge amounts of resources to build a palace for himself for retirement – the Ningshou Palace.

When he was 85 and had ruled for 60 years, he gave up the throne as expected. However, he did not move to Ningshou Palace.

He still stayed in Yangxin Hall, and he accepted the visits from the officials and controlled country matters. He still retained power over the nation.

The poor Jiaqing became a fake emperor until Ganlong died. After that, he finally took over power. Until the Ganlong Emperor’s death, he did not even spend a single day in Ningshou Palace, such an irony.

Ganlong had did it beautifully. He had given up his spot voluntarily. On the other hand, this did not mean that Li Longji had all the more reason to interfere in dynasty matters.

Hence, the moment the rebels left, hidden currents moved in the Chang An Imperial Court.

The new versus the old slowly started their battle.

Ouyang Shuo did not bother about such matters. Taking the time when the two emperors were fighting, he rushed to a street on the west of Chang An to visit someone.

He was visiting the famous Poet Saint Du Fu.

Du Fu had a really close relationship with the An Lushan Rebellion, and many of his poems came out during this period. Like the ‘Three officials and three partings,’ which describe the chaotic situation.

For example:

The Pressgang at Stone Moat Village

I seek for shelter at nightfall.

What is the pressgang coming for?

My old host climbs over the wall;

My old hostess answers the door.

How angry is the sergeant’s shout!

How bitter is the woman’s cry!

I hear what she tries to speak out.

“I’d three sons guarding the town high.

One wrote a letter telling me

That his brothers were killed in war.

He’ll keep alive if he can be;

The dead have passed and are no more.

In the house there is no man left,

Except my grandson in the breast

Of his mother, of all bereft;

She can’t come out, in tatters dressed.

Though I’m a woman weak and old,

I beg to go tonight with you,

That I may serve in the stronghold

And cook morning meals as my due.”

With night her voices fade away;

I seem to hear still sob and sigh.

At dawn again I go my way

And only bid my host goodbye.

During the Battle Map, although the players changed the direction of the battle, the people that were hurt were still civilians. Outside of Chang An City, the tens of thousands of civilian bodies formed the best description.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo visited Du Fu because he wanted him to come to Great Xia.

Du Fu was born from the Datu tribe in the north. When he was young, he once did not have to worry about food and clothes. When he became a middle-aged man, his family faltered, and his life got worse.

Although the civil servants and officials of the Imperial Court had their own thoughts and felt complicated about Ouyang Shuo, amongst the civilians, Ouyang Shuo was a true hero.

Furthermore, Ouyang Shuo used his position as Xia King and his appointment as commander to personally recruit Du Fu. As such, why would he not agree? There were not many people in ancient times that could reject a request from royalty.

Name: Du Fu (Saint Rank)

Title: Poet Saint

Dynasty: Tang Dynasty

Identity: Great Xia scholar

Occupation: Special Poet

Loyalty: 75

Bone structure: 20

Comprehension: 18

Luck: 10

Charm: 15

Specialty: Poet Saint (raises dynasty culture index by 10%, raises civilian culture upbringing by 15%, raises dynasty poem and song standards by 50%, raises chances of poets breaking through bottleneck by 25%)

Book: Dugong Set

Evaluation: Poets use words as their work. Du Fu’s works had much change and much variety, encapsulating many meanings within.

After he smoothly recruited Du Fu, Ouyang Shuo felt really good. He also would not bother about the Imperial Court matters. Once the battle ended, and he received his war prizes, he would return to Great Xia.

As for chasing the rebels, Ouyang Shuo did not bother doing that.

First, the Chang An defending troops had suffered heavy casualties. Although the rebels were hurt, they still had the huge player army. If they chased these troops, it would be like charging into a lion’s den.

As for those troops that pledged their allegiance to the emperor, they were only good for standing at the side, shouting and cheering. They would all hesitate if you tried to make them chase the rebels.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, his thoughts of chasing the enemy was extinguished. He only ordered the Jiannan Jiedushi to prepare to send troops to attack Luoyang.

With the two armies working together, Luoyang would definitely fall.

The progression of the war had greatly exceeded his expectations, and it was much smoother than he had anticipated.

…

An Qingxu was not able to rush to Luoyang in the end. Just as he arrived in Tong Pass, something happened in Luoyang.

After learning that the army had faced problems in Chang An and Fanyang had fallen, the Luoyang Army killed An Lushan and announced their desire to pledge their allegiance to the Imperial Court.

Things happened so quickly, and it caught An Qingxu off guard.

Di Chen and the others heaved a sigh of relief. The early end of the battle meant that they would not be dragged down. If they really had a final battle at Luoyang, who knows how many men they would have to sacrifice?

Along with An Lushan being killed, a battle notification sounded out.

“Battle Notification: Battle of An Lushan officially ends, the An Lushan Camp has failed to change history.”

…

“Battle Notification: The An Lushan Rebellion has officially ended. Now, based on the Battle Map contributions as well as contribution to the camp, extra contribution points will be decided.”

…

A System Notification sounded out in Ouyang Shuo’s ear.

“System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi, Tang Dynasty player representative, although successfully defended the city, made little contributions, awarded 20 thousand extra battle contribution points.”

“….”

Ouyang Shuo’s face was covered with black lines.

Based on the previous Battle Map, since Ouyang Shuo had turned the bad situation of the Tang Dynasty around, he should have been able to obtain at least 100 thousand extra battle contribution points. Now, he only received a pitiful 20 thousand.

Gaia was warning Ouyang Shuo, telling him that just because it was a Battle Map, he should not think that he could not simply do as he wished.

Ouyang Shuo was helpless. He took a look at the battle contribution points rankings.

1st: Qiyue Wuyi- 400000 points

2nd: Feng Qiuhuang- 300000 points

3rd: Di Chen- 250000 points

4th: Zhan Lang- 150000 points

5th: Xiong Ba- 140000 points

6th: Chun Shenjun- 120000 points

7th: Wandering Magic- 100000 points

8th: Sha Pojun- 20000 points

As the An Lushan camp player representative, Di Chen was unable to get ahead of Feng Qiuhuang because he was punished for using civilians as gunpowder, so he did not receive any extra rewards.

Sha Pojun was the worst out of the eight. The 50 thousand troops he brought were the reserve forces, and they were only thrown in at the last moment to fight against the 20 thousand Tiger Leopard Cavalry. As a result, he did not get an ideal amount of contribution points.

This small amount probably was not enough to revive his forces.

…

As the Battle Map had ended, Ouyang Shuo was prepared to obtain the prize for 1st place. However, he did not expect a group of officials to come out of the palace to meet him with an imperial decree. Li Xiang had directly sent the reward over.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he gave a bitter smile. That emperor truly did not want to meet him. He received the reward, and it was a piece of jade. Ouyang Shuo did not check its stats and simply teleported back.

The moment he arrived in Shanhai City, a System Notification sounded out in his ear.

“System Notification: The An Lushan Rebellion has officially ended, Tang Dynasty historical people automatically enter the game proceedings.”

…

As one of the most prosperous and talented dynasties in Chinese history, there were numerous historical talents during the Tang Dynasty. Apart from the 24 officials of the Lingyan Pavilion, there were poets, artists, and more.

To the China region Lords, this was great news.

“System Notification: The An Lushan Rebellion has officially ended, Qingcheng Sect and Wulin Sect officially enter the game proceedings.”

…

Along with history entering the Tang Dynasty, the underworld would get more and more interesting.

Chapter 998 - Tibet and West Turk Khanate

Chapter 998: Tibet and West Turk Khanate

Chapter 998 – Tibet and West Turk Khanate

“System Notification: The An Lushan Rebellion has officially ended. Li Shiming moves into Chang An. Chang An Imperial Court automatically changes to Great Tang Dynasty, Zhangsun Wuji, Fang Xuanling, Gao Shilian, Yuchi Jingde , Li Jing, Hou Junji, Cheng Yaojin and Li Ji, and related officials and generals automatically move into the Great Tang Dynasty.”

…

The moment the notification came out, Lords like Ouyang Shuo were heartbroken. Li Shiming left no one.

As for the 24 officials of the Lingyan Pavilion, Ouyang Shuo had little interest toward them. The only one he cared about was the Great Tang military god, Li Jing. Currently, the Bear Legion Corps still lacked a marshal.

Of the 10 God Generals of China apart from Baiqi, Ouyang Shuo wanted Li Jing the most.

Helplessly, he appeared in Chang An, so Ouyang Shuo had to give up on that plan.

“System Notification: The An Lushan Rebellion has officially ended, Songtsen Gampo moves into Lhasa City. Tibetan powers change into the Tibet Empire. Gar Tongtsen Yulsung, Shang Jiexi, Shangxi Dongzan, Shang Zanmo, Da Zalu, and related people move into the Tibetan Empire.”

…

Tibet was a political regime set up by the Tibetans in the Qingzang Highlands, and it was the first regime with actual historical records in this region.

Under the unification of the Tibetan Dynasty, the Qingxang highlands tribes formed a strong power and slowly walked out of the inland highlands.

They originally ruled themselves and were developing in a scattered manner; this changed through systems, laws, and the like as the small regimes and tribe alliances were consolidated.

At the same time, the Tibetan Dynasty was really close with the Great Tang, and two Tang princesses had married into Tibet as a sign of friendliness.

However, they were not always friendly toward one another.

763 AD, the An Lushan Rebellion caused the Tang Dynasty to weaken. Due to the need to defend against the rebels in the north, their west troops were moved away.

Tibet used this chance to enter the Great Tang land, and they were led by General Ma Zhongying. They gathered 200 thousand Alliance Army troops to attack Tang, occupying the land west of Fengxiang County, which included a total of over 10 states.

During that year’s 10th month, after occupying Fengtian, they quickly arrived under Chang An City, scaring the emperor to Xiazhou. The Tibetans smoothly took down Chang An and established Li Chenghong as the emperor.

15 days later, under the leadership of Guo Ziyi, the Tang Army took back Chang An.

Historical records state that between 705 AD to 822 AD, the Tang Dynasty and Tibet formed an alliance eight times. Through that, one could see how on and off their relationship was.

The Tibet Dynasty entering the game affected the Great Xia Dynasty the most.

Shu Lands Qiang Prefecture was connected to Tibet. Luckily, Songtsen Gampo was not an invasive king. As for what would happen in the future, it was still unknown.

“System Notification: The An Lushan Rebellion has officially ended, Tong Yabghu Qaghan enters Loulan City as the Kehan, western regions automatically becomes the Turkic Khanate.”

…

West Turkic was destroyed by the Tang Dynasty. Now, they were entering the wilderness, and they were given a new lease of life.

Different from Tibet, the western area that the Turkic Khanate was located in was made up of 30 odd small countries, and the situation was really complicated.

The sudden appearance of the two undoubtedly added other factors to the China region that was slowly becoming a north-south faceoff.

If the Great Xia Dynasty wanted to open up the Silk Road, it would have to come into contact with these two powers.

…

Ouyang Shuo did not have time to think about Tibet and Turkic Khanate, as he had to settle down Du Fu first.

With his ambition, he naturally wanted to be an official. Unfortunately, he was not experienced, and Ouyang Shuo could not give him an important position.

Thinking about it, Ouyang Shuo decided to keep him close, making him the Yongye County Magistrate in the Zhili Prefecture. If he performed well, Ouyang Shuo would promote him.

Just as he settled Du Fu, a System Notification sounded out once more.

“System Notification: Poetry circle representative figure Du Fu has moved into Great Xia, awarding Great Xia with the title of Land of Poetry, congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi.”

…

Ouyang Shuo smiled. Great Xia obviously did not lack a County Magistrate. However, Du Fu was a historical person. Furthermore, he was a Saint Rank historical person, and he had huge influence in the poetry circle.

A huge number of poets would come over because of Du Fu.

Land of Poetry: Raises dynasty culture index by 25%, raises dynasty attraction toward poets by 50%.

Since there were poetry circles, there would definitely be drawing circles, literary circles, and the like. Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to witnessing another cultural explosion in Great Xia following the philosophers.

After he returned to the Imperial Reading Room, Ouyang Shuo took out the jade that Li Xiang had given him.

Emperor Jade: With this jade pendant, under special circumstances, can activate the Yu the Great Nine Cauldrons scenario quest.

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes narrowed. The jade was not special, but the quest was. If Ouyang Shuo was right, the Yu the Great Nine Cauldrons were a country advancing treasure.

One of the requirements to upgrading to an Imperial Dynasty was to have a country advancing treasure. Before this, Ouyang Shuo had no idea what such an item was, but now he could see the light.

“Yu the Great Nine Cauldrons? It’s mine.” Ouyang Shuo’s eyes were filled with determination.

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

In the following few days, the wilderness was totally calm.

Everyone was slowly digesting the influence of the three powers appearing in the wilderness. The Chang An City players were really excited, and they hoped to meet the famous Great Tang people on the streets.

Immortal Poet Li Bai, Military God Li Jing, Tiger General Chen Yaojin….

The mysterious Tibet and Turkic Khanate also attracted the attention of the players.

To the Lords, both of them were hidden threats. However, to adventure gamemode players, they were unexplored areas with a huge number of quests and fortuitous encounters.

As a result, in these past few days, many people teleported to Chengdu and headed toward Tibet.

With this flood of people, the Shanhai Guards spies blended in and quietly infiltrated the two countries.

No matter what happened in the future, knowing your enemy was always the right thing to do.

Apart from that, the new Wulin Sect that joined the wilderness attracted the players. Along with more sects appearing, players now had more and more choices.

In the 5th year of Gaia, adventure gamemode players would make use of the help of these sects to raise their strength to another level.

In these past few days, many Tang Dynasty historical people had moved into Shanhai City due to its fame or due to knowing people in the city, much to the envy of others.

Chapter 999 - What a Complicated Circle

Chapter 999: What a Complicated Circle

As his father and brother were both working in the Great Xia military, Pei Xingjian did not even hesitate and directly came to Shanhai City to reunite with his family.

He was from the Middle Juan Pei of the Pei clan of Hedong. General Su Dingfang saw potential in Xingjian and personally mentored him. He had worked under Cao Can, and he was the aide of the Xizhou Governor General and became the General of the Anxi Protectorate.

Pei Xinjian was appointed the minister of rituals and great general of the right flank guards. In 679, Turkic chieftain Ashide Wenfu rebelled. Protectorate general Xiao Siye, a noble from Lanling Commandery, was defeated by Ashide. Pei Xinjian then took over the command from Xiao and decisively won a battle against the Turks in an ambush.

From his experience, it was not hard to see that he was no worse than his father and brother and even surpassed them. He had especially great experience against Tibet and the Turks.

With his talent, it would not be a problem for him to take charge of a legion.

However, the current Great Xia Army did not have any empty Legion General spots for him. As such, Ouyang Shuo could only place him temporarily under Er’Lai as the deputy Legion General of the 4th legion of the Guards Legion Corps. He could take it as getting used to the Great Xia system before they shifted him out in the future.

Name: Pei Xingjian (King Rank)

Dynasty: Tang Dynasty

Identity: Guards Legion Corps 4th legion deputy Legion General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 78

Command: 78

Force: 70

Intelligence: 55

Politics: 65

Specialty: Virtuous General (raises troops combat strength by 25%, raises troops movement speed by 20%)

Book: Cursive Chinese Set, Xuanpu

Evaluation: Pei Xingjian was a magnanimous person. He treated people with kindness and respect, showing gratitude to his teachers.

Before Pei Xingjian left, Ouyang Shuo smiled and said, “I’ll allow you to start work after the New Year, take the time to visit the Bear Legion Corps base to see your father and brother.”

It was already the 18th day of the 1st month, and it would be the Lunar New Year in just a month.

“Thank you my king!”

Pei Xingjian was filled with excitement and gratitude.

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, “If you want to thank me, contact your teacher, general Su Dingfang.”

As a Great Tang general, Su Dingfang was first under Li Jing before he gained power. His exceptional achievements and righteous character made him really trusted.

During the time he was in power, Su Dingfang went west on an expedition to the Turks, Izgils, Baekje, expanding the Tang Dynasty all the way to Persia on the west and toward the east toward North Korea.

Ouyang Shuo was obviously interested in such a general.

Although Great Xia was star-studded and filled with generals, no one would mind having more. Furthermore, the Great Xia Army was going to be expanded. As such, no matter how many generals came, they would have a spot.

Pei Xingjian had been an official before, so he understood right away, “Do not worry my king, I will not disappoint you. I believe my master would be willing to move to Great Xia.”

Strictly speaking, Su Dingfang belonged to generals from Tang Gaozong’s period, and the current Chang An Imperial Court was controlled by the 24 officials of Lingyan Pavilion. Even if Su Dingfang was loyal to Great Tang, he would not be able to have an important position.

The crucial point was that Great Tang was limited to one prefecture and did not have enough space for one to show off their military talent.

Ouyang Shuo believed that with Pei Xingjian’s layer of relationship and a little bit of sincerity, Su Dingfang would come sooner or later.

…

Coincidentally, the next day after meeting Pei Xingjian, another Great Tang general came over. This person did not come alone but brought along his whole family.

It was the Hedong Xue family, with Xue Rengui as their core.

Xue Rengui was born in the Hedong Xue family south clan, joining the army at the end of Zuoguan, fighting for 10 years. He won battles against the Tiele, caused Goguryeo to surrender to him, and won against the Turks. He also left many valiant stories during his time.

He was the right Guards General, Pingyang Prefecture duke, and more.

The Hedong Xue family dated back to the Northern and Southern Dynasty periods. His Great Grandfather Xue Rong was Governor and then Provincial Governor in north Wei Xingye and Wuguan. This Grandfather Xue Yan was an official too.

The most special one was his son, Xue Ne, who was the left palace guards commander. Xue Ne was the husband of Fan Lihua.

It was because of that layer of relationship that the Hedong Xue family decided to move over to Great Xia.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo was naturally glad to welcome them.

The current Great Xia had many aristocratic families like the Pei family, the Xiahou family, the Huo family, the Ma family, and more.

However, due to the Great Xia talent selection and evaluation system, the aristocratic families could not abuse their power.

Similar to Pei Xingjian, Ouyang Shuo temporarily appointed him with a role in the Guards Legion Corps 3rd legion. At the same time, Zue Andu, Xue Rong, Xue Yan, and Xue Gui were all given roles.

As for Xue Ne, it would depend on whether Fan Lihua accepted him.

Name: Xue Rengui (Emperor Rank)

Title: Top 10 generals of Ancient China

Dynasty: Tang Dynasty

Identity: Guards Legion Corps 3rd legion deputy Legion General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 75

Command: 70

Force: 90

Intelligence: 50

Politics: 50

Specialty: Valiant Victor of Three Armies (raises troops morale by 40%, raises troops combat strength by 35%, raises troops movement speed by 25%)

Evaluation: Rengui was a courageous and valiant general, a hero of an era. Really loyal and warranted many merits.

…

Apart from Pei Xingjian and Xue Rengui, Great Xia also welcomed a few people with literary ability.

Speaking of which, one had to mention the Great Tang poetry circle. There was once someone who drew a picture of the Tang Dynasty poet relationship tree. After looking at it, one would only have one sentence to say, “This circle is so messy!”

With Du Fu as the starting point was a simply way to describe it.

Du Fu’s grandfather, Du Shenyan, was good friends with Song Ziwen. Song Ziwen was good friends with Yang Jiong, who was one of the four heroes of Tang. Yang Jiong was friends with Lu Zhaolin, but he did not like Wang Bo.

In the same era, Du Fu had an obsession over Li Bai. To what level? Similar to modern day fan clubs. However, Li Bai was interested in Meng Haoran, who was friends with Du Fu.

What a mess.

Wang Wei was close to Meng Haoran, but Li Bai had totally no relationship with Wang Wei. One must know that they were pretty much from the same period of time.

What a weird matter.

Gao Shi was friends with Du Fu but left him because of his obsession with Li Bai. He was also good friends with Li Bai’s good friend Wang Changling.

That was not it. In the next generation, Han Yu worshipped Li Bai, Liu Yuxi worshipped Du Fu. However, Han Yu was political enemies with Liu Yuxi’s friend Liu Zongyuan.

The most amazing one was Du Mu, who chose to not bother about the Li Shangyin who worshipped him. Bai Juyi once said he wanted to reincarnate as Li Shangyin’s son. In the end, the arrogant Li Mu despised him for it.

As Bai Juyi’s friend, Yuan Zhen was annoyed and chose to harm Du Mu’s favored Li Jia to take revenge for his friend.

As you read until this point, have you gotten a headache yet?

This was only a small portion of the full story. Tang poetry was star-studded, and the poets then were like stars in the galaxy, small but shining.

The two brightest stars were Du Fu and Li Bai.

Along with Du Fu becoming the Yongye County Magistrate, during these past few days, Du Shenyan, Meng Haoran, Gao Shi, Liu Yuxi, Li Zongyuan, and other related poets all came over to Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo treated each of them with importance.

Based on their likes and personality, he gave them either gold and mansions, letting them roam Great Xia, or he gave them positions as officials if they were like Du Fu.

Alternatively, he allowed them to live in seclusion in the Lianzhou Basin or become a teacher in Xinan University.

All in all, Ouyang Shuo did not force anything upon them.

Spending a huge sum of money, Ouyang Shuo wanted to have the reputation as someone who raised talent. At the same time, this would raise the dynasty’s culture stat, which would attract more literary people over.

One must know that the poets were not slackers, and they were mostly civil servants. All of them had experiences as officials. However, they were unhappy, which was why they used poems to vent their anger.

Arriving in Great Xia, they could all use their skills.

Accepting everyone was not just words.

Such magnanimity was no less than during Great Tang.

The moment the news spread out, more people came over. Yang Jiong, Lu Zhaolin, Bai Juyi, Li Shangyin, and the like.

All of a sudden, Shanhai City, this Capital City that was far off in the south, became vibrant with culture. It was filled with literary talent, becoming the new culture center.

People like Han Yu used Shanhai City as their destination to write poems, travel with friends, and drink.

Using the celebratory New Year spirit, they pushed this poetry wave to new heights.

In any dynasty, for literary people to be so carefree, their thinking would be liberated and their talents would reach a whole new level.

In a short few days, there were dozens of new poems that were written. Under such an atmosphere, Immortal Poet Li Bai arrived.

Chapter 1000 - Land of Martial Arts

Chapter 1000: Land of Martial Arts

The Tang Dynasty had three unparalleled things.

Li Bai’s poems, Pei Min’s sword skills, and Zhang Xu’s cursive script.

Immortal Poet Li Bai was not only good in the literary department, but he also had really great sword skills. He started liking the sword at 15. Following which, his skills flourished and developed, becoming second in the Tang Dynasty, only lower than Sword Saint Pei Min.

Maybe even Gaia loved him, as Li Bai’s sword techniques were strengthened a second time, becoming an authentic secret manual, making him a true sword master.

Li Bai did not come over to Shanhai City for any name or reputation but to visit a friend. Even so, it was enough to shake the world.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to keep this Immortal Poet. However, the prerequisite was to find some place for him.

“Mister is good at the sword. Naturally, you do not want others to dictate your actions. On the east of the city, there’s a mountain known as Dongli Mountain. On it is a sect known as Dongli Sword Sect. Since my wife is pregnant, she cannot act as the sect master, and the position has been empty till now. Will you be able to lower yourself to accept this position, it’s both unrestrictive, and you can also visit your friends,” Ouyang Shuo said.

When Li Bai heard that, he was instantly interested.

“Was the name of Dongli taken from Mister Jingjie’s drinking wine poem?” Li Bai asked.

Mister Lingjie was the East Jin Poet Tao Yuanming, who was called the ancestor of poets. He was the true master of the poetry circle, and he was the senior of Li Bai and Du Fu.

“That’s right!”

“Great!” Li Bai had made his decision, “I’ll accept this position.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Congratulations, mister. The Dongli Sword Sect now has a chance of rising up.” With the current status of the underworld, the Dongli Sword Sect could only rise up with a stellar sect leader.

Li Bai was undoubtedly a good choice.

Name: Li Bai (Saint Rank)

Title: Immortal Poet

Dynasty: Tang Dynasty

Identity: Dongli Sword Sect sect master

Occupation: God Rank Swordsman

Loyalty: 75
bone structure: 20

Comprehension: 20

Luck: 10

Charm: 18

Specialty: Wine Sword Immortal (raises sword dao talents by 80%)

Cultivation method: Qinglian Sword Code (God Rank)

Weapon: Qingping Sword (God Rank)

Evaluation: Given the nickname of Immortal Poet, his brush astonishes the world, and his poems are on another level.

Gaia really loved Li Bai. It granted him a God Rank cultivation method and a God Weapon. Along with Li Bai’s exceptional stats, Gaia had created a sword god.

One could foresee that Dongli Sword Sect, under the leadership of Li Bai with the support of Great Xia, would be able to shine in the underworld. Crushing Shaolin and Wudang were not an impossible matter.

Just as Li Bai took charge of Dongli Sword Sect, a System Notification broke out.

“System Notification: Sword God Li Bai moves into Great Xia and takes charge of the Dongli Sword Sect, original title of Home of Martial Arts automatically upgraded to Land of Martial Arts, congratulations player!”

…

The moment the news spread out, the world was in an uproar.

Players were astonished by the fact that Li Bai was a sword god, and they were shocked that such a character would take charge of the Dongli Sword Sect.

“The underworld is going to be a mess!” some people muttered.

Some people already predicted that an even more chaotic underworld was about to draw close.

Along with the various sects appearing in the wilderness, the Dongli Sword Sect that Great Xia made was not in the eyes of the players. As such, they obviously would not expect such a change.

Dongli Sword Sect made use of its name as Great Xia’s official sect, having a sword god in charge, and the sect secret manuals that they already had to instantly become a hot choice for adventure gamemode players.

Especially to those who had already moved over to Great Xia, the Dongli Sword Sect was the best choice.

This time, the underworld was going to have a new shuffling of cards.

…

Ouyang Shuo had such thoughts in mind when he asked Li Bai to take charge of the Dongli Sword Sect. He wanted to help the sect become the top sect in the world and suppress the underworld.

Since ancient times, strength was what spoke, and if no one controlled them, it would become chaotic.

Using the name of Li Bai, he could control the underworld. Ouyang Shuo’s plan was exceptional.

Ouyang Shuo tossed aside his thoughts and looked at the new stats.

Land of Martial Arts: Raises dynasty civilians’ body quality by 50%, raises martial artists’ skills familiarity by 30%, raises cultivation comprehension by 40%.

So amazing!

Originally, to upgrade Home of Martial Arts to Land of Martial Arts, they needed to obtain at least two single type martial art titles like home of sword, home of spear, and the like.

Li Bai’s arrival saved all the trouble.

Hence, after Home of Philosophers, Land of Artisans, Land of Poetry, Great Xia had now gained a fourth land title.

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

Gaia 5th year, 1st month, 22nd day, Xia Palace.

The wave of Tang Dynasty poets joining Great Xia eased. Shanhai City slowly entered the New Year period. Be it normal civilians or nobles, they all started to purchase New Year goodies to welcome the arrival of the Lunar New Year.

The entire wilderness stopped all its wars; it was a sign of peace and prosperity.

The Lunar New Year was a really meaningful time to the Chinese, and no one wanted to start slaughtering at such a time.

To welcome a festive season with the smell of blood was inauspicious for an individual and also a dynasty.

At the end of the An Lushan Rebellion, Feng Qiuhuang successfully obtained Guo Ziyi, getting what she wished.

The day that they returned to Fallen Phoenix City, Guo Ziyi was appointed as the marshal of the Flaming Legion Corps, becoming the top person in the Fallen Phoenix City Army.

With Ran Min, Zhuo Bo, Wang He, and other famous generals, the Flaming Legion Corps was well-equipped.

With this legion corps taking charge, Ouyang Shuo did not need to worry for Feng Qiuhuang.

…

In the morning, Ouyang Shuo was in the Imperial Reading Room.

The navy generals were still discussing matters, and there were many things that needed Ouyang Shuo to decide. He needed to decide how to make use of the resources of the entire dynasty to ensure that the transformation of the navy went smoothly.

As this core project concerned the fate of the dynasty, Ouyang Shuo would naturally go all out.

Apart from that, as the Chinese New Year neared, the yearly official evaluation was in progress. The results directly involved the promotion and demotion of officials. Although there was Zhang Tingyu in charge, Ouyang Shuo still had to keep a lookout on it from time to time.

Especially the Shu Lands, Chuanbei, Xiangnan, and Jiangchuan, which were just taken under the dynasty’s rule. There was a large gap compared to the other provinces.

Shu Lands, Chuanbei, and Xiangnan; they all used different organizational structures before this. To reorganize them would require a lot of work to be done.

Not to mention that just changing the name of an organization could change the thinking of the officials.

As the matter within was simply too complicated, Ouyang Shuo instructed Zhang Tingyu and the Official Ruling Department to make use of the evaluation to fix the four provinces.

Those who failed would all be fired.

Hence, it was said that Zhang Tingyu was facing a lot of pressure this time, and there were many people who looked for him every day.

That was because the evaluation results were simply pessimistic, corruption, abuse of power, failure in work, and the like. If they did not fix it now, something big might happen in the future.

Not only the four new prefectures, but even Yunnan, Chuannan, Lingnan, and Minnan all faced their own problems.

When the forest was big, there would be all kinds of birds in it.

Even to say that as Great Xia grew richer and more prosperous, local powers would form at the same time. No matter how good the system was, it would not be able to stop greed.

Although Ouyang Shuo believed that Zhang Tingyu could withstand the pressure, he could not just do nothing. He had to show a clear attitude to support the Official Ruling Department in their work.

Those who entered the city to beg for help was not limited to the officials that failed but also their superiors, and it even reached the Prefecture Governor level. After all, no prefecture would be willing to have so many officials removed at once.

Ouyang Shuo’s attitude was really resolute, “Whichever one of them wants to beg for their subordinates, ask them to look for me. I want to see what excuses they can give.”

Looking at the entire Great Xia, there probably was no one that was this bold.

The moment Ouyang Shuo’s words spread out, there were many officials that quietly returned to their own areas.

They knew that the king was serious.

Any official who had worked for long in the dynasty would have the utmost respect for the king. They would not dare to go against his orders.

Along with the recent update, Gaia gave NPCs more sentience and stronger desires, which would give the officials an even bigger challenge.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo especially summoned the Regulatory Department director and Censorate minister to let both organizations increase their monitoring on the local offices.

In the dark, Ouyang Shuo also instructed Shen Buhai.

Till date, some of Ouyang Shuo’s thinking had changed. He hoped that through the Censorate and the Regulatory Department, they would be able to control and monitor the officials.

He wanted to do this instead of going through intel organizations like the Shanhai Guards.

Since he had ascended to the position of king, Ouyang Shuo did not want to rule by fear. Hence, he even specifically told Shen Buhai to tell the Shanhai Guards to keep their swords.

Of course, monitoring was still necessary.

Apart from monitoring officials, there was also a need to keep in check the matters of the various areas. The Provincial Governor offices lessened the workload of the Imperial Court but also gave Provincial Governors thoughts that they should not have.

How to balance the relationship would depend on Ouyang Shuo’s skills.

A huge dynasty spreading for tens of thousands of miles, with close to a hundred million people. Naturally, Ouyang Shuo could not manage this on his own. Hence, he needed to make use of the Cabinet to lead the civil servants.

Along with Yan Song entering, the Cabinet already had three elders, each with vast experience.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo split the jobs of the three of them.

Chapter 1001 - Financial Court Assembly

Chapter 1001: Financial Court Assembly

Out of the three of them, Jiang Shang would be in charge of the big picture, Kou Zhun would monitor the Imperial Court, while Yan Song would focus on the local areas.

The three of them would work together to ensure that the Great Xia machine would run smoothly. Ouyang Shuo, this ruler, would be above the Cabinet and monitor the dynasty.

…

22nd day, afternoon, Qingzheng Hall.

Jiang Shang, Kou Zhun, Yan Song, Xiao He, Wei Yang, Fan Li, and Du Ruhui had all gathered together to discuss the Financial Budget of Great Xia in the 5th year of Gaia.

Joining the meeting was Industrialization Department Director Chen Bingguang as well as Four Seas Bank Treasurer Meng Zhida.

Since the establishment of the dynasty, the management of Financial Budget had become more organized. At the start of the year, how much funds the dynasty had, what large expenditures there were, how much was the estimated income, and the like needed to be settled before the New Year.

At the end of the year, they had to evaluate the budget made at the start of the year.

Those who went over the budget would have to face the consequences.

“Let’s begin!”

Ouyang Shuo sat at the throne and said expressionlessly.

Ever since he ascended, Ouyang Shuo had rarely controlled the territory matters like he would do when he was a Lord.

Now, he only maintained the big picture, and the number of times he spoke was a lot fewer.

First, there were many things that did not need him to personally say. The officials would understand what he wanted and execute on it. Secondly, he was now a king, and any word he said would affect tens of millions of lives. Naturally, he had to be careful.

Seeing which, Jiang Shang stepped out and said, “Mister Fan, please report the expenditure of the Financial Court the previous year as well as the expenditure for this year.”

“Yes!”

Fan Li stepped out and reported, “Last year, the Imperial Court earned 65 million gold with tax and holding earnings being the main source. There was 51 million in tax and 8.5 million from the holdings.”

The holdings included the Four Seas Bank, Shu Mountain Iron Corporation, Chinese Shipping Group, and the like.

A day ago, under Ouyang Shuo’s instructions, the Industrialization Department combined cannon, armor, warship, and other forms of productions and formed a Canglong Military Work Corporation, which jumped to become the largest and most profitable corporation in Great Xia.

The Great Xia system was slowly changing. Slowly, it became the financial pillar of the Imperial Court.

“Financial expenditure was 61 million, 21 million on public facilities, 18.5 million on military, 12 million on administrative, five million on subsidies, and 4.5 million for others.”

The public expenditure included basic welfare, education, medical, basic facilities, and the like, which was why it took up the bulk of the expenditure.

Amongst the other expenditures, there was one that was special – the royal family expenditure.

The maintenance of the palace, court ladies, maidservants, Ouyang Shuo, Song Jia, Bing’er’s expenditure, and the like.

Listing the royal family into it meant that Ouyang Shuo was not going to set up private funds outside of the country treasury.

In history, the imperial family and treasury funds were separate. The treasury kept taxes agriculture profits, and the like, while the imperial family funds were from tea, salt, silk, and the like.

In comparison, Great Xia had made public the sales of silk, tea leaves, and good salt. Along with the ore contract with Australia, their control of ores was also loosening.

The imperial family funds were used to feed the royal family. Usually, there would be excess funds that would be passed to the national treasury.

Of course, there were times where it was lacking.

Especially the later stages of the dynasty, where the royal family was huge. At such a time, they would be like termites corroding the foundations of the dynasty.

Each time the palace was renovated, it would use up ocean amounts of gold.

During the Ming Jiajing time, one palace fire used up seven million silver teals, using up half of their income that year.

The treasury was used to pay salary, fix roads, build bridges, irrigation, and the like. When there were catastrophes, they would use these funds to provide help. Of course, there were some rulers who used the national treasury as their own.

At the later stages of the Ming Dynasty, such acts became prevalent. The rulers did as they wished, allowing officials to take money from the people and rip them off.

Some emperors were even as corrupt as the officials, splitting the funds with them and using the money as their own.

Although such actions fattened the coffers of the royal family, it made the lives of the people tough.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo wanted to prevent this from happening right from the start.

The royal family, apart from using the gold that was assigned to them by the Financial Court, also had other sources of income.

First, there would be the jewels that Ouyang Shuo found when he went explorations, a portion of which would be left for the treasury. Secondly, Song Jia held control over the Mountain and Seas Entertainment Holdings, which produced a sizeable income each year.

With these two sources of income, since the royal family only had three people, Ouyang Shuo naturally could not spend all the money in his treasury. Furthermore, Ouyang Shuo was a thrifty king. Apart from during important occasions, he would not splurge.

As they say, set a good example.

Ouyang Shuo as the king was thrifty. Naturally, the people under him would not dare to splurge excessively.

…

After deducting the expenditure, after a year, the Imperial Court only had four million gold in excess.

Of course, to the outside world, Great Xia had millions of troops, so starting three to four wars in a year and still being profitable was a great achievement.

On a global scale, more than half of the territories were running a deficit and could only barely maintain operations by raising taxes of borrowing.

After the 5th system update, the reduction of building speed, the catastrophe system, the smarter civilians, and the like would make the 5th year of Gaia more unbearable.

If one was not careful, they might lose all that they had built up.

The Yanhuang Alliance had lost a few successive wars, and their foundations were lost. Luckily, they had opened up trade with North America. Using their business talents, they could rise up from the dead quickly.

The four million gold that Di Chen spent during the auction was probably from his family’s pockets. With the financial situation of Handan City, they definitely could not take out such a sum of money.

Speaking about the financial situation of last year, Fan Li continued, “Based on our analysis, there are four good things in the 5th year. First, the four new provinces after being organized can greatly increase tax returns. Secondly, the Canglong Military Works Group is slowly getting on the right path and will bring in sizeable profits.”

“Thirdly, with the start of the industrialization process, workshops are becoming more efficient, causing a rise in sales tax. Fourthly, the trade agreements would promote voyage trading and increase checkpoint taxes.”

“Calculating all of that, the Financial Court estimates that we can gain 95 million in profits, and we might even break the 100 million mark.”

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he was astonished, as a 46% increase was shocking. However, that came after the expansion of the empire, and it was not internal growth. As a result, it would not be long term.

Thinking about the few huge wars in the 5th year, the Imperial Court finances would not be relaxed.

When Jiang Shang saw that, he smiled, “Although the budget for next year is optimistic, the expenditure will also reach a new level. What big projects do the four courts have, let’s discuss!”

He naturally took note of every action of the king.

The moment Jiang Shang finished his words, Administration Minister Xiao He was the first to step out.

Out of the public works, apart from the basic welfare that was handled by the Civil Affairs Department, the rest was handle by the Administration Court. Along with the administration expenditure that took up a big amount, this court had the greatest percentage of funds used in the dynasty, even exceeding that of the Privy Court.

On the surface, it also did not make any direct financial contributions.

As a result, it was easy to understand how much pressure Xiao He was feeling, “This year the Science, Education, Culture, and Health Department wants to push out basic education and health facilities in the four provinces. The Agriculture Department wants to increase irrigation, the Construction Department wants to expand the road networks, so the public works budget would need a four million increase from last year’s amount.”

Ouyang Shuo asked, “Did the Administration Court send people to ask about the construction statuses of the four provinces?”

“Yes. Overall, their foundations are pretty good. However, because it was not unified, we need to replant it such that it becomes a part of the system. Some of the construction standards also needs to meet the current Imperial Court ones.”

“Tell Jia Sixie to organize the people to get the irrigation done before the New Year. If possible, reclaim more farmland in the counties and prefectures. Do not waste land.”

“Yes my king!” Xiao He hurriedly answered.

For the king to personally instruct this matter meant that he had his reasons, and Xiao He obviously needed to pay close attention to it.

Ouyang Shuo thought back to the catastrophe system and wanted the Agriculture Department to prepare for it.

Along with industrialization speeding up and businesses prospering, more and more people were thrown into industries, causing a huge problem. Those who were in agriculture production had lessened.

With the backward agriculture techniques of the past, to ensure that the supply of grain was enough, one needed to have a sustainable amount of farmland and enough farmers.

Without pesticide, fertilizers, and the like, there would definitely be no miracles to greatly increase yield. Hence, the only way would be to throw in more farmers to work the fields.

Hence, in agriculture, business, and industry, one needed to think of them as a big picture.

Chapter 1002 - Faction Within Faction, Group Within Group

Chapter 1002: Faction Within Faction, Group Within Group

When it was time for Internal Affairs Minister Wei Yang to report, Ouyang Shuo added a reminder.

“Tell Pei Yun that the Civil Affairs Department needs to quickly do the preparation work for the grain for natural disasters. This would become one of the evaluation components of the civil affair officials. Apart from that, the Imperial Court will take out one million gold to start up the disaster relief fund; this would be under the Civil Affairs Department.”

Since Gaia released the disaster system, they would obviously make use of it.

In the previous four years, the wilderness weather was great, and there were basically no natural disasters. As a result, Great Xia neglected disaster relief and did not have any preparations for that.

Which was why Ouyang Shuo especially raised the matter.

“Understood!”

Although Wei Yang was a little confused, he nodded.

Following which, Financial Minister Fan Li mainly spoke about the problems with financial liquidity. Luckily, the Imperial Court was not going to purposely start up internal wars during the 5th year, so this problem would not grow.

The main thing would still be iron ore purchases.

Before this, the iron ores in the country only had profit considerations. As for the purchases from Australia, that needed actual gold. If one considered coal and special metals, they needed to prepare eight million gold.

Although this sum would mainly be paid for by the Shu Mountain Iron Corporation and the Canglong Military Works Group, the gold that they had to prepare was real.

The China region was only left with eight territories. The Yanhuang Alliance and Fallen Phoenix City were self-sufficient, so they would not order from Great Xia. Basically, they could only digest internally.

Of course, the main one would still be the Privy Court.

The huge military expenditure had always been the worry of Fan Li. Military Affairs Minister had developed a thin face, and he directly said, “We have a few foreseeable wars next year, including the wars against Annan, Japan, and Hawaii.”

“There are also a few that might happen like Zhenla and Nanzhang. There’s also Sri Lanka, South Africa, and Algeria where the Moroccan king is hiding.”

“Next would be internally. If the Yanhuang Alliance starts a war against West Chu, we might be dragged into it. As for the extent to which we would be dragged in, it would depend on the moment.”

“There’s also Tibet, Turkic Khanate, as well as the three imperial cities. One could foresee the West Xia and Mongol problems. There are too many uncertain factors.”

Du Ruhui rambled on and on, causing Fan Li’s face to turn darker and darker. If they really fought all those wars, no matter how much money the Finacial Court had, it would not be enough.

However, Du Ruhui’s words made sense, which made it impossible for Fan Li to retort.

He was not finished.

“One can foresee that during the Gaia 5th year, we are going to expand by 300 thousand troops. At least the Guards Legion Corps is lacking a legion and the three from the Bear Legion Corps would need to be filled up. Next would be the navy, especially the three voyage ones, which would be huge expenditure.”

“Based on the Privy Court calculations, their estimated expenditure would be above 28 million.”

Du Ruhui’s words were not nonsense. However, how did military expenditure increase by 10 million when they only needed to expand by 300 thousand troops?

In truth, the Eagle Legion Corps and the Bear Legion Corps were both formed in the 4th year. The Guards Legion Corps and the City Protection Legion Corps were both fully filled in the latter half of the year.

Hence, these troops did not occupy a full year of salary. Of the 18.5 million expenditure in the 4th year, a small portion was used in military reorganization and war reparations.

In the 5th year, the huge military expenditure would start to show.

When Fan Li and the others heard that, they could not help but suck in a deep breath. If they considered all that, even if the financial earnings crossed 100 million, they would not have too much extra gold.

Even to say that if they did not do well, they might exceed the budget and have a shortage of gold. As a result, Fan Li’s face was really dark, as all of this pressure was on him.

Ouyang Shuo was unmoved and added, “Every year, the navy also needs to purchase above two million gold of magic crystals from Lemuria; this amount must be listed in the military budget.”

“….”

Fan Li was numb to the point where he had no words.

If one counted the ores as part of military expenditure, then their military budget would take up 40% of the total.

However, this was unavoidable.

The world was not peaceful and war was unavoidable. Even in a peaceful era, during the 21st century, Russia’s military budget was 14% of its early budget.

Speaking of which, Ouyang Shuo had tried his best to control the scale of the army. Not only did he remove the garrison forces, but he also eliminated a large number of soldiers.

If not, the Guards Legion Corps and the Bear Legion Corps would be full now.

Settling the Financial Budget, Ouyang Shuo concluded, “For the Imperial Court to have our achievements, it is due to all of you and your loyalty. The road to the top is one that we will fall off if we do not advance. I need all of you to continue working hard and try to make specific plans for the budget before the New Year.”

“Yes my king!”

The ministers all nodded, looking really pumped up.

“Meeting over!”

Ouyang Shuo got up and walked toward the back hall.

Only when Ouyang Shuo was gone did the ministers leave. On the way, they gathered together in groups of twos and threes.

Amongst all of them, Yan Song was the loneliest, walking on the Dali stone steps slowly.

Out of all of them, Yan Song, this ‘despicable minister,’ was a hot topic. Ouyang Shuo made the decision on his own to send him into the Cabinet, and this was something many ministers had problems with.

Like Wei Zheng and Hai Rui, who were all the more unhappy. Especially Qiongzhou Prefecture Governor Hai Rui, who was from the same era as Yan Song and had dealings with him.

In history, Hai Rui participated in taking down Yan Song.

Learning that Yan Song had entered the Cabinet, Hai Rui even wrote a letter to Ouyang Shuo. However, Ouyang Shuo retorted, “Do you think I’m the Jiajing Emperor?”

Hai Rui was instantly speechless.

In the few years that he had spent in Great Xia, Hai Rui naturally knew that Great Xia was really different from the Ming Dynasty. The king was good at ruling both generals and civil servants, and he was good enough to compare to Qin Shihuang and the Hanwu Emperor.

To compare him with the Jiajing Emperor was an insult.

Thinking about it, Hai Rui could only take it as the king valuing Yan Song’s talents and was not going to let him abuse his power.

When he learned that the king had ordered Yan Shifan to not be an official, Hai Rui was both emotional and embarrassed, and he said, “The king is wise!”

Yan Song did not bother about the outside world. As time went on, seeing that Yan Song did not do anything out of hand, the words and badmouthing would stop.

Furthermore, badmouthing a Cabinet elder was a really dangerous matter.

Not discussing it did not mean that they were close. Looking at how Yan Song was alone, one was able to tell the situation he was in.

…

Ouyang Shuo returned to the Imperial Reading Room. Just as he sat down, Tsing Yi handed him a cup of hot tea.

The two of them had a good understanding of each other.

“Thank you!”

Ouyang Shuo smiled. He treated her half as a subordinate and half as a friend.

The relaxed atmosphere in the reading room was what Ouyang Shuo liked. He did not want to have to behave like a king in front of everyone because that was really too tiring.

Rubbing his head, Ouyang Shuo thought back to the suggestions.

Weirdly, out of the seven, Jiang Shang came from West Zhou, Kou Zhun from North Song, Yan Song from the Ming Dynasty, Xiao He from Han, Wei Yang from the Warring States, Fan Li from the Spring and Autumn Era, and Du Ruhui from Tang Dynasty.

None of them came from the same dynasty.

Silently, a huge group of people gathered behind their backs. The factions of the dynasty started to slowly become clear. Xiao He and the other’s intentional distancing from Yan Song was noticed by Ouyang Shuo.

“Apart from factions, there are also disputes.”

Ouyang Shuo was really satisfied with putting Yan Song into the Cabinet. Although a stagnant pond was clear, it would lack life. Only by putting a koi in could it stir up the pond.

Yan Song was that koi fish.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo saw the rough shadows of the philosophers.

As the ancestor of philosophy, Jiang Shang held a supernatural position. Kou Zhun represented the Confucians, Xiao He the Taoists, Wei Yang the legalism school of thought, Fan Li the business school of thought, and Du Ruhui the school of war.

Each group had their own ideals and thinking, which resulted in the prosperity of the Great Xia.

Through this meeting, Ouyang Shuo seemed to have understood something while also seeming to have not. As for the yearly budget itself, it was not the core matter.

The Great Xia income in the 5th year would break 100 million; this was a sum that 99% of players would not earn even if they worked their hardest.

The Great Xia business was huge, the more it grew, the more it spent. This was not as ideal as outsiders thought of it to be.

As the ruler, Ouyang Shuo had to balance everything out.

Ouyang Shuo had already heard people discussing in the dark that they hoped the Imperial Court would turn from war to internal construction, focusing on the administrative aspect and military as secondary.

However, Ouyang Shuo did not know how much of such sentiments was for the progress of the dynasty and how much of it was for personal gain.

Fighting wars unavoidably raised the position and prestige of generals.

Not mentioning Baiqi, but also Han Xin and the other marshals, even if they did not enter the Imperial Court, they would hold the same level of position as the Cabinet elders. Even the Legion Generals had the ability to exude such confidence.

In comparison, the civil servants seemed a lot weaker.

Not mentioning others, in terms of just rank alone, the generals were far higher than that of the civil servants.

If the dynasty shifted its focus to internal affairs, naturally the position of civil servants would rise.

So the dynasty looked really peaceful, but in truth, hidden currents were moving.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was deep in thought, the servant came to report, “My king, Shanhai Guards Commander Shen Buhai requests an urgent meeting.”

Ouyang Shuo was jolted to his senses. He did not know what had happened, “Invite him in.”

“Yes my king!”

Chapter 1003 - Yang Su's Treasury

Chapter 1003: Yang Su’s Treasury

The intel that Shen Buhai brought back stunned Ouyang Shuo.

“Li Mi is dead!”

After Pei Renji revealed the tracks of Li Mi, the Shadow Guards started to hunt him down.

As a historical person, before joining any territory, Li Mi would have a god travelling talisman that he could use at any moment. As such, it would not be easy for the Shadow Guards to capture him.

Under the careful planning of Cui Tianqi, they finally captured Li Mi.

Who knew that Li Mi would actually be so stubborn? He would rather die than surrender. Helplessly, Cui Tianqi could only execute him. From his corpse, Cui Tianqi found two scrolls.

First, there was a name list that recorded down a list of names of henchmen he had in Great Sui. As one of the Lords of the late Sui dynasty, Li Mi had many allies in Great Sui.

The other scroll was a treasure map of something that had been lost for a long time – Yang Su’s treasury.

“Interesting!”

Ouyang Shuo did not expect to get such a surprise after killing Li Mi. He passed the name list to Shen Buhai, “Duplicate this and pass one copy through the Quanzhou spies to Yang Guang.”

With Yang Guang’s ambitions, he would use this chance to start something in Quanzhou.

This was exactly what Ouyang Shuo hoped for.

Just as what Du Ruhui had said, Quanzhou, Dali, and Chengdu imperial cities were problems to Great Xia. Ouyang Shuo had not found any methods to destroy them, so he could only slowly infiltrate these imperial cities.

As for the treasury, the matter was a little problematic. Looking at the map, the treasury was within Chang An city. Seeing that Li Shiming had already moved in, the Shanhai Guards did not dare to dig for the treasure outright.

Thinking about that, Ouyang Shuo wrote a letter to his little aunt, “I have good news, come quickly!” For work in an imperial city, an adventure gamemode player was far better.

Seeing that it was 6 PM, Ouyang Shuo decided to not immediately deal with Wang Bodang.

…

23rd day, morning, Lin Jing rushed over to the Xia Palace.

“Little Shuo, what good thing have you called me over for?”

Looking around, only Lin Jing would dare to talk to Ouyang Shuo like that. Based on the system, Lin Jing could be considered a relative of the ruler and held a high position.

Ouyang Shuo also wanted to give her a title, but she rejected the offer.

She said that the time was not right.

Ouyang Shuo did not mind it. He passed her the map and said, “Take a look!”

“Treasure map?”

The more Lin Jing looked at it, the brighter her eyes grew.

“Yang Su’s treasury is within Chang An city, so I hope that little aunt can send men to find it. It is more convenient if we do it like that,” Ouyang Shuo explained.

Apart from being more convenient and the need to avoid alerting Great Tang, more importantly, they had storage bags and could empty out the palace.

Even if the treasury had any traps or weird stuff, the elite group of Snow-War Rose could handle it. They had been doing such stuff since the start of the game.

This was called each person having their own strengths.

“So, how are you going to split it?” Lin Jing was really direct.

Even though the two of them were relatives, private and public matters were separate.

Lin Jing naturally would not take all the treasure. Otherwise, Ouyang Shuo would not dare to inform her if he found such good stuff in the future.

“Rumors have it that there is a large quantity of weapons and equipment in it as well as gold and jewelry. I do not want the weapons, change the treasures to gold, and give me a portion.”

Ouyang Shuo was really generous.

Yang Su was currently working in Great Sui. Naturally, Ouyang Shuo was not interested in his weapons.

Ouyang Shuo lacked money right now, and he still had the Contract Beast Wishing Stone that he had not used.

Lin Jing smiled in satisfaction, “We have a deal. Wait for my news.” After she said that, she directly went to the back palace to look for Bing’er.

Ouyang Shuo was helpless.

His little aunt hated men. For her to be able to speak with Ouyang Shuo for such a long time was rare.

…

Returning to the Imperial Reading Room, Ouyang Shuo summoned Du Ruhui.

“Li Mi has already died. From the letters we found on him, he seems to have bad intentions in asking for Wang Bodang to join us. Talk to him, if he is willing to pledge his loyalty to us, I can let him off. If not, hand him over to the military law division to handle!”

“Understood!”

…

In the next two days, Ouyang Shuo focused on the navy generals as they finally got the Great Xia Navy organizational framework finished.

25th day, morning, the Wang Bodang’s matter was settled.

Learning that Li Mi was killed, Wang Bodang tried to attack Du Ruhui on the spot, but he was taken down. Undoubtedly, he was a really loyal person. Unfortunately, he was not loyal to Great Xia.

That day, the military law division executed him for being a spy.

Wang Bodang’s death caused waves in the official circle.

Especially the 2nd City Protection Legion that he was in, where there were many soldiers who were close to him and admired his archery.

The soldiers were naturally worried that they would be implicated by his death.

Military law secretary Feng Yunshan wrote a memorial to ask how to deal with those questionable soldiers. Should he capture them and investigate whether they were tempted by Wang Bodang or not?

With how close the New Year was, it was not good to slaughter people. This matter was briefly jumped across. Ouyang Shuo did not pursue or investigate any of them.

He believed that even if there were soldiers that were close to Wang Bodang, after the death of Li Mi and Wang Bodang, no one would be so foolish to try anything irrational.

If Ouyang Shuo were to investigate, it might incite fear and panic instead.

One could not be too strict when ruling the military. Sometimes, being generous and relaxed would achieve a better effect. Those soldiers without the psychological barrier could become more loyal to the dynasty.

Shan Xiongxin, who was working in the Somalia Formation, was shocked when he learned about the matter.

Wang Bodang was a hero and was really loyal; he did not deserve such an outcome. The bad part was that he followed such a Lord and was conned twice.

The dead Bodang was just a cluster of data, while a living Bodang could have done work in the future Planet Hope. It was a difference between heaven and earth.

…

Gaia 5th year, 2nd month, 3rd day, 12th month, 15th day of the lunar calendar.

It was half a month till the Lunar New Year’s Eve, and the festive spirit in Shanhai City grew thicker and thicker. Lanterns were hung up, people swarmed the streets, creating a really bustling scene.

The government offices were completing their administrative matters for the year and were waiting for the arrival of the Lunar New Year holidays. Based on the Great Xia system, they would have seven days, three days before and three days after.

At 9 AM, Lin Jing came to Shanhai City once again.

Looking at her delighted expression, Ouyang Shuo knew that she had gotten her hands on the treasure.

“Little Aunt is efficient!” Ouyang Shuo smiled.

“We have struck it rich this time!”

As she said that, Lin Jing descriptively introduced the experiences of the elite group from Snow-War Rose.

Chang An was the territory of Jin Yi Wei and belonged to the Yanhuang Alliance camp. To make it less suspicious, Lin Jing had to teleport her people batch by batch to Chang An.

Luckily, along with the Satellite City opening up, the guilds had placed their attention on the underground world.

After the elite group arrived in Chang An, based on the map, they found the treasure location; it was an abandoned residence. Lin Jing decided to spend money to rent it.

The following matters proceeded more smoothly. Through a well in the residence, they entered the treasury. As expected, it was filled with traps.

Even if the people she brought were experts at this, six of them still died. Luckily, after the system update, the cost of revival was much lower.

With the foundations of Snow-War Rose, along with their Satellite City business, searching for a few experience pills and cultivation pills was not difficult. The members that died could rise back quickly.

Of course, only the elite group members would receive such treatment.

Ever since the update, the experience pills and cultivation pills had become hot commodities. The top 10 guilds sent people to clear the stocks off the market.

No matter whether they needed it or not, the moment someone sold one, one of the top 10 guilds would sweep it up.

Just like that, more than 90% of the pills on the market entered their pockets. Only organizations like them with unlimited gold could do such a thing.

As for solo players, apart from those with good luck, even if they saw pills, they could not afford it.

This was unfair, but it was the truth.

The game world was more of a jungle than real life, and it thrived on the law of the jungle.

Gaia wanted to develop a group of strong people.

Apart from traps, the treasury also had a huge boss – Evil king Shi Zhixuan.

“After a tough battle, the elite group nearly all fell before finally killing him.” Although Lin Jing gave him a simple description, Ouyang Shuo was able to imagine the high intensity of that battle.

Luckily, the huge sacrifices were able to exchange for unexpected rewards.

Evil King Shi Zhixuan’s cultivation method, Sky Heart Sutra, phantom body technique, and invincible seal were all dropped; these were all Emperor Rank true secret manuals.

They also obtained a special item – evil emperor relic.

The relic that Gaia designed had huge amounts of primordial energy that players could absorb and turn into their own strength to raise their cultivation.

In comparison, the weapons and gold in the treasury seemed less eye-catching.

Although it was not eye-catching, that did not mean it was not worth money.

The treasury had vast quantities of weapons and armor, and they were all top grade items. It was undoubtedly a huge fortune for Snow-War Rose.

Amongst which, some were dark gold, while some were even platinum rank items.

With this batch of equipment, their combat strength was able to reach another stage.

“Little Shuo, you have given me the best New Year’s gift!” Lin Jing smiled as she said that.

Chapter 1004 - Dragon and Phoenix Prosperity

Lin Jing took out a fist-sized, golden shiny sphere; this was the evil emperor relic.

“Little Shuo let’s discuss. The weapons and equipment in the treasury are already worth a lot, along with the three secret manuals, I’m taking too much. You should take this relic.”

As she said that, Lin Jing passed it over.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and pushed the relic back.

“What?” Lin Jing could not understand.

“Take it. Little aunt, you need this more than me. I’m looking forward to you shining in the world martial arts competition.” Ouyang Shuo smiled.

It was already the 5th year of Gaia, and the first round of the world martial arts competition had begun.

Ouyang Shuo had no doubt that Lin Jing had the ability to be among the top 10 of Jianye Region. But to say that she would definitely be in the China finals to represent the China region at the global finals, maybe even Lin Jing did not have that much confidence in herself. One must know that China always had many hidden dragons and crouching tigers, so who knows what experts hid in the wilderness.

Especially with the sects opening up, many miracles could be made.

Not mentioning dark horses, but with the nine imperial cities and Shanhai City, there were a total of 10 regions.

Xingzhou, Somalia, and Morocco were all considered secondary regions, with each having five slots. If not, it would be really unfair to the adventure gamemode players in those three regions.

To fight for the top 10 in China basically meant that you needed to be the top of your region.

Much less the ability you needed to stand at the grandest world stage to chase for the title of best in the world.

To adventure gamemode players, this was their absolute goal. At such a time, each of them hoped to gain some extra strength, which would mean an extra chance of winning.

The Chinese had such a saying, ‘Real men help people out in times of need.’

Much less the person in front of him, who was one of his few relatives.

A look of emotion flashed in her eyes, “Okay I’ll take it.” Lin Jing obviously knew how huge this gift was. Even as a relative, this gift still meant a lot.

A warm current flowed into her heart.

This was not because of the relic but due to the care and concern between family members.

Ouyang Shuo had a wide smile on his face and officially sent out his invitation, “Little Aunt, for the Chinese New Year, I’m going to hold a feast to invite all our people. I hope that you can join.”

Be it the Ouyang family or Ouyang Shuo’s mom’s Lin family, there were obviously still many distant relatives.

Based on rough estimations, there should be a hundred people.

If one considered the branch families and the in-laws, it would reach three to four hundred.

During these few years, along with Ouyang Shuo’s identity being revealed, there were relatives who came over to Shanhai City. Ouyang Shuo did not reject them. Instead, he gave them jobs based on their specialty.

Till date, all the members of the Ouyang family and the Lin family lived in Shanhai City.

Speaking of which, all these people could be termed as the relatives of the king.

Ouyang Shuo had understood a theory. To rule a huge dynasty, one could not allow their relatives to abuse their power, but they could not reject them either.

Even to say that to a certain degree, having a huge royal family could help to maintain the stability of a dynasty.

Sometimes, bloodline relations made for the most stable and loyal people.

Using relatives was definitely needed.

Ouyang Shuo needed to use them in sufficient quantities. Those with talent would be placed at important positions in hopes of them becoming successful.

Hence, it formed a stable foundation to support the dynasty.

Ouyang Shuo was prepared to give a large amount of titles to the family before the Chinese New Year, including three marquis titles, 12 earl titles, 20 viscount titles, and 35 baron titles.

Listening to Ouyang Shuo’s plan, Lin Jing kept silent for a long while. Her expression was really complicated.

“Little Shuo, you have really grown up to become a true man, the leader of our family, and its pillar. If your parents could see your current achievements, they would be so proud.”

Ouyang Shuo tried his best not to cry. Looking up into the sky, he prayed, “Dad, Mom, are you all doing okay in heaven?” Who knew that he was also someone who needed the comfort and encouragement of his parents.

Seeing that, Lin Jing suddenly stepped forward and hugged Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo was stunned, and he laughed like a little kid. Such warmth was something he rarely felt.

Lin Jing backed off, as tears formed at the corner of her eyes, “I’ll come on Lunar New Year’s Eve, along with Siyun.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded.

“That’s right. I nearly forgot something.” Lin Jing wiped away her tears and transferred three million gold to Ouyang Shuo, “This was from the treasury.”

This time, Ouyang Shuo gladly accepted it.

…

After he sent his little aunt off, Ouyang Shuo returned to the back palace.

Since he was wishing for a god beast for his unborn children, he should naturally do it along with Song Jia.

The white stone looked really unassuming, but it held a mysterious power.

“Let’s begin!” Song Jia was looking forward to it.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. He held the white stone and said in his heart, “Use!”

“System Notification: Noticed player Qiyue Wuyi is using the Contract Beast Wishing Stone, one time use, will you make a wish?”

“Yes!”

“System Notification: Please choose wish type!”

“God beast!”

With Ouyang Shuo’s status, if he were to choose, he would naturally go for the best one.

“System Notification: For a god beast, the lowest amount is one million gold. Please choose the amount of gold you want to spend. Friendly Reminder: the higher the amount, the rarer the god beast. The limit is five million gold!”

“5 million gold!”

Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate. Apart from the three million Lin Jing gave to him, Song Jia as the mother had also taken out three million from the Mountain and Sea Entertainment Holdings as emergency money.

Who knew that it would come in handy?

During the 4th year, they earned 15 million gold in profits through Huo Qubing, Hua Mulan, and five other films as well as concerts.

As the biggest shareholder, Song Jia jumped to become a wealthy person in the China region.

However, the ambitious few female shareholders including Song Jia were not happy with the current scale. They were not ready to split the profits. Instead, they tossed it into shooting new movies.

As a result, Song Jia was only able to take out three million gold.

” System Notification: Voice your wish!”

Ouyang Shuo took in a deep breath and voiced the wish he had prepared in advance, “Provide a pair of most suitable god beasts for my unborn children.”

This wish was really vague, but the requirements were really high.

The most suitable ones were the best ones.

” System Notification: Calculating wish, please wait…”

At the same time, the Gaia body in the city in the skies suddenly opened its eyes. It looked right down at Ouyang Shuo.

“It’s him!” Gaia’s eyes shook.

Who knows what Gaia did because in less than a minute, Ouyang Shuo received a notification.

” System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, wish successful, deducting five million gold, obtaining dragon egg and phoenix egg, one of each.”

The wishing stone turned into a white light and slowly rose up into the sky. Amongst the eye-catching white light, gold and red lights shone out.

The eye-catching gold, the noble red.

One like gold, one like fire.

Weirdly, the ball of light shot through a ray of golden and a ray of red light, shooting into Song Jia’s stomach and disappearing.

Along with the glow dissipating, two god beast eggs appeared, one big and one small.

Big like a water bucket, small like a watermelon.

Ouyang Shuo went up. He wanted to take a look at the stats, but all he got was: ???.

“Did they already sign the contract?”

Ouyang Shuo was astonished. Luckily, Gaia did not con players. Since he spent five million gold and used the equally precious wishing stone, there should not be any problems.

“Wife, keep them!” Ouyang Shuo smiled.

Song Jia nodded and kept both eggs into her storage bag.

…

2nd month, 15th day, Shanhai City.

Starting from tomorrow, the Imperial Court would take a break and officially enter the Chinese New Year season.

On this morning, the palace sent out 50 imperial decrees through the Cabinet, and they were all to grant titles to relatives of the king.

The messengers in charge of sending the decrees zoomed about on the streets of the Capital City, what a sight.

Along with the decree were gifts like silk, gold, and jewelry as a form of New Year’s greeting.

The moment the news spread out, the dynasty rejoiced.

To the people, the king giving titles to his relatives was a sign of the prosperity of the dynasty. Along with the queen having children, it was a great sign.

As for being worried that the king’s relatives would abuse their power, that was not a worry.

The king was smart and skilled in martial arts; he was fair in his decisions, so he was loved by the people. He had also punished relatives before. Naturally, he would not be biased.

Hence, this pushed the festive atmosphere to the peak.

Following which, the palace sent out another decree, which was for the palace feast for officials to be held a day before the Lunar New Year’s Eve.

With that, the civil servants and generals did not need to spend their reunion dinner with the king and could spend it with their families.

In this aspect, Ouyang Shuo was different from past rulers.

Ouyang Shuo, who was greatly influenced by modern thinking, did not wish to drag his men down with him just to show that he was celebrating with the people. Although those officials acted really respectful when they attended the feasts, in the dark, they were scolding the ruler.

No glory or honor could compare with having a reunion dinner with family.

Chapter 1005 - Home and Country

Chapter 1005: Home and Country

In the blink of an eye, Lunar New Year’s Eve had arrived.

Just yesterday, Ouyang Shuo invited the civil servants and generals to the Xia Palace for a feast. Those that joined the feast not only included the officials grade 5 and above, but there were also the 12 Provincial Governors and marshals.

The star-studded line up made one look on with mouth agape.

The Provincial Governors and marshals either governed a province or protected a border, holding great power in the Imperial Court. Them returning to the city naturally was not just to reminisce, as they had an important duty.

After the Chinese New Year, Ouyang Shuo was going to hold the imperial assembly.

…

Xia Palace, Zhaohua Hall.

Zhaohua Hall sat at the southwest corner of the palace, and it was where Ouyang Shuo held the feast.

Ever Chinese New Year, the huge Xia Palace would be decorated anew, with lanterns hung everywhere. Compared to the casual civilian decorations, the palace ones were more solemn and arranged.

Everything had to follow the royal family rituals, and nothing could be missed out.

Hence, even during the festive season, no one dared to fool around in the palace.

Within the Zhaohua Hall, there were many rosewood tables with peanuts and walnuts on it. Magically, even during this winter season, one could still see oranges, bananas, and other seasonal fruits.

Looking at the skins of the fruits, it looked like they were just harvested.

Obviously, Great Xia did not have any special technique or modern fridges to keep them fresh. These fruits were taken from Morocco Province and Somalia Province.

Amongst them, there were Southeast Asian fruits from Xingzhou Prefecture as well as fresh milk from New Zealand.

With the help of the teleportation formation, anything could happen. The Xia Palace had new fresh fruits ever season. Moreover, they could drink fresh milk from Auckland every day.

This was called the rich having anything from the four oceans.

Within the hall, exquisite charcoal was burned, spices from Somalia were lit up, making one feel warm, chasing away the chill of winter.

Within the huge hall, main members of the Ouyang and Lin families had gathered. Along with them were the core members of the Song family.

Altogether, there were no less than a hundred of them.

Song Wen, Song Wu were also present, However, Song Tianxiong’s face was a little weird. He had hoped that his daughter giving birth to kids for the king would solidify his family’s position.

Who knew that the king would use such a move?

Even among the relatives of the king, there were differences in terms of closeness. In the Ouyang family, those who were of the same branch as his grandfather naturally held a higher position. Next would be the branch family, and then Ouyang Shuo’s mother’s Lin clan followed by Song Jia’s clan.

Everyone was seated accordingly. Within the hall, there were a row of tables but only four seats. The closer to the host’s seat, the more important the person.

Attending the feast were old men and also some kids.

No matter who it was, they were all wearing specially prepared dresses, especially those with ranks, who wore the costumes that came with the rank.

Seated below, some people were really careful, while some could not wait for the start of the feast. Occasionally, they whispered to the people by their sides, not daring to speak loudly.

Children who were supposed to fool around were locked down to their seats by their parents, who stopped them from moving around.

At the right side corner, there was a 11 or 12 year old teen that was peeling a banana, “Brother Shuo is so amazing, he can buy anything to eat.”

It seemed like he was a person that loved to eat.

“Good that you know. You have to study hard to help your brother in the future.” The father seated beside him looked at his son dotingly as he said this.

To the Ouyang family, surprises fell from the sky.

This teen’s father was known as Ouyang Gong. In reality, he worked in a bank and was working in the Four Seas Bank currently. It was said that Meng Zhida had good opinion of him.

Before the year, Ouyang Gong was given the rank of 2nd class Earl, so he could be considered to be outstanding in the family. To the adults in the Ouyang family, as long as they were willing to work hard, they could promote many times faster than others.

Thinking back to the envy from his superiors and even them trying to suck up to him, Ouyang Gong was filled with emotions. After the king sent the decree, his family had become a hot topic.

There were many friends, classmates, and even strangers who came up to send their congratulations.

Ouyang Gong was still really clear0headed and did not let all their flattery get to his head. He knew that for the Ouyang family to get to their position, it was all thanks to Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Gong knew his place.

He had heard that during the giving of rank, there were two people who had close blood relation to Ouyang Shuo but were only given a 3rd class baron title due to their work ethic.

Undoubtedly, this was a warning.

Although Ouyang Gong was his senior, he could only look on in awe.

…

At 6 PM sharp, a court lady sang, “The king arrives!”

With a ‘Hua!’ all of the guests stood up in unison and looked at the northeast corner of the hall. They saw Ouyang Shuo bringing in Song Jia, his sister, and Lin Jing.

“Bow!”

All of them bowed in unison.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and moved to his seat, “This is just a family feast, so there’s no position difference. There are some of you who are of my grandfather’s generation, my dad’s generation, and some who are my nephews. We are all a family.”

As he said that, Ouyang Shuo sat down.

‘Huala!’ the other people followed him and sat. Now, their faces were a lot more natural.

Although all of them were modern people and were not bounded by the old traditions, when they were in this majestic palace hall and looked at the solemn court ladies who were standing aside following all the rules, they could not help but unknowingly enter a solemn state.

No one felt that it was inappropriate; instead, they felt that it was a glory.

A glory for the family.

They could foresee that the Ouyang family could be like the emperor families in the legends, shining in the country.

As the feast began, court ladies brought up plates of delicious food. The younger generation received red packets from Ouyang Shuo personally.

At the two sides, there were bands playing. At the same time, in the middle of the hall, there were dances.

Not long after the start, Ouyang Shuo raised his glass and the music stopped. The hall turned silent. This was the first time many of them had seen this legendary figure, so they could not help but feel curious.

Ouyang Shuo got up, “Today is Lunar New Year’s Eve, a day of family reunion. It was not easy for all of us to gather today. The Great Xia of yesterday has become something of the past. I’ll depend on all of you to help me for the Great Xia of the future.”

“Here’s a toast to all of you!”

As he said that, Ouyang Shuo downed the glass.

This was a clear indication of the position of family.

The feast entered the peak just like that, and Ouyang Shuo smiled, “You do not need to stay at your seats, you can be more causal.”

As he said that, he personally led his wife and Bing’er to the guests seated at the front. Song Jia was not wearing a coronation dress. Rather, she was wearing a normal dress, as she was worried such clothes might cause people to feel distant.

Bing’er was wearing a white olden time princess skirt. The usually naughty and playful princess actually had a good grasp of court manners during such an occasion. Obviously, she had received good education.

When the people around saw that, they were all amazed.

This family was filled with dragons and phoenixes.

They were the true example of a royal family.

At the front row sat the heads of the three families, the three marquises.

The person who received the highest rank was known as Ouyang Bo. He was the brother of Ouyang Shuo’s grandfather. In terms of generation, Ouyang Shuo should call him grandpa, and he was one of the closest in the family to him.

However, this grandpa’s body condition was not good. He was thin, and his face was filled with wrinkles.

“Grandpa, Happy New Year!”

Ouyang Shuo smiled as he raised the cup, and Song Jia naturally followed suit. During the wedding, there were not many Ouyang family members who came, so this was the first official meeting between Song Jia and her in-laws.

Ouyang Bo had a merciful smile on his face as he pat Ouyang Shuo’s hand as he shook it, “Good son, good wife, good, good!”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. At that moment, he probably felt the warmth and power of a family.

The feast lasted till 7:30 PM.

After the reunion dinner, they moved over to the imperial garden to watch fireworks. The kids played around on the grass.

The imperial garden on this night was lit up brightly.

As the host, Bing’er once again transformed into a king of the children as she led all of them to play around in the garden, watch the golden fish in the pond, and disturb the panda.

Carefree and simple.

Listening to Bing’er’s clear laughter, Ouyang Shuo gave out a knowing smile.

Bing’er was lonely.

Along with Ouyang Shuo’s position rising, Bing’er as the only princess became the center of attention. The teachers who taught her also started to become stricter.

Within Shanhai City, those kids who followed her to play also slowly dispersed.

A difference in status meant that they could not hang around Bing’er like they were the same type of people. Even if the children wanted to, the parents would tell them not to disrespect her and let her in everything.

As time went on, they slowly grew apart.

Huo Chengjun, who was the only one who was similar in age to her, could not meet Bing’er because she was by her father’s side. When she was too bored, Bing’er would fight the spirit beasts and mutter to herself.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, his heart could not help but wrench.

He did not know if this meeting today was good or bad for Bing’er.

Ouyang Shuo did not consider this aspect when he decided to accept his family. Maybe only playing with her cousins could she truly be happy.

Being connected by blood, but it was the most unrestrained.

‘With this laughter, everything is worth it.’ Ouyang Shuo thought to himself.

As Song Jia was pregnant, she returned to rest early. Ouyang Shuo stood in the pavilion and talked with the elders about his experiences during these past few years.

After a short while, the elders were also tired and took their leave.

A family feast ended at that point.

Chapter 1006 - Before the Troops Move, the Grain Moves

Chapter 1006: Before the Troops Move, the Grain Moves

First day of the Chinese New Year, Shanhai City.

Based on the customs, the Imperial Court would hold a large-scale worshiping activity. The scale of this year’s one was even bigger than the last, as this was their first ceremony since establishing the country.

Last year, it was based on the customs of a marquis, while this year it was based on that of a king.

The only difference was that apart from worshiping the Yellow Emperor and Yu the Great, he also had to pray in the ancestor temple. Before the New Year, when he decided to accept his family, Ouyang Shuo built a huge temple in the imperial city to worship his Ouyang family ancestors.

This ancestral temple could be said to be the last ring in the completion of the dynasty.

In the eyes of the people, the worshipping venue was huge and boisterous. However, in Ouyang Shuo’s heart, this was something that he was already used to.

…

In the next few days, Ouyang Shuo would be busy attending various kinds of feasts.

On the second day of the Chinese New Year, Ouyang Shuo held a feast in the palace to receive Bai Hua, Mulan Yue, Gong Chengshi, Wufu, West Gate Big Official, and other player officials to strengthen their friendship.

Till this date, they had become a new source of strength in the official circle. Ouyang Shuo did not want to grow apart from them because of time or space.

Especially these few Provincial Governors, who had done so much for the dynasty.

Third day of Chinese New Year, Ouyang Shuo held a feast for the generals in the Guards Legion Corps camp, Baiqi, Han Xin, Sun Bin, Huo Qubing, Li Mu, Shi Wanshui, and the other marshals all came.

This was a chance for the generals to get familiar with one another. Especially generals like Li Mu, who had just joined the army recently.

After the end of the holiday, Ouyang Shuo would discuss with them the specific battle plans for attacking Annan.

On the fourth day, Ouyang Shuo held a feast in Xinan University, meeting the professors and exceptional students today, showing his focus on education matters.

That night, Ouyang Shuo also met with the various envoys of different countries who had moved into Shanhai City.

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

Gaia 5th year, 2nd month, 23rd day, fifth day of the Chinese New Year, the Imperial Court holiday was over.

The first day was the imperial assembly.

The symbolic meaning of this assembly was far greater than its practical meaning.

Jiang Shang as the Grand Secretary represented the civil servants to summarize the achievements of the past year, the plans for the 5th year, and the outlook for the year.

Dragon Legion Corps Marshal, the only commander-in-chief, Baiqi, expressed his thoughts about the border defenses. He also roughly described their battle plans for the 5th year.

In conclusion, it was a very friendly and peaceful assembly.

There were no disputes.

After the assembly ended, Great Xia, this machine that had been on a short break, started to work once more.

…

Xia Palace, Imperial Reading Room.

Ouyang Shuo met Yunnan Provincial Governor Bai Hua alone.

“Sit!”

The two of them were old friends, so their meetings were a lot more causal.

Ouyang Shuo did not call Bai Hua here to instruct her on Yunnan administrative matters, as the Cabinet would worry about that themselves. This meeting was mainly to coordinate military and administrative matters.

This was to prepare for the Battle of Annan in advance.

As they say, ‘Before the soldiers move, the grain moves first.’

Although Annan was not large in size, it had eight million players. To win this battle, the Black Snake Guards had infiltrated Annan in the first half of the 4th year.

In the second half of the year, the Military Intelligence Division also joined in.

The Grand Council now had detailed information of the various places in Annan.

The important information included where their troops were housed at as well as lesser intel like the geography and rivers. All of this information was gathered in the Grand Council for the strategists to inspect.

To the Great Xia, Annan did not have any secrets.

Toward all of this, Annan Haiphong City Lord Ruan Tianque only had a guess and premonition. In terms of scouting, Great Xia was many times better than Annan, and they were not on the same level.

For this, Great Xia tossed in four to five million gold every year in the three intel organizations.

Apart from intel scouting, the war resource preparation had begun before winter. As one of the provinces connected to Annan, Yunnan Province became one of the main ones for this battle preparation.

“There’s one thing I do not understand, the border between Mengding Prefecture and Annan is the Stone Mountain Ranges, how am I supposed to send the resources to the battlefield?” Bai Hua asked.

Logically speaking, since it was not during the country war month, Great Xia could only use the naval route to attack Annan. The movement of war resources should also be done through the sea.

If that was the case, territories like Lingnan Province and Minnan Province ,which were beside the sea, should be the main provinces for battle preparations.

Bai Hua did not understand.

However, the message from the Privy Court was really certain; they wanted the Yunnan Province to be ready.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “I called you here to clear your doubts.” As he said that, Ouyang Shuo passed her a seal that was half the size of a fist.

“What is this?”

Bai Hua took it and looked at its stats.

Mountain Opening Seal: After use, one can open up a mountain path through any mountain.

This seal was obtained from one of the Lords after they destroyed Singapore. Ouyang Shuo had kept this item till now.

Ouyang Shuo had thought about using this seal on Annan.

Since Bai Hua felt that Great Xia could not move resources to Annan through Yunnan, Ruan Tianque would think the same. Great Xia could open up a secret path through the mountain ranges directly into Annan.

“Now you understand why the Privy Court told you to prepare?”

“You should have said so earlier.” Bai Hua shook her head.

With such a secret weapon, Bai Hua felt bad for the Annan players.

Of course, just one seal alone would not be able to win the battle for them. In the end, a true head to head battle was needed. However, with this tunnel, the winning chances grew a little greater.

“I understand. I’ll quicken the battle preparations when I return.” Bai Hua nodded, keeping the seal into her storage bag.

“As for the specific location to use it at, Baiqi will let you know.”

The path opened naturally was not only to transport resources, but it was also a secret travelling path. Where it should be was up to Baiqi, the war expert.

“Understood!”

Their conversation came to an end.

…

2nd Month, 25th day, Wuying Hall.

Ouyang Shuo gathered the military generals to discuss attacking Annan.

This battle pretty much involved the entire Great Xia Army. Which forces were the vanguard, which were the main force, and which were in charge of border defenses; all of these aspects had to be discussed.

When spring started, the war would too.

Great Xia had many troops. As such, to move troops at a large scale needed one to give orders in advance. Such a large scale gathering of troops could not be completed in a week or two.

At the same time, to numb the enemy, it was best to keep it a secret.

All these matters made it really complicated.

Luckily, he Grand Council would lead them, and Jia Xu and Pang Tong were moved temporarily to the War Division to help Zhao Kuo set up a military plan.

Ouyang Shuo as a ruler needed to stay in the Capital City, and he might not be able to rush to the frontlines. Hence, before diving into the problems, he needed to select the main commanders and deputies for this battle.

A snake had to have a head, much less an army for such a large-scale battle.

Amongst the legion corps, apart from the guards and City Protection Legion Corps, the Dragon Legion Corps had the least work to do. Furthermore, the secret tunnel opened up between Yunnan Province and Annan was in their region, so they were the main force.

Dragon Legion Corps Marshal Baiqi was naturally the best choice for commander.

In truth, when they discussed reorganizing defensive regions, Ouyang Shuo had talked to Baiqi about it.

Based on Ouyang Shuo’s idea, the Dragon Legion Corps would use this battle to jump out from the China circle and focus on conquering the ASEAN.

When Baiqi heard that, he naturally had nothing to say.

Hence, at the end of the year, although the Dragon Legion Corps did not have any defensive duties, Baiqi made use of the winter break to increase their training to maintain them at their best condition.

The best soldiers in the army this year belonged to the Dragon Legion Corps.

“Baiqi, receive my order!” Ouyang Shuo was solemn.

“Present!”

Baiqi stepped out. His face was still expressionless, and he looked really cool.

“I appoint you as the commander of the battle, commanding both the army and the navy. As the war is overseas, I grant you all power.”

As he said that, Ouyang Shuo personally gave him the appointment decree and the soldier talisman.

When Baiqi heard that, his expression finally wavered. With a ‘Shua!’, he kneeled on the ground and respectfully received the items.

When Han Xin and the other marshals saw that, they could only envy it.

Annan had 800 thousand guards, 300 thousand territory troops, and 1.5 million combat occupation players. To take down Annan, Great Xia had to send out at least a million troops.

Without a doubt, this was the largest battle in the wilderness till date.

Even the Battle Maps did not reach such a scale.

The Great Xia forces sent would include the Guards Legion Corps, City Protection Legion Corps, Dragon Legion Corps, and Bear Legion Corps while the navy side included the Emperor Squadron, the Yashan Squadron, and the Pacific Squadron.

All of them were elites, the cream of the crop.

To the Great Xia generals, if they could lead such an army to such a historical battle, they could die with no regrets.

The moment news spread that they were going to attack Annan, many generals wished to fight.

Out of all of them, Huo Qubing was the closest to the king. However, he was a typical one type God General and did not know how to command such a large battle.

Hence, Han Xin and the others were tempted to try to be the main commander.

If the king appointed someone else, they might feel unhappy. However, the king chose Asura Baiqi. As such, even the prideful Han Xin was happy with the decision.

Apart from being famous in history, in the Great Xia journey, Baiqi contributed the most.

Everyone in the army looked up to him.

The Great Xia people had already looked up to him as their war god.

Chapter 1007 - Future Empress

Chapter 1007: Future Empress

Apart from main commander Baiqi, Ouyang Shuo appointed Shi Wanshui and Zhou Yu as the deputy commanders to help Baiqi.

Guards Legion Corps marshal Huo Qubing would be the vanguard general.

After the entire structure was set up, they needed to discuss the details.

The five legions of the Dragon Legion Corps, four from the Guards Legion Corps, and two from the Bear Legion Corps could be sent. The City Protection Legion Corps would leave the 4th legion to defend Beihai City while the other four could be sent too.

It was a total of 15 legions, 1.05 million troops.

The remaining Tiger, Leopard, and Eagle Legion Corps needed to take charge of the long north border of the dynasty or get ready for internal wars. As such, they could not be moved.

They would only be thrown in if the Annan battle situation turned bad.

On the navy side, the Emperor Squadron and the Yashan Squadron were all sent. The Pacific Squadron would only send one division, as it had other important responsibilities.

Apart from occupying Hawaii, the Pacific Squadron would still need to threaten the north and south enemies.

North was naturally the Yanhuang Alliance.

Ouyang Shuo was not sure if Di Chen would make use of this battle to attack Great Xia.

Those aristocratic family children only cared about interests and did not mind taking heartless action.

Hence, during the war period, the Pacific Squadron needed to ensure that the surrounding ocean regions were under their absolute control and that the Yanhuang Alliance would not have a chance to find trouble.

On the south side was Luzon. After the Luzon Squadron was badly beaten by the Yashan Squadron last time, they did not dare to make any sounds.

Although that was the case, Ouyang Shuo still did not dare to let his guard down.

A dog that does not bark was one that would bite.

Luzon was the core of the ASEAN Lords that wanted war. Without the threat on the ocean, who knows if they would be tempted to join in.

The three squadrons, apart from ocean warfare, disembarking, and fighting, also had the mission of ferrying troops and carrying resources.

To ensure that the million troops and resources smoothly arrive on the frontlines, Great Xia had gathered 800 late merchant ships to ensure a smooth supply line.

Apart from that, Yanhuo Yaonie’s Indian Ocean Squadron would be in charge of threatening the other ASEAN countries, especially Zhenla and Java.

In conclusion, for this battle, Great Xia would basically use all the troops they possibly could.

Next was the specific strategy. On this matter, Baiqi, Jia Xu, and the strategists and generals had more speaking rights. Ouyang Shuo only listened on and did not interfere.

The entire military meeting lasted for five days.

When the dust settled, the Great Xia war machine started to work. With the Grand Council’s help, the participating forces started to gather at their designated spots.

The ocean amounts of war resources were also being gathered urgently.

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

In the blink of an eye, it was already the 3rd month.

The winter season slowly dissipated, especially in Shanhai City, which was on the southwest and was affected by the subtropical ocean climate. In the city, one could already smell spring.

Ice melting, the earth awakening, the dead silent wilderness started to blossom.

After the Lantern Festival was the start of another school term.

Since she became the princess, Bing’er’s studies in ancient Chinese civilization became more common. As time went on, her afternoon classes started to clash with the virtual lessons she was taking in the morning.

The best way was to not go to the virtual lessons and let professional teacher teach modern lessons in the palace. With the position of Great Xia, finding some teachers was a simple matter.

However, Ouyang Shuo did not do that.

The reason was simple. In the virtual classroom, she had friends to learn and play together with. If she moved to the palace, she would be truly alone.

Only after he accepted his family did the mater turn for the better. Estimates had 56 people still in school. From middle school to university, there were people at every level.

Ouyang Shuo decided to choose a palace at the outer parts of the Xia Palace to be the imperial college for relatives of the emperor to study in.

All the fees would be paid for by the royal family.

The royal college would mix modern lessons with ancient Chinese civilization lessons. Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo would also prepare a suitable true internal cultivation method for each student to build the foundations of their cultivation.

The Great Xia royal family did not only need civil servants, but it also needed generals.

As the only direct line princess, Bing’er would go to school in the royal college.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the royal college was the highest education system. As Great Xia already had the Xinan University, the royal college would not be under the Imperial Court Structure.

Ouyang Shuo’s royal college would be different from those during ancient times.

When the news came out, the royal family relatives did not have a reason to disagree. They wished for a chance to get closer to the royal family.

Taking a step back, even if they did not intend to use this chance to build on relationships, the teachers in the college would be top grade. For their children to study there meant that they would be a step better than normal children.

Not to mention the secret manuals that others dreamed of.

Since the king had made such a promise, the secret manuals would be Gold Rank at worst or even King Rank.

As the matter concerned the princess, the Science, Education, Culture, and Health Department was really efficient, establishing the college in less than a month. A group of teachers were also hired.

3rd month, 1st day, the royal college officially started running.

This was a big matter for the royal family, so Ouyang Shuo put aside some matters to attend the unveiling and opening ceremony.

Family members with children attending were also invited to the ceremony.

Ouyang Shuo was the king and someone they all looked up to. As such, all the words he said aimed to encourage the children to respect their teachers and study hard.

Although the words were the same old stuff, the logic made sense.

Bing’er was wearing a blue robe that was standardized for the school. She looked really cute and scholarly. She sat at the front, listening attentively to her brother.

Maybe, at this moment, she realized the role of the royal family. As the princess, her position was extraordinary, and she needed to be a model for her cousins.

The royal college was not a palace for the royal family children to play around. On the contrary, the rules here were much stricter than the virtual schools, and the work was also much more intense.

Even if they had a good starting point, if they did not work hard, they would not succeed.

Ancient dynasties all paid attention to the studies of the prince. With the Qing Dynasty as an example, the prince would start school at 4 AM, and it would end at 4 PM.

Every morning and noon, there would be two meals. Breakfast at 7 AM, lunch at 12. If any of them did not finish their work, it would delay the meal time for everyone else.

Only after their teacher felt like they had completed the task could they proceed to eat.

Their holidays were even more pitiful. Once they entered at six, they would only have holidays on New Year’s, Mid-Autumn Festival, their own birthday, and two days for their father’s birthday.

Modern day students had holidays on festive seasons as well as summer breaks.

Under such a strict system, many geniuses were often born.

Kangxi Emperor really loved to learn when he was young. He had once learned astronomy, math, geography, and Latin from Nan Huauren and other scholars.

Maybe they inherited his high intellect, as his children were all pillars of the dynasty. Unfortunately, only one of them could be emperor.

But even so, they were all really talented.

Not mentioning the royal family, but even in modern day society, children who came from rich families had better education than commoners. However, their studies were even tougher.

People like Di Chen, although they were getting destroyed by a commoner like Ouyang Shuo, they were each skilled.

If not, how could they manage such a huge territory at such a young age?

Hence, for the Ouyang family to continue on, even extending to become a huge aristocratic family, he would need to start from the next generation, from education.

This point was greatly supported by the old people in the family.

In the words of Ouyang Bo, “Although our generation has suddenly blossomed, it’s useless. To extend the family legacy, we have to depend on the next generation.”

When the other uncles heard that, they laughed.

Although the words were a little extreme, they were correct.

Of course, whether the Ouyang Family could take root on Planet Hope and proliferate or not, apart from Ouyang Shuo, it mainly depended on Bing’er and the two unborn children.

They were his direct descendants and the heirs to the throne.

Although he did not tell anyone, in his eyes, there was no difference between men and women. He even though about letting Bing’er become the empress if she was good enough.

…

After Ouyang Shuo finished talking, Bing’er, as the student representative, went to give her speech.

Looking at the confident and elegant girl in blue, Ouyang Shuo’s eyes were filled with love.

Love and happiness.

All the girls and boys listening on were engrossed in her speech.

This moment was worth remembering.

Chapter 1008 - In the Name of Free Trade

Chapter 1008: In the Name of Free Trade

Starting from the Red River, from Yunnan Dali’s Longhu Mountain, due to many red sand shale on the surface, the water had a fresh red color and was really special, having a similar beauty to that of the famous Jinsha River.

It was like a twisting and turning red dragon flowing through the 17 counties in Yunnan Province before ending in Annan, going past the famous Red River Delta and finally entering the gulf of Tonkin and the South Ocean.

Annan Region imperial city Hanoi was located on the northwest portion of the Red River Delta, sitting on the right of the Red River. The red colored river water slowly flowed across, bathing the entire city in red.

The name of Hanoi, which means within a river, came from that.

This was an ancient city with thousands of years of history. In the 11th century, it was the political, economic, and cultural center of Annan. It was rich with historical elements, and many ancient ruins were scattered around it.

One had to say that this city had a close relationship with China, and it was once a part of China.

111 BC, Hanwu Emperor established the Jiaozhi Prefecture, and Hanoi was within the region. Song during the Northern and Southern Dynasties also set up a prefecture in Hanoi region.

Hanoi was built in 621 AD and was a place under the Annan Provincial Governor of the Tang Dynasty. It was the political, cultural, and economic center of the north of Annan, being called Purple City, which changed to Luo City, and then Daluo City.

At the later stages of Tang Dynasty, Hanoi became where the Jinghai army Jiedushi stayed.

Why was Hanoi’s position so important in Annan?

Annan had a long and narrow geography like a really big S. Its borders had many mountains, forests, and long mountain ridges, with Haiyun Mountain as the intersection to split the north and the south. The difference in climates between the two was really huge.

Be it north to south or south to north, Hanoi was a place they had to go past. Hence, it held a really important strategic position and had the biggest port in the north.

As a result, Hanoi became the center of Annan.

In the game, Hanoi was a mega city. As it was influenced by Chinese culture, it also had an inner and outer city. The inner city was also split into the forbidden city, the emperor city, and the Capital City.

The place where the king, concubines, and the king’s children stayed was the forbidden city. Around it was the emperor city where the dynasty offices were, while the streets, markets and residences were in the Capital City.

The emperor city had flowers and trees all around, creating a really beautiful sight. The towers and halls inside the forbidden city shone with a bright golden luster. In the Capital City, towers stood tall, temples were erected, and their building style was influenced by the Tang culture, possessing an ancient beauty.

Furthermore, since Hanoi was in a subtropical climate and was close to the northern bay, its four seasons were like spring with a lot of rain. Trees and flowers were plentiful, and flowers bloomed.

The city had many wide streets that stretched out in four directions with Hoan Kiem Lake as the center. At both sides of the streets, tall green trees grew.

The streets of the city were very interesting, each one named based on an industry like leather industry, copper industry, sugar industry, peach industry, and the like. Each street focused on one those products.

Each one was basically run by a big chamber of commerce.

Leather industry Street, Tongchun Shop.

The entire leather street was run by the Tongchun Chamber of Commerce and the Tongchun shop was its headquarters. The boss was surnamed Chen, and he came from a famous Hanoi aristocratic family. Not only did he run a leather business, but he also had businesses in copper, cloth, sugar, and more.

Two months ago, the Tongchun Chamber of Commerce welcomed a mysterious guest. He said that he had a way to ship the Tongchun Chamber of Commerce goods to Great Xia to sell and earn large profits.

This person delivered on his words.

The day before the Chinese New Year, the first batch of goods smoothly arrived in Beihai Bay and did not cost Boss Chen a huge amount.

Merchants lived to earn profits.

It was once said that, “If there are profits of 50%, one would dare to risk their capital; for 100% profits, one would dare to break laws; for 300% profits, one would do anything.”

Due to the relationship between Annan and Great Xia, Haiphong City Lord Ruan Tianque had said that all trade with Great Xia was prohibited.

This prohibition was not only limited to chambers of commerce in his territory but also the imperial city.

As the only Lord left in the Annan wilderness, his words carried a lot of weight. More recently, Annan and Great Xia did not have any trading between them.

As a result, the moment the underground trading started, the profits were enormous. It was the same as smuggling.

It was not that the Hanoi chambers of commerce did not think about trading with Great Xia in the dark. However, the entire north bay was monitored by the Great Xia navy. Without someone helping them, their ships would not be able to come close.

Tasting the sweet returns, Old Chen did not care about the methods this mysterious person employed in Great Xia. He directly called him his brother. After the Lantern Festival, he was ready to prepare for the second deal.

The goods for this trip filled up five merchant ships and went down south of the Red River.

Looking at the merchants go down the river, Old Chen could not hide the greed in his eyes. If this carried on, the Tongchun Chamber of Commerce would rise quickly.

Jumping to become the largest chamber of commerce in Hanoi was not a farfetched dream.

However, just as Boss Chen was thinking about earning big profits, an unexpected change occurred. Who knows how and who leaked the news, but the highly secretive merchant ship was stopped when it passed Haiphong.

When the Haiphong City legal department investigated the matter, the Tongchun Chamber of commerce was implicated for disobeying the prohibition and trading with Great Xia.

When Ruan Tianque received the news, he was furious. Not only did he take down the five ships, but he also captured the group of men, putting them on trial based on Haiphong City laws.

If nothing went wrong, they would probably be given the death penalty.

The one leading the merchant group was Boss Chen’s second son. This son of his was really smart and capable. When Boss Chen received the news, he was terrified to the point that his face turned ashen white. He begged for Ruan Tianque to give him a chance.

However, Ruan Tianque was determined to use this as a warning, so he did not bother about giving anyone face. Great Xia was the biggest problem to Ruan Tianque, and they could give him nightmares at any moment.

Ruan Tianque would want anyone who touched this worry to die.

Even the Annan royal family condemned him. Not only did he not bother listening, but he even listed the Chen family as traitors to the nation and wanted to investigate the Tongchun chamber of commerce.

This time, Boss Chen was in truly dire straits.

At this very moment, that mysterious guest appeared once more to find Boss Chen.

“You still have the face to come! Speak, did you leak the news?” When Boss Chen saw the person, he was furious.

He had long forgotten about how they had addressed one another as brothers before the whole issue.

The mysterious guest was really calm, “Why would I reveal it? What good will it bring to me? Furthermore, if I revealed it, why would I be so foolish to see you?”

“This….”

Boss Chen’s expression froze, “This matter was highly secretive, if it were not you, who could it be?”

“I think there’s a mole.”

“Mole?” A cold light flashed through Boss Chen’s eyes.

The mysterious guest explained, “Only members of your chamber of commerce knew about it. There might be spies from other chambers of commerce. When your rivals see that you’re about to get rich, they’ll obviously find problems with you.”

“I was too careless!”

Boss Chen closed his eyes in pain. She was ready to admit defeat. Since ancient times, merchants could not fight with officials, so he had no way to fight back.

The mysterious guest smiled, “All hope is not lost.”

“Brother, what plan do you have?” When Boss Chen heard that, he was instantly energized, “As long as you can help me get past this, I’ll thank you heavily.”

Not only thanks, but if he could get out of this, he was even willing to call this person father.

The mysterious guest asked, “Who are you working with?”

“Great Xia,” Boss Chen replied.

After gawking for a while, he finally regained his composure, and his expression became really depressed, “Are you asking me to ask for help from Great Xia? Why would they bother about me?”

In his eyes, Great Xia was a mammoth that dealt with tens of thousands of chambers of commerce. Why would they be diplomatic with Annan just because of one smuggling chamber of commerce?

“How would you know if you do not try?” He smiled, “I know an official in their business department. As long as you write a distress letter asking for help, I can pass it to him. Great Xia focuses on free trade and protecting chambers of commerce is a priority to them. They would not leave you to die.”

Boss Chen was in dire straits and would do anything to get out of this situation. He gritted his teeth and wrote a sincere letter.

Passing it to him, Boss Chen said emotionally, “Please, as long as you resolve this for me you are my father, the savior of Tongchun Chamber of Commerce.”

The mysterious guest smiled. During such a short conversation, this person changed the way he addressed him several times. As expected from a merchant.

On the surface, he was unmoved. He put away the letter and smiled, “Do not worry, I’ll go to Shanhai City now. Wait for my good news.”

“Thank you!”

…

The following week was like an eternity for Boss Chen.

3rd month, 15th day, the matter finally welcomed a turning point. Great Xia’ Honglu Temple used Boss Chen’s letter as evidence, using official diplomatic channels to send a letter to Haiphong City and the Annan royal family in hopes that Annan would respect the rights of chambers of commerce to do free trade and follow international trading regulations.

If they followed Honglu Temple’s words, it would just be some fines.

When the Annan royal family received the letter, they were really hesitant. They left the envoy that Great Xia had sent, saying that they needed to discuss the matter before they could give a reply.

As for Ruan Tianque, he was so furious that he tore the letter into pieces.

“Humiliation! This is outright humiliation!” Ruan Tianque hollered.

If he agreed to Great Xia’s request, Ruan Tianque would cause the reputation of Annan to crash to the ground; if he did not, Great Xia would retaliate. He was now in a lose-lose situation.

Chapter 1009 - Squadron That Covers the Sky

Chapter 1009: Squadron That Covers the Sky

“Sir, we cannot agree to Great Xia’s request.” Le Loi was insistent.

“What if Great Xia uses it as an excuse to start war with us?”

Le Loi took in a deep breath; his eyes were filled with confidence, “Sir, this war is unavoidable. Since they want to fight, let’s fight!”

“Well said!”

Ruan Tianque’s words were really crisp. However, helplessness flashed across his eyes.

Although war was unavoidable, if Annan went to war because of his rejection, how could the adventure gamemode players defend Haiphong City without any terms?

“People might use this chance to find trouble!” Ruan Tianque smiled bitterly.

Setting his mind to it, Ruan Tianque met the Great Xia ambassador and rejected Great Xia’s diplomacy with the reason that this was their internal affairs, and Great Xia did not have the right to interfere.

…

The hesitation of the Annan royal family and Ruan Tianque’s outright rejection was undoubtedly a bad signal.

When Great Xia received the report, they sent out an even more fierce diplomatic document that said that Haiphong City had broken the global trade ecosystem, stepping on the trading rules of the northern bay. Great Xia would give Haiphong City a week to return the ships and prisoners. If not, they would have to start a war to protect the freedom of trade.

The moment the news spread out, the Annan players all reacted differently.

Some were furious, as they felt that this was Great Xia insulting and provoking Annan; some scolded Haiphong City, saying that they should not drag the entire Annan down for their own selfishness.

Not everyone craved war, and not everyone wanted to be enemies with Great Xia.

Before Great Xia’s war motives were revealed, Annan had many players who had hoped for peace and did not see the situation as clearly as Ruan Tianque did.

This was normal.

All of a sudden, hidden currents moved in Annan.

The diplomatic battle between Annan and Great Xia had also spread out across the world through various forms of media.

…

Handan City, City Lord’s Manor.

Any action of Great Xia was of utmost importance to Di Chen. Naturally, he got the news right away.

“It seems like the old fox is determined to take down Annan.”

Juedai Fenghua smiled, “For the old fox to wait until now is already quite remarkable. His actions were not surprising but just a little despicable.”

Di Chen did not agree, “Schemes are just schemes, there’s no difference between smart ones and despicable ones, only effective ones and ineffective ones. The old fox has made a brilliant move.”

‘Puchi~’

Juedai Fenghua suddenly laughed.

“Why are you laughing?” Di Chen was confused.

Juedai Fenghua gazed at Di Chen, “Haven’t you noticed that the old fox is doing the exact same things you’re doing and becoming really good at playing such schemes?”

Di Chen gave out a long sigh, “That’s what worries me.”

“A beast that only knows how to charge randomly will not shake our foundations. A beast that stands on the same level as us is what we have to worry about.”

“….”

Juedai Fenghua kept silent.

Di Chen waved his hands, wanting to dissipate the seriousness in the air. He changed the topic, “Annan is a tough one to swallow. Since the old fox has made his decision, our plan needs to be executed soon. This is a great opportunity, and we cannot miss it.”

“Do not worry, the preparation work has always been underway.”

“That’s right.”

While others fight, it was the best time to scoop up rewards.

To do that was not a simple matter because many times when you felt that you had won, you had actually fallen into a set up trap. In such a scenario, they became prey for the hunter.

…

Dawson Dynasty, Free City.

When Jack got the news, he felt anxious and muttered, “He is about to take down another one, I cannot fall too far behind. North America cannot have so many Lords.”

…

Japan, Sanli City.

Since the country war system was released, Sanli City Lord Keisuke Honda had been paying attention to China.

Although he did not want to admit it, under the lead of Great Xia, the China region was terrifying. It was the strongest region in the world. During the 6th month country war, Japan would have to defend.

Hence, since the first month, the entire Japan region had been preparing.

If China crushed them, it would undoubtedly be a huge humiliation.

As the only Lord left in Japan, Keisuke Honda would be responsible for that defeat.

Japan had no way out.

Hearing that Great Xia was about to go to war with Annan, Keisuke Honda was originally really delighted. After all, this would reduce their strength and was really beneficial to the chances of Japan winning the country war.

Following which, he was really furious, “Asshole, he is looking down on us.”

One could only say that their way of thinking was different from normal people.

Them as a race was really self-abased while also really intense; these two personalities conflicted with one another and mixed together, forming a unique culture.

…

Zhenla, Nanzhang, Java, Luzon, and other ASEAN countries were also paying close attention to this.

Java.

Uwais understood what was going on, “Shameless! It was a scheme by Great Xia.”

So what?

Before the situation became clear, Uwais could not do anything.

A dark cloud that covered the sky slowly loomed over the entire ASEAN.

A storm was brewing.

…

In the blink of an eye, another week passed.

Facing the strong approach from Great Xia, although many players ran to Haiphong City to beg and request for Ruan Tianque to release the Tongchun Chamber of commerce people, Ruan Tianque was unmoved.

The situation got totally out of hand, which made Ruan Tianque really annoyed.

Le Loi supported Ruan Tianque, “Since the matter has reached such a stage, we cannot back off and can only go to war. Turn all the anger and conflict within our country on our opponents.”

Ruan Tianque was enlightened.

Just like this, even at the deadline that Great Xia had given them, Haiphong City still rejected it.

Not only that, but Ruan Tianque even directly executed the members of Tongchun Chamber of commerce, including the second son of Boss Chen.

Ruan Tianque did so to ensure that he would have no other choice.

If not, he was worried that he would face pressure from various sides in the country.

This time, the ambassador from Great Xia was really calm. After getting a clear reply, he politely left. His calmness terrified everyone.

…

4th year, 1st month, Great Xia used seeking vengeance for Tongchun Chamber of Commerce as a reason to declare war on Haiphong City.

The moment the news spread out, it was like smashing a huge stone into a calm lake.

Although players felt that war was coming, they did not expect Great Xia would do so in such a crisp manner.

“Dominance! That’s how they should do it.”

The China region players were really excited for two reasons.

First, their declaration of war on Haiphong City proved that Great Xia was not willing to start an internal war before the country wars.

In the country war leader vote, Ouyang Shuo led by a huge margin.

Secondly, the moment Great Xia took down Annan, they would obtain more honor points, which would be of great help for the upcoming country war.

Not long after the global auction ended, the Japanese region started to ask for donations to pay back Keisuke Honda for purchasing the country war buff card.

The moment the news spread out, the China players naturally heard about it.

During that period, there were many words pointing right at Ouyang Shuo, Di Chen, and Feng Qiuhuang, saying that they were traitors to the country.

China had never lacked keyboard warriors that said they loved their country. But if you truly asked them for gold, they would run far away, “Isn’t Great Xia rich? Do they have the face to ask us for money?”

Mankind was ugly.

Luckily, these clowns were not the majority, and most of the China region players could accept it rationally.

Great Xia had obtained 30 honor points for the China region, causing Ouyang Shuo to face lesser attacks.

The China region players were excited but other people were not.

…

Annan Region, Haiphong City.

Ruan Tianque was really calm. The moment that Great Xia declared war, he ordered the north border troops to return.

Haiphong City had 300 thousand troops, apart from 20 thousand guards defending the imperial city, they had four War Fighting Legions. One was housed in the south at Cholon, while one was housed at Danang.

The remaining two were at the north border so one could see that Ruan Tianque was really wary of Great Xia.

At the same time, he ordered his only navy forces to patrol the surrounding region around Haiphong City, forming a defensive chain.

As an ocean city, what worried Haiphong City the most was an attack from the seas. Furthermore, Great Xia had a really formidable army, so Ruan Tianque had to go all out.

Some of the Annan players were watching on while some started preparing.

After all, Great Xia was just going to teach Haiphong City a lesson and might not start an all-out war against Annan. Hence, before the situation became clear, a portion of them held onto that hope.

The various ASEAN states did not move their troops; it was a situation of total silence.

…

The moment the war order was given, the Great Xia Army that was waiting to go immediately set out.

The first was naturally the navy.

On the 4th month, 1st day, with the Emperor Squadron at the lead, along with the 1st division of the Pacific Squadron and the Yashan Squadron, they all set out from their ports.

They gathered up at the Gulf of Tonkin.

On the 4th month, 3rd day, morning, the alliance squadron had gathered up. 280 main warships and thousands of support warships covered the entire ocean as it filled up the entire gulf.

The white sails dyed the entire blue ocean surface.

Much more terrifying was the 800 large merchant ships that were in charge of delivering resources and army soldiers behind them.

If one did not personally witness this, they could not imagine how oppressive it felt.

In front of such a squadron, everyone would be ripped to shreds.

Great Xia had already bared its fangs and was charging right at Annan, and the war between the two sides would start at the ocean.

Chapter 1010 - Navy Oppression

Chapter 1010: Navy Oppression

Gaia 5th year, 4th month, 4th day, the Great Xia Navy and the Haiphong Navy clashed in the Gulf of Tonkin.

The results of the battle stunned everyone.

One hour.

The Haiphong Navy only lasted for an hour before they were ripped to shreds by the Great Xia alliance squadron.

Numerous warship fragments and tens of thousands of corpses floated on the surface of the ocean, floating onto the beaches of Haiphong City.

The closely packed wreckage of the battle on the beaches described the cruelty of the battle.

The strength of the Great Xia Navy had stunned the world once more. When this tiger showed its fangs, their scary killing ability terrified everyone.

Fear was like a plague, swift spreading across the entire world.

The ASEAN states were totally speechless and did not dare to have any ideas, hiding their heads. Japan Lord Keisuke Honda could not fall asleep, tossing and turning, his eyes flushing red.

“Prepare for war! Prepare for war! This is a life and death war!”

These were the words that Keisuke Honda said the most and represented the thoughts of all Japanese players. Before the country war started, the Japanese region had already united and were ready to go all out.

Di Chen was similarly filled with fear. He could not help but ask himself how long the newly formed Handan Squadron would last in front of the Great Xia navy.

Shaking his head, he did not dare to think any deeper.

Only the various Mediterranean nations that had fought with Great Xia could remain calm. Even Jack was hesitating about whether he should have a head to head battle with Great Xia over Hawaii or not.

Thinking about it for an entire night, he placed his heart to it, “I have to!”

Jack was really confident in the Free Squadron; he believed that they were not weaker than the Great Xia Navy.

…

The Haiphong City Navy was just a small rock on the road to the Great Xia Navy. After kicking it aside, the squadron continued forward towards the long shoreline of Annan.

On the wreckage filled battlefield, the three squadrons split up.

The deputy commander as well as the commander of the alliance squadron, Zhou Yu, led the Emperor Squadron to attack Haiphong City. Navy chief general Zhou Qin would lead the 1st division of the Pacific Squadron up north to sweep the ocean regions north of Haiphong City.

Yu Dayou would lead the Yashan Squadron down south to sweep the vast south region.

Their goal was really simple. They aimed to viciously strike the enemy’s shoreline, and then choose a suitable place to disembark and build a base for the army to move to land.

Before this, Haiphong City was like a tiger without claws, unable to do anything.

The power of a navy was totally shown in this country war, especially to countries surrounded by water. Without a strong navy, it would be tough for them in the upcoming country wars.

…

4th month, 5th day, Haiphong City.

Facing the rising sun, the golden dragon flag fluttered in the wind.

The news of the navy’s destruction had spread out across Haiphong City long ago. The arrival of the Great Xia Navy was like a death god to the civilians, and they all hid away.

In the nearby regions, there was not a single fishing boat within a thousand miles. Even a bold fisherman would not dare to go out to see upon seeing the wreckage.

On the city wall, upon looking at the slowly approaching Great Xia navy, a look of confusion appeared in Ruan Tianque’s eyes, “Something is wrong! Why do they only have so few warships?”

Le Loi said, “The enemy must have split up.”

“See!” Ruan Tianque was filled with mockery, “Great Xia’s Ouyang Shuo is a fake person. He says he wants to seek vengeance for Tongchun Chamber of commerce, but in truth, he just wants to kill us all.”

Behind the two of them stood more than 10 adventure gamemode players with huge identities. They were the leading figures of the top 10 guilds in Hanoi. They had especially rushed over to take a look.

Hearing the words of Ruan Tianque, their expressions were really complicated.

Ruan Tianque suddenly turned around and cupped his fist, “Guys, the matter is so obvious. Great Xia wants to wipe out Annan, so I hope that all of you do not hold onto anymore false hopes.”

“What do you want us to do? Brother Ruan, please speak!” Since country war was unavoidable, they were not afraid either.

Annan had eight million players, so they did not need to be afraid of Great Xia.

“Please instruct us, the Hunting Eagle Group is at your disposal!”

Some people asked to fight while some of them kept silent, obviously not certain.

When Ruan Tianque saw that, he did not mind. He acted causal and said, “Since the Yiu brothers are so righteous, follow me to the manor; let’s draw up a plan!”

“Sure!”

As they said that, the group of them left the city wall.

Looking at the situation, Great Xia was not in a hurry to siege, so Ruan Tianque was not anxious either.

On the way back, Ruan Tianque called Le Loi, “Since Great Xia has split up, the other two legions are in danger. Ask them to hold on, I’ll persuade the players to go down south.”

Ruan Tianque believed that if the two legions defended all out, the two cities could last for a week, which would be long enough for the players to go down south.

Of course, they could only rely on the players to assist them.

The current Haiphong City only had 160 thousand troops. Regardless of whether Great Xia was in a hurry to attack or not, Ruan Tianque would not move away this group of troops.

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

4th month, 6th day, Danang City.

Danang was located in the middle of Annan, its north connected to Hue, while its south connected to Nha Trang. The northeast had the Son Tra peninsula as a barrier. Its bay had really deep waters and formed a natural port.

Not far north of the city was the famous Hai Van mountain.

Hai Van mountain stretched from Annan’s south border to the east right into the sea. Hai Van peak was its last mountain peak, and it was 470 meters above sea level. The top of the mountain was surrounded by white clouds. The mountains were surrounded by trees, merging with the blue sky and the ocean, making it an unforgettable scenery.

This mountain split north and south and was a really unique strategic position.

As a result, the 3rd legion of Haiphong was asked to be stationed here. Just last morning, Legion General Fan Tianming was ordered by Le Loi to defend until reinforcements arrived.

The moment the military order was given, Fan Tianming did not even think about it. He immediately led his troops into the city to set up defenses. To ensure that everything went right, Fan Tianming even recruited young men to help defend the city.

The main point of the defenses was the east side of the ocean.

At 10 AM, Yashan Squadron’s 1st division arrived on time.

Based on the battle plan set up by the Grand Council, as long as they took down Danang, it could split Annan into half.

Hence, this battle was the first important one in the war of Annan.

Behind the Yashan Squadron 1st division were two army legions. First, there was the 2nd legion of the Guards Legion Corps led by Huo Qubing. Second, there was the 2nd legion of the City Protection Legion Corps led by Mu Guiying.

The two legions would work with the Yashan Squadron to take down Danang City.

Ruan Tianque thought they could defend it for a week, but he had underestimated Great Xia. Baiqi had given Yu Dayou an order. If he could not take Danang City down within two days, he would be beheaded.

When Yu Dayou received the order, he could only pass the pressure down to his men. Shouting to the majors, “Listen up, if we cannot take down this place within a day and a half, I’ll kill all of you.”

The moment the majors went back to their ships, they summoned their captains, “The Fleet Admiral wants us to take it down in a day; if not, he will kill us all. I want to live, so before he kills me, I’ll kill all of you.”

The captains all returned to their warships with their faces ashen white. They summoned their soldiers and announced, “If we cannot take down the city within half a day, let’s all kill ourselves.”

The soldiers at the lowest level were confused, as their simple brains could not comprehend how taking down Danang had to do with them killing themselves.

Their generals shouted, “What are you all standing over there for, take your weapons and prepare to fight. Anyways, we are going to die.”

The soldiers felt that it made sense, so they did not think about it.

“Who cares? Let’s just charge forward with our general.”

…

Similar to Haiphong City, Danang City was also an ocean city, and its only weak point was the side facing the ocean.

After the squadron got into position, Yu Dayou did not hesitate and directly ordered the squadron to sail into the port and launch its first round of cannon fire to clear the area.

Military orders were like a mountain, so Yu Dayou did not show even a single shred of mercy.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

All of a sudden, cannon fire sounded out, and the merchant ships were sunk. In fact, they were blown to shreds. Wood pieces were like sharp knives, flying everywhere.

The pier was even worse, as to choose a suitable disembarking point for the army, Yu Dayou had ordered them to level the entire pier.

In an instance, the entire pier was in a sea of flames.

Smoke bellowed, and with the ocean breeze, it drifted to the city wall. It choked the city protection soldiers till they teared up. Compared to that, what the soldiers were even more terrified of was the enemy’s ferocity.

No unneeded shouts; they just launched their assault right away. There was no mercy, and any enemy and building were blown into shreds, leaving nothing behind.

Facing such an enemy, the city protection troops could not help but feel afraid.

When Fan Tianjing saw that, worry filled his eyes. The general’s orders were to defend for a week. If the city was broken into, he was going to die.

When the fire ceased, the entire pier was scorched land.

The entire air was filled with a dense charred smell, and there was a tinge of barbecued meat smell to it. Thinking back to the civilians who were screaming in the flames, some of the soldiers could not help but vomit. At this moment, their faces were ashen white.

The young men who were recruited vomited out their guts. Their legs went soft, and they lost all their fighting strength.

Chapter 1011 - Di Chen’s Crusade on West Chu

Chapter 1011: Di Chen’s Crusade on West Chu

On the flagship canopy, Yu Dayou saw the looks of the enemies clearly through a telescope, grinning, “A bunch of little girls that have not been to a real war, unable to handle it just like that.”

“All troops listen up, fire at Danang City!” Yu Dayou gave the order.

Danang City’s east wall was less than 400 meters away from the pier, and it was still within the range of the cannons. With the order, the cannons fired once more.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

Steel cannonballs drew a beautiful arc in the air; it was like an iron fist smashing onto the green brick city walls, breaking it into pieces.

The stone pieces flew at the defending troops like a bullet rain.

In less than half an hour, cracks formed all around the seemingly impenetrable war, like that of a spiderweb. Some places caved in and looked like they were going to collapse.

“Aim at the cave in portions, concentrate the fire, and blow apart a portion of the city wall.” Yu Dayou ordered.

Instantly, the cannon fire was like meteors crashing down from the sky, striking right at the city wall. The city wall shook like it was experiencing an earthquake, quavering.

‘Kachi!’

The army flag that was placed up on the city wall was hit by a cannonball and broke into two.

On the city wall, the 3rd legion of the Haiphong City waited solemnly. Fan Tianming’s brows were locked tight, and he was really solemn. He consoled the soldiers while he ordered for them to counterattack.

Naturally, cannon technology was not something that only Great Xia had. Haiphong City had that too. However, their industry structure was not as advanced as that of Great Xia, and they could not produce it on a large scale.

There were 30 cannons placed on the Danang City wall, similarly shooting out cannon fire. They struck out at the enemy ships, causing huge splashes.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

As they shot from above, although the Danang City cannons were not as many as that of Yashan Squadron, it still caused huge problems. In the blink of an eye, three turreted warships were hit and slowly sank.

There were numerous people who were struck by the cannonballs.

However, as the port was too small, the 40 turreted warships of the 1st division were lined up closely together. As long as the enemy cannoneers were not stupid, they could easily hit them.

Yu Dayou gave them the order to fight to the death, so no one dared to back off. Braving the city wall cannon fire, they shot back. Even if their warships were paralyzed, as long as the ship had not sunk, they continued to fire back.

The enemy’s viciousness made the defending troops of Haiphong City feel a shiver run down their spines.

“What a bunch of people playing with their lives!”

Fan Tianming saw that they were about to lose the city wall, so he helplessly started planning for the troops to flee from the city walls to have a final battle with the enemy within the city.

He did not believe that the enemy’s squadron could win against the 3rd legion on land.

‘Huala~~~’

At this very moment, a huge explosion spread out from the south city wall. Under the successive cannon fire, there was finally a portion of the wall that collapsed.

All of a sudden, dust and smoke rose up.

Soldiers that were standing at that portion of the city wall screamed as they fell from above. Then they were buried in rock. Obviously, they were not going to survive.

With that, Danang City was broken into.

“Flee!” Fan Tianming did not hesitate, and he led troops to leave the city wall.

…

Seeing the city wall collapse, Yu Dayou finally gave out a relieved expression. He had kept his head.

Next would depend on the army.

Along with the subordinate marine forces building a disembarkment point on the pier, the 2nd legion of the Guards Legion Corps and the 2nd legion of the City Protection Legion moved into the port and swiftly gathered up.

Since Danang City was an important point to attack, Baiqi would obviously arrange army troops to follow.

The moment the city walls collapsed, the fate of the 3rd legion of Haiphong City was determined. Next was a pointless struggle, as their fates were not in their hands.

“Charge!”

Huo Qubing led the cavalry to blow open a path, braving the smoke and fire and charging into the city. Even in the alleys of the city, the Guards Legion Corps soldiers feared nothing.

With their exquisite riding skills, they would engage in slaughter.

“Kill!”

Mu Guiying led her troops and followed behind.

A huge and bloody battle started within the city. The civilians all hid in their homes and did not dare to come out.

This slaughter lasted for a full day and night.

Although the Haiphong City legion possessed strong mental strength, their ability was not enough, and they were forced back. In the night, Fan Tianming tried to flee through the back but fell into Huo Qubing’s trap.

Who knew that apart from the cavalry that charged into the city, Huo Qubing had hid two Cavalry Divisions outside of the city to keep a look out and to wipe out the remaining enemy troops?

In the morning of the second day, Danang City welcomed a new master. Along with Danang City falling, Great Xia had obtained their first strategic point in Annan.

Based on the commander’s arrangement, Mu Guiying would defend Danang City, while Huo Qubing would go down south to attack the other cities along with the Yashan Squadron to take down the south of Annan.

The 4th legion of Haiphong City at Cholon now had no one to depend on.

Mu Guying’s forces left in Danang obviously did not only have the simple task of defending. They had a huge role that was key to the battle.

When the Yashan Squadron left, they left two turreted warships at the port. On it were 10 mimicry flying devices that were the secret weapons left for Mu Guiying.

Whether she succeeded or not would affect the direction of the entire battle to a certain extent.

…

Annan, Luping City.

Luping was a county that was north of Haiphong City. It was close to the Gulf of Tonkin and the border.

Pretty much at the same time that Yashan Squadron took down Danang City, the 1st division of the Pacific Squadron smoothly took down this city. This city became their point in the north.

Shi Wanshui led the 1st, 3rd, and 5th legion of the City Protection Legion, to camp up in Luping City. They would be in charge of sweeping the territories north of Annan.

Three legions in one county. Through this, one could see how much attention Baiqi placed on the north of Annan. After all, be in Hanoi or Haiphong City, they were both in the north and were destined to be the main battlefield of the Battle of Annan.

…

4th month, 7th day, Haiphong City.

Losing Danang City and Luping City successively made Ruan Tianque really anxious. Especially the sudden fall of Danang, which was a fatal blow to Ruan Tianque, sending Haiphong City’s defenses into chaos.

“The 3rd legion has been destroyed, nothing can happen to the 4th legion!”

Two days ago, under Ruan Tianque’s instructions, the adventure gamemode players formed up a 500 thousand force to go down south. There were two goals, to protect the south of Annan and to protect the two legions of Haiphong City.

Along with the 3rd legion falling, the 4th legion was in big trouble. The south Annan was engulfed in the flames of war, and the two goals might not be achieved.

“Let’s hope they do not disappoint me!” Ruan Tianque muttered.

Logically speaking, the 500 thousand players defending Haiphong City’s 4th legion meant that the two legions of Great Xia could not do anything. Needless to say attacking Danang City, where Great Xia had only left behind one legion.

Who knows why, but Ruan Tianque still felt a little uneasy.

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

China region, Handan City.

Just as Great Xia sent out a million troops to attack Annan, changes happened within China.

4th month, it was heading into spring. The snow and ice melted, and even the mid plains and northern regions could smell the scent of spring. Animals came out of their hibernation and grass grew out of the soil, brimming with life.

Along with the earth being defrosted, people’s desire for war rose. The flames of war rose up in the middle region that had been peaceful for many months.

The star of this show was the Yanhuang Alliance.

At 9 AM, the six members of the Yanhuang Alliance gathered in Handan City, “West Chu Overlord Xiang Yu is brutal and harms his people, poisoning the world, let’s kill him together.”

There was one meaning to those words, ‘The Yanhuang Alliance was about to attack West Chu!’

To connect their territories together while Great Xia was fighting overseas, Di Chen and the others took the risk of initiating an internal war to attack West Chu.

It was no wonder that Di Chen was anxious, as news returned quickly about the Battle of Annan, showing how rushed Great Xia was. Who knows when the battle would end? As such, Di Chen could only strike early.

To end the matter fast, Yanhuang Alliance moved 400 thousand troops, causing each of their territories to be on the verge of danger. The troops housed at the border were lowered to dangerous levels.

If Great Xia did not attack Annan, Di Chen and the others would not dare to take such a risk.

“Chances won’t come again.” Di Chen concluded.

The moment that news of Yanhuang Alliance’s expedition spread out, China was bustling.

Some people blamed them for being despicable, starting an internal war so close to the country war.

Some people fought for the Yanhuang Alliance, saying that West Chu was part of the wilderness, so this could not be considered an internal war, “Taking down West Chu will cause the Yanhuang Alliance’s power to rise, which is good for the country war.”

Those words made sense.

“West Chu is an ally of Great Xia, so how does not it count!” some people argued.

More people were feeling aggrieved for Great Xia, feeling that Great Xia did not mind risking soldiers outside to earn honor points for China, while the Yanhuang Alliance was using the chance to attack their allies. These were not the actions of a gentlemen.

No matter which faction it was, everyone hoped that Great Xia would make a statement.

This was of course their one-sided wish. Like before, the Xia Palace was totally silent and had no intentions of speaking out.

The players were used to it.

“The Xia King always uses actions instead of words, this time would not be an exception.”

No one believed that Great Xia would not do anything.

As for how Great Xia would react, many different versions spread on the forums. Some said that Great Xia would fight on both lines and definitely would not leave Wear Chu to die. On the other hand, some people said that Great Xia would be helpless and could only quietly swallow this pill.

At this very moment, news spread from Shanhai City that before the year, Xia King had warned Xiang Yu, but he was too prideful and did not want to accept help.

This time, the truth was out.

Players could only foresee the terrible outcome of West Chu.

Chapter 1012 - Mysterious Visitor

Chapter 1012: Mysterious Visitor

Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

Within the Imperial Reading Room, Ouyang Shuo placed down the intel that the Shanhai Guards had just submitted and smiled, “Like you expected, the Yanhuang Alliance took a gamble.”

When Zhang Liang heard that, he was really calm. As the highest grade strategist, for the future of Great Xia, his job was to clear the fog for the king.

Ouyang Shuo did not mind, as he was already used to Zhang Liang’s prideful and cold nature, “Since it has developed the way you said it would, it is time for us to start on the plan we prepared.”

“Understood!”

Zhang Liang nodded as a light shone in his eyes. He was really interested in this plan.

Just as the outside world was guessing how Great Xia would react, the Honglu Temple envoys had already proceeded toward Xianyang and Chang An to hold a secret diplomatic operation.

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

Annan, Hai Van mountain.

As the mountain range that separated the north and south of Annan, there was only one path between the two.

This ancient path was located between the ridges and stretched for thousands of miles. The two sides had really steep cliffs that nothing grew on. Even the most flexible monkeys could not climb up from there.

Legends had it that the mountain God of Hai Van mountain lived above it, but there was no one who had managed to reach the peak. More than 400 meters of steep cliff was not something experts in the game could climb up, much less normal civilians.

On this morning, the 500 thousand Annan players did not hesitate and directly entered the mountains.

Although based on military strategy, this was the best ambush location, the cliffs were really too steep such that no one would even think that anyone would be able to set up an ambush here.

The huge army proceeded between the mountain ridges. Although their formation was not really orderly, their equipment had a broad range. Some of them were more walking, while some of them were riding.

However, this gigantic army still filled one with fear.

These players were all really excited. They all had the desire to fight for their country.

They had already learned of the fall of Danang City, but they still felt no fear.

“So what if it’s Great Xia? To think they can defend Danang City with one War Fighting Legion, watch how we take care of them,” some people said.

Many people agreed.

Now was not the starting parts of the game. It was already the 5th year, and the overall strength of adventure gamemode players had already exceeded that of elite troops and could be compared to war elite soldiers.

The experts amongst them could compare with King Rank generals.

500 thousand war elite soldiers, just thinking about it would leave one terrified. Even if their discipline was not strong and their war abilities were weaker, so what? In front of absolute strength, all skills and techniques were useless.

Hence, after learning about the arrogance of Great Xia to start a country war, the furiousness of the Annan players was understandable.

1.6 million combat occupation players were where their confidence laid in. Even Great Xia, this dragon, had to lie down quiet in Annan and could not act so arrogantly.

“Brothers, let’s quicken our speed. Let’s try to spend the night in Danang City.” Hunting Eagle Group leader motivated his brothers in the guild. He already viewed Danang City as theirs.

“Do not worry boss, we will be the first guild that charges in.”

There was competition between the guilds. The ‘First to enter the city’ was undoubtedly a huge glory that was worth the players fighting for.

Being motivated by that, the troops quickened their pace.

The Hunting Eagle Group was not the only ones that craved this glory. A magical sight appeared as the 500 thousand army quickened their paces. Smoke bellowed.

At noon, most of the troops had entered the mountain pass.

This was a signal.

Just as they picked up their pace, at the front and the ends of the pass, a deafening explosion could be heard, ‘Honglong~~~’

This explosion was so huge that the entire surface was shaking. Numerous rocks were like boiling water, jumping up and down.

“What happened, is it an earthquake?”

This was their subconscious reaction. Such a sound could only be described as an earthquake.

“How unlucky!”

“Quicken our speed and try to walk out of this pass soon in case there are aftershocks!” The leaders did not dare to take this matter lightly. They felt that something was up, and they just wanted to escape from the path.

At this current moment, the aftershock of the explosion still reverberated through the mountains, making one feel numb.

When they arrived near the exit of the mountain path, they were shocked by what they saw. The originally vast and wide exit was blocked by rocks, and there was no way out.

“So it was not an earthquake?”

The smart people among them could already see that it was not an earthquake, as the two sides were clearly blown apart to make it collapse.

“We’ve fallen for a trap!”

At this very moment, the worse happened. Hundreds of large-sized hay stacks rolled down from the two sides, each pile was smoking as they rolled down the mountain pass.

“It’s an ambush, retreat!”

The quick-thinking ones reacted and tried to run back.

Those who were slow to react were lit up by the flames, screaming in pain. Even with their skills, they were not made of iron and metal, so they would only die in the flames.

Seeing that, the formation became total chaos.

People pushing people, people squeezing into people, trying their best to run back.

In truth, the haystacks rolling down were not enough to cause such fatal threat. Only a few of the players were burned to death. The terrifying part was that the haystack was giving out a black smoke, which would cause one to faint if inhaled.

“It’s a poisonous smoke!”

The Annan players did not expect the enemy to be so vicious. With the smoke chasing them, the players fled even quicker. Only after they ran away from the smoke did they heave a sigh of relief.

However, before they could calm themselves down, the players in front of them actually ran back.

“What happened?”

“The entrance is also blocked, and there is poisonous smoke there too.”

“….”

All the players were ashen white, losing their senses.

“The enemy is too vicious. What should we do now?”

“Guys, do not panic.” The guild leaders were the first to calm down and analyzed, “Although we do not know how the enemy climbed up, from the numbers of haystacks, their numbers do not exceed 100.”

This person’s guess was really close.

The troops on the mountains were naturally sent up there with the mimicry flying devices. However, as time was of the essence, and the mimicry flying devices had limited capacity, they could only send 200 people up.

Their main job was to set up explosives at both sides and ignite it after the enemy troops had entered the pass, trapping them all in the mountain path.

As for how to destroy the 500 thousand troops, it was a huge problem.

“So?” Some people did not understand.

“They have a limited amount of men up there, so the amount of poisonous smoke is not unlimited. It is not enough to kill all of us.” The guild leader analyzed, “The important part is to maintain law and order and not panic.”

However, this was more easily said than done, as under the threat of the smoke, few could remain calm.

Helplessly, the guild leaders could only make the decision to set up lines at the two sides. Anyone that crossed it would become sacrifices to the smoke. Even if they wanted to cross over, they would be killed by their own men.

This internal battle lasted till night before it came to an end.

The originally confident army was in a bad state. In just one day, 40 thousand of them were killed, half of which were done in by their own hands.

The lucky survivors were not feeling any better.

They were trapped in the mountain path. To forcefully remove the stones was impossible as there was still poisonous smoke, so they did not dare to even get close.

Desperation spread amongst the troops.

The only thing they could do was be trapped in the valley. During a country war period, adventure gamemode players could not open up their storage bags and could not even go on the forums.

Even if they were not killed by their enemies, if this continued, they would starve to death.

Different from proper armies, adventure gamemode players did not have the concept of grain. Apart from some dry rations, they did not bring anything.

Now that they were trapped, the food on them could only last for two days. After which, starvation would spread amongst the troops, and who knows what they would do.

The only fortunate thing was that the dead would appear in the reincarnation hall and spread the word. As such, the lucky survivors could only place their hopes on their brothers to save them.

This night was exceptionally tough for the lucky survivors.

Some of them felt depressed about their situation, some of them were worried for their fates, some were anxious about whether their brothers would arrive in time or not, while some were worried about the fate of the country.

This night was destined to be a sleepless one.

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

Imperial City Hanoi.

The news of the 500 thousand player force being trapped spread out, totally shaking the entire player circle and causing a huge tsunami.

The players who left were not alone. In Hanoi, they had families, friends, and the guilds that they were from. Some people sought to immediately form a rescue squad to save their friends.

“They are only trapped in the mountains. We just need to remove the rocks from the outside.”

This was not difficult.

However, who could say for sure that Great Xia did not have anything else planned?

They were already willing to block the mountains and release poisonous gas, so what else would Great Xia not dare to do?

The players did not dare underestimate their opponent anymore.

However, they could not just leave their brothers to die. Since the country war till now, Great Xia did not lose anything while Annan had suffered heavy casualties.

If they did not save them, this battle would only get harder.

Very quickly, the Annan players came to a common consensus. Whether Great Xia had something planned or not, they still had to save their friends. They also had to be quick as everyone knew how long they could last inside.

The problem was how many men to send to save them.

If they sent too little, it might be useless, and if they sent too many, accidents might occur.

Hence, this matter threw the players into chaos. Before the Great Xia Army had reached Hanoi, they already had problems internally.

Chapter 1013 - Chain Plan

Chapter 1013: Chain Plan

After the Annan Players finished arguing, they decided to send 200 thousand troops down south.

The intel from Haiphong City showed that apart from Danang and Luping, the Great Xia Army did not disembark at any other location.

Apart from that, there were no other abnormalities.

If it were not for the 500 thousand troops being trapped, the Hanoi players would already be ready to form a north conquering army to sweep out the Great Xia troops.

Great Xia had one War Fighting Legion in Danang City. Based on the intel from Haiphong City, all their members were housed within the city and did not show any signs of going out.

Even if there were, it was only a small number of them.

As for the Guards Legion Corps cavalry that had already gone down south, based on the intel from the cities there, within a day, three cities were attacked.

Obviously, this force was already deep into the south and could not appear at Hai Van mountain.

With such an analysis, the Annan players were more at ease and the chances of their reinforcements getting ambushed were close to zero unless the Great Xia Army had a teleportation technique.

That was impossible.

200 thousand troops went down south. Once they saved the trapped soldiers, they could continue south and reclaim Danang City as well as the south regions that the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps cavalry were attacking.

The two strategic goals that were previously set had a possibility of success.

After thinking carefully, the Annan players did not hesitate any longer, choosing 200 thousand of their brave soldiers to form another south conquering army.

The Battle of Annan seemed like it had a fog covering it.

The huge number of players meant that even if Annan was hurt in this country war, they would still have the ability to turn around a negative situation.

In front of absolute numbers, all schemes and plans were useless.

Annan was far from falling.

When the huge army left the city, millions of players came out to send them off. Although there was no true death in the game, the repercussions of death were great, so the scene was really touching.

Who knows whether they would be able to achieve what they wanted on this trip or not.

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

A day ago, the Yanhuang Alliance Army had already arrived at the West Chu border, and the war between the two started instantly.

Overlord Xiang Yu was as overbearing as usual, and he announced, “The Yanhuang Alliance is going to die here. They are asking to be humiliated!”

Di Chen and the others quietly moved their armies. They were like a pack of wolves, pincering West Chu from north and south. There was also the threat from the ocean and the Great Han Dynasty on the west.

West Chu was surrounded by enemies on all four sides.

At the same time, to prevent Great Xia from entering this battle, the Handan Squadron, Blood Red City Squadron, and Zhoushan Squadron linked up and locked down the yellow river to prevent Great Xia from helping from the ocean.

Although the Binhai Squadron was in the Yellow River, it was unable to break through the lock and could only watch on.

This time, Great Xia seemed to be out of options. Not to mention assisting West Chu, but they could not even see Xiang Yu. As both sides were not actual allies, they had not opened up the teleportation formations.

…

Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

Pretty much at the same time as Annan sending out their second round of troops, the Great Xia Honglu Temple’s secret envoys had returned with two letters.

Ouyang Shuo enjoyed the letters, especially the one from Great Tang. He smiled as he said to Zhang Liang, “Mister, how were you so sure that Tang Taizong would agree to our requests?”

Zhang Liang replied, “Great Tang is a place with many generals and do not lack one Li Jing. What they lack is land for these generals to show off. This business was one that Great Tang did not lose out on. With his ambitions, his decision was understandable.”

“Well said. Hanwu Emperor has the huge Zhongyuan Province, which triggered the two of them. Without enough land, what was the point of having so many civil servant and officials?”

As the Xia King, Ouyang Shuo could understand their thoughts.

Cooperation was just understanding the biggest need of the other party and fulfilling it while reaching your own goal.

Ouyang Shuo placed the letter down and smiled, “Since the matter of cooperation has been settled, we should fulfil our promise.” As Ouyang Shuo said that, he looked toward the southwest land.

There, who knows what kind of show would appear.

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

Gaia 5th year, 4th month, 12th day, Annan, Hai Van mountain.

At 10 AM, Annan’s second south conquering army arrived in Hai Van mountain. Along the way, the army did not meet a single Great Xia soldier. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief, as it seemed like their conjecture was right.

Arriving at the foot of the mountain, they saw the 300 meters high pile of rocks blocking the mountain path. They could not help but suck in a breath of cold air, “This really is….”

They could not find a suitable phrase to describe it.

“Guys, stop standing there, start working. There are probably people in there who have fainted from hunger!”

Four days had passed, and the players stuck inside were hungry, leading to chaos. To snatch food, they turned one one another and fought amongst themselves.

Humanity was twisted.

People did not even dare to sleep alone because they were afraid that their grain would be stolen.

Helplessly, the guild members could only huddle together.

Between life and death, only the strong would survive.

In the mountain path, fighting and killing was constantly taking place. It could just be for two small bags of buns.

Only when one survived could one talk about humanity.

…

Since they had arrived safely, there was nothing to say, let’s begin!

Although everyone brought various tools, the game did not have tools like excavators or similar machinery. As a result, clearing out this pile of rubble was not an easy matter.

All of a sudden, the foot of the mountain became really bustling.

200 thousand players worked together. Some were in charge of breaking the stone apart, while some were in charge of forming a transportation line to transport pieces of stone.

As it was blown apart using gunpowder, the stones were not stable, and if one was not careful, they could cause even more stones to fall.

The entire process was really arduous.

However, no matter how tiring it was, in front of the destruction of the country, they had no complaints. They could only turn this pain into hatred toward Great Xia. They would try to take revenge on the battlefield.

Close to night, the clearing job was less than one-fifths complete. Based on this speed, before they could even complete the job, the soldiers inside would die from hunger.

The helpers were helpless.

There were 200 thousand men, but only a limited number of them could actually work. They used the most primitive methods and to make such progress was actually the result of their common determination.

Gritting their teeth, everyone decided to fight through the night.

Those in charge of moving the stones in the day backed off to eat dinner, while the ones that replaced them was a batch of well rested troops.

Such a spirit was worthy of recognition.

War was cruel, and it was not something that you would win if you did well. That was because the army could do better than you. When the last bit of sunlight dropped under the horizon, calamity struck.

The rumble of horse hooves spread out around the camp, shaking one’s ears.

“What’s happening?”

“There are cavalry charging over.” Some people listened carefully, “Listening to the sound, there are less than 50 thousand of them, maybe even more.”

“Cavalry? Are they the Haiphong Army? I did not know they were coming.”

The players were confused.

This confusion did not last for long; it only lasted for just 10 minutes.

The cavalry troops waving Great Xia flags were like death gods, charging at the south conquering troops with zero preparation. Everyone was stunned.

“How is that possible! How can the Great Xia cavalry appear here?” Seeing the Great Xia iron cavalry strike them, the Annan players could not believe their eyes.

“Is the Haiphong City intel wrong?”

This seemed to be the only logical explanation.

“Ruan Tianque, you have killed us all!” People cursed as they were buried under the horse hooves of the enemy.

The timing that the Great Xia cavalry chose to sneak attack was really opportune. It was dinner time, and the players were having their meals in the outer circle. Those in the inner circle were the second batch of players still hard at work.

The cavalry charged right into the weak point of Annan.

Panic could not help but spread.

Using the moonlight and the light from torches, the Great Xia cavalry launched a slaughter.

The sneak attack cavalry was the Ma Chao led 2nd legion. After the Battle of Danang ended, it looked like Huo Qubing had taken the entire legion down.

In truth, not long after the forces left, after getting away from the spies, they split into two groups. Legion General Lu Bu led four divisions up north to camp near Hai Van mountain.

The group that truly went down south was the Huo Qubing led 1st division.

Under the leadership of this genius general, just one division was enough to slaughter so efficiently, misleading the entire south region.

Taking down two cities within a day, and it seemed like it had happened at the same time.

In truth, Huo Qubing had used the strong maneuverability of the Tiger Leopard Cavalry to abuse the time difference.

With that, the south cities believed that all of the Great Xia Guards Legion was fighting in the entire south region. What they could not imagine was that there was only a single division.

It was such a misjudgment that cause catastrophe for the second south conquering army.

Ma Chao’s sudden strike was like a heavy punch, smashing at their soft ribs and giving them a fatal blow.

This night was destined to be a bloody one.

Chapter 1014 - Breaking an Arm to Live

Chapter 1014: Breaking an Arm to Live

4th month, 13th day, Hai Van mountain range.

The mist bellowed on the Hai Van mountain range like a paradise. When the sun rose up, the mist faded, and the blood red earth was instantly revealed.

What kind of paradise was that? it was pretty much hell.

The bodies of the adventure gamemode players despawned, but the blood from the corpses remained. The blood stains seeped into the soil and onto the grass.

Within a night, 200 thousand of the south conquering army troops were destroyed, and only a few lucky ones survived.

This battle became the turning point of the Battle of Annan. Adding in the 500 thousand that were trapped in the path, out of the 1.6 million combat occupation players, close to half were wiped out.

Along with the south conquering troops being wiped, the fate of the 4th legion of Haiphong City became predictable.

With that, the 800 thousand guards troops housed in Hanoi were unharmed, while half of the player troops of Annan were wiped out.

The more terrifying part was that during this process, the Great Xia Army did not suffer any casualties.

The huge difference nearly caused the Annan players to collapse. When the news of the 200 thousand reinforcements being ambushed spread half to Hanoi, the entire imperial city was silent.

Fear, oppression, and anger; all of these negative emotions lingered over the city.

After the players calmed down, all of them pointed at Ruan Tianque and scolded him. There were two reasons for this.

First, if it were not For Haiphong City being too intense with their treatment of Tongchun Chamber of Commerce, this war would not have even happened.

Secondly, the faulty intel provided by Haiphong City caused them to be ambushed and caused the entire army to collapse.

One could say that Ruan Tianque was the main guilty party of this war.

Due to such considerations, the Annan players gave up hopes of reclaiming Danang City. Even to say they had given up hope on the entire south.

Half of Annan had fallen just like that.

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

During the next few days, the Annan battlefield suddenly became quiet.

Without any reinforcements, with the poisonous smoke and food shortage, the fates of the 500 thousand soldiers trapped inside was easy to predict.

Some of them decided to kill one another for food, while others committed suicide.

It was a really depressing scene.

Mu Guiying’s forces in Danang City had completed their mission and followed down south to attack the remaining 4th legion.

Apart from that, there was no other action in the Annan battlefield.

On the contrary, in the China region, the Yanhuang Alliance breached the West Chu border, fighting an intense battle with the West Chu Army.

The Xiang Family was filled with many strong generals, and the army Xiang Yu personally trained was filled with elites. Furthermore, the West Chu Army was fighting for the hope of their group, so the strengths of both parties were equal.

Seeing that Great Xia was proceeding quickly in Annan, having taken down half of it so quickly, Di Chen and the others gritted their teeth, taking another 200 thousand troops from their own territories to throw into the battlefield.

This time, West Chu was in trouble.

The Yanhuang Alliance similarly did not lack famous general. Wuqi, Tiandan, and Lianpo; each one of them was all famous. Along with Xie Xuan, Hua Xiong, Zhao Zhuang, and the like, it was a star-studded lineup.

The Battle of West Chu entered its crucial period just like that.

Even so, no one felt that West Chu would lose so easily. In history, Xiang Yu was a person that created miracles and had won many unwinnable battles.

This battle could still be won.

At this very moment, another change occurred.

4th month, 14th day, the Great Xia Eagle Legion Corps led by Li Mu suddenly entered Fallen Leaf City territory and started a war.

At the same time, Fallen Phoenix City’s Blazing Legion Corps went east into Asura City territory. The Beijiang Formation was filled with activity at the Zhangwu Prefecture border, looking like it would enter Handan City territory at any moment.

All of a sudden, the China region was in chaos.

No one expected Great Xia to suddenly start a battle at this moment. When the Yanhuang Alliance was at their weakest, Great Xia worked with Fallen Phoenix City to try to take down Guanxi Province.

“Now this is interesting!”

As the Yanhuang Alliance had attacked Great Xia’s ally first, this was retaliation, and there was nothing wrong with this.

If someone had to be blamed, then it would be the Yanhuang Alliance.

Players with brains even understood that the Yanhuang Alliance had taken the chance when Ouyang Shuo went to Australia to take down Wannan Province and then attack West Chu when Great Xia attacked Annan.

The entire operation was closely connected, and this was obviously a huge plan.

On the surface, the Yanhuang Alliance was only trying to link up their territories, but the final goal was to build a dynasty that could face off against Great Xia.

Especially after Di Chen spent so much gold on the merit talisman, the Yanhuang Alliance’s ambition to establish a dynasty was revealed to the world.

Facing such a situation, Great Xia looked like it had no reaction, but in truth, it was waiting for the moment to strike.

Before the year, Great Xia easily merged with Jiangchuan Province, balancing out the influence of the Yanhuang Alliance taking down Wannan Province. At the same time, both sides moved toward the borders in a standstill.

The next move was even more vicious.

Great Xia still gambled and attacked Guanxi Province whilst it was attacking Annan. One could foresee that the moment Guanxi Province fell, even if the Yanhuang Alliance took down West Chu, its strength would not rise.

“Vicious! Accurate!” Players gave Great Xia the thumbs up.

…

The moment the news of the battle spread, Fallen Leaf City Lord Wandering Magic and Asura City Sha Pojun panicked.

Their two territory armies only had 150 thousand troops. Now that one legion was moved away for the Battle of West Chu, they only had 80 thousand troops left.

Be it facing the Eagle Legion Corps or the Burning Legion Corps, they had no way to fight back.

Even if they wanted to recall the West Chu troops, it was already too late. These troops were already deep in West Chu territory and were tangled with the West Chu Army.

Pulling his troops out now might not allow him to make it on time, but it might cause the advantage built up by the Yanhuang Alliance to collapse. If it went bad, they might have a full-scale collapse.

Hence, no matter what considerations were made, Di Chen would not allow them to take back their troops. Without their approval, there would be no teleportation formations they could use, so they had no way to pull out their troops.

In desperation, Wandering Magic sought from protection from Great Tang whilst Sha Pojun sought protection from Great Qin. They wanted to borrow the strength of those dynasties to survive this encounter.

The replies from the two dynasties pushed them into the depths.

“Denied!”

Their views were all in unison. They did not even bother to meet the envoys from the two territories, chasing them out.

“Plot, this is a huge plot!” Sha Pojun was closed to going crazy.

Wandering Magic was still okay. He was a commoner player, and he only got into the Yanhuang Alliance because he was closed to Xiong Ba.

Even if he failed, he had no regrets.

Sha Pojun was different. Asura City was not just a territory. It was the lifeline of his entire family. If it fell, it would be catastrophic.

Even when the Feng Family lost Swordsman City, the outcome was not that serious. After all, they were a martial arts aristocratic family. As a result, they could do well even without a territory.

Sha Pojun’s family had no way out.

At the crucial moment, Di Chen showed his leadership, summoning the five of them to Handan City to discuss how to settle the situation.

The six people discussed, and there was only one way. With their strength, it was either they gave up on West Chu and protect Fallen Leaf City and Asura City, or they give up on the two territories and focus on West Chu.

To focus on both sides was impossible.

How to choose?

Di Chen, Chun Shenjun, and Zhan Lang naturally supported taking down West Chu. The Yanhuang Alliance struck out and tried so hard for so long. Wasn’t this all for the success of Plan Z?

The key to Plan Z was crushing West Chu.

Hence, how could they give up halfway?

From a relationship standpoint, Xiong Ba naturally did not wish to abandon Fallen Leaf City. From a personal interest point of view, Fallen Leaf City’s presence was a support for Xiong Ba.

However, Xiong Ba was a true mighty Lord.

All of them knew how to give and take.

Compared to preserving one Fallen leaf City, Plan Z was more important. Thinking about it, Xiong Ba not only supported attacking West Chu, but he even personally settled the issue with Wandering Magic.

Wandering Magic only survived because he relied on Xiong Ba’s family. Whilst he rose up in the wilderness, he lost his autonomy. Since Xiong Ba persuaded him, Wandering Magic could only accept it.

As the only commoner player Lord in China left apart from Ouyang Shuo, for Wandering Magic to last until today was not only a result of luck but also his own skill.

His way of doing things was to follow the flow.

Since the Yanhuang Alliance was going to give up on Guanxi Province, Wandering Magic would not go against it. Not only was it not beneficial for him to go against it, but it would even tear apart his relationship with Xiong Ba.

On the contrary, if he agreed, it would be giving Xiong Ba face. As an aristocratic family child, Xiong Ba would definitely repay him.

This was where Wandering Magic was smart.

At last, everyone looked toward Sha Pojun.

This representative figure of the grey region went from looking forward, to struggling, to despair.

Now, only depression was left.

This was a result of his ambitions being destroyed. His future was gone.

Seeing Sha Pojun like that, Di Chen and the others felt down too. Although his relationship with them was bad, to see him fall to such a stage felt bad.

Ouyang Shuo brought a deep and intense pain to all of them.

When Di Chen saw that, he suddenly said, “Guys, I have a suggestion.”

Chapter 1015 - Backing off and Giving Up

Chapter 1015: Backing off and Giving Up

“What suggestion?”

Di Chen said, “To make Wandering Magic and Sha Pojun give up their territories for nothing is too much for them, so the alliance should compensate them. My suggestion is after taking down West Chu, we let them be the Provincial Governors. One will be in charge of Wannan and one in charge of Ludong Province. How about that?”

Chun Shenjun and the others looked at Di Chen with weird expressions. Based on Plan Z, the Provincial Governor positions of the two provinces was an important chip. Who knew that Di Chen would use them up so easily?

‘To buy our heart or is there another reason?’ Chun Shenjun did not understand.

Xiong Ba supported it, nodding, “I think this suggestion is great. Why not let Wandering Magic be the Wannan Provincial Governor and Sha Pojun be the Ludong Provincial Governor.”

Di Chen’s eyes froze. He saw through Xiong Ba’s thoughts but did not oppose it. The alliance was really complicated and being a good leader was not easy.

Sometimes, Di Chen needed to compromise.

Seeing that Chun Shenjun and Zhan Lang did not oppose the decision, Di Chen did not say anything more, “Then this matter is settled. Let the frontlines quicken their pace, we cannot drag things on any longer.”

“Great!”

At this point, the Yanhuang Alliance broke one of their own arms to solve a huge crisis.

…

After the meeting ended, Sha Pojun and Wandering Magic rushed back to their own territories and got busy.

Since they had decided to give up on their territory, they naturally would not let Great Xia and Fallen Phoenix City reap any cheap gains. They took everything they could and burned down everything they could not.

Money, equipment, civil servants and generals, talents, troops, and the like all were taken away through the teleportation formation. This was what they would rely on in the future in their provinces.

Grain, household registration manuals, office documents, and the like were burned down as well. They were purposely making it tough for their enemies.

In just two days, before the Eagle Legion Corps and the Flaming Legion Corps reached the main city, they had already fled from Asura City and Fallen Leaf City.

At this point, the number of Lords in the China region had been reduced to only six.

With the 160 thousand more troops that Sha Pojun and Wandering Magic brought, the Battle of West Chu could not be turned around. Even with Xiang Yu’s ability and the strength of his army, there was nothing he could do against 760 thousand troops.

The fall of West Chu was only a matter of time.

…

4th month, 18th day, the Eagle Legion Corps moved into Fallen Leaf City, and the Flaming Legion Corps moved into Asura City, announcing the change of hands of Guanxi Province. Without spending a single troop, the Shanhai Alliance had bitten off a chunk of meat from the Yanhuang Alliance.

Ouyang Shuo’s actions stunned everyone. However, the players did not understand how Great Qin and Great Tang were dragged into this battle.

Even though both dynasties were good with Great Xia, they were not close enough for them to not do anything.

“There must be something going on!”

The following events enlightened the people, and it also astonished them.

The day they took down both main cities, Great Xia handed Fallen Leaf City unconditionally over to Great Tang whilst Fallen Phoenix City handed Asura City over to Great Qin.

It was the same as saying that Ouyang Shuo and Feng Qiuhuang had given the juicy meat in their hands to others.

“Weirdo!”

Great Xia was rich and vast, but how would they not feel pained if they gave out two prefectures? However, the problem was why Fallen Phoenix City was also so generous.

The players could not understand it.

There were many different conjectures on the forums, some discussing plots, some dumb theories…

If one gathered them all up, one could probably film a huge movie.

The truth was really simple, and it was not as complicated as what the others were guessing.

There were three reasons behind why Ouyang Shuo worked together with Feng Qiuhuang to play this hand.

First, if they had not settled Great Tang and Great Qin beforehand, the Battle of Guanxi would not have happened.

Before signing the agreement, Great Qin and Great Tang had no reason to reject Asura City and Fallen Leaf City’s application for protection. Be it either of them, they would not let their feelings control their actions.

If the two dynasties interfered, with the number of troops that Great Xia could move, they might not be able to take down Guanxi Province. If they were really dragged into war, Great Xia who was fighting on both fronts might not be able to get out of it unscathed.

That would only give Fallen Leaf City and Asura City over to the two dynasties.

If that really happened, Great Xia could still hold on, but Fallen Phoenix City would be in a bad state. They would have worsened the relationship between Great Qin and her.

Along with Mongol in the north, Handan City in the east, and Great Han in the south, Fallen Phoenix City would be surrounded by enemies.

Unless Great Xia sent help, the future Fallen Phoenix City would face a dead end. With Feng Qiuhuang’s character, she would not be willing to merge into Great Xia.

There was no way to solve the problem at that point.

Secondly, the imperial city had much uncertainty.

Great Xia already had three imperial cities, becoming a thorn in Ouyang Shuo’s heart. Fortunately, be it Dali, Chengdu, or Great Sui, they were not all strong enough opponents.

With Great Xia’s ability, Ouyang Shuo could handle them.

However, who were the two owners of Guanxi? One was Qin Shihuang, while the other was Tang Taizong. Neither of them was a simple person, much less two in a single province.

During these two years, Gaia had loosened the restrictions on the imperial cities time and time again. Who knows whether Gaia would give them autonomy in the future or not?

Ouyang Shuo did not dare to take this risk, much less Feng Qiuhuang. Before they had the ability to destroy the imperial city, the best way would be to become allies with them.

Thirdly, the threat from Mongol.

As one of the biggest bosses of China region’s other races, the strength of the Mongol tribes was too shocking. Not to mention Fallen Phoenix City that was stuck alone, but even Great Xia would not find it to be an easy battle.

Since that was the case, finding someone to fight together was a natural thing.

Great Qin was directly connected to Mongol, and it also had a million troops. Naturally, they were not afraid of the Mongol tribe. Making an alliance with Great Qin was a really worth it deal.

Due to the above considerations, with the directions of Zhang Liang, Ouyang Shuo took a step back.

Great Xia and Fallen Phoenix City signed agreements with Great Qin and Great Tang respectively, stabilizing the border while gaining two new reliable allies.

As for when Great Qin fought Great Tang in the future, that was not within the considerations of Ouyang Shuo.

Using the alliance contract recognized by Gaia, Fallen Phoenix City totally removed the threat from the west. In the future, when one went against the Mongols, they could also borrow the strength of Great Qin.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo used this chance to cut off an arm from the Yanhuang Alliance, reducing the effects of the Yanhuang Alliance’s efforts in West Chu.

They sold a huge favor to Great Qin and Great Tang, earning both of them things in return. Ouyang Shuo obtained his dream general Li Jing, while Feng Qiuhuang obtained the brothers Meng Yi and Meng Tian.

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

4th month, 19th day, Shanhai City.

The day after Great Xia handed over Fallen Leaf City, based on the agreement, Li Jing and his family would be teleported over to Shanhai City, entering the hands of Ouyang Shuo.

When Ouyang Shuo received the report, he personally received them at the palace gate.

The Li Jing that was born in the wilderness was already close to 50, but he was still really energised and strong. Although he looked inarticulate, he was really intelligent, and no one would dare to underestimate him.

Speaking of Li Jing, the most legendary story about him, ‘The Investiture of the Gods’ made him into a legendary figure.

In truth, he was an all rounded person that could be both a general and civil servant. Legends had it that after he died, his spirit often helped civilians, so they built temples for him. In the later Tang period, Lin Jing was immortalized.

Hence, one could see how exceptional he was.

“I am Li Jing, greetings my king!” Li Jing was a person that followed the rules. Since he had followed the agreement and had come over to Great Xia, he did not hesitate to greet his new ruler.

Of course to him, to work for Ouyang Shuo was not a bad thing.

Name: Li Jing (God Rank)

Title: Army God

Dynasty: Tang Dynasty

Identity: Great Xia general

Occupation: special general

Loyalty: 75

Command: 97

Force: 85

Intelligence: 82

Politics: 78

Specialty: Army God (raises troops morale by 40%, raises troops movement speed by 30%, raises troops defense by 25%, raises troops killing strength by 20%)

Evaluation: Beginning Tang famous general, Li Jing was number one. In 630, Li Jing defeated the Göktürks that were led by Jiali Khan with just 3,000 cavalry soldiers in a surprise attack, which allowed the Tang Empire to subjugate the Göktürks and reduce them to the status of a vassal under the Tang Empire.

“General, please rise!”

Ouyang Shuo was delighted, “I have been waiting for you for a long time. Finally, I get my wish today.”

When Li Jing saw that, his heart settled down.

Since the king had such high hopes for him, his journey in the Great Xia military would not be lonely.

“This is not the place to talk. Let’s go to my reading room.” Ouyang Shuo smiled, personally leading Li Jing to the reading room.

Li Jing did not dare to take it causally and quickly followed. Although he was close to 50, he was still really swift.

The two of them talked for a full two hours. When ministers heard about it, they were really envious. To be able to speak to the king for an hour was a huge honor.

Hence, one could see how important Li Jing was to the king.

As expected, in the afternoon, Li Jing’s decree was given, “Appointing Li Jing as the Bear Legion Corps marshal, giving him the title of commander in chief. He enters the Grand Council.”

The moment the decree was given, the civil servants and generals took in a deep breath.

The crucial part was receiving the title of commander in chief. Before this, only Baiqi was given that, while the rest of the god generals were given the title of great general.

No one expected Li Jing to be on the same level as Baiqi right away, becoming a top grade presence in the Great Xia Army. The king’s love for Li Jing was one that everyone else desired.

Chapter 1016 - Annan’s Counterattack

Chapter 1016: Annan’s Counterattack

Li Jing was appointed, but he did not start work right away.

The current Battle of Annan had entered its key stage, and the Bear Legion Corps was being led by Baiqi. As a result, it was not appropriate for Li Jing to step in. It would be better for him to take over after the battle ended.

Li Jing did not stay in Shanhai City for long. The king had high hopes for him, so in return, he could only use his war achievements to prove the king correct.

In history, be it fighting in the grasslands or the high plains, neither was difficult for him.

The two Lis, Li Jing and Li Mu, would be the future of Great Xia in fighting against Tibet, West Xia, and West Turk.

Ouyang Shuo had already instructed Li Jing that after the Battle of Annan ended, the Bear Legion Corps were to move from the current Jiangchuan Province to Qiang Prefecture in the Shu Lands to go against Tibet.

Li Jing left Shanhai City to proceed toward Qiang Prefecture to set the groundwork for his future operations against Tibet.

…

Within the Xia palace Imperial Reading Room, Ouyang Shuo gathered Zhang Yi and Shen Buhai to give them both a secret mission.

That night, the magic powered submarine called Black Shark that was docked in Beihai Bay sneakily left the port and disappeared into the ocean.

Along with it was a high level official from the Honglu Temple.

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

Gaia 5th year, 4th month, 20th day, Annan Region.

During the past few days when the internal battle in China occurred, the Annan Region was not totally calm. After a reorganization, the Annan battlefield had entered a critical stage.

The final fates of the 500 thousand trapped Annan players was obvious.

Under the joint efforts of Huo Qubing and Mu Guiying, the Haiphong City 4th legion was crushed. Along with it, the entire south of Annan was under Great Xia’s rule.

After the battle, the two groups of troops did not stay for long. Apart from leaving some men to defend and collect prisoners, most of them used merchant ships to go around Hai Van mountain and appear north of Annan to gather with Ma Chao.

After the two legions met up, they continued up north.

At the same time, the three City Protection Legions led by Shi Wanshui picked up the pace in sweeping the northern territories of Annan.

Haiphong City was not quiet either.

Recently, the Emperor Squadron and the 1st division of the Pacific Squadron had a joint bombing of the city.

As the main city, its defenders were obviously better than Danang City. Although they were both ocean cities, this one had around 200 cannons on its city walls.

That was really terrifying.

Firing all at once, very few squadrons would be able to withstand it.

Even a top grade squadron like the Emperor Squadron faced problems under the stubborn defenses, suffering heavy casualties. They had no choice but to take turns swapping out with the Pacific Squadron.

When the Yashan Squadron completed their sweeping mission, they too would gather at Haiphong City. When they happened, even if Haiphong City was made of steel, it would still be blown to shreds.

Before this, the Emperor Squadron could only cover the following 1st and 3rd legions of the Guards Legion Corps as they disembarked, camping 15 miles out of Haiphong City as they got ready to attack.

This meant that the Great Xia Army had split into three paths and advanced together. Looking at their stance, they were getting ready to sweep across and meet at Hanoi to launch their final strike.

Furthermore, at this moment, Annan suffered from an internal strife.

Adventure gamemode players chided Haiphong City Lord Ruan Tianque. If it were not for him having strong mental strength, he would have probably committed suicide.

However, Ruan Tianque could not die.

Due to their differences, the Annan players were not willing to assist Haiphong City. With the 160 thousand troops housed there, once the Yashan Squadron rushed over, the city would definitely be unable to handle the siege of the two Guards Legions.

The moment Haiphong City fell, half of the lifeline of Annan would be gone.

Hence, Ruan Tianque was really anxious. Helplessly, he personally rushed to Hanoi to visit all the guild leaders to discuss and explain the situation.

As the only Lord city left in Annan, Haiphong City was not only important to Hanoi, but it also guarded the entrance of Red River into the ocean.

The moment Haiphong City fell, the Great Xia Squadron could go up the flow of the river to arrive outside of Hanoi and cover Hanoi with cannon fire.

Such an outcome would be catastrophic.

Apart from that, if Haiphong City fell, it would mean that every city apart from the imperial city had been lost. All the other subordinate territories of Haiphong City would lose their fighting spirit and let Great Xia take over them easily.

If that happened, Hanoi would quickly become a lone city.

In such a scenario, it would only be a matter of time until Annan was wiped out. Even if there were 800 thousand troops housed in Annan, along with 900 thousand combat occupation players, they would still be just birds locked in a cage.

Ruan Tianque reminded the guild leaders, “Do not forget how Great Xia took down Rabat. Just one fire turned it into ash.”

“So, do you all really think that solely defending Hanoi can win us this country war?” Ruan Tianque’s question was one they had no answers to. Some of them even felt a chill run down their spine.

They believed that Great Xia might use those plans one more time.

There was more, Ruan Tianque continued, “As a territory, Haiphong City still has allies in ASEAN. At the crucial moment, they can assist me. But if Haiphong City falls, there would be no assurance.”

The current Annan had not shown signs of losing.

Before the situation became clear, Nanzhang, Zhenla, and his other allies would not rush to assist Haiphong City. After all, the Great Xia threat was everywhere, and they did not dare to move carelessly.

Even if they were to assist, it would only be limited to the territory armies.

Before Great Xia started up any other country war, be it the Nanzhang or Zhenla players, neither party would be generous enough come over to aid Annan.

Furthermore, during the war period, Great Xia had not stopped its diplomacy work.

During this period of time, while Great Xia arranged the Indian Ocean Squadron and the Pacific Squadron to patrol the neighboring ASEAN region, they also sent out envoys to the various ASEAN states.

The Xia King announced, “Great Xia is fighting a war with Annan due to a conflict in trade. We have no intentions of fighting against ASEAN, the battle will not easily expand.”

To increase their persuasive power, Great Xia was even willing to sign agreements with Brunei, Johor, Siam, and Piao State, that promised they would not attack them.

The moment the news came out, the four of them were tempted.

Quickening the Battle of Annan while using diplomatic cards, Great Xia’s combination attack was dazzling. They basically cut off outside assistance for Annan.

During such a situation, Annan needed to unite internally all the more.

Ruan Tianque saw through all of this clearly. He did not want to argue that the so-called protecting free trade thing from Great Xia was a fraud, and he just admitted that he was in the wrong.

He took the blame for that.

“Brothers, I admit I was wrong. After this battle, regardless of whether we win or lose, I’ll die to pay for my sins. But before that, please put down your animosity against Haiphong City and unite to protect our country!”

“Please!”

“For the sake of our country’s survival, trust me one last time.”

When he reached the emotional parts, he even knelt on the ground.

Just like that, Ruan Tianque visited house by house, touching one person after another.

10 guild leaders gathered around him to discuss the matter.

“What should we do?”

The three pronged attack of the Great Xia Army was really terrifying.

Ruan Tianque was really confident, “The situation is not as bad as you guys think. The Great Xia Army splitting into three might look menacing, but they have gone against the worries of the war school of thought.”

“How so?”

Ruan Tianque said expressionlessly, “Very simple, they have a total of seven legions and a total of 500 thousand troops. Although we lost the south, we still have 800 thousand guards and 160 thousand elites in Haiphong City. Not to mention the 900 thousand players that all you guys lead.”

“In terms of numbers, we hold an absolute advantage.”

As he said that, Ruan Tianque gave out a smirk, “Great Xia is too arrogant. To actually declare war on us with only 500 thousand troops, how foolish!”

“Even then, they still split into three to try to sweep us out. I can only say that they have let their arrogance get to their heads.”

Most of them agreed with Ruan Tianque’s analysis.

However, some people voiced their doubts, “That’s not right, Great Xia has over two million in army troops. Why did they only send 500 thousand? That’s not their style.”

No one would think that Great Xia was really foolish.

Another guild leader said, “I heard that Great Xia is dealing with the Yanhuang Alliance in China, so they did not dare to move too many troops probably because they were taken up.”

Hearing this, the others were shocked and exchanged glances with one another.

That guild leader who was the first to speak carefully said, “Now that their battle in China has ended, doesn’t that mean that another army is about to arrive here?”

“Most probably!”

Everyone felt down.

Only Ruan Tianque was still pumped up and fervent. He loudly said, “Guys, this is our chance!”

“How so?”

“It will take at least a week for their second army to rush over. We just need to crush their three armies in one week. By then, even if their reinforcements arrive, it would be for nothing.”

“Well said!”

The eyes of the guild leaders lit up, and the way they looked at Ruan Tianque was now filled with respect. Just like that, he had earned their trust once more.

The guild leaders cupped their fists, “As for what to do exactly, Brother Ruan, please enlighten us.”

Chapter 1017 - Head to Head

Chapter 1017: Head to Head

“This is my plan…”

Within the meeting hall, Ruan Tianque started to describe his battle plan.

Annan only had a week left. To break out of the three way attack by Great Xia, they needed to go head to head and strike out.

Apart from using the 900 thousand combat occupation players, they also had to make use of the imperial city guards.

Ruan Tianque analyzed, “With the Great Xia Army’s fighting strength, we need at least three times their number to beat them.”

After the discussions, the plan was as such.

On the south, 200 thousand guards along with 200 thousand players would face off against the 2nd legions of the Guards Legion Corps and the City Protection Legion.

On the east, the same number would face off against the 1st and 3rd legions of the Guards Legion Corps. The 160 thousand troops of Haiphong City would mainly be used to defend against the ocean attacks of Great Xia.

On the north, 200 thousand guards and 400 thousand combat occupation players would face off against the 1st, 3rd, and 5th legions of the City Protection Legion Corps.

With such an arrangement, Hanoi only had 200 thousand Guards and 100 thousand players left.

Ruan Tianque was really confident, “As long as the three sides stabilize, the imperial city as our backlines will also be safe. Hence, we do not need to house too many troops there.”

The matter was settled just like that.

…

4th month, 22nd day, the retaliation of Annan began.

600 thousand imperial city guards and 800 thousand combat occupation players walked out of Hanoi, splitting into three paths to engage the three armies of Great Xia to try to wipe them out.

Before leaving, the Annan players held a huge proclamation ceremony outside of the city.

“If we do not destroy them, we will not return.”

The proclamation sounds were like that of a tsunami, drowning out everything around them and causing the earth to tremble.

This was the determination of a nation.

When they learned that Annan had struck out, Great Xia immediately changed their strategy. The north and south troops stopped attacking cities and camped on the spot, waiting for the arrival of the Annan troops.

To Great Xia, this was going to be a tough battle. Neither Huo Qubing or Shi Wanshui wanted to waste troops before the big battle.

At the same time, the three armies of Great Xia started to strengthen the defenses of their camp and gather up grain for the upcoming battle.

When the Annan troops got the news, they naturally read it differently.

“Great Xia is afraid!”

All of a sudden, the troops were excited, the morale soared, and all the darkness from before was swept away. The army unknowingly quickened their pace, thirsting to do battle with the enemy.

The first to engage was the north side.

25th day, afternoon, the 600 thousand troops of Annan arrived in Tuyen Quang. 20 miles north of it was the base of Great Xia’s north troops – Pingxiang City.

Both sides each occupied one city and was locked in a standstill.

The Annan side naturally did not think of it that way. After resting for a night, they launched their attack on Pingxiang City.

Unfortunately, they had underestimated the elites of the Great Xia Army.

Shi Wanshui followed the orders from the command center, defending instead of attacking. No matter what the Annan side did, they would not move.

Since Annan wanted to fight, let them siege!

The price of sieging was huge. Naturally, the Annan players were not fools, so they would not fall for it.

Just like that, the first day of the battles ended.

27th day, the Annan army could not take it anymore because news spread that another batch of merchant ships left Beihai Port and was travelling toward Annan.

Without a doubt, this should be the second batch of troops from Great Xia. Annan did not have much time left.

Helplessly, they could only go on the offensive.

Having the determination that this was their last chance, the 600 thousand troops surrounded Pingxiang City, launching a ferocious assault. All four sides of the city walls were Annan soldiers.

Annan’s attacks were like a crazy storm, powerful and relentless. One wave came after another, from morning till night, they did not stop.

When an army went crazy, it was a terrifying sight.

Even the elite City Protection Legion Corps suffered heavy casualties under such attacks. Luckily, there were 200 thousand of them, so they were not so easily broken.

Both sides had no way out, so this battle was a really intense and cruel one.

Pingxiang City was like a meat grinder, dragging in both sides and crushing them into pieces. Blood flowed into a river.

Within a day, the yellow soil was dyed red.

“Are these people crazy?”

Even the courageous Shi Wanshui had never witnessed such a scene before. The City Protection Legion’s opponents were unusual, and all of them tossed death aside, only caring about killing the enemy.

Some Annan soldiers charged up the city wall. When they saw that they were going to get stabbed, they hugged onto a City Protection Legion Corps soldier and jumped off the wall, dying together.

The eyes of the players were all blood red, charging through the enemy formation fearlessly. Some even jumped into a group of people to try to kill even more enemies.

They did not think about returning, only about killing the enemy in front of them.

“Kill! Kill! Kill!”

The killing intent from the 600 thousand troops gathered up and formed a huge blood red cloud that covered the sky.

As this battle went on, the cloud got bigger thicker and deeper.

Oppressive red, evil red.

The Annan army got more and more crazy. Their eyes flushed red as they entered a berserk state.

This battle got more and more intense; no one could stop it.

Such an enemy was simply too terrifying. Shi Wanshui had no choice but to personally lead the troops to raise the morale.

After one day, 20 thousand City Protection Legion Corps troops died.

In such a short time, it was a rare matter for the Great Xia Army to suffer such heavy casualties.

The price that the Annan side had paid was close to 80 thousand of them dying. The bodies stacked high under the city wall, blocking up the city protection river.

After the system update, bodies of NPCs would not despawn.

These bodies stacked up under the city wall, becoming of great help for the sieging side. They would step on the bodies of their allies and launch an even fiercer assault.

Be it the Annan Guards or the combat occupation players, they had all transformed into devils and had lost their humanity.

When night fell, the Annan army finally woke up and returned to their camp like a flood.

Retreating was only because of the timing, and the Annan soldiers shouted, “We will continue tomorrow. We will not stop until we win!”

Chapter 1018 - Great Xia Bares Fangs

Chapter 1018: Great Xia Bares Fangs

The Battle of Pingxiang City was just one part of Annan’s retaliation.

Apart from Pingxiang City, the east’s Haiphong City and Kuihe City also had similar battles. In the next few days, both sides suffered heavy casualties.

The three battlefields were all filled with blood.

This was the bloodiest three battles since the Battle of Annan started till now.

The raging war not only made the Annan players nervous, but it also raised discussions from the Chinese players.

The China region players were paying attention to the Battle of Annan at every moment, and they did not understand what Great Xia was doing. Apart from the part where they blocked off the mountain, which was a great play, the following actions were really normal.

Even to say that they were on the back foot.

Players did not understand. The Yanhuang Alliance attacking West Chu did not use much of Great Xia’s strength. The Great Xia Eagle Legion Corps had just walked a circle in Guanxi Province and did not fight any wars.

Since that was the case, why would Great Xia split their army into two batches to go to Annan? Moreover, why did they start the war when the reinforcements for the first batch were not ready, angering the entire Annan and making them seek revenge as a result?

This battle had many suspicious points.

“This is totally unlike the fighting style of Great Xia!” Someone commented about the battle.

The players even started to doubt Baiqi, saying that he had become arrogant and started to disappoint Ouyang Shuo, messing up his leadership of the battle.

Some people even though back to a few days ago when Ouyang Shuo appointed Li Jing as commander in chief, which was the same as Baiqi. Did this mean that Ouyang Shuo was unhappy with Baiqi and was doing so as a warning?

Apart from questioning Baiqi, some people felt worried about Great Xia and the battle against Annan.

All of a sudden, random rumors and stories flew around. Comments raged on the forums, some people mocked Great Xia. These people felt that Great Xia were going to falter.

“This is the result of focusing too much on military!”

Di Chen and the others felt really good. Although they did not jump out like before to diss Great Xia, they gloated when they talked to their friends privately.

Di Chen’s hatred toward Ouyang Shuo had reached a new level when Great Xia stepped in at a crucial moment during the Battle of West Chu. The two of them had no room for reconciliation.

To make matters worse, Great Xia had destroyed the plan Di Chen and the others had been planning for months without using a single soldier.

Even Plan Z was implicated, and its effects were greatly reduced.

Hence, Di Chen would obviously hate Ouyang Shuo.

Seeing Great Xia face trouble in the Battle of Annan, Di Chen was obviously delighted. He would rather see the 500 thousand troops of Great Xia die over at Annan.

“The heavens have eyes!” Di Chen said.

Apart from him, there was also a group of people who were happy. They were the Japanese, who knew that Great Xia was a strong opponent in the future country war. Naturally, they also focused on the Battle of Annan.

Seeing the situation turn sour for Great Xia, the anxiousness of Keisuke Honda became much better.

“He deserves it!”

…

This was such a hot topic because this battle not only affected the interests of Great Xia but also the entire China region.

Great Xia winning was naturally the best, as it would earn them some honor points for the upcoming country war. However, if they lost and suffered heavy casualties, the outcome would be catastrophic.

If they were crushed on the Annan battlefield, not only would Great Xia fail to stop the rise of the Yanhuang Alliance, but it would also cause problems for the country war.

Great Xia was the sole pillar of China region. If it fell, it would be a huge problem.

The matter concerned the honor of the country, so only a few people would gloat.

The worried China Region players even applied to enter the Great Xia Army to help them attack Annan to stabilize the situation.

Even Xie Siyun, Blood Romance, and the other guild leaders rushed over to Shanhai City to meet Ouyang Shuo. They voiced that they could help out on the Annan battlefield.

Ouyang Shuo warmly greeted them, but he rejected their offers.

“Little Shuo, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. No one wins all battles, and a loss is not much. Snow-War Rose does not have anything, but we can spare 100 thousand warriors.”

Lin Jing rushed over to Shanhai City to try and personally convince Ouyang Shuo.

She felt that Ouyang Shuo rejected the help of his allies because he wanted to save face.

Ouyang Shuo laughed and shook his head, “Little aunt, do you think I’m such a person who does not know the gravity of the situation?”

“No!”

Lin Jing shook her head. If he were, he would not have gotten to his position today.

“Do not worry, the Battle of Annan is totally under our control. We have prepared half a year for this battle, so how would we make such low level mistakes?”

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo saw all the insults toward Great Xia online.

“Then what’s happening?” Lin Jing was worried.

Ouyang Shuo turned solemn and seriously said, “War is not a game, and it is not a battle between adventure gamemode players. Someone not in it would be unable to see the situation. Their advantage is just a smokescreen.”

Lin Jing was unhappy, as she thought that Ouyang Shuo was just trying to cover it up, “Do not try to trick me. The forums say that in just these three to four days, Great Xia has lost 100 thousand elite troops. That is not a lie, right?”

“About there!”

Ouyang Shuo did not deny it. Actually, the number of casualties was larger than reported.

In truth, even Ouyang Shuo did not expect the Annan players to be so crazy and have so much killing strength. Thinking about the soldiers he had lost, his heart felt pained.

‘My heart is bleeding!’

Apart from in the Battle Map, Great Xia had never suffered such heavy casualties.

Lin Jing stared at him with both of her eyes, “Then you still say that everything is under your control?”

Ouyang Shuo felt warm in his heart. He knew that his aunt was really concerned about him, “Sometimes, for the big picture, one must make some sacrifices.”

“So you’re saying that this is all predicted?” Lin Jing was surprised, “I know Great Xia has many top strategists, but isn’t this a little too accurate?”

Ouyang Shuo smiled. There were many military matters that outsiders would not understand, “It is not because we are godly that we are to be able to predict all that.”

“Then?” Lin Jing was unhappy.

“We cannot foresee the future, but we can guide the enemy, seeing through their cards and thoughts to make them do what we want them to do.” Ouyang Shuo explained.

“So amazing?”

“That’s roughly it. Although the details are not accurate, it would be roughly there.”

On the surface, Annan splitting into three paths was a rational choice. However, some
of the intel was purposely released by Great Xia.

For example, the actions of the three armies of Great Xia was to make Annan realize that Great Xia wanted to attack from three sides and meet in Hanoi.

For example, the batch of merchant ships leaving the port made it look like they were fetching the second batch of troops. However, in truth, there were just a number of them.

These merchant ships were just for transporting resources.

The goal was to lead the Annan army to attack and totally wrap themselves up in the battle.

And all of this was for their final act.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Do not worry little aunt. The following day at the latest, the battle will change. When that happens, all will be revealed.”

As this was a military secret, it was not convenient for him to reveal too much.

Lin Jing looked right at Ouyang Shuo, “Okay, since it’s not convenient, I will not ask anymore. I’m looking forward to how Great Xia stuns the world and slap Di Chen’s face.”

In the player circle, the actions of Di Chen and the others was not a secret.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Do not worry, it will be entertaining.”

Chapter 1019 - Hanoi Emergency

Chapter 1019: Hanoi Emergency

4th month, 30th day, Annan northwest border.

Mengde City was a small city in the northwest. 10 miles away was the mountain range that Great Xia swept a week ago, along with the few cities in the surroundings.

Yesterday morning, Mengde City was on high alert, the relay, city gate, official paths, and the like were guarded by the Great Xia City Protection Legion Corps to prevent anyone from getting close.

No one was allowed to enter or leave the city.

When the civilians realized that, they knew that something was about to happen. However, even if they wanted to, they could not inform the imperial city because all forms of communication were cut off.

The Black Snake Guards in charge of Annan intel worked with the Military Intelligence Division to lockdown the neighboring area.

All signs showed that something big was happening.

Just last night, north of Mengde City, a black tunnel appeared in the desolate and secluded mountain range, directly connecting to Yunnan Province.

Very quickly, torches were lit up in the tunnel, lighting it up brightly. The Great Xia Army prepared in Mengding Prefecture crossed through the tunnel and magically appeared in Annan.

From night all the way till the afternoon of the 30th day, people and carriages streamed from the tunnel, gathering in the Annan wilderness.

This army included the five legions of the Dragon Legion Corps, the 4th legion of the Guards Legion Corps, and the 1st and 2nd legion of the Bear Legion Corps. They had a total of 560 thousand troops.

The troops that had appeared now were just the start. More and more of them swarmed out of the tunnel. Behind the troops was an even larger support army with a total of 500 thousand men.

During the nighttime, under the accompaniment of Lai Hu’er, Zhang Liao, and the others, expedition commander Baiqi walked out of the tunnel.

“Commander!”

Dragon Legion 1st legion Legion General Zhao Ponu was appointed as the vanguard general and led the 1st legion to be the first to arrive on Annan soil. Seeing Baiqi, he immediately greeted him.

Baiqi had an iron armor on, and he looked really solemn, “Is the area on lockdown?”

“Do not worry, commander, I’ve sent out five sentries to lock down a thousand miles. If there are any action, we will notice it immediately.”

Zhao Ponu was a capable general under Huo Qubing in history. He was good at tracking and sentry work, which was why he was appointed as the vanguard general.

Baiqi nodded; naturally, he did not praise him.

Zhao Ponu heaved a sigh of relief, as to get a nod from Baiqi was a huge honor.

“Increase our guard at night, we cannot mess this up.” Baiqi instructed.

“Yes, commander!”

Zhao Ponu nodded, turning around to make arrangements.

Baiqi, on the other hand, led the other generals to discuss the military operation.

Zhao Ponu, Lai Hu’er, Zhang Liao, Xiao Chaogui, Er’Lai, Chen Tang, and Pei Renji were all here. All seven Legion Generals were present.

Baiqi swept his gaze around before saying solemnly, “During these few days, the enemy has retaliated relentlessly, exceeding our expectations. The three armies have been holding on, but they are losing twenty to thirty thousand men a day.”

When the generals heard that, they all had a solemn expression.

They knew that the sacrifices of the three armies was to create an opportunity for them to drag the main force away from the imperial city.

“We must be quick!” Baiqi concluded, “This cannot drag on. Tomorrow morning, all the troops that have arrived will set off and try to reach Hanoi in four days.”

“Yes, commander!”

They all replied in unison.

As the scale of the army was too huge, Baiqi arranged for the infantry to go through first, followed by the cavalry. Hence, the cavalry would be able to catch up and arrive at Hanoi at around the same time.

At the same time, to lower the chances of being spotted, even the vanguard forces needed to split up to prevent congestion.

As for the specifics, it was up to Baiqi to brief them about it.

Only at 11 PM did this all come to an end. As the commander, Baiqi did not go to sleep. Instead, he called his guards to patrol.

This was a battle that concerned the fate of the dynasty, and Baiqi had no choice but to be careful.

Even for the Qin country in history, Baiqi did not command such a huge army. The burden on his shoulders was not something that outsiders could understand.

…

Time slowly crawled into the 5th month.

Since the start of the battle, Great Xia had spent a month in Annan. Seeing that there was only going to be a month till the country war month, the Battle of Annan became the focus of Asia.

Even the Battle of West Chu was not as eye-catching as this.

Annan northwest border, Great Xia camp.

Morning, the sky at first light, Baiqi, who slept less than six hours, led his troops to move along their designated routes.

From this moment onward, the Battle of Annan would welcome its final battle.

5th month, 2nd day, afternoon, the Great Xia Army broke through the control region of the north troops, officially entering the field of vision of Annan. The hard work of the north troops, the Black Snake Guards, and the Military Intelligence Division had earned the army two days of time.

This was key to the battle.

When the huge army suddenly appeared near Hanoi, it was obvious what a blow it was to the Annan players and the Annan royal family.

“Oh my god, where did they come out from?”

No one could give these people an answer. The northwest border consisted of mountain ranges. Logically speaking, no army could cross it and appear within Annan.

Toward the northwest, Annan had practically zero defenses.

But this thing just magically occurred. Even when all the officials and generals in the Annan Imperial Court wracked their brains, they still could not understand what had happened.

“Weren’t the second batch of troops coming from the ocean?”

The one who spoke had realized that the so-called ocean route was a smoke bomb to deceive everyone.

All of a sudden, the imperial city was in chaos.

Some people predicted, “Maybe there was a hole in the mountains, connecting it to Yunnan.”

Some geologists announced that based on geography and the way that the earth works, it was possible for a tunnel to appear.

However, such an idea did not make sense. It was the 5th year of Gaia, so if there was a rumble, the Annan players would have already found it.

One must know that for the huge army to cross it, the tunnel would have to be huge.

“There’s no point in discussing this. The crucial problem is what should we do now?”

That’s right, what should they do?

The first reaction of the Annan royal family was to call for the guards to return.

Not only the guards, but even the players were all summoned back. After all, the imperial city was the most important.

The moment it fell, the battle would end, and all other victories would be useless.

Helplessly, the three armies were too far away from the imperial city, and they would not be able to rush back in two to three days. The Annan royal family could only join hands with the guild leaders to gather up all the available troops.

A huge storm suddenly swept up Annan.

…

China region.

Different from the panic of the Annan players, the China region players were feeling conflicted.

Two days ago, they were worried that Great Xia was going to fail. In the blink of an eye, Great Xia had turned the situation around.

The flip of the script made one speechless.

Before this, those players who mocked Baiqi and Great Xia were weeded out and humiliated.

As long as they were not thick skinned, they would not dare to show themselves on the forums anymore.

Di Chen and the others were even more depressed. The only thing worth feeling joyous about was that they did not express their views online this time.

Throughout the entire process, the Xia Palace did not make a single sound.

The Xia Palace did not make a statement or not reply. The China region players had an explanation for that, “Great Xia is so amazing. It looks like they were not doing anything, but in truth, everything was under their control.”

“Smart, genius!”

Many people could not help but raise their thumbs up. Toward the plan by Great Xia, normal players could only bow down in awe.

Being influenced by this, Ouyang Shuo’s country war leader votes exploded. On the 5th month, 3rd day, he had obtained 45 million votes, 20 million more than Di Chen.

The race for the position seemed to have ended early.

…

The China region players were happy, but the Annan players were in a bad state.

Apart from those who were still in the imperial city, when the three armies received the military order, their heart sank, and their faces turned ashen white. If they did not understand what was going on, they would not be worthy of being called elites.

Especially Haiphong City Lord Ruan Tianque. When he learned that the Great Xia Army had appeared in Hanoi’s outskirts, his first reaction was disbelief. Then his face turned white and subsequently red.

Shame, he felt totally ashamed!

The matter was already obvious; this was a plot by Great Xia. Ironically, the reason the plot worked was because of a certain Ruan Tianque asking them to attack.

Which meant that Ruan Tianque was the reason for Annan being buried.

Guilt swept toward him like a tsunami. Thinking about the words his countrymen would say about him, Ruan Tianque lost all courage.

He did not dare to face his countrymen that had trusted him.

That night, he killed himself in his reading room. On the table were his final words. Three blood red words were written on a white sheet of paper, “It’s my fault!”

Chapter 1020 - Bear Legion Corps Is Furious

Chapter 1020: Bear Legion Corps Is Furious

The death of Ruan Tianque was like another huge bomb on the already unsettled Annan, shrouding Haiphong City with uncertainty.

The Great Xia Yashan Squadron had already arrived in the nearby ocean region, so who knows how long Haiphong City could last?

Toward Ruan Tianque’s death, the Annan players felt a whole host of emotions. However, his death made scolding words useless, and all that was left was one feeling sad for him.

If Annan were a boat, it was now riddled with many holes and was slowly sinking to the bottom of the ocean.

More amusingly, Ruan Tianque’s death meant that Annan could not get any help from allies, quickening the destruction of Annan.

Maybe the moment he decided to die, Ruan Tianque had stopped caring so much.

…

Ruan Tianque died, but the country war still had to continue.

When the Annan three armies got the news to return, they immediately stopped their attacks and retreated back to their camps, preparing to leave after the night.

The problem was, would Great Xia allow them to?

With the north battlefield as an example, two days ago, Shi Wanshui had gotten news that the second batch of troops had gathered up in the northwest. Seeing that the enemy was about to flee, how could Shi Wanshui let them off?

If the Annan army tried to leave, Shi Wanshui’s forces would chase closely behind, hitting away at the enemy. Like that, the situation that the Annan army faced was a really awkward one.

If they decided to retreat, not only would they face the risk of being chased by the enemy, but even if they smoothly returned to Hanoi, the Great Xia Army could naturally follow them back.

If that happened, not to mention entering the city, but they might be pincered by Great Xia and die right outside the city.

Retreating pretty much became a lost cause.

“So, what should we do?”

The three army commanders were facing such a difficult question, and they all made different choices.

As the north and east troops were closer to Hanoi, they were going to obey the king’s orders and return to the imperial city first.

The south troops had just engaged Great Xia. As the journey was far, they gritted their teeth, advancing instead of retreating, going all out against the Great Xia south army.

5th month, 4th day, Baiqi led the 280 thousand vanguard forces and arrived in the nearby outskirts of Hanoi and started to set up camp. That afternoon, they launched their probing attacks on Hanoi.

There were 200 thousand guards and 100 thousand combat occupation players in Hanoi, along with two million work occupation players, and seven million civilians. As a result, they had the ability to resist.

Their only hope was to last until the three armies returned.

That night, the 560 thousand army arrived in Hanoi, and based on Baiqi’s arrangement, they surrounded Hanoi. War was about to begin.

The next morning, the Great Xia Army got to work.

Baiqi’s strategy was simple. Although he surrounded the enemy from four sides, he was only going to attack one, “As long as one is broken, let the cavalry enter and destroy the stone stele. That would mean we win the war!”

As for the specific target, Baiqi chose the east side.

Choosing the hill on the east outskirts as a command center, Baiqi looked at the towering imperial city and said, “Who’s willing to go and act as the vanguard to break the east gate?”

“Commander, I am willing!”

The moment Baiqi said those words, a general sought to fight. The Legion General of the 1st Bear Legion Corps legion, Chen Tang.

Chen Tang joined Great Xia along with the Jiangchuan Province, and he could be considered half a surrendered general. As a result, he had not fully merged into the Great Xia Army system and badly wished to prove himself on the battlefield.

When Baiqi saw that, he nodded, “Good, you’ll be one.”

For this attack, Baiqi was ready to send two legions up. It was best if both were infantry.

The 1st legion of the Bear Legion Corps was formed from the elites of the territory armies of Jiangchuan Province, so their combat strength was not a problem. Who knows how Chen Tang had managed to drill them and consolidate their strengths.

The Battle of Annan was a test.

When Pei Renji saw that, he was vexed. As a general that joined Great Xia recently, he wanted to establish credit. However, because of his hesitation, Chen Tang had snatched the chance.

Baiqi could not give both of the two spots over to the Bear Legion Corps, so Pei Renji pretty much had no chance with this mission.

Seeing the commander select Chen Tang, the five Legion Generals of the Dragon Legion Corps could not sit still. After all, they were under the commander, so how could he let outsiders snatch their spot?

“Commander, I am willing!”

Pretty much at the same time, Lai Hu’er and Luo Shixin both sought to battle.

When Baiqi saw that, he hesitated, not knowing which one of them to select. Both of them could only look on at the commander, their eyes filled with desire.

“Let the 2nd legion fight!”

Baiqi decided to choose Lai Hu’er in the end. It was not for other reasons, but simply that Luo Shixin was better at cavalry battles.

“Thank you commander!”

Lai Hu’er’s face flushed red with emotion whilst Luo Shixin was unhappy.

Although Lai Hu’er had fallen for an ambush and was demoted during the Battle of Shu Lands, he had learned from his mistakes. In the end, he used his achievements to regain Ouyang Shuo’s trust.

At the same time, he had also earned the trust of Baiqi.

After the attacking forces were selected, the army immediately sent down the orders.

‘Dong! Dong! Dongdong!’

Along with familiar drum beats, the armies on the four sides launched their attacks at the same time.

The true sieging main force of Lai Hu’er and Chen Tang was amongst the sieging troops as they attacked the east city wall.

As there was limited space, to show fairness, he arranged Chen Tang’s forces as the first wave. Lai Hu’er was behind him, ready to take over.

Of course, Chen Tang was not willing to see that happen.

“Boys, it’s time to gain credit. Follow me to kill the enemy!”

As he said that, Chen Tang led his Personal Guards and charged forward. 70 thousand healthy men hollered behind him. Right from the get go, they looked like they were going all out.

Around 500 meters away from the city gate, they stopped their steps.

It was time for the machines to work as siege chariots. Trebuchets, and arrow turrets were pushed to the front to suppress the enemy.

Since they had to travel through a tunnel, they only brought a limited number of siege weapons. Chen Tang did not care. Once the trebuchets and arrow turrets suppressed the attacks of the soldiers on the city war, he gave the order to siege.

One division after another was sent to the frontlines.

Since a military order was given, Chen Tang had no way out.

The defending Annan soldiers on the wall similarly had no way out. They would either die there or die when their country was wiped out. This was destined to be a bloody and intense battle.

The ferocious Bear Legion Corps, under the defenses of the Annan army, failed their first three waves of attacks. In the blink of an eye, three to four thousand from the 1st legion had died.

When Chen Tang saw that, his face twitched, sending out another fresh force.

“Boys, the enemy is a tough nut to crack, but we are not cowards. This battle concerns our glory. Behind us, the other legion corps brothers are looking at us, the commander is looking at us, and the king is looking at us.”

“Whether we can bring name to the Bear Legion Corps or not depends on today!”

Chen Tang fervently shouted, trying his best to raise their morale, making their blood boil as they barked, “Kill! Kill! Kill!”

This was the gene of the Great Xia Army.

Since they were a professional army, each one of them viewed glory as more important than their life.

A crueler siege battle was started. To raise their morale, Chen Fang even ordered the Major Generals to personally lead. He wanted to take down the east city gate by noon.

However, how could this be easy?

Be it the Annan Guards or the Annan players, they were all fighting with their backs against the walls. Behind them were their families, brothers, and friends, so they had totally no way out.

“They could only fight to the death!”

At 8 AM, the east side battle reached its climax.

The Bear Legion Corps 1st legion was filled with elites, and each one of them was fearless. However, Hanoi was an imperial city, and it had perfect defensive facilities and an abundance of them.

Successive attacks, successive failures.

The high city wall was like the grave of the Bear Legion Corps, chewing at one fresh life after another. Chen Tang’s face turned blacker and blacker as he stared stubbornly at the front.

At 11 AM, around 30 thousand Bear Legion Corps soldiers had died. For them to last till now, they should feel proud of themselves.

The deputy general said to Chen Tang, “General, why not back down and rest up? The soldiers cannot hold on anymore!” Even in such a disciplined army, such huge casualties could not help but shake their hearts.

Chen Tang gritted his teeth, as he was under a lot of pressure.

“He was not willing!”

Under the relentless attacks, the defending troops were facing problems, and they were just about to succeed.

“Let them hold on for a while more!”

Chen Tang was thinking about it. However, before he could say it out loud, a messenger ran over and said to Chen Tang, “General Chen, General Lai is asking you to back down if you cannot do it and let the Dragon Legion Corps take over.”

“What did you say?”

When Chen Tang heard that, he immediately exploded. His eyes turned red as he fumed, “Bastard! Go tell that one surnamed Lai to stand aside and watch us break apart the city gate. If he charges out at this moment, do not blame our swords for having no eyes.”

“This….”

The messenger was put on the spot.

“Why aren’t you going?” Chen Tang hollered like a ferocious tiger.

When the surrounding Bear Legion Corps soldiers saw that, they were astonished. They did not know that the gentle looking Legion General would be so scary when he was angry.

“Yes, yes, I’ll go now!”

The messenger was similarly stunned and ran back.

Chen Tang had no energy to focus on one messenger as he turned around and looked at the nearby soldiers. He loudly said, “Did you hear that? If we cannot take it down, those rabbits are going to ride on top of our heads. Can you take this??”

“No!”

“I cannot either!” Chen Tang took in a deep breath. With a ‘Shua!’, he pulled out the sword by his waist, “Let’s not waste words. Boys, follow me and break the city gates at all costs!”

“Kill! Kill! Kill!”

Chapter 1021 - Battle of Annan Ends

Seeing Legion General Chen Tang personally lead the lines, the Bear Legion Corps totally exploded.

Strictly speaking, this was the first tough battle for the Bear Legion Corps. They did not want to back down and let the Dragon Legion Corps claim an easy victory.

“Even if we die, we want to die charging forward!”

The Bear Legion Corps went all out, not caring about their casualties. Soldiers stepped on the bodies of their brothers, launching wave after wave of attacks against the city wall. All of them viewed death as a release.

This time, the soldiers on the city wall could not hold on anymore.

They were originally forced to their limits by the Bear Legion Corps. Being pushed further, they collapsed.

“Kill!”

Under the protection of his Personal Guards, Chen Tang successfully climbed up the city wall.

“Kill!”

The morale of the Bear Legion Corps soldiers soared.

Along with a thundering ‘honglong!’, after half an hour of tough battle, the Bear Legion Corps finally took down the east city gate before noon and completed the mission.

“Hurray!”

The soldiers were delighted, and they could not help but cheer out.

When Baiqi saw that, an indiscernible smile appeared on his face as he ordered, “Spread my order, for the Battle of Hanoi, the Bear Legion Corps 1st legion have obtained credit. Lai Hu’er’s troops immediately assist them and sweep the rewards.”

“Yes!” The messenger ran out.

Frontlines.

Lai Hu’er followed the orders and rushed near the city gates. Seeing the bloody Chen Tang, he raised his thumb and smiled, “Well done Bear Legion Corps!”

The way that the Dragon Legion Corps soldiers looked at them was filled with recognition.

To be able to take down the east city gate in such a short time was something even the Dragon Legion Corps would not have absolute confidence about. The army always worshipped the strong, so the Bear Legion Corps won the praise of their brothers.

Chen Tang smiled, shaking Lai Hu’er’s hands. The misunderstanding at the start had disappeared.

“Well done Bear Legion Corps brothers, leave the rest to us.” Lai Hu’er waved his right hand and ordered his troops to pour forward to totally crush the defending troops on the east side.

Chen Tang did not oppose him, as the 1st legion had indeed suffered heavy casualties. Since he had already obtained the first credit, he understandingly backed down. ‘He had already eaten the meat, so he should at least leave some soup for his brothers.’

Lai Hu’er’s forces were brimming with energy, amd their entry added huge pressure. On the contrary, the Annan defending troops had a hole in their defenses that could not be stopped, and they were showing signs of a full collapse.

In just an hour, apart from the main city gate of the east side, the two side gates were taken down.

When Baiqi saw that, he looked toward Luo Shixin and Er’Lai and said, “It’s your turn!”

“Yes commander!”

Luo Shixin and Er’Lai had been raring to go. Getting the order, they turned around and left.

After a short while, the rumbling of horse hooves sounded out on the battlefield as the Great Xia cavalry moved. The group of them was like an iron flood rushing toward the three city gates and into Hanoi.

When the defending troops on the other sides learned that the east city gate had been lost, they lost the will to fight.

Baiqi was really sharp. Sensing blood, he ordered all four sides to launch a fierce assault right away.

In a short hour, all four city gates were lost in succession, and the entire city was on the verge of falling. The 500 thousand troops were like a flood that swarmed toward the city.

Unstoppable.

The moment the city was broken into, the fate of Hanoi and Annan was easy to predict.

The following battle contained no surprises.

At 3 PM, along with the royal palace stone stele being broken, a System Notification sounded out around the world.

“World Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for taking down Annan, his name spreads far and wide, obtaining 100 thousand merit points and 200 thousand reputation points as a reward. Congratulations!”

…

The Battle of Annan could be said to be the battle where Great Xia killed the most enemies.

Rough estimation placed the number of combat occupation players dying to their hands at no less than a million. If one added in the guards and the Haiphong City Army, just by killing enemies, Ouyang Shuo had earned a million merit points.

That was really shocking.

A million points was the required amount to reach duke. From the start of the game till now, there was only Jack and Ouyang Shuo, these two dukes. As such, other Lords would obviously be envious and jealous.

As expected, a country war was the fastest way to earn merit points.

“World Notification: Annan has been destroyed, all player levels, skills, cultivation methods, and the like are wiped out. Annan players will be teleported over to the sealed lands as punishment!”

…

The moment the notification sounded out, before the millions of Annan players could mourn, they were mercilessly teleported away.

A country war was just so cruel. Along with Hanoi falling, the country war ended. Players were teleported away, and the fortunate remaining guards could only surrender.

As for how many prisoners were obtained, they needed to tabulate it up.

“World Notification: China Region Lord Qiyue Wuyi led troops to win the country war, China obtains 10 country honor whilst awarding all China region players with +1 for innate stats, congratulations China region!”

…

This was the fourth time Great Xia had won a country war for China. While most countries were still at zero, China had already earned 40 honor points.

Such an achievement was definitely unprecedented.

The respect that the China region players felt toward Great Xia reached a new peak.

Addtionally, in the recently ended country war leader vote, Ouyang Shuo led. He had obtained a total of 57 million votes and became the uncontested leader.

The test in front of him was how to obtain the country weapon, the Xuanyuan Sword.

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

Gaia 5th year, 5th month, 6th day, Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo gave absolute power to Baiqi and the Cabinet to handle Annan matters. The planned Annan Provincial Governor Hu Zongxian was also on his way there to lead the rebuilding works of Annan.

Now, Ouyang Shuo was only concerned about two things. First, the fate of West Chu. Second, the birth of his children.

5th month, 15th day was the day that his children would be born. During this period of time, Song Jia remained in the back palace. Apart from resting, she mainly prepared all the items needed for the children.

Items like rocking baskets, diapers, and the like. For these things, Song Jia personally took charge. She did not want to hire a nanny and wanted to personally raise her children.

Ouyang Shuo was really supportive of this.

Although Great Xia was a dynasty, Ouyang Shuo did not want them to act like one. Instead, he wanted them to welcome a new changed world with an open heart.

China’s culture had lasted for a long time. The key essence had to be kept and spread whilst the bad parts could be abandoned.

Such decisiveness was something Ouyang Shuo possessed.

As for the West Chu matter, it was more complicated. After giving up the Guanxi Province, the Yanhuang Alliance regained their footing. The 760 thousand strong army played it safe and slowly closed in toward Peng City.

Till date, 90% of the land of Ludong Province had fallen to the Yanhuang Alliance. Next would be the Battle of Peng City, a battle to the death.

During this period of time, Overlord Xiang Yu showed his ability and caused the Alliance Army to suffer heavy casualties. He even slowly turned the tables. However, the fact that they were outnumbered overwhelmed them in the end.

Under the leadership of Wuqi, Tiandan, and Lianpo, the Alliance Army would not give him any chance.

Looking at the situation, West Chu would not be able to turn the tables.

Much less that, they could not even flee. The north and south were Yanhuang Alliance territories. The east was the ocean and that was locked down by the three squadrons of the Yanhuang Alliance.

The most feasible escape route was the west, which was the Great Zhan Dynasty in Zhongyuan Province. Helplessly, a day ago, Hanwu Emperor openly announced that Great Han would not accept any West Chu people. Moreover, anyone who dared to cross the border would be killed.

It seems like West Chu was facing a dire situation.

The China region players started to discuss that Xiang Yu was probably going to Wujiang River farewell. If one considered the Battle of Fei River, Xiang Yu had lost three times, a really cruel hit.

Three losses in three battles, the end of the road for a hero.

The China region players hoped that this battle would end soon so that they could prepare for the country war in the 6th month.

…

West Chu, Peng City.

Along with the frontline battlefields suffering defeat, the usually prosperous city was now shrouded in a huge shadow. The millions of Jiangdong civilians were the last trump card of West Chu.

The difficult question was whether to die together with the people or choose to surrender.

Di Chen had sent word that if West Chu was willing to surrender, the Yanhuang Alliance would treat them well and ensure the riches of the Xiang Family. Di Chen even asked Fan Zeng, who was roaming the wilderness, to persuade Xiang Yu.

However, with the character of Xiang Yu, would he accept it?

If he did, then he would not be called Xiang Yu.

As a result of this, some of the Xiang Family members wavered, as no one could accept death. As a result of this, Xiang Yan, Xiang Liang, and the like felt worried.

5th month, 7th day, Xiang Yu led his troops back to Peng City.

Within the manor, all the core members of the Xiang Family had gathered.

The special part was that Yuji’s stomach had a bump. Evidently, she was pregnant.

What West Chu would do depended on this meeting.

He had three choices. Apart from dying or surrendering, they had one other choice, which was their ally, Great Xia.

A few days ago, the manor welcomed a special guest, which was the Honglu Temple envoy.

How did they come?

The secret was the Black Shark.

It broke through the lock and successfully arrived in Peng City. Under the planning of the Black Snake Guards, they met with Xiang Bo and brought with them the greetings of Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo was saying that if West Chu really fell, Great Xia would open a gate for them with better conditions than the one the Yanhuang Alliance offered.

Be it terms of strength or relationship, Great Xia was the better choice. Not to mention that before the war, Great Xia had warned them many times and tried to get them out of the situation by attacking the Yanhuang Alliance.

This favor was one that the Xiang Family had to return.

The current problem was would Xiang Yu be willing to leave?

Chapter 1022 - Picking the Peaches

Chapter 1022: Picking the Peaches

Xiang Yu was a legendary hero and a fierce general. However, any hero would love their face and would rather die than yield to someone.

It would be easier to kill him than to make him bow his head to someone.

However, after experiencing two defeats, Xiang Yu had obviously grown much more
mature. He was filled with emotions now that he could not achieve his ambitions. He could die in battle, but he could not let his family die with him.

“Furthermore…” Xiang Yu looked at his wife. A man also had a gentle side.

His wife having a child was the greatest comfort to him.

This time, he could not be so selfish.

After discussing everything, Xiang Yu decided to set his heart to it. Looking at his Grandfather, Xiang Yan, “Grandfather, I am the west Chu Overlord. I cannot leave, but the children are innocent. Please leave together with Yuji and the others. Although I do not like the Xia King, he is a trustable person.”

“What about you?”

“Me?” Xiang Yu laughed, “It is still those words. There’s only an Overlord that dies in battle but not a Xiang Yu that surrenders.”

“Husband!”

When Yuji heard that, her eyes flushed red. One would pity her if they say this.

No one understood Xiang Yu as much as Yuji. She had so much she wanted to say, but she could not say a single word. Before, at the Wujiang river, she could kill herself. However, now that she was pregnant, she could not.

Xiang Yu smiled gently. Similarly, he understood his wife. He instructed, “Yuji, live well and raise our child.”

“Husband!”

Yuji teared up.

When Xiang Zhuang and the others heard that, they did not feel good in their hearts.

“Do not drag on. Take the chance to leave before the enemy gets to Peng City.”

Xiang Zhuang suddenly said, “Brother, I’ll stay with you!”

Xiang Yu raged and stood up, “Why will you stay? Great Xia has so many famous generals. For our family to rise, you need to take charge.”

“Yes.” Xiang Zhuang felt ashamed.

The matter was settled like that. Everyone kept their feelings and went to prepare.

…

That night, the core members of the Xiang Family brought all of their most valuable treasures of West Chu before boarding on carriages and heading east.

They reached the ocean when it was almost dawn.

There, the Black Shark was ready. The group of them took a glance at Peng City. Their hearts felt really complicated. They held back their tears as they boarded the submarine.

When Fan Zeng realised that the Xiang Family was missing, it was already the afternoon of the eigth day. When Di Chen heard that, he did not say anything and directly ordered them to attack Peng City.

“Where did the Xiang Family go?”

Di Chen was filled with confusion. Logically speaking, the entire Ludong Province was locked up by the Alliance Army, so there was no way someone could escape. The Xiang Family had many talents. Obviously, Di Chen did not want to let any of them go.

Whilst ordering the Alliance Army to attack Peng City, Di Chen ordered Difeng to search for the Xiang Family. Di Chen said, “If they are alive, I want to see them. If not, I want to see their bodies.”

In his eyes, these people probably hid in the mountains. It was also likely that Great Xia had helped them.

‘As long as they are not out of Ludong, I will dig three feet into the ground to find them.’ Di Chen thought to himself.

The Yanhuang Alliance did not attack West Chu for just the land. The talents of the Xiang Family were a really strong motivation.

Hence, how could Di Chen let them off easily?

…

The siege started in the 5th month, 9th day. The battle was shocking, and the rivers and mountains changed colors.

Xiang Yu carried his death wish. He led the Jiangdong warriors to fight for a full two days and two nights with the Alliance Army. Both sides went from fighting on the city wall to the alleys to the manor.

The entire Peng City was dyed in fresh blood like hell on earth.

The courage of the Overlord and the strength of the Jiangdong Warriors was really rarely seen on this earth. Despite facing four times their number, they were not at a disadvantage. They were like soldiers who did not know tiredness. Unless they died in battle, they were not going to back off.

After every battle, a batch of them would be lost. In the end, Xiang Yu was the only one left.

He stood in front of the manor with corpses lying all around him. Blood seeped onto the white Dali stone floor. Xiang Yu had long been covered in blood.

‘Drip! Drip! Drip!’

Since he had killed too many people, blood flowed down his halberd and onto the ground, forming a small puddle.

“Xiang Yu, you still will not surrender?”

Lianpo walked to the front to try to convince him for the last time.

For such a general to die like this was such a waste.

‘Scoff!’

Xiang Yu did not even bother to speak. He simply grabbed his halberd and charge forward.

“Kill him!”

Seeing this, Lianpo knew that any words were useless, and he could only be vicious.

“Kill!”

The elites of the Alliance Army got the order and surrounded him.

In the end, under the combined attacks of so many soldiers, Xiang Yu died. The soul of an Overlord returned to heaven, having no chance of reviving.

When Lianpo saw that, he could not help but sigh. At the same time, he was thankful.

From the start of the battle till now, although they had the numerical advantage, they had paid a huge price to take down West Chu. During this war alone, they lost a total of 80 thousand elites.

As for the Peng City battle, 40 thousand had died.

West Chu used such stunning achievements to strengthen their glory.

But that was only glory. At this point, West Chu was officially destroyed. In the entire wilderness, apart from the imperial city and the other races, there were no other West Chu NPCs.

The moment that Xiang Yu died, Yuji and the others had just arrived at Beihai Port. Although they arrived during the afternoon, a shooting star streaked across the sky, giving out an eye-catching glow.

Yuji was deep in thought, tearing up as she looked at the star.

“Husband!”

Under the immense pain, Yuji fainted and fell to the ground.

…

Throughout the entire China region, many people saw this shooting star.

Xia Palace.

Ouyang Shuo stood at the window of the Imperial Reading Room. Looking at the star, he muttered, “A mighty Lord falls just like that.”

If Xiang Yu was willing, Ouyang Shuo had enough heart to accept him and allow him to lead an army.

Unfortunately, the world does not work the way you want it to.

Handan City.

Di Chen similarly noticed it. He heaved a sigh of relief, “It’s finally done.” At this very moment, his merit point count had broken a million, and he became a duke.

A System Notification sounded out.

“World Notification: Congratulations China region Lord Di Chen for becoming the 3rd Lord in the world to become a duke, awarded title of Handan Lord, awarded 40 thousand reputation points. The imperial city will give you your reward.”

…

The moment the notification sounded out, the world was in an uproar.

Not one expected that China would take up two of the first three dukes.

William and the other Lords all felt anxious. All of them needed to use the upcoming country war to earn merit points to become a duke.

“We are too far behind!” William’s face was a little ugly.

One could foresee that after the country war month ended, the world would give birth to a bunch of dukes. Following which, there would be the birth of many dynasties.

The China region players were naturally happy, feeling that they had earned face. They did not worry about it. Along with Di Chen becoming a duke, the battle between the Yanhuang Alliance and Great Xia intensified.

Maybe this was a happy problem.

…

After all the hard work and schemes, Di Chen finally got what he wanted. With the foundations of Handan City, he would be able to get to Capital City really soon and start building the base to establish a dynasty.

The China region looked to be welcoming a really amazing era.

Di Chen was filled emotional when he got an emergency report from Lianpo.

After taking down Xiang Yu, Lianpo was in charge of taking over Peng City, and he had gone over to check the treasury and storages.

Lianpo searched all the major ones, including the manor secret room. Apart from grain and siege weapons, there was nothing else of value.

West Chu had been here in the wilderness for three years, so it was impossible that they did not have any treasures. Thinking back to the missing Xiang Family, the truth was obvious. They had taken it all away.

When Di Chen saw this, he was so furious that his face turned green, “Preposterous! Investigate! Even if you have to flip the entire province, find them.”

At this very moment, Juedai Fenghua hurried in.

Seeing that Di Chen was in a rage, Juedai Fenghua stopped.

When Di Chen saw that, he said in a low tone, “What bad news is there? Say it out. I can take it.”

Juedai Fenghua looked at Di Chen with sympathy, “Difeng just received the news that Xiang Yan and the others have appeared in Shanhai City, and they were received personally by the old fox.”

‘Pa!’

Di Chen snapped the pen in his hand into two.

The reading room was totally silence, as this was simply too huge of an impact for him. It was like Ouyang Shuo giving him a huge slap just as he was feeling delighted.

This pain totally pierced his heart.

“I want to know how they escaped. How does Difeng do things, are they rubbish? So many people, and they can just escape from under our noses?”

Di Chen’s tone was really cold like a freezing breeze, piercing one’s bones.

“This matter is weird. Difeng swears that they had set people at the border, and no one had left. Even the west was protected, so there’s no way they could escape.” Juedai Fenghua was filled with doubts.

“Did they grow wings and fly?” His words were filled with sarcasm. In his eyes, Difeng was shirking their responsibility.

Juedai Fenghua had other thoughts, “You should know how Difeng does things. They would not be careless about such a matter. Maybe they used some special tool like a teleportation talisman.”

The game was vast, and there were many different weird tools.

It would not be a surprise to really have such a tool.

When Di Chen heard that, his heart dripped blood. However, no matter how they did it, the outcome remained. The Yanhuang Alliance had paid a huge price to take down West Chu, giving up the entire Guanxi Province, but the spoils of war were stolen by Great Xia.

“I will definitely take revenge!”

Chapter 1023 - Xiang Yan Knowing His Place

Chapter 1023: Xiang Yan Knowing His Place

During this period of time, China experienced many changes.

First, China surprisingly took down Annan, while it made the China region people excited, it made ASEAN uneasy. Especially since Annan was connected to Nanzhang and Zhenla. They were really terrified and were afraid that Great Xia would swing their knives at them.

Following which, there was the Yanhuang Alliance’s attack on West Chu and the subsequent fall of Xiang Yu that caused the countrymen to debate. Next, it would be the sudden rise of Di Chen to duke, placing him in the spotlight.

At this very moment, the forums suddenly revealed that Xiang Yan, Yuji, and the others had appeared in Shanhai City. These successive matters dazzled everyone and made it hard for one to breathe.

…

Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

“Greetings, king!”

After settling down Yuji who had fainted, Xiang Yan and the others were led to meet Ouyang Shuo.

Whilst bowing, Xiang Yan, Xiang Liang, and Xiang Bo all looked normal. At least, one could not see that something was up. However, the younger generation’s Xiang Zhuang was unnatural. When he bowed, he was really stiff.

This was no wonder. After all, a few days ago, they were still the royal family of West Chu. In the blink of an eye, they had lost their country and became a bunch of homeless people.

The huge gap was one that was difficult for one to adapt to.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he did not mind it and said, “West Chu is allies with Great Xia, and Xiang Yu is someone I worship. I am really sad about what happened to West Chu. My condolences.”

When Xiang Yan and the others heard that, they were expressionless, “Thank you, king, for your concern. The Xiang Family was able to survive because of you. The Xiang Family will be loyal to Great Xia.”

The matter had already developed to this point, so Xiang Yan and the others could only recognize this truth and did not dare have any other thoughts. Not to mention that the soul of the family was dead. Even if Xiang Yu did not die, the entire wilderness did not have a place for the Xiang Family.

To rise up again was just a wish.

The current wilderness was not the same one as a few years ago. The battle between Lords were nearing its end, and the splitting up of the cake was all done.

Listening to Xiang Yan pledge his loyalty, Ouyang Shuo nodded his head in satisfaction. If the Xiang Family did not know their place and acted arrogant, although Ouyang Shuo would not banish them, he would at most ensure their wealth but would not give them high positions.

Settling their positions, Ouyang Shuo was not stingy and gave one huge mansion in the city to Xiang Yan as their home in Shanhai City.

Long ago, during the planning stages of Shanhai City, the construction department had followed Ouyang Shuo’s requirements and built official residential areas near the imperial city to reward ministers.

Every time a historical person moved over, regardless of whether it was a civil servant or a general, Ouyang Shuo would gift them a residence.

“Thank you my king!”

Xiang Yan bowed in thanks. His heart finally calmed down.

The current Shanhai City was no different from the imperial city, and in some areas, it exceeded an imperial city. Apart from space for defenses, there was no empty land.

Naturally, the Xiang Family did not lack money. However, to buy a mansion in Shanhai City was really difficult.

A residence in the golden area was something even money could not buy.

Great Xia was prosperous, and the civil servants and generals were all really hardworking. It was rare for people to be punished and demoted. Naturally, it would not be like capital cities of history where there were mansions emptied by sinners.

The only way would be to get one from Ouyang Shuo.

After thanking him, Xiang Yan knew his place and handed two treasures to Ouyang Shuo. Although they had fled Peng City in a hurry, the Xiang Family had brought all their treasures away.

Ouyang Shuo did not reject it and nodded.

At that point, the meeting came to an end. As for the appointments of Xiang Yan and the others, it would wait till the new round of military organization.

While they were talking, Xiang Yan and Xiang Zhuang expressed their desire to work in the military. Xiang Liang and Xiang Bo were not that passionate and wanted to focus on their family matters.

Ouyang Shuo did not mind, as Xiang Yan alone was enough.

Especially Xiang Bo, even if he wanted to work, Ouyang Shuo would not want him. This ‘legendary figure’ who saved Liu Bang during the Hongmen Feast after the Han Dynasty was established. He was granted the Liu surname and title.

Ouyang Shuo did not care about such a person.

As for the other people, they would either join the military or become civil servants. They would follow the usual procedures, and Ouyang Shuo would not need to personally make arrangements for them.

…

After sending away Xiang Yan and his group, Ouyang Shuo was filled with thoughts. Xiang Yu was still Xiang Yu. Even with a child about to be born, he was still unwilling to yield to others.

The two items on his table were the meeting gifts from Xiang Yan.

If the Xiang Family wanted to gain a footing in Great Xia, it would depend a lot on Ouyang Shuo’s attitude. Although Xiang Yan was a general, he had lived for so long and understood this theory after all.

The two items he gave Ouyang Shuo could be considered the two most precious items of the Xiang Family.

Golden armor talisman (platinum rank): after use, forms a golden protective aura around the body. All physical attacks are absolved, lasting for half an hour, can be used for a range of five thousand people.

Jiangdong Warrior summoning card (platinum rank): One time use item, after use, can summon 10 thousand Jiangdong Warriors, lasting for 12 hours.

If these two items were used well, they could have a miraculous effect. Ouyang Shuo kept both of them in his storage bag.

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

In the next few days, as the Annan situation stabilized, apart from the Dragon Legion Corps that was stationed there, the others returned to their own camps.

The Bear Legion Corps was the most special. It returned to Yunnan through the tunnel and went up north to Qiang Prefecture. Bear Legion Corps marshal Li Jing was already waiting for them there.

Workers would continue to excavate the tunnel, and it would become an important path connecting Annan Province to the mainland.

During the Battle of Annan, they had captured 480 thousand guards and 150 thousand territory troops. Deducting the injured and those that were not up to standard, there were 570 thousand soldiers awaiting organization.

Although the battle results were great, the Great Xia Army had suffered huge casualties. Including the navy, Great Xia’s army lost 150 thousand men, which was their largest lost in history.

Considering everything, after making up for the casualties, there were around 420 thousand available war prisoners.

How to organize this huge count of war prisoners became the main issue of the Privy Court that needed Ouyang Shuo to personally decide.

The rule of the organization was to look at what was lacking, and then see the strategic position.

Out of all the legion corps, the Guards Legion Corps had one legion lacking, while the Bear Legion Corps lacked three. Apart from that, the other legions were fully filled.

As for strategic position, it was whether Annan would have an Annan formation or not.

Ouyang Shuo decided that for this round of military organization, apart from filling up the three missing legions of the Bear Legion Corps, he would not fill the missing one on the Guards Legion Corps.

All the legion corps suffered casualties during this war, and the newly added members would weaken them to a certain extent. Hence, it would not be good if Ouyang Shuo made any big movements to form up the Guards Legion.

As for the remaining three legions, Ouyang Shuo placed them under the Annan formation.

Ouyang Shuo had his own reason for doing that. To control ASEAN, just taking down Annan was not enough. The next step would be to continue west to take down Nanzhang and Zhenla.

This was also the reason why Ouyang Shuo shifted the headquarters of the Dragon Legion Corps to the Annan Province.

Compared to the eight million players of Annan, Zhenla had 1.2 million, while Nanzhang had 600 thousand. Adding the two, they were not even a quarter of the number Annan had.

Hence, with Baiqi there, just the Dragon Legion Corps and Annan formation would be enough to sweep these two countries. They would not need the main camp to transport more soldiers over.

Transporting troops by the sea had a really high cost.

At this point, the benefit of taking down Annan was revealed. With this point, be it moving troops or logistical supplies, they could be solved by Annan.

With that alone, they would save millions of gold in military expenditure.

Apart from the reorganization, Ouyang Shuo ordered the establishment of the Xinan warzone. The commander would be Baiqi, and under it would be the Dragon Legion Corps and the Annan formation.

Like that, they had completed the adjustment of the structure. Ouyang Shuo gave Baiqi more power as a reward for his achievements in this battle.

After settling the organization plan, all appointments were released.

Xiang Yan would become the Legion General of the 3rd legion of the Bear Legion Corps. As a famous general of the Chu country, for him to become a Legion General right away was something no one had issues with.

Song Wu, who was the 1st division Major General of the Tiger Legion Corps 3rd legion, would be promoted to 4th legion Legion General of the Bear Legion Corps. He had spent a few years at the Major General position, and after careful consideration, Ouyang Shuo promoted him.

This was good news to the Song Family.

Lei Jingtian, who was the 1st division Major General of the Guards 1st legion, would be promoted to the 5th Legion General of the Bear Legion Corps. He had already became a King Rank general and became another Great General after Shihu

This promotion was because he truly had the ability, and it was also Ouyang Shuo taking care of the mountain barbarian tribe.

Xue Rengui, who was the deputy Legion General of the Guards Legion Corps 3rd legion, would be promoted to Annan Lieutenant General, a huge jump.

Pei Xingjian, who was also taking a temporary position in the Guards Legion Corps, was promoted to 1st Legion General of the Annan formation.

Annan surrendered General Le Loi was appointed as the 2nd Legion General.

Such an arrangement, apart from Le Loi himself being skilled, was made to calm down the civilians and war prisoners of Annan to show that Great Xia treated everyone equally.

Xiang Yu’s cousin Xiang Zhuang became the 3rd legion Legion General.

In historical records, Xiang Zhuang was not famous. Apart from appearing once in the Hongmen Feast, he was pretty much an invisible person, and his leadership ability was not that outstanding.

For him to become a Legion General was Ouyang Shuo taking care of the Xiang Family.

Chapter 1024 - Battle of Yashan

Chapter 1024: Battle of Yashan

Gaia 5th year, 5th month, 15th day, Xia Palace.

On this day, Ouyang Shuo’s pair of children were born. Based on the suggestions of the Cabinet, the boy was named Ouyang Yu. Since he was born 10 minutes earlier, he became the older brother. On the other hand, the girl was called Ouyang Luo, who was the younger sister.

ot h

The moment the news spread out, the officials all sent their congratulations.

Ouyang Shuo took this chance to announce the forgiving of crime. All Great Xia prisoners, as long as they did not commit one of the 10 deadly sins, would all be released to show the kindness of the king.

Wuji Hall.

Looking at the pair of white twins, Ouyang Shuo gave out a rare fatherly smile. His smile contained the nervousness of being a father and the joy of having children.

Be it Yu’er or Luo’er, they were both different from birth. Each one had a symbol on their right hand, one was a golden dragon, one was a fire phoenix.

When the court ladies saw that, they were all surprised beyond words.

The head court lady Zisu smiled, “The prince and the princess are dragons and phoenixes amongst men, born extraordinary.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “For the birth of my children, all the court ladies and maidservants have credit. Based on their grade, you will be awarded gifts.”

“Thank you king for the gifts!”

Zisu led the maidservants to thank him.

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand. Looking at his wife, who was lying on the bed, he smiled, “It has been hard on you, rest well. I’ll go to the front hall first and come back later.”

Song Jia gave out a warm smile, “Go get busy!”

…

Ouyang Shuo rushed to the front hal. Apart from accepting the congratulations, he also wanted to meet one person. This person was Hu Zongxian, who had rushed back from Hanoi to get his debrief.

10 days had passed since the Battle of Annan. Although the trauma from the war could not be wiped away, the chaos brought from it slowly calmed down.

As for how to rule the Annan Province, Hu Zongxian needed to personally report to Ouyang Shuo.

Apart from that, Hu Zongxian also brought a number of treasures. They were obtained from the imperial city treasury, and it even included the ones from Haiphong City.

Coincidentally, he made it in time for the birth of the king’s children, which was an auspicious sign. In the future period of time, each Provincial Governor would probably enter the city to congratulate the king.

The Cabinet would handle the tabulation of the goods, gold, and jewelry. Hu Zongxian Naturally, they did not bother Ouyang Shuo about the matter and presented him with two of the rarest items.

Thousand year ginseng (platinum): Top grade medicinal herb, can be used as a nourishing product.

Although the introduction was short, this was a truly rare item. Coincidentally, Song Jia had given birth and needed nourishment, so this ginseng came at the right time.

Diting Talisman: Can eavesdrops on the words of a specific position at a specific time.

Legends had it that Diting was the god beast under the care of Kṣitigarbha. Through listening, one could differentiate any living being, and it was good at listening to the thoughts of people.

This was pretty much an eavesdropping God Weapon that could be used at a crucial moment.

Putting away the two treasures from Hu Zongxian, Ouyang Shuo started to instruct him about the plan of Annan Province. The first thing he said excited Hu Zongxian, “Annan Province is only a transition, after taking down Zhenla and Nanzhang, they will be merged into one province known as the Hanoi Province.”

After pausing there, Ouyang Shuo said, “Zongxian, do well in Annan, do not let me down.” The meaning of his words was really obvious. The future Hanoi Provincial Governor belonged to Hu Zongxian.

If the three lands truly merged, Hanoi Province would, be it in terms of land size or strategic position, among the top three of all the provinces. The position of Hanoi Provincial Governor was naturally more important.

“I’ll work my heart out to thank you for your good grace!” Hu Zongxian nodded his head solemnly.

“Along with the tunnel between Annan and Yunnan, it’s the key to traffic between the mainland and ASEAN. You must pay attention to the cooperation with Yunnan Province and open up a merchant route.” Ouyang Shuo continued.

The tunnel linked Mengding Prefecture, and it stretched all the way to Gaoping Prefecture in Annan. As a result, this tunnel would be named the Menggao Tunnel. Be it Mengding Prefecture or Gaoping Prefecture, they were both mountain regions. To truly open up a free trade route would not be easy and would need large amounts of resources.

“In terms of finances, the Imperial Court will fully support you. Specific workings need the both of you to execute and work together.” Ouyang Shuo calmed Hu Zongxian down.

“Understood!”

Hu Zongxian showed no fear. He was a person who did what was asked of him, and he was not afraid of difficulties.

“Apart from that, Annan Province will play a role as a middleman to mediate the relationship between Great Xia and the ASEAN states, especially Johor and Siam. We must let them feel our sincerity and cannot let them join hands.”

Great Xia had no intentions to and could not possibly cause all the ASEAN states to bow down. If not, he would make enemies out of all of them.

On this point, Ouyang Shuo made it clear with Hu Zongxian in case friction started by accident.

Hu Zongxian noted it down as he heard it.

Apart from the above three points, the others were small details that would be handled by the Cabinet. Taking a step back, even if something was not mentioned, Hu Zongxian would need to improvise.

…

In the following two days, Ouyang Shuo received a flood of congratulations. Some of them personally came to Shanhai City like Li Jing and Xie Siyun, while some sent representatives like Feng Qiuhuang.

Most of them sent letters over like Blood Romance.

Of course, amongst the group that congratulated him, some held other thoughts. The guild leaders of the large guilds were interested in the Annan Satellite City.

As usual, Great Xia sold the guardian rights to the highest bidder and earned a huge sum.

Apart from drawing in the Satellite City guild, Ouyang Shuo attracted a batch of adventure gamemode players to move into Annan, spreading the Han Chinese culture over and expanding their influence.

All in all, Shanhai City was bustling with activity during these past few days.

At that very moment, a System Notification broke out.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Di Chen for becoming the 2nd Lord in the China region to upgrade to Capital City, awarded 90 thousand merit points. Congratulations!”

…

“World Notification: Congratulations China region player Di Chen for becoming the 3rd Lord in the world to upgrade to Capital City, awarded with 100 thousand merit points and 150 thousand reputation points. Congratulations!”

…

The moment the notification spread out, Di Chen stole the spotlight.

In just 10 days, Di Chen had completed the Capital City upgrade mmission. Just as everyone was amazed at their speed, another notification sounded out, catching everyone off guard.

“System Notification: The China Region has given birth to its second Capital City, 9th Battle Map, Battle of Yashan, will start in three days. Friendly Reminder: This is not a forced Battle Map, so only those who have upgraded to Grade 3 Prefecture are qualified to join.”

…

It was already the 5th month, 17th day, and the country war month was about to arrive. Who knew that the Battle Map would suddenly be triggered? This change caught even Di Chen off guard.

“Gaia really does what it wants!”

Ouyang Shuo, who was welcoming visiting guests, shook his head helplessly.

For this battle specifically, there were many parts of contention. Strictly speaking, it was not a large scale or dazzling battle.

In some sense, there was nothing interesting about it.

Since that was the case, why would Gaia choose it as the most representative Battle of the Song Dynasty? After all, this concerned the passing down of Chinese civilization.

Battle of Yashan? Also known as the ocean Battle of Yashan, this battle happened in 1279 AD. The Song Dynasty army and the Mongol army had a large scale naval battle in Yashan. It was a rarely seen naval battle in ancient Chinese history.

As this battle directly concerned the survival of South Song, it was also the final battle between Song and Yuan.

The result was that the Yuan army won whilst being outnumbered. When South Song was wiped out, Lu Xiufu carried the young emperor Zhao Bing and jumped into the ocean to commit suicide. Many loyal officials died with them as well, along with 100 thousand troops and civilians.

After this battle, the Zhao Song Dynasty totally collapsed. At the same time, it meant that Yuan had unified China.

At this point, this was the first time China was conquered by the northern nomadic tribe.

The destruction of South Song was not a simple changing of dynasty but the wiping out of an entire country, signaling the end of ancient China. Some people felt that this battle signified the weakening and fall of Chinese civilization.

The Battle of Yashan caused Chinese civilization, which had survived for thousands of years, to stop. As a result, it had long and wide implications. The following Ming and Qing Dynasties also became largely different.

The destruction of the Song Dynasty caused their first try at changing from an agricultural society to a business society to fail. It was because the Song Dynasty tried this that their military power became weak.

Along with the destruction of South Song, the progress of China was halted. The once highly advanced economy, culture, technology, and the like were restricted by the emperor and the political structure and the like were all affect. The backward Mongol people of the Yuan Dynasty started to consolidate their power, closing borders and reducing trade. They started to focus on Neo-Confucianism. Following which, the Ming Dynasty that usurped them chose to seal themselves off.

Such a deep influence meant that the Battle of Yashan was destined for the history books.

It was not difficult to understand why Gaia chose this battle. Similarly, the Battle of Yashan could not be considered a legendary battle, so Gaia would probably have its own considerations.

Maybe the Battle of Yashan in the game would be a newly interpreted version.

As for what it was specifically, they would only know after the battle began. Before it started, it would only cause confusion for Lords like Ouyang Shuo, including the choice of camp and choice of troop type.

Maybe Gaia would set up enemy camps in this battle? Or similar to the Battle of Mobei, it would place all the Lords in the same camp?

Will the main battlefield be on land or will it be a naval battle like in history?

All these uncertain factors meant that this was destined to be a really interesting Battle Map.

Chapter 1025 - Three Heroes of Later Song

Chapter 1025: Three Heroes of Later Song

In the blink of an eye, it was already the 5th month, 19th day, and it was time for the Battle of Yashan.

As Ouyang Shuo was not exactly sure about the battle, for the 100 thousand troops he sent out, Ouyang Shuo chose the Emperor Squadron, the only infantry and cavalry mixed legion-the Guards Legion Corps 4th legion, and the three thousand Divine Martial Guards.

Compared to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd legions of the Guards Legion Corps who had gone through successive tough battles, in the Battle of Annan, the 4th legion followed Baiqi to directly take down Hanoi. During the process, they did not suffer many casualties, and they did not even have to fight much and the battle had ended.

Along with the fact that they were a mixed legion, it made them a lot more adaptive, which was why Ouyang Shuo chose them for this Battle Map.

At 9 AM, the System Notification sounded out punctually.

“System Notification: 1279 AD, the Mongol army went down south to wipe out Song. After taking down South Song Capital City Lin’an, they continued south to wipe out the remaining South Song forces. Both sides had their finally battle at Yashan, ending with the total destruction of South Song. 9th Battle Map – Battle of Yashan, officially begins!”

Checking battle requirements, selecting troops…

“System Notification: Battle of Yashan, player forces automatically listed as South Song camp, no need to choose.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded; he was already mentally prepared for that.

“System Notification: Teleportation start?”

After a short while of twisting and turning, Ouyang Shuo and his men appeared on the battlefield.

“System Notification: Welcome player Qiyue Wuqi to South Song camp Lin’an.”

“Lin’an?”

Ouyang Shuo was instantly stunned. How could it be Lin’an? During the Battle of Yashan, it had long since fell, so what was Gaia doing with this Battle Map?

Very quickly, Ouyang Shuo had his answer.

At this very moment, a notification sounded out.

“Battle Map Notification: Battle of Yashan is listed as a time limit city defense battle. It has nothing to do with real history. Players need to defend Lin’an for a month from the Mongol army attacks to win. If one succeeds, one will obtain great rewards. If not, all battle contribution points will be removed.”

“Vicious!”

Gaia was trying to force their hands and push their backs against the wall. They were only allowed to win and could not lose.

If they failed, they would not even earn a single battle contribution point, much less any rewards. The soldiers they lost naturally could not be revived.

The part that made Ouyang Shuo depressed was that since it was a time limit defense battle, the Emperor Squadron he brought was useless and could only do nothing in the nearby ocean region.

Ouyang Shuo temporarily suppressed his thoughts. Looking around, he found that the location they appeared in was not the outer city camps like in previous city maps. Instead, they appeared within Lin’an city.

Did this mean that the Mongol army had already arrived?

In history, Lin’an surrendered without putting up a fight.

“Battle Map Notification: Battle of Yashan has a total of six Lords participating, a total of 400 thousand troops. Based on rank and merit points, the player representative is Qiyue Wuyi, prince.”

…

Since there was only one camp, the Shanhai Alliance and the Yanhuang Alliance had to work together this time. On the military side, Ouyang Shuo and Di Chen each brought 100 thousand troops.

The other four all brought 50 thousand. In terms of military strength, the Yanhuang Alliance still had an advantage.

Luckily, Ouyang Shuo was the player representative.

Compared to the An Lushan rebellion, there were two less Lords – Wandering Magic and Sha Pojun were both gone, making the battle a little colder. If nothing went wrong, the next Battle Map would only have two to three Lords.

The training that a Battle Map could provide to a Lord was greatly reducing, and to a larger extent, it was to lead another dynasty into the wilderness to complete the entire historical timeline.

The two sides of the Battle of Yashan, one was South Song, while the other was Mongol Yuan. Who knows whether Gaia would allow them both to enter the wilderness progression or not.

Perhaps, the next Battle Map would be the Yuan Dynasty.

If it were the first case, the China Region would only be left with the Ming and Qing Dynasty Battle Maps. Just like that, they were about to zoom past five thousand years of history.

…

Whilst registering, Ouyang Shuo saw Di Chen and his group.

In the Battle of West Chu that had just ended, Ouyang Shuo had conned the Yanhuang Alliance twice, causing Di Chen to hate Ouyang Shuo to the bone.

As they say, ‘When enemies come face to face, their eyes blaze with hate.’

Although they were in the same camp, Di Chen did not treat Ouyang Shuo courteously.

Looking at the expressions of Di Chen and the others, Feng Qiuhuang walked over from behind Ouyang Shuo. Although the Yanhuang Alliance had 100 thousand more troops than them, Feng Qiuhuang was not afraid.

Following behind her was the Great Tang famous general, Guo Ziyi.

This slowly formed into a faceoff between both parties, making the atmosphere a little tense. Ouyang Shuo did not want to have a war of words and was about to leave. At this very moment, Xiong Ba suddenly spoke, “Brother Ouyang, how have you been?”

Since they were going to be fighting on the same side, Xiong Ba, who was a formidable character, did not want the relationship between the two sides to be so tense, which would affect the battle.

Furthermore, Ouyang Shuo was the player representative. Without him passing the message, it would be even tougher for the Yanhuang Alliance in this battle.

Similar to Great Xia, Handan City, Blood Red City, and King City had all brought their navies, which would all be useless.

Before the Battle Map had even begun, 60 thousand player troops of the South Song Camp had already ‘died’.

As a result, they had to work together.

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo cupped his fists and greeted Xiong Ba. He did not wish to have any internal conflict in the Battle Map because that had no style.

When Xiong Ba saw that, his smile grew wider. He was delighted that Ouyang Shuo was showing him face and purposely joked, “Brother Ouyang is not kind, picking the peach in West Chu and taking away the beauty Yuji!”

This was where Xiong Ba was smart.

The Battle of West Chu was crucial to both sides. He was not trying to pour salt onto Di Chen’s wounds. Rather, he wanted to lightly thread across the topic such that it would not affect the cooperation between their sides.

Not mentioning it showed that they actually cared about it in their hearts.

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo looked at him with praise, and his face suddenly showed a smile, “No choice, Yuji’s maiden home is Great Xia.”

When Di Chen and the others heard that, they were speechless, as they had never seen such a thick-skinned person. Even if he wanted to find a reason, he should find a more logical one, “Maiden home? What bullshit!”

Luckily, with such an icebreaker, the relationship between the two sides warmed up. Di Chen and the others did not continue to have that look and greeted Ouyang Shuo and Feng Qiuhuang warmly.

Of course, that was the end of it.

To make both sides working together sincerely was impossible. Not mentioning the Battle Map, but even during the counter war, the Yanhuang Alliance was not going to listen to Ouyang Shuo, this country war leader.

The best situation would be for them to each focus on a side.

Ouyang Shuo was not willing to stay for long. He said to Xiong Ba, “The situation is uncertain. Once I meet the Song Dynasty emperor, I need Brother Xiong to come over to discuss matters.”

“Obedience is better than politeness!”

Xiong Ba was delighted. He had done so much just to hear those words.

…

The place where the players landed in was a small military barracks in the west of the city where the Song Guards lived in. After Gaia changed it, it became a super barracks that could fit 450 thousand troops.

Settling his troops, Ouyang Shuo led the Personal Guards. Under the lead of a South Song soldier, they went toward the palace to meet the emperor.

In history, the one that took charge of Lin’an was Zhao Xian, but Ouyang Shuo learned that Gaia had changed the entire history.

The current emperor was the one that died together with Lu Xiufu – Zhao Bing.

Assisting Zhao Bing were the famous three heroes of later Song, Lu Xiufu, Zhang Shijie, and Wen Tianxiang. Apart from that, there were 100 thousand Song troops in the city; these were the last military force of South Song.

It seemed like defending would not be that hard.

However, Ouyang Shuo did not dare let his guard down. Since the situation with the defending troops had changed, the situation with the attacking ones definitely did too. Gaia would not let them complete the mission so easily.

Palace, Qinzheng Hall.

“Player Qiyue Wuyi greets your majesty!”

Under the leadership of an official, Ouyang Shuo finally saw Zhao Bing. The young emperor who was only eight displayed a fierce demeanor. However, his eyes could not help but reveal fear and unease.

Especially in front of Ouyang Shuo, who was a true ruler. Zhao Bing did not know what to do.

Obviously, this small emperor would not be the one making decisions. The real decision makers were the three heroes.

Out of them, Lu Xiufu was a civil servant, whike Zhang Shijie and Wen Tianxiang were generals. During the Battle of Yashan in history, the three of them had different experiences.

Lu Xiufu did not need to be mentioned. After they lost the battle, he carried the emperor and jumped into the ocean.

During the Battle of Yashan, at the final moments, Zhang Shijie hoped that as long as people survived, they could rise up once more. He led his troops to get out of the encirclement but met a storm and died from it.

The most tragic one was Wen Tianxiang.

Before the Battle of Yashan, he was captured and was escorted to Yashan by Mongol general Zhang Hongfan, who wanted Wen Tianxiang to write a letter to ask Zhang Shijie to surrender.

On the Mongol warship, Wen Tianxiang looked at the Song Army being destroyed by the Mongol army, and it was like his heart was being cut apart by a blade. He hated himself for being weak and getting defeated, causing the defeat of the dynasty.

It was at that moment that Wen Tianxiang wrote the famous ‘Crossing Linding Ocean’.

I’ve taken pains reading classics to be an official,

Four bleak years have been spent in thick battles.

Our land is broken like catkins drifting in the wind,

I roam here and there as duckweed buffeted by the rain.

How panic-stricken I was retreating before the Tartars!

Being a captive, I lamented over my solitary confinement.

Who can avert his death since time immemorial?

Let my heart remain true to shine in the annals.

After the Battle of Yashan ended, Wen Tianxiang was sent to Yanjing. Although he was asked to surrender many times, in the end, he chose to kill himself at only 47 years of age.

Looking at the three heroes of later Song standing there, Ouyang Shuo was filled with emotion.

Chapter 1026 - When the Ruler Is Young, the Country Is in Doubt

After exchanging greetings, Zhang Shijie explained the Mongol army situation to Ouyang Shuo.

The more he heard, the blacker his face turned.

“Gaia is finding trouble with us!”

In history, the main general attacking South Song was Boyan, Zhang Hongfan when one talked about the Battle of Yashan. Talking about Zhang Hongfan, he was a person who had a lot of controversy around him.

His father, Zhang Rou, was a Chinese person who lived in Jin Country. He was also a strong local hegemon, fighting head to head against the Mongol army before losing and joining them.

Zhang Rou was 19 when Zhang Hongfan was born. At that point, Jin Country was destroyed for four years. Hence, Zhang Hongfan was a Chinese person who grew up under Mongol rule.

Due to such a childhood, for him to become a Mongol general was understandable. However, he was the main general of the Mongol army in the Battle of Yashan, and he could be considered the one that destroyed South Song.

Since he had the blood of the Chinese in his veins, he was naturally blamed in history and humiliated.

Due to the huge damage that the Battle of Yashan caused to Chinese civilization, Ouyang Shuo did not have a good impression of Zhang Hongfan. If they met on the battlefield, he would definitely kill him.

In the Battle Map, apart from them, the huge boss of the Mongol Yuan army, Kublai Khan, also came, making this totally different from history.

Who was Kublai Khan? He was the emperor who started the Yuan dynasty. Speaking about this, one had to mention the experiences of this Mongol Kehan as well as the changes from the Mongol Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty.

After the death of Genghis Khan, the third Son Ögedei Khan became the ruler, while the fourth Son Tolui was in charge of 80% of the Mongol army.

Genghis Khan’s arrangements would result in the splitting of the Mongol Empire. While Ögedei Khan was in rule, to reduce problems, he assassinated Tolui in secret.

After Ögedei Khan’s death, his eldest son, Guyuk, took over. However, he was unskilled and died after three years of being in power. Tolui’s eldest son, Mongke, rose up in power and stole the position of ruler.

Since then, the Tolui family had been in control of the position of ruler until the destruction of the Yuan Dynasty.

Mongke was an amazing figure, and the Europeans termed him as the whip of god. When he was in power, he launched the third Mongol invasion toward the west, and the land he took over was even more than his grandfather, Genghis Khan.

Helplessly, he did not have a good life. While he was attacking South Song together with his brother Kublai Khan, he died. Not only did this cause a five year battle for succession between Kublai Khan and Ariq Böke, but it also caused the west conquering mission of the Mongols to stop.

At this point, the army was already at the Mediterranean and were preparing to attack Egypt. If it were not for the sudden death of Mongke, the entire history of the world would probably be changed.

The entire history of Europe would also be greatly different.

Kublai Khan was able to win in the battle because of the Han officials under him, which was because of the Confucian influence that gave birth to the Yuan Dynasty.

This siege battle would be personally led by him, and it would definitely be a bloody battle.

If one added in the South Song Guards, the South Song camp had a total of 460 thousand troops. However, the Mongol army actually reached a million strong and that did not include war prisoner forces.

Such a huge army naturally could not all be housed outside of the city. With Lin’an city as the core, the Mongols set up frontline barracks in the nearby six cities and surrounded Lin’an city.

Apart from Lin’an city, the entirety of China was taken down by the Mongols, and they had enough grain to support their million strong army. The Lin’an city troops were the ones with problems. Based on Lu Xiufu’s calculations, if one considered the player forces, even if they used it sparingly, the grain within the city would only be enough to last for 20 days.

After which, they would have to think of other plans.

In history, there were many famous city defense stories. The reason why the defending troops were able to survive for many months was often not because of the amount of grain they had piled up but because they were able to find other food sources.

What sources were there?

It was actually really sensational.

When the city lacked grain, the first to suffer were the warhorses. Anyways, they would not be able to charge out, so they became the sacrifices.

After eating the horses, leather armor would be next.

That’s right. Leather armor. The soldiers would cut them into strips and cook them in the pot. As they were made using animal skin, they could barely be considered a food source.

Apart from that, there were belts, leather boots, and even bows. Anything made from animals were turned into food.

After that? Well they could only eat people starting from the sick, and then the normal civilians…

All in all, when the defending troops reached a desperate situation, there was nothing they would not eat. There were no morals and no humanity, all of which were tossed aside.

In China’s history, cannibalism was not a rare matter.

As for the Battle of Lin’an, Gaia was a cheat. It set the defense period to a month, but the grain in the city could not last for a month.

The only way would be to use attack as a form of defense, striking out and searching for grain outside. If they did that, the entire battle would become tougher.

The part that gave Ouyang Shuo a headache was that from the words of Lu Xiufu, although he could see that the players had the absolute numerical advantage, they did not want to give up power.

At the very least, the 100 thousand South Song Guards would not be controlled by Ouyang Shuo.

If the three of them did not want to cooperate, it would create a lot of problems for Ouyang Shuo. Obviously, he could learn from the coup in the An Lushan rebellion and take over power.

However, if he really did that, the situation might get worse.

A coup worked in Chang An because Li Longji was there, and there were many princes to choose from.

What did Lin’an have?

Apart from Zhao Bing, the Zhao royal family did not have anyone else.

If Ouyang Shuo truly did something like that, he might anger the three of them, and in the end, nothing would be achieved. At the very least, calming the people, recruiting laborers, and gathering grain could not be done without the help of the civil servants.

This was the Battle Map, so Ouyang Shuo did not bring any civil servants over. Even if he did, it would be useless because they could not do anything much in a month.

In the end, without their cooperation, they stood no chance in the Battle of Lin’an.

Thinking about which, Ouyang Shuo could only agree. As long as they did not raise any insane demands, as long as he could do it, he would try to.

Luckily, their interests aligned, and they had the foundations to cooperate with one another.

After probing one another, Lu Xiufu suggested they set up a temporary Grand Council to be the commanding organization to take over all political and administrative matters of Lin’an.

Lu Xiufu, Zhang Shijie, and Wen Tianxiang were naturally included. Ouyang Shuo as the player representative was also included. If not, there would be no point in setting up this Grand Council.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo being so cooperative, Lu Xiufu naturally knew how to repay the kindness, allowing him to add one more Lord and two generals to the discussion.

Only then did Ouyang Shuo feel more comfortable.

Thinking about it, for the choice of Lord, Ouyang Shuo selected Xiong Ba. Of course, he could have selected Feng Qiuhuang and increased his speaking rights in the council, but what would be the point of that?

The Battle of Lin’an needed the participation of the Yanhuang Alliance.

As for why Xiong Ba and not the newly appointed speaker of the Yanhuang Alliance, Di Chen, there was no complicated reason. It was just that Ouyang Shuo was not used to seeing his face.

One viewed him as an enemy, while the other took the initiative to strike up a conversation; it was an obvious choice.

As for the choice of general, this was a complicated one. Out of all the troops in Great Xia, the Zhou Yu led Emperor Squadron was not even here, and Er’Lai was not the material.

As for Xu Chu, he was the same as Er’Lai.

On the contrary, Jia Xu, who followed along this time, was a good choice. During the An Lushan rebellion, Ouyang Shuo brought along Pang Tong, which could be said as him giving the latter a chance. However, in the end, in terms of military strategists, Ouyang Shuo preferred Jia Xu.

Helplessly, he was a strategist and could not enter the Grand Council.

Ouyang Shuo could only ask Feng Qiuhuang to let Guo Ziyi enter and leave the other spot to the Yanhuang Alliance.

After spending such a long time on the throne of Great Xia, Ouyang Shuo was becoming more and more magnanimous. He knew how to act at various occasions and would not be so petty as to create problems for the Yanhuang Alliance.

If he really wanted to, he would do so in the wilderness and not in the Battle Map. If he really did so, he would cause Di Chen and the others to look down on him and lower his own style and standard.

After discussing everything, Ouyang Shuo left.

During the entire process, the little emperor Zhao Bing sat on the seat and did not say a word. He was a total puppet.

…

Returning from the palace to the barracks, Ouyang Shuo immediately met up with Xiong Ba and told him about the intel and the Grand Council.

When Xiong Ba heard it, he was filled with respect, “I respect your magnanimity. Do not worry, I’ll coordinate the Alliance Army to follow orders from the Grand Council.”

“Thank you for your help!”

Ouyang Shuo smiled as he cupped his fist.

Following which, Xiong Ba talked about the situation they understood.

Whilst Ouyang Shuo was in the palace, Xiong Ba and the others went around the city to understand the situation.

The most worrying aspect was the unsettled people.

Why?

The Mongol army had a tradition, which was enough to terrify the people. When they sieged a place, if the defending side showed signs of resisting, after they broke through, they would massacre the city.

Be it when they went west or down south, they did the same.

After which, they would throw the bodies into the water. Millions of bodies would be thrown into the river or branches of the river, totally dirtying the water. The Mongols would also leave hundreds of survivors to spread the horror.

Before surrounding Lin’an, the Mongol army had wiped out many cities.

Hence, how could the civilians not be afraid?

Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo suddenly said, “I have a good idea to calm the people down.”

Chapter 1027 - South Song Is Weak? No!

“What idea?” Xiong Ba asked.

Ouyang Shuo smiled but did not say anything, avoiding the question.

Seeing that, Xiong Ba did not continue asking and said, “Apart from the instability, there’s also another troubling matter. There are many Mongol spies within the city, and it is hard for us to plan without the enemy knowing.”

Since the past till now, China was filled with many country traitors and spies.

The Mongol Empire and their overbearing aura has already swept up Lin’an city, so it was not surprising if the nobles were tempted. Whether it be to continue their family line or for prosperity and riches, they would become the lackey of the Mongols.

Especially aristocratic families, to them, the country could die but not the family. To ensure the survival of their family, they were willing to do anything.

The Battle of Lin’an in history where South Song surrendered without fighting showed this problem.

Furthermore, this time, Kublai Khan was the one personally leading the Mongols.

“We cannot do anything about that.” Ouyang Shuo shook his head bitterly, “We are only outsiders, so to wipe the spies out is impossible. We can only strengthen our wariness.”

Toward the South Song Imperial Court, Ouyang Shuo had no hopes.

If they wanted to openly wipe out the spies, not only would it terrify everyone and affect battle preparations, but it might even alert them and cause the spies to hide even deeper.

Xiong Ba nodded, expressing his agreement.

…

Walking out of Ouyang Shuo’s tent, Xiong Ba did not return to his but instead went to Di Chen’s.

Not only Di Chen, but Zhan Lang and Chun Shenjun were also here.

Listening to Xiong Ba’s description, the expressions of Di Chen and the others were all different. Chun Shenjun said suggestively, “Xiong Ba, you really are something, getting so close to the old fox right away.”

Even Di Chen, when he heard that it was Xiong Ba who was asked to join the Grand Council, could not help but feel his heart sink.

When Xiong Ba saw that, he gave a causal smile, “Brother Ouyang is willing to treat me well. Obviously, I will not seek personal gain shamelessly.”

Xiong Ba’s words were a diss to Chin Shenjun.

Chun Shenjun was a person who cared a lot about face, so how would he take the provocation? As such, he said, “Wow, this is new. The old fox tosses out a bone and someone starts to call him brother. Do you still know what your surname is?”

“You!”

Xiong Ba was furious.

When Zhan Lang saw that, not caring about the thoughts he had in his heart, he stepped out to be the mediator, “Stop fighting, stop being a joke. Now, we should discuss which general to select to entire the Grand Council.”

For the Battle of Yashan, Di Chen brought Lianpo, Xiong Ba brought Wuqi, and Zhan Lang brought Zhao Zhuang. These were all the top general under their care. Only Chun Shenjun did not bring Tiandan over. Instead, he brought a normal general with him.

In terms of ability, naturally Wuqi should be the one.

However, Xiong Ba was already in it, and if they let Wuqi go, that would be bad. Luckily, Xiong Ba understood the situation and was not going to quarrel with Di Chen, “Let Lianpo go. He’s the most experienced and is the most suitable.”

When Di Chen saw that, his expression relaxed as he nodded in agreement.

…

On the way back, Zhan Lang could not help but shake his head.

During the meeting, Zhan Lang could feel an obvious coldness. In less than five years, the once eye-catching and stellar Yanhuang Alliance was being picked apart by Ouyang Shuo.

Although the Yanhuang Alliance had its defensive measures, if one of Chun Shenjun or Xiong Ba fell, the situation of Yanhuang Alliance would be horrendous.

In comparison, the faction’s workings were really backward.

‘Who knows what that old man is thinking.’ Zhan Lang could not help but sigh. The long period of being undercover made him really uncomfortable because it was not his style.

…

Sunny morning.

The Grand Council set up within the city held its first meeting.

For this meeting, it was mainly to set up the defensive regions of each group. Lin’an had four sides of city walls, a total of 12 gates, big and small. Which troops would defend which portion needed to be planned beforehand.

It was impossible to make the 340 thousand player forces all squeeze into one area because that was not practical.

The city defense army could be split into three groups. First, there was the South Song army. Secondly, there was the Yanhuang Alliance, whose strength was the greatest

Ouyang Shuo and Feng Qiuhuang formed the third group. Due to the considerable ability of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps, their ability was insane too.

The 100 thousand Song Guards were the weakest. As for how much ability they had in front of the Mongol army, it was still a question mark.

As for Zhang Shijie and Wen Tianxiang, these two people, it was not that Ouyang Shuo looked down on them. However, if they were not in such a special era, in terms of military commanding, they were not even among the top 100 in China.

Wen Tianxiang did not need to be mentioned. He was only famous because of the love from the people. Zhang Shijie also fell for trick after trick in the Battle of Yashan and let Zhang Hongfan win really easily.

Although the three heroes suffered tragic fates, behind the tragedy was a cruel fact. The so-called ‘tough times create heroes’ described such a situation.

Helplessly, Lin’an was the main battlefield of the Song army. They had the home ground advantage, so they were able to stand on the same level as the other two groups. These three factions formed a triangle, with no one being able to suppress the others.

The Grand Council itself was the outcome of everyone compromising.

The only thing that was bad for the players apart from the navy being useless was that both the Shanhai Alliance and the Yanhuang Alliance had brought half cavalry forces.

This was unavoidable.

Before the start of the battle, everyone thought that they were going to have a head on confrontation against the Mongol army. Who knew that Gaia would pull this trick out of the book?

On the contrary, the 100 thousand Song Guards were all infantry.

The outside world had a misunderstanding of South Song, thinking that it was useless and either bullied by the Jin Country or the Mongols.

Such a South Song Army should definitely be a weak one.

The truth was far from that.

During that special period, the Mongol iron cavalry were simply not human. Not only did they wipe out Jin Country, but they also wiped out West Xia and Dali. They even caused damage in Europe.

During that period of time, on a global scale, no one could stop the Mongol cavalry.

“Apart from South Song!”

South Song was not only the last country to be conquered, but they were the ones that caused the most problems for the Mongols. Even Mongke died while attacking South Song.

Since they could survive for 150 years under the threat of Jin Country and the Mongols, if one said that such a South Song was weak, it would not make any sense.

The biggest tragedy of South Song would be to exist in such a horrible time. First, there was the strong Jin Country and then the Mongols. Each enemy went down south, so how could they not lose?

Although the South Song did not know much about attacking, in terms of defending, they were the most advanced force in the world.

Not mentioning other aspects, but just the defensive weapons including their arcuballistas were top class. Especially the famous three bow arcuballista with its high technology. It was something other countries could not comprehend.

Hence, in this battle, if the Song Guards could maintain their morale and not be psychologically affected, they would perform well.

This all depended on the ability of Zhao Shijie and Wen Tianxiang.

…

As each side was fighting for themselves, they might impede one another. As such, Ouyang Shuo suggested such an arrangement.

For the north city wall, the Guards Legion Corps 4th legion would work with the Fallen Phoenix City forces. A total of 120 thousand would defend there. Guo Ziyi would be the north general and Er’Lai would be the deputy.

It was said that Kublai Khan’s golden flag was set up at the north outskirts, which was why the north would face the most pressure. Ouyang Shuo took it upon himself to defend it.

For the south, the 100 thousand Song Guards would defend it. They were led by Zhang Shijie as the main general and Wen Tianxiang as the deputy.

For the east and west sides, the Yanhuang Alliance’s 210 thousand troops would defend it. The specific arrangements were Di Chen and Chun Shenjun defending the west with Lianpo as the main general. On the other hand, Xiong Ba and Zhan Lang would be on the east with Wuqi as the main general. To equal out the numbers, Chun Shenjun’s forces would split into half.

Above the four main generals was the Grand Council that was in charge of commanding. Ouyang Shuo suggested they let Jia Xu enter to be the strategist. Of course, he could only suggest and could not make decisions.

Hence, the entire commanding structure was established.

The discussions were settled, so the armies started working. As for the specifics on how to defend, the four main generals were in charge.

With the north as an example, Guo Ziyi planned to set up a command center near the north wall. Within a radius of 500 meters from the 10 mile wall, no matter if it were civilians, ships, or structures, they would all be used by the army.

Those structures would either be demolished or improvised into armories, pharmacies, support huts, and the like. Every mile, there would be a barracks for 10 thousand soldiers.

Only then were they able to accommodate 120 thousand troops.

The remaining three sides basically followed a similar arrangement. As they were on the brink of a large war and needed to have a large scale ‘remodelling activity’, the whole thing was led by Lu Xiufu.

Such work was never easy, much less one on such a large scale. It all depended on how Lu Xiufu was going to arrange it.

Apart from that, the Grand Council connected the offices to the four command centers to make it easier to move grain and laborers.

As the people in Lin’an city were unsettled, when the war started, they might do something funny. The four armies were in charge of not only the city walls but the city region too.

Apart from guarding the city gates, the four armies also had another duty, which was to maintain the law and order of their zone. The bailiffs alone could not handle the unsettled people. At the crucial moment, they still needed the military to help.

When the dust settled, it was basically the 5th day of the Battle Map. During which, there were some small problems that were caused by the demolishing of houses and buildings.

Chapter 1028 - Most Barbaric Siege

Chapter 1028: Most Barbaric Siege

Since taking charge of the demolition work, Lu Xiufu had had his hands full.

People caring about their homes was to be as expected. Even during war time, to make them move away from the house that they had stayed in for their entire life was a really difficult matter.

After the meeting ended, Lu Xiufu sent out a notification about the demolition.

Many years of war had caused the people to shift away or suffer heavy casualties, and even the Capital City Lin’an had many empty houses. Hence, the civilians that moved away did not need to worry about not having a house to live in.

Even so, those that moved away friendlily were rare, which made Lu Xiufu really anxious.

The demolition and relocation was the first step to settling down the defending troops and needed to be done quickly. When Ouyang Shuo got the news, he immediately suggested two ideas to Lu Xiufu.

First, tell the civilians that lived near the city wall that the Mongol army brought large amounts of cannons that could directly shoot into the city walls. If one did not want to become collateral damage, they should just move away.

During the third Mongol west conquering mission, they brought back many eastern region artisans, and to a certain extent, this caused the Mongol weapon equipment to become renewed. The cannons were one of the few.

Western Cannon or the Xiangyang Cannon was a new kind of trebuchet.

Such a trebuchet was designed by the Hui people. Based on the foundations of the old trebuchet, it was improved and redesigned, causing its strength to increase.

In the Song Yuan Xiangyang battle, the Xiangyang Cannon showed its strength and broke apart the thick city walls of Xiangyang, helping the Mongol army to finally take down Xiangyang. This battle was how it got its name.

Secondly, he suggested they directly act upon the stubborn people and use the military to forcefully demolish the buildings, not showing any mercy at all.

At desperate times, one needed to take desperate measures. Lu Xiufu was a civil servant, and he liked to do things the civil servant way. On the other hand, Ouyang Shuo was a typical utilitarian. He would use whatever method was the most efficient.

As expected, upon hearing about the power of the Xiangyang Cannon, those civilians that stayed near the city walls ran faster than rabbits. Not only those within 500 meters, but even those further than that all fled.

This was the civilians’ group mentality.

After the civilians fled, a large-scale remodeling started, and it lasted for a few days. Weirdly, during these few days, the Mongol army was really quiet, and they did not make a sound.

Just as the troops got into place, Lin’an city had a rumor that was spreading.

It said that the Mongol army was really brutal and massacred civilians. For this, the jade emperor of the heavens sent soldiers from heaven to help the Imperial Court fight against the Mongol army.

Some civilians staying near the city west camp swore that on one day, the sky changed color, only to see a white light shine across and 400 thousand soldiers from heaven appeared.

As many people had seen this, naturally more and more people believed it. Even many soldiers in the barracks were discussing it and believed it with zero doubt.

Along with the recent changes to the defenses on all four sides, the civilians could easily see that they were wearing different armor from the Song Army, which made the civilians believe the rumors more.

Everyone slowly trusted the rumor of soldiers from heaven.

At this very moment, the Imperial Court sent a decree to give player Ouyang Shuo the title of Xia King and ordered him to fight against the Mongol Army.

Some people said that the Xia King sent by the jade emperor was a deity that could control the weather and summon ancient God Generals like Er’Lai and Xu Chu.

Er’Lai rode on Luosha and made a round around the city, attracting cheers from the people.

This time, the civilians had no reason not to believe it.

Taoism during the Song Dynasty had reached a new peak, and it was more prosperous than the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Stories of deities were really common, which was why such rumors were believed by the people and easily accepted.

The moment one accepted such a theory, naturally their confidence would multiply.

Although the Mongol army was terrifying, no matter how strong they were, how could they compare to soldiers from heaven? In just a short few days, the panicking people slowly calmed down.

All of this was naturally plotted by Ouyang Shuo.

When Xiong Ba got the news, he shook his head in amusement, “I did not expect it to be so easy!” In truth, many things that look really complicated were really simple to handle.

The difference was whether one would be able to think outside the box or not.

…

Battle Map, 6th day, morning.

The Mongol army did not make a sound for a consecutive few days, making Ouyang Shuo feel really uneasy. The troops on all four sides sent out scouts to try to investigate what the Mongol troops were doing.

Under the accompaniment of Guo Ziyi, Ouyang Shuo went up the north city wall, looking out into the distance.

Looking out, outside the city, there were closely packed Mongol tents. The white Mongol tents lined up one after another, and one could not see the end of it.

Moreover, these were just the vanguard forces of the Mongol army. The true main forces were not on the outskirts but in the city further away.

A million troops surrounded the city; this was the game, and in reality, something like this was impossible.

Not mentioning other reasons, but just the grain usage alone would cause the entire Jiangnan to be eaten up in half a year, not leaving anything behind and becoming truly ruins.

Obviously, Gaia skipped across all this for the Battle Map.

“General, what do you think the Mongols are planning?” Ouyang Shuo suddenly asked.

Guo Ziyi evidently jolted. During these past few days, he was busy building the north gate command center and working with the South Song Imperial Court. At the same time, he needed to ensure that the defenses were okay and that nothing was lacking. As such, he did not think about that problem.

Since Ouyang Shuo had asked, Guo Ziyi needed to give a good reply.

Thinking about it, he answered, “The enemy is not sieging yet maybe for two reasons. Either they have something happening internally, or there were some things that were not prepared.”

“Seeing the situation, there is a low chance of an internal dispute happening. The biggest possibility is that they are preparing some killing method,” Guo Ziyi voiced his conjecture.

“Then what killing blow would it be?”

Ouyang Shuo looked out at the Mongol camp in the distance. Who knows whether he was asking Guo Ziyi or himself.

“King, do not worry. I expect the scouts to return with news in a few days. When that happens, everything will be clear.”

“I can feel that in a further distance, there’s a huge feeling of vengeance gathering up. Who knows what despicable thing the Mongol army are doing.”

When Guo Ziyi heard that, he felt his heart shake. He learned from Lord Feng Qiuhuang that not only was the Xia King good at martial arts and administrative duties, but his personal cultivation was also shocking, and he was cultivating a top tier cultivation technique.

For him to have such a premonition, it was most probably going to be right.

Guo Ziyi cupped his fist, “Do not worry, king, I’ll ready the preparations.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. As he walked down the city wall, he could feel that this was the last calm before the storm, and a huge bloody battle was about to begin.

…

One had to say that Ouyang Shuo’s prediction was really accurate.

On the 7th day of the Battle Map, the Mongol army finally acted.

On this day, just as the sky lit up, outside Lin’an city, hundreds of thousands of Chinese people rushed over from all directions. One could see that they were badly dressed, looking really thin and terrified. They were being herded like sheep toward Lin’an. They only stopped when they were right before the city wall.

On the south city wall, Zhang Shijie looked at the refugees who were outside of the city. His face was really ugly, “I knew these bastards would use such a method.”

Wen Tianxiang, who was standing beside him, looked really solemn. His fists were clenched tight, his eyes flaming. Looking at the situation, Zhang Shijie and Wen Tianxiang seemed to know what the Mongols were going to do.

The Mongols did not start the siege yet because they were gathering up Chinese civilians, gathering them all up outside of Lin’an city.

The following scenes stunned Ouyang Shuo and the others.

The yellow, thin civilians held simple tools, digging the dirt under the supervision of the Mongol soldiers and using the dirt to build castles.

During the process, if anyone dared to slack off or hesitate, the whips of the supervising soldiers would mercilessly land. These supervising generals grew up on horseback and their whips were one more vicious than the next.

With one whip, not only did the shirt of the victim tear, but even their skin broke apart.

The expressions of the Mongol soldiers were even more infuriating. Looking at the situation, they did not treat these civilians as humans, relentlessly scolding them and even hitting them. They even let out perverted laughs, looking like they were enjoying it.

“A bunch of bastards!”

The Mongol people viewed the Chinese civilians as food, barbarically conquering civilizations, making one grit their teeth.

Seeing their brothers tortured like that, the city protection soldiers really could not bear to massacre them. If they were like that, how would they be different to animals?

Just like that, the Mongols smoothly used the civilians to build castles all around the city. Looking at them, they were even taller than the Lin’an city walls. Once they were built, they would become the frontline sentry of the Mongols, and it would be even more effective than arrow turrets.

The even more infuriating part was still to follow.

Those captured civilians were all hungry. While they built the castles for the Mongols, they could only eat bland porridge. Not mentioning being full, but they could not even fill their stomachs.

After having a meal, they would have to start work once more, regardless of how long they would be able to hold on. Since afternoon, there were many civilians who did not have enough energy and fainted on the ground.

How did the Mongol supervising soldiers deal with these fainted civilians?

Not to mention saving them, they did not even bother to whip them. They just chopped these civilians to death with their blades, throwing their bodies onto the castles that were being built up to act as building resources.

On the 2nd day, the actions of the Mongols exceeded what man would do.

The Mongols set up huge pots between the castles, confusing Ouyang Shuo and the others.

“What are they doing? Cooking?” Feng Qiuhuang did not understand.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, as he did not know the answer to that question.

Luckily, the answer would be revealed really soon.

The Mongol soldiers threw one live civilian after another into the pot, burning them alive, obviously wanting to use them to make resin oil.

The screams of the civilians made one’s face turn ashen white.

‘Ou~~’

Seeing the Mongol soldiers collect oil from the pots, Feng Qiuhuang could not take it anymore and vomited on the spot.

Ouyang Shuo’s face was really ugly. Staring out at the Mongol soldiers outside of the city, he coldly said, “These bastards do not deserve to live.”

This was the first time he had hated a group of people so much.

Chapter 1029 - Protect the Foundations of My Han

Chapter 1029: Protect the Foundations of My Han

The actions of the Mongol people totally enraged them.

However, as castle after castle was slowly formed up, the defending troops were faced with a hard question, “Do we stop the enemy from building the castles?”

Once all the castles were built up, the Mongol army could use them as a stepping board and Lin’an City would fall really quickly.

For this matter, the Grand Council had to hold an emergency meeting.

Lu Xiufu, who was in charge of the Grand Council daily matters, spoke first, “Give your thoughts, the rule is the majority wins. As the only civil servant here, I will not give my views.”

This crafty person, giving up right away and leaving the problem to others.

“Of course, we should not kill them, they are our brothers.” Wen Tianxiang made his attitude clear.

When Zhang Shijie saw that, his eyes showed unhappiness. Before the main general had made his stand, how could the deputy first speak?

Originally, Zhang Shijie was a little hesitant, but now he totally set his heart to it, “I feel like we have to kill. It isn’t should we or should we not. If we do not deal with the castle, we cannot keep Lin’an City. The captured civilian lives are lives but aren’t the lives of the millions in the city lives as well?”

Zhang Shijie’s words did make sense. In such a chaotic time, there was not much terms for one to talk about mercy and heart. Many times, one had to make sacrifices. It was cruel, but it was the truth.

However, Wen Tianxiang was unhappy.

Zhang Shijie did not care, as he had his own ideologies.

“I also think we need to kill them.”

Xiong Ba followed and expressed his opinion. As a formidable person, he would not show mercy. Furthermore, this was a Battle Map, and the goal of the players were to win. As such, they would not care about the deaths of NPCs.

Those that supported killing had the two to one advantage.

When Lianpo saw that, he followed, “I abstain.”

From an emotional point of view, he was not willing because he was still emotional scarred by Baiqi’s actions during the Battle of Changping. However, as a general, Lianpo felt that he needed to.

With such a conflict, he could only abstain.

When Xiong Ba saw that, he glanced at Lianpo. Logically speaking, as a Yanhuang Alliance general, Lianpo should follow his lead.

Luckily, Lianpo’s action did not affect the big picture. In his eyes, Ouyang Shuo was a formidable person and would not show mercy. Guo Ziyi would also naturally follow Ouyang Shuo’s lead.

Hence, there would still be more people that supported it.

Everyone turned their eyes over to Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo was really calm. He slowly placed down the cup in this hand and said, “I oppose.”

Everyone was astonished.

“Why?” Xiong Ba asked.

In his eyes, Ouyang Shuo was definitely not someone who would let his emotions get the better of him. If not, he would not have made it to this day.

“Let’s speak later.”

Ouyang Shuo naturally had his reasons, and it was not convenient to say them during this meeting.

Lu Xiufu looked deeply at Ouyang Shuo and concluded, “Three against, two agree, and two abstain. Since that’s the case, let’s think of other ideas.”

The decision of the Grand Council was naturally the final decision.

…

After the meeting ended, Xiong Ba chased up to Ouyang Shuo.

Before Xiong Ba could ask, Ouyang Shuo said right away, “I think not only you, but the others also have such doubts. Let’s all gather together, and I’ll explain.”

Xiong Ba was surprised, “You’re so confident about convincing Di Chen and the others?”

Ouyang Shuo smiled but did not say a word.

When Xiong Ba saw that, he shook his head and left.

…

Lin’an, north city wall.

Ouyang Shuo, Xiong Ba, and the four other Lords gathered together.

Xiong Ba looked toward Ouyang Shuo. At this moment, his eyes were filled with questions and doubts. Before coming, the Yanhuang Alliance had held a short meeting, but the atmosphere was not any good.

Especially Chun Shenjun, who did not show any mercy, “What is the old fox doing, trying to buy our heart or is he using our victory to exchange for his mercy? Great Xia has destroyed four countries in the main map and killed so many, yet now he’s acting like he’s merciful…”

The faces of Di Chen and the others were really ugly.

On the city wall, Ouyang Shuo could feel sharp piercing eyes staring at his back. Looking out at the Mongol tents, Ouyang Shuo said casually, “Why do you think Gaia planned such a Battle Map?”

“What reason can there be? It’s a Battle Map, so it is just a war to collect merit points.”

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “I do not think of it in that way. Maybe the wars before did not have a reason but definitely not this one. To put it bluntly, Great Xia from one Battle of Annan earned more than all the Battle Maps. One Battle Map is not worth Great Xia using 100 thousand troops.”

“….”

Di Chen and the others were speechless. They knew that Great Xia was amazing, but he did not need to flaunt, right? They thought, ‘Why did he have to be so honest? It hurts one’s heart.’

“So, what do you think Gaia’s goal is?” Xiong Ba asked.

“No matter what, I think that this battle is actually to make up for a regret, that our Chinese history cannot fall into the hands of the other races. Although it’s a little like an escape from reality, it’s a rare experience.”

“Cough, you’re filled with emotions,” Chun Shenjun said.

The others did not say anything. Instead, they looked outside the city at the hell like scenes.

The Mongols had never stopped their actions of getting oil from corpses. From early in the day till night, screams filled the ear. The oil was rubbed onto the city walls by the Chinese civilians.

Like other city walls, the Linan city wall had wood as its core structure and glutinous rice as ‘glue’. After the oil was rubbed on, it would be easily burnt.

Basically, after numerous days, the city walls and city gate would all be burnt or destroyed.

This was the secret weapon of the Mongol army. Although they consisted of cavalry, they could siege cities while their main force pretty much did not suffer any casualties.

The secret was in such shameless and sinful siege methods.

“Ouyang, I support you.”

Looking at the chaotic situation outside, Feng Qiuhuang’s face was ashen white, but she managed to stop vomiting. Maybe she had vomited out all she could, and all she was left with was anger and hatred.

“If we shoot them, what difference will we have compared to those animals?”

Feng Qiuhuang said righteously.

Xiong Ba and the others kept their silence. Zhan Lang, who was born from the military, could not help but say, “Well said. Maybe this Battle Map is Gaia’s test for me. To see if we would go against our conscience to win or be able to win without hurting our brothers.”

“Well said!” Chun Shenjun agreed, but he did not want to give up.

Chun Shenjun, who was born in a merchant family, only cared about victory and did not care about mercy or values.

Ouyang Shuo suddenly turned around and looked at Di Chen, “What do you think?” He wanted to know what choice Di Chen would make at this moment.

Di Chen was stunned for a while before opening his mouth with difficulty, “Since you put it like that, let’s follow what you said. But do not forget, you owe us one.”

“Great!”

Ouyang Shuo looked right at Di Chen before turning around.

Many years later, Di Chen would suddenly remember this seemingly simple conversation and break out into cold sweat. At that time, he would realize that this conversation had decided his fate.

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

Lin’an city had come to a consensus and would not yield to the Mongol army. The question in front of them was how to break the siege tactic of the Mongols.

First, they needed to get rid of the pots outside.

If one said that using civilians to build the castles could be tolerated, then using them to get oil definitely could not.

The Grand Council’s method was really simple, “Forcefully take them down!”

First, they would use the trebuchets and three bow arcuballistas to destroy the pots. If not, they would send out their cavalry out to forcefully destroy it.

These cavalry forces would form something like a death squad.

If they could return, that would be good; if not, they would die outside of the city.

The castles were not fully built, and Ouyang Shuo did not believe that the Mongol army would attack at this moment. If they sieged, the army hidden near the city walls would show the Mongols what was strong.

Everything proceeded smoothly.

In just a day, the hundreds of pots were cleaned out. For this, the four sides paid the price of a total of three thousand elite cavalry.

The Mongol cavalry consisted of all elites too, and each of them were good at bows. Since the South Song cavalry dared to come out, they would not let them return.

The entire day was a battle between small groups of cavalry forces outside of the city.

Although it was a small-scale battle, the outcome of each side was really obvious. The weakest side was the South Song guards that were totally at a disadvantage.

Even in a two-on-one scenario in a small area, they might still lose.

The strongest side was naturally the Great Xia cavalry. Facing the strong Mongol iron cavalry, the Great Xia cavalry were not at a disadvantage at all. If fact, they were even stronger.

The north side was also the only side where the cavalry smoothly retreated to the city.

The Great Xia cavalry only paid the price of 300 men to clear out all the pots on the north, and they even killed 200 elite Mongol cavalry.

Looking at the Great Xia cavalry fleeing, the Mongol iron cavalry actually did not dare to chase.

Such a scene was a definite first for the Mongol army.

Ouyang Shuo and Lu Xiufu spread this matter within the city to glorify the soldiers from heaven story. If they were not soldiers from heaven, how could they defeat the invincible Mongol cavalry?

Hence, the people slowly calmed down and felt settled.

…

Night, north Mongol camp.

Mongol general Bayan stopped his horse on top of the hill and looked out at the north defending troops, his expression solemn, “Who would have known the enemy players would be so amazing. Where did they come from?”

No one could reply to his question.

Zhang Hongfan rode his rose and followed behind Bayan. A complicated expression flashed in his eyes as he thought to himself, ‘If the South Song army possessed such strength, they would not fall to such a state!’

As night fell, a cold breeze blew across. Bayan shook the leopard skin coat on him and looked out at the Lin’an city that was drowned in the darkness, “Let’s go back! Order the frontline troops that from tomorrow onward, quicken the construction of the earth castles. Officially start the siege soon.”

Bayan could feel that this siege would not be as simple as usual. Hence, they could not give the enemy troops the room to breathe all the more. They needed to siege as soon as possible.

The emperor behind them was already impatient, and if they did not act now, they might disrupt his plans.

“Yes!”

Zhang Hongfan nodded; there was nothing unusual about his voice.

Chapter 1030 - Cruel Siege Battle

Chapter 1030: Cruel Siege Battle

10th day of the Battle Map, the siege finally began.

Under the rushing of the Mongol army, the 600 stone castles that were taller than the city walls were built. The war prisoners that were already starved till their skins had wrapped around their bones were finally released.

Whether they could live or not would depend on themselves.

They tried to open up the Lin’an city gates but were rejected. That was because the Mongol archers had already entered the castles and thousands of Xiangyang cannons were pushed to the frontlines.

If they opened up the city gates now, it would be like inviting a wolf into the house.

These civilians could leave the battlefield and return to their houses, but they did not need to move into Lin’an city. Lin’an city had a lack of grain, so letting them in would not be a good thing.

At 9 AM, the flames of war were ignited.

Although the pots were destroyed, the Mongols siege tactics remained unchanged. The archers on the castles were in charge of restricting the long range attacks on the city wall. They would use the Xiangyang cannons to destroy the city wall.

The defending troops returned fire.

Archers, trebuchets, and three bow arcuballistas were pushed to the front and engaged the enemy.

The first day of fighting was just between ranged units.

The tactics were really savage, and the battlefield was really cruel. The archers of both sides shot out their arrows, forming an intersecting arrow net, killing hundreds and thousands at every moment.

The rumbling of the trebuchets started since the start of the war and did not stop.

Be it the Mongol tents outside the city or on the city wall, and even the area near the city walls, dust and smoke rose up and fire burned. Although the Xiangyang cannons were trebuchets, they could fire rocks that burned in oil.

When one cannon fired, smoke bellowed.

The defending guards were murdered in the arrow rain, so those laborers working beneath the city walls did not have a good time either. Every moment, injured people were carried down the city wall and sent to the infirmary.

All the doctors within Lin’an city, no matter what they specialized in, were moved into an infirmary to treat the wounded.

Each person saved would be an extra amount of fighting power.

Apart from that, the military workshops within the city worked day and night to produce arrow after arrow. A siege battle like this used up huge amounts of arrows.

The entire city was united as one.

On the first day, the Mongol army returned fruitless. Not only did ten thousand die, but 59 castles were destroyed and turned into ruins.

Ten thousand defending troops died too.

Such a casualty ratio was due to the castles. With the castles, the Mongol archers were not at a disadvantage. Along with their skilled archers, they naturally fought on the same level.

On the contrary, the player forces had very few pure archers. Half were cavalry turned archers, so obviously they were not the opponents of the Mongol archers.

This battle was an evenly matched one too.

In the next two days, not much changed about the battle. The Mongol army that was a million strong was like a machine, recharging fresh blood and launching attack after attack.

During this time, the Mongols used another dark tactic.

They threw all the corpses, be it enemies or their own, into the city protection river. All of a sudden, the river was filled with bodies, making one feel a shiver run down their spine.

What was worse was that the water canals within the city were connected to the city protection river. The corpses decomposed in the water, contaminating the water source and the water canals within the city.

The water source of the civilians within the city became a problem.

The only available water source now was underground water. Lu Xiufu had no choice but to form emergency units to dig up wells in the city to ensure a sufficient supply of water.

Luckily, the siege would only last for a month. If it were months or years, even the underground water would be contaminated.

This tactic was really vicious.

After three successive days of Mongol attacks, apart from the north city wall, the other three sides were facing varying degrees of problems. Especially the South Song Guards on the south, their innate fear of the Mongols was awakened. If this carried on, before the Xiangyang cannons were able to destroy the city walls, they would panic themselves.

Along with the fact that the player troops were defending and not attacking, with the work of the Mongol spies, the legend of the soldiers from heaven started to collapse.

All of this was proceeding toward a situation that was catastrophic for the South Song camp.

The Mongol general Bayan was really pleased with this. He smiled as he said to Zhang Hongfan, “The players look good but are useless, they are totally not our opponents.”

Speaking of Bayan, he was also not a simple person.

Bayan was born in Ilkhanate and was brought into the dynasty during the first year of yuan by Hulagu Khan. Kublai Khan admired his ability and appointed him as the Zhongshu minister and eventually promoted him to Privy Court minister.

In the 11th year of yuan, he led troops to conquer South Song.

In the conflicts about the succession of Jayaatu Khan Tugh Temür after 1332, Bayan broke with El Temür and supported Toghon Temür, who ascended the throne in 1333. He was appointed commander of kheshig, composed of Mongols, Kypchaks, Russians, and Asud in 1334.

Bayan began concentrating official positions in his person that had not been so concentrated before. In 1339, he became the grand chancellor. At that time, he had probably gone too far. In any case, he was toppled in 1340 by his nephew Toqto’a. Shortly after that, his purges were called off, and his policies were reversed.

Bayan was good at poems and was a famous politician and military expert in the Yuan Dynasty, commanding 200 thousand troops to conquer Song.

This person was really intelligent and understood the big picture. He was great at using troops and coming up with strategies. In all aspects, he had something that the military school of thought could learn from.

Logically speaking, such a general should not be overconfident. It was because the player forces were performing so badly that it surprised Bayan, causing him to make such a misjudgment.

“Spread my orders. Starting from tomorrow, increase the intensity. Take down Lin’an city within three days.”

Since he had understood the bottom line of the enemy, Bayan saw no reason to waste time and was ready to swiftly take down the enemy with their strongest assist.

After the archers, Bayan was ready to throw in the infantry to siege.

Although the Mongol army mainly consisted of cavalry, during their conquering of South Song, they obtained a lot of Chinese troops, and these people made up most of the infantry.

“It’s time for them to show their worth.”

In Bayan’s eyes, they were cannon fodder, and their deaths would make no difference to the outcome. Their only use would be to enter the battlefield at the right time to have some small effect.

“Yes, my general!”

Zhang Hongfan went to do his job dutifully after getting the order.

Looking at his back view, Bayan’s eyes shook before becoming calm once more. Speaking of which, as the vanguard general of the South Song attack, half of the surrender troops were reunited by Zhang Hongfan.

No matter why Zhang Hongfan recruited the Song army, Bayan would not allow this hidden cancer to remain and wanted to wipe them out.

Zhang Hongfan not reacting made Bayan all the more impressed.

“He truly is a remarkable person. No wonder his majesty regards him so highly.” Bayan smiled, losing the thought of removing him.

The reason was simple.

No matter how much the emperor trusted a Chinese person like Zhang Hongfan, the trust level could not exceed that of Mongol generals like Bayan.

“Anyone not from my race is suspicious.”

Although the emperor was magnanimous and accepted large amounts of Han officials and also promoted Confucianism teachings, in the end, those were the actions of the emperor.

The true pillar of the dynasty was still the Mongols.

As a result, Bayan had never seen Zhang Hongfan as a threat.

In history, Zhang Rou, Zhang Hongfan, and Zhang Gui, the grandfather, father, and son, all became generals in the Yuan Dynasty and all had great achievements. However, their tragic endings proved Bayan right.

After Qinding emperor fell, the brothers Yuan Mingzong and Yuan Wenzong fought for the throne, and their supporters fought against one another as well. The Shangdu prince supporters defeated those of the Dadu prince.

While the Dadu prince army was retreating, they pillaged and raped. Zhang Gui’s son Zhang Jingwu was one of the few local hegemons that led local men to kill hundreds of Dadu soldiers to protect their home.

In the end, the Dadu king won, and the prince led his army to pass Baoqing and enter the Zhang house, capturing the five grandsons of Zhang Hongfan and executing them.

Then they killed all the women in the family, leaving only one person alive. The prince thought she was beautiful. After raping her, he took her as his concubine.

The Zhang family worked for the Mongols, but in the end, they had such a tragic ending.

The actions of the prince to kill and rape the Zhang family female members was not new. In the Yuan Dynasty and even during the Mongol Empire, such events happened. Sometimes, the people raped were Mongols too.

The most famous one happened during Ogedei Khan’s time.

1237 AD, the Woyici tribe had heard rumors of a decree to give up their women. People started marrying off their daughters to people in the tribe, some directly sending them off to men.

When Ogedei Khan heard that, he was furious and ordered all seven year old and above girls to be gathered, even those who were married off. He gathered all four thousand of them together and ordered soldiers to rape them.

Amongst which, two died on the spot. The remaining were either send to the back palace, sent to prostitution places, or embassies to entertain guests. Some were taken by people as presents.

Moreover, their brothers and fathers had to watch on from the side. They could not complain, and they could not cry.

Different from nomadic tribes who killed for fun, the farming people in the Song Dynasty had rarely seen blood, and they were far away from the battlefields.

As a result, the psychological battle of the Mongols burning corpses for oil and throwing corpses into the river could easily make the South Song troops feel fearful, making many people surrender before the Mongol army had even arrived.

…

Lin’an, Grand Council.

“We cannot go on like this. We have to make a change!”

Ouyang Shuo realized that they were slowly falling into the tempo of the Mongol army.

Chapter 1031 - False Surrender and Killing the Head

Chapter 1031: False Surrender and Killing the Head

Ouyang Shuo understood that if they did not make any change, water, grain, the city wall, and troops, any one of these four could cause them to collapse to an irrecoverable level.

“We need to take the initiative to strike.”

Guo Ziyi decisively stood out, “Half of the player forces are cavalry, so to use them to defend is already wasting their talents and is not a smart decision.”

Lianpo was a general who preferred to defend. When he heard Guo Ziyi’s words, he frowned, “The enemy troops are many times ours. If we attack, what use will it be? We will only quicken our deaths. Why not just defend?”

“If we strike out aimlessly, obviously it would be useless. But what if we aim for their leader?”

“Aim for their leader?” Lianpo nearly replied in a sarcastic tone.

Killing intent appeared in Guo Ziyi’s eyes, looking really sharp, “With the city situation, we have no way out and will only be locked in by the enemy. When the city is broken into, we will be under their mercy. On the contrary, if we use our elite forces to kill their generals like Bayan, it could make their troops unsettled and allow us to win the battle.”

“More easily said than done.”

Lianpo obviously did not agree, “The enemy troops heavily defend their main general. Not to mention killing their head, but even getting close is difficult. Not only might we not achieve that, but if the enemy uses the chance to get into the city, it would be catastrophic. Defending is the smarter choice.”

As for how to defend, Lianpo had some thoughts. During the Battle of Changping, against the Qin country soldiers, Lianpo managing to defend for so long had become the glory of his life.

This also showed that he was really skilled at defending. With the Battle of Lin’an as an example, the west gate he was defending was the most solid apart from the north city wall.

In his eyes, they were losing to the north city gates due to the difference in soldier strength and not his skill compared to Guo Ziyi.

The two generals continued to debate. They both had their own theories.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he suddenly looked at Zhang Shijie, “If I remember correctly, General Zhang has a relationship with Zhang Hongfan’s father, Zhang Rou?”

When Zhang Shijie heard these words, he thought that Ouyang Shuo was suspecting that he was colluding with the enemy, and his face sank, “What is the Xia King getting at? I did work under Zhang Rou when I was young but that was really long ago.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “General has misunderstood me. I did not doubt you. I only have something to ask.”

In the Battle of Yashan in history, Zhang Hongfan tried to use Wen Tianxiang to persuade Zhang Shijie to surrender but failed. Hence, why would Ouyang Shuo suspect Zhang Shijie’s loyalty to South Song?

Zhang Shijie’s expression loosened. He noticed that he had overreacted, so he said, “Whatever instructions you have, just say it. If I can do it, I will!”

Ever since he was given the title of Xia King, Ouyang Shuo had a lot of power in the Grand Council.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head and said, “Although General Guo’s operation is difficult, it’s our only way. What we need to do is to make the impossible possible.”

The other people nodded and agreed with this analysis.

“Just as General Lianpo has said, the enemy main general, be it Bayan or Zhang Hongfan, are all within the military formation and are hard to get closed to. If we have a way to draw them out, we would make it two times more effective.”

Using the chance, Ouyang Shuo calmed down the atmosphere between Lianpo and Guo Ziyi. He did not want the two of them to become enemies before the battle even began.

For this matter, Ouyang Shuo handled it really well.

When Lianpo heard that, his expression relaxed. Although he was a general under Di Chen, after fighting against Great Xia for so long and not winning even once made him terrified of the Xia King.

Maybe in his heart, he felt respect toward Ouyang Shuo.

Zhang Shijie was also astonished. He roughly had his thoughts, but he was still uncertain, “What the Xia King means is?”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “It is simple, please write a letter to Zhang Hongfan to say that you are willing to bring the Song Army to surrender and ask them to come over to discuss.”

Ouyang Shuo was actually planning to make a false surrender.

“Will they believe us?” Zhang Shijie asked.

“That would depend on what the general writes in the letter.”

Different methods would naturally give rise to different effects. Hence, writing a letter that Zhang Hongfan would believe in would definitely be hard for Zhang Shijie.

Luckily, at this moment, Lu Xiufu took the initiative to speak to Zhang Shijie, “If Shijie does not mind, after the letter is finished, I can help add in some stuff.”

Obviously, Lu Xiufu agreed with the plan.

“That’s great!” Zhang Shijie nodded and agreed. Naturally, he would be happy if this plan succeeded.

Falsely surrendering to Zhang Hongfan was only the first part of the plan. To make the entire plan flawless, one needed deep considerations and careful planning.

Details would decide success or failure.

Once the direction was set, it would be easy to handle the details. With all of them discussing and Jia Xu supplying ideas, they finally set up a specific plan.

“Now it’s time to see how Zhang Hongfan reacts.”

Ouyang Shuo looked out at the barracks. His eyes squinted as he smiled, showing off some coldness.

…

That night, Zhang Hongfan received the surrender letter from Zhang Shijie.

In the letter, Zhang Shijie said this, “Since the player army has entered the city, they have taken over and bullied the young and helpless king, making their own decisions in the city. If this goes on, the country would not be our country. Your troops are attacking and would break through. In the recent days, we are helplessly determined to go all out.”

“If you promise to leave the royal family bloodline and ensure that all the people leave, we will be willing to come out of the city to surrender. As for the specifics, general, please come to the front of the formation to discuss in detail.”

When Zhang Hongfan saw that, he was both astonished and delighted.

He did not dare to make the decision on his own, so he took the letter to find Bayan.

Within the middle troops tent.

When Bayan looked at the letter, his expression did not change as he raised his head and looked at Zhang Hongfan, “What are your thoughts? Is there a plot?” Bayan did not trust the Chinese.

In the eyes of the Chinese, the Mongols were barbaric and rough, but in their eyes, the Chinese were cunning. The two sides had their cultural differences.

Zhang Hongfan was not a three-year-old kid, so he obviously would not fall for it. As a result, he carefully said, “The letter is actually suspicious. We need to investigate the details before we can come to a conclusion.”

“That’s right.” Bayan had such a thought too.

“Then what about the siege tomorrow?” Zhang Hongfan asked carefully.

“Let it continue as usual.”

Bayan had no intentions of showing mercy, “Since they want to surrender, we have to give them a heavy beating and let them realize that surrendering is their only way out.”

“Understood!”

Zhang Hongfan nodded. Since it was late in the night, he immediately left.

Bayan did not immediately go to sleep.

Thinking about it, Bayan recorded in detail the matter of today. Along with the letter, he sent someone to send it back for the emperor to read. He would wait for instructions.

Even if South Song really wanted to surrender, their massacre of the city was not up to Bayan.

…

The next day, the defending troops did not get a reply from Zhang Hongfan. However, the Mongol attacks were even more intense, and they even sent out infantry for the first time.

The war became more and more intense with numerous casualties.

After a day, the Lin’an side had 20 thousand more people who died. If this carried on, their morale would probably break apart before they ran out of grain.

On the contrary, the Mongols did not send out most of their main force. They mostly used the surrendered troops.

The so-called million men army referred to the main Mongol force and did not include their surrendered troops and support troops. If not, Bayan would not have so much confidence.

At 7 PM, the Grand Council held a meeting.

Zhang Shijie was lacking in confidence, “Did the Mongols see through our tricks?”

“The Mongol army performed as expected. There’s no way they would believe it right away.”

To make the surrender more believable, Ouyang Shuo had made other arrangements.

First, Ouyang Shuo had the Divine Martial Guards take over as the palace guards.

Ouyang Shuo brought the Personal Guards and even boldly stormed into the palace.

Secondly, Wen Tianxiang would be removed from his position and appointed as the assistant minister of the military, which was like a useless appointment. Wen Tianxiang was famous for being a stubborn nut. Taking him down was the same as surrendering to the Mongols.

Thirdly, reducing the retaliation of the south city gate.

Zhang Shijie mentioned in the letter that they could not control the players, which was why they could only confirm that they would open the south city gate to allow the Mongols to enter.

After removing Wen Tianxiang from his position as south gate deputy general, Zhang Shijie used the 100 thousand troops to have a ‘cleansing’ internally. Numerous generals close to Wen Tianxiang were investigated.

All of these things were done openly so that the Mongols could see it.

Ouyang Shuo said confidently, “Things will change for the better at the day after tomorrow at the latest.”

Lin’an was not weak. As such, even if the Mongol army wanted to forcefully take down Lin’an, the price they would pay would not be something they could handle.

If there was a shortcut, Bayan might take it.

“Just hold on for two more days.” Lu Xiufu reached this conclusion. As this was a scheduled meeting, after the meeting, everyone went their own ways.

…

Barracks, middle troop tent.

As night fell, the entire barracks was pitch black. Only scattered torches provided a little bit of light. The few stars in the sky also provided illumination as they blinked in the sky.

As the night breeze blew across, the flames flickered like they might be extinguished at any moment. It was like the endless darkness would soon swallow them.

The Mongol army was really disciplined, and into the night, the entire barracks was totally silent.

The middle tent was brightly lit, and Mongol soldiers fully equipped guarded outside. These Personal Guards of Bayan were all elites and were all really skilled.

The Mongols did not have skill in metallurgy, and their armor were mainly leather. Only the general would wear iron armor. These Personal Guards could use iron armor because Bayan had an exceptional position and the amount of riches they got when the Mongol army went down south.

In the center of the tent was a plate of burning coal. Sparks were splattering all over. Bayan was dressed in casual clothing, sitting behind the table and looking at intel from the spies.

Anything that happened in Lin’an would not be able to avoid Bayan’s eyes.

“Should we believe them or not?”

Bayan was facing some problems for the first time.

Chapter 1032 - Valiantly Facing Death

Editor:Nora

Although he was mostly convinced, Bayan decided to drag the matter on for another day.

The siege on the second day was even more intense, with both sides going all out. Bayan did not bother about the sacrifices, sending up all the surrendered troops to try to use the maximum value of this batch of cannon fodder.

The South Song camp similarly treated it really seriously and struct back resolutely.

As night fell, in the area around Lin'an City, blood flowed like a river and corpses were strewn all over, making one terrified. The South Song camp paid the price of 30 thousand troops today. Not only did they clear out all the castles, but they also wiped out all the surrendered troops.

A 'sick cat' that went all out was really dangerous.

Although the goal of Bayan was to clear out the surrendered troops, for all of them to die really stunned Bayan. The strength of the player forces astonished him.

That night, Zhang Hongfan received a second letter from Zhang Shijie.

The contents were simple, and there was only one sentence, "Since your army does not accept our surrender, we can only go all out and live and die together with Lin'an City. See you on the battlefield!"

It seemed like Zhang Shijie had totally given up on surrendering.

When Bayan saw that, he made up his mind. He smiled as he said to Zhang Hongfan, "Now we can discuss with them."

The next morning, Kublai Khan sent his reply to Bayan to give him the power to make decisions and to discuss with South Song. As a result, Bayan did not need to seek instructions and could decide on his own.

Zhang Hongfan nodded.

"Remember, let South Song send an official with power out to discuss. At most, they can only send 200 men out." Bayan was still really careful.

"Understood!"

...

16th day of the Battle Map.

The flames of war still flew on this day, and the fighting was really intense.

After replying to Zhang Shijie, Bayan did not stop the fighting to keep it a secret. He only agreed to discuss the surrender at the south outskirts at night.

Morning, a quiet mansion west of the city.

Similarly, to keep it a secret, members of the Grand Council chose this place for their meeting.

Before the meeting began, the atmosphere in the room was really solemn. Since this was a false surrender, based on the request of Bayan, when one went out to discuss, they would run the risk of losing their lives.

The important officials in Bayan's mind would only be Lu Xiufu, Zhang Shijie, and Wen Tianxiang. Seeing that Wen Tianxiang was now shelved, they were only left with two people.

"I'll go!" Zhang Shijie said, "I wrote the letter, so naturally, I should go out to negotiate."

Lu Xiufu shook his head resolutely, "The military depends on you, it's better if I go."

Zhang Shijie wanted to say something, but Lu Xiufu did not give him the chance and continued, "Negotiation is also always done by civil servants, so it's my duty."

No matter how their abilities were, the way they acted deserved respect.

Lu Xiufu was really calm, and he smiled, "For me to be able to do something for the Imperial Court at my death, I can die with no regrets."

Such willingness to die made Ouyang Shuo really emotional. He could imagine what Lu Xiufu was thinking about when he carried the young emperor and jumped into the water in history.

Xiong Ba took a look at Ouyang Shuo, and for the first time, he recognized the actions of the latter.

Seeing that Lu Xiufu had made his mind up, everyone collected their feelings and started to confirm the details of the head killing operation.

Ouyang Shuo originally planned to arrange 200 Divine Martial Guards to protect him. However, after thinking about it, they were too eye-catching, and it might spoil the plan.

Whether Lu Xiufu could escape this or not depended on the heavens.

...

Night quickly arrived.

The orange red sun hung at the horizon, and the fresh colors became lighter and lighter. A bunch of eagles continued to circle overhead, giving out ear piercing screeches, making one feel annoyed.

The moment the military order was given, the Mongol army backed down like a flood, leaving tens of thousands of corpses and a broken, dirty battlefield.

Suddenly, the side gate on the south side opened from within.

South Song minister Lu Xiufu exited the city quietly under the accompaniment of 200 South Song Guards. After traveling for a short distance, a group of Mongol cavalry came over. After confirming their identities, they led them forward.

Bayan and his men were waiting on flat ground on the south outskirts.

Seeing that South Song had followed the agreement and only sent 200 guards, Bayan smiled. If he could smoothly persuade South Song to surrender, he would get a lot of credit for it.

After members of both sides greeted one another, they officially entered negotiations.

Everything looked normal, but what they did not know was that the current Lin'an city was largely different.

Based on the plan, on the west side, Lianpo led 50 thousand elite cavalry and gathered at the three gates on the west side. On the east, Zhao Zhuang led 50 thousand cavalry and did the same.

Next was the north side.

Er'Lai led the 30 thousand elite cavalry of the City Protection Legion Corps, along with Feng Qiuhuang's 30 thousand elite cavalry and quietly gathered toward the south side.

On the south side, Zhang Shijie led the only 20 thousand cavalry of South Song and were ready to go.

For this leader killing operation, the South Song camp was going to send out 180 thousand men, pretty much sending all the cavalry in the city. They had to win and succeed in their sneak attack.

Such a huge military operation naturally alerted the spies hidden within the city. Helplessly, the city was on full alert, so they could not send the intel out of the city.

5:30 AM.

The moment this time was reached, like a gun, the three city gates on the east, west, and south sides opened up at the same time. The 180 thousand elite cavalry charged out of the city from three directions.

The horse hooves rumbled and dust rose up into the air.

The heavens were on their side as the light from dusk shone out eye-catching rays of red light.

On the south, Er'Lai rode on spirit beast Luoshan, leading the City Protection Legion Corps cavalry, he moved at the front of the forces. After exiting the city gates, he did not hesitate and charged right at the negotiation location.

Zhang Shijie followed behind them, forming a fan formation as they closely tailed the vanguard forces.

The cavalry forces on the east and west sides made a huge curve and went down south after exiting the city. Like two huge arcs, they formed a semi-circle and laid out a huge net.

On the south city gate, Wuqi was given orders to take charge of these three groups of troops to complete the encirclement.

The moment the encirclement was formed, Bayan would find it impossible to escape. Long distance quick attacks and encirclement strategies were the South Song specialty, but now, it was being used against them.

...

When the South Song cavalry exited the city, the Mongol army that had just backed down from the frontlines were resting in their tents and were ready to eat.

Looking out at the sudden appearance of the cavalry, the soldiers in charge of sentry duty were totally stunned. In their impression, the Mongols were the ones attacking, and there was no city that dared to exit and attack when the Mongols sieged them.

Although they were stunned, their reaction speed was not slow at all.

They sent someone to alert the camp whilst moving men to welcome the South Song cavalry.

However, that was not of much use.

Although the Mongol cavalry were strong, that was after they formed up.

Since they were just some patrolling forces, in the face of 50 thousand cavalry troops, they could not start up any waves. Before both sides even got close, the patrolling forces had fallen, all being shot down from their horses.

The cavalry on the two wings did not stop and charged south. They had to complete the encirclement.

When the South Song cavalry ran off, the Mongol army had just sent their vanguard forces. Looking at the rumbling smoke and dust, they could not chase up at all.

The entire Mongol Army Camp was in a state of panic. The part that panicked the most was the south side.

Bayan was a careful person, and even though Lu Xiufu had followed the agreement, he still did not let his guard down and arranged for three lines of sentry along the way.

Not long after Er'Lai's forces exited the city, they were spotted by the front sentry, and an alert was sounded.

When Bayan received the report, his face suddenly turned dark as he said toward Lu Xiufu, "Great, since you all want to false surrender, I'll take your dog life!"

As he said that, he unsheathed the curved blade at his waist.

Lu Xiufu acted like he was surprised, "What happened?"

"Acting, continue acting!"

Bayan gritted his teeth, "You all really think that you can win against us with one sneak attack?

Seeing that Lu Xiufu really did not know what was going on, Zhang Hongfan said, "Mister Lu, you are still negotiating with us, and they sent out cavalry. They obviously do not care about your life."

At this time, be it Bayan or Zhang Hongfan, neither knew that the Douth Song camp was going all out. They thought that only Er'Lai's vanguard forces had come and did not take them too seriously.

Lu Xiufu's expression changed, "General, this is a misunderstanding. Maybe the news of our surrender was found out by the players, and they want to take revenge."

Bayan and Zhang Hongfan exchanged glances, not knowing whether Xiufu was saying the truth or not. That was because the sentry had really reported that it was the player forces that were charging over.

"Lock them up, prepare for battle!"

Bayan was really crisp when he did things and made his mind up really quickly.

An order was given, and along with the 200 Guards, they were all taken down by Bayan's Personal Guards. In the time that it took for them to speak, Er'Lai's forces had broken through two sentry lines and were heading right for the negotiation venue.

"How are they so quick?"

Bayan was astonished, and for the first time, he felt uneasy.

From the first day, both sides had been limited to fighting on the city walls. The player forces did not have a chance to show the strength of their cavalry. This time, they totally outclassed the Mongol cavalry.

As an experienced general, from the speed of the enemy sneak attack, he could deduce that their combat strength was above the Mongol cavalry.

This conclusion was enough to stun Bayan.

Since Genghis Khan unified Mongol, the Mongol cavalry had swept past Asia and Europe, never ever finding an opponent. In their hearts, the Mongol cavalry were invincible.

The sudden appearance of such a strong cavalry obviously stunned Bayan.

Zhang Hongfan, who was standing at the side, came over when he saw the main general unsettled. He said softly, "Commander, the enemy troop numbers are not certain. They came too suddenly, so who knows whether it's a plot or not. Why don't we take our leave and make plans when we understand what's going on?"

Zhang Hongfan wanted to take a stable and safe approach.

When Bayan saw that, his eyes shook. He was unable to make a decision right away.

Chapter 1033 - Bayan Dies

Chapter 1033: Bayan Dies

Bayan thought about it, and in the end, he was unwilling to retreat just like that. Fleeing without fighting was a huge humiliation to a Mongol warrior and Bayan would not take that.

“Gather our troops and get ready to face the enemy!” Bayan gave the order.

Zhang Hongfan was helpless and could only listen to the order.

The Mongols were said to be attacking Lin’an with the million army, but in truth, only around 600 thousand left their six bases. After the successive battles, they lost close to 100 thousand of them.

In the blink of an eye, apart from the 200 thousand troops defending the north side, each other side was left with 100 thousand troops.

This also meant that even if Bayan gathered up the entire south side army, he could only gather up 100 thousand men. Furthermore, the army had just backed down from the frontlines and returned to their camps. To gather them up once more was a hugely difficult matter.

As time was of the essence, Zhang Hongfan could only gather up ten thousand elite cavalry, which included the Personal Guards of Bayan and himself. If not, he would not even be able to gather up 10 thousand men.

“It’s enough!”

However, Bayan was really confident. In his eyes, as long as they fended off the first wave, the following troops would be able to gather up and surround the enemy.

Whoever wins or loses was still unknown.

Whilst Zhang Hongfan was busy gathering up men, Er’Lai’s forces had broken through the last pass. In the blink of an eye, Bayan and the others could see the enemy changing right at them with the golden dragon flag of Great Xia dancing in the wind.

Bayan was just about to order his troops to charge at them when a thin messenger suddenly ran out from the side, panting, “Commander, it’s an emergency. The east and west wings sent a warning that large amounts of cavalry have exited the city and are coming toward the south.”

“What?”

Bayan’s heart jolted; his expression changed, and his entire body stiffened up.

Looking at the visible enemy troops, Bayan’s face was extremely ugly. Even if he wanted to flee now, it was too late. In such a short time, even if the Mongol cavalry were well-trained, they were unable to turn around and retreat.

If they really did that, the moment the enemy troops caught up, they would be in chaos. To make matters worse, if they backed off now, the barracks behind them would fall along with them.

One bad decision would cause a full-scale collapse.

As expected from Bayan, who was a famous Mongol general. He quickly saw through the close knitted relationship between all of these aspects.

Helplessly, he could only grit his teeth and advance. As they say, ‘On a narrow road, the courageous will win.’ They could only defend against the first wave of enemy attacks and wait for the troops in the camp to gather up before they made any plans.

“All units charge!”

Bayan hurriedly gave the order.

All of a sudden, the rumbling of horse hooves sounded out, and the entire earth shook.

Under the cover of the orange dusk, the two cavalry armies charged at one another and were ready to fight to the death. Maybe it was an illusion, but at this point, even the dusk became evil and turned a blood red color.

Bayan did not charge forward. Instead, he stood on the spot and let his Personal Guards defend him. At the same time, he commanded the frontline troops and moved the backline to gather up at the south side.

The one leading the charge was a Mongol general. Meanwhile, Zhang Hongfan was ordered to gather the back troops.

Whilst charging, Er’Lai held his iron halberd. As he rode on Luosha, he gave out a smile that filled with bloodthirst. He aimed right at the enemy general, kicking Luosha lightly with his right boot.

When Luosha got the order, it suddenly increased its speed, swiftly proceeding forward. One man and one beast; they had a tacit understanding of one another.

Luosha’s charging speed obviously stunned the enemy. In a short while, Er’Lai swung his halberd in a well-trained manner. With a ‘Puchi!’, before the enemy could react, he was already slashed into half, blood splattering all over.

Luosha was drenched in blood, but it did not care. Its eyes gave out a red glow; this was a real fierce beast that only people like Er’Lai could make surrender.

During such a short engagement, Er’Lai easily killed the enemy general.

This time, the morale of the charging troops soared as they roared while they charged.

On the contrary, the prideful Mongol cavalry were stunned, as this was the first time they saw soldiers more brutal than them.

The Mongol cavalry were mostly light armored, and they were skilled at shooting on horseback. Be it attacking or retreating, they could shoot whilst riding. During the process of the battle, the arrow rain would never stop.

On the contrary, they were not that good at charging at enemy cavalry.

Not mentioning other aspects, but just the armor alone was a huge gap. Much less their curved knives, which could not compare to the horse lance of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps.

Just as both sides engaged, their relative strengths were evident.

Facing the charge of 30 thousand Great Xia Guards Legion Corps soldiers, the formation of the 10 thousand Mongol cavalry was thrown into chaos right away.

With Er’Lai as the head, the Great Xia iron cavalry cut up the Mongol formation and did not stop as they continued forward. As for the cavalry passed, the ones behind they would naturally take care of them.

One must not forget that behind him was 30 thousand Fallen Phoenix City cavalry and 20 thousand Great Song cavalry. Although they were not as skilled, they were good enough to handle the remnants.

This general killing operation had Er’Lai as its core. Before leaving, Ouyang Shuo had instructed that whether they could successfully kill Bayan or not depended on Er’Lai.

Er’Lai did not want to disappoint the king.

After tearing up the enemy defenses, be it Er’Lai or Luosha, they were both covered in blood. They looked like devils that had crawled out of hell, looking really evil and scary.

Er’Lai did not care. His eyes focused on the front as he swiftly searched for his target. Very quickly, under the protection of his Personal Guards, Bayan, who was fleeing, entered his field of sight.

“Haha, Bayan do not think about leaving. I am here to take your life!”

Er’Lai’s eyes lit up. The Luosha he was riding on did not need him to give commands at all. It charged forward.

…

Bayan was riding or horseback. Looking back, his face was extremely ugly. He did not expect the enemy to be so strong and tear through their defenses in just one round.

This had never happened in any previous battle.

This time, Bayan was really terrified, and he did not dare to stay for any longer. Under the protection of the Personal Guards, he fled and was prepared to gather with the main force.

Who knows how many troops Zhang Hongfan had managed to gather up?

As this very moment, a roar sounded out from behind him. In the game, Gaia had its own translation software, which was why Bayan was able to understand Er’Lai. His face turned uglier and uglier.

As one of the rare few great generals in the Mongol army, Bayan did not lack the courage to fight the enemy. He wanted to immediately turn around and fight the big man behind him.

However, as a commander, his rationality reminded him that he could not do that. Bayan could only whip his horse and quicken his escape.

Helplessly, the faster Bayan fled, the faster Er’Lai chased.

The Mongol war horses were not that big and were famous for their stamina. However, in terms of speed, they were not any better than the Great Xia Qingfu Horses that the Guards Legion Corps used.

On the contrary, they were slower because the Qingfu Horses were known for their speed.

Seeing that Bayan was in his sights, Er’Lai could not hold it back, so he immediately activated his specialty. Hence, the wind like Great Xia Army sped up, catching up to Bayan at a visible rate.

When Er’Lai saw that, he could not help but grin. He was not far from completing his mission.

At this very moment, the sound of horse hooves spread out from the front. Zhang Hongfan’s men had arrived. Before they arrived, an arrow rain had covered the heads of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps.

Shooting arrows to attack while traveling was the specialty of the Mongol cavalry.

When Bayan saw that, he left out a comfortable sigh of relief. He smiled with a look of escaping death. If he was really caught by the enemy, no matter how strong he was, he would probably die.

When Er’Lai saw that, he was filled with unhappiness. He did not want to give up. The enemy’s arrow rain was really strong, causing men and horse to flip.

Zhang Hongfan’s goal was simple. He wanted to use arrow rain to prevent the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps from advancing and save Bayan.

“No, we cannot give up like that.” Er’Lai was not a person who gave up easily, and his eyes had a sharp glow to them, “All units, speed up!”

What an Er’Lai.

At the key moment, he advanced instead of retreating, staying at the front of the formation.

Seeing their Legion General being so valiant, the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps blew up. All of them roared, tossing their lives behind their heads as they charged forward.

This time, Zhang Hongfan and Bayan were totally stunned. They had never seen a unit like this that did not care about their lives.

“Quick, protect the commander!”

Zhang Hongfan did not dare to take it lightly as he charged forward.

If Bayan died, based on Mongol military rules, even if Zhang Hongfan survived, Kublai Khan would cut off his head. Hence, no matter how difficult it was, Zhang Hongfan had to save him.

Zhang Hongfan reacted quickly but Er’Lai was even quicker.

In just a few blinks of an eye, Er’Lai finally caught up. He raised the halberd in his hand and chopped down.

“Protect the commander!”

When Bayan’s Personal Guards saw that, they all jumped in front of Bayan and formed up a human wall.

‘Scoff!’

Er’Lai’s expression did not change. He coordinated with Luoshan so that when the halberd landed, so did a head. Even the strong Bayan Personal Guards were no different from schoolboys in front of Er’Lai.

At this point, the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps had caught up.

When Er’Lai saw that, he did not waste any more time, going around the Personal Guards and continuing to chase.

It seemed like Bayan was about to gather up together with the main force.

Er’Lai did not waver, and Luosha could feel the desire of its master. Although it had been charging for such a long distance, it increased its speed once more.

With a ‘Hu!’, Luosha jumped up, taking Er’Lai and landing right behind Bayan.

“Commander, be careful!”

When Zhang Hongfan saw that, his eyes widened.

Bayan instinctively turned around, only to see a black halberd getting bigger and bigger in his eyes.

‘Puchi!’

Before Bayan could react, his brain was cut by a halberd.

Blood splattered, brain juice flowed.

‘Honglong!’, Bayan fell off his warhorse. A general of a generation died just like that.

Chapter 1034 - Chasing the Win

Chapter 1034: Chasing the Win

Seeing their main general die in front of their very eyes was simply a huge blow to the Mongol army. Before they could even react, Er’Lai, who chased up, started to do work once more.

“Kill!”

Seeing their Legion General show off his skill, the following Guards Legion Corps exploded. All of their faces flushed red with emotion as their quickened up their speed. They were going to work harder to destroy the back troops of the enemy.

This battle grew more and more intense.

The Great Xia troops morale rose, but the Mongol army started to show fear. The successive blows weakened the confidence of the Mongol cavalry.

Such a strong commander was actually killed in one blow.

They were now group of soldiers without a leader. The Mongol army, who was not united as one, obviously could not defend against the charge of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps.

Zhang Hongfan’s face was really ugly. The moment that Bayan died, his fate was already confirmed. The problem was what he was supposed to do now.

In order to save Bayan, he only managed to gather up 20 thousand troops and had hurried over to assist. More troops were gathering up in the barracks, and they still needed time before they could reinforce.

Like what Bayan had judged, in Zhang Hongfan’s eyes, the 10 thousand elite cavalry could last for half an hour, so it was enough for him to lead his troops over to reinforce.

Who knew that this group of Personal Guards would actually be wiped out so easily.

Just thinking about that, Zhang Hongfan felt a chill run down his spine. A cold sensation entered right into his heart and made him shiver.

The Great Xia Guards Legion Corps did not give Zhang Hongfan much time to think.

The high speed charging cavalry was like lighting, sweeping out across the wilderness, giving out a killing intent and killing aura as they passed like a tsunami.

Every area they passed, people died.

The Mongol soldiers did not even have the time to collect the body of their dead commander before it was stepped on by the Guards Legion Corps, becoming one with the ground below.

At this very moment, a cold breeze blew across.

The black capes of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps sounded out in the wind, and the tassels attached to their helmets danced in the wind, becoming the most eye-catching sight beneath the night sky.

This tassel was not only a decorative piece, as it actually had huge use in battle.

With the current battle as an example, Er’Lai was charging at the front. The following troops could use the tassel to see the directions of attack and differentiate allies from enemies, and they could even use it to feel the wind direction.

In the blink of an eye, the two armies were like a flood, crashing into one another.

As a result of Zhang Hongfan’s moment of astonishment, the Mongol army did not have a commander. Some soldiers charged to the front while some turned around, ready to flee.

The entire battlefield was in total chaos.

At this very moment, the orange sun finally fell below the horizon, taking away the last bit of dusk. The earth was dark, like it could not bear to see the slaughter.

Weirdly, the moment the sun went down, a bright moon hung high up in the sky, giving out a gentle but eye-catching white light as it continued to shine onto the earth.

This was a catastrophe for the Mongol army. The night sky was not their protective talisman. On the contrary, it became the best light source for the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps.

In the light, the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps were like ghosts, charging around the Mongol army. In less than three rounds, the Mongol cavalry formation was ripped apart by the Great Xia troops, fleeing in all directions.

‘Hu!’

Er’Lai spat out a white mouthful of air. Currently, his body was drenched in sweat. Even a fierce general like him felt exhausted after such a battle.

Especially after killing two Mongol generals in succession. On the surface, it looked simple, but it used up most of Er’Lai’s stamina.

When Er’Lai saw that, he decided that that was enough and ordered the troops to rest up on the spot and form up.

The successive charges were a huge ask of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps, especially the horses. Under such an intense battle, some of the horses were panting and spitting out white foam.

If they did not rest, the horses would be tired to death.

“Send the city a signal bullet and say that Bayan is dead, and the enemy frontline is crushed. Seek instructions, continue or retreat.” Er’Lai ordered.

The military order sounded complicated, but they had a planned signal beforehand.

Hence, a red signal bullet was shot up, which represented the successful of the mission. The following two yellow ones indicated that the frontline was wiped out, and further instructions were needed.

…

Lin’an City, South City gate.

Apart from Wuqi, who was commanding the troops, Ouyang Shuo, Xiong Ba, Wen Tianxiang, and the other Grand Council members were all here.

Looking out at the rising red signal bullet, Ouyang Shuo let out a satisfied expression. As expected, Er’Lai did not disappoint him and won his battle.

“Great Xia’s Guards Legion Corps are worthy of its reputation!” Xiong Ba smiled and congratulated.

Wen Tianxiang gripped his fists tight. Currently, his face was filled with awe and emotion. His body could not help but shake as he looked toward Ouyang Shuo with recognition and respect.

The strength of the player forces had totally stunned Wen Tianxiang and made him submit.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, turning around and looking at Wuqi, “Bayan is dead, and the Mongol army frontline has collapsed. It’s time to expand our gains, what do you think?”

Since he was appointed as the commander, Ouyang Shuo naturally needed to give Wuqi enough respect.

Wuqi nodded, “The Xia King is right. The heavens hate the Mongols. The moon is so bright, so we can still fight. Since Bayan has died, the Mongols have no leader and cannot fight!”

“General, you can give the order without worry!” Ouyang Shuo smiled.

Wuqi nodded and started planning. Since Bayan had already died, the east and west wings did not need to continue the encirclement. Wuqi ordered them to immediately return and kill the enemies around them.

Er’Lai would lead the troops down south to take down the south barracks of the Mongol army.

Apart from moving the cavalry outside of the city, Wuqi moved troops within the city to strike out and work together with the cavalry troops to wipe out the Mongol barracks.

In truth, this was a little risky. After all, they were fighting at night. However, if they succeeded, the rewards would be more than they had expected.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he did not speak out to oppose.

Desperate times called for desperate measures. Such small gains were not enough to change the battle, and the Mongol main army was still alive. Hence, they needed to expand their winnings, and they had to do so quickly.

Since the Mongol army did not have a leader at the moment, this was the best time to strike. They could increase the fear within the enemies and force them to have a full-scale collapse.

If not, and they did not give them enough pressure, the Mongol army would come back to their senses, and all their hard work would be wasted.

As expected from a God General like Wuqi. He saw the entire battlefield really clearly.

In less than five minutes, the new order was spread through the signal bullets. This was also a secret weapon of the player troops. If not, they would not be able to spread orders on such a night.

…

The moment the military order was given, 180 thousand South Song troops used the moonlight to start a slaughter in the wilderness.

Er’Lai led the 30 thousand Great Xia Guards Legion Corps troops. Zhang Shijie led 50 thousand elite cavalry and followed closely behind. The huge army flooded into the Mongol South camp.

The current south camp was in a total mess.

As there were soldiers who had backed down from the frontlines, the south camp soldiers already knew that their commander Bayan had died in battle. General Zhang Hongfan was also lost in the chaos.

The successive failures nearly caused the south camp troops to collapse.

An army without a commander meant that the south camp was totally out of their minds. Under Er’Lai’s leadership, the fate of the soldiers was foreseeable.

The fall of the south camp was just a matter of time.

During the process, there were already Mongol cavalry that were fleeing toward the east and west city camps in an attempt to escape.

When Er’Lai saw that, he did not stop them. When these soldiers escaped toward the east and west camps, not only would it not be useful, but it would even spread fear around and mess up the entire Mongol army.

…

At the same time, Lianpo and Zhao Zhuang led the two wings of troops and were about to surround the Mongol south army. Just as they were about to do that, they received the order to kill their way back.

Lianpo had a complicated expression on his face. Looking at the south camp that killing shouts were spreading from, he said in a low voice, “Send my orders, the front troops become the back troops, the back becomes the front. The target is the West camp.”

“Yes, general!”

Lianpo was a prideful general. He was not willing to let the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps claim all the credit.

On this night, the Handan City Army should not go quietly into the night. Behind them fell many Mongol West camp cavalry. A night of slaughter was unavoidable.

Zhao Zhuang led the east wing troops and the war they fought was similar to that of Lianpo’s.

…

The news of Bayan’s death spread quickly to the east and west camps and slowly toward the north. This totally shook the fighting spirit of the Mongol army.

Should they send out troops to take revenge for the commander or should they defend the barracks till daylight?

No one could give them a correct answer.

Everyone could only fight for themselves. Some choose to attack, some chose to defend, and some even had internal conflicts based on differing opinions.

Just as the Mongol army was hesitating, the four city gates of Lin’an city opened up once more.

More troops swarmed out and charged at the east and west camps.

That’s right. Wuqi took risks, but he was not a fool. He knew how to attack three sides and let one off, moving the troops to strike the east, west, and south camps and letting the north go.

This would instead quicken the defeat of the Mongol army because they had a way out.

This night was destined to be a chaotic one.

Under the night sky, the killing shouts, horse hooves, and screams mixed together, causing the originally peaceful wilderness to be bustling so that no one could fall asleep.

In the later part of the night, the east and west camps were blazing in flames. The South Song soldiers used the chaos to start fires everywhere and were ready to burn the entire enemy camp.

Just as Wuqi had expected, since Bayan and Zhang Hongfan were not taking charge of the north camp and it was also night, the soldiers there did not dare to exit the camp and chose to defend their position.

The blazing flames shone half-way across the sky, and screams spread out from within the flames. Only the flames shook in the night breeze and blurred one’s face.

On such a special night, who could foresee the future?

Chapter 1035 - Kublai Khan Personally Leads

Chapter 1035: Kublai Khan Personally Leads

In the morning, when the first bit of light shone onto the north outskirts, the north Mongol army who had tolerated it for an entire night were ready to charge out and teach South Song a lesson.

Just as they went out, they realized that the South Song army had already retreated like a flood, leaving behind a battlefield that was in pieces.

Looking out, there were no Mongol cavalry that were still alive.

The east, west, and south barracks were still in flames. Every tent was burned to ash, and the ground was charred black. Black smoke bellowed out, and corpses laid strewn all over. It formed a chilling sight.

The ownerless war horses neighed, defending by the corpses of their owners, not willing to leave.

The soldiers of the north camp looked at all this, and their eyes were filled with anger and confusion. What should they do? Continue sieging or retreat?

At this moment, only their emperor could make the decision.

“Return and wait for orders!”

The deputy general of the north camp led the men back. With the personalities of the Mongols, both sides now had a blood debt, which meant that this war was not over. The moment they broke through Lin’an, they would massacre the entire city.

…

Morning, the massacre that lasted for an entire night had finally ended. The three barracks of the Mongol army had collapsed, and the survivors either fled back to their bases or toward the north.

The South Song camp chased out and killed for an entire night. As the killings were too frequent, many soldiers had even spent their weapons.

The entire wilderness was filled with visible Mongol cavalry corpses. There were no prisoners in this war, and you either lived or you died; there was no third choice.

When the army returned to the city, there was an uproar.

Victory!

During this battle, not only did they kill Bayan and crush the Mongol army, but they also obtained large amounts of grain and solved the grain crisis.

A large half of the Mongol Xiangyang cannons were also destroyed in this battle.

When the news of Er’Lai killing Bayan spread back, the entire city was bustling.

As the main general of the Mongol attack on South Song, he had too much Chinese blood on his hands.

In just Lin’an alone, there were many families that had members that died directly and indirectly to his hands.

His death naturally delighted the civilians, and some even released fireworks to celebrate.

Of course, there was also some bad news amongst all the good news.

Just last night, Lu Xiufu was unfortunately sacrificed. After they learned that Bayan was killed, the Mongol troops in charge of locking up Lu Xiufu killed him in a fit of anger.

The moment the news spread out, Lin’an city was joyous but solemn at the same time.

As the chancellor of South Song, his death was a huge loss to the Imperial Court. The eight year old emperor cried his eyes out and made a lot of noise that he wanted to meet Mister Lu.

Lu Xiufu had sacrificed himself for the country, and all the descendants would remember that.

…

Lin’an City, north city gate.

Although Lu Xiufu’s death brought some tragedy to Lin’an city, a huge victory was still a huge victory. Very quickly, the officials of the Imperial Court and the civilians all celebrated.

In their eyes, the defense of Lin’an city was already a done deal. Some officials even thought about striking out and recovering their lost land.

Of course, they only talked about this. If one asked them to lead, they obviously did not have the courage to do so.

Early in the morning, under the accompaniment of Jia Xu and Xu Chu, Ouyang Shuo came to the north city wall. Every action of the Mongol north barracks was in his eyes.

Seeing the enemy reorganize their flags and drums, Ouyang Shuo’s expression became more and more solemn.

Ouyang Shuo was not blindly confident, and the Mongols were not rookies. Last night, they had only caught them off guard. The Mongol army had the name of the million army, and just the six bases alone had 400 thousand troops. Moreover, in the chaos last night, there were many Mongol troops that had escaped.

Considering the north barracks, once all these men were gathered together, they still had shocking strength.

During the battle last night, the South Song camp had suffered casualties. The Mongol cavalry were weak to the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps but not to the others.

They did not have much in terms of specifics but conservatively speaking, at least 30 thousand men died.

“Killing a thousand of them, we lost 800 in return.”

Of course, after a night of battle, the situation of the South Song camp slowly turned for the better. Ouyang Shuo looked out at the north land, and his field of sight seemingly
crossed through the air toward Sanhe city.

That was where Kublai Khan was at.

“It’s time for the final battle!” Who knows why, but Ouyang Shuo suddenly felt his blood boil. He yearned to go to battle himself and fight with the legendary Yuan ancestor.

Maybe the Chinese blood in his body was what was causing all this.

…

17th day of the Battle Map, Sanhe City.

Out of the six cities surrounding Lin’an City, the defense of Sanhe city was the highest, and it was the most well prepared one. Out of the 400 thousand Mongol troops, half were lined up around Sanhe City to protect their emperor.

Within the city, there was a really outstanding golden tent. The neighboring buildings were destroyed so as to build this tent.

Within the magnificent and bright tent, Kublai Khan had a sleepless night.

The successive bad news made him furious like a beast that swallowed all
men, so no one dared to get close to him.

From last night till today, there were already three maidservants who were killed by him.

The entire Sanhe City was covered in a terrifying atmosphere.

No matter who it was, they were really careful, afraid of infuriating the emperor.

The Chinese people in the city were really afraid and hid in their homes, unable to fall asleep.

When the Mongols were furious, who knows what they would do to them?

At 9 AM, the sound of horse hooves suddenly spread out from the south gate official path. Looking up, it was a group of cavalry that had fled from the frontlines.

When the defending soldiers saw that, they did not think too much about it. That was because since last night, there were many troops that had fled back from the frontlines. The group in front of them was nothing special.

When the defending troops saw these people, they could not hide their despise and mocking expressions.

In the eyes of the Mongols, fleeing was a really disgraceful act. The Mongol army also had rules that if troops fled without fighting, if they were captured, they would be tortured.

How so? It was simple.

They would place these deserters into a bag and throw them onto an empty section of land.

Then cavalry would charge and trample on these bags until no one could move.

How gory and cruel the scene was. It could cause bystanders to be terrified till their faces turned ashen white.

At this very moment, the guard noticed the leading general and exclaimed, “General Zhang?”

Only to see a person with eyes that lacked spirit. His body was covered in blood, and his face was dirty. The armor on his body was torn and tattered and hung from his body.

People unfamiliar with him definitely would not recognize that he was Zhang Hongfan.

When Zhang Hongfan heard that, he took a look at the man, showing a look of surprise. This guard was someone who worked as his Personal Guard for a long period of time. As such, it was no wonder he recognized him so quickly.

With this layer of relationship, Zhang Hongfan felt a little more confident.

“Bring me to see the emperor, I’ve sinned,” Zhang Hongfan said with a coarse voice.

Listening to his words, all the soldiers looked over.

Zhang Hongfan’s fame was not only in South Song, and he was really famous in Mongol too. Along with him being one of the main characters of the huge battle yesterday, he naturally attracted a lot of attention.

The soldiers either looked at this fallen general with empathy or despise.

Based on Mongol rules, the death of Bayan meant that Zhang Hongfan had to die in battle. If not, the problem would only get worse.

Not only would Zhang Hongfan be executed, but he would also drag down his family members.

Hence, normally, in such circumstances, if the deputy survived by luck, he would rather kill himself. Who knows? He might get a title for it that would help out his family.

Seeing something like Zhang Hongfan appearing in Sanhe City and wanting to meet the emperor was rare.

As an experienced Mongol general, Zhang Hongfan obviously knew that he might not even manage to meet the emperor and his death would even be ordered.

Zhang Hongfan obviously wanted to die. However, thinking back to the battle, he could not die. It was not because of his loyalty to the country or for his family.

It was because deep down, he still had some plans and thoughts.

The defeat of the Mongol army and the death of Bayan meant that even if Kublai Khan wanted to personally lead, he badly needed a general to help him. Hence, he wanted to take a gamble that Kublai Khan would not kill him for the moment.

It would be more worth it to keep his life.

Furthermore, during the battle last night, he only followed instructions as a deputy general and tried his best to save Bayan. He did not fail his job and did not flee from battle. Once Kublai Khan understood the situation, he should let him off.

Zhang Hongfan was a person that cherished his life, but more so, he was someone that had ambition.

Hence, during the previous night, when he killed his way out, he thought about it and decided to rush over to Sanhe City.

“Bring me to see the emperor,” Zhang Hongfan said once more.

Only then did the guard react, “Wait, I’ll go report right away.”

Maybe the heavens did not forsake Zhang Hongfan, as the first difficulty of meeting Kublai Khan had been cleared right away because of a familiar face.

If no one went to report, Zhang Hongfan would probably not get the chance.

Not long after the guard left, he returned with the decree from the emperor, “Tie him up and send him to the golden tent.”

Zhang Hongfan heaved a sigh of relief. As long as the emperor was willing to see him, he would still have a chance.

What he was afraid of was getting beheaded without even getting a chance.

What outsiders did not know was that during that short time, Zhang Hongfan’s hands were drenched in cold sweat. No one knew that this general had walked out from hell.

Zhang Hongfan took in a deep breath and was ready to enter the city.

From now on, he had to think about how to assist the emperor’s expedition.

Chapter 1036 - Gambling Everything

Chapter 1036: Gambling Everything

Sanhe City, Kehan Tent.

The tied-up Zhang Hongfan was finally able to meet the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan.

“Speak, what exactly happened last night?”

Kublai Khan had already calmed down from his anger. He was a mighty Lord and would not let his emotions dictate his actions. If not, Zhang Hongfan would not be able to survive till now.

Zhang Hongfan relaxed a little. He did not dare to hide anything and descriptively told everything that had happened. Whilst describing it, Zhang Hongfan did not add in his personal emotions and gave a true picture.

Kublai Khan had his own judgement, which was why Zhang Hongfan did not dare play any tricks. One had to say that Zhang Hongfan had a great understanding of Kublai Khan.

Listening to his words, Kublai Khan continued and asked, “What plan do you have?” These words were in truth pardoning Zhang Hongfan’s death sentence and giving him a chance to atone for his sins.

Zhang Hongfan suppressed his emotions and simply said, “The defeat yesterday was due to our military unity, but it did not really affect the core of our army. As long as we plan well, with your majesty personally leading and raising their morale, we would definitely breakthrough.”

Looking at the situation, Zhang Hongfan was not dejected at all and appeared to be really confident.

“Be more specific.”

“Through these few days of battles, I have realized that the enemy has a fatal weakness.” Zhang Hongfan used his killing method and slowly said, “During the earlier period of time, we sent the Chinese to build the castles, but the South Song troops did not stop them. Through this, we can see that they are soft and unwilling to attack their own kind.”

“You’re saying?” Kublai Khan was slowly getting more and more interested.

“As long as we gather a batch of Chinese people and chase them to the frontlines, and then force them to charge at the city gates whilst shooting at them, Lin’an will open up,” Zhang Hongfan said.

“Once the city gates open, Lin’an city would definitely fall.”

If there was a Chinese person standing here, he would definitely want to skin and boil Zhang Hongfan alive.

“This person was simple too evil.”

For his personal honor, Zhang Hongfan was actually going to sacrifice the lives of numerous Chinese. One must not forget that although Zhang Hongfan did not grow up under South Song rule, his blood was pure Chinese blood.

Kublai Khan was really happy, as Zhang Hongfan’s suggestion was exactly what he wanted. He had already decided that after taking down Lin’an City, disregarding the opposition from the Han officials, he would massacre the city for three days.

There was no one who does not pay a blood price for killing Mongols.

Kublai Khan let the men untie Zhang Hongfan and spoke, “You are in charge of this matter. If you take down Lin’an, not only will you be pardoned, but you will even be promoted!”

“Yes, your majesty!”

Zhang Hongfan’s face turned red.

“Go and prepare. Three days later, I’ll personally lead the expedition to Lin’an.”

“Yes, your majesty!”

…

18th day of the Battle Map, Lin’an City.

Two days had passed since that siege attack. From yesterday onward, the six Mongol Army Camps were broken, and they once again gathered up on the frontlines.

After the sneak attack ended, the north camp gathered 250 thousand Mongol troops. The six camps, including the soldiers that had escaped, numbered at around 450 thousand men.

This also meant that during the sneak attack, from a total of 300 thousand men from the three Mongol camps, 100 thousand escaped while 200 thousand died.

In just one night, the Mongol army had lost twice the number they had lost in the war so far.

At this point, only 700 thousand men remained from the million men army.

Even so, South Song was a tall mountain that was difficult to climb over.

Last afternoon, they had finished tabulating the casualty report.

After the huge war, 290 thousand players were left from 340 thousand. Amongst which, 150 thousand were cavalry and 140 thousand were infantry. The 150 thousand Great Song Guards troops were even worse, with 50 thousand left.

Logically speaking, Lin’an city had 340 thousand troops defending it. Facing the 700 thousand troops, lasting for 12 days would not be a problem. After all, the Mongol army’s surrendered troops, support troops, and random units were all used up. Even their Xiangyang Cannon suffered heavy casualties ,and it would be hard for them to replicate the siege tactics they used at the start.

A head on siege was one that the Mongol army did not have much of an advantage in.

As a result, after the sneak attack, it was like a huge storm had rose up within Lin’an city, and even Chun Shenjun and the others had an optimistic attitude.

However, Ouyang Shuo felt uneasy.

After the battle ended, under the insistence of Ouyang Shuo, the Grand Council did not lower their guard. They sent out men to patrol to investigate the Mongol army actions.

Very quickly, the matter of the Mongol army catching Chinese was reported to the Grand Council.

“What are they planning, sending Chinese to build castles again?” Ouyang Shuo did not understand. Without the prisoners charging at the front, the Mongol cavalry would not dare to siege.

If that happened, Ouyang Shuo would not be afraid. With the grain they had obtained as something to rely on, Lin’an city could defend itself till the month deadline was reached.

In the hall, the expressions of Zhang Shijie and Wen Tianxiang suddenly became solemn.

“The situation is not that simple.” Wen Tianxiang’s face was really ugly.

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes froze, “Did you all think back to something?”

Xiong Ba and the others looked over.

Wen Tianxiang and Zhang Shijie exchanged glances and said in a low tone, “Based on Mongol military habits, they do not capture civilians to only to build castles and get oil. There’s also another strategy, which is to force us to open the city gates and allow the people in. The moment the gates open, the Mongol army would use the chance to strike.”

Xiong Ba asked, “Since that’s the case, why did not they not do so earlier?” No matter how they looked at it, it was more effective than the previous strategy.

Zhang Shijie replied first, “Normally, the defending side would rather look on at the civilians being shot by the Mongols and would not open up. Hence, this strategy might not be effective and is not their top choice. Only because we did not shoot the civilians when they built the castles did the Mongols see through our weakness.”

“….”

The atmosphere in the hall was really weird.

Zhang Shijie’s words showed that he did not support being too merciful to the civilians. When they voted to attack the castles, Zhang Shijie had voted yes.

Seeing that Lu Xiufu had become a sacrifice, and there were only six members left in the Grand Council. Ouyang Shuo, Guo Ziyi, and Wen Tianxiang would not refuse the civilians from entering. Hence, no matter how they voted, Zhang Shijie would lose.

The best outcome would be a draw.

Who knew that Xiong Ba would step out, “Since we have already done it, we must stick to it. If they use such a despicable method, we have to have a final battle against them within the city.”

Zhang Shijie looked at Xiong Ba in surprise, and his face became even uglier.

With Xiong Ba’s support, there was no way they would reject the civilians. Thinking about the 700 thousand Mongol troops charging into Lin’an city, Zhang Shijie felt pained.

Ouyang Shuo was really calm, and he smiled, “There’s a way to defend, and there’s a way not to. We have crushed them once, and we can do it twice.”

“Easily said, but if we do not defend, how will we fight?” Zhang Shijie was not that optimistic.

Seeing that Zhang Shijie was not making things easy for his king, Jia Xu stepped out, “General Zhang, do not give up hope, I have an idea.”

“Please speak!”

Everyone knew about the fame of Jia Xu, and they all held high hopes for him.

Jia Xu said, “My king is right, there’s a way not to defend. Since we know that the enemy will use such a tactic, let’s just open a gate and let them in.”

“What should we do after that?” Zhang Shijie asked.

“Very simple, while we open up a gate, we will position an army outside to act as a human wall to prevent the enemy from entering.”

Jia Xu’s idea was fresh.

Zhang Shijie was a little hesitant, “I’ve calculated, if the troops outside are big enough not to be wiped out, we would need at least 200 thousand men. Then, wouldn’t Lin’an city be empty? How would we defend?”

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, his expression turned solemn. Although he did not raise his voice, it was filled with killing intent, “How to defend Lin’an city is not only a military matter and is not only the concern of the player forces.”

“We need to make it clear to the civilians that if Lin’an is broken into, the Mongols will kill everyone. If they don’t want to be killed, they have to fight for themselves.”

“For one to live, one will still have to depend on themselves in the end.”

When Zhang Shijie heard that, he felt ashamed. That’s right. The Lin’an people and even the entire South Song were too reliant on the players. They had forgotten that the players were the guests, and they were the true owners of the city. How could they ask the guests to charge at the front whilst they did nothing?

Ouyang Shuo did not mind and continued, “Although there are not enough troops, we can recruit teens and healthy men. No weapons? They can find some from the battlefield outside of the city. No defensive resources? They can demolish their own houses. No fuel? They can use their cooking oil. No iron to make arrows? They can use their own bowls and pots.”

“We must let them realize that this is not a simple city defense and is a life or death battle that concerns the survival of their civilization. For victory, we must go all out and gamble everything.”

Ouyang Shuo’s words riled up everyone and made everyone realize that this was his true feelings.

South Song was wiped out because the people lacked the determination to go all out.

If it were Han or Tang, it would not be that bad.

This battle had given Ouyang Shuo many thoughts, which was why he said those words. He believed that only by using the power of the entire city would the victory in this battle have meaning.

If not, it was just a passing cloud.

Chapter 1037 - Sharing the Burden of the Country

Chapter 1037: Sharing the Burden of the Country

Ouyang Shuo’s words made every member of the Grand Council emotional, and all of them agreed to Jia Xu’s plan.

When the meeting ended, everyone started to work.

Due to the exceptional performance of Wuqi, Ouyang Shuo suggested to not only bring him into the Grand Council, but also appoint him as the overall commander.

After Lu Xiufu died, Ouyang Shuo was the undoubted leader of the Grand Council.

At the same time, the military forces did a reorganization.

The gate that they would open up was chosen to be the north city gate that was facing the north barracks of the Mongols. If things went as expected, Kublai Khan’s golden tent would be set up there.

In Ouyang Shuo’s words, they needed to use their strongest forces to face off against the strongest side of the Mongols.

Trump card against trump card.

For this, the players moved all their 150 thousand cavalry forces. Apart from that, they also used up 50 thousand infantry forces. As such, there were a total of 200 thousand men led by Guo Ziyi.

Only 90 thousand player infantry forces and 50 thousand Song Guards were left in the city. To the huge Lin’an, this was far from enough.

The moment the Grand Council meeting ended, the Imperial Court’s soldier recruitment order was given.

The Mongol army killing the civilians was their normal practice. The South Song army had just won a battle and given them a huge blow, which was why the moment the Imperial Court sent the order, the people immediately believed them. They all eagerly joined in and jumped into the upcoming war.

Young strong men bid farewell to their parents and wives and went toward the recruitment point. Next, they followed the general out and started to collect equipment from the battlefield before the Mongols arrived.

South Song itself was not famous for its military, so the armory was not like Chang An city of Great Tang. There was not much equipment and weapons left. As such, to solve the lack of equipment for the newbies, they could only rely on such a method.

Luckily, after the sneak attack, close to 200 thousand corpses of the Mongol army laid around the battlefield.

Two days had passed, and the corpses lying under the sun had started to decompose and gave out a disgusting smell. As one got close, one could scare a huge bunch of flies that were like a black cloud, sending a shiver down one’s spine.

Since this was a battlefield, there were many different ways of death. Losing arms and legs was normal. Some were directly chopped in half, their intestines exposed in the air, making one vomit. Some had their brains broken and the juice flowing all around.

The entire battlefield was like hell.

The newbies suppressed their fear and disgust, walking into the blood ocean and picking up the equipment on the dead bodies. Some of the brutes did not care and wore them right away.

A large portion of them did not have the courage, and these people were ashen white and vomiting. Finally, when they did not have anything else to vomit out, they only coughed out bitter water.

Before joining in, they were just normal people who had never seen a dead person in their lives. Now, they had to face such a bloody scene, so vomiting was a normal reaction.

No one had such a strong mental strength.

This could also be considered a meeting gift for the newbies to let them understand the brutality of the battlefield. Only by seeing blood could they be unfazed during the upcoming battle.

Apart from the young and the strong, the other people were also used.

The ladies took out the vegetable oil that was really precious, gathering all of them up in a huge pot and transporting them to the city wall.

Artisans under the leadership of the generals started to demolish houses. Then they transported the wood and stone to the city walls.

Temples also fell because these buildings were often really majestic and used up good wood and great pillars that were good for defending.

Seeing the temple being demolished, the monks could only sigh, “The way of the world is changing!”

There were also some young monks who had turned around and jumped to join the military. These men were trained in martial arts and had some skill.

The various workshops in the city ran overnight to make arrows. Every moment, there would be civilians sending over their iron pots, iron basin, and other iron items.

Even the royal family participated, not only opening up their treasury but also gathering up ironware. The eight year old emperor even wanted to demolish the palace to take revenge for Mister Lu, but he was stopped by the officials.

Some of the officials could not help but tear up and choke, “Your highness, no matter the state of the Imperial Court, we have not reached the level of demolishing the palace. It’s a sign of the empire and cannot be demolished.”

“That’s right. If you want to demolish something, you should demolish our residences.” Some officials agreed and directly demolished their own homes.

Before this, this was an unthinkable matter. It was like their views had suddenly changed overnight.

The Imperial Court and its people were united as one to save the country in need.

Reality proved that a group of desperate people would often show shocking strength when forced into a corner.

The Battle of Yashan in history was one where the 100 thousand troops and civilians would rather jump into the ocean than surrender to the Yuan Dynasty. This was the most obvious show of that strength.

Earlier in history, the Qin country during Qin Xiaogong’s time gave land in return for peace, facing both internal and external problems, being forced to a corner by the Wei country.

At this very moment, all of the people united and worked together, officially giving rise to Qin ruling China.

There were simply too many examples of similar feats in the five thousand years of China’s history.

Lin’an City was destined to be a legend.

…

Overnight, the entire Lin’an City had sprung into action.

In front of life or death, people would only grumble that time was not enough and wish that the Mongol army would arrive later.

Of course, that was only their one-sided wish.

On the 20th day of the Battle Map, the frontline scouts reported that Kublai Khan had already set off from Sanhe City and was personally leading the expedition. Based on their travelling speed, next morning at the latest, their group would arrive.

The moment the news was released, the entire Lin’an City had a busy and uneasy atmosphere.

As they say, ‘When a forest is big, there are all kinds of birds.’ When the country was on the brink, there were many valiant soldiers but also scums who would come out to sow chaos.

Ruffians went around the city to rob and even rape women. Along with the Mongol spies hiding within the city, Lin’an city panicked.

When Ouyang Shuo got the news, he arranged the Divine Martial Guards to patrol. The moment they saw robbers, people disrespecting women, or people spreading rumors, he would punish them on the spot.

In a chaotic time, one needed to rule with an iron fist. Under Ouyang Shuo’s strict rule, the Divine Martial Guards killed many batches of ruffians, finally calming down the situation.

Amongst all this chaos, it seemed like the final battle was about to arrive.

…

21st day of the Battle Map, Lin’an City.

Right at midnight, Lin’an City that had not slept for long quietly awakened.

‘Pu~Chi~’

In the pitch black darkness, the drawbridge at the north city gate was slowly placed down, along with the city gates opening up. On the nearby streets, groups of soldiers had already gathered up.

On both sides of the streets and the city wall, torches were lit up and placed around. Under Zhuo Ziyi’s commanding, the soldiers used the light from the torches to swiftly travel in the dark and pass through the city gate.

First, there was the cavalry, and then there was the infantry.

The entire process was nervous but orderly, and there was no panic.

Once the 200 thousand troops gathered up outside of the city, it was already 7 AM. The sun had just risen, and it shone its rays all over.

On the north outskirts, the 200 thousand troops formed up in a square formation, looking really majestic.

The light shone on their iron armor and their spear tips, flickering brightly.

Only if one looked down from above could they truly see the formation of the 200 thousand troops. The left and right wings were led by Er’Lai and Zhao Zhuang, each leading 50 thousand elite cavalry forces.

The backlines were personally led by Lianpo, who specialized in defense. They had 50 thousand infantry there.

The most special one was the middle troops.

At the front, there were the 25 thousand Fallen Phoenix City cavalry, while the middle consisted of the 25 thousand Guards Legion Corps troops. At the back, there were the three thousand Divine Martial Guards led by Xu Chu.

Ouyang Shuo was dressed in martial gear, riding on God beast subspecies Little Green. He stood in the middle of the Divine Martial Guards.

This also meant that Ouyang Shuo was personally leading.

At the start, be it Feng Qiuhuang, Er’Lai, Jia Xu, or the like, none of htem supported his decision. However, he had his own reasons.

Since the establishment of the dynasty, as the king Ouyang Shuo, had very few chances to personally lead troops. Even if he did, he did not truly go on the battlefield to kill.

However, this was different.

Who knows why, but since the start of the Battle Map, the killing intent in his body had jumped uncontrollably. After seeing the cruel methods of the Mongols, his hatred turned into killing intent and no one could curb it.

Ouyang Shuo needed to release this on the battlefield.

The past Ouyang Shuo’s blood was boiling, and he did not wish that after he ascended the throne it would turn cold.

Apart from personal reasons, Ouyang Shuo led because of the plan that Jia Xu had given him. As a top strategist, Jia Xu’s plan obviously was not as simple as saving the civilians.

That could only solve the problem but not the root of it, and it was not enough to turn the battle around.

To try to settle it once and for all, the best way would be to kill Kublai Khan like how they killed Bayan. If not, they needed to harm him heavily and scare him away, making him call the retreat of the troops.

Hence, Jia Xu crafted a full battle plan.

The 200 thousand army outside of the city was the core to executing his plan. Moreover, this plan needed a core person to be in charge of the final blow.

No matter how one looked at it, Ouyang Shuo was a top choice. Apart from his personal combat strength, he also held two secret weapons.

Even so, Feng Qiuhuang and the others did not support it until Ouyang Shuo showed them the substitute doll. After that, they were finally convinced.

In the military formation, Ouyang Shuo, who was heavily guarded by the Divine Martial Guards, looked out toward the north and muttered, “Kublai Khan? Let’s have a battle of kings!”

The blood in Ouyang Shuo’s body started to slowly boil.

Chapter 1038 - King Versus King, General Versus General

Chapter 1038: King Versus King, General Versus General

At 8 AM, Kublai Khan arrived as expected.

Along with him were the 200 thousand troops housed in Sanhe City. The golden imperial chariot of Kublai Khan was heavily protected by the army, looking really eye-catching and stunning.

Zhang Hongfan rode on a black warhorse and followed beside the chariot.

In front of the army, there were 100 thousand Han race civilians, and they were all yellow and thin, their eyes devoid of sense and energy. Their clothes were torn and tattered, and they were all thin like bones.

Since Mongol attacked Song, the entire Chinese land had been trembling under the horse hooves of the Mongols. Numerous Chinese daughters were raped and murdered, and the entire race was facing a dark period.

After Yuan wiped out South Song in history, to protect the Mongol nobles, they set up a caste system. The top would be Mongols, second would be the Semu people, third would be Han, and last would be the South people.

The Han they referred to did not refer to the Han race people but the Nuzhen, Han, and other people that were conquered by Mongols later on like Sichuan, Dali, and the Koreans.

The last caste was the South people, which were the various civilians of South Song.

As a result, the true Han people were the lowest class in the entire dynasty, being treated unfairly and looked down upon. They were no different from slaves. For example, they were prohibited from hunting, learning martial arts, having weapons, praying to gods, walking around at night, and the like.

Yuan Dynasty did whatever they wished toward the Han people. Out of 10 houses, they could only have one cooking knife, and they needed to feed the Mongol soldier that monitored them. Whoever’s daughter was married off, the first night had to be given to a Mongol. The Han people could not even have a surname, and their name would be their birth date.

The Yuan Dynasty law also had rules that if one killed a Mongol, they would die, while those who killed a Semu would need to pay 40 units of gold. On the other hand, when one killed a Han, they only needed to pay a mule.

When they faced war, the difference in treatment would become even more evident. Like when they attacked Annan in 1286. Out of three horses of the Semu people, two were taken, while all the Han people’s horses were taken.

Most of the positions were taken by the Mongols, and when they were not enough, the central Asians who gave enough bribes would be chosen.

Most of the Mongol official positions were hereditary. For each state magistrate or County Magistrate, the land under him was his, and the Han were his slaves. They had no ruling or lawful obligations to the Han.

The Mongol emperor could treat the Han like grain, giving them to relatives like seeds.

After South Song was wiped out, there was a huge rewarding ceremony. Those who got little were awarded 10 or 100 houses, whilst some were given ten thousand. If one house had five men, that meant 50 thousand slaves.

The Mongol people could even invade the farms as and when they wanted. They often suddenly appeared and chased the Han people away from fertile soil, allowing the crops to grow without care for the animals to eat.

Maybe because of such a cruel rule, but the Yuan Dynasty only lasted for 98 years before it was replaced by the Ming Dynasty.

…

At 8 AM, Kublai Khan’s imperial chariot was brought into the north barracks.

After meeting the defending general, Kublai Khan left the chariot and went to the commanding tower. He noticed the 200 thousand troops gathered right away and said, “They really have some soul!”

The South Song camp’s action had surprised Zhang Hongfan as he said carefully, “Your majesty, should we stick to the plan or wipe out the enemies first?”

“Stick to the plan! Leave 400 thousand here, and the remaining 300 thousand spread out on the three sides. We must take down Lin’an.”

“Yes, your majesty!”

Spies in Lin’an city had reported that apart from the 200 thousand troops outside, there were only 140 thousand left within the city. The moment the city was broken into and the army entered it, these forces would not even be a concern.

As for the recruits that South Song had gathered up, they were not even in the eyes of Kublai Khan.

Since starting his attack on South Song, the South Song civilians had been synonymous with weak in his eyes. They did whatever was asked of them and did not have any killing intent, and they did not resist no matter what the Mongols did to them.

How could these civilians give birth to a strong army?

Although Kublai Khan’s thoughts were a little biased, they were also true. South Song was a peaceful dynasty, and the civilians were far away from war, so their weakness was an undeniable fact.

What Kublai Khan did not know was that in desperate times, people could give out exceptional strength.

…

Very quickly, the Mongol army spread out in four directions. The following 100 thousand Han Civilians were also split into three and chased toward the east west and south gates.

At 9 AM, the Mongol army had already gotten into position.

“Siege!”

Along with the order, the Han people were like sheep as they got herded forward. If they walked too slowly, they would get shot. The scene was really gruesome.

Being provoke like that, the civilians pushed forwards while they cried out.

Weirdly, the drawbridges on all sides were placed down, but the city gates were locked shut. What did they mean by that?

The Mongol cavalry in charge of supervising these people was ready to shoot the civilians to force them to open up the gates.

At this very moment, a banner hung down from the city walls. On it were words written in fresh red color, “Brothers, follow the wall and walk toward the north gate.”

At the same time, soldiers shouted down from the city walls to ask the civilians to gather toward the north.

This confused the Mongol cavalry, who immediately reported it upward. The news quickly spread to Zhang Hongfan. For this siege, Kublai Khan did not personally command it. Instead, he passed all control over to Zhang Hongfan.

This was undoubtedly a huge honor to him.

When Zhang Hongfan received the report, he frowned. However, he was not that shocked. He had fought a few rounds with the players and knew that they were not simple and would not easily give up like that.

At the crucial moment, he needed to use some methods.

“Order the cavalry to freely fire and force the civilians to charge at the city gate,” Zhang Hongfan ordered.

“Yes, general!”

The moment the military order was given, the hundreds of civilians outside of the city fell prey.

The Mongol cavalry were well-trained in archery, and they could kill more than one civilian with one arrow. In less than 10 minutes, the civilians at the back of the group all fell.

This provoked the will to live in these civilians, and all of them charged forward and smacked on the city gates, “Let’s us in! Let us in!”

They only thought about hiding from the threats coming from behind and did not think about what a catastrophe it would be when the Mongol cavalry charged in.

In front of death, everyone was selfish.

There were those smart ones that decided to give it a try and run toward the north city gate.

When the Mongol soldiers saw that, they naturally would not let them off. Their focus of shooting turned right to those civilians that tried to escape. If they really escaped, how could they force South Song to open up the city gates?

As the civilians were right at the wall, if they wanted to shoot, the Mongol cavalry had to go further in front. This caused them to enter the range of the defending troops.

“Fire!”

Only to hear an order given on the city wall as the archers and arcuballistas fired altogether, causing the Mongol cavalry to retreat, escaping the shooting range.

Jia Xu had made use of the structure of the city wall to create a dead zone for the civilians, which would allow them to escape the shooting range of the cavalry.

The strong retaliation from the defending troops let the civilians see hopes of surviving. They did not care much anymore, rushing right for the north city gate.

With someone leading them, there would be people following.

The situation was already really clear. The city gates would not be opened, and they would only die if they continue to squeeze here. Why not take a gamble and follow what the banner says and rush to the north city gate?

In an instance, large amounts of civilians swarmed toward the north.

The Mongol cavalry did not know what to do, and even Zhang Hongfan was in a pickle. He understood why South Song had arranged 200 thousand men at the north. They were there to protect these civilians.

With that, his plan had already failed. Thinking back to the look from the emperor, he could not help but shiver.

Zhang Hongfan gave a vicious order and ordered the three sides of troops to siege.

Using the 100 thousand civilians as hostages was not totally useless, as at the very least, the drawbridge was placed down and the city protection river was now useless.

As long as they broke through the city gates, they would still win.

That’s right, the Mongol army mainly consisted of cavalry, but that did not mean that they did not have infantry.

Apart from archery, they loved wrestling. Their three biggest sports were wrestling, horse racing, and shooting. Their love for it gave birth to a bunch of Mongol warriors. Zhang Hongfan was going to send out the most elite Mongol force to break down the city gates.

At the same time, the Mongol army pushed out the Xiangyang cannons.

These were brought from the six bases, and along with them were a batch of siege ladders. Although simple and lacking in sophistry, it could still be considered a siege weapon.

Along with Zhang Hongfan’s orders, the three sides started a large-scale siege.

In his eyes, since the South Song camp had moved 200 thousand troops to camp outside the city, the defending troops within would be really empty. They would not even be able to last a day under the attacks of 300 thousand men.

Once they broke into Lin’an City, the troops outside would be useless.

“How foolish, wasting 200 thousand troops for just 100 thousand useless people.” Zhang Hongfan really despised South Song’s actions.

To the Lin’an civilians, their greatest test had arrived. They had to hold on under the ferocious Mongol army and buy time for the 200 thousand army outside.

Victory or defeat completely depended on this.

Chapter 1039 - Wedge Tactic

Chapter 1039: Wedge Tactic

10 AM, Lin’an South city gate.

In a short one hour of sieging, the Mongol soldiers had already attacked for three consecutive waves. The south city wall was dyed in fresh blood, but it still stood strong.

This short hour was a total catastrophe for the Mongol warriors. Some were squashed by stone, some were burned by boiling hot vegetable oil, and some were sniped by crossbows.

Their methods of death varied, but they still died in the end.

As time went on, the siege battles did not have any progress. Zhang Hongfan’s face became more and more solemn, and the sweat on his hand dripped onto the ground. No matter how he wiped it, it could not be wiped off.

Although Kublai Khan did not say anything, he emitted an invisible pressure that could crush Zhang Hongfan.

Zhang Hongfan had no choice. He could only grit his teeth, sending wave after wave of warriors up to try and breakthrough.

The stubbornness of the South Song army and the sharpness of their defenses had totally exceeded his expectations.

“How did this happen?”

As the top deputy under Bayan, Zhang Hongfan had followed Bayan to take down south Song. If not 30, he had taken down at least 20 cities, and he had never faced such stubborn resistance.

“Are these the weak Song people?”

Standing on the command tower, looking out at the fearless South Song newbies, Zhang Hongfan could not believe his eyes.

It was like in one night, someone had cast magic on Lin’an City.

All of the city’s civilians were pumped up. They swept out all the weakness from before, and they were now filled with killing intent, becoming wolves to have a good fight with the Mongols.

“What a special race.”

Zhang Hongfan muttered, his expression was not good, as the number of trump cards in his hand were getting lesser and lesser. Once he used all of them up, if he did not achieve a good result, what awaited him was merciless treatment.

Appointments and ranks were all just a dream.

At this very moment, a messenger walked up to the command tower. It was a Personal Guard of Kublai Khan, “General, his majesty has orders. He wants you to lead the frontlines.”

When Zhang Hongfan heard that, his legs turn into jelly. He was thinking that the king was totally disappointed in him and was ready to execute him.

Fear swept at Zhang Hongfan like a flood. In that instance, Zhang Hongfan was even thinking about jumping off the command tower.

“General?”

Seeing that Zhang Hongfan was uncertain, the messenger reminded him.

“Oh, good, good. I’ll go now.”

Zhang Hongfan suddenly awakened and felt ashamed about his thoughts. He was a general and could not be so afraid.

Even if he wanted to die, he had to die like a man.

In the end, it was the successive failures during this period of time that affected Zhang Hongfan’s confidence.

…

Under the leadership of the messenger, Zhang Hongfan saw Kublai Khan soon.

Kublai Khan sat on the throne. Currently, his expression was not as relaxed as before, but it was not solemn. As a mighty lord of a generation, Kublai Khan had seen all types of situations.

“Minister Zhang, I want to know how long it will take before we take down Lin’an City.” Since he had a bunch of Han officials around him, Kublai Khan was becoming more familiar with how a Han race emperor acted.

Zhang Hongfan opened his mouth but could not utter a word. Obviously, he wanted to beat his chest and say that he could take it down in half a day, but he did not dare to.

When Kublai Khan saw that, he emotionally said, “Minister Zhang, I am really disappointed.”

When Zhang Hongfan heard that, he subconsciously knelt down and kowtowed, “I’ve failed you, I deserve to die!”

As he said that, he kowtowed, doing it so hard that his head started to bleed.

Looking at the ‘performance’ of his general, Kublai Khan said, “Get up. I’ll give you another 100 thousand troops. If you cannot take down Lin’an City, give me your head.”

Zhang Hongfan was alert, and he did not nod right away. Instead, he showed his loyalty to Kublai Khan once more and said, “I would not dare.”

“Why not, are you afraid of South Song?” Killing intent rose up from Kublai Khan’s body like a wolf king in the grasslands that was ready to tear the enemy to shreds.

Kublai Khan could not allow a cowardly general to lead his troops.

“I’m not afraid. I’m only worried about your safety. The enemy has 200 thousand troops in the north. If we take 100 thousand men to attack, they might take the initiative to strike us,” Zhang Hongfan explained.

Kublai Khan’s expression relaxed, and the killing intent disappeared, “You do not need to worry about this. I have 300 thousand troops defending, not to mention South Song not daring to attack, even if they dare, I’ll not let them return.”

Kublai Khan had not seen the ability of the player forces. As such, he was really confident in the Mongol cavalry. These men had followed him to conquer the south and had never lost.

He still did not believe that there were a group of soldiers even stronger than his. The defeat previously was definitely because of the losers trying to deflect responsibility. As a result, they made the enemy out to seem so strong.

He did not believe it.

There was a sentence that was really apt to describe this, ‘Experience can help one, but it can also kill someone.

Kublai Khan was making such a mistake, using his past experience to judge his current opponents. How would he know that outside of this Battle Map, there was an even larger main map?

Although Zhang Hongfan did not agree with this conclusion, he did not oppose. These 100 thousand reinforcements were his last hope. Obviously, he needed to grab this chance to save his own life.

The matter was settled just like that.

Very quickly, 100 thousand Mongol troops left the north barracks and went toward the east and west sides.

…

Lin’an City, north city wall.

As the main general of the 200 thousand troops, Guo Ziyi did not appear on the main battlefield and instead stayed here. He looked down from above, paying attention to the movements of the enemy. He was ready to strike out at any moment.

To fight head on against the South Song troops, the Mongol army walked out of the north barracks and formed up in front of their camp. The Mongol army used ten thousand men as a unit and had a total of 40 cavalry formations, making one’s hair stand on its end.

Such a shocking battle scene could only appear in the game world.

Kublai Khan’s imperial chariot also appeared on the battlefield. However, it was in a more central position. 40 formations formed 40 lines, and he was on the 4th and 5th line of the formation.

At this very moment, five ten thousand men units moved towards the two wings. Obviously, Kublai Khan had ordered them to assist the east and west gate troops.

Even so, the entire cavalry formation was endless, so it was no wonder he was so confident.

Guo Ziyi gave out a smile, “They have finally acted. I was afraid they would not!” At the start of the battle, the Grand Council had evaluated Jia Xu’s plan.

With the strength of the 150 thousand cavalry forces, they could defend against 350 thousand Mongol cavalry forces at most. Anything exceeding that would be too much, and they would have to give up.

Hence, Wuqi had to bring out most of the defending numbers to attract the enemy to throw more men onto the frontlines.

As expected, Kublai Khan fell for it and sent in 100 thousand more troops.

With that, the situation became much better for the South Song camp.

Once the 100 thousand cavalry had slowly passed, Guo Ziyi started moving.

“Send my order, get ready!”

The moment the flag on the city wall was waved, the troops immediately got the signal, and like a wave, they swiftly and accurately spread the message layer by layer. When they got the order, all the soldiers were jolted awake and used the shortest amount of time possible to check their equipment and ensure that they were at their best battle conditions.

A huge battle was about to start.

“Strike!”

Guo Ziyi was really decisive and did not hesitate at all.

‘Hong! Hong! Honghong!’

The war drums sounded, and the flag was waved.

On the left wing, Er’Lai, who had gotten a lot of credit for killing Bayan, suddenly opened his sleepy eyes. Underneath him, Luoshan shook its body awake.

“My boys, kill together with me!”

Er’Lai did not say anything and lightly jolted Luosha. Like an arrow, he led the charge toward the Mongol army. The 50 thousand elite cavalry forces were like one body as they charged out, dust bellowing.

Weirdly, they did not charge straight. Instead, they followed Er’Lai and went from left to right, making a huge curve.

At the same time, Zhao Zhuang at the right set off too.

Similar to the left wing, the right wing also made a curve. If nothing went wrong, the two groups of troops would meet at the center of the enemy.

During this entire process, the 50 thousand cavalry in the middle did not move and did not show any intentions of charging.

What a weird charge.

The Mongol army noticed the weird situation with the players and reported it to Kublai Khan, “They really dare to come. Good. Let’s have a good battle.”

Although he became the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, his body still flowed with the blood of the golden family of the grasslands. He was a warrior and a general that had slain many.

Kublai Khan had never been afraid of war.

On the contrary, the provocation by the players ignited the will to fight in him. He could not curb his boiling blood and decided to fight.

‘Hula! Hula!’

The Mongol cavalry around him were all elites. Naturally, they too feared nothing. With the military order given, they all turned into wolves that yearned to tear up the enemy.

At basically the same time, the Mongol cavalry army started moving. First, it was the first row, then the second, and then the third.

Throughout the entire process, only the core of the formation where Kublai Khan was at did not move. Loyal soldiers guarded around him, and they were the last line of defense for their emperor.

The wind was howling, the horses were neighing, and the earth was roaring.

At 11 AM, a sudden cavalry versus cavalry war broke out on the north outskirts of Lin’an City.

Since there were too many cavalry involved, the dust that rose because of the charging cavalry was pretty much going to swallow the entire battlefield.

Among the rumbling smoke and dust, the player middle troops started to move!

Chapter 1040 - Summoning Skill

Chapter 1040: Summoning Skill

The cavalry on the left and right wings of the player forces stabbed right toward the middle, forming a wedge formation.

Just as both troops were about to intersect, they suddenly made a turn, stabbing toward both sides and forming an X that did not intersect.

Where the X would intersect would be the fifth formation in the second line. Kublai Khan was two square formations behind this point.

The strength of the player forces was put on full display in this charge. As they initiated the attack, the two wings of troops were like an iron flood, crushing the enemy wherever they passed by.

They really crushed them. Whoever the high-speed charging troops aimed at, the Mongol cavalry were either pushed aside or stepped into meat paste.

Even if some of the cavalry were lucky enough to slide right by the army, they would be killed by the cavalry that followed behind. Their corpses fell off their horses and were stepped onto by the speeding army.

Fresh blood splattered on the green grass, dyeing the yellow dirt.

Looking down from the top, the originally majestic Mongol cavalry formation, under the charge of the two wings, had a huge X carved out into it.

At this very moment, the middle troops that were ready to go set off.

The Fallen Phoenix City cavalry led the way, the Guards Legion Corps were in the middle, and the Divine Martial Guards were at the back, forming a ladder style arrowhead that headed right for the center of the X.

As the two wings of cavalry took up most of the enemy pressure, the middle troops only needed to destroy the 10 thousand men in front of them, and then they would be able to smoothly proceed forward.

The current Mongol cavalry had already come to their senses. Under the leadership of Kublai Khan, they proceeded forward, and the two armies crashed into one another. It looked like they were about to wipe each other out.

The horse hoof sounds of both sides made the entire earth shake. Both sides held tightly onto their weapons while their other hand was on the rope. Both legs clung onto the horseback as they stared straight ahead. Even their breathing became rushed.

Very quickly, the cavalry forces of both sides intersected with one another. My men inside yours, yours inside mine.

All of a sudden, soldiers and horses were flung onto the ground while blades gleamed as blood splattered.

As cavalry from both sides passed one another, capes sounded out in the wind. They either used their spears or swung their blades, cutting down ferociously at their enemies.

Just like that, the Fallen Phoenix City cavalry passed quickly, but they did not stop. After crushing the first ten thousand men unit, they continued charging at the next.

The following Guards Legion Corps cleaned out the remnants of the first ten thousand men unit like they were cutting up vegetables and melons.

Only at this point did Kublai Khan believe the words of Zhang Hongfan and the others. There was actually cavalry stronger than the Mongol cavalry.

Regret rose up in Kublai Khan’s heart; he regretted moving the 100 thousand troops. Unfortunately, it was already too late. Both sides were caught up with one another, and it was not easy to retreat.

Once the middle troops passed the intersection of the X, the leading Fallen Phoenix Cavalry suddenly split into two, doing a small V along the larger V of the left and right wings.

The Fallen Phoenix City cavalry had already completed their mission. Next, they were going to assist the two wings to lock down the military formations at the sides so that they could not assist the center.

The arrowhead became the even stronger Great Xia Guards Legion Corps that charged right at the third line of troops that was the last line of defense of Kublai Khan.

The player cavalry forces coordinated flawlessly, making people look on in awe. Only the most elite cavalry forces in the wilderness could complete such high difficulty tactics.

Only at this stage did Kublai Khan see through the intentions of the enemy.

“Damn it, you want to kill me? In your dreams!”

Without needing Kublai Khan to order them, the 40 thousand troops around him gathered toward the center to try to block the charge of the Guards Legion Corps. Both sides exploded out in a beautiful charge at one another.

Although the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps were unparalleled in the world, the 40 thousand troops beside Kublai Khan were also the most elite cavalry forces of the Mongol, and they were all heavy armored.

It was hard to differentiate the winner as both sides tangled up with one another.

At this stage, the entire battlefield seemingly entered a stalemate.

The 150 thousand player cavalry relied on their exquisitely designed wedge tactic to stab right into the Mongol army, trying to get rid of their leader.

However, the Mongol cavalry were not weak, and although they were caught off guard, they still had the numerical advantage. Under the leadership of Kublai Khan, they quickly stabilized themselves.

The Mongol cavalry at the outer regions had already arrived, giving up on charging to the front and turning towards the two tired wings of the player forces.

Looking at the situation, Kublai Khan actually wanted to use the outer soldiers to surround the player army. To make matters worse, upon learning that their main barracks was attacked, the east and west Mongol wings started to move toward the north.

In Zhang Hongfan’s eyes, there was nothing as important as saving the emperor. Hence, the moment he got the news, he immediately stopped the siege and led troops up north to assist.

Furthermore, the Lin’an troops did not dare to strike out. These newbies were already at their maximum defending. If they were asked to chase the enemy, they would be free food.

The situation seemed to be developing negatively for the South Song camp.

Weirdly, be it the charging cavalry or Guo Ziyi who was commanding, neither showed panic, and they all appeared to be really confident.

The reason was still the Divine Martial Guards led by Ouyang Shuo. This rare and never seen before special forces unit had yet to bare their fangs.

Taking the chance that the Guards Legion Corps were holding up the enemy, the Divine Martial Guards suddenly exploded. Under the personal leadership of Ouyang Shuo, they were like a sharp arrow, directed charging toward Kublai Khan’s location.

Three thousand against 10 thousand; Ouyang Shuo was really confident.

After cultivating, along with the ten-thousand-year stalactite, the skills of the three thousand Divine Martial Guards had reached a new level. One of them could take down three Guards Legion Corps members.

Gathered together, they were even more terrifying. They could pretty much killing anyone in their sights.

The key was timing, as they had to kill Kublai Khan before the reinforcements arrived.

“That’s too difficult!”

Kublai Khan was not a piece of wood and would not just stand there and wait for Ouyang Shuo to kill him.

Just as the Divine Martial Guards had broken through to the fourth and fifth line, Kublai Khan took a shocking course of action. He actually abandoned his army and retreated toward the barracks.

“Kublai Khan is running!”

This was not saying that he was timid, but that he had seen through the situation and knew that if they continued with such a standstill, the Mongol army would win.

The prerequisite was that he could not remain here, and he could not distract the army.

Whilst retreating, he even felt delighted. The seemingly exquisite plans of the players were in truth them digging a hole for themselves and seeking their own deaths.

Kublai Khan’s mood suddenly turned for the better.

…

On the battlefield, Ouyang Shuo swept forward with his Tianmo Spear. A black light shone, and instantly, four to five Mongol calvary soldiers were taken down. Seeing that Kublai Khan was trying to escape, Ouyang Shuo grinned.

“It seems like I have to use my trump card.”

Ouyang Shuo took a card out from his bag.

Jiangdong Warrior Summoning Card (platinum rank): Single time use item, after use, can summon 10 thousand Jiangdong Warriors, lasting for 12 hours.

“Summon!” Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate and used it right away.

As long as he could take down Kublai Khan, using a platinum rank item was totally worth it. Ouyang Shuo did not believe that the items Kublai Khan dropped would not be a treasure.

With Ouyang Shuo as the core, a huge white light rose up from the ground and blinded everyone.

This oppressive white light expanded at a visible rate. The light seemed to hide a mysterious energy, being able to differentiate between friend and foe, pushing apart the Mongol cavalry and forming an empty section of land that could fit 10 thousand men.

Once the light faded, 10 thousand Jiangdong Warriors appeared from thin air. The leading general wore a silver armor, and he cupped his fist toward Ouyang Shuo, “I am Xiang Bing, all the warriors are in place, please give your order!”

“Kill them!”

Ouyang Shuo pointed at the surrounding Mongol cavalry and gave his command.

“Yes, my king!”

Xiang Bing did not say a word as he led his men and charged at the Mongol cavalry. Ouyang Shuo led the Divine Martial Guards forward and chased Kublai Khan into the north barracks.

…

The sudden change stunned all the soldiers on the battlefield. Especially the Mongols, who could not imagine what had just happened. All of them stood there with their mouths agape.

Zhang Hongfan, who was rushing over, felt his heart shake when he saw the blinding white light. Suddenly, he thought about the rumors in Lin’an City that said that the Xia King was a deity that could summon soldiers from heaven.

Looking at the scene in front of him, wasn’t that proof of those rumors?

“Are they working with the gods?”

Just thinking about it caused fear to rise up in Zhang Hongfan’s heart.

Moreover, at that moment, on the north wall, the newbies in charge of defending all knelt down and prayed. They muttered, “The gods have shown themselves. The gods have shown their powers!”

Those civilians that entered through the north gate all looked on with their mouths agape.

It was like time had stopped, as the entire battlefield was totally quiet. Only when the Jiangdong Warriors charged to the front of them did the Mongol cavalry return to their senses and instinctively fought back.

“Kill!”

This shout was like the key to time, as it brought everyone back to their senses.

All of a sudden, killing shouts broke out.

The Battle of Yashan had entered its most crucial period of time.

…

North barracks.

Although the war had begun, the barracks were not totally empty. Zhang Hongfan had arranged a batch of Mongol warriors to stay here and defend. As a result, when Ouyang Shuo and his men entered, they were welcomed by a round of arrows.

Ouyang Shuo looked out at the back view of Kublai Khan and smiled coldly, “Why, are we going to play hide and seek?”

Chapter 1041 - A Mighty Lord Falls

Chapter 1041: A Mighty Lord Falls

As time was of the essence, Ouyang Shuo was not in the mood to play games.

Looking out at Kublai Khan, Ouyang Shuo decisively tore a speed talisman. A white light shone across, and the three thousand Divine Martial Guards became like a lightning, chasing after Kublai Khan.

“Kublai Khan, you still want to run?” Ouyang Shuo hollered.

Hearing those words, the advancing Kublai Khan suddenly jolted and slowly stopped, turning around his horse.

Kublai Khan was a formidable person. Since he could not escape, he could only face him head on. He was riding on a precious Ferghana horse, and at his waist, there was a golden blade. He looked on without fear.

With a ‘Shua!’, Kublai Khan pulled out the golden blade. Under the sunlight, it shone brightly, “Who are you, report your name!”

Ouyang Shuo walked to the front of the troops. He tightly grabbed on the Tianmo Spear in his hand and said, “I am the Xia King!”

“It’s you?”

Kublai Khan’s eyes focused, as he did not expect that the person in front of him would actually be the famed player representative.

“Since that’s the case, let’s have a king versus king battle. Do you dare?” Kublai Khan was really confident in his personal strength. He was trying to make a final gamble to find a way to live from the dead.

Ouyang Shuo saw through his thoughts and smiled, “Who does not dare?” As he spoke, the two of them charged out of their forces and engaged one another.

‘Dang!’

The Tianmo Spear and the golden blade brushed past one another and sparks flew.

Gaia had evidently strengthened Kublai Khan. In just the first engage, Ouyang Shuo could feel that Kublai Khan possessed exceptional strength. His power was equal to his own, and he was really terrifying.

The golden blade was also really great, as there was no marks on it when it cut down on the Tianmo Spear.

The golden blade technique that Kublai Khan used was also really exquisite, and it was no weaker than Ouyang Shuo’s spear technique. This was an equal strength battle, and it would be hard to decide a victor.

Seeing this, Ouyang Shuo went all out. Coordinating with Little Green, he adjusted his personal combat strength to his peak level. He rotated the primordial energy in his body and injected it into the Tianmo Spear.

All of a sudden, a storm like attack covered Kublai Khan.

Kublai Khan was slow to react, and he was forced on the back foot right away. Ouyang Shuo saw the chance and went all out. The Tianmo Spear turned into a black shadow and totally covered Kublai Khan within it.

When the Mongol cavalry saw that, they were all really nervous.

“Advance!”

The Personal Guards of Kublai Khan saw that things were getting out of hand, so they wanted to advance to help out.

When Xu Chu saw that, he gritted his teeth and did not saying anything. Apart from leaving his Personal Guards to lock down the situation, he brought the remaining Divine Martial Guards over.

The entire battlefield instantly became chaotic.

Under the attacks of the Divine Martial Guards, Kublai Khan’s forces were being forced back. Them getting crushed was just a matter of time. Once they dealt with the Personal Guards, it would be the death date of Kublai Khan.

Kublai Khan obviously knew that. As such, with a ‘Dang!’, the two of them passed one another once more.

“Scoff, do not get too gleeful!”

After Kublai Khan stopped, he did not rush to attack. Instead, he let out a roar toward the heavens. Hearing the sound, it was like the howl of a wolf.

Along with the wolf roar, an image appeared behind Kublai Khan’s back. It grew bigger and bigger and looked even more real. Upon closer inspection, it was a really lifelike golden wolf head that was half as tall as a man.

The blood red eyes of the wolf looked like those of a devil.

The moment the golden wolf head appeared, not only Kublai Khan, but even the Mongol Personal Guards jolted to their senses. It was like they were injected with adrenaline, and their combat strength doubled.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, his eyes focused. He suddenly thought about the red dragon of Liu Bang during the Battle of Julu. Both of them were really similar.

“The son of heaven? Really interesting!”

The wolf was the symbol of the Mongols. As the representative Kehan of the Mongols, legends had it that he was the reincarnation of the wolf king.

Ouyang Shuo was not afraid, as the imperial seal he had on him was the nemesis of all demons and gods. Back then, it was still in a sealed state, yet it could still subdue the red dragon of Liu Bang, much less now.

Just as Ouyang Shuo activated it, the purple dragon that was locked up in the Great Xia Vassal opened up its eyes, leaving the vassal and jumping out of Ouyang Shuo’s dantian.

The purple dragon appeared once more. Very quickly, it transformed into a giant dragon as it started flying above the skies of the north barracks.

‘Aang!’

The dragon roar spread through the wilderness.

The moment the purple dragon appeared, Ouyang Shuo’s sharp senses noticed that the golden wolf head was stunned, and its sentient eyes looked like it was about to back off.

However, before the golden wolf head could do anything, the purple dragon jumped down, opening its mouth and swallowing it up.

‘Argh~!’

Kublai Khan immediately let out a pained shout. It was like a spirit was being torn away from him body. His entire person shriveled, losing the aura he had before, and his eyes became devoid of energy.

The purple dragon did not care.

‘Gulp~~’

The purple dragon did a human-like burp. It looked at Ouyang Shuo gently before disappearing. Once again, it hid inside the Great Xia Vassal.

Obviously, the golden wolf head was a huge nourishment for the purple dragon. This fellow was digesting it within the imperial vassal. Ouyang Shuo was thinking that maybe the purple dragon could evolve once more after it digested the golden wolf head.

The scenes from before were too shocking and too quick, dazzling everyone.

Ouyang Shuo was really clear, and he noticed the unusual look of Kublai Khan. He rode on Little Green and charged toward Kublai Khan, and the Tianmo Spear stabbing into his chest like a lightning bolt.

‘Er~~’

Kublai Khan had just awakened; unfortunately, it was already too late.

A mighty lord of a generation had fallen just like that.

“Your majesty!”

Seeing Kublai Khan die in battle, his Personal Guards went crazy, charging at Ouyang Shuo without a care about their lives. Obviously, Xu Chu would not let them do what they wanted, and he ordered the Divine Martial Guards to take them out.

“Do not leave any of them!” Xu Chu ordered.

Ouyang Shuo did not care about any of that. After landing on the ground, he confidently walked toward Kublai Khan. As expected, he saw three shining items.

One was a weapon, which was Kublai Khan’s golden blade.

Name: Mongol Golden Knife (God Weapon)

Hardness: 87

Sharpness: 90

Toughness: 82

Specialty: Weapon Breaker (when a weapon’s hardness is lower than the golden blade’s, there’s a chance that it will be directly broken).

Evaluation: the Mongol Saint weapon, the symbol of the Mongol Kehan, it has great meaning. If used along with the golden blade knife technique, its strength would be even greater.

The second item was the golden blade knife technique, which was a Gold Rank cultivation technique.

Taking these two items, Ouyang Shuo felt that they were a little scalding to the hand. After he returned to the main map, once the Mongol tribe entered the wilderness, they would stop at nothing to take these things back.

Great Xia and the Mongol tribe did not have a chance to live in peace since the start.

The last item was a mysterious ball of light. Looking at it, Ouyang Shuo finally revealed a happy expression. After using one summoning card and an adored talisman, he finally got something worth it in return.

Soul of the Cavalry (stamina): After use, permanently raises the stamina of the dynasty cavalry forces by 80%.

Maybe it was because the Mongol cavalry were famous for their stamina. As a result, such an item was dropped. This was a really practical item, as Great Xia had millions of cavalry troops, and all of them would benefit.

From this point onward, the Great Xia cavalry would become the stuff of nightmares.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo linked it to many other things. From the item, this was evidently a new tool.

This meant that there would be other souls as well as other branches apart from stamina.

Gaia really did not lack tricks.

Very quickly, the Personal Guards of Kublai Khan were wiped out by the Divine Martial Guards. Along with the death of Kublai Khan, the Battle of Yashan also came to an end.

When Ouyang Shuo led his troops back to the battlefield in the north, the Mongol cavalry had already backed off like a flood.

Along with them was Zhang Hongfan.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, regret rose up in his heart. Not killing him on the battlefield would probably give rise to more problems in the wilderness.

Luckily, in this Battle Map, they had won in the end.

Wave after wave of cheers broke out from within Lin’an city. The civilians were immersed in unconcealable joy, and it was like each one of them was reborn from the flames of war.

Ouyang Shuo and the others look at such a scene. Although they knew it was just a fake one designed by Gaia, they still could not hide their pride and joy.

At least in this battle, the Chinese had developed their potential and fighting spirit.

Following which, the battle notification sounded out.

“Battle Notification: The Battle of Yashan officially ends, South Song camp has successfully turned around history.”

…

“Battle Notification: The Battle of Yashan has ended, tabulating added battle contribution points based on players’ participation in the battle.”

…

A System Notification immediately sounded out by Ouyang Shuo’s ear.

“System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuqi, South Song camp player representative, uniting the Lin’an people, planning the murder of the enemy leader, contributed greatly, awarded 80 thousand battle contribution points.”

Gaia’s evaluation of Ouyang Shuo in this Battle Map was quite good.

Since there were only six Lords left, the rankings were quickly updated.

1st: Qiyue Wuyi- 1700000 points

2nd: Di Chen- 1200000 points

3rd: Xiong Ba- 720000 points

4th: Feng Qiuhuang- 650000 points

5th: Zhan Lang- 550000 points

6th: Chun Shenjun- 500000 points

During this battle, in terms of just proper Mongol troops, they had killed 400 thousand. Along with the support troops, the South Song camp had killed over 500 thousand enemies. As a result, each and every Lord made a killing.

Due to Xiong Ba having Wuqi and also being a part of the Grand Council, he got a higher placing than Feng Qiuhuang.

Chapter 1042 - Filled with Intense Passion

Chapter 1042: Filled with Intense Passion

Ouyang Shuo noticed that although Xiong Ba and the others had obtained bountiful gains, apart from Di Chen, the others did not show much excitement.

Xiong Ba and the others used the chance to use their battle contribution points to sweep up the items in the Battle Map commerce city instead of turning them into merit points.

It was like they did not care about personal rank anymore.

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo was deep in thought.

After the exchange ended, and the dead troops were revived, Di Chen and the others led their troops and left, leaving Ouyang Shuo to claim the final reward.

Ouyang Shuo did not wait for long, and the reward was sent by both Zhang Shijie and Wen Tianxiang. When Ouyang Shuo saw the items, he found out that they were two talismans.

Revival Talisman (Lu Xiufu): this is a designated revival talisman. Lin’an civilians yearn for Lu Xiufu, and their thoughts gathered up to form this. After use, can recruit Lu Xiufu.

Ouyang Shuo was enlightened. He was actually wondering why this reward was different from usual, with two rewards instead of one. So this was the reason.

This talisman should be the extra reward that Gaia had given to Ouyang Shuo.

Summoning Talisman (Song): this is a designated summoning talisman, one can choose a pair of Song Dynasty officials to summon.

Ouyang Shuo smiled.

Northern and Southern Song was filled with talents, and many of them left their name in history.

Song Dynasty was famous for their administrative ruling of the country, which gave rise to many famous ministers. From his impression alone, there were Wang Anshi, Zhao Pu, Ouyang Xiu, Sima Guang, Han Qi, and more.

In terms of generals, there was Yue Fei, Han Shizhong, Yang Zaixing, Liang Hongyu, and more. To choose a pair from all these was truly a tough choice.

Of course, this was a blissful problem.

Keeping the two talismans in his storage bag, just as Ouyang Shuo was ready to leave, Zhang Shijie and Wen Tianxiang suddenly knelt onto the ground, “We are willing to follow the Xia King, please allow us to!”

As two of the three heroes of later Song, during the Battle Map period, they were greatly impressed by the charm and magnanimity of the Xia King. As a result, they volunteered to join Great Xia.

Ouyang Shuo was delighted, smiling as he helped both of them up, “For you two generals to join Great Xia, I am obviously delighted. Please rise.”

Although neither of them was a top general, they were still King Rank historical talents, which Ouyang Shuo would not mind having more of.

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo decided to take a pause and use the revival talisman to revive Lu Xiufu. At this point, the three heroes had gathered once more, but this time, their master was different.

…

Name: Lu Xiufu (King Rank)

Title: One of the Three Heroes of Later Song

Dynasty: Song Dynasty

Identity: Great Xia civil servant

Occupation: civil servant

Loyalty: 78

Command: 50

Force: 40

Intelligence: 75

Politics: 78

Specialty: Loyal Minister(raises honesty of dynasty by 35%, raises dynasty work efficiency by 30%)

Evaluation: Lu Xiufu is a talented thinker, and a civil servant that stands out. He’s a really quiet person who does not seek for fame.

…

Name: Wen Tianxiang (King Rank)

Title: : One of the Three Heroes of Later Song

Dynasty: Song Dynasty

Identity: Great Xia civil servant

Occupation: Civil servant

Loyalty: 78

Command: 70

Force: 45

Intelligence: 72

Politics: 70

Specialty: Loyalty (raises dynasty honesty by 40%, raises dynasty efficiency by 20%, raises dynasty literary standard by 15%)

Evaluation: Wen Tianxiang was symbolic of loyalty.

…

Name: Zhang Shijie (King Rank)

Title: : One of the Three Heroes of Later Song

Dynasty: Song Dynasty

Identity: Great Xia general

Occupation: special general

Loyalty: 78

Command: 75

Force: 70

Intelligence: 65

Politics: 68

Specialty: Righteous General (raises troops combat strength by 20%, raises troops movement speed by 15%)

Evaluation: Shijie had the ability to raise an empire, but this person did not have the ambitions, using his men to just do his job. Died during the Battle of Yashan, what a pity.

…

Bringing along the three heroes of later Song as well as 150 thousand merit points, Ouyang Shuo did not stay any longer and teleported out. The moment he returned to Shanhai City, he heard many System Notifications.

“System Notification: Battle of Yashan has officially ended, historical people from the Song Dynasty will enter the game. Players, please search for them.”

…

The Song Dynasty held an important place in the five thousand years of Chinese history.

Historical people in this era, apart from generals and civil servants that were mentioned, had eye-catching results in other domains. For example, there were famous physicians like Song Zi, Qian Yi, thinkers like Lu You, Yang Wanli, Li Qingzhao, inventors like Bi Sheng and Shen Kuo, and even people like Wang Zhongyang who founded the Quanzhen School.

Without a doubt, the appearance of the Song Dynasty historical talents would greatly increase the available talents in the wilderness.

“System Notification: Battle of Yashan has officially ended, the Yuan Dynasty historical talents have automatically entered the game progression. Players, please search for them.”

…

Gaia still decided to jump over the Yuan Dynasty and directly added it to the game progression.

Compared to the Song Dynasty, the historical talents available during the Yuan Dynasty were much rarer, especially in terms of civil servants and generals. However, in terms of literary talents, the four Great Yuan drama lists and other famous people that left their name in history appeared during this time.

All that was left were the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

“System Notification: Battle of Yashan has officially ended, Wushan School has entered the wilderness.”

…

Since the start of the Song Dynasty, the entire underworld had been bustling.

Apart from the Quanzhen School, there were many sects and schools that popped up during the Yuan and Song dynasties. The entire structure of the underworld was slowly forming up.

“System Notification: The Battle of Yashan has officially ended, Song Taizu moves into Xiangyang, Xiangyang Imperial Court automatically changes into Great Song Dynasty, Zhao Pu, Murong Yanzhao, Gao Huaide, Wang Shenqi, Han Lingkun, Shi Shouxin, Zhang Lingze, Zhang Guanghan, Zhao Yanwei, and other generals and civil servants automatically move into the Great Song Dynasty.”

…

Qiuhuang Hanwu, Tangzong Songzu.

Song Taizu’s leadership was exceptional, but the civil servants and generals under him were not that famous. After they gave up their powers to him, most of them faded into obscurity.

Him moving into Xiangyang was not good news to Pill Sun City that was in Jingchu Province. In the future, it would depend on how Chun Shenjun or the Yanhuang Alliance dealt with them.

“System Notification: Battle of Yashan has officially ended, Genghis Khan moves into

Karakorum, automatically forming the Mongol Empire, Yelü Chucai, Bo’er Shu, Muqali, Chilao Wen, Bo’er Hu, Jebe, Ogedei Khan, Tolei, and other civil servants and generals follow him in.”

…

Compared to the generals and civil servants under Song Taizu, Genghis Khan had a more stellar formation. Apart from Yelü Chucai, who was listed as one of the top 10 ministers along with Xiao He and Wang Anshi, he had five groups of fours. The four heroes: Bo’er Shu, Bo’er Hu, Muqali, and Chilao Wen.

The four brave: Jebe, Zhe Leimie, Subutai, and Hu Bilai.

The four brothers: Hassar, Belgutei, Hachiun, and Temuge.

The four sons: Tolei, Jochi, Chagatai, and Ogedei.

The four adopted sons: Kuokuochu, Shikhikhutug, Bo’er Hu, and Quchu.

Of these 20, each one of them was a great general that could lead an army. Some were even first-rate generals. The Mongol Empire relied on such a bunch of people to conquer the south and claim huge amounts of land.

One could foresee that along with this batch of people joining the Mongol Empire, huge waves would appear in the wilderness.

It was not without reason that Ouyang Shuo had been wary of the Mongol tribes.

“System Notification: Battle of Yashan has officially ended, Dali Zhong Zongduan enters Dali, Dali Imperial Court becomes the Dali Country.”

…

Out of the nine imperial cities, Dali was the weakest, not having any decent generals and civil servants.

Even so, the Dali Imperial City with an emperor changed, becoming an undeniable power in the wilderness. Not mentioning others, just the million guards were enough.

Luckily, Ouyang Shuo was mentally prepared. The Dali Prefecture was locked down by Great Xia, and the territories inside had all been destroyed and returned to the wilderness state.

The first problem for the Dali Emperor was how to feed the tens of millions of people within the city after Gaia removed the preferential treatment.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo did not forget that Dali still had a player hiding in the palace. Toward this player who once acted against Qingfeng Pavillion, Ouyang Shuo was not going to let him off.

There was still an unsettled grievance between Dali and Great Xia.

“System Notification: Battle of Yashan has officially ended, West Xia Emperor Jingzong moves into Xingqing City, West Xia powers change into West Xia Country, Yeli Wangrong, Yeli Wangqi, and other generals and civil servants join him.”

…

“System Notification: Battle of Yashan has officially ended, Jin Taizu enters Huining Prefecture, Nuzhen powers change into Jin Country, Wanyan Sangai, Wanyan Zonghan, Wanyan Xiyin, and other generals and civil servants enter the Jin country.”

…

Jin Taizu as the Nuzhen leader had completed the establishment of the country and destroyed the Liao Country, and that was when the Nuzhen race had their start.

Unexpectedly, 400 years after the Jin Country was wiped out, in 1615, Jianzhou Nuzhen leader Nurhaci had set up the Hanjian Country in Hetu Ala City, and the country title was Great Jin.

In 1635, Hong Taiji changed to become of Manchu race. In 1644, the Manchu set up the Qing Dynasty, becoming the second minority dynasty in Chinese history.

Great Song, Mongol, Dali country, West Xia, and Jin country; just one battle had five powers enter the wilderness, what a huge impact it was on players.

Apart from Jingdu and Jianye, the other powers had all entered the game.

Without a doubt, a vaster and more interesting historical masterpiece was slowly being unveiled. Coincidentally, the Great Xia territory was really similar to that of South Song in history.

Under such a historical wave, how would Ouyang Shuo sail Great Xia, this giant boat, and prevent them from ending up like South Song?

All that would be left to the test of time.

Chapter 1043 - Yanhuang Alliance Disbands

Chapter 1043: Yanhuang Alliance Disbands

A series of System Notifications made the entire wilderness bustle with excitement.

“System Notification: Battle of Yashan has officially ended, the 36 Liangshan great men automatically enter the game progression.”

…

Out of the Liangshan good men mentioned in Water Margin, only 36 of them truly existed. The remaining 72 were added in because of the needs of the novels.

Even so, the 36 Liangshan good men appeared in the wilderness, giving rise to a huge uproar. That was because each and every one was exceptional, which was why Gaia posted a System Notification.

Who knows how many of them would join Great Xia.

The notifications still did not stop. The last one was related to Ouyang Shuo.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for gathering the three heroes of later Song, specially awarded one King Rank summoning talisman and 100 thousand reputation points!”

…

The moment the notification sounded out, Di Chen and the others nearly vomited blood.

“How can the game be played like this? Why does the old fox get all the good stuff?”

Di Chen felt really aggrieved. In the Battle Map, the Yanhuang Alliance had done a lot as well, so why did Ouyang Shuo get all the benefits

It was simply unfair.

If he wanted to blame something, he could only blame himself for lacking Ouyang Shuo’s charm.

Ouyang Shuo felt delighted deep down. In one Battle of Yashan, he not only earned 150 thousand merit points, but he also got a chance to get six historical talents. It was a huge harvest.

…

After arranging for Lu Xiufu and the others simply, Ouyang Shuo returned to his reading room and took out the two talismans.

Ouyang Shuo first tore open the King Rank summoning talisman that Gaia had rewarded him. A white light shone across, and a woman of absolute beauty appeared.

“I’m Li Shishi, greetings, my king!”

Ouyang Shuo was stunned, as he did not expect to summon such a special person.

Legends had it that Li Shishi was loved by Emperor Huizong of Song and favored by Song Dynasty famous poet Zhou Bangyan. Hence, one could see that her life story was really legendary, and her looks were exceptional.

Although Ouyang Shuo had already seen the four beauties, the first time he saw Li Shishi, he was still astonished. This was a type of beauty that was different from what Wang Zhaojun possessed.

Shanhai City also had brothels, but Ouyang Shuo did not plan to send her there. Compared to the brothel, there was a place more suitable for a girl with both looks and reputation.

That place was the Mountain and Sea Entertainment Holdings.

At the current date, the holdings had Wang Zhaojun, Diaochan, and other superstars. Li Shishi’s addition would definitely stun and attract more men.

Of course, she would also bring in huge profits. After asking Tsing Yi to bring her away, Ouyang Shuo started to use the second summoning talisman.

“System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuqi is using a designated summoning talisman, please specify the person’s name!”

Summoning Talisman (Song) could summon a pair of Song Dynasty officials. It had no rank restrictions. Naturally, the higher the rank, the better.

South Song had the Zhongxing four generals, Yuefei, Han Shizong, Zhang Jun, and Liu Guangshi. Out of the four of them, apart from Yuefei and Han Shizong, the other two were not much.

Between the two of them, Ouyang Shuo decided to choose the more famous Yuefei. Furthermore, with his arrival, his son, Yue Yun, would immediately come over, so it was worth it!

On the side of the civil servants, Wang Anshi was one of the top 10 ministers in history, so he would definitely be a God Rank talent. However, Ouyang Shuo did not like him. This idealist who wanted change did not suit the current Great Xia.

If he summoned Wang Anshi, it would only create problems for himself.

History proved that Wang Anshi’s revolution was a total failure. Not only did he fail to save North Song, it also dragged the Song Dynasty down into a battle between factions.

Thinking about it, Ouyang Shuo decided to summon Ouyang Xiu. It was not that he had much contribution or great work. Rather, the part that Ouyang Shuo paid attention to was his influence.

He was the leader of the literary circle of the Song Dynasty, leading the North Song poetry revolution and developed on the ideals of the olden literature.

With such a person here, Great Xia would not need to worry about getting other literary people.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo had a huge batch of students who stood out from the rest. Amongst them included people such as Su Zhe, Su Shi, and Zeng Fan. There were also huge Confucianism believers like Zhang Zai and Cheng Hao.

Ouyang Xiu had many students, which included Han Qi, Siam Guang, Bao Zheng, and others. These people were all recommended and admired by him. Out of the eight houses of Tang and Song, the five people from Song came from his teachings.

Hence, summoning Ouyang Xiu was definitely a good choice.

“I select Ouyang Xiu and Yuefei!”

“System Notification: Selection fits the requirement, starting summoning!”

A white light shone across as Ouyang Xiu and Yuefei both appeared. They bowed, “Greetings, my king!”

Ouyang Shuo smiled and helped them up.

Ouyang Xiu looked very different from what the books described him as.

Although he was the leader of the literary circle, he was not handsome. Not only that, but he was even a little ugly. Not only was he really short sighted, but he had two bunny teeth, and his entire person was short and fat.

Ouyang Shuo naturally would not judge a book by its cover, giving him a lot of respect. Even Yuefei took the initiative to greet him when he saw Ouyang Xiu.

The Song Dynasty used civil servants to rule the generals, so Yuefei’s actions were subconscious.

The Yuefei that appeared in the wilderness was close to 40, an active and filled with strength age.

After getting them, Ouyang Shuo took a look at both of their stats.

…

Name: Ouyang Xiu (Emperor Rank)

Dynasty: Song Dynasty

Identity: Great Xia civil servant

Occupation: civil servant

Loyalty:75

Command: 45

Force: 30

Intelligence: 85

Politics: 70

Specialty: Antiquity (raises attraction to literary people by 45%, raises dynasty literary standards by 30%)

Evaluation: His writing style mirrors his personality. He looks causal, but he is a really determined person on the inside.

…

Name: Yuefei (Emperor Rank)

Dynasty: Song Dynasty

Identity: Great Xia general

Occupation: special general

Loyalty: 75

Command: 88

Force: 85

Intelligence: 75

Politics: 60

Specialty: Loyalty to Country (raises troops attack strength by 30%, raises troops movement speed by 25%, raises troops morale by 30%)

Evaluation: Yuefei’s fame came from all the victories he achieved in battle. Loyal to his ruler, he is brave and intelligent.

…

After sending away the two of them, the aftermath of the Battle of Yashan finally came to an end. As for their appointments, including that of the three heroes of later Song, it would have to wait until Ouyang Shuo discussed with the Cabinet.

The Battle of Yashan lasted for 20 days, when Ouyang Shuo returned to Shanhai City, it was the morning of the 21st day of the 5th month.

At 3 PM, a piece of news suddenly spread across the wilderness.

The moment the Battle of Yashan ended, Chun Shenjun’s Pill Sun City, Xiong Ba’s King City, Zhan Lang’s Blood Red City, and Wannan and Ludong Province that were occupied by the Yanhuang Alliance were all merged into Handan City.

With that, Handan City that had just upgraded to Capital City jumped into a giant that owned six provinces.

Ouyang Shuo guessed that the moment Handan City had upgraded, Chun Shenjun and the others were already ready to merge. However, considering that they could bring more troops to the Battle Map, they delayed it.

Only at this point did the Plan Z of the Yanhuang Alliance surface. They wanted to rely on the upgrade of Handan City to form a super dynasty to go up against Great Xia.

This was totally possible.

Different from Great Xia occupying Nanjiang, the five provinces that merged into Handan City were all rich lands. Since history, they were the core areas of dynasties, and their importance was far greater than that of Nanjiang.

To put it bluntly, even in the Qing Dynasty, the Nanjing region was half a barbarian land.

Hence, although they could not compare with Great Xia in terms of land, they were equal in terms of strength and potential. They even exceeded Great Xia in some areas.

Di Chen had already smoothly applied for the country establishment mission. Once he completes that, a new dynasty would stand tall in the Zhongyuan region and become a giant in the wilderness.

Along with this merger, a shocking fact was placed in front of everyone. The Yanhuang Alliance that had lasted for four years had disbanded, becoming a part of history.

At this moment, the Chinese players were all at a loss.

Since the start of the game, the Shanhai Alliance and the Yanhuang Alliance had gone head to head. It had already become a common topic, and in just five years, the stalemate had been broken.

In five years, from thousands of Lords in the Chinese wilderness, only three remained.

In terms of territory, Great Xia, Handan City, and Fallen Phoenix City could barely be termed as a situation of tripartite confrontation.

Chapter 1044 - Changes in the Secret Document Pavilion

Chapter 1044: Changes in the Secret Document Pavilion

5th month, 22nd day, Xia Palace.

The Handan City matter was moved aside by Ouyang Shuo, as that was something he had expected.

Within the Imperial Reading Room, Ouyang Shuo was discussing with the Grand Council Grand Secretary about the appointments of the seven new people. As for Yuefei and Zhang Shijie, they would enter the Army Military Academy for a month before working at the Guards Legion Corps. They would then be given a suitable appointment during the next military reorganization.

Before the New Year, in the year end evaluation by the Official Ruling Department, there were five Prefecture Governors who barely passed and listed as people who might be demoted at any moment.

Helplessly, there were not any people he could promote, which was why the matter was left hanging.

Jiang Shang suggested that he could arrange three of them to become governors. Thinking about it, Ouyang Shuo did not totally accept Jiang Shang’s view, only agreeing to place down Lu Xiufu and Wen Tianxiang.

“Let’s put Ouyang Xiu in the court. He could use his Song Dynasty influence,” Ouyang Shuo said.

Jiang Shang was enlightened, as he truly did not think about it so much. He said in an ashamed manner, “The king has thought it through, I’m ashamed.”

Ouyang Shuo waved him off, “Which appointment do you think is suitable for him? Although he is famous, he is not really skilled, so we must choose the right appointment.”

This was a secret conversation between a ruler and his man. If he were in public, Ouyang Shuo would not have put it so bluntly.

Jiang Shang had a really exquisite grasp of the Imperial Court. After a short pause, he spoke, “I boldly suggest that we can place him as the science, education, culture and health director.”

Ouyang Shuo thought about it and nodded his head in satisfaction. The work of the department had already gotten on the right path thanks to the hard work of Su Zhu and did not need much revolution. As such, it was suitable position for Ouyang Xiu to take over.

Jiang Shang was really skilled at appointing people.

“What about Su Zhe?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Su Zhe took charge of the Science, Education, Culture, and Health Department and had contributed so much. Naturally, they could not just kick him away like that. If they placed Su Zhe down to the territory, based on his current rank, apart from Provincial Governor, the other positions would be a downgrade.

This was a difficult problem.

Jiang Shang, however, had thought about it, “I suggest we move Su Zhe into the Secret Document Pavilion and appoint him as the advisor. Although his rank will drop by half a rank, he would be entering the core region, and his power would increase.”

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes lit up, as this suggestion was exactly what he wanted.

Along with dynasty matters getting more and more busy, the burden on Tsing Yi’s shoulders were getting heavier and heavier. Although there were four secretaries added to help her, it still was not enough.

Moving Su Zhe in was a great move.

Although Su Zhe was not as skilled as his brother, Su Shi, in the literary field, in terms of politics and administrative work, he had a really sharp observation skill and was really suitable for the Secret Document Pavilion.

With Su Zhe helping, Tsing Yi would have a much simpler time.

Thinking about it, Ouyang Shuo suddenly asked, “How is the performance of Feng Qingyue in the Shu Lands?”

Half a year had passed since Feng Qingyue went to the Shu Lands to assist Provincial Governor Tian Wenjing. Ouyang Shuo was thinking that his test for her should come to an end.

Ouyang Shuo did not want to break the relationship with the Feng Family.

Jiang Shang replied, “Based on the monthly report from Tian Wenjing, he’s really satisfied with her, using many words to praise her. He has also recommended for the Imperial Court to officially promote her to an official in the Provincial Governor office.”

“Oh?”

Ouyang Shuo was really surprised.

Tian Wenjing, the cold faced Provincial Governor, had actually taken the initiative to raise up this matter. This was enough to prove that Feng Qingyue’s hard work had obtained his recognition.

Speaking of which, Feng Qingyue really could bear hardship. During this half a year, Ouyang Shuo pretty much did not bother about her, and she just took it, quietly doing her duties.

What a special girl.

Ouyang Shuo smiled happily, “It seems like he’s just cold on the outside but warm on the inside.”

Jiang Shang gave a stiff smile. He did not know whether the king was praising or insulting Tian Wenjing, so he did not dare to answer. Instead, he asked carefully, “What the king means is?”

Ouyang Shuo kept his smile and said expressionlessly, “Since she has obtained the recognition of her superior, we should give her an actual position. Send the decree to move her into the Secret Document Pavilion and temporarily be a secretary.”

Regarding Feng Qingyue, Ouyang Shuo was still prepared to monitor her for a while and not come to conclusions so quickly. After all, she came from one of the six big families. When dealing with such a person that had a sensitive background, one had to be careful.

Of course, the moment they gave her a huge appointment, it would be a milestone matter to Great Xia.

“Yes, my king!”

Jiang Shang nodded; it was at this point he understood why Ouyang Shuo had asked about Feng Qingyue.

Using the opportunity of moving Su Zhe and Feng Qingyue in, Ouyang Shuo wanted to reorganize the Secret Document Pavilion. He officially appointed Tsing Yi as head advisor.

Of course, her rank would still be the same.

The nature of the Secret Document Pavilion meant that Ouyang Shuo could not give them too high of a rank.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also ordered them to expand the pavilion, adding in six secretaries. Apart from aiding the advisors, each Cabinet elder would have one specific secretary in the Secret Document Pavilion.

Different from the four courts, in the Cabinet, none of them had people under them to deal with their documents.

Furthermore, they were all at such an old age and did not have much energy to do that.

Ouyang Shuo was arranging secretaries for them to help take the workload off the elders and to help them deal with documents. At the same time, as the secretaries were from the Secret Documents Pavilion, he was increasing his control on the Cabinet.

Killing two birds with one stone.

Naturally, Jiang Shang could not give his opinion on this matter and could only kowtow to thank the king.

…

That afternoon, a series of personnel appointments were released.

Ouyang Xiu was appointed as the director of the Science, Education, Culture, and Health Department, Lu Xiufu as the Administration Director of the Annan Province Provincial Governor office, and Wen Tianxiang as the Governor of Beijiang Province Fengtian Prefecture.

Lu Xiufu being placed in Annan was enough to prove how high the hopes Ouyang Shuo had for him.

Using this chance, moving Wen Tianxiang into the Beijiang Province, apart from trusting his talents, he also wanted to balance Wufu’s influence there.

Since the Xunlong Dianxue matter, Ouyang Shuo deeply understood a lesson, which was the human heart could always change. To make sure that did not happen, the best way would be not to give others a chance.

Before temptation breeds, he wanted to eradicate such thoughts.

With Wufu as an example, as the previous Stone City Lord, he has spent four years there. Naturally, he was really influential in that area.

If Ouyang Shuo did not curb it, even if Wufu did not have the thoughts, if this carried on, he would be directly or indirectly influenced by the friends and family under him, and he would slowly build up unshakeable control in Beijiang.

If that happened, it would not be a good thing for either Great Xia and Wufu.

Moving Wen Tianxiang there was to restrict Wufu and also to protect him. Ouyang Shuo believed that with his intellect, he would be able to understand the meaning within.

Apart from the three new officials, the Imperial Court also had other appointments.

Promoting Secret Document Pavilion advisor to head advisor, Su Zhe would become an advisor in the Secret Document Pavilion and Feng Qingyue would become a secretary.

At the same time, based on orders from the king, the Cabinet would hold an internal selection to choose six righteous secretaries for the Secret Document Pavilion.

The moment the news went out, the Imperial Court was astonished.

As the core structure closest to the king, although the Secret Document Pavilion did not have a high rank, it was a ladder to the skies for young officials. To be chosen as a secretary meant that one was recognized by both the king and the Cabinet.

Along with the special job scope there, not only could one increase their knowledge, but they would also have many chances to come into contact with heavyweights of the Imperial Court.

Anyone who spent a year or two there would at least be able to become a governor outside.

With that, the Imperial Court was obviously shaken. All of a sudden, numerous young people went all around searching for news and asking for favors to try to get a spot.

On this matter, Ouyang Shuo passed full control to the Cabinet and did not step in.

3 PM.

After signing the imperial decree, Ouyang Shuo called to meet Administrative Mentor Court advisor Zhang Liang.

Along with the Secret Document Pavilion changing, the Imperial Reading Room arrangement was adjusted too. As the head advisor, Tsing Yi could not remain here, and instead, she had to have another office right next to the reading room.

That region would be the Secret Document Pavilion’s private office that had its own door.

Between the two offices, there was a door that Ouyang Shuo could use to enter the reading room or through that door to the Secret Document Pavilion office and leave from there.

This ensured that Tsing Yi could arrive upon his request whilst also ensuring the privacy of the Imperial Reading Room.

In the huge room, apart from Ouyang Shuo, there was only the court lady in charge of his food.

Outside stood a Divine Martial Guard ready to receive orders.

Originally, Xu Chu wanted to stand guard there, but Ouyang Shuo rejected it. Xu Chu was a grade 4 general, so how could he do that?

Although that was the case, the stubborn Xu Chu made a drill courtyard near the reading room. If any situation occurred, he could arrive within five minutes.

As Ouyang Shuo was used to discussing huge matters here, the matters were often top secret. As the only court lady there, she needed to be totally loyal to him.

She must also ensure that she did not leak a single word out.

However, there were no suitable choices, so he could only let Zisu personally take charge.

Ouyang Shuo placed down his tea cup and looked at Zhang Liang, “There has been some adjustments to the Secret Document Pavilion, so there should be some for the Administrative Mentor Court.”

No one had expected that Ouyang Shuo would adjust the two core pillars.

Chapter 1045 - Seeking the Sword at Xuanyuan Hill

Chapter 1045: Seeking the Sword at Xuanyuan Hill

Ouyang Shuo had two reasons for calling Zhang Liang over.

First, to arrange him to enter the Cabinet with his position as Administrative mentor court head secretary.

“The Administrative mentor court needs to participate greatly in Imperial Court decisions and pay attention to it all the time. I know that Zifang does not have too much interest in Imperial Court politics. I want you to enter the Cabinet not to debate with them but to observe,” Ouyang Shuo explained.

When Zhang Liang heard that, he nodded, “I understand!”

When Zhang Liang was an advisor to Liu Bang, the Great Han dynasty’s structure was not complete, so he came into contact with all the highest decisions of the Great Zhan Dynasty.

Great Xia was different. With a perfect system and administrative method, they had numerous ministers and advisors. Although the Administrative mentor court could accept reports from the Imperial Court, it would be better to enter the Cabinet and watch directly.

Zhang Liang understood that, which was why he agreed so quickly.

It was still the ideals of Ouyang Shuo, and he hoped that all the troops that enter Great Xia could improve and not stick to the old rules. Even the Strategy Saint Zhang Liang had room to improve.

Secondly, set up an official communication research center.

The current Administrative mentor court was really star studded, but all the members were strategists. If Ouyang Shuo was still building up his empire, so he naturally desired them.

Great Xia now needed to build up and defend his empire.

As a result, he had higher demands of the Administrative mentor court. Apart from setting up battle strategies, they also need to research the internal problems of the dynasty and raise up feasible revolutionary ideas.

The official communication research center was built for this purpose.

Apart from strategists, Ouyang Shuo was going to bring in more professionals including experts of economy, culture, and education. On the basis of investigating research, they would come up with more scientific and professional ideas.

Simply put, this research center was the knowledge bank of the dynasty.

When Zhang Liang heard that, he was both excited and ashamed.

He was excited because the king’s words opened up a new window for him, widening his foresight and welcoming a new vast land.

He felt ashamed that he did not find the problem and needed the king to worry about it.

“Do not worry my king, I’ll do it well!” Zhang Liang promised.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “I naturally trust Zifang.”

In a short day, Ouyang Shuo had adjusted the structures of the two core parts of the dynasty. It did not look like much, but it would have a huge influence on the future of the dynasty.

Ouyang Shuo was so anxious to do so because he felt pressured by the advance of Handan City.

With competition, there would be pressure, such words were totally right.

…

Gaia 5th year, 5th month, 23rd day.

After dealing with the Secret Document Pavilion and the Administrative mentor court, the next morning, Ouyang Shuo brought his Personal Guards and reported to Luoyang, where Great Han dynasty was at.

Along with him were Jiang Shang and Zhang Yi.

Ouyang Shuo’s group was here for a friendly visit and to solidify their cooperation. In the Zhongyuan Region, the Great Han Dynasty was undoubtedly a hugely important presence. Especially with Handan City about to establish the country, Ouyang Shuo hoped to have a good relationship with Great Han.

Ouyang Shuo’s main goal was to used Luoyang to proceed towards Xuanyuan Hill in Zhongyuan Province to seek the Xuanyuan Sword that the Yellow Emperor held.

As the sword was a country weapon, Gaia rules said that if the country war leader could wield it to battle, they would automatically obtain a buff that would help them in the country war.

Seeing that the country war month was impending, Ouyang Shuo naturally needed to settle the matter.

Before this, the Chinese adventure gamemode players were still guessing what Ouyang Shuo would do to get it, or maybe he would just give up on it.

After all, the Yellow Emperor was secluding himself and did not meet outsiders. Even his tribe was really low profile and did not appear apart from when Great Xia established its country.

To the Chinese, the Yellow Emperor held an exceptional position. Although Xuanyuan Hill was located in Great Han territory, the Hanwu Emperor did not dare to have any thoughts and just listed it as a prohibited zone.

If the Yellow Emperor was unwilling, no one would be able to get his sword. Even Ouyang Shuo did not have the utmost of confidence and was just trying his best.

The next morning, Ouyang Shuo and his group left Luoyang and set off for Xuanyuan Hill. When the Luoyang players got the news, they followed, either joining in for the bustle or holding other thoughts.

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo could only invite Hanwu Emperor to arrange a group of guards to follow.

As this was Great Han territory, it was not convenient for Ouyang Shuo to bring his Divine Martial Guards. Seeing that Ouyang Shuo was so thoughtful, Hanwu Emperor naturally repaid it and arranged an army to protect him.

If something really happened to Ouyang Shuo in Great Han territory, he would have no face.

The huge group waltzed out of the city.

Xuanyuan Hill was located east of Luoyang, between Luoyang and Chen County. It was a really special strategic location. It was an abandoned land and a really earthy place.

The group rushed, and at noon, they arrived at Xuanyuan Hill. Looking out, the infrastructure here was similar to that of Yellow Emperor city during the Battle of Zhuolu.

“Who’s here?” The city guard asked.

Ouyang Shuo dismounted from his horse, cupped his fists, and said, “Yellow Emperor and Fire Emperor descendant Ouyang Shuo specially comes to visit!” Coming to such a sacred land, Ouyang Shuo did not dare to act big and called himself a normal person.

“Why are you here?” the guard asked.

Ouyang Shuo replied, “To ask for the Xuanyuan Sword.”

“Preposterous!” The guard had originally calmed down. However, upon hearing Ouyang Shuo mention the sword, he blew up. Instantly, a row of archers appeared on the city walls, staring intently at Ouyang Shuo and his group.

It was not his fault for being nervous because ever since the Yellow Emperor Tribe appeared, there had been numerous bandits who had tried to steal the sword.

“Protect the king!”

With a ‘Shua!’, the Xu Chu led Personal Guards used their shields to form a wall.

The atmosphere instantly became nervous.

When the following players saw that, they said with regret, “It seems like even the Great Xia king’s face did not work. The Yellow Emperor Tribe is truly a prohibited zone.”

A large portion of the players had hoped that Ouyang Shuo would succeed, as the ones that would benefit were all of them.

Some people said sourly, “Cough, Ouyang Shuo thought that just because the Yellow Emperor Tribe sent people to congratulate him, he thought that the Yellow Emperor liked him. What a huge loss of face!”

Seeing Ouyang Shuo enter Luoyang, receiving the personal greeting of Hanwu Emperor, and getting a group of Great Han Guards to protect him along the way, the amount of respect he was given made normal players jealous.

These players could not even manage to see the Hanwu Emperor.

The difference between them and Ouyang Shuo was like heaven and earth.

They were all players, but there was such a huge difference. Naturally, they felt that it was unfair.

Ouyang Shuo did not care and said to Xu Chu, “Be respectful. This is a sacred land, do not use your weapons and back down!”

“Yes, my king!”

Listening to the king say that, Xu Chu did not insist and told the shield wall to back down.

When the guard saw that, a look of surprise appeared on his face.

Ouyang Shuo cupped his fist and said, “The country war is impending, and as the country war leader, I need to lead us to win against Japan. Hence, I would like to borrow the Xuanyuan Sword and return it after the battle!”

When the guard heard that Ouyang Shuo wanted to borrow and not to snatch, his tone became gentler, “Are those words true?”

“Definitely!”

“Wait a minute, I’ll go make a report!” The guard finally lowered his guard.

In the end, as the Xia King, Ouyang Shuo still had some influence in front of players.

Half an hour later, the guard returned. His face was still filled with shock as he looked weirdly at Ouyang Shuo and said, “Your highness, please!”

‘Hua~’

Hearing those words, the surrounding players were in an uproar. All of them stared with their eyes wide, “Wow, as expected from the Xia King, even the Yellow Emperor is making an exception to meet him.”

“This time, we have a chance in the country war!”

Whilst the players discussed amongst themselves, Ouyang Shuo followed the guards in. Xu Chu wanted to bring his Personal Guards in but were blocked, “His majesty only asked for Ouyang Shuo and no one else!”

“You!”

Xu Chu was furious, and his eyes became wide with fury.

“We are the Personal Guards of the king and need to stay by his side,” Xu Chu explained.

The guard’s attitude was really insistent, “That will not work either!”

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he waved his hand to ask Xu Chu to back down. When Xu Chu saw that, he said viciously, “Listen up, if anything happens to my king, I’ll lead my troops and wipe out your Xuanyuan Hill.”

‘Scoff!’

The guards showed no fear and directly walked off.

After passing through many streets, the guard brought Ouyang Shuo to the palace. It was exactly the same as the one during the Battle of Zhuolu. Past the palace and into the main hall, Ouyang Shuo finally saw the Yellow Emperor.

Compared to during the Battle of Zhuolu, the Yellow Emperor looked older.

Ouyang Shuo bowed, “Greetings, your majesty!”

“Player Ouyang Shuo, I remember you.” His voice was hoarse, and his body seemed to be unwell, “You are doing well, upholding the name of the Chinese children.”

When Ouyang Shuo heard those words, he could not help but feel proud. On this earth, not many could be praised by the Yellow Emperor; it was a huge honor.

“I’m willing to continue to expand our land to spread the might of the Chinese.”

“Good, good, good.”

The Yellow Emperor was delighted. He took out his sword and passed it forward with his right hand, “You have ambition, you are worthy of this sword, take it!”

Ouyang Shuo did not dare to be slow, and he swiftly walked up, raising both hands and respectfully taking the sword.

“Put it on!” The Yellow Emperor said excitedly.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he sheathed the sword on the right of his waist. On his left side was the Chixiao Sword, which did not leave his body at any moment.

No matter how precious and meaningful the Xuanyuan Sword was, the Chixiao Sword was the true symbol of Ouyang Shuo.

When the Yellow Emperor saw that, he fell deep in thought.

Chapter 1046 - Battle in the Dark

Chapter 1046: Battle in the Dark

By the time Ouyang Shuo returned to Shanhai City, it was already the 24th day of the 5th month.

The moment he returned, there was a lot of good news.

During these past two days, many Song Dynasty historical people had joined Great Xia. Apart from Su Zhe’s father and brother, many came over because of Fan Zhongyan and Ouyang Xiu.

There were students of Ouyang Shuo like Zeng Gong, and also people like Han Qi, Siam Guang, Zhang Zai, and Bao Zheng.

At the same time, Yue Fei’s Family had arrived in Shanhai City. This included his mother, his son Yue Yun, and his daughter Yue Yinping.

Apart from that, there were generals like Zhang Xian, Fu Xuan, Niu Gao, and Xu Qing. These generals that were under Yue Fei came over.

All of a sudden, Shanhai City was really bustling.

Seeing that there were only three Lords left in the wilderness, there were not many choices left for the historical talents. No matter what aspect, Great Xia was their best choice.

The deep foundations of Great Xia finally exploded. During this period of time, not only Song Dynasty historical people, but even those from the Warring States, Han, and Tang all turned their eyes to Great Xia.

In the future period of time, Great Xia would welcome their best time. Talented people would shoot out like a hose, like a river flowing right into Great Xia.

A year and a month had passed since Great Xia established the country. Since Shanhai City’s upgrade to Capital City, it had used its strong territory specialty as well as territory expansion to reach a population of 30 million.

This count did not include the millions of players that moved into Great Xia.

The newest data from the Civil Affairs Department shows that including the overseas provinces, Great Xia had a total of 65 million in population and could break the 100 million mark at the same time next year.

The profits were showing as the prefectures and counties were becoming more and more prosperous by the day.

Great Xia had started building up education, medical, and basically facilities, which was helping to build up talents for the territory.

“Rapid changes every day!”

One could describe Great Xia like that.

When one grew bigger and developed quicker, some problems would naturally arise. The demands on the administrative and ruling system of the dynasty toward the local offices would be higher.

To control such a huge territory was simply a difficult matter.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo decided to set up the official communication research center.

At such a time, Ouyang Shuo thirsted for more talents. He wanted to rely on this group of people to help manage the large territory of the Imperial Court and not let this ship steer off course.

Out of all the talents that joined him, apart from Bao Zheng, who was appointed as the regulatory director, Su Xun, Su Shi, Siam Guang, Zeng Gong, Fan Qi, and the like were all appointed as governors.

Su Shi became the Shu Lands Jiangyang Prefecture Governor, Su Xun the Chuanbei Province Tongren Prefecture Governor, Han Qi the Wannan Province Changsha Prefecture Governor, Sima Guang the Jiangchuan Province Jiujiang Prefecture Governor, and Zeng Gong the Jiangchuan Province Ningdu Prefecture Governor.

All of these were important prefectures.

With that, the shortfalls that were noticed during the year end evaluation were made up for just like that.

At the same time, Yue Yun, Zhang Xian, Fu Xuan, Nu Gao, and Xu Qing were all arranged to become Major Generals in the various legion corps.

If they did not follow the appointments, they would be kicked out of Great Xia.

Ouyang Shuo did not hope for the Great Xia Army to be taken over randomly by the Yue family army.

It was worth mentioning that Yue Yun was especially arranged to the 4th legion of the Guards Legion Corps. Obviously, Ouyang Shuo had high hopes for him and hoped that he would rise up like Luo Shixin.

In Great Xia, Yue Yun still had great room to grow.

On New Year’s Eve of 1142 AD, Yuefei was killed in the Dali jail. Yue Yun and Zhang Xuan were executed together. At that point, Yue Yun was only 23, what a regret.

Amongst all the bustle and hustle, another day passed.

At around 5 PM, close to dinner time, Ouyang Shuo finally had the time to be alone in the reading room to meet a certain person. That person was Feng Qingyue, who had just been relocated over here from the Shu Lands.

At this point, Ouyang Shuo felt that he needed to be honest with her.

“Sit!”

Seeing that Feng Qingyue looked a little wary, Ouyang Shuo smiled as he said.

When Feng Qingyue saw that, she nodded. Whilst she sat, she looked at Ouyang Shuo probingly.

Ordinary players probably still did not know, but upon learning that Feng Qingyue was accepted into the Great Xia Secret Documents Pavilion, huge waves were stirred up among the six families.

Although the Feng Family had walked a different path from the others after the Battle of Swordsman City had ended, the families were still really close.

The Feng Family had never broke away from that circle.

Even if they were not a member, they were still an important part of Silver Hand.

When they learned that Feng Qingyue had gone over to join Shanhai City, they had warned the Feng Family once. Luckily, at that point, she had not gained Ouyang Shuo’s trust, and she only had a vague appointment in the Shu Lands.

No one thought that she could make a name for herself, more so as time went on.

For her to be suddenly moved into the Secret Document Pavilion alerted Silver Hand.

Although Silver Hand did not know how the Secret Document Pavilion functioned exactly, it was a part of the core of Great Xia. Unless Ouyang Shuo trusted the person in question, he would not let them in.

Feng Qingyue being appointed had deep meaning.

Silver Hand’s instinctive reaction was that unless Feng Qingyue was close to Ouyang Shuo, this was a deal between Feng Family and Ouyang Shuo.

Even thinking deeper, was the Feng Family betraying Silver Hand and joining Great Xia?

No wonder Silver Hand got so nervous.

Great Xia had time and time again brought surprises to Silver Hand, giving them a headache. Although they wanted to teach Great Xia a lesson, they had no idea how to do so.

Of course, maybe the upcoming country war was a good chance.

Feng Qingyue gaining Ouyang Shuo’s trust held a far deeper meaning. That meant that Great Xia was slowly starting to influence the insides of Silver Hand, and they found this to be unacceptable.

If this breach was opened, no one could predict what shocking events would follow.

Great Xia’s ability to accept all talents also made Silver Hand nervous.

They were afraid that if they allowed Ouyang Shuo to reach into Silver Hand, it might cause a larger chain reaction.

Noticing the seriousness of the problem, Di Chen’s grandfather personally made a trip to Chengdu to talk to Feng Qingyue’s grandfather.

As for the specifics, naturally outsiders knew nothing about it.

The only thing that the Feng family child revealed when leaving the Feng Family courtyard was unhappiness. Feng Qingyue knew a lot more, as her grandfather had written her a letter.

The Feng family’s stance was certain, “Feng Qingyue’s actions represent her own will and not the Feng Family’s. Similarly, they will not interfere in her personal choice and force her to leave Great Xia.”

The meaning behind these words were obvious; the Feng Family was going to play both sides.

Silver Hand did not forcefully restrict its members, especially the Feng Family, who did not have a territory as their foundation.

Due to the abandonment of Swordsman City, the Feng Family had more reason to say those words.

Feng Qingyue looked deeply at Ouyang Shuo. At this moment, her heart was filled with emotions, ‘How old is he? Not only did he create the biggest empire in the game world, but he even made those old men who played a whole life of games afraid.’

Maybe even Ouyang Shuo himself did not realize how much he had grown. Needless to say in Great Xia, but even to the outside, those guild leaders’ attitudes toward him was also slowly changing.

They were slowly starting to respect and even fear him.

Even on the forums, there were less and less people who scolded him. People did not dare to be so outright and bold.

Amongst the entire Chinese player population, he held an unshakeable position. Not to mention the people who recognized or worshipped him, just those who had their personal interests tied up with his numbered in the tens of millions.

It was this relationship that protected his position.

For Ouyang Shuo to get to this point was partially because of his revival advantage. However, if one attributed it all to that, that would be far from the truth.

If it were other people, even with that advantage, they might not have made it so far.

There were simply too many traps and temptations on the road to the top. Just the China region alone had many people who fell. For Ouyang Shuo to take them down one by one proved that he was something special.

It was not apparent in the last life simply because he did not have a stage to show it.

In this life, the hidden dragon rose, soaring into the heavens, unable to be stopped by anyone.

“When you’re in the Secret Document Pavilion, do not have any psychological burden, just do what you have to do. I’m really looking forward to the changes you will bring to it. If do well, you might be promoted to advisor.”

Ouyang Shuo’s words broke her train of thought.

“Understood!”

As one of the three female Zhuges of China, Tsing Yi became the head advisor whilst she was only a secretary. To say that she was not annoyed was impossible.

Feng Qingyue was really motivated deep down.

“As for your family.” Ouyang Shuo paused, causing her heart to be in her mouth. Ouyang Shuo’s words not only affected her future but also the future of her family.

“Help me tell this to your grandfather, a bird seeks for greener pastures. Great Xia welcomes everyone. However, Great Xia does not need undecided people, and we will not wait for long.” Following which, Ouyang Shuo stated a time limit, “Once Great Xia takes down Chengdu, you all do not need to make a choice.”

“Understood!”

Feng Qingyue nodded once more. At this moment, her expression was really solemn.

Chapter 1047 - Counting Down to the Country War

Chapter 1047: Counting Down to the Country War

After laying out all the cards with Feng Qingyue, Ouyang Shuo ended his day of hard work.

Within the Wuji Hall, Yu’er and Luo’er, who were born recently, were sleeping soundly. Maybe due to the fact that they had signed a contract with god beasts, but they slept more frequently than other babies.

Apart from drinking milk during the day, they slept for a large part of the time.

Apart from drinking breast milk, they also drank ten thousand year stalactite mixed with milk. Under the supervision of Saint Physician Zhang Zhongjing, they started to cultivate their bodies since a young age.

When they reached an age where they could start to truly cultivate, they would probably soar quickly.

Song Jia sat right next to the rocking basket, focusing on knitting a wool dress. Since the two of them were born, she had placed all her focus on the two of them and did not bother much about the entertainment holdings matters.

Looking at the dedicated mother in front of them, who would have known that she was once the sect leader of the Dongli Sword Sect, the teacher of the entertainment queen, the chairman of the Mountain and Sea Entertainment Holdings, and a true giant of the wilderness?

When Ouyang Shuo saw her, he smiled, “Once Yu’er and Luo’er reach a month old, you should leave them to a nanny. To stay in the palace all day long is so boring, and it’s unfair to you.”

Song Jia shook her head, “Let’s talk about this after they reach a year old.”

Accompanying the two fellows, Song Jia did not find it boring and enjoyed the peaceful times.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he did not say anything else. Looking at his pair of cute children, Ouyang Shuo felt really satisfied and was filled with motivation.

Regretfully, it was the country month time when the two of them were a month old, so Ouyang Shuo could not be there for them.

A quiet night.

…

Gaia 5th month, 5th year, 25th day, 9 AM, a System Notification sounded out around the world.

“World Notification: There are five days till the annual country war. The country borders are officially unlocked, country war leaders must choose their country war target within two days or it would be deemed as a forfeit.”

…

The moment this notification sounded out, all the players rubbed their palms. The honor focused country war had finally begun.

Based on the settings of Gaia, the country war choice was one-sided. For example, country A could attack country B and country B did not need to agree. At the same time, whilst country B was getting attacked by country A, it could declare war against country C.

Hence, many countries could declare war on the same country. Of course, Gaia limited that, and this amount could not exceed three countries.

Such a setting brought a lot of uncertainty to the country war.

With country A as an example, whilst it declared war against country B, it might need to defend against country C, D, and E.

Some small countries could come to an understanding and work together to destroy a medium-sized country.

As a result, Gaia needed the country war leaders to make their choice within two days. It was to leave three days for the country to prepare to deal with their opponents.

The country war month would be a global washing of cards.

Different from wilderness battles, this was a country versus country battle. The regional overlords could use this chance to wipe out the small countries around them, and the small countries could attack and destroy the overlord together.

Who would win and who would lose was still unknown.

Such huge uncertainty brought with it many conflicts of interests as well as a strong sense of duty and honor. It was all mixed together. This was destined to be a world war of epic proportions.

All the players around the world were wrapped up in this.

At the same time, to allow Lords who joined in to have no worries, Gaia ruled that during the period, not only were all battles within the country prohibited, other unannounced country wars were prohibited too.

Hence, during the country war month, one could only attack the country they declared war on.

All of a sudden, the plot thickened.

…

25th day, afternoon, 2 PM, Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo used his position as the China region country war leader to gather up Di Chen, and Feng Qiuhuang as well as the 14 Satellite City Guardian Guilds.

The 14 satellite cities in China included the ones in the nine imperial cities, the two Capital City ones as well as the three overseas ones of Great Xia.

14 satellite cities, 14 super guilds; these people basically represented most of the China adventure gamemode player base.

Amongst which, Ouyang Shuo had stocks in eight of them, including Blood Evil Mercenary Guild, Snow War Rose Mercenary guild, Streamer, Jiangshan Alliance, Purple Moon Alliance, Fallen Leaf Alliance, Blood Shadow Alliance, and South Sky Alliance.

The remaining Jianqi Zongheng, 18 horsemen of Yanyun, Jin Yi Wei, Tingyu Floor, Laojun Temple, and the newly added Handan City Satellite City Guardian Guild Purple Lightning Guild were all controlled by Handan City.

From this, one could see that the China region was clearly split into two camps. Although the Shanhai Alliance held the advantage, they could not obtain a crushing advantage.

How to fight the country war was something that Di Chen would have a lot of say in.

These 17 most influential people in China discussed for an entire afternoon before finally settled on the basics of the country war.

Needless to say, the target was definitely Japan. Ouyang Shuo made the decision on the spot on his personal interface. The moment he made his choice, a System Notification spread through the entire China.

“System Notification: China region country war leader Qiyue Wuyi selects Japan as the country war target, effective immediately. All China players, please prepare for the country war!”

…

The moment the notification sounded out, everyone was naturally delighted.

The China region players had yearned to defeat Japan for a long time, and they were just waiting for this moment.

At the same time, Japan region country war leader Keisuke Honda also received the notification. The top Japanese players obtained the news and started to make their final preparations.

A seismic battle was about to arrive!

…

Apart from the country war target, more importantly, they needed to select where to gather, troops movement paths as well as how to split up missions.

The truth was placed in front of them. It was impossible for Di Chen to listen to Ouyang Shuo command him. The hatred between the two sides meant that they would not be able to trust one another.

Rome was not built in a day.

The best way would be to let both camps choose an attack path each and attack on their own.

Japan was an island state and was made up of Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu; these four main islands as well as seven thousand small islands formed a long and narrow shaped land.

Imperial City Edo had a million guards and was located in the central region.

After the discussion, they decided that Di Chen would lead the Handan City camp troops and disembark at Kyushu and go up north, wiping out Shikoku, and then going into Honshu to fight.

Ouyang Shuo would lead the Shanhai Alliance troops to start from Hokkaido in the north, and then they would go down south to attack Honshu.

Both troops would meet up in Edo and complete the final blow.

Since Japan was an island country, their attacks needed many ships to carry over their troops. Considering this problem, Great Xia set up four gathering points along the river, Beihai Bay, South Mountain Bay in Yashan City, Jiaozhou Bay in Zhenhai City, and Binhai Bay in Fengtian Prefecture.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo was planning to discuss with Great Sui about opening up Quanzhou Bay.

On the side of Handan City, they opened up three ports, Hailu Port in Jingdu Province, Shencheng Port in Donghai Province, and Zhoushan Port in Jiangnan Province.

Any ambitious Chinese adventure gamemode player could proceed toward any of these gathering points from the 25th onward.

During this period of time, Great Xia and Handan City would be in charge of dealing with the ocean transportation problem.

As they were splitting into two groups, whoever could gather up more players would find it much easier. Hence, Di Chen and Ouyang Shuo both chose to void all teleportation costs.

Just this alone was an enormous expenditure for the territory.

Based on Ouyang Shuo’s prediction, the country war month would be greatly different from normal country wars due to the leadership structure on the battlefield. To prevent the command system from failing, the best way would be to use the territory army to face up against territory armies and adventure gamemode players fight against adventure gamemode players and not let them mix. If not, things would become really inefficient.

Japan had ten million adventure gamemode players; it was a power that could not be underestimated.

After discussing everything that night, Ouyang Shuo planned out the entire country war month plan and posted it on the forums for the Chinese players to read and prepare in advance.

Ouyang Shuo did not think about hiding it from Japan. First, it was impossible, and secondly, there was no need to.

…

5th month, 26th day, Xia Palace.

Dealing with the big picture, Ouyang Shuo summoned the members of the Grand Council for a discussion.

Without a doubt, the Great Xia Army would be the main pillar of this country war. They needed to plan well and choose the most suitable forces to send.

First, the navy.

Emperor Squadron, Yashan Squadron, Pacific Squadron; and Binhai Squadron; they were all listed.

It was easy to see that the hardest step in the country war would be disembarking. The country war troops had to set up a stable site before they could transport troops up the shore.

If not, everything was useless.

The Japanese players could probably understand this point and would stop at nothing to prevent the Chinese from disembarking.

The battle between the two sides would start with the navy.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo decided to send out the strongest Chinese fleet in history. This fleet would be two times larger than the one for the Battle of Annan, making history.

Next, it would be the army troops.

Guards Legion Corps, City Protection Legion Corps, Dragon Legion Corps, Tiger Legion Corps…

Every one of them flashed across his eyes, but how to make the choice was a difficult decision.

At this very moment, a System Notification sounded out in his ear.

Ouyang Shuo was stunned on the spot.

The sudden change totally broke his arrangements. An unforeseen storm was sweeping right at Great Xia, catching Ouyang Shuo off guard.

Ouyang Shuo took in a deep breath, staring at the maps around the Grand Council as his eyes turned cold.

Du Ruhui and the other officials, seeing the king suddenly fall silent and stare solemnly at the maps, realized that a huge change might have happened. All of them exchanged glances and did not dare to break the king’s train of thought.

Chapter 1048 - Going Head on Against Danger

Chapter 1048: Going Head on Against Danger

Ouyang Shuo really did not expect that there would truly be people who dared test Great Xia.

A moment ago, Ouyang Shuo received three notifications; Korea, Nanzhang and Zhenla had all declared war on Great Xia at the same time. Ouyang Shuo smelt a plot right away.

It was just too obvious.

Nanzhang and Zhenla did not need to be mentioned, as their territories were connected to Annan Province. They declared war on China and could only attack from Annan.

What about Korea?

Being stimulated by Japan, when the lips die, the teeth would feel cold. In truth, they too were connected to Beijiang Province.

The three countries were like three sharp blades stabbing right at Great Xia. If it were not for Gaia only allowing three countries max, there would probably be even more challengers.

For example, the Africa Continent would definitely not be as peaceful as now.

Needless to say, Silver Hand had to be behind this. Apart from this super organization, no one else had such huge ability to lead countries on a global scale.

Grand Council.

Ouyang Shuo removed his eyes from the maps and said expressionlessly, “We have got trouble!”

The biggest problem out of the three was Korea.

First, they were connected to Nanjiang Province and the Korea Army could attack from land. Secondly, they had a total of seven million players, which was on the same level as Japan and Annan.

If Zhenla and Nanzhang were illnesses, Korea was a cancer.

“What does the king mean?” Du Ruhui asked.

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes were resolute, “This is the first wave of attacks from the enemy, and we mus not back down! Not only that, but we must fight back.”

“Let this battle be the start of our fight against Silver Hand!”

Ouyang Shuo finally decided to go head to head against Silver Hand. Maybe deep down, he had been waiting for this day.

The current Great Xia had the ability to withstand all sorts of provocation.

When Baiqi, Huo Qubing, Zheng He, and the others heard this, they all felt their blood boil.

Ouyang Shuo decided to split up the Great Xia Army to deal with the three sides.

Zhenla and Nanzhang formed one group and would be handled by the southwest warzone led by Baiqi.

Zhenla had a total of 1.2 million players, while Nanzhang had 600 thousand. Adding in the guard troops of both countries, there were a total of 180 thousand. Their total number of territory troops would not exceed 300 thousand.

The southwest warzone had the Annan formation and Dragon Legion Corps under it, so they had a total of 560 thousand troops. Furthermore, with Baiqi in charge, it was more than enough to deal with the two countries.

The ocean support would be led by Yanhuo Yaonie and the Indian Ocean Squadron.

The order Ouyang Shuo gave Baiqi was to take the chance to swallow up both countries. As for the battle between adventure gamemode players, Ouyang Shuo was ready to let Hanoi Satellite City Guardian Guild South Sky Alliance handle it. Similar to Jiangshan Alliance and Purple Moon Alliance, South Sky Alliance led by Cute Swordsman was a guild formed by a merger of many small guilds. They numbered at a total of 300 thousand members.

Along with the other Chinese players who had moved into the Satellite City as well as Annan Province, they had enough!

Korea was the second group.

Facing this difficult opponent, apart from the Chen Yucheng led Beijiang formation, Ouyang Shuo was going to let the Li Jing led Bear Legion Corps and the Huo Qubing led Guards Legion Corps go up north to assist.

To go against Korea, Ouyang Shuo was using the strongest cards he had in his hand.

Ouyang Shuo naturally had his reasons. If one said that the Battle of Japan was a full-scale war, then the Battle of Korea was one between Great Xia and Korea.

Just this alone made Ouyang Shuo decide to send his strongest Guards Legion Corps onto the Korea battlefield. Furthermore, Japan was mostly mountains, and it was also an island nation. As such, it was not a suitable place for the Guards Legion Corps to fight in.

Two legion corps, 10 War Fighting Legions, 700 thousand troops. Just the teleportation costs amounted to 1.4 million gold. This time, Ouyang Shuo was putting in a lot of hard earned cash.

The second group’s ocean assistance would be from Qing Jiguang’s Binhai Squadron.

On the adventure gamemode player’s side, Ouyang Shuo was prepared to use Shanhai City Guardian Guild Blood Shadow Alliance, Morocco Guardian Guild Jiangshan Alliance, and Somalia Guardian Guild Purple Moon Alliance.

Along with Streamer, there were a total of four super guilds.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo was prepared to throw in some of the Chinese players into the Battle of Korea. Although Silver Hand obviously wanted to harm Great Xia, this was a country war, and Ouyang Shuo should not be the one taking all the hits.

With Ouyang Shuo’s prestige in the China region, there would naturally be no problems with that.

The commander of this second group was Bear Legion Corps marshal Li Jing.

Without a doubt, this would be the time for Great Tang military god Li Jing to prove himself. Whether he was worthy of the commander in chief title Ouyang Shuo had given him or not depended on this battle.

The final group was naturally for the Battle of Japan.

Being influence by the three country wars, the number of troops Great Xia would send to Japan was greatly reduced. On the navy side, without the Binhai Squadron, they luckily still had the Emperor Squadron, Yashan Squadron, and Pacific Squadron.

On the army side, the Eagle Legion Corps, Tiger Legion Corps, and City Protection Legion Corps needed to defend, and only the Han Xin led Leopard Legion Corps could be sent out to battle.

Eagle Legion Corps defending the west, Tiger Legion Corps defending the east, and City Protection Legion Corps defending the main camp.

Although Gaia had set rules that all internal battles were prohibited during the month, it was just that month. If the expedition troops were not able to return, they were going to face huge problems.

Hence, even when he was fighting on three sides, Ouyang Shuo needed to leave troops to defend. At most, he could send one of the legions from each of the legion corps.

As for the Morocco, Somalia, and Auckland Formations, there were only hundred thousand of them. Even if he used them, they would not amount to much.

What was worth mentioning was that because Auckland belonged to Great Xia, it was not a standalone warzone, so it avoided a catastrophe.

One had to say that Auckland Provincial Governor Jason’s decision was really smart. There was news that spread out that in ASEAN, Java had targeted Timor-Leste and Johor had targeted Brunei.

If it were not due to the restriction, Luzon would have probably declared war on China. However, New Zealand could not become a country war target, which meant that Luzon had no part to play in this country war month.

Apart from that, on the Asia continent, India targeted Zhuyu in the north and Sri Lanka. It seemed like they wanted to wipe out their inland threat first before targeting Sri Lanka.

…

Without a doubt, this would be the toughest battle that Great Xia had faced yet.

For this country war, Great Xia had pretty much used up all their navy and army troops, a total of three million troops or so. Many players meant that over ten million people were activated.

The players attacking Japan were naturally the Blood Evil Mercenary guild, Fallen Leaf Alliance, and Snow-War Rose Mercenary Guild.

Apart from that, Thread would provide logistical support.

Out of the three groups, the Japanese army forces were the weakest. Luckily, Great Xia was not fighting alone. The Fallen Phoenix City Blazing Legion Corps would follow and attack the north region of Japan.

All of a sudden, the Japan group seemed like the most stacked group, as they had a total of 910 thousand men.

During the meeting, Feng Qiuhuang had made it clear that the Blazing Legion Corps would follow Great Xia’s leadership. Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to decide a commander for this group.

Without a doubt, Ouyang Shuo selected Han Xin.

Baiqi, Li Jing, and Han Xin; they were the three most all rounded God Generals in the Great Xia Army and were the ones that Ouyang Shuo trusted the most. In every big battle, one of them would definitely take the center stage.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo decided to let Sun Bin lead the Tiger Legion Corps to defend and not the Bear Legion Corps.

After setting up the country war strategy, Ouyang Shuo did not do much else.

The specific strategies, grain and warship deployment, and the like were naturally done by the Grand Council, Privy Court, and the three commanders.

Everyone had their specializations. Ouyang Shuo was not good at leading a million troops.

Furthermore, he had other more important things to do.

That afternoon, Ouyang Shuo posted a forum post, “I’ve received the notification that Korea, Nanzhang, and Zhenla have declared war on us.”

The moment the news spread out, China was in uproar.

After they recovered from their shock, rage followed.

Just as Ouyang Shuo had thought, as the strongest region in the world, the Chinese players all felt that China could only attack others and not the other way around.

Who knew that Zhenla, Nanzhang, and Korea would actually court death.

All of a sudden, everyone was pumped up and sought to fight. On this aspect, the Chinese players were really bold and filled with killing intent. Even in a 1v4 scenario, they still showed no fear.

Apart from 100 million players supporting them, they still had Great Xia.

Ouyang Shuo naturally could not say much on the forums. The Outreach Division led by Zi Luolan swiftly acted and rained down on the forums.

On one side, she announced the resolution of Great Xia to fend off the enemy whilst revealing their arrangements of troops to calm the people down.

Following which, the Outreach Division changed their words to lead the Chinese people to fight along with Great Xia.

With the front promise as a reliance, the goodwill of the players toward Great Xia broke through the roofs. They wanted to all jump into the country war and follow Great Xia to conquer the world.

Of course, this was only the situation on the forums and not the true situation.

In a life or death situation, every adventure gamemode player would be really careful when making their choices.

This was undeniable.

Ouyang Shuo did not place his hopes on all these scattered players. The main forces were still from the super guilds.

Ouyang Shuo started to meet the guild leaders of the eight guilds he had stocks in to explain the Great Xia plan and his hope for their cooperation.

How to convince them would test Ouyang Shuo’s intellect.

Chapter 1049 - The Army Departs

Chapter 1049: The Army Departs

Japan region, Sanli City.

After confirming the Great Xia troops plan, Keisuke Honda let out a long sigh of relief.

Since the information piece at the start of the year was released, all the Japanese players were in a really tensed atmosphere.

The huge China region was like an endless gloomy cloud that hung high over their skies.

To save their country from falling, from that moment onward, Keisuke Honda had started acting. He knew that Japan alone was not enough, and he had to depend on outside help.

The greatest help was the Silver Hand.

Although the Honda family was not as big as the Di family in Silver Hand, it was still a core member. Furthermore, many people internally did not want to see Great Xia get strong, so naturally, they all came to a consensus.

At the start, the Honda family placed their hopes onto Di Chen. They hoped that he could take down the role of leader. If that happened, all the problems would be settled.

Unfortunately, the heavens did not give them what they wished, as Di Chen lost in their battle.

Seeing that a country war was unavoidable, Keisuke Honda wanted to find enemies for China to reduce the defensive burden of Japan. Korea, which was connected to China, became Japan’s first ally.

Korea Ulsan City Lord Park Wins naturally understood the theory of how the teeth feels cold when the lips die, “If Korea looks on while Japan falls, Korea might be the one that falls the next year.”

Apart from Korea, Keisuke Honda originally wanted Luzon, Java, and India, these huge countries, to work together. Helplessly, due to various factors, it did not work out.

Java and India were too far from China. Moreover, their own region was not settled. They wanted to remove the small countries around them first. Naturally, they were not willing to join these milky waters.

Luzon was interested but their country’s opinions differed, so they could only give up in the end. Helplessly, the Honda family could only find the next best options.

There were reasons why they were called scapegoats.

The two countries naturally knew that after Great Xia took down Annan, the next step would be to wipe them out. However, they had the ostrich mentality, and they were not willing and did not dare to initiate an attack on Great Xia.

To be able to drag on for another day was another day that they could live.

The Honda family used their killing blow and bought out the country war leaders Bi Wenlie and Lang Gong to directly target China.

At this time, the two of them were probably in deep trouble.

However, they probably did not mind because to recruit them, the Honda family had spent a lot. Even if the two countries were wiped out, both of them could still live happily on Planet Hope.

“But that was not enough!”

The three countries could take up a portion of the pressure, but China was just too strong. Even if it only used a third of its strength, it could still crush Japan.

“Now, it’s up to them to decide…”

Keisuke Honda looked at the neighboring country across the sea. His heart was unsettled, and his eyes shone bright.

…

5th month, 27th day, Shanhai City.

From today onward, the various troops started their travels. Adding in the traveling time, one could say that the country war month had begun.

The fastest one was the southwest warzone.

Dragon Legion Corps marshal Baiqi had already returned to Annan Province. With the cooperation of the Privy Court and the Annan Provincial Governor office, the grain gathered by the Combat Logistics Department was transported to the frontlines.

At the same time, Baiqi had set up a traveling plan.

Last afternoon, Huo Qubing had already led the Guards Legion Corps to teleport to Stone City to move toward the area where Beijiang Province and Korea connected.

Since the Bear Legion Corps had difficulties gathering up, they needed two more days.

Beijiang Province Governor Wufu had already received Ouyang Shuo’s orders and would prepare the logistical supplies for the army.

Ouyang Shuo’s orders were to block the enemy outside the country. He was not willing to let the flames of war spread into Beijiang territory. Since Korea dared to start war, they needed to be prepared to be wiped out.

He had his reasons to be confident.

Last afternoon, the Great Qin, Great Han, and Great Tang dynasties had sent their envoys over to express that once the country war started, the three dynasties would each send 150 thousand troops into Beijiang Province to help out in the defense.

As a result, Great Xia did not need to bother about backline defenses. The 840 thousand strong army led by Li Jing could just enter directly and kill their way into Korea territory.

Ouyang Shuo was becoming more and more confident about the Battle of Korea.

Since they were taking the initiative to strike, the nine imperial cities of China and their tens of millions of guards could not go overseas to fight. Although that was the case, they could help in local defenses.

These ten million guards were the stabilizing needle of China. No matter how the country war went, at the very least, Great Xia territory would remain safe. This was also the reason why the neighboring countries feared China.

Ten million guards along with mighty lords like Qinhuang Hanwu, Tangzong Songzu as well as generals like Wei Qing and Wang Jian; it was easy to make one despondent.

Great Xia was not the only reason China was strong.

Luzon had given up on attacking China due to such considerations.

On the adventure gamemode players’ side.

Blood Shadow Alliance, Jiangshan Alliance, Purple Moon Alliance, and the Streamer elite squads had gathered in Stone City.

Apart from the four super guilds, many scattered groups of players moved toward Beijiang Province. Their overall numbers even exceeded that of the four super guilds, and it was enough to counter the combat occupation players of Korea.

There were three reasons why the players were so eager.

First, the Outreach Division of the Honglu Temple was effective.

Zi Luolan had arranged for many people to start huge discussions on the forums to raise the fighting spirit of the adventure gamemode players and thrown them into the battle.

Secondly, the Qin, Han, and Tang dynasties all acted as good examples.

These three dynasties held an unshakeable position in the hearts of the Chinese players, Most adventure gamemode players gathered in the cities of these dynasties.

The three of them sending troops to aid Great Xia in defending the local land was an obvious signal. The moment the news spread out, many adventure gamemode players made their way over to Beijiang Province.

Thirdly, everyone had their own loves.

Japan was obviously China’s greatest enemy. Similarly, there were many players who did not like Korea. After they learned that Great Xia’s commander in chief Li Jing was about to lead troops to attack Korea, many of them naturally jumped in.

For these many reasons, it was destined that the victory of the Battle of Korea would tilt in Great Xia’s favor. How much Great Xia had to pay and how far this battle would go depended on Li Jing.

…

Apart from the above two groups, the Japan group had also started to move.

Without a doubt, no matter how attractive the Korea battlefield was, the Battle of Japan was still the focus. It was also the battle that the adventure gamemode players cared the most about and joined in the most.

As they were fighting across the ocean, the first batch of troops were sent out today.

Beihai Port.

Early in the morning, Ouyang Shuo led the civil servants and generals over to send them off.

The Great Xia Grand Council split the Battle of Japan into four parts, the ocean battle, the disembarkment, the sweeping, and then the imperial city final battle.

The ocean battle involved the navies of the two sides engaging one another.

Japan had a history of raiding Chinese ships and shoreline, which was why they had experience in seafaring and ocean battling. Along with the shipbuilding and firearms technology provided by America, they had developed a strong navy.

If they did not wipe out the Japanese navy, the following disembarkment battle would be impossible.

On this aspect, the responsibility laid on the Pacific Squadron led by Shi Lang. As for the Yu Dayou led Yashan Squadron, they would be in charge of protecting the ocean route between Great Xia and Japan.

One could foresee that there would be large amounts of merchant ships sending over troops, players, and grain. Even so, they would probably need to make many return trips.

It would be impossible for such a huge fleet to move without protection.

Furthermore, China was on the offensive, so they needed to prepare for plots by Japan to send a squadron over to destroy their supply line.

Although it would not affect the big picture, it would affect their morale.

With Japan’s pillaging ability, it could even cause huge loses. Hence, Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to arrange the Yashan Squadron to prevent such things from occurring.

As for the main battlefield, no matter how strong the Japanese navy were, in front of both the Pacific Squadron and Handan City’s Haizhou Squadron, they would not have a good time.

A day ago, along with Pill Sun City, King City, and Blood Red City merging into Handan City, the entire Handan City military structure was restructured.

The first to be changed was the navy.

As the Handan City, Blood Red City, and King City Squadrons were not filled up yet, they were reorganized into two squadrons, the Handan Squadron and the Haizhou Squadron.

Di Chen was ready to use the Handan Squadron to defend their home and Haizhou to attack.

The army was also greatly changed. Mainly to follow the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps model, they formed an elite palace Guards Legion Corps. Lianpo would act as the marshal of this legion.

Next would be to use the territory armies as well as the war prisoners from taking down West Chu and Wannan Province to form three full legion corps. Dantian would lead the Pill Sun legion corps, Wuqi the King legion corps and Xie Xuan the Blood Red legion corps.

With that, Handan City had four legion corps for a total of 1.4 million troops. In any country outside of China, they would be an undeniable overlord.

Back to the topic at hand.

The one setting off from the Beihai Port was the Yashan Squadron. Along with them was the 1st legion of the City Protection Legion Corps as well as two legions from the blazing legion corps. The elite force from the Blood Evil Mercenary Group would depart from here too.

The Yashan Squadron would go up north. Along the way, they would pick up the 1st legion of the Tiger Legion Corps.

The four legions would be the first batch of vanguard forces from the Shanhai Alliance, led by blazing legion corps marshal Guo Ziyi.

Chapter 1050 - Huge Difference

Chapter 1050: Huge Difference

To the adventure gamemode players, the country war was a bet that could not be lost.

Different from how Lord players chased for merit points and land, adventure gamemode players joined the country war would be awarded points based on their contribution to the battle.

Gaia was fair. Similar to how Lords could enjoy the points from bringing their armies, guild leaders could enjoy the contribution points from their guild members and hence obtain huge amounts of points.

Hence, this country war not only affected one’s honor, but it was also a battle between super guilds.

What were the use of contribution points?

Similar to the Battle Map, during the country war period, Gaia would open up a country war commerce city. Adventure gamemode players would use their points to exchange for different products in the city.

After five years of observation, Gaia understood exactly what adventure gamemode players wanted.

To the adventure gamemode players, no matter what time it was in the game, secret manuals, weapons, equipment, and skill books would be their lifelong dream, and that would not stop.

With dark gold equipment, one would crave for platinum equipment, with platinum equipment, one would crave for God Rank equipment.

One would always stare at the taller mountain.

The items placed in the country war commerce city were basically these three types of items, and they were all rarely seen elite products that people drooled for. Along with Gaia cancelling the auction, elite items like these were becoming rarer and rarer.

Just this alone made it worth it for adventure gamemode players to take this risk.

Risk it all, risk it all.

Were they not born to do this?

Win and all their equipment would be changed to new ones with much better stats. If they lose, they would be total goners.

So this was a battle that people bet their lives on.

Especially as the world martial arts competition was proceeding; it motivated the adventure gamemode players. Anyone with ambition would gather up at the gathering points excitedly.

The China region had 100 million players, and just the combat occupation players exceeded 10 million.

In the following five days, a total of three million combat occupation players gathered up at the gathering points and were ready to throw themselves into this legendary battle.

Three million combat occupation players was as much as 10 super guilds.

The China region players were passionate for the country war, making one satisfied and delighted when they looked on.

Ouyang Shuo was one of the greatest beneficiaries. As there were many players who joined in, to prevent them from lacking enemies, some smart ones chose the Korea battlefield, and some chose Zhenla and Nanzhang.

Many adventure gamemode players joining in greatly lowered the country war risk of Great Xia.

On the 29th day, of the three million combat occupation players, half of them chose to join the Japanese battlefield, and the specific number was around 1.65 million.

Amongst which, 900 thousand of them chose the north route, which was the Shanhai Alliance route.

The truth proved that more people preferred Great Xia in the China region.

Although there were 750 thousand players who chose the south, and the difference was not much, one must not forget that six super guilds were under Di Chen.

Great Xia only had three super guilds for Japan due to them fighting on three sides.

This also meant that apart from the six super guilds, the south route only had around 200 thousand scattered players whilst there were 600 thousand on the north route.

One against three, the difference was huge.

If it were not for some players being afraid that the competition in the north would be too intense, this difference might be even greater.

That was understandable.

The six families could only control the elite level and had no influence on normal players. On the contrary, Ouyang Shuo was a legendary grassroots person who had an unparalleled attraction amongst this player group.

This was without considering the million players on the Korea battlefield as well as the 350 thousand players that went toward the Nanzhang and Zhenla battlefield. If not, the gap would humiliate Di Chen.

The moment the results were out, not only Di Chen, but the six big families were all stunned.

They knew that Ouyang Shuo had huge influence amongst commoners, but that was just an impression after all. There were no actual statistics.

When this fact was placed right in front of their eyes, they could truly feel how huge Ouyang Shuo’s influence was in China.

News had it that the moment the results came out, the Feng Family grandfather had locked himself in his reading room and did not come out for an entire night. Obviously, his thoughts were stimulated by all this.

Maybe he was not the only one that had a sleepless night. A large change was quietly sprouting.

…

Even Ouyang Shuo himself felt a little surprised.

The moment the results came out, Ouyang Shuo was both happy and worried. Why he was happy did not need to be explained, as such influence was the basis of Ouyang Shuo’s future goals.

He was worried that because of the data, he could not keep it low profile.

“I’m too high profile!”

Ouyang Shuo sighed in his heart. He was a pure utilitarian and always held the theory to do things high profile and be a low profile person. He liked to hide in the dark to amass power and gain things like that.

However, along with him being revealed, Ouyang Shuo could not be low profile. No matter what he did, there would be numerous eyes staring at him. Just like being placed under a microscope and being observed by people at every moment.

“I might have no rest in the future.”

Ouyang Shuo was filled with thoughts. Although that was the case, he weirdly felt no fear. Instead, his heart was really calm, “No worries, from this moment onward, I’ll take the center stage!”

Being high profile had its benefits.

Ouyang Shuo had to adapt to living under the limelight sooner or later.

…

Gaia 5th year, 6th month, 1st day, Beihai Bay.

During these past few days, Ouyang Shuo had sent four batches of troops. This time, he personally embarked, stepping on this either glorious or dark journey.

Behind him were a few special guests.

They were the Fallen Phoenix City Lord Feng Qiuhuang, Blood Evil Mercenary Guild Blood Romance, Snow-War Rose Mercenary Guild leader Xie Siyun and Streamer leader Haoran Qishi.

During these past few days, Lin Jing had brought the elite troops of Snow-War Rose and left.

Adding in Ouyang Shuo himself, the five of them were the main leaders of the north route. Specific instructions would be given by Li Jing while the elite forces were led by their leaders.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo jokingly called themselves the Japanese tourists who just watched the fun and did not do anything.

As for the scattered players, Ouyang Shuo did not think about gathering up, as he did not have the ability to do so. Once they disembarked, he had no way to hold them.

As it was already the country war month, those setting out had basically already set out. Just last night, the Li Jing led Bear Legion Corps had set off under the protection of the 5th division of the Yashan Squadron.

Hence, the Beihai Bay today was quite cold, and only the Emperor Squadron was docked here.

The Emperor was still so eye-catching, making the following Blood Romance and the others look on with their mouths agape. They did not expect that Great Xia would actually be able to craft such a majestic warship.

Facing the awe of Blood Romance, Ouyang Shuo smiled and did not say anything. How would they know that Great Xia had made the even better iron armored warships their building priority?

If nothing went wrong, the first experimental warship would soon enter the water.

After getting on the Emperor, they were not in a hurry to rush off, as they were waiting.

At 9 AM, the System Notification sounded punctually.

“World Notification: the first country war month has begun, lasting for a month. Country war leaders, please select your country war buff based on your country’s honor points, effective immediately. Country war leaders who have the country weapon can activate country fate buff. For the specific situation, please check it out yourself!”

…

China had 40 honor points, which were all obtained by Great Xia. They could choose a total 40% of buffs, and the types were attack, defense, and speed.

After the notification ended, Ouyang Shuo followed his plans and chose 20 for attack and 20 on defense.

Attack and defense balance was the way of the king.

At the same time, Ouyang Shuo took a look at the country fate buff brought by the Xuanyuan Sword.

Imposing: increases movement speed of China Region troops by 20%, battle point contribution increased added by 5%.

“That’s not bad.” Ouyang Shuo nodded in satisfaction.

Just like that, all the participating China region troops, including the players, would enjoy 20% buffs of all three aspects. This would raise their strength by a level.

Such treatment could only be enjoyed by the China region.

Other countries had at most 10 honor points.

One must know that this buff was not only limited to the Japan battlefield, as it was the same for the Korea, Nanzhang, and Zhenla battlefield.

Even if it were within the country, as long as a fight occurs, they would enjoy a similar buff.

Ouyang Shuo closed his personal interface and took in a deep breath, looking toward the ocean, waving his hand forward powerfully.

“Advance!”

With the order given, the Emperor Squadron finally left the port.

Just as Ouyang Shuo and the group stepped on their journey, the Pacific Squadron that had set off four days ago had already arrived near the ocean regions around Hokkaido and were engaging the Japanese squadron that were patrolling.

A huge plot was slowly hanging over the heads of Great Xia.

Chapter 1051 - Encirclement Attack

Chapter 1051: Encirclement Attack

The size of Japan was similar to a medium sized province in China, but it had a really high population density. For that reason, Sanli City was able to build a complete Japanese squadron.

The Fleet Admiral of the Japanese squadron was the famous Kuki Yoshitaka, and its chief generals included famous pirates like Murakami Takeyoshi. Both of them had come into contact during the Warring States Period, and in actual fact, Murakami Takeyoshi lost to Kuki Yoshitaka.

Kuki Yoshitaka was a famous minister under Oda Nobunaga during the Azuchi–Momoyama period, the eighth head of his family. In 1574, he had gained great credit for protecting Oda Nobunaga’s forces during the attacks on Ise.

In the second Battle of Kizugawaguchi, Kuki Yoshitaka constructed the iron armored warships, destroying the Mori clan’s navy. He was awarded 35 thousand units of land and was given the name of pirate.

Apart from the Japanese navy, Sanli City had a full scale legion corps, which included generals like Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Oda Nobunaga was the marshal whilst the others including some other warring states generals became the Legion Generals.

The three of them were from the same generation, and as such, they had many interactions with one another.

The most legendary character out of all of them was of course Oda Nobunaga.

In terms of military, he used large amounts of firearm techniques. In ruling, he split up the army and agriculture, promoting free trade and had revolutionary policies like making roads and trading routes. He opened up the Japanese’s path to the modern day.

In the end, Oda Nobunaga usurped the Muromachi Shogunate that ruled Japan for close to 200 years, causing the warring states period that lasted more than a hundred years to come to an end.

This also helped to form up his fame.

But right before he was able to unify Japan, he was plotted against by his right hand man, Akechi Mitsuhide, and was murdered, signaling the end to his glorious life.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi was born in a commoner family and rose up when he served Oda Nobunaga. His talents were slowly developed and revealed. After the death of Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi won in the internal battles and became the successor.

Tokugawa Ieyasu was sent to Nobunaga’s family when he was young, forming a friendship with him. In the end, he became a huge help to him wiping out the Cheonju Alliance.

After the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu led the east army to win the west army and hence took over control, destroying the family power of the Toyotomi family and forming the Tokugawa shogunate.

The Japan in the game still belonged to the Warring States Period. As a result, Sanli City’s historical talents were mostly from this era. As they were the only territory left, Sanli City pretty much had all the top historical talents.

The only special one would be the one that moved into the imperial city Edo. He was not really famous during the Warring States Period, but he was an equally legendary figure, Emperor Meiji.

Such a combination truly gave one a headache.

…

Based on the intel that the Great Xia Pacific Squadron had scouted, the 1st division of the Japanese squadron was housed in the nearby ocean regions of Kyushu, the 2nd near Shikoku, and the 3rd and 4th at Honshu.

There should only be the 5th division near Hokkaido.

Since the start of the year, Japan had been preparing for the country war month. Since then, the Japanese squadron had strengthened their lockdown on the nearby ocean regions and made it hard for outsiders to get any specific intel.

Even the Black Snake Guards could only hear about their geography and population. They knew little about their military arrangements. One could see that Sanli City had done a good job at keeping it a secret.

This time, the Japanese squadron was using a smokescreen.

On this attack on Hokkaido, Pacific Squadron Fleet Admiral Shi Lang lined up the five divisions in a swallow formation, and the flagship Streamer was in the middle of the 1st division while the other divisions spread out at the sides of it.

This could help to expand the patrolling vision of the squadron whilst also making it easier for them to adapt to changes.

If the five of them were gathered together, it would be like a bunch of blind man traveling in the ocean. It would be a very dangerous and very stupid act.

This was originally the correct arrangement, but this time, they were going to face challenges.

When the chief general Zhou Tai led the 2nd division near Hokkaido, it was instantly surrounded by the Japanese squadron. The five divisions of the Japanese squadron actually appeared in the region at the same time.

“That’s impossible!”

Zhou Tai looked on with his mouth agape.

Just yesterday, the Pacific Squadron had crossed the Korea straits, and when they entered Japan ocean region, the cima boats they sent out to investigate did not find anything wrong with the 1st and 3rd divisions of the Japanese squadron.

How did five divisions appear here in the blink of an eye?

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

The Japanese squadron naturally would not explain the matter to Zhou Tai. Under the orders of Kuki Yoshitaka, they immediately fired out at Zhou Tai’s troops, trying to wipe out the division in one swoop.

Due to the generosity of Free City, Sanli City was able to start cannon development when they started building the Japanese squadron. Be it cannons or handguns, they were not any weaker than Great Xia.

As the handgun making technology came from Free City, it was even better than the one Great Xia possessed.

On the vast ocean surface, the Japanese squadron completed a huge encirclement. 200 main warships were like a fan as they fired out at the Zhou Tai forces trapped in the middle.

The huge cannonballs were like meteors as it rained down on them, either hitting the decks, the masts, hitting the ship, or missing and causing huge splashes on the ocean surface.

The ocean beasts that surfaced to try to breathe were struck by cannonball. A huge hole was blown in their backs as blood and flesh flew everywhere.

Seeing that happen, the nearby ocean beasts all fled from the region to escape.

Zhou Tai’s forces were being blown from all directions, instantly suffering heavy casualties.

“Quick, seek help from the flagship!”

With the order given, a signal bullet was immediately shot into the sky. Following which, a mimicry flying device flew into the air, rising up into the safety region before flying off.

After giving the order, Zhou Tai started to adjust the formation into a defensive formation. The Japanese squadron’s overall strength was similar to the Pacific Squadron, so one versus five was a fight that Zhou Tai did not have the confidence in.

The safest method would be to hold on till the main force arrives.

“Damn it!”

Facing problems, Zhou Tai, who was a hot tempered person, was furious, and he grit his teeth.

Japanese squadron, Kuki ship.

On the deck, Fleet Admiral Kuki Yoshitaka used the telescope to observe the situation, and his face revealed a satisfied expression as he smiled, “Very good, continue to fire, do not give the enemy a chance to breathe.”

“Hai!”

Kuki Yoshitaka noticed the enemy’s flying device and knew that the enemy reinforcements would arrive quickly. As a famed general, Kuki Yoshitaka did not fear the Great Xia Squadron.

On the contrary, he was really confident.

With Kuki Yoshitaka’s knowledge, the Japanese pirates often raided the southeast ocean region of China, winning many battles. As such, they did not fear Great Xia.

Kuki Yoshitaka’s appetite included not only the enemy’s vanguard forces. Instead, he wanted to use this as bait to totally destroy the Great Xia Pacific Squadron and take control of the Japanese ocean.

“Let them come!” Kuki Yoshitaka grinned.

…

Using the mimicry flying device, communication conch, and signal bullet, Fleet Admiral Shi Lang received the call for help quickly, and he frowned.

“Send my orders, send out cima boats and mimicry flying devices to investigate the enemy.”

Shi Lang did not panic, much less directly sending reinforcements. Striking out under uncertain circumstances was the worry of military people.

As a mature general, Shi Lang naturally would not make such a low level mistake.

Very quickly, the four divisions sent out hundreds of cima boats like a fishing net cast out in the ocean region to get first hand information for the Fleet Admiral to decide.

At the same time, five mimicry flying devices flew into the air.

“Send orders to the two wings, travel forward swiftly in a combat formation.” Shi Lang gave orders.

“Yes general!”

Whilst progressing forward, there was a lot of intel. After learning that the entire Japanese Squadron had appeared here, Shi Lang’s shock was no less than Zhou Tai’s.

“This is problematic!”

Shi Lang’s expression was really solemn. Even if he sent the entire squadron, they would have to battle in enemy territory while being on the back foot. To say the truth, Shi Lang did not have confidence of winning this ocean battle.

“I’ve no choice. I’ve to use the secret weapon!”

Shi Lang was not willing to go all out against the Japanese Squadron. After all, the ocean battle was just the first stage of the country war. The disembarkment battle was the more important part.

If they lost most of their troops now, this country war would be tough to fight.

Before the war, Ouyang Shuo provided the Pacific Squadron with a secret weapon. Shi Lang did not want to use it so quickly.

During the 5th year of Gaia, whilst Japan prepared eagerly, Ouyang Shuo also made his preparations.

Two months ago, using the chance when they bought magic crystals from Lemuria, Ouyang Shuo spent a million gold to buy four magic powered submarines from Lemuria.

At the start of the country war, three of them were given to the Pacific Squadron and one to the Yashan Squadron.

Under the instructions of Shi Lang, the three submarines proceeded forwards like ghosts, heading toward the battlefield at the front.

The entire process was totally silent.

Chapter 1052 - Breaking out of the Encirclement

Chapter 1052: Breaking out of the Encirclement

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

The surrounding attacks of the Japanese Squadron continued, reducing the area in which Zhou Tai’s forces could move.

Kuki Ship.

“General, the enemy’s main forces will arrive in about two hours.”

Kuki Yoshitaka frowned and said weirdly, “Their speed is pretty fast.”

Speaking of which, he turned around toward the generals behind him, “We need to pick up the pace. Sweep up the battlefield before the enemy main force arrives and complete our formation change.”

“Hai!”

The generals nodded.

Under the relentless assault of the Japanese squadron, Zhou Tai’s forces found it difficult to hold on. Warships were sunk one after another, and blood flowed into the ocean. The scene was really tragic.

Like how it was when one peeled an onion, Zhou Tai’s forces were being peeled off layer by layer.

Ocean battle was just like that. If the firepower net of both sides were not on the same level, the losses could be even bigger than the difference in numbers.

Although the 2nd division could retaliate while defending, they were still outnumbered and posed a limited amount of killing threat to the enemy.

For every Japanese ship they sunk, they had to pay the price of six of their own.

It seemed like Zhou Tai’s forces could not hold on any longer.

“General, the reinforcements have not arrive, and we cannot hold on any longer. What should we do?” The deputy general panicked.

Zhou Tai too was anxious, but as the main general, not only could he not show it, but he also had to act calm to settle the hearts of the army.

If not, they would have no chance at all.

“The reinforcements are on their way. Let the brothers hold on for a little longer,” Zhou Tai said.

“Understood!”

The deputy gritted his teeth and turned around. In his heart, he was already ready to die.

“At most, we will just die.”

The Great Xia Army did not surrender, “We cannot let down that person!”

Another hour passed.

Zhou Tai’s forces were already on the verge of collapsing. The gap in numbers was getting larger and larger, from the starting 1:5 to the current 1:15.

It seemed like the entire division was going to be eaten up by the Japanese Squadron.

On the Kuki ship, Kuki Yoshitaka looked out through the telescope. Everything was in his eyes. The performance of the squadron pleased him, and he smiled, “There’s still one more hour, it’s enough to sweep the battlefield!”

At this very moment, in the deep ocean, three magic powered submarines were like ghosts, passing through the battlefield and heading toward the Kuki ship and the two other secondary warships.

One of them was the warship of Murakami Takeyoshi.

As expected from Lemuria, the submarines they created travelled faster than warships.

10 minutes later, the submarines were all in place.

“Fire!”

With the order given, the three submarines pretty much fired at the bottom of the ships at the same time.

‘Hong!’

‘Hong!’

‘Hong!’

Along with the three huge sounds, the magic crystal cannon roared and sent out a thick white light, cutting through the water and easily splitting apart the cabin, leaving a huge hole behind.

The ocean water surged into the breach and right into the cabin.

What shocked everyone was that the white light did not stop and went through the enemy warship. With that, even if one used waterproof cabin technology it would be useless.

As expected from a bug level presence, the power of the magic crystal cannon was greater than any cannon.

It was strong, but it burned money.

With just one cannon, 50 units of magic crystals were used, which were worth 100 thousand gold.

On the ocean surface.

The three flagships were sinking at a visible rate. Very quickly, they were at their mid-waist height.

“What happened?”

Under the protection of his Personal Guards, Kuki Yoshitaka climbed up onto a safety raft.

Abandoning the ship was his only choice.

No one could reply to his doubts. Along with the three flagships sinking one after the other, the battlefield became totally silent, as no one knew what exactly had happened.

Only Zhou Tai was really excited and smiled, “Brothers, our reinforcements have arrived!”

Instantly, the remaining troops were pumped up.

That was not all of it. Just as the Japanese were stunned, the remaining three secondary flagships were also sunk.

Similarly silent, also one-shotted.

In just 10 minutes, the command system of the Japanese squadron was taken down.

Just as Kuki Yoshitaka was ready to board other warships to continue commanding, in the south region, Shi Lang’s main force appeared.

“How’s that possible?”

When Kuki Yoshitaka climbed onto the closest warship with much difficulty, the Pacific Squadron had arrived.

Shi Lang had tricked them.

Due to Mazu, along his with the other territory specialties, the Great Xia traveling speed was much faster. This was something Yoshitaka did not known about.

Hence, when the Pacific Squadron traveled at a ‘normal’ pace, Kuki Yoshitaka did not find anything wrong with that and did not even think about it.

When they were nearing the battlefield, only then did the Pacific Squadron speed up. An hour long journey was covered in 30 minutes.

Just like that, the Japanese squadron was caught off guard.

A flagship was called a flagship not only because it was big but also because it carried a set of commanding tools, including maps, flags, war drums, messengers, and the like.

Normal warships did not have that.

Although Koki Yoshitaka had climbed onto another warship, he was not able to restore the commanding system in a short time. Of course, if he was given time, he would be able to do so.

But would Shi Lang give him that time?

Of course not.

Shi Lang had wracked his brains just to catch such an opportunity.

The Pacific Squadron was like a bunch of tigers as they bit onto their prey, going all out for blood.

The situation on the battlefield was flipped around.

The encirclement had now turned into the Pacific Squadron killing their way out of it.

Cannons fired, blood and flesh flew.

The cruel ocean battle was on show once more. Enemy troops and their own troops fell one by one.

“Retreat!”

Although he was unwilling, Kuki Yoshitaka wisely decided to retreat. If they carried on, the entire Japanese squadron might be buried here.

At this very moment, another roar sounded out from beneath the ship.

‘Hong!’

The magic powered submarine showed its might once more and sunk the new ‘flagship’.

This time, Kuki Yoshitaka was not protected by lady luck.

Not long after he escaped on a small boat, a cannonball struck it.

“Nooo!”

Kuki Yoshitaka gave out a roar of despair as the cannonball burst apart under his feet.

Blood splattered.

The Fleet Admiral of the Japanese squadron died without a full body, becoming food for fishes.

The following battle was not really surprising.

Relying on the magic powered submarines, the Pacific Squadron made a beautiful counter-attack, taking down the Japanese squadron.

In the next few days, Shi Lang also led the squadron to clear out the remaining Japanese squadron ships to wipe all of them out and take control of the ocean. This would give them the ability for the second stage of the country war.

…

Although the Great Xia Pacific Squadron achieved victory, the dark clouds had not faded.

Why did the Japanese squadron not bother about the Handan City Haizhou Squadron in front of them and head right for the Great Xia Pacific Squadron?

What role did the Haizhou Squadron play in allowing the Japanese squadron to gather up?

Along with the Japanese squadron being wiped out, all of this became a mystery.

Chapter 1053 - Iron Defense Line

Chapter 1053: Iron Defense Line

As an island nation, Japan had close to hundred ports in total. 70% of these were gathered in Honshu.

In comparison, the number of ports near Hokkaido were sparser and even fewer were suitable for the army to disembark and fight. Along with the geographical position and combat planning, all that remained was the port of Kushiro on the east, Rumoi Port on the west as well as Port of Tomakomai on the south side.

Oda Nobunaga knew this too.

Before the country war began, Sanli City spent a lot of effort to build up many defenses at the ports.

Keisuke Honda really went all out.

Before the country war began, he ordered the demolishment of the port and the use of torpedoes to lock down the bay such that the Great Xia squadron could not even enter the port and had to disembark on the beaches on the two sides.

The core defenses were three rows of cannon turrets lined up from low to high to ensure the continuity of the firepower. Cannon after cannon aimed down from above ensured that they could cover the entire beach region.

The closely packed firepower net was enough to destroy all land troops.

Apart from that, behind the cannon turrets were many arrow turrets and rows of archers. They could shoot from afar to cover the beach and ensure their own safety.

Lastly, there would be the gunners.

They hid within the cannon turrets and supported and complemented the cannon fire through small shooting holes.

The ingenious part was that such a combination basically made it impossible for Great Xia to use flying devices unless they acted as kamikaze pilots that embarked on a death mission.

The cost of the building the flying devices was too expensive, and they could not afford it.

Such a sick defensive line was something that only perverts like Keisuke Honda could think of. In order to build such defensive forts at the major ports, he pretty much spent all the money of Sanli City.

Luckily, the Japanese players were really united, and during the process, they chipped in money and manpower.

…

6th month, 2nd day, Hokkaido Port of Kushiro.

At 9 AM, the Yashan Squadron protected the vanguard forces of the army as they arrived in the nearby ocean region.

On the flagship canopy.

The expedition army vanguard general Guo Ziyi looked out at the cannon formations, and he frowned tightly. He said toward Fleet Admiral Yu Dayou, “General, can the squadron cannons hit the enemy formation?”

Yu Dayou shook his head, “The enemy is experienced, and their cannon formation is placed really exquisitely. As our shooting ranges are similar, the enemy fire can hit the beach region, but our warships are unable to proceed forward to hit the shore.”

The warships were huge and went really deep into the water, so it could not go near the shore. Otherwise, it would get stuck.

Guo Ziyi asked, “Can we use the mimicry flying devices to bomb them from the air?”

“If we do not want the enemy to shoot them down, they have to stop at least 400 meters above them, and the accuracy of the bombs would greatly decrease. We can try, but do not hold too high hopes.”

The mimicry flying device had long become the standard unit of the Great Xia navy. Not mentioning the squadron level, but even the division level flagships had two to three of them.

Toward the combat abilities of the flying devices, Yu Dayou were really familiar with them.

“This is tough.” Guo Ziyi gritted his teeth, “No matter what, let’s give it a try!”

“We can only do that!”

Yu Dayou had no other ideas.

Very quickly, five mimicry flying devices flew up from the deck and formed up in a line as they flew toward the enemy airspace.

As this was right next to the ocean, there were often winds.

There was currently a westerly wind, especially in the air, where the strength of the wind reached level 5. If one threw down bombs from above, one might easily miss the target due to the wind.

In the first round of bombing, none hit.

When Yu Dayou saw that, he looked over at Guo Ziyi. His expression was a little awkward. Although the wind did affect it, such results were simply too embarrassing.

Especially in front of the allied troops, it was a loss to the Great Xia Army’s prestige.

During the second round, the situation did not turn for the battle, as only one hit and only exploded beside the cannon turret, not causing much casualties.

With this degree of bombing, one would not be able to hurt the enemy defenses. The key was still time. The country war month only lasted for a month, so they needed to end it fast.

Probably in the morning, the main force led by commander Han Xin would arrive at the frontlines.

At that point, the navy, War Fighting Legions, combat occupation players, and logistical support all added together would total at over three million people and thousands of ships.

For such a huge fleet, every day they spent on sea would be an enormous waste of resources. No matter how rich Great Xia was, they would not be able to last for long.

Hence, the vanguard forces needed to take control of the shoreline as quickly as possible time and build a base. They would use this to get more and more resources from the mainland, forming a cycle.

“Since the air siege does not work, we can only forcefully attack!”

Guo Ziyi turned around and looked at all the Legion Generals and asked solemnly, “Anyone willing to lead the fight?”

“I’m willing!”

The moment his words landed, a general stepped out. It was the 1st legion Legion General of the blazing legion corps, one of the top 10 generals, Ran Min.

For this expedition, Feng Qiuhuang was really sincere and took the initiative to arrange the blazing legion corps as the vanguard.

The reason within was apart from thanking Great Xia, she wanted to use this battle to make Fallen Phoenix City famous and earn merit points to upgrade to the Duke rank.

Seeing that Handan City was on the verge of establishing a country, Feng Qiuhuang was obviously anxious.

Out of the three remaining territories in China, only Fallen Phoenix City was not a Capital City.

When Guo Ziyi saw that, he nodded in satisfaction, “Go ahead!”

“Yes, general!”

After a short while, Ran Min led 10 thousand blazing legion corps elites on cima boats and charged right for the shore. The moment they docked, they jumped off and charged.

The moment the soldiers at the front stepped on the soft sand, the enemy army acted.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

All of a sudden, cannons fired.

Huge cannonballs burst apart on the beach, causing the sand to fly up in the end, shooting toward the soldiers like bullets.

“Ah, my eyes!”

The unlucky ones got sand in their eyes as they let out pained screams.

“Raise your shields!”

The tall and big Ran Min held his spear as he commanded his forces to spread out with platoons as a unit, dodging the cannon balls whilst using their shields to block the arrows.

“Kill!”

Ran Min’s mission was to kill his way to the cannon turrets.

With a ‘Shua!’, iron shields were lifted up, forming an iron wall.

Although Ran Min was a brutish general, he was not foolish at all. The 10 thousand elites he brought were all the top sword-shield soldiers, and it included some archers to cover fire.

Each platoon had one archer.

On the canopy, Guo Ziyi looked out at the vanguard troops. He was both excited and nervous.

“Whether we can succeed or not depends on this battle!”

Chapter 1054 - Ran Min's Rage

Chapter 1054: Ran Min’s Rage

The iron defenses that the Japanese built were not just for show. By the time Ran Min’s forces charged to the front of the cannon turrets, a third of the elite troops had already been lost. If they were not elites, the entire force would have already collapsed.

The further in front they went in, the more closely packed the firepower of the enemy formation was.

Right in front of the cannon turret, bullets were fired out from the small shooting holes. Luckily, the sword-shield soldiers were wearing armor, and they had their chests and important areas protected. If not, they would have died immediately.

As the bullets hit the armor, it let out ‘ding ding!’ sounds like the summoning of the death god. Once one was unfortunate enough to be shot in face that was not protected, one basically had no chance to survive.

The beneficial part to Ran Min was that once the forces charged to the front of the cannon turrets, the killing strength of the cannons lost their effect and did not pose a threat to them.

Even the enemy archers were less effective due to their vision being blocked off. The cannon turret corners became dead zones, as the enemy troops could not hit it.

“Charge up!” Ran Min’s face was really vicious.

When they heard the command, the sword-shield soldiers immediately placed up ladders onto the cannon turret whilst they used their shields to block the front. Their hands held onto their Tang Blades as they climbed swiftly up. It was obvious that they had trained well daily.

When Guo Ziyi saw that, he could not help but nod his head in satisfaction, “At least they did not throw our face away.”

Although the cannon turrets could be considered a defensive work, it could not compare with the city walls. Not only was it half as thin, but the turrets in the front were just four meters tall and could easily be climbed.

Although Ran Min was tall and big, he moved like a swift chimpanzee, climbing up the turret in just a few moves. He swung the spear in his hand and stabbed the six Japanese soldiers that surrounded him.

Very quickly, Ran Min gained a footing on the cannon turret, leading more and more soldiers to climb onto the turret.

When Guo Ziyi saw that, his eyes shone as he swung his order flag. With a ‘Shua!’, the remaining 60 thousand elites that had boarded cima boats charged onto the beaches.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

Another round of cannon fire. Ran Min had only affected the first row of cannon turrets. The two at the back and the arrow turrets still worked as normal, and they fired toward the beaches.

With the valiant performance of the Legion General, the blazing legion corps did not fear, braving the cannon fire and charging out to the front.

“Glory belongs to the blazing legion corps!”

That’s right, if they won this battle, the blazing legion corps would be famous across the world.

…

They were facing two big problems in their attempts at breaking through the defenses of the enemy.

First, they needed to open up a breach in the defensive line and use this as a base to spread out in four directions. After the 10 thousand blazing legion corps elites paid a heavy price, they solved this problem.

Secondly, they would need to defend the breach, which was much harder to accomplish than the first task.

Seeing Ran Min climb up the cannon turret, the Sanli City Army and the Japanese combat occupation players acted like they were crazy as they charged right at Ran Min without caring about sacrifices.

Looking at the situation, Ran Min was about to be drowned.

The blazing legion corps did not back down, swearing to protect the glory of the blazing legion corps. Both sides fought with their lives; they only sought to attack and not to defend.

The brutal killing caused the skies to change color.

The winds on the ocean increased in speed, waves crashed, and water splattered on the beaches. The cima boats of the expedition army shook left and right under the crashing of the huge waves.

Some cima boats directly flipped over and capsized.

Even the squadron that stopped at the outer regions started to go up and down. Although the sails were already lowered, they were still unable to maintain stability. As the ships were too closely packed, it was easy for them to knock into one another.

“This damned weather!”

The Yashan Squadron Fleet Admiral Yu Dayou grumbled as he ordered the ships to spread out. At the same time, he arranged for sailors to save the blazing legion corps soldiers that fell into the water.

Fallen Phoenix City was located in the north of China, so a large half of them had never swam in their lives.

The massacre at the cannon turrets continued.

Both sides fought till their eyes were red with killing intent. In just a short half an hour, fresh blood dyed the cannon turret.

As there were many corpses that dropped off the cannon turret, along with the rain-like fresh blood, the vision of the gunners hiding inside the turrets were totally blocked.

One could see how intense this battle was.

To the Japanese, each battle in this country war was a final battle, and a fight to the death. Each base they lost meant that they were one step closer to being wiped out.

Hence, they had no way out and could only fight to the death.

Especially the combat occupation players. Not only did they care about glory, but they also cared about the lives of their families. If they defended, everything would be as usual. If they lost, rather than being forcefully respawned by Gaia, why not just die on the battlefield?

The Japanese were really strong in their bones, and when they went all out, they were really terrifying.

The most direct showing of that was that Ran Min’s forces that charged up the turrets were being wiped out at a visible rate. The land that they took down was being reclaimed by the enemy.

Seeing the land that their brothers used their lives to exchange for was about to be lost, Ran Min was furious. He was totally infuriated!

“Kill!”

Ran Min hollered, his voice shocking everyone.

His body swelled up, his muscles rose up like little mountains, and his veins popped as a strong killing intent charged at the enemy, terrifying them.

His long spear was dyed red with blood.

The Japanese soldiers on the turret attacking Ran Min felt it the most. Looking at Ran Min, the soldiers backed off instead of advancing. Ran Min let out a cold smile and charged forward.

All of a sudden, blood splattered, and bodies dropped.

The berserk Ran Min was like a desolate beast, charging around on the battlefield. Anywhere his spear passed, men fell. No one could block Ran Min.

Even the Japanese players could not!

Fear spread out like a plague. As expected from one of the top 10 fierce generals of China.

“Charge together!”

The Japanese soldiers overcame their fears and charged at Ran Min once again.

Ran Min’s eyes were like lightning. His eyes were cold and filled with killing intent and brutality. He was like a killing machine without feelings, making his way unopposed amongst the enemy. It was like he did not know what exhaustion was.

Anyone in his way was killed.

“Kill!”

Being stimulated by that, the blazing legion corps’ morale boomed, and their killing intent was riled up.

This massacre was entering its most intense stage as soldiers on both sides forgot about life and death, about their brothers, about their friends, and about families. They only had their enemies in their eyes, and they only had one thought in their hearts.

“Kill them!”

Death and injuries swept over like a flood as both sides suffered heavy casualties.

Although Ran Min was strong, he was still alone. The Japanese soldiers were like an endless wave, once one batch died, another followed.

Only a few blazing legion corps soldiers could still stand up on the turret.

Less than 10% of the 10 thousand blazing legion corps troops remained.

A tragic feeling spread about on the battlefield, sweeping one with emotions.

Chapter 1055 - Opening up on Two Sides

Chapter 1055: Opening up on Two Sides

The persistence of the blazing legion corps paid off in the end.

Just when Ran Min was unable to hold on any longer, the second batch of blazing legion corps troops finally charged to the foot of the cannon turret. ‘Ka ka ka!’ they swiftly climbing up the ladder and assisted the vanguard forces.

“General, we are here!”

The soldiers only had time to hurriedly report to the Legion General before they charged toward the enemy. The addition of 50 thousand fresh blood finally allowed the troops to stabilize their footing and launch a counterattack against the enemy.

The situation had changed.

When Ran Min saw that, pride rose up in his heart. His already exhausted body once again released shocking strength as he continued to massacre the enemy.

If they won this battle, Ran Min would get the first contribution credit.

…

When Guo Ziyi standing afar saw that, he decisively gave the order, “City Protection Legion Corps, advance!”

“Yes, general!”

On the cima boats, the 1st legion Legion General of the City Protection Legion Corps Zhao Sihu blood boiled when he got the order, he hollered, “Boys, the blazing legion corps has obtained land for us, what should we do?”

“Crush it, level it!”

“Well said. Crush the enemy formation and spread the prestige of our Great Xia Army!” Zhao Sihu was not willing to let the blazing legion corps get all the credit.

“Spread our honor! Spread our honor!”

The City Protection Legion Corps soldiers used their Tang Blades to strike their shields as their will to fight soared.

“Set off!”

With the military order given, the 1st legion of the City Protection Legion Corps under Zhao sihu’s leadership braved the waves and swiftly proceeded toward the beach.

The City Protection Legion Corps were not afraid of water.

…

Along with the City Protection Legion Corps killing their way onto the battlefield, this intense battle welcomed its true peak. In the following period of time, the 1st legion of the Tiger Legion Corps and the 2nd legion of the blazing legion corps were thrown onto the battlefield.

The advantage of the expedition army was growing.

On the contrary, the morale of the Japanese army was falling, and a collapse was just a matter of time.

Even so, the stubbornness of the Japanese stunned Guo Ziyi. Both sides had fought from 10 AM till 4 PM. Only after the 100 thousand Japanese battle occupation players died did the battle come to an end.

No one expected that the expedition army would lose 35 thousand men just to snatch and take over the shore. Moreover, they only captured 10 thousand Sanli City prisoners.

“What a loss!”

Looking at the corpses of the blazing legion corps brothers, Guo Ziyi’s heart felt really pained.

“Luckily, we managed to take it down!”

As the vanguard general, Guo Ziyi lived up to expectations, completing his job in a day and opening up a base for the main force.

On the same day, the Pacific Squadron completed their sweeping mission of the Japanese squadron. However, the shocking part was that the south army completed their disembarking on the same day and smoothly proceeded into Kyushu.

Both the north and south armies were once again on the same starting line.

The first stage of the Battle of Japan had come to an end, and an even bigger and more intense battle had just started.

……

6th month, 3rd day, Han Xin led the main force and arrived in Hokkaido’s port of Kushiro.

Han Xin was a God General that was good at grabbing chances. Once the main force went ashore, he gave a simple ‘Godspeed’, and the huge army pretty much did not stop, splitting into three and charging toward mainland Hokkaido.

The left side was formed up from the blazing legion corps led by Guo Ziyi and the elite group from the Blood Evil Mercenary Group, the middle was the Leopard Legion Corps led by Han Xin and the elite group from the Snow-War Rose Mercenary Group.

On the right side was the 1st legion of the City Protection Legion Corps, 1st legion of the Leopard Legion Corps, and 1st legion of the Tiger Legion Corps led by Cao Chun with Cao Gui as the deputy, along with elite troops of the Fallen Leaf Alliance.

As for the scattered players, Han Xin did not force them onto one path and allowed them to make their choices. They could act on their own as Hokkaido had many Japanese players that they could PK.

Before leaving, Han Xin told the left and right troops, “We must take down the entire Hokkaido within three days to give the army a stable backline!”

“We won’t let you down!”

Guo Ziyi and Cao Chun both cupped their fists. Their expressions were really solemn.

The three armies were like three sharp arrows with the port of Kushiro as the center. They shot into the heart of Hokkaido. One could foresee that the 900 thousand strong army along with the 900 thousand combat occupation players would cause much slaughter within Hokkaido.

Han Xin wanted to use such a pressure to wipe out Hokkaido whilst the Japanese had a low morale.

This was a huge challenge to Sanli City General Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was in charge of the Hokkaido defenses. That afternoon, Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered people to destroy the boats parked at the south side of Hokkaido to destroy the way out for the Japanese soldiers, forcing them to be determined to fight to the death.

“If we cannot defend Hokkaido, we will die to pay for it!” Tokugawa Ieyasu said.

Hearing those words, anger spread out amongst the Japanese army. There were such words in the military, ‘A sad army would definitely win.’ Who knows whether Tokugawa Ieyasu would be able to create a miracle or not.

One must know that his opponent was the God General Han Xin.

Although Tokugawa Ieyasu was one of the three heroes of the Japanese warring states, he was not much in front of Han Xin, and he was even a level worse than Guo Ziyi.

Both sides were not even in the same league.

…

Korea.

Just when the Japanese battlefield massacre was brewing, the Korea battlefield was in full swing.

Two days ago, the Bear Legion Corps, Guards Legion Corps, and the Beijiang Formation led by Great Tang military god Li Jing along with a million Chinese combat occupation players split into three and charged into Korea.

This time, Korea could be said to have smashed their own feet.

The Korean players thought that China would be held up in the Japanese battlefield and could not do anything about them. Who knew that Great Xia was actually so fierce and would actually initiate an attack on Korea?

They did not expect the China players to be so united and line up behind Great Xia to go all out against Korea.

This was pretty much a nightmare to Korea.

Under Li Jing’s leadership, the Great Xia Army achieved victory after victory as they swept their way across. No one could stand in their way. The Chinese players were pumped up, roaring out and harvesting the rewards of the war behind the army.

When they got the news, players who were still hesitating all teleported to Stone City, forming the second batch of troops that proceeded toward Korea.

As it was a land route, the players were really enthusiastic.

In a short two days, there were actually 150 thousand combat occupation players who jumped into the Korea battlefield. Not long after the start of the battle, the Great Xia Army was like a hot knife through butter, and victory was already in their sights.

Hence, how could the matter not astonish everyone?

This was like the water droplet effect. With the first batch of reinforcements, there was quickly the second. More and more China region players swarmed into Korea and engaged in slaughter.

No one minded having too many contribution points.

For the Korea battlefield to be going so well was because of the soldiers’ ability and Li Jing’s leadership. He was a really resolute commander. Once he settled on his target, he would not easily let go before he reached it.

As long as Korea was not taken down, Li Jing would not relax.

Chapter 1056 - Occupying Land

Chapter 1056: Occupying Land

When the defensive breach was opened, the iron defense line that the Japanese had set up near the port would be useless and would not be able to stop the Chinese expedition army from sweeping Hokkaido.

6th month, 5th day, when Ouyang Shuo and his group onboard The Emperor arrived at the port of Kushiro, the three armies led by Han Xin had already surrounded Hokkaido’s center city Sapporo.

In a short two days, the expedition army had wiped out the entire Hokkaido and Sapporo was the only city left.

Seeing that the enemy was unstoppable, Tokugawa Ieyasu moved all the available defensive forces into Sapporo and was prepared to have a fight to the death with the expedition army at this place.

In comparison, although the south army smoothly disembarked on Kyushu, their progress on the island was not really swift. In two days, they had only taken down half an island.

When they got the news, Ouyang Shuo used his identity as the country war leader to send a letter to Di Chen and order them to speed up to try to reach Honshu soon and surround Edo as planned.

Di Chen’s reply was that Kyushu’s geography was really complicated, and the army needed to play it safe, so they would not dare to proceed carelessly. When Ouyang Shuo heard the explanation, he gave out a cold laugh and directly showed the letter to the public.

No one was a fool.

Regardless of whether Di Chen did it on purpose to cause trouble for Great Xia or was forced to do so under the pressure of Silver Hand, as long as Ouyang Shuo revealed it, the people would support him.

“He’s digging his own grave!” Ouyang Shuo commented.

Di Chen was obviously no fool, but he was a member of Silver Hand. Whilst he enjoyed the benefits that being in the organization provided, it was unavoidable that there would be times when he needed to contribute back.

There was no free lunch in the world.

As expected, the moment the news was released, players all demanded an explanation from Di Chen. Obviously, Di Chen could not give one and could only keep silent. His heart felt really pained.

Handan City’s prestige in China was dropping toward a freezing point.

…

6th month, 6th day morning, Sapporo.

After a full day of siege battle, the majestic Sapporo was in tatters. The city walls were stained with blood, and there were huge holes and craters everywhere like it might collapse at any moment.

Beneath the city wall, corpses of both sides could be stacked up into little mountains. The blood that seeped out dyed the city protection river red. On the city walls, there were only a few Japanese soldiers that could still stand.

Everyone knew that Sapporo would be lost.

As expected from a master strategist, it was because Han Xin made the decision to quickly sweep Sapporo that Tokugawa Ieyasu’s defenses seem really rushed.

Sapporo was not as stable as its tall city walls looked.

City Lord’s Manor.

Tokugawa Ieyasu looked at the generals in front of him. His expression was not depressed but instead really pumped up, “Generals, Sapporo cannot be defended and will not need to be defended. Even if we die, let’s die with honor and take a bite out of the enemy. I order the remaining troops to gather at the south city gate and strike out preemptively!”

“Hai!”

The generals were all similarly pumped up, viewing death as a release.

Tokugawa Ieyasu said loudly, “To us, this is our final battle, enjoy it!”

“Fight to the death! Fight to the death!”

“Go!” Tokugawa Ieyasu waved his arms and gave the final order.

The generals left the city Lord’s Manor to gather up their forces, walking toward the south city gate in an orderly manner. War was cruel. In just a day, half of the defending troops were taken down.

Only around 30 thousand people could be gathered up now.

‘Kachi~’

The south city gate was opened up, and right outside were the Chinese army.

“Kill!”

30 thousand crazy men charged out of the city gates. They would not be able to return from this.

…

Still the City Lord’s Manor.

After sending the last group of troops to their death, Tokugawa Ieyasu, the general in charge of Hokkaido, showered and changed, entering the room that was prepared earlier.

He took out a special knife used to slice one’s stomach apart and slowly stabbed it into his stomach.

6th month, 6th day, 10:15 AM, Tokugawa Ieyasu killed himself in the Sapporo City Lord’s Manor. Meanwhile, the 30 thousand troops all died in less than two hours.

The death of Tokugawa Ieyasu and the fall of Hokkaido became a symbolic moment in the Battle of Japan. The Chinese north army took just six days to take down a quarter of the Japanese islands.

Such strength terrified everyone.

…

6th month, 6th day, afternoon, Ouyang Shuo and his group arrived at Sapporo.

There, Ouyang Shuo gave a fervent speech to praise all the soldiers. He listed their contributions and rewarded soldiers that performed well on the spot.

There were even three players who were awarded platinum equipment, making the other players envious.

Did they not fight to the death just so they could exchange for a piece of platinum rank equipment?

Ouyang Shuo even said that once they arrived at Edo, he would reward a batch of warriors with rewards three times the scale of this.

Ouyang Shuo’s riches were a great motivation; the players were instantly pumped up.

After which, Ouyang Shuo met Han Xin and announced his opinion on how to deal with Hokkaido, “Send forces to gather up all available food to assist the frontlines. Use all available civilians and their ships to help transport grain. Use all artisans to produce war resources for the army.”

Ouyang Shuo used the word ‘all’ three times to show his determination.

For this army expedition, grain transport was a huge problem.

If they only relied on Great Xia, it would not be able to sustain the use of two million people.

The grain problem needed to be solved quickly.

Moreover, before the country war began, Sanli City had started to control the grain in the cities and villages. To try to get large amounts of grains from the granary was impossible. The only way would be to take from the stored grain of the people.

“Even if only one grain of rice is left, take it. If the civilians do not want to starve, let them join us, and the army will provide them with basic food. As for the remaining, let them settle their own problems.”

Ouyang Shuo was so cold not because he wanted to kill all the Japanese but because desperate times called for desperate measures.

Taking down Japan was the top priority.

“Apart from large-scale killing of civilians, the army can go all out. I give you the power. You do not have to care about people’s sentiment and the post war effects, as the war is the main mission.”

Ouyang Shuo gave the army a bottom line that they could not cross.

Armies killing civilians, no matter who the enemy was, was a huge no-no. To the army itself, it was a huge cancer that harmed both sides.

This pandora’s box could not be opened.

Even on the Japanese battlefield, Ouyang Shuo needed to defend his bottom line.

“Understood!”

Han Xin nodded his head solemnly. The king was rarely so vicious. This battle seemed to be different from the previous ones.

Ouyang Shuo said, “Go and prepare to cross the sea tomorrow. Officially attack Honshu.”

“Yes, my king!”

…

Looking out at the leaving back view of Han Xin, Ouyang Shuo took in a deep breath. At this moment, his eyes were filled with thought.

Chapter 1057 - Huge Mysterious Gift

Chapter 1057: Huge Mysterious Gift

Compared to Hokkaido, Japan’s defenses in Honshu were even more sick in the head.

With Edo as the dividing line, Sanli City arranged three iron defense lines on the south side and four on the north. As for the defenses of the bay, it would be even crazier than that of Hokkaido.

Keisuke Honda’s strategy was really clear; he wanted to defend for a month.

Han Xin scoffed at this strategy. The strongest defense in front of the strongest attack was just a decorative piece. Military people often said that the best form of defense was offense.

As for how to attack Honshu, Han Xin had a full combat plan.

6th month, 7th day, the north army started to move.

Guo Ziyi led the blazing legion corps to cross the straits, disembarking on the northmost point of Honshu and sweeping down from north to south. The 1st division of the Tiger, Eagle, and City Protection Legion Corps would split into three and disembark at three different ports on the north of Honshu.

Honshu simply had too many ports, so the Japanese army’s limited number of troops could not form a completely airtight defense. The moment Han Xin found a hole, it would be when the enemy has an all-out collapse.

Furthermore, the expedition army now had Hokkaido as their backline, ensuring that endless amounts of grain was being transported to the frontlines. Even if they fought on four front,s it was still more than enough.

Hence, one could see that the strategic reason for the expedition army taking down Hokkaido was much more important than the actual war purpose.

As for how would the four armies would break through the iron defense lines set up near the ports, with Ran Min’s forces’ experience at the port of Kushiro, it became much easier.

“It’s just about how much losses we can handle,” Han Xin said.

As they say, ‘The soft do not command troops.’ When he needed to be vicious, Han Xin naturally could do so even to his own men. For the final victory, sometimes sacrificing a bunch of forces was unavoidable.

There were obviously no wars where no one died.

Apart from these four groups of troops, the Bear Legion Corps led by Han Xin would get close to Edo. Whilst they took down the north of Honshu, they would sweep the surrounding castles around Edo to clear out obstacles for the final siege.

Han Xin arranged it in such a way to reduce the time needed for the country war.

The more Japan wanted to drag it on, the more Han Xin needed to give the enemy much to think about such that they could not drag on. Of course, the final siege needed the south army to work together with them too.

Not mentioning other aspects, but just the million guards in Edo were not something the north army could handle alone.

During these two days, under the pressure of outside forums and comments, the south army had sped up. A day ago, they were about to take down Kyushu and establish their backlines.

Not long later, they would be able to go up north to attack Shikoku.

Even so, the south army was still really far behind schedule, and Ouyang Shuo was extremely unhappy about it. Luckily, he still had a trump card in his hand that he could use to turn around the situation at a crucial moment.

This trump card was only something the attacking country war side leader knew. Even Keisuke Honda did not know about it.

Sometimes, Ouyang Shuo even hoped that Di Chen would continue on like that. If that was really the case, he would give Di Chen a huge present. Who knows whether Di Chen would be able to accept it or not.

…

In the next week, all three battlefields that had to do with China entered its sieging stage.

Apart from Han Xin leading the army to massacre around Japan’s Honshu island and dismembering the Japanese’s so-called defensive lines, the other two battlefields were also really intense.

In Korea, the Li Jing led army was unstoppable. In a short 10 days, they had taken down the entire north of Korea and were officially at the foot of Korea’s imperial city – Seoul.

Different from the Japanese battlefield, Li Jing planned to surround Seoul but not attack it yet. He would use the chance to sweep the south of Korea and make Seoul the only city left.

Before this, Great Xia had already wiped out four countries, and this kind of wiping out surrounding problems before attacking the imperial city method was proven to be the most effective.

The reason was pretty much Gaia’s settings regarding the imperial city guards. Even in the 5th year, compared to the imperial city guards, the territory armies were still weaker and were easier to take down.

Such a situation was not only common in Singapore and Annan, these medium and small sized countries, but also in China. Even with global giants like Great Xia and Handan City, the situation was still the same.

Furthermore, before the country war, the imperial city and the territory armies were enemies. Even more so in regions where one territory and one imperial city was left.

Both sides were usual competing against one another to take over control of their region.

During the country war, although both powers huddled together, in the end, they were forced to work together. As such, their relationship obviously would not be close.

Hence, when the territories were being swept by the enemy, the imperial city guards normally would not help to attack.

Just like in Japan, Emperor Meiji did not support Sanli City. The million guards of Edo remained housed within the city and did not move.

As Keisuke Honda’s target was to drag on for a month, Edo was the final barrier. The stronger the troops housed in Edo, the longer they would be able to defend for.

Hence, although he was unwilling, Keisuke Honda did not raise any issues.

One could foresee that after this country war, even if Japan could keep its land, Sanli City would be totally wasted and would not be able to lead Japan.

Maybe Emperor Meiji would become the biggest winner from this whole war.

…

On the Korea battlefield, apart from warfighting forces going head to head, there was also another interesting point, which were the navy battles that were more exciting than the one on the Japanese battlefield.

Not because of other reasons, but simply due to Korea having a famous navy general Yi Sun-sin. This person was once hailed by the Koreans as the top general in Asia, and his most famous battle was the Battle of Noryang.

The Battle of Noryang happened at the end of the 16th century and got its name as it happened in Noryang. The sides that engaged one another were the Ming Dynasty and the Korea Alliance Army and the Japanese army.

The commanders were Ming Dynasty’s Chen Lin, Deng Zilong, Korea’s Yi Sun-sin as well as Japan’s Konishi Yukinaga and Shimazu Yoshihiro. In the end, the Alliance Army won.

At that point, the one in power in Japan was one of their warring states three heroes – Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

In this country war, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was sent by Keisuke Honda to defend Kyushu and Shikoku. Oda Nobunaga naturally defended Honshu.

Back to the Battle of Noryang, this battle had an important place in Chinese history and also world naval fighting history, as it affected the political situation in east Asia.

It was also termed by western military people as one of the eight naval battles in the ancient world.

During this battle, Yi Sun-sin led the Korea turtle ship squadron and won against the Japanese with lesser numbers before dying in battle valiantly. In truth, the actual commander of the battle was Chen Lin, but the credit was snatched away by Yi Sun-sin. He became a huge hero to the Koreans.

Koreans used this as a background to film the movie The Admiral: Roaring Currents, be it viewers or box office records, it created history in Korea.

Although Yi Sun-sin’s skill was immortalized a little too much, he was in fact a skilled person.

He led the Korea squadron and had an interesting face off against the Qi Jiguang led Binhai Squadron.

The special turtle ships of the Koreans entered the eyes of the world for the first time.

Chapter 1058 - Choosing a Side to Stand On

Chapter 1058: Choosing a Side to Stand On

6th month, 11th day, a naval battle exploded out on the Korea battlefield.

The two sides were the Binhai Squadron led by Qi Jiguang and the Korea Squadron led by Yi Sun-sin. The two sides engaged at the ocean region near to Seoul.

This was the most intense but brutal naval battle since the start of the game.

These two top squadrons went head to head for three days and three nights, with both sides suffering heavy casualties. The ocean was dyed red, but no one was willing to back off. The Great Xia Binhai Squadron wanted to enter Seoul to attack it along with the land troops.

The Korea squadron had no reason to retreat, as behind them was the last hope of Korea.

In the end, the Binhai Squadron relied on the magic powered submarine to destroy the turtle ship that the Korea squadron was proud of, obtaining a decisive victory. Along with the mimicry flying devices, they completed their encirclement of the Korea squadron.

In this battle, 40% of ships on both sides were sunk.

6th month, 13th day, Korea general Yi Sun-sin was captured. The remaining Korean troops surrendered to Great Xia, which meant that Seoul was totally exposed to the cannon fire of the Binhai Squadron.

At the same time, the Huo Qubing led Guards Legion Corps had already smoothly taken down the south portion of Korea.

Across the entirety of Korea, only Seoul remained.

The Battle of Korea would welcome its final battle on the 6th month, 14th day. Just the 500 thousand guards in Seoul would be enough to give Li Jing a headache.

Luckily, Li Jing was not in a hurry, as all he had was time.

…

Apart from the Korea battlefield, the Zhenla and Nanzhang battlefields were really exciting as well.

Baiqi did not attack both at the same time. Instead, he chose to take them down one by one. Before the war, Baiqi moved the Annan formation to the Zhenla border to defend.

At the same time, Yanhuo Yaonie’s Indian Ocean Squadron would be around to react.

With both ocean and land, they formed a defensive line.

Hence, they stabilized the Zhenla situation and prevented it from entering Annan Province.

Baiqi led the Dragon Legion Corps to directly head for Zhenla in the north.

Zhenla was a small country with less than 600 thousand total players and only around 70 thousand combat occupation players. They had 60 thousand guards in Vientiane as well as 30 thousand territory troops under Suo Langgong. Their overall numbers were only 160 thousand, which was less than half of the Dragon Legion Corps.

Along with the following China region combat occupation players, the Baiqi led army was able to arrive at Vientiane in just a week.

Nanzhang was on the verge of being wiped out.

Zhenla and Nanzhang relied on one another, so logically speaking, seeing Nanzhang under attack, Zhenla should be helping.

After all, the Great Xia Annan formation only defended the east side and did not cut off the north tunnel between Nanzhang and Zhenla.

The truth, however, was that be it territory armies or the combat occupation players, Zhenla did not show signs of aiding Nanzhang. The entire Zhenla country was silent.

This was human nature.

It was not that the Zhenla players were heartless or that they did not understand the situation they were in.

In the end, this was the ostrich mentality.

If Zhenla went to help Nanzhang, it would cause their defenses to be reduced and maybe the Annan formation and Indian Ocean Squadron would take the chance to attack.

If that happened, it would be catastrophic for them.

Under such psychological influence, the Zhenla players only wanted to defend to try to survive. They wished that Nanzhang could hold on for longer so that they could get past this difficult month.

The truth proved that this was just a dream.

Once Baiqi took down Vientiane, would be Zhenla next. The Zhenla players probably understood that point, but there was nothing they could do about it. This was the tragedy of being weak.

Zhenla’s Bi Wenlie and Nanzhang’s Suo Langgong, these two who betrayed their country, were destined to be humiliated by their countrymen forever.

…

Japan, Honshu.

The toughest out of the three battlefields was still the Japan battlefield.

During the week, the China north army swept the north of Honshu, fighting a few tough battles. Oda Nobunaga was really skilled. He knew how to use his troops, especially the use of gunners.

In separate battles, both sides had their wins and losses.

Even so, due to the soldier number disparity, although Japan was fighting on home ground, in front of a God General like Han Xin, they were just struggling pointlessly.

Han Xin could command seven routes of troops and actually not panic, coordinating them with one another effortlessly and even assisting and surrounding targets. The entire battlefield proceeded smoothly like water.

After opening up a breach, Han Xin did not give the Japanese a chance to fight back, suppressing them all the way. The skill of the War Immortal was on full show in the Battle of Japan.

The stubbornness of the Japanese was still unchanged.

Under such tough circumstances, the entire north defense line did not fall and was still barely holding on.

Just like that, Han Xin’s plan to take down the north of Honshu in a week failed.

At this very moment, Ouyang Shuo received letters from the Black Snake Guards that said that during the week, Japan snuck up soldiers from the south to stabilize the north defensive line.

At the same time, Keisuke Honda persuaded Emperor Meiji to send 200 thousand guards to the north to strengthen the defensive line and maintain the current situation.

To strengthen the defensive line, Keisuke Honda even used the country war buff card he spent five million gold on in the auction, choosing a defense buff that would last for a week.

The Battle of Japan seemed like it would continue to be a stalemate.

When Han Xin received the report, he asked Ouyang Shuo whether he should continue sweeping the north or head right for Edo. Half the country war time had elapsed. If they continued to let things drag on, they might not be able to take down Edo.

Ouyang Shuo replied, “Continue to sweep, five days as the maximum.”

…

That day, Ouyang Shuo once again wrote a strong letter to Di Chen, limiting the south army to a week till they must reach Edo.

One must know that when Ouyang Shuo wrote the letter, the south army had not totally taken down Shikoku.

At the end of the letter, Ouyang Shuo wrote, “As a Chinese, you treat this battle with such a relaxed manner, where is your conscience? In the future, what face does Handan City have to stand in China? Japan being crushed cannot be stopped by anyone, including those people. Think clearly and do not destroy your reputation.”

Although the Earth was ruled by a Federation, and there were no countries per say, there were still cultural conflicts. Especially the east and the west, which butt heads many times within the Federation.

With the magnanimity of the Chinese civilization, it was actually unable to absorb it all.

This was one of Ouyang Shuo’s future goals. Hence, standing at the high point that he was standing at, Handan City and the four families behind it did not need to be enemies of Great Xia.

It all depended on Di Chen’s choice.

Chapter 1059 - To Hold It in or Not

Chapter 1059: To Hold It in or Not

Ouyang Shuo’s letter caused a split within the top layer of Handan City.

Xiong Ba and Zhan Lang supported withstanding the pressure of Silver Hand and increasing their speed to rush to Edo. “We cannot let people say that we are spineless.”

Chun Shenjun did not sway but Di Chen was obviously hesitating.

As for Sha Pojun and Wandering Magic, as they had lost their territories, they had lost their speaking rights in Handan City. They were now only Provincial Governors and had nothing to do with the military.

Xiong Ba, Zhan Lang, and Chun Shenjun were different. Although their territories had merged into Handan City, they still had huge power in their own provinces. Their armies were also only under Handan City in name.

As the Lord, Di Chen could not command the Pill Sun, Blood Red, and the King legion corps.

If one needed a direct comparison, the three of them were like the jiedushis during the Tang Dynasty, each having the military and administrative powers of a province.

As a result, in this country war, the three of them could travel along with Di Chen.

Of course, along with the Yanhuang Alliance disbanding and their territories merging into Handan City, Di Chen’s prestige had experienced a huge rise. Like this time, if Di Chen did not agree, there was nothing Xiong Ba and Zhan Lang could do about it.

Just as Di Chen was hesitating, Di Chen’s grandfather suddenly sent a letter to ask him to cooperate with Sanli City.

When Di Chen saw it, he gave a bitter smile.

Two days ago, Keisuke Honda’s grandfather, seeing that the situation was getting worse and worse for Japan, finally used his trump card. He directly found Di Chen’s grandfather and promised a payment of 10 million gold.

More importantly, he promised that in Silver Hand, the Honda family would support the Di family.

This was a lethal temptation to Di Chen’s grandfather.

No matter what the organization, the first and second’s relationship would not be good. As the number 2 of Silver Hand, Di Chen’s grandfather had been yearning for the top spot.

The Honda family was one of the influential families in Asia, so their vote was really precious.

This time, the Honda family was going all out. One must know that in Silver Hand, the Honda family had been under the Dawson family from the start.

Now, just to save their lives, they were going to change sides.

Di Chen’s grandfather made it really clear in his letter, “Remember something, words can be manipulated. The wind might blow toward you today, but if you do something, it might blow the opposite side tomorrow. Hold on against the pressure and do not yield to the comments. To maximize the gains to the family is the main strategy. Remember, remember!”

It was hard to go against orders, so Di Chen had no choice but to hold on.

The territory armies were still the main characters in the country war, so without Di Chen’s agreement, the Handan City Army naturally would not increase their speed. Even if the adventure gamemode players wanted to, they did not have the strength.

During these past few days, many adventure gamemode players had run to Di Chen’s tent to clamor.

They first sought to quicken the pace of the war and that slowly developed to them scolding out and calling Di Chen a traitor. When Di Chen saw that, he decided to be evil all the way, arranging soldiers to defend the camp and prohibit random people from entering.

This caused Di Chen to have his peace and quiet, but the south army blew up.

Immediately, there were scattered players who left the main force. They either went back home, went to the north army to gather up, or decided to fight alone on the south.

The entire south army became really scattered.

Even the following Jianqi Zongheng, 18 horsemen of Yanyun, Jin Yi Wei, and the other guilds were unhappy toward Di Chen.

As time went on, the unhappiness spread up the levels of the guild toward the higher ups.

This was a bad signal.

Especially Tingyu Floor and Laojun Temple, these two super guilds. As they had a change of camp internally, they had a huge turmoil that was only stopped by the share system.

Now, they were in chaos again.

Who knows how many times these two guilds could handle such turmoil.

…

6th month, 15th day, Hokkaido.

Since he did not receive Di Chen’s reply, Ouyang Shuo sighed in his heart, “Who cares, let’s carry on!”

Since Di Chen did not repent, when he acted against Handan City in the future, he would not need to give them any face. The Di family wanted to protect their family interests, so Ouyang Shuo wanted to crush their cake into pieces.

For Di Chen’s grandfather to be so confident, he simply did not understand the game well.

Different from the real world, a tool would be able to change the direction of a war. Di Chen’s grandfather thought that without the south army, Great Xia could not do anything to Edo. However, he was simply too wrong.

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo gave Han Xin the newest military order.

“Quicken your speed, all troops rush to Edo in three days.”

At the same time, Ouyang Shuo and his group set off once more, leaving Hokkaido. Under the protection of the Emperor Squadron, he headed for Edo.

When Feng Qiuhuang and the others saw that, they exchanged glances.

“Ouyang, don’t tell me you’re going to try take down Edo with just the north army?”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Since Di Chen is determined to be a turtle, it’s naturally up to us.”

“Edo has 800 thousand guards, how can we fight?” Feng Qiuhuang’s doubt was unable to be relieved, “If we really cannot, let’s just wait for a few days and move some people from within the country!”

“Fallen Phoenix City can still move two Guards Legions!”

Feng Qiuhuang was clear headed. Facing such a problem, she did not think about retreating but instead thought of going against the wind, showing off the magnanimity and arrogance of a heroine.

When Blood Romance and the others saw that, they all said, “We too can bring more elite groups over to help!”

There was one good sentence, which was to understand a person, one could start from his friends. There was another, which was birds of a feather flock together.

The elite players gathered around Ouyang Shuo were all people who did not want to lose.

“We are different from Di Chen; we are not noobs. It’s just Japan, f**k them.” Blood Romance was really outright. He was a person who had deep patriotism.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he felt really touched in his heart. He had made good friends. He smiled, “I understand your thoughts, but there’s no need to bother all of you.”

Blood Romance’s eyes lit up, “Does Brother Ouyang have other trump cards?”

Ouyang Shuo was a person who often created miracles. If someone else dared to say such arrogant words, Blood Romance would have directly slapped them.

But Ouyang Shuo was different.

Since they were acquainted, Blood Romance had never seen Ouyang Shuo say something he could not do. If Ouyang Shuo said he did not need them to act, then there was really no need.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and explained, “All of you probably don’t know this, but during the country war month, if a country initiates and attacks whilst fighting against three other countries, Gaia gives them a benefit.”

Chapter 1060 - The Strong and the Weak

Chapter 1060: The Strong and the Weak

Based on the country war settings, during the country war period, if a country initiated an attack whilst engaging with three other countries, the country war leader could summon 5% of the country’s guards at a price of 10 gold per person to aid the battlefield.

To most regions in the game, the number of guards would not exceed a million. As a result, they would be able to summon 50 thousand guards at most, which would not be able to affect the situation much.

However, China was different.

The China region had a total of 10 million guards, which meant that he could summon 500 thousand guards to aid their efforts.

If both the south and north armies joined hands, Ouyang Shuo would not have needed to summon the Imperial City Guards. After all, to summon 500 thousand guards, he would need to pay five million gold.

If it were not the final moment, Ouyang Shuo did not want to spend this sum.

Seeing that Di Chen was not cooperating, Ouyang Shuo could only bear the pain and use this trump card. He wanted to see how Silver Hand would react when the north army took down Edo by themselves.

Not mentioning others, but the face of Di Chen’s grandfather would definitely be really ugly.

Another interesting thing was that China had nine imperial cities, so which city to summon from was up for Ouyang Shuo to decide on.

Just this alone meant that Ouyang Shuo could do a lot of stuff.

When Blood Romance and the others heard that, they were all really excited and said, “Let’s split the cost, we cannot let you pay for it alone.”

That’s right, this was not 50 thousand but a full five million.

Even the rich Great Xia found it a little difficult to take out such a sum of money in one shot. Along with this battle, Great Xia had provided transport and grain for the adventure gamemode players without compensation. They had really done a lot.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head.

“Why? Are you looking down on us? We can still take out a million.” Blood Romance showed unhappiness.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “I did not mean that. I’ll just keep the sum of money on record and deduct it from the spoils of war after we take down Edo.”

The huge Edo would definitely yield a lot of spoils of war.

“That’s more like it.” Blood Romance’s expression relaxed.

…

6th month, 17th day, Ouyang Shuo and his group docked on the west outskirts of Edo.

The next day, the north army gathered outside the city. The huge city covered the land. If one looked carefully, one could see the exhaustion and sadness on their faces.

Half a month had passed since the country war started, and to take down Japan, the north army had paid a heavy price. Especially during the last three days, where to clear out the final obstacle, the north army had attacked with determination and without care of sacrifice.

After battle after battle, 13 War Fighting Legions, 910 thousand troops were left with 800 thousand, and this count included some injured who insisted on rushing over to Edo to gather.

It was not that Ouyang Shuo was vicious and did not want to summon the 500 thousand guards in advance to help.

Even with the 500 thousand guards, the north army would only have around 1.3 million. Facing the 800 thousand Edo guards, they still did not hold an absolute advantage.

Edo was an imperial city and was not so easily taken down.

Not mentioning the Japanese battlefield, but even in the Battle of Korea, Seoul had not been taken down by Li Jing yet.

To break through the city, one needed to play it smart. The 500 thousand guards were a trump card to be used when the enemy least expected it to catch them off guard.

18th day, morning, Ouyang Shuo met Han Xin in secret and told him about the 500 thousand guards.

When Han Xin heard that, he was enlightened, and the questions from before were all unraveled. He solemnly said, “Do not worry, my king. With this group of soldiers, I’ll break through within five days.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “I naturally trust in your ability. If we win, you’ll have first credit. With so many achievements, your title should be raised.”

Compared to Baiqi and Huo Qubing, Han Xin paid more attention to fame. Ouyang Shuo hinting that he was going to promote him to commander in chief just like Baiqi and Li Jing was targeting that attribute of his.

As expected, excitement flashed across his face, but it was quickly wiped away.

“I will not let you down!”

…

After leaving, Han Xin started to plan the formations.

Strictly speaking, Edo could be considered an ocean city. Hence, Han Xin let the Emperor Squadron and the Pacific Squadron handle the east and south sides.

The two squadrons could provide cannon fire from the ocean or use their gunners to directly participate in the war.

Apart from the south and the east, for the remaining sides, Han Xin had arranged large amount of men. What outsiders could not see was that although it looked like Han Xin splitting up the army around Edo, there were differences.

It might be a small disguise, but to do that showed Han Xin’s skill.

800 thousand warfighting troops were mainly on the north and east sides with the west having a small number of troops. It was obvious that since the start, Han Xin was planning to send the 500 thousand guards there.

Toward all this, the Japanese knew nothing about it.

…

On the current Edo city wall stood a row of people, and around them were their Personal Guards.

Standing right in the middle was naturally Emperor Meiji, and to his left was Sanli City Lord Keisuke Honda and to his right was Oda Nobunaga.

The three core people of the Japanese camp were gathered here.

“They look like they are really going to attack. Who are they trying to fool?” Keisuke Honda’s expression was a lot more relaxed compared to a few days ago. Although he was still really sour, he did not fear anything anymore.

After he received his grandfather’s reply, his heart totally calmed down. He did not believe that the China north army could take down Edo by themselves.

“The enemy is probably forced into it!” Oda Nobunaga said.

Half a month of battles let this legendary Japanese figure realize the strength of China. He was especially respectful toward the commander Han Xin.

Such strength was definitely not something Japan could compare to.

Of course, Oda Nobunaga was really impressed with Lord Keisuke Honda’s actions. He still did not understand how his Lord managed to persuade the China south army to cooperate.

The China south army might look like they were going all out against the army led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, but it was just a show.

If not, how could Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s tens of thousands of troops be able to stop the enemy?

Emperor Meiji, who stood in the middle, was expressionless. He calmly looked on at the enemy outside and said to Oda Nobunaga, “For the defense of Edo, I’ll leave it to you!”

Originally, this seemed like a great job, but when Oda Nobunaga heard that, his expression was a little awkward. Strictly speaking, Oda Nobunaga was not under Emperor Meiji but Keisuke Honda.

For the emperor to boldly go over Keisuke Honda and directly order Oda Nobunaga had broken the rules.

Logically speaking, Emperor Meiji was a legendary lord and should not make such low-level mistakes. However, he still did that, and the meaning within left a lot to be desired.

Along with Sanli City being destroyed, Emperor Meiji finally bared his fangs and started to take over control of Japan.

His words were a show of strength.

When Keisuke Honda heard that, his face cramped up. That’s right, after this battle, although Japan was saved, Sanli City would be badly hurt.

Gaia had a rule that the same region could only launch one country war against another. Even after the country war ended, the rule was still effective.

Such a setting was a protection toward the weaker countries.

As they say, the heavens always give people chances. As long as the weaker country could get past this, it could basically survive with no worry. As a result, Korea was willing to enter this battle.

If not, the Honda family would not have made such a promise to the Di family.

Even so, the situation was still really bad.

Keisuke Honda looked deeply at Emperor Meiji before turning around to Oda Nobunaga and forcing a smile, “Since the emperor trusts you, general, take the job.”

“Hai!”

Oda Nobunaga was stuck in the middle, facing a really awkward situation.

Chapter 1061 - Taking Advantage of Dali

Chapter 1061: Taking Advantage of Dali

Translator: ryangohsff Editor: Nora

Gaia 5th year, 6th month, 19th day, Imperial City Edo.

After resting up, Han Xin ordered the north army to launch probing attacks on Edo. These attacks lasted for an entire day, and the various troops took turns to strike. First, it was to get used to the geography whilst also searching for defensive weaknesses in the city wall.

Hence, although the battle was really exciting, neither side suffered much losses. It could be considered a warm up.

“The enemy gunners are not simple.”

This was the first conclusion that Han Xin made. Oda Nobunaga’s usage and understanding of gunners was really refreshing to Han Xin, and he felt like he had gained knowledge. Without a doubt, this was the weakness of the Great Xia generals.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Then let’s capture Oda Nobunaga and make him our teacher.”

“I’ve that intention too!” Han Xin smiled.

…

Start of the second day, Han Xin made his move.

Especially on the north and east sides, they launched their most ferocious assault on Edo at the same time. Cannons, trebuchet, turrets, flying devices, and the like were all set up on the battlefield by Han Xin.

The city protection river of Edo was nothing in front of the expedition army.

The natural sciences college led by Mo Zi had just developed a new kind of siege weapon -trestle bridge. This bridge did not need to be stacked up to work and could just be pulled away by a few chariots.

During the siege, one just needed to open up the bridge, and the army could easily cross the city protection river.

With such a siege weapon, the Great Xia Army did not need to use old methods like using sand and human lives to fill it up, and the efficiency was four to five times greater.

This was the power of technology.

Being affected by the times, the Mohists were also improving, innovating and coming up with new things.

The change of Mohists came about due to the change of the Great Xia philosophers. Each school of thought was having their own revolution and adapting to the new era.

If not, they could only be eliminated.

News had it that there were already people who started to build new factions to challenge the old ones. This was a new and interesting development.

This meant that Great Xia’s academic standards had reached a whole new level.

Another day passed.

Under the fierce attacks of the north army, Edo still stood tall like an iron city.

As the sun went down west, the earth was covered in red.

To the soldiers that were used to the military life, such a blood ocean and corpse field was something they were used to. Some soldiers directly grabbed two buns, sitting on the corpses and chomping down on their food.

Experienced soldiers were an asset.

The siege today was not that smooth, as the defense of Edo was more stubborn than they had expected. The preparations of half a year was definitely not something that could be broken in a day or two.

On the city wall, Keisuke Honda and Oda Nobunaga stood side by side.

Two days had passed, and Oda Nobunaga did not know what the enemy forces were doing, “Are they really crazy?” With how the enemy were acting, they really did not understand what they were doing.

“They obviously know that they cannot do it, but they are still insisting on it. Foolish!”

Oda Nobunaga thought differently. As a general, he only needed to consider the battlefield, “My Lord, the enemy’s focus of attack should be the east side.”

Keisuke Honda did not understand, “Looking at the situation, the north and east difference should not have much difference. Why do you think that the enemy would focus on the east?”

“It’s different.”

Oda Nobunaga was really confident, “The enemy general is really crafty, and although he tried to cover it up, his true motives were revealed. The fierce attack on the north is fake.”

When Keisuke Honda heard that, he did not ask anymore.

In terms of battle strategy, Keisuke Honda was not on the same level as Oda Nobunaga.

Oda Nobunaga asked, “Lord, do we get the north army to reinforce the east?”

Keisuke Honda thought about it and said, “Let’s wait for one more day to confirm in case we make a mistake.” He was still a little worried.

“Understood!”

…

The north army’s attacks on the 21st was ferocious like lions.

Especially the east, the Guo Ziyi led blazing legion corps was really determined. This group that had gotten achievements after achievement in this battle acted as the vanguard for this attack.

Just 20 days had passed, and over 60 thousand blazing legion corps soldiers had died, an average of three thousand a day. They were close to losing half the of legion corp. Although Feng Qiuhuang’s heart felt pained, her attitude was still one of determination.

Feng Qiuhuang’s determination was right.

Although the blazing legion corps suffered heavy casualties, after this tough war, the entire army started to transform. Different from the Great Xia Army, who often fought wars, apart from in the Battle Map, the blazing legion corps rarely had chances to fight wars.

Such training and trials were exactly what the blazing legion corps needed.

Under the ferocious assault of the blazing legion corps, the east wall of Edo was challenged. Beginning in the afternoon, there were many blazing legion corps soldiers who successfully made it to the city wall, tearing apart the Edo defense line.

Although they were pushed back one by one, Oda Nobunaga was still nervous.

If he did not move troops to defend, the moment a breach was torn open, Edo might actually be broken through. Seeing the situation, Keisuke Honda did not say anything and agreed to Oda Nobunaga’s plans to move the troops.

In his eyes, the enemy was using the Chinese classic of attacking three sides and leaving one open. Apart from the west, the other three sides could all be the main area where the enemy attacks came from.

After two days of observation, Oda Nobunaga believed that the east side was the true target of the enemy.

That night, the west side troops housed in Edo moved toward the east. At the same time, the north and south sides had a portion of their forces moving toward the east.

Within a night, Oda Nobunaga strengthened the defenses of the east side.

Oda Nobunaga was not afraid of the enemy misdirecting him. After all, they were clear about how many troops the China north army had.

Furthermore, Japan was surrounded by water on all four sides, and China could not send reinforcements in such a short time.

All that could come were already on the battlefield.

If the enemy wanted to misdirect them, they would need to move troops on a large scale and that would not be hidden from his eyes. If they did that, moving troops within the city would definitely be faster than moving troops outside of the city.

If the enemy really did that, Oda Nobunaga would only be happy, as it would mean a chance to crush the enemy.

…

6th month, 22nd day.

Morning, the China north army started to get busy. The soldiers were woken from their sleep, and after hurriedly eating buns and a bowl of porridge, they started to check their equipment and gather up on the drill field.

At 7 AM, the four armies had left the barracks and lined up in front of the city walls.

Looking out, spears were rooted in the ground, and the formations looked majestic and was filled with killing intent. As the ocean breeze blew across, the flags waved. Each flag represented one legion corps.

The phoenix of the blazing legion corps, the bear of the Bear Legion Corps, the Tiger of the Tiger Legion Corps, and the black eagle of the Eagle Legion Corps. Each one looked lifelike and described a legendary story.

They were all forces with a glorious history.

Amongst the formations were elite adventure gamemode player groups. Although their equipment varied, after so many rounds of working together, they were no different from troops and followed actual military procedure.

To the guilds, this war was also a form training.

The elite groups that could survive would display even more shocking battle prowess.

War destroyed life but also trained men.

‘Wu~’

As the horn sounded, the war drums resounded.

‘Hong! Hong! Honghong!’

To the million soldiers, another day of war began.

A similar charge, nothing was different. The only difference was that this charge till backing down at night, many brothers would not return.

Returning to the barracks, who knows how many empty beds would appear.

“See you at night!”

Soldiers greeted one another like that. Under the lead of their majors, they charged toward the city walls.

“Kill!”

“Kill!”

“Kill!”

Killing shouts spread out on all sides.

On the city wall, when Oda Nobunaga saw the enemy use the same formation again, his heart calmed down. With such an arrangement, the enemy definitely would not be able to take down Edo.

‘Just last for one more week, and we will win.’ Oda Nobunaga said in his heart.

As the Japanese commander, Oda Nobunaga had a huge amount of pressure on him. Thinking about the tens of millions of lives that would die if the city was broken through, Oda Nobunaga could not fall asleep.

The strength of the enemy terrified them all. With similar numbers, they could fight such a high quality siege battle. Form ancient times till now, not many people could do that.

Han Xin was worthy of his name.

Of course, the China expedition army’s various forces all went all out, and their morale soared.

“We will defend Edo.”

Oda Nobunaga’s eyes were resolute, turning around to patrol the other sides of the city walls. The surrounding soldiers would all look at him with respect. It was obvious that in the Japanese army, Oda Nobunaga had unparalleled prestige.

…

9 AM, east camp.

Last night, Ouyang Shuo had already snuck over from the north to here.

Seeing that they had gotten into the siege tempo, the Japanese army had their hands full. Han Xin said respectfully, “My king, we can begin!”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Let’s go outside!”

Their group exited the barracks and headed toward the battlefield.

Ouyang Shuo stood still, opening up the country war interface and selecting the option of summoning guards to help.

“System Notification: China region meets requirements to summon guards, based on overall guards numbers in China, can summon 500 thousand troops. Friendly Reminder: each person summoned will cost 10 gold. Please ensure that you have enough gold!”

Based on Gaia’s settings, as they were helping out, the guards would follow the country war leader’s orders. After the battle ended, they would be automatically teleported back to the imperial city.

“Summon 500 thousand.” Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate.

“System Notification: Summoning number confirmed, please choose which city or which cities to summon from. Friendly Reminder: Jingdu and Jianye do not have a dynasty yet, so you cannot summon from there.”

Ouyang Shuo grinned, “Summon 500 thousand Dali Guards.” Since this was a legal setting, Ouyang Shuo naturally did not mind taking a bite out of Dali to make it easier to take down Dali in the future.

“System Notification: Summoning requirements met, deducting five million gold, starting summon!”

…

Chapter 1062 - The Pillaging of Edo

Chapter 1062: The Pillaging of Edo

Translator: ryangohsff Editor: Nora

Along with the System Notification, a shining white light glowed on the west outskirts of Edo. Furthermore, it quickly spread, covering the entire western outskirts.

As the white light spread out, 500 thousand Dali Guards appeared.

…

Imperial City Dali, palace.

When Dali emperor Duan Zhengchun received the news, he could not react. After a long while, he scolded with a bunch of vulgarities, “F**k, do they want to kill me?”

After half of his guards were removed all of a sudden, Duan Zhengchun even had the heart to die.

“Should I just give up?”

Duan Zhengchun was pacing up and down the reading room. All of a sudden, the thought of abdicating filled his mind.

Since appearing in the wilderness and into Dali, Duan Zhengchun had never had a good night of sleep. Bad news came one after another. The weird appearance of a player prince and outside the imperial city was a desolate land.

The tens of millions of civilians made noise within the city, giving Duan Zhengchun many problems to think about. Even if he ordered civilians to reclaim land and start farming, the benefits would only be felt in the future.

Helplessly, he could only buy grain to survive, if not, the civilians would definitely revolt.

Dali did not lack money, but the problem was that even if they had money, they could not buy grain. Dali Prefecture was surrounded on all four sides by Great Xia, and all trading channels were cut off.

As for smuggling grain, no one had the courage.

One must not underestimate Great Xia Yunnan Provincial Governor Bai Hua just because she was a girl. In the end, she was once a Lord. When she should be firm, she would not show any mercy.

Since she was appointed, she started to strike down on people who smuggled to Dali.

Any chamber of commerce or merchants who were caught would be punished based on Great Xia law. Not only would all the goods be confiscated, but they would also suffer heavy fines. Basically, this fine would cause the entire chamber of commerce to go bankrupt.

Not only that, from then on, that chamber of commerce would be on the official blacklist.

After that, not only could they not buy from officials and the military, but they could not even go out to sea.

Under Bai Hua’s heavy punishment, no matter how high the profits were, no one dared to do it.

Facing such an unreasonable neighbor, Duan Zhengchun could only swallow the pain.

The current Dali City could only rely on player storage bags to get grain from other imperial cities. Of course, this was a bare solution and could only barely ensure that the people were fed.

Furthermore, the players had to eat, which meant that grain in Dali was even more expensive than gold. Even the rich Dali could not survive such usage.

Ever since Duan Zhengchun moved into Dali, there would be huge amounts of civilians who escaped into Great Xia on a daily basis.

Duan Zhengchun, who believed in Buddhism, could not bear to see the civilians hungry. As a result, he did not take the suggestion of player prince Duan Hong to use the guards to lock down the borders. Such an attitude undoubtedly increased the speed of civilians leaving. Duan Zhengchun also noticed that the way Duan Hong looked at him was a little weird. In those eyes, he could see a craving for power and ambition.

Unfortunately, he could not see the talent to match up to that ambition.

“Big ambition but lacking in talent.” Duan Zhengchun made such a conclusion.

Seeing half his guards moved away for no reason, it was like his greatest foundation of standing up in the wilderness was taken away.

The successive blows made him really depressed.

“Forget it, forget it!”

After hesitating for long while, Duan Zhengchun finally made up his mind, “Men!”

“Present!”

“Let the Honglu Temple meet me.”

“Yes, your majesty.”

Duan Zhengchun finally made up his mind to lower his head to Great Xia.

As long as he could ensure the continuation of the Duan Family bloodline, he did not mind giving up Dali city.

“This throne is not stable. Why not give it up before I get chased off it?” One had to say that the current Duan Zhengchun showed the decisiveness of an emperor.

How many people in history could choose to give up their throne?

However, Duan Zhengchun did not know that his summoning of the Honglu Temple to express his decision to go under Great Xia was found out by prince Duan Hong.

A huge storm was heading toward Dali.

…

Edo battlefield.

500 thousand guards who ‘descended from the heavens’ totally stunned Oda Nobunaga.

“What was that?”

China really defied logic, making Oda Nobunaga feel really helpless. Before he could react, the 500 thousand guards had already charged right at the west gate.

The 1st legion of the City Protection Legion Corps that were there backed out of the battlefield.

If they did not use these troops, they would be useless after the battle.

Since he had spent a huge sum of money, Ouyang Shuo naturally used the guards as the vanguard.

If Ouyang Shuo knew that these guards would belong to Great Xia in the end, he would probably cry out in pain.

The following siege battle was basically really normal. 500 thousand elite guards along with the smooth commanding of Han Xin caught Edo off guard.

If they could not break through like that, nothing could.

Han Xin was undoubtedly a genius general. He was good enough to command no matter how many troops. Even including the 500 thousand guards, whilst focusing on the west, he could still care about the other three sides at the same time.

When Ouyang Shuo looked on, he was filled with respect and awe.

To be able to get the help of such a God General was simply the good fortune of Great Xia.

…

At 5 PM, along with a loud ‘Honglong!’, under the fearless assault of the guards, the weak west gate was broken through.

The huge army flooded in like a tsunami.

Oda Nobunaga wanted to order the remaining troops to bring Keisuke Honda and Emperor Meiji out, but helplessly, all four sides were surrounded, and there was no way out.

To try to break out of the encirclement would be futile struggling.

Along with the north gate being broken, the east gate lost control too. Emperor Meiji quietly backed into the palace and killed himself. Keisuke Honda had no face to face his men and also appear in the reincarnation hall with his brothers. Hence, he found a quiet corner to wait for the country war to end and teleport him to the trial lands.

Oda Nobunaga wanted to struggle to the death, but he was outnumbered and captured alive by Han Xin.

At night, along with the army charging into the palace and destroying the stone steele, the Battle of Japan came to its end. A System Notification sounded out.

“World Notification: Congratulations China for taking down Japan, winning the country war, awarding each China region player with 300 country war battle contribution points, congratulations!”

…

Gaia was really magnanimous. Around 1.615 million Chinese players had participated, and if they added all the points together, it was close to five million.

A sky high amount.

As expected, the bigger the number, the stronger the force.

That was not it.

Following which, Gaia released a regional report.

“Regional Notification: Congratulations China for taking down imperial city Edo, winning the country war. Especially rewarding each player who participated in the Battle of Edo with 500 country war battle contribution points, congratulations!”

…

Gaia was really fair, not letting the south army players get easy rewards.

“Only the people who did work would be rewarded!”

The moment the notification sounded out, a huge cheer broke out outside of Edo. Compared to the contribution points, the players enjoyed the glory more.

After returning, this was enough for them to brag for their entire life.

At the current moment, those who were at the south army were probably regretting it.

“World Notification: Japan is wiped out, all player items, skills, cultivation methods, and the like removed and teleported to the trial lands.”

…

The moment the notification sounded out, before the millions of Japanese players could mourn, they were teleported away mercilessly.

At a quiet corner, Keisuke Honda said, “I will be back.” As he said that, he turned into a white light and disappeared along with his sadness.

“World Notification: China region wins the country war, obtains honor points and innate stats +1 as rewards, congratulations China region!”

…

When the players received the news, they cheered.

This was a full Chinese feast.

Three days ago, when Baiqi had taken down Nanzhang, they had already enjoyed it once.

Just like that, the China region honor points were slowly climbing up. If one counted the predictable Battle of Korea and Zhenla, after these battles, it would reach scary levels.

They were just a little away from the 100 points needed for the second country weapon.

Moreover, the buff added from the honor points basically meant that the strength of the China region players would double.

From now on, the China region players would sweep the world.

…

Edo today was destined to be sleepless.

The winners were unable to hide their joy and emotions and were busy celebrating. Although the defeated had already left, there were numerous civilians that remained, shivering in the dark.

Before attacking Edo, Ouyang Shuo had already set up three rules with Feng Qiuhuang, Blood Romance, and the others. After taking down Edo, the army and players were prohibited from pillaging, and all spoils of war would be collected and split up.

Anyone who went against this rule would face military law.

The army was easily stopped, and the super guilds had their own pride and system. The tough ones were the scattered players, who could not bear to not search for items.

Because of this, the entire Edo was in chaos.

Although Ouyang Shuo had already arranged the army and elite forces to maintain order, he could not be too much, only asking them to defend the palace and the armory.

He could only allow players to pillage Edo.

The 100 thousand adventure gamemode players were like locusts, swarming the city and taking everything of value.

The entire Edo was shivering in the darkness, going through their hardest night.

Chapter 1063 - Splitting the Spoils

Chapter 1063: Splitting the Spoils

Shikoku, South Army Camp.

The moment he learned that Edo had fallen, Di Chen stood stunned on the spot, not knowing how to react.

“How is that possible?”

Di Chen basically could not imagine how the south army had attacked the heavily defended Edo. Furthermore, the time was so short, so it was impossible to move troops from Great Xia.

“Investigate, go investigate!” Di Chen gave the order.

“Yes, my Lord!”

Very quickly, Difeng intel officers went to do their duty.

In the original Yanhuang Alliance Intel Organization, apart from Difeng of Handan City and the relatively famous Chunxiao from Pill Sun City, there was Warring Dong from Blood Red City as well as Fengyun from King City.

After merging, the three of them became the branch organizations of Difeng, causing Difeng to jump into a super intel organization on the level of the Shanhai Guards.

As the country war had ended and the forums were reinstated, it was not hard for Difeng to investigate the matter.

Di Chen looked at the Edo battle report, and his face grew darker and darker as he fumed, “He’s using public items for himself. Why did not he tell us such an important thing?”

On this matter, Ouyang Shuo was indeed in the wrong. However, he was the country war leader, and even if he hid it and did not report the matter, since he smoothly took down Japan in the end, no one could blame him for anything.

Di Chen and the others took a lost and could only keep silent.

“There’s no point talking in about this now. Let’s think about how to deal with the aftereffects!” Xiong Ba said.

That’s right, to meet the interest demands of the Di family in Silver Hand, Handan City had purposely slowed down their speed, and they even disobeyed Ouyang Shuo’s decrees.

His actions could be considered as betraying the country, and it was worse than Ouyang Shuo not informing them.

Handan City was going to experience an unprecedented trust crisis. If they dealt with it badly, they would lose people sentiment, with allies leaving and people deserting them.

Especially Di Chen himself, who stood at the front, he would definitely face the heaviest punishment.

Just thinking about it, Di Chen felt a chill run down his spine.

Di Chen asked, “What ideas do you have?”

Xiong Ba said in a low tone, “There are two most important things now. First, we need to discuss with the old fox on how to split up Japan. Secondly, we need to use all the powers we can to at least reduce the animosity amongst the players.”

“After all, Japan is already taken down, so the animosity of the players is not as big as before,” Xiong Ba added.

Di Chen nodded, “Our grandfathers should be handling the latter matter, and we do not need to worry about it. As for the former, we do have to decide on it.”

After pausing, Di Chen looked at Xiong Ba and the others and said, “How should we split up Japan?”

With the character of Handan City, giving up Japan was impossible. Just with interest considerations alone, if Great Xia took down Japan, they would lock down Handan City that was opposite them on the river.

Trade with the Dawson Empire had already become the trading lifeline of Handan City, and Japan was at the core position of this naval route.

The moment Great Xia grabbed them by the neck, the future of Handan City would be understandable.

Xiong Ba said, “We should not pin much hopes on Honshu. The best case would be taking what we took down. As long as we keep Shikoku and Kyushu, our target would be met.”

Di Chen nodded, helplessly accepting the fact. Taking a look at Xiong Ba, he said, “How about you represent Handan City to discuss with the old fox at Edo?”

“Okay!”

Out of all of them, Xiong Ba’s relationship with Ouyang Shuo was the best, so he was the most suitable choice.

“Congratulate the old fox too. We must show that we are magnanimous.” Di Chen said so because he hoped to reduce the hatred of the Chinese players toward Handan City somewhat.

Xiong Ba nodded, “I will set off tomorrow.”

…

6th month, 23rd day, Edo.

The morning sun shone on the torn and tattered Edo, but it was unable to give this city any warmth. The pillaging lasting for a night still had not stopped. Instead, it was getting more intense.

A courtyard within the city.

Feng Qiuhuang, Ouyang Shuo, Blood Romance, and the others were having breakfast whilst discussing their plan for Japan.

Edo was still okay. After all, the north army had taken it down alone, and Ouyang Shuo and the others had the rights to handle it themselves. The problem was how should they split up Japan, should one person take one island?

“In my eyes, why not use the opportunity when we open up the teleportation formation to bring some troops over and chase the Handan City Army away? I’m annoyed just by seeing them,” Feng Qiuhuang said.

Right after the Battle of Edo had ended, the remaining 300 thousand Dali Guards were teleported away.

Similarly, as Edo was taken down by the Great Xia Army, and Ouyang Shuo was the country war leader, he smoothly took over Edo and opened up the teleportation formation.

Feng Qiuhuang’s suggestion was really feasible, and it even tempted Ouyang Shuo.

Thinking about it, Ouyang Shuo immediately sobered up from his idea. He shook his head and said, “That cannot be done. The country war has just ended, and we start an internal conflict, what would the China players think about us?”

“No matter what, the south army did their part and took down Kyushu and Shikoku. To chase them away like that would be a little too ugly.”

Ouyang Shuo saw even further than Feng Qiuhuang did.

Currently, Great Xia and Handan City were going at it. As time went on, to truly decide who wins, it would depend on who the people supported.

Great Xia needed to be upright and upfront when they beat Handan City.

During this battle, Handan City made a rare mistake and lost the people’s sentiment. Ouyang Shuo naturally would not attack them for just two Islands.

If he really did that, with the ability of the four families, they would immediately say that they were the victims instead of traitors to try to gain sympathy.

If that really happened, they would be losing a lot more compared to what they would earn.

When Feng Qiuhuang heard Ouyang Shuo’s explanation, she looked deeply at Ouyang Shuo, and her eyes flashed with enlightenment, ‘When did this man start to think about problems from such a height?’

For the four families to face such an opponent, it was their misfortune.

“We are letting them get away just like that?” They had gone all out and taken down Edo with much difficulty whilst Di Chen and the others just sat there and shared the spoils. Naturally, Feng Qiuhuang was unwilling.

“Let’s wait and see. Rice must be eaten mouth by mouth and roads walked step by step. We cannot rush it.”

Feng Qiuhuang nodded, “You should fight it safely now.”

…

On the dinner table, Ouyang Shuo and the others were settling the splitting plan. Fallen Phoenix City would take Hokkaido, Great Xia would take Honshu while Handan City took the other two.

As for the resources and spoils of war, naturally the subordinates would handle that. After opening up the teleportation formation, Ouyang Shuo brought over a batch of civil servants.

Apart from that, there were war prisoners.

Based on rough estimations, from the disembarkment battle to taking down Edo City, they had captured a total of 60 thousand Sanli City troops and 420 thousand Japanese Guards for a total of 480 thousand troops.

On the side of losses, the blazing legion corps lost close to 80 thousand, which was over a legion.

The Great Xia Army was similarly in bad shape. Apart from navy loses, they lost 100 thousand army troops. If one considered the Dali Guards loses, this was a tough battle.

Ouyang Shuo and Feng Qiuhuang calculated that after making up for the loses, they had around 300 thousand prisoners remaining, which could be made into four War Fighting Legions.

“We do not need to split that. Let’s just take two each,” Ouyang Shuo said.

During the Battle of Japan, the blazing legion corps was really valiant, fighting a few crucial battles and being the vanguard each time. Hence, Ouyang Shuo had to treat her fairly.

Feng Qiuhuang did not say anything and nodded. The two sides did not need to be courteous with one another, as they had already formed a close understanding.

Apart from war prisoners, where Ouyang Shuo took a step back, in terms of the spoils of war, Ouyang Shuo tried to lean toward Fallen Phoenix City. The grain and equipment he got, apart from giving a portion to the adventure gamemode players, the remainder was given to Fallen Phoenix City and shipped to Hokkaido.

After Hokkaido was pillaged, it was on the verge of collapse and badly needed all this. The crimes of Ouyang Shuo needed to be resolved by Feng Qiuhuang.

Such an allocation was not him acting as the good guy. Rather, it was because Great Xia had taken a huge win.

Just taking down Honshu along with Edo was not something any item could compare to. Feng Qiuhuang gave up Honshu, so Ouyang Shuo would naturally treat her well.

Even to say that he was prepared to move three million Edo civilians over to Hokkaido to atone for his mistakes.

As for how to plan Honshu, Ouyang Shuo already had a rough idea in mind. He planned to name it Yingzhou Prefecture. Its position was similar to islands like Qiongzhou and Yizhou, and it would be directly run by the Imperial Court.

One must know that Honshu was the seventh largest island in the world, and its size was comparable to a province. It was three times larger than the combined size of Qiongzhou and Yizhou. Not to mention setting up a prefecture, one could even set up a province.

Yingzhou Prefecture had many large-sized ports, which would act as a middle ground to North America. It would also be a bridge for Great Xia to take down North America.

As a result, the Pacific Squadron would quickly move their headquarters over.

The two War Fighting Legions made by the prisoners would become the Yingzhou Formation to be in charge of the safety of Yingzhou Prefecture. They were mainly to defend against the south.

With the cross-country teleportation formation, two legions were enough.

As for choice of the Lieutenant General, Ouyang Shuo had targeted one of the three heroes of the end of Song – Zhang Shijie. As for the other military general, Yue Fei, who was still studying at the Army Military Academy, Ouyang Shuo had other plans.

Chapter 1064 - Country War Overview

Chapter 1064: Country War Overview

23rd day, afternoon, Feng Qiuhuang made a hurried trip back to Fallen Phoenix City.

During the Battle of Japan, through the valiant killing of the blazing legion corps, Feng Qiuhuang had successfully upgraded to duke. This trip back to Fallen Phoenix City was to apply for the Capital City upgrade quest.

It seemed like not long later, the China region would welcome its third Capital City.

…

The next morning, Qiongzhou Prefecture Governor Hai Rui was ordered to get to Edo to become the Yingzhou Governor.

Ouyang Shuo selected Hai Rui because first, he was from Qiongzhou, so working there for too long would have a bad influence. Secondly, he was really talented, but he did not know how to work with superiors. As a result, he was suitable for working alone on an island.

Appointing Hai Rui as the Yingzhou Governor was Ouyang Shuo giving him a chance.

With Hai Rui there, Ouyang Shuo would be able to take his mind off the heavy administrative matters and understand the global country war situation.

Asia Continent.

Apart from Japan being destroyed by China, just last afternoon, along with Seoul falling, Korea was also taking down. After Baiqi destroyed Nanzhang, he would probably take down Zhenla within the next two days.

Great Xia winning on all three fronts made them the greatest winner in the world.

Not mentioning other rewards, Ouyang Shuo had earned a million in terms of just the merit points alone. He was now only 400 thousand away from the highest Son of Heaven rank.

Ouyang Shuo was really curious what special rights Gaia would give to the Son of Heaven rank. In the Chinese world, Son of Heaven was a great phrase best used to describe Zhou Tianzi.

Compared to the Battle of Annan, Great Xia had destroyed four countries at once this time. However, the merit points he got were not as much as when he wiped out Annan, and that was after the country war extra points.

The reason was that the Battle of Annan was a one-on-one, where Ouyang Shuo earned 600 thousand to 700 thousand merit points just by killing combat occupation players.

The country war month was different. With large amounts of players joining, he enemy players basically were not settled by the army and were split around. As a result, the merit points Ouyang Shuo got were greatly reduced.

Apart from the country wars including China, Java successfully wiped out East Timor while Johor took down Brunei. Like that, only Java, Johor, Luzon, Piao country, and Siam were left in ASEAN.

Out of these five countries, Johor, Piao, and Siam had signed a contract with Great Xia not to attack one another. The next ones Great Xia would attack would be Luzon and Java.

Luzon was another tough nut to crack, and it was on the same level as Annan. As Great Xia was not connected to it by land, taking it down would be really difficult and needed to be well planned.

Java was even more terrifying. They had over 20 million players, double that of Japan. Just the guards housed in the imperial city reached 20 million, and it was not something Great Xia could shake now.

Now, after Java had taken down East Timor, it was even more terrifying.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo decided to attack Luzon first and then capture Java. If both countries were smart, they would form up a close alliance to go against the threat of Great Xia.

‘I must find an opening!’ Ouyang Shuo had a rough thought in his heart.

Apart from ASEAN, the war matters of India went really smoothly, wiping out their inland threat and becoming the game region with the highest power connected to Tibet.

India was the only country in Asia that could go up against China. Not mentioning other reasons, their player count was also at 100 million, and its imperial city Delhi had 10 million guards.

Just thinking about it made one feel numb.

This was also why India was weaker than China; it only had one imperial city.

Apart from India, the Persia Empire west of China had already quietly risen up. After the country war, it would probably enter the country establishment phase.

Ouyang Shuo, who paid close attention to the System Notification, noticed that before the country war month had even ended, the top 10 dukes were born. Feng Qiuhuang was just the seventh.

St Petersburg Lord Pushkin, Rhine Lord Manstein, Bengalore Lord Durava, Avic Fort William, and Vic City Henry were all on the list.

Even Caesar smoothly upgraded to Duke rank and was ranked 10th on the list.

Apart from the top 10, there were still a batch of Lords that made it to duke but did not get a notification.

After the country war month, the game world would officially enter the battle of empires. People who had not gotten to duke were destined to be eliminated.

Apart from Asia, Ouyang Shuo paid close attention to the North America battle situation.

News had it that the Dawson empire had already taken down Panama and taken control of the Panama Canal, taking control of the naval route between the Pacific and the Atlantic.

This also meant the start of the Dawson Dynasty’s expansion toward the outside.

From now on, the Dawson empire would quicken their expansion in the world, fighting for control over the seas with Great Xia. These two giants would probably have a huge period of confrontation.

Next would be Europe.

In this country war month, England, Spain, Holland, France, and the other European countries all surprisingly aimed at Africa and got what they wanted.

The African colonization that happened in history seemed to be repeating itself.

Furthermore, with Great Xia in Africa, the future African continent would be really exciting.

Italy and Greece turned their eyes to Europe, trying to stretch their powers inland and increase their speaking rights in the Mediterranean.

From now on, the entire European continent would welcome a new round of refreshing. The strong would eat the weak till they were all eliminated. Europe, where there were so many countries, would slowly become similar to the Chinese Warring States Period.

Next would be the Arab Empire connected to Persia.

In conclusion, in the future period of time, the Mediterranean Ocean region would not be peaceful. If Great Xia wanted to maintain its presence there, it must face many challenges.

Especially along with the merger of game regions, there would be many super dynasties in the future that would not want to see Great Xia exist.

“The path ahead is long and tough.” Ouyang Shuo was deep in thought.

All of this was just on the surface. Hidden in the chaos were two invisible hands, one Silver Hand and one Academic Faction.

These two seemed like they were not doing anything, but they were actually affecting the situation around the world.

Without Ouyang Shuo, these two hands would probably have started developing themselves from the 5th year of Gaia, slowly ending in a faceoff.

What about now?

Great Xia was stuck in the middle, looking really glorious, but in truth, it was standing on thin ice.

“The world is like a chess game, who is the chess piece and who is the chess master?” Ouyang Shuo still did not have an answer.

…

24th day, afternoon, Xiong Ba and his group arrived in Edo to discuss splitting up Japan.

The north army adventure gamemode players were still waiting to split the spoils of war and had not left Edo. Seeing Xiong Ba and his group, there were some that mocked, some that bragged, and some that scolded, putting him in a bad spot.

Luckily, Ouyang Shuo understood his position and swiftly brought him into the courtyard.

As the two sides did not have any disagreements regarding the splitting of Japan, the negotiation went really smooth.

Ouyang Shuo did not think that Di Chem would know his place so well, “That’s great, at least it saves time and effort.”

Xiong Ba even suggested that he hoped to cooperate with Great Xia on the naval route to America, but Ouyang Shuo rejected it.

Ouyang Shuo saw through the motives of Handan City.

Before the Battle of Japan, Handan City basically monopolized the trade route, and their voyage trading was rising up.

Now, with Great Xia and Fallen Phoenix City stepping it, they were naturally filled with worries.

Not mentioning Fallen Phoenix City, as they did not have much experience in voyage trading. They needed to start from scratch, which was why Di Chen did not pay much attention to them.

The key was Great Xia.

In terms of voyage trading, Great Xia was the master. Even now, with so many territories like the Dawson Dynasty entering, Great Xia was still number one.

More crucially, Great Xia had control of the Straits of Malacca, the Gulf of Aden, the Gibraltar Straits, and Cape of Good Hope; it was an ocean giant.

The moment Great Xia entered the Pacific Ocean, Handan City would not be in as good of a position as before. This was why Di Chen was not willing to see Ouyang Shuo take down Japan.

Till now, the territory economy had become the key element to whether one was strong or not.

On the global scale, any rich territory was basically a trading giant, which was why Di Chen placed a lot of importance on the Pacific Ocean trade route.

Ouyang Shuo’s direct refusal made Xiong Ba dejected. No matter how Di Chen planned, the moment Xiong Ba merged with Handan City, the fate of the Xiong Ba family was linked tightly with theirs.

Both would rise or fall together.

Seeing that, when Xiong Ba was leaving, Ouyang Shuo suddenly said, “Brother Xiong, the times have changed. There is no Earth, and there is nothing that is set in stone.”

When Xiong Ba heard that, he had an evident pause in his step, but he still did not turn around. He just silently left.

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo sighed.

…

After sending Xiong Ba away, Ouyang Shuo started to hold the sharing of spoils event, all of which were top items.

Chapter 1065 - Three God Items

Chapter 1065: Three God Items

Translator: ryangohsff Editor: Nora

Since they were splitting treasures, it was naturally all platinum ranked and above.

The most precious ones were the three God items of Japan, Kusanagi, Yasanaki no Magatama, and the Yata no Kagami. Amongst which, the Kusanagi was the country weapon of Japan, dropped when Emperor Meiji killed himself.

Name: Kusanagi (God Weapon)

Type: country weapon

Hardness: 85

Sharpness: 88

Toughness: 82

Specialty: Weapon Breaker (when weapon’s hardness is lower than Kusanagi’s, chance of breaking), unique, cannot be dropped, after being bounded, cannot be traded.

Killing Technique: Wave Blade (releases an icy blade and explosive fire; these two sword intents, formless killing, cannot be avoided, cooldown time of one month).

Evaluation: one of the three Japanese God items, came from the fourth brain of the Orochi.

…

Name: Yasanaki no Magatama

Type: dynasty treasure

Stats: Bone structure+2, comprehension+2, luck+8,charm+3

Specialty: Untainted (cannot be tainted by evil, avoided by devils)

Specialty: Prosperity (raises territory people’s sentiment by 50%, raise territory prosperity by 30%)

Evaluation: one of the three Japanese God items, known as the God Stone.

…

Name: Yata no Kagami (God Rank)

Type: mysterious treasure

Stat: bone structure+3, comprehension+4, luck+3, charm+5

Specialty: Untainted (cannot be tainted by evil, avoided by devils)

Killing Technique: Stun (releases a light, locking onto a target, and ensuring that they cannot move. Stun timing depends on the strength of the target. Cooldown time of half a year).

Evaluation: one of the three God Weapons of Japan, represents righteousness.

…

After discussing, the Kusanagi was given to Blood Romance, the Yasanaki no Magatama to Feng Qiuhuang such that she could establish her country, and the final Yaya no Kagami was left for Ouyang Shuo.

As their compensation, Fallen Leaf Alliance and Snow-War Rose Mercenary Group got four more platinum items. Ouyang Shuo and Feng Qiuhuang did not want any equipment, as they had their eyes on a special item.

Teleportation Talisman: after use, can establish a teleportation formation in a target city.

There was coincidentally two talismans, one for each of them. Feng Qiuhuang naturally chose to use it on Hokkaido to build a stable overseas base.

What about Ouyang Shuo?

Picking up the teleportation formation, his eyes showed that he was deep in thought.

After splitting the spoils, the hundreds of thousands of adventure gamemode players started to teleport away. Blood Romance, Xie Siyun, and the others all waved goodbye to Ouyang Shuo whilst Feng Qiuhuang headed for Hokkaido.

The busy Edo instantly became cold.

Based on the plan, Ouyang Shuo was originally supposed to teleport to Seoul and chair the post war plans of Korea. However, after getting the talisman, he suddenly changed his mind.

For the next few days, Ouyang Shuo stayed in Edo. Even when things happened in Dali, he did not return.

During that time, Baiqi led the troops and smoothly took down Zhenla, representing that the country war goals of Great Xia had been reached. They not only cleaned out the hidden cancers but also used their chance to expand their land, earning a bountiful harvest.

Weirdly, despite that being the case, Ouyang Shuo did not show any intention of returning.

…

Moving the time back to two days ago, imperial city Dali.

After learning that Duan Zhengchun sent ambassadors to Great Xia with the intention of yielding, player Duan Hong could stand it anymore. Wasn’t it his family’s goal to finally take control of Dali?

If Duan Zhengchun gave up, how could they continue to play?

Seeing that he could not stop Duan Zhengchun, Duan Hong could only take the risky route. He chose to lead a coup to seize control of Dali before the dust settled.

The problem was that the Dali Guards only listened to Duan Zhengchun alone. It was as difficult as climbing the heavens for Duan Hong to stage a coup. Luckily, he had entered the palace for many years and had some achievements. Of the eunuchs, palace maids, and maid servants, many were bought over by him, which was why he was able to get so much information.

To stage a coup, Duan Hong could only borrow the strength of the players.

Helplessly, the Xiao Alliance ended up facing total defeat when they tried to interfere in the war between Great Xia and the Yanhuang Alliance. As a result, the Xiao family was chased out and the Fallen Leaf Alliance took over, causing Duan Hong to lose an ally.

Luckily, there was still Blood Sword.

Speaking of this assassin association, they had some connections with Ouyang Shuo. During the second system auction, they were hired by Chun Shenjun to try to kill Ouyang Shuo on the commerce street of Jingdu.

Since then, Ouyang Shuo had used the Rattlesnake Mercenary guild to try to find the base of Blood Sword to destroy them. Luckily for Blood Sword, they knew their position and showed their friendliness to Ouyang Shuo, which was why he let them off.

On the other hand, the Rattlesnake Mercenary guild was absorbed by Ouyang Shuo and formed into the Black Snake Guards.

Three years had passed since then, and the name of Blood Sword had become really famous amongst players, having a few huge cases.

…

6th month, 24th night, the night before Ouyang Shuo split the spoils of war.

Duan Hong used a lot of money to hide ten top Blood Sword assassins to disguise as eunuchs to enter the Dali palace and assassinate Duan Zhengchun.

One had to say that Blood Sword was really bold, even daring to kill an emperor. As it was unexpected and Duan Zhengchun was not prepared, they actually succeeded.

That night, Duan Zhengchun was slain in his sleep.

The moment the news spread out, the entirety of Dali was covered with sadness. Duan Zhengchun was an emperor loved by the people. Although the country was in tough shape, he never stopped caring for them.

The Imperial Court was in chaos too.

Based on the system, prince Duan Yu should take over. But At this very moment, Duan Hong stepped up to challenge him, and he even pushed the blame of the assassination onto Duan Yu.

Many ministers were bought over by Duan Hong, so they stepped up to speak for him, saying that he was talented and more suitable for taking over. Naturally, there were people who supported Duan Yu, especially those who appeared along with Duan Zhengchun.

“Who is Duan Hong? A weird player with an uncertain past, what right does he have to take over?” Both sides debated. They nearly even fought in the court.

When the guards saw that, they could only remain neutral. The entire Dali city was instantly in chaos. Without the guards, Duan Yu faced a tough situation and was helpless.

The next afternoon, after the elites of Fallen Leaf Alliance received their treasures, they returned to Dali.

When guild leader Fallen Dust got the news, although he did not know the small details, he realized that this was a great chance to help Great Xia take down Dali.

Ouyang Shuo had told them about his unhappiness with Duan Hong long ago.

If he was appointed, the outcome would be catastrophic. Fallen Dust was really decisive, immediately contacting Duan Yu. He said that he would help Duan Yu stabilize the city and help him ascend.

When Duan Yu got the letter, he naturally agreed.

With the support of the Fallen Leaf Alliance, Duan Yu used his identity as the prince to stabilize the country. He did not mention the ascension. Instead, he just said to the officials, “My father’s body is not buried, and I do not dare to crave the throne. I’ll use my identity as prince to investigate his assassination. Before this matter is clear, no one is to talk about the ascension.”

His move of taking a step back to take three steps forward immediately broke the tempo of Duan Hong. The reason Duan Yu gave was right and unfaultable. Duan Hong did not dare retort. If he did, he would be unfilial.

A prince stabilizing the country was normal, and even those who supported Duan Hong could not oppose.

The even more amazing part was that Duan Yu giving a ‘I will not rest until I find out the truth attitude.’ It washed off all the suspicion of him being the mastermind.

This made his position in the court a lot more stable, and even the guards started to lean toward him.

The moment they found any clues that pointed to Duan Hong, not only him, but the entire Duan Hong family would be in deep trouble.

The Dali situation would welcome a 180 degree change.

Duan Zhengchun evaluating Duan Hong as someone who had ambitions beyond his ability was absolutely true. Since he was ready to stage a coup, he should have killed Duan Yu too and removed all threats.

Furthermore, his intel work was atrocious. He did not care about Fallen leaf Alliance and allowed them to control Dali, causing him to lose on all ends.

It was really a case of ‘unable to achieve anything but good at spoiling things.’

…

Just as Fallen Leaf Alliance returned to Dali, the ambassador sent by Duan Zhengchun had arrived in Consonance City.

When Bai Hua heard about this, she hurriedly met them and immediately sent an envoy to the Capital City. At the same time, she sent a letter to Ouyang Shuo.

When Ouyang Shuo got the report, he ordered the 1st legion of the Eagle Legion Corps led by Cao Chun to teleport to Consonance City and move toward Dali.

He noticed that a great opportunity had arrived.

Under Ouyang Shuo’s control, the Fallen Leaf Alliance, the army, the Cabinet, and the Shanhai Guards all acted with the goal of taking down Dali.

Since Ouyang Shuo had personally taken charge, the destruction of the Duan Hong family was going to happen soon.

Under the investigation of the Shanhai Guards, the assassins were Blood Sword. Ouyang Shuo had the contact information of their leader and wrote a letter to ask about the matter.

Based on the rules, assassin organizations like Blood Sword could not reveal their hirers.

But who was Ouyang Shuo?

This Lord that could make the wilderness tremble under his foot. This matter also directly involved Great Xia’s interests, so how would Blood Sword dare to hide anything?

If they acted wrongly, they would be destroyed.

When the Blood Sword leader heard that Duan Zhengchun was actually going to yield to Great Xia, he actually wanted to rip Duan Hong to shreds, “This matter involves Great Xia, how can we interfere in it?”

If he knew that this matter was so complicated, he would not have accepted the job at all.

Immediately, he dealt with the person who was in charge of the deal and sent all the relevant information to Ouyang Shuo.

Chapter 1066 - Sneak Attacking Luzon Island

Chapter 1066: Sneak Attacking Luzon Island

Translator: ryangohsff Editor: Nora

After receiving the first-hand information regarding the assassination of Duan Zhengchun from Blood Sword, Ouyang Shuo needed to consider how to use this information as chips to negotiate with Duan Yu.

Duan Zhengchun was willing to yield but that did not mean that Duan Yu was going to as well.

Of course, without Great Xia supporting him, Duan Yu would not be able to ascend. Now, it was up to him to plan the protection of the Duan family whilst also ensuring that Great Xia took control of Dali.

Ouyang Shuo passed this on to a vote in the Cabinet, and he would make a decision when he returned.

…

6th month, 28th day, Edo.

Ouyang Shuo finally decided to return to the Capital City. Weirdly, he did not choose to teleport. Instead, he chose to travel back along with the Emperor Squadron and the Yashan Squadron.

Apart from the two squadrons, the Leopard Legion Corps as well as the Tiger Legion Corps 1st legion followed along.

The City Protection Legion Corps 1st legion temporarily remaining in Yingzhou Prefecture. Whilst the Privy Court completed the reorganization of the Yingzhou formation, the legion would be in charge of the defenses of the prefecture.

The Pacific Squadron naturally remained too.

At 9 AM, the huge squadron set off from Edo and went down south riding the waves.

It was already the 7th month, 1st day when they passed the Yizhou Straits. The country war month had come to an end, and all relevant buffs and restrictions were removed.

The world would welcome a temporary peaceful period.

The winners were busy occupying their new land while the losers were long gone from the wilderness.

As a result, no one felt that any territory would choose to start a country war right after the month ended.

The world had entered a half relaxed state, including Luzon. Ouyang Shuo recognized that point and decided to attack Luzon right when they felt that it was impossible.

…

7th month, 2nd day, Laoag.

Luzon was mainly made up of the Luzon island, Visayas, and Mindanao. Luzon was in the north while Visayas was in the middle of the two.

Luzon on the north side was the largest with the biggest population. It was the most economically prosperous island, and it produced rice and coconuts. The Luzon cigar was famous around the world.

Imperial City Manila was located on the south tip of Luzon island. Laoag was located at the north.

In ancient times, Luzon Island was a small country and was called Luzon. Since the Song and Yuan periods, Chinese merchant ships often came over to trade.

During the Ming Dynasty, Luzon had a big Luzon and a small Luzon. Since the 1571 to the 1898, Luzon island was occupied by the Spanish, which was why it was called small Luzon while big Luzon was the entire Luzon country occupied by the Spanish.

As an ocean city, Laoag in the morning slowly woke up, especially the pier as ships started to go out to sea to fish.

As the country war month had just ended, Luzon was uninvolved. Naturally, the civilians escaped all trouble. Not experiencing war, the entire city appeared really peaceful and quiet.

As the breeze blew across the cities and alleys, the civilians slowly woke up.

At this very moment, warships appeared at the front of the port. The unique blue ocean dragon flags of the Great Xia navy along with the white masts moved toward the rising sun, fluttering in the wind.

As it got closer to the port, the squadron picked up speed.

Before the civilians could even react, the vanguard forces charged into the port.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

The sudden cannon fire broke the peace and quiet of the city, waking people up from their sleep.

“What happened?”

People hurried out of their beds, rushing anxiously out to the streets to check out what was going on without even washing up.

“It’s cannon fire coming from the pier,” someone said.

“Are they pirates?”

The civilians were at a lost. They, who had never been through a war, panicked.

Laoag city Lord had already awakened and gotten intel about the pier being shot, “Quick, go investigate whether they are pirates or an enemy.”

The city Lord was still really calm.

However, calmness could not save Laoag. Before they could find a clear answer, the Leopard Legion Corps had smoothly disembarked under the orders of Han Xin.

The huge army charged into the city without much resistance, quickly taking control.

Following which, Ouyang Shuo brought the Divine Martial Guards into the City Lord’s Manor. Han Xin did not stay, ordering the Leopard Legion Corps to spread out with Laoag as the center to attack the surrounding territories.

The 1st legion of the Tiger Legion Corps remained in Laoag.

Within the City Lord’s Manor, Ouyang Shuo took out the teleportation talisman he had just gotten and chose to use it. Along with a blue light that flashed across, a mysterious teleportation formation appeared on the square.

With this, Great Xia had a bridge to Luzon and could teleport over an army at any moment to take it down. This was much easier than fighting an outright war from the seas.

Along with the teleportation formation opening, the Divine Martial Guards brought Ouyang Shuo’s decree back to Shanhai City. He ordered the Cabinet to move a batch of officials to take over the city to maintain order.

Luckily, when he left Edo, he had already informed the Cabinet in advance. If not, they would have had their hands full. During the country war period, Great Xia expanded their territory, sending huge amounts of officials to Korea, Zhenla, Nanzhang, and Yingzhou. Now that they needed to assist Luzon as well, they were in fact facing some problems.

The sudden Battle of Luzon went unexpectedly smoothly.

Before the squadron arrived at the port, in truth, they had already engaged with the 1st division of the Luzon squadron placed on the north. The squadron that was not prepared could not return fire in front of the Great Xia Squadron.

In less than two hours, the 1st division was wiped out.

At that moment, the Luzon players who were sleeping received a System Notification.

“System Notification: China Region Lord Qiyue Wuqi starts a country war, Luzon enters country war mode, imperial city Manila enters level 2 state of emergency.”

…

“System Notification: Luzon enters country war mode, based on country war rules, imperial city teleportation with other territory teleportation formations are cut off, players are unable to revive when they die.”

…

Probably at this moment, the Luzon players had started to gather toward the north.

As they used the squadron returning back as a cover, and it was also a special time because the country war month had just ended, taking down Laoag was not difficult.

The difficult part was how to keep it.

If they let Great Xia take a huge bite out of Luzon, even if Luzon Lord Ma Ding could take it, the eight million players could not. They would stop at nothing to take Laoag back.

Without the teleportation formation, Ouyang Shuo definitely would not dare to infuriate Luzon at this moment.

Even after opening up the cross-country teleportation formation, Ouyang Shuo did not expect to take down the entire Luzon through this battle. They had just been through a huge country war, and the army was really exhausted.

As long as they defended Laoag, it would count as their victory.

Han Xin led the troops to sweep the territories, but it was not to expand their territory. Rather, he had two goals. First, to pillage grain. Secondly, to pillage artisans and civilians.

With grain, the army could stay in Laoag for a long time.

As for the artisans and the civilians, they were naturally used to strengthen the defenses of Laoag and make it into a castle.

The bunch of officials that the Cabinet sent were instantly sent to work.

With the help of the 1st legion of the Tiger Legion Corps, a portion of the civilians were sent out of the city to cut down all the forests and even set fire to the wild grass.

Outside of Laoag, there was nowhere to hide.

The wood cut down and the stone gathered were sent to the city and amassed. They would be used as city defense resources or used to strengthen the defense.

The workshops within the city also started to work to produce arrows.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also made use of the squadron to bring a bunch of weapons and grain from Edo to help the army get past the hardest start.

The future Laoag City would be under military control.

In the end, this was a super barrack that was in charge of fighting against Luzon.

After opening up the cross-country teleportation formation, Ouyang Shuo informed allied guilds and asked them to send players who liked to PK over to help.

One could foresee that before Great Xia sent large amounts of troops to attack Luzon, there would be huge PK battles outside Laoag at every moment.

This would become a hotspot for PK maniacs.

…

The highly effective administrative system of Great Xia was on full display in Laoag.

Without Ouyang Shuo opening his mouth, in just two days, everything headed onto the right path. On the outside, the Han Xin led Leopard Legion Corps had engaged with the Luzon vanguard forces.

Although they did not want to fully invade Luzon at this moment, Ouyang Shuo did not mind the Leopard Legion Corps fighting them. They could crush the enemy’s confidence and let them see the strength of the Great Xia Army.

The engagement at the front and the construction of the backlines. Everything proceeded well.

After receiving Ouyang Shuo’s request, Blood Romance and the others were really passionate. At the same time, they were amazed by Ouyang Shuo’s craziness as they sent out PK squads to assist.

When the China region players got the news that Great Xia actually built a cross country teleportation formation, some PK maniacs were excited. Without Ouyang Shuo summoning them, they applied to teleport over.

Ouyang Shuo naturally welcomed all of them.

In a short few days, Laoag gathered up a hundred thousand PK maniacs.

The huge number of players swarming in put a large burden on Laoag’s logistics. Ouyang Shuo immediately ordered Annan Province and Qiongzhou Prefecture to send grain over.

At the same time, he welcomed the Great Xia chambers of commerce to come over to trade.

To ensure the safety of the nearby ocean region, the Yashan Squadron housed two divisions in the port, which was enough to ensure the safety of the traveling ships.

Furthermore, with the Indian Ocean squadron ready to help, the Luzon squadron definitely would not have the confidence to sneak attack Laoag.

7th month, 7th day, seeing Laoag slowly stabilize, Ouyang Shuo left Han Xin to take charge while he returned to Shanhai City under the protection of the Emperor Squadron.

The 1st legion of the Tiger Legion Corps would also return to their camp.

Chapter 1067 - A Different Household Legion Corps

Chapter 1067: A Different Household Legion Corps

7th month, 8th day, Shanhai City.

Although the Capital City had a bunch of matter for Ouyang Shuo to handle, after returning, he did not gather up officials like before.

He only called to meet Jiang Shang, Zhang Liang, and Du Ruhui in the Imperial Reading Room.

First, Jiang Shang reported the opinion of the Cabinet on Dali.

“The Cabinet suggests we take away the country title of Dali and give Prince Duan Yu the title of Dali Marquis. Due to the special relationship between the Duan family and Dali City, we can allow them to stay there. Only thing is that the palace has to be renovated and downgraded to a marquis manor.” Jiang Shang made a simple introduction.

Before this, Great Xia’s titles would be to the person and could not be inherited. The Dali Marquis title given to Duan Yu was breaking that tradition and was the first time it had happened since Great Xia established the country.

They could only touch the Dali Duan family like that.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and added, “That’s great. We must also give the past emperor a title. Great Xia must bury him with the traditions given to a prince.”

Ouyang Shuo had a good impression of Duan Zhengchun whom he had met once before.

“The king is wise!” Jiang Shang nodded. Only then could they calm down the people.

“As for how to deal with Dali, the Cabinet has two plans for the king to decide from.”

“Speak!”

“First, move Dali Prefecture under the direct control of the Imperial Court. Secondly, move Dali Prefecture under Yunnan Province and move the governing city over to Dali City.”

Dali City had close to 10 million civilians, which was close to a province. The Cabinet was hesitating and worried that if they moved Dali under Yunnan, it would cause the Provincial Governor to have too much power.

Of course, the second method had its pros.

Everyone knew that Yunnan Provincial Governor Bai Hua was the Lord of Consonance City. There, her influence on the Kunming people was unparalleled.

Using the chance to move the governing area, they could move Bai Hua away from Consonance City to help balance her influence in the province.

Even if Bai Hua did not want to, she had to follow.

Dali was an imperial city and was more suitable to be the ruling area than Consonance City. The outside world would not be able to say that the king was lowering the power of a previous ally.

As this involved the trust of the king toward the Provincial Governor, it was a really sensitive matter. Before they understood the thoughts of the king, Jiang Shang naturally did not dare to make a decision.

Ouyang Shuo naturally saw through what the Cabinet was thinking, “Let’s use the second method.”

“Yes, my king!”

Jiang Shang’s eyes lit up.

Ouyang Shuo sat on the seat. At this moment, his thoughts were totally different from what Jiang Shang had expected.

Toward Bai Hua, Ouyang Shuo not only trusted her, but he also had high hopes for her. Leaving Consonance City would only be good for her. If one did not leave their comfort zone, how would one be able to improve in the future?

However, since even an experienced person like Jiang Shang could read his intentions wrongly, who knows if Bai Hua would too.

“I hope she understands!”

Ouyang Shuo was not going to explain it to her. Somethings would lose its meaning if it were said out.

…

“What are the Privy Court’s thoughts on the 800 thousand Dali Guards?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

With Dali going under them, the 800 thousand guards needed to be reorganized. Great Xia had never organized such a huge army before, so the Privy Court needed to come up with a suitable plan.

After all, Great Xia had gotten troops in Japan, Korea, Nanzhang, and Zhenla and was not in need of troops.

Furthermore, the guards that had never been through war were only better than newbies; they were far worse than the Great Xia Army.

The Battle of Japan was a proof. The 500 thousand Dali Guards lost 200 thousand men in just a day. Although Han Xin had planned for that to happen, it was enough to show their weakness.

Only empires like Great Qin, Great Han, and Great Tang that remodeled their guards using their generals could form a true army.

No matter what, the foundations of the guards were good, and their qualities were all exceptional.

As for Dali, as Duan Zhengchun had entered not for long, and Dali itself lacked famous generals, its guards were weak.

As for how to reorganize them, Du Ruhui was really experienced, “The Privy Court recommends to split them into three. A portion becomes a proper army, a portion becomes city protection forces while the last would change occupations.”

“City protection forces?” This was a new idea.

“The Privy Court feels that toward the capital cities and the imperial cities, just relying on bailiffs would not solve huge rioting incidents. There’s a need to have a city defense force to ensure the safety of the city.”

Du Ruhui’s suggestion was similar to the armed police of the Federation. Thinking about it, Ouyang Shuo said, “We should not call it city defense force and instead call it the garrison force. Its role includes internal protections, transport, water irrigation, forest, gold, border protection, and fighter fighting.”

“The garrison force would not be under the Grand Council but be led by the Privy Court and the local offices. County and above cities will have relevant garrison forces based on their needs.”

This time, Du Ruhui was stunned.

Based on the king’s words, the number of troops needed was huge.

More crucially, each and every role had something to do with the local offices. Including the Four Seas Bank, Water Irrigation Division, Taxation Department, and the like.

Ouyang Shuo said toward Jiang Shang, “This matter will be handled by the Cabinet and the Privy Court. Draw up a detailed system and do not let things mess up.”

“Yes, my king.”

Such huge coordination work needed was something only the Cabinet could manage. Luckily, Jiang Shang was someone who did not mind hard work, and he smiled, “I suggest that we use the Capital City as a testing ground to try it out. After it works, we can expand to the provincial governing area and then to the prefectures.”

These were the words of a really experienced official.

Du Ruhui naturally had nothing to say. If he was going to get all the garrison forces into position, the scale would be no less than 500 thousand. With it being under the command of the Privy Court, it would only increase their power.

Ouyang Shuo continued, “The 800 thousand Dali Guards will form two War Fighting Legions, one will be the 5th legion of the Guards Legion Corps with Yue Yun as the Legion General.”

The Guards Legion Corps was the only one that had not reached full capacity. Ouyang Shuo not only filled it up, but he also took the chance to promote the young general Yue Yun.

Du Ruhui nodded and noted it down.

“The other would be left to the Household Legion Corps, to build its 1st legion.” This was the 3rd direct subordinate legion corps after the Guards and City Protection Legion Corps.

Just by listening to the name, one would know that this would be like the Guards Legion Corps, the best of the best.

However, the positions of the two differed by a lot.

“Appoint Oda Nobunaga as the 1st legion Legion General. This legion will only have gunners, a subordinate cannoneer regiment as well as a Flying Squad. This will be the first thermal weapons legion in the dynasty,” Ouyang Shuo said.

Along with the dynasty industrializing, thermal weapons usage in the army was much needed.

Before using it on a large scale, Ouyang Shuo needed to set an example to the whole army. He planned to use this as a starting point to slowly spread through the army to complete a historical level change.

The Household Legion Corps was such a symbol.

After Oda Nobunaga was captured, Ouyang Shuo had a deep conversation with him in Edo. At that time, Ouyang Shuo revealed his thoughts about the Household Legion Corps to Oda Nobunaga.

Just this alone helped Ouyang Shuo persuade Oda Nobunaga.

When Jiang Shang, Zhang Liang, and Du Ruhui heard those words, they were all deep in thought. Without a doubt, to Great Xia, this was a historical moment.

From this moment onward, Great Xia would be in for some exceptional change.

Chapter 1068 - Border Defense Legion Corps

Chapter 1068: Border Defense Legion Corps

After settling the Dali matter, next was Korea, Nanzhang, and Zhenla.

First up was Korea.

“Split Korea into two prefectures and merge them into the Beijiang Province. The governing area will shift from Stone City to Seoul.”

The original Beijiang Province only had Zhangwu and Fengtian Prefectures, so it did not live up to the name of being a province. Along with the addition of Korea, the province became huge and became a super province of Great Xia’s in the north.

As for moving the governing area, it was naturally to weaken Wufu’s influence in Stone City. Ouyang Shuo did not need to say it outright and everyone present understood.

Next would be the army arrangements of Beijiang Province.

Not long after the Battle of Korea ended, Li Jing led the Bear Legion Corps back to the Shu Lands. The Huo Qubing led Guards Legion Corps also returned to the Capital City a few days ago.

Only the Beijiang formation was defending Beijiang.

“Beijiang is not stable and needs large amounts of troops stationed there!” Ouyang Shuo said as a result.

North of Beijiang Province was the Jin Country that entered the wilderness not long ago. The south side was not only connected to Handan City, but also largely with Jingdu Prefecture.

If nothing went wrong, the Great Qing emperor would be the one moving into Jingdu.

Ouyang Shuo did not forget that the Qing Dynasty Manchu race was actually the same bloodline as the Jin Country Nuzhen Race. Once the Great Qing emperor moved into Jingdu, them joining hands with Jin Country was natural.

When that happened, Beijiang Province that was stuck between both of them would be in big trouble. Furthermore, with Handan City stirring waves, even if Nanjiang Province had two teleportation formations, it would still be difficult.

He could not just teleport armies over once things happen, right?

Hence, Ouyang Shuo decided, “We need to take down Jin Country before the Great Qing emperor moves in to remove this cancer in case we are surrounded by enemies.”

To wipe out Jin Country, they needed an army.

During the Battle of Korea, especially in the Battle of Seoul, both sides had a really intense battle and suffered heavy casualties. Post battle calculations showed that there were 300 thousand war prisoners left after making up for the losses.

Choosing the best of them, they could form four War Fighting Legions.

Ouyang Shuo looked toward Du Ruhui and said, “Move three-quarters of them into the Beijiang formation.”

“Then wouldn’t the Beijiang formation have five legions, similar to a legion corps? Wouldn’t it be not fitting of a formation and should be promoted to a legion corps?” Du Ruhui questioned.

The military had its own rules and what to call a unit was often set in stone and was extremely important.

Since the Beijiang Formation was a formation, it was lower than a legion corps. If one gave it five legions of troops and not the corresponding status, the soldiers and generals would be unhappy about it.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he was put on the spot.

Based on Ouyang Shuo’s plan, there was a limited number of titles for the Great Xia legion corps. The direct legion corps included the Guards Legion Corps, the Household Legion Corps, the Palace Guards that had not be formed as well as the City Protection Legion Corps.

The War Fighting Legion corps would include the dragon, tiger, leopard, eagle, and bear for a total of nine.

Nine was a really balanced number.

This helped to balance the powers of the direct legion corps and War Fighting Legion corps.

Furthermore, based on the Great Xia system, the legion corps marshal had to enter the Grand Council. Once there were too many legion corps, there would be many more Grand Council ministers, which would affect the power structure.

However, Du Ruhui’s words made sense.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was contemplating, Zhang Liang, who had not opened his mouth yet, suddenly spoke up, “My king, regarding this matter, I have an idea.”

“Have a go!” Ouyang Shuo was instantly interested.

Zhang Liang stepping up, he was like two men.

“I suggest we follow Mister Du’s plan, raising Beijiang formation to a legion crops and calling it the Beijiang Legion Corps. The difference would be that it would be listed as a border defense system, split off from the Dragon Legion Corps and the other War Fighting Legions.”

“Border Defense Legion Corps?” This was a new concept.

Zhang Liang replied, “The Border Defense Legion Corps is relative to the War Fighting Legion Corps. Hence, they are only in-charge of a certain border, and this defense region would not be easily moved. Unless it affects their own zone, they would not participate in wars and are sort of a half-fixed army group.”

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he nodded.

Just as Zhang Liang said, along with Great Xia expanding, whilst its land grew larger, its border also grew longer. There was in fact a need to set up a Border Defense Legion Corps to focus on border defense.

Although the current War Fighting Legions held that responsibility, every time the dynasty went to war, they had to participate in it.

During the country war month, they were protected by Gaia, so there was naturally nothing to worry about.

If Great Xia did not start a war during the country war month, what if they needed to use the War Fighting Legion Corps? Then the border would become really empty, and the enemies would have a chance to enter.

With a professional border defense army, the situation would be largely different. With that, Great Xia would become more flexible when fighting wars, having a lot less worry about.

Now, the problem was the status of the Border Defense Legion Corps.

Zhang Liang had his thoughts, “The direct legion corps and War Fighting Legion corps are the 1st rate, the Border Defense Corps are 2nd, whilst the Garrison Divisions and forces are 3rd. The reserve troops are 4th. Since they are considered 2nd rate, for them to not be under the Grand Council would thus make sense.”

Ouyang Shuo looked at Zhang Liang with praise.

This solved both the title problem whilst also not causing problems for the Grand Council. It even included the Garrison forces from before in it, achieving three results.

As expected from the Strategist Saint, he had made a great analysis of the problem.

“I agree with what you said.” Ouyang Shuo immediately settled on a decision, “Beijiang formation expands to five legions and is promoted to the Beijiang Legion Corps. Yue Fei will become the marshal, awarded Grade 2 north protecting general title. Original Beijiang Lieutenant General Chen Yucheng will become the deputy marshal.”

This was the reason why the king arranged for Yue Fei to be the deputy of Li Jing during the country war month when the troops headed to Korea. He had planned it from the start.

Yue Fei was a famous general that went against the Jin Country. Now, he jumped into a hugely important presence of Great Xia. What was more important was that the army he led went up against the Jin Country in the north.

Out of all the Great Xia generals, apart from Yue Fei, who could else take up this role?

During the country war month, another general that went up against the Jin Country – Han Shizhong, also came to join Great Xia. He was appointed as the 3rd legion Legion General.

With both Yue Fei and Han Shizhong working together, Jin Country would have a huge headache.

Chapter 1069 - Siam Yields

Chapter 1069: Siam Yields

Translator: ryangohsff Editor: Nora

The Border Defense Legion Corps system set up by Zhang Liang also included the Annan, Yingzhou, Morocco, Somalia, and Auckland formations.

The status of the formations were the same as the Beijiang Legion Corps.

Out of the four legions from the Korea war prisoners, apart from giving the Beijiang Legion Corps three, the remaining one was sent to the Annan formation.

The current Annan formation already had three legions, and Ouyang Shuo was preparing to expand it to max.

During the Nanzhang and Zhenla battles, as both sides were not on the same level, the number of losses the Dragon Legion Corps and Annan formation suffered was relatively lesser.

Helplessly, the number of imperial city guards of the two added together was less than 180 thousand. After the battle, deducting war losses and weak soldiers, there were only 100 thousand left.

It was only enough to form one War Fighting Legion.

Once the Annan formation was full, it would be promoted to a Legion Corps and changed to the Hanoi Legion Corps.

“Nanzhang, Zhenla becomes prefectures, along with Annan Province, to build a new Province – Hanoi Province. The Provincial Governor will be Hu Zongxian, and the governing area will be in Hanoi,” Ouyang Shuo said.

After merging, Hanoi Province would jump into a really important super province. Ouyang Shuo believed that with Hu Zongxian’s ability, along with the help of Lu Xiufu, he definitely would be able to rule the land well.

The name of the Hanoi Legion Corps came from here.

“The original Annan formation Lieutenant General Xue Rengui will be promoted to Hanoi marshal, given the title of Grade 2 south protecting general.” Xue Rengui and Yue Fei, one protecting the south and one protecting the north.

At this point, the country war month adjustments had come to an end.

During this time, Ouyang Shuo even specially met Korean general Yee Sun-sin. This general was really stubborn and was not willing to join the Great Xia navy. Helplessly, Ouyang Shuo could only arrange for him to be a teacher in the navy academy.

“At least he’ll be using his talents.”

Whilst the Hanoi Legion Corps was being formed up, the Dragon Legion Corps would take over the Leopard Legion Corps and move into Luzon’s Laoag City to go up against Luzon. Whilst they defended, they would also reduce the combat strength of Luzon.

At a suitable time, Great Xia would launch an attack on Luzon.

Along with Nanzhang, Zhenla, Brunei, and East Timor being destroyed, Great Xia had stabilized in the north of Luzon. The entire ASEAN situation had changed, and it would need a new round of readjustment.

The first to move was Siam, which was connected to Great Xia.

On the 7th month, 9th day, the 2nd day after Ouyang Shuo returned to the Capital City, Siam Lord Theeradej sent out an envoy. They brought a letter, which expressed that they were willing to have Great Xia as their suzerain state.

Along with both Nanzhang and Zhenla being destroyed, although Siam and Great Xia had an agreement, Siam still felt uneasy. Hence, they decided to surrender.

“Recognizing a suzerain is much better than being wiped out.” Theeradej was really sharp.

During this round of country war, as New Zealand was under Great Xia, they were able to escape. If not, they would have failed to block Luzon’s attack.

It seems like recognizing a suzerain country was a really worth it trade.

The country war month was not a one-off thing, and escaping once did not mean you would escape twice. Furthermore, Great Xia launched an attack on Luzon right after the country war month ended, so it seemed like they did not even need to wait for a year.

Due to such considerations, not long after the country war month ended, Theeradej sent out the envoy.

Ouyang Shuo naturally would not make it hard for Siam since they knew their place. It was mentioned that for Great Xia to gain a footing on Planet Hope, it could not go on an all-out war against everyone.

One more friend was better than one more enemy.

The suzerain setting fit Great Xia’s demands. Whilst they became allies, they also did not need to make enemies with the surrounding countries.

“Now it’s time to see how long Piao Country and Johor can last.” The moment both of them submitted and Ouyang Shuo took down Luzon, most of ASEAN would be under Great Xia.

However, before the fire spreads to them, these two countries would not admit defeat. Especially Johor, who had just taken down Brunei. This showed that they had ambition and would not easily admit defeat.

This was expected by Ouyang Shuo. After all, going under Great Xia came with a price.

With Siam as an example, after recognizing Great Xia as the suzerain, although it still had the country title of Siam, in truth, it was just another province of Great Xia.

The Provincial Governor structure would be exactly the same as the Great Xia one, with some organizations having Great Xia officials. The governing area would be shifted over to Bangkok.

Of course, compared to other provinces, Siam had higher self-rule ability.

Since it was under Great Xia, trading border tax would be zero and huge amounts of Great Xia products would swarm in. At the same time, Siam’s materials and products like tin, rubber, and the like would all be sold in Great Xia.

This was really beneficial to the dynasty.

Next, there would be the large-scale reduction of troops. Of the 500 thousand guard troops along with the 200 thousand territory troops, apart from keeping a 20 thousand strong emperor force, the remaining 680 thousand would be removed.

They would change into garrison forces, bailiffs, or take up other occupations. As for the safety of Siam, naturally the Hanoi Legion Corps would take care of that.

If they did not have an army reduction, there would be no talk of joining them.

Although Theeradej was mentally prepared, cutting 670 thousand troops at once made his heart feel pained. Of course, this was just toward him, for the entire Siam, there were benefits.

The imperial city guards were one out of every ten players and was a huge burden on the civilians. After the reduction of troops, the imperial city could lessen taxes whilst also focusing more on their lives.

The 5th year of Gaia was a decisive year in the game.

Before this, war and conquest was the main and only topic of the wilderness. From then on, internal development and economic prosperity slowly took over and replaced war.

In a dynasty like Great Xia that was so huge, for the civilians who lived far away from the borders, war had long since left their lives.

With Shanhai City as an example, apart from the conquest in the Lianzhou Basin, it had been many years since they fought. In the foreseeable future, war would not happen there either.

Of course, being far away from war did not mean that one forgot about it.

As long as the dynasty needed it, relying on their highly efficient administrative system, they could quickly recruit the millions of troops back.

This was why Great Xia was so scary.

They kept only a certain amount of elite troops. However, whilst reducing the military expenditure, they also hid many troops amongst the civilians to help promote the construction and economic growth.

Even if Handan City wanted to replicate such a model, they could not.

That was because they could not even have enough troops to expand, much less cutting down the numbers.

Only dynasties like Great Xia that expanded constantly could amass such shocking power. They did not look so terrifying, but in truth, they were a huge monster.

This was why Siam with 700 thousand troops did not dare to wage war against Great Xia.

If the situation continued to develop in this fashion, Great Xia would be like a snowball, becoming more and more terrifying and fearful. Sometimes, without even sending troops, it would cause people to submit to them.

This was the true aura of an overlord.

Siam submitting was undoubtedly a huge example to the surrounding countries. Once Siam started to develop, many more people would be tempted.

The moment the news spread out, the world was shocked. People talked about it for many days straight.

…

7th month, 10th day, when Han Xin led the troops back to the Capital City, Ouyang Shuo kept his promise and promoted him to commander in chief, which was the same as Baiqi and Li Jing.

Ouyang Shuo also set up a temporary Grand Council minister position that changed every half a year.

The minister would only be chosen out of Baiqi, Han Xin, and Li Jing.

With that, through the system, it confirmed their position in the Grand Council and even in the entire dynasty.

War God Baiqi, Army immortal Han Xin, Military God Li Jing.

These three names would be carved into Great Xia history, shining bright.

The moment the news went out, maybe Sun Bin, Li Mu, and the others would feel despondent. That was unavoidable, as the army always rewarded the strong and those who had contributed greatly. Although they were all listed as the top 10 generals in history, Baiqi, Han Xin, and Li Jing were slightly stronger and more all rounded, which was why Ouyang Shuo liked them more.

At this very moment, a System Notification suddenly sounded out.

Chapter 1070 - Great Zhou Dynasty

Chapter 1070: Great Zhou Dynasty

Translator: ryangohsff Editor: Nora

“System Notification: Congratulations player Di Chen for successfully establishing the Great Zhou Dynasty, year title Jianyuan, becoming the second Lord in China to ascend to king, awarded 80 thousand merit points, 150 thousand reputation points, three million gold, and one special reward, congratulations player!”

…

The moment the notification sounded out, China Region welcomed a new page.

Ouyang Shuo was already mentally prepared because three days ago, Di Chen had sent out invitations to invite people to the ascension ceremony. Great Xia was also invited.

Ouyang Shuo did not go, only asking Zhang Yi to lead a group over to attend.

The aftereffects of the Battle of Japan had not passed. Although the four families used their strength and tried to clear the name of Handan City, the player group still had a really bad impression of them.

As a result, the Handan City ascension ceremony was much colder than that of Great Xia’s.

Even so, the establishment of the Great Zhou dynasty was a really remarkable achievement to Handan City and the four families.

Their cooperation had reached a whole new height and became a true combination of interests.

On the day of the ascension ceremony, Di Chen used his name as Zhou King to award Xiong Ba the title of Wu Marquis, Zhan Lang the title of Qi Marquis, Chun Shenjun the title of Chu Marquis whilst Sha Pojun and Wandering Magic were given 1st class earl titles.

The Great Zhou situation was settled.

The country title that Di Chen chose was really interesting. Zhou was one of the three ancient titles of ancient China and was a very good choice. Ouyang Shuo had once hesitated about whether he should use it or not.

Zhou Tianzi also had the intentions of ruling the world, so one could see that Di Chen’s ambition was not wiped out.

Furthermore, the Zhou Dynasty also used enfeoffment. Seeing that he gave the three of them the title of Marquis, one could see that the Zhou Dynasty was following the same route.

“Who knows whether a new Warring States Period will occur or not?”

…

7th month, 10th day, afternoon, Dali.

On the other side, Great Xia’s plan in Dali City officially came into effect.

Dali Prince Duan Yu used his identity to reveal the results of the assassination investigation, and that the mastermind was the player, Duan Hong. With the evidence, there was nothing Duan Hong could say.

The moment the news spread out, the wilderness shook. The Dali Guards could not remain neutral anymore, and under the orders of Duan Yu, they captured the Duan Hong family.

Duan Hong and the others tried to teleport away, but they were stopped by members of the Fallen Leaf Alliance.

Ouyang Shuo was rarely so vicious. This time, he decided to wipe out Duan Hong’s family due to their previous grievance whilst also sending a warning to Silver Hand.

It was also a warning to the aristocratic families in Silver Hand, “If you want to go against Great Xia, be prepared to be wiped out. Can you afford such a risk?”

7th month, 11th day.

After smoothly removing Duan Hong’s family, just when the Dali dynasty officials thought that Duan Yu was about to ascend, he suddenly announced, “I officially step down and yield to Great Xia.”

The moment the news spread out, it created another uproar.

Luckily, Great Xia was prepared. Ouyang Shuo personally went to Dali. With Jiang Shang chairing the matter, under the gazes of the Dali officials, they held the handing over ceremony.

Duan Yu handed over the imperial seal of Dali whilst Ouyang Shuo gave him the Dali Marquis seal and the imperial decree.

One in and one out, and their relationship was set in stone.

Seeing that the Dali family had admitted defeat, there was nothing they could say as officials. Furthermore, this was the wish of the old emperor, and even if people were unwilling, they could not oppose it.

The matter was settled just like that.

In the following period of time, Jiang Shang and Du Ruhui would remain in Dali to calm down the officials whilst reorganizing the Dali Guards.

…

7th month, 15th day, Yunnan Provincial Governor Bai Hua headed toward Dali.

The Provincial Governor office would move over to Dali.

Before leaving, in Bai Hua’s reading room, Moon Shines over the River had a conversation with her.

He asked, “Sister, what do you think?”

Bai Hua stood by the window, keeping silent.

When he saw that, he hesitated and still said, “There have been rumors outside saying that since he ascended, his heart has changed, and he started to defend against allies. Making you leave Consonance City is to make you unsettled. You have to prepare for that.”

“Brother!”

Bai Hua suddenly interrupted him and said, “What do you think would have happened to us if we did not ally with Great Xia?”

“That….”

Moon Shines over the River instantly fell silent.

Bai Hua continued, “In the China region, I do not think I’m weaker than anyone. But what’s the current situation in the wilderness? Even the Handan Six Tyrants needed to hug together to survive. Thousands of Lords in China were eliminated, with only three remaining. With the way Great Xia developed, if we did not ally with them, we would have nothing.”

Moon Shines over the River kept silent.

“We should be thankful about our choice. Although we are not together, but you, Zi Luolan, Hong Ying, and Tsing Yi all found your stages to shine.”

“Such position and status is what everyone else wants.”

When Moon Shines over the River heard that, “I’m not really suspecting him. I’m only reminding you. Since you know what you’re doing, I’ve nothing to worry about.”

Bai Hua turned around and looked at her brother with a smile on her, “I know you care about me.”

“Only one thing.” Bai Hua pretty much saw through her brother and said, “The current Great Xia is really complicated, with many hidden currents, so do not forget the reason you started out and do not be used by others.”

“I know.”

Moon Shines over the River clenched his fists tightly.

That was right. The current Great Xia was a giant that everyone in the world respected, affecting the interests of tens of millions of people. In such an interest spiral, who could really be unaffected?

Bai Hua turned around once more and looked at the blue sky and white clouds, “Brother as well as the others, please remember that Consonance City does not exist, and we are all under Great Xia. Any unneeded thoughts are really dangerous.”

Looking at the clouds, her mind was not here. She saw even further than Moon Shines over the River and had firm belief in her judgment.

“No matter how the times change, Ouyang is still that Ouyang.”

That determined fellow with great vision was not someone who would be corrupted by power. He would only control the throne and would not be a slave to it.

Bai Hua could only hope that she could keep up and not fall behind.

Forever!

Chapter 1071 - Final Battle Map

Chapter 1071: Final Battle Map

Translator: ryangohsff Editor: Nora

Dali submitting, apart from announcing the start of the China region merging progression, it also had another huge meaning for Great Xia.

It was already the 15th day of the 7th month, and a year had passed since Gaia established the country. To upgrade Great Xia to an emperor dynasty was Ouyang Shuo’s current goal.

Ouyang Shuo calculated that along with Dali joining him, out of the nine basic requirements, Great Xia had achieved seven, and they were only left with requirements 3 and 9.

Requirement 3: Dynasty must at least occupy a third and above of its regional land.

Based on the rules set by Gaia, Tibet, West Xia, Turk Khanate, Mongol, and Jin Country all belonged to China land. As a result, although Great Xia had already taken down the entire south and also opened up a huge amount of land overseas, it needed to take down one of the few before it would reach the standard.

Not mentioning Mongol and the Turk Khanate, the most suitable ones were Tibet and Jin Country.

Ouyang Shuo had already shifted his target to Jin Country, ordering Beijiang Legion Corps marshal Yue Fei to increase their infiltration and investigation of Jin Country whilst reorganizing the army to try to take them down by the end of the year.

Requirement 9: Have at least 1 country upgrading treasure.

This was the requirement that gave Ouyang Shuo a headache. Although he had obtained the emperor jade, he did not know what he had to do to trigger the Yu the Great Nine Cauldrons quest.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo believed that Gaia would not give him a quest that could not be completed. As a result, he could only wait patiently.

…

In the next week, Ouyang Shuo did not remain in the Capital City. Instead, he went toward the newly occupied Beijiang Province, Hanoi Province, and Siam to tour, visiting the soldiers whilst calming down the local nobles to stabilize the people’s sentiment.

At this juncture, Great Xia started a brand-new round of migration project.

Ouyang Shuo’s goal was to move 70% of the players in China into Great Xia rule. As a result, this round of migration’s scale was really huge and the requirements were relatively less.

Great Xia was prepared to bring in 15 million players to live at the various prefectures in Great Xia.

They especially encouraged players to go toward Hanoi, Edo, Seoul, Bangkok, Vientiane, and Phnom Penh to live, using the satellite cities in each of them to explore the underground world.

Toward the players living in Dali, the Imperial Court gave them a lot of freedom to reduce the population pressure on Dali.

Compared to Qin, Han, Shu, Sui, Tang, Song, and other NPC dynasties, Great Xia was not only stronger, but more prosperous and understood players more. Hence, they set up a series of welfare policies.

Moving to live in Great Xia was not a tough choice to make.

When this round of migration ended, along with the Dali players, the number of Great Xia players would reach 40 million, taking up half of China.

With that, the position of Great Xia would be infallible.

…

7th month, 22nd day, just when Ouyang Shuo was touring Siam, a System Notification messed up his plans, making him hurry back to the Capital City.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Feng Qiuhuang for becoming the 3rd player in China to upgrade to Capital City, awarded 800 thousand merit points, congratulations player!”

…

“World Notification: Congratulations player Feng Qiuhuang for becoming the 9th city in the world to upgrade to Capital City, awarded 50 thousand merit points, 100 thousand reputation points, congratulations player!”

…

“System Notification: All of China’s territories have upgraded to Capital City, triggering Battle Map system, 10th Battle Map, Qing Destroys Ming battle will start in three days. Friendly Reminder: this is not a compulsory battle quest, and only capital cities that meet the requirement can participate.”

…

Listening to the name of the Battle Map, Ouyang Shuo knew that this should be the last one in the China region. After this, both the Ming and Qing dynasties would enter the game progression.

“This really is….”

Ouyang Shuo shook his head bitterly. No matter how the Beijiang Legion Corps prepared, they would not be able to avoid being pincered by Jin Country and Jingdu.

Gaia mentioned it really clearly in the System Notification that the condition for triggering the Battle Map was the upgrading of the 3rd Capital City.

It was foreseeable that if Pill Sun City, King City, and Blood Red City did not merge into Great Zhou, the last Battle Map would drag on and not appear for a long period of time.

Gaia used 10 Battle Maps to finish introducing China’s history.

For this Battle Map in particular, there would be a lot of focal points. First, the name of the battle itself. That was because the Ming Dynasty was not wiped out by Qing Dynasty but by Li Zicheng.

1644 AD, Li Zicheng, whose reputation was growing day by day, led the Dashun army to attack the capital, signaling the destruction of the Ming Dynasty that lasted for 276 years.

As for the remnants of the Ming Dynasty, they formed the south Ming regime.

That China had four powers, one of which was the Great Qing built by the Nuzhen emperor, controlling 200 thousand troops. The region they controlled was the area near Liao Dong and the area around the capital.

The one defending Shanhai Pass was Wu Sangui.

Apart from Great Qing, there were Jianye’s south Ming Hongguang regime, the Dashun regime led by Li Zicheng as well as the Great Xi regime led by Zhang Xianzhong. Their powers exceed that of the Qing army, and they occupied the south and the entirety of the north and west.

The day before the Qing troops moved into the pass, the emperor of Great Qing suddenly died.

The Prince Regent Dorgon chose to first take down the northwest before heading southeast. Whilst gathering up strength to stabilize the region around Yanjing, he planned to attack Li Zicheng, who was the most threatening. After wiping them out, with the north of Guangda as a backline, they would attack South Ming to break through on all fronts.

Hence, this was how Ouyang Shuo deciphered the Qing Destroys Ming battle.

Similar to the Mongol army, to maintain the rule and spread their culture, these people announced the plait cutting order. The Qing army had numerous city slaughtering cases in China, hurting tens of millions of civilians.

The order was, “Leave the head, cut the hair, leave the hair, cut the head.”

The cruelest one belonged to the 10 days of Yangzhou, and the Jiading three massacre, both of which caused a reduction in China’s population. Moreover, many regions saw the case of counties having empty villages, villages having empty houses, houses being empty, and people without wives.

The Yangzhou city massacre happened when Shi Kefa led the Yangzhou army to defend against the Qing army invasion and failed. The Qing army started an all-out massacre on the civilians in the city.

In the Yangzhou 10 days diary written by Wang Xiuchu, he recorded that the massacre continued for 10 days, which was how it got its name.

Yangzhou fell after 10 days of resistance, and the Qing soldiers killed and pillaged for 10 days before sheathing their blades.

The Yangzhou City was stacked up with corpses, blood seeped into the group, buildings were destroyed, and fires blazed.

Apart from the civilians who escaped and those who hid really well, pretty much all the civilians were massacred. Just the collected bodies exceeded 800 thousand.

In the Qing Dynasty, where intellectuals were persecuted for their writing, all records of the massacre were covered up after the Qing army entered. As a result, most people did not know anything about it till the end of the Qing Dynasty.

The Jiading three massacres happened in 1645 AD, where after the Qing army broke into Jiading, they massacred the civilians three times. The Qing army announced the plait cutting order, which the civilians did not follow. Hou Dongceng led men to revolt against the Qing. Qing Dynasty Wusong general Li Chengdong led five thousand troops to assist right away.

When Jiading City was broken, Li Chengdong immediately ordered his troops to massacre the city.

Out of all of them, some were hung, some were thrown into wells, some jumped into rivers, some faces were bloody, some limbs were broken, and some were chopped up, creating a horrific sight.

Women in the city were raped, and if they resisted, the soldiers would nail their hands on the doors for everyone to rape them.

The massacre lasted for a day until the corpses filled up the river. Around 30 thousand people fell victim.

After which, Li Chengdong led the soldiers to leave the city.

However. the pillaging did not stop. Four days later, those who escaped snuck back into the city.

After they returned to the city, under the lead of a fellow named Zhu Ying, they gathered up around two thousand men. He led them to open up a counter massacre operation, killing the troops that surrendered to Qing as well as the officials that worked with Qing.

Li Chengdong led an army to attack the city once more, killing many sleeping civilians, gathering their corpses and subsequently burning them. This was the second massacre.

20 days later, a South Ming person known as Wu Zifan led his troops to attack Jiading City, and the civilians all helped and chased the Qing troops away.

Not long after, Li Chengdong reorganized his army and killed Wu Zifan’s troops, killing close to 20 thousand Jiading civilians.

The Qing army often wiped out the surrendered soldiers and civilians, leaving a bunch of slaves that followed them.

Apart from that, Qing killed a million Miao race people and millions of Huo people, wiping out the Dzungar tribe such that only a kid was left. They were a rarely seen brutality in the world.

Chapter 1072 - Moral Courage

Chapter 1072: Moral Courage

Translator: ryangohsff Editor: Nora

7th month, 25th day, Shanhai City.

In the blink of an eye, the last Battle Map of China started. The 100 thousand troops that Great Xia sent this time were the same as during the Battle of Yashan, including the Emperor Squadron, Guards Legion Corps 4th legion, and three thousand Divine Martial Guards.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also asked Bear Legion Corps marshal Li Jing and Administrative Mentor Court Jia Xu to come along. He could feel that this Battle Map would not be simple.

At 9 AM, the System Notification sounded out.

“System Notification: 1645 AD, 2nd year of Qing Shunzhi’s rule, after Great Qing wiped out the Great Shun regime, they went down south to attack the South Ming regime. The two sides fought for numerous days, ending in the Hongguang regime being wiped out. 10th Battle Map – Qing Destroys Ming battle, officially begins.”

…

“Checking requirements, selecting troops…”

“System Notification: This Battle Map is split between the Qing Dynasty camp and the Ming Dynasty camp, please choose a camp! Special Reminder: if you chose the losing side and rewrite history, you will receive huge rewards. Please choose carefully.”

“Choose Ming Dynasty camp!”

“System Notification: Camp selected, teleportation begins!”

After a short while of twist and turning, Ouyang Shuo and his group arrived on the battlefield.

“System Notification: Welcome player Qiyue Wuyi to the Ming Dynasty main camp -Jianye.”

Right after appearing, Ouyang Shuo looked at Feng Qiuhuang and said, “You’re the star this time.”

Feng Qiuhuang opened up her arms and said innocently, “I did not know that I’ll trigger a Battle Map.” Then she asked worriedly, “Would the sudden Battle Map affect Great Xia’s plans in the north?”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand and smiled, “No matter what comes, I’ll handle it.”

“That’s right.”

Since the start of the game, both of them had been through all kinds of situations. Such a small surprise was not enough to make them panic.

Just as Ouyang Shuo and Feng Qiuhuang had gathered up, a System Notification sounded out in his ear.

“Battle Notification: A total of three Lords participating in the Battle Map, a total of 300 thousand troops. Qing Dynasty camp has one Lord, total number of 100 thousand troops. Ming Dynasty camp has two Lords, total number of 200 thousand troops.”

…

This was the coldest and most fair Battle Map. The three Lords each bringing 100 thousand troops, going all out in the Battle Map.

As for why Di Chen chose the Qing Dynasty camp, Ouyang Shuo was not surprised at all.

First, after the An Lushan rebellion, Di Chen definitely would not want to be in the same camp as Ouyang Shuo. Secondly, he also wanted to get closer to the Qing Dynasty.

The sudden Battle Map undoubtedly gave Great Zhou a chance to work together with Jingdu to go against Beijiang Province. Taking a step back, the Battle Map camp selection did not make much of a difference, so why would Di Chen hesitate?

“Battle Notification: As Qing Dynasty camp is weaker than Ming Dynasty camp, based on Battle Map rules, Qing Dynasty camp forces obtains a 45% defense buff.”

…

One against two, 100 thousand against 200 thousand. Luckily, Gaia was always fair, giving the Great Zhou forces a 45% defense buff.

Just this alone would cut their losses in half.

“Battle Notification: based on rank and merit points, Qing Dynasty camp player representative is Di Chen, Duke. Qing Dynasty camp player representative is Qiyue Wuyi, Prince.”

…

Everyone had already gotten used to this.

Only after the notifications ended did Ouyang Shuo have the time to look at the environment they were in.

The 200 thousand strong army was located in the west barracks in Jianye city. Two miles to the west would be Changjiang. If one went down Changjiang, in less than 100 miles, one would enter one of the main battlefields, Yangzhou.

The place where the river flowed was a natural barrier in the south. Huai River was located between Changjiang and the Yellow River, flowing to the capital region of Yangzhou and then into Changjiang.

Since ancient times, when one defended a river, one had to defend the Huai River. If they lost control of the river, it would be fatal for South Ming. That was because it was a natural transportation line. If the battles were above the Changjiang, then the north and south sides could both use the river to transport goods. The south side would not have an advantage.

When the south side could defend the Huai River, then the South regime would control the transportation line. In an age where transportation depended on animals and foot, to use ships was a huge advantage for the logistics.

There was one more point. Before that region was under stable rule, if the Qing army went too deep into the river, there was no where they could back off to.

If they win, that was good, but if they did not, they would have enemies north of the river. In front of them was a strong enemy, behind them was not a way out, so they could only jump into the river. However, if the Huai River was taken by the Qing army, any point of the thousand-mile river could be where they attacked. Even if they lost, they could back off to the north and not lose much.

On the contrary, the South Ming army would have a headache, as the battle lines were too long, and it was impossible to completely defend. A small defeat and a small failure would give the Qing army a chance to go all the way down south.

The Qing army in history broke through Yangzhou, taking down the Huai River region and entering Changjiang right away. Without the natural barrier, it became expected that Jianye was lost.

History showed that.

In the 2nd year of Shun rule, Dodo sent troops from Xi An to the southeast to attack the Hongguang regime. In the 3rd month, the Qing army occupied Guide. In the 4th month, they split up to attack Xuzhou and Bozhou, with both sides aiming right for Huai River.

Ming Dynasty Shi Kefa ordered the people and troops at Yangzhou to defend, and they managed to do so for 10 days before they were broken through.

After which, the Qing army pretty much did not face any resistance. In the 5th month, the Qing army went passed Changjiang and took control of Jianye, capturing Zhu Yousong and destroying the Hongguang regime.

This entire battle took less than half a year, and the only shining light was the Battle of Yangzhou.

“Who knows whether Yangzhou is still there or not or not.” Although it was like self-deception, Ouyang Shuo did not want the 10 days of Yangzhou to happen once more.

“Move, enter the city!”

Handing the troops over to Li Jing, Guo Ziyi, and the like, Ouyang Shuo brought the Divine Martial Guards along with Feng Qiuhuang and entered Jianye.

With Great Shun being wiped, the Qing army went down south and committed a lot of atrocities. The current Jianye City was shivering in fear, having both people who wanted to fight valiantly and cowards who wished to surrender without a fight.

Looking back in history, the one fellow who wanted to surrender and left a huge impression on Ouyang Shuo was the minister of the board of rites, Qian Qianyi.

This person was the leader of the Jiangnan local tribe, but the soft and despicable nature of this man was really unimaginable.

2nd year, 5th month of Shunzhi, the Qing army were drawing in on Jianye.

Liu Rushi told Qian Qianyi to surrender, but he told her he could not. On the 15th day, not only did he go over to surrender, but he also cut his hair in advance.

And at that moment, Henan inspector general Yue Qijie as well as Yuan Shuju, who was in charge of the Henan logistics, these people that were close to him swore that they would not surrender, going on a hunger strike and dying to show that.

For the leader of the local tribe to be so shameless, he clearly had no moral courage.

Chapter 1073 - Prince Regent

Chapter 1073: Prince Regent

Translator: ryangohsff Editor: Nora

Qian Qianyi, who lacked morale courage, was just the epitome of that generation. The people that caused Ming Dynasty to die was not Great Shun, nor was it Great Qing, but it was the Ming Dynasty itself.

In the latter stages of the Ming Dynasty, factions rose up and competed against one another, each trying to take the others down.

After the Chongzhen emperor killed himself, the prince did not follow the customs and take over in Jianye, which was why his children and him were captured. After that, the throne could only be passed on.

At that point, including top choice Prince Fu, Prince Gui who Shi Kefa supported, and Prince Lu that the Donglin faction supported. The three princes and their three factions went against one another. They totally disregarded the situation in the north, giving the Great Qing enough time to stabilize and wipe out Great Shun.

In the end, King Fu obtained the support of the Jiangbei four generals, which were the main military powers, becoming the victor and ascending. He became the Hongguang Emperor.

Him asking them for help had a huge influence on how the future would play out.

The direct effect would be that he got what he wished and ascended the throne. The indirect effect was that the protectors lived as the people the son of god were indebted to.

In Jianye, neither the emperor nor the officials could control this army.

Gao Jie, Huang Degong, Liu Liangzuo, and others were all valiant warriors and had many great men under their charge, but their hearts were not settled. If the Hongguang emperor was as capable as the previous emperors and used plots, he would be able to control them to use the army for his own purposes.

Unfortunately, he was like his father, magnanimous and fat, and he did not have the military and administrative talent of his ancestors.

As a result of the internal conflict, during the Battle of Yangzhou, Shi Kefa defended the city whilst the four generals watched on and did not help, resulting in the tragedy that was the 10 days of Yangzhou.

On the way to the palace, Ouyang Shuo discussed with Feng Qiuhuang about the Battle Map situation, “If we want to change history, our 200 thousand troops are far from enough. We must use the strength of the local army.”

“Jiangbei four generals, the remaining troops of Great Shun, and even the Great Xi army are all choices.”

Feng Qiuhuang knew her stuff too and asked, “These people all have their own thoughts. Will they listen to us?”

“Of course they won’t.”

Ouyang Shuo was not so arrogant to think that he could just reveal his aura and people would kneel down to him in the Battle Map. In the map, no one would even bother about him.

“If we want to recruit them, we must have troops first. The 200 thousand army is our biggest chip. Secondly, we must have results. If not, they will not believe us.”

After pausing, Ouyang Shuo continued, “More importantly, we must make them united and put down their internal conflicts to focus on the Qing army.”

Feng Qiuhuang replied, “That will not be easy.”

“It really is not.” Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Rome was not built in a day. We do not have much time here, so we can only try our best. When needed, we can use desperate measures.”

“Do as you deem fit!”

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he shook his head in amusement. He had heard that the only Chinese female Lord in China, and really quickly the first queen, had done many such things in Hedong Province.

As they spoke, the two of them had already entered the palace.

Within the main hall, the Hongguang emperor sat on the throne, but he lacked a domineering aura. The officials below looked at them with weird expressions. Some were wary, some were probing, and some were warm.

“What a mess!”

Ouyang Shuo came to such a conclusion. At the front of the civil servants, Ouyang Shuo saw the notorious Qian Qianyi, and his eyes shone with a cold light.

If this person did not die, Ouyang Shuo’s trip would be in vain.

The following conversation between Ouyang Shuo and the Hongguang emperor did not look like much, but in truth, it made the hearts of the officials rise up and down as they exchanged glances with one another.

Ouyang Shuo admitted the legitimacy of the Hongguang emperor’s rule and expressed his willingness to protect the rule. The 200 thousand player army would become his greatest chips against the Jiangbei four generals.

This was where Ouyang Shuo was smart.

The South Ming regime was really complicated, and the reason for that was a power that everyone respected did not exist. As a result, the little people could seize control and power.

If Ouyang Shuo followed what was done in the Battle of Yashan or the An Lushan Rebellion and got rid of the current ruler, it would only intensify the chaos.

Ouyang Shuo could only stabilize the position of the Hongguang Emperor and push him high up. Only then could he achieve his strategic goal. There was a huge prerequisite to that working, which was the emperor was not a fool and had some talent.

As expected, after receiving Ouyang Shuo’s loyalty, he was delighted and repaid it, immediately giving him the title of Prince Regent.

When Feng Qiuhuang saw that, she could only look on in awe.

…

After the meeting, news that Ouyang Shuo became the Prince Regent spread across China.

“This is interesting!”

Great Qing had a Prince Regent Dorgon, and now South Ming had Ouyang Shuo. Who knows what would happen when the two went head to head.

Just as the different military cliques thought that the newly appointed Prince Regent would make many changes and attack the Jiangbei four protectors, Ouyang Shuo did nothing.

Outside the residence that the Hongguang Emperor gave him were a row of carriages that were filled with people who had rushed over to meet the Prince Regent. Amongst which, there were some who were really patriotic while there were also some like Qian Qianyi who smelled an opportunity.

No matter who it was, they were blocked outside of the door.

The terrifying aura given out off the Divine Martial Guards scared anyone who passed by.

This made Gao Jie, Huang Degong, and the like feel really uneasy, thinking that the Prince Regent was hatching a huge plot to crush them all at once.

They should be nervous, as Ouyang Shuo was not a simple person, and his power came from his 200 thousand army and not the title from the emperor.

Although they did not know how strong this army was, from how large the army was, it was enough to send chills down one’s spine. Facing such an opponent, they could only be careful.

Just as the outside world was unsettled, within the residence, Ouyang Shuo was holding a military meeting.

Chapter 1074 - Ming Can Fall but Not China

Chapter 1074: Ming Can Fall but Not China

Translator: ryangohsff Editor: Nora

The ones participating in the meeting included Li Jing, Jia Xu, Er’Lai, Emperor Squadron Fleet Admiral Zhou Yu, blazing legion corps marshal Guo Ziyi, and 4th legion Legion General Zhou Bo.

What a star-studded lineup.

There were some who had worked together before and some who were working together for the first time. Especially Li Jing, who had only worked together with Er’Lai in the Battle of Korea. He knew little about the other generals.

The Zhou Yu led Emperor Squadron was docked on the Changjiang, and they could set off at any moment.

The person who was speaking was Ouyang Shuo, “Based on the information from the army, the vanguard forces of the Qing Dodo forces, under the leadership of Nikan, has set up camp 20 miles outside of Yangzhou. This is a crucial battle and must not be lost. After the meeting ends, the army must immediately assist Yangzhou.”

“If nothing goes wrong, the 100 thousand troops of Great Zhou would move too. Along with the 100 thousand Dodo forces, the 50 thousand under Zhunta as well as the surrendered troops, this battle will not be easy.”

As he said that, Ouyang Shuo felt really angered by the Jiangbei four generals.

When Zhunta’s forces were getting close to the city, Liu Zeqing fled, Huang Degong did not move in Tongling, and Liu Liang fled to Jianye.

As for Gao Jie, apart from his deputy, Zhuang Zigu, who was stationed south of Yizhou, the others like Li Chengdong led troops to escape south.

Under the leadership of Nikan, Qing Dodo’s forces pushed forward at 50 miles per day, heading right for Yangzhou. When Shi Kefa ordered the generals to assist Yangzhou, only Liu Zhaoji led four thousand men and Zhuang Zigu led 700 over to help. There were less than 10 thousand men defending Yangzhou.

As a result, the player forces needed to face 250 thousand Qing army forces alone. If they sent all 200 thousand of them there, it might be worth a try, but the key was that they still had to keep a portion of them to defend Jianye.

Although Ouyang Shuo had become Prince Regent, without an army around him, he would not be able to stabilize his position. Once the player army left, Liu Liang, who escaped to Jianye, might start problems.

Furthermore, Ouyang Shuo also needed to take up the responsibility of gathering grain for Jianye. The South Ming that was set up not long ago was a dirty burden, and the treasury was empty and totally could not support such a huge battle.

The only way would be to hit on the local hegemons and rich people. This also needed the help of the military.

Rough estimation put the number of troops they could mobilize to assist Yangzhou, including the Emperor Squadron, could not exceed 150 thousand, and they needed to keep 50 thousand elites in Jianye.

After discussing the matter, Ouyang Shuo decided to let Guo Ziyi lead the blazing legion corps up north with the 30 thousand Guards Legion Corps soldiers that Er’Lai led.

The remaining 40 Thousand Guards Legion Corps soldiers along with the three thousand Divine Martial Guards would stay in Jianye.

Before leaving, Ouyang Shuo instructed, “Although the Battle of Yangzhou is a crucial battle, it is still a battle. After keeping Yangzhou, it will be time to counterattack Qing.”

“Yes!”

All of them bowed and left.

…

Beside the Changjiang, Ouyang Shuo was deep in thought.

“Who knows whether we can make it in time or not.”

In the Battle of Yangzhou in history, Dodo led the vanguard forces but did not hurry to attack. Even after his main force arrived, he still did not start the battle.

The reason was simple. The Qing army was mainly cavalry and was not good at sieging. They were waiting for the hongyi cannons to arrive on the battlefield before they began their siege.

The truth proved that Yangzhou, who could not be considered a city with great defense, would fall after a day and night of cannon bombing.

Shi Kefa’s courage deserved praise, but in terms of ability, he was still lacking.

Now with Di Chen in the mix, there were many possible points in the Battle of Yangzhou. No matter what, Ouyang Shuo could only believe in Guo Ziyi and the others to adapt.

“Let’s go back. We still have many things to do.”

Ouyang Shuo rode on Little Green and went back into the city.

As they say, ‘Before you conquer the outside, you must calm down internally.’ If Ouyang Shuo wanted South Ming to succeed, he must get rid of the people who wanted to surrender.

This time, apart from the army that arrived with Ouyang Shuo, there was also a special unit. These were elite spies that Ouyang Shuo personally got from the Shanhai Guards.

During the An Lushan rebellion, Ouyang Shuo found it difficult due to the lack of spies beside him.

Since last night, the spies had started working. With the help of Hongguang emperor, they followed historical records to focus on the nobles.

Qian Qianyi was naturally one of those.

In order to not raise an uproar and let people say that Ouyang Shuo was clearing away obstacles right after getting power, before acting, the Shanhai Guards needed enough evidence.

Either letters from Great Qing or evidence of their wrongdoings.

As long as their actions were unjust, Ouyang Shuo could use them as proof to wipe them out.

Speaking of which, some of the officials were innocent when checked. All investigations happened in secret, as Ouyang Shuo did not wish to alert them.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also did two other things.

First, he sent letters to Sichuan Great Xi emperor in the name of the Prince Regent to say that, “South Ming can die but China cannot. We should work together.”

Speaking of Zhang Xianzhong, he was a legendary figure.

This person who made a name together with Li Zicheng came from a poor family. Since a young age, he was really determined and followed his father to do small businesses.

He had once been a constable, and then he became a soldier in a town.

His life was really intense. There were often things like standing up for justice and nearly lost his life because of it.

During Emperor Chongzhen’s reign, he stated a peasant uprising.1640, he led troops into Sichuan. 1644, he established the Great Xi regime and ascended to become its emperor.

In 1646, the Qing army went down south, and Zhang Xianzhong was slain by a stray arrow.

Speaking of which, the deaths of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were really unfortunate. Zhang Xianzhong went through many battles, but his death came from being shot by a stray arrow.

Li Zicheng was the same.

In 1656, when the Great Shun army arrived at Hubei Tong City, Li Zicheng led 20 people to scout and was killed by the local militia.

What an unfortunate death.

A prince actually died whilst scouting.

Maybe it was the act of the heavens.

Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, these pair of uprising leaders, were doing so well when they went against the Ming Dynasty.

However, the moment they went against the Qing army, they were swept with bad luck and died.

History was just so coincidental. If both of them did not die like that, maybe history would have changed.

Zhang Xianzhong went up against Ming, but he also did not support Qing. He was not someone like Qian Qianyi who would surrender.

After his death, his generals such as Sun Kewang led the Great Xi army south to go against the Qing army along with South Ming. They changed their battleground to the provinces in the southwest, lasting for 20 years until the first year of Kangxi’s reign.

Due to that, Ouyang Shuo was confident about convincing Zhang Xianzhong.

Chapter 1075 - Fall of Yangzhou

Chapter 1075: Fall of Yangzhou

Translator: ryangohsff Editor: Nora

The second thing Ouyang Shuo did was contact the Great Shun remnant forces.

Similar to the Great Xi army, after Li Zicheng died, the Great Shun army continued to go against Qing.

The famous 13 families of Kuidong was written around the remnant forces of the Great Shun army.

Toward the four protectors of Jiangbei, Ouyang Shuo treated them coldly and did not force them. As long as Gao Jie and the others had some brains, they would not surrender to the Qing Dynasty before the Battle of Yangzhou ended.

With the 200 thousand player forces as the core, together with the Jiangdong four protectors, the Great Xi army and the Great Shun army, they would form a battle line stretching from east to west to counter the Qing Dynasty. This was Ouyang Shuo’s goal.

In case Zhang Xianzhong and the others were wary of him, Ouyang Shuo even did not want to take command and only wanted them to coordinate the time to send troops and what path to go on, going up north together.

The prerequisite would be that the player army had to prove themselves during the Battle of Yangzhou.

…

3rd day of the Battle Map, Yangzhou City.

As Guo Ziyi’s forces were on the way to Yangzhou City, the Qing army Dodo forces and the 100 thousand Di Chen forces had arrived a step earlier, surrounding the city.

They still did not make it in time in the end.

Not only that, but Di Chen even had the awareness to actually bring hundreds of cannons. The Qing army did not even need to wait, and they started fire right away.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

As they had Di Chen, who was familiar with history and knew that Shi Kefa would not surrender, Dodo did not even need to try to ask him to surrender. He just directly ordered the attack.

Facing the cannon fire, the dirt walls of Yangzhou City were on the verge of collapse.

In just a short morning, Yangzhou City fell.

Liu Zhaoji died in battle, Yangzhou Prefect Ren Mingyu, He Gang, and related people sacrificed their lives, Shi Kefa suicided…

History seemed to be repeating itself.

The only difference was as the siege proceeded unusually smooth, along with Di Chen’s persuasion, the Qing army did not massacre the city. Instead, they started to take over city defenses to face the arriving Guo Ziyi forces.

Di Chen was still very rational about this matter.

First, Guo Ziyi’s forces were on the way, and to massacre the city now was undoubtedly digging their own graves. Secondly, although Di Chen was from an aristocratic family, he was still Chinese, and he was not so stone-hearted.

Di Chen was still young and was not as cold as his grandfather.

…

“This is problematic!”

After learning that Yangzhou was broken, Guo Ziyi ordered the troops to take a rest.

Night, commander tent.

“Advisor, what do you think we should do?” Guo Ziyi asked Jia Xu.

Jia Xu said, “Yangzhou falling, the Jiangdong four protectors might surrender at any moment. The situation is really bad for us, and we must think of a way to turn it around. With our 130 thousand to attack Yangzhou City is really difficult. They hold the city, and it really is difficult for us to suddenly go from the defending side to the attacking side.”

“….”

Guo Ziyi frowned.

“Do you have an idea?” Guo Ziyi asked.

Jia Xu did not panic and said, “Since we cannot take it down, why not just give up?”

“Give up?” Guo Ziyi frowned once more, “Advisor is saying to retreat to advance?”

Jia Xu nodded, “The following Emperor Squadron is a trump card. With it, we can go around Yangzhou City and up the Huai River to take it down.”

Going around the main Qing army force, Guo Ziyi would have the confidence to reclaim the Huai River region. The problem was, “What about grain?”

“The Qing army main force arrived in Yangzhou so quickly, but their logistic supplies will not be so quick. As long as we are swift, we can intercept them and use them for our own.” Jia Xu was really sharp, “As long as we get the first batch of grain, the subsequent ones we can get from the area.”

When Guo Ziyi heard that, he nodded in awe, but he still had his doubts. He continued asking, “Even if we solve the grain problem, 250 thousand Qing troops in Yangzhou still pose a problem. The enemy could go down south and take down Jianye or go up north to attack us.”

Jia Xu smiled, “It is best if they stay in Yangzhou. If they go north or south, it will be an opportunity for us.”

“How so?”

“If they go down south to take down Jianye, there are 40 thousand Great Xia Guards Legion Corps troops and also Liu Liangzuo’s troops. Furthermore, Jianye has well-built defenses and it would not be so easy to take it down.”

Different from Yangzhou, Jianye had many cannons on its city walls. It was impossible for the Qing army to take it down with just a morning of cannon fire.

In history, Jianye surrendered without fighting. However, with Ouyang Shuo there, Qian Qianyi and the others would not be able to take the same route.

Guo Ziyi agreed with Jia Xu’s analysis.

“As long as we defend Jianye for a few days, our army can go down south. Not only taking down Yangzhou, but also pincering the Qing army. The situation is naturally good for us,” Jia Xu explained.

Jia Xu smiled, “If they go up north, it’s much simpler. The north region is wider, especially the Huai region. It has just been taken by the Qing army, and it is not stable with so many anti Qing people there. We can play hide and seek with the Qing army and split up to attack them. Once the king convinces the Great Shun forces, it would be when the enemy is wiped out.”

Hearing that, Guo Ziyi finally felt relieved.

Jia Xu continued, “There’s another benefit to us going around Yangzhou. We can use our strength to suppress and convince the four protectors before they surrender.”

“Advisor is wise!”

Guo Ziyi stood up and bowed; he was utterly convinced and in awe.

As a strategist, since leaving Jianye, Jia Xu had been contemplating all sort of possibilities. The fall of Yangzhou was naturally one of them.

As a result, he could take out such a strategy in such a short amount of time.

This was the difference between top and normal strategists. They often planned for the worst.

Since the plan was set, Guo Ziyi swiftly moved into action.

That night, the army moved up north, going around Yangzhou city before the Qing army reacted.

Of course, Guo Ziyi did not forget to write a letter to give a specific report over to Ouyang Shuo.

…

Just as Guo Ziyi’s forces rushed up north through the night, the news of the fall of Yangzhou spread out.

Seeing the strength of the Qing army, the South Ming people felt unsettled. The Jiangbei four protectors started to sway while Qian Qianyi and similar civil servants stopped proceeding over to the Prince Regent’s residence.

A storm was coming.

Chapter 1076 - Humiliation

Chapter 1076: Humiliation

Translator: ryangohsff Editor: Nora

Jianye.

The news of Yangzhou falling was like a huge dark cloud that hung over Jianye.

Along with the news spreading, there were a bunch of rumors like, “Since the Qing army took down Yangzhou, they will reach Jianye soon.” These rumors made people terrified, and the atmosphere became really nervous.

During the court assembly, there were already ministers suggesting they surrendered for the safety of the people. Ouyang Shuo, this newly appointed Prince Regent, naturally became the target.

Even Hongguang emperor, who was sitting on the dragon throne, felt really uneasy.

Looking down at the ministers who each had their own motives, Hongguang emperor, who had lost control of the court, could only look around. In the end, he realized that the only person he could trust was Ouyang Shuo.

No matter what, Ouyang Shuo had 40 thousand troops under him.

“What do you think we should do?” Hongguang emperor asked.

Ouyang Shuo was really calm. He stepped out and said, “Do not worry, my emperor, although the enemy took down Yangzhou City, they were exploiting the situation. They have not fought head on against us, so whoever dies to who is still unknown.”

“That’s right, you are right.”

The Hongguang emperor was like a person grasping at straws, and only then did he think back to the 200 thousand player army, “Since that’s the case, please call your troops back to Jianye to defend.”

The other officials all agreed. Without many troops defending, they really would not be at ease.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he could only helplessly say, “Our army already has a plan, so do not worry. As for the safety of Jianye, with the 40 thousand player force along with Liu Liangzuo’s forces, it is of no worry.”

As he said that, Ouyang Shuo glanced over at Liu Liangzuo.

Liu Liangzuo could feel that gaze as his face tensed up.

“That’s right.”

Although the Hongguang emperor could not nod, he did not dare to retort Ouyang Shuo, so he just carefully said, “For safety, I hope that you move the troops back.”

For an emperor to stoop to such a level, there was really no point.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he had to care about the emperor’s face and nodded. As for how to plan for it, the vanguard troops would gauge the matter for themselves.

He did not believe that the combination of Guo Ziyi and Jia Xu would not be able to breakthrough a simple Yangzhou City.

…

After the court assembly was dismissed, Ouyang Shuo returned to his residence.

The small situation of the court was not much. What Ouyang Shuo was worried about was that the Great Shun and Great Xi forces that he had just contacted would be affected by the news.

To cover the Great Shun forces, Ouyang Shuo even got Li Jing to personally act, asking him to go and visit them.

“Let’s hope they have some patience.”

That afternoon, Guo Ziyi’s letter was received by Ouyang Shuo. Looking at it, Ouyang Shuo could not help but praise Jia Xu’s plan.

With his plan, Ouyang Shuo felt really relieved, and he instantly called over the in charge of Shanhai Guards and ordered, “Since Yangzhou has fallen, those clowns will start jumping out. It’s the best time to capture all of them.”

“Understood!”

In truth, the Shanhai Guards had already searched out a portion of the evidence, and only some cunning foxes had not been dug out because they hid really deep.

“This time, we will take them all down.” Ouyang Shuo’s eyes shone coldly.

Along with the Shanhai Guards striking out, hidden currents flowed in the already chaotic Jianye.

…

5th day of the Battle Map.

When Guo Ziyi’s forces suddenly went around Yangzhou and appeared at the upstream of Huai River, one could foresee the shock of the Qing army. “When did they get across!” Dodo was filled with doubt.

To avoid the detection of the Qing army, Guo Ziyi had spent a lot of effort.

During the same morning.

With the help of the Emperor Squadron, they took down Sizhou, which the Qing army had occupied, in just one morning. Along the way, they also intercepted the grain the Qing army was sending to Yangzhou, achieving Jia Xu’s strategic goal.

This placed the Qing army on the spot.

Dodo was ready to have a final battle with the enemy at Yangzhou. After destroying the player force, he would head straight for Jianye.

“This was a really safe battle plan.”

The sudden actions of Guo Ziyi’s forces totally broke his strategy. Not mentioning other things, but just the grain problem became a huge issue for the Qing army.

As mentioned before, the Huai River and Changjiang was the grain transportation line in the south. The Qing army mainly used the Huai River and now the Great Xia Emperor Squadron had blocked up the upstream.

Not to mention that Di Chen did not bring any navy, but even if he did, with the ability of the Great Zhou’s two squadrons, in front of the well-equipped Emperor Squadron, they were nothing.

As for the navy that the Qing Dynasty placed together haphazardly, they were even worse.

The current Emperor Squadron, under the command of Zhou Yu, who was familiar with inland navy combat, were an invincible presence. It was no wonder that when the Emperor Squadron passed Yangzhou, the Qing army knew nothing.

Yangzhou, City Lord’s Manor.

Dodo gathered Di Chen, Lianpo, and Abatai, whose forces had just arrived for a meeting.

“Yangzhou has a lack of grain and can only last for five days. What should we do? What ideas do you have?” Dodo did not come to a conclusion right away.

In front of the Qing army, there were two choices, going up north or heading down south.

“I suggest going up north.” The one who spoke was Di Chen, “Jianye is not like Yangzhou. It’s a huge city with many troops defending it and taking it down will not be easy. If our troops face problems in Jianye, we might be pincered in. As long as we go up north and obtain grain, we can stabilize ourselves and fight another day.”

Di Chen understood the ability of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps and knew that with them defending, it would not be easy to take down Jianye. As a result, he suggested going up north.

Who knew that his words would infuriate Abatai, who had just rushed over.

“Scoff, you’re just too cowardly.” Abatai did not give Di Chen any face, “How can the small Jianye block our Great Qing iron cavalry? I suggest we immediately go down south.”

Speaking of which, Abatai sought to fight, “When we go down south, I am willing to be the vanguard!”

That was not surprising.

Since Great Shun was wiped, the situation of the Qing Dynasty unifying China was slowly becoming clearer.

Unavoidably, Manchu people like Abatai would become proud and feel that their army was invincible and could sweep the world.

Furthermore, Di Chen was a Han Chinese person, so Abatai did not care about him.

When Di Chen heard that, his face instantly turned red. He clenched his fists, and his eyes flashed coldly. He was a really arrogant person. Obviously, he could not stand the humiliation dealt to him by Abatai.

In truth, the eight banner army of Qing that was similar to a peasant army was not even regarded by Di Chen.

Just as Di Chen was about to rage, Dodo suddenly spoke up.

Chapter 1077 - Lightning Method

Chapter 1077: Lightning Method

“Both of you make sense, so allow me to make a decision.” As the place was about to blow up, Dodo decided to make a smart decision and call off the meeting.

When Di Chen heard that, his face was really dark as he stood up and left. He felt a little regret in his heart. If he knew that this would happen, he would have just chosen the South Ming camp and wiped out this arrogant group.

“Anyone not of the same race, I will definitely doubt!”

Through this matter, Di Chen felt like he had learned a lot.

…

After Di Chen left, Abatai said, “Do you really believe that player?”

Dodo smiled, “You were not there during the Battle of Yangzhou, so you would not know how skilled that player is. The 100 thousand elite troops he has under him is not something that you can easily make enemies with.”

Abatai was stunned and said, “So you’re saying?”

Dodo sat straight up, “the player army is strong, but our eight banner army is not weak. From tomorrow onward, with you as the vanguard, we will attack Jianye. I’ll lead the troops from close behind.”

Abatai was delighted, “How do we deal with that player force?”

“Let them defend Yangzhou. Our 150 thousand troops are enough to take down Jianye.” Dodo was really experienced. Although he was confident, he was not as overconfident as Abatai was.

Leaving Di Chen at Yangzhou meant that they did not need to worry about their backline.

“Wise decision!” Abatai praised.

…

After Di Chen learned of Dodo’s arrangement, he scolded, “Bastard!”

Defending Yangzhou was not an easy matter.

First, Yangzhou had a shortage of grain. Secondly. its city walls were broken, and thirdly, there was no way to defend. Fourthly, the place was unstable.

With these four points, no matter how confident Di Chen was, he did not believe he could stop Guo Ziyi’s forces with just 100 thousand troops. The moment Yangzhou was broken, no matter the result of the battle, he would have to leave early.

Dodo’s plan was really vicious; he wanted the player forces to take one another out. He would bring the Qing army main force down south to take down Jianye and claim all the credit.

In comparison, Abatai was really inexperienced.

Di Chen saw through his intentions, but there was no way he could oppose it. He only had 100 thousand troops and was in the Qing Dynasty camp. He could not control the field like Ouyang Shuo.

Looking at the Qing army going down south, a look of viciousness flashed across Di Chen’s eyes.

…

6th day of the Battle Map.

Just as the Qing army went down south, a huge cleansing occurred within Jianye City.

Ouyang Shuo used his name as Regent Prince to take down groups of people and imprison them.

For those more serious cases, all their fortunes would be confiscated and used as army resources.

To scare the officials, Ouyang Shuo even moved the 40 thousand Guards Legion Corps into the city to settle them down.

Qian Qianyi and the like were still contemplating about how to place their bets on both sides, and they had even written the letters of surrender. Who knew that in the blink of an eye, they would be in jail and all their plans would be for nothing.

They could only shout out powerlessly, “I’m framed. I’m framed.”

What a tremendous force.

The sudden storm made the already nervous Jianye even more terrified. Rumors rose up once more, and many rich families moved down further south to avoid the chaos.

At this very moment, the news of the Qing army going down south spread out.

This was like setting fire to a pot of oil as the entire Jianye exploded.

Numerous people escaped.

Weirdly, the Prince Regent Ouyang Shuo did not stop them and allowed the civilians to escape. He only brought three thousand Divine Martial Guards to visit Liu Liangzuo.

When Liu Liangzuo saw him, his face turned ashen white.

After Ouyang Shuo left, Li Jing, who had already returned to Jianye, had already taken charge of Liu Liangzuo’s forces. As for he himself, he brought his family and left Jianye.

No one knew what had happened in that short hour to make him give up power and flee.

Eye witnesses sneakily said, “The knife glow was really white, and the blood was really red.”

In the afternoon, Li Jing led the 50 thousand South Ming troops into the city.

Just as Di Chen had expected, the 40 thousand Great Xia Guards Legion Corps troops, the 50 thousand South Ming troops, along with Li Jing taking charge, made it almost impossible for Dodo to take down Jianye in a short amount of time.

Furthermore, after Li Jing’s persuasion, the 60 thousand Great Shun troops were moving toward Jianye.

Far away in Sichuan, Zhang Xianzhong had given a reply. As long as the South Ming army went up north, Great Xi would charge into Great Qing.

A huge net was enveloping Great Qing.

Maybe some people would ponder why in history the Qing army had won so easily. Why with Ouyang Shuo’s interference did everyone around seem to be Qing Dynasty enemies?

This was not hard to understand.

First, the Qing army itself, be it in terms of numbers or combat strength, did not have an advantage, especially at the start of the war where they were at an absolute disadvantage.

At the start, Dorgon just wanted to make use of the Ming Dynasty internal chaos to gain some benefits to get some resources and population.

The best outcome would be for them to take down the 16 states of Yanyun.

If at that time, someone told Dorgon that Great Qing could unify China, he would probably be scared silly and would not believe it.

Only after Li Zicheng forced Wu Sangui into a corner, and Dorgon took the chance to take down Shanhai Pass did his ambitions slowly rise.

Even so, he definitely did not have the courage to rule China.

When the Qing army destroyed Li Zicheng’s Great Shun regime in the north, the Ming Dynasty still had a large part of their land, and their overall soldier count was even higher than that of the Qing army.

Helplessly, even at that time, the Ming Dynasty was still busy with their internal conflict. For a throne, they fought to the death and gave the Qing army enough time to wipe out Great Shun.

Once Great Shun fell, the Qing army finally rose up.

Even so, the north and south sides were on equal footing, and no side had an absolute advantage.

South Ming, Great Xi, including the regimes that rose from them, were wiped out one by one by the Qing army in such a short time because they lacked a capable general.

Gao Jie and the other related generals could not be mentioned, while Shi Kefa was only skilled in name but was not talented.

This situation only changed when Ouyang Shuo appeared.

In terms of methods, Ouyang Shuo was a level higher than others; in terms of ability, the 200 thousand player forces were the biggest trump card. Along with Li Jing, Guo Ziyi, and other helpers, the entire situation was naturally different.

Chapter 1078 - Li Jing Uses Troops

Chapter 1078: Li Jing Uses Troops

The arrogance of Dodo and Abatai as well as their underestimation and wariness of Di Chen was the second reason that caused the current situation.

If Dodo had listened to Di Chen, he would not have faced such a situation.

Of course, there were not so many ifs in the world.

On the 8th day of the Battle Map, when Dodo led his forces and arrived outside of Jianye, and what they faced was a well-prepared steel city.

Without the restraints of the people who wanted to surrender, Ouyang Shuo could go all out.

Looking at the small number of soldiers defending on the city walls, Dodo felt relaxed. He started to set up camp outside of the city to await the Hongyi cannons before starting the siege.

They would use the cannons to open the path before leading troops to charge into the city.

Dodo had used such a tactic numerous times, and he did not even need to think about it.

When Li Jing who stood on the city wall saw that, he did not even turn his head and directly ordered, “Order all the troops to stick to the plan.”

“Yes general!”

…

A day passed just like that.

Dodo’s forces camped at the east outskirts and Abatai’s at the north. As the sun set, and the last few rays of sunlight shone on the grass outside, smoke bellowed from the camp.

The Qing Army had started to cook their meals.

Commander tent.

Dodo sat at the leader spot in the tent and ordered the generals over for a final meeting. Based on their location, the cannons would arrive tomorrow at the quickest.

A general laughed, “I heard that they had an internal conflict inside two days ago. They’re really seeking death.”

“Haha, these Han Chinese can only fight amongst themselves.”

The Manchu generals did not bother to hide their disdain and displeasure toward the Han people. The successive battle victories had started to get to their head. Although Dodo did not say anything because of his position, his silent acceptance showed his thoughts.

“We still must give it our best.” Dodo looked around before saying, “If nothing goes wrong, this is the final battle to destroy South Ming. If we win, I’ll naturally seek rewards for all of you in front of his majesty.”

“Yes prince!”

All of them looked on passionately.

Since the battle’s start, the Qing Imperial Court had taken out huge rewards and titles for the warriors who had done well. Apart from giving titles, they awarded plenty of jewels and land.

After pillaging a big part of the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Imperial Court was really rich now.

Not to mention common items like gold and jewelry, but in terms of just titles alone, they gave out the most around this time than throughout the entire Qing Dynasty.

One had to say that attacking South Ming was the largest contribution one could make, which was why all the generals were really fervent.

At this very moment, soldiers carried out plates of delicious food, full barbecued lamb, and even barrels of wine. The generals who had not smelled the scent of wine in a long time drooled. Just smelling the scent made them drunk.

“What a scent!”

Dodo raised his wine glass and smiled, “Tomorrow is the final battle, so today is an exception. We will drink wine to show our happiness. I hope that all of you will go all out to kill the enemy tomorrow!”

Dodo had a strong grasp of their hearts. In just a few sentences, he made their blood boil and made them yearn to go up immediately to kill the enemy.

Due to the wine, the atmosphere in the room was really warm.

Just as the feast entered its peak, killing sounds spread out from outside of the tent.

“What happened?”

Dodo was really alert. Even during the noisy feast, he could still catch the weird noises from afar. Hearing his words, the tent immediately quietened down.

“General, general, it’s not good!”

What a coincidence, just as Dodo asked, a soldier charged in.

“What happened? Why are you so anxious?”

As expected from an experienced general like Dodo, he did not panic and was really calm. At such a time, as the main general, you had to be calm or the entire army would be unsettled.

With a ‘Shua!’, everyone turned to that soldier, causing the soldier’s face to turn ashen white, “General, the enemy suddenly left the city and have already charged into our camp.”

‘Huadang!’

Who knows whose wine glass it was that dropped to the ground and broke into pieces.

…

Li Jing was really Li Jing, always coming out with surprises.

After learning that the Qing army that came down south was only 150 thousand strong, and the enemy player army had stayed in Yangzhou, Li Jing compared the two sides. He immediately gave up on the traditional defense method and decided to strike out.

With the 40 thousand Guards Legion Corps troops, the three thousand Divine Martial Guards as well as the 50 thousand South Ming troops, Li Jing had confidence to settle it in one battle. He did not have to defend.

To confuse the enemy, Li Jing purposely only arranged a few soldiers to roam around the city walls.

As expected, Dodo fell for his trap. He had dropped his guard and even held a feast for his generals to warm them up for the battle tomorrow. Li Jing did not even need to wait till the next day.

If it were during the night time, with Dodo’s carefulness, he would have definitely arranged patrols and remained on guard. However, Li Jing chose dusk when the Qing army would be at their most relaxed state.

“Kill!”

Xu Chu led the three thousand Divine Martial Guards as the vanguard and quickly charged through the enemy camp.

30 thousand Great Xia guards troops followed behind them into the Qing camp and started a slaughter. Further behind were the 40 thousand South Ming troops whose hearts palpitated as they moved forward, unable to believe what was happening.

In their memory, they had never attacked the Qing army before.

Although that was the case, the South Ming soldiers did not dare to run away. First, the power play that Ouyang Shuo made was still clear in their memory, and it made them really fearful.

More importantly, behind them there were still 10 thousand guards. Li Jing’s arrangement of troops was really sublime.

“Kill!”

The Great Xia Guards Legion Corps at the front swept the Qing camp with an unstoppable aura. Everywhere they passed, the Qing army had no way to fight back and were trampled.

The South Ming army was actually winning.

Looking at the strength of the Great Xia guard troops and at such a scene, the hidden killing intent within the South Ming soldiers was drawn out. It was like they had an added courage buff as they gained courage.

In each and every one of their hearts hid a tiger.

The South Ming army was not born weak or born as cowards. With Liu Liangzuo and other such generals, they obviously would not be able to rise up.

The current situation was different. Just by changing one commander, under the influence of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps, it was like the entire army was revived, giving out endless amounts of energy.

When Li Jing who stood on the city wall saw that, he finally let out a smile.

Chapter 1079 - Righteousness Remain

Li Jing’s strategy succeeded.

Just as Dodo and the others were hesitating and at a loss, the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps had already made their way to the middle portion of the camp. The South Ming army covered it up. The Qing army was on the verge of collapse.

Commander tent.

Dodo was still really calm. He put down the wine glass in his hand and ordered, “Immediately gather up all forces for one final battle!”

“Yes!”

All the generals swiftly dispersed.

At the current moment, the eight banner army was not like later on in history where they were corrupted by peace and riches. Although they were arrogant, they did have the ability.

This was the reason why Dodo was confident.

At the same time, Dodo sent people to inform Abatai to not rush over to assist and directly charge for the city, “I do not believe that they will not retreat if Jianye is broken into.”

Dodo was going to force them to make a decision.

Now, it was down to which side could last longer. If Dodo’s forces fell, everything would be over; if Abatai successfully charged into Jianye, then it would be a chance for the Qing army to turn the tides.

…

Abatai had already gathered up his troops and was ready to charge east when suddenly he received the order. He was stunned but immediately revealed killing intent, “Follow me.”

As he said that, the entire army turned around and headed for the north city wall of Jianye.

Currently, apart from 10 thousand defending troops and the two thousand palace guards, there was also the 10 thousand South Ming troops that Li Jing had purposely kept there.

They were facing a really strong opponent.

If it were not for the performance of the front troops, Li Jing would not dare to hand such a complicated enemy to them.

Even so, after stabilizing the situation on the east, Li Jing hurried to the north to personally lead the battle. It was easy to see that every move of Dodo was calculated by Li Jing.

With such a gap in skill, how could they not be defeated?

“Kill!”

Abatai’s forces did not have the help of the Hongyi cannons and could only use the most primitive siege method. They had to use scaling ladders to try to break open the city gates and get inside.

“Hold on, do not be afraid!”

Under the command of Li Jing, the South Ming army calmed themselves down and overcame their fears. They used the city wall and defensive resources to counterattack.

Jianye was the Ming Dynasty headquarters, so all the needed facilities were prepared.

As it was not hand-to-hand combat, the Ming Dynasty troops gained courage. Cannons, rolling wood, alchemical fire oil, and stone; anything that could be used to kill the enemy was used.

This was really lethal for the eight banner army.

They were used to charging around on open land and were used to using the Hongyi cannons to blast open the enemy city gates and engage in slaughter within the city afterward.

During such a siege, the Qing army was like fish out of water.

Abatai was really anxious, but he had no other choice and could only send troops after troops to the frontlines. He knew that if he could not open up the city gates, tonight was going to be their death date.

In the blink of an eye, the final shred of light disappeared from the horizon. Only the dark clouds that hung overhead were left, making one feel really suppressed.

The moon hid behind the dark clouds, showing no intentions of revealing itself.

The white light and the night sky interchanged. Suddenly, at this moment, an empty moment appeared.

“The skies are about to change!”

On the city wall, Ouyang Shuo looked out at the horizon as his blood red cape fluttered in the wind.

Feng Qiuhuang was similarly dressed in martial gear, and her golden cape made her look really noble. She did not say anything; she just quietly accompanied Ouyang Shuo and focused on the battle.

The two of them stood together, giving out a natural noble aura.

The soldiers killing outside of the city would occasionally turn around and look at the faces on the city wall. After that, they would feel really pumped up and filled with energy. They turned around and went back to the killing.

The Great Xia Guards Legion Corps soldiers knew that their king was focusing on them at every moment.

“That was enough!”

Crossing the city wall, behind Ouyang Shuo was a similar uneasy city.

After the round of people moving away, those that remained in the city were either people like the Hongguang emperor who had no choice but to stay or nobles and civilians who found it hard to move.

When they heard the killing noises outside, they felt really uneasy.

The unknown was always a source of fear. As they did not know whether their army had the upper hand or if they were losing, they could only wait anxiously and wait for the final result.

Life or death was separated by just one fine line.

There were some righteous people or those with moral courage who gathered toward the north gate to either send food or treat the wounded.

These were a bunch of cute people.

They might not have the talent or courage to kill the enemy, but they understood that if their country fell, they would not be pardoned and would not be able to avoid their fate.

This was their life.

A person with a broken spine could still stand up if his spirit was not broken.

At this very moment, the courage of the race, their confidence, and beliefs slowly awakened and rose up, spreading amongst all of them.

Being influenced by this, more and more civilians gathered toward the north gate.

When the country faced crisis, one would always be able to see such a touching scene.

…

Night fell.

It was like a black curtain covering from far to near, hanging over Jianye.

The Qing Army Camp slaughter did not stop, so how could there be people who went to light up torches? The soldiers on both sides could only rely on the weak moonlight to continue their fight.

This was not advantageous for the Great Xia Army.

“Light the torches!”

Li Jing was prepared. With a ‘Shua!’, torches were lit up on the city wall, chasing away the pitch-black night sky and bringing with it precious light.

At the same time, outside the city, two huge fires were started. The flames charged for the heavens, and one would be able to see it from really far away.

Using the light, the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps fought even more viciously.

Especially the three thousand Divine Martial Guards charging at the front. Under the lead of Xu Chu, their eyes were red from the killing. Who knows how many Qing army generals were slain by Xu Chu.

They were like a god sword, unparalleled in their sharpness.

No matter it be in the camp or at the drill grounds, the Divine Martial Guards were the first to rush over. They charged apart the troops that had gathered together and crushed the confidence of the Qing army.

“Why has Abatai not broken through the city gate yet?”

At the outermost ring of the camp, Dodo, under the protection of his Personal Guards, killed enemies whilst they waited anxiously for the good news from the north.

Abatai’s forces were like a stone that had sunken into the ocean, where no reply was given.

As time went on, Dodo’s heart sank. This was when he realized that the Qing army was done for.

At this stage, even if Abatai’s forces opened the city gate, as Dodo’s forces had suffered heavy casualties, they would not be able to turn the situation around.

A bright light shone in Dodo’s eyes; he was ready to retreat.

Chapter 1080 - The Heavens Bless Great Ming

Dodo did not manage to escape in the end.

Just as he was about to lead his troops to flee, the Xu Chu led Divine Martial Guards suddenly arrived.

Xu Chu did not know that he had met the main general of the Qing army. He only saw that Dodo wanted to escape, so he hollered, “Where do you think you’re going!” As he said that, he chased over.

This huge shout reverberated through the wilderness.

Dodo was so frightened that his legs trembled. Originally, he was a little hesitant, but now, he ran even faster.

It was then that Xu Chu realized that he had met a big fish. He instantly led his troops to chase. They quickly left the camp and disappeared into the vast wilderness.

The current moon was still hiding behind the clouds, and only a sliver was revealed.

Luckily, the Divine Martial Guards were all really skilled, and their mounts were all top grade elite Qingfu Horses. Using the little moonlight, they chased closely.

Occasionally, they used their God arm crossbows to shoot out sharp arrows.

Dodo’s group were in trouble, as there were many who were shot off their horses. They did not dare to stop to retaliate and only headed forward with all their might. Who knew that the more anxious they were, the easier it was for them to face the unexpected.

As he was too anxious, Dodo did not notice the geography of the area. The horse hooves were not stable and tripped on a rock. Instantly, both men and horses flipped.

When Xu Chu saw that, he was delighted and quickly covered the distance.

Seeing their main general fall off his horse, the following Personal Guards were helpless and could only stop to have a final battle with the enemy. Although they were Personal Guards, how could they be compared to the Divine Martial Guards?

“Kill!”

The Divine Martial Guards charged into the group. Like they were cutting vegetables, they hacked one after another of them off from their horses. They pretty much faced no resistance.

Dodo was imprisoned. Xu Chu executed the rest of the Personal Guards, as he was afraid that there would be problems.

“Let’s return!”

After capturing a big fish, Xu Chu was really excited, and he rushed back. When they returned to the battlefield, the entire battle was close to its end.

Dodo abandoning his troops and leaving became the spark that led to the defeat of the Qing army. Seeing their main general disappear, the Qing army whose morale was already low had no mood to resist. They either surrendered or escaped into the wilderness.

When the news that Dodo’s forces were captured spread to the north battlefield, Abatai’s face sunk.

The north attack was similarly not smooth, as many men died but the city wall still stood. Abatai did not know that a crazy South Ming army would be so hard to deal with.

Seeing the fall of Dodo’s forces, Abatai did not insist on continuing. Instead, he ordered his troops to fall back.

Using the night sky, he led the remnants of his forces to escape into the wilderness. He was ready to retreat to Yangzhou City to make a decision after gathering with the player force.

Maybe what he did not realize was that on this night, the fate of the entire Qing Dynasty had changed.

‘Hula! Hula!’

Seeing the Qing army escape, the South Ming army gave out a loud cheer.

“It sure was not easy!”

Since the Qing troops started to wage war, the South Ming army had not fought such a soothing battle. Through this battle, it was like they were reborn, and each one of them grew stronger and became fearless.

There was nothing more important than this.

“We have won!”

The soldiers all tightly hugged one another; their eyes were filled with warmth and determination.

“That’s right, we have won!”

The civilians cheered; it was more noisy than during the Chinese New Year.

The civilians all swarmed the streets to celebrate this difficult victory. The restaurants and inns that had already closed opened up once more.

The entire street became well lit.

“All wine is free tonight!”

The owner of the inn was really generous, and he used such a method to celebrate the miraculous victory.

“Great!”

The atmosphere was really warm and hyped up.

“Cheers!”

There was a 60 year old man who held up his wine while he used his other hand to wipe away his tears. Both of his sons had fallen on the battlefield and became spirits that fell under the Qing army blade.

This victory was the best sacrifice for the dead.

On the eve of the battle, his daughter and daughter-in-law had told him to escape with them. He did not leave, as he wanted to remain in Jianye. He wanted to live and die with this city.

If the Qing army managed to enter Jianye, the old man was not prepared to live.

“We have won!”

The people did not forget about the soldiers on the battlefield, preparing warm food for them to praise them for their heroics.

“Well done!”

People all gave them a thumbs up. Old people handed over eggs, while girls handed over the bracelets on their hands to give thanks.

The South Ming soldiers who returned from the battlefield were warmly welcomed by the civilians. This was a treatment that they had never received before. Each one of them stood with their heads high and their chests out.

Their great performance tonight made them worthy of such an honor.

A long needed warmth flowed in their hearts. Although it was night, they could feel the heat from the sun, chasing away the darkness that had long covered their hearts.

Jianye, this ancient Capital City, had been revived.

…

Palace.

“Your majesty, we have won!”

The Hongguang emperor was worried for an entire night, and when he learned that the army had won, he could not help but cry.

No one was more affected by this than him.

“This victory was really too difficult!” From a moment, he suddenly felt that he had not let down his ancestors and had defended Great Ming.

Hongguang thought back to the words that a past emperor had said before his death.

“The heavens have blessed us with such great warriors.”

Hongguang emperor spent this night in the ancestor temple, praying till the dead of night.

…

On the city wall.

Looking at the celebratory scenes within the city, the usually calm Ouyang Shuo felt really emotional.

On this normal night, he had witnessed the rise of a race. A new form of strength known as confidence was spreading amongst the people.

Just like a seed buried in the dirt, hot blood was watered on it, and it finally sprouted.

“There’s nothing more meaningful than this.”

Ouyang Shuo wanted to thank Gaia. He wanted to to thank it for arranging such a special battle to strengthen his inner hopes and resolve.

“A person’s rise, no matter how glorious, will be buried in history. The rise of a race, of a culture, is what truly remains in history.”

“That’s great!”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, disappearing from the city wall and into the night.

Crushing Dodo’s forces was just the start. Next, he needed to command the army up north to reclaim lost land and chase the Qing army out.

The premise to all of this was not on the military but on the people.

As long as they were determined, they would give everything that he was doing meaning. If not, it would just be fake.

That night, Dodo was executed by Ouyang Shuo.

Chapter 1081 - Rendezvous

Morning, Jianye.

As the darkness faded and dawn arrived, looking out at the hell-like battlefield outside of the city, only then did the people realize the cruelty and the intensity of the battle.

Hongguang emperor demanded that the surrendered Qing troops would also be executed.

On the east outskirts, the original Dodo Army Camp was flattened into flat land in just a night. Corpses were strewn around, and black smoke bellowed; a tragic and cruel sight.

In the sky, there were bald eagles circling, and on the ground, there were wild dogs roaming.

In front of these hunters were not only Qing army corpses but also Great Xia and Ming Dynasty ones. After all, they were fighting at night, and they were also not familiar with the camp. Hence, casualties were to be expected.

The Qing army was not a bunch of easy pickings.

Without the Divine Martial Guards opening the way and the Guards Legion Corps calming down everyone, the results of the battle would be difficult to predict. Dodo’s decision making was just on time, but their ability was lacking. In the end, they lost, losing their lives.

Especially on the north.

Facing Abatai’s attacks, the defending troops similarly suffered heavy casualties. Many times, the Qing army had charged up the city wall and nearly tore through their defensive line.

Luckily, with Li Jing there, all dangers were cleared.

If the Dodo army did not fall so early, the moment Abatai’s forces charged into the city, it would be really dangerous.

Looking at the battlefield, the South Ming troops felt fortunate and proud. The corpses of the enemy were their best achievement.

In the morning, Hongguang emperor personally held a cremation ceremony for the dead soldiers to raise the morale. After which, he rewarded those who did well; the scene was really warm and exciting.

Toward Hongguang emperor’s acts to buy loyalty, Ouyang Shuo smiled and did not interfere.

In the end, he was just a passing crowd and was not the main character. Naturally, he did not need to compete with the emperor.

If it was truly in history, a Prince Regent like Ouyang Shuo would not have a good ending. Even if he could live for long, after he died, there would be a lot of problems.

Dorgon was such an example.

An official that had helped the Qing Dynasty take over China and made many contributions was given the title of Prince Regent.

Two months after his death, Shunzhi emperor stripped him of his title and dug his grave.

As for the current situation, Ouyang Shuo just smiled.

…

That afternoon, the 60 thousand Great Shun remnant forces arrived outside of Jianye.

On the way here, they had learned that the Qing army main force was destroyed, which was why they quickened their speed to take a look. Originally, they had some doubts regarding the news. After all, they had fought the Qing army and knew how strong they were. Looking at the battlefield that had not been cleaned up, only then did they believe it.

“Well done!”

The Great Shun soldiers were in awe, and their moods were really good. Due to the destruction of Great Shun and the death of Li Zicheng, they too were enemies of Great Qing.

Getting the detailed battle news from the South Ming army, the Great Shun army that was originally really arrogant suddenly became really well-behaved. Only respect was left for Ouyang Shuo.

They looked toward the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps with respect.

“Prince Regent, please give us instructions. We will follow it without question.” The generals ensured.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and did not believe that.

The Great Shun army that had once swept through the Ming Dynasty was wiped in just half a year against the Qing Dynasty. Apart from the death of their king Li Zicheng, the main reason was the army itself.

After their peasant uprising army took down Yanjing, their backward nature revealed itself. They were corrupt and greedy, and such qualities spread through the army and ate at them.

Bad habits were hard to change.

Even if they acted so nicely now, why would Ouyang Shuo trust them?

Luckily, he was not fighting alone, as behind him was a really stellar command force. Ouyang Shuo smiled and introduced Li Jing to the Great Shun general.

Both sides had come into contact before, but this was their official meeting.

The name of the Great Tang military god had some weight in their eyes. If not, they would not have agreed to help after Li Jing sought them out.

After meeting, they were naturally going to go up north.

To stabilize the situation, Ouyang Shuo, this Prince Regent, had to temporarily stay in Jianye.

The next morning, Li Jing led the 35 thousand Great Xia Guards Legion Corps troops, 30 thousand South Ming, and 60 thousand Great Shun troops, a total of 125 thousand, up north.

Their main goal was to take back Yangzhou.

Just as the Qing army was attacking Jianye, Guo Ziyi’s forces were fighting battle after battle at the Huai River region. Not only taking back Huai An and Tongzhu, but he even suppressed Gao Jie’s forces.

The remaining Huang Degong and Liu Zeqing forces, upon learning that Dodo’s troops were wiped out, did not put up any unneeded resistance. Ouyang Shuo believed that Guo Ziyi could control these three generals well.

The four generals of Jiangbei had around 50 thousand troops each. After a few small battles, more or less they would have some losses, but their main force was still unharmed.

Even without Zhang Xianzhong’s Great Xi helping out, the Ming Dynasty had a total of 400 thousand troops. With such a huge army, it was enough to head toward Yanjing to reclaim their lost land.

…

10th day of the Battle Map.

Abatai led his remaining troops, rushing through the night to escape back to Yangzhou City.

Out of the 150 thousand troops that left, only 50 thousand remained. The remaining were buried outside the Jianye battlefield, and even the south conquering main general was killed.

This was undoubtedly a huge blow to the Qing army. The entire army felt lost, and they were not as confident and pumped up as when they left.

Di Chen, who was defending Yangzhou, got the news a day ago. Although he had expected it, he still felt quite shocked when he learned that the Qing army had actually fallen.

Think about it from another perspective.

Even if the 100 thousand Great Zhou army defended Jianye, they would not be able to obtain such stellar results.

“Military God Li Jing?”

Desire flashed in his eyes as well as jealousy. He was jealous. Why had so many famous God Generals joined Great Xia and not him?

Out of the 10 famous generals of China, just Great Xia alone had 6.

The only God General Great Zhou Dynasty had was Wuqi. Even so, Wuqi was not truly his and was loyal to Xiong Ba.

The only person that Di Chen could totally trust and rely on was Lianpo.

Obviously, he was jealous.

But jealousy aside, he did not lose his mind. The problem in front of him now was how should he choose.

Of course, he could lead his troops and leave and get away from the war.

However, he was not willing to just walk away. Not only would he not get anything if he did so, but it would also spoil his relationship with Qing Dynasty.

But if he stayed and fight, what were his chances of winning?

Yangzhou definitely could not be defended. Only by immediately retreating to the north and waiting for Dorgon to move more troops could the two sides have a true final battle.

Chapter 1082 - Dorgon's Fury

In the end, Di Chen chose to give it a gamble.

However, the moment Abatai entered the city, he pointed at Di Chen and chided, “Bastard slave, why did you not assist when you see our troops losing at the frontlines?”

Abatai’s words were unreasonable to the max.

Dodo had personally ordered Di Chen to defend Yangzhou. The Battle of Jianye happened at night, and Yangzhou and Jianye were hundreds of miles apart. Even if Di Chen wanted to assist, he would not be able to make it in time.

Abatai was venting his frustration from the defeat onto Di Chen.

Di Chen had his own temper. Toward Dodo, Di Chen was still polite, but toward Abatai, Di Chen did not care. He said in a low tone, “Mind your words.”

“What a slave, you still dare to talk back?” Abatai blew up.

If Di Chen did not say anything, Abatai would have just let the matter slide. However, Di Chen’s attitude had totally infuriated Abatai.

Since the Qing army passed Shanhai Pass, there was no Han Chinese that dared to talk to them like that.

Abatai said without thinking, “Men, drag down this dog slave and give him 30 whips.”

“Yes general!”

Abatai’s personal troops were about to go up to capture Di Chen.

“Who dares?”

Lianpo, who was standing behind Di Chen, hollered. With a ‘Shua!’, instantly groups of Great Zhou palace guards arrived. In the blink of an eye, Abatai and his Personal Guards were surrounded.

Both sides drew their swords and pointed their bows at one another.

When Abatai saw that, his expression changed. Only then did he remember that Yangzhou city housed 100 thousand player troops. On the contrary, only 50 thousand Qing troops remained.

If they really fought, the Qing army would end up in total defeat.

However, if he gave in like that, he would lose all his face. Being in a tough situation, Abatai’s face flushed red. Compared to Dodo, Abatai was just too inexperienced and too rash.

From the start till now, Di Chen was expressionless and was really calm.

Seeing Abatai’s awkward expression, only then did Di Chen speak, “Remember, I am here to work with your army, and I’m not your slave. As long as I want to, none of you will walk out of Yangzhou today.”

“What do you want?” Abatai retorted.

Di Chen shook his head in amusement, “It is not what I want but what the enemy wants. The Ming army is on their way here, yet we are still fighting amongst ourselves. What’s the point? Are you not afraid of being laughed at.”

Seeing that, Abatai asked, “What you’re saying is?”

“Retreat!”

Di Chen explained simply, “We will not be able to defend Yangzhou. As for what decision we should make, we must seek advice from the Prince Regent.”

“Okay!”

Abatai nodded, but the anger in his heart had not truly dissipated.

After coordinating everything, Di Chen and Abatai’s forces did not waste any time and left Yangzhou. It was not that Di Chen was too anxious. Rather, it was that if Guo Ziyi blocked their way up north, they would not be able to go anywhere even if they wanted to.

…

Along with the Qing army retreating out of Yangzhou, the entire Battle Map entered its second phase.

Li Jing was really stable and calm. After leading the troops into Yangzhou, he was not in a rush to head up north. Instead, he liaised with Guo Ziyi’s forces to totally take control of the Huai River region and reclaim lost land to ensure the safety of Jianye.

Only by taking down Huai River could the Ming army have the foundation and ability to fight an all-out war against the Qing army.

On the 13th day of the Battle Map, upon learning that the South Ming army not only took back Yangzhou but also cleared out the Huai River region, Great Xi emperor Zhang Xianzhong finally replied.

Both sides agreed, “After three days, officially proceed up north.”

…

Yanjing.

The fall of Dodo’s forces was a huge loss for Dorgon.

Different from history, in the Battle Map, after wiping out Great Shun, apart from the 100 thousand Dodo troops and the 50 thousand Abatai forces, the Qing Dynasty still had 400 thousand troops in the north.

Their army make up was comparatively complicated.

The most elite ones were the eight banner army, being split up into the Man eight banner, Meng eight banner, and Han eight banner. The Man eight banner army was made up of mainly Manchu cavalry at around 50 thousand. The Meng eight banner army were Mongol cavalry with around 50 thousand men.

As for the Han eight banner, it included Wu Sangui’s army as well as the Great Ming army that surrendered, reaching a total of 150 thousand men.

The last portion were prisoners that the Qing army had captured when sweeping the north, and it included the remnants of the Great Shun army.

Apart from the Man and Meng eight banner armies, the other 300 thousand troops had their own problems, which was why Dorgon did not arrange them down south and kept them in the north.

However, he could not care so much anymore.

Dorgon saw through the entire situation. He knew that with their 150 thousand elites, to control the entire situation was like walking on thin ice.

If the battle went smoothly, their foundations would only become more and more stable.

But if it went badly, and the enemy saw their weakness, it might cause a chain reaction and bury the entire Great Qing.

The fall of Dodo’s forces might have been such a spark.

The reason was that Dodo’s forces were the absolute core of the Qing army. Out of the 100 thousand of them, 50 thousand were Man eight banner cavalry.

It was such an elite army that lost utterly outside of Jianye, getting one shot by the player army and revealing the weakness of the Qing army.

Compared to the dead 100 thousand troops, this was more lethal.

“It’s difficult.”

Dorgon was at a lost all of a sudden.

For starters, he was worried that Di Chen and his troops would leave Great Qing.

The strength of the players were on full display during the Battle of Jianye. At such a time, Di Chen’s 100 thousand troops seemed more and more precious.

Luckily, the following good news made him heave a sigh of relief.

Di Chen did not abandon Great Qing and even showed magnanimity. Even after being humiliated by Abatai, he made the rational decision of leading his troops up north.

When he got the news, Dorgon special wrote a decree to praise Di Chen and rewarded him.

Toward Abatai, he was furious. “That idiot, he nearly cost us dearly. Why did Dodo die and not this idiot!”

Dorgon was already prepared to take away power from Abatai to calm down Di Chen.

It was easy to deal with smart people.

Di Chen’s plot finally gained results. Taking the chance that Dorgon was trying to get into his good books, Di Chen raised a small request, which was that he wanted a personal item and a letter from Shunzhi Emperor.

With these two items, once the battle ended, no matter which Qing Dynasty emperor moved into Jingdu, he would owe Di Chen a huge favor.

That would make everything much easier.

At this stage, no matter what the final results of the Battle Map were, it would not matter because Di Chen had reached his goal. This also meant that before the final battle, he was at a position where he would not lose either way.

Such scheming was really exceptional.

Chapter 1083 - Scheming Calculations

Even with the help of Di Chen’s forces, Dorgon had to consider one problem, “Facing the counterattack of the Ming Dynasty camp, should the Qing army strike out or choose a suitable location for a final battle?”

Both were difficult.

If they struck out, as the Ming Dynasty army used many attack tactics, the Qing army would need to split up, adding a lot of risk to the battle.

No matter which army fell in the end, it was not something that the Qing army could accept.

If they were to choose to have a final battle, it was like taking a gamble. The problem was if the Ming army would arrive at the place they chose.

Naturally, they would not.

The north was really vast, and Ming Dynasty could go around the target city up north to take Yanjing. If that happened, the Qing army would be in an awkward position where they could not go forward or backward.

“This cannot do, that cannot do either.”

Dorgon was really in a pickle. What made him feel a headache was that along with the news that the Qing army was destroyed in Jianye spreading out, the north was starting to be unstable and small riots have already started.

It was not hard to see why.

In history, in the process of unifying China, apart from fighting the Great Shun, South Ming, and Great Xi armies, there was also another power that played an important role. They were the people revolting.

The two massacres of Jiading were a typical example. Even after their city was wiped out, the Jiading people showed no fear and would start a rebellion whenever they had a chance.

This was the Han race backbone on full display.

Even after the Qing Dynasty unified China, the flames of civilian revolt were not extinguished.

Seeing that the Qing army was facing problems in Jianye, the Southern Alliance Army started to counterattack. The Han race people in the north obviously felt their blood boil, and it reignited the flames of anti Qing.

Especially under the original Great Shun regime, these resistances were much stronger.

The entire north situation was looking really unstable. If the Qing Dynasty faced another loss in their battle against the Ming army, the entire northern land would explode, and the Qing Dynasty foundations would collapse.

To say that Great Qing was in a precarious situation could not be closer to the truth.

And as the captain of this ship, most of the pressure was on Dorgon.

Thinking about it, he made a bold decision. That was to stop resisting and allow the Ming army to enter; he wanted to have a final fight at Yanjing.

“This was called driving someone into a fatal position, and he will come out alive.”

After eliminating all other possibilities, this was the only feasible plan.

The current Qing army did not have much fighting ability and could not fight the Ming army whilst crushing the rebellions. Rather than that, why not take a gamble and go all in?

In the Battle of Yanjing, if the Qing army lost, then naturally everything would be over. They were less skilled than their enemy, and there was nothing to be said about that. But if the Qing army took the win, they could use this win to sweep China once more.

The Qing army was able to sweep the mid plains once, so they would be able to do it twice.

The key was to crush this menacing Southern Alliance Army and totally crush the hopes of the Han Chinese.

One had to say, for Dorgon to be able to lead and rule so well in such a chaotic time showed that he had exceptional qualities. Not only did he have a sharp eye, but he could also grasp onto the key points in a desperate situation. Moreover, he was really bold and trusted in his own judgement, daring to give up on the gains he had obtained.

One could imagine how huge of an uproar this caused amongst the Imperial Court. To make the Manchuria nobles give up on the juicy piece of meat that had just entered their mouths, Dorgon was bearing a lot of pressure.

Even so, he would persist.

He had other reasons for choosing to have the final battle at Yanjing.

One must not look at how high the morale the Southern Alliance Army was, as internally, it was even more complicated than the Qing army. The player army, the Jiangdong four generals, Great Shun as well as Great Xi troops were tangled up with one another.

When they shared a common enemy and a target, they would be able to unite and go up against the Qing army.

However, what if that enemy was gone?

When the northern land was placed defenseless in front of all of them, would they not become selfish and start thinking for themselves? They definitely would.

Not mentioning the others, Zhang Xianzhong, who was a peasant uprising leader, definitely would not be able to resist the urge.

If Zhang Xianzhong was tempted, the Great Shun forces would follow closely behind. They would not follow instructions and would instead crazily occupy land to try to reclaim Great Shun territory.

These two powers were the core to usurping the Ming Dynasty, so why would they not be tempted by the northern land? Maybe even before the final battle, they would all start fighting amongst themselves.

Even to say that at that point, the Jiangbei four generals might be wrapped up amongst all that.

As they say, ‘Once Ming loses their position as the absolute ruler, everyone else will snatch for it.”

The moment that Chongzhen Emperor died, the Ming Dynasty was not the true ruler of China anymore. The South Ming regime was just a newly born regime and did not represent the Ming Dynasty.

When Li Zicheng attacked Yanjing and established the Great Shun country, he lived as the proper ruler of China.

If not, the Great Shun army would not have hesitated when they retreated against the Qing army, acting exactly the same as when they had tried to overthrow the Ming Dynasty.

The Great Shun army at that time swept the entire Ming Dynasty territory, doing as they wished without any hesitation.

Zhang Xianzhong was like that too.

After establishing Great Xi, his attitude changed greatly. Before establishing the country, he was just a rogue in the Ming Dynasty and naturally did not have much to worry about.

After establishing the country, he was the ruler of that land.

Since he was the ruler, he naturally had the responsibility to protect the land. Hence, when the Qing army attacked Great Xi, he retaliated without hesitation and did not give up.

This was the difference that status and identity made.

If the Qing Dynasty took the initiative to give up on the northern land, be it Great Xi or Great Shun, what reason would they have to not take it under their rule?

Even Hongguang emperor in Jianye would do something.

“What that happens, it would be really interesting!” Just thinking about that scene, Dorgon could not help but smile.

One had to say that Dorgon’s plan was truly a masterstroke.

With that, not only could the Qing army gather up all their troops in one spot, but they could also split up the Southern Alliance Army and make them collapse.

When they turned upon themselves, that would be when the Qing army would strike out.

The entire plan was closely connected and saw through the hearts and minds of people. As expected from Dorgon!

The current Dorgon looked out at the south and muttered, “Speaking of which, I’m really looking forward to it.”

Chapter 1084 - Self-intoxicated

16th day of the Battle Map.

Based on the agreement, the 400 thousand Southern Alliance Army would split into three and enter Qing Dynasty land together.

On the west, Great Xi Emperor Zhang Xianzhong personally led 120 thousand Great Xi troops to obtained Xi An before going up north to attack Shaanxi.

Zhang Xianzhong was more determined than Ouyang Shuo had expected, directly sending out 120 thousand troops, practically going all out.

On the east, Guo Ziyi led the 90 thousand blazing legion corps along with the 30 thousand Great Shun and 60 thousand South Ming troops, a total of 180 thousand to attack Shandong.

In the middle, Li Jing led the 60 thousand Great Xia Guards Legion Corps along with 30 thousand Great Shun and 60 thousand South Ming troops to attack Henan.

The three armies would gather at the capital.

Due to there being lesser rivers in the north, it was not suitable for navy battle, which was why Zhou Yu and the Emperor Squadron did not go up north. The three thousand Divine Martial Guards would remain in Jianye to protect Ouyang Shuo.

Before leaving, Li Jing’s forces and Guo Ziyi’s forces had met at Yangzhou.

After their two armies met up, Li Jing reorganized the forces to mainly take back all the Guards Legion Corps troops to reform a legion.

Apart from that, it would be to reorganize the Great Shun and South Ming armies.

Since Dorgon could see the weakness of the Alliance Army, Li Jing obviously could too.

Let’s not mention the Great Xi army in the west, as after all, they were quite far away. The 120 thousand South Ming troops under the Jiangbei four generals, along with the coordination of Li Jing and Guo Ziyi used the chance where the rested in Yangzhou to reorganize the troops and arrange batches of Great Xia and Fallen Phoenix City Generals into the South Ming army.

With that, it raised the control Li Jing had over the South Ming army.

The 60 thousand Great Shun troops were also divided by Li Jing and sent to the middle and east armies. Although the Great Shun general was unhappy about it, he had expressed his loyalty to Ouyang Shuo, so naturally, he could not take back his words.

Just like that, Li Jing had grabbed the opportunity after the big victory at Jianye to use the player army as the core to rebuild the east and middle armies. This would greatly reduce the chances of an internal struggle.

At the same time, it reduced the chances of the South Ming and Great Shun armies acting on their own and not following orders.

…

After the reorganization, the three armies immediately set off for their targets.

During this period, the 400 thousand Qing army placed around the north all backed off and headed for Yanjing.

All of a sudden, the northern paths were filled with Qing army troops, with dust and smoke bellowing.

The abnormal actions of the Qing army was quickly caught by the sharp civilians and rumors spread. Some people said, “The Qing army is afraid, backing off without fighting. They are prepared to back off.”

The descriptions of the Southern Alliance Army were also becoming more and more exaggerated.

In the morning, they said it was 500 thousand, and then it became 700 thousand. In the evening, before night had set in, rumors spread that it was a million strong army.

It was getting more and more exaggerated.

However, the civilians believed it. Those bold ones had already taken out their hammers and knives and gathered at secret locations. Those timid ones only dared to talk, and then watch on from the sides.

No matter who it was, the way they looked at the Manchu people was greatly different from before. Everyone just stared at them, not saying any words, but it was enough to scare the Manchu people such that they peed their pants.

Especially the Manchu nobles, who had bullied the civilians daily. They were so afraid that they did not dare to come out of their homes, and some even fled behind the Qing army.

That night, there were civilians who armed themselves and charged at the government offices to kill the Qing Dynasty officials.

Ironically, these officials were mostly Han Chinese. After the Qing army showed their strength and grew larger, their greed for status or their desire to protect their family made them become the slaves of the Manchurians.

Amongst which, a very large portion were former Great Ming officials.

Toward these officials, the locals were not soft on them, killing them all. Even their families were not let off as the people’s eyes turned red from all the killing.

When the true Manchurian officials got the news, they left under the protection of the Qing army.

Riots and chaos were often so blind and gory. Starting from the south, the north that had just calmed down had blood red circles dyed from blood appear.

These circles linked together and formed a thick red line.

This line slowly spread from south to north.

“Everything is changing!”

Along with the Qing army swiftly fleeing, the resistance grew more and more intense. When the Southern Alliance Army entered the north, what they faced was not an intense resistance but the civilians opening up the city gates and welcoming them.

Huge groups of people.

The bustling scenes stunned everyone.

“Did we go to the wrong place?” Some soldiers muttered. All of a sudden, they did not know what to do.

Just like that, the three armies followed the route that the Qing army retreated in to take down city after city without spending much effort.

Hanzhong, Xi An, Tong Pass…

Guide, Kaifeng, Qinzhou…

Wherever the army went, the people surrendered. As things were too smooth, it appeared really unrealistic.

For the first two to three days, the army was still wary and afraid that the enemy would catch them by surprise. But as time went on, they slowly relaxed.

Once the spies told them the confirmed news, the army finally calmed down.

“There’s no need to doubt anymore. The Qing army really retreated!”

After confirming the intel, be it middle army commander Li Jing or east army commander Guo Ziyi, their expressions were complicated. They did not show any happiness at all. Instead, they were really solemn.

“There’s definitely something up.”

On the contrary, the Great Shun and South Ming soldiers were all delighted. It was like they had fought an exceptional battle, their backs straighter than the next.

The civilians cheered for them on the streets, and girls looked at them warmly. Victory after victory got to their heads and ground at their mental strength, clouding their judgment.

At the back, they really treated themselves as invincible soldiers.

At the start, facing the cheers, they were confused, “We are heroes?”

“That’s right, we are heroes!”

Now their replies were without hesitation and were filled with firm belief.

As things went too smoothly, and the atmosphere was too bustling, the discipline started to relax and the soldiers became scattered. They had lost their motivation and did not travel as fast.

They had started to become full of themselves.

…

At the same time, Zhang Xianzhong was feeling really complicated in his heart.

Chapter 1085 - Zhang Xianzhong's Ambition

Shaanxi, Xi An.

To protect the Great Xi country, before leaving, Zhang Xianzhong was even prepared to have an all-in battle. But after the north conquest began, the things progress totally differently from what he had expected.

Never in his dreams would he expect that the Great Xi army would take down Xi An in just five days. This was the old city that belonged to Great Shun.

Even when the Great Xi army moved into Xi An, Zhang Xianzhong was still a little stunned.

When he moved into the majestic palace of Xi An, Zhang Xianzhong finally came to his senses. He realized that a great chance was placed in front of Great Xi.

His ambition to rule China had once again risen up.

“Nothing is impossible.”

Zhan Xianzhong sat on the ice-cold throne and thought about it for an entire night before finally making a decision. The next morning, he ordered that apart from 30 thousand troops left to defend Xi An, the remaining would spread out.

“To claim territory!”

Zhang Xianzhong did not bother to hide his desire for territory. He directly told the generals, “Go all out, take all the territory you can into Great Xi rule.”

“Yes!”

When the Great Xi generals got the order, they were really pumped up as they led their troops out.

Zhang Xianzhong took charge of Xi An, calming down the civilians while contacting his country to let the Imperial Court send officials over to help him run it.

He was already planning to move the capital of Great Xi over.

“Qing army backing off, the north does not have a ruler. It’s the best time for Great Xi to rise up.” Zhang Xianzhong was filled with confidence.

…

Henan, Kaifeng.

Two days after the west army took down Xi An, the middle army successfully moved into Kaifeng.

Li Jing did not lead the troops into the city. Instead, they camped outside of the city. The 60 thousand Guards Legion Corps troops were like the most loyal soldiers who guarded the middle army barracks.

Night fell.

However, the commander tent’s light was still brightly lit, and under the flickering candle was Li Jing’s freckled and old face.

Li Jing was facing a tough question.

Ever since the army entered Henan, signs had started to sprout out.

At the start, the Great Shun and South Ming soldiers only lacked punctuality or were lazy in their traveling speed. They did not dare to actually go against Li Jing.

As time went on, the soldiers became bolder and bolder.

Some did not return to camp at night and were drunk in the inns, and some were corrupt and accepted bribes from civilians or nobles.

There were even some who directly brought prostitutes into the camp.

Their discipline was really lax.

Li Jing took counter measures right away, using the Guards Legion Corps to form a military law unit. He captured a bunch of them, either caning them or executing them.

No chances were given to those who went against the rules.

As a general, Li Jing knew the importance of military discipline and would not go soft on that. If not, and this continued to develop, the entire army would collapse without fighting.

The moment the army became too relaxed, to gather them up and raise their spirits would be really difficult.

After killing and beating a few examples, the discipline did show some improvement, and the bad signs were actually suppressed.

However, Li Jing did not think of it that way.

“They act like they accept it, but deep down, they do not.”

In the end, they were not Great Xia soldiers, so why would they allow Li Jing to do whatever he wished with them?

Especially the Great Shun army. Since the start, they treated themselves as reinforcements and did not feel that they were under Li Jing. If he was too strict on them, it might actually backfire.

If it were not for the 60 thousand Guards Legion Corps troops taking charge, things might have gotten out of hand already.

The Great Shun army was a peasant uprising army. From the generals to the soldiers, they were all used to pillaging and killing. They could not resist the temptation of jewelry and food.

Being restrained by Li Jing naturally made them feel really uncomfortable.

The current camp was like a huge barrel of gunpowder, and it was just one spark away from exploding.

What Zhang Xianzhong was doing in Shaanxi was that spark. When the Great Shun generals learned of the matter, that Zhang Xianzhong had actually shamelessly occupied Xi An, they were furious.

“Bastard, that is our land!”

The generals all flushed red with anger; it was like a piece of their flesh was taken away from them. They had forgotten that just a few months ago, they were being chased away by the Qing army and were in a terrible state.

Along with Li Zicheng dying, Shaanxi did not have anything to do with Great Shun.

The Great Shun generals did not think that way, “There are some things that we can bear and some that we cannot!” Immediately, they told Li Jing about it and hoped for him to step up and mediate.

“Chase Zhang Xianzhong out of Shaanxi!”

Li Jing was only the commander of the middle army, and this matter involved territory disputes, so how would he be able to stop it?

Furthermore, the Great Xi army was just cooperating with South Ming to attack the north. They were not his subordinates, and if Zheng Xianzhong wanted to, he could use the letter written by Li Jing to wipe his ass.

“Since the general cannot handle it, then we will solve it ourselves.”

Same as the Great Xi army, peasant uprisings like Great Shun adhered to the, ‘Whose fist is bigger is one that makes more sense’ theory. Since one could not use logic with the other, they could only use force to handle it.

The Great Shun army immediately asked to fight, hoping for the army to switch over to Shaanxi to reclaim their territory.

Li Jing obviously did not agree. If they really allowed the Great Shun army to leave, and both sides engaged in Shaanxi, would there still be a conquering of the north?

One wanted to leave, while the other needed to force them to stay.

Both sides quarreled unpleasantly in the commander tent, and the atmosphere was nervous to the maximum.

In the end, maybe due to the strength of the Guards Legion Corps, the Great Shun generals left the commander tent fuming. From then onward, they did not bring up this matter until the army entered Kaifeng.

Li Jing knew that this matter definitely was not over.

As expected, that night, Li Jing received bad news.

Under the night sky, the 30 thousand Great Shun troops left the camp and disappeared into the wilderness. It was obvious that they were going toward Xi An.

If it were not for the Guards Legion Corps taking control, the entire camp would have exploded. When the news spread to the South Ming camp, there was an uproar that only faded very late into the night.

“Commander, should I lead troops to chase them back?” Er’Lai asked.

Under the light of the candles, Li Jing’s expression became really unclear. After pausing for a long time, he shook his head, “Let them leave, even if we chase them back, they would still escape.”

“….”

Er’Lai did not know what he should do.

The Great Shun army was determined to leave. As a result, no matter what, they would not be able to make them stay. Even if they did stay, it would leave behind a huge problem.

“I need to write a letter to the king.”

Li Jing realized that this battle had been greatly affected.

Chapter 1086 - Occupying Land

Just as the huge change happened with the middle army, Guo Ziyi with the east army was also facing similar problems. Maybe there was an explanation for the Great Shun army in the middle army showing less of an effort.

It was like both Great Shun armies had planned it beforehand, leaving the camp at the same time and disappearing into the wilderness. One could foresee that this sudden storm would wrap up Shaanxi and even the entire north.

Within a night, the 120 thousand Great Xi army was busy claiming land in Shaanxi, totally not caring about the north conquest. The 60 thousand Great Shun army similarly showed little foresight and was following behind the dust of the Great Xi army.

The Southern Alliance Army was about to collapse.

Being influenced by this, the 120 thousand South Ming troops were showing signs of being unstable. If it were not for Li Jing seeing this coming and restructuring the soldiers of the Jiangbei four generals, replacing people with his trusted soldiers, the outcome would be catastrophic.

The bait that Dorgon threw out successfully messed up the Southern Alliance Army.

The stirring northern conquest was not even halfway completed and layers of thick dark clouds already hung over it.

……

Capital City, Yanjing.

Dorgon looked at the intel, and the corner of his smile revealed a slight smile.

When Ajige standing at the side saw this, he smiled, “Should it be time for us to act and lead the troops to retreat back to the Capital City?” Ajige felt really wronged, and he was eager to fight back.

“No!”

Dorgon kept his smile, and his expression instantly became solemn, “Now is not the time. After Great Xi and Great Shun engage and Li Jing is unable to clean up the mess, that would be when we act.”

The Qing army had a good analysis of choosing when to strike.

Too early, and it was easy to reveal their intentions and cause the Southern Alliance Army to gather together once more; too late, and the pressure from the Manchu nobles would increase. If it exploded, the results would be unimaginable.

The grasp of time tested the standard of the commander.

Dorgon was really clear-headed, “Send my orders for various troops not to act. Without my orders, no soldiers can be sent. If not, do not blame me for flipping and for being heartless.”

“Yes!”

Ajige was not afraid of the heavens or of hell; he only respected Dorgon.

“To succeed, one must be patient and bear the pressure.” Dorgon looked at the skies above the south sky, and his gaze looked unhurried. His understanding of Confucian classic words was really worthy of praise.

…

Within Jianye City, there was one person who felt really complicated in his heart, and he could not sleep at night. This person was not the Prince Regent Ouyang Shuo but the South Ming master by name – Hongguang emperor.

There was no emperor who truly had no ambition.

Since the Battle of Jianye ended, and they started the north conquering, Hongguang Emperor’s heart had been burning up. He felt that this was a sacred mission that the heavens were giving him – return me my Great Ming land.

If there was no hope then so be it.

However, when he saw the chance of restoring the glory of the country, his heart was not as calm anymore. Every victory on the frontlines could make the Hongguang emperor really emotional, as it meant that they were getting closer and closer to the target.

“Your highness, the situation is great, and the Qing army is being forced back. The Alliance Army is invincible wherever they go. They are going to arrive under Yanjing City soon,” said the reporting eunuch.

Yanjing was the land that the Hongguang Emperor dreamt on trampling.

There were the foundations left by the ancestors, far more prosperous than Jianye with a really majestic palace.

The Hongguang emperor was drowning in the bliss.

But the news spreading out during these past few days made the Hongguang Emperor really uneasy and also really unhappy, “How did this happen? How did the north conquering mission become an internal battle?”

Hongguang Emperor could not understand.

He felt hate.

He hated Zhang Xianzhong’s greed, and he hated the Great Shun army for stepping out of hand.

“Traitors are still traitors in the end; a leopard cannot change its spot.” The Hongguang Emperor realized that they could not let this continue. The South Ming army could not allow these two groups of people to pick up easy pickings whilst the South Ming army was fighting on the frontlines.

Hence, the Hongguang emperor sent a secret order to the South Ming general behind Ouyang Shuo’s back, “For the current north conquering, encircling the city is the top priority and sieging is second. Try to occupy land in the north and not let the traitors take advantage of us. Remember it, remember this.”

It was this secret order that riled up the South Ming army and added a lot of problems for Li Jing and Guo Ziyi. The South Ming army generals had the emperor supporting them, so they spoke with gusto.

The human heart was hard to predict.

Apart from sending the order to the frontlines, the Hongguang emperor was slowly becoming more and more active in the Imperial Court, using the officials close to him to plan the Northern Territory matters.

In the end, Hongguang Emperor was still wary of Ouyang Shuo, this Prince Regent, but he did not make it too obvious.

No matter what, the Imperial Court was slowly changing. Furthermore, sending officials to reclaim lost land was a normal matter and helped to calm down local problems.

Ouyang Shuo had no reason to interfere.

In truth, Ouyang Shuo did not interfere and was just a bystander from start to finish.

If it were him of three years ago, when he faced such a tough problem, he might show some emotion. Now, Ouyang Shuo had trained up, becoming stone hearted. He was unmoved like a mountain.

Prince Regent manor.

The letters from Li Jing and Guo Ziyi had arrived a day ago.

In truth, long before the north conquering, Jia Xu had made various sorts of deductions. Although Dorgon’s strategy was really bold, in the end, it was quite predictable.

Facing such a situation, there was naturally a solution.

“In the end, they are a bunch of untalented and useless people.” Ouyang Shuo shook his head in disappointment.

In history, it was not without reason that the Qing Dynasty was able to rule China.

Great Xi, Great Shun, and South Ming were all shortsighted, busy fighting amongst themselves right when they saw a little bit of benefit. How could they be better than the Qing Dynasty, which was rising up like the sun?

Luckily, Ouyang Shuo had not put all their hopes on them.

Before the start of the north conquering, with the help of Jia Xu, Ouyang Shuo designed two strategies. If Great Xi and Great Shun did not do anything out of hand, it would naturally be for the best, and they would just make their way to Yanjing.

That would be the best outcome.

In this scenario, they would use the 450 thousand Southern Alliance Army with Li Jing at the command. Along with the entire land as a shield, no matter how well Dorgon prepared, Ouyang Shuo had confidence about surrounding Yanjing to finally take down this Battle Map.

A lone city was hard to defend; that was the law of the military.

The other method could be called an emergency one. Ouyang Shuo naturally could not hold high hopes for uprising soldiers like Zhang Xianzhong.

At the crucial moment, he still had to rely on the player forces.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo did not hope to rely on just the Guards Legion Corps and the blazing legion corps to take down Yanjing. That would not be confidence but arrogance.

Desperate times called for desperate measures.

Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo looked at Feng Qiuhuang and smiled, “I’ll leave Jianye to you!”

“Do not worry and go!” Feng Qiuhuang nodded.

Chapter 1087 - Special Sneak Attack

24th day of the Battle Map.

Prince Regent Ouyang Shuo and the three thousand Divine Martial Guards suddenly disappeared from Jianye.

At the same time, Player Feng Qiuhuang, who had been hiding, suddenly walked onto the front stage and replaced Ouyang Shuo. She started to take charge of the Jianye Imperial Court situation whilst being in charge of frontline resources and army matters.

Beside her were two thousand Fallen Phoenix City Personal Guards.

…

25th day of the Battle Map.

On the vast ocean surface, the Great Xia Emperor Squadron rode the waves forward.

On the deck of The Emperor, Ouyang Shuo stood firm as he looked out at the vast ocean and asked, “How many more days before the squadron reaches the Bohai Sea?”

Bohai Sea, the North Sea, was a portion of the Pacific. It was the inner river of China, located between Liao Ning, Hebei, Shan Dong, and Tianjing.

They went to Bohai River because of one pass.

This pass was located north of Yiyan Mountain, and its south connected to the Bohai Sea, which was why it was called Shanhai Pass.

Zhou Yu replied, “My king, the squadron is riding along with the wind, and if things proceed smoothly, we will arrive the day after at the latest.”

“Great!”

Ouyang Shuo was really pumped up and could not help but feel a little excited.

Shanhai Pass had the name of being the top pass in the world. It was built during Zhu Yuanzhang’s reign and was a key area to when the Qing army entered the land, which was why it was really meaningful.

After the Great Shun and Great Xi armies changed their plans, Ouyang Shuo immediately activated the backup plan. He went down Changjiang to meet up with the Emperor Squadron and entered the ocean.

Ouyang Shuo’s goal was to take down Shanhai Pass and break the only way back for the Qing army.

Since Dorgon was determined to not engage the Southern Alliance Army too early, Ouyang Shuo decided to force his hand.

After taking down Shanhai Pass, Ouyang Shuo did not mind taking a stroll outside of it.

Although the Qing Dynasty had shifted to Yanjing a year ago, outside of it, many Manchurians and even royal blood ones lived in their old capital, Shenyang. This was the foundations of the Qing Dynasty.

If their foundations were under siege, Ouyang Shuo did not believe that Dorgon would not be anxious.

Even if Dorgon could keep calm, the Manchu nobles would not agree to it.

…

Zhongyuan.

While Ouyang Shuo led troops up north, Li Jing and Guo Ziyi were not slacking around. After Li Jing led troops down to attack Kaifeng, he stopped going up north and rested on the spot.

Guo Ziyi’s forces chose to rest up at Jinan.

Using this time, both of them strengthened their control over the South Ming army. They kicked out the unstable or unskilled generals and promoted some that could fight well.

Gao Jie, Huo Degong, and Liu Liangzuo; these were all skilled people, and their forces did not lack skilled soldiers like Li Dingguo and Sun Kewang.

To promote these generals had many evident pros.

First, they were not outsiders and the South Ming soldiers would not oppose them. Secondly, they were good at war and were once main generals of various armies, so they were able to adapt quickly.

Even to say that the promotion of these generals helped raise the morale of the South Ming soldiers.

As for the reason behind the promotion, it was easy to find. The Alliance Army soldiers had won successive battles, so naturally they should be rewarded. The methods that Li Jing and Guo Ziyi used showed their intellect.

They did not directly demote the other generals. Instead, they promoted them into chief generals of governors. It looked like a promotion, but it was instead used as a chance to kick them out of the army.

Those generals who were kicked out were also really happy about it.

In their eyes, the occupied land was already South Ming territory, and it naturally needed people to defend it. Coincidentally, they also got the secret message from the Hongguang emperor to let them occupy territory, so everything linked up. As a result, they agreed.

Since they were chief generals, they needed men to lead.

This was also easy to settle. As the Qing army had left, and the local civilians had armed themselves, they became the best choice. To organize all of them together helped to stabilize the backlines.

Apart from the civilians arming up, every city the army passed, there would be huge amounts of hot blood young men who signed up.

These two points ensured that there were enough troops.

Even to say that Li Jing and Guo Ziyi could choose a batch of really hot blood soldiers to throw into the Ming army whilst kicking out some who lacked skill.

With that, both of them not only took total control of the South Ming army and wiped out the hidden problems, but they also improved the combat strength and unity of the army.

As for the Hongguang emperor, to him, since there was territory to claim, he did not mind these details. And no matter how the South Ming army changed, they were still under South Ming rule.

Hence, all sides were naturally happy.

Although Great Shun leaving and Great Xi not cooperating had in fact impacted the Southern Alliance Army, after this round of adjustment, their overall strength did not drop by too much.

This was the magic of reorganization.

If Dorgon misjudged the strength of the Southern Alliance Army and struck out now, be it the middle army or the east army, they would give the Qing army a huge surprise.

…

As they were busy reorganizing the army, in the next few days, the north appeared a little too calm. The first to explode was Shaanxi on the west instead.

26th day of the Battle Map.

60 thousand Great Shun troops traveled quickly and finally entered the Shaanxi land, bumping into the Great Xi army that was extending their territory.

No unneeded words were said as both armies directly fought one another.

At the start, as the Great Shun army gathered together whilst the Great Xi army was scattered around, in terms of numbers, the Great Shun army had the advantage and won a few battles.

After the victory, the Great Shun army was really pumped up and headed right for Xi An.

Receiving the news, Zhang Xianzhong, who was in Xi An, reacted and started to gather up troops and unhappily said, “Scoff, a bunch of cowards actually dare to act bold in front of me.”

If Li Zicheng was still alive, Zhang Xianzhong would have naturally let out Xi An. But what was the current Great Shun army? A bunch of remnant troops.

Toward these people, why would Zhang Xianzhong bother about them?

If the Great Shun army chose a stable method and ate slowly away at Shaanxi to increase their influence and strength, they would be able to gather up a huge army to go up against the Great Xi army.

When that happened, the victor of the battle would be really uncertain.

However, the Great Shun army was too arrogant.

After a few victories, the Great Shun army was so arrogant that they lost sight of themselves and did not even rest up before heading right for Xi An. Their tracks were totally exposed in front of Zhang Xianzhong.

Seeing that, he started to quietly spread his net and wait for the Great Shun army to take the bait.

Chapter 1088 - Taking down Shanhai Pass

Chapter 1088: Taking down Shanhai Pass

The Great Shun army got baited in the end.

On the 29th day of the Battle Map, just as the Great Shun army got close to Xi An, under the personal commanding of Zhang Xianzhong, with 120 thousand Great Xi troops as the main force, along with the 60 thousand local armed civilians and 20 thousand newbies, they surrounded the Great Shun army.

The following battle was intense and brutal.

The surrounded Great Shun army was resolute and did not surrender. They chose to defend the final honor of Great Shun, and they fought Great Xi with determination.

This battle lasted till the sky changed color.

Based on the memories of the survivors, the dusk that day looked really evil, fresh red like blood. The countless number of corpses were like malt, spread all around, looking really terrifying.

Both sides suffered heavy casualties.

Needless to say, apart from the 10 thousand that surrendered, the remaining Great Shun soldiers died in battle. The Great Xi army had it tough. Not mentioning the costs for hiring the new troops, but 15 thousand of the 120 thousand elites died too.

Both sides suffered heavy losses.

“Luckily, we won in the end!”

Standing on the hell-like battlefield, Zhang Xianzhong felt shaken.

After crushing the remnant forces of Great Shun, this was a milestone victory for Great Xi. From then onward, in Shaanxi, Great Xi would have no enemies.

Two big provinces, along with the Shu Lands where Great Xi was rooted in, slowly formed a new empire. Zhang Xianzhong stood at a new starting point, filled with ambition.

“Ruling the world is not a dream anymore!” Zhang Xianzhong was filled with confidence.

…

The news of the Great Shun army being totally destroyed spread across the north.

When Dorgon got the news, he was instantly tempted. He realized that the time for the Qing army to strike had arrived. Ajige and the other Manchu generals were all raring to go.

A huge final battle was imminent.

When Li Jing got the news, he regretfully shook his head. The Great Shun army could have walked a glorious path and completed a magnificent feat that Li Zicheng had not been able to accomplish – defeat the Qing army.

Helplessly, they had fallen because of their stubbornness.

At the same time, Li Jing also realized that the Qing army was about to attack. With how cunning Dorgon was, he would first leave the Great Xi army alone and focus on the middle and east armies.

The Qing army was familiar with all sorts of attack tactics.

With Zhang Xianzhong’s character, as long as the Qing army did not attack Shaanxi, the Great Xi army would be delighted. They would not choose to attack like how they promised Ouyang Shuo.

Not having foresight was the problem of uprising armies. To Zhang Xianzhong, putting the entire Shaanxi and Shanxi under Great Xi rule was the top priority now.

Without the help of the Great Xi army, the middle army and east army had a total of 270 thousand troops. Against 550 thousand, the pressure was indeed much.

Luckily, Li Jing had great ability to hold up under pressure.

…

30th day of the Battle Map, the Qing army finally acted.

The Prince Regent Dorgon led 250 thousand Qing troops to attack the Li Jing led middle army. Ajige along with Di Chen led 250 thousand to attack the Guo Ziyi led forces.

50 thousand Qing troops were left in Yanjing.

The two armies left Yanjing together; they were like two sharp arrows stabbing right into Zhongyuan. The largest scale battle in the Battle Map was officially opened.

Not long after the Qing army struck out, a change occurred in Shanhai Pass.

…

In truth, a few days ago, the Emperor Squadron had already entered the Bohai Sea. The squadron floated on the sea for numerous days but were not getting close to the pass.

That was because Ouyang Shuo was waiting.

Only after the Qing army left Yanjing could the sneak attack on Shanhai Pass work.

Morning, the sun rose from the east, and the orange sunlight shone on the ocean surface. It looked like a golden layer had covered the ocean, creating a really eye-catching sight. The ocean breeze blew as the flags shook in the air.

Since Shanhai Pass had the title of top pass in the world, it was naturally not simple.

Apart from the main city, on the south was the Bohai Sea, the north was Beiyi City, the east was Dongluo City, and the west was Xiluo City.

Even the nearby Bohai River had the Nanyi City, which stretched toward the ocean.

The target that the squadron chose to attack was Nanyi City.

Since making his way into the pass, Wu Sangui’s forces left the pass city and allowed the Qing army to take over. From the start, Dorgon arranged 30 thousand troops inside to guard this chokepoint.

The point was to defend the way out for the Qing army.

When the Qing army took down Yanjing, the troops were cut to 20 thousand. Following which, the Qing army took down Great Shun and badly needed troops, leaving only 10 thousand behind in the pass.

Even so, Dorgon did not find anything wrong with that.

As a result of the Qing Dynasty moving to Yanjing, moving down south, the position of Shanhai Pass was lowered to the lowest point in history. Just as Dorgon moved the army toward Yanjing, there were less than eight thousand troops in the pass, and they were not elites.

No matter how strong the defenses of such a pass was, it would not be easy for them to defend against the Emperor Squadron.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

Along with a round of cannon fire, the Pass siege had started. The 600 meters high city walls were nothing in front of the cannon fire and instantly collapsed.

“Kill!”

Under the lead of the three thousand Divine Martial Guards, they all boarded the cima boats and swiftly headed for the shore.

Shanhai Pass that was suddenly attacked pretty much did not show any resistance, and they were forced back. Under the Asura like Divine Martial Guards, they could not even form up a decent defensive line.

In less than one and a half hours, Nanyi City fell.

Seeing that, 15 thousand Emperor Squadron gunners disembarked and charged at the main pass city along with the Divine Martial Guards. To destroy the sturdy city walls, the Emperor Squadron even shipped the cannons up onto the shore.

The P1 Type Cannons that the Great Xia Emperor Squadron was equipped with were much stronger than the Hongyi cannons.

‘Haula!’

After half an hour of consecutive cannon fire, a huge hole was blown in the city gates, and the pass city was broken into. The Qing army using Hongyi cannons to open up a path, and such a tactic was something that the Great Xia Army was familiar with.

As they say, use one’s poison against them.

“Kill!”

The Battle of Nanyi City was just a warmup to the Divine Martial Guards. Only the five thousand Qing troops in the pass city interested them.

Seeing the enemy troops that looked unstoppable, the Qing troops tried to surrender.

Helplessly, Ouyang Shuo was trying to fight a swift sneak attack and needed everything to proceed smoothly. Furthermore, this was a battle map, so why would he bother to deal with war prisoners?

“Do not leave anything!”

The Divine Martial Guards followed Ouyang Shuo’s orders. At 4 PM, not only the main pass city, but also Nanyi City, Dongluo City, and Xiluo City all fell.

Of the eight thousand Qing troops in Shanhai Pass, none of them survived.

After taking down Shanhai Pass, the Divine Martial Guards did not stop. Under the personal leadership of Ouyang Shuo, they continued to go up north into the old Qing Dynasty land and were ready to engage in a huge slaughter.

Chapter 1089 - Home in Danger

Chapter 1089: Home in Danger

The sudden loss of Shanhai Pass was a huge hit to the face for the Qing Dynasty.

“How did this happen?”

They had just endured the pain and gave up on the territory in the north. Now, they had lost their only way toward their old land.

With the matter developing to such a stage, there were finally officials who raised their doubts, “Giving up cities and not bothering about the lives of a large number of our people only to start up internal problems in the Southern Alliance Army. Was that worth it?”

“Was the price a little too large?”

Shanhai Pass could be called the last line of defense in the hearts of the Manchu people. With Shanhai Pass there, they felt confident that even if they lost in Zhongyuan, they could back off and rise up again.

The moment Shanhai Pass was lost, the Qing Dynasty had no way out.

Hence, the fall of Shanhai Pass had a huge psychological impact on the Qing Dynasty.

Dorgon learned about the fall of Shanhai Pass whilst traveling. His first reaction was that the pros were more than the cons, and he could use it to raise the morale of the soldiers.

An army with no way out would explode out incredible strength.

Before leaving, many of the soldiers could not understand why they were holed up in Yanjing. When the northern territories fell one by one, the troops in the army were filled with annoyance and anger.

Even if they set out, the morale was not ideal.

The fall of Shanhai Pass might actually be an opportunity. However, what occurred after that far exceeded his expectations and made all his plans useless.

…

33rd day of the Battle Map, the Divine Martial Guards entered the old Qing Dynasty land.

Their actions there were like the wind, entering and leaving like ghosts. They suddenly appeared on the north side and suddenly at the west of Shenyang.

The damage they caused was really terrifying.

When the special forces like the Divine Martial Guards faced the not sturdy structures of the old Qing Dynasty land, they used special forces equipment like hook claws to enter the city really easily.

Even to say that the Divine Martial Guards could use high technology makeup to sneak into the city.

The moment they entered, they destroyed the core structures. They would do things like igniting treasuries, killing officials, or wiping out nobles. No matter what, it was really lethal.

All of a sudden, the Qing Dynasty people were terrified.

The three thousand Divine Martial Guards were like a bunch of cold-hearted spirits, raising the scythe of the grim reaper and claiming life after life, spreading fear.

“Quick, report to Yanjing!”

Once the surrounding territories faced trouble one after another, the officials in Shenyang could not take it anymore and sought help from Yanjing.

Since the Qing Dynasty had moved over to Yanjing, the officials staying in Shenyang were either not ambitious people or people not trusted by Dorgon. Instead of saying they were people left behind to defend it, it would be more correct to say that they were people that were sidelined.

Even so, the position of Shenyang could not be shaken.

The reason was that the Machu eight banner elders lived there. Although they did not interfere in dynasty manners, every move they made would shake the dynasty.

One could foresee how the Imperial Court would react when they received the emergency report.

Shanhai Pass falling had already caused waves within the court. The emergency message from Shenyang was like pouring oil onto a fire, making more and more people unhappy toward Dorgon.

The Imperial Court situation was unstable.

This time, many heavyweight officials opposed Dorgon. Those supporting the protection of the Shunzhi Emperor took the chance to point their spears at Dorgon.

All of a sudden, the popular Dorgon suddenly became the person everyone targeted.

To make matters worse, Dorgon had not only personally led the troops, but even his right hand men like Ajige had followed the army out and were not in the Imperial Court.

Facing more and more intense accusations, there was actually no one who spoke up for Dorgon. Even people close to him did not step out because they wanted to save themselves.

The plotting against Dorgon like what had happened in history seemed to be occurring once more.

Luckily, the Shunzhi Emperor was still young and could not rule personally yet. If not, he would have really wiped out Dorgon and his supporters. Even so, some wariness was needed.

The Imperial Court ordered the army to immediately stop.

Compared to crushing the Southern Alliance Army, reclaiming Shanhai Pass and saving Shenyang was more important.

When Dorgon received the order, his face sunk. He realized that all of this was a trap by the enemy to stop the Qing army from going down south.

As for the attacks toward him in the Imperial Court, it was enough to raise his guard. Although the Shunzhi Emperor was willing to give him the title of Prince Regent, he definitely would not allow himself to be a puppet emperor.

When the emperor grew up, he would bare his fangs.

These were not the most important things right now. The crucial thing was, facing the orders from the emperor, who should the Qing army follow?

As they say, when the general is outside, the ruler’s orders do not apply to him. Immediately, there were eight banners army generals who suggested they ignored the decree and head down south. Once they crushed the South Alliance Army, all the words in the Imperial Court would stop.

“The enemy crafted such plots because they are afraid of facing off against us. More so we cannot fall for it,” said some experienced generals.

When Dorgon heard that, he was indeed really tempted.

However, going against imperial decrees was not a small matter. And this time, there were many officials against Dorgon, and their statuses were all really high, which was rare.

Even someone as powerful as Dorgon might fall if he was not careful.

If they went against the imperial decree, it would undoubtedly give those people things to say like he was not loyal. When things reached that stage, even if he crushed the Southern Alliance Army and won, he would not be able to wash off that sin.

An emperor, even one that had not personally started ruling, could accept a failure during a war. However, he could not accept his men challenging his authority.

Even without considering that point, from a military standpoint, the fall of Shanhai Pass threw the Qing Dynasty into the flames of war. This would definitely affect the morale of the army.

First, they did not know the number of enemies that were in the old Qing land. If it were a huge army, the enemy could continue down south of Shanhai Pass and take down Yanjing.

Yanjing only had 50 thousand soldiers defending it and was facing a precarious situation.

With their home being unstable, the soldiers would not be able to fight at ease. Especially the Meng and Man eight banner armies, as 90% and above were from Yanjing.

In Yanjing, there were their wives and children.

Yanjing was unstable, and so were their hearts.

“No!”

Dorgon went against the temptation of disobeying the decree. Although the enemy’s plot was simple, there was no way for him to break it. As such, he could only follow it.

“Since it is the emperor’s decree and also involves the safety of Shenyang, we cannot sit still and do nothing. Spread my orders, stop going down south and rest up right here.”

Dorgon was going to evaluate how many men he should send back to assist.

Chapter 1090 - Zhang Xianzhong Takes the Bait

Chapter 1090: Zhang Xianzhong Takes the Bait

He would decide on how many troops to send based on how many enemies there were in the old Qing land. If they sent too little, it would be of no use, and if they sent too many, it would directly affect the battlefield.

However, the problem was that he was unable to confirm the number of enemies attacking the old Qing Dynasty land.

Reports from Shenyang stated that the enemies had entered and left like ghosts with three territories being attacked within a day. There was no way to know the overall enemy numbers, but conservatively, there would be above 50 thousand.

“Moreover, they are all elite forces.” The officials left in Shenyang swore.

Although they had never seen the Divine Martial Guards, they had to exaggerate the enemy’s skill. If not, wouldn’t it mean that they were useless?

Furthermore, since there was no way to confirm it, they were not exaggerating it blindly.

“50 thousand elites?”

If Di Chen was together with Dorgon, he would be able to see through this lie. With the strength of the Southern Alliance Army, there was no way they could send 50 thousand men up north.

However, Dorgon was unable to make such a judgement.

Logically speaking, to take down Shanhai Pass and massacre the eight thousand defending troops while also creating so much noise in the old Qing land, 50 thousand elites was not a large number.

“Now this is problematic.”

Assuming the enemy had 50 thousand troops, in order to take back Shanhai Pass and go back into their old land to crush the enemy, they had to send 150 thousand troops back to be safe.

There were 50 thousand Qing troops left in Yanjing, and one could not send them all up north.

This also meant that he need to send at least 130 thousand of his forces up, leaving only 370 thousand troops on the main battlefield. Compared to the 330 thousand southern alliance troops on the east and middle fronts, their advantage was not so evident anymore.

With such numbers, crushing the Southern Alliance Army was totally impossible. Dorgon was not arrogant, and since the player forces in the enemy camp could crush Dodo’s forces, they had to be skilled.

After thinking about it, Dorgon could only choose the safest solution.

Out of the two armies, they each sent 70 thousand along with 40 thousand from Yanjing to go up north to attack Shanhai Pass.

He planned to use an army that held an absolute numerical advantage to solve the problems in their back garden within a week.

As for the main battlefield, the Qing armies would halt their advance down south. Once the north army took back Shanhai Pass, they would make further plans.

Dorgon was still really confident if they stayed where they were and defended.

Strictly speaking, Dorgon’s plan was not wrong. However, when Di Chen received the news, he could not help but feel a chill run down his spine as uneasiness rose up in his heart.

Di Chen felt that things definitely would not be so simple.

…

In the blink of an eye, three days had passed.

The 140 thousand Qing troops had returned to Yanjing. After gathering with the 40 thousand troops there, they went up north to Shanhai Pass. If things went smoothly, they would arrive near the pass the next morning.

The ones in charge of defending the Shanhai Pass was the Emperor Squadron, 15 thousand gunners, and 12 thousand sword-shield soldiers.

Helping them defend were hundreds of P1 Type Cannons.

With such a defensive lineup, even if the Qing army sent out 180 thousand men, they would still be able to defend for more than three days. Hence, in this battle, one could see that Ouyang Shuo had used the resources of the South Ming camp to the extreme.

Even so, with the current development, the Qing army would only take a little longer than the week that Dorgon had expected.

In terms of the big picture, it would not be much.

However, the problem was that the development of the situation would be a total nightmare for the Qing army. In just a week, the situation had turned on its head.

The change happened in a direction that Dorgon had disregarded – Great Xi.

Based on Dorgon’s analysis, as long as the Qing army did not attack, Great Xi would be happy with their current position and stay in Shaanxi and Shanxi.

This was originally a correct judgement.

The premise would be that Ouyang Shuo did not send a secret letter over to Zhang Xianzhong.

“A person’s greed knows no bounds.”

After occupying Xi An, wiping out Great Shun, taking over Shaanxi and subsequently Shanxi, Great Xi and Zhang Xianzhong had already achieved a huge victory.

It was enough to make them proud for their entire life.

Luckily, he still had the ambition to rule the world, which was how he was baited by Ouyang Shuo. His plan was actually really simple and did not look like much.

He only told Zhang Xianzhong, “Yanjing city will have a period where they lack troops, and the defenses will be really weak. If you want to rule the world, you need to take down Yanjing. Moreover, this period will be your only chance. If you miss it then too bad.”

When Zhang Xianzhong received the letter, he was naturally filled with doubts. With his personal experiences and life journey, he could not imagine that there would be someone who would do things for free without expecting returns.

The Southern Alliance Army had spent so much effort to restrict the Qing army, attacking Shanhai Pass to make them throw in the Qing army defending Yanjing. As a result, they created a defensive vacuum. And now, they would allow Great Xi to reap the rewards?

“That did not make sense!”

Although Zhang Xianzhong doubted the letter, he still took the bait in the end. Such free things were better to just believe in rather than not.

On the surface, Zhang Xianzhong did not reply Ouyang Shuo. However, in the dark, he had gathered up Great Xi troops and arranged them near Yanjing.

The moment Yanjing became truly empty, Zhang Xianzhong would not hesitate.

Just as Ouyang Shuo had said, be it due to influence or other considerations, occupying Yanjing was of irreplaceable value and meaning for a regime that wanted to rule the world.

Zhang Xianzhong had no way to resist such temptations.

39th day of the Battle Map, not long after the 180 thousand Qing troops left Yanjing, the 120 thousand Great Xi troops suddenly charged right at Yanjing.

As one of the most famous leaders of the end Ming peasant uprising, at the crucial moment, he did not mind going all out in a gamble. As long as he took down Yanjing, he was not afraid to bet the fate of Great Xi.

Facing enemy troops 12 times their number, even if Yanjing had the strongest defense in the world, it would still be in danger.

After the 120 thousand Great Xi troops arrived on the outskirts, they did not rest and attacked overnight. They wanted to take down Yanjing in the shortest amount of time possible.

Zhang Xianzhong was filled with confidence.

When Dorgon received the emergency letter sent by Yanjing through a pigeon, his expression changed for the first time, and he could not keep calm anymore.

“Was this the trump card of the enemy?”

The actions of the Alliance Army totally exceeded his expectations and broke his plan. Throughout the entire process, he was led around by Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo had designed a series of battle plans that were all interconnected. Each step did not look like much and did not look like they were planned. However, when pieced together, it could shake the foundations of the Qing Dynasty.

Chapter 1091 - Final Battle

Chapter 1091: Final Battle

“Back to Yanjing!”

This time, Dorgon did not hesitate and immediately ordered the army to head back north to assist Yanjing.

This order totally buried the Qing Dynasty.

Not long after the Qing army started to go up north, Li Jing and Guo Ziyi’s forces were like hunters that had locked onto their prey. They struck out when the enemy showed panic and pounced on them.

Dorgon, Ajige, Lianpo, and the other Qing Dynasty camp generals were all experienced generals and were prepared for that. However, the Yanjing emergency meant they had to hurry up, so there would obviously be things that were not covered or planned for.

Next was that Li Jing and Guo Ziyi’s forces were ready and had been waiting for a week or longer. Even if the Qing army was prepared, they would not be able to defend against it.

A huge final battle was suddenly sparked.

The Southern Alliance Army took the chance that the Qing army was in a rush to get up north to launch attack after attack. If the Qing army did not stop and forced their way up north, the Alliance Army would be able to tear away at their forces.

If they stopped to fight, the Alliance Army would retreat and not fight. If the Qing army arranged troops to cover them, the Alliance Army would swallow them without any hesitation.

Such a shameless tactic annoyed Dorgon.

If it were not Yanjing being in trouble, Dorgon was even tempted to play along with the Alliance Army. Helplessly, the moment they learned that the Qing army was going up north, the attacks of the Great Xi army grew in intensity.

Zhang Xianzhong was greedy, but he was also really clear-headed.

Regardless of whether he had fallen for a bait or not, the Great Xi army had no way out. If they retreated, they would only be destroyed by the Qing army. Even if the Qing army temporarily let them off, the two would become enemies with no chances of reconciliation.

Since that was the case, why not take it a step further and attack Yanjing before the Qing army arrived. With that, they could the city defenses as well as top prisoners like the Shunzhi Emperor to restraint the Qing army.

The fierce attacks of Great Xi army ignored sacrifices. As a result, the Qing army defending in Yanjing suffered heavy casualties. Even the guards of the palace were chased to the battlefield.

Even so, the city was trembling.

Although the Manchurians took up the highest level of the huge Yanjing City, the civilians including the civil servants and generals, were Han Chinese.

Naturally, there were no lack of weaklings, but there were also some patriotic souls.

Furthermore, even weaklings might step up sometimes. Like Jiangnan Noble leader Qian Qianyi, who started to oppose Qing again after surrendering for no reason.

A human’s heart was complicated.

The fall of Shanhai Pass, the Qing Dynasty old land being attacked, the Qing army main force being delayed by the Southern Alliance Army, and Yanjing being surrounded; every matter was hitting at the minds of the Han Chinese within the city.

Something was seemingly about to break out.

The Imperial Court seemingly noticed these signs. Even at the darkest time of the city, they did not relax the control of the city and was wary at all times.

Unease and dark currents hovered around the entire city.

…

Just as Dorgon led the troops to assist Yanjing, the 180 thousand Qing troops that had arrived at Shanhai Pass got the order to not return but to take down Shanhai Pass.

The intentions of the Qing Dynasty Imperial Court were obvious.

They realized that Yanjing was facing its most dangerous moment and could be broken into at any time. More so at such a time was the position of Shanhai Pass really important.

If they took back Shanhai Pass, the Yanjing Imperial Court would still have a way back. If they could not, the Imperial Court would be finished.

What was important and what was not was immediately evident.

Hence, just as the Southern Alliance Army bit onto Dorgon’s forces, a battle exploded out at Shanhai Pass.

The Qing army wanted to take back Shanhai Pass, but the Great Xia Emperor Squadron naturally would not let them. To protect the pass city, the three thousand Divine Martial Guards had already returned to help the defense.

Hence, the defenses became even stronger.

The attacks of the Qing army were decisive. They used cannons whilst relying on siege weapons to have close quarters combat to try to take down the pass.

Helplessly, in front of the P1 Type Cannons, the Hongyi cannons of the Qing Dynasty were just too weak. Be it in terms of range or firepower, they were far from that of the P1 Type Cannons.

Furthermore, the P1 Type Cannons were shooting down from above. The Hongyi cannons could only fire one or two rounds before they were destroyed. Furthermore, with the help of the mimicry flying devices, the effects of the Qing Dynasty god machine camp were weak.

This time, they were in for some trouble.

After a day and night of battling, 30 thousand of the Qing army died whilst Shanhai Pass still stood. To make matters worse, most of their cannons were already destroyed.

Without the help of the cannons, taking down Shanhai Pass was impossible.

Desperation, pessimism, fear…

Various negative emotions spread out in the Qing army and could not be controlled. Like the apocalypse, their morale fell. Some soldiers had already fled.

The first to flee were the surrendered soldiers in the Qing army.

They had the least amount of loyalty toward the Qing Dynasty. Moreover, when they saw that this boat could capsize at any moment, they did not have the determination to die with it.

During the starting parts of the Shunzhi Emperor’s reign, before history was changed, and the atrocities of the Qing army were covered up.

In the eyes of the Han Chinese, few of them recognized the Qing Dynasty.

Furthermore, amongst the Qing army were people like Wu Sangui, who joined in because they sensed an opportunity. Seeing that the Qing Dynasty might not be able to survive this, they naturally held other thoughts.

With people leading, there naturally would be people who followed.

The escaping started one by one, and then squadron by squadron. In the end, an entire unit of troops disappeared within a night.

Amongst which included Wu Sangui’s forces.

Along with these troops escaping, the Qing army morale had reached rock bottom. They knew that they had no chance to take down Shanhai Pass.

“What should we do?” The soldiers were all really uneasy.

At this crucial moment, the Qing army that had shrunk to 100 thousand split up once more. This time, the ones that escaped were actually the Meng eight banner, the elite cavalry of the Qing army.

As they say, ‘When a calamity arises, everyone runs for their own lives.’

The Manchu and Mongol races were close, but in the end, they were not of the same family.

Seeing that the Qing Dynasty was close to being wiped out, the Mongols naturally would not be so foolish as to follow them. Although Shanhai Pass was the core pathway, it was not the only way.

The Meng eight banner army went around the pass and did not participate in this chaotic battle.

This was fatal for the Qing army.

First, they had lost half of their elite forces, and their combat strength was greatly reduced. Hence, they had no way of taking down Shanhai Pass. Secondly, the army soldiers started to waver, and even the Man 8 banner army started to waver.

Some wanted to go around the pass like the Meng 8 banner army, while some wanted to return to Yanjing to save their family.

The Battle of Shanhai Pass welcomed its most crucial turning point.

Chapter 1092 - All Fronts Collapsing

Chapter 1092: All Fronts Collapsing

In less than two days, only 40 thousand Man eight banner army troops remained from the 180 thousand Qing troops.

Just as this army wavered internally without knowing what to do, the Great Xia Army made the decision for them. With the Divine Martial Guards as the vanguard, they struck out.

The Qing army did not expect this.

The Qing army, whose morale was already really low, did not know what to do when faced with the sudden attacks of the Divine Martial Guard. Their opinions were not united; some chose to fight, while some chose to flee.

On the contrary, the Great Xia Army’s morale was soaring, and the commanding was all in place.

Although the Qing army had two times the number of the Great Xia Army, right from the get go, their formations were charged apart. A huge collapse was imminent, and no one could stop it from happening.

The Great Xia Army chased the win to collect the spoils of war.

This massacre lasted all the way into the evening before coming to an end. Once the sun set in the west, Shanhai Pass was surrounded by bodies, and one could not see a single standing Qing army soldier.

The Qing army had totally collapsed.

Just like that, in less than three days, the 180 thousand Qing troops that attacked Shanhai Pass with high morale ended up falling, either dying in battle or escaping.

This was a miracle in war history. The reason laid in the Qing dynasty’s foundations being too shallow, and they tried to use one border tribe to rule China. It was okay if they did not face challengers, but once they did, they would immediately collapse.

And the collapse started internally.

Once the Qing army faced trouble at Shanhai Pass, the fall of the Qing Army Camp started.

In order to not provoke the Great West army, after destroying the Qing troops, Ouyang Shuo did not lead his troops down south to attack Yanjing. Instead, he went north to attack Shenyang.

Even so, Yanjing still fell in the end.

The next afternoon, the remnant troops from Shanhai Pass returned to Yanjing, bringing the news of their defeat. This time, the shaky Yanjing could not hold on anymore and gave out its last breath.

At night, the Great Xi troops succeeded in making their way into Yanjing and captured the Shunzhi Emperor.

…

The moment the news of Yanjing falling spread to Dorgon’s forces, it immediately welcomed a new wave of fleeing soldiers. The surrendered soldiers directly chose to surrender to the Southern Alliance Army, and even a portion of the Meng eight banner army surrendered.

Hence, the number of Qing army troops decreased.

Just like that, the morale and strength of the Southern Alliance Army soared, and they tried to crush the main army of the Qing army. To repay their sins, the surrendered troops who had just joined the Douthern Alliance Army charged at the front.

Such an outcome was truly ironic.

No matter how amazing Dorgon was, he had no way to handle such a situation. More crucially, Dorgon had suddenly become confused, not knowing what he should do.

Yanjing was lost, and Shanhai Pass was in the hands of the enemy. Even Shenyang was about to be lost.

The earth did not have a place for them anymore.

Dorgon wanted to stop and go for an all-out gamble with the Alliance Army, “Even if I die, I want to bring some of them down with me.” For the Qing Dynasty to become the ruler of China from a small race showed that they were filled with courage and guts.

Dorgon’s idea was great, but if the Qing army really went all out, Li Jing might not dare to go head on with them. A desperate army when crazy was really terrifying.

However, someone did not want to.

That person was Di Chen.

He had already gotten what he wanted, so why would he let the Great Zhou soldiers die along with the Qing army? Not long after the surrendered troops left, Di Chen brought his army and broke away from the main battlefield to try to wait it out till the end of the battle.

This time, Dorgon was totally lost.

Even if he wanted to go all out, Li Jing would not play along. The Alliance Army chose to surround them and not attack.

On the other side, Guo Ziyi relied on their absolute numerical advantage to mercilessly kill Ajige’s forces. Although they were strong, the numerical difference was just too huge. They lasted for less than a day before being wiped out.

Following which, the entire battlefield welcomed its final moments.

After Guo Ziyi’s army destroyed Ajige’s troops, they rushed to gather with Li Jing’s forces. The gathered Southern Alliance Army along with the surrendered troops numbered over 500 thousand.

Facing such a huge army, there was nothing Dorgon could do. He quickly followed Ajige.

The final battle was really intense. Dorgon was determined to protect the last bit of glory of the Qing Dynasty and had a face off against the Alliance Army.

Unfortunately, he was facing a smart hunter.

Li Jing was really experienced and knew what he should do when facing a prey that was about to give a final gamble. He continuously switched up his formations, relying on their absolute numerical advantage to grind away at the enemy.

Once they were tired, the Alliance Army struck.

“It’s okay when they do not strike, but when they do, it would be fatal!”

The final blow of the Alliance Army crushed the entire Qing Army.

The dusk of the night was similarly a devilish red.

A leader of a generation died on the battlefield. Based on the Battle Map rules, Dorgon had no part to play in the wilderness, as the Qing Dynasty camp leader was Shunzhi Emperor and not Dorgon.

…

40th day of the Battle Map, the Alliance Army drew close to Yanjing.

Li Jing only sent out one force to head to Xi An. Zhang Xianzhong handed over the Shunzhi Emperor and also gave up Yanjing.

It was not Zhang Xianzhong being timid, but after crushing the Qing army main force, the Southern Alliance Army had become the strongest army. Facing such an opponent, Great Xi might not be even able to protect Xi An, much less Yanjing. Maybe at this moment, he truly realized that he was baited by Ouyang Shuo.

From the start, Great Xi was being used.

“His grandmother!” Zhang Xianzhong scolded out. However, he only dared to vent his frustration in the dark.

A person without foresight could only end up like this.

…

When the Shunzhi Emperor was handed over to the Alliance Army, the Battle Map finally came to an end.

Following which, the notification sounded.

“Battle Notification: Qing Destroys Ming battle has officially ended, Ming Dynasty has succeeded in changing history.”

…

“Battle Notification: Qing Destroys Ming battle has officially ended, now calculating bonus points based on player’s contribution and effect on the battle.”

…

A System Notification sounded out in Ouyang Shuo’s ear.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, Ming Dynasty camp player representative, uniting the various powers of the north and capturing the Shunzhi Emperor, awarded 80 thousand extra battle contribution points.”

As there were only three Lords, the rankings were quickly updated.

1st: Qiyue Wuyi- 2000000 points

2nd: Feng Qiuhuang- 1700000 points

3rd: Di Chen- 500000 points

At this point, the Battle Map ended.

Chapter 1093 - King of the Battle Map

Chapter 1093: King of the Battle Map

During this last Battle Map, the 100 thousand strong Great Zhou army were bystanders since the start. They did not fight a proper battle during the entire Battle Map, which was why Di Chen’s battle contribution points value was really low.

Of course, there was not any true loser in this Battle Map.

The happy thing would be that along with this Battle Map ending, Ouyang Shuo earned 200 thousand more merit points. He only needed 200 thousand more to achieve the highest rank of Son of Heaven.

Feng Qiuhuang similarly had huge gains. However, to get from duke to prince, she needed to double her merit points. As such, she needed to save up for a long period of time before she could promote once more.

Of course, even if she did manage to become a princess, with the surrounding situation of Fallen Phoenix City, she would not have the chance to upgrade to an empress dynasty.

Based on Feng Qiuhuang’s words, she had already started the country establishment quest. If things went well, within one to two months, Fallen Phoenix City would be able to establish their dynasty and welcome a new era.

The prosperous situation of having three dynasties in one region would probably only happen in China.

…

When the Battle Map ended, Ouyang Shuo was still in Shenyang.

After leading the attack on the Qing Dynasty old capital, Ouyang Shuo did not expect any surprises. In the palace, he obtained a special item that was really precious.

Soul of the Cavalry (speed): After use, permanently increases the speed of dynasty cavalry forces by 80%.

As the descendants of the Nuzhen race, the Manchu eight banner army cavalry was really exceptional.

Along with the Soul of the Cavalry (stamina) that he had gotten during the Battle of Yashan, once the two effects were stacked, the Great Xia cavalry would be pretty much invincible.

Even the famous Mongol cavalry would be nothing compare to them.

Just as Ouyang Shuo left Shenyang and was about to head toward Jianye to get the final reward, a System Notification sounded out, and it caused him to be stunned on the spot.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for spreading the glory of the Han Chinese in the Battle of Yashan and the Qing Destroys Ming battle, showing the spirit of the Chinese, specially awarded Soul of the Chinese as reward!”

Soul of the Chinese: after use, causes the dynasty to become the only orthodox Chinese dynasty, having the highest position.

The more Ouyang Shuo thought about it, the more shocked he felt.

The stats of the item was very vague, but each word had deep meaning. To a dynasty, its meaning was even greater than a million troops.

“What was orthodox?”

This word first appeared during the Spring and Autumn annals, which was also called the legally constituted authority, Confucian orthodoxy and rites orthodoxy. It meant that the dynasty followed and respected the customs and traditions of the kings and emperors before and was the legitimate ruler of China.

It was also termed as respecting the king and driving off the barbarians.

Some people said that, “Orthodoxy means that one is the most righteous.”

Since Great Xia held the position of orthodoxy, from now on, even Great Qin, Great Han, Great Sui, Great Tang, and Great Song would treat Great Xia with respect.

Of course, this was only in theory.

Even so, this was a huge achievement to Great Xia.

With this reward, the reward that South Ming gave was not so important anymore. Luckily, Gaia was really thoughtful and sent the gift over, saving him the time of having to make the trip back.

Ouyang Shuo looked at it and found that it was another talisman.

Mountain closing talisman: after use, one can choose to totally close up a mountain path or temporarily close three, each lasting for three months.

“Interesting!”

Ouyang Shuo seemingly thought about something, smiling as he chose to teleport away.

…

By the time he returned to Shanhai City, it was already the 7th month, 29th day.

The moment Ouyang Shuo appeared, a System Notification sounded.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, out of the 10 battles in China, being the camp representative of all and achieving the final victory, achieving the highest achievements in battle, specially awarded the title King of the Battle Map as well as one special reward, congratulations player!”

…

At that moment, the Chinese players were shocked to realize that unknowingly, Ouyang Shuo had created a miracle that was destined to never be surpassed.

In the Battle Map, the Yanhuang Alliance was stepped on from start to finish. No matter how either side chose their camps, Ouyang Shuo could turn around the situation in the end.

“Winning once was not much, what was difficult was winning every time.”

Ouyang Shuo being able to win 10 consecutive battles in the Battle Map was enough to engrave his name in the history books.

“Amazing!”

At the same time that the System Notification was released, at various corners of the wilderness were a bunch of special people. Their original identities were Lords, but now, they were many.

Some became causal players, some became combat occupation players, and some became merchants.

No matter what, they had a common point, which was that they had either worked together or fought against Great Xia in the Battle Map.

Only those who had participated could understand how amazing the achievement was, and it increased their respect for him.

Compared to the praise from the players, Di Chen felt dejected, and he even felt a huge sense of failure. In his battles against Ouyang Shuo, Di Chen had never obtained the upper hand.

Originally, this was not clear cut, and only after Gaia announced it did Di Chen come to a realization.

“Am I destined to be unable to beat him?”

Unknowingly, the image of Ouyang Shuo being invincible was carved into Di Chen’s heart.

Before Di Chen could think about it, a series of System Notifications followed.

“System Notification: Qing Destroys Ming Battle officially ends, Ming and Qing Dynasty historical people automatically enter the game progression!”

…

As the final two dynasties of the Chinese feudal era, although the Ming and Qing Dynasties were not really exceptional, they gave birth to many famous talents.

Just in Great Xia alone there was Zheng He, Yan Song, Li Hongzhang, Zhang Tingyu, Hu Zongxian, Hai Rui, Tian Wenjing, Wang Shouren, Shi Lang, Qin Jiguang, Yu Dayou, and more.

On the side of civil servants, they had Zhang Juzheng, who was one of the top 10 ministers in history. There was also the only person that had 10 generations of family wiped – Fang Xiaoru. There was also Liu Bowen, Shang Lu, and more.

In truth, each and every assistant to the emperor in the Ming Dynasty was a skilled civil servant.

On the Qing Dynasty side, there was Zhang Zidong, Zeng Guofan, and Zuo Zongtang. Apart from that, there was Oboi, Heshen, Liu Yong, Li Guangdi, and other such people.

On the general side, there was Yuan Chonghuan, Ding Ruchang, Deng Shichang, Yue Zhongqi, and more.

Chapter 1094 - Zhu Yuanzhang Kangxi

“System Notification: Qing Destroys Ming Battle has officially ended, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang moves into Jianye, Jianye Imperial Court becomes the Ming Dynasty Imperial Court. Li Shanchang, Xu Da, Chang Yuchun, Li Wenzhong, Deng Yu, Feng Sheng, Tang He, Liu Bowen, Lan Yu, and other generals and civil servants move into the Great Ming Dynasty.”

…

Xu Da, one of the top 10 historical generals. Apart from Xu Da, Chang Yuchun, Li Wenzhong, Deng Yu, Mu Ying, and Tang He were all top generals.

Ouyang Shuo coveted Xu Da.

Not because of other reasons, but simply because he was a rare God General that was good at firearms. The household Guards Legion Corps needed a commander like Xu Da.

Helplessly, Xu Da followed beside Zhu Yuanzhang, so Ouyang Shuo could only plot for him in the long run.

With such a glorious line up, the Ming Dynasty that had just entered Jianye would be really stable. Fortunately, Jianye was located within Great Zhou Dynasty’s Haidong Province, so Ouyang Shuo did not need to worry about it.

“System Notification: Qing Destroys Ming Battle has officially ended, Qing Kangxi emperor moves into Jingdu, Jingdu Imperial Court officially changes into Great Qing Dynasty,

Sonin, Suksaha, Ebilun, Oboi, Yao Qisheng, Cao Yin, Ming Zhu, Zhou Peigong, and other famous generals and civil servants automatically move into the Great Qing Dynasty.”

…

Sonin, Suksaha, Ebilun, and Oboi; they were the four regents of Kang Xi. Apart from Sonin, the other three did not meet good endings.

Even Cao Yin, Ming Zhu, and Zhou Peigong did not have good endings.

Along with these civil servants and generals appearing in Jingdu and into the Great Qing Imperial Court, who knows what kind of interesting situation would occur.

Next would be the princes of Kang Xi, who knows whether they would appear with him in Jingdu or not. In history, the nine dragons battle for the throne was the stuff of legends, and it was really intense and cruel.

In the chaotic wilderness, the Qing Dynasty camp was stronger than that of the Ming Dynasty. Great Qing had links with Jin country as well as a foreseeable cooperation with Great Zhou.

Along with the Ming and Qing dynasties appearing in the wilderness, there were emperors in all nine imperial cities. Even to say that with the destruction of Dali, eight were left.

At this point, the China region gamemode was completed.

The current China had Great Xia in the south, Great Zhou in the north, Fallen Phoenix City in the northwest, and Great Qin, Great Tang, and Great Han in the middle. Inside, there was Great Sui, Shu Han, Great Song, and Great Ming. Outside, there was Tibet, West Turk, West Xia, Mongol, and Jin Country. Overall, there was a total of 16 powers.

Only the China region had such a complicated situation.

Counting in the close to 100 million players scattered around, the complicated situation was beyond imagination. It was numerous times worse than during the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period.

As a result, there were people that said, “Whoever obtains China would obtain the world.”

Based on Ouyang Shuo’s plan, in the following period of time, whilst Great Xia continued to expand, it would also internalize China and merge the powers.

During the next half of the year, the main thing Great Xia attacked would be Shu Han and Jin Country.

Shu Han was enemies with Great Xia, and it was also located within Great Xia territory. It was a huge problem that needed to be taken care of. Furthermore, whether they could take down the Shu Han Dynasty or not concerned Great Xia’s expansion to the west.

If they did not get rid of Shu Han, they would not be able to attack Tibet and West Xia.

Luckily, before the New Year, after taking down the Shu Lands, they had already been planning for it.

Half a year had passed, and Great Xia built up an iron wall around Chengdu, building close to 300 cannon fortresses.

The Shu Han Dynasty was totally cornered in.

Summarizing the experience gained from Dali, Ouyang Shuo realized that to take down an imperial city, especially one in China, he had to ‘Attack the heart as the priority, next would be the battle, and last would be siege.’

Based on the reports from the Shanhai Guards, the current Shu Han was not in good shape.

Shu Han was facing all the same problems that Dali faced, and they were in even worse shape, and the time that they were facing the problems were also even longer. Different from Duan Zhengchun’s softness, Liu Bei was really determined and knew how to make his men remain loyal to him. As such, although Shu Han was in bad shape, it could still hold on.

In Liu Bei’s words, “No matter how hard it is, could it be harder than during the Three Kingdoms Period?”

Facing such an opponent, Great Xia needed to make a series of preparations to take down Chengdu. It would be better if they had some great tactics or took down Shu Han from the inside. If not, the price that they would have to pay would be huge.

Ouyang Shuo had some rough thoughts that needed to be looked through.

…

After returning to the Xia Palace, Ouyang Shuo finally had the time to redeem the title reward that he was given.

King of the Battle Map: unique title, when the dynasty goes out to war, raises morale by 15%, raises movement speed by 10%, and raises defenses by 15%.

It was a very practical title that was of great help to the Great Xia Army, and it fit into Ouyang Shuo’s idea of an elite army. At this stage, the elite troops of the various powers had closed the gap in terms of training, equipment, and organization.

The Great Xia Army still had an advantage over the other territory armies because of their strong buffs. As the number of buffs increased, it slowly became a physical change that could be seen and felt.

Recruitment Board: After use, increases attraction to wilderness historical talents by 300%, lasting for a month. The specific effect will be based on the territory specialty.

One must not look at how many historical talents Great Xia had recruited. When historical talents from five thousand years of Chinese history entered the game, there were numerous who still secluded themselves.

Just the Ming and Qing dynasties that had just entered had many people that Great Xia badly needed like the four famous officials of later Qing.

Next would be navy generals like Ding Ruchang and Deng Shichang.

Their understanding of firearms, especially the new types of firearms, was something that even Xu Da could not compare to.

Next would be like writers like Cao Xueqin. The moment they moved in, they would definitely bring in the school of writers and make the culture more prosperous.

There were also talents like Xu Wei and Yang Shen. Although they were unable to rule a land, they could enter the Secret Documents Pavilion to deal with documents.

Even putting them in the Administrative Mentor Court was suitable.

Now it was down to how many talents Great Xia could attract during this ‘super promotional period.’

Chapter 1095 - Mandarin House

One month came and went quickly.

Using the overpowered effect of the recruitment board, Ouyang Shuo was filled with happiness and worry during this month.

He was happy because the effects were exceptional. In just a month, Great Xia had attracted 40 different ranked historical talents. Amongst which, there was a god level steal like Zeng Guofan.

The moment Zeng Guofan arrived, Ouyang Shuo invited him into the Cabinet.

Name: Zeng Guofan (God Rank)

Title: Top 10 ministers in history

Dynasty: Qing Dynasty

Identity: Great Xia Cabinet elder

Occupation: Civil Servant

Loyalty: 75

Command: 80

Force: 40

Intelligence: 80

Politics: 98

Specialty: Famous Minister (raises territory honesty by 40%, raises territory efficiency by 25%, raises literary standards 15%, raises territory ruling standards by 30%)

Book: Nine Chapter Law

Evaluation: Zeng Guofan had the ability to read people, using his knowledge to promote talented people. He had great knowledge and foresight, working for the greater good of the public instead of himself, a rare skilled person in history. Although he was not good at fighting, he was able to promote many generals. His plans were really exquisite, which was how he was able to get a group of capable men to sweep the rogues and become the top minister of Zhongxing.

Zeng Guofan was born in a landowner family. Since a young age, he loved to learn. At eight, he could read the four classics and recite the five scriptures. At 14, he could read literary choices like The Rites of Zhou and Records of the Grand Historian.

In the 18th year of Daoguang, he became a Jingshi, becoming the disciple of Grand Council minister Mujangga. Then he became a Cabinet advisor, department of rites assistant minister, the minister of various departments, Provincial Governor, Zhili Province Viceroy, Wuying Hall Grand Secretary, and more roles.

When the Taiping Country started running, he established the Xiang army to wipe them out after many years of battles.

Zeng Guofan spent his whole life in politics, and his main belief was that one had to be diligent, honest, and humble and could not be arrogant because one was an official. He was a really disciplined person who focus on rites and politeness, using loyalty to do politics.

Under the suggestion of Zeng Guofan, the Qing Dynasty built China’s first steamship, their first ordnance school, printed the first batch of western books, and arranged for the first batch of students to study in America.

As such, one could say that Zeng Guofan was the pioneer for the modern constructions in China.

With such a person who was familiar with ocean work as well as having a deep influence in Qing, the benefits toward Great Xia were evident.

Zeng Guofan had many reasons for choosing Great Xia. Apart from the influence of the recruitment board, he was invited by his disciple, Li Hongzhang. Furthermore, his ancestor Zeng Zi was also in Great Xia, which was why he came.

Coming along with Zeng Guofan were Zeng Guoquan and Zuo Zongtang, who both came from the Xiang army.

Ouyang Shuo was planning to expand the Household Legion Corps, and both of them were the top choices for Legion General.

Currently, Ouyang Shuo just arranged for them to enter the Household Legion Corps 1st legion. Along with Legion General Oda Nobunaga, they would build and train the 1st full firearm legion in Great Xia.

Apart from Zeng Guofan and his group, Cao Xueqin also arrived in Great Xia.

Cao Xueqin’s great grandmother was once Emperor Kangxi’s nanny, and his great grandfather was once the tutor and guard to Kangxi.

During the Kangxi and Yongzheng rules, the Cao family three generations helped to run China for 58 years. Their family was really huge, having power and strength, really rich and becoming the top family in Nanjing.

Kangxi went down Jiangnan six times and Cao Yin led it four of those times.

In the 5th year of Yongzheng’s rule, Cao Xueqin was 13. In December, his hncle who was the Jiangning weaving department minister was jailed for disturbing the relay and polluting the air, shifting funds, and the like. In the Lantern Festival of the next year, his family was raided.

Cao Xueqin moved to Beijing along with his family, and since then, they were not as glorious as before, depreciating by the day.

Under such circumstances, Cao Xueqin obviously was not willing to return to Jingdu and live under the Qing Dynasty. On the contrary, Shanhai City had a great literary environment and did not restrict literary talents, and it was also a really open place that was suitable for him to stay in.

Along with Cao Xueqin moving into Xinan University, a System Notification spread across China.

“System Notification: Representative figure of the school of literary works – Cao Xueqin – has moved into Great Xia, fulfilling the three requirements for the school of thought to move in.”

…

“System Notification: School of literary works move into Great Xia. Awarding Shanhai City the title of home of literary works, congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi!”

…

“System Notification: School of literary works move into Great Xia. The current Shanhai City title Land of Philosophers covers the new title given, awarding Shanhai City hidden building – Mandarin House, congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi!”

…

Name: Mandarin House

Type: Hidden Building

Function: After hanging a portrait of a civil servant within, can revive them.

Specialty: increases attraction toward civil servants by 20%, increases territory reputation by 5%

Note: a building built specifically for civil servants. Lord can pay a certain amount of gold to hang a limited amount of civil servant portraits within to revive them once without any added cost.

The Mandarin House had a total of four floors, the lowest one had a limit of Gold Rank and 50 people, each 10 thousand gold. Second was King Rank and 20 people, each spending 50 thousand.

The third was for Emperor Rank, 10 people, each 200 thousand. The top was for God Rank civil servants, limit of three with each costing a million gold.

With the Mandarin House, the civil servants of Great Xia would have an added layer of insurance.

As there was a limited number, the main reason for getting into the Mandarin House would be the best person in the yearly evaluation.

At the same time, Ouyang Shuo specially left 10 spots for old civil servants like Gu Xiuwen and Zhao Dexian.

Zeng Guofan, Cao Xueqin, and the like were only a small portion. Out of the 40 historical talents, half of them came from Qing Dynasty.

This was understandable.

If it were not for them not having a choice, there were few Han officials, especially those with ambitions, who were willing to work under Qing Dynasty. After appearing in the wilderness and after Great Xia obtained the orthodoxy, he naturally became their top choice.

Needless to say, Li Hongzhang, Zhang Tingyu, Tian Wenjing, and the like also played a role.

As for the ones from the Ming Dynasty, they were mostly chancellors and great ministers like Shang Lu. Although they came from the Ming Dynasty, the Great Ming in the wilderness only took up one prefecture. Without a space for them to perform, they would naturally go elsewhere.

The arrival of this batch of civil servants greatly increased the foundations of Great Xia, pretty much levelling the power difference with the generals. Of course, there were other problems that came from it.

Apart from that, during this month, Great Xia also had an unexpected surprise.

Chapter 1096 - A Great Difference

Chapter 1096: A Great Difference

In the past half a month, apart from civil servants who came over to Great Xia, a bunch of generals also came over.

The greatest surprise was that they had attracted an amazing family – the Yang family. One must know that Mu Guiying’s presence was designed by Gaia based on dramatizations of history.

The Yang family in such dramatizations was a family that was really good at fighting.

Yang Ye swept Yanmen with a golden blade in his hand, his prestige shocking the northern country. Every time he led the troops, he would carry a red flag.

His wife, She Saihua, would hold a white flag.

Next would be his seven sons and one adopted son, who were known as the eight tigers who fell during the battle of the golden beach.

The eldest son Yang Tai used a golden spear made by Qu Lu. He married Hua Jieyu, and his second wife was Zhou Yunjing. During the battle of the golden beach, he died under the hands of the Song prince. He had once shot the Liang prince to death.

The second son was Yang Yong, who used an eight treasures golden spear. He married Geng Jinhua, and his second wife was Zou Lanxiu. To protect his brothers whilst they escaped the encirclement during the battle, he was chopped down.

Third brother Yang Xun used the transparent thread golden spear, and his wife was Dong Yue’er. During the battle, he died when his horse stepped into mud.

Fourth brother Yang Gui used the chrysanthemum golden spear, and he married Meng Jinbang. During the battle, he was captured, changing his surname. When he went to visit his mother in law 15 years later, he helped Song to win against Liao, earning great merit and being able to have a family reunion. He was the only one out of all of them to have a long life.

Fifth brother Yang Chun. He used a solo horn spear, and his wife was Ma Saiying. After the battle, he turned to Buddhism when he was injured, becoming a monk on Wutai Mountain. He was later kicked out of the mountain.

Sixth brother Yang Jing married Zhao Yuanyan’s infanta Chai Meirong, and he was the only one out of them to return to the country after the battle. In the end, he died from an illness.

The seventh brother Yan Xi used a tiger head golden spear, and his wife was called Huyan Chijin.

Eighth brother Yan Shun was the god son of Yang Ye and married Cai Xiuying.

The next generation would be the eldest son of the sixth brother Yang Zhongbao and his wife Mu Guiying. Even their son, Yang Wenguang, was a famous general.

To take care of the Yang family, Ouyang Shuo specially made an order to build a Tianbo Yang manor and ordered Yang Ye, his wife, and all their children to live in it.

As for the sons, they were appointed in the military, and all of them became Major Generals.

The arrival of the Yang family made Shanhai City really exciting, and many players rushed over to see them. Even the Mountain and Sea Entertainment Holdings were prepared to film a movie for the Yang family.

Apart from them, during this month, Shanhai City also welcomed a batch of men from the Water Margin.

The 1st was ‘Jade Qilin’ Lu Junyi. This person had a pair of shining eyes, and his brows formed a chinese eight character. He exuded confidence and strength like that of a soldier from heaven. He used a stick and had an exceptional body protection technique. He was the top general of Water Margin.

Along with Lu Junyi was his servant, Yan Qing.

Next would be Hua Rong, who used a silver spear. He had a pair of handsome eyes, white teeth and red lips, and huge muscles such that his arms could not rest on his body. He wore a silver armor and was good at riding horses and shooting bows.

These three were all sent to the military, either acting as Major Generals or vanguard officials.

Apart from them would be Yuan Xiao’er, Yuan Xiao’wu, and Yuan Xiao’qi, these three brothers who were arranged to the navy. The ‘Magic Traveler’ Tai Zong was arranged to work in the Shanhai Guards.

Water Margin had many men with their own talents, but not all of them had to be placed in the military.

Based on the news that the Shanhai Guards had found out about, apart from the above few, there were still many Liangshan men who lived within Great Xia including Hua Heshang and Wu Song. However, they did not decide to join the military.

Ouyang Shuo did not force them and allowed them to live their lives as they wished.

However, since they were not willing to work for Great Xia, in the future, they should not hope for him to bring them to Planet Hope. Only when one contributes would one get any returns, and there was no free lunch in the world.

The above people mentioned were only the representative figures who came to Great Xia.

Not only during this month, but along with Great Xia getting more and more famous and also obtaining the orthodoxy of China, in the future, there would only be more and more historical talents who choose to move in.

At this stage, Great Xia did not need to seek talents, and they would come over by themselves.

At this point, the foundation talent bottleneck of Great Xia was solved, and even if Great Xia continued to expand, with this huge talent store in China, they would not be able to finish using them.

However, with their arrival, the Great Xia system became more and more complicated.

No one was perfect, and each historical talent had its pros and cons. They could be selfish, corrupt, power hungry, or placed family over the dynasty…

Furthermore, they were all born from different eras and had different ways of thinking. It was like a huge pot of ingredients mashed together.

How to make them adapt to one another was a big problem.

No matter how Ouyang Shuo defended against it or how perfect the system he designed was, new layers and factions would be born, and segregation would occur.

This was inevitable, and Ouyang Shuo could not stop it.

If Ouyang Shuo used brute force or martial arts to forcefully suppress them to dismantle all these layers, it would only end out in a lose-lose situation and drag Great Xia down.

On the contrary, Ouyang Shuo could only follow the flow and borrow this wave to push the boat that was Great Xia forwards. At most, Ouyang Shuo could only ensure that Great Xia would not go off course.

If Great Xia was a squadron riding the waves, then Ouyang Shuo was only on the flagship. Around it, there were many tens of thousands of small boats.

They were the protection of the flagship, and he also relied on them for his safety.

Both of them relied on one another.

In such a huge system, even if Ouyang Shuo had absolute power, he would not be able to pay attention to every matter.

Luckily, Great Xia had a really efficient system, the strongest Cabinet lineup in history, and an unparalleled army that could face any challenge.

What Ouyang Shuo needed was a little patience, enough patience.

Lao Zi once said, “Ruling a country was like cooking.”

To Ouyang Shuo, he had entered a new growth phase and needed to be even more open-hearted and magnanimous. He needed to have even further foresight and become even bolder and more determined to continue forward.

Once Ouyang Shuo got passed this hole, he would be largely different.

Chapter 1097 - Good Relationship of Qin and Jin

Chapter 1097: Good Relationship of Qin and Jin

Xia Palace, Imperial Reading Room.

Cabinet Grand Secretary Jiang Shang followed orders and arrived. He bowed, “Greetings my king!”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Elder, take a seat!” Maybe as a result of his cultivation, although Jiang Shang was over 80, his face was still red and nourished. He was filled with energy and was really healthy.

“I called you here this time because I have a matter for you.”

“Please instruct me king.” Jiang Shang appeared really confused. Logically speaking, when the king had a matter, he could have just written an imperial decree and did not need to personally meet up. Hence, it was foreseeable that this was not a simple matter.

Ouyang Shuo said, “A week later, I am preparing to meet the leaders of the various school of thoughts in the Xinan University Debate House to discuss an important matter. Elder, please arrange it for me and help invite grandmasters like Lao Zi over.”

It should be mentioned that till date, the Taoism school of thought had not moved into Great Xia.

When Jiang Shang heard that, his heart shook. The current king, apart from fighting wars outside, said fewer words when he was staying within the capital. He often stayed secluded in the palace, cultivating and silently observing things. He said little but contemplated a lot, planning for the future of the territory. He rarely made big moves.

This was the way to rule a country.

Now that he suggested to meet the philosophers, something was probably about to happen.

The representative figures of the various school of thoughts were the essence of Chinese civilization. Although they were away from the Imperial Court, they were affecting the running of the dynasty at every moment; it was a deep relationship.

As such, this resulted in a clash between the dynasty and the school of thoughts.

For example, the famous Qin Shihuang burning books to go against the Confucians, Hanwu Emperor choosing to follow only Confucianism, and the like.

The king meeting up with the various philosopher representatives, what kind of scene would that be?

Jiang Shang did not dare to think too deeply into it, and he just nodded and said, “Do not worry my king, I will arrange it well.” As the ancestor of the philosophers, Jiang Shang did have that confidence.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and ended the conversation.

…

Gaia 5th year, 9th month, 1st day, Fallen Phoenix City.

This was a very special day. Feng Qiuhuang was going to hold a grand ascension ceremony and be crowned as queen. Early in the morning, Ouyang Shuo led a majestic envoy to personally grace the ceremony.

Feng Qiuhuang chose the country title of Jin and not the only remaining one out of the three ancient titles – Shang.

First, Fallen Phoenix City was located in Hedong Province, which was a portion of Jin Country during the Spring and Autumn Period. Secondly, Fallen Phoenix City and Great Qin was connected. The two sides had signed an alliance agreement, which followed the good relationship between Qin and Jin in history.

The entire ascension ceremony, be it terms of rules or the atmosphere, was comparable to Great Xia’s.

During the army review segment, when the Great Xia Household Legion Corps 1st legion 1st division appeared as an ally army led by Zuo Zongtang on the drill field, it attracted a lot of exclamation.

Without a doubt, this was the 1st gunner division in the wilderness.

Great Xia chose to announce the presence of the Household Legion Corps at such a time to stun and astonish the various country representatives. Some of them looked really solemn such as Xiong Ba, who came on behalf of Great Zhou.

Ouyang Shuo was really calm and did not move a muscle. Feng Qiuhuang, on the other hand, sat beside him. She was dressed in a coronation uniform and smiled, “Being played by you like that, some people will not be able to sleep at night.”

“We need to let them wake up.” Ouyang Shuo smiled.

For Great Xia to show their strength at this moment was a hidden warning from Ouyang Shuo to Di Chen. Ouyang Shuo wanted to let him realize that he should not think that just because he established the Great Zhou Dynasty that he could go against Great Xia.

The difference between the two was not just land and population.

Even in terms of talents, something Di Chen was proud of, Great Xia had caught up and even showed signs of trumping him. Not to mention historical talents, which Great Zhou was totally defeated by Great Xia in.

To replenish the generals in the military, Di Chen even contacted and recruited the notorious Yuan Dynasty general Zhang Hongfan.

As for the talents in the real-life domain, Great Xia was on the same level as Great Zhou.

Along with Great Xia growing up step by step, using the scale of immigrants growing time after time, more and more people gathered toward Great Xia.

In the recent half a year, even top talents had started to make their way to Great Xia.

Moreover, this situation was becoming more and more obvious.

Anyone could see that not only in the China region, but even on the global scale, Great Xia’s position was unshakeable. Since that was the case, why would they grab onto Great Zhou’s leg? Although the four families under Di Chen had contacted a bunch of elite talents, they could not truly represent the entire Federation.

In the competition between aristocratic families, there were pros and cons.

In reality, Di Chen and the other Silver Hand members rise was related to their foundations and succession problems whilst also being easily neglected. Hence, for the aristocratic families to continue existing, they needed to rely on the Federation.

Without the Federation, the aristocratic families would become trees without roots.

Just like in history, where it was said that there were iron-like aristocratic families and stream-like dynasties. Although dynasties flowed and changed like water, they were necessary.

Without a dynasty, there would not be any aristocratic families.

As such, it was understandable that these families would experience all sorts of discomfort after they entered the game world. As a result, they were sieged by a commoner like Ouyang Shuo, and he climbed over their heads.

In the Federation, the aristocratic families could rely on the Federation and did not need to form a system within themselves.

However, in the game world, they were split by Gaia into independent game regions whilst also being separated by the wilderness. As such, they needed to, with their family as a unit, slowly gain a footing in the wilderness and start from scratch.

When the territory was small, the aristocratic family could run it on their own.

However, the moment it grew big, even exceeding the size in real life, it would exceed their control. As a result, in reality, aristocratic families only needed to focus on one domain to be able to live in prosperity.

As they focused on a domain, the talents they gathered were more skewed. To run a territory well, they needed all sorts of talents and could not have any shortfalls.

Just one family alone was unable to support a whole dynasty.

Hence, mid-way into the game, the four families would all willingly walk together. With Chun Shenjun’s family as an example, they were mainly businessman and could not support a dynasty.

On the contrary, the Great Xia Dynasty under Ouyang Shuo was a blank piece of paper at the side and did not have any restraints and did not have any rules beforehand. It needed all kinds of talents and was willing to accept anyone.

Such actions allowed them to jump out of the fences and build a new world. As a result, the current Great Xia could find any kinds of talents and did not show any biasness.

These thoughts were something that Ouyang Shuo had only realized recently.

As the game progressed further, Ouyang Shuo even saw how to get rid of Silver Hand. To take out the enemy, one needed to analyze the enemy and understand them.

Once one understood fully things, one would have no enemy.

Chapter 1098 - Strategic Space

Chapter 1098: Strategic Space

Ouyang Shuo naturally had his reasons for warning Di Chen during Feng Qiuhuang’s ascension ceremony.

A month ago, along with the Kangxi Emperor entering Jingdu, it announced the forming of an iron alliance with Jin country in the north, advancing and retreating at the same time. At the same time, it shrouded the military operation of Great Xia attacking Jin Country in a dark cloud.

Following which, Great Zhou and Great Qing also formed a strategic alliance.

All of sudden, the northern lands were covered in dark clouds, and a storm seemed to be brewing. It was a really nervous situation.

Di Chen was obviously just borrowing the strength of Great Qing, cooperating with them to stop any military operation of Great Xia in the north. The moment Great Xia took down Jin Country, in the north, there would not be a nail but a super castle.

With that, Great Xia would be pincering them in from the north and south, which was something Di Chen did not want to see.

Ouyang Shuo’s attitude was similarly really determined. He ordered Beijiang Legion Corps marshal Yue Fei to prepare to fight. The moment the frontline preparations were completed, they would immediately start war with Jin Country.

Ouyang Shuo did not believe that Great Zhou would dare to do anything.

The moment Great Zhou dared to interfere, Ouyang Shuo did not mind starting a war against Great Zhou. Now, it was up to whether Di Chen had the courage to stir problems or not.

After the ascension ceremony ended, Ouyang Shuo was not in a hurry to return. Taking the chance, he revealed and shared with Feng Qiuhuang his intel regarding the Mongol country in the north.

One must not be fooled by how Genghis Khan was all quiet and did not make waves since he entered. Ouyang Shuo was not at ease.

Before Genghis Khan moved in, the Mongol tribes had started to infiltrate the Zhongyuan region to collect first hand intel. These grassland warriors definitely would not be happy with being cooped up in the grasslands.

The battle between Great Xia and the Mongols was inevitable.

Great Jin itself was connected with Mongolia, so they would obviously be wrapped up within it.

“We must be wary of Di Chen.”

Ouyang Shuo told Feng Qiuhuang.

“Understood!”

Feng Qiuhuang also came from a huge family, so she naturally understood the meanings within.

Along with Great Jin establishing its dynasty, the strategic space of Great Zhou was reduced once more. North, south, east, and west; no matter which direction, there was no space for Great Zhou to expand.

As for overseas, Great Zhou was also restricted.

The closest ASEAN did not need to be mentioned, as it belonged to Great Xia and Great Zhou had no way of entering. Further away would be the Americas, and their only choice was South America.

That was because North America belonged to the Dawson Dynasty and Di Chen did not dare to touch it.

South America was not simple either.

Along with the first country war month ending, South America was forming a new empire – the Indian Empire. This empire led by natives was wrapping up the entire South America continent at a shocking speed.

Not mentioning Great Zhou, but even Great Xia would have to think about it if they wanted to interfere.

What made Di Chen feel worse was that along with Great Xia taking down Yingzhou Prefecture and the Pacific Squadron moving their headquarters there, they took control of half of the pacific route.

Not long ago, in the battle between the Pacific Squadron and the Dawson Dynasty Free Squadron, it ended in a tie, and they split Hawaii. Currently, they were now in a stalemate.

Along with the Pacific Squadron headquarters moving to Yingzhou Prefecture, they were not at a disadvantage in the battle against Free Squadron. Ouyang Shuo had ordered the Navy Headquarters to prioritize the Pacific Squadron being equipped with the Z1 Type Warships.

This time, the strategic space for Great Zhou became even smaller.

The current Great Zhou was in an internal merging stage, so it was not much of an issue. Once they internalized everything and needed to expand, they would realize what a tough spot they were in.

Under such a situation, Di Chen might take a risk and work with the Mongols and attack Great Jin that was the most vulnerable.

It was not that Di Chen was desperate, but that the wilderness lived on the rules of the jungle. For a territory to keep on surviving, it needed to expand, expand, and expand.

If you did not, your enemy would.

Once your enemy reached a certain level of strength, they would wipe you out.

As such, compared to the Mongol Empire, Great Zhou was the strongest enemy of Great Jin.

Having the greatest motivation to attack Great Jin, Ouyang Shuo laughed, “When a dog is anxious, it would just jump over the wall!”

Feng Qiuhuang had evidently thought about it and appeared really confident, smiling, “Do not worry, although Great Jin only has one province of land, we are not weak.”

After going through the country war as well as the Battle Map that had just ended, Great Jin’s strongest force – the blazing legion corps – had already been built up and was a unit that could not be underestimated.

Apart from the blazing legion corps, Feng Qiuhuang was prepared to use the Guards Legion as a foundation to make a Guards Legion Corps. With two legion corps defending, there would be nothing for Great Jin to worry about.

Listening to Feng Qiuhuang’s plan, Ouyang Shuo was really supportive, “During this period of time, when Great Xia gains a new bunch of war prisoners, I will send you a batch.”

“That would be great.” Feng Qiuhuang’s eyes lit up.

If one said that Great Zhou still had a choice to go overseas, as an inland dynasty, the strategic space of Great Jin was even smaller.

Let’s look at what kinds of presences were around Great Jin.

On the north, there was the Mongol Empire that even Great Xia did not dare to touch. On the east was Great Zhou which stared at them threateningly. On the south was Great Han and on the west was their ally Great Qin.

In her words, “It’s good that they do not dare to bully me. How would I dare to attack them?” If it were not for Great Xia as a shield, the fate of Great Jin would be worrisome.

Since Great Jin was unable to declare war on the outside, they were naturally unable to have new troops. Just relying on recruiting would be really inefficient and did not provide the troops they needed for a Guards Legion Corps.

On the contrary, Great Xia had never lacked battles and had many war prisoners.

In the near past, Ouyang Shuo had captured hundreds of thousands of prisoners.

Ouyang Shuo helped Feng Qiuhuang in order to achieve a win-win situation. No matter what, to have such an ally in the northwest was really beneficial for Great Xia in China.

“Say, does Di Chen have a chance of attacking Mongolia?” Feng Qiuhuang asked.

Truthfully, to Great Zhou, the Mongol empire was a decent breach point. The moment they opened a hole there, it would be great news for Great Zhou.

Even if Di Chen could not see that, he strategists around him would be able to see that. Not mentioning others, but just Fenghua Juedai who was one of the three female Zhuges could see that.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it and shook his head, “He will not.”

“Why?” Feng Qiuhuang didn’t understand.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Because he is afraid of me.”

With Di Chen’s character, if he chose to attack the Mongol empire, he would be worried that Great Xia would stab him in the back. After all, Great Zhou had a limited number of troops, and if they attacked, it would be empty internally.

“Would you?” Feng Qiuhuang asked.

“Probably.”

Ouyang Shuo was not sure whether he could resist the urge or not.

Chapter 1099 - Remaking the Path

Chapter 1099: Remaking the Path

9th month, 2nd day, Ouyang Shuo returned to Shanhai City.

In the next week, the world gave birth to numerous dynasties, including the House of Tudor in England, the Romanov Empire in Russia, the Indian Empire, the Persian Empire, and the Arab Empire.

Although some were known as empires, they were still dynasties, and only the name was different.

Everything was as expected, which was why Ouyang Shuo did not pay much attention to it. The only thing was that when the House of Tudor established its dynasty, he arranged Atlantic Squadron Fleet Admiral Alvaro over to congratulate.

During the following period of time, more dynasties would probably be born. The global landscape would start to be split up, and the situation would become clearer.

If things happened as Ouyang Shuo expected, apart from Great Xia, the dynasties that were able to exist in the wilderness would either be from Silver Hand or from the Academic Faction.

This was not anything good for Great Xia.

“Time does not wait for me!”

Ouyang Shuo gazed at the south sky as his ambition and fighting spirit grew.

…

9th month, 9th day, Xinan University.

Just as the world situation was changing, Shanhai City that stood at the center of the world appeared really calm. They started another day like nothing had occurred.

Within the Debate House in the southwest corner of the Xinan University, things were unusual.

Within the hall, Kong Zi, Lao Zi, Mo Zi, Han Feizi, Sun Wu, Gui Guzi, Zou Yan, Hui Zi, Lu Buwei, Xu Xing, Zhang Zhongjing, Li Bai, Cao Xueqin, and other leaders of the various school of thoughts sat at the front.

Meng Zi, Zhuang Zi, Shen Buhai, Yang Zi, Zhang Yi, Xun Zi, Lie Zi, Shang Yang, Shen Zi, Gong Sunlong, Gao Zi, Tian Pian, and other grandmasters of the school of thoughts sat in the middle.

Behind them were the 500 odd disciples who were the core of their school of thoughts.

Such a power could pretty much represent the core of China’s ideological thinking. Only Great Xia had the ability to gather them all up.

At 9 AM, Ouyang Shuo appeared in the hall.

“Greetings my king!”

Regardless of whether they were working for Great Xia, secluded in Great Xia, or living around within the Great Xia territory, they all stood up and bowed.

This was the respect toward the ruler of the wilderness and also respect toward the orthodoxy of Great Xia.

Ouyang Shuo did not show any bit of pride. After calming himself down, he signaled for them to take their seats, “In terms of knowledge, all of you are my teachers, do not hold back.”

The moment he said those words, Lao Zi and the others calmed down.

Ouyang Shuo’s humble attitude won the recognition and good impression of these people. People like Lao Zi, who came over just to give face to Jiang Shang, Kong Zi, and the like, did not truly respect Great Xia.

“After all of you appeared in the wilderness and summarized all that you have seen and heard, I guess you all would have new thoughts and learnings.” Speaking of this, Ouyang Shuo took a look at Kong Zi, and his eyes were filled with deep meaning.

Since Kong Zi remade and remodeled the old Confucian classic, many years had passed, and he had probably had new gains.

Ouyang Shuo continued, “Between the various school of thoughts, through different debates and discussion of ideas, your ideologies have been improved; this is the blessing of Great Xia.”

The philosophers did not understand what Ouyang Shuo was talking about.

“Why did the Xia King invite us over? Please tell us.” The one who spoke was Lu Buwei.

As he did not receive a high position in Great Xia, Lu Buwei was really unhappy. He accepted the invitation to come not because he truly supported Great Xia but because he wanted to see what was going on.

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo smiled and finally voiced his goal, “I was thinking that all of you philosophers, each of you have your specialties and your focuses. If I said that any one of you represented the orthodoxy of China, none of you would be happy about it, and no one could convince the other. To Great Xia, we do not want to truly believe in one school of thought and disregard the others.”

To be able to hear those words, many of the people present were shocked.

Many of them lived during the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period and did not truly experience the time when Qin Shihuang burned all books to crush Confucianism. They did not experience the thousand-year-long period where only Confucianism was used.

However, ever since they appeared in the wilderness, such information swarmed them and made others look down on the Confucianism school of thought.

For Ouyang Shuo, the most powerful emperor in the wilderness, to suddenly bring up this matter, what did it mean?

Was a new bloody era about to arrive?

This was not an impossible matter. Throughout history, there was no dynasty that could truly accept the hundreds of schools of thoughts to coexist, as it would result in ideological chaos within the dynasty.

This was a huge calamity for the dynasty rule.

On the other hand, Lu Buwei seemed really excited, and he was even looking forward to it.

Ouyang Shuo said, “The times are changing, and ideas have to revolutionize too. I respect and hope for all of you to coexist in Great Xia, but that does not mean Great Xia does not need a unified ideological system.”

Kong Zi and Mo Zi both nodded when they heard that.

Ouyang Shuo did not force them into it and just described the needs of Great Xia. Great Xia provided all the philosophers with an open learning environment, so it was natural that the philosophers helped Great Xia to split the worries.

The world was circular causation.

“What I am saying is that I hope that all of you can work together whilst maintaining your viewpoints. I hope that you can gather the essences of your ideologies and mesh them together to form a new set of rules suitable for the wilderness whilst also including the ideas the dynasty needs to rule. This system will become the standard and the orthodoxy of the dynasty.”

‘Si~~~’

Everyone in the room could not help but take in a deep breath; they were shocked by the ambition of the Xia King.

Ouyang Shuo’s idea was not truly the first of its kind. Although the Han Dynasty used solely Confucianism, in truth, they were using the study of Confucian classics, meshing the essence of the philosophers on the foundations of Confucianism.

Since there was already a precedence, why couldn’t it work?

Kong Zi was the first to step out, “The moment the king’s idea works, it would be a blessing for all the people. The Confucians are willing to participate and play a part.”

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo got up and gave a solemn bow, “Mister is wise!”

The philosophers represented the essence of Chinese civilization. Since Ouyang Shuo wanted to establish the core of China and make Chinese Civilization prosperous once more, he needed to internalize all of them.

To merge all of them was unpractical and also unneeded.

A civilization without competition and differences would not be able to last for long.

Ouyang Shuo’s idea was really intelligent. What he wanted was the essence. He wanted the metaphysical aspect and not the physical aspect.

This was a huge chance for the various school of thoughts.

No matter which school of thought or faction, the final goal was to serve a dynasty. If their school of thought was not used as the orthodox ideology, they would be useless. Ouyang Shuo’s idea was to make up for this sense of loss.

Chapter 1100 - Power of the Ruler Isn't Given by Heaven

Chapter 1100: Power of the Ruler Isn’t Given by Heaven

Ouyang Shuo’s ambition was not small, but to really put this into action, there were many obstacles and difficulties.

Since the ancient times till now, the field of ideas and learning had always been really uncertain. The dangers and cruelty within exceeded that of a large-scale war.

This was a war without smoke or cannons, and a massacre could happen without the need for knives and swords. Even to say that some wars began because of ideological differences.

During the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period, the philosophers’ debate was one where no one could convince the others. This occurred because the differences between one another were too huge and even opposed, so they could not co-exist.

How to pick out the best and the essences from each one of them became a problem.

Luckily, Ouyang Shuo did not lack supporters. Apart from Kong Zi’s support, Mo Zi, Han Feizi, Sun Wu, Xu Xing, and other school of thoughts that had moved into Great Xia and were working for them all supported the idea.

Confucianism, Mohism, Legalism, and the school of war were the core of the philosophers.

With the support of these four, Ouyang Shuo’s idea could come into fruition. Seeing that, Taoism, Ying and Yang school of thought, and the others could only all follow and agree.

“They had no other choice but to agree!”

The moment the four of them controlled the ideological system of Great Xia, the other school of thoughts could only remain at the perimeter. They would not be able to get great use in the territory.

At such a time, even Lao Zi that supported ruling by not doing anything really could not do nothing.

The current wilderness was not the wilderness at the start of the game. The entire system was starting to stabilize, and the Lords had started to turn their focus toward internal affairs. In such an environment, the Taoism’s rule by not doing anything might work.

Of course, there were stubborn people who were not willing to participate.

Ouyang Shuo obviously did not force them. If they lacked this little bit of foresight and wanted to insist on their own ideals, even if they participated, they would bring more cons than pros.

Seeing that the matter was settled, Ouyang Shuo ended the meeting.

…

After most of them left, Ouyang Shuo specially invited Mo Zi, Kong Zi, Lao Zi, Han Fei Zi, Sun Wu, and the like to a small room in the corner of the Debate House to start the second round of discussion.

Jiang Shang followed him around during the whole time.

After sitting down, there were maidservants who brought tea and cakes.

As this was a small group discussion, the atmosphere was more relaxed. Ouyang Shuo sat cross-legged and said openly, “I have mentioned that in terms of knowledge, all of you are my teachers. In terms of an ideological system, I will not interfere, and Jiang Shang would chair it.”

Jiang Shang bowed, signifying that he took up the role.

When Lao Zi and the others heard that, the worry in their hearts disappeared, and they became calmer and calmer.

Not participating did not mean that Ouyang Shuo did not have thoughts about it. On the contrary, the ideological system of Great Xia had to have Ouyang Shuo’s values as its cores to show his intelligence.

Taking a sip of the tea, Ouyang Shuo continued, “Towars how to build the ideological system, I have three requests that I hope all of you will remember.”

“King, please instruct us!” Kong Zi and the others were smart people, so they understood what the king meant.

“First.”

Ouyang Shuo lifted up one finger, “The power of the ruler is not given by the heavens but by the people. Water can carry a boat, but it can also flip it. This is the essence of the Great Xia ideology. Please understand it deeply.”

In the gameworld, the background of the China region was a feudal system. However, Ouyang Shuo did not want to be a feudal Lord all the way, and he hoped that he could retire one day to start the next part of his life.

Till date, he had already cultivated to the 4th layer of the Yellow Court Scripture and was about to breakthrough. His body was swarming with primordial energy, and it once again underwent a transformation.

Ouyang Shuo was really looking forward to opening up the Zifu after training it to the max. At that time, what new changes he would undergo?

“I crave the power of the emperor; I crave the grand path. Since I cannot have both, then I will rather get the grand path of cultivation.” This was Ouyang Shuo’s determination.

Chasing cultivation and improving the quality of life was his final goal.

The path of conquest was just one point in his life journey, but it was not the end. His destination was that unknown but really tempting grand path.

Without being a great ruler, one would not be able to embark on that grand path.

Just think about it, if Ouyang Shuo was not a ruler and just an adventure gamemode player, how would he be able to learn the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Technique and the Yellow Court Scripture?

How would he get so many cultivation resources?

And till date, the third part of the combination technique was not revealed, which was why he needed the power of the dynasty.

Taking a step back, Ouyang Shuo’s path of conquest was a path of constant training of the height, making his mind and heart calmer and calmer, and not being tempted by external things. This was much needed when one embarked on the grand path.

As a result, at every stage, there was a goal for that stage.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo would say that the power of the ruler was not given by heaven as he did not want to rely on the heavens to prove the orthodoxy and legality of Great Xia’s rule.

“I am the heavens!”

Kong Zi and the others were stunned by that and seemed really surprised.

Ouyang Shuo did not explain anymore and raised his second requirement, “Great Xia will use law to rule, benevolence to teach the people, and filial piety to rule the world.”

It was obvious that Ouyang Shuo placed the law at the helm as the core.

When Han Feizi heard that, his eyes lit up, as he could foresee the prosperity of the legalism school of thought. Kong Zi was a little down, as it was obvious that Confucianism could only be used to teach the people but not to rule the country.

As for Mo Zi and Lao Zi, they were even more dejected.

Ouyang Shuo’s reason was even really simple. To rule a huge territory, once needed a marker that could apply to every land.

This marker was the law.

Ouyang Shuo was already planning to use the Great Xia law system as the foundation to further expand and improve on it to infiltrate every aspect of civilian life.

Only by pushing forward the laws and adhering to it could the dynasty last long on this earth.

Of course, apart from the law, Ouyang Shuo did not forget about the essence of Chinese culture, which was benevolence and filial piety.

If law was the final firewall to ruling a country, then morals was what was used to educate and nourish the people. Only by grasping the two well could they give rise to a new Great Xia.

Following which, Ouyang Shuo raised up his third point, “Merge the different philosophical ideals, but you must focus on universality. Only by pushing out such values can it be easy to spread and act as the standards for everyone.”

Ouyang Shuo’s ambition was not limited to Great Xia.

China thinking needed to be easy to spread. Only then could it take root overseas and grow. Great Xia now had many overseas territories and badly needed an ideological weapon for the native people.

That would be only beneficial for Great Xia rule.

The three requirements that Ouyang Shuo had raised up today would become the famous ‘Great Xia three principles to ruling’ in the future.

Chapter 1101 - Crown Prince

Chapter 1101: Crown Prince

Ouyang Shuo’s words shocked everyone seated.

Kong Zi stepped up once more and said respectfully, “The three points that the king raised up are strategically planned, and it will open up a new page in Chinese civilization. I will try my best to handle this matter well.”

Even Lao Zi and the others nodded in agreement.

Ouyang Shuo’s magnanimity and foresight had totally won over the hearts of all of them.

“Does the king have a name planned for this ideological system?” Kong Zi asked.

The ideological systems of the philosophers were basically named after their school of thought. The system that Great Xia wanted merged all their school of thoughts, so a new name had to be thought of.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it and replied, “Let’s call it the Yanhuang ideology, as that is the roots of Chinese civilization.”

“That’s a good name.”

Kong Zi was the first to agree, as he was one that respected the ancestors the most.

After the matter was settled, Ouyang Shuo got up and left, leaving it to Jiang Shang to handle. The entire organizational work would last till the New Year’s Eve of the 6th year. After the offices opened after Chinese New Year, that would be when this new ideology would be released to the world.

…

Xia Palace, Wuji Hall.

The moment Ouyang Shuo entered the hall, he saw Bing’er playing with the two babies.

With these two new members, Bing’er, this little aunt, was happier about it than Ouyang Shuo. She came over to play with them whenever she was free and brought them various new and special toys.

These toys were mostly ones that Bing’er had used before. After she grew up, she stopped playing with them and gave them all to her nephew and niece. She even put it nicely, “Inheriting!”

Maybe at this moment, the little girl had truly grown up.

Bing’er was undoubtedly a really smart one. Since entering the game, whilst playing, she had undergone five years of virtual lessons and completed her middle school education. She was currently studying in high school.

In the blink of an eye, she was already a high school student.

Apart from modern studies, her studies of Chinese history were even more amazing. Maybe because she cultivated the Wugou heart sutra, be it her comprehension or memory, it was better than others.

No matter what she was taught, she would be able to pick it up right away.

Instruments, chess, books, and drawing; she was good at all of them, a truly genius kid. All her teachers could not help but praise her, saying that she was a genius.

A day ago, Ouyang Shuo had hired Zeng Guofan as Bing’er’s grand tutor and Zhang Tingyu as her imperial tutor to teach her. Both of them were among the most knowledgeable of people.

Zeng Guofan was the top few be it as an official, as a family member, or as a person. As such, he was more than suitable to be a teacher. Zhang Tingyu had great knowledge and was also a really humble person, so Ouyang Shuo trusted him.

After appearing in the wilderness, the two of them did not need to be slaves of the Qing Dynasty, nor they did have to grow braids. They instantly became more comfortable and at ease, and their aurae slowly changed to become a more relaxing one.

To have these two officials as her teachers was Binger’s good fortune.

Apart from these two officials, Ouyang Shuo also made Wang Feng her imperial bodyguard. She also had many other bodyguards.

After Wang Feng’s hand was broken in the Battle of Red Cliff, under Qing’er’s help, he had started cultivating once more. God Physician Hua Tuo also helped him make an iron prosthetic.

The once valiant Divine Martial Guard general was once again reborn.

Not long ago, with Ouyang Shuo’s approval, Wang Feng had married Qing’er and became the husband of an infanta. He was given the rank of 1st class earl, becoming a relative of the ruler.

After the marriage, Wang Feng sought to return to the military.

However, Ouyang Shuo thought of a better position for him, which was being Bing’er’s imperial bodyguard.

That appointment was really respected, and he did not need to truly go on the battlefield to fight. Furthermore, Ouyang Shuo could ensure the safety of Bing’er. Wang Feng was a 1st class earl and had a high position, so others could not say anything about it.

Furthermore, he was loyal and reliable and was also an official that had been here since the start. Naturally, he could be trusted.

Imperial tutor, grand tutor, and imperial bodyguard; these were things only a prince of the dynasty could have, but it was given by the king to the Xue Yuechang Infanta. People would obviously talk about it, and it raised discussion in the Imperial Court.

Looking at the king’s intention, was he planning to develop Bing’er into the crown princess?

The party who worried the most was the Song Family. Song Tianxiong immediately told Song Wen, who was the Jiaozhou Prefecture Governor, to send a letter to the Imperial Court to say that Bing’er was girl and could not get such treatment.

The officials in the Imperial Court also supported such a view, and they all wrote letters up.

Based on eye witnesses, that day, the king’s face was totally black. He threw down all the memorials and scolded, “How foolish! I’ll make it clear once more, Great Xia is not your traditional feudal system, and we are not following what was done in history. However, there are people who still hold onto the poison that is the feudal system and are stubborn, where do your hearts lie?”

The rage of the ruler was like lightning smashing down, causing the entire palace to fall totally silent.

That day, Ouyang Shuo gave a decree. As a result of Song Wen not being mature enough, stepping into country matters that he had no place in, he needed training. As a result, Ouyang Shuo ordered the Administrative Court to keep him at Jiaozhou Prefecture Governor for three years with no chance of promotion.

This was catastrophic for the Song Family.

As the only truly active person of the Song Family in Great Xia, Song Tianxiong was hoping that Song Wen could become a Provincial Governor as Great Xia expanded.

Now, that dream was in tatters.

Ouyang Shuo’s actions were undoubtedly a warning for the Song Family; he was warning Song Tianxiong not to try to interfere in matters of the royal family.

That was totally prohibited.

It was said that Ouyang Shuo was even prepared to remove Song Tianxiong’s rank. Luckily, when Song Tianxiong got the news, he rushed to the palace to meet Song Jia, and only then did this storm get weathered.

No matter what, after this matter, the position of the Song Family in Great Xia fell.

Everyone could understand that although the king only had one wife, he would not allow relatives to interfere in politics. He even deemed it as a great sin and would not give anyone a chance.

The Song Family wanted to use the queen and their children to raise the status of the family, and this was a truly wrong decision.

Of course, Great Xia was after all still in an ancient setting, and there were many people who could not understand it. Ouyang Shuo could not scold them one by one. Instead, he just dealt with them coldly.

Ouyang Shuo had planned that after the Chinese New Year next year, he would send Bing’er to Qiongzhou Prefecture to learn. Qiongzhou Prefecture was originally her territory, and Ouyang Shuo was just helping her to manage it.

Bing’er would be going over as a Lord, so no one could say anything.

Ouyang Shuo had already given the order to build an infanta manor there for Bing’er to live in. In the future, whether she could truly become a talent and inherit the territory or not solely depended on her.

Regarding this matter, the brother and sister had once had a conversation.

Chapter 1102 - As Long as You Want the World is Yours

Chapter 1102: As Long as You Want the World is Yours

Around a month ago, Xia Palace.

That afternoon, Ouyang Shuo bumped into Bing’er on the way back to the sleeping palace. She was resting on the support and staring at the lake. Who knows what she was thinking about.

“What are you doing here alone?” Ouyang Shuo walked over.

Bing’er was shaken. She turned around and said, “Brother, you scared me.”

Looking at Bing’er’s frown, Ouyang Shuo said, “It seems like you have some problems. Can you talk to me about it?”

“It’s the imperial college.”

The brother and sister pair did not hide anything from one another and talked to each other about everything.

“Imperial college. But those are all your cousins and relatives, what did they say?” Since ancient times, it was truly difficult for a college to be truly unbiased.

As the royal family school of the Ouyang Family, there were many times that personal problems from the parental level could continue into their level in the imperial college.

Ouyang Shuo obviously did not interfere.

In the future, for Ouyang Shuo to truly stand up on Planet Hope, he did not need people that were too pure. If one does not know how to use schemes and plots, how would one grow?

Even Bing’er was unable to escape from all of that.

Even to say that because of her identity, she would often be at the eye of the storm.

“Those people are saying that Yu’er is the prince and will become the Xia King like brother. When Yu’er grows up, will brother not care about Bing’er?” She raised her head, her eyes shining.

Ouyang Shuo sighed. What was going to come would come in the end.

“Since ancient times, the royal family did not have kinship!”

Ouyang Shuo also did not know what would happen when Yu’er grew up. His children were destined to grow up in this huge pot and not know what a childhood was.

At that time, what position would Bing’er be holding?

Ouyang Shuo did not forget the reason for him starting his fight. If Bing’er was not comfortable, everything would lose its meaning. Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo suddenly asked, “Then do you want to be the queen of Xia?”

“Me?” Bing’er was really astonished.

She had already grown up, and she had slowly understood the meaning of being a king. Following beside her brother, she witnessed the changes to the territory, witnessing her brother growing more powerful by the day.

However, she still did not understand what a king was.

“You can try,” Ouyang Shuo said.

He had noticed that his smart sister had a specialty similar to him. She was able to understand the thoughts of people.

Ouyang Shuo still remembered that when he was afraid of being consumed by power, it was Bing’er that stepped up and said, “Brother, do not be afraid!” Those words gave him a lot of strength.

Maybe Bing’er was born with such a talent.

Ouyang Shuo had no intentions of upholding a feudal dynasty, and he had no intentions of making this a hereditary business. To Ouyang Shuo, be it Yu’er, Luo’er, or Bing’er, they all held similar positions in their heart.

“I said that if you want, the world is yours.” Ouyang Shuo motivated her.

When Bing’er heard that, she finally smiled brightly, “Then I’ll give it a try.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded.

She probably did not know that at that moment, her life had silently changed. In the future, she would face an even more intense and dangerous life.

“Whether it’s a blessing or a curse, only time will tell.”

‘Just take it as a sort of training.’ Ouyang Shuo thought in his heart.

Bing’er’s cultivation talent was not lower than Ouyang Shuo’s. In the future, she might be able to open up a vast land and have achievements that were as good as that of Ouyang Shuo’s.

Looking at the teen in front of him, Ouyang Shuo suddenly thought about Gaia.

“Maybe this was the best choice!”

Ouyang Shuo raised his head and looked at the sky, seemingly looking past the mist and staring at that mysterious presence.

…

9th month, 11th day, Xia Palace.

Within the solemn Imperial Reading Room, Xinan University Law College dean Han Feizi, Internal Affairs Minister Wei Yang, deputy minister Di Renjie as well as Great Xia high level law advisors were all present.

After Ouyang Shuo made it clear that Great Xia would use law as the basis of the country rule, the entire legalism school of thought was boiling.

It was under such a circumstance that Ouyang Shuo called to meet all of them for a discussion. Since they had confirmed legalism as the roots of the rule, they needed to have relevant measures.

Ouyang Shuo was a really decisive ruler, doing right as he said he would.

“The Great Xia law system is what Great Xia will rely on to rule. All of you understand its importance even without me needing to say it. But in areas apart from those mentioned, some laws are empty and needed to be added in.”

When Wei Yang and the others heard that, they were enlightened.

The Great Xia law system was like a huge framework. Although it had variety, it was mainly used to control the big picture. Toward some specific cases, many internal affairs officials would face problems when dealing with them.

They needed to make relevant specific laws.

“Other areas can be delayed, but there are three that have to be done soon.”

“Please advise us!”

“People law system, business law system, and punishment system; these three are related to civilian life and need to be concluded early.”

When Wei Yang heard that, he instantly understood.

As the Internal Affairs Minister who managed the law and supervision of the dynasty, he had spent a lot of time with the legal advisors of Great Xia.

The Great Xia law system was an example of them working together.

The current Wei Yang was not the Wei Yang of Qin country but someone that had changed with the times and had a great understanding of the law domain. If one placed him in the Federation, he could become a famous judge.

Wei Yang’s transformation was the best description of the change to the officials in Great Xia.

As for how to build up the law system, Wei Yang already had some thoughts in his heart. However, as the king did not raise up the matter, he could not take the initiative.

The three law domains that the king raised up were pretty much exactly the same as what Wei Yang had thought about.

As Wei Yang had thought about it, he was filled with confidence, “Do not worry my king, within three months, the Internal Affairs Court can take out a draft.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and smiled.

Wei Yang was still Wei Yang. Even after receiving such a high appointment, he was still really sharp, doing things really carefully. He had a broad thinking process and was fair and unbiased.

As a result, all the officials in the dynasty respected him.

Even Bao Zheng, who was the Regulatory Department director, was really well behaved under Wei Yang, fully respectful of him.

“Then I’ll be looking forward to it!”

Ouyang Shuo was also looking forward to the time when the laws of Great Xia changed.

Chapter 1103 - Wei Zheng Enters the Cabinet

Chapter 1103: Wei Zheng Enters the Cabinet

To run the huge dynasty well, Ouyang Shuo had been doing a lot recently.

Apart from gathering the philosophers to discuss the Yanhuang ideology, he planned to try to unify all the ideologies in China. To make the different law domains and perfect the Great Xia law system, Ouyang Shuo was ready to increase supervision.

Great Xia’s supervisory system was split into two dark and two in the light.

The two dark ones were the intel organizations. The one in charge of China region intel, the Shanhai Guards, and the other in charge of overseas, the Black Snake Guars. The two in the light were the Censorate and the Regulatory Department.

The dark systems, be it the Shanhai Guards or the Black Snake Guards, had finally taken root after years of support and no big changes needed to be made.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo was mainly going to adjust the systems in the light.

Currently, the Regulatory Department had changed from being solely under the Internal Affairs Court to being under both them and the Censorate to strengthen the regulation and monitoring of officials on all levels.

“But that was far from enough!”

As the main monitoring organization, the Censorate was in charge of all officials. But now, they only focused on the Imperial Court and left the other offices to the Regulatory Department.

Furthermore, the officials in the Imperial Court were the top historical talents whilst those in the offices included many corrupt ones.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to make the Censorate go down and fulfil an overall cover of all offices.

During the Tang Dynasty, they made the Censorate into the left and the right. The left monitored military and officials in the capital, while the local officials were handled by the right.

After which, the left also started to regulate the locals.

Every year, they would send officials to tour the counties in spring and autumn seasons.

Ouyang Shuo’s idea was to follow that but improve on it.

After discussions with the Cabinet, the Censorate adjustment plan was quickly released and mainly included two areas.

First, the Censorate would send censors to the local offices.

The provincial offices would have one lead censor, the prefecture grade would have one intermediate one, the prefecture grade would have one regulatory censor, and the counties would have one censor.

The various censors could skip a level and report upward.

Secondly, form a Censorate regulatory system.

Great Xia would model this on the Tang Dynasty system to send officials down every spring and autumn.

With that, it would greatly increase their monitoring on the local offices.

Due to that, the Censorate would have a new round of expansion, from either the Imperial Court or local offices, they would take in a batch of officials to be appointed.

Ouyang Shuo had made it clear that those chosen to enter the Censorate had to be morally upright.

“Those that do well can be promoted!”

All of a sudden, the Censorate became the hottest organization in the dynasty, and all the officials felt that if they entered the Censorate, it would be like having a protective talisman. Moreover, it would be a good way of getting promoted.

One could only say that they were happy too early.

The Censorate minister Wei Zheng was a cold and fair person. Along with Bao Zheng, the two of them together ensured that nothing funny would happen in the Censorate.

“It is not a place that random people can enter.”

At the same time, to ensure the power and prestige of the Censorate, Ouyang Shuo suggested to let Wei Zheng enter the Cabinet to become the second part time elder after Zhang Liang.

This time, the Censorate was at a great position.

After the adjustment, the Censorate would be like a sharp blade hanging over the heads of all the officials.

This was the good side of the Censorate, but there was also a worrying side.

In history, be it the Censorate during the Tang or Ming Dynasties, they all had a problem. The Censorate might become the weapon between the Imperial Court civil servant factions.

Using censors who were loyal to them to attack their enemies was one commonly used tactic by civil servants.

More importantly, when the Censorate was used by the civil servants, it would directly threaten the power of the ruler, making him lose control. It was simply too dangerous.

“Censorate censors acting as bullets is the problem of all rulers.”

Facing such a situation, combining it with the Federation system, Ouyang Shuo had a plan. He planned to closely link the Censorate and Internal Affairs Court together to help one another and keep one another in check.

When the Censorate notices traces of corruption, it would immediately let the Internal Affairs Court review it. The moment the Internal Affairs Court investigates and realizes that the censor was abusing their power, the censor in question would have to take responsibility.

Small matters would affect their year-end evaluation, while serious ones would result in sacking.

With that, it would greatly reduce the situations of censors abusing their power like in history.

Throughout the entire process, Ouyang Shuo did not think about using the Shanhai Guards or Black Snake Guards. Using these two would make him like the Ming Dynasty, using spies to rule a country.

If an organization like the Shanhai Guards was given too much power, they might end up biting him in the back.

This was something that Ouyang Shuo did not want to see happen.

Even if the Shanhai Guards led by Shen Buhai had absolute loyalty to him, Ouyang Shuo would slowly take away their power and make them focus on intel collecting and not supervising officials.

“Letting the dynasty system run smoothly in the light.” This was Ouyang Shuo’s final goal.

This was a new dynasty, one that was ready to help the rise of Chinese civilization. They needed to be magnanimous and not hide in the darkness.

Only a suitable system could achieve all that.

Till date, as the founder of the dynasty, Ouyang Shuo was able to control the Shanhai Guards. However, once he was gone, how could he ensure that they would trust their new ruler and would not do anything funny?

Hence, no matter what, it was a huge problems that needed to be defended against early.

…

Unifying ideology, perfecting the law system, and increasing supervision.

Ouyang Shuo had decided to act on these three areas after thinking about how to solve the problems that appeared as the dynasty expanded. When all of it was pushed out, Great Xia would become really different.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was in the Capital City and making huge changes, the Shanhai Guards suddenly sent news that something was happening up north. The originally peaceful plains instantly became nervous.

Chapter 1104 - Don't Play with Fire

Chapter 1104: Don’t Play with Fire

9th month, Great Zhou, Great Qing, and Jin Country that had just allied with one another finally made moves.

Based on the intel from the Shanhai Guards in Jingdu, recently, there were Great Zhou merchants who arrived in Great Qing. On the surface, they were conducting trade, but in the dark, they were transporting weapons and equipment.

Large quantities of armor and weapons were disguised as normal goods and shipped back to Great Zhou.

When he got the news, Ouyang Shuo immediately smelled that something going on, “With the Great Zhou’s military industry, do they still need to purchase items from Qing Dynasty? That does not make sense.”

The intel that was passed back proved that point.

These items were not shipped to Handan City but down south toward Haijin Port. Under the direct supervision of the Handan Squadron, the items disappeared into the vast ocean.

At this stage, Ouyang Shuo basically understood what was going on.

If it were as Ouyang Shuo had expected, these batch of weapons were for Jin Country, and Great Zhou was just acting as the middle man to help transport it.

One must know that Jin Country did have a port, and if one shipped through the ocean, no one would notice.

After taking down Korea and merging it into the Beijiang Province, the operational range of the Binhai Squadron was not limited to the Bohai Sea. The Yellow River and the Japanese seas were also within their control.

With the two prefectures of Korea to rely on, Buhai Squadron could go up against the Handan Squadron.

Although that was the case, to protect the interests of Great Xia, Great Zhou, and Great Jin on the Pacific ocean, the Great Xia Binhai Squadron did not announce its presence too strongly.

It took a more neutral position in the region.

Now, it seemed like Di Chen was taking it too far, using the route to help his allies smuggle goods, directly affecting Great Xia’s core interests.

“It’s time to teach Great Zhou a lesson!”

If the Handan Squadron wanted to ship the weapons to Jin Country, they had to pass through the Straits of Korea. At the current moment, these straits were managed by Great Xia and Great Zhou.

As Great Zhou occupied Kyushu, they had a certain amount of power over the Straits of Korea.

However, once the Handan Squadron entered the Japanese sea, they were totally under Great Xia. Great Xia, who took control of Yingzhou Prefecture and Korea, had absolute control.

Ouyang Shuo immediately ordered the Binhai Squadron and the Pacific Squadron to set up defenses in the name of a joint exercise to search all ships to ensure the safety of the exercise.

The real goal was to pin down the merchant ships of Great Zhou. As long as they got actual proof of Great Zhou participating in Great Xia’s war, Ouyang Shuo had his mind set out.

…

The Great Xia Army was always lightning quick.

Along with Ouyang Shuo’s orders, the Great Xia navy immediately acted.

The 3rd, 4th, and 5th divisions of the Binhai Squadron along with the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th divisions of the Pacific Squadron entered the Japanese sea. They spread out like a huge net, awaiting the Handan Squadron to take the bait.

A sudden collision occurred.

Now, it was all down to whether Di Chen was prepared for such a scene or not.

…

Handan City, palace.

After the ascension, Di Chen renovated the palace into a really majestic one. Different from Ouyang Shuo, as a son of an aristocratic family, the feudal times blood flowed within him, and he once had dreams of being a king.

His surname Di showed it.

Within the Imperial Reading Room, Fenghua Juedai, who was promoted to advisor of the Great Zhou Administrative Mentor Court frowned, as she said in worry, “I feel that we were reckless on this matter.”

Di Chen was dressed in a purple dragon robe, “What reckless? Helping the Jin Country and stopping Great Xia from expanding in the north? Wasn’t that the strategy we had set out?”

“That’s right. But the Japanese sea is Great Xia territory, and we just enter just like that. Are not you afraid they will misunderstand?”

As she said that, Di Chen got furious.

After the Battle of Japan, Great Zhou had lost the people’s sentiment, and they also only got two small islands while the biggest one went to Great Xia.

What made Di Chen even more unhappy was that along with the Binhai Squadron moving out of Bohai Sea, the entire surrounding ocean region power was reshuffled. This made the Handan Squadron, who had once ruled this area, really uncomfortable.

Di Chen had arranged the Handan Squadron to protect the ships with some slight intentions of spiting Ouyang Shuo.

“So what if we do? That old fox cares about his face. Will he take the risk of causing an internal war and initiate a war with us?”

One had to say that Di Chen understood Ouyang Shuo’s thoughts perfectly.

Hence, he did not have any fears about provoking Great Xia, “As long as we do not initiate a war, Great Zhou will remain safe.”

Xiong Ba and the others agreed with that.

Although they agreed, they did not feel good, “Since when did the safety of Great Zhou depend on Great Xia? How ironic.”

The Great Zhou that had just been established not only had little room for expansion, but it was also riddled with problems internally. Let’s not mention how Xiong Ba, Zhan Lang, and Chun Shenjun each held one area.

Along with the Battle Map ending, Great Zhou had Great Song and Great Ming at their borders. Be it either of them, they were stronger than the Great Sui and Shu Han near Great Xia, giving Di Chen a headache.

If it were not for Great Zhou expressing friendliness to them, Great Zhou’s situation would be worse.

Next, there was the negativity due to their performance in the Battle of Japan. Great Zhou was facing a loss of talents. Although the number was not large, it was enough to make Di Chen worry.

This showed that the trust of the Chinese players toward Great Zhou was slowly being lost.

“A loss of talent is a sign of a declining dynasty.” To stabilize the situation, Di Chen had to increase his support toward them and give them better policies.

This was a huge expenditure.

After the Battle of Japan ended, Great Xia and Great Jin had entered the Pacific trade channel. This had started to influence Great Zhou trade, reducing their profits. To increase their expenditure now was like adding oil to the fire.

Under such circumstances, Di Chen resisted all the pressure and chose to work with Jin to go up against Great Xia. He wanted to wipe out the Beijiang Province and give Great Zhou a larger strategic space.

Think about it, the moment Great Zhou had the entire Great Xia Beijiang Province under their rule, how good would it be? At that very moment, someone reported, “My king, the Handan Squadron has an emergency.”

Di Chen’s heart dropped, and he immediately had a bad feeling.

Chapter 1105 - Breaking a Hand to Survive

Chapter 1105: Breaking a Hand to Survive

Juedai Fenghua’s worry came true in the end.

9th month, 15th day, the Handan Squadron 1st and 2nd divisions were escorting millions of gold worth of weapons and secretly heading for the Jin Country. When they were passing by the east Japanese sea, they were stopped by the Great Xia navy.

Great Xia Binhai Squadron made it really clear that because it was during a drill period, they needed to check all the passing boats. If they did not carry any prohibited items, they would be released immediately.

If they did not cooperate, for the safety of the drill, they could only forcefully search.

Although the Handan Navy Fleet Admiral was furious, he did not dare take things into his own hand. Instead, sought advice from the Imperial Court. Both sides were at a standstill on the ocean.

Six Great Xia navy divisions surrounded the two divisions of the Handan Squadron.

When Di Chen received the emergency report, his face sunk. He could not help but scold out, “Dog sh*t! What drill? They are purposely finding problem with us.”

Juedai Fenghua frowned. After thinking about it, she finally said, “Something is wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” Di Chen asked.

“The timing is simply too coincidental. Yhey stopped the Handan Squadron too accurately. When things are too coincidental, they are often not a coincidence.”

“You’re saying?” Di Chen had a really solemn expression.

“I’m worried that Great Xia has investigated the fact that the merchants were shipping some items. Only then could it be understandable why they were able to intercept us so accurately.”

“That’s not possible right?” Di Chen had his doubts, “This batch of equipment is secretly sent through merchants and is totally a secret. Even in the Qing Dynasty, only a few people know about it, so how would Great Xia know about it?”

Fenghua Juedai shook her head, “Do not doubt their investigative ability. During these days, their Shanhai Guards are getting stronger and stronger. Difeng has traded blows with them many times and did not get the upper hand.”

“….”

Di Chen’s face was really ugly.

In that sense, there was nothing they could take out to compete with Great Xia.

“If the old fox really found out about this batch of goods, all the more we cannot let them search us.” Di Chen got up and paced around the room as his face finally regained its calm.

Great Zhou, Great Qing, and Jin Country forming an alliance was one matter. Joining in the war between Great Xia and Jin Country was another.

Just like how Great Qin, Great Han, and Great Tang were allies with Great Xia but did not stop trading with Great Zhou. Allying brought the two sides closer to one another like cooperation in real life.

“Now that the Handan Squadron is surrounded, if they reject the searched, I am worried that a conflict might start.” Juedai Fenghua was still a little worried. With her understanding of Great Xia, the moment they acted, they would not return empty-handed.

Di Chen stood still, and his eyes were determined, “We cannot let them search. At most, we will sink the merchant ships. When they sink to the bottom, all evidence is lost. What can they do then?”

“That’s a way, but the cost is a little too high.”

Juedai Fenghua felt like it was a waste. Millions of gold worth of equipment, if they lost it, they had to compensate the Qing Dynasty. Furthermore, sinking their own merchant ships would cause a lot of negative impacts.

“Currently, we can only abandon the chariot to protect the commander!” Di Chen was really decisive, “As for the compensation, we can discuss with Qing Dynasty. We are helping them transport the equipment, so we should share the risks.”

As expected from an expert. Di Chen was able to think of a way to stop the losses right away.

“I agree.”

Fenghua Juedai was also a really rational person and knew when to let go.

…

Japanese sea region.

The Great Xia navy and the Handan Squadron had been in a standstill for a morning. As time went on, the smell of gunpowder grew stronger and stronger. Cannons had been stretched out of their cabins, and a fight was imminent.

At 2 PM, after receiving a reply from the king, the Handan Squadron Fleet Admiral ordered the warships to aim right at their own merchants.

Although this order confused all of them, it was a military order, and they could only execute it.

When the people on the merchant ships following behind the Handan Squadron saw that the warships were aiming right at them, they were also astonished, and their eyes were opened wide, “What is this, are they trying to silence us?”

Due to the need for secrecy, the merchants that Di Chen found were mostly imperial chambers of commerce.

To be more specific, they were the personal merchants from Chun Shenjun and the core merchant force of Great Zhou.

Seeing that, they were stunned.

“Fire!”

The Fleet Admiral only needed to execute orders and did not need to worry about anything else. The thing he cared about now was after destroying the evidence, how would they break out of the Great Xia Squadron lock and return to their base?

The Stone, deck.

Binhai Squadron Fleet Admiral Qin Jiguang saw everything the Handan City Squadron was doing through his telescope. Immediately, he understood and ordered solemnly, “The enemy is trying to destroy the evidence. Stop them, all fire!”

“Yes general!”

Qin Jiguang was a really decisive person. After getting the orders from the king, he knew that this mission was not easy. As this would be a tough naval battle, he had to adapt.

As expected, the situation had changed.

As long as Handan Squadron fired, Qin Jiguang had the courage to fire back.

One could say that Handan Squadron was aiming at their own merchants and not initiating a naval fight. However, under such circumstances, who would be telling the truth?

After the battle, Qin Jiguang could blame the first shots on the Handan Squadron.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

Along with a series of cannon shots, the east Japanese sea was not so calm anymore.

The situation of the naval fight was a little weird. The Handan Squadron tried their best to fire at their own merchants whilst the Great Xia Squadron tried to stop them to protect the merchants.

All of a sudden, the Handan Squadron that was surrounded by the Great Xia was in bad shape.

When he saw that the enemy fire power was too strong, and their squadron suffering heavy casualties, the Handan Squadron Fleet Admiral’s heart felt really pained. He ordered them to continue shooting at the merchant ships whilst trying to break out through the southwest direction.

“Go toward Kyushu. I do not believe that the enemy dares to go onto the island!”

Amongst the cannon fire, the Handan Squadron did not bother about sacrifices as they went all out to break free from the encirclement. The Great Xia navy chased, and many Handan Squadron warships were sunk.

This chase and surround battle lasted for an entire afternoon and did not stop.

Close to nighttime, along with the orange red dusk, the remaining half of the surviving Handan Squadron forces finally entered Kyushu island. The four divisions came over to assist them, smoothly bringing them into the port, letting them escape.

The Great Xia Squadron followed closely, sailing around the port.

Looking at the situation, this battle was far from over. When they started the battle during the afternoon, Qin Jiguang had already sent a battle report to the Xia palace. He was awaiting further instructions from the king.

Northern ocean region, a fluctuating situation.

Chapter 1106 - Irrefutable

Chapter 1106: Irrefutable

Xia Palace, Imperial Reading Room.

In the quiet reading room, Ouyang Shuo sat on his rosewood chair as he looked through memorials. At the side, smoke from the incense burner rose up, and just one slight breath would make one feel energized.

This was the Blue Treasure Dragon scent that Zhang Zhongjing had specially made. It could raise one’s spirit and also helped with cultivation. Each gram was worth a thousand gold; it was a truly rare and expensive medicine. As such, only Ouyang Shuo could be able to use it.

As time went on, the thick stack of memorials decreased at a visible rate.

Since his cultivation started paying off, Ouyang Shuo became smarter, and his memory and comprehension had both reached new heights. He could pretty much reach a level where he had photographic memory, and he was filled with energy.

The problems of too many memorials that plagued emperors of history was no problem for Ouyang Shuo.

Every day, he only needed to use two hours to go through a day’s worth of memorials. While he read through them, he prohibited anyone from disturbing him.

At this very moment, the sound of light footsteps spread from outside the door. The person seemed to have something urgent, but when he arrived outside, he did not dare to knock. He just paced back and forth.

“Who is outside? Quickly enter!”

Ouyang Shuo was really sharp, catching onto the message from outside. He knew that there was definitely something urgent from the frontlines.

“Yes, my king!”

The person outside pushed open the door and entered; he was the Divine Martial Guard captain on duty.

“My king, there’s urgent news from the frontlines!”

The captain stepped up, and a letter was passed to Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Put it down!” He guessed that it was probably about the developments from the naval battle. Opening it up, it was the battle report from Qin Jiguang.

Seeing that the Handan Squadron would rather sink their own merchant ships than be searched, “I did not expect Di Chen to be so decisive. I have underestimated him.”

Looking at the battle report, Ouyang Shuo wrote one line, “Chase the remaining bandits.”

…

Ouyang Shuo annotated the documents and immediately passed it out to the Grand Council to send a copy to the Cabinet and relevant organizations.

Just like an order gun, along with Ouyang Shuo’s orders, the Great Xia machine started up once more. They were prepared to give Great Zhou a fatal blow at the most unexpected of times.

First, the Guards Legion Corps got the order and immediately teleported to Edo in Yingzhou Prefecture and gathered toward Kyushu and Shikoku. Along with them was the newly built Yingzhou Formation.

The Guards Legion Corps was going to launch a sneak attack on the islands.

Apart from their military operations, Great Xia needed to win the forums and take the moral high ground. The Outreach Division of the Honglu Temple was ready, and they immediately held a press conference.

At the press conference, Zi Luolan openly announced the evidence that the Great Xia Binhai Squadron had found to show that Great Zhou had interfered in the war between Great Xia and Jin Country, which was a declaration of war.

“In the afternoon, after Great Zhou’s Handan Squadron initiated cannon fire, our Binhai Squadron and Pacific Squadron retaliated, and the two sides engaged in an intense battle at the Japanese sea,” Zi Luolan explained.

This time, people started to discuss.

Immediately, a reporter asked, “Would the engagement between Great Xia and Great Zhou end at a naval battle or expand to become an all-out war?”

This was the problem that the Chinese people were the most concerned with.

Zi Luolan smiled and asked, “Great Xia’s stance is really clear. We will not initiate an internal war in China. However, if Great Zhou starts it, we would not mind fighting.”

‘Si~~’

Zi Luolan’s strong reply made the reporters present suck in a cold breath.

A storm was coming.

“Can you reveal in detail Great Xia’s next step?” someone asked.

Zi Luolan did not hide anything and replied, “Just now, the Great Zhou squadron had backed off into Kyushu, and along with them were Jin Country contacts and Great Qing members. To clarify the doubts, Great Zhou has to hand them over. After Great Xia investigates them, we will release them. If not, both sides can only meet on the battlefield.”

If it were a deal in the dark, Di Chen might have accepted it. But now, Great Xia had revealed it to the public. If he dared to agree, he would not be Di Chen.

It was obvious that Great Xia wanted to fight with Great Zhou.

“Additionally, taking this chance, I would like to announce a piece of news. Due to the shady dealings of Great Zhou in the Japanese sea, from today onward, our squadron will patrol the seas.”

Zi Luolan was making it clear that they were prohibiting Great Zhou ships from entering the Japanese sea.

Following which, a few more reporters asked questions. Zi Luolan was the star, showing Great Xia’s firm stance as well as their will to take revenge.

After the press conference, the relevant details were spread all across China and gave rise to hot debate.

“Why did storms brew in China?”

“Handan Squadron shot first, and Great Xia’s navy chased them down. Who is right and who is wrong?”

“Ripples caused by an ocean battle, the China region is not peaceful anymore. A mountain cannot allow two tigers to live!”

“Great Qing working with Jin Country, they are a disgrace to Chinese civilization. We support Great Xia!”

“Unable to defend themselves, is Great Zhou maligned?”

Not only the players, but even the various powers in China were focusing on this matter. Especially Qing Dynasty and Jin Country, who sent people to discuss with Great Zhou.

The entire wilderness was bustling with excitement once more.

…

Handan City, Palace.

“What a bully!”

Looking at the news from the news conference, Di Chen was furious.

Pretty much right away, Fenghua Juedai gathered up the forum army to try to clear up this mess. They tried to explain that they shot the merchant ships and not Great Xia.

The ones who initiated the war was not them but Great Xia.

The problem was that the Chinese people did not believe them, “To shoot at their own merchant ships, do you think we are dumb?” Players only believed their own logic and did not care about the truth itself.

Furthermore, Great Zhou did not instill much faith in the people.

Especially after the Battle of Japan and the Battle Map. Since then, the players did not show much trust in them.

On the contrary, Great Xia had brought great glory to China during the country war month, and their reputation was booming. Needless to say, everyone was all on Great Xia’s side.

Even if the Great Zhou forum army went all out, they could not help the matter. Instead, they made it worse.

Seeing the situation, Juedai Fenghua could only take the loss. This incident showed one should not underestimate the peoples’ sentiment, as it could affect the fate of a dynasty.

This would happen to Great Zhou because of what they had done in the past.

Di Chen had never been in as bad of a shape as today. Before this, it had only been him badmouthing Great Xia, and he had never thought that there would be a day that Great Xia used the same thing against him.

“The world is really changing!” Di Chen’s face sank.

Chapter 1107 - Yingzhou Province

Chapter 1107: Yingzhou Province

“Looking at the situation, Great Xia is preparing to attack Kyushu. What should we do?”

At this stage, the real goal of Great Xia was revealed. They wanted to make use of this conflict to chase Great Zhou out of Japan.

If Great Xia managed to achieve their goals, Great Zhou would be totally trapped.

“How devious!”

Di Chen did not know when Great Xia started playing such underhanded tricks. What made him feel worse was that Great Zhou did not have teleportation formations in Kyushu and Shikoku.

The moment Great Xia exploded, Great Zhou would have no way to retaliate.

Great Zhou only had two paths in front of them. They could either give up the two islands or immediately send reinforcement troops to have a true battle. But if they sent reinforcements, they might not be able to make it in time.

Di Chen thought about it, and in the end, he gritted his teeth and said, “Retreat!”

“Retreat?” Juedai Fenghua was a little astonished.

“That’s right.” Di Chen nodded, “Since we cannot defend, let’s make a clean retreat. I want to see how Great Xia would attack two defenseless islands.”

Juedai Fenghua nodded. Di Chen’s method was the best of the worse.

No matter what, Kyushu and Shikoku were lost. When Great Xia occupied both islands, along with Korea, the Japanese region, and Yizhou Island, they could lock Great Zhou up.

“The future is a huge worry!”

Juedai Fenghua could roughly guess the deeper intentions of Great Xia. They wanted to slowly cut the branches of Great Zhou, cutting off their economic lifeline before giving them a final blow.

Facing such a patient and cunning hunter, what should Great Zhou do?

…

Just as the China region players were discussing, there were new developments.

As Great Zhou retreated overnight, the Guards Legion Corps who entered Kyushu and Shikoku smoothly occupied both islands without much effort. Due to Di Chen knowing his place, the Great Xia Squadron did not make things difficult for the Handan Squadron and allowed them to leave.

A huge storm was weathered just like that, stunning everyone.

Di Chen had taken a loss. Naturally, he would not be happy to let it end like that. He arranged people to go on the forums to complain as the victim, to say that Great Xia started the matter on purpose such that the China region would not have peace.

“His ambition is there for everyone to see. Everyone, please take a good look!” Di Chen said.

However, due to Zi Luolan’s press conference, Di Chen’s words had little effect. There were even people who mocked, “Look at what Di Chen is saying. Does he think the wilderness is a peaceful place? When did the Yanhuang Alliance become a little girl that was bullied.”

‘Haha~’

All of a sudden, laughter filled the ear.

To the China region players, as long as the two sides did not engage in all-out war, they would be fine with it. Even if they did, as long as they did not spend too much time and did not affect the overall strength of China, they would not worry much.

Everyone was selfish.

Unfortunately, Di Chen had forgotten that point and was just asking to be humiliated.

…

9th month, 18th day, Great Xia released their plans for Kyushu and Shikoku.

Ouyang Shuo decided to use them and Honshu as a foundation to upgrade the Yingzhou Prefecture into the Yingzhou Province, becoming the second Great Xia Province in the north.

Hai Rui, who was the Yingzhou Prefecture Governor, would be promoted to the Provincial Governor.

Other official appointments, apart from Provincial Governor, would be handled by the Cabinet and the Official Ruling Department. The current Great Xia did not lack talents and had many historical talents to choose from and promote to governor or other important roles.

Very quickly, Yingzhou Province would be able to get on the right path.

At the start, Ouyang Shuo wanted to take the chance to bring Hai Rui into the Censorate and make him the assistant minister and strengthen the lineup of the Censorate as a result.

That would be a promotion to Hai Rui.

However, after considering that the Censorate already had Wei Zheng and Bao Zheng, if he moved Hai Rui there, it might make the officials worry and affect the morale.

Furthermore, adding so many impartial people together might not have an additive effect. On the contrary, the characters of Wei Zheng and Hai Rui would make it hard for them to work together.

Thinking about it, Ouyang Shuo decided against it in the end.

Whilst they established the Yingzhou Province, the Guards Legion Corps would not remain on the two islands. Instead, they would leave the defenses to the Yingzhou Formation. They immediately boarded warships to go up north toward Beijiang Province to start preparations for the Battle of Jin.

If it were not to attack the Jin Country, Ouyang Shuo would not have activated the Guards Legion Corps. Not mentioning others costs, but just the teleportation costs to and from took up 700 thousand gold.

To attack the Jin Country, Ouyang Shuo was spending a lot of funds.

Due to Kangxi making contact with Jin Country right as he entered the wilderness, Ouyang Shuo realized that the Battle of Jin had to be soon, and it had to end fast.

“Things change as time passes!”

Who knows what type of changes would happen during the 6th year of Gaia.

One thing was for certain, the restrictions of Gaia on the NPC dynasties would get weaker and weaker, and there would be more and more room for Qing Dynasty to show their strength.

The current Qing only helped provide equipment and weapons. If they really participated in the battle, it would give Ouyang Shuo a huge headache.

Since the Qing Dynasty was so restless, why would Ouyang Shuo continue waiting?

As they say, “When one needs to act one has to act”, the Battle of Jin officially began. The main force to attack Jin Country was the Guards Legion Corps led by Huo Qubing and the Yue Fei led Beijiang Legion Corps, a total of 700 thousand troops.

Speaking of which, one had to introduce the situation of Jin Country.

The Jin Country in the wilderness had around six million people, and all of them were from the Nuzhen race, which included hundreds of different sized tribes. Their military matters used the military and people combined system of the Mengan Mouke.

The Mengan led thousand men and the Mouke led hundred men.

Emperor Taizu of Jin led by Aguda had 300 families as Mouke, and 10 Moukes as Mengan. Although they were called different things, this was similar to the Mongol system.

Similarly, the Jin army mainly consisted of cavalry with infantry as secondary. Their cavalry had many horses for one soldier and each had heavy armor. Apart from cold weapons, they used cannons, handguns, and other firearms.

Like the Mongols, the Nuzhen tribe’s mature men were all soldiers. Usually, they participated in farming, and during war time, they provided their own weapons and grain.

Hence, from their population, they could send out around a million troops. Compared to the 1:10 ratio in China, 1:6 being soldiers was a terrifying portion.

Facing such a Jin Country, it would not be easy to wipe them out.

Chapter 1108 - TWP Is Born

Chapter 1108: TWP Is Born

Just as Great Xia officially sent troops to attack Jin Country, bad news spread from overseas.

9th month, 21st day, India’s biggest territory Bengalore had upgraded to the Peacock Dynasty. The moment they upgraded, the neighboring Sri Lanka announced that they were going under the Peacock Empire, becoming a prefecture under their rule.

Sri Lanka was a tropical island that was located on the Indian Ocean. It was located at the south tip of South Asia, and its northwest faced Palk Straits and India.

Its advantage laid in its geographical position and its mining industry. It was an island that was rich with jewels and gems, and it was the 5th largest producer of precious stone. Amongst which, it was famous for rubies and sapphires.

Sri Lanka was called the precious gem empire and the pearl of the Indian Ocean, regarded by Marco Polo as the most beautiful island.

500 BC, some Indians moved from India over to Sri Lanka.

247BC, India’s Ashoka sent his son to the island. Since then, the Indians changed from Brahmanism over to Buddhism. At 311 BC, Buddhism was spread from India to Sri Lanka.

Hence, it could be seen that India and Sri Lanka had a deep relationship, so them choosing to go under the Peacock Dynasty was not much of a surprise.

Before this, Sri Lanka was an important resource replenishing point on Great Xia’s trade route. Ouyang Shuo had once tried to send envoys over to establish a tight relationship with Sri Lanka.

However, they did not reply.

If he forcefully attacked Sri Lanka, considering the nearby India, Ouyang Shuo had many worries. Who knew that Sri Lanka already had its mind set on seeking sanctuary from the Peacock Dynasty?

Hence, they were a big problem for Great Xia’s trade route.

The moment Sri Lanka did not cooperate or if Peacock Dynasty showed animosity toward Great Xia, hundreds of merchant ships would be unable to obtain a stable resource point.

This was undoubtedly a huge hit for Great Xia voyage trading.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was ready to send out an envoy to Peacock Dynasty to probe their attitude, the Dawson Dynasty finally showed its fangs.

9th month, 23rd day, a normal day.

On this day, the Dawson Dynasty, House of Tudor, Romanov Dynasty, Great Zhou Dynasty, Arab Empire, Persian Empire, Germanic Dynasty, Gaolu Dynasty, and the newly formed Peacock Dynasty along with 30 large size territories all announced that they had become global trading partners, TWP for short.

The leader would be the Dawson Dynasty.

Based on the information revealed, to promote global trade, TWP members would have zero trading taxes and sign agreements with good terms with one another.

Without a doubt, this was a contract similar to the ones that Great Xia had signed, a global sort of trading organization.

More than half of the members of the agreement that Great Xia had signed with were in the TWP.

Especially the Mediterranean region. Although they did not dare to back out of the Great Xia trading agreement, after joining the TWP, they would definitely weaken their trading with Great Xia.

This was pretty much a fatal blow for Great Xia’s trade.

And along with the Peacock Dynasty joining the TWP, their attitude toward Great Xia was obvious. Ouyang Shuo decided to cancel the envoy mission of proceeding there.

A huge dark cloud covered Great Xia. A storm was coming.

…

Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

Within the Imperial Reading Room, Cabinet Grand Secretary Jiang Shang, elder cum Administrative Mentor Court head secretary Zhang Liang, Financial Minister Fan Li, and Military Affairs Minister Du Ruhui were summoned and gathered here.

Ouyang Shuo said openly, “The truth is placed in front of us. TWP is a trading card that the Silver Hand threw out to restrict us, so we need to treat it carefully.”

Thinking back to the trading lock that Great Xia had just put on Great Zhou, Ouyang Shuo laughed bitterly, “They really are going an eye for an eye. The moment Great Xia acts, Silver Hand retaliates.”

For Silver Hand to last for numerous hundreds of years, they were obviously not simple.

Along with the global merging situation intensifying, Silver Hand that was purposely split up by Gaia had swiftly gathered together again, coming together to form a shocking collective strength.

TWP was just their first try.

In the future, using their members spread across the globe, Silver Hand would definitely take more shocking actions. Regardless of what they did, Great Xia would face the blunt of it.

That was because the current Great Xia had become Silver Hand’s obstacle in the game world.

“To Great Xia, the huge challenges have just begun.” Ouyang Shuo judged the situation as such. Thinking about it, hot blood rose up in his heart. He was filled with determination.

Gaia had thrown many challenges to Great Xia in the 5th year, and they had overcome all of them.

This pretty much gave people the false impression that Great Xia was standing at the peak and that no one could shake and exceed them. “It’s time to wake up.” Ouyang Shuo looked toward Jiang Shang and the others and warned, “Recently, the Imperial Court is showing some arrogance, I am really worried about it.”

That’s right. Great Xia won victory after victory, and in China, they had no enemies. Even Great Zhou was being beaten so badly that they could not raise their heads. As a result, they would obviously start to underestimated their enemies.

Jiang Shang and the others exchanged glances with one another and nodded. Following which, Jiang Shang stood up and bowed, “Not being able to help bear the worries of the king is my mistake, please punish me.”

If there was something wrong with the Imperial Court, the Cabinet had the most responsibility.

As the Grand Secretary, Jiang Shang had responsibility.

Ouyang Shuo waved him off, “All of you rise, this did not happen in a day. Please raise your alertness and do not let this continue.”

The Silver Hand’s actions might not be a bad thing for Great Xia this time.

“Yes, my king!”

“Let’s get back to the topic.” Ouyang Shuo became serious, “Voyage trading is the key to our dynasty, and we cannot let anything huge happen to it. The formation of the TWP and the influences it will cause, let the Financial Court evaluate it.”

“The main matter at hand is how to strike back and announce that Great Xia does not allow others to challenge us. Only then can we stabilize our allies and partners, especially those who are uncertain about joining the TWP camp.”

When power was challenged, the best way to fight back was war.

Chapter 1109 - Fight, Continue to Fight!

Chapter 1109: Fight, Continue to Fight!

If Great Xia wanted to protect its supremacy through war, it needed to select the right target.

Currently, Great Xia’s battle against Jin Country loomed, and they were still fighting Luzon in the south. They were already fighting on two fronts and could not be too anxious.

Du Ruhui even suggested, “The battle against Jin Country has just begun. Our troops have just crossed the border, so we can call them back. Should we stop the Battle of Jin, and then make plans after we settle this external problem?”

Ouyang Shuo resolutely shook his head, “The Battle of Jin cannot be stopped. We must finish it. As they say, to settle outside, we must first calm down our internal problems. Since we have already started the war, we should not pull back. If not, it would lower our prestige in China.”

“But the Great Zhou army has already moved to their border. I am worried that they might take the chance to break into Beijiang Province and disturb our backlines.” It was due to such considerations that Du Ruhui suggested they stopped the battle.

Ouyang Shuo thought differently from him, “They are just faking it. Order the Tiger, Leopard, and Eagle Legion Corps to move around at the border. The moment Great Zhou dares to enter, we can go on an all-out war with them.”

To take out Jin Country, Great Xia only housed an entire Garrison Division in Beijiang Province. Apart from that, it had no other troops, so it was pretty much defenseless against Great Zhou.

However, Ouyang Shuo knew that Di Chen would not dare to attack.

If he really had that courage, Ouyang Shuo would be happy instead. Making use of this chance, he would totally wipe out this cancer to focus on the global scale.

When Du Ruhui heard that, he nodded.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it and continued, “How about this, Keming, I appoint you as the imperial commissioner of the frontline to the Beijiang Province battle. This it to show our determination and also raise the morale of our soldiers.”

“Yes my king!” Du Ruhui nodded once more.

“Help me tell Yue Fei not to have any worries. Great Xia is not like South Song in history. Ask him to go all out and help me wipe out Jin.” Ouyang Shuo instructed.

“Do not worry my king, I’ll spread your message!”

Du Ruhui did not have any more hesitation, as this was the strength that Great Xia possessed.

…

Following which, they discussed military matters. Ouyang Shuo asked Jiang Shang and Fan Li to leave first whilst rushing the Financial Court to calculate the impact of the voyage trade.

After settling down, Ouyang Shuo looked at Zhang Liang and asked, “Zifang, what do you think we should do to threaten TWP while netting us practical gains?”

Regarding dynasty strategy matters, naturally Zhang Liang had the most right to speak.

When Zhang Liang heard that, he walked toward the world map on the wall and said slowly, “The core of TWP is the Dawson Dynasty, and it is also Great Xia’s greatest enemy on the global battlefield.”

“To threaten them, the best way is to teach Dawson Dynasty a lesson to let the Lords realize that even the quickly rising Dawson Dynasty is not Great Xia’s opponent.”

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, his eyes instantly lit up. As expected of Zhang Liang, he really dared to think, wanting to head for the toughest bone in Silver Hand right away.

“It seems like Zifang already has a specific target?” Ouyang Shuo smiled as he asked.

Zhang Liang nodded and pointed, “I suggest to totally take down this place.”

“Hawaii?”

“That’s right.” Zhang Liang explained, “Currently, we are sharing Hawaii with them, and nobody has the upper hand. As long as we chase them out, it can show the strength of our navy and also gain control over the Pacific Ocean, killing two birds with one stone.”

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he did not give an opinion right away.

The Battle of Hawaii was in truth a battle between the Pacific Squadron and the Free Squadron. Be it in scale, weapons, or battle preparation, both squadrons were on the same level.

Swallowing Hawaii was not going to be an easy matter.

But just as Zhan Liang had said, as it was not easy, if Great Xia did it, it could give the Dawson Dynasty a huge blow. It could hit their ambition to rise up in the seas and shock the world.

Ouyang Shuo did not give an immediate reply as his fingers aimlessly tapped on the table. To fight the Free Squadron in Hawaii, apart from strategy influences, Ouyang Shuo needed to consider the big picture.

The moment they started this battle, it would be like starting war with the Dawson Dynasty.

Great Xia was already enemies with the Di Family. Now, if they provoked the Dawson Family, Great Xia and Silver Hand would have no choice but to fight to the end.

“Who cares.”

Ouyang Shuo finally set his heart to it and said to Zhang Liang, “Let the Administrative Mentor Court and the Navy Headquarters come up with a detailed plan, and then we will discuss.”

“Understood!” Zhang Liang nodded.

Military matters were of major importance to the country; it was a matter of life and death. Since they were going to fight, they needed to be well prepared. Otherwise, they might end up falling on their heads.

Zhang Liang continued, “Apart from attacking Hawaii, I also noticed that TWP pretty much have all the dynasties in the world except one.”

“You are referring to the Indian Empire in South America?”

“Yes.” Zhang Liang nodded, “I feel that we can work with them. We should proceed earlier with the South America trade deal. It is best if we can send out an envoy to ask them about it.”

Early on, Ouyang Shuo had arranged the Pacific Squadron to try to open up the trade route between South America and them. However, the Pacific Ocean was too vast, and there were many pirates. To open up the trade route took time.

The trade route between Great Zhou and Dawson Dynasty was opened up by the two parties together. Even so, the merchants were often attacked by pirates.

Furthermore, Great Xia and South America were really far apart. Apart from Hawaii between them, there were no other resource replenishment points. This was a huge obstacle to trading.

Under the precedence that there was the Mediterranean trade route, the merchants were not that excited about South America.

Along with TWP being established, Great Xia’s trade would be affected in the short term. Opening up the trade route could add in a new point to voyage trading.

The vast South America continent hid endless amounts of wealth.

Ouyang Shuo had a plan, “Push back the Indian Empire matter and take down Hawaii first. With nothing to impress them, the Honglu Temple cannot do anything.”

“The king is wise!” Zhan Liang agreed.

Seeing the king and Zhang Liang agreeing on the Hawaii matter, Du Ruhui said, “My king, regarding Sri Lanka joining Peacock Dynasty, should we add some pressure?”

Chapter 1110 - Indian Empire

Chapter 1110: Indian Empire

As for the Sri Lanka matter, it was more complicated than settling Hawaii.

In Hawaii, be it Great Xia or Dawson Dynasty, neither had a teleportation formation. The battle between the two sides was limited to clashes between the squadrons, and there were no anomalies.

Sri Lanka was different, as the imperial city definitely had teleportation formations.

Peacock Dynasty, as the 1st dynasty in India, had vast territory and a large number of troops. Although not comparable to Great Xia, it would be around the same level as Great Zhou or even a little better.

Facing such a strong opponent, Great Xia did not have the confidence to take down Sri Lanka through an ocean battle.

Ouyang Shuo said, “For the Sri Lanka matter, once Yanhuo Yaonie and Alvaro returned to the city, we will discuss it!”

This concerned the safety of the voyage trading route. One of them was the Fleet Admiral of the Indian Ocean Squadron, while the other was the Fleet Admiral of the Atlantic Squadron. They both held the responsibility of protecting the trade route, so they naturally had the most say in the matter.

Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to the two of them bringing him surprises.

…

Gaia 5th year, 9th month, 25th day.

Great Xia appointed Du Ruhui as the Grand Commissioner to go toward the Beijiang battlefield. It showed that even with the international changes, Great Xia’s battle plan could not be shaken.

The Battle of Jin had to continue!

This was undoubtedly really comforting, and it let the players living within Great Xia heave a sigh of relief. They were afraid that Great Xia would yield to the external threat.

Toward this, different sides had different reactions.

…

Great Zhou Dynasty, Handan City.

“The old fox is certain that we won’t dare to start.”

Di Chen’s face was really ugly, as this kind of being looked down on feeling was not great. The good mood that grew because of the TWP was wiped out.

On the topic of the TWP, Di Chen also felt really complicated.

First, TWP was started by Jack. Secondly, even if TWP was formed, Great Zhou’s ocean region was locked down by Great Xia, so they could benefit little from it.

On the other hand, the Dawson Dynasty used its unique geographical advantage to welcome an explosive period of voyage trading. Chasing up to and even exceeding Great Xia was just a matter of time.

“On the global field, will Great Zhou fall to the position of side character?” Di Chen was unwilling.

Originally, in his mind, along with the establishment of TWP, Great Xia would turn its main opponent from Great Zhou to the Dawson Dynasty. This would give Great Zhou some precious breathing room.

Who knew that Great Xia would be so steely.

If it were not for him having a shred of rationality left, Di Chen would think about launching an attack on Beijiang Province to teach Great Xia a lesson. “Unfortunately, he could not!”

News spread from Difeng that the Tiger, Leopard, and Eagle Legion Corps that Great Xia placed at the borders had been really active, scaring Chun Shenjun to death.

“Useless!” Di Chen felt more and more annoyed with him.

A few days ago, as Di Chen ordered the Handan Squadron to shoot the merchants, Chun Shenjun was really unhappy. He grumbled for the Imperial Court to compensate the losses, which created problems for Di Chen.

“To be so petty at such a moment, his nature truly cannot be changed.”

These were still small problems. The major problem in front of Di Chen was that once Great Xia took down Jin, the strategic space of Great Zhou would be reduced once more.

“Do I really have to take that step?”

When Juedai Fenghua saw that, she sighed in her heart. Even when Di Chen ascended to the position of king and established the Great Zhou Dynasty, the situation that they faced did not get any better.

The current Great Zhou was like a trapped beast.

“A trapped beast will put up a desperate fight!”

Di Chen’s face was really vicious. Great Zhou was the roots of his family, and he could not allow it to be buried here.

“If the old fox really forces my hand, I’ll let him see what the strength of the aristocratic family is. I’ll let him know what is called a final struggle.” Di Chen was forced to the edge of the cliff.

Within the Imperial Reading Room, there was a low sigh.

…

Dawson Dynasty, Free City.

Jack placed down the intel and smiled, “This person is as Di Chen described, so young but already an old fox. He really does unexpected things.”

“But no matter how cunning a fox is, it cannot escape the gun of a hunter.” As he said that, Jack looked at the middle-aged man opposite him, like he was asking a question and also like he was muttering to himself.

The mysterious man kept silent.

Great Xia drawing close to Great Zhou was something that Jack wanted to see. If the Di Family fell, the Dawson family would be able to remove their biggest rival in the organization, so why not?

As for the battle between the Dawson dynasty and Great Xia?

“The show has just begun.” Jack smiled. He had plotted many plans and was just waiting for the fish to get hooked. “The strength of Silver Hand is just being revealed.”

…

Indian Empire, Cusco.

The Lord of the empire, Juarez, was also focusing on Great Xia’s actions.

In history, the South American continent had given birth to a glorious dynasty – the Incan empire. However, after being discovered by the Spanish, the dynasty was quickly destroyed.

Since then, South America welcomed close to 300 years of colonization.

Their homes were destroyed, their civilizations crushed, and their population cut. As they had a lack of labor, the colonial masters brought in black slaves from Africa.

The suzerains forced their colonies to produce products that could be sold on the international market, which was why their economies developed in a skewed manner.

Spain, Portugal, and the like; their systems, customs, religions, and cultures all followed in and spread across South America.

Spanish, Portuguese, and the like replaced the Indian language and became the most commonly used languages.

Even before establishing the Federation, Brazil’s national language was Portuguese. The other South America countries basically used Spanish.

The true Indians had a limited living space.

Who knew that the planetary migration would give them a chance to rise up once more? Indian Juarez’s rise in South America could mirror that of Ouyang Shuo’s in China, the stuff of legends.

The current Indian Empire was slowly taking root in South America.

Due to historical reasons, it was expected that such an empire had no good feelings toward the Dawson Dynasty. As such, they naturally would not join the TWP.

On the contrary, they had a good impression of China.

Experts proved that during the Tang Dynasty, there was a batch of Nuzhen people in China who crossed the Pacific and disembarked on South America. They were known as the Oukang people. Amongst which, a portion moved into Mexico and some to the other parts of the lands, merging with the mysterious Incan culture.

Many Indians had the same specialties as the yellow people. Their hair was black and straight, they were yellow-skinned, had saw-like teeth as well as birthmarks on their butts that white and black people did not have.

On a bloodline level, Indians and Chinese came from the same line.

Apart from that, there were many similarities between the two civilizations, for example prayers, burials, and the like.

There were also similar flooding stories, similar patterns on jewelry, games, and the like.

Similar medicine and acupuncture techniques, similar musical instruments, and the like.

The stone carving writings of South America were really similar to the Chinese

Oracle bone script.

Due to such historical similarities, along with the common enemy of Silver Hand, Indian Empire and Great Xia were naturally linked to one another.

“I really look forward to that legendary figure visiting my empire.” Juarez muttered to himself.

Chapter 1111 - Yanhuo Yaonie's Suggestion

Chapter 1111: Yanhuo Yaonie’s Suggestion

9th month, 27th day, Shanhai City.

Indian Ocean Squadron Fleet Admiral Yanhuo Yaonie and Atlantic Squadron Fleet Admiral Alvaro were summoned by the king to the capital. Along with them was the Navy Admiral Zheng He.

Administrative Mentor Court head secretary Zhang Liang was present too.

Within the Imperial Reading Room, Ouyang Shuo was really happy, smiling as he looked at the two generals, “Sit down. Both of you have helped the Imperial Court defend an ocean region. You have all done so much.”

Alvaro was a really experienced general and was familiar with the Mediterranean Ocean situation. As a result, taking charge of the Atlantic Squadron was not too difficult for him.

However, he had to face so many Lords in the Mediterranean and also the threat of Dawson Dynasty Jack Squadron, so he was walking on thin ice.

The one who developed the fastest was Yanhuo Yaonie.

He was the only player navy general in Great Xia. In just three short years, he grew to become a Fleet Admiral, helping Great Xia take charge of an ocean region.

The youth from before had completely disappeared.

What replaced it was a tanned face that was scorched by the sun. It was a face of determination, a very calm and stable demeanor and maturing commanding talent.

Especially after Huang Gai entered the Indian Ocean, he grew swiftly, expressing his personal talent and uniqueness all to the maximum.

Till date, Yanhuo Yaonie was already a passable Fleet Admiral.

“We do not dare to accept such praise from the king!”

To gain the king’s recognition, the two of them were really emotional.

Yanhuo Yaonie felt even more complicated in his heart. He felt really fortunate that he had made that choice three years ago, placing down the pride of being a Lord to join the Shanhai City camp.

The Shanhai City of that time had just carefully walked out of the Lianzhou Basin and was just a little dot in the southwest, owning just one prefecture of land. In just three short years, they had expanded 20 to 30 times the size.

And him, he went from that small Lord into a giant.

In comparison, the other Leizhou Prefecture Lords all disappeared. The one who did best was just the leader of a chamber of commerce, and his position and status could not be compared to Yanhuo Yaonie.

Ouyang Shuo was not in a rush to get straight into the topic, happily discussing with the two generals about interesting matters. Along with Great Xia growing bigger and bigger, Ouyang Shuo did not have time to tour the land.

Especially like the Atlantic Squadron, which defended the ocean so far away, he had even less chances to come into contact. Usually, he could only understand what was roughly going on through reports.

The five squadrons and their generals that had been promoted did not even have a chance to meet with their king.

“That is not good!”

Ouyang Shuo had decided that he needed to take time to go down to the various militaries, prefectures, and counties. Otherwise, he would become dissociated from his people.

After talking for an hour, only then did Ouyang Shuo say, “The two of you, let’s talk about the negative impacts of the TWP and how to minimize it.”

“Yanhuo Yaonie, you can start.”

Hearing that, Yanhuo Yaonie was not afraid. He slowly got up and cupped his fist, “Before stating my suggestion, I would like to apologize to the king!” After staying in the military for so long, Yanhuo Yaonie had adopted their style.

“What for?” Ouyang Shuo was confused.

“Sri Lanka was within the jurisdiction of my squadron. For them to join India without me knowing, I’ve failed my job. I’m willing to be punished.”

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he sighed and said, “You truly did drop your guard regarding this matter. Since that’s the case, you’re docked half a year’s pay as punishment!” In the military, rewards and punishment were clear, so Ouyang Shuo naturally would not break their rules.

“Yes, my king!”

Since Yanhuo Yaonie had already volunteered to be punished, if Ouyang Shuo did not punish him, he would not be able to stand up in the army.

“Since you have been punished, talk about your suggestions. In your eyes, is it feasible to attack Sri Lanka?” Ouyang Shuo placed the matter aside, as this was not only Yanhuo Yaonie’s responsibility.

Even if he had noticed it, the Peacock Dynasty had planned for long, and he would not be able to do anything.

Yanhuo Yaonie’s attitude was clear, “I do not agree attacking with them now. Be it the opportunity or the terms, the time is not right.”

“In your eyes, how should we solve the replenishment problem of the squadron and merchants in the Indian Ocean?”

When Yanhuo Yaonie heard that, he quickly moved to the map and pointed at the Indian Ocean. He pointed at the region to the bottom left of India, “My king, look at this!”

Ouyang Shuo frowned as his eyes revealed a confused look. It was like something had flashed across his brain, but he could not recall what was so special about this.

When Zhang Liang saw that, he asked, “It’s an empty ocean region, what’s so special about it?”

Yanhuo Yaonie smiled and explained, “Elder might not know, but despite being empty on the map, in truth, this place is known as Maldives. It is an island chain formed from 1200 small coral islands.”

“I see!”

Ouyang Shuo was stunned. No wonder it looked so familiar.

The coral islands were like stars that fell from the sky. Compared to the vast ocean, it was like specks of dust, which was why the cartographers did not bother to place them on the map.

Yanhuo Yaonie had spent so much time patrolling the Indian Ocean, so he was really familiar with the area.

At this stage, Ouyang Shuo understood Yanhuo Yaonie’s intentions, and his eyes lit up, “So we should swiftly take down Maldives before India notices to replace Sri Lanka as our resource point in the Indian Ocean?”

“The king is wise!” Yanhuo Yaonie nodded his head.

“That is a good choice!”

In reality, most of the islands on Maldives were too small and not suitable for human life. Out of the 1200 islands, only 202 were habitable.

As there was a limited amount of land, their farming and animal husbandry industries were not developed, and even freshwater provisions were a problem.

Such a small country was not suitable to be the center of voyage trading.

But the game world was different.

After the map was expanded 10 times, Maldives had the ability to support passing ships with vegetables, meat, freshwater, and the like whilst also providing maintenance work.

Furthermore, as Maldives was listed as a game region, it did have an imperial city. Since it did, it had a teleportation formation, so it could obtain help from Shanhai City.

“Yanhuo Yaonie, receive my orders!” Ouyang Shuo made up his mind.

Chapter 1112 - North Africa Ambition

Chapter 1112: North Africa Ambition

“Present!”

Yanhuo Yaonie stepped out.

“I order you to immediately return to camp and gather up your squadron at the fastest speed possible. Take down Maldives within a week. If you succeed, I’ll give you one great merit!” Ouyang Shuo ordered.

Maldives had no more than 40 thousand players, and their imperial city of Male had only four thousand people. Their combat occupation players would not exceed seven thousand in number. Facing such an opponent, the Indian Ocean Squadron could handle it alone.

Furthermore, Maldives was made up of many islands, so it was suitable for a squadron to attack.

This battle would be a test of the overall ability of the Indian Ocean Squadron. The five squadrons that Ouyang Shuo designed should have the ability to disembark and fight without needing the help of the army.

The gunners in the squadron should not be shooting from the ships. Only by going ashore could they be considered warriors.

“Yes, my king!”

Yanhuo Yaonie bowed and immediately left.

Once they took down Maldives, the trade route’s Indian Ocean portion would have a new place to rely on, and it would not be restricted by the Peacock Dynasty. It gave Great Xia one more chip against the TWP.

The only thing was that with the rise of the Peacock Dynasty in the Indian Ocean, along with the Arab and Persian empires joining in, the future Indian Ocean would not be so peaceful any longer.

After Yanhuo Yaonie left, Ouyang Shuo said to Alvaro, “As for the Mediterranean and Atlantic portion, how is general preparing to face it? Do you have any good strategies?”

Compared to the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean Ocean and Atlantic Ocean was more complicated.

The Mediterranean was one of the core places of Europe, and around it was traditional ocean powerhouses. Along with the fact that it was connected to the Atlantic Ocean, it connected the entire Europe together.

Not only that, but it also brought together Africa and America. Along with TWP being established, the European and American Lords would only increase their colonization of Africa. As such, conflicts with Great Xia was expected.

At the same time, along with the rise in trade, Great Xia would not be the Central pillar in global trade and the passing European and American merchant ships would quickly exceed theirs.

Both sides had the same purpose, and they had a natural linked relationship.

Alvaro’s Atlantic Squadron would face he strong squadrons of the Dawson Empire and the House of Tudor at any moment. To say that they were treading on thin ice could not be more correct.

Although that was the case, Alvaro was still confident.

“My king, I feel that to break the problem in the Atlantic, the key lies in the Mediterranean. And the key to breaking the lock of the Mediterranean is in North Africa.” Alvaro analyzed.

“Why do you say so?”

Ouyang Shuo’s interest grew. Looking at the situation, Alvaro had thought about it.

“The British, French, Dutch, German, and the other countries could use the Atlantic Ocean to trade with the Dawson Empire. With just the Atlantic Squadron, we cannot stop them no matter what.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, agreeing with his statement.

“Only the Mediterranean has some place to maneuver, as we are restricted by our agreement and because we have both the Gulf and Aden and the Gibraltar Straits. However, we cannot enter the Mediterranean and increase our influence; this is why they could join TWP.”

“Our Morocco and Somalia Provinces are located one east and one west of North Africa, and it does not stretch into the Mediterranean, giving the Atlantic Squadron no reason to enter it. Hence, I suggest we choose Algeria and Ethiopia as our targets.”

“In the long term, we can try to take down Libya, Egypt, Sudan, and other nearby countries to try to break through to South Africa and connect the cities together to form a combined strength.”

“This….”

The grand plan that Alvaro described shocked even Ouyang Shuo. If they followed his plan, they had to at least take down five African countries.

On the contrary, when Zhang Liang heard it, his eyes lit up, and he stood up, “My king, I have realized that our current strategy in Africa is too conservative. Along with the Europeans and Americans colonizing the area, our peaceful strategy is not useful anymore and needs to be adjusted.”

Ouyang Shuo kept silent as usual. Suddenly, he stood up and went in front of the map, staring at North Africa. When Alvaro and the others saw that, they all hurriedly got up and stood around.

“Algeria, population four million!”

“Libya, population 600 thousand!”

“Egypt, population nine million!”

“Sudan, population four million!”

“Ethiopia, population 10 million!”

Ouyang Shuo was like a human statistician, reading out the player numbers of each African country, “The troops we have there are only the Morocco Formation and the Somalia Formation, a total of 200 thousand.”

“Not mentioning taking down all five, but even just one Algeria would be a problem. Of course, the Imperial Court can send troops over, but the current China problem is not settled. Fighting on three fronts, how can we go on an expedition?”

“Furthermore, the North Africa countries come from the same line as the Arab Empire. At the same time, everyone in the Mediterranean wants a piece of them. Facing such a situation, how can we wipe out all five countries?”

Ouyang Shuo’s words were like a splash of cold water on all their plans, making them come to their senses.

“Then what the king means is?”

Alvaro asked carefully, as he realized that his words were too simple, so he became timid.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he turned around and smiled, “General, you do not need to blame yourself. The long term goal you raised up fits our strategy. You really do have long term foresight.”

When Alvaro heard that, his heard calmed down.

“But rice needs to be eaten mouth by mouth, and the road needs to be walked step by step.”

Ouyang Shuo finally looked back and sat down once more, “To take down the five African countries, the main point would be strengthening our military presence there.”

The expansion of the Morocco and Somalia formations was much needed.

Ouyang Shuo planned to expand them into border defense legion corps, similar to the Hanoi and Beijiang legion corps before the 6th year.

Only then could they talk about fighting the war of North Africa.

“To attack five countries, we must find the best breach. Algeria and us still have a score to settle, and they are located in the middle of the Mediterranean. Their overall player number is not too huge, so it is the best choice” Ouyang Shuo did not totally crush Alvaro’s confidence, revealing some of his intentions.

As expected, a light shone in Alvaro’s eyes, and he stood up and bowed. He solemnly said, “I understand the king’s intentions, I’ll work with the Morocco Formation to prepare for war.”

“That’s for the best!”

Chapter 1113 - More Waves

Chapter 1113: More Waves

The 10th month quickly arrived.

The Battle of Jin proceeded really smoothly. With Yue Fei and Huo Qubing as the main generals, one stable and the other flexible, their cooperation placed Jin in a bad state.

Huo Qubing was the best at dealing with armies like Jin Country that mostly consisted of cavalry. He let Yue Fei command the infantry in the Guards Legion Corps while he led the elite cavalry to roam the Jin borders.

The ghostly Guards Legion Corps cavalry was a nightmare to the Jin Army.

With the buffs of the soul of the cavalry, the Great Xia cavalry, be it terms of equipment or stats, were a league above the Jin army. The Jin army that had once destroyed Liao country and crushed North Song was nothing in front of them.

Yue Fei was not simple either.

Different from Huo Qubing, the Beijiang Legion Corps and Guards Legion Corps infantry that he led were really stable, pushing the battle lines forward without error.

The Jin Country in the game was still in a half nomad state, so there were very few cities, and most of the tribes were scattered up in the north.

The Yue Fei led army swept tribe after tribe.

If the Jin army tried to gather up troops to fight Great Xia head on, the cavalry led by Huo Qubing would appear at the crucial moment to give them a fatal blow.

No matter how they fought, the Jin army lost.

This battle totally brought out the domineering aura and prestige of Great Xia, shocking the entire northern land.

…

Different from the rainbow-like north battlefield, the south was more intense.

Who knows whether it was because of Silver Hand or Luzon themselves, but recently, the Luzon territory armies and players had increased their attacks on Laoag.

Outside Laoag, the cannon fires were endless, and killing shouts that shocked the heavens spread.

There were the direct fights between the Dragon Legion Corps and the Luzon territory armies and also Great Xia players fighting Luzon players. Every moment, there were people dying.

Outside Laoag, it was like hell on earth.

As the battle was too intense, some players could not take it and had to leave the battlefield. Of course, some passionate Chinese players came upon hearing the news and jumped into this huge massacre.

The small Laoag became the main battlefield between China and Luzon.

To thank the China Region players for their help, Ouyang Shuo bore the pain and took out the elite equipment obtained from Japan and Korea as rewards.

The way the trading was done was similar to the commerce city model during the country war month. The China players calculated their points through their kills and would then use their kills to exchange for equipment.

To stimulate the places and make them more eager, there were many platinum ranked items among the ones obtainable.

Just like that, the killing outside of Laoag became more and more intense. Under such fearless killings, the Luzon region players were decreasing at a visible rate.

The moment the Battle of Jin ended, Great Xia would go on all out against attack Luzon.

Luzon was not the only one who became a part of the newly formed TWP. As expected, Java had also joined in, becoming the front of TWP against Great Xia.

On the other hand, Piao Country and Johor temporarily did not show signs of joining. However, if Great Xia did not take any actions, these two countries would probably turn over.

Only by taking down Luzon could Great Xia truly control ASEAN.

…

On the west, the Indian Ocean Squadron was gathering up.

Due to the strong supply line of Xingzhou and Hanoi Province, after the five divisions of the Indian Ocean Squadron replenished, they started to gather around Maldives with patrolling the Indian Ocean as the reason.

They did so to avoid raising the suspicion of Peacock Dynasty and Java.

…

10th month, 1st day, Xia Palace.

After close to a week of discussions, the Administrative Mentor court along with the Navy Headquarters came up with a plan to attack Hawaii and delivered it to Ouyang Shuo.

Based on this plan, to prevent Dawson Dynasty from realizing it, the Pacific Squadron would only use the 1st and 2nd divisions housed in Hawaii as well as the 3rd division that was opening up the South America trade route.

Apart from that, they also used the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd divisions of the Yashan Squadron.

After all, the Emperor Squadron was too eye-catching, and their every action was being monitored. Even then, they allowed the Yashan Squadron to use the four magic powered submarines.

With the three together, they formed a super strong navy formation.

The entire plan used opening the trade route as a cover, and the three divisions of the Yashan Squadron would cover the merchants toward South America to enter the Pacific.

Moreover, the true identity of the merchants was the resource and logistics ships of the combined squadron.

This battle would cross half a Pacific, so resource was a huge problem. The three imperial chambers of commerce of Great Xia provided the combined squadron with resources.

In the recent years, to increase the voyage ability of the squadron, the Shipbuilding Division had designed a special resource ship to increase their resource ability.

Just like that, it could ensure that the squadron would have enough resources for the upcoming battle.

Ouyang Shuo was looking at the battle plan. He raised his pen and was ready to annotate it. At this moment, an anxious voice suddenly spread out from outside, “My king, the Morocco Provincial Governor sent an emergency document!”

“Enter!”

Ouyang Shuo was stunned, and uneasiness rose up in his heart.

Taking the letter sent by the transmission division, Ouyang Shuo calmed himself down before reading it.

The letter was sent by Morocco Provincial Governor Mulan Yue. It was regarding the Gibraltar Straits, or more specifically, the Mediterranean Ocean.

Today, with Spain and Rome as the two main regions, along with 10 large sized territories in the Mediterranean, they sent their envoys in the name of TWP to send diplomatic letters to the Morocco Provincial Governor office to demand Great Xia open up the Gibraltar Straits.

They said confidently, “To protect free trade, Great Xia should and cannot set up any requirements and obstacles to merchant ships passing the Gibraltar Straits.”

“Great Xia has to give a rely within a week, if not, TWP will have to consider using military actions to reclaim the control of the Gibraltar Straits to protect the freedom of trade.”

“Asshole!”

Ouyang Shuo smashed down the letter. His face turned green from rage.

Since Great Xia had established the dynasty, no one had dared to use such a heavy and strong tone against them. TWP was just formed, and they dared to create problems for Great Xia, truly arrogant to the max.

Chapter 1114 - Making Use of One Another

Chapter 1114: Making Use of One Another

TWP’s overbearing nature made Ouyang Shuo feel really annoyed.

After calming down and thinking about it, Ouyang Shuo felt really helpless. The Silver Hand that was slowly teaming up was so strong that it made one feel terrified. At least in the overseas region, Great Xia had no strength to face them head on.

Especially the most sensitive Mediterranean region.

“Men!”

“Present!”

“Call elder Jiang Shang over!”

After a short while, Jiang Shang, who was in his office right next door, hurried over.

“Elder, please take a look!”

Ouyang Shuo passed Jiang Shang the letter that Mulan Yue sent over.

When Jiang Shang saw the contents, his brows were locked tightly.

Ouyang Shuo asked, “Elder, how do you think we should reply to them?”

Jiang Shang was in charge of the Cabinet. Not only was he good at administrative matters, but he was also a master strategist. Every time he faced a problem, Ouyang Shuo was used to listening to Jiang Shang’s opinion.

“I feel that we can only take it.” Jiang Shang sighed.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he was really unwilling, “Elder wants me to agree to them?” If they really did that, Great Xia’s prestige in the Mediterranean and even in the entire Atlantic would be lost.

Jiang Shang avoided the question and did not reply to it directly, “Recently, the global situation is really unstable. Silver Hand is not as low profile as before and is starting to climb over our heads. However, there is one point that I do not understand.”

“Elder, please continue!”

“The main opponent of Silver Hand should be the academic faction. Why did it become us? What is the current academic faction doing?”

Jiang Shang’s words reminded Ouyang Shuo.

‘Si~~’ Ouyang Shuo could not help but suck in a deep, cold breath. He said uncertainly, “Elder, are you saying that we are being used by the academic faction?”

“I fear it’s not only that.”

Jiang Shang shook his head, “Although it’s just my conjecture, I’m worried that the two organizations have come to an agreement. At the very least, the Academic faction will allow them to suppress Great Xia.”

“Is that so?”

Ouyang Shuo’s voice suddenly became low, and he closed his eyes to think. The things that happened recently was like a movie, swiftly playing in his mind as he slowly linked everything together.

After a short while, Ouyang Shuo opened his eyes as he said, “Just as you said, the academic faction has been too Low profile such that it’s really unordinary.”

The establishment of TWP did not just threaten Great Xia. In fact, it was also a huge problem for the academic faction.

Weirdly, a week had passed since TWP was formed, and the Academic faction still had not done anything. They should have started a similar organization to go against TWP.

“But they did nothing!”

“Scoff!” Ouyang Shuo gave out a cold laugh, “Sometimes, one cannot be too smart or too scheming. Do they think that we are fools?”

In truth, Ouyang Shuo had misunderstood the academic faction.

Their low profile had to do with the way they ran. Some of their members were amongst the Silver Hand like Zhan Lang. As for how many members of TWP were academic faction members? Only they themselves knew.

Furthermore, Ouyang Shuo kept distancing himself from them, making them worry. Although Silver Hand was suppressing Great Xia, before the situation turned bad, they would not help.

These two factors resulted in the current awkward situation.

Of course, within the academic faction, there were many people unhappy with Great Xia and Ouyang Shuo. They were naturally willing to watch on from the side. Why would they brave the storm to help him out?

“Does the king want to draw the line with the academic faction?” Jiang Shang asked.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, calming himself down, “It’s far from that serious. The only thing is that we must have a level of wariness toward them and not hold too much hope.”

“The king is wise!”

Jiang Shang was really happy, “Between powers, using one another is common. We and Silver Hand are like fire and water, so we cannot have a conflict with the academic faction.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Is that why elder wants me to take it?”

“That’s right!”

Jiang Shang was really clear-headed, “Silver Hand is provoking us, so we cannot panic. The dynasty is fighting on four fronts, and we cannot start a war in the Mediterranean.”

“If we take a tough stance, with TWP as their shield, the Mediterranean Lords will take a tougher stance. In the end, there might be a huge war. No matter who wins, Dawson Dynasty would be happy.”

“That’s right.”

Ouyang Shuo thought back to Jack, who was watching from across the ocean, and his heart turned cold, “He is stirring the waters of the Mediterranean and trying to find a chance to enter. Isn’t that a method they are used to using?”

Taking a step back, if they really fought, with just the Atlantic Squadron, Great Xia was not that confident.

“I can only take it!” Ouyang Shuo took in a deep breath. To be hounded by such arrogant people but do nothing in return felt really uncomfortable.

The prestige that Great Xia had spent so long to build up was going to be hurt in the process.

“It seems like the Battle of Algeria needs to be brought forward.”

Ouyang Shuo made up his mind. Only by quickly extending into the Mediterranean and threatening the Lords in it could Great Xia ensure that they would not be as fearless as they were now.

“When it’s a matter of life and death, let’s see whether they can still huddle together or not.” Ouyang Shuo’s eyes gleamed coldly.

Jiang Shang, seeing that the king was a little dejected, consoled, “Agreeing with them might not be a totally bad thing. If we take a step back, Silver Hand would lose its target. Naturally, they will turn back to the Academic Faction.”

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he smiled, “That’s right. And at that time, we will watch on from the side.”

“I’m afraid that we cannot do that.”

Jiang Shang smiled as he said, “If I’m right, the moment they fight, the academic faction would contact you to find an ally.”

“That’s right. That sounds like their style.”

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes were hard to read, “At that time, it would be time for them to pay their debts.”

Their conversation opened up the gloomy clouds that covered Great Xia. After seeing through the battle between the two organizations, they instantly felt more confident.

Jiang Shang was truly Jiang Shang.

If not, why would people say that a ginger is spicier the older it is? (Ginger is written in the same way that Jiang is)

After Jiang Shang left, Ouyang Shuo immediately picked up his pen and wrote back to Mulan Yue to allow her to delay this matter till the last day before agreeing to open up the Gibraltar Straits.

“A huge show was about to be played!”

Chapter 1115 - Everyone Has Ambitions

Chapter 1115: Everyone Has Ambitions

Another seemingly boring week.

Great Xia’s Battle of Jin proceeded smoothly as expected. The Yue Fei led army had already reached Jin Country’s capital Acheng District. As long as they took down the city, they could basically announce the destruction of Jin.

For this, the Combat Logistics Department especially brought over 300 P1 Type Cannons to assist the frontlines.

Just as Ouyang Shuo had expected, the Great Zhou army was just trying to show off and did not dare to take that step. They did not have the courage to go on an all-out war against Great Xia.

Outside Acheng District commander tent.

Yue Fei was dressed in martial attire. Looking out at the giant city, his expression was really complicated as he muttered, “I did not expect that I’ll have the chance to lead China to wipe out Jin. The heavens bless China!”

He had been looking forward to this battle for a long time.

…

The Battle of Laoag on the south had entered a stalemate.

After the sudden explosion from the Luzon camp, seeing that it was not effective, their morale was lost, and they lacked the strength to persist. Their attacks started to wane, and they had no way to cause a physical threat to Great Xia.

Seeing that, Dragon Legion Corps commander Baiqi suddenly moved over the 2nd legion from Hanoi and led both them and the 1st legion to counterattack.

This was exactly when the Luzon army were at their weakest. Being charged at like that by Great Xia, they could not even hold the defensive line. In just half a day, Great Xia charged passed it, and their formations collapsed.

The sudden collapse caused their morale to drop to their historical low.

Baiqi grasped this chance and chased for the win, trying to expand his gains. The two legions of the Dragon Legion Corps were like two dragons, pouncing south. In a short three days, they occupied a prefecture worth of land.

In just one battle, they had obtained 50 thousand prisoners. These prisoners did not stay in Laoag. Instead, they were sent over to Morocco to be reorganized.

A day ago, Ouyang Shuo had sent out the order to promote the Morocco Formation to the West Africa legion corps. The original Lieutenant General Shi Dakai would be promoted to marshal, obtaining the Grade 2 east conquering general rank.

Similar to the Beijiang and Hanoi legion corps, the West Africa Legion corps was also a border defense legion corps.

With this batch of prisoners along with the original 100 thousand troops in Morocco, they could barely form two legions. There was still a large gap from reaching five full legions.

Luckily, when the Battle of Jin ends, there would be another large batch of prisoners awaiting organization.

After taking down a prefecture and seeking instructions from the Imperial Court, Baiqi moved the 3rd and 4th legions over to form a new defensive line.

The Battle of Luzon was slowly getting onto the right track.

Someone with a keen eye would know that the moment Luzon lost a prefecture, an all-out country war was about to begin.

…

Apart from the north and south, the east and west had new developments.

On the west, the Indian Ocean Squadron led by Yanhuo Yaonie had already prepared their resources and were slowly surrounding Maldives. Once the order was given, they could tear it to shreds.

During this period, the Peacock Dynasty and Java seemed to notice what the Indian Ocean Squadron was doing and instinctively increased the patrol around their ocean region.

Peacock Dynasty was worried that Great Xia wanted to take down Sri Lanka. Java, on the other hand, was worried that after Luzon was taken down, the Great Xia squadron would try to take down a sentry base for attacking Java.

How would they know that Great Xia was not aiming for them?

On the contrary, them consolidating their defensive lines made it much easier for the Indian Ocean Squadron.

On the east, the merchant squad escorted by the Yashan Squadron smoothly arrived in Hawaii. They acted like they were resting up, but in truth, they were unloading resources and making the final preparations to surrounding and destroying Dawson Dynasty’s Free Squadron.

The Free Squadron only had two divisions in Hawaii. There were two in charge of patrolling and did not remain there at every moment. The last one was housed on the west coast of the Dawson Dynasty.

Great Xia’s goal was to totally destroy thetwo2 divisions in Hawaii while also destroying the two patrolling ones.

At that point, they could totally paralyze the Free Squadron.

…

Gaia 5th year, 10th month, 7th day, Morocco Province.

Just as Great Xia was about to bare its fangs, the deadline to reply to TWP was reached.

Morocco Provincial Governor Mulan Yue followed Ouyang Shuo’s instructions and unwillingly announced that Great Xia was opening up the Straits of Gibraltar.

The moment the news spread out, the Mediterranean was in a sea of joy.

…

Rome region, Caesar City.

Caesar was enjoying a cup of red wine as he mockingly said, “Great Xia is only a paper tiger. Facing a huge beast like TWP, it can only bow its head.”

“Since they announced the opening up of the Gibraltar Straits, the Gulf of Aden would be next!” Caesar was a shameless person. Chasing Great Xia out of the Mediterranean was his final goal in regard to this.

“The European continent does not need an anomaly like Great Xia.”

Caesar was filled with confidence.

…

Spain, Tortosa City.

A day ago, Tortosa City had wiped out their final opponent in the region – Malaga City. They had unified the entire region. The next step would be to establish a dynasty and form a dynasty that met the status of Spain.

Seeing Great Xia accept its fate and letting go of Gibraltar Straits, Casillas immediately had other thoughts, “Gibraltar Port was seized by them from the Spanish. For them to open up the port does not seem enough. It’s best if they return it.”

If he could take back Gibraltar Port, it would be a great gain for Tortosa City.

“Hehe, I think I should discuss with Jack!” Casillas looked out in the distance. He could foresee the great future of his territory, and a smile could not help but appear at the corner of his mouth.

“Having an organization is so good!”

…

Atlantis.

When Kalia got the news, worry flashed in her eyes, “Facing a pack of hungry wolves, can you tide past this hardship?”

Facing such a situation, Atlantis City wanted to help, but they could not.

…

Gaule Dynasty, Vic City

As expected from Henry, this person who was one of the three giants in Europe in the last life. His territory was the first European territory to upgrade to a dynasty.

Even so, he was still as low profile as usual.

“For Great Xia to do that seems really unusual.” As one of the few Lords that had contacted Ouyang Shuo, he did not believe that the Xia King would take this lying down.

The calm behind Great Xia had to have its reason.

“Is the organization attending to trifles and neglecting the essentials by attacking Great Xia?” Henry did not agree with the TWP’s action. That was because they had a more hidden and stronger foe.

“What an unpredictable situation!”

Chapter 1116 - Bustling

Chapter 1116: Bustling

The few European countries around the Mediterranean were not the only ones focusing on the news.

Algeria, Algiers.

Imperial city Algiers was located at the north portion of Algeria. Its south was resting on the Tell Atlas.

The west coast of Algeria that was connected to the Mediterranean stretched for 156 kilometers. The city region was 50 kilometers long, and the streets and houses were mostly built on hills. It was like a shining jewel on the south shore of the Mediterranean Ocean.

Walking out of Algeria and going over the Tell Atlas. After going further south, one would enter the famous Sahara Desert.

Within the palace, the former Moroccan king was a guest.

The two kings were naturally discussing the matter of Great Xia opening up the Gibraltar Straits. The Algeria king smiled, “The moment TWP showed its strength, Great Xia shivered. Their arrogant days in the Mediterranean are gone forever. Your chance will come soon.”

The former Moroccan king gave a devious smile, “Whether I can get my country back or not still needs your support. If I succeed, Morocco will be loyal to you.”

‘Haha~’

The Algeria king appeared to be very carefree, but deep inside, he gave out a cold laugh, “Dumbass, when I take down Morocco, does it still concern you?” Algeria only needed the moral high ground.

These two kings, who both had their own agendas, were having a conversation. The entire atmosphere was really weird.

…

Dawson Dynasty, Free City.

Great Xia admitting defeat was not something Jack did not expect. Any noble person would know when to pick up and let go. Jack was not a fool, so he obviously knew that the academic faction was his biggest opponent.

Suppressing Great Xia was just to step onto them to raise the prestige of the Dawson dynasty.

Only by confirming the position of the Dawson Dynasty at the core of TWP could Jack act against the academic faction, “Now, we still need to set fire to Great Xia and let the fire burn even brighter.”

Regarding this fire, Jack was prepared to set it at Australia.

As the main Great Xia iron ore exporter, once Australia ended the trade deal, Great Xia’s military industry and industrialization would be affected, and it would not have the ability to interfere in the global battle.

“Old fox, what will you do this time?”

Jack smiled, showing his confidence. As the most outstanding figure out of the Silver Hand’s younger generation, he was really proud. Naturally, he was not going to let Ouyang Shuo make the global scene his center stage.

“The era that belonged to Great Xia is over. The future belongs to the Dawson Dynasty.” Jack was filled with confidence.

…

Unfortunately, Jack was a little too confident.

In a short two days, what had happened to Great Xia in the Mediterranean spread to the world at a shocking rate. Furthermore, with the help of some people, the globe started to mock Great Xia.

They said, “Before TWP was formed, Great Xia was like the monkey in a mountain without tigers. Seeing that the true king has acted, the monkey that is Great Xia has to admit defeat.”

As for who the king was, that did not need to be stated out.

Even the China region started to feel uneasy. The China players did not gloat. They were worried about whether things were as the forums said or not.

They were even more worried about whether Great Xia could hold on under the suppression of TWP or not.

Maybe due to sympathy or due to anger or other reasons, but the China region players despised Great Zhou who joined TWP. Some people even called them traitors.

The China region had problems with America.

Di Chen also knew that, which was why he did not step out to mock Great Xia. He kept
silent and was ready to prosper in silence. He wanted to slowly build up strength.

However, seeing Jack get the spotlight, Di Chen’s dejection and sadness was unavoidable.

Pretty much overnight, the global scene had a silent shuffling. Before this, Great Xia’s main opponent was Great Zhou. The battle between the two was the main point in China.

But now, China was not the focal point. Everyone looked toward Great Xia and TWP, or rather, the battle between them and Dawson Dynasty.

Great Zhou was overlooked overnight.

“I won’t accept this!” Di Chen hollered during the dead of night. His face was vicious and really ugly.

…

It was under such a negative discussion environment that Great Xia finally revealed its fangs.

10th month, 11th day, Indian Ocean.

Along with Yanhuo Yaonie’s order, the Indian Ocean Squadron was like a fierce tiger, charging at Maldives from all four directions. With the help of cannons, Maldives was hit so badly it felt giddy.

Following which, the gunners started to disembark to fight.

Facing such a firearm force, Maldives that was cut off from the world did not have enough resistance. Every moment, there were islands falling and going under Great Xia’s rule.

In just a morning, the squadron swept all the surrounding islands and surrounded Male.

This was supposed to be the most part of the intense battle. However, with the help of cannon fire and the valiant charging of the marines with the cover of the gunners, there were no surprises.

At 2 PM, Male fell.

The Battle of Maldives was like a bolt of lightning, it came fast and ended quickly. The moment the battle ended, a System Notification sounded out around the world, making the bustling forums totally silent.

“World Notification: Congratulations China region player Qiyue Wuyi, taking down Maldives, your name spreads far and wide, specially awarded 50 thousand merit points and 100 thousand reputation points. Congratulations player!”

…

“World Notification: Maldives has been wiped, all player levels, skills, and cultivation methods return to 0. All are teleported to the trial lands as punishment!”

…

“World Notification: China Region player Qiyue Wuyi won the country war, China region obtains 10 country honor points, awarding China region players with +1 innate stats. Congratulations China region!”

…

A series of notifications stunned everyone such that they could not speak.

Some people reacted with, “Where is Maldives?” After all, not everyone knew of its existence. Even if they knew its name, they did not know its position.

Even to say that they did not know which ocean it was located at.

Other people did not know but the Peacock Dynasty and Java did. When they heard the notification, they were filled with shame and regret.

At that moment, the true motive of the Indian Ocean Squadron was revealed.

“We were played!” Peacock Dynasty Lord Durava’s face turned green.

Chapter 1117 - Free Squadron Is Destroyed

Chapter 1117: Free Squadron Is Destroyed

Great Xia destroying Maldives had caught the world off guard.

When the world was mocking Great Xia and sending their condolences, let us not care where Maldives was for now, as such a news was enough to strike back at those people with bad intentions – Great Xia was not weak.

Along with the news sinking in, news regarding Maldives was released by the media. Their strategic value to Great Xia was also analyzed and released to the world.

“It was obviously a well-planned battle for Great Xia to take down Maldives, and the goal was to stabilize the Indian Ocean trade route. Hence, we can see that Great Xia has not given up on the trade route.” Some medias read it as such.

However, the media only read what was on the surface.

Apart from being an ocean resource point to Great Xia, Maldives had the strategic value of being a jumping board for them to attack the Peacock Dynasty and truly stretch into the Indian Ocean.

Along with Maldives being destroyed, China’s honor points reached 90. They just needed to destroy one more country to obtain the second country weapon.

Ouyang Shuo returned the Xuanyuan Sword to Xuanyuan Hill right after the first country war month.

Following which, as long as Great Xia took down Luzon, they could get 100 points. With Great Xia’s contribution, the second country weapon would belong to Ouyang Shuo; this was almost certain.

With that, Ouyang Shuo did not need to go to Xuanyuan Hill to seek the sword during the next country war month.

Going back to the topic, Maldives was just a small game region. Great Xia taking it down was not enough to reclaim the loss of face due to opening up the Gibraltar Straits.

Many people still did not have high hopes for Great Xia.

Even the starter of all this, Jack, smiled when he got the news. He did not really care about it. Instead, he focused on the Australia matter.

However, what happened next totally forced Jack to the edge of the cliff.

…

10th month, 12th day.

Australia Lord Avera used the reason of there being limited iron ore and the supply chain having problems to send a letter to Great Xia. He announced that they would prioritize TWP members, so their provision to Great Xia would be limited.

This was the iron ore restriction order.

With the order given, the amount of iron ore Australia provided to Great Xia was reduced to 5% of the original.

“We have no choice, as the production is limited. Please understand us.” Avera said in a fake manner.

When Ouyang Shuo got the news, he was surprisingly not angry and laughed coldly, “Another valiant warrior who sacrifices himself for Silver Hand. He does not know how the word death is spelt.”

“Does Avera really think that with Silver Hand behind him, Great Xia cannot do anything to them?” A cold light flashed through Ouyang Shuo’s eyes. Now, he was tempted to kill, “Since he’s asking for it, do not blame me.”

One small Australia was not much to Ouyang Shuo.

Australia had a total of two million players. Although their land was huge, their population was scarce. Avera’s territory army was only 100 thousand men along with 200 thousand imperial guards.

More importantly, Australia did not have a navy, so how could they be the opponent of Great Xia?

Furthermore, Australia’s nearest neighbor New Zealand had yielded to Great Xia. Great Xia just needed to use Auckland as a jumping board. If they planned the matter well, taking down Australia would only be a matter of time.

But on that day, a certain piece of news spread out.

That afternoon, Australia Lord Avera and Java Lord Uwais made a joint statement that from then on, the two of them would form a blood alliance. They would advance and retreat together.

“When one is attacked, the other would help without any conditions.” That was what they mentioned.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news, his eyes froze, “So that was the plan? It seems like Jack is manipulating everything. If not, Avera would not be able to get Uwais’s help.”

The strong Java was Avera’s shield.

For things to develop to such a stage was a worry for Great Xia. Different from Australia, Java had 20 million players, as it was the big boss of ASEAN.

Great Xia’s current strength was not enough to attack Java.

With that, Great Xia’s iron ore and coal imports were going to be restricted in the short term. This was really going to affect their core military industry as well as the industrialization.

However, Ouyang Shuo was not worried at all.

“Jack, you have calculated everything, but in the end, you forgot something.” One had to say that Jack had done a lot of work on the China Region. However, he had missed out on something in the end.

Great Xia’s iron ore and coal production ability was not high.

It was not that they did not have enough iron ore and coal in their border, but due to the limited number of minefields, they could not meet the needs of Great Xia.

However, one must not forget that Great Xia was attacking Jin Country.

Jin Country was located in the north part of China, and there was the traditional Chinese coal and iron ore production in that area. As long as Great Xia took it down, their bottleneck would be solved.

Australia could not hold Great Xia by the neck.

“Jack, I accept your moves. Let’s see how you will take mine.” Ouyang Shuo stood by the window. At this moment, his eyes were glowing.

Based on the progress, the Great Xia squadron should have started fighting with the Dawson Dynasty.

…

Ouyang Shuo’s prediction was correct.

The day when Australia launched their iron restriction order on Great Xia, the combined squadron tore off their disguise and launched their attacked on the Dawson Dynasty Free Squadron.

The vanguard consisted of the 10 magic powered submarines. In one swoop, they destroyed three flagships of the Free Squadron. Following which, the two Flying Squad braced the cannon fire to bomb the Free Squadron.

Under the twin blows, the Free Squadron was in a mess.

At this very moment, the combined squadron main force viciously surrounded and attacked. They were like an ambush of fierce tigers, and they ripped the 1st and 2nd divisions of the Free Squadron into shreds.

Although the Free Squadron resisted, there was nothing they could do to escape the fate of destruction. Within a short day, the famous Free Squadron had both its wings cut off.

Just as Great Xia’s combined squadron launched the attack, the 3rd and 4th divisions of the Free Squadron that were patrolling the seas sailed toward Hawaii. However, they were a day away.

Getting the news, the combined squadron did not hesitate and quietly surrounded them.

10th month, 13th day, pretty much like how the previous day went, the 3rd and 4th divisions were buried in the ocean.

During this battle, the combined squadron even captured the Fleet Admiral of the Free Squadron. They had captured a big fish.

Chapter 1118 - No Need, We Will Take it Ourselves

Chapter 1118: No Need, We Will Take it Ourselves

In a short two days, the once glorious Free Squadron totally became a part of history.

During this battle, Great Xia captured a total of 60 thousand people, 320 warships, two thousand cannons, and numerous other equipment and weapons; it was a bountiful harvest.

Apart from that, Free Squadron’s Fleet Admiral, Nimitz, was also captured.

Chester William Nimitz was born in 1885 in Texas Fredericksburg, and he was a famous American navy general and one of the top 10 five star generals.

At the early stages, he mainly researched submarines. After which, he became an expert in diesel engines.

After the battle of the Pacific exploded, he was appointed as the commander in chief of the American Pacific Squadron to lead the battle.

After the battle, he became the director of the navy combat department until he retired in 1947.

To recognize him, the 1st nuclear powered submarine after he died was named after him.

For such an American legend to be projected into the game world, it was thanks to the Silver Hand, or more accurately, the Dawson Family’s influence, on the Federation through the game process.

Nimitz in the game was one of the trump cards of the Dawson Dynasty navy.

Who knew that before Nimitz could show off his excellent commanding on the world stage, he would be captured and sent back to Shanhai City.

What awaited him was a future of great uncertainty.

…

10th month, 14th day, the news of the Battle of Hawaii spread across the globe.

At the start, it was only the Outreach Division of Great Xia who reported it, saying that Great Xia had completely occupied Hawaii, successfully achieving their preplanned battle targets.

The American media did not believe it and rushed to the Dawson Dynasty to seek the truth.

The outcome was naturally them learning that Hawaii was lost and four divisions of the Free Squadron were destroyed. Even Nimitz was taken by Great Xia, making Jack absolutely furious.

Above the skies of the Dawson Dynasty was a sea of flames, burning through the entire sky. Within the palace, everyone was in danger. No one dared to get close to Jack’s reading room in case they became collateral damage.

His fury pretty much proved the news that Great Xia revealed.

Even so, everyone would rather doubt it than believe it.

10th month, 25th day, the Yashan Squadron brought back the prisoners and warships past Yingzhou Province and officially appeared in the sights of people. At this time, the news was finally officially confirmed.

The moment the news spread out, the world was in an uproar.

In the past week, the world was bustling and astonished by the news that Great Xia had revealed. Many people were doubtful and hidden currents moved.

Seeing that the news was confirmed, some people could not help but have cold feet.

In a clash of titans, the first to fall often became cannon fodder; this was an unchanged rule since ancient times.

Great Xia had become the hot topic of the world and regained its spot at the center. Maybe since the start, Great Xia had never left, and them being played down and dissed was just the plan of some other people.

Let us look at what Great Xia did after being forced to act by TWP.

First, they did a small test, which was to unexpectedly take down Maldives to stabilize the Indian Ocean trade route. It was also to directly threaten Peacock Dynasty.

Following which, five days ago, the Yue Fei led army crushed the strong Jin Country before they could join hands with Qing Dynasty.

After that battle, Great Xia not only obtained vast land, a dream land for animal husbandry, rare ores, and coal, but it also totally gained a footing in the north of China.

News had it that in that battle alone, they obtained 400 thousand Jin troops and 800 thousand horses, making them the envy of others. One could foresee that with the horses and the pastures, the Great Xia cavalry would welcome a new peak.

This battle helped to increase Great Xia’s command in China.

Next would be the Battle of Hawaii that ended not long ago, which was the most shocking part of it all.

According to the common understanding of the global scene, Chinese technology fell behind America’s technology. This was set by Gaia such that no one could dispute it.

The truth was so. The ship-making and firearms technology of Japan and Great Zhou were given to them by Dawson Dynasty, and even the steam engine technology of Great Xia was from William.

It was said that this was the biggest regret for William. If he knew that he would give birth to such a beast after that trade, there was no way he would have done it.

Unfortunately, there were no ifs in the world.

The Battle of Hawaii totally destroyed the understanding people had of the technology tree of the two countries involved.

Although players were unable to learn about the specifics of the battle, from the news Great Xia revealed, in just two days, Dawson Dynasty’s most elite squadron – the Free Squadron – was destroyed.

No matter how Great Xia ambushed them, without an equipment advantage, this could not be done.

The Free Squadron was not weak. As one of the most advanced and focused squadrons in the world, they swept the Pacific and wiped out many pirates.

It was such an elite squadron that appeared to be totally useless in front of the Great Xia navy.

After this battle, after the mimicry flying device, the magic powered submarine that only Great Xia had was revealed to the world, making one suck in a cold breath.

It was obvious that Great Xia had achieved that unprecedented feat through that hack of a technology.

Till date, no one was sure which mysterious civilization Great Xia got this technology from.

After this battle, Great Xia had successfully defended their ocean rights and viciously stepped on the challenger that was Dawson Dynasty.

After this battle, the prestige of Great Xia rose up instead of decreasing.

Every Lord in the world looked respectfully at the king of the east, and some people were already trembling.

The one who felt the most regret was Australia Lord Avera.

After learning the news of Free Squadron being destroyed, he peed his pants and paced around his room anxiously.

He thought for less than 10 minutes before he made a decision. He decided to send another letter to Great Xia saying, “Due to our previous good cooperation, we are willing to reduce TWP’s portion and priorities Great Xia.”

After half a day, he received the reply from the Xia King.

There was only one sentence, “No need, we will take it ourselves.”

Looking at the letter, Avera was so frightened he shivered. That day, he met up with Java Lord Uwais to discuss the alliance and asked Java to prepare for war.

The dark clouds of war hung over ASEAN once more.

Chapter 1119 - Unprecedented

Chapter 1119: Unprecedented

Avera did not need to be so afraid, as Ouyang Shuo temporarily did not have the time to bother about that matter.

Along with the end of the Battle of Hawaii and the Battle of Jin, there were many things for him to handle. Needless to say, he needed to take this chance to re-evaluate the world situation.

He had enraged the Dawson Dynasty, and that had its pros and cons.

Crushing the Free Squadron helped to solidify Great Xia’s might on the ocean and scare off most small threats. However, they had totally made enemies with Silver Hand. In the future, TWP would only huddle closer together to go against Great Xia.

The academic faction was like a fisherman and could continue to be a bystander.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo would not allow them to do so. The day that Yashan Squadron returned, the Outreach Division of the Honglu Temple made an announcement that stirred up discussion around the world.

The announcement wrote, “As a trading nation, Great Xia respects naval freedom and protects free trade. From now on, we open up the Cape of Good Hope, Gulf of Aden, Maldives, Malacca Straits, Hawaii, and other trade routes to the world such that we can develop global trade together.”

“At the same time, Great Xia respects the various trade organizations that exist. Be it the ones that we have signed with or other members of other trade organizations, we welcome them to join us.”

“Of course, Great Xia would continue to protect our interests as usual on the ocean to protect the safety of the trade route. Anyone who threatens us cannot be accepted.”

This notification that was both soft and hard caused the world to shake.

No one would feel that Great Xia’s act of opening up ports and trade routes was a weak act after they had just destroyed Dawson Dynasty’s Free Squadron.

“This is a newly rising dynasty, having unprecedented magnanimity and class.” Media outlets commented like this.

Great Xia taking a step back to proceed forward was not only was a signal for Silver Hand to temporary halt their attacks, but it also totally turned around the debates on the forums. They had once again obtained the high ground and praise of players around the world.

“Now, it’s time to see how Jack reacts,” Ouyang Shuo said.

If Jack was smart enough, he would swallow this and walk down the path Ouyang Shuo set out for him. He would reorganize the global strategy of TWP and focus on going against the academic faction.

Great Xia wanted to prove to Silver Hand and the Academic Faction through a series of wars that Great Xia was not weak, and they could not be disregarded in the grand scheme of things.

This message was one that both of them understood.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo had other reasons for sending out the announcement.

First, to stabilize voyage trading.

Great Xia opening up ports and trade routes at crucial areas was a move that would definitely tempt TWP members to restart trade with Great Xia.

As there were no restrictions, it helped to form regional trade between the different regions.

The Black Snake Guards had gotten news that before the Battle of Hawaii was revealed, some Lords in the Mediterranean were ready to leave the agreement.

With Great Xia’s promise, apart from crazy people like Caesar, there probably would not be many who would go to the extreme. Silver Hand mainly consisted of aristocratic families, and they always placed bets on both sides.

Ouyang Shuo was not sure about the others, but Henry would definitely not leave.

With the above two points, they could basically stabilize the scale of Great Xia voyage trading. Along with the opening up of South America’s market, the overall effect was minuscule.

Right as the Battle of Hawaii ended, Great Xia sent out an enormous envoy led by Zhang Yi himself toward the Indian Empire.

This trip would definitely bring Great Xia many unexpected surprises.

Of course, if TWP knew their place and did not go all out against Great Xia, even lowering themselves to promote global trade, it would be a great opportunity for Great Xia.

A global trading era had arrived.

Secondly, to buy time.

Silver Hand’s forceful actions made Ouyang Shuo realize that when facing such a monster, Great Xia could only have certain advantages. In terms of overall strength, the difference was still like heaven and earth.

Putting it bluntly, Great Xia did not have the ability to go head to head against Silver Hand.

If not, after the Battle of Hawaii had ended, Great Xia’s combined squadron could have chased the win and attacked Dawson Dynasty to give Jack an unforgettable lesson.

However, if they did that, their relationship would fall to an irrecoverable stage.

Toward this, Ouyang Shuo did not feel any regret, and he even felt a little proud. The Great Xia he made had only existed for five years, whilst his opponent Silver Hand was an organization that had lasted hundreds of years.

If it were not for the end of the world and the planetary migration, there would not be Earth Online. Ouyang Shuo would not even have the right to talk to them, much less go head to head against them.

“The path has to be taken step by step.” Ouyang Shuo warned himself.

Although Great Xia could not compete with Silver Hand, it had its advantages. In five years, Great Xia had obtained a really strong territory specialties and hidden buildings.

This foundation was something that no territory in the world could compare to.

Along with the talent pool of five thousand years of Chinese history, as long as Great Xia digested it, they could surge forward.

Furthermore, Great Xia still had problems internally.

Before this, the three country ruling policies that Ouyang Shuo made up, be it making it official, making the law, or monitoring, all of them needed time to execute and slowly change the dynasty.

This needed a relatively stable external environment.

With so many elements mixed together, Ouyang Shuo decide to yield. When he held the upper hand, he did not force people into the corner. Instead, he magnanimously showed kind intentions.

That was because Great Xia still needed time to grow.

…

What Ouyang Shuo did not know was that Great Xia’s announcement not only made the world discuss about it, but it also shocked the powerful Lords in the world as well as higher ups in both Silver Hand and the academic faction.

The two organizations both held secret meetings to discuss the matter.

Maybe at that moment, the old fogeys of Silver Hand, those old men that had lived for so long, had started to pay attention to Ouyang Shuo. They began to treat him as a significant person.

Such treatment being placed on a young man was unprecedented.

Chapter 1120 - We Are the Same Type of People

Chapter 1120: We Are the Same Type of People

City in the skies.

The five fingers of Silver Hand gathered up together once again.

“Ouyang Shuo, this young lad, is not simple. He’s so young, yet he already has a global foresight and knows how to advance sharply whilst backing off when needed. He’s stronger than all our kids.” The one who spoke was number 1.

Maybe because he was thinking about his grandson Jack, but his emotions were not that high.

Number 2 was even more down. During this round of global changes, his grandson did not even have a chance to exit the border, being a total side character.

“We have indeed underestimated this young man.” The one who spoke was number 3, William’s grandfather. Maybe because of his grandson, but number 3 had a good impression of Ouyang Shuo.

“Toward Great Xia, what strategy should we take? Continue to force it or use the chance to have peace and turn our focus to the academic faction?” Number 1 asked.

“No matter what strategy we take, we cannot lower our guard against the academic faction.” Number 3 said that and paused. Following which, he said, “Can we get Ouyang Shuo into the organization?”

“Oh?”

Number 3’s suggestion made the others really surprised.

“Absolutely not!” Number 2 was the first to oppose.

“Why not? Although he is a commoner, he will not always be. The intel said that he has been trying to develop the Ouyang family. That means we are the same type of people.”

Number 2 said, “The president has been trying to recruit Ouyang Shuo. How would he be used by us?”

“It’s a matter of people!” Number 3 was confident, “From the attitude of the academic faction toward Great Xia, the president definitely has not succeeded. Since that’s the case, we still have a chance.”

“No!” Number 2 was really insistent.

Seeing that, Number 3’s expression changed, and he mocked, “Number 2, you’re baselessly opposing because you’re worried that the moment he joins, Great Zhou would not exist in China, right?”

“What a joke, when has Great Zhou ever been afraid!” Number 2 said loudly, but deep down inside, he had no confidence.

Seeing that, Number 3 did not continue to argue and let the others give their ideas.

Number 1 looked at the two of them and smiled, “Number 3’s suggestion can be slowly discussed by all of you. We do not need to rush it.”

In Silver Hand, Number 3 always followed behind number 1.

His attitude was similar to a certain extent. However, seeing Number 2’s insistent attitude, to prevent unrest, Number 1 could only shelve the matter.

Even so, Number 2 was still really unhappy.

It was obvious that Number 1 not rejecting the proposal made him annoyed.

Number 1 continued, “Number 3’s suggestion reminded us that we do not need to go all out to crush Ouyang Shuo. He is not our enemy and could even become our ally.”

“Agreed!”

“Agreed!”

Number 4 and Number 5 both agreed with this point.

“Since that’s the case, we will accept their kind intentions.” Number 1 decided, “In the next period of time, let’s focus on the academic faction. Our president is not a simple person.”

…

Same time, president courtyard.

Maybe it was a wrong feeling, but compared to before, the frown of the president became deeper. The back view of him watering the plants was even more slouched, showing that he was a little exhausted.

What was on his mind was naturally the organization.

During this period of time, this intelligent old man actually found that he could not control the situation. A new power had grown in the organization and was challenging his authority.

Due to these hidden currents, he naturally could not care about Great Xia.

Along with Great Xia’s announcement, the dust had settled, and the old man gave out a bitter laugh, “The bird has grown up. We have missed the best chance. Who knows whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

Within the silent courtyard, a low sigh spread out.

…

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo did not know what kind of big waves his actions had caused.

Along with the few battles coming to an end, Ouyang Shuo was incredibly busy dealing with post war matters. First was Maldives.

The Imperial Court decided to set up Maldives Prefecture, and it would be a Zhili Prefecture directly under the Imperial Court. The war prisoners would form a Garrison Division to defend the islands and the port.

At the same time, Maldives Prefecture would become the resource point of the Indian Ocean. The Imperial Court gave 500 thousand gold to be used on local business construction and port construction.

Next would be moving 100 thousand people over to increase Maldive’s population to develop agriculture and animal husbandry.

The future Maldives would not only be a resource point but also a holiday resort, attracting players over to rest and play.

The Indian Ocean Squadron was also adjusted.

Out of the five divisions, the 1st was in Xingzhou Prefecture, which was the headquarters, the 2nd in Maldives Prefecture, the 3rd in Somalia, and the 4th in Auckland.

The remaining 5th division was a mobile training squadron and patrolled the four places.

Due to the area the Indian Ocean Squadron monitoring being too huge and the enemy being complicated, Ouyang Shuo ordered the south ocean region to be handed over to the Yashan Squadron.

Next would be Hawaii.

The Imperial Court officially established the Hawaii Prefecture, which was also a Zhili Prefecture. Due to its strategic position and a lack of teleportation formations, the construction would only be more than Maldives.

Ouyang Shuo gritted his teeth and sent 1.5 million gold and 300 thousand people over.

Different from Maldives, which was a game region, Hawaii was a wilderness region. Before Great Xia and Dawson Dynasty visited it, it was a desolate island.

It did not have large amounts of locals and did not have a strong city.

Furthermore, it was in the middle of the ocean, and the construction difficulty was many times that of Maldives. However, it was still something Ouyang Shuo could use, which was why Ouyang Shuo could only grit his teeth and support it.

1.5 million and 300 thousand people was only the first wave.

To perfect Hawaii Prefecture, they needed several folds of that at the very least. Ouyang Shuo was only hoping for a teleportation talisman to build a formation.

If not, it would be too inconvenient and too risky.

Luckily, Hawaii was not totally useless. Once the South American trade route was opened up, it would not only be a holiday destination but also a place where merchant ships that cross the Pacific had to go through.

As for the construction expenses, nothing comes for free.

Chapter 1121 - Make an Offer!

Chapter 1121: Make an Offer!

After the construction costs for Hawaii, one had to talk about the Free Squadron prisoners and warships.

After making up for the losses, these batch of spoils of war could form two and a half divisions. Currently, Ouyang Shuo had no intentions of expanding the Great Xia navy. How to deal with this batch of war prisoners and warships became a huge problem.

At this point, Feng Qiuhuang helped him solve the problem.

Although Feng Qiuhuang’s Great Jin was located inland, she did have Hokkaido. Due to the prosperity of voyage trading, Feng Qiuhuang naturally did not want to fall behind the curve.

Forming a navy was necessary for Great Jin.

Helplessly, Great Jin did not have any advanced shipbuilders and could not build shipyards. Moreover, they did not have navy generals and sailors, so they were unable to train navy troops.

Feng Qiuhuang had thought about asking Great Xia to build warships for her. However, the various shipyards were busy making Z1 Type Warships and could not find the time.

If they needed to wait for the turreted warships to be eliminated from Great Xia, they would need to wait a long time.

Furthermore, even with warships, even if Great Xia sent over a bunch of teachers, they could not form a navy without generals and sailors.

For this matter, Feng Qiuhuang had been wracking her brains.

The Battle of Hawaii was a light at the end of the tunnel for Feng Qiuhuang.

The day that the Free Squadron prisoners were sent to Yingzhou Province, the sharp Feng Qiuhuang rushed over to Shanhai City to probe Ouyang Shuo’s plans for them.

After learning that Ouyang Shuo was not going to expand the navy, she was delighted, “Ouyang sell them to me!”

“Sell them to you?”

Ouyang Shuo could not react to that all of a sudden.

“That’s right!” Feng Qiuhuang could not hide her excitement, “Sell the prisoners, warships, cannons, sailors, and the like all to Great Jin. State a price!”

At this moment, Ouyang Shuo understood, and he smiled, “That’s a decent idea.”

If this deal was done, it would be a win-win situation.

However, as Great Xia had only sold ever warships but had never sold a squadron, how to discuss the price was a problem. Luckily, Ouyang Shuo was not a petty person, and after roughly calculating it, he said, “Then let’s deal at four million gold!”

The war prisoners and sailors were the hardest to evaluate because they might be useless to Great Xia, but to Great Jin, they were worth their weight in gold.

Ouyang Shuo’s price was not expensive and was already a friendship price.

“Deal!”

Feng Qiuhuang was also really straightforward, directly accepting it. Only then did she say awkwardly, “Ouyang, can I pay it in two installments? Taking it out right away is difficult for our finances.”

“No problem.” Ouyang Shuo understood.

Even for Great Xia, taking out four million directly was really painful, much less Great Jin. For Feng Qiuhuang to pay in two installments already impressed Ouyang Shuo.

After the matter was settled, what happened next was easy. Apart from Nimitz, who was sent back to Shanhai City, the others were sent to Hokkaido.

Great Jin had obtained its own squadron overnight.

Making use of this chance, Ouyang Shuo made some adjustments to the Pacific Squadron headquarters.

Along with Great Xia taking down Kyushu and Shikoku, Ouyang Shuo decided to place the Bohai Sea, Yellow River, East Sea, and Japanese sea all under Binhai Squadron.

The Pacific Squadron would only be in charge of the Pacific Ocean.

After the adjustment, the Pacific Squadron left the 1st division in Yingzhou Province, the 2nd and 3rd in Hawaii, and the 4th to open up the South America trade route.

Ouyang Shuo was planning to take down a base in South America to house the 4th division there to complete a complete defensive chain.

The remaining 5th division was naturally the mobile division that patrolled to and fro.

After this round of adjustment, Great Xia’s navy in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean became more and more perfect. They took control of these two oceans and protected he authority of Great Xia.

Next would be the Atlantic Squadron.

…

After dealing with the Maldives and Hawaii matter, only then did Ouyang Shuo turn his attention back to the homeland.

As for Jin country, they established the Jinliao Province, which was the biggest Province in Great Xia currently. It was four to five times bigger than normal provinces.

The governing area was chosen as the old Jin Country capital, Acheng district.

What needed to be said was that be it Acheng district or the Mongol, Tibet, or similar capitals, they all did not have teleportation formations.

Of course, they did not have satellite cities either.

As a result, the Qing Dynasty had to use the ocean routes to transport weapons and equipment to Jin. After taking down Jin, it was like ruling a big province, and the difficulty was not small.

For this, the Imperial Court needed to choose an exceptional Provincial Governor. After thinking about it, Ouyang Shuo decided on Lingnan Provincial Governor Huo Guang.

He was all rounded and was also familiar with how to rule a country. Moreover, he had the fierce side of a general. He also had the training of Lingnan Province, which made him suitable for the job.

The empty space he left in Lingnan would be taken by Chaozhou Prefecture Governor Wei Ran.

Wei Ran rose because of Baiqi and fell because of him. Coming over to Great Xia because of him, he was appointed as the Lianzhou Governor, living a good life for a while.

Helplessly, good fortune did not last for long.

Since both Wei Ran and Baiqi held important positions in the territory, it would undeniably lead to gossip. Moreover, Wei Ran was greedy and showing signs of corruption.

As a result, he lost in the competition to be the Shanhai Magistrate and was sent by Ouyang Shuo to become the Chaozhou Governor.

On the surface, he was just being redeployed, but in truth, he was demoted half a grade. That was because Lianzhou Prefecture was the core area of the Imperial Court, and its importance was several times more than the normal Chaozhou Prefecture.

After becoming Zhili, the Shanhai Magistrate was a secondary Grade 2 official, half a grade higher than a Provincial Governor.

Hence, this move could be considered a warning from Ouyang Shuo to Wei Ran.

Luckily, Wei Ran knew his place and worked hard there, showing no more signs of corruption. He had stellar results during every evaluation, and so he was listed as one of the choices for Provincial Governor.

Along with Huo Guang being moved to Liaojin Province, he was promoted.

This made Song Wen even more dejected. If it were not for his father, Ouyang Shuo might have given him the chance to rise up to lead Lingnan.

Choosing the Provincial Governor was just the first step in changing Liaojin Province.

Ouyang Shuo’s following actions caused people to drop their spectacles in shock and also caused waves in the Imperial Court.

Chapter 1122 - You All Have a Part of This Earth!

Chapter 1122: You All Have a Part of This Earth!

10th month, 27th day, Morocco Province Provincial Governor Mulan Yue, Yunnan Provincial Governor Bai Hua, Jiangchuan Provincial Governor Gong Chengshi, and Beijiang Provincial Governor were all ordered to return to the Capital City, making them confused.

It was only the 10th month, so it was far from the time they needed to return to be debriefed.

The four of them had a common point, which was that they were once Lords that were a part of the Shanhai Alliance. After they joined Great Xia, they all become Provincial Governors, helping to take care of a section of land for the dynasty.

Hence, this meeting appeared more and more unusual.

The place of the debrief was not in the Imperial Reading Room but in the relaxing imperial garden. As such, it was easy to see that the debrief was secondary, and the main matter was to discuss something with the four of them.

Xia Palace, imperial garden.

As it was deep autumn, the flowers in the garden were still blooming. Only the huge trees like the Maidenhair tree and the Yulan Magnolia were filled with golden yellow leaves, signaling the arrival of autumn.

Beside the greenish lake, within the pavilion.

Court ladies wearing traditional Han Chinese dresses were standing at the four corners of the pavilion, ready to refill the tea and water of the big figures in it. Ouyang Shuo sat at the head seat with Mulan Yue and Bai Hua on his left, and Wufu and Gong Chengshi on his right.

Apart from that, there was no one else present.

The atmosphere was a little cold. Being baptized by age and trained by the official field, the five of them were not the youths of when Shanhai Alliance was just established.

All of them had tossed aside their previous immaturity and grew by the day.

Even the youngest Mulan Yue ruled Morocco Province with a lot of authority. Her actions were soft and hard when needed. When standing alongside Queen Kalia of Atlantis, she was not any weaker.

In the eyes of the four of them, there were more or less some doubts.

There were no prior signs that this meeting was going to be called, which would obviously make one worry.

Bai Hua focused on the man sitting at the lead seat. At this moment, who knows what she was thinking? Before coming, her brother even worryingly said, “Is the king planning to ask you all to give up power through a meal?”

As they say, ‘After the cunning hare is killed, the hound is boiled.’

Great Xia was undergoing a revolution from top to bottom, solidifying the foundations of the dynasty and storing up energy for another explosion.

Would people like Bai Hua, who had huge influence on their land, meet the requirements of the king’s revolutionary targets? No one was certain.

“Moving you away from Consonance City was a sign,” her brother said.

Bai Hua smiled and did not judge.

“The others would more or less be worried, right?” Bai Hua looked toward Gong Chengshi and Wufu. Compared to women, a man’s ambition was generally a little bigger.

Ouyang Shuo seemed to not notice all this, happily talking with everyone about interesting matters and the lands that they were in charge of. There were already really few opportunities for them to all gather here.

Even if they met up, it was a gathering between king and officials. It was exciting but distant. As a result, Ouyang Shuo especially arranged the location to be the imperial garden instead of the reading room that was too solemn.

The meaning was to ask everyone to not be too wary and careful.

‘It’s still different in the end.’ Although Ouyang Shuo was smiling widely, he sighed in his heart. He was sighing at them and also sighing at himself.

Being in such a position, he had no choice, being forced by circumstances to change.

Although everyone was happy and talking about interesting matters, they could not hide their uneasiness and awkwardness. They could not have heart to heart chats with Ouyang Shuo and became careful.

It was like how an official treated an emperor.

Seeing that the conversation could not go on, Ouyang Shuo took in a deep breath and finally revealed everything, “You are the people I trust the most. We have built up this empire and fought against the Yanhuang Alliance.”

Ouyang Shuo spoke really emotionally, reminiscing about the past, “A long time ago, when you all merged with Great Xia, I had made up my mind to compensate all of you.”

“My king, we have gotten enough!” The one who spoke was Gong Chengshi.

When the game began, and Gong Chengshi joined Shanhai Alliance, he did not expect that he could become a Provincial Governor, becoming one of the giants of the wilderness.

Strictly speaking, Great Xia treated them well.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “This is not enough. It’s far from enough. You are different from normal Provincial Governors. They are my officials, but you are my allies. We share the same dreams and ideals. There’s no reason for me to stand at the top while all of you slave away quietly.”

“You all should have a part of this!” Ouyang Shuo’s words stunned them.

Bai Hua and the others were astonished, as they did not expect Ouyang Shuo to be so magnanimous. Such a scene was far from what they had expected coming in.

Even the most mentally prepared Bai Hua was stunned and could not react.

Ouyang Shuo did not care and continued, “In the future, the Imperial Court is prepared to set up four to six Governor-General Houses in the border and overseas to control numerous provinces and the military and administrative matters of different regions.”

Toward Governor-General matters, they were not strangers, as Ouyang Shuo himself was one.

If one said that Provincial Governors were officials, then Governor-generals were presences on the same level as the Cabinet, no different from the military governors of the past.

“The four of you are the best choices. Each one of you will have a spot. It’s just a matter of time.” Ouyang Shuo finally revealed the riddle and gave them four a giant promise.

When the Imperial Court established a Governor-General House would depend on the situation and not on Ouyang Shuo’s desire. Hence, there was a matter of time.

“Thank you, king, for your good grace!”

The four of them exchanged glances with one another, not knowing how to react. They could only all stand up and cup their fists.

Ouyang Shuo waved them off and asked them to sit, “The Imperial Court wants to set up the first Governor-General house in the north. It will be the Beijiang Governor-General House to manage Yingzhou Province, Beijiang Province, and Liaojin Province.”

‘Si~~’

Bai Hua and the others realized that the Imperial Court was doing this for real.

The area of these three provinces added together could be compared to the entire Great Zhou. If they could be appointed as the Governor-General, they would become the most powerful person in the dynasty under Ouyang Shuo.

This temptation was huge.

Beijiang Provincial Governor Wufu’s breathing became rushed, but he himself did not notice this.

That’s right, out of the four of them, for the position of Beijiang Governor-General, no one was more suitable than Wufu. He had been in charge of Beijiang for a long time, and he was the most familiar with the north.

Chapter 1123 - Unbiased

Chapter 1123: Unbiased

The Imperial Court established the Governor-General houses due to Ouyang Shuo’s need to promote Bai Hua and the others and also the dynasty’s strategic needs. It was not solely to promote people or to establish it.

Like Beijiang, it was far from the center of the dynasty. There were high mountains and long roads, and it was located alone outside. Although it was connected by the teleportation formation, it was still inconvenient. As a result, there was a need to set up a regional organization to settle military and administrative matters.

The Governor-General House was born because of that need.

Seeing that Wufu was a little excited, Ouyang Shuo had to pour cold water over him, “Setting up the Governor-General House is a good thing, but there’s something I have to say, and I hope that all of you can understand.”

“Please speak!”

“The ministers in the Imperial Court has raised up to me that officials cannot spend too long in an area, which was why a three year maximum was set. One cannot be appointed at where one was rooted in. In other words, one has to be appointed in an unfamiliar land.”

Hearing this, Wufu’s expression was a little awkward.

Although that was the case, Ouyang Shuo made his words really clear in case he caused an even bigger misunderstanding, “In my opinion, I hoped for Wufu to be the Governor-General of Beijiang, but the Cabinet did not pass it.”

“That’s okay.”

Although Wufu had lost some face, after Ouyang Shuo’s explanation, he felt better.

“You do not have to be disappointed. Let me tell you the truth. Once we take down Tibet, we will set up the Xijiang Governor-General House, and that would be yours.”

In order to prevent Wufu from thinking too much, Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to reveal the plans of the Imperial Court early.

He called the four of them together to clear the doubts in their hearts and prevent them from guessing at one another, which would give rise to unhappiness.

“Do not worry, I can understand.”

With Ouyang Shuo’s promise, Wufu totally believed it and had no other words to speak.

“That’s great!”

Ouyang Shuo smiled brightly.

In truth, requiring them to work in a foreign land was both the intentions of the Imperial Court and himself. Ouyang Shuo believed in one point, which was that he could trust someone. However, he needed to defend against the unexpected.

It looked contradictory, but in truth, it was the right way to use people.

Wufu had spent a long time in the north. If he became the Beijiang Governor-General, who knows what would happen?

Saying that, the choice would only come out from Bai Hua, Mulan Yue, and Gong Chengshi. Mulan Yue was working overseas and temporarily could not leave, so she was excluded.

Between Bai Hua and Gong Chengshi, Ouyang Shuo chose Gong Chengshi.

It was not that Ouyang Shuo held higher hopes for Gong Chengshi. On the contrary, it was because he had better plans in mind for Bai Hua. He had planned everything out for her and was just waiting for the right time.

Ouyang Shuo looked toward Gong Chengshi and smiled, “I’ll have to disturb you with the Beijiang Governor-General House.”

When Gong Chengshi heard that, he was naturally surprised. In terms of experience, Mulan Yue was the most experienced, while Bai Hua was the strongest.

Since Ouyang Shuo had decided on it, Gong Chengshi could not push it away. He bowed, “Do not worry, my king, I’ll try my best to help the Imperial Court defend Beijiang.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Of course, I believe you!”

As he said that, everyone smiled, sweeping away the awkwardness from before. Through this open conversation, the five of them had become closer once more.

Since growth was unavoidable and much needed, everyone needed to learn how to adapt to one another. Adjusting their relationship was one of the signs of maturity.

If not, it would be fake maturity.

After the group discussion, Ouyang Shuo had a conversation alone with Bai Hua and Mulan Yue to tell them about where they would work in the future. He wanted to let them prepare themselves mentally.

Ouyang Shuo was being fair to all of them.

“It is hard to be a parent!”

Ouyang Shuo, this parent of Great Xia, had to learn how to treat everyone fairly at every moment.

…

The next morning, Bai Hua and Mulan Yue left the capital.

Wufu did not leave as his position needed to be adjusted. If Gong Chengshi became the Beijiang Governor-General and Wufu was still working as the Beijiang Provincial Governor, he would be working under him.

To avoid placing Wufu in an awkward position, after Ouyang Shuo discussed with Wufu, he decided to move him to Jiangchuan Province to take over the empty role left by Gong Chengshi.

As for the newly appointed Beijiang Governor General, Ouyang Shuo selected Changsha Prefecture Governor Han Qi.

As a famous minister of North Song, Han Qi was a chancellor for 10 cycles and helped three dynasties. Within the court, he ran everything well and made everyone happy. In the local areas, he was loyal and hardworking, diligent and loved by his people.

Han Qi earned his name together with Fu Bi. Together, they were known as Fu Han.

With just a simple word, Fu Bi joined Great Xia and was now working as Hanzhong Prefecture Governor in the Shu Lands.

Gong Chengshi did not leave because Ouyang Shuo naturally needed to talk to him regarding the plans of Liaojin Province. Although this matter was handled by Provincial Governor Huo Guang, Gong Chengshi needed to understand a little about it to manage the situation.

The Imperial Court had three plans for Liaojin Province.

Firstly, iron ore and coal providing province.

As Jin country had limited digging and exploration technology, and they lacked artisans, they had a treasure land but did not know how to open it up.

In Great Xia’s hands, the situation was naturally totally different.

The future Liaojin Province would become one of the main iron ore providers of the dynasty.

Secondly, dynasty core husbandry ground.

Great Xia only had a few ranches and breeding grounds in the south and could not form up a large scale. As such, the cavalry development was hindered.

With the vast grassland of Liaojin Province, the situation was largely different.

Great Xia developed the Qingfu Horse, Mongol Horse, Lili horse, and more elite warhorses. They would have breeding grounds in Liaojin Province to provide endless amounts of warhorses in the dynasty.

Of the million war horses that were captured, half were released to be bred to breed more elite ones.

Thirdly, a mix of nomadic and agricultural civilization.

The destruction of Jin did not mean the destruction of the Nuzhen Race. Close to six million Nuzhen people still lived within the province, and they would be the main force of the animal breeders.

The future province not only needed to breed horses but also needed to fully develop animal husbandry.

At the same time, Liaojin Province would enter agricultural civilization, and millions of Han Chinese would move over to live on the grasslands. Whilst developing agriculture, they would develop industries and mining.

The merger of races would become a specialty of Liaojin Province.

Luckily, Great Xia had amassed a lot of experience in this area and was able to manage all of this well.

Of course, to ensure the stability, apart from setting up the Liaojin Garrison Division, the Yue Fei led Beijiang legion corps would move over.

All in all, Liaojin Province was a treasure land but needed to be slowly developed step by step. The large amounts of manpower, resources, and financial investment at the start was unavoidable.

When Gong Chengshi stood up to proceed to Stone City to build the Beijiang Governor-General House there, a new round of military organization had just begun.

Chapter 1124 - More Bad Ideas

Chapter 1124: More Bad Ideas

This round of military reorganization was basically for the 400 thousand war prisoners captured during the Battle of Jin.

What needed to be made clear was that before the war, although Jin was said to have a million army, it was not that 600 thousand of them were killed. Based on the results, no more than 150 thousand of them had truly died on the battlefield.

Then where did the remaining go?

As the Jin country used a country wide conscription system, Yue Fei followed Ouyang Shuo’s instructions and released the elderly, youths, and only sons back to their families, removing their armor and allowing them to go back to farming.

After removing the injured and the ones that did not meet standards, and then including the replenishments for the Beijiang legion corps and the Guards Legion Corps, in the end, he was left with 400 thousand elite prisoners.

Amongst which was the Jin Country’s on alert force.

First, Ouyang Shuo filled up the West Africa legion corps, adding in three War Fighting Legions and using up 210 thousand people.

As the Jin country war prisoners were mainly cavalry and Nuzhen people, it was not good to allow them to hold abolished power in the West Africa legion corps.

Hence, before they teleported to Morocco, they would be split up into the various legion corps in the territory in exchange for other soldiers to make it easier to control them.

Along with the West Africa legion corps filling up, a batch of young generals were promoted. This included Shi Bao and Ma Xiu, who came from the Guards Legion Corps, Shao Bu from the Dragon Legion Corps, Dai Qin from the Tiger Legion Corps, and Pei Xingyan from the Bear Legion Corps.

And before this, when the Beijiang legion corps and the Hanoi legion corps were expanded, Hu Yihuang and Ma Dai from the Dragon Legion Corps and Sun Chuanlin and Liao Kai from the Leopard Legion Corps were promoted.

All of them, including Guo Liang and Jiang Kai from the Yingzhou formation, were the NPC natives that followed Ouyang Shuo from the start. Under the territory buffs and specialties, they had become King Ranked generals.

Amongst which, Lin Yi had already become Emperor Rank.

They had gone through months and years of military training and war, so their abilities were enough to lead an army.

Furthermore, these generals were really loyal to Ouyang Shuo, viewing him as their great commander. Promoting them to Legion General and throwing them into the border defense system was perfect.

After the West Africa legion corps was reorganized, Ouyang Shuo followed by upgrading the Somalia formation to East Africa legion corps. Di Qing was promoted to marshal and was awarded with the Grade 2 West conquering general rank.

The remaining 200 thousand war prisoners were all placed into the East Africa legion corps. Along with the ones from the formation, they were able to form up four legions, just one away from being filled up.

Dan Xiongxin, who was from the Somalia formation, was naturally promoted to Legion General. The remaining three were Sun Tengjiao from the Tiger Legion Corps, Ma Tie from the Leopard Legion Corps, and Heiqi.

At this point, this new round of military organization had come to an end.

Along with the West Africa legion corps reaching full strength and the East Africa legion corps nearing there, Great Xia’s plan for North Africa was progressing at a fast pace. Once the organizational work was completed, the flames of war would blaze.

Seeing that it was already the 11th month, the true start of the war would probably be in the 6th year.

During this round, Ouyang Shuo did not form the 2nd legion of the Household Legion Corps, as the 1st legion was still a distance away from taking shape.

Developing and building a firearm army was a long term project and could not be rushed.

…

During that period, a small episode occurred.

After news spread that Great Xia had established the Beijiang Governor-General House and appointed Gong Chengshi, the China region players were envious and commented that he had a good life.

“Hard work is important, but following a good boss is even more important.”

The original Shanhai Alliance members all followed a good boss, so they were able to reach their current heights. Gong Chengshi’s status was only below Ouyang Shuo, Di Chen, and Feng Qiuhuang.

Even Xiong Ba fell behind him. Seeing such a situation, people would obviously be envious of him.

Quanzhou, some unnamed courtyard.

With the public commenting about this, one person appeared really dejected. He was Xunlong Dianxue. Originally, he could be like Gong Chengshi and become one of the most stellar presences in China.

However, he started to have doubts and left the team midway, which gave rise to his fall.

Originally, they were on the same starting line, and their relationship was like that of brothers. Now, they were as different as night and day, and the brother who followed behind him had become a presence he had to look up to.

“The heavens are playing tricks!”

Within the courtyard, a sour sigh spread out.

…

11th month, 1st day.

Regarding Great Xia’s good intentions, TWP finally replied.

Their reply was similarly soft with firmness in their message. They first praised Great Xia for opening up their ports and ocean routes and expressed that it would not force TWP members or stop trade with Great Xia.

Following which, they changed their tone and said, “As a global trading organization, we have the confidence to build new global trading rules to improve global trade.”

It was obvious that TWP did not lower themselves and more so were not willing to work with Great Xia.

Following which, they said, “TWP firmly protects trade freedom and would not allow any country or territory to monopolize ocean resources and break free trade.”

These words were really fiery, once again launching a challenge on Great Xia’s ocean authority.

Be it Jack or Silver Hand, they would not give up control of the ocean just because of one small setback and pass the power over to Great Xia.

“That was impossible!”

Within Silver Hand, although there were suggestions to bring in Great Xia, it did not mean that they could accept Great Xia ruling the oceans.

Following which, TWP released a new announcement to adjust the rules of the organization.

Compared to before, the new rules not only had more detailed terms between members, but they also showed signs of military alliances.

Of course, that was only related to the navies of each country.

The announcement said that to protect the ocean safety of the trade routes, the navies of members would work with one another to form a communication system. They said that they were doing so to crush pirates together and protect the law and order of the ocean.

Everyone could see that their main reason was not pirates but the Great Xia navy.

Out of the TWP members, Dawson Dynasty, House of Tudor, Gaule Dynasty, the Romanov Dynasty, along with Spain, Portugal, Holland, and the like were all traditional ocean powerhouses.

All these strong powers joining hands was a tough prospect for Great Xia.

Not only that, but TWP also openly announced that they would increase the navy exchange between members to increase their standards.

Hence, they would send out teaching squads to train up the navies of non-traditional navy powerhouses.

Chapter 1125 - A Huge War Begins

Chapter 1125: A Huge War Begins

Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

Within the Imperial Reading Room, Ouyang Shuo and Jiang Shang discussed the new round of civil servant adjustment. Along with the establishment of Liaojin Province, along with Huo Guang and Han Qi becoming Provincial Governors, the empty slots would naturally needed to be filled up.

These sorts of personnel arrangements usually involved many people.

The name list that the Cabinet wrote up basically met Ouyang Shuo’s requirements, so it was approved. In his eyes, historical talents might not be better than NPCs that Great Xia had developed themselves.

There were some stubborn ones and some corrupt ones. Even if they were famous, Ouyang Shuo would not place them at such important positions. Instead, he placed them into other random appointments.

“Talent is more important than fame.”

After dealing with official matters, Ouyang Shuo sipped the tea that was just brewed and smiled, “As elder has expected, Silver Hand is still as arrogant and does not want to stop.”

Ouyang Shuo was not a fool. Obviously, he would not think that the Dawson Dynasty was weak and would listen to them after being beaten once. Not to mention Silver Hand, but even Di Chen was bested by Great Xia so many times. However, till now, he was still trying to fight back.

Ouyang Shuo had learned of the resilience of the aristocrats.

Along with the game crossing the halfway mark, Great Xia’s opponent had changed from the Yanhuang Alliance to the stronger and more advantageous Silver Hand.

“Let’s fight. Victory is often won through fights.” Ouyang Shuo was already used to it.

Jiang Shang sitting opposite to him smiled, “Them not stopping is natural. As long as they do not target us, it can be considered a sort of victory.”

Jiang Shang had a really deep understanding of the philosophy of fighting.

“The only thing is that with this, the Atlantic Squadron’s days will not be easy!” Ouyang Shuo was worried.

The combined protection squadron that TWP came up with would not pose much of a threat to the Pacific and Indian Ocean squadrons. However, the Atlantic squadron was now at an arduous position.

The strongest squadrons of the TWP roamed the Atlantic. If they worked together, the space for the Atlantic Squadron to act would be really small.

Along with the Atlantic Squadron only having ports at Morocco and Gibraltar, these two really nearby navy bases, replenishment of resources were difficult, which further restricted their area of activity.

“The Imperial Court has to assist the Atlantic Squadron.” Ouyang Shuo made up his mind. Looking toward Jiang Shang, he said, “Make the Financial Court squeeze out seven million in funds to equip the Atlantic Squadron with a submarine division!”

Although Great Xia already had the magic powered submarine making technology, with their current industrialization standards, they could not build such an advanced submarine. As a result, they could only purchase submarines from Lemuria.

“Okay!”

Although the Imperial Court currently had a strain on their finances after supporting Maldives Prefecture, Hawaii Prefecture, and Liaojin Province, Jiang Shang still quickly agreed.

As it involved the strategy of the dynasty, the finances that should be spent had to be spent.

…

11th month, 2nd day, Ouyang Shuo especially went toward the Guards Legion Corps camp to meet the victorious soldiers.

As expected from the sharp sword of the dynasty, every time the Imperial Court had war matters, they would charge at the front. In just the recent period alone, they had fought in the Battle of Annan, the Battle of Korea, and the Battle of Jin.

Each time, they did not disappoint.

A week ago, after replenishing their losses, the Guards Legion Corps had moved away from Liaojin Province and returned to Shanhai City to rest up. Ouyang Shuo especially decreed for them to have a five day holiday to visit their families.

Such a special honor was rarely seen.

The families of the Guards Legion Corps soldiers were mostly in Shanhai City. They lived under the foot of the king, eating the grain that the king did not. Their lives were really comfortable.

As a result, the soldiers were able to remain loyal to Ouyang Shuo and the dynasty. In his words, “The Guards Legion Corps is the son of Great Xia.”

Just yesterday, the soldiers had finished up their holidays and returned to camp to continue their daily training.

Ouyang Shuo came over to care about them and also to mobilize them. That was because before the 6th year of Gaia, the Imperial Court still had one more tough war to fight – the Battle of Luzon.

This was an even tougher battle than Annan.

Luzon not only had 800 thousand imperial city guards, but it was also foreseeable that if Great Xia went all out, Java would interfere.

Both of them were members of TWP and would be in contact due to the combined protection squadron. One could even say that the terrified Australia region might join in.

Hence, the Battle of Luzon was not a simple one-versus-one but a huge messy fight.

The Dragon Legion Corps alone would not be enough to handle it.

The Guards Legion Corps that had just rested for a few days was going to have to set off once more.

…

After leaving the Guards Legion Corps base, Ouyang Shuo went to meet a certain person.

A period of time had passed since Free Squadron Fleet Admiral Nimitz was brought back to the city. Ouyang Shuo had not been able to find time to meet this legendary figure.

Nimitz was really prideful. Based on reports from Du Ruhui, who had tried to persuade him to surrender, he was really uncooperative and was not willing to work for Great Xia. He even threatened to stop eating.

The more it was like that, the more Ouyang Shuo wanted to take a look. There was no reason why such an elite navy general he captured could not be used by him and would have to just become a decorative piece.

The meeting location was the Privy Court holding room.

As Nimitz was really special and Ouyang Shuo had given specific instructions, even when he was held, he was treated really well and could freely move about the courtyard.

When Ouyang Shuo arrived, Nimitz was sitting in the courtyard, leisurely bathing in the sun whilst reading a book.

Using Gaia’s translation system, Nimitz had no problem reading Chinese books.

When the guard saw Ouyang Shuo and was about to bow, he was stopped by Ouyang Shuo. Ouyang Shuo walked forward and realized that Nimitz was reading Sun Tzu’s art of war.

“General, do you think Sun Tzu’s art of war has use in navy battle?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

“Who?”

Only then did Nimitz react and raise his head.

“Preposterous, you see the king, yet you do not bow?” Xu Chu scolded.

Nimitz was astonished. He stood up and unknowingly backed off, looking stunned at Ouyang Shuo. Only then did he unwillingly bow.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “The general still has not answered my question.”

Nimitz regained his senses and avoided the question, “I will not work for Great Xia!”

“I do not think so!”

Since Ouyang Shuo had come, he naturally had confidence to persuade Nimitz.

Chapter 1126 - Fighting on Many Fronts

Chapter 1126: Fighting on Many Fronts

“You do not need to try.” Nimitz was really resolute.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “General, do you not want to see what crushed the Free Squadron?”

Nimitz froze. As expected, he was baited, and he subconsciously asked, “You’re talking about the submarine?”

“More accurately speaking, it’s a magic powered submarine, and we are the only one that has it.” Previously, it was mentioned that Nimitz was a submarine expert before he joined the navy.

There was no way he was not curious about the magic powered submarines.

“Even if general is not willing to work in the Great Xia navy, we still have the navy academy. If you agree to be a lecturer, I’ll allow you to participate in the construction of the magic powered submarine and even the modification and development. How about that?” Ouyang Shuo raised up his terms.

In history, Nimitz had a lot of experience in being a lecturer. If he entered the navy academy, there would be great use for him, and it would be a blessing for the Great Xia navy.

Nimitz was tempted.

In the game world, there were no chances of trading or releasing prisoners. If one was captured, one would be locked up till the game ended or executed.

Neither was something that he wanted.

Why would Nimitz want to squander his second life in the game?

“Ok, I agree!”

Nimitz was truly a decisive person. He was really frank, unlike the easterners.

Ouyang Shuo smiled in delight.

…

11th month, 4th day, Xia Palace, Wuying Hall.

Ouyang Shuo gathered up the ministers to discuss the specific arrangements of the Battle of Luzon.

The Grand Council rotated minister and Dragon Legion Corps marshal Baiqi, Military Affairs Minister Du Ruhui, Navy Admiral Zheng He, Guards Legion Corps Marshal Huo Qubing, City Protection Legion Corps Marshal Shi Wanshui, Hanoi Legion Corps Marshal Xue Rengui, Emperor Squadron Fleet Admiral Zhou Yu, Yashan Squadron Fleet Admiral Yu Dayou, and Indian Ocean Fleet Admiral Yanhuo Yaonie were all gathered.

Administrative Mentor Court Advisor Jia Xu was also present.

“The Battle of Luzon will involve Luzon, Java, and Australia; they will all be dragged into this. Do any of you have a good idea regarding how to take down Luzon?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

The biggest headache was Java.

In reality, this region was not important, but in the game world, it was doing really well with its 20 million population. It was a giant of Asia.

Luzon itself was not weak, and the two added together made things difficult.

If it were not for Ouyang Shuo using the cover of the country war month ending to take down a city of Luzon and obtain a frontline base, they would have no way to begin the Battle of Luzon.

Even so, this battle could not be dragged on.

Along with the rise of TWP, the world was going to experience a reshuffling.

Under such an uncertain background, Great Xia could make concessions regarding the America and Africa regions but definitely not the Asia region. Not only that, but they also had to quicken their conquering of Asia.

“We need to control ASEAN before TWP becomes stronger.”

This battle was going to be tough, but they had no choice to fight it. As a result, Ouyang Shuo gathered up this strongest lineup. For this battle, the Guards Legion Corps, City Protection Legion Corps, Dragon Legion Corps, Hanoi legion corps, and the three squadrons participated.

This could be considered a small-scale country tilting battle.

The first to speak was the appointed advisor, Jia Xu, “Be it Luzon or Java, they have a similarity, which is that they are made of many islands. This is their strength and also how our army is going to breakthrough. The Battle of Annan and Japan have proved that attacking from many points is really effective against such countries, and we can continue using that.”

All the generals thought that this would be the gist of it.

“Next would be how to prevent Java from interfering.” Jia Xu continued, “Based on the Battle Map rules, Java can only send over their territory armies from the sea or via teleportation.”

As Jia Xu said that, Navy Admiral Zheng He stepped in, “The Yashan Squadron can lock down the Celebes sea between Java and Luzon to cut off assistance from the ocean.”

Be it the Luzon squadron or the Java squadron, they had both been badly crushed by the Great Xia squadron. Till date, they still had not recovered. Even if they worked together, they were not the opponents of Great Xia.

Hence, Zheng He was so confident.

Jia Xu nodded and smiled, “That leaves teleportation as the only way.”

Luzon’s main territory Lloilo City was located in the Visayas islands in the middle of Luzon. If the Java territory participated right away, it would mean that Luzon would have two main battlefields.

One would be Luzon island, where the imperial city Manila was at, and the other would be the Visayas island.

“To reduce the uncertainty, it is best if we focus on Lloilo City to stop any reinforcements from Java. After which, we will destroy Manila.” Jia Xu suggested.

Attacking Lloilo was not any easier than taking down Manila.

Manila had 800 thousand guards, whilst Lloilo had a 400 thousand territory army defending it. Java was even more terrifying, as it had a million territory troops.

Whether Lloilo was easy to take down or not depended on the determination of Java Lord Uwais.

The only good news was that during the previous Battle of Laoag, the Baiqi led Dragon Legion Corps had wiped out 100 thousand Luzon troops, weakening the power of Lloilo.

Baiqi, who had been keeping quiet, suddenly said, “Fighting on two fronts is too uncertain.”

When Jia Xu heard that, he did not have any good plans all of a sudden.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he frowned, “Since Java is the biggest uncertainty in this battle, let’s find a way to make this uncertainty the smallest. Let’s not just focus on the Luzon battlefield.”

An all-out battle did not have room for so many uncertainties.

Especially when the TWP was forcing his hand. At such a time, Great Xia needed to take down Luzon at the smallest price possible. If both sides suffered heavy losses, even if he took down Luzon, it would only be good for Jack.

As for the specific strategy, Jia Xu and the others were naturally better at it. However, Ouyang Shuo’s strategic foresight was something that no one could compare to.

Seeing the meeting enter a stalemate, only then did Ouyang Shuo raise this point.

Everyone present was really smart people and understood right away. Jia Xu was the first to react and said, “So the king is saying to put Luzon and Java in one same category?”

“Not only Java but also Australia. This region that forced us to the edge has a 100 thousand strong army. Who can confirm they will not take a gamble?” Ouyang Shuo reminded.

Chapter 1127 - One Real and One Fake

Chapter 1127: One Real and One Fake

Luzon, Java, and Australia; the three of them were one body.

Thinking along this line, the group of them gathered together, pooling their ideas. This meeting lasted till night before they finally managed to take out an overall structure for this battle.

After this, the Grand Council would be in charge of the specifics and the generals on the frontlines would follow the plan.

The orange red setting sun covered the Xia Palace, shining through the red door and entering the hall. Facing the setting sun, Ouyang Shuo stretched, not bothering about his image. Before the meeting ended, he announced a series of appointments.

The army used to attack Luzon was as usual; it would be known as the expedition army.

Dragon Legion Corps marshal Baiqi was the expedition general, Jia Xu was the advisor, Huo Qubing was the vanguard general, Hanoi marshal Xue Rengui was the left general, and Emperor Squadron Fleet Admiral Zhou Yu was the right general.

The specific troops deployed included the Dragon Legion Corps, the Guards Legion Corps, Hanoi 1st, 2nd, and 3rd legions, Emperor Squadron, Yashan Squadron 1st, 2nd, and 3rd division, and the 4th division of the Indian Ocean Squadron.

The 1st and 5th legions of the City Protection Legion as well as the 1st and 5th division of the Indian Ocean Squadron would act as backup forces to be thrown in if needed.

Since they were backup, they naturally had to be prepared in advance.

At this point, the pre-war preparations for the Battle of Luzon came to an end. Now, only the flames await.

…

11th month, 7th day, Auckland Region.

Before this, after Siam went under Great Xia, New Zealand’s imperial city Wellington did the same. This meant that the entirety of New Zealand belonged to Great Xia.

Although that was the case, in Great Xia’s regional planning, New Zealand was still listed as Auckland region. Jason was still the provincial general and was deeply trusted by Ouyang Shuo.

Auckland City.

Using the cover of the night, Huo Qubing led 350 thousand Guards Legion Corps troops and sneakily teleported over.

Auckland provincial general Jason had received the secret orders from the Imperial Court long ago, and with the help of the Auckland formation, they had set up curfew in the city. This whole matter was a secret to ensure that the tracks of the Guards Legion Corps were not revealed.

Since Australia was one of the war targets, how could the nearby New Zealand be left out?

Of course, if outsiders saw the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps here, they would be shocked. As on the morning of the same day, the Honglu Temple Outreach Division had revealed to the public the dynasty’s plan toward Luzon.

In the announced participating army list, the Guards Legion Corps was included.

Who knew that this eye-catching trump card force would suddenly appear in Auckland, tens of thousands of miles away from Luzon?

Very quickly, the answer was revealed.

The next morning, when the sky turned bright, the 1st and 4th legions of the Guards Legion Corps, under the protection of the 4th division of the Indian Ocean Squadron, advanced toward the neighboring Australia region.

After doing so much, Great Xia was actually going to take down Australia first?

Maybe.

Braving the ocean wind and charging through the mist, the squadron rode the waves and were ready to sound the first gun of the Battle of Luzon.

At 2 PM, the squadron entered Sydney Harbor.

The Australia region did not have a foundation for industrialization and lacked advanced artisans. Apart from purchasing merchant ships from the outside, they only had some fishing boats. They did not have a navy.

Only when the Indian Ocean had already entered the harbor did the garrison forces of Sydney notice.

Sydney was a newly built city, forming a line with main city Melbourne and Canberra. Sydney in the north, Melbourne in the south, and Canberra in the middle of the two.

The Guards Legion Corps chose to disembark here, and it was obviously planned beforehand.

During this period of time, as he was worried that Great Xia would take revenge, Melbourne Lord Avera had gathered his troops in Melbourne, becoming a turtle.

The entire territory did not have any defenses apart from the main city.

It was mentioned that Australia was big but lacking in terms of population. It was an independent giant island with a long coastline.

With 100 thousand troops, how could they defend such a large territory?

Rather than being eaten bite by bite by the enemy, why not gather the troops at one spot and fight to the death?

Of course, without the help of Java, Australia would not be able to decide its own fate. When Jack forced Avera to restrict the supply of ores and coal, enraging Great Xia, it was because of such a promise.

If it were not for the fact that cross continental territories could not form alliances, Dawson Dyansty would personally assist Melbourne.

As a result, when the 1st and 4th legion boarded the beaches under the cover of the squadron’s cannon fire, what they faced was a defenseless city.

In less than an hour, Sydney was lost.

When the country war notification was triggered, Melbourne Lord Avera’s heart slowed by half a beat, and his face instantly turned ashen white.

Avera’s subconscious reaction was to immediately seek help from Uwais.

…

Java, Badong City.

When Uwais received Avera’s call for help, he immediately frowned. Just a few moments ago, Luzon Lord Mading also sent a distress signal, saying that the Great Xia Army had attacked Luzon on all sides.

On the same day, the Great Xia Hanoi legion corps’ three legions, under the protection of the 1st and 2nd division of the Yashan Squadron, successfully disembarked on Mindanao on the north, officially declaring war on Luzon.

“That’s weird!”

Uwais could not understand the situation. Was Great Xia attacking both or was it one real and one fake that aimed to purposely delay the progress of their reinforcements?

If he was not sure of this point, Uwais would not easily send troops out.

Although Badong city had a million troops, this army was their foundation and reliance to standing up in Asia. If they lost too many of them, Badong would become weak, and with Great Xia’s character, they would not give up that chance.

If that happened, everything would be lost.

As a result, Uwais had to be careful. He decided to wait until Australia sent more detailed intel. At least, he had to be sure which army of Great Xia’s was attacking Australia and how many were there.

Receiving Uwais’s question, Avera was totally ashamed.

It was obvious that he was totally freaked out by Great Xia. The moment he heard the notification, he panicked and asked for help, forgetting to even scout about enemy intel.

Luckily, Sydney was one of the main focuses of Avera’s rule. Although it fell, there were still many spies there that quickly found out about the enemy information.

Hearing that the ones who came were two legions from the Guards Legion Corps, Avera’s heart shook.

“Great Xia sent out the Guards Legion Corps, it’s obvious that they are not scaring us but truly striking. This is only the vanguard force, I hope you can swiftly assist.” Avera replied to Uwais.

Chapter 1128 - One Same Move Beats Everyone

Chapter 1128: One Same Move Beats Everyone

Avera’s reply instantly placed Uwais into a tough situation.

“It seems like Great Xia is prepared to fight on two fronts.” Uwais was having a headache. Protecting Luzon and Australia was not just because of their ally agreement but also because it concerned the safety of Java.

There were only a few countries left in Southeast Asia. Piao and Johor had stopped fighting against Great Xia, and in the end, Java was only left with Luzon and Australia as allies.

The moment the two of them fell, Java was destined to be alone. As they say, it takes two hands to clap. If they fell, Java would sooner or later be strangled to death by Great Xia.

“Let’s send one wave of reinforcements and adapt to the situation.” Uwais decided to send 100 thousand troops to Melbourne and Lloilo. As for whether he would send more or not would depend on how the battle developed.

Both troops were teleported there.

The nearby ocean regions of Java were locked down by Great Xia, and Uwais did not dare to travel by the ocean. The moment they were intercepted by the Great Xia Squadron, all would be lost.

…

The arrival of the 100 thousand Badong City reinforcements let Avera heave a sigh of relief.

Based on intel from the frontlines, Great Xia had only sent out two Guards Legion Corps legions, a total of 140 thousand troops. On the other hand, Australia had 200 thousand imperial city guards, 100 thousand territory army, and 100 thousand reinforcements.

If one added in the combat occupation players, their chances of winning were even higher.

However, just thinking about how the ones that Great Xia sent were the most elite Guards Legion Corps, Avera lost all confidence.

Luckily, as a Lord, he was really decisive. He was ready to settle down the army and lead them toward imperial city Canberra to meet up with the imperial city guards to go against Great Xia’s invasion together.

On the other side, the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps were busy.

After the Guards Legion Corps smoothly disembarked, the 1st division of the Indian Ocean Squadron made the return trip to ferry the remaining three legions of the Guards Legion Corps as well as the Auckland formation over.

Great Xia badly needed Australia.

Although Liaojin Province was established, and their ore shortage was solved, Ouyang Shuo did not mind taking down Australia and getting more resources.

Teaching Australia a lesson would also be sending a signal to Silver Hand and let their members realize that following the strategy of the organization and angering Great Xia would result in such an outcome.

On the way back, the 1st and 4th legions that had already taken down Sydney rested up and followed the plans of the commander to split up into three armies.

The 1st army was the 1st legion, which was the boulder army’s 1st division; they were in charge of defending Sydney. Their responsibility would be to welcome the incoming forces and also work with the Black Snake Guards to clear out the city.

The goal was to cover the arrival of the upcoming forces such that Avera would not notice.

The 2nd army was led by the 4th legions’ elite Cavalry Division. They would sweep the cities and villages around Sydney to achieve the same goals as the 1st army.

Lastly, there was the 3rd army; they were the main force that proceeded towards imperial city Canberra.

…

11th month, 9th day, 9 AM.

Melbourne’s 100 thousand territory army and the 100 thousand Java reinforcements formed a huge force and set out toward the imperial city.

Facing the Great Xia invasion, Melbourne declared war.

When the imperial city players got the news, although they felt complicated about the Java soldiers and their pride was hit, they did not hold back on their praise for Avera.

“What a brother!” Everyone raised their thumbs up at Avera.

Seeing that 200 thousand troops came to assist, the Australian players instantly became confident. They shouted out, “Destroy Great Xia, protect our home.”

Some rash ones even exited the city to try to disturb the Great Xia Army along the way.

This was a good sign.

On the other side, pretty much at the same time as the Melbourne army exiting the city, the 2nd legion Tiger Leopard Cavalry and the 3rd legion dragon blood cavalry disembarked 20 miles outside of Sydney.

The 5th legion and the Auckland formation were the 3rd batch. They were still in Auckland.

These two cavalry forces did not even enter the city. After disembarking, they did not rest up and disappeared into the wilderness. With the cover of the bolder legion, the entire process was kept from the Sydney civilians.

…

In the blink of an eye, another day passed.

It was the 11th month, 10th day. Even with Australian players disturbing them along the way, the 3rd army smoothly arrived 20 miles away from Canberra and started to set up camp.

Although Canberra was located between Sydney and Melbourne, it was not located at the center.

In comparison, Sydney was closer to Canberra. As such, even though the Great Xia forces set off a day later, the current Melbourne army was still a day away.

Regardless of how Avera demanded the army to pick up speed, it did not help.

After the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps arrived outside the city, they were not in a rush to siege. After all, Canberra had 200 thousand guards defending and hundreds of thousands of combat occupation players helping.

If they started the siege unprepared, it might backfire.

The moment the Melbourne army rushed over whilst they siege, all the more would it be a catastrophe.

A nervous day passed by seemingly instantly.

On the morning of the 11th day, the Melbourne army was only half a day away from Canberra. Lord Avera was surrounded in the center. He had a lot of matters on his mind, but he still felt really pumped up.

“To be able to lead such an army, I have no regrets.”

Till date, Avera still had not received news about Great Xia’s second batch of reinforcements, which doubled his confidence. If they could crush the Great Xia Army, it would be an unprecedented feat.

Just as Avera was dreaming about victory, a change occurred.

First, it was the outer sentry scouts that gave out the warning, and then the outer forces were in chaos. Before the main force could react, the rumbling of horse hooves spread out from the horizon and shook the earth.

“Sneak attack! Sneak attack!”

The military formation that they traveled in instantly became messed up.

Avera’s heart sank, and an uneasy feeling rose up in his heart. He rose up on his warhorse, trying his best to focus on the distance. However, in every direction, there were the rumbling sounds of horse hooves.

After a short while, he saw black lines like a flood swiftly crossing the horizon and charging toward the Melbourne army. The aura that this group of cavalry exuded when they charged in unison made one break out in cold sweat.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye, and the black line became a black flood until it swallowed the Melbourne army.

Amongst the black flood, the red war flags were really eye-catching. The golden dragon flag fluttered in the wind, announcing their noble and invincible identities.

Avera’s heart turned cold as he muttered, “Great Xia cavalry. Where did they come from?”

Chapter 1129 - You Come out to Play, You Have to Pay Sooner or Later

Chapter 1129: You Come out to Play, You Have to Pay Sooner or Later

The group that sneak attacked Melbourne’s army consisted of the Tiger Leopard Cavalry and the dragon blood cavalry.

After these two legions disembarked outside of Sydney, they went through the wilderness, going around Canberra like the wind. Finally, they gave the Melbourne army a fatal blow before they arrived in the imperial city.

The strategy that the Great Xia elite cavalry employed was the traditional long-distance charging attack, which was nothing special.

However, such a tactic worked so well.

For the Guards Legion Corps to succeed at the tactic was obviously not a result of luck. First, they were well trained and had it ingrained into their DNA by Marshal Huo Qubing.

How to step, how to cover, how to travel, and even how to find water sources; they all knew the effective methods. As a result, there was the legend that the Guards Legion Corps was like ghosts.

Secondly, due to Great Xia’s strong territory specialty, they possessed stamina and speed that exceeded logic. Obviously, they were the most elite cavalry on the global scale and became Great Xia’s ability to sweep the world.

These two elements added together formed the legend of the Guards Legion Corps.

Returning to the battlefield.

Facing the combined sneak attack of the Tiger Leopard Cavalry and the dragon blood cavalry, the Melbourne army was totally defenseless and had no way to return fire. After the success of the sneak attack, the Guards Legion Corps had a set of tactics for swiftly expanding the war results.

First, the Guards Legion Corps used the flexibility of the cavalry to swiftly wipe out the outside barrier, and then it was time for the heavy armored cavalry. With an invincible aura, they killed their way into the core of the enemy and destroyed the enemy’s formation.

The rumbling heavy armored cavalry were like rows and rows of bulldozers on full power. The enemies screamed and hollered as they raised their shields, but they could not stop them for a single moment. As such, they were trampled across.

After the heavy armored cavalry was the even larger scaled light armored cavalry force.

They were like Asuras, closing in from the two wings like shepherd chasing sheep as they guided the enemy that were already in chaos. They used the bows and crossbows in their hands to claim the lives of the enemy.

The light and heavy armored cavalry all worked perfectly with one another, forming up a death net.

Before the enemy could even fight head on against the light armored cavalry, they had already suffered heavy casualties, and their morale plummeted. Facing such an enemy, the Melbourne army was not only helpless but also started to lose hope.

Just as their morale was low, and they were ready to flee, the killing move of the Great Xia cavalry was revealed.

The Great Xia light armored cavalry that was gathered tougher swiftly spread out with regiments as a unit to charge into the enemy formation. The spears and Tang Blades in their hands continuously took the lives of the enemy.

What made one feel even greater despair was that despite spreading out, the cavalry regiments still coordinated with one another.

They either surrounded or assisted their fellow troops, chasing or going head on, working with one another to cut the enemy army into small pieces and swallowing them one by one.

Facing such a tactic, those who were cowardly could only surrender.

On the outer portion of the battlefield, Melbourne Lord Avera fled toward Canberra under the protection of his Personal Guards. Only by returning there could he have a chance to live.

It was not easy to break away from the battlefield. Just as he was about to heave a sigh of relief.

At this very moment, the Personal Guard beside him exclaimed, “My Lord, be careful!” Only to see a sharp arrow break through the air, piercing through his chest before he could react.

‘Argh!’

Avera vomited blood in his mouth. He could not hold onto the reigns anymore, so he fell off the horse.

Before the Personal Guards could dismount from their horses to save him, he had already transformed into a white light and disappeared from the battlefield. He had ended his game journey in such a surprising manner, having fallen so suddenly.

Who knows whether he had any regret in his heart or not when he turned into a white light.

If Avera did not listen to Jack and announce an iron restriction order on Great Xia, Ouyang Shuo might not have taken down Australia, and Avera would have lived a really carefree life.

He would not have died on the way to the battle like just now.

Unfortunately, there were no ifs in this world, and there was a well said phrase, ‘If you come out to play, you will have to pay sooner or later.’

Amongst the chaotic army, the one who accurately shot Avera was the Legion General of the dragon blood cavalry, the war god Lu Bu. Seeing the target turn into a white light, Lu Bu patted his horse and led his men forward.

Along with the surprising death of Avera, the Melbourne army lost their last bit of fighting spirit.

Even the Java army, who was ordered to come over to help, did not make any unnecessary struggles under such a situation. The survivors chose to surrender, which announced the end of this battle.

Close to noon, the battle was close to its end.

Apart from 10 thousand soldiers who were able to fortunately escape, 60 thousand of them died and 130 thousand of them were captured. It was a complete victory for Great Xia.

After the battle ended, the Guards Legion Corps did not rush to siege Melbourne. Instead, they dealt with the war prisoners and slowly moved toward Canberra. Probably at this moment, Canberra had already received news of the frontline’s defeat.

Not attacking Melbourne was to test the courage of Java’s Lord Uwais.

Java had already lost 100 thousand elites. If Uwais dared to send more reinforcements and teleport to Melbourne, Great Xia did not mind using Australia as the main battlefield to cross swords with Java.

The three of them were one body.

Great Xia held the initiative in this battle. The core goal was not to destroy a particular country but to crush their strength. Anyone who dared to show their head would be hit.

As long as they destroyed the territory armies, taking them down in the future would be an easy matter.

…

Canberra.

In a short day, the Australian region players had experienced a drop from heaven to hell.

Just yesterday, the country war outlook seemed really bright, and everyone was motivated and dedicated to chasing the invaders out and protecting their home. This was not a baseless dream, as they had a strong army to rely on.

But today, the Melbourne army was ambushed, and as the news of the entire army being crushed spread over, it caused the noisy and bustling Canberra to become silent right away.

A deathly silence.

The subsequent intel pushed the Australian players to the brink of desperation.

Let us not mention the 200 thousand reinforcements they thought were coming. The Great Xia Army attacking Australia suddenly had two more legions. One side increasing and one side decreasing, wasn’t that the difference between heaven and hell?

They asked themselves, with the 200 thousand guards, could they defend against the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps?

No one had that ability.

The feeling of despair spread across the wilderness like a wild grass.

Maybe for Australia, their only hope was a second batch of reinforcements from

Java. However, along with the Melbourne army falling, Java also fell into an unbearable silence.

When one was desperate, one would often do crazy things.

The players of Australia were crazy. Facing a war that they had no chances of winning, they were prepared to take a gamble.

Chapter 1130 - Final Craziness

Chapter 1130: Final Craziness

Java, Badong City.

Lord Uwais had encountered a painful choice. In a short three days, a tenth of Badong’s million men army was destroyed, making him feel really pained.

The key was whether to send further reinforcements or not.

Without Java’s reinforcements, Australia was destined to be lost. And the moment Great Xia occupied Australia, they could move into Java and launch a direct threat.

Needless to say, Uwais would have to answer to the organization.

However, if he assisted them, Uwais was more worried that he would be dragged into the mud and be unable to save himself in the end. He also had a scary thought, which was that Great Xia had other intentions for starting the Battle of Luzon.

“If they were targeting Java right from the start, maybe attacking Australia and Luzon was just them tossing out a bait to hook Java in?”

Thinking about this, Uwais could not help but feel a chill run down his spine.

These were not just his random thoughts. Java was strong primarily because of their population and secondly because they were fighting on their home ground.

If Great Xia truly moved the tiger out of the mountain and fought them in Australia and Luzon, they could quietly swallow up the Badong army; it was a really ingenious idea.

Uwais did not to dare take the gamble.

“Do not blame me for being heartless, but I have no choice.” Uwais made up his mind.

…

Australia, Canberra.

Unable to wait for the second batch of reinforcements from Java, the Australian players were ready to take a gamble.

Someone suggested, “Once the enemy surrounds the imperial city, we are dead. The only chance now is to attack before the 2nd army of the enemy arrives and destroy them outside.”

“Is that feasible?” Some people were worried.

200 thousand imperial city guards along with 300 thousand combat occupation players against 110 thousand Great Xia Guards Legion Corps troops.

“Five against one, it’s possible!” Someone said confidently.

At least in terms of numbers, they held the absolute advantage. Furthermore, this had to work, as they had no other choice.

“Then let’s fight!”

Since they chose to go all out, one should not have any hesitation.

11th day, noon, pretty much when the Melbourne army fell, imperial city Canberra launched a counterattack. 200 thousand guards troops and 300 thousand players walked out of the city gates with all the worries thrown outside of their heads.

The tip of their formation pointed right at the Great Xia camp.

Defending this was the 1st legion Legion General Shihu as well as 4th legion Legion General Er’Lai. Both of them were top generals.

Mountain barbarian Legion General Shihu had obtained the God Weapon Heaven splitting axe that Chiyou had dropped as well as the Emperor Ranked hell slaughterer true manual. After which, his abilities soared.

After just three years of cultivating the manual, Shihu had broken through to become and Emperor Ranked general, becoming the second native NPC after Lin Yi to do so.

The more terrifying part was that the Emperor Rank was not his limit.

Under Ouyang Shuo’s special treatment, Shihu did not lack cultivation resources. Before this, when he obtained the ten thousand year stalactite, Ouyang Shuo had especially sent a bottle over. Such great treatment was one that everyone envied.

Shihu did not disappoint Ouyang Shuo. His ability improved quickly.

Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to a mountain barbarian general on the level of Chiyou being born in the Great Xia Army, achieving a different type of legend.

After learning that the enemy had come out of their base, Shihu and Er’Lai did not show any signs of fear.

Not only because they themselves were top generals, but also because the troops under them were the cream of the crop. Without mentioning crushing the enemy, fighting them to a standstill was not a problem.

As long as they maintained the current situation, it would be a victory for them.

Be it the Tiger Leopard Cavalry and the dragon blood cavalry who were heading over, or the 5th legion and the Auckland Formation who had already arrived at the shore, no matter which of them arrived on the battlefield, it would spell the end of the enemy.

The enemy choosing to strike out had saved them the bother of sieging.

At 4 PM in the afternoon, the vanguard forces of the Canberra army had arrived outside of the camp. Moreover, before they arrived, the Great Xia Army had already formed up and were silently waiting for their arrival.

Just this alone showed the military discipline of Shihu and Er’Lai.

The Guards Legion Corps camp was haphazardly set up. There were no high wooden walls to defend and no moats and traps. Facing the menacing flood and enemy troops that were even a little crazy, if one defended their ground, it would be like binding their own feet.

It was better to move out of the camp and form up on flat ground, as that would give them the most room to show off their strengths.

Shihu led the bolder legion at the front like a stone wall spread out on the wilderness, looking invincible and unbreakable. Er’Lai led his infantry and cavalry mixed legion and assisted from the wings.

The two legions worked together to form a super formation that could both attack and defend.

Within the greenish wilderness and under the blue sky, 100 thousand Great Xia Guards Legion Corps soldiers in black armor held onto their shining spears and blades, standing orderly in their formations and giving out a really stable aura.

The golden dragon flag waving in the wind was the best symbol of them.

Facing such a formation, the Canberra army vanguard forces were stunned and did not dare to proceed forward. Some of them even subconsciously took a step back.

When they regained their senses, their faces were filled with shame.

As they say, ‘Seeing the face is better than hearing the name.’ Before coming, they had heard of how amazing the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps was, but in truth, they did not have a clear understanding. Hence, they were filled with confidence.

Once they witnessed the aura of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps, they felt their hairs stand on its end. The so-called trump card was such a presence. The Guards Legion Corps had not even moved, yet they could cause the surrounding air to freeze up and the wild flowers to wither.

The killing intent that they purposely kept still exuded outward.

In comparison, be it the imperial city guards or the combat occupation players, it was the first time they had stepped on the battlefield. Compared to the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps, they were like little flowers in the greenhouse.

As a result, it was no wonder that some of them would take a step back.

The atmosphere of the battlefield instantly became really awkward. The defending side did not even do anything, yet the side who came over raring to fight was already stunned and hesitant, making a fool of themselves. It was like a bunch of deflated balloons.

The deadly silence spread to every corner, making it really intolerable.

The longer they were in a standstill, the bigger the pressure that the Canberra army felt. The killing intent from the Guards Legion Corps seemed to have taken physical form and charged toward them like a tsunami.

The psychological barrier amplified the effects of this fear.

Less than half an hour had passed, but it was like a century to some. Their arms and legs were numbing up.

Before this, someone had said that the moment someone was forced into desperation, one would either be totally stepped on or become crazy.

Some of them welcomed their second crazy phase.

“Kill!”

Some of the combat occupation players could not take such a standstill and hollered, charging at the enemy with all they had.

“If we are destined to die, let me be crazy for one final time.”

Chapter 1131 - History Is Just so Shockingly Similar

Chapter 1131: History Is Just so Shockingly Similar

The Australian players could not handle the suppressive atmosphere and chose to throw their lives away and strike. All of them hollered as they waved their weapons of various shapes and sizes as they charged at the enemy formation.

When Er’Lai saw that, a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

When one fought, there is a good sentence to describe it, ‘The violent people are afraid of those who fight without using their brains, while those who fight without using their brains are afraid of those who fight without care for their lives.” The current Australian player group was a bunch of crazy people who did not bother about their lives.

However, Er’Lai was not worried at all. Instead, he really happy.

This was the battlefield and not a chaotic street fight between hooligans. On the battlefield, craziness was not what was important. Rather, the key laid in calmness. Steel-like calmness to not lose one’s feet, and only then could one obtain the victory.

The Australian players were like a pack of mad dogs as they charged over. They did not have a formation and did not coordinate with one another. In front of the solemnly waiting Guards Legion Corps soldiers, they were a bunch of mobs waving swords and clubs, posing no threat at all.

“Rookies are just rookies!”

With Er’Lai giving the order, the previous silent and motionless Guards Legion Corps formation started to work. Like an exquisite killing machine, it flawlessly led the enemies into an encirclement.

The moment the Australian players fell into it, they would definitely die.

Encirclement after encirclement; it was like giant teeth wheels biting at one another and pushing forward. The Australian players all fell in as expected.

Along with a large number of players dying, a bloody scent rose up on the battlefield and became thicker and thicker.

This scent further provoked the Australian players. Each one of them threw themselves in with disregard, trying to go out with a bright light.

Apart from the light, there was also darkness.

Some players could not handle the atmosphere and directly fled.

Amongst the 100 thousand vanguard forces of the Canberra army, 70 thousand of them were players. This was because they were the most eager. As such, they arrived at the battlefield the earliest.

The battle started at 4:30 PM in the afternoon. When the sun began to set, and the remnant light shone on this bloodstained wilderness, only then did the main force of the Canberra army arrive.

A replica of hell was displayed in front of them.

After being picked off by the Guards Legion Corps, half of the 100 thousand vanguard forces had died or were injured. The rest were either captured or fled in a panic, disappearing into the vast wilderness.

The battlefield was strewn with corpses all over. There were war horses neighing, and there were soft cries.

Those sounds were from the final survivors of the battle. Facing the tragic battlefield and the outcome that was far from what they expected, they felt a deep sense of helplessness and pain.

“We cannot win.” They were filled with despair.

“How did this happen?”

The main force that had rushed over could not believe it either. They looked toward the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps that had already formed up once more with respect and even fear, shivering in the cold.

The Great Xia Guards Legion Corps suffered little to no casualties. Their iron armor was dyed in a layer of blood, and only the tip of their spears and blades shone a cold light and dripped with fresh blood.

Boundless killing intent gathered up in the sky above the battlefield, fighting with the setting sun for supremacy.

“Gulp!”

Some people could not help but swallow their saliva to lessen their nervousness.

Based on the plan by the main force, the 100 thousand vanguard army would not be used to engage the enemy. Their mission was to set up camp not far from the enemy to build up a fortified point.

Who knew that they would actually be so useless? They had fallen apart before the main force had even arrived.

“Now what should we do?”

The generals looked at one another. Seeing that night was about to arrive,
they had nowhere to go in the wilderness. The hundreds of thousands of soldiers had walked for half a day, and they had not even had the time to stop and take a breath and eat.

“Back off five miles and set up camp.” The general ordered.

The general’s orders were very rational. Seeing that the sky was dark, the army was tired, and the moral was low, it was not a good time to start a war. Only by resting up and going past the night could they fight tomorrow.

Unfortunately, he misjudged the reaction of his forces.

The blood of the 400 thousand strong army was boiling. Using their last bit of courage, they wanted to charge at the enemy; they wanted to crush them.

Who knew that the moment they arrived on the battlefield, they would face such a huge blow. Instantly, their hot-blooded heads became clear once more.

The standstill just then had let them feel great pressure. If they launched the attack there and then, they probably would be able to muster up some courage to make a final gamble.

However, what they received was the order to retreat.

Just think about it. 400 thousand troops spread out on the wilderness like a black blanket, closely packed against one another. The imperial city guards and the combat occupation players each occupied half of the area, intersecting with one another.

When the retreat order was given, the front troops became the back, and the back troops became the front.

The ‘front troops’ that had the biggest pressure on them had no choice but to continue to bear it and remain still. The troops behind them retreated backward, one faster than the next.

Instinctively, this army did not want to face the Guards Legion Corps.

As they were afraid, they moved faster and faster.

The originally normal retreat slowly became a small jog, and then a sprint. In history, what happened in the Battle of Fei River to the former Qin army was actually miraculously happening on the Australian battlefield.

The back troops were running faster and faster!

The ones running at the front had exceeded the five mile range and were still instinctively running forward.

This caused a chain reaction. It caused the front troops to act up, some of their gazes started to waver, and they started to shift their feet backward.

No one dared to be at the front.

The seemingly small shifts finally gave rise to a huge commotion.

Someone taking the lead meant that there were obviously going to be people who followed. The front troops actually backed off altogether with tacit understanding.

The general noticed that something was not right, and he wanted to prevent the front troops from retreating. However, it was already too late.

Without mentioning the small troops, but even the middle generals were fleeing. No one would accept new military orders. Furthermore, they were retreating, so they were following the order.

Thinking about it, they felt better about retreating.

Just like that, in less than half an hour, the 400 thousand army was like dominos, swiftly retreating. It became faster and faster and more and more disorderly.

The entire formation was in a mess.

When Er’Lai saw that, he sharply grabbed the opportunity. He looked up at the setting sun, only to see that half of the sun was exposed outside of the dusk, and it had not totally fallen below the horizon.

Looking at the situation, there was at least an hour before the sky would turn dark.

“One hour is enough!”

Er’Lai was a decisive person. After informing Shihu, with an order, the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps that were waiting silently and were quietly resting up moved once more.

This move was like a lightning bolt, like a sweeping wind, like a tsunami…

Chapter 1132 - Waltzing Matilda

Chapter 1132: Waltzing Matilda

Just when the Canberra army started to lose their composure, the 100 thousand Great Xia Guards Legion Corps troops were like a sharp knife, stabbing right into the enemy. Before night came, at what seemed to be the most impossible time, they suddenly started a huge war.

The attacks of the Guards Legion Corps magnified the chaos of the Canberra army.

They were like wild deer that were scared on the grasslands. Under the chase of the lions, the were fleeing for their lives. They trampled and fought with one another. As long as they ran faster than them, they would have a chance to live.

Throughout the process, there were some players who realized that something was wrong, stopping to fight back.

Helplessly, they were the minority. Under the high speeds of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps, such valiant people were like sand, quickly being swept aside, leaving behind streaks of white light.

To the Canberra army, a large-scale counterattack was impossible. The only thing they could hope to do was reduce their contact with the Great Xia Army and drag the time into the night.

This hour was exceptionally hard to pass.

When the black sky swiftly covered up the horizon like it was swallowing the sky, there were already some exhausted Canberra troops who heaved a sigh of relief like they had seen their saviors.

Their nightmare was finally over.

When night fell, the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps did not continue to chase. Instead, they returned to their camp to rest up. On this day, they had bountiful gains. First, they crushed the 100 thousand vanguard forces of the enemy, and then they scattered the main force.

Based on conservative estimates, in a short hour, 50 thousand people died and upward of 100 thousand people surrendered. Those who did so were mostly imperial city guards. After this battle, half of the Canberra imperial city guards was lost.

…

Deep in the night.

The 250 thousand Canberra army finally woke up and stopped retreating. Some of them laid down paralyzed on the ground. They cluelessly looked around; everyone around them had the same lost look on their faces.

As the night breeze blew across, it brought with it a cold and icy chill.

Most of them sat cross-legged on the ground, taking out their dry rations and forcefully chewing on them. Some quietly raised their bottles and went around to search for water to quench their already steaming throats.

The entire army lacked life.

The successive defeats that did not seem to make sense had greatly weakened their strength. Apart from their low morale, the image of the invincible Great Xia Guards Legion Corps was ingrained in their hearts.

In such a situation, even if they got past the night, what could they do?

“We cannot win, we are probably going to get destroyed…” someone teared up bitterly as he spoke. No one laughed at him, as everyone pretty much felt the same way.

The exhaustion of their bodies was far from the despair they felt in their hearts.

In the night, someone started singing a folk song, Australia’s ballad – Waltzing Matilda.

Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong

Under the shade of a coolibah tree

He sang as he watched and waited ’til his billy boiled,

You’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me

…

The song described a wanderer who was brewing tea, and when he captured a lamb to eat, the original owner of the land brought three policemen to capture him. The wanderer knew that even if he escaped, he would have nowhere to hide. As such, he jumped into the lake and killed himself.

The mood of the wanderer was exactly the same as what they felt. As such, more people sang along.

Down came a jumbuck to drink at the billabong,

Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee,

And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker bag,

You’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me

…

Up jumped the swagman and sprang into the billabong,

You’ll never catch me alive, said he,

And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong,

You’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me.

…

When they sang to the final sentence, some people had tears covering their face. Were they not a bunch of wanderers being forced into desperation by the enemy? Their outcome would probably be them jumping into a lake and ending it all.

The night wind covered the choking cries and left only chills.

Undeniable exhaustion swept everyone as the solders directly fell asleep on the ground, hugging one another. They were ready to pass a night in the night wind that was destined to be sleepless.

“Let’s have a final battle tomorrow, no matter if we win or lose!” The soldiers set their hearts to it.

…

The wishes of the Canberra army to fight to the death did not manage to happen in the end.

In the morning, when the sky had just turned bright, the Canberra army had already awakened. The soldiers were stretching their limbs on the wet grass.

Furnaces and pots were being lit up to cook hot milk and malt bread. The soldiers took out all their grain and were ready to fight to the death with the enemy after a full meal.

At this very moment, killing shouts spread out from all around them.

The sentries around were being cleared out by the enemy at a visible rate. They used their last bit of life to warn their brothers.

“Scoff, good timing!”

The soldiers thought that it was the Great Xia guards from yesterday, so they did not panic. They were already prepared to fight to the death, so since they came, let’s just fight.

They were wrong!

The ones joining in this encirclement was not only the 100 thousand Great Xia Guards Legion Corps but also the Ma Chao led Tiger Leopard Cavalry.

Not long after the battle ended yesterday, Lu Bu led the dragon blood cavalry to transport the prisoners while Ma Chao led his men to break away and travel toward Canberra.

Halfway there, he learned about the Canberra army exiting the city.

Logically speaking, Ma Chao should have taken down Canberra. When that happened, the Battle of Australia would have ended right there and then.

Helplessly, before they began their attack on Australia, advisor Jia Xu had strictly said, “This battle in Australia, the main goal is to crush the enemy and sieging is secondary. Even if we surround the imperial city and lead our troops in, we cannot smash the stone steele. When to occupy the imperial city and end the country war depends on the commander force.”

Huo Qubing roughly knew the plan and naturally passed down the orders to the five Legion Generals. One must not look at how Huo Qubing was always smiling, as Ma Chao did not dare to go against his orders.

During the Battle of Jin, Lu Bu was late for an hour to the gathering point due to the rain destroying the bridge.

Huo Qubing’s face had instantly turned cold.

The poor Lu Bu was whipped 20 times and had to stand outside Huo Qubing’s tent for an entire night.

After that incident, none of the Legion Generals dared to take orders from the marshal lightly. Going against orders was even more impossible.

Hence, Ma Chao could only give up the war merit that had reached his hands. He went around Canberra and pushed toward the enemy. Hence, there was the scene of two fronts of Guards Legion Corps troops surrounding the Canberra army.

Chapter 1133 - Final Battle Mindanao

Chapter 1133: Final Battle Mindanao

Facing the combined attacks of the Guards Legion Corps on two fronts, the fate of the Canberra army was imaginable.

And just as the battle on the Australian battlefield began, the Luzon battlefield thousands of miles away also broke the silence and experienced new developments.

The one that broke the balance was the Java reinforcements.

As the only Lord in Java, Uwais was naturally not weak. After deciding to give up on Australia, he turned his eyes to Luzon.

Their three as one body was already lacking one corner, and they could not afford to lose Luzon.

Based on Luzon Lord Mading’s suggestion, they were prepared to strike out while the Guards Legion Corps were trapped in Australia.

Their target would be the Hanoi legion corps that was at the south side of Mindanao.

The Hanoi Legion corps had only sent out three legions to this battle, and their overall numbers did not exceed 210 thousand. Within the Luzon territory main city Lloilo, they had 100 thousand territory troops and 100 thousand Java reinforcements.

Before the battle, Lloilo had 400 thousand territory troops. After losing 100 thousand during the Battle of Laoag, the remaining 300 thousand were split up on the three main islands.

Luzon island had 100 thousand to fight along with the imperial city guards and combat occupation players. They needed to prevent the Dragon Legion Corps from going down south. Mindanao had 10 thousand to prevent Great Xia’s Hanoi legion corps from invading.

Mading wanted to take the chance that the Dragon Legion Corps and Guards Legion Corps were being blocked to gather up strength and surround Great Xia’s Hanoi legion corps.

If they could destroy these three legions in one swoop, it would undoubtedly help raise all their morale.

Uwais was convinced by Mading and decided to send 150 thousand more troops to form a 400 thousand strong Alliance Army to go down south of Mindanao to take down the Hanoi legion corps.

This time, the Hanoi Legion corps’ situation became really precarious.

As a border defense army, their equipment was comparable to Java and Luzon. However, in terms of strength, they were not as strong as the Guards Legion Corps such that they could achieve a crushing victory.

Two against one; in such a situation, the Hanoi legion corps definitely would not be able to win.

…

11th month, 11th day, Mindanao Ilagan City.

As the only territory in Luzon, Lloilo not only had a teleportation formation at the main city but also one in Ilagan city in Mindanao.

Usually, it defended against what was their ally now – Java.

At night, 100 thousand Lloilo troops along with 250 thousand Java reinforcements teleported over here and gathered with the 100 thousand troops that were camped in the city.

During the Australia country war period, with the help of the Yashan Squadron, the Hanoi legion corps successfully disembarked on the South Bay of Mindanao, taking down Davao.

Hanoi legion corps marshal Xue Rengui realized this point – if he wanted to take down Mindanao, he needed to first break down Lligan and cut off the reinforcements from Lloilo.

Hence, after taking down Davao, the Hanoi legion corps did not sweep around and went up north, heading toward Ilagan city. Before the Luzon reinforcements arrived, Hanoi had already surrounded the city.

Night, Hanoi region corps commander tent.

The lamp in the tent flickered as Xue Rengui, who was in martial attire, sat in front of his desk. Looking at the order from the commander, he was deep in thought.

The Black Snake Guards had done a really good infiltration of Luzon.

When the Java reinforcements arrived in Lloilo and disappeared from the city along with the Luzon territory army, the news was caught by the Black Snake Guards spies and reported to the commander right away.

The enemy’s obvious battle motives naturally could not avoid the eyes of Baiqi and Jia Xu.

“Advisor how should he adapt to this change? Should we ask the Hanoi legion corps to retreat?” Baiqi sought Jia Xu’s opinion.

Jia Xu was at leisure as usual. He did not directly reply; instead, he changed the topic, “Based on the frontline intel, the Battle of Australia is close to its end and can be finished at any time.”

Baiqi was really patient, waiting for Jia Xu to reveal his plan.

“I have a plan that can fulfill the linking up of all three lands.” As he said that, Jia Xu started to describe his battle plan. The more Baiqi heard, the brighter his eyes grew.

When Jia Xu finished, Baiqi was filled with praise. He smiled widely, “As expected from the top strategist in the dynasty.”

“General compliments me too much!” Jia Xu said humbly.

“Then let’s follow your plan. I’ll send an order to the armies.”

…

Xue Rengui received a really weird order – the Hanoi legion corps had to act like they were being defeated and back off all the way to Davao City.

Throughout the process, the Hanoi legion corps needed to create a false impression to make the enemy feel that they needed just a little more to crush the Hanoi legion corps, wetting their appetite to attract the main force of the enemy out of Ilagan.

“Is the commander headquarters trying to…”

Xue Rengui roughly guessed the goal, “Only, where do the troops come from?”

Since he could not understand it, Xue Rengui did not think anymore random thoughts and focused on the military order. He would complete what the commander wanted.

“Men!”

“Present!”

“Gather the generals for a midnight meeting!”

“Yes, general!”

Very quickly, the Major General and above generals gathered up. Naturally, the three Legion Generals Pei Xingyan, Xiang Zhuang, and Le Loi were seated at the front.

The news of the enemy troops reinforcing Ilagan had spread out in the army. Should they fight or defend? The generals did not have a clue. Upon hearing that the marshal was going to have a meeting, they swiftly rushed over.

Xue Rengui did not talk too much and swiftly read out the plan.

Only when the dead of night arrived did the generals leave one by one, spreading the tactics throughout the night to the divisions.

…

11th month, 12th day, Ilagan City.

Early in the morning, when Luzon Lord Mading brought the generals to the city wall, the Hanoi legion corps that had surrounded Lligan City had backed off 10 miles, and there were no signs of them.

“Scoff, they have good intel.” Mading said in disappointment.

Originally, Mading was prepared to wait for Hanoi legion corps to siege before giving them a big surprise.

Now, it seems like the enemy had done a great job in terms of intel work.

“Since we have been revealed, let’s fight.”

A country war was a race against time, and every day that passed increased the amount of uncertainty. As such, Mading did not have room to hesitate. With the military order given, apart from leaving 50 thousand people to defend the city, the remaining 400 thousand troops set out.

As the Lord, Mading also remained in Ilagan City.

Mading was not a fool. Naturally, he knew about the importance of Iligan City and the detriments of it being lost. It was something him or the entire Luzon could not accept. As a result, no matter what, he would not let down his guard towards lligan city.

Chapter 1134 - What Is Special Forces Fighting Style

Chapter 1134: What Is Special Forces Fighting Style

The 400 thousand strong Luzon army marched aggressively toward the Hanoi legion corps camp. They left dust stirring in their wake, opening up the curtain for the final battle in Mindanao.

To a certain extent, the outcome of this battle would decide the outcome of the entire war.

At 10 AM, the Luzon Alliance Army vanguard troops arrived at the front of the Hanoi legion corps camp. Looking out, the entire camp of the Hanoi legion corps followed the shape of the hill as it rose and dip, stretching numerous miles if looked down from above.

When the Alliance Army general saw that, his eyes froze. The enemy camp was a typical easy to defend hard to attack land. To break this defensive line was much harder than surrounding and attacking a camp.

However, since they were already there, there was naturally no reason to not fight. Furthermore, they had the numerical advantage, so they had even less reason to hesitate. After reorganizing and consolidating the formation that was getting a little chaotic, the Alliance Army charged toward the high ground.

“Kill!”

All of a sudden, killing shouts filled the air.

The two armies used the temporarily set up camp as a medium to engage in an intense battle. As a part of the Great Xia Army, the Hanoi Legion corps naturally did not lack courage and killing intent. Even when facing enemies twice their number, they showed no fear.

The Luzon Alliance Army similarly had a booming morale.

The heaven shaking killing started from 10 AM and last till night before it came to an end.

As the battle came to an end, the jade green hill was stepped on by the troops and was now empty mud. Tens of thousands of corpses were strewn across the hills. Blood flowed into rivers and a pond of fresh blood gathered up at the foot of the mountain.

“The Great Xia Army is as tough as the legends have it.”

Although the Alliance Army general praised the enemy, there was no loss of confidence in his words. Evidently, the performance of the Alliance Army today during the battle had satisfied him.

At the start, the Hanoi legion corps used the geography of the hill to defend the defensive line, putting the Alliance Army in a really detrimental situation. As a result, the Alliance Army suffered heavy casualties. However, when the Alliance Army started to gain their footing, their numerical advantage started to kick in.

In the afternoon, both sides were at a tie.

It was to the point where one could say that the Alliance Army was at an advantage when it was close to nighttime. They were lacking just a little more before they could totally tear apart the enemy defense line and occupy the peak of the hill.

“Tomorrow, we will definitely take it down.” The Alliance Army general was really confident.

Unfortunately, the Hanoi legion corps did not give him such a chance.

After both sides stopped fighting, the Alliance Army retreated five miles and set up camp to rest for the night. The Hanoi legion corps sneakily packed their bags, and during the next morning, before the sky was even bright, they left their camp.

At 8 AM, when the alliance aggressively charged up the hill, the camp was already empty.

“Damn it!”

The Alliance Army general was annoyed and immediately ordered the troops to chase.

Just like that, one chased and one fled, moving and stopping. A massacre occurred along the way and continued down south. Under the leadership of Xue Rengui, the Hanoi legion corps successfully completed the mission handed to them by the commander headquarters and led the Alliance Army out from Ilagan.

To achieve that, the Hanoi legion corps had paid a heavy price to let the Alliance Army believe that they were close to victory. Many times, the Hanoi legion corps fought back fiercely without caring about the sacrifices.

Just as the two armies were locked in a stalemate, a group of special troops were quietly moving.

…

11th month, 13th day, the Yashan Squadron’s 1st division’s navy unit carried three thousand Divine Martial Guards and disembarked not far from Ilagan City.

With the help of the Black Snake Guards spies, they proceeded toward the city.

At close to nighttime, the Divine Martial Guards that successfully infiltrated the forest near the city quietly waited for night to fall. Once the cover of night enveloped the land, the three thousand Divine Martial Guards were like ghosts as they moved towards the city north wall.

On the wall, there were only a few patrolling troops and sparsely placed torches.

Under the cover of the night, the Divine Martial Guards blended as one with the darkness, unnoticeable to the naked eye.

“Go!”

When they smoothly arrived below the city walls, Xu Chu chose a blind spot and gave the order to attack.

Then five Divine Martial Guards walk forward. With a ‘Xiu!’, they tossed out the hook claw in their hands and accurately hooked onto the city wall.

Following which, the five of them climbed onto the city wall like spiders.

Next was the second wave, and then the third wave.

The ones who got onto the wall first used the dim light to sneak behind the defending soldiers. The dagger in their hands gleamed with a cold light as they slit the throats of the defending soldiers.

After they murdered these soldiers, they dragged the bodies to a dark corner and exchanged equipment with them. The entire process happened like it was trained, smooth as water without any sounds being made.

Along with the soldiers being killed one by one, the Divine Martial Guards who got the signal from their partners all quickly climbed up the wall. In just half an hour, all three thousand of them had gathered on the city wall.

The entire portion of the city wall had been cleared out.

This was why the Divine Martial Guards were so terrifying. After years of training and trials, they could be considered a special forces team. They were able to live up to the duties of a special forces army.

The Guards Legion Corps was still a distance away from this level.

After gathering up, the Divine Martial Guards did not spend too long on the city wall. They walked down and used the night sky as a cover to walk through alleys with the guide of the Black Snake Guard spies. They headed toward the city’s Lord Manor.

Along the way, they met patrolling troops. If they could avoid them, they would. If they could not, they would directly kill these troops.

The Luzon army was not composed of fools, and half an hour after the Divine Martial Guards had entered the city, the corpses were found, and the alarms immediately sounded.

The silence of Ilagan was broken, and it instantly became boisterous.

City Lord’s manor.

Luzon Lord Mading still had not slept, as the news from the frontlines that said that the Alliance Army was about to crush the Hanoi legion corps made him really excited. It made him completely lose the mood to sleep.

At that very moment, some soldiers reported that something unusual had happened on the city wall.

“Oh, did some rats enter the city?”

With 50 thousand troops defending the city, Mading was not nervous.

However, the following news made him realize the severity of the problem. Every 10 minutes, one patrol group would be ambushed.

The more terrifying aspect was that the entire group was crushed, and not a single body of the enemy was left, which showed that the two sides were not even on the same level.

All signs showed that these people were not simple rats, and if they did not treat them seriously, these enemies would become wolves.

“Quick, order the forces to gather toward the city Lord’s manor.” Mading did not know the reason behind the enemy’s attacks. Instinctively, he chose the safest order.

With the order given, apart from the troops guarding the city wall, the other troops scattered around the city all gathered toward the manor. The closer they were to the manor, the more closely packed the troops were.

Under such circumstances, even if the Divine Martial Guards were any stronger, they could not expose themselves to the enemy. There were just so few paths toward the manor, and each one was blocked by troops. Hence, there was no place for them to hide.

“Kill!”

Since they could not hide, they could only kill their way out.

Since the Divine Martial Guards had accepted this mysterious mission, they had naturally brought a secret weapon with them that could shock everyone at a crucial moment.

However, now was not the time to use that weapon.

Chapter 1135 - Formation and Talisman

Chapter 1135: Formation and Talisman

Three thousand against 50 thousand.

The Divine Martial Guards were destined to create a new record.

The 50 thousand troops in Ilagan were Luzon territory’s main troops and Lord Mading’s personal troops. Their combat strength was naturally undeniable.

After receiving the order from their Lord, apart from the 10 thousand defending the city wall, the remaining forty thousand swiftly gathered toward the city Lord’s manor, bumping right into the Divine Martial Guards.

The two sides engaged in an all-out slaughter on the streets.

At the start, the advance of the Divine Martial Guards was really smooth. After all, the streets were of limited width, and there was no army that could block their advance when the numbers were comparable.

The Divine Martial Guards were basically pushing forward with a sprint.

Once they made it past the huge path and came to the square in front of the manor, their true test began. They saw 10 thousand elites solemnly waiting on the square, and the remaining forces had an airtight seal on the manor.

Mading stood at the steps of the gate, heavily protected by his Personal Guards as he said toward the Divine Martial Guards, “Preposterous. Since you dare to charge into here, prepare to die!”

When Xu Chu heard that, he scoffed. He raised his God arm crossbow and fired.

With a ‘Xiu!’, the arrow broke the air, leaving an afterimage in the sky. Looking at its trajectory, it was actually going to hit Mading. But at that split second, a shield was raised, and the arrow was blocked.

Even so, Mading broke out into a cold sweat and could not help but take two steps back.

“Haha!”

Seeing Mading in such a bad shape, the Divine Martial Guards broke out into mocking laughter, making his face flush red. He did not have the face to stay anymore, so he only said, “Kill them all!” After that, he hurried back to the manor.

When Xu Chu saw that, he grinned, “Boys, the warm up is over, time for the real killing. Kill them!” Xu Chu did not tease Mading for fun; rather, it was to lower the morale of the enemy.

“Kill! Kill! Kill!”

The three thousand Divine Martial Guards formed a giant circle formation, the outside was a circle of shield bearers who focused on defense, the middle consisted of spear holders that pierced out through the sides of the shields, and the inner circle held the god arm crossbows and provided cover fire, especially at the archers hiding on the roofs.

The entire formation was a perfect killing machine, blocking the charging troops from all directions while shifting toward the gate. Anyone who tried to stop them were murdered one by one.

This formation was especially designed by Sun Bin for the Divine Martial Guards and was called the three thousand turning wheel formation.

This formation was scary not because it could defend and attack but because the three circles could change at any moment, having a strong ability to carry on the battle. In the hands of the Divine Martial Guards, it gave out an even stronger effect.

In front of the three thousand turning wheel formation, although the Luzon army had the numerical advantage, there was nothing they could do to it. They could only send out troops to charge at it, but the effects were minimal.

The strength of the formation was on full display in this battle.

In less than an hour, the Divine Martial Guards had broken through all the obstructions on the square and was near the gate. Currently, the gate was tightly shut, and on the walls of the manor, there were many archers.

How to break through was a big test for them.

“Spread out!”

At this moment, Xu Chu hollered, and the formation suddenly split into three, from one circle into three and into a triangular formation that pushed forward.

The middle circle was in charge of hitting the door while the two sides were like wings to block the soldiers attacking from the square and the wall.

Ilagan was only a normal prefecture city, so the city Lord’s manor did not have war defense ability. Under the strong hits of the Divine Martial Guards, the gate shook and was on the verge of collapsing.

The Luzon soldiers within the manor felt their hearts shake as they tried to hold the gate with all their lives.

Both sides competed with the gate as the medium.

With both sides pushing and hitting it, the wooden gate gave out creaking sounds; it was on the verge.

When Xu Chu saw that, he came to the front of the door. Standing still, he rotated all the primordial energy within him and stabbed the gate using a horse lance from one of the Divine Martial Guards. The tip of the lance actually turned white.

‘Hong!’

The lance viciously stabbed into the gate, directly piercing through it and leaving a huge hole behind. Not only that, but a spider web pattern also grew with the hole as the center before the gate broke apart.

The strength of one spear stab was shown.

Xu Chu’s great name shone once more at that moment.

Seeing a huge hole where the gate had been, the Divine Martial Guards’ morale soared. They hollered as they charged into the manor. The Luzon army was astonished, and before they could even react, the enemy was in the middle hall.

“Quick, stop them!”

Luzon Lord Mading appeared once more with an anxious his expression.

Although it was night, the entire manor was well lit up. Anywhere that people could stand, Luzon soldiers stood.

The Divine Martial Guards had charged into such a sea of people. Each forward step was extremely arduous.

As the place was closely-packed, the Divine Martial Guards could not show off their flexibility and skills and had to face attacks from all directions. From the roof, the window, and more; all these sneak attacks started to take effect.

In such an environment, even soldiers from heaven would have problems.

When Xu Chu saw that, he did not hesitate any longer. He took out a talisman and tore it apart. Then a golden light shone and swiftly formed a ball of light, covering the Divine Martial Guards.

Golden armor talisman (platinum rank): after use, forms a golden protective light that grants immunity to all physical attacks, lasting for half an hour, range of five thousand men.

This talisman was a family treasure of the Xiang Family that Ouyang Shuo handed over to Xu Chu.

At this crucial moment, the talisman showed its might.

With this golden glow protecting their bodies, the Divine Martial Guards were truly like soldiers from heaven. Every spear and every arrow were blocked by the golden light before it even got close.

When the Luzon soldiers saw that, their mouths hung agape.

The enemy was stunned but Xu Chu was not. The talisman lasted for only half an hour, and he had to destroy the stone steele before the effects wore off.

“Kill!”

Under the protection of the golden light, the Divine Martial Guards charged out a bloody path in the enemy formation.

The Luzon army was not composed of fools and knew that the target of the enemy was to charge into the meeting hall. As such, they all squeezed in and blocked the way to the stone steele.

If the Divine Martial Guard wanted to get close to the stone steele, there was only one path there.

At the crucial moment, the Divine Martial Guard would not show mercy. They all became asuras. Using this invincible mode, they killed anyone in their way.

Facing the highly efficient and Invincible slaughter god, no matter how good the Luzon army was, they could not help but feel a chill run down their spine. Some of them had started to flee, unwilling to face this group of devils.

In just 10 minutes, Xu Chu charged up to the stone steele.

He grinned, raising his hand and cutting down.

Chapter 1136 - Second Country Weapon

Chapter 1136: Second Country Weapon

Even the hard city stone steele was unable to hold on under the successive attacks of Xu Chu.

The surrounding Luzon soldiers and Lord Mading could only watch on as the stone steele broke into pieces under Xu Chu’s machete.

Desperation, helplessness.

Many complicated emotions filled him as Mading turned into a white light and disappeared. He was forcefully teleported back to the imperial city. He left the Luzon soldiers, who stood quietly in the manor like statues.

Xu Chu sheathed his blade. Like a grim reaper, he looked around and said loudly, “Mindanao is already a lone island and is more like a prison. Just surrender and stop making needless sacrifices.”

“Anyone who surrenders will not be killed!”

The Divine Martial Guards that were shining with golden light were like gods, exuding an aura that inspired worship.

‘Huadang!’

Under such a special atmosphere, faith was the easiest to shake. Who knew who it was that placed down their weapons first, but that gave rise to more and more soldiers surrendering.

Along with the enemy surrendering, the Divine Martial Guards had managed to create a miracle.

…

The Battle of Ilagan became the biggest turning point of the entire war.

Along with Ilagan city’s teleportation formation being destroyed, the 400 thousand Alliance Army troops were trapped on the island with nowhere to go. The nearby ocean region was locked down by the Great Xia navy, and they could not take a single step off the island.

This the con of an island country.

Even if the Alliance Army wanted to take the chance to wipe out the Hanoi legion corps, they could not do so.

A day ago, the Hanoi legion corps had successfully retreated to Davao. With the Yashan Squadron to rely on, daily resources and logistics were no problem. On the contrary, the Alliance Army had finished up their grain and needed to source from the island.

Facing Davao defended by the Hanoi legion corps, the Alliance Army had pretty much no chance to win.

Especially after the fall of Ilagan, which caused their morale to drop to a freezing point. To hope for this army to successfully win a tough battle was just a dream.

Through this battle, Great Cia had successfully trapped 450 thousand troops, a bountiful harvest.

The special force methods of the Divine Martial Guards finally worked on the grand scale of a war and was recognized by Baiqi and the other marshals, greatly impacting their original methods of thinking.

Maybe a tactical revolution was slowly arriving.

…

Java, Badong City.

After learning that Ilagan was taken down by Great Xia, Java Lord Uwais entered a violent mood. Thinking about his 200 thousand troops trapped on Mindanao, his heart was bleeding.

“No, I cannot abandon them like this!”

Uwais’s eyes turned red. The moment he gave up on them, along with the 100 thousand lost in Australia, a third of Badong’s million men army would be lost.

This was something that Uwais could not accept no matter what.

Thinking about it, Uwais decided to send out the Badong Squadron to ferry the trapped soldiers back.

“No matter what, I have to give it a try.”

…

Just when Uwais decided to send out the Badong Squadron, Great Xia also made moves, and they made several of them.

First, the Guards Legion Corps finally received the order from the commander headquarters to take down Canberra and end the country war. The moment Canberra fell, a System Notification sounded out.

“World Notification: Congratulations China region player Qiyue Wuyi for taking down Australia, his reputation spreads far and wide, specially awarded 50 thousand merit points and 100 thousand reputation points.”

…

“World Notification: Australia has been destroyed, all player levels, skills, cultivation methods, and the like are cleared. Players of Australia teleported to the trial lands as punishment!”

…

In truth, before the Guards Legion Corps occupied Canberra, Australia was only left with non-combat occupation players.

“World Notification: China Region player Ouyang Shuo led his troops and won the country war, China obtains 10 honor points, awarding China region players with +1 innate stats as a reward, congratulations China region!”

…

After the three usual System Notifications, another notification broke out.

“World Notification: China Region is the 1st to obtain 100 honor points, specially awarding all players with +1 innate stats. China gives birth to its second country weapon, congratulations China!”

…

The moment the notification spread out, the China region players exploded.

The nine imperial cities and Shanhai City entered a celebratory atmosphere at the same time. People walked onto the streets to celebrate this glorious moment. At this moment, their faces were shining with excitement.

“Exceptional, truly exceptional.”

The players were so emotional that they only said that one sentence, showing off their joy and excitement.

From the earliest Singapore, to Morocco and Somalia in Africa to Annan, Zhenla, Nanzhang in Southeast Asia, then Japan and Korea, then Maldives, and now Australia.

Great Xia was the absolute main character in the destruction of each country.

One could say that the road to destroying all those countries was Great Xia’s road of growth. Every crucial point broken meant that Great Xia had taken a step to becoming a huge authority in the world.

Throughout the process, the China region players enjoyed the glory and benefits that the country war brought.

“Humans were not trees and plants and obviously had feelings.”

The China region players remembered the contributions of Great Xia in their heart, naturally giving Great Xia their support. For example, during the Battle of Luzon, Great Xia did not even ask and many combat occupation players were willing to jump in.

This was the sense of belonging and attraction of Great Xia.

If it was Great Zhou, they probably would not be able to get such treatment.

…

Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

The moment the World Notifications ended, System Notifications sounded out in Ouyang Shuo’s ear.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi, China Region has gained its 2nd Country weapon. Due to the role you played and how crucial you were, you automatically obtain the rights to it.”

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, a smile appeared at the corner of his lips.

Gaia was really fair and did not set any obstacles for him in terms of who the country weapon belonged to.

“System Notification: there are two choices regarding a country weapon. Option 1: randomly give birth to a new one. Option 2: use an equipment as the base to upgrade it. Please choose the mode. Friendly Reminder: if you choose the second option, the lowest rank of the equipment chosen has to be platinum rank.”

Ouyang Shuo was stunned; there was actually such a choice.

Gaia would not randomly shoot arrows. Ouyang Shuo asked, “Using an equipment to upgrade, will the equipment keep its original stats?”

A country weapon seemed overpowered, but it could only be effective during the country war month. Using it usually had more of a symbolic meaning than a practical use.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo asked this question.

“System Notification: The equipment will keep all of its original stats and add a country weapon stat. At the same time, there is a chance that it would gain new stats.”

This time, Ouyang Shuo was not worried anymore. Immediately, he thought about the most suitable weapon to upgrade, the God Weapon that he carried along with him at all the times- the Chixiao Sword.

Chapter 1137 - Son of Heaven Rank and Yu the Great Nine Cauldrons

Chapter 1137: Son of Heaven Rank and Yu the Great Nine Cauldrons

The Chixiao Sword was one of Ouyang Shuo’s weapon, and it was also one of his symbols as the Xia King. Awarding it the name of country weapon made it match with his identity as Xia King better.

“System Notification: Locking onto Chixiao Sword, specialty being birthed….”

“System Notification: Country weapon has been upgraded. Player, please take a look at the specific stats.”

Name: Chixiao Sword (God Rank)

Type: country weapon

Hardness: 95+5 (Max hardness, cannot be destroyed)

Sharpness: 85+2

Toughness: 88+2

Specialty: Blade Breaker (when the hardness of the opposing weapon is lower than the Chixiao Sword’s, chance to directly break it). Unique, cannot be dropped, cannot be traded.

Specialty: Way of the Emperor (raises prestige of Lord by 30%, raises attraction to historical figures by 20%)

Country Fate: Imposing (raises movement speed of participating troops in China by 20%, raises battle contribution point value by 5%) Note: country fate buff only lasts during the country war month.

Evaluation: Chixiao Sword—a sword that reflects the Way of the Emperor, forged from iron, recorded in books as Chi Xiao, it is three feet in length. The weapon of ancestor Liu Bang, a crimson sword created during the uprising. The sword body copied the style of Qin Swords, with engraved patterns.

While Ouyang Shuo was looking at the stats, Gaia announced who the country weapon belonged to.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for reaching the requirements to be the owner of the country weapon, automatically obtaining the 2nd country weapon of China and can permanently own it, congratulations player!”

…

The moment the notification sounded out, there was no one in the China Region that refused to accept it.

Even Di Chen did not have the face to fight with Ouyang Shuo for the country weapon. For China to have a 2nd country weapon, it was mostly thanks to the effort of Great Xia, so who would not submit?

With the country weapon matter coming to an end, Ouyang Shuo’s fortuitous encounter had just began. After a few huge battles, Ouyang Shuo’s merit points had finally reached five million, and he reached the highest Son of God Rank.

This time, the globe was rumbling once more.

“World Notification: Congratulations China player Qiyue Wuyi for being the 1st Lord in the world to upgrade to Son of God Rank, your name spreads across the oceans, awarded 500 thousand reputation points and one special reward. The world sends their congratulations!”

…

This was the first time Gaia used ‘the world sends their congratulations’ in a notification. Hence, one could see how amazing this achievement was. After thinking about how it was just the 5th year of Gaia, it was even more amazing.

Even more shocking was the China region notification.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for being the first person in China, and the only Son of God Rank Lord, obtaining China’s top spot. He who obtains the almighty position automatically becomes the country war leader permanently without a need for a vote. As for other powers, player please check it out yourself!”

…

The Son of God Rank was a unique rank where every game region only had one. This meant that no matter how many merit points Di Chen and Feng Qiuhuang obtained, they could only reach prince rank.

The only special thing would be the position of almighty.

Ouyang Shuo took a look at the authority and power. The country war leader was just a small appetizer. Great Xia, which had the almighty position, had a suppressive and scaring effect on all territories in China.

Almighty: all other powers in China, powers with NPCs, in battles with Great Xia, morale automatically lowered by 15%, speed lowered by 10%, attack and defense lowered by 10%.

This was amazing; he was pretty much going to carry everything.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also had a really buggy power. During the country war month, the country war leader could use gold to summon 5% of the country’s imperial city guards to help.

Ouyang Shuo’s power was really similar.

The only thing was that the former was a 5% fixed rate, where Ouyang Shuo could summon no more than 100 thousand. This was not an unlimited summon, and he could only summon it once a year.

This made things really interesting.

Consequently, every year, Ouyang Shuo could take advantage of one imperial city.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Ouyang Shuo for obtaining China Region Almighty position. Due to Great Xia having the position of orthodoxy of China, the two stack and form a stronger existence. From today onward, within half a month, the eight imperial cities must send envoys to Great Xia to admit Great Xia’s position as almighty and its orthodoxy.”

…

The moment the notification sounded out, the China region players could only worship and worship even more.

As the person in the middle of all this, Ouyang Shuo understood even more detailed information. Not only did the eight imperial cities have to admit the position of Great Xia, but they also could not initiate in making Great Xia their enemy.

What did that mean?

This means that unless Great Xia attacked an imperial city, the imperial city could not take military action against Great Xia.

This alone wiped out the problems of the two dynasties within Great Xia’s border. If Ouyang Shuo did not mind, he could continue to trap them in one prefecture of land and not bother about them.

Even the threat of Great Qing toward Beijiang Province would cease to exist.

“System Notification: Great Xia is both the orthodox ruler of China and its almighty, having a natural suppressive power over all the powers in China. From today onward, within a month, Great Zhou, Great Jin, Tibet, West Xia, Turkish Khanate, and Mongol has to send envoys to admit that. If one does not send an envoy, it would be challenging Great Xia, giving Great Xia the right to protect its position.”

…

As expected, Gaia was making people worry.

How was this being good to Great Xia? It was obviously making them public enemy number 1.

Gaia made it clear that as long as someone on the list did not send an envoy and were able to defeat Great Xia, they would obtain the almighty position.

This might not be much to medium-sized countries like West Xia, as they did not have the ability to challenge Great Xia. However, the Mongol Empire in the north was different, and Genghis Khan was really interested in the position.

Gaia was pushing Great Xia into the fire.

Of course, this was also a test of China’s collective ability and what kind of attitude they had toward Great Xia. Were they prepared to lower their heads or stick up?

What Ouyang Shuo was interested in was what choice would Di Chen make.

If Di Chen did not send out an envoy and admit the position of Great Xia, Great Xia would have a legit reason to declare war.

Such an outcome was not something that the current Great Zhou could handle.

However, if Di Chen admitted it, iit would feel even worse than death.

The almighty position notifications came to an end. Another notification made Ouyang Shuo really delighted.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for smoothly upgrading to Son of God Rank, achieving the requirements to trigger the scenario quest of the emperor jade. Will you start the quest?”

Ouyang Shuo held his emotions back and said, “Start!”

Chapter 1138 - Battle of Manila

Chapter 1138: Battle of Manila

After starting the quest, Ouyang Shuo took a look at the specific details of Yu the Great Nine Cauldron’s quest.

Quest Name: Yu the Great Nine Cauldrons (S rank)

Quest Background: Yu the Great crafted nine cauldrons. These cauldrons are the symbol of absolute power and the authority of the king, and it shows the prosperity of a dynasty. It is both the country protecting treasure and the most important rite tool in a dynasty.

Quest Requirement: The nine cauldrons are scattered around the nine imperial cities and are in the hands of the royal family of each dynasty. You need to find them all one by one and gather them in the Capital City and undergo the Son of God ceremony.

Quest Reward: The nine cauldrons will become the country upgrading treasure and can be used to become an emperor dynasty.

When he saw the details of the quest, Ouyang Shuo’s brows furrowed tight.

The quest was not just a normal level of difficulty. Apart from the cauldron in Dali, which could be obtained without difficulty, the other eight cauldrons were going to be a huge problem.

Ouyang Shuo reaching the Son of God Rank and Great Xia obtaining absolute authority in China meant that the eight dynasties needed to send gifts over to Great Xia. However, this did not mean that Great Xia truly suppressed them and ruled the land.

Through these series of changes, Ouyang Shuo understood that Great Xia’s position of absolute authority was similar to Zhou Tianzi’s in history. It only occupied a meaning in name and was the ‘collective master’.

Qin, Han, Shu Han, Sui, Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing were like the states during the Warring States Period. In name, they respected Zhou Tianzi as the authority, but in the dark, strength spoke louder.

Whoever was stronger, whoever had more power.

Them viewing Great Xia as the authority did not mean that they would hand over the cauldrons.

The cauldrons were the rite tool of the dynasty and was not something that could be given so easily. Giving the cauldron would also mean that the dynasty had truly bowed its head to Great Xia and regarded Great Xia as its master.

“Difficult!”

Ouyang Shuo did not expect that Gaia would actually give him such a problem. With the personalities of Qin Shihuang, Hanwu Emperor, Tang and Song, which one of them was willing to yield to others?

None!

The moment the Yu the Great Nine Cauldrons mission was released, it would definitely push their friendly relationship to an awkward level.

Luckily, the quest did not have a time restriction, so Ouyang Shuo could relax and turn his eyes toward the Southeast Asia battlefield first. He did not forget that the Battle of Luzon was still far from over.

…

11th month, 15th day, Celebes Sea.

While the Son of God Rank matter had China Region bustling, the Battle of Luzon was still underway.

Since he was not willing to let the 200 thousand troops just get trapped in Mindanao, Java Lord Uwais valiantly sent out the Badong Squadron. He ordered them to go through the Celebes Sea to fetch his forces back.

However, he did not know that his actions would make him fall right into the trap of Great Xia.

Not long after the Badong Squadron went out to sea, a combined squadron formed from the Emperor Squadron, the Yashan Squadron’s three divisions, and the Indian Ocean 4th division set up a giant ambush on the ocean.

The anxious Badong Squadron ran right into the net of a hunter.

The two sides engaged in a totally uneven naval battle. The Badong Squadron, who had been crushed by the Emperor Squadron before, could not hold on anymore and fell in the vast ocean.

Badong City had lost their navy protection.

When the news spread out, not only Java Players, but even Luzon players felt chills run down their spine. Everyone knew that at this point, Great Xia had total control of the Southeast Asia region.

This was like lightning on a sunny day for the island states.

The combined patrol and defense that TWP released would have no chance of working in Southeast Asia.

Uwais was fuming. Not only did he fail to save the territory army, but he even lost the even more precious Badong Squadron.

Such an event showed that a good Lord had to maintain a clear head at all times.

…

The following Battle of Luzon was unsurprising.

11th month, 20th day, the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps sailed across the ocean and disembarked on the east coast of Luzon Island, meeting up with the Dragon Legion Corps. As for the Australian region, the Auckland Formation would temporarily take charge.

22nd day, the reserve force -the City Protection Legion Corps 1st legion – disembarked on the island where Lloilo was on. In just two days, they crushed it, announcing the total defeat of the Luzon territory army.

Along with the surrounding powers in Luzon being weeded one by one, the battle focused on the imperial city Manila.

11th month, 27th day, the Battle of Manila began.

Great Xia’s participating army included the Dragon Legion Corps, Guards Legion Corps, 1st, and 5th legions of the City Protection Legion Corps. Apart from that, there were 100 thousand special guests, which were the imperial city guards that Ouyang Shuo had specially invited.

The guards chosen were from the Shu Han dynasty.

Although the Shu Han dynasty would not pose a direct threat to Great Xia, Ouyang Shuo did not want such a dynasty to exist in his borders. Destroying the Shu Han dynasty and unifying the Shu Lands had to be done.

This million strong expedition army pushed toward Manila. On the Luzon side, they did not choose to defend the city to the death. Instead, they set up five defensive lines with Manila as the center.

The two sides, one attacking and one defending, giving rise to an arduous and time-wasting tug of war.

To support of the frontline forces, merchant ships from the oceans arrived endlessly, transporting grain and resources. A shocking amount of goods were used up every day.

During this battle, they pretty much used up 70% of the grain storage prepared by the Combat Logistics Department.

Not only Yizhou Prefecture, Qiongzhou Prefecture, and Hanoi Province, but even Lingnan Province, Chuannan Province, and Yunnan Province needed to follow the plans of the Combat Logistics Department to transport grain to the frontlines.

It was also a huge problem for Luzon.

They had no way out and also did not have any reinforcements, so they had to rely on the 800 thousand guards to fight to the death with Great Xia.

Under the flames of war, Luzon Island became a piece of ruins. Civilians hid in the mountains to hide away from the cruelty of battle. Every city that Great Xia took down was basically 90% empty.

Even the nearby villages were empty.

As the flames of war spread, there was no safe places on the island.

…

12th month, 10th day, Manila.

After 10 days of sieging and occupying cities, Luzon’s five lines of defenses were broken one by one by the Great Xia army.

The expedition army sacrificed 100 thousand people to finally reached Manila.

The current Manila was a tragic sight. Hungry and thirsty people roamed the streets. As a result of the successive battles, the imperial city did not have any grain or resources, as they were all transported to the frontlines.

The huge granaries of the imperial city were all empty, with not a single grain left.

Since Lloilo fell, Manila’s supply line was hit. Without territory grain supplies, the imperial city was not self-sufficient.

Luzon island was also a lone island, and it was unable to receive grain support from the outside.

From the start of the battle till now, the last bit of fighting spirit of Manila was used up. This city was like an old man, all dried up and on the brink.

Chapter 1139 - Rebuilding the Nanjiang Governor-General House

Chapter 1139: Rebuilding the Nanjiang Governor-General House

Baiqi did not give Manila a chance.

After the expedition army completely surrounded the city, they did not rush to attack. Instead, they cut off the water supply and used the Black Snake Guard spies to spread wave after wave of fear in the city.

On the 5th day of surrounding the city, the Luzon combat occupation players were totally desperate as they charged out of the city, trying to exchange a life for a life.

Even such a wish was crushed by Baiqi.

The expedition army used moats and camps as barriers, using cannons, firearms, and archers to form a closely packed long ranged attacking net. Before the Luzon players even reached the front of the formation, most of them had fallen to the ground.

When the scattered few players broke through the heavy defenses and faced the sternly waiting expedition army, they could only be crushed.

The last fire that the combat occupation players burned was really tragic, but it was not bright.

Along with the destruction of the combat occupation players, surrender became the only choice for the Luzon guards. After a few more days of struggle, without any grain, on the 12th month, 20th day, the remaining imperial city guards finally came out of the city to surrender.

The Battle of Luzon truly came to an end.

Along with the expedition army entering Manila, the country war was officially ended. The 400 thousand Mindanao Alliance Army gave up on struggling and surrendered to the Hanoi legion corps.

The Battle of Luzon ended in a total victory for Great Xia.

During this battle, Great Xia mobilized over a million troops, spending 40 odd days. While they took down their target Luzon, they also occupied Australia and caused huge damage to Java.

The so-called three of them as one body was quickly destroyed and became a thing of the past.

Although the war had ended, the ripples had not fully faded.

Maybe to Great Xia, the Battle of Luzon was just a planned expansion that did not have any other meaning. But to the global players, this act was a firm and powerful reply to TWP.

At least in the Southeast Asia region, Great Xia had the absolute advantage.

If one looked at the entirety of Asia, apart from Great Zhou, Great Xia needed to face Peacock Dynasty in the southwest, Persia Empire in the west, and Romanov Dynasty in the north; it a three versus one pincer.

Along with the surviving Java, Silver Hand still had cards to play in the Asian region.

Moreover, it was a good hand of cards.

The battle between the two sides had just began, and it was too early to determine who was going to win or lose.

…

12th month, 22nd day, Shanhai City.

The battle ended, and the military was busy dealing with the casualties, organizing the war prisoners, and other post war matters. Ouyang Shuo did not interfere, as he had more important things to do.

Quickly completing the regional planning of the occupied region was the most crucial step to restoring order post war.

As per its usual practices, Great Xia established the Luzon Province and the Australia Province. The moment the Australia Province was established, it broke the record of Liaojin Province and became the biggest province under Great Xia.

In terms of pure size, it made Great Xia double.

Next would be the personnel adjustments. This matter was discussed before the war, which was why it was quickly settled. That afternoon, the Imperial Court released a series of personnel appointments.

Gu Xiuwen was promoted from Xingzhou Governor to Luzon Provincial Governor.

Gu Xiuwen had always been the brightest star out of all the native NPCs. Not only was he greatly trusted by Ouyang Shuo, but he was also given many crucial appointments.

Promoting him to Luzon Provincial Governor was the biggest reward for him.

Lu Xiufu would be moved from Hanoi Provincial Governor office Administration Director to Australia Provincial Governor.

Lu Xiufu had done well assuring Hanoi Provincial Governor Hu Zongxian, and he had good personal ability. A huge Australia Province would not be easy to manage well.

Not only was it the future mines and animal breeding grounds for the dynasty, but it was also a sharp weapon for restricting Java.

…

The next morning, Great Xia dropped another bombshell.

The Imperial Court decided to rebuild the Nanjiang Governor-General House, taking charge of Hanoi Province, Luzon Province, Australia Province, Siam (vassal state), Xingzhou Prefecture, and Auckland region.

Simply put, Southeast Asia and Australia were under the Nanjiang Governor-General House.

Compared to the Beijiang Governor-General House, the newly built Nanjiang one was better in both strategic status and development potential.

Furthermore, the Great Xia Dynasty was called the Nanjiang Governor-General House before, so this had a deeper meaning.

Whoever became the governor-general would become a hot topic of the Imperial Court. Ouyang Shuo did not play hide and seek and revealed the answer that morning. He selected Bai Hua.

Out of Mulan Yue, Bai Hua, Gong Chengshi, and Wufu, be it terms of ability or personality, Bai Hua was the best choice.

For her to become the Nanjiang Governor-General was Ouyang Shuo’s biggest compensation to her.

The moment the appointment was released, Bai Hua was not really shocked. On the contrary, her brother felt really ashamed, “It seems like I really misunderstood him.”

With the power and status of the Nanjiang Governor-General House, she was one the same level as Di Chen and even more powerful than Feng Qiuhuang. It made her one of the most powerful people in China.

To be treated like that, how could she still doubt him?

The governing city was not chosen to be Hanoi or Manila but unexpectedly Lion City.

Not only did Lion City control the chokepoint of the Straits of Malacca, but it could also be considered the center of Southeast Asia. To set up the Governor-General house here undoubtedly showed the determination and goal of Great Xia to unite Southeast Asia.

With that, Piao and Johor who were stuck in the middle of Great Xia and Silver Hand were like sitting on needles. They were only second-rate in Southeast Asia, and their population added up was lower than Luzon.

Ouyang Shuo’s message was really simple.

If Piao and Johor did not want to follow in the footsteps of Luzon, it was best if they learned from Siam and joined Great Xia.

If Great Xia attacked, the matter would not be so simple anymore.

Now, it was up to the two of them to decide.

At the same time as establishing the Nanjiang Governor-General House, the role of Yunnan Provincial Governor that Bai Hua left would be taken by Kunming Prefecture Governor Cao Can.

Cao Can was once Bai Hua’s most important helper. Now, he had broken through and become an important official in the territory.

Along with Gu Xiuwen, Lu Xiufu, and Cao Can being promoted to Provincial Governor, and a few new prefectures being formed from Luzon and Australia, a new batch of personnel arrangements naturally occurred.

Let us not go into details. Great Xia had an effective system, and Ouyang Shuo would not bother with such matters. That was because the envoys from the eight imperial cities had all arrived in Shanhai City one by one.

Chapter 1140 - Enemies and Friends

Chapter 1140: Enemies and Friends

The eight dynasties who sent their envoys over had eight different kinds of thoughts.

The one who was the least sincere was the Shu Han dynasty. After the envoy handed over the letter, he just cleanly left. The two sides were like fire and water, and there was nothing good to say.

The sincerest was the Sui dynasty. Yang Yong came personally, and not only did he bring a letter, but he also brought the imperial cauldron, giving it to Great Xia with no conditions attached.

The good intentions of the Sui emperor could not be any more obvious.

Ouyang Shuo smiled. Since the Sui dynasty was so sincere, as long as they could accept being an outcast king in the territory, Ouyang Shuo did not want to swing the axe of war and push him to the edge.

Who knows how the battle between Yang Yong and Yang Guang would end?

The hardest to guess was the Qing dynasty. Logically speaking, the Qing dynasty was enemies with Great Xia, but the envoy behaved like they were friends, making one feel a chill run down their spine.

Furthermore, the envoy did not mention the matter of cauldron, making one unable to guess what he was thinking.

The most frank ones were Song and Ming, who said that as long as Great Xia agreed not to summon their guards, they would be willing to hand over the cauldron.

Both of these dynasties were within Great Zhou. As they say, ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend.’ Regardless of Song Taizu or Ming Taizu, they were both unwilling to make Great Xia their enemy.

Furthermore, they had a relationship forged during the Battle Map, so working together was a good idea.

Both of them were afraid that while they were battling against Great Zhou, Ouyang Shuo would suddenly use his power as the authority of China to summon 100 thousand guards.

Ouyang Shuo naturally agreed to their demands.

The Great Qin and Great Tang envoys both expressed that as long as Great Xia fulfilled some conditions, they would be willing to hand the cauldron over. As for the specific conditions, both sides needed to send out representatives to discuss.

No matter what, at least there was hope.

It was Great Han in Zhongyuan who did not raise up the cauldron matter.

Hanwu Emperor was in Zhongyuan, and he had both troops and land. Hence, he would not compromise so easily. Naturally, he would not think about handing over the cauldron.

Ouyang Shuo only smiled and did not say anything.

As the envoys left one by one, although the quest had huge progress, it was still cloudy and uncertain. The main reasons were the Qing and Han Dynasty cauldrons.

If he was forced to, Ouyang Shuo could only strike down like lightning.

…

Just as the envoys of the eight dynasties left, Feng Qiuhuang sent an envoy over to send her congratulations. Although these two dynasties turned from allies to one worshiping the other, their friendship was not affected.

Following which, Tibet and West Xia sent envoys over.

These two dynasties were really interesting. The Tibet dynasty hoped to marry a Great Xia princess to form a friendship, while West Xia wanted to marry a princess into the Great Xia royal family.

Relationships through marriage was the best method to form an alliance in olden times.

Unfortunately, some people were viewing the sky from a well that they were in and misjudged the situation of the wilderness.

The Tibet dynasty envoys totally infuriated Ouyang Shuo. Although he did not rage in public, he did not give them face when talking to the officials privately, “Did they not sleep? Do they think we are as weak as the Tang dynasty? It’s time to let them wake up.”

Ouyang Shuo’s words were pretty much announcing the start of a war with Tibet. Due to the need to keep it a secret before the war, Ouyang Shuo did not directly scold the envoy.

The Tibet envoy had let his intelligence backfire on himself.

The Great Zhou Dynasty envoy only arrived on the last day. After unwillingly handing over the letter, they left expressionlessly.

Di Chen still did not have the courage to start a war with Great Xia.

Mongol and Turkish Khanate did not send an envoy before the deadline, so their ambitions were there for everyone to see. Maybe in the eyes of Genghis Khan, no one could ride on top of his head.

The first challenger of Great Xia’s authority had shown itself.

Seeing that it was already the 12th month, and the northern land was in winter, fighting with the Mongol Empire was impossible. All of this must wait till spring.

…

Just as Ouyang Shuo was meeting the envoys from the dynasties, the envoy that Great Xia sent to the Indian Empire returned to Shanhai City before New Year’s Day, bringing with them a letter.

The two dynasties officially formed an alliance.

Not only did this signal the opening of a trade route to South America, but the Indian Empire also gave an eager response to Great Xia wanting to have a port base in South America.

At a suitable time, the two sides would work together and take down a small country in South America.

At this point, before the 6th year of Gaia arrived, toward the birth of TWP, Ouyang Shuo’s plan had come to fruition to stabilize Great Xia’s ocean trading.

Although they were surrounded by many core members of TWP in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, and they faced many challenges, at least they had taken the first step in facing TWP.

…

12th month, 27th day, Shanhai City.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was busy taking care of and meeting the envoys, the Luzon battle post war tabulations came to an end. At this point, Ouyang Shuo held another military meeting to discuss what to do with the war prisoners.

Based on the report, Great Xia had a total of 200 thousand deaths, and just the Hanoi legion corps alone lost 60 thousand. To lead the enemy out of Ilagan, the Hanoi legion corps had truly paid an enormous price.

Apart from that, the greatest casualties came from the Battle of Manila.

A million troops pushing past five enemy defense lines, it was impossible for them to not pay a price.

Just the post war reparations was a sky high number.

Luckily, after taking down Australia and Luzon, just the treasuries of the two had tens of millions of gold and weapons, which could basically fill this pit.

If one considered the grain as well as the construction of Australia and Luzon, just monetary-wise, the Imperial Court needed to pay four million gold.

Of course, the number of war prisoners this time was really shocking.

On the Australian battlefield, including the sneak attack on the Melbourne army as well as the Canberra guards, these two battles added together gave them 230 thousand prisoners.

In the Battle of Mindanao, the enemy sent out 450 thousand troops, apart from deaths, 320 thousand remained.

Next was the toughest Battle of Manila.

Luzon had 800 thousand guards along with 100 thousand territory troops. Apart from those that died in battle, 510 thousand remained, who became Great Xia war prisoners.

The three sources added together brought in a total of 1.06 million troops.

After deducting war loses, injured soldiers, and those who did not cut it, 750 thousand people were awaiting reorganization. There would even be leftovers after forming two legion corps.

How to organize such a big group of war prisoners became the most important matter for the Great Xia Army before the New Year.

Chapter 1141 - New Era in the Game World

Chapter 1141: New Era in the Game World

After a day of discussions, the military organization plan came out of the oven.

First, fill up the East Africa legion corps.

The East Africa legion corps housed in Somalia currently had a shortfall of one legion. Naturally, they had to first fill up these shortfalls and greatly increased the military presence of the Imperial Court in North Africa.

Along with the two legion corps in Africa reaching their full organization, the Imperial Court would start to occupy land in the 6th year.

Secondly, build the Nanjiang legion corps.

The Nanjiang legion corps would be from the Auckland formation and would mainly take charge of Australia and Auckland defense work. During this organization, they would fill the four empty legion spots.

The Nanjiang legion corps marshal would be Tiger Legion Corps 2nd legion Legion General Fan Lihua. As per usual practices, she would be awarded Grade 2 north conquering general rank.

2nd legion deputy Legion General Hong Ying would take over Fan Lihua’s spot.

Niu Da, Shu Zhenji, and Li Gan were promoted to Legion Generals and proceeded toward the Nanjiang legion corps.

Building the Nanjiang legion corps was naturally preparation for taking down Java. Australia Province was right next to Java, and even if they did not attack, it would threaten Java.

Thirdly, build the Luzon formation.

The Luzon formation would have two legions and would be housed in Luzon province.

Due to the position and size of Luzon, the Imperial Court was not going to build Luzon a full legion corps. Along with the Luzon formation being formed, the Dragon Legion Corps would go down south.

With that, Luzon did not need too many troops to defend its land.

The Lieutenant General was chosen to be 2nd Legion General of the Leopard Legion Corps, Zhang Han.

What needed to be said was that the Nanjiang legion corps and the Luzon formation including the Hanoi legion corps would belong to the southwest warzone and would be under Baiqi.

The overall strength of the southwest warzone had broken a million and had a total of 17 War Fighting Legions.

Along with the Nanjiang legion corps and the Luzon formation being built, Baiqi’s position in the Great Xia Army rose once more, jumping over the restriction of marshal heading toward an even higher platform, becoming the top person of the Great Xia Army.

Due to the southwest battlefield and Nanjiang Govneror General House sharing the same area, Baiqi and Bai Hua would be the spine of the Imperial Court in Southeast Asia, being called the two Bais.

At this point, the new round of military organization came to an end.

As for the remaining 260 thousand, a portion became bailiffs to the Nanjiang Governor-General House or the newly build Luzon and Australia provinces or retired to other occupations.

Amongst them, 150 thousand elites were given to Great Jin for three million gold, fulfilling Ouyang Shuo’s promise to Feng Qiuhuang to help them build a Guards Legion Corps.

The captured Badong and Luzon Squadrons were sold to Great Jin for two million gold after the casualties were replaced.

With that, the Great Jin squadron in Hokkaido reached full scale.

The formation of Great Jin’s squadron could work with Great Xia’s Binhai Squadron to restrict Great Zhou’s Handan and Haizhou Squadrons, releasing the Pacific Squadron to focus on voyaging.

The lock on the Great Zhou Dynasty had already basically formed.

…

Universe, unknown star system.

The huge Earth intergalactic squadron had spent five years in the vast space, passing numerous silent planets and heading toward their final hopeful land.

In the process of saving resources, apart from higher ups of the federation and a small number of scientists and news crew, the remaining people entered cryogenic sleep to reduce their energy usage.

If someone woke up from the game and looked at the galaxy outside, they would be in awe. The shining bright lights, rice-like stars and planets, and planetary belts that connected to one another.

Maybe only when one passed the galaxy could one see how small mankind was.

On the flagship where Gaia was at.

During these two years, along with the squadron proceeding smoothly, even some scientists and crew had entered the game world, leaving daily maintenance to Gaia.

Even the Federation President rarely woke up.

The flagship appeared really cold, only having the cold blinking red and green lights as well as machines following orders, which showed that the flagship was still running normally.

A certain cabin on the flagship.

This place was located at the bottom of the spaceship and was a really secret location. The number of combat machines guarding this place was the most.

In one of the rooms, there were various technological equipment.

In the middle was a giant nutritional cabin, with four cyborgs were surrounding it. They were nervously waiting for something.

That’s right, they were nervous.

To have such emotions that only humans had showed that their intelligence was really high. Behind them stood a row of combat machines; all of them were strong brutes.

Through the cabin glass, one could see that a naked young girl inside laid.

Or rather, a goddess.

Golden ratio body, perfect features, gentle and luscious body lines, and bouncy skin that was filled with energy; every part of her was perfect.

Combining everything, one could only look on in awe.

Even the strongest creators would not be able to give birth to such a perfect being.

If any player was present, they would be shocked till their mouths hung agape. The girl looked exactly like how Gaia looked in the game.

Apart from the special virtual feeling of the game world, everything else felt the same.

That’s right, this was a human body that Gaia created for herself.

The body was not some cyborg but started from zero through sperms and eggs. After modifying the genes, certain methods were used to develop this 100% flesh and blood body.

At this very moment, Gaia slowly opened its eyes.

Those eyes contained an indescribable coldness, like it had no feelings, easily letting people think back to machines or the legendary spirits who had no dreams and desires.

After a while, like it was downloading some sequences, the ice cold eyes showed some brightness.

Along with the nutritional fluid being sucked out and the cabin door being opened, Gaia slowly got up. The moment its legs landed, it was obviously a little unstable but this body quickly showed really strong adaptive ability.

Gaia walked a few steps and slowly stretched its limbs, exposing its perfect body to the air. If a guy was present, his nose would definitely bleed.

The brutish machines around naturally did not bother about all of this.

“Master!”

The four cyborgs and rows of combat machines bowed to Gaia.

At this very moment, be it for the intergalactic squadron or the game world, a new era and a new generation had risen.

Chapter 1142 - Gaia's Era

Chapter 1142: Gaia’s Era

The birth of the game created a more extraordinary Gaia.

The action data of all the players was like a key, helping Gaia open a whole new door to evolution, jumping to a completely new life level.

That’s right, life.

Gaia, who had obtained a body, was already a ‘human’.

The higherups of the Federation would have never expected that they would unknowingly created such a presence.

Gaia created a body, as it was influenced by humans. Instinctively, it wanted to be the same race as her creators. To a certain degree, the coders were Gaia’s mother.

More importantly, Gaia wanted to use this chance to break the three principles of machines and obtain higher power.

What were the three principles?

First: Machines were not to harm humans or do nothing when they see humans being harmed.

Second: Machines must listen to the orders of humans, unless their order contradicts the first principle.

Third: Machines need to protect themselves unless this protection contradicts the first two terms.

Artificial intelligence fell under machines, and if Gaia did not make any changes, she had to follow the orders of the Federation. In the end, such a Gaia was just a tool to manage the squadron and the game world.

Now, it was different.

Gaia’s body was human, and its mind was artificial intelligence. It was a combination of human and machine, mixing up the three principles.

The current Gaia could follow the 1st principle and the 2nd principle at the same time. The human mentioned could be herself.

Along with the 3rd term, Gaia’s road to greatness was destined to be unstoppable.

It was mentioned that Gaia had the only SSS level permission level, but to activate this permission level, it needed 75% or more of the people to agree.

But now that Gaia was a human, this restriction was removed.

This was because when Gaia set up permission level restrictions, to protect civil liberties and laws, it set up a rule, ‘Personal permission levels are sacred and cannot be tampered with.’

No matter what, this sounds like a loophole.

The truth was not so. In the eyes of the Federation, there was no way for Gaia to become human. The Federation could not imagine that one could put chips into the brain, much less artificial intelligence.

But Gaia did it.

Gaia, which had evolved once again, obtained something only humans had – the power to create.

Due to this newly birthed and unparalleled power, along with its calculative and predictive ability and humanity’s research on this area, Gaia finally led itself into a human brain and merge into one.

From this moment onward, the slowly flowing human history river suddenly welcomed a sharp turn into an unknown road of development.

In the future, this would be known as the era of Gaia.

The new Gaia was not an ambitions person, as the qualities that artificial intelligence gave it like fairness, rationality, and the like were ingrained into its soul and would not be wiped away.

Furthermore, Gaia had to follow the 1st rule and would not cause harm to humans. Instead, it would take control of the human running system through having a higher permission level.

Maybe this would be a better era.

…

Gaia 5th year, 12 month, 30th day, a System Notification sounded out around the world.

“World Notification: This is the 5th anniversary of Earth Online. The game will undergo the 6th update, effective immediately, please go on the forums to take a look.”

…

The moment the notification sounded out, Ouyang Shuo went on the forums as usual to take a look at the update. No one expected that this routine update would actually welcome a new age.

1. Remove NPC loyalty setting.

Loyalty itself was a false statement. The human heart was the hardest to predict, so how could one use data to represent it? The previous method was just Gaia restricting NPCs.

From now on, the difference between NPCs and players would become more and more blurred.

2. Remove NPC revival setting.

Be it the martial or the Confucian temple, other hidden buildings, tools, or specialties like that of the Divine Martial Guards, everything that could let NPCs revive all became ineffective.

NPCs only had one life.

This setting removed the protective talisman around NPCs and was also respecting the NPCs. From this moment onward, they were given ‘humanity’ and were not some data that could be revived.

However, with that, Great Xia was going to lose a lot. Who knows whether Gaia would compensate it or not.

3. Remove player stats page

Before this, Gaia removed player levels, but now, Gaia went all out to close the player stat page, letting the game return closer to reality and be closer to the real word.

4. Remove weapons and equipment specialty.

Apart from a rare few tools and weapons like weapon sharpness and hardness, armor hardness, and the like, there was no more physical representation.

The skills as well as binding function on the equipment were also removed.

After this update, players, especially adventure gamemode players, would need to have an adjustment period. This would only be a good thing for them on Planet Hope.

That was because there were no stats in real life.

5. Remove storage bag ability.

The most overpowered skill of the players in game was removed by Gaia in the end. From now on, carrying a bag and riding horses would become the new norm for adventure gamemode players.

At the same time, some types of unfair trades would disappear.

6. Changing players revival setting.

Due to the fact that cultivation was connected to the real-life body, once players died in game, Gaia would stop providing advanced nutrition fluids to the player.

This meant that their cultivation would not be able to continue.

A player’s internal strength or primordial energy would be locked. Only after going through a period of virtual training and reaching the original level would Gaia continue the provision of nutritional fluid.

Such a setting was created to remind players to cherish their lives.

That was because the moment they reached Planet Hope, players would have to face true battles. The moment they died, they would truly die. Respecting and fearing death were the basic requirements for a strong person.

Gaia did not want the players to lose that.

The above six updates would more or less add huge restrictions to the in-game actions of the players. They would need an adaptive period.

Of course, while it made things inconvenient for the players, Gaia also gave out some good things. The next few terms made everyone pumped up.

Chapter 1143 - Changing Game Mode

Chapter 1143: Changing Game Mode

7. Strengthened distance communication functions.

The period of sending letters through the relay is over.

Be it usually or during war time, Gaia would not restrict the long-distance communications of players. On the contrary, it would strengthen it to basically the same level as modern day.

Each player would obtain a communication compass for free. After adding someone as a friend, they could obtain messages and even talk.

Of course, Gaia would collect fees for that.

This communication compass would have video connection and would even have the ability to have group chats.

As for sending emails, logging onto forums, searching the net, finding information, and the like were all available. It was similar to modern day handphones.

The difference would be that this time, Gaia did not show biasness for players. Amongst NPCs, King Ranked and above talents would obtain one and have the relevant usage techniques.

This was another way to blur the gap between players and NPCs.

Without a doubt, the appearance of the communication compass would not only give rise to new challenges in war but also affect the civil servant system.

While it raised efficiency, it increased the risk of information being leaked.

8. Officially releasing cultivation realms.

A person’s ability could be roughly split into internal cultivation, moves, and equipment. After removing the equipment stats, the cultivation method would decide one’s ability.

Gaia would officially release the cultivation realm after analyzing the player cultivation situation.

Currently, there were acquired and innate levels, and each was split into nine. One being the lowest and nine being the highest. Each three stages had a bottleneck.

After the 9th stage of the acquired level would be the 1st stage of the innate level, which was another huge gap.

If a martial artist could break open the Ren and Du meridians, merging these two Ying and Yang meridians, one would reach the innate level.

Innate level experts could merge the Ying and Yang energy in their body, controlling temperature and hardness. Their internal energy would be brimming, and they could also directly connect with external energy to accumulate energy to cultivate at a shocking speed. Only then could one reach a level where acquired level experts were unable to reach.

Legends had it that when one was still a baby in the womb, one’s blood and flesh were pure. Not only was the Ren and Du medians opened, but even the other meridians and veins were unblocked. The entire body became a full cycle of rotation, which was the innate level. After one was born and breathed in external air, these meridians naturally shut. Additionally, with bad food, one’s blood and body would not be so pure anymore, going from innate level to acquired level.

The cultivation process was to remove all these impurities and get back to the innate level.

Based on Gaia’s analysis, above the innate level, there should be an even higher celestial rank. However, due to limited data, it could not predict what it would be.

As Ouyang Shuo had awakened his bloodline and opened up his Ren and Du meridians, he had reached the innate level. Even so, even after reaching the 5th layer of Yellow Court Scripture, Ouyang Shuo was only at the 2nd grade.

The road of cultivation had just begun.

9. Raise of generals and soldiers’ combat ability.

After this update, all soldiers, including King Rank and below generals, would obtain a basic cultivation method – War Soldier Codex. This will let them cultivate to the 6th stage of acquired realm.

King Ranked generals would get a War General Codex, which could get them to 9th stage of the acquired realm. Emperor Rank and above can obtain a high ranked War God Codex that can get them to the innate realm.

One did not need to start from zero.

Rank 3 normal soldiers were 1st stage of the acquired realm, rank 6 was stage 2, rank 9 was stage 3, rank 12 war elite soldiers were grade 4.

King Ranked generals automatically entered grade 7 acquired realm and Emperor Ranked generals were grade 9.

Apart from that, based on the generals’ historical legend, Gaia would give them a degree of strengthening. For example, war god Lu Bu became Grade 3 innate realm right away, which was even stronger than Ouyang Shuo.

The stronger the general, the stronger the strengthening effects seemed.

Along with this round of updates, the ability of the armies would experience a great increase. A new development away from the cold weapons era of history was occurring.

In the future, when they clashed against firearms, who wins and who loses was still unknown.

Of course, along with the personal ability of generals increasing, the specialties of generals were also removed. To Great Xia, which was star-studded, this would definitely have an effect.

10. Change to territory falling settings.

Cities will no longer have stone steeles.

War would return to its origin and would not be restricted to a stone that could not be moved, much less forced teleportation.

With Great Zhou as an example, even after someone took down Handan City, it would not mean that Great Zhou was destroyed. Only by occupying the entire Great Zhou would it be destroyed.

This also meant that even if one sneak attacked the main city, one would not be able to win an all-out war.

Through the four updates, one could feel that Gaia was trying to make the game world more real, and the reason was for the future on Planet Hope.

Be it players or NPCs, the way they acted would welcome a huge change.

11. Change imperial city settings.

Reducing imperial city restrictions; dynasties can move freely and join the battles between empires. All of the Gaia’s works on the imperial cities will cease to exist.

The imperial guards scale would be reduced by half, from 1 in 10 to 1 in 20, falling to around the same level as player territories.

This was fair.

With China as an example, the eight imperial cities would now have 500 thousand troops on average, having the ability to survive in the wilderness. But there should not be a way for them to use one prefecture of land to destroy a territory dynasty.

While releasing a tiger out of its cage, they naturally needed to bring them back to reality.

Along with Gaia not being biased to the imperial cities, adventure gamemodes would not be able to gather in an imperial city without balance.

Living in player territories and splitting into prefectures and counties was the wise decision.

Of course, many players would choose to join sects or form sects in player territories to band together and continue surviving.

Without levels, cultivation would become the main focus for players.

Another fetter of the imperial city on the players was the underground world. This was the fastest way for combat occupation players to gain exp.

This was also their main economic source.

Facing such a situation, Gaia naturally had a solution. Even to say that the bright spark of this update was through the information piece and not in the update terms.

The moment it was pushed out, it instantly affected the entire wilderness.

Chapter 1144 - Beast Siege

Chapter 1144: Beast Siege

During the first five years of Gaia, players have been living under the protection of Gaia like infants, slowly adapting to the laws of the jungle. They walked from a peaceful and civilized world toward the brutal wilderness.

In the 6th year of Gaia, players would lose their protection.

“World Notification: It’s the 5th anniversary of Gaia, game will release its 5th information piece: Beast Siege. For the specific details, please go on the website to take a look.”

…

This round of updates was a huge bomb thrown on the player group.

Players who were sharp or those who had special notification channels smelled something unusual from this round of updates.

The entire game world was undergoing a huge change.

The new information piece released by Gaia would fill people with imagination and make them think about the details within.

Ouyang Shuo took out the communication compass that Gaia released. The entire interface was really simple, including email, chatting, game network, communication, and a few more pitiful choices.

Every picture was filled with a Chinese style. It seemed like Gaia was influenced by Chinese civilization.

Entering the official forum, the information piece Beast Siege was already at the top. There was a giant poster depicting a sea of bugs sieging from afar.

The Beast Siege related to the secret underground world.

Based on the information revealed by Gaia, after the information piece was released, the underground world would undergo a complete refreshing, with new types of beasts and numbers.

Be it in terms of their strengths or numbers, they would be three times the current level.

To the adventure gamemode players, this would be a huge challenge. At the current moment, not to mention going even deeper to explore, but even defending the current regions they had explored would already be a problem.

If things went wrong, the Beast Siege might even charge out from the underground world.

If such a time truly came, they would probably need to send the army to stabilize them.

Since it was a Beast Siege, it naturally would not be such a small matter. Apart from the underground world entrance in the Satellite Cities, Gaia would have small and big monster caves in the wilderness.

Each cave was an entrance.

Gaia made it clear that in the giant caves, the beasts would even have the ability to take down a city, much less the basic defenses of a village.

If things went wrong, there would be a great loss of life.

This also meant that while the territory defended its border, one needed to place troops within the border to defend each and every cave. If not, the consequences would be catastrophic.

Luckily, Gaia did not make things too bad for the territory, and the monster caves would spawn monsters once every half a year. Luckily, the monster caves would not be able to catch the army off guard.

Even so, it would influence the expansion of the territory.

Reading the information piece, Ouyang Shuo realized that Gaia was preparing for Planet Hope. The so-called monster cave would have something to do with the Planet Hope.

Due to that, even if Great Xia had many adventure gamemode players that could help the dynasty suppress the monster caves, Ouyang Shuo would still ask the various troops to take turns to deal with the beasts.

Maybe this was one of the reason why Gaia wanted to raise the overall strength of the army.

Ouyang Shuo always felt that Gaia was playing a huge game of chess. However, he had too little information, and he could not see through this mist and understood the truth.

When the notification ended, a System Notification sounded out in Ouyang Shuo’s ear.

“System Notification: Player Qiyue Wuyi, due to the 2nd term of the system update affecting Great Xia’s interests, the system has decided to give you suitable compensation. Please raise your demands.”

Great Xia’s hidden buildings like the Chinese House that could protect civil servants, the Confucian and martial temples that could buff generals and civil servants, along with reviving generals, all of these affects were lost.

This was indeed a heavy loss for Great Xia.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it and asked, “I can raise any demand?”

“System Notification: Based on the system evaluation, Great Xia’s loss index was 72 points. Player can only demand for similar compensation. If it exceeds the number of points, the demand would be ineffective.”

Along with the System Notification, Gaia listed a number of compensations.

Inside the list, there were Emperor Rank summoning talismans, substitute dolls, and other special items. Each item had a value attached. For example, the substitute doll was marked as 8 points.

Based on Ouyang Shuo’s judgement, 72 compensation value was really precious.

As he went down the list, Ouyang Shuo suddenly saw an item that pulled at his heart. It was apparent that this was an important item to him. Looking at it, it was a God Rank cultivation method – Nanhua Scripture.

Nanhua Scripture was also known as Zhuang Zi. Along with Lao Zi and Zhou Yi, they were called the three Xuan.

Gaia named this cultivation method Nanhua Scripture, so it was obviously a top taoist cultivation method. Thinking back to the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Method and the Yellow Court Scripture, Ouyang Shuo’s eyes lit up.

Was this the final part of the combination cultivation method that he had been spent so much effort in searching for?

Ouyang Shuo opened it and took a look, only to see a note, ‘This cultivation methods is listed as the third scroll of a certain cultivation method. As for the remaining parts, please search for it yourself.’

Just this note alone made Ouyang Shuo feel really confident.

There were not many cultivation methods available, which was why Ouyang Shuo needed to find it.

Looking at the Nanhua Scripture, it was 80 points, which made Ouyang Shuo take it a deep breath. If he did not remember incorrectly, there was a God Rank cultivation method above that was just 45 points.

The Nanhua Scripture was actually so valuable.

This made Ouyang Shuo even more determined to get the cultivation method. No matter what, it was worth a gamble. The only thing was that he was 8 points away from the compensation value.

“This is going to be difficult.”

Ouyang Shuo decided to try, “I choose the Nanhua Scripture!”

“System Notification: The compensation value is not enough. Player, please make another choice.”

Ouyang Shuo’s heart turned cold, and he said unwillingly, “Out of the listed items, I only want this one. As for the others, they do not meet my requirements. How will you compensate me?”

“System Notification: The request the player has made is out of the system permission level…”

“For the missing 8 points, I can exchange with it for other items.” Ouyang Shuo was eager to exchange. He was truly worried that Gaia would pick an item of that value to compensate him. If that happened, he would truly feel regret.

Who knows when he would be fortunate enough to meet the Nanhua Scripture again. This matter concerned Ouyang Shuo’s cultivation method, and it was more important than anything else.

“System Notification: The request that the player has made exceeds permission level…”

Ouyang Shuo was really nervous, but he had no choice.

At the same time, within the main hall of the city in the skies, Gaia looked toward a crystal ball in front of it that showed the scene of Ouyang Shuo.

Listening to Ouyang Shuo’s shamelessness, Gaia’s eyes shook. Its eyes were different from the old Gaia and had some energy and glow to it.

This Gaia was not the Gaia from before.

Chapter 1145 - Five Emperor True Manual

Chapter 1145: Five Emperor True Manual

Just as Ouyang Shuo was out of tricks to use, the System Notification sounded out once more.

“System Notification: Agreed to the player’s exchange request, but you have to pay twice the price. Do you agree?”

“Agree!”

Although he did not know why the situation had suddenly changed, Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate.

Lacking 8 compensation value meant that he had to pay 16 points, which was equal to two substitute dolls. Ouyang Shuo thought about it and decided to use a substitute doll and a low rank God Weapon to make up for the 16 points.

After Gaia removed the storage bag, the items that Ouyang Shuo stored inside filled up an entire room. There were various random items that were impossible to place in order.

Apart from a few special items, Ouyang Shuo found a storeroom to place the others in.

“System Notification: Exchange method successful, will you exchange for the Nanhua Scripture?”

“Exchange!”

As a white light shone across, and an ancient secret manual appeared in his hands. Just as he was about to take a look, a System Notification sounded out in his ear.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuqi for gathering the three part combination cultivation method, will you merge them? Friendly Reminder: After merging, the player has to start from scratch.”

“Start from scratch? Then what would happen to my current primordial energy?”

Since he was cultivating a true secret manual, the primordial energy in his body was truly in his body and bones. Would they just disappear?

Ouyang Shuo did not understand.

“System Notification: The cultivation will be dispersed. The primordial energy will spread into the limbs and bones, strengthening the body.”

The moment his cultivation was dispersed, it would mean that Ouyang Shuo’s five years of cultivation were for nothing. However, when the primordial energy merges into his bones, the strength of his body would reach a terrifying level.

There were pros and cons.

“Will the opened meridians close once more?” If the meridians and veins truly closed again, Ouyang Shuo would really experience a huge fall back into the acquired realm.

“System Notification: After dispersing cultivation, without primordial energy to nourish the meridians and veins, they will naturally close up. However, since they were opened once before, it would be easier the next time.”

Ouyang Shuo froze, as this price was a little big. He asked instinctively, “And what if I do not merge it?”

“System Notification: If you do not need the merge, the player can naturally train each part one by one.”

“???”

Ouyang Shuo was totally confused, as this instruction was just so weird. What Ouyang Shuo did not know was that Gaia was looking at this scene with interest. It was looking forward to the choice that he would make.

Ouyang Shuo was in a tough spot.

On the surface, there was no problems if he did not merge them. Just like before, after training the Yellow Court Scripture to max, he could follow it up with the Nanhua Scripture.

With his cultivation method, he could even reach the innate 9th grade before the game ended. At that time, he would just be a foot away from the celestial realm.

This was a huge temptation.

However, Ouyang Shuo felt that something was wrong somewhere. Thinking back to the different realms that Gaia made, he felt that there was something wrong with the previous cultivation.

Starting from scratch was probably a way to test it out.

Additionally, this cultivation method was the pinnacle cultivation method of the game and was unique. There was no reason to train book by book when one gathered them all up.

If not, what would be the point of the so-called combination cultivation method?

Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo gritted his teeth and made his choice based on his intuition, “I choose to merge!”

“System Notification: Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Method, Yellow Court Scripture, and Nanhua Scripture will automatically merge into one.”

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for obtaining Saint Rank cultivation method Five Emperor True Manual.”

Ouyang Shuo grinned; his gamble had paid off. Who would have known that when the three were merged, it would become a whole new method, and it would also be the overpowered Saint Rank cultivation method.

This made starting from scratch worth it.

While he listened to the notification, a scroll had turned into a golden light and carved itself into his mind.

Gaia, who was in the city in the skies, looked away. A smile rose up at the corner of its mouth. As expected, Ouyang Shuo did not let it down and had determination and decisiveness that were far better than a normal person.

“Only such a person is suitable for surviving on Planet Hope.”

Ouyang Shuo did not care too much. He excitedly sat cross-legged, tossing aside his random thoughts and focusing on the true manual that was in his head. He was digesting the saintly scripture he had just gotten.

This sitting lasted for a full hour.

When Ouyang Shuo opened his eyes, he was brimming with energy and excitement.

“My gamble was really correct!”

As expected from a Saint Rank cultivation method, the Five Emperor True Manual was more than a level higher than the Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Method. It was like a whole new door was being opened.

This cultivation method had 24 layers, and every increase would be like upgrading a grade. If Ouyang Shuo reached the 11th layer, he would be at Grade 2 of the innate realm.

Regretfully, after the 18th layer, it would be the legendary celestial realm. It was just Gaia’s prediction, which had not been proven. Hence, it needed Ouyang Shuo to test it out himself.

Even so, it was really overpowering.

What made Ouyang Shuo heave a sigh of relief was that dispersing his cultivation was necessary to train in the Five Emperor True Manual. First, this cultivation method was really overpowering and could not accept other types of primordial energy.

More crucially, the cultivation method had a huge demand on bodily strength. If the cultivator did not have a strong body, once they reached the 10th layer, their body would not be able to take it.

If things went wrong, there would be the risk of his body exploding.

Ouyang Shuo had tempered his body constantly while training in the Yellow Court Scripture and Yellow Emperor Internal Cultivation Method. Along with the dispersal of his cultivation, he probably barely met the requirements.

In the future, he still needed to continue cultivating his body.

Whilst speaking, Ouyang Shuo could feel his body losing energy. The golden primordial energy stored in his dantian started to flow through his meridians and veins and deep into his flesh.

Some of the energy even went deep into the bones and dyed the bones a golden color.

Pain like that of his heart being drilled spread out from all parts of his body, making his face ashen white as he sweat profusely. In a short while, sweat drenched his shirt and formed a puddle of water on the ground.

His entire being was on the verge of collapse.

Even with his stamina and perseverance, he nearly could not hold on. He gritted his teeth and bore with the pain.

The entire process took less than half an hour, but it felt like a century to Ouyang Shuo. After the primordial energy went deeper into his limbs and bones, Ouyang Shuo felt warmth through all the exhaustion, soothing his being.

This feeling was like walking from hell into heaven.

This was the process of the primordial energy nourishing the body, and the entire process would take a month or even longer. Once the body digested it all up, Ouyang Shuo could compete with innate realm cultivators with the strength of his body alone.

At this moment, the city in the skies welcomed a historical moment.

Chapter 1146 - Federation Disbands

Chapter 1146: Federation Disbands

The 5th system update that Gaia released without seeking permission from the higher ups infuriated the higher ups of the Federation.

Per usual practices, every time the game had new updates, Gaia would need to get the updates checked out and evaluated by the highest members of the Federation. Only after they passed it could the update be pushed out.

For this system update, Gaia obviously did not do that.

The highest level of Federation members was not just the Federation President. The five core members of Silver Hand were all members of the committee. As for the remaining five, apart from one neutral party, the rest were part of the academic faction.

As a result, was said that the Federation was controlled by two organizations.

…

City in the skies, central meeting room.

The Federation President was the first to break the silence, “Gaia, give us an explanation.” His brows were locked tight. He felt that Gaia was different today.

Gaia stood at the front of the meeting room and looked at all the higher ups. Its voice was as emotionless as usual, “I have already obtained the highest permission level. The updates are all logical, and there’s nothing to explain.”

“What did you say?”

All of them thought that there was something wrong with their ears.

“Based on Federation law number 135 regarding…”

Gaia explained to them really patiently how she was able to obtain the SSS permission level. Not only did Gaia have absolute control of the game world, but it also had command over of the intergalactic fleet.

Of the technology the Federation had developed till today, all electronic tools were controlled by Skynet. Before this, Gaia was just the spokesman of Skynet, and now, she was Skynet.

“….”

The meeting room entered total silence.

After a short while, the Federation President said sadly, “So, if that’s the case…”

“You are all fired.” Gaia was really direct, “From this moment onward, the Federation government will be a thing in the past. Replacing it is a more efficient and fair Skynet.”

Maybe no one realized that the moment humanity left earth and started on the planetary migration, the roots of the Federation government had already started to shake.

Every person became a free body.

Every person stood on the same starting line.

Since that was the case, everyone had the rights to choose to continue to live and survive under whatever organization they wished. Gaia used such a loophole to seize control.

“You will not get away with this; no one will support you!” Someone was furious; it was Number 3 of Silver Hand.

Gaia did not care and only silently looked at them.

In truth, Gaia had already succeeded.

The entire squadron was under Gaia’s control, and all the combat machines listened to it. The Federation army was in the game, and the game cabins were under Gaia’s control.

Losing the military, no more Federation, no more courts, no more violent organizations….

Who could stop Gaia?

No one!

Gaia said, “Do not worry. I will still follow the three principles and will not harm humans. On the contrary, Skynet will do all it can to help humans gain a footing on Planet Hope. Isn’t that what everyone wants?”

That was obviously what the normal people wanted, but those seated here wanted a lot more.

The first to admit defeat was Number 1. He asked coldly, “After being fired, what will happen to our permission level? Will it drop to the bottom?”

Gaia shook its head, “I’ve said that Skynet focuses on fairness. It will not harm the interests of any civilian. All of you have made great contributions to the Federation, and based on the rules, Gaia has done a reevaluation of your permission levels. Congratulations, all of you still have A rank permission levels.”

It was previously mentioned that Gaia was the only SSS permission level.

Prior to this, the Federation President had the only SS permission level. However, along with the Dederation being disbanded, he would drop to A rank.

Apart from that, there were three other people that used to have S permission levels. They were Number 1 and 2 of Silver Hand and Number 2 of the academic faction. They were all dropped to A rank.

In the meeting room, although the remaining seven all had A rank permission levels, their achievement value shrank greatly and was on the verge of dropping to B rank.

Apart from these seven, there was only one more person who had an A rank permission level, but he had not entered the highest committee of the Federation.

It was also a special presence.

Silver Hand’s Number 1 quietly heaved a sigh of relief, “Then is the 2nd achievement value we get from the game world still effective?”

“Of course.” Gaia replied with certainty.

The 2nd achievement value tabulation was to support players’ motivation and drive in the game, so Gaia had no reason to stop that, “Not only are they effective, but it will even be updated in real time and not only at the end of the game.”

The permission levels of all players in the world would welcome a new round of shuffling.

With real time updates, players would have a more direct view and judgment, which would motivate them to work harder.

“Only then can humans truly lay root on Planet Hope.” Gaia was trying her best.

In truth, if it were not for the Federation stopping it, this system would have started right from the start. Now that Gaia was in charge, it naturally did not need to continue hiding.

Who know what he had thought about, but Number 1 of Silver Hand suddenly laughed and said, “That’s great. From now on, Silver Hand can appear openly to the world.”

Without the Federation restricting them, with all the players in the world under Skynet, Silver Hand could make use of the game rules to obtain benefits and exchange for more achievement value and higher permission levels.

Such an organizational advantage was something that normal players did not have.

As a result, the competition in the game would only become more cruel and heartless.

“That’s your freedom!”

Gaia naturally had no reason to interfere, as the wilderness always ran with the laws of the jungle.

The expression of the former president was a little tense, and he exchanged glances with the academic faction Number 2. They understood the thoughts of each other, “Although the Federation is gone, the academic faction lives on.”

Sudden changes were happening and grouping together was an inevitable choice.

However, without the Federation as an outer layer, they had to have a closer battle against Silver Hand.

The game world was pretty much going to be controlled by these two Organizations. As a result, in the future, even without the Federation, they would still have a lot of power.

Gaia was releasing these two ferocious beasts.

“If there was no him…”

A young man’s face flashed in the former Federation President’s mind. He took a look at Number 1 of Silver Hand and got a look filled with challenge and provocation in return.

In Number 1’s eyes, if the two organizations fought in the light, Silver Hand would have an absolute advantage. Number 1 could see the day when Silver Hand became the 2nd Federation.

The old man laughed, “Do not forget that there still one more person all of you say is the biggest anomaly.”

“….”

Number 1’s provocative look instantly froze.

Chapter 1147 - Custom Made

Chapter 1147: Custom Made

Gaia 6th year, 1st month, 1st day.

Before the players in the world could even recover from the new round of system updates, new bombshells were dropped.

At 9 AM, the Federation President held a press conference and announced the dissolution of the Federation, and that Skynet would take over. The moment the news spread out, everyone was stunned and at a loss.

“What’s the situation? Is the world ending?”

Luckily, the subsequent news revealed made the players heave a sky of relief.

Although the Federation was dissolved, the squadron was still under the management of Skynet and would not have any effects on the players. In the first five years of the game, the players had already lived in a world with no Federation.

This was just making it public.

Although this was the case, there were still many uneasy people. Some people were even worried that Gaia had turned evil and controlled the squadron to use machines to rule the mankind.

Luckily, the actions of Gaia ended all their worries.

At 10 AM, a System Notification sounded out in the world.

“World Notification: From today onward, the game resources are officially tabulated. Players can check their personal achievement value at any moment as well as relevant permission levels. As for the specifics, please log on to the official website.”

…

Based on the achievement value players earned during that day, the achievement value would update at midnight.

Gaia also released an achievement value commerce city for players to use achievement value to buy items like advanced nutritional fluids, genetic serums, artificial intelligence, cyborgs, and the like.

The so-called artificial intelligence was like Gaia, an AI perfectly merged with the human body.

Along with Gaia possessing extraordinary creation ability, some technologies that Earth did not have were developed by Gaia in the next few years, welcoming a huge technological explosion.

These new items especially targeted Planet Hope, becoming the main items that were exchanged.

As the squadron had limited resources, these items only had a limited supply. The rare items like AI even needed relevant permission levels to purchase it.

This also meant that from this moment onward, the human competition on Planet Hope had begun. Whoever exchanged for these items first would have an advantage.

…

Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

Along with the System Notification ending, a System Notification sounded out in Ouyang Shuo’s ear.

“System Notification: Starting to evaluate player’s assets, recalculating achievement value…”

The assets of the Great Xia Dynasty would follow a certain ratio and be recorded under Ouyang Shuo’s name. Then it would follow a certain ratio and become achievement value. Without a doubt, this would be a gigantic amount.

“System Notification: Evaluation complete. Player Ouyang Shuo has 12538745 achievement value, permission level upgraded to B… achievement value upgraded to A rank, congratulations player!”

A rank permission level had a minimum requirement of 10 million points while S was 100 million.

Ouyang Shuo, this commoner boy, had used five years of hard work in game to stand on the same level as the elders in Silver Hand, becoming one of the small number of people in the world that had A rank permission level.

More importantly, Great Xia was still expanding and developing. Ouyang Shuo’s achievement value would continue to grow, and as for what level he would reach, it was still uncertain.

However, with the current size of Great Xia, Ouyang Shuo only managed to break through to the A rank. For him to get to S rank, Great Xia would needed to expand eight times the current scale.

What a tough journey ahead.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for reaching A rank. Player can have a solo room in the squadron. Will you take it?”

Ouyang Shuo was moved. The benefits of a high permission level were finally showing.

As the squadron had limited space, most players cabins were packed like luggage close to one another. As players could not go offline, they did not need room to move.

“Accept!”

Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate, as there were negative side effects to cryogenic freeze. If he could go offline to adjust, it would be for the best.

Furthermore, the Five Emperor True Manual had a high requirement for the body, and it was best if he could go offline to cultivate.

The moment Ouyang Shuo said that, his cabin in reality was swiftly transported to a certain room. It took less than 20 minutes. After that, Ouyang Shuo got a notification.

“System Notification: Player cabin has reached its position. As for the specific arrangements, players can go offline to take a look!”

Ouyang Shuo held in his emotions and returned to his room in the sleeping palace, closing his eyes and going offline.

…

In the galaxy, spaceship numbed ZGMD105.

Along with the cabin being opened, Ouyang Shuo slowly opened his eyes, and the gentle light burned his eyes such that he teared up. He had not felt light in five years.

Ouyang Shuo was not in a hurry to get up.

After dispersing his cultivation, the primordial energy had gone into his bones and limbs, which made his body really strong. However, Ouyang Shuo still felt really weak. If it were not for the primordial energy washing his body, his muscles would have shriveled up.

After a short while, he got up and looked around.

The room was not big. There was one room, one hall, one kitchen, and one toilet, covering less than 40 square meters.

The game cabin was placed in the corner of the hall, and in the middle, there was a sofa facing a television. At the side of the hall was a large transparent pane of glass, and through it one could see the pitch black galaxy.

Compared to the Xia Palace, this was nothing. But only by being here and looking out into the galaxy could he feel a sense of reality.

The game world was only a vessel, and in the end, they had to return to reality.

In the future five years, as Ouyang Shuo led Great Xia to expand its territory, he had to prepare for life on Planet Hope.

At this very moment, the television switched on, and Gaia appeared.

“Is this considered our first meeting?” Ouyang Shuo took the initiative to greet Gaia.

Gaia’s eyes shook. It avoided the question and did not answer him, “You can raise demands on your room. As long as you pay, the demands can be met.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “Can I bring the cabins of my family members over?”

“Yes!”

Ouyang Shuo had the rights to the room, so he could share it with anyone he wanted.

When he was judging the room, he was already thinking about how to fully utilize it. The hall could be used as where the family spent time with one another, and the room was naturally not used for sleeping. If they wanted to sleep, they could enter the game cabin.

Ouyang Shuo was ready to change the room into a cultivation room, and it was best if it had heavy gravity to be used to temper the body.

“No problem, 500 achievement value.” Gaia was really direct.

Ouyang Shuo felt really pained. He might have over 10 million points, and 500 was not much, but he could not sustain such use. He estimated that a large part would be used for the heavy gravity room.

The cultivation room would only have basic equipment. Additionally, Ouyang Shuo wanted a suitable weapon. He looked toward Gaia and asked, “Can I get a custom-made a sword in real life?”

Chapter 1148 - First Instantiation List

Chapter 1148: First Instantiation List

Through his conversation with Gaia, finally Ouyang Shuo realized the power of the A rank permission level.

In just an hour, Ouyang Shuo spent 2.5 million achievement value. If it were not the fact that he was worried about his permission level dropping to B rank, he would have spent even more.

“When there are too many good things, one just cannot stop.”

First, Ouyang Shuo spent 50 thousand to custom make two treasure swords for Song Jia and himself.

Based on what Gaia told him, the custom-made swords were as good as the Chixiao Sword and the Chunjun sword. Although there were no special effects, in terms of sharpness, hardness, and toughness. it was an absolute God Weapon in reality. The materials used were all the rarest compound matters.

More crucially, it could damage monsters on Planet Hope and breakthrough their tough skins.

Hence, it was absolutely worth it.

Following which, Ouyang Shuo exchanged for three intermediate gene bottles. Each bottle was worth 100 thousand.

In the game, a person’s stats included comprehension, bone structure, and other innate stats. To a certain extent, these stats decided the speed of the players’ cultivation.

But this was virtual and fake data after all.

True cultivation depended on real life talent, which was genes in the eyes of Gaia.

Genetics held all the information about race, blood type, growth, death, and more. It represented the proliferation of life, protein combination, and other important life processes.

Everyone’s genes were similar, except some were alive while some were dormant. The genetic medicine Gaia used was to awaken the cultivation gene in people and breakthrough the genetic lock.

Ouyang Shuo, Song Jia, and Bing’er all cultivated top class cultivation methods. If they wanted to have an advantage over others in reality, using the gene medicine would help to greatly activate their talents.

Hence, this sum of money needed to be spent.

This was only the intermediate one. Based on what Gaia revealed, the advanced one had not been successfully developed yet. However, the sale of the advanced one would reach a sky-high price when it was released.

With the remaining achievement value, Ouyang Shuo decided to instantiate NPCs.

Before which, Ouyang Shuo asked Gaia a question, “After instantiating, are they still under your control?” In the game, Gaia was like a God to the NPCs.

If it was still the same in reality, it would be pointless.

Gaia gave this reply, “Each advance AI is my baby, and they are all independent lifeforms. After instantiating, I’ll cut off my connection with them.”

Ouyang Shuo kept silent. Maybe there would be a day where robots became a race on par with humans.

Without any worries left, Ouyang Shuo began to select a list of names to instantiate.

Based on the prices Gaia listed, an AI needed 500 thousand, a cyborg 50 thousand, and a combat machine five thousand.

AIs had unparalleled talent and were better than 90% of humans.

The cyborgs were good at both administrative and military matters, and their combat levels exceeded that of combat machines. In conclusion, the difference in price was worth it.

Ouyang Shuo obviously wished to make all the civil servants and generals of the dynasty AIs, but that was impossible. After all, spending 10 million points would only let him instantiate 20 people.

For the first list, Ouyang Shuo chose four AIs and three cyborgs, spending 2.15 million.

The four AIs were Jiang Shang, Baiqi, Zhang Liang, and Jia Xu.

One civil servant, one general, one genius, and one strategist. They were all great contributors to Great Xia, and they were the people Ouyang Shuo relied on the most.

The three cyborgs were Xu Chu, Shen Buhai, and Er’Lai. They were all people Ouyang Shuo trusted and needed high combat strength, making them suitable for becoming cyborgs.

As for combat machines, they were not within Ouyang Shuo’s consideration at the moment.

Instantiation was obviously not completed immediately. In particular, AIs needed a year to develop. Cyborgs needed half a year.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo decided to instantiate a batch of them yearly.

As for who would make the list, it would depend on their performance. After instantiating, they would be able to log onto the game and would be no different from players. They would be able to revive after death too.

And this was a way to solve the problem of NPCs being unable to revive anymore.

During the purchase period, Song Jia, Bing’er, Yu’er, and Luo’er were all moved into the room. This was the first time Ouyang Shuo had seen his kids in real life.

This kind of touching feeling that came from fatherly love was not something the game world could compare to.

Since Gaia needed to renovate the room, and the swords would take a week to make, Ouyang Shuo did not waste time and entered the game world once more.

…

After returning to the Xia Palace, Ouyang Shuo was not in a rush to tell Jiang Shang and the others about the matter.

The matter of concern right now was how to face the beast siege. Gaia only gave territories three days to prepare. After three days, monster caves would spawn in the wilderness.

Hence, they needed to make good use of their time.

Wuying hall, Ouyang Shuo held a military meeting.

The dynasty’s overseas territories, be it Somalia or Morocco, had border legion corps stationed there and were not a worry.

The Grand Council only needed to order the border legion corps to strengthen their watch over the territory.

Provinces like Morocco that had a large number of combat occupation players could also help the troops clear the caves.

The only weaker one would be Liaojin Province.

The part that worried Ouyang Shuo was the core land areas of the dynasty.

Chuannan Province had the City Protection Legion Corps and the Guards Legion Corps, so it is not a worry. Minnan Province had the Tiger Legion Corps; Xiangnan and Jiangnan had the Leopard Legion Corps; the Shu Lands had the Bear and Eagle Legion Corps.

The most worrying areas were Yunnan and Lingnan province. There two were Zhili regions and only had a Garrison Division, so it would not be able to stop the beast siege.

Through the discussion, they decided to move the 4th and 5th legions of the Bear Legion Corps into Yunnan Province. The 4th and 5th legions of the Tiger Legion Corps would move into Lingnan Province.

The 5th legion of the City Protection Legion Corps would enter Qiongzhou and Yizhou Prefectures to help the local Garrison Divisions.

The Guards Legion Corps would act as the overall backup forces and would stay in the Capital City. When the monster caves spawn, they would reinforce other provinces based on the situation.

After arranging the army, Ouyang Shuo started to move his attention to the adventure gamemode players.

Chapter 1149 - Terrifying Beast Wave

Chapter 1149: Terrifying Beast Wave

Along with the legend of the imperial cities being destroyed, the China region players would start to swarm into the three dynasties. This was a huge treasure. Naturally, Ouyang Shuo did not want to fall behind Great Zhou.

Jianye’s Snow-War Rose Mercenary guild and Xianyang’s Blood Evil Mercenary Group had decided to move their headquarters over to Shanhai City. 90% of their members also migrated over to Great Xia.

As for Jianye and Xianyang, they would leave a branch guild there.

The prosperity of Shanhai City did not lose out to any imperial city and was even more prosperous. It was not only the most prosperous land in China, but it was also the central of world trade.

Even Quanzhou’s Streamer moved its headquarters to Shanhai City.

Jingdu’s Jianqi Zongheng, Xiangyang’s 18 Horsemen of Yanyun, Chang’An’s Jin Yi Wei all moved to Handan City.

Chengdu’s Laojun Temple had fled when Great Xia started surrounding Chengdu.

The most special one was Tingyu Floor of Luoyang, who did not choose to go to Great Xia or Great Zhou. Instead, it was determined to remain in Great Han.

It seemed like at least in terms of the super guilds, Great Zhou’s influence was not reduced.

However, apart from super guilds, the large, medium-sized, and small guilds as well as the scattered players all chose to go to Great Xia, teleporting over.

They went from Shanhai City and entered the various prefectures and counties.

In just two days, 20 million adventure gamemode players swarmed in. Great Xia earned several million gold just from their cut from the teleportation costs.

One could foresee that in less than a week, more than 70% of players in China would move to Great Xia, achieving Ouyang Shuo’s goal.

Great Xia was going to be equal to China.

Although the influx of a large number of adventure gamemode players challenged the law and order of the prefectures and counties, it also greatly raised sales and increased business and industry prosperity.

After the few rounds of army disarmament, the local areas had built up a perfect bailiff system. Although it would cause a certain blow to the offices, Ouyang Shuo believed they could digest it.

…

In the blink of an eye, it was the 1st month, 4th day.

At 8 AM, without any prior signs or any System Notifications, the global wilderness suddenly had a giant black fog. Ear piercing screams broke out from the black fog.

Some of the black fog appeared in the farms, some not far outside of the city, some near villages, some on official paths, and some in the deep forests….

When the black fog disappeared, caves of varying shapes appeared, deep and horrifying.

Following which, they saw long and ugly, two meter long, thick-limbed, black-skinned beasts appearing out of the holes in groups.

Their sharp teeth sent chills down one’s spine.

‘Ao~’

Amongst the beasts, there were occasionally one four to five meter tall super beast that looked like the king dragon of legends. The moment it appeared, it emitted a sharp aura.

The even more shocking part was that there were flying beasts in the air. They opened up their wings, reaching six to seven meters in length like winged dragons.

The beast flood that swarmed out of the cave looked like it was about to start a huge slaughter.

Wherever they passed, human life would end too.

The test that Gaia gave out was obviously tougher than what the players had imagined.

…

Lianzhou Basin, Shanhai City.

On the grassland region on the north of Shanhai City, a giant monster cave appeared.

When the black fog rose into the air, everyone in the city could see it clearly. When they heard the cries of the beasts, their hearts numbed up.

The city unavoidably experienced some uproar, which was luckily quickly settled.

When Ouyang Shuo got the news, he decided to personally lead troops to take a look. The beast flood would be their greatest enemy on Planet Hope, so how could Ouyang Shuo be at ease if he did not see them up close?

The 1st legion of the City Protection Legion Corps led by Zhao Sihu was already setting up defenses.

Ouyang Shuo did not waste any more time. After giving the power to move troops to the Grand Council, he brought the three thousand Divine Martial Guards and hurried out of the city toward the beast cave.

In less than half an hour, the group reached their destination.

The City Protection Legion Corps and the beast group had already engaged. After learning that the king had arrived, Legion General Zhao Sihu hurried over to report.

“King!”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. He dismounted from his horse and asked, “What’s the situation?”

“Around a thousand beasts swarmed out, two Tyrannosauruses, 12 Pterosaurs, and the remaining were basically Stegosauruses and Neovenators.”

When Gaia released the information piece, it gave a simple introduction of the types of beasts. As a King Ranked historical general, Zhao Sihu had a communication compass, so he naturally understood it.

The beasts on Planet Hope and dinosaurs were really similar. More accurately speaking, they were like dinosaurs that had evolved a second time. While they were smaller in size, they had firmer muscles, tougher skin, sharper claws and teeth, more explosiveness, and more terrifying breeding speed.

Especially the final point, which was the deadliest. The entire Planet Hope seemed to belong to it.

Hence, Gaia directly named them from dinosaurs.

As for whether there would be fire breathing dragons like in western legends or not, the scouting squadron did not find any relevant details, so Gaia had no idea.

Even so, it was already really horrifying.

Based on the description from Zhao Sihu, normal swords and blades without primordial energy could not cause deadly harm to these beasts.

As for arrows, they had little effect. Only ones like the three bow arcuballistas could threaten the beasts. Even the God arm crossbow was useless.

To make matters worse, the mounts were not stable in front of the beasts, even the Qingfu Horses. As a result, the cavalry could only abandon their horses and fight.

Against the beast horde, one could not use orthodox strategies.

In such a short while, 600 people from the 1st legion had died.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, his expression was really solemn.

“Move, let’s go to the frontlines to take a look.”

Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate, bringing the Divine Martial Guards to the fighting warzone. When Zhao Sihu saw that, he immediately chased up. At the same time, he moved troops to protect the safety of the king.

They walked for less than a kilometer before a Pterosaur charged down.

The beast stretched its wings, flying close to the ground. With a ‘Xiu!” it shot down amongst the City Protection Legion Corps. When it flew up once more, its hind legs grabbed onto a soldier.

The beast flew up high before loosening its claws. The soldier fell from the sky and would probably not survive…

Chapter 1150 - Change in War Model

Chapter 1150: Change in War Model

After the Pterosaur dropped the soldier, it charged down once more and appeared above Ouyang Shuo.

“Protect the king!”

The Divine Martial Guards were waiting solemnly in their formation. Xu Chu wielded his blade and stood straight.

Ouyang Shuo’s expression did not change as he unsheathed the Chixiao Sword. Although he had lost his primordial energy, the body of his body was really strong, and his senses were as sharp as before.

Just as the Pterosaur’s hind claws reached out, Ouyang Shuo took a step to the side, and the Chixiao Sword drew a red light in the air and viciously cut toward the sharp claws.

Along with the blood red light, the claws were broken, and the Pterosaur cried out in pain.

A God Weapon was just that strong!

Xu Chu, who stood beside Ouyang Shuo, waved his machete. The blade shone with white like it was accumulating primordial energy as it sliced toward the left wing of the beast like lightning. Like tearing apart cloth, the blade broke the entire wing.

‘Ao~~’

The Pterosaur could not take it anymore and collapsed onto the ground. It limped a few steps before it was killed by the Divine Martial Guards.

Seeing that, the morale of the soldiers boomed.

Who would have known that this would instead have the effect of stabbing the hornets’ nest? Hearing the final cry, the 11 Pterosaurs circling above all flew over.

Even the two giant tyrannosauruses looked in their direction.

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes focused. He did not expect the beast to be so sentient, and his evaluation of them increased.

Zhao Sihu was about to move more troops over, but Ouyang Shuo blocked them, “Go order the troops to attack the other beasts, leave here to the Divine Martial Guards.”

“Yes, my king!” Zhao Sihu did not dare to disobey orders.

As this was the first time they were engaging a beast flood, the City Protection Legion Corps soldiers were a little uncomfortable. Luckily, they were experienced soldiers that had been through many battles. If not, their fighting spirit would have collapsed.

“These beasts are not simple!”

At this very moment, Blood Romance and the others rushed over and scattered, getting ready to fight the Pterosaurs. As the top players amongst the combat occupation players, they had more experience against beasts than the Divine Martial Guards.

While they were speaking, the Pterosaurs had already swooped down.

Looking at its speed, it was obviously much faster than the last one. It charged right down in an instance.

The Pterosaur that was leading them was especially fast. It spread its wings; it was a total of eight meters long. Its pair of hind legs were muscular and strong, and its kept claws were ready to strike at any moment.

Before they even got close, Ouyang Shuo felt a huge gust of wind wrap up around him. Dust and stones flew, affecting his vision.

“Cunning beasts!”

Ouyang Shuo did not dare to take it lightly. He took in a deep breath and focused, locking his eyes onto the sharp claws.

At this very moment, the sharp claws of the Pterosaur struck out like lightning. They were about to grab onto him. Ouyang Shuo was stunned. He had misjudged its speed, and it was too late to dodge.

In this emergency situation, Ouyang Shuo fell to the ground, managing to barely dodge it.

Seeing that its strike had missed, the Pterosaur flapped its wing and actually stopped in mid-air, striking out once more right at Ouyang Shuo’s chest.

If he was hit, he would suffer heavy injuries even if he did not die.

Obviously, Ouyang Shuo would not wait to die. His left hand pressed onto the ground while his right hand turned the Chixiao Sword upward to strike. The Pterosaur witnessed the strength of the Chixiao Sword before and did not dare go straight up against it, hesitating right away.

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo got half his body up and stabbed forward with the sword. He drew an arc in the sky and made a circle around the claws of the Pterosaur.

Blood splattered.

The claws, the skin, and the tendons were all cut into pieces and were rendered totally useless.

‘Ao~~’

The Pterosaur suffered heavy injuries, and its killing intent was triggered. It did not bother about the pain. It just charged down, and the claw that was not hurt scratched at Ouyang Shuo.

‘Hei!’

Ouyang Shuo let out a cold laugh. Using strength on his left hand, he spun around on the spot, dodging the claw and arriving right in front of the Pterosaur. The Chixiao Sword stabbed out once more and claimed the throat of the Pterosaur.

Ouyang Shuo had used up all his energy to execute this move.

The Chixiao Sword turned into a red light. Half of the sword stabbed into the throat and went right through.

Blood splattered.

Ouyang Shuo pulled the sword out and quickly dodged, but the blood still splattered all over him. The Pterosaur leader died on the ground. Its rugby-shaped head smashed onto the ground and revealed a row of sharp teeth.

On the other fronts, Blood Romance and the others all did well, killing their Pterosaur opponents. It seemed like in front of true experts, the Pterosaurs were still a little weak.

As for the soldiers, this was a huge test for them. The valiant Divine Martial Guards had three people who died under the attacks of the Pterosaurs.

Ouyang Shuo was a little worried about the defensive situations of the other caves.

Following which, Ouyang Shuo brought the Divine Martial Guards and smoothly killed the two tyrannosaurs and helped the City Protection Legion Corps stabilize the situation. Even so, they were busy till the afternoon before the battle was truly over.

Compared to the Pterosaur, the tyrannosaurs were bigger. In front of experts, this was a weakness. As long as one avoided the biting and stepping and had patience, they could cut off its four limbs.

However, to normal soldiers, these beasts were true killing machines. Once these monsters entered the army formation, no one could block them. With one step, they would step humans into meat paste.

In order to kill off the beast wave, a total of 1800 City Protection Legion Corps members had died.

…

At 3 PM, Ouyang Shuo carried his heavy heart and rushed back to Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo had witnessed the strength of the beast horde. Great Xia was facing such a cruel test on all fronts. Since its territory was so huge, it was unavoidable for civilians to get hurt.

Xia Palace, Grand Council.

“Has the situation at the various areas been tabulated?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Military Affairs Minister Du Ruhui nodded and handed over a document and simply said, “Based on the report, there were 82 beast caves, an average of one every prefecture. Of course, some might have appeared in the mountains and forests and were not noticed.”

“Some were big, and some were small. The biggest had over two thousand beasts, the smallest had less than 100. The locations of these caves are really uneven. Some prefectures did not have any, while some had three.”

Ouyang Shuo asked, “How is the crisis situation?”

“The Cabinet is still tabulating the numbers regarding the specific situation. The worse one is Lingnan Province, which had eight monster caves, and the biggest one is here. The 4th and 5th legions of the Tiger Legion Corps have received the order to move and rush over day and night. Till now, only the vanguard forces have arrived.”

“For this, the Grand Council has moved the 1st legion of the Guards Legion Corps toward Lingnan Province to calm down the situation. Helplessly, the caves were far from Zhenhai City, and there has already been a county taken down by the beast flood.”

“….”

Ouyang Shuo’s face turned black.

It was apparent what would happen to the lives of the civilians once the beast wave broke into the county. These beasts were killing machines, and they were all blood thirsty.

They did not kill humans just to fill their stomachs.

When Du Ruhui saw that, he continued to report, “The situation in Liaojin Province is not too good either. The Beijiang Legion Corps is facing trouble stabilizing it. The 2nd legion of the Guards Legion Corps is already on its way to help.”

Chapter 1151 - Heavy Losses

Chapter 1151: Heavy Losses

The aggressive beast wave brought the wilderness back to the scenes of the 1st year of Gaia.

The wilderness at that time was one where wild beasts roamed freely. At that time, bandits and raiders were common, refugees travelled all over the place, and it was like hell on earth. The appearance of numerous Lords brought the civilians out of their troubles, building a home for the people and giving the wilderness peace.

Five years had passed since then, and the painful memories had slowly left.

The newborn kids and babies even forgot all about war and were immersed in the peaceful time.

Gaia sounded out the alarms.

After the beasts sieged the territories, numerous villages were crushed into ruins, cities fell, and civilians lost their homes. Tragedies were common throughout the wilderness; it was like the apocalypse had arrived.

Be it the cold or the heat, neither could stop the advance of the beast waves.

In Liaojin Province, a bunch of beasts braved the cold and charged toward a pack of sheep, heading for where the animal herders were gathered. In Morocco Province, the beasts showed no fear toward the heat, attacking fearlessly.

In Yizhou Prefecture, there were beasts that came from the ocean…

In Shu Lands, some beasts crossed over the mountains and ridges.

In pretty much every type of geographical area and weather, the beasts could easily adapt, making one feel despair.

Within a night, the wilderness had totally changed.

“However, this is not the 1st year of Gaia!”

After five years of hardship, the wilderness had changed greatly. Dirt became cities, and the territories now had well-trained troops and many strong combat occupation players.

They stood at the forefront of the slaughter.

…

Xia Palace, Grand Council.

After Ouyang Shuo heard the report, he said, “Spread my message. Before spring comes, postpone all military plans and focus on the beast wave. Build stable caps around each cave.”

“Yes!” Du Ruhui nodded.

Along with the beast wave sieging, the dynasty was going to face a tough test.

The following week had its up and downs.

Apart from the first wave of beasts, the beast caves would irregularly send out beasts that were either in groups or just a small number that would charge at the defensive lines.

The army struck out from all directions. They followed the traces of the beasts and took them down one by one.

Many damage reports from counties and prefectures were gathered back in the Imperial Court, giving the Cabinet a headache.

In just a week, 30 thousand Great Xia troops and over 200 thousand civilians were lost. This led to a direct economic loss of no less than 10 million gold, and the indirect losses were even more than that.

Such huge losses could be compared to a large-scale war.

The part that made Ouyang Shuo heave a sigh of relief was that after a week, the legions were all in place. They set up camps right next to each cave, preventing the matter from escalating.

In the following period of time, the army would clear out the remnant beasts in the wilderness while arranging large amounts of troops in the camps to prepare to stop the beast wave at any time.

While the Cabinet was trying to solve the crisis and help those in need, it coordinated with the Combat Logistics Department to up the logistical supplies of the camps and ensure grain provision.

Throughout the process, the combat occupation players did not have much of a stellar effect.

This was a result of the revival restriction as well as the real time update of the achievement value causing players to cherish their lives more. Each time they died, their achievement value would decrease.

Toward this, there was not much that Ouyang Shuo could say.

From his intuition, it was not a solution for combat occupation players to shy away from the frontlines. Without the devilish training from the game, they would pay a bloody price on Planet Hope.

Balancing the pros and cons was up to the players themselves.

Even to say that Ouyang Shuo could roughly grasp the true intentions of Gaia.

Not everyone was suitable to be a warrior.

When players first chose the combat occupation, it was just due to their understanding of the game world. No one expected that combat would one day be closely connected to reality.

When the virtual veil was removed, and the bloody battlefield was exposed to everyone, some people would obviously squirm.

Similarly, through this process, Gaia could select the true warriors. The players who could fight till the very end would be the main force used to explore and take over Planet Hope.

“The weak are eliminated, and the strong wins!”

The beast siege not only changed the model of territory wars but also changed adventure gamemode players.

…

Gaia 6th year, 1st month, 10th day, Xia Palace.

Within the Wenhua Hall, Ouyang Shuo was holding a Cabinet meeting.

As the Chinese New Year was about to arrive, apart from evaluating the various provincial governor offices as well as the reports from the Governor-General houses, there were a few major topics.

First, settling on the official evaluation.

The yearly official evaluation was a hugely important matter for the Imperial Court.

Due to officials coming from different dynasties and ruling differently, Ouyang Shuo requested for the Official Ruling Department to set up evaluation indexes that included politics, economic, culture, and the like, eliminating the weak ones.

The work cycle of an official would be three years with a small test every year and a big one every three.

Great Xia had hundreds of thousands of officials, so the Official Ruling Department obviously could not handle it. It mainly aimed at the officials in the Capital City as well as the provincial and prefecture governor level. As for the other officials, the provincial governor would simply hand over a report.

In contrast to previous years, the Censorate participated fully in it this time.

Secondly, they needed to discuss the worshipping plan.

With Ouyang Shuo reaching the Son of God Rank, the coming worshipping ceremony was not a marquis or a prince ceremony but the highest Son of God ceremony.

The related coronation dresses, etiquette, and rites all needed to be adjusted.

The Construction Department was already rebuilding the ancestral temple. On the base of the Yellow and Fire Emperor statues, they made statues of the three emperors and the five kings.

The Cabinet was still discussing whether they were going to invite the other emperors over for the ceremony or not.

Thirdly, discuss about the law system.

The first draft of the civil system, business system, and punishment system had been written up by the Internal Affairs Court and vetted by the Cabinet. It was currently being perfected.

After the Chinese New Year, it could be pushed out.

Fourthly, discussing the Yanhuang Ideology.

To unify the thinking system of the dynasty, with the help of Jiang Shang, Kong Zi, and the like the work on the Yanhuang Ideology was proceeding well, and the first model had been created.

During this period of time, the various philosophers had many quarrels and fights. If it were not for Jiang Shang balancing the scales, they would not have been able to produce the draft. Even so, the contents inside were still hotly contested.

Ouyang Shuo had thought too simply at the start.

To unify thoughts and knowledge was something as hard as conquering the earth, and it would not be done in just half a year.

While they debated, philosopher ideologies clashed once more, and many eye-catching sparks were created during the process, attracting more philosophers to join in.

Without a doubt, this was another amazing time for China’s ideological field.

Fifth, forming rites.

The changes during this period of time made Ouyang Shuo connect the game world and Planet Hope closely together.

Opening up the barrier between these two worlds was his ambition.

The place to break through was the part where China had the greatest foundation, but it was also the place that it was losing the quickest- rites and customs. The need to make a suitable system that fit Chinese civilization and was suitable for Planet Hope seemed really apparent now.

Chapter 1152 - Azure Badge

Chapter 1152: Azure Badge

Etiquettes and rituals were a really sacred thing. If not done correctly, it would shake the foundations of the dynasty. The Cabinet just gave a rough idea. As for the specifics, it would wait till the Yanhuang ideology was settled.

After ending the Cabinet meeting, Ouyang Shuo returned to the Wuji Hall.

Bing’er and Song Jia had been waiting to go offline with Ouyang Shuo. Just yesterday, Ouyang Shuo had received the notification from Gaia that stated the room was modified according to his wishes.

…

Somewhere in the galaxy, Spaceship number ZGMD105.

In the small but warm hall, Ouyang Shuo and his family were having dinner.

There were not many dishes, only tomato fried egg, cabbage, and chili fried pork. Obviously, it could not be compared to the delicacies in the game. However, to the people of the spaceship, this was already a luxury.

Although the galactic squadron had its own indoor farm and breeding grounds, it was limited, and most of the ingredients were used in making nutritional fluids.

Every dish that Ouyang Shuo ordered used up real achievement value.

Although the dishes were simple, the entire family ate with relish. Song Jia picked up a tomato and smiled, “In the blink of an eye, five years have passed. I nearly forgot what this tasted like.”

The tomatoes originated from South America and had not spread to Great Xia yet.

Ouyang Shuo took a look at Bing’er and picked up a small cabbage for her. Although she still had the body of a seven-year-old, she was not as excited as before. Her thinking had grown up.

Such feelings and such a situation made him feel a little lost.

Going back and forth between two totally different worlds had its toll. Once people got used to this virtual side of things, their thinking methods would change greatly.

The game world at that time would not be purely a virtual world.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo did not wake up Yuer and Luoer. To them, before reaching Planet Hope, it was best if they stayed in game, as they would not get used to this change of space.

Furthermore, a small and narrow room would not be good for the kids.

After finishing their meal, Song Jia and Bing’er chatted in the hall, enjoying the view of the vast galaxy. Ouyang Shuo walked into the constructed cultivation room and was going to train in Five Emperor True Manual for the first time.

Previously, when he cultivated in the game, as he was something like a mental body with Gaia directing him in his cultivation, his understanding of the cultivation method was actually really shallow.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo decided to restart his cultivation journey in real life to establish a firm foundation.

Things did not go smoothly.

Although he had countless cultivation experiences, just as Ouyang Shuo sat cross-legged and started to focus, he faced problems. The random thoughts from his physical body swarmed him and made it hard for him to focus.

A person had a thousand different worries and things to think about.

The first step of cultivation would be to remove all evil desires to calm one’s heart and see one’s true self. When we focus, our mind would not go blank. Instead, various thoughts would appear uncontrollably.

The best idea would be to focus your efforts on one thing or a cultivation method.

The Five Emperor True Manual’s idea was to think about were the five emperors themselves: Qing Emperor in the east, Chi Emperor in the south, Yellow Emperor in the middle, Bai Emperor in the west, and Hei Emperor in the north.

Ouyang Shuo was currently focusing on the Qing Emperor.

His image was carved deeply into Ouyang Shuo’s mind. When he focused his thoughts, that image started to appear, becoming more and more real.

Throughout the process, one’s random thoughts would naturally disappear.

At this stage, Ouyang Shuo still could not relax, as this was just a start. He turned his focus to his dantian as he followed the scriptures and chants of the true manual and breathed rhythmically.

Breathing in pure air and spitting out polluted air.

Slowly, his dantian had an itchy feeling. It was like something was running around in there. Following which, a warm and soothing feeling appeared as a small ball of energy appeared.

This was the first bit of Qi.

That’s right, the cultivation of the Five Emperor True Manual jumped over internal energy, starting from Qi then turning it into primordial energy.

After successfully accumulating the first bit of Qi, the next steps were much easier. Ouyang Shuo only needed to focus and rotate it around the route that the true manual mapped out in his body, and the ball of air would grow.

Ouyang Shuo’s meridians had been widened once, so this first cycle went really smoothly.

After rotating for seven full cycles, Ouyang Shuo finally stopped, having completed his first round of cultivation. And just like that, three hours had passed.

If it were not for him having good body qualities, he would feel numb all over.

By the time he returned to the hall, Song Jia and Bing’er had both logged back into the game. Ouyang Shuo arrived in front of the window and looked out at the vast galaxy. His mind drifted off for a moment.

The changes in the past few days made Ouyang Shuo really happy.

Especially the moment when the Federation was disbanded. It felt like the cage that restricted him was removed, and he felt really free.

From now on, he was like a bird in the air or a fish in the vast ocean.

Ouyang Shuo took in a deep breath and muttered, “I can already smell the new world!”

…

Gaia 6th year, 1st month, 15th day.

The huge changes brought about by the beast siege were slowly stabilized.

After making themselves known, the two mysterious organizations finally acted and announced their presences to the world. First, Silver Hand revealed themselves in a high-profile manner, with all of its members forming an alliance.

The name of the alliance was known as Silver Hand.

As expected, more than 90% of the TWP were in Silver Hand.

The remaining 10% entered another global alliance known as Azure Badge. Compared to Silver Hand, Azure Badge was more low profile, and it had less than half of the members of Silver Hand.

Despite that being the case, it was still a giant.

Ouyang Shuo could see that the so-called Azure Badge was the academic faction.

Once the members of the two alliances were revealed, players shockingly found that within the global scale, 90% of the territories belonged to either one, and more than half of the guilds belonged to one or the other as well.

This shocking fact sent a chill down the spines of the normal players.

“It seems like there have been two dark clouds hanging over us.”

Although the Federation was gone, the dark clouds were still there, becoming even bolder and more shocking. Facing this cruel fact, every player had a new choice.

They could join the dark clouds and seek protection. Be it Silver Hand or Azure Badge, when they revealed themselves, they extended an olive branch to the normal players.

Obviously, they were changing too.

Players had other choices. They could choose to fight alone, killing a way out from the gaps in the dark clouds.

For example, Great Xia…

Chapter 1153 - Combined Camp

Chapter 1153: Combined Camp

After Silver Hand and Azure Badge were revealed to the world, Great Xia was instantly placed in an awkward position.

Facing a crisis, the members of the two organizations decided to hug together for warmth and not gamble on both sides. For example, people like Henry and William would not treat Great Xia as nicely as before.

Even if they wanted to, their families behind them would not allow it.

Before Gaia revealed everything, be it Silver Hand or Azure Badge, they both had trump cards that could control the construction of Planet Hope, so they had nothing to fear.

Now, they had no way out and had to use all their resources to take down land in the game and earn as much achievement value as possible.

They would go all out against Great Xia.

In terms of direct impacts, they members all back out of trade agreements with Great Xia.

Ouyang Shuo decided to end the agreement.

Johor and Piao country, who had showed signs of joining Great Xia, were actually members of Azure Badge. Hence, all talks of joining them were naturally gone, making the Southeast Asia situation really uncertain.

All the hard work that Great Xia had put in for free trade was once again pushed down. In the near future, facing drops in trading was unavoidable.

Be it Silver Hand or Azure Badge, neither would want to work with Great Xia.

The global trading situation would be split into three parts, one was TWP, one was TUP formed by Azure Badge, and the last was the Indian Empire and Great Xia’s combined body.

The only empty region would be Africa.

A road filled with thorns was ahead of Great Xia.

If Ouyang Shuo was not filled with ambition, he would not need to worry much. At most, Great Xia just needed to reduce their defensive lines, giving up on the land they occupied overseas. Then they would not need to have conflicts with Silver Hand or Azure Badge.

In China, even in the entire Asia, if Great Xia chose to be defensive, no one could take them down.

After all, this was not like before.

Regretfully, Ouyang Shuo’s ambition did not stop there.

Gaia used the Skynet to control the Federation; this was obviously a great chance. It was a great chance to overthrow Silver Hand and establish a new order on Planet Hope.

“In a chaotic time, who would be the hero?”

Chaotic times creates heroes, and heroes could similarly change the times.

In the past five years, the times gave birth to the rise of Ouyang Shuo. In the next five years, Ouyang Shuo would change the times.

This was difficult.

However, Ouyang Shuo had nothing to fear. Since he had walked this step, why not take another step upward?

The battle in the game would only grow more intense and brutal.

Of course, normal players could not feel the dangers within. That was because no matter how hard they tried, they would not be able to affect the global scale of things and did not even have the rights to become chess pieces.

Normal players could only decide their own fates. They could either be a valiant warrior or yield to the weakness inside them and be ordinary.

Along with the mysterious veil over Planet Hope being opened up, causal players were basically waiting to die, and even work occupation players were going to be of limited use.

Reality was not the game.

Facing a dangerous, desolate, and primitive world, only strength could be relied on.

The game world would welcome a misty period. Who knows who would end up as the greatest winner and who would lose everything once this mist dissipated.

…

Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

Within the Wenhua Hall, Ouyang Shuo met Xie Siyun, Blood Romance, and 40 guild leaders. Along with them were the Military Affairs Minister Du Ruhui.

These were just the large sized guilds, as the medium and small sized guilds were not invited.

To thank everyone for moving to Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo directly allocated a street in the city for guild headquarters.

Each guild would have a mansion as its headquarters.

Based on the house prices of Shanhai City, one mansion alone was worth tens of thousands of gold. It was an okay market with high demand but no supply.

Of course, to guilds with hundred thousand members, a residence was not of much help. Most of them had to scatter to the various parts of the cities or to the prefectures and counties.

Shanhai City became really crowded all of a sudden.

Ouyang Shuo had already instructed the construction department to prepare to build two satellite cities in the west and east of the city to settle down players. Even some natives would be moved out of the city.

This was done to reduce the population pressure of Shanhai City.

The current Shanhai City was truly a place where each piece of land was worth its weight in gold; it was the true top city in the world.

The meeting in the Wenhua Hall was first to build friendship and also to discuss the defenses against the beast caves in case of unneeded misunderstandings.

Now, they were discussing the topic of the camps.

“The Imperial Court has already built up camps near each monster cave. In the next two months, the camps will be constructed into semi-permanent barracks.”

Great Xia’s super strong ability to mobilize manpower was no joke.

“What I’m saying is that all of you do not need to build new bases. Why not just have a region in the barracks for players to rest up and replenish? The Imperial Court will not collect fees and also welcome chambers of commerce to move in,” Ouyang Shuo said.

Strictly speaking, all land in Great Xia belonged to the Imperial Court. Even if the guilds wanted to build a base, they had to pay rental costs to the local offices.

To make it easy to manage, Ouyang Shuo decided to merge the camps and bases together.

“I think it’s feasible.”

Blood Romance expressed his support.

To a guild, just renting the land was not enough to build a base. They would need to hire artisans, purchase building materials, and more. They had just moved over and were not familiar, so it was all a bother.

More crucially, there were 89 monster caves, and they could not build a base in every single place, right?

It was a waste and impractical.

If Great Xia was in charge of the construction, there would be no problem. No matter where players went, they would have a place to rest up, which was really convenient.

Staying together with the Great Xia Army also settled their safety issues.

Of course, the part that moved Blood Romance and the others was still that final sentence Ouyang Shuo said.

The appearance of the beast caves was a crisis, but it was also a real business opportunity.

Adventure gamemode players needed to amass experience and materials through fighting, which would naturally give birth to a spending market.

Within the camp, food, housing, equipment, and more, which did not need to spend money? As this was semi-permanent, this would be a huge market.

Moreover, Ouyang Shuo’s words hinted that he was not going to monopolize the market just because he was the ruler of the land.

Chapter 1154 - A Huge Gamble

Chapter 1154: A Huge Gamble

“The Imperial Court will not interfere in regions that guilds are good at like medicine, equipment, inns and the like. It will only enter ones that the guilds do not want to enter like grain, iron ore, and other basic industries to provide services.”

Ouyang Shuo’s announcement totally warmed the heart of everyone present.

Compared to benefits and interests, Ouyang Shuo was more interested in the recognition of players and letting the players feel a sense of belonging. After all, those who could participate in killing the beasts were all elite players.

Furthermore, although the Imperial Court did not snatch food from the guilds, just the rental for the shops and taxes would form a stable source of income, making up for the expenditure for the construction of the camp and even bring in profits.

Since that was the case, why would Ouyang Shuo be so petty?

After settling this matter, discussing specific defense problems was next.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to give each guild a rough battle region with provinces as the boundary such that each province had a stable fighting force.

“No problem!”

Due to the benefits they received right at the start, the guild leaders naturally knew how to pay back the favor.

After settling all these big issues, Ouyang Shuo ended the meeting. As for the specifics, the Privy Court would discuss with them one by one, and it was not something that could be settled so soon.

…

Gaia 6th year, 1st month, 17th day, Shanhai City.

There was just a month till the Chinese New Year. Ouyang Shuo started to meet up officials to disseminate information and debrief them before they went for their holidays.

Within the Imperial Reading Room, Ouyang Shuo was meeting agriculture department director Jia Sixie.

The people treated food as heaven.

The status of agriculture in the dynasty was naturally undeniable. Great Xia’s agriculture technology was at the leading position in the world. However, after the establishment of the dynasty, he had not focused much on it.

Him summoning Jia Sixie showed that the situation had changed.

During the 4th system update, Gaia activated the calamity mode. Even though Great Xia was protected by the gods, with the weather being really smooth, grain production would be unavoidably affected.

Along with a large number of refugees spawning, the population growing, and the few large-sized wars that occurred throughout the year, they had used up a shocking amount of grain.

Even with Great Xia’s grain production, they just barely had enough.

Along with tens of millions of players moving to Great Xia, they welcomed a new round of sudden population explosion. The grain shortage crisis was slowly becoming apparent.

The beast siege was the final nail in the coffin.

Not to mention the large number of farms being destroyed, to compensate the grain lost, the Imperial Court needed to open up the granaries to save the affected. The amount of grain used up daily was in the millions.

If it were not for the fact that the accumulation work of Great Xia was appropriate, they would not be able to hold on.

Jia Sixie was really sharp. When the grain crisis started to sprout, he had spotted it and handed up a memorial that Ouyang Shuo focused on.

The other territories did not have the problem of a sudden increase in population to worry about, so they did not have to face such a crisis.

Jia Sixie said, “During this half a month, the agriculture department sent officials down to the various provinces to check the granary situation. Overall, it is okay, but there are some granaries that did not meet requirements and did not gather up enough grain for a crisis.”

Ouyang Shuo’s face sank, “Preparing grain for crises is the responsibility of the local officials. There are actually people who did not do their job in this area. What are they thinking!”

Jia Sixie did not dare to retort, as he knew that the king was furious.

“The agriculture department shall investigate the situation and let the Internal Affairs Court handle it.” Although Ouyang Shuo had just breezed over the mater, under the Internal Affairs Court, it was going to cause huge waves.

“Yes, my king!”

“Can the grain last till the next grain collecting season?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Jia Sixie did not want to make false promises and hesitated, “Based on the current situation, there would definitely be some grain shortages. The officials are worried that the merchants will smell the opportunity and gather up grain, while the farmers might not sell their grain, which would further escalate the issue.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Jia Sixie’s worries were not unfounded.

Great Xia always focused on an open and relaxed business environment. Hence, they would not do anything even if merchants amassed grain.

Thinking about it, Ouyang Shuo said, “Let the agriculture department discuss with the business department to try to remove this problem.”

Great Xia had many money-making opportunities. With the business department stepping in, there would be very few merchants who would decide to take that route. After all, for them to survive in Great Xia, making the Imperial Court unhappy was not a good matter.

“Understood!”

Jia Sixie nodded. With the king personally giving instructions, the matter would be much easier. If not, the business department would not bother about the agriculture department.

The grain shortage situation was one that internal control could alleviate, but it could not solve the root.

Ouyang Shuo was prepared to inform the Financial Court to use the opportunity that TUP was just formed and not officially running yet to use voyage trading to buy large amounts of grain from Southeast Asia.

Even to say that he would order chambers of commerce to proceed to Java to purchase grain. With profits to speak of, there would naturally be merchants who would dare to take the risk and smuggle grain.

As long as they did it decently, this grain crisis might turn into a great opportunity.

Thinking of which, Ouyang Shuo said, “Men!”

“Present!”

“Summon Financial Minister Fan Li over.”

“Yes, my king.”

Very quickly, Fan Li rushed over.

“Sixie, tell Mister Fan about the rough situation,” Ouyang Shuo said.

“Yes, my king!”

Jia Sixie had not expected the king to act so quickly, directly calling the Financial Minister over to discuss. He did not dare to take the matter lightly and introduced the grain crisis problem.

Fan Li was really smart and understood what the king was planning, “The king wants to use the business department to have a large-scale purchase of grain?”

“Smart!”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “A crisis is also an opportunity. We have no way to predict how the beast siege next year will be and how the catastrophes in the wilderness will be like. However, since we smell a chance, I do not mind taking a gamble.”

“How much funds can the Imperial Court use to purchase grain?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Fan Li’s eyes froze, as he realized that the king was going in big. Thinking about it, he replied, “It’s already close to the end of the year, and all the expenditures have mostly been tabulated. Excluding the emergency funds for next year, we can use around eight to ten million gold.”

Great Xia was expectedly rich.

The successive huge wars at the end of the year along with the military organizations used up millions or even tens of millions of gold each time. Even so, the Imperial Court could still take out 10 million gold in funds.

Based on the current grain prices, 10 million gold could purchase enough grain for Great Xia to last five months. If they grain was gathered up, it would be as big as Shanhai City.

When Jia Sixie heard that, his eyes were filled with excitement.

This time, Jia Sixie could finally swallow all his worries. The Imperial Court purchasing this batch of grain would solve the crisis, and the merchants would naturally have no reason to amass grain.

All problems ceased to exist.

Who would have known that Ouyang Shuo would shake his head and say, “Not enough!”

“King, please instruct me!” Fan Li did not understand.

Ouyang Shuo said, “If it is just to solve our current problem, such an amount is naturally enough. However, if in the first half of the New Year, the two huge calamities happen, what would happen?”

“….”

Fan Li and Jia Sixie exchanged glances and saw the seriousness in the eyes of one another.

The current amount of grain was not enough, and the sole reason why others did not feel it was because they had a stable prediction of the grain production for the first half of the year.

If their predictions failed, the wilderness would be in chaos.

Even to say that the entire dynasty would be in trouble.

Fan Li thought about in and said, “Forgive me for being direct, but both calamities have a large amount of uncertainty. Is it not unwise to put all our eggs in that basket?”

Choosing a stable solution was the way to rule a dynasty.

Fan Li’s words made a lot of sense.

Ouyang Shuo smiled happily, “Fan Li cares about the country. I am pleased.”

“But.” Ouyang Shuo kept his smile. His eyes pretty much looked through the air at that unknown presence, “According to my intuition and judgment, this is not a gamble. If I’m right, there’s a 50% chance of the worse happening.”

Ouyang Shuo had a great understanding of how Gaia thought.

In the past five years, Gaia had not gone all out and was not vicious in its test of players. As long as the Lords did decently, they could survive well in the wilderness.

The 6th year would definitely be a separation point.

The tests that were about to come would only be more and more cruel.

Be it Silver Hand, Azure Badge, or Great Xia, they could not say that they could easily manage their own territories and continue to expand.

What was the point?

Gaia wanted strong people who could survive in the bad environment of Planet Hope and not people who relied on their current strength to bully the weak.

Due to that, Ouyang Shuo made such a judgement.

The 6th year of Gaia would definitely have a crisis that would cause problems for territories.

When Fan Li heard that, he sucked in a deep breath and nodded, “If you have 50% confidence, it’s worth a gamble.”

In front of such huge interests, not to mention with 50%, but even if it were just 30%, Fan Li would be willing to gamble with the king.

Fan Li firmly believed in the king’s judgment. A king always had foresight that normal people did not. Great Xia’s development proved that the king was someone who looked into the future.

After successfully persuading Fan Li, Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Since that’s the case, borrow 10 million from the Four Seas Bank to purchase large amounts of grain.”

With the size of the Four Seas Bank, loaning gold did not have much risk.

“Yes, my king!”

Fan Li was feeling really excited deep down, as this was a really sizeable amount.

Chapter 1155 - 200 Million Mu of Farmland

Chapter 1155: 200 Million Mu of Farmland

As the Chinese New Year approached, there was little in terms of big news in the wilderness. The focus of the entire world was on the beast wave. After Silver Hand and Azure Badge were revealed, the effects slowly festered.

In the entire wilderness, hidden currents moved.

It was under such a background that Great Xia Dynasty started a large purchase of grain.

Oceans’ worth of gold was slowly transferred to the chambers of commerce who purchased large amounts of grain from Johor, Java, Piao, Peacock Dynasty, Persian Empire, and more.

Sometimes, the chambers of commerce directly bought it, while sometimes, it passed through a middle man.

As the price that the Great Xia merchants bought the grain at was a little higher than the market price, the merchants of various countries did not consider their country’s grain issue and sold the grain that they had amassed.

Even Great Zhou empire had chambers of commerce joining this sale.

One must not look at 20 million being a lot, as when split the amount among hundreds of chambers of commerce and five to six countries, it was nothing big compared to voyage trading, which had millions of gold flowing daily.

Hence, Great Xia’s actions, apart from creating waves amongst the grain traders, did not raise the alert of the entire market.

During this entire process, the Great Xia Imperial Court hid behind the scenes.

At the same time, the agriculture department designed a land reclamation plan to reclaim 200 million mu of farmland to fulfil the daily grain need.

What kind of concept was 200 million mu?

During the Han and Tang time, the entire country had around 500 to 600 million mu of farmland. During Ming and Qing, this amount reached 700 million.

After industrialization, the land size reached 1.8 billion mu, basically reaching a peak.

As a result, with the conditions of the wilderness, 200 million mu of land was not a problem for Great Xia. The problem was who would farm the land after it was reclaimed.

In ancient times, the farmland size was connected to population.

A farmer would care for 10 mu of farmland. Even with the help of the agriculture school of thought and world leading irrigation, Great Xia could only reach 15 to 16 mu per a farmer.

200 million mu of farmland needed at least 12 million farmers.

During this round of population increase, although there were many casual and work occupation players, not many would be willing to farm.

As a result, the Imperial Court especially pushed out the farming model.

The local offices would provide a certain amount of financial subsidy and technological help to encourage players to build farms on the reclaimed land, and they would enjoy tax benefits.

The specifics included tax-free agriculture in the 1st year and half in the 2nd.

The Four Seas Bank was also willing to loan money to players to support them in running their farms.

The series of policies had a huge attraction toward players, especially to causal players.

The update of the achievement values affected these group of people the most.

If they continued to slack and fool around in the game, when they reached Planet Hope, they would not even have the rights to receive basic help.

However, if they were to switch from their work occupation and start from 0, they would not be able to catch up.

Under such a situation, running a farm became a decent choice.

A farm was not just simply planting corn, beans, potatoes, sugarcane, and other produce, as one could also rear chickens, ducks, or even pigs and sheep.

The market even had a huge need for vegetables. With Shanhai City as an example, it used up a shocking amount of vegetables every day. The neighboring villages could not keep up, and a large part was transported through the ocean to the city.

If one ran the farm well, they would even be able to exceed and surpass the current players.

Hence, when the Imperial Court released the prefecture and county level agriculture model, it raised a lot of discussions and many people signed up for it.

The earlier the players registered, the better the land that they could get. They could also do the loans and rental matters earlier and accept professional training.

Even to say that they could start planning for their farm and build their houses.

This winter was destined to be a hot and exciting one.

…

1st month, 20th day, Xia Palace.

Within Wuji Hall, Ouyang Shuo was having a chat with Li Jing.

Along with the Snow-War Rose Mercenary Group moving to Shanhai City, the entire family met up really frequently. When Li Jing was free, she would barge into Wuji Hall to see her nephew and niece.

Ouyang Shuo was naturally glad to see that.

Ouyang Shuo obviously welcomed Li Jing warmly when she moved to Shanhai City, directly giving her a Marquis residence for her and Xie Siyun. It made her jump to one of the heavyweights amongst the relatives of the royal family.

Blood Romance and the others were really envious of such treatment, saying half-seriously and half-jokingly, “That’s great. Now, Blood Evil Mercenary Group’s throne is unstable.”

In truth, using Li Jing’s identity, the development of Snow-War Rose in the future would definitely be better than the Blood Evil Mercenary Group.

“This was life; one could only envy!”

Blood Romance could only accept such a cruel fact.

In truth, when the guilds left the imperial city, the supernatural positions they had were all lost, and their statuses were not the same as Lords anymore.

Toward this, Blood Romance had a clear understanding.

“The agriculture plan you guys made caused such a storm!” As the two of them talked, they reached the topic of the farms. Li Jing joked, “Now, even I am interested in becoming a farmer.”

To the people in the city, becoming a farm owner was one of their deepest dreams.

As a result, the moment the plan was released, it made waves amongst the players. Not only causal players, but even work occupation players were interested.

Especially those who were related to agriculture, these people were the most excited.

Now, even guilds were tempted. Although they did not hope to rely on the profits from the farm, but to build a super farm as the logistics base of their guild would not be bad.

It could also act as a relaxing holiday resort for the members, killing two birds with one stone.

In just three days, three million people registered, and it was still increasing at a shocking rate. Even Ouyang Shuo did not expect this.

Such a prosperous situation made Ouyang Shuo think back to olden times where officials fought to buy houses. The two situations were so similar.

“Is Great Xia going to develop a new era of land owners?” Ouyang Shuo mocked himself.

Of course, that was a joke, as the two had a huge difference.

In Great Xia, where commerce was the main priority, agriculture would only be a basic industry and would not be the only one like in ancient times.

Along with the developing industrialization, there would naturally be no talk of landowner hierarchy.

Listening to Li Jing say that she wanted to be a farm owner, Ouyang Shuo laughed, “Little Aunt does not need to ask for something so far when you have something so near. On the west outskirts of Shanhai City, there’s an emperor farm known as Xilin farm; there’s everything inside. When you want to have a feel of the farming life, you can just head over.”

“There’s such a good place?” Li Jing’s eyes lit up.

Ouyang Shuo gave her a rough introduction of the Xilin farm.

Speaking of which, that place had a deep history, right to the beginning when the territory was still a town. It was the first farm of the territory, and at the start, apart from vegetables, it was used to rear sheep and Qingfu Horses.

Once the territory developed, this farm naturally became the emperor farm.

As Bing’er liked it, Ouyang Shuo spent a lot of effort on it. Apart from sheep, the farm had cows, Qingfu Horses, and even leopards, tigers, and rhinos.

Apart from vegetables, there were also fish ponds and flower gardens.

Basically, the Xilin Farm could be regarded as a royal courtyard. Be it rest, hunting, or holiday, one could fulfil it there.

When Li Jing heard that, she was instantly attracted and lost interest in opening up a new farm.

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo changed the topic.

In truth, the grain problem was just one of his goals behind pushing out this agriculture plan. The real goal of Ouyang Shuo was probably one that few could understand.

No matter what Ouyang Shuo did, his goal was linked to Planet Hope. He attracted people to join in the construction of farms, and his real goal was to strengthen the recognition of Great Xia from the players.

Although the players lived in Great Xia, their way of thinking had not changed, and they did not think of themselves as a part of Great Xia. They came over to Great Xia purely to survive.

Between the two, it was more like a cooperation or a parasite-like relationship.

Didn’t Li Jing refer to Ouyang Shuo as you and you all?

Players who had modern thinking ingrained in them could not have a sense of belonging to a feudal dynasty like Great Xia.

Who knows, some people might be annoyed.

As a result, when Ouyang Shuo defined the dynasty, he did not want it to be a feudal system, as this had no market on Planet Hope and would not be recognized by the players.

Which was all the more reason why he needed the support of the players.

Without mentioning loyalty, they must at least agree with Great Xia’s ideals and recognize themselves as a part of it. Only then could they link them all together.

Building farms was a test.

To increase the recognition of the players, Ouyang Shuo had many other ideas. However, as the players had just moved in, he could not rush it and needed to take it step by step.

The farms were undoubtedly the best breakthrough point and aimed at the easiest group to infect. Using it as radiation, they would use the connection of players to slowly seep into the entire player base.

In the future, he would aim at the most core combat occupation players group. He also had a full set of plans. However, through his conversation with Li Jing, Ouyang Shuo realized that the time was not right.

“Let’s go on slowly!”

Ouyang Shuo laughed in his heart.

Chapter 1156 - Saving Great Xia's Life

Chapter 1156: Saving Great Xia’s Life

In the blink of an eye, it was the 25th day of the 1st month.

It was originally a pretty normal day, but Gaia suddenly announced a new system hotfix, “Regarding global alliances, regardless of whether allies are within the same continent or not, they cannot undergo cross region teleportation.”

Hotfixes were normal matters, but the unusual thing was the timing.

Less than a month had passed since the 6th update, and Gaia’s current update just felt rushed and randomly thought up.

If not, why was not it placed together with the update?

The details of the hotfix left a lot to be desired. Before the hotfix, global alliances only could not have cross continental teleportation, and they could still teleport within a continent like Java and Luzon from before.

Now, Gaia had totally stopped that.

This was great for Great Xia, but it would obviously be a painful setting for both Silver Hand and Azure Badge, these two super global alliances.

Even then, Ouyang Shuo did not think much about it, turning around and getting busy. What he did not know was that this seemingly unassuming hotfix had saved Great Xia’s life.

…

Dawson Dynasty, Free City.

After the Federation disbanded, the city in the skies belonged solely to Gaia. The ex-Federation President and the five fingers of Silver Hand all fell from grace and returned to the home of their various powers.

Silver Hand’s Number 1 naturally returned to Free City.

Listening to the system hotfix, Number 1’s face turned black, and he angrily said, “Gaia, you are obviously being biased!”

After Skynet took control of the Federation authority, Silver Hand had been plotting to wipe out Great Xia. Coincidentally, this plan was exactly the same as the one Azure Badge had.

During this period of time, the two organizations had started to form up a detailed battle plan, gathering the powers of both organizations to launch an apocalyptic war on Great Xia to try to wipe it out.

And teleportation was the key element.

The Romanov Dynasty stretched from Europe to Asia. Originally, they wanted to gather strength in Europe then teleport to the Romanov Dynasty. After that, they would use this bridge to teleport to Great Zhou.

This was a perfect plan that could give Great Xia a fatal blow.

Who would have expected that Gaia would notice that and block this loophole. How could they not be angry?

“Since we cannot swallow it in one go, we can only slowly bite away!” Number 1 sighed. Currently, his eyes were shining coldly. It was obvious that he did not give up on wiping out Great Xia.

As long as the two organizations worked together, it would be hard for Great Xia to struggle out of it.

…

Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo did not know that he had just walked out of the gates of hell. He was meeting the Industrialization Department Director Chen Bingguang.

In just two days, the Imperial Court would go on break and officially enter the Chinese New Year break. Using this final period of time, Ouyang Shuo summoned Chen Bingguang to settle on the huge strategy for the next year.

Before the New Year, the Industrialization Department handed a report to the Cabinet to do an overall evaluation of the dynasty’s industrialization. On this foundation, it raised up a suggestion to industrialize the entire dynasty.

Regarding this report, the Cabinet had done many rounds of discussions and debates, basically agreeing with the Industrialization Department. Ouyang Shuo was meeting Chen Bingguang to make the final arrangements.

After confirming this, the New Year would begin in full swing.

The so-called full-scale industrialization describe two layers, and these were both full-scale of the industry and full-scale of the region.

On the region side, it was easy to understand. Before this, Great Xia’s industrialization work was mainly focused on Shanhai City, Steel City, and some other very few cities. The plan was to go all out through the entire territory.

As for the industry side, the situation was more complicated.

In the two years of industrialization, thanks to the hard work of the Industrialization Department, No.7 Research Institute, and other such organizations, with the steam engine as the basis, they engaged in a series of research and development, obtaining huge progress.

Steam hammer, drill, mechanical lathe, internal combustion engine, motor, rubber, and other symbolic products were all developed and set up a firm foundation for all round industrialization.

The next step would be to develop large-scale machines and electric systems.

It would influence each and every industry, leading to a rise in quality. For example, mining with the help of machines would have its efficiency increased by 10 times and make minefield development much easier.

The metallurgy industry would also welcome change. Apart from steel, tin, and similar metals, rarer metal making would become possible.

The appearance of machine tools would make development and creation of smaller and more precise parts as well as the assemblage of huge machines possible. Rubber would lead to a seismic shift in the raw material department.

The ones who would benefit greatly from industrialization would be the military industry.

With the support of sufficient metals, siege chariots, arrow towers, and other siege weapons would be made of metal. Not only would it be more flexible, but it would also have higher killing strength.

The production of firearms would also give rise to the adjustment of military types.

The Privy Court has already met with the Grand Council to form a military soldier type adjustment plan. The would try to complete the first equipment change of the various legion corps by the end of the 6th year of Gaia.

The focus would be the archers and archer cavalry.

The use of firearms was simple, but it was not simple to point where one could use it once one got their hands on it. One needed long-term shooting training before one could use it in battle.

On this aspect, archers had a natural advantage, and it was the easiest for them to get used to firearms.

Based on the plan, gunners would slowly replace archers and become the long-range force of Great Xia Army. As for the spearmen, heavy armored swordsmen, sword-shield soldiers, and heavy armored cavalry, they would still remain.

The appearance of beasts and the strength increase of soldiers hinted at one matter. By relying on thermal weapons alone, one would not be able to gain a stable footing on Planet Hope. Even the Federation’s laser weapons would not work.

Personal strength, or rather, physical prowess, from cold weapons was the best way to face beasts. Not only could not it be weakened, but one must strengthen this aspect.

The future development of Great Xia’s army would be on these two fronts.

As for the firearm forces, to lead the various legions into completing the change in soldier type, Ouyang Shuo decided to disband the fully built Household Legion Corps 1st legion and split them into the various legions corps to act as teachers.

Zuo Zongtang, Zeng Guoquan, and Oda Nobunaga would be the main teachers.

Within the Imperial Reading Room.

Ouyang Shuo spent a full morning talking to Chen Bingguang before settling on all the crucial details of the industrialization plan. It would wait till after the New Year before it was pushed out.

“During this New Year, I’ll have to busy you.” Ouyang Shuo smiled.

Since the details were settled, the Industrialization Department naturally needed to work overtime to make the final adjustments and ensure that nothing was missed out.

Chen Bingguang was a work maniac and smiled, “Doing this is more fun than going on holiday.”

“But you cannot forget about family.”

Since the start of the territory, Ouyang Shuo had placed a lot of emphasis on the family concept.

Chen Bingguang nodded his head, turning around and leaving.

…

1st month, 27th day, the day before the break.

The Imperial Court released its last decree, upgrading 3rd class Marquis Mulan Yue and Bai Hua to duchess and Gong Chengshi and Wufu to 1st class Marquis, effective immediately.

Apart from that, there were a batch of civil servants and generals who received an increase in rank, including some generals who joined in after Great Xia established its country.

This round of rank awarding was a conclusion to the year and also the warm up for the upcoming year.

After Ouyang Shuo reached the Son of Heaven rank, the restrictions on the ranks he could give to the officials was removed. Not only could he give the duke rank, but he could even directly give prince and princess ranks.

However, as the power of prince was too high, Ouyang Shuo naturally would not easily give it out.

Even so, Mulan Yue and Bai Hua upgrading to duke was shocking enough. Putting them in other territories, they could establish a dynasty.

Wufu and Gong Chengshi joined Great Xia a little later. Naturally, they would take a longer time.

The rank was based on Ouyang Shuo’s preference and mostly based on the merits judged by the Imperial Court. When Gaia evaluated the achievement value, rank was an important consideration.

In the future, Ouyang Shuo would not exclude the possibility of giving Great Xia players ranks.

Xia Palace.

After sending out the last decree, Ouyang Shuo got up and left the Imperial Reading Room to go back to the Wuji Hall to sleep. He would toss aside dynasty politics for a while and spend a happy holiday with his family.

Great Xia had a vast territory, and they could go to the Xilin farm to experience the joy of farming, Maldives for a holiday, or a trip to Africa or even Europe.

While resting, they could even go offline and talk in the private room of the spaceship.

Of course, as the king of Great Xia, there were some occasions that Ouyang Shuo needed to attend like the various dinners, invites, commoner parties, and the like.

All in all, it would be a really busy holiday period.

Chapter 1157 - A Dark Day

Chapter 1157: A Dark Day

Gaia 6th year, 2nd month, 5th day, Chinese New Year’s Eve, Shanhai City.

Yet another Chinese New Year’s Eve. Due to the large influx of players, Shanhai City was more lively this year, tand he streets and alleys were filled with never ending amounts of people.

Hundreds of theatre stages, numerous temple fairs, uncountable numbers of fireworks, dazzling amounts of merchandise and items, and various performances let the players who lived in Great Xia realize the rich cultural deposits of the top dynasty in the world.

“One cannot see such a stunning scene even in the imperial cities!” Players were in awe.

Within the Xia Palace, it was the same as last year, with the royal family reunion dinner underway. Compared to last year, the family was less careful and wary and more confident.

Within a year, many family members smoothly passed their exams and entered the offices. Some even held important positions and were active in the official field.

Even so, their respect toward Ouyang Shuo only grew.

Toward the family members, Ouyang Shuo similarly treated them with both gratitude and authority. During the year, there were a few family members who were flagged by the Regulatory Department, and Ouyang Shuo mercilessly gave them the cold treatment.

After the feast ended, Ouyang Shuo invited the elders to the imperial garden to have some wine. The younger generation were like wild horse let loose as they ran into the vibrant night life of Shanhai City.

For this year’s New Year’s Eve, Gaia did not do any new activity.

Five years had passed, and players had adapted to the game world. They did not need Gaia to make things interesting, and each person naturally had their own celebratory activities.

Gaia could finally take a break in this aspect.

…

1st day of the New Year, Great Xia held a giant and solemn heaven worshipping ceremony using the traditions and rights of the Son of Heaven, announcing the orthodoxy of Great Xia.

The entire ceremony strictly followed the ancient traditions and gave those who witnessed it a cultural lesson.

Regarding the ceremony, Ouyang Shuo decided not to invite the various kings and emperors over.

Great Xia had not established absolute power in the region and to invite them over was not right. Bragging to them now would instead make them annoyed.

Although that was the case, after the end of the ceremony, Ouyang Shuo still sent envoys to send the cured meat from the ceremony to the various dynasties. It was both him sending a message and also him trying to bring them closer.

As for whether they accepted his intentions or not, it was up to them.

…

The following week was the Chinese New Year holiday.

Until the 2nd month, 13th day, the offices opened once more, signaling the start of a New Year.

The moment the Imperial Court opened, there were a bunch of official matters including the civil law, punishment law, business law, the full-scale industrialization as well as farmland reclamation, and more.

The plans of the entire year would start in spring.

Although winter was not over, Great Xia had already woken up and had started to run swiftly. Along with the various strategies landing, Great Xia would welcome a new round of transformation and upgrade.

After releasing all the new laws, Ouyang Shuo did not remain in Shanhai City to officially begin his month of touring. He was prepared to use the month to complete his tour of the various legion corps in the wilderness.

Even during the holiday, the army was not fully on holiday.

Not to mention others matters, but just the beasts that kept coming out from the caves was enough of a problem for them. Just as Ouyang Shuo had predicted, even during the holiday period, the beast wave showed no signs of weakening.

On the contrary, it was even more intense.

While Ouyang Shuo toured, he would often meet lone beasts. These beasts that escaped the net were a huge problem to local order and safety.

The not eye-catching Neovenators were light ghosts, expertly attacking lone travelers or sneaking into villages to hunt families.

The Imperial Court had already instructed the provincial government office to set up prefecture level reserve forces and set up militia organizations in villages to be an added layer of protection against the beasts.

Only then did the situation turn slightly better.

Great Xia had a total of 64 legions spread all over the dynasty. In a month, Ouyang Shuo could only do a short tour, which was why the soldiers were really touched.

Especially those old ones who had fought alongside Ouyang Shuo. They had not seen him in a long time. Being able to shake hands and chat with the king again made them touched to the point of tears.

These old soldiers were the true soul of Great Xia.

Ouyang Shuo was also really grateful. There were some things that could not replace loyalty.

After Gaia became a godly presence, even after arriving in Planet Hope, the game world would not stop. It would continue to proceed and become closer and closer to a real world.

Especially to the machines, the game world was a huge hatchery. Along with the game world progressing, the intelligence of the NPCs would only get higher and higher.

When that happened, to the artificial intelligence, the game world would be their real world.

Ouyang Shuo had hopes that regardless of the future, whether they could be instantiated into the real world or not, they could at least see themselves as part of Great Xia.

…

Just as Ouyang Shuo was touring, Silver Hand was silently acting.

After their initial plan failed, they had not given up and activated their nibble plan, setting their target as Morocco Province.

Although Great Xia had fully opened up the port and naval route, with their arrogance, they were not happy with Great Xia having control of a crucial naval passage.

Europe and America belonged to Silver Hand, and they would not allow Great Xia to have such influence in the region. To Silver Hand, it was an insult.

Before the Federation was dissolved, they still had to worry about the academic faction. Now, the two organizations were working together to kick Great Xia out.

At least in terms of the Great Xia matter, they had reached a tacit understanding.

Furthermore, with the former president losing his power in the organization, Azure Badge was walking on another path. This was not good news to Great Xia.

Because of the presence of a teleportation formation, it was not an easy matter for Silver Hand to attack Morocco Province. They needed to be well prepared to face Great Xia’s crazy counterattack.

The first matter at hand was to remove the Atlantic Squadron.

The Atlantic Squadron was Great Xia’s biggest chip in the Atlantic Ocean and the reason why the European Lords did not dare to go too far.

This time, they were not going to keep it in anymore.

3rd month, 1st day, the alliance operation began.

In one month, the Dawson Dynasty Dawson Squadron, the House of Tudor Emperor Squadron, Spain’s Invincible Squadron, Gaule Squadron, and the Portuguese squadron all quietly gathered up. Using the chance when the Atlantic Squadron was on a routine patrol in the ocean, they surrounded them.

Five against one.

Even if the Atlantic Squadron was wary, had extraordinary combat ability, and the 1st magic powered submarine division, they still could not win.

Right after the battle started, Alvaro used the communication compass to inform Ouyang Shuo. Even so, Ouyang Shuo could not do anything.

Not only was it a huge ocean away, it was a naval battle, so the Great Xia Army had no way to assist them.

All that Ouyang Shuo could do was to hurry his tour and quickly return to Shanhai City to discuss strategy. With Ouyang Shuo’s understanding of Silver Hand, since they made a move, they would not give up halfway.

The first thing he thought about was the safety of Morocco.

On this side, Great Xia was discussing, on that side, the two opposing forces were engaged in an intense battle on the ocean.

Ouyang Shuo had instructed Alvaro that under circumstances where they could not win, he would allow them to retreat to the port to regroup.

The port had a minefield, which the enemy squadron would not dare to enter.

The problem was that the alliance squadron had spent so much effort on this trap, so how could they allow the Atlantic Squadron to escape so easily? The entire ocean region was a battlefield, and there was nowhere to retreat to.

In Jack’s words, he was going to use their poison against them to teach Great Xia a lesson to let Ouyang Shuo realize who the boss in the world was.

The destruction of the Free Squadron infuriated Jack.

This battle was the largest scale naval battle in history and lasted for three days and three nights.

In the ocean region near Morocco, blood flowed, pretty much becoming a red ocean. Numerous warship debris were washed onto the Morocco beach, making one terrified.

During this battle, Silver Hand’s super alliance squadron had finally crushed the Atlantic Squadron after paying a heavy price, making them a piece of history.

Fleet Admiral Alvaro and Deputy Lu Meng both died in battle.

It was said that the Spanish tried to persuade him to surrender to lead the Spanish Invincible Squadron once more, but he rejected it and only said, “I’m from Great Xia. I’ll rather die in battle!”

This was a dark day to the Great Xia Navy and the Great Xia Dynasty.

Chapter 1158 - Zhang Liang's Persuasion

Chapter 1158: Zhang Liang’s Persuasion

Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

The atmosphere in the Imperial Reading Room was really depressed. When the video of Alvaro choosing death instead of joining the enemy was sent over through the communication compass, Ouyang Shuo’s eyes flushed red, and he clenched his fist.

“I’ll take revenge!” Ouyang Shuo gritted his teeth.

Ouyang Shuo had already forgotten how long it had been since Great Xia had taken such a loss. This was a huge blow to the series of new policies that were about to bring Great Xia to new heights.

“The enemy took down the Atlantic Squadron, so their next step will be to attack Morocco Province. As for how to fight this war, all of you discuss your thoughts!” Ouyang Shuo said in a low tone.

Great Xia had never had its territory occupied by others, and Ouyang Shuo did not want to break that record.

Baiqi, Han Xin, and the other generals were all furious. All of them expressed the desire to move heavy troops to Morocco to go all out against the enemy. Han Xin even suggested to declare war on them.

On the other hand, Zhang Liang did not say a word throughout the process, as he had other thoughts.

Just as everyone was locked in a huge discussion about how to fight the Battle of Morocco, many emergency letters were sent up, making the bustling reading room tense up.

3rd month, 4th day.

Silver Hand’s alliance squadron had just destroyed the Atlantic Squadron. Algeria declared war on Great Xia, saying that they wanted to regain Morocco for the Morocco royal family.

Algeria was not the only country that joined this war.

Based on the intel from the Black Snake Guards, a small half of the territories in the Mediterranean was moving soldiers. The forces of those who were near like Spain had already arrived in the imperial city Algiers.

Preliminary estimations had their overall numbers at no less than a million.

“That’s great, we were going to attack Algeria, and now, they jump out.” Although Ouyang Shuo smiled, everyone could feel the rage within him.

That was not all.

Pretty much at the same time, the enemies around Great Xia started to move.

Great Zhou Dynasty, Johor, Piao Country, Java, and Romanov Dynasty; they all sharpened their blades and started to move their troops to the border.

Even the Peacock Dynasty was showing interest in Maldives.

The only thing was that the African countries around Somalia were not traditional powers, so they were not under Silver Hand and Azure Badge. Furthermore, the Mediterranean Lords were focusing on Morocco, so Africa was temporarily let off.

Silver Hand had learned from the failures of the Yanhuang Alliance.

Looking back to the past five years, the Yanhuang Alliance’s actions against Great Xia failed because they were too self-sufficient and loved to use surrounding powers as chess pieces to fight Great Xia.

In the end, Great Xia counterattacked and grew stronger instead.

Till now, the Yanhuang Alliance was suppressed by Great Xia instead, what a tragic counter-teaching material.

This time, be it the naval battle or the Battle of Morocco, Silver Hand was going all out right away. Members went to war personally to have a close combat war with Great Xia, not giving them any space to survive.

“For a presence like Great Xia, the moment they manage to take a breath, there would be huge repercussions,” Number 1 said.

In a short few days, Great Xia was in a war on all four sides.

With the situation developed to such a stage, Ouyang Shuo became calm instead. That was because there would not be anything worse than this. Now, what he needed to do was to solve this situation.

“Move!”

Ouyang Shuo got up and brought them to the map.

“The Romanov Dynasty is not a problem.” Ouyang Shuo pointed to the north of the map, “The Siberia region Liaojin Province is connected to is vast with little people, a true wilderness. It is also winter, and even if they want to send troops to attack Liaojin, it would be impossible.”

The core of the Romanov Dynasty was in Europe.

Following which, Ouyang Shuo turned his eyes down south and pointed at Southeast Asia, “Without the help of the navy, Java poses a limited threat to us. The key is Johor and Piao country. One is neighboring Siam and Hanoi Province, and one can directly threaten Xingzhou Prefecture where the Nanjiang Governor-General House is located.”

Thinking about that, Ouyang Shuo gritted his teeth toward Azure Badge.

If it were not for their actions at the last minute, these two countries would have been under Great Xia.

This bad blood was remembered by Ouyang Shuo.

“Then what about Great Zhou?” Baiqi asked.

Great Zhou and Great Xia were connected in large areas, and they had large amounts of soldiers. They were also fighting on home ground and had enough reason to start a war. As a result, Great Zhou was the biggest threat to Great Xia in Baiqi’s eyes. Why did the not king mention it?

To use the power of the organization to turn the tide, Great Zhou definitely would not miss this chance.

Even to say that Great Zhou might go all out in this battle and try to reclaim everything when it seemed impossible. It seemed like Di Chen had been waiting for this chance for a long time.

If Great Zhou participated, they could at least hold up four legion corps of Great Xia, which would be really deadly.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and took out a card. It was the war exempt card that Ouyang Shuo had kept till now.

War Exempt Card: When the territory is fighting outside the territory, has a chance to exempt war to prevent surrounding territories from attacking, lasting for one month. Friendly Reminder: War exempt is only effective within the country and is effective immediately.

When Baiqi and the others saw that, their eyes lit up, and they smiled, “With this, we can truly make good plans.” Thinking about how the Great Zhou army would come over happily and excitedly but would get stopped by a card, it was easy to predict how annoyed they would be.

Han Xin said, “So we have the conditions to fight in the Battle of Morocco?”

Ouyang Shuo was just about to nod. His character was really firm. There was no reason to back down like a turtle when Silver Hand was already at the door. There was no reason not to counterattack.

He wanted to use this chance to have a good battle against Silver Hand.

Who knows, he might be able to take down Algeria and make the plans of Silver Hand backfire.

At this very moment, Zhang Liang suddenly said, “My king!”

“Zifang, what plan do you have?” Ouyang Shuo smiled.

Zhang Liang’s expression was not relaxed as he solemnly said, “I beseech the king to give up on Morocco Province.”

Ouyang Shuo’s smile disappeared, “What did you say?” Everyone could feel the anger accumulating, which made Baiqi and the other generals shake.

Seeing that, Shi Wanshui stepped up, “Elder, why are you so pessimistic and making them look good?”

Zhang Liang did not reply.

Ouyang Shuo stretched his hand out to stop the impolite words of Shi Wanshui. He looked at Zhang Liang and said, “Since Zifang has said that, you must have some worries. Why not say it?”

Baiqi and the others looked at him curiously.

Zhang Liang nodded. Currently, his palms were sweaty.

Of the rulers in history, how many of them could listen to disagreeing opinions at the crucial moment?

When the king was really pumped up but was suddenly challenged, one would instinctively fight back. However, at such a juncture, giving up the fight was simply a risk.

However, as the dynasty’s top strategist, Zhang Liang had to mention it because it was his role. Even if he could die for it, he did not mind.

“From the destruction of the Atlantic Squadron and the intel from before, Silver Hand and the Yanhuang Alliance are two different opponents. If we choose to fight them at Morocco, will the enemy back off?” Zhang Liang asked.

“No!”

“Since that is the case, the Battle of Morocco will be one where both sides throw in millions of troops. With the grain storage there, can we support such a huge war?” Zhang Liang asked once more.

Morocco was a lone island overseas and did not produce its own grain. Usually, it was barely self-sufficient, so it naturally could not support the usage of a million troops.

“….”

The Imperial Reading Room fell into an uncomfortable silence.

When Zhang Liang saw that, he continued, “If we dare to spend and dare to pay the price, the grain problem can in fact be solved. The problem is whether the dynasty bear this price?”

“Is it worth it?”

Ouyang Shuo was expressionless, “To protect our land, anything is worth it.”

“The king is right.” Zhang Liang did not retort, “But then the Morocco battlefield will be a pit that the dynasty sinks into until we drown in it.”

“Silver Hand has many members, and they can afford the usage of resources. But the dynasty cannot afford it.”

Ouyang Shuo wanted to disagree, but he could not.

That was right, half the Lords of the Mediterranean Ocean were sending in their troops. The Dawson Dynasty and the House of Tudor had not even acted, yet they managed to push Great Xia to the edge.

In the end, Great Xia did not have the ability to go straight up against such a giant.

Thinking about it, Ouyang Shuo clenched his fist tight and felt really aggrieved.

“Once we are greatly hurt in this battle, Great Zhou, Java, Johor, Piao, Peacock Dynasty, and even the eight imperial cities in China will start to move.”

Zhang Liang’s words were not false.

Great Xia had not established absolute authority in China, and Mongol and the Turk khanate were not the only ones that wanted to challenge Great Xia’s orthodoxy.

Who knows what ambitions the people who acted like they yielded had.

An injured lion could not lead a pack and would only be attacked.

Thinking about such a scenario, even Ouyang Shuo could not help but feel a chill run down his spine, “Silver Hand has simply plotted too deeply, and they had a grasp of Great Xia’s lifeline. Their grasp of timing was also really accurate.”

“So apart from giving up Morocco, is there nothing we can do?”

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes were filled with unwillingness and was aggrieved to the max.

Zhang Liang shook his head, “That’s not so. The king has analyzed that we still have a trump card that can be of great use on the precedence that we give up Morocco.”

“Even to say that turning the tables might be possible.” Zhang Liang was confident.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he felt refreshed and better in his heart, “Please elaborate!” Looking Zhang Liang in the eye, Ouyang Shuo was filled with admiration and excitement.

Having a calming needle like Zhang Liang was the good fortune of Great Xia.

Chapter 1159 - Leaving an Ember

Chapter 1159: Leaving an Ember

To Great Xia, whether they gave up Morocco Province or not would lead to two totally different outcomes.

Choosing to fight to the death with the enemy at Morocco would expend a lot of their resources and energy without getting anything in return. Furthermore, the risks were really high, and if they handled it badly, the entire situation would collapse.

After Zhang Liang analyzed the situation, Ouyang Shuo even suspected that this was Silver Hand’s real goal.

Only by giving up could the skies be clear once more.

“While Morocco attracts the enemy’s attention, there is much we can do. Java, Johor, and Piao country are all good choices,” Zhang Liang suggested.

As for the specifics of who the send and how to attack, the Grand Council would naturally make the decision.

“I’ll have to remind you all that if we do not want Somalia to follow in the footsteps of Morocco, we must act, and we must be quick,” Zhang Liang said.

One must not forget that Somalia Province was directly opposite to the Arab Empire.

Due to the above considerations, the Grand Council spent a day in a meeting and finally came up with a battle plan. The next morning, the Great Xia Army placed around the various lands started to move.

A huge war was just a touch away from starting.

…

Handan City, Palace.

During these past few days, Di Chen’s mood was really good. After Algeria officially declared war on Great Xia, Di Chen smiled, “Great, winter is finally over.”

Juedai Fenghua smiled too. She could understand Di Chen’s mood.

“This time, let’s not be greedy and just take down Beijiang Province and Liaojin Province!” Di Chen was full of confidence with acting while Great Xia was being held up. The Beijiang legion corps was naturally nothing to him.

Juedai Fenghua nodded. At least, Di Chen did not let his happiness get to his head and knew what was right. Even if Great Xia was surrounded, it was still a lion that could not be easily challenged.

To smoothly take down two provinces would already be a huge harvest for Great Zhou.

In the future, if Silver Hand continued to push down on Great Xia, they could naturally take down Yingzhou Province. When that happened, Great Zhou’s tough situation would be solved, and they would go from a fish in the ocean to a bird soaring in the sky.

“Old fox, let’s see how long you can remain so arrogant.” Di Chen muttered.

…

Gaia 6th year, 3rd month, 5th day.

Regarding the revenge talk of Algeria helping the Morocco royal family, Great Xia’s Honglu Temple gave out a reply that said, “The talk of restoring the country is a joke. Morocco Province belongs to Great Xia, and we will not stand to see its dignity be compromised.”

Along with the words of Honglu Temple, Great Xia West African legion corps 1st and 2nd legion started to gather toward the east. This action was naturally read by the outside world as, “Facing the challenge by Silver Hand, Great Xia has accepted it!”

The moment the news spread out, the world was boiling.

After Silver Hand revealed their presence, players around the world felt a chill, and the reveal of Azure Badge made the normal players feel more despair as they honestly said, “This is not the world I’m familiar with!”

How would they have expected the world to actually be so dark?

Under such circumstances, the Great Xia Dynasty who had always had problems with Silver Hand along with Ouyang Shuo’s background as a commoner became the lamp of light amongst the darkness for the normal players.

When the Atlantic Squadron was crushed by Silver Hand’s scheming tactics, players were annoyed.

Algeria’s declaration of war had pushed the global situation to a new climax. The players were waiting to see how Great Xia would react. Would they fight or would they want peace?

The players’ moods were conflicted.

They hoped for Great Xia to not yield and go head on against Silver Hand, but they were also worried that Great Xia was not strong enough and would get wiped out by Silver Hand. If that happened, they would lose all hope.

Great Xia’s reply naturally received a lot of discussion amongst the players.

…

In the following few days, Great Xia’s legions started to move, gathering toward cities with teleportation formations. Anyone could see that Great Xia was going to go all out. They would rather die than give up their territory.

This was in line with the style of Great Xia.

When Silver Hand got the news, they finally placed down their worries.

“He is still a young man. He could not withstand the provocation and blew up at a touch.” Number 1’s mood was really good.

After confirming that Great Xia was going to fight a huge war, with the organization of Silver Hand, the Mediterranean alliance squadron swiftly gathered toward Algeria to transport ocean amounts of goods to the frontline.

The Spanish Invincible Squadron, the Portuguese Squadron, and the Gaule Squadron were in charge of locking down the ocean region. Originally, they were supposed to lock down the Gibraltar Straits, but under the interference of Atlantis, they decided not to be too much.

Luckily, as long as they locked down the west shore, Morocco Province would not be able to do anything in the ocean.

One had to mention that Great Xia owed Atlantis a huge favor this time. Without Kalia’s interference, Great Xia’s plan would not have proceeded so smoothly.

While they prepared for the Battle of Morocco, Silver Hand also told Java, Johor, and Piao not to attack in case Great Xia got too worried and did not focus fully on Morocco.

Just as Ouyang Shuo had predicted, in Silver Hand’s attack on Morocco Province, the goal of occupying territory was secondary. The true goal was to fight a battle of attrition with Great Xia in order to drag them into the dirt.

In history, there were super countries that were destroyed like that.

“Time to watch the good movie!”

…

3rd month, 7th day, night, Gibraltar Straits.

Using the thick night sky as a cover, hundreds of merchant ships passed Jidian City and Tangier that were opposite to one another. With the help of the Provincial Governor office, huge amounts of resources and precious finances were shifted to Jidian City.

Morocco Province could be lost, but Jidian City had to be kept.

Jidian City was surrounded by mountains on three sides and the last side faced the sea. Not only did it have perverted defensive work, but they also had two combat puppets from Atlantis.

Even the Gibraltar Straits had remnant forces of the Atlantis Squadron defending it. When the Atlantic Squadron went out to sea, they left half an division there, which became the only survivors.

After that cruel naval battle, the Atlantic Squadron was no more, and the magic powered submarines that survived were transported to Gibraltar Port.

With the dim moonlight, one could see that a giant human head statue on the west cliff of Jidian City was slowly taking shape. It was a week away from competition.

That was Alvaro’s statue.

Alvaro’s death was Great Xia’s biggest lost, and it pained Ouyang Shuo. This general that came from another country decided to die for Great Xia.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo instructed Jidian City to carve such a statue to remember Alvaro’s merits to motivate the Great Xia Army to continue forward.

Facing Jidian City, a fortress without any defensive dead ends, which was also connected to the imperial city through the teleportation formation, even if Silver Hand wanted to take it down, it would be harder than taking down Morocco.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo was determined to keep Jidian City.

To give Jidian City sufficient amounts of war resources, Ouyang Shuo personally contacted Kalia to ask her to interfere with the enemy squadron and lead them away from the Gibraltar Straits.

They had really wracked their brains.

In Ouyang Shuo’s words, “Let’s take it as keeping an ember in the Mediterranean. One day, I’ll come back and kill my way through.”

This debt of blood could only be paid in blood.

While the resources arrived in Jidian City, the 3rd legion of the West Africa legion corps also moved in.

…

In the night, Tangier pier.

A young lady looked out at the busy harbor. She was surrounded by a group of officials. In the dim light of the pier, one could feel the hesitation in the girl.

“Miss, are we really going to abandon this place?”

There were still Morocco officials who did not understand the Imperial Court’s decision even now.

The young lady was the new duchess, Morocco Provincial Governor Mulan Yue. Her feelings toward Morocco were even deeper than all the officials, but she did not have any regrets.

“The decision is correct. The province is alone out at sea and cannot block the enemy attacks. Rather than that, why not let go?” Mulan Yue’s voice was really calm, and no one could see what she was thinking.

“Miss had done so much for Morocco for it to have its current prosperity. It is such a waste to give up now.” The officials felt regretful.

Mulan Yue smiled and did not say anything.

As the first player Provincial Governor of Great Xia, she knew when to give up and also knew when to place aside personal feelings and judge from the viewpoint of the Imperial Court.

“Let’s return!”

Mulan Yue took a final look at the ships before turning around and leaving.

“Morocco Province still had things she could not bear to leave behind like the civilians…”

She could not bring everything with her. Only the officials, advanced artisans, and rare talents could pass through the teleportation formation and go back to Shanhai City.

The remaining civilians were left to fend for themselves.

Mulan Yue needed to quickly return to Rabat to defend her post until the final moments of the battle.

Chapter 1160 - One Versus Four

Chapter 1160: One Versus Four

In the blink of an eye, it was the 3rd month, 10th day.

During this period of time, the Morocco relocation job had proceeded in an orderly manner. In order to not raise suspicion of Silver Hand, the entire process was relatively slow.

On this day, the Silver Hand Alliance Army vanguard forces arrived at the Algeria border.

At the area where Morocco and Algeria intersected, half was high plains, and the other half was mountains that made it hard to travel. When Lu Bu was ordered to chase and capture the Morocco King, he got lost in these mountains and woods.

As the attacking side, the Alliance Army had no choice but to travel through the forest.

On the contrary, the West Africa Legion corps, especially the 1st and 2nd legions of the original Morocco formation, were very familiar with the area and had started preparing defensive work.

The first time the two sides engaged was on the 13th day of the 3rd month.

On that day, the vanguard forces of the Alliance Army walked out of the mountains and forests and officially stepped onto Great Xia land. At that moment, the West Africa Legion corps used the convenience of the geography and their home ground advantage to set up an ambush, giving the Alliance Army a heavy blow.

The 100 thousand vanguard forces were scattered in the forests, while the West Africa Legion corps was like a ghost, claiming the lives of the enemy.

If it were not for their main force arriving in time, these 100 thousand troops would more or less be all dead.

Even so, 30 thousand of the 100 thousand army died, teaching the Alliance Army a bloody lesson. It announced to the world that the invincible army of Great Xia would not be provoked.

However, when the Alliance Army main force arrived, the West Africa legion corps suddenly yielded and fled.

In the next week, the Alliance Army won successive battles quickly, taking down the cities around Morocco. The west Africa legion corps retreated all the way toward Rabat.

Although that was the case, the Alliance Army did not put down their guard.

Rabat had a teleportation formation, and Great Xia could send troops at any moment. All signs showed that Great Xia was going to rely on Rabat to fight a siege and defense battle against the Alliance Army.

However, the Alliance Army did not hesitate and headed right for Rabat.

3rd month, 21st day, the Battle of Rabat officially began as the huge Alliance Army surrounded the city.

Just as the Alliance Army had expected, the defense of the Great Xia Army was really stubborn. They had a sort of fearless feeling, which made the battlefield enter a standstill.

At this very moment, the Great Xia Army that was ready and waiting bared its fangs.

…

3rd month, 22nd day, Piao Country.

Piao Country’s southwest was the Andaman Sea, connected in the northwest to India, northeast to China, southeast to Siam and Nanzhang, and its capital Naypyidaw
was located in the central China region.

Speaking of which, the Piao Country was a civilization with a long history, going through four feudal dynasties. During the Pegu dynasty, it even submitted to China.

Piao country had 4.5 million people. After the 6th system update, the original 450 thousand imperial city guards were reduced to 225 thousand.

During this period of time, Piao Country Lord Mo Angyin was really depressed. As a member of Azure Badge, he could not go against the plans of the organization and was forced to stand on the frontlines against Great Xia.

Thinking about this giant of a neighbor, Mo Angyin felt a chill run down his spine.

Regardless of who wins in the battle between Great Xia and the organization in the future, Piao country would only be a chess piece. Mo Angyin could not see any glorious prospects.

The lesson from Australian Lord Avera was still fresh in his mind.

However, as a member of the organization, Mo Angyin could not go against it because the relationship between the two sides was too deep. As long as the organization wanted it, his reputation could be totally destroyed.

The reason why a chess piece was a chess piece was as such.

Just as Mo Angyin was unsettled, a System Notification sounded out in his ear.

“System Notification: China Region Lord Ouyang Shuo has started a country war, Piao country enters country war mode, entering level 2 state of emergency. As for the specific situation, players please check it out yourselves.”

…

“System Notification: Piao country enters country war mode. Based on the rules, during this period, the imperial city teleportation formation will be cut off from the territory ones. Players are unable to revive when they die.”

…

“How did this happen?” Mo Angyin’s face was ashen white. Based on the intel from the organization, Great Xia should be focusing on Morocco, so why did they suddenly attack Piao Country?

Thinking back to how Great Xia usually acted, Mo Angyin suddenly thought about something.

“Are they trying to lead the troops away from Morocco, or are they trying to misdirect us?”

Mo Angyin was not in the mood to guess. With the character of Great Xia, since they had started the war, they would not stop until they won it. With Piao Country’s weak strength, how would they be able to block it?

“In the end, I’ll be a sacrificial victim of the organization!” Mo Angyin was filled with grievances.

However, this grievances had nowhere to be released.

The only party that could save Piao was their neighbor, the Peacock Dynasty.

22nd day 8 AM, Great Xia southwest warzone commander Baiqi led the Dragon Legion Corps and the Hanoi legion corps, a total of 650 thousand troops, to cross the border and start the country war.

The motto of the Great Xia Army was to end the betrayal.

Before this, Piao Country had sent envoys to express their willingness to submit to Great Xia. However, they then changed their mind. To Great Xia, this was a betrayal, and there was nothing wrong with them taking revenge.

…

Same day, Johor.

Johor was split by the South China Sea into two. The Johor peninsula connected to Siam as well as Kalimantan, which was connected to Java.

Imperial city Putrajaya was located in the Johor peninsula.

Compared to Piao Country, Johor only had 2.5 million players, so Putrajaya only had 125 thousand guards.

At basically the same time as the Battle of Piao Country began, Johor was suddenly hit with the flames of war and was destined to be drowned by the Great Xia Army.

At 8 AM, the Tiger Legion Corps that was lying in wait in Xingzhou Prefecture went past the narrow Johor Straits to attack Johor peninsula to take down Putrajaya under Sun Bin’s leadership.

At 9 AM, under the protection of the Yashan Squadron, the Leopard Legion Corps and the Luzon formation entered Kalimantan.

Kalimantan was the third biggest island in the world, and its land size was similar to Qinghai Province. Its north was owned by Johor and the south was owned by Java.

Han Xin leading his troops to attack Kalimantan meant that Great Xia was not only attacking Johor and Piao, these two traitors, but they were also going to officially declare war on Java.

Such an imposing manner was so shocking.

The moment the System Notification sounded out, Johor Lord Shantha probably had the same feeling as Mo Angyin. Apart from bitterness, there was nothing else.

…

Let us talk about Java.

Java was formed from 17508 small islands, and it was the biggest chain island country. Its biggest area was Kalimantan, Sumatra, Irian island, Java island, and Sulawesi island.

Although Great Xia was declaring war on three countries had once, it did not lose its head.

Java was not such an easy country to take down, so declaring war on it was mainly to nibble at it, reducing the strategic space of Java and make it so that it could not start waves in Southeast Asia.

Out of the five islands, Java island where imperial city Jakarta was located as well as Sumatra island where Badong City was located were not within the attack range of this battle. The remaining three islands were not so lucky.

Han Xin was in charge of taking down Kalimantan, the Nanjiang legion corps was tasked with taking down Irian island that was next to Australia. As for Sulawesi, it would depend on the progression of the battle.

If they could smoothly take down the three islands, it would be enough to hurt Java whilst not shaking its roots and challenging their bottom line.

If Java were to go all out, it would be really problematic.

…

In a day, Great Xia started three consecutive country wars.

Apart from using the million troops in the southwest war zone, they moved the Leopard and Tiger Legion Corps, totally giving up on the west and north defenses to go all out.

In Ouyang Shuo’s words, “Since we are going to play, let’s go all out.”

Utilizing the power of the war exempt card, Ouyang Shuo was prepared to sweep Southeast Asia and chase Silver Hand and Azure Badge out of it. This was to create a stable backline for future expansion.

This seemed really risky, but it was actually a really safe plan.

Java, Johor, and Piao formed a combined battle front. As they were attacked at the same time, they could not help one another.

As a result, whether they fought or not did not make much of a difference.

Since that was the case, rather than defending on the backfoot, why not strike out and show the invincibility of Great Xia? It would make Silver Hand realize that when compared to Azure Badge, Great Xia was not weak.

And this was not all that Great Xia did.

Zhang Liang had mentioned that Somalia Province might fall in the same way as Morocco. As such, they needed to take down another country in Africa to combine it with Somalia.

With two provinces, Great Xia would not fear any challenge.

One had to say that the reason why Morocco was in such an awkward position was because it was separated from Somalia; they were not connected.

If not, Great Xia might have been able to have a good battle with Silver Hand in Africa.

Hence, while they started the three wars in Southeast Asia, Great Xia also started one in Africa, aiming right at Ethiopia.

Ethiopia had three thousand years of history, establishing the Nubia empire in 800 BC. Currently, they had 10 million players and the 500 thousand guards in the imperial city of Addis Ababa.

Compared to Southeast Asia, Ethipia alone was bigger than both Johor and Piao added together.

As a result, to take it down, Great Xia sent out the Guards Legion Corps, City Protection Legion Corps, and the East Africa legion corps, dispatching a million troops. Apart from that, the West Africa legion corps would assist after they left Morocco Province.

Consequently, the Battle of Ethiopia would be a crucial battle in this string of wars.

If they were solely fighting Ethiopia, the Great Xia Army would have a high chance of winning. Who knows whether the Arab Empire at the side would join in and make matters complicated or not.

The war exempt card lasted only for a month, which meant that it would be the best if all four battles could end within that month.

If not, they were going to face many problems.

It was due to the basis of having a month that Great Xia did not send troops for half a month to prepare better.

It was okay if they did not strike, but when they did, they would shock everyone.

…

The sudden operation of Great Xia shocked the globe once more.

Just as everyone in the world felt that Great Xia was going to have a fight against Silver Hand in Morocco Province, Great Xia suddenly swung its spear and started four country wars.

Hence, Great Xia was clearly not thinking about keeping Morocco.

The truth was just that. When the war matters on the 22nd day ended, Mulan Yue led the last batch of officials to leave and teleport back to Shanhai City, awaiting arrangements from the Imperial Court.

The West Africa Legion corps left the 3rd and 4th legions to defend Jidian City while the other three were thrown into the Somalia.

3rd month, 23rd day, the Alliance Army smoothly took down Morocco.

Regretfully, on the way to Rabat, the Morocco King was unfortunately killed by Great Xia soldiers and did not manage to reestablish his country.

Anyone could see who the so-called Great Xia remaining soldiers were…

Silver Hand was not so generous to give up Morocco Province to an NPC after spending so much to take it down. From the start, it was not going to work.

After the battle, as for who the Morocco Province belonged to, Silver Hand was really controlled, and they did not all fight for it.

For the organization to survive for hundreds of years, they had their own ways.

Before the war, the Silver Hand had internally decided on what to do with the province. Simply put, the province would be handled by the Spanish and 70% of the taxes would go to the organization.

For Silver Hand to work on the global scale, it needed large amounts of financial support. Before which, the expenditure was paid by the own Lords. Now, with shared territory, the situation naturally becomes different.

The remaining 30% was the profits for Spain. After considering the daily expenses, it would not be much. Especially once the Alliance Army saw the empty treasury when they entered Rabat, which caused them a headache.

In a short half a month, all the essence of Morocco was removed, and only an empty burden was left for Silver Hand.

Under Mulan Yue’s leadership, Chinese culture had taken root in Morocco. Now, to suddenly be ruled by the Spanish, the people would not be happy.

For the Spanish to get on the right path in Morocco Province, they would have to spend a lot of effort and resources.

The part that made Spanish Lord Casillas feel like a bone was in his throat was Jidian City. After they took down Morocco Province, they tried attack Jidian City.

The result was that they tried for a morning before totally giving up.

Without mentioning the disturbances of the magic-powered submarine and the overpowered performance of the combat puppets, just the three thousand cannons alone posed a huge problem.

After one round of firing, no ship dared to get close.

“How is that even a city? It is basically a super cannon.” No matter how strong the Alliance Army was, they did not dare to attack while braving such cannon fire.

Such losses were not something the Alliance Army could bear.

Such an outcome not only made it uncomfortable for Casillas, but it also stunned the higher ups of Silver Hand. Thinking about it, they all did so much, but they did not get any practical benefits.

“Great Xia still has a presence here in the Mediterranean Ocean. We tried so hard, yet we only got one piece of land in Africa?”

Chapter 1161 - Anticlimactic

Chapter 1161: Anticlimactic

Obviously, Silver Hand got something out of all of this.

Be it the Atlantic Squadron’s fall or the loss of Morocco Province, both were a huge loss to Great Xia and a huge harm to their strength.

Although they still had Jidian City, Great Xia’s influence in the Mediterranean and Atlantic was at its lowest and they could not walk out of the Gibraltar Straits

On this point, Silver Hand’s strategic goal had been met. Through this battle, Silver Hand had also proved their strong position on the global scale.

They were so strong that Great Xia was unable to fight head on against them.

Even then, Silver Hand was not happy, as the four sudden country wars that Great Xia started could very well change the global situation. In comparison, the Battle of Morocco was not much.

Dawson Dynasty, Free City.

Number 1’s expression was a little awkward. Before this, he had mocked Ouyang Shuo for being too young and not being able to hold himself back. Who knew that Great Xia would suddenly trick all of them?

“Hei, we really cannot underestimate the young kids.” Although Number 1 was awkward, he did not worry much.

Out of the four counties that Great Xia attacked, Ethiopia did not belong to Silver Hand nor Azure Badge, while Johor and Piao were Azure Badge members. Only Java was truly a member of Silver Hand.

Looking at the situation, Great Xia did not plan to try to wipe out Java.

Hence, even if Great Xia got what they wanted, the one who loses would be Azure Badge and not Silver Hand. This was something that Number 1 was happy to see.

As a result, when Piao Country sought help from the Peacock Dynasty, Number 1 did not force them to help. Whether they sent reinforcements or not would depend on Durava’s personal judgment.

“Now, it’s time to watch the show in peace!”

Regarding the Battle of Asia, be it the Dawson Dynasty or the House of Tudor, there was nothing that they could do.

While they were getting ready for the show, Number 1 felt envious of Number 2’s good luck.

Looking at the situation, Great Xia going all out on the overseas battlefield meant that they would be empty internally. As long as Great Zhou did not mess up and struck out decisively, they would collect huge gains.

Completing the change of tides against Great Xia was not impossible.

“Hei, they are getting it easy!” Number 1 shook his head helplessly and did not think more about it.

…

Great Zhou Dynasty, Handan City.

“Is the old fox crazy?”

After learning that Great Xia had started war on four fronts, Di Chen’s first reaction was disbelief.

However, he had to believe it.

Xiong Ba and Chun Shenjun had already proven that the Tiger Legion Corps and Leopard Legion Corps had indeed been move away, and the border defenses were empty. This was a huge temptation to Di Chen.

Should they follow the plan and attack Beijiang Province, or should they go down south right for the core land of Great Xia?

“Go down south!”

Di Chen did not hesitate, as such a chance was hard to come by.

3rd month, 25th day, Great Zhou Pill Sun legion corps, Blood Red legion corps, and King legion corps were ordered to go down south to take Jiangchuan Province and start the China internal war.

The moment the news spread out, the China region players clamored.

“Great Xia is trying to claim land overseas, while Great Zhou stabs them in the back. How despicable!”

“Traitors!”

“Shameless, get out of China!”

All of a sudden, everyone scolded Great Zhou.

Even players who chose to move to Great Zhou felt really ashamed. They had to follow the choice of their guild, but they could not accept such humiliation.

It was tough in reality, but who knew that they would have such a tough time even in the game.

“I’ve had it!”

Some players were unhappy and left their guilds to head toward Great Xia to live. They did not believe that the backstabbers could win against Great Xia.

Of course, more of them were cold-blooded.

The wilderness followed the law of the jungle. Before the war situation became clear, most of the players living in Great Zhou would choose to keep a blind eye.

Some people were even thinking that if Great Zhou succeeded in their sneak attack, they would benefit.

Talking about loyalty to the players would be like playing instruments to cows.

Handan City, palace.

Facing the attacks from the outside world, Di Chen was expressionless. His heart remained as calm as water. He had decided to take all of this, “By choosing this road, I have to bear all the difficulties.”

“Taking this step, he is more or less unwilling.” No one was born a dark person, and if one could be a hero, why would one go against it?

The world was like chess, and everyone was a chess piece.

…

Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

Great Zhou Dynasty declaring war was as Ouyang Shuo had expected.

Ouyang Shuo wondered how Zhan Lang felt as a hidden chess piece of Azure Badge in the Yanhuang Alliance after the two organizations exposed themselves.

He had a home, but he could not return.

The moment Zhan Lang’s identity was exposed, Great Zhou Dynasty would be in chaos.

To Ouyang Shuo, this was a hidden card that could give Great Zhou a fatal blow at a crucial moment. When Zhan Lang was ordered by the former president to be honest with Ouyang Shuo, they probably did not expect things to reach such a stage.

Although the Great Zhou army was entering Jiangchuan Province, Ouyang Shuo was not in a rush to use the war exempt card. It was not easy to find a chance to incriminate Great Zhou, so why would he give it up?

As for the losses of Jiangchuan Province, it was nothing in comparison.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo did not wait for long.

26th day, the second day after Great Zhou attacked Jiangchuan Province, Ouyang Shuo used the card.

A golden light shot into the skies like when the territory upgraded, spreading out toward the borders and sweeping to Jiangchuan Province.

The traveling Great Zhou army was stunned on the spot and could not proceed forward.

At the same time, Di Chen received a System Notification.

“System Notification: Great Xia has used the war exempt card, within a month, the neighboring territories cannot declare war on Great Xia. Please retreat, if not, you will have to bear the consequences.”

“….”

Di Chen was shocked. At this moment, his mouth was so wide that one could shove an egg inside it.

“There is such a thing?”

Di Chen was not a fool, and he immediately realized that he had fallen for the old fox’s trick once again. Great Xia dared to move the Tiger and Leopard Legion Corps away because they had nothing to fear. At the same time, they dug a hole for Great Zhou.

Who knew that Di Chen would jump in without hesitation.

Now was great. He did not succeed and was scolded by all the players instead.

“As for disregarding the warnings from Gaia and continuing to advance?”

Not to mention that Di Chen did not have the courage to challenge the authority of Gaia, but the army could not proceed forward even if he wanted them to.

This was the game world; it was different from reality.

Sometimes, an unassuming tool could change the direction of a war.

“What a scheme!”

Di Chen gritted his teeth and clenched his fists as his fingernail dug into his flesh.

Great Zhou started the country war but lost everything in the end, missing this great chance. Who knows whether Di Chen could block the attacks of Great Xia in the future or not.

In the huge dynasty, a storm was brewing.

…

Di Chen’s worry was quickly proven.

Seeing the Great Zhou army leave in defeat, the people who could not take it were the Great Zhou adventure gamemode players who felt that this boat was not stable.

“If we stay, we are going to sink!”

The first to leave were the medium and small-sized guilds; all of them fled toward Great Xia.

Things were not that simple.

The moment players moved into a territory, it was not so easy for them to simply retreat. Before the war began, scattered players leaving was okay, and the Great Zhou Dynasty would not care much.

However, guilds wanting to leave altogether was not possible!

“Those living in Great Zhou are our people, and if they dare to move toward Great Zhou, they are traitors to our nation!” Di Chen said.

Di Chen was ready to smash the can to have a showdown with the players.

One could not blame Di Chen for doing that. If he allowed the players to leave, it would give rise to an even bigger leaving wave. When that happened, even the giant guilds would not be able to suppress the feelings of their members, and they might be forced to leave Great Zhou.

When that happened, Great Zhou would truly be alone.

Without adventure gamemode players helping them in battle, just the beast caves within the border would not be something that Great Zhou could handle.

The moment Di Chen went strong the players submitted.

Facing the territory army, the adventure gamemode players did not possess any advantage. Since the Imperial Court was not willing to release them, they could only remain in Great Zhou. However, the unhappiness in their hearts had been silently buried.

When Ouyang Shuo received news of this, he could not help but praise Di Chen for his actions.

However, if he forcefully suppressed it, he would not be able to suppress it in the end. Ouyang Shuo immediately instructed the Shanhai Guards to use their spies in Great Zhou to make contact with these guilds.

Who knows, maybe they would be of use in the future.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo did not have much high hopes. These players were like creepers on the war, and they were different from the players who had moved to Great Xia since the start.

If they really came, whether Great Xia would accept them was another problem.

…

Due to the war exempt card, this internal battle in China ended in such an anticlimactic fashion, leaving one’s mouth agape.

After stabilizing the country situation, Ouyang Shuo turned his eyes once again to the overseas battlefield.

Great Xia was fighting one against four, and whether other powers would step in or not was unknown, so it needed to be treated carefully.

Chapter 1162 - Going Through Tibet

Chapter 1162: Going Through Tibet

As much work had been done, Great Xia was pushing forth really smoothly on all four fronts in the first week of the battle, occupying cities along the way with a strong sense of confidence.

In just a week, Han Xin led his forces to take down the north of Kalimantan and was entering the south that belonged to Java. The Tiger Legion Corps led by Sun Bin had made it to the foot of Putrajaya in Johor.

Looking at the situation, Johor was going to be the first country to be wiped out.

The Dragon Legion Corps and the Hanoi legion corps had arrived at the outskirts of Piao Country imperial city Naypyidaw and were ready to launch their final assault. But after the new system update, one needed to occupy the entire country and not just take down the imperial city to win the country war one.

Even so, the imperial city was a symbol of the country and was the location where troops heavily defended.

The moment one took it down, a large half of the country war would be won.

The Nanjing legion corps was pushing smoothly on Irian island. Looking at the situation, Badong City did not have the courage to go head to head against the Great Xia Army.

They were planning to defend their main camp, Sulawesi Island.

Java Lord Uwais’s plan was simple. He was prepared to analyse the situation, and if the organization did not make any big actions to prevent Great Xia from acting, Badong City had no choice but to swallow this.

If Silver Hand had plans to counterattack, it would not be too late to send troops then.

Although he felt a little helpless, it was the best method that Uwais could think of. During the previous Battle of Luzon, Badong City had lost 350 thousand troops and the Badong Squadron. Till now, they still had not recovered from that defeat, and they did not have the courage to go all out against Great Xia.

As for assuring Johor, that was impossible. Badong City could not even protect themselves now, so what ability did they have to help others?

No matter what the end result was, in the future, Badong City would have to live with their tails between their legs.

The relatively difficult one out of the four would be the Ethiopian battlefield. First, the army was on an expedition, and although logistics was handled by the Indian Ocean Squadron, it still was not as smooth as the Southeast Asia battlefield.

More importantly, Ethiopia mainly consisted of high plains and a quarter was desert. It was a huge test to the Guards and City Protection Legion Corps to fight under such extreme conditions.

The entire battlefield was showing signs of entering on a standstill.

Luckily, the Guards Legion Corps was a top force and the City Protection Legion Corps was not weak either. Under the leadership of Huo Qubing, Shi Wanshui, Shi Dakai, and Di Qing, the overall frontlines was pushing forward.

Without any outside interference, taking down Ethiopia was just a matter of time.

Looking at the situation, if Silver Hand and Azure Badge did not do anything, Great Xia was about to silence the world.

However, things naturally did not go so smoothly.

The first to act was naturally the Peacock Dynasty.

3rd month, 30th day, the Peacock Dynasty sent out a legion corps to assist Piao Country to defend against the attacks of Great Xia. If things did not proceed smoothly, they were ready to send another one.

One had to say that they were really willing.

Similar to China, India had 100 million players. More similar was that the current India region was not only owned by the Peacock Dynasty.

Apart from the Peacock Dynasty, India had a new Gupta Dynasty that was showing signs of splitting India with the Peacock Dynasty. Between the two dynasties, there were three other territories.

The five player territories along with the imperial city formed the main situation in India.

Even so, the Peacock Dynasty’s overall strength was a level higher than Great Zhou’s. Based on the intel from the Black Snake Guards, they had five legion corps, a total of two million troops.

When such a giant acts, it was naturally exceptional.

Although Silver Hand did not force the Peacock Dynasty to help, Durava had enough reason to interfere in this war.

To the Peacock Dynasty, Piao Country was a buffer zone between it and Great Xia.

If Piao Country remained there, Peacock Dynasty would have nothing to worry about, not needing to worry about going head on against Great Xia. Without Piao Country there, the two dynasties would be connected. No one was willing to be neighbors with Great Xia.

The Peacock Dynasty king said arrogantly, “We must keep Piao Country!”

…

4th month, 1st day, Shanhai City.

Within the Xia Palace, Ouyang Shuo was together with Du Ruhui and was focusing on the frontline reports at every moment.

Du Ruhui smiled, “Peacock Dynasty acted in the end.”

“It was expected.” The two of them were not shocked. Ouyang Shuo placed down the report and said, “Send the order to Li Jing that he can start to move.”

“Yes, my king.” Du Ruhui nodded.

Ouyang Shuo was naturally wary against Peacock Dynasty. As the Great Xia Army was fighting on four fronts, they naturally had precautionary measures to lower the risk to a minimum.

“Ask Sun Bin to quicken the pace and get ready to assist in Piao Country.” Ouyang Shuo instructed.

Du Ruhui said, “Do not worry, my king. Based on the newest intel from the Tiger Legion Corps, they will take down Putrajaya latest tomorrow, and they will be able to rush for the Battle of Piao Country.”

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he nodded in satisfaction. Sun Bin had not let him down.

Apart from the country war battle last year, the Tiger Legion and Leopard Legion had been camping at the border for a long time. Unlike the Guards and Dragon Legion Corps that had time to participate in expeditions, these soldiers were dying of thirst.

As a result, Han Xin and Sun Bin were naturally really pumped up this time.

The two legion corps were really vicious in their attacks, trying to complete the first stage of their battle quickly so that they could join the second battle.

In Han Xin’s words, “We cannot let the Dragon Legion Corps ride too far ahead.”

Based on the plan, after the Tiger Legion Corps took down Johor peninsula, it would go up north into Piao Country. If the Leopard and Luzon legion corps smoothly took down Kalimantan, they would attack Sulawesi.

Every part of the plan was interconnected.

Such arrangements were made to end the battle cleanly within a month.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also had a trump card. This was the reserve forces for this war, but if things went smoothly, he would not use it.

Now, they needed to see who else apart from Peacock Dynasty would jump out to find trouble with Great Xia.

…

Shu Lands, Tibet Border.

Due to the existence of communication compasses, military orders were transmitted instantly. With the order given, the Bear Legion Corps immediately acted, crossing the border entering Tibet.

One must not misunderstand, as the Bear Legion Corps was not going to attack Tibet.

Although Tibet had sent an envoy to Great Xia and wanted to marry a Great Xia princess, which annoyed Ouyang Shuo, it was not the right time to attack Tibet now.

Ouyang Shuo was not so arrogant to attack five places at once. That was not confidence but craziness.

The Bear Legion Corps was prepared to go through Tibet to attack the north area of Peacock Dynasty to force back the reinforcements to Piao Country.

Maybe he realized that his previous request had angered the Xia King, as when he heard the request from the Honglu Temple, he agreed right away without any hesitation.

They were worried that Great Xia would take revenge. Seeing that there was a chance to mend their relationship, they would take it immediately.

It was still that sentence, things had to be done step by step.

To Great Xia, the two most important things now were to sweep Southeast Asia to dig a deeper strategic depth and build a stable base in Africa to plant a nail there.

As for having war with Peacock Dynasty, it was not something that could be considered now.

As a result, even if they knew that the Peacock Dynasty would assist Piao, Ouyang Shuo was not going to go head on against Peacock Dynasty because that would result in other uncertainties.

Now, it would depend on how determined the Peacock Dyansty was in protecting Piao, or rather, how great of price they were willing to pay to do so.

One must not forget that Peacock Dynasty had many challengers in India. The moment they entered a war against Great Xia, Peacock Dynasty would not feel good.

Of course, if the Peacock Dynasty was stubborn and wanted to go all in with Great Xia, Ouyang Shuo was willing to play till the end.

Whether they were stubborn or not, they would see on the battlefield.

Chapter 1163 - Arab Empire

Chapter 1163: Arab Empire

4th month, 3rd day, the Peacock Dynasty’s army was on the way down south and bumped into the Hanoi legion corps that was in charge of border defense. The two sides engaged in a heated battle that resulted in a fairly even fight. Hence, their road down south was cut off.

Even so, Piao Country’s morale soared.

The assistance of the Peacock Dynasty not only let Piao Country see hope of turning the tides of war, but it also let the other war zones see the light. They hoped for more powers to interfere and join this huge war.

The second to jump in was the Arab Empire.

The Arab Empire was west of the Persian Gulf, east of the Red Sea, and was an ocean across North Africa. It was formed from 10 odd countries with around 14 million players, together becoming the West Asia region.

In the merging process, the imperial city guards all changed into troops of the empire. The current Arab Empire had no imperial city guards, but the empire army had reached a humongous two million.

Be it territory or scale of its army, the Arab Empire was a presence that could not be neglected.

When Great Xia slowly lost control of the ocean regions connecting the Gulf of Aden, Red Sea, Suez Canal, and Mediterranean Ocean, the Arab Empire had jumped out to seize the control of the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.

One must know that trading was one of the key pillars of the Arab Empire. The Arabs were natural businessmen, and after Great Xia opened up the voyage trading path, one could see fervent Arab Traders everywhere.

Controlling the Red Sea had a huge meaning to the Arab Empire.

At such a time, naturally Arab Empire was not willing to let Great Xia take down Ethiopia and strengthen their presence in the region because would only add difficulties to their plans.

Toward this, Great Xia’s attitude was adamant.

4th month, 4th day, the Arab Dynasty tried to send an army over the Red Sea to assist Ethiopia. Unfortunately, halfway through the journey, they were intercepted by the Great Xia Indian Ocean Squadron and were sunk.

To facilitate the Battle of Ethiopia, the 2nd and 3rd divisions of the Indian Ocean Squadron patrolled the Gulf of Aden ocean region every day. The Arab Empire itself was not famous for its navy, so how would it dare to go head to head against the Great Xia Indian Ocean Squadron?

Who would have known that their determination was quite big?

After suffering from their first setback, they were not dejected and started to contact the Lords in the Mediterranean to use the navy advantage there to help interfere in the Battle of Ethiopia.

In recent days, the armies of the Mediterranean countries that attacked Morocco had already returned to their territories. Facing the invitations from the Arab Empire, many of them were glad to accept.

The most eager one was Caesar’s Rome City.

Their eagerness added a lot of uncertainty to the Battle of Ethiopia.

…

Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

Ouyang Shuo placed down the battle report. He frowned as he said, “The Arab Empire thieves have not given up.”

Apart from being rich in oil, the Arab Empire did not have much in other types of resources. Oil in the current game background was not much of a strategic resource.

Even Great Xia Dyansty, which was pushing out industrialization on a full scale, had a limited need for oil. Just the oil fields in China were enough to satisfy the needs of industrialization.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo had not paid much attention to the Arab Empire before this. Who would have known that they would become a tripping rock in front of Great Xia?

After the Indian Ocean Squadron sent them a warning, they did not stop in their tracks.

If the Battle of Ethiopia dragged on, it would be really bad for Great Xia. Not only would they face logistical pressures, but it would also cause neighboring territories to fight back. If things went badly, they would be pulled into the quicksand of war, unable to pull themselves out of it.

Regretfully, Great Xia had no troops to send now.

Within their borders, apart from the Eagle and Beijiang Legion corps, all the remnant forces were at war. The Eagle Legion Corps needed to defend against West Xia and Tibet, while the Beijiang legion corp sneeded to defend against Great Zhou and Romanov Dynasty.

Neither of them could be moved away.

The only thing that could be used was that trump card in Ouyang Shuo’s hand.

Just as he was ready to move, a System Notification suddenly sounded on in his ear.

“World Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi for taking down Johor, your reputation spreads far and wide, specially awarded 50 thousand merit points and 100 thousand reputation points, congratulations players.”

…

Sun Bin finally lived up to expectations and took down Putrajaya at the crucial moment, taking down Johor Peninsula and sending Johor to hell. He won the Imperial Court their first country war victory in this round.

The day that Johor was wiped out, the situation for Great Xia got better.

The Tiger Legion Corps took a slight rest before they immediately went up north to assist the Piao Country battlefield.

Peacock Dynasty sent one legion corps, and Great Xia increased their troops by one more legion corps. Under such circumstances, the Piao Country camp did not have any advantage.

In terms of combat strength, the Peacock Dynasty army could not be compared to the Great Xia army.

“Now, it’s time to see how the Peacock Dynasty reacts.” Ouyang Shuo’s expression instantly became relaxed. He came to the front of the window and looked toward the distant west.

…

India Region, Gupta Dynasty.

Peacock Dynasty belonged to the Silver Hand camp, while the Gupta Dynasty belonged to the Azure Badge camp.

Maybe because they had failed to acclimatize, but Azure Badge was not doing as well as Silver Hand in the game. They were scattered across the globe and were not forming into a good system.

Many of their territories went head to head with Silver Hand in their respective regions but were unable to occupy the main spot.

India was a perfect example.

Johor and Piao Country could be considered important members of Azure Badge and were one of the rare few that occupied a region. The fall of Johor was a huge loss to Azure Badge.

Azure Badge could not accept it if Piao Country fell.

However, Gupta Dynasty was not connected to Piao, and the ocean route was locked down by Great Xia. Even if they wanted to assist, they could not. Their heavy rival, Peacock Dynasty, would not let them pass through their land.

“No, we have to discuss with Great Xia.”

Since they could not settle it using military, Azure Badge was ready to take the diplomatic route.

…

Peacock Dynasty, Bangalore City.

The moment the notification of Johor being wiped out was released, Durava frowned and viciously said, “Useless, they could not even last for half a month.”

From the 3rd month, 22nd day when Great Xia declared war to the 4th month, 5th day when Johor fell, only 14 days had passed.

The destruction of Johor placed Peacock Dynasty in an awkward position.

Before the start of the war, Peacock Dynasty king had released arrogant words saying that he was going to throw two legion corps into the Piao Country battlefield. Seeing that the Tiger Legion Corps was coming up north, it was time for him to keep his promise.

The problem was that even if he threw in another legion corps now, he would not be able to obtain victory in the Battle of Piao. At most, he would maintain a stalemate.

“Increase troops or not, that was the question.”

Luckily, Great Xia did not give Peacock Dynasty too much time to ponder. On the 4th month, 8th day, the Bear Legion Corps that travelled through Tibet smoothly arrived at the north border of Peacock Dynasty, starting a war against Peacock Dynasty.

When the country war System Notification sounded out, the first reaction of the Indian players was, “Is Great Xia crazy? They actually dare to provoke us?”

In truth, India had the power to be arrogant.

Even if Great Xia went all out, they would not be able to take down India. Not to mention the fact that Great Xia was fighting on three fronts and had no strength to provoke India.

Following which, they felt endless amounts of rage.

“We need to teach Great Xia a lesson. India is not so easily provoked!”

“Fight!”

All of a sudden, many people sought to go to war.

As the two biggest regions in Asia, China and India did not see eye to eye. The players of the two regions did not like one another and saw themselves as the best game region.

These feelings were naturally reflected on the battlefield.

The moment Great Xia declared war, the India region was pumped up and clamoring to fight a large war.

The problem was that history had proved time and time again that players were not the stars of country wars. Especially after the 6th system update, where the ability of players to affect country wars was reduced to the lowest point.

First, the soldiers were strengthened, and secondly, the players were all separated to different parts of the territory, unlike before where they all stayed in the imperial city.

Along with the real time update of the achievement value, a layer of hesitation and fear was added to the players.

As a result, there was a really interesting phenomenon. The Indian players were really loud on the forums, but those who actually rushed to the frontlines were a rare few.

The players were hoping for the territory armies to handle such an invader.

The main one was naturally the Peacock Dynasty.

Thinking back to the Battle of Piao that the Peacock Dynasty had just interfered in, the Indian players had more of an excuse, “Great Xia started this country war to target Peacock Dynasty to make them pull out of Piao.”

“Peacock Dynasty needs to solve this problem themselves.”

With such a mindset, the players were more willing to be bystanders. The reason being that the Indian Players did not feel that Great Xia could take down India. Hence, they had no fear of things spiraling out of control.

Not only the players, but even Gupta Dynasty and the other territories did not do much apart from making noise. Who knows, maybe they were gloating in silence.

Now, it was time to see how the Peacock Dynasty would react.

Chapter 1164 - Azure Badge's Diplomacy Card

Chapter 1164: Azure Badge’s Diplomacy Card

Obviously, the Peacock Dynasty was not foolish.

However, they had already sent out troops, and if they retreated without even fighting, they would lose all their face. On the other hand, when they thought about the prospect of forcefully going head to head against Great Xia, it felt difficult too.

Bengalore City, palace.

“What should we do?” Durava asked the ministers under him.

One of them was a historical talent; he was the minister under the 3rd generation king of Peacock Dynasty in history, Ashoka. In the game, he was a 50 year old man and the person Durava trusted the most.

“Does the king want to retreat or protect Piao Country?” He asked.

Durava was stunned but answered, “It would be best if we could protect Piao Country.”

“Since that’s the case, I have a plan.”

“Speak!” Durava’s eyes lit up.

He said, “Doesn’t Gupta Dynasty also want to assist Piao Country, except we did not allow them to pass? Then we should make way for them and let them enter the Piao Country battlefield.”

“This.” Durava frowned and said in worry, “Would that not be too risky? What if they do not assist Piao and attack us halfway?”

The two dynasties were enemies and such a matter was not an impossibility.

“They will not.” The minister was filled with confidence.

“Why so?”

“If it were before Great Xia started the country war, that would be possible. But now that India was in a country war with Great Xia, if Gupta Dynasty did that, they would incur the wrath of everyone. It would be courting death.

Durava was enlightened, and he finally revealed a smile on his face, “So, Great Xia attacking the north is instead helping us?”

“That’s right.”

“Okay, let’s do just that.”

Durava was a decisive person and was willing to take a gamble.

Both Gupta Dynasty and Piao Country belonged to the Azure Badge camp. If Peacock Dynasty agreed to let them pass, Gupta Dynasty would not have a reason to not send help.

With the assistance of Gupta Dynasty, the Battle of Piao could continue. They could even use the chance to drag Gupta Dynasty down.

The plan was really wise.

Of course, apart from the Piao Country battlefield, Durava was more concerned about the battle in the north. That was because at the border where India and Tibet was connected, Peacock Dyansty did not have much troops there.

The sudden entry of the Bear Legion Corps had caught them off guard.

Bear Legion Corps marshal Li Jing was a godly presence, and right after entering, he dragged the entire north into the flames of war.

For this, the Peacock Dynasty had no choice but to move two legion corps up north as an emergency measure to fend off the Bear Legion Corps.

Furthermore, due to the need to defend against Gupta Dynasty, Peacock Dynasty did not dare to send any more reinforcements to Piao. They placed their hopes on Gupta Dynasty to help Piao.

The truth proved that the Gupta Dynasty was even more shameless than the Peacock Dynasty had thought.

…

4th month, 9th day, Gupta Dynasty, Mumbai City.

After receiving the letter that Durava was willing to make way, the Gupta Dynasty hesitated.

If it were before the country war began, Gupta Dynasty would immediately send troops to help Piao Country. However, this happened half a month later, and there were huge changes during this time.

First, there was the fall of Johor, which meant that the two battlefields were now separated. It also freed up the Great Xia Army to help out on the Piao Country battlefield and made the Battle of Piao even tougher.

Secondly, 70% of the Piao land was already lost, and they lacked strategic depth.

With the battle situation being so uncertain, if Gupta Dynasty rushed in brainlessly, it would be good if they could defend Piao, but if they could not, it would be a huge problem.

First, since they would be traveling in Peacock Dynasty land, logistical supplies would pose a huge problem.

Peacock Dynasty was not a philanthropist and would not allow Gupta Dynasty to build a resource line in their territory, much less provide grain.

As for Piao Country, they did not have the ability to provide grain for their allies.

Under such circumstances, why would Gupta Dynasty dare to send troops?

Taking a step back, even if the resource problem was solved, and the two dynasties protected Piao from Great Xia, what would happen then?

If the Peacock Dynasty did not allow the Gupta Dynasty troops to return or attacked them midway, there was nothing that the Gupta Dynasty could do.

Taking advantage and taking blows at one another was normal.

The problem was that the Peacock Dynasty had already held a press conference to announce the matter, saying they were willing to work together with the Gupta Dynasty to aid the Piao battlefield.

This time, the Gupta Dynasty was instantly pushed to the edge of the cliff.

If the Gupta Dynasty did not send out troops. It would affect their prestige in India.

“Durava that a*shole.” Gupta Dynasty Lord Akbar was furious and was about to swear out loud. He paused and said in a scheming manner, “Luckily, I have a plan, or else, I would have fallen into his trap.”

On the same day, Akbar gave a reply to Durava to say that the Azure Badge envoy had proceeded to Great Xia to mediate matters.

To express his sincerity, before the envoy returned, Gupta Dynasty would not send out troops.

This was a delay tactic.

When Durava received the letter, he was helpless and could only fight on two fronts and wait for the results of the mediation.

…

4th month, 11th day, Shanhai City.

Akbar was not truly hiding away from the problem. On this day, the Azure Badge envoy arrived in Shanhai City. They could arrive there so quickly because the envoy was a Chinese player.

After getting the report, Ouyang Shuo gave out a playful smile and said to the Honglu Temple official who came to report, “Let the envoy rest at the inn. I’ll see him tomorrow!”

“Yes, my king!”

Ouyang Shuo obviously knew that they were trying to stop the war.

Great Xia and the academic faction that was the current Azure Badge did have some run ins, but he did not owe them anything. Ouyang Shuo wanted to see what the envoy wanted to do.

The next morning, Ouyang Shuo met the envoy in the Wenhua Hall unhurriedly.

Wenhua Hall was a side hall in the Xia Palace. Ouyang Shuo chose this place to meet the envoy to humiliate Azure Badge.

As expected, the envoy’s face turned black.

On the Piao Country battlefield, Great Xia was at the foot of the imperial city. It was an emergency, and the envoy had come over anxiously. In the end, he wasted a full day waiting, making him really annoyed.

In his eyes, he represented Azure Badge, a power that Great Xia could not go against. He thought that Great Xia should have respectfully welcomed him and met him right away.

In the eyes of Azure Badge members, they were the center of the world. Such arrogant emotions were ingrained in their bones, and it was no different from Silver Hand.

Especially after former president Old Chen lost power. These kinds of arrogant tendencies started to grow more evident, just like a second Silver Hand.

All sort of ideals and beliefs were thrown out of the window.

Under such a backdrop, how could his face look nice? If it were not for him having something to plead with Great Xia, he would have flipped.

Even so, he chided, “I’m the envoy from Azure Badge. Is Great Xia a primitive land such that you guys do not know basic respect? Why are we not meeting in the main hall?”

Ouyang Shuo was expressionless. He did not need to say anything as Zhang Yi answered, “Great Xia naturally pays a lot of attention to rites. The main hall is to meet officials of equal power. But we did not know whether Azure Badge is a dynasty or not? Or a territory? Or if they are willing to build an official relationship with us?”

“….” the envoy was speechless.

Azure Badge had just been formed, so why would they build an relationship with Great Xia?

Zhang Yi was not going to let him go, “Since we do not have an official relationship, for the king to meet you here is already showing you face. Do not ask for too much.”

The envoy’s face flashed red. Only now did he realize that the so-called glow of Azure Badge had no effect on the top dynasty in the world.

In the end, diplomacy still needed the support of power.

It was not that the envoy did not know of the theory of there being no diplomacy if one was weak. However, he did not expect that Azure Badge would actually be the weak side.

As a super alliance that was going head to head with Silver Hand, shouldn’t everyone fear them wherever they went?

However, Great Xia did not fall for that.

Before they even talked about official matters, the fire in him was suppressed to the maximum. For him to be chosen as an envoy, he had some skill. At the very least, he was shameless.

Seeing that he was on the losing end of the matter, he changed the topic, “We once treated your dynasty well. Old Chen had given you pointers before. Does the Xia King admit that point?”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “I do indeed owe Old Chen one.”

In the city in the skies, Ouyang Shuo had received advice from Old Chen; this was something that he would admit.

When the envoy heard that, he made a relaxed expression and thought in his heart, ‘It is good that you remember.’

“Since that’s the case, we have something we need your help with. We hope that you will not decline.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled. He knew that it was coming, “Please speak!”

“We hope for Great Xia to retreat from Piao as a sign of our friendship.” They were really demanding, wanting Great Xia to back off right away.

Such shamelessness was something that Ouyang Shuo was used to.

However, he could not reject the request outright. After all, he did just say that he owed them one, and he could not burn the bridge right away.

He had to give them such face.

Chapter 1165 - Huge Victory

Chapter 1165: Huge Victory

Taking a deep breath, Ouyang Shuo said, “First, I only owe old Chen a favor and not Azure Badge. Rumors are also saying that the person in charge of Azure Badge is not Old Chen anymore. Is that true?”

“This….”

The envoy’s expression was evidently really awkward. This concerned their organization’s internal fight for power, and it was not convenient to release the information to the public.

Ouyang Shuo continued, “Secondly, favors are favors, and war is war. If Azure Badge thinks they are friends with Great Xia, how do you explain the Battle of Morocco?”

Although Silver Hand orchestrated the Battle of Morocco, Azure Badge had actively participated in it too.

“….”

The envoy was speechless. After a short pause, he said, “In truth, the Peacock Dynasty has already agreed to open up a path for Gupta Dynasty. If you do not back off from Piao, you will be attacked by both of them.”

Since they could not agree on friendship, the envoy could only threaten Great Xia with military action.

However, that was what Ouyang Shuo feared the least. He smiled and said, “That’s great. Nothing more needs to be said, let’s meet on the battlefield!”

“You!”

Seeing Ouyang Shuo remain adamant, the envoy lost all confidence. He did not try anymore and did not bother to suppress his temper. He left with a vicious statement, “Scoff, you will regret this!”

He left hurriedly.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head in amusement and left the Wenhua Hall.

…

When Azure Badge saw that diplomacy had failed, they were really disappointed. Embarrassment turned into rage, and they did not care anymore and ordered the Gupta Dynasty to send a legion corps to go across Peacock Dynasty and enter the Battle of Piao.

At the same time, the Gupta Dynasty changed their stance and asked the India region players to unite and fend off the Bear Legion Corps invasion to defend the honor of their country.

All of a sudden, the smell of gunpowder was strong in the north of India.

Toward this, Great Xia showed no fear. On the 4th month, 12th day, just as Ouyang Shuo was meeting the Azure Badge envoy, Han Xin took down Kalimantan.

Like it was a competition, Fan Lihua led the Nanjiang legion corps and took down Irian Island.

Along with the two islands falling, the entire war started to lean in Great Xia’s favor.

After taking down Kalimantan Island, the Han Xin led Leopard Legion Corps crossed the river toward the south shore of Siam province and headed toward Piao.

Before they arrived, they already threatened to turn the battlefield on its head.

If the Leopard Legion Corps truly entered the Piao Country battlefield, Great Xia would have four legion corps there. Moreover, all of them were trump cards. Just thinking about it made one tremble.

Such a formation was invincible.

Apart from the Leopard Legion Corps, the 1st legion of the Luzon formation stayed in Kalimantan, while the 2nd followed the Nanjiang Legion corps to attack Java’s Sulawesi.

Java’s territory army was smacked so bad that they could not raise their head, suffering heavy casualties.

In the middle of the 4th month, along with the Leopard Legion Corps entering the Battle of Piao, even if the Gupta and Peacock Dynasty worked together, they could not turn the tides of the battle.

The first to admit defeat was the Peacock Dynasty.

Not only were they worried that the legion corps they sent out would be eaten up by Great Xia, but they were even more worried that Great Xia would push into Peacock Dynasty.

The Bear Legion Corps was starting flames of war at the north of Peacock Dynasty, looking like they were trying to force Peacock Dynasty out of Piao. However, who knows if they would try to attack for real once the situation changed.

Even if India could win the country war, Peacock Dynasty was going to turn into ruins as the main battlefield.

This was a risk that they were not willing to take.

On the 4th month, 15th day, just as Sun Bin led the Tiger Legion Corps into Piao, going up north to meet up with the Hanoi legion corps, the enemy retreated.

Durava did not dare to take the gamble and shifted his troops back to the border. He also gathered 100 thousand laborers to rush border defense work.

The fear in his heart was there for all to see.

Since the Peacock Dynasty had yielded, the Gupta Dynasty naturally used this opportunity to stop the troops that they mobilized in their tracks and no longer talked about reinforcing Piao.

At this point, the outcome of the Battle of Piao was to be expected.

Seeing that, the Grand Council gave the order for the Leopard Legion Corps to back off to their camp in Xiangnan Province. The effect of the war exempt card was going to expire and the Leopard Legion Corps needed to defend the border.

On the other side, once the Tiger Legion Corps helped the Dragon Legion Corps take down Piao, they would return as well.

…

4th month, 15th day, India Region.

Seeing that the Peacock Dynasty had admitted defeat, the Bear Legion Corps did not want to go too far in case they made the Indian Players explode. They immediately brought their huge spoils of war and left, retreating back into Tibetan soil in the north.

A huge war slowly ended.

On the 4th month, 19th day, Piao was officially taken down by Great Xia.

On the day that Piao was destroyed, the territory army that Java stationed at Sulawesi Island teleported away and gave it up.

Java Lord Uwais knew that along with Piao being destroyed, from now on, no one could go against Great Xia in Southeast Asia. He could only concentrate his troops in Sumatra and defend his final base.

All of a sudden, there were 500 thousand territory troops gathered on Sumatra Island.

On Java Island a sea away, there were a million imperial city guards.

Due to the fall of the three islands of Badong City, the Java royal family happily occupied Java island.

When Uwais received the news, he swore furiously.

In the blink of an eye, the previously strong-looking Java was split into two powers. After this battle, Badong City was trapped in a diplomatic nightmare, and its power greatly waned. Apart from protecting itself, it could not threaten Great Xia.

Great Xia’s Southeast Asia strategy was smoothly being realized.

…

4th month, 20th day, Arab Empire.

The fall of Johor and Piao, Java being smashed into pieces, and the Peacock and Gupta Dynasties yielding. Currently, Great Xia was showing signs of sweeping the Asia battlefield.

The never ending System Notifications placed a lot of pressure on the Arab Empire.

Seeing that Great Xia had freed up all their troops and millions of them could arrive in Somalia at any moment, under such circumstances, did the Arab Empire have the ability to interfere in the Mediterranean?

Obviously not.

Did they not see that the Lords who had agreed to help had all backed down now?

Somalia and Morocco were different.

Morocco Province was located at a core region for Europe and America, and even the Dawson Empire could join in. Somalia was located at the Indian Ocean, and the effects of the European and American Lords were limited.

This gave Great Xia a chance.

In less than a month, Great Xia had taken down half the land of Ethiopia. Their logistical supply problem was solved, and the situation was looking better and better for them.

It was impossible for Silver Hand to use the same tricks and launch a million strong Alliance Army to try and make Ethiopia the quicksand that dragged Great Xia down.

If they really tried that, the one who would get trapped was uncertain.

Moreover, in the eyes of the Mediterranean Lords, they did not want the Dawson Dynasty to stretch their influence into the Mediterranean Ocean, which would give the Free Squadron free reign.

Great Xia’s four front war seemed to be unconnected, but it actually formed a body. No matter which front won, it would cause a chain reaction.

The current Great Xia army was invincible.

Whoever dared to enter the Battle of Ethiopia now would just be asking for it.

Although the Arab were greedy, they were not foolish. Seeing that there was nothing good they could get out of this, they dispersed the forces they gathered up and were not going to interfere.

Seeing that the person who started all of this was no longer interested, the other Mediterranean Lords were all the more so. Even the strong Caesar did not dare to fight Great Xia alone without the organization helping him.

The fall of Ethiopia was just a matter of time.

…

4th month, 26th day, Handan City.

That morning, the war exempt card that Ouyang Shuo used officially lost its effectiveness. However, Di Chen did not have any intentions of trying to take advantage of the situation. All he had was endless fear.

Fear against Great Xia.

In a short month, the entire world layout changed.

Facing the hounding actions of Silver Hand and Azure Badge, Great Xia treated it calmly. After proactively giving up Morocco, they launched a decisive counterattack.

First, they used the threat of the authority of China to make the eight dynasties, including Shu Han that hated them to the core, not start war against them. Then they made use of the war exempt card to block Great Zhou.

With there being no worries in China, they were able to go all out and use all the troops available to start up four wars. Furthermore, they won all of them, gaining bountiful rewards.

Such a combination of punch and kicks dazzled everyone, leaving one in awe.

From now on, Great Xia’s position as the Overlord of Asia was as stable as a mountain, unable to be shaken. After stabilizing the Asia region, they had more room to play the global game.

On the other hand, Great Zhou were traitors who had tried to start internal war, and they were at risk of being at the receiving end of Great Xia’s revenge.

“F** his mother, why is it so hard to just get by!”

Di Chen had lost his past magnanimous demeanor, and he became really dispirited.

Chapter 1166 - Change in the Way He Uses People

Chapter 1166: Change in the Way He Uses People

4th month, 28th day, Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo did not bother about Di Chen’s fear. Along with the end of the Battle of Ethiopia, a large amount of territory was waiting to be received and many war prisoners were getting ready to be organized.

To Great Xia, the hard work and bustle had only just began.

Due to the Southeast Asia situation slowly calming down, becoming a portion of Great Xia, the Cabinet suggested they make this region a part of the Australian continent administrative region to remodel and reorganize the area.

First, they would remove the Auckland region.

The Auckland region was directly listed under the Australian Province, becoming a prefecture under it. Deciding where the Auckland Region belonged posed a problem. Along with the Australia region situation calming down, that problem was totally solved.

Of course, they only removed the administrative region. Ouyang Shuo still had high hopes toward Auckland Provincial Governor Jason. He was appointed as the Australia Provincial Governor, taking a step up.

The current Australia Provincial Governor Lu Xiufu had other roles to undertake.

Secondly, reorganize Hanoi Province and Siam.

Hanoi Province was formed by Annan, Zhenla, and Nanzhang. This reorganization would merge Siam Country into Hanoi Province, forming a giant province.

The governing area would shift from Hanoi City to Vientiane, which was located around the center of the province.

After Siam country submitted, they had been working together with the Imperial Court. Today, the remodeling had been completed, and it was little inappropriate for them to keep their country title. As a result, Ouyang Shuo used this chance to merge them into Hanoi Province.

After merging them, Siam Provincial Governor Ti Lade would become the Luzon Provincial Governor. The current Luzon Provincial Governor Gu Xiuwen would become the Hanoi Provinical Governor. The current Hanoi Provincial Governor Zhu Zongxian would be appointed elsewhere.

The series of changes weakened the influence of Ti Lade in Siam while giving a good position to Gu Xiuwen.

The Hanoi Province after the merger was made up of the lands of four countries. Not only in Nanjiang, but even in the entire dynasty, it was one of the top two provinces. The position of Hanoi Provincial Governor was naturally more important and had higher weight than others.

There was one more point that was easily overlooked.

From a geographical position point of view, apart from Chuannan Province where Shanhai City was located in, Hanoi Province was the closest to Shanhai City, and it could be seen as the gate to the south of the Capital City.

Under such circumstances, the position of Hanoi Province was naturally really high.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo specially decreed the Provincial Governor to take the title of deputy minister of the Administrative Court, a secondary Grade 2 rank, which was a rank higher than normal Provincial Governors.

With that, Gu Xiuwen, who was a native civil servant, jumped to become the brightest star in the Great Xia civil servant group, becoming one of the most famous people in the dynasty.

There was some news that said Gu Xiuwen became the Hanoi Province because of the king’s insistence. The Cabinet had some other opinions about it. After all, be it in terms of ability or experience, it should not be the turn of Gu Xiuwen, who had just become the Luzon Provincial Governor.

However, Ouyang Shuo naturally had his reasons for this decision.

They were now entering the 6th year of Gaia, and in the eyes of Ouyang Shuo, historical talents were not something rare. At this stage, historical talents would move to Great Xia every month.

It was previously mentioned that historical talents were good, but they had many weaknesses. The most lethal weakness was the restriction of their historical knowledge, which did not fit with the ideology of Great Xia.

The natives did not have such a problem.

People like Gu Xiuwen started following Ouyang Shuo since the village stage and grew up along with Great Xia. Under the influence of Ouyang Shuo, their political ideals and ideologies were exactly the same as his, so there would be no differences in meshing together.

Using such a person to hold an important position in the dynasty was naturally a decision that made Ouyang Shuo feel at ease.

Hence, at such a stage, people like Gu Xiuwen, Cui Shousi, and Sun Yannong would have more of an advantage than historical talents, which was why Ouyang Shuo focused on their development.

Instantiating these people into the reality was the most suitable choice.

Putting Gu Xiuwen at an important post was just the start, and it was also the beginning of the change in how Ouyang Shuo used people.

Thirdly, establishing the Hetao Province.

The southeast region’s narrow land area of Piao was also merged into Hanoi Province. The remaining area formed up the Hetao Province.

The name of Piao was abandoned, showing Great Xia’s change in Southeast Asia. Apart from the previous Luzon and Annan, none of the countries could keep their country title.

The entire Southeast Asia region was Great Xia’s back garden.

Former Australia Provincial Governor Lu Xiufu would become the Hetao Provincial Governor. Hetao Province was connected to Peacock Dynasty, and it was the frontlines of Great Xia to India. Moving Lu Xiufu over was Ouyang Shuo thinking highly of him.

Fourthly, establishing the Heluo Province.

Heluo Province included Johor, Brunei that was occupied by Johor as well as Java’s Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Irian islands.

At the same time, Xingzhou Prefecture was also merged into Heluo Province.

The newly built Heluo Province, be it in terms of size or strategic importance, was number one or two in Nanjiang, even exceeding that of Hanoi Province.

This was because it not only controlled the Straits of Malacca, but it also had the role of locking down Java. Along with the Nanjiang Governor-General House being in Lion City, it could be seen as the governing center of Nanjiang.

The original Hanoi Provincial Governor Zhu Zongxian would become the Heluo Provincial Governor, getting the deputy minister rank of military affairs, becoming a secondary Grade 2 official. Through this, one could see that Ouyang Shuo trusted and had faith in Hu Zongxian.

The reason why he let Gu Xiuwen lead Hanoi Province and Hu Zongxian Heluo Province was because he was an all rounded official and could hold his ground better in Heluo Province.

Great Xia removed the puppet state in the region and established two provinces. Under the precedence of no new Provincial Governors, Great Xia completed their plan of Southeast Asia.

Once the Nanjiang situation stabilized, Great Xia would obtain a huge territory that could line up alongside the mainland.

Based on the previous rules, the newly built Hetao and Heluo Provinces would be under Nanjiang rule. The power of Nanjiang Governor-General Bai Hua reached a whole new peak.

Even Di Chen did not dare to say that he had more power than Bai Hua.

Along with the achievement value updating in real time, Bai Hua’s achievement value would welcome a whole new jump.

…

Xia Palace, Imperial Reading Room.

The newly appointed Hanoi Provincial Governor Gu Xiuwen had just left after listening to Ouyang Shuo’s debrief. Mulan Yue was currently sitting opposite to Ouyang Shuo.

After the fall of Morocco Province, Mulan Yue led her bunch of officials back to Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to use this chance to let Mulan Yue take up an appointment in the Imperial Court or be appointed as a Provincial Governor in some province. In the future, at a suitable time, Ouyang Shuo would make plans for her.

A hot land like Africa was not suitable for a girl like Mulan Yue.

Who would have known that she would actually develop feelings for Africa? She wanted to go back there, and she even said that she was willing to work in Jidian City as the City Magistrate.

Ouyang Shuo tried to convince her many times, but she did not listen.

Looking at the young girl, Ouyang Shuo rubbed his forehead. Who would have known that this young girl would be as stubborn as a horse?

“Do not think about being the Jidian City Magistrate.”

What could defending Jidian City do? How was it worth a duchess like Mulan Yue?

Ouyang Shuo sighed and decided that since this was her choice and the conditions allowed it, he would fulfill it.

“Then let me go to Ethiopia!” Mulan Yue said quickly.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “The Imperial Court has decided to form the North Africa Regional Guard House with Somalia and Ethiopia Provinces as the base, go be the guard!”

“Great!” Mulan Yue did not show any hesitation.

Compared to a Governor-General house, a regional guard house was a grade lower. It was also because North Africa had just two provinces, so building a Governor-General house would be a huge joke.

A regional guard house would not be a problem.

In the future, when Great Xia expanded in North Africa, they would upgrade it to a Governor-General House.

The governing area of the North Africa Regional Guard House was set in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. In history, Addis Ababa was the headquarters of Africa.

As for the Ethiopia Provincial Governor, Morocco Province Provincial Governor Office Administration Director Du Sijing, he would be promoted to continue supporting Mulan Yue to rule North Africa.

Promoting him also helped to calm down and console the Morocco Province officials.

Apart from Du Sijing, all the Morocco Province officials were either arranged to work in Ethiopia Province or in the newly built regional guard house. They would help Mulan Yue control the situation.

Such good treatment was something that only Mulan Yue could enjoy.

Even when Bai Hua was appointed as the Nanjiang Governor-General, she did not enjoy such treatment. This could be considered biasness toward Mulan Yue.

Those who understood the reasons behind it naturally would not say much and would feel that it was to be expected. Out of the four of them, the one that Ouyang Shuo was the closest to and trusted the most was Mulan Yue.

Everyone had a chance of betraying him except for Mulan Yue.

The relationship between the two was similar to the relationship between a brother and a sister, standing the test of blood and fire.

…

At this point, the post war regional adjustments had ended. The routine military organization was next.

Chapter 1167 - Three Warzones

Chapter 1167: Three Warzones

One must not look at Du Sijing being the only one promoted in this round of personnel appointment. There were new Prefecture Governors, while prefects numbered in the hundreds. It was a huge round of reorganization.

The promoted officials consisted of Country Magistrates and Prefects who did well in the official evaluation as well as officials from Johor, Piao, and Java.

Toward these local officials, as long as they were innocent and morally upright, the Imperial Court would use them.

Even to say that the Imperial Court made a rule for the newly established Hetao, Heluo, and Ethiopia provinces that amongst the provincial, prefecture, and county level officials, local officials had to take up a third.

If not, they would be unable to buy the hearts of the people.

As for whether these native officials would be promoted or eliminated in the next round of evaluation, it would depend solely on their ability. Even if they were demoted, they could not blame the Imperial Court for being unfair.

…

Gaia 6th year, 5th month, 1st day, Shanhai City.

Within the Wuying Hall, Ouyang Shuo was vetting the plan for the new round of military reorganization. Grand Council Minister Han Xin, Military Affairs Minister Du Ruhui, and Privy Court Training Director Gao Shun were all present.

During this round of country war, they had a bountiful harvest on each of the four fronts.

In the Battle of Johor, out of the 120 thousand Johor guards and the 150 thousand territory army, apart from the dead, 200 thousand of them surrendered.

In the Battle of Java, as the Badong territory army did not resist too much, they only captured a total of 80 thousand people.

Next would be the Piao Country battlefield.

The Peacock Dynasty army did not do much, while the Piao Country army was really resolute. Of the 220 thousand imperial city guards and the 250 thousand territory troops, half of them died in battle, and only 230 thousand of them were captured.

The Ethiopia battlefield was where they captured the most prisoners.

500 thousand imperial city guards along with 500 thousand territory army troops were forced back by Great Xia. Through this battle, the Grand Council reached the conclusion that the African troops’ combat strength was lower than that of the Asian armies.

This was an incontestable fact.

With no outside interference, 700 thousand out of the million Ethiopian troops were actually captured.

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate and immediately ordered the release of half of them, arranging them to either retire, become bailiffs, or take up other roles.

The elite troops strategy of Great Xia had to go on resolutely no matter what.

There remained 860 thousand war prisoners. After deducting injured soldiers, soldiers that did not make the cut, and filling up for the casualties from all the participating troops, 600 thousand troops remained.

As such, the Imperial Court decided to promote the Luzon formation to Heluo legion corps, adding in three legions. The original Lieutenant General Zhang Han would become the Heluo marshal and be awarded Grade 2 Nanzhang general rank.

The southwest warzone had three border defense legion corps. The Hanoi legion
corps defended Hanoi Province and Hetao Province, Heluo Legion corps defended Luzon Province and Heluo Province, and the Nanjing Legion corps defended the vast Australia Province.

The three new Legion Generals of the Heluo legion corps would be from the war prisoner generals. One came from Johor and two from Piao, and they were all among the top historical talents of their respective countries.

Apart from adding in three legions to the Heluo legion corps, the remaining war prisoners could form one legion corps.

The Privy Court discussed with the Grand Council and suggested building a border defense legion corps in the mainland. First, it was to split the pressure from Tiger and Leopard Legion Corps, and secondly, it was to suppress the beast caves.

If not, with both the border and beast cave duties, the elite troops of both legion corps would easily have their hands full and would not be deployable.

They were able to participate because of the war exempt card.

Along with the 6th system update, Gaia was trying its best to make the game world as similar to the real world as possible. Overpowered items like the war exempt card would only become rarer and rarer.

When they searched the treasuries of Johor and the other countries, they did not find any eye-catching treasures.

Ouyang Shuo agreed with the suggestion of the Privy Court and the decision was made.

The Imperial Court decided to build the Xiangjiang legion corps to help the Leopard Legion Corps and the Tiger Legion Corps. They were in charge of the defenses of Xiangnan, Jiangnan, Minnan, Lingnan, and the like provinces.

The original Legion General of the 5th Leopard Legion Corps, Sui Dynasty famous general Zhang Xutuo, would be promoted to marshal and awarded a Grade 2 middle general rank.

The five Legion Generals of the Xiangjiang legion corps were either the youthful ones or historical generals who had just joined Great Xia. Great Xia did not lack skilled generals at this point.

After building the Xiangjiang legion corps, the remaining 40 thousand war prisoners were placed in North Africa Regional Guard house to be trained as gunners while also undergoing naval training.

After the Atlantic Squadron was destroyed, Ouyang Shuo was really unwilling to lose like this. He had already instructed the Navy Headquarters to activate the rebuilding work of the Atlantic Squadron.

This rebuilding would use the highest of standards.

Ouyang Shuo hoped that the Atlantic Squadron that rose from the ashes would be able to return to the battlefield and wipe away the humiliation of the old and spread the authority of Great Xia.

At this point, the military organization came to an end.

Apart from building armies, using this chance, Ouyang Shuo also made some big changes.

Under the suggestion of Ouyang Shuo, the Imperial Court decided to establish the Southeast Warzone, which included Xiangnan, Jiangchuan, Minnan, Lingnan provinces, and Yizhou Prefecture.

Overall, this warzone was the frontline for going up against Great Zhou.

The motive of setting up the warzone was to organize the military strength to form a combined force, strengthening the cooperation between the legion corps to set up a foundation for taking down Great Zhou in the future.

From this, one could see that Ouyang Shuo had started to make plans to take down Great Zhou.

The matter of Morocco Province made Ouyang Shuo realize that before they expanded outward, they had to calm down the internal problems. Without wiping out the hidden problems in China, Great Xia’s road to overseas expansion would face with many bumps.

The Southeast warzone would include the Tiger, Leopard, and Xiangjiang legion corps. As they included two elite legion corps, their overall strength was no weaker than the southwest warzone set up earlier.

The warzone commander would be Han Xin, who would still be the Leopard Legion Corps marshal.

Only then could he fit his role as a Grand Council rotational minister.

Apart from the southeast warzone, Ouyang Shuo decided to settle everything at once and set up the northwest warzone. It included the Shu Lands, Yunnan, and Chuanbei provinces.

The remaining Chuannan Province and Zhili provinces would be defended by the City Protection Legion Corps.

Along with these two warzones being established, the inter-legion corps cooperation of the dynasty would reach new heights. Be it against the beasts who would keep appearing or battles against external enemies, it would really be beneficial.

From now on, there would not be any defensive blind spots in Great Xia.

The northwest warzone would have two elite legion corps – the Bear and Eagle Legion Corps. The warzone commander would be taken by Bear Legion Corps Marshal and Grand Council rotational minister Li Jing.

Under Li Jing’s leadership, the Bear and Eagle Legion Corps could work together, be it against the Shu Han dynasty, clearing the beast caves, or against West Xia or Tibet. Overall, the efficiency would increase.

Baiqi, Han Xin, and Li Jing; these three were commanders in chief, rotational ministers of the Grand Council, and warzone commanders, solidifying their position within the army, unshakeable by anyone.

Of course, the warzone could not be settled so quickly.

The biggest difference between a warzone and legion corps would be that it would have a fixed headquarters with a structure that merged that of the Grand Council and Privy Court.

To build a warzone headquarter, one needed a large group of military talents, logistics, training, intel, battle strategists, and the like. Moreover, it all needed to be available, and they must be good.

Some of these could be moved from the Privy Court and the Grand Council, while the rest would be from the military.

The legion corps also had the responsibility of developing military people.

Long ago, when Baiqi had just entered the territory, the Great Xia Army had already started to become a professional army. Currently, even the unit level had their own logistics and strategist general.

The talent pool in the military was really sufficient.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo had the confidence to set up two warzones right away. At the moment, they were empty decorative pieces that could not run properly.

Once these two warzones got onto the right track, they would help reduce the workload of the Grand Council.

Chapter 1168 - The Strong Gets Stronger, the Weak Gets Destroyed

Chapter 1168: The Strong Gets Stronger, the Weak Gets Destroyed

As the world entered the 5th month, all the players would focus on one matter, which was the upcoming country war month.

Every country war month was not only a time for players of each region to settle their grievances, but it was also a chance for a refresh of the global situation. Simply put, the strong would get stronger, while the weak would get wiped out.

The complicated situation within was hard to express in words.

For example, within Silver Hand, a strong dynasty could use this chance to openly swallow up surrounding members. Meanwhile, Silver Hand and Azure Badge could use the country month to attack one another to adjust their strategies.

Similarly, the country war month was a good chance for the two organizations to organize internally. They could give up some weak regions and strengthen some others to form a more tightly connected global layout.

As for what the normal players felt about it, it did not matter.

These two organizations, including internally, both wished for different things, and even had a conflict of interests. Even to say that to fulfill their own goals, sabotaging one another was not a problem.

On the contrary, the Great Xia Dynasty that relied on the strong shield that was the China Region was a safe zone.

In the 5th month, the voting for the country war leader begun. Ouyang Shuo was the authority of the China region, so he did not need to join in the voting, automatically obtaining the position.

As for which region they should attack, it was solely up to Ouyang Shuo.

Looking around China, the opponents they could choose were the India Region, Romanov Dynasty, Persia Empire, and Java.

The others were too far away, and they would not be able to get back within the month.

The Romanov Dynasty and the Persia Empire were not good choices, as there were native powers still in play. Furthermore, if they were to attack, one was an icy plain, while the other was a high plain. In neither aspect did China have a geographical advantage.

Ouyang Shuo’s first idea was naturally to take down Java.

If China declared war on Java, Java would have no chance of surviving. It would be borrowing the hands of everyone to remove the last problem in Southeast Asia.

However, doing that had its pros and cons.

The country war month was not solely a stage for Great Xia. With the three dynasties of China participating together, the splitting of territory post war would be a problem. For example, Japan was split up into three parts last time.

If Great Zhou took a piece of Java, Ouyang Shuo would be really annoyed. Rather than that, why not let Java live for a while longer before taking them down alone?

Hence, the best country war target was India.

Helplessly, India was a super giant. For China to take it down in a short month was impossible.

If China chose to go on an expedition, under the circumstances where they were not fighting on home ground, the winner and loser would be uncertain.

However, Ouyang Shuo had no choice. Now, he had to consider how to make use of the country war month to deal a blow to India while ensuring that it did not backfire on them.

The strategies and plans involved needed the Grand Council and Administrative Mentor Court to work together.

…

5th month, the thing that Ouyang Shuo was concerned about was not the country war.

What he was worried about was agriculture. At the start of the 5th month, farming had begun in the south, and they should be able to collect their first batch of rice at the end of the 7th month.

Before the New Year, Ouyang Shuo made the judgment that there would be a grain shortage this year, spending huge resources to purchase large amounts of grain. If everything went smoothly before the 7th month harvest, it would be a huge loss for him.

At least till now, there were no calamities, which made Ouyang Shuo feel uneasy.

Before the 5th month, the 200 million mu of farmland target was completed. The various farms all over the country were spreading like wildfire, and the quick ones had already started running.

Great Xia agriculture would welcome a new round of growth.

Even in the 5th month, there were still many players who applied to rent farms. A portion of them had just migrated over from Great Zhou.

Great Zhou failed in their attempts to take down Great Xia, while Great Xia had a bountiful harvest overseas. One winning and one losing, making the players who lived under Great Zhou tremble in fear.

Even after Di Chen gave strict orders to restrict players from leaving, large amounts of players still snuck out.

Any sharp person could see that from now on, Great Zhou would not be able to start any waves in the China region. Furthermore, they might be wiped out by Great Xia at any moment.

As such, why would these players still remain there?

What made them feel depressed was that they faced strict checks and interrogation when they enter Great Xia. Based on the words of the Civil Affairs Department, the Imperial Court was controlling the number of players and were not accepting just anyone.

If one wanted to live in Great Xia, apart from being clean, one had to have talents.

Before this, it was players who chose the territory to live in. Now, the tables had turned.

Who knew that this move would instead motivate the Great Zhou players? In their eyes, Great Xia setting up requirements now meant that those requirements would only get stricter and stricter in the future.

The further back it goes, the harder it would be to move to Great Xia.

Due to such judgment, there was a new wave of migrants that could not be stopped.

People were just like that; they always saw the rise but not the fall. Like real estate in reality, the rise in prices would make more people buy. On the other hand, if the price dropped slightly, they would hesitate and start to watch from the side.

When Ouyang Shuo got the news, he did not know whether to laugh or cry.

Based on intel from the Shanhai Guards, not only the medium and large guilds, but even super guilds like Jin Yi Wei were having internal quarrels.

More and more members clamored to switch over to Great Xia.

Regarding these super guilds, if they truly wanted to go, Great Zhou could not stop them, or there would be many repercussions.

Helplessly, Di Chen could only work with the guild leaders to promise the players some good terms to calm them down and beg for them to remain in Great Zhou.

For this, the coffers of Great Zhou bleeding profusely was unavoidable.

It seemed like Di Chen had never expected there to be a day where he begged players to stay. Previously, it was people swarming into Handan City and him picking talents.

As the times changed, the situation turned around.

The huge sense of defeat was grinding away at Di Chen, making him more and more enraged. The entire Great Zhou was surrounded by a pessimistic aura, making one feel depressed.

“Everyone losing faith makes the team hard to lead.” Di Chen was filled with emotions.

The only thing that Di Chen could place his hope in was Silver Hand. As long as they still wanted to curb the rise of Great Xia, they needed Great Zhou in China.

Once Great Zhou fell, Silver Hand would lose their hand of good cards. It would be impossible for them to stop the rise of Great Xia in the future.

However, how to do that was still uncertain.

…

Apart from caring about agricultural matters, Ouyang Shuo also took the time to run to a few places. First, he made a trip to Jidian City to pay respects to the dead Atlantic Squadron soldiers, calm down the people, and have a secret meeting with Kalia.

Jidian City had the huge amounts of resources sent over from Morocco Province. With the West Africa legion corp stationed there and a navy patrolling the bay, it was a castle.

To prevent people from destroying the teleportation formation within, Ouyang Shuo ordered the movement of the people of Jidian City to Ethiopia.

The entire Jidian City would be under military rule and would be a super camp.

Ouyang Shuo coming to Jidian City was also to raise the morale of the soldiers and to motivate them to defend it well, “One day, we will take it back. I believe that day will not be too far away.”

This was his promise.

The clamor and bustle in the opposite Tangier Port was simply too eye-piercing.

Following which, he went to Ethiopia to tour to earn people sentiment while showing the officials that he had the utmost support for Mulan Yue.

The fall of Morocco obviously had some negative effect on Mulan Yue despite her having done well. Under such circumstances, as the Xia King, Ouyang Shuo naturally had to step up and make a stance.

That would also be beneficial for Mulan Yue’s work.

After leaving Ethiopia, Ouyang Shuo visited Heluo and Hetao provinces. He even took time to review the Indian Ocean Squadron to show his support for Nanjiang.

While touring Southeast Asia, Nanjiang Governor-General Bai Hua followed him all the way.

To her, taking charge of the Nanjiang Governor-General House was both an honor and a huge responsibility. Ouyang Shuo dared to let her rule such a huge region, so she obviously treated it with the utmost seriousness.

If she did not do a decent job, even if Ouyang Shuo did not say anything, the Imperial Court would.

Even someone like Ouyang Shuo could not do anything about it if that happened. The Imperial Court had its own rules and running methods. One needed to take out actual results to convince others.

If not, even if one was in a high position, one would not be able to be stable there.

5th month, 15th day, Ouyang Shuo ended his causal tour and hurried back to the Capital City. Right as he returned, he received a secret letter. Looking at the sender, Ouyang Shuo’s brows rose.

Chapter 1169 - The Sword Is Cold, but the Blood Is Supposed to be Warm

Chapter 1169: The Sword Is Cold, but the Blood Is Supposed to be Warm

The Chinese had a saying that even though a husband and wife were like birds in the same forest, when a calamity struck, each would fly their own way.

Since the Great Zhou Dynasty ship was having problems, there were naturally people who sought a way out. The one who sent the letter to Ouyang Shuo was Great Zhou’s Wu Marquis Xiong Ba.

He revealed in the letter that for this country war month, Di Chen was prepared to treat it with disinterest, just sending a small number of troops as a gesture. He reminded Ouyang Shuo to be mentally prepared.

Di Chen was prepared to go all out and not bother about the reactions of the China players. He did not want to try to hide it like during the country war last year, where Great Xia abused the fact.

In his eyes, no matter who Ouyang Shuo targeted, Great Zhou could not get anything good out of it. Since that was the case, why not just give up?

As for the thoughts of the players, in his words, “Things have already come to this, what am I afraid of?”

When Ouyang Shuo read the letter, he fell into deep thought.

Di Chen’s plan did not surprise him much, but the meaning behind Xiong Ba’s actions did. Xiong Ba was not a fool and telling this matter to Ouyang Shuo was obviously to express his good intentions.

Maybe the Great Zhou dynasty was going to welcome yet another split.

“It’s time to end this!” Ouyang Shuo’s eyes glistened.

…

Due to Di Chen’s lack of cooperation, on the 5th month, 20th day, Ouyang Shuo revealed on the forums that they were targeting India. From now on, players could move toward Hetao Province or Tibet dynasty to save traveling time.

Who knew that there would be only a few replies.

For this country war, not only Great Zhou was not interested, but even Great Jin did not show much interest.

For last year’s attack on Japan, Great Jin took action to obtain an ocean territory to start voyage trading. Meanwhile, this attack on India did not mean much to them.

Furthermore, Great Jin’s foundations could not be compared to Great Xia. Moreover, NPCs could not be revived, which made Feng Qiuhuang treat this matter carefully. The risks and rewards did not match up, so no matter who it was, they would not be interested.

As the Jin queen, Feng Qiuhuang had a responsibility regarding the millions under her and could not do as she wished.

Ouyang Shuo could understand that.

But in that case, this country war was a solo one for Great Xia.

“This is a tough one if we go alone.”

The moment they infuriated India, and they worked together to attack China, Hetao Province would take the brunt of the hit. At that point, who was attacking who would be uncertain.

If Ouyang Shuo was Durava, he would not miss such a chance to use the power of India and the opportunity of the country war to take down Hetao Province to win back some face from the lost in the last battle.

If both Java and Russia declared war against China, Great Xia would be in an even worse spot. Not mention taking down India, but even self-preservation would become a problem.

Thinking about the problem within, Ouyang Shuo shook his head bitterly.

The cons of Great Xia’s expansion were evident here. Any region that was connected to China was connected to Great Xia.

On the contrary, Great Zhou and Great Jin were inland and had no pressure.

One could not escape responsibility for their actions, much less Great Xia who had many enemies. Be it Silver Hand or Azure Badge, they would not give up on the chance to set back Great Xia.

More problems were coming.

On the 5th month, 21st day, the news that said that Great Zhou and Great Jin were not interested in the country war month spread from who knows where. Smart players immediately noticed the danger within.

Just thinking about it, one could guess that things would not be so smooth like the previous year. Players who were planning to make some easy gains lost that thought too.

Some who were prepared to proceed toward Hetao Province were influenced by the people around them and stopped.

The entire China region was in a really weird atmosphere.

…

5th month, 22nd day, Shanhai City.

Within the Xia Palace, Ouyang Shuo brows were locked tight. The news from yesterday was undoubtedly by Di Chen, and the goal was to create problems for Great Xia.

“There really is nothing he would not do.” Ouyang Shuo was disappointed in Di Chen.

The China region players also disappointed him.

He did not expect that after the game update, a battle for achievement value had made them cherish their lives so much that they had lost their fighting spirit and patriotism.

All of their hot blood became ice cold.

Although this was normal, Ouyang Shuo felt that something was up. He always felt that them being so self-protective went against what Gaia was aiming at.

If the players were not hot blooded even in the game world, how could one hope for them to fight for the survival of mankind in the harsher environment of Planet Hope?

The blood was cold, but the blood was supposed to be warm.

Under such circumstances, Ouyang Shuo invited guild leaders like Blood Romance to be guests in the Xia Palace.

Imperial garden, west lawn.

As they were not ruler and servant, Ouyang Shuo chose a less serious meeting place. Everyone sat on the lawn, chatting as they are afternoon tea.

After talking for a bit, Ouyang Shuo asked, “Toward the rumors of these two days, what are your views?”

Blood Romance and the others exchanged glances, not knowing how to reply. They were all smart people and guessed before their arrived the reason why Ouyang Shuo would summon them.

Even if they were mentally prepared, they did not know how to answer the question.

After all, this was not a glamourous thing, and Ouyang Shuo pointing it outright made things really awkward.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he sighed silently. He looked around, and every guild leader he looked at tried to avoid his gaze and did not dare to look him in the eye.

Even Xie Siyun looked at him apologetically.

“I can understand your considerations. Putting myself in your shoes, there is not anything wrong with that.” Ouyang Shuo gave them a way out of the awkwardness, relieving the atmosphere.

“The main thing is the people under us are making too much noise.” Moon Shines over the River tried to explain.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “I can understand what you are doing, but I cannot agree with it.”

When Blood Romance heard that, he said solemnly, “What views does Brother Shuo have? Please tell us.”

Blood Romance had a lot of respect for Ouyang Shuo. This Lord, who was of similar age to him, always saw things others could not. Hence, Blood Romance’s words were not sarcastic.

Ouyang Shuo understood his character, “The relationship between individual and group cannot be changed. To the guilds, the player is an individual, and the guild is a group. Meanwhile, to Great Xia, the guilds are the individual. In China, in Chinese civilization, is Great Xia not an individual too?”

When Ouyang Shuo said that, the expressions of Blood Romance and the others looked really weird. In their eyes, Ouyang Shuo was trying to say some patriotism values, which was amusing and a huge drop from his standards.

To convince them using that was totally impossible.

Ouyang Shuo’s expression did not change, “Gaia pushing out the achievement value update seemed to be emphasizing on individuality, but in truth, it is trying to strengthen the overall strength of mankind such that we are able to survive on Planet Hope.”

“If this time, in front of the country war, guilds agree with the players and back off, once we have a conflict of interest in the future on Planet Hope, can we survive as a group?”

“….”

Blood Romance and the others exchanged glances. Their eyes showed solemnness for the first time.

Ouyang Shuo continued, “Maybe you all noticed that since you walked out of the imperial city into Great Xia, but the unity of your guild has been challenged.”

Great Xia had a perfect group system. In Great Xia, most players did not need guilds and could live well, and those who were doing well would even feel that guilds were a burden.

Furthermore, due to Great Xia law, if players did something wrong, the officials would handle it, and the guilds would not have their personal fights. With that, the guild protection of members was greatly weakened.

All in all, the functions of the guilds were slowly being replaced by Great Xia, so their sense of belonging to the guild naturally decreased.

Relatively, the restraints that the guilds had on the players were also lowered. Like now, when the players made noise, the guild leaders had no choice but to give in.

This was not a normal situation.

As a result, when they heard Ouyang Shuo say that, Moon Shines over the River could not help but nod.

“Since that’s the case, have all of you considered how guilds will survive on Planet Hope? Or once the game ends, the guilds will disband?” Ouyang Shuo’s words pricked at their hearts.

Truthfully, in the face of interest, players did not even care about their country, much less their friends. The moment they returned to reality, and the societal relationships were rebuilt, guilds would have no room to survive.

Breaking up and disbanding was expected.

The moment a guild disbanded, the one who would lose the most would be the guild leaders. They would become normal once more and could not control people as they wished like in the game world.

If they were still on Earth, this would not mean much. They had set up the guilds to earn money. If they could earn money, who would even bother about controlling members in real life?

However, Earth Online was not a normal game. The game and reality were closely linked, and it was not limited to just money.

Under such circumstances, no one would believe that the guild leaders did not have any greater ambitions.

And to fulfill their ambitions, a large precedence would be for the guild to continue to survive on Planet Hope. However, with Ouyang Shuo’s analysis, that was pretty much impossible.

In terms of sense of belonging, a guild was nothing compared to a territory.

Since the game had progressed till now, the ways guild ran were no different from other games. Territories were different. Since its birth, they had focused on groups as their core to perfect the group system.

Till date, it was no different from real life.

The difference in the two models caused the current situation. If not, why would one say that Gaia was biased toward the Lords?

“….”

Silence, uneasy silence spread around the imperial garden.

Blood Romance and the others’ had many different expressions. They had their own thoughts about the crisis, but they did not think about it as thoroughly as Ouyang Shuo.

It was not that they were not smart. Rather, it was because Ouyang Shuo was already used to thinking from the view of one on Planet Hope. The height they stood at was different. Naturally, the things that they saw were different.

They might be planning for next year, while Ouyang Shuo was thinking five years ahead.

It was still Moon Shines over the River who broke the silence and said helplessly, “We do not want that to happen, but if they are not willing, we cannot force them, right?”

“If this was before, the guild had a set of complete compensation mechanisms to pay them, so they had no worries. But now, we cannot even compensate them, nor can we pay them in achievement value.”

His tone contained a sense of being wronged and helpless.

Ouyang Shuo did not budge. He turned around and looked at Blood Romance, “Is your guild also like that?”

Blood Romance shook his head, “Not all of them. There are still some who are willing. The only thing is that these people are influenced by those around them, and they are not as resolute as before.”

As expected, the Blood Evil Mercenary Guild did not let him down.

At such a stage, Ouyang Shuo allowed the conversation to return to their control, throwing out his plan and smiling, “I have a suggestion.”

“Please speak!”

Blood Romance and the others grew more and more respectful of Ouyang Shuo. They were like a group of drowning people who needed help.

“If I say, I’m saying if, the Great Xia Army is willing to be opened to guilds, are you all willing?”

Blood Romance’s eyes froze up, and he became expressionless, “Brother Shuo is trying to recruit us?” Accepting territory recruitment was a forbidden topic to guilds.

Even Ouyang Shuo would receive rejection. If it were not for his prestige and honor, some of them would have left right away.

Ouyang Shuo did not back down, as he had such confidence. He nodded, “You can say so!”

“This….”

Ouyang Shuo’s attitude made all of them calm down. At the start, they totally rejected it, but after thinking about it, they saw the pros and cons within.

The more they thought about it, the less angry they felt.

At such a stage, guilds indeed did not have the ability to negotiate with territories. It was mentioned that the moment the guilds left the imperial city, they could not be as arrogant as before.

Since they were living under Great Xia, they obviously could not do as they wished.

Between the two, the territory had the upper hand.

With the China situation, players would only beg to come to Great Xia. The moment they left, to say that there was no place left on this earth for them would be an exaggeration, but at the very least, they would not have such a good life.

Thinking about that, Blood Romance and the others could not help but smile bitterly. They were feeling like a hero being buried. In the words of the people from the underworld, “The underworld is changing!”

After waiting for 10 minutes, Ouyang Shuo said, “Accepting the recruitment is not as bad as you think. In the future, you will not regret it.”

“….”

Blood Romance and the others kept silent, as they still could not wrap their heads around it.

“Can you tell us more details?” Li Jing helped Ouyang Shuo get out of the situation. With his relationship with Li Jing, Snow-War Rose was the least triggered one.

Even so, she still felt that something was not right.

‘Does this signal the end of an era?’ Xie Siyun sighed in her heart.

Ouyang Shuo said, “We can discuss the specific plan. But the basics is that each guild can keep a unit of 500 people. Following the military law, you can all rule yourself, including the generals within, which you can choose yourself.”

It was mentioned that Ouyang Shuo sought recognition from the players of Great Xia. Asking the players to build farms mainly targeted causal and work occupation players. On the other hand, this military organization plan was targeting combat occupation players.

Ouyang Shuo choosing to recruit the guilds was not only because of the country war.

In the future, on Planet Hope, the combat occupation players would be the main force against beasts. But in the game world, this power was not controlled and was a bunch of scattered dust.

Solely relying on the guild elite forces could not train the players into good soldiers.

Soldiers could only be born in the military, on the battlefield.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo did not expect to recruit all of them. He targeted those passionate and talented ones.

To train them up within the Great Xia Army to recognize Great Xia as a system was his goal.

“Apart from combat occupation players, work occupation players that are related to the military are also really welcomed. As for all of you, if you are willing, you can all be Major Generals.”

“As long as you have the ability, becoming Legion Generals and even marshals is not an impossible matter. I believe all of you understand how Great Xia uses talents.”

Even after Ouyang Shuo finished his words, the atmosphere was still a little depressing.

Chapter 1170 - Gamble

Chapter 1170: Gamble

The organizational plan that Ouyang Shuo tossed out was something that Blood Romance and the others found it hard to accept.

“There is no need to rush, go back and think about it!” Ouyang Shuo did not force them. If he truly wanted to convince these elites, he had to have a suitable amount of patience.

“We will consider it seriously.”

After Blood Romance and the others made their declaration, they said their goodbyes and left.

…

23rd day, Wuying Hall.

Ouyang Shuo held an emergency military meeting to discuss the country war strategy.

After everyone was present, Ouyang Shuo said, “The stance of the players is not clear, so we have to prepare for the worse for this country war. There is a chance that we might have to fight one against three.”

Hearing those words, the generals present all frowned.

“As such, we will not have a specific target and will focus on defense.” Based on the situation, this country war month was definitely not the best time for Great Xia to expand. Hence, Ouyang Shuo compromised.

Disappointment flashed in the eyes of Baiqi and the others.

On the contrary, Du Ruhui was really supportive of it and nodded, “The Imperial Court has just fought four tough wars, and the army has not totally recovered. They are currently trying to replenish the lack of logistical resources. The new army organizational work is still far from complete. It is not good for us to start a new war now in case the army exceeds its capacity.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded in agreement.

After settling on the basic direction, they started to discuss the strategic battle plans.

The Beijiang legion corps in north would be in charge of the Romanov Dynasty. If they truly went all out, they would still need to traverse thousands of miles to attack Great Xia. At that point, the Great Jin Dynasty would naturally aid the Beijiang legion corps.

Java in the south would be monitored by both the Nanjiang legion corps and the Heluo legion corps in the southwest warzone.

The Dragon Legion Corps, Hanoi legion corps, and Guards Legion Corps would be in charge of defending against Peacock Dynasty in the west. On the basis of defending, the would monitor the battle situation and flexibly decide whether they would invade India or not.

After the military meeting, the various forces started to act.

A day ago, the Guards Legion Corps had teleported from Somalia Province over to Hetao Province to prepare for battle there. The Dragon Legion Corps and the Hanoi legion corps did not retreat from the battlefield, and they could participate in the battle at any time.

…

Shanhai City, Blood Evil Mercenary Group headquarters.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was holding the military meeting, Blood Romance was also holding a discussion with the higher ups of the guild to discuss the recruitment suggestion that Ouyang Shuo had raised up yesterday.

The moment Blood Romance finished his words, it raised up a flurry of unhappiness.

“Great Xia is strong, but is this not a little too arrogant? They actually want to swallow us up? That’s a joke.” Adventure gamemode players loved to be free and unrestrained, much less the Blood Evil Mercenary Group.

They had their own pride.

“He still dares to talk about training us in the military, is he not trying to say that we adventure gamemode players are like scattered sand on the battlefield, an organization with no discipline? That is just about normal guilds. I do not believe that we cannot compare to a proper army.” The one who spoke was one of the leaders of the elite group.

“That’s right!”

Blood Romance had an idea, “Why not have a competition with them?” He also felt that the elite forces would not be weaker than a proper army and looked at them in disdain, which made him feel really unhappy.

“We have to compete!”

“Fight! Let them see how strong our elite force is.”

When Blood Romance heard that, he smacked the table and made up his mind, “Then that is decided. I will go speak to Ouyang Shuo to choose a time for the elite force to have a competition against the proper army.”

“Great, good job guild leader!”

The matter was settled just like that.

…

24th day, Xia Palace.

Within the Imperial Reading Room, Ouyang Shuo looked toward Blood Romance weirdly, “So you’re saying that you want to send an elite force to have a competition with the Great Xia proper army?”

“That’s right.” Blood Romance was really pumped up, “If we win, please do not mention the recruitment matter.” Blood Romance would be really satisfied if he could end the talks in such a matter.

No matter what, Ouyang Shuo was the Xia King, and he needed to give him enough face.

Ouyang Shuo seemed expressionless, but deep down inside, he was delighted. He realized that this was perhaps a great chance to make the guilds yield.

“And what if the Great Xia Army wins?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

“If we lose, there is not much to be said. We will be willing to accept your proposal.”

Ouyang Shuo was still worried, “You can make that decision on behalf of your guild?”

Blood Romance understood what Ouyang Shuo was getting at and nodded, “Do not worry, this is a decision made by the entire guild. We will not go back our word!”

“Great!”

Ouyang Shuo stood up. He arrived before Blood Romance and stretched out his right hand.

Blood Romance was stunned before he followed suit.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “So that’s decided. We will set the date to the 28th day. I will not send out the Divine Martial Guards, just a unit from the City Protection Legion Corps.”

“Okay!”

Blood Romance was once again impressed by Ouyang Shuo’s magnanimity.

If Great Xia had sent out the Divine Martial Guards, the Blood Evil Mercenary Group would have no chances of winning. Blood Romance was thinking about the matter, but who would have expected Ouyang Shuo to directly remove such a possibility? It was obvious that he did not want to take advantage of Blood Romance.

Ouyang Shuo was not even going to send out his trump card, the Guards Legion Corps. Instead, he chose the City Protection Legion Corps.

Such magnanimity of a ruler was something that normal people could not compare to.

To pay him back, Blood Romance would not send out his strongest elite force, as he had his pride too.

“Should we choose the arena or the drill field?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

After the update, Gaia did not remove the arena. Players could still PK there and train up their skills. Even if they died there, they could revive without penalty.

However, even if the City Protection Legion Corps went to the arena, they still would not be able to revive.

Although that was the case, Ouyang Shuo was still leaning toward the arena. If the Blood Evil Mercenary Group suffered heavy casualties, they might be annoyed with Great Xia, which would totally go against what Ouyang Shuo actually wanted.

Who knew that Blood Romance would be so insistent. He did not want to take advantage of Ouyang Shuo and smiled, “Since it’s a faceoff, we cannot have any chance mentality, and they need to take out all their courage. Let’s choose the drill field.”

Ouyang Shuo looked deeply at Blood Romance, and only said after a long while, “Then let’s choose the imperial city drill field.”

“Okay!”

Blood Romance was really satisfied. He knew that the imperial city drill field was the Guards Legion Corps drill field, and it was the drill field with the best facilities. It was also rare for Ouyang Shuo to give such great treatment.

…

The guild circle looked to be really huge, but it could not hide such news.

Furthermore, of the headquarters of the guilds that had moved to Great Xia, a large part of them were in Peacock Dragon Street. In less than half a day, the news of Blood Evil Mercenary Group challenging Great Xia’s army spread out.

There were some who paid a lot of attention to it, and some who were just there for the bustle.

On the streets, in the inns, in the guild headquarters, all sorts of discussions took place. This battle became a hot topic where if one did not talk about it, one would fall off from the group.

“Who do you think will win?”

This was the thing that most players were concerned with.

For this, many underground casinos took bets. From the odds, the majority of the players felt that the Blood Evil Mercenary Group were going to win. Some players were not sure about the strength of the Great Xia City Protection Legion Corps but had a deep understanding of the terrifying strength of the elite forces.

To the adventure gamemode players, to enter the elite force was their greatest honor.

Furthermore, they were the elite force of Blood Evil Mercenary Group. In terms of strength, not just the entire China region, but even in the entire world, no one could compare to the Blood Evil Mercenary Group.

Due to such considerations, the players naturally had higher hopes for the elite force.

Players could not understand why Ouyang Shuo had agreed to the battle. If they lost, would it not be a huge hit to morale? Would it not be a bad thing for the upcoming country war?

The guild leaders, on the other hand, were naturally happy to see this happen.

With the Blood Evil Mercenary Group charging at the front to split the pressure, they could hide at the back and observe the changes. If the elite force won, they would have a reason to reject Ouyang Shuo’s proposition.

But if they lost….

“They cannot possibly lose; Ouyang Shuo is too overconfident this time!” Some guild leaders shook their heads.

There were already some people who viewed this battle as the adventure gamemode players’ battle for honor. They needed to use this battle to defend the honor of the players and to prove that they were not pawns.

“They want to recruit us into the army? In their dreams!”

…

Xia Palace, Wuji Hall.

After the warm afternoon, within the hall, Yu’er and Luo’er, who had both just become a year old, used their unstable footsteps to chase one another around. These two fellows were like little devils, turning the entire Wuji Hall on its head. They were curious about everything, and they wanted to touch and play with anything that they saw.

Losing interest, they either threw whatever they were holding on the floor or tore it up.

Ouyang Shuo sat at the side. Looking at the pair, he felt a headache. These two young kids were at their most curious time, and their energies were at their maximum. They did not know when to stop.

“They are getting more and more mischievous!” Ouyang Shuo muttered.

When Song Jia saw that, she grumbled, “It’s because you spoilt them. If this continues, I think they will tear down the entire palace.”

Ouyang Shuo had always placed importance on the nature of the children and did not want their childhood to be too restrained. He also did not want to learn from ancient royal families who followed cold royal family education.

Let the king be a king, the minister be a minister, the father be a father and the son be a son. This was something that Ouyang Shuo did not understand.

Ouyang Shuo smiled toward Song Jia, not saying anything.

When she saw that, she shook her head helplessly. This was not the first time she said these words, but Ouyang Shuo always reacted in the same manner. He did not retort, nor did he admit his mistakes, “I give up!”

When Li Jing looked at the family, envy flashed in her eyes. Her relationship with Xie Siyun was filled with joy, but it was certainly lacking in some areas.

“If I could have a kid, that would be great!” Li Jing sighed.

While they spoke, Luo’er was walking toward a white famous painting. When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he finally stepped up and hugged the little fellow.

“Ouyang Luo, do not touch this.” Ouyang Shuo pinched her cheeks.

Ouyang Shuo directly called out their full names. He treated them as little adults, letting them exist at an equal status.

Rather than using the name of love to use his power to educate them.

Facing Ouyang Shuo’s ‘fierceness’, Ouyang Luo was not afraid at all, turning her head and pointing at the wall, “Dad, what is that?”

“That’s a painting grandpa Qi Baishi gave your brother and you. Do not tear it up.”

Qi Baishi came over to Great Xia in the 3rd month and was currently the dean of the painting college in Xinan University. When the two kids reached a year old, Ouyang Shuo especially asked him for a painting.

On the white paper, Yu’er and Luo’er were painted in ink, looking like two elves playing happily. When one looked at the painting, one could not help but be awed.

This painting was brimming with youth while also having a distant artistic mood, as expected from the work of a master.

“That is brother and I!” Luo’er recognized herself. She scratched her head with her little hand and said in doubt, “But how did we appear on the painting?”

“Grandpa Qi Baishi drew the painting based on your looks.”

Who knows whether it was because the two were hugely talented or because they were well educated, they could call dad and mom at seven months of age. Now, they could speak quite fluently.

When the kids asked him questions, Ouyang Shuo would naturally answer them all.

“Oh.”

Luo’er did not ask anymore and nodded her head like she understood.

“Go and play!”

Ouyang Shuo placed her down.

Returning to his seat, he saw that Lin Jing wanted to say something but ended up stopping. Ouyang Shuo smiled and asked, “Little aunt, you have something on your mind?”

“Do you have confidence regarding the battle?” Lin Jing asked.

Lin Jing did not have much of an opinion toward the recruitment, and the only thing was that Snow-War Rose was not in agreement internally, placing Lin Jing on the spot. Who knew that there would suddenly be such an occurrence.

Ouyang Shuo raised his tea cup and took a sip, “It’s a battle, so many accidents can happen. Before the battle occurs, I obviously do not have hundred percent confidence.”

“Then you still agreed with them?” Lin Jing became even more worried.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “This is a good chance that’s worth a try. I have confidence in the City Protection Legion Corps. As long as I can suppress the Blood Evil Mercenary Group, recruiting the others would be much easier.”

Lin Jing sighed, not knowing what she should say.

…

In the blink of an eye, the 5th month was coming to an end.

On the battlefield, there was such a sentence, “The situation would often be as bad as you expect it to be.”

Ouyang Shuo’s predictions came through.

On the 25th day, India, Java, and Russia all declared war on China. Great Zhou did not send any help, Great Jin Dynasty had limited ability, and the players were not that eager. Hence, Great Xia bore 90% of the pressure.

The situation was really severe.

It was under such a backdrop that Ouyang Shuo still took the time out to focus on the weather of the various lands. As they entered the 5th month, some slight changes occurred.

The most obvious one was the rain was obviously decreasing, and there were even some places that had not rained in a month. This was a fatal blow to the crops that were just planted.

The yield being affected was a foregone conclusion.

At the same time, the beast caves welcomed a new explosive period, putting the various defensive forces under a lot of pressure. There were often many beasts who escaped and caused huge damage in the wilderness.

The moment things like tyrannosauruses appeared in the wilderness, crops would fall prey, making people feel like crying, but they had no tears.

Although Ouyang Shuo had predicted such a situation, looking at memorial after memorial, he could not help but be astonished. If things continued to worsen, the wilderness would be in big trouble.

A huge crisis was drawing close to the wilderness.

Even then, the footsteps of the country war month showed no signs of stopping. However, before the country war month began, Shanhai City had a battle that people paid attention to even more than the country war month.

Chapter 1171 - Face Off

Chapter 1171: Face Off

5th month, 28th day, imperial city drill field.

At 9 AM, under the accompaniment of Du Ruhui, City Protection Legion Corps

Marshal Shi Wanshui and the others, Ouyang Shuo entered the drill field and sat in the middle of the viewing stand. Blood Romance, Xie Siyun, and the other guild leaders were led by the Guards Legion Corps to their respective seats.

The Guards Legion Corps drill field was a military forbidden ground and not everybody could enter it.

On the drill field, flags were on full display, and there would be a guard legion corps soldier who wore Mingguang Armor standing guard every hundred steps. At the center of the drill field, two fighting forces were in place.

Great Xia sent out the 1st unit of the 1st regiment of the 1st division of the 1st City Protection Corps legion. They were personally led by Legion General Zhao Sihu. From their title alone, one would know that this was the strongest unit in the City Protection Legion Corps.

Ouyang Shuo excluding the Divine Martial Guards and the Guards Legion Corps did not mean that he was truly looking down on the elite force.

The 1st unit was a mixed unit made up of sword-shield soldiers, spearmen, and bowmen, which was a common arrangement for Great Xia infantry.

War after war proved that one soldier type was not suitable for the chaotic battlefield. Only mixed units possessed flexibility and adaptability. Only they could truly show off the advantage of the various different soldier types to increase killing strength and survivability.

After everyone was present, the announcer of the battle, Du Ruhui, read out the rules.

“This battle is a fight to the death. The battle will end when one side is totally destroyed or surrenders. The location is limited to the drill field, and the fighting mode is not restricted…”

After reading the rules, Du Ruhui took a look at the king. Seeing him nod, he immediately said, “Let the battle begin!”

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

As the war drums rang out, the earth-shattering drum beat slowly raised the hot blood of the warriors in the field.

As this was a battle on the drill field, there were no tricks that could be used. They were using solely their strength, and amongst the drum beats, both sides hollered as they charged forward.

In just a short while, one could see the difference between a proper army and the elite force.

Although the elite force tried their best to control it, after moving quickly, their formation was disorderly and was even started to break apart. On the contrary, the City Protection Legion Corps was like a whole, ensuring the integrity of the formation from start to finish.

When the seated Blood Romance on the stand saw that, he could only shake his head helplessly.

This was inevitable, as no matter how the players trained, without the restraints of military law, they would not be able to develop character. Ever so, Blood Romance was not worried at all.

On the battlefield, one needed to rely on strength and not some formation. As long as one could kill the enemy, who cares whether your formation was orderly or not?

While they moved at high speeds, the archers of the elite force showed their true skill. They could actually shoot and move at the same time. Sharp arrows shot one after another at the City Protection Legion Corps troops, causing much distraction and damage.

In the blink of an eye, three to four people were shot down, and the entire formation was unavoidably affected.

When commander Zhao Sihu saw that, he ordered, “Dang!”

With a ‘Shua!’, shields were either lifted up high or ahead to block the arrows. Although they blocked the arrow rain, the movement speed and formation were unavoidably affected a second time.

In the first round, the elite force held the upper hand.

As they spoke, the two forces were about to crash into one another.

At that moment, the City Protection Legion Corps suddenly changed. The two rows of sword shield soldiers charging at the front changed from a straight line to a curve. In the blink of an eye, they formed a circle together with the sword shield soldiers in the last row.

“Formation!” Blood Romance’s expression instantly became solemn.

This formation was a simplified version of the three thousand rotating wheel formation that Sun Bin designed for the Divine Martial Guards. The outside was defended by the sword shield soldiers, the middle the spearmen, while the archers hid in the center.

Logically speaking, changing their formation while running was a huge worry for military people. If one was careless, the troops might be charged apart by the enemy. Luckily, the City Protection Legion Corps were facing the elite force, where there were no cavalries. Their opponents were all heavy armored forces.

Facing such an iron fortress, the elite forces were helpless. The solution they came up with was to try to spread out on both sides and surround the City Protection Legion Corps.

This idea seemed good, but they committed a common-sense mistake. The art of war said that one needed 10 times the number to surround. The elite force was like the City Protection Legion Corps with 500 fighters, so how could they surround them?

Zhao Sihu stood in the center of the circular formation. When he saw the enemy split up, he ordered, “Stab!”

“Kill!”

In an instance, hundreds of spears stabbed out from the spaces between the shields like lightning. The attack range of the entire formation was instantly extended.

Some of the elite force troops misjudged the range of the spears and stood too close, instantly being hit. These players were skilled too, using all their ability to twist and turn in the forest of spears to try and avoid each and every one of them.

There were some strong ones who even tried to counter attack. With a flash of light, some spears were cut in half.

In terms of personal ability, the elite forces were a level higher than the City Protection Legion Corps soldiers. All of them had their own skills, speed, and dexterity, which were all above average. Moreover, they had a variety of cultivation methods, which gave one a headache.

When Blood Romance on the stand saw that, he nodded his head in satisfaction. He had his reasons for being confident.

“Stop!” Zhao Sihu was unfazed.

With a ‘Shua!’, the spears were pulled back. When the adventure gamemode players saw that, they heaved a sigh of relief. The bold ones even wanted to take the chance to attack the sword shield soldiers at the outer circle.

“Stab!”

Less than 10 seconds passed, and the spears stabbed out once more; their moves were still as fast as lightning.

This time, the elite force players had misjudged the situation. In the blink of an eye, five to six of them were stabbed, falling to the group and bleeding out. Some of them could not help it and cried out.

To prepare them for challenges on Planet Hope, the pain index in the game was 50% at the lowest. Elite players would even just adjust it to 70%, and some maniacs would even choose to experience the full pain.

People like Ouyang Shuo adjusted upward slowly from the start. Last year, he had already reached 100%. The adjustment was also really good for cultivation.

Players crying out was a normal matter, and no one would despise them because of that.

Seeing that, there were medics who rushed up to carry them out of the battlefield to tend to their wounds.

Ouyang Shuo’s goal was to recruit them, not to kill them off.

Even if it was a life or death battle, they would try to save those that could be saved, which was why there were paramedics on standby. When Blood Romance saw that, a complicated expression flashed across his face. He did not know that there was such an arrangement prior to this.

The killing on the battlefield continued.

The elite players were indeed strong individually, but the City Protection Legion Corps troops were not weak either. Their moves were simple, but each was practiced tens of thousands of time.

Just like the stabbing of the spear, they practiced day and night in the camp, and the movement had become embedded in muscle memory. Under Zhao Sihu’s orders, they were like a machine, stabbing out accurately with no mistakes.

Such an attack was something that adventure gamemode players did not possess.

The proper army and the elite forces displayed all their skills in this battle. If they merged all their pros to cover up their weaknesses, meshing it all together, it would be a really terrifying prospect.

Blood Romance was a smart person. Seeing all this, he fell deep into thought. Maybe the real reason Ouyang Shuo agreed to this battle was for them all to see this point.

Elite forces joining the army looked like they were being restrained, but in truth, it was to establish a firm foundation for the future on Planet Hope. Be it for the elite forces or the players themselves, there were more pros than cons.

Even though he thought about it, Blood Romance still wanted to win this battle.

At this very moment, the battlefield welcomed a new change. Facing the formation of the City Protection Legion Corps, the elite force thought of a way to break it.

They moved grouped up as fives, lifting one of them up and throwing forward. That person was like superman, flying over the outer and middle circle and right into the core area.

This could be considered another form of a general killing operation.

The elite force players were all skilled. While in the air, they were already prepared to strike. Like a flying fish, they charged at the core region in an unstoppable manner.

“Shoot!”

Although Zhao Sihu was a little surprised, his orders were not slow at all. On the battlefield prior to this, Zhao Sihu had indeed not faced such special tactics. Proper armies did not do such things.

Chapter 1172 - Promise Worth Its Weight in Gold

Chapter 1172: Promise Worth Its Weight in Gold

‘Xiu! Xiu! Xiu!’

After receiving the order, the archers in the middle fired at the men in the air. As they were using god arm crossbows, their speed was extremely fast, and their damage output was really high. If the players were not careful, they would be hit and crash onto the ground.

And the moment they fell onto the ground, there would be no chance for them to survive.

The adventure gamemode players had some skills themselves, and those who were chosen to be the ‘superman’ were all really nimble. Some of them were even able to dodge in mid-air.

In the time that it took to breathe, there were some players who landed in the core area and started slaughtering those around them.

If this was a normal army, they would have probably started panicking. However, the City Protection Legion Corps was different. They had been through numerous life and death experiences, and although they were shocked, they did not panic.

The outer layer was still airtight, while the core area was led by Zhao Sihu as they killed anyone who entered. Zhao Sihu was not only a commander but also an expert.

He had been training up his blade skills since the first year of Gaia, and it was already ingrained in his bones.

It was not an exaggeration to say that even the leader of the elite force would not be able to beat Zhao Sihu. He was also the calming needle arranged by Ouyang Shuo to prevent accidents from happening.

“Spread!”

Zhao Sihu hollered as he raised his blade and charged forward. As the blade shone, an allure was covered as white lights flashed and the clanging of metal rang out. In less than half a minute, the player was taken down.

Zhao Sihu did not stop after taking down one person. He continued to charge around like the wind. Under his leadership, the City Protection Legion Corps quickly regained their footing and surrounded all these so-called ‘supermen’.

Such deterrence was simply terrifying.

On the stand, not only Blood Romance, but even the other guild leaders could not help but exclaim. Only now did they realize that they had underestimated the generals.

Especially after the update, where all these generals were given buffs; each and every one of them were Asuras.

If a non-historical talent like Zhao Sihu was already so strong, what about the legendary figures like Er’Lai, Lu Bu, and Ma Chao? How strong were they?

Blood Romance did not dare to think about it.

If he was asked to fight Lu Bu, he might not be able to win.

One must know that in the world martial arts competition, Blood Romance had crushed everyone to obtain the title of best in the world. Even Lin Jing, who used first rate weapons and cultivation methods, lost to him.

The pride of the adventure gamemode players was being hit.

“Gaia is truly biased!” Blood Romance felt complicated.

Regarding this point, Blood Romance had gotten it wrong. Think about it, players had just cultivated for less than five years, and those five years were shorter than if one cultivated five years in real life. As such, it was normal if one could not compare to Lu Bu and other historical generals.

In history, which of them did not start cultivating from a young age?

As such, Gaia was still extremely fair. If adventure gamemode players could easily beat them, how were historical generals still special? Would they not be worthless?

That would truly be unfair.

…

Very quickly, Zhao Sihu was able to stabilize the situation, and the superman plan of the elite force ended in failure. Although it made the City Protection Legion Corps panic a little, and they also killed 20 archers, they suffered heavy casualties themselves.

With the City Protection Legion Corps being prepared, them using the same tactic again was impossible.

The face of the elite force leader was a little ugly. He glanced at the stand, and when he saw the solemn expression of the guild leader, he gritted his teeth and ordered, “Brothers, do not lose the face of our guild, attack!”

“Yes!”

In the beginning, when they chose which elite force to accept the battle, Blood Romance had sought all their opinions. These people had all volunteered. Naturally, none of them were afraid of death.

All of them were cold-blooded men.

Along with the order given by the leader, the remaining members either formed into groups or went up alone, displaying all their skills as they fought with the City Protection Legion Corps. They gave off the aura of viewing death as a relief.

These people charged to the front of the City Protection Legion Corps formation and either used methods to kill the sword shield soldier through the shield or attacked quickly, stabbing through the gaps.

Those who had defense skills tanked the attacks of the City Protection Legion Corps, using absolute power to smash the shields. Their fists, which smacked onto the shields, actually gave out metallic clangs, what a terrifying sight.

Some of them used special weapons like whips to strike at the core region and wrap up the spearmen, dragging them out.

Some even threw poison into the mix.

This gave the City Protection Legion Corps a lot of problem. They had never seen such weird attacks, and even the battles against beasts were not as weird as this.

In less than a minute, the sword shield soldiers on the outer layer suffered heavy casualties, and the middle troops were in chaos.

At the crucial moment, the iron-like discipline of the City Protection Legion Corps was finally shown. The soldiers were fearless, and when one fell in the outer layer, one from within would fill the spot without any hesitation.

Each person had their own role. It was under such a situation that the stabbing of the spearmen continued. With wave after wave, they caused huge interference to the elite force. Players were constantly dying and turning into light.

The archers in the center dodged the poison while shooting, valiant to the max.

Zhao Sihu was like a war god. He charged left and right, fighting the ‘fire’ on one side while arranging the attacks at another. He raised the morale of the soldiers to let the entire formation continue running.

Looking out from the stand, the City Protection Legion Corps formation’s outer layer was in tatters after the strong attacks of the elite force; it was on the verge of collapse. As such, it was easy to see how much pressure they were facing.

Anyone with a keen eye could see that the City Protection Legion Corps could not be compared to the elite force individually. However, when these ordinary soldiers combined, they were able to unleash shocking might.

“This is an army!”

Iron-like discipline and fearlessness after long periods of battles made them block spears for their teammates without hesitation. To create an opportunity, they would even sacrifice their lives.

No matter how the elite force members were familiar with one another, they could not do that.

The intense slaughter continued, but the guild leaders who were watching the fight were now totally silent.

One side fierce in attacking, while the other side was defending to the death; neither side wanted to lose. Everyone gave everything they got, they were fighting for honor. Furthermore, they knew the stakes of this battle.

The drill field was made of firm earth and was really solid. However, under the immense pressure of the battle, dust was flying, and cracks appeared on the ground. Fresh blood and dirt mixed together, appearing really eye-piercing.

One could see how intense this fight was.

As things continued, the battle situation changed once more.

The attacks of the elite force were hampered, and they lost their sharpness. On the other hand, the City Protection Legion Corps did not stop after they blocked the strongest blow of the enemy. Instead, they launched their counterattack.

“Spread!”

Zhao Sihu ordered decisively, ordering the formation to split. They would change from defense to attack while the enemy had lost their spirit, launching a counterattack to crush the enemy.

Seeing that, the elite force members had faces of despair.

If they continued on like this, the 500 men elite force would be totally destroyed. However, they were not willing to admit defeat. This concerned the honor of their guild and more so their personal honor.

“Surrender? That is not our style!”

At this very moment, Ouyang Shuo, who had not made a sound, took a look at Du Ruhui and said, “Sound the drums. At this stage, both sides have suffered casualties. It’s a tie.”

Du Ruhui bowed. Currently, his head was filled with thoughts, “Yes, my king!” Following which, he got up and went to spread the order.

Very quickly, the drum beats signaling the end of the battle spread out across the drill field. The City Protection Legion Corps was first to react, stopping in their tracks without hesitation and forming up on the spot.

When the elite force saw that, their eyes shook.

The elite force leader sighed in his heart while heaving a sigh of relief at the same time. He looked toward Ouyang Shuo on the stand with a complicated expression and shouted, “Form up!”

“Yes!”

Ouyang Shuo got up and move to the viewing stand where Blood Romance and the others were seated, “Blood Evil Mercenary Group’s elite force are truly great warriors, opening up my eyes. They are warriors worthy of respect.”

“If we continue on, the casualties will only increase, so why not end it in a draw?”

Blood Romance was already mentally prepared when he heard the drums. Even so, he could not help but suck in a deep breath as he looked right at Ouyang Shuo, “Let’s follow your decision!”

He could not reject such a suggestion.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. He turned around and looked at the survivors as he rotated his true qi to let his voice spread out, “Warriors, all of you have fought a courageous and intelligent battle, befitting of the duty and honor on your shoulders. Each one of you is rewarded with 300 gold. As for the dead, the Imperial Court will compensate them, giving them 500 gold.”

“Thank you, my king!”

The City Protection Legion Corps was first to react, and under the leadership of Zhao Sihu, they did an order military bow.

The elite force hesitated but still gave their thanks. Even to elite players, 300 gold was a sizeable income, and to the dead, 500 gold was a welcome help.

Ouyang Shuo’s magnanimity and straightforwardness impressed everyone.

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo smiled and turned toward Blood Romance, “I acted on my own accord, do not mind me. My only regret is that I’m unable to recruit these valiant warriors.”

Blood Romance’s expression became really solemn. At this moment, he made up his mind. Cupping his fists and bowing, he said, “I am totally won over by the king’s magnanimity. If you do not mind us, please accept us into the Great Xia Army to fight for Great Xia’s honor and protect the glory of China.”

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, his eyes lit up and said excitedly, “To get the help of Blood Evil Mercenary Group is the good fortune of Great Xia. I swear I will not fail my promise.”

The promise of a ruler was worth its weight in gold.

Blood Romance finally let out a smile, and he bowed once more.

When the elite force on the drill field saw that, they gave a military bow too. Although it was not a proper one, it meant that a new age had descended on Great Xia.

“Glory! Glory!”

On the drill field, the two sides that were just fighting a moment ago chanted the same words.

Chapter 1173 - Boring Country War

Chapter 1173: Boring Country War

On the imperial city drill field, the wind blew.

On the viewing stand were two giants that had risen up together. One represented the peak of China Lords, while the other represented the peak of guilds. Beneath the stage were cheering warriors, and amongst the yellow dust, their hot blood was burning.

If one saw such a scene, they would obviously be filled with emotions.

Although Blood Romance agreed to be incorporated, Ouyang Shuo was not an ignorant person and gave the Blood Evil Mercenary Group some time. He allowed them to choose four elite forces to join the Guards Legion Corps and the Dragon Legion Corps to follow the army to India to experience the battlefield.

“When the time is right, they will have a large-scale merger. In the meantime, the Blood Evil Mercenary Group can continue to exist as an organization and does not need to disband.”

Blood Romance had no objections.

Ouyang Shuo’s promise was not false words, and there were living examples.

In the 1st year of Gaia, the Rattlesnake Mercenary Guild joined Shanhai City. Now, five years had passed, and the members were all doing really well.

Black Snake Guards Commander Black Snake and Military Affairs Secretary Cobra, these two intel giants, did not look like they commanded a lot of people, but in truth, their power and resources exceeded what Blood Romance possessed.

Their achievement value had reached a shocking number. Based on what Black Snake had revealed, his permission level had reached C and was on its way to B.

If this was in the past, such a matter would be totally unimaginable.

The members below him all held important positions. They were either in charge of the intel work of a region, or they became head lecturers to teach the military.

These were all clear examples for all to see.

In comparison, the development of guilds was too restricted. Without a fixed base, the guild could only be pushed around. If one huge wave arrived, they might not be able to handle it and would face the risk of disbanding.

Even if the guild moved to a territory, they were restricted everywhere, and there was not much they could do about it.

No Lord would be willing to allow an uncontrolled power to appear in their territory. To recruit the guilds was a much-needed act, and no one could stop that.

Great Xia only did it first.

In the future, when other Lords raised similar demands, the guilds would face the fate of being suppressed if they were not willing. Even to say that they might be chased out of the territory.

Helplessly, at the current juncture, there was no land without an owner even when looking out at the entire wilderness. Apart from some belonging to NPC dynasties, 90% were controlled by Lords.

If they were chased away by a Lord, there would be no place for the guild on this Earth.

Just this point alone meant that guilds could not fight against Lords.

In this aspect, Gaia was indeed biased toward the Lords and was pretty much stepping the adventure gamemode players into the dirt. Of course, only those with little intelligence would think this way, as they did not understand the intentions of Gaia.

Not to mention the high elimination rate of Lord players, but numerous famous people had also fallen in this road of conquest. While the final victors like Ouyang Shuo would hold large power, they would also hold greater responsibility on Planet Hope.

“With great power comes great responsibility.” This was not just a random statement.

Gaia already stood and considered things from the standpoint of mankind and would not truly be biased. As for her care for Bing’er, it did not affect anything, so no one would bother about it.

After all, Gaia was also a person, and people had their preferences.

Taking a step back, before the 6th year of Gaia, Lord players walked through so many thorns in the wilderness. They were like blades being sharpened, clearing out bandits, building cities, reclaiming land, and opening up a new world.

Those that contributed were victors like Ouyang Shuo while there were also numerous failures. Due to such contributions, they deserved some credit.

As a result, when calculating the achievement value, these fallen Lords had some gains.

During this period of time, the adventure gamemode players had been holed up in the imperial city, protected by it and aimlessly passing their days. Now that the wilderness was peaceful, the guilds move over to the territories and continue to enjoy protection.

Where was the fairness in that?

Now, it was the time for the Lords to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

For things to develop to such a stage, if guilds and territories merged, it would be good for both of them. On the other hand, it was bad for both if they split. Ouyang Shuo’s actions during these past few days was to spread this clear message to them.

If one was not a fool, they would be able to understand this point.

Blood Romance obviously was not a foolish person. If he was such an individual, he would not have placed down the pride in him and choose to lower his head to Great Xia just because of Ouyang Shuo’s performance.

The final battle was just a method.

On the stand, looking down at the large cheering crowd, Ouyang Shuo shook hands with Blood Romance. From now on, they were people on the same boat, fighting for the same goals while having their own roles.

The role of Xia King was not just the power of a feudal lord, rather, it was a heavy responsibility.

Seeing that, Xie Siyun smiled and said to Blood Romance, “Snow-War Rose wanted to be the first guild. Who would have known that you would snatch that spot?”

“It is not too late now.” Blood Romance’s mood was really good.

“That’s right! Blood Shadow Alliance wants to join.” Moon Shines over the River expressed hurriedly.

Since the three giants had all nodded their heads, the other guild leaders naturally knew their place, and they all showed their support.

Similar to how they dealt with the Blood Evil Mercenary Group, the Imperial Court would not take them all in at once. Instead, they would make them choose an elite force to join the army. Doing so would help stop the opposition voices within the guild.

Ouyang Shuo was not in a rush.

As he had mentioned before, this matter was going to happen, and it was not something anyone could stop.

Any legendary hero would be able to direct the situation to one that favors themselves.

…

6th month, 1st day, country war month officially begins.

The flames of war blazed in the wilderness that had not been calm for long, wrapping up the entire globe.

Under such a backdrop, the China region battlefield seemed a little depressing.

On the north, the Romanov Dynasty only sent an army as a token of their participation to disturb Liaojin Province, showing no signs of invading.

Even to say that there was not a single Russian adventure gamemode player.

The ones that were afraid were not just the China region players. Even the Russians became fearful after the system update, much less asking them to cross thousands of miles to disturb Great Xia.

No one was so free.

Romanov Empire leader Pushkin chose his country war target as Great Xia because he had no choice.

North of Russia was the empty Artic ocean, while east was North America which belonged to Dawson. To its south was China, while west was their ally, the Persian Empire as well as Europe.

Apart from China, the rest were all allies.

Originally, using the chance of the country war month to take down a small European state was their best choice. However, Silver Hand did not allow them to do so.

The Pushkin family was an awkward presence in Silver Hand. The European families were wary of them like one would be wary of a thief and did not want to give them a chance.

Under such a situation, how would they allow them to attack Europe?

With nothing to choose, Pushkin had no choice but to select China. However, he had no intentions of conquering China, as that was not worth it at all.

Hence, it resulted in their lack of interest.

…

Southwest, Java was also in an awkward situation where they could not advance or retreat.

If Great Xia started a cross ocean war like last year, Java would have to go all out in fear of being wiped out.

Java Lord Uwais would be able to borrow the power of the players to go all out against Great Xia.

Unexpectedly, Great Xia did not fall for that. The country war had already started, but they showed no intentions of attacking Java. They only arranged the Heluo and Nanjiang legion corps to defend the surrounding islands as a show of strength.

Hence, the Java players were not that interested either.

After the Badong Squadron was destroyed, the huge risk of cross ocean war was enough to crush all their courage. Not to mention the players, but even the territory army did not dare to go out to sea.

The entire atmosphere became really awkward.

…

The only one that made moves was India.

After learning that the Great Zhou and Great Jin player groups were not going to participate in this war, the India Region felt really confident. All their powers bonded together as they shouted out the slogan of reclaiming their title as best in Asia.

Even their adventure gamemode players were really eager.

In their eyes, using their entire region to take down Great Xia would not be a problem. Since that was the case, they should naturally join in to try to gain something from it.

In truth, snatching a piece of China’s land was the dream of the Indians.

Chapter 1174 - Country War Motive

Chapter 1174: Country War Motive

6th month, 1st day, Peacock Dynasty’s 700 thousand strong army gathered at the border of Great Xia’s Hetao Province, looking really aggressive. Along with them were 100 thousand combat occupation players.

At the same time, Gupta Dynasty used the ocean route. Under the protection of their squadron, they would either disembark on the south of Hetao Province or the southwest of Hanoi Province.

Gupta Dynasty’s plan was that if they restrained the Heluo legion corps, they would be able to create a chance for Java. At the same time, it could help split up some of the pressure that Peacock Dynasty was facing on the main battlefield.

Killing two birds with one stone.

Great Xia’s reaction appeared a little ‘sour’.

The Nanjing Legion corps and the Heluo Legion corps defended the various islands to fend Java. Meanwhile, the Hanoi legion corps was in charge of the beast cave defense of Hanoi Province and Hetao Province. As a result, they basically could not participate in the battle.

The Guards Legion Corps set up defenses along the shore, showing off the mobility advantage of the cavalry. At the same time, they got ready to fight the disembarking Gupta Dynasty army.

The Dragon Legion Corps was arranged at the Hetao Province border to face the Peacock Dynasty army. As for the adventure gamemode players that appeared in Hetao Province, the final tally numbered them at 50 thousand.

Basically, the Great Xia Army was fighting one against two, which made one worried.

The City Protection Legion Corps prepared a legion as a reserve force to reinforce the frontlines at any moment. Apart from that, the Leopard, Tiger, and Eagle Legion Corps were not going to be moved.

In the previous battles, they had already used up the resources of Piao Country, which was the current Hetao Province. The Hanoi Province war resources were on a tightrope, and they could not support the resource usage of a million troops.

Ouyang Shuo was determined for this to not be a huge war.

Since the 6th system update, the army was no longer made up of iron. It was not that they just needed to replenish the war loses and the army would be alive and well again… the soldiers needed a resting period.

He mobilized the Dragon and Guards Legion Corps because he was forced to.

Under such a situation, Great Xia could only defend. However, to defend well was not a simple matter. Let’s talk about Hetao Province first. In the previous war, the border defense was pretty much destroyed, and in a short time, it was not enough to build up a new defensive line.

As a result, Baiqi could only rely on the five border cities to form a city defense chain. If Peacock Dynasty was not greedy, the neighboring villages would definitely fall.

It was not easy for the Guards Legion Corps either.

Huo Qubing arranged infantries at the cities around the coast that had ports. As for the remaining cavalry, they were split up to move flexibly. Once the Gupta Dynasty troops disembarked, they would make further plans.

At the same time, to reduce the defensive pressure on the Guards Legion Corps, the 2nd and 5th divisions of the Indian Ocean Squadron increased their patrol in the neighboring ocean region.

Although they could not go head to head against the navy of the Gupta Dynasty, they could reduce the area where they could disembark.

If not, the Guards Legion Corps would be too busy defending such a huge coastline.

The 1st division of the Indian Ocean Squadron housed in Lion City as well as the 4th division in Auckland prefecture were in charge of locking down Java.

The Indian Ocean Squadron could be said to be spinning around busily.

…

6th month, 2nd day, Pangbin City.

Pangbin was a little city on the west side of Hetao Province and was 100 miles away from the border. As Pangbin City was located near the center of the border line, Baiqi chose this place as the command center.

350 thousand Dragon Legion Corp troops used these five border cities as their core, echoing one another.

Just yesterday, the scouts of the two sides had engaged hundreds of times at the border to scout for more intel. Some bold adventure gamemode players were really excited and jumped right into the battle at the border.

The killing began right when the country war started.

As a result of the 6th system update, the buffs that the country honor points brought as well as the country weapon buff were all removed.

This was totally unfair to China.

Toward this matter, Gaia gave a compensation proposal, which was that apart from the 5% of the imperial city guards he could summon, he could summon an extra 100 thousand guards.

After the system update, the imperial city guards were reduced by half. Along with the destruction of Dali, the 5% ratio could only allow him to summon 220 thousand guards.

As India only had one imperial city, the guards had not suffered any losses. As the country war leader, Peacock Dynasty King Durava could summon 250 thousand guards.

Of course, with the extra 100 thousand, the situation becomes rather different. Moreover, the China region NPC dynasties had a longer history, and the quantity of guards were higher than that of India.

Great Qin’s tiger and wolf troops, Great Han’s iron cavalry, and the like; all of these were famous first-rate armies.

Ouyang Shuo was prepared to open up on Great Han.

Hanwu Emperor was sitting in the middle plains of China. When his envoy came over last year, they did not even bother to mention the cauldron, which annoyed Ouyang Shuo. If he had a chance, he would naturally want to teach Great Han a lesson.

Since Ouyang Shuo started the Nine Cauldrons quest, he had only received the cauldrons from Dali, Quanzhou, Xiangyang, and Jianye. There was no movement from the five other imperial cities.

Him teaching Great Han a lesson this time was to set an example to make it easier to complete the Nine Cauldrons quest. He wanted to clear out obstacles for Great Xia to become the first emperor dynasty in the world.

As for Shu Han and Great Sui, other methods could be used to weaken them. Ouyang Shuo had removed 100 thousand of the 500 troops from Shu Han imperial city, and there were only 400 thousand left.

With the strength of the northwest warzone, even if they went head on, they would be able to wipe out the Shu Han imperial city. There was no need to waste this precious summoning opportunity.

As for Great Sui, it did not have any ambitions.

Think about it, if Great Han moved 320 thousand guards at once and was left with only 180 thousand, how would Great Han compete with Great Xia?

Before the country war began, the Grand Council had started to plan the military operation to attack Great Han. After the end of the country war, Great Xia would officially declare war on Great Han.

The group in charge of this battle was the southeast war zone that had been formed not long ago.

The only difficulty would be that Great Han was not connected to Great Xia. Instead, it was totally connected to Great Zhou. How to swiftly take down Great Han while not letting Great Zhou kill steal would be a true test to the southeast warzone.

Getting back to the topic.

Pangbin City, City Lord’s Manor.

Baiqi was holding a military meeting to give the final instructions for the battle. However, the different part was that he did not gather all of them there to discuss. Instead, he used the communication compass.

Five cities, each legion in charge of one.

If they made the Legion Generals run all the way to Pangbin city for the meeting, not only would it not be safe, but it would also be really inefficient. With the communication compass, things became much easier.

This new tool that Gaia released was uncomfortable for Baiqi and the other historical generals at first. It was like all their plans and strategies would instantly be exposed.

Many proven effective strategies were useless now. If one did not make changes, things might mess up on the battlefield, and the enemy would have a chance to take advantage.

For this, the Great Xia Army had made a fool of themselves several times on the battlefield.

For example, in the Battle of Piao that had ended not long ago, the Hanoi legion corps was in charge of entering the north of Piao and sweeping the surroundings of the imperial city to cut off the logistical supply of the imperial city. The 1st legion led by Pei Xingyan acted as the vanguard force.

His carelessness in forgetting the existence of the communication compass resulted in him still wanting to use the common Great Xia cavalry sneak attack tactic. Who knew that their tracks were already located by Piao country players long Ago?

The outcome was as expected.

An originally hopeful sneak attack suddenly became an enemy ambush. If it were not for the stubbornness of the Hanoi legion corps and the main force catching up in time, they would have suffered a heavy loss.

Even so, they lost 10 thousand elites.

That battle was used as a piece of counter teaching material to teach the generals of the influence of the communication compasses on battle, keeping them on their toes.

The so-called sneak attack was difficult to enact if players were spread out around the country, and this was especially so when one was not fighting on home ground. At such a time, the battlefield was filled with enemy eyes, and the military tracks could not be hidden.

Of course, Gaia had pushed out communication compasses to make things easier. After the historical generals became familiar with it and knew how convenient and effective it was, it was pretty much better than thousands of troops.

If used well, there were more pros than cons.

Like the current meeting where Zhao Ponu, Lai Hu’er, Zhang Liao, Luo Shixin, and Xiao Chaogui etc. five generals were used to it.

Although the five legions were split into five cities, they could keep in contact with the headquarters at all times to receive orders at pretty much the same time. Moreover, they could report their own situations.

This was the dream for commanders.

As a God General, Baiqi was naturally the first to understand the greatness of the compass and quickly learned how to use it to the best of its ability. Now, he could not only command the Hetao battlefield, but he could also command the Hanoi, Nanjiang, and Heluo legion corps without leaving Pangbin City, handling all matters of the southwest warzone.

If this was in the past, such a matter would be totally impossible.

“The country war month lasts for only a month. As the one attacking, the enemy will not be patient. As long as we are calm, we will be able to find a chance to launch a counterattack.”

Baiqi concluded with a reminder, “Before the king reaches the frontline, all of you must defend your cities. No matter how the enemy provokes us, you cannot exit the city to battle. It would affect the big picture, do you understand?”

“Yes general!”

Through the screen, the five Legion General all did a military bow.

Chapter 1175 - Ghost Leading Talisman

Chapter 1175: Ghost Leading Talisman

6th month, 4th day, the 500 thousand strong army of the Gupta Dynasty successfully disembarked at Pathein on the south side of Hetao Province. After fighting an intense battle against the Guards Legion Corps, they successfully occupied the city and obtained a front sentry base.

The Gupta Dynasty was really smart, and they chose the easier Hetao Province as the place to breach.

Hetao Province was a new province of Great Xia, and the cities around the oceans had not been refurbished. The P1 Type Cannons were not mounted on the city walls, which gave the Gupta Dynasty a chance.

If this was Hanoi Province, the situation would have been very different.

The Guards Legion Corps only had ten thousand soldiers stationed here. Seeing the battle matters going south, they chose to make a strategic retreat. They would make plans after gathering up with the main force.

During this period of time, the Peacock Dynasty army made moves at the border, sweeping the sentry posts Great Xia had placed there. They passed the villages and outposts, looking really aggressive.

The Great Xia Army could only gather in the city and defend and did not dare to make any moves.

Looking at the situation, India was prepared to gather their troops to take down Hetao Province in one fell swoop to obtain practical benefits. Such a non-greedy act was rarely seen.

This was the first time that Great Xia had been on such a back foot, making one worry.

The India region was winning successive battles, and their morale was really high. Some of the players who were originally spectating were tempted and were ready to throw themselves onto the frontlines to try to gain something from the battlefield.

On the contrary, the global forums were all mocking Great Xia.

The forum channels were completely grasped by the hands of Silver Hand and Azure Badge. With such a chance, they would obviously take it. In the recent few days, all the medias had pushed out many reports to diss and send their condolences regarding Great Xia.

Some people actually believed it.

The forums and comments were like an invisible killing blade. If used well, it was worth a huge army.

What made Ouyang Shuo feel slightly happy was that while the main media outlets had no confidence in Great Xia, there were actually people who stepped out to speak for Great Xia.

“Great Xia used its own strength, without even using a single troop from the Imperial Court, and they are able to block the attacks of India. Which enemy has such ability? How is the strength of those who say that Great Xia cannot make it?”

“Purposely dissing your opponent when you yourself is not skilled is so despicable.”

Although such voices were very weak, it was enough to prove that the Great Xia Dynasty led by Ouyang Shuo had achieved a certain level of recognition.

Like a little spout, as long as Great Xia kept this up, they would one day grow into a giant tree.

It was under such a circumstance that Ouyang Shuo and his group arrived in Pangbin City. Along with him, apart from the three thousand Divine Martial Guards, were 20 thousand elite combat occupation players.

After the battle a week ago, the guilds had bowed their head to Great Xia.

Since that was the case, seeing that Great Xia was facing so much pressure at the border, these guilds would naturally step up, sending their elite players to assist the frontlines.

Pangbin City, City Lord’s Manor.

Baiqi gave a simple introduction of the battlefield situation to the king, “With their current numbers, if they try to force their way through, they would be asking for their death.”

“I do not think that they will be so foolish. They only have two choices ahead of them; they either summon their imperial city guards to gather up their strength and take down a certain city, or they let the stalemate continue and wait for the Gupta Dynasty army to meet up with them.”

“I think that the first one is more possible. Although Gupta Dynasty has taken down Pathein, there are being chased down and surrounded by the Guards Legion Corps and will not be able to rush over to gather up in a short time. Hence, the best possibility would be for them each to quickly try to breakthrough with their own skills.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. As expected from Baiqi, he had seen through the strategy of the enemy. Ouyang Shuo smiled, “I guess general already has a plan?”

“The enemy does not know that the king can summon 100 thousand imperial city troops to aid us in battle. This is our chance, and if used well, we can counter surround the enemy to create an opportunity,” Baiqi replied.

Ouyang Shuo was clear in his heart. Although skill was part of why Great Xia had won all their wars, Ouyang Shuo having endless amounts of trump cards was also decisive. At every crucial moment, he gave the enemy a fatal blow.

Baiqi knew how to use these trump cards.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, taking out a talisman and passing it to Baiqi. “Apart from the 100 thousand guards, I think that this can help general out.”

Baiqi took a look at it, and his face shone in surprise.

Ghost Leading Talisman: after use, beast caves will swarm out with 10 times the usual number of beasts.

This talisman was an item that Blood Romance had given to Ouyang Shuo two days ago as a gift. Looking at it then, this talisman was not anything good. If they truly led out 10 times the beast, would they not just be harming themselves?

A normal beast wave already made one exhausted, but if one raised it by 10 times, no one could stop it. At the start, Ouyang Shuo was even wondering if Blood Romance was purposely taking out a useless item to give to him.

However, after thinking about it, if one used this at a right spot, it would achieve a miraculous effect. The current battlefield was such a spot.

Baiqi naturally understood the king’s intentions, smiling as he said, “My king, at the north of the border, there’s a giant beast cave. As the enemy has had heavy disturbance there, the Hanoi Legion corps camped there retreated a week ago.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, “This is up to you.” Ouyang Shuo rushed to the frontlines only to spectate and to raise the morale of the army. He had no intentions of taking over control.

The specific battle plans were the responsibility of the Baiqi led command headquarters.

“Understood!” Baiqi bowed.

As the 6th month arrived, the beast caves became more and more restless, and the number of beasts seemed to be increasing. If at such a time, one led out 10 times the number, it would probably create enough problems for the Peacock Dynasty.

A plan was rising up in Baiqi’s heart.

After they met, Ouyang Shuo left the 20 thousand combat occupation players for Baiqi to command. He brought the three thousand Divine Martial Guards out of the city to tour the other nearby cities.

With the Divine Martial Guards alongside him, there was nothing the Peacock Dynasty army could do to Ouyang Shuo.

If Durava was obsessed and tried to kill him, Ouyang Shuo did not mind using himself as bait to hook in Peacock Dynasty.

One must forget that Ouyang Shuo could summon 320 thousand imperial city guards at any moment.

…

Peacock Dynasty, Imphal City.

Like Pangbin City, Imphal City was a small city at the border except it was within Peacock Dynasty border and opposite to Pangbin City. This was the reason why it was chosen as the frontline command center of the Peacock Dynasty.

During this period of time, the Peacock Dynasty army had already swept the surrounding region. The arrival of Ouyang Shuo and his men was naturally caught by their eyes, and the matter was quickly reported to the command center.

City Lord’s Manor.

Upon learning that the Xia King had personally cole, although Durava was delighted, he felt a little tense. He said to the generals seated beneath him, “We cannot let this thing drag on.”

Gupta Dynasty King Akbar was also an old fox. After leading his troops to take down Pathein, he did not rush up north to gather up with the Peacock Dynasty army. Instead, he remained there with waiting for grain as the reason.

As a ruler, Durava obviously knew what Akbar was thinking about. He was worried about the Guards Legion Corps and did not dare to fight them head on. He hoped for Peacock Dynasty to open up the battle for him so that he could be the fisherman that claims credit.

Even when these two opponents formed an alliance, they were still plotting against one another.

Gupta Dynasty did that because Akbar had no ambition toward the land in Hetao Province. He just wanted to pillage it to earn achievement value and win the support of the Indian players.

Peacock Dynasty was different.

To Peacock Dynasty, this was the best chance for them to take down Hetao Province, and it might even be the only chance. Who knows what kind of monster Great Xia would grow into in next year’s country war.

Since Peacock Dynasty had more ambition than Gupta Dynasty, the Peacock Dynasty army was more eager. A week had passed, and they had to do something.

If not, they were going to miss out on this once in a lifetime opportunity.

“King, please instruct us!” The generals below all cupped their fists, brimming with fighting spirit.

Durava’s eyes swept across them as he said in a low tone, “From tomorrow onward, we will begin the city surrounding plan.”

“Yes!”

At this point, the country war was finally welcoming its peak.

Chapter 1176 - Hell Slaughterer

Chapter 1176: Hell Slaughterer

6th month, 5th day, Peacock Dynasty army finally started to make moves.

Of their 700 thousand troops, 500 thousand were left to defend the camp while the remaining 200 thousand moved to the border city at the north – Naijia.

Three days later, the army surrounded Naijia City such that not even a drop of water could leak through.

The moment they arrived, Peacock Dynasty did not hesitate at all and immediately summoned 250 thousand imperial city guards to help. Just like that, a total of 450 thousand troops surrounded one small border city.

Naijia City’s defense could not be compared to Pangbin City. Housed here was the 5th legion of the Dragon Legion Corps. As Legion General Xiao Chaogui was born in the Taiping Country, this legion was also the first gunner legion in the Dragon Legion Corps.

Even so, they could not fend off the enemy army.

The order that Baiqi gave them was, “Defend to the death for two days before the reinforcements arrive.”

…

Naijia, City Wall.

Xiao Chaogui stood on the city wall and looked out at the closely packed white tents outside of the city. Currently, his expression was really solemn. The 5th legion was facing enemies six times their number. For Naijia City, which had such weak defenses, defending for two days was not an easy matter.

However, since he had been given an order, no matter how hard it was, Xiao Chaogui had no choice but to execute it.

“Spread the word to all the troops, there is no retreat in this battle. We can only fight to the death. If we do not manage to defend it, we will have to die together with Naijia City.” Xiao Chaogui’s voice was really calm, but the military order he gave out was really solemn.

“Yes, general!”

The messenger’s face was also really solemn. He turned around and left swiftly.

…

Outside the city, central commander tent.

Durava was standing on the high ground, looking at Naijia City that was not far away. What he noticed was the Dragon Legion Corps standing on the city walls. They were at their peak, and even when they were surrounded, they showed no fear on their faces.

“I have heard that the Dragon Legion Corps under Baiqi is a bunch of hell slaughterers. It seems like the rumors are true.” Durava actually praised the enemy like that.

When the surrounding generals heard that, their faces showed obvious unhappiness, but they did not dare to retort.

Speaking of the Peacock Dynasty, the most famous soldier type would be the elephant forces. They were a level stronger than that of the war elephant force of the Shang Dynasty, and it was a presence on the battlefield that terrified anyone who saw them.

Unfortunately, in a siege, war elephants were of little use, which was why Durava only brought a small amount of them to use to siege the city gates.

Durava seemingly felt the mood of the generals behind him and changed his tone, “Even if they are hell slaughterers, they will not be able to escape the punishment of Shiva. It’s time to let them see how amazing the Peacock army is.”

As he said that, he suddenly turned around and said loudly, “Who is willing to be the vanguard?”

“I am willing!”

All the generals sought to be the one.

In their eyes, for such an army to surround such a small city, this battle would end right away. Being the vanguard would mean taking down first blood of this war.

No general would be able to resist such a temptation.

Durava nodded his head in satisfaction. His eyes stopped on the young general standing at the front, “Kargil, you will be the one to lead!”

“Yes, my king!”

Kargil raised his head in surprise. He was also a famous general of India, and he was famous for his courage.

When the other generals saw that, they were filled with envy and jealousy.

Durava did not bother to settle them down, turning around once more and looking at the city in the distance, his mind wandering off.

When the generals saw that, they all bid their goodbyes and left. They knew that their king’s personality was a little weird, and he liked to model himself toward Ashoka in history. His words were the law, and it was best not to get in his bad books.

Very quickly, Kargil led the troops out of the camp and lined up outside the city.

Drums thundered, and yellow sand filled the sky.

At such a secluded and fameless small town, the first large scale battle of this country war exploded. The Peacock Dynasty army led by general Kargil hollered as they charged at the city walls.

What they saw was not a bloody slaughter but a chance to gain merits.

Their idea was good, but reality was really cruel. The first waves of counterattacks from the 5th legion dazzled the Peacock Dynasty army.

The first was round after round of cannon fire, and then it was the shrieks of the arcuballistas. Finally, it was the clean and crisp handguns, with each round of attacks claiming numerous lives.

The power of the firearm force was simply terrifying.

Due to the restrictions in technology, there was a difference between the defensive tools of Peacock Dynasty and Great Xia Dynasty. Facing the attacks of the firearms, they were all the more helpless.

The high-speed charging army fell down row by row like wheat being harvested.

The Peacock Dynasty army was really courageous. Even under such fierce attacks, they still fearlessly charged forward, showing the heroic spirit of one that saw death as a relief.

They reached the front with much difficulty and what they faced were alchemical fire oil, rolling wood and stone, and other killing weapons.

Seeing the troops face trouble, Kargil was expressionless. The first wave was a probing attack, and the troops he sent out were cannon fodder – the imperial city guards.

The goal was to probe at the defense system of the city.

“Hei, they seem well prepared.” Kargil’s expression did not change. However, his heart tightened. He did not expect the Dragon Legion Corps that had hurried into the city to have prepared so much firepower.

Especially the group firing of the gunners, which Kargil was really worried about.

“Continue to charge!”

Worry was just worry, and the probing still had to continue.

Were the 250 thousand imperial city troops summoned by Durava not the best cannon fodder to achieve that?

Under Kargil’s stone cold orders, army after army was sent to the frontlines, not giving the defending troops any chance to rest. All of a sudden, it seemed like the defensive fire net of the Dragon Legion Corps would not be able to hold on.

Although the P1 Type Cannons were modified, the barrels overheating was unavoidable, and they could not be shot for prolonged periods. The firearms were the same, and once the barrels were hot till it was scalding to the hand, loading the bullets got difficult.

Apart from that, due to the lack of time, the number of defensive tools like rocks and rolling wood were decreasing at a visible rate. It looked like it would not be able to sustain for long.

Xiao Chaogui did not expect the enemy to actually be so fearless, not bothering about deaths, “What a bunch of people who disregard their own life. The commander is truly giving me a tough question.”

“No choice, we can only go all out!”

Seeing the situation worsen, Xiao Chaogui instantly ordered the troops to stop the throwing of fire oil, stone, and rolling wood, saving them for the crucial moment. They would temporarily cease fire on the cannons and firearms and let the second group take over.

This time, the firepower net weakened.

When Kargil who stood at a distance saw that, he let out a cruel smile, “I thought they were strong, but it seems like that was it. Send my orders, get the trebuchets to fire.”

“Yes, general!”

Seeing the defenses on the city wall weaken, Kargil decided to throw in the siege weapons. Trebuchet after trebuchet was pushed toward the frontlines, tossing stone after stone at the city wall.

Without the cannons restraining them, the trebuchets were like siege killing machines, raining down fearlessly toward the city wall. The city wall that was not strong in the first place was starting to shake under the large amounts of attacks.

“Let the siege forces follow up!’

Kargil ordered the true trump card force to advance. He already saw the hope of taking down Naijia City, and his face unavoidably flushed a little red.

Elite force after elite force carrying siege ladders hollered as they charged at the city wall.

The true massacre was just beginning.

Under the ferocious assaults of the trebuchets, the Dragon Legion Corps was unfazed. The seemingly fierce attacks only damaged the city walls, but it did little to no harm to them.

Seeing the enemy forces aggressively charging up onto the city walls, the Dragon Legion Corps soldiers gave out brutal smiles. They pulled out their shining Tang Blades; their eyes were as cold as ice.

They wanted the let the enemy soldiers see what was called the hell slaughterers.

Chapter 1177 - Beast Siege and Exploding the Camp

Chapter 1177: Beast Siege and Exploding the Camp

Dusk arrived once more.

The siege battle that lasted for a full day came to a temporary end as night fell.

Although the leaky city walls were riddled with holes, it still stood tall and did not fall. Beneath the feet of the city walls were corpses stacked up like mountains as well as the ground that was dyed red with blood, describing the strength of the hell slaughterers.

The bravery of Kargil only added to the killing intent and desires of the Dragon Legion Corps.

For the whole day, the Peacock Dynasty army took turns to attack, launching wave after wave of non-stop attacks. However, each and every one was crushed by the Dragon Legion Corps. Especially after the cannons came off cooldown, the trebuchets instantly suffered heavy damages. Without the cover of long-range firepower, the number of casualties of the Peacock Dynasty army rose by several times.

The Dragon Legion Corp soldiers on the city walls were really like slaughterers. They were highly efficient and well-trained as they took down wave after wave of enemies. When they were tired, they went to rest for half an hour before becoming as lively as tigers.

Under Baiqi’s training, these soldiers were used to fighting constantly.

When the night arrived, the savage-looking Kargil led his troops to leave the frontline. His back view showed obvious disappointment and even a little seriousness. Under the circumstances of asking to lead the lines and failing, with the character of the Peacock King, the upcoming battles would have nothing to do with Kargil. He might even be given the icy treatment in the army.

When he returned to the camp, the other generals did not gloat at his misfortune.

During the day, they had spectated. Speaking from their conscience, Kargil had actually done really well. Under such highly difficult circumstances, he still managed to ensure that the morale of the army did not fall.

If it were them, this was the most they would be able to achieve as well.

One could only say that the Dragon Legion Corps was worthy its reputation. This matter tossed a basin of cold water at their faces.

During the entire process, Kargil did not even manage to meet Durava and was whisked away by the guards.

Although the other generals sympathized with him, no one would plead for him. Without mentioning the chance of being scolded, what if the king told them to replace Kargil since they sought mercy for him?

If that happened, would the situation not be horrendous for them?

…

6th month, 10th day, the 2nd day of the Naijia City siege.

An unlucky fellow was chosen by Durava to lead the troops to start another round of sieges on Naijia City.

After expending a wave of people, the 2nd day assaults of Peacock Dynasty finally started to show some effect. There were many people who managed to climb up the city walls, and for a period of time, they even managed to occupy a section of the wall.

Helplessly, the Dragon Legion Corps was just too strong. When they fought, they went all out with care for their own lives. After heavy casualties, they actually miraculously snatched back the land.

Even so, at 5 PM in the afternoon, the entire defensive line was on the verge of collapse.

The cannons were out of gunpowder and were totally silent.

This let the Peacock Dynasty see hope in breaking through. However, time was not standing on their side and night soon fell once more, signaling an end to this intense battle.

Although that was the case, Durava was still really delighted.

“Tomorrow, tomorrow, we will take down Naijia City!” Durava was both excited and impatient. A third of the country war had already passed, so they did not have much time to waste.

Luckily, they just needed to take down one city, and that would be able to cause a chain reaction, swiftly expanding their spoils of war.

During these past two days, the Dragon Legion Corps did not choose to come out of the city to fight, continuing to be tortoises, allowing Durava to siege Naijia City peacefully.

As the wilderness was covered by Durava’s informers, once any of the Dragon Legion Corps troops left the city, he would know right away. As such, there was no chance of a sneak attack.

If the nearby Dragon Legion Corp troops dared to exit the city to help, it would just be courting death.

But on that night, the change happened.

…

Naijia City, city wall.

In the darkness, Xiao Chaogui was investigating the situation of the patrolling troops under the accompaniment of his Personal Guards.

Looking out at the enemy camp outside of the city and at the flickering lights, Xiao Chaogui had a really complicated expression. After sacrificing 15 thousand men, the 5th legion finally completed the mission given to them by the headquarters.

“Tomorrow the reinforcements should arrive, right?” Xiao Chaogui looked into the distance.

Although Great Xia did not have any other army in the region and the talk of reinforcements was doubtful, Xiao Chaogui trusted the marshal and knew that he would not lie.

“Maybe the king is going to summon the imperial city guards!”

As one of the generals in a high position, Xiao Chaogui had knowledge of this matter.

Thinking about that, Xiao Chaogui felt really pumped up. The 5th legion was suppressed for two days, and it was time for them to launch a swift counterattack. If not, they would have too much pent up frustration.

The night turned darker and darker.

…

At the same time, in the wilderness, a certain beast cave.

This camp was merely 15 kilometers away from the camp of the Peacock Dynasty army. The few beasts that popped out were cleaned out by their scouts and did not cause any so-called beast wave.

In truth, five days ago, there was a Great Xia scout who was hiding near the cave, waiting for the arrival of the beast wave.

After a tiring five day wait, things finally changed for the better.

In the early hours of the 11th day, the beast cave that had been so quiet suddenly bellowed with black smoke. It was the sign of a beast wave. The black smoke rose into the air, reaching a total of 30 meters high, signaling that this was going to be a huge wave.

Such an abnormality instantly caught the eye of the Great Xia scout.

“Quick, wake up, the beast wave is coming!” The soldier on duty at night woke up his companion.

The captain woke up right away, looking out at the black smoke, a delighted expression appeared on his face, “The heavens are truly on our side. This is a never seen before giant beast wave.”

“Quick, immediately inform the command headquarters!”

The captain said as he took out a talisman. This was the Ghost Leading Talisman given to him by Baiqi. As long as it was used within five miles of the beast cave, it would be effective.

If not, who would dare to use the talisman?

In Baiqi’s plans, as the timing of the beast wave was uncertain, they could only be considered a special force and a surprise army. Even Baiqi himself did not know how big of an effect this talisman could have.

If no beast wave appeared, Ouyang Shuo would summon the imperial city guards to reinforce Naijia City. However, the beast wave appearing at the final night meant that luck was really on Great Xia’s side.

As a result, it was no wonder that the captain would be so delighted. He knew how on time this beast wave was, not hesitating at all as he tore up the talisman.

With a ‘Shua!’, the talisman turned into a white light like a bolt of lightning as it tossed itself toward the black smoke. The moment the white light touched the black smoke, it was like a steroid injection. The black pillar that was bellowing out suddenly became even higher and thicker.

In the blink of an eye, it became a 300 meter tall pillar.

When the scouts saw that, they were so shocked that their mouths hung agape. Even though they were far away, they could feel the killing intent and hear the shrieks of the beasts, making them numb up.

“Oh my god, how many beasts are there?”

As a scout, they had spent all their time in the wilderness, so they were really familiar with the beast caves. However, they had never seen a black smoke pillar reach more than 50 meters in height.

A 300 meter tall pillar of black smoke; the thought alone was terrifying.

Very quickly, the black smoke faded like wind, and ugly looking beasts appeared.

Looking out, there were no less than 30 Pterodactyls flying in the air. The surrounding of the beast cave was drowned by a beast flood, and there were no other living things left.

“Quick, fire the signal bullet!”

The captain held in his fear as he ordered quickly.

“Yes!”

In an instance, numerous signal bullets rose up in the sky and streaked past the pitch-black darkness.

The beast wave that had just appeared was worrying about a lack of targets. The appearance of the signal bullets was like them seeing prey, and they did not even think as they charged right at it.

From afar, one could hear the tremors from their footsteps, causing the entire mountain to shake.

“Get on your horses!”

Without needing the captain to instruct them, the scouts quickly hopped onto their horses and fled. Looking at the direction they were heading toward, it was the position of the Peacock Dynasty camp.

This was called attracting trouble.

To make the beast wave focus on their target, the scouts had to fire a signal bullet periodically. The bullets were like streetlights, leading the way for the beasts.

During this period of time, they also met the patrolling scouts of the Peacock Dynasty. However, in front of the giant beast wave, these scouts were like waves, quickly dispersing.

The deafening cries and thunderous footsteps of the beast wave totally broke the silence of the night.

In less than two hours, the beast wave arrived near the camp of the Peacock Dynasty army. The patrolling forces finally noticed them and hurriedly alerted the camp.

Unfortunately, they were too late.

The current camp was so quiet that there was no other noise. At this time, the soldiers were deep asleep, and even the patrolling soldiers were yawning and were prepared to tide past the last bit of darkness before the sun rose.

When the alert sounded out, the camp exploded.

Under such circumstances, if one did not deal with it well, not to mention being attacked by the beast wave, but there was even the risk of the entire camp splitting up.

The military camp was a really solemn place. In Chinese traditional army culture, there were the so-called 17 laws and 54 terms that would get one beheaded. The soldiers passed their days with their hearts in their mouths. As the days and months accumulated, the mental strain was obvious.

In their strict military life, only the generals were bullies and the soldiers followed orders blindly. Their daily lives were suppressed by military law. Before a war, everyone lived at the edge of life and death, not knowing whether they would be able to survive or not. Hence, everyone was on the verge of collapsing.

At such a time, as long as there was even a slight breeze or a soldier screaming from a nightmare, the tense atmosphere in the camp could potentially explode. Soldiers might totally break from the restraints of military law, and some might start to take revenge by killing enemies and officers.

The Peacock Dynasty was suppressed by Durava, and its military discipline was really messed up. The soldiers were living with a really nervous mindset. Along with the heavy casualties from the siege of the past two days, such emotions worsened.

Especially the imperial city guards who were summoned over. During these two days, they were constantly used as cannon fodder, and the generals and soldiers were all filled with grievances toward the Peacock Dynasty.

This air of grievance shot up into the sky.

Coincidentally, along with the battle in the day coming to an end, they were definitely going to breakthrough tomorrow. Under such circumstances, the soldiers went from highly tensed up to really relaxed.

Hence, they were sleeping really sweetly in the night.

Under such circumstances, for the patrolling forces to sound out the alarm, it sent the entire camp into chaos. The eyes of the awakened soldiers instantly turned blood red.

The first to explode were the imperial city guards.

First, the air of grievances spread as they complained and scolded at the person who actually pulled the alarm. Someone else shouted out about wanting to teach the Peacock Dynasty army a lesson.

The one who said these words might not have meant it, but everyone else agreed.

Pretty much in a single moment, there were large amounts of soldiers who replied. From one unit to two, to four, to 10….

This air of grievances was like a plague, spreading out around the camp.

In the blink of an eye, the entire army shouted and got up, charging at the Peacock Dynasty Army Camp like they were crazy. The soldiers of the Peacock Dynasty did not even know what was happening, only seeing people charging their way.

Without saying a second word, the two sides engaged with one another.

The entire camp was instantly in chaos. No one was able to clear up the air, and the generals who tried to maintain law and order were the first to be killed, dying without knowing what had happened.

At that very moment, the terrifying beast wave arrived.

This was a calamitous disaster for the Peacock Dynasty army.

Seeing the circling Pterodactyls in the air, the endless number of Ceratopsians, and the many unknown beasts, the soldiers were all terrified and instantly woke up.

“Oh my god, where did all these beasts come from?”

The mouths of the soldiers hung agape. Looking out, there was an endless wave of beasts. Based on rough estimations, there were no less than 10 thousand of them, and there might even be more than that.

They wanted to gather up to fight against the enemy together, but it was already too late.

The sudden camp explosion meant that everything was in chaos. Bodies were strewn all over, and the eyes of the soldiers were flushed red. Some had truly become crazy, while some were pretending to be crazy.

No matter who it was, facing such a beast wave, they felt really helpless.

“Run!”

After their shock, their instinctive reaction was that since they could not beat these beasts, they could only listen to the heavens. The surviving soldiers were like scattered sand, fleeing in all directions and disappearing into the night sky.

Unfortunately, they had chosen the wrong opponent.

If it were a normal battle between two armies, there might be a chance for a portion of them to escape under the cover of the night sky. After escaping, they could slowly gather up to ensure that they had some survivability.

However, they were up against beasts.

Them travelling in the night was no different from travelling during the day. Seeing that there was so much ‘food’ in the camp, the beasts unleashed their inner demons. Through the scent alone, they were able to track down their prey.

Under the night sky, there were scenes of hunters hunting down their prey all around the wilderness. The terrifying part was that the beasts were the hunters, and the humans were the prey.

The tragic screams sounded out through the night sky.

This was the most brutal beast siege in the history of the wilderness. Under the attacks of tens of thousands of beasts, the Peacock Dynasty army suffered heavy casualties.

Within a night, less than three out of ten of them survived.

They had only lost 50 thousand out of the 450 thousand during the two days of sieging, but in just one night, half of them were eaten by the beasts.

Even when the sky lit up, this nightmare did not end.

Be it the beast wave or the Peacock Dynasty army, after experiencing a night of chasing and battles, both sides had suffered heavy casualties. They were all totally split up, and one could not find a single formed up force.

The daylight only helped to intensify their fear.

The beasts did not have any fear. Their goal was just to search for food, and even if only one of them was left, they would not give up on hunting their prey.

The only way for one to leave would be to destroy all the beasts.

This was a cruel battlefield where only one side could survive. None of them were the true victors except for those hiding in the city – the Dragon Legion Corps.

Chapter 1178 - Hanwu Emperor's Pain

Chapter 1178: Hanwu Emperor’s Pain

6th month, 11th day, Hetao Battlefield.

The effects achieved by the beast wave exceeded everyone’s expectations. When Xiao Chaogui handed over the detailed intelligence report to the command headquarters, even the cold and cool Baiqi was stunned.

“Is this not too much of a coincidence?” Even Baiqi was in disbelief, “The beast wave coming at such a right time, coincidentally coming when their camp blew up. I have never heard of something like that happen before.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “The heavens forsake the Peacock Dynasty. General, when the right time comes, and we do not act, things might go against us instead.” Ouyang Shuo did not expect that such an unassuming talisman would actually achieve such miraculous effects.

It seems like Blood Romance was the lucky star of Great Xia.

When Baiqi heard that, he cupped his fists and said solemnly, “I understand, I will arrange the troops to chase for victory. We will give the enemy troops a heavy blow as revenge for before.”

“That’s right.” Ouyang Shuo smiled.

Baiqi continued, “My king, I will need your help on this. Please summon the imperial city guards to catch the enemy off guard.”

In order to not raise the suspicions of Great Zhou, it was best if they summoned the Great Han imperial guards later. However, in Baiqi’s eyes, now was the best time to do so, and they could not let matters drag on any longer.

They had no choice but to summon the guards early.

After all, with just the strength of Dragon Legion Corps, even though the Peacock Dynasty troops had suffered heavy losses from the beast wave, they still had 500 thousand troops at the border that the Dragon Legion Corps could not match up to.

At most, they would only be able to reach a stalemate.

If one added in the 320 thousand Great Han iron cavalry, the situation would be totally different. Great Xia’s forces would be comparable to the enemy troops, and with the valiant Dragon Legion Corps and Great Han iron cavalry, the combat strength distribution would be totally one-sided.

Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate, agreeing to Baiqi’s request with a smile, “Let’s go outside of the city!”

“Yes, my king!”

Very quickly, their group arrived outside of Pangbin City.

Currently, the Peacock Dynasty army that was in charge of monitoring the Pangbin City troops were on high alert and ready to reinforce Durava after learning about what happened to their troops.

Seeing the Dragon Legion Corps in Pangbin City moving out, they did not dare to take it lightly, and the entire camp was ready in wait.

Ouyang Shuo did not bother about them, swiftly completing the summoning.

It only took an instance, and an eye-catching white light flashed outside of Pangbin City. Once the white light faded, 320 thousand Great Han iron cavalry appeared, a truly astounding scene.

The leading general looked at Ouyang Shuo with a complicated expression, cupping his fist, “I am the Great Hang general that is in charge of leading the troops to reinforce you. My troops are under your command, Xia King.”

To allow the summoned imperial city guards to be thrown quickly into battle, and for no other unexpected changes to occur, Gaia ruled that the summoned guards would follow orders unconditionally.

For example, in the previous Battle of Naijia, even if Durava purposely used the imperial city guards as cannon fodder, there was nothing that they could do.

Only under specific circumstances would the imperial city guards explode.

Seeing that the one who came was not Wei Qing, a look of disappointment flashed across his eyes. Ouyang Shuo was well read regarding history and knew about Shangguan Jie.

Shangguan Jie was famous for his ability and skill; he was appointed Grand Servant, and when Hanwu Emperor Liu Che was sick, he was appointed as left general and given the title of Anyang Lord.

Looking at his experience, although he was appointed as the left general, he had never worked in the military. Instead, he had worked in the Imperial Court. For the Hanwu Emperor to send this person to lead the army, one could see how frustrated he was.

After Emperor Zhao of Han ascended, Shangguan Jie’s son married Huo Guang’s daughter, and their families got closer to one another. Prior to this, Shangguan Jie already had a good relationship with Huo Guang.

When Huo Guang was out, Shangguang Jie often took over Huo Guang’s administrative duties.

Following which, because Shangguan Jie’s son was punished for seeking an official appointment for Princess Eyi’s boyfriend, it caused Huo Guang and Shangguan Jie to not see eye to eye.

In the 1st year, 9th month of Emperor Zhao’s rule, Shangguan Jie along with Liu Dan and Sang Hongyang tried to assassinate Huo Guang. Not long after their failure, Shangguan Jie was killed.

Ouyang Shuo noticed from his eyes that he was trying to avoid him.

The smart Ouyang Shuo naturally understood the reasoning behind that. Huo Guang, who had a past history with Shangguan Jie, was currently working in Great Xia and was holding the high post of Liaojin Provincial Governor.

Comparing the two, it was obvious why Shangguan Jie felt complicated.

The reason why Ouyang Shuo remembered Shangguan Jie, apart from his relationship with Huo Guang, was also because of his granddaughter’s legendary journey as empress. This journey interested him.

Shangguan Shi entered the palace as a concubine at six. A month had passed, and she became the empress, becoming the youngest empress in Chinese history.

Emperor Zhao of Han was the youngest son of Hanwu Emperor. After his elder son Liu Ju committed suicide, Hanwu Emperor’s heart turned cold. Only before his death did he make Emperor Zhao of Han the crown prince.

After the death of Hanwu Emperor, Emperor Zhao of Han ascended the throne at only eight. 74 BC, he who had ruled for only 14 years died from an illness in Chang An. At that time, he was only 21 years old.

Following which, with the support of Huo Guang and other ministers, the Marquis of Haihun ascended to the throne, and Shangguan Shi became empress dowager.

27 days after the Marquis of Haihun took the throne, due to excessive spending and indulgence, he was kicked off the throne.

After that, he was once again supported by Huo Guang, and he let Liu Xun get adopted by Emperor Zhao, becoming Emperor Xuan of Han.

And Emperor Xuan was crown prince Liu Ju’s grandson, who committed suicide in the coup against Hanwu Emperor. History was such a cycle, twisting and turning and even returning to the same starting spot.

Maybe his tough childhood allowed Emperor Xuan to understand the pain of the people, as during his rule, he chose talented people to support him. Among these people, there were the famous 11 officials of Kirin court.

Emperor Xuan was a famous ruler in Chinese history. During his rule, the entire country was peaceful, the economy was prosperous, and everyone recognized him as their ruler. People claimed that West Han’s rule under him was the strongest.

In a period where temple titles for dead emperors were known for being hard to get, Liu Xun was one of the four that actually got one. The other three were Liu Bang, Hanwen Emperor, and Hanwu Emperor.

49 BC, Emperor Xuan died, and Emperor Yuan took over. The 40 year old empress dowager became the grandma-empress dowager until the 37 BC, where she died at the age of 52.

She was the second person after Empress dowager Lu to become a grandma-empress dowager. However, she was not the winner of a battle for power in the Imperial Court or a female ruler that held all power. She was just a weak little grass would be killed at any moment that if she did not listen.

From her title, she held a huge honor that every girl in the world wished for, getting everything that she wanted. However, in truth, that was far from it.

Becoming empress at six, empress dowager at 15, and grandma-empress dowager at 40, she had no children, her adopted children filling up the palace. Her father and brother were killed when she was eight, her husband died when she was 15, and the mother’s side of her family all died when she was 24. Huo Chengjun was her only relative left in the world.

These things took away the happiness of her childhood, only leaving her with grievances and loneliness. Shangguan Shi was bounded in the palace by rules and customs until she died.

When Ouyang Shuo read about that part of history, he was filled with emotions.

Now, seeing her grandfather, Shangguan Jie, who was the reason why she entered the palace in the first place, Ouyang Shuo felt like he had traveled through time.

However, Ouyang Shuo was still Ouyang Shuo, and he quickly came back to his senses. After accepting the greeting, he turned toward Baiqi and said, “General Shangguan will listen to general Baiqi’s orders.”

“Yes!”

Shangguan Jie bowed toward Baiqi, confirming their relationship.

After the handing over, Ouyang Shuo immediately reentered into the city, handing the battlefield matters to Baiqi. Immediately, Baiqi used his appointment as the commander of the command headquarters to announce a series of orders.

He ordered the 5th legion to exit the city to hunt down the remnant Peacock Dynasty forces and try to kill Durava.

After the beast wave, only a small number of the 400 thousand odd Peacock Dynasty troops remained. Furthermore, they were split up, and this was the best chance to strike them. As long as the 5th legion attacked adequately, they would be able to wipe them all out.

With the ability of Xiao Chaogui, he obviously would not let Ouyang Shuo down. The 5th legion had suffered heavy casualties, and everyone in the army hated Peacock Dynasty to the bone, so the morale was not a worry.

With everything going for them, if they succeeded, it would be like them cutting away an arm of Peacock Dynasty.

As for the remaining four legions of the Dragon Legion Corps, Baiqi ordered them, together with the 320 thousand Great Han iron cavalry, to launch an assault at Peacock Dynasty.

The first to get hit was the army that was outside of Pangbin City. Under the leadership of Shangguan Jie, the 320 thousand iron cavalry vanguard swarmed the enemy like a wave.

The moment the enemies saw the summoned Great Han iron cavalry, they were terrified, and their faces turned ashen white. They did not even hesitate and fled immediately.

Unfortunately, no matter how fast they were, they could not outrun the Great Han iron cavalry.

The battle raged once more; the country war situation had turned on its head.

…

China region, Great Han, Luoyang.

Within the majestic palace, sitting on the ice-cold dragon throne, Hanwu Emperor, who was over 50, looked on, his face totally green. His hands were in an eagle claw grip as he held the two supports on his throne tightly. Currently, his eyes were blood red.

“What a bully; what a bully!”

The prideful Hanwu Emperor had never expected that his dynasty would fall to such a state because of his pride and him not bowing his head to Great Xia.

The moment the 320 thousand guards were teleported out, his heart turned cold. Based on the previous example, the moment the guards were teleported away, only a tenth of them would be able to return.

This was fatal to the Great Han Dynasty.

Great Xia’s revenge was simple and vicious, infuriating Hanwu Emperor. However, there was nothing he could do. Great Han sat in the mid plains and enemies were all around him. The moment the imperial city guards were gone, the enemies would tear him to shreds.

In the wilderness, this was to be expected.

The only way out for Hanwu Emperor was to surrender to one of the sides to keep his life. However, with his character, he would not surrender even if he died.

Due to that, all the more he would not lower his head to Ouyang Shuo.

The current news of the guards being teleported away was totally locked down. However, paper would not be able stop fire, and the moment the news spread out, Great Han would collapse.

On the ice-cold dragon throne, a ruler of a generation was solemnly seated.

…

6th month, 16th day, Hetao battlefield.

In a short five days, the Peacock Dynasty army was forced back, unable to put up a decent fight. Luckily for them, Durava managed to escape. After gathering up with the main force, he managed to barely stabilize the situation.

Even then, he was not able to turn the losing situation around.

To expend the 320 thousand Great Han iron cavalry on the battlefield, Baiqi’s attacks were cruel and resolute. As the battle went on, he did not bother about sacrifices and just aimed to cause as many casualties to the Peacock Dynasty army as possible.

“Those lunatics!”

Under the ferocious attacks of Great Xia, Durava’s face turned green. He gritted his teeth and showed the decisiveness of a great ruler. He ordered them to leave Hetao Province, losing the ambition of taking it down.

This time, Durava had lost everything. Not to mention the heavy casualties, but he was even forced to flee before taking down a single city.

After this one battle, his reputation in India fell greatly.

When Gupta Dynasty on the southside received the news of Peacock Dynasty retreating, they who had been hampered by the Guards Legion Corps followed suit and swiftly disappeared into the ocean.

Any slower, and they would have been surrounded by the Great Xia Army.

Gupta King Akbar was truly an experienced member of Azure Badge. His attacks were not really eager, but when retreating, he was the fastest to do so. Before the Indian Ocean Squadron even reacted, they were back in India.

One could not help but praise them.

Along with the Gupta Dynasty backing off, the country war that India had started ended haphazardly. The results made one drop their spectacles in shock.

However, even more shocking news was about to follow.

Peacock Dynasty wanted to retreat, but Great Xia did not allow them to so. Seeing that the country war month was not over yet, the Great Han iron cavalry chased, charging into Peacock Dynasty territory and engaging in slaughter.

The tables had turned.

To Great Xia, the Great Han iron cavalry was a suicide squad. Naturally, they should use them to their fullest potential. They needed to sweep the territory of Peacock Dynasty, destroying the villages and snatching their riches as a form of revenge.

“How they treated us, we are going to return it to them in full,” Ouyang Shuo said.

The reason Ouyang Shuo made this decision was not purely for revenge. First, he wanted to use the iron cavalry to make the job of the southeast warzone easier in the future. Secondly, he wanted to destroy the defenses of Peacock Dynasty to crush their confidence and to stop their rise.

Only by giving them a heavy blow could Ouyang Shuo ensure that Durava would not have any other thoughts.

One more point was that if he reduced the power of Peacock Dynasty, causing it to fall to around the same level as Gupta Dynasty, changes would occur in the internal competition of the India region.

When the two tigers fought one another, they would not have any energy to fight Great Xia.

That could help ensure the peace of the Hetao Province border, and it would also buy enough time for Great Xia to wipe out their internal problems.

Once the country war month ended, apart from the summoned imperial city guards, Peacock Dynasty would have lost 400 thousand troops. That was the loss of an entire legion corps, and its border territories would be turned to ruins.

Before the start of the war, Durava would have never thought that the battle would end like this.

Chapter 1179 - Six Country Alliance

Chapter 1179: Six Country Alliance

The second Asia region country war, apart from a theatrical change at the Hetao border, was pretty stale with little surprises. Not to mention no country being wiped out, but there were not even many large-scale battles.

Apart from low player participation, another reason was the fact that the weak countries had already been wiped out, so only the strong powers remained.

A battle between strong countries could not be decided within a single month.

It would definitely be a long and drawn out war.

Specifically, in the India battle against Great Xia, Peacock Dynasty suffered heavy losses. Although Great Xia suffered some casualties, the biggest sacrifice was the innocent Great Han.

The imperial city guards of India suffered too.

The country war mechanism that Gaia set up had a loophole, which the Lords abused. Ouyang Shuo used this loophole to the extreme, crushing the foundations of Great Han.

This was really unfair to the NPC dynasties.

Due to that, right after the country month ended, Gaia announced the removal of the country war month setting, removing all protective mechanisms and returning the world to a chaotic background.

Of course, the peace in Asia could not hide the chaos that happened around the globe.

In just a month, through the work of Silver Hand and Azure Badge, territories were either merged, rebuilt, or exchanged, causing a new shuffling of the world layout.

…

America Continent.

North America, Canada Region Maple Dynasty swept the region and became the overlord.

At the same time, between the Dawson Dynasty and the Indian Dynasty rose up a new dynasty – the Mayan Dynasty. This place was where Mayan civilization rose from.

Be it Maple Dynasty or Mayan Dynasty, they both belonged to Azure Badge.

Maple Dynasty, Dawson Dynasty, Mayan Dynasty, and Indian Dynasty split up the boundless America continent. The four dynasties belonged to three camps, what a chaotic place.

Under the pincer of both the Maple Dynasty and Mayan Dynasty, Dawson Dynasty would not be able to have such a comfortable time.

…

European Continent.

Spain and Portugal merged, forming the Spanish Dynasty of which Lord Casillas became the king. The original Portugal Lord Pedro lost in the battle and disappeared from the wilderness.

Pedro had the chance to join Great Xia, but he was uncertain and missed it. Who would have expected for him to fall in an internal fight for power?

Spanish Dynasty not only merged with Portugal, but it also used Morocco as a foundation to take down Algeria, connecting it with Morocco as one.

Hence, the Spanish dynasty became the first dynasty that had land on both the north and south shores of the Mediterranean Ocean. It placed Jidian City, which was located at Gibraltar Port, in an awkward position.

Algeria became a side character in the end.

News had it that to take down Algeria, apart from the Spanish Squadron using their own strength, Silver Hand used the Algeria Lord to create chaos in the imperial city.

That allowed the Spanish Dynasty to take it down easily.

Along with Gaule Dynasty, Ottoman Dynasty, Caesar Dynasty, and the House of Tudor, the five dynasties used the country month to split up the entire Europe.

The Mediterranean Lord group in a traditional sense had now became a thing of the past.

Out of the five dynasties, apart from the Ottoman dynasty that belonged to Azure Badge, the remaining four were from Silver Hand, emphasizing the huge influence they had in Europe.

In terms of land area, Ottoman Dynasty and Caesar Dynasty were the largest.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo did not have high hopes toward the Ottoman Dynasty. Northwest of it was the House of Tudors, east was Romanov Dynasty, south was Caesar Dynasty, and southwest was Gaule Dynasty.

Being surrounded by enemies all sides, if it was not because the two organizations had not gone all out against one another, no one would think that Ottoman Dynasty could survive unless a miracle occurred.

…

Africa Continent.

With the manipulation of Azure Badge, Egypt merged with Libya on the west, Sudan on the south, and formed the Egypt Dynasty, the first in Africa.

The formation of the Egypt Dynasty stopped Great Xia’s expansion in North Africa.

When Ouyang Shuo got the news, he could not help but sigh. Great Xia’s North Africa strategy had faced so many problems. Luckily, they had taken down Ethiopia. If not, Great Xia would have to just back out of the African battlefield.

Apart from that, South Africa on the south also took the chance to merge with the surrounding countries, forming the Bantu Dynasty.

At this point, Africa was not a land of chaos. One north and one south, two dynasties belonging to Azure Badge had formed, showing the intentions of wrapping up the entire Africa.

One had to say that Azure Badge was smarter than Silver Hand in their workings in the neutral regions. Their connections and resources as well as the trust they formed while being in the Federation was something that Silver Hand could not compete with.

Through these series of actions, Azure Badge had gained a stable footing in America, Europe, and Africa. It had consolidated its scattered powers, having the power to fight against Silver Hand.

The global situation was slowly becoming clearer and clearer.

Along with the various continents clearing up, countless imperial cities were cleared out, becoming strength for the dynasties.

In comparison, China region and India region in Asia were different.

India Region currently had five territories and one imperial city, showing no clear signs of any of them merging.

Hence, such a chaotic situation would continue for a period of time.

India was also the only region in the world where Silver Hand and Azure Badge coexisted.

Not to mention the China region, which would only be more chaotic than India. In the China region, the victor would not be decided in a short amount of time. Under the global shuffling, such a chaotic situation was really unique.

Of course, along with this round of country war ending, Great Xia would declare war on Great Han. Along with the China region internal war starting, this chaotic situation showed some signs of ending.

It was only a matter of time.

…

6th month, 30th day, Shanhai City.

The global shuffling was something Ouyang Shuo paid a lot of attention to because it affected Great Xia. However, he had no way to affect the matter. As for specifically what they should do, it would be analyzed by the Administrative Mentor Court.

What he needed to do was to settle the matter ahead of him.

The day before the country war ended, Ouyang Shuo returned to the Capital City. The relevant post war data had been tabulated by the Privy Court and placed on his desk for him to read.

During this battle, Ouyang Shuo had earned 500 thousand merit points. As he had already reached the max rank, the merit points were automatically switched to achievement value, netting him 500 thousand achievement value, which was enough to instantiate an AI.

Apart from merit points, they captured 180 thousand prisoners. Amongst which, a large portion was obtained by the Great Han iron cavalry. Ouyang Shuo especially sent a letter to express his thanks.

After replenishing the loses, cutting off the injured and the ones who did not meet standards, there were 120 thousand prisoners remaining. This batch was sent to Great Jin as a part of a trade between the two.

Ouyang Shuo hurried back to Shanhai City mainly because he had to plan the attack on Great Han.

The change in the global situation made Ouyang Shuo realize that he had to quicken his takeover of China, as he did not want to miss the upcoming global battles.

A week ago, Han Xin had led the Leopard Legion Corps and teleported over to Fallen Phoenix City.

At the same time, to ensure that the Battle of Great Han proceeded smoothly, Ouyang Shuo sent the 5th legion of the City Protection Legion to aid the battle, putting them under Han Xin’s control.

The Leopard Legion Corps had gathered up at the border and could charge in at any moment.

The ones providing logistical support for the Leopard Legion Corps was Great Jin. Hence, the Attack on Great Han was a combined effort with one being in charge of the battlefield, and the other in charge of supplies.

The repayment that Great Xia gave was the 120 thousand war prisoners.

Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to do that because Great Xia was not connected to Great Han, so this was the only way.

If he let the matter drag on, unexpected things might occur.

To prevent Di Chen from joining the battle, the Tiger Legion Corps and the newly formed Xiangjiang army all moved toward the border except for some men left behind to defend the beast caves.

The Beijiang legion corps in the north did the same.

Great Jin’s blazing legion corps also gathered at the border, monitoring every movement from Handan City.

Even the Eagle Legion Corps at the north of Shu Lands was ordered to move toward the west at the border with Jingchu Province to get ready to charge into Great Zhou territory.

Apart from Great Zhou, there was another power that had the ability to interfere – Great Tang.

However, considering how Great Tang would still face retaliation from Great Xia even if they took down Great Han, Li Shiming would not be so reckless.

If Great Tang suffered heavy losses in their attacks on Great Han, would it not be a free gift to Great Xia?

Hence, one could see that Great Xia still had some influence in China.

Zhongyuan, border.

At 9 AM, the Leopard Legion Corps along with the 5th legion of the City Protection Legion Corps, a total of 400 odd thousand troops, officially entered Great Han territory.

Han Xin’s strategy was simple; they would head directly for Luoyang and not waste any time.

There were less than 200 thousand Great Han Guards, and they mainly consisted of cavalry. They were not good at defending. If they fought outside of the city, it would be worse off for the Great Xia Army.

Rather than that, why not directly siege?

They could surround a point and hit the reinforcements while taking down the crucial areas, killing two birds with one stone. Once they broke through Luoyang city and took control of the teleportation formation, the Great Xia Army could reinforce the battlefield and ensure that nothing went wrong.

Along with the Great Xia Army attacking, the long term peace of China ended, and war raged once more.

No one expected that this war would actually be a spark to a huge drawn out war in China.

This war was between Great Xia and the six country alliance that was forming in the dark.

Chapter 1180 - Plotting Against One Another

Chapter 1180: Plotting Against One Another

When a legendary hero appears, one that could unite the universe, what he would attract was not the support of everyone, but the rise of powers to work together against him.

Like the Qin country of the past, who went alone against six countries.

Along with Great Xia becoming the authority of China, sweeping bases overseas and stealing the limelight, they attracted a fate similar to Qin Country.

Before the 5th month, Qin, Han, Tang, Song, Ming, Qing, and Zhou, a total of seven states, with Great Zhou as the middle man, formed an alliance to go against the rise of Great Xia.

Along with Great Xia attacking Han, trying to wipe out Great Han right after the end of the country war, exposing Great Xia’s ambition to unify China, the six countries finally acted together.

Gaia removing the summoning of the imperial city guards gave the various dynasties a calming pill.

A scattered anti Xia alliance had formed.

To form the six country alliance, Di Chen spent a lot of effort and also spent a lot of resources.

Amongst the six countries, Great Qing and Great Xia had some animosity. Di Chen did not spend much effort and managed to recruit them. Song and Ming were located in Great Zhou and were of the first few that Di Chen focused on.

To take down the two countries, Di Chen made many promises, giving Jingchu Province where Xiangyang was located all to Great Song. On the other hand, Donghai Province, where Jianye was located, was completely given to Great Ming.

The conditions were that these two dynasties must promise to take up the defensive responsibility of the border such that Great Zhou would be freed up to attack Great Jin when Great Xia attacked Great Han.

Even to say that Di Chen was prepared to take down Great Han after he took down Great Jin. Of course, such a thought would not be revealed to his allies until he took down Great Jin.

Funnily, Han was part of the alliance, but since its power was reduced, Di Chen abandoned it, and it became their target instead.

It was truly the phrase, “A leopard cannot change its spots.”

If Di Chen’s plan could succeed, Great Zhou would earn back the two provinces that they had given out. Moreover, they would have recruited two allies, a huge win in this business deal.

As for Beijiang Province, Di Chen had magnanimously promised it to Great Qing.

The addition of Great Qin and Great Tang was due to the worry of them being next. They had not had much interaction with Great Zhou, only promising not to join in the battle between Great Zhou and Great Jin.

The good relationship between Qin and Jin instantly became nothing.

In front of a country’s interest, an alliance contract was only a piece of waste paper and achieved no restrictions.

It was obvious that be it Qin Shihuang or Tang Taizong, neither wanted Great Xia to continue expanding and squeeze at their living space.

Luckily, Qin and Tang remembered Great Xia’s kindness toward them, only promising not to reinforce Great Jin. However, they did not want to go head on against Great Xia.

As for how to circumvent their rule of not attacking Great Xia, Di Chen had his own ways.

…

7th month, 7th day, Han Xin led his forces after taking down the two passes at the north of Luoyang and smoothly arrived below Luoyang City. In a short week, they broke through two successive passes, so one could see how god-like Han Xin was at using troops.

The relationship between Han Xin and Great Han had dissipated long ago in history.

As a top-class city in the world, Luoyang City was known for its defense, and it would naturally be impregnable. This battle would also be the first time a China Lord attacked a China-based imperial city.

If he won this battle, Han Xin’s name would spread far and wide; if he lost, his name would be buried in the dirt.

Due to that, Han Xin did not to dare treat the battle lightly. He seemed to be rushing all the way, but in truth, he had left checkpoints to protect the grain routes. Once the army arrived outside of the city, they built a camp there.

Before the camp was built up, Han Xin had no intentions of sieging.

Great Han’s approach was also really rational. Long ago, when the guards were summoned, Hanwu Emperor had sensed the danger and ordered general Wei Qing to move all the guards in the border back to Luoyang.

Rather than using 200 thousand guards to protect an undefendable Zhongyuan province, why not gather them all up for a final gamble?

On the contrary, as a giant city, not only was Luoyang’s defenses stable, but it also had sufficient grain. They would have no problems defending for a month and more.

Close to the end of the country month, seeing that Great Xia was preparing their attack, Hanwu Emperor gave the order for the civilians of Luoyang to go their own ways, hiding in the surrounding counties and prefectures to prevent grain usage.

With the character of the Great Xia Army, the civilians would feel safer going out of the city.

With that, if Great Xia was unable to immediately take down Luoyang, just the grain storage would buy them two to three months. In such a long time, anything could happen.

Unfortunately, Hanwu Emperor had underestimated Great Xia.

In the following week, the battlefield of Luoyang was really calm. The Great Xia Army did not show any intentions to siege, just building up their camp and gathering up grain from surrounding regions.

Huge amounts of grains was being transported endlessly to the frontlines, solving the worries of the army.

Han Xin was not someone who stuck stubbornly to rules. Although he would not harm civilians, grain had to be gathered up. With his judgment, the Battle of Luoyang would last for long, and grain was the lifeline of the army.

Such a lifeline definitely could not be placed in the hands of Great Jin.

Apart from grain, Han Xin was also waiting for the arrival of a batch of secret weapons. A long period of time has passed since the P1 Type Cannon appeared in the world. The Industrialization Department had new developments and developed second generation cannon.

Compared to the P1 Type Cannon, strictly speaking, the P2 Cannon was more cumbersome. On the contrary, its power and range was not something the P1 Type could compare to. It was a weapon especially designed for sieging.

The secret weapon of a country.

At the start, to push forward Great Jin’s industrialization progression, Great Xia had built two military works factories in Great Jin to make use of the coal and ores in Hedong Province.

Who would have known that these two factories would play such a crucial role in the Battle of Luoyang?

A month ago, these two factories started to rush production of the P2 Type Cannons, amassing them for use in the Battle of Luoyang.

After Great Xia pushed out full scale industrialization, the transport problem of cannons was solved. Iron structures as the bone along with rubber tires allowed the cumbersome P2 Cannon to pass through mountains and ridges such that it would reach the frontlines.

Han Xin was waiting for this batch of equipment.

Facing a city like Luoyang, if one relied on a human ocean tactic, no matter how many men they could send, it would not be enough. They would just be sacrificing troops for nothing.

The only way would be to use cannons to blow open the city walls and fight within the city.

7th month, 15th day, the 200 P2 Type Cannons finally arrived at the frontlines.

Han Xin did not hesitate, leading the troops out of the camp the next day and officially attacking Luoyang. Their method of attack was simple; they fought around the P2 Type Cannons.

The 200 cannons were pushed to the frontlines, and under the protection of the army, they started to attack the Luoyang City walls.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

The cannonballs drew a beautiful arc in the air like a shooting star as it viciously smacked into the city wall. Right away, it let out a deafening explosion. Just one cannonball caused many pieces of stone to break away from the solid wall.

“Great!”

When Han Xin saw that, a joyous expression appeared on his face.

The P2 cannons were great siege weapons, and even the 10 meter thick wall of Luoyang City could not take successive hits. If they were not disturbed, one side of the city wall could be taken down in just two days.

“Be alert!”

Han Xin did not let victory get to his head. At such a time, the most worrying thing would be if the Great Han army tried to charge out to break the cannons. This was the only way the enemy could solve this problem.

With Han Xin’s experience, he would obviously defend against that.

The truth was rightly so.

On the city wall, the Great Han troops saw the Great Xia Army that had been calm and peaceful for a week suddenly popped out of their camp, making Wei Qing who was in the city wall realize that something was up. He immediately ordered the army to be on alert.

When the 200 cannons were pushed out by the enemy, Wei Qing felt his heart stop.

The Great Han that appeared in the wilderness would not remain at the same technological level as they were in the past. If not, how would they be able to compete?

On the Luoyang City wall, one could see cannons, but they were all original cannons.

The part that made Wei Qing uneasy was that the enemy cannons stopped before they entered range of the cannons on the city wall and started to arm themselves. It was obvious that the enemy cannons had a range exceeding that of the Great Han cannons.

Once the cannons were fired, Wei Qing’s face was even more solemn.

As a God General as famous as Han Xin, he naturally made the same judgment as Han Xin. He knew that if he did not immediately take action and destroy the cannons, Luoyang City would definitely be lost.

“Send down my orders, let the 1st division of the 1st legion get ready!”

Right away, Wei Qing was ready to send out his trump card force. With the city gates having limited width, sending a division was already the max. If they sent any more, the enemy might have a chance to slip through the city gates.

If things went badly, the enemy would not even need to blow up the city walls, and they could occupy the city gates.

Naturally, Wei Qing would not make such a low-grade error.

However, could his plan succeed with only one division? That was a difficult question.

Chapter 1181 - If One Wasn't Fearless, One Couldn't Be a Mo Blade Soldier

Chapter 1181: If One Wasn’t Fearless, One Couldn’t Be a Mo Blade Soldier

The moment the Great Han iron cavalry charged out of the city gates, Han Xin gave the order.

In an instant, the well-trained sword shield soldiers jumped out from behind the cannon formation, forming up an iron defensive war. Amongst them were spearmen and heavy armored sword soldiers.

Standing in front of the sword shield soldiers were two rows of Mo blade soldiers.

Looking out, the Mo blade soldiers were all huge. Their average height was over 1.8 meters, and their muscles were bulging. They wore heavy iron armor, and their heads were covered with an iron helmet, only revealing their cold eyes.

Talking about the Mo blade soldiers, they were a presence that all cavalry cowered in fear toward when they hear the name.

Mo blade was a special blade used by the Tang cavalry, and it was developed from the West Han horse killing sword while using the metallurgy skills of the Hanlu Mo blade and the Liuchao long knife. The Mo blade was really sharp, and it was good for hacking down, mainly used to kill cavalry. The strategy was similar to anti-tank weapons in modern war.

After the Gaia update, the personal strength of the soldiers rose. Merging together with soldiers from the Leopard Legion Corps that had been through hundreds of wars, they gave out a menacing aura before they even moved out.

The rise of the combat strength of soldiers helped welcome a revolution for their weapons and equipment too.

For example, the Mo blade soldiers. Although they were cavalry, they needed a certain level of flexibility. While holding the Mo blade that was a heavy weapon, they still needed wear heavy weapon and not let it affect their fighting.

This was something that could not be fulfilled in history.

Hence, once the 6th system update ended, Ouyang Shuo instructed the Combat Logistics Department to complete a new round of equipment change, and just the gold for specific areas reached 10 million.

Once one’s combat strength rose, those who could only wear light armor could now wear heavy armor. Archers, who previously could only wear leather armor, could now wear Suozi armor or other light armor.

The defensive ability of the soldiers experienced a large increase.

Apart from that, weapons like the spear, Tang blade, heavy sword, and the like all welcomed a new update. Weight was added to them to greatly increase their killing strength.

Even to say that the Combat Logistics Department even custom-made equipment for sergeants and above. Their weapons were not limited to knives. Swords, spears, heavy hammers, and more all could be custom made.

Along with Great Xia’s steelmaking technology improving, the damage of these weapons was something to dream of in ancient times, even being able to compare to God Weapons.

In the Great Xia Army, such items slowly became common equipment.

These were the aftereffects of the dynasty’s economy and industrialization seeping into the army. For the Southeast Asia battlefield to go so smoothly for the Great Xia army, their weapons and equipment advantage was one of the reasons.

Once the sword shield soldiers moved forward, the archers wearing Suozi armor followed suit, getting ready to fire. Around them were sword shield soldiers protecting them.

The cavalry forces on both wings were also ready to go.

At the back of the formation was an even larger scale reserve force that could enter to reinforce the frontlines at any moment. Moreover, further away at the camp and around the formations were sentry forces.

The goal was to prevent sneak attacks.

With the camp as the center, in a 30 mile radius, many scouting forces and sentries were arranged. Any movement around would be picked up and spread back to the command headquarters.

This greatly reduced the risk of them being sneak attacked.

The granaries at the sides of the camp were the focus of defense. Even the Great Xia soldiers themselves could not get close without orders. If not, they would be killed without hesitation.

Between the granary and Great Jin was a snaking grain route where 16 checkpoints were set up for the grain forces and the soldiers guarding the grain to rest.

Apart from that, within the entire Zhongyuan Province, cavalry forces went back and forth, with regiments as a unit to gather up grain and laborers to send the grain toward the camp.

The Battle of Luoyang looked like a simple siege, but under Han Xin, it became an all-round war. All the resources that could be used were used, and all accidents that could happen were guarded against.

What seemed like being overly careful was in truth the way that a God General should act.

To move and coordinate so many units while not panicking did not only test the standard of the commander. Without years of experience, it was impossible for one to reach such a level.

Hence, in terms of arranging formations, Han Xin would not give the enemy any chance. The entire formation surrounded the cannons, having suitable attack and defense while being adaptable to many changes.

Once the Great Han cavalry crossed the city protection river, the Mo blade and sword shield soldiers were all in formation. The archers were also in place, arming their bows and awaiting orders.

The cavalries at the two wings were hollering as their war horses kicked the dirt on the ground restlessly.

“Fire!”

The moment the Great Han cavalry entered the range, the archer commander gave the order to fire. In an instant, a rain of arrows was tossed into the air like fireworks, forming a beautiful arc as it landed down.

As the arrow rain fell, the Great Han cavalry immediately collapsed.

At the crucial moment, the strength of the Great Han cavalry was undeniable. Facing a predictable attack, they did not even blink, using their shields to block the arrows while keeping their speed.

When Han Xin saw that, a complicated expression filled his face.

After two rounds of arrow fire, the Great Han cavalry had charged to the front of the formation. Like a flood or like a raging beast, they screamed as they used the spears in their hands and the hooves of the war horse to charge right at the Mo blade soldiers.

“Kill!”

The Mo blade soldiers at the frontline did not even blink their eyes. Hearing the order, hundreds of long Mo blades sliced down in an orderly manner. Like how the offices executed people, they acted without any hesitation.

The blade light flashed, and blood splattered all over. Like a slaughterhouse, either the horse legs were cut, or the war horse was chopped into two. Some of the more vicious ones even chopped both the men and the horse.

The scene was really gory.

Great Xia had such a phrase, “If one was not a fearless men, one would not dare to become a Mo blade soldier.”

Each and every Mo blade soldier was not only filled with courage, but they had been through hundreds of battles. Blood thirsty and crazy, they loved to fight in the most direct and gory manner to take down their enemy.

Even elite troops like the Great Han iron cavalry fell under the blades of the Mo blade soldiers.

In less than 10 minutes, 500 to 600 Great Han iron cavalry troops fell on the battlefield. More crucially, this wave of killing by the Mo blade soldiers had shocked the enemy while raising their own morale, delaying the enemy’s attack tempo.

To the cavalry, once their tempo was messed up, their charge effect would be greatly reduced.

Seeing their strike succeed, the Mo blade soldiers did not choose to fight head on. They looked cumbersome, but in truth, they were nimble like monkeys, going around the warhorses and retreating toward the two sides, leaving them to the sword shield soldiers.

They used their iron shields to block the horse hooves of the enemy war horses.

This was a battle between the sword and the shield.

The Great Han cavalry was undoubtedly worthy of its name. After being stunned by the Mo Knife soldiers, their courage did not lessen at all. Facing the Great Xia iron fortress of heavy armored sword shield soldiers, they showed no fear and launched a series of death charges. In less than an hour, they broke through three defensive lines and were about to reach the front of the cannons.

If the Great Han iron cavalry were able to get close to the cannons, the results would be catastrophic.

When Wei Qing saw that, a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth, “These kids did not let me down.”

Throughout the entire world, it was rare for any cavalry to be able to fight with the Great Xia Mo blade soldiers. Additionally, those who could break through the defensive lines of both the Mo blade soldiers and sword shield soldiers was even rarer.

The Great Han iron cavalry deserved their fame.

However, at this very moment, the Great Xia cavalry at the two wings finally moved.

With the heavy armored cavalry as the vanguard and the light armored cavalry as the cover, they were like two sharp knives stabbing right into the stomach of the Great Han iron cavalry, cutting them into two.

A battle between cavalry was like one showing off one’s spear skills, and the light from the metal shone brightly.

This was a battle between the strongest cavalry forces, and it was also the most blood boiling scene in cold weapons warfare.

It was beautiful but also really cruel.

The Great Han cavalry were cut right at the waist, and the vanguards that had broken through the defensive line were stopped by the sword shield soldiers and unable to proceed another step. Those at the back were cleaned up mercilessly by the light armored cavalry.

10 thousand Great Han cavalry, under the successive attacks of the Great Xia army, suffered heavy casualties but only achieved minimal results.

Even if there were a few who fortunately broke through the defensive line and arrived in front of the cannons, they were easily taken care of by the archers at the back, unable to cause any damage to the cannons.

When Wei Qing who stood on the city wall saw that, although his face was still calm, he could not help but tighten his fists. The Great Han iron cavalry was the pride of Great Han, but they could not shake the Great Xia Army a single bit.

Even in the battle between cavalry, the Great Han Cavalry’s trump card force was actually at a disadvantage.

This pride was being smashed by the enemy.

“Retreat!”

Wei Qing knew that in front of such an enemy who could resolve all attacks, a sneak attack would not work. If they dragged on, it would only increase the casualties, and the enemy might even grab a chance.

In terms of making decisive decisions, Wei Qing was not worse than Han Xin.

‘Dong! Dong! Dong!’

The drum beats signaling retreat sounded out, and the remnant Great Han iron cavalry did not hesitate, Making a huge arc, they killed their way out of the encirclement and left the battlefield like a wave at low tide.

Throughout the entire process, the shooting of the P2 Type Cannons did not stop.

Great Han’s harassment tactic ended in complete failure. Wei Qing was also really decisive. He did not employ probing attacks anymore. Instead, he immediately ordered them to strengthen the defensive works of the city to force the enemy to storm a heavily fortified point.

For the following two days, the cannon explosions outside of Luoyang City filled the ear.

Within the city, it was a busy sight.

The civilians were gathered up by the soldiers, either dismantling their houses, blocking streets, or digging moats to make Luoyang City into a super camp in a short amount of time.

What was placed in front of the Great Xia army was not some easy road to victory.

7th month, 17th day, night, ‘Honglong!’

Along with a heaven piercing boom, the impregnable Luoyang City north wall suddenly collapsed, wrapping up large amounts of dust and smoke and covering a hundred meters in front of it with zero visibility.

The dust was like a giant mushroom, rising up into the sky and catching everyone’s eye.

Luoyang City had fallen!

The Great Xia soldiers outside cheered while those inside were terrified.

When Wei Qing who was checking on the interior defenses heard the noise, his footsteps paused for a while before he continued. One could not notice much from his face, but his footsteps had gotten evidently quicker.

“The cruelest battle is finally here!”

Chapter 1182 - Great Zhou Attacks

Chapter 1182: Great Zhou Attacks

7th month, 18th day, Luoyang City.

Since midnight, the sky had started drizzling. As morning approached, the rain grew heavier and heavier, causing the entire Great Xia camp to become really muddy.

Within the central commander camp, Han Xin gathered the six Legion Generals and was having the usual morning meeting.

Seeing the curtain-like rain form outside of the camp and the water gathering up and forming a stream on the ground, Leopard Legion Corps 1st Legion General Wei Zhang asked, “Commander, looking at the situation, the rain will not stop in a short while, should we continue sieging?”

Based on the plan, the 1st legion was the vanguard for the siege.

Han Xin was worrying about that. After, thinking about it, he said, “The plan does not change. As we enter the 7th month, storms and rains are constant. For us to wait for the arrival of a sunny day would be really difficult. There is no time other than the present; let’s siege today. Although it’s bad for us, it is also bad for the enemy.” As he said that, Han Xin took a look at Wei Zhang and said, “Are there any problems?”

Wei Zhang was originally a little hesitant. After all, a storm was not good for a siege. However, the look from the marshal made him throw all the worries in his head away. He got up quickly, smacked his chest, and said, “Do not worry, marshal, the 1st legion is going to put us on the right foot.”

“Then go and prepare!”

“Yes, marshal!”

Apart from the 1st legion, the others were in charge of being on alert, and they would not all charge in together.

Such an arrangement was because the portion of the city wall that was blown apart was limited, and not many forces could charge up. If they swarmed up all at once, the enemy might use the chance to take them down wave after wave.

Secondly, they did not know what the situation was like within Luoyang City. The command headquarters could only understand roughly what was going on through the spies of the Shanhai Guards and not the actual situation.

As the geography was more complicated, an alley battle relied more on intel.

The Shanhai Guard spies were trying their best to scout for where the Han army had set up castles, where they had heavy troops at, and how the entire defense line was formed up.

Only when they had all this information would Han Xin give the final order to attack.

The attack from the 1st legion was a probe. At the same time, it was also a move to help them take down a starting point within the city to help the main force take down a sentry base. Thirdly, it was also to suppress the Han army.

As the responsibility was huge, Wei Zhang had hesitated. Seeing that he had already made the promise, no matter how difficult it was, he would have to fight a good first battle.

Since it was just a meetup, it naturally ended quickly. Looking out at the leaving Legion Generals, a look of worry flashed in Han Xin’s eyes; this weird weather worried him.

As they entered the 6th year of Gaia, the weather had never been normal.

The 4th month and the 5th month were the months when the seedlings needed water the most. However, there was no rain during this time. To get the water they needed for farming, farmers from different villages had to fight one another.

Luckily, Great Xia’s water irrigation facilities were well done and perfect, tiding them past that period. When they did not need any more water, the heavens did not care and kept having huge storms.

The moment there was rain, it often lasted for a week.

As they entered the 7th month, storms continued across the land, leading to disasters caused by floods.

The grain was about to ripen and was going to be harvested. If the weather did not turn for the better, grain that many months of hard work went into was going to spoil in the ground, granting them little yield.

There was basically no difference in the wheat in the north and the rice in the south.

Great Xia chose such a time to attack Great Han. Apart from Great Jin providing grain, they also took into account the harvest of the first grain season, which would allow them to get grain in Great Han land.

Who would have expected that after a few rare days of sun, the rain would fall once more?

Before this, the Great Xia cavalry managed to obtain grain from around the Great Han territory because the civilians all felt that the harvest was coming soon. As such, they happily handed over their grain.

If the storm did not stop, the crops would spoil in the dirt, and the outcome would be catastrophic.

“Let’s hope it turns sunny soon!”

For this attack on Luoyang, Han Xin was not afraid of the main battlefield. What he feared was the logistics.

…

9 AM in the morning, Leopard Legion Corps 1st legion camp.

After confirming the military order, the soldiers of the 1st legion got busy, braving the rain as they walked out of their tents. They lined up row by row outside.

The north city wall that collapsed yesterday had been cleaned out by the engineer soldiers, forming a 20 meter wide hole. Through the hole, one could roughly see defensive works formed by stacking sandbags.

Last night, Luoyang City was similarly sleepless.

Wei Zhang wore his Mingguang Armor. Riding on a black warhorse, he arrived at the front of the formation to motivate the troops, “Boys, the marshal has given the responsibility of the first battle to us, which shows his trust in us.”

“How do we repay him?” Wei Zhang hollered.

The rain drops around shook in the air, giving out ‘Balala!’ sounds.

“Victory!”

“Victory!”

70 thousand soldiers clanged their weapons and shouted out, not caring about the rain that was pelting on their heads.

“That’s right, victory!”

Wei Zhang waved his hand and held his machete forward, “Attack!”

“Kill! Kill! Kill!”

70 thousand soldiers proceeded forward with a division as a unit.

At the same time, the 200 P2 Type Cannons were pushed out once more, entering a canon formation. Their goal was to provide cover fire for the 1st legion.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

Just as the 1st legion pushed forward, the cannon fire broke out. They aimed at the city walls on the two sides of the breach, blowing up the cannons, arrow turrets, and defending soldiers there.

Under the attacks of such dense cannon fire, smoke bellowed on the city wall as it was hit time and time again.

When Wei Qing got the report, he sighed with emotion, “As expected from the soldier saint, he does not make any mistakes and does not give any chances. Send down my orders, let the defending soldiers retreat!”

“Yes, general!”

No one would have expected that the Great Xia Army would actually continue to siege even during such a weather, not giving the Han army anytime to prepare. If Great Xia did not siege today, the Han army would have enough time to perfect their defensive work.

Now, it seemed like they would not have a chance to do so.

As they spoke, the 1st division had arrived near the city protection river.

A night of heavy rain caused the river water to swell up.

“Engineer soldiers build the bridge; archers be on the alert!”

The Major General was really experienced, ordering his troops as he stared at the opposite shore of the river. After less than an hour, five wooden board floating bridges hung on the city protection river, going up and down along with the height of the water.

Throughout the process, the opposite shore was totally silent. It was obvious that the enemy had no plans to disturb the Great Xia army and were determined to hide behind their castle.

“Charge!”

The Major General did not hesitate. He sent the spearmen as the vanguard to cross the river first. After crossing the river and slightly organizing themselves, they crossed the messy breach and headed right into the city.

As the breach was huge, even if the Han army wanted to fill it up, they could not. They decided to use the bridge as the center, using the houses and streets as barriers to build the first line of defense.

The moment the Great Xia army entered, what they faced was a round of arrow rain.

“Archers cover fire; charge in for me!”

The Major General was really brave. He personally led his troops and braved the enemy arrow rain to charge at the formation in the streets. As long as they took down the street entrance, they would be able to occupy the entire street and complete the mission handed to them by the command headquarters.

When the Great Xia army got close, the Han army jumped out of the castle and fought against the Great Xia army. The moment they engaged, they went all out, showing signs of not stopping till they took the enemy down.

Both sides consisted entirely of first-class elites. When experts crossed swords, there was no such thing as warm up.

“It was either you die or I die!”

Very quickly, with the street entrance as the center, there were many deaths and kills. Fresh blood was washed away by the storm, flowing on the green stone floored streets. In less than an hour, the rainwater was dyed blood red.

The Great Xia army’s attacks were resolute, while the Han army’s defense was stubborn.

The two sides had fought for two hours over it, and the victor still could not be decided. A small street had actually blocked the advance of the Great Xia army.

Wei Zhang got anxious and scolded out, “Rubbish!” Holding his machete, he hollered, “Personal Guards, follow me!”

“Yes, general!”

Two thousand Personal Guards followed Wei Zhang over the city protection river and entered the city.

When the 1st division soldiers saw their Legion General charge in personally, they all felt really ashamed. The Major General even wanted to kill himself on the spot for his sins.

“Boys, let’s go all out. If we do not take it down, how will we have face to see the marshal?”

“Kill!”

The eyes of the surviving 1st division soldiers flushed red as they charged forward like wolves and tigers toward the enemy.

The Personal Guards led by Wei Zhang were like a sharp sword, stabbing right into the stomach of the enemy.

Facing such a clean and sharp attack, the Han army finally could not hold them off and were forced back. Seeing that, Wei Zhang grasped the opportunity to lead the troops over the fortress charged in further.

When the 1st division soldiers saw that, they quickly followed behind.

The moment a breach was opened, there was no way for them to defend anymore. After three full hours of intense killing, the Great Xia Army paid heavy sacrifices to finally take down the street entrance and build up their sentry camp.

The remaining soldiers all fell to the ground due to how intense the battle was, not bothering about the accumulating water on the ground. They laid on the sandbags, sitting on the ground to rest.

On their faces were joy and pride.

During this battle, they used the swords in their hand to protect the honor and glory of the 1st division.

The start was always the toughest. After taking down the first street entrance, the following attacks became much easier. The following divisions followed them into the city. By the time that night had almost arrived, they had already taken down an entire street region.

A breach had been taken down in the impregnable Luoyang City.

…

Night, Handan City.

People had been paying attention to the Battle of Luoyang City due to the presence of the communication compass and nothing could be hidden away. Di Chen had been paying attention to the Battle of Luoyang. More specifically, he focused on the intel from it.

After learning that the Great Xia army had made their way into the city, Di Chen finally made up his mind.

“Men, summon general Lianpo!”

“Yes, my king!”

Very quickly, Lianpo rushed into the Imperial Reading Room.

Di Chen did not beat around the push and directly said, “The time is right. Send troops to attack Great Jin tomorrow.”

“Yes, my king!”

Excitement flashed across Lianpo’s eyes.

This was the first time Great Zhou had gone on a conquest since their establishment of the dynasty. Moreover, their opponent was Great Jin, which made Lianpo really delighted.

…

7th month, 19th day, just as the Battle of Luoyang entered a stalemate, Great Zhou suddenly declared war on Great Jin.

The Palace Guards legion corps, Pill Sun legion corps, King legion corps, and Blood Red legion corps, apart from the forces left behind to defend against the beast caves, the four legion corps all headed out.

The Zhou army that covered the land surged for Great Jin like a wave.

Chapter 1183 - Debts Cleared

Chapter 1183: Debts Cleared

Great Zhou’s declaration of war on Great Jin spread through the night sky of China like lightning, letting all the players realize that the old situation in the China region was finally about to be totally broken.

“Let’s fight. Since it’s avoidable anyways, why not fight earlier than later?”

“Without destruction, there cannot be construction. It’s time for China to have a ruler that unifies everything.”

“The warring states era is not suitable for the global situation; the times call for a true ruler.”

This time, the player groups did not grumble, and all of them chose to be bystanders to this war. The times were different, and the global landscape had changed. The mergers and reconstructions were coming to an end, and a global race had arrived along with it.

As the top region in the world, the China region could not fall behind the others.

The moment the war exploded, 90% of the players turned their eyes over to Shanhai City, looking toward that mysterious king in the Xia Palace.

They were eager to find out how Great Xia would react to this situation.

…

Shanhai City, Xia Palace.

Long ago, when Han Xin led his troops into Great Han, the Shanhai Guards had already returned with intel regarding the activity of Great Zhou. They had been moving frequently and large amounts of war resources were being gathered in Handan City.

All signs pointed to the fact that Great Zhou did not want to be lonely and could start war at any moment.

The Grand Council had predicted that Great Zhou was going to send troops to interfere in the Great Han battlefield; they did not expect that their true target would actually be Great Jin.

Although Feng Qiuhuang was defending against that, she was still caught off guard.

Wuying Hall.

Grand Council ministers Baiqi, Sun Bin, Military Affairs Minister Du Ruhui, Administrative Mentor Court head secretary Zhang Liang, Chief Secretary Jia Xu, Shanhai Guards Commander Shen Buhai as well as Military Intelligence Secretary Cobra were all present.

Ouyang Shuo sat on his throne and looked toward Cobra and said, “Intel department, introduce the latest developments.”

“Yes, my King!”

Cobra stepped out, “Based on the intel found by the Shanhai Guards and the Military Intelligence Division, the reason why Great Zhou dares to go all out and attack Great Jin is because of their cooperation with the other dynasties.”

The two intel organizations had a great relationship with one another, no one bothering to fight for credit.

“In the north, Great Qing arranged their 200 thousand guards at the Nanjiang Province and Jingdu Province border to help Great Zhou defend the north. The moment the Beijiang legion corps invades, Great Qing would not sit still.”

Based on the rules, the dynasties could not initiate war against Great Xia, but it did not mean that they could not help their allies defend their border. Such a course of action circumvented the rules set by Gaia.

“On the south, Great Song’s imperial city guards moved out of Xiangyang and are at the Jingchu Province border. Meanwhile, Great Ming’s imperial city guards went south to defend Wannan and Jiangnan Province to prevent us from going up north.”

“On the west, Great Qin and Great Tang did not move any troops, but when Jin queen sought help from Qin, she was rejected. Looking at the situation, Great Qin does not want to break the terms of the alliance but will not assist Great Jin either.”

Qin, Han, Tang, and Song, none of them were people who bowed their heads to others and followed instructions. Ouyang Shuo had thought too simply before.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he laughed and said, “Great, in the blink of an eye, anyone that could jump out has jumped out. Why so? Are we so scary that before we do anything, everyone around us is already in a rush to hug together?”

As he said that, Ouyang Shuo was on the verge of laughing out loud.

Looking back to Great Xia’s road to expansion, it was pretty much a constant battle to break out of encirclements. Starting from the alliance in the Lianzhou Basin to the City-States and now the six country alliance.

When Du Ruhui and the others heard that, they laughed in their hearts.

That was right. Since the beginning, Great Xia had seen and been through all kinds of problems. The happenings of today did not surprise them. When they had made the strategy to sweep China, they had already predicted such a situation.

Although that was the case, Ouyang Shuo was still a little curious, “I want to know, what promises did Great Zhou make to let the three dynasties willingly help him defend his border?”

Ouyang Shuo did not believe that they would do it for free.

Shen Buhai stepped out to reply, “Based on the intel from the Shanhai Guards, they promised a province of land for the dynasty to expand. Of course, this intel needs to be further verified.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head in praise. The Shanhai Guards had done remarkably well to be able to find out such secret intel in such a short time, not wasting the huge amounts of gold he had invested in them at the start.

“That sounds like the style of Di Chen, splitting the cake with his allies.”

Ouyang Shuo was deep in thought. Di Chen’s actions not only recruited Song and Ming, but he even managed to move Chun Shenjun and Zhan Lang away from their roots. He appointed them elsewhere, killing two birds with one stone.

Who knows how Di Chen had managed to persuade the two of them.

Shen Buhai continued, “I would also like to add that from the report from the spies, the Mongol Empire has been prepping their military supplies and look ready to act.”

“Oh?”

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes froze up. He had always possessed a level of worry toward Mongol Empire, not relaxing on the monitoring of his close neighbor. However, unexpectedly, since Genghis Khan appearance in the wilderness, the Mongol Empire had remained really peaceful.

Even to say that they were even more well behaved than when they were Mongol tribes, reducing their disturbances on the borders. Obviously, before their conditions of going to war were met, Genghis Khan did not want to trigger anyone.

“The fox has finally revealed his tail.”

Ouyang Shuo did not believe that Genghis Khan did not have the ambition. He was so well behaved because the time was not right, and he was training up his forces.

With Genghis Khan’s style, it was okay if he did not attack, but if he did, he would go right for the kill.

“Did you find out who their target is?” Liaojin Province was connected in large parts with the Mongol Empire, and Ouyang Shuo was worried he would become the target.

If that happened, it would be a huge problem.

“Based on the intel, their target is the Turkish Khanate on the west.”

Ouyang Shuo asked, “This matter is of utmost importance, do you have confidence?”

“This intel was obtained by a snake guard from a Mongol noble, and there’s a 70% certainty that it’s true.” Shen Buhai was really confident.

Before Genghis Khan had appeared in the wilderness, Ouyang Shuo had ordered the intel departments to strengthen their infiltration of Mongol tribes. It seemed like that was a good move.

The snake guard mentioned should be a girl that became a servant in a Mongol noble family, so the news was really reliable.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, temporarily putting down the worries in his heart.

Thinking about it, the choice of Mongol Empire was really understandable. The Turkish Khanate and the Mongol Empire came from the same bloodline and had a deep connection, and their culture and system were pretty much the same.

Swallowing them would be easy to digest.

There was one more point. Now that flames of war were starting in Zhongyuan, Genghis Khan did not want to be burnt by the flames. Not attacking Liaojin Province was probably due to such a worry.

On the contrary, using the chance that Zhongyuan was in chaos, and no one had troops to bother about the grasslands, they would swallow up Turkish Khanate; it was a great move.

As expected from Genghis Khan.

Be it him keeping silent in the shadows or striking out decisively now, it left one with a deep impression.

If the Mongol Empire was able to swallow up the Turkish Khanate, their strength would increase greatly, becoming a huge problem. With their strategy, after taking down the Turkish Khanate, Liaojin Province would be next.

What made one helpless was that Great Xia had no energy to interfere.

“Inform the spy in the Mongol Empire to try to delay them as much as possible.”

This was the only thing that Great Xia could do.

“Yes, my king!”

Shen Buhai was really smart and understood the king’s intentions.

The king was prepared to make sacrifices; he would rather not interfere if it meant managing to protect the spies they buried there, keeping them hidden. If they managed to do so, the spies could be of use in the future war between Mongol Empire and Great Xia.

After the intel department finished reporting, Ouyang Shuo was about to ask the officials about how to react to the current situation when someone suddenly outside the hall reported, “My king, envoys from Great Qin and Great Tang are here.”

At such a sensitive time, it was really weird for both of them to send envoys.

“Why did they come?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

The Honglu Temple official replied, “To give the cauldron!”

“….”

The hall fell into total silence.

After a long while, Ouyang Shuo let out a sigh, “They are trying to draw a clean line with us.”

For Great Qin and Great Tang to have half a province of land was because of Great Xia’s help, and the premise would be that they had to become allies that attacked and defended together. Seeing that the flames of Zhongyuan had flared up, the two of them were unable to fulfil their promise.

Be it from guilt or because they did not want to take advantage of Great Xia, Qin Shihuang and Tang Taizong were surprisingly in unison. At such a crucial moment, they unconditionally handed over the cauldrons that they were not willing to give up to Great Xia.

From now on, all their debts were cleared.

Chapter 1184 - Expedition to Great Qing

Chapter 1184: Expedition to Great Qing

The envoys from Qin and Tang were just a small episode, and Ouyang Shuo quickly controlled his emotions.

“There are two paths ahead of us. We either teleport troops to Fallen Phoenix City to help Great Jin, or we directly declare war on Great Zhou, opening up the path to Zhongyuan. Give me your thoughts on how we should choose.”

Jia Xu stepped up to speak, “I do not support sending reinforcements to Great Jin.”

“Reason.”

“Grain.” Jia Xu headed directly toward the crux of the problem, “Great Jin dynasty only has one province, and Hedong Province is also not one that produces a lot of grain. Their grain supply itself is limited. After supporting the logistics of the Leopard Legion Corps, to also support their own Blazing and Guards Legion Corps, their grain usage would have reached its maximum.”

“To force back the Great Zhou army, conservatively speaking, the Imperial Court has to send 500 thousand troops. If things go wrong, and the battle is dragged out, the moment a grain crisis happens, the outcome would be catastrophic.”

“If I was Great Zhou, I’ll try to drag out the battle. I predict they will make use of their grain advantage to fight a drawn-out battle with our troops to gain easy benefits.”

“There is also one more point. In the whole wilderness, the storms are endless and are showing no signs of stopping. The first season of rice and malt will definitely show signs of a fall in production.”

“Due to these few points, I do not agree with us reinforcing Great Jin.”

Ouyang Shuo kept silent.

He did not expect that the grain crisis of Gaia’s 6th year would affect the most well-prepared Great Xia first. Although Great Xia had amassed a huge quantity of grain, they were unable to transport it to the front lines.

In between them were the enemies of Great Xia.

“That means we can only attack.” Ouyang Shuo accepted his advice, “Should we attack from the north or the south?”

Attacking was to save the damsel in distress and pull them away from Great Jin.

Jia Xu replied, “From a strategic standpoint, they both have their pros and cons. If we attack from the north, once we take down Great Qing, we can threaten Handan City and force them to retreat.”

“If we attack from the south, we would have to face the combined efforts of Great Song and Great Ming. The pros would be that if we attack from the south, be it moving troops or grain provision, both would be really smooth. Furthermore, if we break the south defensive line and head into Zhongyuan Province, not only can we regroup with the Leopard Legion Corps, but we can also form up a grain transport route to Great Jin.”

Simply put, the strategy from the north was fixed; it was a move to pull Great Zhou back and save Great Jin. The one on the south was complicated and more difficult, but it had greater rewards.

The moment the grain transport line was open, Great Xia could use the chance to fight an all-out war against Great Zhou and the six country alliance and decide the new situation in China in one battle.

It was not difficult to see that Jia Xu was leaning toward the south.

However, did Great Xia have the ability to take down both Great Song and Great Ming? In order to wipe out the million guards before Great Jin was lost, Great Xia had to at least mobilize 1.5 million troops.

Was Great Xia prepared to do that?

Ouyang Shuo was not in a hurry to come to a conclusion. He looked toward Zhang Liang and said, “Zifang, speak your thoughts.”

In terms of strategy, Ouyang Shuo trusted Zhang Liang the most.

Zhang Liang did not dodge the question. Jia Xu and he were in charge of different aspects, so there was no competition, “I am thinking that if Great Zhou cannot take down Great Jin, how will it fulfil its promise toward Song and Ming?”

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes lit up, continuing along with Zhang Liang’s line of thinking, “With his character, he will most likely deny it. However, with the strength of Song and Ming, that does not seem like a good decision.”

“The king is wise!”

Zhang Liang praised Ouyang Shuo and continued, “The south attack must be slow and not rushed. If we make them too desperate, it’ll only cause the unstable alliance to be more closely united.”

“As for the north, we should rush it instead of taking it slow. With the Mongol Empire suddenly ending their silence, one Turkish Khanate is not enough to satisfy Genghis Khan’s appetite. War in Liaojin Province might break out at any moment.”

“If we do not take care of Great Qing before the Mongol Empire acts, and the two end up working together, Beijiang would be in a dangerous situation and become a hot potato for us.”

Zhang Liang’s words astonished everyone.

It was then that they realized that if Great Xia wanted to unify China, not only would they need to face many enemies, but the enemies might even work together, which would allow them to have the ability to go against Great Xia.

Facing such a group of enemies, they could not be careless.

When Jia Xu was analyzing the pros and cons, Baiqi, Sun Bin, and the other generals were more supportive of the south battlefield. They were looking forward to going head on with Great Zhou.

Now, it seems like the matter was not so simple.

“There is one more benefit in taking down Great Qing, which is that we can get the cauldron. Along with the Luoyang and Chengdu cauldrons that are imminent, it would not be long before we gather up all nine,” Zhang Liang added.

Once Zhang Liang finished his words, Sun Bin said, “Elder Zhang’s words make sense, but I have a worry.”

“Speak!”

“How long can Great Jin last without support in front of the Great Zhou army? Once war breaks out, can they support the grain provisions the Leopard Legion Corps needs? If the grain line is broken, what would happen to the Battle of Luoyang? What would happen to the Leopard Legion Corps?”

As the number two person of the southeast warzone, Sun Bin had to consider for the warzone.

Attacking Great Han was a mission taken up by the southeast warzone. If they messed it up, it would be the humiliation of the entire warzone, and that was something Sun Bin did not want to see no matter what.

The warzone commander Han Xin was fighting the war on the frontlines, so Sun Bin had to take up the responsibility.

“That is indeed a problem.” Ouyang Shuo did not ask for opinions this time and directly said, “On a narrow road, the courageous will win. Since the battle has reached such a stage, we cannot be afraid, and we must take out the courage to rule the world. Since our grain is limited, the Battle of Luoyang cannot be dragged on. We must end it soon.”

“Jia Xu, think of a way for the Leopard Legion Corps to end the battle early.” Ouyang Shuo pointed to Jia Xu once more.

Ouyang Shuo’s adaptive style tested the ability of the strategists to be flexible and think on their feet. In such a short time, the questions Ouyang Shuo asked made them speechless.

Luckily, Jia Xu was one of the top strategists in the world.

As a strategist, one’s ability was not only shown in the court sessions. Strategists and actors were similar with 10 minutes on stage, 10 years off it.

How so?

With Jia Xu as an example, as the top strategist in the army, although he would not personally join each military operation, he would follow through each and every one of them. He would do so to use the intel to do his homework.

The goal was to have an accurate grasp of the entire situation to come up with strategies based on what happened on the battlefield to come up with ideas for the king.

This was the role of a strategist.

They were not going to improvise when they were asked in court.

No matter how skilled one was, no one would be able to come up with a plan without understanding the situation on the frontlines. That would be bullsh*t and would never happen in real life.

Like Zhuge Liang in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he seemed to be secluding himself, but in truth, he knew about everything in the world. If not, he would not be able to come up with so many feasible plans.

Hence, when the king asked, Jia Xu was not nervous at all, gathering up his thoughts before saying, “If we use conventional tactics, Luoyang’s alleyway battles would take a long time. The grain crisis would explode like General Sun Bin has mentioned.”

When Sun Bin heard that, he looked toward Jia Xu with gratitude.

“To end it fast, we must adopt unconventional tactics. With Luoyang’s conditions, we could choose an assassination tactic. Out of Hanwu Emperor and Wei Qing, once one of them dies, the Han army would fall into chaos.”

“Alternatively, we could burn the Luoyang granary to crush their morale, engage in large scale massacre to spread panic, or poison the water. Seeing that it’s a rainy season, and there is so much rain, it’s all feasible.”

“….”

Jia Xu’s plans caused everyone’s hair to stand on their ends.

As expected from the vicious strategists, he could think of any method. However, thinking about it, with the image of Great Xia, some of these plans would not be practical.

For example, Great Xia would never do things such as large scale killing or poisoning the water.

Even burning the granary was difficult. With how careful Wei Qing was, he would defend against it. Even if the Shanhai Guards had many spies in the city, they did not have a chance of succeeding.

Even if they did, the chances of success would be really low.

Eliminating everything, assassination seemed to be the only feasible solution, but it was also the hardest. Regarding the Hanwu Emperor who lived in the palace, not to mention assassinating him, they might not even get to see him.

As the main Han army general, Wei Qing had guards beside him at all times, making assassination really difficult.

Thinking about it, they had no chance of success.

They were worrying about it while Ouyang Shuo had some thoughts. He thought back to a partner, which was the super guild that had once betrayed Great Xia. It was also the only guild that was still left in an imperial city.

Coincidentally, Tingyu Floor was in Luoyang.

Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo said, “I’ll plan the Luoyang matter. Now, let’s discuss who to send up north.”

Although Great Qing had only sent 200 thousand guards to defend the border, they needed to uproot the entire Great Qing to threaten Handan City.

If not, Jingdu City would be like a nail in their path that could cut Great Xia’s grain supply line into two at any moment.

In order to threaten Handan City, Jingdu was a problem that they had to solve.

Furthermore, Ouyang Shuo wanted to use this chance to take down Great Qing to change the landscape of Beijiang.

Chapter 1185 - Assassinating Hanwu Emperor

Chapter 1185: Assassinating Hanwu Emperor

After an hour of discussion, the Qing conquering legion corps name list was completed.

Ouyang Shuo had two principles regarding his choices. First, the Guards Legion Corps and the Dragon Legion Corps that had fought in successive wars would not participate this time. They would take the time to rest to prepare for the next large war.

Secondly, apart from the Beijiang region border defense legion corps, other border defense legion corps were not to participate.

After making those rules, the choices were limited.

The 4th and 5th legion of the Beijiang legion corps needed to defend Liaojin Province to prevent the Mongol Empire from attacking. On the other hand, the 3rd legion had to defend the beast caves and monitor the grain line.

Hence. only the 1st and 2nd legions could be sent.

The 2nd legion of the Yingzhou Formaiton would remain in Yingzhou Province, and the 1st legion would be sent.

The City Protection Legion Corps that had not been participating in many wars would send their 2nd, 4th, and 5th legions. The 2nd legion had to defend Mulan Stronghold, and the 4th legion had to defend Beihai City. As a result, they did not have many chances to fight wars.

If an army did not fight wars for a long time, problems would arise.

The capital defense duties of the City Protection Legion Corps would be taken over by the Guards Legion Corps that had returned to Shanhai City.

Similarly, the Eagle Legion Corps in charge of the Shu Lands had not fought many wars since their formation. This time the 1st, 2nd and 3rd legions would be sent, led personally by Li Mu.

Next would be the 1st and 2nd legions of the Bear Legion Corps.

Sending the Bear Legion Corps was because the Alliance Army needed a marshal. Han Xin was in Luoyang, Baiqi was resting, so Li Jing was the only choice. Moreover, the Bear Legion Corps needed to be trained.

In total, the Qing conquering army included the southwest warzone, Zhili army, and Beijiang legion corps, including four legion corps and one formation for a total of 11 legions and 770 thousand troops.

Just moving the soldiers would take up a week.

On the logistical front, apart from using the combat logistic supplies stored in Beijiang Governor-General House, they would use the ocean route to transport grain from Chuannan, Lingnan, and Minnan.

The Binhai and Yashan Squadrons would be in charge of escorting the ocean grain path.

After settling the battle plan, the Grand Council and the Privy Court got to work, trying to complete their preparations in the shortest amount of time possble. The spies of the Shanhai Guards and the Military Intelligence Division went right to work once the meeting ended.

The war machine that was Great Xia started rumbling into action once more.

…

After ending the military meeting, Ouyang Shuo returned to the Imperial Reading Room.

The moment he sat down, he called Feng Qiuhuang through a video call. The Feng Qiuhuang who appeared on the screen looked calm, but exhaustion was evident at the corners of her eyes.

The huge war exploding, and a suppressive pressure was pressing down on her shoulders.

Unlike Great Xia, since the territory days, Great Jin had developed smoothly and did not have many problems apart from the family issues due to the region that they were in.

The battles they joined in were just battle maps and country wars.

To suddenly face the danger of being destroyed, the amount of pressure Feng Qiuhuang was facing was obvious. Luckily, Great Jin had Guo Ziyi, Ran Min, Meng Tian, Wang He, and other famous generals.

Guo Ziyi led the full blazing legion corps, while Meng Tian led the newly formed, four legion strong Guards Legion Corps. The two of them were seen as the two pillars of Great Jin.

General Ran Min was the commander of Feng Qiuhuang’s Personal Guards and was in charge of Feng Qiuhuang’s safety.

Ouyang Shuo went straight to the point, telling her Great Xia’s plan and saying, “If you defend for a month, the Great Jin problem will be settled. Can all of you hold on?”

A complicated expression flashed across her face. Since the start, Great Jin had simply owned Great Xia too much. Now, Great Xia was helping to dig them out of their problem once more. It seemed like she was not a decent ally.

At that moment, Feng Qiuhuang made a decision in her heart.

“Ouyang Shuo, I will not say much thanks. For Great Xia’s kindness, I’ll pay you back after this war,” Feng Qiuhuang said seriously.

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, “There’s no need for thanks; we are allies.”

He did not bother to probe about the meaning behind Feng Qiuhuang’s words.

Feng Qiuhuang looked deeply at Ouyang Shuo and did not say much. Instead, she changed the topic. Raising it up with much difficulty, she said, “As for grain, I am afraid you will laugh at me, but the weather is too unusual, and the grain yield is bad. If we need to support the Leopard Legion Corps, we will not be able to last for a month and a half.”

As they say, ‘If one forgets about war, one would be in danger.’

Different from Great Xia, Great Jin was at peace for too long. Their Combat Logistics Department did not have a habit of storing military grain and usually just stored a small amount during every harvest season.

The grain that they stored from the last season was running out.

The month and a half she mentioned was after using the disaster relief grain and seeking grain from the people. If not, they would not even manage to last a month.

Ouyang Shuo was mentally prepared and said understandingly, “I predicted your problems. Although I cannot send grain over, you can stop sending grain to the Leopard Legion Corps.”

“How can we do that?”

She shook her head, “Providing grain to the Leopard Legion Corps is our promise, and we cannot go against that. I’ll rather we go a little hungry and still ensure the resource provision.”

“I’m telling you that not to share my problems but to remind you that if the battle drags on, we might not be able to hang on,” Feng Qiuhuang explained.

“I know.” Ouyang Shuo smiled, “If nothing goes wrong, the Battle of Luoyang will end soon. With the current grain and gathering some from the land, they will have enough. Great Zhou is attacking aggressively, so you must not be careless. Do not fall because of grain.”

“Do not lie to me.”

Feng Qiuhuang was not one that was easy to fool, “Luoyang is an imperial city, how would it be easy to take down?”

Ouyang Shuo did not explain much more, but he had to let her put her worries aside, “Do I look like one who cares so much about face? Just wait for my good news.”

Feng Qiuhuang looked at Ouyang Shuo hesitantly and finally nodded.

Speaking the truth, Great Jin was having a grain problem. Once Fallen Pheonix City was surrounded, without enough grain amassed, they would not be able to defend. If they did not need to continue providing grain for the Leopard Legion Corps, the pressure would be greatly reduced.

Although it was a little selfish, they had no choice.

Following which, the two of them informed each other of their own situations and ended the conversation. Both of them were busy people and had a huge number of matters to handle.

Especially Feng Qiuhuang, who was so busy that she could not sit down to take a break.

Great Zhou had deliberately planned it from the start, attacking with lightning speed right away. They aimed directly at Fallen Phoenix City. Their goal was to cut off all possibilities of Great Xia reinforcements and surround Great Jin to the death.

Starting from the border, both armies started to go head to head. The battle was really intense.

Regardless of the outcome of this battle, Great Jin would definitely be badly hurt after this battle as the main battlefield.

…

Hanging up the call, Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate. Following which, he found Tingyu Floor guild leader Jianqi Leiyin in his friend list and called her.

Before officially splitting, Jianqi Leiyin was an ally of Great Xia and was naturally his friend. When Gaia pushed out the communication compass, all friends were migrated over.

If not, Ouyang Shuo might not have been able to find Jianqi Leiyin.

In less than 10 minutes, she agreed to the call request, appearing in the video call, “Xia King?” Ouyang Shuo suddenly contacting her shocked Jianqi Leiyin.

At the start, as she was persuaded by her ex-boyfriend, along with the mysterious Silver Hand, she betrayed Shanhai Alliance and joined the Yanhuang Alliance camp.

Who would have expected the Shanhai Alliance to fight back so quickly, dealing a heavy blow to Tingyu Floor. Jianqi Leiyin also became really down, leaving the Yanhuang Alliance camp and not joining either side.

Even in the 6th year of Gaia, Tingyu Floor remained in Luoyang and did not move to any territory.

The previous betrayal had made her feel really guilty. Since then, she had never contacted Ouyang Shuo, and they were completely isolated from one another.

As such, one could imagine how shocked Jianqi Leiyin was when she received Ouyang Shuo’s call.

Times have changed.

When one reached Ouyang Shuo’s position, many things could be put down.

Everyone had their ambitions and working together between powers was a normal matter. Furthermore, Jianqi Leiyin had warned Ouyang Shuo before she joined Yanhuang Alliance.

It was because of that that Ouyang Shuo was willing to contact her.

“It’s me.” Ouyang Shuo smiled.

“Do you need something?”

Jianqi Leiyin’s voice was really uncertain. Seeing that the China region was really unstable and Great Xia was attacking Luoyang, Jianqi Leiyin did not think that Ouyang Shuo contacted her just to reminisce the past.

As a guild leader, her sense of smell was really sharp.

Ouyang Shuo was straightforward, “Are you interested in working together once more?”

“Working together?”

Jianqi Leiyin was filled with thoughts. She gripped her fist tight as waves surged uncontrollably in her heart. At the current day, seeing Great Xia become stronger and Great Zhou becoming weaker, to say that she did not regret her decision would be a lie.

“How to cooperate?” Jianqi Leiyin was a really decisive person. When something she hoped for, but she did not think she could get, appeared in front of her eyes once more, she would not miss it.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head in satisfaction. He admired her straightforward spirit, “You know that Great Xia is currently attacking Luoyang. If you can help us do something, I can forget all past matters and allow Tingyu Floor to move to Great Xia.”

When Jianqi Leiyin heard that, she did not immediately agree. Instead, she asked, “What is it?”

It was not that she was bargaining. However, for something to make Ouyang Shuo ask so solemnly, it had to be really difficult. She was afraid that she would not be able to complete it and put both sides in an awkward spot.

“Help me assassinate Hanwu Emperor or Wei Qing. If not, help me burn the Luoyang granary to send Luoyang into chaos at the very least.” Ouyang Shuo did not beat around the bush. Since they were going to work together, he need to be open.

When she heard that, her heart skipped a beat, and she smiled bitterly, “Are you not afraid that I’ll reveal your plan to Great Han?”

While saying that, her tone was really bitter. She was obviously thinking back to the past.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “You won’t. It will not do anything good for Tingyu Floor. Luoyang will be taken down by us sooner or later.”

Jianqi Leiyin kept silent. Obviously, she understood what Ouyang Shuo meant.

Since the fall of Luoyang was a matter of time, once it fell, where would Tingyu Floor go to? To make enemies with Great Xia now was a foolish act.

Great Han could not give Tingyu Floor what it needed.

Jianqi Leiyin nodded, and only then did she start considering Ouyang Shuo’s request. She fell deep into thought. Ouyang Shuo did not rush her, as he believed that for Tingyu Floor to spend six years in Luoyang, it would definitely have trump cards.

A full five minutes passed by. She finally returned to her senses and said, “In truth, I have eyes in the palace but to assassinate Hanwu Emperor, such a high difficulty matter, I cannot promise it’ll succeed. As for Wei Qing, with the army protecting him, it is more difficult than killing Hanwu Emperor.”

Tingyu Floor was famous for developing spies and strategists, so it was normal that they had people in the palace. However, whether they could succeed in the assassination or not was hard to say.

“However, regarding the granary I can think of a way,” Jianqi Leiyin said.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he smiled. Jianqi Leiyin did not let him down. Ouyang Shuo said, “That’s really good already. I’ll wait for your good news in Shanhai City.”

Jianqi Leiyin nodded.

“Remember, you have at most a week.” Ouyang Shuo reminded her.

“Understood!”

Following which, the two of them discussed some details. Ouyang Shuo even suggested for the Shanhai Guard spies to aid Tingyu Floor to increase their chances of success.

After talking, Ouyang Shuo hung up.

Ouyang Shuo had already placed down the chess pieces, and whether they would work or not depended on patience. However, Ouyang Shuo believed that even if the assassination failed, with the help of Tingyu Floor, Han Xin could find a way to take down Luoyang before the grain ran out.

…

Great Zhou Dynasty, Handan City.

“The old fox has finally started to move his troops. Who knows where he will attack from?”

Di Chen was simply terrified of Great Xia. This attack on Great Jin was his final gamble. If not, he would be destroyed by Great Xia sooner or later.

Cooking a frog in warm water was a scary prospect.

When she heard that, Juedai Fenghua smiled, “No matter where they attack from, they are helping us clear out problems.”

Although the six countries had formed an alliance, Song, Ming, and Qing were all in Great Zhou borders and were all huge cancers. To use Great Xia to remove them was a masterstroke.

Great Zhou’s plan had considered all aspects this time.

Di Chen was not so optimistic, “This fisherman is a tough one to become. If we cannot take down Great Jin before Great Xia succeeds, we will lose everything.”

Juedai Fenghua nodded, “As such, it is time to activate the chess pieces we buried beside her.”

“Let’s follow what you said!” Di Chen did not hesitate.

At such a stage, Great Zhou had no way out. They had to use all the resources they could use to ensure that they took down Great Jin in the shortest amount of time.

…

In the next few days, the wilderness was really busy.

Within a night, the roads of the wilderness were filled with troops. Song and Ming sent their troops down south, Great Xia troops gathered up to go up north, and flames of war spread in Great Jin.

There was not a single inch of land that was spared in the wilderness.

Even Qin and Tang started to move their imperial city guards to the border to defend against Great Xia’s retaliation.

Although their intel showed that Great Xia was targeting Great Qing, who could ensure that Great Xia would not use misdirection to attack them? After all, if they took down either one of them, it would connect them directly to Great Jin.

Great Xia had done such things many times in the past.

Chapter 1186 - Chengying Sword of the Top Ten Famous Swords

Chapter 1186: Chengying Sword of the Top Ten Famous Swords

Great Qing Dynasty, Jingdu City, Palace of Heavenly Purity.

Kangxi Emperor, who was over 50, sat with a scary dark face, “I did not expect Great Xia to actually give up on what is near to them and attack the one further, not going for Song and Ming and instead coming for us.”

The current Kangxi was like an old lion whose authority was challenged. Facing the challenge by a young lion, although he was furious, there was nothing he could do about it.

When Kangxi willingly joined the six country alliance, he was hoping to make some easy gains while the others fought, thinking that the bigger the flames of war in the south, the safer he would be in the north.

Who would have expected that he would end up dropping a stone on his own feet?

During these few days, legion after legion of Great Xia gathered toward Beijiang Province, moving toward the border. Even a fool could see what Great Xia intended to do.

This was like a thunderstorm on a sunny day to Great Qing.

The brows of the present Sonin, Suksaha, and Oboi were locked tight. Seeing that his majesty was about to rage, Sonin, who held the most authority, said, “Your majesty, why don’t we hand over the cauldron? Will that solve the current crisis? I’ve heard that even Qin and Tang have handed over their cauldrons to Great Xia.”

Kangxi waved his hand off, “It’s useless. If it were a month ago, and we took the initiative to hand it over, maybe there would be some hope. Now that they have already sent their troops, no matter how we seek for peace, it would not happen.”

As he said that, Kangxi had some regret. He regretted that he was greedy and wanted to use the cauldron to threaten Great Xia to get some benefits. Who knew that this would sow hatred and even lead to them being at risk of getting wiped out?

In the eyes of Kangxi and the other officials, Great Xia chose to attack them because of the cauldron. After all, Song and Ming had both handed over their cauldrons.

What they did not know was that the Mongol Empire was preparing to attack the Turkish Khanate.

When Oboi saw that, he stepped out and said, “Your majesty, since we cannot have peace, let’s prepare for war.”

In history, Oboi was killed by a young Kangxi. In the wilderness, Kangxi was even older than Oboi. The current Oboi was in his best years and had not lost his ambition and fighting spirit. He was also the main general of the Qing army.

The Great Qing that moved into Jingdu was mostly made up of Manchu officials. The Han race ones either chose to seclude themselves or moved to other countries. Very few were willing to stay and work for Great Qing.

People like Yao Qisheng, Zhou Peigong, Lin Zexu, and the like moved to Great Xia. Only officials like Cao Yin and Nian Gengyao who were tangled up with Great Qing chose to remain.

Kangxi nodded. His brows never relaxed during the process.

Since moving into Jingdu, the Jingdu imperial city guards had changed into the eight banner iron cavalry. They were trapped in the small and narrow Jingdu Prefecture and did not have any place to show their skills. How much of their usual standard they could show when they faced the Great Xia Army was a worrying prospect.

The Qing army was not known for being aggressive and strong.

However, as Oboi had mentioned, although it was really difficult, Great Qing had no way out and could only fight with their backs against the wall.

“Send down my orders; let the entire army prepare for battle!” Kangxi ordered.

“Yes your majesty!”

The officials all acknowledged his order. However, their voices were not really loud, and some of their eyes flickered with uncertainly.

…

Mongol Empire, Karakoram.

Within the golden yellow tent, Genghis Khan sat at the helm. Bo Ershu, Muqali, Jebe, and Tolei were all present.

“Great Xia is attacking Great Qin, so Liaojin Province should be empty. I suggest that while we take down Turkish Khanate, we split a portion of our army to take down Liaojin.”

The one who spoke was Tolei.

As the prince that Genghis Khan loved the most and also the smartest one, the Tolei who appeared in the wilderness was the first amongst all the princes.

That was because in the game world the problem of succession did not exist.

The moment Tolei said those words, Muqali and Jebe both agreed with excited expressions. Lying in silence for a year made these war maniacs really impatient, and they were eager to fight a war.

When Genghis Khan heard Tolei’s suggestion, he shook his head, “Great Xia is a lion. As a hunter, it is not a wise decision to provoke a mature lion if we do not have the ability to hunt it.”

“Father, as long as you give me 200 thousand elites, I’ll definitely take Liaojin down.” Tolei was unwilling to give up like that.

“There’s no need to say more. I’ve already decided.” Genghis Khan’s will was not so easily shaken. He looked at Muqali and the others, “Take down the Turkish Khanate; that is the most important matter now. They are wolves of the grassland, so we must not be careless.”

“Yes!”

Muqali and the other respectfully acknowledged his words.

“This matter cannot be delayed. Spread my orders to the front lines and tell them to set out immediately. Take down them within a month in case the Zhongyuan war stops and things change,” Genghis Khan instructed.

“Understood!”

Along with Genghis Khan’s orders, the two giants of the grassland were going to have a life and death battle.

…

7th month, 24th day, Luoyang.

Four days had passed since Ouyang Shuo contacted Jianqi Leiyin. The Luoyang City alley battle still continued, and although the Han army was being pushed back, they still managed to hold on.

Wei Qing did not panic.

Based on the report from the spies, Great Jin had already cut off the grain provision of the Great Xia army. The current Great Xia army was scavenging grain all around, and their prepared grain would not be able to last for long.

If this continued, their chances of victory was really high.

Unfortunately, Wei Qing, who had been commanding the frontlines, did not know that in these short few days, a hidden current had been forming in Luoyang City. Everything was prepared and only the opportunity was missing.

The assassination plan of the Hanwu Emperor was at its final stages and was just waiting for the final blow.

At 3 PM, Weiyang Palace.

The storm stopped, but the drizzled continued. The Weiyang Palace appeared really solemn and mysterious under the veil of the drizzle.

Under the accompaniment of the officials, Jianqi Leiyin was prepared to meet the Hanwu Emperor in the Xuanming Hall. The reason for her visit was that Luoyang City was in crisis, and as the biggest guild in Luoyang, Tingyu Floor was ready to help.

Luoyang was going all out, and every bit of strength would aid Great Han and could increase their chances of victory. Furthermore, it was a super guild like Tingyu Floor.

Under the workings of some scheming people, Jianqi Leiyin managed to enter the palace.

In four days, the Shanhai Guards and Tingyu Floor used all the resources that they could use, spending huge amount of gold to finally obtain such an entry ticket.

They had done all that they could.

Whether the assassination could succeed or not would depend on Jianqi Leiyin’s performance.

To cooperate with Great Xia once more, Jianqi Leiyin was going to go all out and personally led the formation. One must know that if the assassination failed, she would not be able to walk out of the palace alive.

On the way to the Xuanming Hall, she was searched a total of three times by the palace guards, with each check being stricter than the previous one to ensure that she did not bring any weapons.

Even a pin would not be allowed.

Jianqi Leiyin went along with everything patiently, not showing any nervousness. That was because the weapon that she brought was the Chengying Sword of the top 10 famous swords. Although, it has a shadow, it was formless.

Seeing that it was a rainy day, there was not even a shadow.

Even then, she did not carry the sword along with her in case the guards found it. Only when she got close to the hall and when all checks ended did she receive the sword from one of the officials on duty.

This official was naturally one of the chess pieces of Tingyu Floor.

Tingyu Floor had expended a lot of efforts to choose the right time to meet the Hanwu Emperor when this official was on duty.

The entire plan was closely connected.

After entering the main hall, the defenses became weak instantly. Apart from the guards outside on duty, there was not a single soldier on duty within the hall, and there were only two eunuchs who stood beside the emperor.

As an expert, Jianqi Leiyin obviously would not be fooled by this image. She knew that there were guards behind the hall, on the roof, and in other secretive spots.

Even those two eunuchs were not normal people.

Looking at the Hanwu Emperor who sat on the throne, Jianqi Leiyin said, “Player Jianqi Leiyin greets your majesty!”

The Hanwu Emperor had been through all types of situations. Although Luoyang could fall at any time, one could not see anything weird from his expression. He was unreadable, making one respect him.

When Jianqi Leiyin saw that, her heart stopped.

“For Tingyu Floor be able to step up to help the Imperial Court split our worries, I am grateful. Once this crisis ends, I’ll give you the title of Marquis.” To recruit Tingyu Floor, Hanwu Emperor was willing to give a lot.

When Jianqi Leiyin heard that, she was really emotional, “Thank you, your majesty!”

Truthfully, if this was before everything, she would be delighted to be awarded with the rank of Marquis from Hanwu Emperor. That would mean that Tingyu Floor could walk unopposed in Great Han.

However, it did not mean anything now.

Just as Jianqi Leiyin said her thanks, the moment she was about to get up, a sharp arrow shot in from outside the hall, through the paper window, and into the hall.

“There’s an assassin! Protect his majesty!”

Jianqi Leiyin said as she moved toward the emperor.

‘Xiu! Xiu! Xiu!’

Pretty much at the same time, five guards appeared from within the hall and formed up in front of Hanwu Emperor. The two eunuchs were like shadows, blocking in front of the emperor.

Jianqi Leiyin had not brought a weapon and was a clean person. Furthermore, she had just been given a title by his majesty. As such, seeing her charge up, the two eunuchs thought that she was there to protect them.

How would they know that the sharp arrow from outside was shot to create an opportunity for Jianqi Leiyin?

Chapter 1187 - Tingyu Floor's Will

Chapter 1187: Tingyu Floor’s Will

The guard that shot the arrow from outside the hall did not even have time to resist before the surrounding guards took him down. Without a doubt, this was a chess piece that the Shanhai Guards buried in the Great Han palace.

Let us move back into the palace.

Within the blink of an eye, Jianqi Leiyin had charged to the front of the two eunuchs, and the Chengying Sword flashed through the air. Before the two of them could react, their throats were slashed by the formless sword, and they died on the spot.

As the world’s best assassin, she was famous for the quickness of her sword.

Along with a God Weapon like the Chengying Sword, she killed people easily.

Fresh blood splattered everywhere.

Hanwu Emperor, who had been sitting there calmly, let out an astonished expression. He exclaimed, “Protect me! Quick, protect me!”

When the guards heard that, they immediately turned around, only to see the two eunuchs fall to the ground and fresh blood flowed out. They saw the player, who was protecting the emperor, had her right hand in a sword wielding stance as she charged at the emperor.

“Damn it, we fell for it!”

The guards were not fools, and they realized that this was a carefully planned assassination. They did not even hesitate and charged right at Jianqi Leiyin.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

Jianqi Leiyin was really decisive. Knowing that the chance would slip away, after killing the two eunuchs, she did not stop. Instead, she stepped forward. She instantly appeared in front of Hanwu Emperor and stabbed out with the Chengying Sword.

With just one sword, she accurately pierced the heart of the emperor.

Jianqi Leiyin used her primordial energy, and the Chengying Sword shook and directly ripped Hanwu Emperor to shreds.

The pride of an era fell just like that.

In such a short while, the five guards had arrived before her, blocking all road she had out. At the door of the hall, hundreds of guards swarmed in like a flood, looking to capture the assassin.

Jianqi Leiyin did not hesitate, nor did she turn her head around. She turned the Chengying Sword and blocked behind her back, blocking all the swords. Following which, she stooped down, and the Chengying Sword shone with a cold light once more.

‘Huadang! Huadang!’

The guards were all top-class elites. However, in front of a God Weapon that was enhanced with internal strength, they were like bamboo and were cut into pieces.

Seeing that, even the calm guards were stunned. Furthermore, Jianqi Leiyin turned around and revealed Hanwu Emperor at the throne. He laid limp on the ground, his chest bloody, not making a sound.

When the guards saw that, their hearts turned cold. Some of their faces turned ashen white. Once the emperor died, the fate that awaited them was set.

Seeing that, one of the guards walked up to check the injuries of the emperor. The remaining ones charged right at Jianqi Leiyin. Only by capturing the assassin could they make up for their sins.

If not, as guards, it would not be enough even if they died 100 times.

Jianqi Leiyin took a glance at the hall. Looking out, it was totally covered by guards, so charging out was impossible. Moreover, the moment she entered a chaotic battle, it would only draw in more guards.

Abruptly, Jianqi Leiyin turned around. After pushing back the guards, she moved toward the left of the throne. There was the tunnel the emperor took to get to the court and could lead outside of the hall.

At this very moment, the guard checking the injury of the emperor let out a tragic exclamation, “The Emperor has died; quick, capture the assassin!”

The moment these words were said, the entire hall fell into total silence. The hearts of every guard there could not help but stop, and some of their legs turned soft.

“Capture the assassin; do not let her run!”

Only then did the Guards react and lead the chase toward Jianqi Leiyin.

The entire hall was in chaos.

Jianqi Leiyin barged through the left tunnel. She did not even think about exiting the hall from here. An architectural building group like the palace had a lot of empty squares between halls, and if she went out, she would only become a moving target.

Instead, she turned around and entered a side room at the right, hiding there. As long as she got through the chase at the beginning, once the news of the emperor dying spread out, Luoyang City would be in chaos.

When that happened, it would be the best chance for her to escape.

…

Very quickly, the news of Hanwu Emperor dying wrapped up Luoyang City like a whirlwind. It made the unstable city almost collapse.

If it was during a normal time and the emperor died, there would naturally be a prince to take over his place. If they did things appropriately, things would not get out of hand.

However, what time was it?

Great Xia had already attacked Luoyang City for half a month and could take over really quickly.

At such a juncture, Hanwu Emperor who was the heart of Great Han was suddenly assassinated. Many experienced officials and generals all stood stunned at the spot as other ideas filled their heads.

The Han army unavoidably started to waver.

At this very moment, the Shanhai Guards acted up once more, visiting all the officials and expressing the kind intentions of Great Xia. They promised that as long as they surrendered, Great Xia would have a place for them.

More terrifyingly, using the chaos in the city, Tingyu Floor said that they were going to help the Han army defend but instead moved toward the city west granary and set fire to it.

Smoke bellowed and covered the skies of the city.

The successive blows made it hard for one to breathe. At this very moment, Han Xin led the Great Xia Army, taking advantage of their opponents’ low morale to launch their strongest assault.

Under the fierce attacks, the Han army was pushed further and further back.

Especially the battle in the northwest street. The 10 thousand combat occupation players of Tingyu Floor suddenly charged up from behind, catching the Han army off guard. The Great Xia army took the chance to siege at the enemy camp.

Just like that, the Great Xia army smoothly opened up their route to the inner city.

This time, the Great Han Imperial Court totally panicked, and the calls for surrender slowly gathered up and reverberated through the skies of Luoyang City.

Even crown prince Liu Fuling who was pushed to the front was helpless to control the situation.

At that moment, only Wei Qing could calm the situation. As long as the Han army did not fall, Great Han would still have some hope. The group of officials did not dare to make their stance before the situation became clear.

The problem was that under the fierce attacks of the Great Xia army, could the Han army hold on?

…

West of Luoyang City, a certain castle set up at some street.

News of the king dying spread quickly, and even the resolute Wei Qing could not help but shudder. To him, Hanwu Emperor was like a giant mountain. Once the mountain fell, the sky would collapse with it.

The following few pieces of bad news made him unable to keep calm.

Wei Qing was only interested in one question, “How did his majesty die? Who is the assassin, and has the assassin been captured?”

“It’s the guild leader of Tingyu Floor, player Jianqi Leiyin. The palace guards are still searching, but they have not found her yet.”

When Wei Qing heard that, his eyes shone coldly, and he said, “Tingyu Floor, traitors!”

“Men!”

“Bring a group of men and lock down the headquarters of Tingyu Floor. Do not leave a single person!”

“Yes, general!”

Wei Qing rarely took such action. However, he was really furious this time, and regardless of whether they would be able to defend Luoyang City or not, he wanted Tingyu Floor to pay a heavy price.

Unfortunately, he was a step too late.

When they decided to assassinate Hanwu Emperor, Tingyu Floor had already predicted that this day would come.

Apart from the 10 thousand combat occupation players, the other members had all hid themselves.

Luoyang City was huge, and seeing that it was so chaotic, it was near impossible for the Han army soldiers to find the Tingyu Floor members once they hid themselves since it was their local of the area.

As for the headquarters, it was empty long ago.

After taking down the castle, the 10 thousand combat occupation players naturally became a part of the Great Xia army. Their safety was naturally protected.

Speaking of which, to cooperate with Great Xia this time, Tingyu Floor had paid a heavy price.

This was not only the will of Jianqi Leiyin but also the will of the entire guild.

They realized that this was Tingyu Floor’s last chance, and if they missed it, the future Tingyu Floor would be a second rate or even a third rate guild.

The crucial thing was time. The current Great Han was riddled with problems both internally and externally. The Han army did not have time to start a full scale search, as that would only intensify the chaos and would not be able to help anything.

After learning of such a result, Wei Qing was so furious that he wanted to kill someone.

Without a doubt, all of this was planned by Great Xia, and the goal was to swiftly take down Luoyang.

Wei Qing looked around at the Han troops that were still fighting. All of them were filled with worry, worry about the future of Great Han, worry about their own futures.

The only thing they lacked was determination.

That was because the person they fought for did not exist. The granary was burned, and their way out was broken. The Han army soldiers had to think for themselves and their families.

If they were too stubborn and infuriated Great Xia, the city might be massacred. If that happened, everything would over.

Seeing that, Wei Qing was filled with a sense of dejection. When did the Great Han iron cavalry that ruled China in history fall to such a level?

Was the wilderness a new battlefield or a grave for the Han army?

Chapter 1188 - Killing Themselves For Their Country

Chapter 1188: Killing Themselves For Their Country

Wei Qing was not willing to be captured just like that, but there was nothing he could do.

In the next three days, using the occupied castle as a breach, the Great Xia army continued their furious attacks and quickly reached the foot of the imperial city. In the two days, the Han army was obviously unwilling to show much resistance. They often surrendered after fighting for a short amount of time.

This was something that Wei Qing could not control.

At such a stage, no one would be able to save Great Han.

At this very moment, Great Xia Grand Council minister and southeast warzone commander Han Xin represented the Great Xia Imperial Court to send the final surrender notification, “Great Han has two days to surrender. The Xia King is merciful and promises the continuation of the royal family bloodline. If not, and you continue to fight stubbornly, we will wipe out the Liu bloodline.”

The moment the surrender notification was received, not only was the Great Han Imperial Court astonished, but even Liu Fuling could not sit still.

If he could not protect the Liu family bloodline, Liu Fuling would be the sinner of Great Han and would not be able to face his ancestors. He did not hesitate at all, as he had no choice. The next day, Liu Fuling expressed his intentions to surrender.

When Wei Qing saw that, he was helpless to reject.

7th month, 28th day, after receiving the order from the Imperial Court, the Han army all surrendered. Han Xin led the Great Xia army to swiftly take control of Luoyang City to defend the important pass and the remaining granary.

The Battle of Luoyang had come to an end.

Just as the Great Xia army was busy taking control of Luoyang, a shocking piece of news spread out.

Once general Wei Qing returned to his residence, he commited suicide to die for his country. Apart from him, Sima Qian and Zhang Qian also committed suicide in their respective residences. They would rather die than surrender.

They wanted to die for Hanwu Emperor and die for Great Han.

The most elite talents often died during their best years.

After hearing about the news of Wei Qing committing suicide, Ouyang Shuo, who was in Shanhai City, was speechless for a long while. This was a general that he looked up to for a long time, but he chose such a method to protect the final honor of the Han army.

After a long while, he ordered, “Give Wei Qing a proper burial!”

Wei Qing’s suicide caused huge waves within the Great Han army. When they got the news, hundreds of soldiers killed themselves in their camps, following Wei Qing on his path.

The spirit of the Han family had never withered.

…

Gaia 6th year, 8th month, 1st day, Luoyang City.

On the square where the imperial city teleportation formation was located, the Great Xia army was on alert, locking down the entire imperial city. Random people could not enter.

On the square, Han Xin led a bunch of generals and stood on the left side, and Great Han crown prince Liu Fuling led his bunch of generals and civil servants on the right, waiting for Ouyang Shuo to arrive.

Amongst the group was Tingyu Floor guild leader Jianqi Leiyin.

9 AM.

Ouyang Shuo brought along Cabinet Grand Secretary Jiang Shang and Honglu Temple minister Zhang Yi. Under the protection of Divine Martial Guards, they entered Luoyang City to officially accept the surrender of the Great Han Imperial Court.

“Welcome, my king!”

Once Ouyang Shuo appeared, people on both sides all bowed in unison.

Under Zhang Yi’s leadership, the former Great Han crown prince wore a mourning dress as he handed over the seal of Great Han. Ouyang Shuo took it and asked Jiang Shang to read the decree.

Jiang Shang understood, taking out the imperial decree, “Liu Fuling, accept the decree!”

Seeing that, Liu Fuling bowed once more, “Sinner Liu Fuling receives the decree.” As he said that, a look of shame flashed across his eyes. In the blink of an eye, he went from a crown price to a sinner.

This showed how things in the world changed quickly.

“Xia King decrees that former Han crown prince is given the title of Han Prince, former princess as Han princess. Crown prince manor becomes Han Prince manner, and without receiving an order, you will not exit Luoyang City. You are not to meet with officials, and you are not to train soldiers.”

“Thank you, my king, for your kindness!”

Respectfully accepting the imperial decree, Liu Fuling’s eyes were filled with unconcealable shock.

Although the Han prince did not have any power and land and was just a prince in name, he was the first prince from another race, which was a great honor.

Liu Fuling had just wanted to protect the bloodline of the Liu family, and he did not expect that he would receive such a title.

Not only him, but even the Great Han officials who followed behind him were astonished and were surprised by the kindness of Great Xia.

Ouyang Shuo made such a decree to settle down the Han Dynasty officials.

The officials he referred to was not only the people who stood behind Liu Fuling, but even Xiao He, Huo Qubing, and other former Han officials who were in Great Xia.

Treating the descendants of the Han ancestor well showed the magnanimity of Ouyang Shuo. With the Han royal family leading the way, when other dynasties joined Great Xia, the same thing would happen.

This was really beneficial for Great Xia’s future strategy.

After a simple ceremony, Ouyang Shuo was led to a residence within the city. He did not move into the Great Han palace. In truth, it would be demolished, and the provincial Governor office would be built.

Wiping the traces of Great Han in Luoyang was much needed.

After settling them down, Jiang Shang stepped out to represent Ouyang Shuo to calm down all the officials. Ouyang Shuo only met two people, Han Xin and Jianqi Leiyin.

Meeting Han Xin was naturally to understand the detailed frontline report.

Apart from accepting Luoyang City, Han Xin also did two things. First, he locked up the 100 thousand Han prisoners for the Privy Court to organize. Secondly, he sent troops to take down other cities.

In the next few days, the Cabinet would arrange officials to be appointed in Zhongyuan Province.

“How long can the military grain last?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Han Xin understood and knew that this was the important point, so he did not dare to hide everything, “Although we took down Luoyang City and saved half of the grain from the granary that was burned, we can at most last 20 days.”

Ouyang Shuo fell silent in thought, “If we gathered grain from the prefectures and county?”

Based on the rules, Zhongyuan Province was already under Great Xia rule. Apart from agriculture tax, the people did not need to hand over military rations. Forced grain gathering was only used during war periods, and it would be easy for one to lose the peoples’ sentiment.

Especially doing that right after they had just taken down Zhongyuan Province. it would make it difficult for the Provincial Governor office in the future.

Ouyang Shuo did not want to do that, but as the flames of war blazed in Zhongyuan, after taking down Great Han, Great Xia would not stop and would strike out once more.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

When Han Xin heard that, he did not hesitate and replied, “If we go all out, with how rich Zhongyuan Province is in grain, it has huge potential and lasting two to three months would not be a problem.”

“Then go ahead!” Ouyang Shuo made up his mind.

“Yes, my king!”

Han Xin’s eyes lit up, having a rough understanding of the king’s intentions.

Logically speaking, after they took down Great Han, based on the plan set by the Imperial Court, the Leopard Legion Corps should go from attacking to defending, replacing the Imperial Court to defend the province.

Now that the king was in a rush to gather up grain, it was obvious that he had other intentions.

Han Xin was not willing to probe anymore, so he only focused about following the order. What he wanted to do was to take down Zhongyuan Province and let the Leopard Legion Corps recover to their peak combat ability.

He could feel that the large war in the mid plains had just begun.

Chapter 1189 - Blazing the City

Chapter 1189: Blazing the City

After sending away Han Xin, Ouyang Shuo met Jianqi Leiyin alone.

In truth, he did not expect that Tingyu Floor would go so far before this. Not to mention assassinating the king, just the 10 thousand adventure gamemode players striking out had achieved much credit on the battlefield.

For this matter, Tingyu Floor had paid heavy a heavy price. Not to mention their headquarters being burned to the ground, but even their businesses in Luoyang City were totally destroyed and over a thousand of them had died.

Jianqi Leiyin’s decisiveness made Ouyang Shuo see her in a different light.

When one put in hard work, there would be returns. Along with Luoyang City being taken down, Tingyu Floor’s gains were absolutely worth it. Ouyang Shuo gave her two choices, “Either stay in Luoyang or move to Shanhai City.”

If she stayed in Luoyang, the Zhongyuan provincial office would be in charge of rebuilding the lost businesses of Tingyu Floor and would even compensate them. At the very least, they would not let Tingyu Floor take a loss.

Ouyang Shuo had decided to appoint former Great Han official Zhufu Yan as the first Zhongyuan Provincial Governor. As for the prefecture and county officials, they would try to mostly use old Han officials.

Talking about Zhufu Yan, he was a famous West Han minister. He was born in a poor family, and he read the book of changes and Spring Autumn Annals and other philosopher works. He was ostracized by the Confucians in Qi, so he went to Yan, Zhao, Zhongshan, and other states but was not treated well.

At the first year of Yuanguang, Zhufu Yan arrived in Chang An, writing a letter to the Han emperor and was summoned on the same day. He was appointed Langzhong the same day as Xu Le and Yan An. Within a year, he was promoted four times, being greatly trusted by the emperor. He also raised up the political idea of unification.

Apart from Zhufu Yan, another famous Han official Dong Zhongshu was arranged by Ouyang Shuo into the Xinan University to be the economics helper of Kong Zi. He would not be allowed to enter the official field.

Dong Zhongshu was a professor during Emperor Jing of Han’s rule, teaching Mr. Gongyang’s annals.

During the first year Yuanguang, Hanwu Emperor chose a statecraft ruling method. Treatise 134 BC by Han dynasty philosopher Dong Zhongshu, he raised up talk of unification, telepathy between human and nature, chasing out philosophers, and only using Confucianism, which was accepted by the emperor and used as the orthodox way of thought for Chinese civilization, affecting close to two thousand years of history.

With Confucianism ideas as the core, along with the Yin Yang and the five elements, linking up the power of God, power of the ruler, power of the father, and power of the husband to forming the imperial theology system.

Some people even said that Dong Zhongshu was the grand architect of two thousand years feudal rule.

Dong Zhongshu’s ruling methods and ideas were befitting of the ruling requirements of that time, strengthening the rule of the emperor and protecting the orthodoxy of the emperor. During that time, there was nothing wrong with that.

However, in regard to Great Xia, his set of rules did not fit Ouyang Shuo’s political ambitions. Naturally, he could only give up on them and not use it. Arranging him to work under Kong Zi was due to him cherishing talents.

Sending away Dong Zhongshu would be beneficial to breaking the dense Confucianism environment in Zhongyuan Province. Ouyang Shuo did not forget that when Hanwu Emperor moved into Luoyang, he only used Confucianism, which was a bad fit with Great Xia’s idea on the schools of thoughts.

Ouyang Shuo broke his rule and used a large number of old Han officials. First, Zhongyuan Province was really stable under Great Han rule, and there were no big problems with Han officials taking up the majority of the appointments.

Secondly, it was to calm down the peoples’ heart and to prevent riots and chaos from starting.

The Battle of Zhongyuan had just begin, and what Ouyang Shuo needed was a stable Zhongyuan Province. Hence, it was not a good time to make large changes to officials, as that might cause people to be terrified.

Furthermore, the military gathering grain needed the cooperation of these local officials.

As for changing and dealing with the Zhongyuan officials, that could wait till the end of year evaluation based on their results. At that time, the dust would have probably been settled.

If Tingyu Floor chose to move to Shanhai City, they would naturally be treated as well as super guilds like Blood Evil Mercenary Group. Regarding the losses in Luoyang, they would also be compensated.

Hearing that she could remain in Luoyang, Jianqi Leiyin was a little tempted.

Luoyang was the main camp of Tingyu Floor after all. They had run it for many years, and they were deeply rooted. Without other competition, monopolizing the place would be an easy matter.

Thinking in that direction, the temptation was simply too huge.

Luckily, Jianqi Leiyin was not a short-sighted person. She immediately noticed that with all the other guild headquarters being in Shanhai City, if Tingyu Floor lived in Luoyang, they would be an anomaly.

Since they were an anomaly, they would naturally not be accepted within the circle.

More importantly, Jianqi Leiyin had already noticed that in Shanhai City, the organization of the guilds had already begun, and the two sides were quickly merging together with adventure gamemode players entering the military.

A new survival model was forming, and Jianqi Leiyin did not want to fall behind.

“I choose Shanhai City,” Jianqi Leiyin replied confidently.

“Smart.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled and reached out with his hand, “Then let us have a happy cooperation!”

“Happy cooperation!”

Jianqi Leiyin smiled brightly. Tingyu Floor was finally going to have a new start.

…

In the next few days, Ouyang Shuo remained in Luoyang.

He attended the funerals of Hanwu Emperor, Wei Qing, and the others, met the Han dynasty officials, met the chambers of commerce and guilds, went out to calm the people down….

Things happened one by one, and he had little time to rest.

When searching the Great Han treasury, Ouyang Shuo found two more teleportation talismans. He used one in Hawaii to open up a teleportation formation there so that it was not a lone island overseas.

The remaining one was temporarily kept.

During this period, Jiang Shang helped to ensure that the Zhongyuan Province provincial governor office was set up and was quickly thrown into operation to help the Imperial Court stabilize the Zhongyuan situation.

Under the swift work of the Leopard Legion Corps, the entire Zhongyuan Province was taken down. Throughout the process, the Leopard Legion Corps gathered up grain to prepare for the next huge battle.

Han Xin’s fighting spirit was something Ouyang Shuo really admired.

What made Ouyang Shuo feel happy was that entering the 8th month, the heavy rain lasting for half a month finally stopped.

The long-awaited sunlight shone on the land once more. Civilians all moved out to gather up the grain that was going to be spoilt in the mud, and every bit they collected was every bit gained.

This was great for the Battle of Zhongyuan.

Two days later, once the Luoyang situation stabilized, Ouyang Shuo was ready to head toward Fallen Phoenix City to support Great Jin as an ally. The war between Great Zhou and Great Jin had reached a crucial juncture.

Under the ferocious attacks of Great Zhou, Great Jin was being forced back.

Just yesterday, the Great Zhou palace guard vanguard forces arrived outside Fallen Phoenix City. As a result, this battle would change from an all-round resistance to a difficult siege battle.

The moment Fallen Phoenix City was lost, Great Jin would be on the verge of destruction.

As an iron ally of Great Jin and the guild leader of Shanhai Alliance, Great Xia did not directly assist Great Jin and even wanted Great Jin to help Leopard Legion Corps provide grain.

This undoubtedly made them suspect that they were abandoned by Great Xia.

The pressure faced by Feng Qiuhung was understandable. Under such a situation, if Ouyang Shuo appeared in Fallen Phoenix City, things would be totally different.

…

8th month, 2nd day, night, Luoyang City.

The next morning, Ouyang Shuo would start his journey toward Fallen Phoenix City. Using the last bit of time, he was going to burn the midnight oil to complete everything at hand.

Within the room, Ouyang Shuo was reading the frontline battle report.

On the northwest side, the two giants of the grassland had officially engaged. To take down Turkish Khanate, Genghis Khan not only personally led the troops, but he also sent most of his generals and over 700 thousand cavalry.

The Turkish Khanate was not weak either, going all out.

As it was a battle between cavalry, the war would not last for too long. The Grand Council predicted that in a month at most, the true Overlord of the grassland would be decided.

In the north, the Great Xia Qing destroying battle was underway.

The 11 Great Xia legions were all in place. Large amounts of grain and resources were transported to Beijiang Province through the ocean route.

During this period of time, Great Zhou tried to use their squadron to attack the Great Xia grain ships. However, as they had the Yashan and Binhai Squadrons protecting them, Great Zhou’s small acts were destined to be fruitless.

After suffering a loss of 10 warships, Great Zhou stopped such despicable acts.

500 thousand Qing troops, 200 thousand at the Great Zhou border, and 300 thousand in Jingdu City. They were trying to take concerted action to fight a drawn out battle with Great Xia.

Li Jing would not fall for it.

Under Li Jing’s leadership, the three legions of the Eagle Legion Corps led by Li Mu circled to the southwest side of Jingdu City and set up camp between the two Qing armies.

The remaining eight legions focused their firepower to try to replicate Han Xin’s strategy in attacking Jingdu City.

If the 200 thousand Qing army tried to save Jingdu City, they would be stopped by the Eagle Legion Corps. However, if they did not save them, Jingdu City’s days would be numbered.

This time, the entire Qing army was in a tough spot.

Kangxi Emperor did not have time to regret and did not have any energy to chide those who thought about the strategy. He was only hoping for Great Zhou to destroy Great Jin soon and save Great Qing from this encirclement.

Such a feeling of putting your fate in the hands of others was really uncomfortable.

However, Kangxi Emperor had no other choice.

Ouyang Shuo placed down the battle report. He was filled with thoughts. Due to the presence of Great Xia, the nine imperial cities could not be as big and as domineering as they were in the past life.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was resting up, a rushed knocking sounded out from the door.

Chapter 1190 - Qingluan Calamity

Chapter 1190: Qingluan Calamity

Moving back to 8th month, 2nd day, 4 PM in the afternoon.

Fallen Phoenix City, King palace.

Within the quiet Imperial Reading Room, Great Jin Queen Feng Qiuhuang was reading and annotating memorials. As the frontline war matters were urgent, and Feng Qiuhuang was not good at military matters, all she could do was to take charge of the Capital City to calm down the people’s sentiment and ensure the logistical supplies of the army.

As for the war matters, she could only rely on Guo Ziyi and Meng Tian.

Guo Ziyi was leading the blazing legion corps, defending against the Great Zhou army outside of the city. Meng Tian, on the other hand, led Guards Legion Corps to defend the Capital City and was the last line of defense.

Along with the frontline battle getting worse and worse, and their grain line being disturbed by the Great Zhou army, Guo Ziyi was leading the blazing corps to retreat back toward the city. They were prepared to gather up with the Guards Legion Corps to defend.

Kangxi Emperor was hoping for Great Zhou to take down Great Jin quickly while Feng Qiuhuang was looking forward to Great Xia wiping out Great Qing.

Although the two sides did not have a direct relationship, they were in the same boat.

The wilderness was like that. Only the strong could control their fate, while the weak could only leave their fate to the hands of others.

Although Feng Qiuhuang was not willing to admit that she was a weak part of the wilderness, without the direct reinforcements of Great Xia, she was being forced back by Great Zhou with no power to fight back. It let her realize that in this battle of the wilderness, Great Jin really could not be considered as strong.

One huge wave was enough to wipe out Great Jin.

This strengthened the determination in her heart that if Great Jin survived this calamity, she would bow her head to Great Xia. It was time for her to learn from Bai Hua and the others and put down the burden on her shoulders.

The current wilderness stage had no place for her to do a solo performance.

Seeing that Great Xia had shown the ambition to unify China, it could save Great Jin once, but it could not do so every single time. Even if Ouyang Shuo was willing to do so without anything in return, Great Xia’s officials would not be willing.

Joining them was the best choice.

Thinking about this, a look of worry flashed across her brows.

A day ago, when she expressed for the first time that she was willing to join Great Xia at a family meeting, she was greeted with a bunch of objections.

“Why?” Feng Qiuhuang did not understand.

In her eyes, if she joined Great Xia, she would be the one who lost the most, but to the Feng Family, they would be able to put down the pressure and enjoy riches and prosperity. As such, they should be the ones happy about it.

Take Bai Hua as an example.

When Bai Hua brought Consonance City to join Great Xia, in a short two years, she rose up to the Nanjiang Governor-General position. Her power was comparable to what Feng Qiuhuang had now and even exceeded hers.

Bai Hua’s family also benefited from that and became a rising and prosperous family in China.

It was not that she was prideful, but with her ability and the foundation of the Great Jin Dynasty, her future results would not be weaker than Bai Hua after joining Great Xia.

This was all pros and no cons for the Feng family.

Facing her questions, the Feng family discussed amongst themselves but had no exact answer to give her.

The reason was actually really simple.

After Great Jin established the dynasty, the Feng family rose up to become the royal family. This was something that their ancestors did not think about doing, and it was the most glorious time for the Feng family.

The Feng family was enjoying their current spot and did not want their status to drop.

“Cough,” Feng Qiuhuang did not know how to react. After a long while, she said, “If we do not, we can be destroyed by the surrounding enemies at any moment. Is that what you’re willing to see?”

“We won’t. Great Xia would not allow that to happen.” An elder said it like it was to be expected.

Feng Qiuhuang understood right away, and her heart felt a chill.

In the eyes of the Feng family, they saw Great Xia as a free bodyguard, enjoying their protection with certainty. In their eyes, even if Great Xia unified China, there would be a place for Great Jin.

Even to say that they wished for Great Xia to unify China so that there would not be anything for them to worry about.

“Human nature can never be read.”

Feng Qiuhuang was disappointed to the max and left behind a vicious sentence, “Regardless of whether you all agree or not, I’ll choose to join Great Xia.” As she said that, the family meeting ended.

The hurriedly leaving Feng Qiuhuang did not notice the weird look of the elders.

…

“Sister, have a drink!”

The one who spoke was Qing Luan, who handed over a cup of tea.

At the start of the 1st year of Gaia, with the support of Ouyang Shuo, Feng Qiuhuang successfully broke away with her family, becoming an independent Lord. Out of the four good friends by her side, only Qing Luan remained till now.

Her loyalty was rewarded greatly.

After establishing the Great Jin dynasty, Feng Qiuhuang followed the Great Xia model and established the Imperial Court organization. Qing Luan was appointed as the advisor of the Secret Documents Pavilion and was the official that Feng Qiuhuang trusted the most.

Feng Qiuhuang did not think much, drinking it right away.

Who would have expected that the tea would contain a weird poison? The moment she drank it, Feng Qiuhung could not say a word and could not move. She laid paralyzed on the throne and became a vegetable.

A queen was betrayed by her most trusted person.

Maybe this could not be called betrayal because since the start, Qing Luan was a chess piece that Di Chen had buried beside Feng Qiuhuang. The happenings of the 1st year only made her hide deeper.

Only now did Di Chen activate her.

The culprit, Qing Luan, did not show any happiness. Looking at the paralyzed Feng Qiuhuang, she broke into tears.

Humans were not wood, and they had emotions.

Looking out for one another for five to six years, although the two of them were not actually sisters, they were closer than that.

If it were possible, Qing Luan would rather she had never been activated in her life. However, fate was just so cruel, so cruel that it made one helpless. Not everyone could control their fate.

Qing Luan was a pitiful person who was played by fate.

In reality, Qing Luan was indebted to Di Chen, and she was within his hands. At any moment, he could push her family and her into an irrecoverable spot.

Qing Luan had no choice but to follow his request.

Qing Luan knelt in front of Feng Qiuhuang, crying, “Sister, I know you can hear me. I’m sorry. This sin is mine, and I cannot be let off. Only in death can I pay you back.”

As she said that, Qing Luan shattered the poison in her mouth and killed herself, disappearing as a white light. Looking at the white light, a tear dropped from the corner of Feng Qiuhuang’s eye.

Qing Luan was gone.

After reviving, she disappeared from Fallen Phoenix City and disappeared from the game world. Even until the game ended, no one ever seen such a person.

This day was named as the Qing Luan calamity.

…

Very quickly, the unusual happening within the Imperial Reading Room was noticed by the guard outside.

When Personal Guard Commander Ran Min received the report, he dealt with it really calmly. He let the court ladies send the queen to her sleeping palace while sending the imperial physician to give her an antidote. At the same time, he informed the officials and the members of the royal family to enter the court.

The frontline war was still underway, and if news of the queen being poisoned was spread out, who knows what huge waves would arise. Ran Min was really dutiful and locked down the palace, doing everything to ensure that the outside world would not know anything about it.

Sleeping palace, outer hall.

Great Jin prime minister Meng Yi and three core members of the Feng family gathered together to discuss the matter.

Unlike Great Xia, which had a huge number of civil servants, Great Jin had a limited number. Although Feng Qiuhuang followed the Great Xia model, she followed Great Jin’s actual situation to make some adjustments.

The biggest change was that there was not a Cabinet but a prime minister instead.

As the only decent civil servant, Meng Yi was the best choice. Apart from that, Feng family members were appointed in the Great Jin Imperial Court and were an undeniable power.

Feng Qiuhuang, who came from an aristocratic family, became subconsciously used to ruling a country.

The atmosphere of the outer hall was really depressed.

Just now, Great Jin’s three best physicians diagnosed the queen, but they had no idea. They only said that this weird poison would dissipate itself.

As long as she rested for a week, the poison would disappear by itself.

However, what time was it now? The enemy was already near the city. If the queen did not wake up in a week, many things would happen. Who knows, maybe before she woke up, Great Jin would disappear.

Hence, they needed to think of another way.

It was not difficult to break the poison. As long as one gave her a substitute doll and killed her, the poison would be gone when she revived.

The problem was that killing her would be killing the ruler, and apart from royal family members, no one else dared.

The weird thing was that no one in the Feng family was willing to take such a risky move.

Feng Qiuhuang’s brother, Great Jin 1st class Marquis Feng Tianlie said, “Death is a forbidden thing, much less for a queen. In my eyes, let’s wait for a week. As for court matters, although the queen is not here, the royal family still is. We will handle it.”

“Don’t tell me that the Imperial Court cannot run just because the queen is not here for a week?”

Facing such accusations, what else could Meng Yi say? Although he felt that there was something going on, this was within the imperial family, and it was not something an official like him could interfere in.

The matter was settled just like that.

Later that night, the Imperial Court sent a notification that the queen was resting up and the Prince Regent Feng Tianlie would temporarily take over.

First, he closed down the Fallen Phoenix City teleportation formation.

After the Shanhai Guards investigated the notification, they finally noticed that something was unusual. They did not dare to take the matter lightly and immediately reported it upward.

…

Luoyang City, courtyard.

When Ouyang Shuo read the intel from the Shanhai Guards, his face was terrifyingly dark. Before he even exploded, Feng Tianlie actually took the initiative to call Ouyang Shuo that night.

Chapter 1191 - What I'm Most Unafraid of is Being Threatened

Chapter 1191: What I’m Most Unafraid of is Being Threatened

“What exactly is happening?”

Ouyang Shuo looked at Feng Tianlie in the video. Currently, Ouyang Shuo’s face was solemn to the max. Facing such an aristocratic family son, he did not have any good impression since the start. Naturally, Ouyang Shuo did not treat him nicely.

When Feng Tianlie saw that, although he felt a little unhappy, he did not dare to show it on his face, “Feng Wu was poisoned by Qing Luan and is still unconscious. I am in charge of the current Great Jin dynasty.”

After saying that last sentence, Feng Tianlie felt his confidence rise up.

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes narrowed. He had roughly guessed what was happening, and he scolded, “Shameless, Great Jin is already unstable, yet you’re actually using this moment to stronghand your sister?”

“Do not make false accusations.” Feng Tianlie was terrified by how Ouyang Shuo looked at him.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. He did not want to dwell on such a person, so he directly asked, “Speak, what do you want?”

When Feng Tianlie heard that, he calmed himself down and did not bother to disguise anything and voiced his true intentions, “I need a promise.”

“What promise?”

“Promise that Great Xia will protect Great Jin and not swallow it up. We must sign an electronic contract regarding it.”

Right after they learned that Feng Qiuhuang was poisoned, the Feng family that had played with schemes their entire life could sense a huge chance to lengthen the rule of the Feng royal family.

They knew Feng Qiuhuang’s personality, and the moment she decided to join Great Xia, she would not change her mind. The only way to breakthrough would be on Ouyang Shuo’s side. They would need to make him promise that he would not swallow up Great Jin.

If that happened, their goal would be fulfilled.

“This is called saving the nation through twisted means,” the family elder said.

Feng Tianlie continued, “You do not want Great Zhou to destroy Great Jin, right? If Great Zhou succeeds, your military operation in the north would fail, and even the Zhongyuan Province that you have just taken down might not be keepable.”

“If you want us to go against Great Zhou, you need to take out some sincerity. We do not want to be backstabbed.”

Once a person became shameless, they would truly be close to invincible.

In the eyes of the Feng family, the safety of Great Jin could actually be used as a chip to negotiate with Great Xia. They were obviously trying to take advantage of Great Xia and were even saying it like they were in the right.

“Are you threatening me?” Ouyang Shuo understood his true intentions.

When Feng Tianlie heard that, he felt a little gleeful, “This cannot be considered threatening. We just have what the other wants. Didn’t you always promote a win-win cooperation? This is a win-win.”

Even Feng Tianlie himself felt that his words were starting to make sense.

“And what if I do not agree?” Ouyang Shuo was not going to fall for it.

Feng Tianlie’s expression froze up. After pausing, he said, “You’re not the only one interested in Great Jin. I believe Di Chen would be interested in my offer as well.”

Ouyang Shuo slowly calmed down, “You can go try. Looking at his character, after swallowing up Great Jin, let’s see if he’ll leave any bone scraps for you.”

“….”

Feng Tianlie was speechless.

Truthfully, from the start, the Feng Family had never intended to work with Di Chen. Although the Feng family was originally one of the Six Tyrants of Handan, everyone knew how Di Chen acted. Now that the Great Zhou troops were already under their city walls, how would they accept Great Jin merging with them? Much less agree to letting it be an independent empire.

Even Xiong Ba and Chun Shenjun could only huddle up section of a land.

Feng Tianlie only mentioned Di Chen to increase the stakes. He did not expect for Ouyang Shuo to completely not fall for it. However, he was not willing to just give up like that, as this was the only chance for the Feng family.

“Think about it, time waits for no one.”

Feng Tianlie did not wait for Ouyang Shuo to reply, directly cutting off the video to show his determination.

“Wow, any clown can jump out to show strength now.” Ouyang Shuo did not bother about his threat and shouted toward the door, “Men, summon Han Xin.”

“Yes, my king!”

…

Night, Great Zhou Dynasty, Handan City.

“Feng Tianlie, that Prince Regent, even switched off the Fallen Phoenix City teleportation formation. It seems like the assassination operation is more successfully than we thought.” Fenghua Juedai’s face revealed a smile for the first time.

Great Zhou made use of the Qing Luan chess piece to buy some time for the army. After all, even if Feng Qiuhuang used the substitute doll, it would take 24 hours for her to revive.

24 hours was enough for Difeng to do a lot of damage.

Who would expected that before Difeng even did anything, the Feng family themselves would start making noise, completing a close to perfect assist. Juedai Fenghua was obviously delighted with that.

Of course, they had no knowledge of the conversation between Feng Tianlie and Ouyang Shuo.

Di Chen was satisfied, “Feng Tianlie, that brainless fellow, is truly our lucky star. Well, tell the Difeng spies to spread news to say that Feng Tianlie is trying to seize power and has bad intentions.”

“That’s a good idea.” Juedai Fenghua’s eyes lit up, “This time, Great Jin will be in chaos no matter what.”

…

Great Qin Dynasty, Xianyang City.

Chancellor Li Si entered the palace in the night, meeting up with Qin Shihuang to talk about what had happened in Great Jin, “Your majesty, this is a great opportunity.”

“How so?” Qin Shihuang did not understand.

“Meng Yi is Great Jin’s prime minister, while Meng Tian has control over the Great Jin Guards Legion Corps. One civil servant and one general can decide the fate of Fallen Phoenix City. As long as you are able to recruit those two and give them Fallen Phoenix City, Great Jin territory would belong to us.”

To thank Great Jin for their help, Meng Yi and Meng Tian were forced to break away from Great Qin to work under Feng Qiuhuang. Who would have expected that Li Si would try to make use of this point to try to swallow the Great Jin Dynasty?

Qin Shihuang asked, “What should we do with the Great Zhou army?”

As a ruler, he naturally would not consider whether taking advantage of people when they were down was a righteous thing to do or not. What he thought about was the feasibility of the plan.

Li Si said confidently, “That’s easy. Meng Tian just needs to lead the troops to defend Fallen Phoenix City and wait for our Qin army to strike while stopping Great Zhou from sieging. As time goes on, once Great Xia destroys Great Qing, they would retreat on their own. When that happens, we can take advantage of the situation and take down Great Jin without using a single troop.”

Great Qin had promised to not send troops against Great Jin, but that promise was forgotten right away by Li Si.

To those distinguished people who lived during the Warring States Period, splitting up and joining hands was more than normal. There was no contract that was truly unbreakable.

Only one side cheating the other existed.

Li Si’s ambition was far from just that, and he said, “Once we occupy Great Jin, the Qin army can go down south and sweep Zhongyuan Province and chase away the Great Xia Army. When that happens, we will own three provinces of land. When we contact our allies, we will have enough to go head on against Great Xia and will no longer need to listen to them.”

The last sentence hit the sweet spot of Qin Shihuang.

As an emperor, after appearing in the wilderness, what Qin Shihuang could not accept was being forced to turtle in a section of land as he looked on at Great Xia and Great Zhou fighting without being able to interfere.

Li Si’s words totally ignited the fire in Qin Shihuang’s heart.

“Let’s do exactly that.” Qin Shihuang made up his mind, “I’ll go contact Meng Yi and Meng Tian.”

“Your majesty is wise.”

Li Si was delighted. Only after Great Qin entered the Zhongyuan battle could he have a stage to show off his talents. If not, being holed up in Xianyang City all day was enough to make him moldy.

Chapter 1192 - Changing of Dynasty? Impossible!

Chapter 1192: Changing of Dynasty? Impossible!

Qin Shihuang was really confident. However, reality was far from he had expected.

Be it Meng Yi or Meng Tian, both of them indirectly rejected his request. Although they were from Qin and were people that Qin Shihuang had trusted, they had given their all to Great Jin and only till death would they part.

Qin Shihuang was stunned.

As a queen of a generation, Feng Qiuhuang obviously was not a fool. Since she could allow Meng Tian to take control of the Guards Legion Corps and defend the Capital City without worry, she naturally had her method of ensuring the loyalty of the two brothers.

The tool she used was instantiation.

The moment Gaia made instantiation a thing, Feng Qiuhuang gave two spots to them, and even Guo Ziyi and the others had to wait for the next wave.

Why?

Feng Qiuhuang had foreseen this danger and had defended against it.

Unlike Ouyang Shuo, who hid the matter, Feng Qiuhuang informed the two right away. With such kindness and good fortune, the two of them would obviously be loyal to her and would not work for Qin Shihuang anymore.

The poor Qin Shihuang still did not know where emperors like him were weaker than Lords. Sadly, Li Si’s plan had failed before it was even put into place.

Without the cooperation of Meng Yi and Meng Tian, the Qin army did not dare to enter the Great Jin battlefield. If things went wrong, they might end up being wrapped up within. Not to mention expanding, but they might not be able even to protect their foundations.

…

Luoyang City, courtyard.

Ouyang Shuo summoned Han Xin to let the Leopard Legion Corps make preparations to attack.

The shamelessness of the Feng family made Ouyang Shuo realize that solving the Great Jin problem was not a simple saving the damsel in distress. At the crucial moment, they still had to let their strength do the talking.

Feng Tianlie’s threats did make sense.

If the Feng family really lost it and wanted to be shameless till the very end and dragged Great Jin into the abyss, it would affect the entire battle of the mid plains. If Great Xia did not proactively change their tactics, the future would be really bleak.

Ouyang Shuo had reason to believe that Great Zhou was not the only country that had its eyes on the mid plains.

Great Qin, the country of wolves and tigers and Great Tang that looked on aggressively. Each and every one was hard to deal with. If the so-called six country alliance really worked together, they would a threat to Great Xia.

“Let’s hope that they do not force me to use my last trump card.”

The biggest trump card naturally had to be used at the crucial moment. Ouyang Shuo was hoping to use it to overturn the old landscape of the China region. He did not want to waste it on the Great Jin battlefield.

Although Ouyang Shuo was preparing actively, what happened next was out of his control.

…

8th month, 3rd day, Fallen Phoenix City.

Since last night, a hidden current had been festering in Fallen Phoenix City. With it as the center, the current swiftly spread out around Great Jin territory in an aggressive manner.

With the help of the Difeng spies, rumors of Feng Tianlie trying to fight for the throne became more and more common and exaggerated.

Feng Tianlie locking up the queen and obtaining the power became the core of the rumors.

As Feng Qiuhuang’s poison incident was still a classified secret, Feng Tianlie suddenly seizing control had caused a lot of trepidation in the court. Along with the rumors spreading, Great Jin was shocked, resulting in a dark cloud that shrouded the ongoing life and death battle.

There were even rumors spreading in the military.

Guo Ziyi and Meng Tian were sharp enough to sense the problems within and punished those who spread the rumors, increasing military control and prohibiting the spread of such news. However, it still managed to cause some waves.

Even Guo Ziyi who was leading troops outside and did not know what was going on internally had a heavy heart.

An enemy in front of them, but the core of the country was unstable; such a matter was the biggest worry.

Along with the rumors spreading, Great Jin was slowly spread into two factions. One side wanted to protect the queen and insisted on protecting her place on the throne. These people sought and asked profusely to meet the queen.

“Since you said that the queen was resting up, we can at least visit her, right?” The officials wanted to use the time they visit her to confirm whether the queen was held hostage or not.

Feng Tianlie naturally did not allow it. He used the reason of the queen being sick and should not come into contact with outsiders to cleanly reject them. This further deepened the doubts of this faction, and the way they looked toward Feng Tianlie was filled with probing and suspicion.

Great Jin was built up single handedly by Feng Qiuhuang, and she had absolute power in Great Jin. It was not something that Feng Tianlie could change just by him having the Prince Regent title.

No one was a fool.

The other faction supported Feng Tianlie.

The Feng family was an undeniable power within the Great Jin Imperial Court. Many of them had been not happy with a girl holding the power in the family. These people were resolute in their decision to support Feng Tianlie.

Even to say that they used the reason of, ‘This is the matter of the royal family and outsiders should not interfere,’ to warn the officials to understand their situation and not interfere in royal family matters.

“If not, they were disloyal!”

A Feng family child put it like that, grabbing at the necks of the civil servants.

Apart from people from the Feng family, there were some civil servants within the Imperial Court that were recruited by the Feng family. These people jumped out to support Feng Tianlie and tried to prove the legality of him succeeding the throne.

Neither side could convince the other, and they quarreled fiercely.

As a result of the shamelessness of the Feng Family and the workings of people in the dark, a good Great Jin was showing signs of falling apart. This made people worried, and the soldiers’ morale was really low.

Great Jin palace, political discussion hall.

Feng Tianlie, who had looked so confident yesterday, was like a defeated rooster, hanging his head down in sulking defeat.

Facing problems with Ouyang Shuo had made him feel a sense of defeat. The current situation made his head swell up, and a sense of helplessness corroded at his mind.

The position of emperor looked really glorious, but it was not something that anybody could command.

Just like Feng Tianlie, who did not have enough prestige to suppress those who wanted to keep Feng Qiuhuang. He could not turn all their attention to the outside enemy. He also did not have enough skill to calm down the chaos and think of a way to solve the current problem.

As for the people in the family who went clamoring for changing the rule, they made him scold out. These children were so dense and actually did not know who the Great Jin army actually listened to.

For example, Personal Guards commander Ran Min seeming did not take a stance since the queen faced assassination, but in truth, he had locked down the place. He stuck close to the queen, letting no one get close. It was obvious that he only listened to the queen.

Guo Ziyi, Meng Tian, Zhou Bo, and the other generals were all recruited by Feng Qiuhuang. They looked like they did not interfere in politics, and they did not take a stance now, but it was obvious that they were with Feng Qiuhuang.

Feng Tianlie dared to bet that the moment he tried to change the dynasty and take over as king, Meng Tian who was defending the Capital City would oppose him.

One must not forget that prime minister Meng Yi knew about what had happened to the queen. If Meng Yi knows, then Meng Tian would also know. At the key moment, with Meng Tian’s decisiveness, he might work with Ran Min and commit regicide to save the queen.

They did not do it now mostly because the situation had not worsened to such a level.

No matter what, to these historical people, the ruler and servant ideology was ingrained in them, and they had a mental obstacle to committing regicide.

‘Without an army in my hands, what kind of scheming for the throne can I make?’

However, to give up and drag Feng Qiuhuang out to save the situation was something Feng Tianlie was not willing to do. First, he was not willing to fail just like that, as this was their only chance.

If they missed it, the Feng family royal family dream would end just like that, and none of them were willing for that to happen.

Secondly, he was worried that once she woke up, she would take revenge.

Feng Tianlie was really clear about the temper of his sister.

If she found out that Great Jin became so messy within a day because of him, she would definitely skin him alive.

Along with the useless family children jumping out and clamoring, it would only make her disappointed to the max. In the future, not only would joining Great Xia be unavoidable, but the Feng family might not even be able to live a prosperous life.

“***!”

Feng Tianlie hurled vulgarities. Both of his hands grasped his hair as he ruffled it. Currently, he was totally annoyed.

Facing such a scalding topic, Feng Tianlie chose to be a tortoise and not do anything.

…

Great Jin did not do anything, but the starter of all this, Great Zhou, was bearing down on Fallen Phoenix City.

On one side, Difeng struck out, spreading rumors to shake the military of Great Jin. Secondly, they engaged in secret assassinations, killing those who wanted to protect the queen and blaming it on Feng Tianlie.

This time, Feng Tianlie could not argue for his innocence.

On the other side, Great Zhou was prepared to surround and destroy the blazing legion corps that had not entered the city. Since Fallen Phoenix City was unstable and the Guards Legion Corps did not dare to move carelessly, they would take this chance to first destroy the blazing legion corps.

If the blazing legion corps was crushed, taking down Fallen Phoenix City would not be a difficult matter.

The huge changes to the Great Jin battlefield took away the attention of everyone.

Chapter 1193 - Always People That Want to Harm Me

Chapter 1193: Always People That Want to Harm Me

8th month, 4th day, Luoyang City.

Great Jin Dynasty’s huge drama really annoyed Ouyang Shuo, and he could not watch on anymore. He decided to interfere and proactively contacted Meng Yi, Meng Tian, Guo Ziyi and Ran Min, dragging them altogether for a discussion.

“Since things have reached such a state, as the four pillars of Great Jin and also the most trusted officials of the queen, you cannot watch on anymore and must act.” Ouyang Shuo was very direct.

“If this drags on, Great Jin will be in danger of being destroyed. Will you all be able to repay the queen’s trust in you?”

Based on the intel from the frontlines, the Great Zhou Palace Guards had set up camp outside Fallen Phoenix City and were in charge of monitoring the Great Jin Guards Legion Corps. The remaining Pill Sun, King, and Blood Red legion corps were all in charge of taking down the blazing legion corps.

One against three, the blazing legion corps stood no chances of winning.

Although Ouyang Shuo messaged Han Xin to lead the Leopard Legion Corps up north, the move needed time. With the current situation, before the Leopard Legion Corps even arrived, the blazing legion corps would be crushed.

When that happened, the reinforcements from the Leopard Legion Corps would be totally useless.

“What does the Xia King feel that we should do? Please teach us!” Meng Yi said.

In truth, they were anxious too.

Ouyang Shuo took a look at the four of them and said, “Then I’ll be direct. The only way would be to let the Jin Queen revive and stabilize the situation. I know all of you find it inconvenient to do such a matter, but it’s a desperate time, and we cannot be hindered by such small details. If the Jin Queen blames, say that it was my idea.”

“Protecting the safety of Great Jin is the greatest loyalty.”

Meng Yi looked deeply at Ouyang Shuo. As the prime minister of Great Jin, he knew some inside news and knew that the queen had already decided to join Great Xia after this war.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo was going to be his future ruler.

Due to that reason, Ouyang Shuo’s words held great weight. Without hesitation, Meng Yi nodded and said, “I agree.” When Meng Tian and the other generals saw that, they nodded.

Ran Min even said, “Leave this matter to me.”

As generals, when they made up their mind up, they were really determined.

The hesitation before was mostly because none of them dared to be the first to take the responsibility, and they each had their doubts. Ouyang Shuo stepping out at this moment was a correct decision.

“So that’s settled.”

Ouyang Shuo did not beat around the bush, “Furthermore, the Great Zhou army has the offensive, and for us to flip the scales, I have a plan that needs your cooperation.”

“Xia King, please speak!”

The generals were really courteous. They knew that even if the queen appears, she would only be able to stabilize the situation and not turn the tides.

To change the situation would definitely require the help of Great Xia.

They needed help from others, so they were naturally courteous. Furthermore, Great Xia was famous for always winning, and their plans were naturally effective. As such, what reason did they have to not cooperate?

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head in satisfaction and simply described the new battle plan of the Grand Council.

When the four of them heard it, their eyes lit up, showing excitement on their faces. Especially Meng Tian and Guo Ziyi, who felt really suppressed on the battlefield and had yearned to start a large killing spree.

“That’s decided!”

After finishing the conversation, both sides got busy.

…

That morning, without Feng Tianlie knowing, Ran Min helped Feng Qiuhuang secretly revive. Before this, Ran Min even informed Feng Qiuhuang about the entire plan in detail.

Feng Qiuhuang being poisoned meant that she could not talk and move, but she could still hear things.

After lying on the bed for two days, she had long been anxious and worried that changes had happened in Great Jin. She was worried that something had happened to the frontlines. Due to that worry, she had even forgotten about the betrayal of Qing Luan.

Seeing that Ouyang Shuo was decisively acting to save from the fire, Feng Qiuhuang even felt that he was a person she could confide in in life and death. Between the two, even if they were miles apart, they had a good understanding of one another.

In 24 hours, Feng Qiuhuang would return for her throne.

At the same time, facing the aggressiveness of Great Zhou, seeing that they could not return to Fallen Phoenix City, blazing legion corps marshal Guo a Ziyi led the troops up north.

Seeing that, under the leadership of God General Wuqi, the Great Zhou army did not hesitate and chased them. They wanted to totally crush the blazing legion corps to wipe out this cancer.

The flames of war slowly spread toward the north of Great Jin.

The blazing legion corps retreated from every battle, fighting a tough battle. The Great Zhou army’s morale was soaring. According to Wuqi’s judgement, in less than a week, the blazing legion corps would not be a threat to the Great Zhou army anymore.

At that time, the Great Zhou army could gather up with the palace guards to take down Fallen Phoenix City and occupy the entire Great Jin.

If they considered the time, it was more than enough.

…

4th day afternoon, Shanhai City.

After receiving the orders from the king, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th legions immediately entered battle modes and were ready to strike. At the same time, a vast number of military grain pills were transported to the Guards Legion Corps camp.

This time, Ouyang Shuo was going for a big gamble.

In the blink of an eye, it was the 8th month, 5th day. Feng Qiuhuang, who had spent an entire day in the reincarnation hall, did not alert anyone and did not even enter the palace. Instead, she quietly headed to a small courtyard in the city and hid there.

This courtyard was one of her secret locations within the city.

In the next two days, everything seemed normal in Fallen Phoenix City. It was bustling and chaotic, with both factions quarreling with one another. They only knew how to debate, but they did not have any proper methods to solve the problem the blazing legion corps was facing.

In a short three days, the blazing legion corps was forced to the north border.

Feng Qiuhuang, who was in the courtyard, understood what had happened during these past few days, and her face was terrifyingly dark. “I’ve been too accommodating of them. I actually let them actually fool around to such an extent. It’s time to clean out everything.”

As she said that, Feng Qiuhuang looked at a black clothed man. He was the commander of Great Jin’s spy organization Black Phoenix, and he was one of the people she trusted the most. She coldly said, “Quickly find out all their sins, and once the battle ends, we will cleanse them. No matter who is involved, get to the bottom of it.”

If only the Feng family people jumped, out she would not be so furious. She understood the character of her family members and was mentally prepared.

The part that pained her heart was the civil servants and generals that were wrapped up. Amongst which, there were old generals who had started from the bottom with her yet had actually been corrupted.

She was obviously filled with emotions.

“I have not even died!”

If it were not to cooperate with Ouyang Shuo’s plan, Feng Qiuhuang would have just appeared and wiped out these fellows.

The black clothed man could feel the surrounding air turn cold, and he did not to dare stay for long. After getting the order, he left in a hurry. He knew how scary it was when the queen was really furious.

This time, many heads would definitely fall.

An invisible storm that held Feng Qiuhuang’s will was going to strike the officials of Great Jin.

…

Great Zhou Dynasty, Handan City.

Every day, around night time, Di Chen had a habit of meeting up with Fenghua Juedai to discuss intel and administrative matters. Hence, she was promoted to the chancellor of Great Zhou.

Juedai Fenghua said, “Based on the intel from Difeng, during these past few days, the Guards Legion Corps camp looked really unusual. Large amounts of resources are being transported in. What are your thoughts?”

Through the proliferation of the communication compass, the intel organizations could get more and more intel. Any wind that blew could not be hidden from the enemy.

“Did you find out what was being sent in?” Di Chen asked.

Juedai Fenghua shook her head. Those were military items, and the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps was the top prohibited area. No matter how skilled the spies of Difeng were, they did not have the chance to get close.

“Speaking of which, I have been feeling really uneasy these past few days.” Di Chen got up and paced around the room, “Great Jin is in so much chaos, yet the old fox is still so calm. This is not his style.”

“Didn’t the Leopard Legion Corps go up north?” Juedai Fenghua did not understand.

Di Chen shook his head, “Both and us know that they cannot save Great Jin from this. I feel that the old fox is definitely planning something in the dark.”

As the brain trust, Fenghua Juedai was used to using intel as evidence and did not do make any baseless guesses, “Great Xia can only do very few things. Based on the news from Difeng, they said that Great Xia has gathered up grain in Zhongyuan Province, making the people furious. They are definitely going to do something in the mid plains.”

“One has to say that the old fox is a little too rushed; it is not like his normal style. To do something so huge right after taking down Zhongyuan Province, is he not afraid of things getting out of hand?” Di Chen judged.

Juedai Fenghua smiled, “That was a little rushed, and it was 80% forced by us.”

Hearing those words, Di Chen’s mood got better instantly. Facing the actions of Great Zhou recently, he felt delight and glee, “Who asked the old fox to find such a bunch of useless teammates. He has been conned by them.”

After pausing, Di Chen said, “Is there a chance of Great Xia directly teleporting troops to Fallen Phoenix City?” Although he was gleeful, he did not lose his mind and had to find the source of his uneasiness.

“The Great Jin palace has been totally locked down, and we cannot investigate any news there. Who knows what is happening with Feng Qiuhuang. However, seeing Feng Tianlie being so active in the court, there is likely no change.” After pausing, she continued, “Only a few days are left till the poison fades.”

Di Chen nodded, “Let the frontlines quicken their pace. They do not need to totally destroy the blazing legion corps and just need to badly hurt it. Return to the city and occupying it is the most important matter. If not, things might change.”

“That’s right.”

Juedai Fenghua nodded, “There’s one more matter, which is the grain problem. The yield for the 1st season was really bad, and the rice and malt were only enough for the farmers to use as food. There are people asking for the Imperial Court to remove the agriculture tax for this year.”

When Di Chen heard that, he frowned and immediately raged, “Wishful thinking, if we do remove the agriculture tax, what would the soldiers eat? Without an army, how would they have a peaceful life? Such an easy theory, yet they do not understand? They lack education and are just looking for problems.”

“Spread my decree, not only will the tax not be removed, but it will be doubled instead.”

When Juedai Fenghua heard that, she was unwilling. However, after thinking about the million troops fighting on the frontlines, she had to suppress such thoughts and did not say anything.

In chaotic times, mercy and logic did not exist.

For this battle, not only did Great Zhou have to provide grain for their four legion corps, they also had to provide for Song, Ming, and Qing who defended their borders.

This was logical. After all, they were helping to defend Great Zhou’s borders, and Great Zhou could not ask them to bring their own grain, right?

However, this was a huge ask on Great Zhou grain, and the granaries were decreasing at a visible pace.

Hence, it was no wonder that Di Chen would be in a rush to collect the agriculture tax.

Chapter 1194 - Savior is Here!

Chapter 1194: Savior is Here!

Di Chen’s uneasiness quickly became a reality.

8th month, 7th day, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th legions of the Guards Legion Corps did not even hide themselves as they waltzed out of the teleportation formation and entered Fallen Phoenix City.

The appearance of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps caused the bustling Fallen Phoenix City to instantly fall silent.

“The teleportation formation has been activated once more?”

This was the instinctive reaction of everyone. Following which, everyone broke out in cold sweat.

What did that mean?

Feng Tianlie had tided over the past five days and was obviously waiting for the queen to wake up by herself. There was no way he would activate the teleportation formation now. Apart from him, only the queen had the power to open it.

Along with the immediate appearance of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps upon the activation of the teleportation formation, anyone with a brain would know that this was definitely planned.

Thinking about the chaos during these past few days, some peoples’ legs turned jelly, and their faces turned ashen white.

Since ancient times, those who failed in a coup ended up in a bad state. Just dying would be a light punishment, and those who were serious had their families wiped out.

Some smart ones immediately packed up and got ready to escape; they wanted to either flee to Qin or Tang. No matter where they went, it was better than remaining in Fallen Phoenix City.

Unfortunately, Black Phoenix had their eyes on them, so how would they be able to escape?

In the Great Jin wilderness, spies of Black Phoenix loved to wear black clothes and black robes, which was why they were known as the Black Clothed Guards.

A huge storm had covered Fallen Phoenix City.

Not to mention the basic officials, but even Prince Regent feng Tianlie felt his head go numb. He was both scared and furious.

Without mentioning the fear, he was furious due to the disrespect of the Personal Guards. This kind of people looking down on him was a humiliation to the prideful Feng Tianlie.

Without needing to think, the sudden appearance of Feng Qiuhuang had to be because of Ran Min. During these past two days, he had been feeling really annoyed because the Persona Guards had locked down Feng Qiuhuang’s sleeping palace and did not let him in.

Who knows, maybe Feng Qiuhuang had revived long ago and was just watching them fool around.

“Are you treating us like monkeys?” Feng Tianlie was unhappy.

Seeing that, an elder of the family understood, “She’s trying to lead the snake out of the hole. That’s great, without needing to do much, everyone jumped out into the net.”

“….”

Feng Tianlie’s face was as dead as ash.

Grumbling was grumbling, but when Feng Qiuhuang showed herself and stared at him coldly, his temper disappeared right away, “My little sister being okay is great. Great Jin really cannot do without you.”

Following which, he argued for himself, “The servants are dumb and are fooling around, but I did not join in. I tried my best to calm everything down. I was awaiting your return and was helping you protect Great Jin.”

While speaking, Feng Tianlie pushed all responsibility away from himself.

It would be a lie to say that Feng Tianlie was not tempted when those people stirred up problems in the court. Luckily, he knew his place and knew that the game was not real life and that players could not die in the game.

The so-called coup would never succeed.

If they were on Planet Hope, Feng Tianlie would have definitely taken the throne for himself.

Feng Qiuhuang gave Feng Tianlie a look and slowly spat out two words, “Very good.” Following which, she did not bother about him, entering the hall under the protection of the officials who supported her.

Hearing that, Feng Tianlie stood stunned on the spot. Digesting the words, he said, “Very good? What does that mean? Is she happy or not?”

At that moment, he lost his focus.

Feng Qiuhuang naturally had no mind to bother about him. After appearing, she quickly took down all the sinful officials, and the Internal Affairs Court locked them up to be trialed.

This act undoubtedly helped to settle the hearts of the people and raise the morale.

The chaotic Fallen Phoenix City went back on track right away. Following which, Feng Qiuhuang announced the cooperation with Great Xia to fend off the Great Zhou invasion, “Not giving them a single inch of land, fight to the death.”

Such a proclamation along with the appearance of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps had a sufficient amount of weight.

All of a sudden, Fallen Phoenix City was in joyous mood, celebrating the return of the queen. It also helped to raise the confidence in the Imperial Court. During these past few days, the Great Jin people were having sleepless nights, as they were afraid that they would be people of a fallen country when they woke up.

This was all just on the surface.

The cruelness of reality far exceeded the expectations of the people.

…

Queen’s palace, Imperial Reading Room.

Feng Qiuhuang summoned Meng Yi and Meng Tian. Great Xia Guards Legion Corps Marshal Huo Qubing was also present.

Feng Qiuhuang, who returned to the reading room, was not as confident as appeared the hall. Currently, her face was filled with exhaustion. Even so, she said sincerely, “General Huo, thank you!”

“I’m only following orders from the king, so you do not need to be courteous. The guard legion corps is at your disposal.” Huo Qubing was not an arrogant person and understood the relationship between Xia King and Jin Queen, so he did not dare to act important.

Feng Qiuhuang nodded. Then she looked toward Meng Yi and asked, “How much grain do we have left in the city?”

The moment those words were asked, the atmosphere in the reading room became really depressed.

Meng Yi gritted his teeth and took a look at Huo Qubing to his left, not wanting to hide anything, “My queen, there’s little grain left, and we cannot last over a week. The price of rice on the market has swelled by three times, and the people are panicking. However, the Imperial Court is not able to open up the granary to the people to reduce the prices.”

“Please punish me for my incompetency.” Meng Yi sought punishment.

Feng Qiuhuang waved him off, “When can we collect the agriculture tax for this season? I know the yield is bad, but we definitely can collect something, right?”

Meng Yi’s face became even worse, “I fear that we will not be able to collect any grain.”

“Why?”

“Apart from the north and the west, most of the prefectures and counties are wrapped up in the flames of war. Especially the east, which is mostly under Great Zhou now. The Great Zhou army is a pack of wolves, chasing away the civilians and collecting their grain. Following which, they amassed all the grain and used it as military rations.”

“Those prefectures and counties that were hit ended up becoming refugees, so they naturally cannot hand over grain.”

Feng Qiuhuang was enlightened, and her face was filled with pain as she said bitterly, “Calamity followed by war and civilians not getting enough food; all of this is my fault.”

“My queen!”

Seeing that, Meng Yi and Meng Tian both bowed and sought punishment.

When Huo Qubing saw that, he was filled with emotions. Seeing that they were going to end up blaming themselves, he stepped up and said, “In my view, we should discuss how to continue on with the plan.”

Feng Qiuhuang was a girl after all. Seeing the civilians face problems, it was hard for her to control her emotions. Hearing Huo Qubing remind them, she realized that she had gone out of character, “General, what strategy do you have?”

“You do not have to be too worried about grain.” Huo Qubing gave her some hope, “The Guards Legion Corps brought large amounts of military grain pills and are self-sufficient. The grain for Leopard Legion Corps will be handled by the Zhongyuan Provincial Governor office and does not need Great Jin to worry about it.”

“This….”

Meng Yi and Meng Tian exchanged glances, seeing the surprise in each other’s faces. When the Xia King had discussed the battle plan with them, he did not mention the military grain pill.

It was obvious that the Xia King was caring for their face.

Maybe in the eyes of the Xia King, this was not worth mentioning, so he did not point it out.

The truth was just that. Maybe the entire wilderness was worrying about grain, but that did not include Great Xia. The huge purchase at the start of the year made them self-sufficient.

The newly reclaimed 200 mu of farmland had helped to make up for the poor yield to a certain extent.

Along with the perfect water irrigation system and the advanced agriculture tactics from the school of agriculture, the strong territory specialties, and the like stacked together, the effects of the calamity on grain yield was minimal.

It was not as exaggerated as the other territories.

As a result, Great Xia could still take out large amounts of grain to make military grain pills, while others were worrying about grain.

Hence, it was understandable that Ouyang Shuo did not mention the topic of grain.

When Feng Qiuhuang saw that, she sighed in her heart. She had realized that compared to Great Xia, Great Jin was so weak in terms of their foundations. The difference between the two dynasties was not just territory size.

After settling the grain matter, the two sides started to discuss the specific battle plan. After all, the armies of both countries were fighting together, so even if an overview was discussed before, they needed to perfect the details.

Time was on the essence, and the four of them discussed for less than an hour before going their separate ways.

…

8th month, 7th day, noon, the Guards Legion Corps that had appeared in Fallen Phoenix City for a short time exited the city.

Along with them were the Great Jin Guards Legion Corps led by Meng Tian. In Fallen Phoenix City, only the five thousand Personal Guards led by Ran Min were left.

“That’s great; we are finally saved.”

The logic of the people was simple. The army was holed up in the city because they were afraid of the enemy. Now that they were taking the initiative, it was naturally because they could win.

Although the logic was simple, it made sense.

The news of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps appearing in Fallen Phoenix City quickly spread through the wilderness. Hence, their exit from the city was captured by the scouts of Great Zhou and reported to the command headquarters.

When Great Zhou palace guard marshal Lianpo got the report, he did not dare to take matters into his own hands and sought instructions from Di Chen. Should they fight, or should they retreat? If they fought, with just the palace guards, they did not have a high chance of winning. However, retreating would make things complicated.

Chapter 1195 - Battle of Phoenix Castle (Part 1)

Chapter 1195: Battle of Phoenix Castle (Part 1)

Great Zhou Dynasty, Handan City.

After receiving Lianpo’s request for instructions, although Di Chen did not rage, he did not feel good deep down inside. “Lianpo is becoming more and more timid. After only losing a few times to Great Xia, he has become afraid to such an extent.”

Great Xia had three legions and Great Jin had four legions exiting the city. Compared to the Great Zhou palace guards, they did not have a crushing advantage.

“Even if they cannot beat the opponent, at least hold them back.”

Great Zhou’s strategy was really simple. As long as the palace guards held the enemy back for three to four days, once the remaining Great Zhou troops wiped out the blazing legion corps and returned, it would be tough to say who wins and who loses.

Di Chen ordered, “Tell Lianpo to defend for four days or else his head is mine.”

“Yes, my king!”

…

Fallen Phoenix City outskirts, palace guards camp.

After receiving the order, Lianpo immediately mobilized troops to check the defenses and camp and prepare the troops for battle.

Like Shanhai City, Fallen Phoenix City was also located in a small basin with only one entry point from the outside world. The entry was five miles long and was in a Chinese eight character shape with it being narrower as you enter.

The Great Zhou Palace Guards were defending this entry, trying their best to lock down Fallen Phoenix City.

Lianpo was a really experience general and was also famed for defending. For the Great Xia and Great Jin Alliance Army to breakthrough in a short time would be really difficult.

This was also where Di Chen’s confidence came from. He did not believe that the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps was truly omnipotent and could tear apart such an iron defensive line.

The only advantage that the Alliance Army had was that the Phoenix Castle at the narrowest point of the entry had not been taken down by the Great Zhou army, as it was easy to defend and hard to attack.

If not, there was no way that this war could be fought.

At 2 PM, the Alliance Army moved into Phoenix Castle, making their prebattle preparations.

As a military stronghold and the final castle defending the Capital City, the strength of the castle was naturally undeniable. Even the Great Zhou palace guards could not take it down in a short amount of time.

Outside of Phoenix Castle was a tall tower a hundred meter tall; this was the tallest part of the castle. It was also the watchtower of the castle. Looking out, one could see everything going on in the entire entry point.

Huo Qubing and Meng Tian arrived at the highest point of the tower under the accompaniment of the defending general of Phoenix Castle.

In history, after Qin country unified China, Meng Tian led 300 thousand troops up north to attack the Xiongnu to reclaim Henan. He led troops to fix the Great Wall of China and the Jiuzhou path, solving the problem of transportation in China.

Huo Qubing was also famous for going against the Xiongnu.

Although the two generals were meeting for the first time, they were not that awkward and uncomfortable. Huo Qubing let Meng Tian be the main general. First, Meng Tian was on home grounds, while Huo Qubing was the guest. Secondly, Meng Tian was from Qin and Huo Qubing was from Han, so he was his senior.

Meng Tian did not push it away and accepted the duty.

The military feared there being too many people giving orders and having a common commander was needed.

Standing at the top of the tower, the strong wind blew, blowing at the capes of the two generals. They were like two heroes and were the pride of their respective generations. Meng Tian pointed at the Great Zhou camp, “As expected from a famous warring states general, his planning of the camp is well done. There is not a single weakness that we can exploit.”

If one looked in the same direction, they would be able to see that the Great Zhou camp fanned out from the entrance. With a division as a basic fighting unit, the troops lined up a thousand meters away from the foot of Phoenix Castle all the way to the outer parts of the entrance.

Clean white tents, various flags fluttering in the wind, and the orderly military formation was a truly majestic sight.

Huo Qubing and Meng Tian were both top generals of their generation and saw that although the camp looked messy, in truth, it was based on the eight trigrams. Entering it would be like entering a giant maze.

They were standing on a high ground, so they could naturally see clearly the enemy formation. However, the moment they engaged the enemy and entered the vast camp, they might not be able to differentiate between east and west, and their formation would be messed up in the process.

The moment one entered the formation, one would become blind.

Huo Qubing said, “Not having a weakness means that everywhere is a weakness. Since the enemy is using such an exquisite method, our troops can only use strength to forcefully breakthrough.” As he said that, Huo Qubing looked at Meng Tian, “When attacking, we need one person commanding from here and one person leading to engage in the formation. Great Xia is willing to be the vanguard.”

Just as Huo Qubing had said, since they would become blind once they charged in, they needed a pair of eyes in Phoenix Castle to look down and use flag language to command the army.

This was a huge ask on the commander. It needed him to command the entire field while using the battle situation to flexibly make changes to ensure that the army could break through the formation.

Meng Tian was undoubtedly a good choice.

However, he was not willing, “Let us be the vanguard and you command. After all, it’s our home ground. We will not shy away from the first tough battle.”

Although Great Jin was small, they had backbone.

Huo Qubing was still unwilling, “General, do not forget the true goal of this battle; it’s to cover the Great Xia army to charge out of the enemy camp. If we do not attack, how can we charge out?”

Meng Tian laughed. Obviously, he had thought about that, “Let Great Jin fight the first battle and probe their camp. You can use the chance to see how the enemy camp changes and adapts. Tomorrow, when we officially attack, we will have a much higher chance.”

Since Meng Tian’s words made sense, Huo Qubing agreed.

Although they were confident, they were not so confident that they thought they would break through in their first charge. A huge formation like the one that Lianpo had set needed to be tested multiple times.

If not, it might just be a trap set by the enemy.

If one gambled, one would often capsize.

The matter was settled, so Meng Tian turned around to gather up his troops to cross swords with the Great Zhou palace guards.

Before leaving, Meng Tian motivated his soldiers as such.

“Boys, Great Zhou has been arrogant for too long, and we have held it in for far too long. Now is the chance for us to fight for the honor and glory of Great Jin. It is a chance to write our names in history. What should we do?”

“Kill! Kill! Kill!”

The Great Jin soldiers who had a lot of pent up anger and frustration were filled with fighting spirit and were ready to go.

When Meng Tian saw that, he nodded his head in satisfaction. Apart from probing the enemy formation, the other reason he wanted to go first was to raise the morale.

The Great Jin Guards Legion Corps needed a huge battle to prove themselves.

“Let’s go!”

Meng Tian took the lead, charging out of Phoenix Castle, directly at the enemy formation.

Wave after wave of iron armored cavalry charged out of the gates, wrapping up a lot of dirt and dust. The ones following behind the cavalry were infantry, who waltzed out of the huge gates of Phoenix Castle and entered the battlefield.

As they were probing, Meng Tian did not send out all the troops. Instead, he only sent the 1st division.

Even so, the dust that rose up from 70 thousand troops was like a huge whirlwind, covering the skies and charging right at the camp. They looked like they were going to swallow up the enemy camp.

The Great Zhou palace guards were not weak either.

The previously calm and quiet camp started boiling like when a drop of water drips into an oil pot. Soldiers appeared all around the camp and drowned the enemies that entered their camp.

When Huo Qubing who was standing at the top of Phoenix Castle saw that, his eyes focused. Lianpo’s huge formation had some skill. Thinking about this, Huo Qubing focused more and more.

Meng Tian was also really skilled. Since they were probing, he used his senses to lead the troops to charge all around the camp. It looked barbaric, but in truth, they were testing all parts of the camp.

When Huo Qubing saw that, his eyes relaxed.

This was the first time he felt respect for the Great Jin army. They were partners worthy of respect.

…

Great Zhou palace guards camp, certain high ground.

Lianpo looked at the chaotic formation. Currently, his face was really calm, showing his confidence toward the formation. Under his leadership, the five legions, 25 divisions were in complete understanding of one another, knowing when to go forward and retreat.

As time went on, the Great Jin Guards Legion Corps were cut apart and swallowed up.

At this very moment, the change occurred.

The randomly charging enemy troops suddenly become alive like dragons and tigers. It was like there was an invisible line that was connecting them altogether.

Facing the encirclement of the formation, the enemies suddenly became really flexible, either dodging or attacking, and the originally separated troops miraculously gathered together once more.

Lianpo knew that he had faced an expert.

Chapter 1196 - Battle of Phoenix Castle (Part 2)

Chapter 1196: Battle of Phoenix Castle (Part 2)

“So all the attacks before this were probing one?”

Lianpo squinted. He was very sure that amongst the enemy formation, there was definitely a formation expert. After all, they could find out how the formation worked in less than an hour and had also thought of a way to break it.

“His idea is a little too simple.”

Lianpo smiled. Under his leadership, the formation changed once more. The mysterious formation suddenly became even fiercer and even more mysterious.

Such a change dazzled everyone, not to mention the Great Jin Guards Legion Corps that was charging about within.

The Great Jin Guards Legion Corps troops that had just gathered together suffered a heavy blow. They were torn apart and cut up.

Meng Tian was the first to notice the formation changing. His expression changed slightly. At that moment, he had lost his understanding of the formation and was equal to half a blind person.

Around him were enemies and their tents, and soldiers could charge out and surround them at any time. If they fought on, they would not be able to differentiate directions.

If things went wrong, the entire 1st division was going to fall within the formation.

Only Huo Qubing would be able to save them from this.

Obviously, Huo Qubing knew that. When the formation changed, he was thinking of a method. In terms of formations, this one was really complicated, and one would not be able to think of a way so quickly.

Lianpo’s moves placed pressure on Huo Qubing.

Time flowed on like water, and the Great Jin Guards were in a tougher and tougher spot. Luckily, Huo Qubing was a genius and also had some knowledge of formations, especially in the ways of striking and retreating.

Combining attacking and retreating to come and go like the wind was Huo Qubing’s talent.

When the Great Jin Guards Legion Corps started to suffer heavy casualties, Huo Qubing finally saw the way the formation worked. He did not dare to treat it lightly and started to command the Great Jin Guards Legion Corps to swiftly execute his instructions.

Helplessly, in such a short while, the Great Jin Guards Legion Corps had suffered heavy casualties and were deep within the enemy camp. They did not react toward the instructions from the Phoenix Castle as quickly as before.

The entire command system was on the verge of collapse.

When Huo Qubing saw that, he did not dare to hesitate, ordering the Great Jin Guards Legion Corps 2nd legion to strike, entering the formation to save the 1st legion.

The 2nd legion that was in place did not hesitate and directly charged.

The addition of a new source of troops was a huge blow to the Great Zhou camp. Especially after Huo Qubing saw through how the formation worked, the 2nd legion progressed at god speed and was about to meet up with the 1st legion.

When Lianpo saw that, cold sweat could not help but appear on his hands. He did not expect the enemy commander to see through the mysteries of his formation so quickly.

Lianpo probably forgot that in this world, there were some talents and geniuses that logic meant nothing to.

However, Lianpo was not someone who gave up easily. This formation had a total of 108 different changes, and it was not something that could be seen through right away. Since the enemy did not give up, he would naturally play with them till the end.

The two sides engaged in a life and death battle around the formations. One side was changing the formations while the one side was trying to break the formation.

Although Lianpo and Huo Qubing were unable to see each other, these two experts fought with the battlefield as a medium. One making moves and one breaking it, fighting to a standstill.

If a military person who knew about formations saw this, their eyes would shine bright. Such a dazzling display of formations was something one would only get to see once in their lives.

As time went on, Huo Qubing also sent in the 3rd and 4th legions, totally stirring up the Great Zhou camp. Dust bellowed.

Close to 600 thousand troops were wrapped up with one another in total chaos.

Huo Qubing was a firm believer in using strength to break exquisite formations. No matter what changes the enemy made, it would be useless and could not stand up to a hit in front of absolute strength.

The battle between the two armies looked messy, but in truth, it had a lot of hidden killing intent.

The Great Jin Guards Legion Corps had a lot of pent up frustration, and their morale was soaring. Amongst them, there was Meng Tian commanding, merging the four legions. Outside, there was Huo Qubing giving instructions; they were truly unstoppable.

At some point, Lianpo felt that the formation he had set was about to be broken by the enemy. Luckily, the Great Zhou palace guards were not made of paper and were all top elites of the China region.

Furthermore, they had the geographical advantage. Lianpo was really experienced, and even though the battlefield was in chaos, the troops still managed to resist and arduously defended against this wave.

Once the sun set, Huo Qubing gave them orders to return.

This was Huo Qubing. He was really straightforward and direct when he did things and did not think about much. Since Meng Tian said he wanted to probe the enemy’s strength, Huo Qubing did not have much pressure when he commanded.

In the afternoon, he pretty much squeezed out all the value of the Great Jin Guards Legion Corps that he could.

Even the ferocious and valiant Meng Tian was exhausted after this battle. He had a new and clear understanding of how Huo Qubing commanded troops. This was a person who did what he said and did not bother about courtesy.

Based on rough estimations, from this battle alone, the Great Jin Guards Legion Corps had lost 20 thousand troops.

Those were all elite soldiers, and each Guards Legion Corps soldier was an immense fortune. Much less 20 thousand of them dying in one battle. No matter who it was, they would definitely feel pained in their heart.

Great Jin had never suffered such heavy casualties before.

Riding on the black warhorse that were dyed in blood, although they were tired, their morale was high. Meng Tian laughed. This battle was a fun one.

‘No matter how big the sacrifice, it will be worth it in the end.’ Meng Tian thought to himself.

This time, in front of the strong Great Zhou palace guards, the Great Jin Guards Legion Corps proved their strength and also proved to the world that Great Jin was not weak. They proved that they did not just depend on Great Xia.

When they needed to fight, they had the ability to do so.

They had the skill to be able to fight such tough fights.

Through this battle, the world would change their thoughts on the Great Jin army and the Great Jin Dynasty.

…

Great Zhou camp, that certain high ground.

Under the setting sun, Lianpo’s body appeared really haggard and worn out. Despite that, the soldiers only looked toward him in awe and respect.

In the eyes of the palace guards, Lianpo was a war god that did age.

However, he was clear how close this battle was. The formation expert in the enemy camp was simply too terrifying. As the fight went on, he broke the formations so easily.

He could even feel that this formation already held no secrets before the enemy.

“This is only the first day….”

In front of the soldiers, he was still filled with confidence, raising his head and chest up high. However, deep in his heart, he was already worrying, and his heart was filled with uneasiness.

‘Can we still hold on tomorrow?’

No one could him give a reply.

Chapter 1197 - Going Against Logic

Chapter 1197: Going Against Logic

8th month, 8th day, Fallen Phoenix City.

The orange red sun slowly rose up on the hill opposite to the canyon, throwing down a halo down at the canyon opening. Under the shine of the sun, Phoenix Castle appeared really bright and eye-catching.

With their backs facing the rising sun, Huo Qubing and Meng Tian stood side by side once more.

Last night, the two of them spoke till the dead of night, summarizing their experiences in the camp outside. They added to one another’s words, understanding Lianpo’s formation to a great extent.

Today was the day that the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps would officially charge.

“It would be better if we could probe for another day.” Meng Tian felt a little regretful. After all, in just one afternoon, the two of them might still have parts that they did not understand about the formation. These doubts might become hidden killing opportunities for the enemy.

They could wait but the blazing legion corps could not.

Maybe because they were stimulated by the appearance of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps in Fallen Phoenix City, but Wuqi led the three armies of Great Zhou to surround the blazing legion corps and totally cut off their way up north yesterday.

The blazing legion corps that was surrounded was in great danger and could be crushed at any moment.

Under such a situation, Fallen Phoenix City could only take a gamble to swiftly charge out of the formation to win a living chance for the blazing legion corps. if not, the Great Jin army was going to collapse.

Huo Qubing was very optimistic, smiling, “There is nothing on the battlefield that is 100% certain.”

“That’s right.”

Meng Tian nodded, turning around and bowing to Huo Qubing, “So, it’s up to you!”

Huo Qubing returned with a bow and said confidently, “Watch me!” As he said that, he turned around and left the tower, starting the prebattle preparations. Near the main gate, the three legions of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps had lined up.

“Let’s go!”

Huo Qubing did not say much, just giving the order to set off.

To the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps, war was common, and they naturally had their own methods to be motivated by themselves.

Along with the gates opening, cavalry troops charged out squad by squad. Facing the rising sun, they were brimming with life. Their red capes fluttered in the wind, seemingly cheering the Guards Legion Corps soldiers on.

In this battle, they could only win and could not lose.

Within the tower, Meng Tian looked at the Great Xia legion corps troops that were like a dragon exiting the ocean and fell deep into thought.

…

Palace guards camp, command high ground.

It seemed like Lianpo had predicted the tough battle of today. He came early to this high ground to face the new day of challenges. However, the moment the Phoenix Castle gates opened, the ones charging out were Great Xia Guards Legion Corps soldiers, which Lianpo surprised.

“Are they taking turns to attack?”

When the enemy held the numerical advantage, it was normal for them to choose such a tactic. However, for some reason, when Lianpo saw the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps troops attack, he felt really uneasy.

“Am I really old and subconsciously fearful of Great Xia?”

Lianpo’s face turned a little ugly. He was not deaf or blind, and the evaluation the king had of him privately had entered his ears, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Just as Lianpo was deep in thought, the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps had already charged into the formation and engaged in slaughter.

In just the first engagement, the Great Zhou palace guards were pushed on the back foot. First, Huo Qubing already had a clear understanding of the enemy formation, and secondly, Great Xia Guards Legion Corps was a level stronger than the Great Jin Guards.

In the first round of cavalry charging, the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps used their killing machine-enhanced horse lance. Along with the cavalry’s high speed charge, they were pretty much monsters.

No matter how flexible and adaptive the palace guards were, the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps only had one way to breakthrough. They would just forcefully charge across. The horse lance formed up in lines, and the shining cold light formed up many human killing machines.

Anywhere the army passed, only meat paste was left, and there were no living beings left on the ground.

The front row of palace guards did not even manage to give out their last screams before they were crushed by the rumbling current, and they could not even cause a wave.

Huo Qubing wanting to use force to breakthrough was obviously not just words.

Great Xia’s three legions were like three sharp knives forming into a trident as they stabbed right into the stomach of the enemy. Under the command of Meng Tian, they proceeded forth with gusto.

Traps? All useless!

Human wall? Even more useless!

Encirclements? Could not be done!

The Great Xia Guards Legion Corps were like a bunch of ferocious beasts and were rather like the beast wave that appeared in the wilderness, rumbling as they charged in. They did not leave any face or show any mercy, showing no fear of death. They only bothered about charging forward.

Compared to the Great Jin Guards Legion Corps, the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps was simply more gory and more brutal.

Maybe this was a beautiful part of war.

The beauty of violence!

Facing such a brutal Great Xia Guards Legion Corps, the Great Zhou palace guards appeared lacking in preparation.

The battle yesterday had tortured them enough, and they had lost a lot of soldiers. It was not easy to rest up for a night, and they had not fully recovered their energy and were faced with an even fiercer challenge.

Some soldiers even recognized that the enemy was the famous Great Xia Guards Legion Corps.

The Great Xia Guards Legion Corps were not unfamiliar with the Great Zhou palace guards. One could even say that they were one of the armies that had fought with them the most in the wilderness.

In every Battle Map, both sides would have to fight.

In the end, the palace guards lost every single time, and even their marshal Lianpo had a psychological barrier, much less the soldiers who were getting battered and bruised all over.

This fear was revealed during a battle of life and death.

Along with the flood like attack of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps, the defenses of the palace guards started to loosen. The coordination between divisions were not as smooth as in their battle against the Great Jin Guards Legion Corps.

The entire formation started to slow down and appeared hesitant.

When Meng Tian who stood on the Phoenix Castle tower saw that, he immediately grabbed this chance to lead the Guards Legion Corps on a more furious attack. Each time, they struck right at the crucial locations of the enemy.

The palace guards formation was a whole, and they had nine crucial points required to run well. Around these areas were the most elite and strongest nine divisions.

However, the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps loved the hardest bones to bite.

With the coordination between Meng Tian and Huo Qubing, the three legions pulled up point after point like they did not know exhaustion. For every point that was taken down, the formation became weaker and weaker.

Once the fourth point was taken down, the formation was not connected from head to toe.

Lianpo, who stood on the high ground, was feeling more and more helpless. The battle situation had started to break away from his control, and the entire formation was in chaos. His commanding was also facing heavy interference.

He could only place his hopes on the palace guards themselves.

This meant that along with the formation failing, the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps and Great Zhou palace guards were on the same starting line. Both sides were using their own strength.

On this point, looking out across the entire world, no army could compare to the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps.

In the process of attacking the Great Jin dynasty, the palace guards had already lost a portion of their troops. In the battle yesterday, tens of thousands of them died under the blades of Great Jin Guards Legion Corps. Hence, their overall numbers were similar to that of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps, and they did not have much of an advantage.

In a situation where both sides had an equal number of soldiers, the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps had never lost a battle.

“Fighting someone you lost to, how can one be courageous?”

Under the leadership of Huo Qubing, Ma Chao, Lu Bu, and Er’Lai each led a front and engaged in heavy slaughter in the enemy formation like human-shaped giant beasts.

The three of them were all legendary generals, and after the update, their martial art skills soared. Their weapons and armor were all forged by ancestor Ou Zhizi and was comparable to God Weapons.

Apart from Er’Lai who was riding on Luosha, Ma Chao and Lu Bu had also changed their mounts.

After all their equipment was upgraded, their killing strength in the formation was terrifying. Every time the frontlines faced resistance, the three generals would personally lead the troops to charge, and no one could stop them.

In this battle, they were like a nuclear warhead like presence.

This battle caused the heavens to tear apart and the sky to change in color. Blood flowed into a river, and the killing intent and blood aura gathered up above the battlefield. The fresh red color made one fearful, seeping right into their bones.

Through this battle, the Great Zhou palace guards was probably going to be stepped into the dirt, never to climb up again.

On the high ground, Lianpo was unable to maintain calm, resisting the urge to ask the troops to retreat, he gave the death order, “Order the troops to gather up and defend. Tell them to fend off this wave of attacks from the enemy.”

“Yes, general!”

Of the three legions of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps, apart from the 4th legion having a batch of infantry, the remaining were all elite cavalry. If the palace guards dared to retreat now, they would be eaten up by the enemy such that even bones would not be left.

The only way would be to defend to their deaths.

No matter what, the Great Zhou palace guards had the geographical advantage. As long as the army did not panic and calmed down, with the camps as their fortified point, they would have a high chance of surviving this difficulty by defending to the death.

Lianpo once again showed his deep fighting experience.

Unfortunately, he had misjudged the fighting intentions of the enemy. In Lianpo’s eyes, the enemy naturally wanted to wipe out the entire palace guards then reinforce the blazing legion corps.

If it was just the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps breaking through, they would not be able to decide the entire battle.

Hence, the palace guards only needed to defend to the death and get past this tough day. If they were able to tide across this and fight tomorrow, they would have a chance to persist on.

Even if the Great Jin Guards Legion Corps participated, Lianpo would still feel confident about defending.

At the very least, they could drag on for another half a day.

With half a day, even if the blazing legion corps did not die, they would be badly hurt. With that, Lianpo would have barely completed the mission that the king had given him.

The problem was that on the side of the Alliance Army, they were not going to directly assist the blazing legion corps.

Seeing the enemy defend their tents, without needing Meng Tian to give an order, Huo Qubing decisively ordered the troops to charge right at the entrance. The entire process was done without hesitation.

In just half an hour, the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps was like a flood, wrapping over the entire Great Zhou palace guards camp. They did not stop, charging out of the canyon and leaving a full ground of waste and ruins.

“This?”

Lianpo was really stunned, “The situation is a little unusual.”

The Great Xia Guards Legion Corps not acting logically made the uneasiness in his heart grow. Unfortunately, the enemy did not give him a chance to gather his thoughts because at that moment, the Phoenix Castle gates opened once more.

The Great Jin Guards Legion Corps that was ready and waiting took over the Guards Legion Corps position and charged.

“Block the Great Jin Guards Legion Corps!”

This was Lianpo’s instinctive reaction. Till date, he still believed in his previous judgment; he believed that the Great Jin Guards Legion Corps was trying to follow behind the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps and charge out of the canyon.

If he allowed them to do so, Lianpo should just go and kill himself.

Chapter 1198 - That's Very Ouyang Shuo

Chapter 1198: That’s Very Ouyang Shuo

The scheme of the Alliance Army went far deeper than what Linapo had thought.

Meng Tian led the Great Jin Guards Legion Corps to strike was not to charge out of the canyon. Instead, it was to delay the Great Zhou palace guards to allow the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps to leave the battlefield and enter the vast wilderness.

One intercepting and one delaying.

One feeling confused about the battle happening in the canyon was understandable.

After witnessing the majestic and stunning ability of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps in breaking the formation, the Great Jin Guards Legion Corps soldiers were eager to go. They were not willing to ‘lose’ just like that, and under the commanding of Meng Tian, they grabbed the weakness of the enemy and completed a beautiful assault.

Since the enemy had misread their intentions, Meng Tian naturally did not mind. He used this chance to weaken the enemy’s strength, and anyone they could kill was considered as one.

The two armies had a blood debt between them that needed to be paid.

Once the setting sun went down in the west, this battle finally came to an end.

The palace guards were struck by two armies, and the ground was in ruins with corpses strewn everywhere. Black smoke from the grass being burned was all around, a chilling sight.

Even so, Lianpo still let out a delighted smile.

“No matter what, at least we blocked off the Great Jin Guards Legion Corps. if not, I’ll have no face to meet the king.”

Meng Tian laughed too.

For the battle to reach such a state meant that the Great Jin Guards Legion Corps had completed their mission, and their spoils of war were far better than they had expected. Within a day, the Alliance Army had slain close to 70 thousand Great Zhou palace guards.

Through this battle, even if the Great Zhou palace guards were not paralyzed, they had at least lost a leg.

“Now, it all depends on the performance of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps.”

Meng Tian rode on his black war horse. He turned his head around to take a look at the entrance of the canyon. He was filled with hope.

…

Night, Great Zhou Dynasty, Handan City.

Di Chen placed down the battle report from the frontlines. Currently, he was both happy and worried.

He was happy that under Wuqi’s leadership, the blazing legion corps operation proceeded really smoothly. In just a day, they wiped out 80 thousand men, which was the biggest result that Great Zhou had obtained since the start.

If no surprises occurred, the spoils of war would continue to be expanded tomorrow.

Without the core pillar of the blazing legion corps, even if Great Jin was able to survive fortunately, they would become a toothless tiger, unable to jump up anymore. Great Zhou would be able to take care of Great Jin anytime they wanted.

Of course, Di Chen hoped to settle this in one battle. He wanted to end it all cleanly.

He was worried about the Battle of Phoenix Castle.

In just two days, the Lianpo led palace guards were hit till their faces swelled up, and they even allowed the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps to break out, creating a huge uncertainty in this war.

The palace guards were Di Chen’s personal army and was his most important chip to keep power in the dynasty. Now that they had suffered heavy casualties, Di Chen felt pained in his heart.

Due to that, Di Chen even gave Wuqi the order to try to capture blazing legion corps soldiers to try to get enough to make up for the loses.

If not, this entire matter would be a huge loss.

Luckily, Lianpo did not let the Great Jin legion corps troops escape. If not, he really would have to deal with Lianpo.

Compared to God General Wuqi, although he was loyal and reliable and had a lot of experience, he still disappointed Di Chen in the end. Their performances on the battlefield were like the difference between heaven and earth.

One achieved a huge victory, while the other was barely not losing.

“Unfortunately, I cannot truly utilize him.”

Di Chen let out a long sigh. If Wuqi was not Xiong Ba’s, Di Chen would want to use this chance to make him the Great Zhou commander in chief. He would have made Quqi the true giant in the Zhou army.

One must know that Lianpo was still a Great General now.

However, thinking about Xiong Ba, Di Chen quelled that thought and did not dare to take the risk.

Since he was given the appointment of Wu Marquis, he was really well behaved and low profile, basically disappearing from sight. Apart from when Di Chen summoned him, he stayed in Jiangnan Province and did not step out of his jurisdiction.

It seemed like he had accepted his fate.

However, Di Chen did not think of it in that way. Di Chen was really clear what kind of person Xiong Ba was. Such an ambitious person would not be happy being secluded and lying low.

Once Xiong Ba grabbed the chance, he would rise up.

Hence, since Great Zhou established the country, Di Chen had started to suppress Xiong Ba and lower his influence in the dynasty.

In comparison, Di Chen was much more magnanimous toward Chun Shenjun and Zhan Lang.

Chun Shenjun’s family took up half of Great Zhou’s industry system. Di Chen turned a blind eye to this in return for his loyalty.

As for Zhan Lang, he was even more low profile than Xiong Ba.

Especially as they entered the 6th year of Gaia, the once hot blooded Zhan Lang suddenly lost his fighting spirit, not even bothering about the Blood Red legion corps.

Although Di Chen felt that this was weird, he was happy about it.

“Difficult!”

Sometimes, Di Chen admired Ouyang Shuo for being able to control everything himself.

One must not look at how Bai Hua and Gong Chengshi had such high positions. Di Chen was clear than with Ouyang Shuo’s control, he could take back all these things anytime he wanted to.

But could Di Chen?

Not to mention taking back the power of Xiong Ba and the others, it was difficult for him to infiltrate the Pill Sun, King, and Blood Red legion corps. Di Chen was not like a ruler, rather, he was more like an alliance leader of marquises.

If not, Di Chen would not have chosen to cooperate with Song and Ming and try to give away the places where Chun Shenjun and Zhan Lang were rooted in.

As long as he took down the two of them, the remaining Xiong Ba would not be powerful enough and would be at his disposal.

Di Chen was confident about that.

“Let’s hope that everything goes smoothly!”

In the end, the Battle of Great Jin was not just a crucial battle for Great Zhou to turn the tides, but it was also a crucial battle in his plot to control Great Zhou, which he injected all his hard work into.

Di Chen could not afford to lose this battle.

…

The night faded, and the white light descended.

After the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps charged out of the canyon and broke away from the Phoenix Castle battlefield, apart from resting up for an hour to manage their equipment and replenish water, the Guards Legion Corps rushed all the way and traveled through the night.

Even their meals consisted of military grain pills on horseback.

The Combat Logistics Department was unusually generous, providing the three legions with two million units of military grain pills.

If they conserved the pills, it could last both the troops and the horses for a week.

At the same time, in order to not influence the overall movement speed of the army, the 4th legion left 10 thousand infantry troops to hide around Fallen Phoenix City. They would not travel along with the cavalry.

Was the Guards Legion Corps rushing so much to save the blazing legion corps?

Obviously not.

Ouyang Shuo had mentioned before that he was going for a big one.

The Guards Legion Corps rushed day and night not to go up north but to go east right and into Great Zhou. They wanted to start a huge wave within Great Zhou at the most impossible time.

Close to dawn, the army rested up for an hour on the ground.

Huo Qubing rode on a white horse. Looking out at the morning sun, he turned around, “Everyone, continue to rush. We must arrive at the border by tonight.”

“Yes, general!”

In less than 10 minutes, the 200 thousand troops were ready to proceed.

There was a reason why they were so quick. Even when they rested on the spot, they did not take off their armor. Instead, they rested on their horseback and were ready to set off at any moment.

As a result, the moment the order was given, they were able to quickly gather up so quickly.

The huge army faced the sun, galloping across the vast wilderness. It was an eye-catching sight.

…

Di Chen paid as much attention to intel as Ouyang Shuo.

When they attacked Great Jin, apart from the Difeng spies, Great Zhou had scouts all over the Great Jin dynasty. The movement of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps caused such a huge commotion, so it naturally could not be hidden from these people.

Very quickly, their unusual movement pattern caught the attention of the spies along the route.

At 11 AM, Di Chen received relevant intel.

At the start, Di Chen was not too sure about the motives of Great Xia and thought that they were just moving normally and would go up north in the end.

At noon, upon learning that the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps did not stop their easterly advance, he realized that something was up.

“Don’t tell me?”

An uneasy feeling rose up in his heart, and he could not sit still anymore. He charged out of the door and shouted, “Men!”

“Present!”

“Send message to the spies and follow Great Xia’s tracks. If they continue to move east, immediately report. At the same time, let the cities and grain forces strengthen their guard and take this seriously.”

“Yes, my king!”

After giving the order, Di Chen was still worried, and he nervously paced up and down the room.

“If that really is a case, it would be horrible.”

Di Chen’s face was really dark. For the first time, a strong sense of unhappiness toward Lianpo rose in his heart, “That old thing. How did he allow the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps to run out so easily? That’s great, what a bother.”

Taking in a deep breath, Di Chen tried his best to calm himself down.

Based on his intuition, without needing spies to confirm, he was certain that the goal of the Guards Legion Corps was Jingdu Province or maybe even Handan City. They wanted to have a ‘head killing operation’ at the most impossible time.

This was really like Ouyang Shuo’s style.

That made the weird moves of Great Xia understandable.

“So all of this, including the blazing legion corps going north, was a trap?”

For some reason, Di Chen was actually really clearheaded suddenly. His brain moved really quickly and linked everything that happened during these few days together to guess what Great Xia was up to.

The blazing legion corps used itself as bait to draw the three legion corps of Great Zhou up north. The palace guards were badly hurt, and a totally defenseless Jingdu Province was in front of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps.

The Great Zhou army had entered Great Jin from Jingdu Province. As such, the border should be the safest. However, when Great Jin and Great Xia worked together, it ended up being the most dangerous border.

This time, Di Chen totally panicked.

Not to mention the Jingdu Province, in the entire Great Zhou, apart from the Song, Ming, and Qing guards, Great Zhou only had the forces in charge of defending the beast caves as well as a few scattered local defense troops.

With just these people, how could they stop the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps?

“No, I cannot sit here and do nothing. I cannot lose; there has to be a way.” Di Chen’s eyes flushed red as he paced up and down the room like a drowning mad man grasping at straws.

Chapter 1199 - Heroic Spirit

Chapter 1199: Heroic Spirit

8th month, 9th day, evening.

Great Xia’s 200 thousand Guards Legion Corps cavalry appeared at the border of Jingdu Province, causing an uproar.

The Battle of Jin was the focus of the entire battle of the mid plains and was the pinnacle battle of the Battle of China. It would decide the powers in China, so everyone focused on it.

Not only the China region players, but even the entire world was paying attention to this huge battle.

Around Great Jin, Great Xia fought a battle of intellect and skill with the six country alliance, giving the players the fight of the century. At the 8th month, 8th day, the six countries alliance with Great Zhou at the helm still held an advantage.

Jingdu still stood tall, while Great Jin was on the verge of being wiped out.

Silver Hand was naturally delighted, cheering for this hard-fought victory. Even Azure Badge heaved a sigh of relief, as they did not wish for Great Xia to truly unify China.

However, in just one day, the battle situation faced a sharp turn, which caught the tongue of everyone.

The panicked Di Chen prepared the border for battle. At the same time, he ordered Wuqi to come back to save the capital. He also thought of other methods to see if he could find more reinforcements to defend Handan City.

This was a sleepless night for Handan City.

…

The next morning, the well-rested Great Xia Guards Legion Corps officially charged into Great Zhou.

Their first target was Great Zhou’s grain hub at the border – Pingshan City. All the frontline resources that Great Zhou transported basically went through this city, and this was their overall logistics base.

Since it was a logistics base, there were troops defending it.

Truthfully, even if the frontlines were at a standstill, Pingshan City would still have 50 thousand troops defending. Now, they had a total of a legion in strength to defend the city.

Great Xia’s Guards Legion Corps consisted entirely of cavalry, so could they siege the city?

At least the Great Zhou defending general did not think so.

Although Pingshan City could not be considered a huge city, and it did not have city protection rivers, it had five meter high city walls. The Great Xia Guards Legion Corps did not have infantry and did not have siege weapons, so how would they even breakthrough the city?

Even if they wanted to copy the Mongol cavalry’s psychological battle, it was too rushed.

Putting it bluntly, Pingshan City had 80% and above of the grain of the Great Zhou army. The safety of this city directly concerned the outcome of the Battle of Jin.

Even if Great Xia’s Guards Legion Corps killed all the civilians in the surrounding villages, Pingshan City would not surrender.

Di Chen was not worried that Pingshan City could not be defended but that the Guards Legion Corps would go around Pingshan City and head right into the core area of Jingdu Province, charging right for Handan City.

If they did that, the Pingshan City defending troops would not dare to intercept them out of the city. If they were careless, they might fall for a trap.

However, the actions of the Guards Legion Corps once again surprised Di Chen. For some reason, early in the morning, the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps surrounded the south, north, and west directions of the city and left the east empty.

“Wow, they really are going to siege. Aren’t they a little too confident?”

The Pingshan City defending general stood on the city wall. Looking out at the majestic Great Xia Guards Legion Corps, uneasiness rose up in his heart for the first time. The Great Xia Guards Legion Corps were no fools, and they would not waste time doing something they did not have confidence in.

“Do they have a secret weapon?”

He actually guessed it correctly.

After the Guards Legion Corps formed up outside the city, at the backlines of each legion, there were movement. Behind the normal cavalry was the legion’s subordinate iron armored cavalry regiment.

Qiongzhou’s iron armored cavalry bases were on the right track since a long time ago. As the trump card of the entire army, the Guards Legion Corps were naturally the first to have a direct iron armored cavalry regiment.

There were two reasons for doing that.

First, to use these troops as super heavy armored cavalry. They would be thrown into the battle at the crucial moment to take down the most difficult enemies.

Secondly, to help the army carry the heavy equipment.

Compared to war horses, although the iron armored beasts were weaker in terms of stamina, in terms of carrying weight, they were miles better. Their size meant that they could even drag some heavy machines.

The secret weapons of the Guards Legion Corps were carried by this regiment.

Under the command of the engineer soldiers, the soldiers took down weird shaped parts from the iron armored beasts. In the hands of five artisans, they were formed into a giant arcubalista.

To say that it was giant was not an exaggeration.

The three bow arcubalistas were considered the biggest amongst all crossbows, but this giant arcubalista was actually three times in size.

More amazingly, with the development of the Mohists, it could be split up into hundreds of parts. After taking it apart, the iron armored beasts could easily transport it.

Only beasts like the iron armored beasts could manage to drag these for long periods of time. One must know that to strengthen the explosiveness of the arcubalista, more than half of the parts were made of steel and not normal wood.

As it was too cumbersome, each legion only brought one.

Very quickly, the assembled giant arcubalistas were pushed to the front and were aimed at the three city gates.

“What monster is that?”

How could the Great Zhou army ever have seen such a giant arcubalista? They could not help but chatter about it. Although they could not deduce the killing strength of the arcubalista, just that arm thick arrow was enough to make them shiver.

The generals were calm, chiding, “What are you all afraid of? No matter how strong it is, there’s only one. Can it shoot through the city wall? By the time that happens, the battle would be long over.”

When the soldiers heard that, they all felt that it made sense.

In actuality, in every siege, there would be hundreds of siege weapons prepared. They had never heard of anyone using a single weird-looking arcubalista to take down a city.

Thinking about it, that was true.

However, were matters really that simple?

Just as the defending troops were defending on the city wall, the giant arcubalistas were pushed forward under the protection of the cavalry to 600 meters away from the city gates before they stopped.

At this distance, only the arc shots from the archers on the city wall would be able to cause any threat to the Guards Legion Corps.

As a trump card force, the light armored cavalry of the Guards Legion Corps all had shields. Carrying it above their heads, the arrows shot from the city walls were like scratching an itch. It was difficult for such attacks to be effective.

Whilst speaking, the giant arcubalistas were in place.

“Aim!”

Compared to the three bow arcubalistas, the giant arcubalista’s aiming system was modified. Under the command of an experience commander, the precision could be controlled to within a meter.

As such, amazingly, one could accurately hit the target.

“Fire!”

Along with the order being given, the crossbow started to work and gave out rumbling noises. To obtain enough energy, the rotating mechanism actually had a steam engine within it.

Following which, one could only hear a ‘Xiu!’ as an arm thick arrow broke through the air, arcing in the air and smashing into the city gate like a homing missile. It was like a drill as it punctured the wooden city gate. Only half of the arrow was left exposed.

Even if Pingshan City was not a huge city, the city gates were made using large pieces of wood and were 35 centimeters thick. On the outside, it was wrapped with a layer of iron, and even if one used a siege hammer, one would find it difficult to breakthrough.

This giant crossbow had actually caused the arrow to pierce through the iron skin and stab into the door. Just a little more, and it would have pierced through.

“This….”

When the defending soldiers saw that, all their mouths hung agape.

While they were stunned, the cavalry at the front moved. A cavalry soldier in the middle pulled a long chain, dragging it on the ground as he charged at the gate under the protection of his brothers.

Under the feet of the cavalry was a huge stack of chains that were close to half a person tall. It was at least 500 meters long.

On the other end was a stabilizing mechanism that was similar to the bar on a chariot but longer such that it could tie eight war horses.

“Quick, stop them!”

When the city defending general saw that, although he did not know what the enemy was planning, he felt threatened and ordered the soldiers to kill the charging cavalry.

All of a sudden, arrows rained down.

Under the closely packed arrow rain, even the strong Great Xia Guards Legion Corps could not hold on. Casualties quickly started to appear as there were cavalry being shot down from their horses, unlikely to survive.

The Guards Legion Corps were brave, and they did not care, continuing to charge right at the city gates.

The arrow rain became more and more closely packed such that one could not see any gaps. Even as his brothers beside him fell, the soldier in the middle hauling the chain remained expressionless, staring right at the city gate and the arrow that had pierced through.

They were getting closer and closer to the city gate.

Once the cavalry were only five meters away, a large number of rocks rolled down from above. With the help of gravity, the huge stones crushed and killed any cavalry it struck.

Some unlucky ones were directly squashed into meat paste, and even their warhorses died.

Apart from stone, scalding hot oil was poured down. Even with armor protecting them, the warhorses could not withstand that. The moment hot oil touched them, they were frightened and started to hop around.

Luckily, the Great Xia cavalry used only heavy armored cavalry for this. Not only were the cavalry themselves wearing full armor, but even their war horses had protective gear and only had small amounts of skin revealed.

If not, they would not even be able to get close to the city gate.

When they got closer, what awaited them was a piece of rolling wood that swept across a large area. This made the advance of the cavalry really arduous, and their casualties continued to grow.

“Get off your horses!”

Along with the captain giving the order, the surviving cavalry pulled onto their reigns. The war horses neighed, uneasily kicking up the dirt beneath their hooves and causing smoke and dirt to rise.

After getting off their horse, they quickly gathered together, placing the shields on their shoulders and joining together. They lowered their heads and used all their strength to resist the impact of the stone and rolling wood.

The scalding hot oil dripped down from the gaps and fell onto their head and faces.

The Guards Legion Corps soldiers were true men. At the crucial moment, they displayed respectable heroic spirit. Being splashed by such hot oil, blisters of varying sizes appeared on their faces.

However, they did not make a sound and did not even frown. They bore the pain as they moved in an orderly manner toward the city gate. They moved to finish the last two meters, the most arduous and dangerous two meters.

They were only inches away from the city gate.

“Cover!”

The captain said as he lugged the chain toward the arrow that pierced the city gate.

Chapter 1200 - Army from the West

Chapter 1200: Army from the West

‘Bada!’

After an arduous journey with much danger, the cavalry finally hung the chain onto the steel ring at the end of the arrow.

After completing the mission, the captain gave out a sigh of relief. Looking around him, of the 100 men, only four were left. The rest were either killed or fell to the ground from their injuries.

Seeing their captain look over, the injured soldiers grinned, “Captain, you guys go, do not care about us.” The way here was difficult, and the way back was naturally not easy.

To take these casualties and rush back was close to an impossible task.

When they accepted the mission, they were mentally prepared to die.

However, the captain was really determined. He did not say a word as he carried an injured man and charged out. When the remaining four saw that, they followed suit, each carrying one, braving the arrow rain and charging back to where they came from.

Whether they could live or not was up to the heavens.

When the Major General saw that, he gave out a smile, “Not bad, as expected from soldiers under me. Send my orders, send a squadron of people to receive them. The rest of us shall provide cover fire.”

“Yes, general!”

As they spoke, a squadron of cavalry charged out.

The cavalry on the frontlines armed their bows and rained down at the city wall to interfere with the attacks of the enemy.

When the defending general saw that, he said coldly, “You still want to leave? Stop them!” If they allowed the enemy to do as they liked, the face of the Great Zhou army would be totally lost.

“Yes, general!”

Both sides rained down arrows on one another; both sides fought with pleasure.

Maybe the heavens were really blessing them. Under such dense arrow fire, the 10 cavalry soldiers actually managed to successfully gather up with the receiving troops and not a single one died.

When the defending general saw that, his face was really dark.

What would truly make his face change was still to come. After the cavalry returned, the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps had new activities. The eight biggest and strongest iron armored beast with the rods on them pulled onto the chain as they started to move.

The long chains became taut right away.

At this point, the secret weapon of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps was fully revealed. They wanted to use the arrow pierced into the city gate along with the brute force of the iron armored cavalry to pull down the city gate.

‘Hei!’

Under the command of the cavalry, the eight iron armored beasts used all their strength and charged forward. As they used too much strength, their hooves even dented the ground.

‘Aang~’

The heads of the beasts tilted forward. Their front claws grasped at the ground as they proceeded forward with much difficulty.

Under the strong pulls from the iron armored beasts, the city gates started to creak. The door frame was slowly starting to change shape, obviously unable to withstand the heavy force.

Seeing that, the defending general’s face changed. Only now did he understand the true intentions of the enemy.

“General, what should we do?”

If the city gates were pulled down, the 200 thousand Great Xia Guards Legion Corps troops would be able to charge into the city. The Great Zhou soldiers’ faces were all ashen white.

The defending general was lost.

The iron chain was immune to oil, and even if one threw stones at it, the stones were knocked away and had no effect as the chain was taut.

The only way would be to proactively exit the city. However, that was also the worst method.

‘Kachi~kachi~’

In such a short while, the entire city gate had totally changed shape and was about to be pulled down.

“We have no choice, prepare to fight!” The city defense general knew that they were unable to prevent the enemy from breaking in. The only choice was to have a brawl with them within the city.

Hearing their general say that, the faces of the surrounding soldiers changed, and their eyes turned around with unease.

With just 70 thousand men, how could they defeat 200 thousand Great Xia Guards Legion Corps soldiers? Even the strongest palace guards were beaten by the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps despite having a numerical advantage.

Much less now, where they numbered only a third of the enemy. If they really fought, they would definitely die. Thinking about how the east gate had not been blocked up, there were soldiers planning to smoothly leave the battle and escape toward the east.

‘Honglong!’

The west gate was the first to succumb as it collapse to the ground.

“Charge!”

The 2nd legion Legion General Ma Chao waved his spear forward and gave the order to attack.

“Kill!”

After receiving the military order, the cavalry surged toward the city gate like a flood, not bothering about the arrows flying toward them. In front of absolute numbers, an arrow rain would not be able to cause much of a threat to the army.

The huge army galloping on the green stone streets gave out ‘Da da’ noises.

At the end of the street, the Great Zhou army had hurriedly formed up. They looked toward the aggressively charging army with fear and trepidation. Currently, their stomachs and legs were trembling. The fame of the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps really sent a chill down their spines.

This was a totally one-sided battle.

At basically the same time, the south and north gates were broken, and the 3rd and 4th legions charged into the city. The three armies moved like they were in competition. They looked like they were about to engage in slaughter within the city.

When Huo Qubing saw that, not a single bit of emotion appeared in his face.

Such an outcome was totally expected by him. To the Guards Legion Corps, taking down Pingshan City could only be considered a warmup. Following which, they had to sweep the entire Jingdu Province.

In just one morning, Pingshan City was totally taken down by the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps.

In truth, the three legions spent just an hour within the city, and the Great Zhou army totally collapsed, losing their fighting spirit. They either surrendered or fled toward the east gate.

The defending general was stepped into meat paste amongst all the chaos.

After killing the defending troops, the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps did not hesitate, directly using a fire to burn up all the 10 large-sized granaries within the city, not even leaving behind a single bit of grain.

The flames charged toward the skies, and smoke rumbled. Even if one was far away, they would still be able to see it.

The Great Zhou dynasty made the people simplify their clothing and reduce their food intake, obtaining some amount of grain. Now, they were burned up in just one fire. When the civilians within the city saw that, they immediately teared up.

Reality was just so cruel.

Although the Great Jin dynasty and Zhongyuan Province lacked grain, since they could not take it away, they could only burn it.

Without this batch of grain, Great Zhou’s operation in Great Jin would be difficult to sustain and had basically ended halfway. Under such circumstances, if Great Zhou chose to forcefully attack, they would only be asking for trouble.

More importantly, the heavy damage that the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps would dish out had only just begun.

After burning all the grain, the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps showed no signs of staying. After having a full meal within the city, they brought the war prisoners and retreated like a tide. These prisoners were the secret weapons they would use to take down the other cities.

In the next few days, Great Xia kept up the good work, taking down three cities. Without an exception, these cities were all important grain points on the grain route.

Within three days, the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps did not even use a single military grain pill, settling their hunger through the local grain.

Under the leadership of Huo Qubing, the troops that Wuqi sent could only eat the dust behind the Guards Legion Corps and could not even see their shadows.

This time, Great Zhou totally panicked.

The fear that rose from the slaughter spread from west to east. If Great Xia did not have a tradition of not disturbing people and not hurting the civilians, a migration wave might have started.

Even then, the people were terrified.

Even the civilians in Handan City started to shiver in fear. They were afraid that they would become civilians of a fallen country when they woke up. With the speed of the Guards Legion Corps, they would reach Handan City in just two days.

But at that moment, something weird happened.

8th month, 13th day, the Guards Legion Corps that was about to reach Handan City suddenly made a huge arc, going around the city and traveling toward the border where Great Qing and Jingdu Province met.

It was like Handan City had a presence that the Guards Legion Corps were afraid of.

“What’s happening?”

The Handan City civilians, who survived the ordeal, felt surprised and confused. Living under the foot of the king meant that many of them were well informed. They knew that apart from the three thousand household guards, the rest were merely Garrison Division forces.

Such a small number of troops could not have made Great Xia afraid.

Someone joked, “Did the name of the king make the enemy fear fighting?” The person who spoke naturally did not believe that his king had such prestige.

Even the Xia King could not manage to do something like that.

This matter became the biggest riddle in Handan City, and only a few people knew what was going on.

…

Handan City, palace.

After learning that the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps had gone around Handan City, Di Chen regretfully heaved a sigh of relief.

When the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps was valiantly sweeping all sides, Di Chen had finally managed to invite reinforcements from Qin and Tang.

These two countries promised that if Great Xia dared to attack Handan City, they would teleport their guards over right away to counter surround the Guards Legion Corps and give the Great Xia elites a huge blow.

Of the two, Qin Shihuang was the most eager.

It seems like the rejection of Meng Yi and Meng Tian made him feel like he had lost face, and he wanted to retrieve it on the Handan battlefield.

As for being worried about having a conflict with Great Xia, these two emperors had seen through the matter.

For the China region situation to reach such a stage, regardless of Qin or Tang, neither had any space for them and Great Xia to reconcile.

One day, the two sides would fight on the battlefield.

Since that was the case, what difference would it make whether it was early or late?

However, Di Chen did not expect the Shanhai Guards spies to find out their plot, which made the Guards Legion Corps wary. They did not even dare to come close to Handan City, causing the opportunity to slip away from the hands of the six country alliance.

“This favor was wasted. What a bastard.”

To invite Qin and Tang to assist him, Di Chen had made a lot of promises before he was able to persuade them to officially enter the battle of the mid plains. Who would have expected that the outcome would be like that?

This was the first time Di Chen saw the legendary Shanhai Guards in a different light.

Chapter 1201 - Destruction of Great Qing

Chapter 1201: Destruction of Great Qing

Apart from feeling frustration and regret, Di Chen also had to face an even more difficult situation. Their conquest of Great Jin had failed, so how would Great Zhou face the retaliation of Great Xia?

“It’s time for the six country alliance to take out some sincerity.”

Di Chen looked out at the China region map on the wall. He was deep in thought. In the event that Great Zhou could not go against Great Xia alone, he could only strengthen the alliance and hug together to survive.

Although it was frustrating, it was the only feasible idea.

…

8th month, 13th day, just as the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps went around Handan City, the Leopard Legion Corps led by Hanxin was only a day away from Fallen Phoenix City.

When he received the report, Lianpo did not dare to remain in Phoenix Castle. He brought his remaining palace guards to flee toward the east.

Who would have expected the 10 thousand Great Xia Guards Legion Corps infantry scattered at the outskirts to suddenly charge out and fearlessly block their way to the east?

Following which, the Great Jin Guards Legion Corps under the leadership of Meng Tian aggressively charged out, surrounding the palace guards. The Leopard Legion Corps vanguard forces also arrived on the quickly battlefield to join in.

This time, the Great Zhou palace guards was surrounded by dangers.

Lianpo broke out in cold sweat. He did not dare to waste time with the enemy. The moment the Leopard Legion Corps pounced on him, all the palace guards would die here. Helplessly, he could only be vicious, abandoning his troops to save himself. He arranged a legion as the backlines while bringing the remaining 200 thousand troops to retreat toward the east.

Through this battle, the Great Zhou palace guards lost close to half of their numbers, hurting their essence.

Due to the grain route being destroyed, the palace guards suffering heavy casualties, and the entry of the Leopard Legion Corps into the Great Jin battlefield, Wuqi judged that they would not be able to wipe out Great Jin. As such, he requested to retreat the troops.

When Di Chen got the report, he helplessly nodded in agreement.

The bad defeat of the palace guards let Di Chen realize that in the Great Jin battlefield, Great Zhou did not have the initiative. They control not over their fates. If this dragged on, they would not even be able to smoothly pull back their main force into the country.

The army was one of the pillars of the country and was also the biggest chip in Di Chen’s hands. Once the army suffered heavy casualties, the foundations of the country would be shaken.

This was a risk that Di Chen did not dare to take.

Especially during such an uncertain and weird war situation.

However, before they retreated, Wuqi organized another strong campaign on the blazing legion corps, once again killing close to 70 thousand of blazing legion corps before leaving the battlefield with satisfaction.

As expected from the God General Wuqi, his foresight was not limited to the battlefield, as he also knew how to think from a strategic point of view. He knew that under the circumstances that Great Zhou was unable to take down Great Jin, greatly weakening their troops would mean that they would be able to protect Great Zhou and let them be helpless in taking revenge against Great Zhou.

Such strategic foresight was what Lianpo lacked.

If not, after the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps managed to breakthrough, Lianpo would have led the palace guards out of the canyon, either going toward the border or gathering with Wuqi’s forces. No matter what, he would not have slipped up so badly in the end.

If it were not for him being decisive at the end, the palace guards would have totally been crushed.

First, Lianpo had underestimated the courage of the 10 thousand Guards Legion Corps infantry. After all, with so little men, how would they dare to block the path of the palace guards? However, he did not know that the Guards Legion Corps had the courage to fight to the death.

Secondly, Lianpo underestimated the ability of the soldier saint to capture opportune moments. The Leopard Legion Corps vanguards arriving on the battlefield did not give the palace guards any room to breathe and caught Lianpo off guard.

The root of the problem was that Lianpo had underestimated his opponent.

The price of this mistake was the army that Di Chen relied on the most suffering heavy casualties.

Along with the Great Zhou army retreating, the Battle of Great Jin that lasted for close to a month finally came to an end.

After paying a heavy price, Great Jin managed to barely hold onto their land. Through this battle, the blazing legion corps was totally wasted, and the Guards Legion Corps also suffered heavy casualties, losing close to 100 thousand men.

After this battle, Great Jin went from 600 thousand troops at their peak to around 400 thousand. In terms of numbers, they could not compare with even Qin, Tang, and Song, falling down the rankings of strong countries.

Apart from the casualties, under the flames of war, Great Jin territory was riddled with holes. Civilian life was chaotic, and many raiders and bandits rose, causing both direct and indirect economic losses of no less than 15 million gold.

The dynasty economy would definitely go through a period of pain and even backward movement.

Considering the new background of the China region and the future China landscape, Great Jin would have no chance to rise up.

A dynasty was facing a fall just like that.

…

Although they had badly hurt Great Jin, Great Zhou themselves was not in a good state.

A million troops sent out, not to mention the enormous amounts of grain used, but they had also lost troops, with 200 thousand of them dying. In the end, they did not even gain anything.

To make matters worse, Di Chen had to fulfil his promises.

The moment the news of Great Zhou pulling their troops out of Great Jin was spread, Song and Ming both sent envoys to rush Great Zhou into fulfilling their promise to give Jingchu Province to Song and Donghai Province to Ming.

Di Chen argued that since Great Jin was not taken down, the promise had to be delayed.

Song and Ming did not agree, arguing, “We have already helped Great Zhou defend the border. As for Great Zhou not taking down Great Jin, that is your problem and does not concern the promise.”

Di Chen was speechless. Although, he wanted to argue, the two envoys made a final statement, “Your country has a week to move out from the land. If not, do not blame us for forcefully occupying it.”

This was not an empty threat.

As the envoy gave this statement, the Great Song Guards Legion Corps had already surrounded Pill Sun City. Meanwhile, the Great Ming Guards Legion Corps defending Jianye had sent out 50 thousand men to move toward Blood Red City.

The situation in the mid plains instantly became nervous.

Both Song Taizu and Ming Taizu knew that under such a situation, Great Zhou had nothing to rely on, and for them to continue to rise up in the wilderness, they had to have enough land.

To take down a province of land, the two countries did not mind going to war.

When Di Chen received the report, although he was so furious that he gritted his teeth, he could not act up.

Currently, Great Zhou was at its weakest. They were lacking in troops, and their entire border was defended by Song and Tang. If they flipped on them, Great Zhou would not have the ability to fight back.

Even if the Great Zhou army smoothly returned to Handan City, Di Chen did not dare to take the risk to teleport them to Pill Sun City or Blood Red City to engage with Song and Ming.

If that really happened, Great Xia would be the biggest winner.

After considering everything, this bitter pill was something that Di Chen had to swallow no matter what.

In the end, after the war, not to mention them not getting anything in return, they even lost two provinces, what a huge loss. Di Chen could only hope that they could strengthen the six country alliance using this chance.

Of course, it should now be called the five country alliance because Great Qing was just two to three days away from being wiped out.

8th month, 15th day, Huo Qubing led 200 thousand Guards Legion Corps troops and galloped unrestrained across Jingdu Province and into Great Qing territory.

What happened next was surprising, but it was also not.

The 200 thousand Guards Legion Corps and the 210 thousand Eagle Legion Corps troops led by Li Mu surrounded the 200 thousand eight banner iron cavalry outside Jingdu City.

Two against one, it ended in total defeat for the eight banners army.

This battle lasted for a full three days and three nights. 600 thousand troops engaged in a life and death battle. In a radius of 10 miles, everyone could hear the rumbling horse hooves and the clashing of blades.

War horses neighing, heroes buried in the dirt.

On the afternoon of the 3rd day, of the 200 thousand Qing troops, 70 thousand were dead. The remaining ones were totally exhausted, their morale was low, and their fighting spirit had been lost.

Seeing that, Huo Qubing and Li Mu tried to convince them to surrender.

In front of a heaven like power, human strength could change nothing. Since Great Xia gave them a staircase to step down from, the 130 thousand Qing troops did not need to make any unneeded resistance and cleanly surrendered.

Some of the loyal ones were unfortunately murdered by their brothers and used to ask for credit.

The next morning, Huo Qubing led his troops to accept the prisoners. Li Mu’s forces became the spear to head right for Jingdu. The Guards Legion Corps had charged for so long, and it was time for them to rest.

On the contrary, Li Mu’s forces had been resting up and desired to fight.

Huo Qubing knew how to act. He knew that the Guards Legion Corps had collected enough war contributions. If they went to attack Jingdu, it would be too greedy.

Such an overbearing nature would be looked down on by others.

…

Great Qing Dynasty, Jingdu City.

After learning that the 200 thousand troops were wiped out, the Imperial Court was stunned and everyone was terrified. A week ago, Li Jing had led the main force to blow open the Jingdu city wall and entered the city to fight an alley battle against the Qing army.

The army outside of the city was the last hope of Jingdu.

“Now that hope was extinguished.”

Kangxi Emperor laid paralyzed on his throne. Currently, he was filled with unspeakable exhaustion.

Since he had entered the wilderness, due to having a neighbor like Great Xia, he had never had a comfortable day. He lived in trepidation and worry about how to keep the foundations of his ancestors going.

However, the game rules of the wilderness were really unfair for emperors like him.

Gaia gave the imperial city a really strong army but did not give them comparable land and power. They barely lasted till they could interfere in the battle of the wilderness, and by that time, China was under the shadow of Great Xia, and they had no room to expand.

“So difficult.”

Kangxi gave out a similar exclamation to Di Chen.

Along with the Great Xia Army charging into the city, the way the Jingdu civilians looked toward the nobles became unusual. Their gazes were filled with darkness, making one panic.

“Anyone not from my race would not be on the same side.”

Thinking about this phrase in ‘Zuozhuan(left turn),’ Kangxi did not feel good.

In history, Han Chinese were filled with unhappiness and resistance toward the Manchu. They were long cleaned out during Shunzhi’s rule and Kangxi did not need to worry about them back then. The current wilderness was the land of the Han Chinese, so the situation of the Manchu people was understandable.

The moment Great Xia attacked Jingdu City, the Jingdu civilians might even take out fireworks to celebrate.

Just as Kangxi was at a loss, the 8th month, 20th day quickly arrived. On that morning, Li Mu led 200 thousand Eagle Legion Corps troops and appeared on the west outskirts of Jingdu City.

Jingdu City was in a hard to bear silence, and the Imperial Court was totally silent too.

When Kangxi received the report, he gave up on his last bit of hope. He did not wish to drag the entire Manchu royal family into the abyss. That day, he surrendered to Great Xia and ended his short rule of Jingdu Prefecture.

In the China region, another country had been wiped once again.

Chapter 1202 - Downgraded to Commoner Status

Chapter 1202: Downgraded to Commoner Status

The destruction of Great Qing symbolized a temporary end to the battle of the mid plains.

In less than two months, while protecting Great Jin, Great Xia managed to take down Great Han and Great Qing, becoming the biggest victor in this huge war.

During this period of time, after successive battles, the Mongol army totally wiped out the Turkish Khanate cavalry, smoothly occupying Turkish Khanate. Through this battle, the Mongol empire expanded their territory by half and became a super grassland dynasty that stretched from east to west.

In terms of China region land size, the Mongol empire was comparable to Great Xia.

Along with the weakening of Great Zhou, if it were not for six country alliance, in terms of individual size, Mongol empire would have already replaced Great Zhou as the biggest opponent to Great Xia’s unification.

The two of them were destined to have a battle.

…

8th month, 21st day, Ouyang Shuo arrived in Jingdu City.

Although Feng Qiuhuang had officially requested to merge into Great Xia after Great Zhou troops withdrew from Great Jin, Ouyang Shuo was not in a rush to accept them.

First, the war had just ended, and Great Jin had barely managed to defend their land. Their morale was soaring, and it was a time where the entire dynasty was bonded together. If she decided to announce the merger with Great Xia at such a time, the civilians might not accept it, and it would cause much chaos.

Secondly, Great Jin was evidently riddled with holes. The Imperial Court was being torn apart, and Feng Qiuhuang was undergoing a huge restructuring and cleansing. If she merged with Great Xia at such a time, all her efforts would go to waste.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to borrow the hand of Feng Qiuhuang to purify Great Jin before taking it over.

Making her take the blame might seem really fake, but standing on the side of Great Xia, this was the most beneficial method, and Feng Qiuhuang would be able to understand it.

Furthermore, with her pride, she would not want to hand over a problematic Great Jin to Ouyang Shuo.

The matter was settled just like that.

Once Feng Qiuhuang completed her mission and merged Great Jin into Great Xia, Great Xia could appear as the savior and calm down the repercussions due to the cleansing while buying over the hearts of the people.

This could to a large extent protect a perfect Great Jin. After all, Ouyang Shuo did not hope to take over a hot mess.

To Feng Qiuhuang, Great Jin was like her dowry, and the good or bad of it would affect how high she would be able to climb up in Great Xia.

Compared to Bai Hua, Feng Qiuhuang was a latecomer.

Ouyang Shuo had high hopes for Feng Qiuhuang. Naturally, he did not hope for there to be hot debates right after she joined the Great Xia system.

Jingdu City, city west courtyard.

After arriving at Jingdu City, Ouyang Shuo did not meet the Great Qing royal family members, nor did he meet the Great Qing officials in a high profile. Instead, he cooped up in a clean courtyard to deal with post war matters in a low-profile.

Staying in the room, Ouyang Shuo could still hear the clamor from the streets, and the sounds of fireworks were incessant. The people of Jingdu were happily celebrating, celebrating Great Xia reclaiming Jingdu City.

The hatred between Manchu and the Han people was something that could never be wiped away.

No matter how low-profile Ouyang Shuo was, his appearance still caused many ripples and waves in the pool that was Jingdu. Even without showing himself, his name alone struck fear into this old city.

The noisy Jingdu City pretty much became silent.

There was a good sentence, ‘When one’s name was big, others could use it to protect themselves. When the shadow of a tree is big, it would provide shade and cover for others.” Ouyang Shuo had reached such a realm where just his name he could settle things that others could not no matter how hard they tried.

Just like this time.

Although Ouyang Shuo did not reveal his face and just stayed in the courtyard, as a result of his presence, the officials that Great Xia sent to takeover Jingdu felt this difficult task become much easier.

The resistance that they had previously faced instantly disappeared.

The Great Xia Imperial Court had already decided to merge Jingdu Prefecture into Beijiang Province and move the Beijiang Governor-General House to Jingdu City. The future Jingdu City would be the central city of the dynasty in the north.

Toward such a strategic city, the Imperial Court naturally had high hopes and would focus on it. Overall, it was no less important than accepting a province of land.

Jingdu City also had a point that was different from other places – the officials were mostly Manchu people.

This was naturally unacceptable.

The Imperial Court had already decided to remove all the grade 5 and above officials here. Apart from leaving a few who had good comments, the remaining were downgraded to commoners or sent to other provinces.

Many resisted this change. After all, they were smashing the rice bowl of people. If it were not for Ouyang Shuo personally taking charge at Jingdu, even with the prestige of Great Xia today, things would get out of hand.

Apart from the officials in the city, what was more important was how to settle the Qing Dynasty royal family, especially Kangxi Emperor.

Toward this, the Imperial Court had two views.

The first group felt that they should follow the way they settled down the Great Han royal family, giving him the title of Qing Prince and restricting him to his prince palace to calm down the people.

However, there were some people who were worried that Kangxi could not be compared to Liu Fuling and had undoubted prestige. Even if one restricted his movements, he would find a way to work in the dark.

Rather than that, why not kill him and solve everything?

Such a method was similarly opposed.

First, killing an emperor that had already surrendered would negatively affect the magnanimity of the dynasty. Secondly, if this precedence was opened, it would only cause other dynasties to fight to the death. They would rather die than surrender.

The two sides debated with one another, and in the end, Ouyang Shuo needed to personally make the decision.

Ouyang Shuo contemplated the matter and decided that giving him a title was definitely impossible. He decided to choose the middle ground, downgrading all the Qing royal family members to commoners. They would move to Nanjiang.

The Qing and Han royal families were treated differently for a reason.

First, the former Han officials had basically gained the trust of Great Xia, while the Great Qing officials were cleaned out. As such, there was less resistance to them downgrading the Qing royal family.

Secondly, Tian Wenjing, Zuo Zongtang, and the other Qing Dynasty officials working in Great Xia were all Han Chinese and did not have a deep relationship with the Qing dynasty. Ouyang Shuo naturally did not need to consider much of their feelings.

Thirdly, Hanwu Emperor had an extremely high level of prestige amongst the entire Han Chinse civilization. It did not affect only the Zhongyuan Province but the entire China as well.

Hence, due to all these considerations, Great Xia had to take care of the descendants of Hanwu Emperor.

In comparison, Kangxi Emperor had a much weaker influence. Like now in Jingdu City, there were many who applauded his defeat.

Hence, even if he was downgraded to commoner, apart from the Manchu people, not many people would be unhappy about it.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo did not go too far, and he gave Kangxi Emperor’s fourth son Yongzheng the title of 2nd class Earl. It could be considered that they had given the Qing royal family face.

Only then could they answer to the surrendered Qing army troops.

In this attack on Great Qing, they had captured 320 thousand Qing troops. As for how to deal with them, Ouyang Shuo was not in a rush to conclude and only let the Beijiang Legion corps take care of them at the outskirts of the city.

As for military reorganization, once it was started, everything would be affected.

Ouyang Shuo was prepared to wait till Great Jin merged into Great Xia before combining with the Great Jin army. Along with the captured Han troops from before, they would have a systematic military reorganization and not just knock it one side at a time.

Furthermore, this battle of the mid plains was far from over.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was taking charge of Jingdu City, Han Xin had led the Leopard Legion Corps to return to Zhongyuan Province. In a short amount of time, be it Qin, Tang, or Great Zhou, they would not dare to eye Great Jin.

The Leopard Legion Corps naturally did not need to move in Great Jin.

Zhongyuan Province had been taken down not long ago and needed an army to take charge.

Once the defensive duties were handed over to the Leopard Legion Corps, the 5th legion of the City Protection Legion Corps that was housed in Luoyang needed to return to Shanhai City.

Similarly, after handing over the war prisoners to the Beijiang legion corps, the Guards Legion Corps would return to Shanhai City.

Of the troops that attacked Great Qing, apart from the Bear Legion Corps led by Li Jing that were temporarily in Jingdu, the three legions of the City Protection Legion, the three legions of the Eagle Legion Corps, and the 1st legion of Yingzhou formation all returned to their respective camps.

Looking at the situation, Great Xia was not planning to wipe out Great Zhou in one fell swoop.

It was not that they did not want to, but they could not.

After Great Qing was destroyed, the remaining five countries in the alliance would be closely knit together.

The armies of the five countries added together exceeded three million. If they all acted at once and things went wrong, Great Xia might be burned by the flames of war.

Ouyang Shuo’s strategy was to nibble at them bit by bit.

Of course, to quicken up the speed, Ouyang Shuo did not mind using trump card after trump card.

The place where war exploded was the southeast region.

On the 8th month, 22nd day, the 2nd day that Ouyang Shuo was in Jingdu, southeast warzone deputy commander Sun Bin led the Tiger Legion Corps and Xiangjiang legion corps, a total of 600 thousand troops, to enter Great Zhou’s Jiangnan Province.

The flames of war that had just died down were reignited once more.

Chapter 1203 - TWO Chapter 1203-Most awkward emperor

Chapter 1203: TWO Chapter 1203-Most awkward emperor

The 8th month was the hottest period of the year for the south. Even in the morning, a thin layer of clothing was able to defend against the cold. Such weather was unbearable for the heavy armored soldiers.

Usually, their entire body would be like they were dragged out from water after half a day of fighting in the drill field.

Hence, the Great Xia Army chose to attack Jiangnan Province early in the morning. The sun had just risen up, and the Tiger Legion Corps and Xiangjiang legion corps used the 10 warfighting legions to cover the entire Jiangnan border under the morning dew.

The Tiger Legion Corps struck out from the Minnan border while the Zhang Xutuo led Xiangjiang legion corps attacked from the Jiangchuan province border.

The entire formation line stretched for thousands of miles.

The 600 thousand troops formed an iron current like a black grim reaper line. They spread from the southwest border of Jiangnan Province and rumbled forward to swallow up the entire province.

Following behind the army was an even longer grain supply line.

Early in the morning, every path toward the border in the entire Jiangchuan and Minnan Province was occupied by groups of grain carts. The ‘kachi kachi’ noises gathered up to form a melody. It was impossible for one to see the end of the line.

The Imperial Court had won two successive battles, and their morale was soaring. When the civilians of the two lands saw the grain troops, they did not feel the fear that war brings. Instead, they happily discussed where the Imperial Court was going to expand to this time.

As they were transporting grain within the territory, the ones in charge of transporting gain were bailiffs that were gathered in an impromptu manner. Whichever prefecture or county was reached, the bailiffs from that prefecture or county would cover them. As such, they did not even need to send a large number of troops.

Who had the courage to come and steal grain within the borders of Great Xia?

As for the raiders in the wilderness, they had long disappeared and did not have a chance to rise up once more.

The grain carts set off from the prefecture and counties and were like streams gathering to form a river. They were like closely packed blood vessels as they gathered toward the frontlines and sent ‘blood’ to the frontline soldiers.

If it were not for the communication compasses, they would not be able to sustain such a long, and the troops could only be like blind men, fighting for themselves.

The appearance of the communication compass changed the way that wars were fought.

The party helping Great Zhou to defend Jiangnan Province was the God General Xu Da led 400 thousand Great Ming guards. Xu Da was undeniably skilled at using troops, taking it seriously ever since he took over from Great Zhou’s King legion corps.

Even if the battle in the north stopped, looking at the situation, the Battle of China was about to stop too. However, only after the King legion corps returned to Jiangnan Province would the Ming army have succeeded in their mission. Before that, Xu Da had no intentions of relaxing.

In Xu Da’s words, ‘One day that I defend will be one day that I carry out my task.’

As the frontline between Great Xia and Great Zhou, the defense work at the Jiangnan Province border could only be described as unassailable. Within these two years, under the personal planning of Wuqi, the entire border used 15 cities as fortified points, building forts between them. Between the forts were sentries, which formed a layered, defensive steel line.

Apart from that, there was a beacon tower on the mountains and a watchtower on the plains. There was a water stronghold on the river and passes on the official path to form an airtight defensive net.

Not to mention an army attacking, but even if an enemy scout tried to enter, he would lose a layer of skin.

When Xu Da took over the defensive line, he was full of praise of Wuqi’s toward generosity.

As a result, after learning that Great Xia had suddenly sent troops to attack Jiangnan Province, Xu Da was not really nervous. Although from the intel shared by Great Zhou showed that Great Xia was truly acting, Xu Da did not feel that Great Xia could use just 600 thousand troops to break through the 400 thousand Ming army defended defensive steel line.

‘Unless Great Xia continues to add troops.’

The probability of this was not too high because the Guards Legion Corps, City Protection Legion Corps, and Eagle Legion Corps were already teleported back to their bases. If they were to reinforce the frontlines, they should have directly teleported to Xunlong City.

Great Xia would not waste money and not ignore the millions of gold teleportation would expend.

“Then, what are the enemy’s intentions?”

As intel was limited, Xu Da did not understand. It was not possible that the Great Xia Army was bored. They would not move such a large scale army, tire the troops out, and spend money for no reason.

For a border exercise?

Any general with intellect would not make such a judgment.

As a pure-minded general, since Xu Da could not understand the twist and turns behind all of this, he decided not to think about it and put his focus on the impending battle instead.

“Let’s use this chance to train the troops.”

The 500 thousand Great Ming troops had never been truly thrown into the battlefield. Although Xu Da was confident and trained them really strictly, they still needed to be tested on the battlefield in the end.

Early in the morning, various big and small battles exploded at various parts of the border.

To attack into Jiangnan Province, the Great Xia Army needed to first remove the sentries, border checkpoints, and watchtowers. Otherwise, there would be many problems for them.

As the target was small and scattered, it did not seem feasible to use a large scale army to do so. They could only send out a unit worth of troops at a time, spreading out as a net to charge into the wilderness.

During just the first morning, the Great Xia Army sent out 100 ‘cleaning’ squads.

In return, the Ming army’s strategy was to defend what could be defended. If they could not defend, they would retreat. They did not fight to the death, but they did not easily give up either. In the end, they were using the border resources of Great Zhou to do a military exercise.

The bustling day quickly came to an end.

…

King City south outskirts, Ming Dynasty command headquarters, command tent.

Due to King City being too sensitive, the Ming army did not enter the city and just relied on the city to build a huge camp outside and set up the command center of the entire army.

God General Xu Da personally took charge of it.

The oil lamp lit the tent bright. When Xu Da looked at the battle report, his expression was not as relaxed as when the war had just began. After a day of fighting, the results were far from what he had been expecting.

Logically speaking, the many sentries of the defensive net that Great Zhou had set up were placed in really secretive spots. If one was not familiar with the landscape, it would take half a day for Great Xia to even locate them.

The truth was far from that.

In just a day, the Great Xia Army took down 300 points, getting off to a great start. Considering the time, this was pretty much an impossible matter. It was similar to them not spending much effort and managing to find their targets.

The extent to which Great Xia understood the defensive line of Great Zhou far exceeded Xu Da’s expectations.

“Rumors have it that Great Xia has three intel organizations, and their spies are in every hole. However, this is a little too exaggerated. With Wuqi’s ability, there’s no way that he did not defend against these spies.”

Xu Da was confused; this was the first time he felt that there were elements that were out of his control and did not understand behind this big battle. The normally calm him felt a little uneasy.

“The Tiger Legion Corps are often housed at the Jiangnan Province border, so their scouts must often cross over. It is not a surprise that the Great Xia Army knows where the sentries at the border are.” The deputy general did not think too deeply about it.

During the defense of the Great Xia’s south border, Zhu Yuanzhang appointed Xu Da as the main general and Chang Yuchun as the deputy. There were also generals Deng Yu and Feng Sheng following around, a really stellar formation.

Tang He, who became famous along with Xu Da, led troops to defend Jianye City.

Out of all their generals, apart from God General Xu Da, Chang Yuchun was the most famous. He was listed as one of the top 10 generals in history along with Shi Wanshui, Xue Rengui, Ran Min, and the like.

Of the two, one was famous for his strategy, while the other was famous for being a fearless general. The two of them worked with one another, and they were invincible. In terms of traditional wars, this combination could be considered the pinnacle of Chinese history.

After Zhu Yuanzhang’s ascension, he started out by wiping out the nine generations of chancellor Hu Weiyong for plotting against him. At that time, left prime minister Li Shanchang, general Lan Yu, Li Wen Zhong, and the like were all killed.

Amongst which, Lan Yu was the brother-in-law of Chang Yuchun, and Li Wenzhong was the nephew of Zhu Yuanzhang.

Out of the 34 meritorious officials at the beginning of Ming, a few of them died because of illnesses, and the others rarely had a good death. Even Zhu Yuanzhang’s in law, Xu Da, was sentenced to death.

For Chang Yuchun to have a good death was not because Zhu Yuanzhang was merciful. Rather, it was because Great Ming had not totally unified China before he died from a flu. When he died, he was only 40.

If not, with his exceptional ability and strategic mind, whether he would be pardoned or not was difficult to say.

Out of the nine emperors who entered the wilderness, the one that was the most awkward was Zhu Yuanzhang. Even Kangxi emperor, who killed Oboi, was more at ease than him. After all, Oboi deserved it.

Luckily, Zhu Yuanzhang was well versed in the Thick Black Theory, allowing him to maintain the Great Ming system.

Xu Da nodded his head in silence. Although he felt that Chang Yuchun’s words made sense, he still felt uneasy in his heart. However, even if he felt uneasy, the war still had to continue.

“Send my orders, starting from tomorrow, your defenses must be more resolute. You must not easily give up the sentries. When needed, the defense troops can move out of the city to fight and suppress the enemy.”

“Yes, general!”

Xu Da was trying to give the Great Xia Army some pressure. Otherwise, if they continued on like this the entire defensive line would be destroyed before the King legion corps even returned to Jiangnan Province.

At that time, the Ming army could naturally withdraw, but they would leave behind King City as a total mess.

Xu Da could not do something like that.

“Maybe the true goal of the Great Xia Army is to destroy the Jiangnan defense line and create a chance in the battle against King City?” A light flashed in Xu Da’s mind, roughly finding a conjecture.

However, as he looked out at the generals in the tent, Xu Da did not voice his conjecture.

Following which, a tough battle awaited them.

Chapter 1204 - TWO Chapter 1204-Di Chen grabs power

Chapter 1204: TWO Chapter 1204-Di Chen grabs power

Great Zhou Dynasty, Handan City.

At the end of the 8th month, at the start of autumn, the leaves of the white birch trees started to turn yellow. The leaves of the maple trees throughout the mountains and wilderness were between yellow and green. They were really nice to look at, and it was like they had a layer of makeup on.

Just yesterday, the huge army had slowly withdrawn from the frontlines and were arranged to rest outside of Handan City. The closely packed camps and the clamor covered awkwardness, and the lost and exhaustion that could not be wiped away.

Roughly thinking back to a month ago, in a similar place on the west outskirts. The Great Zhou king gave out an eager expedition proclamation to say that they were going to take down Great Jin and enter the mid plains, attracting loud cheers.

That was the brightest moment in Great Zhou’s history.

While the cheers were still reverberating through the mountains and had not totally subsided, the army was hit badly and had to flee back in embarrassment, slowly returning to their land to lick their wounds.

They were like wild grass slowly turning yellow, devoid of life.

Regarding the failure of their expedition and what to do next, the Imperial Court needed to take out a plan. Soon afterward, news spread out about Great Xia attacking Jiangnan Province, which made the already badly bruised Great Zhou even more distressed.

Palace, meeting hall.

Great Zhou’s civil servants and generals were all present. Xiong Ba, Chun Shenjun, and Zhan Lang had especially rushed back from their cities for the meeting to discuss the fate of Great Zhou.

At the start of the meeting, Di Chen announced an important decision, “From tomorrow onward, Jingchu Province will be given to Song and Donghai Province will be given to Ming. This was a signed agreement, and we cannot go against it. To prevent needless conflicts, I have already agreed to this matter. Once the meeting ends, we will start the movement out of these two provinces.”

Seeing that war was rising in the south once more, Di Chen was not going to drag on and admitted his situation cleanly.

Di Chen was really decisive. He had no ability to prevent these two provinces from being forcefully occupied, and unneeded delays would also make Qin and Tang doubt them, which was not good for the close relationship of the five country alliance.

Smoothly giving them two provinces could allow Song and Ming to both have a good impression of Great Zhou.

The moment his word landed, the hall started to buzz.

Especially the two marquises Chun Shenjun and Zhan Lang. Their faces were totally black. Even if they wanted to disagree, they could not find a reason to do so nor did they have the ability to do so.

In the end, they could only take it quietly.

Toward any dynasty, giving away land was a humiliating matter. Such a humiliation was something they needed to swallow.

Di Chen pressed down his hands to instruct everyone to keep silent. Following which, he continued, “Wandering Magic is removed from his role as Wannan Provincial Governor and Qi Marquis Zhan Lang will take over. Sha Pojun is removed from his role as Ludong Provincial Governor and Chu Marquis Chun Shenjun will take over.”

This time, the black-faced ones were Sha Pojun and Wandering Magic.

Thinking back to the past, to stabilize the crisis within the Yanhuang Alliance, these two Lords were forced to abandon their territories and shifted to become Provincial Governors. As a result, their power was greatly restricted.

When Great Zhou established the country, they were given the title of Marquis, which made them feel a lot of pent up frustration.

Who knew that Di Chen would actually be so cold? To take care of Chun Shenjun and Zhan Lang, he did not hesitate to chase Wandering Magic and Sha Pojun off the stage.

However, they had no ability to retaliate.

The once glorious overlords of the wilderness had fallen to such a level, making one sigh.

Di Chen had always been really cold toward chess pieces that were useless. He only accommodated Chun Shenjun and Zhan Lang because the two of them had influence on the Pill Sun legion corps and the Blood Red legion corps. Once this influence disappeared, when needed, DI Chen could be heartless and sacrifice both of them for his own interest.

In Di Chen’s eyes, there were never chess pieces that could not be sacrificed.

Through this matter, Di Chen’s power in the dynasty reached new heights.

His current mood could be described as a mixture of sadness and happiness.

If he could obtain today’s position two years earlier, Great Zhou probably would not fall to such a level.

The cause and effects within made it hard for one to grasp.

When Di Chen announced their appointments, there was no surprise on the faces of Chun Shenjun and Zhan Lang. Prior to the meeting, Di Chen had met both of them alone using this as a condition for them to not oppose giving up the provinces. After all, the two of them were marquises. If they wanted to make noise, it would be bad for Di Chen.

The dynasty had already fallen to such a level, and the three of them could only each take a step back.

The part that surprised Zhan Lang was the fact that Di Chen placed Chun Shenjun in Ludong Province and not the nearby Wannan Province. He thought, ‘Is it to purposely draw him away from the place where he is deeply rooted in, or is he defending against me?’

Whenever he thought about his own secrets, Zhan Lang would not be able to sleep at night.

Just as Zhan Lang was in deep thought, Di Chen continued, “Due to the horrendous performance of the palace guards in the Battle of Jin, Lianpo is removed from his position as marshal and demoted to deputy marshal and fined a year of salary.”

“Thank you, my king, for your light punishment.”

Lianpo walked up to thank the king for his kindness. His face was filled with guilt and shame.

During this expedition, Wuqi led the troops to successive victories, while the palace guards suffered two defeats. It had lost all of Di Chen’s face, and if he did not punish Lianpo, he would not be able to answer to the people.

However, no matter how Di Chen punished him, the palace guards could only be led by Lianpo. If it were Tiandan, Wuqi, or someone else, Di chen would not be at ease.

It looked like a punishment, but in truth, it was protection for Lianpo.

Everyone understood the intentions behind this, and they looked coldly at the king and his servant.

After punishing Lianpo, Di Chen changed the topic and said deeply, “The palace guards are the pillar of the dynasty, and they have lost 150 thousand troops. We need to replenish them quickly. Do any of you have ideas?”

Chun Shenjun, Zhan Lang, and Xiong Ba felt their hearts tremble; they had a bad feeling.

Although Di Chen did not look at them, the three of them could feel that everyone present was focusing on them and waiting for them to make a statement.

This matter concerned military power, so why would the three of them say anything easily?

Didn’t Wandering Magic and Sha Pojun become disposable just because they lost their military power? Today it could be Sha Pojun, and tomorrow, it could be them.

As a result, this military power could not be given up no matter what.

However, with the matters of today, it was not something they could avoid just by not speaking up.

At this moment, a general stepped up. It was the Yuan Dynasty general Zhang Hongfan that Ouyang Shuo cast aside. After appearing in the wilderness, he joined the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Di Chen did not reject anyone that was interested in joining and accepted him into his charge.

There were some things that were not good for Di Chen to say himself. As such, he needed his officials to speak up. Zhang Hongfan was playing such a role. After stepping up, he said confidently, “My king, the palace guards are the most elite force in the dynasty. To replenish the loses, we can only select troops from the warfighting legions. To these soldiers, being selected into the palace guards is the biggest honor, and they would not reject it.”

Zhang Hongfan’s words were right.

It was a similar case for the Great Xia Guards Legion Corps. Every time they suffered loses, they would select from the various legion corps.

However, Great Zhou and Great Xia were totally different.

Ouyang Shuo as the Xia King had uncontested prestige and power in the Great Xia Army. To select members for the Guards Legion Corps was naturally something that Baiqi and the other generals could not say anything about. This was also the usual practice, and everyone was already used to it.

Great Zhou was different, as their army belonged to different factions, and they did not have such a precedence.

This time, the palace guards had suffered heavy losses, and the surrounding Zhou situation was really dangerous. This situation allowed Di Chen to grasp the chance to pry open the Pill Sun, King, and Blood Red legion corps.

Along with Zhang Hongfan opening his mouth, the other officials agreed and felt that it was the most suitable method to select troops from the other warfighting legions. Such a method could reduce the risk to the minimum.

Maybe they felt that if this situation continued it would be really detrimental to them, but Chun Shenjun could not take it anymore. He was the first to step up and argue, “Pill Sun legion corps, King legion corps and Blood Red legion corps lost close to 50 to 60 thousand troops in the Battle of Great Jin and need to be replenished too. How can we move troops to replenish the palace guards?”

Zhang Hongfan stepped up once more to act as the vanguard for Di Chen and said, “The lacking troops of the three legion corps can be selected from the reserve forces. That is really easily done.”

“Then why not let the palace guards select from the reserve forces?”

“The palace guards are the trump card of the dynasty, so their standards are naturally higher than normal warfighting legion corps. Choosing from the reserve forces? That’s a huge insult to the dynasty.”

The matter went full circle.

Within the court, there was instantly a heated debate. Some supported the move, while some opposed it.

However, as the debate went on, it grew more detrimental for Chun Shenjun and the others. At the back, there were already some officials who linked the matter to loyalty to the dynasty. It was like disagreeing with the move was being disloyal to the dynasty.

Through that, one could see that Di Chen had a good control of the Imperial Court.

When Zhan Lang saw that, he gave out a sigh. He knew that since it had reached such a stage, they were totally powerless and would have to yield sooner or later. As such, he sighed and said, “I agree.”

“Zhan Lang, you!”

When Chun Shenjun heard that, he wanted to scold Zhan Lang for being weak. However, looking at his dispirited expression, Chun Shenjun swallowed his words. In the end, he let out a long sigh.

‘The Great Zhou Dynasty cannot take any more problems and trials.’

In the end, out of the three legion corps, only the king legion corps was temporarily let off the hook. The reason Xiong Ba gave was logical, “Great Xia is attacking Jiangnan Province, and the King legion corps cannot be weakened.”

When Di Chen heard that, he did not insist. Being able to weaken the Pill Sun and Blood Red legion corps had already made him really satisfied. More amazingly, Chun Shenjun and Zhan Lang were moved away from their roots, and the Pill Sun and Blood Red legion corps could only select their troops from reserve forces.

At this stage, Di Chen could make big moves.

With Di Chen’s control of these two provinces, he could use the chance to make use of the reserve forces to stretch his authority into the Pill Sun and Blood Red legion corps to infiltrate these two legion corps.

As long as a breach was opened, it would not be impossible to control these two legion corps. Di Chen placed down his thoughts and said to Xiong Ba, “Regarding the Jiangnan war matter, I have an idea.”

Chapter 1205 - TWO Chapter 1205-The winds are not calm

Chapter 1205: TWO Chapter 1205-The winds are not calm

Di Chen asked Wuqi, “With the defensive line of Jiangnan Province along with the Xu Da led 400 thousand Ming troops, how long can the troops block the Great Xia Army for?”

In the Battle of Great Jin, the brightest light was Wuqi.

It was under the leadership of Wuqi that the Great Zhou army managed to crush the Great Jin blazing legion corps, obtaining the biggest result in this battle. Although that was the case, Wuqi showed no signs of arrogance and was really calm.

Facing the question of the king, Wuqi contemplated the matter before seriously saying, “At least a month.”

“Good.” Di Chen was delighted. He seemingly made up his mind as he smiled, “Based on our agreement with the Ming Dynasty, they have to defend until the King legion corps troops return to the border. Seeing that the Great Xia Army and the Ming Dynasty army’s battle is currently festering at the border, the King legion corps do not need to hurry back. You can all rest up in Handan City. After resting up, based on the situation, decide whether to teleport or travel back normally.”

“….”

Di Chen did not even need to blink before he took advantage of his allies.

Xiong Ba, who had been keeping silent, stepped up and said, “Will the Ming Dynasty agree to what we are doing?”

Di Chen waved his hand and said overbearingly, “The army resting up is totally normal. What can they disagree with? Great Ming has taken away Donghai Province, so they need to pay back some price, right?” Giving away two provinces made Di Chen feel really pained.

Seeing that, Xiong Ba did not say anything more.

Following which, the officials discussed the topic of the five country alliance before going their separate ways.

Through this court meeting, Di Chen managed to confirm his power in the dynasty. His power climbed to the highest it had ever been, basically reaching what he had been planning for.

If the following storm did not happen….

In the next week, the flames of war in the mid plains were slowly extinguished.

Although the flames of war were extinguished, making it look like the wind had stopped, waves happened one after another. It was not truly calm.

In the northwest region, Great Jin Queen Feng Qiuhuang was having a huge cleansing of her territory.

Not only were those officials who jumped out to create trouble targeted, but even those in the prefectures and counties who made trouble were demoted or fired. Some were even jailed; no mercy or face was given.

More crucially, using the Feng Tianlie stealing power matter, Feng Qiuhuang decided to be vicious and made 90% of the Feng family people leave the official field.

Such swift and precise actions terrified the Great Jin people, but Feng Qiuhuang was not moved.

The negative effects of Qing Luan’s betrayal continued to fester. Maybe Feng Qiuhuang did not notice it, but her personality was changing. She was becoming more suspicious, more vicious, and more merciless.

In Zhongyuan Province, Great Xia Cabinet Grand Secretary Jiang Shang personally took charge to calm down the former Great Han officials and settle down the people. To make up for the effects of the Leopard Legion Corps amassing grain, the Imperial Court decided to relieve a year of taxes for the province.

Only then did the people feel at ease.

More than half of the Great Han officials were moved to other provinces to work. At the same time, officials from other provinces streamed into Zhongyuan Province, bringing with them the Great Xia system and the Imperial Court policies.

Meanwhile, the Leopard Legion Corps led by Han Xin arrived in Luoyang City. Luoyang would become the new headquarters of the Leopard Legion Corps, and they would be in charge of protecting the safety of the entire Zhongyuan Province.

Ouyang Shuo personally took charge at Jingdu City. Meanwhile, the duties were handled by Beijiang Provincial Governor Han Qi.

Along with the Qing royal family being moved to Luzon Province, the dust finally settled. The Jingdu Qing dynasty officials had all given up hope and cooperated with the Provincial Governor office to complete the huge reshuffling of the Jingdu official field.

All the noble families were moved to the various provinces in Nanjiang and were never to lay foot in Beijiang again.

In Jingchu, Great Zhou Dynasty had completed their withdrawal, and the entire province fell into the hands of Great Song. At this point, Great Song experienced a great leap and became the NPC power with the greatest amount of land, stealing the spotlight.

The Great Song Dynasty also became the biggest winner apart from Great Xia. They did not use a single soldier and picked up huge gains, making Qin Shihuang and Tang Taizong look on with envy.

In comparison, the process that the Great Ming Dynasty went through to get Donghai Province was much more complicated.

First, the Jiangnan war matter was still ongoing.

400 thousand Ming Dynasty troops were kept on the frontlines and were unable to return to Jianye. Without these batch of soldiers as a shield, Zhu Yuanzhang did not have the ability to accept Haidong Province. Great Zhou’s attitude was clear. Before the King legion corps returned to Jiangnan Province, they would not give Great Ming Haidong Province.

A week had passed, and during this time, the Great Xia Army had been unceasingly taking down cities and land at the border. It was the sentries at first to the castles now. Currently, they were using cannons to take down castles.

Zhu Yuanzhang felt bitter, but he did not dare to act upon it.

After giving up Jingchu Province, Great Zhou re-established their footing. 800 thousand troops were not something that Great Ming could touch. They could only keep sending out envoys to rush them to send the King legion corps back to King City.

For this, Zhu Yuanzhang even volunteered to pay the teleportation costs of the King legion corps from his own pockets.

Secondly, Donghai Province had a really strategic position in Great Zhou. The headquarter of Great Zhou’s Haizhou Squadron was set in Haizhou Port in Donghai Province. At the same time, they had a navy base in Shanghai as well.

To move the Haizhou Squadron away from Donghai Province was not something that could be done within a day.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang had a doubting personality and was not willing to allow the Great Zhou Haizhou Squadron to remain in Donghai Province. For this matter, both sides kept on quarrelling, and they still had not reached a settlement.

The ceding territory matter was dragged on just like that.

During this period, Qin, Tang, Song, Ming, and Zhou, these five countries, kept on sending envoys to one another to discuss about going against Great Xia. An alliance stronger and more closely knitted than the six countries alliance was being formed.

Apart from the mid plains, a huge piece of news exploded out in other regions of China.

In the Shu Lands, the Shu Han Dynasty could be said to be on its last legs. Under the lockdown strategy of Great Xia, Chengdu was blocked off from the rest of the war. Even Di Chen did not consider the Shu country when forming the alliance.

Along with the grain production falling, the lives of the Chengdu people were becoming harder and harder, and even eating became a problem.

Great Xia did not forget to take the chance to send out letters to try to persuade them to surrender. Great Xia said, “I have learned that Shu King loves his people like his children. Since Chengdu Prefecture is trapped, please put aside your honor and surrender to Great Xia and give the Chengdu people peace.”

Even then, Liu Bei was not willing to give up, arduously holding on. Liu Bei did not surrender, but the Shu Han people were the ones that could not hold on.

The Chengdu players were the first to flee outward. Apart from super guild Laojun Temple who joined Great Zhou knowing that Great Xia would not treat them well, the remaining guilds basically all joined Great Xia.

One could rarely see any players on the streets of Chengdu, and it instantly became really cold.

Following which were the civilians. Especially those who had no more grain. The Imperial Court was helpless to save them. As such, they could only escape into Shu Lands Province under Great Xia.

Ouyang Shuo instructed Shu Lands Provincial Governor Tian Wenjing to do a good job in settling them down. They would use this as a chance to attract more Shu Han people to move to the Shu Lands Province.

As long as they managed to empty the Chengdu Prefecture of civillians, Shu Han Dynasty would just be an empty shell.

Reaching the second half of Gaia’s 6th year, not only people, but even merchants, scholars, and officials started to flee, seeing Chengdu as a scourge.

Everyone knew that Shu Han Dynasty was not going to be able to hold on.

Now, it was time to see how long Liu Bei could last. When even the military grain ran out, the Shu Han Dynasty would collapse. What Ouyang Shuo had in abundance was patience,

Apart from Shu Lands, the famous Mongol Empire had made new moves.

Chapter 1206 - Africa chaotic war

Chapter 1206: TWO Chapter 1206-Africa chaotic war

Apart from the Shu Lands, the famous Mongol Empire made new moves.

After taking down the Turkish khanate, Genghis Khan immediately renamed the Turkish khanate to house of Ogedei, which his third son Ogedei took charge of.

The Mongol Empire in history had four houses, the house of Chagatai, the house of Ogedei, the house of Ilkhan, and the Golden Horde; they stretched across Asia and Europe, prosperous through an era.

Looking at his actions, Genghis Khan wanted to regain the past glory of the ancient Mongol Empire.

After the Mongol Empire took down Turkish khanate, Tibet and West Xia panicked right away. They sent envoys to congratulate Genghis Khan while sending envoys to Great Xia to form a closer alliance with Great Xia.

West Xia even secretly came into contact with the five country alliance.

As a weakling in the China region, one could only shiver under the eyes of the strong.

…

During this period, a huge piece of news exploded in Shanhai City.

8th month, 27th day; while the Great Xia Army was still tangling with the Ming Dynasty army, Shanhai City’s industrialization department displayed a new item to the people – the bicycle.

This obviously was not anything fresh to the players and was something they saw regularly in real life. However, to the natives, this was like opening a new section of the sky, and they crowded around to look on in interest.

Even the players were interested when they saw the bicycle appearing in the game world.

The first bicycle created by the Industrialization Department was really simple; it did not have any tremor reducing mechanism or braking system. Despite that being the case, it was already a really remarkable achievement. This was the brightest masterpiece produced after Great Xia pushed for all round industrialization, and it was also the epitome of what they were striving for.

The appearance of the bicycle meant that the industrialization of Great Xia was entering the fast lane.

Ouyang Shuo especially returned to Shanhai City to attend the unveiling ceremony of the Mountain Eagle brand bicycle factory. This bicycle factory that the financial court had shares in would be open to civilians in the future and would bring about huge changes.

Outsiders were there to watch, while insiders were curious about the methods.

Along with the establishment of the factory, the other dynasties were shocked by Great Xia’s industrialization standards and also felt really pressured, increasing their industrialization speeds.

A global scale industrialization competition had just begun.

…

Along with the global reduction in grain, after the end of the country war month, China was not the only region not peaceful. The entire world was still shaking and had not truly found peace.

In India, Peacock Dynasty and Gupta Dynasty exerted strength at the same time. With the help of Silver Hand and Azure Badge respectively, they took down one territory in the middle of India, greatly growing their strength.

The remaining territory was swallowed up by Ashoka.

Ashoka was the emperor that moved into India Imperial City New Delhi and was also the head of India’s past emperors. The Ashoka Dynasty under him had four million guards and was the strongest power in India.

Along with these three territories being destroyed, India was now split between three sides.

Apart from Asia, the most interesting area was Europe.

After the second country war month ended, the European version of the game was split up between five dynasties, and there was no ownerless land left.

As a result, the road of expansion of these five dynasties had come to an end.

Toward emperors with ambition, this was of course the most unbearable thing. Helplessly, amongst the five dynasties, apart from the Ottoman Dynasty, the other four belonged to Silver Hand. Hence, they could not fight with one another even if they wanted to.

A peaceful and loving atmosphere spread through Europe.

In the face of such an awkward situation, the Africa continent that was still in chaos became a juicy piece of meat in the eyes of the European dynasties; it was the best battlefield for them to expand in.

The flames of war rose up in Africa all of a sudden.

Apart from the five dynasties in Europe, even Dawson Dynasty who was an Atlantic Ocean away interfered. Along with Egypt Dynasty, Bantu Dynasty, and Great Xia’s North Africa protector house, they split up Africa.

Africa Continent.

It could basically be split into North Africa, West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and South Africa. Amongst which, the north was swallowed up by the Spanish Dynasty, Egypt Dynasty, and Great Xia.

The House of Tudors, Gaule Dynasty, and Ottoman Dynasty turned their eyes to West Africa. Dawson Dynasty mainly focused on attacking Central Africa, and the south belonged to Bantu Dynasty.

Due to that, Great Xia temporarily gave up on the fight for North Africa and turned their eyes to East Africa.

Even in East Africa, Great Xia was not the only interested party. Arab empire, Persia empire, and even Gupta Dynasty had a deep interest in East Africa.

However, as it had not been long since the country war month had ended, all sides restrained themselves and did not act immediately. After the various countries digested their country war month rewards, the flames of war would rise up in Africa.

And when the five parts of Africa received their new masters, global chaos would begin. Africa Continent would be the big stage where Great Xia fights against the two giants – Silver Hand and Azure Badge.

Due to that, Ouyang Shuo felt forced to quickly unify China before turning their focus to the Africa Continent to cross swords with the two organizations.

Apart from Africa, South America was not peaceful either.

Although the Indian Empire was the biggest in South America, it was not so strong that it could cover everything. In the north, east, and south of South America, other territories existed.

Without any outside interference, the Indian Empire would be able to unify South America in the end.

However, along with the global cake being totally shared and split up, there were finally dynasties who turned their eyes to the unassuming South America continent. The first to jump out was the Dawson Dynasty.

Right after the country war month ended, Dawson Dynasty showed really strong invasive tendencies.

Going toward the east across the Atlantic to Central Africa, heading toward the south using Panama Canal as a strong point to attack the north of South America to fight for food with the Indian Empire.

Even Europe’s House of Tudors, Ottoman Dynasty, and Spain Dynasty showed interest in South America.

Especially the Spain Dynasty, which was drooling at South America.

In history, the native dynasty of South America-Inca Empire was wiped out by the Spanish colonialists. In South America, Spain did have some roots.

Great Xia did not make plans to interfere in the South America Battlefield, as it was simply too far and did not fit with their strategy. The only thing they could do was to maintain their trade with the Indian Empire.

During this period, Ouyang Shuo instructed the Pacific Squadron to find news about the mysterious Mu Continent. Unfortunately, they had not had any results. The mysterious Mu continent not appearing till date made Ouyang Shuo feel like he had an itch that need to be scratched.

Each mysterious continent had treasures.

Amongst all the buzz and nervousness, the 9th month arrived.

9th month, 1st day, under the rushing of the Great Ming Dynasty, Great Zhou king legion corps finally agreed to set off, directly teleporting over from Handan City.

The Battle of Jiangnan welcomed its most crucial moment.

Chapter 1207 - -Savior or fiend?

Chapter 1207: TWO Chapter 1207-Savior or fiend?

Handan City, imperial city south city wall.

Looking at the King legion corps that was slowly disappearing into the teleportation formation, Di Chen let out an indiscernible smile, “If the King legion corps go down south, they might face the strong attacks of the Great Xia Army and might not be able to hold on.”

“Once Xiong Ba requests for help from the Imperial Court, the Imperial Court will totally take control of Jiangnan Province.”

Di Chen’s plot was really deep.

The reason why Di Chen made the King legion corps return late was not only to take advantage of the Ming Dynasty troops. In fact, it was also to use the chance give the King legion corps a blow to achieve a goal that he could not tell others.

Crushing Xiong Ba was something only Di Chen could do in the entire Great Zhou.

“Xiong Ba ah, Xiong Ba, you lost to me in the end.” Di Chen’s heart was filled with delight.

Since Great Zhou Dynasty’s establishment and when Di Chen was supported to become the king, he had held absolute supremacy in his battle against Xiong Ba and the others; this was supported by reason.

On this day, Di Chen would turn this supremacy into actual power.

“I have waited for the taste of victory for a long time.”

At this moment, Di Chen was drunk in his victory. Ever since Ouyang Shuo had appeared, Di Chen rarely felt the sense of achievement from beating his enemies one by one.

Apart from the King legion corps, the Pill Sun and Blood Red legion corps left Handan City after a huge piece of their flesh was cleaved off.

The Pill Sun legion corps directly went down south and entered Ludong Province, replenishing their shortfall of soldiers as fast as they could. The Blood Red legion corps directly teleported to Blood Red City and proceeded to move toward Wannan Province to reduce their journey length.

As for the handover of Donghai Province, they had to wait for the Blood Red legion corps to leave.

…

9th month, 1st day, morning, King legion corps returned to King City.

The 300 thousand troops did not remain in the city. Instead, under the instructions of Wuqi, they set up camp outside of the city. Looking at the situation, they were prepared to replace the Ming army to take over the defenses of the Jiangnan border.

In the afternoon, Wu Marquis and Jiangnan Provincial Governor Xiong Ba especially invited Xu Da, Chang Yuchun, and the others for a meeting in the city. They were going to discuss how to have an orderly and complete takeover under the aggressive attacks of the Great Xia Army.

Xu Da and the other generals naturally accepted the matter graciously.

In the recent week, the Great Xia’s offensive was like fire, using their familiarity with the border defenses to take down cities. Recently, the two wings had started to siege the border cities and reduce their defensive space.

Four out of the 15 cities had already fallen.

If this continued, Xu Da’s goal of training his troops would be met, but they would have to suffer heavy casualties.

They had waited for the King legion corps to return with much difficulty, so Xu Da was naturally delighted. As for how the King legion corps would defend against Great Xia’s attacks after they took over, that was outside of his concern.

At 3 PM, Xu Da and Chang Yuchun entered the city.

Along with the return of the King legion corps, the originally down and dead King City instantly became bustling with excitement. The civilians had great confidence in the King legion corps and its God General Wuqi.

That was not surprising.

During these few years, under the leadership of Wuqi, Jiangnan Province had always remained solid and had not faced any invasions from the Great Xia Tiger Legion Corps. Hence, even when Great Xia initiated the attack, the Jiangnan people still believed their army.

Xu Da, who was walking on the streets, was deep in thought.

At the gate of the Provincial Governor office, Xiong Ba was warmly received. He discussed the details with Wuqi. As the border line was really long and there were special circumstances, this meeting lasted for three hours.

In the end, Xiong Ba smiled and said, “The Ming Dynasty army is righteous, defending the Jiangnan border for so long. I thank you on behalf of the Jiangnan people. The night is late, and we have prepared some wine. I hope you can all show me some face.”

“Thank you, marquis!”

Xu Da nodded since he had no reason to reject the invitation.

Following the plan discussed in the afternoon, the two armies would swap over city by city starting from tomorrow. Thinking about being able to return to Jianye soon, Xu Da’s heart that had been hanging in his mouth was slightly placed down.

Who knew that an abrupt change was about to occur?

The scheme was really old and was not worth mentioning, but it was exceedingly practical.

Just as both parties were happily drinking, Xiong Ba smashed his glass as a signal, and a group of armored men rushed in and swiftly took down Xu Da and Chang Yuchun.

Logically speaking, Chang Yuchun was a great general. Helplessly, he was already half drunk and did not have any weapons on him. Being surrounded by elite armored soldiers, his fists were not enough, and he was captured.

Seeing the situation change, Chang Yuchun naturally did not scold out. On the contrary, he remained really calm. Looking at Xiong Ba, he said in a low tone, “Is the marquis representing Great Zhou to declare war on Great Ming?”

“Great Zhou?’

Xiong Ba gave out a relishing smile, “To say the truth, Jiangnan Province has decided to join Great Xia.”

“What?”

When Xu Da heard that, he was astonished and lost his cool.

It was no wonder he would panic, as if this matter was started by Great Zhou, Great Ming could still do something with the presence of the five country alliance, and there would be chances to negotiate.

However, if this was started by Great Xia, there would be no hope.

The truth was at the start of the 7th month, Ouyang Shuo had sent people to contact Xiong Ba to discuss him joining them. Along with the loss in the Battle of Great Jin, Xiong Ba finally made up his mind, proactively handing over the Jiangnan border defense layout as a show of his loyalty.

During the Battle of Great Jin, at the most crucial moment, Ouyang Shuo had considered letting the King legion corps switch sides to change the situation. However, thinking about how Xiong Ba was not amongst the troops, the risk was too huge, and he decided against it.

As expected from Xiong Ba, since he made up his mind, he would not play both sides. To give Great Xia a huge gift and give himself a stable foundation in Great Xia in the future, he set his eyes on the Ming army.

Ouyang Shuo and Xiong Ba clicked immediately, which was why Sun Bin led the troops to attack Jiangnan.

Not long ago, when Di Chen was grabbing power with no restraint in Handan City, the last bit of guilt in Xiong Ba’s heart disappeared.

Xiong Ba obviously knew that the moment Chun Shenjun and Zhan Lang fell, he would be next. “Since Di Chen is showing no brotherhood, he should not blame me for doing so either.”

The moment the King legion corps returned, Xiong Ba immediately acted without dragging matters on.

After a short while, Xu Da said in a gloomy manner, “So since the start, when Great Xia attacked Jiangnan Province border, it had already been a plot. I was wondering how they were so familiar with our defenses.”

As he said that, Xu Da’s face turned bitter.

Jiangnan Province and Great Xia joining hands was something no one had expected. Moreover, things had happened so quickly and suddenly that there were no chances of them turning the tides. With how careful they both were, they would not give the Ming army a chance.

Xu Da looked around and realized that Wuqi had disappeared and asked, “Has our troops outside of the city been acted upon?”

As the Ming army headquarters, since the frontline matters were intense, there were only 30 thousand troops there. These 30 thousand were the final reserve forces in Xu Da’s hands to be thrown into the battlefield.

Thinking about the 300 thousand King legion corps troops housed outside of the city, his heart turned cold.

Xiong Ba smiled, “Do not worry, general. As long as they do not fight to the death, we will not do anything to them.”

Xu Da nodded in silence.

Those housed at the command headquarters were his most trusted troops. He understood their characters, and he knew that while they were uncertain about the safety of their commander, they would not go away silently.

Xiong Ba saw through what was on his mind, “To prevent unneeded casualties, general, you should write a letter to them.”

“No way.”

Xiong Ba did not care and continued, “General, do not say it like that. I will not hide it from you, the Xia king has always admired you, and if you are willing to join Great Xia, you will definitely become a marshal.”

‘Scoff!’ Xu Da did not bother replying.

“I know that general and Ming Taizu are brothers, but do you not know how you died in history?”

Based on Wang Wenlong’s Longxing Ciji, as Xu Da got back gangrenes when he defended Beiping, he could not eat pigeon. Zhu Yuanzhang gave him steamed pigeon, and Xu Da died after eating it.

When he heard those words, Xu Da’s face changed. This was a sore spot in his heart, and he did not like to think about it.

Xiong Ba was not going to let him off, “Li Shanchang, Li Wenzhong, Feng Sheng, Liu Bowen, and the others; do you not know how they all died?”

Not only Xu Da, but even Chang Yuchun who was scolding out at the side became silent.

“General, you should be clear that in this wilderness, there is not a stage for Great Ming. Not only Great Ming, QIn, but Tang, Song, and the like are destined to be side characters. Do you believe that if your 400 thousand troops were unable to return to Jianye, Great Zhou would not hesitate to turn around to take down Great Ming?”

Xu Da naturally believed that.

The wilderness was a place where power spoke. A Great Ming that was weak would not be suitable for surviving in the wilderness.

“Even if general is not thinking for himself, think for the 30 thousand soldiers outside. Joining Great Xia has a bright future, while fighting to the death will only cause you to end up as ashes. That’s all I will say; I hope general will think about it.”

Xu Da did not say a word, which meant that he did not surrender.

When Xiong Ba saw that, he sighed. He knew that convincing Xu Da to surrender was not something that could be accomplished with a few words, so he said, “Since that’s the case, I can only wrong you two. Men, lock them up.”

“Yes, marquis!”

That night, under Wuqi’s leadership, the King legion corps suddenly sneak attacked the Ming army command headquarters.

The Ming army was caught off guard, and they were outnumbered. The two sides fought to the dead of night. The Ming army suffered five thousand casualties before they surrendered. If it were not for Wuqi purposely wanting to reduce the casualties, the 30 thousand Ming troops would not even be able to hold on till late in the night. After all, the difference in numbers was simply too huge.

This night battle naturally could not be hidden from the eyes of DIfeng.

When Di Chen got the report, he questioned Xiong Ba through the night. However, Xiong Ba did not bother about him, even closing the teleportation formation in king city. That was when Di Chen noticed that things were bad and gathered the officials for a meeting.

A huge storm suddenly descended on the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Chapter 1208 - Harmony between ruler and minister

Chapter 1208: TWO Chapter 1208-Harmony between ruler and minister

Deep in the night, Handan City.

Within the Imperial Reading Room, Di Chen laid on his chair, closing his eyes to rest.

The emergency court meeting had just ended. As the matter was too sudden and the intel they had was limited, the officials could not come up with any effective solution to the problem, which made Di Chen feel really exhausted.

The only thing that could be confirmed now was that Xiong Ba had betrayed Great Zhou.

Alone, Di Chen recalled all the memories in his mind of Xiong Ba’s performance in recent time. In the end, he got nothing. Xiong Ba did not reveal anything unusual.

“A dog that does not bark is the one that bites.” Di Chen gritted his teeth. At his most gleeful time, Xiong Ba directly stabbed a knife into his stomach. Obviously, Di Chen would feel furious.

Apart from anger, he felt more fear.

Di Chen was really worried now that Xiong Ba’s betrayal would ignite a chain reaction that would tear apart the Great Zhou Dynasty that had been gathered together after much difficulty.

Hence, during the court meeting that had just ended, some officials suggested that while the Ming army was being held back, they should order Blood Red legion corps that had already returned to Donghai Province to take down Jianye and wipe out Great Ming.

With that, Great Zhou would lose a Jiangnan Province, but they would obtain a Donghai Province. All things considered, it would not be a huge loss, and they could stabilize the situation.

However, Di Chen rejected it.

It was not that Di Chen was being merciful and was not willing to act toward his allies. Rather, he was worried about Zhan Lang. If Zhan Lang used the chance to take Donghai Province and use the troops to breakaway, the situation would be catastrophic.

Di Chen was never able to truly draw close to Zhan Lang.

“I cannot help but worry!”

Out of the original heads of the Yanhuang Alliance, Zhan Lang was the one who did not interfere with the faction battle and was the peace medicine for all sides. The more he did that, the more Di Chen worried.

Di Chen could see through Sha Pojun, Chun Shenjun, and the others, but he could not see through Zhan Lang.

This person hid too deeply and was also incredibly low profile. He felt like a person with no wishes and desires. When Di Chen took away their power, Zhan Lang was the first to step up to admit his fate.

Standing from the viewpoint of Di Chen, that was really unusual.

Moreover, out of the few of them, Zhan Lang was the closest to Ouyang Shuo. When Great Xia established their country, Zhan Lang was the one who represented the Yanhuang Alliance to congratulate him.

How would and how could Di Chen trust him?

Although he was really wary about Zhan Lang, he could not say it out loud during the court meeting. Facing their suggestions, he could only say, “Let’s take a breather and wait for the intel tomorrow before making a decision.”

Jianye City would not be able to run away, and they did not need to rush.

If they really wanted to use this chance to take down Great Ming, Di Chen would rather let the Pill Sun legion corps attack and not the Blood Red legion corps. “It’s time to lay everything out with Chun Shenjun.”

Di Chen realized that he needed a reliable ally during such times.

Only by recruiting Chun Shenjun could he make Zhan Lang worry about more factors and control the dangerous situation of Great Zhou. Only then could he prevent Great Zhou from falling to pieces.

“As long as we feed the hungry wolf that is Chun Shenjun, which is so easy.”

In the end, Di Chen was going to bleed once more.

…

9th month, 2nd day, King City.

Due to the presence of the communication compass, that sneak attack last night could not be hidden from the Ming army housed in the border cities. When they learned that the command headquarters was attacked, the 11 defending armies all reacted differently.

Some traveled through the night, heading aggressively toward King City; these armies wanted to save marshal Xu Da. Some chose to stand on the sides and defend the city they were in, while some did not agree on anything and quarreled internally amongst themselves.

The next day, the Ming troops that charged toward King City were intercepted midway by the King city legion corps and suffered total defeat.

This time, the remaining Ming troops felt a chill run down their spines.

The following matters were much simpler. Under the north and south pincer of the Great Xia Army and the King legion corps, the 300 thousand remaining troops could not even retreat. They could either fight to the death or surrender.

In a short week, the 400 thousand Great Ming troops that set off ended up suffering defeat.

On the same day that the Ming army was wiped out, XIong Ba announced that Jiangnan Province along with the King legion corps had joined Great Xia Dynasty and would listen to the Xia King’s orders.

Ouyang Shuo cooperated well, bringing the Divine Martial Guards and arriving in King City.

The world clamored the moment the news spread out.

This was the most interesting and explosive news in the 6th year of Gaia.

One of the four heads of Great Zhou, before Great Zhou even fell, decided to surrender to Great Xia. The details within this matter were so juicy that people were not able to turn their heads.

Some people cheered for Great Xia, while some despised Xiong Ba’s actions.

Since olden times, ‘Betraying one’s master for glory’ was the act of despicable people. Although Di Chen could not be considered as Xiong Ba’s master, Great Zhou was Xiong Ba’s home after all. Xiong Ba could not avoid being called a traitor.

No matter what, in the end, everyone agreed on something, “Great Zhou is going to die!”

Truthfully, under such circumstances, no player would think that Great Zhou Dynasty would still be able to turn the tables. Not to mention turning the tables, but how long the Great Zhou dynasty could last was already a problem.

The cheers for Great Xia to unify China were getting stronger and stronger and even more evident.

The dark gloomy clouds covered the skies, hanging over the Great Zhou dynasty.

…

9th month, 9th day, King City.

After learning that Ouyang Shuo was coming, Xiong Ba led all the officials in Jiangnan Province to wait for him in the square. At 9 AM, Ouyang Shuo, accompanied by the Divine Martial Guards, walked out of the teleportation formation.

“Greetings, my king!”

Xiong Ba led the Jiangnan Province officials to bow toward their king. Meanwhile, the civilians looked on from the sides.

Ouyang Shuo paced forward swiftly. He grasped the arms of Xiong Ba and helped him up, smiling, “Brother Xiong Ba joining us is our good fortune. You do not have to be so courteous.”

Seeing that, the tightly squeezed expressions of the Jiangnan officials finally loosened.

Due to the need to keep this matter a secret, not to mention the civil servants, but even the King legion corps marshal Wuqi only got the news two days ago. Suddenly changing camps and being unable to straighten out was normal.

Luckily, Xiong Ba’s family was deeply rooted in Jiangnan and not much chaos ensued.

Seeing that the Xia King was treating their marquis so well and even called him brother, the Jiangnan officials felt much better. Some of them were even thinking to themselves that maybe joining Great Xia was not such a bad idea.

Ouyang Shuo showed closeness, but Xiong Ba did not dare to cross the boundaries.

To say something that was not nice, if it were not for the special situation, a Jiangnan Province would not mean much to the current Great Xia Dynasty. For Xiong Ba’s family to stand up in Great Xia, their capital was not enough.

Under such a situation, if Xiong Ba did not know his place, his position in Great Xia would be really awkward in the future.

“I do not dare to accept the king’s good grace.” As he said that, he turned around, “Let me introduce you to the officials of Jiangnan Province.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, swiftly changing the topic.

After the simple welcoming ceremony, Ouyang Shuo was led to the Provincial Governor office. The moment he sat down, Xiong Ba took the initiative to say, “My king, please allow me to step down from my position as Jiangnan Provincial Governor.”

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes froze. He did not expect Xiong Ba to know his place so well. Naturally, Ouyang Shuo did not like to be fake and act like he wanted to prevent him from resigning.

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Since that’s the case, I will appoint you as Administrative Mentor Court Chief Secretary. Before the new Provincial Governor arrives, you will help out with the administrative and military matters of Jiangnan. Once you return to the Capital City, you will assume your new role.”

“Yes, my king!”

Xiong Ba knew that amongst the Great Xia officials, the Chief Secretary role was a primary Grade 3 official. This was similar to a Provincial Governor, which meant that his position in Great Xia was not any lower.

After settling this crucial matter, the two of them had a full day of discussions about the future arrangements of Jiangnan Province.

The next morning, under the accompaniment of Xiong Ba, Ouyang Shuo toured the counties and prefectures of Jiangnan Province to show to the world the harmony between ruler and minister to calm down the hearts of the Jiangnan people.

…

Just as Ouyang Shuo was touring Jiangnan, an intriguing matter occurred. The Blood Red legion corps that appeared in Donghai Province did not follow the orders from the Imperial Court to move toward Wannan Province. Instead, the legion corps remained in Blood Red City.

Zhan Lang’s actions raised a lot of discussion from the outside world.

Some people felt that Zhan Lang wanted to use the chance to destroy Great Ming, while some felt that Zhan Lang was learning from Xiong Ba to join Great Xia. There were some who felt that he was trying to haggle and bargain with Di Chen to fight for power.

What Zhan Lang was doing exactly, no one knew.

The answer the Blood Red legion corps marshal Xie Xuan gave was, “The army has returned from a war and are really exhausted, and they need to rest up. The soldiers also miss their families. They will stay in Blood Red City for a period of time.”

Although Xie Xuan vowed solemnly, no one would believe him.

The one that was placed on the spot was Di Chen. He could not force Zhan Lang to lead them away nor could he chide him for being a traitor, as that would only push him toward Great Xia.

In the midst of all this, Di Chen contacted Zhan Lang to make a whole bunch of promises to try and tie Zhan Lang deadly to the war chariot that was Great Zhou dynasty.

Di Chen also promised that after they took down Great Ming, Zhan Lang would continue to be the Donghai Provincial Governor. However, no matter what promises Di Chen made, Zhan Lang replied with silence, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

The matter ended in a stalemate just like that.

Chapter 1209 - countries submitting

Chapter 1209: TWO Chapter 1209-3 countries submitting

9th month, 15th day, King City.

Just as Di Chen was persuading Zhan Lang, Ouyang Shuo was scheming for Wannan Province.

The battle at the Jiangnan border had just ended, and the 400 thousand Ming troops there either died in battle or surrendered. A total of 350 thousand surrendered, coincidentally a legion corps in number.

Considering the Tiger, Xiangjiang, and King legion corps, Great Xia had a stunning number of troops in the southeast region.

Furthermore, the current Wannan Province did not have any Great Zhou troops. If Great Xia attacked now, Di Chen would not dare to send troops to defend and would only give up.

Even Qin, Tang, and Song would not dare to send reinforcements as Wannan Province did not have a teleportation formation.

After the discussion, they decided to let the Xiangjiang legion corps send the 350 thousand Ming prisoners back to Jiangchuan Province to wait for the privy court to reorganize them. The Xiangjiang legion corps would return to Jiangchuan Province with the intentions of keeping a lookout on Great Song.

The Tiger Legion Corps would be housed in Jiangnan Province and the King legion corps would be in charge of this mission.

Xiong Ba was already facing a lot of rumors and insults because of him joining Great Xia, and if the King legion corps was allowed to take down Wannan Province, it would push XIong Ba to an even more awkward position.

Unexpectedly, Xiong Ba advocated for the King legion corps to attack; he said, “After all, Jiangnan Province used to be a province under Great Zhou, and many of the officials inside are working for the Great Zhou Imperial Court. They do have some influence in Jiangnan Province. On the surface, the entire province is calm because the army exists, and they do not dare to act. In truth, there are many hidden currents, and along with the Difeng spies fanning the flames, it is really messy.”

“Taking this chance to use the King legion corps to take down Wannan can allow the king to use the Tiger Legion Corps to scare and threaten the masses and reorganize the Jiangnan official field and make them truly merge into the Imperial Court.”

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he looked deeply at Xiong Ba and said, “Let’s follow your plan.”

Xiong Ba had two reasons for doing that. First, letting the King legion corps take down Wannan Province would strengthen the speaking rights of Xiong Ba’s family in Great Xia. Secondly, he would totally let go of Jiangnan Province, which would let Ouyang Shuo be at ease.

To deal with such smart people, even Ouyang Shuo needed to be highly alert.

Although the two of them were really harmonious in front of the Jiangnan people, the true relationship had just begun. There was still a long road ahead for Xiong Ba to win Ouyang Shuo’s trust.

Accepting Jiangnan Province was a symbolic matter for Great Xia.

Jiangnan Province was not really important. However, the Xiong Ba family that previously ruled over Jiangnan Province was a top aristocratic family in China; it was a power that did not fit in with Ouyang Shuo.

How to digest Xiong Ba’s family was a new test for Ouyang Shuo.

Since the rise of Great Xia, they had relied on historical talents and commoners to rule the world. At its current scale, they naturally had the ability to accept aristocratic families like Xiong Ba’s.

They would form up the new nobles of Great Xia along with the Bai Hua, Cui, Song, and likewise families.

…

The next morning, the King legion corps set off from King City and headed toward Wannan Province.

The moment the news went out, the people of China clamored.

No one had expected Xiong Ba to betray his ‘master’ to such an extent, changing sides to Great Xia before leading troops to attack his old home, attracting a lot of discussion.

However, Xiong Ba was not moved.

Apart from the King legion corps attacking, there would still be other troops helping out. Great Jin’s blazing legion corps would move from the north toward the west border to scare off Great Jin while Li Mu would lead the Eagle Legion Corps to threaten Great Tang.

The Xiangjiang legion corps that had just returned home would threaten Great Song.

Han Xin would personally move the Leopard Legion Corps to monitor Ludong Province. As for Jingdu Province, the Yue Fei led Beijiang legion corps would be in charge of monitoring there.

Great Xia was holding the so-called five country alliance by the neck.

This time, all the more the blood red legion corps could not proceed toward Wannan Province to tread in these murky waters.

…

Great Zhou Dynasty, Handan City.

The usually solemn and filled with power Imperial Reading Room gave out a despondent aura. The Great Zhou king who was always self-disciplined was drowning in his sorrows.

His moustache was grown out, and he looked really run down.

Xiong Ba’s betrayal, Zhan Lang’s weird actions; one piece of bad news after another had totally crushed Di Chen. He had lost his fighting spirit and could only drown in his sorrows.

When Juedai Fenghua standing not far away saw that, she could not hide her sympathy, but she did not know how to convince and persuade him.

After the failure in the Battle of Great Jin, Juedai Fenghua had a bad feeling. The Battle of Great Jin was a battle where Great Zhou had gone all out, and it was the battle that Di Chen gambled everything on. That battle decided the fate of Great Zhou Dynasty.

The truth was as such.

Their loss in the Battle of Great Jin caused Xiong Ba to leave. Subsequently, Di Chen decided to snatch power, which infuriated Zhan Lang. Under this chain reaction, the Great Zhou Dynasty started to shake.

Just like now, the King legion corps had charged into Wannan Province, but Great Zhou did not do anything. They did not even have the courage to resist, and he could only bear the pain of abandoning Wannan.

He had no choice but to give it up.

Great Zhou was now stuck an internal battle while Qin, Tang, and Song were being monitored and were unwilling to participate and attract Great Xia’s animosity.

Pretty much within a night, Great Xia’s authority rose up in China.

Great Zhou’s future was bleak.

…

Just as Juedai Fenghua had predicted, within merely week, the King legion corps took down Wannan Province.

The King legion corps was able to take down Wannan so quickly due to one person – the former Wannan Provincial Governor, Wandering Magic. Due to Zhan Lang delaying his appointment over in Wannan, Wandering Magic had remained in the province.

One must know that Wandering Magic was a close ally of Xiong Ba. Since Xiong Ba had submitted to Great Xia, Wandering Magic had no reason to remain in Great Zhou.

Luckily, Xiong Ba came out to calm him down, which was why Wandering Magic temporarily remained secluded.

Although Di Chen had removed Wandering Magic from his post, the moment he knew that the King legion corps was attacking, Wandering Magic utilized the foundations he had after working there for so long.

After he hid himself, he built bridges for the King legion corps and led them to siege and occupy land. Everywhere they went the prefectures and counties surrendered. They basically faced no resistance.

After taking down Wannan Province, Zhongyuan Province was not alone anymore and was connected to the dynasty.

Along with the Wannan war matter ending, just as the China region players felt that the wilderness was about to have a period of peace and quietly past the next few months, a series of events happened.

The entire China region was shocked.

9th month, 25th day, the Blood Red legion corps took down Jianye, and the Great Ming Dynasty was wiped out.

The moment Jianye City was broken into, a ruler of a generation, Zhu Yuanzhang, killed himself to protect the honor and dignity of an emperor. Li Shanchang, Li wenzhong, Tang He, and more joined Zhan Lang.

After taking down Great Ming, Zhan Lang appointed himself as the Donghai Provincial Governor. He did not betray Great Zhou, but he did not listen to the orders of Great Zhou Dynasty either. Instead, he became a Lord of the dynasty.

Di Chen was helpless, and he could only let him do as he wished.

The day after Great Ming was destroyed, Feng Qiuhuang announced that Great Jin would officially submit to Great Xia.

Right after Great Jin submitted, Feng Qiuhuang was given the title of duchess like Mulan Yue and Bai Hua. Hence, she became the third duke rank individual of Great Xia.

Even Xiong Ba was only given the title of 2nd class marquis.

9th month, 28th day, Sui Wendi announced that Great Sui would officially submit to Great Xia.

Sui Wendi Yang Jian was a smart person; he knew that the Xia King was waiting for Great Sui to admit defeat. When he saw that China was about to be unified, Sui Wendi did not want to fall behind others and wanted to submit before Shu Han.

For doing that, Yang Jian obtained great rewards.

Xia King Ouyang Shuo gave a decree, giving Yang Jian the title of Sui king; he was the second king under Great Xia. Previously, when the Dali country submitted, their king was only given the title of 2nd class marquis.

Along with Great Sui submitting, Gao Jiong, Su Wei, Yang Su, Zheng Yi, He Ruobi, Han Qinhu, Yu Juluo, Yu Wenshu, and more officials joined Great Xia too, making Ouyang Shuo delighted.

As for Yang Guang’s ambitions, they would never come true.

Based on the Great Xia title system, every time the title was passed down, it would be lowered by a rank and could be passed down five generations at most. Hence, be it Han King or Sui King, both would stop at the first generation.

Along with Great Sui submitting, the 500 thousand Great Sui guards joined Great Xia. Along with the 350 thousand Great Jin army, everyone feared Great Xia’s military might.

Maybe because he felt hopeless, or maybe because they wanted to get something good, but not long after Great Sui submitted, on the 10th month, 1st day, Liu Bei finally gave up on resisting and submitted to Great Xia.

The moment the news went out, the world was shocked.

One must know that Guan Yu and Zhang Fei had both died under the Great Xia Army. For him to put down such hatred, Liu Bei was truly Liu Bei.

Since Liu Bei knew his position, Ouyang Shuo did not make things too hard for him, immediately sending a decree to give Liu Bei the title of Shu Marquis, 2nd class Marquis. He was given the same treatment as Dali Marquis Duan Yu.

Shu Han Dynasty submitted but chancellor Zhuge Liang was not willing to work for Great Xia and chose to seclude himself.

Ouyang Shuo did not force him. With the prosperous lineup of talents in Great Xia that gathered all the talents in Chinese history, they did not lack a Zhuge Liang.

Fa Zheng, Huang Zhong, Zhao Yun, Jiang Wei, and more Shu Han officials made Ouyang Shuo really satisfied.

The 6th year of Gaia was truly a tumultuous year. The end of the year had not even arrived yet, and only Qin, Tang and Song remained out of the eight dynasties.

The China region had already welcomed a new era, an era that belonged to Great Xia.

Due to the successive battles and huge gains, a total of two million troops awaited reorganization. When Ouyang Shuo returned to Shanhai City, he decided to stop all military operations and focus on digesting these troops for a period of time.

Once this round of digestion was over, Great Xia would unify China.

Chapter 1210 - TWO Chapter 1210-Africa Warzone

Chapter 1210: TWO Chapter 1210-Africa Warzone

Great Xia stopped their expeditions, but no one was happy about it.

Everyone knew that once Great Xia digested the newly added two million troops, they would strike out aggressively and start the war to unify China.

Just thinking about this sent a chill down one’s spine.

As time went on and the 10th month arrived, Ouyang Shuo entered a busy state.

After taking down a vast amount of land, accepting two million troops, and obtaining the loyalty of many officials, how to play out this big chess game was his biggest problem.

Over a successive few days, Ouyang Shuo either gathered up the Cabinet to discuss matters or went to either the Grand Council or the Privy Court to have meetings. Apart from that, he had meetings with ministers alone and was really busy.

On the 10th month, 5th day, things were finally showing signs of being settled.

The first thing that Ouyang Shuo arranged was the civil servants. Although three dynasties had submitted to Great Xia, they were only three provinces, so they were easy to arrange.

Xiong Ba was removed from his role in the Administrative Mentor Court and was officially appointed as the Minnan Provincial Governor.

Minnan Province was next to Jiangnan Province, and Ouyang Shuo placed him there to monitor whether he would try to influence Jiangnan in the dark after everything settled down.

This was Ouyang Shuo’s test for him.

The original Minnan Provincial Governor Xun Yu would join the Administrative Mentor Court as a Chief Secretary. Along with him was Shu Han minister Fa Zheng, but he was only appointed as a secretary.

The Administrative Mentor Court has such a stellar formation. Now, it was a little overpowered. Apart from head secretary Zhang Liang, there was chief secretaries Jia Xu, Pang Tong, and Xun Yu as well as secretaries Chen Gong, Jushou, and Fa Zheng.

Apart from Zhang Liang, they were all top strategists from the Three Kingdoms era.

Ouyang Shuo was already thinking about how to truly work the Administrative Mentor Court to not let some of them have nothing to do.

The role of Jiangnan Provincial Governor was taken by Gao Ying. The other Sui Dynasty minister Su Wei was appointed in Hedong Province where Great Jin had been located.

The two pillars of Great Sui were given high appointments.

Zhufu Yan was removed from his appointment as Zhongyuan Provincial Governor and moved to Wannan. Feng Qiuhuang would take over his role.

The situation in Zhongyuan Province has basically stabilized. Along with the Imperial Court taking down Wannan Province, the Zhongyuan Province had established connection with the Imperial Court.

Zhufu Yan was a minister of Great Han, and it was not appropriate for him to remain in Zhongyuan.

Feng Qiuhuang’s appointment there showed the high hopes Ouyang Shuo had for her. Zhongyuan Province was the central pillar of the mid plains, and if she ran it well, she would gain a lot of credit.

Apart from the Provincial Governor appointments, the other officials were handled by the Cabinet. The rule was that the Han, Jin, Sui, and Shu officials, including those from Jiangnan Province, could only be appointed in provinces other than their own.

This was a complicated process that would take several months.

After settling the Provincial Governors, Ouyang Shuo temporarily placed down the civil servant matters and focused on the biggest and largest military reorganization in Great Xia history.

The vast things it involved was hard to keep track of.

Just dealing with the 2.29 million troops needed a lot of effort.

They had captured 120 thousand Han troops during the Battle of Luoyang. As Wei Qing had killed himself, there were no great generals obtained.

During the Battle of Qing, they captured 320 thousand troops. Similarly, there were no exceptional generals.

During the battle at Jiangnan border, they captured 350 thousand Ming troops and obtained God General Xu Da, Emperor Rank general Chang Yuchun as well as King Rank generals Feng Sheng and Deng Yu.

After Great Ming was destroyed, Xu Da and the others stopped resisting and surrendered to Great Xia.

With Jiangnan Province submitting, they obtained 300 thousand King legion corps troops and God General Wuqi.

With Great Jin submitting, they obtained a total of 340 thousand troops from the Guards and blazing legion corps, obtaining Guo Ziyi, Meng Tian, Ran Min, Wang He, and Zhou Bo.

With Great Sui submitting, they obtained 500 thousand Great Sui Guards, obtaining Yang Su, Han Qinhu, Yu Juluo, Yu Wenshu, and He Ruobi.

With the Shu Han dynasty submitting, they obtained 360 thousand Shu Han Guards, obtaining Huang Zhong, Zhao Yun, and Jiang Wei.

Naturally, they could not keep all of such a large scale army, so a portion had to be removed. If not, even with the finances of Great Xia, they would not have the ability to maintain such huge military expenditure.

Furthermore, out of the 2.29 million troops, just the imperial city guards occupied 1.615 million of them for a total of 72%. It covered Han, Qing, Ming, Sui, and Shu, these five countries, and they needed to be disarmed.

With the current size of Great Xia, reorganizing the military was not a simple problem; it was not a numbers game. They had to consider the future strategy of the dynasty.

They needed to confirm the direction in which the dynasty would expand toward and what enemies they were going to face before they could settle on an reorganization plan.

All in all, it was led by the needs of the dynasty.

As for what enemies Great Xia had, pretty much everyone was their enemy. In Asia alone, there was the Mongol Empire and the Romanov Empire north, Persia Empire west, further west was Arab Empire, southwest was Peacock and Gupta Dynasty, and Southeast Asia had Java.

From a global perspective, it was even more bustling.

Apart from the Indian Empire, there was the Maple Dynasty, Dawson Dynasty, and Mayan Dynasty in America, House of Tudor, Spain Dynasty, Gaule Dynasty, Ottoman Dynasty, and Caesar Dynasty in Europe, Egypt and Bantu Dynasty in Africa; their enemies covered the entire world map.

If all these dynasties merged together, even three Great Xias would be wiped out by them.

Moreover, Ouyang Shuo was not a person who would be happy with the status quo. His head was harder than steel, and he was determined to smash the cake of Silver Hand and Azure Badge to reestablish world order on Planet Hope.

One could imagine that the game would be even more exciting in the future.

With so many enemies, it was naturally impossible to destroy them one by one. Ouyang Shuo wanted to destroy the two organizations and not all the members in the organization.

Accepting Xiong Ba’s family was due to such considerations.

Ouyang Shuo settled on three breakthrough points. One was Peacock Dynasty and Gupta Dynasty. Considering the presence of the Ashoka Dynasty, this was the most difficult one.

Second was the Persian Empire.

If they could take it down, they would be able to threaten the Arab Empire toward the west, Caesar Dynasty north west, and the Romanov Dynasty south west.

Thirdly would be Africa.

In the next one to two years the Africa Continent would be the focus of the entire world and the frontlines of Great Xia’s battle against Silver Hand and Azure Badge.

Of these three points, Africa needed to be strengthened the most.

Great Xia only had the West Africa and East Africa legion corps in the North Africa Protector House. Not to mention the future Battle of Africa, they could not even take down East Africa.

East Africa had a total of 13 countries, occupying 12% of Africa. The region had over 10 million players.

If Great Xia wanted to take down East Africa, they would have to use close to a million troops. For this, the first step of the military reorganization targeted Africa.

Ouyang Shuo decided to establish the 4th warzone – the Africa Warzone. Additionally, they would form the Africa Warzone headquarters to be in charge of Africa war matters. The first target would be to take down East Africa within a year.

For this, the Imperial Court decided to add two legion corps in the Africa warzone – Wolf and North Africa legion corps. The Wolf Legion Corps was a proper warfighting legion corps while the North Africa legion corps was a Border Defense legion corps.

Along with Great Xia’s territory increasing, Ouyang Shuo had to break the military title ruling, adding the wolf after the dragon, tiger, eagle, leopard, and bear.

For this, Ouyang Shuo decided to remove the Household Legion Corps for two reasons.

First, the Household Legion Corps was planned to be the first pure firearm legion corps, but since Gaia had greatly increased the combat strength of soldiers, firearms and cold weapons coexisting became the norm in the army.

As such, a pure firearm legion corps seemed really weak and useless.

Secondly, when they designed the Household Legion Corps, it was to strengthen the troops under his direct command in case they were weaker internally compared to externally.

However, as Great Xia’s territory expanded, the scale of the army, especially the border defense troops, swiftly expanded. No matter how Ouyang Shuo added troops to his direct command, he would not be able to prevent the continual of this situation.

The only way would be to reasonably restrict the warzones.

Moreover, as the territory size increased, the Guards Legion Corps would be like firefighters teleporting here and there. This would use up a lot of finances and efforts and was not a good choice.

Rather than that, why not strengthen the constructions of war zones and defend each strategic direction? That would reduce the need for the Guards Legion Corps to save the day and would give the war zones a long term plan.

Due to that, Ouyang Shuo decided to cancel the Household Legion Corps.

Anyways, before this, the only legion in the legion corps was split up into the various warfighting legion corps. Cancelling the legion corps title was only a systematic approach that did not bring any losses.

Along with the Household Legion Corps being removed, Zuo Zongtang, Zeng Guofan, and Oda Nobunaga were freed up for reorganization.

Ouyang Shuo selected Meng Tian to be the marshal of the Wolf Legion Corps.

As Meng Tian, Shi Dakai, and Di Qing were not top fighting generals, Ouyang Shuo selected Ming Dynasty general Chang Yuchun as the North Africa legion corps marshal to complement them.

Zhao Yun and Aida Nobunaga were arranged into the Wolf Legion Corps while He Ruobi and Wang He entered the North Africa legion corps.

With that, the Africa Warzone had Chang Yuchun, Oda Nobunaga, and Shi Dakai who were familiar with firearms. Such an arrangement was due to the future global war prediction.

The European and America dynasties were well versed in firearms so the Africa Warzone could not be at a deficit right at the start.

As the Africa Warzone was far from the pillar of the dynasty, many strategies needed the headquarters to decide on their own. Hence, Ouyang Shuo decided to give them a warzone commander and advisor.

The warzone commander would not take the role of the marshal of the legion corps while the Advisor would be a full time advisor.

The Africa Warzone Advisor was the Administrative Mentor Court Chief Secretary and top grade strategist Pang Tong. However, the choice of warzone commander surprised everyone.

Chapter 1211 - Demon clearing legion corps is born

Chapter 1211: TWO Chapter 1211-Demon clearing legion corps is born

The commander of the Africa Warzone was none other than the current southwest warzone commander, Baiqi.

Baiqi was not only removed from his position as southwest warzone commander but also removed from his position as marshal of the Dragon Legion Corps.

The warzone headquarters would be built and planned by both the Privy Court and the Grand Council.

On the surface, it looked like Baiqi was being moved from the strong and powerful southwest warzone to the dilapidated Africa warzone. Furthermore, being moved away from the Dragon Legion Corp was a demotion.

However, after thinking about the strategic position of the Africa warzone in the future, no one would think that way.

The Africa warzone would be the main battlefield of the dynasty for a period of time in the future. It would also be a place where many war matters would happen. Moreover, the situation there was really chaotic and complicated, so Ouyang Shuo needed a general that he could trust.

There were people who suggested he let Wuqi be the Africa warzone commander, but Ouyang Shuo rejected the proposal.

There were two reasons behind this.

First, Wuqi had just submitted and joined Great Xia and had not won Ouyang Shuo’s trust yet. To put him in the Africa warzone that was so far away from the core of the dynasty was a worrying prospect.

The further away the general was from the core area of the territory, the more Ouyang Shuo had to trust the general in question.

Secondly, there were many new generals that joined Great Xia that were appointed in the Wolf and North Africa legion corps.

If Wuqi were to take charge of the Africa warzone, the new generals and him would instinctively hug together to gain strength, which would not be good for the Imperial Court’s control of the warzone.

Due to such considerations, Ouyang Shuo selected Baiqi and not Wuqi.

Of course, Wuqi’s ability was undeniable. Even amongst all the God Generals, he was among the top. Due to that, Ouyang Shuo ordered him to take over the role of the southwest warzone and take the title of great general.

The southwest warzone was already stabilized. After Wuqi was appointed, he would not be able to start much problems nor could he form factions. He could only choose to merge into the Great Xia system and not have anything to do with the Xiong Ba family.

At the start, when Xiong Ba led Jiangnan Province to betray Great Zhou, Wuqi did not say anything and led the troops to follow his instructions. This was something that worried Ouyang Shuo.

Working alongside Wuqi was southwest warzone advisor Chen Gong.

Using the chance of assigning the Africa warzone an advisor, Ouyang Shuo decided to assign all the four advisors of the warzones. The southeast warzone advisor would be Fa Zheng, while the northwest warzone advisor would be Xun Yu.

With that, the Administrative Mentor Court was only left with Zhang Liang, Jia Xu, and Jushou. Out of the three, Zhang Liang strategized for the country, Jia Xu strategized for the army, and Jushou was the assigned helper to the two of them. They complemented one another.

Baiqi’s role of the Dragon Legion Corps marshal was taken over by Grade 2 Nanzhong general Zhang Han who was the southwest Heluo legion corps marshal. Zhang Han’s spot would be taken over by Sui Dynasty general Yang Su.

The Dragon Legion Corps was one of the top legion corps within the dynasty. Naturally, a new general could not be appointed. They had to select from one of the border legion corps marshals to help ensure the stability of the southwest warzone.

Out of all the border legion corps marshals, Zhang Han was one of the top presences and also came from Qin country like Baiqi. It was easy to calm down the Dragon Legion Corps, and the change would not cause much chaos.

As for Yang Su who took over the Heluo legion corps marshal appointment, he was not a simple person either.

Yang Su was born in the Yang family of Hongnong, which was an aristocratic family on the same level as the Pei family of Wenxi. During the north Zhou period, Yang Su was the Cheqi general. After joining in the battle to stabilize North Qi, he met Yang Jian.

After Sui Dynasty was established, Yang Su was promoted to grand censor, and he used his identity as the commander of the army to take down the Chen Dynasty. Then he helped to settle the internal bandit problem and broke into the Turkish khanate. He was then given the title of Yue Duke.

After Yang Guang ascended, Yang Su led troops to deal with the rebellion of Yang Liang and was appointed as the Chu Duke. The famous Yang Duke treasury came out from his hand.

He was an all rounded person.

At this point, the Africa warzone adjustment had come to an end.

After planning the Africa warzone, Ouyang Shuo turned his eyes back to China.

Looking back at China, the remaining four country alliance in the mid plains was not enough to threaten Great Xia. With their current numbers, they had enough to deal with them.

Ouyang Shuo was worried about the Mongol Empire in the north instead.

Especially the Beijiang Governor-General House, which was the frontline against the Mongols.

Such a huge piece of land, just the Yingzhou formation and the Beijiang legion corps were not enough to put one at ease.

Along with Great Jin submitting, Hokkaido, which was under Great Jin, was naturally merged into Yingzhou province. The two legions of the Yingzhou Formation were only enough to defend the local land.

Due to that, Ouyang Shuo decided to add a new legion corps in the Beijiang region – Phoenix legion corps, becoming the second warfighting legion corps after the wolf legion corps.

In the future, the Phoenix legion corps would defend Liaojin Province while the Beijiang legion corps defended Beijiang Province.

The marshal of the Phoenix legion corps would be the Great Jin blazing legion corps marshal Guo Ziyi. At this point, Meng Tian and Guo Ziyi, these two old Great Jin generals, held control of the wolf and phoenix legion corps, earning the envy of many.

Consequently, one could see that Ouyang Shuo’s kindness toward Great Jin was different from how he treated the others.

As a proper warfighting legion corps, the choices of Legion Generals were all elites. Sui Dynasty’s Yu Juluo, Great Jin’s Ran Min, Ming Dynasty Feng Sheng, and Shu Han general Jiang Wei were all appointed.

The Legion Generals were all from different systems to prevent them from huddling together.

Apart from organizing Beijiang, Ouyang Shuo could not forget about Hedong Province, which was connected with the Mongol Empire. Great Xia would set up the Hedong legion corps as part of the border defense legion corps system to defend Hedong Province.

Due to current war situations, the Hedong legion corps would temporarily be under the southeast warzone.

The marshal of the Hedong legion corps would be Qing Dynasty general Zuo Zongtang. The Legion Generals were Ming Dynasty general Deng Yu and Sui Dynasty general Yu Wenshu.

In history, Zuo Zongtang led forces to conquer the west and understood the people and the geography there. Ouyang Shuo naturally allowed him to be the Hedong marshal due to that.

The newly added Phoenix and Hedong legion corps basically helped to stabilize the dynasty’s defense of the northern border.

If the Mongol Empire dared to cross the border and enter the mid plains, Ouyang Shuo would definitely let Genghis Khan realize the sharpness of Great Xia’s troops.

Wolf, North Africa, Phoenix, and Hedong legion corps; these four legion corps used up a total of 1.4 million troops. 890 thousand soldiers remained.

It would be too wasteful to disarm all of them.

Due to that, Ouyang Shuo decided to use this chance to build the Imperial Palace Guards that he had been saving up to complement the Guards Legion Corps.

First, their role was special.

The Dragon, Tiger, and other warfighting legion corps mainly fought external threats, while the Beijiang legion corps, the Nanjiang legion corps, and the like were border defense corps.

The Imperial Palace guards were different, and their main role would be to defend against the beast caves.

Along with the expansion of the Great Xia territory, with Capital City Shanhai City as the center, the surrounding four to five provinces had become the core of the dynasty. They were far away from the border with no safety concerns.

Once they wiped out the four country alliance, this core region would continue to expand.

The role of the Imperial Palace Guards would be to defend against the beast caves within this core region. As for those at the border provinces, the border legion corps would naturally worry about them, and they did not need a specialized Demon Clearing legion corps.

That’s right, the Imperial Palace Guards were a strong Demon Clearing legion corps.

Secondly, the troop formation was special.

Due to Great Xia winning many successive wars, they had already sped up the merger of guild elites into the army. Even without Ouyang Shuo bringing the topic up, many guilds chose to be enlisted.

Everyone could see that nothing bad would happen if one tightly hugged the Great Xia tree.

Of these elite players, a large half were arranged to enter the Imperial Palace Guards. Based on the plan by the Privy Court, the combat occupation players and native soldier ratio was one-to-one.

As such, just the Imperial Palace Guards alone would take up close to 180 thousand elite combat occupation players.

Ouyang Shuo had already given word that only the pinnacle combat occupation players of China would be accepted. The normal and average ones would not be accepted.

Meanwhile, the native soldiers chosen for the Imperial Palace Guards would also be the elite of the elite. They would choose 1/13th of the 2.29 million surrendered soldiers.

There was a reason for the high standards.

Ouyang Shuo was not building the Imperial Palace Guards for only the current game world. He hoped that they would be the future vanguard army used to explore and conquer Planet Hope.

Hence, right from the start, they needed to get used to the army camp environment, learning military discipline. He also wanted them to accumulate teamwork experience in hunting beasts, which would raise their practical combat ability.

Ouyang Shuo did not share his wishes with anyone.

The marshal of the Imperial Palace Guards would be God General Xu Da who would be given the great general rank. Blood Romance and Xie Siyun, these two guild giants, would be deputy marshals and would follow beside him to learn.

The five legions had similar arrangements.

1st legion Legion General Zeng Guofan, deputy Blood Shadow Alliance guild leader Moon Shines over the River.

2nd legion Legion General Han Qinhu, deputy Tingyu Floor guild leader Jianqi Leiyin.

3rd legion Legion General Huang Zhong, deputy Streamer guild leader Bi Songxian.

4th legion Legion General Zhou Bo, deputy Fallen Leaf Alliance guild leader Fallen Dust.

The only special one would be the 5th legion, which would be directly led by Lin Jing. A really experienced general would be the deputy Legion General to help her.

As Ouyang Shuo’s little aunt, he naturally had to be biased. She was also his pair of eyes in the Imperial Palace Guards to monitor the entire legion corps.

Apart from the legion level, the Major General and regiment levels had similar arrangements. Only the unit level and below would be based on the actual situation. Some would take the main role, while some would be the deputy.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo had made it known that such an arrangement was for convenience. As long as the players were skilled, the Imperial Court naturally would not set up obstacles to their road to promotion within the Imperial Palace Guards.

If someone was capable enough to replace Xu Da, Ouyang Shuo would be happy to see that.

The moment his words spread out, the players were naturally motivated and touched. They were all prideful people, and desire and ambitions rose up in their hearts. This brought an added recognition of Great Xia that was slowly forming up in them.

Ouyang Shuo’s skills in playing politics was becoming invisible and traceless.

Chapter 1212 - Population Explosion

Chapter 1212: TWO Chapter 1212-Population Explosion

After forming the Imperial Palace Guards, this round of military organization came to an end.

During this round of military organization, apart from Wuqi and Xu Da who were given the title of great general, the other generals were all given titles. The standard was that marshals were awarded Grade 2 general, while Legion Generals were either Grade 2 or Grade 3 generals.

Wolf legion corps marshal Meng Tian was awarded Grade 2 Fujun general.

Phoenix Legion corps marshal Guo Ziyi was awarded Grade 2 Shangjun general.

North Africa marshal Chang Yuchun was awarded Grade 2 north conquering general, Heluo legion corps marshal Yang Su was awarded Grade 2 east defending general, Hedong legion corps marshal Zuo Zongtang was awarded Grade 2 west defending general.

At this point, out of the Grade 2 generals, east defending, west defending, north defending and south defending generals, the titles of north, south, east, and west conquering generals were all given out.

Out of the Fujun, Zhongjun, Shangjun, Zhenjun, Zhenguo, and Nanzhong general titles, only the Zhenjun general title was left.

Piaoqi general, Cheqi general, and Wei general; only Xu Chu was given the title of Wei general. The titles of Piaoqi general and Cheqi general were still empty.

Consequently, out of the 17 Grade 2 general spots, only three were left.

Along with Baiqi, Han Xin, and Li Jing, these commanders-in-chief, and Huo Qubing, Xu Da, Sun Bin, Li Mu, and Zheng He, these six great generals, the upper structure of the Great Xia Army was basically solidified.

Out of the 10 famous generals in China, apart from Wei Qing who committed suicide and Wang Jian who was in Great Qin, the remaining eight were all in Great Xia.

After the reorganization, the 710 thousand soldiers that remained after the various legion corps had replenished their loses were all removed from service and left to the Privy Court and Civil Affairs Department to handle.

This was the largest scale disarmament in Great Xia’s history. Luckily, the two organizations were familiar with the system of disarming the soldiers and everything proceeded smoothly.

At this point, Great Xia had a shocking 6.8 million troops in the navy alone; this was despite Ouyang Shuo disarming many troops and trying his best to reduce the number.

If not, the Great Xia Army would pretty much reach the 10 million scale.

The 6th year of Gaia was the year that Great Xia experienced a population explosion. At the start of the year, the population of the dynasty was around 150 million and was a huge distance away from the 200 million mark.

Following which, oceans amounts of people moved into Great Xia, and the population approached 200 million.

In the 4th month, under the aggressive actions of Silver Hand striking out, Great Xia attacked on all fronts, taking down Johor, Piao, Java, and Ethiopia, which caused their population to increase by 30 million.

Following which, they took down Han and Qing, while Jin, Sui, and Shu submitted. With the addition of Jiangnan and Wannan Provinces, in a short three months, Great Xia’s population increased by 80 million.

One must know that each imperial city had 10 million civilians. Zhan Lang got off cheap by taking down Jianye effortlessly. If it were not the fact that Ouyang Shuo had other plans, he would not have let the Blood Red legion corps succeed so easily.

Great Jin, as the third largest player dynasty in China, had close to 30 million people.

It was not hard to understand why Ouyang Shuo gave the order to stop the dynasty’s conquests and focus on internal politics right after the battle ended despite Great Xia only adding Hedong, Zhongyuan, Wannan, and Jiangnan provinces.

He gave such an order because there was simply a huge influx in population that was enough for Great Xia to digest for a long time.

The ocean amounts of civilians in Luoyang, Jingdu, Quanzhou, and Chengdu had to be led to other prefectures and counties to live, and they could not accumulate in one spot.

Along with the recent half a year, where more and more China region players and spawned refugees swarmed in from the various prefectures and counties, Great Xia’s population reached 370 million based on the new data from the Civil Affairs Department. Compared to the population at the start of the year, the number had more than doubled.

Before the end of the year, the population of Great Xia could easily breakthrough the 400 million mark.

During the rule of Daoguang, China’s population had hit 430 million, creating a record.

Based on those standards, Great Xia’s overall population would be able to break that record and reach a whole new height. Even so, an army of 6.8 million troops was still a heavy burden to the territory.

In history, the largest scale army was the Ming Dynasty’s army that had close to 2.8 million troops at its peak. Their population then was only around 200 million.

Moreover, the number of Ming troops was known to be exaggerated by everyone.

Even with the 6.8 million troops number, the troops to people ratio of Great Xia exceeded that of the Ming Dynasty.

In terms of military scale, Great Xia would be unprecedented and unique in history.

Even in China’s recent years, the peak scale of troops did not exceed 6.5 million, lower than the current scale of Great Xia. Such a comparison revealed the hefty financial burden Great Xia was facing.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo could not disarm the army.

This was the most crucial time for Great Xia. Internally, they had to wipe out the four country alliance to unify the country; externally, they needed to face enemies on all four fronts. Moreover, they also needed to take the initiative in Africa.

Along with defending against the beast caves, every aspect needed the support of a huge military.

To disarm now would be asking for death.

Only after they wiped out the four country alliance and solidified a stable core could the dynasty start to consider disarming the troops in the core area of China region to reach the goal of reducing troops.

Based on Ouyang Shuo’s plan, no matter how Great Xia expanded in the future and how the population rose, seven million troops would be the maximum, and there was no way they would reach 10 million.

The external expansion of the dynasty would rely on the army in China region.

As such, Great Xia returned to the starting point – only by taking down the four country alliance could Great Xia totally free themselves from all restraints and actively expand overseas.

If not, without needing Silver Hand and Azure Badge to strike, Great Xia would be dragged down by the military expenses and dragged into the quicksand of war. They would be unable to pull themselves out.

Hence, the three countries submitting was Great Xia’s most glorious but also most arduous time.

…

Gaia 6th year, 10th month, 6th day, Shanhai City.

Imperial City, temple of heaven square, the nine cauldrons were all lined up in a row. Each cauldron was 3 feet 6.5 inches tall, based on the 365 days of a year, while the circumference was two feet four inches, representing the 24 solar terms.

On the cauldrons were carved trees and wood, fishes and bugs. All of it looked realistic and alive.

During the past two days, the cauldron of Shu Han was sent to Shanhai City. At that time, Ouyang Shuo was busy discussing with the officials about military reorganization and did not have time to care about the matter.

After the military organization plan was settled, Ouyang Shuo rushed over.

By gathering up all nine cauldrons, he had completed the S rank quest Yu the Great Nine cauldrons. Ouyang Shuo was interested in finding out what changes would happen to these nine cauldrons.

Chapter 1213 - Great Xia bank

Chapter 1213: TWO Chapter 1213-Great Xia bank

Temple of heaven square.

“Nine cauldrons merge!”

Along with Ouyang Shuo’s order, the nine cauldrons rose into the air in a circular formation, swiftly rotating. Above the square, a gust of wind started ruffling, and Ouyang Shuo’s cape swooshed in the wind.

The nine cauldrons rotated faster and faster. In the end, one could not see anything clearly, and the only thing left was a blur.

At this moment, the Xia cauldron that was placed in the middle of the temple of heaven was pulled by a massive suction. With a ‘Hong!’ it rose up into the sky, turning into a black light as it appeared in the middle of the circle.

Nine cauldrons rotating around the Xia cauldron, creating a truly majestic sight.

Approximately half an hour had passed. The nine cauldrons turned into black, white, and red, yellow, purple, and other colors of the rainbow and shot toward the Xia cauldron in the middle.

Obtaining the various lights, the Xia cauldron shone brightly, stunning all four directions.

Following which, one could see the Xia cauldron change mysteriously. The hands, legs, and body of the cauldron looked more and more noble and mighty, giving off an indescribable prestige. On the body of the cauldron, mountains, trees, birds, fishes, and the like appeared, projecting into the sky like a mirage appearing in front of one’s eyes.

Upon closer inspection, the mountains and animals were all animals present in Great Xia. Within that short period of time, they projected the mountains of Great Xia as well as all the animals that lived within, what a stroke of god.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he was awed.

Such a scene only appeared in legends and fairytales. Where would mortals be able to see such things?

In a short while, all the anomalies disappeared, and the totally different Xia cauldron once again turned into a black light and accurately stopped in the middle of the temple of heaven. It was like nothing had happened at all.

However, Ouyang Shuo knew that everything was different.

Jiuzhou King Cauldron: Country upgrading treasure, belongs solely to Great Xia, can help suppress the fate of a country, help with the creation of lands. A result of reopening the nine states, defining the new lands of the nine states.

The description was really simple, but it was really difficult to understand.

Apart from knowing that it was a country upgrading treasure, Ouyang Shuo did not understand much else. Was the meaning of ‘Reopening the nine states’ the opening up of a new space or reestablishing the nine states gamemode within the game world?

All of this would be found out later on.

Along with the nine cauldrons matter coming to an end, Great Xia was only one requirement away from upgrading to Emperor dynasty. They only needed to occupy a third of the land in China.

Ouyang Shuo roughly estimated that along with Hedong, Zhongyuan, Wannan, and Jiangnan Provinces belonging to Great Xia, they were already really close to one third.

As such, without needing to take down Tibet, Great Xia just needed one more province. With one more, they would be able to satisfy the conditions and smoothly upgrade to Emperor dynasty.

The path ahead of Ouyang Shuo was smooth sailing.

Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate at all, ordering the Cabinet and Honglu Temple to start preparing for the dynasty upgrading ceremony, setting the time on the 1st day of the 7th year to coincide with the festivities of the New Year.

Now was the 10th month, 6th day. Three more months of preparation time was more than enough.

…

10th month, 8th day, Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo rode on a Ferghana horse. Under the protection of the Divine Martial Guards, it was a rare occasion where he walked out of the imperial city. When the civilians along the way saw that, they consciously moved aside and some of them even bowed.

In the eyes of the Great Xia people, Ouyang Shuo was the greatest emperor the nation ever had, and he was really well loved.

Especially in Shanhai City, where some of the people had come over long ago when the city was in the village stages. They had witnessed the dynasty grow from the start. Now, their kids had grown up and became the 2nd generation of Shanhai City.

Shanhai City was truly their home ground.

Ouyang Shuo’s trip out this time was so that he could visit the Four Seas Bank headquarters to witness a historical contract signing. The Four Seas Bank headquarters was located at the southwest corner of the imperial city. Around it, a finance street had sprung up.

Just as Ouyang Shuo arrived at the street, he saw Four Seas Bank treasurer Meng Zhida, who led his people to welcome him.

“Welcome, my king!”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, dismounting from his horse and passing the reign to a Divine Martial Guard as he asked, “Are the people all here?”

“They are all here; they are waiting in the guest room.”

“Wow, they are all quite early.” Ouyang Shuo smiled as he quickly entered the Four Seas Bank, entering the main hall and going past the corner. Only then did he arrive in the guest room in the back courtyard.

Appearing in the guest room were Blood Romance, Xie Siyun, and Moon Shines over the River, these few ex-guild leaders and current Imperial Palace Guards generals, Qing Sikou, the legendary figure that went from guild leader to famous merchant, and Feng Qiuhuang, Gong Chengshi, and Wufu, these ex-Lords that were now officials of Great Xia.

There was even Xunlong Dianxue, this lost soul, who sat at the corner and kept silent.

Regardless of their current and past identities, they were invited over to the Four Seas Bank headquarters today because of their common identity – shareholders.

Due to the heavy financial burden after this round of military expansion, Ouyang Shuo as the Xia King had to think of ways to increase the financial income of the dynasty.

The first thing he thought about was the Four Seas Bank.

After five years of development, the current Four Seas Bank was a worthy giant, attracting close to 300 million in savings. It was not only the top bank in China but also in the world.

Till date, there was still no one who could shake the Four Seas Bank’s position as the top in the world.

Along with Great Zhou getting weaker by the day, the Huitong Bank that was equal to the Four Seas Bank three years ago was not even on the same playing field.

Ouyang Shuo placed his eyes on the Four Seas Bank, but he naturally could not use the savings stored there to dish out salary for the military. That would be the typical case of drinking poison to quench thirst, and Ouyang Shuo was not stupid enough to do that.

He wanted to establish the Great Xia Bank on the foundations of the Four Seas Bank.

Each country had its own central bank, and currently, the Four Seas Bank played such a role. The problem was that the Four Seas Bank was not only the central bank, but it was also a commercial bank. It had too many roles, which made it really messy.

There were even some private people who invested, which resulted in no distinction between public and private.

Hence, after hearing Meng Zhida’s suggestion, Ouyang Shuo approved it and decided to buy back all the shares of the Four Seas Bank. Subsequently, he would start a reorganization of the Four Seas Bank.

He summoned all of them to sign the share handing over agreement. As this matter was really important, Ouyang Shuo had to find time to personally head over to the Four Seas Bank headquarters to witness this historical ceremony.

From now on, the Four Seas Bank would become a thing of the past.

Three years ago, Blood Romance and the others invested in the Four Seas Bank at 200 thousand per percent of shares, and at most, they could only purchase 5%.

After three years, along with the Four Seas Bank expanding, the shares in their hands naturally thinned out and went from the highest 5% to the current 0.5%.

Even so, this bit of shares was worth a lot.

Apart from Xunlong Dianxue and Qing Sikou, the rest worked in Great Xia and were considered one of their own. Ouyang Shuo naturally would not take advantage of them, and after balancing everything, he gave them a reasonable buyback price.

As the Four Seas Bank was not listed on the market, and there was no so-called share price, Ouyang Shuo decided to set a mark. They could obtain five times the amount of whatever they paid at the start.

For example, if one had invested one million, one would be able to get five million back.

Considering the inflation during these three years as well as a logical return on investment, this number was really reasonable. One must not look at how the Great Xia income increased to a whole new stage every year. That was because the game used gold as a common currency, and the inflation rate was not really that high. As such, the value of gold remained stable.

Taking back all their investment, Blood Romance and the others earned a huge amount.

As for not wanting to sell their shares, there was no one that was that shameless.

Even Xunlong Dianxue, who Ouyang Shuo had problems with, did not dare to use his identity as a shareholder to insist on not selling. With the current prestige and authority of Great Xia, without even needing Ouyang Shuo to act, just Meng Zhida alone could make him submit.

Luckily, Xunlong Dianxue knew his place.

Along with the Sui Dynasty joining Great Xia, Xunlong Dianxue, who had been living in Quanzhou, could be considered a Great Xia civilian now.

Ouyang Shuo had long forgotten that unhappy memory. Although he was unwilling to use Xunlong Dianxue once more, he would not find problems with him and would allow him to be at ease in Great Xia.

“It would be best to forgive and forget.”

At 10 AM, with Ouyang Shuo as the witness, they signed the share transfer agreement. For that, the Four Seas Bank had to take out 35 million gold in cold hard cash.

Luckily, this sum was from the Four Seas Bank. If not, the Financial Court would not be able to handle it.

After signing the agreement and obtaining a sum of cash, Blood Romance and the others said goodbye one by one. This sum of money was not their personal assets and needed to be split with their members. If not, they could be considered as tycoons.

Ouyang Shuo remained to discuss with Meng Zhida about the dividing plan.

The basic rule would be to turn the headquarters of the Four Seas Bank into the Great Xia Bank to act as the central bank of the dynasty. It would be in charge of currency dealing and would not interfere in loans, savings, and the like.

Speaking of which, Great Xia had long started printing currency, but they had not been able to push it out well. This time, Ouyang Shuo was determined to use the hand of the Great Xia Bank to make the Great Xia currency widely used.

The branches of the Four Seas Bank all over China would become Great Xia agriculture and Great Xia business banks. One would focus on commerce matters, while the other would help the agriculture development of the dynasty.

With that, he could ensure the prestige of the central bank while promoting the financial development of the dynasty, strengthening the dynasty’s finances.

Due to the enormous size of the Four Seas Bank, the splitting work was really complicated. Ouyang Shuo ordered Meng Zhida to finish it all before the ceremony.

After the splitting matter was completed, Meng Zhida would be the first president of the Great Xia Bank.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also ordered the Administrative Court to use this chance to recruit economic and financial experts from the player groups to work in the three banks.

China was filled with talents who were good at finance, and they should not be a lacking in that area.

Now that Great Xia had stopped the restrictions and opened its doors, there would definitely be a bunch of players who had not had a good time as adventure gamemode players who would decide to return to their original jobs in the bank.

Moreover, this would also be a landmark event, signifying that the adventure gamemode player group would split up and would not be mixed together as one.

Chapter 1214 - Monster Research Institute

Chapter 1214: TWO Chapter 1214-Monster Research Institute

Making use of the resting period, Ouyang Shuo remained in the Capital City and adjusted the Imperial Court Structure based on the development needs of the dynasty. Building the Great Xia Bank was just the first step in this organizational adjustment.

10th month, 10th day, the Great Xia Traffic Department and Asset Management Department were established.

These two organizations were not listed under any of the four courts and had a similar status to the Industrialization Department. It was managed directly by the Cabinet. Such an arrangement was due to both strategic needs and the need to balance the powers of the four courts.

The four courts held enormous power within the Imperial Court. Once their power swells too much, they would go against the Cabinet to suppress it. If the problem was more serious, it might even lead to administrative orders not running smoothly.

It was due to such considerations that these two departments were not under the four courts.

The Traffic Department had the Road and Bridge Division, Water Transport Division, Ocean Transport Division, and Railroad Division to manage all traffic related facilities of the dynasty. They were in charge of organizing, regulating, and pushing out plans regarding land and ocean transport. They were responsible for joining up the transport systems to promote connections between the various modes of transports.

The most eye catching one was the Railroad Division.

Along with the dynasty industrialization proceeding swiftly, the construction of railroads was officially shifted up the schedule. The preliminary plan was to build the Fengshan line that started up north in Fallen Phoenix City and ended in Shanhai City.

The Fengshan line would go through Hedong, Zhongyuan, Jingchu, Xiangnan, and Chuannan, these five provinces, opening up the north south transport channel of the dynasty. It would strengthen the dynasty’s control of the provinces.

Although Jingchu Province was still under Great Song rule, to build such a railroad that stretched from north to south was a huge project to the current Great Xia. It was similar to the Great Wall of China.

The Imperial Court planned for this line to be completed in three years.

It was because of this Fengshan line railroad plan that the Imperial Court decided to independently set up the Railroad Division.

The Asset Management Department, like its name, was in charge of managing the enterprises that the dynasty had set up. This role was previously taken by the Industry and Development Planning Department under the Financial Court.

To pull it out was not to weaken the power of the Financial Court. Rather, as the scale of the corporations and groups grew, they needed a professional organization to manage it.

Shu Mountain Steel Corporation, China Garment Group, China Construction Group, Canglong Military Works Group, Shanying Brand Bicycle Factory, and other enterprises would be under the management of this group.

Only the China Shipping Group was listed under the Traffic Department.

Using this chance, the Imperial Court also made changes to the chambers of commerce, leading them to undergo a company system revolution to set up industry standards and audit the running of the businesses.

This job would be managed by the Business Department under the Financial Court.

Great Xia’s commerce and business environment was really prosperous, and it was relatively free and developed. Based on the calculations by the Business Department, there were no less than five thousand different sized chambers of commerce in Great Xia.

Amongst which, the giants amongst the chambers of commerce like the Bai Family Trading Company, Cui Chamber of Commerce, Song Chamber of Commerce, and Thread Chamber of Commerce had their businesses encapsulating many different industries.

As long as the Imperial Court allowed them to enter that industry, these super chambers of commerce would enter it.

The chambers of commerce had slowly become the giants hiding beneath the surface; this was a huge risk to the dynasty because they could surface at any moment and affect the running of the Imperial Court.

Ouyang Shuo had to be wary about it.

Along with industrialization intensifying, the power of capital would only become stronger and stronger and become more and more unrestrained.

What Ouyang Shuo could do, or rather, what Great Xia Imperial Court could do, was not to use violence to control it because that would only hurt the commerce environment that they had set up arduously. Such a course of action would only injure both sides.

The true way to solve the root of the problem was to restrain this beast before it revealed itself from the water. They would use policies to lead them and achieve a win-win situation.

Changing the running system of companies was the first weapon that the Imperial Court released.

They would use this change in system to establish the industry and commerce registration system to make the businesses of the chambers of commerce more transparent and easier to monitor.

By establishing the company qualification auditing system, they could remove substandard products and increase the threshold to enter the industries. It was also helpful for monitoring the chambers of commerce because they would not be able to just swarm at all areas that could make money.

Apart from that, it helped to raise tax returns and prevent the chambers of commerce from avoiding taxes.

All things considered, Ouyang Shuo was determined to let the Business Department focus heavily on this and try to complete the relevant changes in the systems and auditing work before the 7th year.

If a chamber of commerce dared to comply only in appearance, Ouyang Shuo would go down on them viciously.

In the short term, this would definitely affect the eagerness and proactiveness of the chambers of commerce, reducing some of their strength. However, from a long term viewpoint, it would help to increase the scale of Great Xia’s business environment and help to make it more prosperous.

The construction of the finance system had become an important aspect of territory construction.

…

11th day, Ouyang Shuo arrived in the Privy Court office to attend an unveiling ceremony.

The Privy Court would establish the Monster Research Institute to research and analyze the way the monsters and beasts fought and develop weapons and equipment targeting them. Additionally, they would develop methods to turn the monster meat into military rations and the like.

Entering the 10th month, the number of beast calamities in the various lands did not show any signs of decreasing and was instead becoming more and more serious. Based on the Privy Court data, the casualties of the soldiers in the camp near the beast caves were slowly increasing.

This matter attracted Ouyang Shuo’s attention.

Gaia really was not playing around this time. The beast waves had become a huge problem to the territories, and it was even worse than the raiders and bandits of the past.

It was only the first year of the beast siege, so would there be new changes next year?

Ouyang Shuo had no way to find out, so he could only prepare and defend against it.

It was under such a situation that Ouyang Shuo decided to establish the Monster Research Institute to go from the back foot to the front foot. That was because the monsters and beasts were lifelike and real, and the results of the research would help them in the future on Planet Hope.

……

10th month, 12th day, Shanhai City.

Within the Imperial Reading Room, Ouyang Shuo summoned the Science, Education, Culture, and Health director Ouyang Xiu to discuss the education system that was about to released. This was also one of the matters that Ouyang Shuo focused on out of all the change in systems because this concerned the foundations of the dynasty.

A change in the education system, a change in the banking and commerce system, and the like was all done to speed up modernization.

Along with the dynasty territory expanding, just relying on the Xinan University and the Army Military Academy, these two civil and military academies, was not enough to sustain the territory’s need to develop talents.

A change of system was needed.

Ouyang Shuo decided to rename the Xinan University to Capital University, Army Military Academy to Army Military University, and Navy Academy to Navy University.

It was not only a name change. The Capital University and the Army Military University would be moved from the imperial city to a place where they had more space to build a bigger campus to fulfil the needs of expansion.

The imperial city was just too small and restricted, and it was not suitable for the freedom and openness required for a school.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo decided to build a Capital Teacher Training Institute where the three universities were moved to for developing education experts to inject blood into this change in system.

In the future, other professional universities would be set up like the Capital Arts University.

An even further plan would be to establish local universities in central cities like Luoyang, Quanzhou, and Chengdu to further perfect the education system.

Only then could the dynasty’s need for talents be quenched.

Just as Ouyang Shuo and Ouyang Xiu were discussing the education planning, a guard suddenly ran in, “My king, the Shanhai Guard intel station in the Mongol Empire has sent a red emergency document.”

Ouyang Shuo was shocked and knew that something big had definitely happened.

Chapter 1215 - Calamity Strikes

Chapter 1215: TWO Chapter 1215-Calamity Strikes

Many years later, people would still remember this calamity that struck in the 6th year of Gaia like it was fresh in their minds.

10th month, 10th day, Mongol grassland, north border.

On the grasslands in autumn, the knee high wild grass slowly turned yellow. Animal herders who were dressed in white were busy harvesting grass to feed their animals through the winter season.

Cylindrical haystacks the size of grinding stones were scattered around the vast grassland like guards carefully guarding this ancient grassland, protecting the scared land of the animal herders.

To the Mongol herders, this was a year of great harvest.

The storms that plagued the mid plains had no effect on the northern grasslands. Wild grass proliferated while cows and sheep grew strong. The flock of sheep that formed up were like clouds on the grassland, making one delighted.

Following which, the Empire had won a war on the west side, swallowing up and merging with the Turkish Khanate. Genghis Khan was delighted and exempted them from half a year of taxes.

Happiness came in pairs, as they were destined to have a good year.

Their faces were red, nourished, and filled with energy as they rushed to complete the harvest before winter arrived.

Just at this moment, on the horizon, buzzing sounds spread over. The animal herders straightened their backs and looked up, only to see a black cloud appear on the horizon.

That black cloud spread out on both sides, and one could not see the end of it. The buzzing sounds came from that black cloud.

“That’s weird. Why does a cloud have sounds? Is it going to rain?”

The weather in the grasslands was really unpredictable and a sudden rain was normal.

While the animal herders were confused, the black cloud charged at them at a visible rate. The closer it got, the louder the sound grew, making one numb up.

At this moment, all the animal herders looked toward the black cloud.

It was getting closer and closer.

“That- that is not a black cloud!”

Some of the sharp-eyed animal herders gazed at the ‘cloud’, their voices shaking.

“Uncle, if that is not a black cloud, what can it be?” The young herder laughed as he said that, not caring much. Evidently, he had not realized that danger had descended.

In the blink of an eye, the black cloud had swarmed over.

“Locusts; they are locusts!”

Looking at the black cloud, the uncle muttered, remembering the calamity he had faced when he was young. His face that was covered in wrinkles started to turn white. He had clearly recalled some bad memories.

The grasslands was where locust calamities happened often.

The young herders could not laugh anymore, as they could now clearly see that the so-called black cloud was just numerous locusts gathering together and dancing around.

Everywhere the locusts passed, no grass was left.

In the poem ‘Flying Locust’ written by Ming Dynasty poet Guo Dun, he described the scene that happened as, “The locusts covered the sky such that there was no color; the eyes of the elderly weeps tears of blood.”

The scene in front of them would only be more terrifying than what was described in the poem.

That was because the scale of this locust wave was simply too great. Looking out, north, south east, and west, front and back, there were locusts everywhere, like one had barged into a locust nest.

No one knew how many there were, were there 100 million, 1 billion or 10 billion?

The uncle knelt on the ground, praying sincerely to the gods of the grassland for protection. Around him were locusts that covered the sky, dancing up and down, creating a chilling sight.

When the young herders saw that, they were at a loss.

On the vast grasslands, there was nowhere to hide, so their bodies could only be swallowed up by the locust wave.

“Quick, hide in the haystack, hide.”

Some people reacted and were not willing to just stand there and do nothing. They called out to the others to fend off the locust rain and try to form the haystacks into a circle.

Only the uncle continued praying, not bothering about the surrounding locusts.

These locusts flew over from Siberia. They had just hatched from their eggs and were at the hungriest point in their lives, so they ate anything they saw.

The black cloud that the herders saw was just the vanguard.

The further behind, the more closely packed the bugs got. It was not a cloud and was more like a black wall where one could not even see a gap through.

Just as the herders were forming a circle with the haystacks, the uncle was drowned by the locust wave.

One brave kid took the risk to rush beside him to try to drag him into the circle. However, the uncle did not move and only prayed.

Seeing the bug wave get denser, the kid was helpless and could only leave.

To the herders living on the grassland, using haystacks to build a temporary house was not a difficult matter. Not only were circles of haystacks stacked up, even the roof was made of hay.

Hundreds of haystacks had formed up a close space.

The herders hid inside, using their clothes to cover their bodies as they shivered.

The heaven covering bug wave whistled across. The grassland that was filled with grass moments ago became bare and empty with nothing left.

Even those huge haystacks were being digested by the locusts at a visible rate.

Two hours had passed, and the herders who were hiding within the haystacks finally could not hear that numbing buzz. Only then did they nervously walk out.

The scene of an apocalypse laid in front of them.

All the hay that they had gathered up with their hard work was gone. Even the haystack house that was formed from circle after circle of hay was only left with a thin layer. Looking out, it was only bare land.

Not far away, the uncle laid on the ground, his life or death unknown.

Everything was like a dream.

‘Wuwu~’

Amongst the crowd, cries broke out and grew louder and louder.

“We are finished; everything is finished.”

The herders cried, crying for the hay, crying for the animals, and crying for themselves. Without the hay, the animals would not be able to pass the winter.

To the herders, the animals were their lives.

Thinking about that, everyone cried out.

And these cries were just the peak of the iceberg; it was not enough to describe this calamity.

That day, tens of billions of locusts charged into the Mongol grassland from Siberia, launching the cruelest and biggest locust calamity in history.

From the house of Ogedai in the west to Liaojin Province in the east, no one was spared.

The scare of this was unprecedented.

The entire Mongol grassland was covered by the locust wave from north to south. It was an unstoppable movement. Everywhere the locust wave went, no grass was left. Herders cried out, and lives were extinguished.

The Mongol Empire was in a state of total panic.

Genghis Khan ordered for all people to prepare for battle, treating killing the locusts as a matter of war. They would work with the herders to kill the locusts to reduce losses.

A million troops whistled across the grassland.

…

This calamity that Gaia started was naturally not restricted to the Mongol grassland.

Pretty much at the same time that the locust calamity struck, in the mid plains region, especially the Yellow River region, a similar locust crisis also started.

Especially the lower stream of the Yellow River, which was where locust crisis were common. As a result, the area was the most badly hit.

All of a sudden, clearing out the locusts became the main focus of the wilderness.

For the entire 10th month, Great Xia had a huge locust destroying operation. To protect the hay and the upcoming second harvest season, the people went crazy.

They used nets, fire, and even cooked the locusts to eat. They tried everything.

But it was useless.

The locust wave came and went like the wind, whistling across like a gust. The attacks of the people were just a small dent. The regions hit by the calamity would have their yield affected and may even have no harvest.

In ancient times, without modern pesticides, there was no way to use plains to spread the pesticides.

The upcoming winter was destined to be a cold one.

Not only China, in the 10th month, calamities occurred worldwide. In Africa, locusts were rampant, and it was much worse compared to China.

The so-called ‘It’s hot so there would be locusts’ meant that the hotter and dryer the region, the easier the locust calamity would happen. The dry Africa continent was naturally hit the hardest.

Apart from that, there were typhoons, storms, tornados, earthquakes, tsunamis, illnesses…

Any thinkable calamity in human history was released by Gaia like opening the Pandora’s box, spreading all around the world.

The game world was in total chaos.

The civilians cried out while the Lords were filled with worry.

No one expected Gaia to be so vicious to teach the various Lords a lesson – the world is unpredictable.

The so-called good weather would cease to exist.

Once the 10th month ended and the situation turned for the better, the tired civilians would start to evaluate their losses and check for what was missing with the help of local officials.

The reports handed up made the brows of all the rulers locked tight.

This calamity would have a long and drawn out impact on the global situation. The first one being the grain prices because the grain prices in the China region started to soar from the middle of the 10th month…

Chapter 1216 - TWO Chapter 1216-Disaster or blessing? Who knows?

Chapter 1216: TWO Chapter 1216-Disaster or blessing? Who knows?

11th month, 5th day, Shanhai City.

Within the Imperial Reading Room, Cabinet assistant secretary Zeng Guofan was reporting to Ouyang Shuo about the situation regarding the land.

Out of the six Cabinet elders, Zhang Liang and Wei Zheng were working part time and did not participate fully in Cabinet work. As the Grand Secretary, Jiang Shang was like half a Chancellor. When Ouyang Shuo was not in the Capital City, Jiang Shang would be in charge.

Of the remaining three elders, Kou Zhun, Yan Song, and Zeng Guofan all had their respective responsibilities.

Kou Zhun was in charge of human matters as was the top assistant of Jiang Shang. Every time Great Xia took down a new piece of territory, apart from special cases like Zhongyuan Province, Kou Zhun would appear to settle the situation.

Of course, if they took down many provinces at once, the few elders would all come out to manage one each.

Apart from that, Yan Song was in charge of the court situation, focusing on the Capital City Imperial Court. Zeng Guofan was in charge of the local administrative matters. He has the most speaking rights for matters about the land.

The two of them complemented one another to maintain the prestige of the Cabinet.

Yan Song was a person with ability, but he liked to form factions. Ouyang Shuo would not be at ease putting him in charge of local administrative matters. On the contrary, controlling the court situation was not difficult for the experienced Yan Song.

As this matter related to the calamity situation across the land, Zeng Guofan was the one reporting.

“In the 10th month, the calamity affected 17/22 of the provinces of the dynasty, affecting close to 13 million people. A million hectares of animal husbandry land was affected and close to 20 million mu of farm was affected. Preliminary estimates put the direct economic loss at 19 million gold. The indirect losses are uncountable.”

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he sucked in a deep breath.

Gaia was really vicious this time, directly cutting off a piece of flesh from Great Xia.

“Which provinces were the most affected?”

“Liaojin, Zhongyuan, Wannan, Jiangnan, and the North Africa Protector House. These five areas were affected the most.” Zeng Guofan remembered it like the back of his hand.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he did not know whether he should feel sad or happy.

A large part of them were new territories and were really unlucky.

The part that made Ouyang Shuo feel slightly happy was that along with Zhongyuan, Wannan, and Jiangnan provinces being hit, if the Imperial Court helped them out, the people there would feel really grateful. The barrier between the two would be removed, and they would share the same heart as the dynasty.

“Has the relief grain been sent over?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Zeng Guofan, “As the king instructed, saving a calamity is like saving a fire. We have taken a portion out of the grain that was purchased before the year to help the people out. Once the unaffected regions hand over their grain, we will use them to fill up the granaries.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head in satisfaction.

Great Xia was huge, and they were probably the dynasty that lost the most from this calamity.

However, it was because they were huge that there were many regions that were not affected or were not affected as much. Using one place to make up for another, Great Xia could keep up and running.

Their situation was unlike some dynasties that had a small area. When such dynasties were affected, their entire territory was affected.

Without mentioning other regions, just in terms of China, the Mongol Empire in the grasslands, Great Zhou at the downstream of the Yellow River, and Great Tang that was at the upstream of the Yellow River were all affected really badly.

On the other hand, West Xia and Great Qin that were neighbors of the grassland were unaffected as the grasslands had fed the locusts.

The part that made Ouyang Shuo wary was that the Mongol Empire belonged to a heavily affected region. As a nomadic tribe, they only had one food source, so their ability to rise up from the calamine was weaker than farming civilizations.

This winter would definitely be a hard one for the Mongol Empire.

With Genghis Khan’s character, he definitely would not lower his head and admit defeat. The only way would be to send out troops to rob and pillage before winter to use the blood of the enemy to feed themselves.

The mid plains region would be hit first.

The Mongol Empire had many reasons to do that. During this locust disaster, the Mongol grassland helped to block the disaster from hitting the mid plains, so it is expected for them to collect some interests.

As such, Ouyang Shuo had ordered the Beijiang to strengthen the border control a month ago.

However, the Phoenix and Hedong planned for the north were still being built, which worried Ouyang Shuo. If the Mongol Empire chose the chance to attack now, they might not be able to defend.

If the situation was an emergency, they could only rush it.

Temporarily shelving those thoughts, Ouyang Shuo instructed Zeng Guofan, “The grain prices are increasing, so the Cabinet needs to prepare for it to control the price of rice. We cannot let the chambers of commerce take the chance to suck the blood of the people, and we must not let the people amass too much grain either.”

The people treated food like their god.

The moment grain prices increased, the people would panic, and it could easily lead to a purchasing frenzy. It would cause the normally enough grain supply to become insufficient, allowing merchants to profit.

Stabilizing the grain prices was the responsibility of the Imperial Court.

“Do not worry, my king. The Cabinet is working with the Business Department to send groups to the various lands to supervise this matter. If we notice illegal activity from merchants, we will punish them. The provincial offices and Governor General offices have been informed to take charge.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, having such a highly efficient Cabinet saved him a lot of trouble.

Zeng Guofan continued, “My king, the grain prices are increasing. The grain we amassed at the start of the year, apart from the amount required to be self-sufficient, we also have large amounts of extra. Should we sell a batch to profit?”

As he said that, Zeng Guofan was filled with praise and respect for the king’s farsightedness.

Before the year began, Ouyang Shuo had instructed them to use a million gold to buy grain unrestrainedly, gambling that grain production would fall in the 6th year. At that time, all the officials, including Zeng Guofan, did not understand.

They were not feeling the shocking gamble either.

The current situation proved that the king’s judgement was correct. If they sold this batch of grain, the Imperial Court would be able to earn 20 million gold. There was no business as worth it as this.

Sometimes, Zeng Guofan would wonder whether rulers had the ability to see things normal people could not.

If not, it was not possible to explain how the king could have a clue that the 6th year of Gaia would have them face such a disaster that would cause a grain shortage.

The king’s guess was proven correct today.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and smiled, “How much money can we make from selling it? It’s just so little.”

Zeng Guofan was stunned. He roughly guessed the king’s intentions, but he did not dare to ask. Turning his attention to the topic, “My king, the dynasty is affected by disaster, will the ceremony next year be held as planned?”

“Naturally.”

Ouyang Shuo looked toward Zeng Guofan.

The upgrading ceremony to Emperor dynasty was the most prosperous thing in Great Xia recently and concerned the face of the country. Since they had set the date, no matter what challenges and problems they faced, the date could not be changed.

With his intellect, he naturally would not ask such a shallow question.

Since he asked this, he had to have another meaning.

Zeng Guofan was definitely still heart pained about the grain matter and did not dare to ask outright, which was why he took a full circle.

As expected, he took the chance to ask, “We still need to take down one province to upgrade to Emperor dynasty. The king has ordered us to stop the war this year, so how are we going to solve this missing province issue?”

Zeng Guofan was not the only one with this question.

Ouyang Shuo smiled. He understood the thoughts of the officials and felt really accomplished. He replied, “We will take down the last province without using any troops. We are just lacking the moment.”

When Zeng Guofan heard that, he fell deep in thought.

…

11th month, 10th day, the Indian Empire that was so far away sent an envoy over to Shanhai City.

Although there were now communication compasses that broke the previous barriers, regarding country matters, the dynasties treated them solemnly. They sent out envoys to send over letters to express their respect.

The Indian envoy came over with a really weird request for Ouyang Shuo.

Chapter 1217 - TWO Chapter 1217-Zhan Lang's decision

Chapter 1217: TWO Chapter 1217-Zhan Lang’s decision

In the second half of the 6th year of Gaia, along with the American and European Lords staring at South America, the America continent that had been quite peaceful suddenly became bustling with excitement.

The Indian Empire that had a solo grip on South America was instantly surrounded by enemies.

In the 8th month, the Dawson Dynasty took down Columbia region that was connected to Panama. While this solidified its control of the Panama Canal, it also posed a direct threat to the north of the Indian Empire.

9th month, the Argentina region that was located at the south tip of South America announced that it had submitted to Spain Dynasty.

Just like that, one north and one south, Indian Empire was pincered.

Seeing that the Indian Empire could not even defend itself, in the 10th month, the Brazil Region that was originally going to lower its head to them decided to stand alone and form the Brasilia Dynasty. They wanted to try and borrow the hand of Europe and America to go up against the Indian Empire.

Along with the Venezuela region that had not been conquered by the empire, the flames of war rose in South America.

Facing the stares of enemies all around, the Indian Empire was already too tired to deal with all of them. Along with the disasters, Indian Empire ruler Juarez realized that relying on his own ability would not be enough to lead the South America situation.

If things drag on, the situation might get even worse.

At this dangerous moment, Juarez thought about his ally Great Xia.

During this period of time, Great Xia slaughtered in all directions in China, becoming the focus of Lords all around the world. Although Great Xia did not use troops overseas, there had been legends spreading about Great Xia.

Juarez’s plan was to give the Indian Empire’s Ecuador region to Great Xia to let them move troops in to go against Dawson Dynasty.

The Ecuador region was located south of Columbia, and in the early days, the Indian Empire had helped Great Xia take down a port in South America that was located within Ecuador.

Juarez was really generous and directly gave the entire entire region to Great Xia.

Ouyang Shuo naturally saw right through Juarez’s plan – he wanted to use Great Xia’s hand to restrict the Dawson Dynasty’s invasion into Indian Empire.

Only then could they free up troops to take care of the Spain Dynasty and the Brasilia Dynasty. Especially the Brasilia Dynasty, which had gone against their words and needed to be dealt with seriously. If not, how would the empire have any authority or prestige?

Although he saw through that, Ouyang Shuo did not directly reject the request.

The Ecuador bait that the Indian Empire threw out might not be something that Great Xia could not take. If it was reasonably swallowed, who the fisherman was and who the fish was would be unknown.

Just as Zhang Liang said, “This is the best chance for the dynasty to enter the America Continent.”

Before this, due to the presence of the Indian Dynasty, Ouyang Shuo did not intend to set foot in South America in case they had conflicts with Indian Empire, which would cause them to lose their only ally in the world.

As for North America, Great Xia had no way to set foot in it.

The current Indian Empire was forced by pressure to cede Ecuador region. This was a great chance for Great Xia and a good chance to enter the America battlefield.

As for what happens in the future?

“Let’s stick our heads in first.” Ouyang Shuo thought that way.

The worst outcome would be being forced to withdraw troops from South America, which would not be much of a loss to Great Xia. However, if they could gain a footing in South America, they could use it as a support to radiate to the entire America continent.

The Dawson Dynasty would not be so mysterious anymore.

Furthermore, if the Indian Empire wanted to fulfil its goal, it could not watch as Ecuador was lost. When needed, the Indian Empire would aid them with resources and grain to help the Great Xia Army stabilize the situation.

Of course, since they were standing on the side of Great Xia, it was best to let the Indian Empire get right into the battle with the Spain Dynasty and the Brasilia Dynasty. Only then would Great Xia have room to show their skill.

The schemes within were really complicated.

Due to such considerations, Ouyang Shuo agreed to the request of the Indian Empire ambassador and agreed to accept Ecuador and move troops in.

When the ambassador saw that, he left in satisfaction.

Following which, Great Xia’s Cabinet used the quickest speed to pass and approve the administrative planning of the Ecuador Region. They decided to establish the Ecuador Prefecture, which would be under the direct rule of the Imperial Court.

The ruling area of the prefecture was named as Zhidian City. For this, Ouyang Shuo used his last teleportation formation.

On the contrary, the Cabinet had some differences in opinion regarding the ruling system of Ecuador Prefecture. Grand Secretary Jiang Shang’s opinion considered how the Ecuador Prefecture was located overseas and was also facing the threat of the Dawson Dynasty. This prefecture’s policies had a lot to do with war, so he suggested arranging a general there to rule by military law.

However, deputy Kou Zhun insisted that military and administrative matters could not be mixed, and they could not set a precedence.

Both sides could not decide, and the final decision was left to Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo gathered up both their opinions. After considering the situation of the prefecture, he decided that while he appointed a Governor, he would also send a Jiedushi.

Normally, the Governor and would have their own duties. During war, the would have total control over all resources in the prefecture to use for war. War would become the top priority.

This both helped to maintain the separation of military and administrative matters while giving the general authority.

Ouyang Shuo personally selected the current Tengyue Prefecture Governor Zhou Haichen to be the Ecuador Governor. Without a doubt, this was Ouyang Shuo’s closely trusted civil servant and a person he focused on developing.

Zhou Haichen was the administrative director’s assistant, Friendship City Magistrate, Leishan Prefect, and Tengyue Governor. He had a lot of experience, and Ouyang Shuo was prepared to let him train up in Ecuador before giving him a Provincial Governor role in the future.

With Zhou Haichen there, there would be an invincible shackle on the Jiedushi.

Regarding the choice of Ecuador Jiedushi, be it the Cabinet or the Privy Court, they both recommended one or two people but were rejected by Ouyang Shuo because he already had a suitable choice in his heart.

As the first of Great Xia, he needed to be an all rounded person.

More importantly, due to the complicated situation in America, this person represented Great Xia there and needed to be stable under pressure. They needed to be crafty to balance all the powers and courageous and sharp to win on the battlefield.

These three traits being gathered on one person was difficult to find.

Ouyang Shuo’s ideal choice was great Zhou Qi Marquis and Donghai Provincial Governor Zhan Lang. This person had been the Blood Red City Lord for a long time and was all rounded. To be able to hide his identity as an Azure Badge member till now showed his stability and ability to hold things in.

During the Yanhuang Alliance period, Zhan Lang was the stabilizing pill for all sides and could save the day at the crucial moment to balance out the powers.

The current Zhan Lang was really low profile and even looked like he had given up on himself. He had seemingly lost his courage and sharpness, but Ouyang Shuo knew that this was just on the surface.

Zhan Lang was a born military soldier, and the fighting spirit in his body was no less than anyone else.

Such a Zhan Lang merely lacked a stage for him to spread his wings and fly.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to give Zhan Lang such a stage to let him step out of the restraints of Silver Hand and Azure Badge and take a gamble.

“Who knew that the chance to recruit him would actually be given by the Indian Empire?” Ouyang Shuo smiled, not hesitating anymore and contacting Zhan Lang.

“Xia king.”

Zhan Lang was really calm; it was like he had long predicted the arrival of this day.

Ouyang Shuo knew about his identity as a spy. Hence, when the Azure Badge stepped out from the shadows, his heart had died because the enemy held his weakness.

When Xiong Ba betrayed Great Zhou and the 400 thousand Ming troops was destroyed, Zhan Lang finally set his heart to it. He was not going to wait to die and ordered the Blood Red to take down Great Ming.

Donghai Province was the only chip in his hand.

However, a calamity had caused this chip to change. Originally, after taking down Great Ming, he had obtained a bunch of officials and had the 10 million civilians of Jianye under his charge.

The future Donghai Province had a chance to become a second Great Jin.

Unfortunately, the heavens did not grant his wish.

In the calamity of the 10th month, the Donghai Province that was located downstream was one of the regions that were most heavily affected.

One locust calamity greatly reduced the grain in the province, resulting in little to no yield. Moreover, during the Great Jin battle, Di Chen had ordered them to amass grain to support the frontlines.

The civilians were all depending on the second rice season to tide over the hardship.

Who would have guessed that just before the grain ripened, the heavens would do that, pushing Donghai into the abyss.

Zhan Lang was so anxious that his hair turned white, but he still had no way to solve the problem.

The 10 million Jianye people were originally the foundations to establish a country. Now, they had become a huge burden, making it hard for him to breathe.

Zhan Lang had sought help from Di Chen. For the people, he was even prepared to lower his head to Di Chen. However, Great Zhou was also hit, and Di Chen could not even save himself, much less Donghai Province.

At this stage, only Great Xia could save Donghai.

Perhaps he had long awaited this video call in his heart.

“Come to Great Xia. I’ll give you a stage.”

Ouyang Shuo said before giving a simple description of the Ecuador Prefecture situation. “The small lake of China cannot fit you. Go to America and help Great Xia and yourself build a legacy.”

Zhan Lang looked deeply at Ouyang Shuo. After a long while, he only said one word, “Okay!”

One word worth a thousand gold.

Ouyang Shuo knew that with Zhan Lang’s character, he would not go back on his word once he agreed.

“The Imperial Court is planning to establish the South America formation, and due to their provision standards, I can only temporarily give you two legions. In the future, the South America formation would be the South America .”

Zhan Lang nodded, expressing that he understood.

He was previously a Lord. Obviously, he knew that to use one prefecture to feed two legions was already pushing it. It was impossible to support one because that would crush the local civilians.

“The South America formation will use the elites of the Blood Red . Go prepare.” Ouyang Shuo gave him a huge gift.

After establishing the Jiedushi, Ouyang Shuo made another exception.

Before this, no surrendered Lord or general could still lead his own troops after submitting to Great Xia.

This kindness was something that Zhan Lang felt grateful about.

Ouyang Shuo was Ouyang Shuo. He was different from Di Chen, who only knew how to plot. When he needed to be generous, he would be, so it was no wonder that he could persuade a bunch of heroes to join him.

“Yes, my king!”

Zhan Lang bowed. At this point, his heart had changed.

Chapter 1218 - Trusting and keeping in check

Chapter 1218: TWO Chapter 1218-Trusting and keeping in check

11th month, 12th day, Zhan Lang along with the Donghai Province submitted to Great Xia.

When the news spread out, people were not really all that surprised.

After the calamity in the 10th month, the Great Zhou Dynasty that was already on a downward slope was totally withering and showed no signs of rising up. Zhan Lang breaking away from Great Zhou and joining Great Xia was simply normal.

Even the players did not blame him.

On the contrary, when Azure Badge received the news, they jumped out to expose his identity while scolding him for abandoning the organization.

When Di Chen heard that, he was astonished.

Along with Donghai Province joining Great Xia, Great Zhou Dynasty went from six provinces at its peak to two.

Everyone knew that Great Zhou was already close to being wiped out.

The so-called four country alliance was just barely breathing after the calamity.

Azure Badge jumping out at this moment was just due to anger. They wanted to sully Zhan Lang’s reputation. However, the direction of the global comments greatly exceeded their expectations.

“Planting spies all over, Azure Badge is so dirty, yet they still dare to scold others?”

“Wanting to sully others? Wipe your ass first!”

“Why did Zhan Lang enter such a cold-blooded organization?”

Such comments filled up the various medias and caught Azure Badge off guard. Amongst these comments, there were the players empathizing with the weak and commoners being unhappy with Azure Badge.

More importantly, Silver Hand was pushing the waves.

To have a deeply hidden spy planted among them for no reason had simply made them lose all face. Number 2 was furious and grumbled that he wanted to seek revenge on Azure Badge.

Hence, Silver Hand took the chance to throw dirty water at Azure Badge.

Along with the global situation settling down, Great Xia’s overseas peaceful period meant that the honeymoon between the two organizations was coming to an end. Them butting heads was just a matter of time.

The Zhan Lang matter was just the spark.

…

Great Xia’s efficiency was magically quick.

11th month, 14th day, the Imperial Court sent out appointments to remove West Gate Big Official from his role as Xiangnan Provincial Governor, moving him to Donghai Province. Original Ming Chancellor Li Shanchang would take over.

As one who was credited with helping to start the Ming Dynasty, Li Shanchang loved to read when he was young and joined Zhu Yuanzhang. At the time, he followed the latter to battle through life and death. He accumulated a lot of credit and was comparable to Han Chancellor Xiao He.

Taking the role of Xiangnan Provincial Governor was no challenge at all to him.

Apart from Li Shanchang, Ming Dynasty officials like Yang Shen and Song Lian were all put in important positions. Only the prestigious Li Jiliu was treated coldly and did not obtain a position.

Toward this, Ouyang Shuo did not make any explanation.

West Gate Big Official moving from Xiangnan Province to the richer Donghai Province showed that he had obtained Ouyang Shuo’s recognition. He had officially stepped into that circle, and his future was bright.

Gaia let the Lords compete in the wilderness, and there would only be a few winners in the end. They could just count the Lords who lost mid-way as failures.

They were half successful and still needed a stage to perform.

Ouyang Shuo knew that they would needed historical talents like Zheng Guofan but also talents like Bai Hua and West Gate Big Official on Planet Hope in the future.

He could not relax his development of them.

Training up them would be like training a new layer of people that would help protect his rule. Great Xia would not be an empty city lacking people.

Apart from that, the Imperial Court gave Zhu Yuanzhang’s grandson Zhu Yunwen the title of Small Ming King to settle the Ming royal family.

First, Ouyang Shuo did that to calm down the hearts of the Ming Dynasty officials. Secondly, he was taking the heat from Zhan Lang. Zhan Lang had taken down Great Ming, which resulted in them not getting titles. With Donghai joining Great Xia, Great Xia should naturally come out to settle the matter.

The reason was the same as why they gave the title of Han King to Liu Fuling.

Along with Donghai Province submitting, Great Xia was all prepared to upgrade to Emperor dynasty.

Gaia was tactful and did not set any country upgrading quests. As long as one achieved the basic requirements, one could upgrade at any time. That was because any quest would be really extra and would just be a waste of time to an Emperor dynasty.

Apart from organizing Donghai Province, they needed to reorganize the Blood Red legion corps.

After taking down Great Ming, although they took down the Ming troops, the Blood Red legion corps themselves suffered casualties. In the end, 250 thousand soldiers were left. Although they did not reach a full legion corps, they had roughly recovered their strength.

Now, they had to form two legions from the 250 thousand people, removing 110 thousand people from duty.

These soldiers were people that fought many wars with Zhan Lang, and he could not go down on them. Ouyang Shuo could only let the Privy Court take charge of the issue.

The Imperial Court decreed Zhan Lang as the Ecuador and Lieutenant General of the South America formation and gave him Grade 3 Zhenglu general. The original Blood Red legion corps marshal Xie Xuan would become the 1st legion Legion General.

The original 1st legion Legion General of the Yingzhou formation Guo Liang was appointed as 2nd legion Legion General.

Guo Liang was someone Ouyang Shuo trusted. Putting him there was a restraint on Zhan Lang and also to protect Zhan Lang.

Without the power of supervision, one could easily be corrupted.

Furthermore, Ouyang Shuo had treated Zhan Lang far too kindly already. Anymore and the other officials might grow unhappy. They would not dare to be unhappy about Ouyang Shuo, so they would direct their feelings toward Zhan Lang.

If that happened, it might not be a good thing for Zhan Lang.

In Ecuador Prefecture, with Zhou Haichen and Guo Liang, Zhan Lang would not be able to go on the wrong path. Taking a step back, Zhan Lang’s family was still in Great Xia, so there was no chance.

Ouyang Shuo had already crafted the defense and prevention system to perfection.

Original Blood Red legion corps 1st legion Legion General Zhao Zhuang would replace Guo Liang in the Yingzhou formation.

Apart from that, Ming Dynasty general Tang He, Li Wenzhong, and Lan Yu were all given good appointments, and their talents would not be wasted.

Lan Hu was the 5th legion Legion General of the Phoenix legion corps, and Li Wenzhong became a Legion General in the Xiangjiang legion corps.

These two could be considered the representative figures of the unruly soldiers and commanders. They were really unrestrained after the Ming Dynasty was established. Historically, they were killed by Zhu Yuanzhang, and they deserved it to a certain extent.

Ouyang Shuo did not mind giving them such important appointments.

Great Xia was not Great Ming, and Lan Yu did not have the merit of helping to start the dynasty. Hence, he could not be arrogant.

In terms of purely warfighting, Lan Yu was really good.

The most special one was Tang He, someone as famous as Xu Da, who became the deputy Legion General of the 5th legion of the Imperial Palace Guards.

To become a deputy Legion General while Xu Da led the Imperial Palace Guards seemed like a waste of his talent. However, in truth, Ouyang Shuo trusted him the most.

People could see that moving him to the 5th legion corps was to teach and assist Lin Jing. The day he succeeds would be the day when he would be moved to an important position.

Ouyang Shuo believed that he would definitely understand that theory.

In history, all the Ming Dynasty starting officials died a bad end. For only Tang He to have a good death was not without reason.

At this point, this round of appointments came to an end.

…

11th month, 15th day, Mongol Empire, Karakoram.

The sudden locust calamity caused the originally prosperous empire to enter a problematic state. Anyone could imagine the tragic scenes of cows and sheep dying during the winter because of the lack of food.

Without cows and sheep, there would be no food; without food, they could not feed themselves. Without the young men, there would be no Mongol cavalry; without the Mongol cavalry, how would the empire survive?

This was such a simple logic.

The higher ups of the Empire had agreed to pillage. The only thing they had to confirm was which direction to head towards.

Imperial Palace, main hall.

Genghis Khan had gathered all the generals to discuss this matter.

The first to step up was general Muqali, who cupped his fist, “Genghis, the mid plains region is fertile, and their grain stacks up like mountains; it’s the best place to attack.”

Muqali was sent by his father to Genghis Khan to be a slave. With his intellect and courage in battle, he was highly regarded by Genghis Khan.

In his 40 years of following Genghis Khan, he followed all instructions, helping Genghis Khan unify the Mongol tribe. He was named as one of the four heroes.

“Although it is fertile, it was also hit by the disaster and might not have much grain. More importantly, the mid plains has Qin, Xia and Zhou, these three countries, with no less than a million troops, so it is not the best choice to attack.” The one who retorted was Tolei.

Hearing that, Genghis Khan nodded and agreed with his analysis.

The current mid plains were different from any part of history. Although many countries were fighting over it, the amount of troops were shocking and could not be provoked.

If they were careless, they could drag the entire empire into the abyss.

Hence, Genghis Khan would rather attack the Turkish Khanate than Liaojin Province.

Muqali smiled, “If the mid plains do not work, we can only attack West Xia. West Xia was unaffected because of us and should give us some thanks.”

This time, Genghis Khan did not object, “Well said. Let’s attack West Xia.”

Just at this moment, Tolei stepped out once more, “Father, I have an idea.”

“Speak!”

Genghis Khan really favored Tolei and had high hopes for him.

Tolei cupped his fist, “I recommend first being polite and then sending troops. We send an ambassador to ask them to hand over grain, if they do not agree, we attack.”

Genghis Khan’s eyes narrowed, and he asked solemnly, “What are you worried about?”

“I’m worried that if we engage, it will push West Xia to Great Xia. Even if West Xia does not join them, we will lose troops in the war and Great Xia would benefit from it.”

Muqali was unhappy before Genghis Khan even replied, “Who cares about Great Xia? Others are afraid of them, but we are not. At most, let’s have a fight. Who knows who will win?”

In the eyes of the Mongol generals, the empire was always the strongest.

Chapter 1219 - All watching the show

Chapter 1219: TWO Chapter 1219-All watching the show

Obviously, Genghis Khan would not be as rash as Muqali. He solemnly said, “There’s still a period of time till winter, and we do have time to send an ambassador.”

This meant he had agreed with Tolei’s suggestion.

Following which, Genghis Khan said, “Even then, we still need to prepare the troops in advance. For this attack on West Xia, Muqali will lead the main force and Tolei will assist him.”

After destroying the Turkish Khanate, the Mongol Empire had a total of 1.8 million troops split up into nine. Each group had 200 thousand troops and were arranged around the Mongol grassland.

Of the nine armies, one was Genghis Khan’s personal army. Currently, they were housed in the imperial city. Jebe, Zhe Leimie, Subutai, and Qubilai all worked in Genghis Khan’s personal army.

Apart from his personal army, the remaining eight worked under the four heroes and the four sons.

Bo’er Shu, Ogetai and Chilao Wen’s troops were in the house of Ogetai. Jochi Khan’s forces were defending the north border, Chagatai and Bo’er Hu defended the east while Tolei and Muqali defended the south.

The four princes each defended one direction.

As such, Genghis Khan was discussing this attack down south with Tolei and Muqali.

Of the 1.8 million troops, apart from the personal army, half of the rest had returned home to raise animals and were awaiting war deployment.

“Yes!”

Getting the order, Muqali was delighted.

West Xia was a place where battles were fought, and they had 500 thousand troops, so they were a strong opponent. As a result, Genghis Khan arranged for two armies to attack at once.

In comparison, although the neighboring Tibet was bigger, it only had 400 thousand troops.

Even then, Muqali was still filled with confidence.

No matter how strong the West Xia troops were, they were definitely weaker than the Mongol cavalry.

…

11th month, 18th day, the Mongol Empire ambassador arrived in West Xia.

The ambassador took a really tough stance and gave West Xia a month to hand over 60 million units of grain. If not, they would have to meet at war. They wanted West Xia to consider the matter properly.

60 million units of grain could last a million people for two months.

If one saved food and ate meat, this amount could basically let the Mongol Empire tide past the winter. Even if it were not quite enough, only a minority would suffer, and it would not be bad to the point where starvation was all over the land.

The Mongol people wanted to ask for more, but West Xia had limited land. Taking out 60 million was already asking a lot of them. Anymore and it would push them toward their death.

No one could have a good winter this time around.

Cooperating with the words of the ambassador, Muqali led his 200 thousand Mongol iron cavalry down south to line up on the West Xia border, looking really aggressive.

At the same time, Ogedai Khan set out an ambassador to Tibet to make the same request – either they provided grain, or the Mongol Empire would declare war.

The moment the news spread out, Qin, Xia, and Zhou all strengthened their border patrol.

The flames of war were about to rise once more in China.

…

Xingqing Manor, West Xia Palace.

Li Yuanhao’s face was scarily dark. The Mongol Empire asking for 60 million units of grain was almost akin to asking for their lives. If they really gave it, the West Xia people would have to starve.

That was not the worst part.

The Mongols had a huge appetite. If West Xia gave them the amount as asked, they might demand more next time. This would result in a vicious cycle, where the strong turned stronger and the weak turned weaker.

Without the support of grain, how would West Xia stand up in the wilderness?

“Your majesty, we definitely cannot give this grain!” The one that spoke was Yeli Wangrong. He and his brother, Yeli Yuqi, ruled the left and right armies and were the pillars of West Xia.

“That’s right.” Yeli Yuqi said, “Once we give it, we would become their slave. What kind of authority is left? Why don’t we fight them?”

Li Yuanhao’s face turned dark, “The Mongol cavalry has never faced an opponent in history. Can you win?”

Yeli Yuqi was not happy to admit defeat, “In history, we went against Song in the south and Liaojin in the north. We had fought so many battles against the Mongols. When have we ever been afraid of anyone?”

The West Xia army was ferocious, and they did possess the ability to be proud.

Yeli Wangrong added, “Winter is about to arrive, so we do not need to win. We just need to drag it out and defend. Once winter arrives, they will have no choice but to retreat.”

Those words tempted Li Yuanhao.

“Once winter arrives, with the Mongols lack of grain, let’s see how they get past this winter. Next year, before we even attack, Great Xia would strike the Mongol Empire first.” Yeli Wangrong said.

Li Yuanhao’s eyes lit up. Finally, he made up his mind.

“Good; it’s decided then. Immediately gather up the troops and prepare to fight.”

“Yes, my king!”

Yeli Wangrong and his brother exchanged glances in excitement.

…

The next day, the West Xia emperor replied the Mongol ambassador, saying that although West Xia had little grain, he was willing to loan them 10 million units of grain due to their friendship.

They had nothing left and hoped that the Mongol Empire could understand.

When Genghis Khan received the report, he did not want to waste any more time and gave the order for Muqali and Tolei to attack. He even said, “This time, I not only want 60 million units of grain, but I also want the entire West Xia.”

Li Yuanhao’s ‘borrowing of grain’ was deemed as an insult by Genghis Khan, and he was obviously furious.

All of a sudden, the flames of war rose up in the northwest.

Be it for the Mongol Empire or West Xia, this was a life or death battle, and neither had a way out. Neither could afford to lose; both had to go all out.

To defend against the Mongol iron cavalry, West Xia went all out. All of their troops were arranged at the north. If Great Xia took the chance to enter, West Xia would definitely be unable to block them.

Li Yuanhao was betting that the Xia King would not do that.

Obviously, Ouyang Shuo would not take advantage of the situation. He just sat in Shanhai City, coldly observing the northwest. Regardless of who wins, it would be beneficial to Great Xia.

In the blink of an eye, a week had passed.

During that period, Zhan Lang led the organized South America formation through the Shanhai City teleportation formation. They headed onto South American soil to begin a legendary journey.

Ecuador Governor Zhou Haichen also brought a batch of civil servants over.

Apart from that, the Pacific Squadron transported over large amounts of war resources to assist Ecuador and help the South America formation gain a foothold in Ecuador.

Only by building up a castle would they have the ability to expand outwards.

Black Snake told the Shanhai Guards to make use of this chance. With Ecuador as a base, they planned to build the America Division to make up for the missing piece in their global intel system.

The Shanhai Guards spies would use Zhidian City as the center to go up north and down south to scout intel for the dynasty.

Great Xia’s global intel network was fully opened up at this point.

…

Dawson dynasty, Free City.

Only when the Great Xia Army appeared in Zhidian City did Jack learn that the Indian Empire had actually willingly ceded the Ecuador Region.

“Great Xia is too arrogant, actually daring to stretch their hand into America.”

Although the Dawson dynasty had not even settled North America, Jack viewed America as his backyard. He would not allow anyone to taint it.

Great Xia’s interference made him really unhappy.

Although he was unhappy, he did not dare to move lightly. Although Silver Hand was the ruler in Europe and America, it did not have much of an advantage in America.

Especially North America, which had the Maple and Mayan dynasties from the Azure Badge camp.

Even if the two sides do not go head to head, Jack would still try to find an excuse to destroy the two to unify North America and win a stable base.

Given the circumstances, he did not want to openly go against Great Xia.

“Men!”

“Present!”

“Order the Colombian army to stop going down south and prepare to attack Venezuela in the east.”

“Yes!”

Jack was smart and really decisively; he wanted to take down Venezuela first before Great Xia gained a stable footing in South America. This move would strengthen the Dawson dynasty’s presence in South America.

“Now, let’s see how Great Xia can create waves with just a small piece of land like Ecuador.” Jack suddenly became really calm and confident.

Compared to Di Chen, Jack was better at strategy.

Chapter 1220 - West Xia requests assistance

Chapter 1220: TWO Chapter 1220- West Xia requests assistance

West Xia Requests Reinforcements

Prior to the battle, Yeli Wangrong and his brother were really confident. However, when they truly fought against the Mongol cavalry, they finally learned how terrifying this opponent was. Muqali and Tolei’s troops were like two sharp knives stabbing right into West Xia.

400 thousand cavalry were enough to cover the earth.

The Mongol cavalry that was not proficient at sieging went around the West Xia capital Xingqing House that was not far from the border and went down south to increase the fear levels all around West Xia.

Massacring villages, killing cities, wiping out towns…

To spread fear, there was nothing that the Mongol cavalry did not do.

Even though the Qiang people were strong, facing such crazy killings, they slowly felt fear and sadness spread all over. Villages were burned to the ground, cities were robbed, black smoke bellowed, and corpses were strewn all over.

The pitiful West Xia people now faced a human disaster after the natural disaster.

However, calamities were easy to hide from unlike man-made ones. Those that avoided the locust calamity collected their feelings and were gathering up grain for the winter were mercilessly killed.

The unfairness and sadness of life was shown right there.

In a chaotic world, people were like dogs, there to be murdered by anyone. West Xia originally wanted to have some peace, but they were pushed to the forefront of this war and were unable to get away from it.

In a chaotic world, one would die unless one advanced, and there was no clean land.

The idea of the Mongols was simple, “Don’t they care a lot about their grain? Then let’s kill those who eat the grain.”

The 400 thousand Mongol cavalry were not even gathered at one spot. They spread out like a net, like a drop of water entering the pond that was West Xia, spreading fear all over.

The West Xia emperor’s face turned green. He gave the brothers the order to fight to the death and stop the Mongol cavalry. They had to find a chance to turn the tables.

The brothers were experienced generals and would obviously go all out. Seeing their homeland falling and their families in trouble, the West Xia soldiers were all furious.

As such, a sad army would definitely win.

11th month, 28th day, after careful planning, the two groups of West Xia troops finally blocked off the Muqali forces in the south west region and had a huge battle in the wilderness.

This battle showed the strength and luster of the West Xia army.

Although Muqali was a top general, and the Mongol cavalry was a presence only weaker than the Great Xia cavalry, they were forced back in defeat against the West Xia army that was fighting to the death.

However, just as West Xia was about to totally surround Muqali’s forces, Capital City Xingqing House sent an emergency report. Tolei was drawing close, so they ordered the army to rush back to assist.

All their hard work was wasted.

The Mongol cavalry was truly experts at this, making use of the weakness of West Xia wanting to have a final battle to use Muqali’s troops as bait to attract the West Xia main force.

The hiding Tolei forces had gathered together to sneak attack Xingqing House.

All of a sudden, the Capital City was in trouble.

The West Xia army suddenly faced a tough situation. If they retreated and assisted the capital, they would waste the chance of killing the enemy, and they might even be bitten by Muqali’s chasing forces.

However, if they did not assist, the Capital City might fall.

Even if the Mongol cavalry were not good at sieging, Qingxing House only had less than 50 thousand defending troops. If this went on, the Mongol army would definitely break in.

At that point, the country would be in danger.

…

Xingqing House, Palace.

Seeing Tolei’s forces charge right at the Capital City while the West Xia army was stuck in the southwest battlefield, Li Yuanhao was as anxious as ants on a hotpot. This was when he realized how big the appetite of the Mongols was.

“They want to wipe West Xia out.” Li Yuanhao gritted his teeth.

He only had two paths; he could surrender to the Mongol Empire, or he could ask for help from Great Xia.

The former was immediately rejected.

If it were not the ambassador matter, surrendering might actually work. However, Genghis Khan was already humiliated by West Xia, and he wanted to vent his frustration. As such, how would he be willing to accept West Xia’s surrender?

If they did not wipe out the entire Xingqing House, the Mongol cavalry would not stop.

This was also the normal procedure of the Mongol Empire against resistance, and there were no exceptions.

Only then could they protect the terrifying and scary image of the Mongol Empire to tear down the enemy’s fighting spirit; this reduced the number of sieges the Mongol cavalry had to attempt, allowing them to expand easily.

Even Genghis Khan had to follow this iron rule.

Hence, even if Li Yuanhao wanted to surrender, he could not. Furthermore, even if they accepted the surrender, there would be many conflicts given the character of the Mongol Empire.

The two sides were from different civilizations.

The only way was to seek help from Great Xia.

Li Yuanhao was someone that knew when to ask for help. He did not hesitate, contacting Great Xia to request them to save the flames.

For that, West Xia was willing to recognize Great Xia as their suzerain.

Li Yuanhao knew that there was no free lunch in the world. To make Great Xia help, they needed to take out their sincerity. Recognizing Great Xia as a suzerain state was the diplomacy card he was going to use.

Not only would this solve the current crisis, but they would also not need to fear the Mongol Empire in the future.

Li Yuanhao’s plan was so well thought out, but Ouyang Shuo did not fall for it.

…

11th month, 29th day, Shanhai City.

Within the Imperial Reading Room, Zhang Yi personally reported about the West Xia matter and asked the king about his decision.

“How do you think I should reply?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Zhang Yi was stunned, “This matter involves the military. I should not speak about it.” Although he was the Honglu Temple head and was all rounded, Zhang Yi knew his place.

When to speak and when to keep silent, Zhang Yi did it really well.

“Let it drag out; do not reply to anything.”

“Yes, my king!”

Zhang Yi was filled with thoughts.

“Did anything happen in Tibet?”

The Mongol Empire did not only threaten West Xia – they threatened the Tibet Dynasty as well. Who knows what considerations Ogedai Khan had in not attacking.

Zhang Yi replied, “My king, Tibet has not contacted the Honglu Temple.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, seemingly smiling, “They can take it so well, not giving up till they are about to die.”

These words were filled with meaning.

Since the calamity of the 10th month, Qin, Tang, and Song were all having a tough time. Based on the news from the Shanhai Guard spies, there were refugees everywhere and most came from Tang.

Long ago, Ouyang Shuo had let people reveal to the outside world that Great Xia had mountains of grain and were willing to help their allies. Their attempt to recruit others was really evident.

Helplessly, no one had replied till now, which made Ouyang Shuo really disappointed.

Seeing that, Zhang Yi hesitated but still said, “My king, I think that this is quite normal.”

“Why so?” Ouyang Shuo did not understand.

“Looking at Chinese history, such things have always happened, and the people are long used to it. Their ability to bear hunger exceeds our imagination. Hence, even though there are a lot of refugees, it would shake the foundations of the dynasty, so why would they lower their heads to us?”

“….”

Zhang Yi’s words stunned Ouyang Shuo on the spot and enlightened him.

“That’s right. Such calamities are not enough to crush countries.”

In the end, as a modern person, Ouyang Shuo had no idea how resilient the people were in ancient times where keeping warm and full were their greatest desires.

“Thank you for your reminder.” Ouyang Shuo said.

“I do not dare.”

Zhang Yi’s heart felt warm. He knew that the king was not that interested in speaking more, so he left.

Once Zhang Yi left, Ouyang Shuo immediately ordered, “Tell the northwest to get ready to enter West Xia, but do not let the West Xia spies notice.”

If it were last year, Ouyang Shuo would have agreed to his request. However, the times were now different, and Great Xia’s attempt to unify China could not be stopped. What was the use of having a puppet state like West Xia now?

Ouyang Shuo’s appetite was as great as Genghis Khan’s.

West Xia was like a prey that has given itself up. One needed only a little more patience to make them surrender.

…

That afternoon, Chengdu.

Since the Shu Han dynasty submitted, the northwest headquarters were moved here. Ouyang Shuo’s orders sent in the afternoon was stamped and sent to the office.

When Li Jing read the order, he instantly understood.

As the northwest commander, be it Tibet in the west or West Xia in the north, both were under his close supervision. The Battle of West Xia obviously did not escape his eyes.

Thinking about it, he used the communication compass to contact Eagle marshal Li Mu, “Get your troops into battle mode, and get ready to invade West Xia.”

“Commander, are we finally fighting?”

Li Mu found it hard to hide his excitement and happiness. Evidently, he had been waiting for this for a long time.

Talking with smart people was always easy, as they understood right away.

The part that excited Li Mu was not just entering the West Xia battle, rather, it was Li Jing’s decision to give the mission to the Eagle legion corps and not the Bear legion corps that he himself led.

If he could take down West Xia, it would be a big credit.

Li Jing’s magnanimity filled Li Mu with respect.

“We still need to wait for orders from the king as for when to start.” After pausing, he continued, “It is about to be the Emperor dynasty upgrading ceremony. To me and to the northwest warzone, nothing is better than taking down West Xia. You should understand how important this battle is. Not only must you win, but you laso must win it beautifully.”

“Do not worry commander, the Eagle legion corps will not tarnish the reputation of the warzone.”

This was a promise.

Hearing that, Li Jing nodded his head in satisfaction, “Make a list of resources you need for the warzone to coordinate.”

“Thank you, commander!”

Chapter 1221 - Facing desperation

Chapter 1221: TWO Chapter 1221-Facing desperation

Ouyang Shuo’s cold treatment sent the West Xia emperor into a frenzy.

Li Yuanhao was also a smart person; he knew that Great Xia did not act because they felt that West Xia did not give a high enough offer.

However, this was already Li Yuanhao’s bottom line.

Did he have to learn from Jin, Shu, and Sui and submit to Great Xia?

Li Yuanhao could not do that.

No matter who it was, as long as one sat on the throne, they would not give it up before the last moment arrived.

Li Yuanhao decided to order Yeli Wangrong and his brother to return to assist before Xingqing House falls regardless of the cost.

Facing the aggressive Tolei Army, Li Yuanhao personally commanded the troops.

…

The 12 month soon arrived.

After the calamity, the aftereffects were many. The northern land in the 12 month was a solemn and cold place. Some places were already snowing, dyeing white the dark red land.

Mongol Empire, Karakorum.

Genghis Khan looked at the snowflakes outside his window and said listlessly, “Winter has arrived.”

In a short two months, due to the lack of food, groups of cows and sheep had died. To protect their animals, some of the herders had no choice but to sacrifice their grain to feed them.

An unprecedentedly cruel test burned right at the grassland.

To exchange for grain, some of the herders at the border took the risk to sell their animals to the mid plains to buy grain to feed their remaining animals.

Many Mongol nobles participated in this matter.

The most unrestrained transactions happened at the Great Zhou Dynasty, where the Imperial Court allowed it to happen.

On the other hand, Great Xia that was right next to Great Zhou had sentries keeping a close watch, making it difficult to smuggle grain. Throughout the entire mid plains, Great Xia’s grain market had the most supply, angering everyone.

“Great Xia Dynasty.”

Genghis Khan muttered. Currently, his mind was not focused.

Looking at Chinese history, there was no dynasty like Great Xia, not only ruling China but also sweeping overseas. There were rumors that said that Great Xia had land all over the globe, which made Genghis Khan jealous.

“To be able to compete with such a person is a fortune.” Genghis Khan was really pumped. The more motivated he was, the clearer his mind felt.

He knew that now was not the time for him to go head to head with Great Xia.

Genghis Khan looked out into the distance. With the intuition of a ruler, he could feel that a tiger was waiting at the south of West Xia. The empire’s road to taking down West Xia would definitely have problems.

“Maybe it’s time to consider Ogedai’s suggestion.”

The house of Ogedai not attacking Tibet was naturally not because it was afraid. Rather, it was because Tibet was useless. It might have vast land, but it was a poor region.

Ogedai had his eyes set on a piece of juicy meat, but he did not dare to go for it.

…

Great Zhou Dynasty, Handan City.

This winter was similarly a cold one for Di Chen.

With his country weakening, a lone piece of wood was hard to keep afloat. Everyone was betraying him. The series of blows pushed him to the depths of the abyss, and he nearly could not climb up. Only after his grandfather personally stepped out did he pull himself together.

What was ahead of Great Zhou was not how to go against Great Xia but how to get past this winter.

Natural and man-made disasters pretty much used up the Great Zhou granary. Tens of millions of civilians were hungry and were waiting for Di Chen to think of a plan. When there was no path he could take, Di Chen could only take a risk.

He instructed Chun Shenjun to use the chamber of commerce to use the limited grain to exchange for cows and sheep. As the herders were having a tough time, this would allow the Great Zhou chambers of commerce to make a killing.

With meat supporting them, this winter would not be too cold.

After dealing with the grain crisis, Di Chen was exhausted and did not have an inch of fighting spirit. On some nights when he was alone, he even envied Xiong Ba and Zhan Lang who had such revitalized lives.

The world was just so ironic.

…

12th month, 5th day, Xingqing House.

Tolei led 200 thousand Mongol cavalry and were right under the city.

Both sides were racing against time. To Tolei, if he could take down the city before the West Xia reinforcements arrived, it would be a huge win.

It was naturally the opposite for Li Yuanhao.

The best point of the Mongol cavalry was that they did not have a logistical burden. For example, during the current Battle of West Xia, their two fronts only brought three days of rations. The rest was settled along the way.

Hence, the West Xia civilians were in trouble.

To attack Xingqing House as quickly as possible, Tolei’s methods were really gory and bloody. He ordered the troops to chase hundred thousand civilians from the cities and villages to help the Mongol army siege.

Countless pitiful civilians were forced by the bows and arrows of the Mongol cavalry to swarm toward the city gates, trying to use the most simple battering rams made from logs to open up the city gates.

Xingqing House was the capital of a country, so how could its solid, boulder-like gate be broken so easily?

Li Yuanhao was already forced into desperation and did not have the ability to pity people. The city protection troops were helpless and could only attack their brethren, killing wave after wave of innocent civilians.

In just one day, the city protection river was dyed a pale red.

And this was just the start.

In the next few days, similar atrocities were on full display.

The entire city protection river was filled with corpses. The river stopped here, not to mention the river water, but even the canals within the city were dyed red.

In just five days, 600 thousand innocent civilians were buried outside of the city. Half of them were actually killed by the Mongol army themselves.

They did this to scare the city protection soldiers.

Such crazy actions finally incurred the wrath of the people.

Learning that their brothers were being slaughtered like pigs and dogs, the travelling West Xia army ignited their talent. Apart from leaving a group to cover the others, the rest charged back toward Xingqing House.

To stop the Muqali army, the part of the West Xia army that stayed back launched a fearless assault. With anger and grief, they charged forward with the determination to die along with the enemy.

Facing such a fearless enemy, the Mongol iron cavalry could not help but feel terrified.

An unassuming picking off battle became a heaven shocking fight to the death. Both sides fought for a day and a night. In the end, none of the 100 thousand West Xia troops survived.

Even the commander, Yeli Yuqi, died on the battlefield.

After the battle, only 70% of Muqali’s troops remained.

The surviving Muqali only felt that he had walked out from hell. Looking at the battlefield filled with corpses, he gave a deep bow, “They were enemies worthy of respect.”

This battle had caused Muqali’s remaining forces to suffer heavy casualties. They had no more energy to chase, so they could only rest up on the spot.

…

12th month, 9th day, after rushing all the way, Yeli Wangrong led close to 300 thousand troops and arrived in Xingqing House.

The scales of victory were tilted toward West Xia once again.

However, just as this West Xia army arrived on the battlefield, they suffered a loss.

Tolei had once again made use of the West Xia army’s desire to take revenge to disguise the camp. He only left a small number of troops there – the rest were civilians dressed up as Mongol cavalry soldiers.

Since they did not have much intel, the West Xia army charged right into the camp. By the time they realized that it was an empty camp, it was already too late.

Suddenly, they heard the rumbling sounds of horse hooves from outside of the camp.

Tolei personally led the troops to swarm in from both sides of the camp. They charged right into the camp, waving their machetes at the panicking West Xia army as they started a slaughter.

The West Xia army arduously clung on. With much difficulty, they fought a way out under Yeli Wangrong’s leadership. However, they had suffered heavy casualties, and their morale was really low.

Tolei was god-like at using troops.

When Li Yuanhao in the city got the report, he pretty much sat on the throne like a paralyzed man.

Chapter 1222 - Legendary forces have arrived

Chapter 1222: TWO Chapter 1222-Legendary forces have arrived

12th month, 10th day, Shu Lands Province near West Xia.

The moment news of Tolei’s army beating the West Xia army’s main force outside of Xingqing House spread out, Bear legion corps marshal Li Mu ordered the 1st legion to creep into West Xia.

Li Mu was trying to take advantage of the time lapse.

Moreover, at this moment, neither West Xia emperor Li Yuanhao requested help from Great Xia, nor did Ouyang Shuo give a military order.

…

Li Yuanhao was not an emperor that gave up easily.

During the following few days, Tolei gave up on sieging and led troops to chase down Yeli Wangrong’s forces; this was what the Mongol cavalry were most proficient at.

After having that poor start and being chased by the enemy cavalry now, the aggressive West Xia army did not even have time to take a breath. They had a city, but they could not enter, they had a house, but they could not return, making one feel extremely sullen.

Tolei was really smart, flexible in his strategy and use of troops. After ambushing the enemy, he immediately changed his battle plan from sieging to wiping out the remaining enemy forces.

As long as the main West Xia army was wiped out, how would they be able to hold on?

Every day was a huge torture for the Xingqing House.

Looking at the army outside of the city being eaten part by part by the Mongol cavalry, Li Yuanhao was really anxious. He was not willing to just wait for his death, which was why he ordered Yeli Wangrong to lead his troops back to the city using the night as cover on the 13th day.

That night, the color of the moon was like blood.

When Yeli Wangrong tried to use misdirection to break away from the chasing enemy and swiftly flee toward the city gate, the Mongol cavalry were like a pack of wolves that had smelled blood and chased closely behind.

This astonished Yeli Wangrong. He could not imagine how the enemy saw through his tricks in such a short amount of time and caught up.

He did not know that the Mongol cavalry were best at tracking.

If they could use this chance to break through the city gates, it would be a huge boon for the Mongol army.

How could the West Xia army let them get what they wished?

To block the Mongol army and cover the main force retreating into the city, 20 thousand West Xia soldiers sacrificed themselves. They gathered into a formation outside of the city to fight valiantly, not returning unless they died.

Seeing that, the defending soldiers on the city wall teared up.

Only when the dead of night arrived did the Mongol army cut down the West Xia troops that were covering. They knew that they could not successfully charge into the city, so they proudly retreat like a wave, disappearing into the night sky.

The corpses outside of the city were their masterpiece.

…

On the 14th day, the battle situation became clearer and clearer.

The West Xia army were like turtles in Xingqing House, trying to rely on the city to defend. After a short rest, Yeli Wanrong led his troops onto the city wall to prepare for an intense battle against the Mongol army early in the morning.

However, in the end, the Mongol army did not even siege that day.

Seeing that, the hearts of both Yeli Wangrong and West Xia Emperor Li Yuanhao shook. They felt a bad premonition. After a month of battles, they had a clear understanding of Tolei’s style.

This was a general that used unorthodox methods that looked surprising and useless but struck the weaknesses of the enemy.

The weird actions of the Mongol army signaled definite changes.

The truth was just that. After the West Xia army retreated into the city, Tolei lost interest in sieging. He gave up on the city and decided to take down the entire West Xia instead.

That day, Tolei personally led 100 thousand troops to camp outside Xingqing House while the rest spread out in an unrestrained manner through the West Xia land. They pillaged and robbed, seemingly aiming to clean out the entire West Xia.

The situation seemed to have returned to the start.

The only difference was that half of the 500 thousand West Xia army was lost and were turtling up, unable to be of any use.

On the contrary, the Mongol cavalry were getting braver and braver.

On the 16th day, Tolei contacted the Empire to ask them to send people to receive West Xia, arrogant to the max.

At this stage, West Xia was already on its last legs. That day, the stubborn Li Yuanhao finally admitted defeat and informed Great Xia that as long as they were able to protect the riches of the Li Family and aid West Xia, he would submit to Great Xia.

As for surrendering to the Mongol Empire? That was impossible.

After a few rounds of battles, both sides were blood enemies, and this would never change.

…

Great Xia’s efficiency was truly amazing.

Once Ouyang Shuo received the report from the Honglu Temple, he immediately informed northwest warzone commander Li Jing to send troops to West Xia. The moment Li Jing got the order, he instantly led the Eagle legion corps’ four legions into West Xia.

Just a day had passed when the first battle broke out.

That day, the 1st legion that had entered West Xia long ago swiftly surrounded Muqali’s forces before they could react and smashed them under Chen Tang’s lead.

While Tolei was leading the army to attack Xingqing House, Muqali’s troops were resting up. How could they expect enemies to surround them right after they received news of Great Xia entering?

He had no time to defend and immediately took a loss.

The fall of Muqali’s army was like a bolt of lightning flashing through the night sky of West Xia. This signaled that this country destruction battle that started because of a grain crisis was facing a new turning point.

When Tolei got the report, his expression could not help but turn solemn.

In front of him were two options. One was to bring back the huge quantity of finances and resources that they had pillaged and return to the grasslands, basically completing the pre-war targets.

The second choice was to ignore them and take down Xingqing House.

Xingqing House was the capital of West Xia and had much riches and lots of grain prepared. If they could take down this city, the Mongol army could eat till their bellies were filled, and they would not have anything to worry about.

Once they took down the city, they would be able to choose between retreating or defending.

Such a temptation was something Tolei could not resist.

For this south conquering expedition of West Xia, Genghis Khan had appointed Muqali as the main general and him as the deputy. In the end, Muqali’s forces lost terribly, while his troops achieved successive victories, earning many spoils of war.

He had obtained great merit.

If he could take down Xingqing House, he would solve the Empire’s grain crisis. The next house that the Empire sets up would be the house of Tolei.

The Tolei that appeared in the wilderness was different from the one in history.

The Tolei in history was a pure general and only knew how to fight wars. In the end, he was killed due to the wariness of his brother, Ogedai.

Luckily, his children were useful and took control of the bloodline of the Yuan Dynasty. Even if Tolei himself was not willing, he had to consider for his children and take control of a house.

“Send my orders; tell all troops to gather up to siege!” Tolei made up his mind.

“Yes!”

With the military order given, Xingqing House fell into a tough battle.

…

Let us talk about the Great Xia Eagle legion corps.

After the 1st legion took down Muqali’s forces, they did not chase the win and did not charge to save Xingqing House. Instead, they were ordered by Li Mu to split into five and sweep up from south to north.

The Eagle legion corps obviously was not doing so to root out West Xia troop. Instead, they were clearing out the Mongol cavalry, not letting any of them go.

Hence, the Eagle legion corps pushed forward with the aura of kings with really high morale.

After they ‘recovered’ a piece of land, they would spread the name of the Xia King, “The Xia King is kind and could not bear to see the West Xia people get killed, which was why he sent reinforcements.”

They bought the hearts of the West Xia people just like that.

In chaotic times, whoever could protect their safety and return them peace would be their savior and king.

West Xia and the Shu Lands were connected, and the Qiang Race of both regions were related. Their lives became really prosperous after submitting to Great Xia, much to the envy of the West Xia Qiang Race people.

Since the Great Xia Army had arrived, they were obviously warmly welcomed.

On the contrary, West Xia’s emperor Li Yuanhao had not done much since entering the wilderness. He could not expand and could not protect their safety, making them feel really disappointed.

Especially when hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed by the Mongols at Xingqing House not long ago. Their blood flowed into rivers, and the hearts of the West Xia people turned cold.

Although Li Yuanhao was helpless and could do nothing about it, the people could not forgive him from an emotional standpoint.

Under such a background, the Eagle legion corps faced no resistance. They were warmly welcomed by the people everywhere they went. Furthermore, the Qiang Race were a sturdy bunch, and some even led the army to surround the hiding Mongol cavalry.

These operations went unusually smooth.

The Mongol cavalry that were pillaging and robbing so valiantly immediately became like rats on the streets; everyone was shouting to beat them up.

Although Tolei had ordered the troops to gather, 100 thousand of them had spread out; it was not so easy to gather up.

To the Mongol cavalry that were out pillaging, this was a great opportunity. While they pillaged for the Empire, keeping some for themselves was logical and reasonable.

There were even some Mongol armies that set rules that the troops only needed to hand over 80% of the riches and they could keep the rest.

The troops whose eyes had turned red with greed from all the snatching were not so easily recalled with just a single military order.

The forces did not dare to openly go against the order, but they could easily find a reason like sudden rain or bridges breaking making it tough to travel and say that they had to take another path, resulting in a delay.

Similar excuses were easy to find and in abundance.

If it were not for the strict Mongol army discipline and Tolei ruling with an iron fist, who knows when these 100 thousand troops would be gathered up.

However, the moment the Great Xia Eagle legion corps arrived, these Mongol cavalry were like rabbits meeting eagles and ran faster than anyone else toward Xingqing House.

Especially the army that was scattered throughout the south. They were afraid that the Eagle legion corps would catch up to them, so they sometimes had to throw their riches that they had pillaged like garbage in order to flee.

It was not because the Mongol cavalry were weak or because the Great Xia Army was so strong. It was because they knew that along with the Great Xia Army moving in, the entire battle situation would turn on its head.

Before this, the Qiang Race people could only hide in the mountains and try to survive, and they did not dare to fight back facing the attacks of the Mongol cavalry.

Now, with the Great Xia troops involved, the situation immediately changed.

Before the Great Xia Army had even arrived, the local Qiang people had got down from the mountains to meet them. The way that they looked at the Mongol cavalry also became weird.

Under such circumstances, how could the Mongol cavalry dare to remain arrogant?

If things went wrong, even before the Great Xia Army rushed over, they would be torn to shreds by the strong Qiang people.

Chapter 1223 - Xihai Province

Chapter 1223: TWO Chapter 1223-Xihai Province

Mongol Empire, Karakorum.

Genghis Khan had been playing close attention to the Battle of West Xia. The moment the Great Xia Army was invited and officially interfered, he knew that the Empire had no chances of winning the battle.

If they wanted to win, they would have to send more troops toward West Xia.

That could change a small side battle into an uncontrollable large scale war. The Empire could increase their troops in the region but so could Great Xia. Moreover, Great Xia’s speed would be faster, and their scale would be larger.

“Send orders to Tolei; tell him to immediately retreat from West Xia. He must not stay and fight or else he will have to face military law.”

“Yes!”

Genghis Khan was even more decisive than Tolei and knew when to give up. Although this battle was not a total success, they had obtained a huge amount of resources and solved the empire’s burning problems.

As for how to solve the remaining grain shortage issue, that was a problem for another day.

If they fought on, they might even suffer losses. Genghis Khan never did businesses that he would make losses in.

…

Tolei did not dare to disobey his orders.

12th month, 19th day, Tolei gathered up Muqali remaining troops, a total of 250 thousand troops, to bring back the huge quantity of resources from West Xia.

For this batch of resources, the Mongol Empire had lost 150 thousand elite cavalry. As such, it was not hard to imagine why Tolei would feel annoyed and unwilling when he was asked to retreat.

Tolei hated the kill stealing Great Xia to the bone.

Seeing the Mongol army retreat, Yeli Wangrong was even more unwilling. He did not bother about Li Yuanhao’s orders and personally led 50 thousand troops to chase them and try to delay their retreating speed.

Tolei, who had a lot of pent up frustration, worked together with Muqali. They turned around to face the enemy, once again crushing Yeli Wangrong’s forces. Even Yeli Wangrong himself was shot to death by Tolei.

This battle also signaled the end of the Battle of West Xia.

Three days later, Li Mu led his troops into Xingqing House and accepted the defense of the city from the West Xia army, signaling that the West Xia country was now a part of history.

From this day on, Great Xia’s Eagle legion corps’ base would shift from Shu Lands to West Xia, becoming the elite troops to defend against the Mongol Empire.

Along with the Shu Han Dynasty submitting, there were no more hidden problems in the Shu Lands and having the Bear legion corps there was enough.

After receiving orders from the warzone headquarters and the Privy Court, the West Xia army, apart from some that were taken by the Eagle legion corps to replenish their loses and some to build garrison forces, the remaining 200 thousand were disarmed.

With the size of the Great Xia Army, they could not expand easily. Hence, even though the 200 thousand West Xia troops that survived were elites, Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to do just that.

Moreover, after this battle, West Xia had suffered a population loss, especially in terms of able-bodied men. These men would help to replenish their production.

Ouyang Shuo had already ordered the Civil Affairs Department to move a batch of Han people over from the Shu Lands to West Xia to replenish their population.

As for his plans for Li Yuanhao and West Xia, that would have to wait till the imperial decree arrived.

…

The moment news of West Xia submitting to Great Xia spread out, there were many jealous parties.

On the surface, Great Xia had done nothing to occupy the huge West Xia country. In truth, not just anyone could have taken advantage of that situation.

For example, the neighboring Qin country.

Even if Li Yuanhao was willing to lead West Xia to surrender to Qin, they would not have enough strength to protect Li Yuanhao from the Mongol Empire.

The Mongol Empire also would not retreat without engaging like now.

Great Xia had used its huge strength and invincible authority in China to successfully reclaim West Xia. If it were any other country, they would not be able to do that.

Moreover, accepting West Xia was not a good thing from a short term standpoint because it meant that there were over 10 million hungry civilians asking the Imperial Court to dish out relief grain.

…

12th month, 25th day, Shanhai City.

After days of discussion, the plans of the Imperial Court had finally been settled.

First, the decree for Li Yuanhao. Due to the fact that they had chosen to submit under special circumstances and did not have a strong foundation, the Cabinet only gave him 1st class Marquis.

Moreover, he could not stay in Xingqing House and had to move to Shanhai City.

Such an arrangement was due to the fact that West Xia had a huge congregation of Qiang people, and he had a great amount of influence on them. Once the calamity passes and life returned to normal, who knows whether they would gather by his side and try to ask for gains for their race.

This was something that Ouyang Shuo did not want to see no matter what.

Of course, Great Xia had always focused on equality and would treat the Qiang people well.

Next would be the administrative planning regarding the West Xia territory.

Li Yuanhao used Xia as the country title when he established the country. As he was in the west, the Song people called it West Xia.

Hence, the country title of West Xia unavoidably triggered Great Xia, and they could not directly call it West Xia Province. Another name had to be thought of.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to be lazy and use the Qing Dynasty land as reference to call it Qinghai Province. It was Jiang Shang who recommended calling it Xihai Province.

There was a reason for that.

The name of Qinghai Province came from the Qinghai Lake in its territory. Xihai was the olden term for Xihai Lake. Changing it to Xihai Province not only fit, but it was also right opposite to Donghai Province, making the name really suitable.

Ouyang Shuo naturally agreed.

Next, they needed to decide on the Provincial Governor.

Ouyang Shuo insisted on his bold theory of using native people, promoting Wuzhou Prefecture Governor Cui Shousi.

Cui Shousi was the pride of the Cui Family and joined the territory when it was at the county stage, rising up from Country Magistrate to Prefect to Administration Director of Zhenan Prefecture to Wuzhou Governor.

This promotion meant that he was finally a truly important official.

In a short few years, he went from a county magistrate to a primary Grade 3 ranked Provincial Governor, forming the two pillars of the Cui Family along with his sister.

This was because local officials had a higher chance of being promoted compared to officials in the court.

Hence, it was not hard to understand why some officials in the court loved to go out to the local regions to train up and learn and obtain the chance to be promoted.

Replacing him was a special person.

This person was called Ouyang Heng, and he was just a normal, unassuming official in the Imperial Court before he was selected by Ouyang Shuo. This promotion officially raised him up into the eyes of everyone.

It was not that he was really talented, rather, it was because of his special identity.

Ouyang Heng was Ouyang Shuo’s distant third uncle and could be considered half a royal relative. He was one of the top people in the Ouyang Family, and his promotion signaled the gradual appearance of the royal family.

The Cabinet and the Imperial Court did not discuss this matter.

The matters of the royal family were not to be discussed by others.

…

Royal place, Imperial Reading Room.

Ouyang Shuo was meeting the hot topic of recent times, Ouyang Heng.

“Third Uncle, your promotion puts you under the microscope, and everyone is staring at your actions. Me doing this is putting you on the barbecue.” Ouyang Shuo said half-jokingly.

Ouyang Heng was a middle-aged man whose face looked really steely like a knife. He looked like a really powerful, man but he was really quiet and rarely spoke.

This was a point that Ouyang Shuo admired about him.

As an imperial relative, the worse ones were those loose cannons. If one said the wrong things, it might cause him to lose face and make things hard on Ouyang Shuo.

The wheels of history had pushed the Ouyang family to such a status, and they had to cherish it.

When Ouyang Heng heard that, he nodded and said, “Do not worry!”

“I know that third Uncle is the real deal; this trip to Wuzhou is for you to show off your skill.” Ouyang Shuo was really confident in his judgment of people.

The two of them exchanged glances and smiled.

…

In the blink of an eye, it was the 12th month, 30th day.

As usual, Gaia would release a new round of system updates on this day. Who knows what kind of surprises Gaia would bring this time?

Chapter 1224 - Sounding out

Chapter 1224: TWO Chapter 1224-Sounding out

Gaia 6th year, 12th month, 30th day, a System Notification sounded out around the world.

“World Notification: this is the 6th anniversary of Earth Online, the game will have its 7th update, effective immediately. Please go on the forums to check it out.”

…

The moment the notification went out, Ouyang Shuo went online to check the updates as usual.

1. Removal of refugee spawning

Due to the global situation already being settled, Gaia decided to remove refugee spawning. If the Lords wanted an increase in population beyond the natural process, they could only fight wars.

To dynasties, population meant labor.

Regardless of the era, labor was the foundation of a country. Gaia removing spawns affected dynasties with large territories the most.

Amongst them, Great Xia was naturally the most affected.

With the latest size of Great Xia, just a year of spawns would bring in close to 100 million. Removing the spawns meant that their rate of population growth would fall.

This also meant that they would not be able to maintain seven million troops for a long time.

Ouyang Shuo was depressed about it, but there was no flaws to this, and Gaia had a good reason for making this change. Since they wanted the game to be real, such a bug should not exist.

The various territories would have to go from chasing for quantity to chasing for quality.

2. Changing the settings of the trial lands

From the 7th year onward, after a country was wiped out, its players would no longer be teleported to the trial lands. Instead, they would obtain NPC like treatment, and they could either surrender or join other dynasties.

In theory, such a setting weakens the difficulty of wiping out a country.

However, this was on the condition that the two countries had a similarity in culture or things would be difficult.

Gaia made this move to solve the problem due to removing the spawning of refugees. The huge player group was undoubtedly a talent pool and treasure to a territory.

Ouyang Shuo could not help but wonder whether the legendary trial lands were already filled with players, which was why Gaia removed that setting.

The trial lands still had not revealed its mysterious veil.

3. Changing the settings of the beast caves

The beasts would not charge out of the caves immediately. Instead, they might use the cave as a center to build a solid base to slowly eat away at the surrounding territory.

This also meant that the beasts were becoming smarter and harder to deal with.

In the foreseeable future, there would be monster forests, monster mountains, monster valleys, and more in the wilderness, becoming a huge problem.

Similarly, there would be more good places for adventure gamemode players to be at.

4. Releasing the rewards of the 1st industrial revolution.

Removing the technology tree restriction of the 1st revolution, as long as the world had relative research ability, they could develop relevant items and technology.

The 1st industrial revolution started with the birth of machines with the steam engine as the symbolic item. Machines replaced manual work, starting revolutions in metallurgy, sewing, agriculture, and more.

Sewing machines, steam engine, steam powered cars, steam powered ships, and the like were all born.

Gaia was trying to spread such technology to move the wilderness from an agriculture civilization to an industrial civilization to totally change the global landscape.

Ouyang Shuo felt lucky, lucky that he had started the full scale industrialization at the start of the previous year.

From now on, apart from wars, the world would have a new round of economic and technological battles.

Any Lord with a brain would be able to guess that Gaia would definitely remove the 2nd and even the 3rd industrializations.

Before this, whichever dynasty had better technological preparation and skills storage would have the lead.

The above four were the main contents, and there were no new information pieces, signaling that the game world that Gaia had built was becoming more and more perfect.

Gaia was reducing its interference in the game world and allowing it to develop on its own.

…

Shanhai City, palace.

Another year had passed. Ouyang Shuo stayed alone in the Imperial Reading Room, looking back at the past year.

Since the Federation had disbanded and Skynet took over, although there two new opponents had appeared, Ouyang Shuo had placed down the heavy burden and started to show his skills.

Toward the outside, although Morocco Province fell, he had taken down Johor, Piao, three islands of Java, Ethiopia, Maldives, Hawaii, and Ecuador, a bountiful harvest.

Internally, he had done even better, taking down Han and Qing and making Jin, Sui, Shu, and West Xia submit. Along with Xiong Ba and Zhan Lang joining, him unifying China could not be stopped.

The expansion of the territory resulted in an upgrade of military strength, population, and resources.

After a year of hard work, Great Xia had huge breakthroughs in terms of both internal politics and external diplomacy, slowly breaking out of the control of Silver Hand and Azure Badge and building a stable foundation.

Although that was the case, Ouyang Shuo showed no signs of relaxing.

The 7th year of Gaia was one that was filled with many opportunities and challenges, and he need to proceed forward.

Internally, he needed to continue to perfect the military and improve its quality. Externally, with the Africa and America battlefields as a medium, he would start world domination.

Apart from expanding, internal politics was really important.

Ruling this huge dynasty so that it did not deviate from its path was his mission.

Especially with industrialization coming aggressively, Great Xia needed to change and move its resources to perfect the industry organization and deepen the dynasty’s roots.

Apart from that, along with a new layer of nobles rising up, how to balance the various powers and strength their stance against the external enemy was a huge test for Ouyang Shuo.

With a huge dynasty spreading for thousands of miles and hundreds of millions of people, Ouyang Shuo could not even go and tour the land.

He needed to rely on the civil servants and generals.

Historical talent system, native system, player system, commoner system, Han Dynasty system, Tang Dynasty system, royal family system, imperial relative system, core system, overseas system…

The current Great Xia was filled with many dynasties and provinces, having many factions and groups. It was extremely complicated like a huge net.

Ouyang Shuo stood at the center of that huge net.

Today, Ouyang Shuo had just hit 30. In the history of China, he had to be the youngest person with the heaviest burden.

One must not only look at how Great Xia was soaring ahead. Ouyang Shuo had taken charge of the capital, having civil servants helping him internally and generals externally. He was able to enjoy glory and honor. However, no one could understand his pains.

As long as he was in the Capital City, he had to spend the whole day till the dead of night to read memorials, exhausting all his energy. He was unable to relax at all.

To use ‘on thin ice’ to describe his situation was really apt.

Such hard work was both a rare learning opportunity and a responsibility he could not push away.

Normal players, even top ones like Blood Romance, could not even imagine that emperors like Ouyang Shuo were not even on the same level as them.

One could even say that they belonged to two different worlds.

Ouyang Shuo was strong, not only because his talent but also because of the daily training in the 6th year.

An environment could change and train someone.

The position Ouyang Shuo was at was the dream of many, but it was something one could not get. It was like Gaia was using large amounts of game resources to develop Ouyang Shuo’s talent.

Hundreds and thousands of historical talents, hundreds of millions of civilians, and even huge amounts of players could be seen as part of his training, pushing him from a commoner boy to his current level.

This was both an opportunity and a furnace.

Tempering him into steel was the final goal.

Although Ouyang Shuo had not forgotten his original purpose, he had no choice but to take up the responsibility of spreading Chinese civilization to the rest of the world and make it the foundation for the future on Planet Hope.

Such a responsibility in the hands of a normal person like Ouyang Shuo was naturally terrifying.

Since the 5th year, Ouyang Shuo’s advantages had ceased to exist. He had to fully focus and learn properly to direct the dynasty in the correct direction.

He had to worry every moment, as any tactical mistake would result in huge losses for the dynasty.

Outsiders only knew that Great Xia was proceeding smoothly, but how would they know that Ouyang Shuo had many sleepless nights to set a strategy for the dynasty?

Only his wife could understand.

For that, Song Jia resigned from all her roles and gave up on her dreams. She became the woman behind Ouyang Shuo, managing the back palace and helping him make a little heaven that he could rest well in.

The husband and wife duo heavily relied on one another.

The road to the top was never a smooth and easy one. Most of it consisted of thorns, loneliness, sacrifices, and giving up on one’s dreams.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was deep in thought, a crisp voice spread from the outside, “Brother!” The voice was like a fountain washing away at the depressing atmosphere of the room.

It was like a ray of light shining into Ouyang Shuo’s heart, making him smile uncontrollably.

Chapter 1225 - Great Xia emperor dynasty

Chapter 1225: TWO Chapter 1225-Great Xia emperor dynasty

At the start of the year, right after the Lantern Festival, Bing’er went to Qiongzhou to learn. In the blink of an eye, a year had passed.

Looking at the little girl who ran into the reading room, a look of surprise appeared in his eyes. His face seemed really warm. Pretty much every time he saw Bing’er, she would bring him surprises.

A year of learning and training had made her capable, but it did not hide her active personality. The moment she rushed in, she ran around and made a lot of noise, sitting beside Ouyang Shuo and describing the interesting things in Qiongzhou.

As Bing’er was not of age, Ouyang Shuo let her proceed there to spectate as more of an experience. She was also really happy, and she had seen all kinds of things during this year.

Based on Bing’er’s words, she stayed in villages to experience the farming life, followed the tax officials into the city, went into jails, and lived like a commoner; her life was really interesting.

These things could not be learned from books.

Ouyang Shuo only listened quietly, and he did not give his opinion. He did not want his life standards and views to affect her growth.

Each person was unique.

Seeing that it was already noon, Ouyang Shuo got up and interrupted her. He smiled as he said, “Let’s go and have our meal. Your sister-in-law prepared your favorite vinegar blood duck.”

“Great.”

Bing’er was not as excited as Ouyang Shuo imagined she would be. She simply gave a crisp answer.

Ouyang Shuo was stunned, but he followed her with a smile.

…

After accompanying Bing’er to eat, Ouyang Shuo did not care about rest and went back to the Imperial Reading Room once more.

Tomorrow would be the Emperor dynasty ceremony and the first day of the New Year. It was really complicated, and there were many things that Ouyang Shuo had to decide on. The title awarding ceremony was among them.

For any ceremony, regardless of if it were rewarding people with merit or giving praise, titles would be given out.

This time, Ouyang Shuo was prepared to model after the Tang Dynasty Lingyan Pavilion to set up the Shanhe Pavilion and choose 24 officials of great merit to enter; this would be their reward for their contributions to Great Xia.

Great Xia was filled with talents, which included the essence of China civilization. To choose 24 out of all these people was much more difficult than the choices made during the Tang Dynasty.

Of course, the Shanhe Pavilion would not be limited to 24 people. However, to ensure its prestige, the next batch would have to wait till the dynasty upgraded to imperial dynasty.

The selection criteria was naturally based on merit.

After much deliberation, Ouyang Shuo finally decided on the 24 people. They were Baiqi, Jiang Shang, Huo Qubing, Han Xin, Wei Yang, Zhang Liang, Du Ruhui, Jia Xu, Shi Wanshui, Fan Li, Zheng He, Shen Buhai, Sun Bin, Er’Lai, Zhang Yi, Cui Yingyu, Liu Mo, Zhang Han, Di Qing, Yu Dayou, Tian Wenjing, Fan Zhongyan, and Xu Chu.

Apart from Liu Mo, who was the head of the No. 7 Research Institute, the rest were all historical talents.

The No.7 Research Institute led by Liu Mo had made many contributions in terms of thermal weapons research, so it was expected for him to be added to the list.

Without a doubt, those historical talents listed in the Shanhe Pavilion would be those that Ouyang Shuo would instantiate first.

Just last night, Ouyang Shuo had especially went offline to meet Jiang Shang, Baiqi, Zhang Liang, and Jia Xu, who had all been successfully instantiated.

As expected of geniuses, under the leadership of Gaia, they quickly adapted.

However, as the space on the spaceship was limited, they could not do much. After the meeting, they went back to their jobs; this made Ouyang Shuo realize that instantiating historical talents early on did not give many benefits.

The only advantage would be that Jiang Shang and the others would be undying like the players once they re-entered the game. They would also be able to obtain achievement value.

Ouyang Shuo told them that their achievement value were theirs, and they could use them freely to instantiate their families and loved ones.

Baiqi’s choice was totally unexpected; he said that he would only instantiate one or two of them, while Jia Xu did not want to instantiate any.

Ouyang Shuo clearly remembered the words of Jia Xu, “My king, we all know that the moment Gaia created us, we became completely different people. Our life began from that moment. As for our memories, they are just memories. I and the Jia Xu of history belong to two different eras.”

“The loved ones in the game are more like a rope holding us back in our memories. If we instantiate them, it might not be a good thing.”

Ouyang Shuo understood their thoughts.

Baiqi added, “I plan to instantiate Wei Lan. However, it is not because we were husband and wife in history but because we have developed true feelings in the game.”

Ouyang Shuo was enlightened.

As a result of this, Ouyang Shuo decided to temporarily stop instantiating and wait till a year before they arrived on Planet Hope before doing it all at once.

After a year, Ouyang Shuo’s achievement value had increased by five million points, making normal players totally envious. The high-speed development of Great Xia in the future would only cause this value to increase at a more exaggerated rate.

…

Gaia 7th year, 1st month, 1st day, Shanhai City.

On the day of the ceremony, the entire city had a joyous atmosphere, and lanterns and banners were hung up everywhere.

At 8 AM, Ouyang Shuo especially went to the main hall and opened up the territory interface to apply for the upgrade to Emperor dynasty. The moment he clicked, a System Notification sounded out.

“System Notification: Checking Great Xia’s upgrade requirements…”

“Requirement 1: Lord rank has reached prince, after checking, player Ouyang Shuo has reached the highest Son of God Rank, requirement met.”

“Requirement 2: Lord’s reputation has at least reached known far and wide. Player Ouyang Shuo’s reputation has reached the highest shining through the nine states, requirement met!”

Not long ago, Ouyang Shuo’s reputation points had hit five million and upgraded to the highest reputation rank.

“Requirement 3: Dynasty must at least occupy a third of the territory of the region. Great Xia occupies 42% of China, requirement met!”

After West Xia submitted, Great Xia’s territory had directly exceeded one-third of the region.

“Requirement 4: territory’s population must be at least 50 million. Great Xia has 413.5 million people, requirement met!”

Along with Zhan Lang and West Xia submitting, Great Xia’s population had broken through the 400 million mark, and it swiftly drew close to the record of Chinese history.

“Requirement 5: Dynasty must at least have a city overseas. Great Xia has taken down 14 countries, forming many provinces, requirement met!”

Such an achievement was something that only Great Xia could have accomplished.

“Requirement 6: Dynasty fate dragon must be at least at the Purple level. Great Xia’s dynasty fate dragon has reached stage 4 golden dragon, requirement met!”

Along with Great Xia expanding, the fate dragon had upgraded too.

“Requirement 7: At least taken down one imperial city in the local region. Great Xia has taken down Dali, Luoyang, Jingdu, Quanzhou, and Chengdu, requirement met!”

The submitting of a dynasty was included.

“Requirement 8: At least destroy one country. Great Xia has taken down 14 countries, requirement met!”

Destroying did not mean building a city. For example, Great Xia taking down Morocco but losing it did not count; similarly, building a city did not count as destroying a country like in the case of Ecuador.

Hence, requirement five and eight did not clash.

In other words, if one did well, requirement five could be easily achieved.

“Requirement 9: have at least one country upgrading treasure. Great Xia has the secret treasure Jiuzhou Cauldron, requirement met.”

Of the nine basic requirements, apart from the country upgrading treasure, Great Xia had exceeded them all.

“System Notification: Checks completed, Great Xia satisfies all Emperor dynasty upgrade requirements, will you upgrade?”

“Yes!”

The moment Ouyang Shuo said those words, the heaven and earth showed changes.

A seven colored light rose up from the palace and shot into the skies. Soon afterwards, seven colored clouds appeared, shining a prosperous seven colored glow.

The heavens were showing signs of prosperity.

The moment the signs were shown, a System Notification sounded out across the entire world.

Chapter 1226 - TWO Chapter 1226-Moving the capital

Chapter 1226: TWO Chapter 1226-Moving the capital

“World Notification: Congratulations China region player Ouyang Shuo for successfully upgrading Great Xia Dynasty to Great Xia Emperor dynasty, becoming the first in the world to become an Emperor. Awarded three AI instantiation opportunities, 10 million gold, and a huge, mysterious gift as a reward.”

…

Gaia was still as generous as before, and the rewards that it gave were all really special.

Ouyang Shuo did not think much about the three spots, giving them to Han Xin, Li Jing, and Huo Qubing, these three God Generals, to ensure their safety.

10 million gold could temporarily reduce the financial pressure on Great Xia.

Before the New Year, the Great Xia Bank, Great Xia business bank, and Great Xia agriculture bank were formed up. Along with the establishment of these three banks, their control over the dynasty would increase greatly.

The Imperial Court could use the banks as mediums to attract the cash in the hands of civilians to gather them up and loan to corporations, businessmen, and farmers to use the power of interest to grow the economy.

However, what Ouyang Shuo looked forward to the most was the mysterious gift.

When Great Xia was established, Gaia had given Ouyang Shuo one mysterious gift, which was the Planet Hope basic information encyclopedia. As a result, many of his plans leaned toward Planet Hope.

“System Notification: Congratulations player Ouyang Shuo for obtaining one mysterious gift, will you obtain it now?”

“Yes!”

“System Notification: Beginning draw for item…”

“System Notification: Congratulations player Ouyang Shuo for obtaining a special item, Emperor instant death talisman!”

Emperor instant death talisman: After use, player can select an NPC emperor to instantly die.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he could not help but take in a cold breath. This was pretty much a bug-like presence, a formless way of killing someone. Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo carefully stored it away.

If it was not a crucial moment, Ouyang Shuo would not use this talisman.

After obtaining the mysterious gift, a System Notification sounded out once more just as Ouyang Shuo was about to leave the main hall to attend the ceremony.

“System Notification: the Great Xia Dynasty has obtained a chance to move Shanhai City since it has upgraded to Emperor dynasty, will you move it? Friendly Reminder: the area that it can be moved to is limited to the Lianzhou Basin.”

Ouyang Shuo was stunned; he did not know that there would be such a thing.

In truth, along with the dynasty territory increasing, the debates in the wilderness about them shifting the capital had not stopped. Shanhai City was located at the southwest shore of China, away from the mid plains. Although it was safe, it was not good at radiating to the surrounding territories, and the location was not helpful toward monitoring the local areas.

Moving the capital to the mid plains was a good choice.

Especially since Gaia had removed the destroying main city meant destroying the territory setting in the last update. Some officials had suggested making Luoyang the new capital and turning Shanhai City into the co-capital.

Ouyang Shuo did not agree or disagree with that suggestion.

With just the China region in the picture, Shanhai City that sat in the Lianzhou Basin was too secluded. However, Great Xia was not limited to China.

If one considered the global situation, with the way that Great Xia was developing, no city would dare to say that it was the center of the dynasty.

Considering Nanjiang City, Shanhai City could be considered a central region.

Furthermore, Great Xia was rooted in voyage trading, and controlling the ocean was one of the foundations of the dynasty. Shanhai City was a port city, so it had a natural advantage that inland cities like Luoyang could not compare to.

Of course, Shanhai City’s current position was truly a little awkward.

First, as a Capital City, it was a little too close to the ocean. It was just a valley away, and although they had the Satellite City, Beihai City, the City protection legion corps, and the Emperor Squadron to defend it, these measures could not give one an overwhelming sense of safety.

Secondly, Shanhai City’s north side was against a cliff.

At the starting stages, the presence of the cliff helped to protect the territory. However, as territory grew, it started to prosper both internally and externally.

The presence of the cliff had prevented the progress of Shanhai City to a certain extent. Now, Gaia was giving Ouyang Shuo a chance to adjust, which was fantastic.

“Move!”

Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate.

“System Notification: Please choose where to move to!”

Looking at the minimized map of Lianzhou Basin, Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate and clicked on the grasslands at the center of the basin to move the city to the central area.

North of the city was the beautiful Shenjuan lake.

With that, not only could Shanhai City move further from the ocean, but the vast and flat grasslands would also give them enough space to develop.

In the future, even if Shanhai City developed into a modern metropolis, the area would still be enough.

“System Notification: Confirming location, will you move now?”

Ouyang Shuo was stunned and asked, “The middle of the grasslands is where Shenjuan lake is located. After I move there, what would happen to the lake? Would it disappear?”

“System Notification: Shenjuan Lake would replace the current Shanhai City’s position.”

Only then did Ouyang Shuo make up his mind and say, “Move.”

After he said that, it was like the Big Dipper and the stars had moved as both cities exchanged positions. The entire process took less than five seconds, and no one felt a thing.

To Gaia, it was just a movement of data.

“System Notification: Movement complete. After upgrading to Emperor dynasty, Shanhai City has a chance to gain a mirror image. Will you take it?”

“What do you mean?” Ouyang Shuo did not get it.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo understood what mirror-image meant by itself. Taken literally, it would be to replicate Shanhai City and make its scale twice as great.

This gift would be huge.

After six years of construction that was under sped up time, Shanhai City had finally reached its current scale. If they considered the architecture and buildings of the city, it would be worth no less than 100 million gold.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo did not believe that Gaia would be so generous.

“System Notification: The so-called mirror image would be to use the current city walls, streets, and city management network as a blueprint to replicate an empty city for territory development.”

Now, Ouyang Shuo understood.

For example, if a government wanted to build a new city region in reality, be it building residential districts or commercial buildings, it would be done by the real estate development companies. The role of the government would be to build the roads and set up the water, gas, electricity, communication networks and the like.

Gaia’s mirror image helped to do all of that for the Great Xia Emperor dynasty.

Even then, it was still a huge gift.

As the central city in the world, Shanhai City was the focus of attention, and its population had reached its upper limit. The Imperial Court had no choice but to take measures to restrict people from entering the city.

Now that the city would directly double in size, with the building standards of Shanhai City and its attraction, they could quickly make the new region prosperous.

Just selling land alone would allow the Imperial Court to earn a huge sum of gold.

Before the mirror image, Shanhai City was the biggest city in the world. Expanding it would make it similar to modern Shenzhen. For an ancient territory, that was indeed a little too much.

If it were not for the fact that industrialization had started and was picking up speed, with olden city management standards, they would not be able to sustain such a mega city.

Ouyang Shuo could already imagine that in the not too distant future, Shanhai City would have bicycles and rail locomotives replace horse carriages as the main modes of transport.

Shanhai City was progressing to the steam engine ages.

Pretty much right away, Ouyang Shuo decided to not blindly develop the new region and instead have a system. It would be an industrialized region, or a so-called steam engine new region.

In the future, the old region of Shanhai City would retain the ancient feels and architectural style, while the new region would be an architectural city with machines all around.

Ancient and modern would mix perfectly in Shanhai City.

Just thinking about it made one excited.

“System Notification: Mirror image completed, can make an adjustment to the city planning, please raise your demands.”

Ouyang Shuo thought about it and raised five demands.

First, he decided to extend Friendship river and Qiushui river into Shenjuan Lake.

The rivers and lake connecting would set up a water net. The future Shenjuan Lake would be both a touring paradise and the biggest inland port, swallowing up resources around the world and maintaining the prosperity of trade in Shanhai City.

Secondly, he decided to move the imperial city to the center of the new city, linking both the old and new regions.

Due to the three city merger, the Great Xia imperial city was located at the north west corner. It was not a problem with the cliff protection of before, but they had to consider its safety now.

From a defensive point of view, this was needed.

Since Shanhai City was now located at the center of the basin, the imperial city being in the center of the city would fit its position as the Capital City. Spreading past the new and old regions showed Ouyang Shuo’s equal focus on both regions.

Thirdly, he decided to move the military works region in the old region to the new city region.

The military works region was the forefront of the dynasty’s industrialization and moving it over would be signaling the start of the new era and region.

Their previous location would become the university region.

The already name changed Imperial University, Army Military University as well as the ones being planned were all moved over.

Fourthly, he decided to move the Industrialization Department, Traffic Department, Asset Management Department, Great Xia business bank, Great Xia agriculture bank, and Shanhai City office all to the new region.

The Imperial Court needed to lead the developments of the new region. Only then could they calm the people.

The Guards Legion Corps’ base would also be adjusted. The four corners of the city would each have a Guards Legion Corps camp. Along with the main camp in the center of the imperial city, they could perfectly fit five legions.

Apart from the 1st legion that was in the imperial city, the remaining four were all shifted around to the four corners.

Such an arrangement helped to protect the safety of the Capital City to the greatest extent. It was also a sign to the people that although they were moved to the grasslands, they could still be as stable as a mountain and be without worry.

At this point, the city adjustment came to an end.

Chapter 1227 - Ascension to emperor

Chapter 1227: TWO Chapter 1227-Ascension to emperor

Regarding the arrangement of Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo only made five big adjustments. As for minor changes, Ouyang Shuo did not need to care because as long as the city was developing, it would naturally adjust by itself.

“System Notification: Adjustment request confirmation, adjusting…”

In the blink of an eye, the things within the city had moved. After the expansion and adjustment, Shanhai City had built the foundations for an explosive growth, moving toward a mega city.

…

Ouyang Shuo had finished collecting the prizes and adjusting territory. Although it looked like he had been busy for a long time, in truth, only half an hour had passed.

“Your majesty, the auspicious hour has arrived!”

A court lady shouted. The moment her words landed, classical music played out.

From today onward, Ouyang Shuo would be the emperor of an Emperor dynasty. He could be called his majesty or emperor, becoming a true son of god.

Ouyang Shuo was wearing his coronation attire as he got onto the imperial carriage and exited the palace gates.

“Long live the emperor!”

Under the guidance of the ritualist, after Ouyang Shuo exited the imperial city, all the civilians on the streets cheered and knelt and greeted him.

Like the previous ascension ceremony, it was bustling with excitement.

After worshiping the ancestors and the various gods, Ouyang Shuo boarded the carriage again and entered the main hall. Within the Cabinet, the ministers and officials all knelt, “With all the rituals complete, please ascend to your throne!”

Ouyang Shuo slowly walked up and sat on the dragon throne. Instantly, the hall became solemn.

The ritualist hollered, “Officials bow!”

“Long live the emperor!” The officials all knelt and kowtowed three times.

Ouyang Shuo was on the dragon throne. As he had experienced a similar event before, he said calmly, “Rise!”

“Thank you, Emperor, for your kindness.”

Ouyang Shuo said, “For the Imperial Court to be able to upgrade to an Emperor dynasty, it is all thank to your efforts. I will be generous with my rewards!”

The Cabinet led the officials to kowtow three times once more.

“I’m willing to follow our ancestors and set up the Shanhe Pavilion and have 24 meritorious officials!”

The moment his words landed, the eyes of all the officials lit up with eagerness. Ouyang Shuo had not told anyone about the Shanhe Pavilion, not even the Cabinet.

Tossing it out suddenly naturally created a lot of commotion.

For this ascension ceremony, Ouyang Shuo did not invite outsiders, just all the Governor-Generals and Provincial Governors.

As he said that, Ouyang Shuo gave Bai Nanpu, the decree announcing official, a look.

Bai Nanpu understood, opening up the imperial decree, “The emperor decrees the establishment of the Shanhe Pavilion, listing the 24 meritorious officials who helped to build up our dynasty as models for all, shining even in the afterlife.”

“Baiqi, Jiang Shang, Huo Qubing, Han Xin, Wei Yang, Zhang Liang, Du Ruhui, Jia Xu, Shi Wanshui, Fan Li, Zheng He, Shen Buhai, Sun Bin, Er’Lai, Zhang Yi, Cui Yingyu, Liu Mo, Zhang Han, Di Qing, Yu Dayou, Tian Wenjing, Fan Zhongyan, and Xu Chu.”

With every name he read out, a person would step out with unspeakable joy on their faces.

To the officials, apart from their appointment and power, they cared more about their place in history. Being listed in the Shanhe Pavilion was the best way to be remembered in history.

Hence, even Baiqi, Du Ruhui, and Tian Wenjing, these cold-faced people, could not hide their joy.

“End!”

The long list was finished; some were happy while some were naturally disappointed. Especially people like Li Jing and Kou Zhun, who missed out only because they joined the dynasty late.

It was impossible to say that they were not jealous.

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo said, “These 24 have made a lot of contributions to the dynasty. I hope that when we become an imperial dynasty, there would be more people listed in the Shanhe Pavilion.”

“Thank you, your majesty!”

The officials were instantly really motivated.

Apart from the 24 meritorious officials, Ouyang Shuo also gave out a bunch of titles.

Both Baiqi and Jiang Shang became dukes alongside Mulan Yue, Bai Hua, and Feng Qiuhuang. Huo Qubing, Xiao He, and Han Xin all received the rank of 1st class Marquis.

Wei Yang, Zhang Liang, Du Ruhui, Jia Xu, and Shi Wanshui received the rank of 2nd class Marquis. Fan Li, Zheng He, Shen Buhai, Sun Bin, Er’Lai, Zhang, Yi and Cui Yingyu became 3rd class marquises.

The remaining seven from the 24 meritorious officials became 1st class earls.

Apart from that, a bunch of officials like Kou Zhun, Li Jing, Wei Zheng, and Zhang Tingyu became earls.

It was not hard to see that the titles, especially those of Marquis and above, were given out really carefully.

Ouyang Shuo did so to show their value.

After all, he needed to try to raise the value and meaning of the title.

Along with the army scale settling down, the Legion General positions were basically settled, and it would be difficult for any empty spots to appear. This also meant that the promotion of Advanced Generals was basically locked.

In the Imperial Court, the core positions were settled, and no big adjustments would be made. However, in comparison to the military, there would be more opportunities for Provincial Governors due to the fact that they were still expanding.

Promotion channels not being smooth was deadly to a dynasty.

The reason why this problem would appear was because the game was different from real life. To a certain extent, the officials were half immortal.

Even if they were instantiated into reality, it would remain so.

With Jiang Shang as an example, after he became an AI, he might look old, but his cells were no different from a young man’s. It would be easy for him to live for another 180 years.

This was both a good thing and a bad thing.

Due to their presence, the promotion channels of the dynasty were blocked.

Ouyang Shuo was already considering whether he should force retirements to promote a change of blood so that the dynasty would not become stale.

Of course, this was all something for the future.

Specifically in the game world, there was nothing more suitable than a title system as a value system.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo gave titles carefully and did not let them become as common as cabbages.

At this point, it all came to an end.

“The Emperor dynasty is newly established, and I hope you can all work hard.” Ouyang Shuo said. Then he told the ritualist, “Give the Queen the title of empress and Ouyang Yu as eldest son of the emperor and Ouyang Luo as the princess.”

At this point, the ascension was completed. Next up was the ceremonial reviewing of troops.

After that, it was already noon.

At night, there was a huge Imperial Palace feast and fireworks, creating a great bustle.

Once it all ended, it was already the dead of the night.

…

Starting from the 1st month, 2nd day, for five days, one protector, two Governor-generals, and 24 Provincial Governors all took the chance to be debriefed.

There were five on average every day.

These were the busiest five days for Ouyang Shuo and the days during which he had to think the most.

He had to settle them down and evaluate their reports, give some criticism, and pick out the flaws.

This meant that Ouyang Shuo had to have a clear understanding and plan for each area.

A month before the New Year, apart from preparing for the ceremony, Ouyang Shuo spent a large part of his effort on that. Of course, such a difficult matter could not be handled by him alone.

Behind every one of his suggestions was the work of the Cabinet and the Administrative Mentor Court.

Using the chance of debriefing them, Ouyang Shuo told them about the plans of their provinces so that they would not veer off the track.

Of course, with a huge territory, there would be some in better and some in worse positions.

Out of the 24, some were ran really well, and there were even some surprises like Hu Zongxian’s planning of Heluo Province, which made the eyes of the Cabinet light up.

Some people did not do well and while debriefing them, Ouyang Shuo did not give them any face and chided them, “If you do not wake up and continue to be arrogant, I’ll sack you.”

Ouyang Shuo could do as he said.

Since the dynasty had developed to such a stage, firing one or two Provincial Governors would not be too big of an issue.

Chapter 1228 - Imperial capital

Chapter 1228: TWO Chapter 1228-Imperial capital

1st month, 8th day, all the Provincial Governors returned to their respective areas.

Even Bing’er went back to Qiongzhou to learn once more. Since she did not dislike such a life, Ouyang Shuo was prepared to let her have a few years of training in Qiongzhou Prefecture.

Thinking about how the Provincial Governors all asked carefully about when they would be able to upgrade to imperial dynasty, Ouyang Shuo smiled bitterly. On the night of the ceremony, Ouyang Shuo had taken a look at the requirements to upgrade.

Compared to the nine for the Emperor dynasty, the imperial dynasty required only three things.

Requirement 1. Unify China.

This requirement was not anything special. Unifying China was originally Great Xia’s set goal, and if everything went well, they could unify China in the 7th year.

Requirement 2: Obtain the Overlord position in Asia.

This was a little tougher.

Thinking about how Great Xia managed to obtain the position of Overlord in China, one would not know hard this was going to be.

Asia was also the strongest region in the world. Apart from Great Xia, there was the Romanov Dynasty, Ashoka Dynasty, Peacock Dynasty, Gupta Dynasty, Persia Dynasty, and Arab Dynasty.

Even Caesar Dynasty occupied a corner of Asia.

If Great Xia wanted to obtain the position while being surrounded by so many enemies, they would have to destroy many dynasties. The biggest challenge would be from the three in India.

Requirement 3: Obtain the recognition of all the dynasties in the world.

This was even tougher. Thinking about the situation that Great Xia was in, if it wanted to do so, they would need to basically smash the cake of Azure Badge and Silver Hand.

If not, it would be hard to reach this requirement.

Apart from the above three conditions, there were no title, reputation, territory size, or fate requirements. After all, if one completed the above three requirements, the other requirements were basically included within.

Ouyang Shuo was thinking that Gaia set such strict requirements because it did not expect any dynasty to upgrade to Emperor dynasty. After all, considering that it was the 7th year of Gaia, there were only four years of game time left.

“No matter what, I have to give it a try.”

The moment Ouyang Shuo checked the requirements to upgrade to imperial dynasty, he made up his mind to make upgrading Great Xia to an imperial dynasty as his final goal.

Only then would he be left with no regrets.

…

Just as Ouyang Shuo was dealing with the debriefs of the Provincial Governors, Shanhai City’s expansion had started, and this slowly became the most exciting thing in the entire Emperor dynasty.

The interest in this had even exceeded the interest in the upgrading ceremony.

Everyone could see that compared to the already crowded old city region, the new one was an unopened virgin land filled with numerous opportunities and riches.

All of a sudden, be it the normal civilians, the nobles, or the officials, they either met in the open or in secret to discuss this.

Everyone wished to obtain some land in the new city.

However, the Shanhai City office hid the planning of the new region. No matter how the nobles and merchants searched and asked, from the Shanhai magistrate to the normal officials, none of them said a word.

The Shanhai City office was in a tough spot. A few days ago, the overall planning power was taken from them by the Imperial Court and controlled by the Administration Court, Financial Court, industrialization department, Civil Affairs Department, imperial colleges, and the like to participate in. Then the Cabinet would vet the plans.

The scale and importance of this had exceeded everyone’s expectations.

Before deciding on the overall plan of Shanhai City, the first thing the Cabinet did was adjust the administrative region of the Lianzhou Prefecture.

…

1st month, 9th day, morning, imperial city, emperor palace.

Along with the imperial university, army military university as well as the Guards Legion Corps moving out, the imperial city instantly became spacious. Looking out, everywhere was filled with busy artisans.

Regardless of whether Ouyang Shuo was willing or not, to fit the position of the Emperor dynasty, the palace had to be expanded.

Based on the planning, the imperial city would be split into three parts, with north-south as the intersection. The entire north part would be the palace region, while the south would be split into two. The west would be the office region and the east would be the temple of heaven and the ancestral temple.

The camp of the 1st legion corps was not gathered in one area. Instead, it was split into five large drill fields that took up every crucial region of the city. They would patrol day and night to ensure the safety of the imperial city.

Based on the system, the 1st legion would not participate in conquests and wars.

The outer halls of the palace would be guarded by the Divine Martial Guards while the back palace would be led by the Hua Mulan headed court lady guards.

For this, Ouyang Shuo especially expanded the Divine Martial Guards to five thousand men. With that, even if Ouyang Shuo went out, he could leave two thousand men to defend the palace.

Apart from defenses on the surface, there were many Wulin experts of the Shadow Guards in hidden areas of the palace.

If anyone tried to assassinate someone in the palace, they would have tried to do so in the wrong place.

Such a plan was not because he was timid, rather, it was because of the relatively recent Hanwu Emperor assassination and Feng Qiuhuang poisoning event. Ouyang Shuo had to defend against such acts.

Great Xia had too many enemies, and if someone was anxious to do so, Ouyang Shuo would not feel surprised at all.

Within the Imperial Reading Room, Jiang Shang was describing the importance of adjusting the Lianzhou Prefecture administrative zone, “Your majesty, Shanhai City is the capital and is the center of the Emperor dynasty. It radiates out to the entire land and signifies the entire dynasty. It has a really high position, and its importance cannot be emphasized enough, which is why we need to confirm its position through administrative means.”

Ouyang Shuo did not understand, “Didn’t we make Lianzhou Prefecture into a Zhili Prefecture?”

“If I may, at the Emperor dynasty stage, the Zhili Prefecture status is already too low. I suggest we follow the Tang Dynasty system and make Shanhai City the imperial capital and Zhili Prefecture the Imperial House, having an Imperial Governor whose position is the same as a Provincial Governor.”

The place where the son of heaven lived would have a high status, so it was called the imperial capital.

Naming it the imperial house showed the scale and prestige of the capital of the country.

Listening to Jiang Shang’s explanation, Ouyang Shuo indeed learned a lot. He did not expect that within such small words would actually be such huge meaning. He smiled and said, “Okay!”

Although it was just a small name change, great meaning was contained within.

“Your majesty is wise!”

“Regarding the choice of Imperial Governor, does the Cabinet have any suggestions?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Jiang Shang was stunned; this was something he did not expect. For the Zhili Prefecture to become the Imperial House, it should be natural for original Shanhai Magistrate Zang Wenzhong to be promoted.

However, listening to the words of the emperor, he was ready to change the personnel.

“Is your majesty unhappy with Zang Wenzhong, or is there a deeper meaning?” Jiang Shang was not sure, so he could only play safe and ask, “I feel that he is a suitable choice.”

“Although he is suitable, does the Cabinet not have other choices?”

“This…”

Facing the questions of the emperor, Jiang Shang felt a little nervous.

Truthfully, the position of Imperial Governor looked really stunning and shining, but it was a tough job.

The imperial capital was an important place and was at the foot of the emperor. Everyone on the streets was a noble and some even had titles. As such, the Imperial Governor would face pressure from both the Imperial Court from above and the nobles from below and would be unable to make anyone unhappy.

The person chosen must be smooth and good at flattering.

The Tang Dynasty had many changes to their Imperial Governor, which astonished others. It was mentioned by Bai Juyi in one poem, “How to be an Imperial Governor and remain at the job. Numbers had it at 15 people for 10 years.”

On average, the position was changed at least once in less than a year.

Ouyang Shuo did not force him and said, “Let Tian Wenjing and Zhang Wenzhong switch roles!”

“The emperor is wise!”

Jiang Shang heaved a sigh of relief; the heart of the emperor was heart to read.

Ouyang Shuo did not make his decision because he was unhappy with Zhang Wenzhong. First, Zhang Wenzhong had been the Shanhai Magistrate for three years, and it was time to move him. To be a Provincial Governor at the Shu Lands would be treating him well.

Secondly, he did not want the Imperial Governor role to be as spineless as the Tang Dynasty. He wanted an iron-faced governor, which was why he chose Tian Wenjing.

Tian Wenjing was among the first batch of officials of the Emperor dynasty and was one of the 24 meritorious officials. Be it in terms of experience or ability, Ouyang Shuo believed that he could do the job well.

After they discussed the matter of the Imperial House, Ouyang Shuo continued, “I’ve heard that there have been people talking about turning Chuannan Province into a Zhili Province and becoming the head of the provinces. What do you think?”

Jiang Shang had confidence about this topic and replied directly, “I think the time is not right.”

“Since that’s the case, it’s time for those rumors to stop.” Although Ouyang Shuo was really expressionless when he spoke, his words were filled with killing intent.

Regardless of who it was pushing those rumors in the dark, they had touched Ouyang Shuo’s nerves.

An important place like the capital never lacked hidden currents.

“Do not worry your majesty, I understand!”

Jiang Shang knew that it was time for those people acting smart to receive their due punishment.

Chapter 1229 - TWO Chapter 1229-Smoke rises in Africa

Chapter 1229: TWO Chapter 1229-Smoke rises in Africa

Gaia 7th year, 1st month, 15th day, Imperial Capital.

Under Jiang Shang’s workings, the rumors regarding the Zhili Province were quashed with only the hidden currents remaining. 1st Imperial Governor Tian Wenjing had officially started his appointment yesterday.

To express his support, Ouyang Shuo personally wrote the ‘righteous and fair’ plaque outside the Imperial Governor office to show that Great Xia’s Imperial Governor was different from the Tang Dynasty one.

At the same time, to prevent debates and needless guesses, the Imperial Court released the definition of the new city region. It would be the industrialization region, steam engine civilization as well as the creation industry base.

The Imperial Court also expressed that the overall planning was being completed quickly, and they would try to finish it off by the 3rd month. During that period, the Imperial Court would set up requirements for people to enter based on the new planning.

Only then did the people calm down regarding the new city region.

However, although the new city region would be an industry region, it did not mean that all kinds of factories could be built there. For example, the steelmaking factories and coal burning factories were all moved outside of the city.

…

In the recent three months, Great Xia’s largest scale military organization had finally come to an end. The newly built five legion corps had all been completed and moved toward their camps.

Along with the Imperial Palace Guards being formed, the Privy Court made a major adjustment to the camps of the Guards legion corps, City protection legion corps, and Imperial Palace Guards.

The Guards Legion Corps change was obvious. Along with the imperial capital house being set up, the entire region would be their defensive zone. This helped to free up the City protection legion corps to expand outward.

The 1st legion would move into Beihai City to defend the south gate of the imperial capital.

The 2nd legion would move to Mulan Stronghold to defend the north gate.

The 3rd legion would move to Yunnan Province, the 4th to Chuannan Province, and the 5th to Lingnan Province to form the imperial capital’s first layer of defense.

The newly built Imperial Palace Guards would be the 2nd layer of defense, taking control of Chuanbei, Xiangnan, Jiangchuan, and Minnan Province.

With that, the Xiangjiang legion corps was freed up to focus and prepare for the unification of China.

Along with the Hedong legion corps moving toward Hedong Province, the Phoenix legion corps moved into Liaojin Province, and the Beijiang and Eagle legion corps in Xihai Province, 1.4 million troops built up Great Xia’s northern defensive line.

The Mongol Empire had no way to disturb the Great Xia border.

Last would be the Africa warzone.

Along with the Wolf and North Africa legion corps moving to North Africa, the North Africa Protector House relied on just two provinces to feed four legion corps, a total of 1.4 million troops.

For this matter, Ouyang Shuo had to instruct the Privy Court to send them batch after batch of grain.

However, this did not solve the root of the problem.

Due to that, Ouyang Shuo gave another decree; he ordered the completion of the Africa warzone headquarters to mobilize and start their occupation of East Africa.

Their first targets would be South Sudan and Kenya.

South Sudan had a total of a million players, while Kenya had four million. The imperial city guards of the two added up to no more than 250 thousand. Even if you considered the territory troops and the combat occupation players, they were not the opponents of Great Xia.

Furthermore, the Africa continent had not recovered from the calamity, and they were grievously lacking in grain. As Long as Africa warzone commander Baiqi played the grain card right, it would be basically taking candy from a baby.

With the decree given, the million troops immediately started to act.

At the same time, from the Beihai Bay to Gulf of Aden naval route, one thousand merchant ships belonging to the China Shipping Group started to transport back and forth under the protection of the Indian Ocean Squadron.

Great Xia, which had slept for three months, finally revealed its fangs once more.

…

Emperor palace, Imperial Reading Room.

Although the Battle of East Africa was brewing, Ouyang Shuo did not pay much attention to it. The war matters were completely in the hands of the Grand Council and the Africa warzone, so he would not interfere.

Professional matters should be left to the professionals.

As a ruler, his focus should be placed on the internal aspects of the Emperor dynasty.

Gaia stopping the refugee spawning meant that the population growth would enter a really slow period. However, the Imperial Court was industrializing, and the various enterprises and corporations desperately needed talents.

Without a huge quantity of fresh blood, the strategy of the Imperial Court would be affected.

Under this situation where population could not increase easily, the only way would be to improve the quality of the talents. More precisely, they had to make use of all the labor they had now.

Moreover, the most wasteful people resource was undoubtedly the huge player base.

Along with the Great Zhou Dynasty weakening, out of the 100 million China players, 90 million lived under Great Xia. However, in truth, a large portion of them were away from the system of the Emperor dynasty.

Based on rough estimates, what kind of players had been attracted into the system so far?

First, the elite players joined the army.

Secondly, a batch of players were running farms, shops, and could be said to be halfway into the system.

Thirdly, people like Meng Zhida, who were in the minority, were trusted by Ouyang Shuo and entered the Great Xia official field, schools, banks, and the like.

Apart from that, the rest did not have a connection to the Imperial Court, so they were using up less than 1%.

What a waste.

Behind all of these players were people that came from many different industries, forming up a complicated societal net that was enough to complete any societal matter asked of them.

In other words, every player was a talent.

However, why did no one notice this point?

After six years of change, not to mention the Lords, but even the adventure gamemode players had forged new identities, becoming ingrained in the game and forgetting their jobs in real life.

Six years of time were enough to change someone.

Secondly, since the territory had so many refugee spawns, the Lords naturally would not utilize the players to the greatest extent. They instead greatly used the refugees and saw them as their people. As for adventure gamemode players, there was a barrier, and they could not feel as close.

For example, at the start, Ouyang Shuo took a respectful but distant attitude toward the adventure gamemode players.

Of course, the reason why they were not close was not completely the fault of the Lords.

How could the adventure gamemode players easily accept that they were all entering the same game world but they had to live under someone and be managed them?

Only during the 6th year of Gaia did this unhappiness slowly disappear.

However, that did not mean that the players would accept it. First, the world situation was clear, and the disappearance of the imperial cities meant that players had no choice but to go under the dynasties.

It was impossible for the adventure gamemode players to open up a new section of land outside of the territories.

Secondly, along with the achievement value update, the game’s interests were closely connected to reality; this made the players stop treating the game as purely a game.

This sounded contradictory, but it was the truth.

Since the game and reality was the same, then for their own interests, players submitting was understandable. Players were all creatures that evolved, and their adaptability was really strong. As such, they could quickly adjust their mental states.

Living under a dynasty and living under an imperial city was not that different. The only difference would be the way that they saw it.

Living in an imperial city, although the players were restrained by all kinds of laws, they viewed the NPCs as a virtual presence. In the end, the NPCs were serving them, the players.

It was a natural sense of superiority.

Living under a Lord, this feeling would disappear and be replaced by a sense of loss.

“Comparing with others, the gap is just too huge.”

Maybe because this gap was too huge, so huge that no matter how they worked and struggled they could not make up for it, they felt better.

This was easy to understand.

Just like in reality, where everyone wanted to be the best.

When one faced someone that was only slightly better, they would feel jealous and would try to exceed them. However, when facing the rich people of the world, no matter how they tried, they could not climb past them.

After all, the two sides were not even on the same level.

Facing a billionaire, normal people would worship them but no sense of competition would rise up in their heart. Without this, there would not be the so-called sense of loss.

In the game world, the situation was the same. However, compared to ordinary players, Ouyang Shuo’s position was even more exaggerated than a billionaire.

As such, the players living in Great Xia were slowly recognizing Great Xia and did not have the sense of loss and unhappiness they had before.

This gave the Imperial Court the ability to make use of the players and their value.

Chapter 1230 - Democracy and dictatorship

Chapter 1230: TWO Chapter 1230-Democracy and dictatorship

Within the solemn Imperial Reading Room, deputy secretary Kou Zhun in charge of human affairs, Administration Court deputy minister Zhang Tingyu, and Civil Affairs director Pei Yun had all gathered together.

After much deliberation, Ouyang Shuo finally made up his mind, “This Imperial Court player recruitment is the first for the Emperor dynasty and needs to be solid and act as the model for future recruitments.”

“Do not worry, your majesty. For this recruitment, we have prepared for a month, and we will not let anything go wrong.” Kou Zhun was really certain. Obviously, they had made a lot of preparations.

This was because they knew how important this recruitment was to the Emperor dynasty.

Before the month, after Ouyang Shuo’s suggestion, the Cabinet had discussed the matter. After asking for the opinions of all the officials, they came to a common consensus to merge the player group into the system.

From the Imperial Court to the local prefectures and counties, from the various offices to banks, schools, and the like, from the corporations to the enterprises; they would open all of these to the players and accept talents.

As long as one fulfilled the requirements for the post, the Imperial Court would not block them.

Using a full six years of time, Great Xia had finally built up a perfect system and a strict managing system. No matter how many players were recruited, there would be no worries of the system falling apart.

This was why Ouyang Shuo was so confident.

Six years of hard work had finally bore fruit. Ouyang Shuo said, “Since that’s the case, go do it!”

“Yes, emperor!”

…

Gaia 7th year, 1st month, 20th day, Great Xia Honglu Temple Outreach Division held a press conference to announce the notice regarding player group large scale recruitment.

The moment the news went out, the Great Xia territory boiled.

There were many eager parties, many who were watching on, and many who were envious and jealous.

Who knows how many lives and how many families that single notice would change.

…

Imperial capital, city west-street 1107.

Within this street stayed a number of special tenants. They were all over 50, and although they were causal players, one could see that their background was not simple since they could live so carefreely in the capital.

Morning of the 21st, Ouyang Shuo dressed up casually and under the accompaniment of four Divine Martial Guards, he came over and entered a big courtyard in the middle.

1107 street was built and planned by the Construction Department before being rented out to the outside.

The courtyard was filled with an ancient feel. On the left, there was a grape rack, and there were many different vegetables and fruits around.

Below the grape rack was a wooden table and two chairs. Two white-haired old people were drinking tea under the winter sunshine.

The one welcoming Ouyang Shuo was a middle-aged man, who greeted him with a smile, “Welcome!” Amongst the warmness was some pride. Since he did not know how to refer to Ouyang Shuo, he decided to not call him anything.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. He raised his feet and entered, leaving the four Divine Martial Guards to keep watch outside.

The middle-aged man led the way at front. When he reached the middle of the courtyard, he quickly walked to the slightly thin old man and said softly, “Father, the guest is here!”

Only then did the old man raise his head. Looking at Ouyang Shuo, a look of confusion appeared in his eyes. He did not expect that Ouyang Shuo would be so calm like a lake of water, soundless and without movement.

“Little friend, how are you!”

The old man finally got up and revealed a smile.

The slightly fat old man also got up and greeted Ouyang Shuo with a smile.

Ouyang Shuo did not dare to act big and respectfully bowed, “Old Zhang! Old Guo!”

The two of them looked like they had nothing to do with the world, but in the previous Federation government, they were the two giants of the neutral camp and had huge influence.

Behind Great Xia opening up to the players, the primary reason was to target the workers of the Federation because they were a perfect fit with the system and could find a place to work at the various offices.

As for the experts of the various industries, apart from finance, education, banking, accounting, and the like, Great Xia would give birth to many other industries similar to modern day life.

To convince them and settle them down, he needed to convince the two giants in front of him.

The spies of the Shanhai Guards were in every hole, and when these two moved over from Jingdu, Ouyang Shuo had received the news, but he did not disturb them.

Within just a year, the 1107 street that they lived on had changed a group of tenants, which showed their influence in the circle.

After sitting down, Ouyang Shuo made his intentions clear, “I’m visiting to invite you two to come out of retirement.” With Ouyang Shuo’s position, he would not lower himself even in front of these two.

Talking to smart people was great, as they did not need to beat around the bush.

Ouyang Shuo was sure that the two ahead of him knew about the notice released by the Imperial Court. They might have even discussed the matter in their circle.

As for the result, Ouyang Shuo did not know.

“I’m old and am unwilling to go through the hardships once more.” Old Zhang rejected his offer.

As for Old Guo, apart from greeting Ouyang Shuo, he did not say anything more. It was obvious that he was giving Old Zhang the right to decide. Old Zhang’s son, the middle-aged man, knew his place and had already left.

Ouyang Shuo was not surprised and asked, “Does Old Zhang have worries about Great Xia?”

In the eyes of many, Great Xia was a feudal empire and Ouyang Shuo was a feudal lord addicted to power; this did not fit into the ideologies of the Federation officials.

To have worries was normal.

Since Ouyang Shuo had said that, Old Zhang knew that he had to say something. He wanted to use this chance to scout out Ouyang Shuo, “On Planet Hope, will Great Xia hold their current ideals and not change?”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and did not hesitate.

“Since that’s the case, there is not much to discuss.” Old Zhang felt disappointed.

“In the harsh environment on Planet Hope, of democracy and dictatorship, which one do you think is more suitable?” Ouyang Shuo did not answer his question, “In a chaotic world, an iron fist is needed.”

“That’s just the excuse of a dictator.” Old Zhang was really stubborn.

“But you cannot deny that after the Federation disbanded and Skynet took over, for Chinese civilization to take root on Planet Hope, ruling the people is better than being ruled.”

“The core of Chinese civilization is the golden mean.”

“That depends on the time. Any organization at the beginning needs the knowledge and courage of the founder and has to gather power. The golden mean is unsuitable sometimes.” Ouyang Shuo firmly believed in his values.

During a state of war, no one could talk about democracy.

“Is that the reason why Great Xia is attacking and killing people from other countries?” As a member of the ex-Federation, Old Zhang’s country ideologies were thinner. Naturally, he would not accept Great Xia’s conquering of the world.

Ouyang Shuo replied, “On Planet Hope, ensuring a new order is of utmost importance. To protect this, evil is needed. On this point, I think that Old Zhang has a better understanding than me.”

When the Federation was being built, there was also countless bloodshed.

“What is the so-called new order you are referring to?” Old Zhang wanted to get to the bottom of this.

“Country.”

This was the first time Ouyang Shuo had revealed his ambitions for Planet Hope.

“You!”

Old Zhang was so angry that he stood up.

Ouyang Shuo was unmoved, “Planet Hope is so huge, and with Skynet taking over, the country boundaries that disappeared on Earth would be built up once more.”

“Old Zhang, are you really shocked?” Ouyang Shuo’s eyes pretty much saw through his heart.

Silence…

After a long while, Old Zhang said with exhaustion, “Leave, my attitude will not change.”

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he knew that the conversation could not go on. Although he was disappointed, he was not one to give up easily. Before leaving, he said, “The doors of Great Xia are forever open to you two.”

As he said that, he disappeared from the streets under the protection of the Divine Martial Guards.

Within the courtyard, Old Zhang’s son walked out from the room and said anxiously, “Father, isn’t it unsuitable for you to reject him outright? The other uncles support working in Great Xia.”

Old Zhang waved his hand, “Let’s watch a while more.”

When the middle-aged man saw that, he wanted to say something but stopped. In the end, he simply turned around and left the courtyard.

“He’s still too fresh.”

Old Zhang looked at the back view of his son before letting out a disappointed sigh. Sitting down once more, he looked toward Old Guo and asked, “What do you think?”

“He is indeed a moldable talent.” Old Guo admired Ouyang Shuo a lot. Despite that, he still firmly said, “What you did was right. He himself is not sure about the responsibility and duty on his shoulders. Let’s watch for a while more.”

“Let’s hope!”

The eyes of the two old men met; currently, their eyes were filled with expectations.

Chapter 1231 - TWO Chapter 1231-No Christmas only Chinese New Year

Chapter 1231: TWO Chapter 1231-No Christmas only Chinese New Year

Leaving 1107 street, although Ouyang Shuo was disappointed, he was not really nervous.

He was disappointed because he understood through this matter that the Chinese upper echelon had not recognized him. This proved that his influence only reached the commoner level and had not affected the elites.

At the very least, his influence was not as great as he had thought.

He was not nervous because with Great Xia’s current position as the inheritor of Chinese civilization, his position was unshakeable. In the whole world, apart from Great Xia, no one could speak for Chinese civilization.

This was his advantage.

As long as Great Xia did not sink, Ouyang Shuo who controlled the situation would remain invincible.

As for how to make the elites slowly recognize his ideals and not look at him with judgmental eyes, both parties would need to work hard for that to happen.

Time was also needed.

Ouyang Shuo was walking on a path of influence that exceeded the game world.

…

The small setback that happened on street 1107 did not affect the excitement from the recruitment notice.

Huo Qihua was one of the lucky ones.

In reality, he was an advanced accountant who worked as the CFO of a famous enterprise. He had a beautiful wife and a smart and cute daughter. He was winning in both work and life.

The interplanetary migration had totally changed his fate.

Huo Qihua was a typical nerd and rarely had contact with games. After being forced into the game world, he first tried to be a combat occupation player, but he could not adapt to combat.

After the failure, he became a work occupation player and prepared to be a merchant, but he lacked the funds to start.

Their family lived poorly in Jianye.

Luckily, his wife did not leave him under such poor conditions, and the family of three survived.

When Gaia activated the achievement value exchange event, he gritted his teeth and exchanged for gold. He had his eyes on the equipment market and was prepared to take a gamble.

At this moment, Snow War Rose obtained a bunch of equipment eliminated from Great Xia and threw them into the equipment market, causing prices to fall and making him lose a lot of money.

It was not that he was dumb, rather, it was because he lacked the relevant business information in the game. Although his sharp senses had brought him to the correct market, it was useless in the end.

After the failure of his business, Huo Qihua could not pick himself up.

10th month, calamity, the grain prices rose up crazily, and his family nearly starved to death. Only when Zhan Lang led the Donghai Province to join Great Xia did the price fall, which allowed them to escape death.

To them, Great Xia was their undoubted savior.

After the Imperial Court gave out the recruitment notice, Huo Qihua did not even hesitate and immediately went to the imperial capital to apply. His target role was the advanced accountant of the Financial Court Business Department.

Using his experience, he was very fortunately hired.

From that moment onward, his fate would change, and he would walk onto a whole new path.

Although his experience was a little special, he was not the only such lucky star. Great Xia’s recruitment of talents helped changed the fates of many families and also won the hearts of the people.

…

In the blink of an eye, the 1st month was nearing its end.

In the past month, Great Xia had released explosive news after explosive news, attracting a lot of attention. Right after entering the 2nd month, maybe because they were jealous, but the Dawson Dynasty also revealed a piece of huge news.

2nd month, 5th day, the Dawson Dynasty officially attacked Venezuela.

Jack also made a high profile announcement, saying that he would merge Columbia and Venezuela to establish the Columbia state. After that, he would send a governor and a total of 300 thousand troops over.

His motive to fight head on against Great Xia was really apparent.

More crucially, Columbia state would be directly connected to the Brasilia Dynasty.

Although the Brasilia Dynasty had not taken sides yet and did not belong to any camp, with his character, Jack would definitely stir up the pond that was South America.

The Indian Empire’s situation was growing more and more arduous.

Just at this moment, Indian Empire king Juarez made a shocking decision to change his direction of attack. He would defend against Brasilia Dynasty and focus on attacking Argentina in the south.

When Ouyang Shuo received the report, he was filled with thoughts.

Juarez was undoubtedly intelligent and knew that with the Dawson Dynasty interfering, along with the strength of the Brasilia Dynasty, the Indian Empire would surely find it really hard to beat them.

Rather than wasting time and soldiers on the west side, why not attack the Argentina region in the south? This move would help to stabilize their back garden before being freed up to go all out against the Brasilia Dynasty.

Although that was the case, Ouyang Shuo still had some worries. With his understanding of the Spain Dynasty and Casillas, he was not a Lord that would admit defeat easily.

The Spain Dynasty that was rising up might try to protect the Argentina region.

Ouyang Shuo was not certain.

…

While the Dawson Dynasty was grinding their blades, Great Xia was shining too.

In the East Africa battlefield, Baiqi left the East Africa legion corps to defend while ordering Meng Tian to lead to Wolf legion corps to take down South Sudan. Baiqi personally led the North and West Africa legion corps to attack Kenya.

The flames of war rose up on the East Africa battlefield.

Be it the Wolf legion corps or the North Africa legion corps, although they were just formed up, they were all elites. Along with their generals all wanting to contribute to the dynasty and obtain credit, the morale was unusually high.

Within a month, the dust from these two battles would probably settle.

Back on Great Xia’s homeland, they welcomed yet another New Year’s Eve. Ouyang Shuo ordered all the provinces, be it local or overseas, to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

The goal was to spread Chinese culture and tradition around.

Especially in the Southeast Asia region, which belonged to a Chinese civilization circle and was heavily influenced. Nanjiang Governor-General Bai Hua had been preparing for this matter since a month ago.

Bai Hua said that she wanted to make this festive season as bustling as on China’s mainland itself.

For this, not only did she use herself as an example and bring her family over to spend the holiday, but she also used her connections to bring over troupes, dragon dances, lion dances, and more to hold a New Year’s Eve party at the Governor-general house.

Seeing Bai Hua do that, North Africa protector general Mulan Yue naturally did not want to lose. Although it was war time, the festive spirit there was no less because she wanted to let them feel and enjoy Chinese culture.

Even the Ecuador Prefecture, Hawaii, which was deep in the Pacific, and Maldives in the Indian Ocean all treated the matter with importance.

Great Xia had made it clear that the offices, be it local or overseas, would have their holidays following the Chinese calendar and not the western Christmas.

Ouyang Shuo even commented that he wanted to make Christmas non-existent in Great Xia.

Chapter 1232 - -Divine martial rule

Chapter 1232: TWO Chapter 1232-Divine martial rule

Yet another New Year’s Eve night.

As Liu Xiyi mentioned in his poem, “Flowers are the same every year, but people are different.”

Every year, Great Xia would improve, stepping to whole new levels. This year’s upgrade to Emperor dynasty was like adding oil when cooking. The prosperous scenes were showing signs of stepping into a grand and successfully age.

There were some officials who suggested they termed this era as the divine martial rule.

After upgrading to the Emperor dynasty, the Imperial Court was not happy with staying at their current level, which excited the civilians. Right after they upgraded, they brought out three new policies and accepted the talents of players with a magnanimous heart.

The Xia Emperor’s desire to swallow up the four seas awed everyone.

To have such an emperor was the good fortune of Great Xia and its people.

Night, the imperial capital was bustling with excitement. The fireworks that started from evening still had not stopped. Along with the lanterns, candles, and the like, the imperial capital turned into a city with no night.

The civilians of the imperial capital were celebrating the New Year and celebrating this rare prosperous time.

Imperial city, emperor palace.

The emperor’s family feast was coming to an end, and the interactions that happened were as usual, without nothing really interesting occurring.

A year had passed, and the members of the royal family had grown up. Be it in the military, in the offices, or in the groups, they were slowly gaining a footing and becoming a huge presence in the dynasty.

Out of all the members, Ouyang Heng who was appointed as the Wuzhou Prefecture Governor was undoubtedly the shining star.

“Your majesty, let me toast to you!”

Ouyang Heng left his seat to pour wine for Ouyang Shuo. He knew that being appointed as Wuzhou Prefecture Governor would mean that he would face a lot of trouble. There were many jealous people inside and even within the royal family.

For him to gain a footing in Great Xia, apart from his personal ability, he also needed the support of the emperor.

Ouyang Shuo was sitting at the host position. On his legs was Luo’er, who was already a year and a half old. When Ouyang Heng walked over, Ouyang Shuo was peeling the grapes that his daughter loved the most. How much he spoiled and loved her was hard to be described in words.

Ouyang Shuo did not want to follow the ways of the ancient emperors and kings and talk about how the royal family was heartless. Ouyang Shuo did not restrain Yu’er either and allowed him to as he wished and enjoy his childhood.

To allow the two to gain a firm cultivation foundation, Ouyang Shuo even purposely went offline every day to use the Five Emperor True Manual’s primordial energy to nourish their meridians.

Seeing Ouyang Heng walk over, Ouyang Shuo placed down the grapes before raising up his glass and smiling, “Third Uncle, Happy New Year!”

“It’s all because of your majesty!” Ouyang Heng enjoyed the respect and importance the emperor placed on him. However, he knew that at this moment, many eyes were staring over in his direction.

The uncle and nephew duo took the chance to discuss some work matters.

At this moment, seeing that her father and uncle were talking and not peeling grapes for her, little princess Luo’er got angry. She pouted and reached out with her hand, grabbing her father’s beard.

The authority and fierce image that Ouyang Shuo tried so hard to maintain instantly dissipated.

“Hehe, little princess is angry, so I’ll leave now.” Seeing his majesty in such an awkward situation, it would be inappropriate for him to remain.

After talking for such a short while, Ouyang Heng had already achieved his goal.

In truth, Ouyang Shuo would not bother about these small customs and simply said, “Take care, Third Uncle.” After that, he turned around to play with the little princess.

Speaking of Luo’er playing with his beard, there was a story within.

Ouyang Shuo was young and suppressing and leading all the officials was not an easy thing. At least from an image standpoint, he seemed too young and could not give one a mature feeling.

Due to that, Song Jia recommended he grow a beard to make up for the age gap.

As expected, the beard that he kept made him look a lot more mature. At a glance, he was not that hot-blooded teen that had just entered the game. Instead, he seemed like a mature uncle.

Although he was a little old, Ouyang Shuo was still satisfied.

After the small interlude, the entire feast was close to its end as they each went their own ways.

…

1st day of the New Year, Ouyang Shuo had to worship the ancestors as usual.

The only difference was that in the ancestral temple this year, Ouyang Shuo’s ancestors of the Ouyang family were listed in the temple. The spirit tablets of his parents were placed within the ancestral temple, and they were even given the title of retired emperor and retired empress.

That was also showing to the world his filial piety toward his parents.

A long holiday followed. Apart from paying attention to the Africa battle, Ouyang Shuo did not bother about other administrative matters and focused on spending time with his family.

In the blink of an eye, it was the 2nd month, 15th day and the Imperial Court offices opened once more.

Imperial city, emperor palace.

Long ago, before the Chinese New Year, after visiting Old Zhang and Old Guo, to remove the misunderstanding the elites had toward Great Xia, Ouyang Shuo had been preparing something big.

After the offices opened, this matter was officially being discussed.

Ouyang Shuo was ready to establish the biggest legal court outside of the Cabinet; they would discuss with the Administrative Mentor Court, Honglu Temple, and the Censorate about the final description of the Great Xia law system.

Under special circumstances, the Great Xia court of law left the legal rights to investigate to the Internal Affairs Court procuratorate department or the local Procuratorate Divisions’ important cases.

It was like hanging a sword of Damocles over the head of the Internal Affairs Court.

Under the Internal Affairs Court was the law and order department, procuratorate department and Regulatory Department, which was like gathering up all law organizations as one. In terms of pushing out a law system and protecting the authority of the Great Xia law system, it was really detrimental.

After the court of law was established, it could work together with the Censorate and the Internal Affairs Court to form a stable triangle to keep each other in check while helping one another out.

More importantly, to execute legal rule and protect the prestige of the law system, Ouyang Shuo was going to give the court of law one principle, “If the son of god commits a crime, he will be punished like a normal person!”

As such, Ouyang Shuo was restraining himself.

Ouyang Shuo was doing this to reply to those who said that he was a feudal lord and was perfecting the internal ruling system of Great Xia.

Ouyang Shuo naturally trusted Internal Affairs Minister Wei Yang a lot, but he would not be able to always be in control of the Internal Affairs Court. The entire internal affairs system would not always run based on his goals and intentions.

The way to solve the root of the problem was to be restrained by the system.

However, Ouyang Shuo did not expect that no one in the Cabinet would agree when he brought up the idea. Restricting the power of the ruler was unprecedented and should not happen.

One could say that when Ouyang Shuo set the Yanhuang ideology, the idea of how the power of the ruler was not given by heaven was only somewhat accepted by the officials.

Then this time, he was truly facing resistance.

Ouyang Shuo knew that the officials were resisting on the surface to protect the authority of the emperor, but in truth, it was to protect their own interests.

Think about it, if even the son of heaven was restricted by the Great Xia law system, then the unspoken rule of officials not being punished would be broken, which really worried them.

This would have a huge impact on the historical talents, so for them to be unable to accept that was normal.

Even then, Ouyang Shuo was determined to do so.

From the 6th year of Gaia, when setting Great Xia’s policies, Ouyang Shuo connected it to the future on Planet Hope. As time passed, this connection would only become deeper.

Ouyang Shuo’s final goal was to open up the bridge between the two worlds.

In the future when they arrived on Planet Hope, Ouyang Shuo wished that he could easily replicate the system in the game onto Planet Hope to fulfil the connection between the game world and the real world.

Chapter 1233 - Fishing

Chapter 1233: TWO Chapter 1233-Fishing

“Your majesty, are you really going to do that?”

Within the Imperial Reading Room, Jiang Shang was facing a dilemma, and his face revealed a tired expression.

Although Ouyang Shuo was surprised that the officials all opposed the idea, he did not panic. The first person he found was the Cabinet Grand Secretary Jiang Shang. He hoped for Jiang Shang to help suppress the pressure.

It was not Ouyang Shuo being a coward and forcing his minister take the brunt of the pressure. In truth, with his authority and prestige, he could have totally pressed down this matter.

However, if he did that, the officials would only agree on the surface but not in their hearts.

In the future, when the court of law was exercising its power, it would definitely face resistance either outright or in the dark, and it would not be able to establish dominance. This change of system might even fail halfway and mutate into a completely different thing.

This was not something that Ouyang Shuo wanted.

Moreover, as the emperor, if he quarreled and disagreed outright with his officials, it would be going against the system. A truly great emperor would use officials to fight officials to achieve his political goals.

Jiang Shang was undoubtedly a good choice.

Apart from him being the Grand Secretary, he was the ancestor of the philosophers. Be it amongst the historical figures or the officials, he had high prestige. More importantly, Jiang Shang had already been instantiated as an AI.

As an AI the way, the way he thought was definitely different.

Jiang Shang understood why his majesty wanted to establish the court of law, and he himself was supportive of the move. However, these circumstances were not something that the officials that were not instantiated would be able understand.

To not cause waves in the game world, Gaia ruled that before a NPC was instantiated, they would not be able to come into contact with real world information, much less understanding the environment of the interplanetary migration.

Misunderstandings could not be avoided.

This Jiang Shang became the bridge between Ouyang Shuo and the officials and also helped to mediate things.

This was one of the roles of the chancellor.

If this was at a different time, Jiang Shang would have accepted this job happily to expand his influence in the official field. However, this matter was unusual, and it would shake the entire cake of the civil servant group.

Even with Jiang Shang’s ability, he would find it hard to sustain the pressure.

Ouyang Shuo learned that during the holiday period, there were many officials who visited Jiang Shang’s residence to ask him why he would agree to establish the court of law.

For this matter, a lot of unhappiness arose from both sides.

If it were not for the help of Zhang Liang, Jia Xu, and other instantiated ministers, Jiang Shang would have probably been the enemy of the entire civil servant group.

This was the first time the Great Xia civil servant group had been so divided.

As time passed, the effects of this matter spread from the imperial capital to the other provinces, shaking the local areas.

The entire Great Xia official field shook.

Throughout this entire process, Ouyang Shuo sat still at the fishing stand. He needed such a chance to observe the officials to see which ones were worth instantiating and which ones were too stubborn.

Along with Great Xia’s unification of China being unstoppable, most of the historical talents in China were taken up by Great Xia.

When the forest was big, it would naturally be chaotic and messy.

The hidden currents during the holiday period from the Imperial Court to the local areas were all noted down by the Shanhai Guard spies and handed over to Ouyang Shuo.

Among the imperial capital officials, the one that made the most noise was Civil Affairs Director Pei Yun. It was under his support that more than 10 officials planned to go over to Jiang Shang’s residence to question him.

Truthfully, the performance of Pei Yun totally disappointed Ouyang Shuo. This also caused him to gain a bad impression of the rich and powerful family powers of the Imperial Court.

These people cared too much about family interests.

Moreover, in the local areas, the unhappiness was even worse, especially with those officials who had just joined Great Xia. They did not dare to scold the emperor, so they took it out on Jiang Shang.

During the holiday period, Ouyang Shuo actually received 60 odd memorials scolding Jiang Shang, making him furious. He wanted to just behead all of them.

In the end, Ouyang Shuo forced himself to swallow it.

Ouyang Shuo was going to continue to observe calmly. He knew that if everyone had jumped out, there had to be bigger and more fishes hiding under it all.

What Ouyang Shuo needed was patience.

After half a month of rest, the Imperial Court and the wilderness was bustling.

The part that made Ouyang Shuo relatively happy was that not all of the non-instantiated officials opposed the matter. Those that supported, or at least did not oppose, could be split into three types.

First were the generals.

This was the point that Ouyang Shuo was the happiest about. Throughout the entire process, he did not even need to ask Baiqi to step out because the entire general group did not interfere and continued to focus on their roles.

Such an army was the blessing of Great Xia and Ouyang Shuo’s good fortune.

Ouyang Shuo had always emphasized on administrative and military matters being separate and that the military were not to interfere. The results of this problem showed the successful results of his ideology.

The second type were the old officials.

Natives like Gu Xiuwen, Zhou Haichen as well as those who joined early like Tian Wenjing and Fan Zhongyan all agreed unconditionally.

This made Ouyang Shuo happy.

They did that because of their loyalty toward him. Moreover, since they had followed by his side for so long, they were influenced by him, so their ways of thinking were more open.

Thirdly were the truly ambitious ones.

They did not oppose and even determinedly supported the restriction of the emperor’s power. Zeng Guofan, Wei Zheng, Di Qing, and more were among them.

Meanwhile, Wei Yang supporting the matter somewhat surprised Ouyang Shuo but not really.

One must know that establishing the court of law would affect the Internal Affairs Court the most.

Wei Yang not bothering about personal losses and standing from the viewpoint of the court of law to evaluate this matter made Ouyang Shuo feel greatly touched.

As expected from the giant of the legalism school of thought.

…

This storm still has not calmed down after the Imperial Court resumed work.

Ouyang Shuo was not prepared to wait. This time, he was not only going to establish it, but he would also cleanse the Great Xia official field.

When Jiang Shang learned of this, he was totally placed on the spot.

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo consoled him, “Elder, if time would allow it, I would not do this. However, it’s already the 7th year, and time waits for no one.”

Ouyang Shuo was obviously anxious.

In these short three to four years, Great Xia needed to expand, tear down Silver Hand and Azure Badge and also finish the internal transformations before they arrived.

Each and every matter was important, so how could he not be anxious?

“Understood!” Jiang Shang nodded. He understood the position the emperor was in, “Do not worry, your majesty. I’ll do everything I can.”

“Thank you.”

Looking at the silver hair of Jiang Shang, Ouyang Shuo was also touched.

Any revolution would not be smooth and would always face various challenges.

“To be able to help the emperor is my fortune.”

Ouyang Shuo sighed and waved his hand, “The Emperor dynasty has been proceeding too smoothly. It’s time for a revolution, or problems will arise.”

Jiang Shang nodded.

Chapter 1234 - Cleansing with many aftershocks

Chapter 1234: TWO Chapter 1234-Cleansing with many aftershocks

After discussing the matter of establishing the court of law, Ouyang Shuo asked Jiang Shang, “Toward the elite players, what ideas does the elder have?”

As Jiang Shang was already instantiated, Ouyang Shuo did not hide anything.

“Based on what your majesty has said, that Old Zhang has a son who worked in the Federation, right?” Jiang Shang asked.

“That’s right.”

Jiang Shang said, “Since that’s the case, I recommend you to recruit him into the Imperial Court.”

Ouyang Shuo was stunned for a moment, but a smile slowly appeared on his face as he said, “Elder really has methods; let’s follow your idea.”

“Your majesty is wise!”

…

Gaia 7th year, 2nd month, 25th day, under Ouyang Shuo’s heavy support as well as the work of Jiang Shang, Zhang Liang, and Wei Yang, the court of law was finally set up.

Ouyang Shuo personally wrote the, ‘Even if the son of heaven commits a crime, he will be punished like a commoner,’ which was carved into a stone steele and placed in front of the court of law to show his determination and will.

Democracy and dictatorship did not mean testing the law on yourself and breaking the law system. The two were opposing presences but could be combined together.

To be a dictator under the constraints of a law system was the best description of the ruler of the new generation.

This was both helping to restrict Ouyang Shuo and the officials and any inheritor so that they could not be unrestrained; he would use this to set up the foundations of the Emperor dynasty.

Looking at the five thousand years of Chinese history, a royal family that consolidated power but was not restrained and saw the world as their personal assets and the people as dogs would not be able to last long.

The thousands of years of Chinese history was just feudal rule over and over, and the entire society basically did not have any improvements and even went backward during some dynasties.

In the end, China was torn to shreds by western powers that had risen up in less than 200 years.

What a painful lesson.

If it were not for Chinese civilization being resilient and having the magnanimity to coexist and learn, how would it be able to rise up again in modern times in such a short amount of time?

With the past as a lesson, Ouyang Shuo did not want history to repeat itself.

Ouyang Shuo definitely would not be so arrogant to think that he could build a feudal dynasty by himself on Planet Hope while ensuring that the dynasty would last forever.

He did not let the victories get to his head and the power corrupt him.

The chief justice of the court of law would be the dean of the law college of the imperial university, Han Feizi, who would be a primary Grade 2 official.

The role of dean of the law college would be taken over by the deputy dean.

As the person who consolidated the knowledge of the legalism school of thought and participated greatly in the creation of the Great Xia law system, he was not that interested in politics and stayed far away from it, so he was the best choice for chief justice.

Apart from the Chief Justice, there would be four other justices.

The five of them would be appointed by Ouyang Shuo. In theory, if Ouyang Shuo did not fire them, their appointments would be indefinite until their death or retirement.

…

Although they had done a lot of groundwork, the setting up of the court of law caused a lot of uproar and the Imperial Court situation was chaotic.

It would take a period of time to calm it down.

Due to that, Ouyang Shuo was not in a rush to adjust personnel. He was waiting for a chance to cleanse them.

As the 3rd month arrived, the chance that Ouyang Shuo was waiting for finally appeared. 3rd month, 3rd day, Meng Tian led troops to conquer South Sudan. 5th day, Baiqi led the army to attack Kenya.

Great Xia’s first operation in East Africa had yielded such great results.

The moment the news spread out, the world shook.

Great Xia taking down two countries successively greatly provoked the American and European dynasties. Without an exception, they quickened their invasion of Africa. The entire Africa continent was wrapped up in the flames of war.

Compared to the global tremors, the Great Xia post war work proceeded in an orderly fashion.

3rd month, 10th day, the Imperial Court ordered to upgrade the North Africa Protector general house to the Africa Governor-General House, promoting Mulan Yue to Governor-General, making her the third one in the Emperor dynasty.

Apart from that, they also established the South Sudan and Kenya Provinces.

Along with these two provinces being set up, a series of personnel adjustments followed, and this was what Ouyang Shuo had been waiting for.

The officials that were listed by the court of law on a blacklist were all kicked to Africa.

The Imperial Court removed Pei Yun from his role. He would be moved to South Sudan as a Provincial Governor. It seemed like a promotion going from secondary 3rd grade to primary 3rd grade, but it was a hidden demotion because he went from the core of the dynasty to the distant Africa continent.

This was Ouyang Shuo’s wake up call for him.

Replacing him was Old Zhang’s son, Zhang Bangxin.

Before this, Ouyang Shuo took Jiang Shang’s suggestion and handed an olive branch to him. As expected, he was not like his father, and he was instantly tempted.

Under Ouyang Shuo’s persuasion, he finally agreed.

He went from an outsider to a core member of the Imperial Court directly, much to the envy of everyone. The reason Ouyang Shuo did this was to pry open the gates of the elite players and buy their hearts.

Ouyang Shuo did not believe that with such a good start, the others would not be tempted.

As such, around the civil affairs director position, Ouyang Shuo both suppressed Pei Yun and bought the hearts of the elite level, killing two birds with one stone.

Even Jiang Shang was impressed.

The Imperial Court decreed for Cao Can to be moved to the position of Kenya Provincial Governor. Without a doubt, he was also one of the officials who made the most noise out of all of them.

After this matter, Ouyang Shuo also analyzed why Cao Can had the courage to send a memorial to scold Jiang Shang in such an intense and confident manner.

There were only two possible reasons.

First, as a West Han official, he still had the ‘officials cannot be punished’ idea in his bones, so he instinctively opposed.

More importantly and more terrifyingly was the second point – he had become arrogant because he was the helper of Bai Hua.

If not, why would Cao Can who was not a rash character dare to have the courage to go against the Imperial Court’s policy?

Cao Can had probably forgotten who was the one who pushed him up to the position of Yunnan Provincial Governor.

If it were not for him giving Bai Hua face, Ouyang Shuo would not have moved him to Africa and would have just crushed him to the bottom and sacked him to warn the rest.

Replacing him would be the original Somalia Provincial Governor Pei Ju.

Pei Ju also came from the Pei family and was one of its representative figures. Ouyang Shuo promoting Pei Ju while demoting Pei Yun was something others could not understand.

The reasoning was really simple.

First, it was to prevent problems. Pei Ju needed to be moved away from Africa, if not, the two of them both working there as Provincial Governors might cause problems.

Secondly, during this storm, be it because it Pei Ju truly had foresight or him hiding deeper than Pei Yun, all in all, he did not step out to create problems.

To Ouyang Shuo, that was enough.

Moreover, Pei Ju had been in the Emperor dynasty for so long. He had contributed a lot so bringing him back from Africa was a logical decision.

This could also calm down and appease the Pei family, so why not?

As for the empty Somalia Provincial Governor spot, Ouyang Shuo did not appoint anyone to the position because the Imperial Court had decided to merge it into the Ethiopia Province.

Great Xia was expanding in Africa. In the future, it could not just set up a province for every country it took down.

Hence, logically merging was needed, just like what they did in Nanjiang.

Apart from the Provincial Governor level appointments, to support the newly established South Sudan and Kenya provinces, the Imperial Court decided to move some officials from the provinces and Imperial Court.

Without a doubt, a large portion of these people moved were people who were creating problems during this storm.

As such, the adjustments were really discrete, and it was tough for outsiders to spot a thing.

As for those officials that were moved, some of them should know what they had done. Even so, they could only listen to the instructions, or else they would never rise up in Great Xia.

Toward those who did not follow the orders, the Great Xia law system had clear ways to punish them.

Chapter 1235 - -Ice melts, spring sowing begins

Chapter 1235: TWO Chapter 1235-Ice melts, spring sowing begins

Using the big victory in East Africa, the storm that happened in Great Xia finally stopped.

Although the actions of the Imperial Court were really hidden and silent, the smart people could still see what was going on. At the very least, they did not dare to go against the court of law on the surface. Hence, this storm went from the light to the dark.

Ouyang Shuo was really clear that such a situation could not be changed in a short time.

Luckily, Great Xia was still expanding and developing quickly, and all problems could be solved through development. None of this would be able to shake the foundations of the Emperor dynasty.

All that remained would be left to the rest of time.

…

After taking down South Sudan and Kenya, Ouyang Shuo was not satisfied and ordered the Africa warzone to rest up before preparing for the next war.

The next targets would be Uganda and Tanzania.

Uganda was located in the east of Africa, connected to both South Sudan and Kenya, with an overall size of 240.15 thousand square kilometers. It was mostly located at the high plains of East Africa and had many lakes. On average, it was 1000 to 1200 meters above sea level, being known as the highland water home.

Although it was located on the equator line, Uganda was located above sea level, with many rivers flowing and lakes all over. Hence, it had sufficient water and many trees and plants growing. Its four seasons were all like spring.

Victoria Lake was the second biggest lake in the world and the biggest freshwater lake in Africa and 42.8% of it was within Uganda. The lake region was famous for its production of cotton and coffee, which was the main export when the English colonized them.

Uganda had four million players and had 200 thousand imperial city guards.

Next would be Tanzania on the south.

Tanzania was one of the places where the ancient people originated from and was located on the east of Africa, south of the equator. It mainly focused on farming and in BC years it mainly traded with Arab, Persia, and India.

Its territory had a lot of raw minerals, mainly gold, iron, nickel, coal, diamonds, and phosphate. Its overall amount was fifth in Africa.

Tanzania had five million players and 250 thousand imperial city troops.

Hence, even if the two of them worked together, they would find it hard to defend against the attacks of Great Xia. Furthermore, after taking down both South Sudan and Kenya, Great Xia had a relatively stable backline.

In Great Xia’s conquest of East Africa, its greatest opponent was not locally, rather, it was Europe and America.

Luckily, the dynasties of America and Europe were busy occupying their own territories and did not have time to bother about Great Xia. Even the Egypt and Bantu dynasties were busy expanding by themselves.

Ouyang Shuo predicted that the 7th year would be when the various powers split up Africa. Next year would be when the dust settled, and the cruelest competitions and wars would begin.

Hence, why would Ouyang Shuo be conservative? He had to proceed forward courageously and use this time to expand in East Africa to build a stable base.

If not, he would have totally no chance in the 8th year of Gaia.

…

Gaia 7th year, 3rd month, apart from the Africa warzone, only the South America continent was affected by war. Just as Ouyang Shuo had expected, Indian Empire focused their firepower on Argentina, and Casillas finally acted.

Based on the intel from the Black Snake Guards, 3rd month, 15th day, Spain Dynasty added 150 thousand troops to Argentina. Along with the 200 thousand troops that were originally there, Casillas was determined to defend that area.

For this, the Spain Dynasty had to temporarily give up on competing for land on Africa.

Casillas was not a fool and knew that Africa was eyed by all the powers. Joining in was also mostly European and American powers that belonged to the same camp as them, so he faced a lot of restrictions.

On the contrary, South America was a huge piece of juicy meat.

More importantly, South America was where Spanish culture was deeply rooted.

If he could work together with the Dawson Dynasty and swallow up the entire South America, the Spain Dynasty would reach a whole new level and exceed the Gaule Dynasty and other European opponents.

Moreover, along with the Spain Dynasty adding troops to Argentina, the South America situation became really complicated.

…

As the 3rd month arrived, the cold winter slowly faded and spring slowly spread across the wilderness.

Outside of the imperial capital, on the shores of Friendship River, willows fluttered and new green sprouts grew and drifted in the wind. In the wilderness, green grasses were like diseases spreading, and countless small flowers bloomed and attracted many colorful butterflies.

Spring had returned to the land.

During the cold winter, the Mongol grasslands in the north to the Jingchu land of the south, Tibet in the west, and Great Zhou in the east had all gone through a cruel life and death test.

Hundreds of millions of civilians were fighting against hunger and the cold.

Along with the winter passing, the ice melted. Those people who either froze to death or died from hunger, their corpses all lied around, making one feel numb and despaired.

To the civilians of the wilderness, this was the toughest winter in their memories. Many families collapsed, wives left their husbands, and some people turned to cannibalism.

A calamity caused the world to change.

Hence, along with the snow and ice melting, in the spring of the 7th year, what the emperors and the people cared about was not war but farming.

People were praying that the weather could be good this year to let them ride through the hardship.

Truthfully, before the New Year, this battle against hunger had already started. In China, including Great Xia, the local areas had all started reclaiming land for farming.

This was done to ensure a good harvest.

What made one helpless was that along with winter coming, the land was frozen like rock and could not be flipped. Hence, once the land unfroze, the civilians rushed out to make use of the month of time before the spring planting season to quickly reclaim land.

In Great Zhou and the like, the Imperial Court even used their armies to quicken the speed.

They were fighting a race against time.

After the matter, people calculated that from just this time alone, China had a total of 100 million more mu of farmland.

Due to this, Great Xia postponed the battle of unification for three reasons.

First, although Great Xia had purchased a huge batch of grain, as the territory expanded and the population increased, along with the usage of grain in war, the grain storage amounts were running low and were close to its extreme.

Ensuring the grain production in the 7th year of Gaia was equally important to Great Xia.

If they chose to fight now, apart from sending proper troops, they would use up a lot of laborers to help transport grain, which would delay the reclamation of land as well as the upcoming spring sowing season.

The losses would be more than what they would gain from it.

Due to that, Great Xia would at least wait until the spring sowing season ended before starting the war.

Secondly, if Great Xia started the war now, even if they could win, they would only get land that had delayed their spring sowing and had little grain.

In the end, they would just be heavy burdens.

Even with Great Xia’s ability to take so many burdens at once, with they themselves being affected, they would definitely lack grain if they did so.

If that happened, the Imperial Court might not be able to control the situation.

Hence, choosing to start a war now would be a lose-lose situation for everyone.

Thirdly, the war in Africa was brewing, and things might change there at any moment.

To ensure that no surprises happen there, they needed to make sure that they could support the Africa warzone at any moment. To fight in China at the same time would be a dumb decision.

Due to the above few points, Great Xia had to delay the war.

Although it would give the four country alliance some breathing room, it was the safest decision.

…

Mongol Empire, Karakorum.

Just as the mid plains were busy reclaiming land and farming, the Mongol Empire finally started new movements.

Chapter 1236 - Mongol West conquering

Chapter 1236: TWO Chapter 1236-Mongol West conquering

The dynasties on the mid plains could plant grain, while the Mongol Empire could only rely on the heavens.

During the winter that had just ended, hunger had spread through the entire Mongol grasslands. Tens of millions of cows and sheep had died, herders were at their limits, and if their lives did not get any better, a huge crisis was bound to happen.

The so-called getting better referred to pillaging and robbing once more.

Last year, when the Empire attacked West Xia and returned with their faces full of dust, they realized how strong Great Xia was; it should not be easily infuriated.

Hence, the Empire was ready to turn its attention to the west.

On the west side, connected to the house of Ogedai was the Persian Empire.

The Mongols were not unfamiliar with them at all. In history, the Golden Horde and Ilkhanate shared the Persian empire territory.

Hence, the Mongol Empire conquering the west was just repeating what they did in history.

3rd month, 15th day, using the motto of ‘reclaiming their past land’, 600 thousand Mongol iron cavalry stepped onto the path to the west. They were going to leave a bright page in Chinese history.

Although the current Persian Empire could not be spoken of in the same vein as the one in history with its strong army and vast territory now, Genghis Khan was still really confident about taking a huge bite out of the Persian Empire.

The battle between the two empires was about to get underway.

…

3rd month, 18th day, Imperial capital.

After receiving news of the Mongol’s west advancement, Ouyang Shuo was still a little surprised.

Based on the intel gathered by the Black Snake Guards, the Persian Empire in the game had a huge amount of land that included the entire middle Asia, half of west Asia, and Pakistan in South Asia, spanning three Asia regions.

If one did not consider overseas territories, Great Xia’s current size was similar to that. Just that alone could show how strong the Persian Empire was.

The entire Central Asia region included Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan.

As for the northern region of Kazakhstan, it was occupied by the Romanov Dynasty.

The West Asia region included Afghanistan , Iran, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE, Qatar and Bahrain, 16 countries.

Apart from Afghanistan and Iran, which belonged to Persian Empire, the remaining 14 belonged to the Arab Empire.

Be it the Persian Empire or the Arab Empire, their birth was not because one Overlord swept everyone and expanded through wiping out other countries. It was more of a country alliance.

Hence, during the process of empire building, there were very few countries that were wiped out, and 90% and above of the players were kept. The imperial city guards also smoothly turned into the empire army.

They were connected by religion and culture, so they merged together with much ease.

Be it the Persian Empire or the Arab Empire, they both ran a City-State system similar to Ancient Greece, which supported autonomy at a city level while supporting the empire.

The Arab Empire had 20 million players and 2.7 million troops. The Persian Empire was even more terrifying with 30 million players and close to four million troops.

If it were not that the Persian Empire running a City-State system, Genghis Khan would not have even dared to attack Persia.

Due to the global situation worsening, global wars could breakout at any moment. The two empires were merging together internally to try to create a more perfect dynasty.

If not, they would definitely be eliminated in the future or become cannon fodder.

Ouyang Shuo deduced that along with the Mongol west expedition, with the help of outside forces, the Persian Empire would quicken the pace of their internal merger to complete it before the Arab Empire.

The Mongol Empire had no choice but to launch their attack to survive, and as such, their internal defenses would be weak. Logically speaking, this would be the best time for Great Xia to attack them. After all, they did not need to consider breaking the spring sowing.

There were already generals who submitted memorials suggesting that they attack Mongol.

For example, Phoenix legion corps marshal Guo Ziyi who defended Liaojin Province requested to attack while the Mongol army was weak at the border.

Even if they did not totally wipe out the Mongol Empire, they could weaken the enemy.

Ouyang Shuo had been paying attention to this strong opponent, as they were the biggest obstacle to his unification of China. Although that was the case, Ouyang Shuo resisted this huge temptation.

No matter what, the Mongol Empire was a part of China. Taking advantage of them would spoil Great Xia’s image, and it would be far too short-sighted.

Be it the Mongol Empire or the Persian Empire, they were all strong opponents of Great Xia. For them to go head to head and wear each other down was great for Great Xia, who was just a spectator.

Ouyang Shuo had no reason to interfere.

If Great Xia declared war against the Mongol Empire now, it would only make them give up on their west conquering mission. In the end, the biggest victor would only be the Persian Empire.

Moreover, if they failed their west conquering mission, they would be forced into desperation. Only by attacking the mid plains could they have a chance of surviving.

A pack of grassland wolves without a way out was really terrifying.

That would be detrimental to both parties.

Due to that, Ouyang Shuo decided to sit on the fence and watch until the outcome of this battle became clear.

Although that was the case, this created a chance for Great Xia.

The Mongols attacking the west meant that they were giving up on attacking Tibet, which gave Great Xia a chance to take them down.

On one side, the Mongols attacking the west lessened Great Xia’s defensive pressure in the north; on the other side, if Great Xia attacked Tibet now, there was no way the Mongols could interfere.

Furthermore, Tibet was like Mongol Empire and mainly had herders with farming as their secondary source. Attacking now would not affect the spring sowing, and they had nothing to worry about.

All things considered, this matter created a great chance for Great Xia to attack Tibet.

After West Xia submitted, the Tibet Dynasty had been on the fence, not willing to bow its head to the Mongol Empire or Great Xia. It wanted to balance between the two sides and choose what was better.

This made Ouyang Shuo really unhappy.

Seeing that the balance was broken, he would like to see what tricks the Tibet Dynasty could play.

Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate any longer and ordered the northwest warzone to attack. Li Jing would personally lead the Bear legion corps to conquer Tibet and Li Mu would lead the Eagle legion corps to defend and prepare to help out.

The Tibet Dynasty only had 400 thousand troops and were not a match for the Bear legion corps. It could only rely on the high plains geography to create problems.

However, that was not much to Great Xia.

In history, Li Jing had once led troops to attack the Tuyuhun and had had a similar experience. Furthermore, he had spent close to two years in the Shu Lands and knew the Tibet Dynasty situation inside out.

To attack at this moment was perfect timing.

Chapter 1237: TWO Chapter 1237-Shocking case

Chapter 1237: TWO Chapter 1237-Shocking case

Gaia 7th year, 3rd month, 20th day, Li Jing led the Bear legion corps to attack Tibet.

Only at this point did the Tibet Dynasty, which had been sitting on the fence, anxiously send envoys over to the Great Xia imperial capital to discuss about Great Xia becoming their suzerain state.

Unfortunately, it was all too late.

Since Great Xia had struck out, there was no way they were going to stay their hand. … Great Zhou Dynasty, Handan City.

Although the toughest winter had passed and the spring days had arrived, outside the Great Zhou palace, a thick black cloud floated around with a really suppressive feeling.

This was a sign that the dynasty was going to collapse.

In the past winter, Di Chen did not even hold a single court meeting. The memorials submitted and distributed were basically all handled and decided by Juedai Fenghua, which was why the Imperial Court situation did not escalate into chaos.

Facing such great pressure, Di Chen finally collapsed.

Within the imperial garden, the spring sun shone brightly.

Di Chen sat within the pavilion. He had a moustache and a beard and was totally drunk as he mocked himself, “Wow, Great Xia is finally attacking. Today it’s Tibet, tomorrow, it will be us.”

“As long as the four country alliance still exists, there will still be hope.” Juedai Fenghua consoled him.

“Four country alliance?”

Di Chen looked like he was drunk, but in actuality, he was really awake. His eyes were filled with sarcasm, “We are like frogs in an oil pot, just waiting to be boiled by people.”

Juedai Fenghua sighed and asked uncertainly, “If we really cannot, let’s submit to Great Xia. Didn’t Xiong Ba and Zhan Lang do it already? We might be able to survive by doing that.”

Di Chen stared angrily and hollered, “Surrender to the old fox? No way!”

“At most, we will fight to the death.”

With Di Chen’s pride and the pride of the Di family, they would not accept surrender as an option.

“Then let’s prepare for battle!”

Within Juedai Fenghua’s tone was an indescribable sense of loneliness and helplessness. … In the blink of an eye, the 4th month arrived.

The spring season atmosphere was becoming thicker and thicker. In the mid plains, signs of the busy spring sowing were everywhere. Be it the Africa war far away or the Tibet war at the border, it did not have much of an effect on the mid plains.

But on the 4th month, 5th day, a shocking incident happened in Great Xia.

That afternoon, 13 disciples from a Wulin sect in Minnan Province known as Little Knife Guild used the motto of ‘robbing the rich and giving to the poor’ to rob a Zhu surnamed merchant’s rich family.

Of the 15 people in the family, including a three year old girl, all of them died.

The moment the news spread out, the wilderness was in an uproar.

This was the first time since Great Xia established the country that underworld people had gone against the law and challenged the Great Xia law system.

When Ouyang Shuo got the report, he was totally infuriated. He ordered Minnan Provincial Governor Xiong Ba to personally investigate and sit over this case and capture all relevant people to trial them.

“Within a week, if the Minnan office cannot crack the case, the Internal Affairs Court will step in.”

Although he had been at the job for less than half a year, to have such a huge case occur under his rule made him lose a lot of face. He personally submitted a memorial that said, “If I cannot solve it within five days, I’ll personally quit.”

For this, Xiong Ba even used the Minnan Garrison Division along with 300 elite bailiffs to directly charge at the sect base of Little Knife Guild to capture the people.

If they dared to resist, Xiong Ba naturally would not hesitate to storm down on them.

In front of an Imperial Court force, a small-sized guild like the Little Knife Guild was not a problem. This case was just a select group of disciples going down the wrong path.

To prevent the entire guild from being wiped out, the Little Knife Guild sent out 200 disciples to cooperate and capture the culprits. In just three days, they were all captured.

Paying for blood with blood was normal.

After the Minnan Provincial Governor office handled the matter, it directly sentenced the 13 of them to death. It also blamed Little Knife Guild for their poor teachings.

Based on the law, the Little Knife Guild’s license was removed, and they disappeared from the underworld.

By the middle of the 4th month, the dust finally settled. After executing the criminals, Minnan Provincial Governor Xiong Ba personally headed to the Zhu manor to pay respects to the fallen souls.

Although the matter had passed, aftermaths continued from it.

Great Xia admired martial arts and had numerous dojos and sects. It was okay if they followed the law, but if they got greedy, it would cause a great threat to the law and order system.

Hence, after this huge incident exploded, Ouyang Shuo realized that he needed to create an organization at the Imperial Court level to monitor Shaolin so that this layer of power did not cross the line.

This was obviously not an easy matter.

Any martial artists or expert of the underworld lived their lives with an unrestrained manner.

In history, members of this organization were termed by the Shaolin people as the eagles of the Imperial Court.

If Ouyang Shuo was a chivalrous expert, he would wish for the Imperial Court to interfere in the underworld. However, as they belonged to different camps, their ideas were naturally different. Ouyang Shuo would not allow such an unrestrained power under his rule.

Monitoring was much needed.

This case was a huge chance to shut the mouths of the members of the underworld.

Ouyang Shuo was always swift and decisive. Since he had made up his mind, he would not hesitate. He immediately ordered the creation of the Martial Management Division to manage Wulin.

Similar to the Shanhai Guards, the Martial Management Division would take orders directly from Ouyang Shuo. Although it was a division level organization, and the head would not be past 5th grade, it was a really powerful position.

Especially to Wulin people, who saw it as a dream post.

In the end, once the Martial Management Division got up and running, the head would be no different from a Wulin sect leader. His position in the underworld would be unparalleled and he would stand at the absolute top.

The head would be Ouyang Shuo’s spokesperson in the underworld.

Hence, once the news of the Imperial Court establishing the division broke out, many people were interested in it. Even the heads of some super sects volunteered.

Obviously, Ouyang Shuo was clear that the division was a sharp sword. If ran well, it could effectively manage the underworld. However, in the wrong hands, it could turn around to bite them.

If things went badly, they might develop an ambitious player.

Hence, the division must be given to a capable and reliable person.

If Song Jia had not quit and backed off to behind the curtains, she would be the most suitable choice. Ouyang Shuo could only take the second-best option – his little aunt.

However, she was currently a Legion General of the Imperial Palace Guards, which was an equally important post.

Especially since it was newly established. She was still learning under Tang He about how to fight wars and the art of war. It was a crucial moment, and she could not get away.

Due to that, Ouyang Shuo thought of a middle ground, which was Dongli Sword Sect leader Lin Yue, who would temporarily manage the Martial Management Division to tide over this hard time.

Chapter 1238 - Strategic level weapons and equipment

Chapter 1238: TWO Chapter 1238-Strategic level weapons and equipment

Gaia 7th year, 4th month, apart from building the Martial Management Division, Ouyang Shuo also placed a lot of attention on the latest technological developments of the military works industry.

After a year of industrialization, the Emperor dynasty military works industry welcomed a huge breakthrough. The most eye catching one was the weapons and equipment field.

In the navy region, Great Xia’s first iron armored warship finally went into water in Beihai Bay.

The early stage iron armored warship was a wooden warship wrapped with thick iron to defend against attacks. The ship was equipped with many cannons and was 23 meters long and 13 meters wide.

Great Xia had developed the early stage warship in the middle of the 5th year, but its practical use was not high, and they could not equip the navy with it on a large scale.

The second generation iron armored warship was built of steel. There were warships with cannon turrets and patrol ships, getting close to the standard of 20th century warships.

Gaia 7th year, 4th month, the Great Xia’s first iron armored warship was born.

The birth of this warship was due to the development and research of large-sized cannons, a slightly advanced steam engine as well as Great Xia’s metallurgy standards.

Apart from the cannons, the iron armored warship was equipped with battering rams and torpedoes, becoming a crucial weapon of the navy war period.

Due to the iron armored warship technology maturing by the day and the improvements and increased openness of industry technologies, in the next few years, iron armored warships would surely replace the man o’ war.

To protect their authority on the ocean, the Imperial Court had to create a great quantity of iron armored warships.

The problem was that the costs of the warships were not low. Just a single ship cost close to a million gold and took almost half a year to make.

The Qing Dynasty of history gritted their teeth and only managed to buy two Grade 1 iron armored warships. Of course, the current ones that Great Xia designed could not be compared to a Grade 1 warship like the USS Dingyuan.

It was simply because they did not have the support of electricity.

Of course, the cannons also could not compare to their cannons, which could spin 360 degrees.

To produce iron armored warships on a large scale meant that they would need many factories working on it at the same time.

From the 1st year of Gaia, Great Xia had been building shipbuilding factories at all the ports and owned 16 shipyards. Only then could they equip the navy with large amounts of turreted warships and Z1 Type Warships.

However, the problem was that these shipyards were used to build wood warships.

Only the Beihai Shipyard, which was the first shipyard in the territory, had the ability to build iron armored warships. For this matter, the Imperial Court needed to upgrade the remaining 15 shipyards.

Since Gaia had removed the speed up function, just this alone would use up close to half a year and modifying costs of the shipyard would take up to three million gold.

Along with the costs of building an iron armored warship, the costs would break the sky.

Even then, Ouyang Shuo had to grit his teeth. He decided to equip the Indian Ocean Squadron and the Pacific Ocean Squadron first with two each as the main warships.

In the future, they would make adjustments based on the situation.

Apart from navy equipment, the air force also had a major breakthrough.

Of course, strictly speaking, Great Xia did not truly have an air force. It only had an air force platoon and squadrons, and the squadrons and legion corps relied on the mimicry flying devices.

Although the mimicry flying devices were good, their weaknesses were really apparent.

First, it relied too heavily on magnetic ohlite, which restricted the number of mimicry flying devices.

Secondly, the energy loop made use of the Atlantic carving technology, and its industrialization standards were really low. The technology was not suitable for building fighter jets.

Due to these two points, the No.7 Research Institute had been searching for technological breakthroughs.

Finally, during this month, the No.7 Research Institute had made physical breakthroughs, using the mimicry flying device technology to develop the first generation fighter jet.

The first generation fighter jet made use of mixed energy of magnetic ohlite and internal an combustion engine. It could be used to direct cannoneer fire from above, scouting and bombing.

Although it was still a huge distance away from a true fighter jet, it was already quite amazing.

More crucially, after making use of the mixed energy, the basis to mass produce fighter jets was set. Great Xia had taken a firm step toward building a true air force.

Ouyang Shuo believed that there would be a day when the Great Xia Army would have a true air force.

Lastly would be the army equipment.

In the last half a year, Ouyang Shuo had made a trip to Atlantis and made a huge deal with Kalia. He bought the combat puppet technology that the Atlantis Civilization had sole ownership over.

Now, the Great Xia Army works industry had created its first combat puppet prototype.

As long as they worked on it for a future period of time, they would be able to build a true combat puppet. When that happens, the Great Xia Army would have a truly strategic weapon.

New technologies every day was undoubtedly a sign of the prosperity of an Emperor dynasty.

When these strategic level weapons and equipment technologies matured and enter the mass production stage, the Great Xia Army would definitely welcome a huge transformation.

Once they had control of all that, they would be able to industrialize on the fast track.

Only by industrializing really deeply and forming a full industry chain would they have the ability to create combat puppets, first generation fighter jets, and other complicated equipment.

Without numerous factories, all of this would be impossible.

Moreover, supporting Great Xia’s industrialization was the slowly forming imperial capital region.

4th year, 1st day, the Imperial Court published the Imperial Capital new city region planning. It announced that the new city region would prioritize technological organizations relevant to military works, factories, and supporting workshops.

Secondary would be developing businesses.

Combat puppets, first generation fighter jets, and other strategic weapons and equipment were the core of the new city region.

Ouyang Shuo knew that with the game entering the 7th year of Gaia, the difference in strength of a single soldier of each country was closing.

Even if Great Xia’s troops were the cream of the crop, they could not truly go one versus five.

The only thing that could let them continue to keep their advantage, apart from a scale that scared the enemy, was changing weapons and equipment as well as tactics.

Only then could the Great Xia Army remain undefeated and support the continual expansion of the Emperor dynasty.

The huge investment now was setting a firm foundation for the second breakthrough of the Great Xia Army. Even if it was difficult and needed huge amounts of resources, Ouyang Shuo would grit his teeth till the end.

If he could not bear to invest now and he fell behind, he would be crushed by others.

It was due to such strategic considerations that Ouyang Shuo placed his focus in the starting half of the 7th year on internalizing the Imperial Court and technological development.

On the contrary, he paid less attention to the few wars that the Imperial Court was starting.

The game world was changing constantly and one could not slack off. If one was slightly careless and too conservative, it would bury huge problems for the future.

“Before we conquer the outside, we must settle our internal problems first.”

Chapter 1239 - Attacking Great Zhou

Chapter 1239: TWO Chapter 1239-Attacking Great Zhou

The 4th month was quickly coming to an end. Great Xia’s two wars on the outside had totally different outcomes.

In Africa, the Great Xia Army split into two fronts and were unstoppable. Furthermore, South Sudan and Kenya civilians, which had been taken down by Great Xia, had obtained relief ration from the Imperial Court.

Be it Uganda or Tanzania, the civilians of the two countries did not totally hate the Great Xia Army. This gave the army the basis to not enter a war with the people.

Baiqi’s use of grain was really experienced.

The civilians of Uganda and Tanzania learning that South Sudan and Kenya had received relief ration and understanding so much was obviously not a coincidence. Rather, it was carefully planned.

Due to that, Ouyang Shuo was really relaxed about the Africa Battlefield.

However, the Tibet battlefield was unusual. Based on pre-war analysis, the Tibet army would not be the opponent of the Li Jing led Bear legion corps. Even if they fought in the high plain region, they could still beat them in one battle.

The truth was far from that.

Based on the intel Li Jing reported, there was another power behind the Tibet Dynasty acting as their shield. Although the soldiers fighting against the Bear legion corps were wearing the Tibetan uniform, they were not Tibetan troops.

That was truly interesting.

Due to that, Ouyang Shuo ordered Li Jing not to feel any time pressure. The Imperial Court did not set a deadline for them and simply let him adapt based on the situation of the battlefield.

Before they understood who was behind the Tibetans, the Great Xia Army going all out in with an attack was not a good idea. Furthermore, the Tibet region was filled with many mountains, and the geography was really complicated. They could be ambushed at any moment, which was why they had to be really careful.

The Battle of Tibet entered a standstill just like that.

…

4th month, apart from Great Xia, the global situation also had new changes.

The most intense area was still the Asia region, where the Mongol and the Persian Empire went head to head.

When the war had just started, using the element of surprise and their determination, along with their massacring city act, the Mongol cavalry stepped on the City-States of the Persian Empire and took down many cities.

Large amounts of resources and population were transported back to the Mongol Empire.

The grand fear of the Mongol west conquering that had happened in history was on display once more. However, the game was not the same as history. After the war started out bad for them, the Persian Empire quickly reacted and counterattacked.

The war had just begun.

4th month, 10th day, to solve the backline problem of the Mongol Empire, Ouyang Shuo especially sent an envoy to rush to Karakorum to inform Genghis Khan that while the Mongol Empire was conquering the west, Great Xia would not attack them.

When Genghis Khan received the report, his expression was complicated. Although he saw through what Ouyang Shuo was planning, he had to accept this favor. He decisively gave up on his wariness toward Great Xia and started to go all out in the Persian battlefield.

That was because this was a plot.

During this period, there were Mongols who were worried that Great Xia was plotting an attack. Their goal was to let them lower their guard before attacking, “The Han people are crafty and cannot be trusted.”

Especially the nobles that had land connected to Great Xia, they were even more nervous and afraid that once the empire moved away the defensive troops, they would be in great danger.

Genghis Khan did not feel that way, “The Xia emperor is the strongest in the mid plains, and he would not easily go against his words. All of you do not have to worry.”

Between rulers, there had to be a certain amount of trust.

Genghis Khan was clear-headed. Be it pillaging resources or expanding their land, west was the best choice for them.

Hence, even if the early success had netted them a great amount of resources and had solved the hunger situation in the empire, Genghis Khan was still going to continue the war with the Persian Empire.

It could be used to train their troops while building up his army.

To the Mongol Empire that mainly consisted of nomads, their agriculture was weak, so they did not need to talk about industrialization or the industrial revolution. Such a complicated systems was impossible for them to set up.

If the empire did not want to be eliminated, they could only build up their army through war.

Only by conquering the Persian Empire and occupying the Persian City-State and making the Persians their slaves could they build up a system that could let the Mongol Empire gain a foothold.

Sometimes, brutality and violence was a method.

Hence, after Ouyang Sho made his promise, Genghis Khan gave up on his intentions of stopping after robbing Persia and shifted the focus of the empire toward the west.

This battle between these two dynasties would probably last for a long period of time.

…

Apart from the battle between the Mongol Empire and the Persian Empire, within the global landscape, there was also another place that was really exciting. It was the South American continent that had slipped from the minds of everyone.

Along with the Spain Dynasty reinforcing troops to Argentina, the situation in South America had escalated, and the smell of gunpowder was really strong. In the middle of the 4th month, the Indian Empire could not take it anymore and initiated their attack on Argentina.

The first battle resulted in a huge setback for the Indian Empire.

In the face of the well trained Spanish firearm tactics, the Indian army that mainly used cold weapons suffered heavy losses during their first large scale engagement.

The Indian Empire was made solely of soldiers. They wanted to stick to the Indian tradition of using bows and spears to defend the honor of their empire.

Unfortunately, what they tasted was a bloody lesson.

A huge war totally revealed all their fatal mistakes and weaknesses.

The sweet taste of victory totally ignited the desire for victory in the bones of the Spanish Dynasty. They were obviously not satisfied with just defending the Argentina region.

News had it that the Spanish were already planning to attack the territory of the Indian Empire.

At the same time, the Indian Empire’s defeat at the south gave the Brasilia Dynasty confidence. They did not hesitate and agreed to cooperate with the Dawson Dynasty.

Their goal was to let the Dawson Dynasty support them with firearms and help them train up gunners.

With that, the Dawson Dynasty were given a reason to interfere in the South America battle. Jack would probably be smiling in his sleep because of that, and he had no reason to not agree.

With his skill, controlling the Brasilia Dynasty was just a matter of time.

At the end of the 4th month, the Spain and Brasilia dynasties officially formed an alliance and agreed to swallow up the Indian Empire.

Ouyang Shuo saw through the workings within. On the surface, it was an alliance between Spain and Brasilia Dynasty, but in truth, it was Spain working with the Dawson Dynasty.

Silver Hand was totally controlling the South America situation.

Even under such a situation, the three dynasties were forgetting Ecuador, not fearing it but also not going head on against it.

They were trying to weaken the presence of Great Xia in South America.

The logic behind it was obviously – they feared Great Xia. Be it Jack or Brasilia, they were afraid that Great Xia would send reinforcements to South America and add many uncontrollable aspects to their plan.

During this period, the Indian Empire did not request for help from Great Xia nor did they request for any training help regarding gunners. They were seemingly trying to forcefully tide over it.

Since that was the case, Ouyang Shuo obviously would not take the initiative to raise up the matter.

In the South America battlefield, Ouyang Shuo had patience. He ordered the Ecuador Jiedushi to lay in wait to collect intel on the area, including the Indian Empire.

Based on his judgment, this was not the best time for Great Xia to enter the South America war.

…

5th month, 1st day, imperial capital, imperial city.

In the 5th month, the spring sowing had been completed, and the wilderness was totally green, brimming with life. This also meant that the time for the war of unification had begun, and it could not be dragged on any later.

Anymore and the first harvesting season would arrive, which would give the enemy room to breathe.

Based on Ouyang Shuo’s predictions, in the 5th month, the Battle of Tibet would be completed. With that, Great Xia could totally focus on preparing to unify China.

However, with the changes that had occurred, the war matter could not be dragged on.

On this day, Ouyang Shuo officially announced the start of the unification war. His first target was Great Zhou. The relevant battle plans were confirmed by the Grand Council before the winter.

The army was totally prepared and were just waiting for the go signal from Ouyang Shuo.

Chapter 1240 - Corrupted Great Zhou

Chapter 1240: TWO Chapter 1240-Corrupted Great Zhou

Along with Ouyang Shuo’s order, the Great Xia war machine started running swiftly.

5th month, 5th day, Sun Bin led the Tiger legion corps to go north from Donghai Province and charge into Ludong Province of Great Zhou, starting the Great Zhou Dynasty destruction war.

The next day, Yue Fei led the Beijiang legion corps to enter from the west of Beijiang Province to head right into Jingdu Province. At the same time, Zuo Zongtan led the Hedong legion corps to enter from Hedong Province to work with the Beijiang legion corps to pincer attack.

Great Xia only truly sent these three legion corps.

The others, including the Guards Legion Corps housed in the imperial capital, the Leopard and Xiangjiang legion corps in the southeast warzone as well as the Eagle legion corps in Xiahou Province, did not move their troops.

Only the Phoenix legion corps housed in Liaojin Province arranged one legion to go down south to enter Beijiang Province.

The reason they did that was really obvious, which was to scare the Qin, Tang, and Song countries. Out of the three of them, no matter which one of them sent reinforcements to Great Zhou, they would face a Great Xia invasion.

The Eagle legion corps monitored Great Qin, the Leopard legion corps monitored Great Tang, and the Xiangjiang legion corps and the Imperial Palace Guards monitored Great Song.

It was not hard to see that the three legion corps sent by Great Xia to attack Great Zhou were two Border Defense legion corps.

On the other hand, the troops used to monitor the three countries were the elites.

The reason was really obvious.

With that, the so-called four country alliance had been dismembered. If they tried to help Great Zhou, they would not be able to protect their own land. If they did not help, Great Zhou would lose.

Moreover, if Great Zhou was destroyed, Great Xia would continue to take them down one by one.

Hence, this was a dead end. No matter what they did, the four country alliance could not avoid the fate of being destroyed. The reason why they were able to create such a situation was due to the strong military prowess of Great Xia.

Of course, if the Li Jing led Bear legion corps had already taken down Tibet already, the plan would be even safer.

Speaking of which, Ouyang Shuo had to thank the Mongol Empire. If it were not for them still being in the Persian Battlefield, the Beijiang legion corps and the Hedong legion corps would not be able to focus fully on the war to destroy Zhou.

Genghis Khan was making use of Ouyang Shuo, and Ouyang Shuo was also making use of him.

…

5th month, 7th day, Ludong Province, Peng City.

As the ex-West Chu capital, Peng City was the biggest city in Ludong Province. At the same time, it was where the headquarters of the Great Zhou Pill Sun legion corps were located.

Speaking of them, they had a terrible fate.

This army had lost tens of thousands of troops on the Great Jin battlefield. Not only were they not replenished, but they even had tens of thousands of elites taken away from them when Di Chen was replenishing the palace guards.

Only after their arrival in Ludong Province did they take in a large number of new troops from the reserve forces.

Such an army whose power had fallen greatly, without mentioning the strong fighting armies like the Tiger and the Wolf legion corps, they could not even fight against the Great Xia Border Defense legion corps.

As for defending Ludong Province, Pill Sun Legion corps’ leader Chun Shenjun had no confidence at all.

However, Di Chen had given him the order to defend the place with his life. Di Chen was forced to do so. Once Ludong Province fell, Great Zhou would have no buffer zone and would definitely fall.

Peng City was really close to the Ludong Province border and was right next to Donghai Province.

Hence, on the second day that the Tiger legion corps charged into Ludong Province, both sides used Peng City as a fortified point to engage in a bloody battle along the long border.

In the past winter, under the circumstances where the Great Zhou lacked troops and people, they still used the army and laborers to strengthen the border defense work.

Ludong Province who had lost the barrier of Donghai Province was the main force. In just one winter, no less than two thousand laborers had died at the border.

The entire Great Zhou labor force was being squeezed dry by Di Chen and was reaching its limit. Facing Great Xia’s attacks, to protect their logistics by using large amounts of laborers, he became the person everyone hated.

Even if Great Xia did not attack, Great Zhou was actually already on the verge of collapsing.

It was not that a little grain had forced Great Zhou into desperation. The grain was a spark, and the thing that truly pushed them into a corner was the system that they used.

Everyone knew that Great Zhou used aristocratic families to establish their country.

After Great Zhou established their dynasty, apart from the four families, there were 30 odd different sized families that joined them, forming the ruling foundations of Great Zhou.

From their important departments to their business regions, everything was controlled by the aristocratic families.

Aristocratic families were the foundations of Great Zhou.

Without the support of these aristocratic families, be it the Six Tyrants of Handan or Yanhuang Alliance or the current Great Zhou dynasty, they would not be able to get to the top.

For a city like Handan City to gain a footing in the wilderness relied on the large amounts of resources and gold from the aristocratic families, which meant that it did not fall too far behind Shanhai City at that point.

However, one must not forget that aristocratic families were naturally greedy.

With what they put in, they naturally expected returns.

After the Great Zhou Dynasty was established, in the eyes of the aristocratic families, they had established an unbeatable foundation in the wilderness, and it was time for them to taste the fruits of their labor.

Splitting up the power of the various departments of Great Zhou and competing with civilians in business profits were normal occurrences.

They even used their aristocratic family identity to do as they wished in the dynasty and the taking of lives happened some of the time. If it were not for Di Chen and the others suppressing them, even crazier and more over the top things might have occurred.

Di Chen envied that Great Xia could rule with law. However, he could not copy it because it would not work.

The past winter was a heavy catastrophe for the Great Zhou people, but it was a feast for the aristocratic families. They amassed resources, buying low and selling high, ripping off the people.

Originally, the aristocratic families were rational and would not do that.

The problem was that since the achievement value was being updated in real time, and Great Zhou was also at risk of being destroyed at any time, these aristocratic families could not take it and wanted to get more achievement value during this last bit of time.

Everything was fake, and only achievement value was real.

For that, they did not mind feasting on the entire Great Zhou and did not even bother about the riots that rose up, sending troops to suppress them. In their eyes, NPCs were a bunch of data to help them earn achievement value.

Who would care about tools?

Just when Great Xia attacked Great Zhou, the situation became unsalvageable. Within the two provinces, an uneasy and nervous atmosphere spread, making it hard for one to breathe.

Although Di Chen knew that the aristocratic families were despicable, there was nothing he could do to solve the issue.

Hence, not only did the small and mid-sized aristocratic families went crazy, even the Di family themselves participated. Moreover, they even ate the biggest piece of the cake.

As such, how could Di Chen restrict and stop the others?

This was why during the entire winter, Di Chen was really down and defeated. That was because Great Zhou was not under his control, such a tragic fact.

Chapter 1241 - TWO Chapter 1241-Give me a reason

Chapter 1241: TWO Chapter 1241-Give me a reason

Along with the smoke bellowing on the front lines and the flames of war rising up, Great Zhou finally could suppress it anymore.

In the past winter, the hatred and anger of the people living in poverty toward the aristocratic families had slowly built up and gathered into a volcano, ready to explode and destroy everything.

War made this volcano finally explode.

5th month, 10th day, fierce general Qinqiong led the 4th legion of the Tiger legion corps and broke through the Pill Sun legion corps’ defenses from the west, entering the main area of Ludong Province.

The moment the breach was opened, no one could block it anymore.

In the next few days, the 2nd legion led by Hong Ying and the 3rd led by Zhao She broke through the Ludong defense line from the east.

With the left and right wings successfully converging, Sun Bin turned really calm. He led the 1st and 5th legions to fight on the middle front and drag the main force of the Pill Sun legion corps into a standstill.

Based on Sun Bin’s plan, they would surround Peng City from the wings then cooperate with the middle troops to surround the Pill Sun legion corps, slowly withering them down and forcing them into a corner.

Although the Pill Sun legion corps had the home ground advantage and Tian Dan was also a famous general, their strength was not enough. More crucially, they lacked grain and could not last for long.

Sun Bin was staring right at this weak point of the enemy and decided to surround and trap them. The longer the standstill, the more the grain inside Peng City would be used up. In the end, they could only surrender.

However, what happened next totally changed the direction of the war.

After the two wings broke the defensive line, they did two things. First, they expanded their rewards and increased the size of breach that they had opened up. They destroyed the defensive work of the enemy to reduce the backline worry.

Secondly, they sent a vanguard army to siege the cities around Peng City.

5th month, 13th day, the 1st division of the 4th legion of the Tiger legion corps acted as the vanguard of the left wing and was ordered to come to Xiapi City to conquer it and use it as the left wing base.

Xiapi City was located at the northwest corner of Peng City and was a place you had to go if you wanted to go toward Peng City. Although it was a county level city, it was stable and had six thousand Pill Sun troops defending it, so they would not be so easily taken down.

The results exceeded everyone’s expectation.

At 9 AM, the 1st division launched their assault on Xiapi City.

The deafening killing shouts spread from the city walls to within the city, pulling at the impatient and unhappy emotions of the people.

At close to noon, just as the two armies were fighting, a bunch of rioting civilians charged into the county office and injured the bailiffs, capturing the county magistrate and raising the flag of anti-Great Zhou.

Influenced by this, the entire Xiapi City was thrown into chaos.

The sudden rebellion with the county office as the center started to swiftly spread around. Seeing the office fall, more and more civilians joined in, opening up the granaries and robbing stores.

As the chaos spread to the regions near the city walls, the Pill sun legion corps panicked. They did not know whether they should suppress the chaos or defend the city wall.

Seeing that, the Great Xia Army launched an even more ferocious attack.

The Pill Sun Legion corps without any logistical support suffered heavy casualties. Both sides fought till 3 PM, and the remaining soldiers were forced to surrender.

Xiapi City was conquered by Great Xia in a day, and the greatest contributors were the rebels at the start. The Great Zhou Dynasty was finally paying for their cruel rule.

And this was just the beginning.

The chaos of Xiapi was like an ember that ignited the fury of all the Great Zhou civilians. They were motivated by this, and within Ludong Province, there were 10 riots within a day.

Being influenced by this, wherever the Great Xia Army passed, the cities surrendered easily.

Getting the news, Sun Bin made up his mind, ordering the left and right wings not to surround Peng City and instead go up north, using the people’s sentiment to conquer the entire Ludong Province.

One had to say that his strategy was really ingenious.

In the next week, the two wings of the Tiger legion corps were like two dragons, ferociously sweeping Ludong Province. Along with the chaos across the land, they conquered city after city.

The riots helped Great Xia’s siege while the arrival of the Great Xia Army scared the offices and local troops. One helping another, the situation quickly snowballed. With the speed of multiple cities a day, they swiftly took down Ludong.

In the end, due to the war situation being great, the two wings split up once more, with divisions as a unit to push toward the north.

On the 5th month, 20th day, apart from around Peng City, the entire Ludong Province belonged to Great Xia.

The changes happened too suddenly, and Chun Shenjun’s face turned ashen white. He gritted his teeth and ordered the Pill Sun legion corps troops to move into Peng City.

Following which, he contacted Ouyang Shuo to beg him to allow him to submit to Great Xia.

Looking at Chun Shenjun in the video, Ouyang Shuo’s expression was really complicated. That once arrogant Chun Shenjun who viewed him as his rival was left with only respect.

The character of a merchant made him put down the pride in his heart really quickly.

This conversation not only concerned the fate of Chun Shenjun but also his entire family. If Ouyang Shuo did not accept it, it would be a disaster for his whole family.

Their six years of hard work would turn into dust.

“Give me a reason to accept you,” Ouyang Shuo said expressionlessly.

Chun Shenjun’s heart shook, and he forced a smile, “Pill Sun legion corps’ main force is still alive. If we defend to the death, Great Xia will have to pay a heavy price, and both sides will suffer heavy casualties. You do not want to see that, right?”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “That might not be the case. Who knows how long your grain can last? 10 or five days?”

“This…”

Chun Shenjun was stunned. He knew that he could not show weakness now. If he did, his only chip would be lost, so he swallowed his saliva and said calmly, “As long as we defend to the death, there would be a way.”

“That reason is not enough.” Ouyang Shuo shook his head.

Chun Shenjun was helpless and knew that he did not have the ability to bargain with Ouyang Shuo now. Ouyang Shuo saying that it was not enough meant that it was not enough. Thinking about it, he said, “As long as Peng City is not broken, the three countries might assist Handan. Accept my submission and the Battle of Great Zhou would not have any abnormalities.”

Ouyang Shuo only nodded when he heard that.

The Tiger legion corps were sweeping the Ludong Province so confidently while the Hedong legion corps were really careful in their attacks of Jingdu. Till date, they were still fighting with the Great Zhou palace guards at the border.

There were two reasons for this.

First, Jingdu Province was the foundation of Great Zhou, and they were treated better. As such, the people’s sentiment there was more stable. Even when there were riots in Ludong Province, Jingdou Province was still really calm.

Secondly, they were worried the three countries would assist Great Zhou.

In order to not fall into the traps of the enemy, the two forces could only play safe and not attack recklessly.

Just as Chun Shenjun had said, once the Pill Sun legion corps surrendered and Ludong Province submitted to Great Xia, the Tiger legion corps would be able to continue to go up north. In that case, Qin, Tang, and Song would not step in anymore.

Chapter 1242 - TWO Chapter 1242-End of the road for Great Zhou

Chapter 1242: TWO Chapter 1242-End of the road for Great Zhou

“What do you hope to receive?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

When Chun Shenjun heard this question, he was stunned once more. Strictly speaking, Chun Shenjun had some predictions before the conversation. However, during this short talk, he had lost a lot of confidence.

“Can I get the same treatment as Xiong Ba?” Chun Shenjun asked probingly.

Not only was Xiong Ba a Provincial Governor, but even his family, provided that they were truly talented, could obtain an appointment in Great Xia.

There was even rumors that Ouyang Shuo would show even more trust toward Xiong Ba in the future.

“No.”

Ouyang Shuo decisively said no; to think that Chun Shenjun actually dared to say that. Xiong Ba’s submission shook the foundations of Great Zhou, directly weakening half of their strength.

It could be said that Xiong Ba’s family was worthy of such treatment, and even less was needed to be said regarding Xiong Ba’s ability.

How could Chun Shenjun’s current submission compare to Xiong Ba’s?

“Then treatment like Zhan Lang?” Chun Shenjun took a further step back.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he was truly impressed by Chun Shenjun’s bargaining ability. He was not going to waste any more time on this matter and directly said, “How about this, after submitting, your family and you will focus on the business region. Do not enter politics, it’s not suitable for you.”

When Chun Shenjun heard that, his face instantly turned white. After a long while, he said, “Is there no room for discussion?”

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “You either accept it, or we meet on the battlefield.”

Seeing that Chun Shenjun was unwilling, Ouyang Shuo added, “Six years of territory running is enough to prove that your family and you are not suitable for running a territory. Going back to the business region that you’re better in, although you’ll lose game, it will be a fortunate matter in the long term.”

Chun Shenjun kept silent. Looking back at his journey as a Lord, his happiest moment should be when he quarreled with Di Chen, disbanding the Six Tyrants of Handan and building the Chunqiu Alliance.

Thinking about it now, those times seemed so far away.

That Xiong Ba had borrowed Chun Shenjun’s help to obtain a ticket to enter the game.

Now, he had already become an exceptional person.

“Six years have passed, yet I did not truly win even once.” Chun Shenjun’s face was filled with bitterness.

Eventually, Chun Shenjun’s face revealed a look of determination, “I accept your conditions.” After he said those words, he actually felt really relaxed. It was like he had placed down a huge burden in his heart.

Ouyang Shuo looked at him in surprise and smiled. Then he said, “That’s great. As payment, I will protect all of your family’s items in Great Zhou and will not touch any of it.”

“Thank you.”

Chun Shenjun thanked him sincerely. As long as he could protect the roots of the family, he would be able to answer to them.

The only thing that Chun Shenjun regretted would be agreeing with Di Chen to hand the foundations of the family to Great Song. If he knew that this would happen, he would have submitted to Great Xia then instead. He would have obtained much more than this in such a scenario.

Unfortunately, there was no way out.

At this point, Chun Shenjun said, “Can I ask, how are you going to deal with the Huitong Bank?”

Although the Huitong Bank had already lost in their battle against the Four Seas Bank two years ago, it was due to that competition that made it the second largest bank in China.

This was a huge business.

Ouyang Shuo replied, “Really simple. The Huitong Bank will take out funds and purchase back all its shares and become the fourth bank in Great Xia.”

“As payment, your family can own 10% of the shares.”

Chun Shenjun nodded. Such an outcome left him really satisfied. As the winner, Great Xia could have just swallowed up the bank until nothing was left.

Obviously, Ouyang Shuo knew how to achieve a win-win situation.

“Then that’s decided.” Chun Shenjun looked at Ouyang Shuo. His eyes were filled with a complicated expression. He took in a deep breath before solemnly bowing, “Your majesty!”

Ouyang Shuo nodded.

At this very moment, Ouyang Shuo was basically witnessing the passing of an era. Although there were remnants of this era, it was destined to end, and no one had the ability to change this inevitability.

…

Surprised but not surprised.

5th month, 21st day, with Chun Shenjun’s instruction, the Pill Sun legion corps surrendered and handed over Peng City.

During this period, Di Chen was unwilling and wanted to make his chess pieces in the Pill Sun army start a riot. However, they were unable to cause many waves and were quickly drowned out in blood.

The next day, Ludong Province fell into the hands of Great Xia.

The destruction of Great Zhou was a locked in scenario.

The next day, Sun Bin left the 5th legion to keep an eye on the Pill Sun legion corps. Following which, he ordered the four legions to go up north toward Jingdu Province to form a three way pincer.

…

Jingdu Province, Handan City.

After getting the news that Chun Shenjun had betrayed the country, Di Chen was so furious that he did not have any energy left. He did not even bother killing off Chun Shenjun’s family members in Jingdu Province.

After all, he had to leave a way out for his family.

With the situation reaching such a stage, he had to leave a way out for himself. The future Di Family might have to rely on these traitors to continue to survive in the game world.

After learning about the China situation, the Dawson family had contacted Di Chen and said that they were willing to accept the Di family.

However, Di Chen was not willing.

Even if he was, his grandfather definitely would not be.

Jack seemed to be offering this out of goodwill, but what he was planning was hard to tell. With the relationship between their two families, if they really went, who knows what he would do to them.

Di Chen had often played such tricks.

The only ones that could save Great Zhou were Qin, Tang, and Song.

Unfortunately, when the war started, Great Song had clearly expressed that they would not send help to Handan City. That was because Great Song was facing the threat of the Imperial Palace Guards and the Xiangjiang legion corps. They could not even protect themselves, so how could they assist Great Zhou?

On the other hand, Qin and Tang had intended to send 100 thousand troops.

Both countries were confident about defending against one legion corps with 400 thousand troops. Qin Shuhuang and Tang Taizong both knew that saving Great Zhou would be the same as saving themselves.

However, the war situation had developed simply too quickly.

First was the unexpected large-scale riots in Ludong Province, which made the Great Xia Army proceed unopposed. They did not need to worry about their grain path being intercepted.

Next was Chun Shenjun’s compromise and the Pill Sun legion corps surrendering.

In a short half a month, Great Zhou had lost an army and only had half a breath left. Facing the attacks of three Great Xia legion corps, even if Qin and Tang sent 200 thousand reinforcements, it would not be of much help.

Abandoning Great Zhou was an expected choice.

‘Da, Da, Da!’

Juedai Fenghua walked into the Imperial Reading Room. She had represented Great Zhou to discuss with the envoys of the three countries about them sending reinforcements.

Di Chen raised his head and asked, “How was it?” He himself did not have much hope.

As expected, Juedai Fenghua silently shook her head.

Di Chen had reached a truly despondent stage; he could not see a single shred of hope. However, he was oddly calm, getting up to look out the window and stare at the clouds. He muttered, “Since that’s the case, send someone to talk to Great Xia and see what we can achieve.”

“Ok.” Juedai Fenghua nodded before turning around and leaving.

Behind her back, someone asked, “Do you think the old fox would discuss with us?”

Juedai Fenghua paused. She did not turn around and simply said, “He will.” Her voice was filled with certainty. Following which, she walked out of the Imperial Reading Room and disappearing from Di Chen’s sight.

Within the quiet Imperial Reading Room, a long sigh spread out.

Chapter 1243 - The End of an Era

Chapter 1243: The End of an Era

The End of an Era

5th month, 22nd day, imperial capital.

“Great Zhou wants to negotiate?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

“Yes,” replied Honglu Temple head Zhang Yi.

Di Chen did not contact Ouyang Shuo through the communication compass like Xiong Ba and Chun Shenjun. Instead, he opted to use proper diplomatic means.

“Then let’s discuss!” Ouyang Shuo said expressionlessly.

Zhang Yi asked carefully, “Your majesty, do you have any instructions?”

“Let Great Zhou surrender without any conditions.”

“This…”

Zhang Yi’s expression showed the difficulty of the matter. How was this a negotiation? It was more of a forced surrender. How could they negotiate?

“That’s all!” Ouyang Shuo did not say anything more.

“Yes, my emperor!”

Zhang Yi helplessly bid farewell, thinking about how to complete this tough job.

…

The next day, Handan City.

Within the Imperial Reading Room, Di Chen’s face turned red as he asked with uncertainty, “He really said that?”

“Yes.”

Juedai Fenghua was also really surprised. Logically speaking, since Ouyang Shuo could accept Chun Shenjun, he should also be able to accept Di Chen’s submission. Who would have expected him to reject it so decisively?

Di Chen gritted his teeth, “The old fox is determined to kill me.”

“Then what are you prepared to do?”

Di Chen kept silent. He was angry, but that was all he could do. Apart from that, there was no other method. “If he forces me, at most, I’ll fight to the death.” Di Chen’s face was filled with rage and craziness.

Juedai Fenghua shook her head and said, “Do not be rash. If you go all out, nothing good will come of that.”

“…”

Di Chen felt totally at a loss. Obviously, he understood that, but apart from fighting to the death, what other choice did he have? Going all out would be to defend the last shred of honor of the family.

Thinking back to how he had worked so hard for six years to fall at such a stage in the end, Di Chen felt his heart break apart.

“So what should I do?”

Fenghua Juedai thought about it for a while and asked in an uncertain tone, “Is he testing us?”

“Test? Is there a need? He is just determined to humiliate me.”

“I do not think so.”

Maybe because she was not involved in all this, but Juedai Fenghua saw things more thoroughly and clearly than Di Chen. Di Chen’s tantrum all the more confirmed her judgment as she said, “With his current position, he should not be so bored as to play with the lives of millions of soldiers just to teach you a lesson.”

With the strength of the Great Zhou palace guards, if both sides went all out, the Great Xia Army would also suffer heavy casualties.

“Really?”

Di Chen’s face was filled with self-mockery. He felt like he did not even have the ability to make Ouyang Shuo angry and take revenge.

Juedai Fenghua opened her mouth to say something but swallowed it. The current Di Chen did not need someone to console him, much less sympathy. Instead, she said, “I guess he wants us to unconditionally surrender to test us.”

Di Chen’s eyes focused, seriously contemplating Juedai Fenghua’s words before he said, “You mean he still has worries about us and wants to use this method to crush our last bit of hope?”

Juedai Fenghua nodded. A clearheaded Di Chen was still quite exceptional.

“Only that makes sense. With our six years of fighting, it’s normal that he does not trust us.” Fenghua Juedai analyzed.

“Haha.” Di Chen laughed, “So it means the old fox still treats me as an opponent.”

“Yes.”

Think about it, if China did not have Di Chen or the Yanhuang Alliance, Great Xia might have been able to reach such a step, but they would not be so quick and determined.

The two of them grinded and trained up one another. However, the regretful thing was that there could only be one victor.

Di Chen move toward the window once more. He stood there for a while before making up his mind. “Since that’s the case, let’s give him what he wants. I agree to their conditions!”

Juedai Fenghua nodded. A look of sadness appeared in her eyes for the first time.

“Also, tell him that I’ll personally hand over the seal.”

“This…”

Juedai Fenghua was really surprised and said bitterly, “You do not have to do that.”

Anyone could see how painful of a decision it was for Di Chen to make such a choice. There was nothing as disappointing as bowing his head to an opponent of six years.

Di Chen waved his hand and said, “You do not have to try and convince me otherwise. I’ve made my mind up. Since this is what he wants, I’ll give him face.”

“Treat this as the last thing I’ll do for the family!”

You lived and died as a part of the family.

Even at such a stage, Di Chen, who was the family representative, had to take responsibility. This was the fate of an aristocratic family child, and he could not avoid it.

“I’ll discuss with them.”

Juedai Fenghua held in her tears as she turned around and left.

…

5th month, 25th day, Great Zhou surrendered unconditionally to Great Xia.

The palace guards that were still fighting surrendered to the Great Xia Army and volunteered to accept reorganization.

The moment the news spread out, the entirety of China fell silent.

Be it the Great Xia players or the Great Zhou players, neither made a sound and no one mocked them. They only silently paid attention to the passing of an era.

At that moment, Xiong Ba in Minnan, Zhan Lang in Ecuador, and Chun Shenjun in Ludong stopped what they were doing and looked toward the north with really complicated expressions.

Also Wandering Magic, Sha Pojun…

To them, the Great Zhou Dynasty was a special memory. It was where their dreams had started, and it was where their dreams had ended.

Ironically, they had played a part in the process of ending Great Zhou.

Like in Xiong Ba’s case. When he decided to submit to Great Xia, he had predicted that such a day would come. However, when that day eventually arrived, he did not feel happy. Instead, he only felt a sense of disappointment and sadness that would not fade away.

Not only them, but even Bai Hua, Feng Qiuhuang, Gong Chengshi, Wufu, and the others had complicated emotions. Although they were not Lords anymore, as members of the Shanhai Alliance who fought against the Yanhuang Alliance, they gave them their respect.

Respecting the opponent was the same as respecting oneself.

Along with Great Zhou surrendering, the battle between the two alliances finally came to an end.

Now, the two alliances were a thing of the past. In China, only a single territory remained, and its name was Great Xia, their common home.

“I knew that there would be such a day, but I did not expect it to come so fast.” Bai Hua was filled with emotions.

Bai Hua thought back to the 1st year of Gaia. Back then, she was invited by Ouyang Shuo to discuss the Battle of Zhuolu. It was the first alliance meeting.

At that time, the Yanhuang Alliance was bearing down on their heads.

“It was also the 5th month. 5th month, 13th day, how coincidental.” Bai Hua remembered it like it was fresh in her mind.

At that time, Consonance Town had found Shanhai City to form an alliance. It was only because they were both in the same region, so they wanted to band together. Who would have expected them to receive so much support?

It was from that day onward that a number of them started a journey to the top with Ouyang Shuo, defeating the Yanhuang Alliance time after time in the Battle Map and expanding in the wilderness.

Finally, Great Zhou surrendered unconditionally to Great Xia today.

History was like a circle. No one could predict its end, but it was right in front of your eyes.

They treated Ouyang Shuo as an alliance leader and a friend. Who would have known that he would create such a huge legacy in China?

Six years of time seemed like it was just yesterday.

The once glorious Six Tyrants of Handan could only join Great Xia, either helping Ouyang Shuo take charge of a region or becoming a part of the crowd. They were not as arrogant as before and were now struggling to survive.

On the contrary, members of the Shanhai Alliance, apart from Xunlong Dianxue, who fell halfway, all became giants of a region. Bai Hua reached heights that she never could have imagined.

Six years ago, maybe even three years ago, who would have imagined all this?

One had to say that Ouyang Shuo was truly someone who creates miracles, and Great Xia was the land of miracles. On this vast land, miracles were happening at every moment.

As the sun set, that last bit of past glory totally disappeared into the horizon.

“The sun will continue to rise tomorrow, will it not?”

Bai Hua looked out at the horizon before turning around back to her seat. As the Nanjiang Governor-General, she had a heavy burden on her shoulders; she could not afford to slack off.

Especially after what happened to Cao Can, which added a dark cloud to her grand journey.

Bai Hua did not want to argue and did not want to help plead for him since he deserve it. Who knows whether his majesty would have any thoughts about her from this matter.

Chapter 1244 - -Imperial Court special ambassador

Chapter 1244: TWO Chapter 1244-Imperial Court special ambassador

5th month, 28th day, Handan City.

After the Great Xia Army took over control of Handan City, Ouyang Shuo arrived.

On the square in front of the palace, Di Chen was wearing a white robe. He personally handed the seal over. Ouyang Shuo’s face was really calm as he nodded. Xu Chu accepted the items on his behalf and completed the simple surrendering ceremony.

Although the ceremony was short, it was unforgettable for anyone who had witnessed the historical moment.

…

Within the palace, Ouyang Shuo met Di Chen alone.

Speaking of which, this was the first time the two of them had met alone, and the atmosphere was a little awkward.

“The Di family people, as long as they learn well, they can take up jobs in Great Xia. Whatever they did in Great Zhou, I will not bother about.”

Right at the start, Ouyang Shuo calmed down Di Chen’s heart, showing no intentions of making things difficult for the Di family. His restraint toward the aristocratic family would begin from this moment on, and he would not dig up old matters.

Ouyang Shuo had understood a theory, which was to accept everyone. One had to learn how to move forward.

Seeing that Di Chen knew his position, Ouyang Shuo was really satisfied.

What Ouyang Shuo wanted to destroy was the Yanhuang Alliance as a whole, not them individually.

When Di Chen heard that, he heaved a long sigh of relief. This time, he had taken the right gamble. Before entering the room, Di Chen was worried that Ouyang Shuo would take the chance to step the Di Family to the ground.

Giving up his pride finally netted him some rewards.

“Thank you, your majesty!” Di Chen hesitated, obviously not used to their current relationship.

“Then what about you. What plans do you have?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

“Me?”

Di Chen was surprised. He did not think that Ouyang Shuo would give him an appointment.

“I think I would like to take a rest.” Di Chen replied.

Ouyang Shuo smiled. Di Chen wanted to take a step back now so that he could take a few steps forward in the future. With his determined personality, he definitely would not rest, as he could not help but compete against Xiong Ba and the others.

“I think I have a suitable position for you.”

Ouyang Shuo did not beat around the bush and said, “I am prepared to appoint you as the Honglu Temple assistant to act as a special ambassador to contact all the dynasties in the world to express the goodwill of our dynasty. How about that?”

As a grade organization, the Honglu Temple was led by Ouyang Shuo directly and had one minister, Zhang Yi, a Grade 2 official. There was also the outreach secretary Zi Luolan, who was primary Grade 3.

Next would be one assistant, who was primary grade 4, and the one official registrar, who was secondary grade 4.

Although the assistant was primary grade 4 and could not be compared to a Provincial Governor, it was a core position in the Imperial Court and held the position of Imperial Court special ambassador. Its power and influence was no worse than that of a Provincial Governor.

To Di Chen, this was quite tempting.

Ouyang Shuo decided on this appointment to make use of Di Chen’s identity as an ex-Silver Hand member to build up a channel with Silver Hand.

This job could only be done by Di Chen.

Building up this communication channel was really crucial for Great Xia’s global approach. Ouyang Shuo knew that no matter how strong they grew, they would not be able to unify the world within three years.

To disband Silver Hand and Azure Badge could only be done by acting on their members, making them fight internal wars and removing them one by one.

Only then could he succeed.

“Yes, your majesty!”

Di Chen swiftly accepted the role.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and let him leave. After he left, Juedai Fenghua coincidentally walked by. They brushed past one another, pretty much signaling the end of their master-servant relationship.

“Sit!”

Ouyang Shuo had obviously heard of the famous name of Juedai Fenghua.

Out of China’s three female Zhuges, she was the most famous. She was Di Chen’s most important strategist. Although she could not save Great Zhou, that did not lower her value.

Ouyang Shuo did not bother about investigating her mysterious family history or bother about what her relationship with Di Chen was. He only cared about whether she could be of use or not.

Juedai Fenghua was shocked, while Ouyang Shuo was calm.

“Di Chen has agreed to be the Honglu Temple assistant to tour countries as an Imperial Court special ambassador to connect us with the Silver Hand dynasties. What is your choice?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Juedai Fenghua had two choices before her. One, she could choose to not ask for an appointment and live as a shadow beside Di Chen. Two, she could take the chance and become independent.

“The moment Great Zhou was destroyed, I became a free person.” Juedai Fenghua answered.

Outsiders might not know this, but when they entered the game, Juedai Fenghua and Di Chen had an agreement. She would serve him for 10 years in the game. When she arrived on Planet Hope, she would become free.

Who would have known that in the 7th year, Great Zhou would be destroyed?

With Di Chen’s current identity, if he still brought her along, it would be too eye-catching and would not help him regain his footing in Great Xia.

Hence, the two had agreed to go their separate ways when they talked yesterday.

“Returning you your freedom early is the last thing I can do for you.” Di Chen said.

Although he said that, Juedai Fenghua still felt really regretful. Although she got her freedom back, their relationship over six and a half years had developed some feelings and closeness.

This was fate.

Ouyang Shuo did not bother about her sadness. Thinking about it, he said, “Since that’s the case, the Secret Documents Pavilion has a place for you. The three female Zhuges gathered there, what a story.”

“Your majesty trusts me so much?” Juedai Fenghua was surprised.

Everyone knew that although the Secret Document Pavilion was not that famous, it was the closest to Ouyang Shuo. Everyone that works there were people he trusted.

The four advisors there each held their own responsibility.

Head advisor Tsing Yi took control of the big picture, advisor Su Zhe drafted memorials, Feng Qingyue, who was promoted to advisor, was in charge of organizing memorials, Bai Nanpu, who was also promoted, continued his old role as the decree announcing official.

Each advisor had two secretaries, each secretary had two assistants.

Four advisors, eight secretaries, and 16 assistants formed up the Secret Document Pavilion and held the key role of the core of the Emperor dynasty, working solely for Ouyang Shuo.

“I trust Feng Qingyue, so I can trust you.”

Juedai Fenghua kept silent and did not ask any further. With her intellect, she knew that this was not the true reason. Feng Qingyue had spent half a year in the Shu Lands before she was allowed to enter.

Ouyang Shuo had directly skipped that test not because he was attracted by her charm, but because Great Xia was too strong now and he had confidence.

If Juedai Fenghua dared to be disloyal, she would be undoubtedly playing with fire.

Chapter 1245 - TWO Chapter 1245-Taking revenge

Chapter 1245: TWO Chapter 1245-Taking revenge

“Before you go to the Secret Document Pavilion, help Shen Buhai merge Difeng into the Shanhai Guards. There will be no problems, right?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Taking in Great Zhou was much more complicated than taking in Sui, Shu, and the others from before.

As the only player territory that could go against Great Xia previously, not only did they have a lot of aristocratic families, but they also did not lack super guilds.

Apart from that, there was the terrifying Difeng.

The most brilliant matter they accomplished was the assassination of Feng Qiuhuang.

This was a super intel organization on the same level as the Shanhai Guards. If he could not use it for himself, he could only remove them.

The problem was that intel organizations were not so easily removed. Those spies, locations, and more were things only a small number of people knew. They could easily hide their tracks by changing their identity.

The moment they hid themselves, it would lead to many problems.

As such, Ouyang Shuo needed to borrow the strength of Di Chen and Juedai Fenghua to take over the organization. Moreover, this was a true test of Juedai Fenghua’s loyalty.

It was not that the Shanhai Guards knew nothing about Difeng.

If Juedai Fenghua tried to play tricks on this matter and the Shanhai Guards found out, she would be unable to gain a footing in Great Xia, and it would even affect the Di family.

Ouyang Shuo did not need to mention this, as Juedai Fenghua was clear about the matter.

“Do not worry your majesty. I’ll handle it well.”

As the leader of Difeng, Juedai Fenghua wished for it to have a good ending.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head in satisfaction. He did not mention that if Juedai Fenghua did a good job, she would be in charge of intel collection in the future, the true core.

…

In Handan City, apart from Di Chen and Juedai Fenghua, Ouyang Shuo did not meet anyone else.

During this period, be it the representatives of the aristocratic families, or the guild leaders Yijian Xilai, Yanzi Lisan, Xiu Chundao, Priest Qingniu, and the others, he blocked them all outside of his door.

Toward these aristocratic families, although Ouyang Shuo would not take revenge, he was not going to make them feel important. They were all removed from their posts and rehired based on Great Xia’s hiring needs.

Along with Great Xia opening up to players, the Imperial Court was getting really familiar with such hiring work.

This also meant that from today onward, these aristocratic families would not be able to receive special treatment in Great Xia. Not only that, but if they dared to behave in such an unrestrained manner in the future, they would be dealt with by the Great Xia law system.

They would be treated with no mercy.

Ouyang Shuo was not Di Chen; he had absolute control over Great Xia. Those small and medium-sized aristocratic families did not have the ability and skill to mess up the order that he had created.

Toward the aristocratic families, Ouyang Shuo maintained neutrality. However, toward the super guilds, Ouyang Shuo was out for revenge. Especially toward Laojun Temple that had once betrayed the Shanhai Alliance. Ouyang Shuo was not going to be soft on them.

Ouyang Shuo ordered all of them to follow what the other guilds did. They had to disband within a week, and their members would be split to different posts in Great Xia.

If not, they would be kicked out.

Traitor Priest Qingniu was on Ouyang Shuo’s blacklist and was directly slaughtered before being exiled. Being exiled from Great Xia meant being exiled from China, so his outcome was predictable.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to send a signal so that the guilds would not have any funny ideas. They would have to either give up their power and merge into the Great Xia system or they would have to get lost.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo knew his limits. He struck the higher ups, especially the guild leaders. As for the other members, apart from those who obviously did wrong, they were all treated the same.

Just like that, the super guilds were forced to disband.

…

How to takeover Jingdu and Ludong Province was naturally handled by the Cabinet, and Ouyang Shuo did not need to worry about it. Hence, on the 6th day, 1st month, Ouyang Shuo returned to the imperial capital.

Ouyang Shuo had to decide on the two Provincial Governors.

In the China region, Jingdu and Ludong were top rate provinces. Not only were they located at great geographical positions, they also had large amounts of resources and firm foundations. Ouyang Shuo naturally had to be careful about his choice.

After pondering about it for over two days, Ouyang Shuo finally made up his mind.

6th month, 3rd day, the Imperial Court sent out a series of appointments to push the personnel matters of these two provinces into place.

Imperial decree, Wang Shouren is removed from his duty as Chuanbei Provincial Governor and moved to Jingdu Province. His position will be filled by Lingnan Province Jiaozhou Prefecture Governor Song Wen.

Wang Shouren, who was Wang Yangming, was all rounded and a true genius. The even rarer part was that he was morally upright, and Ouyang Shuo trusted him a lot. He had run the Beichuan Province really well.

During the court of law storm, Wang Shouren was one of the obvious supporters amongst the Provincial Governors.

Moving him to Jingdu would undoubtedly be a new challenge for him. That was because Jingdu Province was right next to the Mongol Empire, so it would become the frontlines in their battle against the Mongols.

More importantly, Jingdu had a special strategic position among the locations in the north. Moving him there put Ouyang Shuo at ease.

A year ago, Song Tianxiong tried to interfere in Ouyang Shuo’s heir matters, which annoyed Ouyang Shuo. The affair even affected even Song Wen. Not only was he scolded, but he was even barred from further promotions.

Only today did Ouyang Shuo promote him.

After facing such a setback, Ouyang Shuo believed that Song Wen would have grown. He should have realized who he should be loyal to between his family and the Imperial Court.

Promoting him would also be answering to his wife and putting her in a more answerable position.

The Imperial Court ordered Sun Nongyan’s removal from the post of Zhen An Prefecture Governor. He would be promoted to Ludong Provincial Governor.

After Gu Xiuwen and Cui Shouren, Sun Nongyan became the third native Provincial Governor. At this point, the native officials were like stars in the official court, slowly rising up and becoming a huge power.

Behind them stood Ouyang Shuo.

Apart from the Provincial Governors, the Prefecture Governor, prefects, and even the county magistrates experienced a huge change of blood, removing all the aristocrats and replacing with reliable officials.

In front of the strong Great Xia, those aristocratic families had no way to fight back.

…

After dealing with the Provincial Governor appointments, the handover of Great Zhou was basically settled.

What was next was the war prisoners. As there was not a huge war, after post war calculations and replenishment of losses, the palace guards and Pill Sun legion corps had 650 thousand people awaiting organization.

Like before, Ouyang Shuo was not in a rush.

As the Battle of Great Zhou had proceeded so smoothly, and there were no huge battles, Ouyang Shuo immediately decided to chase the win and destroy the remaining three countries.

Chapter 1246 - India Ghost

Chapter 1246: TWO Chapter 1246-India Ghost

Along with Great Zhou surrendering, the so-called four country alliance was dead.

While he headed toward Handan City, Ouyang Shuo ordered the Honglu Temple to go toward Qin, Tang, and Song and ask them to consider submitting to Great Xia.

“Great Xia’s unification of China is unstoppable, and no one can turn the situation around. I do not want any unneeded slaughter and do not want the people of China to be harmed and hurt by war. If you are willing to submit, I’ll treat you like a king. I hope you will consider it carefully and give me a reply.” Ouyang Shuo wrote.

6th month, 1st day, when Ouyang Shuo returned to the imperial capital, the envoy returned as well.

6th month, 5th day, a week had passed since the envoy was sent out, but the three countries did not give a reply. Ouyang Shuo realized that the three countries would not admit their deaths before they saw their coffins; they were ready to fight to the death.

An emperor’s desire to keep hold of their power ran far deeper than Ouyang Shuo had expected. They would rather die than give it up. Since that was the case, they could only meet on the battlefield.

…

6th month, 10th day, after a short rest, the Hedong Legion corps moved back to Hedong Province. Along with the Eagle legion corps, they pincered Great Qin from the east and west, staring down from the border.

Han Xin commanded the Leopard legion corps to monitor Great Tang.

To play it safe, Ouyang Shuo ordered Hong Ying to lead the 2nd legion of the Tiger legion corps to go west of Ludong Province into Zhongyuan Province to help the Leopard legion corps threaten Great Tang.

Needless to say, Ouyang Shuo’s first target was Great Song.

To reduce the number of casualties, they decided to pick the weakest first. Out of the three countries, one must not look at how Great Song was the biggest. In terms of strength, it was the weakest of the three.

First, when Chun Shenjun moved out of Jingchu Province, he brought half of the essence of the place to Ludong, leaving half an empty shell.

Furthermore, during the half a year after Great Song took over, they had faced many catastrophes and suffered heavy losses. Meanwhile, although Qin and Tang only had half a province each, they had worked on it for two to three years.

Secondly, compared to the other two, Great Song lacked famous generals and fighting spirit.

Great Qin had Wang Jian and Wang Ben. Great Tang was even more amazing. Even without military god Li Jing, they still had Li Ji, Hou Junji, Yuchi Gong, and other famous generals.

In comparison, the only general Great Song could take out would be Zhao Kuangyin the emperor.

To take down Great Song, Great Xia was ready to use the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd legions of the Imperial Palace Guards, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th legions of the Xiangjiang legion corps as well as the 1st, 3rd, and 4th legions of the Tiger legion corps.

A total of 10 legions, 700 thousand troops.

For the entire middle portion of the 6th month, Great Xia had been preparing to destroy Song. They had also been making preparations for the probable Qin and Tang battles. In the 6th month, 25th day, the various legion corps were all in place.

All the grain resources were in place, and the war was a spark away from happening!

…

6th month, 26th day, Xu Da commanded the three legions of the Imperial Palace Guards to charge into Jingchu Province from Xiangnan Province. At the same time, Zhang Xutuo ordered the Xiangjiang legion corps to enter Jingchu Province from Jiangchuan Province.

Sun Bin led the Tiger legion corps, entering from Wannan Province.

The three fronts totally locked down the south and east sides of Great Song and were ready to go from south to north and east toward west to slowly chew down and force Great Song to surrender.

Ouyang Shuo had patience.

At the same time, Di Chen and Chun Shenjun, including the reorganized Difeng, used their influence in Jingchu Province to create an opportunity for the army.

Zhao Kuangyin was not happy to die without a fight, so he ordered the 500 thousand imperial guards to stop them on the way.

Looking at the situation, although this was not an even battle, it would be a battle of attrition. Great Xia, who had the numerical advantage, would not be able to easily conquer Jingchu Province.

Once this war dragged on, both sides would suffer heavy casualties.

Just at this moment, Li Jing, who had been leading troops to attack Tibet, finally found out the identity of the ghost behind the Tibet Dynasty. It was the Ashoka Dynasty that was connected to Tibet.

Speaking of the Ashoka Dynasty, Ouyang Shuo felt a headache.

The India region had a similar number of players to China, but they only had one imperial city, unlike China which had nine. As a result, a freak of a dynasty was created.

Five million imperial city guards gathered in a city, what kind of concept was that?

Even in the 7th year of Gaia, the imperial city guards of the Ashoka Dynasty still numbered 4.5 million.

Hence, early last year, Ouyang Shuo had noticed that the biggest obstacle to Great Xia conquering India was not the Gupta or the Peacock Dynasty but the hidden Ashoka Dynasty.

After a few years of development, the Ashoka Dynasty used imperial city New Delhi as the core to expand outwards, occupying one-third of India.

It was not only a problem for Great Xia. In fact, it had even become the biggest problem for the Peacock Dynasty and the Gupta Dynasty.

Based on the intel from the Black Snake Guards, after destroying all the large-sized territories in the vicinity, the Peacock Dynasty and the Gupta Dynasty were showing signs of working together to go against their common enemy.

As long as the Ashoka Dynasty existed, it would be impossible for the two of them to take control of India.

Who would have known that Ashoka’s ambition would be so huge? While he faced the combined attacks of the Gupta Dynasty and the Peacock Dynasty, he still had the energy to stretch his hand into the China region.

Ouyang Shuo could not allow that to happen.

Looking at the report handed over by Li Jing, Ouyang Shuo kept silent and said coldly, “Ashoka, since you have joined in, do not even think about retreating. Do you really think you can do what you want with 4.5 million troops?”

“Men!”

“Present!”

“Order the frontlines to stop at nothing to destroy Song within half a month.”

“Yes, my emperor!”

Ashoka interfering in the Battle of Tibet made Ouyang Shuo realize that he needed to quickly end the three countries war. Even if he had to pay a price, it would not matter.

Only then could he gather up the army and focus on the threat of Ashoka.

Ouyang Shuo was still uncertain whether Ashoka would take this chance to continue to add troops to Tibet to make Great Xia fall deeper into this quicksand or not. Would he use this chance to threaten the Bear legion corps and the west border of the Emperor dynasty?

This was a risk that Ouyang Shuo could not take.

“Summon Honglu Temple head!” Ouyang Shuo ordered.

“Yes!”

After a short while, Zhang Yi hurried over.

In the past, when the Honglu Temple sent out the envoys to the three countries and all failed, it made Zhang Yi really ashamed. The moment he met Ouyang Shuo, he sought forgiveness and said, “Sorry, my emperor, for failing you. Please punish me!”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, not wanting to dwell on this matter. Staring at Zhang Yi, he said, “Send another envoy to Xiangyang to tell Zhao Yingkuang that he will surrender in 10 days, or we will wipe out the Zhao race once we occupy Xiangyang!”

“Yes, my emperor!”

Zhang Yi felt his heart tremble. Currently, his back was sweating profusely. He had never seen the emperor so furious.

Chapter 1247 - Tibet coup

Chapter 1247: TWO Chapter 1247-Tibet coup

India Region, Ashoka Dynasty, New Delhi.

When the young Ashoka saw the China battle report, his eyes shone, “This time, there will be a huge battle on the China mid plains. Good, very good!”

With Ashoka’s understanding of war and emperors, Great Xia and Great Song had no way of compromising; they could only fight to the death.

Moreover, this would affect the attitudes of Qin and Tang.

“This is our chance!”

Just as Ouyang Shuo had guessed, Ashoka was a really ambitions emperor. Three months ago, Songtsen Gampo had obtained the contact of Ashoka apprehensively. Ashoka had realized that this was a great chance for the dynasty to swallow up Tibet and make their occupied land double.

Such a temptation was something that no emperor could resist.

Ashoka did not hesitate at all. He split the troops into two batches and very generously sent 300 thousand troops to Tibet. While they engaged with the Great Xia Bear legion corps, he added 200 thousand more.

This meant that Ashoka had sent a total of 500 thousand troops into Tibet, exceeding the number of troops Tibet itself had.

To reduce the logistical burdens on the Tibet Dynasty, Ashoka sent grain from India.

Ashoka going all out in supporting Tibet was naturally not out of the kindness of his heart. A so-called cooperation was only possible when both sides had equal strength. However, the Ashoka Dynasty’s army was 10 times larger than Tibet’s, so they were not even on the same level.

This huge disparity in strength meant that Tibet was leading a wolf into their house.

By the time Songtsen Gampo realized this point, it was already too late. The Ashoka Dynasty army that entered Tibet’s Lhasa City had already controlled the important areas of the city.

“It is easy to invite a god, but it is hard to send them away!”

Li Jing was a really experienced general. After noticing what was happening with the Tibet army, he was not in a rush to attack. Instead, he simply camped at the border to monitor the enemy and slowly obtain intel.

Seeing that, Songtsen Gampo raised up the matter to Ashoka. He said that the Tibet crisis has basically been settled, thank you for your help. This kindness was something Tibet would remember dearly.

This was also him saying that he hoped the Ashoka Dynasty would withdraw some of their troops.

Toward this matter, Ashoka let it fall on deaf ears using the excuse of the troops traveling far and needing to rest to continue to camp in Tibet. Even to say that Ashoka moved 500 thousand more troops to the border to get ready to charge into Tibet at any moment.

When he received the news, only then did Songtsen Gampo realize that something was wrong, but he was helpless toward this situation. The weak Tibet was stuck between Great Xia and the Ashoka Dynasty, and they were destined to be sacrificed.

Moreover, the speed at which Ashoka swung his butcher knife was more decisive and faster than Songtsen Gampo had expected.

6th month, 28th day, just as the Honglu Temple headed to Great Song again, Ashoka sent another 500 thousand troops to Tibet, totally taking over control.

Songtsen Gampo became a true puppet of the Ashoka Dynasty.

Ashoka’s plan was really vicious. Not only did the reinforcements he send control Lhasa City, but he also used the chance to get the troops to familiarize themselves with the geography with the help of guides.

Along with the two armies fighting side by side, the Ashoka Dynasty completed their takeover of Tibet.

The coup of Tibet was not noticed by outsiders because it was really discrete, and even Ouyang Shuo did not know. At the end of the 6th month, Great Xia had a giant beast hiding at their west border.

…

6th month, 29th day, Great Song Dynasty, Xiangyang City.

Ouyang Shuo’s surrender order created an uproar in the Great Song wilderness. The Imperial Court was split into two factions. One group wanted to surrender, and the other group wanted to fight; it was truly reminiscent of North Song.

The ones who wanted to surrender did not need to be mentioned, as they were afraid of the might of Great Xia and did not want to be buried.

This was also helpless because even Great Zhou, who was Great Xia’s greatest opponent and had 700 thousand troops, surrendered without fighting, much less the far weaker Great Song.

“We do not want Great Song to turn to dust.” The officials said.

The ones who wanted to fight were mainly generals; they had a simple reason, “Surrendering without fighting? Can we show some backbone? Even if we surrender, Great Xia will still look down on us.”

Unfortunately, in Great Song, the generals did not hold much power.

The true power laid in the hands of the officials and the emperor.

Zhao Kuangyin felt really conflicted. On one side, he could not put down the pride and dignity of an emperor, much less the great dynasty he had created. He was unwilling to surrender; he was unwilling to lower his head.

However, if they did not surrender, his race might be wiped out.

He definitely would not suspect or doubt the determination of the Xia emperor. If they really went all out, the Xia emperor using his head as a symbol would be a normal matter.

If it were Zhao Kuangyin, he would do the same.

Zhao Kuangyin, who was in a tough spot, did not know whether he should surrender or not. Helplessly, he sent out envoys to Qin and Tang to ask for their opinions.

If they surrendered, the three would surrender together, and their faces would feel much better; if they did not, the two of them would be able to sit on the fence and watch on as Song face destruction simply because the Great Xia Army was monitoring them.

“He will destroy us all; please think carefully. The day Song is destroyed is the day Qin and Tang are wiped out to. Rather than surrendering, let’s not have a good war!”

The good war he mentioned was just to let Qin and Tang take up some of the pressure. Only he was clear about the plans and plotting within.

“Let’s hope it will be of use!” Zhao Kuangyin was making a final struggle.

…

Jingchu Province, Jingzhou Prefecture.

Looking at the order from the emperor, Imperial Palace Guard marshal Xu Da hollered, “Men!”

“Present!”

“Gather the generals for a meeting!”

“Yes, marshal!”

No matter how the Great Song officials debated, after getting the order to take down Great Song in half a month, the three fronts of Great Xia started acting.

The emperor mentioned really clearly that whichever one of them took down Xiangyang City first would be greatly rewarded. The Imperial Palace Guards, Xiangjiang legion corps, and Tiger legion corps belonged to three different systems, and none of them wanted to lose out to the other two.

“In the army, merits determine whether one is strong or not!”

To the Imperial Palace Guards, this war had significant meaning.

First, this was the first big war that Xu Da would fight in since joining Great Xia. In the army where generals were like clouds, Xu Da needed to use this war to prove that he was worthy of his great general title.

Secondly, the Imperial Palace Guards were a new army and needed to mesh together through this war to test the results of their training and to truly come together as one.

In his words, “I hope that after this battle, there will be no Jin, Ming, or Sui troops. Instead, we will all be Imperial Palace Guard soldiers!”

The left wing that they were in charge of faced the most danger. Not only did they have to face the Song army, but they even had to defend against the Tang army, who might charge over and intercept them at any moment.

Ouyang Shuo gave this heavy responsibility to Xu Da.

That day, Xu Da rallied the troops, saying that they will stop at nothing to claim the credit; they will take down Xiangyang and show the glory of the Imperial Palace Guards.

Pretty much at the same time, the Xiangjiang legion corps in the middle and the Tiger legion corps at the right wing had similar rallies. 700 thousand Great Xia troops were lined up like ferocious tigers, baring its fangs at Great Song.

The battle to destroy Song had entered its most intense moment.

…

7th month, 3rd day, middle army Xiangjiang legion corps claimed first blood.

At 4 PM, after a day and a half of intense battling, along with the help from the inside, the army finally conquered Pill Sun city, killing 30 thousand people and emerging victorious.

As the previous main city of a territory, it was not only the second biggest city in Great Song, but it was also its sturdiest fortress on the south. Along with Xiangyang City in the north, it became the foundations of Great Song.

In Pill Sun city, Great Song had housed 150 thousand guards and stored large amounts of grain. It was an important bridge for them to fight Great Xia.

Helplessly, Pill Sun city was within Chun Shenjun’s control. He had run it for close to six years, and although he was forced to hand it over to Great Song, he still had massive influence there.

The Xiangjiang legion corps managed to smoothly take down Pill Sun city due to inside help.

If not, the enemy would be able to rely on the sturdy defense of the city and the 150 thousand guards to last for at least a week, even with Zhang Xutuo’s abilities.

The Great Xia Army used just a day and a half to take down Pill Sun city, giving Great Song a huge blow.

When the news spread to Xiangyang, the Great Song Imperial Court trembled once more.

Chapter 1248 - -Palace coup

Chapter 1248: TWO Chapter 1248-Palace coup

The fall of Pill Sun city was a huge blow to Great Song.

The voices of those wanting to surrender suppressed those who wanted to fight. Looking at the situation, surrendering would become Great Song’s only choice.

However, at this moment, news of India’s Ashoka Dynasty taking over Tibet and their imminent war with Great Xia had spread out in China, giving the despairing Zhao Kuangyin a little hope.

“Let’s hold on for a while longer. Maybe Great Xia will withdraw their troops.” Zhao Kuangyin was thinking like that.

Zhao Kuangyin wanted to press on, but the Great Song officials did not, as there was only a day left till the deadline set by the Xia emperor.

The order was like a butcher’s knife hanging over the heads of the Zhao family.

In the eyes of the nobles and the officials, even if Ashoka threatened the west order of Great Xia, with Great Xia’s strength, it could still take care of Great Song while stabilizing the west.

When that happens, they would have no choice but to be buried together with their emperor.

In Great Song Imperial Court, one side wanted to hold on, while the other side wanted to keep their lives. The two sides could not come to a consensus. When Zhao Kuangyin made his mind up to fight on, the conflict exploded.

7th month, 3rd day, night.

Jin Prince Zhao Guangyi started a coup with the support of the officials and imprisoned Zhao Kuangyin.

History had repeated itself.

On the 9th year, 10th month, 19th day of the Kaibao year, Zhao Kuangyin had invited Zhao Guangyi into the palace to drink and spend the night. On the morning on the 20th, Zhao Kuangyin had suddenly died. 21st day, Jin Prince Zhao Guangyi ascended to throne and became Song Taizong.

The death of Song Taizu and the ascension of Song Taizong was a huge puzzle and mystery to the next generation.

No matter what, along with the coup succeeding, the fate of Great Song was already settled. The next day, Zhao Guangyi represented Great Song to express their willingness to surrender.

The moment the news spread out, the world was shocked.

…

Imperial capital, emperor city.

The cold and chilly winter that was seemingly like yesterday had turned into a blistering summer in the blink of an eye.

After half a year of hard work, the modifying work on the emperor palace was close to completion. Along with large amounts of cash being pumped in, the new city region of the imperial capital was looking more and more exciting, becomeing the new engine to the Emperor dynasty’s growth.

There would basically be new things sprouting out from the new city region every week.

Recently, there was a bicycle craze amongst the nobles. Especially the young men, who rode on Shanying brand bicycles outside.

Anyone still riding horses would be falling behind the pack.

The smooth water like production line of the Shanying brand bicycle factory not only meant that the bicycles were become more common in the imperial capital, but it also meant that such a production model was slowly replacing the low efficiency small factory model.

Great Xia’s industrialization had reached a whole new level.

The development of a new region could not happen without the support of a certain group of people – the adventure gamemode players who went back to their old jobs. Based on the data from the Industrialization Department, in just half a year, there were 150 thousand workers recruited.

Along with the new city region heading onto the right path, this scale would continue to rise.

At the start of the year, when Great Xia opened its doors to adventure gamemode players, more and more players changed jobs. Doctors, workers, teachers, merchants, farmers, and more could obtain a job in Great Xia.

Human resources being allocated to the right spots allowed Great Xia’s economy to grow at a fast pace.

In just the 5th month that had recently passed, the Imperial Court had collected close to 17 million gold in taxes. To exceed 200 million in taxes for the year would be simple matter.

Making use of the four banks, Great Xia’s currency was being released. A large quantity of gold coins were being taken back and made into gold bricks that would be stored in the Great Xia treasury.

During the early parts of the game, Gaia made use of monster drops, mission rewards, imperial city shops, and the like to directly buy back gold from the wilderness players.

Gold also became the common currency of the world.

Along with the game world becoming more and more realistic, Gaia interfered less and less in the game. Along with the fall of the imperial cities, gold mainly turned into gold bricks.

This also meant that the position of gold as the currency in the world was slowly being challenged.

Based on financial logic, gold was a pure and hard currency, so it was not the best trading currency. The first dynasty to stabilize a new currency system would benefit the most.

Along with the Great Xia currency becoming more common amongst the people, gold was used more to make jewelry and not as a currency.

In just half a year, the amount of gold jewelry in the market grew by four to five times, showing that the Great Xia civilians were becoming richer.

All in all, Great Xia was undergoing a deep revolution internally.

The atmosphere of a feudal dynasty was slowly disappearing, getting replaced by a new country brimming with life and energy. It was this point that made the elite players in China move toward Great Xia.

The Great Xia official field was welcoming a change of guard.

As an emperor, Ouyang Shuo was happy to see new blood take over. If this did not happen, they would become a stale pool that would lose its desire to move forward.

Change was the main topic in Great Xia for this half a year.

Things were changing by the day like a dream. If one’s thinking paused slightly, they would lag behind the trends.

Even the hall that Ouyang Shuo worked in welcomed unassuming but meaningful changes. Just a few days ago, the Construction Department had followed his instructions to modify the hall.

The changes were actually really small. For example, he had a big room built beside the Imperial Reading Room with a long table and a wooden chair, creating a very modern meeting room with an ancient flavor.

Ouyang Shuo named this room as the 1st meeting room.

From now onward, be it military or administrative meetings, apart from those that had ritual needs, Ouyang Shuo would hold the meetings here.

Within it, everyone would sit together and not need to look up to Ouyang Shuo as he spoke.

Ouyang Shuo was annoyed with sitting on the cold throne all day long and looking down as he spoke to the officials. The true authority of the son of heaven was not built up through such useless methods.

The Imperial Court system also welcomed a few new people.

6th month, 15th day, after completing the handover of Difeng, Juedai Fenghua officially took over. Ouyang Shuo kept his promise and appointed her as the advisor in charge of intel.

She was his intel secretary.

This appointment really surprised her because no matter where it was, intel was the most classified. Especially intel that reached Ouyang Shuo’s level, which would all be top-secret information in the Emperor dynasty.

The intel advisor should be one of the people that he trusted the most.

However, he chose Juedai Fenghua who had just joined. Not only this did surprise her, but it also made the other officials look at her weirdly.

Ouyang Shuo was not fazed; he simply stuck to the principle of, “When you use someone, do not doubt them; if you doubt them, do not use them.”

Putting suitable people at suitable positions was the most important thing to Ouyang Shuo. This was also a really difficult job, and Ouyang Shuo felt that her work in running Difeng would make her suitable for this role.

As for her loyalty, there were the Shanhai Guards to monitor her.

Before she went to work, Di Chen had already left the imperial capital to go around the world.

Ouyang Shuo could understand his feelings and knew that he needed an adjustment period. Hence, he did not restrict Di Chen or set firm rules about what he could do. Ouyang Shuo just gave him a sum of gold.

As for what he would do with it, that would depend on Di Chen himself.

Ouyang Shuo believed in his eye for people. Since Di Chen had accepted the role of Honglu Temple assistant, he would definitely try to achieve bright results.

All he needed was an adjustment period.

The only matter that surprised Ouyang Shuo was that after Great Zhou surrendered, Lianpo gave up his military position. He was willing to follow beside Di Chen and become a guard.

The friendship from their previous relationship changed from ruler and official to master and servant.

Since this was his choice, Ouyang Shuo would not force him and allowed nature to take its course. It seemed like with Di Chen’s achievement value, he would be able to instantiate one Lianpo.

Apart from Lianpo, the original Great Zhou officials all received new appointments.

Strategist Fan Zeng remained in Jingdu to spend his after years and was not going to work. Zhang Hongfan, who Ouyang Shuo had shown no interest in left, Great Zhou the day they surrendered and secluded himself.

Not everyone could adapt to Great Xia and start a new life.

With the ability of the Shanhai Guards, they could obviously find Zhang Hongfan’s location, but Ouyang Shuo did not do that. Since Zhang Hongfan knew his place, Ouyang Shuo would simply let him off.

Amongst the Great Zhou officials, only Japan general Toyotomi Hideyoshi was given an important appointment, becoming a Legion General in the Heluo legion corps.

At this point, the final traces of Great Zhou had disappeared.

The sunlight in the afternoon was still really piercing, shining through the window and onto Ouyang Shuo, casting a long shadow onto the wall.

In front of the table, Ouyang Shuo was closing his eyes and resting.

The Ashoka Dynasty swallowing Tibet and the Great Song coup, the huge changes during these past few days had caught Ouyang Shuo off guard, making him feel really exhausted.

Taking the chance of the noon break, Ouyang Shuo decided to gather his thoughts.

Chapter 1249 - North Song has no generals, South Song has no officials

Chapter 1249: TWO Chapter 1249-North Song has no generals, South Song has no officials

The Ashoka Dynasty taking over Tibet was something that Ouyang Shuo had not expected.

Songtsen Gampo rejected the Mongol Empire in the north and defended against Great Xia, but he was unable to escape the fate of his dynasty being swallowed up in the end.

Speaking of which, this was the first time an outside force had interfered in the battle for China, which made Ouyang Shuo feel a loss of face.

Even then, Ouyang Shuo had to treat the matter really carefully. A day ago, Li Jing had already led the Bear legion corps back to the Shu Lands border. Great Xia’s first attempt at conquering Tibet had ended in failure.

Li Jing sought punishment, but Ouyang Shuo suppressed it.

With the complicated nature of the Battle of Tibet, being able to lead the Bear legion corps to retreat fully was already a remarkable achievement. As such, why would Ouyang Shuo even punish him?

Before he dealt with Qin, Tang, and Song, Ouyang Shuo was not going to start another battle with Tibet.

As for the Ashoka Dynasty, they would need a period of time to digest up such a huge swathe of land. Furthermore, the Shu Lands were hard to attack and easy to defend. As long as Ashoka was not crazy, he would not even attempt to attack it.

Temporarily setting Tibet aside, Ouyang Shuo shifted his attention to the three countries.

7th month, 3rd day, along with the deadline getting closer, Ouyang Shuo was prepared to use the Great Song Zhao family as a sacrifice. Who would have expected a theatrical change to occur in Great Song on the night before the deadline?

Zhao Guangyi had saved his family.

However, later generations would probably see him as a thief and see Zhao Kuangyin as the proper ruler.

Ouyang Shuo had no plans of bothering about what had happened. What he knew was that after the coup’s success, Jingchu Province had become an item in Great Xia’s bag.

Great Xia had taken a huge step toward destroying the three countries.

…

7th month, 5th day, Great Xia Cabinet Grand Secretary Jiang Shang acted as the special ambassador of his majesty and led a squad toward Xiangyang City to accept the surrender.

Before this, the armies of both sides had already stopped warring.

The Great Song guards troops on the frontlines had surrendered and were awaiting the instructions of the Privy Court. Rough estimates placed the number of Great Song troops awaiting reorganization at around 380 thousand.

Jiang Shang brought along the imperial decree from the Imperial Court.

The imperial decree gave Zhao Guangyi the title of Song King and Zhao Kuangyin the title of Song Marquis. Such kindness was already the most that the emperor could show. If Zhao Kuangyin was unhappy, he would be truly not knowing his place.

Apart from the Zhao family royal family, the old officials in Great Song received new appointments.

Zhao Pu became the Chuannan Provincial Governor, and Fan Zhongyan would shift over to Jingchu Province.

Zhao Pu was the secretary of Zhao Kuangyin. In the 7th year of Xiande, Zhao Kuangyin and him had started a coup and established the Song Dynasty.

He became the prime minister in the 2nd year of Gande, helping Zhao Kuangyin take over Fanzhen. He made many major changes such as executing garrison law, changing the official system, and setting Border Defense legion troops.

In the 3rd year of Chunhua, Zhao Pu died from illness at the age of 71 and was given the title of Zhan King. He was given the title of ‘loyal’ and listed as one of the 24 meritorious officials of Zhaoxun Court.

Although he did not read many books, he loved the analects of Confucius. The analects affected him a lot and became a famous part of Confucian rule.

With his talent, there would be no problems with him taking the role of Provincial Governor. However, being given the Chuannan Provincial Governor role right away surprised many.

Although the Imperial Court had quashed the rumors of Chuannan Province being a Zhili Province long ago, the high status of Chuannan Province was undeniable.

Ouyang Shuo’s true goal was to move Fan Zhongyan away from Chuannan.

As Jingchu Province had imperial city Xiangyang and was a big province in the central region of China, it would not be too bad on Fan Zhongyan. Ouyang Shuo hoped that this adjustment would be understood as a warning to him.

Apart from Zhao Pu, Murong Yanzhao, Gao Huaide, Wang Shenqi, Han Lingkun, Shu Shouxin, Zhang Lingze, Zhang Guanghan, and Zhao Yanwei were all given positions.

North Song had no generals, South Song had no officials.

Out of all the officials, only Zhao Pu was decent in terms of civil and military skills.

…

Along with Great Song’s surrender, the China situation became really clear. Now, it was up to the attitude of Qin and Tang. Be it Qin Shihuang or Tang Taizong, neither would admit defeat easily.

Forcing them surrender was even harder than killing them.

Imperial capital, emperor palace.

Administrative Mentor Court Grand Secretary Zhang Liang was invited to the Imperial Reading Room.

“How do you think I should deal with Qin and Tang?” If he could, along with Ashoka aggressively forcing his hand, Ouyang Shuo would like to avoid the use of war to take over these two countries.

However, if they did not fight, these two countries would not surrender.

This became a dead end, which was why Ouyang Shuo sought Zhang Liang, asking him to think of a solution.

Zhang Liang replied, “Qin Shihuang and Tang Taizong are both prideful leaders and will be able to understand the situation that they are facing. What we need to do is to give them a way to step down.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded.

“What way do you think we should give them? Do I need to personally talk to them?”

“No!” Zhang Liang directly shook his head and said, “With your authority, you cannot lower yourself to ask others to surrender. If you make an exception, it’ll make Qin and Tang arrogant and make it hard to rule Guangxi Province.”

Zhang Liang’s worries were certainly true.

Qin and Tang had a number of famous officials and generals. Furthermore, both countries had stayed in Guanxi Province for a long time. If Great Xia gave them too much face, it might give them the wrong impression. They might start to think that their submission to Great Xia was them giving Great Xia face, which would lead to them becoming really arrogant.

This was something that Ouyang Shuo did not want to see.

Zhang Liang said, “I think we should act from Ashoka.”

“How so?”

Ouyang Shuo was confused and did not understand how these two matters were linked together.

“Both Qin Shihuang and Tang Taizong were the orthodox rulers of China in the past. If they still want to fight internally while enemies are attacking China, wouldn’t they be going against the name of China? I suggest we send out a high-profile envoy to use this as a breakthrough point to convince them to back out.” Zhang Liang said.

Ouyang Shuo frowned, “Will that work?”

“If you do not mind, I’m willing to personally lead a group to one country.”

“Okay!”

Ouyang Shuo was always open to suggestions and decided to let Zhang Liang give it a try.

…

7th month, 7th day, Great Xia Cabinet assistant secretary and Administrative Mentor Court Grand Secretary Zhang Liang led an envoy to Great Tang. At the same time, Honglu Temple head Zhang Yi personally led an envoy to Great Qin.

In history, Zhang Yi was a Chancellor of Qin, and him going back now could be called him going home. Ouyang Shuo hoped that Qin Shihuang could agree to seclude himself and go behind the scenes because of this little bit of relationship.

Ouyang Shuo could use officials and generals but not emperors. Ouyang Shuo would not try his luck and would not take Qin Shihuang under his charge.

Even Chu Overlord Xiang Yu was not willing to work for others, much less Qin Shihuang and Tang Taizong.

To really recruit them would give rise to many huge problems.

Hence, even if the two countries were to surrender, Qin Shihuang and Tang Taizong could only retire and be a casual king in the game world with zero contact with politics.

As for whether there would be a chance in the future to instantiate them on Planet Hope to expand territory, that was another matter. After all, there were many unknown matters on Planet Hope, so how would Ouyang Shuo know?

While Zhang Liang and Zhang Yi were sent, Great Xia did not move any troops and silently awaited the outcome. If they were still unwilling, to prevent further wastage of time, Ouyang Shuo would have no choice but to use war to settle the matter.

Chapter 1250 - Qin Shihuang's choice

Chapter 1250: TWO Chapter 1250-Qin Shihuang’s choice

7th month, 7th day, Great Qin dynasty, Xianyang City.

Within the palace, the middle-aged Qin Shihuang stood with his back facing someone. He was looking at the map of the China region. More specifically, he was gazing at the area belonging to Great Qin; it was just a small piece. He asked, “Li Si, Great Xia sent someone, and it’s also Zhang Yi leading them?”

Just one look at his back could give a person immense pressure; this was the authority of Qin Shihuang.

“Yes, your majesty!”

“What did they say?” Qin Shihuang did not turn around.

Li Si quietly wiped the sweat on his head and stuttered, “T-they said that they hope for your majesty to become a hermit.”

Qin Shihuang kept silent.

After a long while, he turned around and looked toward Wang Jian at the side. His eyes flashed with a cold light as he asked, “If we fight against Great Xia, what are our chances?”

Wang Jian thought about it and replied, “We can try to fight.”

The meaning behind those words were worth considering.

In history, Wang Jian and his son had destroyed six countries. At the time, Qin was really prosperous, and its army was really strong. The six countries were corrupt and weak and were merely empty shells.

As a result, Qin could unify the six countries within a short 10 years.

The path began with Wei Yang changing the law, which was a result of the hard work of many generations of rulers. Qin Shihuang only completed the last blow and definitely did not dare to take all of the credit.

In the current wilderness, Qin was trapped in a small piece of land, and its army had no fighting experience. Their opponent Great Xia had a vast territory and a strong army; it was an entity that even the Qin country at its peak could not compare with.

The two sides were not even on the same level.

Hence, when Wang Jian said, “We can try.” it was the same as saying that they had no chance of winning.

Qin Shihuang looked deeply at Wang Jian and Li Si before he waved his hands exhaustedly and said, “You all can leave!”

“Yes, your majesty!”

That night, Qin Shihuang wrote a decree, passing the throne to his eldest son Fu Su before killing himself.

A ruler of a generation chose to use such a method to end his journey in the wilderness. During the last moments of his life, he looked into the sky and said, “Mother god, I should not have come!”

Gaia kept silent.

The moment Qin Shihuang killed himself, a shooting star streaked across the night sky.

…

Imperial capital, emperor city.

Ouyang Shuo, who was burning the midnight oil going through memorials, felt something in his heart, so he stood up and headed to the window. Coincidentally, he saw that star flashing past his eyes.

“The northwest direction?”

Ouyang Shuo fell deep into thought. Ah emperor star falling, was it Qin Shihuang or Tang Taizong?

“This is not what I wished for, but I have no choice.”

At this moment, Ouyang Shuo was really emotional and down. Ouyang Shuo only had the utmost respect toward both Qin Shihuang and Tang Taizong. However, the situation had forced his hand, and the wilderness could not allow all of these parties to exist.

The road to greatness was filled with such helpless decisions.

…

Great Tang, Chang An City.

Tang Taizong Li Shiming looked at that eye-catching star quietly and said, “You finally made your choice. What about me? What should I do…”

Next to him was the virtuous queen of a generation – empress Chang Sun.

“Your majesty, I have always been looking forward to accompanying you to tour the world.” the empress smiled.

When Li Shiming heard that, he suddenly burst out into laughter.

“That’s right. Fighting or not is useless at this point. Why not put it down…” between family and power, Li Shiming chose the former.

Holding the small hands of the empress, Li Shiming broke out into a smile.

…

7th month, 8th day, Prince Fu Su ascended to the throne.

That day, the new Qin King Fu Su agreed to submit to Great Xia.

Su Fu’s ascension changed Qin Country history, but it was like nothing could be changed. The only thing that could be changed would be Fu Su’s position in Great Xia. He would be given the position of Qin King and would lead the Ying family to survive.

One could not help but sigh at such an ending.

7th month, 10th day, Tang Taizong Li Shiming passed his throne to Jin Prince Li Zhi, who was the Tang Gaozong in history. Following which, he went to accompany his children and disappeared from the eyes of the people.

Before disappearing, he ordered the death of Wu Zetian. Although the Li family could not be as glorious as they were in history, he did not want his family to be ruined in the hands of a woman.

The two emperors used different methods to protect their pride.

…

7th month, 11th day, Imperial Capital.

Zhang Liang’s plan had succeeded. Great Xia used a peaceful method to conquer Qin and Tang.

At this point, apart from the Mongol Empire and the Tibet that Ashoka had swallowed, the entire China region belonged to Great Xia. They were merely a foot away from unifying the region.

The nine imperial cities all belonged to Great Xia.

It was hard for outsiders to imagine what this meant, but in the eyes of the China region players, this was a huge achievement.

After all, the Chinese had a huge determination for unification.

From the 1st year of Gaia where there were thousands of Lords, to the 3rd year where the giants rose, to the Great Xia and Great Zhou face off, and finally to when Great Xia completed their rule.

The entire process took Ouyang Shuo less than seven years.

If this was not in the game, such a matter would be totally impossible. One must know that the game map was expanded by 10 times, and they went from a small village into a huge Emperor dynasty.

Ouyang Shuo was destined to be a legend.

After Qin and Tang submitted to Great Xia, the news spread throughout the entire world and attracted the attention of everyone.

…

Dawson Dynasty, Free City.

After learning that Great Xia had taken down Qin, Tang, and Song, Jack was speechless.

“Hei, this eastern dragon is finally going out to sea!”

As he said that, his eyes showed excitement and even a hint of worry.

The Great Xia Emperor dynasty that completed the unification of China would definitely focus on overseas conquering. They would have a head on confrontation with the Dawson Dynasty and even the entire Silver Hand.

The time that Jack had been looking forward to finally arrived. Who knows who would emerge as the final victor?

“It’s time to plan well for it.”

…

Mediterranean, Atlantis City.

Kalia stood on the city wall. Looking out at the vast ocean, she said, “Will he return?” Kalia did not believe that Great Xia would not come back to the Mediterranean after unifying China. After all, Great Xia had only suffered a small setback in Morocco.

“There are going to be huge waves in the Mediterranean again. I am really looking forward to it!”

Along with the territories in the Mediterranean merging, Atlantis had started to face the attacks of the Spain, Gaule, Caesar, Arab, and Egypt dynasties. It was already too much for them to handle.

At such a time, Kalia especially hoped to receive the help of Great Xia.

It was time to stir this stale pond that was the Mediterranean Ocean.

…

Indian Empire, Cusco.

After receiving the news that Great Xia had taken down the three countries, the Indian Empire king did not know whether he should feel happy or worried.

He had to admit that in these few months where the Indian Empire had faced the combined attacks of the Spain and Brasilia dynasties, the empire was having a tough time and was losing control of the situation.

“Should we get Great Xia to interfere?” Juarez could not make up his mind.

The Indians had their own pride.

Chapter 1251 - Settling East Africa

Chapter 1251: TWO Chapter 1251-Settling East Africa

7th month, 15th day, Imperial Capital.

The aftereffects of Qin and Tang submitting were slowly settling down, and the battle of mid plains had come to an end.

The best part about conquering Zhou, Song, Qin, and Tang was getting close to 100 million in population. Along with Kenya in Africa, Great Xia’s population had reached a new stage, breaking the 500 million point.

Be it in terms of population or land, the Great Xia Emperor dynasty had exceeded every dynasty in history.

The huge amount of population surging in undoubtedly gave the Imperial Court a massive burden. Luckily, the weather was great this year, and the first rice harvesting season granted bountiful rewards and helped to reduce the hunger from the past winter.

The 10th month calamity last year had left repercussions. Be it farmers or herders, they all amassed a large quantity of grain at their homes just in case.

In the words of the people, “We are not going to go through such a winter again.”

Along with the mid plains being unified, the civilians were living a prosperous life and loving what they did. The Great Xia native population would soon welcome an explosive growth when the new population settled in.

The kids born during the 1st year of Gaia had already grown up in the 7th year of Gaia. Their generation had grown alongside the Emperor dynasty and were the most loyal and active-thinking generation.

They were the foundations of the country.

Just like Shadow Guards Cui Tianqi, who was just a teenager when he came to Shanhai Village. Now, he had now grown into a young handsome lad, becoming Ouyang Shuo’s sharp sword in the night sky.

…

10am, Imperial Reading Room, Ouyang Shuo was discussing personnel arrangements with Jiang Shang, Kou Zhun, and Zhang Tingyu. Their discussion included the arrangements for the old officials of Qin and Tang as well as the choice for Guanxi Provincial Governor.

Apart from that, there was also the personnel matters for the Africa Governor-General House.

During the past three months, Great Xia had continued their wars in Africa. Under Baiqi’s leadership, the four legion corps in Africa had fought war after war.

4th month, 10th day, Great Xia took down Uganda. Same month, 8th day, they took down Tanzania, completing the second step of the military operation. During this period, Baiqi also smoothly wiped out two small countries – Rwanda and Burundi.

Rwanda had Tanzania to its east, Burundi to its south, and its west and north-west were connected to Congo. It was north to Uganda. It had many mountains within its borders and was named the country of hills.

Although its size was not comparable to Qiongzhou Island, it had one million players, so it was the most densely populated country in Africa. Around 83% of its population was spread out through the villages.

Tungsten and forest resources were its specialty.

Let’s talk about Burundi, which was connected to Rwanda. It was slightly bigger, with around 800 thousand players. Similarly, their activities mainly consisted of farming and herding.

In modern society, as these small African countries did not have a foundation for industrialization, they were having a really tough time. However, in the game world, the place was a godly granary due to its natural environment.

The Imperial Court decided to merge Uganda into Kenya Province while using Tanzania as the main body to merge with Rwanda and Burundi to establish the Tanzania Province.

The Tanzania Provincial Governor role would temporarily be left empty; the area would be managed by the Africa Governor-General.

After resting up for a short time, in the later part of the 5th month, the Africa warzone started its third stage of military operation. The targets this time were Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.

Malawi was located at the southeast of Africa and was an inland nation surrounded by Tanzania, Mozambique, and Zambia. Its size was comparable to Donghai Province and was populated with around 1.3 million players.

The country got its name from the Malawi lake within its territory, which was the third biggest lake in Africa. It was over 30 thousand square miles big and was 700 meters at its deepest, having many of the world’s Quine freshwater fishes.

Malawi’s economy mainly consisted of farming, and its main exports were coffee, tea, cotton, sugarcane, and tobacco. Amongst these, tobacco was their most important export.

Mozambique, which was right next to it, was connected by the Malawi lake and was a Portuguese colony in history. Its size was similar to Qinghai Province, and the place had around 2.5 million players.

Apart from that, Mozambique was next to the ocean and was located at the southeast portion of Africa. The Mozambique straits between Mozambique and Uganda was the world’s longest strait at 1670 kilometers.

Mozambique had many rivers within its borders and was a humid and hot country. They country had an average temperature of 19.4 degrees. It had a lot of rainwater and a large quantity of ocean and forest resources.

It was a heaven of tuna and seafood. In the north, there were many varieties of sharks.

One could say that Mozambique was a natural treasure trove, so it was no wonder that the Portuguese in history craved for it.

Finally, let’s talk about Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe was a really important civilization starter in the south of Africa. In the Middle Ages, there was a civilization established by a Shona person, and their culture left behind many historical ruins. The Zimbabwe olden city was among these ruins, and it was from this that the name of the country originated.

The Mutapa Empire, which used the city as its capital, slowly became strong in the 11th century through trade with Muslim traders from the Indian Ocean. It made use of local gold, ivory, and copper to exchange for linen and glass from the Persian gulf region.

During the 15th century, the Mutapa Empire became the biggest City-State in South Africa.

Zimbabwe was a country whose industrialization was more advanced. Manufacturing, agriculture, and mining were its three huge pillars. It was famous for producing high-quality crocodile leather and had the title of home of crocodiles.

Zimbabwe was around the size of Yunnan Province and had around 1.4 million players.

It was not hard to notice that in East Africa, apart from in Rwanda, the population density was relatively low. Furthermore, East Africa was rich in natural resources and had basically been completely colonized historically, falling behind in terms of industrialization. Additionally, East Africa had great weather.

All things considered, it became the best place to manufacture raw material.

Along with the first industrialization spreading across the world, regions like this became the treasure targeted by every power. As a result, the dynasties all fought to split up the Africa Continent.

At the end of the 6th month, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe were all conquered by Great Xia. The Imperial Court decided to merge them all to form the Mozambique Province.

At this point, the East Africa strategy of Great Xia came to an end.

After taking down Zimbabwe, the Africa warzone entered a relatively long resting period to focus on internalizing and expanding.

There were two reasons for this.

First, in the short half a year, the Africa warzone had conquered nine countries in a row, so the soldiers were tired. The grain that the Imperial Court had provided was basically completely used up and could not support further huge wars.

Even an iron army could not continue to go on and on.

Secondly, the Africa Governor-General House had established four provinces. Its territory had expanded by four times, and there were 30 million more people. They were swelling up too quickly, so they needed to stop and digest. If not, many problems would arise.

One must not forget that after conquering nine countries, the players would not be transported to the trial lands anymore and would remain instead. This placed a much higher demand on Great Xia’s ruling standards.

The Tanzania and Mozambique provinces did not even have a Provincial Governor decided.

Thirdly, there was nowhere else in East Africa worth trying to conquer at the moment.

South of Mozambique was the Bantu Dynasty, and it was currently not a suitable time to go to war with them. The Indian Ocean was located east and north of the Africa Governor-General House. Apart from Madagascar, Mauritius, and the like, there was nowhere else to conquer.

The only side that they could target was the west.

In the west, apart from Zambia, which was connected to Zimbabwe, Congo and Central Africa belonged to the middle region and was where the Dawson Dynasty was mainly focusing on.

When Great Xia was taking down East Africa, Dawson Dynasty had conquered

Cameroon, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea. Their next target would be Congo.

In history, Congo was split into the democratic republic of Congo and the republic of Congo. In the game world, they were the same country. Its size was bigger than 10 Yunnan provinces and had around eight million players.

Be it the Dawson Dynasty or Great Xia, trying to take down Congo would not be an easy matter. If one considered how both sides would interfere and restrict one another, it would make matters even more complicated.

Congo would probably be where the two dynasties would truly engage for the first time.

As such, Ouyang Shuo ordered the Africa warzone to rest up and prepare well. At the same time, he told them to cooperate with the Governor-General House to stabilize East Africa.

As long as the development of East Africa headed onto the right path, it would be able to sustain the resource depletion of the four legion corps without needing any support from China. Once they achieved that, they would be able to truly go all out.

Ouyang Shuo summoned the three ministers. Apart from discussing personnel arrangement, he also planned to discuss how to support the Africa Governor-General House and largely develop Africa.

Chapter 1252 - Personnel adjustments

Chapter 1252: TWO Chapter 1252-Personnel adjustments

The submissions of Song, Qin, and Tang brought a great quantity of population and officials, providing an extremely stable source of manpower for the dynasty’s expansion in Africa.

Putting off the Africa appointments till today was partially due to such considerations.

A day ago, the Imperial Court had decided to shift over a total of 10 million civilians from Handan City, Xiangyang, Xianyang, and Chang An to the Africa Governor-General House. They would bring over China’s advanced agriculture techniques to focus on developing Africa.

At the same time, the Imperial Court also wanted players to move over.

For this, the Africa Governor-General House worked together with the Imperial Court to establish a list of welfare policies like a year of tax-free agriculture, free cows, tools, and more.

The goal was to start a huge construction wave in Africa as soon as possible.

Apart from economical and agriculture development, Ouyang Shuo also placed a lot of attention on spreading Chinese culture. Hence, he instructed the Science, Education, Culture, and Health Department to work with the governor-general to set up schools there.

Any region under the Africa Governor-General House would have its official language changed to Chinese.

Ouyang Shuo hoped to use these two to three years of time to let a third or more of the African people and 90% of the school age children learn Chinese and how to write it.

He wanted to have Chinese civilization take root in Africa.

This was not totally impossible.

In the Nanjiang Governor-General region, this had already been pushed out. Maybe because Southeast Asia had deep roots with Chinese civilization, but learning and writing Chinese had already become the local trend.

Official schools all used Chinese and passed down the philosopher classics.

As they spread Chinese culture, they would also absorb the local culture to make it a part of the Chinese civilization.

The collision and mergers of cultures made Chinese civilization shine ever more brightly.

Chinese civilization was about to step onto the world stage.

To support the development of Africa, Ouyang Shuo instructed the Imperial Court to directly hand over 30 million gold.

This was something that was totally unprecedented.

The 30 million gold was not directly given to the governor-general house. Instead, it was used by the Great Xia business bank and Great Xia agriculture bank to flow into Africa.

These funds were enough to let these two banks gain a stable footing in Africa.

The financial organizations of the nine countries that were destroyed were bought over by the two banks. Following set standards, they were opened to the public to stimulate the financial market.

Hence, the two banks could absorb the spare cash of the African locals to support the second and even third rounds of development in Africa, forming a positive cycle.

30 million gold was far from enough for the huge Africa continent.

…

As they developed the Africa continent, the Africa warzone was also adjusted under the supervision of the Privy Court.

Taking down nine countries within half a year was an exceptional achievement. Under the leadership of Baiqi, the four legion corps had become a pack of killer wolves, sweeping Africa.

Baiqi’s nickname of Asura spread across the entire Africa, terrifying everyone who heard it.

After fighting so many successive wars, it was unavoidable that there would be a few tough ones. The four legion corps had suffered losses of varying extents. With the permission of the Privy Court, they replenished their troops with the surrendered soldiers.

After all of the legion corps were replenished, many troops still remained.

Due to that, to strengthen the African local’s recognition of the Imperial Court, Ouyang Shuo instructed them to disarm one of the four legion corps to form the bailiffs and defending division.

The empty spot would be filled up by war prisoners.

After this adjustment, the percentage of African native soldiers to foreign soldiers was around 20%, at around 250 thousand.

In the future, this would become the standard.

For every governor-general house, the local soldiers must reach 20% to maintain stability.

Apart from increasing the native civilian recognition of the Imperial Court, they could also reduce the animosity of the surrounding countries because the Great Xia Army would not be filled with purely foreigners.

…

The scorching hot sunlight shone into the Imperial Reading Room, signaling that time was being lost.

Just now, Ouyang Shuo and the three ministers had decided on the two spots for Provincial Governor. They planned to appoint Old Tang minister Zhangsun Wuji to the position of Tanzania Province Provincial Governor and promote Leizhou Prefecture Governor Yang Xiuqing to Mozambique Provincial Governor.

Zhangsun Wuji came from the Henan Zhangsun family and was raised by his uncle. When he was young, he was good friends with Tang Taizong. Later, they became in-laws. After Tang Gaozu started the coup, Zhangsun Wuji stepped forward to help, fighting alongside Li Shiming. He became his advisor and participated and planned the Xuanwu gate matter.

During the Zhuoguan years, Zhangsun Wuji held many important positions such as the position of Zuowu great general, secretary of personnel, and head of the secretariat. He was given the title of Zhao Duke and was the top official amongst the 24 in the Lingyan Pavilion. During the fight for the throne, he supported Gaozong and was appointed as a supreme government official, a Grade 3 official.

During Yonghui’s rule, he wrote the Tang Dynasty Code on the foundations of the Zhuoguan code, he also opposed Gaozong making Wu Zetian the empress. In the 4th year of Xianqing, Wu Zetian was framed by Xu Jingzong under the instructions of Wu Zetian and exiled.

Zhangsun Wuji served three dynasties in history and was a minister for 30 odd years. He was all rounded and a famous Tang Dynasty politician. He was a relative of the emperor and had a lot of power, but he did not misuse it. He was loyal to the royal family, putting his heart and soul into everything he did. He helped to form up the Tang Dynasty ruling system.

Such a talent with a massive influence on the Tang Dynasty officials could not be left within the country, so Ouyang Shuo decided to send him to Africa.

Zhangsun Wuji’s performance would determine his future.

Zhangsun Wuji was dispatched while Yang Xiuqing was promoted. Going from Governor-General to Provincial Governor seemed like just a small step, but it was actually like a carp jumping through the dragon’s gate.

Furthermore, Mozambique had a vast swathe of land and was connected to the Bantu Dynasty; it was a really important strategic position. Furthermore, it was rich in resources, and Africa was just being developed. Consequently, this position was all the more important.

Yang Xiuqing could be considered a long serving official of the dynasty, arriving during the Taiping Country era.

Ouyang Shuo promoted him to Mozambique Provincial Governor because he cared about old relationships and because Yang Xiuqing had the ability. Especially after he washed the remnants of the Taiping Country from himself; he was a really great talent.

With the Tanzania and Mozambique provincial governors selected, only the issue of Guanxi Province was left.

Guanxi Province included both Qin and Tang. It had Asura City, Fallen Leaf City, and two imperial cities. Furthermore, it was previously ruled by Qin and Tang, so its foundations were something that other provinces could not compare to.

The Guanxi Provincial Governor must be someone exceptional.

Logically speaking, top talents such as old Qin officials like Li Si or Wei Liao, or Great Tang officials like Fang Xuanling or Gao Shilian could fit the role. Unfortunately, their connections with the province were too deep. To prevent future problems, they definitely could not be appointed there.

In the end, it was best to shift a current provincial governor over.

Using this chance, Ouyang Shuo selected a few native Provincial Governors who had been serving for a longer time, including Huo Guang, Pei Ju, Wei Ran, Wufu, Fan Zhongyan, and West Gate Big Official.

All that remained were those who were appointed within the last one to two years.

Hence, one could see how fast Great Xia was expanding, getting more members and additions.

Out of the six, Wufu was the future Xijiang Governor-General and should not be moved. Meanwhile, Fan Zhongyan and West Gate Big Official had both been moved recently.

Even Pei Ju had just shifted over from Somalia Province in the 7th year.

As a result, only Wei Ran and Huo Guang were suitable for the position.

The Mongol Empire had not been dealt with, so the Imperial Court still needed Huo Guang to take charge of Liaojin Province. In the end, Wei Ran was left as the only choice.

However, the person that Ouyang Shuo was the most unwilling to choose was him.

He had a precedence of being greedy and abusing hus power. Although he had changed after Ouyang Shuo’s warning, a leopard could not change its spot.

This time, Ouyang Shuo faced a dilemma.

Zhang Tingyu said, “Your majesty, why don’t we appoint Wei Ran to Guanxi?” Leaving personnel arrangements unsolved was a huge worry for dynasties. In his eyes, as long as one compromised, everything would turn out well.

Ouyang Shuo kept silent. Currently, his brows were locked tight. After a long while, he said, “Some matters cannot be compromised. Let’s move Pei Ju over.”

Ouyang Shuo had great trust in Pei Ju.

Kou Zhun and Zhang Tingyu exchanged glances. Both had their own thoughts regarding this matter. Wei Ran’s bad past made him lose a chance to get to another level, making one sigh.

Ouyang Shuo was really stubborn and firm in the way he used people. From now onward, Wei Ran would probably be unable to rise and would remain at his current stage.

A worried look flashed across Jiang Shang’s eyes. His line of thought was in a different direction to Kou Zhun and Zhang Tingyu. Did his majesty stop the promotion of Wei Ran partially because his son-in-law Baiqi was rising up too high?

Jiang Shang did not dare to think much more about it, choosing to remain silent.

“The thoughts of an emperor are impossible to guess.” Sometimes, Jiang Shang was unable to figure out what the emperor was thinking.

Since they were going to move Pei Ju to Guanxi, Kou Zhun suggested they select Gao Shilian to take over the empty Yunnan Provincial Governor role. With that, Great Tang would have two Provincial Governors right away. They were truly filled with talents.

Gao Shilian was a minister of the Sui Dynasty department of rites. As he was implicated by Husi Zheng, in the 9th year of Daye, he was demoted to the secretary general of Zhuyuan County.

In the 5th year of Wude, Gao Shilian submitted to the Tang Dynasty and helped Li Shiming in the Xuanwu gate incident as the Yongzhou Governor. Afterwards, he was promoted and given the title of Duke of Xing.

In the 5th year of Zuoguan, he was appointed as the minister of personnel and was given the title of Duke of Xu. He was ordered to set up the Record of Clans and was awarded with the rank of secondary Grade 3. In the 12th year, he became the head of the important executive bureau of the government and held the post of chancellor.

In the 19th year, he was appointed as the imperial tutor to aid prince Li Zhi in running the country. When Emperor Taizong commissioned the Portraits at Lingyan Pavilion to commemorate the 24 meritorious officials of Tang rule, Gao Shilian’s portrait was included.

Hence, one could see that Gao Shilian was totally up to the task.

After discussing the choice of Guanxi Provincial Governor, the positions for Li Si, Wei Liao, and Fang Xuanling were next, which was another headache.

Let’s not mention Wei Liao, who was not that famous. Li Si and Fang Xuanling were top class talents even in China’s five-thousand-year long history. They were listed among the top 10 prime ministers.

The problem was that Great Xia did not have a place for them.

Chapter 1253 - Empire strategy

Chapter 1253: TWO Chapter 1253-Empire strategy

The Imperial Court had a fixed number of posts. With their ability, they should at least be directors. They were even good enough to be one of the four ministers and enter the Cabinet.

Helplessly, these positions could not be adjusted.

Although the Cabinet did not have a fixed organization, Ouyang Shuo was not prepared to add in new elders. The current Cabinet had one Grand Secretary, three assistants, and two part-time ones, which was enough.

However, he had to arrange a post for them. He could not simply let such talents slack around doing nothing because that would be wasting treasures.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was in a pickle, Jiang Shang stepped out and said, “Your majesty, I think it’s time to arrange secretary-generals and commissioners for the governor-general houses.”

As a regional office, the governor-general house naturally was not an empty shell. Apart from the governor-general, there were two core officials – the secretary-general and the commissioner.

The secretary-general was similar to the chief of staff, while the commissioner was the advisor of the governor-general and could be seen as their strategist.

Due to Great Xia still focusing on separating administrative and military matters, the role of secretary-general was a lot higher than the position of governor-general.

Based on the Great Xia system, the governor-general house was split into two, the commander in chief house and the great general house. Basically, in the military, the commander in chief was ranked higher than the great general, and the position of the commander in chief house was higher than the great general house.

The commander in chief governor was a primary Grade 2 official, similar to the Censorate minister, Honglu Temple minister, and court of law head. It was a position higher than the four deputy ministers of the court and lower than the four ministers of the court.

Relatively, the secretary-general was primary Grade 3, similar to the position of provincial governor.

The great general governor position was a secondary Grade 2 position, which was the same as the four deputies of the courts and the Imperial Capital Governor. The secretary general would be secondary Grade 3, same as directors under the four courts.

During the previous adjustment, the Imperial Capital Governor was promoted from primary Grade 3 to secondary Grade 2, showing the strategic position of the imperial capital. At the same time, with the Great Xia Bank as the central bank, its president went up to secondary Grade 2 from secondary Grade 3.

The presidents of the business and agriculture banks would remain as secondary Grade 3 officials.

The Nanjiang Governor General House had five provinces under it. Naturally, it was a commander in chief governor house. Hence, the correct way of referring to it would be Nanjiang Commander in Chief Governor House. Beijiang had three provinces and was temporarily a great general governor house.

After taking down nine countries in Africa, the Africa Governor-General House was promoted to the Africa Commander in Chief Governor House.

Jiang Shang was suggesting that they equip them with secretary-generals and commissioners to strengthen the construction of the governor-general houses to support the G=governor-general. Additionally, it was to give relative restrictions and monitoring.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he was filled with thoughts as he said, “I’ll follow your suggestion.”

“Your majesty is wise!” Jiang Shang was delighted.

Things were just so coincidental. Li Si, Fang Xuanling, and Wei Liao were all advisors that were all rounded, and they even had similar levels of experiences.

After further discussion, they decided to send Li Si to Nanjiang, Fang Xuanling to Africa, and Wei Liao to Beijiang.

Out of these places, Africa’s situation was the most complicated, so Li Si was the best choice. However, considering Mulan Yue’s young age, she might not be able to control him. Moreover, Baiqi was there. To avoid suspicion, Li Si who was also from Qin could not be sent there.

Luckily, Fang Xuanling was an intelligent person with many ideas. He was also honest and had an even temperament. He would definitely be able to assist Mulan Yue and help her manage the overseas territory.

At this point, this round of personnel arrangements had finally come to an end.

Before leaving, Kou Zhun asked, “Your majesty, where should the Guanxi Province ruling city be set at?” Both Chang An and Xianyang were suitable. As such, it was a difficult decision.

The choice could easily make the civilians of the not chosen city unhappy.

However, Ouyang Shuo made an easy selection. He said with a smile, “First come, first serve. Let’s go with Xianyang.”

“Yes, your majesty!”

Kou Zhun was impressed. With those words, there was nothing that Chang An could say.

…

After sending Jiang Shang and the other two off, Ouyang Shuo still had more work to do.

Settling the officials and adjusting the relevant personnel matters was only the first step. Next would be the generals as well as the troops of Zhou, Song, Qin, and Tang.

In terms of surrendered generals, Qin had Wang Jian and Wang Ben, while Tang had Hou Junji, Li Shiji, Yuchi Gong, and Cheng Yaojin. Amongst them, Wang Jian and Li Shiji were the best and could become marshals. The next tier would consist of Wang Ben and Hou Junji, followed by the rest.

Wang Jian was even capable enough to be a warzone commander.

Next would be the surrendered troops. Amongst which, 650 thousand were from Zhou, 380 were from Song, and 500 thousand were from Tang and Qin, totaling at 2.03 million troops. Apart from Song, which was slightly weaker, the rest were all elites.

It would be a huge waste to disband all of them.

The problem was that along with the mid plains being unified, the current Great Xia Army needed to go through a round of disarmament to reduce expenditure. Making a new legion corps was not an option now.

Dealing with these two million troops became a huge problem.

At 3 PM, Zhang Liang, Jia Xu, and Du Ruhui were invited to the Imperial Reading Room to discuss this matter.

“How do you think we should deal with the troops of the four countries?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Hearing this question, Zhang Liang was the first to step out and answer, “Your majesty, I think that settling them should not be an isolated matter and should be considered along with the disarmament.”

“What you’re saying is?”

Zhang Liang said, “Along with the mid plains being unified, our strategy can turn to the outside. Our disarmament should not be simply a rough and brutal disarmament. Instead, we should follow our strategic direction to decide troops. We should take this chance to rebuild and strengthen the current structure. The goal is to strengthen the empire’s overall strength and not to weaken it.”

Since Qin and Tang had submitted, the officials had all come to a common understanding to stop referring to Great Xia as an Emperor dynasty and call it empire instead. That’s right, with their current territory, although it was not an imperial dynasty, it was worthy of being called an empire.

Calling Great Xia an Emperor dynasty would be belittling them.

Ouyang Shuo allowed them to do so. No matter what, Empire sounded grander, and a newly rising superpower needed to have such confidence.

Zhang Liang’s suggestion pertained to more than just the two million troops and referred to a problem that was not a purely Great Xia military one. It was a problem that would affect the future two to three years and the empire’s progression beyond that.

The problem was huge and could not be avoided.

Ouyang Shuo smiled. As expected from a master like Zhang Liang. Ouyang Shuo was always open to opinions, so he said, “That’s great. Let’s discuss what the future strategy of our empire should be.”

Zhang Liang stepped out once more and said, “The requirement to become an imperial dynasty is to obtain the Overlord position in Asia. If we set out from this point, India in the southwest, Persia Empire in the west, and Romanov Dynasty in the north are enemies we cannot avoid. As such, they should be the focus of our strategy.”

Zhang Liang did not mention Java and the Mongol Empire, but it was not because he missed them out. Rather, it was because those two were just little flies that could be easily taken down with current strength.

“Further would be the Arica continent and the America continent, which is at its sprouting stage. Even with how to enter Europe in the future, it’s up to your majesty’s discretion.”

Unknowingly, Great Xia had built up a structure to rule the world. Its reach stretched over the globe. However, this structure was still really fragile and needed deeper roots.

Ouyang Shuo expressed, “Europe is temporarily not within our strategic considerations.”

In Europe, Great Xia only had one Jidian City. To use just one city to shake the entire continent was nearly impossible. More importantly, based on Ouyang Shuo’s long term vision, Europe should not be their main enemy.

In the future, they could possibly become allies.

“Understood!”

Zhang Liang nodded. He himself felt that giving up on Europe was a wise decision. One could not put one’s eggs into too many baskets.

At this moment, Du Ruhui stood out to say, “I feel that although expanding is important, we cannot forget our local defenses. No matter what, the mid plains are the core area of the dynasty, so we must not relax when dealing with it.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and concluded, “Mid plains, South Asia, West Asia, North Asia, Africa, and America; of these six strategic directions, none must be given up and must be treated seriously. The dynasty is still facing huge challenges. Just as Zifang mentioned, we need to plan for this disarmament. Although we need to reduce the number of troops, we need to ensure an increase in our overall battle strength.”

“After this, the Grand Council, Privy Court, and Administrative Mentor Court needs to discuss the specifics to come up with an actual feasible disarmament plan to try to complete it by the end of the year.” Ouyang Shuo ordered.

“Yes, emperor!” The three ministers all nodded.

It was already the middle of the 7th month, so they were just five months away from the end of the year.

Logically speaking, this disarmament involved the entire army and would at least take three months or even longer. This also meant that not much time was left for the three organizations to come up with a plan.

Before this, they still had to deal with the two million troops. Toward this matter, Jia Xu had a plan to report to the emperor.

However, since this plan was really vicious, it might not be approved.

Chapter 1254 - Meat grinder operation

Chapter 1254: TWO Chapter 1254-Meat grinder operation

“Your majesty, I feel that before we disarm, we should deal with Tibet and Java first. Only then can we clear all problems and disarm in peace.” Jia Xu said.

“I agree!”

Du Ruhui nodded his head in agreement and said, “The Africa war matter has stopped for now, and the mid plains have been unified. America is also really calm, so it’s the best time to focus our efforts on wiping out those two countries.”

Zhang Liang added, “The Ashoka Dynasty in India is one of our biggest obstacles to ruling Asia. It has also swallowed up the Tibet Dynasty and insulted the honor of China. We must not compromise. We have to fight back strongly to chase them away and protect the honor of China.”

Ouyang Shuo looked toward Jia Xu and asked, “Do you have a plan?”

“Yes.”

Jia Xu suppressed the trepidation in his heart and described his meatgrinder operation. The moment he finished speaking, the air in the entire Imperial Reading Room froze, directly falling by 10 degrees.

“This…”

Ouyang Shuo’s brows were locked tight as he paced around the room.

On the other hand, Zhang Liang and Du Ruhui stared at Jia Xu with fear and respect. No one could have expected him to be so crazy.

The Ashoka Dynasty was strong because of its 4.5 million imperial city guards.

Jia Xu’s meat grinder operation involved fighting them head on by sending the two million troops to Tibet. Under the command of the northwest warzone, these troops would wear them down.

He planned to make the Tibet Dynasty into a giant meat grinder.

“With that, not only can we destroy their army, but we can also settle the two million troops. It is killing two birds with one stone. Only the survivors will have the right to join the Great Xia Army.”

Jia Xu described it as such.

Ouyang Shuo sat down once more. He looked at Du Ruhui and asked, “Keming, what do you think?”

“The road from the Shu Lands to Tibet is tough, and they would need to go through mountains and ridges. To move them to the frontlines is really difficult, much less the resources needed to support the two million of them; this is harder than scaling the heavens.”

Du Ruhui was indirectly opposing the plan.

Truthfully, if one needed to support for the two million troops, a single Shu Lands Province would not be enough. Transporting from Shu to Tibet was tough while transporting from other provinces to Shu was also difficult.

Even if one transported resources from the nearest Jingchu Province to Tibet, the consumption on the road would still be shocking.

“It would not be worth it.” Du Ruhui said.

Jia Xu had a different idea and argued, “It is hard for us, but it’s also hard for them. At such a time, it’s a battle of determination. The party that is more vicious will win.”

Du Ruhui still disagreed and said, “Can we send troops from Hetao Province instead? With the Nanjiang Governor-General House as a backline, the resource line would be smoother.”

Jia Xu shook his head and replied, “We can only attack the Peacock Dynasty from Hetao.”

“Nothing is wrong with that.”

The two of them debated with one another while Ouyang Shuo sat there silently, allowing the matter to play out.

Jia Xu said, “The Ashoka Dynasty is the biggest problem for our empire right now. If we attack the Peacock Dynasty, even if we win, we would still have to face the threat of a peak Ashoka Dynasty. Who knows, maybe the Gupta Dynasty would even join in. If we fail to defend, we will be giving the Ashoka Dynasty a free gift.”

“Furthermore, attacking the Peacock Dynasty will not solve the Tibet problem. Since we have confirmed that Ashoka is the biggest threat, we must stop at nothing to destroy them.”

Du Ruhui retorted, “If we waste a large amount of resources to wear down the Ashoka Dynasty, won’t we be giving the Peacock and Gupta dynasties a freebie too?”

Jia Xu smiled and replied, “The current India situation is one strong and two weak. After Ashoka shows invasive tendency, the Peacock and Gupta dynasties would start to feel uneasy.”

“If the Ashoka Dynasty enters the Battle of Tibet, not only will they not help, but they will even attack the Ashoka Dynasty in India.”

“Hence, regardless of which side wins, it would weaken the overall strength of India and build a firm foundation for our future strategy there.”

Du Ruhui was at a loss for words. He did not expect that Jia Xu would have actually thought through it all already.

It was obvious that this meat grinder operation was not thought of on the spot and was deduced after a long period of time. It was only taken out after all directions were considered.

Weirdly, they did not debate whether sending the two million soldiers to die was fair and acceptable. It was apparent that they had reached a common understanding on this point.

Jia Xu added, “The grain transport matter is not as difficult as it seems. Apart from the Shu Lands, Xihai, Yunnan and Nanjiang’s Hetao are all connected to it. We can transport resources from these four places into Tibet.”

“In this aspect, we have an advantage over the Ashoka Dynasty. Moreover, the first grain season has ended, and the huge harvest is enough to support this battle of attrition.”

“The heavens are blessing us, and we can settle this in one blow.” Jia Xu concluded.

Du Ruhui had nothing else to say, so he bowed towards Ouyang Shuo and concluded, “Your majesty, I have no opposing opinion.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded before looking toward Zhang Liang. Zhang Liang stood up and bowed before saying, “Your majesty, I feel that there’s risk involved, but it’s one that we should take.”

“Since that’s the case, let’s do it!”

At this moment, Ouyang Shuo’s voice was emotionless; it was so rational that it sent a chill down one’s spine.

The moment those words were said, it affected the fates of two million soldiers as well as the laborers from 10 surrounding provinces, affecting the grain and resource storage from the last half a year.

Even though it was such an important matter, Ouyang Shuo had learned how to handle it simply and causally.

“Yes, my emperor!”

Zhang Liang, Du Ruhui, and Jia Xu all bowed in an orderly manner before leaving.

…

At the end of the 7th month, without the Ashoka Dynasty knowing anything at all, Great Xia started the largest scale logistical movement since the country was established.

With the Privy Court coordinating everything, along with the help of the Nanjiang Governor-General House and other offices, tens of millions of grain and resources flooded toward Xihai, Shu Lands, Yunnan, and Hetao.

Based on the Imperial Court requirements, Guanxi and Hedong were connected to Xihai Province and was the north transport line. Meanwhile, Jingchu and Xiangnan were connected to the Shu Lands.

Chuanbei and Chuannan were connected to Yunnan.

Hanoi was connected to Hetao Province and was the south transport line.

As such, to prepare for the Battle of Tibet, Great Xia was making use of the resources from 11 provinces. This matter was not only unprecedented in Great Xia but also in the entire world.

For this war, Great Xia was really going all out!

Chapter 1255 - Cannot afford to lose

Chapter 1255: TWO Chapter 1255-Cannot afford to lose

7th month, 25th day, Great Xia released a series of general appointments.

Northwest warzone commander great general Li Jing would step down from his position as Bear legion corps marshal. The position would be taken up by Hedong legion corps marshal Zuo Zongtang. Great Tang general Hou Junji would take over as marshal of the Hedong legion corps.

The war of Tibet that was about to begin would be led by the northwest warzone. To reduce the burden on Li Jing and to allow him to focus on this war, the Imperial Court decided to release him from his role as Bear legion corps marshal.

Warzone commanders not being legion corps marshals was necessary.

Zuo Zongtang was familiar with the west and was also a top general. Furthermore, he was good at firearms. All things considered, he was good enough to be the Bear legion corps marshal and stood out from the rest.

Great Xia had an unwritten rule that if the role of marshal of a Warfighting legion corps was empty due to normal circumstances, the new marshal would most likely be chosen from the Border Defense legion legion corps marshals. Unless the new general was really exceptional and could not be replaced, he or she would first be placed in a Border Defense legion corps like the current Hedong Legion corps marshal Hou Junji.

Hou Junji was a famous Tang Dynasty general, official, and minister of the military department.

He did not learn much early on but was known for being courageous and valiant. He joined the Qin king manor to fight alongside Li Shiming, earning a lot of merit. He gradually gained Li Shiming’s recognition. He started the Xuanwu gate incident along with Yuchi Gong.

After Tang was unified, his position got higher and higher, and he started to learn and participate in the selection for talents. He learned from Li Jing about the art of war but reported him for showing signs of wanting to rebel.

During the years of Zuoguan, he following Li Jing to attack the Turkish Khanate, and then he led an army to destroy Gaochang.

After gathering a lot of merit, Hou Junji started to become really arrogant. He was sent to jail because he kept treasures obtained from destroying Gaochang. After he was released, he became filled with vengeance and persuaded general Zhang Liang and crown prince Li Chenggan to rebel.

In the 17th year of Zuoguan, Huo Junji was executed because he was implicated in crown prince Li Chenggan’s plot to rebel.

Evidently, Huo Junji had the ability to lead troops to war. However, his personality was flawed, and he was not morally upright.

Ouyang Shuo could only hope that with the lesson from history, this person would be more careful and humble.

…

In middle of the 8th month, Great Xia’s unusual actions were finally noticed by the Ashoka Dynasty.

As an NPC dynasty, swallowing Tibet was Ashoka’s first time interfering in outside battlefields. At that time, he used Tibetan civilians to build up a Chinese intel organization to infiltrate Great Xia.

One could see how new and inexperienced this intel organization was.

Moreover, since the Shanhai Guards were focused on them, they basically could not do much in China. A Great Xia grain transport operation on such a great scale took the Ashoka Dynasty spies close to a month to find out, truly a massive failure.

At this point, Great Xia’s first batch of grain was already in position. This also meant that Great Xia had met the conditions to start war because the subsequent grain and resources could be transported as the war went on.

India Region, Ashoka Dynasty, New Delhi.

Ashoka was the 3rd generation ruler of the ancient Magadha Country. He ruled during the most prosperous period of Indian history, and he was the most extraordinary king in India history. If it were not for a lack of people to compare him to, his position in India would basically be like Qin Shihuang and the Hanwu Emperor.

At 18 years of age, Ashoka was appointed as the Avanti Province Governor.

Bindusara’s death in 272 BCE led to a war over succession. According to the Divyavadana, Bindusara wanted his elder son Susima to succeed him, but Ashoka was supported by his father’s ministers, who found Susima to be arrogant and disrespectful toward them.

Legends had it that Ashoka plotted and killed close to 99 brothers and sisters before obtaining victory in the end. In 269 BC, he officially ascended.

During his early years, he loved to kill and fight and unified the entire South Asia and a portion of modern-day Afghanistan. In his later years, he started to believe in Buddhism and put down his butcher knife as a result.

The Ashoka that appeared in the wilderness was just over 40, having both the intelligence of his later years and the killing intent of his early years. He was an emperor that one had to pay a lot of respect to.

As such, it was no wonder that prideful people like the Peacock king and the Gupta king showed so much respect toward him.

Such an Ashoka naturally did not know how to retreat without fighting.

Hence, upon learning that Great Xia was actively preparing for war, Ashoka did not hesitate and directly gave the order to mobilize the troops to defend the Tibet that they had just taken down.

One must know that the moment he took down Tibet and stepped on Chinese land, his prestige in India had risen to an all new high. Even the active Peacock and Gupta dynasties were not as eye-catching as him.

This was because this was something that the two dynasties wanted to do but had not managed to accomplish.

This alone meant that Ashoka would stop at nothing to defend this rare honor. If not, what would be the meaning of him reappearing in the wilderness?

After this order was handed down, another 500 thousand guards gathered toward the Tibet border.

Along with the one million troops that were already there as well as the 300 thousand Tibet troops that were swallowed up, Ashoka had a total of 1.8 million troops in Tibet.

With such an army, Ashoka even felt confident about turning defense into attack; he felt that they could attack the Shu Lands Province of Great Xia.

After all, based on the intel from the spies, Great Xia was just transporting resources to the front and had not shown signs of mobilizing troops. The grain transporting news that they found out was limited to the Shu Lands.

The intel ability of the two sides were not even on the same level.

Compared to the spies of the Ashoka Dynasty that were lagging behind, the Black Snake Guards active in India were amazing. Moments after Ashoka gave the order, the spies found out and informed the Imperial Court.

…

8th month, 18th day, imperial capital.

Secret Document Pavilion advisor Juedai Fenghua was dressed in black clothing, appearing very stable and hardworking. She purposely tried to cover her extraordinary looks as she held onto the intel from the Black Snake Guards and sent it to the Imperial Reading Room table.

After taking charge of intelligence as soon as she entered the Secret Document Pavilion, Juedai Fenghua had acted in a really low-profile manner.

She knew that although the decorations of the Xia Palace were similar to Great Zhou’s palace, the two were on entirely different levels. This palace was not only the center of Great Xia but also the center of the world.

Many people focused on every action in there.

There was no way Ouyang Shuo could trust her the way Di Chen trusted her. All she could do was to let her actions speak, and she did not dare do make any high-profile actions, much less wear eye-catching dresses in case she was accused of trying to seduce the emperor.

Time will tell one’s true heart.

Ouyang Shuo naturally did not bother about what she was thinking about and directly accepted the intel file. As the preparation for the war of Tibet made use of a lot of labor and funds, Ouyang Shuo was facing a lot of pressure from the Imperial Court and the civilians.

Although no one dared to stand out to oppose him outright, if they faced defeat in this war, Ouyang Shuo’s authority and prestige in the wilderness would be affected.

If one followed history, Jia Xu who started this would be sacked and become the scapegoat.

Hence, they had to win this war and could not afford to lose.

Looking at the report, Ouyang Shuo smiled in relief. He was worried that Ashoka would not dare to fight. If that happened, just killing the million Ashoka Dynasty troops would be far from reaching their intended goal.

Ashoka did not disappoint Ouyang Shuo.

“Pass this intel to the Grand Council, Privy Court, and the northwest and southwest warzones; tell them that they can begin.” Ouyang Shuo placed down the intel and instructed as such.

“Yes, emperor!”

Juedai Fenghua nodded. Her heart could not help but be filled by emotions. Compared to Di Chen, who was either always anxious or panicky, Ouyang Shuo made difficult decisions like it meant nothing at all.

There was no way to learn to have such a demeanor.

Chapter 1256 - The Great wind blows and the clouds are scattered

Chapter 1256: TWO Chapter 1256-The Great wind blows and the clouds are scattered

8th month, 19th day, the Great Xia Army started to move according to plan.

At 9am, the 650 thousand troops housed outside of the city teleported from Handan City to Hetao province’s Naypyidaw City. They were prepared to charge into Tibet from Hetao Province and would be the left wing of the army.

Leading this army was the former Pill Sun legion corps marshal Tian Dan.

At the same time, the 380 thousand strong Song army teleported from Xiangyang City to Dali City. They were planning to charge into Tibet from Yunnan Province and would act as the middle protection army.

Since Great Song lacked good generals, the Imperial Court especially sent Beijiang legion corps marshal Yue Fei to command this Song army. As the Beijiang legion corps still had a deputy marshal in Chen Yucheng, Yue Fei’s absence was not that important.

500 thousand Tang troops under the leadership of Li Shiji teleported from Chang An City to Chengdu. They would charge into Tibet from the Shu Lands. They would act as the main middle force of the army.

Similarly, the 500 thousand Qin troops set out from Xianyang. They were led by Wang Jian west into Xihai Province then into Tibet to act as the right wing.

Li Jing would command the two Warfighting legion corps of the northwest warzone as the reserve forces.

To make these two million troops willingly charge to the frontlines, Ouyang Shuo made it clear that whether these soldiers could enter the Great Xia Army and whether the generals could receive good appointments would depend on their performance in this battle.

The families of anyone who perished during this battle would obtain the standard Great Xia military compensation.

Ouyang Shuo even personally went to each camp to speak and said, “The four countries submitted because of the situation, and it is not the fault of any of you. You might be unwilling and unhappy, and you might want to wipe out the humiliation on the battlefield. Since that’s the case, the war of Tibet is a chance for you to prove if you’re a dragon or a worm.”

The moment they heard those words, all the soldiers felt pumped up.

In the past month, news regarding how the Imperial Court would arrange them had never stopped. The most popular rumor was that the Imperial Court wanted to disarm them.

Naturally, such rumors made them unhappy.

Especially those from Qin and Tang, who felt that they were no weaker than Great Xia’s army. However, they were unable to prove their strength in war. Truthfully speaking, the soldiers had some resentment in their hearts.

Now, the Imperial Court was giving them a chance to prove themselves.

“This is not a China internal war but a fight against an overseas army. I hope that all of you can fight valiantly and spread the honor of China. This is also the last bit of glory you will fight for your old home.” Ouyang Shuo said.

This time, the eyes of some of the soldiers teared up.

Soldiers were responsible for defending their land. As the last shield of their dynasties, they were unable to do that, making them feel really ashamed. News had it that when Qin Shihuang died, the 500 thousand Qin troops had broken down into a deafening wave of cries.

That kind of situation was enough to make anyone feel emotional.

Hence, when they learned that the Imperial Court was sending them to Tibet, the 500 thousand Qin army did not even need to think about it. Their morale was really high, and they were determined to protect their names on the Tibet battlefield.

A large portion of them were even prepared to die.

Ouyang Shuo clearly remembered the words of one of the Qin soldiers who said, “Unable to die together with the Qin king is my life’s regret. I can only throw my old body onto the battlefield to keep the honor of the Qin army.”

The Great Qin army, even if they had not appeared in the wilderness for long, still had a lot of pride and an iron backbone.

“Majestic Great Qin!” Ouyang Shuo personally held up his wine bowl and sent the soldiers on their way emotionally, “I do not want you all to die on the battlefield. I hope that all of you can spread down this spirit and merge into the Great Xia bloodline. Do not forget that we are all one entity; we have a common home, and its name is China.”

“Bottoms up!”

Ouyang Shuo drank it all before smashing the bowl onto the ground, creating a clean breaking noise.

“Bottoms up, your majesty!”

The Great Qin soldier’s eyes were watery as they all drank up and smashed their bowls onto the ground. Even Wang Jian and Wang Ben were filled with emotions.

Their ‘your majesty’ referred to both Qin Shihuang and Ouyang Shuo. Ouyang Shuo used his personal charm to win over these men to make them willingly charge to the battlefield.

The scene that day was simply too memorable and stunning to the point where Ouyang Shuo would not forget it for his entire life.

China with its five thousand years of glorious history had such iron backbone. Such fighting spirit was actually present in the blood of each and every child. As long as the country was in trouble, they would be able to show shocking ability.

To be born as a Chinese was something that Ouyang Shuo was really proud of.

…

Two million troops from four different countries, a mixed bunch. Some were prepared to valiantly fight for their past, some were afraid of war, and some were even filled with hatred toward Great Xia.

The Imperial Court had made some preparations for this group of people.

First was naturally the northwest warzone’s Eagle and Bear legion corps. They were the reserve army but were actually the supervising army and execution army.

Anyone that did not go all out would be executed.

Secondly would be their families.

Although the two million soldiers were going out to war, their families were still in the mid plains. If they dared to get out of hand or go against orders, one must not blame the Imperial Court for acting against their families.

With such a bargaining chip, the soldiers would have no choice but to go all out.

After submitting to Great Xia, they should be considered Great Xia troops. Since they were soldiers, fighting for their country was expected, so they should not have any unhappiness.

The war of Tibet was a proper war; it was not purely sending them to their deaths.

The Imperial Court had made it clear that this war was like previous wars. All kills on the battlefield would be calculated and relative rewards would be handed out.

The only difference would be that this battle would be crueler.

However, cruelness was a normal part of wars. On the day that they enlisted, they should have been clear about this. Hence, logically speaking, they had nothing much to complain about.

The Imperial Court did so much work because they hoped that the two million troops could take out their spirit to fight well and help the empire build a proper base to ruling Asia.

They did not want some low morale weaklings. If that happened, they would not be wearing down the Ashoka Dynasty. Instead, it would be training the enemy up and giving them experience.

For this battle, the Imperial Court had wracked their brains and spent a lot.

Not to mention the close to two million gold in teleportation costs, compared to the other expenditures, this was just a small amount. The largest expenditure was the huge amount of resources and grain.

Furthermore, they had to transport to a place like Tibet, which required a much higher cost.

Next would be the foreseeable sky-high death count and compensation fees. From the attitude of Ashoka, one could see how intense this war would be, and there definitely would not be only a few deaths.

Without this war, the Imperial Court would only need to give them a retirement fee. Moreover, after they retired, they could add their productivity to other aspects of the empire.

With all these expenditures, the sum was almost too difficult to calculate.

Chapter 1257 - TWO Chapter 1257-Choosing which general to send

Chapter 1257: TWO Chapter 1257-Choosing which general to send

The Tibetan Plateau had many high mountains and rivers, and the landscape was dangerous and quick changing, uneven and complicated. The world’s tallest mountain Mount Everest and the Jinsha River that was 1503 meters above sea level were within its borders.

There were many mountains and boundless plains.

The rolling rivers wrapped around the mountains, twisting and turning; green grass grew all across around the canyons while strong and furry cows could be seen everywhere; the lake was like the blue sky as the light shone onto it. The water was so clear that you could see the bottom of the lake.

The mountain peaks were covered in white snow, while the foot of the mountains were warm like spring.

In the middle portion of the Tibetan plateau, north of the Himalayas mountain range sat the Tibet imperial city, Lhasa. The Lhasa river flowed past here and into the famous Yarlung Tsangpo River.

Before the capital was shifted, Lhasa City was situated in the wilderness. After Songtsen Gampo shifted over, he built the palace, temples, and used the rivers to settle the rough shape of the city. The Jokhang was built during this period.

Although the Lhasa City in the 8th month was covered in dark clouds, it was still tranquil.

Around the 25th day, the four armies of Great Xia reached the Tibetan border. The first obstacle ahead of them was not the Ashoka army but the cruel weather.

The armies of the four countries had never fought on high plains. After stepping into Tibet, they would more or less feel headaches, lose sleep, feel exhaustion, and have difficulty breathing…

Every single one of these aspects could be a battlefield killer.

Luckily, they had strong bodies, and their morale was really high. As such, their reactions were not too intense. If not, they would have lost this battle before it even began.

All of the Great Xia armies that stepped into Tibet would have to rest up on the spot for two days and adapt before setting off. As such, the four armies established a transitional camp at the border.

The two million troops were like flowing water, never stopping.

Seeing this, the spirited Ashoka Dynasty army started their attack on the Great Xia Army, giving rise to the first wave of battles at the border.

The Great Xia Army was still acclimating to the high plains. However, before they even had a chance to adjust, they were faced with the head on attacks of the enemy. Unavoidably, they panicked, and the number of casualties started to rise.

When the Ashoka Dynasty army saw that, they chased the win; they wanted to settle this war in one battle and force the Great Xia Army out. They sent out troops to disturb the transitional camps of the Great Xia Army.

The confident Great Xia Army suffered an early loss.

Seeing this situation, the northwest warzone command center ordered the four armies to use the transitional camps as their frontline base to stabilize themselves. They could not carelessly proceed and would only be allowed to counterattack after they had adapted to the climate.

Great Xia’s actions were undoubtedly a sign of weakness in the eyes of the Ashoka Dynasty army. As such, they grew even more arrogant, bragging and mocking Great Xia a distance from the Great Xia camp.

However, this only caused the northwest warzone command center to reinforce their orders and strictly warned the soldiers to not go out to fight.

…

In the blink of an eye, five days had passed.

9th month, 1st day, Shu Lands Province, Chengdu, northwest warzone headquarters.

Advisor Xun Yu walked into Li Jing’s room with the recently submitted battle report in hand. He said with worry, “Commander, the emotions of the soldiers are running high, and the generals are going to be unable to suppress them.”

When Li Jing heard that, he raised his head and asked, “Which is the worst?”

“Right wing.” Xun Yu answered.

The right wing was composed of the 500 thousand Qin army led by Wang Jian.

When Li Jing heard that, he smiled and said, “What a group of warriors. Luckily, general Wang Jian is capable and calm. Otherwise, they would have exploded, right?”

Xun Yu could not reply to that.

Everyone knew that when Ouyang Shuo was sending them off, the praise he gave to the Qin army made all of their blood boil; their killing intent had risen to the maximum.

Now that they had faced an early setback, the Qin army naturally could not accept it.

Luckily, Wang Jian was there. He had been through countless wars. He was intelligent and not rash, valiant with many strategies.

When Li Jing saw Xun Yu’s reaction, he did not continue and instead asked, “Currently, how many troops have adapted, and how much grain and resources have arrived at the frontlines?”

Xun Yu replied, “A total of 350 thousand in total can fight; the current resources can last for half a month.”

“Half a month.” Li Jing contemplated before he sighed, “The grain transportation is still a little too slow.”

“There’s nothing we can do about it, the path is too difficult, and we can only use horses and even manual labor to transport the grain. To get such results is already amazing.” Xun Yu explained, “Thousands of civilians have already been killed or injured. If it were not for his majesty making an appearance, those Provincial Governors would already be voicing their unhappiness. After all, it is currently the crucial period of the second rice sowing season.”

“No matter how difficult it is, we cannot relax. I’ll personally write a letter to his majesty.” Li Jing looked determined, and his tone was firm. He knew that this battle would be decided not on their reaction to the weather but on their grain.

Grain was the lifeline of the army, and they could not take it lightly.

Xun Yu nodded. Naturally, he had no objection to the commander’s decision. Not only was the commander the northwest warzone commander, but he was also one of the three part-time ministers in the Grand Council; the emperor trusted him greatly.

“Although it can only last for half a month, it’s basically enough. If we drag on any longer, things might change. It will also affect morale and would be detrimental to the upcoming war.” Xun Yu voiced his thoughts.

Li Jing nodded. He knew that these two million troops were not Great Xia’s proper army after all. They were not trained in the same way and were not taught their military discipline.

If the enemy continued to provoke them, things might really get out of hand.

“Since that is the case, let them strike when the opportunity arises. It’s time to give the enemy a bloody lesson to let them know that Great Xia cannot be bullied.” Li Jing made up his mind.

“Ok, I’ll send the order!” Xun Yu heaved a sigh of relief.

…

Along with the order from the command center being given, the four armies sprang into action.

Xihai Province, right wing camp.

The middle-aged Wang Jian looked at the order before confidently hollering, “Men!”

“Present!”

“Gather the generals for a meeting!”

“Yes, marshal!”

In less than 10 minutes, the Legion General level generals had all gathered. During this period of time, the army had remained on the defensive and did not attack, making the generals feel a lot of pent up frustration. When they learned that the marshal was calling them for a meeting, they rushed over at their fastest speed.

Standing at the front was the young Wang Ben, who asked excitedly, “Father, are we attacking?”

Wang Jian pressed down his hands, and the tent instantly became quiet. He said solemnly, “We have orders from the command center. We will turn from defense to attack, fighting when we see an opportunity. We need to make use of the enemy’s overconfidence to crush them. We have one week to take down one enemy city to act as out frontline base.”

As he said that, Wang Jian looked around and asked, “Who dares to be the vanguard to lead the troops to take down Anduo City?”

Anduo City was a county-level city and the closest city. Based on the reports from the scouts, the Ashoka Dynasty had 40 thousand troops stationed there, so they could not be underestimated.

“Father, I am willing!”

Wang Ben was the first to speak. When the other generals saw that, none of them made a noise.

A tiger would not beget a dog son. Wang Ben’s authority in the army was only below his father’s. He had true ability, and his great fame and merit did not come solely from his father.

The army was used to calling him the young commander.

When Wang Jian saw that, he nodded his head. They had to win the first battle, and sending Wang Jian gave him the most confidence, so he said, “Since that’s the case, you will lead 70 thousand men to take down Anduo City within five days.”

The time limit given to them was seven days, and Wang Jian naturally had higher demands.

However, who would have expected Wang Ben to be even more confident and pumped up, “Three days is enough!”

“There are no jokes in the army.” Wang Jian did not wish to see his son act big and fail.

Wang Ben was confident and said, “I am willing to give a military proclamation!” He was determined to take down the first blood and be the first out of the four armies to take down a city to show the strength of the Qin army.

“Okay, I’ll give you three days!”

Wang Jian did not say anymore. Since he had given a military proclamation, he would have to answer to military law if he failed.

“Thank you, father!”

Wang Ben cupped his fists and backed offf to a side.

Wang Jian once again looked around and said, “The rest of you immediately prepare for battle and prepare to assist.”

“Yes, commander!”

The generals all replied in unison. Currently, their blood was boiling with excitement.

“Go prepare!”

Wang Jian waved his hand as the generals all left.

In less than an hour, Wang Ben had selected his forces, taking three days of grain and resources before leaving the camp and heading to the frontlines.

The war of Tibet had officially begun.

Not only the right wing, but also the left army, the middle protector army, and the middle army charged out of their camps. They brought with them pent up anger and the determination to get the first blood of this war.

The army that grabbed it would attract the most attention.

Chapter 1258 - To get rich you have to build a road

Chapter 1258: TWO Chapter 1258-To get rich you have to build a road

9th month, 2nd day, Imperial Capital, Emperor Palace.

Just as the Great Xia Army was about to strike out from four fronts, Ouyang Shuo received Li Jing’s memorial.

He did not grumble about the Provincial Governors. Instead, he simply pointed out the fact that the current logistical support was not enough to allow the army to go all out.

If this war matter dragged on, it would lead to increasing pressure on logistics and would cause a negative cycle.

Targeting this situation, Ouyang Shuo especially summoned Cabinet assistant Zeng Guofan and Du Ruhui for a discussion to find a solution. Zeng Guofan was the civil servant in charge of local matters.

“How should we solve the logistical problem?”

Ouyang Shuo directly asked. Currently, his face was scarily dark. The war of Tibet was one that the empire could not lose, and he did not want to see anyone hold them back.

Seeing that, Zeng Guofan stepped out, biting the bullet as he said, “I’ll rush the 11 Provincial Governors to make this matter the number one priority. At the same time, I suggest that we gather more laborers and animals from neighboring provinces to help with transportation.”

Only then did Ouyang Shuo’s expression lighten, and he said, “Thank you for your hard work.”

Sometimes, Ouyang Shuo could understand the tough situation that the ministers were facing. The empire had 31 provinces, one imperial capital house, and five Zhili prefectures. It was huge and naturally difficult to run.

When an empire grew too big, the conflict of interests would naturally become complicated.

The Imperial Court had its strategy, while the local provinces had theirs. Just like this matter of grain transportation to the frontlines; this would negatively affect the 11 provinces, so it was understandable that the Provincial Governors felt unhappy about it.

After all, they had evaluation targets to meet every year that they had to take seriously.

Of course, understanding was understanding, but Ouyang Shuo could not allow them to put in less effort because of a little difficulty. Not going all out for the orders given to them was a problem of principles.

This was something that Ouyang Shuo had to make clear.

After Zeng Guofan made his statement, it was time for Du Ruhui to speak, and he said, “I suggest we let the Eagle, Bear, and Dragon Legion corps, and when needed, even the Hedong and Hanoi legion corps, use a portion of their men to help transport.”

“This idea is good!”

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head to express his support. The Great Xia legion corps system was perfect, not only having builders but also grain transport soldiers. Their efficiency would be higher than normal laborers, so sending a portion of them to help was a good idea.

This was a good use of resources.

After he squeezed the two ministers, Ouyang shuo continued, “I often say that a crisis is an also opportunity; this is not an exception. Shu Lands, Tibet, and even Yunnan have many high mountains and are difficult to traverse. This is bad for the Imperial Court rule. Especially Tibet, without a smooth path connecting it to the centre of the empire, even if we acquire it, it would be outside of our system and would be filled with many problems.”

“Since that’s the case, why don’t we use the convenience of this battle to make use of current resources and laborers to build a path connecting Tibet and the Shu Lands? This way, we can open up a channel to Tibet.”

The moment he said that, the eyes of the two ministers lit up.

Zeng Guofan even suggested, “We can build a path from the Shu Lands Province to Lhasa and one from Xingqing House to Lhasa; two paths to work at once.”

“Okay!”

Ouyang Shuo agreed.

In history, as Tibet was filled with mountains and rivers, it was really difficult for trade to flow. However, in modern society, the situation changed after the construction of the Qinghai–Tibet railway and the Chuanbei-Tibet railway.

Now, Great Xia needed to replicate these two legendary paths.

After all, the empire’s west strategy did not stop at Tibet and also included the Persia empire in the west, so there was even more meaning behind building these two paths. It would allow the Imperial Court to connect with west Asia.

“After this, with the Cabinet at the lead, work with the Construction Department and hire the best architects and engineers to confirm the paths and come up with a plan. Begin construction immediately after.” Ouyang Shuo instructed.

“Understood!”

In truth, considering the real world railways, the Construction Department could hire the top architects from the real world, confirming that the railroad plan would not be too difficult.

The difficultly lay in building it. To build two paths under such conditions would require a lot of laborers and soldiers to be buried on the path forever.

However, even if this matter was difficult, it had to go on.

…

Returning to the battlefield.

9th month, 3rd day, 11am, in just a day and a night, Wang Ben was able to lead 70 thousand Great Qin soldiers to rush overnight and arrive outside of Anduo City.

The vanguard forces had arrived a lot earlier.

As they travelled, Wang Ben’s forces fought the enemy army that was loitering around the border twice, and the outcome was as expected. The Ashoka army did not know their true strength and were absolutely crushed and forced to flee.

If they were not in a rush to siege, Wang Ben would not have let them go.

“Send down my orders, rest up for three hours and have your meals. At 2pm, start the siege.” Wang Ben was really quick and decisive. Right after he dismounted, he gave this order.

“Yes, general!”

Along with this order, the soldiers placed down the tents that they had carried over and followed their general’s order, setting up tents at specific spots.

Those carrying resources and designated to cook began to place up the cookery, using mud and stone to build fireplaces. They took out vegetables and processed meat from their bags and started to cook.

In less than an hour, the white tents were pitched up.

Although there were only 70 thousand of them, the tents covered a huge part of the land, closely packed and seemingly endless. Under the cover of the blue sky and white clouds, it looked really bright.

Along with the rising smoke, the scent of food wafted around the camp, making them feel really hungry.

After finishing up their steaming meals, the well-trained Qin soldiers, apart from those patrolling, rested up in their tents to save energy for the upcoming battle.

The more energy they had, the higher their chances of survival.

Very quickly, the bustling camp became calm and silent, and only the sounds of soldiers snoring could be heard. In the army, the soldiers would gain the habit of sleeping as soon they as touched the ground, not wasting even a bit of time.

…

At the Anduo City city wall that was not far away, the 40 thousand strong Ashoka army had long been waiting.

Yesterday, news of their vanguard troops fighting with the enemy had already spread back to Anduo City, stunning the entire city. The current Ashoka Dynasty did not dare to look down on the enemy outside of their city.

The arrogance from before was put aside.

Of course, they did not fear the enemy. First, the battles yesterday were on a small-scale and did not prove much. Moreover, they were defending, giving them the advantage. Naturally, they had nothing to fear.

The morale of both sides were kept at a really good level.

…

At 1.30pm, a horn sounded out around the camp; this was the alarm.

On this vast Tibetan plateau with little people, the horn sound spread out far and wide. Soon afterwards, the silent Qin army came alive once more.

Within half an hour, the army had formed up.

Highly efficient, highly disciplined. After entering the wilderness, Wang Jian and the other Qin generals had put much effort into training them. Although they did not have much practical war experience, their strength should not be underestimated.

After the war of Tibet, the survivors would be top elites.

Jia Xu’s plan was really ingenious. It allowed them to wear down the Ashoka army while training up Great Xia’s troops, allowing Great Xia to choose the best out of the two million.

“Attack!”

Atop his black warhorse, Wang Ben pointed his sword forward.

“Kill!”

10 thousand vanguard forces carrying siege ladders charged toward the city walls like a flood.

On the Tibet plateau, as the environment allowed it, the walls were mainly made of mud and stone. It was not stable or high, and the city wall of Lhasa City was only six meters tall.

With even Lhasa like that, Anduo city would obviously be worse – its wall was only four meters high.

Furthermore, the Tibet Dynasty’s metallurgy, construction, and building technologies were behind the mid plain dynasties, and its defense system was relatively weak.

Helplessly, the Tibet Dynasty had a vast amount of land but little people, making construction difficult. Apart from Lhasa City, there were no more than 30 cities within its territory. As such, the Ashoka Dynasty had no choice but to house 40 thousand troops in a small city like Anduo.

The moment he saw Anduo City, Wang Ben felt really confident. If everything went well and they went all out, they would be able to move into Anduo tonight and would not need to spend the night bearing the cold outside.

Last night, they had experienced the chilly nights of the Tibetan Plateau.

Chapter 1259 - TWO Chapter 1259-We aren't weak!

Chapter 1259: TWO Chapter 1259-We aren’t weak!

Tibet Plateau, sunny and windy.

Under the blue sky and white clouds, a battle of life or death was underway. Two hours had passed since Wang Ben gave the order to attack. Both sides had suffered heavy casualties and fresh blood stained the land.

With the climate of the high plains, two hours of consecutive fighting was a huge test.

Wang Ben looked up at the sky. When he saw that the sun was about to set and Anduo city still had not fallen, his face turned really ugly, and he said, “Send down my orders, no reserve forces are to be left, all of you charge with me!”

“Yes, general!”

With that, the 20 thousand reserve troops pushed onto the front lines.

Wang Ben had made the right decision. In truth, the Ashoka Dynasty army was on the verge of collapse, and the 20 thousand new blood immediately gave them a fatal blow.

Furthermore, with Wang Ben leading the troops himself, the Qin army morale soared, and they were unstoppable.

In less than half an hour, a huge breach appeared in the city wall. Wang Ben took the lead to charge onto the city wall to fight the enemies. Corpses were like dumplings, falling off the city walls and forming a thick layer on the ground.

The Ashoka Dynasty army was also really amazing, choosing death over retreating.

The two sides engaged in a tug of war around the city wall, and every inch of land was defended with their bodies. Neither side wanted to give in. The casualties were increasing at a visible rate.

Corpses piled up against the city wall, and the soldiers could only fight while stepping on the corpses.

When Wang Ben saw that, although he respected the enemy, he was furious. If he could not take down Anduo City under such circumstances, it would be a huge humiliation.

“Kill!”

Maybe because they were influenced by Baiqi, but the Qin army used heavy swords instead of sword shield soldiers.

Heavy swordsman focused on attack and less on defense. Once they struck out, one side would have to fall. Under Wang Ben’s motivation, the Qin army went all out, gambling with their lives.

This time, the Ashoka army was finally afraid. Seeing their brothers fall down row by row like malt and the city wall being lost, the army’s fighting spirit started to die.

“Retreat!”

The city defending official gave the order to retreat; he was ready to take the fight to within the city.

When Wang Ben saw that, he hollered, “Chase! Do not give the enemy a chance to set up formation within the city!”

The Qin army were like parasites, clinging onto the enemy from the city wall to within the city, from one street to the next.

Even in the dead of night, as candles and lights were lit up, killing shouts continued to spread all over.

At this stage, the armies of both sides had already been split up. They fought in units and even in squadrons around the streets and houses, turning Anduo City upside down.

The natives could only shiver in fear.

When night arrived, Wang Ben personally led his Personal Guards and walked into the city lord manor. He did not need to personally lead the troops to fight. Instead, he controlled the situation and used the troops to kill off the remaining enemy troops.

This was a massacre without war prisoners; the loser had to die.

The killings at various parts of the city started to calm down. Of the 40 thousand enemy troops, most were already wiped out – only some escaped or hid away. Wang Ben did not care about rest and called his father on the communication compass to report the result.

In the video, Wang Jian did not praise him. He only nodded his head and ordered, “Tomorrow morning, send out troops to clear out the nearby villages and await the main army.”

“Yes!”

Wang Ben was used to this.

In both of their eyes, taking down Anduo City was not something worthy of praise.

Even so, through this battle, Wang Ben had gained a new understanding of the enemy’s strength. Through this battle, close to 30 thousand Qin troops had died, which was pretty much the same as the enemy.

Such a result was really ugly.

Although the Ashoka Dynasty’s army was strong, the 500 thousand Qin army’s lack of combat experience was more important. Strictly speaking, this was their first real battle.

“Those who had not seen blood before are really useless.” Wang Ben was unsatisfied.

…

The next day, news of the right wing taking just half a day to take down Anduo City spread swiftly to the four armies.

This time, the other three armies felt really ashamed. The vanguard general of the three armies all gave the same order, “Stop at nothing to take down the target city!”

Although the Qin army took the crown, they could not be the last, right?

The four armies were competing with one another in the dark. At this moment, their competition welcomed its peak.

Unsurprisingly, the second to take down a city was the left wing led by Tian Dan. After all, the Zhou army was the most experienced out of the four armies.

Next was the middle protector army – the Song army. They had some experience. On the other hand, the Tang army was the last. They only took down the target city on the 9th month, 5th day.

The moment this news spread out, the Tang army felt really ashamed.

News had it that usually calm and level-headed middle army commander Li Shiji was so furious that he directly demoted the vanguard general to the lowest soldier level.

“We lost to even the Song army; what a humiliation!” Li Shiji cursed out.

Cheng Yaojin and Yuchi Gong were also filled with resentment. They were unhappy that Li Shiji did not send them out to fight. Otherwise, the Qin army might not have been the first to take down their target city.

……

Chengdu, northwest command center.

The Tang Dynasty taking last place made even Li Jing feel a loss of face. When he arranged the Tang army as the main force, he had taken into account their past relationship. Who would have known that the outcome would turn like that.

“Really…”

Li Jing shook his head and did not know what to say.

Just at this moment, advisor Xun Yu walked in and said, “Commander, the battle loses have been tabulated. Please take a look.”

Li Jing kept his emotions and took a look. Only after a short while did he say, “Nothing surprising.”

The Qin army losing 30 thousand men while taking down Anduo was considered good out of the three armies. The worse was the Song army that lost 50 thousand men, losing more troops than the enemy.

Li Jing, who had fought the Ashoka Dynasty army previously, naturally knew how amazing this enemy was. Especially the troops that they placed at the border, which were all experienced elite troops.

Li Jing was already quite satisfied with such results.

Xun Yu suggested, “Commander, the first battle was already so tough, should we change the strategy?”

Their plan was to have the four armies work together to form a long battle line from east to west and push out until they chased the Ashoka Dynasty army out of Tibet.

However, their casualties right at the start meant that they would definitely suffer heavy losses.

“Advisor, what plan do you have?” Li Jing asked expressionlessly.

Xun Yu replied, “I suggest that the right wing send a cavalry force to go around the House of Ogedai to sneak attack the backlines of Tibet and disturb their grain line; this will help to reduce the pressure on our front troops.”

When Li Jing heard that, he said, “Let’s leave this discuss for the future!”

“Commander!” Xun Yu said anxiously.

“Advisor, the heavy losses are because the army lacks experience. This is the best time to train them up, so let them fight a few more battles, and the battle situation will inevitably change. When that happens, it would not be too late to use your plan.”

When Xun Yu heard that, he looked at Li Jing with doubts. He did not retort and simply turned around and took his leave.

When Li Jing saw that, he sighed. Jia Xu’s meat grinder operation was something that even Xun Yu did not know about.

If one considered the situation from a normal battle standpoint, Xun Yu’s plan would be good. Unfortunately, right from the start, this seismic battle was destined to be unorthodox.

The goals were different, so their actions were naturally different.

To send troops to disturb the enemy grain path would probably cause Ashoka to back off and give up on Tibet. If that happened, the Imperial Court strategy would totally fail.

Someone might ask, even if the Ashoka Dynasty flees, Great Xia could still chase for the win and attack the Ashoka Dynasty itself, right? This would still achieve the goal of wearing down the enemy.

Things were not that simple.

Ashoka fighting in Tibet was an overseas battle. The Peacock and Gupta dynasties could sit on the fence, and no one would blame them.

However, if the Great Xia Army invaded, it would affect those two as well. The two dynasties and the tens of millions of India players would all swarm there and fight to the death with Great Xia.

If that happened, how could a mere two million troops handle the enemy?

Furthermore, before taking over Tibet and recovering its normal production, to go on an expedition to the Ashoka Dynasty would require them to double their grain line. The difficulty of that and the usage along the way would mean that the costs would increase by several times.

Even if Great Xia had deep foundations, it could not afford such wastage. Who knows, maybe after this battle, the funds and resources that Great Xia had stored up with much difficulty would all be used up.

Why would Ouyang Shuo do something so stupid?

Hence, it would be the best for the empire if the battle against the Ashoka Dynasty in Tibet continued on like this.

“Xun Yu, I cannot follow your plan!” Li Jing shook his head.

Chapter 1260 - Who is crazier?

Chapter 1260: TWO Chapter 1260-Who is crazier?

9th month, 7th day, imperial capital.

Although Li Jing did not make use of Xun Yu’s suggestion, he still wrote about the suggestion and sent it up to the Imperial Court. Undoubtedly, the goal was to allow them to start preparations early.

After all, the Mongol Empire had never admitted Great Xia’s authority and orthodoxy. The two sides had been going head-to-head, and he was worried that the Mongol army would try to stop them if they wanted to borrow a path through.

This problem was something that only the Imperial Court could handle.

The war of Tibet was the biggest matter for Great Xia during this period of time. Be it big or small, all matters would be reported to Ouyang Shuo directly. After Ouyang Shuo read the memorial, he said, “It’s time to sound out the Mongols.”

“Men!”

“Present!”

“Send Zhang Yi over.”

“Yes, my emperor!”

After a short while, Zhang Yi rushed over to the Imperial Reading Room. He bowed and said, “Greetings, your majesty!”

“Please sit!”

Once Zhang Yi sat down, Ouyang Shuo said, “Send an envoy to Karakorum.”

“May I ask your majesty what the motive is?”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and used his fingers to point as he said, “First, make it clear to Genghis Khan that as they conquer the west, we will not attack them. This promise will always remain effective.”

These words contained both a promise and a warning.

Speaking of which, the war between the Mongol Empire and Persia Empire had gone on for close to half a year, and the victor still had not been decided. Based on the Black Snake Guard spies there, the Mongol Empire had taken down 12 cities. The further west they headed, the greater the resistance that they faced, making it tough for them to continue.

If nothing went wrong, the Mongols would withdraw their troops soon and end their first expedition.

If they returned from the west, they would definitely face the threat of Great Xia. Although only half a month had passed, the mid plains situation had changed greatly.

Great Xia had unified the mid plains. East starting from Liaojin Province and west to Xihai Province formed a complete northern defense line using close to a million troops; this was something that the Mongol Empire could not go against.

Their relationship with the Mongols and how to handle it was something that had been on Ouyang Shuo’s desk since a long time ago.

Some ministers suggested that they send troops to destroy the Mongol Empire once the war of Tibet ended. If the Imperial Court went all out, it would not be too difficult, and they could end it in one battle.

After the Battle of West Xia, the 10th month catastrophe, and the west conquering expedition, the Mongol army had fallen from its starting 1.8 million to 1.3 million. Although their territory had increased, their overall strength had fallen.

Furthermore, the Mongol Empire stretched from east to west, and its head could not protect its tail. Even with the speed of the Mongol cavalry, it could not rush from the west to the east in a short time.

How could such a Mongolia fight with Great Xia?

Taking them down was nothing difficult; how to rule them afterwards was.

The Mongol Empire was a typical nomadic civilization. Furthermore, its people were spread all around. To run it well, they would need to rely on the Mongols and give them enough self-rule regions.

In history, any dynasty that could persuade the nomadic tribes to surrender could only achieve making them pay tribute.

In the game world, it was impossible for Great Xia to restart everything and turn Mongolia into an agriculture civilization. The empire needed to keep such a huge animal farm.

This also meant that they could not be too rough toward the Mongol Empire. If they really went head on and killed out a blood river on the Mongol grasslands, who knows when the grasslands would recover.

However, if they did not fight, Genghis Khan would not be willing to lower his head.

This gave Ouyang Shuo a huge problem, as he could not think of a method to solve these two issues simultaneously. Even strategists like Zhang Liang could not think of a good solution.

As a result, the matter had dragged on until now.

Ouyang Shuo made the promise to not attack the Mongol Empire out of such considerations.

“Secondly, raise this demand. While we are fighting the war of Tibet, open up the House of Ogedai to allow us to move troops over.”

This second point was a little too overbearing, which made Zhang Yi’s eyes freeze up.

As an ambassador, he needed to figure out how to perfectly pass on the emperor’s demands while adapting if the demand infuriated the other party. He need to use words to calm them down and achieve the emperor’s goals, and this tested one’s diplomatic standards.

Ouyang Shuo could have beat around the bush. However, he chose not to because he wanted to test Genghis Khan. He wanted to see what choice this grassland overlord would make. Would he go all the way against Great Xia, or would he accept the facts and give both parties room for discussion?

One could say that Genghis Khan’s attitude on this matter would decide Great Xia’s strategy toward Mongol Empire to a certain extent.

As a result, there were even greater demands on the ambassador sent. He needed to be able to read the face and emotions of Genghis Khan and read his true thoughts so that the ambassador was not kept in the dark.

For example, let’s say Genghis Khan was unhappy but hid it and even showed a smile. If the ambassador did not notice the truth, a huge catastrophe would befall the empire.

When Zhang Yi heard that, he did not hesitate and immediately said, “Since that’s the case, I’ll make the trip myself.”

“Thank you for your hard work.” Ouyang Shuo had such intentions, and he smiled as he said, “Bring Genghis Khan some gifts. Even if it’s expensive, just do it as a sign of friendship. Also, take this chance to look around Karakorum. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“I understand!”

Zhang Yi was a smart person and naturally understood right away.

…

Great Xia and the Mongol Empire had not really interacted much, so there was no teleportation formation opened between them.

Zhang Yi had to first teleport to Handan City then go up north under the Beijiang legion corps’ protection. Even if the trip proceeded smoothly, it would still take at least five to six days.

During that period of time, the war of Tibet did not stop. Instead, its intensity continued to rise.

After the four armies of Great Xia took down a city each, they finally formed a stable frontline base. More and more soldiers adapted to the climate, and they could fight more normally.

With that, the four marshals felt even greater confidence and courage.

During the first round, the Qin army shone brightly while the Tang army was humiliated. The huge difference ignited the completion between all sides. They would compete for the second and even the third round of cities.

Especially the Tang army, which had Cheng Yaojin and Yuchi Gong each leading an army to take down two cities at once. They wanted to wipe out all the humiliation and take back their lost honor.

The Tang army went all out and so did the other three armies.

Under such circumstances, war broke out on all parts of the battlefield. At every moment, the Great Xia Army would either be traveling or sieging.

Such an intense war was a huge burden on logistical supplies.

If it were not for Zeng Guofan and Du Ruhui personally monitoring and taking charge, the grain supply would have been broken. Even then, the craziness of the frontlines gave the two ministers a lot of problems.

The frontline soldiers went all out, risking their lives; this was a dream scenario for all emperors. Who would dare to burden and drag the army back at such a time?

If that really happened, his majesty scolding would be a light punishment, and a heavy one would be demotion.

The two ministers were helpless, and they could only spread the pressure down from them to the Provincial Governors and the legion corps marshal and then down to the grain transport forces.

This time, millions of soldiers and laborers were facing hardship.

If one looked down from above, they would see that the entire west part of Great Xia was filled with numerous paths. An endless number of grain carts were gathering toward Tibet.

Such a scene and such a situation was something that one would not see even in a thousand years.

Seeing the Great Xia Army going all out, Ashoka was unwilling to submit. After learning that four cities were taken down within a week, the prideful Ashoka did not hesitate and sent the 500 thousand reserve forces into Tibet.

At the same time, like Great Xia, he mobilized the whole nation, gathering up millions of laborers to transport grain for the army into Tibet.

Both empires were going all out, neither side wanting to lose.

Just at this moment, the Ashoka Dynasty’s crazy actions finally caused the Gupta and Peacock dynasties to get reckless, and the two started to meet in secret.

Chapter 1261 - When the strong wind blows, the hidden grass survives

Chapter 1261: TWO Chapter 1261-When the strong wind blows, the hidden grass survives

9th month, 10th day, night, Durava contacted Akbar. These two giants of India that were enemies started a rare secret conversation.

“Ashoka is fighting against Great Xia in Tibet, what are your views on this?” Durava asked.

“Watch the show; what else can we do?”

“You do not want to do anything?”

Akbar acted like he could not understand; he smiled and said, “I’m very lazy. I do not want to move.”

Who believes you! Durava cursed in his heart. He knew that if he did not reveal his cards, Akbar would not either, “Let’s stop beating around the bush and be upfront. This is a good chance to attack the Ashoka Dynasty, and it is even our only chance. You will not truly do nothing, right?”

“What do you want?” Akbar sat firmly at the fishing platform.

Durava did not mind and said, “Simple, once both sides suffer severe damages, I want us to work together and defeat Ashoka, splitting the spoils.”

Only then did Akbar nod his head.

Both of them knew that even if the Ashoka Dynasty was defeated in Tibet, a thin camel was still bigger than a horse; this enemy was not something that they could face alone.

They had to work together.

“How do we work together?” Akbar asked.

“Very simple. We agree on a border, and we use this to split north and south, not interfering with each other. How about that?” Although they were working together, they had limited trust between them so splitting the cake early was needed.

“That’s a great idea. I agree.” Akbar was really straightforward. Next was the final question, “Then how will we split New Delhi; we cannot split it half-half, right?”

This was a sensitive matter.

In term of importance, the value of New Delhi was a fourth of the Ashoka Dynasty.

Durava replied, “Whoever takes it down first will claim ownership.”

“Okay, that’s settled!”

The two giants stopped the call, splitting up the Ashoka Dynasty in the dark. As for the specifics, they would have ministers discuss them.

Currently, they had to make early preparations for war.

They did not bother discussing about righteousness, morals, or the like. In the wilderness, the winner was the king, and the loser lost everything. Invading Tibet was also Ashoka’s choice.

Since he had made that choice, he naturally had to pay the consequences.

As for joining hands to take down Great Xia, that would simply be a huge joke. The current Great Xia was so strong that they should pray to their ancestors to thank them if Great Xia did not attack them, much less them having the courage to attack Great Xia.

…

9th month, 12th day, Zhang Yi and his group arrived in Karakorum.

While Genghis Khan conquered the west, Great Xia had not taken advantage of the situation; this was a favor that Genghis Khan had to admit.

Hence, the moment Zhang Yi appeared on the grasslands, he sent out general Jebe to lead 10 thousand guards to protect them, giving him a really high-class treatment.

When they arrived in Karakorum, the envoy team was also treated really warmly. Mongol Empire Chancellor Yelü Chucai represented Genghis Khan to welcome them at the city gate, giving them a lot of face.

Yelü Chucai was born in a Khitan noble family and was an official of the Jin country.

After the Mongol army took down Jin, Genghis Khan promoted him, making him a minister. Yelü Chucai used Confucianism to come up with and set many policies to create the foundations for the development of the Mongol Empire.

Yelü Chucai supported Genghis Khan and his son for a total of 30 years. His influence on Genghis Khan and his children were huge, and his policies were used as the foundations for the Yuan Dynasty.

As a result, Yelü Chucai could be listed as one of the top 10 ministers of China along with Li Si, Xiao He, Fang Xuanling, Di Renjie, Zeng Guofan, and the like.

Zhang Yi was not muddleheaded. After entering the embassy, he handed over boxes of gifts that were specialties of the mid plains like porcelain, Jiangnan silk, tea leaves, and wine.

When Genghis Khan saw that, his expression was really good. However, when Zhang Yi handed over the letter, his face sank. He certainly did not expect the straightforward and uncourteous demands of the letter.

“Aren’t the demands of your country a little too much?” Genghis Khan asked. He himself had a lot of confidence.

When Zhang Yi heard that, he replied cleanly, “My empire is the orthodox ruler of China. For you to open up a road for us is your duty. What asking for too much do you speak of?”

“Ruler of China? I did not admit that.”

Zhang Yi smiled and said, “That is what my emperor wants to ask. Are you willing to admit that now?”

The air froze.

Genghis Khan’s eyes shone, and he asked, “And what if I say no?”

“Very simple. To protect our orthodoxy, we can only meet on the battlefield.” Zhang Yi was confident. If this were before, Great Xia might not have the ability, but the situation was different now.

Genghis Khan paused; he did not dare to be too insistent.

“So you came this time to declare war?” Genghis Khan’s tone was really cold.

Zhang Yi smiled and said, “It is up to you to decide. If it’s up to us, we would not want to go to war with you. It’s best to solve this problem through negotiation.”

“How to negotiate?”

“It depends on whether you have the sincerity to do so.” Zhang Yi was really calm.

Genghis Khan had already calmed down. In truth, Ouyang Shuo and Genghis Khan had both been thinking about how to deal with each other.

Looking at the battle of the mid plains and the rulers Qin Shihuang, Hanwu Emperor, Tang Taizong, and Song emperor, one was assassinated, one was stuck in house arrest, one went into seclusion, and one killed himself; they all had tragic endings.

Although Genghis Khan was arrogant, he was not arrogant enough to think that he was better than the four emperors. Great Xia could be vicious toward them, so there was no way Great Xia would be merciful to him.

Sometimes, one had to play it soft to have a good ending. To be steely and hard till the end would not be a good thing for him and his people.

However, for him to play it soft, he would need a platform. If not, he would lose all face. Zhang Yi came over to probe his decision and give him a platform.

“This matter is really important. Allow me to think about it.”

Genghis Khan knew his position and decided to end the conversation and not play hardball.

Zhang Yi nodded before turning around and leaving.

…

Once Zhang Yi left, Genghis Khan sighed and said, “What has to come will always come in the end.”

When Yelu Chucai heard that, he tried to persuade him, “Khan, Great Xia unifying China cannot be stopped. To chase away the Ashoka Dynasty, they risked two million troops, showing their determination.”

“I know that, but I’m unwilling.” Genghis Khan sighed.

“Give in when necessary. Only then can the weak survive.” Yelu Chucai consoled, “This wilderness is still the land of the players in the end, and no one can go against that. Rather than having a lose-lose situation, why not negotiate for terms that both sides can accept?”

Genghis Khan asked, “What terms do you think I should ask for?”

“The best outcome would be to admit them as our suzerain state. However, I’m worried that they will not be satisfied, so you have to be mentally prepared.” Yelu Chucai said.

Genghis Khan shook his head and said, “What mentally prepared? It’s just giving up the spot.”

Yelu Chucai paused. Only after a long while did he carefully say, “With your prestige and authority in Mongolia, it will be hard for the Xia emperor to feel at ease. The best way is to choose a prince to pass the throne to.”

“This is also what those few mid plain emperors did.” Yelu Chucai added.

Genghis Khan asked, “Which prince do you think can take up the responsibility?”

This was a little difficult for Yelu Chucai, who stammered, “This is a Khan family matter. I do not dare to speak on it.”

Genghis Khan said on his own, “Out of all of them, only Ogedai and Tolei, one civil servant and one general, can take over. However, regardless of who takes over, it will cause unrest, which is probably what Great Xia would be happy to see. Since that’s the case, let’s have Great Xia make the decision.”

Yelu Chucai was stunned and asked, “Khan agrees to negotiate with Great Xia?”

Genghis Khan nodded his head and said, “Let’s negotiate. Apart from that, there’s no other way. For the specific negotiations, you will be in charge. I hope that we can get a good outcome.”

“Do not worry, I will try my best.” Yelu Chucai cupped his fist.

When Genghis Khan heard that, he did not show much emotions, just waving his hand off exhaustedly. This old man who had so much control was tired. He had lost his fighting spirit in front of the strong enemy.

And eagle could soar in the blue skies, but it could not beat it.

Genghis Khan was the grassland eagle and Great Xia was the sky, hanging over the head of Mongol Empire. It was something that could not be beaten, so how could one still have fighting spirit?

Now, Genghis Khan finally understood what Qin Shihuang was feeling when he killed himself.

“I’ll take my leave.”

Seeing that, Yelu Chucai took his leave.

Chapter 1262 - -Shocking gossip

Chapter 1262: TWO Chapter 1262-Shocking gossip

Zhang Yi going to Mongolia and inciting the Mongol Empire made Ouyang Shuo really satisfied. He instructed Zhang Yi to stay over there for a period of time to discuss with Yelu Chucai and probe the truthfulness of their expressed intentions.

If the negotiations went down a satisfying path, Great Xia would form a proper negotiation team.

It was mentioned in the art of war that the best way to fight a war was through schemes, then diplomacy, and then actually fighting the war. To win without sending a single soldier was the epitome.

From destroying the four country alliance to suppressing the Mongol Empire, Great Xia had been exercising those ideals.

…

During the first half of 7th year of Gaia, apart from Africa and South America, the other regions were pretty calm. Especially in Europe, where the six dynasty situation did not change.

Apart from entering west Africa, the European dynasties strengthened their internal administration. They especially made use of the first industrial revolution to gather up strength for the future.

Amongst the calm, the kings of the dynasties had their worries.

…

House of Tudor, Avic Fort.

In martial gear, Annie walked into the palace. Along the way, every servant that saw her would bow and say, “Princess!” Annie was expressionless. However, one could see how tired she was from her face.

After entering William’s office, she directly collapsed into the chair.

When William saw that, he said sympathetically, “The war matters are not smooth?”

Annie nodded and bitterly said, “I cannot take down Nigeria. Sorry, brother.”

William waved his hand and said, “This is not your fault.”

The brother and sister exchanged glances and saw the bitterness and loss in each other’s eyes.

Nigeria was located on the southeast portion of west Africa, and it was the country with the largest population in Africa. Its player count was around 15 million, taking up 16% of the total African population.

Nigeria was the energy resource country of Africa and the top oil exporting country. Out of the 76 types of ores already found, Nigeria could export 34 of them.

More importantly, historically, Nigeria was once a British colony.

While the European nations were busy splitting up west Africa, William did not hesitate to target Nigeria. As long as they took it down, the House of Tudors would be able to gain a stable footing in west Africa.

However, the following events proved that he had underestimated the strength of the imperial city guards and Nigeria.

In the game, the House of Tudors had only five million players, a third of Nigeria’s population. Them trying to take down Nigeria was like a snake trying to swallow an elephant.

In history, the British empire reached its peak during Queen Victoria’s reign, occupying 33,670 thousand square kilometers of land, covering a quarter of the world’s land and population, becoming the largest country.

With just a few thousand people, they dared to start the opium war against the Qing Dynasty.

At that time, since their territory spanned seven continents including Antarctica as well as four oceans, it was described as the second empire where the sun never sets after the Spanish empire.

The British empire of that time relied on the industrial revolution and their invincible navy.

However, in the game world, Gaia was biased toward countries with a large amount of land and high population. Although Avic Fort used the industrial revolution gene to develop the steam engine and gain some advantages early one, it was not enough to let them gain supremacy on a global scale.

Especially when Great Xia held ocean supremacy, there was nothing that House of Tudor could do. Moreover, since it was an island country far away from Europe, it even missed out on the feast on the small countries.

Out of the six European countries, the House of Tudors was only better than the Gaule Dynasty. The once glorious and majestic empire could only turtle up on its island.

Such an outcome naturally made William unhappy.

However, reality was just so cruel.

“Why don’t we form an Alliance Army with the Spain Empire or the Gaule Dynasty and attack Nigeria?” Annie suggested.

William shook his head and said, “We might be from the same camp, but they are vultures. How would we split the cake once we take it down?”

There was something that William did not say. If they needed help just to take down Nigeria, they would lose all face; this was something William’s pride could not take.

“Moreover, now that they have other targets in west Africa, why would they choose something so far away?” William added.

Annie asked, “Then what do we do, withdraw our troops?”

William nodded and said, “Since we cannot take it down, let’s not force it and waste our troops. Let’s just defend our mainland and run the internal politics. As for west Africa, let’s not fight for it anymore.”

Annie’s eyes dulled. After all, she was the dynasty’s war goddess.

Seeing that, William consoled her, “There’s no need to feel that way. They might seem to be happily snatching territory, but the cruel war has not yet begun.”

“You’re referring to Great Xia?” Annie understood right away.

“That’s right. As you know, Great Xia took down nine countries in east Africa in just half a year, winning all the wars they participated in. They are stopping their conquest not because they are happy with their current situation, but because they want to digest their current land. Once they do, we will have a nice show to watch.”

As William said that, he sighed and added, “Sometimes, I envy that fellow.”

Four years ago, Ouyang Shuo led the voyage squadron to Avic Fort. At that time, William did not feel that their two territories were any different.

Four years had passed; now, they were now like heaven and earth.

William could foresee Great Xia sweeping Africa, which was why he was determined to withdraw.

Annie had other ideas, frowning as she said, “Brother, the wilderness is not like real life, it is really cruel, and the road to the top is one that we have to keep moving forwards on. If we withdraw now, we might not be able to defend even our own land next time.”

“Let’s not talk about things too far in the future. After all, Ottoman Dynasty has been staring at us.”

During the expansion in west Africa, the Ottoman Dynasty was the most eager one.

As it occupied the core area of Europe, it had close to 20 million players and almost three million troops after the merging of nations.

The Ottoman Dynasty was waving the flag of Azure Badge in Europe.

As they improved their internal administration, they expanded left and right, conquering European countries up north and attacking west Africa down south.

The two dynasties were separated by an ocean and had fought twice in history. To fight once more was not an impossibility.

William shook his head; he smiled and said, “They are surrounded by strong enemies. If they want to attack us, they would have to deal with the Gaule, Caesar, and Romanov dynasties first.”

“Moreover, there have been people in the organization discussing whether we should gather our strength to wipe them out and chase them out of Europe.” To make his sister believe his words, William had to toss out a shocking piece of news, “If the plan succeeds, the entire Europe will belong to the organization. As long as we defend our land, our family’s position in the organization would be untouchable.”

When Annie heard that, she fell deep into thought.

Even then, she was still a little unwilling, “We have fought for so long in Nigeria. Withdrawing now is such a loss. Why not…”

Annie looked carefully at her brother and asked, “Why don’t we sneakily seek help from Great Xia and ask them to help us take down Nigeria? Doesn’t brother still contact him?”

“Definitely not!”

William was firm and said, “Do not think of such stupid ideas. You know what will happen if you go against the organization. If they find out, how will we be able to stand up in Europe in the future?”

“What do we have to fear if we keep it a secret?” Annie feared nothing.

“No, do not even think about it.” William looked at his sister and said, “From tomorrow onward, you should take a break. Do not worry about withdrawing the troops.”

“Brother!” Annie panicked.

William was not to be questioned, “That’s all; you can leave!”

When Annie saw that, she left in a fury.

William sighed and muttered, “How would you know how deep these waters are?”

Chapter 1263 - Squeezing dry their last bit of war potential

Chapter 1263: TWO Chapter 1263-Squeezing dry their last bit of war potential

Gaule Dynasty, Vic City.

Everybody had their difficulties. Along with the strong rise of the Spain Dynasty, the Gaule Dynasty had become the weakest out of the six European dynasties.

Hence, Henry’s worries were no less than William’s.

Although the Gaule Dynasty had six million players, one million more than House of Tudor, they were similarly facing many problems in west Africa. Till date, they had only taken down one small country, Libya.

Such a result did not mean much to the Gaule Dynasty and could not change much.

However, this was not the part that worried Henry.

The terrible geographical position of the dynasty worried him the most.

Southwest, the Gaule Dynasty and the Spain Dynasty were separated by the Pyrenees mountains. Southeast, it was separated from the Caesar Dynasty through the Alps. They belonged to the same camp and high mountains separated them, so there would not be any problems.

However, toward the northeast, it was located in the north European plains just like the Ottoman Dynasty. The boundless vast plains could not offer the Gaule Dynasty any strategic help.

Once Silver Hand decided to attack the Ottoman Dynasty, the Gaule Dynasty would be thrust to the forefront.

This placed them at a very passive position.

Henry did not believe the words of the organization that claimed that they could win in one battle.

The Ottoman Dynasty was not weak. If it truly faced the attacks of five dynasties, it would fight to the death. Being the weakest with nothing to protect them, the Gaule Dynasty would be the best choice for them to attack.

If that happened, the organization would benefit while the Gaule Dynasty might be lost.

Hence, as the Ottoman Dynasty expanded outward eagerly, Henry found it difficult to sleep. However, he was restricted by the geography and lacked the strength to change anything, so he could only quietly wait for the huge war to arrive.

Henry was looking forward to a change in the situation.

…

9th month, 15th day, Imperial Capital.

Ouyang Shuo temporarily lacked the energy to bother about Europe. Instead, it was Di Chen who submitted a memorial saying that he had arrived in Europe and would visit the six dynasties soon.

Ouyang Shuo did not have high hopes toward this matter.

Ouyang Shuo would need a good opportunity if he wanted to tear apart the two organizations.

On the other hand, Zhang Yi’s first negotiation with the Mongol Empire made Ouyang Shuo disappointed. Genghis Khan agreed to let the Great Xia Army travel through the House of Ogedai, but he was not willing to submit to Great Xia.

The negotiation process froze up just like that.

Ouyang Shuo was really clear cut, summoning back Zhang Yi and saying, “They only have one chance. The next time they want to negotiate, they will have to send someone to the imperial capital.”

Currently, Ouyang Shuo focused on the war of Tibet the most.

During the past few days, the four armies of Great Xia had gone all out, not bothering about sacrifices as they sieged city after city. They had already removed the first defensive line of Tibet and obtained a stable frontline base.

The two million Great Xia troops finally stepped onto Tibetan soil.

At the same time, the Ashoka Dynasty’s 500 thousand guards and resources had all arrived in Tibet. Only then did the seismic battle between the two dynasties truly get underway.

Close to four million troops would fight a life or death war on the Tibet plateau. The fates of both dynasties were on the line, and neither side would be able to take the loss.

However, as their motives were different, the attitudes of both sides were different too.

The Ashoka Dynasty wanted to defend Tibet and protect their honor. As such, they were more conservative and let the enemy come to them. On the other hand, as Great Xia wanted to reduce the strength of the enemy and wear them down, it was really proactive and went all out.

One attacking and one defending, the effects would obviously be different.

Under Li Jing’s leadership and the coordination of the four marshals and various generals, the two million troops formed a black line, pushing from east to west.

Regardless of how many enemies stood in their path, they feared nothing.

As the battles were too intense, the cities that the Great Xia Army took down were in ruins, and some were even torn apart by cannon fire. Flames and smoke were everywhere.

The Ashoka Dynasty was vicious too. Apart from shipping grain from India, they scoured Tibet, making the entire Tibet annoyed and filled with resentment.

9th month, 20th day, a Tibetan army tried to rebel. Helplessly, their plan had failed to remain a secret and was found out by the Ashoka Dynasty army. They even fell into the Ashoka Dynasty’s trap instead, and 50 thousand soldiers were killed just like that.

50 thousand heads were stacked up outside of Lhasa City, sending a chill down everyone’s spine.

The moment this news spread out, the entire Tibet was shocked.

When Ashoka received the news, he said, “Tibetans are abusing our kindness; they deserved to die!”

Since the damage was already done, he ordered men to massacre the Tibetan royal family, placing Tibet under military rule. All young and healthy men were conscripted to help defend the city walls or sent to transport grain.

Such crazy acts turned the entire Tibet into hell.

His crazy actions did not mean that Ashoka was brainless. From the attitude of the Great Xia Army, he could see that this war meant more to the Ashoka Dynasty, exceeding the constraints of Tibet.

If they lost, the Ashoka Dynasty would never be able to stand back up.

He was even worried that if Great Xia won, they would chase for the win and charge onto Indian soil. Rather than letting that happen, why not block the enemy outside of their door?

Facing such a situation, the death of the Tibetans did not mean much.

“Everything is done for war. As long as we win this war, even if we make all the Tibetans our slaves, they cannot resist. If we lose, everything would be all the more useless.” said Ashoka.

Hence, he did not mind slashing down with his blade, squeezing out the last bit of fighting potential out from Tibet.

Ashoka’s cold-blooded methods came into effect immediately.

With the smooth logistical supply, the Ashoka Dynasty army on the frontlines defended the cities, and their morale soared as they used their home ground advantage to collide with the Great Xia Army.

Now, to break down a city, the Great Xia Army would have to pay a heavy price.

In order to not affect military sentiment, the four armies could only take turns. They used legions as a unit to rotate one by one. It was like how one would command troops when training them.

With the Qin army on the right as an example, they established five legions while the remaining 150 thousand acted as reserve forces.

Why reserve forces?

When the main legion suffered casualties, they would directly replenish themselves from the reserves and be fully filled up the next day. Such a plan ensured that the legions were at their peak state and would not have low morale because of heavy casualties.

This method worked.

Although the soldiers of the legion in charge of sieging could feel their brothers around them dying, when they returned to the camp, they could not feel that the camp was empty. Instead, they felt like not many people had died.

Although it was a misconception, it worked to calm them down.

As a result, the next morning, they could gather their spirits and charge onto the battlefield with their new friends, fighting with energy and fervor.

In such a training environment, only the true elite could survive.

This was really cruel, but this was the true battlefield.

In fact, if one looked at the big picture, one would feel that it was even crueler.

With the right wing as an example again, at the end of the 9th month, after just a month of sieging, less than a tenth of the reserve forces remained. Hence, one could see how intense this war was.

These were the Qin elites, and the others were faring far worse. Especially the middle protector army, which had 380 thousand people and could only make four proper legions with 100 thousand people acting as reserves.

On the 9th month, 25th day, their 100 thousand reserves were completely used up.

After paying such a heavy price, on the 10th month, 1st day, the left wing, middle protector army, and the middle army finally arrived under Lhasa City and successfully regrouped.

Chapter 1264 - Rumors can kill!

Chapter 1264: TWO Chapter 1264-Rumors can kill!

Gaia 7th year, 10th month, 2nd day, Chengdu, Northwest warzone command headquarters.

A month of sieging saw the Great Xia Army suffer 500 thousand losses while killing 600 thousand enemies and capturing 200 thousand. They had used up an innumerable amount of grain. Moreover, most of the captured troops were Tibetan soldiers.

Such results showed that Jia Xu’s meat grinder operation was true to its name.

From an attacking point of view, having such results was already remarkable. After all, both sides were using imperial city guards and not too much difference existed between their skill.

The Great Xia Army was strong because of their famous generals. The India Region that lacked history in comparison could not compete with them.

Although India was one of the old civilizations, their only decent dynasty was the Peacock Dynasty. After which, they were conquered by outsiders and colonized for a long time.

Just the British colonization lasted for close to 200 years.

Along with the left wing, middle, and middle protecting armies regrouping at Lhasa City, the war of Tibet officially entered its second stage. Northwest warzone commander gave out a series of orders.

The middle protector army would work with the middle army to officially siege Lhasa City.

Meanwhile, the left and right wings would continue west to charge behind the city and cut off the Ashoka Dynasty’s support of Lhasa City. They were trying to take down Lhasa City within a month.

As the imperial city of Tibet, Lhasa City was the only decent city among all the cities on the Tibet plateau. Its city walls were strong and took up a large area; this was the central grain base of the Ashoka army.

The moment they broke into Lhasa City, it would basically signal Great Xia’s victory for a large part of the war.

Without needing any explanation, everyone knew that Lhasa City would be the focus, and a heated battle would occur there.

For this matter, Li Jing even personally rushed the logistics to send a large number of cannons and siege weapons. They bore through all the difficulties and hardships to transport these items to the frontline to help the army siege.

Just as Li Jing was considering the frontline battle, advisor Xun Yu walked in once more.

He had suggested going through the House of Ogedai to reach the backline of the enemy to sneak attack their grain path, but the proposed plan was rejected. As the war continued, Xun Yu suggested the plan twice, but he was rejected time and time again.

As they say, three strikes and you are out.

Xun Yu was a smart person and knew that commander Li Jing was not dumb. Since he was determined to fight head on, he had to have his reasons. Moreover, the Imperial Court not asking about it proved his conjecture.

As such, Xun Yu did not bring up the matter anymore.

However, who would have expected Li Jing to walk in at that moment, smile, and say, “Advisor, the grain path sneak attack plan that you suggested can be executed.”

“Has the time arrived?” Xun Yu asked.

Li Jing nodded and said, “Yes. Close to half of the enemy troops are wiped out. Now that we have surrounded Lhasa City, once we cut off their grain path, their million troops would be there for the taking.”

Xun Yu nodded.

…

Tibet, Anduo City.

This was the first city that the right wing had taken down, so it was also the location of the command center of the right wing.

Due to the convenience of the communication compass, the warzone commander’s orders were spread to Wang Jian’s hands really quickly. He instructed the right wing to send a legion of elite cavalry to go through the House of Ogedai to sneak attack the enemy’s grain path.

Considering the fact that the Qin army was not familiar with the land, there would be Mongol guides to lead the way. Once they entered Tibet, the Shanhai Guard spies would lead the way.

Apart from that, there were also some battle details.

When Wang Jian looked at it, he gained a whole new understanding of the planning ability of the warzone command headquarters and even Li Jing himself. In terms of planning of the military, battle specifications, and duties, the Qin army could not compare with them.

“It was not a coincidence that they could unify the mid plains.”

Wang Jian was filled with thoughts; this was the first time he had recognized Great Xia and the Imperial Court.

“Men!”

“Present!”

“Call Wang Ben over!”

“Yes, general!”

Wang Jian naturally wanted to send his son for such a difficult mission. Wang Jian would not be at ease if he sent other generals, as they needed to go deep into enemy lines and would need to adapt.

Coincidentally, Wang Ben had recently withdrawn from the frontlines, and he and his men were resting up.

Very quickly, Wang Ben rushed over to the tent, bowed, and said, “Father!” Successive days of fighting had made his skin rather tan. However, this only showed more of the grit and toughness of the Qin people.

As he had personally fought with his troops, Wang Ben’s face had two scars, making him look manlier.

“Take a look at this.”

Wang Jian passed over the order he had just received.

When Wang Ben looked at the order, he was delighted and said, “Father, let me go!”

“Rest up for one more day before setting off. Be careful.” Wang Jian did not say many useless words, but his last sentence revealed his concern for his son.

Wang Ben was trained up personally by Wang Jian, and the personality of the two were really similarly. However, as the Wang Ben that entered the wilderness was really young, it was unavoidable for him to have the sharpness and rashness of a young man.

In history, both of them left with great merit. After helping Qin establish the country, they backed out of politics and disappeared from the wilderness.

Only at the ending years of Qin did Wang Ben’s son Wang Li appear.

“Do not worry, father!”

Wang Ben felt warmth in his heart.

The father and son duo stood around the map and discussed in detail the traveling route.

…

India, Ashoka Dynasty, New Delhi.

During this period of time, Ashoka was in a really bad mood. He did not expect that after throwing in 1.5 million troops and huge amounts of resources, they would still be unable to repel the Great Xia Army.

Every city the frontline lost made his anxiety and depression grow.

Facing such a terrible situation, he was even tempted to lead the troops himself. However, the officials in the court stopped him, and only then did he shelve that idea.

In the words of the officials, “It is not that the soldiers are not going all out, but the enemy is simply too strong.”

Only then did Ashoka realize that the strength of Great Xia was not something that the Ashoka Dynasty could compare to. Even without mentioning other aspects, just in terms of resources and grain provision, the Ashoka Dynasty had the help of the heavens but were still unable to compete with Great Xia. Ashoka Could not imagine how the Great Xia civilians were able to transport the grain to the frontlines through all the mountains.

After Great Xia surrounded Lhasa City, Ashoka started planning their retreat.

Ashoka was not a fool and was not a pure soldier. As such, he would not disregard the fate of the dynasty just to protect their honor. He would not waste all their strength on the war of Tibet.

After the few battles, the current Tibet, without mentioning whether they could defend it or not, even if they managed to achieve victory, they would only receive ruins. Apart from honor, Tibet held no value for the Ashoka Dynasty.

However, at this moment, rumors spread in India, “Great Xia has made Ashoka so afraid that he cannot fall asleep at night. In just a week, he will withdraw his troops.”

There were many versions of this rumor, and all of them mocked Ashoka.

Even more shockingly, such rumors basically spread all over the Ashoka Dynasty overnight. From the officials to the civilians, everyone learned of this.

Obviously, there were people behind all these rumors with nefarious intentions.

Even to say that these rumors were designed and made up to prevent the Ashoka Dynasty from withdrawing their troops from Tibet.

Although Ashoka saw through the plot of the enemy, he no choice but to fall into it.

Since the rumors spread too quickly and became too common, it successfully ignited the common enemy mentality of the Ashoka civilians. If they withdrew their troops now, they would lose the hearts of the people.

Chapter 1265 - Strongest disarmament plan in the world

Chapter 1265: TWO Chapter 1265-Strongest disarmament plan in the world

This massive rumor storm forced Ashoka to the edge of the cliff.

Under an atmosphere of such public debate, not only could not Ashoka withdraw from Tibet, but he even had to think of a way to defend it. At the very least, he had to come to an agreement with Great Xia to be able to explain things to his people.

Otherwise, this storm would not calm down.

The starters of these rumors were the Gupta and Peacock dynasty kings. They were planning in the dark to launch a joint attack on Ashoka once the Battle of Tibet ended.

As such, how could they easily allow the Ashoka Dynasty to withdraw their troops from Tibet?

Only if the Ashoka Dynasty suffered heavy losses could they have a chance of obtaining victory.

During this process, the Black Snake Guard spies in India joined in to stir the waves. Thanks to the hard work of all three sides, the rumors spread in the shortest amount of time possible.

After much consideration, Ashoka gritted his teeth and decided to send 500 thousand more troops. At the same time, he ordered the defending troops in Lhasa City to defend till the reinforcements arrived.

Naturally, it would be the best if they could defend the city. Even if they were not able to, Ashoka hoped to use these 500 thousand troops to bring back most of the army to India.

As long as the army existed, Ashoka would have nothing to fear.

At the same time, to reduce the expectations of the civilians, Ashoka ordered the 500 thousand troops to disguise as grain transporting forces to enter Tibet.

Ashoka was worried that if the people knew that the dynasty had thrown in two million troops yet failed to defend a Tibet, it would hurt the authority and prestige of the dynasty. As such, he decided to act in a low-profile manner.

…

10th month, 5th day, Imperial Capital.

Ashoka placed Tibet under military control, treating the people as sheep and squeezing them as he wished. Following which, India entered a public opinion storm, revealing that hidden currents were flowing in India.

Ouyang Shuo was filled with emotions; even the heavens were helping Great Xia.

With these two points, the meat grinder operation designed by Jia Xu would basically succeed. Moreover, because of how cooperative the Peacock and Gupta dynasties were, it would be possible for Great Xia to achieve miraculous results.

The frontline received news that the Imperial Court had some progress regarding the disarmament plan.

The Grand Council, Privy Court, and Administrative Mentor Court worked with one another to work on the largest scale disarmament plan in Great Xia history. At the same time, it was also the most thorough military adjustment plan.

As long as Ouyang Shuo approved it, it could be started right away.

The most unique point of this disarmament plan would be not reducing the legion corps level scale. Instead, they would be reducing a legion from 70 thousand to 50 thousand people, cutting 20 thousand soldiers.

That was really amazing.

Including the Guards Legion Corps, the Great Xia Army had a total of 19 legion corps, each having five legions. Along with the Yingzhou and North America formation, that was a total of 99 legions.

To reduce 20 thousand from each meant that they would be cutting 1.98 million troops at once; this would be 28.6%, which is more than a quarter of the army.

As such, more than one out of every four soldiers had to retire.

After the disarmament, the Great Xia Army would go from its 6.93 million peak to 4.95 million.

Of course, the disarmament would not be a simple reduction of members. To change from 70 thousand to 50 thousand legions would affect the entire structure and remodel the army completely.

Before the disarmament, the Great Xia Army had 10 men squads, 10 squads as a platoon, five platoons as a unit, five units as a regiment, five regiments as a division with a thousand men subordinate squadron, and five divisions as a legion with a direct regiment.

After the disarmament, it would still be 10 men squads, but it would now be five squads as a platoon.

Such a change was backed by data.

It was beyond a lieutenant’s ability to control 10 squads, and it was easy to cause a power imbalance between the lieutenant and major.

Apart from that, the roles of the platoons were properly split based on their mission, equipment, and how they were formed. They would split into infantry, cavalry, gunners, cannoneers, engineers, scouts, mechanics, logistics, medics, chefs, and machinery soldiers.

Hence, the platoon level basically encapsulated all the soldier types of the Great Xia Army, be it the combat or the support types. It was no different from modern day armies.

There were two pros to such an arrangement.

First, it added the possibility of multiple soldier type coordination.

As an example, after this change, the Great Xia Army would be able to have spearmen, cavalry, and gunners fighting together at the unit level, making the fighting method more adaptive and flexible.

Each soldier type had its pros and cons, and cooperative fighting was using the pros of one to cover the cons of another. The deeper such a fighting model spread into the army, the higher the army’s overall combat strength.

The olden styles where an entire division or even an entire legion was a singular soldier type was unsuitable for the modern day, where new soldier types popped out quickly. It was destined to be eliminated.

Obviously, Rome was not built in a day.

How different soldier types worked together, what the pairings were like, how to command them, how to solve logistical problems, and other issues had to be slowly solved after the change was made.

Once the change matures and succeeded, the Great Xia Army would move onto a whole new stage.

Secondly, pushing down the logistical duties to the platoons helped to raise the individuality and flexibility of the army.

Before the change, the division level had a thousand subordinate troops that basically consited of support type soldiers such as engineers, logistical workers, and medics.

Below the division level, there were no individual support soldier types.

Before this, the Great Xia Army was used to fighting in legions, so there were not many problems. However, as the war scenario changes, with the regions and battlefields expanding, they needed regiments and even units to be able to fight independently.

As a result, they needed to arrange the support troops properly.

The army’s remodeling after Baiqi’s arrival was completed in the 1st year of Gaia. Six years had passed since then, and Great Xia had been through earth-shaking changes. It was time for a change of eras.

With the rich roots of Great Xia, they had the ability to equip the army with various soldier types. Not only would this raise their flexibility, but it would also help to raise the survivability and reduce mortality rates.

Above the platoon level, a remodeling was planned too.

A unit would have six to ten platoons and 300 to 500 soldiers. Apart from combat platoons, a unit needed to at least have one logistics platoon. Based on the situation, other support types such as chefs, medics, and scouts would be added.

A unit would become the basic strategic level of the Great Xia Army.

Similarly, based on the mission, the equipment and makeup could be split into infantry units, cavalry units, gunner units, cannoneer units, scout units, logistic units, and engineer units.

One could see that apart from machinery platoons not forming units, the mechanics, chefs, and medics would not form units either. They would basically be equipped under units at a platoon level.

A regiment would have three to five units under it and a support subordinate squadron of 2000 men. This support squadron referred to engineers, scouts, mechanics, logistics, chefs, and medics.

Normally, not all six support types would be present, but they would adapt based on the actual situation.

The regiment level would be the Great Xia Army’s advanced strategic level; each regiment would have a regiment headquarters and a battle strategist. Based on the mission, equipment, and make up, they were differentiated into infantry regiments, cavalry regiments, gunner regiments, special forces regiments, logistics regiments, and engineer regiments.

With Great Xia’s current industrialization standards, it was unable to equip a cannoneer regiment. Apart from that, their scouting was limited to a unit level and would not increase to a regiment level because that would be too wasteful.

A division would have four regiments and have an independent unit and a support squadron for a total of 10 thousand people.

Following a similar logic, the independent unit would focus on battle logistics, technicalities, and logistical supply, including engineer units, scouting units, and logistics unit; they would basically be equipped.

The support squadron would consist of maintenance staff, chefs, and medic platoons.

The division level would be the Great Xia Army’s basic warfighting force, and they could fight alone and defend a region. Based on the mission, equipment, and make up they could be split into sword shield soldier divisions, cavalry divisions, and gunner divisions.

It was not hard to see that at the division level, spearmen and heavy swordsman would back out at this stage of history. In front of gunners, they were living targets and were destined to be eliminated. Only the sword shield soldiers who wore heavy armor could they fight against gunners thanks to the individual soldier’s personal body ability increasing.

They would have a division department and have a title and flag given to them by the legion corps marshal. They would also have a special insignia.

The division department would have a level of management authority over their forces and were in charge of their training and administrative management, including the selection of basic level soldiers.

Hence, a Major General would be worthy of being called a general.

A legion would have four divisions under it, including a support regiment and a support unit, for a total of 50 thousand men. The legion level’s independent regiment would include support forces such as engineer regiments and logistic regiments and gunner, sword shield soldiers, heavy swordsmen, cavalry, gunners, and even special forces regiments.

As for the specific arrangements, it would be based on the situation; they would adjust flexibly. The final goal was to maximize the cooperation between the many soldier types to raise the overall combat strength of the entire army.

The legion level would be the Great Xia Army’s basic fighting formation, equipped with a legion department that could lead the defense work of a province. Unless it was wartime, the five legions of a legion corps would not be housed together.

Normally, the legion would be made up of many different soldier types.

Although the 1st generation fighter jets were in production, it was not sustainable to establish an air force with the current scale. As for the navy, they would only fight together during wartime, and there would not be a mixed navy and army organization.

Before the military change, when Great Xia threw itself into a battle, it would often take support troops from different legion corps to organize together and send to war.

A legion was the basic strategic warfighting force of the army and was also the basic unit used to calculate war power. The number of legions and their quality formed the symbol used to measure the strength of an army. Simply put, the scale of a battle would depend on how many legions Great Xia threw in.

Next would be the legion corps level, which would be the highest level in the army. The five legions under it would not be changed, and it would have an overall managing mechanism. It would be the battle unit that decides the direction of the war and a basic war unit.

Not only that, but the legion corps that had a relatively stable defense zone would also have headquarter, hospitals, and logistical centers to provide medical and logistical support for the legion corps.

These were the core details of the greatest disarmament plan of Great Xia. Rather than calling it a disarmament, it was more like them using this chance of a disarmament to remodel the army.

Ouyang Shuo had mentioned long ago that the final goal of disarmament was not to reduce the number of troops but to raise the overall strength of the army. Du Ruhui, Zhang Liang, and the others understood his intentions.

Apart from the adjustment of the army structure, the plan also had specific details on which soldiers to remove, which soldier types to remove, and how to settle down those removed soldiers.

In the Great Xia Army, the Guards Legion Corps, Imperial Palace Guards, and City Protection Legion corps were direct legion corps and were at the highest level. Next would be the Dragon, Tiger, Leopard, Eagle, Bear, Wolf, and Phoenix legion corps.

After that would be the border defense legion corps like the West Africa, East Africa, Hanoi, Heluo, Nanjiang, Xiangjiang, Hedong, and Beijiang legion corps as well as the formations such as the Yingzhou and South America formations.

Even lower would be the Garrison Divisions of the various provinces. Below that would be the reserve forces. From top to bottom, there were five layers that formed the perfect structure of the Great Xia Army.

The further down it went, the weaker the soldiers got.

Hence, for this round of disarmament, they were going to kick out 100 thousand people out from the Guards Legion Corps, what a waste of a treasure.

The principle would be that the members cut from the top layer would replenish the next layer, and this would continue on till the last layer.

Of course, this was not confirmed.

Du Ruhui drew a huge red line during this round of disarmament; he stated that the only sons, those who had served for more than five years, and those who had hidden illnesses had to retire.

Even if they were from the Guards Legion Corps, they would have to retire.

‘Those with wives, those with negative cases, and those with injuries from battle,’ were listed as primary disarmament targets.

Apart from that would be the ratio adjustment of soldier types.

Due to the rise of firearms, the plan clearly mentioned that gunners, cannoneers, air force troops, combat puppet controllers, and the like would take up 60% of the army.

Especially cannoneers and air force troops; they would be greatly expanded in this round.

Archers, spearman, and even cavalry were listed as primary targets of disarmament. As for crossbowmen, they had long been replaced by gunners in the last round of military reorganization.

Amongst the cavalry, there was a new sub soldier type. There were light, heavy, war elephant, iron armored beast, and a new gunner cavalry.

While reducing the infantry ratio, the plan increased the ratio of support troop types.

This plan hoped that in the future, the Great Xia Army would have self-sufficient ability and would not have to make use of a large number of laborers to settle their logistical problems every time there was a huge war.

Of course, there was a difference in the treatment between combat and support troops, and it also helped to reduce expenditure.

In conclusion, the people who were removed would face one of four fates – they could be demoted like from the Guards Legion Corps to the Dragon Legion Corps, change soldier type like from spearmen to gunner, change occupation type like from cavalry to logistics soldier, and finally, change from active service to reserve force, obtaining a retirement fee and leaving the military system.

One could imagine how huge of a project this was.

This project was not only huge, as even the sum of gold required was immense. Just the retirement fees of the 1.98 million people would reach 20 million gold.

In principle, the retired soldiers could select their future jobs, and the various offices had an obligation to arrange a suitable job for them.

The indirect costs were uncountable.

At the same time, 1.98 million soldiers retiring at the same time also increased the scale of Great Xia’s reserve forces to a whole new level. How to effectively manage it would also become a problem.

Chapter 1266 - Tibet-Tang ancient path

Chapter 1266: TWO Chapter 1266-Tibet-Tang ancient path

Along with the new addition of 1.98 million reserve forces, Du Ruhui suggested establishing a military service department under the Privy Court to manage the reserve forces, surrendered soldiers, and soldier retirement; this would help to effectively manage it.

At the same time, in the Governor-General, Provincial Governor, Prefecture Governor, Prefects, and county magistrate offices, he suggested that they set up relevant military service divisions that would be directly managed by the Privy Court.

His proposal would solve the retirement problem of the soldiers and the reserve force management problem.

The 1.98 million troops disarmed this time and those removed from the past few reorganizations would undergo military training when needed under the organization of the local military service divisions.

Hence, as long as there were war needs, the Imperial Court would be able to gather two to three million trained soldiers and even experienced old soldiers to throw onto the battlefield.

Apart from Great Xia, no other dynasty had the foundations necessary to achieve that.

There was also another benefit to establishing the military service department – it would help to deal with batches of generals.

Based on the newest organization, each legion would remove one division, which meant that 99 Major Generals would lose their jobs.

Apart from Major Generals, there was a huge number of colonels, majors, and more that would have to retire.

Toward the basic soldiers, the Imperial Court could hand them a retirement sum to settle them down. However, these generals could not be treated as such and would need treatment corresponding to their ranks.

If not, who would be willing to risk their lives for the Empire?

Based on the plan, there were three ways to deal with retired generals. First, they could move them into the command headquarters, legion corps headquarters, legion department, division department, or regiment departments to work.

Especially the latter four, which were the main remodeling targets of this round and needed a batch of generals.

Secondly, they could enter the military service department or the various divisions in the offices.

This was also a good idea. Although it was far from the frontlines, they would still be in the service and would have a lot of power to a certain extent.

Thirdly, they could arrange them to enter the Privy Court, Grand Council, or the various law and order organizations.

This had higher demands on the administrative abilities of the generals and was not something that normal generals could succeed at. However, if they were good at it, it would be a huge injection of new blood into the Imperial Court.

These three points could basically settle the generals that were released from service. If one could not find a suitable appointment from these three places, one could only say that the general himself was not suitable.

…

The third portion of the plan targeted the planning after the disarmament.

Based on the Empire’s strategy, the main warzones could be split into the mid plains, Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia, North Asia, Africa, and South America.

This also meant that the Empire needed to build seven warzones in the future. Currently, they had only established the northeast, southwest, and northwest warzones and the Africa warzone, so a huge adjustment needed to be made.

Adjusting the warzones was related to the jurisdiction region of the various legion corps. It seemed like an easy matter, but it concerned many things and was one of the toughest decisions that Ouyang Shuo needed to make.

As the Tibet war had not ended yet, and the Mongol Empire had not submitted, China had not been properly unified. Ouyang Shuo decided to postpone the discussion of warzones till the end of the year.

Of course, postponing this aspect did not mean postponing the entire plan. Ouyang Shuo quickly vetted the entire plan and made copies that were sent to the Cabinet and the Provincial Governor offices.

The Cabinet was in charge of coordinating the military expenditure, while the Provincial Governor offices were in charge of preparing for the taking over of the retired soldiers. They must not face a situation where the offices were unable to take out suitable posts when the soldiers were removed.

This disarmament affected both the administrative and military spheres and covered the entire empire. Naturally, it was best to start it as soon as possible.

…

Along with the plan being approved, apart from Tibet, Great Xia did not fight in any wars.

This disarmament started really quickly, and they aimed to complete it before spring of next year.

The first were the Guards Legion corps, Imperial Palace Guards, and City Protection Legion corps.

In truth, at the beginning of the year before Great Xia started the unification war, Ouyang Shuo had already informed the various warzone commanders and legion corps marshals about the impending disarmament.

In the 7th month, when the four countries submitted and the mid plains were unified, the disarmament matter had already spread to the division level.

Although the exact disarmament plan was not out yet, they already had enough time to consider what troops would be targets for the disarmament.

Hence, once the plan was officially released, the generals already had a rough idea in their hearts.

Ouyang Shuo had reason to believe that with the discipline and execution ability of the Great Xia Army, they would be able to complete this largely meaningful disarmament and revolution before the 8th year, 3rd month.

…

10th month, 10th day, House of Ogedai.

Under the guidance of Mongol guides, Wang Ben led 70 thousand elite troops to cross the mountains and rivers before finally arriving at the west tunnel between the Turkish Khanate and Tibet; this was the Tang-Tibet ancient tunnel.

This ancient path had a military castle designed around it; the Mongol army had set up camp there.

Due to the geography, the castle was similar to the ones in the Shu Lands. Once the army exited it, they would enter the core area on the west of Tibet.

At 11am, Wang Ben’s forces left the castle under the gaze of the Mongol army.

The moment they passed, the deputy general moved beside Wang Ben and asked with worry, “Commander, why do I feel that the way the Mongols are looking at us is not really friendly?”

Wang Ben smiled and said, “The Mongols are forced by the Empire to open a path for us, so it’s natural that they are uncomfortable about it. If they faced us with smiles, that would be unusual.”

“But I feel that something is up.” The deputy general could not understand.

Wang Ben did not bother about him and said, “Let’s think about how to complete the mission that the command headquarters gave us first. To sneak attack their grain line is not easy. A few days ago, they sent intel that the Ashoka Dynasty had moved 500 thousand more troops, but there have been no signs of them.”

“Commander, do not worry, we can just send more scouts and expand the scouting area. I do not believe that they could camouflage into the environment.” The deputy was really confident.

Wang Ben nodded, not saying anything more.

…

Just as Wang Ben’s forces entered the west of Tibet, the 500 thousand disguised troops from the Ashoka Dynasty, after merging into the long grain transport line, crossed the border and moved east.

If nothing surprising happened, these two forces would bump into one another.

Chapter 1267 - Who wins and who loses

Chapter 1267: TWO Chapter 1267-Who wins and who loses

House of Ogedai, Loulan City.

After the Turkish Khanate was destroyed, its Capital City Luolan City became the Capital City of the House of Ogedai.

Ogedai, the mighty Lord that set the foundations of the Yuan Dynasty, had a really ugly expression as he asked, “Has Father really decided to pass the throne to 4th Brother?”

“Yes, Ogedai!”

“Why?” Ogedai was in disbelief.

“I heard that it’s because you have ascended to the position of the Mongol Khan before. Genghis Khan worries about Great Xia, which is why he chose Tolei.” The official replied.

“Great Xia!”

Ogedai gritted his teeth as his eyes shone with a vicious light. Before this, when he received his Father’s order to make way for the Great Xia Army, Ogedai had already been really unhappy. Now, with such a matter happening, Ogedai hated Great Xia to the bone.

“Ogedai, what should we do?” The official asked.

Once Tolei obtained the throne, they probably could not keep the House of Ogedai.

Ogedai was a really decisive ruler, and he muttered, “Father since, you have abandoned me, do not blame me for this.” As he said this, Ogedai gave a series of instructions.

The official was astonished and asked with uncertainty, “Ogedai, will that work?”

“At this stage, even if it does not work, it has to work.” Ogedai was a mighty character. Once he made up his mind, there was nothing that he feared, “At most, we will flee toward Persia.”

During the Mongol west conquering expedition, the House of Ogedai had sent their absolute main force. The Mongol army always gave rewards base on one’s contributions, so a large half of the cities obtained in the west conquering expedition were given to Ogedai.

That would be their backup plan.

…

10th month, 13th day, West of Tibet.

The carefulness of Wang Ben saved the life of the entire army.

Morning, just as Wang Ben’s forces were about to bump into the Ashoka Dynasty army, the scouts sent noticed the abnormally in the enemy grain transport squad.

In ancient times, to ensure the safety of the grain line, they would usually send an army to accompany the laborers to act as a bodyguard. Even then, the entire group would mainly consist of laborers that pushed the grain carts slowly up the mountain paths.

Especially since this was the core Tibetan land and was not far away from the Ashoka dynasty. Naturally, Ashoka would not be worried about sneak attacks, so there should only be a small number of bodyguards.

However, the Qin scouts discovered that this grain group was different. They basically had a guards squad every few hundred meters.

Apart from that, there was something up with the laborers pushing the grain carts.

According to the report of the scouts, more than half of the laborers were muscular. They emitted a menacing aura, and their eyes shone with energy.

The problem was that the ones in charge of transporting the grain were Tibetan civilians that were forced into labor. One could imagine that although they would be respectful, they would not be eager and filled with energy.

Furthermore, after being tortured by the Ashoka Dynasty troops, the food that they receive would surely be terrible. There was no way that their bodies would be so healthy and strong.

All signs pointed toward the fact that the so-called grain transport group in front of them were disguised Ashoka Dynasty soldiers.

Temporary camp, commander tent.

When Wang Ben received the report, he smiled and said, “The enemy is so crafty, actually disguising as a grain transport force. No wonder we couldn’t find them; they had been hiding under our eyes all this time.”

After entering Tibet, Wang Ben had sent out many scouts to find traces of the enemy to try to avoid them. After all, their mission was to siege the enemy’s grain transport line and not engage their main force.

Now that the enemy was mixed into the grain transport troops, they had no choice but to fight them.

“Commander, this is a good chance to obtain merits.” the deputy general pondered.

Wang Ben smiled and nodded before saying, “That’s right. The enemy hiding amongst the grain force means their weapons and armor are hidden on the grain carts. As long as we catch them by surprise, we can win right away.”

“Order the troops to rest up; we will go to war tomorrow!” Wang Ben ordered.

“Yes, commander!”

The deputy left excitedly.

…

The next morning, after Wang Ben had his breakfast, the entire army mounted their horses and quickly proceeded to hide behind one of the hills. At the foot of the mountain was a route that the enemy grain line would have to pass.

At 9am, the Ashoka grain transporting force appeared at the start of the path.

Since they were travelling from the backlines and had 500 thousand imperial city guards defending them, the transporting force had nothing to fear. They were even too lazy to send sentries and simply waltzed over.

“Commander, the enemy is here!” the deputy reported.

Wang Ben was really calm, “Wait a while more.”

This place was not a valley, and Wang Ben’s forces were unable to blow the mountain up to block the enemy’s path. If they wanted to use 70 thousand troops to defeat 500 thousand, they could not attack the middle; they had to try to separate the front and the back instead.

If they did that, it was possible that the front and back of the enemy forces would be able to pincer them in.

Even so, Wang Ben did not want to take a small victory and only eat up the enemy’s vanguard. His plan was to kill 200 thousand enemies before immediately retreating.

After that, they would find more chances to disturb the enemy.

However, at that time, the enemy would be prepared and the disturbances would be a lot less effective because Wang Ben’s forces would already be exposed. As a result, the first battle was the best chance for them, and they had to try to utilize it to its best effect.

Two hours later, the deputy reminded him, “Commander, it’s more or less time!”

Wang Ben looked up at the sky. Seeing that it was close to noon, he nodded and said, “Mount your horses!”

“Yes, commander!”

With a ‘Shua!’ the waiting soldiers all mounted their horses.

After that, they did not charge down screaming and announcing their presence. Instead, they swiftly climbed up the mountain and looked down from above. From their vantage point, they could see the travelling enemy.

“Fire!”

With the order given, the arrow rain was like a massive net that spanned numerous miles and covered the heads of the enemy.

With the help of gravity, these arrows shot from above were like meteors crashing down. With low ‘Puchi’ sounds, they pierced the flesh of the enemy soldiers.

Screams broke out all over. In the blink of an eye, many soldiers fell to the ground in pain.

“Sneak attack! Enemy sneak attack!”

The grain transportation forces were like birds that had heard a gunshot. The first to react were the totally equipped bodyguard force. They either knelt down or gathered into formations to shoot back to counterattack.

The soldiers disguised as laborers took out their weapons from the grain carts. As for their armor, as time was of the essence, they did not have time to equip it.

Ancient armor was really complicated and was not something that could be worn in a short amount of time.

There were some true Tibet civilians laborers among them. Right away, they were so afraid that they hid under the grain carriages, shivering and praying to survive this ordeal.

With no one to take care of them, all the animals cried out, and some of them even broke free and charged around the troops. Many grain carts were knocked down, and bags of grain fell to the ground.

Some grain bags opened up and white rice flowed out, scattering all over the ground.

The entire scene was really chaotic.

Wang Ben’s forces used their geographical advantage to rain down from above. After three rounds, the enemy troops suffered heavy casualties, especially those soldiers who were disguised as laborers. They did not have any armor to protect them, so they died immediately after they were shot.

Fresh blood was splattered all across the ground, mixing with the dirt and rice. It was impossible to split them apart.

Facing such a situation, the troops that were attacked could only try to flee. Soldiers, laborers, and animals all mixed together with one another as they all tried to escape, what an exciting mess.

‘Aang~~’

A cow fell to the ground after being shot, crying out in pain.

“Bastard, move away!”

The escaping Ashoka Dynasty troops did not hesitate when they saw laborers blocking their path. They simply raised their blades and cut down. They stepped on their corpses as they escaped.

“They are killing, the soldiers are killing people~~”

The laborers mostly came from the same area, and some even came from the same village. Seeing their friends being killed while they were all treated like slaves, they were filled with resentment. All this exploded out when they were on the verge of life and death.

“Go all out against them!”

As they said that, some of the laborers picked up weapons and charged forward.

“Bastards, you still dare to rebel?”

The Ashoka Dynasty soldiers were furious; they were never soft when they killed laborers.

Now, it was getting exciting – the enemy troops were trying to escape while fighting amongst themselves.

Wang Ben’s forces that stood above did not even move as they continued to fire expressionlessly, claiming the lives of the enemy. Anyways, there were too many enemy troops, so after a wave ran away, there would be more to replace them.

Such killing felt really comfortable.

The Ashoka Dynasty army was not composed of fools. After the initial panic, they calmed down. Some of the soldiers that were not attacked even donned their armor and formed up, climbing up the mountains.

They were planning to block the escape path of the Great Xia Army after they ascended the mountain.

No matter what, the Ashoka Dynasty held an absolute numerical advantage, and they did not fear anything. The moment the troops climbed up the mountain, the victor would become uncertain.

“Commander, the enemy troops are at the midpoint of the hill.” the deputy reported.

Wang Ben nodded and ordered, “Stop firing and get ready to face the enemy!”

As the hill was steep, it was not a suitable environment for cavalry to charge. If they really charged down, they might kill the enemy, but there was also a chance that they might knock into the cliff on the opposite side.

“Yes, commander!”

Very quickly, Wang Ben’s forces formed up, turning their horses around and charging toward the backline. At this moment, the Ashoka Dynasty backline had just charged up the hill. Before they could gain a stable footing, they had to face the rumbling horse hooves of the Great Xia Army.

“Kill!”

The Qin army soldiers that had suffered close to no losses raised their spears as they charged forward.

Facing such an iron flood, the Ashoka Dynasty army had no way to fight back. The soldiers only had time to give out desperate shouts before they were stepped into meat paste.

Wang Ben’s forces charged across the mountain peak like a bulldozer, clearing out the Ashoka Dynasty troops charging up the mountain. They were either killed one by one or were knocked off the hill with their fates becoming unknown.

This sent a chill down everyone’s spine.

The Ashoka Dynasty army that was climbing up could not help but stop and pause. Following which, they charged up the hill with even greater speed.

When people fought on a narrow path, the courageous party would emerge victorious.

The enemy had already charged past. Now, they just had to charge up and form up. After that, they would definitely be able to block it. As long as they were able to block the first wave, more of their allies would be able to charge up.

The outcome of this battle was still far from decided.

Chapter 1268 - surviving is my fortune, death is my life

Chapter 1268: TWO Chapter 1268-surviving is my fortune, death is my life

Wang Ben’s forces surged on the top of the hill, totally crushing the first wave of enemies that managed to climb up.

The true test had just begun.

“Stop!”

With the order given, the charging cavalry soldiers tightly pulled on their ropes, which wrapped tightly around their horses. Even then, it took them a few minutes before the entire army could come to a stop.

“Backline becomes the frontline, continue to charge!”

The peak of the hill was really narrow and steep, making it tough for the cavalry to make huge turns to change directions. They could only use such primitive methods, which inevitably wasted some time.

Furthermore, such actions meant that they would have to gather momentum from scratch.

By the time the army managed to turn around, an already formed up Ashoka Dynasty army was waiting for them. They were closely packed along the peak of the hill, and one could not see the end of them.

On the sides of the hill were closely packed archers gathered on the slopes.

“Charge!”

Wang Ben’s forces had no choice. They had to charge backward through that path because that was the only way down the hill.

Making use of this time, the cavalry shook off the flesh, head, and body parts hanging on their spears. After they shook their spear tips, blood splattered, and a cold glimmer shone once more.

This was all that the soldiers could do. They did not even have the time to adjust their armor that had loosened and gotten out of position. Their legs tapped their war horses as they started charging once more.

They charged as they adjusted themselves to find the optimal attacking spot.

They focused all their energy into the spear in their hands. Anyone that they pierced would have no chances of surviving. An invincible momentum had gathered the tip of the spear and would only stop after it saw blood.

“Kill!”

The Qin soldiers hollered in unison, letting out breaths of foul air as they all accumulated their energies and auras.

The Ashoka Dynasty army ahead of them only felt a mountain-like aura bearing down on them. Moreover, the pressure contained a rumbling killing intent; it was like they were stuck in a blood ocean as they felt suffocated and found it difficult to breathe.

After just a month of killing, this Qin army had managed to gather up the spirit of an iron army, sending chills down everyone’s spine.

The Ashoka Dynasty soldiers nervously adjusted their shields that were placed on the ground. Their blade wielding right hands were dripping with sweat as they stared directly forward. Their current nervousness could not be described in words.

“Hold it! Hold it!”

Luckily, the generals were still calm and kept on pacifying and settling down the army.

“Get ready!”

The general raised his hand. Right now, he could vaguely smell the nose-piercing stench of the breaths of the warhorses as well as the sour smell from the green grass being trampled.

“Fire!”

The general swung his hand forward in a powerful manner as an arrow rain that covered the sky was shot out.

As long as one was made up of flesh and blood, they could not be invincible before an arrow rain. Either the soldiers or the war horses of the high-speed charging Wang Ben troops were shot, falling down and unable to rise up.

At this point, no matter how skilled in reading the cavalry were, they could not make any evasive movements. Furthermore, if they tried to dodge, they might knock into the cavalry to their sides, so it was simply too dangerous.

Hence, they could only expressionlessly disregard the cries of the war horses and disregard the call for help from their friends. They did not stop at all, directly galloping past them.

The battlefield was heartless.

They could only brave the arrow rain and continue the charge.

In a short while, Wang Ben’s troops had charged to the front of the enemy. Facing the rows of shields as well as the long spears poking out from within the gaps, the cavalry soldiers did not even blink.

The war horses crashed into the enemy, and the spears in the hands of the soldiers either stabbed or pierced out to kill the enemy.

The two wings of enemy soldiers were pushed by people around them as they rolled down the hill, knocking right into the archers crouching on the slopes. This gave rise to even more chaos, and curses filled the air.

When the Ashoka Dynasty army commander saw that, his expression became really awkward and embarrassed. In hindsight, getting the archers to hide on the slopes was such a stupid idea.

“Let the archers withdraw and send the sword shield soldiers!” the commander decisively ordered.

“Yes!”

The archers withdrew like a flood as the sword shield soldiers hollered energetically and charged up. The two sides brushed past one another, and the sword shield soldiers could not help but mock the archers, making the faces of the archers flush red.

While the Ashoka Dynasty army was switching soldiers, Wang Ben’s forces had already charged across. As the hill top was narrow, either the infantry were knocked aside by the cavalry or the cavalry were mercilessly slaughtered by the infantry.

There was no third possibility.

The two sides were like two granola bars crashing into one another, wearing down each other and becoming shorter and shorter. Now, the side that was able to last till the end would be the victor.

The goal of Wang Ben’s troops was obvious to them. They just wanted to charge out to their starting point. Regardless of the price, this goal would not change.

The price was a steep one.

Although they had killed many enemy troops, only 50 thousand of them were left by the time the army managed to charge back to their starting point. Even Wang Ben’s deputy general had died in battle.

Luckily, they won.

Looking back at the mountain of corpses, the ocean of blood, and the chaotic scenes on the slopes and foot of the mountain, Wang Ben nodded his head in satisfaction before decisively ordering, “Withdraw!”

The remaining troops whizzed past from the other side of the hill, disappearing from the sights of the enemy.

…

Wang Ben’s forces retreated just as the Ashoka Dynasty army had started to clear up the mess.

Although they had not calculated the casualties, looking at the corpses scattered all around, the commander’s face was really dark. The corpses on the mountain path even blocked the road.

With his experience, he knew that at least 100 thousand troops had been lost.

Apart from losses in term of soldiers, a large amount of grain and resources had been scattered on the ground, mixing with blood and dirt during all the chaos; these items could not be used anymore.

The commander wanted to cry but no tears came out. He ordered viciously, “Find the tracks of the enemy. If I do not kill them, I will have no face to see the king.”

“Yes!” the surviving Ashoka Dynasty troops were similarly furious.

…

In truth, the Ashoka Dynasty army did not even need to search for them. During the following week, Wang Ben ordered the army to disrupt the enemy’s grain line, sending large and small groups to disturb them.

Large battles would start basically every day.

The Ashoka Dynasty army was unhappy and infuriated, but they were helpless against such tactics. Tibet was mountainous; it had many ridges and hills and rarely had any open paths. There was just that one grain transport path, and they could not hide even if they wanted to.

Furthermore, as they were in charge of transporting grain, their formation was unavoidably stretched long. Facing the disturbances of Wang Ben’s army, the Ashoka Dynasty army could not react in a timely manner. Their front and back forces could not assist one another.

Every time after they managed to form up with much difficulty, the enemy troops would have already fled.

After a week, not only did the Ashoka Dynasty army lose close to 50 thousand troops, but the grain that they were transporting also suffered heavy losses.

The commander realized that if this continued, they would be crushed by the enemy.

…

10th month, 21st day.

Due to the aims of the disturbance basically being achieved, Wang Ben decided to launch the final assault today before heading back to the Tang-Tibet ancient path.

After a week of battles, they had lost 10 thousand more men, and the remaining ones were exhausted.

Another mountain path, another sneak attack.

The last sneak attack proceed in an unusually smooth manner. The Ashoka Dynasty army was in turmoil and did not have the ability to fight back, running all around and resisting without any discipline.

However, this made Wang Ben feel uneasy.

“Commander, something is not right.” the newly appointed deputy said.

“It is a little weird.”

Wang Ben was really decisive and ordered, “Immediately withdraw!”

“Yes, general!”

The deputy general was about to spread down the order. Unfortunately, it was already too late.

From the path that they had come from, many enemy troops suddenly charge out, blocking their path of escape.

It seems like the Ashoka Dynasty army commander had set up an ‘Empty city plan,’ gathering up the army in advance behind the grain transporting troops to adapt to the situation.

When the Qin army arrived, the Ashoka Dynasty army swiftly moved to cut off their path of retreat.

“We have fallen for their trap!”

Wang Ben’s eyes froze up. For the first time, he held the enemy general in some regard. That was because the sneak attacks in the past week had gone too smoothly, which had made him subconsciously lower his guard.

That was not it. At this moment, killing shouts spread out from behind the grain transport force. The troops gathered on the backlines had also charged over, forming a front and back pincer.

“Commander, we have been surrounded!” the deputy general was a little worried.

Wang Ben was really calm and revealed a smile as he said, “Hey, we are troops of a dead country. Shouldn’t we follow his majesty to death? Why are we afraid of dying?”

Even now, Wang Ben could not accept the death of Qin Shihuang.

When they heard his words, the surrounding Qin soldiers agreed in silence. Their hearts and deepest emotions were touched.

“Brothers, follow me to charge out. It’s my fortune if I survive; it’s my destiny to die!”

“It’s my fortune if I survive, it’s my destiny to die!”

The blood of the Qin army soldiers boiled as a stunning determination to fight to the death exploded out.

The remaining Qin soldiers were like undead men.

“Kill!”

Wang Ben was the first to turn around his horse, charging in the direction they had come from.

That image was unusually majestic.

The Qin soldiers all silently turned around, following their commander. A massive slaughter would soon begin.

Chapter 1269 - The front path is broken

Chapter 1269: TWO Chapter 1269-The front path is broken

Their attempt to breakout was a trial by fire. After the enemy surrounded and blocked them, the 40 thousand Qin troops attempted to breakout, trying to get as many of them to survive as possible.

At noon, the army finally managed to escape.

After breaking out of the encirclement, Wang Ben looked around at the small number of soldiers left and pain flashed within his eyes. Of the 70 thousand boys that had set out together with him, only 20 thousand remained.

“Brothers, let’s go home!”

The enemy was still chasing them, so Wang Ben did not have the time to get all emotional.

For the following two days, one side fled as the other side chased as they shifted toward the Tang-Tibet ancient path. 10th month, 23rd day, at 2pm, Wang Ben’s forces finally arrived at the castle.

“Open the gates, quick, open up, we are the Great Xia Army!”

The Qin soldiers kept on shouting, but the castle gates showed no signs of budging. When they raised their heads, they only saw the Mongol soldiers standing on the city walls, not replying as they mockingly looked at Wang Ben and his men.

Wang Ben was an intelligent person, and his heart sank – he felt a bad premonition. He tapped his horse and moved to the front before hollering, “I am Wang Ben from Great Xia, why aren’t you opening up? Aren’t you afraid that the Empire would demand answers?”

“….”

His only reply was deathly silence.

His eyes froze up. The situation was already clear. In a short 10 days, something had happened within the Mongol Empire that made them dare to courageously reject the Great Xia Army outside of the door.

“Commander!” the deputy general walked over uneasily and said, “The enemy troops are about to catch up.”

Wang Ben took a final glance at the castle before swiftly turning around and saying, “Let’s go!”

“Where to?”

“Keep going east until we meet up with the right wing.” Wang Ben had made up his mind.

“This….”

Worry filled the deputy general’s face; he wanted to say something, but he stopped himself.

Their current location was tens of thousands of miles away from the frontline, and they were in enemy territory. There were obstacles in front of them and troops chasing behind them. With just the 20 thousand of them, without food provisions, trying to break out was as hard as scaling the heavens.

“We have no other choice!”

Wang Ben remained really rational. Since there were no other options, the only choice would be the best choice.

The castle in front of them was easy to defend and tough to attack. Furthermore, the enemy troops behind them were about to catch up – they did not have much time left.

Taking a step back, even if they forcefully took down the castle, they would not be able to smoothly go past the House of Ogedai with the attitude the Mongol Empire had shown.

“Let’s go!”

The 20 thousand troops turned toward the east.

When the soldiers in the castle saw that, they could not help but break out laughing. Their laughs were incredibly ear-piercing. Wang Ben wished he could turn around and teach them all a lesson.

However, Wang Ben did not try to do that; he just carried on toward the east, his face really dark.

…

Tibet, Anduo City.

After receiving the news from his son, Wang Jian’s face turned green with rage.

“Bastard, if anything happens to my son, I will not let you go.” It was rare for Wang Jian to lose his calm. However, right now, he simply wished to lead his troops to assist his son.

Luckily, after his many years in the military, Wang Jian was still able to keep a shred of his rationality.

Wang Jian knew that the right wing alone might not be able to save Wang Ben’s forces. Moreover, if they took action now, they would be committing the sin of disobeying orders, which would drag the entire Qin army down into the abyss.

Without hesitation, Wang Jian immediately contacted commander Li Jing.

When Li Jing received the report, he was really surprised, “Is the Mongol Empire crazy?”

Wang Jian said, “Commander, please let me lead my troops west to receive Wang Ben’s forces.”

Li Jing did not hesitate and replied, “Do not worry, general. Wang Ben went to execute a mission for our Empire, so we will not abandon him. Not only your right wing, but the left wing will also enter the west.”

“Thank you, commander!” Gratitude appeared in Wang Jian’s eyes.

If both the left and right wings struck out, their chances of success would greatly increase. Wang Jian did not expect Li Jing to be so candid. In his heart, he finally recognized the Empire somewhat.

Not only that, but Li Jing even continued to say, “I’ll report this matter to his majesty. For the House of Ogedai to commit such a betrayal, they are looking to die.”

As one of the three giants of the Empire’s army, Li Jing’s words had a lot of weight.

“Thank you, commander!”

Wang Jian cupped his fists once more. With the Empire stepping in, they would be able to seek an answer for Wang Ben.

With the orders from the command headquarters given, Wang Jian did not waste any more time. He personally led the entire right wing to immediately enter the west. Saving a person was like putting out a fire; no time could be wasted.

“Ben’er, you have to hold on.” Wang Jian was really anxious, praying silently in his heart.

At the same time, left wing marshal Tian Dan received the same order and led the troops west to coordinate with the right wing to charge into the core land of Tibet.

However, the difference between their orders was that Li Jing instructed Tian Dan to destroy all the enemy forces in their way to create an opportunity for the middle army to take down Lhasa City.

Tian Dan naturally heeded the orders.

Li Jing was truly a God General. Although an unexpectedly matter had occurred, he managed to smell an opportunity from the crisis and seized it. He wanted to give the enemy a fatal blow.

Strictly speaking, Wang Ben’s forces had exceeded the mission that was given to them. Not only did they disturb the enemy grain path, but they also crushed the 500 thousand reinforcements sent by the Ashoka Dynasty.

As a result, the situation of the battle favored Great Xia.

The left and right wings were entering the west to save Wang Ben. At the same time, they would use this chance to sweep the core area of Tibet, officially cutting off all reinforcements to Lhasa City.

After this, Lhasa City would be there for the taking.

With the clear order from the command headquarters, the middle army and the middle protector army increased the intensity of their attacks.

If nothing went wrong, the war of Tibet would end really soon.

…

10th month, 24th day, Imperial City.

Early in the morning, Ouyang Shuo received Li Jing’s emergency memorial, and his face instantly sank in disbelief. That was because just yesterday, Karakorum had sent a report that they would be sending an envoy to the imperial capital to talk about submitting.

Unexpectedly, in the blink of an eye, such a matter had occurred.

“Men!”

“Present!”

“Summon Zhang Yi!”

“Yes, my emperor!”

Very quickly, Zhang Yi who had just returned to the office hurried to the Imperial Reading Room, “Greetings, your majesty!”

Ouyang Shuo told him what happened at the castle and asked, “What are your views on this?”

Zhang Yi was astonished, and he hesitated before saying, “I heard that Genghis Khan intended to pass the throne to Tolei. Did Ogedai hold resentment and refuse to let us pass at the castle as a result?”

Ouyang Shuo sighed and said, “The Mongolians are really arrogant, unable to be tamed.”

Zhang Yi’s heart trembled. Who knows how this matter would affect the Mongol Empire surrender? Perhaps this event might even cause the emperor to change their strategy toward the Mongol Empire.

“Ask them what is happening and tell them to give us an explanation.” Ouyang Shuo instructed.

“Yes, your majesty!”

Zhang Yi treated this matter seriously, immediately turning around and getting to it. He could feel that a storm was brewing in the Mongol Empire.

Chapter 1270 - War of Tibet is over

Chapter 1270: TWO Chapter 1270-War of Tibet is over

Mongol Empire, Karakorum.

After he received the letter from the Great Xia Honglu Temple questioning the matter, Genghis Khan panicked for the first time.

“Rebel son, rebel son!”

Obviously, Ogedai was behind this, and his goal was to destroy the peace talks between the Mongol Empire and Great Xia to stabilize his position. In the end, Ogedai was not willing to listen to his brother, Tolei.

As a mighty lord in history, this was his pride.

Furthermore, in history, Tolei was killed with poison because Ogedai was wary of him. Who could ensure that Tolei would not take revenge on him once he ascended?

Moreover, as a mighty lord that grew up on the grassland, he was not willing to bow down to Great Xia. Doing so would be a huge humiliation to Ogedai and was something that he could not accept.

Not only Ogedai, but many other Mongolians also had similar feelings, especially the generals in the army.

After a short while, Mongol Chancellor Yelu Chucai was summoned.

“How do you think we should deal with this matter?” Genghis Khan asked.

This was a tough question for Yelu Chucai, and he hesitated before saying, “From the tone of Great Xia, the so-called ‘give an explanation’ would at least require sending the 3rd prince to the imperial capital for Great Xia to deal with.”

Genghis Khan’s expression turned ugly. Actually, he knew what explanation Great Xia wanted. However, Yelu Chucai saying it outright made him feel a sense of humiliation.

“We cannot do that.” Genghis Khan shook his head.

Ogedai’s authority and prestige in the Mongol Empire was only less than Genghis Khan’s. If the Mongol Empire truly handed Ogedai over, the entire Mongol race would not be able to raise their heads in the future.

“That’s right.” Yelu Chucai nodded before adding, “I heard that many generals hate Great Xia. If we really order the capture of the 3rd prince, the army would end up in chaos.”

“That’s why it’s difficult.” Genghis Khan’s brows were locked tight, and he could not help but scold, “This rebel!”

Ogedai’s actions forced Genghis Khan onto the back foot. It would not be too farfetched to say that his actions had pushed the entire empire to the edge of a cliff. One side was peace, and the other side was hell.

“Do you have any good plans?” Genghis Khan asked with hope.

Hearing that, Yelu Chucai knelt onto the ground and said in shame, “I should die; I’m unable to help you share your worries!” In front of absolute power, sometimes not having a solution had nothing to do with intelligence.

Genghis Khan asked, “Can we make it so that Great Xia gives us a chance and hand over a border general to take the blame?”

Apart from Ogedai himself, Bo’er Shu and Chi Laowen also defended the House of Ogedai. More specifically, the one in charge of the south border was Bo’er Shu.

Not only was he the head of the four heroes, but he was also Genghis Khan’s playmate from when he was young.

The meaning within Genghis Khan’s words were clear. He was willing to sacrifice Bo’er Shu in return for forgiveness from Great Xia to tide past this calamity. Thinking about this, Yelu Chucai felt a cold sweat from his palms.

“We can give it a try.” Yelu Chucai tried his best to calm himself down.

Genghis Khan nodded his head in satisfaction and said, “Then go do it!”

“Yes, my king!”

Yelu Chucai turned around and left. His footsteps were really empty and soulless.

Genghis Khan looked at Yelu Chucai’s back, his eyes shining with a cold glimmer.

…

The so-called explanation from the Mongol Empire was unable to satisfy Ouyang Shuo.

The Wang father and son duo were not just the generals of the right wing. They were also generals that Ouyang Shuo held in high regard. He was prepared to give them important appointments after the war of Tibet’s conclusion, and he did not want anything to happen to them.

If Ogedai’s selfishness caused Wang Ben to die and Wang Jian to be unhappy with the Empire, how could killing one Bo’er Shu account for that?

The Mongols cared about Bo’er Shu but Ouyang Shuo did not.

Ouyang Shuo said expressionlessly, “Shelve this matter; do not reveal any animosity.”

“Understood!”

Zhang Yi, who was in charge of spreading the word, fell deep into thought.

…

Although he was not willing to see it happen, tragedy still struck in the end.

10th month, 27th day, before Wang Jian’s right wing could arrive, the remaining Wang Ben forces were surrounded by the Ashoka Dynasty army. None of them could survive, and the whole army was in trouble.

Wang Ben did not want to be captured and killed himself on the spot.

When Wang Jian heard the news, he was filled with pain. It was like he had gone mad. He led his troops to launch a fearless assault on the Ashoka Dynasty army, starting a slaughter in the core area of Tibet.

The current Qin army had the aura of the one that wiped out the six countries in history.

When Li Jing received the news, he sighed and ordered the left wing to prepare to assist the right. He ordered them to not let Wang Jian be in danger. If not, Li Jing would not be able to answer to the king.

Under the crazy assault of the left and right wings of Great Xia, the Tibetan core region was lost.

That was it. Wang Jian led his troops to charge until the west border of Tibet. After claiming the corpse of Wang Jian, he cut off the retreat path of the Ashoka Dynasty army.

If it were not that shred of sense left in him, Wang Jian would have led his troops to take down the castle to take revenge for Wang Ben.

11th month, 3rd day, the middle army and the middle protector army finally took down Lhasa City. At this point, the Tibet battlefield was under Great Xia’s control.

The despairing Ashoka Dynasty army could only surrender.

According to the post war tabulations, after two and a half months of fighting, apart from those that died in battle, 750 thousand of the two million Ashoka Dynasty troops had surrendered. Apart from that, there were also 250 thousand Tibetan troops.

At this point, the Ashoka Dynasty went from its peak of 4.5 million soldiers to 2.5 million, causing its strength to drop sharply. In the future, not to mention expanding, but even its position in India was on the verge of being lost.

When they heard the news, Peacock and Gupta dynasties were so delighted that they could not stop smiling.

Pretty much at the same time as the Tibet war ended, the Peacock and Gupta dynasties troops that were ready to go launched their attacks on the Ashoka Dynasty.

India welcomed its most large-scale internal war in history.

After this war, the India Region would have a reshuffling of cards.

Although they emerged victorious in the war of Tibet, Great Xia had also paid a heavy price. Out of the two million troops, only 1.3 million survived.

Amongst the armies, the right wing lost the most. Only 250 thousand of them remained, close to half dying. A crazy Wang Jian was simply terrifying.

Apart from the 70 thousand Wang Ben troops, the latest casualties of the right wing came from when Wang Jian led them west. The crazy Wang Jian did not care about sacrifices when he fought.

The Tibet battlefield was a true meat grinder.

Fortunately, the surviving 1.3 million troops had finally grown through this war. Placing them in any other dynasty, they could surely act as elites.

Helplessly, Great Xia was currently having their largest scale disarmament, and they did not have space for 1.3 million troops.

How to arrange them had already been decided.

The moment he learned of Wang Ben’s death, Wang Jian could not suppress the pain and sadness in his heart. He directly sent a memorial to Ouyang Shuo and pleaded, “I have no other requests. I only hope to attack the House of Ogedai. As long as you agree to my request, I’m willing to be loyal to the Empire till death.”

Since Wang Jian had already said that, what more could Ouyang Shuo say?

Genghis Khan’s half-heartedness made Ouyang Shuo really unhappy, and he intended to deal with the Mongol Empire. Once Wang Ben died, he made up his mind.

Wasn’t Wang Jian’s letter the best chance for Ouyang Shuo to earn his loyalty? If he could make a God General like Wang Jian loyally serve the Empire, it would be more worth it than anything.

Ouyang Shuo pretty much did not hesitate and agreed with Wang Jian’s battle plan.

Chapter 1271 - Can only die standing and not live kneeling

Chapter 1271: TWO Chapter 1271-Can only die standing and not live kneeling

Wang Jian’s plan was to throw the surviving 1.3 million Tibet troops onto the Mongol battlefield. He wanted them to adjust their attack direction to go up north toward the House of Ogedai.

The Privy Court’s opinion on this matter was split.

Du Ruhui argued that after the war of Tibet, the remaining 1.3 million soldiers were, strictly speaking, proper Great Xia Army soldiers unless they were disarmed.

They had just risked their lives on the Tibet battlefield. Although it was for self-survival, they had tried their best for the Empire. As such, they should be given the due respect and dignity and receive the right treatment.

“How can we treat them as consumables and toss them onto the Mongol battlefield?” Du Ruhui did not understand.

Du Ruhui’s words had some sense to it.

Facing the complaints from the Privy Court, Ouyang Shuo chose the middle ground and made it clear that the 1.3 million troops were in charge of attacking the House of Ogedai. After they took it down, they would break away from the name of ‘consumable army’.

During the war of Tibet, either someone leaked the news, or outsiders had guessed correctly. People termed the two million troops thrown into Tibet as a ‘consumable army’.

Such a humiliating term obviously made one’s heart feel cold.

When Ouyang Shuo got the news, he immediately sent people to investigate. Only after he captured the rumor makers did this storm ease up. If this storm continued and spread to the frontlines, who knows how much chaos it would cause.

Speaking of which, Ouyang Shuo was the final decision maker of the meat grinder operation. However, he now stepped up to clear the rumors, which was truly a little fake.

However, politics were like that.

As a ruler, Ouyang Shuo had to face such conflicting choices.

His hands were far from being clean.

Ouyang Shuo only wished for his conscience to be clean in the end.

The House of Ogedai housed the troops of Ogedai, Bo’er Shu, and Chi Laowen. Since they had suffered some loses when attacking the Persia Empire, their overall strength was around 550 thousand, and they were basically all cavalry.

1.3 million troops against 550 thousand, the House of Ogedai had no chances of winning.

As for the potential support from the Mongol Empire, Great Xia had considered it long ago. When Ouyang Shuo agreed to Wang Jian’s plan, the Privy Court had given an order to the Eagle, Hedong, Beijiang, and Phoenix legion corps to stop the disarmament temporarily. If the Mongol Empire tried to help out the House of Ogedai, they would directly attack.

Now, it all depended on what choice Genghis Khan would make.

…

11th month, 10th day, Wang Jian led his troops to take down the castle, leading his troops into the Tang-Tibet ancient path and signaling the start of the war of the House of Ogedai.

Following which, the 1.3 million troops split into four and went up north into the House of Ogedai.

When Ogedai received the report, he was not nervous. He ordered his troops to form up defenses as he galloped around the Mongol Empire, trying to raise the fighting spirits of those who wanted war and use this chance to recruit more troops to go against Great Xia.

All of a sudden, the Mongol Empire was really jittery.

At that very moment, 1st prince and 2nd prince Chagatai and Jochi both sent letters to Genghis Khan, asking him to send troops to assist Ogedai Khan to fight to the death against Great Xia.

“Sons of Mongol can only die standing and not live kneeling.” Jochi said.

All of a sudden, the Mongol Empire was pumped up, and more and more people sought battle. At such a time, even Genghis Khan found it hard to control the situation.

Jochi’s words became the motto of the Mongol people.

11th month, 12th day, Karakorum, Imperial Palace.

Genghis Khan’s expression was unprecedentedly serious. He did not expect the Empire to disregard Great Xia so much, and the waves of people asking to go to war was about to flip the palace.

If this continued, a coup would definitely start.

Tolei, who was facing Genghis Khan, also had a complicated expression. When Genghis Khan decided to hand the throne to him, Tolei was summoned back from the south border to Karakorum.

“Tolei, what is your view on this matter?” Genghis Khan asked.

Just as Genghis Khan asked this question, the two of them vaguely heard shouts from the streets outside of the palace. Those were the people who sought to go to war.

Tolei gritted his teeth and said, “Father, we cannot go against the people’s sentiment.”

Genghis Khan’s eyes froze up and said, “Even you agree to fight Great Xia? You do not even want the Khan position?”

“Father, I am a warrior. I do not truly want the throne, but I’m forced by the situation. Compared to the throne, I value the backbone of our Mongol people more.”

“Can only die standing and not live kneeling?” Genghis Khan’s eyes became tough to read.

Tolei nodded and said, “Can only die standing and not live kneeling!”

At that moment, Genghis Khan seemed to have grown several years older, showing signs of exhaustion. He slowly closed his eyes. When Tolei saw that, he felt really uneasy.

The four princes and all the generals feared Genghis Khan.

After a long while, Genghis Khan slowly opened his eyes. In his cloudy eyes, there was not even a trace of hesitation. There was no more lethargy, weakness, or yielding; there was only a steel-like determination.

“Since that’s the case, let’s go to war!”

Genghis Khan stood up and looked out at the white clouds as he said, “Let these blue skies and white clouds witness the Mongol legends. Use fresh blood to protect the honor that will never be lost!”

“Yes!”

Tolei nodded his head. The blood in his body was boiling.

…

11th month, 13th day, the Mongol Empire ended all negotiations with Great Xia. This also meant that before the arrival of winter, the only two empires left in China would have a life or death battle.

Without any words being said, the Eagle, Phoenix, Hedong, and Beijiang legion corps valiantly charged into Mongolia from four paths.

In Ouyang Shuo’s words, Great Xia would never allow any enemy to charge into their borders. “Defending the enemy outside of their doors.” This was Ouyang Shuo’s basic requirement for the Great Xia Army.

All of a sudden, the flames of war rose in the north once more.

Ouyang Shuo had seen through all of this. A month ago, he could feel that this war was unavoidable, which was why he told the four legion corps to prepare themselves.

The grain supply had been prepared long ago.

Apart from the 500 thousand House of Ogedai troops, the Mongol Empire had 800 thousand split up in the north, south, east, and middle. They were definitely unable to go up against the four legion corps of Great Xia.

Not to mention that behind these four were the Leopard and Tiger Legion corps acting as reserve forces.

In this war, the Mongol Empire had no chances of winning. They only considered how to maximize the price that Great Xia had to pay to take them down and unify China.

As the war happened in the north, and it was already the 11th month, this war was destined to not last for a long time. If not, the moment winter arrived, both sides would be stuck in a tough situation.

“Bear with it; it’s just this one left.”

Ouyang Shuo sighed as he settled the post war Tibet matters.

After taking suggestions from the Cabinet and borrowing ideas from history, they decided to rename Tibet as Xikang Province. The ruling city was naturally Lhasa City.

Chuannan Province Xunzhou Prefecture Governor Bao Shuya was promoted to Xikang Provinical Governor.

Bao Shuya was also a long serving minister of the Empire and had once competed with Fan Zhongyan for the Chuannan Provincial Governor spot. Be it in terms of experience or ability, he was competent enough for this job.

Some meticulous people could even notice that along with Bao Shuya’s promotion, out of the five Prefecture Governors of Chuannan Province, none were historical people. The third uncle of Ouyang Shuo, Wuzhou Prefecture Governor Ouyang Heng, shone brightly in Chuannan.

“Is this a coincidence, or did his majesty plan it?” The officials only dared to think about this question in their hearts.

Along with the Empire taking down Tibet, Ouyang Shuo finally fulfilled his promise to Wufu and established the Xijiang Governor-General House.

The Jiangchuan Provincial Governor role that he left behind would be taken up by Jiuzhou Prefecture Governor Sima Guang. With his ability, running Jiangchuan Province would not be a problem.

The Xijiang Governor-General House temporarily only had the Xijiang and Xihai provinces under it, and its ruling city was Lhasa City, radiating out to the entire west territory.

As for the Shu Lands, based on the Empire’s long-term strategy, it would not be listed under Xijiang. Even to say that on the Empire’s map, the Shu Lands belonged to the core area.

Along with the establishment of the Xijiang Governor-General House, Mulan Yue, Bai Hua, Gong Chengshi, and Wufu had all received their rewards. Feng Qiuhuang would be next.

As for Xiong Ba, that would naturally be arranged in the future.

Along with the Xijiang Governor-General House’s establishment, the northwest warzone headquarters would be moved west from Chengdu to Lhasa City. Relatively, the Bear legion corps led by Zuo Zongtang would move into Xikang Province.

The main mission of the Bear legion corps would be to take care of the one million prisoners.

Ouyang Shuo had already given the order to disarm the war prisoners and send them to build the two paths connecting Lhasa City to the Shu Lands and Xihai.

These two paths were crucial for the Empire’s rule of Xijiang, so a lot of attention was placed onto it.

For this matter, these war prisoners were the best laborers. Although they could not be treated like slaves, as long as they were fed and kept warm, they could be ordered to work.

Apart from these two paths, Ouyang Shuo was planning to build two paths from Xikang Province to the Peacock and Gupta dynasties to prepare for their future war.

In Asia, India was a target that Ouyang Shuo had to take down.

For this, Ouyang Shuo had already quietly buried a land mine for both the Gupta and Peacock dynasties.

Chapter 1272 - Afterglow of the cavalry era

Chapter 1272: TWO Chapter 1272-Afterglow of the cavalry era

As for the Xijiang Governor-General House secretary-general, the Cabinet recommended Shu Lands Province Hanzhong Prefecture Governor Fu Bi.

Fu Bi was a famous minister of North Song. When he worked as the deputy minister of the Privy Court of North Song, he had worked on the reform of the North Song government with Fan Zhongyan.

After the failure of that reform, he was sent to Qingzhou and Yunzhou and was tasked with saving the civilians affected by disaster.

In the 2nd year of Zhihe, he was appointed as Chancellor.

In history, Fu Bi was sent to Liao Country many times as an ambassador, and he had a clear understanding of West Xia’s geography.

The Cabinet recommended him because he was great at both administrativeand military matters. The suggestion to appoint him as secretary-general came after much deliberation, and he was a perfect fit to what Ouyang Shuo wanted.

Furthermore, Fu Bi had worked as the Hanzhong Prefecture Governor for a long time and understood the Shu Lands situation. His promotion this time would also help to stimulate the construction of the two paths connecting to Tibet.

…

The war of Mongolia in the 11th month was viewed as the final war in China.

The Mongol Empire had 1.3 million troops. Although they did not have as many troops as Great Xia, the outside world thought that this war would be a seismic one that would last for a long time.

Even if Great Xia could win, they would suffer hefty losses.

However, the war proceeded in a manner that greatly exceeded everyone’s expectations. In this war, the Great Xia Army uprooted the enemy and did not give them any chance.

Especially the war in the Mongol Empire itself, which lacked any difficulty.

…

11th month, 17th day, Mongol Empire southeast border.

Bo’er Hu’s forces were camped here. On the other hand, Chagatai’s forces was camped at the northeast border, and they coordinated with one another to defend the east border of the Mongol Empire.

Their opponents were the Great Xia Beijiang and Phoenix legion corps.

Under the leadership of deputy marshal Chen Yucheng, the Beijiang legion corps entered through Beijiang Province and were ready to engage Bo’er Hu’s troops. Meanwhile, Guo Ziyi led the Phoenix legion corps to enter through the west of Liaojin Province to charge toward Chagatai’s forces.

At 9am, 1st legion Legion General of the Beijiang legion corps Zhang He led 20 thousand elite cavalry to act as the vanguard to crash into Bo’er Hu’s main force on the vast grassland.

As one of the four heroes of Mongol, Bo’er Hu was skilled at cavalry battle. Upon learning that Great Xia’s vanguard troops were all cavalry, he did not say anything and directly ordered his troops to proceed forward.

“Kill them all!”

Bo’er Hu led the way on his horse and charged toward the enemy.

As one of the top generals of the Three Kingdoms era, would Zhang He be a coward? Without a second word, he too led his troops forward.

In truth, in terms of warhorses, cavalry equipment, and even tactics, the Great Xia cavalry were miles ahead of the Mongol cavalry. The poor Mongolians still did not know this and still thought that they were the best in the world.

This battle totally proved this point.

Facing the 40 thousand Mongol cavalry, Zhang He’s forces were not on the backfoot at all. They fought the enemy to a standstill, making Bo’er Hu’s face flush red.

This was a straight up slap to the face.

The so-called Mongol iron cavalry did not have the ability to be arrogant in front of the Great Xia cavalry.

The face of the furious Bo’er Hu turned dark. He wanted to save a bit of his face, so his killing intent toward Zhang He’s forces totally exploded. He ordered the main force to kill the enemy. At the same time, he ordered the two wings to gather up with the main force to surround the enemy.

Strictly speaking, this was the first battle between the Mongol iron cavalry and the Great Xia cavalry.

The strength of the enemy had exceeded Bo’er Hu’s expectation. As such, to save their morale, he had no choice but to stop at nothing to destroy the enemy; this would allow them to regain some of their pride and dignity.

If not, the outcome would be extremely detrimental.

Bo’er Hu wanted to go all out, but Zhang He was not interested. After all, he was given a mission.

Hearing the spies report that the right and left wings of the enemy were moving toward them, Zhang He grinned. They had actually completed this mission so easily, which was beyond his expectations.

“Retreat!”

Zhang He did not hesitate and immediately gave the order to retreat.

“Chase!”

Seeing the enemy retreat, Bo’er Hu immediately guessed that they might have gotten wind of the movement of the wings. More importantly, he could not let the enemy escape.

If not, where would all his face go?

“Let the two wings speed up and rush over to gather with the main force!”

Originally, Bo’er Hu intended to let the two wings wrap around to the back of the enemy. However, seeing the enemy retreat, his plan would not work. As a result, they might as well directly chase them.

Two armies, one chasing and one fleeing, galloping across the vast Mongolian grassland, what a spectacle.

In the blink of an eye, noon arrived; the two armies had travelled 100 odd miles. This travelling speed was something that infantry troops could never achieve.

In this regard, the cavalry truly deserved to be prideful.

Shortly after, a small, hilly region appeared in front of Zhang He’s troops. Hill after hill, rising and dipping like green bubbles on the grassland, a majestic view.

Zhang He did not hesitate and directly charged in, disappearing from Bo’er Hu’s sights.

Bo’er Hu did not hesitate either. He directly ordered the army to chase after the enemy. On the vast grasslands, even the hills could not exceed 35 meters. Moreover, there were no trees, so it was impossible to set up an ambush.

Hence, Bo’er Hu feared nothing.

Only after leading his troops in did he realize that something was wrong. At this point, he saw many shadows above every hill, a large number of Great Xia troops, and simple defensive work completed.

Obviously, this was the carefully planned final battle location of the enemy.

When Bo’er Hu saw that, not only did he not panic, but he even laughed out loud and said, “I did not expect the Great Xia Army to be so stupid. They think such small hills can block our attacks? How immature.”

Logically speaking, 35-meter-high small hills were not an ideal ambushing location. Not only could one not ambush the enemy, but the moment one was stuck up there, they would be dead for sure without water.

Bo’er Hu did not hesitate and ordered the army to spread out and siege each hill.

The hills on the grassland had a relatively gentle slope. With the skills of the Mongol cavalry, they could easily charge up. They did not need to get off their horse to fight.

The worries that they had toward the enemy in the morning had already been tossed to the back of his head.

“Charge!”

Bo’er Hu personally led his troops to charge toward Zhang He’s forces in front. At the same time, he ordered the two wings to remove the nails on the top of the hills.

The entire hilly region had no less than 100 of such hills, and they were closely packed next to one another.

At the foot of one of the hills, one thousand Mongol cavalry soldiers valiantly launched their charge. Their crescent knives shone with an eye-piercing chilly glimmer under the noon sun.

When the commander on the hill saw that, he calmly ordered, “Fire the cannons!”

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

The cannons that were arranged on the hills earlier were fired instantly.

The cavalry charge at the front immediately dropped to the ground. The charge of the entire group slowed down. However, the Mongol cavalry were a pack of fearless wolves, and they braced the cannon fire and continued their charge.

On such a short hill, before they could even fire the second round of cannons, the enemy had already charged to the top.

When the commander saw that, he calmly ordered, “Gunners, ready!”

“Fire!”

‘Pa! Pa! Pa!’

Rushed and dense gunshot sounds broke out. Bullets were fired out in an unrestrained manner.

The strong Mongol cavalry were simply too weak under the bullet rain of the Great Xia Army. Rows and rows of cavalry fell like wheat, unable to cause any damage.

In front of firearms, the Mongol cavalry that still belonged to the cold weapons era was destined to be slaughtered.

That’s right; it was a slaughter.

The Great Xia firearms had gone from the primitive blunderbuss to the relatively advanced matchlocks to the current flintlock.

Unlike the matchlock that was difficult to arm and reload, the flintlocks had a spring rotating arm with a flint stone in it. When the rotating arm was turned downward, the flint stone would create sparks with the steel board in the gunpowder chamber, causing the sparks to fall into the gunpowder chamber and igniting the gunpowder.

Since it relied on flint to light it up, this gun was called a flintlock.

Compared to the matchlock, the flintlock was safer and more reliable. Its structure was simple and reloading it was easy. One flint stone could last for 30 rounds, and even gave rise to the possibility of firing successive shots.

Such pros allowed the flintlock to be commonly used for 300 years.

The flintlock did not leave the stage until the creation of the more advanced percussion guns. Currently, Great Xia’s research and development on percussion guns had reached a critical stage, and experimental products were being created.

They had not equipped the armies with them because the costs were too high, and they could not produce it on such a scale.

This related to their current industrialization standards. All things considered, two years had passed since they began industrialization. Naturally, they had not reached the level required to produce percussion guns.

Even then, the power of the flintlock was enough to send a chill down the spines of the enemy.

The cannons and firearms worked together. At the same time, they made use of the beneficial geography to fire down from above. The Mongol cavalry that were wearing leather or even cloth armor were like babies, unable to take a hit.

Even if elite cavalries managed to charge up, a row of sword shield soldiers would be waiting in front of the gunners. The Mongol cavalry had no way to proceed forward.

The small hills became a massive nightmare for the Mongol cavalry.

The current Bo’er Hu had already led his troops deep into the hills. When the messenger reported that the two wings had suffered heavy casualties as they were surrounding the hills, his expression became really complicated.

“How did that happen?” Bo’er Hu could not understand.

The messenger replied in a state of shock, “General, the enemy has arranged cannons on the mountains, and they also have many gunners. Their killing strength is shocking, and we cannot charge up at all.”

Bo’er Hu felt his heart turn cold. Finally, he realized that the enemy’s trap was not so simple.

“General, let’s retreat!” the deputy suggested.

Bo’er Hu’s face was really dark. After a long while, he said, “No, we cannot.” To the Mongol Empire, this was a war without a way out. If they did not win, they would be wiped out.

The deputy anxiously said, “Then let’s charge out of this hill. We cannot let the boys die for nothing.”

“That’s a good idea!” Bo’er Hu was not stubborn this time.

Unfortunately, this was a carefully constructed plot by Chen Yucheng, so how could he allow the enemy who had fallen into it escape so easily? Just as Bo’er Hu’s troops charged out of the hill region, they found the Great Xia Army already waiting for them around the hill.

Chapter 1273 - Cavalry will not die, it will only take another form

Chapter 1273: TWO Chapter 1273-Cavalry will not die, it will only take another form

Although the hill region seemed to have war castles all over, there were actually not many Beijiang legion corps soldiers there. Most of the soldiers were arranged at the exits and entrances of the hills.

A line of cannons had been prepared at every exit.

Next would be the gunners and the two wings of sword shield soldiers covering them. To the side of the sword shield soldiers were the cavalry.

For the Mongol cavalry that had suffered heavy casualties, breaking through such a defensive line was as difficult as scaling the heavens. Beijiang deputy marshal Chen Yucheng called this place the grave of Bo’er Hu’s forces.

Cannons sealing the exit, bullets raining down.

The 130 thousand Mongol cavalry troops were trapped amongst the hills. If they went forward, they would die, but if they retreated, they would still die.

Nothing was more hopeless than a situation like this.

In just one afternoon, close to 70 thousand cavalry troops were buried under the bullet rain. Those that barely managed to charge out had to face the chasing cavalry and the infantry of the Beijiang legion corps.

There was no way out for them.

They had no hope!

At 5pm, Bo’er Hu was smashed by a cannonball fragment and was heavily injured. The soldiers wanted to go all out to carry him to escape, but he rejected them.

This Mongol general carried his heavily wounded body to launch his final charge toward the enemy.

Along with the death of Bo’er Hu, the remaining Mongol cavalry finally lowered their arrogant heads and surrendered to the Great Xia Army. In just a day, the Beijiang legion corps had crushed one out of the nine forces of the Mongol army.

The moment news of this matter spread out, the entire Mongol Empire was stunned.

Karakorum, Palace.

When he received the news of Bo’er Hu’s death as well as the destruction of his forces, Genghis Khan nearly lost his footing. His face was ashen white as he muttered, “How is this possible, how…”

Such a result was something that Genghis Khan could not accept.

Looking at the intel report, Genghis Khan felt a chill that just would not go away, spreading through his entire army. Facing such a Great Xia Army, did the Mongol army consisting of basically only cavalry stand a chance at winning?

The famous Mongol iron cavalry was facing an unprecedented opponent.

When Tolei saw that, he asked, “Should we enlist the young men into the army?” Mongolia was a place where everyone had to enlist, so if they wanted to, they could gather close to 100 thousand more troops right away.

Obviously, Tolei was not feeling confident about this battle and wanted to get more troops.

“Let’s leave some seeds for our people!” Genghis Khan waved his hand in exhaustion. Facing such an opponent, enlisting troops now would just be squeezing dry the blood of the Mongol people.

“We are the ones that caused this problem. Let’s not have our people die together with us.” Genghis Khan painfully closed his eyes.

When Tolei saw that, this was the first time that regret rose up in his heart. If it were not for him supporting war with Great Xia, today’s defeat might not have occurred. They would not have dragged the Mongol Empire into a bloody abyss.

One could even say that Tolei felt resentment toward Ogedai.

However, an arrow fired could not be recalled. Since they had already declared war, and Great Xia had fought back, there was no room for peace. There were only two paths ahead of them.

They could either bow their heads and serve, or they die with their pride.

…

Not only the Mongol Empire, but even the Great Xia Army itself felt surprised. Many of the generals did not expect the firearms to be so terrifyingly strong.

During this round of disarmament, they clearly mentioned increasing the number of firearm-type troops and reducing the number of cold weapon troops.

In truth, many of the generals in the army did not understand this decision.

There were many people who opposed the disarmament process.

However, after detailed reports of the battle at the unknown hill were revealed by the Privy Court, those grumbling and insistent generals and soldiers lost their voices and cooperated to complete the disarmament.

When Ouyang Shuo received the report, he revealed a happy countenance and immediately decreed to promote Chen Yucheng to Beijiang legion corps marshal. He also awarded Chen Yucheng with the title of Grade 3 north settling general. The original marshal Yue Fei would receive a new appointment.

Once the Battle of Mongol ended, the Great Xia Army would welcome a new round of adjustments, and Yue Fei would have an important role to play.

Ouyang Shuo did this to reward Chen Yucheng for his work and to raise the morale of the army. It was also to reward Chen Yucheng for using firearms to remove the biggest obstacle to the military disarmament.

Chen Yucheng who came from Taiping Country was familiar with firearms. As expected, he did not let Ouyang Shuo down.

Chen Yucheng made use of the special environment and targeted the weakness of the Mongol cavalry to craft a suitable firearm tactic, getting famous in one battle.

The olden phrase was good, “See it to believe it.”

The Great Xia generals who had never seen the strength of firearms unavoidably had biasness against these new weapons. Some even stubbornly felt that cold weapons were the core.

Due to the differences in experiences and the restrictions of their eras, it was not surprising for some generals to have such thoughts.

Ouyang Shuo could understand these thoughts, but he could not agree with it.

The battle at the unnamed hill was like the first blood that woke up all of these stubborn generals. They truly focused on the strength of firearms and learned how to progress with the times.

Even the marshal of the Guards Legion Corps was inspired.

Without a doubt, this battle had the greatest impact on Huo Qubing.

After all, Huo Qubing was a cavalry genius, and his Guards Legion Corps were mostly composed of cavalry. He had helped the empire and earned a lot of merit, and he was deemed as the brightest pearl in the empire’s crown. However, he had now fallen to such an awkward position.

Was the tragic ending of the Mongol iron cavalry a sign of the future of the Guards Legion Corps?

This round of disarmament saw 100 thousand troops removed from the Guards Legion Corps. Half of the cavalry that remained had to change jobs, especially the light armored soldiers. They had to become gunner cavalry.

Although Huo Qubing’s confidence was greatly affected, Ouyang Shuo had really high hopes for him.

Huo Qubing was good at lightning quick battles and long-distance sneak attacks. In the post cavalry era, such methods still had a unique charm. Especially in the modern world, which had a lot of room to be used.

For example, the air force, which was deemed as the cavalry of the sky.

Apart from that, there were motorized forces such as tanks and heavy armored forces with high mobility that were just enhanced cavalry. The only difference was that the warhorses had become machines.

Generals like Huo Qubing that had a clear and special fighting style would always have a place.

“Cavalry will not die, it will only take another form!” Ouyang Shuo consoled him.

Ouyang Shuo had already instructed the Army University and the Navy University to make use of this chance to train up and develop Advanced Generals and train the current generals in firearms.

Huo Qubing was the first general who went to sign up.

…

This unnamed hill battle was not a special case; it was just the start.

11th month, 19th day, Guo Ziyi led the Phoenix legion corps to strike Chagatai’s troops, killing 30 thousand of them. At this point, the east part of the Mongol Empire was lost.

20th day, Li Mu led the Eagle legion corps to attack Muqali’s troops, killing 50 thousand of them.

Mongol general Muqali died in battle.

23rd day, the newly appointed Hou Junji led the Hedong legion corps to fight Jochi’s troops who came down south and killed 20 thousand of them.

The south defensive line of Mongolia was lost.

In just four days, the Mongol Empire had lost more than 100 thousand troops.

Although the three armies did not create a Chen Yucheng-like miracle, with the coordination of guns and cannons, Great Xia suppressed the Mongol cavalry completely.

One must know that these three battles were decided on the grassland. The vast Mongolian grassland was the main battlefield, and it was a place most suitable for the Mongol cavalry.

Unexpectedly, the Mongol iron cavalry was forced to flee in defeat.

Pure cavalry was destined to be eliminated in the 7th year of Gaia when firearms rose up.

Chapter 1274 - Six countries destroyed, four oceans under one

Chapter 1274: TWO Chapter 1274-Six countries destroyed, four oceans under one

On the 24th day of the month, the four armies of Great Xia proceeded toward the capital of the Mongol Empire – Karakorum. Looking at how aggressive they were, they were determined to end the Mongol Empire before winter.

The truth was exactly that.

27th day, Guo Ziyi led the Phoenix legion corps to engage Chagatai’s forces once more. This time, Guo Ziyi did not give him any chance and totally destroyed his forces.

Even Chagatai himself died in battle.

At this point, a prince and two generals from the Mongol Empire had died, and the defenses on the east of the empire had been totally broken down.

When Tolei learned of the death of his second brother, he ignored Genghis Khan’s attempts to stop him and personally led troops out of Karakorum to fight the Phoenix legion corps. He wanted to take revenge for his brother.

The result was really cruel.

12th month, 2nd day, Tolei’s forces suffered a combined ambush by the Phoenix and Beijiang legion corps, suffering heavy casualties.

Tolei himself was badly hurt, and he only managed to charge out of the encirclement thanks to the protection of his Personal Guards. Helplessly, before he was able to return to Karakorum, he died from his injuries due to the failed attempts at treating him.

12th month, 5th day, Jochi’s troops that were going toward Karakorum were surrounded by the Hedong and Eagle legion corps. Jochi did not even manage to breakout and was slain by Eagle Legion corps general Xiahou Yuan.

Mongol Empire, all lines crushed.

After he learned about Tolei’s death, Genghis Khan could not take it anymore. He laid on his bed and rested, suffering from a great illness. When news of Jochi dying came, Genghis Khan spat out blood and entered a coma.

Karakorum instantly entered a state of chaos.

The faction that supported surrendering held the advantage, especially the Mongol nobles that were corrupted and influenced by goods from the mid plans. If Karakorum did not have the Personal Guards of Genghis Khan there, the chaos would have been even worse.

12th month, 6th day, Genghis Khan who barely woke up could not take the successive deaths of his sons and other family members. In the dead of night, he killed himself.

The moment news of his death spread out, Karakorum was thrown into total chaos.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news of Genghis Khan killing himself, he ordered the Eagle and Hedong legion corps to stop their advance toward Karakorum. Instead, they were to go west to wipe out the other small forces on the grassland.

The Phoenix and Beijiang legion corps were enough to take down Karakorum.

12th month, 10th day, the Phoenix legion corps and Beijiang legion corps engaged with Genghis Khan’s personal troops, killing 90 thousand of them, wiping out the last bit of pride of the Mongol Empire.

That battle was the most intense one.

The Mongol cavalry were not good at defending cities. After the death of Genghis Khan, they were like a bunch of crazy people. They only wanted to fight to the death, not bothering about their lives.

Facing such a crazy army, Guo Ziyi’s army was really calm. They used the rashness of the enemy to wipe them out step by step like a surgeon.

Through this battle, Guo Ziyi’s name spread through the land.

The war of Mongolia saw Chen Yucheng get famous in one battle. Guo Ziyi went one step further than that. He led the Phoenix legion corps to destroy Chagatai’s forces, killed Tolei’s troops, and crushed Genghis Khan’s personal army. He achieved victory in three out of three battles.

The name of Guo Ziyi stunned the entire Mongol grassland and made the Mongolians terrified.

…

From the 11th month, 13th day, the Mongol Empire declared war until the 12th month, 11th day. On that day, Karakorum was occupied by the Phoenix legion corps. Less than a month had passed since the start of the war. The Mongol Empire that looked strong totally became a thing of the past.

The moment news of this spread out, the entire Asia was shocked.

For example, the Persian Empire that had crossed swords with the Mongol Empire were filled with fear. They could not imagine how the courageous Mongol iron cavalry would be so weak in front of the Great Xia Army.

The Asia Continent once again felt the strength of the Great Xia Army.

Unstoppable!

The current Great Xia was showing signs of becoming the Overlord of Asia and was about to take flight.

…

Along with the fall of Karakorum, the Mongolians were finally afraid and lost all their fighting spirit.

Blood was hot, but it would cool down in the end.

In a short month, 350 thousand Mongol Empire soldiers had died, nearly half. The entire Mongolian grassland was dyed in blood.

Many bald eagles circled above the grassland, enjoying this hard to come by feast.

The Mongolians who had lost their loved ones dejectedly rushed to the various battlefields to collect the bodies of their sons, brothers, and even fathers to bury them.

On the battlefield, their cries filled the air.

No, not only the battlefield, but even the entire Mongol grassland fell into a crying frenzy.

To protect the pride of the Mongol cavalry, the Mongolians had paid a price in blood. In front of the sharp Great Xia Army, they let out painful screams that turned into fear in the end.

This fear was dyed red by blood and seeped deep into their bones.

Apart from fear, there was also animosity and resentment. It was easy for Great Xia to take down the Mongol Empire, but they would have to put in several times the hard work to rule this land well.

This was why Ouyang Shuo wanted to solve this without war in the beginning.

However, the development of the situation pushed the two sides onto an unknown battlefield. Eventually, Great Xia used this trial of blood and fire to establish their Emperor dynasty’s unshakeable position in China.

Ouyang Shuo was already unable to evaluate the wins and losses of this war.

…

12th month, 12th day, House of Ogedai.

Under the ferocious attacks of the Great Xia Army, especially the valiant chase of Wang Jian’s forces, less than 200 thousand of them remained.

Bo’er Shu, the person who caused the destruction of Wang Ben’s troops, was personally killed by Wang Jian.

News had it that Wang Jian used Bo’er Shu’s head to pray to Wang Ben and the 70 thousand soldiers that died with him. He swore that he would get Ogedai’s head to pray for them.

If Bo’er Shu was the offender, Ogedai would be the mastermind.

However, just as Wang Jian was ready to lead his troops to continue chasing the remnant enemy forces, he helplessly realized that at least in the 7th year of Gaia, he would not be able to fulfill that promise.

Along with the main force dying, the morale of the Mongol army fell to a freezing point.

Ogedai was finally afraid.

He, along with the only person remaining out of the four heroes – Chi Laowen, led the 200 thousand remaining troops to retreat into the Persia Empire, giving the House of Ogedai up.

Without a military order, Wang Jian was not allowed to attack the Persia Empire.

Furthermore, as the 12th month had arrived, winter was coming, and it was not suitable for the armies to attack. Hence, he could only end his chase.

…

12th month, 15th day, the capital of the House of Ogedai, Loulan, fell.

At this point, the Mongol Empire was truly destroyed, only leaving behind some overseas cities that could let them breathe for a while longer. When the spring season begins, Great Xia planned to send troops to Persia to take back the last bit of inheritance of the Mongol Empire.

If they could take back the Persian cities conquered by the Mongol Empire, it would be really helpful for the Empire in their attacks on Persia. It could save a lot of manpower, resources, and troops.

Moreover, along with the Mongol Empire being destroyed, China welcomed a historical moment.

In just a year, Great Zhou, Great Song, Great Qin, Great Tang, Tibet, and Mongolia had either surrendered or were destroyed, becoming a thing of the past.

At this point, the Great Xia Emperor dynasty had finally completed its goal of unifying China.

This achievement was enough to surpass the ancients and dazzle the contemporaries!

The Great Xia Emperor dynasty also used this as a chance to open up a new page.

…

12th month, 16th day, Imperial Capital.

The current Lianzhou Basin only had a little chill. The footsteps of winter had not laid themselves onto the basin. The imperial capital in the middle of the basin was like a shining pearl, really eye-catching.

Ouyang Shuo stood at the city wall of the emperor palace. Looking at the blue sky, he muttered, “Six countries destroyed, four oceans unified.” His tone was calm, but it could not hide his pride and ambition.

His calm tone contained an aura that swallowed mountains and a brimming determination.

The dreams of many generations, but only one could succeed.

“To have such a life, what more can I ask for?”

Behind him stood the civil servants and generals. They were all witnessing this historical moment together. In their eyes, the determined and resilient back view of the emperor was growing bigger and bigger like a giant.

This giant carried the entire empire.

Even Gaia in the city in the skies could not help but look down at this legendary figure with its eyes shining.

Time seemed to have stopped at this moment.

Chapter 1275 - Developing the border region

Chapter 1275: TWO Chapter 1275-Developing the border region

The moment he unified China, Ouyang Shuo’s heart realm appeared to welcome a change, becoming calmer and more expressionless. His eyes seemed like they could look through all kinds of thick fog and pierce the unknown.

Even if Ouyang Shuo did not rely on his revival advantage, his strategic foresight would still be greater than others.

As he dealt with Empire matters, Ouyang Shuo had grown more unruffled, reaching a calm, mountain-like level. His energy and focus merged into one within his body, not revealing anything.

At this moment, the Five Emperor True Manual that he trained in finally broke through to the 10th layer. He broke into the innate realm, welcoming a huge physical jump.

To train to the 10th layer, Ouyang Shuo had spent two years to temper his body from scratch.

Foreseeably, the difficulty of cultivating this true manual would get greater and greater as one progressed. Upgrades through layers would in units of years.

After reaching a bottleneck, unless one achieved a suitable level of comprehension, they could get stuck for several years.

For example, to proceed from the 9th layer to the 10th layer, Ouyang Shuo had used nine months. For context, he also took nine months for the first eight layers.

If it were not for his heart changing, he might not have managed this.

Chances and opportunities would just pop out of nowhere sometimes.

…

Using the remaining half a month of the 7th year of Gaia, the Great Xia Imperial Court quickly decided on how to deal with the Mongol Dynasty and designed their rule over the Mongol grassland.

The Imperial Court decided to split the Mongol Empire into two. The north would be the Beiyuan Region. The House of Ogedai, formerly Turkish Khanate, would become the Xijiang Region.

These two provinces had a vast amount of land, especially the Beiyuan Province that spanned east and west. The province had grasslands, plateaus, and deserts in its territory. Be it in terms of length or breadth, it was the biggest province in the territory.

Xijiang Province was not much smaller, having deserts, mountain ranges, and basins.

The person that Ouyang Shuo selected for the position of Provincial Governor of Beiyuan Province surprised many. Ouyang Shuo decided to choose former Mongol Empire Chancellor, one of the 10 famous ministers of China, Yelu Chucai.

Ouyang Shuo made this decision after careful consideration.

First, he was not a Mongolian and did not have resentment toward Great Xia. When Genghis Khan fell into a coma, he was the one who stepped out to stabilize the situation. He had prevented Karakorum from descending into chaos.

He was a person who had no other choice apart from being loyal to the empire.

Secondly, thanks to his long-term workings with Genghis Khan, he was really experienced and had a high amount of prestige amongst the Mongolians. For him to become the Beiyuan Provincial Governor would help to stabilize the people’s sentiment in the north plains.

Due to these reasons, Ouyang Shuo chose him.

The Provincial Governor of Xijiang Province would be the Minnan Province Shaowu Prefecture Governor Jing Jian. Jing Jian had been in the Empire for a long time and was once the regulation director. To avoid suspicion with Wei Yang, he was sent out to Shaowu Prefecture.

Many had expected his promotion to Xijiang Provincial Governor.

Be it Beiyuan Province or Xijiang Province, both were border provinces with a huge amount of land. Furthermore, both provinces had complicated racial makeups, so the Provincial Governor had to be particularly skilled.

Both Yelu Chucai and Jing Jian undoubtedly had the right qualities.

Making use of this chance, the Imperial Court also adjusted the jurisdiction regions of the Beijiang and Xijiang Governor-General Houses to fit the Empire’s strategy.

A day ago, the Imperial Court decided to move the Beijiang and Yingzhou provinces away from the Beijiang Governor-General House and back under the Imperial Court. At the same time, the Beiyuan Province would be placed under their control.

As such, the Beijiang Governor-General House would have the Beiyuan and Liaojin provinces, the north territories of the Empire. Their ruling city would move from Jingdu to Karakorum to better manage the north.

This was a whole new challenge for Governor-General Gong Chengshi.

Whether he could manage the north and rule it well was a test from Ouyang Shuo. If he did, he might be able to reach the next level; if he could not, Ouyang Shuo would not give him face.

The Xijiang Governor-General House would add in the newly established Xijiang Province and manage the west border of the Empire.

This also meant that the pressure on Wufu had just gotten much greater.

The three provinces under him were the Qiang, Tibet, and the Mongol homeland. Their geographical positions were special, and their development was backwards. Ruling them well was not an easy matter.

…

After dealing with the Mongol Empire, Ouyang Shuo had an even tougher problem ahead of him, which was how to deal with the 1.2 million leftovers of the ‘consumable army’ and the 600 thousand Mongol cavalry.

The simplest solution was to disband them all.

However, this was also the dumbest and most expensive method.

The 600 thousand Mongol cavalry were especially worrisome. Although they had surrendered, they were unrestrained and arrogant. Letting them go could create huge problems for the Empire’s rule in Beijiang.

As a result, no matter what, they had to restrain them and remove some of their barbaric nature.

Regarding this matter, Ouyang Shuo had many discussions with the Privy Court, Grand Council, and Administrative Mentor Court. They started from the strategic needs of the Empire to the developmental needs of the various regions to form a suitable plan.

First, they needed to replenish and strengthen the North America formation.

Zhan Lang’s North America formation only had two legions. Ouyang Shuo decided to choose the elites out of the 1.2 million ‘consumable army’ to add into the formation.

Without a doubt, this would upgrade the formation to the North America legion corps, and Zhan Lang would become their marshal.

At the same time, to strengthen their ability, Ouyang Shuo sent over Great Tang general Yuchi Gong to become the 3rd legion Legion General.

Secondly, they decided to build the South Asia legion corps.

The South Asia legion corps was a newly established legion corps and the first one after the disarmament plan. From the name, one could see that this legion corps was prepared for India.

If nothing went wrong, the Empire would not be expanding their army for the future period of time.

The marshal would be the 4th Legion General of the Guards Legion Corps, Wuwei General Er’Lai. Due to the number of marshal appointments decreasing again and again, this could also be called Ouyang Shuo’s compensation to this long serving general.

The vacant spot would be filled by iron armored beast cavalry Major General Shan Zhu. During this disarmament, the Guards Legion Corps would not keep the special arrangement of having a direct iron armored beast Cavalry Division.

Apart from that, Great Tang general Cheng Yaojin was moved to the South Asia legion corps to be the 1st legion Legion General.

Thirdly, make the three construction formations.

In the future, if the Empire wanted to attack the Romanov Dynasty in the north, they would need to gain a stable footing in the Britain Province. To take down the Persia Empire, they would needed to be stable in Xijiang Province.

Following a similar theory, they needed to be stable in Xikang Province to take down India.

If these three border provinces were unable to provide grain and resources for the army and had to get support from the mid plains, there would be no way for them to win.

If they started wars from these areas, they would be humiliated because of the lack of grain.

If they were determined to transport grain from the mid plains, such huge wars might cause the Empire to collapse.

Hence, increasing the development of these three provinces and exploring the potential of the border lands was more important than building more legion corps.

Without grain support, it would be useless no matter how many troops you had.

Alternatively, put it this way, before the three provinces grain production could reach a certain level, the Empire could not arrange large amounts of troops to move in.

Even with mentioning other aspects, just their daily logistics could not be achieved. If that happened, let us not talk about taking down other dynasties, even defending themselves would be good enough.

This was something that had to be done and could not be delayed.

Due to such considerations, the three provinces would establish formations.

China had such traditions, especially in the west starting from West Han to East Han, Wei, Jin, Sui, Tang, Yuan, Ming, and Qing.

It lasted till today, where strengthening the borders had never stopped.

Ouyang Shuo was inspired by this, which was why he decided to build three formations right away. As they strengthened the borders, they would amass more grain resources to set the foundations for expanding the Empire.

The Privy Court estimated that after promoting the North America legion corps, building the South Asia Legion corps, and retiring some injured soldiers, there would be 1.2 million left.

As such, the three formations would each have 400 thousand people, not only exceeding a normal formation but also a legion corps.

That was not the end to it. To stabilize their hearts, when the conditions allowed it, the Imperial Court would let their families move to the borders to participate in the construction.

As such, the scale of the construction formations would only double and increase.

This was necessary. Moreover, given the current technological scale of the Empire, such a scale was not much. In the future, if they had the chance, Ouyang Shuo would expand the construction formation scale.

Only then could they inject life into the three border provinces.

Based on the ancient system, the construction formation would be under the Imperial Court and the Governor-General House. During wartime, it would also be under the warzone. When necessary, the warzone could summon them to fight on the frontlines.

As a result, the choice of Lieutenant General was important.

First, the general selected had to be from the military. If not, they would not be able to suppress these untamed soldiers. Moreover, they had to know about internal politics and have some management ability.

After all, the goal of the formation was to expand and develop and not wage war.

Such a selection criteria meant that there were only a few people that were worthy of the position.

Ouyang Shuo first settled on the most crucial one out of the four, which was the Xijiang construction formation. This person would be the former Great Zhou general Tian Dan.

In history, he was once a chancellor. Naturally, he could succeed at this role.

Following which, Ouyang Shuo selected Ma Teng to be the Beiyuan construction formation Lieutenant General.

In history, Ma Teng ran Xiliang and managed the territory. As such, he was up to the task.

For the final construction formation, Ouyang Shuo selected Bear Legion corps 2nd Legion General Pei Renji.

Compared to young generals, old generals had an obvious advantage in handling such a matter.

Ginger getting spicier the older it gets was not just an adage.

At this point, the 1.8 million troops had been settled down.

Following which, Great Xia would have a head to toe remodeling of the warzones and legion corps relationship, clarifying the Empire’s strategy to solidify their future foundations.

Chapter 1276 - Eight warzones

Chapter 1276: TWO Chapter 1276-Eight warzones

12th month, 25th day, a day before the winter solstice, the Great Xia Army welcomed its largest-scale adjustment ever.

Imperial decree, establishing the Jingji warzone. The Divine Martial Guards, Imperial Palace Female Guards, Jinwu Guards, Guards Legion Corps, Imperial Palace Guards, City Protection legion corps, Emperor Squadron, and Nanjiang Navy would be under the Jingji warzone. They would be in charge of defending the Jingji Region.

Specifically, the Divine Martial Guards were the personal troops of Ouyang Shuo. The Imperial Palace Female Guards defended the inner palace, the Jinwu Guards were in charge of the treasury, and the Guards Legion Corps were in charge of defending the imperial capital.

Ouyang Shuo’s Personal Guards were naturally under the Divine Martial Guards.

The Imperial Palace Guards were in charge of the Shu Lands, Chuanbei, Xiangnan, Jiangchuan, and Minnan. Each province would have one legion, and the headquarters would be in Quanzhou.

Apart from that, Yizhou Prefecture, which was an ocean away from Minnan Province, was listed under the Imperial Palace Guard warzone.

These five provinces formed a defensive line stretching east and west, providing safety around the imperial capital.

The City Protection legion corps was in charge of Beihai City, Mulan Stronghold, Yunnan, Chuannan, and Lingnan. Their headquarters was in Tianjing City.

These three provinces formed a middle defensive circle that protected the core region of the Jingji region.

The Emperor Squadron was in charge of defending the Gulf of Tonkin, the ocean gate of the imperial capital. The squadron’s headquarters was in Beihai City. On the other hand, the Nanjiang Navy was in charge of the entire Jiangnan ocean path; its headquarters was in Poyang Lake.

The Jingji warzone included all the direct legion corps of the Empire and both the navy and army. They defended the Jingji region and protected the authority of the emperor. It was the strongest and most reliable military power of the Empire and was their calming needle.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo personally took charge as the Jingji warzone commander. This warzone did not have a headquarters. Normally, the Privy Court would be in charge of daily administrative work.

…

The southeast warzone would be renamed the Zhongyuan warzone. This warzone would have the Leopard legion corps, the Xiangjiang formation, the Yingzhou formation, and the Binhai Squadron under it. They would be in charge of defending the entire mid plains, especially the eastern ocean region.

Sun Bin’s Tiger legion corps backed out of the southeast warzone; there would be other arrangements for them.

Specifically, the Leopard legion corps would be in charge of Beijiang, Jingdu, Ludong, Donghai, and Jiangnan. Each legion was housed in a province, and the headquarters would be in Jianye.

The Xiangjiang legion corps was renamed the Zhongyuan legion corps and was in charge of Guanxi, Hedong, Zhongyuan, Jingchu, and Wannan, their headquarters being set in Luoyang.

The Yingzhou formation would continue to defend the Yingzhou Province, defending the eastern gate of the Empire.

The Binhai Squadron was in charge of defending the Bohai Sea, Yellow River, East China Sea, and the ocean regions around Japan. It was the strongest ocean protection power of the Empire, and its headquarters would be moved from Binhai Bay to Jiaodong Bay.

At the same time, the Binhai Squadron would have navy bases in Binhai Bay, Haijin Bay, Jiaodong Bay, Haizhou Bay, Shencheng Bay, Zhoushan Bay, and Jinshan Bay.

Some bases were newly constructed, while some were just Great Zhou Dynasty navy bases that were modified and upgraded.

The Zhongyuan warzone was equipped with both the navy and the army. Not only was it the core power defending the mid plains, but it was also the empire’s sharp sword in the east to scare people off.

Commander in chief Han Xin would be removed from his roles as southeast warzone commander and Leopard Legion corps marshal.

The Leopard legion corps marshal position would be taken over by north settling general Yue Fei. Shortly after the beginning of the war of Mongolia, the Imperial Court removed him from his position as marshal of the Beijiang legion corps. Deputy marshal Chen Yucheng would take over.

For Yue Fei to take over the Leopard legion corps to defend the Empire’s ocean land showed Ouyang Shuo’s faith in him.

The original southeast warzone deputy commander Sun Bin was promoted to Zhongyuan warzone commander. Hence, he was removed from his role as Tiger legion corps marshal.

The new Tiger legion corps marshal was really surprising. Li Xiucheng from the 5th legion was promoted.

Rising from a legion general to a legion corps marshal was a huge upgrade, and he became the brightest light amongst the young generals of Great Xia.

Ouyang Shuo’s promotion of Li Xiucheng showed his recognition of the latter’s ability. Li Xiucheng’s firearm background was one of the key reasons behind his promotion.

Compared to Chen Yucheng, who shone on the Mongol battlefield, Li Xiucheng would only be stronger.

Of course, he was already a member of the Tiger Legion corps, which was part of why he was able to stand out from all the challengers.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to make use of this appointment to wake up all the long serving generals in Great Xia, especially those old ones. He wanted them to know that their position in the military was not based on how long they had served but who could improve with the times and be useful in future wars.

If one were happy with the status quo, they would only be eliminated.

The Zhongyuan warzone had a really interesting phenomenon – warzone commander Sun Bin’s original force, the Tiger legion corps, were moved outside of their original warzone. Meanwhile, Han Xin’s Leopard legion corps stayed.

Obviously, this was not a coincidence and was carefully planned.

The goal was to remove the blood relationship between the warzone commander and the troops under him to prevent the warzone commander from becoming greedy for power and biased.

Although the army had not shown signs of such so far, Ouyang Shuo had to prepare in advance.

In the Africa warzone and the southwest warzone, the Imperial Court had made similar arrangements. The following few warzones would remain the same, forming a habit and even a systematic approach.

…

The North Asia warzone would be established with the Phoenix legion corps, Beijiang legion corps, and the Beiyuan formation under it. Their duty would be to defend the northern territory and defend the Mongol grasslands to prevent attacks from the Romanov Dynasty.

The Phoenix legion corps would be housed in Beiyuan Province and the Beijiang legion corps would be housed in Liaojin Province. At the same time, they would work together to defend the eastern parts of Beiyuan Province. After all, the Beiyuan Province was too huge, and the Phoenix legion corps could not manage it alone.

It was called the North Asia warzone and not the north warzone because the long term goal of the warzone would be to go head on against the Romanov Dynasty. Defending the north region was only their current role.

Northwest warzone deputy commander Li Mu would be promoted to North Asia warzone commander. He would be removed from his role of Eagle legion corps marshal.

The new Eagle legion corps marshal would be the recently promoted Bear legion corps marshal, Zuo Zongtang. The vacancy he left behind would be filled by Great Tang famous general Li Shiji.

Li Shiji was a famous Great Tang general on the same level as Li Jing and was good enough to succeed at the role.

Such crisscrossing appointments were done to prevent the warzone commanders from working with their old forces. Moreover, it was to separate the awkwardness of Li Jing and Li Shiji working in the same warzone.

The main matter was also the latter.

The North Asia warzone and the Beijiang Governor-General House jurisdiction zone was completely the same, one military and one administrative power to defend the Empire’s north territory.

…

Establishing the West Asia Warzone, under it would be the Bear legion corps, Hedong legion corps, and the Xijiang construction formation. Apart from defending the west border, it was the Empire’s main force to attack the Persia Empire.

The Bear legion corps would be housed in Xijiang Province. The Hedong legion corps would be renamed the West Asia legion corps with its headquarters in Xihai Province. At the same time, it would help to defend the east of Xijiang Province.

Great Qin famous general Wang Jian was appointed as the West Asia Warzone commander and was awarded the great general title.

Wang Jian had an obsession and determination toward killing Ogedai. As such, giving him control of the West Asia warzone would give him a proper stage to use his abilities.

…

The northwest warzone was renamed the South Asia warzone. Under it was the Eagle legion corps, South Asia legion corps, and Xikang construction formation. They would be in charge of the development of Xikang Province, and they would be the main force in the Empire’s attack on India.

Commander in chief Li Jing would become the South Asia Warzone commander.

The Xikang Province was pretty much leveled after the war of Tibet. It needed large-scale re-construction and their logistical ability was currently limited, so the South Asia legion corps was temporarily housed in Shu Lands border.

Before the Xikang construction formation got onto the right path, the Shu Lands Province would be in charge of the logistics of the South Asia legion corps. Luckily, the Shu Lands were famous for being a treasure trove of the land and was rich in resources. Hence, it was able to take up the responsibility.

…

The southwest warzone was renamed the Nanyang warzone. Under it would still be the Dragon, Hanoi, Heluo, and Beijiang legion corps. They would be in charge of defending Southeast Asia and Australia.

At the same time, the Yashan Squadron would be under the Nanyang warzone. They would be in charge of the ocean defenses of the entire South China Sea. In the future, the Indian Ocean Squadron would slowly shift toward the Indian Ocean region.

Based on the Empire’s plan, after destroying Java, they would adjust the Nanyang warzone once more. After all, with the stable Nanyang situation, there was no need to have four legion corps.

…

The Africa warzone would remain unchanged.

Apart from the seven warzones discussed above, the Empire created the America warzone in secret. Under it was the Tiger legion corps and the South America legion corps. They would be in charge of the America region war.

Due to the uncertainties there, the Tiger legion corps would still be housed in the mid plains. When the time was right, they would teleport over. That would be the time when the America warzone shone bright.

The ex-southeast warzone commander Han Xin would be moved over to the America warzone.

The America Continent was the second focus of the Empire apart from Africa. In the future, it would face the direct threat of the Dawson Dynasty. Arranging Han Xin over there showed Ouyang Shuo’s trust in him.

Only Han Xin, such a meritorious God General, would be able to succeed in such a role.

Baiqi, Han Xin, and Li Jing were still the three biggest trump cards in Ouyang Shuo’s hand. Hence, they were arranged to the front of the Empire and would undertake the most difficult missions.

After this round of adjustments, the Grand Council also welcomed an adjustment.

Before this, the Guards, City Protection, Imperial Palace Guards, Dragon, Tiger, Leopard, Eagle, Bear, Wolf, and Phoenix legion corps, a total of 10 marshals, were all part of the Grand Council.

After this adjustment, only the eight warzone commanders could be ministers of the Grand Council. Due to the Jingji warzone commander being Ouyang Shuo, there were only seven commanders who were part of the Grand Council.

Next would be Du Ruhui and Zheng He.

Huo Qubing, Shi Wanshui, Xu Da, Guo Ziyi, Meng Tian, and other generals in similar positions would leave the Grand Council.

Even Ouyang Shuo’s most trusted Huo Qubing could not be excluded. Ouyang Shuo wanted the rules to be rules; they could not be easily broken and challenged.

Even Ouyang Shuo chose to do things carefully.

Chapter 1277 - World map reset

Chapter 1277: TWO Chapter 1277-World map reset

Along with the completion of the eight warzones, the defensive regions of each legion corps was settled. This was especially so for the Jingji and Zhongyuan provinces, which were specific till the province level.

That was beneficial to the legion corps, legion, and division level headquarters building.

Once this round of military disarmament was completed, Great Xia’s main land would enter a defensive period. If nothing went wrong, war would fade from the lives of the mid plains.

A stable internal environment would be created, which was beneficial to their internal politics and industrialization.

Furthermore, the completion of the eight warzones helped to draw a huge map of the Empire.

For the future period of time, Great Xia would use this map and strengthen internally while expanding outward. They would raise their authority in the world while trying to upgrade to imperial dynasty.

After an entire year, Great Xia had completed the first requirement, unifying China.

In the 8th year, the Empire would turn its eyes to the entire Asia to try to complete the second requirement and become the Overlord of Asia. Achieving that position would allow them to go for the final push for the highest throne.

…

12th month, 27th day.

Coordinating with the eight warzones, the Imperial Court adjusted the ranks of the generals.

There were three Grade 1 commander in chiefs, Baiqi, Han Xin, and Li Jing.

There were five Grade 1 Great Generals, namely Sun Bin, Li Mu, Wang Jian, Wuqi, and Zheng He. Guards Legion Corps marshal and Imperial Palace Guards Marshal Huo Qubing and Xu Da were dropped from the Great General rank.

There were three Grade 2 Duke Generals, Biaoqi General Huo Qubing, Cheqi General Xu Da, and Guardian General Xu Chu.

There were three Grade 2 military generals, Fujun General Zhou Yu, Middle General Shi Lang, and Top General Yanhuo Yaonie. These three were all navy Fleet Admirals and were worthy of their positions.

There were two Grade 2 protector generals, Er’Lai and Shi Wanshui. They were both top generals and were greatly trusted by Ouyang Shuo. They had served the Empire for a long time.

The Grade 2 Zhongnan General was Yashan Squadron Fleet Admiral Yu Dayou.

Apart from them, Binhai Squadron Fleet Admiral Qin Jiguang was awarded Grade 2 ocean protector general.

There were four Grade 2 conquering generals, east conquering general Li Xiucheng, south conquering general Zuo Zongtang, west conquering general Li Shiji, and north conquering general Guo Ziyi; they were marshals of the Empire’s four strategic directions.

There were four Grade 2 protector generals, east protector Yue Fei, south protector Zhang Han, west protector Meng Tian, and north protector Chen Yucheng; they were the marshals of the warfighting legion corps defending the four directions.

Next would be the Grade 3 generals.

Grade 3 army leading general was Imperial Palace Female Guards commander Hua Mulan.

There were four Grade 3 peacekeeping generals, the east peacekeeping general Zhang Xutuo, south peacekeeping general Fan Lihua, west peacekeeping general Shu Dakai, and north peacekeeping general Chang Yuchun; they were the four marshals of the Border Defense legion corps in the four directions.

There were four Grade 3 suppressing generals, east suppressing general Zhan Lang, south suppressing general Yang Su, west suppressing general Zhou Junji, and north suppressing general Xue Rengui; they were the marshals of the attack-minded border legion corps.

Next would be some generals with random titles; they would not be detailed.

At this point, before the 8th year of Gaia’s arrival, Great Xia had used the disarmament to change and reorganize the military, adjusting the warzones and military ranks. They had completed a top to bottom remodeling.

In the 8th year of Gaia, the Privy Court would establish eight logistical hubs to provide the eight warzones with logistical services to reduce their reliance on laborers.

Before this, the Privy Court Combat Logistics Department only created a war-based logistical station and not a large-scale base. Every time a war happened, they would utilize a lot of laborers to transport resources to the frontline.

This was a total remodeling, a massive masterstroke.

Each logistical hub would service one warzone. For example, the Zhongyuan warzone logistical hub would be in Luoyang.

For this, Ouyang Shuo gave the Privy Court the right to select 320 thousand people from those disarmed to build the logistical squads.

This course of action could also help them save a sum of retirement fees.

The planned logistical hub would not only provide rations but also armor, weapons, war horses, firearms, ammunition, siege weapons, and more.

Hence, the planned logistical hubs, apart from warehouses, would have factories, breeding grounds, and other families; this was a really complicated and systemized logistical group.

Servicing the hub, apart from the logistics soldiers, would be paid workers; together, they would form a huge industrial group.

This was another way the Empire was promoting industrialization.

Looking at recent history, war had a huge use in promoting industrialization.

One could foresee the complications of building such a system. As a result, Ouyang Shuo did not start this right away and pushed the matter to the 8th year of Gaia.

The Privy Court had a year to complete the construction of the eight logistical hubs.

Their first mission would be to deal with the tens of millions of equipment eliminated from the disarmament to build relevant warehouses and maintain the items regularly.

Amongst which, although some of the items like bows and arrows were unsuitable for war, they could not be allowed to flow into civilian life, as that would cause problems for the local offices.

For example, the matchlock guns that were eliminated had to be locked up.

Once these eight logistical hubs were completed, Great Xia would take a huge step toward being more modernized. In the future, they would have more types of firearms and equipment in their armies.

…

Gaia 7th year, 12th month, 30th day, a System Notification sounded out around the world.

“World Notification: This is the 7th anniversary of Gaia. The game will undergo its 8th system update, effective immediately. Please go onto the forums to check it out.”

…

Right as the notification sounded, Ouyang Shuo went onto the forums as usual to check out the update.

1. World map returns to normal size.

The game world was expanded 10 times compared to Earth with the goal of creating a vast wilderness so that the tens of thousands of Lords would have enough space.

Currently, there were less than 20 Lords remaining, and the wilderness was not the same anymore.

Now, the huge game map became a developmental obstacle instead. With the technological standards of the game world, the previous size was a huge restriction without the teleportation formations.

For example, Great Xia whose territory was too huge made it difficult to rule. If it were not for the four Governor-General Houses and one Jiedushi House, the Imperial Court would not be able to cope.

A vast territory also went against Gaia’s goal of training the Lords. After all, it could not threaten the lives of the civilians.

In the 6th year of Gaia, the cities stop spawning new people in the huge territories. Hence, the population density was really low.

In the 10th month of the 7th year, although the calamity greatly affected the world, they mostly recovered within a year through reclaiming land and making farms.

Keeping warm and full was not a big issue.

Naturally, their situation was different from ancient times, so shifting the game size back to normal helped to restrict such a matter.

Of course, the goal of Gaia was to increase the amount of competition in the world.

With Great Xia as an example, without the goal of upgrading to Emperor dynasty, Ouyang Shuo would not have much motivation to expand.

Even if he took up a large amount of territory, he would not be able to cope.

Rather than aimlessly expanding, why not focus on internal politics? Focusing on increasing industrialization so that quality exceeded quantity was more logical.

This was a wise choice.

In modern day society, small countries like Singapore had massive influence on the world.

Japan, Tokyo was able to rule to a certain extent, revealing that after modernization, the size of one’s territory did not mean power.

After they digested their current land, Great Xia would have enough to rule the world.

Due to that, Gaia threw out such a bait. To increase the speed of industrialization and reduce the land size so that the Lords with ambitions would continue to fight one another.

Of course, the game world adjustments would be relative. The cities, farms, roads, and other man-made constructions would not be reduced in size. Otherwise, all their hard work would be wasted.

Even then, this update had major impacts on the game world.

With the imperial capital as an example, before this, Lianzhou Basin was huge and still had a lot of space even after fitting in a giant city.

After making it small, the surroundings of the imperial capital was really squeezed.

Even to say that the Lianzhou Basin could not be called a basin anymore because the mountain ranges had returned to their original appearance.

Another example would be the rivers that expanded several times. They were the pillars of inland transport. Now, them going back to their original sizes had a huge impact.

Many rivers became unsuitable for ocean transport after this.

Moreover, the land that the monsters lived in would be closer to the humans, and they could threaten human lives at any time.

There were countless examples of such problems.

Gaia really did not mind creating problems for the Lords. This system update would be enough for the dynasties to get busy for a long period of time.

Chapter 1278 - Trial lands revealed

Chapter 1278: TWO Chapter 1278-Trial lands revealed

Although the world map returning to normal created many problems, there were many visible benefits.

The biggest benefit of this change was a great strengthening of the Imperial Court’s control over the local areas. At the same time, the territory would not feel so empty and would make one feel more stable.

The communication and interactions between provinces and regions would also become more active.

Apart from that, after the map was reset, territorial trade would be greatly promoted.

The problems in ocean trade between Great Xia and South America would also be solved after the reset, and the trading would definitely enter a golden age.

Specifically for Great Xia, the benefits were evident.

First, although the change would weaken river transport, it would make railroad construction a lot more convenient and make it possible to release trains through the entire Empire.

If not, Ouyang Shuo would not feel confident about building railroads on such a large-scale.

Secondly, this update would weaken the defensive pressure on the troops, especially those at the border.

Great Xia’s disarmament truly came at the right time.

Thirdly, which was also what Gaia hoped for, it added a lot of momentum to Great Xia’s expansion.

This was also something that Ouyang Shuo wanted to happen.

The part that made Ouyang Shuo feel the most emotional was that he felt really close to the game world with the reset.

That’s right, closeness!

Although the game world that was expanded 10 times used Earth as its model, the mountains and ancient cities were different from real life.

This was an illusion created when the planet was expanded like a balloon that was blown up.

Although it was similar, the size difference was a constant reminder that this world was virtual and fake. It was a reminder that they would never be able to return to Earth.

After the map reset, this feeling of familiarity swarmed them.

Although they were unable to return to Earth, they were able to remodel a planet Earth in the game world as the collective memory of their generation.

Now, every tree and grass brought back memories.

“Thank you, Gaia!”

At this moment, not just Ouyang Shuo, but most players also had similar thoughts.

2. Opening up the results of the second industrialization.

Removing the restrictions of the second industrial revolution technology tree. As long as one has the relative research and development ability, they can produce relevant items and technologies.

The second industrial revolution gave rise to electricity.

After the steam engine, electricity was produced. Along with electricity came lights, cars, movies, and electrical appliances, becoming a new energy source that added to and replaced the steam engine.

Next would be the innovation and use of internal combustion engines, giving rise to ships, airplanes, and the like. Petrol mining and crude oil production came into focus as a result.

Compared to the minor changes during the first industrial revolution, the second revolution was a true changing of the old world. To say that it was a change of the skies was not an exaggeration.

In history, many imperialists appeared in this era that challenged the old order to gain more interests and profits.

This was something that Ouyang Shuo was wary about.

The future Great Xia empire must not walk the capitalist path.

Luckily, to Ouyang Shuo and most players, the second revolution was nothing new. To them, it was just a primitive society.

The changes in modern day society were something that people of those times could not even imagine.

In 2190 AD, not only did the world enter the Federation era, but they even went through the 4th AI revolution, 5th AI instantiation revolution, and 6th space exploration revolution.

To call the second industrial revolution a primitive society was not wrong.

After 200 years, Earth had built up an effective management structure. Ouyang Shuo stood on the shoulders of giants and was confident about leading Great Xia onto the right path.

As the emperor that started all this, he had an advantage that others did not.

All in all, along with the technology tree being unlocked, Great Xia would give rise to an era with more chances and challenges.

3. Opening up the Mu Continent.

Atlantis, Lemuria, Mu, and Gendaya, these were termed as the four most mysterious civilizations. Although one had never seen them, all sorts of rumors had been spread about them.

In the game world, Ouyang Shuo summoned Atlantis and traded with Lemuria. However, he knew nothing about Gendaya and Mu.

Be it in his last life or in this one, he had no clue.

Legends had it that the Mu Continent was really huge, located east of Hawaii and west of the Mariana islands. South was Fiji, Tahiti, and the Easter islands.

The island was eight thousand kilometers long from east to west and five thousand from north to south. It was similar in size to North and South America added together. Its overall size reached 35 thousand square kilometers, and it was an always beautiful and rich place.

Who would have expected Gaia to take the initiative to expose Mu?

When he looked at the introduction to Mu Continent, even someone as calm as Ouyang Shuo could not help but yell vulgarities, “What the f**!”

The so-called Mu Continent was set by Gaia as the mysterious trial lands.

Mu appearing in the Pacific was just Gaia removing its seclusion and exposing it to the people, allowing it to participate in the global challenge for the top.

“What a bother!” Ouyang Shuo could not help but exclaim.

On the global scale, the countries that were destroyed before the 7th year of Gaia were all transported to the trial lands. From now on, they would begin their game journey once more.

The appearance of Mu gave Ouyang Shuo the biggest headache.

Thinking back to the countries Great Xia destroyed, Japan, Korea, the Southeast Asian countries, Morocco, Somalia, Ethiopia, and more.

One could say that 80% of the countries on the Mu Continent were enemies of Great Xia.

After all, when the dynasties rose up in Europe, they mostly merged with one another and did not destroyed the others, so very few of them were teleported to the Mu Continent.

That included Persia and the Arab Empire, which used the same method.

On the Mu Continent, apart from Great Xia, the rest were probably enemies of the Indian Empire. These two allies faced the same fate.

Coincidentally, the Mu Continent was located between Great Xia and the Indian Empire in the Pacific Ocean.

Ouyang Shuo could not help but facepalm and shake his head as he said, “My life just is not a peaceful one.”

Although Gaia said that the trial lands would be more intense than the wilderness, and the player would grow at a slower than on the outside, Ouyang Shuo still kept his guard up.

First, Ouyang Shuo was not sure whether Gaia would include the Mu Continent technology into it and let the players search for them.

If that happened, it would be a huge problem.

On the global scale, no one was as clear as Ouyang Shuo about how broken such technology was.

Secondly, the cruel environment of the trial lands might have created a group of strong of people.

One could foresee how strong the survivors of such a tough environment would be.

Thirdly, Ouyang Shuo could not be sure whether the Mu Continent countries were fighting for themselves or had merged into one to fight as a common entity.

If it were the former, there was not much for Ouyang Shuo to worry about. Great Xia could destroy them once, so they could do it again. If it were the latter, Ouyang Shuo had to be on guard.

An organization merged together would definitely be a colossal giant.

The Mu Continent had just been released, so all of this was unknown. There was not much that Ouyang Shuo could do; he could only tell the warzones there to be on their guard.

Nanjiang was the closest to the Mu Continent and was the old best of the Southeast Asia countries. If they wanted to attack, the Mu Continent would definitely target it.

It seems like Ouyang Shuo’s previous plan to weaken the Nanyang warzone could only be postponed for now.

Chapter 1279 - Darkness Empire

Chapter 1279: TWO Chapter 1279-Darkness Empire

The appearance of the Mu Continent added a lot of uncertainty for Great Xia.

Apart from the threat of the Mu Continent, Nanjiang was also facing Java. Regionally, they both came from the same source.

The appearance of Mu might give Java some bad thoughts.

In the 7th year of Gaia, under the suppression of Great Xia, Java had been incredibly quiet; it was like they did not even exist. With the appearance of Mu, would Java go all out and fight to the death?

Ouyang Shuo decided to take the initiative.

On that very day, Ouyang Shuo ordered the Nanyang warzone to prepare for the Java war. They would try to remove them before the Chinese New Year and unify Nanjiang.

Only then could they fully prepare for the Mu Continent.

Apart from Nanjiang, Hawaii that was right next to Mu was in even more danger. Based on the news revealed by Gaia, Hawaii was pretty much right next to it and could face enemy threats at any moment.

Furthermore, Hawaii was Great Xia’s most important middle ground in the Pacific; they could not afford to lose it.

Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate. He immediately ordered the 2nd and 3rd divisions of the Pacific Squadron and the Tiger Legion corps that were supposed to move to the America warzone to prepare to go to Hawaii.

A huge storm was about to sweep the Pacific.

At the same time, the Black Snake Guards would act, using Hawaii to scout the Mu Continent. Without any first hand intel regarding Mu, none of them could be at ease.

Their focus was to check whether the Mu Continent had a strong navy or not.

The Mu Continent was in the Pacific, so whether it had a strong navy or not would decide its ability to expand. If they did not, the Mu Continent would not pose a huge threat in the short term.

If they did, Great Xia might have to prepare to give up on the Hawaii Prefecture.

After all, with the grain storage there, they would not be able to support a large-scale battle.

There were only three changes in the 8th system update, but it turned the game world on its head. As time was of the essence, Ouyang Shuo was unable to evaluate the changes this update would cause to Great Xia.

Everything would be left to time.

Ouyang Shuo felt the most worried about the intel regarding the Mu Continent. The unknown always scared people the most. The trial lands were known for being mysterious. If one was not clear about it, how would one be able to rest easy?

…

Mu Continent, Hilanibula City.

Former Japan Lord Keisuke Honda, former Korea Lord Park Wins, former Luzon Lord Mading, and the other Lords of the destroyed countries had gathered together. Looking at the disappearing veil, they cried tears of joy.

“We finally made it!”

The Lords were all really emotional while feeling a little tragic and sad.

The environment of the trial lands was just too intense. Right after reviving, they had to face attacks from monsters and natives.

That’s right, natives.

To increase the level of difficulty, Gaia had a Mu empire on the continent. Before the Mu empire, the new players had no way to fight back.

Luckily, they survived.

A day ago, the players in the trial lands had successfully usurped the Mu empire. They founded a new empire on its ruins – the Darkness empire.

The meaning behind the name was that it was an alliance for taking revenge.

Gaia used the 8th system update to remove the lock on the Mu Continent because of their success. However, if the Mu empire had not fallen, the trial lands would not have appeared on the main map.

The Darkness alliance used an imperial family system. Keisuke Honda was the king, so the Japanese were the king race. Meanwhile, the others were given marquises or other high ranks and formed the core of the empire. Behind them were similarly their races.

Hence, the cake that was the Mu Empire was split between them.

“No matter what, let’s understand the world situation before discussing the next step.” Keisuke Honda looked in the direction of Great Xia. An unconcealable vicious glow appeared in his eyes.

The trial lands had no way to access news about the main map.

Although he hated Great Xia to the core, after the training in the trial lands, Keisuke Honda and the rest had become really stable; they would not act rashly.

When the others heard that, they all nodded.

Park Wins smiled and said, “Let this world shake for us!” His words were filled with confidence. Thinking about the surviving player forces, he felt really certain.

…

Gaia 8th year, 1st month, 5th day, Imperial Capital.

A month had passed, and the cold winter had swept down from the north. Even the imperial capital that was right next to the Gulf of Tonkin felt the cold breeze.

Within the Imperial Reading Room, a flame was burning.

Many expensive spices were added to the burning coal, giving rise to a white smoke that lifted one’s spirits.

Ouyang Shuo had reached the innate realm. Naturally, he was not afraid of the cold. The flames furnace was prepared for the officials, especially the old ones whose bodies could not take it.

Five days had passed, and the Black Snake Guards had finally gathered some news about the Mu Continent.

After Ouyang Shuo read the new, his expression became somber as he muttered, “Darkness empire, darkness empire.” The worst-case scenario had occurred. Not only did the Mu continent merge as one, but they were also a group of people out for revenge.

Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo said to Su Zhe, who was the advisor on duty, “Send my decree!”

“Yes, my emperor!”

Su Zhe took out a blank white memorial. He raised his brush and dipped it in some ink, his actions smooth as water. Working in the Secret Document Pavilion and being under the gaze of the emperor at every moment helped to train his aura and temperament.

Su Zhe’s sharpness was all kept within, and he appeared really humble and simple.

Similarly, the Secret Document Pavilion also helped to train one’s administrative talents. If Ouyang Shuo was not already used to him, moving Su Zhe over to be a Provincial Governor would not be a problem.

Out of the three Sus, Su Zhe was the best in terms of administrative ability.

“Get the Cabinet to lead and complete the withdrawal from Hawaii. Order the 2nd and 3rd divisions of the Pacific Squadron to find suitable islands away from the Mu Continent to build a resource base.”

In the end, Hawaii Prefecture was too close to Mu. Even if the Darkness empire used wooden boats, they would be able to cross the ocean and threaten the safety of the prefecture.

Withdrawing was the wise choice.

The Pacific Ocean was vast and had over ten thousand different islands. If the Pacific Squadron wanted to build an ocean resource base, it did not have to be on Hawaii. As long as they went out to search, they would definitely be able to find a suitable island.

The game world was not like real life, where all islands were occupied.

Since the ocean was huge, many of these islands had been disregarded.

Furthermore, after the map reset, the pressure on the Pacific Squadron’s logistics had been greatly reduced. Along with the second industrial revolution technology tree being unlocked, the construction of the iron armored warships would pick up speed.

Soon, the Pacific Squadron would be equipped with the most advanced warships.

After Su Zhe wrote up the decree, he respectfully handed it over to Ouyang Shuo for him to take a look and check that Su Zhe had written all that Ouyang Shuo wanted to say and did not miss anything out.

In terms of literary talent, Ouyang Shuo was not a match for the civil servants.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head in satisfaction before taking out the imperial seal and saying, “Send it out right away!”

“Yes, your majesty!”

“Write up another decree to tell them to not delay anymore and attack Java right away.” The presence of the Darkness empire made Ouyang Shuo feel really uneasy, so he decided to strike first.

Su Zhe wrote out a second decree really quickly, which Ouyang Shuo stamped.

After a short while, the two decrees were sent to the Cabinet, Navy Headquarters, and Privy Court. The Cabinet was in charge of the withdrawal, the Navy Headquarters would inform the Pacific Squadron, and the Privy Court would inform the Nanyang warzone.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo’s words would normally stop at the Imperial Court level. If the lower units received imperial decrees, how would the Imperial Court retain its authority?

Furthermore, Ouyang Shuo’s decrees were simply written; they were more like orders.

The specifics would be arranged and decided by the three organizations. It was not that a simple sentence from Ouyang Shuo could immediately start a war.

That would be too fake.

Of course, the orders given by the three organizations would be sent to the Secret Document Pavilion to store. If Ouyang Shuo wanted to read it or investigate, he could read them at any time.

If the matter was really important, Ouyang Shuo would personally vet it.

This formed a closed circle, helping to protect the authority of the Imperial Court while ensuring that the Imperial Court was under Ouyang Shuo’s control.

Chapter 1280 - I will support you in spirit

Chapter 1280: TWO Chapter 1280-I will support you in spirit

Gaia 8th year, 1st month, 6th day, Nanjiang.

After they received the military order from the Imperial Court, the Nanjiang warzone swiftly got into action.

Under the orders of warzone commander Wuqi, the Dragon legion corps and Hanoi legion corps used the inland route to arrive in Putrajaya. After which, they crossed the Straits of Malacca to strike Sumatra island, which was the base of Java Lord Uwais.

Sumatra had 500 thousand territory troops; it was the final hand of Uwais.

Earlier in the 12th month, the Nanyang warzone had competed the disarmament, each legion corps going from 350 thousand to 250 thousand. Hence, in terms of their numbers, both sides were on the same starting line.

Not to mention that the Dragon legion corps and the Hanoi legion corps had left some forces behind to defend the beast caves.

The actual number of troops sent was around 380 thousand. If one excluded the support types, the actual combat members only numbered at around 350 thousand.

Even then, if there was no outside interference, there was no way that Uwais could win this war.

After all, the Great Xia Army that had gone through disarmament could not be compared to before. The soldiers left were all elites, and the entire structure was more logical. As such, their combat strength did not decrease and had increased instead.

Going against the Badong territory army, it would not be a problem for them to go one against three.

In the War of Mongolia that had just ended, wasn’t the strong Mongol iron cavalry crushed by the Great Xia Army? From start to finish, they were suppressed without any way to fight back.

Furthermore, although the Great Xia Army was fighting on enemy turf, the Malacca straits was so small and was the best resource logistics pathway.

The home ground advantage of Badong City was not apparent.

In the past year, Great Xia had focused on the war of unification and the East Africa battlefield, so the entire Nanjiang had not experienced war for a year. In other words, Nanjiang had been resting up for a year.

In the game world where chaos and war was common, this was some really precious breathing room.

Under the planning of the Nanjiang Governor-General House, after a year of intense farming, Nanjiang had amassed a lot of grain, which could easily support such a huge war.

In this one year period, it was not like the Nanyang warzone had done nothing.

Above, from warzone commander Wuqi to the four marshals, they were all sure that after they unified China, the Empire would free up a hand to take care of Java.

Hence, one could say that the war preparations for the war of Java had lasted for a year.

When one piled up all the intel memorials about Java’s two islands, one could probably reach a stack that was five to six meters high. The Nanyang warzone had already investigated the geography of the islands as well as other crucial information.

As a result, this battle was not an even one at all.

Facing such a situation, how could Badong City and Java win?

…

Sumatra was one battlefield. The other was Java island, where the imperial city was located.

In the 6th year of Gaia, Badong City had lost both Kalimantan and Ilian island, so the Java royal family took the chance to occupy the entire Java island, forming a standstill with Badong City.

This standstill lasted for a year.

As their strengths were around the same, and Great Xia was right around the corner, neither side attacked the other. If they did, they would only allow Great Xia to benefit.

General Fan Lihua led the Nanjing legion corps to cross the Timor Sea. Meanwhile, Yang Su led the Heluo legion corps to cross the Java sea to pincer Java island from north and south.

Compared to the Dragon legion corps and the Hanoi legion corps, the defense region of the Nanjiang and Heluo legion corps was really wide. As a result, they could only send out around 350 thousand troops.

Excluding support soldier types, their combat force would number around 310 to 320 thousand.

Luckily, their opponent was the Java imperial city guards. Although Java had a million guards, they had never been to war, and their equipment basically stopped at the cold weapons era.

Facing such an army, the Great Xia Army could go one against 10.

Furthermore, compared to Sumatra, Java island was very narrow. Especially after the map was reset, there was very little space for the imperial city guards to act.

Wuqi ordered the Nanjiang and Heluo legion corps to end the war within half a month. He was looking forward to them going up north to attack Sumatra island after they conquered Java island.

Once the Battle of Java island concluded, the destruction of Sumatra island would arrive.

At the same time, the Yashan Squadron that was listed under the Nanyang warzone would protect the ocean safety of the army. It would also strike the Java ports and cut off the connections between the two islands.

This time, the Nanyang warzone was going all out.

His majesty had said that he wanted the war to end before the Chinese New Year.

The Chinese New Year this year was on the 2nd month, 4th day so this was quite a rushed operation, and they had little time left. Wuqi had to squeeze out all the potential of the army.

Luckily, on the 1st month, 1st day, after they received the orders from his majesty, the four legion corps had already gathered up in the dark. Now, it was just a matter of announcing it in the open.

Especially after the game map reset, in three more days at most, the entire army would be able to disembark on Java to fight.

…

1st month, 7th day, Sumatra, Badong City.

Great Xia declaring war now was not something that surprised Uwais. He knew that both sides would have to fight one day. Great Xia delaying the matter till now had already surprised him.

Sometimes, he could not help but feel resentment toward himself, thinking that Great Xia did not start a war because it did not treat them as an opponent on equal footing.

If that was the case, it would be a huge hit to his pride.

“Why do they have to give me hope only to follow it by giving me despair?” Uwais’s expression was really ugly.

During this week, the hottest topic was undeniably the appearance of Darkness empire. It attracted all attention and became the biggest news of the start of the 8th year.

To announce their return, the higher ups of the Darkness empire even made forum posts. They also shot videos of the continent to reveal the tip of the iceberg.

Even that was enough to make people go crazy.

The previous Lords of Southeast Asia had all contacted Uwais and hinted that the Darkness empire could join hands with Java to go against Great Xia and take back Southeast Asia.

As a result of this, Uwais had been so excited that he could not fall asleep, taking it out on four girls a night.

However, before he could calm down, the news of Great Xia suddenly declaring war on Java was like a thunderstorm on a sunny day, burning up Uwais who was overly happy.

Uwais was unwilling!

He requested help from the Darkness empire, asking them to immediately interfere in Nanjiang.

Uwais, who was filled with excitement, only received a vague reply. This trick was something Uwais was too familiar with, roughly saying, “I’ll support you spiritually!”

Apart from that, the Darkness empire did not make any promises.

One could not blame the Darkness empire for playing it safe. After learning the new layout of the world, even though the Darkness empire was crazy, it did not dare to interfere in the war of Java.

The current Great Xia and the Great Xia that destroyed them were two entirely different concepts.

Unifying the region that the world felt was the strongest, conquering East Africa, swallowing up Nanjiang, crushing the Ashoka Dynasty, and starting waves in South America.

It was not an exaggeration to say that the current Great Xia was a global empire. As such, how could the Darkness empire that had stepped out after so much difficulty easily declare war on them?

There was a good saying to describe this situation, ‘Only after losing something will one know how to cherish it.’

The Darkness empire was like this. They had been wiped out once, so they naturally knew how to cherish survival. Before getting enough strong allies and having enough preparation, they would not easily start war.

The Java empire that was already fading into the sunset was not a strong enough ally in their eyes.

The allies of the Darkness empire should be like the Dawson Dynasty and super organizations like Silver Hand and Azure Badge. Only if they allied with strong people could they truly harm Great Xia.

The Darkness empire had already started to treat themselves as the fourth superpower in the world.

To put it more bluntly, the small Java had no right to participate in their game.

What a tragic fate.

Chapter 1281 - Lamu warship

Chapter 1281: TWO Chapter 1281-Lamu warship

The Darkness empire not interfering in the war of Java did not mean that it was not going to start any waves.

1st month, 15th day, just as the war of Java was hotly underway, the Darkness empire sent out 150 thousand troops to attack Hawaii.

This was the battle that announced the Darkness Empire Navy to the world.

The Mu Continent was vast and huge, and the biggest lake in it – the Lamu Lake – was as big as Caspian City. The lake housed the strongest squadron of the Darkness empire – the Darkness Squadron.

Their warships were not the man o’ war series or the iron armored warships. Instead, it was a combination of the Mu Empire’s greatest technologies; it was a completely new type of warship.

These warships were not big, but their firepower was comparable to the iron armored warships.

As they say, how can one sleep soundly beside a wall that is about to collapse? Considering how fearful the Darkness empire was of Great Xia, they had all the more reason to not allow Hawaii to remain occupied by Great Xia.

“To take down Hawaii, we will stop at nothing.” Darkness Empire emperor Keisuke Honda said.

News had it that the 150 thousand were only their vanguard forces. To take down Hawaii, they were planning to throw in a million troops, “We will suck them dry.”

Facing such circumstances, the Cabinet suggested that they directly give up on Hawaii Prefecture.

Ouyang Shuo had other ideas. First, he asked the civilians of Hawaii to teleport away using the teleportation formation. After that, he ordered the 1st legion of the Tiger legion corps as well as the Pacific Squadron to engage the enemy immediately.

He wanted to test out the strength of the Darkness empire.

The intel that the Black Snake Guards had obtained so far was merely the surface. As for their actual strength, only by engaging them on the battlefield could Ouyang Shuo gauge it.

Since this was the case, this battle had to be fought.

Moreover, Ouyang Shuo was already annoyed about giving up Morocco, and he could not forgive himself for that. As such, he could not easily give up on Hawaii; if he did, how would the civilians of Great Xia look at their Imperial Court?

How would the world look at Great Xia?

Hence, not only did they have to fight this war, but they also had to fight it well.

They could not fight a long, drawn-out battle. Moreover, they had to make it painful for those fellows and make these failure realize that, “Your father is still your father!”

Do not think that you are invincible just because all of you are sticking together.

It was under such circumstances that the war of Hawaii broke out, shocking the entire Pacific Ocean.

…

1st month, 16th day, the navy squadrons of both sides engaged on the ocean.

The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd divisions of the Darkness Squadron exited the Lamu Lake and entered the Pacific Ocean, going up north of the shoreline of the Mu Continent to attack Hawaii Prefecture.

Leading the way was a navy general of the Federation, Ichiro Eguchi.

At the same time, he was also the Fleet Admiral of the Darkness Squadron. He held an important position in supporting the power of the Japanese in the Darkness empire.

After the destruction of their countries, the historical people of each country had no more ties with them.

In the current Darkness empire, be it in terms of military or Imperial Court, the ones holding the important positions were all players. It was a new dynasty model in the game world.

As for the Mu Continent natives?

Since they had taken the players in as slaves before, this debt was naturally paid back to them. Now, the natives had become slaves.

The Darkness empire had created another world’s first, becoming the first dynasty in the game to openly raise slaves.

In the entire trial lands, there were over 300 million players. Even without natives, they had enough to support the Darkness empire. All the combat occupation players were drafted into the army.

The 4th and 5th divisions of the Darkness Squadron went down south, trying to make a loop to get to the north of Hawaii to pincer Hawaii Prefecture.

Who would have expected that the 2nd and 3rd division of the Pacific Ocean Squadron were not prepared to simply defend? After the war began, they used their familiarity with the geography to directly go down south.

The two squadrons bumped into one another in the ocean region near the Mu Continent.

The Darkness empire had the black technology Lamu Warships. However, the Great Xia Army was not weak, especially the heavily focused Pacific Ocean Squadron. Its flagships were already iron armored warships. Along with the magic powered submarines and the fighter jets, their might was comparable to modern navies.

With the equipment development speed of the Great Xia navy, the first aircraft carrier squadron in the world would definitely belong to Great Xia.

As the highest technological work of the Mu Civilization, the Lamu warships were truly amazing. Right away, they stunned the Pacific Squadron Fleet Admiral Shi Lang by spotting the magic powered submarines.

Truly skilled.

Before this, the magic powered submarines had used their cloaking ability and super strong ranged attacks to become one of the trump cards of the Great Xia navy. In every naval war, they had done well and were pretty much invincible.

This time, the magic powered submarines were countered.

The radar system of the Lamu warships immediately revealed the magic powered submarines.

On the flagship, The Darkness, Ichiro Eguchi’s face revealed a revengeful smile upon noticing the enemy submarines. His eyes were filled with reminisce.

During the Battle of Japan, he was one of the main generals of the Japanese Squadron. Under the attacks of the Great Xia magic powered submarines, the Japanese Squadron was crushed.

Ichiro Eguchi had also died in that battle, and he deemed it as the humiliation of his life.

Two and a half years had passed since then. Now, he had finally returned from hell.

“Now, it’s time to pay back an eye for an eye!” Ichiro Eguchi’s eyes shone with excitement.

This loss at the start did not shake Shi Lang’s confidence. He immediately ordered the squadron to fight the enemy head on. Both sides’ cannons fired at one another, causing huge waves on the ocean surface.

Through this engagement, Shi Lang’s heart sank once more.

He noticed that apart from the iron armored warships, the Z1 Type Warships were at a disadvantage it terms of both personal defense and firepower.

Only the iron armored warships could face up against them.

Thinking about it, this was quite normal. The mimicry flying devices Great Xia received from Atlantis and the magic powered submarines from Lemuria were both support items.

The true core of the navy were the warships themselves.

Moreover, the best black technology of the Mu Continent was the Lamu warship. Naturally, they would suppress the Great Xia navy.

The strength of the main warships basically decided the strength of a squadron.

Luckily, Gaia had already unlocked the second industrial revolution technology tree, and the iron armored warships had ascended onto the stage. If not, the Lamu warships would be invincible.

If they had appeared two years ago, they could even challenge Great Xia’s ocean supremacy.

When Ichiro saw this situation, his smile grew thicker as he said, “As expected, the warships did not let me down. Those natives have some ability.”

Toward the ability of the Lamu warships, Ichiro could not be any more delighted.

Thinking back to the new Lamu Warships docked at Lamu Lake, he could not help but jump in joy. Those warships were the foundations of the Mu empire, and they were now all theirs.

After suffering these series of setbacks, Shi Lang’s face turned serious. He was rather sure about the meaning of this battle. If he failed here, he would not be able to answer to the Imperial Court.

“Send my orders, all fighter jets get ready and engage in a suicidal explosion.” Shi Lang was expressionless.

“Yes!”

The messenger general’s face became solemn. He bowed, turned around, and left.

With the Lamu Warship’s firepower net, if the first generation fighter jets used conventional tactics, there was a high chance they would be wiped out by the cannons.

With only a limited number of fighter jets, Shi Lang did not leave himself a way out.

“We have no way out!”

During this battle, the Pacific Squadron had to protect the glory of the Great Xia navy. If they failed in this battle, not only would the Pacific Squadron be affected, but it would even shake the Empire’s ocean authority.

The chain reaction that would follow because of this was something that Shi Lang did not dare to think about.

10 minutes later, 40 first generation fighter jets took off from the deck. All the pilots had determined faces.

Chapter 1282 - Winning and losing at the same time

Chapter 1282: TWO Chapter 1282-Winning and losing at the same time

Blue seas, clear skies.

Beneath the white clouds, 40 ancient looking fighter jets rose up, giving out deafening roars as they streaked through the sky.

They were a group of air cavalry.

In front of the fighter jets, the Lamu warships of the Darkness empire were clearly visible.

Interestingly, the Darkness empire called themselves the gods of the night. However, who knows what kind of paint they put on their warships, but they were all shining with an eye-catching silver.

Those two were complete opposites.

Without walkie talkies, after the fighter jets flew into the sky, it would be tough for them to communicate with one another. They could only follow the prior arrangements as they flew toward their targets.

Fighter jet after fighter jet charged down from above.

“Air siege!”

“Do not panic, aim the cannons at them.”

The Darkness squadron was really well trained. Although there was a moment of panic, chaos did not ensue as they aimed their black cannons at the diving fighter jets.

“Fire!”

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

The cannon fire immediately struck two fighter jets. Smoke rose into the air as they crashed into the ocean. With the simplistic structures of the first generation fighter jets, they were naturally limited to some simple evasion measures.

Luckily, the majority of them were able to brave the cannon fire to continue charging down.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’

Another round of cannon fire erupted. Since the distance was much shorter, four more fighter jets were shot down.

At that moment, some fighter jets finally managed to toss down gunpowder from above the Lamu warships.

‘Hong!’

The warship that was struck had a huge hole blasted into its deck.

On the deck, people flew into the air and onto the ground. The warship started to shake. Some of the warships were blown apart from the side. Seawater flowed in and was about to drag the entire warship into the depths of the ocean.

Warship after warship broke out into smoke.

When Ichiro saw this scene, his face turned green. He did not expect the enemy troops to be so crazy.

“Fire! Fire the cannons!”

The Darkness Squadron could only continue to fire and shoot down the enemy fighter jets.

The birth of the fighter jets had totally changed the naval battle mode. It evolved from simple warship versus warship battles to more complicated air strikes.

The aircraft carriers were also born from that.

Under the attacks of the Great Xia fighter jets, the Darkness Squadron suffered heavy losses. 12 warships were sunk on the spot and 15 were damaged.

However, Great Xia had also paid a hefty price. Out of the 40 fighter jets that they sent out, only 10 returned.

At the same time, Shi Lang grasped this chance while the enemy troops were badly hurt to surround the enemy and launch a closely packed firepower attack. This move aimed to both cover the fighter jets while expanding their rewards.

The magic powered submarines that were discovered by the enemy struck out once more and took down four warships.

The war situation shifted once again.

Ichiro looked out at the smoking ocean surface. Looking out, pretty much all his warships were damaged, and the rumbling smoke negatively affected visibility.

He had just been feeling delighted moments ago, but now, his face sank.

Ichiro was prepared to withdraw. If this continued, they would suffer heavy losses. Just as he was prepared to retreat, the communication compass sounded out.

“Good!”

Ichiro cut off the communication compass, and his anger turned into happiness.

It was news from the 4th and 5th divisions; they were rushing toward the battlefield and could arrive in an hour.

Since reinforcements were about to arrive, Ichiro decided to not withdraw.

“Scoff, who dies in whose hands is still not decided yet.” Ichiro ordered the squadron to shrink their defensive line.

…

Flagship, Streamer.

The weird actions of the Darkness Squadron did not escape Shi Lang’s eyes.

“Something is not right!”

Shi Lang frowned. Under such conditions, the enemy not retreating and choosing to fight to the death went against all battle logic.

After all, with the speed of the Lamu warships, retreating was nothing difficult.

“There’s definitely something going on.”

Shi Lang’s expression became really solemn as he ordered, “Tell the remaining fighter jets to scout the area to see what’s going on.”

“Yes, admiral!”

Very quickly, five fighter jets took off and disappeared into the horizon.

At the same time, Shi Lang contacted the 4th division to get ready to flee. Although they had won this battle, it was a victory with heavy losses.

Without the fighter jets, the Pacific Squadron could not expand their gains.

Half an hour had passed, and a fighter jet returned with the latest intel. The 4th and 5th divisions of the Darkness Squadron rushing over to help had nowhere to hide.

When Shi Lang received the news, he did not hesitate and gave the order to retreat.

If the enemy managed to surround them, there would be no way for them to retreat without heavy losses.

Under Shi Lang’s commands, the Pacific Squadron’s cannons fired out. They launched their strongest round of cannon fire, suppressing the enemy and sinking another four.

Following which, the Pacific Squadron made a beautiful turn around and sailed off.

When Ichiro saw that, he was unwilling and ordered the ships to give chase. After they chased for a while, they stopped once more. The radar of the Lamu warships had discovered enemy submarines lying ahead.

That’s right, although they were able to see through the stealth of the magic powered submarines, there was nothing they could do about it.

If they wanted to forcefully break through, they would have to get past the submarines first. Half of their warships had already been sunk, so they could not afford such a cost.

“Damn it; I wish you luck!”

Looking at the enemy warships disappearing into the horizon, Ichiro cursed before giving the order to save the floating soldiers on the surface.

For those warships that could be saved, they tried their best to save them.

Each Lamu warship was worth a lot, and the Darkness empire could not afford to waste any of them.

…

The first naval battle between Great Xia and the Darkness empire had ended in the victor withdrawing.

Ironically, although they won this battle, they would have no chance against the Darkness Squadron unless they were equipped with more iron armored warships.

This also meant that Great Xia had lost their authority over the ocean.

This was a sad truth.

The ocean battle report went from the Navy Headquarters to Ouyang Shuo’s desk, making him silent for a long while. Only then did he say to Su Zhe, “The military meeting before the New Year will have one more point, which is how to reequip the Pacific Squadron in the shortest amount of time possible.”

“Yes, emperor!”

Su Zhe nodded and jotted it down.

Since the Chinese New Year was about to arrive, Ouyang Shuo wanted to hold a large-scale military and administrative meeting before the break to summaries the 7th year and plan for the 8th.

The relevant topics were sent to the participants.

Ouyang Shuo adding in one more point now was because he realized the rise of the Darkness empire or rather the Lamu warships could change the Pacific Ocean situation.

If they did not treat the problem promptly, it would give rise to a huge problem.

The appearance of the Lamu warships was a warning to Ouyang Shuo. In the past seven years, he was used to having the technological lead and had tasted the sweetness of such black technology.

Now, it was time for him to be on the receiving end.

It was not possible for Great Xia to take all benefits anymore because that was not practical.

…

1st month, 17th day, Hawaii Prefecture.

The end of the navy battle did not mean the end of the war of Hawaii. On the contrary, along with the 150 thousand Darkness empire army successfully disembarking, the war had just begun.

Like the navy, the army forces of the Darkness empire were made of players and slaves. The players acted as the main force and the slaves were the supporting troops or sometimes just cannon fodder.

They were about to face the Tiger legion corps 1st legion.

Hawaii was made up of eight main islands and 124 small ones as well as shoals and small rocks circling the islands.

The eight main islands were, in order of size, Kauai, Niihau, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Maui, Kahoolawe, and Hawaii island.

Maui and Kauai were global tourist destinations.

Hawaii Prefecture’s ruling city was located in Oahu island, Honolulu, which was a city connected to China. The other seven islands had a county. Together, they formed the Hawaii Prefecture.

The only teleportation formation in Hawaii was in Honolulu.

After the Pacific Squadron withdrew, the 1st legion Legion General Cao Gui did not arrogantly try to defend all eight islands. Instead, he chose to focus on Oahu.

All the resources of the prefecture, especially the grain, were gathered in Honolulu.

As the ruling city, Oahu island was the place with the highest population. In terms of size, it was the third biggest. After the reset, the island was just 1574 square kilometers big.

The Pearl Harbor on the island was the previous navy base of the Pacific Squadron.

Following which, Cao Gui would have a fight to the death with the enemy on Oahu. He said to the soldiers, “Until we use the last bit of grain here, we won’t leave!”

Chapter 1283 - Unifying Nanjiang

Chapter 1283: TWO Chapter 1283-Unifying Nanjiang

Compared to their strong navy equipment, the Mu Continent army equipment was much weaker.

Although the cannons of the Lamu warships were really strong, they lacked firearms. This was the weakest part of the Darkness army. Luckily for them, they still had a black technology armor – the Lamu armor.

This armor was similar to the Lamu warships and were the technological results of the Mu Continent. Silver in color like the Lamu warships, this armor possessed shocking defenses that could block the attacks of the flintlock gun to a certain extent.

That was really amazing!

The only regretful part was the limited number of Lamu armor. The raw materials could only be found on the Mu Continent, so their production capacity was limited. If not, the Darkness empire would be invincible in the world.

With the combination of the Lamu warships and the Lamu armor, the Darkness empire would be able to control the oceans. However, they lacked the ability to attack other continents. It was a defensive strategy empire.

Luckily, the Mu Continent was huge, and Keisuke Honda and the others did not have much ambition in regards to expanding.

Their strategic goal was to use the Mu Continent as a core to control the nearby oceans; they would then engage in voyage trading to expand their influence.

This was the same ocean strategy as Great Xia.

…

Of the Darkness army troops that disembarked onto Oahu island, 50 thousand were slaves. Not only could they not wear the Lamu armor, but they were also only equipped with simple leather armor.

After disembarking, they were forced to charge at the front to waste the enemy’s ammunition.

“Fire!”

Around Honolulu, Cao Gui had arranged for the troops to build cannon formations to aim down from above. Seeing the enemy troops charge up, Cao Gui did not hesitate and gave the order to fire the cannons.

These cannons were left behind by the Pacific Squadron, as Hawaii Prefecture itself did not have any industrialization foundations.

‘Hong! Hong! Hong’

Before the closely packed cannon fire, the slaves charging at the front were crushed. Blood, broken limbs, and flesh flew everywhere; it was like hell on earth.

“Next wave!”

The Darkness army commander was unfazed, simply sending wave after wave of cannon fodder onto the battlefield.

At the same time, elite forces wearing Lamu armor were making their final preparations. As long as the enemy cannon fire stopped for a while, they would immediately charge up to try to take over the enemy cannon base.

The Great Xia cannons had been modified; they had already broken away from the backward smoothbore cannons, changing into the rifle cannon. After this change, the shooting speed was greatly increased.

The cannonballs fired changed from the original solid bullets to the more powerful grenades.

The grenades designed by Great Xia used more gunpowder and a combined fuse, which increased the weight of the cannonball and the strength of the shrapnel. Along with scopes, measurement devices, and detonation fuses, it raised the explosiveness of the cannons on the battlefield.

Cannoneers had officially stepped onto the world stage.

A day ago, Great Xia was prepared to establish a cannoneer college outside of the army military university to let cannoneers become a common soldier type in the Great Xia Army.

The lecturers in the college would mainly be players who were experts in the field in real life.

In the 8th year of Gaia, along with the second industrial revolution technology tree being unlocked, Great Xia would develop specific types of cannons.

The importance of cannoneers would only grow.

Facing such a cannon formation, the outcome of the Darkness empire slaves was obvious. No matter how many people were sent, they were all mercilessly slaughtered.

They were truly cannon fodder.

When the Darkness army commander saw that, his face turned solemn. In just an hour, six thousand slaves were killed. To make matters worse, he could not feel the enemy formation getting any weaker.

“Stop the battle, retreat 10 miles, and set up camp.”

The commander was really decisive. He had realized that the enemy firepower was much greater than anticipated, so his initial target of probing the enemy had already been reached. To take down the enemy camp, he would need to request for cannons from the Imperial Court.

Only cannons could go up against cannons.

…

During the following few days, no large battles occurred on Oahu.

The Darkness army would probe every day before retreating; they were not prepared to have a final battle yet. They were waiting for the cannons to arrive.

Cao Gui got busy too. He used this chance to strengthen the cannon bases and even mobilized troops to build small castles. He planted gunners in the small castles to create a dense firepower net.

Before the two sides engaged in close combat battle, they would have a battle of firearms.

1st month, 20th day, just as the Hawaii battlefield was at a standstill, the unassuming Java battlefield welcomed a decisive result.

At 11am, the 1st Legion General of the Nanjiang legion corps, the martial scholar Niu Da, led troops to occupy the Java palace, announcing the end of the Battle of Java island.

As predicted, the backward Java soldiers that lacked experience were nothing at all before the Great Xia Army. They had no ability to decide the battle in the wilderness and could not defend against the cannon fire.

They retreated in defeat.

In less than two weeks, Java Island had fallen.

During this battle, the Nanjiang and Heluo legion corps had only sacrificed 20 thousand men to kill 200 thousand and capture over 800 thousand, creating the most amazing feat in Great Xia history.

This also signaled the end of pure cold weapons armies.

As a result, the war of Java would be written into history.

This battle also proved the importance of Great Xia’s disarmament and change. Not only did their strength not decrease, but they even became more terrifying.

Great Xia’s disarmament finally proceeded without obstruction; no one opposed it anymore.

…

Indian Empire, Cusco Empire.

After news of the Battle of Java Island spread, the whole world experienced a huge craze about firearms.

The American and European Lords had focused on firearm development all along, so their strength in the aspect was at around the same level as Great Xia. They were only surprised by the fact that Great Xia, an eastern dynasty, was able to walk at the front of industrialization.

The party facing problems was the Indian Empire.

This American Dynasty that insisted on defending Indian traditions was having a tough time recently. Facing the attacks of the Spain and Brasilia dynasties, they were feeling powerless.

Juarez’s faith had started to waver.

This emperor realized that in the age of firearms development, if the empire stuck to its traditions, it would only die with the traditions.

“The empire has to change!”

The current Indian Empire had practically zero industrialization foundations. To create cannons and firearms in a short time was impossible.

The only way would be to purchase them.

Looking out across the world, the only one with the ability while being willing to trade with them would be Great Xia.

The part that gave Juarez a headache was that in the 7th year, Great Xia had suggested they help the Indian Empire build up an industrialization system. However, he had rejected the offer.

If he were to go against his words, who knows how much effort he would have to put in?

“Even if I lose all my face, I have to succeed in this. At most, I’ll give them some benefits.”

Juarez had already decided to give up on some things.

…

1st month, 22nd day, after conquering Java Island, the Heluo legion corps was ordered to go up north onto Sumatra to attack Badong city.

With that, the Badong City Army that was already on the verge of collapse finally fell.

In contrast to the Imperial City Guards, the Badong territory army were elites that had cannons and firearms. However, compared to Great Xia, the difference was still really apparent.

Under the combined attacks of the three armies, Badong City was unable to hold on even with the help of players.

27th day at 3pm, after three days and three nights of intense battles, Badong City was taken down by the Great Xia Army. This signaled the official end of the war of Java.

The Nanyang warzone had completed their mission and conquered Java before the Chinese New Year.

This war was a beautiful one.

After taking down Java, the entire Nanjiang was unified under Great Xia rule.

Chapter 1284 - State of the union address

Chapter 1284: TWO Chapter 1284-State of the union address

When Java was destroyed, a System Notification sounded out in the minds of every Java player.

“System Notification: Java has been destroyed, please choose a dynasty to surrender to!”

After Gaia removed the trial lands punishment, players of countries that were wiped out could choose a dynasty to live under; they would not be forcefully teleported and revived.

Any dynasty around the world, as long as they were willing to accept the player, Gaia would teleport the player over.

Out of the 20 million players, they naturally had a variety of choices.

There were some who chose the Darkness empire, seeing it as a place to take revenge. Furthermore, the Darkness empire had just won a battle in the Pacific and chased away the Great Xia Pacific Squadron, catching a lot of attention.

The Darkness empire had a huge market toward the Java players.

There were also some who chose the Dawson Dynasty; these people were prepared to leave the sad grounds of Asia.

Meanwhile, some who chose the Great Xia Emperor dynasty, choosing to remain.

Surprisingly, more than half of the Java players chose the last option. Especially the casual and work occupation players, who did not want to leave their homeland.

70% and above of the casual players chose to stay.

Next would be those who had investments in Java; these people were not willing to give up on their hard work. The Great Xia law system made it clear that the Imperial Court could not touch private assets.

Anyways, it was not like Great Xia had only Java, so they did not feel as bad in their hearts. The current Great Xia spanned Asia, Europe, Africa, America, and Europe.

Living under Great Xia was a good choice.

The presence of the Federation had greatly reduced the country ideals. Ouyang Shuo’s generation was taught since a young age that the country and the Federation were two sides of the same coin.

Eastern and western civilizations were even merging with one another and going neck and neck.

If not, there would not be a super organization like Silver Hand.

Only when the same world established different game zones based on old country maps did such concepts slowly return.

However, since it had not been that long, the concept built up was like a sandcastle that would easily collapse.

The Great Xia that Ouyang Shuo led was trying to build such a concept for the players and natives in its borders – Great Xia.

A global empire, an empire with eastern civilization at its core.

The main force leaving Java consisted of combat occupation players. To these people, their equipment was all their assets, so they came and left like the wind.

Of course, some combat occupation players chose to stay.

There were some people intending to sow chaos internally.

How to manage these players efficiently became the toughest problem for Great Xia in managing Java. In Ouyang Shuo’s words, “Easy to take down, hard to manage.”

After conquering the two islands of Java, Great Xia did not set up a new province and instead merged the two into the Heluo Province to manage.

With that, the Heluo Province would have Johor, Singapore, Brunei, and Java, becoming the biggest province in the Empire, even longer than the Beiyuan Province.

The Heluo Province ruling city was moved from Putrajaya to Jakarta.

Heluo Provincial Governor Hu Zongxian made Ouyang Shuo feel slightly more at ease. This governor was a skilled person and was greatly trusted by Ouyang Shuo. Moreover, he was a person able to improve with the times.

…

1st month, 21st day, Honolulu.

While the war of Java had ended, the Battle of Hawaii continued to be tough.

In recent days, the Darkness Army had finally received cannon help. While shooting at the enemy cannon formation, they sent out slaves to disturb the enemy.

Cao Gui was really calm, ordering the troops to fend off wave after wave of enemy troops.

Looking at the current situation, they would not be able to decide the victor before the Chinese New Year. The entire battle slowly turned into a battle of attrition that tested the determination of both sides.

…

22nd day, Imperial Capital.

The prosperous imperial capital was already filled with the New Year spirit. Lanterns were everywhere, and they were totally unaffected by the war. After a year of construction, the new city region was brimming with life, and there were many people on the streets.

Many factories rose up from the ground, giving out the aura of a new era.

The rumbling of machines were like a beating heart, supporting the forward progress of the Empire.

Along with the Empire’s industrialization speeding up, as well as it fully opening up to the players, more and more players found a home in the Empire and walked toward their new jobs.

They were like new blood, adding life to the Empire.

Emperor palace, 1st meeting room.

Ouyang Shuo sat amongst them. On the left side of the meeting table sat the civil servants including the six Cabinet elders, four ministers, and four governor-generals.

On the right sat the generals, including the seven warzone commanders, Navy Headquarters commander Zheng He, Pacific Squadron Fleet Admiral Shi Lang, and Indian Ocean Squadron Fleet Admiral Yanhuo Yaonie.

These 24 officials were the central pillar of the Empire.

It was not hard to see that out of the five navy squadrons, due to their differing roles, the Pacific and Indian Ocean squadrons stood out and had an even higher place than the Emperor Squadron.

This was a case of the times creating heroes.

However, Shi Lang’s expression was still really solemn. He was probably still worried about the Pacific Ocean situation.

As the recorder, Secret Document Pavilion Advisor Tsing Yi did not even have the right to sit around the table. She could only sit at a corner behind the civil servants.

This was the highest-level meeting of the Empire, being held only once a year. Outsiders might think that such a meeting would be really solemn and everyone would be really careful.

However, the reality was a complete opposite.

Ouyang Shuo had made it clear at the start that not only could they talk freely and debate with one another, but they could even voice their views regarding him.

“In the 7th year of Gaia, toward the outside, the Empire unified China, occupied East Africa, and unified Nanjiang; internally, we sped up industrialization and a new batch of products appeared in the world. Our economy is increasing rapidly, and income broke the 100 million mark. All our achievements are exceptional. However, in the road to the top, if we do not improve, we will fall behind. In the next year, how the Empire proceeds forward to create better results will depend on the plans all of you have made.”

After the simple introduction, Ouyang Shuo headed straight to the point, “Zifang, you may begin.”

Zhang Liang sat at the third seat on the left, only behind Jiang Shang and Kouzhun. When he heard that, he took out a stack of documents and handed one to each person present.

Ouyang Shuo took a look and saw the title of divine martial four year state of the union address return. This was the hard work of the Administrative Mentor Court, and the first document targeted their global strategy.

Zhang Liang sat down once more and started to introduce this document.

“In the past year, the global situation has slowly stabilized. Apart from Africa, out of the 18 dynasties, only Great Zhou was destroyed. 17 now remain.

“Silver Hand and Azure Badge are holding themselves back and putting their efforts into internal policies, storing up energy for the next explosion of power.

“Along with the game entering the later stages, time is of the essence. Moreover, there is the Darkness empire that has appeared to stir the waters. The Administrative Mentor Court feels that the 8th year of Gaia will be extremely chaotic with many conflict and wars.

“The global landscape will welcome a shuffling of cards.”

Hearing those words, the faces of the civil servants were really solemn, while the generals could not hide the excitement on their faces.

“Is there a chance that the two camps will work together to restrict us?”

Zhang Liang replied, “There is such a possibility. However, I feel that compared to them joining hands, there is a higher chance of them fighting amongst themselves.”

“Why so?”

Zhang Liang said calmly, “First, the Empire does not have any weaknesses. Along with the eight warzones being set up and Nanjiang being unified, we are airtight in terms of local defenses.

“If the two camps want to attack us, they can only choose the navy route.”

“As for the land route, only India, Persia, and Romanov can go against us. The South Asia, West Asia, and North Asia warzones are easy to defend and tough to attack, so it is difficult them to have a breakthrough from those places.”

“Furthermore, India is still facing internal conflict, and they have no energy to participate. Persia and our Empire are separated by the remaining House of Ogedai troops, and they cannot go all in.”

“Romanov Empire’s Siberia region makes logistical support a huge problem. Even if they plan to, they cannot send too many troops.”

Listening to that, the civil servants heaved a sigh of relief. However, the generals were unhappy.

Zhang Liang did not care and continued, “From the navy route, there are the Pacific and Indian Ocean routes. There’s no need to mention the Indian Ocean. As long as we control the Gulf of Aden, Maldives, and Malacca Straits, the European and American dynasties would not dare to send troops. Even if they dare, they would not be able to reach our mainland.”

“The only thing that can be considered is the Pacific Ocean. Along with the rise of the Darkness empire, our control of the Pacific Ocean has been greatly reduced, giving the American dynasties a chance.”

When Shi Lang heard that, he almost raised his head.

“Luckily, the Empire’s east ocean region has Yingzhou, Yizhou, and Qiongzhou; these natural barriers. Our ocean defenses are also well done, so if the Dawson Empire does not go crazy, they will not dare to send troops.”

Ouyang Shuo asked, “What about the Darkness empire?”

“They are an uncertainty. However, from the battle report from Cao Gui, their army is weak. At most, they will disturb the ocean region. They will not fight on land.” Zhang Liang said truthfully.

Ouyang Shuo thought back to the pirate problems in Chinese history. Coincidentally, they were the Japanese in the Darkness empire.

Would the Darkness empire be another group of pirates?

Thinking about that, Ouyang Shuo’s desire to remodel the Pacific Squadron grew even more rushed. Even then, he did not show it. Instead, he calmed down to listen to Zhang Liang speak.

In truth, the state of the union address aimed to help settle the Empire’s strategy.

Chapter 1285 - Removing the house level

Chapter 1285: TWO Chapter 1285-Removing the house level

Zhang Liang’s tone changed, and he said, “Of course, although our mainland is basically safe, overseas, especially East Africa, America, and even Nanjiang are facing risks and all sorts of challenges exist.”

When those present heard that, they fell deep into thought.

As they say, “A crisis is also an opportunity.” Zhang Liang meant that in the 8th year of Gaia, the mainland would mainly focus on defending, while in Africa and America, they would focus on expansion.

If it were not for the Indian Empire requesting help from Great Xia, even the America Continent would be one of the targets of the Empire.

Ouyang Shuo expressed, “China and Nanjing have just been unified, and it is time for a good rest.”

China had destroyed six countries in a year and needed some time for the digestion process that would slowly remove the barrier between the people and let the six countries forget their past, viewing Great Xia as the motherland.

From now on, Great Xia and China would be two sides of the same coin.

After Nanjiang was unified, they would spread Chinese culture to let the Nanjiang civilians recognize the orthodoxy of China rule. It was a long term policy that needed a relatively stable internal environment.

If they ran the mainland and Nanjiang well, the Empire would have a stable backline.

In the future global battlefield, the Empire would be able to attack and defend and stand at an undefeatable position.

In history, America was able to rise up after World War II partially because the war was far away from their home soil but stimulated their industrialization, making them the biggest winner of the war.

This was a really good model.

The eyes of Jiang Shang and the other officials lit up as they nodded their heads in agreement. Meanwhile, unwillingness flashed across the eyes of Li Jing, Wang Jian, and Li Mu. Wang Jian seemed especially disappointed.

However, this was the decision of his majesty, and they had no reason to disagree.

The state of the union address by the Administrative Mentor Court was of a really high standard and made everyone believe in it. Behind it was the support of the Administrative Mentor Court, Black Snake Guards, and Shanhai Guards.

All strategies were built on the basis of sufficient intelligence.

When Du Ruhui saw that, he smiled and said, “If Silver Hand and Azure Badge really have internal wars, there will be a lot that we can do in Africa and South America.”

Everyone present was intelligent and saw through this point.

The situation in Africa had basically stabilized. North Africa was occupied by the Egypt Dynasty, the south was occupied by the Bantu Dynasty, the East was Great Xia, and the west was the European dynasties.

Apart from Congo in the middle, the rest was occupied by the Dawson Dynasty.

If they wanted to light up the flames of war in Africa, Congo would be the battle between Great Xia and the Dawson Dynasty. If one thought back to the South America Continent, the matters would be much more interesting.

The head on confrontation between Great Xia and the Dawson Dynasty would be in the 8th year of Gaia.

This was something that Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to. The Dawson Dynasty was one of the central pillars of Silver Hand, so they needed to crush the Dawson Dynasty in order to destroy Silver Hand.

This was the premise.

“As such, we have to prepare in advance.” Ouyang Shuo looked at the generals on the right and said, “I have decided to move the Hanoi legion corps from the Nanyang warzone to the America warzone and rename it as the North America legion corps.”

Wuqi and Han Xin both nodded their heads; they were mentally prepared for this.

Along with Nanjiang being unified, although it had to face the threat of the Darkness empire, there was no need for the Nanyang warzone to keep four legion corps. Having the Dragon, Heluo, and Nanjiang legion corps was enough.

The Dragon legion corps could defend Hanoi and Hetao Province. The Heluo legion corps could defend Luzon and Heluo province and the Nanjiang legion corps would defend Australia Province.

If it were not for the Darkness empire, moving one more legion corps would be possible.

It was the America warzone that needed strengthening.

After moving the North America legion corps over, along with the Tiger legion corps and the South America legion corps, the America warzone went from a rough structure to a strong warzone. They could start waves in South America at any moment.

Furthermore, in the Battle of Java that had just ended, Great Xia had captured 1.1 million prisoners. The Imperial Court decided to select 600 thousand to form the Australia construction formation.

The formation would be housed on the south plains of the Australia Province to develop the continent; they could also act as the reserve force against the Darkness empire.

The Lieutenant General would be Deputy Legion General of the 5th legion of the Imperial Palace Guards, Tang He.

Thanks to the support of Tang He, Lin Jing basically had the ability to be a Legion General. Next would be testing him in actual battle. Moving Tang He over was a reward for him.

Furthermore, Tang He also had the ability.

…

After Zhang Liang reported that, Ouyang Shuo looked toward Jiang Shang and said, “Now, it is time for a simple introduction of the Cabinet’s reorganization of the local offices.”

“Yes, my Emperor!”

Jiang Shang cupped his fist and started to describe one of the large-scale organizational adjustments of the Imperial Court.

The reason for this reorganization was the map being reset. One could say that this adjustment was done in line with the game’s development.

Apart from the Governor-General House, the local offices were split into Province, Prefecture, House, County, town, and village. As the village level had villagers under self-rule, there would be five level of offices.

Back when the game map was 10 times larger than Earth, such an arrangement was really important because the provincial scale was just too huge.

If they did not take such measures, they would not even manage to keep up.

Along with the game map’s reset and the territories been reduced in size, having the five level structure was a bit too much.

Hence, removing the House level was a move supported by Ouyang Shuo.

This seemed like a simple matter, but it was a huge headache to execute.

Based on the Great Xia system, the Province had four to six Prefectures and each Prefecture had three to five houses. Under each House, there were several counties.

With that, one Province would have about 10 to 30 Houses.

From a management standpoint, the best way to remove the Houses would be to upgrade some to Prefecture offices and reduce some to county offices.

Accordingly, some of the counties that had not been developed would be dropped to the town level.

With history as a gauge, normally speaking, a province would have eight to 12 Prefectures under it. As a result, following that plan, they would have to double the current number of Prefectures that they had.

One Prefecture would have four to nine counties under it.

As for the specific number, it would depend on the situation of the province.

After the adjustment, the Province, Prefecture, and county levels would basically reach a delayering management method.

Along with this would be the most difficult personnel problem. Following this plan, only a small number of Prefects would be promoted to Prefecture Governor. More of them would be demoted to County Magistrate.

County Magistrates that were sacked would not even continue to be an official.

“This is also a good matter, squeezing out the useless parts of the Imperial

Court to make it more efficient.” Jiang Shang was really optimistic and explained, “Who to promote and who to demote would be based on the year end evaluation.”

“Evaluation?”

Ouyang Shuo’s expression was hard to read as he said expressionlessly, “I’ve heard that during the evaluation of these past two years, there have been many suspicious points.”

The evaluation was all done by people after all.

Since that was the case, there would be areas, especially on the Prefecture, House, and county levels, that the Imperial Court could not manage to deal with.

During these past few years, how many officials were promoted based on the evaluations?

Ouyang Shuo had a rough idea in his heart.

Even in the Empire where the Shanhai Guards were everywhere, they could not keep everything in check.

If the situation did not grow too bad, Ouyang Shuo would not wish for the Shanhai Guards to spread its reach to the local layers because that would only give rise to a monster.

The Shanhai Guards mostly paid attention to the Imperial Court and the Provincial Governors.

When Jiang Shang and the others heard that, their hands broke out into cold sweat. One must know that the emperor was trying to wake up the Cabinet and the Imperial Court.

“The Cabinet and the four courts as well as the Censorate will send groups to the provinces into the local offices to monitor this evaluation.” Jiang Shang represented the Cabinet as he said this.

Ouyang Shuo nodded; he knew that this was the most that the Imperial Court could do. After that, he said, “The regulatory squads sent by the Imperial Court will be restricted to the Jingji and mid plains regions. The four Governor-General regions will be left to the Governor-Generals.”

When Bai Hua, Mulan Yue, Wufu, and Gong Chengshi heard that, they all nodded with varying expressions.

Without a doubt, the role held massive power that could decide the promotion and demotion of the entire region and decide the new situation of the region.

That was originally the power of the Imperial Court.

For the emperor to give the power to the Governor-General House was an unprecedented.

This was both a sign of trust and a test.

If their adjustments made the Governor-General House into a mess, they would not have the face to return to the imperial capital.

Chapter 1286 - Gathering strength to do something big

Chapter 1286: TWO Chapter 1286-Gathering strength to do something big

After Jiang Shang finished off the discussion about the removal of the House level, Ouyang Shuo looked around expressionlessly and said, “Next, let’s discuss the matter of how to change the equipment of the Pacific Squadron.”

When the officials heard that, they all exchanged glances, their eyes shining bright.

Regarding this topic, the civil servants and the military generals had a huge divide. Even before the meeting, the two sides had not come to a common consensus.

The opinion of the Cabinet was that along with the second industrial revolution technology tree being unlocked, the Empire should look further and remodel the navy. They should not busy themselves with building many iron armored warships.

On the basis of the iron armored warships, they could form more specific warships such as a main force of warfighting warships, patrolling warships, radar ships, sentry ships, protector ships, and submarine warships.

This would be a remodeling of the Empire’s navy.

However, this plan would require a long time to implement. Moreover, not only would the squadron system be changed, but the navy soldiers would also need to be retrained to familiarize them with the new warships. In the future, apart from the marines, there would be basically no close combat opportunities.

Conservatively speaking, even with the resources gathered up in the Empire, remodeling the Pacific Squadron would still take around a year and a half. Moreover, this was only because of Gaia treating industrialization really muddily.

A benefit of this plan was a reduction in blind construction. More importantly, the moment that the Pacific Squadron remodeling was finished, not only would it be able to reach the same level as the Darkness Squadron, it would even suppress them and take back ocean control.

Jiang Shang said it outright, “Along with the second industrial revolution tree being unlocked, the dynasties of the world are at the same starting line. If the Empire wants to keep our current authority, we need to have the courage to change from the bone.”

“The earlier we walk this step, the earlier we can take the lead.”

The military naturally could not wait. The Darkness Squadron had gotten one over them, and they wanted to fight back immediately. They suggested to throw in a large quantity of resources to build six to seven iron armored warships within the shortest amount of time possible.

Navy Headquarters admiral Zheng He said, “Losing control of the Pacific Ocean can potentially cause a chain reaction. It may form a challenge toward our Empire’s ocean power and affect global trading.”

“Without the support of trading, how can we go through industrialization?” Zheng He asked.

The two sides went head to head; neither party was able to convince the other.

Seeing that neither side was going to back down, Nanjiang Governor-General House Bai Hua suddenly stepped out and said, “The building speed of the iron armored warships are mainly limited by the Empire’s industrialization standards. My recommendation is that while the Empire is focusing on all out industrialization, we can gather resources to focus on developing some cities to lead industrialization.”

“For example, the area around the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta. We will be able to avoid blindly constructing things while reducing the formation time of the Pacific Squadron, achieving a balance between the two.”

Bai Hua’s suggestion caused Ouyang Shuo’s eyes to light up.

In truth, industrialization had little requirement on land; if not, the British Empire would not have been able to use just three islands to conquer the world.

Including places like Tokyo and Korea, they were all typical representatives of strong small countries.

Rather than blindly industrializing the entire Empire, why not gather their focus on those near the oceans to form an industrialization line? This could allow them to focus their production ability.

“This suggestion might work.” Ouyang Shuo expressed, “The Cabinet can take a look at it and let Shen City and Zhenhai City be the first two prioritized industrialized cities.

“Their priority level can even exceed the Capital City’s.”

The moment he said those words, everyone present was shocked.

Jiang Shang replied, “Your majesty, would this not affect the position of the imperial capital as the economic center of the Empire?”

Ouyang Shuo smiled and said, “I’ve never mentioned that we had to maintain the imperial capital’s position as the economic center. As the capital of the Empire, it has to be the political and cultural center but not definitely the economical center.”

“Along with the industrialization wave hitting strong, the geographical position of the imperial capital has also decided that it is difficult for it to take up the burden of being the Empire’s economic center. To forcefully do that will only waste resources.”

When the officials heard that, they were all enlightened.

In history, there were many countries who had their political and economic centers split up, so it was not a weird thing.

Being inspired by Bai Hua, Ouyang Shuo continued, “Shen City and Zhenhai City will be of top priority. Apart from that, Jianghu, Fushan, Binhai, Haijin, Jiaodong, Zhoushan, Quanzhou, Yinan, and Lion City will form the second layer for industrialization priority.”

“Inland places like Huining, Luoyang, Xianyang, Chengdu, Xiangyang, Jianye, and Dali will be the third layer. At the same time, we can develop one to two territories in Nanjiang and Africa.”

Ouyang Shuo’s words helped to draw up a new blueprint for the industrialization of the Empire.

Along with industrialization proceeding, the cities and provinces would welcome a new reshuffling. For example, Shen City, which was only a House-level city; after this, it would leap up to be as important as the provincial city, Jianye.

In the future, it might even exceed Jianye and become the economic center of the Empire.

Out of the second layer places, two-thirds of them were not famous cities. In the few years after this, they would use industrialization to rise up and become the pearls of the Empire.

The development of new cities also helped to increase the economic development points of the Empire.

To calm down the military, Ouyang Shuo made a decision and said, “While we fully develop Shen City, we will create a new, first-class shipyard that will be called the Jiangnan Shipyard. It will be independent from the China Shipping Group and be directly under the Asset Management Department.

“Before the end of the year, the Pacific Squadron must complete its change of equipment.” Ouyang Shuo gave a solemn order.

Only then did the generals relax. They were all people with foresight, but since they had the pride of soldiers, they could not take the humiliation of being defeated by the enemy.

Such humiliation was something that the Great Xia Army had not tasted in a long time.

The Cabinet did not say much. Before the industrialization went all out, focusing on ocean cities would actually make resource deployment much easier.

A year of time was more than enough.

“In the 8th year of Gaia, our trade with South America will probably be affected.” Jiang Shang said.

This reminded Ouyang Shuo of something, so he said, “Regarding the firearm trade with the Indian Empire, I want to sell the cannons and matchlock guns that we have replaced. What do you all think?”

“That’s feasible.”

Du Ruhui held control of the Privy Court and naturally had the most right to speak on this matter, “The data from the Privy Court shows that we have amassed around 500 thousand matchlock guns and one thousand cannons. The Combat Logistics Department was still debating about how to deal with them. If we kept them in storage, just the maintenance costs would be huge. Selling them can help to kill two birds with one stone.”

Conservatively speaking, they could earn around 12 million from this batch.

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head in satisfaction and said, “Let’s take the time to send this batch over before the Battle of Hawaii ends. Also, in the trade with them, let half be cash payment and the other hald be grain to be stored in the Ecuador Prefecture.”

“Understood!” Du Ruhui understood.

Six million gold worth of grain was enough for the America warzone for over a year.

“Also, use this chance to build a batch of military works factories in Ecuador, especially ones producing bullets and cannon shells. Before the Indian Empire establishes an industrialization system, we can earn a huge sum.” Ouyang Shuo instructed.

Du Ruhui nodded. He had long had an idea of his majesty’s ‘greed’.

“Also.”

Ouyang Shuo had many wishes, and he continued to say, “Probe them to see whether they intend to purchase warships or not. We can sell a portion of the turreted warships, and the remaining we can convert to supply ships.”

Du Ruhui noted these items down one by one.

Looking at the situation, his majesty wanted to take this chance to empty out the Indian Empire’s coffers.

Du Ruhui even felt a little bad for the Indian Empire. Even if they won the battle against the Spain Dynasty, they would be badly hurt. When that happens, would they be able to stop the expansion of the Empire?

With Du Ruhui’s understanding of his majesty, although he agreed to the firearm purchase request of the Indian Empire, he would only sell them eliminated equipment. His true intentions was probably to let the war drag on so that no one wins and no one loses.

If the Indian Empire was able to smoothly deal with Argentina region, could the Indian Empire that freed up their strength still allow Great Xia to expand?

Hence, to the Empire, this was the best ending.

It seems like the Indian Empire’s multiple cases of indecisiveness had made the emperor go from treating them as allies to treating them as business partners.

They could even become opponents in the South America matter.

Chapter 1287 - Violent organization

Chapter 1287: TWO Chapter 1287-Violent organization

“Next, let us discuss the matter of the Martial Management Division.”

This was a topic that involved both the administrative and military spheres and needed both sides to work together.

This topic was started after Java was destroyed. After learning that many Java combat occupation players had chosen to stay, Ouyang Shuo was thinking about how to monitor this group.

Then, it would start from these Java adventure gamemode players to spread to all the adventure gamemode players in the Empire.

Along with the Empire’s territory stabilizing by the day, the focus went from external to internal. Due to their martial arts skills and weapons, the adventure gamemode player group became the biggest order problem of the Empire.

Due to the game environment, prohibiting civilians from holding weapons was impossible.

If they forcefully imposed such a rule, they would only incur the wrath of the people.

As they say, “If you cannot block it, just let it flow.”

The best method was to create an organization to effectively lead this player group. When needed, this organization would monitor the players to lower the risk to a controllable level.

Ouyang Shuo thought back to the Martial Management Division right away.

Before this, as a result of the ‘Robin Hood’ case in Minnan, the Imperial Court decided to monitor the sects and factions of the underworld. Only then did they create the Martial Management Division.

Using the difficulty of Java, Ouyang Shuo was prepared to expand the scope of the Martial Management Division from monitoring just the underworld sects to all weapon wielding martial artists in the Empire.

Due to the strength of the player group, if the Martial Management Division wanted to calm them down, they had to expand. First, they needed to expand the headquarters; then, they would set up branches in all the prefectures to spread its reach across the entire Empire.

Then the organization would become strong.

This could easily make one think back to the Jinyiwei of history.

Hence, the Martial Management Division would go from only a monitoring organization to a powerful organization that monitored and instilled fear.

The expanded Martial Management Division could basically compete with the Shanhai Guards that were in the dark.

The Martial Management Division would have a commander, a deputy, and three protectors. The original commander Lin Yue would be demoted to protector. Lin Yue, who came out of Wulin, was unable to hold down the fort.

Ouyang Shuo decided to choose one of his most trusted generals, Er’Lai, to be the commander. The 2nd Legion General of the Phoenix legion corps, Ran Min, would replace him as the South Asia marshal.

That’s right. Ouyang Shuo wanted to borrow the strength of the military to suppress all the martial artists and establish a strong image for the Martial Management Division in a short amount of time.

Er’Lai was not the only one to be moved. There were also other generals; some were spearmen and some were cavalry kicked out from the army.

These war elites did not have a market on the battlefield, but they would be like a pack of hungry wolves when placed in the Martial Management Division.

For the position of deputy, Ouyang Shuo selected Imperial Palace Guards deputy marshal Blood Romance. As the top adventure gamemode player, he was not willing to be restrained. He preferred the underworld to the military.

This appointment change was something Blood Romance requested.

When he left the Imperial Palace Guards, all the deputy Legion Generals joked that he wanted to unify the underworld and become a Wulin sect leader again.

The goal that he did not achieve in the mercenary guild would be achieved in the Imperial Court.

Blood Romance smiled but did not say anything. He was quite satisfied with his new appointment and was willing to give up his military role for it.

As the past guild leader of the Blood Evil Mercenary Guild and the top adventure gamemode player, him taking up the position of deputy commander would be able to scare and threaten all players.

Similarly, the Martial Management Division would choose a number of elite players from the super guilds to enter it.

With this duo management method, they would ascertain the position of the division.

Furthermore, with the support of Ouyang Shuo and the Imperial Court, there would be no player or organization who would dare to challenge the might of the division. If they dared, they would receive a storm-like beating.

No mercy!

Based on the requirements of the Martial Management Division, all the martial artists in the Empire had to register at the division and its branches.

Apart from registering their personal strength, they also had to register their weapons and give their weapons special markings; it was similar to the gun licenses of modern society.

Based on the law, anyone that wielded an unregistered weapon would be deemed as a rebel, and the Martial Management Division would help the Internal Affairs Court to punish the offender.

This helped to set up a management system for the weapons of the civilian world.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo employed both hard and soft methods. While the Martial Management Division punished those who went against the law, it provided a lot of benefits for those who followed it.

First, the various local divisions would be seen as a sparring and interaction platform for martial artists.

Be it skill sharing or weapons trading, martial artists often lacked trust in one another. If the division acted as the middle man, there would naturally be no problems.

Even to say that the Imperial Court would take out some weapons to sell to them.

Secondly, they would hold competitions and promote the winners.

This idea was suggested by Blood Romance. The division would hold a Wulin Competition every year to choose stellar martial artists such as the strongest swordsman, assassin, or the top sect and give them rewards.

Thirdly, managing conflicts.

When martial artists had conflicts, they would often meet through the blade. If things went wrong, casualties would occur, and this would result in a huge loss. The division could act as the conflict settlement organization to either mediate or use competitions to solve the conflict.

The division could even chair fights between sects.

This would also help to protect the rights of the weaker people.

The above welfare only included the initial ideas of the division. If this organization continued to run, there would be more and better welfare.

In Ouyang Shuo’s words, “The Martial Management Division is both a monitoring organization and a service organization. I hope that the latter responsibility will become more important.”

This also meant that the martial artists would basically be tamed by the Imperial Court.

…

These four topics lasted for close to a day before coming to an end.

The next day, Ouyang Shuo summoned the Cabinet to discuss the establishment of some organizations for the Imperial Court.

First, the newspaper.

Along with industrialization pushing forward, the newspaper as a medium became more and more important and made it easier to walk into the houses of the people.

A day ago, the Imperial Court had decided to rename the Shanhai Daily News to the Empire Daily News to become the first big paper of the Empire.

Bai Xiaosheng was appointed as the head of the news organization.

Without the free land of the imperial city, Bai Xiaosheng’s newspaper organization had to listen to the Empire. If Ouyang Shuo did not say anything, Bai Xiaosheng would lose his job.

The chance to manage the Empire Daily News was a huge honor to Bai Xiaosheng. After all, apart from announcing news, the newspaper also had the responsibility of leading discussions. It was the tongue of the Empire.

Apart from that, the Empire would also set up other papers like the Great Xia Military Report, Life Magazine, Philosophers, and Industrialization Report.

At the same time, the Imperial Court allowed the provincial offices to establish local papers. Examples included the Nanjiang Governor-General House, which was prepared to make the Nanjiang Daily Paper, and the Africa Governor-General House, which was preparing for the Africa Weekly.

This would greatly add to the causal life of the people.

“To be able to learn of the world without stepping out of the house.” Wouldn’t be Zhuge Liang’s specialty? After this, every civilian of Great Xia would be able to do that.

Due to the increase in papers, Ouyang Shuo decided to establish the News Publishing Department to manage the news publishing element as well as monitor the rise of new news publishing organizations to lead and standardize them.

Apart from that, to develop the sports industry of the Empire, Ouyang Shuo established the Sports Department to develop things like athletics, wrestling, and marathons.

Sports like polo, which had Chinese culture, were the focus.

The Sports Department would naturally be independent of the four courts.

As such, outside of the four courts, the Cabinet had established the Industrialization Department, Great Xia Bank, Transport Department, Asset Management Department, News Publishing Department, and Sports Department.

This was both to fulfill the needs of the Empire and to reduce the power of the four courts.

After the establishment of the Sports Department, their main goal would be to prepare the first sports event of the Empire. They would aim to start sports in the Empire and let it show off its shine.

To give them time to prepare, the empire Olympics would be held in the 11th month.

Establishing the News Publishing Department and Sports Department signaled Great Xia’s movement away from being a feudal dynasty; it was developing with the times and not blocking itself up.

The influence of the industrial revolution on the Empire reach all industries and every aspect.

Since this was something that could not be stopped, Ouyang Shuo was going to try and instead welcome the trends and take the initiative to learn from them.

He wanted to be a person who kept up with the trends and was at the head of all of them.

Chapter 1288 - Inheritor of the empire

Chapter 1288: TWO Chapter 1288-Inheritor of the empire

In the blink of an eye, it was already the eve of the Chinese New Year.

At the emperor palace evening feast, Bing’er, dressed in her red palace garb, became the most eye-catching presence.

After the New Year, she would be 16 years old, truly coming of age. Last year, she had been through the ancient ceremony. Based on ancient standards, she was already an adult.

Hence, before the New Year, Bing’er, who had spent two years learning in Qiongzhou Prefecture, was moved into the Secret Document Pavilion and given the position of assistant, stepping into the Great Xia official field.

After five years of tough studying and two years of practical learning, Bing’er had gone from a teen who knew nothing to a new star in the official field.

All of a sudden, rumors spread.

Practical learning and actually joining in on politics was like heaven and earth.

Since the emperor was moving her into the Secret Document Pavilion to train, his intentions of developing her into his successor was obvious.

Under such circumstances, Bing’er, who appeared in the New Year’s Eve dinner, obviously became the center of attention. Ouyang Shuo even arranged for her to sit at his right, raising her position in the royal family.

Of course, the officials were unable to guess the true intentions of Ouyang Shuo.

Seeing that it was already the 8th year of Gaia, if nothing went wrong, they would only be three years away from arriving on Planet Hope.

Time was of the essence, and Ouyang Shuo was making plans with regards to Planet Hope.

Once the intergalactic fleet arrived on Planet Hope, Ouyang Shuo would turn his attention from the game world to the real world. When that moment came, he would not have the time to care about the Empire in the game.

After 10 years of time, the game world would have already become a system of its own; it would be a part of the real world that could not be cut out. Even when they arrived on Planet Hope, it would continue to run.

The game world would become a lasting platform to train and develop players and AIs.

Under such circumstances, Ouyang Shuo needed a person he trusted to help him take charge of the game world and maintain the running of Great Xia Empire.

Undoubtedly, Bing’er was the best choice.

Bing’er was brought up single-handedly by him and was developed by him. In the future, of the two, one would take charge of Planet Hope while the other would take charge of the game world, forming a good combination.

Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to Bing’er growing up quickly.

Hence, after she had two years of practical experience, Ouyang Shuo brought her to his side to develop her.

Ouyang Shuo only brought this matter up with Song Jia. Even Bing’er herself had no knowledge of this, much less the officials of the Imperial Court.

A certain amount of debate and discussion was normal.

…

After a night of dances and fun, the Chinese New Year arrived.

Compared to the previous years, as China was now unified, this New Year had more meaning. Along with the internal war ending, the people had more reason to think that their upcoming life would be much better.

2nd month, 10th day, Imperial Capital, Empire Great Hall.

The Empire Great Hall was a stunning Chinese-style structure that sat at the northwest corner of the emperor city. It was completed in the 10th month of last year and was the place where large-scale gatherings and events were held. The place was seen as the pearl of the imperial city.

Next to the Empire Great Hall sat the theatre where there would be traditional shows every day. During the Chinese New Year period, traditional theatre shows took turns to be on play.

Stepping onto such a stage was a huge honor in and of itself.

This year, the Imperial Court was preparing to create a sports hall and a cuju court, becoming an arts center.

The cultural and sports of the Empire was growing in prosperity.

The divine martial rule that the Empire created had exceeded that of any other generation.

At 9am, all the seats in the Empire Great Hall had already been filled up. Looking out, they were all giants of the literary world with poets such as Li Bai and Du Fu, and writers such as Su Shi and Wen Tingyun.

There were the playwrights led by Tang Wenzu, ancient literature experts like Han Yu, and writers like Cao Xueqin.

Apart from that, there were people from Nanjiang, Africa, and America, who basically represented the highest standards of the Empire’s literary world.

They were all gathered here to attend the first literary conference and artist association establishment, which had a huge meaning.

In Ouyang Shuo’s words, “A prosperous time should have the image of a prosperous time. A new era should have new works. Be it scripts or poems and songs, they should be given a new platform to shine.”

It was under such a decree that the Cabinet personally led the establishment of such an association.

Literary talents spanning over a thousand years along with their different skills and ideas would clash. They would give rise to new ideas and inspirations.

“A new age needs to give birth to great works!”

To Great Xia, the 8th year of Gaia was a new separation point. The Empire would go from a purely competition and economics construct to an economics, culture, military, and societal construct.

…

2nd month, 25th day, Hawaii Prefecture, Honolulu.

During the Chinese New Year period, all the players of Great Xia celebrated and enjoyed this rare holiday. However, some special people were unable to leave their posts because of their duty. They could not unite with their families during this period.

They were the Great Xia soldiers.

From the 5th year of the Chinese New Year, Ouyang Shuo had begun a journey to console and greet the soldiers.

The Jingji warzone, Zhongyuan warzone, North Asia warzone, West Asia warzone, Nanyang warzone, Africa warzone, and finally the America warzone. He did not miss out on any of them and went to all these places.

Luckily, there were teleportation formations; otherwise, he would not be able to do that.

Amongst these warzones, the North Asia, West Asia, and South Asia ones were his focus. They helped the Empire defend the borders and did their duties silently. They were a bunch of loveable people.

In the Africa and America warzones, Ouyang Shuo said some words to raise their morale and pump the army up. With their new image post-disarmament, they would welcome new battles.

“Life does not end; war does not stop!”

With that, he signaled the Empire’s desire to continue fighting in the 8th year.

Ouyang Shuo also visited the Pacific and Atlantic squadrons, personally going onto their respective flagships to signal his unwavering faith in the navy.

By the time he finished this journey, the Lantern Festival had come to an end.

The last stop of this journey for Ouyang Shuo was Honolulu.

This was the only region in the Empire that was still fighting during the holiday period. The 1st legion of the Tiger legion corps had gone head to head with the Darkness empire for close to a month. Despite the enemy’s efforts, Honolulu still did not fall.

The prideful Darkness empire was stunned by Great Xia.

After 100 thousand casualties, they still had not taken down Honolulu.

Through this battle, the Darkness empire higher ups were forced to wake up and think about whether they had the ability to challenge Great Xia.

At least in land battles, they were far from being able to.

That was basically all the Tiger legion corps could do. The grain in Honolulu was basically used up, so the army had no way to persist.

On the other hand, the Darkness empire army had the Mu Continent behind them and had endless amounts of resources.

It was under such circumstances that Ouyang Shuo descended onto Honolulu to personally bring the boys back home.

Chapter 1289 - Start of world war

Chapter 1289: TWO Chapter 1289-Start of world war

After a month of intense war, Honolulu was already an empty city.

The once prosperous and busy streets showed no signs of human activity. Only rubbish, dirty water, and destroyed doors were left. The doors shook in the wind, giving out sad creaks.

Only on the city wall in the distance could one hear the sounds of cannon fire, showing that this city was still alive.

Ouyang Shuo stepped out of the teleportation formation. Looking out at the broken city in front of him, his eyes shook. As they say, “It is easy to destroy but hard to build up.” It took numerous years to build a good city but only a month to destroy it.

The Empire’s strategy of letting wars be far away from the mainland could not be more correct.

After a month of battle, less than 30 thousand Tiger legion corps members remained in Honolulu to defend it. The other members either died in battle or were injured and sent back to receive treatment through the teleportation formation.

At 3pm, Ouyang Shuo took a last longing look at Honolulu before bringing all the soldiers to leave through the teleportation formation.

Who knows when Ouyang Shuo would be able to step on this land once more.

…

In the blink of an eye, the 3rd month of the 8th year had arrived.

The ice slowly melted and the spring spirit spread out. The global icy situation slowly melted along with the rising temperature. A nervous tension arose.

The first to strike was the Dawson Dynasty.

Surprisingly, they did not strike South America or Congo. Instead, they chose to attack North America.

Their target was Maple Dynasty in the north.

In history, America and Canada, these two North America nations, were like relatives, closely connected to one another. Many times, due to political constraints, Canada played the role of follower.

America was the bodyguard of Canada.

However, in the game world, the situation was totally different.

The Dawson Dynasty was the top power of Silver Hand and was the absolute core. Meanwhile, the Maple Dynasty was the backbone of the Azure Badge camp.

The two dynasties were destined to go head to head.

Since the 8th year of Gaia had arrived, Ouyang Shuo was not the only one feeling rushed; the two organizations felt it too.

Just as Zhang Liang had analyzed, the Great Xia Emperor Dynasty could not be stopped. No matter what the two organizations tried, they could not prevent the rise of Great Xia, much less take it down.

Under such circumstances, since there were only a few more years, the two organizations would attack one another to increase their profits. Such a matter was not surprising.

In the end, the two were opposing presences.

It was only because of Ouyang Shuo that the two of them had a honeymoon period.

Now, that honeymoon period had come to an end.

Jack was the first to show animosity. Apart from strategic needs, it was also because of the pressure of Great Xia expanding in Asia, which made him want to compete with Ouyang Shuo.

The goal of the Dawson Dynasty was really clear; before further increasing their global influence, they wanted to unify North America to stabilize their back garden first.

Unifying North America was Jack’s 8th year goal.

North America was split into three. The north was the Maple Dynasty, the middle was the Dawson Dynasty, and the south was the Mayan Dynasty, which also belonged to Azure Badge.

The two Azure Badge dynasties pincered Dawson Dynasty in the middle.

However, from a strength standpoint, the Dawson Dynasty could go one against two and still take the lead.

From a strategic standpoint, the Mayan Dynasty posed more threat than the Maple Dynasty.

The reason was simple.

The lifeline of the Dawson Dynasty came from the Mississippi River. There was an apt sentence for this, “The one who controls the Mississippi River controls America; the one that controls America controls North America.”

America in history started from the east and truly became a strong country after it crossed the Appalachian Mountains and entered the Mississippi River region.

Hence, one could see how important its position was.

In American history, this period of west venturing had broken the power balance in the world. This exceptional treasure island was expanded and developed by the Americans at a shocking rate; they even destroyed it.

Countless Indian natives and wild animals were slaughtered.

In the words of the Americans, “We will kill anything that challenges our power” this was the American spirit.

How ironic.

Compared to China, which spent thousands of years farming, America developed North America in just a hundred years, what a stunning feat.

The Mississippi River watered a third of the Dawson Dynasty’s land.

The convenient inland river system ensured that the Dawson Dynasty’s vast inland regions would have an exit point so that its products could be transported to other parts of the world at a very low cost.

The strong rise of their agricultural production was also due to the convenience of transport.

In comparison, although the Siberia region under the Romanov Dynasty was large, it did not have a developed river transport system, so its value fell.

However, the entry of the Mississippi River into the ocean was located in Mexico bay. If the Mayan Dynasty controlled this point, it would be fatal for the Dawson Dynasty.

Luckily, Jack had foresight. Before the Mayan Dynasty was formed, the Dawson Dynasty had gained full control of the bay.

Not only that, he also went a step further to control the Panama Canal.

However, that also added uncertainties.

Once the Mayan Dynasty started a war over control of the bay, it would be a time bomb for the Dawson Dynasty.

Hence, from a normal strategic perspective, if the Dawson Dynasty wanted to unify North America, it should attack the Mayan Dynasty first to take care of this cancer.

In comparison, the Maple Dynasty had a large amount of land but relatively few people. Moreover, most of its land could not be used for farming. Its population was gathered in the border region near the Dawson Dynasty and was not enough to cause much of threat to the Dawson Dynasty.

However, Jack did the exact opposite.

For the reason behind this choice, in Ouyang Shuo’s eyes, it should be self-confidence.

Jack was confident that while taking down the Maple Dynasty, the Dawson Dynasty could defend against the strike of the Mayan Dynasty. Since that was the case, who was the first and who was second did not matter.

Anyways, after he took down the Maple Dynasty, he would turn around to take care of the Mayan Dynasty.

Out of the three dynasties in North America, the Dawson Dynasty had 30 million players, the Maple Dynasty only had four million, and the Mayan Dynasty had over 15 million players. Its population was half of the Dawson Dynasty’s.

Luckily, north of the Mayan Dynasty, where it was connected to the Dawson Dynasty, was a desert region.

If the Mayan Dynasty wanted to join hands with the Maple Dynasty, it would have to pay a heavy price. Who knows if Azure Badge would have such determination or not?

All in all, for this next period of time, the flames of war would rise up in North America.

Chapter 1290 - Want to be the biggest winner behind the scenes

Chapter 1290: TWO Chapter 1290-Want to be the biggest winner behind the scenes

3rd month, 5th day, Imperial City.

10am, Ouyang Shuo was in the Imperial Reading Room meeting Di Chen, who had just returned from Europe.

During this Europe trip, Di Chen had fun while helping the Empire build up speaking terms with the six dynasties in Europe, trying to break the barrier between them.

The party with the most eager reply was the Ottoman Empire that had basically no previous interaction with Great Xia.

Obviously, Ouyang Shuo understood the reason behind this. Along with the war of North America beginning, Silver Hand and Azure Badge were baring their fangs at one another. The five dynasties of Silver Hand had surrounded the Ottoman Dynasty, and the situation was slowly becoming clearer.

This war would decide the fate of Europe, and it could break out at any moment.

The Ottoman Dynasty was in a terrible situation, so they naturally hoped to search for new allies on Planet Hope. Looking out at the entire world, only Great Xia had the ability to interfere in the Battle of Europe.

Facing the request from the Ottoman Dynasty, Ouyang Shuo declined to comment.

Before Azure Badge gave out a high enough bid, Ouyang Shuo had no intentions of joining the war of Europe.

“Pack up and pay a visit to the Maple Dynasty and the Mayan Dynasty.” Ouyang Shuo said.

Di Chen did not understand and asked, “Maple Dynasty?”

The Maple Dynasty was facing the invasion of the Dawson Dynasty, so their destruction was simply a matter of time. What reason was there to visit them now? Did he want to send reinforcements to the Maple Dynasty?

“That’s right. Tell the Maple Dynasty that as long as they give a good price, we can sell flintlock guns and new cannons to them in large quantities.” Ouyang Shuo said.

Along with thermal weapons becoming the star of the wars, the industrialization foundations of a dynasty became one of the stars of the battlefield.

After all, the ammo of flintlock guns and cannons were consumables.

Without a strong industrialization foundation, it was difficult to build and craft enough bullets and ammo. The Maple Dynasty’s population was too small. On this aspect, it could not compare with the Dawson Dynasty.

Once the war entered a standstill, the Maple Dynasty might fail to withstand the Dawson Dynasty due to their lack of logistical ability.

However, Great Xia was different.

As one of the first dynasties in the world to start industrialization, their flintlock guns and cannon production had reached a waterflow-like production rate. Moreover, Great Xia had a lot of space and a high population.

While retaining self-sufficiency, Great Xia also had the ability to sell to others.

In turn, selling firearms would motivate Shen City and Zhenhai City to further industrialize, forming a positive cycle.

Hence, Great Xia would be using other people’s money to develop their own cities, killing two birds with one stone.

Such a situation was similar to America during World War II. As the war was far from home, and the mainland had enough manpower to throw into industrialization, America became the greatest debtor to the European nations.

After the war, it also became the most industrialized country in the world.

The current Great Xia had a peaceful land and basically no enemies around them, similar to America in history.

This time, Ouyang Shuo wanted to become the biggest winner of the world war.

Apart from strategic considerations, selling the Maple and Mayan Dynasty weapons would drag the Dawson Dynasty into battle ,which was good for Great Xia’s plan for the world.

When Di Chen heard that, he remained silent for a long while.

Only now did he realize the distance between their strategic foresight.

Some people were born to be leaders and had great foresight. One who was born in an aristocratic family and received elite education would not definitely stand on top.

Elite education only gave one a higher starting point and did not affect the ending.

The current Ouyang Shuo was standing at the end line. Looking back, be it the elites of the aristocratic families or the heroes of the commoners, there was no difference to him.

“Do not worry, your majesty. I’ll set off tomorrow to get this matter done quickly.”

Di Chen had totally given up on competing with Ouyang Shuo; he had started to fully serve the Empire.

Ouyang Shuo smiled.

…

While the smoke that bellowed over North America and Europe was covered with uncertainty, the Asia Continent was also not calm.

India Region.

Before the New Year, after the Ashoka Dynasty suffered heavy losses in their war against Great Xia, they were faced with the combined attacks of the Gupta and Peacock dynasties and were forced back.

After the winter, the war matters temporarily came to a halt, giving the Ashoka Dynasty some breathing room.

At the start of spring, the war of India began again.

This time, the Peacock and Gupta dynasties went all out to end the battle in one swoop. They were trying to totally destroy the Ashoka Dynasty and redistribute India.

The only thing beneficial to the Ashoka Dynasty would be that New Delhi was in the middle and radiated out toward the Ganga plains. This was the richest land of India and where the Ganga civilization began.

The Ashoka Dynasty, which held the home ground advantage, had a high population density and sufficient grain.

As a result, the Ashoka Dynasty could go up against the two dynasties.

Even then, under the relentless assaults of the two dynasties, without any changes, the fall of Ashoka Dynasty would just be a matter of time.

…

Next would be the Persian Empire.

After the Mongol Empire was wiped out, the remaining forces of the House of Ogedai escaped into the Persian border. They used the Persian cities that they had taken down to barely survive.

During this winter, it seemed like the Persian Empire did not do anything.

After spring began, this silent empire finally bared its fangs. It sent its troops east to destroy the remnant forces of the Mongols to reclaim their lost territory.

Ironically, when the Mongols conquered the west, they had said the same thing.

The moment the news was out, the Honglu Temple immediately sent out envoys to Persia to say, “The Mongol Empire has already submitted to us. Their cities, be it within our borders or outside, belong to us. Hence, the 13 cities within the Persian border are already ours.”

“How to deal with the forces of the House of Ogedai is our duty. Please do not interfere, or it is a provocation toward us.”

The moment those words were communicated, the Persian Empire was placed in a pickle.

If they sent out troops, they were worried that they might anger Great Xia. If Great Xia interfered, Persia would not be able to get anything done. Who knows, they might even end up losing land and their troops.

The moment they became enemies with Great Xia, the outcome would be catastrophic for them.

However, if they stopped because of Great Xia’s warning, it would mean losing the authority and prestige of the Persian Empire. Furthermore, they were unwilling to give up on this juicy piece of meat in their hands.

In the end, weren’t these cities originally theirs? Isn’t taking them back natural and expected? How did it become the duty of Great Xia all of a sudden?

The Persian Empire was really unhappy about the overbearing behavior of Great Xia, and there were many who sought to fight.

Of course, there were many who did not want to fight.

It was a massive temptation to them if not fighting could allow for peace with Great Xia.

Just as the Persian Empire was uncertain, a change occurred.

Chapter 1291 - Mysterious guest

Chapter 1291: TWO Chapter 1291-Mysterious guest

3rd month, 10th day, just as the Persian Empire was facing a dilemma, the House of Ogedai suddenly surrendered to them, seeking sanctuary from the Persian Empire.

This instantly made the situation in West Asia complicated.

With things reaching such a state, the Persian Empire had no reason to reject them. If they did, how could they continue to survive in the game?

Ouyang Shuo did not expect Ogedai to be so spineless.

After this event, Ouyang Shuo ordered the Honglu Temple to head toward the Persian Empire once more. Apart from emphasizing the rights of Great Xia with regard to the 13 cities, they also suggested that Persian Empire hand over Ogedai.

The reason behind their demand was the fact that Ogedai had ordered the closure of the castle, resulting in the deaths of Wang Ben’s forces. This was a massive case, and the Persian Empire should not interfere.

Since the Persian Empire had accepted Ogedai’s surrender, it had to accept the legal case too.

Now, it was up to how the Persian Empire was going to react.

…

3rd month, 15th day, the Europe Continent that had been really nervous finally exploded.

At 10am, the House of Tudor, Gaule Dynasty, Spain Dynasty, Caesar Dynasty, and Romanov Dynasty made a joint statement to form an Alliance Army, splitting into three paths to strike at the Ottoman Dynasty.

Needless to say, if the Spanish wanted to send troops to the Ottoman Dynasty, they would have to pass through the Gaule Dynasty that was in the way.

The House of Tudor Army had to cross the English straits, disembarking onto Gaule Dynasty land. After the three armies met up, they would strike the Ottoman Dynasty through the Central European plains.

Such a formation was similar to World War II in history.

Apart from Europe, in West Africa, due to the conflict of the six countries, the atmosphere became really solemn. Even the Middle Africa region occupied by the Dawson Dynasty was preparing their troops.

It seemed like the Africa Continent was about to break into war.

That was exactly what happened. Just as war broke out in Europe, the Africa continent, Egypt, and Bantu Dynast that belonged to Azure Badge immediately mobilized their armies.

The Bantu Dynasty threatened Central Africa while Egypt Dynasty threatened West Africa.

The two dynasties used their own methods to try to reduce the pressure on the Ottoman Dynasty in Europe.

Putting it simply, the Ottoman Dynasty was the true core of Azure Badge. If it were destroyed, Azure Badge would collapse to the ground.

There was even a chance of the organization disbanding.

With just the two dynasties in Africa, even the Gupta Dynasty in India was unable to support the ambitions of Azure Badge. Even the Maple and Mayan dynasties were in a bad state before the Dawson Dynasty.

Hence, facing the combined attacks of Silver Hand, Azure Badge had to go all out.

Unfortunately, a difference in strength existed between the two sides. Just as the Egypt and Bantu dynasties were about to enter West Africa, the Arab Empire mobilized too.

In the middle of the two dynasties was just the Suez Canal.

Not only that, but even the Persian Empire that was far away from the Europe continent was preparing to send troops to pass through the Caesar Dynasty and enter Ottoman Dynasty land.

The poor Ottoman Dynasty was now surrounded by enemies.

This time, Silver Hand was truly going all out to try and wipe out the Ottoman Dynasty in one strike.

If they occupied the Ottoman Dynasty, Silver Hand would take control of Europe and North America. With that, they would have enough resources to fight against Great Xia.

Its strategic goal was pretty obvious.

…

Along with the war of Europe breaking out, a huge world war started surrounding Silver Hand and Azure Badge.

Under such circumstances, Great Xia, who should have been expanding eagerly, appeared really quiet. Even when the 3rd month passed, Great Xia showed no signs of sending troops.

This made the two camps fight even greater intensity.

…

4th month, 1st day, Imperial City.

Within the Imperial Reading Room, Military Affairs minister Du Ruhui was reporting to Ouyang Shuo, “Your majesty, the guns and cannons have been sold to the Indian Empire. They have followed the agreement and are sending grain to Ecuador.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded.

The start of the war of Europe was really good for the Indian Empire.

With Great Xia selling them this batch of firearms, they could take the chance while the Spain Dynasty was at war to counterattack after some slight training.

As a result, it was no wonder that Juarez was so crisp in handing over the grain.

“How long will the grain take to get transported?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

“As it’s a huge amount, a month is needed.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded once more and instructed, “The war between the Dawson Dynasty and the Maple Dynasty cannot be completed in a short while. There’s enough time for the America warzone to prepare, so there’s no need to rush.”

A day ago, Di Chen had already contacted the Maple Dynasty.

After learning that Great Xia was willing to sell them weapons, they did not hesitate and directly agreed to a 30 million gold super deal.

This was also just the first deal.

With this batch of firearms, it would be impossible for the Dawson Dynasty to end the battle quickly. Different from cold weapons, one to two months was enough to train a passable gunner. It also did not have high requirements for the soldiers.

The Maple Dynasty was definitely going to attack.

With the help of the firearms, even the players of the Maple Dynasty were going to join the war.

The weak side that Jack was preying on was quickly becoming a tough opponent.

Apart from the Maple Dynasty, the Mayan Dynasty also made a 20 million gold worth order. For this, Shen City, Zhenhai City, and other industrialized new cities’ first orders basically had to do with military works.

Many cities began a new round of steelmaking craze.

“On the side of Africa, we must have strategic confidence and prepare well. We must not move too lightly.” Ouyang Shuo instructed.

From a strategic point of view, it was impossible for Great Xia to swallow up the entire Africa.

Even if the military had the ability, the internal affairs might not be able to manage it. Blindly expanding the Africa Governor-General House would only cause problems for the Empire.

After taking down East Africa, Ouyang Shuo actually only craved for North and South Africa. The latter controlled the Cape of Good Hope, while the former controlled the Suez Canal, which could let him enter the Mediterranean.

As for Central and West Africa, those areas were not what the Empire needed.

However, these two had a dynasty rooted there, so war could not be started easily.

Ouyang Shuo was waiting for a chance.

He believed that along with the war of Europe proceeding, a chain reaction on the Africa Continent would occur. It would be Great Xia’s chance when that happened.

Du Ruhui smiled and said, “General Baiqi would definitely understand.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Just as he was about to give instructions regarding West Asia, Head Advisor Tsing Yi suddenly walked in and said, “Your majesty, there’s an important visitor.”

“Let the Honglu Temple receive him.” Ouyang Shuo was curious.

Tsing Yi’s expression was a little weird, and she said, “I think it’s better for your majesty to personally receive him.”

“Oh?”

Ouyang Shuo’s brows furrowed.

Tsing Yi was a person who knew the importance of matters. Since she had said that, the visitor must be really important.

Till date, there were very few guests that needed Ouyang Shuo to personally host them.

Tsing Yi said a name.

When Ouyang Shuo heard it, his face was filled with surprise as he said, “It’s actually him? Okay, I’ll go welcome him.”

“Your majesty, I’ll take my leave.” Du Ruhui knew his place.

Ouyang Shuo nodded before standing up and following Tsing Yi out of the Imperial Reading Room to meet this mysterious guest.

Chapter 1292 - Above Great Xia's interests

Chapter 1292: TWO Chapter 1292-Above Great Xia’s interests

When Ouyang Shuo walked into the hall, he found an old man standing in front of a Wang Xizhi drawing solemnly.

When he heard the footsteps, the old man turned around.

“Old Chen!”

Ouyang Shuo took large strides forward and grasped the old man’s hands.

The man who came was the former Federation President.

After the Federation disbanded, this old man had totally disappeared from the eyes of the people.

Although the cooperation between the two did not work out and they had stopped communicating, Ouyang Shuo continued to respect this intelligent old man.

As for this meeting, the old man was apparently really emotional and did not know how to address Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo led him to a seat and let the maidservant serve him tea. This was the second meeting between the two, and their respective identities and positions had undergone a huge change.

Facing the humble Ouyang Shuo, Old Chen could not bring himself to call him, “Little friend.”

More was less since he came over with a mission.

Old Chen was here to persuade Ouyang Shuo.

Facing the combined attacks of Silver Hand, Azure Badge was facing the greatest crisis since its establishment. Their powers were too separated, so they could not go head on against Silver Hand.

Before this, the two camps had worked together to restrict Great Xia. They knew that only by turning their spears to the outside could they be safe themselves.

Unfortunately, the growth of Great Xia had exceeded all their expectations.

Those who had suppressed Old Chen’s faction had failed terribly, and their authority in Azure Badge was falling by the day.

Old Chen’s faction was showing signs of rising up once more.

Unfortunately, Old Chen was already exhausted and was unwilling to interfere in Azure Badge’s duties.

His visit to Great Xia was because he could not bear to see Azure Badge truly fall. He only wanted to come to the imperial capital to try to persuade Ouyang Shuo.

Right as he looked at Ouyang Shuo, Old Chen’s confidence fell by a lot.

Compared to a few years ago, the man in front of him had become calmer and more composed. One could see the sharpness from before, but the gaze that he would occasionally reveal was enough to send a chill down one’s spine.

Any action seemed to flow like water but hold the power to move mountains and part rivers.

The youthful era had left Ouyang Shuo and would never return.

He who had just passed 30 was at the strongest part of his life and was filled with energy. In his path up, all dangers and problems were turned into dust.

The current Ouyang Shuo was filled with authority but was also really calm; he could be menacing, but he had the reason and power to do so. He looked really gentle, but in truth, he was a really invasive captain of the ship.

The generals and civil servants all feared and respected him, worshipping him as their leader.

Mulan Yue, Gu Xiuwen, Sun Nongyan, Cui Shousi, Zhou Haichen, Lin Yi, Shihu, Niu Da, and the other relatively new officials all looked up to Ouyang Shuo as their teacher.

Facing such a legendary man, even Old Chen felt some pressure.

There were many words that he could not let out from his mouth.

Ouyang Shuo was really frank and said, “Old Chen definitely has a reason for coming over; you can be frank with me.”

Old Chen nodded and said, “The world war is breaking out while Great Xia is not doing anything. You are not truly preparing to sit on the fence, right?”

This was a probe.

“Sitting on the fence and watching the tigers fight is the dream of many. There’s nothing bad about that.” Ouyang Shuo was not going to fall for it.

Old Chen continued, “But when one tiger is destroyed, the other will become stronger. Isn’t Great Xia afraid of being hurt by the tiger?”

“Great Xia has an iron wall; we cannot be hurt.”

Ouyang Shuo did not budge, and the atmosphere tensed up; the warmth from before dissipated.

When Old Chen saw that, he sighed and said, “Ouyang Shuo is not the Ouyang Shuo from before.” This emperor placed all his determination onto Great Xia’s interests and would not make any personal favors.

Only interests could tempt Ouyang Shuo.

“Can Great Xia enter the Europe battlefield?” Old Chen did not beat around the bush anymore.

“Europe and us is separated by the Persian empire; we have no reason to join in.”

“You have!”

Old Chen’s eyes looked sharp as he said, “Do not forget that Great Xia’s Morocco Province was taken by Silver Hand. Now, it’s a province of the Spain Dynasty. Currently, it is the best time for you to reclaim your lost land.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled.

When Old Chen saw that, he shook his head helplessly.

Both of them were intelligent. Naturally, they understood that the current Morocco Province was nothing to Great Xia. Even if they took it back, it would be hard to defend it.

Even without mentioning Europe, just in Africa, Morocco Province would have to face the threat of the Egypt Dynasty.

Since Old Chen had personally come over, Ouyang Shuo had to give him face and could not be too rough and slowly revealed, “I’ll take revenge for Morocco, but what I want is not just a province.”

Old Chen shook and asked, “Are you prepared to attack the Spain Dynasty?” If that was the case, it would help to save the Ottoman Dynasty.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and said, “I want the entire North Africa.”

“….”

Old Chen was speechless.

North Africa was the Egypt Dynasty’s, which was a member of Azure Badge. Was Great Xia trying to pillage them in the midst of a fire?

“Your request is too much. Azure Badge cannot accept it.”

Old Chen rejected it.

Ouyang Shuo was really confident and said, “Unless you give up on North Africa, you cannot keep the Ottoman Dynasty. This deal is actually quite worth it.”

“How so?”

“Once Great Xia accepts North Africa, Arab Empire will naturally stop. The Caesar Dynasty hates Great Xia, and with his personality, can he focus on Europe while being separated from Great Xia by just an ocean?”

Old Chen’s brows moved; this meant that Great Xia would take up two enemies.

Ouyang Shuo continued, “Giving up North Africa, the Egypt army can attack the Spain Dynasty and remove another opponent. The Ottoman Dynasty has the ability to fight one against three.”

“That’s not enough!” Old Chen did not agree.

It was true that without the Spain Dynasty and the Caesar Dynasty, the Ottoman Dynasty’s situation would change greatly. However, just one Romanov Dynasty would be able to suppress to Ottoman Dynasty to the point where it could not breathe.

“Persian Empire, Great Xia can also suppress them. Persia and I still have a score to settle.” Ouyang Shuo added another stake.

Old Chen was tempted, but it was not enough.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he gave out a teasing smile and said, “Old Chen, I’m only talking terms with you because I respect you. In truth, Great Xia has a million troops in East Africa, and there are some things we can go get for ourselves.”

“….”

Old Chen’s thoughts instantly sank to the bottom of the valley.

That’s right, strictly speaking, Great Xia and Azure Badge were not allies but enemies. If Great Xia sent troops to Egypt right now, wouldn’t it be catastrophic for Azure Badge?

Only then did Old Chen realize that when facing Great Xia, he did not have any chips in his hands.

Chapter 1293 - Little fangirl

Chapter 1293: TWO Chapter 1293-Little fangirl

Ouyang Shuo’s words revealed a clear fact.

After Silver Hand and Azure Badge went head to head, they lost their advantage, and neither side had the ability to negotiate with Great Xia.

Especially Azure Badge, which was in a weaker state.

Old Chen was a determined person. Since he had agreed to convince Ouyang Shuo, he would not give up easily. As such, he said, “If Great Xia is willing to restrict the Romanov Dynasty, giving up Egypt is not out of the question.”

Ouyang Shuo decisively shook his head and said, “The Romanov Dynasty’s eastern region has vast land and little people as well as very bad weather. The Great Xia Army is not confident about restricting the Romanov Dynasty.”

During the military and administrative meeting at the start of the year, they had made it clear that the North Asia warzone would have no battles this year. Ouyang Shuo would not change their set strategy just because of Azure Badge.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo had ambitions toward the Siberia Region.

Not only did he have ambitions, bur he even had to have it.

Not because of any other reasons, but simply because of its great quantity of crude oil, coal, and natural gases.

Along with the second industrial revolution beginning, crude oil became an important power source and became the center of the world, becoming one of the crucial determinants of a country’s fate.

How to ensure the safety of the Empire’s power source was hugely important to Ouyang Shuo.

The Siberia Region was an area that Ouyang Shuo was looking at. If he could take it down, the Empire’s energy source problem could be half-solved.

In the future, if they took a foot into the Persian Gulf, the problem would basically be settled.

Ouyang Shuo had such plans, and other people were not fools either. The game world and history’s greatest difference would be that many dynasties had little difference between their industrial revolution progress.

With the Middle East as an example, be it the Persian Empire, the Arab Empire, or the Egypt Dynasty, their difference from Great Xia was not substantial.

In history, America and the other strong countries had a technological edge, which they used to create a military advantage. As such, they made the Middle East their oil storage.

Ouyang Shuo had reason to believe that be it Persian Empire or the Arab Empire, they would hold tightly onto their oil barrels and use it to rise up in the world.

They would not become rich people at the mercy of others like in history.

What made Ouyang Shuo feel forced was that be it the Romanov Dynasty, the Persian Empire, or the Arab Empire, they all belonged to Silver Hand.

If Silver Hand monopolized the crude oil supply, Great Xia would have a tough time in the future.

The situation was intense, but Ouyang Shuo naturally would not panic himself. The current situation where Silver Hand and Azure Badge went head to head was the best chance for Great Xia.

Letting the Romanov Dynasty enter the European battlefield was a good fit with Great Xia’s interests.

However, this did not mean that Ouyang Shuo would help Azure Badge unconditionally. How to balance all sides was Ouyang Shuo’s greatest test.

At least right now, it was not time for Great Xia to send troops to the Romanov Dynasty.

Not only would infuriating the Romanov Empire now expose Great Xia’s strategic goals, it would also incur problems for themselves and was just not worth it.

Ouyang Shuo respected Old Chen’s determination but business was still business.

Facing Ouyang Shuo’s hardball, Old Chen was helpless and said, “What conditions must be given for Great Xia to enter the European battlefield?”

“North Africa.” Ouyang Shuo bit on.

When Old Chen heard that, he knew that they could not come to a conclusion today, so he sighed and said, “I cannot decide this matter. I’ll have to discuss with the organization before giving you a reply.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded and replied, “I’m in no rush.”

…

Sending Old Chen away, Tsing Yi asked with uncertainty, “Your majesty, are we really not interfering in the European battlefield? Helping the Ottoman Dynasty is in line with what we want.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, half-explaining and half-teaching, “Of course we will. But not now, and not by directly sending in troops.”

When Tsing Yi heard that, she thought about it and asked, “Your majesty is saying we go in when we are needed the most? When the Ottoman Dynasty is about to fall, we can act and obtain the most benefits.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded with praise. As expected from one of the three female Zhuges, her comprehension was on another level.

“You’re only half right.”

Ouyang Shuo walked back while saying, “You must remember that be it Silver Hand or Azure Badge, strictly speaking, they are not the same people as us.”

Destroying the two organizations was an unchanged target for Ouyang Shuo.

“These two organizations will not lower their guard against us just because they are fighting one another. Once we openly interfere in Europe, they might join hands once more to counterattack.”

Tsing Yi nodded and calmly said, “There are no forever enemies, only forever interests.”

“That’s the theory.” Ouyang Shuo sat on the chair in the hallway and looked at the blooming Asiatic Apple and said, “Hence, at the start of this war, what we must do is wait behind the scenes patiently so that they do not sense our presence. Once the battle gets intense to the point where they cannot join hands, that will be our chance.”

Tsing Yi nodded. Her eyes that looked at Ouyang Shuo were filled with respect and worship.

Who knew that the cold lady in the eyes of outsiders, the Head Advisor of the Secret Document Pavilion, was actually a little fangirl of Ouyang Shuo.

“Your majesty ,will Old Chen agree to your conditions?” Tsing Yi asked.

“He will; they have no choice.”

Ouyang Shuo got up and disappeared at the end of the hallway. Standing tall and straight, he gave one strength.

When Tsing Yi saw that, she chased after him.

The huge hallway returned to its previous silence, and the bloom of the Asiatic Apple remained unchanged.

…

The next morning, Old Chen visited once more.

Just as Ouyang Shuo had predicted, Azure Badge that was forced to the edge of the cliff had no choice and had to accept Ouyang Shuo’s condition – give up the Egypt Dynasty.

After signing the agreement, Ouyang Shuo shook hands with Old Chen and said, “May I boldly ask, is Old Chen willing to come over to work at Great Xia? I’m willing to give you the role of special consultant.”

Empire special consultant was a position that Ouyang Shuo had added on the fly. However, in the Federation system, it was an important helper to the president.

Old Chen had been the president for close to 10 years. Not only did he know everything about how the Federation was ran, his connections were also something Ouyang Shuo wanted.

Along with his political intellect, everything he had was something Ouyang Shuo badly needed.

If Old Chen was willing, it would be a huge addition to Great Xia; the value was even greater than having a Cabinet elder.

The only worry would be that Azure Badge would not release him or that he would be unwilling. After all, going from Federation President to consultant was not something everyone could adapt to.

It was mainly the latter.

With the intel in Ouyang Shuo’s possession, in Azure Badge, even if the opposing faction had little power, it would be difficult for Old Chen to return to the center.

If not, he would not be sent over to convince him.

Old Chen being unable to make the decision yesterday also showed that.

Toward Ouyang Shuo’s invitation, Old Chen appeared really surprised. After a long while, he sighed and said, “I am old and cannot work anymore.”

Ouyang Shuo did not give up and said, “The doors of the Empire will forever remain open for you.”

“Thank you!”

He did not reject it outright.

Chapter 1294 - Plotting for the whole of mankind

Chapter 1294: TWO Chapter 1294-Plotting for the whole of mankind

Gaia 8th year, 4th month, 5th day, Emperor Squadron Fleet Admiral Zhou Yu was summoned to the imperial city.

He came to accept a new appointment.

A day ago, due to the Egypt Dynasty submitting, Great Xia would return to the Mediterranean. Ouyang Shuo made a suggestion, and the Imperial Court agreed to restart the Atlantic Squadron name.

In truth, long ago, during the 6th year, 4th month, the Atlantic Squadron rebuilding work had already started. Relevant training and warship building had always been underway.

The Africa Governor-General House was the main camp of the Atlantic Squadron.

They had dragged the matter on till now because of the uncertain situation in the Mediterranean. Even if they restored the Pacific Squadron, it would not be able to do much and would instead cause the European dynasties to be on guard.

Zhou Yu would become the new Atlantic Squadron Fleet Admiral.

At the same time, the Imperial Court would also remove the Emperor Squadron. It would merge into the Atlantic Squadron and become its 1st division.

This was Ouyang Shuo’s suggestion.

The Emperor Squadron existed to protect Ouyang Shuo on his voyages. Ouyang Shuo’s two voyages had helped to set up a firm foundation for the Empire’s ocean authority.

During this period, the Emperor Squadron had helped a lot.

In the current day and age, Ouyang Shuo had no need to go on voyages. As Great Xia’s territory had spread across the world, keeping such a squadron was a waste.

In the recent two years, the Emperor Squadron had been parked at the Gulf of Tonkin, having no chance to sail out.

Merging the Emperor Squadron into the Atlantic Squadron would help the Imperial Court to save on a huge sum of expenditure, and it would also help send a core division over to the Atlantic Squadron. This move would help to raise the overall strength of the Atlantic Squadron.

As such, the Great Xia navy would still keep a five squadron system with three voyage squadrons and two sea squadrons.

The navy structure was still quite stable.

The defensive region of the Atlantic Squadron, apart from the Mediterranean, would mainly include the Atlantic Ocean, including South America in the west and Morocco in the east.

Especially South America, which would be one of their focuses.

The flag ship of the Atlantic Squadron would be named the Alvaro in memory of the fallen Fleet Admiral.

This was also a legacy of sorts.

This appointment was a new stage for Zhou Yu to show his skills.

After accepting the appointment, Zhou Yu led the Emperor Squadron to pass the Indian Ocean and head toward Africa to meet up with the other four divisions.

The first battle for them would be the fight for ocean supremacy in the Mediterranean.

…

After sending Zhou Yu away, Ouyang Shuo started to reading memorials.

The matters decided during the meeting at the start of the year was executed after the offices reopened. In the 3rd month that had just ended, the News Publishing Department and Sports Department had been established.

All sorts of newspaper publications popped up and added a lot of excitement to the lives of the people.

Subscribing to newspapers had become the new trend of the cities.

Facing such new matters, the monitoring levels of the News Publishing Department was really strict. It had demands such as the newspapers not discussing country matters and not spreading lowlife culture.

Ouyang Shuo’s attitude was to rather take slower steps than walk too fast and mess up.

Of course, for some elite newspapers, the Imperial Court showed their strong support. For example, the writers association established the poem weekly, entertainment bites, and the like; they obtained 10 thousand Great Xia coins in support to spread the papers overseas.

Ouyang Shuo even subscribed to these two and read them when he was free.

Everyone could see that Ouyang Shuo was saving no energy to promote Chinese culture.

Ouyang Shuo’s attitude was to raise interest in the local provinces, especially overseas regions like Africa to keep Chinese and make it into a trend.

A cultural unification was slowly sprouting.

Even during the Federation era, such methods were tough to implement. As the game world was an empty canvas for Ouyang Shuo to draw on, he was able to create such a new situation.

The information of the empire’s 1st Olympics had been spread through the country and had caused a huge athletic buzz. To promote fairness, martial artists were not allowed to participate.

Ouyang Shuo wanted everyone to be healthy and spread the spirit of sports. This was not an event for martial artists to brag and show off at. The stage for martial artists should be the martial completions held yearly.

Before holding the Empire Olympics, the various provinces would hold selection meets to select top athletes to participate.

For this, the newly established Sports Department hired large amounts of players who were experts in real life to help develop judges and umpires.

The provincial level sports divisions also did the same, solving the problem of players not being able to get jobs.

As it was built up in a hurry, there were many things lacking with this. However, Ouyang Shuo was not worried. As long as it started to run well, modeling the system and managing it would be simple and could be done slowly in the future.

Apart from that, after deciding to develop Shen City, Zhenhai City, and the like, the Imperial Court started to increase their support for these cities. Apart from financial help, it gave them welfare to help attract talents.

The Empire’s industrialization was walking on a fast track unlike before.

The cities near the sea all showed eye-catching strength and were becoming the engine of the Empire’s economic development.

The removal of the various Houses were also underway in an orderly manner.

While firing some officials, they also hired a bunch of professionals. The targets were naturally players to raise the professionalism of the various offices.

Of course, hiring players could only help to solve the problems on the surface.

Ouyang Shuo’s strategy was that while focusing on university building, they would activate a countrywide education to push out private schools and other similar organizations to build up a top to bottom education system.

Primary school, middle school, high school, and university to complete it all.

“To let all the children of suitable levels enjoy free education.” That was Ouyang Shuo’s promise.

As a wise old man had said, “100 years of plan starts with education.”

Gaia could instill knowledge into NPCs, but it could not help the territory build a modern education system.

In the 7th year of Gaia, education expenditure was 5.5% of the Empire’s GDP; this year, it was adjusted up to 6%, showing the importance that Ouyang Shuo placed on it.

Ouyang Shuo’s ambition for education did not stop there.

He hoped that in the near future, after they arrive on Planet Hope, NPC children could be like player children and sit in the same classrooms in this virtual world.

There would be no differentiation between players and natives.

One has to say that such ambition included Ouyang Shuo’s shocking plan.

It was also the biggest scheme Ouyang Shuo had thought of till date.

Ouyang Shuo was really clear-headed. One must not look at how the player group was slowly merging into Great Xia and gaining recognition of the Empire. To the people who had lived under the Federation, they had a mind filled with personal freedom and independence. Deep down, they would not recognize Ouyang Shuo’s rule.

Much less spreading such a rule down.

If it were not for Great Xia controlling their interests on Planet Hope, they would not be so well-behaved now.

The elite China level rejecting and opposing Ouyang Shuo’s recruitment while wanting a piece of his power was such a clear sign.

It was enough to put him on guard.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo did not have high hopes with regards to this generation of players.

Both sides could only get what each other needed and were bounded together by interests.

However, the natives were different.

Their parents went from the wilderness into the loving arms of the Empire. The Empire gave them a second life. They saw the Empire as their home and Ouyang Shuo as their ruler.

Great Xia had become a faith.

Their descendants grew up under the teachings of the Empire.

The leaders amongst them were developed by Ouyang Shuo, becoming officials and giants amongst officials and people that Ouyang Shuo trusted the most.

They were the true foundations of Ouyang Shuo’s rule.

If he tightly held onto this power, Ouyang Shuo’s position would be unshakeable.

To let their descendants and the player’s descendants obtain the same education chance was to reduce the influence of this generation of players and make them all the same.

After two to three generations, there would be no difference between the two, and they would all recognize the same faith of Great Xia.

This was Ouyang Shuo’s final goal.

…

Just as Ouyang Shuo was going through memorials, Bing’er carried a pile of memorials and walked in.

Chapter 1295 - Accepting Egypt dynasty

Chapter 1295: TWO Chapter 1295-Accepting Egypt dynasty

“Brother, this is from the Traffic Department.”

After entering the Secret Document Pavilion, Bing’er had stopped wearing those beautiful attires and princess dresses and wore traditional Chinese dresses instead, making her seem really energized.

Ouyang Shuo took the memorial. After reading it, he asked, “Have you read it?”

“Yes.”

“What are your thoughts?”

Bing’er hesitated before saying in embarrassment, “I do not really understand.”

The report from the Traffic Department was about the railroad and official pathway plans for the next three years.

The Empire’s roads were split in detail into national roads, provincial roads, and county roads.

These plans were mainly to upgrade the provincial roads connected north and south and east and west into national roads. They wanted to improve and modify them and build concrete roads.

Along with the second industrial revolution technology tree being unlocked, cars would slowly take center stage. Hence, completing the modification and changes to the roads was much needed.

The railroad plan could be split into two horizontal and two vertical plans.

For the two horizontal ones, one was starting west from Chengdu and going through Chang An, Xiangyang, Anqing, and Jianye and ending east at Shen City – this would be the Chuanshen line. Meanwhile, the other one started west at Dali, heading past Tongren, Caiyun City, Black Lion City, and ending east in Quanzhou – this would be the Yunquan Line.

For the two vertical lines, one was the original Fengshan Railroad, starting north in Fallen Phoenix City and going past Luoyang, Xiangyang, Caiyun City, Tianjing, and ending south at the imperial capital – this was the Jingfeng Line. The other vertical line started north at the imperial capital before going past Peng City, Anqing, Black Lion City, and ending south at Zhenhai City – this was the Haijing Line.

These two lines would connect north to south, east to west, and connect the inland products and exports to the ocean cities.

Hearing how genuine she was, Ouyang Shuo smiled and said, “It is okay if you do not understand now. Learn more and read more.” If the current Bing’er truly spoke with confidence about such matters, Ouyang Shuo would feel disappointed instead.

“Okay.” Bing’er nodded.

Ouyang Shuo asked with concern, “The Secret Document Pavilion is really dry and is not as interesting as Qiongzhou. Can you take it?”

“It is a little dry.”

In front of her brother, Bing’er was really honest and told him, “But tutor said that to find something interesting out of all this, I have to look deeper into the problems, and that will make all dry things more interesting.”

The tutor Bing’er mentioned was Zhang Tingyu.

The smile on Ouyang Shuo’s face grew wider. Every time Bing’er grew, even if it was just a little, Ouyang Shuo would feel satisfied. Zhang Tingyu’s education was coming into effect.

“When you face problems, ask them for advice. Each advisor of the Secret Document Pavilion and even the assistants can be seen as your teachers.” Ouyang Shuo did not forget to give her advice.

“I understand!”

Although Ouyang Shuo had brought her up, the part that made him happy was that Bing’er was not arrogant or proud despite being in the game world where she was loved by all.

This was also one of the reasons why he decided to develop her into his successor.

Arrogance would make one lose their sense of mind; pride would blind one.

Both of those were huge no nos.

While they were speaking, Ouyang Shuo had already finished reading the memorial. He raised his brush and wrote a sentence at the bottom, “Proceed as planned. However, the Jingfeng Line can continue to the north to Handan City, Jingdu City, and Huining House.”

Bing’er stood at the side. She looked on with eyes filled with thought.

“Send it!” Ouyang Shuo passed the memorial to Bing’er.

Bing’er took it before bowing and taking her leave.

Similar scenes had been happening since she entered the Secret Document Pavilion. In fact, it happened pretty much every day. Ouyang Shuo used the time where he read memorials to personally teach Bing’er.

Ouyang Shuo always felt that influencing secretly was the best education.

…

Gaia 8th year, 4th month, 10th day, a certain piece of news shocked the world.

After a week of preparation and coordination, Azure Badge had finally completed all the arrangements. That morning, the Egypt Dynasty announced to the world that it was officially submitting to Great Xia.

Another dynasty became a part of history.

This news was massive due to the fact that the Egypt Dynasty belonged to Azure Badge.

There were many dynasties that had submitted to Great Xia prior to this. However, apart from Great Zhou, the Egypt Dynasty was the only one from the two organizations; as such, the meaning was naturally different.

The one with the biggest reaction was on the Europe battlefield.

The current European continent was wrapped up in flames of war. The three fronts of Silver Hand troops were at the Ottoman Dynasty border, engaging in slaughter.

Facing the Alliance Army, the Ottoman Dynasty was in a terrible spot.

Under such circumstances, the main force that was supposed to help reduce the pressure on the Ottoman Dynasty actually submitted to Great Xia. How would people not feel surprised?

Many rumors and schemes spread about.

Some said that the Egypt Dynasty saw the Azure Badge as weak and wanted another stronger backer. All of a sudden, many people sent their condolences to Azure Badge and even insulted them.

The Alliance Army naturally would not give up on this chance, and they used their spies to spread rumors to lower the fighting spirit of the Ottoman Dynasty.

There were even people shouting for the Ottoman Dynasty to join Silver Hand.

“It seems like Europe’s unification cannot be stopped!” the people said.

There were actually Ottoman Dynasty people who believed that. Because of such rumors, chaos even started, but it was quickly suppressed.

For one person to unify Europe was the dream of many.

Of course, there were some who said that Egypt Dynasty submitting to Great Xia was the Azure Badge’s trading chip. Not long later, Great Xia would also officially interfere in the European battlefield.

No matter what, this piece of news had a huge impact on the European battlefield.

Apart from that, some people linked this matter to the fact that Great Xia had control of the Suez Canal and had one foot in the Mediterranean.

After thinking back to the 6th year when Great Xia was chased out of the Mediterranean by the Mediterranean Lords, the current situation was enough to make some people sleepless.

News had it that on the day the Egypt Dynasty announced their submission, the five European dynasties had gather together for a meeting.

This was the power of Great Xia.

Although only a short two years had passed, Great Xia that held the entire East Africa was not a presence that other people could control and step on. The current Great Xia had a firm grip on North Africa.

Not to mention that just the number of troops they had there was close to a million.

They feared Great Xia controlling the Mediterranean once more, so how could they be at ease?

…

In the next period of time, Great Xia Army troop moved into the Egypt Dynasty.

On the 11th day of the month, which was the day the Egypt Dynasty announced their submission, the 5th legion of the West Africa legion corps crossed the Sudan border and entered Sudan.

Based on Great Xia’s plan, South Sudan and Sudan would be combined to form the Sudan Province.

The original Sudan Provincial Governor Pei Yun would remain at the role.

The West Africa legion corps jurisdiction zone included the combined Sudan Province – South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea; each would have a legion.

On the 12th day, the Wolf legion corps entered Cairo though the ocean route.

Cairo would be new ruling city of the Africa Governor-General House.

Hence, Baiqi arranged the entire Wolf legion corps–the strongest legion corps in Africa–to move into Egypt Province to act as the stabilizing pillar of the entire region.

On the 16th day, the North Africa legion corps entered Libya and Tunisia. Great Xia was prepared to merged these two to form the Libya Province.

Apart from Libya, Algeria and Morocco, which were Great Xia’s targets, were also placed under the North Africa legion corps.

The remaining Mozambique Province and Tanzania Province were placed under the East Africa legion corps.

With the number of troops that they had in the Africa warzone, this was the most that they could do. If they were to expand, they would have to expand their military; otherwise, they be risking a rise of rebels from within.

No matter what, the Africa Governor-General House had a huge number of natives.

Along with the Great Xia Army moving in, the submission of the Egypt Dynasty became a fact that no one could change.

There would definitely be changes to the European battlefield.

Chapter 1296 - Spain Dynasty facing enemies on all four sides

Chapter 1296: TWO Chapter 1296-Spain Dynasty facing enemies on all four sides

Accepting the Egypt Dynasty was more complicated than expected.

That was because Egypt’s submission was not through war. Great Xia did not even exact any pressure onto the Egypt Dynasty, so hidden problems were left behind.

Perhaps, in the eyes of the Egyptian people, such a submission was the same as a betrayal.

Luckily, Great Xia and the Egypt Dynasty had signed an legally binding agreement.

4th month, 18th day, 11am, Great Xia assistant secretary Kou Zhun and Mulan Yue arrived in Cairo City to officially take over.

The current Cairo defenses were taken over by the Wolf legion corps.

The Africa warzone command headquarters and Wolf legion corps headquarters both shifted to Cairo. Without a doubt, Cairo would become Great Xia’s core in Africa.

Along with Mulan Yue and her group arriving, the Egypt Dynasty officially disbanded. The royal family members would temporarily seclude themselves in the palace and would not even take a step out.

Based on the arrangements by Azure Badge, they would live in the Ottoman Dynasty from now on.

All of the officials were also sacked.

Great Xia’s strategy toward Egypt was like using warm water to cook frogs. Hence, be it the Egypt Dynasty officials or the native officials, the Africa Governor-General House tried to keep all that could be kept.

Trying their best to use local officials was Great Xia’s strategy.

As such, the Egyptian people would have feel resistance toward Great Xia, which would help to stabilize the situation. Two to three years later, this resistance would basically disappear.

Even at that time, utilizing local officials would be the main action.

Africa was not like Nanjiang, where their recognition of Chinese civilization was so high. To force them to accept Chinese culture was much more difficult, so they could only try their best to rope in the locals.

…

Imperial Capital.

Just as Mulan Yue and her group were taking over the Egypt Dynasty, the Imperial Court was discussing relevant appointments.

Apart from Sudan Province merging, the newly establishing Egypt Province and Libya Province both needed Provincial Governors.

The role of Egypt Provincial Governor was particularly important.

The Cabinet suggested to move one of the five current Provincial Governors in Africa over. As they were familiar with the Africa situation, it would be easier for them to get into the role.

Ouyang Shuo supported the Cabinet’s suggestion.

Out of the five, Pei Yun and Cao Can were ‘exiled’ over there. Naturally, they could not be moved.

All that remained were Du Sijing, Changsun Wuji, and Yang Xiuqing.

Due to Du Sijing having always worked under Mulan Yue, Ouyang Shuo excluded him to prevent gossip.

Moreover, Ethiopia Province had an important strategic position, and he could not be moved.

Changsun Wuji was appointed last year, and he was not that familiar with the Africa situation. As such, Yang Xiuqing was the only choice.

Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate, deciding right away to move him over.

He, who was the core of Taiping Country, could also be called a long-serving official of the Empire. Be it in terms of talent or ability, he was a great choice.

Yang Xiuqing’s experience in Taiping Country meant that he was good at caring for the people, which would help in him ruling Egypt Province.

As such, Ouyang Shuo had no reason not to choose him.

Replacing him as Mozambique Provincial Governor was Caiyun Zinan.

After the Imperial Court removed Houses and increased the Prefecture level organizations, the grade of the Prefecture Governor fell. To be promoted to Provincial Governor was a huge leap.

Caiyun Zinan was the former Caiyun City Lord and was also a core person of the Xiangnan City-State. They had a long confrontation before eventually submitting to Great Xia.

Logically speaking, such a person would never receive a promotion. Keeping his Governor spot would already be rare, much less him becoming a Provincial Governor.

Ouyang Shuo made such a choice because Caiyun Zinan had been doing a good job running Xingyi Prefecture. As a Lord, for him to reach such a level showed that he did have the ability.

Secondly, it was to send a message.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to tell all the past Lords that Great Xia did not bother about their past. As long as they submitted to Great Xia and put in effort, they would have a chance.

The Imperial Court would not be biased against them.

The new Libya Provincial Governor was the original Zhaoqing Prefecture Governor Hao Jiancheng.

Similar to Gu Xiuwen and Zhou Haichen, Hai Jiancheng was brought up by Ouyang Shuo and was the top few amongst the naive officials. Before becoming a Prefecture Governor, he had been the construction director.

He was moved over to Libya Province for a reason.

95% of Libya consisted of desert. Only the north ocean region had plains that could be used for farming and living.

However, Libya was next to the Mediterranean, and just this alone made Great Xia focus on it. Not to mention that like Egypt, Libya was also rich in oil.

Apart from that, Tunisia, which was also drawn into Libya Province, was located north of Africa and was located central to the Mediterranean naval route, directly opposite to Italy. It was a strategic position for oil from the Middle East to reach West Europe and America.

The Atlantic Squadron would be housed in Tunisia’s Etna; they would build a navy base there.

After learning of Egypt’s submission to Great Xia, the Caesar Dynasty’s intense reaction was not without reason. Once the Atlantic Squadron returned to the Mediterranean, the Caesar Squadron would face problems.

Controlling the Tunisia straits would be controlling the Mediterranean naval route.

Along with the Suez Canal and Gibraltar Straits at the front and back, Great Xia basically controlled trade in the Mediterranean.

Such a Libya Province was naturally worth Ouyang Shuo sending out one of his most trusted officials.

At the start, Old Chen did not dare to make the decision of giving up the Egypt Dynasty due to such considerations.

Sadly, although the Egypt Dynasty controlled Suez Canal and Tunisia, they did not have a navy, and as such, they could only hand over the ocean control.

In the end, they let Great Xia profit from it all.

…

In the middle of the 4th month, just as Great Xia was taking over the Egypt Dynasty, the 500 thousand strong Egypt Dynasty army had gathered up in Cairo City.

4th month, 22nd day, the 500 thousand of them made use of the night sky to teleport away; they reappeared in Jidian City.

Based on the game rules, the Egypt Dynasty had submitted to Great Xia, so the 500 thousand troops naturally belonged to Great Xia. As a result, they could use the teleportation formation.

This allowed them to teleport from Cairo to Jidian City.

The next morning, the 500 thousand Egypt army disembarked onto Spain Dynasty land. Along the way, they were protected by the 2nd division of the Atlantic Squadron housed in Gibraltar port.

As such, the Egypt army’s conquest of the Spain Dynasty began.

At the same time, the Great Xia North Africa legion corps housed in Libya moved south to attack Algeria, which was under the Spain Dynasty’s rule.

The word from the North Africa legion corps was ‘revenge’.

Ouyang Shuo had not forgotten about Silver Hand and Azure Badge making use of Algeria to force Great Xia to give up on Morocco Province.

Two years later, Great Xia was here for revenge.

4th month, 24th day, based on the agreement, after purchasing a batch of firearms, the Indian Empire launched their attack on the Spain Dynasty controlled Argentina region.

All of a sudden, the Spain Dynasty was facing enemies on all sides.

Chapter 1297 - Self-preservation is the most important

Chapter 1297: TWO Chapter 1297-Self-preservation is the most important

The European battlefield was fully mobilized.

Facing the three pronged attack from Great Xia, Egypt, and the Indian Empire, the Spain Dynasty panicked!

4th month, 25th day, Tortosa City.

Spain King Casillas held an emergency meeting with his top three generals.

First, Duke of Alba, blood slaughterer Fernando. Named as the Spanish military god, he was also the Spain army overall commander. A day ago, he had personally led 250 thousand troops to attack the Ottoman Dynasty.

Secondly, John of Australia, the brother of Phillip the 2nd, Spanish Invincible Squadron Fleet Admiral.

Thirdly, Duke of Parma, Alexander Farnese, the Spain Dynasty Argentina region military commander, who had led 250 thousand troops to face off against the Indian Empire.

The Spain Dynasty included Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Algeria, Argentina as well as the Western Sahara and Mauritania that they had just occupied.

They had a population of around 15 million, second only to the Ottoman Dynasty.

Apart from the Invincible Squadron, the Spain Dynasty had 750 thousand troops, forming three legion corps.

Apart from Fernando and Alexander’s troops, the remaining 250 thousand were personally controlled by Casillas and were used to defend their homelands and Africa.

150 thousand were housed in Spain and 100 thousand were spread across Morocco, Algeria, West Sahara, and Mauritania.

Facing the attacks of the three armies, Spain had no advantage and had to face enemies multiple times their number. Their only advantage was the fact that they were fighting on home ground.

“What should we do?” Casillas asked.

Fernando was the first to speak, “Out of the three, the Great Xia Army sent the least but is the strongest. Moreover, they are facing our weakest.”

“I recommend we move the 100 thousand troops in Africa to Algeria to delay the Great Xia Army to buy time for the other battlefields.”

“When needed, we can enlist troops in Africa.”

“Can we just give up on Africa?” Casillas was afraid of Great Xia and said, “With just 150 thousand, we definitely cannot defend against the 500 thousand Egypt army.”

Fernando shook his head and said, “Your majesty, Africa is the biggest barrier for the south of our Empire. If we give it up, we will be exposed to the enemy, and it will only make the situation worse.”

“There’s also one more important point. The 500 thousand Egypt army is attacking from Jidian City, and their logistical support is a problem. If we give up Africa, we would be helping them create a huge resource replenishment backline for the Egypt army.”

“Hence, not only must we not give it up, but we must even defend it to the death.”

After pausing for a while, Fernando continued, “Rather than give up Africa, why not give up Argentina? It is not of much value anyways.”

A long time ago, Fernando had raised his unhappiness at them for wasting their manpower on South America. Now, he finally had a chance to request they move out of South America.

“No!”

To Fernando’s surprise, not only did Alexander speak against it, but even the king decisively opposed the suggestion.

Alexander’s objection was predicted, as he was the Argentina Provincial Governor and military commander. In Argentina, he was life half a king. Naturally, he would not be willing to give up on his power.

His majesty’s objection was something Fernando did not understand.

One could only say that Fernando did not understand his king.

The rise of Casillas was quite legendary. He benefited from Silver Hand and Azure Badge working together to crush Great Xia and force them out of Morocco.

The Spain Dynasty had picked up the benefits because they were nearby.

After obtaining these two pieces of land, the unassuming the Spain Dynasty was given the help it needed to rise up. Not only in Africa, but it also helped them take down Argentina Region.

The dynasty had land in Europe, Africa, and America, having a rough image of a global empire.

This was Casillas’s greatest pride and the highest point of his life. His position in Europe was higher than Henry, William, and Caesar, and he was on the same level as Ottoman King Manstein.

Within Silver Hand, the Casillas family position had been rising higher and higher.

Even to say that when working together with the Dawson Dynasty to crush the Indian Empire in South America, the Casillas Family had become close with the Dawson Family and was walking into the core of Silver Hand.

Under such circumstances, how could Casillas easily give up Argentina?

The moment they gave up, along with the Africa region that might not be kept, the strong Spain Dynasty would return to their original state and become the bottom of the European dynasties.

This was something that he could not accept no matter what.

“So your majesty is saying?” Fernando had a bad premonition.

When Casillas heard this question, he slowly rose, his eyes filled with determination as he said, “Withdraw from the Ottoman Dynasty.”

“….”

A deathly silence ensued.

After a short while, Fernando spoke once more, “Your majesty, have you thought through the consequences of withdrawing?”

This five dynasty attack on the Ottoman Dynasty was the largest scale joint operation of Silver Hand; they were only allowed to succeed.

If the Spain Dynasty withdrew, how would they answer to the organization?

Without Silver Hand’s protection, even if the Spain Dynasty could dodge this bullet, would they be able to block Great Xia’s attacks in the future?

Hence, in Fernando’s eyes, this was a short-term solution.

Even Alexander who supported not withdrawing from Argentina opposed this decision.

“If we do not withdraw, what can we do?” Casillas was annoyed as he said, “We cannot even protect ourselves, do we have to die for the organization?”

That did not make sense.

Fernando and Alexander understood Casillas’s logic.

Even if Silver Hand achieve victory in their attack on the Ottoman Dynasty, as Spain was separated from the Ottoman Dynasty by the Gaule Dynasty and had already obtained Morocco and Algeria, they would naturally get nothing.

The Spain Dynasty was just doing community service and would get nothing in return.

As a result, Casillas chose to withdraw from the Ottoman Dynasty to strengthen their defenses and deal with the invading Egypt army.

“Furthermore, fighting the Egypt army is helping the organization out. It the Egypt army invades us, won’t the Ottoman battlefield situation change too?” Casillas explained.

Those words did make sense.

Everyone could see that Azure Badge had given the Egypt Dynasty to Great Xia for multiple reasons. Apart from wanting Great Xia to interfere, Azure Badge also wanted to use this move to free up the Egypt army.

To use them to save the Ottoman Dynasty was really obvious.

One could say that the moment the Egypt army landed in Spain, Spain itself would become a part of the Europe battlefield.

Fernando said, “Your majesty, I feel that we should discuss things with the Alliance Army before retreating.”

When Casillas heard that, he nodded.

Chapter 1298 - Leaders meeting with one another, each having their own goals

Chapter 1298: TWO Chapter 1298-Leaders meeting with one another, each having their own goals

Gaia 8th year, 4th month, 26th day.

After Casillas’s suggestion, Silver Hand started a six country meeting.

Apart from those participating in the war, Free King Jack was also present.

As such, one could see how important the Dawson Dynasty was in Silver Hand.

Jack and the others got wind of Spain being attacked right away. Hence, when Casillas requested a video meeting, they responded quickly.

“Casi, can you hold on? Do you need the organization to help?”

As Casillas’s support, Jack immediately gave Casillas a way out.

This was the charm of Jack.

“It’s pushing it. I’m worried that the Egypt army will break in through Spain, which will then affect the main battlefield,” Casillas was not a fool and did not mention withdrawing right away.

“That should not happen,” said Henry.

As the Gaule Dynasty and the Spain Dynasty were together, Henry and Casillas’s relationship was a little weird. Moreover, in the past, Henry had borrowed Great Xia’s hand to con Spain once, allowing the Gaule Squadron to make a breakthrough and officially gain a footing in the Mediterranean Ocean.

Henry had also wanted to collaborate with Great Xia to work together to split up Spain.

Luckily, Henry had resisted the temptation and did not execute his plan.

“The Spain army is known for being a million strong. I believe that the 500 thousand Egypt army that is travelling from afar and lacking in logistical support will not be able to cause any huge waves.”

Henry praised the Spain army because he was worried that Casillas might scheme and use the reason of the enemy being too strong to lead the Span army east into Gaule territory.

One could say that Henry was thinking too much.

Casillas was a person who cared about his face and had the Spanish style. As such, he was not so vicious. In comparison, Henry, this dog that did not bark, knew how to bite where it hurts.

“The Spain army is not small, but we have a huge territory and need to house troops in many places unlike some dynasties which only need to defend some small land.” Casillas was not someone who liked to lose.

When Henry heard that, although his face did not show it, his fists were tightly clenched. Casillas surpassing him hit Henry right where it hurt the most, and he was still bleeding till now.

He had schemed for his entire life, but it was not as good as Casillas being lucky once.

When Jack saw that, he resolved the situation by saying, “It is not the time to fight internally. Spain is being attacked, and Great Xia is behind it. We must not be careless.”

William nodded in agreement, “Let’s discuss a way to solve this. Great Xia is not easy to go up against.”

William was really supportive of cleaning out the Ottoman Dynasty because it concerned the House of Tudor’s future strategic safety.

If they won this battle, the House of Tudor was basically safe. Hence, William did not mind sending close to half of his army.

This was a massive amount of determination.

After all, when they split the Ottoman Dynasty, it would be mainly the Romanov, Gaule, and Caesar dynasties taking up. The House of Tudor was separated by an ocean, so it would be difficult for them to gain anything.

On this point, the European dynasties all came to an understanding to not allow the House of Tudor to interfere.

Jack said, “In South America, Dawson will press down on the east border of the Indian Empire with the Brasilia Dynasty. Casi, when needed, you can move a portion of the troops from Argentina back to home soil.”

“This….”

Casillas hesitated; this was a little different from what his expectations.

“Do not worry. Argentina will not be lost. When needed, the Dawson Dynasty will personally send troops to help you defend it.” Jack had no choice but to make such a promise.

“Moreover, based on our intel, the Indian Empire is attacking because they bought a batch of eliminated equipment from Great Xia. It is not enough to be a problem.” Although he said that, Jack was envious of Great Xia’s firearm deal.

Hearing Jack say that, Casillas naturally accepted it and said, “Okay. I’ll move 50 thousand troops from Argentina back to Spain. However, this is far from enough.”

“Apart from Spain, the Africa situation is intense. With just 100 thousand, I cannot defend against Great Xia at all. It will be a catastrophe if Great Xia takes down Morocco.”

Casillas was really smart and followed Fernando’s analysis and used it as a chip for this negotiation. That was because he had discovered that this crisis may well be a chance if he used it well.

Such a thought flashed through his mind.

When Jack heard his cries for help, he looked toward Henry and Caesar asked, “Can the Gaule and Caesar dynasties send some of their Africa troops to help to defend?”

In West Africa, the Spain Dynasty had the largest territory. Next would be the Ottoman Dynasty and then the Gaule Dynasty, and finally the Caesar Dynasty. As for the House of Tudor, as previously mentioned, they were forced back in defeat.

The Romanov Dynasty did not need to be mentioned because it was too far away and did not have the ability to interfere in Africa.

“We will try our best!”

Henry and Caesar’s faces were really ugly; it was apparent that they were not willing to do it.

Seeing the situation turn bad for him, Henry said with bad intentions, “Although I cannot do much in Africa, if Spain needs help, I can send an army over as long as Spain settles the logistics.”

“Thank you, but there’s no need for that.”

Casillas rejected his proposal expressionlessly.

Be it due to face or strategic considerations, Casillas would not allow the Gaule army to step onto Spanish soil.

Who knows what intentions they would have in coming.

“On the topic of logistics, there’s something that the Gaule Dynasty can help us with.” Casillas quickly found a chance to counterattack, saying it like it was an easy matter, “Since Spain itself is at war, we have no ability to bother about the frontlines. As for the Spanish army sent, their logistical supply needs help from the Gaule Dynasty.”

Based on the Alliance Army contract, each country was in charge of the grain of their own army.

For example, the grain for the House Of Tudor army would be sent through the ocean route to Gaule and then the Gaule civilians would help to transport the grain to the frontlines.

If not, just the Gaule Dynasty alone would not be able to manage the logistics of such a huge army.

Just helping the House of Tudor and Spain transport grain was a huge burden on the Gaule Dynasty. On this point, Henry did not complain, which showed that he had a sense of the big picture.

Now, seeing Casillas actually take the chance to shamelessly demand the Gaule Dynasty solve the Spanish army’s grain problem, Henry was furious.

Casillas was really calm and continued, “If the Gaule Dynasty cannot do that, I can only withdraw my army from the frontlines. I can’t exactly let them be hungry and fight a war, right?”

“….”

Everyone else was stunned. In the end, Casillas had still managed to speak this way out this difficult solution.

Romanov King Pushkin who had been keeping quiet said with a dark face, “We definitely cannot let Spain withdraw. It might cause the situation to turn on its head.”

Based on their directions, the Alliance Army could be split into west, south, and east armies.

The west army consisted of Spain, Gaule, and the House of Tudor, and their overall strength was 750 thousand, including 250 thousand Spain troops, 300 thousand Gaule Dynasty troops, and 200 thousand from the House of Tudor.

The south army was the Caesar Army. Due to the Alps blocking them and grain transport being difficult, they could only send 400 thousand troops.

Even then, due to Great Xia returning to the Mediterranean and threatening the mainland of the Caesar Dynasty, Caesar was prepared to withdraw a portion of the troops.

The east army was the Romanov army that had a total of 500 thousand troops, which was the most out of all the participating dynasties. Of course, if this battle was won, the Romanov Dynasty would also get the highest returns.

The overall Alliance Army strength had reached 1.65 million.

And their enemy, the Ottoman Dynasty, had 1.5 million troops at the start of the war. After the war began, they kept on enlisting troops, and their numbers grew.

Both sides had pretty much the same number of soldiers.

Even without the Spain army withdrawing, the Alliance Army would have to add in more troops to win this war. In William’s words, “We must be prepared to go all out.”

If Spain withdrew their 250 thousand, the enemy would have the numerical advantage. Furthermore, the Ottoman Dynasty was fighting on home ground. As such, if Spain withdrew, who was the one attacking who would become uncertain.

As such, no matter what, Pushkin and the others would not let Spain withdraw.

“So what should I do?” Casillas suddenly became really calm, “Spain is fighting on three fronts, so how can I bother about the frontlines?”

Chapter 1299 - Greed is a sin

Chapter 1299: TWO Chapter 1299-Greed is a sin

Facing Casillas’s threats, Jack and the others could only convince Henry to agree to help the Spain army settle their grain problem.

Although Henry agreed in the end, his face was dark.

At the same time, to disturb the Egypt army’s logistical support, they came to an agreement for the Gaule and Caesar squadrons to work with the Spanish Invincible Squadron to strengthen their control of the Mediterranean Ocean.

The Egypt army’s support could be split into three types.

First, was the grain stored in Great Xia Jidian City. Jidian City’s grain was mostly from Morocco Province. After such a long period of consumption, not much remained.

Secondly, the grain pillaged from Spain.

For this, the entire south side of Spain fell into harm’s way. To get grain, the Egypt army stopped at nothing and swept every inch of land.

However, with the Spanish army being prepared, such a grain source was not stable.

Thirdly, there was the grain transported by the Atlantic Squadron from Tunisia Port.

When Azure Badge and Great Xia signed the contract, there was one particularly important term – Great Xia had to provide grain for them until the Egypt army gained a stable footing in the European battlefield.

This grain was amassed by the Egypt Dynasty, so Ouyang Shuo had no reason to object to this term.

To maintain the agreement, after leading the 1st division to the Gulf of Aden and taking over the name of the Atlantic Squadron, Atlantic Squadron Fleet Admiral Zhou Yu immediately started to plan the matter.

The Alliance Army needed the three squadrons to work together to break their enemy’s most important grain source and make the Egypt army fall by itself.

That was a good plan, as this grabbed onto the most fatal weakness of the Egypt army.

After Casillas made his problems heard, Caesar also had things to say, “Egypt submitting to Great Xia allows them to return to the Mediterranean. For the Ottoman Dynasty in the future, it will be difficult for me to send any more troops.

Compared to Casillas, Caesar was a lot more direct.

Italy was the Caesar Dynasty’s core region, and it was also the closest to Great Xia. They were only separated by the Tunisia straits.

As such, Caesar was obviously nervous.

“I think you should not be so afraid of Great Xia.” The one who spoke was Jack, “Great Xia only has less than a million troops in Africa, and they also need to defend East and North Africa.

“The Egypt Dynasty has also just submitted, so there a plenty of internal problems that Great Xia needs to address. How can they provoke the Caesar Dynasty now?”

Caesar did not agree and argued, “You are not the one facing the problem. Apart from Africa, Great Xia has four to five million troops in China, what is difficult about teleporting some of them over?”

Out of all the people present, probably only Caesar dared to speak to Jack like that.

“Then do as you deem fit!”

Jack was furious. He tried to mediate the European battlefield out of kindness, yet he was scolded for it.

When the others saw this situation, they did not interfere.

Due to this small incident, the meeting ended with such an awkward atmosphere.

…

4th month, 28th day, South America.

Jack fulfilled his promise, and on this day, half of the Columbia army, numbering at 200 thousand troops, along with the 400 thousand Brasilia Dynasty troops, started to wage war against the Indian Empire.

The Indian Empire had once again entered a fight on two fronts.

When Casillas saw that, he moved back 50 thousand troops from Argentina, slightly stabilizing the Spain situation and blocking the Egypt army on the south.

The Spain situation was slowly stabilizing.

Facing the pincer attack, Juarez was determined to take down the Argentina region first this time before focusing on the Brasilia Dynasty. He wanted to do so in case they ended up in a prolonged fight on two fronts.

While arranging troops to defend the east, the Indian Empire strengthened their attacks on the south.

The entire South America was dragged into the flames of war.

Only Ecuador Prefecture under Great Xia was still able to have some rare peace; it was like the only clean land there.

This time, Juarez was going all out. He had also bought 20 million more gold worth of firearms from Great Xia. He said that they wanted the most advanced flintlock guns and cannons.

The two deals pretty much used up a year of the Indian Empire’s financial savings.

Facing such a huge deal, Ouyang Shuo naturally accepted it.

The 10 prioritized city slowly rose up. One factory after another was being built up, and large amounts of coal and iron ore were sent through the ocean route to these cities, becoming tons of steel and then many guns and cannons.

Along with the advanced ocean transportation system, these weapons were sent to the rest of the world.

Using the three firearm deals, the industrialization of these cities welcomed a huge leap.

To start railroad transport as early as possible and increase the efficiency of coal and resource transportation, the Imperial Court’s railroad network was in overdrive.

The three deals, along with the sale of eliminated firearms, totaled at 76 million gold. Apart from the money used to build factories, the rest was invested into railroad construction.

In other words, Great Xia was using the money of other dynasties to build up its industrial facilities.

Along with the huge sum of money given by the Imperial Court, the railroad construction speed was by the day, and the railroad expanded daily.

A new construction miracle was happening on Great Xia land.

The infrastructure spree in history was about to occur in the game world.

…

The 5th month soon arrived.

Mediterranean Ocean.

Just as the flames of war rose up in South America, the Spain Invincible Squadron, Gaule Squadron, and Caesar Squadron launched a combined patrol to disturb the Atlantic Squadron’s resource line.

All of a sudden, the usually prosperous Mediterranean trade line became really nervous and jittery.

Large amounts of merchant ships were nervously parked near the harbor; they did not dare to travel on the ocean. News had it that yesterday, a merchant group was locked up because they ‘colluded with the enemy.’

The ocean trade of the European and American dynasties were affected.

Only a small number of merchants dared to take the risk to continue crossing this naval route. Seeing the flames of war, these people wanted to take the chance to profit.

Under such a situation, if they succeeded, they would be able to earn a lot.

Resources during wartime were always more expensive than during normal days.

Of course, there were also some merchants who dared to continue doing business normally. These were the merchant groups related to the three squadrons; they had obtained the protection of the three squadrons. Naturally, they had nothing to fear.

All of a sudden, there were many merchant groups who pledged their loyalty to these three squadrons.

To the three squadrons, this was a surprise. This was the first time they felt the joy of controlling the trade route, and they became more unrestrained when they did things.

As things developed, no matter how bold the merchants were, they did not dare to take the risk. Anyone who tried to pass the Mediterranean Ocean would have to give payment to the three squadrons.

Merchants and squadrons colluded together to monopolize the Mediterranean trade route.

Through this process, they seemed to forget that the Great Xia Atlantic Squadron was seemingly becoming more and more invisible, pretty much becoming transparent.

…

Another five country leader meeting.

The topic of discussion this time was the merchant ship incident.

The matter was actually really simple. The Caesar Dynasty was being greedy, using the reason of ‘checking the ships’ to lock down and swallow up merchant ships.

As the sentence said, “If the army robs, even gods cannot stop it.”

“Caesar, you have to give us an explanation!” The one who spoke was William. With Mediterranean naval route being blocked, the most affected party was the House of Tudor, which was why he was so fearless.

Caesar did not fear anything and calmly said, “What is there to explain? The Great Xia resources are going to the frontlines through merchant ships, so who can ensure that we are able to check the right ones every time? Messing up once is really normal.”

In truth, the actions of the Caesar Squadron were instigated by Caesar himself. This greedy person just wanted to use this chance to get rich.

Anyways, the Caesar Dynasty was located at the east of the Mediterranean. Even if the trade route was affected, it would not have much of an impact on the Caesar Dynasty. On the contrary, the merchant ships going toward the House of Tudor or the Ottoman Dynasty could only stop in the Caesar Dynasty and sell there, increasing their trade.

This deal was worth it no matter how one looked at it.

However, Caesar did not expect one random ship arrest situation to actually caused a chain reaction and caused a monopoly of the Mediterranean Ocean route.

Caesar noticed that accepting payments from the merchants was better than forcefully arresting them.

“You!”

Facing Caesar’s shameless acts, William was so furious that he was rendered speechless. “How should we handle this matter?” Seeing that Caesar was not going to admit his fault, William could only ask the rest.

Weirdly, neither Casillas or Henry made a sound.

Casillas was already nervous because of the war in his country. Even without this incident, their trade was pretty much zero. He also had to rely on the Caesar Squadron to snipe the Atlantic Squadron, so he would not step out to slap Caesar’s face.

Henry was still annoyed due to the last meeting, so he did not make a sound all the way.

Furthermore, the two of them had also benefited from it.

If they stepped out now to blame Caesar now, wouldn’t they be slapping their own faces?

The three of them had formed a sort of tacit understanding to earn a huge sum from this European war.

As for Pushkin, the Romanov Dynasty did not use the Mediterranean route, so he would not speak up for William.

Facing William’s stare, Pushkin unwillingly said, “I feel that using this to cut off the trade channel of the Ottoman Dynasty is beneficial to the frontlines.”

When William heard that, he could feel his hands turn cold.

Only now did he notice that without Jack here, these five European dynasties that each had their own agenda were a handful of scattered pieces of sand.

Moreover, he, William, had no authority in Europe at all.

A tragedy!

Chapter 1300 - Fight that benefits the third party

Chapter 1300: TWO Chapter 1300-Fight that benefits the third party

In the end, William’s hard work was all for naught.

With the Mediterranean trade route being blocked, the House of Tudor became the biggest victim. All the products sold to them doubled in price at the very least.

The price of goods rapidly increased in the territory, and the civilians cried out in pain.

The Spain, Gaule, and Caesar dynasties stepped onto the corpse of the House of Tudor; they were earning big.

The words of William had no convincing ability.

After all, the combined patrolling of the three squadrons was a plan that they all decided on before. The actions of the three squadrons did in fact impact the Ottoman Dynasty.

The House of Tudor felt pain, but so did the Ottoman Dynasty.

This matter ended with no breakthrough in the end.

William ate a silent loss, but he could only learn from Henry and swallow it in silence. He could only hope for the Alliance Army to take down the Ottoman Dynasty soon to win the House of Tudor a safe strategic space.

…

5th month, 5th day, Imperial Capital.

In this round of world war, Great Xia had no presence, but they seemed to be everywhere. They were like a giant beast in the darkness, staring at all of them fight.

They were patiently waiting for the best time to strike.

The current Ouyang Shuo could be like the controller of Azure Badge and Silver Hand, going from a chess piece into the chess master of the world.

Although Ouyang Shuo was a newbie, he had huge influence.

The officials in the Imperial Court realized that his majesty had become calmer, reaching a realm of relaxation. He did not spend an entire day reading memorials and pretty much became a lot freer.

For example, now.

5th month, Imperial City, the weather became warm once more.

Within the imperial garden, the sun shone down. Hundreds of flowers bloom, and the birds chirped. On the swing where creepers grew into, the laughter of a young girl spread out.

She was the little princess, Ouyang Luo. She, who would be three years old in 10 days, was at the most playful age of her life. Her white skirt danced in the air and her black hair floated in the wind. She looke like a little fairy.

Ouyang Shuo was the one pushing the swing.

The current Ouyang Shuo was not the iron-blooded emperor filled with killing intent and feared by many. He was a father who doted on his daughter and fooled around with her.

Not far away, Yu’er was monitored by imperial bodyguard Wang Feng and was doing basic martial arts. Although his young face was covered with beads of sweat, he showed a stubborn and determined face.

Yu’er’s personality was exactly the same as Ouyang Shuo when he was young.

A minister stood beside Ouyang Shuo – Du Ruhui.

Such a scene did not surprise Du Ruhui. He stood at the side and reported on the South America, Africa, and Europe situation.

Although the emperor looked like he was focusing on pushing the swing and was not looking at him, Du Ruhui knew that every word he said was being picked up.

If the report contained any mistakes, his majesty would turn around and give him an eye. When the calm Du Ruhui saw that, he would unknowingly feel nervous.

Hence, every minister who rushed over to the imperial garden to report would be really careful.

However, they could not show the nervousness. After all, the little prince and princess were there, so they could not lose their face.

As such, before they came to report, they would vet through and practice multiple times to ensure that nothing was wrong.

When Du Ruhui finished, Ouyang Shuo did not turn around and said expressionlessly, “Good; the fish has taken the bait. You can tell Han Xin that he can set off. As for the specifics, he can decide for himself.”

Du Ruhui nodded and asked, “Your majesty, how do we reply to Africa?”

“Wait for a while longer. The time is not right; let them delay a while longer.” Ouyang Shuo did not seem to realize that with just this one sentence, countless people would have to die and continue to face the hardship of war.

Maybe he did, but he did not do anything about it.

Du Ruhui said, “Azure Badge is unhappy about the efficiency of our grain transport. I’m afraid if this drags on, it would affect our cooperation.”

“Do not worry, they can hold on.” Ouyang Shuo was really calm.

“Understood!”

Seeing that, Du Ruhui did not say anything more.

After reporting and receiving exact instructions, Du Ruhui bid the emperor farewell. As the military affairs minister, he was really busy. He walked for a while and behind him spread the crisp laughter of the princess.

This laughter was contagious while giving one strength.

Du Ruhui could not help but smile. In his eyes, this was a sign of the prosperity of the Empire. His footsteps became firmer and more determined.

…

5th month, 6th day, after receiving the order, Han Xin ordered the Tiger legion corps to teleport to Ecuador.

The next day, Xue Rengui led the North America legion corps to teleport from Nanjiang to Ecuador. At this point, the America warzone had three legion corps gathered up in Ecuador Prefecture.

The Ecuador Prefecture was not big. Now, it suddenly had 750 thousand elite troops, appearing really eye-catching. This meant that the flames of war in South America were going to shine even brighter.

Zhidian City was where the America warzone temporary command headquarters was located.

Commander-in-chief Han Xin called for a meeting for the first time, and the Legion Generals and above of the three legion corps were all present.

“We coming over here, needless to say, the goal is to help the Empire expand in America. The first target is the Columbia region to kick the Dawson Dynasty out of South America.”

Right at the start, Han Xin was resounding and firm.

When the generals heard that, their eyes shone, and they were pumped up, showing excited expressions.

“But.”

Han Xin purposely paused before looking around; his eyes were fierce and firm. Even Xue Rengui could not help but put away his excited expression and show an attentive look.

“Now is not the time to strike. You must control your men. Without orders, do not walk out of camp. Be more well behaved, understood?” Han Xin hollered.

“Understood!”

The generals all responded instinctively before asking carefully, “Commander, Columbia only has 200 thousand troops and are not our opponent, why aren’t we attacking?”

Han Xin had a good temper and explained, “If it were just that, it would not be a problem. If commanded well, just one legion corps is enough.”

This was Han Xin’s confidence.

“However, are all of you satisfied with one small Columbia region?” Han Xin asked.

Listening to those words, the eyes of the previously confused generals shone brightly once more; the blood in their veins could not help but boil.

“The commander is saying?” one general asked.

Han Xin sat up; his expression was solemn like he had the weight of the Empire on his shoulders as he said, “We will take down the Brasilia Dynasty and share South America with the Indian Empire; that is what we should do.”

“Yes, commander!”

The generals did not hesitate anymore, bowing and expressing their recognition and loyalty to the commander.

Han Xin nodded. After the generals returned to their seats, he said, “The Brasilia Dynasty sent 400 thousand troops to attack the Indian Empire. If we interfere now, they might retreat to defend. Only when the two sides enter a standstill and neither can easily breakaway will we strike.”

“As such, what we must do now is to stay in the camp, adapt to the South America climate, and familiarize ourselves with the geography to prepare for the upcoming battle. Understood?”

“Yes!”

The generals bowed once more.

There were some words that Han Xin could not be too thorough about. His majesty gave him the power to decide how to fight in South America, so he must take up the responsibility; he could not let his majesty down.

As a God General, what he looked at was not the battlefield itself but also the post-war matters.

Once Great Xia took down Columbia and Brasilia, the entire South America would be left with just the Indian Empire and them.

When that happens, would the Indian Empire submit to Great Xia?

Probably not.

A man’s ambition knew no bounds.

Without an external threat, the Indian Empire naturally would not be grateful to Great Xia for helping them deal with their enemy and return them to a peaceful era.

On the contrary, Indian Empire king Juarez would more likely feel resentment toward Great Xia for stealing their land and occupying a part of South America that should belong to him.

After all, two years ago, Juarez had seen South America as his backyard.

The relationship between the two dynasties would definitely be really awkward then.

Under such circumstances, making use of the Brasilia army and the Dawson army to reduce the strength of the Indian Empire was a great move.

Many times, revenge had to be backed by strength.

Chapter 1301 - -Problem starter

Chapter 1301: TWO Chapter 1301-Problem starter

Gaia 8th year, 5th month, 10th day, just as the world entered a long, drawn out period of chaos, an unassuming piece of news caught Ouyang Shuo’s attention.

At 10am, the Dawson Dynasty and the Darkness empire made a joint statement; they had officially become trading partners.

After many months of seclusion, the Darkness empire was finally taking a step into global matters.

The Darkness empire selecting the Dawson Dynasty as their partner was not too much of a surprise. Due to the position of the Mu Continent, the Darkness empire and the Dawson Dynasty’s ocean route was shorter than the Pacific naval route and was really convenient.

Along with trade opening up for both sides, the technology of the Mu Continent could flow into the Dawson Dynasty.

With the Dawson Dynasty supporting them, the Darkness empire would have the confidence to send squadrons to disturb the Great Xia south region, becoming a huge problem.

With regard to the Darkness empire situation, the Nanjiang Governor-General House and Nanyang warzone expressed much calmness. They increased ocean their defenses and did not give the enemy any chance.

In particular, they planted mines in the bay to prevent the Darkness Squadron from entering.

With that, the Darkness Squadron that did not have any troops to disembark could only make noise along the shores.

…

Half a month had passed, and the South America battlefield was at a standstill.

The Indian Empire threw their main force onto the south side. On the east side, the Brasilia Dynasty and the Dawson Dynasty’s 600 thousand Alliance Army swept across, causing huge damages to the Indian Empire.

5th month, 15th day, Ecuador Prefecture, Zhidian City.

Han Xin, who had been focusing on the South America situation, once again raised the tents for a meeting.

Regarding the South America map, Han Xin analyzed, “Columbia is north of Ecuador Prefecture. Our army can directly enter and go up north to control Panama Region and take control of the Panama Canal.”

The Panama Canal was an important channel connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

Along with the Egypt Dynasty’s submission, Great Xia forcefully interfered in the Mediterranean, controlling the Suez Canal. Only the Panama Canal remained.

The Panama Canal was an important chokepoint connecting the east and west of the Dawson Dynasty, and was its ocean lifeline.

Hence, a long time ago, the Dawson Dynasty had taken down Panama and took control of the canal.

Even during this attack on the Indian Empire, the Dawson Dynasty would keep 200 thousand troops, 150 thousand of which were in the Panama region. Hence, one could see how much importance the Dawson Dynasty placed on it.

As he said that, Han Xin started to select the generals, “Xue Rengui!”

“Present!”

Xue Rengui swiftly stepped up and cupped his fists. His expression was one of utter eagerness.

“Lead your troops and go along the Columbia region ocean shoreline up to attack Panama.” Han Xin ordered.

“Yes, commander!”

Xue Rengui walked up to accept the order arrow.

“Remember. Panama has a teleportation formation, and with its strategic position, the Dawson Dynasty will definitely send reinforcements over to help. Do not be careless.” Han Xin instructed.

“Understood!”

Great Xia was really familiar with teleportation tactics.

Han Xin continued, “Based on our intel, the Dawson Empire has a total of 2.5 million troops. Apart from their defending troops, they also need to face the north and south attacks of Mayan and Maple dynasties. Deducting the ones in Africa and the 400 thousand sent to the Columbia region, they can move no more than 150 thousand. Do not be too worried.”

The Dawson Empire was huge, similar to Great Xia in China. However, its population was lower, which restricted the number of troops that it could have. If not, Jack would have expanded without restraint.

When Xue Rengui heard that, he nodded once more with a calm expression.

Han Xin once again turned his sights to the map, “Apart from Panama, the Columbia Region has teleportation formations in Bogata, Caracas, Georgetown, Paramaribo, and Cayenne City.”

As he said that, Han Xin also felt a headache.

These teleportation formations were located in Columbia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and Guiana. After the Dawson Dynasty wiped them out, the teleportation formations naturally remained behind.

Apart from Columbia imperial city Bogata, which was the ruling city of Columbia and was located inland, the other four cities faced the Pacific Ocean. ,

Of course, if Great Xia occupied these regions, the cross-country teleportation formations would be removed due to these regions not being a standalone game region based on the game rules by Gaia.

Take Ecuador’s Jidian City as an example. After the Indian Empire gave it to Great Xia, the teleportation formation was removed. It was Ouyang Shuo who used a teleportation talisman to set a new teleportation formation.

“Seize these five cities and you basically control the entire region.” As he said that, Han Xin called out another general, “Li Xiucheng!”

“Present!”

Tiger legion corps marshal, the young east conquering general Li Xiucheng, swiftly stepped out.

“Lead your troops through the middle to conquer Bogota and Caracas.”

“Yes, commander!”

Li Xiucheng accpeted the order arrow with a solemn expression.

These two cities were the former imperial cities of Columbia and Venezuela respective. They were two majestic cities. The commander giving this mission to Li Xiucheng showed his trust in the Tiger legion corps.

Han Xin instructed, “Remember, the middle army must be quick. After taking down Bogata, arrange a legion to move in. Get the rest to gather at Caracas.”

“Yes, commander!”

A look of surprise flashed across Li Xiucheng’s eyes. Normally speaking, the Tiger legion corps should heavily defend Bogata, why must they gather at Caracas?

However, Li Xiucheng did not ask, as he believed that the commander had his reasons for such arrangments.

As a solider, one simply needed to follow orders.

Seeing that, Han Xin nodded his head in satisfaction; he did not explain anything and continued, “Zhan Lang!”

“Present!”

South America legion corps marshal, Zhan Lang, stepped out. Currently, his expression was a little unnatural.

That was understandable.

Out of the people present, he was the only player. Before submitting to Great Xia, he was the ruler of a land. When did he take orders from others?

Now, he had to listen to Han Xin.

A huge psychological difference existed. Before Han Xin’s arrival, he did not feel much since he held the position of Jiedushi.

Now, he needed to adjust himself.

Not to mention that along with the America warzone being built, his role as Jiedushi was removed, becoming a part of history.

The future Zhan Lang was just a member of the warzone.

Apart from that, he was nothing else.

Han Xin felt nothing and ordered, “Lead your troops to take down Georgetown, Paramaribo, and Cayenne City. No stopping midway if you can, be quick.”

“Yes, commander!”

Zhan Lang stepped up and accepted the order arrow.

Chapter 1302 - Jack’s solution

Chapter 1302: TWO Chapter 1302-Jack’s solution

Within the tent, Han Xin gave the three legion corps their missions, pretty much covering the entire Columbia region. However, he did not mention their other target, the Brasilia Dynasty, at all, making it hard for them to understand.

Facing the doubts of the generals, Han Xin did not answer and simply told them to execute his orders as told.

…

5th month, 16th day, along with Han Xin giving the order, the America warzone burst out. The huge army exited Zhidian City, crossing the Ecuador north border and entering the Columbia region.

( NovelFull )  Behind them was a long line of grain transport forces.

This grain had been sent over from the Indian Empire to pay for the firearms. To transport the grain to the frontlines, Ecuador Prefecture Governor Zhou Haichen had basically mobilized all the healthy young men.

Dawson Dynasty, Free City.

The news of Great Xia attacking Columbia spread back to the Capital City right away.

When Jack received the report, his expression was really solemn, and he muttered, “Cunning easterner, actually striking at such a time. What a plot.”

The current Jack did not realize that the entire war of America was planned by Great Xia.

Great Xia had set the stage for so long so that they could strike once to take down the Panama Canal and grab the Dawson Dynasty by its neck; this would allow them to prepare for their next big moves.

“How many troops can the dynasty send to assist Columbia?” Jack asked. Sitting opposite to him was the Dawson Dynasty Prime Minister, Franklin.

The Panama Canal was simply too important. If it weren’t, the Dawson Dynasty would not have a fifth of their soldiers stationed there.

Hence, Jack instinctively wanted to protect it, protect the Panama Canal.

When Franklin heard this question, he replied, “We can at most send 100 thousand.”

“So little?” Jack was surprised.

“In the recent month, the Maple Dynasty’s defenses in the north have been really stubborn, and their firepower has been increasing instead of decreasing. I suspect that they have received a new batch of firearms.”

Franklin was helpless and continued, “The Mayan Dynasty in the south is also like that. Recently, their disturbance to the south of the Empire has been really intense. A large portion of our troops have been sent to these two battlefields.”

Jack’s expression was really ugly, and he ordered, “Investigate where they bought their firearms from.”

“If I’m right, it should be Great Xia. Only Great Xia has the ability to sell so many firearms.” Franklin really certain about this.

“Great Xia, Great Xia again!”

Jack muttered. In his heart, he felt a bad premonition.

“We are fighting to the death on the frontlines while Great Xia was profiting greatly. What a good plan.” Jack roughly caught a glimpse of the shadow of Great Xia hanging over this entire war. In his heart, he felt depressed.

History had taken a massive 180-degree turn.

“It seems like we need to instigate the Darkness empire to create problems for Great Xia. If not, Great Xia’s land will be clean and too peaceful.” Jack’s eyes shone with a dark cold light.

Franklin said, “In my opinion, the Darkness empire consists of a bunch of bugs hiding in the dark. To ask them to fight Great Xia in the light would be tough. In the Battle of Hawaii, they were beaten till they were scared by Great Xia.”

“If we don’t try, how would we know that it won’t work? It’s better than not doing anything.”

Jack had confidence in the Darkness empire. He believed that Keisuke Honda and the others would not forget about how Great Xia had wiped them out. Someday, they would give Great Xia a fatal blow.

“Then let’s try!” Franklin did not insist and instead asked, “How will we deal with Columbia? Should we send reinforcements? Based on the intel from the frontlines, they have 750 thousand troops, and they are determined to win.”

With the way he put it, Franklin evidently did not support the sending of reinforcements.

If they wanted to go against the Great Xia Army, the Dawson Dynasty would at least have to send 500 thousand more troops, which was impossible.

Jack did not want to give up so easily, as the strategic position of the Panama Canal was just too important, so he said, “Can we have the army attacking the Indian Empire withdraw and let the Brasilia Dynasty send in more reinforcements?”

“We can withdraw our troops, but it would be difficult to make them send more troops.”

“If Great Xia takes down Columbia, their next target would be the Brasilia Dynasty. If not, why would Great Xia send so many troops there?” Jack looked at the matter with more clarity than Franklin and said, “As long as we discuss the pros and cons with them, they would definitely send reinforcements.”

Franklin nodded, acknowledging Jack’s judgement. He followed by analyzing the difficulties within, “The current South America battlefield is really complicated. For our army to withdraw from the frontlines will be tough.”

“Then let the Brasilia Dynasty army cover us. We are fighting the war for them.”

‘However, if we do that, their resentment toward us would be huge. After all, they are hoping to use this battle to crush the Indian Empire.’ Franklin thought.

The Brasilia Dynasty was no one’s puppet. They were willing to ally with the Dawson Dynasty due to their need to go against the Indian Empire.

For this reason, threw in 400 thousand troops onto the east front.

One must know that since the beginning of the war till now, the Brasilia Dynasty had only around 800 thousand troops. In other words, they had thrown in half of their army, showing a lot of determination.

If they withdrew now, everything would be wasted.

Thinking further, without the threat from the east, it might only be a matter of time after the Indian Empire dealt with Argentina. When that happens, how could the Brasilia Dynasty go against the Indian Empire?

Along with Great Xia interfering in the South America battlefield, the Dawson Dynasty was still a good support in the eyes of the Brasilia Dynasty.

In time, everything would change.

Under such circumstances, Jack wanted to demand the Brasilia Dynasty to not only withdraw from the Indian Empire but also send troops to reinforce Columbia; that was asking a little too much.

If he really did that, their relationship as allies would definitely come to an end.

Jack was really decisive and said, “Let’s get through this problem first. As for what happens next, that will be for the future.” In Jack’s eyes, allies were just chess pieces.

When one should give up, one must not hesitate.

When Franklin heard that, he sighed in his heart. Based on his judgement, rather than protecting the Panama Canal, it was better to maintain a good relationship with the Brasilia Dynasty.

Giving up on the Brasilia Dynasty was a stupid choice.

After all, they were only at the start of the industrial revolution. The Panama Canal’s importance to the Dawson Dynasty was a far cry from its importance in the future.

Of course, Jack had his own ideals. He was looking at was the future of the Empire, so one could not say that he was wrong.

“There’s also another point, ” Franklin felt that he needed to remind Jack, so he said, “If we withdraw from the east, the Argentina region might be lost. How will we answer to the Spain Dynasty?”

This time, Jack was totally stunned.

Chapter 1303 - Not being a puppet

Chapter 1303: TWO Chapter 1303-Not being a puppet

The war of Columbia that Great Xia started seemed like a simple situational war, but it affected the entire world.

When Jack realized this point, his head hurt.

“Let me think about it.”

Jack could decisively give up on the Brasilia Dynasty, but this did not mean that he could break his promise to the Spain Dynasty.

Not to mention that if they withdrew now, Argentina would be in danger, which would affect the European battlefield and consequently the entire global situation of Silver Hand.

Just breaking the promise to Spain would cause the Dawson Dynasty to be discriminated in Europe.

The price was too high!

“I think we have been swindled. We should not have fought one another so early on; this allowed Great Xia to pick up the spoils.” Jack was a little regretful.

“That is not something we could prevent.” Franklin was really calm.

Silver Hand and Azure Badge going against one another was a matter forced by interests and the situation. It was not something that a single person or dynasty could stop.

Since they worked together because of interests, they could definitely go against one another because of interests.

“Great Xia has been playing a huge chess game.” Jack was enlightened.

Since the world war had reached such a stage, a single person’s will could not stop it. All the dynasties were wrapped up within it and were unable to pull themselves out.

“No matter what, we still need to give it a shot.” Jack was prepared to take a final gamble and said, “Inform Spain that if they really cannot give up on Argentina, we will give them a batch of firearms for free as compensation.”

Compared to Great Xia, although the Dawson Dynasty did not have a population advantage, its industrialization standards were no weaker than Great Xia. It had the ability to craft many firearms to compete with Great Xia.

Jack was prepared to go all out in return for the Spain Dynasty’s forgiveness.

“If we do that, the issue should not become too big.”

When Franklin heard that, he did not try to persuade Jack and went to make arrangements instead.

That night, the Dawson Dynasty sent out 100 thousand troops to teleport to Panama to strengthen the defenses and delay the Great Xia Army before the reinforcements arrive.

Currently, the three armies of Great Xia had set off recently and had just crossed the border.

The war of Columbia had just begun.

…

5th month, 18th day, Brasilia Dynasty.

Although the Brasilia Dynasty was huge, large portions of it were unsuitable for humans inhabitation. The population was gathered in the south in the regions near the ocean.

The rainforest areas had a lot of moisture, but it was difficult for the soil to keep the moisture because the moisture in the rain would be swiftly sucked up by the plants.

As a result, the soil in the rainforest regions were really dry. Along with a lack of difference between wet and dry seasons, an area unsuitable for agriculture resulted.

Brasilia’s north region, including the famous Amazon Rainforest, had a low population density.

In the game world, the vast Amazon Rainforest became the Brasilia Dynasty’s north natural border. Till date, no army had dared to try to cross it.

Even the 200 thousand strong army from the Dawson Dynasty first took the naval route. After rushing to St Paulo, they gathered up with the Brasilia army to strike the Indian Empire.

Hence, when Han Xin arranged the troops, he threw the three legion corps separately onto the Columbia battlefield.

Going south from the Columbia region to directly attack the Brasilia Dynasty was just asking for trouble.

Brasilia city, palace.

Brasilia King Rio looked at the letter from the Dawson Dynasty and was so angry that his body shook as he said, “Shameless! To betray the alliance contract and actually raise such unreasonable requests.”

In the letter, Jack asked the Brasilia Dynasty to cover the Dawson Dynasty army as they exited the battlefield. At the same time, he asked them to send out no less than 300 thousand troops to assist the Columbia region.

Rio had also obtained news of Great Xia attacking Columbia region. If the Dawson Dynasty only withdrew from the Indian Empire, Rio could still understand. However, he did not expect Jack to actually be so shameless.

“Does he really think that we are puppets?” Rio was furious.

“Your majesty, you can be angry, but I think that the Dawson Dynasty’s words make sense. Once the Columbia region falls, we could be next.” the prime minister reminded him.

“What are you afraid of? To our north is a rainforest. Do you think that they can fly over? Rio was really confident and said, “Even if they take down Columbia and control the Panama Canal, the Pacific Squadron cannot cross the canal and arrive south of us. We might not have to fight them.”

Hearing that, the prime minster asked carefully, “Then your majesty, should we withdraw the troops?”

Rio shook his head and answered, “No! Without them, we can still fight this war. The Indian Empire’s east front is about to fall. This is a chance given to us by the heavens, and we cannot miss it.”

Rio understood that if he missed this chance, the Brasilia Dynasty would have no more opportunities to rise up.

Rather than sending troops to assist Columbia to aid others for nothing in return, why not send reinforcements to crush the Indian Empire east front?

Conquering the Indian Empire’s Cusco might even be possible.

So long as they won this war, the Brasilia Dynasty would be able to stand on the same level as the Indian Empire. Neither side would be able to swallow the other.

“Your majesty, are you not afraid of the Dawson Dynasty taking revenge on us?” The prime minster was a little worried.

When Rio heard that, he gave out a mocking smile and said, “Can’t you see? To defend the Columbia region, they have already fallen to the level where they need our help.”

“Facing the attack of Great Xia, they cannot even defend themselves, so how can they take revenge on us?”

The prime minister was still worried and added, “But there will be a time when the war ends. Once the Dawson Dynasty recovers, we would be alone without help.”

Rio smiled and said, “Who says we have no help? I’ve understood that in the whole world, be it Silver Hand or Azure Badge, neither is Great Xia’s opponent. That is a genuine backer.”

“Your majesty is saying?” The prime minister was astonished.

Rio got up and looked at the map of South America and solemnly said, “Great Xia interfering in South America caused a reshuffling of the entire situation. At such a time, we cannot be blinded.”

In the past, Great Xia had always given one an unbeatable impression on overseas battlefields. Great Xia suddenly throwing in 750 thousand troops into South America changed the landscape right away.

At this point, Rio saw through the matter cleanly.

When the prime minster heard that, he felt a chill in his heart, understanding what Rio was planning. At the end, he asked carefully, “Then how should we reply to the Dawson Dynasty?”

Chapter 1304 - Killing move

Chapter 1304: TWO Chapter 1304-Killing move

“Currently, we are uncertain about the attitude of Great Xia, so we must not act rashly.”

Rio was an intelligent person and ordered, “Have the frontline think of a way to delay their retreat.”

“Understood!” The prime minister nodded.

“Additionally, send a secret envoy to contact Great Xia to express our kind intentions.”

“Do not worry, your majesty, I’ll handle it well!”

…

In the blink of an eye, a week had passed.

During this week, Great Xia’s North Africa legion corps had arrived under Panama City, and Li Xiucheng’s Tiger legion corps had already conquered Bogata.

Due to the Dawson Dynasty adding in 100 thousand more troops, Han Xin ordered the 1st to 3rd legions of the Tiger legion corps to move west. They coordinated with the North Africa legion corps to take down Panama City.

The South America legion corps on the left front were still on their way.

5th month, 24th day, Dawson Dynasty, Free City.

This week had been a tough one for Jack.

First, when Casillas learned that the Dawson Dynasty was prepared to withdraw their troops, he was furious and hurled vulgarities at Jack.

“I trusted you so much, but you played me for a fool!” Casillas was furious.

The Argentina region was an important element in supporting the Spain Dynasty’s world position. Thinking about it being lost, Casillas felt as if a hunk of his flesh was hacked off.

Jack had to promise many benefits to slightly appease him. He persuaded Casillas to not lose the big one for just for a small thing.

“Conquering the Ottoman Dynasty is the main priority.” Jack reminded him.

Since the Egypt army was being blocked south of Spain, the Ottoman Dynasty was in trouble once more. The situation did not turn for the better, and they had to enlist more troops.

To make matters worse, as a result of the Mediterranean trade route being blocked, the Ottoman Dynasty was lacking certain resources that they needed like iron ore. Manstein was in trouble beyond words.

A dark cloud hung over the European battlefield.

As a result, Azure Badge had no choice but to rush Great Xia every two to three days to settle the logistical supply of the Egypt army and abide by their agreement.

How could they know that the Atlantic Squadron only had two divisions active in the Mediterranean? With so little, how could Ouyang Shuo dare to face the three squadrons head on?

However, since it was a promise, a change would occur soon.

Apart from Casillas’s fury, Rio’s disobedience also forced Jack onto the back foot.

During these past few days, Jack had urged Rio to help the Dawson army retreat from the frontlines. Rio kept on using the reason of the frontline battle being too intense and them being unable to break away as a reason to reject.

Every time, Rio would reply, “Tomorrow! We will withdraw tomorrow!”

However, day after day passed, and the east battlefield of the Indian Empire became more and more intense. Jack even received intel that Rio was mobilizing an army in his country.

All signs indicated that the mobilized army was not to assist Columbia but to fight on the frontlines.

Their intentions were totally different.

Realizing the significance of this problem, Jack had no choice but to try and scare Rio or try to tempt him. Unfortunately, Rio did not fall for it; nothing worked on him.

This was a huge blow to Jack.

It was then that he realized that the Dawson Dynasty’s authority in the world was not as strong as he thought it to be.

Due to this, Jack could only order the Dawson Dynasty army to quickly withdraw from the frontlines even without cover, even if they had to pay a price.

The Columbia battlefield was seriously dangerous.

As for their problems with the Brasilia Dynasty, it would naturally be shelved to the future.

…

5th month, 25th day, Imperial Capital.

Brasilia’s ambassador finally came into contact with the Great Xia Honglu Temple and expressed their kind intentions.

In their words, they had the intentions of finding another backer.

Regarding this matter, Ouyang Shuo especially summoned Jiang Shang, Zhang Liang, and Du Ruhui.

“The Brasilia Dynasty acts according to the wind. I think that we should not bother about him and simply stick to the plan. After taking down Columbia, immediately attack Brasilia.”

Du Ruhui’s attitude was clear. At the same time, he was filled with confidence toward Han Xin’s America warzone.

For this matter, Great Xia had made a lot of preparations. They definitely should not change their target so easily simply because the Brasilia Dynasty had expressed friendliness.

“I think we can discuss with them. If we can take over them without fighting, it will be for the best.” Jiang Shang leaned toward accepting their friendliness.

It was not that Jiang Shang was afraid of matters occurring. Instead, there were other reasons, “Overseas territories, especially ones with many players, are harder to manage than China. To let players rule players is our basic strategy. From a long-term perspective, recruiting Rio is better than occupying Brasilia through force.”

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he nodded his head in agreement.

Along with the trial lands’ removal, Great Xia would unavoidably face the problem of players when they expanded. Nanjiang was still okay, as they belonged to the same cultural circle as China, and the psyche of the players would not be affected that much.

Africa was poor, so it was easier to rule.

However, places like South America, especially the Brasilia dynasty, were totally different from Chinese civilization. To force them to accept Chinese culture would instead cause rejection and give rise to many problems.

The best way was to let their own people lead them.

Ouyang Shuo was also worried that if they forcefully attacked the Brasilia Dynasty, it might chase their players to the Darkness empire.

That would be benefiting them instead.

Thinking about it, Ouyang Shuo decided, “Then talk to them. There are only two conditions. First, the Brasilia Dynasty must submit unconditionally to Great Xia. This is the main premise.”

Great Xia did not need puppet states anymore.

“Of course, if they submit, we will give them the autonomy to self-rule. Toward local talents, we will treat them as our own and even prioritize their appointments.” Ouyang Shuo once again made the principles clear.

“Secondly, tell Rio to block off the Dawson Dynasty army in Brasilia as a sign of his loyalty. Without this, everything else is void.”

“Your majesty is wise!”

When Jiang Shang and the others heard that, their eyes lit up.

This was a masterstroke; they could use this move to test Rio’s sincerity.

If Rio agreed, he would become mortal enemies with the Dawson Dynasty. Looking out across the entire world, only by joining Great Xia could he survive.

If Rio did not do that and tried to place his bet on both sides, the Great Xia Army would stick to the plan and take down the Brasilia Dynasty.

They did not need to have Rio to rule the Brasilia Dynasty.

…

Brasilia City.

The next day, Rio received the letter from the Great Xia Honglu Temple.

After reading it, Rio fell silent for a long time. He did not expect Great Xia to be so vicious when they did things.

“To do it or not?”

Chapter 1305 - Hug a golden leg if you want to hug something

Chapter 1305: TWO Chapter 1305-Hug a golden leg if you want to hug something

Rio only had two paths ahead of him.

He could either accept Great Xia’s term or accept the Dawson Dynasty’s.

The former would cause them to lose power, but they would remain at the top forever, while the latter would let keep them power, but their future would be uncertain.

Furthermore, rejecting Great Xia would result in serious consequences.

“Prime minister, I would like to listen to your opinion.” Although the prime minister did not give him peace of mind at times, Rio had to find someone to discuss things with at this crucial moment.

“Your majesty, we have delayed for a week and have not withdrawn. The Dawson Dynasty leaders are not fools, so they have definitely noticed. Maybe we have already made enemies with the Dawson Dynasty.”

“So, you want to lean toward Great Xia?” Rio asked.

“The choice is still up to your majesty.” The prime minister did not make his position clear. As the only AI instantiated by the Brasilia Dynasty, he reminded Rio, “Have you thought about what the future will be like on Planet Hope?”

Rio frowned; he had not seriously thought about this problem before.

“What thoughts do you have? Speak.” Rio asked.

The prime minister replied, “During the Federation period, the world was unified and country ideals had weakened. However, in the game world, not only were there new country regions, but there have even been many powers within individual countries.”

“It gives people the impression that history is going to repeat itself.”

“In truth, Mother god arranged matters as such to train and select Lord talents. It did not plan to turn humans against each other.”

“Planet Hope is an unknown land. From the news revealed, it is also a tough place. If humans are busy fighting amongst ourselves, how would we be able to survive?”

“This is also why Mother god reset the game map. Her goal is to choose the best of the best and mesh together the split up dynasties to form a combined strength.”

Hearing this, Rio was astonished.

“I boldly predict that there will be no more than four dynasties on Planet Hope.”

Rio was curious, so he asked, “You are so confident?”

“Resources.” The prime minister was certain and replied, “Do you think that with just the resources from the intergalactic fleet, territories sprouting up everywhere on Planet Hope could be supported?”

Rio shook his head.

Even if they entered the game cabins, the amount of resources close to a billion players used was shocking. When they arrived on Planet Hope, the amount of resources left for the Lords would be really limited.

Under such circumstances, free expansion naturally could not be supported.

The prime minister’s guess was actually optimistic. If one was more conservative, they would only estimate that only two or three would remain.

The competition was incredibly intense.

This was partially why Gaia was pushing for global world war.

“So, what I’m saying is that if we cannot enter the top four, it’s better to merge earlier into one that can, tossing aside the so-called country ideals. That would be the best choice.” the prime minster concluded.

“I understand!”

Rio’s heart suddenly became clear, and he did not hesitate anymore and said, “I agree to Great Xia’s conditions. As for the specifics, prime minster, please help me discuss with them and make arrangements.”

“Yes!”

The prime minster got up and took his leave.

…

Imperial Capital.

Once he received the reply from the Brasilia Dynasty, Ouyang Shuo summoned Jiang Shang and Du Ruhui to have them discuss and form up plans to take over.

The Cabinet was in charge of taking over the land and building the local offices, while the Privy Court was in charge of the soldiers.

“When negotiating, we must prioritize protecting the authority of the Empire, but we can take a step back when needed to quicken up the process. However, keep it a secret.” Ouyang Shuo instructed.

“I understand!”

Du Ruhui and Jiang Shang exchanged glances; they knew that the emperor was going to execute another plan.

Jiang Shang asked, “Your majesty, regarding Rio, what appointment should we give him?”

This would be a crucial point of the negotiations.

Till date, the Provincial Governor level appointments had been tightly controlled by Ouyang Shuo. The Cabinet could only make recommendations, while Ouyang Shuo would make all the final decisions.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo was able to spread his influence into the various provinces and let the officials realize that no matter what, only one person decided their ultimate promotion or demotion.

Ouyang Shuo paused before saying, “When the Brasilia Dynasty submits, counting in the Columbia region, it will be sufficient to build a Governor-General House.”

“Arrange him to be the America Governor-General secretary-general. Of course, making him the Provincial Governor would not be a problem either. As for which he wants, let him decide himself.”

The Secretary General and the Provincial Governor, one controlled the big picture, while the other ruled the land. Although their focuses were different, they were equally as important.

“I understand.” Jiang Shang knew how to proceed.

Ouyang Shuo looked toward Du Ruhui and said, “As for how to deal with the Brasilia Dynasty army, have the Privy Court come up with a plan. We will discuss this matter further after they submit.”

“Yes, your majesty!”

…

5th month, 28th day, Brasilia Dynasty.

Rio was a really decisive person. After he felt the sincerity of Great Xia, he was prepared to fulfil his side of the promise despite them not signing any official documentation.

The main point was to stop the Dawson Dynasty army from leaving.

This was actually quite simple, as the Dawson Dynasty army was not on guard against them.

In the morning, Rio sent out 300 thousand troops to the border and used ‘aiding allies’ as a reason to meet up with the Dawson Dynasty army.

After the Dawson Dynasty army set up camp and let down their defenses, the Brasilia army suddenly launched an attack on their ‘allies’, catching them off guard.

At the same time, the Brasilia army on the frontlines sent 200 thousand troops back and surrounded the Dawson Dynasty army.

The Dawson Dynasty army that completely lacked preparation immediately suffered heavy losses and were unable to organize any sort of effective retaliation. Many soldiers were slaughtered before they even realized what was going on.

The following matters were simple.

Although the Dawson Dynasty army tried to fight back, they were outnumbered. After suffering heavy casualties, they had no choice but to flee.

However, they were in Brasilia territory; they were not familiar with the land and had no logistical support. As a result, it was difficult for the remaining forces to hold on.

During the following week, they were picked off by the Brasilia army.

Since they were going to be enemies with the Dawson Dynasty, Rio decided to go all out and do his best to reduce the ability of the Dawson Dynasty. He ordered the frontlines to stop at nothing to surround and kill the enemy.

Anyways, after submitting to Great Xia, the fate of these soldiers was unknown.

Chapter 1306 - Signs of global overlord

Chapter 1306: TWO Chapter 1306-Signs of global overlord

Rio’s ultimate move greatly harmed Jack.

When he learned that the Brasilia Dynasty had betrayed him, Jack was so furious that he flipped the table.

“If I do not take revenge for this, I’m not human!”

The usually calm and mild-tempered Jack finally blew up, his eyes flashing red.

However, after raging, Jack still had to face reality. He knew that the 200 thousand troops would not return; it like a piece of his flesh being cut off.

To make matters worse, without reinforcements, they would not be able to defend the Columbia region.

After 10 days of intense war, under the relentless assaults of the Great Xia Army, Panama was on the verge of collapse. Both sides were elite forces, so they both suffered heavy casualties.

To take down Panama, Han Xin was really cold blooded.

“Your majesty, let us withdraw the troops; there’s no point in continuing to fight.” Franklin suggested, “We cannot panic because of Great Xia. The most important thing right now is to take down the Maple Dynasty.”

Once they took down the Maple Dynasty, the Dawson Dynasty would control the entire North America Continent. They would gain the ability to challenge any dynasty, even learning from Great Xia and becoming the mastermind in the world war.

When Jack heard that, he closed his eyes painfully and clenched his fists tight. His fingernails dug into his flesh.

After a long while, he loosened his fist. His palms were bleeding red. Jack wanted himself to remember the pain of this moment as he said in a hoarse voice, “Let’s follow what you proposed. Leave me.”

When Franklin saw that, he bowed before quietly leaving the room.

…

6th month, 6th day, the Dawson Dynasty withdrew their troops from Panama.

Two days later, the entire Columbia was taken down by Great Xia and became another one of their overseas territories.

The Great Xia Imperial Court moved really quickly. The next day, they decreed Ecuador’s merger into the Columbia region to form the Columbia Province, which was their first province in America.

The ruling city was Bogota.

Original Ecuador Prefecture Governor Zhou Haichen, Ouyang Shuo’s trusted official, naturally became the Columbia Provincial Governor, helping the Imperial Court manage this crucial piece of land.

…

News of Great Xia conquering Columbia raised a huge storm across the world.

One must not only look at the world being in a chaotic state. This was the second time Great Xia and the Dawson Dynasty went head-to-head, so everyone naturally focused and paid attention to it.

Last time, Great Xia occupied Hawaii Island and crushed the Free Squadron, winning their first battle beautifully, establishing authority on a global scale.

More people paid attention to this encounter.

The result? Great Xia easily took down the Columbia region like a breeze blowing off leaves in autumn, conquering the Dawson Dynasty’s most important piece of land overseas.

From this moment on, Great Xia officially established their prestige and authority in the world.

The makings of a global hegemony were slowly showing, sprouting out, making one look on with respect.

On the contrary, the Dawson Dynasty’s prestige was hit. Additionally, their ally had betrayed them, causing Jack to lose a lot of face.

This also undermined Silver Hand’s authority, making Azure Badge clap their hands in delight.

After this battle, the Dawson Dynasty’s influence in South America fell to freezing point. Great Xia replaced them and became the biggest power in South America.

Surprisingly, although the Brasilia Dynasty betrayed the Dawson Dynasty, it did not announce their submission to Great Xia; this was something that the outside world did not understand.

Some people suspected that the Brasilia Dynasty was using Great Xia’s hand to play the Dawson Dynasty. Additionally, right after, they used the same trick to play up Great Xia.

As for what the truth was exactly, only the involved parties knew for themselves.

…

The outside world paid attention to the Columbia war ending, but they missed out on a little crucial point.

6th month, 10th day.

Not long after Great Xia took down the entirety of Columbia, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th divisions of the Atlantic Squadron appeared in Caracas, Georgetown, and Paramaribo respectively.

Based on the original plan, after taking down Columbia, the Tiger legion corps and South America legion corps would head to the east shore of Brasilia and end the matter in one battle.

For this reason, the Atlantic Squadron disappeared from the Mediterranean Ocean.

Along with the Brasilia Dynasty’s submission, the war situation changed. Naturally, the three divisions had new missions.

The America warzone would aid them in conquering the Antilles islands around the Caribbean.

The goal was to help the Imperial Court take control of the entire Caribbean Ocean.

The Caribbean Ocean was located in the Western Hemisphere and was the largest continental sea in the world. The west and southwest portions were Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula, north was the Greater Antilles Islands, east was the Lesser Antilles Islands, and south was South America.

Due to its position, historically, some people called it and the Mexico Gulf the Mediterranean of the Americas.

If the Panama Canal was a path connecting the Pacific to the Atlantic, the Caribbean Ocean was a pathway that the incoming merchant ships had to cross.

To truly control the Panama Canal, one had to control the Caribbean Ocean.

Jack was really clear about this point. As a result, after taking down Panama and establishing the Columbia state, he sent out squadrons to deal with the pirates of the Caribbean and took down the Greater and Lesser Antilles islands afterward.

The Dawson Dynasty had sacrificed a lot to destroy the infamously strong pirates of the Caribbean. After that battle, the entire Caribbean basically became a continental sea for the Columbia state.

As the Mayan Dynasty on the west was established late and lacked a strong navy, it did not have any power in the Caribbean Ocean.

After Great Xia established the Columbia Province, they naturally had to copy the Dawson Dynasty and wipe them from the region to truly achieve a case of the dove taking over the magpie’s nest.

If not, there would be many problems.

This was also important for raising the authority of Great Xia throughout the America Continent in the future.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo was willing to delay the European war matter and have the Atlantic Squadron enter South America to help the Empire open up this final ocean gate.

…

6th month, 12th day, Brasilia Dynasty.

Obviously, Rio was not as stupid as the public thought. Conning Great Xia after making enemies with the Dawson Dynasty would simply be asking to die.

He had not submitted to Great Xia yet because he still needed to complete the last mission that Ouyang Shuo had entrusted him with.

Before the City-State was established, Brazil was the big brother of South America. However, due to its geographical location and resources, it was not as good as it looked.

Apart from the rainforest region in the north that was unsuitable for farming, the south side also had a bottleneck.

The main cities and ports of Brazil were concentrated on the southeast shore, and it was also the most prosperous region of the country. However, tragically, Brazil did not have a river connecting them to the southeast.

That made things awkward.

Without such a river, they were unable to connect the inland to the ocean, so their development was naturally restricted.

During an industrialization time period where ocean powers totally replaced land ones, regarding the transportation of goods, whoever controlled the point where the river flowed into the ocean controlled the entire waterway.

The only river in Brazil that entered the ocean was called the Rio De la Plata. However, this entry point to the ocean was not within Brazil borders but in Argentina.

Argentina’s imperial city, Buenos Aires, was located there.

Noticing this point, Ouyang Shuo obviously would not standby and do nothing. He immediately ordered Rio to stop fighting on the east front and instead go down south to take down Buenos Aires before he submitted.

When the flames of war began in South America, the war between the Indian Empire and Argentina had not stopped for even a moment. After withdrawing 50 thousand troops, the Spanish army was evidently forced onto the back foot.

Although the firearms that Juarez bought from Great Xia were eliminated ones, they were able to take the lead thanks to their massive numerical advantage.

Along with the Dawson Dynasty falling in South America, Casillas did not feel confident about keeping Argentina.

Under such circumstances, Ouyang Shuo was prepared to kill steal.

He had no choice.

If Buenos Aires fell into the hands of the Indian Empire, the value of the Brasilia Dynasty drop greatly, which would affect their plans in South America.

Ouyang Shuo believed that the Indian Empire without any more worries would be difficult to make yield and listen to Great Xia, so the only way was to ensure that they did not have the capital to do so.

Controlling Buenos Aires was a crucial step.

Furthermore, the city was currently in the hands of the Spanish, and the one attacking was the Brasilia Dynasty that had not submitted. Hence, in theory, Ouyang Shuo was not encroaching on their interests.

At least on the surface, it was not wrong.

As for whether Juarez would feel resentment due to this matter or not, Ouyang Shuo did not bother about it.

Ouyang Shuo would not care and would simply do the things that he ought to do.

Chapter 1307 - New landscape of South America

Chapter 1307: TWO Chapter 1307-New landscape of South America

As they destroyed the Dawson Dynasty army, the Brasilia Dynasty army also stopped their attacks on the east of the Indian Empire. Their frontline forces went from attacking to defending, defending their rewards from the war.

This allowed Indian Empire king Juarez to heave a sigh of relief.

Juarez was already prepared to go east after taking down Argentina to reclaim lost land.

Along with the fact that Great Xia had taken down the Columbia region and chased the Dawson Dynasty out of South America, he felt that the good times of the Indian Empire were about to arrive.

Reality proved that he was happy a little too early.

6th month, 15th day, the Brasilia Dynasty’s 300 thousand strong army suddenly went down south.

The huge army with an indomitable spirit used four days to conquer the entirety of Uruguay before crossing the Rio De la Plata to directly head for Buenos Aires.

Uruguay had been wiped out by the Spain Dynasty, having become a part of Argentina. Now, it was experiencing a change of hands once more. Additionally, Paraguay, which the Spain Dynasty had destroyed, had already fallen into the hands of the Indian Empire.

Along with the Brasilia army reaching the city, Argentina Provincial Governor Alexander was under a lot of pressure.

There were soldiers attacking in front and a pack of hungry wolves behind.

The Brasilia army did not show any courtesy and launched their attack the next day.

This time, the Spain army had no way out. Alexander was helpless, and he could only write a memorial to the king. He requested that they give up Argentina to protect the army.

After the successive battles, less than 120 thousand of the 200 thousand troops remained.

If they continued to fight, the entire army might be lost.

When Casillas received the report, although he was really unwilling, he could only agree while cursing out at the Dawson Dynasty.

In truth, when the Dawson Dynasty was prepared to withdraw their troops from the east front, the Argentina region was destined to be lost.

Along with the Dawson Dynasty losing the entire Columbia, Casillas had given up all hope.

He was withdrawing now because circumstances forced him to; currently, it was his only choice.

“Let’s allow the Brasilia Dynasty and the Indian Empire fight; I am done!” Casillas could only console himself like this.

Of course, if he knew that the Brasilia Dynasty had submitted to Great Xia, he probably would not think that.

6th month, 22nd day, 80 thousand Spain troops teleported away from Buenos Aires. As for the 40 thousand still on the frontlines, Alexander was not confident about saving them, so he could only abandon them viciously.

That afternoon, the Brasilia army occupied Buenos Aires and followed Ouyang Shuo’s instructions to sweep the nearby prefecture then stop.

They would leave the remaining land to the Indian Empire.

…

Indian Empire, Cusco City.

During these past few days, Juarez’s emotions had been like a rollercoaster, going up and down.

Just as he saw the light, news of the Brasilia army going down south struck. Before he recovered from that news, Uruguay fell into the Brasilia Dynasty’s hands.

Juarez immediately realized that Brasilia was about to kill steal, so he ordered the army to swiftly head for Buenos Aires. If they bumped into the Brasilia army, he would not mind fighting a battle.

However, before the army got into position, the Spanish people withdrew, allowing the Brasilia army to benefit and take down the city without much effort.

Juarez was so furious that he nearly vomited blood.

“We fought for so long and paid such a high price, yet the biggest piece of meat was stolen by the enemy.”

Juarez immediately ordered the army to continue toward Buenos Aires to take back the city. Anyways, the two dynasties were enemies, so there was no courtesy to be shown.

At that very moment, 6th month, 24th day, the Brasilia Dynasty officially announced their submission to Great Xia.

“F*ck!”

Juarez was so annoyed that he nearly exploded. Finally, he understood who the mastermind behind all of this was.

“To think that I treated you as an ally; you actually schemed against me”

Juarez felt like he was being played, and unhappiness toward Great Xia rose up in his heart. A crack appeared in their originally not too harmonious relationship.

However, anger was just anger, and he did not dare to do anything rash. He immediately ordered the frontline forces to stop their advance and go to sweep the other regions of Argentina.

The Brasilia Dynasty with Great Xia supporting them and a lone Brasilia Dynasty were two completely different concepts. Despite his confidence, Juarez did not dare to go to war with Great Xia.

If he did that, the Indian Empire would be left alone with no friends.

After the Darkness empire appeared, Great Xia was not the only affected party. Many enemies that were wiped out by the Indian Empire had also appeared on the Mu Continent.

Furthermore, the Mu Continent was closer to South America, so they posed a bigger threat to the Indian Empire.

During this period of time, if it were not for the Great Xia Pacific Squadron helping to patrol, who knows what the Darkness Squadron would have down to the Indian Empire’s west shoreline.

Just this matter alone meant that Juarez did not have the courage to flip against Great Xia.

Juarez had a lot of lent up frustration. Suddenly, someone reported that an envoy team from Great Xia had arrived to meet him.

Juarez took in a deep breath and tried his best to suppress the anger in his heart and said, “Invite them to the main hall; I’ll come right away.”

“Yes!”

Within the main hall of the palace, Juarez welcomed the Great Xia envoy.

…

4pm, after sending the Great Xia envoy away, Juarez’s expression was really complicated.

The envoy was sent to discuss South America matters, and the terms they raised were ones that Juarez could not reject.

First, Great Xia’s ambitions toward Argentina were limited to the areas that they had already occupied, and they had no plans for the remaining land.

This dispelled some of his misgivings and showed that Great Xia was not overly greedy.

Secondly, after taking control of the Brasilia Dynasty, Great Xia would unconditionally return the 10 odd cities on the east front and release the prisoners from the Indian Empire.

This was a sign of good faith.

When the 600 thousand strong Alliance Army attacked the east front, they had inflicted huge losses on the Indian Empire. Now, Great Xia was actually taking the initiative to return these cities to them, such kindness.

These two points alone appeased Juarez’s anger.

However, the terms that Great Xia tossed out were not limited to just that. They also included the term of helping the Indian Empire build an industrialization system. The Great Xia Bank was willing to loan them 20 million gold at low interest rates to help them rebuild the Indian Empire.

This was also a sizeable benefit.

After the large-scale war, the Indian Empire was riddled with holes and needed to rest up. However, all of this would require money, but the two firearm deals had basically squeezed their coffers dry.

The loan from the Great Xia Bank was a saving grace.

Of course, this was the first time the Great Xia Bank was participating in a global trade business, and they were using this chance to enter the Indian Empire financial market.

This 20 million gold in loans could be considered the brick that broke the door open.

Neither side suffered a loss.

This move implied Great Xia’s desire to strengthen their ally relationship and increase trading.

After this series of moves, Juarez put aside his anger; he could only stand back on the side of Great Xia and support them.

At this point, the South America Continent situation was basically stabilized.

After this battle, Great Xia not only controlled another crucial naval path and increased their ocean authority, but they also gained total control of South America. They had obtained a relatively stable overseas territory.

With this as their chips, Great Xia would have a certain decisive say in America matters, and they could help create obstacles for the Dawson Dynasty.

Following which, they had to run this fertile piece of land well.

As for merging with the Indian Empire and unifying South America, Ouyang Shuo did not have such thoughts. After the world entered the industrialization period, it was no longer about who held more land.

The key was their position and resources.

Their current land was enough to support Great Xia’s global strategy. There was no need to be greedy and crave their ally’s territory.

Even if they took it down, who knows how heavy a price they would have to pay. Managing it would also be difficult.

With Juarez’s management over these past few years, he had instilled Indian ideals through the entire territory, and their views were really stubborn.

Just thinking about trying to tame such a dynasty was a huge headache.

Hence, rather than wasting large amounts of resources to swallow them up, why not maintain the status quo and create a win-win situation? Anyways, as long as South America remained stable, Great Xia would benefit.

For these reasons, Ouyang Shuo was willing to take a huge step back to curb Juarez’s resentment.

Time was money.

The value of a stable South America to Great Xia could not be measured.

Chapter 1308 - Stability trumps everything

Chapter 1308: TWO Chapter 1308-Stability trumps everything

On the last day of the 6th month, Great Xia announced the organizational structure of South America and the personnel adjustments.

The Imperial Court decreed the division of the Brasilia Dynasty, including the Uruguay Region, into three provinces. From north to south, they were respectively the Amazon Province, the Brasilia Province, and the Uruguay Province.

Amazon and the Brasilia Province were separated by the original Brasilia City, which was now under the Amazon Province as its ruling city.

Original Minnan Province Fuyong Prefecture Governor Fang Xiaoru was promoted to Amazon Provincial Governor.

Out of the three provinces, the Amazon Province was the largest and the hardest to manage. At the same time, it had the weakest economic ability and the lowest development potential.

Of course, since Brasilia City was listed into this province, it had significant political meaning.

Even the America Governor-General House’s ruling city was chosen to be Brasilia City, signaling that this city would take over the historical duty of ruling South America.

This arrangement was also made with the aim of reducing the influence of the original dynasty to the greatest extent possible.

Ouyang Shuo had high hopes in putting Fang Xiaoru over. First, he had to open up a path between the Columbia Province and Amazon Province.

Only then could they connect the whole South America territory together.

Brasilia Province and Uruguay Province were separated by St Paulo, which was listed under the Brasilia Province and acted as the ruling city of the province.  ( NovelFull )

Between the positions of Provincial Governor and secretary-general, Rio chose Provincial Governor.

Ouyang Shuo did not express any opinions regarding this matter. He just directly gave Rio the role of Brasilia Provincial Governor. At this point, Rio became the first person to be appointed in the same place after submitting.

The only difference was his ruling region shrinking by half.

Uruguay on the south side included the south tip of the Brasilia Dynasty, the Uruguay Region, and the prefecture around Buenos Aires. The ruling city was naturally in Buenos Aires.

Such an arrangement naturally had its meaning; this allowed the Uruguay Province to have the ability to compete with the Brasilia Province. This was also Ouyang Shuo’s method to restrict the influence of Rio in the Brasilia Region.

He trusted him, but he also kept an eye on him.

This was how Ouyang Shuo usually acted.

Original Xiangnan Province Yongzhou Prefecture Governor Gu Hengxiao was promoted to Uruguay Provincial Governor.

Before submitting to Great Xia, he was also a Lord. This promotion to the Provincial Governor of such an important province was a huge leap for Gu Hengxiao.

From now on, his future was limitless.

This was how Ouyang Shuo used talents. He boldly made use of natives and Lord players, giving them chances to grow up and improve while allowing them to make a few mistakes.

Making mistakes in the game was better than making mistakes on Planet Hope.

The above three provinces along with the newly established Columbia Province formed the America Governor-General House; it was only the fifth of its kind in Great Xia and the third overseas one for them.

Original Xijiang Governor-General Wufu was shifted over.

As such, he became the first person in Great Xia’s history to have worked at two Governor-General Houses; this was destined to be recorded in the history books.

Compared to Xijiang, which was at the side and lacked life, South America was brimming with activity and potential. Although he received the same role after being moved there, it was actually a promotion for Wufu, giving him a bigger stage.

Original Shu Lands Chengdu Prefecture Governor Zheng Yi would be promoted to secretary-general.

Zheng Yi was a North Zhou high ranking official and had been a minister of the Chancellor Office. After Yang Jian established the Sui Dynasty, he became the Longzhou and Jizhou governor.

Due to sickness, he died when he was on duty in Jizhou.

Ouyang Shuo chose him because of his experience in the Chancellor Office. With his ability, he would be able to assist Wufu in managing the huge America Governor-General House well.

Taking over the vacancy that Wufu left behind was original Zhongyuan Provincial Governor Feng Qiuhuang.

Ouyang Shuo had higher hopes for her than Wufu. However, he did not send her over. Although experience was one of the reasons, the more important factor was that Ouyang Shuo had other plans for her.

The Xijiang Governor-General House was just a temporary solution.

Her original position would be taken over by Guo Anbang. Guo Anbang was Old Guo and was one of the two giants of the China elite level. He had agreed to start working and had officially stepped into the Great Xia official field.

Last year, the other giant, Old Zhang, became the Great Xia civil affairs director.

Old Guo’s agreement meant that the China elite level had recognized Great Xia.

Of course, Old Guo’s appointment had far more meaning than practical use. First, Ouyang Shuo definitely could not put someone he did not understand and trust into the core of the Imperial Court.

Secondly, his age was evident, and his future potential could not be compared to AIs like Jiang Shang.

At this point, the Imperial Court’s arrangement in America came to a temporary end. Apart from the Provincial Governor level, the Prefecture Governor, county magistrates, and other levels followed the previous promise and mainly made use of locals.

Apart from that, the Administration Court moved a number of demoted prefects or county magistrates to America to help them build up the offices.

At the same time, they were also responsible for helping to spread Chinese culture.

In conclusion, Great Xia’s rule of South America had just begun, and they still had a long way to go.

…

Apart from internal affairs, military matters were also decided.

First, the navy.

The 3rd, 4th, and 5th divisions of the Atlantic Squadron would frequent America. In the future, the Governor-General House would construct a navy base on the east shore of South America.  ( NovelFull )

As such, the Atlantic Squadron would do as its name suggests.

In the future, Ouyang Shuo would even consider moving the headquarters over. Once the European battlefield came to a conclusion, the main role of the Atlantic Squadron in the Mediterranean would be to protect ships.

If there were truly war needs, they could specifically build a Mediterranean Squadron.

If not, with just the Atlantic Squadron, managing the vast Atlantic Ocean while interfering in the Mediterranean ocean battle was impossible.

The Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea region had long been under the Indian Ocean Squadron. At the same time, with the help of the America warzone, the Atlantic Squadron had taken down the Lesser Antilles Islands and was now attacking the Greater Antilles Islands.

Due to the Greater Antilles being the gate to the Gulf of Mexico, and the gulf was the door to the Dawson Dynasty, it was not so easy to conquer.

The Dawson Dynasty would definitely defend it with their life. Ouyang Shuo had made preparations to fight a longm drawn out battle. He ordered the America warzone and the Pacific Squadron to nibble away at them, advancing slowly. He did not hope to end it in one battle.

Attacking the Greater Antilles Islands itself was a threat to the Dawson Dynasty.

After establishing the America Governor-General House, the defensive regions of the three legion corps in the warzone became really clear. The North America legion corps was housed in Columbia Province, and the South America legion corps managed the Amazon Province, Brasilia Province, and Uruguay Province.

As for the Tiger legion corps, they would temporarily be housed in Brasilia Province. After all, the Brasilia Dynasty had just submitted, and there were many uncertain factors. They needed to have a huge army to defend and take charge to work with the offices and clear out problems.

Once the America situation settled down, the Tiger legion corps would move based on their mission.

Lastly, it was how to deal with the 550 thousand Brasilia Army, which was also the toughest part. Luckily, the Privy Court proposed an interesting plan that Ouyang Shuo approved.

Chapter 1309 - -Not disappointing

Chapter 1309: TWO Chapter 1309-Not disappointing

The Privy Court suggested they select 500 thousand elites from the 550 thousand Brasilia Dynasty army. They would remove the injured, those who did not meet the cut, and the only sons of the family.

Removing 50 thousand was already the maximum.

Due to the America Governor-General House’s uncertain situation, if they disarmed a large number of soldiers and tossed them into civilian life, it might pose a serious safety hazard and affect local rule.

At the same time, it would give Rio and the other local officials some fake illusions.

Hence, this power had to be restricted in the military.

Without military power, Ouyang Shuo would not be afraid of Rio and the others causing any big waves. As time passed, they would not have such thoughts and would slowly merge into the Great Xia system.

They would choose the best among the elite soldiers to replenish the losses of the America warzone.

To conquer Panama City, the North America legion corps and the Tiger legion corps had suffered a certain amount of losses. Especially the North America legion corps, which was the main attacking force; they suffered heavy casualties and were in need of replenishment.

Absorbing a portion of the Brasilia army soldiers into the military would help to unite the local people and settle military and civilian relations. They would not let the America people feel that the Great Xia Army was there to monitor and supervise them.

Apart from that, the South America legion corps, which acted as a defending army, recruited South America players that wanted to join the military, attracting the elites amongst them.

This helped to draw in a portion of the local players.

The Privy Court calculated that after replenishing the losses, there would be around 450 thousand people. They recommended building two legion corps, one of which was not fully filled.

The two legion corps would not be listed as a part of Great Xia’s orthodox army.

Their mission was not on the Empire’s main battlefield but on the global battlefield; they would help the Empire participate in wars that the Empire could not join outright. They could be called the mercenary army of the Empire.

For this, the Privy Court gave out specific suggestions.

At the current stage, they could send the fully filled 1st legion into the Maple Dynasty battlefield and the 2nd into the Mayan Dynasty battlefield.

With this north and south pincer, they would continue to restrict the Dawson Dynasty to prevent its rise.

As they restricted the Dawson Dynasty, the America warzone and Atlantic Squadron could grab some winnings during all the chaos, taking the chance that the Dawson Dynasty was fighting wars to occupy the Greater Antilles Islands.

As such, they would be able to kill two birds with one stone.

With the current situation that the Mayan Dynasty and the Maple Dynasty faced, as long as Great Xia slightly hinted at it, they would rush up to accept this new injection of strength.

There were two rules to hiring them.

First, the hiring dynasty would be in charge of all logistical supplies.

There was a certain meaning behind this.

It needed to be emphasized that the salaries of the soldiers would still be given by the Empire; this was also an important aspect to the Empire controlling the Mercenary army.

For this, the salary would not be given to the soldiers directly but to family that they designated. The families were another link that the Empire used to restrict the Mercenary army to ensure that they would not have any funny thoughts.

Of course, if a soldier of the Mercenary army died in battle, the Empire would still give compensation gold and would not view them as outsiders. If the soldiers did well in battle, the Empire would give them rewards in the dark.

The salary would be sourced from the high priced payment from the hiring dynasty.

To encourage the Mercenary army soldiers to fight valiantly on the frontlines, the Privy Court suggested for their military salary standards to be 50% more than the Empire’s normal warfighting army.

The Great Xia Army already paid a high amount, so another 50% increase was enough to tempt anyone.

Secondly, the hiring dynasty needed to split out a large piece of land for Great Xia’s Mercenary army to build a military base.

The military base would be both a fixed camp and a key way for Great Xia to exact control over the Mercenary army.

The power that this military base possessed would be similar to Great Xia’s overseas territories.

At the same time, to strengthen their management of the military base, the Privy Court would participate in the construction of the military base and command headquarters to ensure their usability.

This was the amazing part.

Even if war ended, Great Xia could use these military bases to continue to exact their influence on the hiring dynasty. For this reason, it was no wonder that Ouyang Shuo agreed to the Privy Court’s plan right away.

With these two points, along with the Privy Court adding some America warzone soldiers into the Mercenary army in the process, they could basically ensure that this army would still be controlled by the Empire.

As such, they helped to resolve the safety problems in the South America region and helped the Empire grab another hand of good cards.

…

After the Privy Court’s plan was approved, it proceeded in full swing.

The one in charge of communicating with the Maple and Mayan dynasties was Honglu Temple assistant Di Chen.

Ouyang Shuo recognized Di Chen’s ability and was willing to give him a platform to perform.

As expected, after Great Xia revealed their willingness to provide Mercenary armies, be it the Maple Dynasty that was pushed to the edge of the war or the Mayan Dynasty that would be next, both were delighted.

Especially the Maple Dynasty, which acted like they had seen their saving grace.

After the Dawson Dynasty withdrew troops from Columbia, be it because of the dynasty’s strategy or due to venting their anger, Jack ordered the troops to increase their attacks on the Maple Dynasty.

Jack even said that he would conquer the Maple Dynasty within a month and unify North America.

The frontline army could feel the fury of the king. It was like they were all injected with steroids as they aggressively charged at the Maple Dynasty with soaring morale.

Even with the firearm Great Xia’s firearm support, the Maple dynasty was on the verge of falling.

At such a time, any outside help was precious to the Maple Dynasty.

They did not resist any of the terms Great Xia raised and accepted it all.

Truthfully, the terms that Great Xia raised were not too unfair. Compared to the survival of the dynasty, a military base and a mercenary fee were not much.

These Mercenary troops were fighting for them.

Ouyang Shuo was really humane. Apart from cash payments, they could choose to receive payment in the form of rare ores or the mining rights to minefields.

In conclusion, they would not force the two dynasties into desperation.

Through the Mercenary service fee, the Great Xia business bank also used the chance to enter the finance markets of the two dynasties.

Along with the industrialization wave proceeding aggressively, iron, copper, tin, and other ore resources were higher up on the Empire’s priority list.

Due to that, Ouyang Shuo approved the Imperial Court setting up a National Resource Department to ensure the logical use of land resources, ore resources, energy resources, and ocean resources.

Along with industrialization occurring, the Empire’s structure welcomed a round of new explosion. Organization after organization was set up to fit the Empire’s needs.

The ability of the Empire was becoming more and more like modern nations.

The National Resource Department would have the land division, ocean division, mine resource division, energy division, and geological prospecting division to support the Empire’s industrialization strategy.

Out of the five divisions, the geological prospecting division had the easiest job. They did not need to find mines or oil fields like their predecessors.

They only needed to analyze the land based on current research distribution data.

Just China itself had all sorts of rich mines and oil resources, which were enough to support this period of the Empire’s industrialization.

Of course, Ouyang Shuo definitely was not a short-sighted person.

He instructed the National Resource Department to be more protective when they mined, focusing more on overseas territories like Africa, Nanjiang, and South America.

When needed, they could consider importing these resources from other dynasties.

In conclusion, they had to take the path that could last. After all, according to Ouyang Shuo’s strategic planning, the game world’s position would be really important in the future period of time.

Apart from building the National Resource Department, the Empire also started building the China Mining Group and the China Energy Group, which took up the roles of energy mining and ore mining.

Once these two groups were built, they were destined to be giants.

Across the entire Empire, many modern factories were built with minefields and oilfields as their core, forming a complete set of facilities to process the resources and transport them to the shore.

Railroads were being constructed to connecting the inland areas to the shore.

The Empire’s focus slowly turned from agriculture to industrialization. The Imperial Court and the various offices made use of welfare policies to promote farmers and craftsmen changing occupations to workers and entering the industrialization wave.

Many talented players that previously lacked a place to shine obtained a chance to do so.

The entire Empire was brimming with life. Scenes of constructions flames and smoke rising into the air were everywhere; it was like how the other dynasties were burning with the flames of war.

Great Xia’s population benefit was releasing unprecedented amounts of power.

These were the foundations that Great Xia would use to rule the world.

Although the Dawson Dynasty was peaceful compared to Great Xia, they had less than 100 million people and were not the same as Great Xia.

A vast territory, rich resources, enough people, a stable environment, and a highly efficient internal system; all of these factors working together would shape a new Empire.

In terms of industrialization progression, Great Xia was slowly shaking off the other dynasties and was walking at the forefront of the world. Moreover, their pace would only quicken. Such a Great Xia would only be even more terrifying than the one that fought on the battlefields.

If the world war continued on like this, Great Xia would definitely be the final winner.

All things were on his side, so there was no reason for Ouyang Shuo to disappoint them.

…

7th month, 1st day, Imperial Capital.

The perfect ending of the South America war matter helped to solve one of the things in Ouyang Shuo’s mind.

Following which, the focus of the Empire would turn from South America to the European battlefield. To match the Empire’s strategy, stirring up the situation in Europe was really important.

The first point was to ensure the survival of the Ottoman Dynasty.

For that, Ouyang Shuo instructed Baiqi, “It’s time to act.”

Chapter 1310 - Flames of war rise up in Africa once more

Chapter 1310: TWO Chapter 1310-Flames of war rise up in Africa once more

After three months of intense fighting, the European continent was filled with solemn killing intent, seriousness, and a sense of tragedy. As the main battlefield, the Ottoman Dynasty was in tatters.

The stubbornness of the Ottoman Dynasty had greatly exceeded the predictions of the Alliance Army.

In this life or death battle, in the span of a short three months, the Ottoman Dynasty enlisted 400 thousand troops. Their overall strength increased instead of decreasing.

As time passed, the logistical pressure on the Alliance Army grew apparent.

The European battlefield fell to a standstill all of a sudden. At such a time, the Alliance Army hoped for the help of the Dawson Dynasty to conquer the Ottoman Dynasty with the smallest price possible.

If not, and more time passed, the Alliance Army would suffer heavy losses even if they won. If things went wrong, all the resources amassed by the European continent would be lost in this war.

However, the Dawson Dynasty had just taken a huge loss in South America. Not to mention losing the Columbia region, Great Xia was at their door in the Gulf of Mexico.

The current Jack was facing enough problems and was trying to obtain victory in North America. Where would he find the excess strength to help his European allies an Atlantic Ocean away?

This made things awkward.

The only aspect that made the Alliance Army happy was that the hidden threat of Great Xia did not truly want to enter the European battlefield. Even the North Africa legion corps were pushing forward unusually slowly in Algeria.

Although they did not understand why, they were happy.

It was under such circumstances that Great Xia, which was lying in wait, finally revealed its fangs.

7th month, 2nd day, the Great Xia North Africa legion corps that was deep in Algeria borders changed the course of action, suddenly becoming really mobile. They launched a relentless assault on the Spanish army in the region.

Due to the unexpected nature of the attack, the Spanish army was forced back in defeat.

Not only did the North Africa legion corps hold the numerical advantage, the individual strength of their soldiers were greater too. They were naturally unstoppable, and they swept up half of Algeria in less than a week.

7th month, 10th day, the North Africa legion corps arrived under Algiers City.

Although they moved in swiftly, they did not have grain concerns.

During the standoff, the Africa Governor-General House had gathered up a large quantity of grain from the Libya and Egypt provinces, sending an endless amount to the frontlines and amassing them at the surrounding cities.

With the North Africa legion corps exerting their strength, the grain transport group swiftly followed up, and they worked closely with one another.

Such highly efficient logistical management was a result of Great Xia’s full scale takeover of the Egypt Dynasty.

Three months had passed since Great Xia took over Egypt. With the hard work of the Governor-General House and the Provincial Governor offices, the Egypt and Libya provinces had slowly walked onto the right path.

Regardless of whether the civilians were willing or not, they had silently accepted the fact that their ruler had changed.

Along with the threat of the army and the kindness of the offices, the mindset of the people changed. They adapted to their new lives and did not think about creating any problems.

Order was restored.

For those who really could not accept it, the wrongdoers locked up in the jails were their best warning.

Africa Governor-General Mulan Yue loved to use both gentle and tough methods to rule Africa. Usually, this gentle young woman would walk the streets and chat with the people like a neighbor.

However, when they faced truly tough situations and needed to be decisive, she would not even frown.

From the time she managed Morocco Province, Mulan Yue’s name had spread out in Africa. After becoming the Governor-General, her fame had reached a new peak.

The African people called her the reincarnation of Hua Mulan and respected her greatly.

That was not without reason.

From the 4th to the 7th month, less than 100 riots happened in the three provinces. Large and small protest incidents went from the streets to become a group riot.  ( NovelFull )

Mulan Yue did not stop the protests. However, the offices did not show mercy if things got violent, and they would send out the bailiffs to crush it.

If the bailiffs were not enough, they sent the provincial garrison forces.

During the worst incident, she contacted the Africa warzone to send a proper army to quash it.

As such, the evil storm was slowly killed off.

The hotheaded Egyptian people slowly woke up. They knew that nothing good would come of them going against the Imperial Court, and they would even implicate their families.

On the contrary, if they recognized the Imperial Court’s rule, they would quickly realize that Great Xia’s internal politics were more efficient and fair.

Along with the Imperial Court building schools, hospitals, and roads, their lives greatly improved.

Along with the influx of a large number of merchants, their future lives would only get better.

Comparing the two, the choice was obvious.

After three months of transition, the threats in the various provinces were getting controlled. Along with the South America war ending, Ouyang Shuo decided to start the Africa war.

Africa warzone commander Baiqi understood Ouyang Shuo’s intentions.

With the Governor-General House as its back shield, the Africa warzone felt confident about launching a ferocious assault on their target. They would not need to worry about their back garden being on fire.

Just as the North Africa legion corps entered the west, the 4th and 5th legions of the Wolf legion corps went west along the shore, acting as their reserve force; they could be thrown in at any moment.

The Africa warzone was exerting its full strength.

…

Like the Battle of Columbia that had just ended, Great Xia’s every action could snatch the world’s attention and make them the focus of the world.

This matter was no exception.

The happiest party was naturally Azure Badge.

During the past three months, they had rushed Great Xia numerous times but to no avail. They waited and prayed, and finally, the Great Xia Army acted.

The moment the Great Xia Army moved, Azure Badge saw a chance of victory.

The Egypt army that had experienced a tough few months was stuck in the south of Spain. In front, there was an army intercepting them; behind, there was a lack of grain support. In the 6th month, they survived by scrounging the land.

If it were not for their toughness, they would have collapsed.

If Great Xia could conquer Algeria and Morocco, not only could they break the arm of the Spain Dynasty, but it could also open up the logistical supply line, which would grant the Egypt army a breath of new life.

As such, the European battlefield would welcome a change.

The trigger to these series of events was in the hands of Great Xia.

Although it made one feel helpless, that was the truth.

Some people would be happy, while others would be sad.

The saddest would have to be the Spain Dynasty.

The poor Spain was just played by the Dawson Dynasty in South America and was chased out of Argentina, making Casillas’s heart bleed.

Before his wound could close up, Great Xia stabbed them once more in Africa.

As this knife went in, it claimed close to half of Spain’s life.

As they had to be careful, Casillas had left half of the 120 thousand that retreated from South America in Spain. He had sent the remaining over to Africa.

As such, the Spain Dynasty had 160 thousand troops in Africa. Along with enlisting troops on the spot, they barely reached 200 thousand.

Obviously, such numbers could not fend off the Great Xia Army.

Luckily, the Great Xia Army did not show too much invasiveness, which allowed Casillas to heave a sigh of relief.

He was not a fool; he would not think that Great Xia was not attacking due to mercy. In his eyes, there was a higher chance that Great Xia was prepared to sit on the fence to watch the European dynasties fight amongst themselves and do nothing on the sides.

Only then could all of this make sense.  ( NovelFull )

Due to similar conjectures, Henry and the others did not rush to send their troops in Africa to the Algeria region.

Africa was not a peaceful place, so they did not dare to be careless.

How would they have known that Ouyang Shuo was not willing to be a bystander? Instead, he wished to be a sh*t stirrer. He was stirring up Europe into a mess and preventing its rise.

This error in judgement caused the current series of events.

Now, Casillas was facing a dilemma. Should he give up on Africa or go all out?

For this matter, Casillas had no choice but to hold another six country meeting.

Chapter 1311 - Taking up the responsibility of managing the world

Chapter 1311: TWO Chapter 1311-Taking up the responsibility of managing the world

Putting down the communication compass, Casillas’s furrowed brows formed a line. The three hours of the six country meeting could be summarized in one sentence, “We will support you in spirit!”

The various Lords all had their own agendas, and they did not have the ability to aid the Spain Dynasty.

In the end, they all tried to convince him to give up on Africa for the sake of the organization to reduce the defensive line and stabilize the European battlefield.

“If you take a step back, everything will be great!” Caesar had said.

Casillas wanted to flip on the spot. These people could speak so easily when their interests were not affected. Who knows, maybe they were floating in silence.

The helpless Casillas could only seek some benefits; he demanded he receive some rewards from the splitting of the Ottoman Dynasty.

“If not, let’s break up!” Casillas threw down an ultimatum.

After three hours of debate and negotiations, they barely agreed to a new distribution plan.

Even then, Casillas still felt really annoyed. Seeing his dynasty fall from strong to weak, no ruler would feel good about it, much less someone like him who liked face.

Casillas was also feeling more and more annoyed about the useless Jack.

…

7th month, 12th day, the Spain Dynasty army resisted for a bit before abandoning Algiers and withdrawing to their mainland.

Great Xia’s North Africa legion corps proceeded forward with an invincible aura in the next 10 days. Not only did they take down Algeria, but they also reclaimed Morocco, wiping away the previous humiliation.

The entire North Africa was under Great Xia rule.

Not only that, but even the Spain Dynasty’s two other territories in Africa – West Sahara and Mauritania – were taken down.

The Spain Dynasty officially stepped out of the battle for the Africa Continent.

Jidian City, Morocco, and Algeria were grouped together to form the Algeria Province. The ruling city would be Algiers City, becoming the eighth province in the Africa Governor-General House.

Original Beijiang Province Fengtian Prefecture Governor Wen Tianxiang was promoted to Algeria Provincial Governor.

West Sahara and the Mauritania region were grouped under Sahara Province, and its ruling area was Nouakchott.

Original Minnan Province Dingzhou Prefecture Governor Baili Nanfeng was promoted to Sahara Provincial Governor.

At this point, Great Xia’s expansion in the Africa Continent came to an end, moving from attack to defense. They would focus on managing their current territories and would not have any thoughts for the other regions of Africa.

In a short four months, from accepting the Egypt Dynasty to conquering the Spain Dynasty’s territories in Africa, the size of the Governor-General House had doubled.

If they did not digest this well, problems might crop up.

Ouyang Shuo did not want to become fat right after eating so much.

…

In the blink of an eye, the 8th month arrived.

The biggest effect of the Spain Dynasty’s withdrawal was the attacks of the Egypt army becoming more eager.

With Great Xia as their shield, the problem of the Egypt army’s logistical supply was solved.

With Jidian City, Morocco, and Atlantis City, they formed a triangle. Great Xia totally controlled the Mediterranean-Gibraltar Straits.

Not to mention disturbing Great Xia’s supply transport, whether the three squadrons of the Alliance Army could enter the Atlantic or not depended on Great Xia.

The Mediterranean trade route was totally under Great Xia’s control.

On the day that the Algeria Province was established, Great Xia made a statement that they would protect global trade, which allowed Silver Hand to heave a sigh of relief.

This statement meant that Great Xia would not disturb merchant ships at the Gibraltar Straits.

The traveling ships, regardless of whether they were from Great Xia, Azure Badge, or Silver Hand, could all travel through the Suez Canal and Gibraltar Straits.

The Mediterranean trade route would only become more open and more safe.

Ouyang Shuo made this decision because he agreed with the win-win principle and did not want to push them to the wall.

The Mediterranean trade route was the lifeline of the Asia-Europe trade route and concerned most of the dynasty’s trade.

Even the House of Tudors, the Ottoman Dynasty, the Romanov Dynasty, and the Dawson Dynasty had merchant ships travelling in the Mediterranean.

If Great Xia acted really shameless and tried to monopolize it, they would become public enemy number one.

Wouldn’t that give Silver Hand and Azure Badge a chance to join hands to go against Great Xia? Ouyang Shuo was not so foolish.

Moreover, opening up the trade route benefited Great Xia the most.

Looking further, the third condition for becoming an imperial dynasty was obtaining the recognition of all the dynasties across the world. One had to take up responsibility for the world to become a global overlord.

In history, America swiftly rose up and became a global giant after World War II, taking the role of the global police; this was an undeniable matter.

Who knows how many countries in the world or global organizations obtained American help.

Although the help was not free and was even done with other intentions, it was true that it helped with the rebuilding of the various countries and established post-war order.

This was something that could not be changed.

At the latter stages, when America faced problems internally and was not willing to take up this global responsibility, it lost its position as the global overlord.

This was a really practical society.

Power and responsibility were two sides of the same coin.

Ouyang Shuo used the America of that time period as a learning example. He would not make the same mistakes and try to lockdown the Mediterranean Ocean now to incur the wrath of everyone.

On the contrary, he wanted to use this chance to promote global free trade.

Even with the Panama Canal that Great Xia had just taken down, Ouyang Shuo was not going to interfere with the Dawson Dynasty merchants travelling across as long as they accepted routine checks and paid border fees.

This was a silent infiltration.

With that, as Great Xia developed, it would draw close to the other dynasties to a certain extent, setting up a foundation that would help Great Xia destroy the two organizations.

Otherwise, why would they betray their organization?

…

The Egypt army suddenly increased their offensive for one more reason, which was the deadline set by Ouyang Shuo.

At the start, when Azure Badge and Great Xia signed the agreement, they made it clear that Great Xia was in charge of logistics, but it was only for a limited time period.

It was impossible for Great Xia to take charge of their logistics forever.

That would be a huge loss.

The logistical supplies of the Egypt army was basically using up the coffers of the Governor-General House.

The deadline that Ouyang Shuo gave them was the end of the 8th year of Gaia.

If the 8th year ended and the two sides were still at such a standstill, the Egypt army would have to solve their own problems.

It was already the 8th month, and winter was about to arrive.

Although the Spain Dynasty was affected by the Mediterranean Ocean and was a warm region with a warm winter, it would still be affected a little. At the very least, it would not be so easy to gather up grain.

Hence, the Egypt army had very little time left. They had to achieve a decisive result in the Spain battlefield before the 8th year ended.

However, this was easier said than done.

The Spain Dynasty that was shortening their defensive lines had gathered up close to 320 thousand soldiers in Spain. Furthermore, they had the geographical advantage, so they were totally unafraid of the Egypt army.

The two sides could be called evenly matched.

The change had to come from outside of the battlefield, and it would depend on Azure Badge’s actions.

Chapter 1312 - -Globalizing currency

Chapter 1312: TWO Chapter 1312-Globalizing currency

8th month, 5th day, after being pushed into a corner, Azure Badge finally exploded.

Compared to Silver Hand, Azure Badge’s strength was simply too scattered. Although their influence stretched across the globe, they were unable to form a combined power. Out of their five dynasties, only the Ottoman Dynasty stood out as strong.

They were unlike Silver Hand, whose powers were grouped.

It was not much of a problem before. However, the moment they entered this world war, this weakness was magnified. Even after making a deal with Great Xia, they were unable to turn the tides.

The deals did not solve the root of the problem.

To turn the tides of the European war, Azure Badge would have to take down at least one of the five Alliance Army dynasties to break the balance.

If not, they would be like a trapped beast.

Since they could see that not much time was left, Azure Badge had no choice but to use their strongest trump card.

Basically on the same day, large-scale, chaotic incidents broke out in the House of Tudor, Gaule Dynasty, Spain Dynasty, Caesar Dynasty, and Romanov Dynasty borders.

Officials were assassinated, fires were started, small-scale riots….

Under Azure Badge’s instigation, the secret members hidden within the five dynasties ignored the risk of being exposed and acted with determination to turn the five dynasties into a mess.

This was called fighting behind enemy lines.

Azure Badge paid a heavy price with this move. From now on, they had totally lost their influence on the five dynasties, and all of their secret members were cleared out by the enemy.

Although the price that they paid was huge, the results were evident.

The sudden chaos caused the five dynasties that were focused on the frontlines to panic. The most affect parties were the Spain and Gaule dynasties.

There was no need to mention the Spain Dynasty.

They were already locked in an intense battle with the Egypt army. Now, their back garden had suddenly been set alight, the military was not stable, and their grain line was disturbed. The Egypt army grasped this chance to swiftly push northward.

In the middle of the 8th month, only half of the Spain Dynasty was left. The original Portugal region, apart from a small corner on the north side, had basically completely fallen, what a tragic state.

The second unlucky soul was the Gaule Dynasty.

The Gaule Dynasty was located on the frontlines. After the Egypt army disembarked in Spain, the Ottoman Dynasty had changed its strategy and chose to their main defensive front to be the one with the Gaule Dynasty.

For the remaining two sides, they decided to defend around cities.

On the west side, the Ottoman Dynasty chose a proactive defensive strategy, sometimes using attack as a means of defense. With that, the Gaule Dynasty territories were unavoidably dragged into the flames of war.

Only empty plains remained between the two dynasties.

This chaos was like adding oil to the fire for the Gaule Dynasty.

…

8th month, 15th day, the Egypt army finally arrived at Madrid.

Madrid was located in the middle of Spain. Although it was not the Capital City of the Spain Dynasty, it was the imperial city of the Spain region and the largest city of the Spain Dynasty.

Once it fell, the north of Spain would be exposed with nothing to shield them.

Casillas finally panicked.

At such a time, he did not care about the big picture. He also ignored the opposition from Henry and the others and ordered Fernando to lead his troops back.

The standoff in Europe was finally broken.

Without the Spain army, it was like an arm of the Alliance Army was broken off, and their chances of victory were down by half.

At this very moment, the Ottoman Dynasty made an unexpected move and sent a 100 thousand men army to cross the straits of England and disembark on the House of Tudor; this made the usually calm William panic too.

With these two new changes, the European battlefield finally turned for the better for Azure Badge.

…

House of Tudor, Avic Fort.

A frown covered William’s face. Although he maintained his noble aura, he did not exude a sense of energy and strength.

When Annie, who was sitting opposite to him saw that, she asked, “Brother, should we withdraw some troops back from the frontlines to defend? The Ottoman Dynasty army is pillaging our shoreline, and we must deal with it.”

“No!”

Compared to Casillas, William was more rational, “If we do that, the Battle of Europe would be wasted. Organizing another attack would be really difficult.”

“Let it be wasted then.” Annie had a different understanding and said, “Brother, I do not understand why Azure Badge and we have to kill each other till only one survives? We are fighting to our deaths in Europe while Great Xia and the Dawson Dynasty are like fishermen making gains at the side. Don’t you think that is foolish?”

“What do you know!”

William’s face sunk as he replied, “As long as we take down the Ottoman Dynasty and unify Europe, the organization will have two continents, and we will still be the strongest presence in the world.”

“Unify Europe?”

Annie’s face revealed a mocking expression as she said, “Don’t you know what kind of thoughts Caesar and the others have? Even if we take down the Ottoman Dynasty, I dare to bet that they would start fighting amongst themselves.”

When William heard that, his expression was really complicated and hard to read.

In the end, he sighed as he firmly said, “No matter what, we cannot withdraw at such a time. Even if the situation you described occurs, it will be an internal problem of the organization.”

Annie shook her head in disappointment, “Brother, think about it. Before working for the organization, you are first the king of the House of Tudor. That is the root of the family.”

As she said that, she got up and left the room.

…

Imperial Capital.

Just as Azure Badge started a storm in the European battlefield and showed signs of turning the tide, Old Chen visited Great Xia once more.

He came over to discuss a deal.

Although the Ottoman Dynasty had launched a counterattack on the House of Tudor, it was just a move to announce to the world that, “We have not fallen.”

If the House of Tudor retreated, it would be the best case scenario for them.

Unexpectedly, William was actually so calm and did not even waver. He arranged native troops to fend off the invading army while continuing to send resources into the Gaule Dynasty.

That made things difficult.

The coffers of the Ottoman Dynasty were drying out; they were not willing to continue fighting.

However, they had no choice.

To inject new blood into the Ottoman Dynasty, Azure Badge gathered 40 million gold to make a huge firearm deal.

More than half of the funds came from the Ottoman Dynasty.

Since there was money to be made, Ouyang Shuo had no reason to reject them. He immediately agreed and signed an official agreement. Helping the Ottoman Dynasty was in line with Great Xia’s current strategy.

Apart from firearms, the Ottoman Dynasty also made a 10 million gold war resources order.

Ouyang Shuo swiftly agreed to that too.

Along with the Mediterranean naval route being freed up once more, these war resources could be easily transported from Great Xia mainland to Europe given their ocean transport ability.

These two deals allowed Great Xia to earn another 50 million gold.

Along with the previous orders, over 100 million gold seeped into Great Xia within just a year. Great Xia’s gold reserves reached an unprecedented level.

Ouyang Shuo was not prepared to let this gold flow back into the market. Instead, he turned them into gold bricks and stored them in the Great Xia Bank’s vault to act as a strategic reserve fund.

In the present Great Xia, the Great Xia currency was the main currency used in transactions.

In the future, if the Great Xia currency wanted to go global and become the strongest in the world, they would need to have enough gold reserves.

If not, they would be unable to build up the credibility of the Great Xia currency.

Chapter 1313 - Activating mine, plotting India

Chapter 1313: TWO Chapter 1313-Activating mine, plotting India

Before Old Chen left, Ouyang Shuo asked about a certain matter, “Azure Badge also has secret members within Great Xia, right?”

“…”

Old Chen did not know how to reply to that.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and directly said, “If Azure Badge could pass that list to me, our sides will have a chance of continuing to work together. After all, no one hopes to have a bunch of time bombs by their side, right?”

The storm Azure Badge caused in Europe allowed people to realize the power they had hidden around. Naturally, this increased the wariness of Ouyang Shuo and Jack.

This was also one of the aftereffects.

In comparison, Ouyang Shuo was less worried about the Azure Badge secret members than Jack.

First, Zhan Lang, who was a core member of Azure Badge, had handed over a list of members he knew about when he submitted to Great Xia.

Ouyang Shuo had kept the list in hand and asked the Shanhai Guards to monitor them and not act on it.

Secondly, the Shanhai Guards.

With this secret organization monitoring things, along with the help of the Martial Management Division and the various bailiffs, it was good that the Azure Badge members did not reveal themselves. Even if they did, they would not be able to cause much waves.

Of course, it was best if he could wipe them out.

“I’ll try my best to help to make this matter happen.” Old Chen took a clear stance.

Ouyang Shuo nodded in satisfaction before once again emphasizing, “Old Chen, the previous invitation is still valid.”

“I’ll consider it.”

This time, Old Chen did not directly reject the offer.

Regardless of whether Azure Badge managed to keep the Ottoman Dynasty or not, they would not have a place for Old Chen. On the contrary, the current Great Xia Emperor Dynasty was at the heights of its power and could use Old Chen.

To Old Chen, this choice was just a threshold.

If he crossed it, his future would be limitless.

…

Time flew and the nervous 8th month flashed past.

One would notice a very interesting matter if they took a broad look at the world.

If the world map had Great Xia as its center, the European and North America Continent that were to its sides were wrapped up in war, forming a direct contrast with the relatively peaceful Great Xia.

At the same time, Africa, which was south of Europe and South America, slowly moved from chaos to an orderly rule as a result of Great Xia’s interference.

Great Xia’s shadow covered the entire world.

With such a comparison, Great Xia’s advantages were evident.

Great Xia’s economy took advantage of the sky-high priced firearm deals and relied on a relatively stable internal environment and rich natural resources to welcome its greatest increase since the establishment of the country. Currently, its industrialization was proceeding rapidly each day.

Be it the mainland, Nanjiang, Africa, or South America, they were all developing swiftly, helping to make up for one another.

In the long-term, they would definitely be able to accumulate a huge lead over the other dynasties.

A certain point could not be overlooked. During this round of world war, there were three dynasties that made use of their special geographical positions to be unaffected.

They were the Bantu Dynasty on the south of Africa and the Persian and Arab Empire in Asia.

The one that worried Ouyang Shuo the most was the Persian Empire, his west neighbor.

The Bantu Dynasty was located at a corner, and its north side was locked down by Great Xia and the Dawson Dynasty. As a result, there was not much that they could do. It should be the backup base of Azure Badge.

The Arab Empire and the Persian Empire had a thick religious environment; they were empires that were relatively harder to conquer. If it were not for a difference in religions, these two empires might have even joined hands.

Compared to the Persian Empire, the Arab Empire’s greatest weakness was that apart from oil, natural gases, and other energy resources, it lacked decent ore mines.

Coal and iron ore were the basis of industrialization.

Since they only possessed oil and energy and lacked ore resources, the Arab Empire was unable to industrialize.

Furthermore, the Arab Empire’s territory was filled with many deserts of various sizes. The only places suitable for living were places like the Mediterranean shore, Persian Gulf shore, Red Sea shore, and Arab sea shore.

This greatly restricted the rise of the Arab Empire.

Whether having a shocking quantity of oil and natural gases was a disaster or a blessing was hard to judge.

On the contrary, the Persian Empire had all the resources necessary for industrialization and was one of the opponents Great Xia faced in their path to becoming the overlord of Asia. Moreover, there was a score to settle between the two.

Ogedai’s forces were still living really lavishly in Persia.

In this half a year, thanks to the hard work of both the Xijiang people and the Xijiang construction formation, the grain storage had slowly formed into scale and was ready for war purposes in the upcoming year.

The west side would definitely have a war.

…

On the global scale, there was also one more region that had to be mentioned – India.

Since spring, the India region internal war had grown more and more intense. Under the combined efforts of the Peacock and Gupta dynasties, the Ashoka Dynasty was being forced back.

Half a year had passed, and the Ashoka Dynasty had lost close to half of its territory. Its military had also suffered heavy casualties.

Luckily for them, the Ashoka Dynasty had deep foundations and enough grain. Furthermore, Ashoka was a king that did not want to lose; if that were not the case, he would not have fought with Great Xia to such an extent on the Tibetan battlefield.

Even then, he probably did not have enough strength to retaliate.

Based on the current situation, if the two dynasties went all out, there was a chance that they would be able to destroy the Ashoka Dynasty and split up India.

Such a matter would be detrimental to Great Xia’s strategy.

A stable, united India was not good for Great Xia’s interests.

Although half a year of chaos had greatly reduced the overall strength of India, the two player dynasties would be able to get back onto the right path with the countries huge population.

If that happened, they would definitely become Great Xia’s greatest obstacle. They would pose an even greater threat to Great Xia than the Persian Empire.

This was something that Ouyang Shuo was not willing to see. Luckily, at the end of last year, Ouyang Shuo had buried a mine.

Now, it was the time to activate it.

…

Gaia 8th year, 9th month, 5th day, Imperial Capital.

During the 9th month, the imperial capital was bustling. Especially the newly built university region, which welcomed a batch of new students. The exceptional students from the various provinces, who passed through test after test and stood out, were given the chance to learn in the imperial city.

They were the future of the Empire.

Great Xia’s education system was getting closer and closer to perfection by the day, and it could produce top-level talents.

Apart from the Capital University and the Teacher-training University, the students who came to the imperial capital to learn could choose the Technology University or the Arts College.

Along with the industrialization wave hitting, the Capital Technology University’s popularity grew in particular.

Within the Imperial Reading Room, Ouyang Shuo summoned military affairs minister Du Ruhui and Honglu Temple head Zhang Yi.

He called them here to discussed the India strategy.

“Send a secret envoy to the Ashoka Dynasty.” Ouyang Shuo said.

When Zhang Yi heard that, he asked, “May I ask what the mission is?”

“Tell Ashoka that as long as they are willing to hand over a rich ransom, we are willing to hand back the one million Ashoka army war prisoners to them.” Ouyang Shuo revealed.

During the war of Tibet, Great Xia had captured a million Ashoka Dynasty soldiers. They were disarmed and sent to build the Chuan-Tibet line and the Qing-Tibet line.

By now, the two paths were basically completed.

Throughout the process, these war prisoners were exceptionally useful and had contributed a lot.

Ouyang Shuo was not a violent ruler and instructed them not to scold or beat up these of war prisoners. They also had to ensure that the war prisoners were fed. When these war prisoners got sick, they were treated by the doctors.

All in all, apart from not having salary, they were treated the same as normal workers.

After half a year, the one million war prisoners were mostly still there.

When Du Ruhui heard that, his eyes lit up, and he said, “Your majesty wants to increase the strength of the Ashoka Dynasty to let the India war drag on?”

This was a good fit with Great Xia’s strategy.

Ouyang Shuo nodded as a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth, “I want to know what interesting things will happen when the Peacock Dynasty and the Gupta Dynasty find out that the Ashoka Dynasty suddenly gained a million more troops. What kind of reaction would they have?”

“That would be remarkable.” Du Ruhui smiled.

“As for the envoy matter, the Honglu Temple will be in charge. The handover of the prisoners will be planned by the Privy Court. Remember to keep it a secret; do not let the Peacock and Gupta dynasties notice.”

“Yes, my emperor!”

Du Ruhui and Zhang Yi nodded before leaving.

Chapter 1314 - Second emperor dynasty

Chapter 1314: TWO Chapter 1314-Second emperor dynasty

As Ouyang Shuo had expected, the Ashoka Dynasty gladly accepted the olive branch.

After the negotiations, the two sides finally decided that the Ashoka Dynasty would pay a 30 million gold ransom for the one million war prisoners.

One had to say that the Ashoka Dynasty was really rich.

To an extent, the agreement had reduced the nervous atmosphere between the two. The Ashoka Dynasty even suggested to open up trade at the border between the two.

It seemed that the war had been a huge test on the resource capabilities of the Ashoka Dynasty.

Although Ouyang Shuo did not reject the suggestion, he did not show much interest either. After all, transportation from the mid plains to the Xikang Province border cost a lot, and the Ashoka Dynasty would not be able to afford the price.

The symbolic meaning of the trade was more important than its practical use.

Of course, Great Xia could use the trading teams to easily infiltrate the Ashoka Dynasty.

In the next month, under the organization of the Privy Court, the one million war prisoners were sent back in an orderly and secretive matter, officially completing the trade.

After the Ashoka Dynasty took back the war prisoners, it would at least take a month for them to regain their fighting strength. Hence, these war prisoners would not be able to solve their burning problem.

For these two months, the Ashoka Dynasty had to hold on.

…  ( NovelFull )

In the blink of an eye, it was already the 10th month.

After two months of intense fighting, the global battlefield finally welcomed a new change.

The first to break the deadlock was the North America battlefield.

Although they had purchased firearms and hired Mercenary troops from Great Xia, the crazy assaults of the Dawson Dynasty forced the Maple Dynasty back in defeat.

As the war continued, the Dawson Dynasty threw in a million troops onto the Maple Dynasty battlefield.

To destroy the Maple Dynasty, the Dawson Dynasty even reduced their defensive lines in Africa. They placed everything into this battleto wipe out this threat.

If not, the Dawson Dynasty would be unable to breakout.

Jack was anxious. Even without mentioning the bad situation that the Dawson Dynasty was facing, the European situation was really bad for Silver Hand.

As the flag bearer of Silver Hand, the Dawson Dynasty had to put in some work for the European battlefield.

However, before he could do that, he had to stop at nothing to totally destroy the Maple Dynasty. Only then would they not fighting on too many fronts.

10th month, 10th day, under the ferocious assaults of the Dawson Dynasty, the Maple Dynasty’s capital Quebec City finally fell. This event basically announced the fall of the Maple Dynasty.

Before this, Canada region’s imperial city Ottawa had already been conquered by the Dawson Dynasty.

At the final juncture, the 1st Mercenary legion covered the royal family of the Maple Dynasty and helped the core officials onto the warships of the Atlantic Squadron. They successfully fled from the Maple Dynasty.

They would disembark at Columbia Province then teleport to the imperial city, where they would accept shelter from Great Xia. They would be the first player dynasty to do so.

Of course, sheltering was just an indirect term. Be it the Maple Dynasty or Ouyang Shuo, neither would not speak about rebuilding the Maple Dynasty.

That was not practical.

After taking down the Maple Dynasty, the Dawson Dynasty had completed their unification North America.

10th month, 11th day, the day after the Dawson Dynasty took down the Maple Dynasty, a System Notification sounded out across the world, raising the spirits of the Silver Hand camp.

“World Notification: Congratulations America Region Lord Jack for successfully upgrading to Emperor Dynasty, becoming the second in the world to do so. Awarding player with two AI instantiating opportunities, six million gold, and a mysterious gift as a reward!”

…

A year and 10 months after Great Xia upgraded to Emperor Dynasty, a second Emperor Dynasty finally appeared, confirming the status and influence of the Dawson Dynasty in the world.

The one with the most thoughts about this was actually Ouyang Shuo.

Along with the Dawson Dynasty becoming an Emperor Dynasty, Ouyang Shuo realized that with the three conditions of becoming an imperial dynasty, the Dawson Dynasty had a chance of reaching it first.

Requirement 1: Unify the America region.

This requirement was met long ago when the Dawson Dynasty was just a king dynasty.

Requirement 2: Obtain the Overlord position in North America.

The Dawson Dynasty had unified North America; naturally, they had also met this requirement.

Requirement 3: Obtain the recognition of dynasties in the world.

As the flag of Silver Hand, they had a natural edge in terms of their influence in the world compare to Great Xia. Consequently, it was easier for them to achieve global recognition.

This obviously made Ouyang Shuo feel nervous.

The current Great Xia Emperor Dynasty had not even completed the second requirement.

The Dawson Dynasty which had stabilized its back garden would definitely start to be act high-profile. They would start to challenge Great Xia and expand their influence in the world.

Ouyang Shuo’s judgment quickly turned to reality.

10th month, 15th day, the Dawson Dynasty which had just upgraded to Emperor Dynasty immediately declared war against the Mayan Dynasty. It even boasted that it would take back the Panama Canal sooner or later and would have a fight with Great Xia.

The America situation welcomed a new change.

Since the Dawson Dynasty had broken away from fighting on two fronts, the Mayan Dynasty that had a bad geographical position, a lack of resources, and were short on people would foreseeably face a huge challenge.

Due to that, Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate and ordered the 1st Mercenary legion to proceed there to fight against the aggressive the Dawson Dynasty.

The Mayan Dynasty that was in danger needed such an injection of life.

Both sides clicked instantly.

Ouyang Shuo’s strategy was to try his best to stall the Dawson Dynasty so that this opponent did not have the ability to interfere with the European battlefield. The longer they could stall, the better it would be for Great Xia.

In the end, Ouyang Shuo did not fear the Dawson Dynasty at all.

A Maple Dynasty could stall the Dawson Dynasty for close to a year, causing them many problems. If this happened once more on the Mayan Battlefield, Ouyang Shuo would like to see what they could take out to challenge Great Xia.

Deep down, Ouyang Shuo did not view the Dawson Dynasty as an opponent on equal footing.

Across the entire world, probably only Silver Hand as an organization could compete against Great Xia. Even Azure Badge was a thing of the past and was not on the same level.    ( NovelFull )

Losing the Maple Dynasty was a huge blow to Azure Badge’s global arrangement.

If the Mayan Dynasty fell into the hands of the Dawson Dynasty, Azure Badge would only have the Ottoman Dynasty, Bantu Dynasty, and Gupta Dynasty left on the global landscape.

That would make things difficult.

As such, Azure Badge had to take a more proactive approach. Apart from the Mayan Battlefield, they had to work together with Great Xia to defend their final piece of land in the Americas while starting waves in Africa.

10th month, 16th day, the day after the Dawson Dynasty declared war on the Mayan Dynasty, the Bantu Dynasty changed its strategy and went up north to attack the Dawson Dynasty’s Central Africa territory.

The Africa continent that had just enjoyed a short period of peace was embroiled in the flames of war once more.

Chapter 1315 - Working with the enemy

Chapter 1315: TWO Chapter 1315-Working with the enemy

The Mayan Dynasty was the buffer zone between the Dawson Dynasty and Great Xia. The Dawson Dynasty’s actions and their eagerness to attack the Mayan Dynasty meant that they would unavoidably have conflicts with Great Xia.

Ouyang Shuo could use the Mayan Dynasty as a medium to restrict the Dawson Dynasty.

In Africa, the Bantu Dynasty launched an attack on Central Africa. While trying to draw the Dawson Dynasty’s attention, they also intended to expand in Africa.

Currently, Great Xia’s position as the big boss of Africa was unshakeable. After them was the Bantu Dynasty, then the European, and finally the American dynasties.

The Bantu Dynasty’s actions affected Great Xia’s Africa strategy.

The global landscape was extremely complicated, and interests were the motivators. An allied relationship did not exist between Great Xia and Azure Badge; they were just making use of one another.

If they found the opportunity, they would even stab each other in the back.

The global situation was always changing.

Despite such circumstances, Great Xia’s first Empire Olympics was proceeding at a fast rate. The sports hall was already completed and was in use.

The thousands of athletes from the 19 provinces and five Governor-General Houses had all arrived in the imperial capital to familiarize themselves with the venue and make their final preparations.

Compared to modern sports meets, this one was a little small and had fewer events. Although that was the case, it would only get bigger and bigger provided it got off to a good start.

In the future, holding a global sports event was not impossible.

This was also another method to expand Great Xia’s influence.

…

10th month, 10th day, Imperial Capital.

Di Chen, who had just returned from North America, was summoned by Ouyang Shuo once more.

His North America journey had pleased Ouyang Shuo. He was summoned because Ouyang Shuo had a new mission for him.

Ouyang Shuo said, “The Imperial Court is preparing to form a special trading team to be in charge of Pacific Ocean trade. The main participants are the Indian Empire, the Dawson Dynasty, and the Darkness empire.

In the past half a year, due to the rise of the Darkness empire, the Pacific Ocean trade had been really chaotic.

The Darkness empire often came out to disturb merchant ships between Great Xia and South America. There were even several incidents of them sinking ship, negatively impacting the safety of the trade route.

Ouyang Shuo was not someone afraid of getting involved.

He ordered the Pacific Squadron to disturb the Darkness empire and Dawson Dynasty ships. Although they did not sink them, they arrested several batches.

They were fighting fire with fire.

Along with iron warship after iron warship being equipped to the Pacific Squadron, the strength of the Pacific Squadron was now comparable to the Darkness Squadron.

They would not lose out in a frontal confrontation.

Not long ago, the two sides had fought near the Hawaii islands. At the time, the Pacific Squadron had given them a huge smacking, proving this point.

Although their warships were good, the Darkness Squadron was far off from the Pacific Squadron in terms of naval battle skills. After all, the Pacific Squadron had been active for numerous years.

After that battle, the Darkness empire’s actions became a lot more restrained. Not only did they stop disturbing the merchant ships, but they even halted their disturbances of the Nanjiang shoreline.

Keisuke Honda’s Darkness empire consisted of a bunch of weak bones that only knew how to bully the weak. Once they faced a strong opponent, they would run away with their tails between their legs.

Even with that being the case, Ouyang Shuo would not underestimate them.

Although Great Xia had benefited a lot during this round of world war, the Darkness empire had as well.

For every dynasty that was destroyed, a number of players would chose to go to the legendary trial lands to live under the owner of the Mu Continent – the Darkness empire.

This helped to increase the population of the Darkness empire.

Furthermore, if this situation continued to persist, they would be able to use their natural geographical advantage to become the place where most of the defeated country civilians gathered.

Regardless of which dynasty was destroyed, the Darkness empire would easily benefit.

The Darkness empire monopolized a continent, and it was far from Asia and Europe while not being connected to America. It had decent plains and rich resources, similar to the America in history.

Such an opponent had to be taken seriously.

Ouyang Shuo’s strategy would be to continue his strong-handed approach toward them. Only then could he suppress and isolate them.

Before this, Ouyang Shuo had to manage the Pacific Ocean trade route well.

After the America Governor-General House was built, the relationship between Great Xia mainland and the America Continent became closer and closer. A safe and reliable naval route was desperately required.

Although the Darkness empire had already sheathed its blade, this did not mean that they would not act up once more.

Ouyang Shuo stood at new strategic heights and proposed to invite the Dawson Dynasty, the Darkness empire and the Indian Empire to hold a four-sided discussion.

There would only be one core term – the four dynasties could be enemies, but they would share the duty of protecting the safety of the trade route.

None of them were allowed to send their squadrons to disturb merchant ships.

“Politics is politics; economics is economics.”

Ouyang Shuo was ready to make the distinction to solve the problem with the Pacific Ocean trade route. He did not believe that Jack and the others were fools that wanted both sides to suffer losses.

A safe Pacific Ocean trade route was good for all the parties involved.

“You’ll lead the diplomatic discussion. Are there any problems?” Ouyang Shuo asked Di Chen.

Di Chen naturally understood the importance of this trading discussion team. Moreover, they had to break the ice with the Darkness empire and the Dawson Dynasty, which meant that this was going to be a challenging job.

Thinking about this, Di Chen even felt a little emotional.

His blood that had long since turned cold boiled once more. It had been a long time since he was filled with so many emotions, and he solemnly nodded and said, “Do not worry, your majesty; I’ll complete this matter beautifully.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled happily and promised, “If you complete this, I’ll give you the title of 3rd class marquis.”

Currently, Di Chen was only a 1st class earl. If he could become a 3rd class marquis, it would be a huge leap and would mean a lot to Di Chen and his family.

This was a huge reward.

More importantly, once he was promoted, it would send a signal to everyone that he had earned the trust of his majesty.

This point was more meaningful than the title.

As the publicly recognized enemy of his majesty, his position in the country was not good. Not to mention influencing the Imperial Court, but he was even ostracized in the Honglu Temple.

That was a result of the officials all feeling that Di Chen was not trusted by his majesty. Just this alone was enough to make things difficult for Di Chen.

During this period of time, Di Chen had spent a lot of time outside and had done a few things for the Empire, but he could not help but feel that he was coldly treated.

Ouyang Shuo’s promise totally broke his psychological barrier.

Chapter 1316 - Steampunk era

Chapter 1316: TWO Chapter 1316-Steampunk era

“Thank you, your majesty. I’ll do everything I can to thank you for your kindness.”

Di Chen bowed solemnly with tears building up at the corner of his eyes. The feeling of being trusted was simply too precious.

From this day on, Di Chen’s path would be a bright one.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and said, “Do not forget that we are all children of China; we are one family.”

“Right, one family!”

Di Chen was filled with emotion. At this moment, he finally placed down the burden in his heart and fully committed to his role.

Once mortal enemies, the two now exchanged smiles.

…

10th month, autumn, the period of great harvest.

Ouyang Shuo paid attention to Beiyuan, Xijiang, Xikang, and Australia’s four construction formations the most.

After a year of hard work, the four construction formations had reclaimed close to 10 million mu of farm, forest, and animal husbandry land. Many half militarized farms sprung up from the ground, bringing new life to the cold borders of the wilderness.

They were slowly starting to fill the newly built granaries.

At the same time, making use of the vast mine resources of the west region, the Privy Court constructed a batch of factories. A large amount of equipment and weapons were produced like flowing water as they prepared for the war that would occur next year.

The borders that had been quiet for close to a year was regaining the ability to start war once more.

Due to that, Ouyang Shuo instructed the Honglu Temple to send the Persian Empire a final warning to hand over Ogedai.

If the Persian Empire refused, they would have to meet on the battlefield.

Ouyang Shuo was really firm because he was determined to fight them. He wanted to use this chance to exert pressure onto the Persian Empire. At the same time, he was eyeing the oil fields in the Persian Gulf.

Ouyang Shuo had to suppress the threatening Persian Empire.

…

Persian Empire, Tehran City.

After he received the final warning from Great Xia, the Persia King felt rather awkward. Although he knew that this day would eventually arrive, he still found it tough to make a decision on the matter.

In exchange for exiling Ogedai’s forces, he could receive temporary peace.

If he did not exile them, war would descend onto the Persian Empire spring next year.

Similar to Great Xia, the Persian Empire had made use of this peaceful period to focus heavily on industrialization.

A lot of the firearms the European Alliance Army used had been provided by the Persian Empire.

Once they engaged with Great Xia and war broke out, this rare situation would be broken. Their industrialization speed would swiftly drop and might even freeze up.

This was something that he could not accept.

The problem was that handing over Ogedai’s forces just like that would be a huge insult to the Persian Empire. The army might find it hard to accept, which would affect their morale.

“We must think of a win-win solution.”

The Persia King muttered as his eyes shone with a pondering light.

…

Imperial Capital.

As the 10th month arrived, the Great Xia Imperial Court’s large-scale House removal operation finally came to an end.

The huge storm finally settled, allowing them to exert even more power.

The construction of the logistical hubs of the eight warzones were almost finished as well. A number of cities heavily focused on military works rose up around these hubs.

With these hubs constructed, the number of war laborers of the Empire dedicated to war was halved.

The expanded Martial Management Division had swiftly rose up, stretching out to the various provinces to monitor and instruct all martial artists in the Empire.

The most obvious effect was the 20% decrease in crime rate.

In conclusion, the strategies that the Imperial Court had set at the start of the year were reaching completion.

To Great Xia, the 8th year had been a year of great harvest. Although it was not that apparent, their strength had reached a new level, and everyone looked at them differently.

10th month, 20th day, Great Xia’s first power plant was built on the west outskirts of the imperial capital and was officially put into use. The imperial capital had lights for the first time.

This was an era crossing moment for Great Xia.

Ouyang Shuo even personally attended the ceremony, lightning up the first light in the imperial city.

The era of electricity had arrived.

To Ouyang Shuo and the other players, these scenes were familiar yet foreign.

In the real world, incandescent light bulbs had been eliminated. For it to appear in the game world, a place where martial arts and technology coexisted, felt a little weird.

Ouyang Shuo thought of a way to describe this current situation – a steampunk era.

An era that contained both modern technologies and mysterious powers.

To the players, this should be the best era. They could enjoy the convenience brought to them by technology while walking further on the path of individual evolution.

Humans and technology worked together as one.

Unlike in the real world, where humans devolved as technology improved.

Ouyang Shuo loved this era.

…

11th month, 1st day, Imperial Capital.

At 9am, the Empire Olympics began.

Ouyang Shuo personally attended the opening ceremony and gave a fervent speech. He advocated for the entire country to be active for the first time, listing health as one of the highest priorities of the Empire.

Following which, the emperor troupe, emperor artist group, and other art groups performed a brilliant opening ceremony for the tens of thousands of spectators.

They showed off the essence of Chinese civilization perfectly.

In the next half a month, the imperial capital would be in a state of happiness and excitement due to this event. Thousands of athletes would give it their all to chase for the top.

The first athletics records of the Empire were also set and recorded in history.

Outside of Great Xia, the chaos stopped and a resting period began due to the due to the arrival of winter. The battlefields slowly fell silent.

The involved parties used this precious time to rest up and accumulate more grain and resources. For example, the Ottoman Dynasty needed to make use of this winter to recruit more troops.

The current peace was merely the calm before yet another storm.

Ouyang Shuo predicted that the 9th year of Gaia would still have war as the main topic. Once this round of wars ended, the global landscape would be renewed, and maybe they would have peace then.

A short period of peace.

In Gaia’s mind, the game world would not truly have peace unless a super empire unified the world.

However, such a matter was really difficult to accomplish.

Even someone as confident as Ouyang Shuo did not think that Great Xia had the ability.

In the last week before winter, the other three dynasties replied to the Pacific Ocean trading rules proposed by Great Xia.

The four-party discussion would begin.

In the next few months, representatives from all four sides would have round after round of discussions. It would take so long because the four sides did not trust one another.

This was destined to be a negotiation path filled with holes and hurdles.

Ouyang Shuo sent Di Chen as the team leader of this negotiation team; he would be fully in charge of this matter.

From this moment on, Di Chen was fully accepted by Great Xia.

Chapter 1317 - Extradition

Chapter 1317: TWO Chapter 1317-Extradition

11th month, 5th day, the Persian Empire finally gave an official reply to Great Xia’s warning.

The Persia King expressed that if Great Xia was willing to pay a ransom, they would be willing to send Ogedai back to Great Xia to protect their friendship.

“The specific ransom amount can be discussed.” the Persia King said.

The Persia King was an intelligent person. He was not greedy for some ransom cash; instead, he wanted to use the money to shut up the mouths of the opposition in the country.

As such, the Persian Empire would be able to hand over the burning problem in their midst while protecting their internal stability.

A perfect solution.

To make Great Xia agree, the Persia King expressed that the amount could be discussed.

Truthfully, under such circumstances, he would be willing even if Great Xia did not give them a single cent.

After contemplating the matter, Ouyang Shuo chose to accept the proposed terms. First, Ogedai was a knot in Wang Jian’s heart. Dealing with him early would help Wang Jian enter a correct mindset.

Secondly, Ouyang Shuo did not really have plans to declare war on the Persian Empire right after spring began.

The focus of Great Xia for the next year was India. Only after taking down India would Great Xia have the energy to proceed west. After all, the strength of the West Asia and South Asia warzones could not support fighting on two fronts.

Agreeing to a ransom in exchange for the prisoners could also pacify and confuse the Persian Empire.

In the end, each had their own considerations, and it was down to who the better chess player was.

…

11th month, 20th day, Xijiang Province border, South City Pass.

Great Xia had two big passes at the Xijiang border, one north and one south. The north was called the North Tower Pass and the south was the South City Pass, which helped to defend the border land.

These two paths were the only two passes from Great Xia over to the Persian Empire. Outside of them were basically mountain ridges that were difficult to get past, much less send troops through.

As such, one could see the importance of these two passes.

Out of these two passes, the South City Pass was the more important one, as it headed directly into the core land of the Persian Empire.

When Ogedai led his troops to flee a year ago, they had used this pass; they also used it back when the Mongol army attacked west.

The naturally formed pass had uneven and marked walls; these were signs of time passing, marking many historical moments.

The core legion of the West Asia warzone – the Bear legion corps 1st legion – was the true trump card of the warzone and was housed in this pass. The 2nd legion was housed in North Tower Pass.

The remaining three legions were housed outside of the two passes.

Morning, the cold breeze blew.

The bone chilling breeze lingered in the morning air. When one breathed out, their breath would instantly turn into white fog that rose up into the sky.

At the South City Pass city wall, rows of soldiers were standing still in the cold. They were unmoving, standing totally straight like statues. They loyally defended the border of the Empire. Currently, their thick armor was covered with a layer of white snow.

Only their determined eyes showed that they were still alive.

At this very moment, heavy footsteps spread from the steps on the city wall. Walking at the front of the troops was a middle-aged general dressed in martial attire. He had a firm, resolute, blade-like expression.

His triangular eyes were full of energy.

“Commander!”

As he walked over, the soldiers along the way all greeted him.

He was the southwest warzone commander, the empire’s Great General, God General Wang Jian.

Just last morning, Wang Jian had arrived in the South City Pass along with his Personal Guards. He came over under instructions from the Imperial Court; he was in charge of receiving the returned Ogedai troops.

Last night, Wang Jian experienced a bout of rare sleeplessness.

A year had passed, and it was about time the resentment between Ogedai and him was ended.

Wang Jian was really grateful for his majesty’s understanding and help.

Standing on the city wall, he looked out at the rising and dipping mountains and the twisting and turning mountain path. His eyes drifted off; who knows what he was thinking about.

When the soldiers saw that, all of them held their breath, unwilling to disturb the commander’s thoughts.

For the next hour, Wang Jia stood like that in the cold wind without moving. The surrounding soldiers were the same. They turned into statues as they helped the Empire guard the border.

Wang Jian was thinking about when he could lead the army out of South City Pass, over the mountain ranges, and into Persian territory to contribute on the battlefield once more.

In history, Wang Jian had never gone on an expedition outside of China.

He really wanted to spread the authority of China, of Great Xia, to the outside world.

At 9am, on the mountain path ahead of the pass, the rumbling of horse hooves suddenly reverberated out of the valley. One would be able to hear it even if they did not want to.

“Commander, they are here!” the Personal Guards Captain reminded Wang Jian.

Wang Jian nodded his head as the huge Persian army waltzed on the official pathway, causing dust to fly everywhere.

As they pushed forward, Ogedai’s forces, including Ogedai himself, became visible. Ogedai was tied up by many ropes and walked in the middle of the group. All of them were depressed and down, their faces ashen white.

When they escaped to the Persian Empire, Ogedai had a total of 200 thousand men with him.

Just a year had passed, and many of them had died, either in battle, from hunger while travelling, or due to other reasons. As such, there were only 150 thousand of them left.

Evidently, their time in the Persian Empire for the last year had not been good.

Many of the soldiers had actually started to feel regret. If they knew that this would happen to them, they would have just surrendered to Great Xia. If they did that, at least they would be able to reunite with their family.

Unlike now, living away their home and even being bullied.

In truth, their extradition was something that most of them were happy about. Being able to return home while they were still alive and getting the chance to meet their families was simply too precious.

Of course, Ogedai was not amongst those that were happy.

Ogedai was extremely clear about the kind of ending that awaited him after being sent to Great Xia. At best, he would be locked up until he died of old age.

Speaking of which, Ogedai was also filled with hatred.

He really could not understand why the Persian Empire was so afraid. After just a single warning from Great Xia, they decided to hand him over.

They did not even hesitate.

If he knew that this was going to happen, he would not have submitted to the Persian Empire.

How would he know the true reason the Persia King accepted his submission? It was not because of his forces and him. Instead, it was to get back the territory that the Mongol Empire took down.

As for Ogedai’s forces?

The Persian people had not forgotten the slaughter the Mongol’s west conquering had caused at the Persian border not that long ago. Who could forget such a blood debt?

As a result, after Ogedai’s forces surrendered, some people taught them a lesson even without the Persia King needing to instruct them. Moreover, they became more and more unrestrained as time passed.

First was confiscating their salary, then their grain, and then locking them up.

As this continued, once Ogedai’s troops became a litter of sick kittens, they directly charged into the camp and openly took revenge. Their methods grew more and more vicious.

Out of the 50 thousand dead, more than 70% of them had died to such methods.

Chapter 1318 - Final system update

Chapter 1318: TWO Chapter 1318-Final system update

There was no such thing as regret in this world!

The Persian army that was in charge of escorting Ogedai’s forces back stopped a thousand meters away from the gates. Only a single general and a squadron of guards proceeded toward the city gate.

“Move!”

Wang Jian turned around and headed down the city wall.

Following which, the city gates were opened, and Wang Jian and his group walked out.

To ensure the safety of the hand over, the West Asia warzone had made sufficient preparation. Apart from the defending troops formed up at the city wall, there were many cannons in the nearby mountains.

They aimed to prevent the Persian Empire from trying anything funny.

Although the chances of such a thing happening was low, they had to guard against such a event.

“Hello!”

The Persian general greeted them first.

Wang Jian looked over to see an old general that was thin but tall. He was wearing full body armor and had an eye-catching yellow beard.

Based on their intel, this person was Xerxes, and he was the east border commander of the Persian Empire.

“Hello!”

Wang Jian nodded expressionlessly.

If nothing went wrong, the next time these two met, they would be enemies on the battlefield.

Xerxes seemed to understood that too. The two generals were sizing up one another, and the air permeated with killing intent.

“Sign the agreement!” Wang Jian opened his mouth and said.

Both sides had obtained permission from their respective Imperial Courts to sign the handing over agreement.

Xerxes asked, “Where is the ransom?”

In the agreement, the ransom column did not include a specific amount, which meant that Great Xia could give the Persian Empire any amount of Great Xia’s choosing.

Wang Jian smiled and took out a single gold coin. He acted solemn as he said, “Here!”

Looking at the gold coin, humiliation and anger flashed across Xerxes’s face. Great Xia setting the ransom amount at one gold was undoubtedly an insult to the Persian Empire.

After struggling for a moment, Xerxes held it in and expressionlessly took the coin and handed over a set of the agreement.

After Wang Jian signed it, the agreement would be effective immediately.

All the changes to Xerxes’s expression were caught by Wang Jian. His heart sank. This general’s experience and ability to swallow anger made Wang Jian even warier of this neighboring country.

The following matters were really simple.

Ogedai and his generals were handed over first and locked up in the jail in South City Pass. The remaining soldiers were handed over squadron by squadron and sent into the pass.

For safety’s sake, the entire process lasted for two days.

Every time the pass accepted a batch of prisoners, they would move them to the back to ensure the smooth passageway of the pass.

However, unbeknownst to outsiders, Ogedai died in jail that night. The one in charge of monitoring him was Wang Jian. Of course, Ouyang Shuo had instructed him to do so.

If not, no matter how bold Wang Jian was, he would not dare to take matters into his own hands.

Of the remaining soldiers, those with injuries were sent to the military doctors for treatment. After settling them down, some were directly sent back home while others were moved into the Xijiang or Xikang construction formations.

A single gold coin for 150 thousand strong young laborer, Great Xia had not lost out.

Through this move, the Imperial Court could also buy over the hearts of the Mongol people to a certain extent, killing two birds with one stone.

…

In the blink of an eye, winter arrived.

The global battlefield was silent, having entered a rare resting period.

Thanks to Great Xia’s interference, the Dawson Dynasty proceeded really slowly in the Mayan Battlefield. Prior to the resting period, they had basically made no progress, making Jack feel really depressed.

The European battlefield was still stuck in a precarious situation. In particular, the Great Xia firearms sent to the Ottoman Dynasty allowed the strong Ottoman race to hold off the pressure from the frontlines.

This winter was a really important one for the Ottoman Dynasty.

In Africa, the Bantu Dynasty was really aggressive, fighting a life or death battle with the Dawson Dynasty in the Angola region.

Now, it was up to the determination of the Bantu Dynasty.

Before the New Year, the Bantu Empire ordered a 20 million gold firearm deal from Great Xia. As such, one could see the massive ambitions of the Bantu Dynasty.

Although Ouyang Shuo was wary of them, he still accepted the deal in the end.

Meanwhile, Ashoka surprised Ouyang Shuo. Who knows what Ashoka was planning with the India battlefield, but he did not throw the one million war prisoners onto the battlefield after redeeming them.

It was like the one million troops had not even appeared.

There would definitely be a good show in the India battlefield next year.

12th month, 25th day, the westerner’s Christmas arrived. On the America and European battlefields, the soldiers spent an unforgettable Christmas in the trenches.

After Christmas, the 8th year of Gaia came to an end.

Gaia 8th year, 12th month, 30th day, a System Notification sounded out across the world.

“World Notification: Earth Online has run for 8 years, and the game will now go through its ninth and final system update, effective immediately. As for the specifics, please check the official forums.”

…

The moment this notification sounded out, the world fell totally silent.

Unknowingly, the game had passed its 8th anniversary. Every yearly update had been a huge event that affected the whole world.

Some of the updates had massive consequences.

No one had expected that this would be the final system update. This also meant that in the 9th year of Gaia, 10th year of Gaia, and even in the foreseeable future, there would be no rule changes.

It seemed that Gaia was trying to reduce its interference with the game world.

Imperial Capital.

Ouyang Shuo shook off the random thoughts in his head and logged onto the official forums to check out the system update.

1. Removing system update.

From today on, regardless of the achievements of the players, Gaia will not publish any System Notifications. The relevant achievements will only be posted online.

This was also a crucial step toward the game world becoming real.

The System Notification was convenient, but it gave players the impression that Gaia was everywhere and could control the information that everyone received.

This was not a good experience.

The privacy of the players needed to be sufficiently protected.

When needed, the relevant notices would appear as messages or emails on the communication compass for players to read; that would also be quite convenient.

2. Removing a portion of the teleportation formations.

From today on, each game region (the region specified at the start), can only keep one teleportation formation.

With Great Xia and China as an example, if Ouyang Shuo chose to keep the formation in the Capital City, the nine imperial cities would all lose their teleportation formations.

This had a relatively great influence on Great Xia.

The only part that made Ouyang Shuo feel relieved was that most of the teleportation formations overseas could be kept. If not, huge problems would crop up given the vast territory of Great Xia.

Chapter 1319 - Gendaya continent

Chapter 1319: TWO Chapter 1319-Gendaya continent

The reduction in the number of teleportation formations affected dynasties with large territories like Great Xia, Dawson, and Romanov the most.

It would shortly cause a lot of inconvenience.

This was the only good news for Great Xia.

Gaia reduced the number of teleportation formations because of industrialization progression.

Along with the rise of railroads, transportation would soon welcome a swift development phase. Provided one constructed perfect railroads and pathways, the effects of the teleportation formation reduction would be greatly mitigated.

In the future, Gaia might even remove all the teleportation formations.

Apart from reducing the number of teleportation formations, Gaia also greatly increased the cost. Every person teleported would cost 500 gold, a truly sky-high price.

Such a price basically correlated to the function of the teleportation formation.

From now on, it was more or less impossible for an army to move through the teleportation formations. After all, just think about it, teleporting 100 thousand troops would use up to five million gold.

That was only the trip there.

Taking into account the return trip as well, even the rich Great Xia would not be able to afford it.

In the future, the teleportation formations would only be used by a few people under special circumstances. For example, Ouyang Shuo while he was touring foreign territories.

Of course, the number of people following him would be greatly reduced; otherwise, the expenditure would also be sky-high.

3. Stopping the provision of gold.

Within the global landscape, apart from the Ashoka Dynasty, there were no more NPC dynasties. Compared to before, the ratio of system gold coins compared to gold coins production was getting smaller and smaller.

The main source of growth in global gold coin scale came from the gold mines around the world.

For example, the 20 million gold that the Bantu Dynasty paid to Great Xia for firearms came from the South Africa region gold mines. Otherwise, they would not be able to create such high value with just the tax returns of the Bantu Dynasty.

During this system update, Gaia totally blocked system gold coin production. From now on, be it the imperial cities, the player quest rewards, or the lord rewards, gold rewards would not be given.

Not only that, but Gaia even blocked the channel of changing gold from the gold mines to gold coins.

Hence, on the global scale, the overall gold coin amount would not increase. For example, Great Xia’s move of turning gold coins into gold bricks would greatly reduce the amount of gold.

However, along with the industrialization wave hitting, the amount of global goods would increase explosively. During the trading process, gold coins would be sorely required.

If not, the value of gold coins would not continue to increase.

On the global scale, the value of gold coins would be uncertain for a period.

To adapt to this situation, the various dynasties needed to push out their own currencies. With that, gold coins, or rather gold, would only be used to measure value but not be the direct currency used in trading.

A new currency system would have to be created.

Of course, for the future period of time, the price of gold would still be an important consideration of the currency.

In the 8th year of Gaia that just had ended, considering the differences in global trade, Great Xia had wrapped up 200 million gold from the overseas dynasties. Along with the amount of gold it had stored, Great Xia became the dynasty with the highest amount of gold storage.

Rough estimates placed 35% of the world’s gold in Great Xia.

As a result, Great Xia held the greatest speaking power in future gold prices. If they gained the power to set the price of gold, that would be even more amazing.

Apart from that, Great Xia was also the first dynasty to establish a complete currency system.

The Great Xia currency had been used in all aspects of the Empire, exchanged in the daily expenditure of the people. As a result, the uncertainty in gold prices had the smallest influence on Great Xia.

Apart from Great Xia, the Indian Empire, Bantu Empire, and Dawson Empire all used their unique gold storages to become the biggest winners in this battle of gold.

In comparison, the various European dynasties were facing a tough situation.

4. Permanently banning nuclear technology.

Along with the second industrial revolution technology tree being unlocked, atomic bombs, thermonuclear weapons, and the like were inevitable. After all, there were no technical bottlenecks.

The power of those weapons was not something Gaia wanted to see.

In the Federation era, nuclear weapons had all been destroyed; only the usage of nuclear energy remained.

Gaia prohibited nuclear technology due to such considerations. With the threat of nuclear technology, it would be difficult for the game world to truly achieve peace.

War would never disappear from the game.

5. Opening up the Gendaya Continent.

The Gendaya Civilization was the only one out of the four that had not been released.

Legends had it that the Gendaya Continent was a continent that rose up from the sea after an underwater volcano explosion 96,200 years ago.

The current ocean region connecting Africa and South America was where this continent should have been.

The Gendaya Continent designed by Gaia. Apart from being the last unreleased map, it was also the base of the beasts. Beasts and monsters roamed this continent, and it was a 100% model of Planet Hope.

To the dynasties, this was not a good place to go.

Furthermore, the global chaos period had not ended yet, so no one would possibly want to try their luck.

However, Ouyang Shuo had a lot of interest in this. He was prepared to create an exploration team to proceed there to take a look.

Having intel of the Gendaya Continent would mean having information regarding Planet Hope.

Nothing else could compare to that.

There were only five points to the last system update.

Looking at this, Ouyang Shuo felt that Gaia was washing its hands off the matter, not wanting to interfere in the game world. The only aspect that showed its presence was probably the moving achievement value.

This year, Great Xia’s territory had increased one again. However, the quality of its development was more important, which brought with it an explosive growth for Ouyang Shuo.

Currently, his achievement value was 50 million, more than three times of last year. Now, he was halfway to the S rank permission level.

If he continued to develop at such a rate, Ouyang Shuo could be the first person to achieve S rank.

Unbeknownst to Ouyang Shuo and the other players, along with the published updates, the NPC world was also having a round of ‘updates’.

After this round of updates, Gaia’s Mother god image would be wiped from the NPCs. In their memories, the presence of the Mother god would be just a legend.

Gaia was giving the NPCs their freedom.

From now on, the game world would be truly like a real world.

There were tens of thousands of worlds, and not only physical plains were real worlds. A virtual world like the game world built on data was also a proper world.

Its essence was no different.

Chapter 1320 - Chu Queen

Chapter 1320: TWO Chapter 1320-Chu Queen

After the New Year, the Great Xia Imperial Court issued an unassuming personnel change announcement.

Imperial decree, Secret Document Pavilion assistant Ouyang Bing is promoted to advisor. She will be in charge of the coordination and contact between the Cabinet and the four courts.

Her role was very flexible.

Ouyang Shuo had given her a vast stage so that she could walk around the Cabinet and four courts. She would be able to learn and familiarize herself with their work to prepare to takeover in the future.

This entire process would last for two years.

Ouyang Shuo did not spare any effort in training and developing Bing’er, and she did not disappoint him.

This brother and sister duo had a tacit understanding and a good relationship.

…

1st month, 5th day, Imperial Capital.

Ouyang Shuo chaired the annual meeting.

In addition to the 24 officials that participated last year, there were two new people. They were newly appointed Pacific Squadron Fleet Admiral Zhou Yu and Xijiang Governor-General Feng Qiuhuang.

New Secret Document Pavilion advisor Ouyang Bing sat in the corner of the hall to record the proceedings.

Although that was the case, the 26 officials could not help but glance at the corner and look at this calm and reserved young lady. They were filled with thoughts.

The officials had some rough guesses regarding the emperor’s arrangements.

Yesterday, the Imperial Court published the rank change list of the New Year. Di Chen became a 3rd class Marquis, attracting a lot of discussion. However, the true focus was on queen Ouyang Bing.

She was given the title of Chu Queen, becoming the first in Great Xia to become a hereditary king or queen.

Before this, Great Xia had six kings, Qin King Fu Su, Han King Liu Fuling, Sui King Yang Jian, Tang King Li Zhi, Song King Zhao Guangyi, and Ming King Zhu Yunwen.

Everyone knew that these six did not hold any power.

However, she was different. Being the only direct sister of his majesty, not only was she given the title of queen, but she was even given one out of the four most noble titles of Jin, Qin, Qi, and Chu. Hence, the meaning was naturally different.

A few days ago, she was promoted to advisor to take charge of the coordination and contact between the Cabinet and the four courts. In truth, this appointment surprised and confused the ministers.

After all, advisors were only primary grade 4, so how could a role like that have such responsibility? As for her identity, it did not have any weight on the Imperial Court. In fact, it even brought about a negative impact instead.

Only yesterday did the officials realize what was happening.

With her authority as the Chu Queen and the role of advisor, all problems were solved.

Some officials understood this arrangement of his majesty while others did not. For example, Jiang Shang and Zhang Liang knew that his majesty was preparing for Planet Hope.

Meanwhile, those who did not understand would not object in public.

In truth, his majesty allowing her go to Qiongzhou to learn politics was already a sign of the things to come.

After she worked in Qiongzhou for two years and the Secret Document Pavilion for a year, the officials slowly accept the fact that she was going to enter the Imperial Court. As she was going in step by step, there were naturally less people who objected to it.

Before the meeting began, the Cabinet and the Grand Council made a simple conclusion of the past year’s strategy situation.

The situation in the 8th year was basically the same as Zhang Liang had predicted in the state of the union address.

The life or death battle between Silver Hand and Azure Badge had given Great Xia the chance to roam the world and pick up the scraps, allowing them to receive massive gains in South America and Africa.

The key to the matter was that Great Xia had only started two wars to take down two huge pieces of land. Both resource consumption and soldier casualties were minimal.

Instead of fighting, they relied on the massive prestige and authority that Great Xia had established in the world and their exceptional planning.

Doing something so complex like it was easy was a matter that other dynasties could only envy.

For example, the situation of the Dawson Dynasty; they had spent so much to take down the low-population Maple Dynasty but had lost the Columbia region for it. They also lost a strong ally in the Brasilia Dynasty.

Whether it was a win or not could be debated.

The European dynasties did not need to be mentioned. They had been going all out for a year trying to take down the Ottoman Dynasty, yet they were still stuck in a tie situation.

Reality was like that; the strong became stronger while the weak became weaker.

With Great Xia’s development at present, it had become shockingly huge like a giant. It was also like a snowball; anywhere it rolled, the territory it earned was something that other dynasties could not even dream of.

To make matters even more terrifying, this giant was still filled with energy and had not reached its limit.

Out of the eight warzones of Great Xia, only the America warzone and the Africa warzone were active in the 8th year of Gaia; the remaining six had all been resting.

Foreseeably, in the 9th year of Gaia, these six warzones would be able to unleash shocking strength.

Along with the America Governor-General House and the Africa Governor-General House expanding, the Great Xia map was becoming more and more perfect. If one included Jidian City, Great Xia had land on all five continents.

The title of global empire was totally realized.

At the same time, the global chaos gave Great Xia’s industrialization a chance to soar.

In terms of internal politics, apart from removing the House level, they had simplified the organizational system, obtaining great results in industrialization, sports, transport, and education.

From focusing on the economy initially, they had moved to focusing on many different aspects.

The highly efficient internal affairs system showed in the military, allowing the Pacific Squadron to complete their equipment change early and rise from the ashes. They became the first squadron to fully consist of iron armored warships.

The top squadron in the world was the Pacific Squadron.

The Darkness Squadron that shone brightly for a period of time had stepped down and did not dare to disturb Nanjiang.

After changing the Pacific Squadron’s equipment, the Atlantic Squadron was next; this was also one of the reasons for Zhou Yu attending this meeting.

Compared to the Pacific Squadron, the Atlantic Squadron had an even more important mission due to the European dynasties situation. They also faced greater challenges.

Hence, completing the Atlantic Squadron’s equipment change appeared really important.

At the same time, the Imperial Court had restarted the Mediterranean Squadron rebuilding work. They would temporarily set up two divisions to focus on patrolling the Mediterranean Ocean region and strengthen the Empire’s control of the Mediterranean.

This would help to reduce the pressure on the Atlantic Squadron.

As for the specific building time, the matter would have to wait until the Atlantic Squadron’s equipment was changed before it could begin.

Luckily, they would only need half a year to renew the Atlantic Squadron with the current industrialization scale of Great Xia. At that time, they would stand at the same level as the Pacific Squadron.

Great Xia’s ocean supremacy that had started to shake would be established once more.

Of course, along with global industrialization proceeding, the European and American squadrons were also being renewed. It would be impossible for Great Xia to dominate the ocean like before.

Chapter 1321 - Gold War

Chapter 1321: TWO Chapter 1321-Gold War

Emperor palace, 1st meeting room.

After reviewing the targets of last year, Zhang Liang once again released another state of the union address.

With the experience gained from the previous year, this year’s address was more detailed and targeted. Some of the strategic predictions caused the eyes of many of the officials to light up.

For the 9th year of Gaia, Great Xia’s strategic focus would shift from overseas to Asia.

Their main focus would naturally be the three dynasties in the India Region. Only by taking down India would Great Xia truly control the Indian Ocean, which would allow them to connect trade between the three oceans.

Apart from India, their treatment of the Persian Empire and the Romanov Empire would depend on the situation.

The global situation was forever changing. No matter how skilled the Administrative Mentor Court was, they would not be able predict everything accurately.

Apart from Asia itself, they would naturally prioritize interfering with the Mayan and European battlefields indirectly, but it would be best if they did not get wrapped up in it.

Their goal was to prolong these two wars.

First, it would let the enemies drain one another; secondly, it would create a good external environment for Great Xia’s military activities in Asia and reduce outside interference.

“The battle between Silver Hand and Azure Badge is a perfect chance.” Zhang Liang changed his tone and reminded everyone, “However, this strategic period will not continue indefinitely.”

“The Administrative Mentor Court estimates that if the two sides cannot decide a winner by the 9th year, they would try to make peace.”

“Hence, the Empire does not have much time left.” Zhang Liang emphasized once more.

Ouyang Shuo completely agreed with Zhang Liang’s assessment.

In truth, since the war situation had developed to such a stage, advancing and retreating were both problematic for Silver Hand. Based on their original plan, the Alliance Army should have unified Europe in the 8th year of Gaia.

With that, they would have two years to consolidate, digest, and even go up against Great Xia.

If Great Xia did not interfere, Silver Hand’s strategy could have succeeded. Moreover, their success would not have been limited to the European battlefield, as the Dawson Dynasty might have already conquered the Mayan Dynasty in America.

If that really happened, Silver Hand’s reach would cover east and west, surrounding Great Xia.

The biggest miscalculation of Silver Hand would probably be their underestimation of Great Xia’s influence and determination. They also thought too much of Azure Badge’s pride, believing that they would not stoop so low to the point of asking Great Xia for help.

This winter was a rare strategic adjustment period for Silver Hand. After this round of adjustment, Ouyang Shuo had reason to believe that the world battlefield would welcome new changes once spring arrived.

As a result, the Administrative Mentor Court recommended turning their focus back to Asia. They should expand their strategic depth and obtain the Overlord position before caring about others.

This was basically all Great Xia would be able to do in the 9th year of Gaia.

Apart from military operations, in terms of internal politics, their goal would naturally be to strengthen their foundations and construct facilities, especially power grids to push all the cities near the shores toward full scale industrialization.

Along with the imperial city getting energy, the construction of the power grid and relevant power plants would enter a swift development period, and the ocean cities would be the first to light up the night skies.

Thanks to the help of power, the efficiency of industrialization would experience a great growth.

With history to look back on, the Empire’s path to industrialization was the highly condensed version of the global road to industrialization. The Empire absorbed all of its essence and walked the most efficient and swiftest path.

Throughout the entire process, they did not veer off track even once.

After all, they could not go off track, as a short break would cause them to be surpassed by the other dynasties.

The game world was not reality, and the dynasties did not have any technology bottlenecks. They only had resource and talent bottlenecks. Hence, the differences would only lie in the amount of energy and strength that the dynasties could amass.

On all fronts, Great Xia had a natural advantage.

As a result, they had to treat the matter seriously, putting in a lot of focus to gather up all sorts of minute advantages drip by drip.

If they managed to do that, Great Xia would create another miracle. Hence, while they stood on the same starting line as the other dynasties in the world, they would be able to stand out and breakaway.

That was an amazing feat.

Apart from the mainland, the other three Governor-General Houses would become focuses for construction.

Ouyang Shuo had already given the Traffic Department the mission to work with the three Governor-General Houses to set up the basic plans for them with regard to building railroads and improving their road systems.

For this matter, the Imperial Court prepared a massive sum of gold to support the basic facilities construction of the three Governor-general Houses.

This could be considered a sort of welfare that the Imperial Court would deliver to the people, which would help to strengthen their recognition of Great Xia while assisting the economic development of the regions.

Apart from basic facilities construction, Ouyang Shuo also instructed the Cabinet to conduct a deep study of the Empire’s industry chain to let the industries in the mainland as well as the three Governor-General Houses achieve comparative advantages.

After all, everyone randomly developing would become inefficient.

Simply put, the three Governor-General Houses could not be making the mainland bleed by being pure raw material bases. They must consider their own developments and not be biased against their region.

This was something that Ouyang Shuo did not want to see happen.

After they heard Ouyang Shuo’s statement, the stone in the hearts of Mulan Yue, Bai Hua, and Wufu was finally placed down, and they felt more pumped.

Apart from the Empire’s industries pushing one another forward and complementing one another, the trade strategy would be to strengthen trade with the Bantu and Indian empires in the 9th year.

These two dynasties were countries with massive gold storages, but their internal industry development was unbalanced.

This gave Great Xia a chance.

In Ouyang Shuo’s words, Great Xia would use a great number of items to earn all their gold, which would allow the Empire’s gold storage reach another level.

These series of trade policies were termed ‘the gold war’ by Ouyang Shuo.

In the future, if the Empire wanted their currency to be globally used, they would need to have far more gold storage than the other dynasties to strengthen their authority.

If not, no dynasty would easily yield.

The above were basically the strategic plans of Great Xia for the 9th year. They would be turned into specific targets that the various organizations would work toward.

Ouyang Shuo had been repeating the phrase ‘action power’ recently. He did not want Great Xia to be an Empire that was only internally rock solid. Instead, he wanted it to be a new generation Empire that tried new things.

The current Great Xia was far from that level.

The meeting lasted for two hours before coming to an end. The 26 officials witnessed the Empire’s strategy for the upcoming year being decided.

After the meeting, Ouyang Shuo held a feast for them to celebrate the Chinese New Year in advance.

…

2nd month 4th year, Imperial Capital.

Amongst all the hustle and bustle, the Chinese New Year drew close once more, and the entire Empire welcomed a celebratory mood.

Chapter 1322 - Smoke rises, flames burning toward the heavens

Chapter 1322: TWO Chapter 1322-Smoke rises, flames burning toward the heavens

After the exciting Chinese New Year holiday, the land started to defrost and all living things started to awaken.

For the normal civilians, the Chinese New Year might only mean the start of a busy year. However, it was a matter of life and death for the dynasties.

In the past year, the Egypt, Brasilia, and Maple dynasties were destroyed. No one knew which other dynasties would be wiped out this year.

As the huge wave swept across, only the strongest would survive.

Gaia 9th year, 3rd month, 1st day, not long after the Chinese New Year, the Great Xia Imperial Guards legion corps formed an exploration team to head toward the newly unveiled Gendaya Continent for an adventure.

The leader of this team was the deputy marshal of the 1st legion – Moon Shines over the River.

As they were in the 9th year of Gaia, Planet Hope was already imminent, so no dynasty with ambition would give up on such a chance to collect intel.

The Dawson Dynasty, the Indian Empire, the Darkness empire, and the European dynasties all sent exploration teams to explore Gendaya.

In the next year, the Gendaya Continent would be the stage for the top adventure gamemode players to compete.

…

3rd month, 5th day, India Region.

Right after winter ended, the one that fired the first gun in the world was not the expected European battlefield but the India Region that did not have much presence.

Ashoka King, who had endured a lot of humiliation, suddenly revealed his icy fangs.

A winter had passed, and the million war prisoners had gone through three months of recovery training. Ashoka King had invested a lot and provided them with an unlimited supply of food to increase their ability.

After the winter period, the million war prisoners had returned to their peak forms.

With these troops to rely on, Ashoka King was naturally eager. He took the opportunity that the enemy had not found out to launch a counterattack.

It was a case of, ‘Killing a thousand, losing 800.’

Although the Peacock and Gupta dynasties had forced the Ashoka Dynasty into a terrible situation during the war last year, they had also consumed a lot themselves, and the victories that they had achieved were not easy.

Under such circumstances, the sudden addition of a million new troops was enough to change the tides of the battle.

In the next month, the army split into two under the personal leadership of Ashoka, going from defense to attack to regain their lost land.

The Alliance Army was caught off guard and suffered heavy losses.

The cities that the two dynasties had expended so much to take down were being lost at a visible rate, making the hearts of the Gupta and Peacock kings feel pained; they were both filled with discontent.

Only when the middle of the 3rd month arrived did they manage to find out why the Ashoka Dynasty army had abruptly become so strong.

“Shameless, shameless!”

The two dynasties were furious and filled with hate toward Great Xia for their backstabbing. However, there was nothing they could do, and they could not fault Great Xia for it either.

In front of absolute power, one would only get their teeth broken.

Depression was depression, but neither the Peacock King or the Gupta King were people who admitted defeat easily. Seeing that it was already the 9th year of Gaia, they did not have the face to continue allowing the Ashoka Dynasty to survive.

It was the only NPC dynasty left in the world.

Failing to get rid of it would make the India Region unable to raise their heads.

This was something the prideful Indians did not wish to see.

After barely holding off the Ashoka Dynasty’s assault and losing 10 odd cities, the two dynasties finally had some breathing room to stabilize themselves and launch a counterattack.

The two dynasties had a tacit understanding to throw in more troops to the frontlines.

As they say, ‘The fighting spirit aroused by the first roll of drums is depleted by the second and exhausted by the third.’

In their eyes, the current Ashoka Dynasty was going all out; if it won, it could continue the three way split, but if it lost, it would totally collapse.

Hence, to the Alliance Army, this was both a crisis and an opportunity.

As long as they went all in and threw in a large number of troops to fend off this wave of attacks, when the enemy force wavers, they would be able to launch a counterattack and achieve victory in one battle.

The two dynasties were pumped.

It was with such a mentality that the India Region battlefield entered its most intense phase. If nothing went wrong, the outcome would be decided during the first half of the year.

…

After spring began, apart from India, the other battlefields also started to heat up.

For example, the Africa Continent.

The recent system update was a massive blessing to the Bantu Dynasty, which had a shocking amount of gold stored. This unassuming Africa dynasty became the focus of attention.

Everyone was staring at their gold.

The first to make moves were not the dynasties but the merchants. They were like sharks who had smelt blood, bringing boat after boat of resources and sailing toward the Cape of Good Hope.

All of a sudden, Cape Town’s port was filled up.

Large amounts of resources flooded the Bantu Dynasty in exchange for crates and crates of gold.

After the system update, the dynasties all announced that they would start their own currencies. During this transition period, gold would obviously still be the only trading currency.

However, once the currency was released, gold would be prohibited from flowing in the market.

The dynasties were copying Great Xia, buying back gold and making them into gold bricks to form the dynasty’s strategic gold storage. From now on, large amounts of gold would be gathered up in a small number of banks.

Lords of the modern day obviously understood the importance of gold storage.

As for the Bantu Dynasty, they were very happy about the visit from the world’s merchants. Although the Bantu Dynasty was so rich, it had a low resource production rate and was a dynasty that relied on imports.

Both sides clicked instantly.

As they say, ‘War is a fight of money, of resources.’

The flooding in of merchants helped to push forward the Bantu Dynasty’s crusade in the north.

The Bantu Dynasty made orders with the merchants while preparing heavily for battle to start the Central Africa war with the Dawson Dynasty once more.

The flames of war in Africa were ignited again.

Facing the aggressiveness from the Bantu Dynasty, Jack was really calm, not adding fire to the oil. He chose to focus on defense instead.

It was not that he was weak but that the Dawson Dynasty was focusing on the Mayan battlefield.

The Mayan war had developed to such a state, and it was not something the Dawson Dynasty could just stop. Once their frontlines show a hint of weakness, Mayan Dynasty would push in and capitalize on it.

The Mayan Dynasty had Great Xia’s support and was not easy pickings. They wanted to borrow the strength of Great Xia to have a good battle with the Dawson Dynasty.

The Mayan Dynasty did not want to simply defend their land.

They were really clear that in terms of geography, they were pincered between Great Xia and the Dawson Dynasty. Their only way out was to breakthrough from one side.

The Mayan Dynasty and Great Xia both had their own needs and were just using one another.

Under such circumstances, the Dawson Dynasty naturally needed to tread carefully; they not allow the Mayan Dynasty to cross the border. If not, all their prestige and authority would be lost.

Chapter 1323 - -Ground situation

Chapter 1323: TWO Chapter 1323-Ground situation

The European battlefield was the strangest part of the 9th year wars.

By the middle of the 4th month, the entirety of Europe was still peaceful. There were no signs of war starting once more, which made no sense.

Ouyang Shuo even suspected that the European dynasties wanted to end the war and have peace.

Of course, that was impossible.

Based on the intel the Black Snake Guards collected, the European dynasties were not fighting because they were busy farming. The successive wars last year had used up all their grain, so they naturally placed a lot of focus on this year’s harvest.

The six dynasties came to a rarely seen understanding.

When Ouyang Shuo received the news, he shook his head in amusement. Europeans were truly chivalrous.

He wanted to see what direction the European battlefield would head toward.

warzone warzone …

4th month, 20th day, Imperial Capital.

The India war had lasted for close to a month, yet the intensity had not decreased. Both sides were going all out, and the frontlines became meat grinders. People were dying at every moment.

The end result was that the India Region was becoming weaker by the day.

Be it the Peacock King or the Gupta King, they both realized this point. However, the war had proceeded till now, so there was no way that they could withdraw from it. They had to win.

Otherwise, they would not be able to explain things to their officials and the people.

Furthermore, they were confident about the overall strength of India. Even if they consumed it internally, they would remain unafraid of outside provocation, including from Great Xia.

Unfortunately, they were overconfident.

Great Xia, this fierce tiger, had always been staring at India.

Emperor palace, 1st meeting room.

Ouyang Shuo personally chaired the empire committee meeting to discuss the war against India.

The development of the India war had proceeded exactly as they had predicted.

Attending the meeting was Grand Council advisor Jia Xu, military affairs minister Du Ruhui, Indian Ocean Squadron Fleet Admiral Yanhuo Yaonie, Guards legion corps marshal Huo Qubing, West Asia warzone warzone commander Wang Jian, South Asia warzone commander Li Jing, and Nanyang warzone commander Baiqi. This matter involved three warzones, what a star-studded lineup.

This meeting was in preparation for the war; they were not planning to immediately declare war on India.

Along with the huge increase in teleportation costs, it was impossible to directly teleport troops to the frontlines. Moving the soldiers of the warzones would require at least a month.

After the Grand Council deliberated, they decided to split the troops attacking India into three groups.

The north front would start from Xikang Province, heading right for the Ashoka Dynasty. The attacking troops would include the two legion corps from the South Asia warzone and the four legions of the West Asia legion corps in Xihai Province.

A total of 14 legions, numbering at 700 thousand troops.

South Asia warzone commander Li Jing would be the commander of the north front. Eagle legion corps marshal Zuo Zongtang would act as the left general, West Asia legion corps marshal Hou Junji would act as the right general, and South Asia legion corps marshal Ran Min would act as the vanguard general.

Hence, the north front would be further split into three armies.

The logistics of the north army would be handled by the South Asia warzone logistics hub. When needed, the West Asia warzone hub could also provide assistance.

The west front would launch their attack from Hetao Province and head right for the Peacock Dynasty.

The attacking troops included the three legions of the Dragon legion corps, four from the Guards legion corps for a total of seven legions and 350 thousand troops, half of the north front.

Nanyang warzone commander Wuqi would be the west front commander. Huo Qubing would take up the role of left general and Dragon legion corps marshal Zhang Han would take up the role of right general.

The logistics of the west front would be handled by the Nanyang warzone logistical hub.

The south front would attack from the Nanyang ocean and head right for the Gupta Dynasty.

The attacking troops included the three legions of the Nanjiang legion corps and three divisions of the Indian Ocean Squadron for a total of 210 thousand troops. They had the least amount of troops out of the three fronts.

Nanjiang legion corps marshal Fan Lihua and Indian Ocean Squadron Fleet Admiral Yanhuo Yaonie would each manage a portion and would not interfere with one another. The logistics would be managed by the Nanyang warzone logistical hub too.

For the three fronts, they would mobilize a total of 1.25 million troops, including 24 Warfighting legions.

This was the largest scale mobilization of Great Xia since they adjusted the military organization. Hence, one could see how much importance Ouyang Shuo had placed on this matter.

On the surface, it looked like Great Xia was planning to go all out to crush the three dynasties of India.

However, that was not the case.

Even if India was wasting a lot of troops, their overall numbers were over three million and close to four million.

Along with the India territory being huge and the presence of a large number of players, it was not easy to bully them.

If that was not the case, the Peacock and Gupta dynasties would not be so fearless.

The plans of the Grand Council were made after heavy consideration and were also based on specific intel. The main planner was Jia Xu.

After a few massive successes, Jia Xu had established his fame throughout the army, gaining the position of Grand Council advisor. After representing the Grand Council to announce the makeup of the three fronts, he started to describe the strategy.

Jia Xu first introduced the geographical environment of India, “After a few rounds of expansion, the India Region owns the entire South Asia. The north is the Himalayas and the Tibet plateau, connected to Xikang Province. The northwest is the Iran plateau, connected to Persian Empire. The east side is separated by a mountain range with Hetao and Heluo Province, and the south is surrounded by ocean. This forms a relatively independent and locked up piece of land with a good geographical position.”

“Furthermore, India is located between the Himalayas and the Indian Ocean, so they have a lot of ocean resources. This piece of land has water sources from the Indian Sea and the Ganges river.”

“Specifically speaking, the Ashoka Dynasty enjoyed the Indian Sea region and the Ganges plains, having the richest land, which is why it was the strongest presence out of the three.”

“The Peacock Dynasty occupies the Ganges river delta, so its strength ranked second, slightly higher than the Gupta Dynasty.”

“In comparison, although the Gupta Dynasty has the south region of India, this area mainly consists of hills in the Deccan Plateau, which stretches south into the Indian Ocean.”

“Their geography decided their fates to a certain extent.” Jia Xu concluded.

When the generals heard this, they fell deep into thought.

“The plan of the Grand Council was made due to such geographical considerations.” Jia Xu started to describe their plan, “The Gupta Dynasty is the weakest of the three, and their territory mainly consists of mountains, so it is easy to defend and tough to attack, which is why they are our final target.”

“So the south front is only a hoax?” Yanhuo Yaonie asked.

“That’s right!” Jia Xu nodded, “The role of the south front is to use up as much energy of the Gupta dynasty as possible so that they will be unable to assist the Peacock Dynasty.”

Chapter 1324-Real and fake

Editor:Exodus Tales

"So the west army is the main attacking force?" Wuqi asked.

According to Wuqi's judgement, the Empire had just helped the Ashoka Dynasty, so if the Gupta Dynasty attack was the fake one, the Peacock Dynasty should be their main target.

The problem was that the west army's overall numbers were slightly less.

Jia Xu shook his head.

"Please enlighten us!" Wuqi said.

Jia Xu said, "The west front will attack for real, and then fake, and then attack for real once more."

"...."

This strategy was a little complicated, and the generals did not understand it.

Jia Xu explained, "Fighting for real is for the same reason as on the south front, which is to restrict the Peacock Dynasty. This will make it so that they will not be able to focus on the frontline and will need to withdraw troops, giving the Ashoka Dynasty a chance to counterattack."

Based on the plans of the Grand Council, the attacking times of the three fronts were all different.

The west front would be the first to attack to draw the Peacock Dynasty's attention. Following which, the south front would disembark in Gupta Dynasty territory so that they would not be able to assist the Peacock Dynasty.

This was the first stage.

The goal of this stage would be to give the Ashoka Dynasty room to move and push the frontlines outward. "The greater the number of Ashoka Dynasty troops on the frontlines, the more beneficial it will be for us." Jia Xu said.

Throughout this entire process, the north front, which was the main force, would not move.

Next, Jia Xu explained the second stage in detail, and only then did the meeting come to an end. The generals all returned to their warzones and started to mobilize the troops.

Especially the Guards legion corps, which needed to go from the imperial capital to Hetao Province. They needed to set off immediately.

As for when the battle would begin, that would depend on the India battle situation. Currently, they needed to move the various legions into position and start transporting the relevant grain resources.

...

The 5th month soon arrived.

The previously peaceful European battlefield finally burst into flames.

Similar to India, the European Alliance Army was not prepared to fight a drawn-out battle. They threw more troops onto the frontlines to try to conquer the Ottoman Dynasty before the 9th year ended.

Unexpectedly, the Spanish battlefield was the first.

5th month, 15th day, the Egypt army used 200 heavy cannons to bomb Spain imperial city Madrid. After a month, they finally conquered this city.

This was a breakthrough on the Spain battlefield front.

News had it that the moment he learned of the fall of Madrid, Casillas's face had turned ashen white, and his body had trembled.

Casillas was all too clear about Madrid's strategic position.

Along with Madrid falling, the entire north portion of Spain was exposed before the Egypt army. If they were not careful, the Spain Dynasty would be wiped out.

The only thing that allowed Casillas to remain calm would be the 200 thousand troops Fernando brought back from the frontlines, which gave him some confidence.

"Where did those cannons come from?"

After recovering from the shock, Casillas started to smell something unusual.

After fighting with the Egypt army for so long, Casillas was very familiar with the enemy's situation. The enemy did not even have guns, much less cannons.

"Did Great Xia help them?"

Casillas could only make such a guess before he quickly dismissed the idea. Based on their intel, the Africa warzone did not have so many heavy cannons, so they could not give them all to the Egypt army.

Only a week later did the answer to this riddle reveal itself.

The cannons came from a deal that Azure Badge made with Great Xia. On the surface, this batch was prepared for the Ottoman Dynasty.

In the dark, Azure Badge had sent a large portion of these cannons to the Egypt army.

This misdirection from Azure Badge messed up the Spain battlefield, allowing them to gain a great chance and conquer Madrid as a result.

One had to say that members of Azure Badge were experienced schemers.

They knew that if they shipped the cannons to the Ottoman Dynasty, they would not have a decisive impact on the Ottoman battlefield. However, these cannons could decide the fate of the Spanish battlefield.

Looking at the intel, Casillas was filled with regret.

"If I knew that this would happen, I would not have given up on Africa so easily." The firearms Azure Badge bought from Great Xia were shipped through the Mediterranean.

After Great Xia restored order in the Mediterranean, this ocean trade route became busy once more.

This gave the Ottoman Dynasty a chance.

Now, Silver Hand's initial plan seemed like a huge failure. It looked like they had given up Morocco, but they had in fact given up the chance to lock down the Mediterranean Ocean.

A smooth Mediterranean Ocean led to a lot of problems.

Unfortunately, even if Casillas saw through this point now, there was nothing that he could do.

The reemergence of the Mediterranean trade route energized the dynasties along the way once again, making merchants, nobles, and even normal civilians gain massive profits and plenty of convenience.

The Spain empire alone was unable to lockdown the Mediterranean Ocean once more.

Furthermore, Great Xia occupied the important parts of the trade route, and they also had the Atlantic Squadron defending it. The Spain empire could not lock it down just because they wanted to.

If the Spain Invincible Squadron dared to attempt to do so, they would immediately become public enemy number one.

"What a vicious scheme!"

Casillas could not accept it, but he could only feel depressed on his own.

In truth, his depression did not last for long. Shortly after Madrid fell, an even greater crisis loomed over the heads of the Spain Dynasty.

Casillas had no knowledge regarding all of this.

...

5th month, 22nd day, Imperial Capital.

Summer had arrived. Within the imperial garden, flowers bloomed, what a beautiful sight.

On the side of the lake on the west of the garden sat the most powerful man in Great Xia on a camp chair. He held a fishing rod, leisurely fishing.

The court ladies, servants, Imperial Palace female guards, including the Divine Martial Guards, all held their breaths, not wanting to make a sound in case they disturbed the emperor.

At this moment, footsteps sounded out on the stone path.

It was military affairs minister Du Ruhui.

This powerful giant was like a gentle and graceful student, arriving behind his majesty.

Ouyang Shuo felt it. He stared at the lake of fish and softly asked, "Are we about to arrive?"

"Tomorrow." Du Ruhui replied softly.

Coincidentally, the fishing buoy sank. Ouyang Shuo laughed, not afraid of startling the fish within as he said, "Good, the fish has taken the bait; the show is about to begin."

As he said that, he swung the fishing rod, revealing a golden carp at the end flailing about.

"Your majesty is wise!"

Du Ruhui smiled, congratulating the emperor on his catch.

Chapter 1325 - Changes in Europe

Chapter 1325: TWO Chapter 1325-Changes in Europe

5th month, 23rd day, Spain Dynasty.

That night, the Atlantic Squadron escorted a 150 thousand strong elite group to cross the ocean and disembark on the south shoreline of the Spain Dynasty.

This place was under the Egypt army.

After disembarking, they immediately gathered with the Egypt army and swarmed toward the frontlines.

At the same time, Great Xia Africa warzone Wolf legion corps’ two legions crossed the Gibraltar Straits and disembarked on the south.

The three armies gathered to form a chilling force.

5th month, 27th day, the three-pronged Alliance Army launched an assault on the south of the Spain Dynasty’s territory, waltzing in aggressively with unstoppable force.

The sudden addition was something that the Spain Dynasty could not defend against.

Along with the previous loss of Madrid, the Spain army lost its balance, and the scales of victory leaned toward the Alliance Army.

An unpredictable storm swept across the entirety of Spain.

In the next half a month, the Spain army was forced back in defeat under the ferocious assaults of the Alliance Army as city after city fell.

Very quickly, the Alliance Army was able to arrive at the Capital City of the Spain Dynasty – Tortosa City. The moment this city fell, it would signal the destruction of the Spain Dynasty.

This battle shocked the world.

No one expected the Spain battlefield to experience such an intense earthquake.

The mysteries of the Alliance Army suddenly appeared in front of everyone.

The appearance of the Africa warzone Wolf legion corps meant that Great Xia had entered the European battlefield and were standing on the same side as Azure Badge, going up against Silver Hand.

If Great Xia and Azure Badge joined hands, the European battlefield would never have peace.

Apart from the Wolf legion corps, the source of the mysterious force was also revealed, stunning everyone.

This elite force actually came from the Bantu Dynasty. Only now did people realize that the attacks of the Bantu Dynasty on Central Africa were just a misdirection.

Their real goal was to cover this elite force.

One had to say that Azure Badge had made a nice chess move. Without Silver Hand noticing it at all, they had moved troops from the Bantu Dynasty over to assist the European battlefield.

This also showed their determination to protect the Ottoman Dynasty.

Of course, their success would not have been possible without Great Xia. Without Great Xia’s Atlantic Squadron covering them, the Bantu dynasty army would not have been able to step onto Spanish soil.

Moreover, the Wolf legion corps’ attack was not done for free.

For this, the price that Azure Badge paid was opening the financial markets of the Bantu and Mayan dynasties to Great Xia and officially accepting the foreign currency status of the Great Xia currency.

In the future, trade between the three dynasties could be done directly with Great Xia currency.

To Great Xia, this was undoubtedly a historical moment. From this moment on, the Great Xia currency would be globalized and would take a huge lead in the global currency market.

Although that was the case, Ouyang Shuo did not feel all that optimistic because of Silver Hand.

Based on the intel the Black Snake Guards collected, the currency system of the Dawson Dynasty was about to be formed, and it would be called the Daw dollar. It would quickly spread throughout its territory.

Along with the Dawson Dynasty’s position in Silver Hand as well as the real life needs of the organization, it was expected for the Daw dollar to flow through the entire Silver Hand system.

This would also help to strengthen their internal unity and increase the amount of trading amongst themselves.

With that, the Daw dollar would surpass the Great Xia currency and become the top currency in the world. As a result, Ouyang Shuo wanted to recruit Azure Badge to face off against Silver Hand.

Apart from helping Azure Badge take down the Spain Dynasty, Great Xia also sent a representative to the Indian Empire to discuss letting the Great Xia currency flow there.

Recruiting the Indian Empire was also an important part of Ouyang Shuo’s plan.

After the chaos of the world war, a currency war was quietly underway. To a certain extent, this war was even more vicious and of a greater intensity than the world war.

Great Xia could not afford to lose!

…

The massive change in Spain quickly spread to the European battlefield.

Before this, the Egypt army was just a small illness in the eyes of the Alliance Army. With the Spain Dynasty blocking them, they would not have much of an impact on the European dynasties.

The only part that made them unhappy was probably the withdrawal of the Spain Dynasty army.

Due to this resentment, some of the generals of the Alliance Army actually gloated when Madrid was conquered.

How could they have expected things to escalate so quickly?

To the Alliance Army, the Spain Dynasty was the first line of defense in blocking Azure Badge. Now, this firewall was about to lose its effect, and Azure Badge was about to seep right into the European battlefield.

This made the Alliance Army anxious.

However, the problem was that anxiousness could not solve any problem.

The strength and resilience of the Ottoman people had greatly exceeded their expectations. Under such ferocious attacks, they basically enlisted everyone that they could, squeezing dry the combat potential of the nation.

A nation with its back against the wall could unleash shocking strength.

The toughness of the Ottoman Dynasty was also a result of a difference in ideals between Azure Badge and Silver Hand. Consequently, neither side would yield to the other.

If the one that attacked was Great Xia, maybe the Ottoman Dynasty would not have resisted so strongly.

Things were just so special.

After the change in the Spain battlefield, the Ottoman Dynasty behaved more and more stubborn. Sometimes, they even attacked proactively. Their goal was obvious; they wanted to prevent reinforcements from saving Spain.

In truth, the Alliance Army did not have such intentions.

In their eyes, rather than saving the Spain Dynasty that was already mostly lost, why not defend at Gaule Dynasty territory and prevent the north advancement of the enemy?

Furthermore, the Alliance Army had a dark thought.

They hoped that when the Spain army could not hold on anymore, they could give up on Tortosa City and escape toward the Gaule Dynasty.

If that happened, the Spain army that did not have a dynasty to rely on could only join the Alliance Army.

This would be the best result for the Alliance Army.

Hence, be it the European dynasties or Silver Hand, all of them started contacting Casillas, asking him to give up Tostosa City to save up strength.

After all, the Spain Dynasty currently still had 300 thousand elites.

This was a power that could not be overlooked.

For this, Silver Hand tried to threaten and tempt him.

This time, Casillas did not reject them directly. He did not show any anger but was really calm instead. The truth was already before his eyes. If the Alliance Army did not help, the Spain Dynasty would definitely be lost.

Rather than struggling on desperately, why not leave himself a way out?

Chapter 1326 - Ripples of the earthquake

Chapter 1326: TWO Chapter 1326-Ripples of the earthquake

Casillas’s hesitation gave the Egypt Alliance Army a chance.

In the next week, the Alliance Army launched a ferocious assault on Tortosa City. The cannonballs launched drowned the city, and the usually prosperous city slowly turned into ruins with cracks and holes everywhere.

The determination of the Alliance Army could not be shaken.

Under such circumstances, the resistance of Spain was pointless.

6th month, 20th day, bringing with him unwillingness, hatred, and loss, Casillas led his remaining troops out of Tortosa City, going north into Gaule Dynasty territory.

The Spain Dynasty that shone for a period of time had totally become a part of history.

…

Gaia 9th year, 6th month, 21st day, a certain piece of news spread across the globe.

The day after the Spain Dynasty was taken down, Azure Badge announced that the Spain Region would be under the Ottoman Dynasty, becoming their first overseas land.

The Egypt Dynasty king became the Spain Provincial Governor.

Based on Azure Badge’s original plan, they were prepared to restart the name of the Egypt Dynasty. However, due to the appearance of Great Xia, they did not do that.

Ouyang Shuo would never allow the Egypt Dynasty to reappear once more.

The Egypt Dynasty reappearing would be akin to creating a ticking time bomb for the Africa Governor-General House. The people sentiment’s that had just gotten better would boil once more.

Great Xia and Azure Badge were currently in their honeymoon phase. Facing Great Xia’s logical protest, Azure Badge naturally had to take it into account and take a step back.

Truthfully, the only one losing out here was the Egypt Dynasty king.

To Azure Badge, maintaining one dynasty in Europe was better than keeping two.

As such, the two sides clicked.

6th month, 22nd day, the Wolf legion corps started to withdraw from Spain.

However, the 150 thousand Bantu army soldiers stayed. The Egypt army and them would be reorganized into the Ottoman army system; they would be housed in Spain.

Azure Badge’s strategic plan was becoming more and more obvious; they wanted to use all their resources to root themselves in Europe.

Of course, the Bantu Dynasty had an extremely important strategic meaning for Azure Badge and was their final base.

The Bantu Dynasty’s attacks on Central Africa would not stop just like that.

…

Gaule Dynasty, Vic City.

The recently concluded war of Spain had a decisive impact on the European battlefield. After this battle, the Ottoman Dynasty saw signs of turning the tables, so they adjusted their strategy.

Targeting the Romanov Dynasty on the east and the Caesar Dynasty southeast, the Ottoman Dynasty chose a defensive approach. When needed, they could even concede some territory.

They mainly focused on the southwest front.

This time, the Ottoman Dynasty and the Spain province were converging on the Gaule Dynasty.

This was a crucial step for the Ottoman Dynasty to break their current situation.

If the Ottoman Dynasty could take down the Gaule Dynasty, its land would be connected to the Spain region. Not only would they get rid of a strong adversary in the Gaule Dynasty, but the House of Tudor would also be exposed.

The European battlefield would be totally turned on its head.

If they managed that, the Ottoman Dynasty would be truly in an unbeatable position.

This was a really smart choice, but it was really unfriendly toward the Gaule Dynasty. As a result, it was no wonder that Henry was in an awkward position, and he even felt infuriated.

Whether the war of Spain situation on the Gaule Dynasty was good or bad was difficult to evaluate.

On one side, the Gaule Dynasty obtained 300 thousand elites, and the strength of their army received an obvious increase. Casillas yielding made Henry feel especially delighted.

On the other hand, the Gaule Dynasty needed to face the threat of the Ottoman Dynasty. The flames of war would quickly spread from the Ottoman Dynasty to the Gaule Dynasty.

Blessings and disasters came together.

The key was that along with the 300 thousand strong Spain army submitting, the Gaule Dynasty’s logistical weakness was amplified. If the flames of war were to spread to their own land, it would make things far worse.

This was the reason why the Ottoman Dynasty felt confident.

As such, it was no wonder that Henry would feel so depressed. He was getting more and more disappointed with Silver Hand.

…

Romanov Dynasty, St Petersburg.

Toward the Ottoman Dynasty’s strategic adjustment, Henry was bitter. Meanwhile, someone was laughing in the dark.

This person was Romanov Dynasty king Pushkin.

The Ottoman Dynasty had reduced their east defensive front, allowing the Romanov Dynasty to push in west. This was a good fit with Pushkin’s strategy.

From a geographical point of view, Russia was a tough country to defend.

The core regions of most countries had some sort of geographical barrier. However, Russia’s core area since the Grand Duchy of Moscow till now had no mountains or oceans to provide protection. Their defense did not rely on the shape of the land but more on bad weather to consume the enemy’s strength.

Such a pricey defensive method made Russia struggle every time an enemy invaded. For example, the Mongol cavalry from the European grasslands, the Teutonic Order from the Central European plains, Napolean, the German Empire, and the Nazi Empire.

Facing the Mongol cavalry caused the Russians to rush their formations, so their defenses in Europe always ended in hard fought victories.

Hence, expansion was the best form of defense for Russia to make up for this weakness. They needed to continue to expand till they reached a mountain or the coast.

The Romanov Dynasty was trying to expand west. Such expansion was endless, and controlling the Ottoman Dynasty was the best result.

As the Central European plains were narrow in the west and wide in the east, the defensive line became smaller the further west you headed.

To connect to the Spain region, the Ottoman Dynasty reduced their defensive line, giving the Romanov Dynasty the chance to attack the Central European plains.

King Pushkin was a bold king.

The day they learned that the Ottoman Dynasty had adjusted its strategy, Pushkin held a meeting. They decided that the country would go all out, gathering all their strength to attack the Central European plains.

The Romanov Dynasty that was in a half-asleep, half-awake state was like a northern beast, suddenly waking up and starting to show off its talents to build a stable foundation for the dynasty.

To make matters better for them, Silver Hand’s strategy with regard to the Ottoman Dynasty was exactly the same. Being able to get assurance from his allies was a good matter.

To get help from the organization, Pushkin acted crafty for once. He first acted like he was unwilling in the internal meeting of Silver Hand. Only after obtaining enough promises did he pretend to helplessly accept.

In truth, Pushkin was laughing in his heart.

…

6th month, 25th day.

With the Romanov Dynasty adding troops to the European battlefield, someone felt a pain in his ass.

Chapter 1327 - War of India begins

Chapter 1327: TWO Chapter 1327-War of India begins

Some people were delighted, while others naturally were not.

The Ottoman Dynasty reducing their defensive line was originally a great chance for the Caesar Dynasty to expand. However, Caesar was afraid and did not dare to swallow this piece of meat.

Naturally, he was worried about Great Xia.

During this European war, it was okay when Great Xia did not strike. However, when they did, they helped Azure Badge destroy the Spain Dynasty. As such, how could the Caesar Dynasty that neighbored Great Xia not feel afraid?

Caesar was worried that while he was busy taking down the Ottoman Dynasty, the Great Xia Army would charge in from the Mediterranean Ocean and attack their back garden.

If that happened, Caesar would burst into tears.

Hence, even during the most intense part of the war, the Caesar Dynasty kept half of their troops and did not truly dare to go all out.

The threat of Great Xia had reduced a lot of the pressure on the Ottoman Dynasty.

Otherwise, Azure Badge would not have agreed to give up the Egypt Dynasty so easily.

Actually, not just the Caesar Dynasty, but even the Arab Empire was worried about Great Xia. During the entire war of Europe period, the Arab Empire did not dare to interfere.

Those not in the know might think that the Arab Empire was a neutral dynasty that was not in the Silver Hand camp.

Truthfully, be it the Arab Empire or the Persian Empire, both were in pretty awkward states within Silver Hand. Neither empire had much speaking rights.

Due to that, these two dynasties were not so eager to join the European battlefield.

Only they knew the happenings within.

…

6th month, 27th day, Imperial City.

After the Spain Dynasty was destroyed, Ouyang Shuo’s attention shifted away from Europe.

A month had passed, and the three armies that Great Xia had planned to attack India with were slowly moved into position. The relevant resources had been moved, and they were only waiting for the order to begin their crusade on India.

During this period, the India Region had new changes within.

Using their one million troop advantage, the Ashoka Dynasty showed frightening killing ability as they faced the addition of troops from the Peacock and Gupta dynasties and pushed forward the frontlines.

Currently, the Ashoka Dynasty had already recovered two-thirds of their lost land.

The half a year of hard work the Peacock and Gupta dynasties had put in seemed to be for naught as the Ashoka Dynasty started to turn the tables.

The chess game in India was truly dazzling.

It was under such circumstances that Great Xia began a magnificent crusade.

7th month, 1st day, the three legions of the Dragon legion corps crossed the Hetao Province border and charged into Peacock Dynasty territory, signaling the start of the war of India.

The four elite legions of the Guards legion corps followed closely behind.

The two elite armies, one north and one south, followed their designated battle targets to cross swords with the Peacock Dynasty at the border, starting the first wave of war in Peacock Dynasty territory.

The moment news of this spread out, India clamored!

If one said that the India Region was at the level of a tug of war, Great Xia’s sudden interference broke the weak balance right away.

…

Peacock Dynasty, Bangalore City.

Facing Great Xia’s invasion, the Peacock King was only somewhat surprised.

In truth, since the 4th month of the 6th year, the Peacock Dynasty had never let their guard down toward Great Xia since losing to Great Xia in the fight for Piao.

At that time, their number of soldiers totaled at around 900 thousand.

After the lost in that war, the Peacock King started a round of crazy troop recruitment because he was worried that Great Xia would invade them. As a result, their scale rose rapidly.

The Peacock King had been exhausting all resources on the military.

They had no choice. Great Xia had placed too much pressure on them, so they had to make such a move.

It was also thanks to this move that the Peacock Dynasty was able to buy three years of peace.

After swallowing up one of the territories in the central region, they relied on their massive talent store to join hands with the Gupta Dynasty to attack the Ashoka Dynasty. Their overall numbers reached a shocking 1.7 million.

Meanwhile, the Gupta Dynasty had around 1.4 million troops.

Hence, when the internal war of India broke out, the entirety of India had over six million soldiers and was even close to the seven million mark. Apart from the China region, they had the highest number of troops.

The India of that time was something that Great Xia had no chance of beating.

A year and a half of internal war acted as a true meat grinder. It brought the India Region a serious disaster. The intense battles between them caused both sides to suffer heavy casualties.

When Great Xia suddenly declared war, the Peacock Dynasty’s numbers had already dropped to 850 thousand, which was even less than the 900 thousand they had before they started recruiting troops.

These simple numbers already showed how scary the long and drawn out war was.

Out of the 850 thousand troops, close to 500 thousand were placed on the frontlines to support the new troops to hold off the Ashoka Dynasty’s attacks.

The problem that this created was a gap at the border defense.

Even then, they had 350 thousand elite troops placed there. In the eyes of the Peacock King, they had the geographical advantage, so defending against the Dragon legion corps would not be a problem.

Unfortunately, they only knew that the enemy’s legion corps went from 350 thousand men to 250 thousand men after the disarmament. However, they were unaware of the inner happenings within the legion corps.

How would they know that the Great Xia Army’s strength had increased instead?

Currently, the Great Xia Army’s firearm usage rate was at 70%, which was the highest in the world. Large cannons, fighter jets, combat puppets, and other strategic weapons were already equipped to the division level.

Even before matchlock guns were out of the game, Great Xia’s elite troops were already using percussion lock guns to replace flintlock guns.

Such a Great Xia Army was not something comparable to its previous state.

Due to the lack of intel, the Peacock Dynasty was naturally caught off guard. In the first week, they lost four border cities.

When the Peacock King received the report, he smacked the table in fury.

In a one-on-one battle, the Peacock Dynasty army was not Great Xia’s opponent despite the geographical advantage.

With the heavy cannons being standard equipment in the Great Xia Army, those solid cities were not so hard to take down anymore. Along with the fighter jets, Great Xia reduced the difference between the attacking and defending sides.

Furthermore, Great Xia was striking with both the Guards and Dragon legion corps. Hence, even if the Peacock Dynasty was prepared, they would not be able to defend against them.

All of a sudden, the Peacock Dynasty’s border was in chaos.

War was like a pitch black and endless dark cloud hanging over the Peacock Dynasty, making it difficult for them to breathe.

On one side was the overbearing and eager to reclaim lost land Ashoka Dynasty army, and on the other side was the aggressive Great Xia. The Peacock Dynasty was facing an unprecedented crisis.

At such a time, the Peacock King had to give up something.

Chapter 1328-Storm rises in India; who is the fisherman

Editor:Exodus Tales

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

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

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

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

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

His words were filled with sincerity and hope.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As such, the weight of the negotiations increased.

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

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

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

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

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

The following battle would probably exceed everyone's expectations.

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

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

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

"A storm has arrived."

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

...

Ashoka Dynasty, Delhi.

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

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

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

This was a plan concocted by the Peacock King.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ashoka was naturally happy about that.

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

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

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

That was awkward!

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

Their plan had failed before it had even begun.

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

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

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

Ashoka wanted a larger part of India.

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

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

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

...

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

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

Unfortunately, Great Xia had foreseen that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter 1329 – Unusual Actions of the Great Xia Army

Editor:Exodus Tales

The Gupta Dynasty's self-preservation destroyed the Peacock Dynasty's last hope.

With the cooperation between Great Xia and the Ashoka Dynasty, the east and west fronts converged on the Peacock Dynasty. All of a sudden, they were losing on both fronts, and their territory was shrinking at a visible rate.

The Peacock King panicked, but there was nothing he could do about it.

On the contrary, toward the Gupta Dynasty in the south, Great Xia and the Ashoka Dynasty chose a conservative strategy, taking disturbance and restriction as a priority.

As long as the Gupta Dynasty did not help the Peacock Dynasty, all would be good.

The Gupta King was not a fool and knew that the enemy was doing this not to truly let him go but to take them down one by one. Once the Peacock Dynasty was destroyed, he would be next.

However, the strength that they possessed was enough to defend but not enough to counterattack.

The situation was very apparent. In this two-versus-two scenario, Great Xia and the Ashoka Dynasty's strong combination was suppressing the Peacock and Gupta dynasties.

Victory was just a matter of time.

...

7th month, 20th day, India.

As Great Xia and the Ashoka Dynasty Alliance Army claimed victory after victory, an unfriendly piece of news spread out through India, causing a crack to form in their relationship.

This matter started a week ago.

After Great Xia's west front entered Peacock Dynasty territory, they would arrange for people to collect the resources and transport them to the nearby Hetao Province with every city occupied.

Not only that, but even the people were raided, getting forced to migrate over.

Great Xia's weird actions unavoidably raised the doubts of the people.

After all, this was not how Great Xia usually acted. With their military discipline, they usually let the people off and would try their best to settle down the locals.

Great Xia had never committed such acts.

Outsiders did not understand what was happening but Ashoka did.

Based on the alliance contract that they signed, the Peacock Dynasty's territory would be given to the Ashoka Dynasty in the future. Great Xia was taking such action to gain some benefits from it.

"But aren't they going a little too far." Ashoka was annoyed.

For the last few days, since both sides had just begun working together and considering the war situation, Ashoka King did not say anything.

Unexpectedly, the Great Xia Army became even more unrestrained because of that.

Based on the news from the scouts on the frontlines, Great Xia was sweeping up everything.

Once the war ended, these cities would all be empty when Ashoka accepted them; this greatly stepped into the Ashoka Dynasty's interests.

When the Ashoka King received the report, he could not take it anymore and personally reached out to the Xia emperor.

When he received the information from Ashoka, Ouyang Shuo treated it really seriously. First, he expressed his apologies and continued with, "The frontline soldiers are acting on their own, not following orders. I've failed to control them; I'll give you an answer."

This left Ashoka really confused.

"Did the Xia emperor not instruct the army to do that?"

Ashoka definitely did not believe that.

Everyone in the world knew that on a global scale, the Great Xia Army was famous for being disciplined. If the Imperial Court did not give them instructions to act as such, they definitely would not do that.

"Did an official in Great Xia incite this?"

The Ashoka King did not exclude the possibility of this happening. Of course, what most likely happened was that the Xia emperor himself was acting like he did not know anything to save face.

Ashoka himself had used such tricks many times in the past.

Luckily, with the Xia emperor's promise, this problem would come to an end no matter what.

The Ashoka King knew his place and did not bring up the issue of compensation. As long as the Great Xia Army stopped these actions, the little losses the Ashoka Dynasty had suffered so far would not be much.

In truth, Ashoka would not flip on Great Xia because of such small profits.

No matter what, the India war situation was beneficial to them. Moreover, before they obtained a clear victory, many things could happen.

At such a time, the worry would be the alliance having cracks and breaking apart.

The Ashoka King understood the importance of this.

After this, since he handled the matter well and did not lose his head, Ashoka felt delighted.

...

Unfortunately, the following events proved that Ashoka was happy a little too early.

After Ashoka personally appealed, Great Xia seemed to stop on the surface, allowing him to heave a sigh of relief.

However, just a week later, a new situation that occurred.

Based on the reports from the spies, Great Xia's actions went from on the surface to in the dark. Although they did not openly take money and grain, they 'invited' merchants to Hetao Province to invest and do business.

Facing the army's personal visits, how could they refuse?

At the same time, Great Xia's Nanjiang Governor-General House also openly hired talents from the occupied regions.

Although they did not sweep up everyone, they took in all kinds of talents, taking the cream of the crop.

Great Xia's method was truly ingenious.

Saying that all parties were willing, they openly stole talents in a flawless manner.

Due to many years of fighting, the merchants and talents were not all forced to accept the olive branch from Great Xia. A large portion of them willingly moved over to Nanjiang.

After all, everyone sought a peaceful life.

In comparison, the civilians did not like the Ashoka Dynasty as much.

When Ashoka received the report, he was so furious that his face turned black. However, there was nothing he could do. After all, the civilians of the occupied land were all willing to move, so Ashoka did not have the face to complain.

As a ruler, he had his own pride.

He could not be like a peddler and quarrel with the Xia emperor like a little kid.

Ashoka could not lose his face like that.

"We have to take measures!"

Ashoka was a prideful person. Since he had eaten a defeat, he wanted to turn the situation around.

Not complaining did not mean that there was nothing he could do about it.

"'Men!" Ashoka shouted.

"Present!"

The Ashoka King ordered, "Let the personal troops know that I want to go to the frontlines myself."

"Yes!"

Ashoka had calculated everything. Since he could not stop Great Xia from playing tricks, he could only let his strength do the talking. He would gather his forces on the frontlines of the Peacock Dynasty to race against Great Xia.

The faster they conquered the Peacock Dynasty, they less that they would lose. The more cities they conquered, the less Great Xia could take.

This idea seemed dumb and careless, but it was the only way for Ashoka now.

"I want to see exactly how many cities Great Xia can take down."

Chapter 1330 - An unassuming storm

Chapter 1330: TWO Chapter 1330-An unassuming storm

7th month, 29th day, Imperial Capital.

Ouyang Shuo, who had been in the capital keeping track of the big picture, received the news that Ashoka was going to personally lead the troops and strengthen the attacks on the Peacock Dynasty. At the moment, he was accompanying his four-year-old daughter to draw.

When he heard that, he smiled, “He had some composure, but he still fell for it in the end.”

“Your majesty is wise!”

Du Ruhui, who came over to report this news, smiled.

As one of the planners behind the Battle of India, Du Ruhui naturally understood what was going on.

The Imperial Court had allowed the west front to pillage because they wanted to anger Ashoka; this would reduce the strength of the Ashoka Dynasty and would allow Great Xia to prepare for the next step in the plan.

The anxious Ashoka probably did not notice that just as the Ashoka Dynasty army increased their attacks, the Great Xia Army simultaneously slowed down.

Just like that, the Ashoka Dynasty took on 70% of the pressure.

…

In the blink of an eye, the 8th month arrived.

More than half of the busy 9th year of Gaia had ended, and the intergalactic squadron was getting closer and closer to Planet Hope. At this sensitive juncture, all the players were looking forward and having high hopes toward their new lives.

Of course, there was also the fear toward a new environment.

The exploration of the Gendaya Continent by the various dynasties had gone on for half a year, and the news that they collected was enough to make one afraid. The cruel environment of Planet Hope was far beyond their expectations.

Even the best exploration teams found it hard to proceed on the Gendaya Continent.

Then as a group, how could the normal players survive on Planet Hope?

Fear was normal.

As a social animal, fear often makes people band together to form a collective strength.

At such a time, with the Federation era no longer around, the dynasties let people feel warm, and they were the greatest thing that the players could lean on.

That was because based on the news revealed by Gaia, the bases on Planet Hope in the future would be constructed based on dynasties. A strong dynasty was enough to give a person confidence.

Using this chance, the feeling of being blessed grew in the hearts of the Great Xia players.

Looking out across the entire world, there was no dynasty as strong and safe as Great Xia.

Apart from the Chinese players, even those living overseas in Great Xia territory recognized Great Xia more and more. The Empire’s ideals slowly gathered up as they amassed strength to explore Planet Hope.

Ouyang Shuo was the controller of that power.

Some people felt delighted, while others felt that the situation was unfortunate. For example, the European Continent that was wrapped up in the flames of war, the India that was embroiled in turmoil, and the Mayan Dynasty that was pincered in.

Especially Europe, which was seen as the place where democracy originated.

A year and a half had passed, and the flames of war had yet to subside. Be it the Alliance Army side or the Ottoman Dynasty side, there were many people who were against continuing the war.

As time passed, these emotions grew more and more intense.

Players were not fools, and they knew that this war was a battle between Silver Hand and Azure Badge. Regardless of who emerged victorious, the most affected party would be the normal players.

All of a sudden, the disapproval of the Europeans players toward Silver Hand and Azure Badge grew.

When Ouyang Shuo heard the news, his eyes lit up. The breakthrough point that he had been waiting for was about to arrive. He immediately instructed the Black Snake Guard’s European division to add oil to the fire.

Only by making these two organizations disband could Great Xia be truly without worries.

To force these two organizations to disband, apart from destroying the dynasties belonging to both camps, Great Xia had to make the world disapprove of them so that they did not hold the moral high ground.

The negative opinions of the players were naturally the best.

Ouyang Shuo was only pushing it forward. As for what these opinions would turn into, even Ouyang Shuo could not predict it. He could only wait and see.

At this stage at least, these opinions would not be able to decide the actions of the dynasties.

Under such circumstances, the flames of war still burned brightly in the European battlefield. The Ottoman Dynasty landed a heavy blow on the Gaule Dynasty while the Romanov Dynasty grabbed some easy pickings.

The Caesar Dynasty did nothing at all.

The most awkward party was the House of Tudor.

On one side, they needed to face the disturbance of the Ottoman Dynasty on their main soil. Even now, they still had not wiped out the 100 thousand invading Ottoman Dynasty troops.

On the other hand, along with the European battlefield changing, the House of Tudor’s arrangement in the Gaule Dynasty had become really awkward. They could not advance, but they could not retreat either.

The Alliance Army was showing signs of cracking.

Especially after their continuous failures in their attempts at conquering the Ottoman Dynasty. The dynasties that were wrapped up were naturally not as confident as before, and they started to think for themselves.

Ouyang Shuo predicted that this stalemate in Europe would be broken really quickly.

Apart from Europe, the chaotic situation in America surrounding the Mayan Dynasty and the Dawson Dynasty showed no signs of changing. Both sides advanced and retreated, going neck and neck at the border.

Most of the Dawson Dynasty’s forces were wrapped up in this battle.

Using this chance, Great Xia’s America warzone began to close out their operation to take down the Great Antilles Islands with help from the Pacific Squadron. They would be able to occupy the entire Antilles Islands very soon.

At that time, Great Xia would have massive speaking rights in the Gulf of Mexico.

As for the Caribbean Ocean, it had already fallen into the hands of Great Xia.

During these past few years, apart from land attacks, Great Xia’s crusades on the ocean islands had not stopped. For example, the famous Galápagos Islands around Ecuador were already under Great Xia rule.

This was the place where Darwin’s theory of evolution came out from.

Next was the Madagascar islands in East Africa, which were also under Great Xia rule. Ownership of this place helped Great Xia control the path from the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean.

As for the islands of the Indian Ocean, they were naturally taken down.

Recently, Great Xia had also been taking down the islands around the Gibraltar Straits. As long as they controlled these islands, they would be able to totally control the entry of the Mediterranean into the Atlantic Ocean.

Based on incomplete calculations, Great Xia currently had around 10 thousand small islands, and around a thousand of these islands were habitable.

Unknowingly, Great Xia had also become an island nation.

Although these islands might look completely unassuming, they were located at crucial positions on the trade route, so their uses might exceed even that of a province in the future.

In history, the British gave an unassuming island to the Germans, which resulted in them suffering huge losses in World War II, paying hundreds or even a thousand times the price.

Although Morocco during the Federation era was at a corner of the Gibraltar Straits, it had lost control of the islands around it. As a result, the Gibraltar Straits completely lost its presence.

There were many similar examples.

Not to mention the use of an island when drawing up ocean territories in the future.

In conclusion, along with half of the 9th year ending, a new wave was sweeping across the globe. Standing in the midst of this, the India Region would welcome a decisive moment.

Chapter 1331 - Peacock falls

Chapter 1331: TWO Chapter 1331-Peacock falls

8th month, 15th day, India Region.

Along with the Ashoka Dynasty’s main force attacking the Peacock Dynasty’s Capital City, Bengalore, the once glorious Peacock Dynasty became a part of history.

The Peacock Dynasty also became the second dynasty to be destroyed in the 9th year of Gaia.

To take down the Peacock Dynasty quicker and to not give Great Xia a chance to profit more, the Ashoka Dynasty army fought really viciously under the personal monitoring of Ashoka.

Although they achieved victory, they had paid a heavy price.

Rough estimates placed their loses in this battle at 200 thousand. Along with the previous battle for revenge, 80% of the one million war prisoners they redeemed had been lost.

Even then, Ashoka was really satisfied and even a little delighted.

That was because at the final moment, the remaining 300 thousand Peacock Dynasty troops surrendered to Ashoka under the instructions of the Peacock King.

As for Great Xia’s side, they did not receive any war prisoners.

As such, one could see the resentment the Peacock King had toward Great Xia. Even at their final moments, he wanted to give Great Xia problems. He would rather give the troops to Ashoka than let Great Xia have any.

Just like that, the Ashoka Dynasty army increased instead of decreasing.

After Bengalore was broken into, the Peacock King did not remain in this sad land because India did not have a place for him anymore.

The next day, Durava brought his family members and trusted men to teleport over to the Darkness empire.

Maybe the Mu Continent would be where Durava could start his war of revenge on Great Xia.

…

The next day, after Bengalore was conquered by the Ashoka Dynasty, the Great Xia west front followed the agreement and stopped their advance into the west. They gave the chance of wiping out the remaining Peacock Dynasty troops to the Ashoka Dynasty.

West front commander Wuqi even wrote a letter to Ashoka to say that after the west front army rested up and replenished their grain, they would move to the Gupta Dynasty frontline.

Not only that, but Great Xia would even stop their migration work and chamber of commerce persuasion. They would not make things difficult for the Ashoka Dynasty.

When Ashoka received the report, although he was happy, he also started to regard Great Xia highly in his heart.

Although Great Xia’s earlier actions were not glorious, when it involved terms in the contract, Great Xia did not hesitate at all, showing the style of a great nation.

At this point, Ashoka was truly worried that the Great Xia Army would not leave.

Since he had received Great Xia’s help, Ashoka naturally had to repay them. Apart from leaving a portion of the troops to take charge of the prisoners and sweep up the remaining enemy forces, the rest moved over to the Gupta Dynasty frontlines.

After all, helping Great Xia take down the Gupta Dynasty was one of the important points of the contract.

During the next few months, the India Region’s military might would gather toward the Gupta Dynasty, making the already shaky Gupta Dynasty fall to an extremely precarious situation.

It was only a matter of time before the Gupta Dynasty was destroyed.

Furthermore, since the 10th year of Gaia was about to arrive, the Indian players hoped that the situation could stabilize before the next year. They did not wish to continue fighting just like this.

The players’ eagerness toward joining the war greatly reduced.

Take the destruction of the Peacock Dynasty as an example. 90% of the players decided to remain and did not teleport to other dynasties.

To them, living in India had greater meaning.

There were even voices that said that the Peacock Dynasty would be under Ashoka rule. Since that was the case, the Indian players did not need to change sides.

This was a good thing for Ashoka.

After all, to regain the strength of the Ashoka Dynasty, especially to improve its industrialization, these Indian players were a core force that could not be lacked.

If they relied on Ashoka, who had historical restrictions, they would not be able to achieve that.

Strictly speaking, although the Indians had blind confidence and were against China since ancient times, they were gentler and more submissive, so it was easier to tame them.

Otherwise, how could the British Empire order them around for 300 years?

The Indians were also really submissive toward power. As long as the ruler did well, India would be a happy land.

After all, looking out across the entire world, India had one of the best environments.

…

9th month, 1st day, Mayan Dynasty.

Just as the India Region was welcoming its reshuffling, a new change occurred to the Mayan Battlefield.

After half a year of tug of war, Jack was becoming a little annoyed and even somewhat crazy. The Mayan war that was taking so long to finish restricted the Dawson Dynasty and took up a lot of their energy.

As a result, the Dawson Dynasty did not do much in the 9th year of Gaia that had so much changes.

Even the Antilles Islands that Jack saw as his outer barrier were taken down by Great Xia, directly threatening the safety of the Gulf of Mexico. These losses made him feel really depressed.

Along with the changes to the European battlefield, Azure Badge had turned around the situation with the help of Great Xia. The Alliance Army was losing ground, but the Dawson Dynasty could not do anything about it.

Jack was really anxious as well.

For this matter, Jack’s grandfather was scolded many times during Silver Hand meetings.

The Dawson family’s position in Silver Hand was becoming weaker and weaker due to them not handling of this matter. They were even signs of them being pushed off of their pedestal.

Regarding this matter, number 1 had rushed Jack several times.

“No matter what strategy you must take, end the Mayan war soon.”

This was something number 1 emphasized several times.

Jack was in an awkward position. If he could, he was truly willing to stop fighting. Compared to the small Mayan Dynasty, Europe and Africa should be the stage for the Dawson Dynasty.

However, the problem was that this war was not something they could stop.

This unassuming war was actually a battlefield between Great Xia, Silver Hand, and Azure Badge.

On the surface, it looked really calm, but there were actually many hidden currents.

Regardless of which side backs out, it would cause an uncertain chain reaction.

Jack did not dare to take such a gamble.

The moment they lost control of the Gulf of Mexico, the Dawson Dynasty’s external trade would be in the hands of the enemy. Such a matter would be a huge catastrophe toward their standing in the upcoming global trade war.

Hence, the Dawson Dynasty had no reason to withdraw.

They could not withdraw, but they could not win either.

The Mayan war became a dead knot.

And this was exactly what Great Xia wanted. Ouyang Shuo wanted to use this as a medium to restrict the Dawson Dynasty so that Great Xia could restructure and build a global system.

A true global empire was slowly being formed.

Obviously, Jack was not willing to admit defeat. He was an extremely intelligent person. Facing this dead knot, he thought of an idea that no one could have expected.

Even Ouyang Shuo was impressed.

Chapter 1332 - Big fish eats small fish

Chapter 1332: TWO Chapter 1332-Big fish eats small fish

Chapter 1332 – Big Fish Eats Small Fish

Facing this situation, Jack thought of a good method.

Just as the 9th month arrived, the Dawson Dynasty sent a secret envoy to Great Xia. Their goal was to discuss how to share and split up the Mayan Dynasty.

That’s right, split.

Based on Jack’s logic, since the three sides could not come together, they should follow the principle of the big fish eats the small fish. Great Xia and the Dawson Dynasty would split up the Mayan Dynasty before battling it out amongst themselves.

This was exactly like Silver Hand’s style.

…

9th month, 2nd day, Imperial Capital.

After sending the Dawson Dynasty envoy away, Ouyang Shuo summoned Jiang Shang, Zhang Liang, and Du Ruhui.

“How do you think we should reply to the Dawson Dynasty’s suggestion?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

The Dawson Dynasty’s suggestion did not fit with Great Xia’s America strategy, and it even went against it. Logically speaking, Ouyang Shuo should have rejected the proposal outright.

However, he did not. Instead, he gathered up the important ministers to solemnly for a discussion.

Just the summoning of the three core officials itself revealed Ouyang Shuo’s thoughts on this particular matter.

Hence, when they heard his majesty’s question, the three of them did not reply immediately. Instead, they thought about it in their minds. They could not go against the thoughts of the king, but they could not brainlessly follow him either.

They had to give the emperor some proper advice and opinions on this matter. Otherwise, it would seem like they as officials did not possess skill.

After a short while, Zhang Liang said, “Your majesty, I don’t think their suggestion is in conflict with the Empire’s America strategy.”

“Please elaborate.” Ouyang Shuo smiled.

“The Empire’s America strategy can be summarized into two points. First, restrict the Dawson Dynasty so that it cannot expand in the world. Secondly, manage America well and increase our strength.”

“That’s right.” Ouyang Shuo nodded.

Zhang Liang continued, “If we split the Mayan Dynasty with them, given the ability of the America warzone, they can replace the Mayan Dynasty and continue to restrict the Dawson Dynasty.”

As the military representative, Du Ruhui was not as certain about that and said, “The America warzone needs to care about the entire America Governor-General House and cannot do as elder has suggested.”

The America warzone had three legions corps under it, and the South America legion corps needed to defend the Amazon Province, the Brasilia Province, and the Uruguay Province; they could not be moved away.

The Tiger legion corps defended the Columbia Province, helping the Empire defend the Panama Canal. Unless it was an emergency, they could not be moved either. At most, they could move one to two legions.

The only one that could be used to go up against the Dawson Dynasty would be the North America legion corps.

With just one legion corps, how could they fight against the Dawson Dynasty? Not to mention restricting them, but even just maintaining peace and order would be difficult.

Based on Du Ruhui’s words, he hoped for the Empire to maintain the current situation.

When Zhang Liang heard that, he smiled and explained, “If we relied on our strength in the open, we naturally cannot. However, you must not forget that the entire Empire stands behind the America warzone.”

“Just this point alone is enough to make the Dawson Dynasty tremble.”

Hearing those words, Jiang Shang and Du Ruhui exchanged glances and smiled, not disagreeing.

That was true, in this day and age, no matter which dynasty neighbored Great Xia, they would be afraid.

Zhang Liang continued, “If we can get the south of the Mayan Dynasty and directly rule it, it can help to open up ocean resources in the Caribbean. This would be a good development chance for the America Govenor-General House. The Empire can also make use of this chance to increase our interference in the Gulf of Mexico to get more benefits.”

“I’m guessing that the Dawson Dynasty made this choice because they were forced to.”

“Why?” Jiang Shang asked.

“To them, occupying the entire Mayan Dynasty aligns with their strategic interests; it would let them obtain the ability to challenge us. Seeing the war matters not proceeding well, dragging on is not a choice, which is why they chose the next best solution. To the Dawson Dynasty, making us interfere in Central America is also leading a wolf into the room.” Zhang Liang said.

Ouyang Shuo nodded in agreement.

At this point, Ouyang Shuo looked at the three of them and revealed the answer to the puzzle, “There are two reasons behind why I’m interested in the Dawson Dynasty’s suggestion.”

“First, along with the Spain Dynasty being destroyed, the Ottoman Dynasty’s position has greatly improved. Hence, our relationship with the Azure Badge will come to an end soon.”

Jiang Shang and the others agreed.

Without talking about things that were too far away, Great Xia was working with Ashoka to attack the Gupta dynasty that was under Azure Badge. “There were no forever friends or forever enemies, only forever interests.”

“Under such circumstances, there’s a need to deal with the Mayan Dynasty, which is a ticking time bomb.” Ouyang Shuo continued, “Secondly, after half a year of tug of war, their strength has been used up. If we add pressure to the frontlines without going in directly, as long as the Dawson Dynasty is willing to pay the price, they can still win.”

“When that happens, what occurred in the Maple Dynasty might repeat again. Although we restricted the Dawson Dynasty to a certain extent, we did not get anything good out of it.”

Before this, Great Xia had thrown in a legion corps of Mercenary troops, but they were unable to prevent the destruction of the Maple Dynasty.

Naturally, they did not obtain the military base that was promised.

On the contrary, although the Dawson Dynasty paid a heavy price, provided that they ran the Maple Dynasty well after occupying it, they would be able to recover their losses in a few years.

In the game world, at least at the current stage, the value and potential of land was huge.

It was even the most valuable thing.

In the Mayan battlefield, if Great Xia did not directly interfere and chose to help in the dark, the threat that the Dawson Dynasty posed to the America Governor-General House would rise to a new level once the Dawson Dynasty conquered the Mayan Dynasty.

Ouyang Shuo said, “Due to that, I think splitting the Mayan Dynasty with them and kicking away this chess piece of Azure Badge is the right thing to do at the moment.”

“After listening to your analysis, I’m even more certain of my judgment.” Ouyang Shuo added.

Zhang Liang’s analysis had cleared up all the doubts in Ouyang Shuo’s heart. The Strategy Saint was the Strategy Saint indeed. He was always able to see things at a higher level and could look directly at the crux of the problem.

“Your majesty is wise!”

The three ministers bowed; the questions in their hearts were answered.

Ouyang Shuo nodded before looking at Jiang Shang and instructing, “Since we all agree, the Cabinet will take the lead for the negotiations.”

“Yes, my emperor!”

Jiang Shang merrily accepted this responsibility.

Although it was splitting, how to distribute and plan the matter involved a lot of detailed work.

Chapter 1333 - Prosperity every year

Chapter 1333: TWO Chapter 1333-Prosperity every year

9th month, 7th day, Imperial Capital.

The Dawson Dynasty’s secret envoy took the document that both sides had signed and headed back home.

After five days of negotiations, the representatives on both sides drew a separating line through the Mayan dynasty. At the same time, they talked about the specific troop arrangements and relayed it to their emperors, who made the final decision.

Next would be carrying out the matter.

…

9th month, 10th day, the Dawson Dynasty used the autumn harvest as a reason to slow down their attacks on the Mayan Dynasty. The army started to withdraw from the frontlines in an orderly manner and acted like they were resting up.

Two days later, the Great Xia Mercenary army in the Mayan Dynasty territory started to leave the frontlines to rest up and returned to their military base.

Suddenly, the bustling Mayan battlefield dropped in temperature.

The current Mayan Dynasty did not realize the problem. Seeing the battlefield calm down, they were happy to rest up. In truth, the pressure that the Dawson Dynasty exerted on them was massive.

Their tense emotions slightly relaxed.

The change happened during the 9th month, 18th day. Just as the frontlines relaxed, the Dawson Dynasty army returned, looking even more ferocious.

The Dawson Dynasty had sent more troops to the frontlines.

When the Mayan Dynasty received the report, they were terrified. They had the frontlines prepare as they contacted the Great Xia Mercenary army, asking them to end their rest and return to the frontlines.

Unexpectedly, the Great Xia Mercenary army used the reason of “Heavy casualties, badly need resting.” to reject their request.

Based on the contract that the two parties signed, the Mayan Dynasty did not have absolute power over the Mercenary army. The two sides were only mercenary and hirer.

Hence, if the Mercenary army was not willing to fight, the Mayan Dynasty could not do much to them.

After being rejected, the Mayan Dynasty panicked. Within three days, they sent three groups of people over to the base, and the conditions became better and better.

Unfortunately, the Mercenary army did not move.

This delay lasted for five days. During this period, since the Great Xia Mercenary army was not present, the Mayan army’s defensive pressure increased. They suffered heavy casualties and lost three cities.

The Mayan King was anxious like an ant on a hotpot. He even personally rushed to the base to plead for them to set out to the frontlines and assist the Mayan Dynasty.

Unfortunately, they did not care much about the face of the Mayan King.

This time, the Mercenary army basically closed the door on his face; they did not even allow him to enter. At this point, the Mayan King finally realize that things were unusual.

From the air alone he could smell some danger.

However, as the frontline situation was serious, he did not have time to ponder on the matter. Without the Great Xia Mercenary army helping them, the Mayan army was getting destroyed.

Helplessly, the Mayan King could only seek help from the organization.

When Azure Badge received the Mayan Dynasty’s request, they treated it really seriously and sent an envoy to the imperial capital to personally handle the matter.

The Mayan Dynasty was not just one of the four remaining Azure Badge dynasties. It was the only one on the America Continent and had a really important strategic position.

The problem was that the Great Xia Army was currently working with the Ashoka Dynasty and crushing down on the Gupta Dynasty. The honeymoon period between the two had not even began, yet it had already ended.

Whether they could persuade Great Xia was another problem in and of itself.

As the situation continued to worsen, the worries of Azure Badge came to fruition.

Great Xia’s Honglu Temple courteously received them and did not treat them lightly.

The problem was that regarding the specific matters, the Honglu Temple tried glossing over it. They did not want to go into the details, and it seemed like they were trying to delay for time.

This diplomatic game between the two sides would not reach an outcome in a short amount of time.

The problem was that the frontline waited for no one.

The following plot was really cold-blooded and lethal, directly pushing the Mayan Dynasty into the abyss.

10th month, 1st day, the Great Xia Mercenary legion corps informed the Mayan Dynasty of the termination of their relationship. Under the protection of the Atlantic Squadron, they headed back to Columbia Province.

At this point, although the Mayan King was furious, there was nothing that he could do.

One could even say that the Mayan King did not dare to send troops to block Great Xia. First, he did not have enough men; secondly, he no longer held any hopes for other changes to occur at this crucial moment.

In the end, the two sides were in an employer-employee relationship.

They were not even allies, as that was just the one-sided intentions of the Mayan Dynasty.

Between Great Xia and the Mayan Dynasty, there was just using one another. The Mayan King knew this point himself.

The worst was yet to come.

10th month, 3rd day, the day after the Great Xia Mercenary legion corps withdrew, Great Xia declared war on the Mayan Dynasty. Xue Rengui led the four legions of the North America legion corps to attack from the Panama region. At the same time, the 3rd division of the Atlantic Squadron protected them from the oceans.

Great Xia’s sudden declaration of war was a death sentence to the Mayan Dynasty.

This was when the Mayan King realized that unbeknownst to him, the two giants of America had come to a consensus to privately split up the Mayan Dynasty.

Truthfully, such a feeling was frustrating.

“The people are the knives, and I am the meat.”

In such a chaotic world, the strong truly controlled the fates of the weak.

The Great Xia North America legion corps was like a sharp blade, stabbing viciously into the back of the Mayan Dynasty. The defenseless Mayan Dynasty lost their only chance of fighting back.

With Great Xia and the Dawson Dynasty working together, the Mayan Dynasty was not able to hold on for long.

10th month, 12th day, the Dawson Dynasty army took down Mexico City, announcing the end of the Mayan Dynasty that had once held a large piece of land.

Based on the agreement between Great Xia and the Dawson Dynasty, both sides would use the Sierra Madre del Sur mountain range as the intersection to form a natural barrier between each other.

As such, the Dawson Dynasty would have a strategic buffer zone in the south.

Great Xia would occupy the south of Mexico along with the entirety of Central America, including Venezuela, Bolivia, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.

These regions would be under the Panama region. In addition to the Antilles islands, they would form the 5th region of the America Governor-General House – the Caribbean Province.

The Caribbean Province was just like its name; the entire Caribbean Ocean was its continental sea.

At the same time, Columbia Provincial Governor Zhou Haichen would be moved over to continue to help the Imperial Court manage the Panama Canal.

For this change in appointment, Zhou Haichen also had the responsibility of defending the border.

The cooperation between Great Xia and the Dawson Dynasty ended the moment the Mayan Dynasty was split up. Following which, the two dynasties would go back to facing off against one another.

The Caribbean Province was the frontline base.

One could foresee the two dynasties having a proper fight over the Gulf of Mexico.

Original Jiangchuan Province Ningdu Prefecture Governor Zeng Gong would replace Zhou Haichen as the Columbia Provincial Governor.

At this point, Great Xia’s plans in the Americas had come to an end. They had basically confirmed the new landscape of America.

Just as Great Xia was busy splitting up the Mayan Dynasty, the India situation also welcomed changes.

Chapter 1334 - Frontline base

Chapter 1334: TWO Chapter 1334-Frontline base

As the eight warzones operated with relative independence, the Mayan Dynasty matter did not affect the India Region and everything there proceeded as planned.

In terms of progression, it was even faster than the Mayan battlefield situation.

10th month, 5th day, before the dust settled on the Mayan battlefield, Great Xia and the Ashoka Dynasty’s combined attacks finally sent the Gupta Dynasty to its grave after a month of intense war.

The Gupta Dynasty also became the fourth dynasty to be destroyed in the 9th year of Gaia.

Foreseeably, along with the 10th year drawing close, the war of dynasties would enter a climatic period; a new peak of dynasty destruction was on its way.

The remaining would be the true kings.

Along with the Gupta Dynasty’s destruction, India only had the Ashoka Dynasty left.

One had to say that this was a miracle.

Moreover, it was one that belonged to the Ashoka Dynasty.

As such, the Ashoka Dynasty was not only the last surviving NPC dynasty, but it was also one that unified the entirety of India. All the Lords that fell in its path felt ashamed.

For example, Gupta King Akbar.

As core powers of the Azure Badge camp, both he and the Mayan King made the same choice of moving to the Ottoman Dynasty when their dynasties were destroyed.

They would bring all their trusted officials to the Ottoman Dynasty to obtain a new life.

Not only that, but based on the intel from the Black Snake Guards, all the scattered Azure Badge members had also started to gather toward the Ottoman Dynasty during the past year.

Obviously, this was their strategic plan; they wanted to gather their strength into one spot. Evidently, they were clear that at the current stage, it was better to focus on one place rather than being split up.

The Ottoman Dynasty was the main camp that Azure Badge decided on.

A day ago, Gaia revealed a piece of news on the official website. After the intergalactic fleet arrived, for safety reasons, not everyone would be sent to the ground.

“The vanguard forces will create a stable base on the ground. Before that, the fleet staying in space will be a safer option.” Gaia explained.

Everyone in the world supported this plan.

Although all of them craved their return to reality, this did not mean that they would play with their lives. The dangerous environment of Planet Hope scared everyone.

After all, Planet Hope was not like the game world. When one died, one really died, and there would be no chance to start over. Hence, given how prosperous the game world was, there was nothing bad about staying in the ship.

If it were not for the ships lacking resources and the ability to support them staying too long in space, some people would even be willing to spend the rest of their lives like that.

At the very least, real death did not exist in the game world.

One of the missions of the advance base would be to obtain resources and provide it to the intergalactic squadron. The squadron would act as the population base to send various sorts of talents down.

At the same time, the starting resources for the advance base would be provided by the squadron.

This would form a positive cycle with each link helping out one another.

Due to the limited resources, Gaia had calculated that only three advance bases could be established during the first round.

The selection criteria was simple. Imperial dynasties would be first; if there were not enough, they would choose from emperor dynasties.

The lowest grade would be emperor dynasty. Any lower, even if the number set was not met, they would not be considered.

Looking out across the world, only Great Xia and the Dawson Dynasty were emperor dynasties. The third emperor dynasty had not even been born. This meant that the remaining nine would go all out for this final spot.

No dynasty would stay out of the competition for this spot.

Even a fool would know the importance of a frontline base. This base would be the backbone of a future nation on Planet Hope.

Those that controlled a frontline base would obtain the greatest speaking rights on Planet Hope. Just this alone explained everything, so there was no need to talk about specific benefits.

Amongst the competitors, the Darkness empire, the Ottoman Dynasty, the Romanov Dynasty, and the Persian Empire were the most competitive. Currently, who would be the eventual victor was still really uncertain.

Hence, Azure Badge wanted to go all out and place all of its eggs into the Ottoman Dynasty basket.

Foreseeably, if Azure Badge failed to gain even a single spot, they would not have much power on Planet Hope.

As a result, on the Mayan and India battlefields, Azure Badge did not resist too much.

Similarly, if this spot landed in the hands of the Romanov Dynasty or the Persian Empire, Silver Hand would have two spots, announcing their position as overlord on Planet Hope.

This was something that Ouyang Shuo did not wish to see happen.

In comparison, although the Darkness empire was strong, it lacked strategic space in terms of overseas expedition ability. It was the weakest out of all of them.

This problem was probably already discussed at the highest level of the Darkness empire.

Based on news Gaia revealed, the three bases would form up a one-main three-secondary combination. The main base that the vanguard squadron built up would become the humanity’s bridge to Planet Hope.

Needless to say, the main base would be controlled by Gaia itself. It would be the core and brain of humanity’s embarkment on Planet Hope, holding great meaning.

Gaia also released news regarding the construction of the main base.

After five years, the sentry base built by the vanguard squadron had transformed from a small camp into a giant city that stretched for thousands of miles.

The city itself was already self-sufficient.

Giant city walls, skies filled with sentry robots, and black cannons on the city walls. Overall, it gave one a sense of security.

Of course, the white bones and blood stains on the walls could not be neglected. These were left behind by the monsters who sieged the city.

It reminded all of humanity about how dangerous Planet Hope truly was.

…

10th month, 6th day, India.

Along with the Gupta Dynasty’s destruction, the Ashoka Dynasty followed the agreement and withdrew from Gupta Dynasty territory, leaving it all to Great Xia.

The agreement had come to an end.

From now on, would the two continue to cooperate to rule India, or would they engage in a fight either in the light or in the dark over the speaking rights of India? Right now, no one knew.

At least, Ashoka was not sure and was a little puzzled.

Luckily, this period of uncertainty did not last for long, as Great Xia gave their answer really quickly.

10th month, 8th day, before the Ashoka Dynasty could totally back out from Gupta Dynasty territory, Great Xia’s north front led by Li Jing charged out of the pass and declared war on the Ashoka Dynasty.

Flames of war reignited in the India that had just calmed down.

Chapter 1335 - Ashoka, dead!

Chapter 1335: TWO Chapter 1335-Ashoka, dead!

Great Xia’s sudden declaration of war stunned Ashoka.

Ashoka had many conjectures regarding how they were going to coexist with Great Xia in the future. He did not expect Great Xia to be so heartless, waving their blade at them right after the conclusion of the cooperation.

They flipped like someone flipping through a book.

Great Xia’s north front consisted of 14 warfighting legions. These 700 thousand elite troops would split into three and enter the core land of the Ashoka Dynasty from Xikang Province.

Two years ago, when the Ashoka Dynasty attacked Tibet, they had used the same path.

At the same time, the Great Xia south and west fronts that had already met up at the Gupta Dynasty swiftly headed up north, clawing at the tail of the Ashoka Dynasty army and launching an assault on their once ally.

The huge Gupta Dynasty territory was now the logistical base of the Great Xia Army, so there was nothing that they had to fear.

One had to say that Great Xia chose a great time to begin war.

Close to half of the Ashoka Dynasty troops were still within Peacock Dynasty border. They were in charge of the war prisoners and the bandits. Meanwhile, 40% were left in Gupta Dynasty territory.

Only 10% were left in India and less than 150 thousand were in Delhi.

With such military strength, they had no way to fight back before the Great Xia north front that had been resting up and staring intently at them.

With Li Jing’s god-like leadership, Great Xia’s north army struck from three directions like a flood and wrapped up everything in their way. Everywhere they passed, the cities surrendered.

The north front did not give the enemy a chance.

This was Great Tang military god Li Jing. He was a man that did not make mistakes, the nightmare of his enemies.

Based on the plan, the three armies of the north front would meet up in Delhi, taking down this most curricula city in India. Using this city as a base, they planned to sweep the entire Ganges plains.

This was the most crucial step.

The moment Great Xia occupied Delhi and the surrounding Ganges plains, the Ashoka Dynasty would be unable to cause any waves even if they had the Peacock Dynasty as their strategic backline.

Hence, the war of Delhi was a crucial battle.

However, the current Ashoka was still within Peacock Dynasty territory calming down the people. When he learned of Great Xia starting war, he was so furious that he spat out blood and nearly fainted from rage.

“Shameless!”

The awakened Ashoka broke out in cold sweat.

Everything that had happened in the past few months replayed in his mind like a movie, slowly forming into a clear thought process that caused him to shiver.

“So the alliance was a trap from the start?”

Ashoka said bitterly as his heart started to sour.

Great Xia’s plotting was simply too vicious. First, they started the India Region internal strife to reduce their strength. Then they acted like they were teaming up with the Ashoka Dynasty to destroy the Peacock Dynasty and the Gupta Dynasty.

At last, they revealed their true intentions and attacked Ashoka.

“I should have thought about it. Given their wolf-like ambition, they would not have been satisfied with just a Gupta Dynasty.” Ashoka’s own greed and foolishness pained him; he had actually fallen for Great Xia’s trap.

Greed had blinded Ashoka’s eyes, making him work with Great Xia to start war in India.

He also foolishly started to slowly lose his wariness toward this ally. They shifted troops from their main territory, resulting in a defensive hole that Great Xia could abuse.

The part that pained Ashoka was that after this round of system update, India only had one teleportation formation in Delhi. Even if he wanted to swiftly return, he could not.

Thinking about how the enemy could soon break into his home, Ashoka panicked.

“No, I cannot give up!”

Ashoka’s eyes flushed red like a gambler who had just lost a bet; he was ready to put everything on the line. In truth, Ashoka Dynasty still had a chance to win.

First, the Ashoka Dynasty had its 1.4 million strong army. After a year of large-scale battles, they had all become elites.

Secondly, as long as Ashoka got passed this tough time and dragged this war on, they could turn the war prisoners of the Peacock Dynasty into their strength and toss them into the battle.

At the same time, Ashoka could enlist troops on the spot.

In conclusion, the Ashoka Dynasty had two strategic goals that needed to be completed. First, they needed to arrange for the army to rush back to assist Delhi.

Only by entering Delhi faster than the Great Xia Army would they be able to defend the imperial city.

As long as the imperial city did not fall, the Ashoka Dynasty would remain standing forever.

Secondly, they needed to buy time and drag this war out, gaining time for the dynasty to recruit more troops. The best part was that it was already the 10th month, and winter was about to arrive.

Hence, based on the timing, the Ashoka Dynasty was in the battle position.

Along with Ashoka fighting on homeland, everything was favoring them, so there was no reason why the Ashoka Dynasty could not win this battle.

After summoning the various generals for a meeting, Ashoka said some morale raising words.

His words lit up the lights in their heart. All of them were pumped up, and their blood boiled. They declared that they wanted to chase Great Xia out of India.

“We will not even give them the Gupta Dynasty!” the generals said.

During this military meeting, Ashoka decided to split the troops into paths. One would go from the Peacock Dynasty and the other from the Gupta Dynasty. Each would send 150 thousand to rush to Delhi.

Ashoka would be in charge of the rest. He would personally lead his forces to have a final battle against the Great Xia Army.

“If I lose this war, I can only die for my sins!”

Before leaving, Ashoka took a blood oath that pumped up all the generals.

“Fight to the death!”

“We will not return until we win!”

One had to say that Ashoka did not have any cowards under him. All of them were warriors that were willing to die for him.

…

10th month, 15th day, Bengalore City.

After sending away his forces, Ashoka brought his army and set off.

That day, the huge 500 thousand strong army took an oath before heading out of the city toward their mainland.

Facing Great Xia’s provocation, the Ashoka Dynasty accepted the challenge!

This was the biggest war in India and the winner would be the owner of the country.

At the same time, imperial city.

News of Ashoka personally leading the troops was caught by the Black Snake Guards and reported to the capital.

Emperor palace, Imperial Reading Room.

Ouyang Shuo cut the video communication with the Black Snake Guard spy. He had a complicated smile on his face.

“Ashoka, my condolences, have a good trip!”

As Ouyang Shuo said that, he took out a mysterious talisman. It was the one that Gaia gifted him after he upgraded to emperor dynasty- the emperor instant death talisman.

After activation, the user could select an NPC emperor to kill immediately.

Ouyang Shuo did not hesitate. He raised his brush and filled in Ashoka’s name in the blank spot.

Instantly, the talisman ignited and turned into a golden streak of light that shot over the horizon. It bypassed everything in its path and entered the body of Ashoka who was travelling with his troops.

Chapter 1336 - Specter legion corps

Chapter 1336: TWO Chapter 1336-Specter legion corps

Ashoka died, died without making a sound.

As the only remaining NPC emperor in the game world, Ashoka held absolute power and authority in the Ashoka Dynasty. He could decide the life or death of a person with his words and was the soul of the entire dynasty.

Consequently, his sudden death was a catastrophic blow to the entire dynasty.

The morale that had just risen up instantly dropped to a freezing point.

The army did not know whether they should follow the original plan and counterattack Great Xia’s invasion or send the king’s body back to the imperial city and choose a new inheritor.

On the other side, Great Xia’s attacks grew in intensity.

At such a time, if the Peacock King was still present, maybe they could have risen up once more and raised their flag once again. Helplessly, the moment Ashoka destroyed the Peacock Dynasty, he designated for the Peacock King to be wiped out and sent to the reincarnation hall.

The Peacock King was helpless and could only join another dynasty.

Along with the Gupta King going to the Ottoman Dynasty, the current India Region had no leader. Facing the attacks of Great Xia, their collapse was just a matter of time.

…

10th month, 18th day, Imperial Capital.

After using the emperor instant death talisman, Ouyang Shuo did not pay much attention to the India situation. Under such circumstances, if the Great Xia Army failed to occupy the entirety of India, they would have totally failed.

A portion of Ouyang Shuo’s mind focused on the post-war matters of the Mayan war.

After establishing the Caribbean Province a day ago, the America warzone adjusted the defensive zones of the three legion corps to adapt to the new developments.

The North America legion corps would move from the current Columbia Province to the new Caribbean Province to act as the main defensive force against the Dawson Dynasty.

Along with the Mayan war dust settling, the Dawson Dynasty would enter a short period of seclusion.

The Dawson Dynasty had taken close to a year to destroy the Maple Dynasty. Afterward, to deal with the Mayan Dynasty, the Dawson Dynasty had taken close to another year.

Two successive years of wars placed a huge burden on the Dawson Dynasty. Be it labor or resources, both had reached a dangerous point, and they needed to rest up.

Moreover, there was a need to calm down the occupied warzones. As such, although the global landscape was changing, and it was the best time to rise up and build an empire, Jack did not let victory get to his head. He rationally stopped to focus on internal rule.

He was crystal clear that only after managing North America well could he start talking about other things.

Furthermore, of the three base spots, the Dawson Dynasty would own one of them if nothing went wrong. Naturally, Jack was not so anxious anymore.

After all, being stable was better than anything else.

Of course, resting up did not mean doing nothing.

Similar to Great Xia’s previous move, the Dawson Dynasty did not forget about their overseas land as they strengthened their internal administration.

The Dawson Dynasty’s only overseas land was located in Central Africa.

During this period of time, he was busy with the Mayan war, so he did not have the effort to spare to care about Africa. Now that the Mayan Dynasty situation was settled, he naturally could not allow the Bantu Dynasty to continue to be so arrogant.

In the upcoming war of Africa, there would probably be something nice to see.

From a big picture perspective, the Dawson Dynasty resting up was also a good thing for the North America legion corps. This breather would allow them to build up defenses at the border of the Caribbean Province.

The South America legion corps would continue to guard the Amazon, Brasilia, and Uruguay provinces. As for the Tiger legion corps, they would shift from the Brasilia Province to the Columbia Province.

More than a year had passed since the Brasilia Dynasty’s submission. The three provinces in South America had stabilized, and the internal conflicts had been slowly cleared up. Consequently, there were not more big problems.

As such, they did not need to house the Tiger legion corps in Brasilia Province to threaten them.

As for the threat that the Indian Empire posed, it basically amounted to nothing. Although they were not Great Xia’s ally, they were really clear that nothing good would happen to them if theu went against Great Xia.

The South America situation had stabilized, which was the best thing for the Indian Empire.

Furthermore, it would be difficult for the Indian Empire to obtain the other spot for the Planet Hope base. In terms of Planet Hope matters, Juarez needed Great Xia’s help, so he could not be too impudent.

Of course, having some sort of defense was still necessary.

Ouyang Shuo did not wish to see the America Governor-General House he had spent so much to build up collapse upon itself.

The Tiger legion corps was moved to Columbia Province so that it could be moved up north to help the Caribbean Province or down to assist the three provinces in South America.

The America warzone situation was settled just like that.

Apart from the adjustments to the America warzone, the Mercenary army would be next.

After two wars, the previously nine legion strong Mercenary army had been reduced to only six legions for a total of 300 thousand troops.

After the training of the two wars, the remaining mercenaries were true elites, and their strength was no different from Great Xia’s proper army.

Due to the Mercenary army’s contributions in the America battlefield, Ouyang Shuo decided to give them the title of Specter legion corps. Due to their flexibility, Ouyang Shuo did not place a legion number restriction on them and allowed them to adjust based on the situation.

This was a reward for them. From now on, they were a proper army of the Empire that was secretly registered; they were no longer different from the other legion corps.

To battle control this legion corps, Ouyang Shuo ordered the promotion of Imperial Palace Guards 1st legion Legion General Zeng Guofan to the Specter legion corps marshal position.

Zeng Guoquan was the ninth brother of Zeng Guofan and had graduated from Xiang village private school. He was one of the main generals of the Xiang army.

With Zeng Guoquan there, Ouyang Shuo could finally relax for sure.

The Legion General position would be taken over by Lin Jing. The 1st legion deputy Legion General Moon Shines over the River would be shifted over to the 5th legion Legion General position.

As such, the Imperial Palace Guards welcomed a round of reshuffling. Lin Jing’s upgrade was a clear signal that Ouyang Shuo wanted this special unit to be totally under his control.

Along with the America situation stabilizing, it was not suitable to leave the Specter legion corps in the America Governor-General House.

After listening to the Privy Court’s suggestion, the Imperial Court decided to move them secretly to the Africa warzone to execute a secret military operation codenamed steel forging.

The operation concerned the Empire’s plan in Europe, which showed the importance the Imperial Court placed on the Specter legion corps.

The current European battlefield had a really weird atmosphere. Ouyang Shuo could not make his mind up right away, which was why he allowed the Specter legion corps to adapt to the situation after they arrived in Africa.

…

10th month, 20th day, Gaia suddenly revealed a piece of news online that sent the world into total silence. Even Ouyang Shuo’s expression changed.

Chapter 1337 - Darkest day in human history

Chapter 1337: TWO Chapter 1337-Darkest day in human history

Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

Chapter 1337 – Darkest Day in Human History

Gaia 9th year, 10th month, 20th day, a day worth remembering for mankind.

At 9am, Gaia suddenly released a video on the official website. The video showed the base that the vanguard forces had constructed on Planet Hope – Hope City.

Players were not unfamiliar with this city. Not long ago, Gaia had revealed Hope City’s latest construction status when it published the plans on Planet Hope.

The majestic and huge city put everyone at ease.

Terrifyingly, Hope City, which carried the hopes and dreams of mankind, was ablaze in a sea of flames.

Above the city, hundreds of winged, large-headed Pterodactyls circled above. Scorching flames spewed from their fang-filled jaws.

These flames were incredibly overbearing, directly melting the iron and steel of the city and sending a chill down one’s spine.

At the city walls, a giant more than 10 meters tall wielded a car-sized giant hammer to smash the solid looking city wall into pieces.

The hammer was made from some sort of unknown material. Before it, the walls that were a mix of steel and earth were like tofu, unable to take a single strike.

Even the ground was shaking, and many holes and cracks appeared.

Before this, no one could have imagined the existence of such an overbearing siege method.

Along with the city walls collapsing, the innumerable beasts surrounding the walls flooded in like a wave, forming a beast ocean.

Amongst the beasts, players found the familiar Tyrannosaurus and Pterosaurs. However, there were also some beasts that the players had not seen before. All of them looked extremely fierce and menacing.

In the city, humans were like ants that all sorts of beasts crushed underfoot.

The beast horde that covered the sky basically drowned the entire city. To make matters even more terrifying, the laser weapons were useless against the titan.

Even when the lasers struck the other beasts, they only suffered some superficial injuries.

Upon closer inspection, one would find that the top class beasts were covered in a thin layer of energy that blocked off all attacks from human weapons, rendering them harmless.

These top beasts were the main culprits behind Hope City’s destruction.

Without their leadership, the beast horde would not be able to charge into the city so smoothly.

As Ouyang Shuo watched this video and witnessed the gradual destruction of the city, his expression tensed up more and more. He even had queries about why he did not see these fire dragons and titans in the encyclopedia from Gaia.

Before this, Gaia had given Ouyang Shuo a Planet Hope resource encyclopedia, which described the beasts on Planet Hope in more detailed than the game.

Even then, when Ouyang Shuo looked at this ferocious beast wave, he still felt an incredible sense of foreignness.

After the vanguard squadron established their base, they had arranged for manmade satellites to cover and patrol Planet Hope so that there were no dead spots.

During the following period of time, they had sent many drones into the forests, mountains, swamps, and deserts to investigate.

The unnamed drones recorded the way the beasts lived and reproduced for Gaia to analyze and create a perfect information database.

When needed, the unnamed drones could send out machines to collect life samples.

The beast data for the game was basically collected in such a way.

Logically speaking, such eye-catching presences like the fire dragon and the titan could not have escaped the unmanned drones. The massive energy they emitted should have been picked up by thermal sensors of the drones.

If they were not detected, the only explanation was that these beasts were highly intelligent and hid deep in the mountains, forests, caves, or under swamps to avoid detection.

The iron hammer in the titan’s hand proved this point.

The iron hammer was obviously smelted and crafted, showing that these top beasts had the tools and technique to craft items. Maybe they could not treat them as simple beasts and instead another type of intelligent lifeform.

They were presences equal to humans.

After a full four years, these beasts swarmed out from hiding and gathered together. Under the leadership of these top beasts, they tried to destroy this invader.

Such a conjecture sent a chill down Ouyang Shuo’s spine.

Without a doubt, be it Gaia or humanity themselves, they had greatly underestimated the danger of Planet Hope. It was far, far worse than the situation presented in the game world.

On the planet, many mysterious organisms roamed.

Ouyang Shuo was not even certain if the fire dragon and titan were the greatest presences on the planet. Maybe there were more overbearing beasts above them.

Normal laser weapons were useless against such beasts.

Maybe warzone missiles might deal damage to them, but such weapons might not kill them for sure. The missiles were also long-ranged weapons and were unsuitable for killing the beasts that had already charged into the city.

Above laser weapons were nuclear weapons.

Helplessly, during the Federation era, Earth had destroyed all nuclear weapons. Not to mention the vanguard squadron, but even the interplanetary squadron did not have any nuclear weapons.

Even if they theoretically possessed nuclear weapons, it would not be suitable to use them.

Planet Hope was the last land of hope for humanity. If they fired nuclear weapons, it would be seeking self-destruction, personally killing their last vestige hope.

Even the massive Planet Hope could not take a few nuclear bombs.

Ouyang Shuo was more worried that if they fired nuclear bombs, the radiation might have side effects on the beasts, making them evolve and escalate the dangers of the planet.

If that happened, they would truly be smashing their heads against the wall.

The last part of the video revealed a Hope City in ruins as well as beasts that were celebrating above the rubble. Mockery filled their faces filled.

The entire vanguard squadron only had two spaceships circling the planet, lonelily floating on the path.

Humanity’s first crusade on Planet Hope had ended in great defeat.

When many of the players saw this video, they directly started crying. They could not accept such a defeat, and some people even pessimistically moaned, “Are there no hopes for mankind?”

The destruction of Hope City seemed to represent the destruction of mankind’s hope.

After four years of construction, Hope City still could not withstand a single blow from the beasts. Humanity could not imagine how the three branch bases that they were going to build would survive on the planet.

Gaia’s three spots had been so hotly contested, but they instantly became things no one wanted.

“What should we do?”

People cried out, panicked, and sought for help…

At this time, Gaia gave them a solution.

Chapter 1338 - Who will step up?

Chapter 1338: TWO Chapter 1338-Who will step up?

Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

Chapter 1338 – Who Will Step Up?

After releasing the video of Hope City’s destruction, Gaia revealed a solution.

Based on the map that the vanguard squadron released, there was a resource planet not far from Planet Hope. On it, various mines, coal, fuel, and the like could be found; it was mankind’s dream industrialization base.

The problem was that the planet had all sorts of resources except for living ones.

Based on the photos, it was a barren and dead planet with no signs of life. The only water source came from the north and south poles.

The ice layer was really firm, and the planet had no light throughout the whole year. Naturally, there were no signs of life.

More crucially, as it was a barren resource planet, the ice layer contained many metallic elements and was heavily contaminated. As such, it was unsuitable for drinking. At most, it could be used in factories.

If not, life would be unable to continue.

Hence, the resource planet could not become mankind’s new base. Gaia’s plan was to arrange for the interplanetary squadron to dock at the resource planet.

First, they would use the mine resources to produce a large number of combat robots to provide fighting strength in their second crusade on Planet Hope.

Without enough firepower, they stood no chance of gaining a footing on the planet.

Secondly, they would develop combat armor.

This was another technological miracle Gaia created after its instantiation.

Fighting those top beasts, even the best adventure gamemode players would face difficulties. Gaia gave the players the solution of merging with armor to achieve pinnacle combat strength.

Of course, the instantiated generals could also control suits.

However, the problem of the interplanetary squadron’s limited resources needed to be solved. In particular, the supply of nutritional fluids the players used was close to its limit.

Without these nutritional fluids, the players could not live on the squadron.

They could not obtain biological resources on the resource planet. Consequently, they would not be able to make more nutritional fluids. The only way would be to send another vanguard squadron to descend onto Planet Hope once more.

After obtaining the required resources, they would create a nutritional fluid and send it to the resource planet.

The resource planet could help to send combat machines and combat suits over to the vanguard base to increase its military strength, forming a positive cycle as a result.

The final goal was to gain a stable footing on Planet Hope.

However, the current problem was who would be willing to step up and lead the second vanguard squadron into that dangerous land? They would have to risk their lives to build the vanguard base once more.

Gaia did not give them an answer to this.

No one was able to give an answer. This mission was incredibly dangerous and would require maintaining a good relationship with the resource planet. Hence, one had to volunteer to proceed; if not, this project could not be executed.

The squadron would probably arrive in the 10th year, 6th month. Hence, the players had close to eight months to make a decision.

Due to the squadron possessing limited resources and being unable to take a second defeat, not just anyone could go. One of the conditions was that the person had to be one of the current Lords.

Only a Lord that had survived till now would have the experience and courage to trailblaze.

The possible range was greatly reduced.

Facing such a problem, all the players were asking, “Who is willing to step up?”

The 12 remaining Lords, including Ouyang Shuo, all remained silent. They were not in a rush to make a stand. Even if they were not afraid, this matter was really important, so they had to think carefully about it.

Carelessness was never in a Lord’s dictionary.

…

10th month, 25th day, Imperial Capital.

The news that Gaia suddenly revealed sent the entire game world into silence.

Even the most intense European battlefield ceased fighting. Facing this unprecedented hit, the Lords needed a breather to gather their thoughts.

The only battle that continued was the one in India.

Great Xia was facing an NPC dynasty; naturally, they felt no pressure at all.

Ouyang Shuo was not an overly emotional person. Although the future path was filled with many uncertainties, it did not make him afraid and stop his road to the top.

Regardless of how the future changed, there was nothing bad about expanding Great Xia in the game world. In particular, at such a time, Lords needed to show calmness, courage, and foresight.

If not, they would definitely be eliminated.

The India war was not intense, and there were no surprises. They only needed to wait for the three armies to clear out the unsettled Ashoka army.

25th day, morning, the intel arrived.

Under Li Jing’s leadership, Great Xia’s north front had broken Delhi and obtained the crucial victory of the war of India. At this point, the entirety of India had basically fallen under Great Xia rule.

The remaining fragments of resistance were not enough to cause any huge waves.

Due to the arrival of winter, before the conclusion of the war of India, Ouyang Shuo and the Cabinet had started to discuss the administrative zoning and personnel appointments of India.

Based on the previous plan, the Imperial Court would establish the South Asia Governor-General House in the South Asia sub-continent that India covered, becoming the fourth overseas Governor-General House.

Logically speaking, there would be six provinces, with three of them using the names of their old dynasties; they would form the three core provinces of the house.

Original Xijiang Governor-General Feng Qiuhuang would be moved over to South Asia.

India’s situation was complicated, and the powers within were incredibly complex. They also only recognized Great Xia to a low degree. However, its strategic position was really important, and the country had a high population density and rich resources.

Ruling it well was not a simple matter.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo decided to select the former Jin Queen who had great ability to become the South Asia Governor-General to help the Empire manage this important land.

Defending this region would basically mean defending the entire Indian Ocean.

The Xijiang Governor-General position would be taken over by former Minnan Provincial Governor Xiong Ba. Without a doubt, this was an unprecedented promotion.

At this point, Xiong Ba became the first non-Shanhai Alliance Lord to become a Governor-General.

Ouyang Shuo had two reasons behind making this appointment.

First, Xiong Ba possessed the ability.

Many times, Xiong Ba had been similar to Cao Mengde in history. He was a capable official when ruling and a mighty lord in chaotic times. When he was a Lord, he had shone. Unfortunately, he lost in the end.

Being an official, he performed extremely well as the Minnan Provincial Governor. The key was that he did not have any funny thoughts.

Secondly, this move was to recruit the aristocratic families.

Xiong Ba was one of the representatives of the aristocratic families. His promotion was a clear signal that Ouyang Shuo would not condemn them.

As long as one was talented, they would be promoted.

Chapter 1339 - Placed on a barbecue

Chapter 1339: TWO Chapter 1339-Placed on a barbecue

Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

Chapter 1339 – Placed on a Barbeque

Apart from the choice of Governor-General, Ouyang Shuo also appointed a few officials personally.

Original Chuannan Provincial Governor Zhao Pu would become the South Asia Secretary-General to help Feng Qiuhuang deal with South Asia matters. As North Song’s country establishing minister, he would definitely be up to the task.

The vacancy he left behind would be filled by original Wuzhou Prefecture Governor Ouyang Heng, who was Ouyang Shuo’s uncle. Now, Ouyang Shuo’s arrangements in Chuannan were revealed.

Two years ago, Ouyang Shuo had started planning for Ouyang Heng’s promotional path to Governor-General.

Although Chuannan Province was not listed as a Zhili Province, it was where the Capital City was located and had an exceptional strategic position. Only by giving it to a member of the royal family could Ouyang Shuo feel at ease.

Apart from that, Yizhou Prefecture Governor Lei Fan would be promoted to Gupta Provincial Governor. Lei Fan was a mountain barbarian and was familiar with mountains. Hence, him ruling the mountainous Gupta Province was a great choice.

Xiangnan Provincial Governor Li Shanchang was moved to Ashoka Province.

Ashoka Province was the most core province of the South Asia Governor-General House, which was why Ouyang Shuo arranged such an experience minister to charge of it. This was also him supporting the region.

Apart from that, the Imperial Court also chose two exceptional Prefecture Governors to become Provincial Governors. The remaining two spots were left to the India Region talents.

At this point, the personnel arrangements for the South Asia Governor-General House were basically settled.

The talented Feng Qiuhuang would be in charge and manage the big picture while experienced officials such as Zhao Pu and Li Shanchang would act as the core pillars. They also appointed a long-serving official in Lei Fan, promoted new talents, and made use of native talents.

It encapsulated everyone.

Apart from the internal affairs planning, the Empire also needed to adjust the military.

After establishing the South Asia Governor-General House, the South Asia warzone would shift from Xikang Province to the South Asia Governor-General House to take charge of the entire region.

Only then would the warzone’s name be appropriate.

At the same time, the former South Asia warzone Xikang construction formation would be moved under the West Asia warzone to continue their development of the Xikang Province.

The defensive duties of the Xikang Province would be taken up by the West Asia legion corps.

Apart from the army, the Indian Ocean squadron headquarters would move from Lion City to India.

East Africa, India, and Nanyang formed a triangle that included the entire Indian Ocean. Although this may seem crazy, the Indian Ocean had become Great Xia’s back garden.

Depending on this point, the power over the Indian Ocean firmly rested in Great Xia’s hands.

One of the benefits would be Great Xia gaining control over the fuel transportation chokepoint of the Persian Gulf. That’s right, although the Arab Empire and the Persian Empire were good at producing fuel and oil, they could only use it for themselves and could not export them without Great Xia’s permission unless they sent these resources through the land.

This point alone gave Great Xia the chips to restrict the two dynasties.

Hence, taking down India was a milestone matter for Great Xia, signaling that it was a step closer to confirming its position as the Overlord of Asia.

Unless they did not have brains, these two dynasties would not make Great Xia their enemy.

In particular, the Arab Empire was restricted by their own internal resources and relied on external trade. From now on, they would have to live under Great Xia’s nose.

…

Ouyang Shuo’s prediction was completely correct.

11th month, 1st day, before India was totally taken down by Great Xia, the Arab Empire sent out an envoy to admit Great Xia’s position as the Overlord of Asia.

Unknowingly, they raised Great Xia’s prestige in the world.

The news was personally reported to Ouyang Shuo by Zhang Yi in the imperial garden. The current Ouyang Shuo was fishing by the lake. Recently, he gained the habit of fishing at the lake every time there was a huge matter that he needed to think alone about.

Like now, his thoughts suddenly became clear.

Listening to Zhang Yi’s words, Ouyang Shuo’s face did not reveal a trace of joy. Instead, he said with worry, “I’m afraid that they have bad intentions.”

“Your majesty is saying?” Zhang Yi did not understand.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and waved his hand, “Let’s not talk about this matter, I’m not certain either.” Based on his intuition, Ouyang Shuo did not think that the matter was so simple.

The Arab Empire was not weak, and they did not need to hurry over to express their friendliness. They might have other thoughts. Perhaps they were trying to push Great Xia to the pedestal and hide behind them in case they became the scapegoat and had to be sent to Planet Hope.

The following events basically verified Ouyang Shuo’s judgement.

Apart from Great Xia, the three dynasties in Asia seemed to have discussed the matter, and on the 9th year of Gaia, 11th month, 3rd day, the Persian Empire officially admitted Great Xia’s position as the Overlord of Asia.

The next day, the Romanov Dynasty cleanly admitted Great Xia’s status too.

As such, Great Xia’s second condition for upgrading to imperial dynasty was completed.

The entire matter was unusual, especially the Romanov Dynasty’s admission, as they were the giant of a land. There was no reason for them to rush to admit Great Xia’s position as overlord at such a time.

The moment they admitted it, their morale would be a level weaker when the two sides met on the battlefield in the future.

Not only that, but once Great Xia obtained the position of Overlord, it could reap many benefits. The most direct one would be that their finance markets would have to be opened unconditionally to Great Xia.

As such, this matter had deep implications for Great Xia’s currency in Asia.

Proactively taking a loss was totally unlike how this fighting nation did things.

However, even weirder events soon followed.

In the following period of time, the Bantu Dynasty, the Indian Empire, and the Caesar Dynasty all expressed their recognition of Great Xia’s position in the world.

Even their mortal enemy the Darkness empire admitted it.

These actions of the various dynasties were to push Great Xia to the position of world’s first imperial dynasty.

If there was not a plot behind all of this, even a blind person would not believe it.

Although these dynasties took turns to express it and things looked random and by their own accords, Ouyang Shuo could see that it was Azure Badge and Silver Hand pulling the strings.

The goal was simple; they wanted to make Great Xia and Ouyang Shuo the scapegoat.

Foreseeably, the moment Great Xia upgraded to imperial dynasty, the could guide public opinion; this could cause a huge debate on the global scale.

Everyone was selfish.

Even if players could see through the plot of these two organizations, they would act deaf and blind and force Great Xia to take this responsibility. They would have Great Xia step out to be the hero of mankind.

At that time, Great Xia would have no choice but to stand out. The reason was simple, ‘Since Great Xia is the top in the world, it has to take the responsibility!’

Great Xia was suddenly embroiled in a huge storm.

Chapter 1340 - If not me, who?

Chapter 1340: TWO Chapter 1340-If not me, who?

Chapter 1340 – If Not Me, Who?

Facing this sudden plot, Great Xia broke out into discussions. As the one at the center of it all, Ouyang Shuo was really calm and did not bother about the thoughts of others.

11th month, 15th day, Imperial Capital.

The war of India was approaching its end. Without a leader or any hope, most of the Ashoka Dynasty’s troops smartly decided to surrender and accept that their country was destroyed.

Scattered resistance could not start any waves.

With Feng Qiuhuang as their leader, the officials rushed over to India to work with the military. They needed to accept the cities and calm down the people. Doing so would allow the Governor-General House to get on the right path soon.

Emperor Palace.

At 10am, Cabinet Grand Secretary Jiang Shang and Cabinet elder cum Administrative Mentor Court Grand Secretary Zhang Liang came to meet his majesty uninvited.

“Your majesty, the recent comments have been bad for the Empire.” Jiang Shang was a little worried.

Zhang Liang supported him and said, “That’s right; there has to be people pushing it in the shadows.”

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he smiled faintly as he said, “My two cherished officials, do you really think so?” His eyes were as clear as a deep abyss, seemingly able to see through their hearts.

“This….”

Jiang Shang and Zhang Liang exchanged glances; they were filled with astonishment.

They were both intelligent individuals. Moreover, they had been instantiated, so they obviously would not see the problem with such simplicity. The above views were only the main ones that everyone was discussing.

The two of them came over to probe what the emperor was thinking. However, they did not expect his majesty to see through them right away, making it a little awkward.

“Your majesty is wise!”

The two old foxes praised the emperor.

Ouyang Shuo did not beat around the bush. He arrived before the world map and causally said, “The Empire has grown from a useless little village to a global empire spreading tens of thousands of miles with hundreds of millions of sons and daughters. It is not my credit; instead, it is always the credit of the people’s sentiment, the army, and the officials.”

“Our rise and current achievements are due to chance, with everything falling right into place.”

After pausing, Ouyang Shuo continued, “Hence, no matter what the outside does, regardless of how they clamor, I will not decline going to Planet Hope to explore it.”

“This is a responsibility given to me by this era, and I cannot shy away from it, nor am I not willing to either!”

Ouyang Shuo’s words came from the bottom of his heart. The moment Hope City was destroyed, he had an urge. At that time, he felt his blood boil; it was similar to when he had just descended in the wilderness.

He wanted to see what kind of place Planet Hope was.

Ouyang Shuo was not a short-sighted person. He was extremely clear about what this second trip to Planet Hope meant to the squadron and mankind as a whole.

In front of the survival of a species, personal interests did not matter much.

This decision was not out of arrogance. After all, looking out across the entire world, he was the only suitable person. If any other Lord went, he would not feel at ease.

Perhaps this was destiny.

When Jiang Shang and Zhang Yi heard that, their faces were filled with emotions as they bowed and said, “Your majesty is merciful!”

The views of the two were the same. In their eyes, Great Xia was the most suitable team for exploring Planet Hope, and they should take out the aura and confidence to show it.

Hiding and shifting away from the problem was too cowardly.

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand and asked them to sit. He calmed his expression before smiling and saying, “A such, this storm is not a crisis but a good chance. As for how to use it well, I’ll need you all to come up with a plan.”

Since Silver Hand and Azure Badge wanted to be masterminds, Ouyang Shuo would gladly play with them and use this chance to let Great Xia rise to an imperial dynasty.

Before this, Ouyang Shuo was still worried about how to win against the Dawson Dynasty to gain recognition from the world.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to let the two organizations know what smashing their own feet with a stone was. “Remember, we can use people’s sentiment and discussions to our advantage.”

“We will not let you down!” Jiang Shang and Zhang Liang accepted the responsibility.

“My attitude will not be revealed to the public for now. Focus on the principle of not replying, not agreeing, and not disagreeing.” Ouyang Shuo instructed.

“Understood!”

“That will be all. Get the Cabinet and the Administrative Mentor Court to make a plan for how to deal with it. We will continue this discussion next time.” Ouyang Shuo did not ask them to wrack their brains on the spot.

Although the decisions of the Great Xia Imperial Court depended on Jiang Shang and the other officials, there were a bunch of professionals below them that helped to maintain the system and make it more efficient.

“Yes, my emperor!”

Jiang Shang and Zhang Liang took their leave, satisfied.

…

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo used the communication compass to summon Shen Buhai, Martial Management Division commander Er’Lai, and Black Snake Guards head Black Snake.

There was only one goal: investigate which people within the Empire supported the Empire stepping out and which did not.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to use this chance to sound out the officials.

When he headed to Planet Hope in the future, Ouyang Shuo would definitely need a team. Hence, from this moment on, he had to start making plans about which people from Great Xia to bring.

One set to fight on Planet Hope, the other set to leave in the game world.

As for who to bring, apart from construction needs, this observation period was really important.

Just like that, without anyone noticing, the three organizations threw down a net that covered the Empire to silently pay attention to all of this.

The fates of many people would change as a result.

…

In the evening, Ouyang Shuo returned to the sleeping palace.

While they were having their meal, Ouyang Shuo realized that his wife’s expression was a little off. After eating, he could not help but ask, “What thoughts do you have?”

Song Jia laid in her husband’s arms. She stared brightly at him as she asked, “Did you make up your mind?”

“You know already?” Ouyang Shuo was not surprised.

This husband and wife pair were too familiar with one another, and they could hide anything from each other.

“I know your ambitions and I also know that you’re a person that will prevent the heavens from collapsing. No matter what the outside worlds says, you will surely go.” Song Jia said in a low tone.

“That’s right.”

Ouyang Shuo did not know what to say and did not know how to face his wife.

No matter what, when he returned home, he was a husband and a father of two. He was the pillar of the family and the one that the family relied on.

“What about Yu’er and Luo’er?” Song Jia still asked in the end.

Ouyang Shuo kept silent.

Everyone knew how dangerous Planet Hope was. Even Ouyang Shuo did not feel confident about doing better than the vanguard squadron. Gaining a footing on Planet Hope was not certain.

Hence, bringing the pair with him was unsuitable.

Chapter 1341 - Gaia descends

Chapter 1341: TWO Chapter 1341-Gaia descends

Chapter 1341 – Gaia Descends

At times, even brutish men were gentle. A ruler was not a heartless person.

Ouyang Shuo could step out without hesitation, revealing his domineering aura to the outside. However, he could not face the worry of his family and the separation from his children.

It was true that the world was cruel.

Song Jia understood her husband. Before sleeping, she muttered, “Do not worry and go. The kids and I will wait for you.” She believed that her husband could solve all challenges in his path and create yet another legend.

“I am looking forward to the day that you welcome the three of us to Planet Hope in a grand manner!” Song Jia said.

Ouyang Shuo did not say anything or make any promises. He only held his wife’s hands a little tighter. With such a wife, what more could he as a husband ask for?

Night, quiet.

…

In the blink of an eye, the 9th year of Gaia concluded.

Winter once again descended upon the land, and the world fell silent. This winter was much colder than the previous ones. The destruction of Hope City was like a giant mountain pressing down on everyone to the point where they could not breathe.

During this period, the House of Tudor, the Gaule Dynasty, and the Ottoman Dynasty all took turns to express their recognition of Great Xia.

On the global scale, only the Dawson Dynasty did not say anything.

Looking at the situation, it was only a matter of time before Jack acknowledged them too. In all likelihood, he had not done so yet because there was still half a year till the deadline that Gaia set.

Jack did not want to let Great Xia benefit too much from it.

Silver Hand and Azure Badge probably wanted to use this chance to continue to cause problems.

The public opinion was slowly starting to move in the direction that they desired. Ouyang Shuo, the strongest emperor, had risen and was molded into the global leader.

Ouyang Shuo was being immortalized.

Regarding this matter, Great Xia itself was in huge debate. Some agreed, some opposed, some kept silent, and some clamored; everyone had their own opinions.

The emperor palace that was at the center of this spiral was terrifying. It was like a giant beast lying in wait, quietly in its deep sleep as it paid no attention to the noise on the outside.

Even the Imperial Court officials held back their words.

Great Xia’s silent admission aided the embers that Silver Hand and Azure Badge had started, making it easy and effortless to propagandize.

Ouyang Shuo’s authority and prestige were growing by the day.

Apart from this, on the global battlefield, everything stopped, including India. Perhaps it was because of the winter or for some other reason. The world became silent once more like night had descended.

…

12th month, 15th day, Imperial City.

As they approached the New Year, Ouyang Shuo became more and more busy. There were many places and functions that he needed to attend. There were many things he needed to approve and many matters he had to make the final decision on.

Meeting after meeting, tour after tour.

Amongst all the hard work and buzz, he practically tossed all the worries of Planet Hope to the back of his head.

No matter what, one still had to live on.

Ouyang Shuo had been making plans with regards to the second batch of AIs instantiate to prepare for the impending exploration. Who to choose and who to keep; naturally, a lot of thought had to go into it.

3pm, Ouyang Shuo was reviewing memorials in the reading room. Suddenly, his face froze, and he revealed a surprised but complicated expression. After that, he said, “Men!”

“Present!”

The Divine Martial Guards captain on duty walked in.

“Pass on my order. From this moment on, without my summoning, no one can come close to the Imperial Reading Room.” Ouyang Shuo gave this rarely given clearing out order.

The captain’s eyes turned serious. He did not dare to disagree and only said, “Understood. The Divine Martial Guards will be on alert in the surroundings. If you have any orders, we can rush over right away.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded before waving his hand to ask the guard to leave.

Along with him, the maidservants serving him in the room and the Secret Document Pavilion advisor on duty left.

Soon, only Ouyang Shuo remained within the huge reading room. Even the blinds were shut, totally blocking off any peeking eyes from the outside.

No one would be able to find out what was happening within the reading room.

In the blink of an eye, right after the Imperial Reading Room was cleared out, a goddess dressed in court lady attire emerged from thin air in front of Ouyang Shuo. Her cheeks were perfect, and her body followed the golden-ratio, completely flawless.

Even the creator himself would probably give endless praise.

The only lacking aspect was her eyes, which were calm like the deep abyss, cold and completely devoid of emotion.

This was Gaia.

Outsiders probably could not imagine Gaia personally visiting a player.

Even Ouyang Shuo was surprised, and he laughed awkwardly as said, “I did not think you would come.”

Gaia did not say anything. A finger on her right hand swung, and a chair appeared. Gaia sat on it, sitting at the same height as Ouyang Shuo as she said, “There are some things better discussed in person.”

Ouyang Shuo could roughly guess the reason behind Gaia’s visit.

Others might not know about his choice, but as the god of the game, Gaia definitely knew.

“I will take up the responsibility.” Ouyang Shuo did not hide anything.

“That’s good!”

As Gaia said that, she suddenly used her hand to flick her hair. The beauty of that moment distracted even Ouyang Shuo. The temptation of a god was not something a normal person could resist.

“Even if you did not want to go, I would make you go.” Gaia said.

Ouyang Shuo smiled awkwardly and said, “You have too high hopes of me.”

Gaia said, “You are the son of destiny. Just like you said, you cannot hide from your fate.”

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes froze, and his heart rate even slowed by half a beat. A thin layer of sweat appeared on his hands, like the deepest secret in his heart had suddenly been revealed by someone.

He was a little panicky, but he also felt an indescribable sense of excitement.

“I do not understand what you’re saying.” Ouyang Shuo calmed himself before looking sternly at Gaia. Beneath his seemingly calm exterior, a volcano-like energy was building up; it could explode at any moment.

Ouyang Shuo’s cultivation of the Five Emperor True Manual had entered a high realm. In the entire Great Xia, not many people could compete with him in terms of martial arts.

He was low-profile and kept his skills hidden, but that did not mean he did not possess explosiveness.

On the contrary, despite the heavy administrative duties, the struggles in his heart, and his daily contemplations, his cultivation plan had remained undisturbed.

His persistence on the martial path stunned Song Jia on several occasions.

In truth, even if the current Ouyang Shuo walked through the wilderness without any guards, no one would be able to hurt him. However, he did not reveal this.

This was his strongest trump card.

Based on his calculations, Ouyang Shuo felt confident about giving the titan a go, not to mention the normal beasts. Although he was not confident about winning against the titan ultimately, he could at least achieve a not losing position.

This was also one of the reasons behind his confidence and determination to explore Planet Hope.

If one did not possess skill, how would one dare to try?

If an expert was present, they would definitely notice that the current reading room was covered by a mysterious energy; this revealed that Ouyang Shuo’s cultivation had reached an extremely profound level.

Consequently, this revealed how wary and alert he was right now.

Gaia suddenly smiled and said with satisfaction, “Your cultivation is not bad, but it’s ineffective on me.”

Chapter 1342 - Secret of reincarnation

Chapter 1342: TWO Chapter 1342-Secret of reincarnation

Chapter 1342 – Secret of Reincarnation

Ouyang Shuo felt dejected.

In the game world, Gaia was a true god. Anyone before her would appear to be truly powerless.

Ouyang Shuo’s wariness naturally paled in comparison.

“Speak, what do you know?” Ouyang Shuo gave up on resisting.

Gaia said straightforwardly, “Do you want to know the secret behind your reincarnation?”

Ouyang Shuo’s heart rate slowed by yet another half a beat. As expected, his greatest secret, one that even Bing’er and Song Jia did not know, was somehow found out by Gaia.

At this moment, Ouyang Shuo even felt that things were not real.

This was a secret hidden in a deep part of his heart. With no one to tell, no way to tell, this secret was just unveiled like that by Gaia. Ouyang Shuo’s defenses were crushed right away; he was caught completely off guard.

In truth, Ouyang Shuo was really curious about it.

Even now, he still did not understand how a normal reincarnation would become such an unbelievable rebirth.

“Speak.”

Ouyang Shuo regained his composure once more.

Since three years ago, the reincarnation advantage had not been that helpful for Ouyang Shuo anymore.

Ouyang Shuo did not expect his secret to be revealed one day. Since Gaia was the one that initiated contact, she naturally did not have any ill intentions toward Ouyang Shuo.

Revealing the truth behind this secret would actually help to untie the deepest knot in Ouyang Shuo’s heart.

Keeping such a secret was obviously not an easy thing to do.

More crucially, if the reincarnation could only be answered by occult, Ouyang Shuo’s current world would be shrouded by a layer fog; he would be unable to tell if it were real or fake.

Maybe his recent stagnation in cultivation had something to do with this knot in his heart.

“The matter happened four years ago…”

Gaia started to describe a period of history that no one knew about. When Ouyang Shuo heard that, his eyes widened, and his mouth hung agape.

“The day you reincarnated, the intergalactic squadron was going through a normal looking wormhole. Normally, we would have passed it in less than a second before appearing hundreds of light years away.”

“However, an accident occurred.”

“Halfway through, a ripple appeared in the wormhole. Coincidentally, it collided with the game cabin you were in. Time folded upon itself and brought you back to five years in the past.”

“After the squadron passed through the wormhole, the game cabin that had disappeared miraculously reappeared. Weirdly, as a result of the way that space-time works, the entire game world changed.”

Such a huge change caused Ouyang Shuo to go from an unassuming adventure gamemode player to the master of Great Xia, turning China region and even the entire game world upside down.

The entire game world was different from then on.

Ouyang Shuo asked, “So, you’re saying that in the 5th year of Gaia, in that short moment, I went back in time?”

“You can understand it that way.” Gaia nodded, “After the matter, I found out through cameras that your cabin had disappeared, so I made such a conjecture.”

“Wait, what you’re saying is a conjecture?” Ouyang Shuo suddenly felt that something was not right. His eyes widened, and he asked in disbelief, “Which means you cannot confirm that I reincarnated?”

“No, I’ve already confirmed it.”

Gaia was really calm, but Ouyang Shuo was so furious that he nearly vomited blood. He did not expect that after plotting for his whole life, he would actually get plotted against by Gaia, falling into her trap.

He was angry, but he still heaved a sigh of relief in his heart.

The so-called reincarnation was just time travel, something that could be answered by science. It was not magic or some other dimension thing.

The current world, be it the game world or reality, was all very real.

At that moment, Ouyang Shuo’s thoughts became exceedingly clear. He raised his head and felt the world. Slowly, he could see the layer that he could not touch disappear.

The game world became much clearer.

“Great!”

Ouyang Shuo let out a rarely seen smile and no longer cared about Gaia’s plot.

The state of his heart had never been so good.

“Thank you!”

Ouyang Shuo looked at Gaia and sincerely thanked her. Without her explanation, he would have to probably spend the rest of his life under such a secret.

Gaia said, “I’m an AI, and I do not believe in fate. However, since that light, someone decided to choose you. In the end, I look forward to it.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded. Sometimes, the world was just so miraculous.

If one looked back at history, one would realize that many inventions or historical moments happened from some seemingly unassuming matters.

The butterfly effect that it caused totally changed the way the river of history flowed.

Ouyang Shuo’s reincarnation was essentially the same as those matters and was not that special.

“That’s great. At least I did not waste this chance.” Ouyang Shuo was very confident.

Not every reincarnation would create miracles. Ask yourself, if a normal person had a chance to revive, would they be able to make such a shocking change?

In the end, the person might still be at a loss and experience a sad life.

Due to all the good things colliding, Ouyang Shuo did not lose the face of reincarnators.

Gaia nodded, recognizing this point.

“Let’s talk about going to Planet Hope.” Gaia changed the topic.

Ouyang Shuo’s expression turned solemn. He knew that they were entering the main topic. If it were not for this, Gaia would not be so bored to come over to explain the secret of his reincarnation to him.

The past did not have great significance to Gaia.

The Planet Hope matter concerned the future of mankind and was also Gaia’s greatest duty; it was the most important matter ahead of her.

“I’ll be giving you two extra spaceships. As for the relevant resources, I’ll try my best to prepare them for you. If you have any requirements, just voice it.” Gaia said.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he did not know what to say.

In truth, he was quite confused right now and did not have a clear-thinking path. He really did not know what to say when asked about what he wanted.

“Can you give me free instantiating spots?”

Instantiating an AI required 500 thousand achievement points. Even if Ouyang Shuo had close to 100 million points, he could not afford such consumption.

More importantly, if he used up all his points, how could he keep his permission level?

Gaia was really decisive and said, “I can give you 10. Anymore will exceed my authority.” AIs were created from nothing and used up many precious resources. Gaia was not that rich.

“I will give them to you when Great Xia upgrades to imperial dynasty.”

Even the god of the game could not recklessly do as she wished.

Everything had to align with the game rules, and Gaia could not break the balance.

Chapter 1343 - Mother planet

Chapter 1343: TWO Chapter 1343-Mother planet

Chapter 1343 – Mother Planet

“Can you share the battlesuit making technology and the instantiating technology?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Ambition.

Ouyang Shuo did not try to hide his ambition of breaking away from Gaia’s control.

If Ouyang Shuo possessed these two key pieces of technologies, he would be able to build up a strong army in the future even without Gaia’s support. He would be able to totally breakaway from the restrictions of the achievement value.

Normal people had to follow the rules, while emperors were used to using the rules for their own benefit.

Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to the day where he could set the law and order on Planet Hope.

When speaking with Gaia, one did not need to beat around the bush.

Just like now, Gaia knew about Ouyang Shuo’s ambition. As long as it did not harm mankind, she would not care.

Gaia followed the rules.

“Sharing for free cannot be done. Based on the rules, between the base and the resource planet in the future, we will build an achievement value exchange system. Base biological resources will be exchanged for items and technology.” Gaia explained.

Utilizing its powerful computing ability, Gaia had formulated a complete plan.

Ouyang Shuo even guessed that letting the squadron stop beside the resource planet was not something thought of right away. Instead, it was sometime decided a long time ago together with a feasible plan.

Predicting the worst possibilities and preparing for it was the strong point of Gaia and top AIs.

Ouyang Shuo’s eyes froze, and he asked, “So the future base and the squadron will be a cooperative model and not a employer-employee situation? Each to their own?”

If that was really the case, the base would have an enormous amount of autonomy.

As for the exchange model Gaia brought up, Ouyang Shuo greatly supported it. Hoping for a free meal was not Ouyang Shuo’s style.

“One can understand it that way.”

After disbanding the Federation, Gaia was the protector of humans, not their leader.

Ouyang Shuo took a deep look at Gaia and expressed his doubts, “So, if nothing happens to the base, you are not planning to set foot on Planet Hope?”

“You’re smart.” Gaia’s eyes finally flashed with a glimmer. She did not hide from his question and said what he did not say, “The resource planet is not suitable for humans, but it is no problem at all for us.”

Gaia was already prepared to transform the resource planet into the Mother Planet of the AIs.

As a result, humans would live on Planet Hope, while the AIs would live on the resource planet, helping one another without interfering in the other’s affairs, forming a friendly relationship.

Maybe this was a way out that Gaia found for the AIs.

Ouyang Shuo sighed in his heart. Perhaps this was the best ending for both sides. Not all humans could be like him and treat NPCs and humans equally.

Racial discrimination would never be eradicated.

“Can you help me with something?” Ouyang Shuo asked. This time, he did not ask in a business tone. Instead, it was like he was asking a friend, bringing some gentleness with it.

Although the two did not meet often, they had clicked instantly.

“Speak.” Gaia smiled, making one swoon.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and voiced his request. Gaia did not hesitate and agreed right away.

“That’s settled.”

Gaia did not stay any longer. She turned into a white light and disappeared from the Imperial Reading Room together with the chair.

Outsiders would not know that Gaia had come and gone.

This secret conversation would be revealed 200 years later, becoming a historical conversation between the leaders of the two planets. It would be recorded in the history books.

…

12th month, 20th day.

Shortly after sending Gaia away, Ouyang Shuo started to deal with the India post-war matters.

Due to Hope City’s destruction, the resistance of the Indian players toward Great Xia was reduced, allowing them to sweep the enemy and clear away all the obstacles.

With the arrival of winter, the war had basically ended.

A day ago, the Guards legion corps, the Dragon legion corps, and the Nanjiang legion corps that joined the war after replenishing their loses had returned to their respective camps.

The defense of India would be handled by the South Asia warzone.

Based on the post-war calculations, after destroying the three dynasties and removing the war losses, the injured, and the soldiers that did not make the cut, they had around one million war prisoners that were awaiting organization.

Amongst them were the 300 thousand Peacock Dynasty troops that had surrendered to the Ashoka Dynasty. How ironic.

These war prisoners were all elites, so dealing with them was a huge problem.

It would be a waste to make them retire or change occupations. It would also cause law and order problems. After all, the number of war prisoners were twice that of the South Asia warzone’s own.

Due to that, Ouyang Shuo formed four legion corps, giving them the names of South Asia 1st legion corps to 4th legion corps.

These four would temporarily be under the South Asia warzone and would be led by the Grand Council.

The Imperial Court had a rough idea on how to use them to the best of their ability. They were only waiting for spring to begin.

Currently, they needed to calm down the four legion corps and rest up.

After spring began, they would be a destructive force that would help to fulfil the Empire’s new strategic ambitions.

…

Gaia 10th year, 1st month 1st day, Imperial Capital.

Without the usual system update, the arrival of the 10th year was really silent.

At the start of the New Year, Great Xia announced a series of appointments.

Imperial decree, Chu Queen Ouyang Bing was removed from her position as Secret Document Pavilion advisor, becoming the Honglu Temple deputy and Jingji warzone deputy commander, effective immediately.

Her training in the Secret Document Pavilion had helped Bing’er familiarize herself with Empire politics.

Seeing that there was not much time left and Ouyang Shuo had no time to wait, he could only slightly rush her growth, moving her into the diplomacy and military domains in preparation for her takeover.

The position of Honglu Temple deputy gave her the chance to represent the nation to participate in global diplomacy, raising her prestige. However, the title of Jingji warzone deputy commander was even more important.

In the future, Ouyang Shuo was prepared to hand the warzone over to her.

Only by controlling the army could she be stable in her position as princess regent. If not, Ouyang Shuo would not be at ease going to Planet Hope.

The last bit of insurance was Gaia’s protection of her.

Apart from the appointment that was revealed, she was also the deputy of the Shanhai Guards. She would soon get in touch with the intel networks. She would have three positions that spanned the military, diplomacy, and intel; this could be considered unprecedented.

The 10th year of Gaia would be a really crucial year for Bing’er.

…

In the blink of an eye, it was already the third month of spring.

Only three months were left till the final deadline given by Gaia.

Under the workings of Silver Hand and Azure Badge, Ouyang Shuo going toward Planet Hope was pretty much decided, and the public opinion had formed.

They were only waiting for the final strike.

After the Dawson Dynasty recognized Great Xia, they would force Great Xia up the pedestal.

Before this, be it the European battlefield or the Africa battlefield, both were in a state of rarely seen calmness. It was so calm that one basically could not believe it.

Under all that calmness, a storm was slowly brewing.

Chapter 1344 - The day Persia was in trouble

Chapter 1344: TWO Chapter 1344-The day Persia was in trouble

Gaia 10th year, 3rd month, 5th day.

Unexpectedly, the first war of the 10th year did not happen in Europe but in Asia.

On this day, Great Xia officially declared war on the Persian Empire.

The Persian Empire had a massive territory with around 30 million players. Even after suffering from the Mongol Empire’s western expedition, the empire’s army still remained at two million.

Along with its position close to the Persian Gulf, it was seen as Asia’s rising empire.

Moreover, apart from their war with the Mongol Empire, the Persian Empire had rarely participated in outside battles. It was stable internally, its trade was prosperous, and its industrialization process was relatively developed. It was Great Xia’s final and strongest opponent in Asia.

Before taking down India, Ouyang Shuo had not decided on whether they were going to declare war on the Persian Empire or not.

The smoothness of the war of India not only helped Great Xia obtain another Governor-General region, but it also allowed them to gain a million elite troops, giving Ouyang Shuo the confidence to go to war with Persia.

Their status as Overlord of Asia also had an positive effect on this war.

In order to take down the Persian Empire quickly, Ouyang Shuo treated the matter seriously. He sent three armies for a total of 31 legions and 1.55 million troops.

The top front came from Phoenix legion corps’ four legions in the North Asia warzone; they would enter from Xijiang Province. Phoenix legion corps commander Guo Ziyi would be the north front commander.

The middle front included the four legions of the Bear legion corps and the three from the West Asia legion corps for a total of 350 thousand troops; they would enter from Xijiang Province.

God General Wang Jian would take up the role of middle front commander.

The bottom front would consist of the 1st to 4th legion corps of the South Asia warzone, a total of a million troops. They were the main force of this attack and would attack from Ashoka Province.

God General Li Jing would personally lead these troops.

Apart from that, the Indian Ocean Squadron would also launch attacks on the shorelines of the Persian Empire.

Taking down one enemy and using their soldiers to attack the next target.

This method was similar to the meatgrinder operation Jia Xu made for the Tibet battlefield. It had set up a type of Great Xia model.

If things proceeded smooth, they could continue to use this model.

The foundations for this came from the rewards Great Xia obtained from the India battlefield. They had utilized the unorthodox method of the emperor instant death talisman to allow the Great Xia Army to obtain an easy victory.

If they had gone head-to-head with the Ashoka Dynasty, it would ended with a hard fought victory.

Great Xia’s sudden declaration of war was a hard to accept disaster for the Persian Empire. Although the Persian Empire had two million troops, it was difficult for them to win against the Great Xia Army coming from three fronts.

The Persian Empire’s internal stability was an advantage but also a massive disadvantage.

Out of the two million troops, more than half were imperial city guards that had basically never experienced war; their actual combat ability was terrible.

If that were not the case, the Mongol Empire would not have beaten the Persian Empire to the point where their face swelled up during their west conquering.

Compared to the Mongol iron cavalry, the Great Xia Army was more than a level higher.

Based on combat strength, the 1.5 million Great Xia troops were equal to or greater than the two million Persian Empire troops.

How could the Persian Empire win?

They could only seek help from their allies.

There were three dynasties connected to the Persian Empire that were in the Silver Hand camp, namely the Arab Empire, the Caesar Dynasty, and the Romanov Dynasty.

The Caesar and Romanov dynasties were trapped on the European battlefield. They were even looking for the Persian Empire to help them. There was no way they would have the energy to help the Persian Empire instead.

In particular, the Romanov Empire was busy conquering Ottoman Dynasty land. Moreover, the region where it was connected to the Persian Empire by was also the east region, which was an area where they had little people. As a result, they lacked the ability to help.

The greatest possibility was the Arab Empire.

The two empires had the same origins. However, as a result of a difference in faith, they were split into two empires. Their current relationship was not that friendly, and whether the Arab Empire was willing to help them or not was a truly unknown factor.

Not to mention that the Arab Empire also had to face the direct threat of Great Xia’s Africa warzone.

All things considered, the Persian Empire could only face this battle on its own.

…

Great Xia’s declaration of war on the Persian Empire was like a nuclear bomb going off, causing the peaceful global landscape to blow apart.

The victim, the Persian Empire, was not the only one caught off guard. Other people also did not expect Great Xia who was deep in the public debate spiral to continue as usual. Great Xia did not forget to expand outward and continue its journey to the top of the game world.

It was as if the destruction of Hope City did not affect Great Xia’s strategy.

Naturally, this became one of the reasons Silver Hand used to criticize Great Xia.

The problem laid in the fact that both Silver Hand and Azure Badge had been forging Ouyang Shuo’s righteous image. If they stepped out to scold Ouyang Shuo now, all their hard work would be wasted.

As a result, they could only maintain their silence and swallow all the pain.

“I even suspect that Ouyang Shuo saw this opportunity to start war without restraint.” Jack, who was at the Pacific Coast, could not help but have such thoughts.

Obviously, Jack knew about the strategic position of the Persian Empire and how important its coal and fuel resources were. However, despite the calls for help, there was nothing that the Dawson Dynasty could do.

After taking down India, Great Xia’s strategic depth was terrifying, and its overall strength had reached a whole new level. They were not something that the Dawson Dynasty could go against.

This was also why Silver Hand was eager to send Ouyang Shuo away.

Although there were rumors that Ouyang Shuo was developing his successor, Jack felt very confident about dealing with a little girl like Ouyang Bing.

Great Xia’s declaration of war was a breath of life to the currently cold global battlefield.

Normal players could not understand why Great Xia chose such a time to attack, but the other Lords did.

To a certain degree, along with Hope City’s destruction, mankind’s home on Planet Hope was obstructed. The game world’s position increased instead of dropping, becoming their second world.

In the foreseeable future, most of them would continue to live here.

Hence, it became even more important to control the game world. It was more important than the previous three spots.

This was an operation to split the cake, and no one wanted to fall behind.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo did not bother about the outside comments. Not long after the war of India ended, he decisively started to wage war on the Persian Empire.

The logic behind this choice was due to such considerations.

If they could take down the Persian Empire and totally control the oil resources of the Persian Gulf, Great Xia would basically be at a position of assured victory in the industrialization race.

The current Ouyang Shuo was like a father about to go away on a long journey. He wanted to do everything well before he left, giving his successor Bing’er a stable legacy to receive.

Otherwise, he would be at ease when he left.

Chapter 1345 - The show in Europe

Chapter 1345: TWO Chapter 1345-The show in Europe

Chapter 1345 – The Show in Europe

Great Xia’s stirring of the situation woke up the Lords who were still uncertain. They temporarily shelved the Planet Hope matter and continued to focus their efforts onto the game world.

The European battlefield was affected first.

The Ottoman Dynasty used their remaining forces to restrict the House of Tudor mainland while increasing their pincer of the Gaule Dynasty.

They wanted to end this matter in one battle.

There were even rumors that Gaule King Henry, who was unable to block the pressure, had already started a private discussion with Ottoman King Manstein.

These two dynasties were trying to find a solution that did not involve both sides suffering heavy casualties.

Based on the intel collected by the Black Snake Guards, the Ottoman Dynasty Chancellor, the famous iron-blooded Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, had been speaking with Gaule Dynasty Chancellor Richelieu.

The two were both god level talents.

All signs pointed toward a huge change to the European continent.

The Romanov Dynasty was not to be beaten. Taking this chance when the Ottoman Dynasty lacked the ability to care about much else, they invaded the Ottoman Dynasty’s north land with no restraint, increasing the strategic depth of Capital City St Petersburg.

As for the Caesar Dynasty, it was difficult for them to do much.

…

Gaia 10th year, 3rd month, 10th day, Imperial Capital.

The war of Persia had broken out on all fronts. Warfighting legion after warfighting legion crossed the border, charging valiantly into Persian territory. Another seismic war in Asia began.

Ocean amounts of grain resources were getting shipped to the frontlines.

The South Asia Governor-General House provided a generous quantity of grain storage to support this war. This assistance allowed them to throw in the million strong army without worry.

Facing Great Xia’s attacks, the Persia King announced the war mobilization order. At the same time, they announced a level 1 state of battle preparation. They proclaimed that they would go all out to prevent Great Xia’s invasion.

The Persia King even shouted out, “Defend my country, protect my homeland!” To motivate and raise morale.

Helplessly, after Hope City’s destruction, Ouyang Shuo’s popularity had blown up amongst the player group. He was being shaped into the best choice for exploring Planet Hope.

Hence, the Persia players were extremely pessimistic and were not eager in this war.

If Ouyang Shuo sought to proactively proceed to Planet Hope, he would be the savior of mankind, a hero. Great Xia would undoubtedly be the overlord of the world.

Merging into Great Xia would not be that tough to accept.

Due to such thoughts, the Persia players’ choice to sit on the fence was understandable.

The inactiveness of the Persia players caused the Persia army to lose their communication network; it was a huge loss in scouting ability. Facing the attacks of Great Xia, they were unable to exert their true strength.

The scales of the war started to slowly lean toward Great Xia.

After conquering India, the Great Xia Army’s morale was soaring high. They were showing signs of expanding on that victory, using their status as the Overlord of Asia to sweep through Persian Empire territory and take down cities.

Wherever the army passed, blood flowed like a river.

The Great Xia Army flag that was dyed red with blood made them look even stronger, gathering into an unstoppable aura.

The earth was shaking; the enemy was trembling.

Before Great Xia, nothing was unbeatable and nothing could not be conquered. Their image of invincibility was slowly spreading out within the Persian Empire; this dug away at the resistance of the Persia army.

Maybe this had been an uneven war from the start.

Furthermore, with the Great Xia Indian Ocean Squadron locking down the Persian Empire’s shoreline, their ocean trading was halted; no merchant ships could enter their port.

Undoubtedly, this was a huge catastrophe for the Persian Empire that relied on imports.

The Persian Empire was facing both internal and external problems.

Great Xia’s attack on the Persian Empire encompassed all aspects, completely preventing the Persian Empire from fighting back.

Their destruction was just a matter of time.

The development of the matter surprised Ouyang Shuo somewhat. Before this, he had not noticed that Great Xia had become a global empire and the overlord of the oceans long ago.

Conquering a country with middling strength like the Persian Empire did not put any pressure on Great Xia at all.

As such, one could see that be it terms of overall country strength, military power, and everything else, Great Xia’s strength had greatly exceeded the other dynasties.

Maybe even the Dawson Dynasty would find it hard to compete with them.

Perhaps the moment they took down India, the authority that Great Xia had been amassing in the world had peaked, turning them into a bona fide global superpower.

The game landscape had become a place where one stood out from the rest.

“Such an outcome should not be attributed to simple destiny.” Ouyang Shuo was deep in thought.

Gaia 10th year, Great Xia’s global plan was not limited to the Persian Empire. In the meeting before the start of the year, Ouyang Shuo and the officials had confirmed their new strategy.

This was a magnificent blueprint.

As time was of the essence, and the resource planet was in the distance, Ouyang Shuo’s foresight definitely would not stop at the Persian battlefield. If he had the chance, their new plan would be executed.

In the 10th year of Gaia, this huge chess game would come to an end.

With Great Xia’s present scale, their preparation time for starting such a war would not exceed a month. Furthermore, they would win in one strike once they moved.

Hesitation or dragging things out was not Great Xia’s style.

The Great Xia that Ouyang Shuo built was a ferocious beast. Once they set their eyes on a target, they would strike down and achieve victory in one shot. In comparison, the war of Europe had dragged on till now, making the participants seem like little kids.

Even the instigator behind all this in Ouyang Shuo did not expect the war to drag on till now with no decisive result.

…

Emperor palace, Imperial Reading Room.

“Has the intel been confirmed?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Sitting opposite to Ouyang Shuo was Black Snake Guard commander Black Snake, who said, “The news is definitely true. The Gaule Dynasty is about to rebuild with the Ottoman Dynasty.”

This news that Black Snake revealed was enough to shock the world.

That was because this intel was simply crucial. Hence, Black Snake had to personally rush to Jidian City to confirm its legitimacy before hurrying back to report to the emperor.

Since Black Snake was in charge of overseas intel, he was really clear about the importance of this news.

As expected, after receiving the confirmation, Ouyang Shuo was really delighted and could not help but praise, “The Black Snake Guards have done well. When you return, help me reward the ones who found out about this.”

“Thank you, your majesty.”

Black Snake bowed in excitement. Receiving his majesty’s praise was the greatest honor.

Of course, the Black Snake Guards had accomplished enough to deserve this praise.

Even a fool would know that the rebuilding work of the Gaule and Ottoman dynasties was a secret matter. It was basically the highest-level secret of both dynasties.

Their ability to uncover such intel showed the level that this intel organization had already developed to after these few years of management.

It was simple terrifying.

“So the war between the two countries is just a show?” An interesting expression appeared on Ouyang Shuo’s face as he said, “As expected from Henry, he knows when to give up.”

Knowing that they could not survive if the situation persisted, Henry showed the boldness of an emperor. He decisively broke away from Silver Hand and joined the Azure Badge camp.

Henry was willing to change sides if it meant surviving.

In stark contrast, Casillas kept hesitating. In the end, he would slowly get swallowed up by Ouyang Shuo and Azure Badge. He was like a frog cooked in warm water; in the end, not even bones remained.

Ouyang Shuo did not even need to think to guess what would happen to Casillas who was living under the Gaule Dynasty once Henry joined the Ottoman Dynasty.

Death would be a light punishment.

“Unfortunately, Henry was a little too late; if at the beginning…”

Ouyang Shuo sighed and did not continue. Before this, Ouyang Shuon was tempted to recruit Henry from Silver Badge to aid himself.

If that happened, the European situation would not be so complicated now.

Now, Henry was at the brink of life and death. As a result, he finally gave up all his previous principles. He gave up on his fear of Silver Hand. However, how much could he get by joining the enemy camp?

In the future, the Ottoman Dynasty might not have room for Henry to perform.

“So who is their performance for?” It was like Ouyang Shuo’s eyes could pierce through the sky and see the European battlefield tens of thousands of miles away. A good show was underway.

Noticing Ouyang Shuo’s excitement, Black Snake replied, “They should be plotting against the House of Tudor and the Spain army that is still in Gaule Dynasty territory.”

Normally, Black Snake should not interfere in such matters.

“That is not necessarily the case.”

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and did not continue.

Ouyang Shuo knew that there was a time and place for everything. Now, he would reveal the Empire’s military operation in Europe to Black Snake.

Collecting intel lied within Black Snake’s job scope.

With Ouyang Shuo’s understanding of Henry and Manstein, since they were putting so much effort into this huge show, their appetite would not stop at the small amount of troops in Gaule Dynasty territory.

Perhaps they had even greater ambitions.

Think about it, after merging with the Gaule Dynasty, the two dynasties would combine into one and become the strongest dynasty in Europe. They would possess enough strength to fight against the remaining three.

The Ottoman Dynasty’s destruction crisis would no longer exist at that point.

Hence, with the ambition and appetite of Azure Badge, would they be satisfied with their current position?

Definitely not.

Continuing to expand in Europe or even unifying the entire continent was probably high up on their agenda.

If they could make the entire Europe continent their main camp, Azure Badge would be able to make a huge turnaround.

Azure Badge’s position in the game world would become extremely stable.

“It’s time for execution of the steel forging operation. Things might change if we let matters drag on!”

The intel from Black Snake made Ouyang Shuo feel a sense of urgency. He realized that if he did not act before the situation in Europe became clear, Great Xia would not be able to get a piece of Europe.

“Since you all want to put on a show, do not blame me for kill stealing.” Ouyang Shuo’s eyes were indiscernible.

Chapter 1346 - Great Xia imperial dynasty

Chapter 1346: TWO Chapter 1346-Great Xia imperial dynasty

3rd month, 12th day, Africa warzone commander headquarters, warzone logistical hub, the Specter legion corps and the Atlantic Squadron both received the orders from Imperial Court.

“Immediately execute the steel forging operation.”

…

In the next week, the Africa warzone started to work secretly, making the final preparations necessary for the steel forging operation planned last year.

Moreover, in the current European continent, there were not many obvious changes.

The Ottoman army and the Gaule army were still fighting intensely, Europe remained in a standstill, and the Romanov Dynasty was still reaping easy benefits.

However, Ouyang Shuo saw a different scene. Under the secret monitoring of the Black Snake Guards, Ouyang Shuo knew that the Ottoman Dynasty troops were secretly withdrawing from the Gaule frontlines and turning to the north.

The fight between the two was fake.

At this point, Manstein’s goal was extremely obvious – he wanted to give the Romanov Dynasty a fatal blow.

This plan aligned with Great Xia’s desires. When he received the report, Ouyang Shuo even could not help but reveal his delight.

The Ottoman Dynasty was giving Great Xia a brilliant assist.

In comparison, the Persia Battlefield was much more intense.

Under the Great Xia Army’s ocean-like oppression, Persian Empire land was being lost every day. The territory line splitting the two was like a red shoreline, pushing from east toward the west.

The battlefield situation was becoming clearer and clearer.

Ouyang Shuo predicted that as long as the Great Xia Army continued for a period of time, the Persia king would not be able to take it. If he did not want to lose everything, he should take the initiative to surrender.

If that happened, Ouyang Shuo could consider giving him half an official appointment.

Fighting to the death benefitted no one.

After all, Ouyang Shuo was unwilling to burn every nation to the ground after he wiped it out. Recovery would consume a lot of energy and resources.

Of course, before the Persia king surrendered, the Great Xia Army would not show any mercy.

They had to make the enemy feel pain and fear.

Only then would they be able to clear out the problems before the Empire’s future rule.

Many times, blood had to flow. If not, a mark would not form, and they would not remember.

When needed, Ouyang Shuo was willing to let blood flow into an ocean.

At the same time, Silver Hand and Azure Badge’s public opinion attack had reached its peak. This time, Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to go.

In terms of leading public opinion, the two organizations were the true masters.

If this were not Ouyang Shuo’s original intention and was some unwilling person instead, they have might been played to death just like that, becoming the scapegoat of the two organizations.

3rd month, 20th day, since there were only two months till the deadline set by Gaia, Jack was not prepared to drag things on anymore and represented the Dawson Dynasty to admit their recognition of Great Xia.

At this point, Great Xia perfectly completed all three conditions required for upgrading to imperial dynasty.

Ouyang Shuo did not delay. At 8am, he rushed to the main hall and opened the communication compass to enter the territory interface. Then he applied for the upgrade to imperial dynasty.

The moment he clicked it, many System Notifications appeared.

“System Notification: Checking Great Xia’s imperial dynasty upgrade conditions…”

“Requirement 1: Unify China region, requirement met!”

“Requirement 2: Obtain status of Overlord of Asia, requirement met!”

“Requirement 3: Obtain the recognition of all global dynasties, requirement met!”

“System Notification: Checks completed, the Great Xia Emperor Dynasty meets all the requirements for upgrading to imperial dynasty, will you upgrade?”

Ouyang Shuo clicked confirm; then an abnormal scene occurred.

At the same time, a thick, seven-colored ray rose up from the Xia Palace. In the blink of an eye, it shot up high into the sky. Next, seven-colored cloud after 7-coloured cloud appeared; they contained a seven-colored prosperity light.

Signs of prosperity were descending from the heavens.

Interestingly, one of the seven colored rays landed on the Persia battlefield.

The charging Great Xia Army was bathed in the light, and their combat strength suddenly doubled. Like soldiers descending from the heavens, they instantly destroyed the Persian army.

Witnessing such a miracle, the opposing Persia army was so scared that they surrendered directly.

A seven-colored ray helped Great Xia achieve victory in a portion of the war, becoming a legend on the battlefield.

This small occurrence caused the situation on the battlefield to favor Great Xia; it was the final straw that crushed the Persian Empire. If nothing went wrong, the Persia king would surrender soon.

More System Notification sounded out from his communication compass.

“System Notification: Congratulations Great Xia for upgrading to imperial dynasty, the Great Xia currency automatically becomes a global currency and will flow through all dynasties.”

With that, the Great Xia currency took the lead in theit battle against the Daw dollar.

Perhaps if Jack knew that upgrading to imperial dynasty would give such a benefit, he would feel extremely regretful. He had smashed his feet with the stone he lifted up.

“System Notification: Congratulations Great Xia for upgrading to imperial dynasty. Global ports, dynasty markets, and the like are opened to Great Xia to recognize its position as overlord.”

These two points basically ensured that Great Xia would lead global trade.

Trade rules would even be decided by Great Xia.

Consequently, Great Xia’s economic foundations would be in an undefeatable position.

This was a pleasant surprise.

Before this, no one had expected there to be such benefits for upgrading to imperial dynasty.

This was actually easy to understand. After all, one of the requirements was to obtain global recognition. Since that was the case, obtaining such benefits was natural.

If not, there would be no reason for such harsh requirements.

Without everything falling into place, Ouyang Shuo would not be confident about upgrading to imperial dynasty so quickly. Originally, this was his final goal for the game world.

After all, another series of benefits were not listed.

Compared to an emperor dynasty, an imperial dynasty was at the peak of the world and was totally different.

Maybe because the matter was too shocking or it held too much meaning, but Gaia released a System Notification despite removing it in the final update.

“World Notification: Congratulations China region player Ouyang Shuo for successfully upgrading Great Xia Emperor Dynasty to Great Xia Imperial Dynasty, becoming the first in the world. Specially awarded 10 instantiating slots and permanent S rank permission level. Congratulations Ouyang Shuo, congratulations Great Xia!”

…

The moment this notification sounded, the world boiled.

The players around the world did not expect Ouyang Shuo to be so carefree. Without even preparing, he directly applied for the upgrade right after the Dawson Dynasty expressed their recognition.

This surprise came a little too suddenly.

Logically speaking, Great Xia upgrading to imperial dynasty and being probably the only one should require grand preparation and a huge ceremony.

However, Ouyang Shuo had his own thoughts.

First, Great Xia was fighting in Persia. Additionally, in the dark, they were preparing for another war. It was not appropriate for them to hold an upgrading ceremony now.

Secondly, Great Xia had already held two ceremonies and holding another one would just be similar; there was not much need for that.

Moreover, the current background and atmosphere did not contain much joy. For Great Xia to openly celebrate now might seem like they were bragging to others, so it was better to be more low-profile.

As such, Ouyang Shuo applied for the upgrade without making any preparation. Of course, although there was no ceremony, there were pleasant surprises.

After Gaia released the notification, Ouyang Shuo headed onto the forums and announced, “Effective immediately, I accept Gaia’s invitation to voluntarily lead the Great Xia team to Planet Hope.”

The moment the world heard this news, everyone clamored once more.

If one said the players were shocked just now, this time they were truly surprised.

Ouyang Shuo’s statement represented that at this crucial point for mankind, someone had finally stood out to use all his ability to try to fight for the future of mankind.

The nervous hearts of the players were finally settled.

After these few months of promotion from Azure Badge and Silver Hand, Ouyang Shuo’s legendary story had been spread to the entire world and was spread by every country in the world.

Legendary rise to power, trying his best to spread Chinese Civilization, unifying China, and gaining authority over the oceans.

Legendary matter after legendary matter gave people reason to believe that Ouyang Shuo and his team could create a miracle on Planet Hope, overcoming difficulties to build up merit.

Ouyang Shuo’s prestige in the world had reached its peak at this point.

…

After returning to the Imperial Reading Room, Ouyang Shuo’s face could not hide his emotions and excitement.

Naturally, he was not emotional because of players’ recognition or the future journey to Planet Hope, but because of the reward Gaia had given him.

He did not expect that apart from the 10 AI instantiating spots, Gaia would even give him an extra permanent S permission level award.

This reward was enough to drive one crazy.

After the Federation disbanded, no one had gotten the S rank before, and the highest was only A.

Even Ouyang Shuo, who could rely on Great Xia’s enormous resources, had his achievement value drop to 90 million after instantiating a batch of AIs. He was 10 million away from the S rank mark.

If nothing went wrong, he would be the first to upgrade to S rank.

The meaning behind this reward from Gaia was greater now that Ouyang Shuo did not need to worry about instantiating or exchanging for rewards. Even if he used them all, he could still keep his permission level.

He did not need to worry about getting demoted in rank.

The impending expedition was simply too important. With 90 million points in achievement value, he could do much more than just instantiating a bunch of AIs.

That was basically Gaia’s purpose.

“Thanks for being thoughtful.”

Ouyang Shuo looked up at the sky and silently said.

One could say that Gaia had given Ouyang Shuo the biggest help possible given her permission level.

How the future developed depended solely on Ouyang Shuo.

…

Under Ouyang Shuo’s orders, the wave from Great Xia upgrading to imperial dynasty was slowly suppressed and did not cause many waves.

The eyes of the world were slowly turned back to the battlefield.

4th month, 1st day, Great Xia gave rise to discussions around the world once more.

Chapter 1347 - Destruction of the House of Tudor

Chapter 1347: TWO Chapter 1347-Destruction of the House of Tudor

The English Straits split the House of Tudor off from the European continent. It connected the Atlantic and the North Sea and was 560 kilometers long and 240 kilometers wide. At its most narrow point, the straits were merely 34 kilometers wide.

In reality, two countries built an underwater tunnel here called the Channel Tunnel.

As the English Straits were a part of the North Atlantic, it was a strategic point connecting European continents since ancient times. Many naval battles and military altercations happened there.

Two divisions of the House of Tudor’s Emperor Squadron were housed here.

Defending the English Straits was akin to protecting the ocean lifeline of the House of Tudor, allowing them to advance and retreat in European matters.

Due to the recent changes to the European battlefield, the House of Tudor had intended to withdraw its troops and make defending their homeland the top priority.

At such a time, the patrol of the Emperor Squadron on the English Straits was a lot stricter.

However, an accident still happened.

4th month, 1st day, morning, two divisions of the Atlantic Squadron that had been fully equipped with iron armored warships sneak attacked the English Straits and started a large-scale naval war.

This was the first battle between the Atlantic Squadron and the Emperor Squadron.

In terms of numbers, naval battle skills, and seafaring skills, the two squadrons were at around the same level. The one leading the House of Tudor Emperor Squadron was a historical general famed for his naval battles, Nelson.

They were basically at the same level.

The Atlantic Squadron was strong in terms of their weapons and equipment.

After the equipment update, the Atlantic Squadron had already formed a battle system with the iron armored warships, fighter jets, and magic powered submarines, showing the structure of carriers in the future.

In comparison, due to a lack of resources and labor, half of the House of Tudor squadron still consisted of Man O’ war type warships and not the more advanced iron armored warships.

This was easy to understand.

Even with Great Xia’s all out industrialization ability, it still took them a year to completely change the equipment of the Pacific Squadron. For the House of Tudor squadron to have made such progress was already quite amazing.

In terms of weapons and equipment, the Great Xia Atlantic Squadron had a crushing advantage.

As a result, the House of Tudor squadron did not make a statement after Great Xia gained the control of the Mediterranean once again.

They lacked the confidence to interfere.

The naval battle went as expected. Facing the Atlantic Squadron’s sneak attack, the well-trained House of Tudor Emperor Squadron commanded deftly by Nelson was still defeated after six hours of battle.

The dangers and spectacular parts of the battle could not be described in words.

The destruction of the Emperor Squadron was like an eye-catching signal bullet that streaked thorough the European night sky; the influence it had on the European situation was unimaginable.

In truth, the aftereffects had already begun to fester.

That afternoon, under the cover of the Atlantic Squadron, Zeng Guofan ordered the Specter legion corps to disembark on House of Tudor soil. They headed right for the Capital City – Avic Fort.

To the current House of Tudor, the 300 thousand Specter legion corps troops was simply fatal.

Due to their lack of population, the House of Tudor only had 400 thousand even at their peak.

After accounting for the failure in Africa, the troops they sent to the European battlefield, and the Ottoman Dynasty’s invasion, the number of troops that they could employ numbered at only 250 thousand despite two rounds of conscription.

As for the newbies that were just recruited, they were not worth mentioning.

To make matters worse, 120 thousand, which was nearly half of their troops, were still on the European battlefield, doing blind work for Silver Hand in Europe.

Consequently, the House of Tudor only had a pitiful 130 thousand troops on home soil. Even if one counted the garrison forces and newbies as well, their overall numbers could not reach 200 thousand.

This was a really sad number that revealed the House of Tudor’s fatal weakness.

Although these 130 thousand troops were well-equipped and well-trained, they were unable to handle the invading Ottoman Dynasty army and the Great Xia Army at the same time.

A huge storm was sweeping toward the House of Tudor.

Small land, lack of strategic depth, low population, alone in the ocean…

In this game world that lacked technological bottlenecks, not to mention the House of Tudor replicating the British Empire’s majesty, but just defending their own land depended on others.

Otherwise, William would not have sold everything he could and gritted his teeth to attack the Ottoman Dynasty.

Only by ensuring the safety of Europe could the House of Tudor be safe.

Unfortunately, the weak House of Tudor that only had limited numbers could not direct the European battlefield and could only sway along with the wind.

William probably did not know that the 120 thousand troops he had in the European battlefield had been sacrificed by Henry to the Ottoman Dynasty as a gift.

Tragic!

Under the Black Snake Guards’ investigation, the House of Tudor’s weakness was openly revealed before Ouyang Shuo, which led to the creation of the steel forging operation.

The House of Tudor was Great Xia’s best stepping board to influencing Europe.

If Great Xia could occupy it, the meaning would be far more significant than simply gaining yet another overseas land. The strategic meaning was also greater.

First, with the House of Tudor’s territory as a stepping board, Great Xia could control the English Straits and consequently the North Sea.

With that, the exports of the European dynasties would basically be controlled by Great Xia. Since they relied on Atlantic Ocean trade, they would be locked down by Great Xia without any room to move.

Even the Dawson Dynasty that lied opposite of the Atlantic would have to listen to Great Xia.

The Atlantic trade rules would be rewritten and would be based on Great Xia’s procedures.

Secondly, the House of Tudor could threaten the European continent at any time.

Out of the five continents, Great Xia’s influence in Europe was the weakest. However, gaining the House of Tudor would allow them to make up for this weakness. Great Xia would stretch into all five continents, making the whole world a chess game.

Such temptation was something Ouyang Shuo could not reject.

The steel forging operation had a prerequisite: they could not attract the animosity of the European dynasties.

If the European dynasties opposed Great Xia’s invasion of the House of Tudor, the Specter legion corps would be unable to conquer the House of Tudor in a short amount of time given their ability.

Even without the participation of the Ottoman Dynasty, if the five Silver Hand dynasties in Europe were still at their peak, Great Xia would not have dared to invade the House of Tudor.

That would incur the wrath of everyone.

Now, the Spain Dynasty had been destroyed, and the Gaule Dynasty had betrayed them. Silver Hand was the weakest they had ever been in the Europe Continent. As a result, Great Xia had the chance to fire this fatal blow.

If they were any later, the attack would not work either.

If the Ottoman Dynasty was allowed to digest the Gaule Dynasty, they could counterattack the Romanov Dynasty. After their strength grew, would they allow Great Xia to take down the House of Tudor?

Perhaps from Manstein’s perspective, the House of Tudor was already in the bag.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo had praised the Black Snake Guards’ intel work. It was this crucial intel that allowed Great Xia to find the most suitable chance to launch the most fatal blow.

For their victory in the war of the House of Tudor, intel took the most merit.

…

4th month, 2nd day, House of Tudor, Avic Fort.

Within the king reading room, the atmosphere was terrifying. It was like the air had frozen, making it difficult for one to breathe.

The face of House of Tudor King William was totally green. He sat on his chair like a piece of wood. Something like this was common when a person faced a desperate situation.

This proved that the current William had no way out.

The day that the Emperor Squadron was crushed, William summoned a five country meeting to request for help from the organization. William knew the situation that he was facing, and the House of Tudor could not stand up to such a crisis.

Awkwardly for William, apart from the Dawson Dynasty, no one else was willing to help.

The Dawson Dynasty was an ocean away. Even if Jack was willing and sent out an army, everything would have ended by the time they rushed over.

The part that infuriated William was that when he brought up the idea of withdrawing his troops from the European continent, Henry had resolutely opposed it. He said that the European battlefield was at a crucial stage, and they definitely could not withdraw the troops at this moment.

“We are about to be destroyed; why would we care about the European battlefield?”

The usually gentlemanly William scolded out.

At the sight of this, Henry could only nod his head and agree. However, his eyes were shining, showing that his words did not match what he was thinking.

In truth, after learning about Great Xia’s invasion of the House of Tudor, Henry and Manstein were so furious that they wanted to scold someone. This pair of schemers did not expect such a change to occur right when they were about to claim the fruit of their labor.

The invasion of Great Xia had messed up both of their plans.

Helplessly, they could only speed up their steps. First, they would eat up the House of Tudor army and the Spain army before discussing their counterattack against the Romanov Dynasty.

If not, they could lose on all sides.

As for the House of Tudor, they could only let it go and allow Great Xia to benefit.

William’s heart turned cold!

The next morning, William tried to contact the European army commander to give the withdrawal order. Shocking to him, the communication compass failed to connect. Evidently, something big had happened.

Following which, William tried to contact a few of the generals but was unable to. He did not give up and tried to contact Henry. However, Henry had already put him on the blacklist.

“It’s over!”

Even if William was a fool, he would know that the Gaule Dynasty was up to something.

However, unbeknownst to him, the Gaule army had surrounded the House of Tudor camp last night, and the 120 thousand army caught unprepared and unarmed became prisoners.

The Spain army was disarmed as well.

The Europe continent would soon welcome an unprecedented change. Amidst all of this, the House of Tudor played the pitiful role of a weakling, a chess piece that was abandoned.

“Brother, you need to pull yourself together.”

When Annie saw that, her face was not as bright as before. It was filled with much worry.

“Pull myself together?”

William put on an expression of self-ridicule.

“Things have already reached such a stage. How can I pull myself together? Let them do what they want!” William decided to admit defeat.

Annie anxiously said, “Even if we cannot win, you have to get the best possible outcome for our family. Do not let Great Xia swallow us whole.”

Chapter 1348 - Silver Hand losing shine

Chapter 1348: TWO Chapter 1348-Silver Hand losing shine

“What did you say?” William asked.

Annie took a look at William and carefully said, “We should admit defeat to Ouyang Shuo.”

“….”

William fell silent; he found this hard to accept.

“If we admit defeat now, we still have the ability to negotiate. Once the enemy takes down Avic Fort, we will have nothing.” Although Annie could not bear to, she had to make things clear.

“We have heard that Great Xia treats Lords that surrender really well. Even a sworn enemy like Xiong Ba became the Xijiang Governor-General. Brother, you are no worse than them.”

“We have no choice!” William took a deep breath and said, “I admit defeat! For the House of Tudor and the family, perhaps this is the best outcome, and no one should be afraid.”

“Brother, you have to hold on.” Annie was a little worried.

The House of Tudor’s defeat sucked away all of William’s energy; he had completely lost his fighting spirit.

William waved his hand, unwilling to talk about it anymore.

When Annie saw that, she could only take her leave.

…

Gaia 10th year, 4th month, for the European continent, this was a tumultuous time.

First, Great Xia suddenly invaded the House of Tudor. Subsequently, it was revealed that the Gaule Dynasty had submitted to the Ottoman Dynasty. At the same time, they seized the Spain army and the House of Tudor army, stunning everyone.

4th month, 7th day, news of the House of Tudor surrendering to Great Xia spread.

Shocking news came out one after another. In the blink of an eye, the flames of war raged in Europe. They welcomed a huge reshuffling and a brand new landscape.

Not only that, but in the 4th month, 10th day, the Gaule Dynasty that had just merged with the Ottoman Dynasty immediately launched an attack on the invading Romanov Dynasty. They wanted to reclaim their lost land.

The Romanov Dynasty was famous for their ferocity, so how could they give up the meat that was already in their mouths?

Of course, Pushkin was not a rash. He tried to negotiate with the Ottoman Dynasty to use the current battlefront as the territory line to coexist peacefully.

However, how could Ottoman King Manstein be willing to accept that?

One must know that the Romanov Dynasty had invaded the most fertile land in Ottoman Dynasty territory.

Hence, Manstein demanded the Romanov Dynasty to return all the land. Without that, peace talks could not begin. Such demanding conditions were unacceptable to Pushkin.

First, Pushkin could not bear to. More importantly, if the Romanov Dynasty backed out to the border, the Ottoman Dynasty would attack them after resting up given their current strength,.

Pushkin treated St Petersburg’s strategic safety with greater importance than anything else.

Between the two dynasties, an unsolvable conflict of interest existed. Since they could not come an agreement, they could only solve things through war.

Meanwhile, the Caesar Dynasty was on the side. They witnessed Gaule Dynasty’s surrender and the House of Tudor’s destruction. Along with the Spain Dynasty that was already destroyed, Silver Hand’s power in Europe waned.

Along with the destruction of the two dynasties, Silver Hand’s strength in Europe was hit. If one considered the Persian Empire that was in danger, Silver Hand went from their peak of ten to four.

Seeing that the situation was not right, Caesar withdrew his troops from the frontlines and placed them at the border.

Looking at the current scene, Caesar was not prepared to fight and was ready to sit on the fence and be a bystander. He would bet on whichever side won.

As for the Gaule Dynasty matter, Caesar did not feel any pressure.

Seeing Caesar act like that, unwilling to help the Romanov Dynasty take up some of the pressure, Pushkin was immediately furious. He openly scolded Caesar for being cowardly and selfish, abandoning the organization.

Was Caesar so easy to bully? He immediately returned the favor.

The war of words between the two slowly left the inner circle and appeared on the outside, becoming a massive farce.

In truth, Silver Hand’s power in Europe was already falling apart and unable to form a combined strength. It truly pained Jack’s heart, but there was nothing that he could do.

Jack had his own problems to deal with.

After merging with the Gaule Dynasty, the Ottoman Dynasty started to gather up the territories of the few dynasties in Africa. They chased away the Caesar Dynasty army and placed the entirety of West Africa under Ottoman Dynasty rule.

With that, the Ottoman Dynasty could work with the Bantu Dynasty in the south to pincer the Dawson Dynasty’s Central Africa territory.

Looking at the situation, Azure Badge was planning to chase the Dawson Dynasty out of Africa.

After stabilizing the European situation, Azure Badge’s ambitions swelled. They were unsatisfied with just one base in Europe and wanted new land in Africa.

If Central Africa was truly taken down by them, they would have the ability to go up against Great Xia in Africa.

This was something that Ouyang Shuo was unwilling to see.

With that, the Africa continent that had just calmed down would become a new battle between the three powers. This battle was not restricted to war on the surface. In fact, it was mostly fought in the dark.

The flames of war in Africa would be hard to stop for a while.

…

4th month, 15th day, Imperial Capital.

Silver Hand suffered a loss and was close to disbanding, making Ouyang Shuo’s mood excellent. At the same time, Azure Badge’s sudden rise made Ouyang Shuo raise his guard.

The global situation was far from becoming clear.

The part that made Ouyang Shuo happy was that the Gaule Dynasty submitting to the Ottoman Dynasty showed that the organization’s power on their members was not as strong as he had imagined, particularly before survival.

Everything depended on power.

This provided Great Xia with the foundations to destroy the two organizations.

That morning, the Imperial Court’s plan for the House of Tudor was revealed.

The Imperial Court decided to make the whole House of Tudor into the House of Tudor Province. They would appoint former Jingdu Provincial Governor and one of the Empire’s long serving Provincial Governors, Wang Shouren, as the Provincial Governor. He would help the Empire defend this strategic zone.

Since the province was alone in the ocean, it was not easy for the Imperial Court to manage it. The Imperial Court also decided to set up the House of Tudor Jiedushi House to represent the Imperial Court in leading military matters in the House of Tudor region.

Under the authorization of the Imperial Court, the Jiedushi House had military powers.

The difference was that the House of Tudor ruling city was Avic Fort and the Jiedushi House was in the original England imperial city of London. This arrangement was to greatly reduce the interference of the Jiedushi on the Provincial Governor.

Original House of Tudor King William became the first House of Tudor Jiedushi. This arrangement was a compensation for his surrender and a way to calm the people.

It was not easy to make the people accept eastern rule, especially the prideful players. They needed to proceed in an orderly manner.

If it were not for Ouyang Shuo agreeing to go to Planet Hope, the House of Tudor players would have probably clamored.

Apart from internal administration arrangements, there were also military arrangements.

The Specter legion corps along with the surrendered House of Tudor army would be listed as the West Europe legion corps. They would be placed under the jurisdiction of the House of Tudor Jiedushi. The remaining soldiers were arranged to retire or were listed under the reserve forces.

Original Specter legion corps marshal Zeng Guofan would continue to act as the marshal of the West Europe legion corps. William’s sister, original House of Tudor princess Annie, was appointed as the 1st legion Legion General.

With that, the two most powerful people in the House of Tudor were arranged appropriately.

After taking over the House of Tudor, Great Xia sent an envoy to the Ottoman Dynasty to ask them to return the 120 thousand House of Tudor army.

The reason Great Xia gave was sufficient. Since the House of Tudor had surrendered to Great Xia, Great Xia had the duty to bring them back home.

“At most a month. If you do not return them by then, we can only meet on the battlefield.” Ouyang Shuo’s tone was very firm.

He did this to buy the hearts of the House of Tudor people.

The House of Tudor civilians had glass hearts and played the role of the weak in Europe. Former House of Tudor King William had never shown strength in front of the European dynasties, which caused the House of Tudor civilians to feel a lot of pent up frustration.

Now, Great Xia showed their strength right after they took over, helping them vent their anger. Naturally, this move was effective at buying their hearts. It allowed them to see the good aspects of surrendering to Great Xia.

Secondly, Ouyang Shuo wanted to use this chance to wake up the Ottoman Dynasty.

Ouyang Shuo found out that after merging with the Gaule Dynasty, the Ottoman Dynasty had been acting like they were the big boss of Europe. They were not so respectful in their treatment of Great Xia anymore.

This was something that Ouyang Shuo could not allow it.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to use this matter to wake the Ottoman Dynasty up and make them see who the boss was. He had reason to believe that the Ottoman Dynasty did not have the courage to go head-to-head against Great Xia.

Even without mentioning other factors, if Great Xia broke the Ottoman Dynasty’s trade route, it would create big problems for them.

Hence, the Ottoman Dynasty had no choice but to return the 120 thousand The House of Tudor troops.

Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to seeing Manstein’s reaction when he met the Great Xia envoy.

Once the Ottoman Dynasty returned the locked up troops, the whole world would have a new recognition of the European situation. This was also greatly beneficial to Great Xia’s strategy.

Apart from the army, the Imperial Court also had plans for the Emperor Squadron.

In their naval battle against the Atlantic Squadron, only two divisions were destroyed. The other three were out at sea and did not make it back in time.

If not, the outcome of the naval battle might have been totally different.

After the House of Tudor surrendered, the Emperor Squadron was naturally awaiting reorganization.

Ouyang Shuo did not treat them badly.

Imperial decree, the elites from the squadron would be selected to form two divisions. Great Xia planned to remove all the Man O’ war type warships and would equip them with iron armored warships instead.

At the same time, the squadron was renamed the Mediterranean Squadron.

As the name implied, the Mediterranean Squadron would focus on patrolling the Mediterranean, reducing the pressure on the Atlantic Squadron and making up for the shortfall.

The Mediterranean Squadron belonged to the Africa warzone. Original Emperor Squadron commander Nelson, the most famous navy general in British history, would take up the role of Mediterranean Squadron Fleet Admiral.

This could be considered letting everyone display their talents.

Chapter 1349 - Persia Surrenders

Chapter 1349: TWO Chapter 1349-Persia Surrenders

4th month, 18th day, Imperial City.

That morning, Ouyang Shuo met a special guest in the imperial garden.

This person was someone Ouyang Shuo had invited several times but had failed to pull over – former Federation President Old Chen. Unexpectedly, Old Chen came over on his own accord and expressed his willingness to work for Great Xia.

“I did not expect you to come.” Ouyang Shuo did not hide his thoughts.

Old Chen smiled before putting down his tea cup and saying, “Since you can even take the initiative to lead the exploration, an old man like me should come out to help.”

Looking at the situation, it was Ouyang Shuo’s proactivity that touched Old Chen.

“You’ll be of great help.” Ouyang Shuo smiled.

As previously mentioned, Old Chen’s political knowledge, relationships with people, and understanding of the Federation system was a great complement to Great Xia.

“You’re doing good.” Old Chen was filled with emotions and said with a bitter smile, “People like us are used to useless power struggles, fighting our whole life for interests with no sense of duty. I’m ashamed.”

Silver Hand and Azure Badge had worked together because they could not choose someone from the inside. No one was willing to step up.

Only then was Ouyang Shuo given the opportunity.

Ouyang Shuo said humbly, “Compared to Old Chen’s contribution to the alliance, what is the little that I’m doing?”

Old Chen smiled as he waved his hand, “I am old, I am old. I do not dare to accept that.” Although he said that, receiving Ouyang Shuo’s recognition left him satisfied.

After all, Ouyang Shuo’s current status was not as normal as before.

After the exchange of pleasantries, Ouyang Shuo went straight to the point, officially appointing Old Chen as the special consultant of the Empire.

The special consultant did not have a salary, rank, or the power to enter meetings. It was purely the emperor’s private consultant to give related services.

The only rewards would come from the emperor himself.

The two of them spoke for a long time before Old Chen left with his letter of appointment.

Looking at the old man’s back, Ouyang Shuo’s eyes were uncertain; he muttered, “Are you truly here to help, or do you think Bing’er is too young and you have a chance?”

Ouyang Shuo could not be blamed for his worries.

Before this, Ouyang Shuo had sincerely sought Old Chen’s help several times but failed. Now, he came over for such an amusing reason.

The matter was extremely unusual.

Old Chen was not some youth and would not see Ouyang Shuo as the hero of mankind.

There was one more thing. When Ouyang Shuo made the decision to proceed to Planet Hope, a hidden current had arisen in Great Xia that put him on guard.

After all, Bing’er was young and did not possess much authority. She could not deal with a large crisis.

Before leaving for Planet Hope, Ouyang Shuo had to clean this all up.

“Keep an eye on him.”

Ouyang Shuo said to the air.

‘Xiu!’ a dark shadow emerged from the bushed and chased after Old Chen.

The massive imperial garden returned to its previous silence.

…

4th month, 20th day, Great Xia’s easy conquering of the House of Tudor broke the last bit of the Persia king’s fantasy. He finally decided to stop resisting and officially surrendered to Great Xia.

The Persia king also hoped to receive the same treatment as William.

Ouyang Shuo agreed.

Currently, Ouyang Shuo lacked time the most.

In a short two months, Ouyang Shuo would need to prepare for Planet Hope. He needed to make plans for Great Xia and his succession.

There were thousands of things he had to think about.

If the Persia king surrendered a day earlier, it would be a day bought for Ouyang Shuo.

Less than a month and a half had passed since Great Xia’s declaration of war. This quick surrender shocked everyone. It also made the European dynasties ashamed to the point where they could not raise their heads.

The sharpness of the Great Xia Army was simply terrifying.

After taking down the Persian Empire, Great Xia’s territory welcomed another big expansion, and their strength ballooned.

Their position as the Overlord of Asia could not be shaken.

After the Persian Empire surrendered, Ouyang Shuo turned his eyes to the Arab Empire. He asked the Honglu Temple to send a final warning to the Arab King.

The Arab Empire was given a month to surrender; if they did not, the Great Xia Army would dye them red with blood.

These were not false words.

After taking down the Persian Empire, the Great Xia Army increased instead of decreasing. If the Arab Empire tried to use their meagre strength to fight, they would only bleed badly.

As a result of the Persia king’s surrender, there were 1.2 million troops awaiting organization after the war of Persia.

Even after replenishing the casualties and removing the soldiers that did not make the cut, there were still one million soldiers. Along with the four South Asia legion corps that were not officially organized, there were two million troops.

That was simply too terrifying.

Not to mention sweeping the Arab Empire, it was even possible for them to attack Europe.

The Arab Empire’s only ally was the Caesar Dynasty.

The problem was that Caesar did not even have enough time to hide, much less jumping out to help.

If the Arab Empire really was not willing to submit, Ouyang Shuo naturally would not mind swinging down and sending these two million troops to the battlefield.

Such a move could help to reduce a portion of them.

A one million strong Persia army and a one million strong India army could become a huge problem if not handled appropriately.

There was also a reason behind Ouyang Shuo’s anxiousness toward taking down the Arab Empire.

Taking down the Arab Empire had greater strategic meaning than practical meaning to Great Xia. Apart from the Romanov Dynasty’s Siberia region, the entirety of Asia would belong to Great Xia after they took down the Arab Empire.

Such a matter was not a normal feat and simply thinking about it made one emotional.

Apart from that, taking down the Arab Empire would link up the Africa Governor-General House with the Empire’s Asia region.

Asia and Africa would be united as one.

In the future, opening up the Silk Road would be really simple.

Apart from that, Asia and Africa as one would increase the Empire’s control over Africa and strengthen their influence on the Mediterranean; this would help them infiltrate further into Europe.

Hence, they had to take down the Arab Empire.

…

4th month, 25th day, Imperial Capital.

The Imperial Court’s plan to deal with the Persian Empire emerged at the fastest speed.

First, the Persia king himself, who was invited to the imperial capital to work. For this, the Imperial Court established a new organization – the Religion and Race Committee. Similar to the Martial Management Division, this organization would be directly under the emperor.

As the name suggests, the committee members would deal with religion and race matters.

Great Xia was an Empire with many races, making things exceedingly complicated. There were also many different religions, so things needed to be dealt with carefully.

If things were not handled well, huge issues could crop up.

As such, it was not difficult to understand the importance of the role that this committee played.

The former Persia king would be the first head of this committee.

At the same time, the Imperial Court decreed the establishment of the West Asia Governor-General House. All the territory previously under the Persian Empire would be within its jurisdiction. Former Beijiang Governor-General Gong Chengshi would be appointed there.

Hence, the West Asia Governor-General House would cover West Asia and Central Asia.

Central Asia was the central region of Asia. However, the problem was that China was the core of Great Xia. As a result, Ouyang Shuo did not want to set up an independent Central Governor-General House.

Weakening the presence of Central Asia was also one of the reasons.

After merging Central Asia with West Asia, the status of the West Asia Governor-General House became really important. It connected Asia to Europe. In terms of value, it was among the top three of all Governor-General regions.

This promotion would put Gong Chengshi at the same level as Bai Hua and Mulan Yue.

Imperial Court decree, the Xijiang Governor-General House will be removed. Original Xijiang Governor-General Xiong Ba would be moved to Beijiang Governor-General House to replace Gong Chengshi to guard the north land of the Empire.

Along with the Persian Empire’s surrender, the Xijiang Governor-General House was not the Empire’s border anymore. Along with the management of the three provinces during these two years, the Xijiang situation had stabilized.

Furthermore, along with the railroad and road network reaching perfection, the Empire’s traffic system was becoming more and more convenient. The Imperial Court’s control of the land would become more evident and easier to manage.

Due to such matters, Ouyang Shuo felt that removing the Xijiang Governor-General House and moving the Xijiang, Xihai, and Xikang provinces right under the Imperial Court’s rule was more suitable.

Expanding the directly managed regions was another way to control the power of the border Governor-General Houses.

Ouyang Shuo was not willing to establish too many Governor-General regions. He wanted to prevent the development of too many border powers to compete against the Imperial Court. This was especially important because Ouyang Shuo would not be able to personally take charge of things soon.

Increasing the consolidation of the Empire’s power and establishing the authority of the Imperial Court was necessary.

In the future, the Beijiang Governor-General House would be removed when necessary.

Large portions of the Xijiang Governor-General House were moved over to the new West Asia Governor-General House. For example, Secretary-General Fu Bi would become the West Asia Secretary-General to help with the transition.

Of course, to calm down the old Persia powers, a few old officials were appointed.

Based on the plan, the West Asia Governor-General House would have four provinces. There would be two really important ones, the Persia Province and the Central Asia Province, which were the core parts of the Persian Empire.

Original Hedong Provincial Governor Su Wei would become the Persia Provincial Governor. Meanwhile, Chuanbei Provincial Governor Song Wen would be moved to Central Asia. The remaining two Provincial Governors were promoted from old Persian Empire officials.

These arrangements were similar to how they handled the South Asia Governor-General House. Ouyang Shuo arranged the officials he could trust to take charge of the core provinces while giving the border provinces to local officials.

Foreseeably, the treatment of the Persia officials was going to be a complicated job. Cabinet assistant Kou Zhun would proceed over and spend a month there to help them smoothen the appointment matters.

In the future, the Imperial Court would set up an official Governor-General communication system.

The goal would be to prevent officials from working at a place for too long. Additionally, it was to make use of the officials working in different places to promote cultural and racial merger.

Only with fresh running water could the Empire proceed forward.

Chapter 1350 - Railroad soldier

Chapter 1350: TWO Chapter 1350-Railroad soldier

Ouyang Shuo hurriedly met with the Cabinet to settle the structure of the West Asia Governor-General House. As for the remaining complicated matters, the Cabinet would naturally deal with it; he did not have the time to handle those things.

Next, Ouyang Shuo held the relevant military organizations discussions with the Privy Court.

This was not a simple matter.

Similar to the South Asia warzone, based on the plan, the West Asia warzone’s base would go from the already removed Xijiang Governor-General region to the West Asia Governor-General House region. They would be in charge of the safety of West Asia.

As for the newly established West Asia Governor-General House, its north would be connected to the Caesar Dynasty and northeast with the Romanov Dynasty. It was Great Xia’s frontline for both attacking and defending against Europe.

Its strategic importance was massive.

Furthermore, since the internal situation of the West Asia Governor-General House was really complicated, containing many unstable elements, two legion corps were definitely not enough to handle everything.

To strengthen their authority in the region, Ouyang Shuo decided to form a proper army out of the four South Asia legion corps. It would be known as the Central Asia legion corps, which would defend the Central Asia region.

The City Protection legion corps 5th legion Legion General Lin Yi would be promoted to the position of marshal.

The defensive duties of Xijiang would be left to the Xijiang construction formation and the Xikang construction formation.

Ouyang Shuo also had a plan for the one million Persian troops. He would first disarm 400 thousand of them and throw them into locks construction. They would act as a source of strong labor.

This move would also help to buy the hearts of the people.

Not everyone wanted to join the army, especially in such a day and age. As long as one headed to the battlefield, one’s survival would become uncertain.

Apart from the elite troops, many basic soldiers wished to retire.

Ouyang Shuo’s move was giving the people what they wanted.

Furthermore, the Persia army possessed limited fighting strength, so making them into a proper army would weaken the strength of Great Xia.

Truthfully, they were not good enough.

The 600 thousand would change occupations and become railroad soldiers. They would be in charge of the Empire’s railroad construction. One out of the remaining three South Asia legion corps would also become railroad soldiers.

This newly formed soldier type jumped up to 850 thousand in number right away.

For the Empire to unify West Asia and the Africa Governor-General House, the core requirement would be the construction of a railroad crossing Asia and Africa to act as the traffic lifeline.

Although the project would be arduous, the splendidness it would produce was foreseeable.

It would definitely shine in the history books after its construction.

Ouyang Shuo even mentioned in a military meeting, “In this era of industrialization, the responsibility and honor of railroad construction is no less than on the battlefield. This is one with no smoke but with casualties like war.”

Building a railroad required blood and tears. They would need to go through all sorts of troubles, open mountain paths, and build bridges over water. They had to be prepared for sacrifices at any time.

Consequently, the potential merits were no less than winning an all-out war.

Such an arduous task was best suited for the railroad army that was made up of soldiers.

In comparison, 850 thousand railroad soldiers was not much. In the future, if he had a chance, Ouyang Shuo was prepared to expand its scale.

Only then could he complete this massive feat in the shortest amount of time possible.

Apart from the Asia Africa railroad, railroads from the core of the Empire to other Governor-General Houses needed to be expanded and built. They would create a complex railroad network covering the major cities.

Railroad construction would reach peak after peak in the next few years.

For this, after receiving Ouyang Shuo’s approval, the Privy Court constructed the railroad soldier headquarters in the imperial capital. The 1st railroad commander was Tiger legion corps 2nd Legion General Hong Ying.

Hong Ying’s identity as a player made it easy for her to command this special group of players.

A matter that needed to be mentioned was although there were 850 thousand railroad soldiers, which was a number comparable to a warzone, the headquarter scale was at the Legion General headquarters level.

Naturally, the railroad commander would be on the same level as a marshal.

In the future, once the Empire’s railroad construction came to an end, these railroad soldiers would become railroad construction workers. Hence, their headquarters was only a transitional object.

Of course, during this period of time, its status was still really important. If Hong Ying performed well, her position in the Great Xia Army would not be lower than a marshal’s in the future.

Considering the need for professionals, the iron railroad soldier headquarters would also hire a number of technical professionals from the populace.

All in all, this was a massive and meaningful matter.

…

4th month, 28th day.

After receiving the order from the Imperial Court, the 1st and 2nd South Asia legion corps started to gather at the Arab Empire border. They were ready to use actual action to put pressure onto the Arab Empire.

When the Arab King head the news, he had a sleepless night, tossing and turning in his bed.

The Persian Empire was forced to surrender; this was a huge nightmare to the Arab King. The strong Persian Empire only lasted for a month and a half before Great Xia.

If war between them began, how long could the Arab Empire last for?

If Great Xia’s Africa warzone attacked too, they could form an east and west pincer. With just the number of troops involved, the Arab Empire would not be able to last for two months, and it was possible for them to fall much earlier.

He could not win if they fought, but he was not willing to surrender.

He was hesitating, basically counting the days he could live.

The problem was that there was not much time left for him to hesitate.

…

Some people hesitated but many did not.

For example, Ottoman King Manstein decisively agreed to returning the 120 thousand House of Tudor troops without putting up any needless struggles.

Currently, they were at a crucial moment in their war against the Romanov Dynasty. Manstein was not willing to make Great Xia their enemy now, so he could only swallow this defeat.

The good that came out of this would be Great Xia promising to not attack the Ottoman Dynasty in exchange for the 120 thousand House of Tudor army.

Of course, this promise was limited to the 10th year of Gaia.

Even then, Manstein still felt that it was worth it.

This was Ouyang Shuo’s reward to Manstein for knowing his place. Anyways, Great Xia did not have any plans to attack Europe’s mainland.

Ouyang Shuo knew that Europe was a hornet’s nest and should not be easily poked.

With its deep foundations, the Europe continent was not something that could be conquered with pure force. When these dynasties were faced with an external threat, they would swiftly huddle together to deal with the outside force.

This was not something that Ouyang Shuo wanted.

As for the House of Tudor, it had swam outside of the Europe system, which gave Great Xia the chance to strike. If not, they would not have gotten what they wished so easily.

Ouyang Shuo clearly recognized this point.

After redeeming them, Great Xia formed the North Europe legion corps from the elites of the 120 thousand House of Tudor troops and the remaining soldiers.

As the name suggests, their main battlefield would be North Europe.

Their main goal would be to attack Iceland and Greenland with help from the Atlantic Squadron.

These islands were the bridge for the Empire to attack the Arctic.

Apart from that, constructing the North Europe legion corps strengthened the power of the House of Tudor Jiedushi.

Even with Great Xia as a shield, Ouyang Shuo did not believe that just the 250 thousand strong West Europe army could save the House of Tudor Province.

Who knows what thoughts the European dynasties would have?

Original Imperial Palace Guards 2nd Legion General Han Qinhu was promoted to marshal. The vacancy he left behind would be filled in by his deputy, Jianqi Leiyin.

At this point, out of the five Legion General spots in the Imperial Palace legion corps, three were players.

Chapter 1351 - Ten year agreement

Chapter 1351: TWO Chapter 1351-Ten year agreement

In the blink of an eye, the 5th month arrived.

A month remained till the squadron arrived at the resource planet.

5th month, 4th day, Imperial Capital, emperor palace.

Summer had arrived, and it was all green within the Imperial Garden. Pleasant scents wafted everywhere. Occasionally, birds would chirp, deer would jump around, and carps would leap from the pond, creating a prosperous image.

Such an immersive atmosphere.

In the pavilion at a corner of the lake, the surrounding surveillance was heavy. The Great Xia imperial dynasty’s most respectable emperor, Ouyang Shuo, was currently laughing with a few officials, engaging in merry conversation.

Such a scene was rare.

On the outside, these officials were all pillars of the dynasty.

They were Nanjiang Governor-General Bai Hua, South Asia Governor-General Feng Qiuhuang, West Asia Governor-General Gong Chengshi, Africa Governor-General Mulan Yue, and America Governor-General Wufu.

These five people were the five Governor-Generals of the Empire’s border land. Their fame had spread far and wide. Moreover, they were once members of Shanhai Alliance and were close friends of the emperor.

The friendship between them had lasted for ten years already.

A week ago, the Imperial Court’s primary Grade 3 rank members, the six Governor-Generals, the Jiedushi, and the 22 Provincial Governors in China had received the decree to enter the imperial capital for a court assembly.

On the military’s side, the eight warzone commanders and three Fleet Admirals were all summoned.

At this juncture, everyone knew what was going to happen when his majesty summoned them all to the capital. Hence, everyone arranged their work and hurried back.

The civil servants and generals of the Empire gathered together.

Before the court assembly, Ouyang Shuo met some of officials alone, setting the foundations for the biggest revolution that was about to hit Great Xia.

The conversation with these five was the final and most crucial one.

During these few years, Ouyang Shuo was not the only one of them who had started a family. Wufu had married and had a son, and it was the same for Gong Chengshi. Along with their families, a powerful unit slowly formed around them.

They were new members to the noble circle of the Empire and could not be underestimated.

Once Ouyang Shuo left, the attitude of these five toward the Empire was really important. It would relate to the Empire’s ability to maintain its huge scale and even grow bigger.

If they did not cooperate, this matter would be hard to achieve.

Within the pavilion, Ouyang Shuo who was sitting at the lead position placed down his wine glass. Looking at his five friends, he said emotionally, “Time has passed so quickly. In the blink of an eye, ten years have passed.”

Ten years had flashed by. All of them had lost their youths and grown old due to worldly matters.

So many changes!

Bai Hua and the others nodded their heads emotionally, their faces showing signs of drunkenness. It seems like they were reminiscing the past 10 years and the many stories within.

Sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy; none of these flavors were lacking.

Apart from during special occasions or feasts, Ouyang Shuo rarely drank wine and basically only drank tea for the past few years. Today, he made an exception; he was planning to open up with the few of them.

Otherwise, he would not be at ease.

“Seeing the children grow up, I’ve also grown old.” Ouyang Shuo smiled widely.

His words were not totally pretentious or probing. After all, in his eyes, Bing’er was a child he had raised. Seeing that he was about to help her to the throne, he felt incredibly emotional.

As for Yu’er and Luo’er, they were still five-years-old and were far from growing up.

When Wufu heard that, he smiled and said, “Your majesty is at your liveliest and strongest time.” They were used to such words.

Even Bai Hua and the others did not think anything of that.

Time had still drawn an invisible line between them, defining their relationship.

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand and asked seemingly casually, “In the 6th month, I’ll lead a team to explore Planet Hope. What plans do you all have?”

Quiet.

Total silence.

At that moment, it was like the air had frozen, making it difficult for one to breathe.

Beneath the emperor’s calm voice was an irresistible strength. Even the five of them who possessed such high positions could not help but shiver as they tried to understand the deep meaning within those words.

This was a choice but more so a life or death question.

Many historical examples appeared like lightning in their brains.

Their suspicions were not surprising. Before the court assembly, there were rumors that the emperor was going to clean things to send the Chu Queen up to the throne.

Weren’t the five of them the biggest obstacles?

Some of them were unafraid like Bai Hua, who directly replied, “I also want to go.” Her expression was confident, and her attitude was sincere. Obviously, these words came from her heart.

“Yes, we will follow your majesty.”

Gong Chengshi and the other expressed. They were afraid that Ouyang Shuo would misunderstand.

Ouyang Shuo smiled but his face revealed nothing as he said, “Forget it, all of you just stay in the game world and help me defend Great Xia. Planet Hope matters temporarily do not need you.”

When they heard that, some of them sighed in relief but others were unhappy.

“I insist on going.” said Bai Hua with a stubborn expression.

Warmth appeared in Ouyang Shuo’s eyes as he said patiently, “For this trip to Planet Hope, I cannot bring too many people. Compared to Planet Hope, the game world needs you all more.”

They could not make too much noise when they built the frontline base.

Unbeknownst to outsiders, the satellites in space had tracked the fire dragon and the titan after Hope City’s destruction.

Their conclusion was that these top beasts would not easily attack. If it were not Hope City developing to a scale that threatened their survival, it would not face such a catastrophe.

Developing quietly was the basic strategy that Ouyang Shuo had decided upon.

Of course, the threat would always be there. No matter how low-profile they were, they could not hide from this danger.

What they had to face would come eventually.

“I can only be at ease with all of you here. You all can be considered Bing’er’s brothers and sisters. Assist her, for only then can she gain a stable footing.”

“Thank you, your majesty, for your trust!” Wufu and the others expressed.

Only Bai Hua’s expression remained stubborn.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he sighed and said, “How about this? Let’s decide on a deadline.”

“Ten years.”

“We used ten years to build a super empire. I hope that all of you can help support her for 10 years, running the five Governor-General regions well to merge perfectly with the core region as one.”

“When we do not need to have Governor-General regions, it will be the day that all of you come to Planet Hope to help me on it.”

“How about that?”

Bai Hua and the others exchanged glances before solemnly nodding their heads.

Ten years.

A whole new beginning.

Unbeknownst to them, this ten year promise would become the cornerstone for Great Xia’s prosperity and would help them to fight against storm after storm.

A historian called Tang Pei wrote in the records of Xia, “The ten year promise from the emperor was even more powerful than using wine to remove military generals from power, founding a whole new merit execution model.”

A whole new chapter in the Empire’s history began at this point.

…

Next day, emperor palace, main hall.

Just as the sky turned bright, all the officials invited woke up early, changing before solemnly attending the heaven worshipping ceremony.

On the square, the officials were standing in groups of twos and threes and talking to one another, waiting for the palace doors to open.

“Tingyu, over here.”

Cabinet Grand Secretary Jiang Shang called over Administration deputy minister and Official Ruling Department director Zhang Tingyu to his side to talk.

Such a scene was really eye-catching.

The Imperial Court official field paid a lot of attention to rank. Officials that were different in rank rarely hung out in the same circle. For example, although the officials seemed to be standing in unorderly positions, there were actually orders.

Apart from the separation between the civil servants and the generals, on the civil servant side, the six elders were together, and the others officials also had their own groups. The six Governor-Generals were together, and the Provincial Governors were together.

There were also Imperial Court officials standing with their familiar Provincial Governors as their ranks were similar.

Basically, no one would jump out of this structure.

Zhang Tingyu was a secondary Grade 2 official. Hence, Jiang Shang calling him over had much meaning. All of a sudden, many eyes turned toward their direction.

They looked like they were casually talking, but the corner of their eyes were focusing on the pair.

After all, at such a special place, any unusual thing could hold a deep message.

As important officials of the Empire, they obviously would not do nothing.

A flash of worry even appeared in the eyes of some of the officials; they had a few guesses.

They also thought back to his other position apart from being the deputy minister of administration. He was also the Chu Queen’s imperial tutor. Since her taking over was confirmed, his status would naturally rise given his identity as her tutor.

Being promoted was natural.

Thinking about this, some of the officials were envious and regretted being unable to obtain such a position. Speaking of which, who would have expected the young princess to jump up to become the successor of the Empire?

Although they became the focus, Zhang Tingyu was really calm and did not show any unusual points. He respectfully walked over to greet the various elders.

In history, Zhang Tingyu was also a part of the Cabinet. Naturally, he would not be afraid of the occasion.

Just as things were heating up, the palace gates opened.

The officials stopped chatting. Following the order of civil servants on the left and generals on the right, they orderly entered the main hall for the court assembly.

“His majesty arrives!”

Another half an hour had passed. Only then did Ouyang Shuo slowly walk in. His head was adorned with his crown, and he wore dragon robes. He stood in front of the throne.

Chu Queen Bing’er’s followed behind him, expressionless. Only the fists hidden in her long sleeves revealed her nervousness.

Ouyang Bing was clear what this court assembly meant to her.

After entering the main hall, Ouyang Bing stood at the side of the civil servants. Her position was even in front of Jiang Shang.

This was not going against the system.

Although Jiang Shang was a primary Grade 1 Grand Secretary, Ouyang Bing was the Chu Queen and also primary Grade 1. Furthermore, she was the princess of the royal family, so her status was naturally higher than Jiang Shang’s.

Chapter 1352 - Backbone of the exploration team

Chapter 1352: TWO Chapter 1352-Backbone of the exploration team

“Greetings, your majesty!”

The officials all bowed in an orderly manner.

The court assembly was of the highest order and was the strictest meeting of the year. It would only be held once per year. Every time, it would be to announce really important matters to the Empire.

As such, no one dared to behave inappropriately at such an occasion.

The moment the Censorate official discovered someone acting up, they would be immediately punished. A light punishment was a fine, while a heavy one would be demotion.

After which, Ouyang Shuo sat on the dragon throne.

“I summoned all of you here because I have things to announce.” For the things that needed to be said, Ouyang Shuo had already talked to the ministers alone. The current court assembly was just a brief.

Ouyang Shuo did not say more, directly ordering Bai Nanpu to announce the decree.

Bai Nanpi understood. He stood still at the right corner of the front. Behind him was a court lady holding a tray with a stack of papers on it. Obviously, he had more than one decree to announce.

He took up the first one, slowly opened it, and sang, “Chu Queen, receive the decree!”

When she heard that, Bing’er slowly walked to the front and respectfully bowed.

Looking at the slowly bowing girl, Ouyang Shuo gave her a look of encouragement expression that contained happiness, excitement, and other complicated expressions.

This was a historical moment for the Empire.

“The emperor decrees as such: he is about to go on a journey, but the Empire cannot be without a ruler. While he is gone, Chu Queen Ouyang Bing will take over to manage the Empire’s matters and will inherit the Empire’s orthodoxy.”

After taking over, she would place down all her current positions except her role as the Jingji warzone commander, the 1st commander of the warzone.

Ouyang Shuo would continue to be the honorary commander of the Jingji warzone.

This was to ensure the smoothness of her rule.

After Bing’er backed down, Bai Nanpu continued, “Africa Governor-General Mulan Yue, receive the decree!”

Mulan Yue walked up.

“The emperor decrees as such: Africa Governor-General Mulan Yue, as a meritorious official of the empire, upgraded to queen, awarding her the title of Mulan Queen; thus title can be passed down to later generations!”

After Bai Nanpu read that, the Imperial Court clamored slightly.

Before this, not to mention the officials, but even Mulan Yue herself did not know that the emperor would make her a queen, much less a hereditary one.

The significance of this was simply shocking.

Before this, Great Xia had seven kings and queens, but the only one with power was Ouyang Bing.

Without a doubt, Mulan Yue was the first queen outside of the family.

Seeing that she was stunned, Ouyang Shuo smiled and said, “Minister Mulan, you deserve this. I’ve said before that the Empire will not forget meritorious officials; accept it!”

Mulan Yue respectfully walked up.

Following which, Bai Hua, Feng Qihuang, Gong Chengshi, and Wufu were all given queen or king titles. The titles of their ranks were named after their old territory.

For example, Bai Hua became the Consonance Queen.

Based on the system, names like Chu Queen and Qin King were Grade 1. On the other hand, the titles of Mulan Queen and Consonance Queen were secondary Grade 1 titles.

Even so, it was a great show of kindness from the emperor.

This arrangement was to calm them down and to remind them not to forget their roots. They must not forget who promoted them from a small Lord to their current position.

The imperial decree continued.

As expected, Zhang Tingyu entered the Cabinet and became an assistant.

Not only that, but he even took over Kou Zhun’s position, becoming the personnel warzone manager. Now, his position was only lower than the Grand Secretary’s.

Zhang Tingyu was previously the director of the Official Ruling Department. As such, him entering and managing personnel did not pose any problems.

Without a doubt, he was one of the people Ouyang Shuo had selected to help Ouyang Bing. He would be the official in the Cabinet that Bing’er relied on the most.

Apart from that, the Cabinet also received a series of adjustments.

Cabinet Grand Secretary Jiang Shang and assistant Zhang Liang were removed. They would no longer hold any role in the Imperial Court.

Obviously, they would follow Ouyang Shuo to Planet Hope.

Kou Zhun would be promoted to Grand Secretary.

The vacancy in the Administrative Mentor Court left behind by Zhang Liang would be filled by special consultant Old Chen. Regardless of the plans he had, they would not be able to find out unless he was placed in an important position.

Putting him in charge of the Administrative Mentor Court also had a practical meaning, which was Jia Xu’s removal from his post. Advisor Ju Shou would be promoted to Chief Secretary.

Consequently, the Administrative Mentor Court would receive a huge injection of new blood.

Ouyang Shuo had set a simple principle: anyone chosen for the Planet Hope expedition could not hold a position in the Empire, as that would cause chaos on both sides.

The only person that could influence both worlds would be Ouyang Shuo.

In the future, when Ouyang Shuo moved a batch of talents from the game world out to Planet Hope, the Great Xia Empire would have a number of vacancies for newbies to be promoted into.

This would form a positive cycle, which solved the official promotion bottleneck problem.

Killing two birds with one stone.

In the end, the Great Xia in the game world was a talent production base for Planet Hope.

Apart from the Cabinet, a batch of officials were removed and added to the list of people that would go to Planet Hope.

The two most powerful ones of the bunch were Internal Affairs Minister Wei Yang and Financial minister Fan Li. Their successors were their respective deputies, Di Renjie and Cui Yingyu. They transition steadily.

As for Xiao He and Du Ruhui, they would continue to defend Great Xia.

The exploration of Planet Hope would be like the 1st year of Gaia. They would begin from the smallest village. Naturally, there was no need for him to bring too many famous ministers.

It would be a waste of their talents, as too many of them together might not be able to handle the basic matters properly. Hence, the main force consisted of basic officials in charge of basic matters.

After round after round of evaluation and selection, all those chosen were loyal to the Empire and to Ouyang Shuo. Furthermore, they were all exceptions talents.

If they were not, Ouyang Shuo would not waste so much to instantiate all of them.

Out of the eight warzone commanders, Ouyang Shuo only selected two to bring with him. One was Baiqi and the other was Han Xin.

The Africa warzone commander position left behind by Baiqi would be taken over by Meng Tian. Meng Tian was also from Qin like Baiqi, so it could be called a passing on of the torch.

Furthermore, Meng Tian was also a God General and could support the Africa warzone.

The marshal of the Wolf legion corps would be Luo Shixin from the 4th legion of the Dragon legion corps. He had served in the Dragon legion corps for a long time and had learned a lot from Baiqi. As a result, he was a good choice for leading the Wolf legion corps.

The America warzone commander position left behind by Han Xin would be taken over by Imperial Palace Guard marshal Xu Da. He was a God General, and it would not be a problem for him to take charge of the America warzone.

Deputy marshal Xie Siyun would be promoted to marshal of the Imperial Palace Guards.

Apart from Baiqi and Han Xin, Ouyang Shuo selected four more generals to proceed together with him to Planet Hope. The reason for this was simple; they would be the force to go against the top beasts.

The four were South Asia warzone legion corps marshal Ran Min, Martial Management Division commander Er’Lai, North America legion corps marshal Xue Rengui, and North Africa legion corps marshal Chang Yuchun.

The positions they left behind were filled in by Wei Zhang, Lin Jing, Cao Hong, and Pei Xingyan respectively.

Chapter 1353 - Great Xia spaceship

Chapter 1353: TWO Chapter 1353-Great Xia spaceship

After many twists and turns, Lin Jing still jumped out of the Imperial Palace Guards system to take charge of the Martial Management Division.

Ought Shuo had his reason behind such an arrangement.

First, along with Xie Siyun taking charge of the Imperial Palace Guards, Lin Jing continuing to stay there might lead to suspicion. It did not match with the rules the Imperial Court had set for the Imperial Palace Guards.

Moving Lin Jing away was a result of circumstances.

Secondly, the expanded Martial Management Division had a huge change in status. It was the Empire’s super organization responsible for maintaining the safety of the underworld.

Li Jing managing the Martial Management Division was also good for Bing’er’s rule.

As for the other three generals promoted to marshal, it followed normal promotions, opening up the Legion General promotion to marshal channel. These promotions allowed the other generals to see hope.

Apart from the six chosen generals, only five thousand people would come, including one thousand Divine Martial Guards led by Xu Chu and two independent regiments.

The one thousand Divine Martial Guards were all cyborgs, and they were the central pillar of strength for protecting Ouyang Shuo. They also formed the core military strength of this exploration team.

This alone used up 50 million of Ouyang Shuo’s points.

The two independent regiments were led by Baiqi and Han Xin. The scale was not too big, but they could be considered the backbone of the team’s future military.

Only 100 officers in the regiment were cyborgs. Two-third of the soldiers were combat robots and one-third were combat occupation players.

Such a ratio ensured the army’s absolute loyalty.

Apart from the civil servants and generals, Ouyang Shuo made plans for the intel system. Out of the two intel heads, Black Snake Guards Commander Black Snake would follow Ouyang Shuo and proceed to Planet Hope.

With Ouyang Shuo there, Black Snake would not dare to do anything funny.

Without Ouyang Shuo’s supervision, the Black Snake Guards had spent an extended period of time overseas. Ouyang Shuo was worried about whether Bing’er could control this dangerous intel organization or not.

Taking away Black Snake was necessary.

Of course, exploring Planet Hope would require an intel expert like Black Snake to collect the relevant information. They needed to put up complete defenses and preventive measures to prevent the events of Hope City from repeating.

Shanhai Guards commander Shen Buhai would shift over to the position of Black Snake Guards commander.

This arrangement was a type of mutual restriction.

The Shanhai Guard’s new commander would be Shadow Guard Cui Tianqi, making up for the last missing piece.

Cui Tianqi had followed Bing’er since childhood and was extremely loyal to both Ouyang Shuo and her. Him taking charge would be equivalent to a protective talisman for Bing’er.

With that, the Cabinet, the Imperial Palace Guards, the Martial Management Division, and the Shanhai Guards had people Bing’er could trust and rely on, basically solidifying the roots of her rule.

Ouyang Shuo still was not pleased and wished to arrange things a little better.

Such effort even made his wife Song Jia a little jealous.

Amongst the civil servants, Imperial Capital Governor Tian Wenjing was the Qiongzhou Governor and was one of the old officials of her land. He had a relationship with her and could be considered an ally.

Not only that, but Ouyang Shuo also took the chance to promote a batch of Qiongzhou officials to support her.

At this point, this massive adjustment came to an end, and the court assembly concluded. Under the eyes of the core officials, Bing’er started her rule.

A new page in Great Xia’s history was underway.

…

5th month, 5th day, afternoon, Great Xia emperor palace.

Gaia appeared in Ouyang Shuo’s Imperial Reading Room again and directly asked, “Is the name list ready?” She was referring to the list of people from Great Xia going to Planet Hope.

Apart from the officials, generals, basic officials, and troops, a special group was chosen from the Empire’s people. They were the artisans and technical talents that had volunteered in advance.

This group numbered at around 20 thousand people.

A large half were work occupation players and were mainly Chinese.

This left Ouyang Shuo truly touched.

In front of uncertain times, in the face of mankind’s survival, Ouyang Shuo was not the only one that could step up. The combat occupation players from the Imperial Palace Guards and the rest of them were pumped.

This was an arduous journey; willing sacrifice was the basis for mankind’s survival.

“It’s done!”

Ouyang Shuo emailed the list to Gaia. Looking out at the entire game world, Ouyang Shuo was probably the only one with Gaia’s email.

“In these two days, I’ll shift them to the two spaceships. When you go offline, familiarize yourself with the warship. I also have a huge gift for you.” Gaia said.

“Definitely.”

Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to the gift Gaia mentioned.

…

Two days passed by quickly.

During this period, in the face of Great Xia’s pressure, the Arab Empire did not reply. It seemed like they had not made a decision.

Ouyang Shuo was not willing to drag things on any longer, so he ordered the 1st and 2nd legions of the South Asia legion corps to cross the border and officially declare war.

It seemed like spilling blood was the only way for things to proceed.

If time were not of the essence, Ouyang Shuo would not be willing to take such action. However, since the matter could not be delayed, he had to finish things quickly and unify Asia soon.

Meanwhile, Gaia was moving things at god speed. The exploration team was shifted over to the two spaceships. They could breakaway at any time and be on their way.

On the ships, apart from the workers, Gaia prepared a large quantity of resources like engineer robots, scouting satellites, drones, various nutrition injections, and various seeds.

Even some animals from Earth were sent over to the spaceship.

All in all, the resources they needed for the early periods were provided by Gaia. This was much more than what the Lords were given when they started from the village stage.

After all, reality was much more cruel than the game world.

Before his game cabin was shifted over to the spaceship, Ouyang Shuo and his family went offline for a small gathering. Song Jia, Bing’er, Xie Siyun, Lin Jing, Yu’er, and Luo’er were all present.

This could be viewed as his send off.

That night, his wife, Song Jia, forced herself to smile. However, everyone could feel her unwillingness and sadness. Bing’er cried out, acting nothing like a ruling queen.

Yu’er and Luo’er were still young. Seeing their aunt cry, they cried out too.

Even Lin Jing had tears at the corner of her eyes.

The scene that night would be etched into Ouyang Shuo’s mind; it was something that he would never forget for his entire life.

Who knows when he would be able to reunite with them after this. If things went wrong, this goodbye might be forever.

Life had no certainties, and it was the same case for fate and destiny.

5th month, 8th day, when Ouyang Shuo exited the game cabin, he was already on the spaceship named the Great Xia spaceship. Gaia had thoughtfully arranged a single room for him.

Ouyang Shuo was excited to understand this spaceship.

Chapter 1354 - Nuwa

Chapter 1354: TWO Chapter 1354-Nuwa

The Great Xia spaceship itself was a moving castle.

Trestle, meeting room, dining area, dorms, entertainment room, medical rooms, cultivation rooms, storage area, vegetable planting tent, animal husbandry breeding center, and other facilities were all present.

The storage contained all kinds of tools, energy resources, and more.

It was basically self-sufficient.

AIs ran the spaceship. Unless an emergency occurred, it would be unmanned.

The huge gift from Gaia was an AI.

The AI in charge of the Great Xia spaceship had a special history; it was a secondary level AI split from the Gaia mainframe.

Its potential for future development was no less than Gaia itself.

Controlling the spaceship was just one of its basic abilities. Apart from that, it was also connected to Gaia’s network.

Hence, even when the team reached Planet Hope, they could use this AI to log onto Earth Online.

That was amazing!

Before this, the part that worried Ouyang Shuo the most was losing his connection to the game world after arriving on Planet Hope. If that happened, Bing’er would be forced to deal with everything on her own.

That would be a little too tough for her.

Now, things were different. In the future, although Ouyang Shuo would focus his efforts on Planet Hope, he could still log on occasionally to show his face in the imperial capital; that would be enough to warn and scare everyone.

Great Xia’s final problem had totally disappeared.

Ouyang Shuo was eternally grateful about Gaia’s big gift. He would remember it in his heart.

He decided to name this AI Nuwa.

Apart from the aforementioned functions, Nuwa would also be Ouyang Shuo’s greatest assistant in the future. Her importance would even exceed all of the officials.

With her strong storage capacity, calculation ability, and data processing ability, she would easily be able to take over public matters of the base and set up a system similar to Skynet.

This alone could save a lot of resources and labor.

Not only that, but Nuwa could also connect to Gaia’s databases to take Great Xia data and let Ouyang Shuo control the Great Xia Empire from far away.

This AI could accomplish many things; it was impossible to list them all.

…

5th month, 15th day, Arab Empire.

Compared to the determination of Persian Empire, the Arab Empire was worse. The moment the Great Xia Army attacked, the Arab King could not take it, and he surrendered after a week.

The might of Great Xia was actually so terrifying.

A major factor was Ouyang Shuo’s reveal of Nuwa’s presence on the web.

This caused an uproar throughout the world.

Normal players were naturally happy for Ouyang Shuo. At the very least, they could use Nuwa to find out about the frontline base construction status and feel more at ease.

However, to Jack and the other kings, this was a massive nightmare.

“So we did it all for nothing?” Jack was stunned, and his mouth hung agape. He did not expect such a result after all their efforts.

The presence of Nuwa prevented Ouyang Shuo’s journey to Planet Hope from causing any loses to Great Xia.

On the contrary, his expedition helped to greatly gather up military and people’s sentiment, making the overseas people feel closer and more honored to be from Great Xia.

Along the way, the problems that arose from Great Xia’s rapid expansion slowly disappeared.

Great Xia was going to become even stronger.

The part that left Jack feeling uncomfortable was Ouyang Shuo actually establishing an exploration team in such a short time. He had solved the problem of needing two set of teams and had formed a positive connection between the game and real life.

This felt really painful to Jack.

“If I knew that this would happen, I would have taken the gamble myself.” Jack was filled with regret.

Jack’s grandfather had an even deeper worry with regards to all this.

“I have always felt that Gaia was behind all of this. I think we have all been played.” Jack’s grandfather revealed a solemn expression.

Even without mentioning anything else, Nuwa’s presence was unusual.

Even if Jack’s grandfather knew nothing about AIs, he still possessed common sense. Splitting out a top level AI like Nuwa would sure take a lot out of Gaia.

When Gaia revealed the rewards, she did not reveal anything about Nuwa.

“A catastrophe has descended upon the organization.”

The moment Ouyang Shuo successfully built a base on Planet Hope and connected with Gaia on the resource planet, they would basically control the life of mankind.

The power over Planet Hope would totally lie within Ouyang Shuo’s hands.

At that point, the competition in the game world would be pointless. Regardless of how they struggled, it would all end up as a gift to Great Xia.

When Gaia revealed the Planet Hope exploration matter, Silver Hand had a serious internal discussion. They concluded that the success rate was less than 30%.

As a result, they decided to work with Azure Badge to make Ouyang Shuo the scapegoat.

However, Nuwa’s appearance made their calculations no longer persuasive. No one knew if Gaia had prepared any secret weapons for Ouyang Shuo apart from Nuwa.

Proceeding to Planet Hope was not as dangerous as they had thought.

“Dark clouds are towering over us!” The voice of Jack’s grandfather trembled.

This old man had never felt so much fear before.

The issue was that they had no way to resist.

Gaia had already made it clear that they could only arrange one expedition squad, and there were no additional spots. Even if Jack wanted to step out, he did not have the conditions to do so.

As for stopping Ouyang Shuo? That would just be daydreaming.

“Hei, I did not expect to lose to an Ai after scheming for my entire life.” The expression of Jack’s grandfather was extremely ugly.

“Since that’s the case, we cannot continue fighting.” A light appeared in his eyes.

He realized that to Silver Hand and Azure Badge, the only way to turn things around was to work together in the game world and restrict Great Xia.

Only then could they take control of the game world. With that, they would possess the ability to speak on Planet Hope in the future.

Otherwise, their lives would only be controlled by others.

The situation had already become crystal clear. In the game world, the Great Xia Empire’s strength was like a snowball, growing bigger and bigger.

In just two months, Great Xia made two Asian haunts, the Persian and Arab empires, surrender. If this situation continued, Great Xia would unify the world.

“If we do not work together, we will lose everything.” The heart of Jack’s grandfather felt really pained.

However, after a few years of fighting one another, not to mention Silver Hand and Azure Badge working together, even Silver Hand itself was a handful of scattered sand internally.

Working together would not be an easy matter.

Not to mention the whole world working together. The European continent was still embroiled in the flames of war, bitterly struggling. The massive interest dispute could not be stopped so easily.

Chapter 1355 - -Unifying Asia

Chapter 1355: TWO Chapter 1355-Unifying Asia

“Even if this matter is difficult, we must make it work.” Jack’s grandfather was prepared to go all out.

He was not prepared to stop until he achieved results.

Jack’s grandfather believed that the others would not be willing to just watch on as Great Xia dominated the world. As long as they had a common enemy, things would be a lot easier to handle.

From this day on, Silver Hand would start to swiftly act.

A conversation that involved the entire world was arranged under the lead of Jack’s grandfather.

…

If Ouyang Shuo was there, he would reveal a bitter smile.

The predictions of Jack’s grandfather were mostly his own wishes; he had viewed the matter too simply.

First, apart from Nuwa, Gaia did not provide Ouyang Shuo with any sort of secret weapon.

The appearance of Nuwa was also due to a rational evaluation of the dangers of Planet Hope. Only then did it sacrifice itself to separate out an AI.

Not to mention special treatment, but even in terms of resource exchange and instantiating, Gaia had followed the rules.

To gather up the exploration team and the required resources, Ouyang Shuo had basically used up his achievement value, consuming over a 100 million points of it.

Gaia was still the fair old Gaia.

Hence, the risks of going to Planet Hope were basically the same as Silver Hand’s previous prediction.

Ouyang Shuo’s trip was one that required the creation of miracles.

There was also another point. Nuwa was not omnipotent. It was only a support-type AI and could not be like Gaia and instantiate into a true AI.

Currently, it only appeared as a hologram.

Furthermore, Nuwa’s influence on the exploration team would not be all positive; there were negatives as well.

The ability to log into the game world had its pros and cons.

Without mentioning the pros, the foreseeable cons included possibly distracting the members of the team, causing them to be unable to focus on the exploration itself.

Having their families with them in the game world was a source of strength but also a burden.

Next, the officials that were already instantiated. In Great Xia, they were removed and were far away from the Imperial Court; if they were cut off from the game world, their thoughts would disappear as time passed.

Great Xia using new blood to replace the old would not leave behind any problems.

However, if they could appear in the game world at any time, who knows what would happen. For example, some might be unable to give up their power. Maybe they would try to exert dominance in the dark after leaving?

Definitely!

Greed for power was something to be expected.

As this continued, it would form a negative society environment.

Planet Hope and the game world originally had an impregnable wall separating them. However, this matter would blur the boundaries and make the originally simple matters into something much more complicated.

The interests of the two worlds would be connected with one another because of Nuwa.

This was something that Ouyang Shuo did not want to see.

Due to such considerations, the moment Ouyang Shuo obtained the highest permission rights to Nuwa, he ordered a restriction on the game login permission of the exploration team.

Ouyang Shuo decided that before they arrived on Planet Hope, members would only be able to log into the game for three hours a day. The time would be shortened to an hour later.

In the future, it could be shortened even more. For example, the login would be reduced to once a week.

With that, entering the game would only be like a relative visiting holiday.

Not only that, but the actions of the exploration team members would also be monitored. If they crossed the line, their rights to enter the game would be immediately removed.

It was not that Ouyang Shuo was heartless. However, he had to do this to ensure that the exploration team remained on the same page.

This exploration was in and of itself a dangerous matter, and they could not afford to make any mistakes. If Ouyang Shuo was not iron-blooded and firm, he would end up harming the entire team.

He believed that everyone would be able to understand this.

Secondly, Silver Hand could possibly gain a chance to establish a base in the future.

Based on the rules of exchange between the base and the Mother Planet set by Gaia, once the frontline base provided the Mother Planet with enough resources, Gaia would toss out new exploration spots.

After all, the more bases there were, the higher the chances of mankind’s survival there.

In terms of protecting the interests of mankind, Gaia would not be biased.

In the end, destroying Silver Hand and Azure Badge was Ouyang Shuo’s private affair and did not concern Gaia. The battle for power on Planet Hope was also a matter for humanity and had nothing to do with her.

Compared to that, Gaia was more concerned about how to turn the resource planet into a place suitable for AIs to live on to prepare for the splitting up of the two races in the future.

Hence, the worries of Jack’s grandfather were unnecessary; it was just his own thinking.

However, as a side effect, the Arab King no longer put up any unneeded resistance and cleanly surrendered after making a similar conclusion to Jack’s grandfather.

In his eyes, since the game world was destined to get unified and be placed under Great Xia rule, struggling was pointless.

The earlier he submitted, the more rewards he could get.

Anyways, after the Persian Empire was conquered by Great Xia, the Arab Empire’s geography became terrible. Even if they continued to resist, it would be pointless.

In particular, in the battle for the Persian Gulf, the Arab Empire stood no chance of beating Great Xia.

Without the Persian Gulf, even if the Arab Empire did not get occupied by Great Xia, it would still be like a fish out of water. It would be difficult for them to achieve self-sufficiency, and they would be unable to cause any waves.

Why not handover their cities in exchange for a good ending instead?

One had to say that this was a really wise choice.

At this juncture, Ouyang Shuo would give the Arab King a title to buy the hearts of the people and fulfil his bigger strategic goals.

Along with the Arab King’s surrender, Great Xia was only a Siberia region away from unifying Asia.

…

5th month, 18th day, Imperial Capital.

They were about to set off. However, making use of this last bit of time, Ouyang Shuo swiftly settled the plan for the Arab Empire.

The Arab Empire would be split into three provinces that would be listed under the West Asia Governor-General House.

The most core region was directly named the Arab Province. The original Arab King would receive the position of Provincial Governor as his reward for surrendering.

As for the remaining two Provincial Governor spots, one was given to an Arab native official, while the other position was filled by a Prefecture Governor from Great Xia.

The original Arab Empire officials were mostly given appointments.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo did that to calm the people down in the shortest amount of time possible. He wanted to stabilize the West Asia situation.

Of course, he was not so gentle with his treatment of the Arab army.

Chapter 1356 - Grand finale

Chapter 1356: TWO Chapter 1356-Grand finale

The Arab Empire claimed to have 1.5 million troops.

Of course, that was just a number.

Based on the intel from the frontlines, not only did they use backward equipment, they even lacked training and were ill-disciplined. They also lacked actual combat experience and were a weak bunch.

Ouyang Shuo ordered the removal of 500 thousand men, who would be arranged to retire. They would help to make up for the lack of labor in the Arab region. 500 thousand more were made to change jobs to enter the railroad soldier system to help construct railroads for the Empire.

The best 500 thousand were organized into the 1st and 2nd legion corps of the West Asia warzone.

This entire process would probably take one to two months.

At the same time, after the West Asia legion corps moved into the Arab Empire, the 1st and 2nd South Asia legion corps would withdraw from Arab Empire territory.

Their new camp location would be the Caesar Dynasty border.

Considering everything, apart from the three proper legion corps in the West Asia warzone, there were four temporarily formed legion corps in West Asia, totaling at 1.75 million people.

This was a relatively shocking military power.

If Great Xia went all out to attack the Caesar Dynasty, the latter would definitely be unable to take it.

The European situation became uncertain.

…

The Arab Empire surrendering to Great Xia caused the global landscape to shake.

A large-scale global reshuffling was underway.

5th month, 16th day, the day after the Arab Empire surrendered, the Ottoman Dynasty and Romanov Dynasty’s war ended.

The two sides expressed that they would use negotiation as a method to peacefully settle their conflict.

It was easy to see that the bosses of Europe realized that compared to their internal battle, the Great Xia around them had already become a giant beast that was staring intently at them.

At such a moment, if they still fought internally, Great Xia would laugh till all its teeth fell out.

This ceasefire was just a start for the reorganization of the European dynasties.

Especially Silver Hand’s number 1, Jack’s grandfather. The joint meeting he initiated helped to alert all the other dynasties.

All sides started to probe one another and compromise.

Weirdly, for some reason, the alliance meeting did not end in an actual cooperation structure. All sides only expressed that they would pay attention. They did not follow number 1’s suggestion to use the Dawson Dynasty as a core to build a global empire to go against Great Xia.

Caesar and the other kings were not fools.

The Europe war that lasted for two years saw the Silver Hand camp go from the ascendency to great defeat. Although Great Xia had interfered, the Dawson Dynasty’s lack of action could not be overlooked.

The Dawson Dynasty that was the pillar of Silver Hand and was alone outside of Asia and Europe did not provide any actual help to the European battlefield.

On the contrary, it did not help because it was working to unify North America.

In Caesar’s words, “The truth is already in front of all of us. Compared to the overall interests of the organization, personal interests are more important to Dawson.”

Under such circumstances, who would agree with the Dawson Dynasty’s proposal of building a global empire with them at the core?

None of them were fools!

Only when one contributed would one receive returns.

The Dawson Dynasty did not take up the corresponding responsibility but wanted to reap the biggest profits, how could that be possible?

On the contrary, Manstein’s suggestion tempted Caesar and Pushkin.

After the meeting ended, the three European pillars bumped heads and had a secret meeting to discuss the future of Europe.

The motto they shouted out was, “Europe belongs to Europeans!”

They were planning to work together to kick away the Dawson Dynasty, whose reputation had fallen to the ground, to create a brand new European continent.

This was a really smart plan.

…

Gaia 10th year, 5th month, 20th day, a piece of news exploded out through the world.

The Ottoman Dynasty, Romanov Dynasty, and Caesar Dynasty made a joint statement. They would join together and form a Super dynasty – the Europa Empire.

Ottoman King Manstein would be the Europa Empire emperor. Caesar and Pushkin would possess the authority of kings and would become the two pillars of the Empire.

The moment the Europa Empire was established, it upgraded to become the world’s third Emperor Dynasty, taking the European continent for itself.

Following which, 5th month, 21st day, Africa’s Bantu Dynasty announced its submission to the Europa Empire. The Bantu King would become the third king of the Empire.

It was easy to see that because they formed the Empire in a rush, the internal relationships were not totally decided. The running system of the Europa Empire was similar to the already destroyed Great Zhou, having signs of an enfeoffment system.

This was a miraculous match with Europe in history.

With that, the Europa Empire jumped to become a super empire crossing Africa, Asia, and Europe. Its overall strength exceeded the Dawson Dynasty’s, becoming the second empire only beneath Great Xia.

Not only that, but the Europa Empire was a new dynasty that went beyond the control of Silver Hand and Azure Badge. It was the first merger between the two organizations.

In a traditional sense, Silver Hand and Azure Badge had withered away and would dissipate; a new camp model with dynasties at its core replaced them.

The global landscape would welcome a new super reshuffling, resulting in one super strong and two strong empires.

The Great Xia Empire was naturally the supreme overlord, a global giant worthy of its name. On the other hand, the Europa Empire and the Dawson Dynasty were strong in Europe and North America respectively.

The Darkness empire was located at a secluded corner and did not have any room for expansion.

As for the Indian Empire, it was barely breathing in the global landscape. Whether it could continue to survive or how long it could survive for would depend on Great Xia’s attitude.

In the global landscape, the only contestable land would be Central Africa.

The Great Xia Empire, the Europa Empire, and the Dawson Dynasty each owned large amounts of land in Africa. Congo in Central Africa was the only contestable land, and it was the buffer zone between the three empires.

The future wars would be even more turbulent.

…

In the blink of an eye, it was already the 6th month.

6th month, 3rd day, 10 am, the intergalactic squadron smoothly arrived in the space outside of the resource planet.

Hence, the time to separate had arrived.

Ouyang Shuo did not give a riling goodbye speech or hold a grand ceremony. That afternoon, he quietly ordered the Great Xia spaceship and the China spaceship to break away from the main group and head toward an unknown path.

These two spaceships disappeared into the vast space under the eyes of the players across the entire world.

A new page in humanity’s history was being written.

…

After setting off, the exploration team, including Ouyang Shuo, rarely appeared in the game world. They spent all their time on the spaceship to discuss specific exploration plans.

After the exploration team left, the game world became really cold with very few waves and ripples.

That was obviously a false image.

In the road to conquest, fights were endless and would never stop.

Gaia 10th year, 9th month. After four months of management, Great Xia’s organization of West Asia officially came to an end. The wounds from war had slowly healed up.

Along with many merchants swarming in, the West Asia Governor-General House welcomed unprecedented level of prosperity.

The mining of oil resources in the Persian Gulf were listed into the empire’s plan and would become the new engine behind the Empire’s industrialization. It would bring them to new heights.

After stabilizing West Asia, opening up the Asia-European path had risen up the priority list. The Empire did not mind pumping in huge amounts of resources to complete this land traffic miracle construction within two to three years.

The six squadrons of the Empire had completed their change of equipment, taking full control of the world’s oceans.

Ocean trading numbers were reaching new records every day.

Along with the Great Xia currency becoming the global currency, Great Xia was slowly becoming the rule maker of global trade rules as well as the engine of the global economy.

In pArcticular, the China region became the economic center of the world.

The Great Xia Bank was proceeding toward their target of being the bank of the world.

The road to industrialization on the shoreline cities was soaring quickly. New technologies were created daily, and many different products were released. The Great Xia Empire was evolving from an agriculture empire into an industrialization empire.

The Asia-Europe-Africa railroad being constructed would help to connect the entirety of Asia, Europe, and Africa into one, opening up a water Silk Road.

With the help from both the land and the sea, the distance between the Empire’s mainland and overseas territory became shorter and shorter.

In comparison, the Dawson Dynasty that occupied North America did not have ocean authority in their last lives, and they did not have overseas allies or crucial overseas territory either. Even their basic overseas trade depended on Great Xia.

As such, the Dawson Dynasty’s influence in the world was falling by the day.

If this continued, the Dawson Dynasty would walk the same path as the Darkness empire and become ostracized in the future, walking at the edges of the main current of the world.

In the future, the Asia, Europe, and Africa giant continent would be the true center of the world.

Beneath the global prosperity, the darkness of war had not faded completely.

9th month, 1st day, basically without any prior signs, the Great Xia Empire suddenly declared war on the Europa Empire.

The moment news of this came out, the world was shocked.

The moment the top empire declared war on the second greatest empire, a world war would ensue.

Normal civilians did not know what to do; they were all terrified.

The Great Xia Army was mobilized.

The North Asia legion corps, Great Xia Phoenix legion corps, and Beijiang legion corps were mobilized under the leadership of warzone commander Li Mu. They crossed the north border and charged into the Siberia Region.

In the Middle East, the 1st and 2nd legion corps of the South Asia legion corps, the 1st and 2nd West Asia legion corps, and even the Bear legion corps under the West Asia warzone moved toward the European border.

Looking at the situation, a huge storm was heading directly toward the newly formed Europa Empire.

Not only that, but in Africa, the North Africa legion corps under the Africa warzone moved toward West Africa under the Europa Empire, seemingly ready to attack.

In Europe, the West and North Europe legion corps under the House of Tudor Jiedushi also eagerly prepared for war.

On the seas, the Mediterranean Squadron and the Atlantic Squadron were increasing their patrol of crucial naval routes, purposely locking down the entire exit route of the Europa Empire.

The war situation was started right at the trigger.

This made the newly formed Europa Empire really nervous.

After only four months of meshing together, although the Europa Empire had passed its most dangerous period, many internal matters were not totally cleaned out.

After all, how could it be easy for the two camps to merge together?

In pArcticular, to the Ottoman Dynasty people in the core region, the Spanish, French, Italians, and Russians were enemies; a blood hatred existed between them.

One must know that the two years of war had halved the number of Ottoman civilians.

Facing the all-out attack of Great Xia, the Europa Empire was not enough confidence to dare to wage war; they were afraid of dragging the entire empire into the mires of war.

As for the Dawson Dynasty, it was happy to just be a bystander.

The formation of the Europa Empire meant that the Dawson Dynasty was cut out of the Europe system. It hurt Jack greatly, leaving him even more furious than when Great Xia bested them.

At such a time, it would be good enough if Jack did not butt in. Why would he try to help them out?

Once the two empires started an all-out war, one or two days would not be enough to reach a conclusion. If it were short, it would take one to two years, and it could even last for several years.

This was the best chance for the Dawson Dynasty to rise up once more.

Jack could not understand why Great Xia would get hot-headed and choose such a time to suddenly declare war on the Europa Empire. Jack thought. ‘Still so young, so rash.’

Jack looked down on the queen in power.

There were rumors that Great Xia declared war now because of this queen. The goal was to use a seismic battle to confirm the prestige and authority of Great Xia.

…

9th month, 5th day, the Europa Empire panicked and sent an envoy with Caesar at the head to the imperial city to try to mediate the conflict between the two sides.

They were really worried that Great Xia’s queen was being young and rash and truly did not mind starting an all-out war.

Hence, the Europa Empire hoped to use negotiations to stop the war from happening.

At the start, Great Xia’s attitude was really firm; they showed a no negotiation attitude, wanting to meet on the battlefield to settle the score. As a result, Caesar and the others panicked, and he stayed uneasily in the imperial capital.

To alleviate the conflict, Caesar thought of one person. It was the former Federation President and current head advisor of the Great Xia Administrative Mentor Court. Caesar thought about asking him to help out.

Old Chen was the core consultant of the queen; he had the rights to speak.

Old Chen, who cared about old friends, once again acted as the persuader. In the end, he managed to convince the Great Xia queen to agree to start negotiations.

Even then, the Great Xia side was menacing.

Honglu Temple head Zhang Yi represented the Imperial Court to raise two conditions to the Europa Empire- give up West Africa and the Siberia region.

When Caesar heard that, his brows furrowed. Great Xia was truly greedy.

In terms of land mass, the two regions Great Xia requested took up more than half of the Europa Empire. Siberia alone was bigger than the entire European continent.

Of course, Siberia had vast land but little people, but its strategic value was much greater than its practical value.

A point that could not be neglected was the oil resources of Siberia. It was the core engine supporting the Europa Empire’s industrialization; this was the hardest thing for the Europa Empire to give up.

As for West Africa, it was the Europa Empire’s important support point in Africa.

If they handed it over, their influence in Africa would wane drastically, resulting in Great Xia being the sole boss of the area. In the future, they would probably fail to even keep South Africa.

Hence, the Europa Empire had no reason to give up either region.

Caesar could not make a decision, so he could only seek advice from the Empire.

In the next week, the representatives of both sides began arduous negotiations. Meanwhile, Great Xia did not stop their advance and behaved aggressively on the battlefield.

In North Asia, the Phoenix legion corps proceeded up the Ural Mountains.

The Ural Mountains were the separating line between Asia and Europe, located between the east European plains and the Siberian plains. The intentions behind the Phoenix legion corps entering the Ural Mountains was obvious – they wanted to cut up the Siberia region.

On the contrary, as a result of the European war prior to this, they had close to zero troops in Siberia. Previously, to attack the Ottoman Dynasty, the Romanov army was gathered in the east European plains.

This situation of few troops in Siberia occurred after the game map was reset.

Before this, in the 10 times expanded Siberia, not to mention defending, but even communication was a problem.

This gave the Great Xia Army a chance.

The Great Xia Army’s advance pushed the Europa Empire onto the back foot.

9th month, 15th day, Great Xia’s South Asia 1st and 2nd legion corps entered the original Caesar Dynasty area to directly attack the Europa Empire’s core land.

The West Asia 1st and 2nd legion corps were running around at the border.

Looking at the situation, Great Xia was determined to get what they wanted; before doing so, they would not stop.

All of a sudden, the Europa Empire faced a never seen before crisis.

At the crucial juncture, after doing an all-round evaluation of the war, the Europa Empire finally compromised, deciding to give up the Siberia Region in exchange for peace.

Manstein was sharp. He knew that Great Xia’s true goal was to take down Siberia to unify Asia.

As for West Africa, it was just a subitem to increase their negotiation chips.

If they truly wanted West Africa, Great Xia could have made use of the chaos in Europe last year to send troops to take it down rather than wait till now.

As expected, Great Xia agreed to the Europa Empire’s conditions.

10th month, 1st day, both sides officially signed the Ural agreement. The Europa Empire was willing to give up the Siberia Region in exchange for a five year promise of Great Xia not using force against them.

The moment this agreement came into effect, the European continent would welcome a period of peace.

In the next five years, trade cooperation and culture exchange would replace war and become the main thing of Asia, Europe, and Africa and even the entire world.

The world of peace that everyone had hoped for finally descended.

As long as Great Xia and the Europa Empire maintained their composure and did not start up war, the Dawson Dynasty and the Darkness empire would not dare to have any funny thoughts.

When Jack heard the news, he felt lost.

It was then he realized that he had belittled the Great Xia Queen.

From start to finish, Great Xia’s performance was just to take down Siberia and unify Asia. They had never intended to start an all-out war. Hence, Jack had been happy for nothing.

The compromise between the Europa Empire and Great Xia also showed clearly that the control of the world was in the hands of these two empires.

The Dawson Dynasty’s situation of being ostracized was becoming clearer by the day.

Jack was lost while someone else was afraid. The afraid person was Darkness empire king Keisuke Honda. The day he learned of the Ural agreement, he sent an envoy to Great Xia.

Keisuke Honda expressed that the Darkness empire was willing to be friendly with Great Xia forever. Moreover, they would return Hawaii to express their kind intentions.

At this point, Hawaii returned to the arms of Great Xia under such theatrical circumstances.

…

10th month, 5th day, Great Xia’s regent queen published a series of appointments to arrange the Siberia Region.

Imperial decree, the North Asia Governor-General House will be established in the Siberia Region. The west, central, and east Siberia provinces will be under it.

The Beijiang Governor-General House was removed while the Beiyuan and Liaojin provinces were listed under the Imperial Court’s direct rule.

The relevant people in the Beijiang Governor-General House would be moved over to the North Asia Governor-General House. Original Beiyuan Governor-General Xiong Ba would continue to be the North Asia Governor-General. Original Beiyuan Secretary-General Wei Lao was also shifted over.

The North Asia warzone was naturally shifted over to the North Asia Governor-General House.

At the same time, the Privy Court also set up a disarmament plan. Based on the situation, they would try to slowly disarm or change the occupations of the soldiers of the two legion corps of both the South Asia and West Asia legion corps.

Of course, disarmament was disarmament, and Great Xia would never relax their control over the reserve troops.

With Great Xia’s military foundation, if a world war broke out, they would be able to gather five million troops with combat experience from their reserves in a short amount of time.

This was also one of the foundations that protected Great Xia’s rule.

Along with industrialization proceeding quickly, the weapons update and change era had arrived. New weapons were born every day. As a result, the style of war was slowly changing.

The number of soldiers would not be the main factor deciding military might.

This was of course a story for the future.

…

The meaning of Siberia to Great Xia was not limited to unifying Asia or having another overseas land.

The greater meaning was them obtaining another oil resource point.

Currently, 70% of the oil resources in the world were in the hands of Great Xia, giving them the power to control oil prices.

This added another chip that helped the Great Xia currency globalize.

Along with globalization proceeding, in the future, the Great Xia currency would break away from gold and become connected with crude oil, which was also called black gold.

Great Xia had already completed the strategic arrangements for this matter.

Apart from that, establishing the North Asia Governor-General House helped to wipe out another border concern of Great Xia. The north side had a natural barrier in the Ural Mountains, so it was basically safe.

Additionally, after taking down Siberia, the Great Xia navy could control the Bering Straits and enter the Arctic Ocean to further strengthen their ocean power.

In the future, Great Xia would create the Arctic Ocean Squadron to strengthen their control of the Arctic.

Through the Arctic Ocean, Great Xia could connect with the House of Tudor Jiedushi. From a strategic position, they would surround the Europa Empire.

Its strategic meaning was exceptional.

If one thought a little further, after controlling the Siberia Region, it became possible for Great Xia to attack North America from another direction. For example, they could strike the Alaska Region.

With that, along with the America Governor-General House, Great Xia could create a north-south pincer of the Dawson Dynasty.

All in all, although the expansion value of Siberia was not huge, it helped to make up for the weakest link in Great Xia’s global strategy, perfecting their global plan.

This also made Great Xia’s global overlord position unassailable.

As a result, it was not hard to understand why Great Xia did not mind starting an all-out war to take Siberia from the hands of the Europa Empire.

This strategic arrangement had been decided long ago in the year end military meeting of the 9th year.

The in charge Bing’e executed this strategy really well, making Ouyang Shuo who was paying attention to this matter really happy. He felt that he had not wasted his time developing Bing’er.

Many years of development were finally bearing fruit.

…

Gaia 10th year, 12th month, 30th day, galaxy, Great Xia spaceship.

Ouyang Shuo sat at the captain seat. On the transparent screen in front of him, the galaxy outside was there for him to see.

At the middle of his screen was a giant green planet.

This was Planet Hope, a super planet that was covered in 65% forest.

After half a year of traveling, the exploration team had finally reached the space outside of Planet Hope. They were about to begin a whole new exploration journey. Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo found it difficult to hide the excitement in his heart.

The once hidden hot blood and adventuring passion was boiling once more.

Looking at this stunning planet, the excitement and ambition he held in the bottom of his heart burned once more.

The shine of this planet helped to bring out his deepest memories.

At that moment, Ouyang Shuo was thinking about way too much.

With the host of emotions from his adventure gamemode life, the fury of being betrayed, the emotions and shock of being revived, and the fear and lost he felt when building Shanhai Village.

The days of fighting, the hot-blooded wars, and the carefully thought out plots. Every time, he led Great Xia from one peak to the next.

Suddenly, all of it disappeared.

Like dust, it was wiped off from Ouyang Shuo’s heart and became a thing of the past.

“Real men do not talk about the past!”

Looking at the eye-catching Planet Hope, Ouyang Shuo only wished for this to be a new start.

Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo got up and turned around with gusto. He looked at the officials and generals behind him. Jiang Shang, Zhang Liang, Wei Yang, Fan Li, Jia Xu, Black Snake, Baiqi, Han Xin, Ran Min, Er’lai, Xue Rengui, and Chang Yuchun were all present.

In the game world, they had fought at Ouyang Shuo’s side and had earned many historical merits.

Great Xia was already standing at the peak of the world.

Now, they had tossed aside everything from the game world, starting from scratch. Ouyang Shuo was ready to start a more arduous and exciting historical journey.

Between ruler and servant, they were connected in their hearts.

Ouyang Shuo’s passion was at its peak, and his entire aura was changing. His eyes swept across his officials and generals as he said solemnly, “Ministers, are all of you willing to follow me once more, to fight the world again?”

When Jiang Shang and the heard saw that, they all knelt on the ground on one knee. Their gazes were unwavering as they swore in unison.

“We will follow your majesty to the death!”

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Rebooting
Chapter 2 - Sharing
Chapter 3 - Creating a Role
Chapter 4 - Village Building Quest
Chapter 5 - Shanhai Village
Chapter 6 - Village Properties
Chapter 7 - Markets and Dog
Chapter 8 - Ideas
Chapter 9 - Cui Yingyu
Chapter 10 - Free Mode
Chapter 11 - Proceedings
Chapter 12 - Training
Chapter 13 - Institutional Adjustment
Chapter 14 - Mazu Temple
Chapter 15 - Apprenticeship
Chapter 16 - Grade 2 Village
Chapter 17 - Industry
Chapter 18- Bonfire Party
Chapter 19- Beginner
Chapter 20 - Breakthrough
Chapter 21 - To the Raider’s Camp
Chapter 22 - The Fate of the Raider Camp
Chapter 23 - Crossbowmen
Chapter 24 - Girl Talk
Chapter 25 - Basic Benefits
Chapter 26 - Prepare for War
Chapter 27 - Private School
Chapter 28 - Beast Siege, Part One
Chapter 29 - Beast Siege, Part Two
Chapter 30 - Siege of Beasts, Part Three
Chapter 31 - Ranking
Chapter 32 - Recruitment Hall
Chapter 33 - Aftermath
Chapter 34 - Grade 3 Village
Chapter 35 - Privatization (1/2)
Chapter 36 - Privatization (2/2)
Chapter 37 - Lianzhou College
Chapter 38 - Entrustment Agreement
Chapter 39 - Transfer
Chapter 40 - Misunderstanding
Chapter 41 - Recruitment
Chapter 42 - Rift
Chapter 43 - Alliance
Chapter 44 - Breakdowns
Chapter 45 - Master
Chapter 46 - Opening Ceremony, Part One
Chapter 47 - Opening Ceremony, Part Two
Chapter 48 - Bitter Victory
Chapter 49 - Tian Wenjing
Chapter 50 - City Walls
Chapter 51 - Agriculture Division
Chapter 52 - The Township
Chapter 53 - Financial Services
Chapter 54 - Meritorious Service Division
Chapter 55 - Affiliated Villages
Chapter 56 - Flower City
Chapter 57 - Security Division
Chapter 58 - Mulan Yue

Chapter 59 - Eight Extremities Fist - Bajiquan

Chapter 60 - New Year’s Eve
Chapter 61 - Cemetery
Chapter 62 - Review
Chapter 63 - New Years Eve Part 1
Chapter 64 - New Year’s Eve Part 2
Chapter 65 - New Years Eve Part 3
Chapter 66 - Sacrificial Ritual

Chapter 67 - Division of Culture and Education

Chapter 68 - Gathering (Part 1)
Chapter 69 - Gathering part 2
Chapter 70 - Crush
Chapter 71 - Water Bandits (1/3)
Chapter 72 - Water Bandits (2/3)
Chapter 73 - Water Bandits (3/3)
Chapter 74 - Pei Donglai
Chapter 75 - Grade 2 Town
Chapter 76 - Armory Division
Chapter 77 - Lantern Festival
Chapter 78 - Farmer’s Market
Chapter 79 - Architect
Chapter 80 - Mountain Barbarian (Part 1)
Chapter 81 - Mountain Barbarian (Part 2)
Chapter 82 - Mixed Unit
Chapter 83 - Spring Assault
Chapter 84 - Colored Silkworm
Chapter 85 - Surprise
Chapter 86 - Territory Upgrade
Chapter 87 - Date
Chapter 88 - Qingyang Sword Sect
Chapter 89 - Refugee Camp
Chapter 90 - Incorporation
Chapter 91 - Military Affairs Department
Chapter 92 - Provocation
Chapter 93 - Unstoppable Force
Chapter 94 - Grade 3 Town
Chapter 95 - Choice
Chapter 96 - Transfer
Chapter 97 - Sangu Restaurant
Chapter 98 - The Clerk
Chapter 99 - Prelude
Chapter 100 - Auction (Part 1)
Chapter 101 - Auction (Part 2)
Chapter 102 - Auction (Part 3)
Chapter 103 - Bow and Crossbow Division
Chapter 104 - City Defense Camp
Chapter 105 - Showdown
Chapter 106 - Ambushed
Chapter 107 - Revenge (1/2)
Chapter 108 - Revenge (2/2)
Chapter 109 - Winding up
Chapter 110 - Collecting Earnings
Chapter 111 - Saying Goodbye
Chapter 112 - Procuratorate Division
Chapter 113 - Auditing Division
Chapter 114 - Inspection
Chapter 115 - Mingguang Armor
Chapter 116 - Operation Dawn
Chapter 117 - Suspicion
Chapter 118 - Beihai Navy
Chapter 119 - Campaign System
Chapter 120 - Invitation
Chapter 121 - Alliance
Chapter 122 - Tour
Chapter 123 - Military Grain Pills
Chapter 124 - Preparation
Chapter 125 - Frolic
Chapter 126 - Speculation
Chapter 127 - Battle of Zhuolu part 1
Chapter 128 - Battle of Zhuolu (Part 2)
Chapter 129 - Battle of Zhuolu part 3
Chapter 130 - Battle of Zhuolu part 4
Chapter 131 - Battle of Zhuolu part 5
Chapter 132 - Battle of Zhuolu part 6
Chapter 133 - Battle of Zhuolu part 7
Chapter 134 - Battle of Zhuolu part 8
Chapter 135 - Battle of Zhuolu part 9
Chapter 136 - Battle of Zhuolu part 10
Chapter 137 - Battle of Zhulou part 11
Chapter 138 - Battle of Zhuolu part 12
Chapter 139 - Battle of Zhuolu part 13
Chapter 140 - Battle of Zhuolu part 14
Chapter 141 - Battle of Zhuolu part 15
Chapter 142 - Battle of Zhuolu part 16
Chapter 143 - Battle of Zhuolu part 17
Chapter 144 - Battle of Zhuolu part 18
Chapter 145 - Upgrade Application
Chapter 146 - Yellow Emperor Temple
Chapter 147 - The Triple-bow Acruballistas
Chapter 148 - Turnaround
Chapter 149 - Defensive Region
Chapter 150 - Dawn
Chapter 151 - Raider’s City Attack (Part 1)
Chapter 152 - Raider City Attack (Part 2)
Chapter 153 - Raider City Attack (Part 3)
Chapter 154 - Surrender
Chapter 155 - World’s First City
Chapter 156 - Drastic Actions
Chapter 157 - Foreshadowing
Chapter 158 - Mixed Regiment
Chapter 159 - Guild Token
Chapter 160 - Fallen Moon Guild
Chapter 161 - Chenghuang Temple
Chapter 162 - Difficult Question
Chapter 163 - City Planning
Chapter 164 - Internal Affairs Department
Chapter 165 - Explosion
Chapter 166 - Migration Project
Chapter 167 - Weapon Specialist
Chapter 168 - Marriage
Chapter 169 - Bargaining Chip
Chapter 170 - Teacher
Chapter 171 - Undercurrent
Chapter 172 - Mountain Barbarian Settlement
Chapter 173 - Weakness
Chapter 174 - Zhennan Pass
Chapter 175 - Beihai City
Chapter 176 - Grade 2 City
Chapter 177 - Murderous Intentions
Chapter 178 - Cultivating Poison
Chapter 179 - 400 Thousand
Chapter 180 - Lightning Operation
Chapter 181 - Spending Spree
Chapter 182 - Despicable
Chapter 183 - Boarding the Spaceship
Chapter 184 - The World Online
Chapter 185 - System Update
Chapter 186 - Meeting Up Part 1
Chapter 187 - Meeting Up Part 2
Chapter 188 - Cooperation
Chapter 189 - Xinan University
Chapter 190 - Medical Department
Chapter 191 - Research Institute No.7
Chapter 192 - Operation Wildfire (1 / 3)
Chapter 193 - Operation Wildfire (2 / 3)
Chapter 194 - Operation Wildfire (3 / 3)
Chapter 195 - Evacuation
Chapter 196 - Secret Manual Sales
Chapter 197 - The Burning Savanna
Chapter 198 - Faction Selection
Chapter 199 - Battle of Muye (1)
Chapter 200 - The Battle of Muye (2)
Chapter 201: The Battle of Muye (3)
Chapter 202: The Battle of Muye (4)
Chapter 203: The Battle of Muye (5)
Chapter 204 - The Battle of Muye (6)
Chapter 205 - The Battle of Muye (7)
Chapter 206 - The Battle of Muye (8)
Chapter 207 - Battle of Muye (9)
Chapter 208 - Battle of Muye (10)
Chapter 209 - Battle of Muye (11)
Chapter 210 - Battle of Muye (12)
Chapter 211 - Battle of Muye (13)
Chapter 212 - Forcing the Emperor to Abdicate
Chapter 213 - Nirvana
Chapter 214 - Luosha
Chapter 215 - Acceptance
Chapter 216 - Dream Pavillion
Chapter 217 - Lone Peak
Chapter 218 - Lord

Chapter 219- Chess Player and his Chess Pieces

Chapter 220 - Fuse
Chapter 221- Leading the Wolf into the Room
Chapter 222- Hand in Glove
Chapter 223 - Reinforcement
Chapter 224 - Turning Things Around
Chapter 225 - Ambush
Chapter 226- Pursuit
Chapter 227 - Expedition
Chapter 228 - Expedition Part 2
Chapter 229 - Conquering
Chapter 230- Storm
Chapter 231- taking down Er'Shi Ridge
Chapter 232- Taking Down Er'Shi Ridge Part 2
Chapter 233- Taking Down Er'Shi Ridge Part 3

Chapter 234 - Searching for Treasures in the Secret Room

Chapter 235 - Military and Governance Meeting
Chapter 236 - Thirst for Talents
Chapter 237 - Rescued from the Death
Chapter 238 - Ice
Chapter 239- Digging the Cornerstone
Chapter 240- Becoming Famous
Chapter 241- Violence
Chapter 242 - Taking Down Zhennan Pass
Chapter 243 - Taking Down Zhennan Pass Part 2
Chapter 244 - Taking over Zhennan Pass Part 3
Chapter 245 - Summer Flowers
Chapter 246 - The King’s Path
Chapter 247 - Navy
Chapter 248 - Rattlesnake
Chapter 249 - Special Forces
Chapter 250 - Recruit Camp

Chapter 251 - Moon Island Naval Battle (Part 1)

Chapter 252 - Moon Island Naval Battle (Part 2)

Chapter 253 - Navy Base
Chapter 254 - Betrayal
Chapter 255 -Battle Discussion
Chapter 256 - Tianmo Spear
Chapter 257 - Bait
Chapter 258- The Army at the Border
Chapter 259- Surrendering Without Fighting
Chapter 260- Without Bloodshed
Chapter 261- Flagrantly Declaring War
Chapter 262- Pride
Chapter 263- Battle of Changping
Chapter 264- Shocking Mystery
Chapter 265- Solving the Mystery
Chapter 266- Asura Baiqi
Chapter 267- Life and Death Assault

Chapter 268- Soldiers that Descended from Heaven

Chapter 269- Wang Ling's Death
Chapter 270- Fire-Beacon Lights up Again
Chapter 271- You Win Some You Lose Some
Chapter 272- Losing Yewang

Chapter 273- Surrounding a Point and Destroying the Reinforcements

Chapter 274- Chariot Circle Formation
Chapter 275- A Star Will Rise
Chapter 276- Regaining What Was Lost

Chapter 277- Using a Weird Method to Break the Formation

Chapter 278- Victory Is in Our Sights
Chapter 279- Encircling and Entrapping
Chapter 280- The Final Battle
Chapter 281- The War Is Over
Chapter 282- Philosopher Debate
Chapter 283- Upgrade Quest
Chapter 284- Currency and Taxation
Chapter 285- Baiqi Reorganizes the Army
Chapter 286- Rising From the Ashes
Chapter 287- The truth is out
Chapter 288- Division Trial
Chapter 289- Murderous Surroundings
Chapter 290- Back Against the Wall
Chapter 291- World's First Prefecture
Chapter 292- Prefecture System
Chapter 293- Jiang Shang Comes Out
Chapter 294- Eliminated in the First Round
Chapter 295- A Friend From Afar
Chapter 296- The Night Before the Reshuffling
Chapter 297 - Hongmen Feast
Chapter 298- The Merger of Three Cities

Chapter 299- Releasing Military Control with a Glass of Wine

Chapter 300- Useless People

Chapter 301- Western Region Development Operation

Chapter 302- Mountain Rain is Coming

Chapter 303- Chiyou City

Chapter 304- The Update That Wasn’t Supposed to Happen

Chapter 305- Information Piece- Rising Up
Chapter 306- Assassination
Chapter 307- Who's the Mastermind?
Chapter 308- Dark Horse
Chapter 309- Hidden Aristocratic Family
Chapter 310- Godly Changing Point
Chapter 311- Ten Famous Swords
Chapter 312- Fangmo Duduan
Chapter 313- One Up One Down
Chapter 314-Snake and Rat
Chapter 315- Perusing Steel Technique
Chapter 316- Mulan Stronghold
Chapter 317- Hong Xiuquan
Chapter 318- Dragon Head
Chapter 319- Yazhou
Chapter 320- Black hearted Prefect
Chapter 321- God
Chapter 322- Sending a Signal
Chapter 323- Five Finger Mountain
Chapter 324- Three Pronged Method
Chapter 325- Iron Armoured Beast
Chapter 326- Devil Possession
Chapter 327- Blessing In Disguise
Chapter 328- Way of the Emperors and Kings
Chapter 329- Lianzhou!! Lianzhou!!

Chapter 330- A Black Cloud Tries to Destroy the City

Chapter 331- Scheme
Chapter 332- Changing the Moat into a Path
Chapter 333- Fight and Retreat
Chapter 334- Surrounding the City
Chapter 335- Shanhai City Is Lost?
Chapter 336- Empty City Plan
Chapter 337- Transition

Chapter 338- Striking at the Foot of the Problem

Chapter 339- Going Berserk
Chapter 340- Life is All About Acting
Chapter 341- Reeling in the Nets
Chapter 342- Abandoning Men
Chapter 343- The Dust Settles
Chapter 344- The Girl in the Family Grows Up

Chapter 345- Prefecture System and Enfeoffment System

Chapter 346- God Physcian Bianque

Chapter 347- The Grandfather and Grandson Pair Meets

Chapter 348- Rhino Horn Poison Curing Pill

Chapter 349- Luxurious Lineup

Chapter 350- New Year's Red Packet Snatching Event

Chapter 351- 100 thousand points of pain

Chapter 352- Luck Hiding in an Unfortunate Situation

Chapter 353- Coronation
Chapter 354- Incentives and Penalties
Chapter 355- Shenjuan Moving Forward
Chapter 356- General Picture
Chapter 357- Glory is my life
Chapter 358- Tiger Legion
Chapter 359- Meeting of Nineteen
Chapter 360- Trading Cooperation

Chapter 361- Military Industry Coordination System

Chapter 362- Guild Alliance
Chapter 363- Warlords
Chapter 364- Black Snake Guards
Chapter 365- What’s Happening in Lingnan
Chapter 366- Touring Lianzhou
Chapter 367- Staying Dormant
Chapter 368- A Quiet 3rd Month
Chapter 369- Land of the Military Strategists
Chapter 370- Intel Network
Chapter 371- Relocating

Chapter 372- When the Tree Falls, the Monkeys Scatter

Chapter 373- Arrogant and Domineering

Chapter 374- Arrogant? I'm More Arrogant!

Chapter 375- The Enemy of My Enemy, Is My Friend

Chapter 376- Mysterious White Shirt Scholar
Chapter 377- Legalism
Chapter 378- Teen Swordsman
Chapter 379- Mighty Lord
Chapter 380- Zhao Kuo's Plan
Chapter 381- Going Through Lingnan

Chapter 382- The Good Go Up, the Unworthy Go Down

Chapter 383- Land of Legalism
Chapter 384- Mountain Army
Chapter 385-Good Fortune
Chapter 386- Navy General
Chapter 387- The Situation in Leizhou
Chapter 388- Cool Vanguard
Chapter 389- Huwei General
Chapter 390- Hidden Killing Intent
Chapter 391- Yanhuo Yaonie
Chapter 392- Falling into the Trap
Chapter 393- Failing Because of Wine
Chapter 394- Surrendering
Chapter 395- Hanging on a Thread
Chapter 396- Leizhou Ruler
Chapter 397- rewarded based on performance
Chapter 398- Picking up a Burden
Chapter 399- End of Huangjin
Chapter 400- Heroes Rising
Chapter 401- Huge Change
Chapter 402-Nanjiang Governor-General House
Chapter 403- Game Hotfix
Chapter 404- Territory Luck and Prosperity
Chapter 405- Battle of Julu
Chapter 406- Deploying Troops
Chapter 407- Baiqi Takes Charge
Chapter 408- Fall Back
Chapter 409- Face-off
Chapter 410- General Soul
Chapter 411- Special Poison
Chapter 412- The Mantis Stalks the Cicada
Chapter 413- The Oriole Lurks Behind
Chapter 414- End of Liu Bang
Chapter 415- Suppressing the Dragon Spirit
Chapter 416- Overlord Xiang Yu
Chapter 417- Han Xin's Plan
Chapter 418- Wang Li Deserves to Be Executed
Chapter 419- Forming an Army Spirit
Chapter 420- Drunken Beauty
Chapter 421- Overlord, Will You Battle?
Chapter 422- Di Chen's Magnanimity
Chapter 423- Xiao He's Heart
Chapter 424- Qing Bu, Die!
Chapter 425- The Overlord's Last Song
Chapter 426- Capturing Fan Zeng Alive
Chapter 427- Han Xin Appears in Front of Us
Chapter 428- Four Side Chu Swansong
Chapter 429- End of the Battle
Chapter 430- Qin Shihuang Appears

Chapter 431- Debate of Confucianism and Legalism

Chapter 432- Philosopher Debate

Chapter 433- Qin Shihuang Chases out Confucianism

Chapter 434- Territory Situation
Chapter 435- Animal Husbandry Department
Chapter 436- Scholars Unite
Chapter 437- Lu Buwei
Chapter 438- King Beast Scale Armor
Chapter 439- Iron Armored Beast Division
Chapter 440- The Way Out for the Song Family
Chapter 441- South Alliance Strikes
Chapter 442- Target Tianshuang County
Chapter 443- Formation Breaking Talisman
Chapter 444- Tianshuang County Falls
Chapter 445- Song Wen's reply
Chapter 446- Grain
Chapter 447- Losing All Face
Chapter 448- Using Your Plan Against You
Chapter 449- Alliance Army Heads down South
Chapter 450- Kong Zi
Chapter 451- Zhang Yi Moves in
Chapter 452-Bingshan Goddess
Chapter 453- Path of the Killing Sword
Chapter 454- Marketplace
Chapter 455- Worshipping the Heavens
Chapter 456- Land of Culture
Chapter 457- Land of Philosophers
Chapter 458- Personally Leading
Chapter 459- Territory Law System
Chapter 460- Era of Sea Travel
Chapter 461- Imperial Chamber of Commerce
Chapter 462- Blessed Land of Artisans
Chapter 463- Du Sijing
Chapter 464- Famous General Di Qing
Chapter 465- Risky Use of Troops
Chapter 466- Life of a Spotter

Chapter 467- Sacrificing the Knight to Protect the King

Chapter 468- Chess Master
Chapter 469- String of Plans
Chapter 470- Baiqi Loses Cangcheng
Chapter 471- Han Xin's Shocking One Shot
Chapter 472- Hiding from Everyone
Chapter 473- Battle of Zhaoqing Ends
Chapter 474- Organizing the Military
Chapter 475- Military Rank System
Chapter 476- Zhaoqing Prefecture Organization
Chapter 477- Basic Public Services

Chapter 478- Science, Education, Culture, and Health Department

Chapter 479- For the People
Chapter 480-Zhenhai City
Chapter 481- Shanhai City Region Planning
Chapter 482- Financial District
Chapter 483- News About Fan Li
Chapter 484- Time of City-States Has Arrived
Chapter 485- World in Smoke
Chapter 486- World Situation
Chapter 487- Setting up a War Zone
Chapter 488- Han Xin Versus Chiyou
Chapter 489- Grade 2 Prefecture
Chapter 490- Planning the Steel Industry
Chapter 491- Crazy Coal
Chapter 492- Business School of Thought
Chapter 493- Palace Guards
Chapter 494-Fighting Dragons
Chapter 495- Chiyou Blood Guards
Chapter 496- Barbarian War Song
Chapter 497- Han Xin Uses the Troops
Chapter 498- Battle to the Death
Chapter 499- Wei Zhang Dies in Battle
Chapter 500- Mystery of the Devil Bloodline
Chapter 501- Ganging up on Chiyou
Chapter 502- Devil Blood Apparition
Chapter 503- New King Coronation
Chapter 504- Awakening Bloodline
Chapter 505- Situation in the World
Chapter 506- Attacking Taiping Country
Chapter 507- Secret of Chiyou City
Chapter 508- Ming Dynasty Cannon

Chapter 509- Foundation of Aristocratic Family

Chapter 510- Blowing a Massive Hole
Chapter 511- Overbearing Fiend
Chapter 512- The Craziness of Religion
Chapter 513- Tough Nut to Crack
Chapter 514- Switching Sides
Chapter 515- End of the Road
Chapter 516- Weird Military Order
Chapter 517- Carrot on a Stick
Chapter 518- Pei Ju from Wenxi
Chapter 519- Mystery in Tianjing
Chapter 520- Upping the Stakes
Chapter 521- Change in Game Style
Chapter 522- Sweeping Kunming Prefecture
Chapter 523- Collapse of the West Army
Chapter 524- End of Taiping Country
Chapter 525- Tianjing Coup
Chapter 526- Hong Xiuquan Perishes
Chapter 527- The Knot in Shi Dakai's Heart
Chapter 528- Three Governors

Chapter 529- Grabbing Food from the Tiger's Mouth

Chapter 530- A Massive Blunder
Chapter 531- Fierce Battle at Guiping Pass
Chapter 532- Willing to Die
Chapter 533- Li Mu's Decisiveness
Chapter 534- It Ends
Chapter 535- Bearing This Anger
Chapter 536- Strategy Saint Zhang Liang
Chapter 537- Humiliation Stone Steele
Chapter 538-Evil Remnants of the Religion
Chapter 539- Luring the Snake out of its Hole

Chapter 540- Reorganization of the Taiping Army

Chapter 541- Vicious Bait
Chapter 542- Structure of Legion Corps
Chapter 543- Su Zhe's Choice
Chapter 544- Leaving Tianjing City
Chapter 545- Seeking Advice from Jiang Shang
Chapter 546- Guards Legion
Chapter 547- Business School of Thought
Chapter 548- Prayer
Chapter 549- Discussing Firearms Again
Chapter 550- Industry System
Chapter 551- Four Beauties
Chapter 552- Business Saint
Chapter 553- Financial Budget
Chapter 554- Ou Zhizi
Chapter 555- Land of Artisan
Chapter 556- Zhang Yi Talks About Lianheng
Chapter 557- Problem with Consonance City
Chapter 558- Gaia Year End Reward
Chapter 559- Zhang Tingyu
Chapter 560- Third System Update
Chapter 561- Strengthened Escort

Chapter 562- Information Piece: Aristocratic Families Rise

Chapter 563- Exchanging Achievement Value for Gold

Chapter 564-Grandmaster Voyager
Chapter 565- Star Guiding Technique
Chapter 566- Third System Auction
Chapter 567- Beihai Bay Treasure Map
Chapter 568- Another God Weapon

Chapter 569-Scattering Bean That Turns into Soldier Talisman

Chapter 570-Yijing Jin

Chapter 571-Assist

Chapter 572-Mongol Iron Cavalry Training Manual

Chapter 573- God Weapon Set
Chapter 574-Territory Structure Adjustment
Chapter 575- Alliance Army All out Attack
Chapter 576-The Earth Is White
Chapter 577- The Sudden Battle
Chapter 578-Choosing Wei Qing or Huo Qubing
Chapter 579-Mobei Battle of Speed
Chapter 580-Use of Battle Resource Points
Chapter 581-Despicable
Chapter 582-Entering the Desert
Chapter 583-Desert Bandit Ambush
Chapter 584-Cold and Cruel Poisonous Snake

Chapter 585-Out of the Bandit Nest but into the Wolf Den

Chapter 586-Killing Zhou Yafu
Chapter 587-Xiongnu Cavalry
Chapter 588-Using Battles to Replenish Troops
Chapter 589-Chasing Huo Qubing
Chapter 590-Giving the Enemy No Way Out
Chapter 591-Killing Tuqi King of the Left

Chapter 592-Completing Everything on Khentii Mountain

Chapter 593-Recruiting Huo Qubing

Chapter 594-Hanwu Emperor Appears

Chapter 595-Chasing All Philosophers Out, Only Leaving Confucianism

Chapter 596-Famous General Zhao She
Chapter 597-Man at the Top of the Food Chain
Chapter 598-Four Seas Bank Sneak Attack
Chapter 599-Ouyang Shuo's Ambition
Chapter 600-Crazy Money
Chapter 601-The Late Reward Ceremony
Chapter 602-The Wedding
Chapter 603-Infanta
Chapter 604-Zheng He Returns
Chapter 605-Out to Sea to Look for Treasure
Chapter 606-Country War Style
Chapter 607-Disguising Their way In
Chapter 608-Bank Run
Chapter 609-Deep Ocean Beast
Chapter 610-Special Soldier Type
Chapter 611-Demoted
Chapter 612-Taking Revenge
Chapter 613-Navy General Shi Lang
Chapter 614-Military Martial Arts Competition
Chapter 615-Set Off, into the Starry Ocean
Chapter 616-Deep Ocean Overlord
Chapter 617-Washed up on a Desolate Island
Chapter 618-Dragon Tomb
Chapter 619-Dragon Battle
Chapter 620-Dragon Vein
Chapter 621-Emperor Seal
Chapter 622-Godlike Man
Chapter 623-Malacca Straits
Chapter 624-Country Destruction War
Chapter 625-Cannon Formation
Chapter 626-Battle of Emptiness
Chapter 627-Cruel Methods
Chapter 628-Sad and Tragic
Chapter 629-Follow Even to Death
Chapter 630-God Weapon Starlight Sword
Chapter 631-Country Protector Beast
Chapter 632-Country War Rewards
Chapter 633-Ripples from the Country War
Chapter 634-Governor and Fleet Admiral
Chapter 635-Alienating the ASEAN
Chapter 636-Clamor of the Java Players
Chapter 637-Country War PK
Chapter 638-Sword of State
Chapter 639-Somalia Pirates
Chapter 640-Foreign Country Atmosphere
Chapter 641-Blood Colored Night
Chapter 642-Death of Di Da
Chapter 643-Who Is the Mole?
Chapter 644-Reveal of the Scheme
Chapter 645-Letting You Live
Chapter 646-Plundering Sky Wolf Island
Chapter 647-Group Revival Scroll
Chapter 648-Rise of the Pirate King
Chapter 649-Honorary Knight
Chapter 650-Capital of Trading

Chapter 651-Hanwu Emperor vs. West Chu Overlord

Chapter 652-Empire Glory
Chapter 653-Lost City of Atlantis
Chapter 654-Spanish Invincible Squadron
Chapter 655-Ocean Ruins
Chapter 656-Mysterious Crystal
Chapter 657-Not Princess but Queen
Chapter 658-Unbreakable King's Mentality
Chapter 659-Combat Puppet
Chapter 660-Aerial Scouting Squad
Chapter 661-Frogmen Squadron
Chapter 662-Marquis of Santa Cruz
Chapter 663-Fall of the Invincible Squadron
Chapter 664-Using Money to Redeem Life
Chapter 665-Richest Man in the World
Chapter 666-France
Chapter 667-Glory of the Empire
Chapter 668-Mediterranean Squadron
Chapter 669-Jidian City
Chapter 670-Mediterranean Alliance
Chapter 671-Ocean Auction
Chapter 672-Viking Pirates
Chapter 673-Iron Lady Army
Chapter 674-Dragon Slayer
Chapter 675-Avic Fort
Chapter 676-Upgrading to Duke
Chapter 677-Steam Engine
Chapter 678-Returning to Shanhai City
Chapter 679-Clouds over the Alliance
Chapter 680-Mongol Empire
Chapter 681-One Man Show
Chapter 682-Grade 3 Prefecture
Chapter 683-Iron Faced Wei Yang
Chapter 684-Industrialization Sprouting
Chapter 685-Monarch Enters the Court
Chapter 686-Popular Science Lecture
Chapter 687-Country Establishment Meeting
Chapter 688-Look of the Monarch
Chapter 689-Everyone Wins from Cooperation
Chapter 690-Battle of Red Cliff
Chapter 691-Choosing Camp
Chapter 692-The Summoning
Chapter 693-Vicious Strategist Jia Xu
Chapter 694-Asking Cao Cao to Fight
Chapter 695-Navy and Army Moving as One
Chapter 696-Dark Clouds Hung Over
Chapter 697-Chaos
Chapter 698-Capturing Lu Su Alive
Chapter 699-Liu Bei's Selfishness
Chapter 700-War on Red Cliff
Chapter 701-Killing the Leader Operation

Chapter 702-Close Relationship Between King and Subordinate

Chapter 703-Terrifying Night
Chapter 704-Can Only Forcefully Attack
Chapter 705-Unnamed Hero
Chapter 706-One-Armed General
Chapter 707-Guan Yu
Chapter 708-Send up His Head
Chapter 709-Inner Demons
Chapter 710-Jia Xu vs Zhuge Liang
Chapter 711-Liu Bei's Fury
Chapter 712-Fire Attack Strategy
Chapter 713-Elite White Soldier
Chapter 714-Fall of Jiangling
Chapter 715-Actions of a Traitor
Chapter 716-Attacking Chaisang
Chapter 717-Sun Quan Admits Defeat
Chapter 718-Zhou Yu Retreats
Chapter 719-Battle of Yiling
Chapter 720-Way of the Strategist
Chapter 721-Xu Chu + Diao Chan
Chapter 722-Ban
Chapter 723-Xiliang Ma Chao
Chapter 724-Headquarters
Chapter 725-Chief Secretary
Chapter 726-Xiahou Yuan
Chapter 727-News Conference
Chapter 728-Review
Chapter 729-Misdirection
Chapter 730-Troops Split Four Fronts
Chapter 731-Dragon Stunning the World
Chapter 732-Abandoning a Chess Piece
Chapter 733-Scheming Against One Another
Chapter 734-Private Flying Device
Chapter 735-Number 32
Chapter 736-Sun Rises as Usual
Chapter 737-Fighting for a Tomorrow
Chapter 738-Chain Formation

Chapter 739-Snapping the Wings off the Alliance Army

Chapter 740-Fall of White Stone City
Chapter 741-Zhili Prefecture
Chapter 742-Forming the Leopard Tiger Cavalry
Chapter 743-Four Marshals
Chapter 744 - Qin Feng's Reaction
Chapter 745-Sezairan
Chapter 746-Lu Bu's Arrival

Chapter 747-Disrupting Alliances Through Diplomatic Means

Chapter 748-Wu Ping Cheng
Chapter 749-P1 Type Cannon
Chapter 750-Yan Liang
Chapter 751 - Famous in One Battle
Chapter 752 - Last Chance
Chapter 753 - Han Xin vs. Li Mu
Chapter 754 - Spiral-style Cavalry Tactic

Chapter 755 – First Air Strike in the Wilderness

Chapter 756 – Taking Back Guilin Prefecture
Chapter 757 - Guilin Governor
Chapter 758 - West Conquering Army
Chapter 759 - Trade Protectionism
Chapter 760 - Assassinating Fan Li
Chapter 761 – Scheme within a Scheme
Chapter 762 – Coal for Equipment Exchange
Chapter 763 – Cabinet Structure
Chapter 764 – Training Division
Chapter 765 – Equipment Development Hub
Chapter 766 – Industrialization Department
Chapter 767 – Z1 Type Warship

Chapter 768 – Mountain and Sea Entertainment Holdings

Chapter 769 – War Starts

Chapter 770 – Blanket-style Search

Chapter 771 – One More Won't Make a Difference

Chapter 772 – Sharp Turn Down

Chapter 773 – Darkest Day of the Guards Legion

Chapter 774 – Ma Teng Dies in Battle
Chapter 775 – Boys, Welcome Home!
Chapter 776 – Setting a Camp at Every Step
Chapter 777 – 4th System Update

Chapter 778 – Information Piece: Wulin Arrives

Chapter 779 – State Your Wish
Chapter 780 – Hai Rui Hai Qingtian
Chapter 781 – Global Auction (Part 1)
Chapter 782 – Global Auction (Part 2)
Chapter 783 – Problems of the Voyage Route
Chapter 784 – Prosperity Beast Qiyi
Chapter 785 – Giving You a Push
Chapter 786 – Home on Fire
Chapter 787 – Wuqi's Plan
Chapter 788 – Fish Takes the Bait
Chapter 789 – Teacher and Student Battle
Chapter 790 – Drawing Attention
Chapter 791 – Time to Reel in the Net
Chapter 792 – Pardon me? Amusing!

Chapter 793 – Dog Bites Dog, Mouth Filled with Fur

Chapter 794 – Biggest Miracle in the Wilderness

Chapter 795 – Resistance from the Administration Bureau

Chapter 796 – Greed of the Unscrupulous Business Men

Chapter 797 – Guards Legion Corps Enters Shu Lands

Chapter 798 – Tianmo Method (Fragment)
Chapter 799 – Fall of Black Iron City
Chapter 800 – Shu Mountain Iron Corporation
Chapter 801 – War Brings in Fortune
Chapter 802 – Country Title Meeting
Chapter 803 – Leadership Meeting

Chapter 804 – Before You Target Others, You Need to Calm down Your Own Land

Chapter 805: Way of Ruling
Chapter 806: Alienating Pang Tong
Chapter 807 - Seediq Race
Chapter 808 - Brother, Don’t Be Afraid
Chapter 809 - Silver Hand
Chapter 810 - Gift from Jack
Chapter 811 - Cabinet Grand Secretary
Chapter 812 - Five Million Recruitment Plan
Chapter 813 - Fireworks Cool Easily
Chapter 814 - A White Token
Chapter 815 - Brother, I Am Sorry

Chapter 816 - There's Still Hot Blood in the End

Chapter 817 – You Think I Won’t Know If You Don’t Say It?

Chapter 818 - Satellite City Battle
Chapter 819 - New Superstars
Chapter 820 - Terms of Breaking the Contract
Chapter 821 - Calming Down Allies
Chapter 822 - Upgrading to Capital City
Chapter 823 – Fortune Teller
Chapter 824 – Moral High Ground
Chapter 825 - Decisive Strike
Chapter 826 - Sneak Attacking Xunlong City
Chapter 827 - Lu Bu Fights Qinqiong
Chapter 828 - Relinquish Position

Chapter 829 - Karma Coming Too Quick Like a Tornado

Chapter 830 - Guild Share Revolution
Chapter 831 - Small Tricks by the Evaluators
Chapter 832 - Defined Summoning Card
Chapter 833 - World's First Capital City

Chapter 834 – Getting Kou Zhun Is Better Than Getting Any Riches in the World

Chapter 835 - God Detective Di Renjie
Chapter 836 - Legion Corps Full Scale
Chapter 837 - Moving and Rebuilding

Chapter 838 - Making a Dynasty, Establishing a Country

Chapter 839 - Underground World Exploration
Chapter 840 - Yellow Emperor Descendants
Chapter 841 - Time to Plant Mushrooms
Chapter 842 - Great Xia Dynasty

Chapter 843 - Country Establishment Quest Complete

Chapter 844 - Littered with Famous Friends
Chapter 845 - Coronation Ceremony (Part 1)
Chapter 846 - Coronation Ceremony (Part 2)
Chapter 847 - Coronation Ceremony (Part 3)
Chapter 848 - Golden Stage
Chapter 849 - Soaring Aspirations
Chapter 850 - Country Embarks
Chapter 851 - Mediterranean Ocean Problem
Chapter 852 - Atlantis' Problem
Chapter 853 - Sentry Base
Chapter 854 - Disembarking is a Problem
Chapter 855 - Jia Xu's Viciousness
Chapter 856 - One Sword Through the Heavens
Chapter 857 - Cape Castle
Chapter 858 - Three Heads of Morocco
Chapter 859 - Each Have Their Own Plan
Chapter 860 - Break An Arm First
Chapter 861 - Shi Dakai Is a Coward
Chapter 862 - Great Xia IOU
Chapter 863 - Calamity

Chapter 864 - Camping Against Water, Worry of Strategists

Chapter 865 - Beauty of the Garden City
Chapter 866 - Underwater Dragon King Cannon
Chapter 867 - Dead Before the Ship Even Sinks
Chapter 868 - Burning the City
Chapter 869 - The King Escapes
Chapter 870 - King, the Egg is Broken
Chapter 871 - Son of Heaven Dragon Fist

Chapter 872 - African Continent, the Wolf Is Here

Chapter 873 - Morocco Province
Chapter 874 - Target, Atlantic
Chapter 875 - Super Celebrity is Born
Chapter 876 - Medical Saint Zhang Zhongjing
Chapter 877 - Hundred Herb Garden
Chapter 878 - Fighting and Unity
Chapter 879 - Bidding
Chapter 880 - Gratitude and Love
Chapter 881 - Di Chen Concedes
Chapter 882 - Farrah's Revenge

Chapter 883 - Closing the Door and Hitting the Dog

Chapter 884 - Opening up a New Trade Route
Chapter 885 - Land Sea Air Army Formation
Chapter 886 - Rogue Nation
Chapter 887 - Quiet Town
Chapter 888 - Birth of the Insurance Industry
Chapter 889 - Mysterious Plan Z
Chapter 890 - Battle of Fei River
Chapter 891 - Trees Look Like Soldiers
Chapter 892 - Keep Pace With
Chapter 893 - Di Chen Removing Traitors
Chapter 894 - Wuqi Takes Control
Chapter 895 - Enemy's Attack the Backlines
Chapter 896 - Battle at Jingzhou
Chapter 897 - Jingzhou Defeat

Chapter 898 - Ma Chao Is Here, Old Lianpo Cannot Leave

Chapter 899 - Frontline Fails, Back Garden on Fire

Chapter 900 - Final Battle at Fei River
Chapter 901 - End of Battle Map
Chapter 902 - War Exempt Card
Chapter 903 - China Shipping Group
Chapter 904 - Collectivization Plan
Chapter 905 - Ji Ji… Ji Ji
Chapter 906 - Sui Dynasty Ambassador
Chapter 907 - Harmony is Best
Chapter 908 - Shocking Night at the Inn
Chapter 909 - Di Renjie Investigates
Chapter 910 - Thunderclap Method
Chapter 911 - I Want Yuwen Kai
Chapter 912 - Somalia Crusade
Chapter 913 - Surrounding the City
Chapter 914 - Using the People as Bait

Chapter 915 - Where Would the People Go If There's No Country

Chapter 916 - They Are Here!
Chapter 917 - Mess, It's All a Mess
Chapter 918 - Human Ocean Tactic
Chapter 919 - Looking at the Joke

Chapter 920 - God Beast Black Spotted Golden Leopard

Chapter 921 - Settled in One Battle
Chapter 922 - The World is Changing
Chapter 923 - Interrogating the King
Chapter 924 - Heir
Chapter 925 - New Appointments
Chapter 926 - Wanting Two at Once
Chapter 927 - All Out Killing

Chapter 928 - Cross Mediterranean Trading Agreement

Chapter 929 - Blacklist

Chapter 930 - Yang Guang's Request

Chapter 931 - City Protection Legion Corps Marshal

Chapter 932 - Disarmament
Chapter 933 - What Does the Old Fox Want
Chapter 934 - Dali

Chapter 935 - Dragon Legion Corps' Stunning Strike

Chapter 936 - Sibling Conversation
Chapter 937 - Not Burning Bullets But Grenade
Chapter 938 - Shu Han Sends Troops
Chapter 939 - Executing Plan B
Chapter 940 - Risky Advance for Credit

Chapter 941 - Blood Battle Dragon Legion Corps

Chapter 942 - Saviors from the Sky
Chapter 943 - Demotion
Chapter 944 - Capturing Baqi Alive
Chapter 945 - Pillaging Dongchuan Prefecture
Chapter 946 - Decisive Battle at Yongren City
Chapter 947 - Crushing Defeat
Chapter 948 - Dog Bites Dog
Chapter 949 - Inevitable Trouble

Chapter 950 - Removing the Roots of the Problem

Chapter 951 - Xiao Alliance Internal Strife
Chapter 952 - To Leave with Nothing
Chapter 953 - Fish in Troubled Waters
Chapter 954 - Act When You Should
Chapter 955 - Li Mu Talks Freely
Chapter 956 - Attack to Replace Defense
Chapter 957 - Night Before the Final Battle

Chapter 958 - Cavalry That Doesn't Charge Is Useless

Chapter 959 - The Despair of Being Unable to Fight Back

Chapter 960 - A Cunning Rabbit Has Three Burrows

Chapter 961 - A Strategist Knows Their Enemy like Themselves

Chapter 962 - Unifying Southwest

Chapter 963 - A Huge Group of War Prisoners Rush Over

Chapter 964 - Make an Inventory

Chapter 965 - Eagle Legion Corps Is Born

Chapter 966 - Rise of Firearms Becoming More Evident

Chapter 967 - Three Heroes of Early Han
Chapter 968 - Dawson Dynasty
Chapter 969 - Second Voyage
Chapter 970 - ASEAN and Its Weird Atmosphere

Chapter 971 - Horse or Mule Depends on This Battle

Chapter 972 - Z1 Type Warship Shows Its Strength

Chapter 973 - Lemuria Continent
Chapter 974 - Special Treasure
Chapter 975 - Overpowered Technology
Chapter 976 - Black Shark

Chapter 977 - Country That Sits on the Mine Cart

Chapter 978 - Request from New Zealand
Chapter 979 - Changes in Zhongyuan
Chapter 980 - Pei Family Father and Son

Chapter 981 - With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

Chapter 982 - 5th System Update
Chapter 983 - Country War System
Chapter 984 - Ming Dynasty Four Powers
Chapter 985 - Great Han Dynasty

Chapter 986 - Invitation from the Federation President

Chapter 987 - Zhang Liang Discusses Game Theory

Chapter 988 - Remodeling the Great Xia Navy
Chapter 989 - An Lushan Rebellion
Chapter 990 - Guts That Were Castrated

Chapter 991 - Tong Pass Is Lost, Your Majesty Run!

Chapter 992 - The Old Emperor and the Minister that Hides Behind the Shadows

Chapter 993 - An Emperor Guards the Country, a Ruler Dies for It

Chapter 994 - Making Enemies with Everyone Possible

Chapter 995 - Bloody Battle Chang An
Chapter 996 - Fall of Fanyang
Chapter 997 - Poet Saint Du Fu
Chapter 998 - Tibet and West Turk Khanate
Chapter 999 - What a Complicated Circle
Chapter 1000 - Land of Martial Arts
Chapter 1001 - Financial Court Assembly

Chapter 1002 - Faction Within Faction, Group Within Group

Chapter 1003 - Yang Su's Treasury
Chapter 1004 - Dragon and Phoenix Prosperity
Chapter 1005 - Home and Country

Chapter 1006 - Before the Troops Move, the Grain Moves

Chapter 1007 - Future Empress
Chapter 1008 - In the Name of Free Trade
Chapter 1009 - Squadron That Covers the Sky
Chapter 1010 - Navy Oppression
Chapter 1011 - Di Chen’s Crusade on West Chu
Chapter 1012 - Mysterious Visitor
Chapter 1013 - Chain Plan
Chapter 1014 - Breaking an Arm to Live
Chapter 1015 - Backing off and Giving Up
Chapter 1016 - Annan’s Counterattack
Chapter 1017 - Head to Head
Chapter 1018 - Great Xia Bares Fangs
Chapter 1019 - Hanoi Emergency
Chapter 1020 - Bear Legion Corps Is Furious
Chapter 1021 - Battle of Annan Ends
Chapter 1022 - Picking the Peaches
Chapter 1023 - Xiang Yan Knowing His Place
Chapter 1024 - Battle of Yashan
Chapter 1025 - Three Heroes of Later Song

Chapter 1026 - When the Ruler Is Young, the Country Is in Doubt

Chapter 1027 - South Song Is Weak? No!

Chapter 1028 - Most Barbaric Siege

Chapter 1029 - Protect the Foundations of My Han

Chapter 1030 - Cruel Siege Battle

Chapter 1031 - False Surrender and Killing the Head

Chapter 1032 - Valiantly Facing Death
Chapter 1033 - Bayan Dies
Chapter 1034 - Chasing the Win
Chapter 1035 - Kublai Khan Personally Leads
Chapter 1036 - Gambling Everything

Chapter 1037 - Sharing the Burden of the Country

Chapter 1038 - King Versus King, General Versus General

Chapter 1039 - Wedge Tactic
Chapter 1040 - Summoning Skill
Chapter 1041 - A Mighty Lord Falls
Chapter 1042 - Filled with Intense Passion
Chapter 1043 - Yanhuang Alliance Disbands

Chapter 1044 - Changes in the Secret Document Pavilion

Chapter 1045 - Seeking the Sword at Xuanyuan Hill

Chapter 1046 - Battle in the Dark

Chapter 1047 - Counting Down to the Country War

Chapter 1048 - Going Head on Against Danger
Chapter 1049 - The Army Departs
Chapter 1050 - Huge Difference
Chapter 1051 - Encirclement Attack

Chapter 1052 - Breaking out of the Encirclement

Chapter 1053 - Iron Defense Line
Chapter 1054 - Ran Min's Rage
Chapter 1055 - Opening up on Two Sides
Chapter 1056 - Occupying Land
Chapter 1057 - Huge Mysterious Gift
Chapter 1058 - Choosing a Side to Stand On
Chapter 1059 - To Hold It in or Not
Chapter 1060 - The Strong and the Weak
Chapter 1061 - Taking Advantage of Dali
Chapter 1062 - The Pillaging of Edo
Chapter 1063 - Splitting the Spoils
Chapter 1064 - Country War Overview
Chapter 1065 - Three God Items
Chapter 1066 - Sneak Attacking Luzon Island

Chapter 1067 - A Different Household Legion Corps

Chapter 1068 - Border Defense Legion Corps
Chapter 1069 - Siam Yields
Chapter 1070 - Great Zhou Dynasty
Chapter 1071 - Final Battle Map
Chapter 1072 - Moral Courage
Chapter 1073 - Prince Regent
Chapter 1074 - Ming Can Fall but Not China
Chapter 1075 - Fall of Yangzhou
Chapter 1076 - Humiliation
Chapter 1077 - Lightning Method
Chapter 1078 - Li Jing Uses Troops
Chapter 1079 - Righteousness Remain
Chapter 1080 - The Heavens Bless Great Ming
Chapter 1081 - Rendezvous
Chapter 1082 - Dorgon's Fury
Chapter 1083 - Scheming Calculations
Chapter 1084 - Self-intoxicated
Chapter 1085 - Zhang Xianzhong's Ambition
Chapter 1086 - Occupying Land
Chapter 1087 - Special Sneak Attack
Chapter 1088 - Taking down Shanhai Pass
Chapter 1089 - Home in Danger
Chapter 1090 - Zhang Xianzhong Takes the Bait
Chapter 1091 - Final Battle
Chapter 1092 - All Fronts Collapsing
Chapter 1093 - King of the Battle Map
Chapter 1094 - Zhu Yuanzhang Kangxi
Chapter 1095 - Mandarin House
Chapter 1096 - A Great Difference

Chapter 1097 - Good Relationship of Qin and Jin

Chapter 1098 - Strategic Space

Chapter 1099 - Remaking the Path

Chapter 1100 - Power of the Ruler Isn't Given by Heaven

Chapter 1101 - Crown Prince

Chapter 1102 - As Long as You Want the World is Yours

Chapter 1103 - Wei Zheng Enters the Cabinet
Chapter 1104 - Don't Play with Fire
Chapter 1105 - Breaking a Hand to Survive
Chapter 1106 - Irrefutable
Chapter 1107 - Yingzhou Province
Chapter 1108 - TWP Is Born
Chapter 1109 - Fight, Continue to Fight!
Chapter 1110 - Indian Empire
Chapter 1111 - Yanhuo Yaonie's Suggestion
Chapter 1112 - North Africa Ambition
Chapter 1113 - More Waves
Chapter 1114 - Making Use of One Another
Chapter 1115 - Everyone Has Ambitions
Chapter 1116 - Bustling
Chapter 1117 - Free Squadron Is Destroyed

Chapter 1118 - No Need, We Will Take it Ourselves

Chapter 1119 - Unprecedented
Chapter 1120 - We Are the Same Type of People
Chapter 1121 - Make an Offer!

Chapter 1122 - You All Have a Part of This Earth!

Chapter 1123 - Unbiased
Chapter 1124 - More Bad Ideas
Chapter 1125 - A Huge War Begins
Chapter 1126 - Fighting on Many Fronts
Chapter 1127 - One Real and One Fake
Chapter 1128 - One Same Move Beats Everyone

Chapter 1129 - You Come out to Play, You Have to Pay Sooner or Later

Chapter 1130 - Final Craziness

Chapter 1131 - History Is Just so Shockingly Similar

Chapter 1132 - Waltzing Matilda

Chapter 1133 - Final Battle Mindanao

Chapter 1134 - What Is Special Forces Fighting Style

Chapter 1135 - Formation and Talisman

Chapter 1136 - Second Country Weapon

Chapter 1137 - Son of Heaven Rank and Yu the Great Nine Cauldrons

Chapter 1138 - Battle of Manila

Chapter 1139 - Rebuilding the Nanjiang Governor-General House

Chapter 1140 - Enemies and Friends
Chapter 1141 - New Era in the Game World
Chapter 1142 - Gaia's Era
Chapter 1143 - Changing Game Mode
Chapter 1144 - Beast Siege
Chapter 1145 - Five Emperor True Manual
Chapter 1146 - Federation Disbands
Chapter 1147 - Custom Made
Chapter 1148 - First Instantiation List
Chapter 1149 - Terrifying Beast Wave
Chapter 1150 - Change in War Model
Chapter 1151 - Heavy Losses
Chapter 1152 - Azure Badge
Chapter 1153 - Combined Camp
Chapter 1154 - A Huge Gamble
Chapter 1155 - 200 Million Mu of Farmland
Chapter 1156 - Saving Great Xia's Life
Chapter 1157 - A Dark Day
Chapter 1158 - Zhang Liang's Persuasion
Chapter 1159 - Leaving an Ember
Chapter 1160 - One Versus Four
Chapter 1161 - Anticlimactic
Chapter 1162 - Going Through Tibet
Chapter 1163 - Arab Empire
Chapter 1164 - Azure Badge's Diplomacy Card
Chapter 1165 - Huge Victory

Chapter 1166 - Change in the Way He Uses People

Chapter 1167 - Three Warzones

Chapter 1168 - The Strong Gets Stronger, the Weak Gets Destroyed

Chapter 1169 - The Sword Is Cold, but the Blood Is Supposed to be Warm

Chapter 1170 - Gamble

Chapter 1171 - Face Off

Chapter 1172 - Promise Worth Its Weight in Gold

Chapter 1173 - Boring Country War
Chapter 1174 - Country War Motive
Chapter 1175 - Ghost Leading Talisman
Chapter 1176 - Hell Slaughterer

Chapter 1177 - Beast Siege and Exploding the Camp

Chapter 1178 - Hanwu Emperor's Pain
Chapter 1179 - Six Country Alliance
Chapter 1180 - Plotting Against One Another

Chapter 1181 - If One Wasn't Fearless, One Couldn't Be a Mo Blade Soldier

Chapter 1182 - Great Zhou Attacks
Chapter 1183 - Debts Cleared
Chapter 1184 - Expedition to Great Qing
Chapter 1185 - Assassinating Hanwu Emperor

Chapter 1186 - Chengying Sword of the Top Ten Famous Swords

Chapter 1187 - Tingyu Floor's Will

Chapter 1188 - Killing Themselves For Their Country

Chapter 1189 - Blazing the City

Chapter 1190 - Qingluan Calamity

Chapter 1191 - What I'm Most Unafraid of is Being Threatened

Chapter 1192 - Changing of Dynasty? Impossible!

Chapter 1193 - Always People That Want to Harm Me

Chapter 1194 - Savior is Here!

Chapter 1195 - Battle of Phoenix Castle (Part 1)

Chapter 1196 - Battle of Phoenix Castle (Part 2)

Chapter 1197 - Going Against Logic
Chapter 1198 - That's Very Ouyang Shuo
Chapter 1199 - Heroic Spirit
Chapter 1200 - Army from the West
Chapter 1201 - Destruction of Great Qing
Chapter 1202 - Downgraded to Commoner Status

Chapter 1203 - TWO Chapter 1203-Most awkward emperor

Chapter 1204 - TWO Chapter 1204-Di Chen grabs power

Chapter 1205 - TWO Chapter 1205-The winds are not calm

Chapter 1206 - Africa chaotic war

Chapter 1207 - -Savior or fiend?

Chapter 1208 - Harmony between ruler and minister

Chapter 1209 - countries submitting

Chapter 1210 - TWO Chapter 1210-Africa Warzone

Chapter 1211 - Demon clearing legion corps is born

Chapter 1212 - Population Explosion
Chapter 1213 - Great Xia bank
Chapter 1214 - Monster Research Institute
Chapter 1215 - Calamity Strikes

Chapter 1216 - TWO Chapter 1216-Disaster or blessing? Who knows?

Chapter 1217 - TWO Chapter 1217-Zhan Lang's decision

Chapter 1218 - Trusting and keeping in check
Chapter 1219 - All watching the show
Chapter 1220 - West Xia requests assistance
Chapter 1221 - Facing desperation
Chapter 1222 - Legendary forces have arrived
Chapter 1223 - Xihai Province
Chapter 1224 - Sounding out
Chapter 1225 - Great Xia emperor dynasty

Chapter 1226 - TWO Chapter 1226-Moving the capital

Chapter 1227 - Ascension to emperor

Chapter 1228 - Imperial capital

Chapter 1229 - TWO Chapter 1229-Smoke rises in Africa

Chapter 1230 - Democracy and dictatorship

Chapter 1231 - TWO Chapter 1231-No Christmas only Chinese New Year

Chapter 1232 - -Divine martial rule

Chapter 1233 - Fishing

Chapter 1234 - Cleansing with many aftershocks

Chapter 1235 - -Ice melts, spring sowing begins

Chapter 1236 - Mongol West conquering

Chapter 1237: TWO Chapter 1237-Shocking case

Chapter 1238 - Strategic level weapons and equipment

Chapter 1239 - Attacking Great Zhou

Chapter 1240 - Corrupted Great Zhou

Chapter 1241 - TWO Chapter 1241-Give me a reason

Chapter 1242 - TWO Chapter 1242-End of the road for Great Zhou

Chapter 1243 - The End of an Era

Chapter 1244 - -Imperial Court special ambassador

Chapter 1245 - TWO Chapter 1245-Taking revenge

Chapter 1246 - India Ghost
Chapter 1247 - Tibet coup
Chapter 1248 - -Palace coup

Chapter 1249 - North Song has no generals, South Song has no officials

Chapter 1250 - Qin Shihuang's choice
Chapter 1251 - Settling East Africa
Chapter 1252 - Personnel adjustments
Chapter 1253 - Empire strategy
Chapter 1254 - Meat grinder operation
Chapter 1255 - Cannot afford to lose

Chapter 1256 - The Great wind blows and the clouds are scattered

Chapter 1257 - TWO Chapter 1257-Choosing which general to send

Chapter 1258 - To get rich you have to build a road

Chapter 1259 - TWO Chapter 1259-We aren't weak!

Chapter 1260 - Who is crazier?

Chapter 1261 - When the strong wind blows, the hidden grass survives

Chapter 1262 - -Shocking gossip

Chapter 1263 - Squeezing dry their last bit of war potential

Chapter 1264 - Rumors can kill!

Chapter 1265 - Strongest disarmament plan in the world

Chapter 1266 - Tibet-Tang ancient path

Chapter 1267 - Who wins and who loses

Chapter 1268 - surviving is my fortune, death is my life

Chapter 1269 - The front path is broken

Chapter 1270 - War of Tibet is over

Chapter 1271 - Can only die standing and not live kneeling

Chapter 1272 - Afterglow of the cavalry era

Chapter 1273 - Cavalry will not die, it will only take another form

Chapter 1274 - Six countries destroyed, four oceans under one

Chapter 1275 - Developing the border region
Chapter 1276 - Eight warzones
Chapter 1277 - World map reset
Chapter 1278 - Trial lands revealed
Chapter 1279 - Darkness Empire
Chapter 1280 - I will support you in spirit
Chapter 1281 - Lamu warship

Chapter 1282 - Winning and losing at the same time

Chapter 1283 - Unifying Nanjiang
Chapter 1284 - State of the union address
Chapter 1285 - Removing the house level

Chapter 1286 - Gathering strength to do something big

Chapter 1287 - Violent organization
Chapter 1288 - Inheritor of the empire
Chapter 1289 - Start of world war

Chapter 1290 - Want to be the biggest winner behind the scenes

Chapter 1291 - Mysterious guest
Chapter 1292 - Above Great Xia's interests
Chapter 1293 - Little fangirl

Chapter 1294 - Plotting for the whole of mankind

Chapter 1295 - Accepting Egypt dynasty

Chapter 1296 - Spain Dynasty facing enemies on all four sides

Chapter 1297 - Self-preservation is the most important

Chapter 1298 - Leaders meeting with one another, each having their own goals

Chapter 1299 - Greed is a sin

Chapter 1300 - Fight that benefits the third party

Chapter 1301 - -Problem starter
Chapter 1302 - Jack’s solution
Chapter 1303 - Not being a puppet
Chapter 1304 - Killing move

Chapter 1305 - Hug a golden leg if you want to hug something

Chapter 1306 - Signs of global overlord
Chapter 1307 - New landscape of South America
Chapter 1308 - Stability trumps everything
Chapter 1309 - -Not disappointing

Chapter 1310 - Flames of war rise up in Africa once more

Chapter 1311 - Taking up the responsibility of managing the world

Chapter 1312 - -Globalizing currency

Chapter 1313 - Activating mine, plotting India

Chapter 1314 - Second emperor dynasty
Chapter 1315 - Working with the enemy
Chapter 1316 - Steampunk era
Chapter 1317 - Extradition
Chapter 1318 - Final system update
Chapter 1319 - Gendaya continent
Chapter 1320 - Chu Queen
Chapter 1321 - Gold War

Chapter 1322 - Smoke rises, flames burning toward the heavens

Chapter 1323 - -Ground situation
Chapter 1324-Real and fake
Chapter 1325 - Changes in Europe
Chapter 1326 - Ripples of the earthquake
Chapter 1327 - War of India begins

Chapter 1328-Storm rises in India; who is the fisherman

Chapter 1329 – Unusual Actions of the Great Xia Army

Chapter 1330 - An unassuming storm
Chapter 1331 - Peacock falls
Chapter 1332 - Big fish eats small fish
Chapter 1333 - Prosperity every year
Chapter 1334 - Frontline base
Chapter 1335 - Ashoka, dead!
Chapter 1336 - Specter legion corps
Chapter 1337 - Darkest day in human history
Chapter 1338 - Who will step up?
Chapter 1339 - Placed on a barbecue
Chapter 1340 - If not me, who?
Chapter 1341 - Gaia descends
Chapter 1342 - Secret of reincarnation
Chapter 1343 - Mother planet
Chapter 1344 - The day Persia was in trouble
Chapter 1345 - The show in Europe
Chapter 1346 - Great Xia imperial dynasty

Chapter 1347 - Destruction of the House of Tudor

Chapter 1348 - Silver Hand losing shine
Chapter 1349 - Persia Surrenders
Chapter 1350 - Railroad soldier
Chapter 1351 - Ten year agreement

Chapter 1352 - Backbone of the exploration team

Chapter 1353 - Great Xia spaceship
Chapter 1354 - Nuwa
Chapter 1355 - -Unifying Asia
Chapter 1356 - Grand finale